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The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated the technical committee set up to look into Labours grievances arising from the increase...

The Federal Government on Thursday inaugurated the technical committee set up to look into Labours grievances arising from the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).After the committees inauguration by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal, the committee headed by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, held its inaugural meeting.Briefing journalists at the end of the meeting, Ngige said the committee has been commissioned to look into three key areas.According to him, the committee will look into a framework of a national committee that will discuss the issue of minimum wage and consider suggestions of all parties including government and the organised labour on how they can give amelioration to workers and Nigerians in general to cushion the effect of the fuel price hike.He added: Government has already provided N500 billion in the 2016 budget as palliatives and this will be subjected to a review by the committee.Another term of reference is the recommendation of the composition of the board of the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).The organised labour, before embarking on its recent strike, had faulted the federal governments rational for hiking the fuel price from N86.50 to N145 per litre when the board of the PPPRA was not in place.The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had also requested that the federal government should include labour stakeholders in the N500 billion palliative measures it planned to use to cushion the effect of the fuel price hike.The union also demanded for upward review of the minimum wage to N56,000.But President Muhammadu Buhari had subsequently approved the appointment of Mohammed Buba as the Chairman of Board of PPPRA.At the end of the inaugural meeting of the Committee, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said he concurred with the remark of Dr. Ngige.One of the labour leaders, who spoke on a condition of anonymity after the inauguration, said the government has to look beyond the N500 billion as the sharing formula has already been completed.Government should think of other palliatives, he said.
Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, has directed security agencies to arrest and prosecute any person, no matter his or her position,...

Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state, has directed security agencies to arrest and prosecute any person, no matter his or her position, who attempts to exploit Mr. Presidents visit for extraneous purposes that undermine the prevailing peace and security.President Muhammadu Buhari will be visiting Ogoni land to flag-off clean-up of oil spills in the area as recommended in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report.However, Wike warned desperate politicians not to use the occasion of the visit to make unguarded statements that could inflame political rivalry and precipitate unnecessary upheavals.He described Buhari as a father of the nation, saying the visit shows the president is bothered by the environmental and developmental challenges facing the state.I call on Rivers people, particularly the people of Ogoniland, to come out in great numbers and give our amiable President a rousing welcome during his visit, he said in a statewide broadcast.Mr. Presidents visit to the state is both historic and significant. It is historic because it marks his first official visit to the state since assuming office as the President of this great nation. It is most significant because Mr. President is not on a political mission but to kick-start the largest environmental cleanup in our nations history, for which Rivers people, and indeed the Niger Delta will remain grateful.Accordingly, his presence in Rivers State is not an occasion for political campaigns by anybody or political party. Rather, it is an occasion and an opportunity for us to demonstrate unity of purpose and our readiness to work together with Mr. President to move Rivers State and the nation forward.Let me therefore advise desperate politicians in our midst to be mindful of the charged social and economic situation in the country and refrain from making unguarded statements over Mr. Presidents visit that could inflame political rivalry and precipitate unnecessary upheavals in the State.Rivers State has been peaceful and must remain so during and after Mr. Presidents visit. The security agencies have accordingly been directed to arrest and prosecute any person, no matter his or her position, who attempts to exploit Mr. Presidents visit for extraneous purposes that undermine the prevailing peace and security in Rivers State.Wike also banned the operations of motorcycles and tricycles in Gokana and Khana local government areas between 6 am and 6pm on Thursday.
The clean-up of Ogoni land has commenced today, June 1 with the minister of environment, Amina Mohammed leading the federal government del...





The clean-up of Ogoni land has commenced today, June 1 with the minister of environment, Amina Mohammed leading the federal government delegation to the devastated community.The minister is in Ogoni as the first step toward the official flag off of the clean-up project tomorrow, June 2 by President Buhari.Speaking on her ministrys plans recently, Mohammed said:This will be one of governments major programmes for the areas contaminated and polluted by oil spillage in the region.UNEPs report has estimated that it could take up to 30 years for the rehabilitation of Ogoniland and its people to their full potential and it would require continuous funding of the project by development partners.UNEPs scientific assessment is focused on Ogoniland, a kingdom which covers close to 1,000 square kilometres in Rivers State, southern Nigeria. Ogoniland, situated in the Niger Delta region, is the third largest mangrove ecosystem in the world.See the photos of the minister in Ogoni land earlier today below:
An inmate of the Ikoyi Prisons, Albert Emmanuel Ajogbor, was on Wednesday presented with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Theology, havin...

An inmate of the Ikoyi Prisons, Albert Emmanuel Ajogbor, was on Wednesday presented with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) Degree in Theology, having successfully completed his studies at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).Ajogbor, who was incarcerated in July 2004 was among the over 10,000 others who graduated during the institutions 2016 convocation held in Abuja in January.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ajobor was honoured at a ceremony at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons by the NOUN authorities alongside another inmate, Moshood Folarinmilekan, who was presented with a certificate of exemption from NYSC.NAN reports that Folarinmilekan has spent 25 years out of a life jail term he was sentenced to at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons.He graduated in 2015 alongside other graduating students of NOUN after completing his studies at its facility.The inmate, awarded a degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, is currently pursuing his Masters Degree at the institution.Ajogbor speaking on the sideline of the event told NAN that the achievement was a dream comes through for him.According to him, the prisons, as reformative centres were living up to their mandates, having provided the enabling environment that led to the feat he has attained.``I want to say that I am short for words in explaining how I feel.``Indeed, I see myself among heroes, those to move the country forward and make it one of the greatest countries in the world.``I want to thank the prison officials for their support and encouragement as well as all my sponsors as well as my co-inmates.``They have all contributed in one way or the other to make this happen, he said.He,however, pleaded with authorities of the university to speedily address the challenges faced by the inmates in accessing course materials.Earlier in his speech, the Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Abdallah Adamu, acquiring the degree was a commendable feat, which would serve as a stepping stone to greater heights for the graduands.He said that the institution was the only university in the country that was providing education to inmates in the nation's prisons.``Due to shortage of sponsorship offers for inmates therefore, and to help make the journey of producing a university degree a little less daunting and more achievable, the university over the years has supplied course materials for free and paid 50 per cent of payable fees for inmates.``The other 50 per cent paid for by philanthropic bodies such as religious and non-governmental organisations as well as well meaning Nigerians.``May I use this opportunity to thank all your sponsors for their generosity and contributions towards your education.``I am sure that a number of your peers who are also incarcerated will like to register to study one of our programmes but for the fact that they have no means of funding their education to improve their destinies.``It is in this light that I have decided to offer 100 per cent full scholarship to all inmates who are undertaking a NOUN degree programme, he said.The Vice-Chancellor who was represented by the institutions Director, Learner Support Services, Prof. Nebath Tanglang, noted that already modalities were being worked out to ensure that the process was as seamless asposible.He assured them that plans were on to upload all their course materials on the I-Learn platform, which wouldsubsequently be downloaded in their computers for easy access.Also speaking, the Controller of Prisons in charge of Lagos Command, Timothy Tinuoye, said one of the greatestchallenges facing the inmates in the institution was that of inadequate facilitators.He appealed to both the state and the local governments to assist the facility by sending some of the corp members and even full time teachers to assist the inmates in their quest for knowledge.``We are in dire need of teachers for these people especially at the secondary school level.``We all know today that the prison is not just to keep offenders in custody, but rather to reform and get them re-integrated into the society.``Now, we discover that some of them came here without any form of basic education.``We feel that giving them education will be one of the best values we can entrench in them in an attempt to change their orientations and perspectives about life and thinking, toward making them better citizens, he said.Tinuoye added that of the 75 inmates enrolled into NOUN, 59 of them were from the maximum prisons, which comprised of the medium, female and maximum sections.
Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau, has in 'Question Time' interview with Gbenga Ashiru of Channels Television, o...





Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau, has in 'Question Time' interview with Gbenga Ashiru of Channels Television, opened up on why the military has not been sent in to deal with herdsmen that have carried out attacks on Nigerians in some parts of the country.Dambazzau said the attacks by the herdsmen is a non-military issue but rather an issue that is meant to be handled by the police. He also called for a long-term, and comprehensive solution to the herdsmen attacks.Few excerpts from the interview below:Asked on the menace of herders, Dambazzau said:'This issue isn't peculiar to Nigeria alone, we see it as a regional issue. Becuase the pasturalists tranverse across West Africa. Within ECOWAS, it has has recognised that pasturalists move from one plane to another. And that is why there uis provision for trans-human certificate. It's more or less like their passports for movement'Asked on military solutions in ending the violent herdsmen attacks, Dambazzau explained:"It is a non military issue. It is an issue that borders on law and order. It is not every security issue that you call in the military. The constitution is very clear that the responsibility of maintaining law and order is that of the police. Where it goes beyond the capacity of the police, that is when the military comes in and it is very clear that the function of the military is to defend the territorial integrity of the country. So I believe that if we put the police in its proper shape, then there will be no need for the military"he saidIsn't your approach in tackling the herdsmen crisis too civil for the kind of emergency nature that the situation portends?"I believe that our police is equal to the task. If you have to employ or deploy the military in every case, I think you may be going off board. It is when the police lacks the capacity or when it turns out in form of war or limited war, that is when you may call upon the military"he said
Charly Boy has opened up on the circumstances relating to his new personality, especially as it relates to his encounter with Jesus.

Charly Boy has opened up on the circumstances relating to his new personality, especially as it relates to his encounter with Jesus.In a chat Charly Boy expressed that his experience with Jesus was the "freakiest moment of his life, stating that God wants Nigerians to have a better perception about christianity.He explained that Christians of the present days have failed to grow themselves spiritually as expected of them.Reacting to a question concerning what Jesus instructed him to stop doing, Charly Boy said,
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh on Thursday released a census of livestock in the country. Mr. Ogbeh spok...

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh on Thursday released a census of livestock in the country.Mr. Ogbeh spoke at a news conference in Abuja.He said the 2011 National Agricultural Sample Survey indicated that Nigeria was endowed with an estimated 19.5 million cattle, 72.5 million goats, 41.3 million sheep, 7.1 million pigs and 28,000 camels.Accordingly, the minister said the country had 145 million chickens, 11.6 million ducks, 1.2 million turkeys and 974, 499 donkeys.Mr. Ogbeh said this impressive statistics which had made Nigeria number one in livestock in Africa had not met the national demand of animal protein or contributed to the GDP over the years.He decried the low milk production in Nigeria as a cow produced one litre of milk a day while a cow in Saudi Arabia or Brazil produced 30 to 40 litres.Saudi Arabia produces 4.7 million litres of milk daily while Nigeria imports about 1.3 billion dollar worth of milk annually to make up deficit.The minister said of all the enterprise in the livestock sector, only the poultry industry had achieved an appreciable level of commercialisation.Mr. Ogbeh said other industries in the livestock sector were predominantly in the hands of subsistence farmers with pastoralist system of production contributing over 90 per cent of cattle production in the country.The way forward in improving our livestock and dairy industry is to intensify efforts on adding value to the industry along the respective livestock value chains.In line with our goal of attaining self sufficiency in animal protein, this administration has set out to establish ranches to be planted with high quality improved tropical grass and legume species.We shall provide irrigation for all year commercial fodder production to enhance settlement of pastoralist and ensure cattle, sheep and goat improvement through an expanded breeding programme through artificial insemination.We shall group dairy farmers in clusters, build their capacity and equip them with milk collection facilities and facilitate single digit loan for them, he said.The minister said there was a new disease outbreak affecting maize production in some parts of Edo and in the South West of the country.He gave the name of the disease as army worm, adding that relevant research institutes were working on it and the ministry was monitoring the level of threat it posed.Mr. Ogbeh urged farmers not to panic, adding that the ministry would take further action if the disease is not controlled within a short time.(NAN)
Recent reports have it that President Buhari will not be attending the flag-off exercise for the cleanup of Ogoni land in Rivers state whi...

Recent reports have it that President Buhari will not be attending the flag-off exercise for the cleanup of Ogoni land in Rivers state which is slated for today June 2nd.According to Sahara Reporters, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will instead be representing him at the flag-off exercise.It was earlier reported that some militants in the Niger Delta threatened to harm Buhari if he visits the restive oil-rich region , but the presidency is yet to disclose the actual reason behind the cancellation.Yemi Osinbajo also represented Buhari in Lagos, when the latter cancelled the visit at the last minute.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday explained why it moved former spokesman of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan...

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday explained why it moved former spokesman of ex-President Goodluck Jonathans campaign organisation, Femi Fani-Kayode, from Abuja to Lagos.EFCC arrested Fani-Kayode in Abuja, but later transferred him to Lagos, where it obtained a court warrant to remand him in custody for three weeks.The commission said the ex- Minister of Aviations movement to Lagos was informed by his involvement in fresh cases, which required thorough investigation by its Lagos office.A lawyer with the EFCC, Salisu Majidadi said this while responding to a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Apo, Abuja.Majidadi said, beyond the N800million payment made to Fani-Kayode by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), for which he was earlier arrested in Abuja, there were fresh cases involving him in Lagos.The lawyer, however, refused to disclose details of the cases in Lagos.We invited him (Fani-Kayode) on May 9. After he gave his voluntary statement he was granted bail immediately.But because he could not meet the bail condition, the respondent (EFCC), being a law abiding agency and bearing in mind the constitutional limit to keep the applicant in custody, we rushed to the Chief Judge of this honourable court to obtain the remand order keeping him in lawful custody.Then we received a letter from the Special Task Force of the EFCC in Lagos that there was another petition against him.The order of this court was to expire on May 24. On May 23, we took him to Lagos. We quickly obtained another order from the Magistrates Court in Lagos on May 23 to keep him for three weeks.The order obtained in Lagos was in respect of another petition. All these were to ensure that we are operating within the ambit of the law, Majidadi said.
The House of Representatives on Thursday summoned the Minister of Power, Mr Babatunde Fashola, to appear before its members to explain rea...

The House of Representatives on Thursday summoned the Minister of Power, Mr Babatunde Fashola, to appear before its members to explain reasons for prevailing poor electricity supply in the country.To appear with the minister are Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), National Electricity and Regulatory Commission (NERC), Generation Companies (Gencos) and Distribution Companies (Discos).Fashola, the agencies and companies as well stakeholders in the power sector are expected to be at a public hearing to be conducted by the House on the power supply issue.The invitation followed a motion which came under Matter of Urgent Public Importance through Rep. Johnson Agbonayinma (Edo-PDP), who called for urgent an attention to epileptic electricity supply across the nation.He recalled that defunct power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) was unbundled in 2010 into generation, transmission and distribution companies because the Federal Government could not manage the company.He said that splitting it and given them to private concerns was to ensure improved efficiency and profitability in the sector.The lawmaker, however, expressed dissatisfaction that in spite of privatising the company at a landmark 2.5 billion dollars, Nigerians were yet to feel the impact of the exercise.When the Federal Government had the distribution and generation companies, light was more constant than what Nigerians are experiencing today.He decried the current situation where power generation which was over 4,000 megawatts when PHCN was operational had dropped to 1,500 megawatts, throwing the nation into darkness. Agbonayinma the low electricity generation contradicted governments promise to in the new arrangement, provide 5, 000 megawatts to Nigerians in the first instance.The lawmaker expressed dismay that the increase in petrol pump price, soaring rise in prices of food items, collapsed roads, unemployment, and insecurity, had contributed to the hardship being faced by Nigerians.The motion was unanimously adopted by members through a voice vote and it referred was to the Committee on Power for further legislative action. No date was fixed for the public hearing.
Nigeria international Sone Aluko has been released by newly promoted English Premier League Hull City.The 27-year-old Aluko joined Hull City from Scottish giants Rangers in the 2012/2013 season, thus ending his four-year sojourn with The Tigers.Aluko scored just three goals in 31 appearances for Hull City.The Nigeria winger had offers during January transfer window from Fulham and Leeds United, but Hull turned them down.He also played for Birmingham City and Aberdeen in Scotland.
The Independent National Electoral Commission says it is yet to take a position on the leadership crisis rocking Nigerias main oppositio...

The Independent National Electoral Commission says it is yet to take a position on the leadership crisis rocking Nigerias main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party.INECs Deputy Director for Public affairs, Nick Dazang, who disclosed this on Political Platform, a programme on Ray Power FM Radio Station, on Thursday, said the commissions delegation that monitored the partys recent national convention had submitted its report but it was yet to decide on it.The PDP, as we have said is in a state of flux. In spite of what happened in Port Harcourt, the Commission was there because it was invited and by law we are supposed to be invited 21 days to a convention or congress, he said.We sent a high powered team led by a national commissioner to monitor the convention. They have submitted their report as at now but the Commission is yet to take a position in terms of who is supposed to be the chairman of the party.The PDP at its convention in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital on May 21, sacked its acting National Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, and appointed a Caretaker Committee headed by a former governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Markarfi, to run the party until another convention is organised to elect substantive members of its national working committee.However, Mr. Sheriff rejected his removal insisting that he was still the chairman of the party.The disagreement led to the closure of the partys national secretariat in Abuja until Wednesday when the members of Board of Trustees took over the running of the party.Mr. Dazang said the PDP risked not taking part in the Edo State governorship election if the leadership crisis was not resolved soon.He explained that in line with the timetable and the schedule of the governorship election unfolded by the election, parties participating in the election were expected to hold their primary elections between June 2 and July 4 to pick their candidates.He stressed, I expect that a very responsible party, a formidable party for that matter like the PDP will put its acts together in time for it particularly to collect the forms for those that will conduct the elections in Edo and Ondo and also to conduct the primaries that will lead up to who will now be their standard bearer for Edo governorship election to be conducted on Saturday 10 September.The primaries are supposed to take place between 2nd June and 4th July. So, we expect that between now and then the PDP should be able to resolve some of these issues in the interest of that election.Mr. Dazang was not definite when asked if, in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act, the Markarfi-led Caretaker Committee was competent to conduct primaries with a view to selecting the partys candidate for the election.He instead said officials of the electoral body always encourage the parties to sort themselves amicably rather than resorting to the court.Stating that the Commission was pressed for time, Mr. Dazang warned the disputing groups not to resort to court to resolve their differences because such would be time consuming.He said, In this instance when we are pressed for time if the parties in the dispute resort to court, it is going to take long it before the issues are resolved and they collect these forms.So we advise that they resolve some of these issues in good time to collect the forms so that they can hold the primaries and the candidates that will contest under their platform can emerge. They have between now and 4th July to do that.We normally encourage them. We have a department that relates particularly with the political parties to ensure the processes we laid out and articulated in the timetable and schedule of activities are strictly and religiously followed and we expect them to that.Mr. Dazang also encouraged the other parties, apart from the PDP and the All Progressives Congress, to field candidates in the governorship election, so that the contest will be very keen and the debate also will be robust and healthy as has happened in the past in Edo State.He said in line with Section 30 of the Electoral Act, the Commission was supposed to issue a notice 90 days before the election, adding and starting from today (Wednesday), the Commission has 90 days before that election.The Act states that the Commission shall, not later than 90 days before the day appointed for holding of an election under this Act, publish a notice in each state of the federation and the federal capital territory (a) stating the date of the election; and (b) appointing the place at which nominating papers are to be delivered.
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WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.
Welcome to non league daily news now - your number one spot for all things relating to the National League System. Our dedicated reporters have come straight from the sidelines to bring you news fresh from the dugout - but not before theyve stopped off at the burger van first!

We know that non league football fans are full of heart, passion, and belief. You trust the manager, you believe in the team, and, for some strange reason, you trust those rickety stands, too! Here at Non League Daily, we hope we can become your trusted non league news resource - a platform thats just as passionate about non league daily news now as you.

Come rain or shine, well be out reporting on the latest non league fixtures. Well also be scouring the news, refreshing social media, and sourcing information from team websites in the hopes of finding the latest breaking non league daily news for our readers.

As youll soon see, weve got exclusive match reports on the Vanarama National League, weve got transfer speculation thatll affect the National League South, weve found great stories thatll spice up the National League North, and weve even got news on the latest giant killers of the FA Cup.

We may not be able to agree on who is going up this year, but we can all agree that any news on the NLS worth knowing will be published here, at Non League Daily.
In favor of General Dodge monument

The article in The Daily Nonpareil on May 29 about General Dodge was very enlightening. Why such a mover and shaker in national, state and local history doesnt have a monument marking his contributions is something that should be corrected. Show some Bluffs pride!

The fire in the firebox of the locomotive for this project went cold nearly a century ago. It appears that all the steam blew off in the whistle. We need to light a new fire under the General Dodge Memorial Commission locomotive and get a new head of steam up and get this train moving down the line. The citizens of Council Bluffs should give this project the high ball signal.

David Young, Council Bluffs

In praise of Bayliss Park

The city of Council Bluffs is not a small town or large city. Its an average size and has grown in the last five years.

Council Bluffs has the charm of a smaller town. A good example of this is Bayliss Park.

A fountain decorates the park. There are places to sit in the park, and you can also have picnics. In the summer, its an ideal setting for weddings. Bayliss has activities all year  concerts, moves and a carnival during Pride Week. On Veterans Day, too, there is a parade. A 15-minute drive away is the Lake Manawa area.

You need not go to Omaha because Manawa has every kind of store you require. If a person doesnt drive, there are city buses to take.

Council Bluffs has friendly people, and, if you are from out of state, the locals will surely help.

Marie Moncato, Council Bluffs

Ideas on Bluffs streets

The streets, roads, highways and interstates are my classroom for drivers education. The beginning drivers depend on the signs and lines to be their guides.

The Iowa DOT and City of Council Bluffs do a tremendous job. My students and I would like to make some suggestions to add a few more:

1. All double turn lanes need to have a painted tracking line to keep drivers in their correct lanes, such as:

 16th Street and West Broadway

 East Kanesville Boulevard and North Broadway

 McPherson and North avenues

 South Seventh Street and West Kanesville Boulevard

 South Expressway and 32nd Avenue

 South Expressway and 30th Avenue

 Interstate 29 exit and Ninth Avenue

 Interstate 80 exit and Madison Avenue

 Interstate 29/80 exit and South 24th Street

2. Add speed limits signs to:

 Southbound on South Expressway viaduct (35 mph)

 Northbound on South Expressway just north of Interstate 29/80 (45 mph)

 Southbound on North 16th Street between avenues F and G (35 mph)

3. Add a stop line and second stop sign to the three-way stop on Marketplace Drive near Culvers.

4. Add a light-up light that says no right turn at 16th Street and West Broadway by Burger King when the opposite side has two active left turn lanes.

5. Add a left turn arrow on eastbound West Broadway for traffic heading north on North 25th Street.

6. Add arrows for a straight and turn lane on Willow Avenue in both directions at South Sixth Street. Currently, there is one painted arrow to indicate a turn lane.

7. Add an end school zone sign west of Wilson Middle School at North 22nd Street and Avenue G.

8. Add a crosswalk and stop lines to the four-way stop at South 25th Street and Second Avenue next to Thomas Jefferson High School.

9. Add crosswalk lines and stop lines to all parking lot exits at Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Kirn and Wilson.

Ed Kermoade, Council Bluffs

Thoughts on the Black Angel

There has been some interesting news about mapping the Black Angel in Council Bluffs for posterity.

Daniel Chester French is a world-class sculptor. The Black Angel is a spectacular example of his work. It ties in so beautifully with the Dodge family, legend and the city of Council Bluffs.

The Angel sits on Lafayette Avenue with a commanding view of the Golden Spike and the railroad history of Council Bluffs. The National Park Service redid and updated this treasure in 1984, more than 30 years ago.

I am asking the Bluffs Arts Council and the powers that be at the Iowa West Foundation to consider this, though it may have to be done in several steps: Lets make the Black Angel and the Dodge House a tour bus destination stop.

Lets update and the area surrounding the Black Angel fresh and new  with new lights and a water attraction like French intended it to be. Here comes the expensive and hard part: modern restrooms and a place to park and turn around a tour bus.

This art lover thinks the prestige and economic gains from this project warrant taking a long look at it.

Dick Jones, Council Bluffs

A show of support for Dan Dawson

I would like to take a moment and express my overwhelming support for Dan Dawson.

Dan and I served together during a deployment to Afghanistan a few years ago. I have always known Dan to be open-minded, honest and forthright in all aspects of his life. Dan understands the sacrifice made by our current service members and veterans and will continue to look out for their needs.

Professionally, Dan has become successful by working hard, diversifying his assignments and continuing his education.

Additionally, he promotes guidance and mentoring to his peers and subordinates. On a personal level, Dan cares for everyone, not just his close friends.

He is a father and husband who provides leadership and wisdom to his family to ensure their success.

Dans knowledge, experience and discernment will provide the citizens of Iowa Senate District 8 with a leader they deserve.

There is no doubt that he will carry these attributes with him when he is elected.

Zachary Wiles, Lakewood, Ohio
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NSW centre Josh Morris was asleep in Canberra when he got the call to pack his bags and rush back to Sydney on Sunday to rejoin the Blues side after Josh Dugan's elbow forced him out of Game One at late notice.

Having been cut from the original 19-man squad after two training sessions Morris said he had to get out of the head-space of playing an NRL game to refocus on Wednesday's Origin series opener and had to ask Blues halves Adam Reynolds and James Maloney if he'd missed anything important once he rejoined the team at Homebush after a mad dash on Sunday.

"I was still asleep in bed so it was a bit of a shock then it was just a mad scramble from Canberra to the airport to Belmore then to my house then back to Homebush," Morris said.

"It was a bit of a mad dash but I got back into camp and the boys were happy to see me.

"It's a hard one, obviously the mindset that I was going in to play Canberra and was ready to go and then that all changed. The mindset had to go back in and focus on this game and getting in the right head space."

Morris denied it hurt his preparation though, given he had the experience of having been a late call-up for his Origin debut.

Back in 2009 when Craig Wing was a late withdrawal Morris was called onto the NSW bench in jersey 19, which he said has served him in good stead over the past week.

"It happened to me in my first ever Origin so it's something that has happened before to me and I used that as a bit of experience there," he said.

"Just when I got back into camp, I just asked questions and made sure there wasn't anything I missed out on and I thought me and Adam [Reynolds] in defence tonight worked really well together so I'm happy with that."

Morris was on hand for all bar one of the Blues' training sessions, but said he would have been more involved in the early ones if he'd been expecting to play.

"I probably didn't partake in them as much as what I normally would. Obviously 'Duges' and 'Jenko' [Michael Jennings] needed to do their fair bit of work but I did enough and saw enough when I came back into camp. Anything I missed as I said I asked questions and made sure I was across [it]."

Morris also extended his sympathy towards Dugan, the man who had initially taken Morris's usual place at right centre for NSW.

"I feel for Duges. Obviously he's a big part of this team and a big part of the squad. He sent us a message of good luck and I really feel for him but he'll probably do as much rehab as he can to get back for Game Two or Game Three," Morris said.
Its easy to get cynical about eliminating terrorism, or even trying to reduce the amount of sectarian violence.

Unfortunately, many of the presidential candidates, including one that is still in the race, take the approach that the only strategy capable of producing results consists of aggressive military and police tactics. Seeing that June 16 is when the citizens of the Republic of Ireland hold one of their largest celebrations, Bloomsday, in honor of the day in the life of Leopold Bloom depicted in the book Ulysses, its only fitting that peace loving individuals reflect upon what the Irish example can tell us about our own struggles with combating terrorism (Side note: Bloomsday is a bigger celebration in Dublin than St. Patricks Day).

Those of us that came of age in the 1970s and '80s remember a time when Bin Laden was our friend (remember that picture of him shaking hands with President Reagan?) and Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, was at the top of the CIAs terrorist list. During the Troubles between 1969 and 1998, when over 3,000 people were killed on the Irish Isle as a result of sectarian violence, Northern Ireland was one of the worlds worst terrorist havens. Subsequently, the pervasive violence and civil unrest that epitomized Northern Ireland catalyzed a 38-year long military presence, known as Operation Banner. This military undertaking constituted the longest single operation ever taken by the British Army.

So how did this haven of terrorism go from being one of the most violent poverty stricken regions in Europe to one of the most prosperous in terms of per capita growth from 1998 to 2008? Certainly the British Special Forces played a significant role on the military side, but a range of social, political, and economic forces probably played a larger one in the rise of the Celtic Tiger. Heres a quick summary of the convergence of these factors and how they led to both peace and prosperity:

Social Factors

The Catholic Church rose from the Irish independence movement as a primary power broker at the turn of the Twentieth Century. While the Church served as a unifying force for oppressed Catholics that were denied rights such as property ownership under British rule until the 1840s, the defacto theocracy they implemented in tandem with elected leaders produced many oppressive social policies in the new Irish republic, including a ban on contraceptives, restrictions on female employment, as well as a ban on both martial separation and divorce. Similar to the corporate backlash several American states have experienced as a result of regressive social policies passed in the name of religion, most industrialized countries viewed these policies as backwards, and not "business friendly." Its no coincidence that the Irish economic tide turned in a more positive direction shortly after the last of these draconian policies (the ban on divorce) was lifted.

Political Factors

The sustained peace in Northern Ireland that followed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement was truly an international effort involving a number of United Nations countries, especially the United States and Britain. Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair worked in tandem with President Clinton in brokering an agreement with Northern Ireland leaders representing both Catholics and Protestants. Subsequently, Clinton views his role in bringing together rival factions through informal and formal negotiations related to the Good Friday Agreement as one of his primary international accomplishments during his two terms as president. The successes of these negotiations are a testimony to what world leaders can accomplish when they leverage their political capital for objectives that benefit conflict-ridden nations. Nonetheless, the goals attained were not absent of controversy. The Northern Ireland leaders of both religious factions (Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein, Ian Paisley, Ulster Unionist) went from being considered "terrorists," depending upon what sectarian group you asked, to legitimately elected political officials. Both men had blood on their hands, but ultimately the world leaders that played key roles in the peace agreements determined that in order to end the violence, the legitimization of former terrorists was inevitable.

Economic Factors

The aforementioned social and political factors paved the way for the Rise of the Celtic Tiger on the Irish Isle. Essentially, both the Republic and Northern Ireland were impeding their own prosperity through social and political isolation from the rest of world. The termination of both social and political isolation allowed the Irish business community to partner with many of the largest corporations in the world, as well expanding upon a home-ground talent for small business innovation.

In sum, the Irish have a lot to teach the rest of the world about world peace. Their accomplishments did not come easy; the Irish Isle has been a place of conflict and economic turmoil for hundreds of years. During those centuries, violence perpetrated in the name of religion may have seemed like an ingrained part of the culture. Fortunately committed leaders and a resilient citizenry believed otherwise, and were willing to work with other countries in casting a better vision for their community. This spirit and drive to want a better life for yourself and your children is not indicative of Irish exceptionalism; it is an ambition can be found and cultivated in every country.

For additional reading on this subject, please check out the following sources:

Besel, K., Bradley, T., and Bielefeld, W. (2013). The road to God knows where: sustaining Northern Ireland NGOs in a post agreement world. Journal of the Indiana Academy for the Social Sciences. 16(1).

Besel, K. (2008). The Changing Role of the Catholic Church in Irish Civil Society. (2008). In Dibie, R. (ed.) Civil Society in Comparative Perspective.

Besel, K., and Brown, J. (2007). Catholic NGOs following the 1995 Referendum on Divorce in the Republic of Ireland. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 17(4).
Hobart resident Carlos Villarreal squabbled with Veterans Affairs officials for months over getting an MRI to assess his nerve damage from a mortar attack in Iraq. He finally had the test done  2,000 miles away.

The disabled Marine veteran gets his care through Jesse Brown VA Medical Center on Chicagos West Side, but that facility doesnt have an open MRI, which he says he needs because of claustrophobia from his post-traumatic-stress disorder.

He tried to have the testing done locally under the Veterans Choice Act, which is supposed to allow vets to seek care in the community if they cant get treatment quick or close enough through the VA. The law was passed in response to the discovery that dozens of veterans in Phoenix had died while waiting for care.

But problems with that programs vendor for Northwest Indiana, Health Net Federal Services, have left many veterans unable to make appointments and many providers not getting paid in a timely fashion. Villarreal, 31, was one of several Region vets featured in a December Times article that documented issues with the program.

Then in March, he went on vacation to Puerto Rico.

While he was down in the U.S. territory, he stopped at a local VA medical center. He found it had an open MRI. He had the testing on the spot.

I got it done in less than a day, he said, behind the wheel of his SUV on a recent morning headed to the VA hospital in Chicago. How long did it take me here?

He started trying to get the MRI last July. In the months to follow, he spent hours on the phone with VA and Choice officials attempting to schedule the test, according to recordings of the conversations he shared with The Times. The calls would be familiar to anyone whos ever been stuck in customer service purgatory.

VA program working to fix issues

Health Net Federal Services said in a statement that it has been working to improve the Veterans Choice program, by hiring additional customer service representatives, contracting with more health care providers and integrating staff into local VA facilities to better coordinate care. The company says it secured 2,750 appointments for Indiana veterans in April, up from 1,006 in October, while paying more than 5,400 Indiana claims in April, compared to just 367 six months earlier.

In March, VA leaders admitted during Senate testimony that the deadline to set up Veterans Choice  90 days  was too short and that outsourcing customer service for the program was a mistake.

U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., who has voiced his frustrations over Veterans Choice to VA and Health Net officials, recently co-sponsored the Veterans First Act, which lawmakers say will streamline the payment and provider signup processes under the Choice program.

Tom Pappas, a local advocate on veterans issues who recently formed a veterans committee in Portage, believes the VA has no incentive to properly execute Veterans Choice because the agency is only concerned about its own survival.

If it wasnt, it would give veterans a choice: You can go to Jesse Brown or you can go private, said Pappas, who served in Vietnam. What theyre afraid of happening is youll see a max exodus from Jesse Brown. What would be the reasons? Travel times, wait times, continuity of care. At Jesse Brown, you see one (medical) resident, then go back two months later and get a different resident.

Villarreal, the Hobart veteran, said the Caribbean VA hospital, while not perfect, was paradise compared to the VA facilities hes visited in the States. The experience even made him consider moving to Puerto Rico, he said.

According to the VA, 83 percent of veterans were able to make same-day appointments at the VA Caribbean Health Care hospital in Puerto Rico compared to 54 percent at Jesse Brown. The Puerto Rico medical center also has patient satisfaction ratings anywhere from 10 to 30 percent higher than the Chicago hospital.

Villarreal wishes veterans could get care from local hospitals and providers like everybody else. He lives more than 40 miles from Jesse Brown, and as a single father of two is often unable to make that trek.

During a recent interview, he repeated a quote almost verbatim to one he gave in the first article: We are the only people in the health care system who are told where we have to go, he said.

NWI veterans confront VA officials

As he made his remark, he was driving to Jesse Brown to check on the status of a hearing aid. He wondered why such a trip was necessary. In the past, he has needed intensive therapy for his PTSD that required regular visits.

Now imagine coming down here three times a week, he said, gripping the steering wheel tight, the traffic heavy but moving on the Dan Ryan Expressway. Im already getting nervous being in between these three trucks.

You take a guy from Knox or LaCrosse and put them out here in this, said Villarreals passenger, Dan Orlich, 69, a Portage veteran who also had to see the VA audiologist.

Later in the day, after visiting the hearing clinic, Villarreal and Orlich attended a town hall meeting at the hospital, which is located on Damen Avenue. In a cavernous conference room, about 15 veterans in folding chairs faced a long table of bureaucrats flanked by flags of the different branches of the military.

The VA officials talked about whats currently being done to alleviate the backlog of claims and long wait times for appointments.

But why has it gotten to this point? Villarreal said under his breath, his frustration palpable. He wore a camera on his coat to document his interactions with the VA.

Were on sniper duty, not patrol, Orlich told Villarreal, trying to calm him down. Wait till you see the target so we can squeeze one off, got it? He patted his younger comrade on the back.

One by one, the veterans vented their frustrations to the VA officials, whether about the health systems antiquated technology or not being able to get through to customer service. The bureaucrats took it with grace and patience, like theyve done this dance many times before.

The big issue I have is with the Choice program, Villarreal said, once it was his turn with the microphone. I went outside the country to get the care I needed.

The officials seemed disturbed by his revelation. A few of them approached him afterward to discuss the situation further. Unfortunately, they were hearing about his problem for the first time, because they were meeting him for the first time. The bureaucracy is so big its faceless.

Near where they were talking, a sign on the wall advertised a play being performed at Jesse Brown: The Land of Oz, which is what the VA sometimes feels like to the veterans, a parallel universe, a health care system unto itself.

But Villarreal says that even after all the traveling back and forth to Chicago, and all the quarreling with the VA, he wouldnt trade the opportunity to serve his country for anything.

Would I do it all over again? he said, still wearing a military buzz cut all these years later. Where do I sign up?
VALPARAISO  The National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions grant program allows teachers to develop a new course that fosters intellectual community through the study of an enduring question.

For Valparaiso Universitys Allison Schuette, an associate professor of English, that question will ask, Who is my neighbor?

Schuette received $20,000 from the NEH to develop and teach the question-driven course. It will grow out of the work shes done with fellow VU professor Liz Wuerfell on the Welcome Project, which was designed to spur discussion about issues of diversity on and off the campus, and their most recent interactive initiative, Flight Paths, to do the same thing cross-county in the Region.

I think the course, developing it and working with students on some of the more humanities-based questions, will really help us when were in the actual story collection itself, Schuette said.

Schuette said the course initially will have students start to think about where they came from. In her case, Schuette didnt necessarily think of the neighborhood where she grew up as a neighborhood until she left and was able to reflect on it.

It will be helpful for them to connect back to where they came from and think about their relationship to that place, she said. I think it will also help them here on campus because a lot of our students come from pretty homogeneous communities. Or even if its a diverse neighborhood, say in Chicago, they feel like theyre coming to a very different place here. I think reflecting on neighbors, even if we dont typically think of the kid down the hall in the dorm as a neighbor, theyre experiencing a lot of difference, so I think this will give them a framework for understanding that.

Schuette also doesnt know if college students really think about or engage the place that theyre actually in.

I really want this course to have students appreciating Northwest Indiana and developing a stronger relationship with it, she said.

The grant requires the class to be reading-intensive, but Schuette wants to use the last couple of weeks of the course to really reflect on Northwest Indiana.

I want to use the Welcome Project Flight Paths initiative as another kind of text for the students, she said.

Students will get to choose a project of their own design toward the end of the class, and because it will be students from all sorts of different majors, Schuette assumes some of them might be interested in participating in the Welcome Project.

Last summer, while preparing to write the grant for the course, Schuette held a Whos My Neighbor? seminar. One of the participating students, Nura Zaki, who is interested in enrolling in the course, said the opportunity to have these discussions as part of a curriculum is vital to promoting a healthy community because it invites us to pay attention to how we treat those around us.

I would love to take advantage of this opportunity to be reminded that my life is inherently linked to others, she said. It is to all of our benefit that we navigate these interactions and relationships with the care we all deserve.

Schuette plans to teach the course twice, during the spring of 2017 and 2018.
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Baton Rouge police on Thursday made an arrest in the shooting of a former Gary track star and another woman.

Annette January, 19, a graduate of Thea Bowman Leadership Academy, was killed along with Lashuntae Benton on April 10 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as a result of being caught in the crossfire of two men angry over an earlier altercation, according to police.

Brandon Christopher Henderson, 25, of Baton Rouge, is being charged with two counts of second-degree murder and illegal use of a weapon. Police said Henderson admitted to firing the first shots that initiated the exchange of gunfire that killed January and Benton.

Police said Henderson told them he drove to the location where the two victims were to confront a group he had a previous encounter with. Henderson told police he was fired upon and struck by gunfire as he approached the group, after which he fired multiple shots into the air from his 9 mm handgun.

According to police and autopsy reports, the shots fired by Henderson did not kill January and Benton.

Police said the investigation continues with additional pending arrests.

January was a top student and captain of the track team at Bowman Academy. She was a student and member of the track team at Southern University when she was killed.
CROWN POINT  Lake County wants to pull an invisibility cloak over the addresses of public officials, law enforcement officers and victims of domestic violence.

Lake County Auditor John Petalas said this week he is preparing to delete from the tax records of the county governments public website the addresses of public officials, law enforcement officers, judges and victims of domestic violence.

It is for the protection of the police officers and we have an urban area with a lot of police agencies. There are individuals who receive numerous threats on a daily basis, Petalas said.

He said he will work with other offices to provide more comprehensive coverage in other county databases. Lake County Recorder Mike Brown has previously removed law enforcement addresses from his offices archives.

It comes in the wake of reports about computer hacker groups harassing police officers by publicizing their home addresses in cities where police shootings have sparked public protests.

Petalas said while the addresses will be redacted, names and other property tax information will remain public.

Porter County Auditor Vicki Urbanik said her office has provided a similar service for several years, but only three people have taken advantage of it because determined hackers might breach the security measure anyway.

She said the program previously had the drawback of not being able to mail property tax bills to a participants home, requiring them to pay in person. Urbanki said that has now been corrected.

Petalas said his office will reach out to womens shelters and the attorney general, which maintains its own Address Confidentiality Program, a free service allowing victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking who have court protective orders to maintain a confidential address to which their mail is sent.

Bryan Corbin, public information officer for the Indiana Attorney General, said, The General Assembly created the attorney generals program in 2001. It serves more than 350 individuals. It can help prevent a perpetrator or stalker from discovering the new address where the victim has moved to escape after a court protective order is in place.

Petalas said the program is voluntary so officers, public officials and domestic violence victims must contact his office at (219) 755-3120 to request a Redacted Home Address Request Form. He said there is no fee charged for the service.

He said public officials outside law enforcement can take advantage of it, but I dont think any of them will partake. I wont. Im in the phone book. Whats the point?
PORTER  Chesterton man died Wednesday when he crashed the motorcycle he was driving while fleeing police.

Police said at about 11:45 p.m. a Porter County Sheriff's Department deputy tried to stop the motorcycle for an improper plate violation on U.S. 20 westbound from Wagner Road in Chesterton when the rider, later identified as Michael Jozwiak, 48, began fleeing.

Police said Jozwiak lost control of the blue 1994 Honda motorcycle on U.S. 20 to the Interstate 94 westbound ramp and was ejected. Police said Jozwiak, who was not wearing a helmet, was transported to Porter Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead due to his injuries.

Police said toxicology results are pending.

The ramps at the accident location were closed until about 2:20 a.m. while the crash was investigated.
EAST CHICAGO  A teenager was robbed of a debit card and cash Sunday after struggling with a man with a gun, police said.

A 17-year-old East Chicago boy told police he gave a man a ride to the 3800 block of Deodar Street about 11:30 p.m. and the man asked for money, Lt. Marguerite Wilder said.

The teen gave the man $1, but he continued to ask for money. The teen grabbed a wooden stick and told him to get out of the vehicle, police said.

The man pulled a gun and pointed it at the teen, and the two struggled and fell to the ground, police said. The man went through the teen's pockets and took a debit card and cash before fleeing without the gun.

The man was described as about 23 years old, black and skinny with short facial hair.

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Luis Semidei at (219) 391-8318. To remain anonymous, call (219) 391-8500.
Police said they responded to a call at the restaurant at about 1:10 a.m. where they said Jennifer Marie Heberling showed signs of intoxication and refused to leave. During an effort to relocate her for the night police said Heberling became defiant and resisted being handcuffed. Police said she also resisted being placed in the squad car after being handcuffed.
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Community leaders are denouncing gun violence a night after a teen girl is shot to death in an East Flatbush apartment. It comes as sources say the victim may have helped police with their investigation before she passed away. NY1's Gene Apodaca has details.

A grieving father is overcome with emotion one night after his daughter was shot to death. Community leaders held a vigil, denouncing the violence.

"As we can see this is a very traumatic day in our community," said City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo. "When I think of this young lady I think of myself."

"I'm actually sick and tired of this stuff out here I'm sick and tired of these press conferences," said City Councilman Jumaane Williams. "I'm sick and tired of these vigils."

16-year-old Shemel Mercurius was babysitting her 3-year-old cousin in her aunt's East Flatbush apartment Tuesday when police say the Guyana native was shot several times.

She later died at the hospital, but sources say that before she passed away, she named her boyfriend as the possible killer.

"Three-year-old children should not watch their cousin perish through gun violence," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. "Three-year-old children should not have to relive the trauma."

Neighbors who knew Mercurius recall a congenial girl, a good student, with dreams of being a nurse.

Earlier in the day, her father described her as a girl everyone liked. He also talked about his own mindset.

"Right now my inside, I don't know what's going on with it," said Mercurius' father, Dexter. "I know I'm the father so I know I have to be here and I have to be strong."

"She was always the happy child always smiling," said one neighbor. "My deepest condolences to the family it's very nerve racking"

The loss is sparking demands for more efforts to combat crime, and for the community to get involved.

"The whole thing needs healing and it needs resources and we're tired of just talking so please do something if you're not doing anything just shut up," Williams said.

As part of their call to action leaders are not only are putting pressure on police, but also on City Hall, pushing specifically for more jobs for the city's youth.
Demonstrators are set to march through the city today in honor of a Bronx teen who was shot to death by police in 2012.

The activist group Justice League NYC is organizing the march for Ramarley Graham.

The 17-mile march is set to run from his home in the Bronx to One Police Plaza, where a vigil will be held this afternoon.

Graham was 18 years old when he was shot inside his home by Officer Richard Haste, who said he thought the teen was reaching for something in his waistband.

No weapon was ever found.

Criminal charges against Haste were later dismissed on a technicality, and federal prosecutors did not pursue civil rights charges.

Graham's parents and their supporters are calling on the NYPD to fire Haste, who is on modified duty.
The hostility between Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio continues to be ratcheted up to new levels. Wednesday, the governor launched what might be his strongest attack yet, demanding de Blasio apologize for an accusation Cuomo says has been proven wrong. Bobby Cuza filed the following report.



For weeks, without ever explicitly naming him, Mayor Bill de Blasio strongly hinted Governor Andrew Cuomo was behind the leak of a damaging report from the state Board of Elections. But this week, the state inspector general found it was a Republican appointee at the Board of Elections who was responsible.

"I think he should apologize," Cuomo said.



Wednesday, Cuomo said the mayor had falsely and recklessly accused career public servants of misconductmost notably, the board's chief enforcement counsel, Risa Sugarman, whose investigation found de Blasios team violated campaign finance laws in its fundraising for state Senate Democrats. De Blasio drew attention to the fact Sugarman was a Cuomo appointee, but it turns out she had nothing to do with the leak.

"Im a big boy. Hes a big boy. You want to say something unkind about me, thats one thing. But not public servants that were just doing their job. With no evidence whatsoever, by the way. And now we know definitively that he was wrong," Cuomo said.



Tuesdays Inspector General report referred the matter to a state ethics panel and to the Manhattan district attorney. But Cuomo seemed to dismiss a question about the propriety of the leak, calling it a sideshow. He noted the mayors fundraising is now under investigation by both the Manhattan DA and U.S. attorney.

"Those investigations should be allowed to proceed," Cuomo said. "Get the facts and go from there. Everything else is irrelevant and a distraction and theater to distract from that."

Cuomo, who made the remarks following an unrelated announcement, is, of course, also facing investigations into state economic development initiatives.

A de Blasio spokeswoman did not respond directly to Cuomo, but said in a statement, "The State BOE leaked a confidential memo, and has been called out for failing to have proper policies in place to safeguard against these leaks. The BOE owes the people of New York an apology for such a flagrantly political act."

Q: Would you vote for Bill de Blasio for a second term?

Cuomo: Oh. Uh, Im not a city resident.


Season 4, Episode 12: A Roy Rogers in Franconia

We have not always been kind in this space to Paige Jennings, or to Holly Taylor, the 18-year-old Canadian actress who plays her. When The Americans was balancing its Paige story line (teenager finds out her parents are Soviet spies) with its Martha story line (woman finds out her husband is a Soviet spy), we were solidly on Team Martha  her plot won on dramatic and emotional grounds and Alison Wright acted up a storm as the lonely secretary willing to commit treason for love. (Even if her lover was actually Paiges bigamous father.)

But Wednesday nights episode, A Roy Rogers in Franconia (written by the showrunners, Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields), forced a reconsideration. Not a total one  we still miss the exiled Martha desperately. But Mr. Weisberg and Mr. Fields, through sheer persistence and a radical but deftly handled twist at the end of last weeks episode, have managed to make Paiges between-two-worlds predicament interesting. We finally care about what happens to her, and whats in her head, rather than just seeing her as a hyperventilating nuisance whos putting her parents in danger. And while Ms. Taylors range remains narrow, it feels as if the characters evolution toward a kind of resigned fatalism, or exasperation, has been cleverly tailored.

The episode started in the aftermath of last weeks random violence, when Elizabeth stuck a knife in the neck of a would-be mugger in front of Paige. At home  where Philip and Henry were happily playing a game of Stargate on the ubiquitous family computer  Paige demanded answers. Was the man dead? Did her mom have to do that? How did she know how to do it? And, most tellingly, had she done it before? Paiges parents have denied hurting people  which we know is ludicrous  and now Elizabeth had to roll back one more lie, perhaps the biggest one of all. She admitted that she had killed before, but added, To protect myself, yeah, which seemed arguable. (Though its always for the protection of Mother Russia.)

The next morning Paige was still digesting what shed seen, and getting a new sense of how dangerous her parents work must be, if they were trained to do what her mother had done. She was no longer talking about calling the police; she was just trying to adjust her picture of her mother and father to all this new information, and insisting on getting even more.
As the police continue to investigate a shooting during a hip-hop concert at a Manhattan nightclub last week that left one person dead and three injured, the concert promoter behind the club is postponing a series of shows, including many rap events.

Live Nation, the giant concert company that operates the club, Irving Plaza, said it was postponing three rap concerts there over the next week, as well as three other concerts at another of its New York clubs.

The shows include events by the rappers Joey Badass, Mac Miller and Vince Staples at Irving Plaza that were being presented with the Governors Ball Music Festival this weekend, and three concerts at the Gramercy Theater, by Appetite for Destruction, a Guns N Roses tribute band; the rock band Black Pistol Fire; and YG, a popular rapper.
Youll laugh, and youll cry: Quincy Jones, a comedian battling mesothelioma, fulfills a dream with an HBO special. Eddie Huang goes home to Orlando, Fla. And dont bother reading reviews of 10 Cloverfield Lane. Just see it.

Whats on TV

QUINCY JONES: BURNING THE LIGHT 10 p.m. on HBO. No, not that Mr. Jones, the music man. This Mr. Jones is a 32-year-old stand-up comedian who, after receiving a diagnosis of Stage 4 mesothelioma cancer last July and given a year to live, received some help from friends who wanted him to star in a special and began a Kickstarter campaign. Then Ellen DeGeneres invited him on her show. This special, taped in March at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles, helps Mr. Jones fulfill his dream of leaving a legacy. There is no cancer when Im on that stage, Mr. Jones, who is undergoing chemotherapy, has said in interviews. (Image: Mr. Jones)
SAN FRANCISCO  Saudi Arabias $3.5 billion bet on Uber is perhaps the biggest single investment in a start-up on record.

And guiding the Middle Eastern kingdom on its move were just two advisers: JPMorgan Chase on the financial side and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom on the legal side.

The $3.5 billion investment is enormous by any measure. Put into perspective, it is bigger than the amount Google raised in its initial public offering of stock in 2004.

While such a deal is not likely to yield a huge payday for the two companies, it lends them some bragging rights. And it could position them for plum advisory positions for Saudi Arabia down the line, including the forthcoming initial public offering of Saudi Aramco, the countrys gargantuan state-owned oil company.
I have been thinking a lot about rattlesnakes lately.

Scientists in Massachusetts want to create a colony of timber rattlesnakes, which are poisonous, on an uninhabited island in the center of the state. Needless to say, the plan has engendered fierce opposition from residents and politicians. I wrote about the Great Rattlesnake Island Controversy of 2016 for Sundays paper.

One point that scientists made over and over was that it was highly unlikely the islands snakes would ever cross paths with people. No one lives on the island in question, and the scientists said it was unlikely that the snakes would leave. In addition, scientists said people hardly ever see the states existing population of rattlesnakes  even the ones that live in a popular hiking destination near Boston.
A New York City police captain who declined to help when two officers were injured in a shootout in Brooklyn has been demoted, the Police Department said on Wednesday.

The former captain, Scott J. Forster, 32, was demoted to lieutenant three months after the predawn shooting on Feb. 20 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that left Officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw injured, according to the police.

Officers Reddin and Yurkiw were taken to Kings County Hospital Center, located within the 71st Precinct, where Lieutenant Forster was the executive officer. Instead of staying to help coordinate the police response at the hospital, police officials said at the time, he left 40 minutes after the shooting when his shift ended, and later claimed he was sick.

Shortly after the shooting, Lieutenant Forster was stripped of his badge and gun and relegated to an administrative role. He had served more than 10 years with the Police Department and had been promoted to captain last summer. He was within his one-year probationary period for that rank when the shooting occurred.
When Reza Zarrab, a gold trader based in Turkey, was arrested on a recent trip to the United States and sent to New York to face federal charges, his lawyer tried to keep him out of prison by tapping into Mr. Zarrabs considerable wealth.

His client would post a $50 million bond, secured by $10 million in cash. He would stay in a rental apartment in Manhattan and wear a GPS monitoring device. And one more thing: Mr. Zarrab would pay for 24-hour guards to ensure that he did not flee and to escort him to and from the courthouse.

The request, which a judge is expected to take up on Thursday, is not as unusual as it may seem. The rich are different from everyone else, even those accused of crimes. But a handful of extremely wealthy defendants, particularly those from overseas, are testing courts by proposing to live in self-financed gilded cages while they await their fate.

Prosecutors vigorously objected to Mr. Zarrabs being allowed to face trial under such conditions, telling a federal judge in Manhattan that the proposed plan would allow a rich defendant to build a personal jail for himself in a Manhattan apartment, staffed by a firm on his payroll.
ANHEUSER BUSCH-INBEV, the worlds largest brewer, recently made headlines by announcing that it would temporarily rename Budweiser, one of its best-selling beers, as America. Its a curious name choice, not only because AB-InBev is based in Belgium, but also because of what the new name stands for: independence.

As Anheuser-Busch InBev looks to finalize a $107 billion merger with SABMiller, the worlds second-largest brewer, federal antitrust authorities need to weigh what this means for the growing number of small brewers and independent distributors who are driving the industry. Recent reports say that antitrust authorities are likely to approve the deal by the end of the month. If they do so without adequate protections, the merger could stifle consumer choice and choke off Americas beer renaissance.

Today there are more breweries in this country than at any time in history  some 4,300, with scores coming online every year, producing a vast variety of styles, from low-alcohol lawn mower beers to high-octane Russian imperial stouts. Thanks to the innovative nature of small start-up breweries, new styles and substyles seem to emerge every day. But state laws usually dont allow brewers to sell their products themselves; instead they have to use distributors, which hold enormous sway over which beers end up at which bars, restaurants and stores.

The problem is that, along with being the worlds largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev is also the biggest beer distributor in the United States. And in several states, the law allows the company to distribute its own beer  and most markets have only one or two distributors. The company has also recently increased its control over the beer-distribution industry by purchasing five independent distributors (acquisitions that prompted a Department of Justice inquiry last fall). That means that Anheuser-Busch InBev can focus on building its own brands while effectively, and legally, shutting out competing craft brands.
First, a quiz: Whats the most common vegetable eaten by American toddlers?

Answer: The French fry.

The same study that unearthed that nutritional tragedy also found that on any given day, almost half of American toddlers drink soda or similar drinks, possibly putting the children on a trajectory toward obesity or diabetes.

But for many kids, the problems start even earlier. In West Virginia, one study found, almost one-fifth of children are born with alcohol or drugs in their system. Many thus face an uphill struggle from the day they are born.

Bear all this in mind as Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump battle over taxes, minimum wages and whether to make tuition free at public universities. Those are legitimate debates, but the biggest obstacles and greatest inequality often have roots early in life:

If we want to get more kids in universities, we should invest in preschools.

Actually, preschool may be a bit late. Brain research in the last dozen years underscores that the time of life that may shape adult outcomes the most is pregnancy through age 2 or 3.
At a spectacle of a news conference on Tuesday, Trump laid into reporters for asking simple accountability questions about funds going to charity groups. He even called one reporter a sleaze and complained that coverage of his donations to the groups make me look very bad.

This isnt the first time he has used base language to attack reporters with whom he disagreed or was annoyed. The New York Times has collected a comprehensive list of his Twitter insults (often waged against journalists), which simply boggles the mind. (I am among those he has accused of dishonest reporting.)

But even that isnt whats most troubling. Whats troubling is that under a Trump administration, the First Amendment itself  either in spirit or in law, or both  could be severely weakened. What we have to worry about is a chill wind blowing from the White House.

This is no small thing. Our constitutionally protected freedom of speech and freedom of the press are pillars that make this country great, and different.

Not only did Trump say Tuesday that if he became president he was going to continue to attack the press, but in February, he said:

One of the things Im going to do if I win, and I hope we do and were certainly leading. Im going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. Were going to open up those libel laws. So that when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because theyre totally protected.

Exceptions for falsehoods are already part of our libel jurisprudence, but the worrisome nature of that comment lies in its vagueness. What does open up our libel laws mean? Is he equating purposely negative and horrible  both subjective determinations  with false?
ON Tuesday, Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, called a news conference to discuss his promise to donate to veterans charities, made with a splash in January, but not quite fulfilled until reporters looked into whether the donation was actually made.

Mr. Trump didnt just talk fund-raising for charity, though. He devoted a good deal of time to insulting journalists, including the ABC reporter Tom Llamas, whom he called a sleaze. Throughout his harangue, my eye drifted toward the suited veterans standing behind him. They were there, of course, for their symbolic value  because in American politics today, nothing conjures more powerful emotion than the sight of service members. Wherever it is that we stand, our presence there must clearly stand for something meaningful.

Americans have become accustomed to this symbolism because of its constant invocation, in everything from beer commercials to the opening pageantry of sporting events. It should come as no surprise that it manifests itself in our politics.

In 2012, a United States Army reservist gave a speech in support of Ron Paul while in uniform. (This was against regulations, and the reservist was reprimanded.) Mr. Pauls supporters took the soldiers presence to mean something more than the opinions of one man in his late 20s. The uniform gave his words outsize heft.
Zika is just such a threat. It is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, can cause birth defects and has been linked to neurological disorders in adults. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine last week estimated that the risk of microcephaly in newborns ranged from 1 percent to 13 percent for women infected with Zika in the first trimester.

A bill introduced by Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, would put $5 billion into an existing public health emergency fund that was created in 1983 but has been largely dormant. The fund currently has a balance of just $57,000. In the Senate, Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and a doctor, has said he plans to introduce a bill that would provide emergency funds, though he has offered few details.

Some Republicans are likely to oppose setting aside the money. Many in the House have been reluctant to spend money on Zika; last month they passed a bill to provide $622 million to fight the disease, which is a lot less than the $1.1 billion the Senate approved and the $1.9 billion Mr. Obama has asked for.

Despite the concerns of fiscal conservatives, the health emergency fund could save lives and money. Consider Ebola. Had the American government moved quickly to help Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone fight that virus early in 2014, the disease might not have killed more than 11,000 people or caused a global panic. But the United States was slow to react, approving $5.4 billion for the disease in December 2014, months after it had caused or was suspected to have caused nearly 7,000 deaths and after Ebola cases had been confirmed in the United States.

That money was used to send doctors and nurses to West Africa, to help strengthen health systems in the affected countries, and for research. Some Ebola projects are still active, including vaccine development and testing. In public health, the sooner you can get there the more effective you can be, said Dr. Thomas Frieden, the C.D.C. director. You can change the trajectory of an epidemic in a way that is very, very important.
The grand myth of modern Republican politics  the trickle-down theory that sweeping tax cuts generate rising revenues  has come crashing down in Kansas.

An exuberant Gov. Sam Brownback enacted the largest tax cuts in the states history in 2012 and 2013, a $1.1 billion upper-bracket boon for which he promised rich economic returns. But the governor and the Republican Legislature were soon shortchanging the states public school budgets in compensation.

Per-pupil state aid has declined from $4,400 to $3,800 during the Brownback years. That has forced reductions in staffing, classes and school days in the more poorly financed districts. It has also fueled the current crisis in which the public school system faces a shutdown on July 1, imposed by the State Supreme Court, unless the state government restores some of the equity it sacrificed in pursuing the trickle-down myth.

Even some Republican supporters of Mr. Brownback, finding their schoolchildren threatened by declining standards, are calling for the reversal of some of the tax cuts. They shouldnt expect a positive response. The governor and the Legislature have rebuffed and evaded rulings from the State Supreme Court, which found that the Legislature had violated the State Constitutions clear requirement that it provide fair and adequate support for all school districts, including impoverished ones with less property tax revenues.
Since launching her eponymous line in 2012, the designer Shaina Mote has won die-hard fans, who rely on the Los Angeles-based label for its versatile, elevated basics. Those fans, however, have had to fend for themselves in the swimwear category  until now. Today, Mote launches a capsule line of swimwear that stays true to the distinctive, functional aesthetic shes perfected in her main line. The expansion was borne out of Motes struggle to find a suit that fit into her own life: I felt there was a little bit of a void for a type of swimwear that can be used in an active environment as well as one thats leisurely, she says. To fulfill that mandate, Mote created a six-piece collection, which was inspired by the clean lines found in the work of the Mexican architect Luis Barragan. One innovation she struck upon: She eliminated the top stitch typically found on swimsuits, so that each style would mesh into the body, and lie more flush with the skin. With so much attention paid to the fit and cut, its no wonder Mote decided to keep the color palette as simple as possible. Every piece in the line, which has been crafted from dead-stock Italian fabric, is black. I wanted to make sure I was presenting the customer with something that was really accessible and travels well, she says. Since this is my first swimwear collection, I really wanted to nail down those basics and core styles.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton suggested a partial solution to help millions of Americans without health insurance: The country should let those 55 and older without employer coverage buy into the government Medicare system.

A few weeks ago, Hillary Clinton brought the idea back. Its a proposal shes talked about before: It was part of her 2000 Senate campaign platform and an option she mentioned for health insurance expansion when she ran for president in 2008.

But a lot has changed with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, leading several health policy experts to wonder whether a Medicare buy-in would be a welcome new option, or a confounding misfit.

Medicare for more, as Ive been calling it, would require significant adjustments to the Obamacare new markets for regulated insurance, which are currently set up for everyone under 65. It would require a new system for calculating and awarding subsidies to low-income purchasers. It would probably require changes to Medicares standard package of benefits. And it runs the risk of destabilizing the Obamacare marketplaces, several of which are already somewhat precarious.
The Democratic race is about to end.

Barring something truly extraordinary, Hillary Clinton will be declared the presumptive nominee for president by the news media, probably on Tuesday after the results in New Jersey. It will happen even if she loses every remaining contest, and it will probably happen before the polls even close in California (no doubt igniting the fury of some Bernie Sanders supporters).

How is she going to clinch?

Mrs. Clinton has 2,310 delegates, according to The Associated Press, putting her just 73 short of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination.

She will cover at least half the distance this weekend, when Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands hold caucuses worth a combined 79 delegates.

She would then go over the top with New Jersey, not long after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, as Harry Enten at FiveThirtyEight has pointed out. The state is worth 142 delegates, and Mrs. Clinton will be awarded many of them when the polls close.
The donation Donald Trump made to veterans charities is small compared with those of some fellow billionaires. Then again, veterans charities dont appear to be a big cause for billionaires.

At a fiery news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said he had made good on a January promise to raise millions of dollars for veterans groups. He produced a photocopy of a check to show that he had personally given $1 million and said he had helped raise $4.6 million more. Instead of being like, Thank you very much, Mr. Trump or Trump did a good job, everyones saying, Who got it, who got it, who got it?  Mr. Trump said.
OPELIKA, Ala.  The excitement began outside the courtroom here on Wednesday morning when Gov. Robert Bentley arrived to testify at the trial of the speaker of the state House of Representatives.

He walked in through the front door, one deputy sheriff said to the surprise of another, not long after a man waiting for a different Circuit Court case strained for a glimpse of the governor from a second-floor window.

But to the prosecutors in the public corruption trial of Michael G. Hubbard, Mr. Bentley was just another witness to help make their case that the speaker sought to leverage his office for his personal interests. A prosecutors file folder about the witness, who testified for about 20 minutes while his security detail of state troopers stood nearby, carried a simple label: BENTLEY, ROBERT.

In the end, Mr. Bentleys brief turn on the witness stand appeared to offer modest victories for the prosecution and the defense. During the governors testimony, lawyers asked him to recount meetings with Mr. Hubbard that focused on certain economic development projects, initiatives that were supported by a company that had hired the speaker as a consultant.
TOPEKA, Kan.  On the last day of their annual session, Kansas legislators wrangled Wednesday over whether to comply with a court-ordered increase in aid to poor school districts amid fresh evidence of the states deteriorating finances.

Leaders of the Legislatures Republican supermajorities considered whether to debate a school finance bill before lawmakers formally adjourned. But they backed off after it appeared there was no consensus on what to do.

The state Supreme Court on Friday rejected some education funding changes enacted earlier this year by lawmakers. The justices said that the school finance system remained unfair to poor school districts and warned lawmakers that public schools would be unable to open after June 30 if no action was taken.

A few Republican senators wanted to pass a bill on Wednesday to increase aid to poor school districts. Others wanted more time to draft a response, which would require Gov. Sam Brownback to call a special session. Others wanted to defy the justices.
SOUTH

Florida: Ex-Officer Is Charged

In Killing of Stranded Driver

A fired police officer was charged Wednesday in the killing of a legally armed black musician who had apparently thrown his weapon and was running away when he was shot, prosecutors and court documents said. The former officer, Nouman Raja, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and manslaughter in the Oct. 18 death of Corey Jones, 31, after a grand jury found the shooting was unjustified, Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said. Mr. Joness sport utility vehicle had broken down on a highway ramp. He had gotten out and was on the phone with roadside assistance when Mr. Raja, who is of South Asian descent, pulled up in an unmarked van. The mens exchange was captured on the call center recording. At no time during the recording did Raja say he was a police officer, the affidavit said. Instead, Raja replied by asking the single word Really? when Jones twice said, Im good.  Both men apparently pulled guns. Mr. Raja, 38, fired six shots, hitting Mr. Jones three times. Mr. Jones never fired. (AP)

MIDWEST

Ohio: City Fined in Beating

A jury has awarded $22 million to a man who says he was beaten by an East Cleveland police detective, locked in a storage closet with no toilet for four days and given nothing to eat or drink except a carton of milk. The Cleveland jury found in favor of the man, Arnold Black, 48, of East Cleveland, in a civil trial. Relatives testified that Mr. Black had to have surgery to remove dried blood on his brain. The trial was held without lawyers representing East Cleveland. City Law Director Willa Hemmons, when contacted Wednesday, said she was not aware that a trial had been held. It is unclear how cash-strapped East Cleveland could pay anything as officials there consider filing the states first-ever municipal bankruptcy and explore a merger with neighboring Cleveland. (AP)
SACRAMENTO  Donald J. Trump is the only candidate left in the Republican primary, yet his campaign schedule is adhering fairly closely to the primary calendar, with him spending the second part of last week and the rest of this week holding rallies across California, which votes on Tuesday.

With an unrelenting sun shining behind him at an airport hangar here on Wednesday, Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, hinted at why.

Sacramento, were going to do something. Because Im going to make a real run in California, all right? Mr. Trump said to a packed and sweaty crowd, referring to the general election in November. He added: Were going to work California hard. Were going to work the state of Washington hard. We may even work the state of Oregon hard.

To endear himself to the West Coast voters, Mr. Trump trotted out his usual array of assaults, deriding the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, as a politician with no natural talent. He again falsely accused her of wanting to abolish the Second Amendment, and attacked her decision on intervening in Libya. Mr. Trump supported the intervention at the time.
WASHINGTON  As the Supreme Court term enters the homestretch, just hours before an internal deadline on Wednesday for circulating all draft majority opinions, two justices made an unusual joint appearance to discuss the secret ingredient for a collegial court.

Eating is sacred, Justice Sonia Sotomayor told a large audience at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History. You should not waste a meal.

Most of the justices eat lunch together on days the court is in session. They have an occasional drink, too, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said.

Whenever a justice has a birthday, the chief brings in some wine and we toast the birthday boy or girl, she said. We sing Happy Birthday. 
Hillary Clinton plans to deliver a scorching assessment of Donald J. Trumps foreign policy prescriptions on Thursday, casting her likely Republican rival as a threat to decades of bipartisan tenets of American diplomacy and declaring him unfit for the presidency.

Mrs. Clintons campaign aides said the speech, which she will deliver in San Diego, would be the start of a persistent assault to portray a potential Trump presidency as a dangerous proposition that would weaken American alliances and embolden enemies.

The argument will include specific criticism of comments Mr. Trump has made about rethinking the United Statess support of NATO; his proposal to allow Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia to acquire nuclear weapons; his vow to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States; and his pledge to advance the use of torture and kill the families of suspected terrorists.

But Mrs. Clinton will also invoke her experiences as secretary of state, including in 2011 when she supported President Obamas decision to send Navy SEALs on a raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, to make the case that Mr. Trump does not have the temperament to make such decisions.
William Weld, the vice-presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, said Wednesday that he believed Hillary Clinton had done nothing criminal in using personal email as secretary of state.

Mr. Weld spoke during a wide-ranging interview alongside Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian Partys presidential nominee. Both secured the Libertarian nomination Sunday at the partys contentious convention in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend.

The remarks from Mr. Weld, who served as the governor of Massachusetts as a Republican in the 1990s, are deeply at odds with criticisms from Republicans over Mrs. Clintons tenure at the State Department and the scandal involving her use of a private server for all work emails.

His comments could also fuel further skepticism among some Libertarian voters who view Mr. Welds right-of-center years as governor with suspicion. They could also inflame criticism that he is a de facto stalking horse for Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner for the nomination.
The head of Hispanic media relations at the Republican National Committee is resigning this month in what appears to be another indication of the lingering discomfort some party officials have about working to elect Donald J. Trump president.

Ruth Guerra, who is of Mexican descent and was in charge of carrying the partys message to Hispanic voters, is joining the American Action Network, a Republican-aligned super PAC, she confirmed in a brief interview on Wednesday.

The American Action Network is expected to spend millions on congressional races, and the new job is in essence a promotion, one co-worker said.

But Ms. Guerra told colleagues this year that she was uncomfortable working for Mr. Trump, according two R.N.C. aides who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the difficulties surrounding the partys presumptive standard-bearer.
BOSTON  Amid a roiling national debate over transgender rights, lawmakers in the Democratic-led House in Massachusetts on Wednesday passed a bill that would expand protections against discrimination for transgender people and allow them to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

The State Senate, also controlled by Democrats, passed a similar measure here last month. With support for the Houses bill from Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, Massachusetts appears ready to cut against the current of states that have opposed some protections in public accommodations for transgender people.

No one should be discriminated against in Massachusetts because of their gender identity, Mr. Baker said on Tuesday in announcing his support of the bill after months of avoiding a direct endorsement of such a measure.

Transgender rights  particularly concerning bathroom access  have rapidly unfolded as the latest clash in the culture wars. In March, Gov. Pat McCrory of North Carolina, a Republican, signed a law limiting bathroom access for transgender people in that state. Last month, the Obama administration directed schools to allow students to use facilities consistent with their gender identity; officials from 11 states, most with Republican governors, have sued over the policy.
CAIRO  Fighters aligned with Libyas United Nations-backed unity government are advancing along the Mediterranean coast toward the Islamic State stronghold of Surt, signaling the first major assault on territory that, since last year, has become the terrorist groups largest base outside Iraq and Syria.

Two separate militia forces have fought their way toward the city in recent days, attacking from both the east and the west, in apparently uncoordinated attacks that have reduced the length of Libyan coastline controlled by the Islamic State to 100 miles from about 150 miles. On Wednesday, one of the militias claimed to have seized control of Surts power plant, 20 miles west of the city.

Those victories occurred in sparsely populated areas, and it was unclear whether the militias had either the strength or the will to push into Surt, which is thought to be heavily fortified and also harbor several thousand foreign fighters. But the advance did signal a new setback for the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, at a time when it is already under concerted attack in Falluja, Iraq, and in parts of Syria.

Analysts and diplomats warn that while the offensive addresses the Wests biggest concern in Libya, it also risks destabilizing the fragile peace effort there by fostering violent competition between rival groups.
NAIROBI, Kenya  Militants detonated a deafening car bomb at the gates of a popular hotel in Somalia on Wednesday evening, and gunmen then stormed the hotel, leaving at least 15 people dead and creating a fiery scene of wrecked cars, crumbled buildings, panic and smoke that stretched for blocks in the heart of Mogadishu, the capital.

The Somali authorities said government forces were battling room to room in the hotel, the Ambassador, against a few heavily armed men. A spokesman at a hospital said more than 40 people had been wounded in the attack.

The Shabab, a Somali militant organization that has attacked several other hotels in similar fashion, claimed responsibility for the assault.

Somalia has been increasingly violent. After years of retreats and defeats, the Shabab have been stepping up attacks on civilians, peacekeepers and Somalias fledging security forces; the group has killed hundreds of people this year.
These days, having three female choreographers on a ballet program is an anomaly. Apparently, Emily Molnar, artistic director of the Canadian group Ballet BC, isnt afraid of being bold. But does her bold move translate into a satisfying evening of dance? For her companys opening at the Joyce Theater on Wednesday, Ms. Molnar showed that female choreographers  Sharon Eyal (working with Gai Behar), Crystal Pite and herself  can be just as derivative as their male counterparts.

In 16 + a room, Ms. Molnar, a former member of Ballet Frankfurt under William Forsythe, embraces her Forsythe roots with an apocalyptic exploration of motion  quick, darting  contrasted with stillness, in which dancers occupy a stage under surveillance-style spotlights and a monotonously ominous score that sounds, at times, like a circling helicopter.

Ms. Molnars cliche-ridden work touches the usual bases and more: Along with purposeful walks onto the stage and dancers charging forward in runs that end in slides, performers hold signs, including one that says, This is a beginning. Despite such tepid attempts at whimsy, 16 + a room is strangely both cold and full of yearning. That yearning quality is also in Ms. Pites Solo Echo, inspired by Mark Strands poem Lines for Winter and two Brahms sonatas. Here, there are more runs into slides and lunges as the dancers  swarming together and peeling apart  move with tense, brisk efficiency.

For Ms. Pite, another alumna of Ballet Frankfurt, Solo Echo, which explores loss, has a sentimental strain embodied by Tom Vissers murky lighting and Jay Gower Taylors set design, with falling snow. Eventually, the dancers stand in a line as each embraces the person in front by the waist; one by one, they duck underneath and slip away, until the last one remains, stretched out and lifeless.
I think the photo community sometimes takes their own and holds them hostage, said the dealer David Zwirner. Its important for Egglestons work to be seen among the great art thats being made. I know thats very important for him in choosing our gallery.

Mr. Zwirner was talking about the artist William Eggleston, 76, who has joined his gallery after having been represented by Larry Gagosian for five years.

Eggleston is really a living legend of American art, Mr. Zwirner said. And its important for us  and for the artist  that he is contextualized as an artist and not just as a photographer.

In November, the gallery, at its West 20th Street location, will mount a show of Mr. Egglestons The Democratic Forest images, taken on his travels in the 1980s.
That the brilliant Canadian conductor Yannick Nezet-Seguin, 41, will become the next music director of the Metropolitan Opera is not much of a surprise. Peter Gelb, the Mets general manager, has been dropping hints of this move for months  for a couple of years, really. After the announcement in April that James Levine was stepping aside, it took just six weeks for the details of Mr. Nezet-Seguins appointment to be worked out.

What is surprising, though, and concerning, is how long the Met is willing to go without a music director, even an interim appointment. After becoming director designate in 2017, Mr. Nezet-Seguin does not officially begin his tenure until the start of the 2020-21 season. To put this time lag in perspective, whichever presidential candidate is elected in November could be in the final stage of a re-election campaign when Mr. Nezet-Seguin takes the podium as the Mets music director. Even then, he is committing to only five productions during that season because he will continue to hold another time-consuming post as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The obvious interim strategy would have been to appoint a caretaker, or a couple of them, until then. My fantasy? The Met might have asked the eminent Bernard Haitink, who once presided over the Royal Opera House in London, to share the duties with Esa-Pekka Salonen, who could have been a sort of composer in residence. Mr. Salonen certainly proved himself a stunning conductor of repertory works this spring, when he led the most rapturous and truly electrifying Elektra you could hope to hear.

But if the orchestra and administration are willing to wait for the gifted Mr. Nezet-Seguin, so be it. The artists of the company, especially the musicians of the Mets superb orchestra, must have an artistic leader they believe in. I think that the accomplished Gianandrea Noseda could have been a smart choice, or Fabio Luisi. Five years ago it seemed as if Mr. Luisi was being groomed to take over for Mr. Levine.
The election of Mr. Smith, 53, who played an old upright piano while growing up in Denver and was told that with enough practice he might make it to Carnegie one day, brings to an end a low moment at the hall. The billionaire Ronald O. Perelman served as its chairman for less than a year before stepping down last fall after he alienated the board by clashing with the halls executive and artistic director, Clive Gillinson.

After shunning the spotlight for years, Mr. Smith, who is based in Austin, Tex., where the private equity firm he founded, Vista Equity Partners, has its headquarters, has recently taken a more public role  starting a foundation, the Fund II Foundation; giving commencement addresses; and donating money. His alma mater, Cornell University, renamed its School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering for him earlier this year after he announced a $50 million gift.

Unlike Carnegies most recent chairmen, Mr. Perelman and Sanford I. Weill, the former Citigroup chairman, Mr. Smith does not come from the world of New York finance, and he has not been a major fixture on the citys social scene  he is more known for flying in to attend events in the city and then flying out. But his work outside the city with investors and tech firms could provide entree to new potential donors in the coming years.

Mr. Smith said his newfound willingness to exert his influence came from a sense of obligation to help those less fortunate.

When I look at the folks that inspired me growing up, people like Frederick Douglass, they had to stand up and take positions in public in order to make a difference, he said in an interview. Part of the responsibility I have, because of the opportunities Ive been granted, is to take leadership positions and help expand access for others.
Hell apparently has a heck of an agent. Its all over television these days, and Cinemax gives it yet another foothold on Friday with Outcast, a new series based on Robert Kirkman and Paul Azacetas comic books.

The show centers on Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit), who lives in a part of West Virginia that apparently has a demonic-possession problem. But its an 8-year-old named Joshua (Gabriel Bateman) who initially grabs your attention, thanks to a shocking scene in the first three minutes of the premiere.

That scene, simple yet gruesome, sets the bar very high very early, which turns out to be a problem: In the first three episodes, at least, Outcast never comes close to reaching it again. Thats partly the shows fault and partly the fault of the subject matter. Hell, as a plot device, has its limits.

Kyle teams with a minister, Anderson (Philip Glenister), to confront assorted demons and to explore Kyles past, since he has a family history of possession that has branded him a social outcast. The nature of that history is revealed in frequent flashbacks  too many, really; theyre intriguing at first but eventually grow annoying.
Johnson & Johnson weighs heavy. The bulging health care conglomerate is swallowing the hair-care company Vogue International for $3.3 billion in defiance of calls to break up. Johnson & Johnsons $312 billion market value makes it a hard target for activists. Yet its size has created ailments, including poor merger-and-acquisition activity and mediocre shareholder returns.

Over the last decade shareholders have largely come to the conclusion that pharmaceutical firms should focus on developing medicines. After all, theres little in common between using science to discover a cure for Alzheimers and selling shampoo. That has led Abbott Laboratories to spin off the pharmaceutical division AbbVie; Pfizer and Merck each to sell their consumer-goods business;and GlaxoSmithKline to divest nutritional drinks. The results have been largely favorable to investors too, because the cash thrown off by consumer goods companies is coveted by yield-starved investors.

Johnson & Johnson has resisted the trend. About one-fifth of its revenue comes from selling consumer health and beauty products such as Band-Aids and Listerine. Over 40 percent comes from cutting-edge drugs, and the rest from medical devices. The diversity may produce relatively steady results, but investors arent terribly appreciative of the fish-fowl hybrid. The company is valued at about 11.5 times estimated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, over the next 12 months. Thats lower than the multiples attached to the consumer goods maker Colgate and the drug maker Eli Lilly, which trade between 14 and 15 times Ebitda, and the medical device firm Medtronic, at 12.5 times.

This has not escaped investors. Artisan Partners tried to pressure Johnson & Johnson to split earlier this year. However, Artisan owned well under 1 percent of its stock; combined with Johnson and Johnsons scattered investor base, the activist had almost no power to battle its giant target.
VIENNA  The new oil minister in Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of the OPEC countries, had a message for the global market: Dont expect us to influence the price of crude oil by adjusting supplies.

I think managing in the traditional way that we tried in the past may never come again, the minister, Khalid al-Falih, said on Thursday. Certainly we will not go with certain price targets.

The message  which came after the decision on Thursday by the 13-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to maintain high levels of oil production  is central to the changing strategy of the Saudi crude-oil complex. And it could foreshadow a period of volatility for oil prices because OPECs policies and the Saudis sway have long helped guide the markets.

In a sweeping directive in April, Saudi Arabia set forth plans to diversify its economy, reduce its dependence on oil and pull back on its government handouts. And what Mr. Falih does with Saudi Arabias oil  how much the kingdom decides to pump and where the money goes  is the biggest piece of the puzzle.
As Americans live longer and more families are forced to cope with common late-in-life issues like dementia, the problem is getting worse. Its a huge issue nationally as the elderly population grows and their minds start to falter, Ms. Slade said. Ive seen charities coming after people for multiple gifts: Sometimes these donors dont remember that they already gave the previous week. Romantic partners, caregivers who take advantage of the elderly  were seeing it all.

Elderly people may be especially susceptible to the influence of people who happen to be around them during their waning days. Ms. Slade and other Milbank lawyers were co-counsel to the public administrator overseeing the estate of Huguette Clark, the reclusive heiress who died in 2011 at the age of 104.

Despite good health, she lived the last 20 years of her life in New York hospitals. She bestowed lavish gifts on various caregivers ($31 million to one nurse) and left the bulk of her $300 million fortune to her nurse and a charitable foundation controlled by her lawyers and accountant, to the exclusion of family members. The family challenged the will in court and Milbank, on behalf of the public administrator, sought to recoup the gifts for the estate. The cases were settled and family members said they hoped to call attention to a growing problem of elder abuse.

This is an issue for lots of people of even modest wealth, said David M. English, a professor of trusts and estates at the University of Missouri School of Law and former chairman of the American Bar Associations commission on law and aging.

Professor English said the most common approach is the creation of a trust, either revocable (which means it can later be changed) or irrevocable, that anticipates such a problem and defines what the creator of the trust means by incapacity. This could be a much less rigorous standard than is typically applied by courts in the absence of such a definition.

The document should define the meaning of incapacity and, more importantly, indicate who determines incapacity, Professor English said.
BENTONVILLE, Ark.  Soon, the labyrinthine aisles at Walmarts distribution centers  stocked high with canned beans, toys and many other products  could also have a low humming sound.

Walmart, the countrys largest retailer, is testing the use of flying drones to handle inventory at its large warehouses, which supply the thousands of Walmart stores throughout the nation. In six to nine months, the company said, the machines may be used in one or more of its distribution centers.

At a demonstration on Thursday at a dry goods distribution center here, a drone moved up and down an aisle packed nearly to the ceiling with boxes, taking 30 images per second. Shekar Natarajan, the vice president of last mile and emerging science, explained that the machines could help catalog in as little as a day what now takes employees about a month.

Walmart applied to the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to begin testing drones last year.
Suddenly, revolution erupts. With the rest of the family evacuated, the two find themselves in continual danger. Some of the strongest filmmaking occurs in the first half-hour, as Mr. Makhmalbaf trails the presidential limousine through riots, bullets and flames. Soon, with a bounty on his head, the president burns his uniform, trims his hair and dons a wig, passing himself and his grandson off as street musicians.

The more cloying scenes of the pairs guitar playing and dancing could easily have fit into the Miramax back catalog of the 1990s. The President grows more suspenseful when the principals mingle with former political prisoners, witnessing the consequences of the despots rule.
The films of female directors working in genre cinema (including film noir, horror, action and sexploitation) will be celebrated in Genre Is a Woman, a series at Film Forum running June 3-16. The series includes the 2000 horror film American Psycho, based on the novel by Bret Easton Ellis and directed by Mary Harron. That film, about an investment banker (Christian Bale) with serial-killer tendencies, satirized masculinity and social climbing in a pitch black way. The film inspired a Broadway musical and helped propel Mr. Bales Hollywood career.

In an interview, Ms. Harron discussed a scene in which colleagues look at, and obsess over, one anothers business cards. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

Tell me a little bit about this scene.

This scene comes fairly early in the movie, where all the main male members of the cast are gathered together in a world of intense masculine competition. Christian Bale, as Patrick Bateman, his anxiety is the engine of this scene.

Are there any key moments to look for?

I had a fantastic art department, but not so good at spelling. I also did not notice, and no one on set noticed that acquisitions is spelled wrong on the business card.
Its not what they show, its what they dont show, the painter Robert Cenedella complains in Art Bastard, Victor Kanefskys robust, plain-talking documentary portrait of this lifelong rebel and art-world gadfly. They are museum curators and gallerists who are not interested in showing the work of Mr. Cenedella, a gifted painter and visual satirist.

His painting style reflects two traditions. One is the urban realism of Reginald Marsh, George Bellows and other American painters who flourished in the early 20th century before the ascension of Abstract Expressionism. The other is the satirical, Dadaist-influenced work of the German caricaturist George Grosz, who fled Nazi Germany in 1933 for the United States and taught for many years at the Art Students League in New York.

The films title refers both to Mr. Cenedellas outspoken antipathy toward painterly abstraction and its attendant critical gobbledygook, and to his actual parentage. When he was 6, he recalls, he was shattered by his mothers confession that his biological father was not Robert Sr., who was an executive for the Radio Writers Guild until he was blacklisted as a suspected Communist in 1953, but Russell Speirs, an English professor at Colgate University. As he puts it caustically, he had two fathers who didnt amount to one.

Born in Massachusetts, Mr. Cenedella grew up in New York and attended the High School of Music & Art, from which he was expelled for writing a letter ridiculing civil-defense drills in which students huddle under their desks. At the Art Students League, he became a protege of Grosz, who was renowned for his depictions of Berlin street life. In the same spirit, Mr. Cenedellas works portray a garish New York panorama of traffic jams, street fights, subways and bars that explode from the canvas with a jostling rowdy exuberance.
The Wailing is an expansive and often excruciating horror film from South Korea. It is the work of the director Na Hong-jin, whose 2009 debut feature, the action thriller The Chaser, made a huge impression not least for its almost staggering flouting of genre convention. The Wailing, about demonic possession, is similarly uncompromising.

It is unusual for horror movies to run well over two hours, as The Wailing does. This isnt just because this writer-director likes to stuff his films with incident. He wants to both settle in viewers and throw them off a bit.

The movie opens with a police sergeant, Jong-gu (Kwak Do-won), investigating a double murder in his quiet, rural village. The crime is grisly, but Jong-gu is an amiable, likable fellow; his endearing personality gives the first quarter of the film a comic underpinning. Mr. Na enjoys overt directorial misdirection as well; early on, the scenes that end with Jong-gu waking in a panic from a bad dream are numerous enough to remind one of Luis Bunuels The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.

Things turn more serious once Jong-gu links a wave of crime and physical illness to a taciturn Japanese man who lives in a house high on a mountaintop, and more serious still after Jong-gus daughter (Kim Hwan-hee, in an extraordinary performance) develops a rash and starts using obscene language. The Wailing has echoes of The Exorcist, but it is often even bleaker than that 1973 horror classic, as in a scene in which a Catholic priest tells Jong-gu, The church cannot help you. By this time, I was so invested with Jong-gu and his family that as the suspense, violence and worse ratcheted up, I was not merely scared, but heartbroken. An overly literal bit of business at the end slightly undermines the film. As a whole, though, The Wailing is the hard stuff. Handle with care.
This law is now in its 51st year, and it needs to reflect that.

The biggest change to the Landmarks Law would be to add timelines for public review of potential landmark buildings and historic districts. Under the proposed bill, individual properties would have to be approved within a year of being suggested for landmark status, while historic districts, which can include hundreds of properties, would have a two-year deadline.

Since 1998, according to the Councils report, 82 percent of individual landmarks were considered within one year, while 86 percent of historic districts were voted on in two years. There is presently no deadline, and dozens of properties had been under consideration for decades before the commission cleared the backlog this year.

What Ive discovered, calling around to my colleagues around the country, is that lots of historic commissions have some kind of deadlines, said Peg Breen, president of the Landmarks Conservancy, an advocacy group.

Others still worry.

This bill remains ill advised, Tara Kelly, the director of preservation and design at the Municipal Art Society of New York, said in an email. The timeline for historic districts is too short; MAS holds fast to our position that three years is more appropriate.

In a concession to preservationists, the bill includes the elimination of a previously proposed five-year moratorium on the ability to reconsider properties that do not receive landmark status.

Councilman Greenfield said the timeline bill had 30 co-sponsors, giving it a good chance of passing the 51-member body. And while Mayor Bill de Blasios administration previously opposed the stricter rules, it has now given the bill its tacit support.
To the Editor:

Dreams Stall as Citys Engine of Mobility Sputters (front page, May 29) reports on funding challenges faced by the City University of New York, not unlike those faced at many public universities.

Its true that CUNYs funding has not kept up with growth of more than 50,000 students in the last 10 years. And funding fair contracts for 45,000 faculty and staff members who have worked without raises for six years is our highest priority.

The full CUNY story, however, must focus on outcomes for our students and the people of New York, and on that score there is so much today that is positive.

CUNYs enrollment is at record levels, with nearly 275,000 students seeking degrees and another 260,000 students in nondegree adult and continuing education programs. Seven of 10 full-time undergraduates attend tuition-free, and 80 percent of our graduates leave with no federal student loan debt. Graduation rates are up, and almost tripled for those in CUNYs ASAP program (Accelerated Study in Associate Programs).
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam  An American who has been a resident here for a few years said to me the other day: You know, they still look at us here the way we want to be looked at. America equals opportunity, entrepreneurship and success. Thats not true in so many places anymore.

Four decades after the war, in one of the worlds consoling mysteries, the United States enjoys an overwhelming approval rating in Vietnam, reflected in the outpouring of enthusiasm for President Obama during his three-day visit last month. In this fast-growing country of 94 million people, about one-third of them on Facebook, America is at once the counterbalance to the age-old enemy, China, and an emblem of the prosperity young people seek.

The best way to kick Vietnamese aspirations in the teeth, turn the country sour on the United States, and undermine the stabilizing American role in Asia, would be for Congress to fail to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Obamas signature trade agreement with 11 Pacific Rim countries including Vietnam but not China.

If T.P.P. falls apart, China wins. Its as simple as that. Nonratification would signal that Beijing gets to dictate policy in the region, and the attempt to integrate Vietnam comprehensively in a rules-based international economy fails.
TUNIS  Islamism is dead! announced Said Ferjani, a leader of the progressive wing of Ennahda, Tunisias main Islamist party, as we drank coffee in a hotel cafe here last month. Mr. Ferjani, a former hard-liner who once plotted a coup against the regime of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, was upbeat as he described the historic transition his party was about to make.

His wing had combined with the party leadership to push through a raft of resolutions that would not only rebrand Ennahda but also break with the tradition of political Islam that began with the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in the late 1920s. According to Mr. Ferjani, Islamism had been useful under the Ben Ali dictatorship when our identity and sense of purpose was threatened by an authoritarian state. Now that Ennahda is engaged in open, legal party politics under a new Constitution, which it helped to write, and competes for national leadership, the Islamist label had become more a burden than a benefit.

The partys co-founder and leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, was more circumspect when I interviewed him at his home. He shifted uneasily when I asked him whether he thought Islamism was dead.

I wouldnt put it that way, he commented. But he did reject the label, saying, We dont see any reason to distinguish ourselves from other Muslims. Both Mr. Ghannouchi and Mr. Ferjani prefer the term Muslim Democrats  which deliberately draws an analogy with the Christian Democratic parties of Western Europe  to describe their new, post-Islamist identity.
Julian Andrews, a geochemist at the University of East Anglia in England and the lead author of a paper in the journal Marine and Petroleum Geology about the work, said that the area was a cold seep where methane in deep formations moved upward through faults and then through sediments in the seabed. Those sediments contain bacteria that consume methane for energy.

All that consumption of methane, Dr. Andrews said, changed the chemistry of the seawater that saturated the sediments. That caused dissolved minerals to precipitate out of the water as a rock called dolomite. And the dolomite cemented the sediment particles in place, forming concretions. The columns and other shapes resulted from the methane spreading in different ways through the sediments as it flowed upward.

Dr. Andrews said the researchers analysis suggested that the concretization might have occurred several million years ago deeper in the sediments and that the objects had been exposed over time as the seabed eroded.
Scientists have done well in scouring the DNA of humans to track our origins to the African continent.

But the ancient origins of an animal that is an honorary member of many human families has remained in doubt: We still dont know where dogs came from.

A group of scientists who are in the middle of a grand examination of canine fossils and modern DNA proposed Thursday to turn the whole conversation on its head.

Suppose dogs didnt evolve in one place, they suggested, but two. What if domestication of ancient wolves happened in both Asia and Europe  different wolves, different people?
Huawei has not been accused of wrongdoing. In a statement, the company said it was committed to complying with laws and regulations where it operated. The document, which was issued by the Commerce Department office that investigates export violations, is an administrative subpoena, meaning it does not indicate a criminal investigation.

Still, the scrutiny over Huaweis dealings with those countries is emblematic of growing discord between the United States and China over control of global communications technology. It also illustrates how technology companies from both countries have been pulled into the high-stakes geopolitical contest over cybersecurity and the global management of the internet.

If the investigation finds that Huawei was acting counter to United States national security or foreign policy interests, it could limit the companys access to crucial American-made components and other tech products. Given Huaweis size and reach, that could affect the development of cellular networks and other large-scale technology infrastructure projects across the world.

We do not comment with regard to ongoing investigations, a Commerce Department spokesman said.

The subpoena was issued after the United States briefly blocked in March sales of American technology to Huaweis smaller Chinese rival, ZTE, over similar concerns. As part of their move against ZTE, American officials released internal ZTE documents that showed the Chinese company used a rivals business efforts in those countries as a model. While the rival was not named in the documents, its description matched Huawei.
To the list of recent happy theatrical surprises, add this one: Rory Kinnear sings, and very well, too.

Long acclaimed for his work in the classics (and a recurring role as Ms chief of staff in the recent James Bond films), Mr. Kinnear has described his singing voice as being dormant for several decades. But as the criminal Captain Macheath in Rufus Norriss new National Theater production of The Threepenny Opera, in repertory at the Olivier auditorium, he anchors the tricky piece with vocal authority and bite. In turn, the show achieves the scabrous power this time-honored title is often said to possess but rarely does.

Indeed, notwithstanding a notably bumpy opening stretch, Ive never before seen a London staging of Threepenny that came so naturally by the sour sardonicism of this collaboration between Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill from 1928. The gold standard in New York remains the Richard Foreman production from 1976 at Lincoln Center, with which Mr. Norriss production shares a strikingly caustic, unapologetically confrontational tone.

One or two commentators have suggested that this Threepenny is missing a heart. But that is to miss the point about Brechts boldly anti-bourgeois study in alienation that attracts even as it repels: You look on appalled and in admiration, too.
WASHINGTON  The Justice Department announced on Thursday that Donald B. Verrilli Jr., who won historic Supreme Court rulings for the Obama administration on its signature health care law and on same-sex marriage, would be stepping down as the nations top appellate lawyer.

Mr. Verrilli, 58, has been the solicitor general for five years, arguing the administrations position before the justices during an unusual wave of contentious cases that drew attention far outside the legal world.

President Obama credited Mr. Verrilli in a statement with winning landmark cases that moved America forward, while Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said in announcing his departure that Don has been at the center of the foremost legal challenges of our time.

Mr. Verrillis two most important wins will most likely be remembered as the Supreme Courts 2012 decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, and its decision last year declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
The Cincinnati police have handed over to a prosecutor the results of their investigation into the actions of the family of a boy whose foray into an enclosure at the citys zoo led to the killing of an endangered gorilla, officials said on Thursday.

The Hamilton County prosecuting attorney said in a statement that the office would review the case and make a determination about whether to file charges as early as Friday.

No decision has been made at this point, Tiffaney Hardy, a police spokeswoman, said on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, the police released an audio tape of the 911 call placed by the 3-year-old boys mother on Saturday after he crawled into the Gorilla World exhibit and ended up in the arms of Harambe, a male silverback gorilla weighing around 420 pounds.
Wearing glasses and a white shirt, Mr. Slahi did not speak during the part of the hearing that was not classified and was streamed to the Pentagon for reporters to observe. There was no word on when a decision would be made on whether to free Mr. Slahi, who would prefer to be sent to Germany or Mauritania, where he was born, according to his lawyers and representatives.

Image Mohamedou Ould Slahi Credit... Department of Defense

Mr. Slahi fought with Al Qaeda in the 1990s against Afghanistans Communist government and later ended up in Germany, where he was arrested after crossing paths with one of the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In his book, Guantanamo Diary, Mr. Slahi says he was deprived of sleep for long stretches at the prison, shackled for days at a time in a freezing cell, beaten, doused with ice water and threatened by interrogators who said they could make him disappear. Interrogators also threatened to have his mother arrested and gang-raped, he wrote.

Despite the mistreatment, the impression that emerged of Mr. Slahi during the hearing was of an engaging and intellectually curious man eager to reconnect with the world. Mr. Slahi, said one of his American military representatives, is a model prisoner, and he is uniquely talented, and speaks multiple languages, including English.

The military representative, who was not identified, said he believed that Mr. Slahi genuinely intended to live a peaceful life and posed no threat to the United States if released.
COLORADO SPRINGS  President Obama on Thursday used his final commencement address to a United States military academy to urge Air Force cadets to find the right balance between force and diplomacy as they join the ranks of the countrys armed forces.

Facing 812 cadets in blue-and-white dress uniforms, Mr. Obama told the Air Force Academys class of 2016 that they must not allow the United States to turn away from the world, calling the isolationist rhetoric of some politicians a false comfort that undermines the countrys leadership in the world.

Instead, he said, the Air Force and other branches of the military must be willing to engage the countrys arsenal in defense of America and on behalf of its allies. Mr. Obama recounted the many terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, who have been killed or captured because of his willingness to deploy force.

The list goes on because if you target Americans, we will find you and justice will be done and we will defend our nation, Mr. Obama said, prompting some applause from the cadets and a stadium filled with their friends and family.
Hillary Clinton delivered a lacerating rebuke on Thursday of her likely Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, declaring that he was hopelessly unprepared and temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief. Electing him, she said, would be a historic mistake.

Speaking in a steady, modulated tone but lobbing some of the most fiery lines of her presidential campaign, Mrs. Clinton painted Mr. Trump as a reckless, childish and uninformed amateur who was playing at the game of global statecraft.

This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes, she said, because its not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin.

Mrs. Clinton, whose campaign had grappled for weeks over how to handle Mr. Trump, seemed to find her footing as she addressed an audience in San Diego that laughed and cheered as she deconstructed Mr. Trumps foreign policy pronouncements. They were, she said, not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.
Mr. Rove also has a long relationship with Sheldon Adelson, another casino magnate who has said he would spend upward of $100 million to back Mr. Trump. Mr. Adelson and Mr. Trump met on Tuesday, their second meeting in the last few weeks.

Mr. Rove has talked with Mr. Adelson about what super PAC to use as a vehicle for donating such a large sum of money to support Mr. Trump, including possibly using the Crossroads fund-raising groups, which he helped establish, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Mr. Adelson is also discussing the possibility of creating a new entity that would back Mr. Trump, and has been holding talks with Nick Ayers, the former executive director of the Republican Governors Association, according to two people briefed on the discussions. Mr. Ayerss involvement was first reported by the website Politico.

Creating a new group would give Mr. Adelson more control over how his money is spent, at a moment when there are a number of super PACs that either exist or are being formed to support Mr. Trumps bid. Other major donors, such as Rebekah Mercer, who supported the presidential campaign of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, are considering backing Mr. Trump through other super PACs.

Super PACs cannot coordinate with campaigns, and, so far, the Trump campaign hasnt signaled formally whether any group has its tacit blessing. In two cases, former aides to the campaign have gone to work for super PACs that support Mr. Trump, despite cooling-off periods mandated by campaign finance laws when transitions like that take place.

There is one super PAC supporting Mr. Trump that is run by a former aide to Ben Carson. Another proposed group, which would be backed by Tom Barrack, a financier and close friend of Mr. Trump, was created on Thursday, with more than $30 million in commitments, according to CNN.

Another group is being advised by Edward J. Rollins, the strategist who was Ronald Reagans campaign manager and has deep ties to the Republican Party.
Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan will not support Donald J. Trump, his partys presumptive presidential nominee, making him the latest prominent Republican to distance himself from the partys new de facto leader.

Ive stayed out of the whole thing, and Im going to continue to, Mr. Snyder told The Detroit News editorial board on Wednesday at the Mackinac Policy Conference. Ive got important things I want to work on in Michigan.

Mr. Snyder told the paper that his focus is on keeping a Republican majority in the states House of Representatives. Weve had a great partnership there, and I think itd be great to continue that, he said.

Mr. Snyder has faced his own struggles in his state amid the elevated lead and contamination in the water in Flint and extensive criticism that he mishandled the response.
LOS ANGELES  Before he fatally shot a U.C.L.A. professor he had studied under, a gunman apparently killed a woman near his home in Minnesota, then drove to California planning to gun down two professors, but found only one of them, law enforcement officials said Thursday.

The gunman, identified as Mainak Sarkar, killed Prof. William S. Klug on Wednesday morning, then took his own life, leaving a note asking that someone check on his cat at his apartment in St. Paul, Minn., the Los Angeles police chief, Charlie Beck, said. In that apartment, police found what they described as a kill list, including the names of Dr. Klug, another U.C.L.A. professor and a woman who lived in nearby Brooklyn Park, Minn.

Los Angeles officials alerted the police in Brooklyn Park shortly after midnight, and the officers who went to the address found an adult female who was deceased of an apparent gunshot wound, said Mark Bruley, deputy police chief of Brooklyn Park. Officials in both cities declined to give the womans name or describe her relationship with Mr. Sarkar.

People who knew her identified her as Ashley Hasti, a medical student and former girlfriend of Mr. Sarkars; public records show that for a time, they had both lived at her address in Brooklyn Park, a modest split-level beige house on a quiet, tree-shaded street. Ms. Hasti studied Asian languages and literature at the University of Minnesota and later enrolled in medical school there. She was just ever so interested in everything, her grandmother Jean Johnson said. That girl was so smart that you just couldnt get ahead of her.
He was re-elected in March after winning more than 60 percent of the vote. Opposition candidates denounced the victory as a sham. In the days around the vote, internet and television networks were shut down in the capital as a security measure, the government said.

The French Ministry of Foreign affairs still does not recognize the election results in its former colony, citing a lack of transparency surrounding the election. Other countries, like Canada and the United States, have also expressed dismay. After sharp criticism from the European Union over the credibility of the results, Brazzaville asked the European Union to recall its ambassador.

Mr. Sassou-Nguesso first came to power in 1979 and governed for 13 years before losing an election in 1992. In 1997, he again assumed power after a civil war killed 10,000 people and displaced thousands more. He enjoys little popularity outside of the northern districts of Brazzaville and the remote northern region where he grew up. He was sworn into his new five-year term in April.

The federal government has blamed a group called the Ninjas, former militiamen active during a civil war in the 1990s and again in the early 2000s, for the violence after the election. In particular, officials have blamed the former Ninja leader Frederic Bintsamou, known as Pastor Ntumi, which means the messenger in Lari, a local language. In April, the government issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with the recent unrest. He denies any direct involvement in the shootout or violence in the Pool region.

Some of Mr. Sassou-Nguessos political opponents who contested the election results, including Gen. Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko, who also ran for president in March, have been arrested or put under house arrest after the outbreak of violence in Brazzaville. Mr. Mokokos house has been surrounded by government armed forces since April 5, preventing him from going outside. Other members of opponents campaign teams have been arrested on the grounds of endangering the security of the state, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.
WASHINGTON  The United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced a near-total ban on the commercial trade of African elephant ivory on Thursday.

Under current guidelines, ivory can be sold if it was brought into the United States before it was listed as endangered or if the elephant died of natural causes, as long as there is documentation. The new rules will restrict those sales to genuine antiques, like ivory statues, artwork or chiseled chess pieces, that have been lawfully imported, as well as items like musical instruments that were made using less than 200 grams of ivory.

The new rules aim to curb the rampant slaughter of the elephant, an endangered species, which experts say accounts for 96 deaths a day. They also intend to severely restrict the African ivory market in the United States, the worlds second-largest consumer of illegally poached ivory.

The people of the United States will be speaking loudly, said Daniel M. Ashe, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, and saying we value living elephants in the wild more than we value the creation and the trade of trinkets made from ivory.
NEW DELHI  Twenty-four people were found guilty on Thursday of massacring Muslims during the 2002 religious riots that tore through Gujarat, a state then led by Narendra Modi, who is now Indias prime minister.

A judge in Ahmedabad, Gujarats largest city, acquitted 36 people for lack of evidence, including a police inspector and a midranking official in the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Mr. Modi.

The verdict is the latest in more than a dozen prosecutions arising from the riots, and the first since Mr. Modi became prime minister. The judge did not implicate officials who were working under Mr. Modis authority at the time, and the ruling rejected charges of conspiracy, casting the massacre instead as an episode of mob violence.
SEOUL, South Korea  A recent string of unsuccessful missile tests by North Korea, and the release of a video showing the launch of a different weapon, reflected a frantic drive by its leader, Kim Jong-un, to bolster his political standing before a high-profile dialogue with China, analysts said on Thursday.

North Korea conducted the latest of those tests on Tuesday, only hours before its envoy  Ri Su-yong, a confidant of Mr. Kim and a Politburo member  arrived in Beijing. The weapon, an intermediate-range Musudan ballistic missile, exploded as soon as it was fired, South Korean military officials said.

The Musudan, which analysts say was devised to strike United States military bases in Guam with nuclear and chemical weapons, had not had a test flight until April, when North Korea launched three. Each test failed.

Despite having little time to fix the problems, engineers conducted another test on Tuesday, also unsuccessful, an unusual streak of flops even by the checkered standards of North Korea.
The Bangladeshi authorities say the camps are hubs of criminality. Last year, some officials expressed support for a plan to move thousands of refugees to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal that is inundated with water during monsoon season, a notion that was met with anger by the United Nations and then quietly shelved.

In 2013, concerned about swift population growth among the Rohingya, a government team recommended that the United Nations provide rations for no more that two children per family, and that the groups movements be limited to within two and a half miles of the border with Myanmar.

In 2014, the law minister decreed that officials should no longer register Rohingya marriages. Stories of Rohingya getting picked up by the security forces and being forced to return to Myanmar are common.

As census takers fanned out through Coxs Bazar, the tin doors of many shacks were marked with the letters CUMN, for census of the undocumented Myanmar nationals.
JINSHAN, Taiwan  The paparazzi gathered by the dozens, braving cold and rain and sticky heat. Sometimes their lanky quarry would lead them on long chases. Other times the celebrity would cooperate, particularly if crab or snail was on offer, drawing huge crowds to this farming hamlet on the northern coast of Taiwan after each sighting.

The subject of such adoration was not a teenage Mandopop star in hiding but a bird  a Siberian crane, one of fewer than 4,000 in the world and the only one ever seen on this Asian island on the edge of the tropics.

Environmentalists called him the little white crane of Jinshan, after the rural district where he spent most of his time, and his movements were tracked on Facebook and in the local news media. After he briefly ventured south over the mountains and took temporary refuge in the parking lot of a Taipei subway station, satellite trucks lined the country roads to monitor his return.

The local government hired a full-time bodyguard to look out for the crane, who faced threats from feral dogs and powerful typhoons. But the biggest problem was the sightseers.
BANGKOK  The appointment of former Senator Bob Kerrey to lead a new American-backed university in Vietnam has set off a sharp debate among Vietnamese over whether he should be disqualified because of his part in killing women and children as a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War.

While the Vietnamese are willing to let bygones be bygones, Ton Nu Thi Ninh, Vietnams former ambassador to the European Union, said by email, the decision to appoint Bob Kerrey to be chairman of the board of the first American-style university in Vietnam strikes me as insensitive to the Vietnamese at best, and taking us for granted at worst.

The university, Fulbright University Vietnam, the first independent, private university in Vietnam, made news after President Obama announced its opening during a visit to Vietnam last week.

Mr. Kerrey admitted 15 years ago that he and the team of commandos he led in the Mekong Delta in 1969 killed innocent women and children during a midnight raid in the village of Thanh Phong. Survivors of the attack said 20 civilians were killed, including 13 children and a pregnant woman. Mr. Kerrey was awarded a Bronze Star after his squad falsely reported that it had killed 21 Viet Cong guerrillas.
The sonar equipment was hauled up from near the ocean floor  a six-hour process  and safely lashed down before the cyclones hit, but there was not enough time to flee the area entirely.

Fugro has changed its procedures since then and now provides color maps to the crew of incoming storms instead of numerical weather information, said Steve Duffield, the managing director of Fugros ocean survey operations in Australia. It is also quicker to interrupt the search if a tropical cyclone threatens, he said.

Crew members said that they were not ready to end the search for Flight 370. They still hope to locate the aircraft on the seafloor and its black boxes, with the goal of unlocking the mystery of why the plane went astray.

Everyone is still really invested in finding it, and no one has given up yet on finding it, Ms. Woolhouse-Williams said. It would be hard to be out here if you didnt believe.
TEXT: Our readers react to Germanys recognizing the 1915 killing of Armenians by Turkish Ottomans as genocide. COMMENTS: Bryan Anlas Why is this still up for debate? Whats [Turkeys] motivation in denying it? What do they have to lose by saying that their great-great-grandparents did something? Kristine Keenan As the granddaughter of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, I am proud of Germany for their adherence to the truth. I also say Danke. MarquinhoGaucho Being of partial Syrian descent, my great-grandmother would tell me the stories of how the Armenians who were in rags, and skin and bones, came to Aleppo when she was a girl and how the local church community each took in survivors and how the locals gave them what they could. Alexander Hamilton The systematic murder of Armenian civilians in 1915 is the worst-kept secret of the 20th century. Apparently, the only folks still unaware of it are Turkeys president and foreign minister. Publicitus If Turkey should apologize for the Armenian Genocide, then so should Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Armenia itself. Jamie Nichols What is desperately needed is some sort of truth and reconciliation commission to address the Armenian genocide. Craig The vote is all the more credible for taking place while there is a crisis that requires cooperation from Turkey. It is time to acknowledge the truth so that reconciliation can occur between Turkey and Armenia, hopefully this will help achieve that goal. Vahe Germany has shown it can morally lead in human rights and Genocide prevention despite all global and domestic politics. An honorable step the Turkish, U.S., and Israeli governments can learn from. Justin Ko Calling things what they are shouldnt be antagonized. Turkey has no right be angry. Likewise, Japan has no right to be angry when Korea and China call out what theyve done during WW2. Germany [...] has been accountable for theirs. Jennifer Zahn Would be nice if ppl would actually get along w each other and not fight battles a hundred years old.
LONDON  In these times of flux and challenge, when Britains post-imperial place in a globalized world has rarely been so minutely scrutinized and the nations very identity can appear to be little more than a work in progress, pity the poor parish priest.

Ever since Henry VIII broke with papal authority in the 16th century, the Anglican Church has stood at the nations core. In towns and villages across the land, churches offered formal services and a deeper succor for those seeking lifes meaning or, perhaps, just companionship among the like-minded.

Still, at the highest levels  ecclesiastical as much as political  26 Anglican bishops sit in the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament, where they are known as the Lords Spiritual.

The titular head of the church is the monarch, and when royals wed or die or are crowned, these moments are solemnized in grand Anglican cathedrals.
CAIRO  The iron blade of an ornate dagger buried in Egypt with King Tutankhamen probably came from a fallen meteorite, researchers have determined  a form of metal so prized by ancient Egyptians that they called it iron from the sky.

The dagger, which was discovered in the folds of the wrapping around the mummified boy king, has long intrigued historians and archaeologists for its great beauty  it has a gold and crystal handle, and an ornate sheath  and because ironwork was rare in ancient Egypt.

Image King Tuts dagger has a gold and crystal handle, and an ornate sheath. Credit... Polytechnic University of Milan

Using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, Italian and Egyptian experts found that the blades composition of iron, nickel and cobalt was an approximate match for a meteorite that landed in northern Egypt. The result strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin for the blade, according to their results published this week in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
WASHINGTON  When word circulated in Washington this week that Bouthaina Shaaban, who is a top adviser to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and who has been under sanction by the United States government, would appear two blocks from the White House at an antiterrorism news conference, the Obama administration reacted with alarm.

John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, called Dr. Shaaban a propaganda mouthpiece of the Assad government, which President Obama has said must go, and the Treasury noted that any transaction with a person designated on one of its blacklists was prohibited.

Dr. Shaaban did not arrive in person on Thursday, but she did appear via Skype video at the National Press Club, where she delivered a 20-minute speech followed by an extraordinary and at times contentious one-hour question-and-answer session with journalists and others.

Seated at a desk with a Syrian flag behind her and one pinned to the lapel of her blazer, Dr. Shaaban defended her government defiantly, assailed the Obama administration as being insufficiently committed to defeating the Islamic State and blamed Western news media for perpetuating what she called a false narrative about Syria and Mr. Assads government.
GENEVA  The United Nations on Thursday dimmed any prospect of immediate airdrops of aid to Syrian civilians trapped by the war, despite an expired deadline imposed on Syrias government to allow unfettered humanitarian access by land.

United Nations officials said the World Food Program, its anti-hunger agency, had no imminent plans for airdrops even though the organization had known for more than two weeks about the deadline, which expired on Wednesday.

Moreover, the officials said, it would be necessary for security reasons for any airdrops to have the consent of the Syrian government.

They also emphasized what they called the logistical challenges and expense of airdropping aid into congested urban settings controlled by insurgents, where thousands of civilians lack access to food and medicine.
I hated the word artist, he said. To me, even in the years when I was showing things in galleries, it seemed to me that I didnt really have anything to do with art. The word itself sounded, and still sounds to me, like high art, and that was never what I saw myself doing.

As far as the art world was concerned, his leap into architecture  designs for things like public parks, airport rest areas and a man-made island  was almost as if Mr. Acconci decided to enter the witness protection program. But he disappeared right in the art worlds midst, continuing to teach generations of art students (at Brooklyn College and at Pratt Institute); working in a cluttered, book-saturated studio in Dumbo, Brooklyn; and lecturing so often over the years that his shambling-eccentric presence  his long unruly hair, his all-black wardrobe, his gravel-bed voice with its distinctive loping stutter and, before he quit, the endless cigarettes he would light and stub out and light again  became a kind of ongoing work in itself.

Born in the Bronx into a Catholic Italian family, the overprotected only son of a bathrobe manufacturer and a mother who later worked in a public-school cafeteria, Mr. Acconci came of age in the politically agitated years when artists began trying to find ways around the making and selling of objects. They turned to their bodies, their ideas and their actions as the currency of a new realm. Along with peers like Chris Burden, Adrian Piper, Dan Graham and Valie Export, Mr. Acconci began conceiving and documenting performances  at a rate of sometimes one a day in what he called a kind of fever in 1969  that were conducted on the streets or for audiences so small that they seemed almost not to have happened.

In Mr. Acconcis case, the work grew out of an experience as an aspiring poet and fiction writer whose fascination with the physical space of the page eventually led out into the world. In 1962, in thrall to postmodern writers like Alain Robbe-Grillet and John Hawkes, he enrolled in the graduate writing program at the University of Iowa, taking along with him a short story he had written, titled Run-Around, that when read anonymously in the class provoked a minor riot. Its subject, a horrifying surrealist-sculptural vision, was a recently limbless man. It began: They cut him up and since the chairs had just been varnished for the celebration, he was set down on a giant floor urn. The chalice-shaped jar was waist-high for most people, but not for Rockram, because he had no legs.
Im a little unnerved, the playwright Mac Rogers said.

A swarm of robots arrayed in blue and green LED lights was pursuing Mr. Rogers around a small platform in the basement of the Museum of Mathematics in Manhattan. Mr. Rogers, wearing jeans, a checked blazer and a black backpack affixed with sensors, staggered away. But the robots  about the size of guinea pigs and only slightly more menacing  kept coming. One began to glow red.

In the movies, when one of them gets a different looking light, that means things are about to get bad, Mr. Rogers said.

Mr. Rogers would know. He has spent a lot of time with robots, imaginatively anyway, while readying a new draft of his play Universal Robots, which opens at the Sheen Center on Monday, June 6, and is directed by Jordana Williams.

His works, maximally imaginative science-fiction plays designed for minimal budgets, teem with insectlike aliens (The Honeycomb Trilogy), futuristic drones (Asymmetric) and mad scientists (Frankenstein Upstairs).
President Tran Dai Quang and Cuban Ambassador Herminio Lopez Diaz (Source: VNA)



At the meeting with the Cuban diplomat, the President affirmed Vietnams determination to, together with Cuba, carry out signed agreements and commitments to turn potential into special programs and projects.

He suggested the two countries exchange experience gained during the reform process, thus helping develop the Vietnam-Cuba special relations in a deeper and more effective manner.

Speaking of the contributions of the ambassador in his role as a bridge linking the two nations, the State leader said he believes that the diplomat maintains close coordination with Vietnamese offices to make the bilateral ties grow further.

He also showed his backing for the diplomats proposal of establishing a Latin American culture centre in Vietnam.

The Cuban ambassador asserted the embassy staffs determination to try their best to tighten friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

Meanwhile, when receiving the EU ambassador, President Tran Dai Quang welcomed EU member states ratification of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) and asked the EU to quickly finish procedures to make the agreement become effective.

He appreciated the EUs consideration of Vietnam as a priority partner in its 2014-2020 development cooperation policy.

Thanking the EU for its EUR90,000 aid for several localities hit by drought and saltwater intrusion, the State leader requested the EU to continue its support in helping Vietnam implement its sustainable development goals and intensify its capacity in climate change adaptation.

Vietnam appreciates the EUs international role as well as its contributions to maintaining peace and stability, fostering cooperation and development in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia, and ensuring aviation and maritime security, safety and freedom on the basis of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Ambassador Angelet stated that the EU Delegation to Vietnam wants to contribute more to the development of EU-Vietnam relations. The delegation is preparing several projects and plans to intensify cooperation with Vietnam.

The EU plans to focus on several fields like energy, audit and finance with the Ministry of Industry and Trade; law enforcement and judicial assistance with the Ministries of Justice and Public Security; and cooperation to ensure aviation and maritime security, safety and freedom on the basis of the UNCLOS.

It also wants to support the Mekong River Commission in water resources management and climate change response, he added./.
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Photos: baonghean.vn

The Vietnams Ministry of Nature Resources and Environment listed Co Do in the list of 10 cancer villages nationwide. Its water sources contain a lot of toxin elements such as Aluminum, cadmium, benzene, bentazone, phenol, arsenic, and manganese.

Statistics showed that from 2008 to early April 2015, the poor coastal Dien Hai commune witnessed 70 people dying of cancer, in which 11 from Co Do village. Apart from its low-lying land situation, drawing unclean water and rubbish from other destinations, the village used to see the presence of a plant protection medicine warehouse which clearly identified as the main source for deadly serious cancer.

Local people mostly use water from deep wells, but no water treatment solutions. So that, the popularization of the necessity of using good quality water, as well as the impacts of polluted water on people's health, is so important.

On this occasion, organizers presented 50 Karofi Nano Silver 7 stage standard water purifiers to poor households and some schools in Co Do village, benefiting around 1,200 local pupils. The commune health care station has received two water purifiers, providing fresh water to patients.

So far, the Devotion for Vietnams future program has presented and installed 250 Karofi Nano Silver 7 stage standard water purifiers for eight schools, 200 poor households, six hot spots for water pollution, thus directly supporting over 10,000 pupils and nearly 1,000 local people.

The organizers, the National Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health under the Ministry of Health and the Karofi Vietnam Company, set out to provide 75 million liters of fresh water to people living in areas where sources of water are seriously polluted, especially in the Northern region, during 2015-2020. Accordingly, some 350 water purifiers will be installed for free to help purify the water in about 20 villages across the country./.
Swimming through a forest of golden kelp illuminated by underwater shafts of sunlight, I moved suddenly into open ocean, where I spotted something in the murky depths  something gray and oblong and massive.

My brain jumped to veterinarian David Martin. In 2008, while swimming off Solana Beach, Martin was killed by a shark. As I thought of Martin, the oblong thing, a few hundred yards off Salt Creek Beach, slipped beyond my vision.

That was four years ago, and the mysterious image is still in my head. I havent swum in the ocean since.

Yet an estimated 40 million people visit Orange County beaches every year and, in recent history anyway, exactly one of those visitors has been injured by a shark. Newport Beach Lifeguard Battalion Chief Mike Halphide cant recall a single shark attack in his jurisdiction during the 32 years hes been on the job.

That streak ended Sunday.

To be sure, the wounds suffered off Corona del Mar by Maria Korcsmaros, a 52-year-old triathlete, are tragic and scary. But post-bite interviews with shark experts, lifeguards from San Clemente to Seal Beach, ocean swimmers  and the worlds most renowned open water athlete  reveal that there is little to fear in the ocean except fear itself.

The probability of being bitten by a shark is so amazingly low, its (statistically) like winning the lottery, says Chris Lowe, a marine biology professor and director of the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach.

Sure, televisions Shark Week and shrill broadcast media reporters want you to believe otherwise. But TV is more about ratings (and fear sells) than it is about discovering the wonder, the mystery, the beauty of the undersea world off Orange Countys shores.

THE DRAW OF THE DEEP Lynne Cox grew up in Los Alamitos, lives in Orange County, and is a writer, speaker and athlete.

But above all she is a cold water swimmer, who often trains off Seal Beach.

Cox has swum off Antarctica and through the Bering Strait, in the Northwest Passage. She swam the Cape of Good Hope off South Africa, a place where the local great white sharks are legendary for their size and aggression.

When in doubt, Cox advises, get out.

Visiting Newfoundland, Canada, this week, Cox points out that she swam with sharks off South Africa while being escorted by two boats and divers armed with spear guns.

Coxs advice about immersing yourself in a water wilderness boils down to two words: manage risk.

Dont swim at dusk or dawn. Avoid areas where there are sea lions, since those animals are shark food. Talk to local fishermen, talk to lifeguards, swim with a pod of swimmers.

I feel much safer with a group, says the woman who twice set records for swimming the English Channel. Of sharks and other marine life, she adds:

This is their home. And youre a visitor.

Cox also speaks for many open water swimmers, surfers and paddleboarders when she describes why shes spent tens of thousands of hours swimming our seas.

Things change every day, says the author of the book Grayson, a true story about swimming with a baby gray whale off Seal Beach. Thats what makes it so special and wonderful.

Like Cox, Huntington Beach Marine Safety Lt. Claude Panis appreciates the opportunity for fitness that the ocean offers. He, too, touches on what it means to explore a place that begins where breathable air ends.

I just love being in the ocean, Panis says. The way ocean water feels; everything moving. Its alive.

Its like long-distance running, Panis says of swimming, I get in a zone. It becomes an out-of-body experience. Your hearts thumping, your mind leaves and (exercise) becomes relaxing.

RISKY BUSINESS

Lowes Shark Lab dates back a half-century to when his mentor, Long Beach State professor Donald Nelson, pioneered the use of sound telemetry to study sharks. In those days, there were far fewer sharks after years of pollution and overfishing, as well as far fewer people diving, surfing and swimming the planets oceans.

In the decades since, Lowe says, cleaner waters off California, as well as stricter fishing laws, have allowed once-endangered species to flourish.

Now, we have to re-educate people this is a shared environment, Lowe says. You cant treat the ocean like Disneyland. Its a wild place. Understand, theres potential risk.

Lowe explains that programs such as tagging juvenile sharks have allowed some progress in understanding shark behavior. But because of lack of funding, he says, much remains to be studied. Shark Week makes the public think we know the answers, he says. We dont know the answers.

If humans are shark food, Lowe asks, why dont sharks consume the people they attack? Huntington Beach would be a Costco for sharks, he quips.

Its more likely that sharks mistake humans for sea lions or seals, Lowe says. That is believed to be what happened in 2003 when Deborah Franzman was killed by a great white near Avila Beach. The 50-year-old swimmer was in the water near seals.

Lowe adds another likely reason for shark bites: fear. The sharks, he suggests, feel threatened. I can guarantee there are thousands of interactions where sharks and humans swim right by one another and nothing happens.

The professor adds:

The rate of encounters is not increasing at the rate expected. And that tells me, as a scientist, that sharks are not intent on killing humans.

GETTING CREEPED OUT

In Seal Beach, city Marine Safety Department chief Joe Bailey uses the latest and cheapest technology to monitor sharks. At least once a week, he sends out a drone to track shark movements.

Bailey explains that the area has two distinct beaches. One is near the pier and, so far, has had zero shark sightings. The other is Surfside, where there are so many young sharks that its the spot where Lowe and his students visit, by boat, when they want to tag juveniles.

If there are bigger sharks, Bailey says, we close the beach.

In San Clemente, city Marine Safety Chief Bill Humphreys advises swimmers to swim parallel to the beach, avoid areas where bait fish are plentiful, swim with a buddy.

Humphreys is what veteran lifeguards respectfully call a waterman, someone who can handle himself in rough seas, who loves and respects the ocean. This waterman offers context for the incident Sunday. Ive been surfing for over 45 years, this is my 40th summer as a lifeguard and I have never seen a shark while swimming or surfing.

That isnt to say Humphreys wont see a shark today. Perhaps he will. But it is to say Humphreys advises to avoid thinking negatively. Anybody can creep themselves out.

Especially when a massive, gray oblong thing could be nothing more than an underwater boulder.
They are ready to find furever homes.

German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County is hosting an adoption event Saturday in Placentia to find loving homes for 24 dogs rescued in April in San Bernardino County. The rescue was the groups largest in its 18 years.

These dogs are seeking affection, said Maria Dales, director of the Newport Beach-based rescue group. We are looking for people who want to do something kind for animals who had a very rough start in life.

The dogs  ranging from 4 to 8 years old  were in dire shape. They had ear infections, severely matted fur and their nails were curled over.

Over the past six weeks, the dogs have undergone an extreme transformation. Theyve been treated for their infections, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, microchipped, declawed and trainers and volunteers have been working with them to get them ready for suitable homes.

Dales said the cost to care for each dog, including medical needs and boarding, has exceeded $1,000.

We are so grateful to the many volunteers who have helped transform these dogs, Dales said. Without these volunteers they wouldnt have progressed so fast.

The bulk of the German shepherds rescued by the group have been boarded at a kennel in Yorba Linda. The others were placed in foster homes.

The adoption event will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Koch Park, 2210 N. Valencia Ave., in Placentia, which is near the kennel.

A trainer will be at the event to offer tips about adopting older dogs. Adoption fees range from $275 for senior citizens to $375. Applications are available at gsroc.org.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7868 or desalazar@ocregister.com
CAMP TARIQ, Iraq  The Iraqi militarys advance into Fallujah was stalled Wednesday by fierce resistance from Islamic State fighters and concerns over protecting tens of thousands of civilians still trapped inside the strategic city, officials said.

With the operation in its second week, convoys of special forces could only inch forward on the dusty southern outskirts of the city as a handful of airstrikes sent up plumes of white smoke above clusters of low buildings on the fringes of the citys dense urban terrain.

More than 50,000 people are believed to be still inside Fallujah, and the U.N. estimated that 20,000 of them are children, warning that they face a dire humanitarian situation in addition to the risk of forced recruitment by the extremists.

In a visit to the front line, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi noted the slow pace and emphasized that the priorities of the operation were protecting civilian lives and minimizing Iraqi casualties, but he praised the progress so far as a remarkable advance.

Government troops will hoist the Iraqi flag inside Fallujah in the coming few days, vowed al-Abadi.

The operation to free Fallujah from the more than two-year grip of the Islamic State was launched May 22, and it involves the Iraqi special forces, militias consisting of mainly Shiite fighters, and U.S.-led airstrikes.

Retaking the Sunni-majority city 40 miles west of Baghdad would represent a huge victory for the Iraqi government because Fallujah was one of the first major urban areas to fall to Islamic State extremists in 2014 and has been a bastion of support for militant anti-government sentiment in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Iraqi forces have imposed a tight blockade on the city, and Islamic State militants are reportedly preventing residents from leaving.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris is talking a lot these days in her bid to become a U.S. senator, but one subject shes not mentioning is her complex role in Orange Countys highest-profile criminal case  the penalty phase in the trial of confessed mass murderer Scott Dekraai.

Nearly 16 months after an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered Harris office to take over Dekraais prosecution, the case remains in limbo.

Two actions  an appeal of the judges order and a separate investigation of county prosecutors, both led by Harris office  figure to delay the case for years.

Harris actions raise the specter that the misuse of jailhouse informants by prosecutors in Orange County could, in a small way, play a role in the state race for Senate.

Dekraai has admitted killing eight people in a 2011 shooting at a hair salon in Seal Beach, the most lethal mass murder in county history.

Last year, as prosecutors and defense lawyers argued whether Dekraai should face the death penalty, Superior Court Judge Thomas Goethals ruled that the Orange County District Attorney should be removed from the case because the office could no longer be trusted to be fair.

Goethals ruling came after he determined that local sheriffs deputies either lied or willfully withheld information about jailhouse informants.

Relatives of Dekraais victims say any delay in his punishment means, for them, extended pain and fear.

But while Harris roles in the case might be key reasons for the delay, the victims relatives blame others for the slow pace of justice.

The OCDA and the Sheriffs Department both got greedy on an open-and-shut case, said Beth Webb, whose sister was killed in the rampage.

This is going to be in the courts for the next 20 years because of the appeals.

Nobody disputes that the technical causes for the delay in Dekraais case stem from separate and potentially contradictory actions undertaken by Harris office.

First, a week after Goethals ordered the state to step in as the lead prosecutor, Harris filed an appeal to block that ruling, a move all parties knew would put the Dekraai case on hold.

In that appeal, Harris office argues that Orange County prosecutors did nothing wrong in the Dekraai case and that local sheriffs deputies are to blame for misleading the court about records kept on jailhouse informants.

But even as Harris office argues in appeals court that local prosecutors did not commit intentional misconduct, a separate arm of her office is in the midst of a second action: an investigation into the countys possible widespread misuse of jailhouse informants and the role the local sheriffs deputies might have had in hiding that tactic.

Some legal experts say the investigation  launched at the request of the Orange County District Attorneys Office  is probing issues that Harris office already declared settled.

John Van de Kamp, who was Californias attorney general from 1983 to 1991, believes that Harris, like many of her predecessors, is more concerned about saving convictions than it is about rebuking local prosecutors for misconduct.

Over the years, the people in the criminal division have been relatively conservative and very supportive of the district attorneys offices in trying to uphold convictions, Van de Kamp said.

The mindset I see is to try to uphold district attorneys in any way possible.

Harris spokeswoman, Kristin Ford, declined to answer questions about the offices seemingly contradictory roles in the Dekraai case, saying only that the Orange County investigation is ongoing.

That silence also is prompting criticism.

At the very least, I would expect a status report of what they are doing, Van de Kamp said.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine School of Law, said he fears the state investigation will not look deeply enough into other cases prosecuted in Orange County to determine whether there has been systematic abuse.

We still dont know how many convictions were tainted, Chemerinsky said. Its been a while now and weve heard nothing.

Van de Kamp and Chemerinsky are among more than three dozen former prosecutors and legal scholars nationwide calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate what they say is a crisis in Orange County. Officials from the Justice Department say the office is reviewing the request.

Some critics wonder whether Harris, a Democrat and a favorite to win the Senate race, is waiting until after the election to conclude her investigation, but Van de Kamp and Chemerinsky both doubt that politics is to blame for the delay.

For the last two years, Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders has rocked Orange Countys justice system with revelations that police and prosecutors surreptitiously operated a group of jailhouse informants and withheld evidence from defense attorneys.

Using jail informants is legal, except when the target has a lawyer and has been formally charged.

Meanwhile, the snitch controversy becomes increasingly complex.

In May, the Sheriffs Department found dozens of pages of unauthorized notes kept by deputies about jailhouse informants. The notes should have been handed over previously to defense attorneys in several cases, according to both prosecutors and defense attorneys.

In March, Dillon Alley, an investigator for the Orange County District Attorneys Office, and defense attorney James Crawford engaged in a fistfight outside a courtroom in Orange County Superior Court.

The fight started after the men exchanged words over the informant controversy.

Crawford used informant allegations to win a new trial for a man twice convicted of double murder, and his client is free on $500,000 bail after 18 years in prison.

The fistfight, which resulted in facial fractures and bruising for Crawford, also is being investigated by Harris office.

Van de Kamp said Harris probe into the fight is taking too long.

I would think it would take a couple of days to talk to the people involved and make a decision, he said. I dont know whats hanging them up. It would seem like theres something (criminal) or not.

Contact the writer: tsaavedra@ocregister.com
Fred Swegles grew up in small-town San Clemente before the freeway. He has covered the town since 1970. Today he covers San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. He was in the second graduating class at San Clemente High School, after having spent the first two years of high school in double sessions at historic Capistrano Union High School in San Juan. When the new high school opened, he became first sports editor of the school paper, The Triton. He studied journalism and Spanish at USC on scholarship, graduating with honors. Was sports editor of the Daily Trojan. Surfed on the USC surf team. (High school surfing didn't exist back then.) With the Sun Post, he began covering competitive surfing from the mid-1970s, with the birth of the the modern world tour and the origins of high school surf teams. He got into surf photography and into world travel. Has surfed on six continents (not Antarctica). Has visited 11 San Clementes. Has written photo-illustrated profiles on most of them, with more in the works.
Hes handsome and rich and newly quadriplegic. Shes cute and spunky and totally broke, and she takes a job as his companion  not as his nurse, but as someone for him to talk to. Predictably, its rough going at the start, but then things get better, and, over the course of a few months, they develop a bond, etc. You know this story. You know the emotions to expect, and probably in the order in which theyre presented, and yet even so  Me Before You is just a little better than it had to be.

Its not so much better that it escapes being what it is, a sort-of romance, liberally sprinkled with moments of corniness and emotional dishonesty. But ultimately, when it matters, its truthful  about the people depicted, and who they are, and what they face.

Emilia Clarke (Game of Throne) is Lou, a working-class girl in small-town England, and the movie makes no bones that, were young Will (Sam Claflin) not the victim of a terrible accident, he would never have given Lou a second glance. Its actually rather interesting just how uninteresting Lou is. She is genuinely simple and not too bright, with no ambition or passion, but she has qualities of character  not remarkable qualities, but solid, decent qualities, that engage our attention.

Within what seems to be (and mostly is) a sappy, romantic frame, Claflin is able to do some nice things with Will, and the movie ultimately doesnt let him down. He remains, from beginning to end, an intelligent person, utterly realistic about his situation.

Claflins rigor and Clarkes charm are counterbalanced by cringe moments, as when, after years of unemployment, Lous father (Brendan Coyle), gets a job as a maintenance man, and the family goes into a paroxysms of joy. In such moments, one gets the sense of the working class as imagined by the upper class, the idea that poor people arent just willing and resigned to working hard, but theyre absolutely ecstatic about it.

Still, unlike at least 90 percent of movies, Me Before You gets better as it goes along, and thats something.
A mothers frantic, international five-month search for her son was so close to a happy ending Thursday morning: Police officers had discovered him camping behind a Palm Springs church.

But once again, it didnt end well for mom.

Ryan Robichaud, 24, of Ontario, Canada, was reported missing on Jan. 15. In recent months, the search had zeroed in on Orange County as sightings had popped up in Huntington Beach and Westminster.

In Palm Springs, officers responded at 6:30 a.m. to a complaint that someone had set up a tent in the parking lot of Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Sgt. William Hutchinson of the Palm Springs Police Department said.

When approached, Robichaud volunteered his Ontario drivers license. He told officers he was resting en route to a bus that would take him to visit friends in Arizona.

A search for Robichaud in the officers computer database revealed a missing persons report.

A good Samaritan showed up and let Robichaud use his phone to talk to his mother, Tracy Beeso-Robichaud.

The conversation was brief and strange, said Jeanene Jones, a family friend in Huntington Beach. It ended abruptly when the Samaritan interrupted to say that he was going to get a good meal into Robichaud and that they would call back and the pair walked off.

Officers had no cause to detain the man reported missing.

Back on Dec. 31, Robichaud wrapped his Dodge Dart around a tree two weeks before his disappearance in Canada, Beeso-Robichaud told the Register in April. The mother said she believes he suffered a traumatic brain injury and had post-traumatic stress disorder when he fled home.

Since his disappearance, the reunion of Robichaud and his mother has been a series of near-misses. He called her from Boston on Jan. 19. On Jan. 25, he called again, this time from a Staples store in Los Angeles.

He sounded confused in Los Angeles. She said he didnt know how he got there.

A detective with the Los Angeles Police Department was able to find Robichaud and dropped him off at Los Angeles International Airport, where he was due to board a flight back home on a ticket purchased by his mom.

He never made the flight.

On Feb. 20, Robichaud was baptized at First Christian Church in Huntington Beach, with his mom receiving a baptismal certificate in the mail a week later. The next month, she flew out to Orange County, but had no luck finding her son.

On Thursday, after the phone call, Beeso-Robichaud alerted an Orange County private investigator who drove to Palm Springs and searched the neighborhood where officers had encountered Robichaud, Jones said.

Still, no luck.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7802 or jsudock@ocregister.com
Re: Gomez for county Board of Education [Opinion, May 29]: I was appalled with your hit piece as to why your Editorial Board did not endorse incumbent candidate and board President Robert Hammond for O.C. Board of Education.

Are you unaware that Hammond used the biblical word for homosexual? If not, you are woefully uninformed. If you did know, then you have intentionally insulted both Christians and Jews.

Either way, it is appalling that you wrote an editorial that not only endorsed Hammonds opponent, but maligned Hammond and possibly cost him the election with your very obvious biased attempt to malign a trustee who has been one of the more open members of this board to listen to citizens concerns.

I can only imagine how many subscriptions were canceled over this obvious lack of investigative insight and malicious smear. It is an issue of needing to trust ones sources of information.

B.J. ONeil

Newport Beach

  

I am disappointed that the Register has lost sight that the education of our children is the object of our school systems. To drop Mr. Hammond from you endorsement for the Orange County school board for the use of an obsolete, but politically incorrect, word is an indication that you consider words more important than deeds.

If Ms. Gomez or Paul Zive is elected to the board, it will again be dominated by left-leaning teachers union members. Ms. Gomezs statement, But a charter school for the sake of a charter school isnt putting kids first, shows she is philosophically against charter schools. Parents do not spend their time organizing a charter school unless the union-controlled public school system has failed to meet their students learning needs.

Charter schools lead to better learning environments in both the charter schools and the local public schools because of the competition, as has been shown in the New York City and Washington, D.C., school systems.

If you want your children to have a better learning environment, vote for Mr. Hammond. If you wish the school board to rubber-stamp the local union positions, vote for Ms. Gomez or Mr. Zive. This vote is about parent-controlled education versus union money. The choice is yours.

George A. Kuck

Westminster
Do they have churros and turkey legs at Shanghai Disneyland?

Can you get your name stitched in Chinese letters on a mouse-eared cap?

What happens when you take the Yo Ho (A Pirates Life for Me) song out of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride?

How does Mickey Avenue, the entry to Shanghai Disneyland, compare to Main Street, U.S.A.?

Photographer Jeff Gritchen and I will fly out of Los Angeles on June 11 for a nine-day trip to Shanghai to cover the opening of the worlds newest Disneyland. Its a 14-hour flight, and weve been planning for weeks.

Were going to stay in the Toy Story Hotel, which is built in a figure-eight shape (the international symbol for infinity  Get it? To infinity and beyond!). Half the hotel is dedicated to Woody and half to Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movies.

One story well pursue is interviews with Americans who make the trip for the grand opening on June 16. If youre going to Shanghai for the occasion or if you know someone who will be making the trip, please email me at ksharon@ocregister.com.

Well do stories comparing Disneyland in Anaheim to its sister park on the other side of the world. Well tell you about the food, the scenery, the shows, the Disney magic.

Well get reactions from people who are there. Well hunt for celebrities and dignitaries and the people who built the new park. Well describe the rides, the music, the atmosphere and anything else we can see.

In Shanghai, theyve built a giant Enchanted Storybook Castle and a Tron roller coaster. You can get into the park with a daily pass for about $78.

They dont have a Haunted Mansion, and well try to find out why.

Ni Hao, Shanghai Disney.
Whistles tooted and steam hissed as members of the Los Angeles Live Steamers Museum celebrated its 60th anniversary over Memorial Day weekend.

Walt Disney helped found the museum, along with others, on a small patch of land in Griffith Parks northeast corner on which the hobby enthusiasts can run their scale model steam and diesel powered locomotives.

We celebrate the entire world of hobby railroading, said club member Dan Humfreville.

The trains run on tracks as wide as seven and a half inches down to G-scale. Some are gas powered engines, but many are live steam with coal fired boilers.

The boilers on our steam engines have to be certified annually by a Los Angeles County boiler inspector, Humfreville said.

Besides scale model trains, there are also live steam power plants and full-size rail cars on the property that is also the home to Walts Barn, which used to house Disneys miniature live steam train at his home in Holmby Hills.

Over the weekend, hobbyists from live steam clubs across the country showed up with their own trains loaded aboard trailers for a chance to run them on the rails of Los Angeles. Some came from as far away as Seattle and more. During the three-day meet, many stayed in tents and RVs right on property.

On Saturday, Jay Leno, former host of The Tonight Show, stopped by with his fully restored 1909 antique White Steamer, made by White Automotive. Leno said he had been coming to the museum for years.

You drive by here enough times and you see guys on steam trains and you go Hmm, I wonder what thats all about Leno said.

Besides the White Steamer, Leno also owns a Stanley Steamer in his automobile collection.

Leno also got the chance to ride the rails behind the controls of a steam-powered locomotive, as did many others.

The museum is open to the public from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays, and offers rides to kids and adults  though the adults are apt to act like kids while riding.

Walts Barn is open once a month on the third Sunday of the month. Admission is free, though the Carolwood Foundation, which operates the barn, accepts donations.

Contact the writer: meades@ocregister.com
BERLIN The German Parliament overwhelmingly voted Thursday to label the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador to Germany.

The motion, which was put forward by Chancellor Angela Merkels governing coalition of right and left and the opposition Greens, passed with support from all the parties in Parliament. In a show of hands, there was one abstention and one vote against.

The vote heightened tensions between Germany and Turkey at a time when Ankara is playing a key role in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that this decision will seriously impact Turkish-German relations.

Speaking during a visit to Kenya, Erdogan said recalling the ambassador for consultations was a first step and that the Turkish government would consider further steps to be taken in response to the vote.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called the German decision a historic error. Yildirim said that Turkish people take pride in in their past and that there is no event in our past that would cause us to bow down our heads in embarrassment.

Armenias foreign minister welcomed the vote.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event viewed by many scholars as the 20th centurys first genocide.

Turkey denies that the killings that started in 1915 were genocide and contends the dead were victims of civil war and unrest. Ankara also insists the death toll has been inflated.

Merkel was not present for Thursdays vote, with officials citing scheduling reasons. Her foreign minister, who like Merkel backed the motion, was on a trip to Latin America.

Opening Thursdays debate, Parliament speaker Norbert Lammert acknowledged that addressing historical events can be painful.

But we have also seen that an honest and self-critical appraisal of the past does not endanger relations with other countries, he said. In fact, it is a precondition for understanding, reconciliation and cooperation.

He said Turkeys current government is not responsible for what happened 100 years ago, but it shares responsibility for what happens with it in the future.
SAN FRANCISCO  A lawsuit by a Bernie Sanders supporter that argued elections officials in California were robbing unaffiliated voters of the chance to vote in the states June 7 Democratic presidential primary was filed too late and did not show evidence that any federal laws were violated, a federal judge said Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup rejected a request by the Voting Rights Defense Project for a preliminary injunction that sought, among other things, radio and TV ads informing unaffiliated voters that they can vote in the presidential primary of the Democratic, American Independent and Libertarian parties.

The citizens of California are smart enough to know what their rights are, and smart enough to go into a polling place and say, Im a (no party preference-voter) and want a cross-over ballot, Alsup said. We dont need to overeducate them with public (service) announcements that are going on anyway.

The Voting Rights Defense Project had argued that county elections officials were failing to inform unaffiliated voters of their right to vote in the presidential primary, threatening to disenfranchise thousands of voters. It also said poll workers were receiving conflicting instructions about whether they could tell unaffiliated voters of that right.

This is what I call a case of mass confusion, an attorney for the Voting Rights Defense Project and other plaintiffs in the case, William Simpich, told Alsup in court. Simpich said after the ruling that he would continue the lawsuit, although he didnt immediately know his next step.

The lawsuit named California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and two county elections officials.

Attorneys for Padilla said in court documents that the lawsuit was frivolous.

Deputy Attorney General Sharon OGrady, who represented Padillas office, said unaffiliated voters who noticed presidential candidates were missing from their ballots could go back to a poll worker and get the ballot they wanted.

This is not a situation where people are going to be blindsided and trapped, she said.
What can be predicted about the growth of PR abroad?



Many of the top U.S. based PR firms, such as Ogilvy, FleishmanHillard, and Weber Shandwick, operate in dozens of markets overseas. According to FleishmanHillard, countries like Myanmar and Hong Kong are important markets to focus on for the future, citing political changes or possessing some of the largest global retailers. In addition, African nations are growing in their healthcare demands, which makes it more important for PR companies. Other agencies claim they dont focus on one particular market, though still cite many possibilities of market dominance in the future.

PR markets of the future



Risi

International PR firm Ogilvy Public Relations operates 85 offices across The Americas, EMEA and AsiaPac. Jennifer Risi, Managing Director of Ogilvy Media Influence and worldwide board member of Ogilvy Public Relations, said the agency believes its impractical to think of any single region to dominating the PR industry, though offered her thoughts on which areas of the world are growing fastest for PR right now.

When people think of the Middle East, their minds typically think of political instability, Risi said. However, there is a growing middle class and a valuable consumer market and in fact, the Middle East/North Africa [MENA] region is growing at a tremendous rate with its PR industry estimated to be valued at $600 million-plus. Specifically, Dubai acts as a major global hub within the region, and other nations including Egypt, Morocco and Abu Dhai also perform well.

Firms are focusing PR efforts wherever there are major markets worldwide. For a long time, the industry looked to only China and Southeast Asia as its priority growth market, said Risi. However, with the recent economic slowdown in the region, South America  such as Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama  has become a fast growing region. Effective PR is helping multinational brands and investors continue to successfully grow in the region.

In terms of industry sectors, Ogilvy believes that technology, consumer products and healthcare are showing the most growth around the world.

The growth of healthcare is significant in Africa, Asia and Latin America, said Risi. Historically, healthcare practices have been smaller in these regions but aging populations have made this sector more important to PR agencies.

Census forecasts emerging markets

Weber Shandwick operates in 78 cities across 34 countries, with a network extending to 126 cities in 81 countries.

While we see the public relations industry continue to mature in developing markets, we are still seeing the most growth in major capitols in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America, said Andy Polansky, CEO of Weber Shandwick.



Polansky

Polansky believes that multinational corporations are increasingly looking for support in various markets in Africa.

Digital, social and content marketing are in demand around the globe. While these campaigns often involve multi-platform activation, mobile campaigns in particular are becoming more and more popular, said Polansky.

Polansky believes there are some ways to forecast the PR hubs of the future with the middle class and population measures.

We continue to see PR hubs remaining in key strategic media and financial centers, though high-population centers like Jakarta, and key cities in India, China and Brazil will take on hub status with a rising middle class, said Polansky.

Firms look to Asia

The center of global economic gravity is shifting toward Asia, and this shift is also reflected in the growth of PR in this market, said Rachel Catanach, Senior Vice President, Senior Partner and Managing Director of FleishmanHillard Hong Kong.

FleishmanHillard, which holds more than 80 offices globally and 17 offices across our three brands in Asia Pacific (FleishmanHillard, BlueCurrent and Vox Global) has experienced significant growth in Asia Pacific. Greater China stands at 44 percent of the agencys APAC revenue.

Our consolidated Hong Kong operations (FH and BlueCurrent, including successful integration of sister agency Bernard Hodes Group), doubled in the last five years, ranking us at the top of the league table among global players in the market, Catanach said. Our three agencies in Tokyo drive 26 percent of APAC revenue, representing in total the largest non-Japanese owned PR conglomerate in Japan.



Catanach

Fleishman believes the PR industry is under-penetrated in the ASEAN region, and this represents a real area of growth. With more than 600 million people, ASEANs potential market is larger than the European Union or North America.

Markets such as Myanmar, which are opening up under new leadership, are providing opportunities for fresh field PR approaches using mobile, social and digital over other more traditional channels, said Catanach. In FleishmanHillard, our Southeast Asia offices have more than doubled in five years, and we expect this pace of growth to continue.

Fleishmans APAC network has built a specialized offering around reputation and risk management in the supply chain counseling companies, from brands to manufacturers, on how to use communications to build reputation, manage risk and assist them to better handle issues and crises.

"The practice is led from Hong Kong, which is home to the regional sourcing operations of some of the largest global retailers," said Catanach. Fleishman believes the PR hubs of the future lie in the East, such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. "PR specialties are likely align around these regional centers of excellence, with Singapore focused on private banking, for example, and Hong Kong on other financial services such as investment banking and asset management."
SEVERAL years ago the Midlands of Ireland were gently introduced to renowned Yoga master , David Sye. In mid-August this year he is returning to Offaly for a larger event. Appropriately his workshops will take place in Offalys peaceful parish of Lusmagh, which means The Plain of The Healing Herbs. Tranquil and tiny yet with a significant history, the village is easily accessable from all parts of the country.

SEVERAL years ago the Midlands of Ireland were gently introduced to renowned Yoga master , David Sye. In mid-August this year he is returning to Offaly for a larger event. Appropriately his workshops will take place in Offalys peaceful parish of Lusmagh, which means The Plain of The Healing Herbs. Tranquil and tiny yet with a significant history, the village is easily accessable from all parts of the country.

David Sye is an internationally known Yoga master and Yogabeats is an eclectic mix of yogic styles, designed to accommodate all levels of fitness and ability.

No prior experience is needed. Its for beginners as well as yoga addicts. Yogabeats combines classic yoga postures with the latest rhythmic and ambient world music.

This style of Yoga engages all of your physical senses and provides a natural high and feelings of joy in the body. It creates tremendous vitality, balance and flexibility regardless of size, age or experience. It opens up lasting effects for those who continue practising Yoga.

But this is more than just Yoga, it is pure fun, a practice driven by music and rhythms. Unapologetically sexy, empowering and provocative, leaving you higher than a kite - flying with energy. How can you resist a handsome but modest, gentle and tattooed Yoga Elder, who can prove that chocolate is not a fattening temptation but is good for you?

The classes will take place in the lovely, peaceful location of Lusmagh, near Banagher in Offaly. Relax for either a three hour workshop, a full day or the whole weekend. All you have to do is bring your own yoga mat and comfortable clothes. Kip at a castle or other elegant B&B in the area; sample a peat spa treatment; enjoy gentle walks on hills and bogs: move to the Yoga beat, and enjoy your added treats.

The event takes place on August 13 and 14 in Lusmagh Community Centre.

For bookings and info contact Maureen Mahony on 087 6741162 or e-mail maureenmahony@eircom.net. The cost is Workshop 40; Full Day: 70; Weekend: 130 from 10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm.
Offaly man Tommy Sheeran from Tullamore will take on the challenge of a lifetime on the October 11, 12 and 13.

Offaly man Tommy Sheeran from Tullamore will take on the challenge of a lifetime on the October 11, 12 and 13.

Tommy and some of his friends are climbing the four highest mountains in Ireland, The Macgillcuddy reeks in Co Kerry, Croagh Patrick in Mayo, Mourne mountains in Down and Wicklow mountains.

If that wasnt enough, he is finishing the weekend off with a Skydive in Clonbullogue at 3pm that Sunday. They are doing this to raise awareness and hopefully some much needed funds for the charity Irish Autism Action. A few close friends of Tommys have had their children recently diagnosed with autism which in turn raised his attention to the disorder, and the main reason behind why they are doing this fundraiser.

Tommy and the lads have sponsorship cards in most shops in Tullamore and Daingean. Your support would be gratefully appreciated. Irish Autism Action are very grateful to Tommy and the lads and patron Keith Duffy spoke last Friday about the great courage and energy there still is in Ireland to support worthy causes. He sends his best wishes to the lads too.

In the recent prevalence study that has been circulated, 1 in 88 people are affected by autism. This staggering statistic provides some idea of the scale of the issue in Ireland today. Irish Autism Action is striving forward in addressing this  through the opening of the Autism Centre of Excellence (ACE) in the heart of Ireland.

The new innovative Autism Centre of Excellence is located on the grounds of the Franciscan Friary in Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath which was opened in January and will reflect the national flagship nature of the facility through an environment of learning, research and developmental opportunities for children and adults on the spectrum.

The objective in setting up this unique Centre in Ireland is to offer vital resources to families through a variety of services including a diagnostic and assessment Centre, a Helpline and Information Centre, supported employment opportunities on site in addition to Outreach Programmes.

For more information of Irish Autism Action visit www.autismireland.ie or follow on twitter @irishautism or contact 044-9371680
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Big production or small and easy? You decide! Summer is a wonderful time to host parties, and children who have birthdays during this time of year have many choices available. The party can be a backyard bash with lots of activities and guests, or a small personal group that is more quiet and controlled and can be easily moved indoors if the weather changes drastically.

Traditions are important, so celebrate on the very day they were born if possible. Share with the child what the day was like when they arrived and joined your family. Was it sunny and warm, or stormy and wet? Share stories of that day, including some humorous ones such as On the way to the hospital, your dad had to stop and get gas and a coffee! or You were in such a hurry that you were born 15 minutes after we arrived at the hospital and the doctor was not even there yet!

You can help your child feel special without spending a lot. The stories about the day they were born and what you love about them will help your child put the day in perspective. Its a fun chance to celebrate with family and friends. It isnt all about gifts.

 Involve your child in the planning process. If a theme can be chosen early, you can be watching for good deals and sales on decorations and paper goods. You might even find you have some treasures at home already that work with your theme.

 Plan the activities that will occur during the party. Make sure they can be easily carried out and are age and developmentally appropriate for the guests.

 Set a beginning and ending time of the party. This will not only help those parents who will attend with their children or need to arrange for drop off and pick up times, but also help you to wrap the party up and have time for cleaning and relaxation when it is over.

 Create a guest list. You and your child can decide if you want to make the party mostly friends or family.

 Once the guest list is determined, invitations can be prepared and sent. Will these be hand-written and mailed, emailed or delivered in person or with a phone call from the child? Make sure your child is involved regardless of how guests are invited. Be sensitive as to how they are delivered so as not to make other kids feel excluded.

 Make this planning process fun. The planning and the anticipation of the event should be as much fun as the event itself.

 Encourage your child to practice good manners by thanking guests for coming and for any gifts they receive. It may help to practice this skill ahead of time.

Remember, it doesnt have to be a big production. Sometimes the smallest and most simple parties with close friends and family make the biggest and best memories.

***

Pat Thomas of Boys Town's Family Hotline wrote this guest blog for momaha.com. Thomas has more than 30 years of experience working with children and families from many cultures and in many settings around the world. She has worked is various positions at Boys Town as a Family-Teacher, Trainer, and Hotline counselor. Since 2010, Pat has shared her experiences with families who call the Nebraska Family Helpline.
American factories expanded for the third straight month in May, helped by a weaker U.S. dollar. The Institute for Supply Management said Wednesday that its manufacturing index rose to 51.3 last month from 50.8 in April. Anything above 50 signals growth. Manufacturing has stabilized, Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in a research note.

After 14 years, Staples CEO to leave post

Staples Inc. says Ron Sargent will step down as chief executive after 14 years on the job. His departure takes place after Staples and rival Office Depot dropped their $6.3 billion merger last month under opposition from antitrust regulators.

Drop in construction spending is most in five years

U.S. construction spending fell in April by the most since 2011, hit by declines in housing, commercial construction and spending on government projects. Construction spending dropped 1.8 percent in April after a 1.5 percent gain in March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Pizza Hut pizzas to have fewer artificial ingredients

Pizza Hut said it would remove more artificial ingredients from its pizza pies in the next year at its U.S. restaurants. The company removed artificial flavors and colors from pizzas last year. It said the preservatives BHA and BHT will be removed from meats by next month. Artificial preservatives in cheese will be out by next year. Chicken will be free of human antibiotics by March.
'Kantara' box office collection: Rishab's flick to join $1-million club in US; check day-wise collection

Solar eclipse to be sighted in Bengaluru for 45 minutes: Report

Bengaluru: V Shashidhar sent to judicial custody for provoking police

Bengaluru

oi-Shalini

Bengaluru, June 2: V Shashidhar, a police constable-turned-RTI activist was arrested on Wednesday night, June 1, for provoking other police constables to protest against the ruling Congress government in Karnataka.

Shashidhar had planned to spearhead a strike on June 4, protesting exploitation, low pay and poor working conditions.

"A case has been registered at Yelahanka New Town police station and Karnataka police association president Shashidhar has been arrested and presented before local court which remanded him to judicial custody till June 16," Bengaluru Police Commissioner N S Megharikh told a news agency.

Earlier on Tuesday, Karnataka government stringently warned against the planned agitation and invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) for maintaining public order and safety across the state.

Despite the warning, the Karnataka state police association which includes a 60,000 constabulary force has decided to push forward with their en masse leave on Saturday.

Shashidhar alleged that constables are being forced to work for irregular and long hours, without proper leave mechanism and harassment by senior officers.

Earlier also, he had raised his voice aganist Home Minister of Karnataka , Dr G Parameshwara and had sought for direction to the Governor's office to consider his representation submitted on January 20, 2016 to disqualify G Parameshwara for holding office of profit.

Shashidhar also sought action from the Chief Secretary to stop providing various benefits to Home Minister including pay and perks for public servants.

Shashidhar arrested for 'provoking police constables for protest against Govt & police department superior officers',sent to JC till June 16  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

Shashidhar arrested for 'provoking police constables for protest against Govt & police department superior officers',sent to JC till June 16  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

Karnataka: V Shashidhar, leading the mass leave protest, was arrested last night and produced before magistrate, sent to judicial custody  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

OneIndia News

(With agency inputs)
Mass police leave: Sedition charge slapped against leader of constables

Bengaluru

oi-Vicky

Bengaluru, June 2: The mass protest organised by the police constables in Karnataka scheduled for June 4 has hit a road block with their association leader being booked under sedition charges.

Shashidhar Venugopal, the president of the Akhila Karnataka Mahasangha which is organising the protest was picked up from his home at Yelahanka at 12.30 am today.

Bengaluru: V Shashidhar sent to judicial custody for provoking police

Under him around 15,000 police constables were planning to go on leave to protest against the working conditions and also pay package. The Chief Minister of Karnataka had warned that the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) would be slapped against the constables going on leave.

The decision to arrest Venugopal was taken following a high level meeting of the top police officials, the Chief Minister and Home Minister. At 12.30am the Yelahanka police entered his home and arrested him.

They have slapped charges under Section 124 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (Sedition). Further provisions of the ESMA too have been slapped against him. The ESMA gives the police the right to arrest without a warrant.

The act states that any person who commences a strike or takes part in it shall be punished with an imprisonment of 6 months. Those rendering essential services such as doctors, police personnel among others can be booked under this provision.

Meanwhile sources say that the government is considering the demands made by the police constables. The constables have complained about difficult working conditions and low paying jobs. They say they get paid Rs 16,000 for 15 hours of work every day.

OneIndia News
'We demand for RSS to be banned too', says Congress MP on PFI Ban

RSS scripts saffronisation of education in Assam?

Feature

oi-Oneindia

By Maitreyee Boruah

In a strange way when the results of the matric (Class 10 board) examinations of Assam were declared on Tuesday (May 31), the right-wing outfit Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was given credit for the success achieved by the toppers.

The media went overboard highlighting how students from schools run by the RSS achieved stupendous success in the matric exams that usually decide the fate of a student's future course of career.

The exams were conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, commonly known as SEBA, the state level authority responsible for conducting examinations and providing assurance for the quality of education imparted in schools within Assam.

Media gave credit to RSS

Even the national newspapers and TV channels reported about the announcement of the board exam results of the state in a big way. It was perhaps for the first time Assam board exam results were reported in such a huge scale by the mainstream media.

We all know, except for terror attacks and important political news, stories from the northeast hardly make their way to the national media. What caught the media attention is that a Muslim boy studying in a school run by the RSS topped the board exams.

Thus read some of the headlines in the prominent newspapers and news websites:

RSS school's Muslim boy tops Assam 10th boards (The Times of India)

Assam Class 10 topper is a Muslim boy from RSS-backed school (Hindustan Times)

Muslim boy from Sangh Parivar school tops Assam Class X exams (The Indian Express)

Muslim Student of RSS-Run School in Assam Tops Class 10 (The Quint)

RSS-run schools bring glory to the first BJP government in Assam

Sarfaraz Hussain topped the Class 10 exams by securing 590 marks out of 600. The 16-year-old boy is a student of the Shankardev Shishu Niketan in Betkuchi in Guwahati. The school is run by the Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan or Vidya Bharati. The Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Sansthan is the educational wing of the RSS.

According to media reports, 25 top positions--including the first--in the board exams were bagged by students studying in various schools run by the RSS across the northeastern state.

The newly-formed BJP government in the state did not shy away from basking in the glory of success stories scripted by these young minds.

Let us not forget that the RSS played a pivotal role in ending the 15-years rule of the Congress in the state in the recently declared results of the Assam Assembly Elections 2016.

In a volatile state like Assam which since decades has been bearing the brunt of illegal immigration from the neighbouring country Bangladesh, the subject of religion is sensitive.

The RSS and the BJP have openly supported to provide shelter to Hindu illegal migrants from across the border. However, the ruling party has promised to act tough when it comes to deport Muslim illegal migrants.

Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who also had the same portfolio during the earlier Congress regime, was so euphoric that he announced the setting up of RSS-run schools in every panchayat of the state.

Sarma told reporters, "It is the dream of his ideological family (RSS) to see a Shankardev Shishu Niketan school in every panchayat." Himanta on behalf of the government also assured financial assistance to Sarfaraz, whose father works in a hotel.

Saffronisation of education is a reality?

The state currently has 549 schools run by the Assam Shishu Siksha Niyas, the state branch of Vidya Bharati.

Several academicians and political observers fear that the saffronisation of education has already started in the state in a big way.

"Right-wing outfits like RSS are directly involved in imparting education in the state. The saffronisation of education is a reality in Assam and it is a worrying factor," said a retired professor of Gauhati University on the condition of anonymity.

Doubts about saffronisation of education raised by the critics of the BJP and RSS are rubbished by none other than Sarfaraz himself, who wants to be an engineer.

"I had no problem chanting prayers in Sanskrit, including the gayatri mantra. I have always scored 100/100 in Sanskrit till Class VIII," Sarfaraz told The Indian Express.

Since the BJP-led NDA government has come to power in the Centre in 2014, textbooks are undergoing massive overhaul. More emphasis is now been given to highlight Hindu ancient texts and Hindu leaders and personalities in the school curriculum.

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, June 2, 2016, 9:54 [IST]
Partial Solar Eclipse updates: See stunning photos of Surya Grahan from Chennai, Bengaluru, Patna and more

Always supportive of any direct talks between Pak, India: UN

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, June 2: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has "always been supportive" of any direct dialogue between India and Pakistan, according to his spokesperson.

Ban's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric was asked at his daily briefing here yesterday if the UN Secretary-General can, in the remaining months of his tenure, persuade India to have talks with Pakistan over Kashmir.

"I think, throughout his tenure, the Secretary-General has always been supportive of any direct dialogue between Pakistan and India," he said.

Ban, whose tenure as UN Secretary-General ends this year, has in the past offered his good offices to help resolve the conflict between both nations but has also maintained that India and Pakistan should resolve their differences bilaterally through dialogue.

PTI
CBI quizzes Hindu Janajagruti Samiti member in Dabholkar murder case

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jun 2: CBI today questioned Hindu Janajagruti Samiti member Virendrasing Tawde whose residence in Panvel near Mumbai was searched by the agency in connection with the murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The agency had recovered some material during its earlier searches in connection with the murder case which brought the needle of suspicion on Tawde, believed to be an ENT surgeon and an alleged follower of 'Sanatan Sanstha' Sarang Akolkar, against whom Red Corner Notice was issued by Interpol in 2009 Goa blast case on NIA request, CBI sources said.

The residences of Tawde and Akolkar were searched by the agency yesterday which claimed to have recovered several SIM cards, cell phones and data from computer, they said.

They said the two came under the scanner after the agency found some "cyber forensic evidence" about their alleged role in the murder case of Dabholkar. 34-year-old Akolkar is suspected to be one of the key conspirators in the murder of Dabholkar, a rationalist who fought against superstitions all his life, on August 20, 2013 in Pune.

Karnataka blames Pune as Kalburgi probe hits road block

Akolkar is believed to be linked to 'Sanatan Sanstha', a Hindu right wing organisation whose headquarters are located in Ponda, Goa. He has been on the run ever since his name cropped up during NIA investigations in the Goa blast case. NIA had secured an Interpol Red Corner Notice against him in 2012 but security agencies are yet to track him down.

PTI
DA case: Jayalalithaa cannot distance herself from co-accused

India

oi-Vicky

Chennai, June 2: You have three options- "confirm the order of the High Court that acquitted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, confirm the trial court order that convicted her or refer the matter back to the Karnataka High Court so that it could consider the matter afresh."

This was the submission Dushyanth Dave, senior counsel arguing for Karnataka made before the Supreme Court which is hearing the disproportionate assets case against J Jayalalithaa and three others.

The Bench comprising Justice P C Ghose and Amitava Roy observed that referring the matter back to the High Court would cause injustice to the accused persons. It would mean that the order of the trial court is being upheld, the Bench observed while indicating that this possibility is being ruled out.

Jayalalithaa cannot distance herself from co-accused:



During the course of the arguments, Jayalalithaa's counsel had submitted that it cannot be presumed that she was the source of the money just because the co-accused, Sasikala Natrajan, Ilavarasi and Sudhakaran lived in the same house.

When the Bench sought to know if Karnataka could prove if the money circulated among the co-accused belonged to Jayalalithaa.

B V Acharya, special public prosecutor for Karnataka said that Jayalalithaa cannot distance herself from the co-accused at this point in time. She cannot also distance herself from the assets, Acharya also contended.

Acharya explained while calculating the disproportionate assets, the expenditure, value and also income, the same has been taken into consideration jointly along with the 34 companies and firms.

The trial court and the high court have not considered the assets or disproportionate assets of each accused separately. Hence Jayalalithaa cannot now make out a case in these appeals concurrent to the findings of the high court and the trial court.

Gifts from party workers not lawful income:

Dave once again pointed out to the Bench that gifts from party workers cannot be considered to be a lawful source of income. Rs 1.5 crore had been received from party workers on her birthday.

The court must take note of this seriously and such forms of bribery and corruption will only destroy the foundation of the economy, Dave contended.

The Bench will next hear the matter on June 7. For Karnataka Siddharth Luthra would argue on the seizure of assets of the five companies - Indo-Doha Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., Signora Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., Ramraj Agro Mills Ltd., Meadow Agro Farms, and Riverway Agro Products. Counsel for Jayalalithaa Harin Raval would also argue on the same day.

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Story first published: Thursday, June 2, 2016, 9:11 [IST]
Truth has come out, says Sasikala in reaction to OPS's remark before panel

Demigod leaders have capacity to subvert the system, Karnataka in Jayalalithaa DA case

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 2: These leaders are like demigods who command immense power and they have the capacity to subvert the system, senior counsel Dushyanth Dave had to say in the J Jayalalithaa disproportionate assets case being argued before the Supreme Court.

A Bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy are hearing an appeal filed by Karnataka challenging the acquittal of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa and three others.

Dave who is arguing for Karnataka told the court that there are some leaders who are considered as demigods by their supporters. These persons command power and have the capacity to subvert the system, Dave argued.

DA case: Jayalalithaa cannot distance herself from co-accused

The point came up while Dave was demonstrating to the court how party workers had given Jayalalithaa Rs 1.5 crore as gifts on her birthday. He said that if such a practise is allowed then it would destroy the system.

If serious note is not taken of the same then it would become a free for all for politicians to escape the law under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Should assets be disclosed:



When Karnataka was arguing about the delayed intimation to the Income Tax Department, the Bench sought to know if there was any legal requirement for a public servant to disclose assets while in office. Dave pointed out immediately that the Civil Services Conduct Rules do mandate it.

Dave further sought to know why a loan amount of Rs 15 crore taken by Jaya Publications was not intimated to the authorities. There was a delay of 5 years before the same was intimated to the IT department and this in my view is an after thought, Dave contended.

The Bench then sought to know if a loan taken from a near and dear one amounted to a disproportionate asset. If a son borrows money from his father is it illegal per se the Bench also asked. Justice Ghose even said in lighter vein that if he borrowed money from Justice Roy would be termed as a disproportionate asset. To this Justice Roy replied, " brother I do not have that kind of money."

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Story first published: Thursday, June 2, 2016, 9:35 [IST]
Rahul Gandhi will be seen in new avatar after Bharat Jodo Yatra: Digvijaya Singh

Fact Check: This image of a massive gathering is not from the Bharat Jodo Yatra

Rahul says 'Kharge ji will decide' his role in Congress

Elevate Rahul to top party post: Omar Abdullah

India

oi-PTI

Srinagar, June 2: Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today said Congress should elevate its vice president Rahul Gandhi to the party's top post instead of "planting stories" about his "imminent elevation".

"Isn't Congress fed up of planting 'Rahul's imminent elevation' stories?" Omar, who was an ally of Congress in UPA-II, wrote on Twitter.

"Been reading them for years now. Just do it and let him get on," he said.

PTI
Fire breaks out at industrial estate in Mumbai, no one hurt

Fire in popular Metro Building in Colaba, Mumbai

India

oi-Pallavi

Mumbai, June 2: 15 fire tenders are trying to douse a massive fire in a building at Colaba, Mumbai. The building- Metro House- is near the Regal Cinemas.

A popular building and visited by a number of commuters everyday for its shopping arcades, officials said that there are people stuck inside. Officials further said that the fire started at the bottom floor and plummeted to the top.

The building has a lot of wooden structure, which may have aggrevated the fire. However, smoke is bellowing from the fourth floor and the fire is limited to the fourth floor, according to reports.

2 people have been rescued, but there are still people inside. It is a level 3 fire, say reports. The fire broke out at 4:03 pm and 15 fire tenders were pressed to action within 10 minutes of the incident.

Considered to be one of the busiest areas in Mumbai, Colaba Causeway is a shopping hub for tourists and localites. Police have been pressed into action to curb traffic inflow here for the easy rescue operations. Given the locality, with the Taj hotel closeby and several business units, rescue facilities were pressed to action almost immediately.

In a latest development four fire tenders from Naval Dockyard (Mumbai) have joined fire brigade to douse the flames.

OneIndia News
Anupam Kher owns an impressive resume to head FTII; problematic area is his closeness with BJP

FTII students write open letter to Anupam Kher: Here is what they want

FTII students unhappy with key academic changes

India

oi-PTI

Pune, Jun 2: Students' association members of Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) today expressed displeasure over the newly constituted academic council here which passed key academic changes like choice-based credit system, electives, new syllabus and new vision statement.

Students' ire comes months after their long agitation against the appointment of television actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as institue's new chairman in June last year.

Students had boycotted classes for a long time and went on strike to oppose the appointment, demanding his ouster.

"We are not disagreeing with each and everything, but our primary concerns are against choice-based credit system and electives, which they are going to be implemented in the new syllabus," president of FTII students' association Nachimuthu Harishankar told reporters today.

He was one of the two students who had attended the academic council meeting held yesterday.

"We feel that the whole exercise of bringing these changes is to quantify the education system and it will turn students into more of competition rather than concentrating on holistic learning," told reporters here today.

He said new changes which academic council is trying to bring in are not in tandem with the culture and tradition of the institute as it will "destroy the creative atmosphere of the institute".

The council meeting was headed by its chairperson B P Singh and attended by members including former vice chancellor of Mumbai University Rajan Welukar, former director, IIM- Bangalore, Pankaj Chandra, actor Anand Mahendru, and FTII alumnus actor Satish Shah.

Nachimuthu said that a new vision document for FTII was proposed in which council members are planning to turn the institute in University of Film, Television and Allied Arts and through this new model. The institute is going to start small courses, which is an "attempt to corporatisation of education", he alleged.

He alleged that while drafting the new syllabus, the institute denied particpation of domain experts and students, who were part of syllabus review committee before last year's stir.

PTI
Gulbarg society massacre: Court convicts 24, acquits 36

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 2: A special court in Ahmedabad has convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 in connection with the Gulbarg massacre case in which 69 persons were killed. The special court while delivering its verdict convicted 11 out of the 24 persons for murder.

'Sonia Gandhi had met Zakia after Gulbarg incident'

The quantum of the sentence would be delivered on June 6, the special court informed today. There have been mixed reactions to the verdict with several including Zakia Jaffri saying that he would prefer an appeal in the High Court against the acquittal of the 36 persons.

The verdict comes 14 years after a mob of nearly 20,000 attacked the Gulbarg society comprising 29 bungalows and 10 apartments in which 69 were killed.

Bipin Patel, a corporator of the BJP who was accused of being part of the mob has been acquitted. The others to be acquitted are police inspector K G Erda, Atul Vaidya a VHP leader among others. In the case there were a total of 338 witnesses who testified. The trial went on for 6 years.

This is one of the nine cases in the infamous 2002 Gujarat riots case. The Supreme Court had appointed a Special Investigating Team to probe all the nine cases.

The SIT while probing the case named 66 persons in all of which 9 are still in jail while the rest obtained bail. The Supreme Court which is monitoring the probe had ordered the special court to give its verdict soon.

The SIT had said in court that 39 charred bodies had been found which is an indication that they had been burnt alive. The SIT further submitted that it had found petrol cans, swords and lathis at the site.

OneIndia News
SC notice to Centre on plea against supply of electoral roll to candidates

Identify differently abled people for distribution of UIC: Min to states

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jun 2: The Centre today asked the state governments to identify differently abled people in their respective areas for distribution of Universal Identity Cards to them to help them avail of benefits under various government schemes.

"We will soon start issuing Universal Identity Cards (UIC) for persons with disabilities. All the preparatory work has been done, including the design of the card by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. "Very soon these cards will be passed on to the states for distribution.

State governments should gear themselves up to identify the persons with disabilities in their respective states, so that within one-and-a-half years all of them can have the cards," Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said while addressing a conference of Social Welfare Ministers of states.

He said these cards would be linked with Aadhar card and data will be available online which would ensure transparency.

Referring to various scholarship schemes for the persons with disabilities, started by NDA government in 2014-15, Gehlot said, the Centre is very keen that all deserving students avail of the benefits.

He asked the state governments to launch a campaign from next academic year to identify such students so that they could be given the scholarships.

To avoid any delay and leakages, his ministry has adopted direct benefit transfer (DBT) channel to pass on the scholarships, Gehlot said.

Under the "Accessible India Campaign" (Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan), Gehlot advised the state governments to approve the building plans only when there are accessibility provisions for people with disabilities as per recently issued NBCC code.

He asked the state governments to identify public utility buildings to carry out access audit and make it disabled friendly.

PTI
ISI chooses UK for week-long event to mark Geelani's death anniversary, but no one's surprised

ISI's Sri Lanka module waiting to strike in Andhra Pradesh: Intelligence Bureau

India

oi-Vicky

Hyderabad, June 2:Visakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh has become a potential target for terrorist groups. There has been a general alert in Visakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh following chatter being picked up by the intelligence bureau suggesting Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives would be launched from Sri Lanka to strike.

The matter had come up for discussion during the law and order review meeting that AP chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu held with top police officials. Naidu was told that vital installations in Visakapatnam are high on the radar of terrorist groups.

Targeting the coast from Sri Lanka:

The first time that the ploy to target the coastal areas in Southern India came to light was following the arrest of a Sri Lankan national in Tamil Nadu.

It was learnt that the ISI had set up shop in Sri Lanka with an intention of sending in its recruits to South India.

At that time investigations had shown that the target was Tamil Nadu. However now fresh inputs suggest that there is a plan afloat to target Visakapatnam which has a major port. The Eastern Naval Command too is under the radar of terrorist groups.

These inputs have led to enhanced security. The coastal areas have become extremely vulnerable to terror strikes, says an Intelligence Bureau official.

He further added that the ISI had set up a module in Sri Lanka with a specific intention of targeting South Indian states.

They had their eyes fixed on Tamil Nadu, but the plan was foiled. However now fresh inputs suggests that they are likely to send men to conduct a reconnaissance of areas with vital installations in Andhra Pradesh.

OneIndia News
J&K lawmakers want Rs 2.5 lakh salary, a three-time hike

India

oi-PTI

Srinagar, Jun 2: Keeping aside their political differences, lawmakers of all hues today got together in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and Legislative Council to demand hike in their salaries by three times to touch Rs 2.5 lakh per month.

They also demanded more than three-time increase in the constituency development fund to Rs five crore from the current Rs 1.5 crore as well as raise in the wages of their assistants.

The demand for raise in the salary of MLCs to Rs 2.5 lakh came in the Legislative Council while members were speaking during the discussion on budget presented on May 30.

The MLCs as well as MLAs currently get Rs 80,000 as salary besides some perks for visiting their constituencies etc. If approved, it will be third hike in the salary of legislators in the past 10 years.

The demand was raised by Congress MLC G N Monga who said the legislators were being paid a meagre amount which was not enough in today's times. "We are paid a basic salary of Rs 35,000 which is a meagre amount. There is a need to increase our salary as we have to cater to a large public and this amount is not enough in today's times," Monga said and got instant support from other members, including BJP, who thumped desks.

His party colleague, Jugal Kishore, while supporting the demand, cited the example of Delhi Assembly where the salaries of MLAs were hiked. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also raised the salary of the legislators recently, Kishore said.

Ruling PDP's MLC Surinder Kumar Choudhary said the legislators have higher protocol than the Chief Secretary of a state but less salary than him or even their personal security officer (PSO).

"Even the constable with us as our PSO has a salary of Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000. Our salary should be hiked to a minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh," he said. Backing the demand, Qaiser Lone from opposition National Conference went a step further to say that even the pension of ex-legislators should be increased and that the members should be given laptops and tablets.

"There should be a salary hike for the MLCs. Many states have hiked the salaries of the legislators and we feel there should be a hike of 200 per cent in the salary of the legislators of the House. Along with that, the pension of the ex-legislators be also hiked," Lone said.

"We should be given laptops, I-pads as well... The legislators used to get laptops and I-pads, but since this government took over, they have not given us anything," he said. The NC MLC also sought an increase in the constituency development fund which at present is Rs 1.5 crore.

"It should be raised to the minimum of Rs five crores," he demanded. Not only the members from the opposition, the ruling party MLCs also supported the demand.

PTI
K'taka HM for review of pay scale of police constables; will govt take cue from Telangana?

India

oi-Shreyas

Bengaluru, June 2: In the revised pay scale of 2015, Telangana police constables have seen a fair hike of salaries. The question that arises in the minds at this juncture when police constables are planning mass leave protest in state of Karnataka is, will the government during the next pay commission increase the pay scale to the par of Telangana.

Preparation for 'mass leave' protests citing poor salary and harassment by senior officers despite hindrance by the government to curb the same has forced the Congress government to mull over revising salary scale of police constables.

Images captured from the PDF document of GOVERNMENT OF TELANGANA REVISED PAY SCALES 2015

The Home Minister of Karnataka G Parameshwar on May 29 in a press meet issued a statement on pay scale. Minister said the government will consider revising their (police constables) salary on a par with other states during the next pay commission. He appealed to them to drop their plans of going on mass leave.

Parameshwar said, "We have collected information from other States on salaries of the police there. The government will consider hiking the salary during the next pay revision commission... I urge the protesting police personnel to withdraw their plan to go on mass leave because they are a disciplined force,"

Telangana government, in 2015 has revised the pay scales of police constables. Before the revision, the police constables from various divisions were getting basic pay scale, Rs 8,440 to Rs 24,950. For head constables Rs 10,900 - Rs 31,550. Post revised, the constables' scale has been revised to Rs 16,400- Rs 49,870 and Rs 21,230- Rs 63,010. This perhaps makes a huge difference.

In Karnataka, the tale is different. The pay scale of head constables Rs 12,500 to Rs 24,000 and for constables Rs 11,600 to Rs 21,000. It is same for constables working under different divisions. Will the Karnataka government in the upcoming pay commission hike the scale to the level of Telangana police as to comfort the lives of constables who are reeling under struggle.

OneIndia News
'Rashtriya Basava Sene' to take the fight for separate religious tag to Lingayats forward

Karnataka polls: Who will bag Kalaburgi, the Tur Bowl of the state

Karnataka blames Pune as Kalburgi probe hits road block

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, June 2: The Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department has hit a road block in the probe into the murder of Dr M M Kalburgi.

The probe has not moved an inch and despite probing various angles as claimed by the investigating agency, it would be safe to say that the murder continues to remain a mystery.

The Karnataka team says that the probe cannot move forward unless it has the cooperation of the police from Maharashtra. The murder of Kalburgi is connected to the killing of rationalist Govind Pansare.

Show record of writers who returned Sahitya Akademi awards: HC

Unless the two state police share details with each other the probe cannot be carried forward, the CID in Karnataka says.

The CID says that they have sent reminders to the Pune team apart from writing letters as well seeking out information. However there has been no response, the CID officer informed. Without this information it is difficult to carry forward the probe, the officer also informed.

Meanwhile after being pulled up by the Bombay High Court for a shoddy probe into the murders of Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, the CBI conducted searches in the houses of several Hindu activits in Panvel and Pune, Maharashtra.

The CBI conducted searches at the homes of Sarang Akolkar and Dr Virendra Tawde and seized documents.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, June 2, 2016, 11:49 [IST]
Karnataka govt staff strike demanding pay parity with Centre

India

oi-PTI

Bengaluru, June 2: Working of government machinery in Karnataka virtually came to a grinding halt today as more than five lakh employees, ignoring warnings of disciplinary action, struck work demanding pay parity with Central staff.

Most of the government offices, including the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat and its annexe Vikasa Soudha wore a deserted look as most of the employees abstained from attending duty. Only a few employees, most of them on contract work, trickled in for duty.

Functioning of government colleges and schools was also affected as most of the faculty and staff did not turn up, officials said.

At some institutions, those who had come for work returned home. Similar reports of employees not attending to work at government offices have come from across the state.

State Government Employees Association President Manjegowda said government did not call them for discussion despite giving notice.

He said "We had given notice to Chief Secretary, but neither he nor any one from the government bothered to call us for any kind of discussion."

"If government does not look into our demands, the agitation will be intensified in the days to come," he added.

The state government yesterday in a circular had warned its employees of strict action if they took part in the one-day strike.

Quoting various rules, the circular had said that employees striking work can be imprisoned for a period extending up to six months or face a fine of Rs 500 or both. It also listed out the actions that the government can take under various rules against employees who go on leave to participate in the strike.

Responding to the circular Manjegowda said, "government has power to threaten employees that it will dismiss or arrest them, but no employee will fear it."

PTI
Licence of Indira Jaising's NGO suspended for 6 months

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jun 1: Licence of NGO run by noted lawyer Indira Jaising--'Lawyers' Collective'--was today suspended by the Modi government for six months for alleged violation of FCRA by using the funds for rallies, dharna with political "hue and colour", a charge denied by the association which termed it as an act of "vindictiveness".

The Home Ministry, while suspending the licence under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), asked the NGO to submit its reply within 30 days for violation of various provisions of the Act after which its registration may even be cancelled.

Denying all the charges in a statement, the NGO condemned the government action and said it was only to "victimise the organization" and its office bearers Indira Jaising and Anand Grover.

"This is nothing but a gross misuse of the FCRA Act which is being used to suppress any form of dissent. It is far too well known that both Grover and Jaising have represented several persons in their professional capacity as lawyers in several cases against the government and the functionaries including the President of the BJP party Amit Shah protesting his discharge in the Sorabudin murder case.

"The Lawyers Collective intends to challenge the order as unconstitutional and required to be set aside," it said and termed it as "a malafide act and an act of vindictiveness on the part of the Government" "No money was spent on rallies or dharnas having any political hue or colour.

FCRA, 2010 was not applicable for expenses incurred in 2009, while in 2011 and 2014, it was spent from domestic/United Nations funding, which is exempt from FCRA," it said.

In the notice sent by Union Home Ministry, it said the 'Lawyers' Collective' has allegedly received foreign funds between 2006-07 and 2013-14 and it alleged discrepancies were found in the filing of annual returns of the NGO where Jaising, who had served as the Additional Solicitor General in UPA government, was functioning as Secretary.

The 5-page notice alleged that Jaising while functioning as Additional Solicitor General from July 2009 to May 5, 2014 received renumeration of Rs 96.60 lakh, which is admitted by the Association in its reply dated March 30, 2016 by stating that the remuneration of Rs 81.41 lakh was paid by the NGO, persuant to the permission of the Central government for 59 months (July 2009-May 2014).

PTI
Pathankot: Awaiting response from Pak on Letters Rogatory,says NIA chief

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, Jun 3: NIA tonight said it was awaiting a response from Pakistan on Letters Rogatory seeking information and interrogation of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf in connection with the Pathankot air base strike even as it probed the role of other "state actors" in the attack.

NIA Director General Sharad Kumar said that the role of the Jaish chief and his brother, besides two other handlers, has been established and all the evidence have been shared with Pakistan.

"We are still awaiting a response from them," Kumar said, adding two Letters Rogatories and several reminders to Islamabad remain unanswered. Asked whether NIA has given a clean chit to Pakistani agencies, including ISI, in the matter, Kumar said "the case is still under investigations.

We have not given any clean chit to anyone. We are examining the role of other players which include state actors" who might have been involved in the conspiracy behind the attack. He, however, did not elaborate on the "state actors".

He denied media reports that quoted him as saying that a clean chit has been given to Pakistani agencies in the Pathankot attack case. Four terrorists were killed when they carried out a suicide attack on the strategic Indian Air Force base in Pathankot during the intervening night of January one and two.

Pathankot probe in Pakistan hits a dead end

Seven security personnel were also killed during the 80-hour-long gunbattle.

PTI
SC closes all proceedings arising out of 2002 riots in Gujarat

Timeline of Gulberg Society massacre case

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Ahmedabad, June 2: Following is the timeline of the Gulberg Society massacre case, in which a special court on Thursday convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 others in the 2002 massacre of 69 people, including Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.

February 2002: During the Gujarat riots a Hindu mob attacked the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad in which 69 people were killed. Among the deceased was former parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri.

November 2007: The Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition of Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, seeking the court's directive to the police to register a complaint against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others for their alleged involvement in the Gulberg Society massacre.

Gulberg massacre: 14-year battle for justice

March 2008: The Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a further probe into 14 Godhra and post -Godhra communal riot cases. The SIT was asked to investigate the incidents that occurred in Godhra, Sardarpura, Gulberg Society, Ode, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya, Deepla Darwaza and the one in which three British nationals of Indian origin were killed.

August 2010: The Supreme Court permitted the Special Investigation Team to conduct further probe on the complaint by Zakia Jafri that Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others orchestrated the 2002 riots in Gujarat.

March 2010: The trial was put on hold because of the resignation of the special prosecutor and his assistant. Both had alleged bias on the part of the trial judge and also accused the SIT of not properly coordinating their efforts with them.

March 2011: Gujarat Deputy Inspector-General of Police Sanjiv Bhatt, who is claimed to have spilled the beans on Modi's alleged controversial orders to the police on the eve of the 2002 communal riots, appeared before the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team.

February 2012: The SIT in a "summary closure report" - says there was no "prosecutable evidence" against Narendra Modi, who was among 62 persons named in an omnibus complaint filed by Zakia Jafri and the Citizens for Justice and Peace.

March 2012: The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court rejects Zakia Jafri's plea to making public the SIT report.

December 2013: Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court rejects the petition of Zakia Jafri against the closure report of the Special Investigation Team giving a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister.

December 2013: Reacting to an Ahmedabad trial court verdict, R.K. Raghavan, head of the SIT appointed by the Supreme Court to go into Gujarat riots, says SIT's stand has been vindicated.

November 2014: The trial in the Gulberg Society case, resumed following the Supreme Court's directions to conclude it in three months.

November 2014: The Supreme Court asks the Sessions Court to complete the trial in the Gulberg case, one of the nine cases connected to the 2002 post-Godhra riots, in three months.

August 6, 2015: Supreme Court grants three-month extension to Ahmedabad court to complete trial proceedings in the case.

June 2, 2016: A Special court convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 others.

IANS
Nothing suspicious found, says Delhi Police after unattended item found in Rohini

West Bengal: Crude bombs exploded in Birbhum village, no casualty

India

oi-PTI

Suri (WB), June 2: A number of crude bombs exploded at Lokpur in Birbhum district early today but there was no casualty.

A senior police officer said several bombs went off in a courtyard of a construction at around 2 am triggering panic in the village.

However, no body was recovered from the site nor was anyone found to be injured.

The area, a political turf of supremacy between the ruling Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) had also some abandoned coal mines and was near the Jharkhand border.

A section of locals said the bombs could have been stockpiled for blasting the mines and went off by accident.

PTI
Why a terror angle should not be ruled out in the Coimbatore cylinder blast case

10 killed in Somalia hotel attack

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Mogadishu, June 2: At least 10 persons have been killed and 25 others injured in an attack by Al-Shabaab on a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Wednesday, June 2.

A car bomb was set off by a suicide bomber at the gate of the Ambassador Hotel, after which other gunmen moved in.

"We can confirm that at least 10 civilians were killed in the blast while 25 others injured," police officer Mohamed Farah said.

Witnesses said they heard a huge blast followed by heavy gunfire from the hotel.

Local residents said troops were trying to rescue possible hostages in the hotel.Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Ambassador Hotel on the busy Makka Al-mukarram street is frequented by government officials.

Al-Shabaab, which has been battling the Somali government for years, stages periodic attacks in the country.

IANS


600 arrested for circulating hate pamphlets in Pakistan

International

oi-PTI

Lahore, Jun 2: Around 600 suspected members of banned militant organisations, including Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Islamic State, have been arrested in the last one year for publishing and distributing "hate" literature in the Punjab province.

According to Punjab Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab police, around 600 "hate mongers" involved in publishing and distributing materials regarding projection of proscribed organisations, convicted terrorists and against particular sects have been arrested under the National Action Plan (NAP) in the last year.

Police recovered 32 banned books, 21 CDs, 213 magazines and 1,258 pamphlets of banned militant organisations from the suspects. The suspects have been arrested and booked under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Police have submitted charge sheet against 450 suspects in a court while over 100 have been convicted for up to five years. The punishment for such offence in Pakistan is imprisonment which may extend to five years.

PTI
At least 10 dead in jihadist attack on Mogadishu hotel

International

oi-PTI

Mogadishu, Jun 2: At least 10 people, including two lawmakers, were killed in a car bomb and gun attack on a top hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group, medical and security sources said.

Around 40 others were injured in the assault yesterday on the central Ambassador Hotel, where Somali security forces continued to battle Shabaab fighters into the evening, around five hours after the attack began. The initial blast took place at around 5:40 pm (local time).

"The attack was started with a heavy explosion and members from the Mujahedeen fighters stormed the building," the Shabaab said in a statement. A security source told AFP that "a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) exploded" after which a firefight erupted inside the hotel complex. Mohamed Elmi, a witness, said the blast "destroyed the whole area."

"I saw the dead bodies of seven people, most of them burned," he added. Another witness, Ibrahim Sheikh Nur, said he saw "several dead bodies outside the hotel."

"The security forces are now inside and the whole area is cordoned off." Shabaab fighters were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 but the group remains a major threat in both Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, where it carries out frequent attacks.

They jihadists are fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government. Yesterday, an official said the Shabaab commander who led a attack on Kenya's Garissa University in 2015 that left 148 people dead had been killed in a special forces raid in the south of the country.

Also yesterday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said another senior Shabaab military commander was "presumed killed" following a US air strike on May 27.

AFP
Burkina police arrest 6 'foreigners' over jihadist attacks

International

oi-PTI

Ouagadougou, June 2: Burkina Faso police have arrested six "foreigners" suspected of being behind jihadist attacks in January that left 30 people dead, the government and police has said.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed it was behind an assault on a top hotel and a cafe, both popular with foreigners, which also left 70 people wounded. "Six individuals of foreign nationalities were arrested on Monday May 30 in Ougadougou," the national police said in a statement.

These people are believed to have "sheltered and aided the perpetrators of the attack in Ougadougou, and worked with the ringleader of the attacks (who is) still being tracked down". Burkina's Minister of Internal Security, Simon Compaore, said the arrests were made thanks to intelligence shared by other West African security forces.

Security forces have already detained a 38-year-old local man in connection with the attacks on the four-star Hotel Splendid and the nearby Cappuccino cafe.

Until this year, Burkina Faso had largely avoided the attacks and hostage-taking by jihadist groups that have wracked other Sahel countries since 2008. Yesterday, unidentified gunmen killed three police officers in northern Burkina Faso near the Malian border -- the second attack on a police station near the frontier in less than a fortnight.

The day after the January attacks, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped in the north of the country where they had lived for more than four decades.

The woman, Jocelyn Elliot, was released in early February, but her 82-year-old husband Kenneth Elliot is still being held.

PTI
EgyptAir black boxes signals detected

International

oi-Pallavi

Cairo, June 2: A French search vehicle has picked up signals from what appears to be the black boxes of the doomed EgyptAir flight MS804.

If proved right, this would be a potential breakthrough in efforts to uncover why it plunged into the Mediterranean sea last month. Search teams are working round the clock to find the flight recorders, which could throw some light on the last minute details of the flight.

Investigators have been rendered clueless as the plane did not show any signs of technical problems while leaving from Paris. There was no distress call to air traffic control too. There has been no claim of responsibility behind the crash.

However, the jet transmitted a series of messages in the minutes before it crashed into the sea. The messages indicated a rise in temperature at the co-pilot's window and smoke on board. Nevertheless, investigators say these hardly shed any light on the cause.

[Read: Forensic official: EgyptAir 804 human remains suggest blast ]

There are certain confusions regarding the last minutes of the crash. The EgyptAir's chief said that the plane disappeared suddenly from the radar while cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet.

Helping with the search of the black boxes is French naval vessel Laplace, which will be arriving at the investigating area within a week. Meanwhile, tourism experts believe that the crash has added to the apprehensions of tourists on this route, tourism targets for the country have taken a beating.

[Read: DNA samples taken as searchers hunt for EgyptAir plane ]

Before the fake suicide hijack in March, a Russian plane carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort crashed in Sinai in October. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for its downing.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, June 2, 2016, 14:01 [IST]
France and Germany battle deadly floods

International

oi-PTI

Nemours, Jun 2: France faced more torrential rain today after a week of storms that have killed nine people across northern Europe, submerging streets, closing schools and leaving people stranded on rooftops.

Eight people have perished in Germany and six days of torrential rain in France have caused the Seine and other rivers to burst their banks, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people in riverside towns south of Paris and in the Loire Valley.

The body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France, where some towns have been hit by the worst flooding in more than 100 years.

In the small town of Montargis, the water had risen so high that only the tops of cars could still be seen peeking above the surface along the high street. Rescue workers have responded to around 10,000 calls and evacuated more than 5,000 people since the deluge began at the weekend.

"The situation remains tense and difficult in several areas. We still have many concerns," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said as he visited a crisis control centre in the flooded town of Nemours, south of Paris.

In southern Germany, dangerously swollen rivers have caused loss of life and severely damaged towns in Bavaria.

Rescue workers found the bodies of three people in a house in Simbach am Inn yesterday and police warned that several other people were missing. The force of the water upended cars and washed away parts of the streets, with a thick layer of mud left throughout the town by the subsiding water.

Huge piles of wood and rubbish deposited by the torrent were visible next to badly damaged homes and offices. A woman's body was also discovered caught on a tree trunk in the neighbouring town of Julbach, police said.

On Bavaria's southeastern border with Austria, some residents scrambled on to rooftops to escape the waters on Tuesday. "The floods came so quickly that people had to escape to the roofs of their houses," a spokesman for the Lower Bavaria police said.

The deaths raised the toll in Germany to eight after four people were killed earlier this week in the southern Baden-Wuerttemberg region.

PTI
India always views war as last resort, but... : PM Modi to armed forces in Kargil

Looking forward to robust discussion with Modi next week: US

International

oi-PTI

Washington, June 2: The US is looking forward to a "very robust" and "comprehensive" discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he visits the country next week, the State Department has said, noting that ties with India remain "vital".

"We look forward to having a very robust, comprehensive discussion with the Prime Minister when he comes next week," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference here.

Modi is scheduled to arrive in Washington on June 6 on a three-day visit. The Prime Minister is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House on June 7 and address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8.

"I won't get ahead of the prime minister's agenda while he's here, and we obviously look forward to the visit. The US-India relationship is very important, vital, particularly there in the region," he said in response to a question.

"In terms of whether they're bilateral or multilateral discussions on issues like counterterrorism, I mean, obviously we support other countries speaking amongst themselves, whether it's in a multilateral or a bilateral fashion about what is a very shared threat not just in the region but globally," Kirby said.

PTI
'Modi's US visit is about consolidation, celebration of ties'

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Jun 2: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit next week at the invitation of President Barack Obama is about "consolidation" and "celebration" of bilateral ties, India's envoy to the US has said here.

"The invitation and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters yesterday ahead of Modi's visit to the White House next week.

Modi is scheduled to arrive at the Joint Airforce Base, Andrews on June 6 and is expected to spend a little over 50 hours in the American Capital.

While his schedule is still being given final shape by officials here, he is likely to lay wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery the afternoon of his arrival.

The Prime Minister is likely to stay at Blair House, the personal guest house of the US President on Pennsylvania Avenue across the White House.

Leaders of the two largest democracies of the world are scheduled to meet at the White House on June 7, which would include meetings at the delegation level and one-o-meeting, following which the two are likely to address mediapersons.

Thereafter Obama would host lunch for Modi. Later in the evening, Modi would interact with a select group of top American corporate leaders including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and address the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC) as part of his relentless effort to attract foreign direct investment in India.

"Another important dimension of his visit would be his address to the joint session of the Congress (on June 8)," the Indian Ambassador said. Modi is expected to spend some four hours at the Hill attending four back to back meetings.

He would be received by House Speaker Paul Ryan who decided to invite Modi for his first joint address to the Congress. Ryan would also host a lunch for him. Thereafter Modi would attend a rare reception hosted in his honour by the Senate and House foreign relations committees and the India Caucuses in the House and the Senate.

Some 400 people are likely to attend this reception.

"It is a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship with India. It is also a reflection of the value people attach to this relationship," Singh said.

Describing the visit as consolidation and celebration of relationship, Singh said "consolidating what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into next year" when there would be transition of administration in the US and to celebrate the achievements in the relationship," Singh said.

In a sense the new phase in Indo-US relationship started from 2000 with visit of the then President Bill Clinton to India. This was further consolidated by George Bush and Obama's visit to India twice.

Obama has described India-US relationship as the defining partnership of the 21st century, Singh said.

"His articulation of support for our permanent membership to the UN Security Council. US support to India's membership to the multilateral export control regimes. The advances we have made in defence partnership including through the defence trade and technology initiative where among the projects we are now looking at our projects related to aircraft career technology and jet engine technology," Singh said.

"So a lot of progress has been made in the two terms of President Obama. And then to celebrate that, see where we are and then launch it into the new administration. That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit," he said.

The US has repeatedly articulated that India is the net provider of security in that region, Singh said.

"The US sees India as not adversarial but as a very useful partner. So the visit is a reflection of that," he said.

Ahead of the visit, the two countries are likely to sign a series of agreements this week and early next week both in Washington and New Delhi. Some of them related to wildlife trafficking, global entry program.

Intense discussions are currently underway between Westinghouse and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to arrive at some kind of agreement before or during Modi's trip. The discussions are mostly believed to be in the domain of cost and financing.

With defence and security being one of the key issues of discussions, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter would call on him. Secretary of State John Kerry would be away in Beijing attending the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. During his visit, Modi is expected to participate in a ceremony for repatriation of 16 historic stolen items to India.

PTI
'India won't listen to anyone': Anurag Thakur gives strong reply to PCB

Pakistan off the FATFs grey List: What this means

Pakistan teacher arrested for blasphemy

International

oi-PTI

Lahore, June 1: A Pakistani schoolteacher has been arrested for allegedly making blasphemous comments in Punjab province.

The FIR was registered a couple of days ago against Gabreel Ahmed on the complaint of Bilal, his student's father, under Section 295-C (blasphemy) of the Pakistan Penal Code which carries the death penalty.

Senior police officer Sajjad Khan said that Ahmed, an Arabic language teacher at Government High School, Qasba Gormani, Muzaffargarh district, is accused of blasphemy. "Initially the police had arrested Ahmed for torturing Bilal's two sons of grade-VI in the school.

But later Bilal complained that Ahmed committed blasphemy and his sons endorsed his allegation. On this blasphemy sections have been included in the FIR," Khan said.

"We are thoroughly investigating the matter. However it is a sensitive matter," he said. Ahmed's colleagues told police that he did not commit blasphemy as Bilal had tried to settle scores with him for torturing his sons.

Rights groups allege that Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law is frequently misused to target minorities and to settle personal scores and disputes.

PTI
Pakistan's political dysfunction exploited by Jaish-e-Mohammad

International

oi-Vicky

Lahore, June 2: The Jaish-e-Mohammad one of the most dreaded terrorist outfits in the world has the capability of bringing Pakistan and India close to war.

It may be recalled that in the aftermath of the Parliament attack and the Srinagar assembly strike, the two countries had almost come to close to war.

The Jaish-e-Mohammad has clearly not been tamed by Pakistan. After Maulana Masood Azhar was released by India in exchange for the hostage aboard the IC-814, the then President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharaff had promised to arrest him.

Instead he went on to address a rally of 10,000 supporters and he called upon all Muslims not to rest until India and America are destroyed.

A report by the International Crisis Group rightly observes that beyond the support of the state (Pakistan) Jaish, much like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), also exploits opportunities provided by political dysfunction and inept governance.

Jaish exploits opportunities provided by political dysfunction:

The report by the ICJ states that "unlike the Lashkar-e-Tayiba the Jaish also has a domestic, jihadist agenda. Its manifesto specifies that in addition to jihad "against enemies of the faith" (minorities), it is "working to bring back the Muslims to the door of Islam".

Some of Pakistan's earliest suicide attacks were attributed to Jaish, including in March 2002 on an Islamabad church and August 2002 on a Christian school near Murree and a Christian missionary hospital in Taxila.

Some operatives, joining with transnational groups, including al-Qaeda, have turned on erstwhile benefactors.

In an al-Qaeda initiated December 2003 attack, some Jaish recruits in the Air Force tried to assassinate President Musharraf.

While the security agencies took action against individuals, they allowed the organisation and its leaders, who disowned the attack, to continue operating. Ongoing state support is evident in the manner in which Jaish was allowed to resurface.

Held responsible, with the LeT, by India for the 2008 Mumbai terror assault, Azhar kept a low profile for years but reappeared in January 2014. Despite an official ban on Jaish public activity, he held a large rally in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan-administered Kashmir's capital, where he called for jihad against India.

The foreign ministry spokesperson responded to Indian criticism by calling it a "one-time event".

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, June 2, 2016, 14:47 [IST]
PM Modi's US visit is about celebration of ties: Indian envoy

International

oi-PTI

Washington, June 2: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here next week is about "consolidation" and "celebration" of Indo-US ties and to take it forward into the new administration, India's envoy to the US has said.

"The invitation (by US President Barack Obama) and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters yesterday ahead of Modi's visit to the White House next week.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to arrive at the Joint Airforce Base, Andrews on June 6 and is expected to spend a little over 50 hours in the American capital. While his schedule is still being given the final shape by officials here, he is likely to lay wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery the afternoon of his arrival.

He is likely to stay at Blair House, the personal guest house of the US President on Pennsylvania Avenue across the White House. Leaders of the two largest democracies of the world are scheduled to meet at the White House on June 7, which would include meetings at the delegation level and one-o-meeting, following which the two are likely to address mediapersons. Thereafter Obama would host lunch for Modi. Later in the evening, Modi would interact with a select group of top American corporate leaders including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and address the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC) as part of his relentless effort to attract foreign direct investment in India.

"Another important dimension of his visit would be his address to the joint session of the Congress (on June 8)," the Indian Ambassador said. Modi is expected to spend some four hours at the Hill attending four back to back meetings.

He would be received by House Speaker Paul Ryan who decided to invite Modi for his first joint address to the Congress. Ryan would also host a lunch for him.

Thereafter Modi would attend a reception hosted in his honour by the Senate and House foreign relations committees and the India Caucuses in the House and the Senate. Some 400 people are likely to attend this reception.

"It is a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship with India. It is also a reflection of the value people attach to this relationship," Singh said.

Describing the visit as consolidation and celebration of relationship, Singh said "consolidating what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into next year" when there would be transition of administration in the US and to celebrate the achievements in the relationship," Singh said. "...a lot of progress has been made in the two terms of President Obama.

And then to celebrate that, see where we are and then launch it into the new administration. That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit," he said. Obama will demit office on January 20 next year after completing two consecutive terms as the US President.

PTI
Islamic State bomber detained in Russia for attempting attack in India was recruited through Telegram

Why India should get access to Islamic State bomber detained in Russia

Prosecutions story may be attractive but should be backed by evidence

Terror deaths down but IS still major threat: US report

International

oi-PTI

Washington, June 2: Despite a spate of bloody incidents that made global headlines, the total number of deaths in terrorist attacks fell last year by 14 percent, a US government report said today.

While the Islamic State group remains the major threat and carried out devastating attacks in France, Lebanon and Turkey -- violence and total deaths decreased in Pakistan, Iraq and Nigeria.

According to figures compiled for the US State Department, there were an average of 981 "terrorist attacks" per month worldwide in 2015, killing a total of 28,328 over the year.

This represents 13 percent fewer attacks and 14 percent fewer deaths than in 2014, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

But while the global picture could be seen as encouraging, the figures record huge increases in indiscriminate political violence in Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria and the Philippines. The START figures were released today as an annex to the State Department's annual strategic assessment -- "Country Reports on Terrorism" -- prepared for the US Congress.

This warned that the "global terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2015, becoming increasingly decentralized and diffuse." The report also placed some of the blame on nation states, warning that extremists exploit frustrations "where avenues for free and peaceful expression of opinion were blocked."

Iraq army start final operation against ISIS in Falluja

Where countries, including US allies, have rigged judicial systems and abuses by security forces and corrupt politicians go unchecked, violent non-state actors can win support. But the single greatest threat remains the Islamic State group and its growing legions of affiliates and supporters in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

The group has begun to lose ground to US-backed forces in its self-declared "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq, and it has begun to struggle to find funds, the report concludes.

But the IS group has expanded its territory in Libya, and its branch in Egypt's Sinai peninsula has gained strength, attacking local security forces and claiming the bombing of a Russian airliner.

The group has a small toehold in Afghanistan and in 2015 ordered or inspired attacks "by individuals or small groups of self-radicalized individuals in several cities around the world." AFP
180 Hindu organisations write to UK PM, say they are living in a state of fear

Prayers for peace and candles in UK Parliament to celebrate Diwali

'Want to fix economy, unite country': Rishi Sunak to run for Britain's PM again

Twitter restores Putin's parody account

International

oi-IANS

By Ians English

London, June 2: After facing much criticism for temporarily suspending the parody accounts of famous politicians, including President Vladimir Putin in Russia, micro-blogging website Twitter has reinstated all the accounts, a media report said.

The Russians were dismayed over the fact that they were being denied the satirical delights offered by these accounts, especially President Putin's.

On Tuesday, Twitter suspended parody accounts of President Putin @DarthPutinKGB and other Russian-themed parody accounts, including @SovietSergey -- a lampoon of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and @AmbYakovenkoNot -- which mocks the Russian ambassador to Britain, Alexander Yakovenko, BBC reported.

@DarthPutinKGB has 50,000-plus followers and its suspension in particular provoked much indignation from Twitter users and also plenty of humour.

Well-wishers tweeted their support for the suspended Darth and criticism of Twitter using the hashtag, #NoGulagforDarthPutinKGB.

While, former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov accused Twitter of "taking lessons on censorship from the Kremlin", the editor of the Moscow Times opinionated: "Among Darth's high-profile supporters were the real Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves."

When contacted by journalists over Darth's suspension, Twitter refused to comment on the case and referred them to its rules on parody accounts.

These state that accounts should "indicate that the user is not affiliated with the account subject by stating a word such as 'parody', 'fake', 'fan', or 'commentary', and be done so in a way that would be understood by the intended audience", the report said.

Meanwhile, Darth's bio on the restored account remains the same as it was before the suspension: "146 percent of Russians didn't elect me. You don't visit Russia, I visit you. I serve tea to those that call this parody. Tweets made topless signed vvp."

IANS


Even if not contesting 2020 polls, Hillary Clinton will not be entirely out of scene

Hillary Clinton says Julian Assange must 'answer for what he has done'

US: Hillary Clinton to attack Donald Trump on foreign policy

International

oi-PTI

Washington, Jun 2: Hillary Clinton is set to unleash a major foreign policy attack on Donald Trump, using a speech in San Diego to cast the Republican as unqualified and dangerous.

The former secretary of state, who has repeatedly called Trump a "loose cannon," will seek on Thursday to contrast her foreign policy experience with Trump's.

Hillary Clinton makes final push in runup to New Jersey primary

Foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan said Clinton would make clear how high the stakes are in the race, as well as share her "larger vision of who we are, what we're all about as a country."

"She is going to make clear why Donald Trump is simply unqualified to be commander in chief," Sullivan said, adding that the speech "will go into specifics in a very direct and clear way about what makes Donald Trump unfit, both in terms of temperament and ideas. This is as full-throated and full-bodied a case as you will have seen from anyone on the danger that Donald Trump poses."

During an appearance in Newark, New Jersey yesterday, Clinton assailed Trump over his past statements, criticising him for proposing to ban Muslims from entering the country, for advocating the use of torture and for saying other countries should acquire nuclear weapons.

"This is not just divisive rhetoric, my friends, this is dangerous," Clinton said. "What he has already said has given aid and comfort to terrorists."

Trump accused Clinton of lying about his foreign policy plans at a rally at an airport hangar in Sacramento, California, last night. "She lies. She made a speech and she's making another one tomorrow. And they sent me a copy of the speech and it was such lies about my foreign policy," Trump said.

Email controversy won't affect my White House bid: Hillary Clinton

"They said I want Japan ... to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break," he objected. "I want Japan and Germany and Saudi Arabia and South Korea and many of the NATO nations a they owe us tremendous. We're taking care of all these people. And what I want them to do is pay up."

Trump has suggested in the past that he might be OK with Japan one day obtaining nuclear weapons. Clinton's campaign hopes her foreign policy experience will appeal to voters who may be wary of Trump's bombastic style and lack of international experience.

They hope those points, combined with Trump's controversial statements about women and minorities, will give Clinton opportunities with independent and moderate Republican voters.

In recent days, Clinton has criticised Trump over his past business practices, his recent promises to raise money for veterans and his now defunct education company, Trump University.

On Wednesday Clinton called Trump a "fraud" and said the real estate mogul had taken advantage of vulnerable Americans.

Trump has pushed back against the critiques. On the education company, he has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings.

PTI
Fire breaks out at industrial estate in Mumbai, no one hurt

28-year-old killed for 'staring' at a man; three arrested

'Ram Setu' movie review: Here's what audience say about Akshay-starrer

'Thank God' movie review: Check what audience say about Devgn-starrer

Mumbai: Two men get 6-month imprisonment for manhandling traffic cop

Rupee gains 26 paise to 82.62 against US dollar in early trade

Fire breaks out at a textile dying unit in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi

Mumbai

oi-Shalini

Mumbai, June 2: A major fire broke out on Thursday, (June 2) early morning at a textile dying unit in Bhiwandi.

According to report, the incident took place at around 3 am and there were no causalities reported till now. However, the entire dying unit was gutted.

At least 12 fire tenders including some from neighbouring Thane, Ulhasnagar, Kalyan and Ambernath were pressed into service," Datta Salvi, Chief Fire Officer of Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation, said. however, the cooling operations are underway.

The cause of fire is yet to be ascertained.

"As a precautionary measure, people from a four-storey residential building adjacent to the unit were evacuated and shifted to safer places," Salvi said.

#WATCH: Fire at a textile dying unit in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi in early morning hours, fire fighting ops continue.https://t.co/HnSMr64ATF  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

Maharashtra: Fire broke out at a textile dying unit in Bhiwandi in early morning hours, fire fighting ops continue pic.twitter.com/SICQH29cKO  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

OneIndia News
Rs 5 lakh aid for kin of Pulgaon fire victims

Mumbai

oi-PTI

Mumbai, June 1: Maharashtra government has decided to give a financial aid of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh each to the injured in the yesterday's Pulgaon Central Ammunition Depot fire incident.

The toll in the devastating fire rose to 19 today. State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who is also Guardian Minister of Wardha district where the depot is located, has given direction to carry out inspection of damage caused to the houses and other properties in the adjoining villages in the blasts which followed the fire.

He has also directed the civil surgeons to conduct health camps in the affected villages, official sources said.

PTI
Sushma Swaraj appeals to people, says 'Tell Africans India loves you'

New Delhi

oi-Sandra

New Delhi, June 2: After the recent attacks on African students in the country, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday appealed to everybody to make them feel comfortable.

Swaraj took to Twitter and appealed: "I appeal to fellow Indians. Next time you meet an African citizen, pls shake hand and say 'India loves you'."

Sushma meets African students, assures full security

I appeal to fellow Indians. Next time you meet an African citizen, pl shake hand and say 'India loves you'.

Pl RT  Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 2, 2016

This comes after a Congolese man was beaten to death in the national capital. The incident drew criticism not just from across the country but envoys of African nations who were in Delhi.

Swaraj also thanked Rajnath Singh, Lt Guv Najeeb Jung, Commissioner of Police Alok Verma for organising a meeting with a delegation of African students.

Following the death of the Congolese national, there were other incidents of attacks on African students, one including from Hyderabad which caused widespread anger among the community.

However following the meeting, Swaraj assured them of their security and offered complete support.

OneIndia News
US senator cautions India on intolerance, human rights ahead of PM Modi's visit

New Delhi

oi-Shubham

New Delhi, June 2: US Senator Ben Cardin on Thuresday said while the US is looking forward to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington on June 4, India needs to address issues like extra-judicial killings, human trafficking and religious intolerance.

The tough report card by Cardin---a ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee---is bound to create some inconvenience in the Indian establishment ahead of Modi's visit.

Speaking at the University of Chicago Centre in Delhi, Cardin said the way a nation treats its women is a barometer. He also quoted from the 2016 Global Slavery Index which was released on Wednesday (June 1), saying India has an alarming trafficking record because of the rise of forced labour in the last three years and it now involves 18 million people.

The senator also said that tackling corruption in a more effective way will also help India address these issues.

Cardin, who is known to be vocal on these issues, had raised them at a recent hearing of the foreign relations panel, where the senators spoke to US diplomat Nisha Desai Biswal, who looks after the Indo-US relations at the US state department.

Cardin's remarks came just weeks after the state department backed the report of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom which charged India with rising instances of religious violence and a curb on religious freedoms in 2015.

India rejected the findings, saying the commission lacked understanding of the Indian society or culture.

Oneindia News
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Bihar's Gopalganj by-poll to see a tough fight between BJP and RJD

Bihar scribe's murder: Shahabuddin's close aid Laddan Miyan surrenders

Patna

oi-Shalini

Patna, June 1: In a fresh development in Bihar journalist Rajdeo Rajan's murder case in last month, key accused Ladden Miyan, a close aid of former RJD MP Shahabuddin, surrendered before chief judicial magistrate's court in Siwan on Thursday, June 2.

On May 13, Rajdeo Ranjan, bureau chief of a Hindi daily, was shot dead by unidentified men and since than, Ladden Miyan was wanted by Bihar police in connection with the case.

Earlier, Sunil Kumar, ADGP Bihar police had said that "the five men were engaged by contract killer Mian, known to be close to former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin."

"Rajan was shot dead from very close distance," Kumar said.

According to report, Miyan was released from a Bihar jail just 15 days before Rajan's murder.

Five shots were fired at him from a very close range nearby Siwan railway station and Rajan was rushed to the hospital where he has been declared brought dead.

The killing in Bihar drew nation-wide critiscism against Nitish Kumar government for failing to control the law and order in the state. Later, the Bihar police started investigation in the case.

Bihar: Laddan Miyan, key accused in Journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case & close aide of Shahabuddin, surrenders pic.twitter.com/ro3rcs8uWD  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

OneIndia News
Kerala CM accuses Gov of 'acting as RSS tool' on his order to VCs to resign

Lotus 'blooms' in Kerala Assembly as BJP's Rajagopal takes oath

Thiruvananthapuram

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Thiruvananthapuram, June 2: The 'lotus' finally bloomed on the floor of the Kerala assembly when 86-year-old veteran BJP leader O. Rajagopal took oath as a legislator on Thursday.

The first session of the 14th Kerala assembly opened on Thursday, and the day was devoted to the swearing-in of members. The two-day session ends on Friday, which has been kept for the election of the speaker.

In the May 16 assembly poll, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Democratic Front swept the polls winning 91 seats, with the rival Congress-led United Democratic Front ending up with 47.

CPI-M leader Pinarayi Vijayan, 72, was sworn in along with 18 cabinet ministers on May 25.

The LDF and UDF had time and again claimed in their poll campaign that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not win a single seat in the polls.

On Thursday morning, Rajagopal was the cynosure of all eyes when along with party workers he paid tribute at the statues of Vivekananda, Ayyankali, Martyrs Column and made a quick tour of his Nemom assembly constituency.

Rajagopal took his seat next to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the front row.

Watching him take the oath was his state party president Kummanem Rajasekheran and other senior leaders of the party.

"I will work as a responsible and constructive opposition legislator in the floor of the assembly," said Rajagopal.

The 139 legislators of the assembly were sworn in by pro-tem Speaker and senior CPI-M legislator S. Sarma.

The legislators were sworn in according to the alphabetical order.

The ruling LDF has named two-time legislator P. Sreeramakrishnan as its candidate for Speaker, while the opposition UDF has decided to field young legislator V.P. Sajeendran as their candidate.

Though the victory of Sreeramakrishnan is a foregone conclusion, all eyes are on the stand to be taken by Rajagopal and seven-time legislator P.C. George, who in the past was with the LDF and UDF but this time won the polls as an independent candidate.

The new house has 83 legislators, who were members in the 13th Kerala Assembly, while 44 are new faces. Thirteen lawmakers are returning after a gap. There are eight women in the treasury benches, while there are none in the opposition benches.

IANS


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High Costs Drive Odobo out of Business

Published June 2, 2016 by Florin P

Odobo closes shop, unable to cope with the high cost of business.

Even the best things eventually come to an end, leaving nothing more than good memories behind. For five straight years, Odobo has provided online casinos with quality software and great looking games compatible with mobile devices. That is why, when the news broke out about the software developer shutting down, many were surprised and even more were disappointed to see them go for good.

Money Makes the World Go Round

Odobo made a name for itself by producing HTML 5 games for online casinos, since 2011 when they opened shop. They had an interesting idea and set high goals for themselves, to revolutionize the way casino games are created, distributed and marketed. Online gambling operators embraced their products and millions of players enjoyed these games, in both real and virtual money formats.

Odobo officials announced that the company was unable to keep up with the rising costs and had no choice but to shut down on May 31st. Financial problems arose in 2015, but they were hoping that their fortunes will change and a mighty investor will arrive just in time to save the company. Unfortunately, this didnt happen and with the resources almost extinguished, they have to bid their customers goodbye.

Odobo Provided Games to Major Online Casinos

Bet365, Betfair, Gala Coral Group, Unibet and Mr Green Casino are just some of the most prominent gambling operators using games produced by Odobo. The fact that a software developer catering for clients of this magnitude can be driven out of business by high costs is sending shivers down the spine of their peers.

Many will be affected by the fact that Odobo couldnt deal with the cost-related challenges, including key clients and partners. The fast changing regulatory environment also took its toll, as the company needed a significant influx of capital to survive.


Harambe is pictured in this undated handout photo provided by Cincinnati Zoo.

(Image by Cincinnati Zoo) Details DMCA



In may 2016, a five-year-old child purposefully crawled into a gorilla cage (no euphemisms here like 'enclosure;' it's clearly a cage) at the Cincinnati Zoo. The parents were apparently oblivious. [i] They were clearly failing at their responsibilities. This is beyond doubt, because others heard the child saying that he wanted to go into the cage to play in the water. This should have prompted the parents to pay special attention to the child. However, it apparently did not.

What happened after was predictable. Male gorillas are protective of young creatures, including human children. Thus, the male gorilla, Harambe, took control of the situation. The screaming people agitated the situation further. Mostly Harambe seemed to be protecting the small child. He did drag the child through the water twice, but this seemed to be to move the child away from all the screaming people. There was no aggression displayed specifically towards the child. Nevertheless, the decision was made to shoot the gorilla dead.

Was this the right decision? There are many facts that are relevant that we do not know. However, there is an important philosophical assumption underpinning the Zoo's decision which we are in a position to question. The justification for killing Harambe to protect the child is implicit in this quote from the Zoo's director, Thane Maynard: [ii]

(The officials) made a tough choice and they made the right choice because they saved that little boy's life. It could have been very bad.

Maynard is basically saying it was the right choice to kill the gorilla, because doing so saved the child's life. The implicit assumption is obvious: human children are more valuable than gorillas. Questioning this is important, because the belief that humans are more valuable than animals is the foundation of not only the killing of Harambe but also could be used, at least in principle, to justify the destruction of animal habitats, the absence of humane conditions for caged animals, and other related evils.

One might think that humans get to be more valuable than animals simply by being human. On this view, humans are intrinsically just more valuable. This, of course, is a dangerous way of thinking. We can, in theory, justify whatever we want by appealing to such intrinsic features of belonging to a certain category. For example, we could use it to justify racism against blacks by saying that whites are just intrinsically better, because they are in the category of 'the white race.' This shows that such reasoning is inherently problematic and hence must be abandoned. So, what we need is to find something further about humans that makes us more valuable.

The most obvious further thing one might cite to justify our superiority is our being the most intelligent species. Now, the child, being five-years-old, was probably not smarter than Harambe. He wasn't smart enough not to crawl into a cage with gorillas! But what if it had been an adult? Is an adult of average or above average intelligence necessarily more valuable than a gorilla? I think it's clear that the answer is 'no.' Suppose the adult was Harold Shipman, the serial killer, and the gorilla was Harambe, a relatively peaceful creature. [iii] Who is more valuable? Clearly Harambe. This shows that humans do not get to be more valuable than animals simply by being more intelligent. What we do and how we act matters.

Humans have more potential than animals, because we are smarter. So, perhaps the potential to do good provides a reason to believe that humans are more valuable. The problem with this is that humans also have the potential to do far worse things than animals. No gorilla ever nuked and killed 100s of thousands of people. No gorilla has ever systematically murdered entire ethnic groups. Humans have. So, potential alone would seem as if it cannot provide a reason to prefer humans over animals. The potential to do evil, at best, cancels out the potential to do good, and so potential alone provides no reason to prefer humans over animals.

We might instead talk of likelihood. What about the claim that humans are more likely to make good contributions to the world than animals? Is this true? I have no idea how to even begin to analyze this in detail. Humans certainly do a lot of harm to each other and the world, including to other animals. We are currently the main factor behind the sixth mass extinction of animal life. [iv] Regardless, if likelihood to do good is what's relevant, then we have to look at things on a case by case basis. Some humans may be more likely to do good than some animals, but not every human is more likely to do good than every animal. In the case of the child and Harambe, it would seem that the odds are not clearly in the child's favor. A gorilla in a Zoo, one might argue, does a great deal of good educating the public. It is true that the animal is not praiseworthy for this in its entirety, but he is praiseworthy for remaining in a mental state where he could perform this role despite living in captivity. Zoo's must take their toll on wild animals, especially relatively intelligent ones like apes who are aware of their captivity (a consequence may be that we should not have Zoo's).

In sum, what we can see is that humans do not get to be more valuable than animals simply by being human. It depends on the animal and the person. More generally, it depends on humans as a whole and how we act. Humans have great potential. We are capable of being more valuable than animals generally, but it is unclear given our track record whether we are more valuable. In fact, it is clear that many humans are less valuable than gorillas because of the harm they they do to the world and animal life and to other humans. So, despite what many of us may believe, we do not get to be more valuable just by being human. We have to earn our value.

Notes

[i]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/29/ohio-zoo-kills-gorilla-to-protect-small-child-in-enclosure/

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For its commercial and political implications, the Chabahar Port deal with Iran marks the finest achievement yet of Narendra Modi's global engagements.

The commercial implications are obvious--India was hemmed in by Pakistan's intransigence to refuse direct trade between India and Afghanistan and China's One Belt One Road (OBOR) vision had the potential to clamp manacles on India's ankles.

In one stroke, India has freed itself from the curfew and it could now entertain visions of trade and infrastructure links with Middle East and Central Asia and still further with Russia and Europe.

Let's take up the bare details before we look at the wider implications and how Pakistan, China and United States, the other key players in the region, would react to it--Afghanistan, as we know from the history of Hindu Kush in the colonial times, is a prized land. So far it was its geographical location but now is the promise of immense mineral wealth which, according to Geological Survey of United States, could be worth as much as $1 trillion, due to its iron, copper, cobalt, gold and lithium potential.

Afghanistan, unfortunately, has always attracted predators who couldn't care less about the welfare of Afghan people; who could go to any length to destabilize it in order to retain a degree of control over the cursed land. United States, on one pretext or another, stays put in the name of eliminating terrorism while, as everybody knows, promoting the same in cohort with Saudi Arabia, and not long ago, Pakistan.

The birth of modern terrorism occurred in the wake of Soviet Union's departure from Afghanistan as United States planted mujahideen, with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia providing men, resources and ground support. The country was soon in chaos, split between war lords of one camp or other, and the lure of illicit heroin trade, which by a conservative estimate is second only to oil and gas in volume, has kept them involved. They aren't going to leave the country in our lifetimes.

Afghanistan thus has every reason to distrust Pakistan--after all its bete noire Osama bin Laden and Mullah Mohammad Omar were traced there--and by inference United States. It sure receives significant infrastructural aid from China but so tied are the fortunes of the Middle Kingdom with Pakistan that Kabul can't ignore the political implications.

India has diligently nurtured its ties with Afghanistan. Since 2001, it has provided Afghanistan with $2 billion development assistance. In December last year, Modi inaugurated Afghan parliament built on India's aid of 90 million dollars. It has contributed $300 million on Salma dam and hydroelectric power plant at Herat which Modi is expected to inaugurate next month. In 2009, India had built a 217-km highway costing $100 million that links Zaranj with Delaram, located on Afghanistan-Iran border. From there, the local road connects to Chabahar.

India has always worried over its energy supply, most of which emanates from the Middle East. It receives 57 percent of its crude oil from the Middle East which would only increase manifolds in the coming years. Saudi Arabia is its biggest supplier but knowing the close equation between the Arab kingdom and Pakistan, India has always been keen to get Iran on its side. The latter, for this very reason--after all the Middle East conundrum is largely a tussle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran for dominance in Muslim world--seeks a natural affinity with India. Both nations have close cultural and historical ties. Persian was the official language of the Mughal Empire in the 16th century.

Chabahar is located on the Gulf of Oman, just 80km away from Gwadar which is the cornerstone of China's pivot to Pakistan. Chabahar is just 299km east of world's most critical passageway for oil tankers, the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran urgently wants this port to work as 85 percent of its seaborne traffic is managed by its Bandar Abbas port in the Strait of Hormuz. However, this port can only handle 100,000-metric ton ships. Large ships first offload at the Jebel Ali port in the United Arab Emirates en route to Iran. In contrast, Chabhar is a deep-water port and could process large ships. Chabahar would also allow both India and Iran to access large parts of Africa, Asia, Arabia and Australasia.

India has so far committed $500 million on the Chabahar project. It's also assisting the 500-km rail link between Chabahar-Zahedan-Zaranj. The free trade zone of Chabahar could also encourage investment by its industries in urea, smelter and aluminium etc. In 2012, India had already used the port to transport a 100,000 metric ton shipment of wheat to Afghanistan.

According to the JV plans, India will develop two berths in Chabahar, one to handle container traffic and the other a multi-purpose cargo terminal. The MoU includes the sea-land access route to Afghanistan. India has plans to build a road-railroad network from Chabahar to Milak in Iran which in turn would link up the Indian-built 223-km Zaranj-Delaram road in Afghanistan.

India has also allayed worries on Iran's part over its pending $6.5 billion payment. It has begun the process of payment in Euros, as requested by Turkey's Halkbank. A cash-strapped Iran urgently needs investment and repayment of dues.

It's a win-win all situation for all three nations. Both India and Iran are surrounded by hostile powers; both need avenues to grow. Afghanistan would finally be able to access the Indian Ocean.




Two and a half months ago, asked by award-winning playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda about imprisoned Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar Lopez Rivera - whose only crime, according to Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is "conspiracy to free his people from the shackles of imperial justice" - President Barack Obama told the Hamilton creator that he "had [the case] on his desk." Miranda, whose parents hail from Puerto Rico, used his invitation to the White House to bring up the issue of Lopez Rivera's continued incarceration, which is of tremendous importance to Puerto Ricans. Both on the island and in the diaspora, freedom for the 73-year-old political prisoner enjoys overwhelming popular support and has united people across the political spectrum.



Sunday marked the 35th anniversary that Lopez was imprisoned. He was convicted in 1981 of "seditious conspiracy" for trying to overthrow the U.S. government by force, as well as minor charges including possession of firearms and transporting stolen vehicles across state lines. Lopez was acussed of holding a leadership position in the FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional Puertoriqquena), a Puerto Rican nationalist organization, which he did not admit to but did not dispute. The group claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in Chicago and New York during the 1970s and 1980s, though as the Chicago Tribune noted the bombings were carried out "to damage property rather than persons" and the FALN "were out to call attention to their cause rather than to shed blood."



Lopez was never personally tied to any bombing or any other act of violence that resulted in the death or injury of any person. Undoubtedly, if the government possessed any evidence of his participation in, or organization of, a violent act they would have charged him with it in court. But they merely charged him with conspiracy to commit sedition, the same political charged used by the apartheid South African government to convict Nelson Mandela two decades earlier. Lopez has now served seven more years in prison than Mandela did before being freed and becoming South Africa's first post-apartheid President.





"Without any representation in Congress or a vote in Presidential elections, Puerto Ricans have their political rights subjugated to the U.S. government. Even on an issue as popular among Puerto Ricans as the release of Oscar Lopez, they have no recourse to participate in the political process at the federal level. There is no indication that Obama intends to even respond to Lopez's clemency plea, much less grant it. In his speech at Nelson Mandela's funeral, Obama said that 'around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs.' The overwhelming opinion among Puerto Ricans is that this description applies precisely to Lopez. The disregard that Obama has shown for recognizing the will of Puerto Ricans to free Oscar Lopez demonstrates the uphill challenges Puerto Ricans face to shed their second-class status and obtain equal rights. If the President refuses even to grant a simple pardon, what chance do Puerto Ricans have of the U.S. government acting on the 2012 referendum and allowing them to achieve self-determination?"

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Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Rob Kall's book, Bottom-Up: Tapping the Power of the Connection Revolution has really caused me to relook and reframe many of my thoughts on where our connectedness using social media tools like LinkedIn is headed, and not just for career trajectory but for life. If you are looking for a new perspective on our sometimes zany digital world we live in, this book will keep you reading and may ultimately revise but for sure challenge your current paradigm."



Wayne Breitbarth, author of The Power Formula for Linkedin Success: Kick-Start Your Business, Brand, and Job Search
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Prchard Parks Maya Clinard Orchard Parks Maya Clinard, far right, took runner-up in singles at this past weekends Section VI Girls Tennis Championships at...

Boys soccer peaking into sectionals It was not an ideal start to the 2022 season for the Orchard Park boys soccer team, dropping its first...
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Midland Police are warning motorists of a road blockage that will occur sometime between 6 and 10 a.m. Saturday.

The blockage will be caused by a wide load semi truck transport moving through the southern part of the city. The transport will enter the city on Salzburg Road, move west to South Saginaw Road, north to James Savage Road, then head east to its final destination on James Savage Road.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department.

Monday, May 30

1:52 a.m.  Deputies were sent to a Homer Township address for a report of a teenager who was home alone and thought someone was inside. The home and surrounding areas were checked and no one was found.

7:48 a.m.  Gasoline, valued at $20, was stolen from a Greendale Township gas station.

9:56 a.m.  A deputy was sent to a Geneva Township home for a report of a missing child, age 2. The parents located the child before deputies arrived.

11:01 a.m.  A deputy was sent to a Greendale Township campground for a report that a neighbors dogs made a mess by tearing up the trash. No loose dogs were found in the area.

11:06 a.m.  Police made arrests or obstructing justice and a probation violation in the 5100 block of Eastman Avenue.

11:42 a.m.  A Bay County man, 62, hit low hanging cable wires in Larkin Township while driving his tractor.

12:16 p.m.  A Cadillac man, 53, was arrested in Jerome Township for driving while his license was revoked. He was stopped for speeding.

12:46 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Ingersoll Township for a report of possible drug activity. Nothing was found.

1:37 p.m.  A Lee Township woman, 63, reported an online scam after sending a $100 money order to a person she did not know who claimed to be working for a federal government agency.

8:08 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Midland Township for a complaint about target shooting. The range was found to be safe.

8:11 p.m.  A motorist was arrested at Bay City Road and Waldo Avenue for drunken driving.

9:40 p.m.  Police made an arrest for drunken driving at eastbound U.S. 10 and Waldo Road.

10:11 p.m.  A Detroit man, 22, was cited for driving without insurance after his car caught fire on U.S. 10 in Jerome Township.

10:22 p.m.  A deputy was called to a Coleman park for a report of a 19-year-old woman who used fireworks there. No violations were found.

10:23 p.m.  A 75-year-old Mills Township man reported a noisy ATV pass his home numerous times. The operator, a 14-year-old boy, was spoken to regarding ATV use laws.

10:28 p.m.  A deputy was sent to a report of a loud party in Coleman.

11:38 p.m.  A motorist was arrested at Sturgeon Avenue and Valorie Lane for driving on a suspended license.

Sunday, May 29

12:28 a.m.  Police made arrests for domestic assault, a personal protection order violation, and resisting and obstructing police at an East Ellsworth Street address.

12:27 p.m.  A deputy saw a strap break and a dresser roll off a utility trailer while driving on M-20 in Homer Township. The deputy blocked traffic and helped secure the dresser.

3:55 p.m.  An Ingersoll Township woman, 59, reported a problem with a drainage pipe and nearby farm property. She was asked to contact the Midland County Drain Commission for an opinion on the matter.

4:40 p.m.  Property in Homer Township sustained $50 damage.

6:35 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Lee Township for a report of a man walking in the roadway, and found an intoxicated Midland man, 50, who was trying to walk home. He was given a ride home.

9:26 p.m.  A deputy was called to Lee Township for a report of ATVs being driven on a roadway. The driver of an ATV, a 23-year-old Mount Haley Township man, was educated on ATV laws.

10:54 p.m.  A Midland man, 20, and Jerome Township man, 21, are suspected of damaging a Jerome Township homes mailbox. Damage is set at $20. A report is being sent to the prosecutor.

11:18 p.m.  Property was stolen from the 4600 block of Hancock Street. Police also investigated alcohol violations in the same block.

Saturday, May 28

12:46 a.m.  A motorist was arrested at North Waldo Road and Diamond Drive for driving on a suspended license.

1 a.m.  Deputies cited three females, ages 17, 18 and 19, for being minors in possession of alcohol in Lincoln Township.

2:13 a.m.  A deputy was sent to Mount Haley Township for a report of shiners, and the complaint was handed over to DNR police officers.

5:08 a.m.  A motorist was arrested for driving on a suspended license after a crash at Isabella Street and Currie Parkway.

12:52 p.m.  Police investigated a case of retail fraud in the 1900 block of South Saginaw Road.

1:42 p.m.  A Lee Township woman, 26, reported someone opened her mail at her previous home. She made the report after being arrested for driving on a suspended license without receiving notice of the suspension. She also said she hadnt changed her address to get her mail forwarded for two months after moving.

2:13 p.m.  A deputy assisted a trooper with a traffic stop on eastbound U.S. 10 near Stark Road.

3:08 p.m.  A deputy was called to a Jerome Township location by a 28-year-old man who reported another person left behind a worm container. The container appeared to be trash and the deputy placed it in a waste receptacle.

5:31 p.m.  A Larkin Township man, 51, reported he suspected unknown people of entering his home and photographing his documents.

5:31 p.m.  Police investigated a domestic assault and sexual assault at a city home.

7:27 p.m. A 56-year-old man was arrested on a warrant after a deputy was called to a Midland Township home for an argument.

7:32 p.m.  A motorist was arrested at Waldo Avenue and East Ashman Street for an improper plate.

8:22 a.m.  Deputies were sent to Edenville Township for a report of trespassing that occurred when people fishing off a private dock without permission refused to leave. They left after the resident called 911.

9:02 p.m.  A Midland man, 40, was hurt in a motorcycle crash in Mills Township. He was found to be driving while his license was suspended and a report is being sent to the prosecutors office.

9:08 p.m.  A vehicle sustained $1,000 damage when it was struck by another vehicle while it was parked in an Ingersoll Township parking lot. The hit and run cash is being investigated.

9:23 p.m.  Property, valued at a total of $850, was stolen from a Lee Township home.

9:25 p.m.  Police were sent to the 1000 block of Wyllys Street for a fireworks complaint.

9:44 p.m.  Police were sent to Lambros Drive and Fernside Street for a fireworks complaint.

11:05 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Jerome Township for a domestic assault involving a man and woman, ages 48 and 29. Both stated the assault was mutual. A report is being submitted to the prosecutor.

11:10 p.m.  Police were sent to the 2000 block of Cleveland Avenue for a fireworks complaint.

11:23 p.m.  Property was stolen from the 900 block of West Allen Street.

Friday, May 27

4:42 a.m.  A deputy assisted police with a report of a person wearing a hospital gown and pushing a wheelchair in a roadway.

10:34 a.m.  A deputy investigated a referral from the Department of Health and Human Services regarding an assault involving a 10-year-old in Midland Township.

8:34 p.m.  A deputy was sent to Lincoln Township for a dispute between two neighbors regarding the placement of a garage sale sign.

11:08 p.m.  A deputy was called to Mills Township for a report of two unwanted visitors.
The guided-missile destroyers USS Decatur (DDG 73) and USS Momsen (DDG 92) conducted bilateral exercises with the Republic of Korea Navy in the waters around the Korean Peninsula, May 20-22 and 25.The exercises were focused on defense-oriented, naval training evolutions designed to conduct maritime maneuvers and strengthen the U.S.-ROK alliance, while also improving regional security.Decatur and Momsen, along with Commander, Destroyer Squadron 31, are part of a Pacific Surface Action Group, operating under operational control of U.S. 3rd Fleet."Conducting the exercises with the Republic of Korea Navy has been great for the PAC SAG Sailors and for the alliance between the two navies," said Capt. Charles Johnson, commander, Destroyer Squadron 31. "The ability to utilize various communication channels during the exercises has increased the ROK Navy's readiness to participate in future exercises with the U.S. and other partner nations."Over the course of several days, the two countries performed various evolutions, such as anti-submarine warfare, maneuvering drills, and gunnery exercises. One of the events held consisted of an ROK visit, board, search, and seizure team coming aboard Momsen and conducting a training drill with the ship's team."It was exciting to work with them and form bonds," said Ens. Nicholas Compton, a Momsen VBSS officer. "It was inspirational seeing boarding team members trading patches with one another and using similar tactics as us. They were just as pumped to handle the equipment as our guys."The U.S. Navy maintains a presence in the Indo Asia-Pacific region to help preserve peace and security and to further partnerships with friends and allies. The forward presence contributes to freedom of navigation and lawful use of the sea, as well as furthers operational training and enables an exchange of culture, skills, and tactical knowledge.The guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) and embarked "Devil Fish" and "Warbirds" detachments of Helicopter Strike Squadron (HSM) 49 are also part of the PAC SAG. Spruance is underway conducting Oceania Maritime Security Initiative operations. OMSI is a Department of Defense initiative, in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard, to provide enforcement against illegal fishing and poaching in economic exclusive zones.Under the operational control of U.S. 3rd Fleet, the PAC SAG is scheduled to conduct routine patrols, maritime security operations, and theater cooperation activities to enhance regional security and stability.U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy.For more information on the ships please visit http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg73/Pages/default.aspx andFor more information, visit http://www.navy.mil http://www.facebook.com/usnavy , or http://www.twitter.com/usnavy For more news from Navy Public Affairs Support Element, visit http://www.navy.mil/local/npasehq/
BLOOMINGTON  For the past eight springs, local fans of punk have been served up a literal movable feast of sounds.

The Midwest Punkfest, which modestly debuted in 2009, has traveled from downtown Bloomingon to Uptown Normal and back again.

Over the course of its travels, it has grown bigger and, says its creator, better, keeping the punk mindset alive and well and wreaking some much-needed "rock and roll mayhem."

This year's eighth edition, Friday and Saturday at The Bistro in downtown Bloomington, is ramping up the amps, to the tune of nearly 30 bands, including headliner Masked Intruder.

"It all began as a way to bring my favorite bands to Bloomington since they rarely played here," says organizer Jeremy Plue, late of Bloomington-Normal's resident punk purveyors Hidden Agenda and a longtime lover of the edgy genre.

The year was 2009; the venue, downtown Bloomington's now-defunct Coconut Louie's.

Plue's mission: "I'm just going to invite some bands to play and make it a cool night of punk music."

Mission accomplished, even if it had a relatively modest roster of five or six bands, Hidden Agenda included, mainly from around Illinois.

"It actually seemed pretty well-received," Plue says, which assured a second Punkfest, also at Coconut Louie's, but now with a band roster upped to "eight or nine."

Growing bigger "was something I knew I wanted to do, even though I didn't have the knowledge then of how to set up a larger show," he recalls.

What he did have was the passion for punk, not only as music form, but also as an attitude ... a lifestyle, in fact.

It was instilled him at a young age by the musical and skateboard culture leanings of an older brother and cousin, steering him away from prevailing pop and hip-hop trends ... deep into the underground.

"I didn't hang out with them; they were five or six years older than me, but in my teen years I always kept my eye on what they were doing, which seemed so cool to me."

By 22, Plue was working at downtown Bloomington's Illinios Brewing Co., where his job brought him into close contact with a steady stream of bands and eventually into his own as Hidden Agenda, which he describes as "more pop-punk, with subject matter ranging from funny stories to angry protests."

All of which fueled the fire that created Midwest Punkfest.

By its third year, Coconut Louie's "was winding down and ready to close, which forced us to find a new venue," Plue says.

Having just performed a well-received CD release show with Hidden Agenda at the Castle Theatre, Plue figured it would be a logical step to transplant the fest there.

And it was, for Punkfests 3 and 4, where the band numbers rose to a dozen and the hours expanded from early afternoon through midnight.

Figuring the fest probably worked best in a smaller club setting, where casual coming and going were allowed, the fest traveled north to The Firehouse in Uptown Normal for Nos. 5 through 7.

"That eventually became the hub of everything punk happening in Bloomington-Normal, with the big bands touring through there," Plue notes.

For last year's 25-band-strong fest, something new was tried, tied to Plue's new job of booking the live talent playing The Bistro back in downtown Bloomington, where it all began: half the fest was at The Firehouse, half at The Bistro.

"What I like about The Bistro is its all-inclusive environment, in which anybody can come and feel welcome," he says. "Mama (owner Jan Lancaster) has opened up the stage and let me do what I want with it. To me, The Bistro has now become THE punk spot in Bloomington-Normal."

For this year's 30-act strong event, Plue is encouraging those with all music tastes to give the fest a try, since the punk attitude is what counts, regardless of whether it is permeating rock or country or pop or any point in between.

"It really runs the gamut," he adds.
CLINTON  On his way to a 7 a.m. meeting in the Nuclear Support Annex, a big conference room with seating for all of the 700 employees of the Clinton Power Station, Christian Small knew what was coming.

At that meeting, Brian Hanson, the president and chief nuclear officer at Exelon Nuclear Partners, a subsidiary of Exelon Corp., announced the news that the employees had been preparing for over the past year: The Clinton Power Station would move forward with plans to shut down on June 1, 2017, given the lack of progress on energy-subsidy legislation in Springfield.

We tried to hold onto hope that there would be some hope for us, but we all knew the closure was inevitable, said Small, the manager of the plant's reactor engineering group.

The news sent shock waves through the county of about 15,000 people. Residents and officials worried about how to pay for police officers and schoolteachers after the loss of the county's No. 1 employer and its main source of property taxes.

The Clinton Power Station pays about $15 million a year in property taxes. For taxing bodies, their share of that can be 40 percent or more of their property tax revenue.

This is devastating news to us, said Clinton Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marian Brisard. We knew it was inevitable, but when I got a call this morning at about 7 a.m., it was like a punch in the gut.

Plant employees would be offered jobs at other Exelon nuclear sites, but that offered little consolation Thursday morning.

I went to the University of Illinois and had two internships at the plant before I was hired, Small said. The people that work here took me under their wing 15 years ago.

"The staff has been so supportive and this plant has really been accepted by the community. Its a somber feeling.

Small lives in Champaign, but 143 employees, or about 21 percent of the plant's workforce, live in Clinton.

I was not surprised, but I was mad, said DeWitt County Board Chairman Dave Newberg of the news. As we move forward, it will be very difficult.

"We are going to lose jobs in this county. Good county employees. Our citizens are going to see reduced services from everything, including sheriff patrols. What type of effect is this going to have on the safety of our people?

"Business people will be hurt," he said. "Property values will drop. The loss of 700 jobs is terrible, but when you take a county of 15,000 people and start totaling the jobs up that are affected by this, its massive and it will not be good.

Clinton Mayor Roger Cyrulik expressed sympathy "for the families that have to suffer through the job loss."

"The city of Clinton will get by, but its going to be hard, he said.

Clinton Public Safety Commissioner Dan Ballenger said he has concerns about police and fire protection in the city with the loss of that many jobs from the community.

With this type of a cut coming to us, we will have to cut our police staff, he said. They pay a sum to the fire department and that helps keep our equipment up, but with that said, we have one of the oldest fire stations probably in the state.

"Just to cut peoples safety, I am concerned about that. When you take $14 million out of economy, we are going to suffer.

The Clinton school district currently receives $8.3 million, or about 53 percent of the districts budget, from the plant's tax bill.

As of now, we dont rely much on state aid, however, we are going to have to more in the future, and that is scary, said Clinton school Superintendent Curt Nettles. We are extremely worried.

"Our community will have to determine what kind of tax rate they are comfortable with and what services they are comfortable with having cut at the schools. There will be big-time cuts.

Resident Joe Alexander said he is worried about the ripple effect of losing so many jobs in a town of about 7,000 people.

The power plant has been good for the economy of Clinton and DeWitt County, and there is going to be a long-lasting, trickle-down effect which is going to be very tough on this community, he said.

The immediate loss of jobs is troubling, but so are the long-term problems, such as what happens to that 5,000-acre lake, he added, referring to Clinton Lake, which was created to supply water to the plant.
Literacy group gets $5,000 gift

BLOOMINGTON  STAR Adult Literacy has received an anonymous $5,000 donation through the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation.

The semiannual Books to Benefit used book sale to benefit STAR Adult Literacy runs Thursday through Sunday at the Crossroads Center, 700 Wylie Drive, Normal.

Preview sale with $5 admission runs from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday. The sale will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, with everything half price beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, with everything on sale for $5 a bag.

Donut Day to aid Salvation Army

BLOOMINGTON  Krispy Kreme will support the Salvation Army with Red Kettles to help celebrate National Donut Day, which is Friday.

The kettles will be available Thursday through Monday at the Bloomington store.
NORMAL  A 13-year-old boy from Normal represented Illinois during last weeks National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C.

Out of 54 competitors in fourth through eighth grade, Mantra Dave tied for 15th place. Preliminary rounds began with 2.5 million contestants from 11,000 U.S. schools in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Atlantic territories, Pacific territories and the Department of Defense school system for dependents.

I enjoyed the experience to meet 53 other (state-level) champions who were also very enthusiastic about geography, he said.

Dave achieved 11th place in the 2014 National Geographic Bee.

This year I learned how to put in a lot more effort. You cant control how well you do in the competition, but you can control the amount of effort you put in, said Dave.

His mother, Mudita Dave, said her son has been studying geography for years.

He doesnt just study it for a competition, but to learn more about our world. He learns all different aspects like economy, health, politics and culture as well as physical features, said Mudita Dave.

Part of Mantra Daves requirement as a state-level champion was to compile a video recommending a site in Illinois for designation as a national park.

I chose Cahokia Mounds in Southern Illinois because of the cultural heritage of the Mississippian people. Its the largest urban mound site in the U.S., he said.

The boy's family, including his maternal grandparents from India, traveled to Washington, D.C., to support him during the competition at the National Geographic Society headquarters.

I would like to thank my family, friends, teachers and everyone who has helped me along the way and made this possible, he said.

He graduated from eighth grade at Chiddix Junior High School in May and will start this fall as a freshman at Normal Community High School.
BLOOMINGTON  Flooding in southeastern Texas has prompted help from Central Illinois.

Bloomington-based Midwest Food Bank and American Red Cross Serving Central Illinois are providing assistance in southeastern Texas where flooding has killed at least six people.

According to The Associated Press, the Brazos River, which runs 840 miles across much of the state, has risen to record levels, submerging neighborhoods west of Houston and forcing hundreds of people to evacuate.

More rain is expected.

On Wednesday, Midwest Food Bank delivered  from the organization's Bloomington and Peoria warehouses  two semitrailer loads of food boxes to Arlington, Texas, said Mike Hoffman, food bank senior operations director. Another load of food boxes will be delivered early next week.

Each food box contains enough food and personal care items for a family of four for five days. Food bank volunteer drivers deliver the boxes to affected areas, where they are given to families in need by The Salvation Army.

A semitrailer load of cleaning supplies was delivered Sunday.

Additional loads will be dispatched as needed.

The Red Cross has set up 15 shelters where some people who have been evacuated from their homes are spending the night. About 6,000 homes have been affected.

Red Cross also is providing meals in coordination with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, and other local partners and will be providing relief supplies.

Among Red Cross volunteers helping in Texas is Mark Wiltz of Peoria, said Trish Burnett, Red Cross regional communications director. Wiltz is doing damage assessment.

"As areas become safe to enter, Mark will go in and assess the extent of the damage," Burnett said.

Anyone who wishes to help the Red Cross may visit www.redcross.org, call 800-REDCROS or text TXFLOODS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Anyone who wishes to help Midwest Food Bank may call 309-663-5350, may mail a contribution to Midwest Food Bank, 1703 S. Veterans Parkway, Bloomington, Ill., 61701, or visit www.facebook.com/midwestfoodbank/
Fibria to Increase Production Capacity at Horizonte 2 Pulp Mill Project in Brazil May 31, 2016  Brazilian market pulp producer Fibria said that it will increase the production capacity of its new pulp mill in Tres Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil (Horizonte 2 Project) by 200,000 tons per year (tpy)  from 1.75 million tpy to 1.95 million tpy. The new expansion in the project does not change the total planned investment of R$8.7 billion, equivalent to around US$2.4 billion, Fibria noted. The announcement of the new production capacity comes at a time when the company celebrates one year of the Horizonte 2 Project, 32.5% of which has already been completed. Combining the new line with the plant currently in operation, the Tres Lagoas unit will expand its production capacity by 150%, exceeding the total capacity of 3.2 million tons of pulp/year. With this, Fibria's total production capacity, considering all its units in Brazil, will increase from the current 5.3 million tons of pulp/year to 7.25 million tons of pulp/year. Forest Base

Fibria has been investing in the development of its forest base in the region to supply the new production line. The wood supply required to operate Fibria's new plant will come from forests grown in Mato Grosso do Sul. A total of 187,000 hectares of forests planted on own, leased and partners' areas will be used. Including the 120,000 hectares used to supply the current unit, the forest base that will supply the Tres Lagoas unit will span 307,000 hectares. The average radius of the forests to the company's two production lines will be less than 100 kilometers, one of the most competitive in the market. Modern Environmental Design

Fibria's Tres Lagoas unit follows the most modern concepts in eco-design, with cleaner and more efficient production processes. In addition, all the energy consumed is generated by the unit itself using biomass in the form of eucalyptus bark and the liquid biomass resulting from the industrial process. With the increase in production capacity, the industrial unit will generate and consume its own energy and will still have a surplus of 130 MWH, which will positively contribute to Brazil's energy grid and benefit the energy matrix by using renewable sources. "The expansion of production capacity of the Horizonte 2 Project shows that the fundamentals that guided the expansion of our Tres Lagoas unit are solid and supported by a financial structure that maximizes gains for Fibria," said Fibria CEO Marcelo Castelli. "We are announcing a bigger capacity without having to invest more. We are proud to see this work in progress, bringing jobs, better quality of life and development to Tres Lagoas, Mato Grosso do Sul and Brazil. Fibria is the world leader in the production of eucalyptus pulp with the capacity to produce 5.3 million tons per year. To learn more, please visit: www.fibria.com.br. SOURCE: Fibria
Resolute Files Racketeering Suit Against Greenpeace in U.S. Federal Court May 31, 2016 - Resolute Forest Products Inc. today announced a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia against Greenpeace International, Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace Fund, Inc., STAND (formerly ForestEthics) and a number of their associates. The complaint included federal racketeering claims and racketeering, trademark, defamation and tortious interference claims under Georgia law. These alleged claims arise from, among other things, Greenpeace's self-described "Resolute: Forest Destroyer" campaign falsely accusing Resolute of, among other things: (a) "destroying endangered forests," and "operating and sourcing wood . . . in violation of law"; (b) causing the "destruction of endangered species" and "critical caribou habitat" and risking a "Caribou Herd Death Spiral," "extirpation" and "extinction;" (c) "abandoning" and "impoverishing" the Boreal's indigenous communities; and (d) impairing the Boreal's ability to mitigate climate change. The complaint describes in detail the falsity of these and other malicious and defamatory accusations. Among other things, the complaint explains that far from being a "forest destroyer," Resolute has planted well over a billion trees in the Boreal  which is a billion more than Greenpeace  and is responsible for virtually no permanent lost forest acreage. The complaint also demonstrates that Resolute also has not impaired the Boreal's ability to absorb greenhouse gases, and, instead, has improved that ability through harvesting and forestation as recognized and encouraged by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Nor has Resolute abandoned, exploited or impoverished First Nations or other communities within the Boreal forest, but instead  and again unlike Greenpeace  has created and sustained substantial benefits for these peoples through shared economic participation in the forestry business. The complaint also details how, to support its false accusations, Greenpeace has fabricated evidence and events, including, for example, staged photos falsely purporting to show Resolute logging in prohibited areas and as having harvested areas that were actually impacted by fire. "Our company strives for the highest standards of environmental stewardship, which is why the attacks on us are so obviously cynical and thoroughly irresponsible. We have an obligation to our business ethics, and our many shareholders, customers, partners and stakeholders to draw the line after all other means have been exhausted," stated Richard Garneau, Resolute's President and Chief Executive Officer. Resolute is seeking compensatory damages in an amount to be proven at trial as well as treble and punitive damages, and is represented by Michael J. Bowe from Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP. Resolute's counsel is continuing its investigation of Greenpeace's campaign and practices, and one can provide information on a confidential basis by telephone at 212 542-1400. A website has also been established (resolutevgreenpeace.com) to catalog information and progress reports on the case and, when necessary, to set the record straight as the facts warrant. Resolute Forest Products is a global leader in the forest products industry with a diverse range of products, including market pulp, tissue, wood products, newsprint and specialty papers. To learn more, please visit: www.resolutefp.com SOURCE: Resolute Forest Products Inc.
Stora Enso to Divest its Kabel Mill in Germany

June 1, 2016 (Press Release) - Stora Enso has signed an agreement to divest its Kabel coated mechanical paper mill in Germany to Hagen-Kabel Pulp & Paper GmbH, owned by a German based investor group.

The transaction is in line with Stora Enso's strategic transformation into a renewable materials growth company. The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2016.

The cash consideration for the divestment of the assets is approximately EUR 23 million, subject to customary closing day adjustments. The loss on disposal amounts in total to EUR 15 million. The effect on operating profit is approximately EUR 5 million, and negative tax impact is approximately EUR 10 million. These will be recorded as a non-recurring item in Stora Enso's second quarter 2016 results. Approximately EUR 17 million of pension liabilities will be transferred to the new owner with the transaction.

Kabel Mill has an excellent reputation and an established customer base in the grades it produces. We believe that Kabel Mill will be able to further develop its business under the new ownership, says Kati ter Horst, EVP Paper division at Stora Enso.

Based on 2015 annual figures, the divestment is expected to reduce Stora Enso's annual sales by approximately EUR 300 million. It will also reduce Stora Enso's annual paper production capacity by around 485,000 tonnes.

Kabel Mill employs approximately 540 people, who will be transferred to the new owner with the divestment.

The transaction will not have a material impact on Stora Enso's operational EBIT going forward.

Stora Enso will continue to produce coated mechanical paper under the NovaPress brand at its Veitsiluoto Mill in Finland.

Hagen-Kabel Pulp & Paper

Hagen-Kabel Pulp & Paper GmbH is a newly-established company owned by a German investor group with experience in the paper industry. One of the investors, Kubler & Niethammer Papierfabrik Kriebstein AG (K&N), produces graphical paper with a capacity of approximately 100,000 tonnes per year and recycled paper as raw material. The investor group has stated that it aims to develop the Kabel Mill and focus further on high quality customer service.

Stora Enso produces chemical pulp, paper and board, corrugated packaging, and sawn wood products, including value-added products. To learn more, please visit: www.storaenso.com

SOURCE: Stora Enso




A big, touring Todd Francis retrospective stops at Brooklyn's House of Vans (25 Franklin Street, Brooklyn) on Friday, April 28, 8 to 11 p.m., with over 50 paintings and drawings  plus 100 iconic skateboards. The "Worst of the Worst" exhibition showcases twenty years of the artist's graphics for Antihero. On the night, there's a live performance by LA-based duo Ho99o9 and a DJ set by The Blackouts. And on Saturday, April 29, noon to 4 p.m., Vans is hosting an open-skate session followed by an artist talk with Francis from 4 to 5 p.m. Space is limited. RSVP HERE.

Creative Time and Green-Wood Cemetery (25th Street and 5th Avenue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn) present Sophie Calle's "Here Lie the Secrets of the Visitors of Green-Wood Cemetery, 2017 - 2042" on April 29 and 30, noon to 5 p.m. daily. For the opening, the French conceptual artist will write down or listen to your anonymous "secrets" and insert them into a slot at the base of a tombstone on the cemetery's Bay Grove Hill. After April 30  and for the next 25 years  visitors can continue to record and contribute their secrets. No selfies or autographs, please.





Robert Branaman, "6 Nudes + Psychedelic Head," 1964. Via Susan Inglett Gallery

Susan Inglett Gallery (522 West 24th Street) documents San Francisco's community of mid-century artists known as the Rat Bastard Protective Association, with a big group show opening on April 27 and on view until June 3. The exhibition features over 40 works by ten "Association" artists including Bruce Conner, Wallace Berman, Joan Brown, Bob Branaman, Jean Conner, Joe DeFeo, George Herms, Wally Hedrick, Manuel Neri and Michael McClure. The show's curator, Dr. Anastasia Aukeman, will sign copies of her RBPA book "Welcome to Painterland" on Saturday, April 29, 4 to 6 p.m.





Mark Mothersbaugh, "1964Monument to the Conquerors of Space," 2012. Via Grey Art Gallery

"Mark Mothersbaugh: Myopia" opens on April 26 at NYU's Grey Art Gallery (100 Washington Square East) and runs thru July 15. The artist was a founding member of the band DEVO and has produced scores for film, TV and video games. This exhibition, curated by Adam Lerner, features Mark's visual art including paintings, prints, photos, sculpture etc. On Thursday, May 4, 6:30 p.m., at NYU Skirball Center (566 LaGuardia Place)  following an on-stage conversation with PAPER's Carlo McCormick  Mothersbaugh will conduct orchestral renditions of original music on a "six-sided keyboard of his invention" along with local musicians. Tickets are HERE.





Pioneer Works' annual "Village Fete" fundraiser is Sunday, April 30. Fab 5 Freddy is this year's Master of Ceremonies, with cocktails and a silent auction kicking things off at 5 p.m.; dinner (by Union Square Events) and a live auction at 6:30; and an afterparty starting at 9 p.m. with EXO-TECH live and a DJ set by Actual Magic (Chances With Wolves & Javelin). Tickets are HERE.





George Condo, Nude on Wine Crates 2, 2017. via Skarstedt Gallery.

Skarstedt Gallery (20 East 79th Street) opens a show of new sculpture and paintings by the NYC-based artist George Condo on April 27, 6 to 8 p.m., and up until June 24. The exhibition chronicles the artist's return to his concept of "simulated found objects and includes seven new sculptures and several paintings that "echo and oppose (the sculptures') three-dimensionality."





Joan Jonas via Gavin Brown

Gavin Brown kicks off FRIEZE week with a big Joan Jonas exhibition, "What is Found in the Windowless House is True," opening on Sunday, April 30, noon to 4 p.m., at the gallery's new home at 439 West 127th Street. This is the US premiere of two, large-scale, multi-channel video installations; along with drawings, props and ephemera from the artist's 50-year history. On view until June 10.

The week-long PEN World Voices Festival kicks off with a big, free event called "House Divided" on Sunday, April 30, 3 to 4:30 p.m., in the Great Hall at Cooper Union (7 East 7th Street). Over 30 artists, writers, "thinkers and politicos" will respond to current affairs with an alternative "State of the Union." Participants include: John Giorno, Joan Jonas, Jonas Mekas, Ed Sanders and the Fugs, Richard Serra, Phong Bui and Paul Auster. The event was organized by Stefan Bondell and Bob Holman.

Allouche Gallery (82 Gansevoort Street) has an exhibition called "To Accompany Something Invisible" by Brooklyn-based artist Swoon opening on April 27, 6 to 9 p.m. The works include installation boxes, prep sketches and preliminary paper cutouts  and it coincides with the completion of the artist's third house built in Haiti via her non-profit Konbit Shelter.





ensmble, In-betweens Surface 1, 2015. Via Museum of Arts and Design

The Museum of Arts and Design (2 Columbus Circle) opens a new exhibition called "fashion after Fashion" on Thursday, April 27, and on view until August 6. The show explores the evolution and re-invention of fashion -- rather than its obsolescence -- via commissioned installations by international designers, artists, filmmakers and media including Echhaus Latta, Alexa Karolinski, ensaemble, Lucy Jones, Ryohei Kawanishi, Henrik Vibskov and Helsinki's SSAW Magazine.

The National YoungArts Foundation is hosting a program of performances, exhibitions, readings and screening at various locations in New York City from April 25 to 30. The full schedule is HERE. There's an exhibition of visual arts, photography and design by up-and-coming artists at Sotheby's (1334 York Avenue), opening on Friday, April 28, 8 p.m., but you must rsvp HERE.

Splash image: Swoon, via Allouche Gallery Instagram


Lactating mothers are now tangled in a burden with the need to "relieve" their breastmilk when it gets too full. Mothers who suffer from breastmilk engorgement are more likely to suffer from infections which can eventually send them straight to the hospital.

NPR reported that most lactating mothers are unaware that un-pumped breastmilk can cause serious complication. It was mentioned that lactating mothers are prone to mastitis, high fever and chills. Not only does it cause infection, but it also causes severe pain and a burning sensation.

"The pain is hard to describe. My breasts were sensitive to touch, like sunburn is, and a fairly permanent kind of burning ache set up on my chest, waxing and waning as they filled and emptied," Madeleine Ware of Wellington, New Zealand told NPR. "I wouldn't want my pilot distracted by a burning feeling in her breasts, or hesitant to lean over to perform certain actions because of the risk of pain."

If u have breastfed: Can u describe in 1 tweet what engorgement feels like? Words or pix ok. 2B used in online story Reply=permission PLS RT  Tara Haelle (@tarahaelle) May 24, 2016

@tarahaelle Feels like 2 baby "Aliens" are both on fire & simultaneously about to explode out of the breasts. Unsee THAT if u can!  Sonia F. Khan (@sapienist) May 24, 2016

In a study published in NCBI, that 1 in every lactating mother who are breastfeeding experience mastitis during their first month. The studies which took place in Australia revealed that 27 percent of mothers who are breastfeeding suffer from mastitis.

In addition to pain and the burning sensation, lactating mothers are more prone to sepsis, which is a form of blood poisoning which can be fatal. In severe cases, lactating mothers who were not able to pump their breastmilk may need to go through operation if the condition worsens.

Lactating mothers should be given the privilege to have a break to pump out excess or stored breastmilk. It is important to pump out or let the baby latch on the breast to relieve the stored milk. For working mothers, it is ideal to bring a breast pump and empty feeding bottles for the pumped milk to be stored and preserved.
Parents who homeschool their kids might want to check out a new comprehensive e-book that deals with the pros and cons of adopting Common Core standards. The e-book, titled "Homeschooling: Fighting for My Children's Future," is the brainchild of several parenting and homeschooling experts led by Paula Bolyard and Megan Fox.

Best Of Both Sides

In "Homeschooling: Fighting for My Children's Future," Bolyard and company warn homeschooling parents against the threat of Common Core believers. Given the fact that college aptitude exams are now aligned with Common Core standards, they advise homeschooling parents to slightly tweak their curriculum to better prepare their kids for college, as per WND.

Adopting Common Core standards may be beneficial in preparing homeschooling children for the future, but experts say the constant testing could alienate kids from the true meaning of learning. "If your children are under the influence of this curriculum, you may need to spend a significant amount of time debriefing them," said Bolyard.

The new homeschooling e-book, which is available now on Amazon, contains 26 essays which masterfully depicts US public education as an institution in turmoil. Common Core is generally perceived as the negative variable while homeschooling is considered to be one of the top alternatives to foster meaningful learning.

Why The Hate For Common Core?

According to Business Insider, Common Core was created in 2009 to primarily improve the learning outcomes of US students. Despite the initiative's commendable intent, some parent and teacher groups felt they weren't duly consulted when the academic changes were made.

A number of educators even left their jobs because of Common Core. One of whom is Ohio-based ninth-grade intervention specialist Staciee Star. She believes the new standards lack creativity and flexibility.

"They (Star's students) have a learning disability and they may struggle with reading. It is extremely upsetting. These children are being demoralized on a daily basis," Star told The Washington Post. "We are making them feel worse about themselves. Our curriculum is going way too fast, and these students, we are losing them."
The anticipation for the second season of "Narcos" is already high as Netflix has already wrapped up production. While the show is yet to be launched on Netflix, talks about the possibility of a third season are already making rounds.

Season 2 Begins Aug. 28

The production team of Netflix's original series "Narcos" wrapped up filming last week and according to the show's composer, Pedro Bromfman, the post-production might be finished by June 20 or 25, iDigitalTimes reported. With that, they are targeting for an August 2016 release date. It can be remembered that Netflix released Season 1 on Aug. 28 last year. Taking clue from that, it is possible that the "Narcos" Season 2 will hit the streaming service come Aug. 26, the last Friday of that month. Netflix is yet to make an announcement on the official schedule.

What's In Store For Season 3

Season 2 is going to feature the death of the cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar, one of the main characters of this series, Parent Herald has learned. Given that, many would assume that it will also be the end of the series. But according to Bromfman, there is still much stories to tell and it doesn't end with the fall of Escobar and the Medellin cartel. Bromfman hints that the story could continue to the rise of the Cali cartel and then Mexico.

Bromfman told iDigitalTimes that new characters will be introduced in Season 2 and it will also provide more understanding on how the cartels work. "It just shifts places, but it keeps moving. As long as there's people buying drugs, there'll be bad guys trying to provide them and killing people and doing things. As long as they are illegal, and as long there are people interested in them, apparently there's no stopping it. Now it's in Mexico, but it did go around. It did go around for a long time," he said.
Robots can choose their mate, have sex and create their own "robot baby." A team of scientists from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam has proven this in its Robot Baby Project. They were able to successfully have the world's first baby "born" to robot parents.

The robots didn't actually meet, date, have sex and give birth like humans or animals. But the whole idea did start out on a similar concept. The researchers created an arena where the robots thrived and worked - just like in human life. In this ecosystem, the researchers also placed a section with a red light. This was the established "dating spot." It's where the robots "communicated" and eventually found their mate, per Daily Mail.

After carefully evaluating each other, the robots then decided to procreate with the aid of Wi-Fi technology. The data the robots sent out became the genome or "DNA" codes. These codes were read by a 3D printer. The latter then created new parts of a robot based on the readings. This was how the robot baby came to be. Tech Crunch reports that the robots were made and designed as motorized blocks and their offspring basically looks the same, but with a mix of data from its parents.

But what is the point of this Robot Baby Project? Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam stated in its press release that their concept could help in future space explorations, such as in "the colonization of Mars."

The project also sheds light on the evolution of things, which the project's head, Guszti Eiben, describes as an "emerging new technology." This means that, in the right environment, robots can evolve their behavior, their bodies and even their brains. The project sheds a clearer path for new discoveries in "robotics, artificial intelligence, space research, and even biology," Elben said.
In 2014, Merve Buyuksarac shared on Instagram a satirical poem, which was reckoned defamatory. The post was seen as a blatant insult to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which has led to her conviction by a Turkish court.

A Turkish court gave the 27-year old Merve Buyuksarac a 14-month suspended prison sentence after she was found guilty of insulting the president thru her posts on social media as reported on Time, however Buyuksarac strongly denied the accusation.

The lawyer of Merve Buyuksarac will file a formal objection to the verdict and take her case to a higher court. The decision of the Turkey court gained criticism among human rights groups for backtracking on the freedom of speech.

Since President Erdogan came to office in 2014, nearly 2,000 Turkish people, which include celebrities and even schoolchildren, have been prosecuted for insulting the president under a previously little-used law as cited on BBC News.

An adaptation of the Turkish national anthem, was posted and shared literally a thousand times on social media. Prosecutors considered it as a grave insult to Mr Erdogan who was then prime minister.

Nevertheless, Buyuksarac's sentence was suspended on terms that she will no longer repeat the offense within the next 5 years. Emre Telci, Buyuksarac's lawyer, told the Associated Press news agency that the insult trials are being initiated in series and are being automatically filed. "Merve was prosecuted for sharing a posting that did not belong to her. My client has been convicted for words that do not belong to her," Telci said.

On the other hand, Hatice Ozay, Mr Erdogan's lawyer, argued that the post went beyond the borders. It strted out to be an objective criticism and catapulted into a grievous attack against Mr Erdogan's personal rights.

Human rights activists had a different take on this issue, saying that Mr Erdogan is obviously using the law to silence and intimidate his critics that include academics, journalists and ordinary citizens.




Boston Public Schools honored its 2016 valedictorians with a luncheon among city officials Tuesday. School superintendent Tommy Chang, the parents and teachers of the kids, along with Mayor Martin J. Wash, celebrated the success of 37 high school valedictorians. Twelve of them were originally from other countries like Haiti, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

The Boston Globe reports that the mayor commended the students in a speech and took note of how much their "different backgrounds, cultures, and stories" have enriched their schools. The mayor also underscored how the American dream is still coming true for many immigrants. Throughout history, Boston has been considered as a gateway for many foreigners trying to start a new life in America, per the Boston government's site.

Congrats to the 37 high school valedictorians from @BostonSchools who were honored today. You make Boston proud. pic.twitter.com/MM3z895HDp May 31, 2016

Among the foreign-born high school valedictorians, some are actually refugees who have weathered through hardships and adversities. Bilal Lafta of the Boston Community Leadership Academy had to leave his home country of Iraq due to the rising insurgent incidents. He experienced his former school being bombed and saw how American troops helped their community evacuate. To this day, he doesn't know if his hometown has recovered from the war, per WCVB.

Lafta lived in a refugee camp before arriving in the United States and there were no schools in the area. But there was a library, where he spent most of his days, before their family got settled in Boston. He is planning to enroll at Brown University for college.

Meanwhile, the valedictorians born and raised in Boston also appreciate the diversity of this year's batch of excellent graduates. Albert William Saunders IV from East Boston High said that they learn a lot more from talking to students from different cultures in his school. He believes that this diversity contributed to the person that he is today.
A pregnant woman from Mississippi, who was initially denied with her plan to bring her afterbirth home for placentophagy, has won her legal battle. She is now planning to eat her placenta by having it encapsulated.

What Is Placentophagy?

Placentophagy is the practice of eating one's own placenta after giving birth to increase milk production, boost energy level and help get rid of postpartum depression. Despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence to support the benefits of placentophagy, the popularity of the act among first-time mothers has been mounting in the past few years.

Jordan Thiering, a Mississippi resident who is 33 weeks pregnant with her first child, told USA Today that she started to think about placentophagy when a postpartum friend advised her to mix her placenta to a smoothie. She said that she conducted a research about placentophagy and came up with a decision to eat her placenta by having it encapsulated.

The Pregnant Woman's Legal Battle For Placentophagy

Thiering confined her placentophagy plans to her OB-GYN who instructed her to inquire beforehand to the River Oaks Hospital where she plans to give birth. The pregnant woman said that she was disappointed when the hospital told her that she would need a court order before she could keep her afterbirth for placentophagy. She learned from the hospital that as soon she will give birth, she will be considered a "third party" of her placenta, which is already classified "medical waste."

"I grew my baby, I grew my placenta. There should be no one that can tell me what I can or can't do with it," Thiering expressed.

With the help of Jacqueline Hammack, a lawyer who specializes in women's health issues, Thiering appealed to the Rankin County Chancery County to allow her to bring her afterbirth home for placentophagy. On May 17, she received a court order that allowed her to keep her placenta.

Why Resort To Placentophagy?

Thiering is now planning to eat her placenta after giving birth by having it encapsulated. The pregnant woman said that she is aware that some women are against of placentophagy, but for her, it is the possible health benefits that convinced her.

"It's my choice and I think that all women really need be educated, knowing that their birth is their choice," Thiering stated. She added that pregnant women should be informed that placentophagy is among of those choices that can help them and their babies.

Are you in favor with the pregnant woman's decision to eat her placenta by having it encapsulated? Share your thoughts about placentophagy. Leave some comments below.
The Johnny Depp Amber Heard divorce is getting nastier by the minute, as words like "domestic abuse," "restraining order" and "spousal support" had been thrown into the mix. But did the trouble start after Johnny Depp and Amber Heard faced the Australian dog smuggling drama from last year? Johnny Depp had allegedly threatened to "kill" Amber Heard's puppies after the couple endured the controversial dog smuggling drama in Australia!

Did Johnny Depp Try To Kill Amber Heard's Dogs After Australia?

Johnny Depp recently mocked his awkward apology video to the Australian government after Amber Heard's dog smuggling charges were dropped (via US Weekly). The actor was attending an "Alice Through The Looking Glass" press day in London when he abruptly apologized for not bringing his dogs to the country. When producer Tim Burton joked that he had stepped on the dogs backstage, Johnny Depp quipped, "I tried to kill them after Australia." Watch the video below.

Although Johnny Depp was clearly joking about trying to kill the dogs, the statement may have been an indication that he wasn't happy about all the trouble Amber Heard and her puppies had caused. Was the Australian dog smuggling drama a hint to Johnny Depp's troubled marriage with Amber Heard? The truth might be revealed when the couple finally goes to court.

Amber Heard Files Restraining Order For Domestic Abuse

Just four days after filing for the divorce, Amber Heard requested for a domestic abuse restraining order with claims that Johnny Depp has been abusive throughout their marriage (via US Weekly). Johnny Depp's camp have responded by stating that Amber Heard is using the abuse claims to get financial resolution.

The Johnny Depp Amber Heard divorce is bound to get even uglier, considering that the couple does not have a prenuptial agreement. The "Rum Diary" couple is due back in court on June 17.
More dirty laundry of the past is drawn against GOP-presumptive candidate, Donald Trump, as he continues to lead the U.S. Presidential campaign race. The most recent of which is the unsealing of documents and testimonies that revealed to the public for the first time exclusive claims of fraud involving the defunct Trump University.

On-charge Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled that the complaints of Trump University's former students, inside scoop of former sales managers, and a sales guide for employees among other documents be unsealed. The statements cried of fraud, deception, and not getting what they were promised of from the almost $35,000 they paid to learn Trump's secrets for his success in the real estate industry.

"I resigned from my position in May of 2007 because I believed that Trump University was engaging in misleading, fraudulent and dishonest conduct. I found it particularly offensive that, while Trump University claimed it wanted to help consumers make money in real estate, in fact Trump University was only interested in selling every person the most expensive seminars they possibly could," a sales manager of the school in 2007, Ronald Schnackenberg, wrote in his testimony.

In the said sworn statement, Schnackenberg also slammed Donald Trump who he never saw once in the campus for the seven months he worked at Trump University. He was initially briefed to sell Gary Eldred's "Real Estate Investor Program," an online interactive class, but according to him, the "business drastically changed to a "live events" and seminars driven by high-pressure front-end salesmen, inexperienced in real estate, making high-pressure sales."

"They were unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's right-hand men. They were teaching methods that were unethical, and they had had little to no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals. It was a facade, a total lie," wrote Jason Nicholas, another former sales associate of Trump University who testified as per The Wall Street Journal.

Included in the batch of unsealed documents is the 2009 playbook for sales managers to follow in order to win a potential client's yes. The playbook instructed Trump University's sales team to "not sell products, benefits or solutions" but to "sell feelings" (via Fortune).

"You must be very aggressive during these conversations to in order to push them out of their comfort zones," the playbook advised, "If they complain about the price, remind them that Trump is the best! This is the last real estate investment they will ever need to make" (via Fortune).

Donald Trump is currently facing two California and one New York lawsuit accusing Trump University of fraud and deception. He has denied any truth to the claims with his legal counsel and campaign personnel confident that alumni of the business school were completely satisfied with the education they received. In fact, some of the documents that were released hold positive remarks for Trump University (via The Wall Street Journal).

As per The Wall Street Journal, former director of operations, Mark Covais said that among 10,000 written evaluations, 97 percent gave Trump University a rating of 4.85 and higher. This will be used as evidence when the case goes into trial on November of this year.

Attorneys of The Washington Post filed a motion for the documents relating to the case be disclosed to the public, a request that was granted by Judge Gonzalo Curiel. However, on Tuesday Judge Curiel ordered the resealing of some documents because they revealed private information (via RT).

The damage has been done however, and the testimonies of former employees as well as the playbook's controversial guidelines revealed much about the operations of Trump University. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took the opportunity and in a campaign rally said that the documents prove that "Donald Trump himself is a fraud" (via CNN).

Do you think that Trump University gave false promises to its students or did it serve its purpose of helping the enrollees succeed in the real estate industry? Sound off your thoughts in the Comments section below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
Police officials are currently deliberating on whether or not to press charges against the parents of the 3-year-old boy who slipped into the enclosure of a silverback gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo last weekend. The mishap has since garnered global attention after zoo personnel were forced to shoot and kill the creature to save the boy's life.

Parents To Be Investigated

Cincinnati police spokesperson Tiffaney Hardy clarified that the on-going discussion is only about the parents' actions, or lack thereof, which ultimately resulted in Harambe's untimely death. The review won't delve into the zoo's decision to shoot the gorilla as other law enforcement agencies have already begun investigating about it.

"After the review, we will determine if charges need to be brought forward," Hardy told CNN. "If it is determined, charges need to be brought forward, we would then discuss it with the Hamilton County prosecutor's office."

Public Anger

The zoo may have played a larger role in the gorilla's killing, but much of the public anger has been directed towards the boy's parents. Several animal rights groups are even calling for the boy's parents to be arrested at once. An online petition dubbed as "Justice for Harambe" now has close to 500,000 signatories. The petitioners want the boy's parents to be criminally liable for what had happened.

Eyewitness Account

Kimberly O'Connor, who claimed to have witnessed the entire incident, revealed to WLWT 5 that the boy was eager to go inside Harambe's enclosure and had told his mother he would be doing so. The mother, who works at a local child's care center, asked her son to behave before getting distracted by the other kids she brought along with her.

"The little boy himself had already been talking about wanting to go in, go in, get in the water and his mother is like, 'No you're not, no you're not,'" O'Connor recalled. "Her attention was drawn away for seconds, maybe a minute, and then he was up and in before you knew it."
Fans are going crazy over the new "Wolverine 3" set photos of Hugh Jackman with a scruffy beard and a nice suit, which are fueling rumors that the final "Wolverine" movie will follow the "Old Man Logan" storyline. But will "Wolverine 3" simply be an adaptation of Mark Millar's comic book story arc, or is there more to Hugh Jackman's last outing as the mutant than "Old Man Logan?"

Hugh Jackman's "Wolverine 3" Beard Confirms "Old Man Logan" Storyline?

Just Jared has just revealed new "Wolverine 3" set photos showing a suited Hugh Jackman with a greying beard. The Hugh Jackman images immediately fueled speculations that the film will follow Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan" storyline which features an older Wolverine going on a road trip with a blind Hawkeye. In addition to that, Wolverine's nemesis in Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan" is none other than the Hulk. However, fans shouldn't expect a page-by-page live action adaptation of Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan," because the last "Wolverine" film could pit a completely different villain against Hugh Jackman.

First look at Hugh Jackman on the new Wolverine movie set pic.twitter.com/2CYZNbk97H  Film Hype (@FilmHyp) June 1, 2016

Will Hugh Jackman's Wolverine Take On Mister Sinister?

The "X-Men: Apocalypse" post-credits scene offered a hint as to what could happen in "Wolverine 3." The scene follows a mysterious man retrieving a vial of Wolverine's blood from the Weapon X facility. He then places it inside a briefcase labeled "ESSSEX CORP," a possible reference to Nathaniel Essex aka Mister Sinister (via CinemaBlend).

The retrieval of the Weapon X DNA may have also suggested that a Wolverine clone will be created and introduced in "Wolverine 3." There have been rumors that female Wolverine clone X-23 will finally make her live-action debut, and "Wolverine 3" casting news have previously confirmed the possibility. So will "Wolverine 3" be a loose adaptation of Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan" with different characters?

Mark Millar Confirms "Wolverine 3" Is "Old Man Logan" Adaptation

Last year, "Old Man Logan" writer Mark Millar spoke to IGN about "Wolverine 3," confirming he knows what the film will be about. However, he chose to tease about it by referring to Hugh Jackman's declaration at the San Diego Comic-Con. Nevertheless, fans can rest assured that an "Old Man Logan" adaptation could happen, since Mark Millar stated that "Wolverine 3" can easily work without Hawkeye or the Hulk because "they're not important to the story."

"Wolverine 3" is directed by James Mangold and also stars Patrick Stewart and Richard E. Grant. The film is scheduled for release on March 3, 2017.
Health officials in Arizona are becoming more worried as measles is spreading in the state. The infection virus was initially detected at Eloy, Arizona, and the number of cases has since then increased.

First Signs Of Measles Outbreak Arizona

The first signs of the measles outbreak were detected in the federal detention center in Eloy. One detainee infected with the virus was brought in and the virus soon spread to one of the center's staff despite the fact that said staff was vaccinated against the virus.

Just like what happened in the Harvard measles outbreak, one is not entirely immune from the virus despite vaccination. If one is exposed to the virus incessantly, then the possibility of being infected is not remote.

Infection Spread Rapidly

With the Arizona measles outbreak, the spread of the virus was understandable. Huffington Post reported that after the first staffer was infected other staffers followed suit. As of Tuesday, there were already 11 cases reported. Out of the said number four were staffers and seven were detainees.

Because of the outbreak, the Eloy Detention Center made it a point to vaccinate both detainees and staffers against measles. Aside from the vaccination, those detainees who were infected were also being isolated so as to prevent the virus from spreading further.

Fox 10 Phoenix said that Dr. Cara Christ from the Department of Health Services said that the initial 11 cases were in Pinal County. However, the virus has already spread in another county.

Containing The Measles

Aside from vaccinating the detainees and staffers at the Eloy Detention Center, other efforts made to contain and prevent further spread of the virus were to identify the people who were in the areas visited by the four detainees. By identifying these people, they will know or project who could possibly be infected. Some of the locations that were said to have been visited by the staffers were stores, casino and also restaurants.

Being a contagious disease, people are prone to contract the virus even if they have been previously vaccinated. Once exposed to the virus, measles symptoms will be appearing up to 21 days.
A 24-year-old Houston teacher is now facing sex abuse of a child charges after it was found that she was having sex with her 13-year-old student on a daily basis. She turned herself in to authorities after her arrest warrant was issued.

Impregnated By Student

Alexandra Vera, a teacher at Stovall Middle School, was also impregnated by her 13-year-old student, according to USA Today. However, when the news broke out, she had an abortion.

Previous reports stated that Vera considered the 13-year-old minor as her boyfriend. The student would often go to her house and would stay there. Curious neighbors who must have asked the teacher who the boy was, said that Vera would introduce him as his little brother.

Male Students At Her House

The strange and abhorrent relationship between the 24-year-old female teacher, who also had a 4-year-old daughter, and her student went on for nine months. Neighbors also said that the concerned 13-year-old student wasn't the only one who visited Vera's house. There were times when she would be inviting several male students at once and empty beer bottles and cans would often be left strewn on her side lawn.

Court documents showed telltale details of the sexual relationship of Vera and her student. According to said documents, Vera said that they love each other. She was introduced by the boy to his parents as his girlfriend. It also mentioned that the parents of the boy were excited upon learning that she was pregnant.

Aborting Baby

Vera however, according to New York Daily, underwent an abortion when Child Protection Services came to Stovall Middle School, asking about the degree of her relationship with the concerned student.

Since last month, Vera was already on administrative leave. The school district is also in the process of officially terminating Vera's employment. The school district prioritizes the safety of its students. The bond of Vera was set at $100,000.
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In January 2015 our Patently Mobile site posted a report titled "Samsung Advances their Iris Scanning and Recognition System." Samsung's patent application covering iris scanning indicated that they were working with 'lndustry Academic Cooperation Foundation  Yonsei University' on this new iris scanning system as they're noted as being one of the patent assignees. The technology was to beef up their standing IP on this technology. A rumor swirled in 2014 that they were aiming to introduce iris scanning with their Galaxy S6 but it never came to be. Yet now there's more proof it could be a solution on the way. Samsung has officially filed for a set of new trademarks that strongly suggest that they're actively pursuing this feature for future Galaxy smart devices such as a smartphone and/or their VR Gear headset.

Galaxy Iris

Late last week we discovered two Samsung trademarks. The first presented below is for the new Galaxy Iris.





The trademark was filed under International Class 009 which in-part covers such things as "Mobile telephones, smartphones, wireless headsets, tablets, 3D eye glasses, for computer monitors, for document printers, for use in the field of medical services  namely image capture, image arching" and more.

Beyond the obvious use of this feature in Galaxy smartphones, tablets and VR Gear, it appears that Samsung envisions iris scanning to extend to the enterprise market as well by extending it to future printers and desktop monitors. At the moment, security systems for the home or office were not included.

Interestingly Samsung's priority filing wasn't made in Korea but rather Japan under application number 2016-053175, filed 05/17/2016.

Galaxy Eyeprint

The second trademark filing of interest that Samsung filed last week was one for 'Galaxy Eyeprint.' It was filed under International Class 009 and carries the same verbiage as we noted above for Galaxy Iris.

While a trademark filing doesn't necessarily guarantee that a feature or product matching it will magically appear overnight, it most definitely is a sign that Samsung's marketing team wants the trademark securely on record. Though in this case, that's playing it a little too safe.

In reality, Samsung has patents on this feature and the rumors swirling around this feature have been ongoing for at least two years now. Samsung's trademark filings would strongly suggest that this feature is nearing market introduction. Whether that's for 2016 or 2017 is unknown at this time.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments.
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(2-15-06)

***** Grubb is a friendly Baptist regular on my blog. Ive compiled this from interactions in my comments sections below. Originally, it began with Grubbs response to certain aspects of the argument in my paper: Biblical Evidence for Communication From God and Ghosts (?) in Dreams. His words will be in green. Note: Ive added several new replies or clarifications as I edit and cut-and-paste this.

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Interesting post Dave. Firstly, I dont think Jer 15:1-2, Rev 5:8, and Rev 6:9-10 refer to heavenly saints interceding for us, but thats another issue.

Why? How is Rev 6:10 not a prayer? It is certainly being uttered by slain people, on behalf of those on earth. What are the elders doing with the prayers of the saints in Rev 5:8? As for Jer 15:1-2, are you saying that Moses and Samuel are no longer alive, and have no concern for those on earth? Why, then, did Moses appear with Jesus? Why did Samuel appear to rebuke Saul, if neither are conscious or concerned with earthly affairs?

To say God cant use our dreams to speak to us is to say God cant speak to us through our own thoughts. Surely he can plant this thought or that in my head and guide my reasoning while Im both awake and asleep if He so desires. But thats different than dead people appearing to us.



It is different, but the argument is that since dead people have indeed appeared on rare occasions (Moses, Elijah, Samuel, the ones who rose and walked around after Jesus was killed), then it cannot be ruled out that they could also appear in some fashion in a dream, which is a non-material thing. If the more extraordinary thing actually occurred, per the Bible, then the lesser thing is likely to be possible and actual.

I concede its possible. Phil 4:13 tells us all things are possible with God. But is it probable? Why would something thats so extraordinary and rare in the Bible be occurring on a daily basis now? And what was the purpose of the dead appearing in the Bible? It may have been to show that life does continue after death (Sadducees didnt think it did). Was it to comfort those who were living as is the case with so many dreams these days?

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Since all NT dreams were about Christ or the Christian mission, all OT dreams had God or an angel speaking in them



Not true; in 2 Maccabees, Jeremiah and Onias spoke.

As I dont accept the Apocrypha as Canon, I cannot accept it as proof of the dead speaking to one in a dream. Were at an impasse regarding that.

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and theres no indication that God even allows heavenly saints to communicate with us,Thats not true, either, per the above biblical evidences.

Still cant accept it. :-)

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it seems right to conclude that dead people do not communicate with us in our dreams.



Since you are operating on a false premise, this would seem right to you. But when you adopt true (and truly biblical) premises, it is entirely biblical and permissible.

So far, it sounds as though the only factual premise we disagree on is the Apocrypha. From here to the remainder of my comment, I wont consider II Maccabees in my response. Otherwise I have to keep typing, except for II Mac which I dont regard as scripture.

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The Bible is way too silent on this issue for us to be believing that heavenly saints are appearing to us in dreams.

I believe I have shown that it is NOT silent. You have to deal with the texts; not just make Protestant dogmatic statements.

Youve shown instances of dead people appearing to those who were awake not to people in a dream. My belief lines up more with what the Bible says, while yours is based on what could possibly be but the Bible doesnt say. Im not merely espousing Protestant dogma, Im simply looking at what the Bible says about dead people speaking in dreams (or rather what it doesnt say) and coming to the conclusion that it doesnt happen.

***

If Hes given heavenly saints the power to appear to us in our dreams, has He given hellish demons the same power?

They do have that power, yes, which is why we are warned to test the spirits.

If ones grandma seemed very nice but while still alive she secretly rejected Jesus; when she dies, she might appear to him in a dream and mislead him.

A demon could mislead. I believe that is what happens in seances and so forth.

I have a friend who said his dead grandma (or aunt or something like that) appeared to him in a dream when he was a teen and told him not to worry about religion, because theyre all basically the same and lead to the same place. Hes been trusting that dream and forsaking Christianity for 30+ years and will go to hell if he continues to do so.



Thats a clear case of not testing the spirits by an objective criterion: the Bible or at least some Bible-based Christian tradition besides his own subjective feelings and opinions. Its folly to base a worldview on an experience. Thats backwards and very dangerous.

We agree that every dream must be tested against a standard already established. I, the Bible; and you, the Bible, the Church, and tradition. But theres still no evidence that God allows dead saints to interact in our dreams. Even if I accepted II Mac 15:11-16 as truth, it still only shows one instance of God doing this type of thing. It in no way establishes a pattern of what dead people do, and Ive already acknowledged that God CAN do this sort of thing; theres just no indication that He chooses to do it periodically (let alone regularly). God turned water into wine once, let a follower walk on water once, and raised a dead and buried man to life a couple times, but He hasnt made these things commonplace by any means. Even if II Mac is true, why expect that one instance to be the norm for dead people.



***

I believe dead relatives in my dreams are the same as live ones . . . just my imagination putting them there.

You can believe whatever you want; I am interested in the biblical data which can be brought to bear on this, and why one rejects the interpretation I have taken towards it. I hope you will elaborate.

Thats the problem, the Bible doesnt address this topic specifically. Heres how I think it does address it. To what end would a dead person appear in ones dream? To let us know theyre ok? To comfort us? To encourage us? To give us direction? To strengthen us? Those are all jobs of the Trinity, angels, and the living. There is no place where He ever indicates this is what dead people do. We know what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the angels, the demons, Satan, and living people do, because the Bible tells us. We dont, however, know what dead people do, because the Bible doesnt tell us.



Solomon said, For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun. (Eccl 9:5-6) There are exceptions to this, but the standard is: when we die, we cease to have any impact on this world. That would include intercession as well as visiting the living in a dream.

Ecclesiastes is wisdom, or proverbial literature. This is a classic example of a statement which was meant in one literary sense (proverbial), wrongly taken in an excessively literal sense. Jehovahs Witnesses use this verse and other similar ones to prove that the dead have no consciousness whatsoever. They are just as wrong as you are (in exegeting the passage), because they ignored the context and the type of biblical literature (perhaps more important with Ecclesiastes than with any other biblical book, because of its unique nature). In this particular book, the object was to look at the world from a cynical, this world is all there is perspective. Its a rhetorical device. The writer is looking at the dead strictly from the point of view of how it is on earth. But its not the last word, by any means, on the Hebrew understanding of the afterlife. The many passages about Sheol in the OT show that they believed that consciousness continued.

Thanks for the feedback!

The lack of clear scripture showing that heavenly saints actually pray for us and any person of the Bible praying to heavenly saints combined with I Tim 2:5 ( one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus), which is very clear, makes it necessary to say we shouldnt pray to heavenly saints and that they dont intercede on our behalf.

Ill address the rest of your question tonight or tomorrow. This is all I had time for today.

Thanks again for hosting this site and giving us the opportunity to discuss.

Thanks for your kind words and replies. I disagree wholeheartedly, as you might predict.

Regarding Rev 6:10: When Job stood in Gods presence and asked a question, was it a prayer? No, it was just a question.



This is a distinction without a difference. Prayer is simply talking to God; particularly if one is making a request on behalf of others (intercession). Why you would want to make out that this is somehow not a prayer is a mystery.

The only reason I can see is a preconceived, unbiblical Protestant notion that somehow it is impossible to ever pray again once one is dead. But we have no reason whatsoever to believe that, based on the biblical evidences. This one is quite explicit, so to deal with it you have to resort to the desperate measure of simply explaining it away by recourse to word games. Not impressive, my friend!

Besides, asking God for something is often equated with prayer in Scripture (Mt 6:8, 7:7, 21:22: whatever you ask in prayer, James 1:5-6, I Jn 3:22, 5:14-16). Is that not a question?

Since conversation often includes questions, then prayer also would. So this dichotomy you try to create makes no sense to me at all.

Make no mistake, he wanted an answer as do the martyrs, but they arent necessarily praying.



How do you define prayer, then, I wonder?

And even if they are praying, what theyre praying isnt necessarily interceding on our behalf. It would be praying for justice on those who slay the martyrs.

Yes, exactly; this is what is known as an imprecatory prayer. I wrote about this in my book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism:

These are not so much vengeful as they are a plea for, and recognition of, Gods role as the wrathful Judge who will rescue and vindicate the righteous, either in this life or the next. Examples can be found particularly in the Psalms (Psalms 35, 59, 69, 79, 109, 139) and in Jeremiah (11:18 ff., 15:15 ff., 18:19 ff., 20:11 ff.).



An angel offers up a very similar prayer in Zechariah 1:12. Jesus mentions a type of this prayer in Matthew 26:53, in which He stated that He could pray to the Father and receive legions of angels to prevent His arrest had it been the Fathers will. The idea is the same: prayer for judgment to be wrought upon the enemies of God. At the same time, imprecatory prayers often are intercessions on behalf of the righteous, as in this passage.



Therefore, unarguably, dead saints are praying for Christians on earth. . . .



The well-known Protestant New Bible Commentary states that this plea in heaven is indeed a prayer, which quickens the end of the age (8:1-5). This admission is of immense significance for our topic. For if the prayers of dead saints have such an importance regarding the last days and the final judgment, who can deny that such prayers are valid and effective with regard to far more mundane matters (such as our everyday concerns)? The doctrine of communion of saints, then, would appear to be irrefutably presented in the book of Revelation.



Footnote: D. Guthrie & J.A. Motyer, editors, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 3rd ed., 1970, p. 1289. Concurring in this opinion is Robert Jamieson, Andrew R. Fausset, & David Brown, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1961 (orig. 1864), 846, 1547.



(pp. 112-113)



Regarding Rev 5:8: Every place the Apostle Paul (and possibly the NT, I cant recall for certain) uses the term saints, hes referring to the living followers of Jesus;

Thats not true, either. According to Vines Expository Dictionary:

See especially 2 Thess. 1:10, where His saints are also described as them that believed, i.e., the whole number of the redeemed.



(under Saints)

This would include the departed saints as well as the ones still alive on earth. St. Paul also refers to the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints (1 Thess 3:13).

cf. Jude 14: . . . Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads (RSV: KJV: saints / Gk. hagios as in most instances of saint in the NT; this is describing the 2nd Coming)

Both of these instances clearly include those who have died in Christ.

so the prayers in the bowl would be those offered by Christians who were physically alive at the time they prayed them.



Since I have disproven your premise above, this conclusion no longer follows, and must be discarded. Secondly, even if we grant that the prayers came only from people on earth, then you have to explain from a Protestant point of view what these people in heaven were doing with prayers of those on earth in the first place, since (in that outlook) all prayers supposedly go right to God from people on earth, and those who are dead have nothing to do with them.Moreover, such a position is certainly extraordinary and novel, even within the framework of Protestant exegesis, since the scene takes place in heaven (Rev 4:1-2), near Gods throne (4:2, 5-6,9-10; 5:1,6-7,11,13). The 24 elders are described as seated on thrones and clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads (Rev 4:4). Secondly, even if we grant that the prayers camefrom people on earth, then you have to explain from a Protestant point of view what these people in heaven werewith prayers of those on earth in the first place, since (in that outlook) all prayers supposedly go right to God from people on earth, and those who are dead have nothing to do with them.Moreover, such a position is certainly extraordinary and novel, even within the framework of Protestant exegesis, since the scene takes place in heaven (Rev 4:1-2), near Gods throne (4:2, 5-6,9-10; 5:1,6-7,11,13). The 24 elders are described as seated on thrones and clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads (Rev 4:4). For your scenario to be true, this would require 24 men from earth to be taken to heaven to be next to God on 24 thrones. This stretches credibility beyond the breaking point. Crowns (2 Tim. 4:8, James 1:12, 1 Peter 5:4, Rev 2:10) and white robes (Rev 6:11, 7:9,13-14) are both used often in Scripture to denote entrance into heaven, with cleansing and reward. Some commentators believe that the 24 elders are angelic beings, in which case, they would not be human beings on the earth, and would have something to do with our prayers (even weirder, according to Protestant theology). If they are human beings, they seem to have undergone death, based on the symbology. One Protestant site I found argues much the same way that I have. It assumes that this is occurring in heaven, and holds that dead men are being referred to, not angels: 1. It says they are elders  I cannot find the word ever applied to angels. This makes sense since angels apparently are all the same age anyway. 2. They sit on thrones and wear crowns  Again you never will find an angel wearing a crown or destined to rule as the thrones imply. On the other hand we are told

throughout the Bible that the righteous shall inherit and rule the earth, including the twelve apostles sitting on twelve thrones ruling each of the twelve tribes (Lk 22:30). 3. White Raiment  If they are righteous glorified men in Heaven, this is what they ought to be wearing according to Rev 19:8 as the clothing of the Bride of Christ at the Marriage Supper will be, in addition to many parables of Jesus. Angels are also distinguished from elders in Rev 5:11. In any event, I challenge you to find any well-known Bible commentator who holds that this is men still alive on earth. I dont think it can be done. Regarding Jer 15:1-2: God is posing a hypothetical, Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me,  He probably used this terminology, because Moses and Samuel had intervened for His people while they were living on earth. He in no way indicates that Moses and Samuel are interceding on our behalf this very minute. Thats not required. The hypothetical implies that the actual occurrence is possible, too. If I stated, for example, even if my wife stood before me and begged me, I wouldnt clean the gutters, does that imply that it is impossible for her to do such a thing? Of course not. We know that some dead men have come back (Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration, the two witnesses in Revelation, Samuel, who pronounced judgment on Saul). What is it in your theology that makes you think that when someone dies, all of a sudden, they no longer love or have any concern for the happenings on earth, and loved ones still there? This makes no sense. Do they become rocks or unfeeling automatons when they are in the presence of God? How implausible is that? When with He Who is Love, they have no love or consciousness? But Revelation shows us clearly that all this is false, anyway, because there we have dead human beings highly concerned with the events on earth, and praying for people on earth; even having the prayers of the saints (along with angels, who also present them to God). The lack of clear scripture showing that heavenly saints actually pray for us



I think we can safely say that the data above demolishes this contention. and any person of the Bible praying to heavenly saints combined with I Tim 2:5 ( one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus), which is very clear, makes it necessary to say we shoul

dnt pray to heavenly saints and that they dont intercede on our behalf. Thats all very nice Protestant dogmatism, but the problem is that it is unbiblical. The following evidence shows this: 1. Dead saints are aware of earthly affairs: Mt 22:30, Lk 15:10, 1 Cor 4:9, Heb 12:1 Matt 22:30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

Taking this passage to mean that well be like angels in every way is errant. We have to go by what information this gives us. If it says we will be like them, then it is reasonable to speculate in what way we will be so. Thats more reasonable than immediately looking at differences, in discussing a passage which states a general similarity. I agree that it cant mean we are like them in every way, lest we cease to be men, who are different than angels in several ways by definition. But that is self-evident, and doesnt solve our controversy one way or the other. Well have bodies; they wont. True, but that has nothing to do with the possibilty of intercession, since it is a non-physical thing. Well be higher than them. All the more reason to think that we can still pray for those on earth, since that is an attribute of men that angels already share anyway, and one that we possess on earth. In other words, if angels seem higher than us now, and we pray for others now, if we are higher than them in heaven, then on what basis can we conclude that we will no longer pray; something we already do here? To not be able to do that in the afterlife would mean we are lower than we are on earth, while at the same time we are higher than the angels. This makes little sense, and is incoherent and implausible, to put it mildly. Jesus is addressing a specific question of the Sadducees about marriage in heaven, and He answers that well be like angels in marriage not in every way. This doesnt support dead saints being aware of earthly affairs. So you say. It certainly doesnt rule it out. The argument from silence only goes so far. Nothing in your reply here is compelling against my position, because it really wasnt an argument; rather, simply a denial of the possibilities inherent in what this biblical statement allows (based on prior dogmatic disposition). Heb 12:1 Paul is most likely referring to angels here. He could even be referring to fellow living believers since we each view our brothers lives. Thats not the standard view of Protestant commentators, since the word for witness in Heb 12:1 is the Greek martus, from which is derived the English word martyr. Hence, prominent Protestant linguistic / exegetical sources such as W.E. Vine in his Expository Dictionary of NT Words, Thayers Greek-English Lexicon, A.T. Robertsons Word Pictures in the New Testament, and Gerhard Kittels Theological Dictionary of the New Testament believe that this passage is referring to dead saints observing Christian believers still alive on earth. Your opinion is far out of the mainstream of Protestant scholarship. 2. Dead saints intercede for those on earth: Jer 15:1-2, 2 Maccabees 15:14, Rev 6:9-10 Jer 15: A hypothetical only proves that something could be, not that it is. Jer 15 doesnt prove anything. Rev 6:9-10 Imprecatory prayers are not intercession, or theyd be called intercessory prayers. :-) The heavenly saints are not interceding for us. 3. Saints act as intermediaries and present our prayers to God: Rev 5:8 A messenger is not a mediator. 4. Dead saints appear on earth and interact with men: 1 Sam 28:12-15 with Sirach 46:20, 2 Maccabees 15:13-16, Mt 17:1-3 and 27:50-53, Rev 11:3 These arent instances of dreams though (still ignoring the Apocrypha) which is what we were talking about. 5. There is such a thing as guardian angels: Ps 34:7, 91:11, Mt 18:10, Acts 12:15, Heb 1:14 Agreed. They exist, but its not conclusive that each person has his own. 6. Angels are aware of our thoughts: Lk 15:10, 1 Cor 4:9 Our thoughts? Only God is guaranteed to know our thoughts. Neither angels nor demons know our thoughts. They know our actions and circumstances but not our thoughts. This is clearly untrue, as seen in Holy Scripture. For example: Matthew 1:20, where we are informed that the angel knew Joseph was troubled about Mary being pregnant (not understanding that it was miraculous). The angel could know this because God gave it this knowledge. It doesnt necessarily have to be intrinsic knowledge (just as God gives prophets supernatural knowledge). But as soon as we see an angel knowing interior thoughts of men (as we do here), then your objection collapses. The only confusion seems to be how the angel obtained such knowledge. 7. Angels act as intermediaries and present our prayers to God: Tobit 12:12,15, Rev 8:34 (cf. 5:8) Again, a messenger is not a mediator. All of this being the case, it is perfectly reasonable and biblical to ask either angels or dead saints to pray for us, whether or not there is an explicit Scriptural passage (because all the elements are there: they see and observe us and pray for us; therefore we can ask them to do so). A friend of mine asked me if a dogs spirit goes to heaven when they die. I said the Bible doesnt really say. She then said she believed they did. If silence is permissive, shes not banned from thinking that. And if praying to anything in heaven is allowed, whats to stop her from praying to her dog? This is the kind of theology one CAN end up with if he chooses the silence is permissive approach. The context of I Tim 2:1-5 is prayer not justice, so its inaccurate to say verse 5 is about Jesus being a mediator of justice. Of course Jesus IS the mediator of justice, but thats not what this passage is talking about; its talking about Him being the mediator in prayer. Thanks much, Grubb, for your responses and amiability. Ill let you have the last word, and itll make a good dialogue, I think, for people to read and consider both sides.

*****

Meta Description: The popular perception of folks in heaven is that they sit on clouds & play harps all day. The Bible teaches that they are praying for us.

Meta Keywords: communion of saints, intercession of the saints, invocation of saints
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'Islamic' Chair Cover Gets Iranian Activist In Trouble

06/02/16 By Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL

A prominent Iranian human rights lawyer and women's rights activist has created a controversy by posting a picture on social media that shows her sitting on a chair with Islamic motifs while holding a glass of wine.



Shai Sadr sits on the "Islamic" couch with a wine glass

(click for full image).



The chair in the photo of Shadi Sadr is covered with a material used in Iran for events marking the Ashura, the martyrdom of Imam Hossein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. It is a work by Iranian artist Parastou Forouhar, whose parents were among intellectuals and political activists killed in the late 1990s by Intelligence Ministry agents.

Hard-line conservative Iranian media, including state-controlled television and the Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), accused Sadr of insulting Islamic sanctities and disrespecting Islamic values.

Sadr, one of many activists and intellectuals who had to flee Iran to escape imprisonment in a crackdown after the 2009 presidential elections, told RFE/RL that the photo was not insulting and that she posted the photo to highlight the plight of nonbelievers in Iran.

"Shadi Sadr, the fugitive feminist and a so-called journalist who supports women's rights, has entered her pro-Western orientation into a new phase: insulting values and the holiest of the holy symbols of the Iranian nation; the symbol of the mourning for [Imam Hossein]," a state television report said.

Fars called Sadr's picture "an excuse to insult religious sanctity," while accusing her of questioning Islamic principles for years.

The news agency posted a statement by "a group of professors and law experts" calling for Sadr's extradition, trial, and punishment over what it said was her "antireligious" move.

The statement said that according to Islamic penal law, those convicted of insulting sanctity and holy figures can be either sentenced to death or to one to five years in prison.

Sadr told RFE/RL that she posted the photo on social media to highlight what she saw an as "interesting contrast."

"I was sitting [with friends] and discussing Ashura practices and our memories and experiences from childhood when I realized the contrast between the [chair] I was sitting on, the material on it, and myself with that glass in hand. I asked someone who was there to take my picture," she said in a telephone interview from London, where she is based.

"I thought there's an interesting contrast in the picture where a woman without the hijab and full of joy is sitting on that chair. It represents the many freedoms those who are not believers have been deprived of in Iran in the name of [religion]. That's all," she added.

Sadr dismissed allegations that her picture was an insult to Islamic sanctity.

"As someone born in a Shi'a family, I think I'm familiar enough with that culture to know that there is nothing insulting in that picture," she said.

She added, "The material [that covers the chair] is not considered sanctity, nor there is any insult in that picture."

She said she believed the outrage among critics stemmed from the contrast she highlighted in the picture, which is rarely seen in Iranian society.

Sadr's picture on Instagram generated over 34,000 comments, including many threats and warnings.

"You insulted the beliefs of a large number of people. It is really deplorable," read a comment posted under Sadr's post.

Another said that he hoped Sadr's would be "punished" soon.

"You keep talking about human rights and the need other people's beliefs. How come you disrespect other people's beliefs while making such claims," another user commented.

Some praised Sadr for the post.

"What a wonderful picture, full of positive energy," one woman wrote, adding that those who were angered by it should learn "to relax."

Sadr said she'd been threatened with death and rape over her picture. "Most of the threats I received [over the post] were threats of rape, [many] left obscene comments while defending holy figures," she said.

Some described in detail how they would rape Sadr if they would lay their hands on her.

Sadr's post was removed from Instagram on May 31. She said she hadn't received any notification from Instagram about the reason for the move.

Instagram has not yet responded to an RFE/RL inquiry about the removal of Sadr's post. The picture is still available on Sadr's Facebook page.

Copyright (c) 2016 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Iran: Women Prisoners Collectively Punished For Baha'i Leader's Meeting with Activist during Her Furlough

06/02/16

Source: International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Inmates at the Womens Ward in Evin Prison have been told that their furloughs (temporary leave) have been canceled and that they will no longer be able to send letters to relatives, a source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.



Faezeh Hashemi broke a taboo by visiting the Bahais

(source Iranian magazine Panjereh)





Some twenty-five women are known to be inmates at Evins Womens Ward, all of whom are political prisoners or prisoners of conscience.

The measures appear to be collective punishment in retaliation against prisoner and Bahai leader Fariba Kamalabadis high-profile meeting on May 13, 2016 with former Tehran MP Faezeh Hashemi during Kamalabadis furlough.

When Fariba Kamalabadis five-day furlough ended, the family asked the Tehran prosecutor for an extension, but his representative refused and said the reason was the meeting between Fariba and her former cellmate [Faezeh Hashemi], the source told the Campaign.

Faezeh Hashemi, the activist daughter of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, previously shared a prison cell with Kamalabadi in Evin Prison.

In 2010 Kamalabadi and six other Bahai leaders were sentenced to 20 years in prison each on trumped up charges including espionage, propaganda against the state, and organizing and expanding an illegal group. Kamalabadis five-day furlough was the first temporary leave she had been granted during her eight years of imprisonment.

The Bahai community is one of the most severely persecuted religious minorities in Iran. The faith is not recognized in the Islamic Republics Constitution and its members face harsh discrimination in all walks of life as well as prosecution for the public display of their faith.

Kamalabadis meeting with Hashemi was strongly condemned by politicians and religious leaders. A high-ranking member of the Iranian Judiciary also vowed that action would be taken against Hashemi.

Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, a senior theologian in the holy city of Qom, urged the Judiciary to punish Hashemi for her crime on May 16, 2016 and later issued a religious decree on May 29, 2016 forbidding Muslims from socializing with Bahais.

It is certainly forbidden for anyone to socialize with [Bahais] unless there is a chance they could be guided [away from their faith], and publishing photos of them socializing is the same as spreading corruption, said Makarem.

Despite the widespread criticism she has received from powerful quarters in Iran, Faezeh Hashemi has publicly defended her decision to meet with Kamalabadi.

I paid a visit to Ms. Kamalabadi because she was my cellmate. We lived together for six months, said Hashemi in an interview with Euronews on May 15, 2016. Meeting her when she was released on furlough for five days after eight years of imprisonment was a very ordinary thing.

We arent animals who ignore moral and humanitarian obligations that are put on our shoulders at certain periods of our life, she said.

Hashemi also described her time in prison as a very valuable learning experience adding: We in Iran are committing injustice not only against [Bahais] but against many others as well. But the level [of injustice] against [Bahais] is worse than all others. This should not be happening. We must change our behavior.
Brookings: JCPOA "Unlikely" to Cause Regional Arms Race

06/02/16

By Derek Davison (source: LobeLog)

In a newly released report, Brookings Institution fellows Robert Einhorn and Richard Nephew argue that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will not lead to a proliferation cascade throughout the Middle East. Instead, their report suggests that the Middle Eastern nations thought most likely to pursue nuclear weapons are constrained from doing so, for a variety of reasons. In fact, Einhorn and Nephew conclude, the rigorous implementation of the JCPOA can reduce the likelihood of a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race by taking the possibility of Irans pursuit of a weapon off the table.

One of the main concerns about the JCPOA has been that its terms will encourage Irans neighbors in the Middle East to pursue nuclear weapons programs of their own. Per Einhorn and Nephew:

Others claim that, by legitimizing Irans enrichment program, permitting Iran to ramp up its nuclear infrastructure after 10-15 years, and facilitating an economic recovery that will enable Iran to greatly boost the resources devoted to its nuclear program, the JCPOA itself will be the catalyst for additional proliferation. They contend that, while Iran may have been expanding its nuclear capabilities prior to the JCPOA, the international community considered Irans nuclear program at the time to be illegal and sanctionable, and regional states had some hope that a deal would be struck that would terminate the program and end the nuclear threat. Now, according to this view, regional states have concluded that the deal actually reached is not capable of alleviating their concerns, and they may feel compelled to pursue their own capabilities to prepare for the time when Irans nuclear program emerges from its restrictions in 2025-2030.

Some of this concern stems from an unproven belief that Iran has been maintaining a nuclear weapons program, an assumption that does not comport with any available evidence, and that it will immediately begin working toward a nuclear weapon once the JCPOA restrictions are eased, which of course is unknowable. But there are some legitimate concerns that Iran could take provocative nuclear action in the future even if its goals are entirely civilian.

Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has made no secret of his plans to dramatically ramp up the countrys uranium enrichment capabilities once its JCPOA-imposed restrictions on such activity expire. However, as Einhorn and Nephew note, much can and will change with respect to regional security and the nuclear issue in the 10-15 years before that happens. If Iran is seen to have complied with the JCPOA (which, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has been doing so far), if the overall security picture in the Middle East has improved, and if the next U.S. president and Iranian Supreme Leader (the 76-year-old Khamenei will likely have been replaced before the JCPOAs restrictions begin to sunset) are able to maintain the deal, then the regional reaction to an increased Iranian enrichment program is likely to be muted. If the deal breaks down and/or if the Middle East is even more perilous than it is today, then that reaction is likely to be more emphatic.

Four Case Studies

However, Einhorn and Nephew studied four leading Middle Eastern countries-Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Turkey-and found that the possibility of proliferation by each one was relatively small:

Saudi Arabia is Irans greatest regional rival and has already announced plans to develop a large-scale civilian nuclear power program by 2040. However, its domestic nuclear capacity has remained small, owing in part to low oil prices and their effect on the Saudi budget. The country is also heavily reliant on foreign assistance to build its civilian reactors. It has expressed some interest in developing a domestic enrichment program, but that would take considerable time to build up. Of course, the Saudis could acquire a nuclear weapon. However, though it has long been assumed that Pakistan has agreed to provide a weapon to Riyadh should it ask for one, Einhorn and Nephew found scant evidence of such an agreement. Moreover, the international repercussions for both Riyadh and Islamabad if this actually came to pass are probably enough to prevent both countries from going through with it.

The UAE has also adopted a robust anti-Iran policy, for example in its commitment of forces to the anti-Houthi coalition in Yemen (under the perhaps somewhat misguided assumption that the Houthis are Iranian proxies). But the UAE has held out more hope for engaging Iran than the Saudis have, and its nuclear program is even more dependent on external support. The UAE created the gold standard for nuclear energy deals in its 2009 123 Agreement with the U.S., wherein it renounced all ambitions toward uranium enrichment or spent fuel reprocessing. Einhorn and Nephew found no evidence that the UAE is interested in changing that position, let alone in developing a weapons program.

Egypt has rejected the idea of developing a nuclear weapon since the 1960s and has been one of the leading proponents of creating a Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone. Though Cairo does have a small nuclear research program, it lacks the financial wherewithal to expand it and, unlike the Saudis, it does not identify Iran as the biggest threat to regional stability or its own security. Rather, the Egyptians see terrorism and the Muslim Brotherhood as their biggest concerns, and neither of those warrants developing a nuclear deterrent.

Turkey, with its membership in NATO, arguably already has a nuclear deterrent, though it might also seek a domestic weapons program. However, Turkeys relationship with Iran has remained relatively strong even though the two countries are on opposite sides when it comes to supporting factions in the Syrian civil war, and so an expanded Iranian nuclear program is unlikely to spur Ankara to take any drastic action.

Keeping the Genie in the Bottle

Although not even the Saudis will likely pursue a nuclear weapon as a result of the JCPOA, the report offers eight recommendations to assuage Saudi concerns and strengthen the deals non-proliferation impact:

Ensure that the JCPOA is rigorously monitored, strictly enforced, and faithfully implemented Strengthen U.S. intelligence collection on Iranian proliferation-related activities and intelligence-sharing on those activities with key partners Deter a future Iranian decision to produce nuclear weapons by threatening the use of military force if Iran were believed to be proceeding toward breakout Seek to incorporate key monitoring and verification provisions of the JCPOA into routine IAEA safeguards as applied elsewhere in the Middle East and in the global nonproliferation regime Pursue U.S. civil nuclear cooperation with Middle East governments on terms that are realistic and serve U.S. nonproliferation interests Promote regional arrangements that restrain fuel cycle developments and build confidence in the peaceful use of regional nuclear programs Strengthen security assurances to U.S. partners in the Middle East Promote a stable regional security environment, especially the resolution of current civil wars and the reduction of Saudi-Iranian tensions

Of these, the most critical, and most challenging, would seem to be the last. Ending the conflicts in Syria and Yemen and rebuilding diplomatic ties between Iran and the Gulf Arab states are both massive challenges (and, indeed, achieving the latter depends on achieving the former). But if regional tensions are not eased then no region-wide deals on the peaceful use of nuclear power will be possible, and no amount of U.S. security assurance to the Gulf states will be enough to assuage Arab fears about Iranian intentions. Although the short-term risk of proliferation seems small, in the long run if these regional conflicts arent settled that risk will only increase, regardless of the JCPOA.





About the Author: Derek Davison is a Washington-based researcher and writer on international affairs and American politics. He has Master's degrees in Middle East Studies from the University of Chicago, where he specialized in Iranian history and policy, and in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied American foreign policy and Russian/Cold War history. He previously worked in the Persian Gulf for The RAND Corporation.




Iran sees no deal on oil output freeze: Oil Minister

06/02/16

Source: Press TV

Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says Iran will continue to ramp up oil production until it returns to levels before sanctions cut its exports. As he arrived in Vienna ahead of Thursday's meeting of OPEC ministers, Zangeneh said a return to individual producer output quotas is the only way to manage the oil market.



front page of Iranian economic daily Abrara Eqtesadi:

Oil Market Watching Today's OPEC Meeting





OPEC accepted a Saudi plan to scrap allocating fixed production quotas to member countries in 2011 and introduced an output ceiling which does not specify quotas.

Lately, Saudi Arabia has suggested a production freeze at current output levels despite the fact that there is already up to 2.5 million barrels per day of excess oil in the market.

The Saudi proposal jars with Iran's bid to regain its market share through stepped-up oil production but Riyadh has said it would commit itself to a freeze plan only if Tehran joined it.

After talk among Persian Gulf producers that discussions about a new production target could take place on Thursday, Zangeneh said an overall output ceiling "has no benefit for us and other OPEC producers."

"We need to have a country quota but I don't believe it will happen at this meeting," he said, adding the meeting would focus on choosing a new OPEC secretary general to replace Abdullah al-Badri.

Zangeneh said Iran's production has risen above 3.8 million barrels a day and is quickly approaching 4 million.

He said Iran's oil exports have doubled since the last OPEC meeting in December to about 2.023 million bpd in May.

"A doubling of exports of Iranian oil has had no negative impact on the market and has been absorbed well," Zangeneh said.

"It is encouraging that the oil market is returning to a balanced state despite some sabotage carried out in this period," he added.

Recent market figures show the imports of Iranian crude by its Asian clients increased by more than 13 percent in April from a year ago.

They confirm official announcements that the country is regaining the share of the oil market it lost as a result of sanctions over its nuclear program.

For several years before 2012, Iran exported around 2.5 million bpd, with more than half going to Asia, mainly China, South Korea, India and Japan.

Oil prices dipped in Asia Wednesday as traders cautiously await the results of the OPEC meeting this week.

Crude prices have rebounded from their January lows of under $30, and last week briefly pushed past $50 a barrel for the first time this year.

Zangeneh said he thought $70 is an appropriate price in view of the current market situation.

He said OPEC must reassert its role in stabilizing the market and intervene when there is no balance in the market.
Cyrus Habib Kicks Off Campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Washington State

06/02/16

Source: Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA)

On May 16, the highest-ranking Iranian American in political office and the first Iranian American to serve as a State Senator filed paperwork to run for Lieutenant Governor of Washington State. His campaign for Lieutenant Governor, the highest state office after Governor, began with a kick-off event in downtown Seattle, where he was endorsed by California Lt. Governor and Gubernatorial Candidate Gavin Newsom, as well as several Washington State Senators, and the Washington State Attorney General.



cyrushabib.com



In his announcement speech, Washington State Senator Cyrus Habib called for a politics of inclusion, promising to fight discrimination and income inequality in Washington state. His fight for inclusion is personal, he explained, In our community and our state, and our country, we have to commit to the idea of inclusion...This matters when you are a three-time cancer surviving Iranian American from a mixed religion immigrant family, he said. No one should have to feel that sense of exclusion that I did growing up, and I have to advocate for those who are less fortunate than me, and I will work until no one is excluded from our economic, social, and political system, he continued.

Cyrus Habib was first elected to political office as a representative for Washingtons 48th District in the Washington House of Representatives in 2012. Two years later, Habib was elected to the Washington State Senate with 65% of the vote and then selected as Senate Democratic Whip. The blind senator is the first Iranian American to serve in a state legislature and his position as Democratic Whip places him as the highest ranking Iranian American in elected office. Raised in Bellevue, Washington, Habib attended Columbia University as a Truman Scholar, Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and Yale Law School, where he was editor of the The Yale Law Journal.

Habib was recently appointed to the 2016 Democratic National Convention Platform Committee by DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The Platform Committee is responsible for drafting a proposed National Platform, an official declaration of the partys positions, for approval at the Democratic National Convention.

In the State Senate he serves as the vice chair of the Technology and Economic Development Committee as well as on the Business and Financial Services and Transportation committees. Habib was the prime sponsor of the Washington State Jobs Act, which became law in March of 2014 and enables start-up companies in Washington State to engage in equity crowdfunding.

I appreciate PAAIAs support of me since the beginning, PAAIA has been incredible, said Habib, discussing the role that Iranian American organizations have played in supporting him.

Click Here to learn more about Cyrus Habibs campaign

Watch Cyrus full speech at the event as well as California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsoms endorsement below:
The best 2-in-1 laptop 2022: our picks of the best convertible laptops

These are the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy right now
The third time could be the charm for Intel and its Thunderbolt technology. A year after introducing Thunderbolt 3 at Computex 2015, Intel is finally starting to see success with its high-speed external I/Oenough that even doubters might agree its winning.

You neednt look far for signs that Thunderbolt 3 will succeed where its two predecessors failed dismally on the PC. This years top-tier laptops from HP and Dell, as well models from MSI, Asus, Razer, and Acer, all prominently feature Thunderbolt 3 ports.

Almost all of the high-profile laptops of the last few months have prominently featured Thunderbolt 3 ports.

PC duds: Thunderbolt 1 and 2

Thunderbolt looked a lot more like a flash in the pan four years ago when it was first introduced. Promising 10Gbps of bandwidth in each direction for a combined 20Gbps, Thunderbolt easily eclipsed USB 3.0 and its 5Gbps in the specsmanship game. Pitched as one cable to rule them all, Thunderbolt could carry PCIe and DisplayPort, and it looked like it would quickly eclipse USB 3.0.

In fact, the opposite happened. PCs that supported Thunderbolt could be counted on one hand, and adoption of the standard was even worse.

I can personally attest to that. At Thunderbolts rollout, I tested the interface with a Promise Pegasus R4 cabinet and experienced truly impressive performance. When I checked back months later, however, Promise had yet to release Windows drivers. That alone told me no one cared.

Intel itself didnt even seem intent on making it a success. To ease the cost of integrating a pricey Thunderbolt chip directly into its Z77 motherboards, Asus built the ThunderboltEX add-on card, so only those who wanted the feature would have to pay for it. The problem? The ThunderboltEX card never received driver support. Beyond the eval units teased to the press, it never went on sale.

In one Asus forum, the frustration was apparent as one administrator tried to soothe a pissed-off customer whod bought a motherboard specifically for the feature.

We were unable to get the TB EX card certified despite our best efforts, so we were unable to bring it to market Im afraid, the Asus admin said. Certification is a necessary process all TB devices had to go through.

Intel Thunderbolt 2 cables cost $50 when introduced. Theyre still a costly $30 today.

Even worse, Thunderbolt cables pushed a ridiculous $50. (The price of the proprietary Thunderbolt chip was itself a closely guarded secret.) The standards only real proponent in those days was Apple, which used Thunderbolt 1 and 2 across its MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, and iMacs. The rest of the PC world was indifferent.

Given the challenges with getting Thunderbolt certified, its high costs, and the low demand, you can see why everyone predicted a FireWire-like future for it. FireWire was Apples high-speed interface of the 1990s that went head-to-head with USB and lost. Even though FireWire was technically superior, USB won on the cost and ubiquity fronts. In that battle, Intel backed USB while Apple backed FireWire.

USB 3.1 improvements didnt help

USB, meanwhile, didnt stand still. Two years after Thunderbolt first appeared at 10Gbps, USBs spec doubled to 10Gbps. It also became capable of charging high-powered devices. Heres the cherry on top: It adopted a tiny reversible plug called USB Type C. USB was even updated to allow the carrying of alternate mode signals, so a vendor could plumb DisplayPort through a USB C cable.

With all that going for USB 3.1, many wondered why anyone would even bother with Thunderbolt 2 and its funky Mini DisplayPort connector and costly cables? Indeed, by 2015, most had written off Thunderbolt as another failure.

Intels adoption of USB Type C is credited with Thunderbolts recent success.

USB Type C to the rescue

With Thunderbolt seemingly on the ropes, Intel had one last moveone that likely put the technology on a winning path at last. At last years Computex, to the surprise of many, the company announced a faster version of the spec called Thunderbolt 3, with speeds up to 40Gbpsand it could do it over the new USB Type-C connector, instead of the funky MDP cable.

Intel essentially uses the same alternate mode that DisplayPort does to pass Thunderbolt signalling over PCIe. And by integrating a USB 3.1 10Gbps controller into the Thunderbolt 3 controller, it could fully support USB 3.1 too.

What Thunderbolt 1 and 2 couldnt do, Thunderbolt 3 has finally achieved in its vision of one cable to rule them all.

A single USB Type C connector could support: DisplayPort, PCIe, high-wattage charging, and USBs fastest spec.

Even pricing, which was always a controversial topic with Thunderbolt 1 and Thunderbolt 2, seems to have been nullified. Intels public price for its Thunderbolt 3 chips is about $8, with volume pricing closer to $5, according to customers Ive interviewed. That low pricing has driven down the cost of the primary competitor, the Asmedia USB 3.1 controller, with one report putting it well under $3.

Numerous OEMs, though, told me its not just the price thats changed their mind on Thunderbolt 3; its the move to USB-C and giving consumers a port that can do it all.

While consumers just didnt give two damns about Thunderbolt 2, vendors are seeing increasing consumer interest in Thunderbolt 3, and the feature gives them an easy way to differentiate their products.

HPs Mike Nash, for example, said he sees Thunderbolt 3s main appeal in corporate laptops that will let users plug in a single cable to charge and dock it at the same time. Plus the tiny USB-C port allows for a thinner device profile.

An even bigger achievement might be Thunderbolt 3s ability to let a laptop run external graphics. In theory (as no one has shipped an external graphics cabinet yet), this would give a super-thin laptop real gaming chops.

akitio Akitios Thunder3 PCIe lets you run a stupidly fast PCIe drive in an enclosure hooked up using Thunderbolt 3.

There are still doubters

Not every PC vendor I spoke with thought Thunderbolt 3 was a slam dunk, though. One vendor, who asked not to be identified, said it makes sense on laptops but most desktops simply have no use for it because they already exceed its capabilities.

On desktops, use of the Thunderbolt 3 chip is rare. Surveying the motherboard scene, Ive seen Thunderbolt 3 on only one or two models. More cost-conscious vendors, such as Asrock, dont seem to have any Thunderbolt models.

I wouldnt say Thunderbolt has won, as we now have USB 3.1 to wrestle away the limited scope of use it had for motherboardsstorage, the vendor said. Thunderbolt is merely doing the one thing it does best, and thats allow something like a graphics dock to be used on a notebook.

The vendor said challenges with getting Intels hardware certifications also slowed them down.

Intels NUC can use its Thunderbolt 3 to connect to an external graphics cabinet.

A game changer

These are all things Intel is working on, said Intels Jason Ziller, who oversees the technology for the chip giant. While unwilling to agree that Thunderbolt 1 and 2 were duds, Ziller wholeheartedly agrees theres been a sea change of acceptance from PC vendors with Thunderbolt 3.

(The USB C port) was kind of a game changer, and were seeing a complete shift in the PC industry on their view of that port, Ziller said.

Intel is also opening a center in Taiwan to approve devices faster. Ziller said a tower may not need Thunderbolt 3s capability right now, but a small-form-factor or NUC-style mini-PC could benefit from the performance and external graphics capability of Thunderbolt 3.

Has Thunderbolt 3 won? Ziller laughed when asked.

Thats your terminology. Were very pleased with the adoption and the progress its made in just a years time actually. This time, it truly is the cable that can do it all.
If cyber criminals have a Holy Grail, its your fullz, or your full set of personal information. And theyll go to great lengths to get it.

Since 2005, more than 6,000 companies and organizations have reported breaches. Judging from prior trends, about half of those breaches likely involved the exposure of sensitive information, where consumers names are paired with additional data such as addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, Social Security numbers, and health records. In just 2015, for example, nearly 165 million records containing Social Security numbers were compromised in 338 breaches, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Cyber crimimals are focused on bringing together an individuals full information to facilitate identity theft, allow the purchase of goods and services on the Internet, and enable criminals to open new accounts in a victims name. Fullz are also for sale in underground markets and the dark web, ranging in price from $15 to $65 for a U.S. citizens complete record, according to data collected by security services firm Dell Secureworks.

Anything you can purchase on the Internet, or applying for any type of bank account or credit-card account, thats pretty much what you would use a fullz for, said Shawn Cozzolino, a senior intelligence analyst with Dell Secureworks. As the Internet grows, and more and more services requires information, pretty much all your information is going to be out there.

While the security industry is focused on preventing breaches, criminals are focused on extracting value from the stolen data. Like a business building a profile of a customer, criminals are trying to create a complete digital dossier on potential victims. For high net-worth individuals, such profiles can fetch a premium. In one survey of a dark web, for example, a researcher found criminals selling someones data for more than $450.

People are not the only target of identity collection. Fairly complete dossiers on businesses, primarily Russian businesses, can be bought for 40,000 to 60,000 rubles (about $547 to $822 currently), according to Dell Secureworks report. The files include the companys original articles of incorporation, lease agreements, and tax identification number.

Data into dollars

Fullz is the treasure trove, said John Shier, security advisor at Sophos. If you have someones name and address, that is still valuable, but at the end of the day, the more info you have, the more it is worth.

The problem with fullz is that the harm is not obvious, and many people will not feel the impact for many years, if ever. While about a quarter of Americans have been notified of a breach, only 11 percent have actually stopped doing business with the hacked company, according to the RAND Corp., a private research organization.

People should pay attention to breaches and which pieces of their personal information may be at risk, warned Lillian Ablon, cybersecurity and emerging technologies analyst at RAND. The theft of this type of information is incredibly alarming, she said. Unlike a credit card number which can be changed, Social Security numbers and health information are hard to change, or cannot be changed. I cannot change my blood type. I cannot move my house, just because someone got my address.

Also, because consumers do not immediately feel the pain of a breach, they are not calling for change, said RANDs Ablon. Because there has not been rampant identity theft, like there has been financial theft, there has not been that pain, she said.

Overall, the industry needs a better solution. While many companies have suffered millions of dollars in damages from breaches, and some CEOs have lost their jobs, the industry is set up to punish the breach of credit-card information much more rigorously than the breach of immutable personal information.

The problem will only get worse. Attackers are focusing more on combining personal data with health information as a way to conduct healthcare fraud. Information taken in breaches of healthcare firms is now finding its way into fullz, according to Dell Secureworks.

We have seen a huge spike in healthcare information being sold on the Internet, Cozzolino said. Both in the English and the Russian spectrum, we are seeing more and more. Such attacks could cause healthcare firms to wrongly charge consumers for undelivered care, and they could also adulterate patients healthcare records.

Making your fullz hard to find

Because a person has very little control over whether their information is leaked in a breach, consumers should focus on the next step in the criminals chain of crime: Their use of the information to make money.

Consumers should do as much as they can to make it difficult for the criminals to use their information. Using a password manager, for example, allows consumers to have complex passwords and not reuse them across sitestwo properties of a good password that limits the damage from a breach.

Financial tools are available as well, said Dell Secureworks Cozzolino. Monitor your accounts and your credit scores, he said. That can give you an early warning.
Priced at $199, the Samsung Gear IconX may be the most expensive earbuds you ever buy. But the story here isnt audiophile-caliber music quality. No, Samsung is pushing the IconX as the ultimate earbuds for workout fanatics, thanks to a completely wireless design, onboard music storage, and built-in sensors for tracking steps and heart rate.

I used the IconX for about five minutes during the same Samsung demo that revealed the Gear Fit2 wristband, and found the earbuds to be hit-or-missawesome in some respects, a bit lacking in others. Ill withhold final judgement until my official review, but at this point I can say that Samsung is on to something with the IconX. Indeed, if you require music and exercise data during your workouts, youll definitely want the feature set that Samsung is offering when the Gear IconX goes retail in the third quarter of this year.

Icon GearX: How it works

Other wireless earbuds, like the LG Heart Rate Earphones, are wired to each other, as well as to a control pod. LGs control pod connects to your smartphone over Bluetoothand thats what makes the system wireless. But the Gear IconX are completely wire-free. Theyre not even wired to each other. Instead, Samsung uses a special Bluetooth protocol to connect one earbud to the other, all while maintaining perfectly synced stereo sound.

Samsung The outward-facing edge of the Gear IconX earbud is a touchscreen. Tap and swipe to advance through tracks and adjust volume.

Whats more, you wont necessarily need to bring your smartphone with you when youre exercising, as the Gear IconX boast 4GB of storage for onboard music. Just drop the earbuds into their charging case, and then connect that to your computer. Now you can transfer tracks from your music collection to the buds.

Battery life is rated for 3.6 hours of continuous use if you only listen to onboard tracks (MP3, WMA v9, WAV, AAC, and M4A are all supported). If you choose to stream music from your phone, battery life drops to 1.5 hours.

I found the IconX incredibly easy to insert in my ears, and they wouldnt pop out no matter how violently I shook my head. Unfortunately, Samsungs system for controlling volume and pause/play/track advance wasnt quite so trouble-free. Each earbud includes a capacitive touchscreen to control these functions, and while swiping to control volume was easy enough, I never mastered the tap methods for playback control during my brief time with earbuds.

Samsung The Gear IconX come in three colors. You know, for ear fashion.

Im a masochist when it comes to audio volume, and IconX delivered the decibels I need. That said, the earbuds seemed to have poor bass response. Of course, Ill need to use the IconX with my own music selections to really determine bass quality, but based on the EDM track that Samsung played during my demo, I wasnt hearing much thump.

Steps and heart-rate data

The IconX have an onboard heart-rate monitor, as well as an accelerometer to collect step data. I didnt get a chance to experience either sensor in action, but the concept is pretty simple: A Voice Guide feature provides audio reports on your exercise progress and heart rate, directly through the earbuds. The LG earphones boast a similar feature, and while it certainly works, I personally find the interruptions to be annoying.

Luckily, the Gear IconX can also pair with your phone, so you can look at real-time step and heart data directly on any modern Android device via Samsungs S Health app.

Unfortunately, you cant stream IconX sensor data to the just-announced Gear Fit2 wristband. Thats a shame, because Ive found that heart-rate data produced by ear-based sensors is more accurate than heart-rate data collected by wristbands.

All in all, the Gear IconX look really interesting, and should bring a whole new approach to fitness tracking for mainstream users. Im concerned about bass response, and Im also worried about losing the buds themselves. Wired earphones may not be ideal when youre running outside, or jumping from machine to machine at the gym. But those wires do make old-school earbuds easier to findat the bottom of gym bags and on cluttered countertops.

So if you buy the IconX when they go on sale during the third quarter of this year, youll definitely want to keep them in their charging case. It might be just large enough to keep from getting lost.
A senior finance manager in Oracles cloud business has complained to a federal court that she was terminated from her job because she refused to go along with accounting principles she considered unlawful.

In a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Svetlana Blackburn says her superiors instructed her to add millions of dollars in accruals to financial reports, with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers, an act that Plaintiff warned was improper and suspect accounting. The former employee is said to have warned her supervisor she would blow the whistle if ordered to continue in the same manner.

Blackburn alleges that upper management was trying to fit square data into round holes in a bid to boost the financial reports of the cloud services business, which would be paraded before company leaders and investors.

A Certified Public Accountant, Blackburn received a positive performance review in August 2015, but in the following month her supervisors charted a course that veered from legal, ethical and company standards. Her employment was terminated within weeks, on Oct. 15, after she continued to resist and warn of the accounting improprieties, according to the complaint.

We dont agree with the allegations and intend to vigorously defend the matter, said Oracle spokeswoman, Deborah Hellinger, in an email.

Blackburn alleges in her complaint that executives above her went ahead and added accruals on their own, despite her objections. She was told by a supervisor that her statements were irritating after she warned about the dangers of a lack of billings, and the history of bad accruals that never resulted in billings. As a result, she came to be viewed as more of a roadblock than a team player who would blindly generate financial reports using improper bases in order to justify the bottom lines that her superiors demanded to see, according to her complaint.

Blackburn accuses Oracle of unlawful retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which is legislation that aims to prevent corporate accounting fraud and errors. She said her actions were protected under the Act because she resisted and reported conduct that she believed was against the law.

The former employee also claims to be protected under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which protects employees from discrimination after they make disclosures under Sarbanes-Oxley. Blackburn is suing Oracle for punitive damages and a ruling preventing the company from retaliating against other similar objectors, among other measures.
Oracle plans to sue whistleblower Svetlana Blackburn for malicious prosecution, the company said Thursday.

On Wednesday, Blackburn  a senior finance manager in Oracles cloud business  said in a lawsuit she was terminated from her job for refusing to go along with cloud-computing accounting principles she considered unlawful.

Blackburn alleges that upper management was trying to fit square data into round holes in a bid to boost the financial reports for Oracles cloud services business that would be paraded before company leaders and investors.

We are confident that all our cloud accounting is proper and correct, Oracle spokesperson Deborah Hellinger said via email. This former employee worked at Oracle for less than a year and did not work in the accounting group. She was terminated for poor performance, and we intend to sue her for malicious prosecution.

Blackburn, a certified public accountant, received a positive performance review in August 2015. Soon afterward, however, her supervisors charted a course that veered from legal, ethical and company standards, according to her legal complaint against Oracle. Her employment was terminated on Oct. 15 after she continued to resist and warn of the accounting improprieties, the complaint said.

Early this year, Gartner issued a report suggesting that accounting practices were not always reliable for cloud computing vendors.

Oracle shares were down almost 5 percent percent in early trading on Thursday in the wake of news of Blackburns lawsuit.

It hasnt been a good week for Oracle, said Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics. On Tuesday it was hit with a $3 billion lawsuit from HP for breach of contract, then on Wednesday a whistleblower lawsuit, and we still have two more days until the weekend.

The HP lawsuit has been pending for years, but a jury trial started this week.

Oracle is well-known for suing competitors, but this week it seems to be on the receiving end. As they say, live by the sword, die by the sword, Scavo said.

I think Oracles response to this lawsuit is particularly harsh because it touches the core of Oracles strategic direction, he added. Oracle has been under tremendous pressure from investors to show progress on its transition to the cloud, Scavo said. If what this former employee is saying is true, it would cause investors to question how solid Oracles numbers are for its cloud business.

Thats no small thing: The hit to Oracles share price shows how seriously investors view this situation, Scavo added.
Researchers have found a malware program that was designed to manipulate supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems in order to hide the real readings from industrial processes.

The same technique was used by the Stuxnet sabotage malware allegedly created by the U.S. and Israel to disrupt Irans nuclear program and credited with destroying a large number of the countrys uranium enrichment centrifuges.

The new malware was discovered in the second half of last year by researchers from security firm FireEye, not in an active attack, but in the VirusTotal database. VirusTotal is a Google-owned website where users can submit suspicious files to be scanned by antivirus engines.

The mysterious program, which FireEye has dubbed IRONGATE, was uploaded to VirusTotal by several sources in 2014, at which time none of the antivirus products used by the site detected it as malicious.

Its also surprising that no company has identified the malware until late 2015, because the VirusTotal samples are automatically shared with all antivirus vendors who participate in the project.

FireEye itself discovered it because the company was searching for potentially suspicious samples compiled with PyInstaller, a technique used by various attackers. Two IRONGATE payloads stood out because they had references to SCADA and associated functionality.

The good news is that the samples seem to be a proof of concept or part of some research effort. Theyre designed to find and replace a specific DLL that communicates with Siemens SIMATIC S7-PLCSIM, a software product that allows users to run programs on simulated S7-300 and S7-400 programmable logic controllers (PLCs).

PLCs are the specialized hardware devices that monitor and control industrial processes  spinning motors, opening and closing valves, etc. They transmit their readings and other data to monitoring software, the human-machine interface (HMI), that runs on workstations used by engineers.

Like Stuxnet did at Irans Natanz nuclear plant, IRONGATE goal is to inject itself into the SCADA monitoring process and manipulate the data coming from PLCs, potentially hiding ongoing sabotage.

Stuxnet did this by suspending the PLC operation so the reported centrifuge rotor speed would remain static and within normal limits while it actually was not. IRONGATE instead records valid data from the PLC and then continuously plays that data back  think of robbers feeding the same video recording to a surveillance camera in a loop.

The fact that IRONGATE interacts with a PLC simulator and replaces a DLL that is not part of the Siemens standard product set have led the FireEye researchers to believe this malware was likely just a test.

The Siemens Product Computer Emergency Readiness Team (ProductCERT) has confirmed that the code would not work against a standard Siemens control system environment, the FireEye researchers said in a blog post Thursday.

However, if IRONGATE was just a proof of concept developed in 2014, intended to test a Stuxnet-like man-in-the-middle attack against PLCs, it could mean its creators have built another malware program since then that works against real industrial control system (ICS) deployments. Either way, IRONGATEs discovery should serve as a warning to organizations that operate SCADA systems.

The attackers have learned and implemented Stuxnet techniques, but the defenders havent really improved the ability to detect malware targeting ICS, Dale Peterson, the CEO of ICS security consultancy Digital Bond, said in a blog post. We need significant improvement in detection capabilities for ICS integrity attacks.
San Bernardino Countys 47th Assembly District race features Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown running against a fellow Democrat who argues that the incumbent puts corporations ahead of her constituents.

The race between Brown and Eloise Reyes has captured the interest  and wallets  of observers in Sacramento. Independent expenditure committees are spending six figures to support or oppose Brown, Reyes and Republican candidate Aissa Chanel Sanchez.

Reyes, a Colton attorney, said shes in the race because people in the district asked her to run.

Im running because the Inland Empires interests are not being represented properly, she said. I realized that Sacramentos interests were what was really being represented and it concerned me tremendously.

Brown, who was first elected in 2012, said shes being targeted because shes an independent voice who doesnt always vote as shes told.

It has been outside influences that have decided that the Inland Empire should become like everyone else and other areas of the state without giving us any resources (and) without bringing us where we need to be, said Brown, who founded the Black Voice News and is a former county NAACP president.

In an email, Sanchez described her campaign as low profile and said she didnt want to be interviewed until after the primary.

On primary day Tuesday, June 7, the 47th Districts voters will choose two candidates to advance to the November general election.

The top two finishers, regardless of party, will compete for the right to represent more than 470,000 people in a district that includes part of the city of San Bernardino as well as Colton, Fontana, Grand Terrace and Rialto.

Almost half of the districts 159,000 voters are registered Democrats, with 25 percent unaffiliated with any party and 22 percent registered as Republicans, according to the San Bernardino County elections office.

The contest between Brown and Reyes reflects an ongoing struggle in the state capital between moderate Assembly Democrats like Brown and progressive interests angered by moderate votes on bills dealing with the environment, gun control and other matters.

While Democrats control the Legislature, the moderate bloc has repeatedly frustrated liberals, especially when it came to last falls landmark climate change legislation. Brown and other moderate Democrats objected to a provision that called for cutting petroleum use by California motor vehicles in half by 2030.

Moderates, whose votes were needed to pass the bill, thought the provision would hurt low-income families and motorists who have to drive long distances to work. But environmentalists countered that cutting petroleum use would improve public health in Browns district, which has poor air quality.

The provision was taken out of the final bill, which Brown voted for. But for liberals, the damage was done. And theyve found a willing challenger in Reyes, who grew up in the district and ran in San Bernardino Countys 31st Congressional District in 2014.

Reyes finished fourth out of seven candidates in the primary for the 31st, now represented by Redlands Democrat Pete Aguilar. But Reyes raised more than $1 million and won the endorsements of prominent Democrats, including Los Angeles Rep. Xavier Becerra, without the help of the Democratic establishment, which backed Aguilar.

The race for the 47th has forced Democrats and their supporters to take sides. Reyes endorsers include state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, Becerra, the Sierra Club and Service Employees International Union.

Brown has the endorsement of the California Democratic Party, California Attorney General Kamala Harris, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, among others. Rendon recently visited the district to campaign for Brown.

INDEPENDENT SPENDING

Brown, Reyes and Sanchez are benefiting from a boom in outside campaign spending thats expected to surpass 2014 totals and perhaps eclipse the $30 million mark statewide, according to the California Target Book, which analyzes political races.

A target book report revealed at least $2 million has been spent in the race by independent expenditure committees, which cant coordinate their activities with candidates and get money from a wide range of donors, including real estate interests, organized labor and oil and gas companies.

Chevron Corp. gave $1 million to an independent committee supporting Brown. That led a committee funded by the United Food & Commercial Workers union to launch a Chevron Cheryl media campaign to portray the assemblywoman as beholden to the oil and gas industry.

Brown has rejected the criticism, saying shes standing up for her constituents and voted for tough anti-fracking legislation. She said she cant control who gives to independent committees that support her.

Brown has raised more than $718,000 for her campaign while Reyes has taken in almost $300,000, campaign finance records show.

No records were found for Sanchez, although independent committees have spent money to support her. The target book speculated the goal was to help Sanchez finish ahead of Reyes in the primary. In that scenario, Brown would be heavily favored to win re-election.

WHO WINS?

Reyes said the district can have clean air and quality jobs at the same time. We cant simply say Well, its a poor area and theres nothing we can do about it, she said.

If elected, Reyes said she would work to reduce childhood poverty and bring green jobs to the district. I dont think we get the resources that we should have, she said.

As assemblywoman, Brown said shes fought to provide more money for seniors, the disabled and veterans as well as more funding for state colleges and universities. The key to improving the district, she said, is to lure more businesses with a better-educated workforce and a safe community.

Why would we promote poverty over jobs? she said. You will never get businesses to come to a community thats anti-business  Government jobs are fine. But somebody has to pay the taxes for those government jobs.

While Browns incumbency gives her an edge, Reyes stands to benefit from the districts large Latino population, said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College.

If recent elections are any guide, (Brown and Reyes) will be the top two candidates out of the primary, he said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@pressenterprise.com
Because of Jerry Brown, we spend $1.3 million a day on a train that will never be finished. Recently, Toyota left California, taking 7,500 jobs to Texas. Browns comment was, These things happen. Brown gave away what will ultimately be billions of taxpayer dollars by signing two contracts with the correctional officers union, the same union that donated millions to him.

And the icing on cake? He has now endorsed Hillary Clinton, the most corrupt woman in the history of American politics. Why? So she can carry on his middle-class-destroying legacy?

Mike Talarico

Riverside

Kasich for VP?

And so the GOP presidential primary is once again a dead letter. Or is it?

How would it be if every Republican in California voted for someone other than Donald Trump? Not to disrespect him, but to convert the contest to a vice-presidential primary. It might just give Trump the advice he actually needs.

Im going to vote for John Kasich, because thats the best use I can make for that choice everyone thinks is lost. Now, Im just one guy, a widower living alone. My son and his family are not even registered Republicans. But if those reading this think this is a good idea, tell your friends and family. Something good could happen, especially if the word got outside of Riverside and San Bernardino.

If you think this is not possible, just look over the articles on your choice of Web news, be it Fox, CNN or whoever. Somewhere on the headline page is some kind of story about one of us unknowns who got involved in something odd or humorous and became the human interest story of the day.

So try it. We really have nothing to lose.

Joe Vaira

Sun City
Firefighters made quick work of a wildfire that charred three acres in Cajon Pass.

The blaze was reported 3:08 p.m. Wednesday, June 1., in the general area of Interstate 15 and Cleghorn Road.

The initial report was a tree on fire, said Dispatch Supervisor Sandy Nieman, whose command center dispatches crews for the U.S. Forest Service.

By 3:30 p.m., fire officials felt confident enough in their progress to cancel incoming airtankers and at least one water-dropping helicopter.

And soon after that, crews fought the flames to a stop.

Traffic along nearby Interstate 15 wasnt directly affected, though the on and off ramps along the freeways southbound lanes were ordered closed, according to the California Highway Patrol website.

And northbound traffic on Cajon Boulevard  which parallels the freeway  was shut down at Kenwood Avenue at the base of the pass.
The road to the presidency runs through Perris  of course.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is coming back to the Inland Empire, this time for a 6:15 p.m. talk Thursday, June 2, with community leaders at Casa Jimenez restaurant in Perris.

Clintons campaign described the private meeting, which is closed to the public, as a conversation with community leaders. The leaders names and the topic of conversation were not immediately available.

LIVE COVERAGE: Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton visits Perris

Casa Jimenez manager Enrique Curiel said by phone that Clintons campaign called the Mexican restaurant Wednesday to arrange a place to meet for a couple of hours.

They just said they wanted to use my restaurant for Hillary, said Curiel, who wasnt sure whether they will be eating dinner at Casa Jimenez.

In order to accommodate her, Curiel said they will close the doors around 2 p.m. Thursday. Normally the restaurant, which can hold 150 people, closes at 10 p.m.

Asked what menu items he might recommend if Clinton does eat, Curiel chuckled and said he would recommend anything on the menu, but their specialties are seafood platters and carne asada plates.

Everybodys looking forward to it, said Curiel. Its something you dont hear about every day.

Curiel said he did not have to juggle any schedules or bring in reinforcements, that the standard staffing plan for the day could handle the event.

Its the second Inland Empire stop for Clinton, who held a rally at UC Riverside on May 24. Earlier Thursday, she will give a speech on national security in San Diego before attending a get-out-the-vote event in El Centro.

Clinton holds a lead of 268 pledged delegates over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders as of Wednesday  her advantage balloons to 767 if you include superdelegates who are free to support the candidate of their choice  in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. And shes expected to clinch the nomination Tuesday, when Californias primary takes place.

Even if she loses California, Clinton would still be on track to secure the nomination unless Sanders wins the state by an overwhelming margin. But a loss here would be damaging to her campaign and give Sanders more leverage in his long-shot bid to win the nomination or, failing that, shape the Democratic Party platform.

With that in mind, Clinton canceled planned campaign stops in New Jersey to spend more time in California. Helping her on the campaign trail is her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who also has been making public appearances on his wifes behalf.

Polls are mixed for Hillary Clinton, with some showing a comfortable lead over Sanders and others showing her leading by a razor-thin margin. Sanders has made a last stand of sorts in California, barnstorming the state in a tour that included stops in Riverside  the same day as Clinton  and Cathedral City.

While the Republican Party holds a slight edge in Riverside Countys overall voter registration, Perris is friendly territory for Democrats. Of the citys roughly 24,000 registered voters, 53 percent are Democrats and 21 percent are Republican, according to the county registrar of voters.

Seven in 10 city residents are Latino, census figures show. Clinton has done well with the Latino population and is counting on Latino votes to help her win the California primary and the November general election against presumed GOP nominee Donald Trump.

Trump has yet to make a campaign stop in either Riverside or San Bernardino county.

The Latino vote is crucial to Clintons chances, said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College.

Its very important that she shore up her support among Hispanic voters, he said. Also, she needs to energize Hispanic turnout for the fall. She is no danger of losing California to Trump. But more generally, she needs to energize Hispanic voters nationwide.

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DECISION 2016: Dispatches from Clintons visit to UC Riverside
Todd Colten gently pushed his right arm forward, and with that movement, the first test of the Riverside County Sheriffs Departments search-and-rescue drone was off the ground.

The 4-pound airplane, black with orange trim on the wings and an orange underbelly, quickly gained altitude after leaving Coltens hand and circled a programmed route above a 400-acre agricultural field a few hundred yards west of the Salton Sea near Thermal on Wednesday morning, June 1.

When we train, we say its like throwing darts in a bar, said Colten, chief aerospace engineer for Minneapolis-based Sentera, which supplied two Phoenix M2 unmanned aerial vehicles for the one-year evaluation period at a cost of $1. From the moment you throw it, its flying.

Sheriffs officials hope the training and testing are concluded much faster  more like three months. They estimate they went on more search-and-rescue missions in 2015 than the 170 in 2014.

We are going to save lives with this technology, said Sharon Ollenburger, president of Desert Sheriffs Search and Rescue in Palm Desert, who has been tracking lost souls for 34 years in Minnesota and Riverside Countys mountains and deserts. Every time you think somebody cant get lost there, they do get lost.

Chief Deputy Kevin Vest, who oversees the departments search and rescue teams, said the department hopes the drones will complement the helicopters in the sky and the searchers on the ground. The propeller-driven drones can be equipped with a video camera or infrared sensor that detects heat, fly above areas too dangerous to be accessed on foot and be deployed when a helicopter is not available.

The Phoenix is constructed of a hard Nerf-type foam, similar to whats found in vehicle head rests, and a plastic shell, Colten said.

About a dozen sheriffs officials, rescue workers and Sentera employees watched Wednesday as the drone orbited from 200 to 400 feet high, beneath a crescent moon in a cloudless sky.

Three key questions must be answered before the department spends up to $40,000 each on the drones, Vest said: Does the drone work? Will it help locate people faster? And will it be more cost-effective than helicopters and searchers?

As training continues at the site, deputies and volunteers watching a video monitor will learn to spot objects on the ground and direct the drone using a keyboard, laptop computer and the click of a mouse. The pilots control the drone through sort of a Wi-Fi system, Colten said. The propeller and camera are powered by a battery. The camera can be rotated with a joystick.

The drones have tail numbers just like regular aircraft, and operators must follow Federal Aviation Administration rules. Among them, the drones can fly no higher than 400 feet off the ground, and the operator must keep them within his sight.

Vest reiterated Wednesday what sheriffs officials have said before: The drones will not be used to spy on residents. For one, they are not capable of hovering like helicopter-style drones. Secondly, Vest said, the department already has aircraft that hover  helicopters.

The police departments in the cities of San Bernardino, Murrieta and Fontana are the other Inland agencies testing or using drones.

As Wednesdays final test flight ended, the Phoenix landed on its belly in a cloud of dust. Colten detached the wings and folded the propeller before putting the drone in a carrying case. The other participants folded up their canopies and towed away their trailers down a road past workers picking crops.

Theyll be back.

This is going to be an incredible asset for us, Ollenburger predicted.

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Personal privacy vs. personal safety. It was going to be a Constitutional grudge match  could the FBI force Apple to develop software to help it hack an iPhone used by one of the terrorists responsible for the Dec. 2 massacre in San Bernardino?

But the high-tech smackdown, which made headlines worldwide, ended in an anticlimactic Game Over. The feds paid for a hack; Apples determined decree to spurn the FBIs wishes went untested in court.

Nothing was decided. And no one was satisfied.

Is there a rematch on the horizon? Well, not one that promises a clear resolution.

Draft legislation in Washington to address law enforcement access and encryption appears to have lost momentum and faded.

Scores of similar legal challenges from law agencies await rulings, but none that lay out the sides as succinctly as the landmark FBI case. And the feds unique, history-tapping strategy  applying the obscure 1789 All Writs Act  is unlikely to get a curtain call.

Meanwhile, tech companies are stepping up to forge even stronger encryption  including end-to-end protection on messaging  and adding increasingly tougher-to-crack coding to secure devices. The technical landscape changes faster than the debate itself.

We appear to have months ahead, even years or longer, before clarity emerges. If ever.

The case

Was it government overreach that could make vulnerable the privacy of millions of electronic devices worldwide  including those used by the government, as Apple warned?

Or could the order be limited to just the one device, Syed Rizwan Farooks San Bernardino County-issued iPhone 5c, as the government claimed?

Farook, who worked for the county as a health inspector, was killed along with wife Tashfeen Malik in a shootout with police in the hours after the attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.

All but one of those killed were Farooks co-workers, gathered for a holiday luncheon at a rented room at the center. Another 22 people were wounded. The FBI said the couple were inspired by ISIS, but not under its command.

The cards were dealt in the iPhone court case, but both sides left the table before playing them.

After a month of fire-breathing legal briefs and court-of-public opinion plays by both sides, the FBI announced on March 21, the eve of a hearing in Riverside federal court, that it had found an outside party that could get inside the phone.

The agency later reported the hack was successful, but has not said what was  or was not  on board the device that was recovered with a search warrant issued for Farooks mothers car the day after the shootings.

Legislation Fades

The effort to resolve the debate with new laws appears to have turned to vapor.

The bill co-authored by Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the top Republican and Democrat in the Senate Intelligence Committee, came under fire from the tech community  not just for its purpose, but also a perceived ineptness.

The bill was awful. Read literally, it would have outlawed computers: Not encryption  computers, attorney Nate Cardozo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a telephone interview.

Meanwhile, tech companies are working to stay a step ahead those who would crack their encryption with more complex protection. Nonetheless, the software safecrackers usually manage to keep pace.

Multi-factor, including biometrics, is quickly become the norm. Multi-factor being more than one thing being required to authenticate, Cal State San Bernardino cybersecurity professor Tony Coulson said in an email.

Coulson noted that in its latest operating system update, Apple has now made it so that the passcode needs to be entered more frequently in conjunction with the Touch ID. This way, if someone was compelled to give up a fingerprint, the phone still needs a password to unlock.

How Far Can Government Go?

Because the FBI obtained access to the iPhone in question without Apples help, Apples legal challenge to the courts order was never resolved by the court, Riana Pfefferkorn, a fellow at The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, wrote in an email.

One of those issues was whether the government properly used the 1789 All Writs Act to pry open the phone. The act was created by the First Congress to fill gaps so courts could intervene on unresolved matters not touched by lawmakers.

We still dont know whether the All Writs Act is so broad in scope that the government can use it to force a third party like Apple to, in essence, do the governments work for it, Pfefferkorn wrote.

Its also left unclear how far the government must go in exhausting other options before third-party assistance can be considered truly necessary under the AWA, she wrote.

Both Cardozo and Pfefferkorn had supported Apple in its court fight.

Is Encryption Governable?

Until the FBI found its unnamed outside help, it had insisted in legal briefs that only Apples technicians could create a workaround to get into the Farook phone.

Part of the issue, legal experts said, may be the futility of trying to create laws to regulate something as mercurial as encryption.

Cardozo said the outcome may be rules easily defeated by bad actors, while honest citizens are made more vulnerable to identify theft and other crimes that prompted encryption in the first place.

It would be great if we lived in a world where (encryption bypass) would be only accessible to law enforcement based on a warrant, and used by governments that respect due process and the rule of law, he said.

But that is not the world we live in, and no amount of legislation will make that so, he said. We need to talk about how law enforcement and intelligence agencies can do their jobs in a world where there is strong encryption.

He said meta data and network logs, which can reveal from-to-who links, are among the items law enforcement has access to without encryption.

An alternative solution may be to address the events that suggest agencies are out of their depth when it comes to electronic devices.

I think it is somewhat artificial to line it up as privacy versus law enforcement, said Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor. I dont think law enforcement was oblivious to privacy  its always a difficult question about which outweighs the other.

Along with the FBI having to find a private party that could hack the phone, Levenson also noted there was harm to evidence-gathering when the FBI unsuccessfully tried to get into the phone remotely after it was first recovered.

The governments technical ability has to catch up with private industry, Levenson said. Ironically this may lead to the government having more resources than they had in the past, she said.

Contact the writer: rdeatley@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9573
Production grew and new orders increased for Inland manufacturing in May, a good sign for the local economy.

This months in growth mode, said Barbara Sirotnik, director of the Institute of Applied Research & Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino.

The institute issues a monthly Purchasing Managers Index, intended to reflect the status of the manufacturing sector.

The PMI was at 55.0 in May, up from 52.3 in April. Thirty purchasing managers participated in the survey.

The index has been above 50 for five months. Numbers below 50 suggest an economy in contraction.

The survey showed commodity prices, inventory and employment moving in positive directions. The index showing speed of supplier deliveries was unchanged since April, but in the context of the rest of the survey researchers expressed a belief that this figure is a positive one.

The national index was 51.3 in May, up from 50.8 in April, according to the Institute for Supply Management, which issues it.

Coincidentally, the institutes upbeat assessment came out on the same day as a downbeat report by the California Manufacturers & Technology Association.

It says California came in dead last among the states when it came to attracting per capita manufacturing investments in 2015. The state got only 1.5 percent of investments made in the nation, according to the trade groups analysis.

California landed 41 investments, 18 for new facilities and 23 for expansions of existing facilities.

Those investments went to 14 of the states 58 counties, with San Bernardino and Riverside near the middle of the list, attracting four investments each.

Businesses frequently complain that the states regulatory climate is unfriendly.

Contact the writer: fbuck@pressenterprise.com or 951-368-9551.
The San Jacinto Library soon will be on the move.

The library is expected to move out of its home on the San Jacinto High campus by the end of July and into a temporary facility next to City Hall until a permanent home can be found.

Housed in a joint-use facility at the high school since 2000, the library is shared by students and the general public and is operated by Riverside County Library Services and San Jacinto Unified School District.

The move is expected to benefit both the library and the school.

UPDATE: Grand opening for new library set Saturday, Oct. 8

They wanted to expand their program, and we wanted to help, said Dawn Lawrence, spokeswoman for the San Jacinto Unified School District. It makes it easier for them to have full public use.

Lawrence said having students and members of the public use the facility together caused some issues. Students needed passes to use the facility during the day, and patrons had to deal with bells ringing on campus.

It worked out great for a while, but it was time for everybody to stretch out their arms, she said.

But things could be cramped for a while. The temporary home, on the east end of City Hall, near Sixth Street and Sheriff Boulevard, has 4,000 square feet. The school library is 10,000 square feet.

The temporary home will continue to offer amenities such as free Wi-Fi, computer use and a comprehensive catalog of books.

The library will continue to be part of the county library system, which is working with the city on an agreement on how to pay for a new facility.

The proposal does not have the city expending operational funds; that will be borne by the library system, San Jacinto City Manager Tim Hults said. The proposal is that the city would be providing land and one-time (community development block grant) money toward construction.

San Jacinto Mayor Andrew Kotyuk hopes a location near the civic center will be considered for the permanent facility.

Were excited to be bringing it to the downtown, he said. I expect this is going to be a great tool for our community.

There is no time frame on when a new facility would be open, said Khylia Chapin, library project manager for the county Economic Development Agency.

Though the school district owns the current library building, books and other materials belong to the county library system, so the high school will have to restock the shelves.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9086 or cshultz@pressenterprise.com
Riverside County sheriffs deputies searched Canyon Springs High School in Moreno Valley room by room Thursday afternoon, June 2, after a receiving a report of a person with a gun earlier in the day.

They were unable to find any weapons, and no one was arrested, Deputy Mike Vasquez said.

There was no evidence that anyone had fired a weapon on campus, Vasquez said. Deputies were alerted to the emergency about 10:20 a.m.

It is believed that two non-students were on campus Thursday morning and one of them displayed a gun to a student, said Moreno Valley Unified School District spokesman Tim McGillivray.

The school and adjacent Vista Heights Middle School remained on lockdown into the early afternoon as nervous parents gathered at the Canyon Springs entrance off Pigeon Pass Road.

McGillivray said he believes that the school reported the brandishing.

Final exams are being held at the school this week.

For parent Erika Paz, the incident was the second gut-wrenching lockdown in two days.

Nephew Kevin Valles, a student at UCLA, sent her a Facebook message Wednesday that he was hiding in a basement at the university during the shooting there that turned out to be a murder-suicide. Valles was in the wing where the shooting occurred.

We were scared for him, Paz said.

Eventually he messaged that the UCLA lockdown was over.

Finally we were able to breathe, Paz said.

But not for long.

At 10:19 a.m. Thursday, Pazs daughter, also named Erika Paz, a 10th grader at Canyon Springs, texted: Mom, were on lockdown.

My emotions just went crazy again, Erikas mom said.

A woman who identified herself to motorists as a teacher told them that no shots had been fired. The woman was greeting people as they drove up to the school.

She told them that no one was allowed in or out of the campus.

Three sheriffs patrol cars could be seen on the north end of campus near portable buildings with one deputy standing outside.

One of those waiting outside the campus was parent Celina Mejia. She said she learned of the lockdown from a text message from son Jesse, a 10th grader.

Jesse told his mother that the students were on the floor.

Mejia said Jesses teacher sent a note via internet messenger that the students were safe. Still, Mejia said she will be concerned until she hears from her son personally.

Im just so nervous. I cant stay home. I just want to know that hes OK, Mejia said.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.
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Ghana ranked 9th out of 38 countries measured in a new Prosperity Report on Africa, with the country doing so well in security and safety.



Ghana also performs highly in the categories of Entrepreneurship & Opportunity(9th), Governance(5th), Education(7th), and Health(5th).



The Economy was her only blight where she is ranked 30th, a rank better only than 8 other countries in the rankings- Djibouti, Sudan, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Burundi, Guinea and Liberia.



The London-based Legatum Institutes 2016 Africa Prosperity Report, which ranks the most prosperous states in Africa on indicators such as Economy; Entrepreneurship & Opportunity; Governance; Education; Health; Safety & Security; Personal Freedom; and Social Capital, puts South Africa as number one overall.



Only 10 countries make the list of high ranking prosperity, 18 in the middle ranking and 10 in the low ranking, bottomed by the Central African Republic.



The first 10 most prosperous African countries



1. South Africa

2. Botswana

3. Morocco

4. Namibia

5. Algeria

6. Tunisia

7. Senegal

8. Rwanda

9. Ghana

10. Burkina Faso

Source: Daily Graphic









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Mr Carl Wilson, a political scientist, has called on Ghanaians to use the November 7, General Election as a platform to elect the first independent President, who would not be influenced by any political party.



Let us start to negotiate the way forward, let us consider the reason why, as a nation and as a people, we must come together and change the way we are governed.



Let us throw out the current system and replace it with a New System of Governance prescribed by the Constitution.



He told Ghana News Agency in Accra on Wednesday that Ghana is not going in the right direction and since the 1992 Constitution was promulgated, Ghanaians have been ruled by Executive Presidents, who are made powerless by the dictates of the political parties that brought them to power.



This phenomenon therefore, in his opinion, influences the citizenry to constantly agitate for change.



He said after Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings 11 years revolutionary rule, Ghanaians yearned for a constitutional government leading to the current constitution.



Mr Wilson said after eight years of Rawlings rule under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Ghanaians again clamoured for change and in 2000 Mr John Agyekum Kufuor was elected as President under the New Patriotic Party (NPP).



He said in 2008 there was another cry for change and NDC came to power again.



He noted that this time Ghana changed back to NDC not because the people believed the party was any better than the NPP but because there was no credible alternative.



We all hoped NDC would have learnt a lesson, having been in opposition for eight years.



Mr Wilson said in 2016 Ghanaians are yearning for change once more.



Ghana is not going in the direction. Ghana is not working and it is all about the Winner-Takes- All.



He said the youth who have about 70 per cent presence in the voters register, must throw their weight to change the political history of the nation.



Mr Wilson said: The future of this nation is in the hands of the youth and they must rise up, take the bull by the horn, and change their destiny.



As a people, we have done our bit to truly build a system that would help propel Ghana towards a sustained development.



As a people, we have, again and again trusted and tested the two dominant political parties, believing they would work together to bring us together people to prosecute our national development agenda.



If after all these genuine efforts, as a people, we do not feel or see satisfaction, we must come together and say enough is enough and effect a change.



It is said in unity there is strength. Our history would show that Ghana had always succeeded whenever its people garner the courage to come together and act. This is what sets us apart from the rest of the other countries in Africa.



Let us call for a new system of governance, under, which electing a President is not tied to any political party, and thus independent of any political control or interference by any organised groups of people.



Mr Wilson said: This system would produce a President who would be truly free to exercise the powers granted him by the constitution. A president who would have a free hand to appoint people he believes would help him build the nation.



A President whose actions are not controlled and/or dictated by fear or favour and not limited to a few groups of people or cronies but cut across the political divide.



This system of governance would give birth to a President who would govern in the interest of the country he is elected to serve and not in the interest of a political party.



He said the Winner Takes All system does not promote the togetherness required for government and opposition to work hand in hand, in the interest, and for the sake of the people and country.



He noted that it breeds an atmosphere of envy, contempt and greed and creates and promotes animosity because the party with majority controls the executive.



The two dominant parties spend a great part of their time and energy at each others throat, trying to undo each other, instead of focusing on the needs of the people they are elected to serve.



Mr Wilson is therefore calling for a strong and constitutionally powerful Presidency, An All-inclusive Peoples Parliament and a Voice of and for the People.



He said as a way forward MOVE GHANA, a social movement has been formed to canvass for support nationwide against the current system of party politics in favour of a truly nationalistic approach to the governance of the country.



Through this social movement, the concept of The Third Force shall be pursued by employing innovative, radical and peaceful political engineering  ultimately to unseat the two major political parties.



Mr Wilson said MOVE GHANA is inviting everybody especially those in the Diaspora to get in touch to offer their help in whatever form to support an auspicious and august cause.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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NSW Shooters & Fishers MP Robert Borsak has always been something of a renegade in Parliament. His party is based on defending the rights and recreational desires of Australians in regional Australia, like shooting and four-wheel driving, and this, in conjunction with his conservatism, often has him butt heads with other pollies  especially those from The Greens.

His love of shooting and hunting attracts the standard sort of criticism you would expect, but it all came to the fore when an old photo of him posing next to a dead elephant in Zimbabwe started doing the rounds a little while ago.

He maintains that he was invited to participate in the elephant hunt by traditional land owners, who cull elephants to protect their crops. He outlined that in a Sydney Morning Herald op-ed with the straight-down-the-barrel headline Why I Shoot Elephants.

The elephant issue came up in Parliament again on Tuesday. Borsak was delivering a late night address on what he saw as the insidious growth of skewed animal rights ideology which he reckons stifles human rights and gives animals rights that they ought not have.

Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham took issue with Borsaks remarks and brought up the elephant photo. He asked him whether he ate the elephant, and Borsak said he absolutely had, and that it was like venison and very tasty.

Buckingham wasnt a fan. Its sick to shoot and kill an elephant for thrills, and its revolting that Mr Borsak would eat the elephant, said the Greens MP. Hes unfit for office.

A Shooters and Fishers spokesperson slammed Buckinghams comments. The meat from Mr Borsaks hunting trip was offered to the traditional owners of the land as a mark of respect, on top of other fees paid.

We are surprised at Mr Buckinghams hypocrisy. Mr Buckingham was more than happy to eat Mr Borsaks freshly-hunted venison sausages at a NSW Parliament House BBQ raising money for Westmead Childrens Hospital in June 2013.

There ya have it. Elephant eating is absolutely on the agenda in New South Wales. Will any other MPs come forward and confess that theyve chowed down on Dumbo? I would say probably not.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo: Getty Images.
A young Chinese boy has accidentally destroyed a giant Lego sculpture worth 100,000 Yen ($20,000) barely one hour after the exhibit opened.

The sculpture  of Zootopia character Nick Wilde  took Chinese artist Zhao three painstaking days and nights to build.

Apparently, the eyes were the most difficult to construct, with Zhao telling Chinese tabloid Global Times that he took some parts off and put some on, over and over again, especially the eyes.

Tbqh with you, the subsequent nightmares seem harder.

Shanghaiist reports that the parents of the child came forward to apologise, but Zhao refused to accept any compensation. Hes apparently not *too* angry with them, saying that a child couldnt comprehend the cost of the accident.

As the sculpture was partially sealed with glue, apparently less than a third of it is salvageable.

But lets not forget that last year a kid tripped and punched a hole through a $2 million Italian oil painting, so things could be infinitely worse.

Photos: Weibo.
The saga of Harambe the gorilla, who was shot in his enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo after a four-year-old child fell into the moat surrounding his habitat, continues unabated. Theres an insane volume of heated debate around it  with many seeking the blood of the mother for negligence.

Even Anonymous have gotten onboard, releasing a real weird and deeply unproductive video where they declare war on the mother and release her name, address and phone number. Glad their current mission for justice revolves around repeatedly haranguing some mum in America because of an accident.

Publications like the Daily Mail dug into the familys history, posting articles about the fathers criminal history, as if that were somehow immediately relevant to the boy falling into a gorilla enclosure.

Regardless, authorities have decided to release the mothers 911 phone call after the child fell into the enclosure. Heres the audio, via TMZ:

My son fell in the zoo exhibit at the gorillaat the Cincinnati zoo. My son fell in with the gorilla. There is a male gorilla standing over him, she can be heard saying. Hes dragging my son. I cant watch this. I cant watch.

Criminal charges are reportedly being pursued against the zoo, and police are also investigating the mother. Im thinking theres at least one week of pure outrage left in this one.

Source: BBC.

Photo: YouTube.
You may remember Freddie Prinze Jr. from such 90s classics as Shes All That, Head Over Heels, I Know What You Did Last Summer, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and as the other half of vamp-slayin alum Sarah Michelle Gellar.

But what you probably *dont* remember him as is an acclaimed home cook, cos no one knew that was his thing until he announced hes putting out a family-focused tome of recipes that riffs on his Puerto Rican heritage, called Back to the Kitchen: 75 Delicious, Real Recipes (& True Stories) from a Food-Obsessed Actor.

Ive always cooked for actors Ive been lonely on location with. And Id always become friends with the chefs in the cities we shot in, he says. After enough people asked for recipes, it felt like the right time to put 20 years of stories in this business into a cookbook.

The cookbooks blurb is soul-lifting, tbh:

Freddie teaches fans to cook his mainstays, the recipes that he makes on even the busiest weeknights, as well as more luxurious date night meals. With personal family photos from Freddie and Sarahs beautiful LA home and Freddies hilarious stories about the life of an actor, husband, and father in Hollywood, Back to the Kitchen shares more than just recipes. Its an inside look at a beloved movie and TV personality who has acted, cooked, and eaten his way around the world.

Recipes include from-scratch biscuits, green-chile gravy, steak tacos with pickled cucumbers and spicy fish dressed with watermelon and thai chiles.

Theres actually quite the drama behind Freddies keeping his mad cooking skillz under lockdown all this time; he told Bon Appetit one of his recipes is so next-level, it made an unnamed actress turn stalker.

I actually once made lobster with sauce that changed an actress completelyshe fell in love with me to the point that it was creepy. Thats in the cookbook too.

Did we mention Sarah M-G wrote the foreword?

Fkn amazing.

Back to the Kitchen: 75 Delicious, Real Recipes (& True Stories) from a Food-Obsessed Actor is out June 7.

Source: Bon Appetit.
Play School has been on the air for 50 years. FIFTY BLOODY YEARS.

By anyones estimation, thats a long-ass time.

A little while ago Triple J Unearthed put the call of the wild out to Aussie musos and producers and the like to take the iconic Play School theme song, turn the munt dial up to 11, and make their own banger of a remix out of it. The winner would be flown to Sydney to visit the set of Play School and participate in a special one-on-one workshop with KLP, as well as score themselves some sweet Triple J air play.

From 600 entries, the herd has been culled, and Unearthed revealed the five finalists today. Hooley freakin dooley the quality is SKY FKN HIGH.

All five have managed to take the trademark twinkle of the OG theme and turn them into bonafide, floor-filling, hotshit certified bangers.

Brisbane-based electronica outfit COPYCATT have maintained the the light and airy feel to it whilst slotting a raucous beat in behind it.

triple j Unearthed Embedded Player

Sydneys Froyo managed to pull this certified, stone-cold belter together a mere handful of hours after the competition opened, and absolutely nailed it.

triple j Unearthed Embedded Player

Meanwhile, Jondrette Den from Melbourne got their harmony on for this jazzy little number.

triple j Unearthed Embedded Player

Killboy, also from Melbourne, sampled the OG track and laid down some choice lyrics over the top of it to produce a fairly unique trap spin on things.

triple j Unearthed Embedded Player

And lastly, Oppy from Christmas Island took the original and iconic trumpets of the theme and speared them into a legit club hit.

triple j Unearthed Embedded Player

How the hell theyll manage to single out a winner from that bunch is anyones guess.

Matt & Alex will reveal the one remix to rule them all next Thursday morning. Until then, get yr bloody gurn on to some childhood nostalgia, why dont you.

Also, to tide you over, we put together this handy little supercut of all the times Play School was loose as hell.

Come to think of it that arch window is pretty bloody suss.

Source: Triple J Unearthed.
A search for missing Aussie backpacker Rye Hunt on an island off Rio de Janeiro after an unconfirmed sighting has turned up zilch, sending no doubt disappointed authorities and his family back to square one.

It was hoped that the 25-year-old Tasmanian  who hasnt been since since May 21, when he allegedly suffered a psychotic break after taking party drugs with travel buddy Mitchell Sheppard  would be found after Rios missing persons unit received a phone call from a fisherman who reported spotting Rye on Cotonduba Island, about three kilometres off the coast.

When the fisherman asked how hed gotten to the island, the man  who apparently identified himself as Aussie  said hed swum there.

But authorities have apparently since searched the island twice, and nothing was found, Brazilian police said. Police are still trying to look for the Australian citizen.

Ryes heavily pregnant sister Romany Brodribb expressed cautious optimism when the news of her brothers alleged sighting hit the news.

We are seeing the same reports in the media- that Rye has been found. We have no confirmation of this. We are hopeful but understandably cautious of these reports. This information has not come via our official channels. We await news from Australian authorities.

Ryes uncle and long-term girlfriend are in Rio helping with the increasingly desperate search.





The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says its providing consular assistance to his family members in Brazil and remains hopeful that Mr Hunt will be found safe and well.

As are we.

Source: AAP.

Photo: Supplied.
For all its flaws, democracy in this nation gives the average punter a voice. A moment where you can take a stand for what you believe is right. A brief, shining opportunity to tell the powers that be that we just wont take it any more.



Well, if youre a staunch nationalist who believes Australia is fundamentally swirling down the shitter thanks to our namby-pamby rules on immigration and political correctness, that moment is not going to be at the upcoming July 2 Federal Election.

Cause the United Patriots Front didnt register their FORTITUDE Party in time.

After all their flag-waving, anti-Islam, protest-chucking gusto, ABC reports the party just aint on the list of approved parties for ever-nearing double diss. Thats despite the fact the group gifted us all with this local wrestling tournament promo clip heralding the partys imminent arrival last year.

Its unclear whether their absence from the vote is down to them a) not clearing the required 500 member mark, b) having defacto figurehead Blair Cottrell and his followers forget the May 16 sign-up deadline, or c) being knocked back for any number of political no-nos.

Hypothetically, if they had sorted out the paperwork, Australians would be at liberty to vote for a party that wants to ban the immigration of Muslims and cut the construction of mosques. Keep in mind, the party brands itself as staunch proponents of the Constitution, although it preeeeetty clearly mandates the free expression of religion.

Elsewhere, theyve basically issued a fatwa against anything that violates their notion of the Nation, which totally isnt a little fascist, not at all. Still, if you occupy the centre of the hyper-nationalist / solar energy proponent Venn diagram, you might be glad to hear they, oddly enough, are all about a transition to renewable energy.

But you still wont be able to vote for pre-ordained Senate candidates Thomas Sewell and Christopher Shortis. Because they didnt register. Maybe next time, patriots.





Source: ABC.

Photo: United Patriots Front / Facebook.




Donald Trump, now that hes the presumptive Republican nominee for President of the United States, has been copping explicit and tacit endorsements all over the place, now that his party is swallowing the bitter pill and embracing the fact that, like it or not, hes their guy.

But now hes copped the most coveted endorsement of all: North Korean state media. All hail the Juche ideal as exemplified by ultra-capitalist American real estate mogul Donald Trump!

An editorial in North Korean state-run publication DPRK Today described Trump as a wise politician and far-sighted presidential candidate. Though this isnt an official endorsement per se, the fact it was run indicates its probably parallel with the North Korean governments thinking.

Two policies got particular praise. Firstly, Trumps willingness to meet Kim Jong-un, which most Western leaders are unwilling to do. Secondly, his expressed desire to pull U.S. troops out of South Korea, which is a huge thing for them, considering that the North and South are still technically at war.

The editorial gives a pretty explicit endorsement, actually. The president that U.S. citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary [Clinton]  but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversations with North Korea.

So there ya go. If you werent onboard with Trump before, perhaps this tacit endorsement by one of the worlds most widely condemned regimes might curry your favour? Just a thought.

Source: Huffington Post.

Photo: Getty Images.
CONTENT WARNING: This post details alleged incidences of domestic violence.



Text messages that are allegedly between Amber Heard and Johnny Depps assistant Stephen Deuters have been obtained, and if true, they portray a disturbing picture of ongoing domestic violence.

The texts  obtained by ET  reportedly date back to May 2014, before Heard and Depp were married.

In the exchange, Stephen is messaging the recipient (believed to be Heard) after a fight with Johnny, beginning with Deuters allegedly apologising on behalf of the actor.

Think hes just texted you, he writes. Hes incredibly apologetic and knows that he has done wrong. He wants to get better now. Hes been very explicit about that this morning. Feels like were at a critical juncture.

Yes but I dont know how to be around him after what he did to me yesterday, Heard (allegedly) replies. I dont know if I can stay with him.



He wants to see you so much, Deuters writes back. Hes so distraught.



After a message arranging transport details, Heard writes:

Look, he thinks he doesnt deserve this. Obviously he has no idea what he did or to the extent that he did it. If someone was truly honest with him about how bad it really was, hed be appalled. The man Johnny [the screenshot cuts off the rest of the sentence]  And definitely wouldnt say to me that he doesnt deserve it. Im sad that he doesnt have a better way to really know the severity of his actions yesterday. Unfortunately for me, I remember in full detail everything that happened.



Deuters replies:

He was appalled. When I told him he kicked you, he cried. It was disgusting. And he knows it. I wasnt with him when h sent you the 2nd txt. He read it to me and I said it was the wrong text to send. He then sent the 3rd one and sat and cried again after on the bed. Hes a little lost boy. And needs all the help he can get. He is so very sorry, as he should be.



Heard:

Hes done this many times before. Tokyo, the island, London (remember that!?), and I always stay. Always believe hes going to get better and then every 3 months or so, Im in the [the end of the sentence cuts off].

Johnny Depps lawyer Laura Wasser has dismissed the claims of domestic violence, saying they are merely an attempt to secure a premature financial resolution.

Meanwhile, Heards lawyers have issued a lengthy statement trashing these allegations and calling Heard a hero.

Source: ET.



Photo: Getty / Yoshikazu Tsuno.

For 24/7 counselling about domestic violence, call 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
Australia was once known for producing some pretty wild and innovative genre film. Bolstered by a pretty free local funding scheme, Aussie directors pumped out a whole stack of action, horror and sci-fi movies. We developed a bit of a rep for pushing boundaries. Quentin Tarantino cites many local productions as a huge influence on his own grindhouse schlock cinema.

A number of reasons  quite well told in the extremely fun doco Not Quite Hollywood, if youve got the time  led to Australias film industry shifting, and our rep for genre film faltering somewhat. Thats changing, to a certain extent: you only need to consider the huge success of Mad Max: Fury Road.

Now weve got Cleverman. The Indigenous Australian-led sci-fi series, which is set in a dystopian Australia in which the government relentlessly pursues and oppresses an ancient race of beings called Hairymen, is bringing Aussie genre TV back into the spotlight, and the world is noticing.

It has a simultaneous American release via SundanceTV, and its getting attention from publications who are a) baffled by a new Australian production on their screens, and b) probably encountering Indigenous Australian culture, as represented by Indigenous actors directors, for the first time.

From American pop culture site Uproxx:





Thankfully, creator Ryan Griffens gritty urban Australian epic  which premieres tonight on SundanceTV  has a lot to set it apart. When the showrunner set out to create the six-part series that follows a group of gifted beings struggling to survive amongst a human species that fears them, he did so with one goal in mind: to give his young son, a comic book junkie like his dad, an idol who looked like him. Thus was born Cleverman, the Aboriginal superhero show we never even knew we needed.

Vulture spoke to English actor Iain Glenn about his role in the series:

And on his new show, the Australian import Cleverman (premiering June 1 on Sundance), hes Jarrod Slade, a Richard Branson-like billionaire businessman and media mogul with a sideline in supernatural medical situations. Both live in worlds grounded in reality, but with magical elements. The difference is that Cleverman, billed as the first indigenous Australian superhero series, takes place in the near future.

Its also had write-ups in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among others.

Basically, its great that the local industry is attracting interest for trying something new and daring, and its even better that the work of Indigenous actors and filmmakers are getting the attention they deserve.

It premieres on ABC tonight. Gee yourself up with the *American* trailer:

Photo: Cleverman.
First Citizens Community Bank

First Citizens Community Bank plans to open a new location in the former National Penn branch.

(Photo provided.)

A Tioga County-based bank is expanding into Lancaster County.

First Citizens Community Bank will open an office in Mount Joy pending regulatory approval. The new office will be located at 740 E. Main St.

The branch will include a drive-thru and ATM and will also house the bank's regional agricultural bankers and several commercial lenders. The location was previously a branch of National Penn Bank which was acquired by BB&T. BB&T had decided to close the branch.

In December, First Citizens moved into the midstate when it acquired seven locations in Lebanon, Berks and Schuylkill counties from The First National Bank of Fredericksburg.

First Citizens currently operates 24 offices in Tioga, Bradford, Potter, Clinton, Lebanon, Berks, and Schuylkill Counties in Pennsylvania, and Allegany County, New York. The bank also operates an agricultural loan processing office in Union County.

First Citizens plans to open the new office in late August or early September.
UPDATE:

At least one person died in a Blue Angel crash near Smyrna, Tennessee.

The U.S. Navy jet was in town practicing ahead of Smyrna's weekend air show, Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN reports. The crash occurred around 3 p.m. local time.

The identity of the victim has not been released.

Smyrna airport officials say the Blue Angel aircraft crashed on a nearby property. https://t.co/irIeMvTOoL  WPLN - Nashville Public Radio (@WPLN) June 2, 2016

The fatal Blue Angel crash came about an hour after an Air Force Thunderbird jet crash in Colorado Springs, Colorado, during the Air Force Academy graduation.

The Thunderbird pilot ejected and survived the crash, and there were no injuries on the ground.

This story has been updated to reflect the crashes were about an hour apart.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A 19-year-old Indianapolis man has been charged with killing three people over four days, and authorities say he was inspired by the horror movie "The Purge."

This image provided by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department shows Johnathan Cruz, 19, who faces multiple charges including robbery, intimidation and a criminal gang enhancement.

A witness told detectives that Jonathan Cruz told her he had been "purging" by shooting and robbing people, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Police said this referred to the 2013 movie starring Ethan Hawke, in which during one night a year, all crime is legal.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said the attacks "appeared to be 100 percent random" and that he would consider seeking the death penalty.

"Just when you think you can't experience anything more inexplicable and shocking, as we frequently do, you are then confronted with circumstances that almost leave you at a loss for words," Curry said.

Cruz's initial court hearing on three murder counts and several felony charges is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Court documents say Cruz fatally shot Billy Boyd and Jay Higginbotham on May 12 and Jose Ruiz on May 15 during attacks on the city's east and north sides. He is also accused in the armed robbery of a man on May 14.

Curry said Cruz "went on a four-day, one-man purge." Detectives found a text message dated May 2 from Cruz saying "I Purge every night now."

Cruz was already jailed since his May 16 arrest on felony charges from a restaurant confrontation with a teenage girl two days earlier.

His public defender in that case didn't immediately return telephone messages seeking comment.

In August 2014, a high school student's hoax tweet about an impending "Louisville Purge," in which the Kentucky city would be overtaken by crime, kicked off a social media storm and prompted schools and other organizations to cancel events. No such purge took place. Police declined to take action against the student, but Louisville Metro Police Department Sgt. Phil Russell said they took seriously any threat "that encourages and incites violence against our community."
Hillary Clinton has some work to do if she wants to unify her party before the Democratic convention in July.

The convention will be held next month in Philadelphia, where Bernie Sanders supporters say they are preparing to protest and potentially leave the Democratic Party.

They told CNN if Sanders doesn't win the nomination, Clinton won't be an easy choice over presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

"When you say Bernie or bust, that means if we don't get Bernie, we're just not going to automatically vote for the demon because you're saying the devil may be there," Philadelphia organizer Billy Taylor said to CNN.

Sanders, in an April interview with PennLive, said he would support Clinton if she wins the nomination. He's also said he would work to stop Trump from being the next president.

But his supporters aren't ready to back Clinton.

"You can't expose the corruption of the political system and then expect us to get behind that same political system," Gary Frazier, a Philadelphia organizer and leader of Black Men for Bernie, told CNN.

Both he and Taylor told CNN they oppose the Democratic Party's presidential nominating system and are urging Sanders supporters to be part of a political revolution.

"We are prepared to de-register from the Democratic Party and explore other options. Maybe we don't get it done in this election, but I can damn well guarantee you this: We mean business," Frazier said to CNN. "If Bernie Sanders does not walk out of (the convention) as the nominee, we can guarantee you from that point on we'll start the de-registration of the Democratic Party."
Litigation with Russia on $3 bln eurobonds could last up to two years

Litigation in the High Court of Justice in England under a claim brought by Russia against Ukraine after the country defaulted on $3 billion in bonds issued in 2013 could last up to two years, Ukrainian Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk has said.

"The situation could develop in different ways. If the litigation lasts until the end, it could take up to two years to come to a final decision," he said in an interview with TV Channel 24 television late on Wednesday.

He recalled that Ukraine asked for an additional time to respond to Russia's accusations.

"We have a strong position. I am sure that we used this time properly," he said.

Danyliuk said that the defense line is based on the fact that Russia strongly pressed on Ukraine to force it not to sign the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement. Russia imposed trade sanctions, and later annexed Crimea. All these jointly with other actions seriously hit the Ukrainian economy. This also decreased the country's opportunities for borrowing.

"This is part of our global protection in claims against Russia," he added.
SOL

Pennsylvania's business community has joined the effort to fight reform to the state's statute of limitations, arguing retroactive components would be detrimental to businesses. Victims of abuse have long argued for criminal and civil reform.

(Mark Pynes/PennLive)

For years, the Catholic Church has waged stiff opposition to attempts to reform child sex crime laws.

In the face of widespread clergy sex abuse, entities of the Catholic Church - such as its legislative arm here, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference - have lobbied vigorously to defeat efforts to reform the statute of limitations.

Now, with the state Senate poised to hear arguments on the latest reform proposal, a more secular sector has stepped up the pushback against changes to the law: that of business.

A cadre of six of the biggest business associations in Pennsylvania have for weeks lobbied members of the Senate in opposition to reform of statute of limitations - specifically, any retroactive changes to the civil law. Their main argument is the idea that retroactive changes to the law would be detrimental to businesses.

"If the General Assembly passes a law that clearly takes a claim away that is vested in law, that's going to present harm," said Sam Denisco, vice president of government affairs for the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry. "It sets a bad precedent."

The chamber, along with five other business organizations, has been lobbying at the Capitol for weeks since the April passage in the House of House Bill 1947, which would reform the statute of limitations.

The organizations include:

The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania

The Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania Business Council

The Pennsylvania National Federation of Independent Businesses

The Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association.

While the Catholic Conference has for years opposed reform, arguing that to do so would open up the church to catastrophic lawsuits, the business sector generally claims that the proposed reform legislation represents the "antithesis of promoting stability and predictability" in the state's business and legal environment.

"Our companies look at our laws and the protections that are in Pennsylvania law," Denisco said. "Our companies operate in Pennsylvania under the current scheme. This would be a detriment ... you are taking away a vested right. That is a slippery path to go down."

House Bill 1947 would extend and, in some cases, eliminate, the time limits in which victims of child sex abuse could bring predators to justice.

The proposed legislation's main provisions include:

The elimination of criminal statutes on future sex crimes against children;

A 20-year extension to the current civil time limit (to age 50 for victims under 50)

The waiving of sovereign immunity for state and local public institutions in cases of gross negligence.

A retroactive component that would allows past victims of child sex abuse to file civil claims up to the age of 50. (Under current law, victims of child sexual abuse are barred from seeking civil action after they reach the age of 30.)

Victims can bring criminal charges against offenders until they reach 50 years of age -- but only if the victim turned 18 years old after Aug. 27, 2002. The law allows victims older than that to report until their 30th birthday.

Efforts to reform the law gained wide momentum this spring in the wake of a grand jury report that found widespread clergy sex abuse of children in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese. Investigators also found widespread cover-up of the crimes by church officials and leaders. None of the priests named in the investigation fell under active statute of limitations.

In a letter sent to House members in March, the six business organizations jointly wrote that: "Retroactively extending the statute of limitations is a dangerous precedent for any business that manufactures, sells, stores or transports any kind of product, as well as for any institution that is an insurer or creditor of any such business."

David N. Taylor, president of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association, said that, in terms of lawsuits and the cost of litigation, the Pennsylvania legal system was one of the "most hostile" landscapes in the nation.

Moreover, he said, the cost of the U.S. legal system, which accounts for 2 percent of the gross national product, is, when compared to international business competitors, a burden on the business sector.

"It winds up being a hidden tax, a hidden cost on business that we all end up paying for in higher costs and slower economic growth," Taylor said.

A central point to the arguments posed by the business sector, Taylor said, is whether the current law is adequate to meet the legal challenges brought on by child sex abuse cases, including cases out of youth organizations, public schools and the Catholic Church.

"The underlying crime, the subject to the change, is horrifying. Everyone is horrified and justice needs to be done," he said. "At the same time, we ought not allow emotions to overrule good judgment and we need to consider the long-term implications of the legislative changes we make."

Taylor added that it was incumbent on advocates for reform to show that the current remedies offered by the law were inadequate.

"The question needs to be answered," he said. "Do existing remedies meet the needs? It's a discussion we haven't had and need to have. Hopefully in the state Senate we will be able to have a discussion in a calm manner with the long view in sight."

Scott Bishop is Senior Vice President, Legislative Advocacy for The Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania's (HAP). He noted in a statement sent out Wednesday night that Pennsylvania's hospital community supports Senate Bill 1156, "legislation currently under consideration to fix an inadvertent loophole that may exempt health care providers who have direct contact with children in a hospital setting from the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL). Hospitals want this issue resolved, and they are working with the General Assembly to ensure that such health care providers meet all the background check requirements of the CPSL."

At the same time, he said he felt that retroactive changes to the state's civil statutes of limitations would significantly threaten the stability and predictability of its business and legal environment. "It is a precedent that must be avoided, and hospitals believe that any changes must be prospective only," he said.

Advocates for reform argue that children of have been sexually abused suffer years, often decades, of trauma and emotional disorders. Most victims have timed out of the legal system by the time they have found the resolve to come public with their abuse.

Marci Hamilton, an attorney and statute of limitations expert, points out that while 37 states have eliminated criminal statute of limitations (at least for the top counts), there has not been a flood of claims.

Advocates argue that while the church has its financial interests in mind, and the business community products and services, their side of the argument have the lives that have been destroyed by abuse.

"House Bill 1947 is a compromise version of legislative efforts for more than 10 years to provide real justice for all victims of child sex abuse," said Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, one of the Legislature's leading advocates for reform.

"We're talking about children in this bill...not products and services. Children represent a unique class of victim and our statutes of limitations would only be changed procedurally not substantively."

The business sector argues that the proposed reform legislation will not pass constitutional muster.

"Statute of limitations is a property right protected by the Constitution," said Denisco, of the PA Chamber of Business and Industry. "To shorten it retroactively violates the Constitution. We are concerned it sets up a bad precedent and sets a bad landspace for our businesses. It is big picture....We are looking at predictability and certainty in operating in the Commonwealth and this flies in the face of that."

Rozzi said he questioned why the business sector was weighing in on this issue.

"I wonder if their members are aware of the position they have taken," he said.

Samuel R. Marshall, president and CEO, of the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, stressed that the business sector is not opposed to reforming the criminal aspects of the law - only the retroactive language.

"We think that has significant constitutional defects," he said. "For insurers, it places us in the impossible spot for being liable for claims for which we can't have reserves....where the statute of limitations have already passed."

"Certainly we don't oppose any and all efforts to ensure that any child abuse, whether it happens in church, schools, or youth organizations are not happening, that there are best standards to prevent and identity - immediately and forcibly - it it's occurring. The better focus is on ensuring that abuse in any youth organization is being prevented and where it is occurring, that it's identified quickly and forcibly."

The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a hearing on HB 1947 in June.
marine recruit_o.jpg

Trevor Fuller wearing the red sash given to him by his Marines recruiter.

A Middletown Area High School graduate who plans to join the Marines has already won his first battle.

Trevor Fuller signed a contract to enlist for six years with the Marines, said his mother, Angie Long. Fuller's Marine Corps recruiter, Sgt. Kenneth Sainvil, gave him a red sash to wear with at his graduation on May 26 to signify his commitment to the military.

But when Fuller lined up for the procession, Middletown High Assistant Principal Brett Myers told him that he was not allowed to wear the sash because he needed to "dress appropriately," Long said. She said two other students were also forbidden from wearing such sashes, or cords.

School district officials said Thursday that the district will make changes to permit such sashes in the future.

School District superintendent Lori A. Suski explained that while the district "does not have a policy regarding graduation regalia, the administrative procedure that has been historically followed is that only school-issued regalia is worn at commencement." Such items include National Honors Society Cords and medals for the valedictorian and salutatorian, Suski said.

Suski says that if Fuller had approached school officials before the ceremony, "there would have been an opportunity to discuss the situation" and possibly allow him to wear the non-school-issued sash.

Moving forward, Suski says that the school intends to buy red, white, and blue cords for students who have committed to military service.

"It was never the district's intent to upset any student or parent," Suski said. "The district appreciates and is proud of the students who intend to enlist."

She noted that Fuller and other students who had committed to the military were recognized in the printed program and during the commencement proceedings.

Long, who was disappointed that her son and other students were not allowed to wear the military regalia at last week's ceremony, was pleased to hear about the school's response.

"I'm ecstatic at their response and the fact that they are doing what they said they would do [and buy military cords]," Long said. "I'm ecstatic that they came to that conclusion."

A representative from the local Marines recruiting office acknowledged the right of area high schools to dictate graduation dress codes.

"We recognize that there are policies in place which outline graduation dress codes," Cpl. Matthew S. Myers, Marketing and Public Affairs Director at the USMC recruiting station said in an email on Wednesday, June 1. "As high school graduations recognize the accomplishments of the class and the class's final chapter at that institution, the decision on what individuals are allowed to wear during graduation is at the discretion of the school."

This article was edited at 12:40 pm to include Angie Long's reaction to Suski's statement.
John Luciew | jluciew@pennlive.com

Full House, Full Hearts

Memories of the seven children they lost in a tragic March 2011 fire still flicker in the mournful mind's eyes of Perry County parents Ted and Janelle Clouse. But their hearts and their house are filled up again with the blissful chaos of six young children. The newest addition is Malachi, born April 27, and bringing with him the optimistic breath of fresh air that is spring on the family's bustling dairy farm. Share now, in their happiness redeemed and their family, reborn. MORE: Click on the link above for the full story of the Clouse family's incredible journey from tragedy to redemption. Or page ahead for the Clouse family's happy home movies.

Don't Edit

John Luciew | jluciew@pennlive.com

Baby Malachi makes 13

A day after her son was due, mother Janelle Clouse, not content to wait any longer, checked herself into the Holy Spirit Hospital maternity ward to induce the birth. By 3 a.m. the next morning, on April 27, Malachi Conrad Clouse arrived, with a shock of uncharacteristically dark hair and a sweetly peaceful disposition that his doting mom finds simply irresistible. He is the Clouses' 13th child, the family having lost seven children in a tragic 2011 farmhouse fire. Check out the video to see Malachi's considerable charms for yourself.

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John Luciew

A jealous sibling warms to baby brother

Youll have to excuse 1-year-old Jedidiah if he wasnt ready to relinquish his coveted status as baby of the ever-growing Clouse family. This is the reason he didnt exactly welcome his newborn brother, Malachi, with open arms. But here in this video, we see Malachis considerable charms are even working on jealous Jedidiah.

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John Luciew

Proud papa talks about child No. 13

Whats it like to be a father 13 times over? Ted Clouse is one of the few prodigious dads who can tell you. And though he is a little pressed for words in this adorable video, his abundant love for each one of his children is undeniable  even as Ted makes still more room in his heart for Baby Malachi. Turns out, theres plenty room  both in the sprawling Clouse farmhouse and Teds big, boyish heart.

Don't Edit

John Luciew | jluciew@pennlive.com

A mother's love

Janelle Clouse suffered a deep bout of depression after losing seven of her children in a tragic, 2011 farmhouse fire. Even the birth later that same spring of son, Gabriel, wasnt enough to bring Janelle all the way back. It would take time, along with the birth of four more children, for this mother to again be surrounded by the blissful chaos of a full farmhouse bounding with children. Here, Janelle radiates love as she relishes every moment with newborn son, Malachi.

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John Luciew

The Clouse family's blissful chaos

The Clouse family doesnt do quiet well. When a tragic farmhouse fire took the lives of seven of their then-eight children in March 2011, an uncharacteristic hush fell over the once-bustling, growing family. Five years and five children later, the blissful chaos is back, and parents Ted and Janelle are again basking in the uncannily comforting cacophony of a half-dozen noisy children. Check out the chaotic scene here.

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John Luciew

A Clouse family photo

Snapping a family photo of the bounding Clouse brood is much more difficult than you might think. Here, watch as PennLive photographer Dan Gleiter tries to harness the sheer force of nature that is the ever-growing Clouse family.

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John Luciew

Malachi awakens, hungry but happy

Like spring awakens the earth, Malachi seems to have completed the rebirth of the Clouse family, following the tragic fire that took seven of the familys children in 2011. The newborn child has no knowledge of these sorrows. His demands on his doting parents are nothing short of everything. All of their love. All of their warmth. All of their hearts. And, of course, plenty of formula milk, as well. Parents Ted and Janelle are only too happy to oblige.

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In memoriam - always

Gone but never forgotten are the deceased Clouse children: Christina, 11, Isabelle, 9, Brady, 7, Hannah, 6, Heidi, 4, Miranda, 18 months, and Samantha, 9 months. Here, pictured with their cousins at Christmas in a photo provided by their grandparents, are children of the Clouse family: Top row: Brady, 7, second from left; Miranda,1, fourth from left; then, Christina, 11; Isabelle, 9; and Samantha, 9 months. Bottom row, Leah, 3; next to Hannah, 6 (in black and white); and Heidi, 4, far right. Leah survived the fire March 8, 2011, in the family's home. The cousins pictured were not involved in the fire.
WILLIAMSPORT -- A federal judge has recommended dismissal of a suit that challenged the 2012 search of a student's room at Susquehanna University.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Martin C. Carlson Wednesday recommended granting the university's motion for summary judgment.

Judge Matthew W. Brann will decide whether to agree with Carlson after the parties have the opportunity to file objections to the recommendation.

Joseph E. Smith filed the civil rights suit in 2014 against Susquehanna, security officers Scott A. Moyer and Curt Brown and Public Safety Director Thomas A. Rambo.

A security officer went to Smith's room on Jan. 23, 2012, in response to a complaint about a suspicious odor emanating from it.

When no one answered the door, officers sought and received permission under university policy to search the room.

When security offices returned the following morning, they said Smith opened the door, they saw a marijuana cigarette in plain view and forcibly entered the room.

Over Smith's objections, the room was searched and marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, powder and rock cocaine, marijuana pipes, scale, grinder and rolling papers were seized, Carlson noted.

The items were turned over to Selinsgrove police who filed charges against Smith.

Instead of reporting to a university official as directed, Smith left school, fled the state and was expelled when he failed to attend a school hearing related to what was found in his room.

Smith pleaded no contest to the criminal charges. He was sentenced to time served and fined $1,000.

Carlson found, as did a Snyder County judge in the criminal case, the search adhered to university policy, Smith was present as required and it did not involve borough police.

It is undisputed the public safety officers have no arrest powers, Carlson wrote. The basis of the criminal charges was evidence provided to Selinsgrove police, he said.

Carlson also found the individual Susquehanna defendants were entitled to immunity.
LGBT Rights

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) has pledged support for the Equality Act, which would extend federal civil rights protections to sexual orientation and gender identity categories. In the wake of the SCOTUS marriage equality ruling, debates pitting religious freedoms over civil rights have erupted across the country. In this photo taken in May, protestors march seeking repeal of a Mississippi law allowing religious groups and some private businesses to deny services to same-sex couples, transgender people and others. More than 300 people attended the march in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo Jeff Amy)

(Jeff Amy/Associated Press)

Sen. Bob Casey (left), (D-PA) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA)

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) on Thursday pledged his support for a bill that would extend federal civil rights protection to include sexual orientation and gender identity categories.

Casey called the Equality Act a sweeping bill that would right a lot of wrongs. The bill, introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation in places of public accommodation. Its scope would extend to public education, public accommodation, employment, housing and any entities that received federal funding.

"I have to look at this piece of legislation and confront this challenge as both a U.S Senator who represents a large diverse state like Pennsylvania, but also as a citizen," Casey said. "I can't in good conscious take a position that denies parents and children the full measure of equality and respect."

Casey said that despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling extending marriage equality rights to same-gender unions, the Equality Act was necessary.

"Unfortunately if you have been paying attention, it's still permissible under federal law to fire someone or deny them access to public accommodation because they happen to be gay," Casey said. "What that means is you can have a loving couple get married on Saturday and be fired when they get to work on Monday... that makes no sense and is contrary to our values. We have to correct it."

Casey noted efforts by states - specifically North Carolina and Mississippi - to "double down on discrimination." In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage in 2015, scores of states across the country have launched efforts to enact laws that would restrict protections to gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender individuals.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, states have proposed close to 200 bills that would restrict and limit civil rights to the LGBT community. North Carolina passed a bill that requires individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds to their birth gender. Mississippi passed a religious freedom bill that protects religious beliefs from discriminatory state laws.

"These laws are much more than just about bathrooms," Casey said. "In essence they are a license to discriminate in all aspects of society. These state laws are contrary to the values of our nation and make clear the need for this legislation."

The Equality Act, which has the backing of 41 Democratic senators and a lone Republican, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, would revise public school desegregation standards to prohibit discrimination of students with regards to sexual orientation or gender identity.

In a written statement, the office of Casey's Republican counterpart, Sen. Pat Toomey, said the Lehigh Valley Republican believed "every person should be judged on his or her own merits as individuals."

"He has long opposed discrimination based on sexual orientation. Twenty years ago, in 1996, he voted for an ordinance banning Allentown government from discriminating based on sexual orientation. He called for an end to the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell policy." In 2013, he voted for the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). With that long record in mind, he will review Senator Merkley's proposal."

The bill would expand the categories of public accommodations to include places or establishments that provide:

exhibitions, recreation, exercise, amusement, gatherings, or displays;

goods, services, or programs, including a store, a shopping center, an online retailer or service provider, a salon, a bank, a gas station, a food bank, a service or care center, a shelter, a travel agency, a funeral parlor, or a health care, accounting, or legal service; or

transportation services.

President Obama last month engendered outrage from conservatives when he issued a directive to the nation's public schools calling on them to provide transgender students with access to suitable facilities -- including bathrooms and locker rooms -- that match their chosen gender identity.

Conservative groups have widely opposed efforts to extend civil rights protection to the LGBT community, particularly most recently the transgender community, which is at the heart of the so-called "bathroom bills" debate.

Supporters rally outside the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, April 11, 2016, in support of a law that blocks rules allowing transgender people to use the bathroom aligned with their gender identity. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

Across the country - including here in Pennsylvania - public schools have joined the debate. A federal court recently handed down an important ruling on this issue in Grimm v. Gloucester Country School Board, giving transgender students the right to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender expression.

In the private sector, The American Family Association, last week launched a boycott of Target after the retail giant said it would allow transgender individuals to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identification.

Casey said the bill will undoubtedly generated considerable debate, and that he has and will listen to all sides of the debate.

Casey said the intent of the bill was to guarantee to all the protections afforded by the Civil Rights Act.

"What we are trying to do here is to make very clear that we want to grant the full measure of protection to LGBT Americans that we have granted in another context ... race," he said.

The legislation would maintain so-called ministerial exceptions, which would allow religious corporations, groups and education institutions the right to exercise their religious beliefs in employment, education, services, etc.

Elaborating on the arguments against the bill made in the name of religious freedoms, Casey said: "All we are saying is if you are going to receive federal funding, you can't discriminate in the programs that you administer."

Casey said given the upcoming conventions, recess and election, Congress was not likely to take up the bill in this session.

"We have to use this time to continue to educate people," Casey said. "A lot of folks out there don't know that there are still gaps in policy that we sometimes take for granted."
Saudi Arabia is ready to discuss the reinstatement of oil production quotas if the market finds this necessary, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih, told journalists before the OPEC meeting.

"We'll do this if it's in the market's interests," he said. But the market is "doing the work for us" right now, and "all we need to do is to follow the market and cooperate with producers within OPEC and outside OPEC" in order to bring this market to a state of equilibrium, he said.

Demand is good and stable, production outside OPEC is falling "and we think it will fall at even higher rates," the minister said. Oil prices will rise as the market rebalances, he said.

"The oil market is balancing, prices are on the way up," he said.

He said that OPEC must take the appropriate steps to rebalance the market.

"We're interested in long-term stability on the market," which implies that growing demand for oil is being met and the economy is recovering, he said.

"In the long term, we must support investments. But we do not need too much investment so as to avoid a new surplus on the market," he said.
FILE - In this Friday, July 18, 2014 file photo, people pray for the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 at a church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The families of six crew members on a Malaysian passenger jet shot down over Ukraine nearly two years ago have filed lawsuits against Malaysia Airlines for negligence and breach of contract. (AP Photo/Joshua Paul, File)
Boats are lined up on the flooded Loing Canal in St Mammes, where the Loing joins the Seine south of Paris, France, Thursday June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
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OPEC doesn't reach agreement on quotas, but meeting was positive

The meeting of the ministers of OPEC countries proceeded on a positive note, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Anas Khalid Al Saleh told journalists as he was leaving the summit.

"The meeting was positive," he said.

Indonesian Energy Minister Sudirman Said says that the countries did not management to reach an agreement about the new production protocol.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino also said that he was happy with the results of the meeting.
EJPS receives COPS School Violence Prevention grant

The district was one of eight in the state to receive funding for improving safety technology throughout the buildings.
First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) David Lipton is visiting Kyiv prior to a meeting of Dutch constituency member-states of the IMF and the World Bank, which is scheduled for June 3-5, Deputy Spokesman for the IMF Communications Department William Murray has said.

The issue of Ukraine may be included in the agenda of the meeting in view of the critical situation in the country, he said. However, the meeting itself won't be dedicated to Ukraine.

The member-states' meeting is a regular event, which takes in different countries.

The National Bank of Ukraine has reported this event is attended not only by senior officials of the IMF and the World Bank , but also by central banks' governors and the finance ministers from 15 countries. Their agenda includes key issues of economic development and challenges in the region.
Oil production target main issue at OPEC meeting

Reuters/Heinz-Peter Bader



Oil minister from country newly freed of sanctions says limiting production would have no benefit' and calls instead for quotas but doubts deal will be struck - AFP

VIENNA

Petroleumworld.com 06 02 2016

OPEC is set for another showdown between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran when it meets on Thursday, with Riyadh trying to revive coordinated action and set a formal oil output target but Tehran rejecting the idea.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shia Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.

Several OPEC sources said Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies would propose to set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair OPEC's waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment.

"The Gulf Cooperation Council is looking for coordinated action at the meeting," a senior OPEC source said, referring to a group combining OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Any agreement between Riyadh and Tehran would be seen as a big surprise by the market, which in the past two years has grown increasingly used to clashes between the political foes as they fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.

Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze.

Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual country production quotas.

"An output ceiling has no benefit to us," Zanganeh told reporters upon arriving in Vienna late on Wednesday.

COUNTRY QUOTAS

New Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output.

At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC failed to set any production policy including a formal output ceiling, effectively allowing its 13 members to pump at will.

As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages.

Until December 2015, OPEC had a ceiling of 30 million barrels per day (bpd) - in place since December 2011, although it effectively abandoned individual production quotas years ago.

OPEC currently produces around 32.5 million bpd. Any ceiling below that number would represent an effective cut.






The ambassadors of the G7 nations are concerned by the leak of journalists' personal data on the Ukrainian website Mirotvorets, and called on those responsible to remove the data, according to a G7 statement published on the website of the German Embassy to Ukraine.

"The G7 Ambassadors are deeply concerned by the recent massive disclosures of journalists' personal data on the Mirotvorets website. This contravenes the spirit and the letter of Ukrainian law, which states clearly that personal data can only be publicly released with the individual's consent. It also contravenes Ukraine's international commitments," the G7 ambassadors said in a statement released on Thursday.

The characterization of all journalists named on the list as "collaborators with terrorists" jeopardizes their personal safety and the Ukrainian freedom of the media, according to the document. Journalists should be allowed to do their job without threats, harassments and intimidation, the ambassadors said.

"We call on those responsible for Mirotvorets to remove personal data from the website and desist from inflammatory language. We are particularly concerned that threats are being made against individuals as a result of the information published by Mirotvorets," the statement said.

The ambassadors also welcomed the announcement by Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov that he will take action in response to any such threats, and urged the Ukrainian authorities to protect the freedom of the media in the country.
Kyiv police ask media representatives whose personal information was published on the Mirotvorets (Peacemaker) website to approach the criminal investigation service for the purpose of giving testimony as witnesses, the police's press service said.

The Criminal Investigation Service of the Main Department of the National Police of Ukraine for Kyiv on the orders of the city's public prosecution office is investigating a criminal case under the Article 'Obstruction of lawful professional activities of journalists' of the Ukrainian Criminal Code on the grounds of publishing the personal information of journalists accredited in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics by the Mirotvorets website, the press service said in a report.

"Police ask the media representatives whose names and contact information were published on the aforementioned website, and who faced, or will face, obstruction of their professional activities following that, to approach the Main Department of the National Police of Ukraine for Kyiv to give testimony as witnesses on the grounds of the aforementioned facts for the purpose of objective investigation and taking of immediate response measures," the report said.

In May the Mirotvorets website published lists of more than 4,000 journalists who have been accredited in the self-proclaimed Donbas republics. The list includes the names of Ukrainian and foreign journalists, their mobile contacts and duration of their stay in the territories of the DPR and the LPR.
The situation in the ATO zone tends has become more violent in the past 24 hours. Militants attacked positions of Ukrainian units in Donbas 51 times, the ATO press center wrote on its Facebook page.

Attacks intensified in the Mariupol direction, where 35 ceasefire violations fire were recorded. The Ukrainian forces' positions near Hnutove, Talakivka and Shyrokyne appeared to be under enemy shelling. The militants shelled the positions in Novotroitske from mounted ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns.

The enemy repeatedly executed fire on ATO forces' positions near Avdiyivka from small arms, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers and 82mm mortars.

The enemy fired the units of Ukrainian soldiers on the outskirts of Novoselivka from 23mm mortars prohibited by the Minsk agreements.

"The day passed relatively quietly in Luhansk region," the statement says.
Ukraine's Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman plans in mid-June to visit the United States, Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly has said in an interview with the Voice of America.

"We expect a very powerful delegation to the United States led by the prime minister in the middle of June," he said.

Chaly proposed the premier visit the United States immediately after his appointment, however Groysman expressed the desire to visit the United States only after he succeeded achieving concrete results.
Ukraine is actively working to ensure the introduction of a visa-free regime with the European Union later this year, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Kostiantyn Yeliseyev has stated.

"First, no one could have predicted that the EU may face the problem of migration crisis, which moved into the category of political problem inside the EU and even affects the political life of many EU countries, affects the ratings of key European politicians. Therefore it is logical that today this issue is a matter of concern," he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

On the other hand, he said the EU has certain obligations to Ukraine in terms of providing a visa-free regime.

"That's why today there is an attempt to find a modus vivendi to, on the one hand, solve the problem of illegal migration, which mainly threatens EU member states, and, on the other hand, to fulfill its obligations to Ukraine over the provision of a visa-free regime," the official stressed.

He said a positive fact is that there is progress in the issue both in the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers.
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation has refused the consideration of an appeal against the sentence passed upon Ukrainian citizens Oleh Sentsov and Oleksandr Kolchenko. Both men were convicted in Russia for preparing a terrorist attack in Crimea, Russian mass media have reported, with reference to court records.

"They refused to transfer the case for consideration to a court of cassation," reads the report.

As reported, the North Caucasus District Military Court in August 2015 found Sentsov and Kolchenko guilty of creating a terrorist community in Crimea, committing two acts of terrorism and accused them of an attempt to purchase explosives and illegal weapons possession. Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while Kolchenko to ten years in prison.

In early May Sentsov and Kolchenko filled out documents for extradition to Ukraine.
Kateryna Yushchenko, the wife of the third Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010) and head of the supervisory council of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund, claims that Governor of Zakarpattia Regional State Administration Hennadiy Moskal is to blame among others for the failure of a project for the creation of a Ukrainian health centre for mothers and children, also known as Children's Hospital of the Future.

Kateryna Yushchenko says Moskal, during his tenure as Member of Parliament of Ukraine, interfered with the work of the Ukraine 3000 Fund, which has become one of the reasons why the Hospital of the Future has never appeared.

"Earlier, when Moskal was in parliament, he, along with the main communist [Petro] Symonenko was one of the zealous persecutors of the project for the creation of the Ukrainian health centre for mothers and children, which was initiated by our Ukraine 3000 Fund. In 2009-2011, when the project was in its active phase, it was he who initiated our multiple inspections by prosecutors, the SBU Security Service of Ukraine, the then KRU Control and Revision Office of Ukraine, the Tax Administration of Ukraine. By all means, these inspections have not found anything out, but significantly hampered the implementation of the project. Therefore, we must "return thanks" to a large extent to Mr. Moskal for the failure of the centre," Yushchenko wrote on her Facebook page on Tuesday.

She also noted that the information about funds raised for the project and how they have been used is in public access. "Despite all the obstacles, we are moving forward. We have provided most advanced equipment to the leading children's hospitals not only in Kyiv, but also to more than 30 hospitals throughout Ukraine. All the information about the status of the project and the use of the funds is in public access on our websites," Kateryna Yushchenko said.

She expressed regret that "people with power and opportunities impede the implementation of such projects instead of supporting them."

As reported, Moskal urged the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to pay attention to the activities of Viktor Yushchenko, who, according to his theory, arranged a shadow deal connected with the Ukraine 3000 Fund, and subsequently, ceded power to Viktor Yanukovych with the help of the corruption scheme.

"Why did everyone forget about the nationwide shadow deal with the 'Hospital of the Future'? Is it so difficult to find this information, when Viktor Yushchenko and his wife Kateryna set up the Ukraine 3000 Fund and organized live telethons raising funds to build the Children's Hospital of the Future? All oligarchs transferred UAH 10 million, 50 million and 100 million to the Fund on the 'voluntary-obligatory' basis. But ordinary citizens who naively believed in this monkey business made voluntary contributions as much as they could. As a result, the money was stolen from the Fund, and no one was going to build that hospital and hasn't built it... Why is NABU not investigating the case of the Hospital of the Future? After all, this is NABU's direct duty abuse of power by high-ranking officials. The large scale shadow deal with the children's hospital should be legally assessed," Moskal said.
Europe inadequately and not clearly understands the scale of internal migration in Ukraine because of fighting in Donbas, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Kyslytsia considers.

"Unfortunately, today Europe inadequately and not well understands. Europe, which faced migration crisis, when it had to accept about one million refugees... And we are talking about rich [Europe], which barely coped with a million of refugees, and not so rich Ukraine should [deal with] 1.7 million internally displaced persons," the official said at the first session of the governing committee on the Council of Europe's action plan for Ukraine for 2015-2017.

In addition, he also noted an important role of the Council of Europe in changing Ukrainian legislation, in particular law on legal proceedings.
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JISD Supt. McAllister announces retirement Audio Article The retirement of Jourdanton ISD Superintendent Theresa McAllister was announced at the meeting of the school board held on Oct....
A total of 177 servicemen of the Ukrainian National Guard have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the hostilities, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has said.

"The National Guard was founded in March 2014. It was the first to stop the enemy and enable us to hold mobilization and restore combat capacities of the army... Yet we paid a high price: 177 National Guard servicemen were killed and 737 suffered injuries," he said after having presented the colors to the Ukrainian National Guard's rapid response brigade in the village of Starychi in Kyiv region on Thursday.

Ukrainian National Guard servicemen are 'holding the line' not only in eastern Ukraine, on the front, but also in the rear, Turchynov said.

"Such a thing happened in August of last year, near the Verkhovna Rada's building, where the National Guard protected democracy and parliamentarianism in our country with its blood and life," the NSDC secretary said.
Mexican Gaming Association Expects Online Regulation by the End of the Year

June 02, 2016 Jason Glatzer Editor

Due to the country's close proximity to the United States, great weather, and relatively affordable cost of living, Mexico is a popular destination for Americans looking to play online poker on the biggest online poker rooms, including PokerStars, 888poker, partypoker, and iPoker.

However, despite many poker players choosing to live most of the year across the border, online poker is unregulated in Mexico. That means that gaming companies that provide services do so by operating in a gray-area market. The president of the Mexican Gaming Association (AIEJA), Miguel Angel Ochoa Sanchez, has been urging for a bill to be passed for years now, and once again pressed for action in an interview with El Economista.

Sanchez, who believes a gaming bill will be passed this year, highlights that Mexican residents are currently playing online in huge numbers in an uncontrolled environment.

"Online gaming is very worrying, because it is growing exponentially and we can not control who comes to play or if that person is underage," Sanchez said.

It also appears that Sanchez is leveraging on an anti-American sentiment to gain some support.

"There are firms like the American PokerStars.com or Bet365.com, who do not pay taxes or create jobs in Mexico," he said. "The money is going to their countries."

Whether or not Sanchez deliberately misstated facts here is up for debate, as neither company's Mexican operations wind up benefiting the U.S. PokerStars currently operates from the Isle of Man, with its parent company, Amaya Inc., publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. While it is true that PokerStars now services players in New Jersey, this is not connected to the worldwide PokerStars client that Mexican residents play on.

The connection made with Bet365 is even more confusing, as the company does not service any customers in the US and operates from the United Kingdom.

Will Gaming Regulation Pass in Mexico?

Industry experts believe it isn't a matter of if, but when online gaming regulation will pass in Mexico, primarily due to what Sanchez once estimated to be $200 million-per-year in tax revenues being left on the table that could benefit the country's struggling economy.

Poker players in Mexico have been anticipating a change ever since a gaming bill was passed in December of 2014 by the lower house of the Mexican Senate. Expectations at the time were that the draft would be fast tracked for approval before the legislative session ended.

Delays were announced in what was believed to be unrelated to the bill. At the time, the president of the Mexican Senate, Luis Miguel Barbosa, announced that the passing of a gaming bill would be delayed until 2015. It was speculated the delay was due to the high amount of last-minute controversial bills and constitutional amendments, including some from president Enrique Pena Nieto.

The AIEJA urged for a bill to be passed in 2015, however, the year came and went without any legislative action. Sanchez believed at the time that a bill would be passed before the year ended and has once again set expectations that it could happen during the next legislative session, which runs from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15.

Stay tuned at PokerNews as more develops in the Mexican gaming marketplace.

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Rainer Kempe Wins the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl for $5,000,000; Fedor Holz Runner-Up

June 02, 2016 Donnie Peters

Rainer Kempe's 2015 was a breakout year for the German upstart, but still not many knew his name. Now, thanks to a massive $5 million win in the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl, Kempe has claimed an unforgettable place in poker's history books.

Place Player Country Prize 1 Rainer Kempe Germany $5,000,000 2 Fedor Holz Germany $3,500,000 3 Erik Seidel USA $2,400,000 4 Phil Hellmuth USA $1,600,000 5 Matt Berkey USA $1,100,000 6 Bryn Kenney USA $800,000 7 Dan Shak USA $600,000

The final day of play began with seven players remaining from a 49-player field. Everyone left was guaranteed an in-the-money finish worth at least $600,000 after Dan Smith bubbled on Tuesday night with an eighth-place result.

First to go was Dan Shak in seventh place, falling to Fedor Holz when his failed to come from behind against Holz's .

Next up was Bryn Kenney's elimination, also falling at the hands of Holz who held the versus the . Thanks to a run out of , Kenney was relieved from the field in sixth place for $800,000.

Matt Berkey then hit the rail in fifth, becoming the first player to bust since the payouts reached seven figures. Berkey was one of the under-the-radar players on this event's roster sheet, but his performance and final-table run should make him much more of a notable name going forward. He busted to Kempe when his failed to win a flip against Kempe's . Berkey scored $1.1 million.

At the point, Kempe had only increased upon the powerful lead he had when he entered the final table, moving over 8.3 million from busting Berkey and then flirting with 10 million. He did take a slight dip back during four-handed play, but thanks to busting Phil Hellmuth, Kempe moved back to 9.3 million.

For Hellmuth, he can only be proud of his fourth-place result. It's no secret that Hellmuth has a knack for holding onto a short stack, but having entered the final day at the bottom of the pack, his expectations were low. He was able to turn his run into a fourth-place finish worth $1.6 million, though, bowing out to Kempe when his couldn't win against the .

The second shortest stack to enter the final table was Erik Seidel, and, like Hellmuth, he held on for dear life as the others fell by the wayside. After he doubled through Holz to get back over 1 million, Seidel jammed in for 1.2 million from the small blind during the 50,000/100,000/10,000 level. He had the , but was dominated by the . The flop, turn, and river ran out , and Seidel finished with a payday of $2.4 million.

For both Seidel and Hellmuth, their scores now stand as the second largest of their long and illustrious careers. Seidel also jumped from third to second on poker's all-time money list for live tournament earnings thanks to his finish. Hellmuth also moved up one spot, jumping from eighth to seventh on the same list.

Heads-up play was an all-German affair, with Kempe starting with 9.23 million to Holz's 5.47 million.

Kempe began by extending his lead, but then Holz doubled up before he worked his way into the lead. It was then turn for Kempe to double back in front before a couple more lead changes occurred.

Kempe was eventually able to grind Holz down and finish the deal when his pocket eights held against the pocket twos of Holz just before 1 a.m. local time in Las Vegas. And while Holz fell short of another huge victory, the $3.5 million he earned for second place will help keep a smile on his face.

With that, PokerNews' coverage of the 2016 Super High Roller Bowl has come to an end. Next up is the World Series of Poker just down the road, and we'll see if Kempe can add a gold bracelet to go along with his new gold ring.

*Photo courtesy of Joe Giron/PokerPhotoArchive.com.

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Federal authorities said Wednesday that they would not pursue civil rights charges against two Minneapolis police officers in the fatal shooting of Jamar Clark, a decision met with both outrage and resignation by activists who for months have demanded prosecution, reports the Star Tribune.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, leaning heavily on whether Clark was handcuffed by police before being shot and other factors, said there was insufficient evidence to bring a federal case.

"I want you to understand that this is one of the highest legal standards under criminal law," Luger told reporters at FBI offices in Brooklyn Center. "It is not enough to show the officers made a mistake, that they acted negligently, by accident or even that they exercised bad judgment to prove a crime. We would have had to show that they specifically intended to commit a crime."

Minneapolis Police Union President Lt. Bob Kroll lauded the decision but blasted city officials for creating "a dangerous and unproductive atmosphere," according to news reports. Kroll called Black Lives Matter, the organization that led protests in the wake of the shooting, a "terrorist organization."
The parliamentary committee for national security and defense has asked Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers to provide UAH 3.6 billion for modernization of weapons of Ukraine's Armed Forces.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported that the decision was made on Wednesday.

"We demand from the Cabinet of Ministers to provide UAH 3.6 billion. This is the smallest sum that will provide for the repair and modernization of weapons," Committee Head Serhiy Pashynsky said.

Committee member from Petro Poroshenko Bloc Ivan Vinnyk said that from Q3 2016 there would be a shortage of over UAH 4 billion to pay increased salaries to military. He said that this year the troops require an additional UAH 10 billion.

The national budget for 2016 foresees UA 113 billion of expenses for national security. The Defense Ministry will receive UAH 55.5 billion and UAH 3.6 billion will be provided for the implementation of measures to boost the country's defense.
A Campus shooting at UCLA Wednesday morning left two men dead in an apparent murder-suicide that sent thousands of students running for safety and barricading themselves in classrooms, authorities said.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck confirmed that the shooter was one of the two men killed in a small office in a building in the campus engineering complex, reports the Los Angeles Times.

"The campus is now safe," Beck told reporters in a news conference shortly after noon. At 12:05 p.m. UCLA officials lifted the campus lockdown and canceled classes for the remainder of the day.

The shooting, which happened just after 10 a.m. prompted massive response from local and federal law enforcement.

Authorities did not identify the victims and a motive was not immediately clear.
The body of the gunman suspected of shooting and wounding two Fremont, CA, police officers was found Thursday morning inside the house where he was barricaded for hours in the residential neighborhood, reports Fox News.

Two officers from the Fremont Police Department were shot Wednesday afternoon after a traffic stop turned violent, prompting a manhunt that involved a house-to-house search that lasted well into the night.

The lone suspect was eventually tracked down to a home in the San Francisco Bay-area community of Fremont, where he was involved in the standoff, said Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff's office.

He said no one was home when the suspect broke in and barricaded himself inside. Tear gas was blamed after the roof of the house caught fire. Fire crews worked to extinguish the blaze.

The incident started when an officer with a year's service with the department stopped a white pickup truck, police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said. The driver backed up into the officer's patrol car, a person in the truck fired shots that injured the officer, and the shooter and another suspect fled on foot. A manhunt ensued.

A while later, a Fremont police officer with about 10 years of service with the department was wounded in a shootout with the suspect, officials said.

Bosques told the East Bay Times that the officer in the initial shooting was in critical condition after surgery. The second officer remained in stable condition.
The Ontario Ranger Kerambit EOD is built for battle. From Ontario Knife Company, the Ontario Ranger line was built to withstand combat deployment in the most unforgiving terrain on the planet. The Kerambit was designed for OKC by US Special Operations veteran Justin Gingrich to be the perfect self-defense option for military, law enforcement, and civilian use.

"The Kerambit EOD is based on a 13th century Southeast Asian blade design," said Gingrich. Kerambit translates as claw of the tiger and can be used with a traditional forward grip or with a reverse grip fighting style.

The full-tang Kerambit is made from a 1/4-inch-thick 5160-carbon alloy steel blade and a durable machined micarta handle. It measures 7.5 inches overall with a 3-inch metal blade that is powder coated to protect it from the elements. Designed specifically for the US Marine Corps EOD unit operating down range, the Kerambit features a pommel ring with jimping to the bottom of the ring and the rear of the blade to provide for maximum purchase. The Kerambit includes a Kydex belt loop sheath that is MOLLE-compatible.

For more information, visit Ontario Knife Company.
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Donald Trump is not one to shy away from lawsuits. Any prominent figure  from politicians to comedians to journalists  who dares to tell the truth about the presumptive GOP nominee will likely be threatened by some type of frivolous legal action.

An exclusive new analysis from USA TODAY shows that Trump and his companies have been tied up in 3,500 lawsuits  a mindblowing and unprecedented number for someone hoping to be the next president.

As the report notes, [The lawsuits] range from skirmishes with casino patrons to million-dollar real estate suits to personal defamation lawsuits.

The analysis also found that at least 70 cases have been filed by and against Trump just since he announced his candidacy last summer. The most widely covered of the suits is the recent case surrounding the spray-tanned billionaires fraudulent Trump University, where the GOP candidate knowingly scammed people into handing over money without any return on their investment.

And even though Trump repeatedly claims that he never settles lawsuits, USA TODAY found at least 100 cases where the New York con man did, in fact, settle.

The news organization also reports:

The legal actions provide clues to the leadership style the billionaire businessman would bring to bear as commander in chief. He sometimes responds to even small disputes with overwhelming legal force. He doesnt hesitate to deploy his wealth and legal firepower against adversaries with limited resources, such as homeowners. He sometimes refuses to pay real estate brokers, lawyers and other vendors.

If there is one thing this analysis confirms, its that Donald Trump really isnt a great negotiator after all. He is just a man who throws money at frivolous lawsuits when he doesnt get his way, which is apparently more often than not. As president, its unclear what Trump would do when he doesnt get his way since presidents cant simply sue their way out of trouble.

The more we learn about Trumps past behavior, the more apparent it is that he probably shouldnt be living in the White House.

As Hillary Clinton said today in New Jersey, Its important that we recognize what he has done because thats usually a pretty good indicator of what he will do. And on issue after issue, he is someone who is unqualified and unfit to be the president of the United States.
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*The following is an opinion column by R Muse *

These days in America it is getting more difficult by the day to find very many people claiming Christianity as their driving life-force who are what anyone with a brain, or knowledge of the Christian bible, would call a real Christian. Of course there are real followers of Christ in America, but they are seemingly few and far between, or are drowned out by the evangelical right extremists. As a former Christian minister, one can tell readers that Jesus Christ explained how to identify a real Christian. Americas neo-Christianity movement would certainly know in their heart of hearts that they are as far-afield from being a Christian as possible if they had ever picked up the rule book they claim informs their worldview and drives their hatred for most of the country.

The evangelical religions namesake, Jesus Christ, preached in the Gospels that besides expressing love for all human beings, to

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheeps clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Christ also preached that, In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. That message was repeated later by one of the apostles who wrote Live such good lives they may see your good deeds and glorify God.

No matter the context, the concept is crystal clear: it is easy to discern who is a real Christian and who is evil, a liar, and a phony Christian. Over the past few weeks it has been abundantly clear that these religious bigots attacking transgender people, and calling for violence and death against them, are no more Christians than blood-thirsty ISIS extremists or violent criminals.

The latest leading Christian voice to call for extreme violence against transgender people is James Dobson, founder and president of extremist Christian group Focus on the Family. Dobson was incensed, and viciously attacked President Obama for defending transgender students Constitutional right to use a toilet according to their gender identity. Dobson even violated his church tax-exempt, non-profit status by preaching a sermon claiming that President Obama is a tyrant who assaults centuries of modesty and moral beliefs. He is warping our children and wielding dictatorial powers to change Western civilization forever.

Dobsons solution to the idea of transgender people using a restroom is for Christian fathers to take matters into their own hands and do what Dobson thinks real men would have done 100 years ago: shoot to kill the transgenders. He wrote,

If you are a dad, I pray you will protect your little girls from men who walk in unannounced, unzip their pants and urinate in front of them. If this had happened 100 years ago, someone might have been shot. Where is todays manhood? God help us!

One is happy to inform Dobson that according to Jesus Christ, not only is Dobsons god not going to help him or his malcontent evangelical mob, if Jesus words are true, preacher Dobson is going to be cut down and thrown into the fire. That would be the Christian bibles everlasting lake of fire and for anyone, Christian or not, who calls for anyone, transgender or not, to be shot based on Dobsons prayers to his god there is no better destination than eternal fire.

Dobson is not the only Christian looking for transgender people to shoot and kill. A Christian lawyer who is also president of another far-right evangelical Christian outfit known as the Liberty Counsel, Anita Staver, made an important announcement as a warning to transgender people and hardworking Americans shopping at Target stores.

Staver said she would be packing her handy Glock 45 every time she goes to Target to use the toilet in case she needs to shoot any transgender people she finds in there. Since only one-tenth of one percent of the population identifies as transgender, Staver is likely going to have to make hourly trips to the Target toilet to shoot any transgender people she finds in there. It is noteworthy that Staver is married to Matt Staver, the rabid anti-gay evangelical that defended the equally anti-gay evangelical Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, the elected official who cannot accept that a couple of verses in the Old Testament of her Christian bible are not the law of the land.

At least one law enforcement official who identifies strongly as a Christian and claims that his faith in Jesus Christ guides him showed his true neo-American Christian bona fides. Tracy Murphree is the only candidate for sheriff in Denton County Texas and to garner evangelical electoral support he called for violence against transgender people and announced: If my little girl is in a public restroom and a man, regardless of how he may identify, goes into the bathroom, he will then identify as a John Doe until he wakes up in whatever hospital he may be taken to. Obviously, Murphrees version of, and guidance from, Jesus Christ has no connection to the real Jesus Christ of the real Christian bible. Even anti-religion atheists are aware that threatening or carrying out violence is not a Jesus kind of thing.

Murphree also defended his threat of violence by vowing that he will not give in to the political correctness police; or Jesus Christs guidance against violence, or his guides admonition to let your good works identify you as a real Christian.

I wont be threatened by those who may call me a bigot or ignorant. The few transgenders (sic) rights do not trump the rights of the many. I will not stand by in political correctness afraid of being labeled and allow a male to enter a bathroom my daughter occupies. I just wont do it.

There is still no statistical evidence of transgender people committing crimes in bathrooms. However, according to a 2013 study conducted by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, fully 70 percent of trans people have reported being denied entry, harassed, or assaulted when trying to use the bathroom. The only people being assaulted while doing toilet business are transgenders; not little girls, not mothers, not sisters or not grandmothers. This faux outrage is focused on transgender people and since assaults and harassment are all rooted in (the neo-American version of) Christian ideology these laws defending this kind of blatant discrimination are all Republican religious laws and patently unconstitutional.

One doesnt have to be a Christian to acknowledge that regardless of ones faith, or lack thereof, all Americans are entitled to constitutionally-protected equal and civil rights; they only have to be real Americans. However, over the past decade or so the only group actively working to deny other Americans equal rights are evangelical fanatics claiming their religious bona fides give them purview over the rest of the population.

Sadly, that purview has now evolved into Christians calling for violence, and death, against 3-tenths of one percent of the population. It doesnt matter what kind of Christian one is, the faiths namesake condemned violence against anyone. If any of these esteemed Christian preachers, leaders, lawyers, and law enforcement officials had read even one word of their lord and saviors teachings, they would be quaking in their religious boots at their eternal resting place. Because according to their fruits they are going to be cut down and thrown into the fire  right where they belong today.
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After months of dancing around endorsing Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) held his nose and endorsed Trump in the smallest venue imaginable. Ryan endorsed Trump in a column for the local Janesville, Wisconsin newspaper.

Ryan wrote:

Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve peoples lives. Thats why Ill be voting for him this fall.

Its no secret that he and I have our differences. I wont pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, Ill continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.



For me, its a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that Iand my House colleagueshave invested so much in through the years. Its not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead.



Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.



So, the only reason that Paul Ryan is endorsing Trump is that he is the Republican nominee. If Republicans would have nominated a mop, Ryan would have endorsed the mop. Speaker Ryans endorsement of Trump comes down to the fact that he had no other choice. The Republican Speaker of the House isnt going to endorse Hillary Clinton, and since he is the leader of the House, he had to eventually endorse the Republican nominee anyway.

It speaks volumes that Ryan made his endorsement when the House was not in session. Ryan didnt hold a press conference or appear at a Trump event. Paul Ryan doesnt want to be seen with Donald Trump. He doesnt want to get any of the Trump stink on him that could end up handing the House majority back to Democrats.

Paul Ryans endorsement of Trump may be the worst in modern American political history.

The only way this endorsement could have been made any less important would have been if Ryan would have issued it in an email on the 4th of July. Paul Ryan will vote for Donald Trump because he has to, and he expects Republican voters to hold their noses and do the same.
The deputy minister of Ukraine on the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons (IDPs), Heorhiy Tuka, has said the issue of delay in pensions to internally displaced persons from Donbas would be resolved within one or two weeks.

"There have been received numerous complaints from IDPs with respect to delays in payment of pensions. I want to report the National Security and Defense Council yesterday discussed this issue. I hope in a week or two it will be solved, it is necessary to make changes to some government documents," Tuka wrote on his Facebook page.

As reported, on May 19 Head of the European Union Delegation to Ukraine Jan Tombinski urged Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko to ensure legitimate payments to IDPs.
The Interior Ministry of Ukraine in the framework of the criminal police reform intends to initiate establishing of the Detective Institute, while delegating investigation of minor offenses to district policemen.

"Most likely, we will make a suggestion to the parliament members to give consent to the establishment of the Dective Institute. We need to integrate into one policeman the functions of investigator and interrogator," the press service of the ministry quoted Interior Minister Arsen Avakov on the official Facebook page on Wednesday.

The Interior Ministry plans to delegate investigation of minor offenses to district policemen who will turn into multi purpose policemen.

We will ask members of parliament to adopt the corresponding law. Petty offences will be dealt with with a minimum of time and bureaucracy, Avakov said.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted a new wording of the law on judicial system and status of judges, which will enable to implement provisions of the bill on amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine regarding the judiciary, if adopted.

Some 281 MPs voted for the wording of law No. 4734 on judicial system and status of judges proposed by the president.

Now judges will be transferred from one court to another not by the president but the Higher Council of Justice. However, they will be appointed by the head of state on the proposal of the Higher Council of Justice.

The law establishes a procedure of selecting and appointing judges. The Higher Qualification Commission of Judges holds a qualification examination, verification of candidates within the law to combat corruption, as well as a tender for vacant positions of judge. The commission puts applicants forward to the Higher Council of Justice, which decides on nominating the candidate to the president of Ukraine for appointment. According to the law, a judge of the Court of Appeals can be a person who confirmed professional ability on the results of qualification evaluation, with experience of judicial work of 5 years, research experience in the field of law of not less than 7 years, professional experience of lawyer or conducting defense in criminal prosecution for at least 7 years.

The law establishes the powers of judges, appointed for five years prior to the entry into force of this act, will terminate with the completion of the term for which they were appointed. Upon completion of their powers, they can be appointed as a judge on the results of a tender to be conducted in a manner prescribed by this law.

"This is an important point, which stipulates that all the judges, who were appointed to the post for five years, will be on general grounds put forward to the competition and, if approved, may continue to hold their post," head of the legal policy and justice committee Ruslan Kniazevych said.

The system of judicial organization includes local courts, courts of appeals and the Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the judiciary system. For consideration of certain categories of cases the system has higher specialized courts. Ukraine will also get the Higher Specialized Court on Intellectual Property Issues and the Higher Specialized Anti-Corruption Court.

The document stipulates courts are created and liquidated by law. The president of Ukraine after consultation with the Higher Council of Justice submits the draft law on establishment or liquidation of courts to the Verkhovna Rada.
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Dear Dave: I have a couple of employees on my team who seem to lack the confidence they need to truly excel. They are good people and work hard. I know they could be promoted, or even take on more challenging assignments, but they are way too self-critical. How can I get them to stop being so hard on themselves and realize the potential and strengths that they have?  T

Dear T: First, let me say that you should be proud of yourself for making this observation and then trying to take care of the issue. As managers and mentors, we frequently encounter situations such as these, when we come up against the negative effects of self-doubt in the people we support and lead.

We all talk to ourselves  at least I hope so, because I do  and the negative effect of these far too critical and cynical inner voices is severe. As much as I believe in being appropriately critical about ourselves  mostly, our behaviors  I do not believe we should constantly be looking at what we do harshly and then beating ourselves up.

Don't get me wrong: there are many daunting situations that cause even the most confident and most deterministic people to have self-doubt. But there are many people who will escalate their fear of approaching a challenge by being self-demeaning and only thinking about the possibility for failure. In short, their confidence levels are over-ridden by their fear of failure.

Conversely, confident people are self-motivated, have high self-esteem and are willing to take more calculated risks. They have faith in their judgment and believe they can prevail despite the odds. However, they are realists and know their limitations  but, they don't make excuses and let limitations shroud their thinking, causing them to never attempt a challenge or problem.

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This is where leadership kicks in  or should  to help their employees feel more competent and confident in their work and in the things they may fear. I always have said that, if you want to be more confident, beef up your competence. Feeling and being competent is a sure way to take the fear out of approaching and completing daunting and challenging things.

Confidence builders

Building confidence requires leaders to have real conversations and a deep-seated interest in the well-being of their employees. It starts by understanding what's really going on and what people are really feeling. It requires showing respect and an interest in the obvious insecurity to understand what scares them. Here are some tips for managers when trying to build the self-confidence of their employees.

Sit down and talk to your people. Again, treat them with deep respect. Listen deeply to what they are saying about their lack of self-confidence and then treat them like the high-performers you know they are capable of becoming. If they need additional training and resources, find out what they need and supply it as soon as possible.

I believe rewards should be given when people do something well. Try to acknowledge good work immediately, genuinely and sincerely. Be observant and get in the habit of commenting on outstanding employee behavior as soon as you notice it. Be as specific as possible with examples when giving praise.

Make them realize that mistakes will happen  then help them learn from them. When an employee lacks confidence, even the smallest mistake will affirm their feelings of inadequacy, or ineptness. Help employees realize that success is on the other side of failure.

Make them teachers. Discover their stand-out skills and abilities, and have them share/teach them with others on the team. If they know they're good at something, they'll be more likely to have the confidence to share it with fellow employees. If they are hesitant, start with having them help someone one-on-one (as a mentor) and then slowly build from there.

In summary, building confidence takes thoughtful attention, time and energy, but it creates long-term impact for the employee, for the team, and for your company.
Ukraine has an acute need for combat drones, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has said.

"We need combat drones, and I have already set this task. We also need strategic combat unmanned aerial vehicles capable of carrying air-to-surface missiles and destroying targets," he told reporters on Thursday.

Ukraine needs means for fighting hostile drones, too, Turchynov said, adding "we do not have much time."

He said there had been problems with funding defense orders.

"This is a huge problem. The country is at war but the parliament has been debating for six months the right way to impound Yanukovych's money [frozen bank accounts of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych] to support the budget's special fund which actually finances national defense," Turchynov said.

He said he hopes the Verkhovna Rada would resolve that problem.
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt has welcomed the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the judicial reform and said the United States is ready to support its implementation to transform judiciary into an independent institution.

"A historic day. Welcome Rada's approval of constitutional amendments on the judicial reform, a big step forward on Ukraine's European path. The U.S. is ready to support implementation and work ahead to transform judiciary into an independent accountable and efficient institution," he wrote on his Twitter page.
WINONA  The second-highest ranking official at the Catholic Diocese of Winona resigned Wednesday after the Post-Bulletin discovered that he admitted under oath in the early 1990s that he had a sexual relationship with a college freshman whom he was counseling.

The relationship lasted for more than a year, according to court documents obtained by the Post-Bulletin, and included a pregnancy scare.

The Rev. Msgr. Richard Colletti, 63, who since 2011 had been vicar general of the diocese that serves the 20 southern counties of Minnesota, also resigned as chancellor , the chief record keeper for the diocese. The resignations were effective immediately.

Bishop John Quinn said Wednesday night that had Colletti not offered his resignation, "it would have been within my role to (terminate him). I would have needed more time to discuss all of that with him, but before I even began that discussion, Monsignor informed me that he wished to resign."

The Post-Bulletin obtained hundreds of pages of court documents, including Colletti's testimony taken during a personal injury lawsuit filed by the victim in 1991. The case was dismissed with prejudice in January 1994 by Judge Margaret Shaw Johnson in Winona County District Court.

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Though terms of the dismissal were not available, it likely means a financial settlement of some sort, said Patrick Wall, an advocate for victims of clergy abuse who works for Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm in St. Paul.

The terms of the settlement are confidential, strictly limiting what can be discussed.

Colletti 'regrets' relationship

Quinn, who came to Winona in 2008 and was appointed bishop in 2009, was not involved in the lawsuit, but the terms of the settlement prevent him from commenting on any aspect of the case, said Tom Braun, an attorney at Restovich Braun & Associates law firm, which represents the diocese.

Braun was with Quinn during the interview with the Post-Bulletin Wednesday evening.

"We'd like to have a discussion about the facts of this case," Braun said, "but the diocese has agreed not to discuss the details of this case in any way. The diocese has to continue to honor that obligation."

That includes what Quinn did or didn't know about the case before phone calls Wednesday from the Post-Bulletin.

"We cannot disclose any facts attendant to this case," Braun said. "Disclosing what he knows now or what he knew initially is disclosing facts, so we can't get into those details."

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The bishop also couldn't comment about what will become of Colletti  including the possibility of laicization , Braun said, other than "it's fair to say that his current positions are under review."

The confidentiality agreement, Braun continued, "causes some difficulty in being transparent here, which is what Bishop is committed to. If we could go back in time and do things differently, the confidentiality agreement would not be part of this settlement, so we could have a discussion about this."

Quinn said Colletti "does not want to cause any pain or further suffering for anyone who was involved in this, especially (the victim), and doesn't want to cause any further pain for the Catholics here in our diocese, nor for the parishioners."

Colletti "resigned out of love for the church," Quinn said, "and regrets this relationship, but he has also as a priest tried to serve with love and with care, and other than this incident, I'm not aware of anything else in his background, just that he's tried his best to serve God's people."

Judge declined to seal files

Among the admissions revealed in the lawsuit, Colletti said he found himself doing "crazy things, like asking her to marry me" after a pregnancy scare, and flying to Rome for five days when the victim spent a semester in Europe, the court documents say.

The woman sought in excess of $50,000 in damages, accusing Colletti  and by extension, the Diocese of Winona , the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Rochester and Saint Mary's University in Winona  of battery, assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty.

Depositions and copies of diocesan records, including letters from Colletti's personnel file, indicate former Bishop John Vlazny and the Rev. Gerald Mahon  rector at Immaculate Heart Seminary at the time and now pastor at Church of St. John the Evangelist in Rochester  knew about the sexual contact.

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In 1989, the records say, Colletti underwent treatment for alcoholism, co-dependency and sexual addiction.

The woman eventually finished college, but became "depressed and suicidal." A source close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity said the woman remains "troubled" psychologically to this day, unable to work or maintain relationships.

The victim, who is in her late 40s and now lives in another state, couldn't be reached for comment.

Though all parties involved in the lawsuit, plaintiff and defendants alike, filed motions to have the case files sealed, Judge Johnson refused to do so, saying in her ruling that while both sides provided their own reasons to keep "any information hidden from the public eye ... the reasons given do not outweigh the fundamental interests in openness and public accessibility to our court proceedings."

Efforts to reach Johnson, now retired, were unsuccessful.

The woman's story

The victim originally visited Colletti, who was serving as chaplain and director of campus ministry for Saint Mary's, at the beginning of her freshman year, court documents say. She was 18 and seeking counseling for depression.

Colletti had been there for about a year.

The appointments were initially in his office, during school hours, but became longer and more informal. Colletti eventually scheduled appointments in the evening hours, first in his office, then at his apartment on the second floor of St. Edward's Hall.

Colletti "always wanted to give me a hug, and each one seemed to last longer," the woman said in a court document, "and then he'd ask me to slow dance with him."

As winter approached that year, Colletti called the victim often, telling her he felt depressed, or that he felt like drinking again, the records say. It was during that time that the relationship became sexual, with the priest "holding me tighter ... and promising that I could leave in just a little while," the woman said.

The meetings continued almost every night until May, with Colletti allegedly apologizing frequently and promising to stop.

About a month later, the victim thought she was pregnant, the documents say. When she told Colletti, he asked her to marry him, reportedly saying there were lots of priests with kids around, but the kids just don't know who their dads are.

The woman avoided Colletti all summer before leaving for Europe at the beginning of her sophomore year. Colletti wrote to the victim, telling her he would be in Rome for Christmas and he wanted to see her. During his visit, "he pinned me down on the bed and laughed," the victim said, "and he would not get off me."

She left Colletti at that hotel and took a train to Austria.

The woman returned to Winona for the second semester, and Colletti continued to "want to get together with me and told me he loved me and wanted to marry me."

Served in Rochester, Mankato

About that time, Mahon referred Colletti for a psychological evaluation.

Colletti had told Mahon about the relationship eight months earlier, the records show, and again after he returned from Rome.

Colletti was sent that spring to the Guest House treatment center in Rochester for treatment of his alcoholism, the papers say, and he didn't return to Winona. He was transferred to St. John's Parish in Rochester.

Mahon said Wednesday that he remembered the Colletti case, but didn't remember being deposed or being involved in the lawsuit, though he was vicar general at the time and multiple court documents refer to his involvement.

Six months later after Colletti went to Rochester, the woman saw him at a wedding. Colletti claimed to have something for her in his car, "but he didn't; he lied, and I got away from him," she said. The ruse sent her to Vlazny's office to tell him about Colletti, "but the bishop just preached about forgiveness and said that I was a good Catholic," the court documents say.

Colletti became pastor at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Mankato in 1996 and served until 2008, when he returned to Winona.

Because she was 18, the victim in the case did not qualify to sue under the Minnesota Child Victims Act of 2013, which lifted for three years the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases. On May 26, the day after the act expired, the Winona diocese said that 119 victims and survivors had made claims against it.

The statement reads, in part, "The Catholic Diocese of Winona continues to encourage anyone who has suffered sexual abuse or exploitation by a priest or anyone else involved in Church ministry immediately to report such misconduct to local law enforcement, regardless of when the misconduct occurred."

Braun reiterated that point, but said "this matter was thoroughly investigated, went through a long process with the court.

"It's hard to know why (the victim) and her attorneys chose not to (go to law enforcement), but what I can say is that, because of the confidentiality agreement," diocese officials will not take their own advice, he said.

Does that mean they won't speak to law enforcement about Colletti's actions?

"The Diocese of Winona in the agreement agreed not to make any statements to any other persons aside from those who are listed in the agreement," Braun said. "Of course the diocese would cooperate with any kind of law enforcement investigation, but the settlement agreement would have to be produced and we'd have to discuss what disclosures could be made under the terms of the agreement with the plaintiff."

Mahon also said he wouldn't go to law enforcement.

There have been a lot of statements that have come from the diocese, Braun said, "acknowledging that there's a great sadness with how things have been handled in the past ... I understand there's frustration in how things have happened in the past, and what we're trying to do is move forward in a way that protects children and is cognizant of the past."
The Yasynuvata-Avdiyivka area in Donbas has become a zone closely monitored by OSCE observers, OSCE Special Monitoring Mission Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said.

This is an illustrative example of outbreaks of violence in relatively quiet zones simply because the positions of opposing sides are too close to one another, Hug said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

There is an ongoing outbreak of violence in the Kyiv-held town of Avdiyivka, where the monitors have observed 227 shots fired from 52mm artillery systems and 120mm and 82mm mortars.

The SMM has observed 113 explosions of unclear origin in the Kyiv-held town of Yasynuvata, Hug said.

Local residents told OSCE monitors that armed persons in Donetsk were using the roofs of their homes as fire positions.

The monitors observed 105 explosions in the Donetsk center, mostly in the Kuibysheve district, in the small hours of Monday, he said. Two days earlier OSCE SMM monitors visited that area and saw damaged residential buildings. Locals told the monitors they had seen armed men using the roofs of their houses as fire positions.

The use of dense residential areas as fire positions or locations of military hardware is strongly prohibited, he said.
OSCE mission says intervention in media work in Ukraine unacceptable, including via publications on Mirotvorets website

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM) to Ukraine said there should be no interference in the work of independent media outlets, including via publishing of journalists' personal information on the Mirotvorets website.

OSCE SMM Principal Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday that the OSCE SMM was following publications on the Mirotvorets website, but believed that there should be no interference in the work of independent media outlets.

The work of these independent media outlets can significantly influence the settlement of the situation, he said.

The OSCE SMM is also ready to assist with talks between the sides in the Donbas conflict, he said.

Both sides have an opportunity to discuss existing problems instead of using weapons, Hug said.

The Minsk talks are the only available platform in order to look for solutions to this conflict, and the OSCE SMM is working within its mandate to maintain the Minsk process, he said.
Depending on who you ask, there are two Republican candidates vying to face off against U.S. Rep. Tim Walz in November.

But neither Austin farmer Steve Williams nor retired Blue Earth businessman Jim Hagedorn would make that claim.

Williams, a former senate candidate running on the Independence Party ticket in 2012  he also ran for but fell short of the party's nomination in 2010 and 2014  said he filed as a Republican candidate only because the Independence Party lost its ballot access in 2016.

"I'm now running in the Republican Party, which is the closest of the two parties to where I'm at," Williams said.

Williams, 60, attended The Blake School in Hopkins, the same school attended by Sen. Al Franken, and has farmed near Austin for 35 years where he and his wife, Bonnie, raised four children.

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"I'm a farmer, but I'm different from most agri-businessmen in the area," he said. He grows fresh-market sweet corn and is restoring some of his land to its native state. "I view industrial agriculture as one of the most destructive influences to our land."

Working to end the corn ethanol market would be one of his main goals, if elected. Other issues he would focus on include replacement of the Affordable Care Act with a single-payer system of health care.

"We need to take the burden of health care off the American worker and the American employer," he said. "Obamacare makes no economic sense."

He also said he would work to reduce the deficit and seek penalties for those who mismanaged the economy in 2008. "There are people who should be in jail for what happened eight years ago," he said.

Williams said his primary opponent, Hagedorn, is an establishment Republican, and it's the failure of the establishment that has gotten America into the mess it's in today.

"There's too many people siphoning off the system and not putting in," Williams said. "And they're all pretty politically connected."

Hagedorn, 53, grew up on a farm near Truman before spending the school year on the East Coast as a teen, when his father served in Congress from 1974-1982. Never married, he worked as a legislative aide and government official in the Treasury Department before working for a Minnesota-based manufacturer of natural skin care and pain relief products.

Hagedorn lost the GOP primary in 2010 and later faced off against Walz in the 2014 general election.

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"We held Walz to 54-46 percent even though he outspent us six to one," Hagedorn said.

The three biggest areas of concern, if elected, he said are the safety and security of the American people, the economy and protecting our God-given rights. In practical terms, he said, he would govern based on letting the American people decide what is best for them. That view puts him at odds with both Walz and Williams.

"I'm a Republican, and he's an Independence Party official," Hagedorn said of Williams. "He's for single-payer health care, and I'm for free-market health care."

Referring to Walz, Hagedorn said the DFL incumbent is an Obama liberal. "He's a liberal, and I'm a conservative," he said. "He's for open borders. He was against sending the national guard down there."

Like Williams, he would like to see the Affordable Care Act replaced but with free-market health care.

"Walz hasn't done enough," he said. "It isn't reaching across the aisle when you vote for Obamacare. It's gesturing across the aisle."

The primary election will be held Aug. 9. Williams said he probably will not spend a lot of effort on the campaign trail.

"I'm not your barnstorming candidate," he said. "I'll be spending most of my time on the farm."
AUSTIN  Hundreds of people gathered today to celebrate the two-year building project that more than doubles the size of the Hormel Institute, a cancer research center that has been a pillar in the Austin community since 1942.

The expansion allows space for another 120 faculty and staff to be added over the next few years and also added a global communications learning center. Named "Ray Live Learning Center" after a major donation given by Gary and Pat Ray, the 250-seat auditorium will be used this week for the China-U.S. Forum on Frontiers of Cancer Research and the fourth Hormel Institute International Cancer Research Conference.

"We are thankful to all of the people and organizations who generously supported this vitally needed gathering space for Institute scientists to further their research," said Dr. Zigang Dong, executive director for the Hormel Institute.

Several speakers, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler, extolled the many partnerships behind the expansion, both in the United States and with the leaders in China.

The expansion was launched in 2012 with $13.5 million awarded in the Minnesota bonding bill. The Austin Port Authority, through legislation sponsored by Sen. Dan Sparks, DFL-Austin, and Rep. Jeanne Poppe, DFL-Austin, requested funds for 20 new labs.

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Supported by most state legislators, including Sen. David Senjem and Sen. Carla Nelson, both of Rochester, the $13.5 million bonding grant was match by the Hormel Foundation, which gave an additional $8 million in support of recruiting top faculty to fill the new labs and provide new cutting-edge technology, most notably an electron microscope that captures two-dimensional and three-dimensional images using cryo-electron microscopy.
With funding drying up, Rochester Public Schools' Integrated Science Education Outreach program, or InSciEd Out's program coordinators are asking the district for more money to fund the program before the next school year.

The program needs about $130,000 annually, in order to sustain programming for its 2,500 students. Advocates asked the school board to consider funding its continuation in early May, based on its strong results  they say research shows improvement in students' science achievement.

The program was not included in the district's proposed budget for the 2016-17 school year, which was presented to the school board on Tuesday . But the district resolved to look for a way to include it in next year's programming, following concerns raised Tuesday by the program's coordinators and school board members.

Cathy Nathan, director of the InSciEd Out Foundation , spoke during the school board's public comment period, asking the district to reconsider. District leaders said they will look at moving funds around to include the $130,000 request in the $211 million general fund budget for 2016-17.

"Through the review that we did, we demonstrated the measurable, significant, positive educational impact of InSciEd Out curriculum on student learning," Nathan said.

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"No other program in RPS has the connection that students can make to the Mayo Clinic scientists and physicians as early in their education as they can," she added. "We're able to expose students far earlier to that professional team that's unique to Rochester."

The program, which was "hatched" in 2009 at Lincoln K-8, uses Zebrafish as research specimen in a hands on science education partnership between researchers and teachers.

The program is in seven RPS schools, including Kellogg, Gage, Franklin, Montessori at Franklin, the ALC and the first school to work with the program  Lincoln K-8.

Mayo Clinic researchers have tracked effects of the program on students achievement since then. They say results show the hands-on curriculum shows clear evidence "of strong and sustained success in enhancing student achievement in Rochester Public Schools," according to their published findings.

It's increased science test scores compared with district and state averages. Students in the cohort scored well above the MCA science proficiency compared with those at the district and state level.

Up until this point, the program was funded through grants , which provided the district with enough funding to sustain the program. But after those expire at the end of this school year, the district will need to find another source to fund this. The grant will provide half of the funding through next year, so the InSciEd Out program supporters are asking the district to make up the other half.

About $3 million was invested through grants, mostly through Mayo Clinic, to create the infrastructure for the programming and to train staff, Nathan said. RPS covered about $30,000 for subs while teachers were out of their classrooms training and writing the curriculum and for supplies.

School board members Gary Smith and Julie Workman said because of the program's proven success, to let all of that because you can't find $130,000 in a $211 million budget.

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Smith called funding it a "no brainer" when you think about the amount of money in the bigger scheme of the budget.

Other school board members also voiced support for continuing to provide support for the program, especially since there is clear research to back up that it produces results.

"I would challenge the administration to demonstrate another program in the budget that's been evaluated like this and shown the kind of positive results," Nathan said.
WABASHA  Nine days ago, one of the two main sections of the old Interstate 90 bridge over the Mississippi River near Dresbach was slowly, delicately inched down to two barges waiting to move it to the side where it would be cut up.

A few media, two Minnesota Department of Transportation officials and one former iron worker watched the tedious lowering.

Flash back to Wabasha Jan. 3, 1990.

Thousands, including school children let out of school, stood on the banks of the river waiting for THE BIG SPLASH. On that day, the main trusses of the iconic, outdated, maddening yet beloved-by-some bridge were to be pulled down.

Similar to the Dresbach bridge, the Wabasha span had outlived its useful years.

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Unlike the Dresbach bridge, Wabasha's had character, style, a history and was more of a pain to drive. The bridge opened in 1931 and was considered a wonder.

Wonders do lose luster.

The biggest problem was two rather sharp 90-degree turns on the Minnesota side: one to lead down a long ramp and one to lead into the city where the National Eagle Center is now.

I drove that bridge many times, and on dark and rainy nights or when it was icy, it was white-knuckle time. Many a time I was relieved, nearly ecstatic, to ease down into Wabasha or make it over to the Nelson Dike road that connects the bridge to Wisconsin.

I shuddered to think how semitrailer drivers must have felt. They had inches to get it right, to wiggle those curves. It wasn't unusual for the bridge to be blocked for a long time when a semi got stuck and had to slowly nudge back and forth to make the curve.

Yet, that bridge was part of Wabasha's history, its image.

A few years before THE BIG SPLASH, a new one was built with the piers leading up to it built in place but the main span built off to the side. On Oct. 22, 1988, that part was slowly moved into place and lowered. It fit perfectly. After that, the old one was dismantled with the roadway taken away.

On Jan. 3, 1990, as thousands, including media in airplanes, watched, a large crane was attached and slowly began to pull down the span. We watched, not knowing when it would finally break and fall. We sort of were told the time but then, suddenly, it fell.

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I was talking with a friend who saw it begin to go. I turned and saw THE BIG SPLASH.

We had seen a part of history fall.

After that was only the tedious work of hauling out that span and knocking down the approaches.

The difference in how the dismantling was viewed, and by how many, has to do with the drama.

Dresbach was lowered slowly; Wabasha's went out with that huge splash.

But it also has to do with the character of the bridges. Those old truss bridges are more poetic, more photogenic; they had a certain personality. Concrete ones are more prosaic, practical, inspire no feelings.

In the end, though, the old bridges had to come down. Some pieces of history can and should be saved. Savings others is not worth the money or it's not practical.

Let's not lament their passing, at least not too much.

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Some other views of the fall of the Wabasha bridge:

 Dave Hall remembers this: "Pretty amazing how new one was built, imagine how the old was built. We used to walk upon the bridge on the span when semis crossed ... that bad boy would hop."

 Dave Wodele once drove heavy trucks across it and shed no tears when it was pulled down. "I'm glad that we got the new bridge."

He remembers splash-down day was cold and the toppling "was quite an awesome sight."

 Brian Fries got out of Wabasha-Kellogg High School for the great event. "I remember standing there for an hour or more waiting and waiting and waiting, then there was a small boom." He looked over and it was down. "It was kind of anticlimactic."

The old one would have made "an absolutely beautiful" walking/biking bridge, but it would have been expensive to maintain. And it made way for the National Eagle Center, he said.

 Mary Brelsford: "Every student in the public school and probably St. Felix walked or was bused to the bank downriver to witness it coming down."
The transportation future of the Rochester area almost certainly includes paradigm-shifting infrastructure improvements like light rail, fixed rail and multi-modal road and trail upgrades, but for now, local leaders are focused on small steps to set the stage for larger projects.

Laying between the large scale projects local leaders hope to accomplish and the short-term action items already underway are two obstacles: lengthy and complex planning efforts for Destination Medical Center transportation projects, and a lack of state funding due to the Minnesota Legislature's failure to pass a bonding bill this year.

Representatives of the city of Rochester, Olmsted County and DMC spoke during a transportation panel Wednesday at a Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce event. Asked what they would do with "a magic wand" to accomplish transit goals, the speakers agreed  Rochester and surrounding communities need to support and develop a transportation system with multiple modes of travel.

"A system that has worked very well over the last 100 years is going to evolve, and should evolve, to provide more options," Patrick Seeb, DMC Economic Development Agency direct of economic development and placemaking, said.

"I think really what I imagine is a multi-modal system that provides options; automobiles would certainly be a part of those options, but I think other systems will and should be a part of those options as well," Seeb said.

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City Public Works Department Director Richard Freese said his first wish would be for Rochester International Airport to develop a second terminal. Next, he would connect the airport terminals with fixed rail and light rail systems  fixed rail for connections to the Twin Cities and Chicago, and light rail for connections to downtown Rochester and surrounding communities.

"We must reduce the number of single-occupant vehicles making their way into downtown Rochester every day," Freese said.

The city, working as a part of the Rochester-Olmsted Council of Governments , has adopted a policy that aims to reduce the daily number of single-occupant vehicles traveling downtown from 70 percent to 50 percent by the year 2040. That goal would be supported by the development of road, trail and transit systems that encourage multiple modes of travel, he said.

Before the city and county  with the assistance of DMC, state and federal funds  can accomplish those goals, it has a list of needs to fulfill. As Seeb pointed out Wednesday, the many small improvements would add up to large change.

Olmsted County is underway on road improvements including a reconstruction of 55th Street Northwest and a reconstruction of the airport interchange on Highway 63, said Michael Sheehan, Olmsted County Public Works director. In the future, the county would support the area system by strategically improving and transferring ownership of certain county roads to the city in order to direct County State Aid Highway funding to county roads that need improvements.

That work was slowed by the lack of transportation funding and a bonding bill from state lawmakers this year. The county is increasingly placing the burden for road maintenance on local taxpayers while needed improvements sit idle, Sheehan said.

"In my opinion this was a huge disappointment," Sheehan said of the stalled bonding bill. "This was the year I felt we should have done something for infrastructure."

The legislature's inaction also dealt a heavy blow to Rochester International Airport. Airport leaders had requested $5 million in state bonding to fund necessary improvements to the airport's U.S. Customs facilities.

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The city of Rochester is also facing a roughly $20 million per year funding shortfall for its road improvements, Freese noted.

Some alternative transportation projects are gaining ground. The city this year will implement a bike sharing program through Nice Ride Minnesota . The program could put more people on bikes for recreation, travel and commuting, but more importantly, it could provide feedback on needed bicycle improvements to kick start multi-modal infrastructure work, Seeb said.

"We think we'll collect a lot of data about what people need and want in terms of bike infrastructure that will add to this multi-modal concept that we've been talking about," Seeb said.

Larger projects are slower to move ahead. The city in the next month will begin several studies that could later lead to DMC projects with state and federal assistance, Freese said.
Rochester's food shelf will be getting an extra hand from record-breaking numbers in food donations.

Letter carriers, patrons and Seneca Foods raised 85,176 pounds of food for Channel One during the 24th annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Letter carriers brought 43,866 pounds of food, and Seneca contributed 41,310 in honor of TJ and Preacher Palmby, former letter carriers.

The one-day food drive occurred on May 14 and is the largest food drive in the region. Stamp Out Hunger, a national food drive coordinated by the National Letter Carriers Association, partners letter carriers with local food shelves to help feed the hungry.

More than 23,000 children in the region no longer have access to school and lunch programs during the summer, and because of this, many food shelves see higher usages, but food donations decrease.

"The partnership between the letter carriers, Seneca Foods, the community and Channel One is truly remarkable," stated Jennifer Woodford, executive director of Channel One Regional Food Bank.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has started the implementation of information and telecommunication Visa system, which will facilitate visa procedures.

Ten foreign diplomatic establishments of Ukraine and the Operations Section of the Directorate General for Consular Service of Foreign Ministry at the international airport Boryspil are processing Ukrainian visas by means of this system, the Directorate General for Consular Service of Foreign Ministry of Ukraine informed on the official Facebook page on Thursday.

"This innovation is aimed at creating transparent and open conditions for visas processing, simplifying visa procedures and providing efficient control over visa issuance by Ukrainian consuls," the report says.

According to Embassies of Ukraine in Australia, Vietnam, Israel, Malaysia, Moldova, Poland, Russia, the United States, France and the Consulate General in Shanghai, foreigners already have the opportunity to register a visa application online and set the date for submission of documents to the diplomatic institution of Ukraine without having to wait in line.

"It has been planned to introduce a new registration system of Ukrainian visas in all diplomatic establishments of Ukraine abroad by the end of this year," the Directorate General for Consular Service of Foreign Ministry of Ukraine said.

The Foreign Ministry is finalizing amendments to visa laws of Ukraine which are aimed at creating the most favorable conditions for issuing visas to foreigners crossing Ukraine's border.
Two Ukrainian servicemen injured in Donbas in past 24 hours

The hostilities in Donbas led to the injury of two Ukrainian servicemen over the past day; attacks were observed in the Donetsk and Mariupol sectors, Ukrainian Presidential Administration spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk said.

"No Ukrainian servicemen was killed in the hostilities in the past 24 hours, but two suffered injuries," he told a press briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.

The servicemen were injured in Zaitseve and Troitske, Motuzianyk said.
The Ukrainian army positions in Donbas came under a number of shell attacks on Thursday, Kyiv said.

The enemy has opened fire against Ukrainian army positions 11 times since midnight, the headquarters of the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas wrote on its Facebook page on Thursday evening.

"The enemy fired large-caliber machineguns and automatic grenade launchers against our fortifications near Novotroitske. Later the adversary also used, in breach of the Minsk Agreements, 120-millimeter mortars during the attack," the statement said.

The defenders of Zaitseve and Pavlopil were shelled with 82-millimeter mortars, the headquarters said. The enemy attempted to hit a stronghold near Berezove using a tripod-mounted anti-tank gun, and the positions near Luhanske, using Infantry Fighting Vehicle weapons, Kyiv said.

There was increased enemy sniper activity near Stanytsia Luhanska, according to the statement.
The construction of the Belt and Road will be the best thing for peace and security, and, most importantly, for spreading prosperity and opportunity. It is now up to the West to respond and seize the moment.

File photo of a desert in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia autonomous region.(Photo/Chinadaily)

There are various names given to the project, which reflect the varied interests and history of this great area of the world. Silk Roads, New Silk Roads, Eurasian Economic Union, to name but three. But "Belt and Road" is the most significant today, because that is the basis for a plan from China which is the result of their scientific approach to this major economic transformation.

Scientific approach is the basis of all Chinas work and means that a well based idea is then subjected to normal scientific testing over a protracted period, which changes the idea and develops it into a tested plan before it is implemented.

I first saw the testing of this great idea in 1990 when Yunnan Government told me about the plans to build their border relations with several countries, their new transportation links and to work with other nations to protect and enhance the Mekong region.

That was a process replicated the entire length of Chinas borders to test and develop ways to build prosperity and stability into these 14 border areas.

China has been planning the Belt and Road, by my guess, for over 30 years. It was a part of the original thinking displayed in 1978 and well back before that. It was President Xi who oversaw the completion of the Belt and Road Plan, summed up the experiences and finalised the whole complete project. He gave the world the first view of it in later 2013 when visiting Kazakhstan. It is a hallmark of the breadth, the depth and the far sightedness of his leadership of China.

This long testing and development should give us great confidence in the soundness of this plan. It will last from 20-50 years or longer and one of the key determinants will be the response of the West.

If the West gets invested in this project we will get large rewards and growth of our own. China wants Western involvement, as we have many of the key advanced technologies and we have funding and various capabilities in finance and technology and management that this project will require.

AIIB shows that China wants the Western involvement and participation. It is not a small or cosmetic approach. AIIB has sought out Western shareholders and support for its internal capabilities. It has sought out alliances with major Western institutions such as the World Bank and ADB. It is forging a united front with the West in funding the Belt and Road. We hope other key Belt and Road funds will consider and take this path. As new financial centres open along the Silk Roads so we shall see their success marked by Western investment and participation. There will be several such financial centres which will grow, like Pudong in Shanghai, from the vacant lots.

But beyond that China knows that sharing opportunities with Western firms is key to achieving the highest levels of technological success and shared returns and, thereby, shared commitment to build and protect this great project.

Now is the time for major western companies to engage with those who will contract for the huge number of projects along the rail, road and sea lines. Bidding for contracts will be a consortia based approach and involve companies from different nations and funding models that will become new and different. This is a new enterprise and the structures and approaches, and funding will be new.

Now is the time for all the countries along the routes to be visited by western companies, for them to be developing consortia and ideas for original approaches.

This needs to be done in an organised way and so the phasing of contract announcements and stages of development is a key requirement of this period of five years. This Forum can help manage the exchange of information and needs that is apparent by developing papers on how to address this.

Western companies and finance needs to engage with the Belt and Road now. Not in two or three years time. And the Forum can help them find the right pathways.

Then as the infrastructure is being contracted and worked on, the Forum can be addressing the ways to build the modern cities and towns and businesses and agriculture and service industries that will spread all along the vast regions from the Pacific to the Atlantic and across South and East Asia.

The construction of the Belt and Roads, Eurasia and the New Silk Roads will be the best thing for peace and security, and, most importantly, for spreading prosperity and opportunity.

It is now up to the West to respond and seize the moment.

Stephen Perry is Chairman of the 48 Group Club, an independent British business network committed to promoting links with China. The article is authorized to People's Daily Online by the author who will deliver this speech on a forum in Warsaw, capital of Poland on June 20.
Over 1,790 Chinese children have suffered from sexual assault in over 960 cases between 2013 and 2015, a latest report showed, arousing a renewed warning regarding protecting children from sexual abuse in China.

According to data from the China Foundation of Culture and Arts for Children, which set up a special fund for girls protection, cases where one individual was sexually assaulted numerous children have climbed to 28 percent in 2015 from 15.51 percent in 2014, the Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.

Not only girls are being affected, boys are also being affected. Of the 340 reported cases in 2015, some 20 cases involved sexual assault against boys and over 60 boys were affected, the foundation data said.

Of the 503 reported cases in 2014, some 442 were made by the victims acquaintances, while that percentage in 2015 was about 70 percent while many were also conducted by teachers. Some 29 assault cases were conducted by the victims family members, the data added.

Wang Dawei, a professor at the Chinese People's Public Security University, said only one out of seven sexual assault cases, especially those against primary or high school students, could be brought to light  indicating many more children who kept their mouth shut in the face of the assaults, according to Xinhua.

Specifically, victims in rural areas tend to remain more silent than their urban counterparts. In a 2014 report made by the girl protection fund, the number of underage victims from cities reported was 409, while only 171 victims were counted in rural areas.

It often ends up being the childs fault when it comes to sexual assault The victims chose not to speak up for fear that the society or even their family will criticize them, Beijing-based lawyer Li Ying who has handled over a dozen or so similar cases told Xinhua.

Furthermore, a lack of supervision from school, inadequate sexual education and loopholes in a legal system that imposes no harsh punishment on violators also adds to the problem, Xinhua noted.

In a case where a kindergarten headmaster raped a young girl in northeast Chinas Jilin province in 2015, the victims family only received 1,098 yuan ($166.8) for treatment and the local court ruled against furthermore compensation for psychological treatment, according to Xinhua.
KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 -- The Belt and Road Initiative has the potential to facilitate massive infrastructure development across Southeast Asia, experts and policy makers said here on Thursday.

The initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was among the topics discussed on the regional economic architectures during the World Economic Forum on ASEAN, the political and economic organization of 10 Southeast Asian nations.

George Yeo, a visiting scholar at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of National University of Singapore, said China's infrastructure is much better developed than its neighbors, like "water pressure is building up and is just waiting to spill on to its neighbors."

"China will be integrating its neighbors into ever-widening circles because of the sheer size and dynamism of its economy," said the Singapore former foreign minister.

Apiradi Tantraporn, Thailand's commerce minister, said her country is building up connectivity not only within ASEAN but with other neighbors, including the route starting from Singapore to Laos and China's southwestern Yunnan province through Thailand, which is part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

For his part, Mustapa Mohamed, Malaysia's International Trade and Industry Minister pointed out that it was an important point for both countries when Malaysia became the first ASEAN member to establish diplomatic ties with China in 1974.

Malaysia has seen increasing investment from China in recent years on the basis of strong trade relations, he said.

In 2015, China remains Malaysia's largest trading partner for the 7th consecutive year, and Malaysia remains China's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia. Non-financial investment by Chinese companies in Malaysia recorded an impressing 237-percent increase to 410 million U.S. dollars in 2015, according to China's statistics.
Sen. Jeremy Miller has disappointed his district and constituents once again.

According to Jeremy Miller, family members do not deserve time off to care for sick family members. Miller voted against the paid family leave measure, which would have given families precious time off to take care of those near and dear to them.

Jeremy Miller does not get it  families, not politics, deserve the time and attention we can best give them in their time of need  by having paid family leave.

His disappointing voting record keeps racking up poor decisions one after another. Let's put families first by supporting change for those who respect paid family leave, not political power.

It is indeed time for change.

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Berta Aug

Preston
I've recently listened to an audio book about Winston Churchill. Churchill suffered debacle after debacle in World War I, along with some success, and was as hard to get along with as many have said of Ted Cruz.

People said they could never vote for Churchill, who had at least as much baggage, if not more, than our two presidential candidates. The office of prime minister was first offered to an appeaser, Lord Halifax, who turned it down weeks before it was offered to Churchill.

Later, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini offered to mediate between England and Adolf Hitler while Germany was overrunning France. Churchill's staff, along with Halifax and former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, wanted to negotiate. Halifax and Chamberlain were more revered than Churchill, so the cabinet and public opinion leaned toward appeasement. Churchill refused, giving a rousing speech to turn the tide.

Take Churchill out of the picture, and imagine the result. Without him, England probably would have survived as a vassal state of a Nazi Europe. Germany probably would have conquered Russia. America probably would have stayed out of the war and could never have successfully invaded Europe without England as a staging area. Who knows who would have built the atomic bomb first?

America probably will survive the next administration, no matter who wins, but it really does matter who wins.

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Dave Forman

Austin
While the media focus on the battle to drive ISIS from the Iraqi city of Fallujah, the most critical drive to crush the caliphate is happening in Syria. Right now.

Helped by U.S. special forces, Syrian Kurds and Sunni tribal fighters are laying the groundwork for retaking the caliphate's capital in Raqqa. I was in northern Syria in March and talked to Syrian Kurdish leaders about these efforts, which are heating up north of the city.

This week, I heard the latest details from Saleh Muslim, a top political leader of the Syrian Kurds. He spoke by phone from Kobani, a city that Kurdish fighters retook from ISIS in early 2015 after an epic battle supported by U.S. airpower. He stressed how important are the efforts of the 300 U.S. special forces and what still must be done to ensure that Raqqa falls.

"Now the fighting is only for north Raqqa," says Muslim, a burly man with a large mustache. "That means laying siege to the city and cutting the supply lines. There are a lot of mines, so it means going patiently, not so quickly. I don't know if it will be soon."

The key to the timing will be how many Sunni Arabs can be persuaded to join Kurdish fighters in the effort, in an umbrella group called the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF  a joint Arab-Kurdish force that is still heavily Kurdish.

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The Arab fighters are vital because Raqqa's population is heavily Sunni Arab and might resist being liberated by Kurdish fighters. "We (Kurds) don't want to show ourselves as occupiers, we want to depend on local forces," said Muslim. The locals will be needed both as fighters and as administrators of the city after ISIS is defeated.

"Recently, we've heard a lot of Arabs have joined, so maybe there are enough for north Raqqa," he added. But there aren't yet enough Sunni Arab fighters in the SDF for the taking of Raqqa, he told me bluntly.

Here is where U.S. policy and the role of the special forces become key.

Let me first explain why the battle for Raqqa is so vital, and why U.S. policy toward the Syrian Kurds must be clarified in order to crush the jihadi base.

Although ISIS is being pushed back in Iraq, Iraqi forces are still a long, long way from being able to retake Mosul, ISIS's other major stronghold in northern Iraq, which is much larger than Raqqa. Sectarian conflicts inside Iraq, exacerbated by neighboring Iran, are far deeper than in Syria, and make defeating ISIS more difficult.

So the liberation of Mosul won't happen soon, certainly not in 2016. Meantime, it is possible to imagine how Raqqa could fall much sooner, with a cataclysmic impact on ISIS. That's because Raqqa is the theological capital of the caliphate, where its leadership is based, along with the bulk of foreign fighters; its demise would deal a crippling blow to the ISIS story line of building a transnational Islamic state.

But first, as Muslim noted, more Sunni fighters are needed.

I asked whether the Syrian Kurds would want Raqqa to be part of their self-declared federal state of Rojava. This would probably be hard for Sunni Arabs to swallow.

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"The people of Raqqa should decide," Muslim told me in a previous interview. "We are not trying to make them part of our federal state." He said that the city and surrounding villages should elect local councils that would make that decision.

However, he added that the Kurds would require local councils "that are not enemies of the Kurds and would not produce a new ISIS. Only then would we feel safe."

Skeptics note that there have been reports of revenge against Sunni Arab villages retaken from ISIS by Syrian Kurds. Muslim claims these stories were spread by ISIS supporters who fled to Turkey. He insists that Syrian Kurds don't have the same bitter feelings toward Sunni Arabs as Iraqi Kurds, who recall the genocidal Anfal campaign against them by Saddam Hussein.

"We never had an Anfal," Muslim said.

The bottom line: The battle for Raqqa has far better potential for success than the battle for Mosul  if U.S. special forces can help organize more Sunni fighters and ease the way for a post-ISIS transition. The recent surprise visit to northern Syria by the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, to meet with the SDF indicates that the U.S. military understands this.

But before any assault on Raqqa, the Obama administration would need to clarify its policy toward the Kurds of Syria, which has been hampered by fear of angering Turkey. Engaged in civil war with its own Kurdish rebels, Ankara tries to undercut help for Syrian Kurds, even for a Raqqa offensive.

Only if Syrian Kurds, and their Arab partners, are clearly convinced that Washington is serious about retaking Raqqa can this campaign succeed.

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Maya Dillard Smith, interim director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, has resigned over the ACLUs position on who can use which public restrooms. The resignation occurred after her two daughters were traumatized by encountering men in the womens restroom. Dillard Smith explained:

I have shared my personal experience of having taken my elementary school age daughters into a womens restroom when shortly after three transgender young adults, over six feet [tall] with deep voices, entered. My children were visibly frightened, concerned about their safety and left asking lots of questions for which I, like many parents, was ill-prepared to answer.

Dillard Smith complained that the ACLU has become a special interest organization that promotes not all, but certain progressive rights and that the hierarchy of rights the ACLU chooses to defend or ignore is based on who is funding the organizations lobbying activities. Further expressing her disillusionment, Dillard Smith stated:

I understood it to be the ACLUs goal to delicately balance competing rights to ensure that any infringements are narrowly tailored, that they do not create a hierarchy of rights, and that we are mindful of unintended consequences. I believe there are solutions that can provide accommodations for transgender people and balance the need to ensure women and girls are safe from those who might have malicious intent.

Unfortunately, as she has learned, Dillard Smiths view of the ACLU bears little relation to reality. The ACLUs goal  like that of the LGBT movement  is to shove a radical agenda down the throats of the American people, not to balance rights and find reasonable accommodations.

A transgender activist  a biological male who goes by the name Cheryl Courtney-Evans  responded to Dillard Smiths resignation by calling her lazy, ill-educated, and a bch who needs to sit down and STFU. No one who has seen LGBT activists in action will be surprised by this charming response.

Actually, Dillard Smith is well educated. She earned a degree in economics from Berkeley and a masters degree at Harvard.

Shes also a liberal Democrat. And until she resigned, she was one of the youngest ACLU directors in the nation and one of only three African-Americans employed by the ACLU in that role.

These days, one hears intelligent people assert that the culture war is over. It isnt, and wont be soon, because the left will keep looking for new cultural battlegrounds. Today, public restrooms; tomorrow, the world.
Stanley Kurtz reports that California is on the verge of approving a new and sharply leftist K-12 curriculum framework for history and social sciences. The move, he adds, has national implications, since textbooks retooled to fit Californias changing history frameworks are often used much more widely.

Stanley describes the new California curriculum this way :

On immigration, it is anti-assimilationist; on family and sexuality, it is radically anti-traditionalist; on terrorism, it tends to blame America first; on the 1960s, it highlights and implicitly lauds the most radical black, brown, red, and yellow power movements; on politics, it paints a halo over progressives while perpetrating a hit job on conservatives; on economics, it elevates Keynesian liberalism and ignores everything else; on military history, it is silent or slyly antagonistic; on contemporary politics, it reads like an anti-globalization protest pamphlet.

Stanley provides specifics to back up his description. Here are some of them.

On assimilation:

Instead of simply presenting the across-the-board political and cultural consensus of the Progressive Era in favor of assimilation, the authors of the framework feel it necessary to insist that the ideal of immigrant assimilation is no longer appropriate, and was probably based on some combination of bigotry and selfishness when it flourished.

On sex and sexuality:

Treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) sexualityand of sexuality in generalis a novel addition to Californias history curriculum. No other 11th grade theme receives more coverage, as the framework goes well beyond an account of the post-sixties gay-rights movement. Students also learn about Boston marriages during the Progressive Era (marriage-like relationships between two women, often but not always asexual), drag balls during the Harlem Renaissance, and the like. The subtext is decidedly liberationist, with a constant implication that traditional morality and family structures are oppressive and outdated. Sometimes the bias is pronounced, as in the section on the AIDS epidemic, where the framework bemoans AIDS hysteria and the consequent regrettable retreat from sexual liberation movements. No balancing material is offered.

On terrorism:

The advent of Islamist terrorism gets virtually no substantive treatment in this supposedly updated 11th grade curriculum, although it is mentioned several times in passing. For example, although we learn that the attacks of September 11, 2001 prompted increased immigration enforcement at the Mexican border, we learn nothing of substance about the greatest foreign attack on American soil, or its aftermath.

On Iran:

The section on the Cold War broadly hints that CIA involvement in the overthrow of the Mossadegh government of Iran in 1953 was responsible for the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and for the rise of contemporary Islamism in the Middle East as well. This way of looking at the American role in the Iranian coup of 1953 remains highly contested, while the leftist theory that Islamic radicalism is nothing but blowback from Americas actions in the Middle East is even more problematic and controversial. So the new 11th grade framework features a thoroughly biased and one-sided treatment of the central foreign policy challenge of our time.

On World War II:

The account skips lightly over American victories, concentrating instead on the loss of Bataan, one of the most grievous defeats in American military history. Somehow the new framework has contrived to teach World War II, Americas greatest military victory, in such a way as to have students concentrate on Americas most grievous military defeat.

On Democrats and Republicans:

The 11th grade history framework lavishes attention on progressives and Democratic presidents, recounting the expansion of the federal government in the most sympathetic terms. By contrast, Republican presidents are either ignored or painted in a bad light. Students are never offered a coherent explanation of what conservatives believe.

The proposed curriculum isnt a done deal. The California State Board of Education meets on July 13 of this year to consider final approval.

But it may be too late to stop this train. If so  if the changes cannot be stopped  Stanley warns that states, school districts, and parents who prefer a more fair and traditional approach to American history will need to redouble their efforts to monitor textbook adoption. Textbooks compatible with the new California curriculum should be systematically avoided.

Stanley concludes:
The prosecution and defense made their closing arguments to the jury on Tuesday and Wednesday. Judge Davis instructed the jury and submitted the case to them with separate verdict forms for each of the three defendants. The charges include a total of ten counts. I would guess the jury will until the middle of next week.

The Star Tribunes Stephen Montemayor gives relatively straightforward accounts of the closings here (May 31) and here. I want to note themes and provide a few other stray observations here in lieu of recapitulating the evidence that the parties reviewed with the jury.

Before he sent the jury off to deliberate yesterday afternoon, Judge Davis designated three jurors of the fifteen who heard the case to serve as alternates. He explained that they had been randomly selected as alternates by computer. Based on my own admittedly speculative and uncertain reading of body language during the trial, I had picked them as three of the four most attentive and pro-prosecution jurors.

This is a conspiracy case. The government charges defendants with conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS (a designated foreign terrorist organization) by seeking to join the group. It also charges them with conspiracy to commit murder overseas by joining ISIS. Other charges include perjury before the grand jury, false statements to the FBI, and attempted federal financial aid fraud. (One of the defendants sought to finance his trip to Syria at taxpayers expense.)

Does the evidence prove the defendants guilty of the offenses charged beyond a reasonable doubt? That is the question the attorneys addressed in their closing arguments.

Judge Davis gave each party three hours for argument. Defendants took short of two hours each. The government took nearly the full three hours including rebuttal.

Three co-conspirators testified against defendants at trial. Two had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support and agreed to cooperate with the government. The third went to work for the FBI as an informant and covertly recorded the defendants talking among themselves and with other co-conspirators who have pleaded guilty. He has not been charged. His recordings run from February through the arrests in April 2015, at the end of the road in San Diego. They are the central piece of evidence in a case full of evidence. They are devastating.

In criminal cases the government goes first and last at closing arguments. Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Winter had made the opening statement on behalf of the government. AUSA John Docherty made the closing argument but yielded to Assistant United States Attorney Julie Allyn for rebuttal. I dont think thats good trial practice, but the prosecution split up their case among Winter, Docherty, and Allyn throughout the trial.

Docherty opened with the proposition that the case demonstrated exceptionally persistent efforts to fight for the exceptionally violent group ISIS in Syria. Docherty asserted that the evidence had proved defendants guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and methodically summarized the evidence in support of the proposition. He did not discuss or explain the burden of proof that the government bears in the case. I dont understand thats good trial practice either.

The evidence certainly supports the argument that defendants made three efforts to depart Minnesota for Syria and ISIS, beginning in the spring of 2014, continuing the following November and ending with their arrests a year later. Docherty discussed the three phases of the defendants efforts to depart Minnesota. Conspiring to volunteer their personal services to ISIS is the material support with which they are charged.

Without going into the details, I will only say that the heart of the governments case is the recordings made by co-conspirator turned informant Abdhirahman Bashir. We heard hours of them during the trial and Docherty effectively replayed highlights during his closing. Bashir made the recordings during phase 3 of the conspiracy, when defendants sought to make their way to Syria via San Diego and Mexico with the use of fake passports. If I can refer to the recordings as a witness, they were the star of the trial.

The fake passports were provided to defendants Mohamed Farah and Abdirahman Daud in San Diego by Miguel in conjunction with an FBI team that made the arrests in San Diego. Defendant Guled Omar elected to stay behind and was arrested in Minneapolis.

The recordings also include discussions of the defendants efforts to make it to Syria during in the spring and fall of 2014. They document the defendants ardent desire to leave the United States and join the jihad with ISIS. As much as they wanted to wage jihad, they wanted to die in the act.

Its the Islam, stupid. Islam permeates the case.

Among the conspirators the use of federal financial aid to finance travel was preferred when available. Defendant Guled Omar resorted to it. So did convicted co-conspirator Hamsa Ahmed.

Docherty occasionally referred to the JFK Four. That is a moniker that should stick. The JFK Four refers to defendant Mohamed Farah and three other Minnesota men who have already pleaded guilty in the case. They took a Greyhound bus to New York City to try to fly out of JFK in November 2014. There they were stopped by the FBI. Farah accused the FBI agents of profiling him because he is Muslim. According to Farah, he was just heading off on a vacation alone to sunny Sofia, Bulgaria.

I could go on, but lets turn to the defense. Defense counsel Murad Mohammad went first, on behalf of Mohamad Farah. Mohammad gave a very bad closing. His theme seemed to be that Farah only wanted martyrdom consistent with Islam, not that theres anything wrong with that. Except that you get martyrdom waging jihad. As I mentioned before, its the Islam.

Another of Mohammads themes was the youth of the defendants and their co-conspirators. He referred to them as these kids. Unfortunately, there is no evidence of a minimum age for jihad.

Mohammad argued that Farah was entrapped. Without the FBI these kids would never have gone anywhere, he said. That was in Phase 3, when Farah was ancy yet again to escape the United States and join the jihad in Syria. And his predisposition to join the jihad negates entrapment.

Defense counsel Bruce Nestor went next, on behalf of defendant Abdirahman Daud. Nestor is an excellent attorney working with a tough case. He capably reviewed the jury instructions and the witnesses, seeking to make the point that the incriminating recordings just represented words rather than guilty acts.

Nestor attacked the credibility of the co-conspirators who pleaded guilty and testified at trial as well as the co-conspirator turned informant who made the recordings. Nestor disparaged the informant as a paid true believer.

Nestor fabricated the hypothesis that the informant failed to record exculpatory parts of conversations. When I say fabricated, I mean conjured out of thin air. Regardless of the informants credibility, the recordings stand with Dauds incriminating (offensive, as Nestor conceded) words. They are one tough nut to crack.

Nestor made one point which I have made here in the same words I used. He claimed that Daud got into something  I dont think he said exactly what  way over his head. With Daud and his family and friends, however, we are in further over our head than he is.

Defense counsel Glenn Bruder went last before the governments rebuttal, on behalf of Guled Omar. Omar is the one defendant who testified on his own behalf at trial. I would say he cooked his own goose in terms of his defense. He thought he could talk his way out of the mess hes in, or that it was worth a shot, but I dont think it turned out that way. He couldnt quite talk his way out of the recordings. Bruder too argued  based on precisely no evidence  that the informant had recorded conversations selectively and that Omars guilty words were merely boasting and bragging.

Omar is charged with attempted financial aid fraud. He is a resourceful young man who has wasted talent and opportunities. He is also the guy whom ISIS commissioned to kill 16 American pilots and family here in the United States  another fact we know because of the recordings.

Toward the end of his argument Bruder sought to defuse the ire an average American would feel on hearing the evidence. Omar is not like us, he conceded, he comes from a different culture and practices a different religion.

Gee, thanks for the explanation. It makes you wonder what we were thinking when we brought him and his disabled father and prolific mother and his many brothers and sisters into the United States and set up housekeeping for them. We must have been out of our minds.

Bruder concluded with the story of his visit on vacation to Old Bailey in London a while back. He discussed the plaque on display in Old Bailey paying tribute to the jury that refused to convict the Quaker William Penn. (Bruder didnt explain that the jurys refusal to convict Penn is a landmark in the history of jury nullification, or refusal to follow the law.) Bruder said he was confident that he had done his job as counsel and asked the jury to do its job like Penns jury.

Bruder unsubtly sought to invite the jury to demonstrate its freedom from prejudice by returning a verdict of not guilty. The possible differences between the case against the Quaker William Penn and the aspiring jihadist Guled Omar were of course left unstated, but Bruders story got me  it got me thinking and laughing and seething, all at the same time.

Following the rebuttal by Julie Allyn, Judge Davis read a complicated set of instructions to the jury and sent them off to begin their deliberations with a verdict form for each defendant. The jury should return with its verdicts next week.
The State Department acknowledged today that an archived video of a December 2, 2013 press briefing was intentionally edited to remove a portion of a conversation about the Iran nuclear talks. Previously, the Department had tried to blame the removal on a glitch.

The deleted segment of the briefing featured Fox News reporter James Rosen asking then-State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki whether the Obama administration had lied about having secret talks with Iran in 2011. Psaki essentially admitted that it had.

Rosen inquired, Is it the policy of the State Department, where the preservation or the secrecy of secret negotiations is concerned, to lie in order to achieve that goal? Psaki responded, James, I think there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.

The start date of the Iran nuclear negotiations is back in the spotlight because of a New York Times Magazine piece in which Ben Rhodes admitted that the Obama administration largely manufactured a narrative for the Iran deal in order to garner support for it. A key element of the manufactured narrative was that negotiations began in 2013 with the election of a moderate Iranian president.

It looks like the State Department tried, by editing the video, to cover up the administrations lie about when Iran negotiations commenced (together with the admission that it is willing to lie), and then lied again by claiming that the cover up was the product of a glitch.

Who requested the scrubbing? The State Department claims not to know. It says that officials tried to determine who ordered the edit, but it was three years ago and the individual who took the call [to edit the tape] just simply doesnt have a better memory of it.

Jen Psaki, who made the admission that needed to be deleted, is an obvious suspect. She denies responsibility.

Will the State Department launch an investigation? No, it will not. Current spokesperson John Kirby says:

There were no rules governing this sort of action in the past, so I find no reason to press forward with a more formal or deeper investigation. What matters to me  and I take it seriously  is our commitment to transparency and disclosure.

The Obama State Department just cant stop lying.

NOTE: This post has been revised. I eliminated a paragraph that evinced confusion over the time line of relevant events.
(File photo)

The Chinese military has sent a team to visit Chinese soldiers of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali's Gao region.

The team will focus on the treatment of those injured in Tuesday's terrorist attack which targeted UN peacekeepers in Gao, North Mali, and coordinate with the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission and the Malian government to ensure the safety of peacekeepers there.

The Chinese military says it will continue supporting UN peacekeeping missions, and fight against all kinds of terrorism and safeguard world peace.
The Trade Union Congress (TUC), says it has set up one billion dollar Economic Development Fund for the actualisation of its Economic Development Plan.

The president of TUC, Bobboi Kaigama, stated this at the TUCs 10th Triennial National Delegates Conference in Abuja on Thursday.

Mr. Kaigama said the fund would provide additional income streams for its members and affiliates and also provide loans for those still in service, and after service.

This fund will be used to make strategic investments into the different sectors of the economy.

Part of this fund will be set aside to provide loans and the required technical assistance for our members to set up and run bankable businesses when they retire from service.

Through this plan, the TUC will mobilise resources from its members, affiliates, partners and other investors to invest in a number critical assets across different sectors of the economy.

By so doing, TUC and its members can take advantage of the existing investment opportunities in lucrative areas of financial services, power, housing, agriculture, oil and gas, infrastructure, among others.

He said TUC and its members will be given the opportunity to invest into and benefit from the various businesses by subscribing to the TUC Development Fund.

From June, each member will be given an opportunity to invest at least N50, 000 into this fund.

There is an incredible interest in this fund already but our members and their families will be given priority to invest.

I encourage each of you to get members of your family to be part of this dream by investing in this fund.

By making this decision, we will be changing the lives and guaranteeing our future and that of our families.

He said unions had waited helplessly for decades as major government organisations had been bought by private individuals through privatisation and in turn decided the fate and future of workers.

He said by the establishment of the fund, TUC would have the numerical strength, collective bargaining power and economic might to its full advantage.

Mr. Kaigama said TUC would no longer be a spectator but rather an investor in the economy.

We must join hands with government and other citizens to build a country that is devoid of injustice.

We must create and ensure job security, fund education, refrain from money laundering and corrupt practices and recognise market men/women and peasants, among others.

We believe that through this innovation, we shall see a Nigeria where productive enterprise flourishes in an atmosphere of mutual benefit, industrial harmony and cohesion between the government, private employers and labour.

The theme of the conference is: Labour and National Re-orientation: The Change We Want.

(NAN)
An indigenous Nigerian energy firm, Ofserv Nigeria Limited, has sued Weatherford International and its Nigerian affiliate, Weatherford Nigeria Limited, for alleged breach of trust and abuse of the provisions of the Nigerian Content law.

In its statement of claims filed before the Federal High Court, Lagos, and made available to PREMIUM TIMES, Ofserv claimed Weatherford manipulated the Nigerian content law with a view to gaining illegal entrance into the Nigerian oil drilling services market.

Chief Executive of Ofserv, Dimeji Bassir, accused Weatherford of luring his company into a joint business partnership to provide oil drilling services in the Nigerian oil industry when it knew it was not committed to the terms of the agreement.

Joined in the suit are President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the agency that monitors compliance with local content policy in the oil and gas industry.

Mr. Bassir said based on the requirements of the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010, Ofserv had approached Weatherford in December 2014 to set up partnership to pursue a technical tender for drilling services contract with Shell Nigeria.

Section 2 of the Act requires exclusive consideration for Nigerian indigenous service firms with demonstrable technical capacity to bid for drilling services on land and swamp areas or in partnership to jointly exploit the Nigerian drilling services market.

Encouraged by the Nigerian Content policy to increase indigenous participation in the oil and gas industry, Mr. Bassir said Ofserv had invested significant resources between December 2014 and June 2015 to facilitate the success of the partnership with Weatherford and its smooth entrance into the Nigerian drilling services market.

Based on the memoranda of understanding with Weatherford, Mr. Bassir said Ofserv had invested a about $24million of private resources in the development of in-country capacity by acquiring key equipment, attracting and training quality local personnel to operate them.

As a result of the supposed partnership, Mr. Bassir said Ofserv spent another $6million on proprietary drilling market research data and pricing intelligence handed over to Weatherford.

He said the company was shocked to find out later that Weatherfords real intention was to exploit Ofservs capacity and use its proprietary data cheaply to gain entry into the Nigerian drilling services market and evade the NOGICB Act.

Mr. Bassir said Weatherford had relied on Ofservs proprietary data, market intelligence and local presence to bid for and get a contract award from Sterling Oil Exploration and Energy Development Company Limited in defiance of agreed partnership structure.

Rather than a true partnership as agreed in the execution of the contract, Mr. Bassir said Weatherford merely mentioned Ofserv as a commission agent, without any opportunity for it to use its tools or personnel to execute it in a joint scope.

Any attempt to exclude Ofserv from substantive participation in any area of the Nigerian oil and gas industry exclusively reserved for indigenous-owned and controlled companies are in substantial violation of the Nigerian Content law, Mr. Bassir told PREMIUM TIMES.

Apart from compensation for $32.1million as damages for lost work/profit and other costs from Weatherford, Ofserv asked the court to declare Weatherfords entry into the Nigerian drilling market a violation of the NOGICB Act.

Besides, the company asked the court to disqualify Weatherford from bidding for, or participating in any further contracts in Nigeria, while the Minister of Petroleum Resources and NCDMB should be restrained from approving any Nigerian Content partner for the company.

When contacted, Country Manager, Weatherford Nigeria, Femi Akarakiri, acknowledged the existence of a dispute with Ofserv, but expressed surprise that Mr. Bassir has rejected overtures for a peaceful resolution and chosen to embark on campaign of calumny in the media.

We truly have a dispute, Mr. Akarakiri told PREMIUM TIMES on telephone on Wednesday. I have reached out to him (Bassir) for amicable resolution, because there appears to be a bit of misunderstanding about the agreement we had together.

He (Bassir) claims he introduced Weatherford to Nigeria, but this is a company that has been in Nigeria since 1975. Unfortunately thats the limit I can discuss with you on the matter. In any relationship, there is bound to be misunderstanding and people sit down to resolve it.

But, the next thing I heard was that he (Bassir) went to court, and I said fine, let the judge decide for us to see whether he even has the basis to sue us. So, we said lets have our day in court and enjoy ourselves.

The NCDMB spokesperson, Obinna Ezeigbo, asked for some time for appropriate officials in the agency to react to the claims in the documents.
Somali authorities on Thursday said the security forces have brought to an end a bomb and gun attack by militants on a central Mogadishu hotel that killed at least 16 people and wounded 55.

Maj Nur Mohamed, Police Officer, said so far 16 people mostly civilians, have been confirmed dead and 55 others injured.

He said two lawmakers were among the dead in the attack which ended with police shooting the assailants.

Islamist militant group al Shabaab, affiliated with al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for Wednesdays attack on Hotel Ambassador.

Another police officer, Maj. Farah Ali, said the hotel was now secure after the entire building was cleared of militants.

He said the national security forces are in every floor, while the last fighter on the top roof was shot.

A witness said on condition of anonymity that he saw the last fighter shot dead, his body falling to the ground from the buildings fifth floor.

He said eight dead people lay in front of the hotel.

Al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM in 2011.

But it has remained a potent threat in Somalia, launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the Western-backed government.

The group has also been behind deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda. Both contribute troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.

Abdiasis Musab, al Shabaabs Military Operations Spokesman, said they had lost three fighters during the hotel attack and killed 30 people.

He said one of the three dead fighters drove the car that rammed the hotel while the others stormed the hotel.

Musab said further that killing of 30 apostates including MPs and soldiers during the operation by al Shabaabs was victorious as planned.

He added that they had injured 60 during the assault.

The building was extensively damaged during the attack and government forces had blocked off all the main roads near the scene. (Reuters/NAN)
The planned trip of President Muhammadu Buhari to Rivers State to launch the cleanup of Ogoni land, polluted by years of oil exploration and production, has been cancelled.

Multiple sources at the presidential villa told PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday that the president had not left the State House for the trip.

Femi Adesina will issue a statement shortly, a source who declined to be identified because he was not permitted to talk to the media, said, referring to one of the presidents spokespersons.

The clean up of the heavily polluted Ogoni land was recommended by the United Nation Environmental Programme, UNEP, in its report in 2011.

Another Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, said he could not comment on the development.

The presidents special adviser on media and publicity, Mr. Adesina, could not be immediately reached. His telephone was switched off the multiple times our reporters called.

Two insiders at the State House suggested Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will represent Mr. Buhari at the event. But even that could not immediately be confirmed.

Laolu Akande, the spokesperson to Mr. Osinbajo could not be reached for comments. His known telephone line failed to connect the several times our reporter called.

The presidents cancelled the event even when his advanced team had already arrived Ogoni.

It is the second time in less than two weeks that Mr. Buhari would cancel a scheduled event outside Abuja.

On the night of May 22, the President suspended his scheduled official visit to Lagos State fixed for the morning of Monday, May 23, citing scheduling difficulties as reason.

Mr. Osinbajo was then detailed to proceed to the nations commercial capital to represent Mr. Buhari at the planned presidential working visit.

More to come
A one-time group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mohammed Barkindo, was on Thursday appointed the secretary-general of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Mr. Barkindos appointment was announced in Vienna, Austria after the 169th meeting of the group.

He is succeeding the Libyan Minister of Oil, Abdalla El-Badri, whose tenure comes to an end in July.

Mr, El-Badri was elected acting secretary-general of the group in December 2015.

But ahead of the expiration of Mr. El-Badris tenure, speculations became rife that Mr. Barkindo would be appointed as his successor.

Until the meeting on Thursday, OPEC members failed to reach a consensus on who should be handed the office.

In 2006, Mr. Barkindo, who was at the helm of affairs at the NNPC between 2009 and 2010, was nominated by the federal government to vie for the position.

He had previously occupied the position acting capacity while representing Nigeria in the organisation.

Mr. Barkindo is expected to assume office in July, and he will be in charge for three years.

The 13-country group did not reach a decision on limiting its oil output.

Below is the communique of the meeting where Mr. Barkindo was appointed.

The 169th Meeting of the Conference of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was held in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday, 2nd June 2016, under the Chairmanship of its President, HE Dr. Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Minister of Energy and Industry of the State of Qatar and Head of its Delegation. The Conference congratulated HE Khalid A. Al-Falih on his appointment as Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The Conference also paid a special tribute to HE Ali I. Naimi of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for his outstanding contribution to OPEC. HE Naimis dedication and commitment to the work of the Organization over the past two decades have left a lasting impression on OPECs history. Furthermore, the Conference expressed its appreciation to HE Wilson Pastor-Morris, Ecuadors OPEC Governor and the countrys Ambassador to Austria, who was representing his country as its Head of Delegation. The Conference also extended its deepest condolences to the Government and people of the Republic of Ecuador for the tragic losses they suffered following the devastating earthquake that struck the country on April 16th. The Conference also welcomed HE Fayadh Hassan Nima, Senior Deputy of Iraqs Minister of Oil, who was representing his country as its Head of Delegation, and HE Mossa Elkony, Vice President of The Presidency Council of The Government of National Accord of Libya, who was present as his countrys Head of Delegation. The Conference considered Gabons request to rejoin the Organization, and decided to approve its admission with effect from 1st July 2016. The Conference studied the Secretary Generals report, as well as the report of the Economic Commission Board and various administrative matters. The Conference welcomed the Paris Agreement taken at the COP21 meeting in December last year. It stressed that the challenges related to the environment and climate change are a concern for us all. Member Countries are committed to supporting sustainable development and recognize the importance of continually looking to advance the environmental credentials of oil, both in production and use. Having reviewed the oil market outlook for 2016, the Conference observed that non-OPEC supply, in response to market dynamics, peaked during 2015 and started declining, with supply expected to further decline by 740,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2016. Today, crude oil alone is lower by more than 1 million b/d from its peak at the beginning of 2015. Global demand is anticipated to expand by 1.2 mb/d after growing at 1.5 mb/d during 2015. This demand growth remains relatively healthy considering recent economic challenges and developments. The Conference observed that, since its last meeting in December 2015, crude oil prices have risen by more than 80%, supply and demand is converging and oil and product stock levels in the OECD have recently shown relative moderation. This is testament to the fact that the market is moving through the balancing process. The latest numbers, however, still show OECD and non-OECD inventories standing well above the five-year average and these need to be drawn down to normal levels. The Conference also noted the very low investment level currently prevailing in the oil industry and emphasized the need to increase upstream investment in order to achieve long-term balance in the oil markets. The Conference re-emphasized the coordination between Member Countries and with non-OPEC producers to ensure market stability in the global oil market; to obtain reasonable and sustainable revenue for oil-producing nations; and to provide a stable, reliable, efficient and economic supply to consuming countries and a fair return to investors in the oil industry. Member Countries, in agreeing to this decision, confirmed their commitment to a stable and balanced oil market, with prices at levels that are suitable for both producers and consumers. While emphasizing its commitment to ensuring a long-term stable and balanced oil market for both producers and consumers, the Conference stressed that, given the current market conditions, the Secretariat should continue to closely monitor developments in the coming months, and if necessary recommend to Member Countries to meet again and suggest further measures according to prevailing market conditions. The Conference also called upon non-OPEC countries to join its endeavours, given the importance of cooperation among all major exporting countries to collectively balance the oil markets. The Conference decided to appoint Mr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, from Nigeria, as Secretary General of the Organization, with effect from 1st August 2016, for a period of three years. In doing so, the Conference expressed its appreciation to HE Abdalla Salem El-Badri for his leadership of the Secretariat and the Organization during his tenure as Secretary General. The Conference decided that its next Ordinary Meeting will convene on Wednesday, 30th November 2016 in Vienna, Austria. Finally, the Conference expressed its continued sincere gratitude to the Government and to the people of the Republic of Austria, as well as the authorities of the City of Vienna, for their warm hospitality and excellent arrangements made for the Conference Meeting.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday backed off a proposed trip to Rivers State for the kick-off of the cleanup of Ogoni, delegating Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for the exercise.

The president cancelled the event even after his advanced team had already arrived Ogoni.

The presidency has yet not given any reason for the last-minute cancellation of the trip, which was the second time in less than two weeks that Mr. Buhari would cancel a scheduled event outside Abuja.

On the night of May 22, the president suspended his scheduled official visit to Lagos State fixed for the morning of Monday, May 23, citing scheduling difficulties as reason.

Mr. Osinbajo was then detailed to proceed to the nations commercial capital to represent Mr. Buhari at the planned presidential working visit.

The clean-up of the heavily polluted Ogoni land was recommended by the United Nation Environmental Programme, UNEP, in its report in 2011.

At the event at Bodo, Gokana Local Government, attended by Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, ministers, and a UN representative, Mr. Buhari, whose address was read by Mr. Osinbajo, warned that the Federal Government would no longer tolerate the current theft and illegal refining of crude oil in the Niger Delta.

He urged the regulators of oil industry to carry out their responsibilities in line with best practices.

The current oil theft and illegal refining will not be tolerated. The regulators in the oil industries must live up to expectations.

They must ensure that oil companies carry out their operations in line with universal best services, he said.

The president said the government was laying a foundation for change to ensure the rule of law and safety of the people.

He said the aim was to diversify the nations economy and provide jobs and wealth for the people.

According to him, the clean-up of Ogoniland will have sustainable development components will benefit the people.

The methodology for the clean-up will ensure job creation for young people. The agro-allied industries required for processing of agricultural produce will also be put in place, the president said.

Mr. Buhari also said that approval had been given to set up necessary institutional framework to drive the implementation of the UNEP Report.

Gov. Wike commended Mr. Buhari for launching the implementation of the UNEP Report on Ogoniland.

He said the state government would provide the platform for the smooth implementation of the Report.

The governor said that environmental degradation had affected ecosystem and wild life of communities in the Niger Delta.

The minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed, said the government had taken stock of the work done in the past to start the implementation.

Ms. Mohammed said the implementation requires transparency, accountability, genuine partnership and proper representation of the people at the grassroots in what we are doing in investing in their future.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP, said the UN would stand with the Nigerian government to ensure the implementation of the Ogoni report.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday failed to publish details of recovered loot and culpable individuals as he promised he would during his nationwide broadcast on May 29.

Thursdays failure made it the second time Mr. Buhari would renege on a promise he boldly made to Nigerians.

Mr. Buhari had on May 14 said in London that he would personally provide specific details of all recovered stolen public funds when he addressed Nigerians on Democracy Day and his first year in office, adding that he believed that what Nigerians were being fed through the media were not detailed enough.

So far, what has come out, what has been recovered in whatever currency from each ministries, departments and individuals, I intend on the 29th to speak on this because all Nigerians are getting from the mass media because of the number of people arrested either by the EFCC, DSS. But we want to make a comprehensive report on the 29th, Mr. Buhari said while attending the anti-corruption summit in London.

But during his nationwide broadcast on Sunday morning, the president only repeated familiar claims that his administration was grappling with bureaucratic hurdles that made it difficult for stolen assets to be recovered from foreign jurisdictions.

We are also engaged in making recoveries of stolen assets some of which are in different jurisdictions. The processes of recovery can be tedious and time consuming, but today I can confirm that thus far: significant amount of assets have been recovered. A considerable portion of these are at different stages of recovery.

Mr. Buhari, however, said he had directed the Ministry of Information to commence publication of the details, which had remained secret despite frequent claims by his government that billions of dollars had been recovered from corrupt former top government officials.

Full details of the status and categories of the assets will now be published by the Ministry of Information and updated periodically. When forfeiture formalities are completed these monies will be credited to the treasury and be openly and transparently used in funding developmental projects and the public will be informed, Mr. Buhari said.

Later on Sunday evening, Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information, told Nigerians that the details would be published before the end of this week.

We will get the list but not today; before the end of the week. But I must say not with the names, Mr. Mohammed told a live audience on Channels Television.

Mr. Mohammeds position was reaffirmed a moment later by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, who wrote on his Twitter page that The minister should be ready with this (details of recovered assets) when work resumes, possibly Wednesday or Thursday.

But as at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Nigerians were still expecting the promise to be fulfilled.

Lai said Latest Thursday I checked @PremiumTimesng I no see list, rush go @SaharaReporters no list, time na 1900 GMT 2/6/16 #WhereisTheList? London-based Nigerian pro-democracy campaigner, Kayode Ogundamisi, tweeted in a mixture of English and pidgin.

However, a PREMIUM TIMES check revealed that the details would not be published today, and, worse, highly unlikely to be published this week.

Two senior sources in the presidency and the Ministry of Information informed PREMIUM TIMES that the president would not be able to fulfill his promise because the details had not been forwarded to Mr. Mohammed for distribution to the media.

Unfortunately, Nigerians may need to remain a bit more patient with this administration on the matter of publishing recovered monies, one of the officials said. The details were not pushed to the ministers office as early as we thought they would.

The second source said the chances of the details being published are thin as air, adding that certain sensitive Central Bank and Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions anti-corruption activities needed to be handled carefully.

Our people should understand that the process of getting this information out to them is quite more complex than they think, the source said.

The minister is even away in Rivers State for the launch of the Ogoni land clean-up, and was not back in the office as at the close of work. Lets keep hope alive that something will happen on Friday (tomorrow).

Several calls and text messages to Mr. Mohammed, Mr. Shehu and Femi Adesina, the special adviser to the president on media and publicity, seeking their comments for this story were neither answered nor returned.

Based on the presidents May 14 promise, millions of Nigerians had on Sunday morning stayed glued to their radio and TV for the Democracy Day speech.

They said then that they were disappointed, with many of them writing on Twitter Thursday evening that they were gearing up for another disappointment.
A law professor has tackled the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions boss, Ibrahim Magu, for claiming that everyone arrested and interrogated by the anti-graft body are guilty of fraud.

The head of the Department of Commercial Law at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in Abuja, Paul Idornigie, said Mr. Magus claim was wild and unexpected of a national leader.

Mr. Idornigie, who spoke to journalists on Wednesday on a paper titled, Reporting of court proceedings by media; uses and abuses, said the EFCC chairman must avoid making such assumptions in the discharge of his duties.

Mr. Magu had said on a Channels Television programme that any one invited by the commission for questioning must be found to have a criminal record, stressing that the commission only invites the guilty for questioning.

We dont chase innocent people; we investigate people before we arrest them. We follow the money, we trace when you received the money, and we also investigate how you utilized the money, he said.

Thats why anybody that is invited here will not come out clean, because we do our homework before we invite you. We may investigate for a year or six months and the person would not know, Mr. Magu said.

But the professor said the law presumes a person innocent until he is found guilty by the same courts of law.

Even if you have found certain evidence against the accused, you do not know his defence, so you cannot pronounce the person guilty, ahead of the determination the case in courts of law, Mr. Idornigie said.

Also speaking at the event, the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of the FCT, Ishaq Bello, called on judiciary reporters to avoid ambiguous reporting.

He said such reporting styles ware not only against the provisions of the law, but also amounted to an abuse of judicial authority.

Also speaking, the organiser of the program, Charles Odenigbo, said the media should avoid pronouncing an accused guilty, ahead of the determination of his case.

Mr. Odenigbo, a lawyer and president, Media Law and Social Development Initiative, said the predisposition of media practitioners towards a given case could cause sensational reporting, which results in wrong interpretation of court proceedings.
A socio-political group, Assembly of Concerned Niger Delta People, has appealed to President Muhammaudu Buhari to appoint his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, as special envoy to Niger Delta.

National Coordinator of the group, Eperemor Governor, made the appeal in a statement on Thursday in Benin.

According to him, the appointment will help to reduce the present hostility by the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), which has been responsible for the blowing-up of oil installations in the region.

He said as an indigene of the area, and former governor of Bayelsa, the former president would help to bridge the gap between the region and the Federal Government.

Mr. Governor, however, condemned the spate of pipeline bombings by the avengers, adding that the bombings were not only affecting the nation economically but degradation the soil of the region.

He reminded the NDA that while the country was suffering the effect of their activities, the environment of the region they claimed to represent was also being destroyed.

He, therefore, urged members of the group to channel their grievances to appropriate authorities rather than destroying the country`s commonwealth

(NAN)
The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and tertiary education stakeholders on Thursday in Abuja adopted 180 as the cut-off mark for 2016 admission into universities, polytechnics and colleges of education.

The decision was reached at the 2016 Combined Policy Meeting on Admissions to Degree, Nigerian Certificate of Education (NCE) and National Diploma (ND) chaired by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

In his opening remark, Mr. Adamu said if there was confidence in JAMBs conduct of the University Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME), there should be no need for post-UTME.

The post-UTME is organised by various tertiary institutions to screen candidates who applied to such institutions and who had scaled through JAMBs UTME.

If the universities have problem with what JAMB is doing, they should come forward with it and we will address it.

JAMB is one of the most active parastatals in the ministry; I expect that policies that would be beneficial to Nigerian students should be discussed at this meeting.

I believe there should be no ground to lower the quality; Nov. 30 remains the closing date for 2016 admission.

No institution should exceed its quota in admission; we will start issuing penalties to defaulting institutions.

Mr. Adamu urged JAMB to provide permanent scratch cards for candidates per session so that they do not need to buy new cards to effect changes or corrections.

In his speech, JAMB Registrar, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, said the screening of candidates at institution level would no longer be written examinations.

He said that the 180 cut-off mark was the minimum benchmark as different institutions could modify according to their specifications, capacity and other variables.

Mr. Ojerinde said more candidates performed better in 2016 than in 2015.

The JAMB boss said that Imo state retained its position as the state with the highest number of candidates while FCT had the least number.

He said there was also a significant reduction in irregularities because of the introduction of the Computer-Based Test (CBT).

Earlier, Monday Joshua, the Executive Secretary, National Commission for Colleges of Education, said that whatever cut-off mark adopted for universities should also apply to colleges of education.

Prof. Joshua urged universities to carry out their admission processes early enough in order to release students who could not secure admissions to universities to fall back to other institutions.

However, Joe Ahaneku, the Vice-Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, argued that post-UTME was vital for quality assurance and maintenance of standard.

He said that his institution arrested 183 impersonators during its 2015 post-UTME, who were able to evade JAMBs UTME.

No fewer than 1.5 million candidates sat for the 2016 UTME.

(NAN)
UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- The UN Security Council on Wednesday "strongly condemned" the most recent failed ballistic missile launches of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on May 31 and April 27-28.

"These repeated attempted launches are in grave violation of the DPRK's international obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions," the 15-nation UN council said in a statement.

"The members of the Security Council deplore all DPRK ballistic missile activities, including these multiple failed launches, noting that such activities contribute to the DPRK's development of nuclear weapons delivery systems and increase tension," it said.

"The members of the Security Council further regretted that the DPRK is diverting resources to the pursuit of ballistic missiles while DPRK citizens have great unmet needs," the statement said.

The Security Council has adopted five resolutions -- resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013) and 2270 (2016) -- to curb the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs.

The latest one adopted in March imposes the most severe sanctions yet on the country, including an export ban and asset freeze.
The National Open University (NOUN) has waived tuition fee for inmates of prisons in Nigeria.

The Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Abdalla Adamu, said the decision to waive the tuition fees for the prisoners was the universitys quest to fulfil its corporate social responsibility as well as shortage of sponsorship offers for inmates.

Professor Adamu spoke at the formal presentation of certificate to Albert Ajogbor, a NOUN student at the Maximum Security Prison, Kirikiri, in Lagos, who earned a B.A. (Hons) in Christian Theology.

Mr. Adamu pointed out that the decision was in line with the universitys vision of providing highly accessible and enhanced education anchored on social justice, equity, equality and national cohesion through comprehensive reach that transcends all barriers.

NOUN had recently offered full scholarship to all prisoners undertaking degree programmes in the university.

At the short ceremony held in Kirikiri Prison, the vice-chancellor, who was represented by the Director of NOUNs Learner Support Services, Prof. Nebath Tanglang, expressed delight over Mr. Ajogbors feat despite the fact that he was being incarcerated.

Also speaking, the Controller of Prisons, Lagos Command, Timothy Tinuonye, noted that NOUNs initiative was a booster to the Nigeria Prison Services task of reformation of the inmates.

He disclosed that there were over 70 inmates studying for various NOUN programmes in the three prisons in the state but that the number would rise because of the tuition-free policy.
The Council of Imams and Ulamaa of Lagos State has faulted the suggestion by the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) that a new crescent would be sighted in Kaduna before sunset on June 5 and that Ramadan fast would automatically begin on June 6.

A joint statement by the councils technical advisers: Habeebullah Adam El-ilory, Abdul-Rasaq Ishola, Majolagbe Monsuru and the Chief Imam of Lagos, Ibrahim Garuba Akinola said NASRDAs position had no basis in Islamic jurisprudence as the crescent could only be sighted after sunset.

The council added that going by astronomical calculations available to them, nowhere in Nigeria will experience sunset at the time stated by NASRDA.

NASDR released a statement claiming the Astronomical Lunar Crescent would appear in Kaduna and Sokoto on June 5thbetween 5:12 PM and 7:14 P.M and 7:37pm and in other 34 States of the federation between 5:12pm and 7:37 pm via Charge Coupled Device(CCD). This implies that Ramadan starts on 6th June 2016, the council stated in a statement.

Crescent sighting valid for starting the month of Ramadan should be after sunset according to Islamic sharia and consensus of Ulama-Islamic Scholars. Therefore claiming sighting of the new crescent with CCD (charge coupled device, as used by NASRDA) before the sunset is not valid for starting Ramadan, the council added.

The scholars quoted famous Muslim astronomers, Mohammad Odeh and Khalid Shaukat as saying that conjunction would only occur at 4:00a.m. Nigerian time on June 5, 2016 with the age of the moon  that is, the hours between the conjunction and sunset  being 15 hours only.

The council said, The statement that crescent will appear on 5th June between 5:12pm and 7:14 pm is capable of misleading Nigeria Muslims to commence Ramadan fast earlier.

Moreover because NASRDA does not apply Islamic Sharia parameters on its findings, NASRDA does not have the knowledge of Islamic Sharia to interpret its astronomical knowledge in favour of Islam and has no authority whatsoever to guide the Muslim Ummah as regard the beginning or ending of Ramadan.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has threatened to ensure two of its members who defected Tuesday, lose their seats in the House of Representatives.

The two members, Tony Nwoye from Anambra and Udende Emmanuel from Benue had on Wednesday declared their intention to defect to the APC.

They sent separate letters which were read by the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, on the floor of the House, in which they cited division in the PDP as the reason for their defection.

They also said the PDP had broken into three factions headed by Ali Modu Sheriff, Ahmed Makarfi and Jerry Gana, respectively, and that they did not wish to belong to any faction.

But in a swift reaction also on Wednesday, the party said there was no faction in the PDP.

In a statement signed by the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, BoT, of the party, Ojo Madueke, PDP said there was only one approved National Convention which took place in Port Harcourt on Saturday 21st of May, 2016, which, it said, was, in accordance with the PDP Constitution.

The statement added that the party approved some far reaching resolutions that had the unanimous support of those who attended the Port Harcourt Convention with subsequent endorsements of another PDP political meeting that took place in Abuja on the same day.

The statement added that the conveners of the Abuja meeting had since integrated their positions with the structures and resolutions of the Port Harcourt Convention.

Subsequent meetings of, first, Board of Trustees members, and secondly, meetings with Governors Forum, Leadership of National Assembly and Former Ministers in PDP Government Forum, and a PDP Former Governors Forum, held, and decided to work together, the party said.

It also added that aggrieved members are being reconciled across the length and breadth of the country.

The rank and file of the Party have resolved to work together, and PDP has never been stronger than it is now since its entry into the honourable role of a robust and principled opposition.

Any suggestion of a faction, is at best ill-informed and ignorant, and at worst, is part of a grand plan to decimate the only political platform today, that is ready, experienced and able to honour the nations invitation to have a credible opposition party that will hold Government of the day accountable and thereby strengthen and nourish our young democracy.

Let it therefore be understood by those of our members in the National Assembly who may be tempted to jump ship, or have already jumped, that on the basis of clear decisions of cases decided in the Supreme Court, they stand the risk of losing their seats in Parliament if they went ahead with their latest indulgence, PDP said.

PDP said it will insist on a declaration of vacancy and subsequent elections in affected constituencies in the event of such misguided defections.

The pattern of PDP electoral victories all over the federation since the 2015 General Elections shows that where there is election arising from such vacancies, PDP will return a more credible and more loyal representative of the people, the statement said .
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has again suspended its hearing of an application filed by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in connection to the alleged false asset declaration charges against him at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.

Mr. Saraki had in April made an application to the Court of Appeal, challenging a ruling by the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, Danladi Umar, which dismissed his questioning of the jurisdiction of the tribunal to try him.

The Senate President is asking the higher court to set aside the decision of the tribunal and declare his trial invalid.

The tribunal had on May 31 adjourned hearing into the application, following the inability of the judges to form a quorum that comprises five judges.

A panel of three judges, led by Justice Moore Adumien had on that day adjourned the hearing, after waiting for about two hours for the other two judges to arrive.

Mr. Adumien had adjourned the trial to June 2.

But on Thursday, the lead counsel to Mr. Saraki, Kanu Agabi, wrote the court through another counsel in his team, Joe Achogwu, seeking a further adjournment on health grounds.

The prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, did not object Mr. Agabis application.

The presiding judge, Mr. Adumien, therefore adjourned the hearing to July 18.
Many supporters of Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday expressed frustration with the presidents sudden cancellation of his scheduled trip to Rivers State for the launch of the clean-up of Ogoniland and other Niger Delta communities ravaged by decades of oil exploration activities.

Mr. Buhari was represented at the event by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The presidency has not given any reason yet for Mr. Buharis last minute change of mind.

Rotimi Adetunji, tweeting with the twitter account @dele4JC, said, The goodwill PMB has enjoyed from some of us could start to burn out. He should have been there, no matter what.

PMB would have missed an opportunity to warm himself to the Niger Delta folks and shut (the) mouth of naysayers.

If indeed PMB didnt show up at Ogoniland, then hes beginning to tow similar lane his predecessor did. Shame!

Another twitter user, Pa Johnson (@Mr.PaJohnson), wrote in Pidgin English @MBuhari haf finished me today! adding that has scored an unnecessary own goal.

Japheth Omojuwa (@Omojuwa), a social media influencer known for tweeting in support of the president, said on twitter that the presidents absence was a major victory not only for the new militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers, but also for their sponsors and social media fanatics.

Mr. Omojuwa tweeted, This constant and seemingly intentional commitment towards burning public goodwill is one I will never ever understand.

Nobody told him to announce he was coming. Now the big news is about his absence and not the historic #NDCleanUp.

Inibehe Effiong, a lawyer and a human rights activist, said he was concerned that President Buhari of late has been cancelling most of his scheduled visits to different parts of the country.

Shortly after it became clear that Mr. Buhari wont be visiting Rivers as earlier announced, Mr. Effiong, who has been known for his support for the president, wrote on Facebook that, President Buhari was scheduled to travel to Lagos State  he cancelled it. President Buhari was scheduled to travel to Cross River State  he cancelled it. President Buhari was scheduled to travel to Ogoni, Rivers State  he cancelled it. What exactly is going on? Are these mere coincidences or is something amiss?

He later told PREMIUM TIMES that the cancellation sends a wrong message to the citizens.

It is reported that the cancellation is due the tensed security climate in the region. If that is true, it is disappointing because nobody is safe. If the security agencies cannot guarantee the safety of the president, then we are all endangered, Mr. Effiong said.

Mr. Effiong, who is the Convener, Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, said, Nigerians criticized former president Jonathan for not visiting the troubled North East region and Borno in particular. Buhari should represent courage, sensitivity and change and not follow the footsteps of Jonathan.

He added that the presidents visit to Ogoniland would have afforded him the opportunity to have direct and factual connection with the situation in Ogoni and the Niger Delta.

One twitter user, @Rayberry_NIG, said, He (President Buhari) has never cancelled his foreign trips but has cancelled all his local trips. Maybe those abroad voted for him!

Mr. Omojuwa has one advice for President Buhari and his aides in the Presidential Villa: Until the presidents handlers are certain he can make a commitment, dont publish a commitment or have him make any. Not rocket science.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh on Thursday said 11 states had provided 55,000 hectares to establish ranches to curb farmers and pastoralists clashes in their states.

Mr. Ogbeh made this known at a news conference in Abuja.

The minister said the states were Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Katsina, Taraba, Niger, Adamawa, Jigawa, Sokoto and the FCT.

He said of all the enterprise in the livestock sector, only the poultry industry had achieved an appreciable level of commercialisation.

Mr. Ogbeh said other industries in the livestock sector were predominantly in the hands of subsistence farmers with pastoralist system of production contributing over 90 per cent of cattle production in the country.

He said the 2011 National Agricultural Sample Survey indicated that Nigeria was endowed with an estimated 19.5 million cattle, 72.5 million goats, 41.3 million sheep, 7.1 million pigs and 28,000 camels.

Accordingly, the minister said the country had 145 million chickens, 11. 6 million ducks, 1.2 million turkeys and 974, 499 donkeys.

Mr. Ogbeh said this impressive statistics which had made Nigeria number one in livestock in Africa had not met the national demand of animal protein or contributed to the GDP over the years.

He decried the low milk production in Nigeria as a cow produced one litre of milk a day while a cow in Saudi Arabia or Brazil produced 30 to 40 litres.

Saudi Arabia produces 4.7 million litres of milk daily while Nigeria imports about 1.3 billion dollar worth of milk annually to make up deficit.

The way forward in improving our livestock and dairy industry is to intensify efforts on adding value to the industry along the respective livestock value chains.

In line with our goal of attaining self sufficiency in animal protein, this administration has set out to establish ranches to be planted with high quality improved tropical grass and legume species.

We shall provide irrigation for all year commercial fodder production to enhance settlement of pastoralist and ensure cattle, sheep and goat improvement through an expanded breeding programme through artificial insemination.

We shall group dairy farmers in clusters, build their capacity and equip them with milk collection facilities and facilitate single digit loan for them, he said.

The minister said there was a new disease outbreak affecting maize production in some parts of Edo and in the South West of the country.

He gave the name of the disease as army worm, adding that relevant research institutes were working on it and the ministry was monitoring the level of threat it posed.

Mr. Ogbeh urged farmers not to panic, adding that the ministry would take further action if the disease is not controlled within a short time.

(NAN)
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh on Thursday released a census of livestock in the country.

Mr. Ogbeh spoke at a news conference in Abuja.

He said the 2011 National Agricultural Sample Survey indicated that Nigeria was endowed with an estimated 19.5 million cattle, 72.5 million goats, 41.3 million sheep, 7.1 million pigs and 28,000 camels.

Accordingly, the minister said the country had 145 million chickens, 11.6 million ducks, 1.2 million turkeys and 974, 499 donkeys.

Mr. Ogbeh said this impressive statistics which had made Nigeria number one in livestock in Africa had not met the national demand of animal protein or contributed to the GDP over the years.

He decried the low milk production in Nigeria as a cow produced one litre of milk a day while a cow in Saudi Arabia or Brazil produced 30 to 40 litres.

Saudi Arabia produces 4.7 million litres of milk daily while Nigeria imports about 1.3 billion dollar worth of milk annually to make up deficit.

The minister said of all the enterprise in the livestock sector, only the poultry industry had achieved an appreciable level of commercialisation.

Mr. Ogbeh said other industries in the livestock sector were predominantly in the hands of subsistence farmers with pastoralist system of production contributing over 90 per cent of cattle production in the country.

The way forward in improving our livestock and dairy industry is to intensify efforts on adding value to the industry along the respective livestock value chains.

In line with our goal of attaining self sufficiency in animal protein, this administration has set out to establish ranches to be planted with high quality improved tropical grass and legume species.

We shall provide irrigation for all year commercial fodder production to enhance settlement of pastoralist and ensure cattle, sheep and goat improvement through an expanded breeding programme through artificial insemination.

We shall group dairy farmers in clusters, build their capacity and equip them with milk collection facilities and facilitate single digit loan for them, he said.

The minister said there was a new disease outbreak affecting maize production in some parts of Edo and in the South West of the country.

He gave the name of the disease as army worm, adding that relevant research institutes were working on it and the ministry was monitoring the level of threat it posed.

Mr. Ogbeh urged farmers not to panic, adding that the ministry would take further action if the disease is not controlled within a short time.

(NAN)
Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, has filed a suit before a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, seeking the enforcement of his fundamental rights.

Mr. Fani-Kayode made the application in response to his continued detention by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, after he was invited for questioning on May 9.

Counsel to Mr. Kayode, Ifedayo Adedipe, prayed the court to compel the EFCC to either release his client, or charge him to court, saying Mr. Fani-Kayodes continued detention was against the law.

Responding, counsel the EFCC, Salisu Maji-Dadi, said the commission had not acted outside the provisions of the law in its detention of Mr. Fani-Kayode.

Mr. Maji-Dadi said that prior to Mr. Fani-Kayodes detention on May 10, the EFCC had obtained a court order to detain him.

Mr. Maji-Dadi said before that court order expired on May 24, the EFCC again obtained another court order from a Magistrate Court in Lagos to further detain Mr. Kayode till June 15.

Mr. Maji-Dadi therefore submitted that the detention of the applicant was not against the law.

The case was adjourned till June 29.

Mr. Fani-Kayode was invited to the office of the commission over the alleged payment of N840 million into his account on the eve of the 2015 general elections.

Investigators said they suspected the fund was part of the $2.1billion allegedly misappropriated by a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.

Mr. Fani-Kayode, who served as spokesman for the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign in 2015, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying the allegations are baseless, wicked, shameful and irresponsible.
Niger Delta Avengers, the new militant group that has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks on oil and gas installations in the Niger Delta, continued its disruption of Nigerias oil production with the bombing of more crude oil pipelines Thursday.

The group announced the latest attack via its Twitter handle on Thursday evening, saying it blew up Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba crude oil pipelines in Bayelsa State.

At about 2:00am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba crude oil pipelines in Bayelsa State.

The Avengers added that the latest disruption is in line with our promise to all international oil companies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oil production will be zero.

The group did not say which oil company is operating the pipelines.

The groups operation had become more audacious in recent weeks as it continued to cripple Nigerias oil production, demanding a sovereign nation of the Niger Delta people.

The Avengers had rejected a meeting recently convened in Abuja by the federal government, warning of its readiness to carry out an attack that will shock the whole world.

The Niger Delta stakeholders meeting is an insult to the people of Niger Delta. What we need is a Sovereign State not pipeline Contracts.

To the IOCs, Indigenous Oil Companies and Nigeria Military. Watch out something big is about to happen and it will shock the whole world, the group tweeted on Friday.

Last Thursday, it claimed responsibility for an attack on a gas pipeline belonging to Chevron in Delta state.

We warned Chevron, but they didnt listen. NDA just blew up the Escravos tank farm main electricity feed pipeline, it said.

The militants said the oil facilities were sabotaged following attempts by Chevron to carry out repairs of main Escravos crude oil pipeline it blew up earlier.

A spokesperson for the group, Mudoch Agbinibo, had last month warned the Nigerian government of further attacks if their demands were not met.

Two weeks ago, Chevrons Makaraba crude oil line was attacked on the offshore Okan manifold in the region.

The attack followed previous ones on NNPC, Agip, Shell and other major oil corporations facilities across the delta states and it has resulted in the loss of over 40,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
More than 11 months after a committee was constituted to audit staff in all the local government areas in Adamawa state, about 12,609 ghost workers have be uncovered.

The chairman of the 13-man committee, Maurice Vunoboki, said it was also discovered that 1,405 appointments violated executive approvals, while 2,731 irregular employments did not conform to the Teachers Salary Scale (TSS).

A total of 38,760 in the workforce was cleared and migrated to the e-payment database against 51,369 earlier presented to my committee, Mr. Vunoboki said. 519 did not turn up for the verification exercise, while 1,780 were under-aged employees, while the balance of 563 were retired by age or years of service

Mr. Vunobolki said the gross salaries of local government councils, Local Education Authority and Primary Health Care Development Agency were N1.71 billion as at July 2015, with the gross figure after validation at N1.37 billion as at May 2016.

This has resulted in gross monthly bill of N3416 million and N4.1 billion annually, he said.

In a related development, the state governor, Mohammadu Bindow, while receiving the report on Local government staff verification on Thursday, promised to make payment of local government workers salaries a first line charge item.

The committee was set up in July 2015 to verify the state local governments workforce with a view to creating a database for effective implementation of e-payment salary system.

Mr. Bindow said the first line charge would give priority to prompt payment of salaries to official council workers, adding that their salaries would henceforth be paid at the same time with the state government workers.

He appealed to the local government workers to remain patient as their four months outstanding salaries would be paid before the end of this month.

The governor vowed to prosecute any government official found to have been involved in any financial misconduct in the local government administration.

He directed the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to furnish his office with details and updates on local government/state joint account.
BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhua) -- China hopes the Philippines' new government can return to dialogue with China to resolve the South China Seadisputes, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

The comment came after the Philippines' incoming foreign minister Perfecto Yasay said that bilateral talks between the Philippines and China could help untangle the disputes in the South China Sea, adding "there is no other way but to go bilateral."

"China welcomes Mr. Yasay's remarks," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing.

Successive leaders of the two countries have agreed in their meetings and bilateral political documents that the South China Sea disputes should be resolved peacefully through direct negotiations, Hua said, adding that it was also outlined in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).

Thanks to the above-mentioned consensus, China and the Philippines have managed the South China Sea disputes through dialogue and consultation for a long time, Hua said.

"We hope the Philippine's new government can honor their commitments and return to dialogue with China to properly handle the disputes so as to contribute to the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations," the spokesperson added.

The Philippines' incoming president Rodrigo Duterte has said that he wanted to cultivate friendly relations with China, and confirmed that he was open to direct talks over the row in the South China Sea, which had damaged bilateral relations.
A consultative forum held by the Oyo State Government to interact with citizens on a proposed policy of involving non-governmental organisations in the administration of public secondary schools, was disrupted on Wednesday by civil society groups led Nigerian Labour Congress.

The policy has faced stiff opposition since May 25 when it was announced.

The government had called for expression of interest in the public/private partnership and ownership of schools in its bid to develop human capital founded on quality education in the state.

Notably, Oyo Global Forum, Oyo Progressive Assembly, Muslim Community of Oyo State and an opposition party, Accord, have condemned what they termed privatisation of government schools.

The government had scheduled a forum to discuss the plan on Wednesday.

However, civil society groups including Nigerian Labour Congress, Joint Action Front and Academic Staff Union of Universities protested to the Western Hall, State Secretariat, venue of the meeting, and disrupted the event.

According to multiple witnesses present at the meeting, the venue had been occupied by stakeholders, including representatives of Churches, when the protesters led by NLC Chairman, Waheed Olojede, arrived.

They disrupted the event, disarranged the seats meant for the participants and government officials, and sent everybody out of the hall, said a civil servant, who requested be protected for fear of victimisation.

Another witness said the protesters were chanting: a se bi n tin ni ogbon ori e, iwo ti a ro pe ogbon (so you are not wise; you that we assumed to be wise).

A lawmaker said the protesters were also singing awon asofin na ole (lawmakers too are thieves) at the hall close to the House of Assembly complex.

Hours after the disruption, the Secretary to the State Government, Olalekan Ali, led government officials to return to the hall for a press briefing.

In a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES, the government unequivocally emphasize that Government neither intends to sell nor privatize its educational institutions.

It continued, Government will never abdicate its responsibility of ensuring improved quality of education, maintaining religious diversity, neither shall we negotiate our free education policy among others.

We are not returning schools on the basis of religion but on the basis of the set criteria for all interested stakeholders that will be further pre-qualified.

It is intended that less than 10 per cent of the 631 secondary schools in the State may be involved in the participatory venture, rather than erroneous impression that education in the State is being privatized wholesale.

The statement expressed dismay that some misguided people invaded the venue as the stage was set for the discourse thereby averting the intended interaction between Government and the stakeholders.
Striking workers in Ondo State on Thursday rejected a call by the state government to return to work without payment of their five months salaries, saying they will stay away from work until the government meets their demands.

A meeting of the labour unions and the government on Thursday ended without a resolution of the dispute.

It was gathered that the government, during the four-hour meeting, urged the unions to return to work, promising to pay salaries as soon as the finances of the state improves.

But the unions insisted that there would be no work until the state government is ready to pay salaries.

The leadership of the workers union directed workers to continue with their strike until the state government meets their demand.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting, the Chairman of the Joint Negotiating Committee ( JNC) Sunday Adeleye, said since the government was not ready to yield to the demands of labour, the strike would continue indefinitely.

Also, the state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Bosede Daramola, dismissed insinuation that labour rejected governments offer of two months salaries, noting that the state government did not make such proposal.

Mrs. Daramola also denied the rumour that the state government was proposing payment of 50 percent of workers monthly salaries.

She urged state workers to remain resolute and stay away from their offices until the industrial action was called off.

The meeting was attended by the governor, Olusegun Mimiko, the Deputy governor, Head of Service, Chief of Staff, Special Adviser on unions matters, the state Attorney General, Information Commissioner, local government affairs commissioner and some other top government functionaries.
President Andrzej Duda met with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini in Warsaw on Thursday.

After the meeting, the Polish president said the talks had focused on the most important issues in the European and transatlantic dimensions, related to security policy in the context of the EU Global Strategy being prepared by the bloc's foreign policy chief.

The interlocutors also referred to the Eastern Partnership programme and EU-NATO cooperation in the context of the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw, President Duda said.

"At present work is in progress on drawing up and agreeing on a joint EU-NATO declaration on security, especially in the context of hybrid and cyber threats, and also on cooperation related to security in the south of Europe and in Central-Eastern Europe", the president told reporters.

He underlined that he and Mogherini had expressed hopes for the signing of this declaration "in connection with the NATO summit in Warsaw", adding that there would be further meetings in Brussels at the foreign minister and NATO secretary general level to negotiate the declaration.

Andrzej Duda and Federica Mogherini also discussed EU-Russia relations. President Duda thanked the high representative for a common position on the necessity of observing international law in relations with Russia.

"It is crucial to implement the Minsk agreements and normalise the situation in Ukraine so that Ukraine can regain control over its borders. One should view sanctions against Russia also in this context," the president stressed.

The talks concerned energy security as well, including "action taken at the European Commission level regarding the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline", Andrzej Duda also said.

Work on the joint EU-NATO declaration is going well, according to Mogherini.

She said that she and Duda had discussed the crises that exist around the EU and Poland's contribution to solving some of them and preventing others. In this context, she mentioned the crisis in Ukraine, saying that the EU was still of the opinion that all sides should fully implement the Minsk accords and that Ukraine should receive active support in its difficult work on introducing reforms.

The EU knows it can always count on Poland's help with maintaining good relations with all the eastern partners, Mogherini also said, calling Poland a very strong EU member state. The EU appreciates the fact that Poland contributes to the EU's development so determinedly, she added. (PAP)
Not shying away from his fondness for China, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said his country stands ready to strengthen cooperation with China in the Belt and Road construction during a meeting with Yang Zhenwu, president of the Peoples Daily, on Tuesday.

Calling the initiative crucial to enhancing commercial exchanges between China and European countries, Rebelo de Sousa noted that Portugal will strive to become a major stop on the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Both countries are poised to benefit from the China-initiated Belt and Road strategy, especially the maritime Silk Road, and the EU-China Connectivity Platform, he pointed out.

Port of Sines, as an important gateway to Europe, now has great opportunities to attract investment and seek Chinese partners, addedRebelo de Sousa.

Applauding the past 10 years oftheir bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, the Portuguese head of state emphasized that China presents an important opportunity to Portugal.

The vibrant Portugal-China relations have yielded fruitful results in politics, economy, culture, energy and other fields, he said, adding that frequent mutual visits, bilateral cooperative agreements and mutual support in the international arena are all proof of the robust bilateral relationship.

He also suggested that enormous opportunities await through exploring and deepening bilateral or multi-lateral cooperation in the application of new technologies.

Portugal and China can further tap into trilateral cooperation with other regions, especially African countries, and Portugal can extend its geographic landscape and economic strength, Rebelo de Sousa stressed.

He also called for closer cooperation in transportation facilities and port construction, intelligence sharing in energy and scientific research, and maritime collaboration.
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.




Portuguese PresidentMarcelo Rebelo de Sousa meets with and gives an exclusive interview to Yang Zhenwu, President of People's Daily in Lisbon, capital of Portugal on Tuesday. (Photo: Yang Xuebo from Peoples Daily)

Portugal pays attention to Chinas important role in the development of Africa, Portuguese President MarceloRebelo de Sousa told Yang Zhenwu, head of the Peoples Daily, in his first interview with foreign media since assuming office.

Rebelo de Sousa said he believed that China gives priority to Africa in its diplomacy, citing the more than 2,000 Chinese enterprises in various African countries focusing on providing assistance in poverty alleviation, industry and finance.

The Portuguese side always hopes to strengthen cooperative ties between both enterprises, the president said, adding that his country also expects to explore the possibility of launching trilateral cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries like Angola and Mozambique.

Meanwhile, both countries should mull over trilateral cooperation mechanisms in other economies, such as African countries or the Latin-American community, he added.

Over the years, China and Portugal have reaped a series of early harvests by seeking trilateral cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries and the EU.

Portuguese PresidentMarceloRebelo de Sousa poses for photo together with Yang Zhenwu, President of People's Daily, and Cai Run (1st from the left), Chinese Ambassador to Portugal in Lisbon, capital of Portugal on Tuesday. (Photo: Yang Xuebo from Peoples Daily)

Under the framework of Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (Macao), a batch of cooperation projects in agriculture and raw material excavation has been approved for implementation.

Fully acknowledging the positive role of the forum, Rebelo de Sousa said there can be trilateral cooperation projects in fishing, education, environmental protection, new energy and other areas in the future.

The 5th Ministerial Conference of the Forum for Economic and Trade Co-operation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries is scheduled to be held in Macao this year.
The differences between China and the U.S. over the South China Sea issue have become a matter of concern and even anxiety. But some of the perceptions in the U.S. and elsewhere about Chinas policy and intentions in the area are misplaced. A pressing task is to understand the facts and Chinas intentions correctly so as to avoid real danger and consequences as a result of misinterpretation and miscalculation.

The issues in the South China Sea revolve around territorial and maritime jurisdiction. China believes it is doing nothing more than maintaining and defending legitimate territorial claims and maritime rights. Reclamation and construction works have taken place on islands and reefs that have long been under Chinas control, and many of the facilities are for civilian purposes and public good, such as navigation and rescue services, emergency relief, scientific research, and environmental protection. There are limited defense facilities, but they do not represent a militarization of the area. We believe that recent statements and military deployments by the U.S. have had the effect of escalating tension in the region and, if not curbed, risk the very militarization we all wish to avoid.

Some people have called on China to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to agree to international arbitration, which was initiated by the Philippines. But these same people are denying Chinas rights under the convention. Our view is that the convention does not cover sovereignty and territorial issues -- yet the very subject of the arbitration is territorial sovereignty. China will therefore neither participate nor accept the arbitration, for we maintain that the tribunal has no jurisdiction in this realm. Besides, it is ironic that the U.S. seeks to use against us a United Nations convention that it itself has refused to ratify.

The concept of freedom of navigation is frequently used to justify actions by the U.S. in the South China Sea. This is an additional irony. The U.S. has used freedom-of-navigation operations to challenge the very concept as it was defined by the convention, believing treaty provisions would restrict its navys ability to move freely around the world.

Worst of all, Chinas policy on the South China Sea has been grossly misperceived as a strategic move to challenge U.S. dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and the world. Some people even go so far as to raise the idea of a so-called Asian version of the Monroe Doctrine. However, China believes that the concept of sphere of influence is out-of-date in the 21st century. China consistently strives for regional cooperation, and we respect Americas traditional presence and legitimate interests in the Asia-Pacific region. The reality is not that China is trying to drive anyone out, but that there are attempts to deny Chinas legitimate and expanding interests in its own region.

Indeed, China has long called for peaceful and direct negotiations with relevant claimant states to manage and eventually resolve the South China Sea disputes. This remains unchanged -- just as we remain open to working to forge a code of conduct for the region with the 10 ASEAN countries.

China-U.S. relations are too important for us to allow them to be hijacked by the South China Sea issue. We may have major differences, but we also share important interests, including maintaining regional peace and stability, supporting freedom of navigation and overflight in accordance with international law, and resolving disputes through peaceful negotiations and diplomatic dialogue. The region should not become a competing ground for China and the U.S. In fact, we have significant potential for cooperation in this region and beyond. Witness our coast guards, which patrolled jointly to enforce the fishery rules in the western Pacific.

The good news is that leaders in China and the United States have demonstrated the political will to manage our differences and keep them under control. We continue to talk. We on the Chinese side are ready to work in a constructive manner -- and we are hopeful that the U.S. will demonstrate the same spirit.

The author Cui Tiankai is the Chinese ambassador to the United States.
PUNE, India, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Abrasives Market by Material (Natural, Synthetic), Product (Grinding Wheel, Sandpaper, Others), Type (Bonded, Coated, Super), End-Use Industry (Automotive, Machinery, Metal Fabrication, Others) - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is projected to grow from USD 41.21 Billion in 2015 to USD 58.43 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 6.10%.

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Browse 197 market data Tables with 67 Figures spread through 232 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Abrasives Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/abrasives-market-16531756.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The Abrasives Market is projected to witness significant growth in the next few years with the growing automotive, metal fabrication, electronics, electrical, medical, and construction industries. Abrasive is a material or substance such as pumice, sandpaper, or emery, which is used for grinding, cleaning, polishing, and smoothing. Abrasives are used in a wide range of domestic, industrial, and technological applications.

Use of grinding wheel in automotive is projected to increase during the forecast period

Grinding, the most important abrasive product, is involved in the manufacturing of machinery, electrical, electronic components, and automotive components. It is made of abrasive grain, and is a self-sharpening cutting tool. The majority of grinding wheels made have a vitreous, ceramic bond, made of clays and feldspars. The grinding wheel segment accounted for the largest market share in 2015 due to higher speed, improved efficiency, and better productivity.

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Automotive segment is projected to be the fastest-growing segment of the Abrasives Market during the forecast period

The automotive segment accounted for the largest market share in 2015 due to the rise in disposable income, especially in developing countries, which led to an unprecedented demand for passenger and commercial vehicles coupled with shifts in consumer demand and expanded regulatory requirements. Efficient finishing of automobiles use abrasives for sizing engine parts, deburring, cleaning, to repair and maintain the body, interiors, and accessories of the automobile. They are primarily used to smooth out welds, clean the interior of pipes, and to smoothen out uneven and rough surfaces and edges. Furthermore, coated abrasives are used in the transportation sector for finishing and grinding applications. Thus, this augmented demand for automobiles is expected to indirectly drive the growth prospects of the Abrasives Market in the coming years.

Asia-Pacific to play a key role in the Abrasives Market

The growth in the Asia-Pacific region is driven by factors such as the augmented demand for automobiles, rise in the sales of electronic devices, efforts towards standardization, expanding application segments, increasing urbanized population in China and India, along with the growth in disposable income in these countries are driving the growth of the Asia-Pacific Abrasives Market.

At a global level, companies such as Robert Bosch GMBH (Germany), 3M Company (U.S.), E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Inc. (France), and Fujimi Incorporated (Japan) are providing abrasive products. Large construction players such as LafargeHolcim (France), Balfour Beatty PLC (U.K.), Kier Group PLC (U.K.), and Carillon PLC (U.K.) have scope to enter into abrasive services. Other players in the market include Henkel AG & CO. KGAA (Germany), Tyrolit Group (Austria), Asahi Diamond Industrial Co., LTD (Japan) Deerfos Co., Ltd (Korea), and Carborundum Universal Limited: (India).

Study Coverage:

The scope of the report covers detailed information regarding the major factors influencing the growth of the Abrasives Market such as drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities. A detailed analysis of the key industry players has been conducted to provide insights into their business overview, products & services, key strategies, new product launches, agreements, and recent developments associated with the Abrasives Market.

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Introduces levels of premium access and syncing across devices

KENDALL PARK, New Jersey, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Binary Tree today announced version 3.0 of NeedToMeet, a tool that helps you quickly schedule meetings with people outside your organization  including merged or acquired teams, clients, vendors, job candidates and more. You can access the latest from www.needtomeet.com.

Updates in Version 3.0

Introduces levels of premium access, including NeedToMeet Premium for $19 /per person and NeedToMeet Advanced for $12 /year per person (learn more)

/per person and NeedToMeet Advanced for /year per person (learn more) Syncs meetings and contacts across your devices, including the web, mobile apps (Coming soon for calendar sync) and the Outlook add-in

Standardizes interface behaviors across all devices

People spend an average of 75 minutes a week playing phone or email tag to schedule meetings with colleagues whose calendars they can't see. That's around $1,750 per person each year. Companies can reduce this cost with the Microsoft Outlook add-in available with NeedToMeet Premium, which helps people schedule meetings 6 times faster. With the add-in, people who are on different calendar domains can see each other's availability  right within Outlook.

According to Steven Pivnik, CEO of Binary Tree, "We often support companies who are going through a merger or acquisition, which can be challenging. NeedToMeet is one more way we help smooth this process. Companies can use it to share calendars with each other immediately. So from day one, they collaborate more smoothly, saving time and money and avoiding the headaches of email tag and time zones."

About NeedToMeet

NeedToMeet, a Binary Tree company, is a global provider of meeting scheduling service and software that allows individuals and businesses to find a time that works for everyone. NeedToMeet makes it easy to schedule meetings or poll attendees, while removing the hassles of lengthy email chains, time zone conflicts, and phone tag. Its powerful administrative features allow a meeting organizer to manage the details of all their meetings in a single dashboard. You can use NeedToMeet with any browser, can download the mobile app (for iOS, Android and Windows Phone), or can install the Microsoft Outlook add-in to fully capitalize on the Exchange and Office 365 environment. For more, visit www.needtomeet.com.

Binary Tree provides organizations with the most direct and predictable path to a successful technology transformation. We offer software and services to integrate and migrate corporate email, directory and server environments. Our technology, methodology and expertise is uniquely suited to provide fast and manageable migrations, with low risk, little to no user downtime, and adapted to each customer's environment and requirements. Since 1993, Binary Tree has enabled thousands of enterprise customers to migrate more than 35 million users, including 5 million users to Office 365 alone, and facilitated some of the most complex technology transformations on the planet. Binary Tree is a Microsoft Gold Partner and a globally preferred vendor for Microsoft Office 365 migrations and solutions. The Company is headquartered outside of New York City with offices in Hong Kong, London, Paris, Stockholm and Sydney. For more information, visit us at www.binarytree.com.

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AmyKelly Petruzzella, Global Marketing Director

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SOURCE Binary Tree, Inc.
HONG KONG, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Pro-active Approach Drives Faster & Greener Supply Chain

Bureau Veritas has announced that it has launched an IT platform, BVE3, to support its Chemical Discharge Monitoring business. BVE3, Bureau Veritas' Environmental Emission Evaluator, is a supplementary tool to support supply chain partners in reducing the environmental impacts through the provision of a mechanism to understand factories' daily and weekly discharge potentials. This avoids the sole reliance on one time screening of materials, chemicals and discharge.

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BVE3 works in combination with other traditional supply chain controls (chemicals screening, testing and factory audits) for greater visibility on ongoing compliance to the priority chemicals. The risk matrix approach allows clients to choose and use these tools in a most cost effective way. For industries with wet processing, BVE3 assists in constructing realistic discharge scenarios for the hazardous substances (auxiliary chemicals, dyes, etc.) that are used along the manufacturing process and released to the environment (waste water discharge) from the factories.

In support of supply chain chemical management performance and transparency, factories upload chemical information to BVE3 on a monthly basis. From there, Bureau Veritas' specialists analyze factories' inputs and the calculated output results in the estimated concentration and amount of hazardous substances in water discharge. The number and the amount of hazardous substances in the chemical inventory and discharge create 3 indexes to help measuring factories' chemical management performance:

"In response to issues associated with chemical management performance and transparency within the textile supply chain, we developed our BVE3 web platform. BVE3 enables retailers and brands to identify their factories chemical management performance and where to utilize the sustainability resources." said Mr. Niraj Singh, Bureau Veritas' Technical Lead for Chemical Discharge Monitoring. "Critically, the better the factory performs and greater the transparency; the frequency and intensity of emission / chemical sample testing and environmental audits reduces."

Ms. Sheila Shek, Global Environmental Supply Chain Responsible at H&M added, "BVE3 complements our testing and auditing program providing us with far greater insight into our supply chain's chemical management performance. In turn, this allows us to better focus resources to drive a greener supply chain. We have been partnering with Bureau Veritas on this for several months now and I am really pleased to see this innovative and pro-active chemical management approach being commercially available to all sustainable players. At H&M, we believe BVE3 is a key milestone in transforming the textile industry by switching from a reactive to proactive approach".



Dr. Kaimin Shih, Associate Professor, The University of Hong Kong and Associate Editor, Waste Management (Elsevier) further stated, "BVE3 is the only commercial model available that can systematically estimate the discharge scenarios of multiple pollutants for the textile processing industry and provides a very economical way to estimate the discharge scenarios."

About Bureau Veritas



Bureau Veritas is a global leader in testing, inspection and certification services. Founded in 1828, the group has more than 66,000 employees in 1,400 offices and laboratories around the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its clients to improve their performances by offering innovative services and solutions in order to ensure that their products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environment protection and social responsibility.

Website: www.bureauveritas.com



Bureau Veritas' Consumer Products Services Division is a leading global quality assurance provider for the global consumer product and retail markets. It offers an array of specialized services including testing, inspections, certification, audits and engineering services for a wide range of consumer products. These products include soft goods; electrical and electronic products; smartworld products and services including wireless and mobile devices; automotive equipment; hard goods; toys and juvenile products; premiums; food products as well as health, beauty, cosmetics, and household products.

Website: www.bureauveritas.com/cps

SOURCE Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services
The People's Procuratorate of Beijing Municipality said on Wednesday that it was investigating five people, including at least one police officer, in relation to the mysterious death of 29-year-old Lei Yang. Lei died shortly after he was taken away by plainclothes police on suspicion of visiting prostitutes on May 7, 2016.

Lei Yangs family filed a report with prosecutors over his death last month in Beijings north-west district of Changping. The prosecutors office in Beijing said the family has been notified with the details of any new progress following the legal procedure.

Justice needs to be sought in a transparent manner that has been overseen by all. From timely information updates regarding the case, to third party autopsy, to the statement put out by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau promising not to shield their faults, to the municipal procuratorates investigation, people can see the law enforcements determination to promote openness and transparency during the implementation of the Rule of Law.

The fundamental difference between the Rule of Law and the Rule of Man can be found in the details of procedural justice. Despite the fact that the autopsy pathology is still in the midst of being tested, the results are yet to be unveiled, and time is still needed for the investigation, the evidence and facts must be admitted and sought through legal procedures in the context of the Rule of Law. We shall wait and continue our supervision of the case and make sure our concerns about this case will be transferred into the kind of force that promotes legal justice.

The publics concerns about the Lei Yang case are not limited to whether or not public safety exists, they also stem from a faith in fulfilling justice and the Rule of Law in the society. To solve a case by law is an opportunity to further develop the Rule of Law in our society. The faults of law enforcement should be strictly disciplined by law. Furthermore, rumors and false information intended to deface the police shall be promptly clarified. The dignity of law is to be safeguarded resolutely. Similarly, the seriousness of law enforcement activities shall be justified. Law enforcement shall make sure all of their conduct is in compliance with the law itself.

This article is edited and translated from  Source: People's Daily
Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group highlighted for the firm's contribution to the fast and growing development of the sector

BEIJING, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent fertilizer industry summit, "China's Slow/Controlled-Release Fertilizers: A Decade of Development", held on May 28th in Beijing, positively highlighted Kingenta Ecological Engineering Group Co., Ltd. ("Kingenta") for the firm's leadership of and contribution to the fast and growing development of the sector.

The summit was co-organized by the China Phosphate Fertilizer Industry Association, the Strategic Alliance of Technological Innovation in the Stable Fertilizer Industry, the National Engineering Technology Research Center for CRF and Kingenta. Nearly 400 government officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as industry leaders and experts attended the event, whose purpose was to review the last ten years of the development and growth of slow/controlled-release fertilizers in China, and have a fruitful discussion of ways to boost advancements in the sector. A white paper on the subject was issued, marking a first for the industry in China.

Since its establishment in 1998, Kingenta has monitored scientific research, has made a significant contribution to the industrial development of fertilizers and is considered to be a major contributor to developing high-end, low cost imported products. The company has done this through innovative achievements and establishing scientific research partnerships with internationally distinguished counterparts.

The company's first production line for slow/controlled-release fertilizers became operational in 2006 and has continued at an annual production capacity of 300,000 tons. Kingenta has opened some of the largest facilities of its kind anywhere in the world and has established a number of national high-end R&D platforms, including the National Engineering Technology Research Center for CRF and the National Enterprise Technology Center and National Key Laboratories. The group has set up long-term partnerships with more than 50 universities and research institutes, both in China and abroad, and established R&D centers in the US, Germany and Israel. During the last ten years, Kingenta has taken part in the development of national and international standards of slow/controlled-release fertilizers. The company was proudly selected twice as runner-up for the prestigious Technology Progress Award, further enhancing the group's leadership worldwide.

Kingenta's chairman, Wan Lianbu, stated, "Over the next ten years the fertilizer industry's responsibility is to maintain a clear strategy of development which focuses on joint cooperation and information sharing in order to achieve synergy, sustainable development and expansion of the sector." Kingenta plans to cooperate with manufacturers and stakeholders across the globe to ensure efficient progress and enhancement of the technology, brands and services of China's slow/controlled-release fertilizers market.

Kingenta led six joint development agreements at the event. Mr. Wan said that this will surely help the company to gain momentum and act as a successful model for other joint efforts within the fertilizer sector.

SOURCE Kingenta
Addition of a Bioreactor 3PACK production facility to its Copenhagen facility provides additional flexible solutions for clients

BOTHELL, Washington, BERKELEY, California and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CMC Biologics, a global leader in clinical and commercial manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies, coagulation factors and other therapeutic proteins, announced today that, as part of its ongoing global manufacturing capacity expansion, it has completed the first stage of the expansion for its manufacturing facility in Copenhagen, Denmark with the addition of a single-use Bioreactor 3PACK facility. The Bioreactor 3PACK configuration consists of three 2,000L single-use production bioreactors and associated seed train for scale up, allowing for flexible production with scales from 2,000L to 6,000L in a single production suite. The bioreactors can be run singly, simultaneously, sequentially or in staggered fashion to achieve desired production needs. The 3PACK line is ready for production runs in June 2016.

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"With this additional cGMP production capacity, we are continuing our long-term strategy to provide innovative solutions to our customers, from early-stage development to large-scale commercial production," said Patricio Massera, General Manager of the Copenhagen Site.

With the combination of multiple 2,000L single use bioreactors, CMC Biologics has broken the paradigm that single-use technologies are not applicable for large-scale manufacturing of biologics. Three additional 2,000L single-use production bioreactors will be added in 2017 to complete the fit out of a Bioreactor 6PACK line, thereby establishing identical Bioreactor 6PACK facilities in its US and European manufacturing facilities.

"Establishing this unique facility design in both our US and European manufacturing facilities enables us to significantly optimize process transfer and synergies between the sites. This provides our customers with the production scale and flexibility needed in today's market, and enables our client to meet aggressive regulatory and production timelines," said Gustavo Mahler, PhD, President & Chief Executive Officer of CMC Biologics and added, "We are changing the way CMOs operate and we continue to generate innovative solutions for our clients."

About CMC Biologics

CMC Biologics is leading the industry among CMOs in reliability, technical excellence, and quality  Right and On Time. With three facilities in the USA and Europe, the Company provides fully integrated biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing solutions to clients globally. The Company has proven expertise in delivering custom solutions for the scale-up and cGMP manufacture of protein-based therapeutics for pre-clinical, clinical, and commercial production. The Company's wide range of integrated services includes cell line development, bioprocess development, formulation development, and comprehensive analytical testing. Clients can also benefit from CMC Biologics' proprietary CHEF1 expression system for mammalian production. CMC Biologics has fully segregated microbial fermentation and mammalian cell culture suites and offers both fed-batch and perfusion production processes. More detailed information can be found at www.cmcbiologics.com.

Media Contact:

Robert Broeze, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, CMC Biologics, +1 (609) 273-3414

Related Links

http://www.cmcbiologics.com



SOURCE CMC Biologics
LONDON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The Department of Transport Management (DOTM) of Nepal has awarded the 44 million US Dollar project, for the 'Supply and Delivery of High Security Embossed Vehicle Plates including Personalization, Enrolment, and IT Infrastructure' to Decatur, a world leader in the production and implementation of Identity Management Solutions. Numerous renowned international vendors participated in the tendering process in January, however Decatur was selected for the most compliant and innovative solution. The contract signing ceremony took place on the 1st June 2016, at the DOTM headquarters in Minbhawan, Kathmandu.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374833 )

The project will facilitate enrolment of vehicle and owner information, create a national database, and supply high security number plates and RFID tags. Both the number plates and RFID tags will help police in fighting crime and maintaining law and order. Decatur will provide the end-to-end solution including project management, support, and training.

"After the successful implementation of our vehicle identification solution in countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa, we are delighted to be able to work for the people of Nepal," says Mr. Goffin, President of Decatur. Decatur is a trusted partner in designing innovative solutions that help meet the evolving challenges in the identity management sector, their technology is patented by the US Patent Office.

Mr. Shrestha, Director General of DOTM, says, "We are very excited about bringing such advanced solutions to our country. We are pleased that our strategic partnership with Decatur will help set important trends for Nepal's vision on e-governance. We look forward to having Decatur developing a cutting-edge identification management system aimed at assisting us in excelling our services for our citizens."

About Decatur

Decatur is a global IT group specializing in identity management products and services which include turnkey solutions for National IDs, E-Passports, E-Voting Systems, Electronic Vehicle Registration Systems, Driving License, Border and Immigration Control, and Biometric Matching Systems.

Projects that Decatur have also won include, the 'Medical Marijuana Authorization System and Registry' for the Department of Health in Washington State, USA; 'Driving License Registration, Issuance, Related Functions and Examination Management' for the Republic of Tajikistan and the 'Automated Solution for Production and Distribution of License Plates', for the Republic of Moldova. Similarly, Decatur is implementing its solutions in Bangladesh, Kenya and Myanmar amongst other countries.

http://www.decatureu.com

info@decatureu.com

office@decatureu.com

SOURCE Decatur
BRUSSELS, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Thailand has been put on formal notice that it faces a potentially crippling exports ban unless further action is taken to tackle fishing irregularities.

The European Union says that it is dissatisfied with progress made in improving conditions in the Thai fishing sector.

Brussels has now given Thailand another six months to end illegal fishing over a year after the European Commission threatened Bangkok with a trade ban.

A source at the European External Action Service (EEAS) said no decision had yet been taken on a red card, or export ban.

"But," cautioned the spokesman, "we keep the yellow card and continue the dialogue with the Thai authorities."

The EEAS says it will wait to see if "enough progress has been made" before it reaches a decision on whether to remove the yellow card.

Since receiving the warning from the EU in April 2015, an EU source said that several issues have yet to be addressed, particularly the installation of tracking systems on fishing trawlers and the enforcement of laws.

The Thai authorities are making more regular checks on vessels and demanded employers give workers written contracts but the issue for many MEPs are human rights on boats, including labour abuses and human traffickers selling people on to boats.

The EU's yellow card is seen as having been a "wakeup call" to deal with an obsolete fisheries law and if it fails to address the issue, Thailand risks getting a red card, which means the EU would ban the country's seafood imports.

To read the full story please visit EU Reporter

Contact:

publisher@eureporter.co

+44 (0)7548 034225



SOURCE EU Reporter
BASINGSTOKE, United Kingdom, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Infortrend Technology, Inc. (TWSE: 2495) has announced its participation at the upcoming IFSEC International to be held on June 21st  23rd at ExCel London, where it will showcase its smart storage solutions with high capacity and steady speed that allow users to easily link IP-cams with SAN structured storages.

First you will see the EonServ 5000ML Series, which comes preloaded with Milestone VMS and is a server-storage hybrid enterprise appliance especially designed to meet the needs of mid-to-large scale and distributed surveillance operations. With support of up to 150 channel 3MP cameras and up to 316 drives via JBOD expansion enclosures, it is the perfect surveillance storage server for a wide range of industries.

Second, you will see the latest released EonStor GSe Family, a unified storage solution delivering efficiency and power in a single consolidated file, block and object storage system with optional cloud-integration. Finally the award-winning EonStor DS Family that delivers great performance thanks to innovative inclusion of the latest technology and interconnection standards.

"High availability and scalability are of the utmost importance for security storage to capture high-definition images while extending the retention period, therefore we would like to use this opportunity at IFSEC International to showcase our storage solutions especially designed to meet the needs of surveillance operations," said Teddy Lin, General Manager of Infortrend Europe.

Visit us for this and more at booth F825, London ExCel. You can also register here for exclusive one-on-one meetings at the show.

IFSEC is the largest security exhibition in Europe. For details, visit http://www.ifsec.co.uk/.

About Infortrend

Infortrend (TWSE: 2495) has been developing and manufacturing storage solutions since 1993. With a strong emphasis on in-house design, testing, and manufacturing, Infortrend storage delivers performance and scalability with the latest standards, user friendly data services, personal after-sales support, and unrivaled value. For more Information, please visit www.infortrend.com

Infortrend, EonStor, EonNAS, and ESVA are trademarks or registered trademarks of Infortrend Technology, Inc., other trademarks property of their respective owners.

Infortrend Europe Ltd.

Agnieszka Wesolowska

Tel:+44-1256-305-220

E-mail: marketing.eu@infortrend.com

Related Links

http://www.infortrend.com



SOURCE Infortrend Technology, Inc.
PUNE, India, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Market-Research-Reports.com adds new report Global and Chinese Lensmeter Industry, 2016 Market Research Report that provides 2011-2021 forecasts for the global and Chinese markets covering information on raw materials as well as overall market dynamics. The report encapsulates all the latest news and developments in the industry along with the progress in the technology front. The information summary helps the reader of this report to be updated on all the activities of the industry. It mentions the recent trend in this market along with a market outlook both at the global and Chinese market level.

Complete report on Lensmeter market of 150 pages divided into 11 major chapters that offer an overview of current market scenario as well as 2021 forecasts is now available at http://www.market-research-reports.com/424494-Lensmeter-industry .

The report mentions top eight manufacturers of this market. The details covered in this portion includes a detailed profiling of the company along with its products offerings, product information over the period of 2011-2016 along with the key contact person in the firm, a person looking to diversify the business knows his competitors and also have a fair idea on the business offerings of its competitors. The Lensmeter Industry report covers the capacity of production of this industry along with production value, supply and consumption. It includes the level of competition in this market and the performance of the players in specific geography like USA, EU, Japan and China. The total market analysed in this report is divided by company, by country, and by application or type for the competitive landscape analysis.

The report also estimates 2016-2021 market development trends of Lensmeter industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. To end with the Lensmeter Industry report includes ten proposals which cover the market entry strategies, suggestions on managing economic challenges and various marketing channels. This section of information is very useful for a prospective market player who is planning to start-up something new in this industry. In order to prevent the new players in the market from any unpleasant experiences and safeguard against market giants there is a feasibility analysis of New Project Investment. The investment research gives a snapshot of all the pros and cons of this industry as well as speaks about the opportunities and threats. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2011-2021 global and Chinese Lensmeter industry covering all important parameters. Order a copy of this report at http://www.market-research-reports.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=444896 .

Explore more report on Medical Devices Industry at http://www.market-research-reports.com/cat/life-sciences/medical-devices-market-research .

Another research titled Global and Chinese Ophthalmic Instrument Tables Industry, 2011-2021 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Ophthalmic Instrument Tables industry with a focus on the Chinese market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Ophthalmic Instrument Tables manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology. Then, the report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2011-2016 market shares for each company. Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global and Chinese total market of Ophthalmic Instrument Tables industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export. The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis. The report then estimates 2016-2021 market development trends of Ophthalmic Instrument Tables industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Ophthalmic Instrument Tables Industry before evaluating its feasibility. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2011-2021 global and Chinese Ophthalmic Instrument Tables industry covering all important parameters. Complete Report Available at http://www.market-research-reports.com/435412-ophthalmic-instrument-tables-industry .

About Us:

Market Research Reports is an aggregator of syndicated market research studies that offer current and future market intelligence across multiple industrial verticals through is high quality database. Market Research Reports aims to help you take business decisions accurately and on time, every time. Understanding your time constraints, we can help you find the most relevant research based on the requirements you share with us. Our customers get 24 X 7 email and phone support. Feel free to reach us at +1 888 391 5441 with your business intelligence needs.

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Ritesh Tiwari

UNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZ

Magarpatta city, Hadapsar

Pune - 411013

Maharashtra, India.

Tel: +1-888-391-5441

sales@market-research-reports.com



SOURCE Market-Research-Reports
PUNE, India, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Significant developments in the naphtha market are expected to come from the APAC, which is home to some key rising economies like China and India while it also houses some key naphtha consumers, such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan that have based a significant portion of their infrastructure growth on naphtha.

Complete report on naphtha market spread across 78 pages, analyzing 10 major companies and providing 35 data exhibits now available at http://www.sandlerresearch.org/global-naphtha-market-2016-2020.html.

The analysts forecast global naphtha market to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% during the period 2016-2020. According to the 2016 report, a key growth driver for naphtha market is the rise in demand for petrochemicals. Plastics in the 21st century are seen as the building blocks for building the national infrastructure of a country. They are used everywhere in all the aspects of life. One of the strongest drivers for the naphtha market is the huge demand that the developing economies have for petrochemicals, primarily ethylene and propylene for production of plastics.

The naphtha market is primarily driven by the upsurge in the demand for gasoline across the globe. The need for naphtha, which is important in the blending of gasoline, is increasing rapidly due to the increase in demand for transportation and subsequently, gasoline. In 2015, the gasoline segment dominated the naphtha market globally by occupying around 51% of the overall market share. Its role as a gasoline blending component due its properties that are very close to gasoline is the key factor for the growth of this segment.

The following companies are the key players in the global naphtha market: Shell Chemicals, BP, Chevron, BASF, Dow Chemicals, ExxonMobil, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited, OAO Novatek, and Sinopec. Other Prominent Vendors in the market are: Indian Oil Corporation, Lotte Chemical Corporation, Mitsubishi Chemical, Sasol, and Vitol. Order a copy of Global Naphtha Market 2016-2020 report @ http://www.sandlerresearch.org/purchase?rname=55362.

The availability of abundant supplies of gas at virtually no cost had put the petrochemical industry at a distinct cost advantage with most naphtha being exported. The ongoing shift of the Middle East from a gas surplus state to that of shortage in the coming years is expected to reflect positively on the market. This shift is prompting petrochemical producers to move towards a shift in the technology based on naphtha by making changes to the basic operating fundamentals that were employed over the last decade

Global Naphtha Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The 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. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global naphtha market for 2016-2020.

Naphtha is a hydrocarbon intermediate that is generally produced during the refining of crude oil in the atmospheric distillation unit (ADU/CDU) of a refinery, which is also the primary source. Additionally, naphtha is also produced from the distillation of coal tar, bitumen, and oil sands. However, the quantities produced through these processes can be considered minuscule compared to the previous process.

Further, the naphtha market report states that a major challenge that could hamper market growth is the high volatility of crude oil prices.

Another related report is Global Transformer Oil Market 2015-2019, the analysts forecast the global transformer oil market to grow at a CAGR of 9.19% over the period 2015-2019. Manufacturers of transformer oil are developing bio-based transformer oil with attributes such as high dielectric constant, high flash point, and low pour point. This development should increase the total global consumption of transformer oil over the forecast period. Browse complete report @ http://www.sandlerresearch.org/global-transformer-oil-market-2015-2019.html .

Explore other new reports on Energy & Power Market @ http://www.sandlerresearch.org/market-research/energy-power .

About Us:

SandlerResearch.org is your go-to source for all market research needs. Our database includes thousands of market research reports from over multiple leading global publishers & in-depth market research studies of over several micro markets. With comprehensive information about the publishers and the industries for which they publish market research reports, we help you in your purchase decision by mapping your information needs with our huge collection of reports.

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SOURCE Sandler Research
DALLAS, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

$75 Million, 5-year Contract Awarded to the Company as the Prime Integrator for the SysMod Project

Tech Mahindra, a specialist in digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering, today announced that it has been selected by Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) of the State of Nevada to be the prime systems integrator for the System Modernization or "SysMod" project - a transformational initiative to modernize the DMV operations.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130625/623008 )



Tech Mahindra's award winning solution MOVES, will form the basis of the transformational journey. The solution will be migrated to the Oracle technology stack and will provide a true customer service experience across multiple channels. The proposed digital solution will provide for better customer service, reduce transaction processing time, and increase speed-to-market of offered NV DMV products and services. The total contract value including infrastructure and services is greater than $70M over a five year period.

"We are looking forward to partnering with Tech Mahindra to create the DMV of the future" said Department of Motor Vehicles Director Terri L. Albertson. "This is not just a technology upgrade. We are creating a motor vehicle agency that will be second to none in delivering fast and efficient service to the public. It is also a great example of innovation and responsive state government under Governor Brian Sandoval's Nevada Strategic Planning Framework for the next five years."

"Tech Mahindra is very excited to partner with Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles in designing and implementing the DMV of the Future," said Arvind Malhotra, Cluster head of Strategic Accounts. "We will be implementing the solution in a phased manner leveraging Agile methodology and a very modern IT architecture."

About Tech Mahindra

Tech Mahindra represents the connected world, offering innovative and customer-centric information technology services and solutions, enabling Enterprises, Associates and the Society to Rise. We are a USD 4.0 billion company with 105,400+ professionals across 90 countries, helping over 800 global customers including Fortune 500 companies. Our innovation platforms and reusable assets connect across a number of technologies to deliver tangible business value to our stakeholders. Tech Mahindra is also amongst the Fab 50 companies in Asia as per the Forbes 2015 List.

We are part of the USD 16.9 billion Mahindra Group that employs more than 200,000 people in over 100 countries. The Group operates in the key industries that drive economic growth, enjoying a leadership position in tractors, utility vehicles, after-market, information technology and vacation ownership.

Connect with us on: http://www.techmahindra.com

Our Social Media Channels: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube

About Nevada DMV

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issues driver's licenses, vehicle registrations and license plates in the Silver State. It also licenses, regulates and taxes the vehicle, motor carrier and fuel industries.

The DMV's mission is to modernize and reinvent DMV services through technology, innovation, customer service and training while guarding against fraud and protecting the driving public through licensing and intervention practices while ensuring privacy protection of DMV records.

The department has more than 1,100 employees. It collects more than $1 billion in annual revenues that help fund highway projects, local government services and school districts. The DMV also raises funds for charitable organizations through the specialty license plate program.

Visit the DMV website at http://www.dmvnv.com.

For Further Queries:

Rajat Mittra

Global Media Relations

RM00461765@TechMahindra.com



Kevin Malone

Public Information Officer

kmalone@dmv.nv.gov



SOURCE Tech Mahindra
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160530/374476LOGO

Ownership interests are being pooled and the new company, operating under the TechInsights name, offers:

- the most extensive database of technology intelligence of electronics and, especially, of integrated circuits at micro level of detail;

- leading reverse engineering and analysis laboratories, staffed by scientists and equipped with patented techniques and sophisticated instruments capable of analyzing state of the art semiconductor, microelectronic, and software technologies;

- An unmatched team of experts in key technology disciplines and in patent licensing and patent litigation best practices. Experts who monitor the latest developments in their areas of specialization, analyze technology, and identify trends supporting innovation creation, protection and licensing.

Terry Ludlow, founder and Chief Executive, and Julia Elvidge, President, of Chipworks will take senior positions within the combined TechInsights and Chipworks business, both reporting to the Chief Executive Officer of TechInsights, John Day.

The combined company will have the scale and resources to advance the breadth and depth of its offering to the global technology industry and to support owners of technology patents everywhere. The two companies count 37 of the 50 largest owners of US patents among their clients and this combination will ensure that our clients will have access to the very best advanced technology intelligence and technology-based patent advice.

John Day, CEO, said: "TechInsights' ambition is to be the preferred source of technology intelligence and advice for anyone needing that information, whether in support of patent strategies, or to support product development and road-mapping, competitive intelligence, marketing, research and education, or any other needs: scale is critical to achieving that ambition and this combination enables us to double up our value to the market."

Terry Ludlow said: "TechInsights and Chipworks have long been leaders in the field  and I am privileged to have played a central role in the formation of both companies some twenty five years ago. I am delighted that the businesses have now been brought together so that a new business, combining the considerable strengths of both companies, is formed: it means that we will serve our clients at continually higher levels for the next twenty five years."

Related Links

http://www.techinsights.com



SOURCE TechInsights
TURKU, Finland, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The latest version of Teleste's CATVisor Argus software helps control ingress and solve network issues automatically and proactively even before they emerge.

Teleste Corporation, a leading provider of video and broadband technologies and related services, invites you to visit us at ANGA COM 2016 and find out how utilising the Teleste CATVisor Argus network management solution can help operators be proactive in network maintenance. Supporting features such as SmartRIS, Argus enables operators to maintain the health of their networks by solving ingress issues even before they emerge.

"Maintaining high service availability and fast broadband connections is essential for keeping today's network subscribers satisfied. Achieving top service quality means solving issues such as network component failures, ingress in signal transmission and slow broadband before they affect consumer experience - or, better yet, such issues should be avoided altogether", told Hanno Narjus, SVP of Network Producs for Teleste. "As we at Teleste see it, network maintenance is most effective when taking place before any service issues have emerged - and that is what proactive network maintenance is all about."

Holding the keys to network health

Teleste's CATVisor Argus software provides operators a cost-effective and easy-to-use tool that helps them in maintaining the health of their network and in keeping their services up and running at all times. The software allows operators to "add" intelligence even to traditional network devices in order to monitor them and ensure that they keep operating around the clock as specified.

In addition to taking purely corrective steps, Argus enables operators to target network problems at a very early stage before they affect service quality. It allows setting device-specific thresholds and alerting relating to conditions that may degenerate system performance and cause device failures in the future. For example, detecting and analysing device-specific voltage level makes it possible to identify and replace faulty power units before they fail. Likewise, the aging of lasers can be indicated by monitoring laser bias current, and old lasers can be replaced when approaching end-of-life.

The latest version of Argus also introduces SmartRIS, an intelligent, automatic application within the Argus server. Designed to reduce the need for manual monitoring work, SmartRIS is used to detect sources of ingress in networks with the help of Teleste's intelligent optical nodes. Once an ingress source is located, SmartRIS isolates it from the network by means of ingress switches.

Besides being the management tool for Teleste's network devices, Argus also supports a wide variety of third-party products. Our vision is to develop it as a management platform covering products from headend to home. A recent extension to Argus is support for some Maxnet II modules from ATX Networks which can be used to build 4K QAM capable headends together with Teleste's HDO products.

ANGA COM 2016 will take place 7-9 June in Cologne, Germany, and you will find us at stand E19 in hall 10.2. More information about our event offering is available on our ANGA COM 2016 webpage. You can also learn more about building 4K QAM headends by downloading our white paper.

About Teleste: Teleste is an international technology company that develops and offers video and broadband technologies and related services. Our supply of technology contributes to the convenience and safety of daily living. Our core business is video - video and data processing, transfer and management. Our customer base consists of cable and telecom operators, as well as public sector organizations. Our business is divided into two divisions, which are Video and Broadband Solutions and Network Services. In both areas, we rank among the world's leading companies and technological forerunners. Video and Broadband Solutions focuses on access networks and video security and information solutions. Network Services offers comprehensive services for network design, construction and maintenance. In 2015, Teleste's net sales totaled EUR 247 million, and the company employed about 1,500 people. Teleste runs a worldwide network of offices and more than 95% of its sales are generated outside Finland. The company is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. For more information see http://www.teleste.com and follow @telestecorp on Twitter.

SOURCE Teleste Corporation
A crowded subway station in Beijing. (Photo/CNS)

First-tier cities of China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guanzhou and Shenzhen have announced their population control target according to the 13th Five Year Plan.

According to the announcement, by the end of 2020, the permanent resident population of Beijing will be within 23 millionShanghai 25 million, Guangzhou 15.5 million and Shenzhen 14.8 million. It means in the next five years, the population growth of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen will be limited to 1.3 million, 0.85 million, 2 million and 3.42 million respectively.

The setting up of a population red line is based on the need to cure the "big city diseases". However, cities are facing many difficulties and great pressure to achieve such targets. To lower the "siphonic effect" of big cities, these cities need to adjust urban function positioning and disperse industries and employments.

The State Department counselor Ma Li told the reporter from the China News Service that big cities have a high rate of capital return, a high degree of industry agglomeration and more employment opportunities. Consequently, a large number of people end up concentrating in these cities. As the population has exceeded the carrying capacity of these cities, their sustainable development will be hindered. So it is very necessary to make population growth targets and relevant policies for big cities.
LONDON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Mobile telecommunications complements business broadband offering is good news for small and medium sized businesses

Toople.com is delighted to announce it is able to accelerate its business mobile telecommunications offering to customers. This has been achieved through the facilitation of two key items: securing mobile services adding o2 and Vodafone, to complement the existing supply with EE. And second is an agreement with leading financiers Henry Howard Finance plc to assist the launch of Toople.com's mobile phone offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160510/803275 )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374373 )

These are two sizeable announcements. It allows the launch of our mobile phone service to be completed ahead of schedule, allowing businesses enhanced service proposition. Furthermore, the innovative arrangement with Henry Howard Finance (HHF) ensures we will buy and then offer customers the very latest handsets and therefore can compete with the leading players in the sector. When it comes to mobile telecommunications, customers want the latest and best technology; Toople.com will be able to provide these.

With these considerable announcements signed, Toople.com will accelerate its plans to offer businesses a very competitive mobile service. Tariffs and advanced contract lengths will be announced in due course, yet customers will benefit hugely from the escalating range of business services from Toople.com.

Andy Hollingworth, CEO for Toople.com commented: "We are very pleased to be able to accelerate our mobile offerings. Our customers will be in nothing other than a win:win scenario. The relationship with HHF will allow Toople.com to compete directly and offer the very latest in handheld technology, and including o2 and Vodafone to complement those already secured with EE means Toople.com will offer a great combination of services to our customers."

With broadband services now available and more services key to assisting small and medium businesses to be launched over the coming months, aspirational businesses will only stand to benefit from a relationship with Toople.com.

Note to editors:

Toople.com is a new service for UK SMEs. We believe in the potential of every SME and want them to have the tools and service behind them to reach their full ability. Our package will offer the most resilient Brilliant Business Broadband services to every single business across the UK.

With a leadership team featuring over 100 years of broadband and telephony experience, Toople.com are perfectly placed to deliver the services that ensure businesses grow. Combine that with our unbeatable deals, and you can see why we are shaking up the industry.

We believe in aspirational businesses, therefore our service is shaped around them. Clear pricing and applying as little industry jargon as possible ensures business owners and purchasers of our services can concentrate on their business's success. At Toople.com, we pride ourselves on making a difference. Toople - changing the perception of telecoms one connection at a time.

About Toople

Toople.com is part of Toople PLC and is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the TIDM "TOOP"

Company website: http://www.toople.com

Social media

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/toople.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ToopleTelecom

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ToopleTelecom/

SOURCE Toople.com
ERIE, Colo., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IX-EL, Inc. announced today that they are celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Slim Spurling's creation of the first Light-Life Acu-Vac Coil, which is one of the signature tools for the cutting-edge Light-Life Technology and the Light-Life Tools. The core of this technology is incorporated in the Light-Life Rings, Acu-Vac Coils, Harmonizers, Feedback Loops, and more. How the technology was developed and the power of the Light-Life Tools is documented in the flagship book "In the Mind of a Master". The book captures the profound impact of inventor and researcher Slim Spurling, and long-time Coloradoan. His cutting-edge Light-Life Technology makes it possible for individuals to drastically improve their well-being along with the improving the quality of their environment.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374504

Spurling's Light-Life Technology is based on sacred geometry and quantum physics, and is designed to help individuals reconnect with the beneficial energies on our planet that assist them in their own growth processes.

The Acu-Vac Coil is the second Light-Life Tool create by Slim Spurling and was later incorporated in the Light-Life Harmonizer, which has a powerful worldwide impact on reducing environmental pollution and countless more benefits. The Acu-Vac Coil was one of Slim Spurling's favorite tools; he used it whenever he saw people in discomfort and it always brought them great relief. The Acu-Vac Coil is not only used for healing of all kinds of ailments, but also for withdrawing discomfort and negative energy, i.e. from situations: crying babies, arguing couples, and remotely by working using a picture of the person in need.

The current list of applications for the Light-Life Tools fall into countless categories such as relieving personal discomfort, reducing stress, increasing the body's healing abilities, energizing water, decreasing air pollution, abating severe storms, and improving soil and plant quality.

"These discoveries are really rather remarkable. Almost any human endeavor will benefit. There's just an endless list."

~Slim Spurling, shown here with some of his Light-Life Tools

The Light-Life Tools and their applications are now recognized and put into practice by a growing network of renowned scientists, qualified researchers, and grassroots organizations worldwide who are keenly interested in improving the quality of life for all.

About IX-EL, Inc.

IX-EL, Inc. is the only authorized manufacturer of the original Slim Spurling's Light-Life Tools that are designed to improve individual well-being, reduce environmental pollution, and improve agriculture. Spurling's legacy of bringing balance and harmony to the planet has continued through his wife, Katharina Spurling-Kaffl, President and CEO of IX-EL, Inc. and her dedicated team. The Light-Life Tools are distributed worldwide and Spurling-Kaffl's vision is to have the Light-Life Tools become a household name. IX-EL's commitment is to Harmonizing the World  one Community at a Time!

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE IX-EL, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lightlifetechnology.com


CHICAGO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Quaker Oats Company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo, Inc., today announced a second voluntary recall of all Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars, as a result of further sunflower kernel contamination found by ingredient supplier SunOpta.

On May 16, 2016, Quaker took the cautionary measure to issue the voluntary recall on a small quantity of their Quinoa Bars that were potentially impacted by sunflower kernels received from SunOpta that were potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes (L.mono).

L.mono is an organism, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Since May 16, SunOpta has conducted additional testing on sunflower kernels that extended beyond the original dates of concern provided. That testing is complete and as a result, out of an abundance of caution and care for the consumer, Quaker has made the decision to expand the initial recall.

The products were distributed nationwide and the company is now recalling all of the following Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars:

6.1 ounce boxes of Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars Chocolate Nut Medley with UPC code 30000 32241 and Best Before Dates before 11/15/16.

11/15/16. 6.1 ounce boxes of Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars Yogurt, Fruit & Nut with UPC code 30000 32243 and Best Before Dates before 11/15/16.

Pictures of the products are available on www.quakeroats.com.

Consumers who have purchased this particular product are urged to dispose of or return them to the place of purchase for a full refund. They can also direct any questions to 800-856-5781, Monday  Friday, 8:30 a.m.  6:00 p.m. (EDT), or find more information at www.quakeroats.com.

At this time there are no other Quaker products involved in this situation. The company is working closely with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and SunOpta to further investigate this issue and ensure it has been contained.

About The Quaker Oats Company

The Quaker Oats Company, headquartered in Chicago, is a unit of PepsiCo, Inc., one of the world's largest consumer packaged goods companies. For nearly 140 years, Quaker's brands have served as symbols of quality, great taste and nutrition. Quaker Oats, Quaker Rice Cakes and Quaker Chewy Granola Bars are consumer favorites. For more information, please visit www.QuakerOats.com, www.Facebook.com/Quaker or follow us on Twitter @Quaker.

About PepsiCo

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $63 billion in net revenue in 2015, driven by a complementary food and beverage portfolio that includes Frito-Lay, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Quaker and Tropicana. PepsiCo's product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including 22 brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

At the heart of PepsiCo is Performance with Purpose  our goal to deliver top-tier financial performance while creating sustainable growth and shareholder value. In practice, Performance with Purpose means providing a wide range of foods and beverages from treats to healthy eats; finding innovative ways to minimize our impact on the environment and reduce our operating costs; providing a safe and inclusive workplace for our employees globally; and respecting, supporting and investing in the local communities where we operate. For more information, visit www.pepsico.com. Follow PepsiCo:

SOURCE The Quaker Oats Company

Related Links

http://www.quakeroats.com


YAKUM, Israel, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd. (OTC: BSIRY) (the "Company") announced today the resignation of Ms. Keren Bar-Hava as a member of the Company's board of directors effective immediately. Ms. Bar-Hava also served on the Company's audit committee. The Board of Directors thanks Ms. Bar-Hava for her contribution to the Company.

Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd. (hereinafter: "Alon Blue Square") operates through subsidiaries. Continued operations - its Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ("TASE") listed 53.92% subsidiary, Blue Square Real Estate Ltd., which owns, leases and develops income producing commercial properties and projects. The others activities include the clearance of purchase coupons and operating the logistic center in Beer Tuvia. Companies designated for sale -the 63.13% held subsidiary, Dor Alon Energy in Israel (1988) Ltd, listed on the TASE, is one of the four largest fuel retail companies in Israel based on the number of petrol stations and a leader in the field of convenience stores operating a chain of 211 petrol stations and 218 convenience stores in different formats in Israel, and Na'aman Group (NV) Ltd., a 77.51% subsidiary listed on the TASE, operates specialist outlets in self-operation and franchises and offers a wide range of "Non-Food" in the houseware and textile segment.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, plans or projections about our business, our future revenues, expenses and profitability. Forward-looking statements may be, but are not necessarily, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," and words and terms of similar substance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events, results, performance, circumstance and achievements to be materially different from any future events, results, performance, circumstance and achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, the following: failure to reach a settlement with holders of our bank debt and guaranteed bank debt and holders of our Series C Debentures as well as the trustees and creditors of Mega Retail and whether we will continue operations; failure to satisfy all closing conditions for the proposed debt arrangement; acceptance by the court of all or part of the claims made by the trustees of Mega Retail; exposure to third party claims for significant amount of Mega Retail's outstanding debts and liabilities; financial and operational restrictions imposed by the proposed framework for debt repayment with our financial creditors; commitments to issue additional shares which would dilute existing shareholdings and may lower the trading price of our securities; economic conditions in Israel which may affect our financial performance; dependence of BSRE on Mega Retail as a lessee of its properties; our ability to compete effectively with large fuel companies and our other competitors; enactment of new laws and regulations, including the enactment of recommendations of governmental appointed committees and regulations with respect to the procurement of petroleum products by fuel companies and the price of petroleum products that are subject to regulation; the effect of increases in oil, raw material and product prices in recent years; and other risks, uncertainties and factors disclosed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including, but not limited to, risks, uncertainties and factors identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Except for our ongoing obligations to disclose material information under the applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

Contact:

Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd.

Zehavit Shahaf, Adv.,

General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Telephone: +972-9-9618504

Fax: +972-9-9618636

Email: [email protected]



SOURCE Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd.
ORLANDO, Fla., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Prescription opioid overdose contributed to over 28,000 deaths in 2014. According to the CDC, people addicted to prescription opioid painkillers are 40x more likely to become addicted to heroin.

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Addressing this national epidemic has bipartisan support. President Obama requested Congress to approve $1.1 billion in funding to support expanded treatment programs. Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, Donald Trump addressed addiction in New Hampshire, "You see this place and you say it's so beautiful. You have a tremendous problem with heroin and drugs." House Speaker Paul Ryan actively lobbied for the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA), passed May 13, 2016, which focuses on monitoring, prevention and treatment.

While these initiatives are important, accessibility remains the number one contributing factor to abuse of prescription drugs. Scripps Safe, Inc. (http://www.4saferx.com) is the nation's leading expert on prescription drug security and the top manufacturer of U.S. made pharmacy and narcotics safes. "Focusing on treatment is important but sometimes too late," says Christopher von Zwehl, Senior Vice President at Scripps Safe. "Pharmacists and Doctors who carry controlled substances should first secure them in a steel pharmacy or narcotics safe. Most critically they need time delay features to deter robberies and have an audit control access system to prevent diversion. We have the most advanced and affordable technology on the market to eliminate unauthorized access and keep everyone safe."

In 2014, there were 829 pharmacy robberies, up 16% from the previous year. According to the DEA the estimated impact of internal drug diversion and abuse costs $72.5 billion a year. Research indicates 12 - 16% of all healthcare workers may have or had an addiction to prescription drugs at some point in their career. Whether to prevent theft or diversion, addressing this epidemic starts with securing access.

Under current regulation, Title 21 CFR 1301.75, controlled substances shall be stored in a securely locked, substantially constructed cabinet. A simple key locked wooden cabinet does not protect practitioners from internal drug diversion or an armed robbery. If something goes wrong, the DEA's substantial requirements checklist outlines the factors they will use to evaluate a practitioner's security system which can still be found non compliant.

Installing a time delayed entry safe with an audit trail access system is the first step to addressing America's opioid crisis and protecting practitioners. This tougher accessibility would save billions of dollars and countless lives.

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Scripps Safe, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.4saferx.com


PUNE, India, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Antifoaming Agent Market by Type (Water based, Oil Based, and Silicone based), by Application (Pulp & paper, Oil & gas, Food & beverage, Paints & coatings and Water Treatment) & by Region - Global Forecast to 2021", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global market size was USD 5.29 Billion in 2015, which is projected to reach USD 6.59 Billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 3.8% between 2016 and 2021.

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Browse 81 market data Tables with 64 Figures spread through 154 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Antifoaming Agent Market"

http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/antifoaming-agent-market-200248272.html



Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report.

The growing manufacturing industry and increasing demand from applications are expected to drive the antifoaming agent market during the forecast period.

Silicone-based captures the largest share of the antifoaming agent market

The antifoaming agent market is segmented based on types, namely, water-based, oil-based, and-silicone based. In 2015, silicone-based captured the maximum share of the overall market and is expected to witness the second-highest growth rate during the forecast period. The demand of silicone-based is increasing because of its properties such as low surface tension, chemical inertness, thermal stability, and complete solubility in water.

Growing demand from pulp & paper application to drive the antifoaming agent market

The antifoaming agent market is also segmented based on applications. The major applications of the antifoaming agent market are pulp & paper, oil & gas, paints & coatings, water treatment, pharmaceuticals, food & beverage, textile, and others. Pulp & paper is the leading application of the antifoaming agent market due to its high demand for pulp & paper manufacturing.

North America the largest antifoaming agent market

The antifoaming agent market is broadly segmented into five regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and South America. North America is the largest Antifoaming Agent Market, closely followed by Asia-Pacific, in terms of value. The rising demand from applications such as paints & coatings and pulp & paper in this region is driving the antifoaming agent market.

Make an Inquiry @ http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=200248272

Currently, various market players such as Air Products and Chemicals Inc. (U.S.), Dow Corning Corporation (U.S.), Evonik Industries (Germany), BASF (Germany), Kemira (Finland), Ashland (U.S.), Elements Plc. (U.K.), and Shin-Etsu Chemical Company Ltd. (Japan) dominate the global antifoaming agent market.

Study Coverage:

The research study aims to identify emerging trends and opportunities in the global antifoaming agent market along with a detailed classification of the market, in terms of both value and volume. It provides a comprehensive competitive landscape and identifies the key players with respect to their market share. The research study also includes a detailed segmentation of the global antifoaming agent market based on application, type, and region. Apart from the market segmentation, this report also adopts the Porter's five forces analysis for an in-depth analysis of the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities.

Browse Related Reports:

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http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/ink-additives-market-156703804.html

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About MarketsandMarkets

MarketsandMarkets is the world's No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model - GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.

M&M's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.

We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
WEST ALLIS, Wis., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Armstrong & Associates, Inc. (www.3PLogistics.com) is an internationally recognized leader for third-party logistics market information and consulting. Part of its ongoing mission is to provide clients with proprietary third-party logistics market research not available anywhere else. A&A's Who's Who in Logistics 3PL Guide provides Internet access to its continually updated third-party logistics provider database. With 478 companies surveyed, the 3PLs profiled in A&A's guide represent over 50% of the total Global 3PL Market revenues.

A&A's 3PL profiles highlight provider revenues, service offerings, geographies served, warehousing and transportation assets, freight forwarding volumes, IT and operational capabilities, and overall strengths and weaknesses. All of the latest information on 3PLs is just a browser away. The latest 3PL profile additions include: Apex Logistics International, Barton Logistics, Bay and Bay Transportation Services, BlueGrace Logistics, Ease Logistics Services, FM Logistic, GHC Services, Kingsgate Transportation Services, Madden, Roehl Logistics and Samsung SDS.

Who's Who in Logistics 3PL Guide and Expert Information Service (E.I.S.) subscribers can search for 3PLs by multiple attributes such as type of service, gross and net revenues, vertical industries served, ocean and air freight forwarding volumes, warehousing square footage, and more! The guide data updates in real-time making it the source for the most up-to-date 3PL information in the industry. According to Armstrong & Associates' President Evan Armstrong, "The technology behind the 3PL Guide uses up to the minute 3PL profile updates to generate provider queries and ad hoc searches, and it has real-time business intelligence reporting capabilities. It is quick and easy for industry professionals to leverage 3PL information for immediate fact-based decision making."

In addition, the Who's Who in Logistics 3PL Guide is synchronized with its sister website www.3PLAdvisor.com, a source for 3PL customer reviews. Provider profile updates automatically update on 3PLAdvisor and the overall rating of a 3PL is displayed on each provider's Who's Who in Logistics 3PL Guide profile, so clients will always have the most accurate information at their disposal.

The Who's Who in Logistics 3PL Guide subscription and other 3PL market research can be purchased at http://www.3plogistics.com/product-category/guides-market-research-reports/. The 3PL Guide subscription comes as a standard benefit for Expert Information Service subscribers http://www.3plogistics.com/product/premium-market-research-analysis-expert-information-service/.

ABOUT ARMSTRONG & ASSOCIATES, INC.

Armstrong & Associates, Inc. (A&A) was established in 1980 to meet the needs of a newly deregulated domestic transportation market. Since then, through its leading third-party logistics market research and history of helping companies outsource logistics functions, A&A has become an internationally recognized key resource for 3PL market information and consulting.

A&A's mission is to have leading proprietary supply chain knowledge and market research not available anywhere else. As proof of our continued work in supporting our mission, A&A's 3PL market research is frequently cited in media articles, publications, and securities filings by publicly traded 3PLs. In addition, A&A's email newsletter currently has over 30,000 subscribers globally.

A&A's market research complements its consulting activities by providing continually updated data for analysis. Based upon its unsurpassed knowledge of the 3PL market and the operations of leading 3PLs, A&A has provided strategic planning consulting services to over 30 3PLs, supported 16 closed investment transactions, and provided advice to numerous companies looking to benchmark existing 3PL operations or outsource logistics functions.

Armstrong & Associates, Inc.

10401 West Lincoln Avenue, Suite 207

West Allis, WI 53227 USA

Phone: +1-414-545-3838 Fax: +1-414-545-3906

Website: www.3PLogistics.com

SOURCE Armstrong & Associates, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.3PLogistics.com


ST. LOUIS, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FleishmanHillard is one of the winners of the annual AT&T Supplier Award because of its support of AT&T.*

"AT&T wants to connect people with their world, everywhere they live, work and play and do it better than anyone else," said Susan A. Johnson, senior vice president, Global Supply Chain at AT&T. "Suppliers like FleishmanHillard are helping us realize this mission by innovating with us to better serve our customers and improve our cost structure. FleishmanHillard is one of the eight companies to receive the 2016 AT&T Supplier Award for their superior work in the areas of customer service, cost reduction, performance improvement, teamwork, diversity supplier spend and supplier sustainability."

"We are honored to receive this prestigious award for the second time in three years," said John Saunders, president and chief executive officer of FleishmanHillard. "AT&T has been an important client of our agency for many years. We are deeply committed to best-in-class service to AT&T and this recognition reinforces our dedication to that effort."

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About FleishmanHillard

FleishmanHillard specializes in public relations, reputation management, public affairs, brand marketing, digital strategy, social engagement and content strategy. FleishmanHillard was named PRWeek's 2014 Global Agency of the Year and 2014 Asia Pacific Network of the Year, "Standout Agency" on Advertising Age's 2013 A-List; NAFE's "Top 50 Companies for Executive Women" for 2010-2016; and among PRWeek's 2013 "Best Places to Work." The firm's award-winning work is widely heralded, including at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity. FleishmanHillard is part of the DAS Group of Companies, and has more than 85 offices in 30 countries, plus affiliates in 43 countries. Visit us at www.fleishmanhillard.com.

About the DAS Group of Companies

The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.

SOURCE FleishmanHillard

Related Links

http://www.fleishmanhillard.com


DULLES, Va., June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Aerodynamics Inc. (ADI) began selling tickets today for its new daily nonstop service between Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) and the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport (YNG). Service will start July 1, 2016 and flights will operate in partnership with Great Lakes Airlines, enabling interline connections with other airlines at O'Hare and seamless connections to over 100 destinations. Flight schedules will allow for same day travel to Chicago for Youngstown travelers and will operate twice daily in each direction on Monday, Thursday & Friday and once daily on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday & Sunday.

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As the long standing air service development consultant to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, AvPORTS provided the airport and Aerodynamics Inc. with analytical support, guidance, and the strategic planning necessary to broker the arrangement and bring this air service to fruition. "By assisting the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport to re-establish daily hub air service at a time when successes like this are extremely rare, AvPORTS has demonstrated how we can leverage our advanced air service development platform to the benefit of our clients," said Tom Reich, Director of Air Service Development of AvPORTS. "Securing this new air service is a big win for Youngstown and the entire Mahoning Valley. We at AvPORTS are honored to have been able to work collaboratively with the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and Aerodynamics Inc. to develop this new air service for the travelers of the Mahoning Valley," said Ozzie Moore, President and CEO of AvPORTS.

About AvPORTS:

Headquartered in Dulles, Virginia; AvPORTS is a full service airport management and consulting company that specializes in owning, leasing and managing airports while also providing consulting support for air service development, marketing, management and operations. AvPORTS is an industry leader in the airport management field with fifteen FAA-certificated airports in its portfolio. Website: www.avports.com

About the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport:

Located in Vienna, Ohio; the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport serves as the main commercial airport for cities of Youngstown, Ohio, Warren, Ohio and Sharon, Pennsylvania. The airport is currently served by its fixed base operator Winner Aviation, and by Allegiant Air, providing the airport with day of week flights to vacation spots in Florida and South Carolina. Website: www.yngairport.com

About Aerodynamics Inc.:

Operationally based in Atlanta, Georgia; the airline operates 50 seat Embraer 145 regional jets from multiple bases in the U.S. under its FAA 121 Air Carrier Certificate (Cert# BUEA634C). Long recognized for its core value of operational excellence, ADI has served the industry for 55 years without incident or accident. ADI currently holds the ARG/US Platinum rating, Full TSA approval and is IS-BAO Stage II, certified. Website www.flyadi.com

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE AvPORTS

Related Links

http://www.avports.com


HAMILTON, Bermuda, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ten countries. More than 40 events. Hundreds of musicians. Millions of happy fans. Today, BACARDI, the world's most-awarded rum, announces its takeover of music festival season with a slate of epic experiences celebrating the best in contemporary music culture.

BACARDI is heating up summer with festival-edition parties around the globe, giving music lovers the chance to rub shoulders with the hottest musicians, watch exhilarating performances, drink BACARDI rum cocktails and most importantly  party like a rock star. Major Lazer, Swizz Beatz, Chromeo, and some of music's freshest new artists have graced BACARDI stages and this summer, even more is in store.

Throughout festival season, BACARDI is making it better, easier, and even more fun for fans to enjoy their music experience. The BACARDI activations will bring new added elements for guests  including perks where guests can rest and recharge with extra seating and elevated views of stages, phone stations, and of course, delicious cocktails to keep the energy flowing. The best perk of all? Ticket sweepstakes across the globe via social media contests for fans to have a chance at winning tickets to attend.

"For years, BACARDI has been a partner in some of the most exciting moments in music history," says Fabio Di Giammarco, Global Vice President, Bacardi rums. "By supporting these festivals, we'll build on our storied tradition  helping musicians fuel the hustle, and continuing to delight fans the world over. Can't bring the festival to the house? No problem. We'll bring the house party to the festival."

The BACARDI global music takeover kicks off in Europe at Primavera Sound (June 1-5) in Barcelona, and will host a number of CASA BACARDI experiences across the continent where guests can visit a bespoke BACARDI structure for great cocktails, music, and more. Throughout the summer festival season, BACARDI will be at festivals in Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Hungary, and Russia, appearing at total of 42 music festivals, including British Summer Time (July 1-10), Les Ardentes (July 6-10), Alfa Future People (July 22-24), Lowlands (August 19-21), and more.

Across the Atlantic, BACARDI continues domination of festival season in the United States with the return of its House Party campaign at Governors Ball in New York, (June 3-5), where top-billing electro musicians Bob Moses and The Knocks will rock the BACARDI House Stage. The celebration continues at Lollapalooza, in Chicago (July 28-31), where a special BACARDI House Party build-out open its doors for even more energetic dance vibes and superstar performers.

Both BACARDI and music are facilitators at the heart of the best social experiences -- whether at a music festival or at home. For those looking to recreate the music festival vibes throughout the summer at their own parties, BACARDI is offering Spotify playlists curated by exciting performers to pair with BACARDI cocktails like the Citrus Party Punch, the Red Rum Punch, or the classic Mojito.

BACARDI has strong roots in music culture, dating back to the 1920s in Cuba, where Facundo Bacardi's grandson, Facundito Bacardi, hosted popular gatherings with live music in the family home. In the 1960's, BACARDI partnered with Capitol records to release "Let's BACARDI Party," a co-produced album. This celebration of music continued throughout the years, including the popular B-LIVE music festival program that begin in 2006, bringing concert series to music lovers across 25 countries around the world, with performances from artists like Will Smith, Matt & Kim, and more, along with a partnership with Groove Armada. Most recently, BACARDI hosted BACARDI Triangle in 2014, an event that pushed the boundaries of the music festival, where 1,862 guests were whisked by private jet to the heart of the Bermuda Triangle to see GRAMMY award-winning DJ Calvin Harris, hip hop star Kendrick Lamar, and singing sensation Ellie Goulding perform in a private showcase.

For more information on BACARDI rum and cocktail recipes, visit www.BACARDI.com.

Follow us on Instagram @BACARDI USA, Twitter @BACARDI, and LIKE us on Facebook @BACARDI.

About BACARDI Rums

In 1862, BACARDI revolutionized the spirits industry when founder Don Facundo Bacardi Masso began producing his remarkable light-bodied, smooth rum. The unique taste of BACARDI inspired cocktail pioneers to invent some of the world's most famous drink recipes including the Mojito, the Daiquiri, the Cuba Libre, the Pina Colada, and the Presidente. BACARDI rums have won more than 550 awards for quality and taste making BACARDI the world's most awarded rum. Today, BACARDI is produced mainly in Puerto Rico, following the production legacy set forth by Don Facundo Bacardi Masso  crafted in a five-step distillation process, mellowed in American white oak barrels, and filtered five times for unparalleled quality and smoothness. http://www.BACARDI.com

The BACARDI brand is part of the portfolio of Bacardi Limited, headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited.

LIVE PASSIONATELY. DRINK RESPONSIBLY.

2016. BACARDI, THE BAT DEVICE AND THE TRADE DRESSES ARE TRADEMARKS OF BACARDI & COMPANY LIMITED. BACARDI U.S.A., INC., CORAL GABLES, FL. RUMS  EACH 40% ALC. BY VOL.; RUM SPECIALTIES  EACH 35% ALC. BY VOL

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SOURCE BACARDI

Related Links

http://www.bacardi.com


The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a world-renowned piece of architecture due to its fascinating incline. However, in Chinas central Henan provinces, a rare set of twin towers in the local Shousheng Temple have also been defying gravity for centuries.

The taller one of the twin towers, which is 30 meters tall, tilts 40 centimeters toward the northeast. The other four-story tower is 18 meters tall. Both towers are hexagon architectures without roofs.

According to Ran Xiaoshui, the 80-year-old tower watcher, started in Tang Dynasty (618~907 A.D.), the construction of the twin towers was halted during the early Song Dynasty (960~1279 A.D.) due to invasions, and hence the structure has remained roofless.

In 1986, after conducting a vertical measurement, local heritage bureau found that the top center of the tower leans 40 centimeters away from the bottom center. In the same year, the twin towers were registered as a heritage protection site by the provincial government, said Ran.

Chang Tiewei, an expert on ancient architecture explained that the incline of towers may be caused by the bearing capacity of the foundation or underground water flow.

During maintenance of the twin towers in 1980s, we noticed the incline. Since the towers are built right on top of the alluvial fan of the Yellow River, which is mostly made up of sandy soil, it may have triggered the leaning angle, said Chang.

Chang added that to straighten a tilted tower is a global challenge. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was recovered by elite experts from all across the world.

The recovery for the twin tower is no easy task. Currently the tower is not on the edge of collapse and its underground structure is more stable than before. A long-term observation is necessary before actually getting into plan formulation, Chang noted.
NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Baccarat, a global leader of luxury lifestyle experiences, today debuted The Heritage Experience, designed to give guests who value perfection a truly once-in-a-lifetime journey steeped in the history of Baccarat. This exclusive experience has been designed to immerse guests in the legend of Baccarat, which represents more than 250 years of history and modernity.

The Heritage Experience traverses three continents and highlights destinations that have played a unique role in the history of Baccarat crystal. The trip begins at the first-ever Baccarat Hotel New York, which brings the brand to life in a dazzling setting encompassing fine dining, shopping, and the excitement of New York City. From there, guests jet off to France to experience the rarefied Maison Baccarat and a trip to the Baccarat manufacturing house to meet Baccarat artisans  the finest crystal craftsmen in the world. Additional trips to Istanbul, Moscow and Seoul round out the Heritage Experience and will help travelers understand the important role Baccarat has played in global capital cities.

The price of the experience is $300,000, which includes private aviation, five-star accommodations, airport transfers and meals and the activities included in the below itinerary. The experience covers 11 nights and 12 days.

Baccarat Heritage Experience Itinerary

Day One

Guests will begin their voyage of discovery in New York at the first-ever Baccarat Hotel, which blends the essence of the legendary crystal brand with rich complex details that embody the city of New York. Upon arrival, guests will check in to the splendid Baccarat Suite, the hotel's most sumptuous accommodation. Guests will then enjoy Afternoon Tea in the Grand Salon surrounded by exquisite Baccarat pieces. The first day will come to a close with an exclusive afterhours visit to Baccarat's flagship boutique on Madison Avenue where they will enjoy a glass of champagne to start off an evening of exploring the stunning displays.

Day Two

The second day will begin with a visit to the first and only Spa de La Mer in the world. The spa is a collaboration between the Baccarat Hotel and the ultra-prestigious skincare brand, La Mer. Guests will be able to sample, among other treatments, the bespoke La Mer Baccarat Facial. The multi-sensorial facial treatment offered exclusively on site will leave the skin flawless and radiant. At the end of this very relaxed day, dinner will be served at the hotel's esteemed restaurant, Chevalier. Named after the iconic creative director of the Maison, Chevalier offers an exclusive menu for two prepared by Executive Chef Shea Gallante complete with exquisite wine pairings.

Day Three

The second leg of the journey will take guests to the origins of the illustrious brand. Guests will travel by private plane from New York to Paris. Upon arrival to the City of Light, they will be escorted to their hotel and will have the rest of the day at leisure.

Day Four

On the first full day in Paris, guests will be chauffeured to Maison Baccarat. Originally the extraordinary residence of Marie Laure de Noailles, the Maison still holds echoes of conversations that took place amongst the most acclaimed artists and intellectuals of the twentieth century. From Jean Cocteau to Dali and Man Ray to Luchino Visconti: a witness to memorable moments of the world's most significant history and culture. Guests will embark on a private tour of the Maison and Musee Baccarat by the Director of the Heritage Department. The Musee is home to major works created by Baccarat for World Fairs, Heads of State, Royal Courts and celebrities. The excursion will end with a private lunch in the Maison's Cristal Room. In the afternoon a visit to the Louvre will allow further exploration into the world of Baccarat via the chandeliers in the apartments of the Duc de Morny and the dressing table of the Duchesse de Berry.

Day Five

On the fifth day, guests will take a helicopter trip and travel to Lorraine, where Baccarat originated. On the same site where the manufacturer was founded in 1764, guests will have an opportunity to see the craftsmen at work during a tour of the factory. Many of Baccarat's craftsman have earned the distinction of Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, which is an honor reserved for the best artisans in the craft. Afterwards, guests will lunch at the Chateau Baccarat, originally the residence of the General Manager of the factory. Following lunch they will be given a tour of the celebrated Baccarat archives, which preserve over 16,000 original drawings. The day will finish with a tour over the French countryside back to Paris.

Day Six

Guests will then take a private flight from Paris to Istanbul to visit the palaces of Berlebey and Dolmabahce. The palaces are filled with Baccarat crystal, and most notably with chandeliers made bespoke in the colors loved by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire.

Day Seven

The journey continues with a private flight to Moscow to discover the very special relationship between Baccarat and the Russian royal family. Since 1867 when Alexander II saw Baccarat's magnificent production for the Universal Exposition in Paris, the orders from Russia started to crowd Baccarat books. By the time Nicolas II became Czar an entire furnace of 1000 workers was reserved to prepare the orders for the Russian Court. It was for Nicolas II that Baccarat delivered the very first electric candelabra and the stunning Czar glass service, inclusive of a unique vodka glass created in the Maison's iconic golden red color. The famous hue is obtained by adding 24 carat gold powder to the 540 clear crystal mix. Upon arrival, guests will be brought to their hotel and have the rest of the day at leisure.

Day Eight

On the first full day in the city, guests will tour Maison Baccarat Moscow. Appropriately located in the building that formerly housed the Czar pharmacy, the Maison is resplendent in Baccarat decorative objects perfectly complementing the splendor of the building. Lunch will be served in the Cristal Room with a bespoke menu created by French chef Michel Lentz.

Day Nine

From Moscow guests will fly to Japan on a private plane. Once in Tokyo they will visit the Marunouchi neighborhood with its sleek towers, designer shopping and smart cafes and begin to discover the strong link between Japan and Baccarat. After a visit to the boutique, the guests will be introduced to the B Bar experience, unique to Japan. In a refined and elegant atmosphere, highly trained bartenders serve cocktails, wine and champagne giving each guest the opportunity to taste their drinks in any Baccarat glass they might want to hold. Surrounded by exquisite Baccarat pieces, inspiring storytelling and lovely drinks, guest will live a truly unforgettable moment.

Day Ten

The last leg of the voyage will bring guests to Baccarat's newest Maison in Seoul, South Korea. The day will begin with a private flight to Seoul, and upon arrival, guests will have an opportunity to explore Seoul at leisure.

Day Eleven

The final full day begins with a VIP tour of Baccarat's Maison in Seoul, which opened in December 2015. The Maison is a modern, refined Korean townhouse, with a mix of materials and styles in which an amazing selection of Baccarat crystal and the largest collection of Baccarat chandeliers in Asia is displayed. The contemporary architecture in metal, glass and concrete is softened by curtains, carpets, velvet armchairs and selected pieces of antique Korean art and furniture.

The Maison seamlessly blends the legendary history of the French brand with the culture of South Korea. Guests will finish the tour with Afternoon Tea in the Maison's exquisite cafe.

Day Twelve

Guests will return to New York City on a private flight, having lived a truly unique experience with the legendary luxury brand.

To learn more about this offering please visit BaccaratHotels.com.

Terms & Conditions:

Pricing is based on double occupancy. Taxes and fees will apply. Experience must be booked 30 days in advance of expected departure and blackout dates may apply.

About Baccarat Hotels & Resorts:

Baccarat Hotels & Resorts translates the perfect craft and noble heritage of the legendary, 250-year-old French crystal maker into an elegant lifestyle. Combining this rare legacy with modern elegance and elements of unexpected magic, each of the brand's hotels and resorts have been conceived as a gracious hotel particulier, welcoming guests with impeccable service and distinctive amenities. Baccarat Hotels & Resorts launched in March 2015 with the opening of its flagship New York property, followed by Rabat, Morocco, in 2016, with additional openings in Dubai and Doha over the course of the next several years. Further information can be found at baccarathotels.com.

SOURCE Baccarat Hotels & Resorts

Related Links

http://www.baccarathotels.com


WELLINGTON, Fla., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Leading U.S. based equestrian law firm, Barbuto Law & Associates, P.A., has announced that it has attended Rome's annual international horse show, the Piazza di Siena. The firm joined thousands of industry enthusiasts and professionals attending this event May 25-29, 2016 within Villa Borghese in Rome, Italy, which once hosted the summer Olympics in dressage and equestrian jumping. "While the firm attends many conferences and conventions each year, the culture, history and sacredness of the Villa Borghese for Italian horse riding makes this event a highlight that improves our admiration, knowledge, and equestrian adeptness," said Anthony M. Barbuto, the firm's founder and managing partner.

The firm is known for its high profile practice in equine law and its attendance at the show demonstrates its appreciation and respect for the equestrian community and sport. The firm is proud to be involved in the equine industry, from Wellington, Florida to Shanghai, Rome and beyond.

About Barbuto Law

Barbuto Law & Associates, P.A. is an international, multi-practice law firm headquartered in Wellington, Florida, the winter equestrian headquarter of the world. Wellington serves as the home to the longest running horse show in the world, which also offers the most world ranking classes in the United States. Serving this thriving international equestrian community, the firm is known for its expertise in the area of equine law. The firm offers unmatched legal solutions, as well as mediation, litigation, appellate, and disciplinary hearing experience on equine matters. The firm assists individuals and businesses organizations by providing legal services, including but not limited to, drafting and negotiating equine-related contracts; incorporating equine businesses; pursuing and defending litigation involving equine-related transactions; representation at violation, conduct and disciplinary hearings before equine organizations; and proactively assuring compliance with equine liability laws to minimize liability exposure. The firm's equestrian clients range from Olympic show jumping and dressage riders, to trainers, breeders, veterinarians, farriers, professional polo players, equestrian clothing/product lines, horse owners, professionals, investors and enthusiasts from around the world.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: visit http://www.barbutolaw.com

Media Contact:

Linda A. Ansaldo, FRP

[email protected]

SOURCE Barbuto Law & Associates, P.A.

Related Links

http://www.barbutolaw.com


"One of MTC's goals is to get the local street and road network in every one of our cities and counties to a PCI score of 75 or better," explained MTC Chair and Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese. "It's nice to see a small sign of progress. But we have a long way to go, and when you consider how old our pavement is, that gap is even bigger than it seems."

PCI scores of 90 or higher are considered "excellent." These are newly built or resurfaced streets that show little or no distress. Pavement with a PCI score in the 80 to 89 range is considered "very good," and shows only slight or moderate distress, requiring primarily preventive maintenance. The "good" category ranges from 70 to 79, while streets with PCI scores in the "fair" (60-69) range are becoming worn to the point where rehabilitation may be needed to prevent rapid deterioration. Because major repairs cost five to 10 times more than routine maintenance, these streets are at an especially critical stage. Roadways with PCI scores of 50 to 59 are deemed "at-risk," while those with PCI scores of 25 to 49 are considered "poor." These roads require major rehabilitation or reconstruction. Pavement with a PCI score below 25 is considered "failed." Among the region's three largest cities, San Jose (62) and San Francisco (67) both recorded three-year scores in the "fair" range, while Oakland (57) ranked in the "at-risk" category.

The Contra Costa County city of Brentwood and the Alameda County city of Dublin topped the list of Bay Area pavement rankings for the 2013-15 period, with both cities reporting average PCI scores of 85. Other cities with three-year PCI scores in the "very good" range include El Cerrito (84), Colma (83), Foster City (82), Clayton (81), Union City (81) and San Ramon (80). The lowest-ranked pavement in the Bay Area was found in the Marin County city of Larkspur, which recorded a PCI score of 39 for 2013-15.

In addition to Larkspur, other jurisdictions with three-year average PCI scores in the "poor" range include Petaluma (46), unincorporated Sonoma County (47), Orinda (49) and Vallejo (49).

Interestingly, MTC's Regional Streets and Roads Program later this year will recognize Vallejo for chalking up the biggest year-to-year PCI improvement of any Bay Area municipality. The Solano County city boosted the one-year PCI score on its 714 lane-miles of city streets by 10 points to 55 last year from 45 in 2014. Vallejo's three-year average PCI score of 49 reflects a two-point jump from the 47 registered for 2012-14. "Vallejo residents are starting to see the return on their investment," said MTC Commissioner and Solano County Supervisor Jim Spering, referring to the one-cent sales tax approved by city voters in 2011 to finance a wide range of municipal priorities, including public safety, pavement repair, streetlight replacement and economic development. "Sales tax dollars allowed Vallejo's public works department to completely repave more than 50 residential streets last year, with even more on the schedule for this year."

MTC also will recognize the Contra Costa County city of El Cerrito for having the best overall pavement management strategy of any jurisdiction in the Bay Area, and the San Mateo County city of Colma for the continuing high quality of its local street network.

The complete 2015 Bay Area Pavement Conditions Summary  including percentages of local roadways in "excellent" or "very good" and "poor" or "failed" condition, and a listing of average PCI scores for the arterials, collector roadways and residential streets  in all Bay Area counties and cities is available at http://mtc.ca.gov/tools-and-resources/digital-library/pavement-condition-bay-area-jurisdictions-2015.

MTC's Vital Signs website www.vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov/street-pavement-condition provides even more detailed information on pavement conditions in each of the Bay Area's nine counties and 101 cities, including both block-by-block analysis and a record of every municipality's average PCI score for each year from 2003 through 2015. Those interested in a deeper look at the challenges facing the region's local street and road network are invited to visit the MTC website at www.mtc.ca.gov/whats-happening/news/street-fight-overview and click on the link for a 2014 multimedia piece entitled "Street Fight: The Ongoing Battle for Better Bay Area Pavement."

MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140801/132756

SOURCE Metropolitan Transportation Commission

Related Links

http://www.mtc.ca.gov


SAN FRANCISCO and NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bloomberg today announced the Bloomberg Technology Conference, an annual gathering of global business leaders and tech influencers in San Francisco that explores the biggest issues impacting technology. This year's program will take place on Monday, June 13th and Tuesday, June 14th at the St. Regis Hotel and will focus on the advancements that inventors are making around the world and the inventions that are changing technology and society. Among the featured speakers are representatives of companies, institutions, CEOs and inventors who offer a global perspective and are striving to change business and society, such as Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, venture capitalist Yuri Milner, Omid Kordestani of Twitter, GV's Bill Maris and Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green. Conference attendees will gain a better understanding of how to develop cultures of invention that will produce game-changing products, services and processes on an international scale.

The conference is a centerpiece of Bloomberg's forthcoming global multi-platform technology initiative led by Brad Stone, Senior Executive Editor of Global Technology. Launching in fall 2016, Bloomberg Technology will leverage Bloomberg's unparalleled reach across the Bloomberg terminal, digital, print, television and radio platforms with the goal of becoming the world's most indispensable source of technology news and information. Stone and Emily Chang, anchor of "Bloomberg West," Bloomberg's weekday television show dedicated to technology, are editorial co-chairs of this year's conference.

"With this year's Bloomberg Technology Conference we are aiming to cast a spotlight on inventors around the world and the people who help to usher their creations into existence," said Stone. "The conference is also part of our ongoing efforts to significantly expand Bloomberg's technology coverage in Silicon Valley and around the world, in advance of the fall launch of our multi-platform technology properties."



"The sold-out conference features speakers with an international agenda who will look beyond Silicon Valley to explore themes that impact global technology at large," said Stacy Kennedy, Global General Manager of Bloomberg LIVE. "We'll be arming conference delegates with actionable insight into technology trends around the world in a way that only Bloomberg, with its global resources and perspective, can do."



To open the program, Monday's dinner will feature back-to back fireside chats with global technology investor Yuri Milner and Twitter executive chairman Omid Kordestani.

Speakers at the main event on Tuesday include Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and general partner Marc Andreessen, GV CEO Bill Maris, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office Michelle Lee, Uber Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden, Intel EVP and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group Diane Bryant, Samsung president and Chief Strategy Officer Young Sohn, and more. The program will feature many voices from outside Silicon Valleylike Start-up Nation's Inbal Arieli from Israel, China Renaissance CEO Fan Bao, Wantedly founder and CEO Akiko Naka, who is based in Japan, and Firmenich Chief Research Officer Genevieve Berger from Switzerland all of whom will share their perspectives on the opportunities that innovating beyond U.S. borders allow.

This multi-platform initiative includes Bloomberg Businessweek's annual global technology issue, available on newsstands on Friday, June 10th, which will venture far outside the well-trodden environs of Silicon Valley to uncover the inventors and inventions that are poised to change the world. Complementing the issue will be a custom feature experience on Bloomberg.com. Additionally, a special sneak preview of an upcoming episode of Bloomberg's new technology and travel digital video and television show, "Hello World" with host Ashlee Vance, will debut at the event. "Bloomberg West" on Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Radio, will broadcast live from the conference, covering the subject of invention throughout the day, simulcasting select sessions and conducting interviews with key speakers.

Full list of speakers:

- Shahar Abuhazira, CEO, Roboteam North America - Marc Andreessen, Co-founder & General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz - Inbal Arieli, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Start-Up Nation Central - Tom Arseneault, COO, BAE Systems - Fan Bao, CEO, China Renaissance - Genevieve Berger, Chief Research Officer, Firmenich - Roelof Botha, Partner, Sequoia Capital - Diane Bryant, EVP & General Manager, Data Center Group, Intel - William Chappell, Director, Microsystems Technology Office, DARPA - James G.P. Dehlsen, Chairman, Aquantis - Helmy Eltoukhy, Co-founder and CEO, Guardant Health - Jennifer Fonstad, Co-founder, Aspect Ventures - Pat Gelsinger, CEO, Vmware - Jeff Holden, Chief Product Officer, Uber - Drew Houston, Co-founder & CEO, Dropbox - Steve Jurvetson, Partner, DFJ - Omid Kordestani, Executive Chairman, Twitter - Julie Larson-Green, Chief Experience Officer, Office Experience Organization, Microsoft - Tessa Lau, Chief Robot Whisperer, Savioke - Michelle K. Lee, Undersecretary Commerce for Intellectual Property, United States Patent and Trademark Office - John Lepore, SVP, R&D Pipeline, GlaxoSmithKline - Bill Maris, CEO, GV - Will Marshall, Co-founder & CEO, Planet Labs - Yuri Milner, Founder, DST Global - Nathan Myhrvold, Founder & CEO, Intellectual Ventures - Akiko Naka, Founder & CEO, Wantedly - Wendy Roberts, Founder & CEO, Five Elements Robotics - Donald Rosenberg, EVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Qualcomm - Andy Rubin, Founder & CEO, Playground - Jay Simons, President, Altassian - Young Sohn, President & Chief Strategy Officer, Samsung Electronics - Stephanie Tilenius, CEO and Co-founder, Vida Health - Melonee Wise, CEO, Fetch

The Bloomberg Technology Conference is sponsored by PowerShares QQQ, Deloitte and Qualcomm.

To learn more about the Bloomberg Technology Conference  the speakers, agenda, and partners  and to request an invitation, please visit bloomberglive.com/tech/.

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company's strength  delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately  is at the core of the Bloomberg Professional service, which provides real time financial information to more than 325,000 subscribers globally. For more information, visit www.bloomberg.com or request a demo.

Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz.

SOURCE Bloomberg

Related Links

http://www.bloomberg.com


DALLAS, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Brinker International, Inc. (NYSE: EAT) will host an Investor Day on Thursday, June 9, 2016 in New York City, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET (presentations will begin at 8:30 a.m. ET). Scheduled senior management presenters include:

Wyman Roberts , CEO and President, Brinker International , Inc.

, CEO and President, , Inc. Tom Edwards , Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Brinker International , Inc.

, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, , Inc. John Cywinski , Executive Vice President of Strategic Innovation, Brinker International, Inc.

, Executive Vice President of Strategic Innovation, Brinker International, Inc. Steve Provost , Senior Vice President and President, Maggiano's Little Italy 

, Senior Vice President and President, Maggiano's Little Italy Kelli Valade , Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Chili's  Grill & Bar

, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Chili's Grill & Bar Krista Gibson , Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Chili's Grill & Bar

The live audio webcast can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of Brinker International, Inc.'s Web site at http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=119205&p=irol-irhome . A replay of the conference call will also be available on the Web site for 30 days after the event.

Brinker International owns, operates, franchises, or is involved in the ownership of restaurants under the names Chili's Grill & Bar and Maggiano's Little Italy.

SOURCE Brinker International, Inc.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Brookdale Senior Living Inc. (NYSE: BKD) today announced that management will participate in a discussion regarding the Company at the Jefferies 2016 Healthcare Conference in New York, New York on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, beginning at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

The presentation is being audio webcast live and can be accessed on the Internet at http://wsw.com/webcast/jeff97/bkd as well as through the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at brookdale.com. A replay of the webcast will be available for 90 days after the discussion.

About Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living Inc. is the leading operator of senior living communities throughout the United States. The Company is committed to providing senior living solutions primarily within properties that are designed, purpose-built and operated to provide the highest-quality service, care and living accommodations for residents. Brookdale operates independent living, assisted living, and dementia-care communities and continuing care retirement centers, with approximately 1,121 communities in 47 states and the ability to serve approximately 108,000 residents. Through its ancillary services program, the Company also offers a range of outpatient therapy, home health, personalized living and hospice services. Brookdale's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKD.

SOURCE Brookdale Senior Living
Success through Multiple Funding Streams In March 2013, Burbank passed their Measure S bond to improve classrooms and ongoing district facility upgrades. In order to fill the gap between the existing bond funding and the needed costs for additional improvements related to classroom size reduction standards, OpTerra presented a solution to implement energy upgrades under a design-build contract. OpTerra helped BUSD free up bond dollars to be reallocated to underfunded bond initiatives, such as additional classrooms and 21st century technology upgrades, ensuring that the District would be able to fund a comprehensive program with no additional costs.

BUSD's Sustainable Bond Relief Program to improve and enhance infrastructure with modernized energy performance is funded through a dynamic combination of Measure S bond dollars, Prop 39 funding, and a tax-exempt lease purchase. The first year of BUSD's program marks the beginning of a series of integrated capital projects that will improve the District's environmental and fiscal sustainability and provide ongoing financial relief to Measure S. OpTerra supports BUSD's vision for a long-term sustainable future by guaranteeing the energy savings used to finance the infrastructure upgrades.

Powering Positive Environmental Impact

Starting with last summer's conversion of landscaping irrigation systems to reclaimed water and now building solar across different schools, BUSD is achieving positive gains in sustainability from water use to energy performance.

By converting its irrigation systems to reclaimed water during the summer of 2015, BUSD has not only saved the region an estimated 26 million gallons in potable water each year, but also elevated consciousness within the community about state water restrictions. At yesterday's event, representatives from Burbank Water and Power presented the District with a rebate check for $100,000 as a result of BUSD's impressive water reduction efforts over the past year.

The Burbank Adult School is one of the first of several sites to be energized with renewable power, and the District has made additional improvements designed to enhance student safety and improve their energy profile, including:

742 kW total of solar PV on parking lot and student shade structures and rooftops across eight sites upon program completion

New and upgraded AC systems and ventilation systems

Upgraded HVAC systems, including new District-wide energy management system and duct cleaning

Interior and exterior LED lighting system upgrade with controls

Upgrades to PA systems and life safety systems

New lunch shelter and reconstruction of parking lots

Building a Brighter Tomorrow

Community partners lauded Superintendent Hill and the BUSD Board for their leadership in maximizing the impact of their community-supported bond to serve as a model for other schools across Southern California at yesterday's celebration event.

John Mahoney, CEO of OpTerra, shared, "OpTerra is excited to be working with our local partner Burbank Unified School to demonstrate how a school district can do more with available funding coupled with community-supported bonds. Thanks to state programs like Prop 39 and local utility rebates and incentives like those from Burbank Water and Power, now is the time for schools to leverage the power of a sustainable energy program to drive fiscal and environmental success across the community like BUSD has done."

As their energy savings continue to grow, Burbank Unified School District plans to invest the ongoing, projected savings into ongoing STEM engagement opportunities and experiential learning activities to empower the next, local generation of students.

About Burbank Unified School District: For more information about Burbank Unified School District, visit www.burbankusd.org, or contact Kimberley Clark, District PIO, at 818-729-4422.

OpTerra Energy Services:

OpTerra Energy Services is a national energy company that works with education, local government, commercial, industrial, and institutional organizations to implement efficiency and sustainable energy solutions that save money, enhance safety, improve assets, and protect the environment. As a subsidiary of ENGIE, the number one energy efficiency services provider in the world, OpTerra Energy Services provides a unique and extensive set of energy and sustainability management services to thousands of customers across the U.S. The company has provided more than $2 billion in energy savings for its customers over the past 40 years. For more information, please visit www.opterraenergy.com or contact Lani Wild, Communications Manager, at 415-735-9080.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374982

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150311/181149LOGO

SOURCE OpTerra Energy Services
BOSTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BV Investment Partners ("BV"), a middle-market private equity firm focused on the information and business services and communications sectors, today announced that Stuart Brown has joined the firm as a Partner, where he will be focused on originating new investment opportunities.

Mr. Brown joins BV from MHT Midspan, a leading national investment bank, where he most recently served as Managing Director and head of the Energy Group, which he founded and built into a national energy practice. Previously, he served in senior positions with Southwest Securities, Inc., Butler Capital Investments, Inc., and Citi Global. He began his career at Stephens, Inc. Mr. Brown is a graduate of The University of the South at Sewanee and received his MBA from Wake Forest University, Babcock Graduate School.

Justin Harrison, Managing Director of BV, said, "We have worked with Stuart for a number of years and have gained firsthand insight into his considerable business and strategic acumen through our investment in software provider geoLOGIC Systems. His advice and experience have already proven instrumental in Fund VIII and we are very pleased that he is joining our firm. His origination and execution experience combined with his knowledge of our firm makes him an immediately effective addition to our partnership."

Separately, BV also named two new members to its Operating Advisory Board (OAB), bringing the total Board to 14 experienced executives in the firm's industry verticals who offer operating expertise and strategic insights to BV and its portfolio investments. Joining the OAB is Jerry Burgess, a senior executive with more than 30 years of experience in the health care industry. He is Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Community Health Alliance of Tennessee, the state's only Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan. He will work in the firm's Business & Information Services vertical. Dev Chanchani also joins the OAB and will work within the firm's Communications vertical. Mr. Chanchani is a leader in the managed hosting industry. He founded and served as CEO of INetU, a leading managed hosting and cloud services provider and former BV portfolio company, which was sold to ViaWest, Inc. in 2015.

Commenting on the expansion of the Firm's senior team and OAB, Vikrant Raina, Managing Partner, said, "We continue to broaden our talent to meet the needs of our firm and our investors moving forward. Stuart is a great complement to our strong, established team and his M&A and expansive industry expertise, will add a new and important perspective to existing and future investments. Additionally, our OAB is a significant asset to the Firm as it broadens our deep industry network and operating capabilities. The new members will further enhance the effectiveness of the Board and we look forward to their contributions."

About BV

BV Investment Partners is currently investing its eighth private equity fund. The firm is one of the oldest and most experienced sector-focused private equity firms in North America. Since its founding in 1983, the firm has invested over $2.7 billion in 84 companies, actively targeting investments in the information and business services and communications industries. For more information, please visit www.bvlp.com.

Contact: Chris Tofalli

Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC

914-834-4334

SOURCE BV Investment Partners

Related Links

http://www.bvlp.com


- Anthony Capodanno joins Industrial and Professional Services

practices and Toronto office team-

-Courtney Day promoted to Partner in the Industrial Practice and Calgary office-

TORONTO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Retained executive search firm The Caldwell Partners International Inc. (TSX: CWL) today announced the appointment of two new Partners in the firm's Toronto and Calgary offices. Anthony Capodanno is joining the Toronto office and the Industrial and Professional Services practices, and Courtney Day in the firm's Calgary office is being promoted to Partner in the Industrial Practice.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Capodanno spent over 15 years in the executive search industry with both global publicly-listed and privately-held firms, as well as leading a private practice, and has been a multiple President's Award recipient for his key contributions. Previous to his consulting career, he held key positions with leading blue-chip organizations within the financial services and IT&T sectors.

"Anthony is an important addition to our Canadian team," said Elan Pratzer, managing partner of the firm's Canadian region. "He has led numerous executive engagements throughout Canada, the U.S. and globally, acting as a strategic advisor, close business partner and confidant to clients throughout the process. Additionally, his combination of deep market knowledge and highly disciplined approach to execution make him a perfect fit for the Caldwell Partners team, and will allow us to better serve our clients."

Mr. Pratzer continued: "Courtney has distinguished both herself and our firm with her energy, drive, and client commitment. Her strengths and success are indicative of the talent we have inside our firm, and she has earned a reputation for building strong trusted advisor relationships with her candidates and clients across North America.

Ms. Day focuses on recruiting senior executives in the industrial sector, with particular expertise in the energy, utilities, infrastructure, and real estate space. Prior to joining Caldwell Partners, she recruited senior level executives in human resources, supply chain management, and health, safety, & environment with a Canadian boutique search firm. Before joining the recruiting industry, she was an account executive at Incite, a marketing firm for business-to-business (B2B) organizations in Alberta, where she worked with clients across several industries and sectors. Ms. Day also has a background as a public relations consultant at Hill & Knowlton and brings research experience as a government members' research officer with the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

"Anthony and Courtney's appointments are a huge positive for our firm as a whole, and our Industrial Practice in particular," said Dave Winston, managing partner of the firm's Industrial Practice. "The added industrial expertise extending our industry coverage in Canada will allow us to better serve our clients on a global basis."

About Caldwell Partners

Caldwell Partners is a leading international provider of executive search and has been for more than 45 years. As one of the world's most trusted advisors in executive search, the firm has a sterling reputation built on successful searches for boards, chief and senior executives, and selected functional experts. With offices and partners across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific, the firm takes pride in delivering an unmatched level of service and expertise to its clients.

The Caldwell Partners' Common shares are listed on The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CWL). Please visit our website at www.caldwellpartners.com for further information.

SOURCE The Caldwell Partners International Inc.
CLEVELAND, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CBIZ, Inc. (NYSE: CBZ) (the "Company") today announced that it has acquired Flex-Pay Business Services, Inc. ("Flex-Pay") effective June 1, 2016.

Founded in 1996, Flex-Pay is a leading payroll company headquartered in Winston-Salem, N.C., providing payroll processing, Affordable Care Act fulfillment, and human resource solutions to more than 3,600 clients primarily in the Southeast. Flex-Pay has 80 employees and recorded approximately $10.0 million in revenue during the past twelve months.

"Joining the CBIZ team is extremely exciting, as CBIZ shares our core belief in providing exceptional service to each client," said John Googe, president of Flex-Pay. "Gaining access to additional resources for both our clients and employees provides a strong platform for continued growth and support. CBIZ utilizes the same payroll, timekeeping, and HRIS platforms, so our clients are assured of continuity of service. That is of the utmost importance to us."

Jerry Grisko, president and CEO of CBIZ, said, "We are excited to welcome John and the Flex-Pay organization to CBIZ. Flex-Pay is well known for its exceptional client service and is the endorsed payroll provider of a number of significant partner channels including regional banks and associations in the Southeast. The addition of its strong sales and operations team will enhance CBIZ's payroll offerings in the Carolinas. We look forward to working with the Flex-Pay team to continue to grow this business and expand the scope and level of service we provide to our combined clients in this geography."

CBIZ, Inc. provides professional business services that help clients better manage their finances and employees. CBIZ provides its clients with financial services including accounting, tax, financial advisory, government health care consulting, risk advisory, real estate consulting, and valuation services. Employee services include employee benefits consulting, property and casualty insurance, retirement plan consulting, payroll, life insurance, HR consulting, and executive recruitment. As one of the largest accounting, insurance brokerage and valuation companies in the United States, the Company's services are provided through more than 100 Company offices in 33 states.

Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to adequately manage and sustain its growth; the Company's dependence on the current trend of outsourcing business services; the Company's dependence on the services of its CEO and other key employees; competitive pricing pressures; general business and economic conditions; and changes in governmental regulation and tax laws affecting the Company's insurance business or its business services operations. A more detailed description of such risks and uncertainties may be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

For further information regarding CBIZ, call our Investor Relations Office at (216) 447-9000 or visit our web site at www.cbiz.com.

SOURCE CBIZ, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cbiz.com


"You've never seen fireworks like this; this package promises an experience you won't soon forget," said President of Sundance Helicopters Jay Francis. "We've worked with federal aviation officials, and secured the special clearances necessary to fly guests safely as close to the Las Vegas Fourth of July fireworks as possible in spectacular style."

Guests enjoying the Fourth of July Fireworks Package will first experience Sundance Helicopters' City Lights tour, which includes round-trip luxury stretch limousine transportation from hotels in Las Vegas, a champagne toast and reception at Sundance's beautiful pre-flight lounge. Passengers will fly in the air-conditioned, comfortable, six-passenger Airbus H-130 helicopter. The City Lights tour will showcase a multitude of breathtaking views including, the vibrant colors of the Las Vegas skyline and the city's famous landmarks. Rather than returning immediately afterward, the pilot will hover at a safe distance as Las Vegas' famous holiday fireworks display erupts from the collective rooftops of the Strip's hotel and casino properties.

There is limited seating for this tour. For more information on Sundance Helicopters, pricing or to book this tour, please visit: www.sundancehelicopters.com or call (702) 736.0606.

ABOUT SUNDANCE HELICOPTERS

Sundance Helicopters is joined by Blue Hawaiian Helicopters as part of the Air Methods Corporation (AMC) tourism division. It is the longest-running and most experienced air tour operator in Las Vegas, flying since 1985. Sundance Helicopters was the first to introduce the Grand Canyon helicopter tour that has since become the most popular helicopter tour in Las Vegas. Sundance Helicopters has a fleet of 25 aircraft, features a variety of excursions in Nevada, and provides custom tours and special event services to corporate, social and weddings groups. Follow Sundance Helicopters on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374899

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SOURCE Sundance Helicopters

Related Links

http://www.sundancehelicopters.com


WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, public accommodations, commercial facilities, telecommunications, and state and local government services.

This Facts for Features provides a demographic snapshot of the U.S. population with a disability and examines various services available to them. The statistics come from various Census Bureau censuses and surveys, covering differing periods of time.

Population Distribution

56.7 million

The number of people in the United States in 2010 with a disability, according to the Survey of Income and Program Participation. People with disabilities represented 19 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population. People with a disability have a physical or mental impairment that affects one or more major life activities, such as walking, bathing, dressing, eating, preparing meals, going outside the home or doing housework. A disability can occur at birth or at any point in a person's life.

Source: Americans With Disabilities: 2010

http://www.census.gov/prod/2012pubs/p70-131.pdf

15.7 million

The number of people age 65 and older with at least one disability, according to data collected from the American Community Survey from 2008 to 2012, which makes up 39 percent of the population in this age group. Of this group, two-thirds had difficulty in walking or climbing stairs. The second-most cited disability was difficulty with independent living, such as visiting a doctor's office or shopping.

Source: Older Americans With a Disability: 2008-2012

http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2014/acs/acs-29.pdf

19.9%

The percentage of the civilian noninstitutionalized population in West Virginia in 2014 with a disability  the highest rate of any state in the nation. Utah, at 9.6 percent, had the lowest rate.

Source: 2014 American Community Survey, Table GCT1810

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_1YR/GCT1810.US01PR

28.1%

The percentage of the civilian noninstitutionalized population in Pike County, Ky., in 2014 with a disability  among the highest rate in the nation among counties with populations of 65,000 or more. Loudoun County, Va., at 5.5 percent, had among the lowest rates.

Source: 2014 American Community Survey, Table GCT1810 http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_1YR/GCT1810.US05PR

23.2%

The percentage of the civilian noninstitutionalized population in The Villages (CDP), Fla., in 2014 with a disability  among the highest rates in the nation among places with populations of 65,000 or more. San Ramon, Calif., at 4.3 percent, had among the lowest rates. A place is a city, town, village or borough, either legally incorporated or not.

Source: 2014 American Community Survey, Table GCT1810

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_1YR/GCT1810.US13PR

Services for Those With Disabilities

2,833

The number of business establishments providing special needs transportation in 2012, up 20.7 percent from 2,347 in 2007. Such businesses may use specially equipped vehicles to provide passenger transportation. These businesses employed 61,605 people in 2012 and generated revenues of $3.5 billion. Employment was up 24.0 percent and revenues increased 27.7 percent since 2007.

Source: 2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 485991)

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/48A2//naics~485991

14,060

The number of business establishments that provided pet care (except veterinary services) in 2012. These businesses generated revenues of $3.4 billion. Among these businesses are those that train assistance dogs.

Source: 2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 812910)

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/81A2//naics~812910

25,964

The number of business establishments providing services for the elderly and people with disabilities in 2012. These businesses employed 901,359 workers and generated $34.1 billion in revenues. In 2007, there were 20,433 such establishments, employing 621,545 people and producing $25.3 billion in revenues. These establishments provide for the welfare of these individuals in such areas as day care, nonmedical home care or homemaker services, social activities, group support and companionship.

Source: 2012 and 2007 Comparative- Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 624120)

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/62A2//naics~62412

7,832

The number of business establishments providing vocational rehabilitation services in 2012; these businesses employed 312,659 people and generated revenues of $12.4 billion. In 2007, there were 7,631 such establishments, employing 303,713 people and producing revenues of $11.5 billion. These businesses provide job counseling, job training and work experience to people with disabilities.

Source: 2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 624310)http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/62A2//naics~624310

2,344

The number of business establishments providing translation and interpretation services in 2012; these businesses employed 24,926 people and generated revenues of $4.2 billion. In 2007, there were 1,975 such establishments, employing 14,546 people and producing revenues of $1.9 billion. Among these businesses are those that provide sign language services.

Source: 2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 541930)

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/54A2//naics~541930

3,597

The number of business establishments providing home health equipment rental in 2012, down 4.4 percent from 3,762 in 2007. Such businesses rent home-type health and invalid equipment, such as wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen tanks, etc. These businesses employed 33,935 people in 2012 and generated revenues of $5.4 billion. Employment was up 2.8 percent while revenues decreased 7.8 percent since 2007.

Source: 2012 and 2007 Comparative Economic Census Geographic Area Series (NAICS 532291)

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ECN/2012_US/53A2//naics~532291

Specific Disabilities

Note: All data in this section come from Americans With Disabilities: 2010, which contains data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

7.6 million : Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had a hearing impairment. Among people 65 and older, 4 million had hearing impairments.

: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had a hearing impairment. Among people 65 and older, 4 million had hearing impairments. 8.1 million : Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 with vision impairment.

: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 with vision impairment. 30.6 million : Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had movement impairment, such as walking or climbing stairs.

: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had movement impairment, such as walking or climbing stairs. 3.6 million : Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who used a wheelchair. This compares with 11.6 million people who used canes, crutches or walkers.

: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who used a wheelchair. This compares with 11.6 million people who used canes, crutches or walkers. 2.4 million : Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had Alzheimer's disease, senility or any form of neurocognitive disorders.

: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who had Alzheimer's disease, senility or any form of neurocognitive disorders. 12.0 million: Number of people age 15 and older in 2010 who required the assistance of others in order to perform one or more basic or instrumental activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, doing housework and preparing meals.

Older People With a Disability

Note: The source for the data in this section is Older Americans With a Disability: 2008-2012, which contains data from the 2008 to 2012 American Community Survey.

25.4%

The percentage who were age 85 and older with a disability among the population age 65 and older, according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

More than One-Third

The proportion of people age 85 and older with a disability who lived alone, compared with one-fourth of those age 65 to 74, according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

54.4%

The percentage of the older population who had not graduated from high school and had a disability, twice the rate of those with a bachelor's degree or higher (26.0 percent), according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

12.6%

The percentage of older Americans living in a household with a disability living in poverty, compared with 7.2 percent of older household population without a disability, according to the 2008-2012 American Community Survey.

Earnings

$21,232

Median earnings in the past 12 months for people with a disability. This is 68 percent of the median earnings, $31,324, for those without a disability. (Both figures pertain to the civilian, noninstitutionalized population 16 years and older, with earnings in the past 12 months.)

Source: 2014 American Community Survey, Table B18140

http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/14_1YR/B18140

Mobility

Note: The source for the data in this section is Desire to Move and Residential Mobility: 2010-2011, a report which uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.

12.5%

The percentage of householders with a disability who desired to move to another residence, higher than the corresponding figure of 8.2 percent for those without a disability. Those with mental disabilities were the most likely to desire to move (20.6 percent).

17.3%

The percentage of householders with a disability who desired to move to another residence and actually did so over a one-year period.

9.3%

The percentage of all householders with a disability who moved to another residence over a one-year period.

Following is a list of observances typically covered by the Census Bureau's Facts for Features series:

African-American History Month (February) Labor Day (1st Monday in September) Super Bowl (1st Sunday in February) Grandparents Day (1st Sunday after Labor Day) Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15) Women's History Month (March) Unmarried and Single Americans Week (3rd week of September) Irish-American Heritage Month (March)/ Halloween (Oct. 31) St. Patrick's Day (March 17) American Indian/Alaska Native Heritage Month Earth Day (April 22) (November) Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (May) Veterans Day (Nov. 11) Older Americans Month (May) Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday in November) Mother's Day (2nd Sunday in May) The Holiday Season (December) Hurricane Season Begins (June 1)

Father's Day (3rd Sunday in June)

The Fourth of July (July 4)

Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act (July 26)

Back to School (August)



Editor's note: The preceding data were collected from a variety of sources and may be subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Facts for Features are customarily released about two months before an observance in order to accommodate magazine production timelines.

Public Information Office

301-763-3030 / [email protected]

census.gov

Connect with us on Social media

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

Related Links

http://www.census.gov


Policy not Personality

In America's Simple Solutions: A Visionarys Blueprint for a Better Tomorrow (Cool Titles; July 2016) Werts both warns and challenges Americans, "I see our country headed down the wrong path and I see other countries do things better. Today we are burying our head in the sand while kicking the ball to future generations, rather than making courageous decisions to face reality. We are headed toward a huge brick wall, and when the collision happens, it won't be pretty."

"The good news is that there is time to avoid the collision," advises Werts, "Through elections, we can put everyone from a city council member to our nation's president into office. If we choose correctly, these people will turn us around and put common sense back into our lives."

Throughout his "blueprint," written in common sense terms appealing to the U.S. college-age young adults and blue collar workers that have effectively ruled the astonishing 2016 presidential campaign, Werts emphasizes the importance of expanded freedom, especially for entrepreneurs and business.

"Individual freedom produces wealth and economic growth. This typically happens in a free market economy with the least amount of bureaucratic regulation." He makes a clear and compelling case that people must be encouraged to take risks, and be allowed to keep the fruits of their labor and pass them on to their children. He links his principled approach to fixing the current political system back to the views of our countrys Founding Fathers, much of whose wisdom he argues has been forgotten.

Commenting on America's Simple Solutions, America's iconic J.Crew apparel company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Millard (Mickey) Drexler, states, "Mark offers digestible yet insightful solutions to some of our biggest issueswith no agenda and no BS. Pretty refreshing in today's world."

Jim Ellis, Dean of USC's Marshall School of Business, states, "Mr. Werts is a successful global executive who objectively looks at America's issues as he would business opportunities, and proposes solutions for them that are simplistic, realistic, and very viable. A well-written, thoughtful piece giving our country a road map back to a leadership position."

America's Simple Solutions is available for preorder at Amazon.com (http://amzn.to/1T8XMg6).

Media requesting advance reading copies and/or interviews please contact:

Media Contact

Margot Black

Email: Margot (at) BlackInkPR.com

(323) 993-7171

America's Simple Solutions

A Visionary's Blueprint for a Better Tomorrow

By Mark Werts

Publisher: Cool Titles

Publication Date: July 2016

$25.95 Hardcover

ISBN: 978-1-935270-41-6

Quotes for Media

CEO, J.Crew Apparel Company, Millard (Mickey) Drexler: "Mark offers digestible yet insightful solutions to some of our biggest issueswith no agenda and no BS. Pretty refreshing in today's world."

Dean of USC's Marshall School of Business, Jim Ellis: "Mr. Werts is a successful global executive who objectively looks at America's issues as he would business opportunities, and proposes solutions for them that are simplistic, realistic, and very viable. A well-written, thoughtful piece giving our country a road map back to a leadership position into office."

Author Mark Werts: "The good news is that there is time to avoid the collision Through elections, we can put everyone from a city council member to our nation's president into office. If we choose correctly, these people will turn us around and put common sense back into our lives."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374434

SOURCE Mark Werts
WILMINGTON, Del., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The Chemours Company (Chemours) (NYSE: CC) strongly refutes the report by Citron Research issued today.

Chemours, a global chemistry company with leading market positions in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, was created to build on its fundamental strengths.

Upon becoming an independent company less than one year ago, Chemours immediately launched a five-point transformation plan to improve Adjusted EBITDA by $500 million over 2015 levels and reduce its leverage ratio to approximately three times in 2017. Chemours continues to execute on all aspects of its plan by reducing cost, optimizing its portfolio, growing market positions, refocusing investments and enhancing its organization. The company has taken swift and decisive action under this plan and has already delivered significant cost reductions while strengthening its liquidity position. Chemours is making major investments in key growth initiatives, and continues to progress the strategic review of its Chemical Solutions business.

The company reaffirms its 2016 outlook of Adjusted EBITDA above the 2015 performance, generating modestly positive free cash flow. This includes the expectation of $200 million of cost savings realized in 2016.

Information about Chemours businesses, market positions and financial performance is available on Chemours.com.

About The Chemours Company

The Chemours Company (NYSE: CC) helps create a colorful, capable and cleaner world through the power of chemistry. Chemours is a global leader in titanium technologies, fluoroproducts and chemical solutions, providing its customers with solutions in a wide range of industries with market-defining products, application expertise and chemistry-based innovations. Chemours ingredients are found in plastics and coatings, refrigeration and air conditioning, mining and oil refining operations and general industrial manufacturing. Our flagship products include prominent brands such as Teflon, Ti-Pure, Krytox, Viton, Opteon and Nafion. Chemours has approximately 8,100 employees across 35 manufacturing sites serving more than 5,000 customers in North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Chemours is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware and is listed on the NYSE under the symbol CC. For more information please visit chemours.com or follow Chemours on Twitter at @chemours.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We prepare our financial statements in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ("GAAP"). Within this press release, we make reference to Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow, which are non-GAAP financial measures. Free cash flow is defined as Cash from Operations minus cash used for PP&E purchases. The company includes these non-GAAP financial measures because management believes they are useful to investors in that they provide for greater transparency with respect to supplemental information used by management in its financial and operational decision making.

Management uses Adjusted EBITDA to evaluate the company's performance excluding the impact of certain non-cash charges and other special items which we expect to be infrequent in occurrence in order to have comparable financial results to analyze changes in our underlying business from quarter to quarter.

Accordingly, the company believes the presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures, when used in conjunction with GAAP financial measures, is a useful financial analysis tool that can assist investors in assessing the company's operating performance and underlying prospects. This analysis should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. This analysis, as well as the other information in this press release, should be read in conjunction with the company's financial statements and footnotes contained in the documents that the company files with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The non-GAAP financial measures used by the company in this press release may be different from the methods used by other companies. For more information on the non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to materials posted to the website at investors.chemours.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, which often may be identified by their use of words like "plans," "expects," "will," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "anticipates" or other words of similar meaning. These forward-looking statements address, among other things, our anticipated future operating and financial performance, business plans and prospects, transformation plans, resolution of environmental liabilities, litigation and other contingencies, plans to increase profitability, our ability to pay or the amount of any dividend, and target leverage that are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events which may not be realized. The matters discussed in these forward-looking statements also are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements, as further described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2015. Chemours undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.

CONTACTS:

MEDIA:

Alvenia Scarborough

Global Communications Leader

+1.302.773.4507

[email protected]

INVESTORS:

Alisha Bellezza

Treasurer & Director of Investor Relations

+1.302.773.2263

[email protected]

SOURCE The Chemours Company

Related Links

http://www.chemours.com


LONDON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As a key integral of automated logistics system, automated logistics equipment mainly includes AGVs, forklifts, automated stereo warehouse, automated conveyors and sorters, etc.



In 2015, the market size of automated logistics system in China approximated RMB58.3 billion, up 25.7% from a year earlier. Of all, automated conveying and sorting equipment of high value boasts market size of around RMB21.62 billion, sharing 37.1% or so.



In the future, fueled by the rise of factory automation and the rapid development of emerging logistics modes like third-party logistics and e-commerce, the market size of automated logistics equipment system in China is expected to reach RMB174.5 billion by 2020, of which RMB68.93 billion will be contributed by automated conveyor and sortation systems.



Logistics automation finds application in tobacco, medical drugs, and automobiles. In 2015, the automated logistics equipment revenue from the above three sectors amounted to RMB 9.172 billion, RMB7.512 billion, and RMB8.65 billion, respectively, and the figures by 2020 are likely to rise to RMB26.901 billion, RMB24.186 billion, and RMB38.29 billion.



At present, logistics equipment suppliers in China fall into domestic Chinese suppliers and overseas peers, among which the latter plays a leading role, especially in high-end logistics fields like e-commerce and airport, which are almost monopolized by foreign companies. In contrast, domestic suppliers mostly deliver single-equipment, and are principally involved in downstream logistics sectors such as tobacco, pharmaceuticals, power system, apparel, and food.



In recent years, with the accelerated construction of intelligent plants and the growing demand for e-commerce, the competition in automated logistics equipment has pricked up. In this context, a number of Chinese companies including Shanxi Oriental Material Handling, Guangdong Dong Fang Precision Science & Technology, MESNAC, and Sanfeng Intelligent Conveying Equipment have begun to enhance their competitiveness through acquisitions, construction expansion, etc.



Guangdong Dong Fang Precision Science & Technology: In June 2014, the company made layout of intelligent logistics system business by acquiring a 20% stake in Jaten Robot & Automation. In April 2015, it signed a Cooperative Letter of Intent with Italy-based Ferretto Group to further build integrated solutions for intelligent warehousing and logistics.



MESNAC: In 2010, the company started layout of robot and automatic logistics business, and established Qingdao Kengic Logistics Technology Co., Ltd. in 2015. In H1 2015, robot and the logistics information business contributed revenue of RMB50.2 million. The company's ongoing industrial robot and intelligent logistics system industrialization base project (Phase II) will add a capacity of 75 sets/a of automated logistic equipment.



Sanfeng Intelligent Conveying Equipment: capable of producing both aerial and ground intelligent conveyors (complete sets), the company's intelligent conveying equipment expansion project under construction is anticipated to reach the design capacity in 2016, when the capacity will be 300 units annually.



The report is primarily concerned with the followings:

Market size, product mix, demand structure, and competitive landscape of automated logistics system in China;

Development, market size, and competitive landscape of product segments of automated logistics equipment in China, including automatic stereo warehouse, automated conveyor, AGV, and forklift;

Development, demand, corporate competition of automated logistics equipment in major downstream sectors like automobiles, tobacco, and medical drugs in China;

Development of and trends in logistics, e-commerce, and cold-chain logistics markets in China

Operation of 8 global automated logistics equipment companies and their development in China;

Operation and development strategies of 11 Chinese automated logistics equipment enterprises.

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3680087/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com

For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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CINCINNATI, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Human Capital Institute (HCI), the global association for strategic talent management, will hold its seventh annual Employee Engagement Conference in Denver, CO from July 19-21. The event will provide HR practitioners with insights and strategies for developing engaged leaders and maintaining an engaged workforce.

"Countless surveys have shown that engagement is a leading cause for concern in organizations, especially among CEOs," said Carl Rhodes, CEO of HCI. "Our aim with this event is to provide HR professionals with tools, resources and proven case studies to aid in leadership development and the creation of a shared vision that incorporates purpose, values, trust, and transparency."

Event attendees will hear keynote presentations from HR leaders at innovative organizations like NASA and Cisco. Speakers will cover a wide range of topics, including engagement metrics, emotional intelligence, leading by example and crafting a culture of innovation. The event will be accompanied by a day of interactive workshops, where attendees will engage in discussion and network with panel experts and peers.

Early-bird pricing for attendees expires on June 5. For those wishing to attend but cannot travel, HCI provides a virtual conference option. Those interested in attending can register online at www.hci.org. To learn more about the sponsors of this event, click here.

About Human Capital Institute (HCI)

HCI is the global association for strategic talent management and new economy leadership, and a clearinghouse for best practices and new ideas. Our network of expert practitioners, Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 corporations, government agencies, global consultants and business schools contribute a stream of constantly evolving information, the best of which is organized, analyzed and shared with members through HCI communities, research, education and events. For more information, please visit www.hci.org.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kara Schott

(866) 538-1909

SOURCE Human Capital Institute

Related Links

http://www.hci.org


The Shark Week Frenzy Creation is made with Blue Sweet Cream Ice Cream mixed with graham cracker pie crust and gummy sharks. The Great Blue Cupcake is a chocolate cup filled with a layer of yellow cake and Blue Sweet Cream Ice Cream, topped with blue fluffy frosting and a gummy shark.

"We can't wait to dive back in this year with our Shark Week Frenzy Ice Cream Creation and Great Blue Cupcakes as a way to show our excitement for this thrilling week of jaw dropping programs on the Discovery Channel," said Kate Unger, senior vice president of marketing at Kahala Brands, parent company of Cold Stone Creamery. "Every year over 30 million viewers are glued to their televisions for this specific programming and every year, we look forward to being a part of the excitement and exhilaration in the weeks leading up to and during the beloved Shark Week!"

In addition to the Shark Week sweets, Cold Stone Creamery is holding a special contest where lucky fans will win the ultimate viewing party prize pack. To enter, fans are encouraged to share a picture of themselves with their "Frenzy," otherwise known as their group of friends or family, enjoying the Shark Week Frenzy Creation or Great Blue Cupcake, using #sharkfrenzycontest on Twitter, Instagram or www.ColdStoneCreamery.com/SharkWeek.

"Move over squad, we've got frenzy goals!" said Unger. "Both Shark Week and ice cream are better when enjoyed with friends, which is why we are excited to see fans getting together for a chance to win a prize pack that's worthy of sharing."

For added viewing party fun, customers can take a bite out of the Great Blue Cupcakes, which are also available in stores during this promotion and can be ordered in advance online at www.ColdStoneCakes.com.

The Shark Frenzy Creation and The Great Blue Cupcake ice cream cupcakes will be in stores until July 5, 2016.

Promotional Creation:

The Shark Week Frenzy  Blue Sweet Cream Ice Cream mixed with Graham Cracker Pie Crust and Gummy Sharks

Promotional Cupcake:

Great Blue Cupcake  Chocolate Cup filled with a layer of Yellow Cake and Blue Sweet Cream Ice Cream topped with fluffy blue frosting and a Gummy Shark

About Cold Stone Creamery

Cold Stone Creamery delivers the Ultimate Ice Cream Experience through a community of franchisees who are passionate about ice cream. The secret recipe for smooth and creamy Ice Cream is hand-crafted and made fresh in each store, and then customized by combining a variety of mix-ins on a frozen granite stone. Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, Cold Stone Creamery is a subsidiary of Kahala Brands, one of the fastest growing franchising companies in the world, with a portfolio of 18 quick-service restaurant brands. Cold Stone Creamery operates more than 1,500 locations in 27 countries.

About "Made Fresh"

In Cold Stone Creamery locations across the world, our ice cream is hand-crafted in small batches  one flavor at a time. We start with the highest quality cream, sugar and flavorings to make our ice cream fresh in the back of each of our stores. This small-batch process ensures our customers receive the richest, creamiest, most delicious ice cream when they visit Cold Stone Creamery.

For more information about Cold Stone Creamery, visit www.ColdStoneCreamery.com.

For more information about Kahala Brands, visit www.KahalaBrands.com.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374611

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120905/LA69139LOGO

SOURCE Cold Stone Creamery

Related Links

http://www.coldstonecreamery.com


WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The vast majority of Americans feel that America is going in the wrong direction, or is on the wrong track. Congressman Gary A. Franks (CT, 1991-1997) believes part of the solution is getting Americans closer to God. Mr. Franks explains, "God cannot lead America unless Americans are willing to follow God."

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374444

FIRST BOOK - POWER OF GOD & POLITICAL REFORM  A Black Conservative's Solutions

How President Obama can help black community NOW and the poor without Congress

How Republican Party can get at least 25% of the African American vote in 2016 (Would mean GOP victory in November)

Ending Political Gridlock in Washington, D.C. now and forever

now and forever Is Satan winning? There was a time when America never lost a war, now we cannot figure out how many troops to send to war Solutions.

Americans Helping Americans  America Wins ! God Wins! One Nation Under God, WINS

! God Wins! One Nation Under God, WINS Bringing People Together  God's Actions & Polarization is (D)evil's Actions

SECOND BOOK  A Novel (a white woman, black man, and young white male seek to climb the political ladder, all political aberrations  one wins, one loses, and one goes to jail)

The year was 1970. The Ivy League schools, Seven Sister Colleges, and other elite universities had all agreed to change their admissions policy. They wanted to recruit more blacks and women (or become co-ed). Yale University's president Howard Breakback was the leader of this effort. At a meeting in April 1970 he told his fellow presidents, "We will have a black and a woman President of the United States in their children's lifetime."

The seeds had been planted It is a political thriller that portrays the very best about America.

Mr. Franks, when elected to Congress from Connecticut, was the first black conservative elected to Congress, first black elected to U.S. House of Representatives from an overwhelmingly white district (4% black), and first black Republican elected to U.S. House in nearly 60 years. Mr. Franks is a Yale University graduate and Visiting Professor at Hampton University.

For more information go to website  www.garyfranks.org. Books available on Create Space (June 6), Amazon.com, and other outlets June 10. E-books release June 14.

With God, For God and For Country: https://www.createspace.com/5287188, https://www.amazon.com/dp/1507860013

The Political Aberrations: https://www.createspace.com/6242097

Welcome Interviews - Contact Person:

Robert Fields

Email

Phone  866 865-0026

@GaryFranks

SOURCE Congressman Gary Franks

Related Links

http://www.garyfranks.org


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta International Oil & Gas, Inc. (OTCQB: DLTZ)("Delta") has signed a memorandum of understanding with New Times Energy Corporation Limited ("NTE") on May 13, 2016. The memorandum will resolve all matters in prior contracts signed by both parties in the Tartagal Oriental and Morillo (TO&M) and Valle de Lerma (VL) oil and gas concessions.

The abovementioned memorandum provides that Delta, through its wholly owned subsidiary, South American Hedge Fund ("SAHF"), will sell its 18% ownership of the TO&M concessions to NTE for an additional sum of US$4M. The final contract is expected to be signed within 30 days of the memorandum. Currently, both companies are working diligently to fulfill all conditions necessary for closing by the time the final contract is signed. The memorandum was signed on behalf of NTE by the General Manager and by a Delta representative in Argentina.

NTE is in the final stages of importing its own drilling rig to further develop the TO&M concessions. NTE, through High Luck Group Ltd, currently owns 69.25% interest of the TO&M concession and will hold 87.25% following the completion of this MoU.

As this transaction is being finalized, Delta will also be looking to sell its stake in its remaining Argentina oil and gas property, Valle de Lerma. This series of transactions is expected to: 1) finish divesting Delta's interests in oil and gas exploration concessions in Argentina, and 2) free up capital in order to return value to its shareholders and invest in other areas with higher expected growth.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forwardlooking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, which may include statements about business strategy and development plans, plans for entering new business, anticipated sources of funds, including proceeds from future operations and plans, objectives, expectations and intentions contained in the Press Release that are not historical facts such as "estimated grossprospective resources, will be sold, etc." Because these forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the Press Release. These risks are outlined in our SEC filings.

Contact: Santiago Peralta

Delta International Oil & Gas, Inc.

Phone: (480)483-0420

[email protected]

SOURCE Delta International Oil & Gas, Inc.
"We applaud these charities for exceeding industry standards and outperforming other organizations performing similar work," said Sandra Miniutti, VP Marketing at Charity Navigator.

The ninth-largest U.S. charity, according to Forbes Magazine, Direct Relief conducts the most expansive charitable medicines program in the United States and is among the largest private providers globally of humanitarian medical material aid to people in need due to poverty or emergency situations.

To be named to the Perfect 100 list, Direct Relief achieved perfect scores in Charity Navigator's two main ratings categories, Financial Health and Accountability & Transparency.

Direct Relief is also rated No. 1 on Charity Navigator's "10 of the Best Charities Everyone's Heard Of" list.

About Direct Relief:

Founded in 1948, Direct Relief is a California-based nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian medical aid in all 50 states and more than 70 countries, with a stated mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergency situations. Among other distinctions, Direct Relief has been named among the world's ten most innovative nonprofits by Fast Company, received the CECP Directors' Award, the President's Award from Esri for excellence in GIS mapping, and the Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation. For more information visit http://www.DirectRelief.org.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374995

SOURCE Direct Relief

Related Links

http://www.directrelief.org


NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Economist GMAT Tutor announced the winner of its semi-annual Brightest Minds MBA Scholarship Contest today.

Dan Gherasimenco, a 29-year-old Canadian entrepreneur who is in the midst of launching a new company in the fashion industry with his fiancee, beat more than 4,000 other contest entrants around the world by scoring highest on Economist GMAT Tutor's GMAT simulation exam and penning the most compelling tie-breaker essay.

In our current entrepreneurial global climate, it is precisely innovators like Mr Gherasimenco that the Economist GMAT Tutor team envisions these MBA scholarships supporting. "The Brightest Minds scholarship could not have come at a better time," said Gherasimenco. "An MBA from one of the best schools in the world will certainly help me develop the business skills necessary to build a modern and successful company."

Mr Gherasimenco can apply his scholarship towards tuition at any of the contest's participating business schools where he is accepted into an MBA programme. To learn more about the winner and his advice to fellow GMAT takers, visit Economist GMAT Tutor's blog.

Aspiring MBA candidates can look forward to the next Brightest Minds MBA Scholarship competition, which will launch in August 2016. The contest will similarly award a $25,000 MBA scholarship to the person who scores the highest on the company's GMAT simulation test.

Participating business schools:

Rady School of Management at UC San Diego

of Management at UC San Diego The University of Edinburgh Business School

Business School Smith School of Business at Queen's University

School of Business at Stevens Institute of Technology

Lancaster University Management School

Cass Business School

The University of Virginia Darden School of Business

Darden School of Business Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York

Asia School of Business in collaboration with MIT Sloan

of Business in collaboration with MIT Sloan Pepperdine University Graziadio School of Business & Management

Graziadio School of Business & Management UTS Business School

EMLYON Business School

Schulich School of Business

About Economist GMAT Tutor (gmat.economist.com)

Economist GMAT Tutor is an online GMAT prep course offered by The Economist Group.

The online course guides students through the academic topics and test-taking skills that they will need to master the test. The program is adaptive, meaning that it uses students' correct and incorrect answers to create tailored courses customized to their needs.

About The Economist (economist.com)

With a growing global circulation (now more than 1.55 million including print and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. In addition to the web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programmes available on the website, The Economist is now available to download for reading on Android, BlackBerry PlayBook, iPhone or iPad devices.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140804/133101

SOURCE The Economist

Related Links

http://economist.com


TEL AVIV, Israel, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The final round of SICC 2016 took place last Wednesday, 25 May 2016, at the Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University. The SICC is an annual international strategic case competition on an Israeli company operating in markets abroad.

The subject of this year's case study was Foresight, an Israeli High-Tech company that is developing leading technology in the innovative industry of ADAS - Advanced Driver Assistance Systems as a step on the way to the autonomous vehicle.

The company trades at about $40 million on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Its CEO is Haim Siboni. Its COO, Ariel Dor, gave a presentation on the company's present operations to the competition participants.

This year, in addition to the team from the Coller School of Management, the participating teams of MBA students were from the following business schools: Copenhagen, Denmark; Cologne, Germany; Peking, China; Rady, USA; Cambridge, UK; Rotman, Canada; HKUST, Hong Kong.

Three teams reached the final round. The winning presentation was by the Rotman team and it received the Barton M. Biggs Award in the amount of $10,000, which was presented by Michael Sofaer, the representative of the donor family.

The competition judges were senior business leaders and academics in the area of business management. The judges of the final round were Yair Seroussi, Chairman of Bank Hapoalim; Chaim Hurvitz, CEO of the CHealth investment fund; Ravit Barniv, past Chairperson of Tnuva and of Shikun & Binui; Michael Sofaer, Managing director Sofaer Capital and the representative of the donor family; Prof. Moshe Zviran, Dean, Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University; and faculty members accompanying the participating teams who did not reach the final round.

The competition was organized and chaired by Udi Aharoni, CEO and Academic Director of LAHAV Executive Education; joint Manager of the Eli Hurvitz Institute of Strategic Management at the Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University and SICC Director.

In his opening address, Prof. Moshe Zviran, Dean of the Coller School of Management, stressed the importance of the competition: "The Sofaer International Case Competition is part of our broad range of international activities at the Coller School, and part of the academic cooperation with leading business schools abroad, in research, teaching and student exchange. Importantly, it exposes the participants to the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation that has led to Israel being called the Startup Nation, and to its ground-breaking technological environment.

According to Yair Seroussi, Chairman of Bank Hapoalim "The technological solutions that in the past were associated with the hi-tech and telecommunications sectors of the economy, are today being implemented in the traditional industries, including transportation, which has undergone profound changes and today arouses the interest of giant corporations that deal with advanced solutions to transportation issues, such as Mobileye, Uber and Google. Even though Foresight is just starting out, it is based on proven technology that will enable it to penetrate global markets in a very short space of time."

Udi Aharoni, said in rounding off the competition: "All the participating teams presented high-quality and very professional innovative strategic solutions from many different perspectives. Foresight, the company that was the focus of the competition, benefited from the international brainstorming of outstanding MBA students from among the best universities in the world. They presented new understandings and suggestions for developing the company, some of which will be adopted and will influence the long-term strategic development of the Foresight."

Registration for the 13th SICC, which will be held in May 2017, will open in the next few weeks on the competition website: https://en-coller.tau.ac.il/SICC

Anat

[email protected]



SOURCE Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University
SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants (EPIC), a retail property, casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, announced today that Eric Leventhal has joined the firm's Employee Benefits Consulting Practice. He will be based in San Francisco and report to John Connell, President, Employee Benefits of California.

Joining as a Vice President, Leventhal brings 30 years of employee benefits experience to EPIC, 25 years of this in a range of consulting roles. He was previously an area vice president at Gallagher Benefit Services in San Francisco, focusing on client relationship management, benefits program strategy, and new business development. He has also held benefits consulting positions at Frank Crystal & Company, ABD Insurance and Financial Services and Towers Perrin.

Leventhal's expertise in resolving client issues, managing client teams, and conducting financial analyses provided the opportunity to serve clients of varying size in a wide range of industries.

As a consultant for EPIC's Employee Benefits practice, Leventhal will provide EPIC client service leadership; including overall program strategy, relationship management and plan design, placement, communication and management. He will also develop new business opportunities.

"Eric is a disciplined, results oriented individual, with a passion for service excellence and the delivery of value," said EPIC's John Connell. "He is well regarded in our industry and his beliefs are highly aligned with EPIC's core values regarding client advocacy, collaboration, and putting 'people first.' We are excited to have Eric join our growing operations in the Bay Area, California and across the country."

Leventhal earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature from Cornel University in Ithaca, New York.

Eric Leventhal can be reached at:

EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants

Office: 415-356-3905

Mobile: 415-203-0982

eric.leventhal [at] epicbrokers.com

About EPIC:

EPIC is a unique and innovative retail property & casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm. EPIC has created a values-based, client-focused culture that attracts and retains top talent, fosters employee satisfaction and loyalty and sustains a high level of customer service excellence. EPIC team members have consistently recognized their company as a "Best Place to Work" in multiple regions and as a "Best Place to Work in the Insurance Industry" nationally.

EPIC now has more than 850 team members operating from offices across the U.S., providing Property Casualty, Employee Benefits, Specialty Programs and Private Client solutions to more than 13,000 clients.

With more than $200 million in revenues, EPIC ranks among the top 20 retail insurance brokers in the United States. Backed by the Carlyle Group, the company continues to expand organically and through strategic acquisitions across the country.

For additional information, please visit http://www.epicbrokers.com/.

*PHOTO: Send2Press.com/mediaboom/16-0602-leventhal-300dpi.jpg

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Dave Hock, of EPIC

650-295-4608

[email protected]

Nicole Conley

650-422-3156

[email protected]

This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com

SOURCE EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants

Related Links

http://www.epicbrokers.com


HOUSTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Evolution Petroleum Corporation (NYSE MKT: EPM) today declared a monthly cash dividend on its perpetual non-convertible 8.5% Series A Cumulative Preferred Stock. The dividend is for the month of June 2016 and is payable on June 30, 2016 to holders of record at the close of business on June 15, 2016. The payment will be 1/12th of the 8.5% annualized amount, or approximately $0.177083 per share, based on the $25.00 per share liquidation preference.

Expected Tax Treatment

Based on our current projections for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2016, we expect preferred stock dividends will be treated as qualified dividend income. To the extent such dividends are treated as return of capital, they will not be reported as taxable income to the recipients, but will instead generally be treated as a reduction in the shareholder's basis in the stock. We will make a final determination regarding the tax treatment of dividends for the current fiscal year when the tax reporting process is complete.

The Series A Preferred Stock is listed on the NYSE MKT under the ticker symbol "EPM.PRA."

About Evolution Petroleum

Evolution Petroleum Corporation develops petroleum reserves and shareholder value by applying conventional and specialized technology to known oil and gas resources, onshore in the United States. Our principal asset is our interest in a CO 2 -EOR project in Louisiana's Delhi Field. Additional information, including the Company's annual report on Form 10-K and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, is available on its website at www.evolutionpetroleum.com .

Cautionary Statement

All statements contained in this press release regarding potential results and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations include, but are not limited to, those factors that are disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in our documents filed from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulatory authorities. Statements regarding our ability to complete transactions, successfully apply technology applications in the re-development of oil and gas fields, realize future production volumes, realize success in our drilling and development activity and forecasts of legal claims, prices, future revenues, income, cash flows, dividends and other comments that are not historical facts contain predictions, estimates and other forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its goals will be achieved and these statements will prove to be accurate. Many factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements.

Company Contact:

Randy Keys, President & CEO

(713) 935-0122

[email protected]

SOURCE Evolution Petroleum Corporation

Related Links

http://www.evolutionpetroleum.com


"Ezra was born in Brooklyn," says Deborah Pope, Executive Director of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, "so what could be more fitting than to celebrate his 100th birthday here. I want to thank our partners, Brooklyn Public Library, the Prospect Park Alliance and BRIC for helping us plan this three-day blowout birthday party. You only turn 100 once!"

Ezra Jack Keats Foundation To Join Brooklyn Public Library's Summer Reading Kickoff

Thursday, June 9th, marks the Summer Reading Kickoff at Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), held on the plaza in front of Central Library (at 10 Grand Army Plaza) from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. And this year the EJK Foundation, starting at 12:00 noon, will be giving away books by Keats and other authors while supplies last. There will also be a photo op for kids to pose as favorite Keats characters.

"We're delighted to welcome the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation to our annual Summer Reading Kickoff event. Ezra Jack Keats is one of the most influential American children's book writers. Brooklyn Public Library is happy to partner with the Foundation to promote his legacy," says Rachel Payne, Coordinator, Early Childhood Services, Brooklyn Public Library.

Statue of Peter and Willie in Prospect Park to be Declared Literary Landmark

On Friday, June 10th, a bronze statue of the popular Keats characters Peter and his dog, Willie, in Prospect Park's Imagination Playground, will be declared a Literary Landmark, with a plaque from the New York City Parks Department. The event will include an award to the statue's sculptor, Otto Neals, and storytelling for students in attendance from two nearby schools, P.S. 321 and P.S. 9.

"We're delighted to recognize Ezra Jack Keats and his contributions to children's literature by designating this statue of Peter and Willie an honorary Literary Landmark. The statue of these beloved Keats characters has become a favorite place for the children of New York City to gather for reading and storytelling," says Sally Gardner Reed, Executive Director of United for Libraries, an advocacy organization that dedicates historic literary sites.

The character of Peter made his first appearance in Keats' 1962 classic, The Snowy Day, which broke the color barrier in mainstream children's literature when its young, African American protagonist, In his iconic red snowsuit, was instantly embraced by the public. The Snowy Day was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1963 and designated a "book that shaped America" by the Library of Congress in 2012.

Ezra Jack Keats 100th Birthday Blowout Concert Part of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival

On Saturday, June 11th, at 4 p.m. at the Prospect Park Bandshell, families will enjoy a free concert by popular folk performer Dan Zanes. An annual tradition, the Ezra Jack Keats Family Concert will be full of additional surprises this year in honor of Ezra's 100th:

A Keats StoryWalk set up near the Bandshell in Prospect Park;

set up near the Bandshell in Prospect Park; A large mural of New York for children to decorate using art supplies generously provided by Artist & Craftsman Supply, 307 2nd Avenue, Park Slope;

of for children to decorate using art supplies generously provided by Artist & Craftsman Supply, 307 2nd Avenue, Park Slope; Ezra Jack Keats Bookshop, hosted by powerHouse Books, with an array of Keats favorites;

hosted by powerHouse Books, with an array of Keats favorites; TADA! Youth Theater performing a section of the musical "Adventures from Ezra Jack Keats ";

performing a section of the musical "Adventures from "; Movies of two of Keats' stories shown onstage;

of two of Keats' stories shown onstage; A raffle of Keats books conducted by special guest Ellen Ruffin , Curator of the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, home to the Keats Archive.

Says Jack Walsh, Vice President of Performing Arts at BRIC and Executive Producer of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, "This 100th birthday party for Ezra will be a very special occasion that celebrates storytelling, music, art, kids and familiesand, of course, Brooklyn! With Dan Zanes, a Celebrate Brooklyn! favorite, TADA! and all the offstage activities planned, the 2016 Ezra Jack Keats 'Birthday Blowout' concert will be a huge success and leave a lasting impression on everyone who attends!"

About the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation

Keats established The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation in 1964. After his death in 1983, Martin Pope, Keats' best friend from childhood, and his wife, Lillie Pope, led the Foundation into the field of education with programs that extended to future generations of children the kind of help and encouragement that kept Keats going when he was growing up.

Now under the leadership of Deborah Pope, daughter of Martin and Lillie, the Foundation supports arts and literacy programs in public schools and libraries; cultivates new writers and illustrators of exceptional picture books, and promotes increased diversity in children's literature. Keats. Imagination. Diversity.

To learn more, visit www.ezra-jack-keats.org.

CONTACT: Sheree Wichard, 1-718-788-9585, [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374893

SOURCE Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The following feature package is a roundup of feature stories dealing with Father's Day and is appropriate for special sections and for general use.

For each story included in this package, you will find the first paragraph of the feature release below, as well as its headline linked to the full text.

This is the latest in a series of topical feature packages PRN will carry as part of its regular Feature News Service. Coming up in 2016 are features on:



Package Name Slug Distribution Date Personal Finance II Finance June 9 Summer, Outdoors & Entertaining, 4th of July Summer June 16



Father's Day Feature Package

1. Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp Offers The Ultimate Adult Summer Camps With Kiss Frontman Paul Stanley With Don Felder Formerly Of The Eagles And Judas Priest In Hollywood CA

LOS ANGELES, March 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Looking for that amazing summer experience for yourself or your spouse? Rock Camp is the perfect summer experience for anyone who loves music. There is no where else where you can jam live with some of rock and roll's greatest icons, perform live with them at the legendary Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood CA and spend 4 days with over 20 of the country's top touring musicians. Rock camp offers packages, master classes, for all skill levels of musicians, from advanced to beginners, plus catering, parties and so much more.

If you would like a copy of the complete schedule, or if you would care to comment, please email [email protected]. We welcome suggestions. Copies of previous packages are available for the media. Feature packages and feature photos are also available on the PR Newswire Web site, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/feature-news-latest-news.

Photos that accompany releases are available via the PRN Multimedia Desk, 800-317-7677, or via the PR Newswire Photo Archive. Select photos are available via AP PhotoExpress and AP Images.

SOURCE PR Newswire Association LLC

Related Links

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/feature-news-latest-news


MIAMI, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fathom, the pioneer in social impact travel and Carnival Corporation's (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) 10th and newest brand, continues to celebrate its inaugural season with special fares to the Dominican Republic. Guests who book social impact cruises to the Dominican Republic aboard Fathom through November 16, 2016 can book fares starting at $499.

Fathom is also welcoming third and fourth passengers with a special rate of 50 percent off double occupancy fares. Families and friends can unite to make a real difference in the world, while in the company of other travelers who share the commitment to creating a meaningful transformation. Together, guests can provide unique impact to projects that focus on improving environmental, educational and economic conditions for the aspirational and hard-working people of the Dominican Republic.

Inaugural season fares are as follows:

Suite Balcony Outside Cabin Inside Cabin $2,499 $699 $599 $499

"We want to provide unique ways for our guests to give, learn, grow in spirit, and help build a sense of community that reaches out to the wider world," said Tara Russell, president of Fathom and global impact lead for Carnival Corporation. "Our maiden voyage is behind us, but there is still so much all of us can accomplish together. It is an exciting time for us all, and we look forward to bringing people with a passion for travel and a desire to make a difference in this world to the Dominican Republic so we may keep up the significant impact we have already accomplished."

Fathom's inaugural special fares to the Dominican Republic are available for all stateroom categories. For more information or to book, guests can call 1-855-932-8466 or their travel professionals and reference code "FB1." This offer is also available for online bookings on fathom.org. It is not combinable with other promotions. Gratuities are not included. Taxes, fees and port expenses are also not included, and are currently $208 per person, and are subject to change.

Inaugural season prices for the seven-day trips to the Dominican Republic start at $499 per person, excluding taxes, fees and port expenses and including all meals on the ship, onboard social impact immersion experiences, three on-shore social impact activities and related supplies. To secure a spot on future sailings, a fully refundable $300 per person deposit is required for all cabin categories and occupancy levels. Final payment is due 90 days prior to departure.

Separately, Fathom also offers seven-day itineraries to Cuba starting at $1,899 per person, excluding Cuban visas, taxes, fees and port expenses and including all meals on the ship, lunch during scheduled on-the-ground activities, onboard immersion experiences and certain on-the-ground cultural immersion activities. Prices vary by season. To secure a spot on future sailings, a fully refundable $600 per person deposit is required for all cabin categories and occupancy levels. Final payment is due 90 days prior to departure.

About Fathom Travel to the Dominican Republic

Fathom is a different kind of cruise that combines one's love of travel with the desire to make a difference in the world. Fathom is defining a new category of travel, Social Impact Travel. Part of the Carnival Corporation (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) family, Fathom offers consumers authentic, meaningful travel experiences to enrich the life of the traveler and work alongside locals as they tackle community needs in the Dominican Republic. Fathom is unique in that it leverages Carnival Corporation's expertise and scale for a one-of-a-kind business model to create long-term collaboration with its partner countries, allowing for sustained social impact and lasting development. Fathom will serve the sizable and growing market of potential social impact travel consumers  approximately one million North Americans  in addition to global travelers already pursuing service-oriented travel experiences worldwide.

Sailing aboard the MV Adonia, a 704-passenger vessel redeployed from Carnival Corporation's P&O Cruises (UK), Fathom will engage, mobilize, educate and equip travelers on every Dominican Republic trip allowing for rich personal enrichment and thousands of impact activity days per visit and tens of thousands of travelers a year to communities of promise, providing unprecedented scale for impact.

About Fathom Travel to Cuba

On May 1, 2016, Fathom became the first cruise company to sail from the U.S. to Cuba in more than 50 years. Fathom's round-trip culturally immersive cruise itinerary initially features experiences in the Cuban port cities of Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba, providing travelers the opportunity to enjoy a rich and vibrant culture that until now most U.S. travelers have only seen in photographs. Designed for rich immersion and ease of travel, the Fathom Cuban itinerary offers passengers a comfortable cabin including all the amenities of a modern hotel, plus the luxury of having to unpack only once. Every night, Fathom travelers return to the comforts of the MV Adonia, where they can relax knowing that all the details of getting from location to location in Cuba are handled.

For more information about Fathom or to book a voyage, contact your Travel Professional, call Fathom toll-free at 1-855-932-8466 or visit www.Fathom.org.

SOURCE Fathom

Related Links

http://www.fathom.org


TAMPA, Fla., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Pain Relief Group (FPRG) continues its rapid expansion in the Tampa Bay area with the addition of attending physician, Mauricio Orbegozo M.D. Dr. Orbegozo is not only an experienced anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, but a dynamic and multi-faceted individual. He has served in the nation's military and is a USAF war veteran, published author, educator, and public speaker. After graduating medical school in 1990 at Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia, he continued his post graduate training in General Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Pain Management. He served as an Instructor in Anesthesiology and Pain Management at two Texas universities and has maintained licensure as a physician and surgeon in four states, including FL, IL, IN, and TX. Dr. Orbegozo recently transitioned to the Tampa, FL area from Illinois and is currently an attending physician at Florida Pain Relief Group.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374310LOGO

Florida Pain Relief Group, an affiliate of Physician Partners of America, is the leading provider of pain relief and pain management treatment in the Tampa Bay area. Their specialists, like Dr. Orbegozo, combine extensive pain relief expertise with advanced therapies and minimally invasive techniques to make sure chronic pain is managed to get patients suffering in pain back to living a full, active, pain-free life.

For more information or to schedule an appointment:

Please visit www.FloridaPainReliefGroup.com or call 1-844-542-5724 (844-KICK-PAIN) to schedule an appointment. Dr. Orbegozo is actively seeing new patients in the Tampa area at the following clinic locations:

4730 N. Habana Ave. Suite 300, Tampa, FL 33614

3450 E. Fletcher Ave. Suite 350, Tampa, FL 33613

About PPOA:

Physician Partners of America (PPOA) is a national healthcare organization focused on strengthening the doctor-patient relationship and improving patient outcomes. PPOA, and their affiliates; Florida Pain Relief Group, Texas Pain Relief Group, Texas Foot and Ankle Group, Urgent Care of Texas and National Medical Practices, all share a common vision to ensure the well-being of patients and provide their physician partners the opportunity to focus on the practice of medicine. This model allows physicians to be physicians, caring about patients and their needs versus the ever complex administrative requirements. For more information about Physician Partners of America, visit www.physicianpartnersoa.com.

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Florida Pain Relief Group (FPRG)

Related Links

http://www.FloridaPainReliefGroup.com


ROCHESTER, N.H., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Frisbie Memorial Hospital received a Lamplighter Award of Excellence Wednesday evening, for their integrated marketing campaign developed together with their agency, Rumbletree Strategic and Creative Marketing, for Frisbie's Center for Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine. The campaign was comprised of digital and traditional tactics, television, social media, and media planning and strategy.

The award was presented at the New England Society for Healthcare Communications (NESHCo) during the Annual Lamplighter Awards Show in Providence, Rhode Island.

In 2016, Frisbie Memorial Hospital's Wound Center earned the prestigious Healogics Center of Excellence award for the fourth consecutive yearonly one of two hospitals in New Hampshire to earn this award.

"The Wound Care Center campaign elevated Frisbie's ability to communicate to our community the program's success in achieving high levels of patient satisfaction, healing rates and hyperbaric oxygen therapy technology as a means to the ultimate goal: a better quality of life," said Joe Shields, senior vice president of Frisbie Memorial Hospital.

"Frisbie Memorial Hospital shares a mutual regard for the role that strategic marketing and communication can help play in moving an organization forward," said Jessica Kellogg, partner, managing director at Rumbletree. "Frisbie Memorial Hospital focuses on three pillars: People, Technology and Trustthat dedication is what differentiates them and has shaped a genuine connection to the greater Rochester community."

About Frisbie Memorial Hospital

Frisbie Memorial Hospital and its affiliated providers are committed to providing the highest quality care to our community. We adopt best medical and surgical practices to improve the care and recovery of our patients. Our measures reflect a comprehensive approach to making sure the patient gets the best care in the safest environment. To learn more, visit frisbiehospital.com.

About Rumbletree

Rumbletree, located in North Hampton, New Hampshire, recently celebrated the agency's 25th year in business. The marketing and full-service advertising agency specializes in branding and identity, website development, design, strategy, social media and more. To learn more about Rumbletree, visit Rumbletree.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150123/171127LOGO

SOURCE Frisbie Memorial Hospital

Related Links

http://www.frisbiehospital.com


Mr. Nitin Bhat, Partner and Head of Consulting, Asia Pacific at Frost & Sullivan said that the customer experience index (CEI) of the banking sector has increased 0.48 points to 3.69 points in 2015 while CEI in the telecoms sector has increased 0.34 points to 3.61 points in 2015. The health insurance CEI has added 0.6 points to 3.86 points while life insurance CEI has increased 0.39 points to 3.76 points in 2015.

Mr. Bhat said that the choice of product or service offered is the single most important factor in determining the choice of primary bank and telecoms services for Malaysian consumers while rates and fees influence the choice for health and life insurance.

The Frost & Sullivan Customer Experience program focuses on measuring the experiences of consumers across all key touch points, such as in-store/retail, products & services and in the contact centers and across all stages of interaction with the brand. Consumers will rank their experience across set of pre-defined and well researched quantitative parameters, throughout the three phases of their customer journey  pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stage.

The two-month online survey was conducted across more than 1,900 respondents randomly selected from consumer online panels to answer questions on customer experience attributes for specific industries.

Frost & Sullivan decided to focus on the 3 key sectors  banking, telecoms and insurance due to the high churn rate in these sectors. "We hope that this research will help companies to fine tune their customer experience strategies and allow them to better retain their customers," Mr. Bhat said.

"Companies need to design their customer experience approach by looking at different stages of customers purchase and touch points," he added.

Mr. Bhat also said that based on the Frost & Sullivan Customer Experience survey, Malaysian consumers are the least likely to promote their primary banks and telecoms service providers to others as the average Net Promoter Score (NPS) for banks are at negative 8% while telecoms companies are at negative 17%.

Mr. Bhat said that banks and telecoms service providers in Malaysia need to continuously improve on their customer experience delivery to move out from the negative territory.

In the health and life insurance sector, Malaysian consumers showed a lower enthusiasm in promoting their service provider to friends and families, with the industry average NPS at negative 6%.

Mr. Bhat said that some categories have observed more than one recipient, while a few have no recipients, which is due to the better or lower than threshold rating by the consumer of different industry players.

Mobile Apps Under-Utilized in the Malaysian Banking Sector

Mr. Bhat said that branch banking continues to be the most preferred channel for the purchase and post-purchase stages of the customer journey with banks in Malaysia except for the pre-purchase stage of which online channel is rated highly for its ability to information gathering.

He added that mobile application is under-utilized despite the growth of smartphones or tablets in the Malaysian market.

"In 2015, the banking sector has shifted into an online-driven industry where consumers are more motivated to communicate through their primary bank's online platform as compared to 2014 where ATM is the most preferred channel among banking consumers. This may be due to the improvement made on the online channel, such as the accessibility, user-friendliness and features of the online channel," Mr. Bhat said.

He also said that banking consumers in Malaysia have rated call centers as the least preferred channel to interact through any form of transactions. "Online, ATM and Branch remain as the most preferred channels for banking transactions in Malaysia. Nevertheless, call centre showed a slight increase in terms of its customer experience as compared to last year," he said.

Telecoms Providers Struggling to Cope with Competition

Mr. Bhat said that choice of products or services is the vital factor in choosing primary telecommunication service provider for Malaysian consumers.

He added that telecoms service providers in Malaysia are struggling to cope with competition, thus, leading them to innovate on a more personalized products or services which can suit each and every market segments accordingly.

"Telecoms providers that cannot cope with the demand of the market will eventually lose their subscribers as competition is stiff," he said.

Mr. Bhat said that online is the highest rated channel for customer experience, due to its high degree of availability that allows customers to perform the required transactions outside of office hours, followed by In-Store and Mobile channel.

Insurance Agents Most Preferred Channel for Consumers

Mr. Bhat said that in 2015, the insurance agents channel was the most preferred channel in all three stages of the customer journey  pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase stages - with health and insurance companies in Malaysia.

"Mobile channel is severely under-utilized in all three stages of the customer journey due to the accessibility and convenience of interacting with insurance agent in terms of making enquiries, seeking explanation and problem solving," he added.

Frost & Sullivan congratulates all the recipients for the 2016 Malaysia Customer Experience awards

BANKING Recipients Overall Experience CIMB Branch Experience CIMB Hong Leong Bank Contact Center Experience CIMB Hong Leong Bank Online Experience CIMB Mobile Experience CIMB Net Promoter Score CIMB TELECOMS

Overall Experience Celcom In-Store Experience Celcom Contact Center Experience Celcom Online Experience Celcom Mobile Experience Celcom Net Promoter Score Celcom HEALTH INSURANCE

Overall Experience Prudential Assurance Branch Experience Prudential Assurance Contact Center Experience Prudential Assurance Mobile Experience AIA Great Eastern Life Assurance Insurance Agent Experience Prudential Assurance Net Promoter Score Prudential Assurance LIFE INSURANCE

Overall Experience Prudential Assurance Contact Center Experience Etiqa Insurance Great Eastern Life Assurance Online Experience Etiqa Insurance Mobile Experience Great Eastern Life Assurance Prudential Assurance Insurance Agent Experience Etiqa Insurance Net Promoter Score Prudential Assurance

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organization prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies?

Contact Us: Start the discussion

Media Contact

Carrie Low

Corporate Communications  Asia Pacific

Phone: +603.6204.5910

Email: [email protected]

Alice Chia

Corporate Communications  Asia Pacific

Email: [email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374671

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com


MESA, Ariz., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Fynes Audiology, the audiology practice of Cassandra M. Fynes, Au.D. CCC-A, and Roger Knighton, M.N.S., CCC-A, will be exhibiting at health and wellness fairs and other community events throughout the Mesa and Phoenix, Arizona region. They will be featuring the powerful new Hearing Touch Machine kiosk, which allows visitors to the Fynes Audiology booth to test their hearing without cost or obligation.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374411

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374412

The Hearing Touch Machine allows users to test their hearing by taking a tone test through headphones attached to the kiosk. They simply follow the directions provided by an interactive touch screen. When they finish the tone test, the results are displayed, and they have the option of receiving a copy of their hearing report or setting up a consultation at Fynes Audiology.

It is estimated that upwards of 50 million people in the United States suffer from some degree of hearing loss. Yet, according to the National Register of Health Service Psychologists, "Many people who have hearing loss are not aware of it, do not accept the fact of it, or are unwilling to discuss their hearing loss."

The purpose of the Hearing Touch Machine is to help people who have hearing loss become aware of it earlier than they otherwise might and seek treatment before they lose even more of their hearing. When hearing loss is caught in its earliest stages, it is possible to preserve a person's hearing and improve a person's quality of life dramatically.

Fynes Audiology hopes to identify cases of early hearing loss and emphasize the importance of hearing evaluations.

"The Hearing Touch Machine is a remarkable device," stated Dr. Fynes. "It's highly accurate, but it's also portable enough to take pretty much anywhere, whether to a church function or a lunch-and-learn. People take the test out of curiosity, and some of them who thought they had perfect hearing find out that they were wrong. Then they come in for a screening and discover that there are discreet, advanced hearing solutions for mild to moderate hearing loss that can dramatically improve their lives. It all starts with a little self-test."

For a schedule of upcoming events at which Fynes Audiology representatives will be appearing with the Hearing Touch Machine, please contact the practice through email or by calling (480) 456-0176.

About Fynes Audiology

Fynes Audiology LLC is owned and operated by Dr. Cassandra M. Fynes, an Arizona native who has been serving the Mesa and Phoenix areas as a licensed audiologist for more than a decade. She was joined in the practice by fellow audiologist Roger Knighton in 2011.

The practice features state-of-the-art technology and a friendly, highly trained team devoted to providing exceptional service to patients. Fynes Audiology offers, among other products and services, comprehensive hearing exams, a full range of hearing aids, and custom earplugs and earbuds.

For further information, please Click Here!

Media Contact:

Cassandra Fynes

(480) 456-0176

SOURCE Fynes Audiology

Related Links

http://fynesaudiology.com


NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

According to market research "Global Paraxylene Market Size, Share, Development, Growth and Demand Forecast to 2022 - Industry Insights by Application (Pure Terephthalic Acid, Dimethyl Terephthalate, Di-Paraxylene, Others) and by End-Use (Packaging, Polyester Fibers, Others)" by P&S Market Research, the global paraxylene market was valued at $34,745.7 million in 2015, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.8% during 2016 - 2022.

P&S Market Research Logo (PRNewsFoto/P&S Market Research)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150727/756778 )



The major factors driving the growth of the market globally include growing demand of PTA in polyester manufacturing, rising demand for PET bottle resin due to increasing use of PET in soft drink and mineral water bottles, recycle and renewable raw material and the growth in end-user application. Based on application, the PTA segment accounted for the largest share in the total market in 2015, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.9% in terms of value during the period 2016 - 2022. Growing demand of PTA in polyester manufacturing is the major factor driving the demand for paraxylene. Most of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) is used in polyester production, including polyester fiber, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle resin and polyester film. Among other grade of polyester used in textiles and food and beverage containers, PTA offers more economic feasibility and better solutions. In Asia, the strong growth rate of PTA consumption is driven by strong polyester fiber demand, which in total accounts for nearly two-third of global polyester demand.

Explore Full Market Research Report on "Global Paraxylene Market" at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/paraxylene-market

Polyester fibers are used to make fabrics for apparel and home furnishings such as bed sheets, bedspreads, curtains and draperies. The polyester fiber is used with natural fibers, such as cotton, to produce cloth line with enhanced properties such as high wrinkle resistance, high wear and tear and others. In North America and Europe, PTA consumption has observed slow in demand as growth of textile industry had shifted towards Asia-Pacific regions. Here, the growth has been seen in the PET bottle resin market.

Among the various end-users of paraxylene, the polyester fiber segment held the largest share in the global paraxylene market in 2015. The growth in disposable income of middle class population along with increasing population is creating pressure on textile industry to meet the growing household and apparel needs. To meet the growing demand, installation of new facilities and new developments are being carried out mainly in Asia-Pacific regions.

In 2015, Asia-Pacific held the largest share in the global paraxylene market with 82.4% share. The surging level of urbanization, growing domestic consumption along with increasing disposable income and strong GDP growth are some of the major forces supporting the growth of paraxylene market in Asia-Pacific, particularly in countries such as India and China. China is the largest market for paraxylene across the globe; however, India, South Korea is expected to witness significant growth in the near future. The impact of growing population and strong GDP in developing countries on the paraxylene market is anticipated to remain high during the next few years.

Explore More Reports Related to Chemicals: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/industry-report/chemicals-materials-and-energy

Some of the major players operating in the global paraxylene market include Exxon Mobil, BASF SE, Chevron Phillips, Toray Industries, Reliance Industries, JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., British Petroleum, Saudi Aramco,, Petro China, Sinopec and Dragon Aromatics.

GLOBAL PARAXYLENE MARKET SEGMENTATION

By Application

Pure Terephthalic Acid (PTA)

Dimethyl terephthalate (DMT)

Di-Paraxylene (DI-PX)

Others

By End-Use

Packaging

Polyester Fibers

Others

GEOGRAPHICAL SEGMENTATION

> North America

- U.S.

- Canada

- Rest of North America

> Europe

- Germany

- UK

- France

- Netherland

- Rest Of Europe

> Asia-Pacific

- China

- Japan

- India

- South Korea

- Rest of Asia-Pacific

> Rest of the World (RoW)

- Brazil

- Saudi Arabia

- Others

Browse Other Published Reports by P&S Market Research

Global Filters Market- https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/industrial-and-automotive-filters-market

Global Wax Market- https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/wax-market

Global Lecithin Market- https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/lecithin-market

About P&S Market Research

P&S Market Research is a market research company, which offers market research and consulting services for various geographies around the globe. We provide market research reports, industry forecasting reports, business intelligence, and research based consulting services across different industry/business verticals.

As one of the top growing market research agency, we're keen upon providing market landscape and accurate forecasting. Our analysts and consultants are proficient with business intelligence and market analysis, through their interaction with leading companies of the concerned domain. We help our clients with B2B market research and assist them in identifying various windows of opportunity, and framing informed and customized business expansion strategies in different regions.

Contact:

Deep

Assistant - Client Partner

347, 5th Ave. #1402

New York City, NY - 10016

Toll-free: +1-888-778-7886 (USA/Canada)

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.psmarketresearch.com



SOURCE P&S Market Research
GREENWICH, Conn., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Gramercy Funds Management LLC (" Gramercy "), a US $6.3 billion dedicated emerging markets investment manager, today announced that it has filed a US $1.6 billion claim against the Republic of Peru for violations of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (the " Treaty ") in relation to its holding in Peruvian Agrarian Land Reform Bonds (the " Land Bonds ").

The Land Bonds constitute a multi-billion dollar selective default that affects not only Gramercy but thousands of Peruvians. Pursuant to the Notice of Arbitration / Statement of Claim filed today, Gramercy alleges that Peru has indirectly expropriated Gramercy's investment in the Land Bonds in violation of Article 10.7 of the Treaty; failed to afford Gramercy the minimum standard of treatment in violation of Article 10.5; discriminated against Gramercy in violation of Article 10.3; and denied Gramercy effective means for enforcing its rights in the Land Bonds in violation of Article 10.4.

For several years, Gramercy has attempted to engage in negotiations with the Peruvian government to find a solution for the Land Bond debt. The government has consistently declined to enter into serious discussions on this matter, leading Gramercy to file the arbitration. Robert S. Koenigsberger, Founder, Chief Investment Officer and the Managing Partner of Gramercy, states in his Witness Statement:

"Throughout my career, I have sought win-win solutions, not litigious ones. Having witnessed and even participated in earlier Peruvian initiatives to resolve challenging debt situations, and having admired Peru's economic success, I had hoped and expected that reason would ultimately prevail and that the Land Bond debt would be restructured through consensual negotiations. I still consider that to be the vastly superior alternative for everyone involved. Yet Peru's stonewalling and steadfast refusal to have any substantive discussions has left Gramercy no choice but to commence and vigorously pursue this arbitration and enforce its rights under the Treaty."

Gramercy remains open to an amicable resolution of the dispute that would benefit all parties, but is fully prepared to enforce its legal rights.

Link to Claim:

http://perubonds.org/download/claimants-notice-of-arbitration-and-statement-of-claim



Link to Witness Statement of Robert Koenigsberger:

http://perubonds.org/download/witness-statement-of-robert-s-koenigsberger

About Gramercy:

Gramercy is a US $6.3 billion dedicated emerging markets investment manager based in Greenwich, CT with offices in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City, and a presence in Lima and Buenos Aires. The firm, founded in 1998, seeks to provide investors with superior risk-adjusted returns through a comprehensive approach to emerging markets, supported by a transparent and robust institutional platform. Gramercy offers both alternative and long-only strategies across all emerging markets asset classes including USD debt, local currency debt, high yield corporate debt, distressed debt, equity, private equity and special situations. www.gramercy.com

For Further Information Contact:

Steve Bruce / Ed Rowley / John Stavinga

ASC Advisors

203-992-1230

[email protected] / [email protected] / [email protected]

SOURCE Gramercy Funds Management LLC

Related Links

http://www.gramercy.com


DELRAY BEACH, Fla., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Gripper Edge, a leading manufacturer of carpet tack strip in North America, today announced the product launch of their patented self-stick method of installing carpet tack strip. Previously, most carpet tack strips were either nailed or glued down using hot melt or solvent based adhesives. These methods can damage a subfloor such as prefinished hardwood, which the homeowner may want to return to in the future. The solvent based adhesives require long wait times, in some cases up to 24 hours before completing the installation.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374818

The new GRIPPER EDGE SELF-STICK installs four times faster than even the fastest glue gun and will not damage an existing floor. There is no waiting, power required, or special tools needed to install self-stick tack strip, made by GRIPPER EDGE, which has sold over a half billion lineal feet of product in the United States since 2003.

GRIPPER EDGE SELF-STICK was invented and patented by three experienced flooring professionals, principals of GMB Flooring Solutions, LLC (US patent # 8,763,203 B2). "There has never been an easier method of installing carpet," says inventor and veteran carpet installer Mr. Brian McKenna. "We literally cut our install time by several hours per room using the easy peel and stick method."

GRIPPER EDGE is a brand owned by TruBlack, a company that prides itself in offering innovative products that are sourced from sustainable sources and are environmentally safe. The company President, Rodrigo Vera, reiterated, "Since the invention of carpet tack strip in 1938, no one has been able to find an easier method of installing strips without tools. The invention by the gentlemen of GMB along with our Anchor-Weld adhesive technology allows us to offer a solution to all carpet installers looking for an easier alternative. We offer our lifetime warranty on this an all our GRIPPER EDGE products."

TruBlack is an innovative international multi-brand business unit founded in 1999. The company is engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture and global marketing of building, food and home products, provisions and services. The company has worldwide offices in Asia, North and South America.

To learn more about GRIPPER EDGE SELF STICK , or to book an interview, contact John Schutt at 1.561.932.0300 or email, or visit the website at www.tack-strip.com or www.tru.black.

SOURCE TruBlack

Related Links

http://www.tru.black


SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HappyCo today announced that its customers have completed more than 1.2 million inspections with Happy Inspector, the leading mobile app for conducting inspections of residential properties, commercial facilities, product quality and workforce performance. To date more than 6,000 businesses have used the Happy Inspector mobile app to modernize their operations, logging more than 58 million individual ratings for assets and incorporating 15.1 million photos in their inspection reports. When combined with Happy BI, a robust business intelligence solution, customers can perform real-time analysis of operations performance across the enterprise.

HappyCo also announced full integration with Yardi Voyager, a leading provider of property management software worldwide. The two-way integration automates the inspection workflow between the software systems, streamlining unit setup, inspection scheduling and unit reporting. Property management companies now import units into the HappyCo platform directly from the Yardi interface. When a resident status changes in Yardi, the API automatically schedules the unit inspection in Happy Inspector. And when on-site staff completes the inspection, the report is automatically saved in Yardi.

"Passing the one million mark for inspections performed with the Happy Inspector mobile app validates our platform as an invaluable solution for business operations, and we continue to gain tremendous market traction, signing on more of the top multifamily businesses over just the last few months," said HappyCo CEO Jindou Lee. "The integration with Yardi Voyager is another key milestone for our company and our customers. Streamlining the workflow for unit setup in Happy Inspector and automating the inspection scheduling and reporting process will greatly reduce the workload for our customers, and it makes overseeing property operations and asset management more efficient, simple and even delightful."

HappyCo customers have realized significant operational improvements. Last Call Operating Company, a Dallas-based operator of sports-themed bar/restaurant chains, reduced inspection time by 50 percent while increasing their internal shopper score 7.1 percent in a single month since leveraging the HappyCo product suite. CA Student Living, one of the fastest growing student housing businesses in the country, reduced turn times by hundreds of hours and inspection operations labor by 50 percent, increased damage deposit recovery by 20 percent and reduced disputed move-out charges by implementing the HappyCo platform.

About HappyCo

HappyCo (www.happyco.com) is a San Francisco-based software company that builds mobile applications for enterprise workforces to run their operations more efficiently. Its Happy Inspector product is used by thousands of companies and has facilitated more than one million inspections. The company was founded in 2011 and is privately held.

Press Contact:

VerbFactory for HappyCo

Richard Berman, 415-359-4906

[email protected]

SOURCE HappyCo

Related Links

http://www.happyco.com


WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the first time in its history the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants has been confronted at its Annual Shareholders' Meeting about its fair employment practices in Israel/Palestine.

On May 26, in Old Brook, Illinois, a Resolution was moved calling on McDonald's to sign the Holy Land Principles a corporate code of conduct for American companies doing business in Palestine/Israel, based on the very effective Mac Bride Principles for Northern Ireland.

The Holy Land Principles are pro-Jewish, pro-Palestinian and pro-company. (Fair employment by the company is not only morally right but makes good economic sensegood for the company, enhancing its reputation and making it more profitable for its investors.)

The Principles do not call for quotas, reverse discrimination, divestment, disinvestment or boycotts. The Principles do not take any position on solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. The Principles do not try to tell the Palestinians or the Israelis what to do.

The Holy Land Principles only call for fair employment by American companies in Palestine-Israel. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Holy Land Principles resolution received over 19 Million votes, 19,367,661 (3%), with 110,456.309 abstentions.

At the close of business on May 26, 2016, the share value of McDonald's was $123.79. So the value of the share votes for HLP represented $2,397,522,755.19. The value of abstentions was $13,673,386,491.10.

Therefore, the combined total money not supporting McDonald's was over $16 billion ($16,070,909,246.29) and, therefore, a total of 129,823,970 votes not supporting McDonald's.



Initially, American companies resisted the Mac Bride Principles, but now 116 companies have signed the Mac Bride Principles. For a long time, McDonald's resisted taking a position on the Mac Bride Principles, claiming it had no control over the franchisees in Northern Ireland (Even though McDonald's clearly has control over certain things: the brand name, the McDonald's sign, uniform, etc., etc.) However, in December 1994, McDonald's finally signed an agreement with the Comptroller of New York City to "urge their franchisees in Northern Ireland to implement the standards embodied in the MacBride Principles." In turn, the Comptroller withdrew the MacBride Principles resolution his office had filed with the company.

Fr. Sean Mc Manus President of the Washington-based Holy Land Principles, Inc. and the Irish National Caucus  explained: "We offered the same compromise to McDonald's as did the Comptroller of New York City. But McDonald's inexplicably turned it down, so we had to press ahead with the Resolution."

The Three-Percent Rule

Fr. Mc Manus continued: "We are pleased that with our first Resolution before McDonald's we received the required 3% in order to re-submit the Resolution next year. But let me make this point which all should understand: I accept and respect the SEC's "3% rule" and, of course, we are always keen to meet it. However, it is still only an "mathematical construct," which the SEC could increase maybe even decrease. It's a bit like a theological construct useful, but not Gospel.

The point to remember is this: even if one does not meet the 3% threshold, the inherent power of the shareholder dynamic is still maintained. The Resolution (1) has been filed, which is the essential step; (2) the Company has had to include it in its proxy material, which the Company is not too fond of; (3) the Company has had to send the Resolution to every investor on the planet, reaching the very people we want to reach directly, but cannot; and (4) , therefore, the Company has had to, in effect, advertise and promote the Holy Land Principles, a value that money could not buy.

Finally, the fear of failing to meet the 3% requirement is greatly mitigated by the fact that we can immediately announce that next year we will file a Resolution calling for the Company to disclose the breakdown of its workforce in using the nine job categories which are utilized in the U.S. Department of Labor's EEO -1 Report (Equal Employment Opportunity).

In other words, the Companies cannot make us go away. Hence the inherent and invincible power of the Holy Land Principles For nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come."

Fr. Sean Mc Manus

President

Holy Land Principles, Inc.

P.O. BOX 15128

Capitol Hill

Washington, DC 20003-0849

Tel. 202-488-0107

Fax. 202-488-7537

[email protected]

SOURCE Holy Land Principles
EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Costs for residential battery energy storage in the UK remain too high. For storage to enter the mass market, suppliers have to innovate their customer propositions and business models. This is the conclusion of new research from Delta-ee's Energy Storage team.

Delta Energy & Environment logo (PRNewsFoto/Delta Energy _ Environment logo)

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141030/713648 )

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/808490 )



The research shows that the payback for a newly installed PV + battery storage system is more than 16 years. Julian Jansen, manager of the Delta-ee Energy Storage Research Service, says "with PV + battery storage having been talked up to be the future of the UK's residential PV market, finding ways to reduce this payback and make storage more attractive to customers is crucial to grow the market."

The chart above shows the results of Delta-ee's in-house modelling profiling end-customer payback periods for a PV system (4kWp) combined with a typical 3kWh Lithium-ion battery storage product, today and in 2020. The payback improves by 2020 but remains over 10 years despite the forecast reduction in storage system costs. "We expect prices for energy storage systems to fall by around 10% annually", explains Julian Jansen, "but even by 2020 this may still not be sufficient to allow the UK market to grow above 15,000 units p.a."

In contrast, the market in Germany is already above this level - as the result of a combination of subsidy, higher electricity prices and a bigger PV market. But Delta-ee's research also shows that in Germany new business model approaches are being established, and that these approaches will be needed in the UK to reduce customer paybacks below 5 years* - the point at which mass market potential becomes realistic. Delta-ee identifies two key options:

Pay customers to allow third party control of their battery. Typically this involves the third party aggregating many residential batteries and bidding into ancillary services markets. However, in order to achieve a payback for customers of 5 years in 2020, Delta-ee's modelling shows that customers will need to be paid around 500 per year. To put this into context, UK technology developer Moixa is currently offering payments of 75 p.a. to customers, although in Germany Fenecon / Ampard are already offering customers 400 p.a. (c 320).

Fenecon / Ampard are already offering customers 400 p.a. (c 320). Innovative financing approaches, such as leasing / rental models. In this case the customer pays a monthly fee and a utility or third party can take control of the battery systems at times to earn additional revenues. Thereby the upfront cost barrier for customers is removed and lifetime costs to the customer are considerably lower than if based on an outright purchase of the battery. There are fewer examples to date of this approach, examples including the US Vermont utility Green Mountain Power or German regional utility Entega.

Ultimately, the three factors Delta-ee have identified - cost reduction, additional revenue streams for customers and innovative financing - will all play a role in bringing residential energy storage into the mass market in the UK.

More information on the Energy Storage Research Service - and the 'European State of the Market' report under which the above analysis was published - is available from http://www.delta-ee.com.

*Source: Delta-ee Heat Insight Service customer research

The latest Delta-ee Energy Storage Research Service report provides insights on:

An introduction and overview of technologies used for residential energy storage solutions

Analysis of the current European market for residential PV + energy storage

Future forecasts

Analysis of end-customer economics in the UK, Germany and Italy

Analysing the supply chain for residential energy storage products The Delta-ee Energy Storage Research Service is a syndicated, subscription service providing: In-depth reports on key issues in the European market

Outlook and forecasts for the European energy storage market

20+ Case Studies of key deployment models for distributed energy storage

An info-base on offerings across the European market

Inquiry service About Delta-ee Delta-ee (www.delta-ee.com) is a specialist distributed energy and heat research and consulting company that helps clients navigate the transformation of the energy system. Headquartered in Edinburgh and with offices in England, the Netherlands and Denmark. Our clients comprise many of Europe's leading utilities; heating appliance manufacturers; controls companies; policy makers; and investors. Delta-ee provides a range of subscription research services, consultancy and specialist Summits.

SOURCE Delta Energy & Environment
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) today announced that Rohit Aggarwal will succeed Paul Hulme as President of Huntsman's Textile Effects division, effective July 31, 2016.

Most recently Huntsman's Vice President and Managing Director of Indian Subcontinent, a position he has held since July 1, 2015, Aggarwal joined Huntsman in 2005 and has held various positions within the corporation's Advanced Materials and Textile Effects divisions. In 2013 he left Huntsman to join Louis Dreyfus Commodities B.V. as Chief Executive Officer of Asia Region, a position he held until his return in 2015.

Aggarwal has more than 20 years' experience in the chemical industry across multiple chemical specialties. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, and a master's degree in International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi.

After 17 years with Huntsman, Paul Hulme has elected to retire as President of Textile Effects division, a position he has held since 2006. Hulme joined Huntsman in 1999 with the acquisition of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), where he spent the first 15 years of his career. He subsequently held a variety of senior roles throughout Huntsman.

Huntsman President and CEO Peter Huntsman said: "I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Paul for his dedicated service to Huntsman for more than three decades. Ten years ago, when Paul assumed leadership of our Textile Effects division, the textile sector was facing acute economic and environmental challenges. Today our textile business is aligned with the industry's growth markets, and its cost efficiency and sustainability platform are widely recognized as industry best practice. I am very pleased that Rohit Aggarwal has accepted the lead role in our Textile Effects division. I am confident that, under his direction, the business will prosper and thrive."

About Huntsman:

Huntsman Corporation is a publicly traded global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals with 2015 revenues of approximately $10 billion. Our chemical products number in the thousands and are sold worldwide to manufacturers serving a broad and diverse range of consumer and industrial end markets. We operate more than 100 manufacturing and R&D facilities in approximately 30 countries and employ approximately 15,000 associates within our 5 distinct business divisions. For more information about Huntsman, please visit the company's website at www.huntsman.com.

Social Media:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Huntsman_Corp

Facebook: www.facebook.com/huntsmancorp

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/huntsman

Forward-Looking Statements:

Statements in this release that are not historical are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current beliefs and expectations. The forward-looking statements in this release are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances and involve risks and uncertainties that may affect the company's operations, markets, products, services, prices and other factors as discussed in the Huntsman companies' filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Significant risks and uncertainties may relate to, but are not limited to, financial, economic, competitive, environmental, political, legal, regulatory and technological factors. The company assumes no obligation to provide revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by applicable laws.

SOURCE Huntsman Corporation

Related Links

http://www.huntsman.com


NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Impact of the Amended Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Codes on the Chemicals Market in South Africa : New B-BBEE Rules will Incentivise New Supply Chain Models



Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) is a specific government policy aimed at addressing the legacy of Apartheid by enhancing the participation of Black people in the South African economy. This transformational and legislative framework was first introduced in 2003 as the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (No. 53 of 2003) and has since undergone various iterations. The study investigates the most recent amendments to understand what changes have been made to the B-BBEE framework and how these impact the chemicals industry in South Africa.



Key Findings



South Africa's Codes for assessing a company's contribution to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) have been revised. Although obtaining a B-BBEE rating is not compulsory in general, it is a requirement for doing any business with the government, including applying for many kinds of licences and authorisations.

- The new Codes place far stronger emphasis on the Ownership elementthe mandatory portion of the pillarsand Enterprise and Supplier Development.

- Under the old Codes, South Africa's listed chemicals companies had an average B-BBEE recognition of (where 1 is the strongest possible, and 8 the weakest). Under the new Codes, Frost & Sullivan expects the average to drop to Level 6.

- This will have a greater impact on industries where a competitive B-BBEE score is important, than in those where the issue is compliance versus non-compliance.

- Frost & Sullivan expects to see the emergence of high-performing Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) capabilities within large companies. It is also possible that specialist ESD companies will emerge to which ESD activities might be subcontracted.

- Frost & Sullivan expects to see extensive changes in the Qualifying Small Enterprises (QSEs) market structure in the form of mergers and acquisitions, and a high demand for Black shareholders, as many of these companies will seek to maintain or improve their scores.

- Previously, QSEs were scored on out of elements. They now have to be scored against all the current elements (a total of ), which will make scoring of ownership inevitable



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03858933-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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SOURCE Reportlinker

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NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ING Capital LLC ("ING") has originated a $570 million senior secured bridge loan for Olayan America, the US investment arm of The Olayan Group, to purchase 550 Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

The short-term loan is secured by a first mortgage on the property, an iconic skyscraper known most recently as the Sony Building.

"ING committed the bridge facility very quickly at attractive terms so that this deal could conclude within a very tight time frame," said Nadim Tabbara, Chief Financial Officer of The Olayan Group.

The 37-story building in the Plaza District of Manhattan has 852,830 square feet of rentable mixed-use space. The building features approximately 776,000 square feet of office space, prime retail frontage on Madison Avenue, and exhibition and museum space.

The property is currently occupied by one restaurant tenant holding 5,000 square feet. It is effectively 100 percent vacant, providing Olayan and asset manager Chelsfield an opportunity to rebrand the building and create value by renovating and reconfiguring the existing space.

"The Sony Building is a New York City landmark," said Craig Bender, Managing Director with ING. "We are especially proud to have worked on this deal for one of our longstanding global clients. Our long-term real estate investment outlook is strong, and we look forward to seeing how Olayan and Chelsfield reposition this property in the future."

Construction of the building was completed in 1984 as the global headquarters of AT&T. It has been sold on just two previous occasions  to Sony Corporation in 2002 and in 2013 to the Chetrit Group, the immediate past owner.

"The property has been maintained to a high standard and has never previously been available to the open market for office leasing," said Tony Fusco, head of Real Estate at Olayan America.

Press enquiries

Elaine Clark

+1646-424-7021

[email protected]

About ING CAPITAL LLC

ING Capital LLC is a financial services firm offering a full array of wholesale financial lending products and advisory services to its corporate and institutional clients. ING Capital LLC is an indirect U.S. subsidiary of ING Bank NV, and a part of ING Group (NYSE: ING), a global financial institution of Dutch origin. The purpose of ING Bank is empowering people to stay a step ahead in life and in business.

About The Olayan Group

Founded in 1947, The Olayan Group is a private, multinational enterprise that is a major international investor as well as a diversified commercial and industrial business in the Middle East. With offices in the US, Europe, and Suadi Arabia, the Group's global investment team focuses on public and private equities, real estate, fixed income securities, and other specialized assets.

About Chelsfield

Chelsfied, in various forms, has been investing in and developing real estate for more than 30 years. As a leading real estate company and asset manager focused on investment and development in central London, Paris, and key global gateway cities, including New York, Chelsfield's track record is demonstrable with 6.2 billion of transactions undertaken since 2005.

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SOURCE ING Capital LLC
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF)  improving the quality of life of myeloma patients while working toward prevention and a cure  will host the 7th Annual International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) Summit June 7-9 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Nearly 100 of the world's top myeloma experts will attend the 2016 Summit, which convenes on the eve of the annual Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA). A key focus at the Summit will be the creation of IMWG guidelines to address the rising cost of myeloma drugs.

"The IMWG Summit provides the opportunity for us to evaluate the latest developments in myeloma research and treatment, and come to a consensus on how best to incorporate these advances into recommendations for improving treatment for myeloma patients globally," said Dr. Brian G.M. Durie, IMF Chairman and Co-founder, and IMWG Chairman.

Highly anticipated new research will be discussed and debated at the 2016 IMWG Summit. Issues surrounding myeloma treatment, clinical trial design, and patient quality of life will be tackled. In addition, investigators from the IMF's Black Swan Research Initiative (BSRI) team will meet to determine the next steps forward in the IMF's effort to find the pathway to cure myeloma.

Patients, caregivers, and doctors around the world can be among the first to glean insights into the latest myeloma research and treatment by watching a live-stream broadcast from the Summit on Thursday, June 9. On the IMF's popular IMWG Conference Series, "Making Sense of Treatment," a panel of international myeloma expertsDrs. Brian Durie, Maria-Victoria Mateos, Joseph Mikhael, and Paul Richardsonwill distill, debate, and discuss what they learned at the Summit during a 90-minute webcast, which starts at 7:30 am ET. (The live and archived webcast can be found HERE.)

Additional highlights of the IMWG Summit include:

The presentation of the IMF's 14 th Annual Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar , the Edward W. and Betty Knight Scripps Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota . The award honors an individual whose body of work has made significant contributions to myeloma research and patient care.

Annual Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. , the Edward W. and Betty Knight Scripps Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in . The award honors an individual whose body of work has made significant contributions to myeloma research and patient care. A meeting of the IMF Global Myeloma Action Network (GMAN), which brings together 30 myeloma patient groups from around the world to raise global awareness of myeloma, improve patient outcomes, and ensure access to life-saving treatments.

"The IMF is proud to lead this unprecedented collaborative event that brings together the world's experts in myeloma to advance treatment and research that will lead to a cure," said IMF President Susie Novis Durie.

Co-chairing the 2016 IMWG Summit are Dr. Brian Durie and Dr. Rajkumar. Both serve on the IMWG organizing committee along with Dr. Jesus San Miguel, Dr. Antonio Palumbo, and Dr. Philippe Moreau. Session chairs are Drs. Moreau, Palumbo, Paul Richardson, Thanos Dimopoulos, Hartmut Goldschmidt, and Ola Landgren.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL MYELOMA FOUNDATION

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) is the oldest and largest foundation focusing specifically on multiple myeloma. The Foundation's reach extends to more than 400,000 members in 140 countries worldwide. The IMF is dedicated to improving the quality of life of myeloma patients while working toward prevention and a cure by focusing on four key areas: research, education, support, and advocacy. The IMF has conducted more than 250 educational seminars worldwide, maintains a world-renowned InfoLine, and in 2001, established the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG), a collaborative research initiative focused on improving myeloma treatment options for patients. In 2013, the IMF launched the Black Swan Research Initiative, a groundbreaking research project aimed at curing myeloma. The IMF can be reached at (800) 452-CURE (2873). The global website is www.myeloma.org. Follow the IMF on Twitter @IMFmyeloma.

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SOURCE The International Myeloma Foundation

Related Links

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PFORZHEIM, Germany and BIELEFELD, Germany, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

SAP full-service provider itelligence acquires 100 percent of the German SAP consulting and SAP Gold Channel Partner ITML GmbH

Norbert Rotter, CFO of itelligence AG says: "The purchase of ITML GmbH is a strategic asset for itelligence AG. itelligence acquires an attractive customer base and significant CRM expertise. In addition, we are significantly strengthening our presence in south-western Germany, which we will continue to expand." (PRNewsFoto/itelligence AG)

itelligence AG and ITML GmbH, Pforzheim, today announced the acquisition of ITML by itelligence AG. With effect from June 1, 2016, itelligence will take over 100 percent of the renowned South German SAP consulting company and SAP Gold Channel Partner, ITML GmbH.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374311 )

With the acquisition of ITML, itelligence AG consolidates its position as the world's most successful SAP consulting house for the SME sector, continues its expansion in Germany and significantly increases its market presence in southern Germany. In addition, itelligence strengthens its position in the promising and fast-growing CRM segment, particularly in cloud solutions for customer relationship management (CRM), and in the area of customer commerce, with the ITML experts nationwide.

As an SAP Gold Channel Partner, ITML is one of SAP's main partners and is a key CRM specialist in the German-speaking countries. Its core competencies include not only SAP consulting and implementation, but it also has its own software suite for customer relationship management (CRM), which is fully integrated in SAP. ITML employs more than 160 people.

Herbert Vogel, CEO of itelligence AG says: "With ITML, we not only strengthen our presence in the lucrative southern-German market but also in the booming field of Customer Engagement & Commerce and omni-channel. SAP and ITML both offer sophisticated solutions which we can adapt to suit the SME sector."

For example, in a recent press release SAP reported particularly strong growth in its CRM / CEC cloud business: "In the first quarter, cloud revenue increased by 33 percent compared to last year. The rapidly-growing cloud business and solid growth in support revenue meant that the proportion of more-predictable total revenue generated reached a record level. The total revenue from cloud subscriptions and support and also from software support for the first quarter 2016 accounted for 69 percent of total sales."

Norbert Rotter, CFO of itelligence AG says: "The purchase of ITML GmbH is a strategic asset for itelligence AG. itelligence acquires an attractive customer base and significant CRM expertise. In addition, we are significantly strengthening our presence in south-western Germany, which we will continue to expand."

ITML's customers include international concerns, hidden champions from the SME sector and regional SME customers. In total ITML serves more than 400 customers.

Stefan Eller, founder and CEO of ITML GmbH says: "We are very excited about the new opportunity offered by itelligence AG. I expect that the integration of ITML will enable itelligence to increase CRM / CEC turnover significantly, because I am convinced that our customers and our employees will benefit from both the integration and our solutions alike. We are pleased that our mission to deliver user-friendly applications based on SAP solutions, will be continued and strengthened."

Tobias Wahner, founder and CEO ITML GmbH says: "itelligence is very well prepared for the future and offers us a great base on which to drive new innovation topics such as the Internet of Things (IoT) or cloud solutions. There are already data centres in operation, which means that new solutions by SAP and ITML for customers can be operated efficiently. Future-proof forms of operation and service, such as managed services, will therefore stay in the foreground. Existing and new solutions can also be offered to itelligence's extensive installed customer base of itelligence, so that they too will benefit from the stronger CRM focus."

The takeover by itelligence is being undertaken on the assumption of continuity. All employees of the previous ITML will be transferred. All three ITML-founders and CEOs will assume senior positions within itelligence. In addition, itelligence plans further recruitment in southern Germany.

Willy Krieler, founder and CEO of ITML GmbH and responsible for human-resources management, finance and IT says: "The acquisition by itelligence AG opens up many opportunities for our employees to develop professionally in an international environment. Each of our employees is and will remain valuable to us. The Pforzheim office will be maintained and further developed. Human resources and fair treatment is therefore still our focus, because if our skilled personnel can work happily and be highly motivated, it will also benefit our customers. We are confident that our exceptional team spirit will help us to develop rapidly together with our colleagues from itelligence. As we have come to know itelligence, we have learned that our corporate cultures, with their flat hierarchies, are very similar."

Dr. Andreas Pauls, Executive Vice President Managing Director Germany of itelligence AG says: "We are planning to use this strategic expansion to expand our cloud-based market share significantly, particularly in the area of CRM and in the hybris environment. For our customers this acquisition means a more extensive service network in Germany and even better advice on the topic of customer relationship management, which is one of the most important issues for the future."

The parties have agreed to refrain from comment on the specific purchase price.

itelligence AG

itelligence is one of the leading international full-service providers of solutions in support of SAP solutions, employing more than 5,000 highly qualified employees in 23 countries. As a frequently awarded SAP partner, among others global value-added reseller, itelligence is SAP-certified in cloud services, an SAP-certified provider of hosting services for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and an SAP platinum partner. itelligence realizes large projects in the SAP solution-based environment for customers worldwide. The company's services in support of SAP solutions range from consulting and licensing to application management services and hosting services to proprietary industry-specific SAP solutions. In 2015, itelligence generated total sales of EUR 696.2 million.

ITML GmbH

About ITML GmbH: ITML is an independent IT service provider with solutions for the entire SAP Business Suite. The company plans, builds and optimizes the smooth application of new and existing SAP applications - customers include SMEs up to global corporations. As an SAP Channel Partner with Gold Status, ITML is an important SME partner of SAP Germany AG & Co. KG. In addition to SAP solutions, ITML the only provider which offers CRM solutions which are fully integrated into SAP. ITML has grown continuously since its founding in 1998. At present the company, which has its headquarters in Pforzheim, employs more than 160 people. It also has locations in Dortmund and Biel (Switzerland).

SAP, SAP HANA, Hybris and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.



Public Relations:

Silvia Dicke

Tel: +49(0)521-91448-107

Fax: +49(0)521-91445-201

[email protected]



SOURCE itelligence AG
ATLANTA, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- National staffing, search and technology enterprise, Jackson Healthcare, announced the appointment of Jennifer Dangar as Chief of Corporate Operations.

In this newly created senior executive role, Dangar oversees the company's resource teams and partners with company leaders to support continued growth. In her 20 plus years of senior leadership, Dangar's breadth of responsibilities has included strategy, sales, marketing, business development, research & insights, contract negotiation, new product launches and operations.

Prior to Jackson Healthcare, Dangar served as chief strategy officer & president of distribution for The Weather Company. She has held leadership positions at various television content companies, including Discovery Communications, Turner Broadcasting and C-SPAN. She was chair of the national board of Women in Cable Telecommunications and held leadership positions on various telecom industry boards.

Jennifer is committed to community service in Atlanta and is currently the Georgia chair of YPO (Young President's Organization) and is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta (2011). She has provided board and leadership service for many Atlanta charities including Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta and Fernbank Museum most recently.

"I am honored that a leader of Jennifer's caliber would choose to come work alongside the associates of Jackson Healthcare," said R. Shane Jackson, president of Jackson Healthcare. "She is coming into a critical leadership role for us as we navigate tremendous growth."

"I was on a very specific journey to pivot my career and join a company with an outstanding culture, in a growth industry," Dangar said. "I am beyond thrilled to have found both at Jackson Healthcare. I am incredibly enthusiastic about the bright future ahead here and humbled to be part of such an amazing team."

Dangar is a graduate of Tulane University. She, her husband and two children live in Atlanta, Georgia.

About Jackson Healthcare

Jackson Healthcare is built on a simple idea  that talented professionals with a shared purpose can improve the lives of patients, families and communities. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, the company has risen to a place of prominence among the largest healthcare staffing and technology companies in the U.S. It currently serves more than seven million patients in over 1,300 healthcare facilities.

In addition to serving health systems and providers, Jackson champions local, national and international charitable work. It founded and sponsors the Hospital Charitable Service Awards, which honors programs that set new standards for health and wellness in their communities through education, access and delivery. Atlanta Business Chronicle named Jackson Healthcare the city's "Best Place to Work" in 2014 and 2015 and "Healthiest Large Company" in 2015.

Visit JacksonHealthcare.com to learn more.

SOURCE Jackson Healthcare

Related Links

http://www.jacksonhealthcare.com


WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In 2015, a white supremacist opened fire and killed nine people at a church in Charleston, S.C. AARP Bulletin shares the poignant stories of the victims' families and Reverend Betty Deas Clark, who succeeded slain Reverend Clementa Pinckney as pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Read each personal story from the perspective of those most affected by it. June's cover story exposes Dr. Jacques Roy, who, through his business, Medistat Group Associates, committed $375 million in Medicare and Medicaid fraudthe largest home health care fraud in the history of the two programs. Other Bulletin stories this month include: the rise of prescription painkiller abuse in the United States since the late 1990s; financial advice for those planning on going back to school; and lessons for consumers on how to best protect themselves from thieves at the ATM.

AARP Bulletin June Cover

This Doctor Led a $375 Million Medicare Scam (Cover Story): From 2006 to 2011, prosecutors say Dr. Jacques Roy, through his business, Medistat Group Associates, certified over 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries to receive home health care, more than any other doctor in the country. The scheme involved recruiting thousands of healthy patients and billing them for home care that they did not need, netting $375 million from Medicare and Medicaidthe largest home health care fraud in the history of the programs. This April, Dr. Roy was convicted of eight counts of health care fraud and other charges.

Going Back to School?: Better figure out how you're going to pay for it before cracking the books, says AARP personal finance expert Jane Bryant Quinn and author of How to Make Your Money Last. If you are thinking of returning to school to pick up new money-making skills, it would be wise to investigate the likely pay and availability of the jobs you are aiming for. Your education will be worth its cost only if you will earn more, after tax, than you paid for the courseincluding the interest due on any student loans. Whatever you choose, motivation, time and motivation are key. You will need to complete the program in order to compete for your dream job and pay off any loans.

Ambushed at the ATM: Fraud at automated teller machines has reached an all-time high. "Skimming" devices let criminals help themselves to your debit card data. Never heard of skimming? It's a con in which criminals install illegal card-reading devices on ATMs, as well as gas pumps and other public-area machines that process debit cards. Advice here teaches readers how to better protect themselves from this con.

Legal But Deadly: Since the late 1990s prescription painkiller use has experienced a dramatic rise in the United Statesand with it, misuse and addiction. A growing number of people 50-plus are abusing prescription painkillers, sometimes with fatal consequences. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 14,800 Americans fatally overdosed on opioid-based pain medication in 2014four times as many as in 1999. Of those, nearly 5,900 people were age 50 or older, which is nearly an eleven fold increase since 1999.

The Long Road to Forgiveness: Examining the Charleston church massacre one year later, we ask: what does forgiveness look like? In the eyes of some of those who lost loved ones at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C, an outpouring of bitterness and hatred might have been anticipated from those left behind. Instead, at the accused killer's first court hearing, many said they had forgiven him. A year later, Emmanuel has been nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. The place still echoes with sadnessbut listen to the voices and look into the eyes of the victims' relatives.

About AARP Bulletin

The definitive news source for AARP's members, AARP Bulletin (http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/) reaches more than 23.5 million households each month in print, with additional news and in-depth coverage online. Covering health and health policy, Medicare, Social Security, consumer protection, personal finance, and AARP state and national news developments, AARP Bulletin delivers the story behind the key issues confronting 50+ America. The monthly consumer-oriented news publication has become a must-read for congressional lawmakers and Washington opinion leaders, and it provides AARP members with pertinent information they need to know.

About AARP

AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of nearly 38 million that helps people turn their goals and dreams into 'Real Possibilities' by changing the way America defines aging. With staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, AARP works to strengthen communities and promote the issues that matter most to families such as healthcare security, financial security and personal fulfillment. AARP also advocates for individuals in the marketplace by selecting products and services of high quality and value to carry the AARP name. As a trusted source for news and information, AARP produces the world's largest circulation magazine, AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or make contributions to political campaigns or candidates. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org or follow @aarp and our CEO @JoAnn_Jenkins on Twitter.

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SOURCE AARP

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Architected to bolster delivery of innovative, market-leading real-time embedded communications solutions

OTTAWA, Ontario, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Kandy.io, GENBAND's award-winning communications Platform as a Service, announced today that it is opening a new Cloud Center of Excellence (CoE) in Ottawa to deliver the next generation of cloud-based API offerings to cross-vertical global enterprises, Communications Service Providers (CSPs), Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and the developer community. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson will attend the opening ceremony on June 9, 2016 at 9:30 a.m.

"The Kandy Cloud Center of Excellence will be a tremendous addition to our thriving tech landscape," said Mayor Watson. "I am proud of our City's ability to attract world-class R&D companies, thanks to our skilled technology workforce and growing innovation community. I am confident that Kandy will see many benefits derive from its Ottawa location, and that it will have a positive impact on our City."

The 70,000 square foot CoE, which will complement GENBAND's already-existing Ottawa facilities, boasts a state-of-the-art lab. In addition to the leaders of R&D, product management, security and tech support, and part of their globally distributed teams, the CoE will house newly-hired local employees, many of them new graduates.

"The appetite for embedded real-time communications is only growing, fueled by the Internet of Things and a recognition that contextual real-time communications are the best avenue towards value creation in today's digital landscape," said Paul Pluschkell, founder and CEO of Kandy. "The CoE will enable us to further propel our development of these solutions and Ottawa, aptly named 'the Silicon Valley of the North,' allows us to draw on a tech-savvy talent pool while participating in a thriving ecosystem."

The opening ceremony will include an ideathon for customers, employees and local developers. Kandy's state-of-the-art demo-equipped RV, the Kandymobile, will also be on site, and Mayor Watson will present a prize for the best product presentation.

"Businesses and developers around the world are leveraging the Kandy platform to connect over the cloud and deliver more human applications," added Sacha Gera, Senior Vice President of Cloud Products. "Much of the intellectual property that supports Kandy was developed in Ottawa over the decades, so it's fitting that Ottawa-based engineers will once again play a key role in transforming the communications world."

About Kandy

GENBAND's Kandy communications Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is a real time software development platform built from GENBAND's core communications, presence, security and real time technologies. Kandy enables service providers, enterprises, software vendors, systems integrators, partners and developers to enrich their applications and services with real time contextual communications, providing a more engaging user experience. With Kandy, companies of all sizes and types can quickly embed real time communications capabilities into their existing applications and business processes. For more information visit kandy.io.

About GENBAND

GENBAND, a 2015 CNBC Disruptor 50, is a global leader in real-time communications software solutions for service providers, enterprises, independent software vendors, systems integrators and developers in over 80 countries. Kandy, its award-winning, disruptive real-time communications software development platform, is built from the company's global telecommunications network and security technologies. The platform enables these companies to easily embed a full suite of voice, video, chat, screen-sharing and collaboration capabilities into their existing business, web and mobile applications. The company's Network Modernization, Unified Communications, Mobility and Embedded Communications solutions enable its customers to quickly capitalize on growing market segments and introduce differentiating products, applications and services. GENBAND's market-leading solutions, which are deployable in the network, on premise or through the cloud, help its customers connect people to each other and address the growing demands of today's consumers and businesses for real-time communications wherever they happen to be. To learn more visit genband.com.

GENBAND, the GENBAND logo and icon are trademarks of GENBAND.

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SOURCE GENBAND

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BATTLE CREEK, Mich., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- By Alicia Perdon, Cereal Scientist, Global Breakfast Research & Development

Tweetable Highlights:

@KelloggCompany heart & soul efforts detailed in latest corporate responsibility report http://bit.ly/283PTgL

Do you know why Kellogg's Rice Krispies actually snap, crackle and pop? Do you realize there are certain types and grains of rice that are better for you and for our cereals?

As a cereal scientist, these are the kinds of things I study. My job is to help find the best grains  responsibly sourced and sustainably grown  for use in our foods. Because so much care goes into growing our ingredients and nurturing them from farm to table, the last thing we want is for those efforts to go to waste.

We must help prevent food from going to waste, whether it's on the farm, at our facilities or in the communities where we live and work. When you consider that nearly one-third of all global food goes to waste1 and almost 800 million people worldwide are malnourished, it's clear that we have to do our part.

Relieving hunger is a passion for us, which led to our global signature cause, Breakfasts for Better Days.

Since its inception in 2013, this hunger relief program has provided more than 1.4 billion of servings  more than half of which were breakfast  to families in need around the world.

But our commitment to hunger relief goes beyond food donations and breakfast clubs. We also start at the beginning  the farm. We provide financial support to programs that help farmers reduce their post-harvest losses. These programs help protect their grains so they are the highest quality. With our help, farmers around the world are learning to prevent the loss of grains to pests, insufficient drying techniques, poor harvest practices, poor storage, or other external factors.

Starting this month, experts from Kellogg, myself included, and our partners from the University of Arkansas Rice Processing Program will measure the effects of Climate Smart Agriculture practices to help improve milled rice quality. When higher quality rice arrives at the mill, the farmers, the suppliers and the buyers, like Kellogg, all benefit. And less goes to waste.

Food waste has significant social and environmental impacts. It contributes to global food insecurity, climate change and increased usage of natural resources. It also impacts the bottom line for farmers and vulnerable growers who can't afford to lose their incomes.

Our passion to reduce food losses and fight hunger is one of many company examples of our heart and soul. We invite you to learn more about our efforts in the 2015 Global Corporate Responsibility Report now available online.

We look forward to your feedback, which can be shared by emailing [email protected].

About Kellogg Company

At Kellogg Company (NYSE: K), we strive to make foods people love. This includes our beloved brands  Kellogg's, Keebler, Special K, Pringles, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, Pop-Tarts, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Cheez-It, Eggo, Mini-Wheats and more  that nourish families so they can flourish and thrive. With 2015 sales of $13.5 billion and more than 1,600 foods, Kellogg is the world's leading cereal company; second largest producer of cookies, crackers and savory snacks; and a leading North American frozen foods company. Through our Breakfasts for Better DaysTM global hunger initiative, we've provided more than 1.4 billion servings of cereal and snacks to children and families in need around the world. To learn more, visit www.kelloggcompany.com or follow us on Twitter @KelloggCompany, YouTube and on Social K.



1 http://www.worldfooddayusa.org/food_waste_the_facts

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SOURCE Kellogg Company

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AMSTERDAM, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

LSP (Life Sciences Partners), the European life sciences investment group, today announced the final closing of its new life sciences fund, LSP 5. The fund surpassed its $170 million target and reached the 'hard cap' of $280 million, making LSP 5 one of the largest life sciences funds in Europe.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Rene Kuijten, Managing Partner at LSP, said: "The basis of this fundraising success is reflective of our strong financial performance as well as meeting the challenges of life sciences investing. This has been recognized by not only large and loyal institutional investors, but also by strategic partners like the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, who selected LSP as a partner for identifying and investing in European breakthrough technologies. Moreover, the interest from family offices and private investors looking for broad exposure to life sciences in Europe has increased significantly over the years."

The fund has already started to invest, taking positions in 9 companies. Examples include Irish medical device company Neuravi, active in acute ischemic stroke, Swiss-based immuno-oncology company Nouscom, and Kuros Biosciences, recently listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange and focused on tissue repair and regeneration. The fund, primarily focused on Europe, will look to invest in around 20 companies across the areas of drug development, medical devices and diagnostics. LSP has helped several well-known life sciences companies to grow and prosper, including Dutch companies Crucell, Merus, Prosensa, Sapiens; Belgian companies argenx, Movetis; German companies Activaero, Jerini, U3 Pharma; Swiss company Okairos and Danish company Zealand Pharma.

Dr Kuijten added: "The healthcare sector is developing favorably and European science is reaching new heights. There are a lot of opportunities for investment in the sector and we will continue to explore these avenues as we have done in the past."

About LSP

LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is an independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life sciences companies. LSP's mission is to connect investors to inventors, focusing on unmet medical needs. Since the late 1980s, LSP's management has invested in about 100 innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life sciences industry. With over $1.2 billion of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe's leading life sciences investors. LSP also invests in public companies through its Euronext-listed LSP Life Sciences Fund (Bloomberg: LSP NA).

About LSP 5

Launched in 2014, LSP 5 targets investment opportunities in healthcare companies developing pioneering products and technologies that provide solutions to unmet medical needs, similar to its predecessor funds. The fund will invest in around 20 companies across the areas of drug development, medical devices and diagnostics. LSP partners Rene Kuijten, Joachim Rothe, Martijn Kleijwegt, Joerg Neermann, John de Koning and Fouad Azzam have worked together for a decade and combine entrepreneurial and financial skills with a strong background in biosciences and medicine.

For more information, please visit lspvc.com.

Contacts:

Dr Rene R. Kuijten

Managing Partner LSP

Contact: [email protected]

Hume Brophy

Supriya Mathur, Hollie Vile

Phone: +44 (0) 207 862 6475

E-mail: [email protected]

SOURCE LSP
SYDNEY, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Macquarie Bank Limited (the "Bank"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Macquarie Group Limited (ASX: MQG), announced today that it has commenced a modified "Dutch Auction" cash tender offer to purchase (the "Tender Offer") up to US$150 million aggregate principal amount (subject to increase, the "Tender Cap") of its outstanding subordinated debt securities (the "Notes").

The Tender Offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on June 29, 2016, unless extended or earlier terminated by the Bank in its sole discretion (such date and time, as the same may be extended, the "Expiration Date"). Holders of Notes that validly tender (and do not validly withdraw) their Notes prior to 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on June 15, 2016, unless extended by the Bank in its sole discretion (such date and time, as the same may be extended, the "Early Participation Date"), will be eligible to receive the Total Consideration (as defined below) for their Notes.

The following table summarizes the material pricing terms for each US$1,000 aggregate principal amount of Notes:















Acceptable Bid Spread Range (basis points)(2)

Title of Securities CUSIP No. ISIN Maturity Date Aggregate Principal Amount Outstanding Early Tender Premium(1) Minimum Spread Maximum/Base Spread Reference Security Reference Page 6.625% Subordinated Medium-Term Notes, Series A, due 2021 144A: 55608XAA5 Reg S: 55608YAA3 144A: US55608XAA54 Reg S: US55608YAA38 April 7, 2021 US$1,000,000,000 US$50 175 225 1.375% U.S. Treasury Bonds due May 31, 2021 Bloomberg, PX1



























(1) Per US$1,000 principal amount of Notes accepted for purchase.

(2) Includes the Early Tender Premium but not Accrued Interest.

The Tender Offer will be conducted on the terms and subject to the conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase, dated June 2, 2016 (the "Offer to Purchase"), and a related Letter of Transmittal.

Notes tendered by holders on or before the Early Participation Date, and accepted for purchase by the Bank will receive the "Total Consideration", which includes an early tender premium of US$50 per US$1,000 principal amount of Notes validly tendered (the "Early Tender Premium"). Holders who validly tender their Notes after the Early Participation Date will not be eligible to receive the Early Tender Premium and, accordingly, holders whose Notes are validly tendered after the Early Participation Date and on or prior to the Expiration Date and are accepted for payment pursuant to the Tender Offer will receive the "Tender Offer Consideration" consisting of the Total Consideration less the Early Tender Premium.

The Tender Offer is being conducted pursuant to a modified "Dutch Auction." This means that holders who elect to participate in the Tender Offer prior to the Early Participation Date must specify the maximum spread ("Bid Spread") in excess of the Reference Security set forth in the table above that such holder would be willing to accept as the basis for determining the Total Consideration payable in exchange for each US$1,000 principal amount of Notes tendered (and not validly withdrawn) in the Tender Offer. For each tender of Notes, the Bank will determine the "Bid Premium" for such tender by subtracting the Bid Spread for the Notes from the Base Spread set forth in the table above. The Bid Spread submitted by any tendering holder must fall within the acceptable Bid Spread range specified in the table above in order to be accepted and used for purposes of calculating the Clearing Spread Premium and will include the Early Tender Premium. The Bank will use all of the Bid Premiums received for the Notes tendered on or prior to the Early Participation Date to calculate a "Clearing Spread Premium" in accordance with the procedure set forth below. The Total Consideration, which includes the Early Tender Premium will be equal to an amount that would reflect as of the date of purchase, a yield to the Maturity Date equal to the sum of (i) the yield of the Reference Security as of 2:00 p.m., New York City time, on the Early Acceptance Date (which is expected to be June 16, 2016, the first business day after the Early Participation Date), plus (ii) the Clearing Spread, which consists of the Base Spread set forth in the table above less the Clearing Spread Premium, as determined pursuant to the modified Dutch Auction.

The Clearing Spread Premium for the Notes will be determined by the Bank by consideration of the Bid Premiums of all validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) Notes on or prior to the Early Participation Date, in order of lowest to highest Bid Premiums. The Clearing Spread Premium will be: (i) the lowest single premium for all tenders of Notes on or prior to the Early Participation Date such that, for all such tenders of Notes whose Bid Spread results in a Bid Premium equal to or less than this lowest single premium, the Bank will be able to accept an aggregate principal amount of Notes up to the Tender Cap under the Tender Offer, taking into account the aggregate principal amount of Notes that have been validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn), and the prorationing described in the Offer to Purchase, or (ii) in the event that the purchase of all the Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) would result in the Bank acquiring Notes having an aggregate principal amount of less than the Tender Cap under the Tender Offer, the Clearing Spread Premium will be the highest Bid Premium with respect to any Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn).

If the Notes tendered at or below the Clearing Spread Premium would result in an aggregate principal amount in excess of the Tender Cap, then holders of the Notes tendered at the Clearing Spread Premium will be subject to proration as described in the Offer to Purchase. If on the Early Participation Date, the aggregate principal amount of Notes validly tendered (and not validly withdrawn) by holders would cause the Bank to accept an aggregate principal amount of Notes in excess of the Tender Cap, then the Bank will not accept any Notes tendered after the Early Participation Date. Any Notes validly tendered after the Early Participation Date and on or prior to the Expiration Date will be deemed to have been tendered with a bid spread equal to the Tender Offer Consideration and any such tenders after the Early Participation Date will not be used for purposes of calculating the Clearing Spread Premium.

Accrued and unpaid interest will be paid on all Notes validly tendered and accepted for purchase by the Bank from the last interest payment date to, but not including, the date on which the Notes are purchased. The Bank may elect, following the Early Participation Date and prior to the Expiration Date (as defined below), to accept the Notes validly tendered at or prior to the Early Participation Date, provided that all conditions to the Tender Offer have been satisfied or waived by the Bank, and Notes accepted on such date may be settled on such date or promptly thereafter (the "Early Payment Date"). It is anticipated that the Early Payment Date will be June 20, 2016, the third business day after the Early Participation Date. The "Final Payment Date" is the date that the Bank settles all Notes not previously settled on the Early Payment Date, if any, which the Bank expects to be one business day following the Expiration Date. The Bank currently expects the Early Payment Date to be June 20, 2016, and the Final Payment Date to be June 30, 2016.

As described in the Offer to Purchase, subject to applicable law, the Bank may extend the Tender Offer at any time and may amend or terminate the Tender Offer if, before such time as any Notes have been accepted for payment pursuant to the Tender Offer, any condition of the Tender Offer is not satisfied or waived.

The Tender Offer is not conditioned upon the tender of a minimum principal amount of Notes, but is subject to certain conditions set forth in the Offer to Purchase.

This announcement, including the following, is qualified in its entirety by the Offer to Purchase and, where applicable, the Letter of Transmittal.

The Bank has retained Citigroup Global Markets Inc. ("Citigroup") and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC ("J.P. Morgan") to act as Dealer Managers, D.F. King & Co., Inc. ("D.F. King") to act as Information Agent and D.F. King to act as Tender Agent, in each case in connection with the Tender Offer. For additional information regarding the terms of the Tender Offer, please contact Citigroup at +1 (800) 558-3745 or J.P. Morgan at +1 (866) 834-4666. Requests for documents and questions regarding the tendering of Notes may be directed to D.F. King by telephone at +1 (800) 283-2170 or by email at [email protected].

This announcement does not constitute an offer to participate in the Tender Offer. The Tender Offer is being made pursuant to the Offer to Purchase and the Letter of Transmittal, copies of which will be delivered to holders of the Notes, and which set forth the complete terms and conditions of the Tender Offer. Holders are urged to read the Offer to Purchase and the Letter of Transmittal carefully before making any decision with respect to their Notes. The Tender Offer is not being made to, nor will the Bank accept tenders of Notes from, holders in any jurisdiction in which it is unlawful to make such an offer or solicitation. None of the Bank, the Dealer Managers, the Information Agent, the Tender Agent or the fiscal agent for the Notes makes any recommendation as to whether holders should tender their Notes in response to the Tender Offer or at what bid spreads holders should tender their Notes.

Certain statements in this announcement, including those describing the completion of the Tender Offer, constitute forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Bank's belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside the Bank's control. It is possible that actual results will differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results indicated in these statements.

SOURCE Macquarie Bank Limited
Company Taking 49% Stake in Q Management LP (QMLP), the Multi-Family Asset and Property Management Entities of Privately-Held Conundrum Capital Corporation

Conundrum Manages $1.3B of Rental Residential Property in Toronto /Ottawa Region

TORONTO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Manulife Asset Management Private Markets today announced that Manulife has acquired a 49% equity interest in QMLP, the multi-family asset and property management platform of Conundrum Capital Corporation, a privately owned real estate investment firm focused on the rental residential property sector in Ontario.

"The QMLP multi-family portfolio provides a unique opportunity to further broaden our global private asset management platform by diversifying and expanding our equity real estate capabilities and product offering for our clients," said Kevin Adolphe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Manulife Asset Management Private Markets. "We are excited to deepen our partnership with Conundrum and look forward to further growing the platform in the coming years."

He added that Conundrum has a solid 16-year track record not only of managing properties well, but also raising and investing institutional real estate private equity funds.

Based in Toronto, Conundrum was founded in 2000 and manages $875 million in invested and committed equity, representing $1.3 billion of multi-unit rental residential assets. They manage 38 properties and more than 7,100 units.

Its three founders, Chief Executive Officer Dan Argiros, Chief Financial Officer Rick Dainard and Executive Vice President Gord McMehen, will continue to be responsible for the day- to-day operations of the business. The company will retain its existing branding. Representatives of Manulife will join the QMLP Board immediately.

"As an investor with Conundrum for many years, we have seen them successfully execute their strategy of acquiring and aggregating underperforming and undermanaged mid-rise and high-rise residential properties. They then enhance income through professional management and selective capital improvements," said Vipon Ghai, Senior Managing Director and Head of Manulife Capital. "We are pleased to be taking this next step with Conundrum."

"With Manulife Asset Management Private Markets as a committed partner moving forward, we will have a tremendous opportunity to even more quickly grow our platform and expand our investor base," Mr. Argiros said.

He said QMLP has focused on properties in the Greater Toronto Area and Ottawa  both strong, growing markets that provide good upside potential. He said QMLP's institutional investor base is comprised of a mixture of financial institutions, pension/endowment funds, and family offices/foundations.

The firm has a staff of 35 at its Toronto head office as well as 160 on-site property management staff. All employees are expected to remain with the company.

About Manulife Asset Management Private Markets

Manulife Asset Management Private Markets has investment expertise in several private asset classes, including commercial real estate, timberland and farmland, biomass renewable energy and oil and gas. Manulife Asset Management Private Markets also partners with Manulife's specialized private asset investment teams to invest in private placement debt, commercial mortgages, private equity and mezzanine debt. Hancock Natural Resources Group, Manulife Real Estate, John Hancock Real Estate, NAL Resources, Regional Power, Manulife Capital, and Hancock Capital Management are units of Manulife Asset Management Private Markets. As at March 31, 2016, Manulife's assets under management in private asset classes were C$104.6 billion (US$80.7 billion), including assets managed by and for Manulife's general fund and external clients. Additional information may be found at ManulifeAM.com/PrivateMarkets.

About Manulife Asset Management

Manulife Asset Management is the global asset management arm of Manulife, providing comprehensive asset management solutions for investors. This investment expertise extends across a broad range of public and private asset classes, as well as asset allocation solutions. As at March 31, 2016, assets under management for Manulife Asset Management were approximately C$421 billion (US$325 billion).Additional information about Manulife Asset Management may be found at ManulifeAM.com.

About Manulife

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services group providing forward-thinking solutions to help people with their big financial decisions. We operate as John Hancock in the United States, and Manulife elsewhere. We provide financial advice, insurance and wealth and asset management solutions for individuals, groups and institutions. At the end of 2015, we had approximately 34,000 employees, 63,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving 20 million customers. At the end of March 2016, we had $904 billion (US$697 billion) in assets under management and administration, and in the previous 12 months we made more than $24.9 billion in benefits, interest and other payments to our customers. Our principal operations are in Asia, Canada and the United States where we have served customers for more than 100 years. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong. Follow Manulife on Twitter @ManulifeNews or visit www.manulife.com or www.johnhancock.com.

SOURCE Manulife Asset Management Private Markets

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SAN MATEO, Calif. and TOKYO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSuite Co., Ltd., the Japanese subsidiary of NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced that MC Aviation Partners Inc. ("MCAP"), the aircraft leasing and trading arm of Mitsubishi Corporation, has implemented NetSuite OneWorld to support its business growth. The company is now using NetSuite OneWorld to manage financials, accounting, reporting, multi-language capabilities for English and Japanese, multi-currency capabilities and financial consolidation.

Originating under the aircraft leasing team of Mitsubishi Corporation with a track record of over 20 years in the aircraft leasing business, MCAP was founded as an independent company in 2008 to assist airlines in building and maintaining an optimal fleet, primarily through aircraft leasing.

As MCAP's global business expanded rapidly, it required a unified solution that could provide an integrated accounting system across all of its subsidiaries. Previously, the data from each separately operated and managed company's accounting systems had to be combined, reviewed for accuracy placing a heavy burden on finance staff. In addition, MCAP and its subsidiaries ("MCAP group") faced limitations on reporting for both the whole group and at a subsidiary level. MCAP Group needed a system that could track each company's business progress, with analysis and real-time view of the whole group enterprise using multi-faceted analytical reports.

After a thorough evaluation of various accounting system solutions, MCAP ultimately selected NetSuite OneWorld.

With support for 190 currencies, 20 languages, and automated tax compliance in over 100 countries, NetSuite OneWorld can bring MCAP group the following features and benefits:

Real-time global financial consolidation. NetSuite OneWorld gives MCAP group real-time visibility across all of its subsidiaries with unparalleled speed in consolidated accounting when compared with the prior methods, while the platform enables the books to be kept in each separate country and consolidated with a single financial system of record, while maintaining compliance with the tax system of each country where it operates.

A broad range of robust international capabilities. NetSuite OneWorld provides a highly scalable system for growth with the ability to quickly and easily add functionality as MCAP group's business grows.

Customization capabilities. Customization and integration capabilities within the NetSuite SuiteCloud development platform help MCAP group to tailor the system to its unique business needs and easily integrate with other systems.

A scalable platform. NetSuite OneWorld's scalable infrastructure enables the business to be flexible as it expands to support growth without significant expenses, allocating other resources such as MCAP's own IT infrastructure.

Real-time business visibility and business intelligence. With NetSuite OneWorld, MCAP group can gain real-time insights into key business performance indicators for a unified view across the head office and subsidiaries and can gain a single version of truth.

MCAP's CFO, Satoshi Nanbu, stated: "NetSuite OneWorld could integrate multiple accounting sources. In the past, handling the accounting for aircraft assets and loans was a heavy burden. But we were able to rapidly transform our business based on real-time information. I am confident that NetSuite OneWorld can support our growth opportunities, increase asset under management and pursue ongoing business interests such as setting up independent subsidiaries using a minimum of the company's resources."

NetSuite OneWorld, winner of the 2015 Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE Award for Best Financial Management Solution and the 2015 UK Cloud award for ERP Product of the Year, provides a unified and cloud-based suite of software that is flexible enough to meet the needs of diverse business models, legal structures and geographies. Customers like Misys based in the UK, HP Software and American Express Global Business Travel in the US and Scoot, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines in Singapore, are turning to NetSuite OneWorld for advanced capabilities to manage their complex business processes across subsidiaries, countries and continents. NetSuite OneWorld supports 190 currencies, 20 languages and automated tax compliance in more than 100 countries, and transaction in more than 200 countries.

About MCAP group

MCAP group owns and manages about 80 aircraft as the aircraft leasing company under the Mitsubishi Corporation umbrella. It was founded as an independent company in 2008, originating from the aircraft leasing team that had already amassed a track record of over 20 years in the aircraft leasing business and has main offices in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Dublin. In 2015, a new joint venture for aircraft leasing business was established with CK Hutchinson, a leading Hong Kong based multi-national conglomerate.

About NetSuite

Today, more than 30,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of cloud-based financials/enterprise resource planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software applications for businesses of all sizes. Many FORTUNE 100 companies rely on NetSuite to accelerate innovation and business transformation. NetSuite continues its success in delivering the best cloud business management software to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud accelerates.

Follow NetSuite's Cloud blog, NetSuite's Facebook page and @NetSuite Twitter handle for real-time updates.

For more information about NetSuite, please visit www.netsuite.com

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are service marks of NetSuite Inc. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE NetSuite Inc.

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PALO ALTO, Calif., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Menlo Equities ("Menlo"), a Palo Alto-headquartered real estate investment firm that acquires and develops office property in select western U.S. technology-oriented markets, today announced that it completed the initial formation of its latest fund, Menlo Equities Absolute Return Fund (the "Fund" or "MEARF") on May 9, 2016, with $215 million of equity capital. The Fund focuses on acquiring and operating core and core-plus office properties leased to investment-grade-rated and credit worthy tenants. At formation, MEARF was seeded with seven office properties leased to internationally recognized firms in Silicon Valley, Orange County and San Diego, Calif.

In late June, MEARF expects to acquire and add a fully leased office property located in Austin, Texas, which will bring the Fund's total asset value to approximately $465 million. To partially fund the equity requirement of the Austin investment and to provide additional capacity to grow the Fund's asset base by another $750 million, Menlo is currently seeking to raise an additional $450 million of equity capital.

"We are grateful for the terrific support from our existing investor base during our initial capital raise. The high level of participation amongst our investors is a clear indication that there is a healthy appetite for predictable cash yield from well-located, high-quality office buildings leased to creditworthy tenants. The Fund is comprised of properties in high-demand locations that are likely to remain leased even in market downturns, providing an attractive investment alternative to the highly volatile public equity markets," noted Menlo chairman Henry D. Bullock. "We consider the composition and risk profile of the Fund analogous to low-leverage, highly rated fixed-income vehicles; however, the Fund will target a higher yield than a portfolio of investment-grade fixed-income instruments while retaining the tax efficiencies and capital-appreciation potential inherent in real estate investing," Bullock added.

Menlo has a steady pipeline of potential real estate investments, which will be funded by its ongoing capital raises. "Despite heavily appreciated real estate pricing in some of the stronger coastal markets, like Silicon Valley, we continue to see opportunities to acquire well-located and fully leased institutional-quality assets in several other growing tech hubs, especially Austin," said Bullock. "We're excited about the Fund's long-term growth prospects and are eager to continue its expansion."

As part of the Fund's initial formation, Menlo closed on a newly syndicated credit facility, with PNC Capital Markets LLC and PNC Bank, National Association, each a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., serving as lead arranger and administrative agent, respectively. The facility provides up to $250 million of secured financing between a $110 million term loan and revolving credit facility.

About Menlo Equities

Palo Alto-based Menlo Equities ("Menlo") was established in 1994 by founding partners Henry D. Bullock and Richard J. Holmstrom as an owner-operator real estate investment and development firm. Throughout its history, Menlo has distinguished itself with its sharp focus on investing in office properties in only the most robust technology-driven markets in the western U.S. Since inception, Menlo has syndicated various real estate partnerships and joint ventures and sponsored six private funds that acquired or developed approximately 15.7 million square feet of real estate valued at more than $4.9 billion. Menlo's current portfolio totals approximately $2.2 billion of assets under management. For more information, visit www.menloequities.com.

Contact:

Margan Mitchell  Menlo Equities

(650) 326-9300 or [email protected]

Cell (510) 219-6761

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Menlo Equities

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LANSING, Mich., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Michigan's University Research Corridor added $958 million in economic activity to the city of Detroit in 2015, or the equivalent of $1,400 per Detroit resident, along with hundreds of programs that improve lives and advance neighborhoods, according to a report released today.

Beyond jobs and economic investments, "Engaging Detroit: URC's Contributions to Resurgence in the Motor City," prepared by Lansing, Mich.-based Public Sector Consultants, documented the URC's commitment to the people of Detroit through teaching and research, volunteer work, business incubators and other initiatives.

"The URC universities believe in the city of Detroit and the indomitable spirit of its people," said URC Executive Director Jeff Mason. "Detroit's resurgence is an ongoing effort that requires the tireless work of many for the betterment of the whole, and this report brings to light the important role that our three universities have played, and will continue to play, in that effort."

The report also found that the three universities that make up the URC  Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University  contributed roughly one in 20 jobs in Detroit, or more than 11,600 jobs.

The URC conducted $263 million in Detroit-related research in 2015, through more than 700 research grants. More than half of the grants were focused on Detroit and related policy matters, with remaining grants benefitting medical research focused on improving the lives of Detroiters.

There are more than 340 identified programs and initiatives in which the URC universities are engaged in Detroit, nearly one third of which were focused on improving education. Other URC programs focused on the arts, community building, economic revitalization, community service and public health.

"Wayne State University is deeply invested in the city of Detroitin fact, it's a guiding force in our strategic plan," said Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson. "As Michigan's public, urban research universityand an anchor institution in Detroit since 1868we are uniquely positioned to work alongside the city and its people toward shared prosperity for years to come."

One of the many ways WSU works with the city is through the Detroit Revitalization Fellows program. Part of the Office of Economic Development at WSU, the program is made up of talented, mid-career leaders stimulating progress within Detroit's civic, community and economic development landscape. Detroit Revitalization Fellows recently received a $400,000 grant from the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation to design an environmental project aimed at boosting the health and quality of life of Detroit residents.

"Detroit's been pivotal to Michigan for 300 years and has always been important to Michigan State," MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said. "It's a resilient, forward-looking city, and a cradle of creativity and innovation. It's a privilege to work with our many partners in Detroit to prepare for all the tomorrows of its next 300 years."

The MSU Product Center, part of MSU Extension which has been serving the people of Detroit since 1917, offers one-on-one business counseling and resources to assist food entrepreneurs as they commercialize, produce, package and distribute their products. It has held almost 2,000 counseling sessions in Detroit with more than 350 entrepreneurs, helping to create more than 100 jobs and supporting more than $11 million in investments.

"The University of Michigan was founded in the city of Detroit, and we have demonstrated our commitment to these roots through a continued investment in the quality of life of Detroit residents at many levels," said University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel. "Our schools, colleges and faculty members are leading research and teaching programs, and student groups are conducting service-learning projects that work alongside residents who are creating a better future for the city. We are committed to the future success of Michigan's largest city."

Among U-M's Detroit-based research projects, its School of Public Health is working to combat health issues like asthma and cardiovascular disease through a $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. To implement the grant, U-M public health researchers have partnered with academic peers and Detroit community organizations to form Community Action to Promote Healthy Environments (CAPHE), a collaborative initiative to help improve air quality and resident health in Detroit.

"With this important new report, the URC is demonstrating its leadership role in focusing key university resources toward a sustainable and vibrant vision for the future of Detroit," added Comerica Bank Chief Economist Robert A. Dye, Ph.D.

The more than 11,600 jobs identified included more than 8,000 faculty and staff working in Detroit, as well as an additional estimated 3,600 jobs created through economic activity. There were also another 28,000 students being educated in the city, contributing to the city's economic activity and workforce retention. In addition to the jobs and economic activity created by university expenditures, the spending of alumni and students living in the city also makes an important contribution to Detroit's economy.

The universities' economic activity included more than $10 million in Detroit tax payments in 2015 alone, translating to critical funding for public services. To estimate the impact of the URC in Detroit, the report included only zip codes located primarily within the city's boundaries.

The full report is available and can be viewed at http://urcmich.org/reports/engaging-detroit/.

SOURCE Michigan's University Research Corridor (URC)

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Canadian Enterprise customers can now locally access Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute through Cologix to leverage the power, cost savings and flexibility of the cloud

TORONTO and MONTREAL, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Cologix, one of Canada's largest network neutral interconnection and data centre providers, announced today that Cologix Customers have direct and private access to the Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute ecosystem in both of its Toronto data centres, and will soon be expanded to include all seven of Cologix's data centres across Montreal. These primary ExpressRoute onramps represent one of two in Toronto and will be the first in Montreal.

As an ExpressRoute partner, Cologix will offer customers the ability to connect directly to Microsoft ExpressRoute from Cologix's nine data centers in Montreal and Toronto, initially supporting secure connections to Azure. ExpressRoute provides key benefits to enterprises looking to build hybrid cloud environments, including:

Private connections that bypass the public Internet

Lower latency by traversing the shortest path to The Microsoft Cloud

Predictability and optimized speed when leveraging ExpressRoute

Scalable, densely connected and customizable colocation opportunities

"Our recent investments in bringing local cloud regions to Canada demonstrate Microsoft's ongoing commitment to supporting the growth of innovation for Canada's technology future," said Janet Kennedy, president of Microsoft Canada. "Cologix has a strong connectivity presence in Toronto and Montreal that provides customers and partners access to the Microsoft Cloud via ExpressRoute." 

Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute provides a private connection between a customer's IT deployment and Microsoft Azure. ExpressRoute connections bypass the public Internet offering more reliability, faster speeds and lower latencies than typical Internet connections. The predictable, reliable and high-throughput connections offered by ExpressRoute enable Customers to build hybrid cloud applications without conceding security or performance.

"Our collaboration with Microsoft to enable ExpressRoute in Toronto and Montreal brings a new and enhanced option for enterprises who wish to access Azure services supporting data residency inside Canada," said Cologix chief operating officer Graham Williams. "We applaud Microsoft's ongoing investment into Canada. As Canada's largest neutral colocation and interconnection provider, we are excited to introduce the benefits of ExpressRoute to the largest community of potential Canadian users."

ExpressRoute availability adds valuable depth to the Cologix Cloud Connect ecosystem, which provides end users tools to optimize and future-proof their IT strategies through access to more private onramps to public clouds, more certified network partners to reach public clouds and more cloud services providers than competitors across Canada. Customers interested in accessing Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute services can contact [email protected] for more details.

About Cologix Inc.

Cologix provides reliable, secure, scalable data centre and interconnection solutions from 24 prime interconnection locations across 9 strategic North American edge markets. Over 1,600 leading network, managed services, cloud, media, content, financial services and enterprise customers trust Cologix to support their business critical infrastructure and connect them to customers, vendors and partners. Our dedicated, experienced local teams and scalable solutions enable us to provide industry-leading customer service and the ability to successfully support customers at the Internet's new edge. For a tour of one of our data centres in Columbus, Dallas, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Minneapolis, Montreal, New Jersey, Toronto or Vancouver visit www.cologix.com or email [email protected]. Follow Cologix on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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SOURCE Cologix

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HOUSTON, Minn., June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Minnesota Virtual Academy (MNVA)-- an accredited, tuition-free, online public school--will honor the Class of 2016 at a graduation ceremony on Sunday, June 5. This year, 119 students will receive their high school diplomas from MNVA, which is a program of Houston Public Schools and is available statewide to Minnesota students in grades K-12.

Of this year's graduates, 30 will be recognized as honor students, having maintained a grade point average of 3.5 or higher. The class co-valedictorians are Abigail Franz and Samson Riley Hall.

"The best part of being an online student has been the flexibility to be able to graduate high school, work on college with PSEO, as well as work a part-time job," stated co-valedictorian Hall.

Co-valedictorian Franz agrees. "I really enjoyed the honors classes I took. The classes were small--about 10 or 12 people--and everyone was friendly and studious. We had some great discussions."

Ms. Krin Abraham, Superintendent of Houston Public Schools and Head of School for MNVA, will deliver an address to the graduates during the ceremony, which is also to include a formal presentation of diplomas and will conclude with a reception for the Class of 2016 and their families. Co-valedictorian Abigail Franz and Mitchell Rudoll, an Honor Student, will also address their fellow graduates at the ceremony and many MNVA teachers and staff will be in attendance to recognize the students' achievements. Graduates are expected to pursue higher education at institutions including Bemidji State University, Augsburg College and University of Minnesota.

"Every year I am impressed by the intelligence and drive of our seniors," said Ms. Abraham. "The Class of 2016 is no exception. We are proud to have participated in preparing them for their next stage of life, whether that is college or a career."

Through a combination of online instruction, hands-on curriculum and the support of Minnesota-licensed teachers, MNVA fosters an individualized approach to education for each student. In order to attain their diplomas, high school students are required to successfully complete 48 credits in the areas of English, math, science, social studies, fine arts, physical education, career and technical education and general electives. Students must also meet all state testing requirements before earning their diplomas.

Graduation will be held at Envision Catering & Hospitality (formally the Prom Center) in Oakdale at 1 PM on June 5th. Media are welcome to attend.

About Minnesota Virtual Academy

Minnesota Virtual Academy (MNVA) is an accredited, full- and part-time online public school program of Houston Public Schools that serves students in grades K through 12. As part of the Minnesota public school system, MNVA is tuition-free, giving parents and families the choice to access the award-winning curriculum and tools provided by K12 Inc. (NYSE: LRN), the nation's largest provider of proprietary curriculum and online education programs. MNVA provides a rigorous, engaging curriculum, including courses in language arts/English, math, science, history, world languages, art and music, as well as elective and Advanced Placement courses for high school students. Students use web-based lessons and hands-on instructional materials, which are shipped to their homes. For more information about MNVA, including upcoming events and how to apply, visit http://mnva.k12.com.

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SOURCE Minnesota Virtual Academy

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SEATTLE, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Moss Adams LLP, one of the largest accounting and business consulting firms in the nation, today announced it agreed to combine with Morse Wittwer Sampson LLP, a firm based in Fresno, California. Effective June 30, 2016, the combination establishes a Fresno location, strengthening the presence of Moss Adams in one of the most significant food and agriculture regions in the country.

Established in 2008, Morse Wittwer Sampson is a full-service accounting and consulting firm providing professional services to the agriculturally rich Central Valley. The firm specializes in tax and assurance services for agriculture, manufacturing and real estate clients, among other industries. The new Fresno location will work closely with Moss Adams offices in Sacramento and Stockton to serve the firm's clients through the region.

"Combining Moss Adams and Morse Wittwer Sampson allows us to better meet the accounting and advisory needs of the business community in the Central Valley and throughout California," said Kerry Gordon, the Central Valley regional managing partner at Moss Adams. "We're pleased to expand our footprint in the region with the presence of this Fresno location, and we're excited to welcome the talented staff of Morse Wittwer Sampson to Moss Adams."

Morse Wittwer Sampson's 18 professionals, along with three Moss Adams professionals already in the area, will combine to form the Fresno location. Morse Wittwer Sampson partners, Christopher Morse, Kenneth Wittwer, Sheryl Morse and Doug Sampson, will join Moss Adams as partners, continuing work within their current client roster as well as pursuing further growth opportunities. Christopher Morse will serve as partner in charge of the new Fresno location.

The Fresno team will be joined by four former Deloitte employees, who officially started with Moss Adams on May 1. Director Nada Barrett, along with two senior managers and a senior, will bring the Fresno employee count to 25.

"This combination with Moss Adams felt like a natural step in the evolution of our firm," said Christopher Morse, founding partner of Morse Wittwer Sampson. "Both firms share the same commitment to client service and have complementary goals, values and overall company culture. We're excited to become part of one of the industry's leading accounting and business advisory firms on the West Coast."

About Moss Adams

Moss Adams and its affiliates provide insight and expertise to help organizations and individuals gain traction, manage risk, and seize opportunity.

Moss Adams LLP is a national leader in assurance, tax, consulting, risk management, transaction, and private client services.

Moss Adams Wealth Advisors LLC provides investment management, personal financial planning, and insurance strategies to help clients build and preserve their wealth.

Moss Adams Capital LLC offers strategic advisory and investment banking services, helping clients create greater value in their business.

SOURCE Moss Adams LLP

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http://www.mossadams.com/


WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This Fourth of July, NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft will arrive at Jupiter after an almost five-year journey. News briefings, photo opportunities and other media events will be held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and air live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

NASA's Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter July 4, 2016.

In the evening of July 4, Juno will perform a suspenseful orbit insertion maneuver, a 35-minute burn of its main engine, to slow the spacecraft by about 1,212 miles per hour (542 meters per second) so it can be captured into the gas giant's orbit. Once in Jupiter's orbit, the spacecraft will circle the Jovian world 37 times during 20 months, skimming to within 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) above the cloud tops. This is the first time a spacecraft will orbit the poles of Jupiter, providing new answers to ongoing mysteries about the planet's core, composition and magnetic fields.

NASA TV Events Schedule

For all media briefings, reporters may ask questions by phone by contacting Gina Fontes at 818-354-9380 or [email protected]. All times are Eastern.

Thursday, June 16

2 p.m. -- Mission status briefing at NASA Headquarters in Washington

Thursday, June 30

4 p.m. -- Mission overview news briefing at JPL

5 p.m. -- Mission outreach briefing at JPL

Monday, July 4  Orbit Insertion Day

Noon -- Pre-orbit insertion briefing at JPL

10:30 p.m. -- Orbit insertion and NASA TV commentary begin

Tuesday, July 5

1 a.m. -- Post-orbit insertion briefing at JPL

To watch all of these events online, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

http://www.ustream.tv/nasa

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl

Live coverage on orbit insertion day also will be available online via Facebook Live at:

http://www.facebook.com/nasa

http://www.facebook.com/nasajpl

Accreditation

To cover these events from JPL, media must apply for accreditation with the JPL Media Relations Office. The deadline for U.S. citizens and green card holders representing U.S. media outlets is Saturday, June 4. The deadline for foreign nationals and representatives of foreign media has passed.

To apply for accreditation, send the following information to [email protected]: full name (as on driver's license), title, phone number and work email; country of citizenship; media outlet name, address, phone number and website; and, editor's name, phone number and work email. Also, if you are not a U.S. citizen, you must specify whether you are green card holder.

Beginning June 30, media credentials may be picked up at JPL Visitor Reception, located at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. PDT. On July 4, operating hours are 8 a.m. to midnight. U.S. media must present a valid form of identification, with a photo, to obtain credentials. Non-U.S. citizens must present a passport and visa or permanent resident alien registration card.

JPL Tours

On June 30 and July 1, tours are available to media at JPL of the Juno mission control area. Space is limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Media wishing to join a tour must have a JPL media credential and must make a reservation with the JPL Media Relations Office at 818-354-5011, or sign up in person at the JPL Newsroom.

Resources

An uninterrupted, clean feed of cameras from JPL mission control, with mission audio only, will be available on the NASA TV Media Channel and NASA's Ustream channel at:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

B-roll for the Juno mission is available for download at:

www.youtube.com/jplraw

https://vimeo.com/jplraw

JPL manages the Juno mission for NASA. The mission's principal investigator is Scott Bolton of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The mission is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

Learn more about the June mission, and get an up-to-date schedule of events, at:

http://www.nasa.gov/juno

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/junotoolkit

Follow the mission on social media at:

http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno

http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

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SOURCE NASA

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WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA has selected Blue Origin, LLC, in Van Horn, Texas, to integrate and fly technology payloads near the boundary of space on their New Shepard suborbital spacecraft in support of NASA's Flight Opportunities Program.

This is the sixth company selected for an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract under the Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle (sRLV) Flight and Payload Integration Services solicitation, which has a combined value not to exceed $45 million.

Starting June 1, the contract with Blue Origin will compete with the other program companies for task orders to deliver payload integration and flight services. All task orders must be initiated within the contract's three-year performance period.

"We are pleased to have Blue Origin join our cadre of Flight Opportunities service providers," said Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) in Washington. "Adding additional flight providers enables NASA and the broader aerospace community to demonstrate and transition space technologies, developing new capabilities faster and, potentially, at lower cost."

This contract is a continuation of contracts awarded in 2014 and 2015, providing commercial capabilities using proven flight systems. The contract allows for ramping on of new vendors and the addition of new flight profiles on at least an annual basis, as determined by the government's requirements.

Blue Origin will join the following firms currently under contract:

Masten Space Systems, Inc., Mojave, California

Near Space Corporation, Tillamook, Oregon

UP Aerospace, Inc., Littleton, Colorado

Virgin Galactic, LLC, New York

World View Enterprises, Inc., Tucson, Arizona

Through the Flight Opportunities Program, STMD selects promising technologies from industry, academia and government, and tests them on commercial launch vehicles. The Flight Opportunities Program is funded by STMD, and managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. STMD is responsible for developing the crosscutting, pioneering, new technologies and capabilities needed by the agency to achieve its current and future missions.

For more information about the Flight Opportunities Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flight_opportunities/index.html

For more information about NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

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SOURCE NASA

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PHOENIX, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Saturday, April 9, nearly 1,000 bikers gathered at Phoenix Children's Hospital for the 3rd Annual Hand in Hand charity ride organized by Arizona Bike Week and Arizona Bike Week Charities Group. The event was sponsored by Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale and raised more than $15,000 for the Hospital's Hope Fund. The night before the ride well-known entrepreneur and philanthropist Bob Parsons, owner of Harley-Davidson of Scottsdale, announced a $100,000 gift through The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, raising the total contribution to Phoenix Children's to more than $115,000.

"Renee and I are committed to continuing our long-standing support for Phoenix Children's Hospital," said Parsons. "Every child deserves access to outstanding medical care, and Phoenix Children's is the absolute best."

As bikers gathered at the Hospital for breakfast with some of the children, they were assigned a patient to ride for  Hand in Hand. One of those patients, 6-year-old Brendan, has faced many health challenges, including a heart transplant, but looks forward to this event each year. "Bike Week is the one time of the year when Brendan is able to be normal. No one picks on him, people want to hang out with him, and he gets to feel strong. He is not sick during Bike Week; he is accepted for the very cool little boy that he is," says his mom Genevieve Davies.

The Hand in Hand ride was one of the featured charity rides during Arizona Bike Week, which attracted thousands of riders from all over the country to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the largest motorcycle rally in the Southwest. Local artist Jon Arvizu designed an exclusive red mandanna  a bandanna with a mustache on one side and a beard on the other  and guardian bells that said "I Ride 4 PCH" were also for sale.

As the bikes departed the Hospital, they were led by Phoenix Children's Chief Financial Officer Craig McKnight and Assistant General Counsel Evan Coppola, as well as The Gatekeepers, a motorcycle group of firefighters. The ride culminated with the Arizona Bike Week festivities at WestWorld in Scottsdale.

"This year attendance for the Hand In Hand Ride was up by about 20%. We're super excited to see this ride grow each year. The direct proceeds from the Hand In Hand ride resulted in a $15,249 donation to Phoenix Children's," said Lisa Cyr, managing partner for Arizona Bike Week. All funds raised benefited the Hospital's Hope Fund, which helps launch critical new programs, purchase essential equipment, conduct cutting-edge research, provide charity care, and more.

Partners who generously donated their services included: Arcadia Tavern, The Breakfast Joynt, Kind Bars, Ideas Collide, Magical Marketing, My Fit Foods, Wal-mart, Z Pizza, and U-Haul.

About Phoenix Children's Hospital

Phoenix Children's Hospital is Arizona's only children's hospital that is ranked in U.S. News & World Report's Best Children's Hospitals. Phoenix Children's provides world-class inpatient, outpatient, trauma, emergency and urgent care to children and families in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. As one of the largest children's hospitals in the country, Phoenix Children's provides care across more than 75 pediatric specialties. The Hospital is poised for continued growth in quality patient care, research and medical education. For more information about the hospital, visit www.phoenixchildrens.org.

SOURCE Phoenix Children's Hospital

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PITTSBURGH, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- MSA Safety Incorporated (NYSE: MSA) announced today it has been awarded a multi-year contract to supply, service and maintain 3,600 AirGo eXXtreme self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) for Fire and Rescue New South Wales (FRNSW) in Australia, one of the world's largest urban fire and rescue services. The contract is valued at approximately $4 million USD, all of which the company expects to recognize in 2016. Firefighters, as well as industrial workers, rely on SCBA to provide respiratory protection in life-threatening environments.

The AirGo eXXtreme SCBA features patented, single-line air hose technology, which reduces weight and snag points for first responders. The eXXtreme SCBA harness utilizes advanced materials to reduce maintenance and the overall cost of ownership by minimizing the need for frequent replacement due to use in extreme conditions. The Ultra Elite facepiece provides firefighters with an undistorted field of vision, exemplary wearing comfort and clear voice communication.

While the initial contract with FRNSW is for seven years, the tender includes a five-year extension option. The contract also represents a key competitive SCBA conversion for MSA, and it follows FRNSW's 2015 contract for 7,000 F1 XF Fire Helmets, also manufactured by MSA.

"We're extremely pleased that FRNSW has chosen the MSA brand, and we're proud that our equipment is helping safeguard the lives of firefighters around the world," said Ronald N. Herring, Jr., Senior Vice President and President of MSA International. "While MSA has had a long-standing relationship with New South Wales, we understand that customer trust is something that must be earned every day. Our brand mantra for the fire service is  'When you go inWe go in with you.' But those words are more than an advertising tagline. They represent a mindset that truly inspires our associates and fuels our passion to continually raise the bar to protect firefighters with the best and most advanced technology available today," Mr. Herring said.

The New South Wales order is just the latest in a number of recent SCBA contract wins that MSA has secured around the world. Earlier this year, the company gained two orders from the LiaoNing Fire Brigade in China for more than 1,500 AirGo 2100 SCBA units. The first order, for nearly 1,000 units, was delivered in March, and the second is expected to be delivered before the end of the second quarter. MSA's AirGo 2100 SCBA, a model that MSA designed specifically for the Chinese fire service market, is one of the first SCBA to meet new Chinese safety standards and to receive certification from the China Certification Center for Fire Products.

Earlier this year, MSA also initiated shipments against a new SCBA contract with the Junta Nacional de Bomberos (JNB) of Chile. The contract for MSA's new and innovative G1 SCBA calls for a minimum of 1,000 units over the next three years.

The G1 SCBA is the single largest new product development effort in MSA's 102-year history. It is the most technologically advanced, streamlined, balanced, and customizable SCBA the company has ever produced. The ergonomic SCBA features two patented and 12 patent-pending design features, including the elimination of all electronic components from the facepiece; a "Central Power" unit that powers the entire SCBA from a single battery compartment; darkness- and smoke-piercing "buddy lights" that provide visible indicators, from any angle, of critical air supply data; and improved voice amplification communications, all of which come standard on every MSA G1 SCBA.

The JNB is a nationwide consortium comprised of more than 37,000 volunteer firefighters and 307 fire departments throughout Chile.

"Overall, we are seeing solid demand for MSA's new SCBA technology across a number of our key geographic markets," said Nish Vartanian, Senior Vice President and President of MSA Americas. "The investments we're making in our organic R&D efforts targeting the fire service helped drive global SCBA growth of 40 percent for MSA in the first quarter of 2016 alone, and we're excited about the many future opportunities that still exist on the horizon."

About MSA



Established in 1914, MSA Safety Incorporated is the global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of safety products that protect people and facility infrastructures. Many MSA products integrate a combination of electronics, mechanical systems and advanced materials to protect users against hazardous or life-threatening situations. The company's comprehensive line of products is used by workers around the world in a broad range of markets, including the oil, gas and petrochemical industry, the fire service, the construction industry, mining and the military. The company's core products include self-contained breathing apparatus, fixed gas and flame detection systems, portable gas detection instruments, industrial head protection, fire and rescue helmets, and fall protection devices. With 2015 revenues of $1.1 billion, MSA employs approximately 4,600 people worldwide. The company is headquartered north of Pittsburgh in Cranberry Township, Pa., and has manufacturing operations in the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. With more than 40 international locations, MSA realizes approximately half of its revenue from outside North America. For more information, visit MSA's website at www.MSAsafety.com.

SOURCE MSA

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IRVING, Texas, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 7-Eleven, Inc. (headquarters: Texas, U.S.; President and Chief Executive Officer, Joseph M. DePinto), a subsidiary of Seven & i Holdings Co., Ltd., signed an agreement to acquire stores from CST Brands, Inc.

Details of the agreement are provided below:

1. Purpose of the agreement

7-Eleven, Inc. has been increasing its merchandise capabilities and expanding its store network in North America. This agreement is intended to contribute to higher revenues and profits from convenience store operations in the region. Through this acquisition, 7-Eleven, Inc. aims to further expand the store network and improve convenience in California, U.S. where it has existing stores.

2. Overview of the stores to be acquired

(1) Area: California and Wyoming, U.S. (2) Number of stores: 79 gas stations and convenience stores

3. Overview of CST Brands, Inc.

(1) Name: CST Brands, Inc. (2) Representative: Chairman, President and CEO, Kim Lubel (3) Location of headquarters: Texas, U.S. (4) Major business activities: Operation of fuel retail and convenience store business

4. Schedule of acquisition

Handover date of stores (plan): Jury, 2016

5. Outlook

The agreement will have only a minimal effect on the Company's consolidated results for the fiscal year ending February 28, 2017, but this asset purchase is expected to contribute to profits over the medium to long-term.

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SOURCE 7-Eleven, Inc.

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NEWARK, N.J., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company today announced the introduction of two new clipper and trimmer tools expanding the line of award-winning consumer men's trimmers and shavers into the professional market. The new ER-GP80-K Professional Series Hair Clipper and Trimmer and the ER-GP21-K Professional Series Hair Trimmer for Finishing and Detailing are designed for professional use in salons and barbershops. The products will be on display at Premiere Orlando in booth #1767, June 4 through 6 at the Orlando/Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Panasonic's cross-over into professional tools market follows over 60 successful years in the men's consumer trimmer and shaver business. Like Panasonic's men's consumer trimmers, the new Professional Series offers hair stylists and barbers tools with unique technology and outstanding craftsmanship.

The flagship Panasonic ER-GP80-K Professional Clipper and Trimmer is equipped with unique X-Taper Blades, designed for a clean, efficient cutting performance. These blades are specially shaped to capture and cut hair that can often be missed by traditional trimmer blades. And, blades are strengthened with combined Diamond Like Carbon (DLC) and Titanium Nitride (TiN) coatings to provide outstanding durability and a long-lasting sharp edge. The ER-GP80-K uses a powerful 10,000 CPM Linear Motor that is enhanced with Constant Control, for consistent, powerful cutting even in varied hair densities.

The Professional ER-GP80-K can be used corded or cordless for maximum maneuverability and an ergonomic design provides long-lasting comfort for stylists. A quick-adjust dial provides five trim settings and three included dual-edge comb attachments snap into place to further adjust cutting length for more personalized style.

The Panasonic ER-GP21-K has been designed for finishing and detailed trimming. The compact body fits easily into the hand and is lightweight for prolonged use. Cordless operation ensures maximum maneuverability and closely spaced fixed and moving blades ensure clean, precise cutting and trimming.

Each of the new Professional Series of Clipper and Trimmer tools have been designed and crafted in Japan. And, like the Panasonic line of consumer men's shavers and trimmers, the Professional Series boast blades of outstanding quality which are forged based on ancient Japanese sword-making techniques. Blades have been designed for durability, sharpness and precision- giving professionals the edge they need for clean, efficient cutting and a reliable performance.

The Panasonic ER-GP80-K Clipper and Trimmer and ER-GP21-K Clipper and Trimmer for Finishing and Detailing will be available at beauty supply stores nationwide in June. For additional product information visit www.PanasonicProTrimmers.com.

About Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company

Based in Newark, NJ, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company is a division of Panasonic Corporation of North America, the principal North American subsidiary of Panasonic Corporation. The company offers a wide range of consumer solutions in the U.S. including LUMIX Digital Cameras, Camcorders, Blu-ray players, Home Audio, Cordless Phones, Home Appliances, Beauty, Grooming, Wellness and Personal Care products and more. In Interbrand's 2014 annual "Best Global Green Brands" report, Panasonic ranked number five overall and the top electronics brand in the report. As part of continuing sustainability efforts, Panasonic Corporation of North America relocated its headquarters to a new facility, adjacent to Newark Penn Station in Newark, NJ. It is the first newly constructed office tower in Newark to earn both LEED Platinum and Gold certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council. To learn more about our products, visit panasonic.com. Follow Panasonic on Twitter @panasonicUSA; additional company information for journalists is also available at www.panasonic.com/pressroom.

SOURCE Panasonic

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http://www.panasonic.com


YORK, Pa., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Secretary of Education Pedro A. Rivera today recognized York City School District's William Penn High School for its performance in the 2016 School Breakfast Challenge. The school won the high school category, increasing its participation in the program by 14.3 percent.

"Food insecurity is a real problem in the commonwealth and across the nation, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education has made it a priority that must be addressed," said Secretary Rivera. "After all, it is incredibly difficult to focus and learn when you're thinking about your next meal. We often say that our schools are providing students with the tools they need to succeed, and access to a healthy meal each morning is one of the keys to physical and mental well-being."

The challenge was launched in March during National School Breakfast Week, and schools across the state are being recognized for their efforts to provide nutritious meals to students before classes begin each day.

According to the Coalition Against Hunger, only 45 percent of low-income Pennsylvania students have access to both breakfast in lunch each day, ranking the commonwealth 41st on the Food and Research Action Center's "School Breakfast Scorecard" in 2015.

"The School Breakfast Program is proven to decrease discipline and behavioral problems, visits to the school nurse, and tardiness in schools, while increasing student attentiveness and attendance. Studies also find that students who eat school breakfast show improved reading and math skills, as well as higher scores on standardized tests," noted the Coalition Against Hunger on its website.

Rivera added, "I commend all of the schools that participated in the Breakfast Challenge this year on their efforts to provide a health start each day to vulnerable students. It is my hope that next year, more schools and students will participate and take advantage of this important program."

Other winning schools included:

Francis Willard Elementary School in Scranton School District

School District Perry Elementary School in Erie City School District

City School District Jeanette City High School in Jeanette City School District

Robert Morris Elementary School in Scranton School District

School District Donegan Elementary School in Bethlehem Area School District

School District Iroquois Elementary School in Iroquois School District

Northeast Scranton Intermediate School in Scranton School District

School District Wayne School in Erie City School District

in City School District George Bancroft Elementary School in Scranton School District

School District Curwensville Junior/Senior High School in Curwensville Area School District

School District Jefferson County-Dubois AVTS in Jefferson School District

School District South Scranton Middle School in Scranton School District

School District Harding K-8 in Erie City School District

City School District John G. Whittier Elementary School in Scranton School District

School District Washington Junior/Senior High School in Washington School District

School District South Buffalo Elementary School in Freeport Area School District

School District Cristo-Rey Charter School in Philadelphia

in Maritime Academy Charter School in Philadelphia

John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Scranton School District

School District Isaac Tripp Elementary School in Scranton School District

MEDIA CONTACT: Nicole Reigelman, 717-783-9802

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education

Related Links

http://www.state.pa.us


NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Report Details

Leading Stem Cell Companies  Discover What Their Futures Hold, Benefiting Your Reputation for Commercial Insight

Who are the leading stem cell developers and producers? And what are their sales outlooks? Visiongain's updated report shows you their activities and potentials from 2016. There you discover therapies, results, trends in research and development, opportunities and revenue forecasts.



That way you explore data and discussions on cellular technologies transforming human medicine. Our study analyses 25 leading companies in the US, Europe, Israel and Asia-Pacific. There you hear how stem cell producers can progress and gain. Discover their potentials and see what the future holds.



Please read on, then, to scan those organisations and find what revenue that fast-growing and potentially large market could generate in future. See what is possible.



Forecasts and other data to benefit your authority on stem cell biotechnology

In our study you find profiles of 25 prominent stem cell companies and analyses of their industry. You explore sales results, R&D and revenue forecasting. Explore, from 2016, those firms' capabilities, portfolios and commercial prospects.



In our updated report you gain 55 tables, 24 charts and two interviews with that industry. You see our discussions with authorities from Mesoblast and Gamida Cell.



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United States (US)  assess leading organisations, seeing what is possible

First our study gives you discussions, analyses and commercial outlooks for 11 US-based stem cell companies:

- Osiris Therapeutics

- Caladrius Biosciences

- Orthofix

- NuVasive

- AlloSource

- RTI Surgical

- Vericel Corporation

- U.S. Stem Cell, Inc.

- Neuralstem

- Astellas/Ocata Therapeutics

- Athersys



There you hear what the future holds for those cellular biology companies, including regulations, research trends and some revenue predictions.



Our study then analyses Asian organisations, explaining that region's potential.



Stem cell specialists based in the Asia Pacific region  what developments possible?

You also discover commercial outlooks for six top researchers, developers and producers of stem cells in the Asia Pacific region:

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- Reliance Life Sciences

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- Pharmicell

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- Stempeutics.



Our analyses show possibilities for advancing technology and raising business performance, assessing where future sales expansion is possible. Explore regulations and see how companies progress, assessing revenue potentials.



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Companies based in Europe and Israel  what successes can they achieve?

Our analysis also shows you progress and prospects for eight European and Israeli companies:

- TiGenix

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Many opportunities arise in that industry, with high, expanding revenues possible from this decade. In our study you also explore clinical testing and plans for launching products.



Predictions for the worldwide stem cells market  see that industry's sales potential

Our report also forecasts sales to 2026 for the overall world stem cells industry. There you find revenues reaching $17.8bn in 2020, with high growth to 2026.



In our study you also gain revenue forecasting to 2026 for these products:

- Trinity Elite and Trinity Evolution

- Osteocel Plus

- MSC-100-IV

- CardioRel

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- Cartistem.



See there how applications of stem cells can perform. Find, from 2016, where those organisations can generate high sales. That industry holds vast potential.



With our report you assess how stem cell companies can compete and succeed. See what their future holds and how you can gain.



Technologies and issues shaping that industry and market  what is happening?

Our study explains stem cell technologies and forces influencing that industry and market. There you explore developments and forces, including these:

- Sales potentials of leading stem cell therapies to 2026  see what is possible

- Embryonic stem cells  potentials in tissue repair and regenerative medicine

- Autologous and allogeneic agents, including T cell therapy

- Advances in treating eye disorders, e.g. age-related macular degeneration (AMD)

- Novel treatments for cancer and other applications  e.g. diabetes and bone re-growth  including progress of clinical trials and product launches.



With that work you assess these influences, too, among others:

- Regulations for that research and its applications  see what countries do

- Umbilical cord blood  applications and approvals for that tissue and cell banking

- Mergers, acquisitions, alliances and venture capital  explore what shapes that industry and affects its future

- Non-therapeutic pharma applications  screening and toxicity studies in drug development.



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Ways Pharma Leader Series: Top Stem Cell Companies Report 2016-2026 helps you

In particular, our independent analysis gives you this knowledge to benefit your work:

- Profiles of 25 leading stem cell companies in North America, Europe, Israel and Asia  assess products, R&D, results, strategies, alliances and sales outlooks

- Revenue forecasting to 2026 for that overall world market  discover potential sales, exploring those technologies' commercial prospects

- Forecast revenues to 2026 for leading stem cell products  see how top companies' technologies can compete and succeed

- Opportunities, competition and demands  explore what affects companies, finding what influences sales and shapes organisations' futures

- Interviews with companies in that industry  find what participants say and do, helping you stay ahead in knowledge and benefit your influence.



That report, by visiongain's in-house analysts in the UK, gives knowledge to benefit your work. Its purpose is to help you save time and avoid struggles to find information. You gain analysis to benefit your plans, decisions and presentations.



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Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p03874358-summary/view-report.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com



__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

Related Links

http://www.reportlinker.com


Through an examination of their unique history, A Spirit of Charity reveals the remarkable story of why public hospitals matter and why they should play a more prominent role in public policy discussions. The book focuses on Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, but also discusses well-known public hospitals in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and New Orleans.

Noted medical ethicist Arthur Caplan of NYU in the book's foreword concludes that, "you can not read this book without feeling the baleful presence of race on every page."

And Clarion Reviews, in a 5-star review, said: "This fascinating work of medical history is refreshing and notable for its treatment of race as a critical part of the healthcare debate."

Otis W. Brawley, MD, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, calls the book "required reading for policy makers and health advocates alike."

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Hank Klibanoff said the book shows "that medical excellence resides where few people expect to find it  and how those centers are threatened by misplaced public priorities and political mythologies."

Kirkus Reviews said: "Carefully documented, journalistically crafted, and artfully told, this account illuminates the myriad struggles of public hospitals to effectively treat the indigent."

King is a former Washington correspondent and medical reporter at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky and science editor and columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His book grew out of editorials and columns he wrote for the AJC in 2007-2008 as part of its "Saving Grady" campaign. King blogs at http://commentonhealth.com/.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Published May 31, 2016 by Secant Publishing, Salisbury, MD. ISBN: 978-1-944962-06-7 (hardcover); $26.95; e-book $9.99. Available in Atlanta at A Cappella Books and nationally from Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Seattle Book Company, and Amazon. See http://amzn.to/1UgOWHi.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374564

SOURCE Secant Publishing

Related Links

http://www.secantpublishing.com


ARLINGTON, Va., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Arlington Asset Investment Corp. (NYSE: AI) (the "Company" or "Arlington") today announced that Egan-Jones Proxy Services ("Egan-Jones"), a leading independent proxy advisory firm, has joined Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. ("Glass Lewis") in recommending that Arlington shareholders vote "FOR ALL" eight of Arlington's highly-qualified and experienced director nominees  Eric F. Billings, J. Rock Tonkel, Jr., Daniel J. Altobello, Daniel E. Berce, David W. Faeder, Peter A. Gallagher, Ralph S. Michael, III and Anthony P. Nader, III  on the WHITE proxy card at the Company's Annual Meeting of Stockholders next Thursday, June 9, 2016.

Arlington shareholders are reminded that their vote is extremely important, no matter how many or how few shares they own. Arlington recommends that shareholders reelect the Company's current leaders by voting the WHITE proxy card today "FOR ALL" of Arlington's highly-qualified and experienced director nominees.

Your Vote Is Important, No Matter How Many or How Few Shares You Own

If you have any questions or need assistance voting, please contact the firm assisting Arlington in the solicitation of proxies:

INNISFREE M&A INCORPORATED

Shareholders may call toll free: 1-888-750-5834

Banks and Brokers may call collect: 212-750-5833

IMPORTANT

Arlington urges shareholders NOT to sign any gold proxy card sent by the Imation Group.

If you have already done so, you have every legal right to change your vote by using the WHITE proxy card to vote TODAYby telephone, via Internet, or by signing, dating and returning the WHITE proxy card.

About Arlington Asset Investment Corp.

Arlington Asset Investment Corp. (NYSE: AI) is a principal investment firm that currently invests primarily in mortgage-related and other assets. The Company is headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. For more information, please visit www.arlingtonasset.com.

Important Additional Information

The Company, its directors and certain of its executive officers are participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the Company's 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The Company has filed a definitive proxy statement and form of WHITE proxy card with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") in connection with such solicitation of proxies from the Company's shareholders. WE URGE INVESTORS TO READ THE DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT (INCLUDING ANY AMENDMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTS THERETO) AND ACCOMPANYING WHITE PROXY CARD CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

Information regarding the names of the Company's directors and executive officers and their respective interests in the Company by security holdings or otherwise as of April 7, 2016, is set forth in the Company's definitive proxy statement for its 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, filed with the SEC on April 18, 2016. Additional information can be found in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, filed with the SEC on February 16, 2016. These documents are available free of charge at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

Shareholders will be able to obtain, free of charge, copies of these documents, including any proxy statement (and amendments or supplements thereto) and accompanying WHITE proxy card, and other documents filed with the SEC at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. In addition, copies will also be available at no charge at the Investors section of the Company's website at http://www.arlingtonasset.com/.

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

Certain statements in this communication that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve various important assumptions, risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements because of various factors and possible events. We discuss these factors and events, along with certain other risks, uncertainties and assumptions, under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and in our other filings with the SEC. We note these factors for investors as contemplated by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Predicting or identifying all such risk factors is impossible. Consequently, investors should not consider any such list to be a complete set of all potential risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date of the statement to reflect unanticipated events. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or any person acting on behalf of the Company are qualified by the cautionary statements in this section.

SOURCE Arlington Asset Investment Corp.

Related Links

http://www.arlingtonasset.com


DENVER, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Quiznos, one of the nation's premier quickservice restaurant chains and the pioneer of the toasted sandwich, today announced the resignation of Doug Pendergast as the company's President and Chief Executive Officer. Pendergast decided to depart the company to spend more time with his family in Atlanta. Katie Scherping, current Chief Financial Officer, will serve as Interim President and CEO.

"We believe Quiznos is a stronger company as a result of Doug's work," said Quiznos Chairman, Doug Benham. "Under his leadership, we've accomplished several major brand initiatives to help advance our business. We thank Doug for his dedication to the Quiznos brand and have full confidence in Katie and the management team to continue the brand on a successful path forward."

With more than 30 years of finance, accounting and managerial experience, Scherping joined the Quiznos team in December 2013 as Chief Financial Officer. She spearheaded the brand's financial restructuring in 2014 and helped overhaul Quiznos food cost and supply chain model in order to improve restaurant-level economics. Most recently, Scherping led the rollout of Quiznos new national point-of-sale system, which is expected to help bolster sales and lessen restaurant costs through new reporting and management tools. Scherping and Pendergast have worked closely together since Pendergast joined Quiznos in January 2015.

Throughout his time at Quiznos, Pendergast led the organization to several accomplishments including significant gains in customer satisfaction, enhanced support for franchise operations and occupancy costs, and a renewed focus on value pricing. These efforts have helped cut store closures and set the stage for a return to growth.

"This was a difficult decision, as I was torn by the desire to see the results of the changes we've made during my tenure with Quiznos," said Pendergast. "Ultimately, I need to put my family first. I sincerely thank the entire Quiznos system for all that we have accomplished as a team."

During this transition, Quiznos goals remain the same  serving guests, supporting franchisees, strengthening the current brand and cultivating growth. As Quiznos celebrates its 35th anniversary this summer, the sub company is optimistic about the future and looks forward to continuing to serve up innovative, hot, flavorful menu items to guests.

About Quiznos

Denver-based Quiznos is a chain designed for today's busy consumers who are looking for a high quality, tasty, freshly prepared alternative to traditional fast-food restaurants. With locations across the United States and 34 countries, Quiznos is one of the world's premier quick-service restaurant chains and pioneer of the toasted sandwich. Quiznos restaurants offer creative, chef-created sandwiches and salads using premium ingredients. Quiznos was founded in 1981 by chefs who discovered that toasting brought out the best in every sandwich ingredient. For more information, please visit http://www.quiznos.com or http://www.facebook.com/quiznos.

Media Contact:

Maggie Miller

816-423-6329

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150622/224795LOGO

SOURCE Quiznos

Related Links

http://www.quiznos.com


TUCSON, Ariz., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Nominations are now being accepted for 14 wounded veterans to embark on a seven-day Grand Canyon Expedition, rafting on the Colorado River and hiking up the Bright Angel Trail. Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) will sponsor the expedition, which is designed to help veterans overcome barriers and live fuller lives. No Barriers USA will run the expedition itself.

Nominations will be accepted until July 8 and the expedition will take place October 15-23, 2016.

"I've seen firsthand how No Barriers provides life-changing opportunities to men and women who have sacrificed so much for their country," said Raytheon Missile Systems President Taylor W. Lawrence. "Raytheon provides vital support to our warfighters, both on and off the battlefield."

This expedition is free for the selected veterans, who may represent any military branch. Eligible participants must be wounded warriors residing in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico or Southern California.

"We've repeatedly witnessed how the Grand Canyon Wilderness Expedition positively impacts our participants and continues to resonate in their lives," said John Toth, No Barriers Warrior director. "That's the best work of the partnership between No Barriers Warriors and Raytheon."

This is the third year Raytheon has sponsored an expedition in partnership with No Barriers. To nominate a veteran or for more information, visit http://raytheon.nobarrierswarriors.org/.

About No Barriers Warriors

No Barriers Warriors empowers veterans with disabilities to overcome barriers and unleash their potential. We do this through transformative, experiential learning in challenging environments for veterans with disabilities. Simply put, No Barriers Warriors expeditions and other experiences provide a place for veterans to push themselves, both physically and mentally, and connect with other veterans. We believe in harnessing adversity and reminding our participants what's within you is stronger than what's in your way.

About Raytheon

Raytheon Company, with 2015 sales of $23 billion and 61,000 employees, is a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions. With a history of innovation spanning 94 years, Raytheon provides state-of-the-art electronics, mission systems integration, C5I products and services, sensing, effects, and mission support for customers in more than 80 countries. Raytheon is headquartered in Waltham, Mass. Visit us at www.raytheon.com and follow us on Twitter @Raytheon.

This document does not contain technology or technical data controlled under either the U.S. International Traffic in Arms Regulations or the U.S. Export Administration Regulations. E16-DMV3.

Media Contact

Tara Wood

+1.520.794.7715

[email protected]

SOURCE Raytheon Company

Related Links

http://www.raytheon.com


MIAMI, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to sell its cruise ship Legend of the Seas to Thomson Cruises in the spring of 2017.

"Since its inaugural sailing, Legend of the Seas has created many wonderful memories for hundreds of thousands of guests, and we expect this successful history to continue as she transitions to Thomson Cruises," said Richard D. Fain, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. "While she will be missed, her transition supports Double-Double and our objective of moderate capacity growth."

Legend of the Seas' final sailing will commence on March 13, 2017, and all officers and crew will remain with the company and will be transferred to other vessels worldwide after the ship leaves the Royal Caribbean International fleet. This transaction will result in an immaterial gain which will be recognized upon delivery of the ship.

Legend of the Seas joined the Royal Caribbean International fleet in 1995, and was built by Chantier's de L'Atlantique, now STX France, in St. Nazaire, France. The 69,130-gross-registered-tons ship carries 1,832 guests (double occupancy) and 726 crew.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) is a global cruise vacation company that owns Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur, Azamara Club Cruises and CDF Croisieres de France, as well as TUI Cruises through a 50 percent joint venture. Together, these six brands operate a combined total of 47 ships with an additional twelve on order. They operate diverse itineraries around the world that call on approximately 490 destinations on all seven continents. Additional information can be found on www.royalcaribbean.com, www.celebritycruises.com, www.pullmantur.es, www.azamaraclubcruises.com, www.cdfcroisieresdefrance.com, www.tuicruises.com or www.rclinvestor.com.

SOURCE Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
PARIS, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The Annual General Meeting of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain shareholders was held today in Paris. Shareholders present or represented at the meeting held an aggregate 61.03% of the outstanding shares. All the resolutions were adopted.

Mr. Bernard Gautier, Mr. Frederic Lemoine and Mr. Jean-Dominique Senard were re-elected to the Board. Ms Ieda Gomes Yell was elected as director.

Ms Ieda Gomes Yell is the President and founder of the company Energix Strategy Ltd. She holds degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Bahia, a MSc. in Energy from the University of Sao Paulo and in Environmental Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. From 1985 to 1998, Ms Ieda Gomes Yell was Chief Executive Officer of Companhia de Gas de Sao Paulo. She then held a variety of senior positions at BP, such as Vice-President of Pan American Energy (1998 - 1999), Vice-President of Regulatory Affairs (1999 - 2000), President of BP Brazil (2000 - 2002), Vice-President of Market Development at BP Solar (2002 - 2004), and Vice-President of BP Integrated Supply and Trading (2004 - 2011). In addition, she was Vice-President of New Ventures for the Middle East and South Asia regions (2004 - 2011). She is also a director of Bureau Veritas, Exterran Corporation and InterEnergy Holdings.

Shareholders also approved the payment of a dividend of 1.24 per share (unchanged from the previous year), with integral payment in cash. The ex-dividend date will be June 6 and the dividend will be paid as from June 8, 2016.

A webcast of the Annual General Meeting and the results of the vote on each resolution will be available on the Company's website (http://www.saint-gobain.com) as from June 3, 2016.

ABOUT SAINT-GOBAIN

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions which are key ingredients in the wellbeing of each of us and the future of all. They can be found everywhere in our living places and our daily life: in buildings, transportation, infrastructure and in many industrial applications. They provide comfort, performance and safety while addressing the challenges of sustainable construction, resource efficiency and climate change.

World leader in habitat

39.6 billion SALES in 2015

Operates in 66 countries

More than 170,000 employees



http://www.saint-gobain.com

@saintgobain





Analyst/Investor Relations

Gaetano Terrasini: +33-1-47-62-32-52

Vivien Dardel: +33-1-47-62-44-29

Florent Nouveau: +33-1-47-62-30-93





Media Relations

Charles Hufnagel: +33-1-47-62-30-10

Susanne Trabitzsch: +33-1-47-62-43-25



SOURCE Saint-Gobain
SAN ANTONIO, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Sea Island Shrimp House presents a new, limited time offer for summer, Teriyaki Honey Salmon & Shrimp. The perfect combo, an Atlantic Salmon filet and 7 wild-caught Gulf shrimp glazed with Teriyaki Honey sauce, served with seasoned veggies, rice pilaf and a baguette for $10.99.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374502

"Teriyaki Honey Salmon and Shrimp is a wonderful new entree to feature this summer. It is a fresh new flavor for the Sea Island menu and could give our top selling Lemon Pepper Fish a run for its money as a new favorite! This dish continues the Sea Island tradition of serving extremely high quality, delicious seafood at an incredible value for our guests" said Barclay Anthony, Sea Island Shrimp House CEO.

Also available now is a delicious new appetizer The Big Chill, a refreshing medley of Gulf Oysters on the Half Shell, Peel-and-Eat shrimp, Ceviche and Mexican Style Shrimp Cocktail served on a bed of ice. Perfect as a starter to share with friends, or as a healthy entree. The Big Chill is $14.99 for a limited time.

Sea Island Shrimp House is a great choice for summer dining with family and friends, featuring patio dining, beer & wine and playscapes at the six San Antonio locations, and Margaritas and a putting green at the new Creekside location in New Braunfels.

Restaurant Hours are:

Monday - Thursday 10:45am - 9:30pm

Friday & Saturday 10:45am - 10:00 pm

Sunday 10:45am  8:30pm

Sea Island has been serving scratch cooked, wild-caught, sustainable seafood since 1965. Sea Island has won numerous restaurant awards including Best Seafood Restaurant in the San Antonio Express-News Readers' Choice Awards.

Sea Island Shrimp House and Tiago's Cabo Grille are restaurant brands of Sea Island Development Company, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, please visit www.shrimphouse.com.

Contact: Meghan Vincent 210-582-0119 [email protected]

To like us on Facebook, visit https://www.facebook.com/SeaIslandSA

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com

SOURCE Sea Island Shrimp House

Related Links

http://www.shrimphouse.com


DALLAS, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is partnering once again with Discovery Channel's Shark Week, taking television's longest-running and most anticipated summer event to new heights. Today, the companies unveiled the first-ever Shark Week-themed 737-700 aircraft proudly displaying the majestic sea life that is widely celebrated by millions during Discovery's Shark Week, airing June 26 through July 3, 2016. The aircraft will fly as part of the carrier's fleet through Aug. 31, 2016.

Customers who catch a glimpse of the Shark Week-themed plane during their summer travels are encouraged to snap a photo and share it with @SouthwestAir and @SharkWeek, using the hashtag #SharksTakeFlight for a chance to receive fin-tastic custom Shark Week swag.

As Shark Week fans around the globe anticipate the best week ever, Southwest Customers can get in on the action early. Only on Southwest Airlines can Customers enjoy exclusive, jaw-dropping, never-before-seen content brought to you by Discovery. Onboard Wifi-equipped flights beginning June 1, Customers can sit back in "Shark n' Awe" to enjoy Jungle Shark nearly one month before airing during Shark Week.

"Now more than ever, brands have to be creative and unique in their approach to reach new Customers," said Linda Rutherford, Chief Communication Officer for Southwest Airlines. "Partnering with Discovery's Shark Week allows Southwest to connect with our Customers in a fun and memorable way. Only on Southwest can you enjoy this Shark Week experience, and that's what it's all about."

The exclusive episode of Jungle Shark will take Customers on a deep dive into the rainforests of Costa Rica with Marine Biologist Dr. Craig O'Connell and Andy Casagrande to find out why young bull sharks swim up the river, and how they avoid the 12-14' American Crocodiles living there.

Want to head to Costa Rica to experience Jungle Shark for yourself? Southwest can get you there. Catch a nonstop flight to San Jose (SJO) or Liberia/Guanacaste (LIR), Costa Rica from Los Angeles (LAX), Houston-Hobby (HOU) and Baltimore/Washington (BWI). If shallow waters are more your thing, Southwest and Discovery are sending a family of four on a jawsome Mexico adventure. Enter the Dare to Dive Sweepstakes for a chance to win a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (PVR), including roundtrip air travel for four on Southwest, a $2,000 hotel gift card, and a $1,000 Visa gift card to put toward an aquatic excursion for the entire family. For full rules and to enter for a chance to win, visit Southwest.com/SharkWeek.

Customers traveling today onboard the Shark Week-themed aircraft on Flight 10 from Dallas Love Field to Orange County/Santa Ana (SNA) will be surprised with jaw-dropping Shark Week goodies including Shark Week-themed neck pillows, Shark Week fin hats, "I Flew with Shark Week" buttons, Shark Week koozies, sunglasses, and even washable tattoos!

Enjoy more Southwest Shark Week content here.

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.

In its 45th year of service, Dallas-based Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) continues to differentiate itself from other air carriers with exemplary Customer Service delivered by more than 50,000 Employees to more than 100 million Customers annually. Southwest operates more than 3,900 departures a day during peak travel season across a network of 97 destinations in the United States and seven additional countries. Service to Long Beach, California, the carrier's 98th city, begins June 5, 2016.

Based on the U.S. Department of Transportation's most recent data, Southwest Airlines is the nation's largest carrier in terms of originating domestic passengers boarded. The Company operates the largest fleet of Boeing aircraft in the world, the majority of which are equipped with satellite-based WiFi providing gate-to-gate connectivity. That connectivity enables Customers to use their personal devices to view video on-demand movies and television shows, as well as more than 20 channels of free, live TV compliments of our valued Partners. Southwest created Transfarency, a philosophy which treats Customers honestly and fairly, and in which low fares actually stay low. Southwest is the only major U.S. airline to offer bags fly free to everyone (first and second checked pieces of luggage, size and weight limits apply, some airlines may allow free checked bags on select routes or for qualified circumstances), and there are no change fees, though fare differences might apply. In 2014, the airline proudly unveiled a bold new look: Heart. The new aircraft livery, airport experience, and logo, showcase the dedication of Southwest Employees to connect Customers with what's important in their lives.

From its first flights on June 18, 1971, Southwest Airlines launched an era of unprecedented affordability in air travel described by the U.S. Department of Transportation as "The Southwest Effect," a lowering of fares and increase in passenger traffic whenever the carrier enters new markets. With 43 consecutive years of profitability, Southwest is one of the most honored airlines in the world, known for a triple bottom line approach that contributes to the carrier's performance and productivity, the importance of its People and the communities they serve, and an overall commitment to efficiency and the planet. The 2015 Southwest Airlines One Report can be found at SouthwestOneReport.com.

Book Southwest Airlines' low fares online at Southwest.com or by phone at 800-I-FLY-SWA.

SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co.

Related Links

http://www.Southwest.com


LOS ANGELES, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today is Gun Violence Prevention Dayit is also the launch of a new tool for voters to have their voices heard on Capitol HillShootATweet.com. Created by Award-Winning Creative Director Carl Corbitt and developed and produced by Left Field Labs, ShootATweet.com turns news reports collected by the Gun Violence Archive into tweets to members of Congress so constituents can automatically share the news of every gun-related death with their elected officials along with a message prompting them to take action.

Twitter users can activate their account to automatically tweet members of Congress after every shooting in their area with a few clicks from their laptop or smartphone.

"The daily effect of gun violence is always eclipsed by the horrific tragedies of mass-shootings. Yesterday every news network had cameras on UCLA, but even these events never stay top-of-mind for long for most lawmakers. ShootATweet aims to let the daily death toll speak for itself," explains Corbitt.

Corbitt began work on ShootATweet late last year after People Magazine published the contact information of every member of Congress following the mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon. Corbitt explains, "The goal was to find a simple way for people to reach out to Congress after every shooting, not just those covered by National media."

While some consider automated Twitter messages SPAM, Corbitt disagrees, "I don't believe a voter's opinion is junk mail. So while the gun lobby spends Millions to be heard by Congress, we're using technology to help ordinary citizens be heard too."

Akash Khokha, COO and Partner at Left Field Labs and his team joined the effort at the first of the year. "Our company creates innovative ways for technology to serve humanity. We couldn't think of a better use of our skills than to help voters instantly share news of the gun violence in their communities with their elected officials in Washington," explains Khokha.

ShootATweet.com is owned by Shoot A Tweet Inc. a 501(c)(4) organization focused on promoting and facilitating the dialogue between voters and their elected officials about news of gun violence in their area.

Left Field Labs is a company founded with the understanding that technology is pushing humanity towards a new era of art, culture, and commerce. We approach our work not only to achieve a business goal, but as a way to bring technology more into harmony with the human experience.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374647-INFO

SOURCE ShootATweet

Related Links

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WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Securities Litigation and Consulting Group, Inc. ("SLCG") has issued a comprehensive study of the extent and possible prevention of stock broker misconduct based on FINRA's BrokerCheck data. The report's primary authors are Craig McCann, Mike Yan and Chuan Qin. Dr. McCann and Dr. Yan are Principals and Dr. Qin is a Senior Financial Economist at SLCG.

The SLCG study analyzed disciplinary and employment history for more than 1.2 million brokers to demonstrate how BrokerCheck data might be developed to rate brokerage firms based on how likely their brokers are to harm investors in the future.

Dr. Yan explains that this study demonstrates that almost 5% of the 296,000 brokers currently registered with four or more states have been subject to customer complaints resulting in arbitration awards or substantial settlements. This is much more than prior estimates and suggests broker misconduct is widespread.

Dr. Qin says the ability to predict which brokers are more likely to engage in misconduct is possible with the BrokerCheck data and sophisticated statistical analysis. "We've demonstrated that the BrokerCheck data, if truly public, would allow us and others to tell investors which brokers and brokerage firms are more likely to cause future investor harm."

Dr. McCann points out that only by analyzing a large sample of brokers, researchers can identify brokers more likely to harm investors. He says, "It is a classic fallacy of composition to believe that because information on individual brokers is available BrokerCheck and, in the aggregate, this information is useful for separating high risk brokers from lower risk brokers that useful information is publicly available." The authors urge regulators to make BrokerCheck available in bulk so researchers can develop simple, informative metrics that investors could use to protect themselves.

This study and other working papers are available at slcg.com/securities-research.php

Securities Litigation and Consulting Group, Inc. ("SLCG") is a financial economics consulting firm based in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. SLCG provides consulting services and expert witnesses to law firms, corporations, individuals and state and federal agencies involved in complex litigation throughout the United States.

For further information about SLCG or its research, please contact Dr. McCann at 703-246-9381 or [email protected], Dr. Qin at 703-539-6778 or [email protected] and Dr. Yan at 703-539-6770 or [email protected] or visit us at www.slcg.com.

SOURCE Securities Litigation and Consulting Group, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.slcg.com


BOSTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SnapApp, provider of the leading SaaS platform used by B2B marketers to create, publish, manage, and measure interactive content, has named B2B technology industry veteran, Renee Bochman, as its SVP of Customer Success. Ms. Bochman brings dozens of years of experience building and leading customer success teams. Prior to joining SnapApp Ms. Bochman was VP of Customer Success for Acquia, one of the fastest growing software companies in the world.

"Customer success is our highest priority and we are thrilled to be adding a person of Renee's caliber and successful track record to our team," says Seth Lieberman, CEO of SnapApp. "With our growth accelerating, it's essential that our customer success team scales to meet the needs of our customers and continues to deliver the highest standards of support they have come to expect from SnapApp."

Ms. Bochman has led customer success teams for several B2B technology companies including Acquia, HP/Vertica, Kyruus, Axeda Corporation (acquired by PTC), Endeca Technologies (acquired by Oracle) and Connected Corporation (acquired by Iron Mountain). She joins recent appointees Aaron Dun, SVP of Marketing; Matthew Carey, SVP of Sales; and Albert Seeley, VP of Engineering in rounding out SnapApp's executive team. Together they bring significant proven experience helping companies accelerate revenue growth, increase profitability, and attain market-defining leadership positions. This development follows SnapApp's recent announcement of the availability of its Spring 2016 release and the documented ROI its customers are seeing with their SnapApp-powered interactive content-enabled marketing campaigns.

"The SnapApp platform is redefining how companies can connect with their customers and prospects through interactive content. For this kind of innovative technology, a world-class customer success organization has to do much more than provide technical support. It must operate as an advocate and extension of the customer marketing team by proactively guiding them in how to realize the full value of the platform," says Renee Bochman, SVP Customer Success. "Marketing teams see SnapApp as a mission-critical investment in enabling them to hit their growth objectives. Our job is to do everything we can to make sure our platform exceeds their expectations in achieving their goals."

SnapApp provides the industry's broadest platform for creating virtually any kind of interactive content to deliver a rich user experience that will accelerate prospects through the funnel into revenue. The platform's capabilities include responsive design, pre-built templates, workflow, analytics, a digital asset library, user permissions, and simple API-based integration with marketing automation platforms and other technologies.

About SnapApp

SnapApp is redefining how marketers accelerate their content strategy, enabling them to create and deliver personalized content that engages and resonates with customers on a deeper level than ever before. SnapApp's interactive content creation platform enables marketers to boost results by 2-3x across all their existing marketing programs. With SnapApp marketers can create, deploy, manage, and measure a wide range of interactive content across multiple channels, with full customization and design control to ensure content will perform well on any device. Backed by Providence Equity Partners, SnapApp customers include Oracle, Cisco, EMC, CEB, Blackbaud, PTC, and Equifax. Visit SnapApp on the web at www.snapapp.com or follow them on Twitter @snap_app.

SOURCE SnapApp
GAITHERSBURG, Md., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sodexo, the world leader in Quality of Life Services, joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service today in announcing free summer meal programs open to children ages 18 years and under. USDA discussed the challenges of connecting children with meals during the summer months and shared how families can find free programs in their community. Sodexo's Feeding Our Future program, now in 23 U.S. cities and 9 cities in Canada, was offered as a best practice of how businesses can engage in public-private partnerships as a way to fight hunger.

According to the USDA, during the school year, more than 22 million kids receive free and reduced-price meals through the National School Lunch Program. But when school lets out for the summer, only 3.8 million participate in USDA's summer meals programs. Feeding Our Future, an 8 to 12 week summer feeding program started by Sodexo in 1997, has served 4.5 million free summer meals and exemplifies one effort that works to fill the gap. Sodexo engages employee volunteers and partners with community organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCAs, local hunger relief organizations as well as clients and suppliers to provide free meals to children.

"The sad fact is that nearly one in five children in America lives in a household that struggles to put food on the table," said Steve Cox, vice president of public relations, North America, Sodexo. "That's 15 million American children who are at risk of hunger every day in American. It's 17.4 million households struggling provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to their kids."

Cox added public-private partnerships are the key to solving the issue of hunger. Best practices demonstrate that the most successful programs are built on collaboration and partnerships  with other businesses, public entities, nonprofits and individual efforts. It is about businesses engaging not only their employees, but external stakeholders as well like supply chain partners.

WHERE TO FIND MEALS

The USDA provides a number of resources for identifying summer meal programs in local communities. They include:

Contact any community based organization (i.e. YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs or faith-based organizations) about participating summer meal programs

Call the National Hunger Hotline at 866-3HUNGRY (866-348-6479) of for the same information in Spanish, call 877-8HAMBRE (877-842-6273)

Visit the USDA's Summer Meals Rock website for summer meal sites as well as information on how to help fight hunger.

Sodexo is a leading provider of facilities management and food service operations to nearly 500 school districts across North America. Every day it serves more than 2 million meals per day to students when school is in session. In addition to hunger relief efforts like Feeding Our Future, Sodexo's Stop Hunger Initiatives include providing in excess of 12,000 free food backpacks per week during the school year and working alongside food recovery partners where in 2015 it helped rescue and donate 600,000 pounds of food.

Sodexo delivers more than 100 services across North America that enhance organizational performance, contribute to local communities and improve quality of life. The global Fortune 500 company is a leader in delivering sustainable, integrated facilities management and foodservice operations.

Learn more about the company at its corporate blog, Sodexo Insights.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160330/349448LOGO

SOURCE Sodexo

Related Links

http://www.sodexoUSA.com


LONDON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- "Global spices and seasonings market projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2015 to 2020"

The spices and seasonings market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% and reach USD 14.8 billion by 2020. The market is driven by factors such as increased demand for snacks & convenience food and meat & poultry products due to changing consumer preferences. Furthermore, factors such as increasing disposable incomes and rapid urbanization have also increased the demand for spices and seasonings. The high growth potential in emerging markets and untapped regions provide new growth opportunities for market players.



"Meat & poultry products accounted for the largest share"

Among the applications, meat & poultry products accounted for largest share in 2014 in the global spices and seasonings market. Factors such as increased demand for traditional food products and the need for preserving meat products have led to a rise in demand for spices and seasonings. Furthermore, the increasing consumption of Asian food products in developed countries such as the U.S. and Germany has also resulted in an increased demand for spices and seasonings.



"Asia-Pacific to lead the market in terms of growth rate"

On the basis of region, the spices and seasonings market is led by the Asia-Pacific region. The usage of spices in the industrial sector is less in Asia-Pacific, which presents food processing industries with considerable untapped potential in this region. Furthermore, rising consumption of ready-to-eat food products owing to changing lifestyle and increased disposable income provides opportunities to packaged food manufacturers in this region.



The market size of spices and seasonings estimated in this study has been validated through primaries conducted with various industry experts globally. These primary sources have been divided in three categories: by company; by designation; and by region.



- By Company Type - Tier 1  20 %, Tier 2  20% and Tier 3  60%

- By Designation  C level  40%, Director level  60%

- By Region Europe  25%, APAC  50%, Latin America  25%



Leading players such as McCormick & Company (U.S.), Associated British Foods (U.K.), Kerry Group Plc. (Ireland), Olam International Limited (Singapore), and Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (Japan) have been profiled in the report. Other players include Ariake Japan Company (Japan), SHS Group (U.K.), Dohler Group (Germany), Worlee Gruppe (Germany), and Sensient Technologies (U.S.).



Reasons to buy this report:

- To get a comprehensive overview of the global spices and seasonings market

- To gain wide ranging information about the top players in this industry, their product portfolios, and the key strategies adopted by them

- To gain insights of the major countries/regions in which the spices and seasonings market is flourishing



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/3655088/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com

For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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POTOMAC, Md., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Shulman Rogers' clients, Founding Farmers, RightEye, Rose's Luxury and Spotluck have received significant regional and national recognition in the past few weeks. "When each of these clients came to us, they had a lot in common: great ideas, talent, the right backgrounds and the experience and a willingness to work hard to be successful," recalls Scott Museles, Co-Chairman of Shulman Rogers' Business and Financial Services Department and Chair of the Firm's Securities Practice Group. "We could not be happier for the well-deserved recognition each team has received and we are so pleased to have been able to help them raise funds and navigate their other business and personal legal needs." Founding Farmers owner Dan Simons notes, "We are now seven years old and from the beginning, Scott has been absolutely awesome."

Founding Farmers' Potomac, MD, Washington, DC and Tysons Corner, VA restaurants have all been included on the list of 100 Best Brunch Restaurants in America for 2016 by Open Table. This award is based on five million verified reviews of over 20,000 restaurants across the nation. Shulman Rogers shareholder Scott Museles acts as outside general counsel and assisted in raising equity funding. Shulman Rogers' attorneys also provide other business and personal legal services to the restaurants and the ownership team.

RightEye LLC, a health technology company using eye tracking and gaming to revolutionize vision performance and patient care, was recognized as Emerging Tech Company of the Year at the 2016 Greater Washington Innovation Awards presented by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce. "I tapped Scott Museles and the Shulman Rogers team to handle the company formation, multiple capital raises and to advise me on growth issues," said RightEye owner Adam Gross. "Scott and his team were terrific and they were able to refer me to other lawyers in the firm who advised me on Intellectual Property and compensation issues."

Aaron Silverman, Chef and owner of Rose's Luxury and Pineapple and Pearls, won the prestigious James Beard Award for Best Chef-Mid-Atlantic, following up on his recognition as one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs for 2016. In 2014, Rose's Luxury won Bon Appetit Magazine's national Best Restaurant Award. In addition, the Washington Post restaurant critic named Rose's Luxury his favorite restaurant in DC in his Fall 2015 Dining Guide and named Pineapple and Pearls as his favorite new restaurant in DC in his Spring 2016 Dining Guide. Scott Museles and team have helped Aaron through several rounds of funding.

Spotluck won recognition from the Washington, DC technology community as "DC's Hottest Tech Company" in the 2016 "DC Inno's Tech Madness" competition. Spotluck is an app that creates a win/win for restaurant owners and diners. It provides a platform for restaurants to fluctuate their prices to drive traffic during slower times and for diners to try new spots at more enticing prices. The Shulman Rogers start-up team helped Cherian Thomas, a former executive in the recyclable commodities/manufacturing industry and Brad Sayler, a former corporate securities attorney with a major DC law firm, raise funds.

About Shulman Rogers

Shulman Rogers is one of the largest, most respected law firms in the Washington Metropolitan area. Founded in 1972, the firm has vast experience ranging from corporate law, to real estate, to litigation to estate planning and family law. Additional information on Shulman Rogers and its practice areas is available at ShulmanRogers.com.

SOURCE Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker, P.A.

Related Links

http://www.shulmanrogers.com


SANTA BARBARA, Calif., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Reason in Government, a 501(c)(4) Social Welfare Organization, has released Who Makes the Grade?, a legislator scorecard that identifies "radically centrist" and "persistently polarizing" legislators in California.

"Radically centrist legislators are those whose votes are routinely guided by a commitment to reasoned policy consistent with Reason in Government's core principles, which are broadly characterized as socially liberal, fiscally conservative, and environmentally conscious," explained Brian C. Goebel, president of Reason in Government and founder and editor-in-chief of 2040matters.com, a public policy blog dedicated to restoring the American Dream for younger Americans. "Persistently polarizing legislators, by contrast, are those who consistently eschew these principles when voting and are thus far removed from the radical center."

Reason in Government was founded in 2015 to address a number of intertwined issues: increasing polarization in politics, poor performance across government, public policies divorced from data, science, and reason, unwarranted government intervention into private and economic lives, and a lack of concern for future generations in managing public finances. The organization educates citizens and promotes civic engagement to improve all levels of government effectiveness and efficiency and to preserve personal and economic liberty with an emphasis on local, state, and federal policies affecting the larger Santa Barbara community.

In Who Makes the Grade?, Reason in Government looked at a broad range of public policy issues over the last four years with a focus on personal freedom and public health, environmental regulation, education, and economic opportunity. Reason in Government selected 22 bills in these areas, developed a position with respect to each bill, and then evaluated voting records for consistency with those positions. The methodology penalized legislators for abstentions.

Playing no political or geographical favorites, Reason in Government awarded its top two grades to Adam Gray (D-21) and Devon Mathis (R-26). It graded Santa Barbara's legislators as follows:

Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian (R-35)  "C"

Assemblyman Das Williams (D-37)  "F"

Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-19) "C"

For more information on Reason in Government or to read Who Makes the Grade?, visit reasoningovernment.org.

Reason in Government, the voice of the radical center, is dedicated to the proposition that all levels of government should be reformed to improve their effectiveness and efficiency while simultaneously preserving the personal and economic liberty of their citizens. For more information, visit reasoningovernment.org.

SOURCE Reason in Government

Related Links

http://www.reasoningovernment.org


BOSTON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A new Strategy Analytics Report finds that Intel is going all out to be a driving force in the Internet of Things. The Strategy Analytics IoT Strategies service report, "Intel 2016 IoT Strategy: Creating Vertical Solutions on Horizontal Platforms and Building a Broad Ecosystem," indicates that Intel has crafted a cogent, comprehensive Internet of Things strategy that includes:

Targeted IoT Vertical Market Focus: Intel is focusing on pivotal IoT vertical segments including: Retail; Smart Transportation (e.g., Automotive/Autonomous vehicles and connected transport logistics); Smart Industrial (e.g. Manufacturing, Energy and Robotics); Smart Building and Healthcare.

Intel is focusing on pivotal IoT vertical segments including: Retail; Smart Transportation (e.g., Automotive/Autonomous vehicles and connected transport logistics); Smart Industrial (e.g. Manufacturing, Energy and Robotics); Smart Building and Healthcare. Partnerships and investments with leading data analytics vendors including an 18% stake in Cloudera to promote Open Source Hadoop; SAP where Intel's Xeon processor E7 v3 family is the reference architecture design platform for SAP HANA and aligning with SAS which also utilizes Intel's Xeon Processor E7 v3, as well as Intel Solid State Drives for fast data storage access and retrieval. Intel and SAS also deliver an in-memory processing engine for real-time and predictive analytics.

including an 18% stake in Cloudera to promote Open Source Hadoop; SAP where Intel's Xeon processor E7 v3 family is the reference architecture design platform for SAP HANA and aligning with SAS which also utilizes Intel's Xeon Processor E7 v3, as well as Intel Solid State Drives for fast data storage access and retrieval. Intel and SAS also deliver an in-memory processing engine for real-time and predictive analytics. Targeted Mergers & Acquisitions: In the last 24 months Intel has made six major acquisitions aimed at increasing its stake in IoT, cloud, data analytics and Field Programmable Arrays.

In the last 24 months Intel has made six major acquisitions aimed at increasing its stake in IoT, cloud, data analytics and Field Programmable Arrays. Strong Research and Development: Intel spent $12.1 billion on R&D in 2015, the most of any chipmaker and it accounted for 22% of all research monies spent by all semiconductor vendors last year.

Intel spent on R&D in 2015, the most of any chipmaker and it accounted for 22% of all research monies spent by all semiconductor vendors last year. Patents: The U.S. Patent and Trade Office awarded Intel 2,048 patents in 2015, which gave Intel the Number Nine ranking among all corporations last year.

"Intel is bringing it's 'A' game to the IoT table and that's absolutely essential since its rivals are some of the most influential vendors in the business. IoT competition is intense and cutthroat and Intel does face challenges," said Laura DiDio, Strategy Analytics director of IoT Research and author of the report.

Andrew Brown, Strategy Analytics Executive Director of IoT, agreed, noting that while Intel has a strong, well respected, global brand, "Intel lags behind rival Qualcomm in the mobile space and it is playing catch up to IBM in software analytics. Intel will have to come up with a viable strategy  particularly in the mobile space going forward."

About Strategy Analytics

Strategy Analytics, Inc. provides the competitive edge with advisory services, consulting and actionable market intelligence for emerging technology, mobile and wireless, digital consumer and automotive electronics companies. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Strategy Analytics delivers insights for enterprise success. www.StrategyAnalytics.com

US Contact: Laura DiDio, +1 617 614 0700, [email protected]

European Contact: Andrew Brown, +44(0) 1908 423 630, [email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130207/NE56457LOGO-b

SOURCE Strategy Analytics

Related Links

http://www.strategyanalytics.com


NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As people age, it becomes more difficult to continue refining the presence of your skin. Known as a luxurious treat amongst wealthy and sophisticated individuals, caviar is becoming a runaway success in the beauty industry, making it no surprise that many skin care brands are infusing this extravagant ingredient into their products. Swiss skin care leader, Alpessence, delivers their signature product, the Caviar Serum, offering the most advanced benefits available from a cosmetic treatment, in the areas of anti-aging, moisturizing, brightening and firming. This much-loved and most awarded bestseller anti-aging complex can boost the skin's absorption capability, allowing the skin to receive the full benefits of the caviar serum and other nutrients you apply afterwards.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374473

It is well known that crucial ingredients play a significant role in skin care and it is less known that the absorption factor is equally as important. Many products on the market today are packed with great formulas, but are not absorbed into our skin well enough to work, as they should. One of the key reasons is due to the stratum corneum, which is the outermost layer of the skin (flattened cells) that does the key absorption. It serves as our body's primary defense and it is extremely good at its job. This means, our skin acts, as a great barrier to infusion and not everything we touch or put on our skin is fully absorbed into our bodies.

Secondly, large numbers of active ingredients in cosmetics are not soluble in skin (i.e. lipid, or fat-soluble). Some are too large in molecule to fit through the stratum corneum. If the ingredients in your skin care product are too large to immerse into skin cells, they will move between the skin cells for a period of time or be temporarily absorbed by some glands in a process known as "appendageal absorption." For this reason, Alpessence has innovated the technology formula of "Infusion-Plus." For the past few years, the Alpessence scientists have continued seeking the answer for better infusion. Infusion-Plus is a formula consisted of penetration enhancers, derived from cutting-edge medical technology, and developed to enhance dermatological drug delivery effect. The goal of this formula was to make it possible to maximize the effectiveness of essential ingredients required to achieve beautiful skin, and that is exactly what it does.

"The anti-aging caviar serum provides legendary firming and lifting to the skin through its maximized absorption and strength capabilities," states Dr. Scott Shone from Alpessence laboratory. "It's important that people understand the absorption factor in skin care, and how caviar is a leading ingredient that will deliver better anti-aging results within a shorter period of time."

Alpessence's Caviar Serum is not only a high performance anti-aging serum but is also the signature product of the brands advanced penetration technology. Caviar is a unique food for the skin. Extracts from caviar have an exclusive natural protein that creates a legendary firming lifting effect and satiny smoothness. The caviar serum from Alpessence reaches deep into your skin, effectively nourishing, regenerating and moisturizing your skin all day long. The serum also improves the elasticity of your skin, helping it smooth out wrinkles and fine lines, playing a major role in maintaining the healthy condition of your skin.

By just adding the caviar serum to your existing skin care regimen, you will get maximum absorption of all the vital skin care ingredients, experiencing better results within a shorter period of time. Use the caviar serum morning and evening, after cleansing and toning. Smooth one to two drops over your face and neck, placing special focus on the areas with areas, while avoiding the eye area. By using the caviar serum after your regular skin care regimen, the luxurious product will help enhance the absorption of all nutrients. This extraordinary product retails at $139.00, and is available at http://www.alpessence.com/.

About Alpessence

Alpessence is a Swiss-based and formed luxury skin care online brand, now available in 14 countries. All skincare products are domestically sourced and made in Switzerland. Providing luxury elements from gems to unique aging-fighting ingredients, this brand offers a range of high quality products including moisturizers, serums, cleansers, toners and masks. Infused with diamonds, pearls, caviar, rose stem cells, and other luxurious ingredients, this brand provides a breakthrough in skin care product absorption. With visible results, Alpessence brings the latest Swiss high-tech, anti-aging treatments to regenerate and repair the skin. With no added fragrance, dyes or ingredients that can harm the health and function of your skin.

Andrew Matthews

Beautiful Planning Marketing & PR: Fashion, Beauty & Lifestyle Division

(877) 841-7244

Email

SOURCE Alpessence

Related Links

http://www.alpessence.com


STOCKHOLM, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Syncron, the global leader in aftermarket service optimization, today announced the opening of its office in Paris, France, enabling the company to better serve its international customer base. Syncron helps manufacturers elevate aftermarket services to improve sales operations across more than 20 countries worldwide, including France.

The opening of the Paris office demonstrates Syncron's commitment to serving the needs of the company's rapidly growing, global customer base, and builds upon the continued expansion of operations in Europe, North America and Asia.

"The opening of the Paris office is in response to the growing demand for Syncron's solutions in France," said Anders Gruden, CEO of Syncron. "To better meet the needs of our expanding customer base, it was a logical next-step to formalize our presence in the French market. I am excited to better support leading manufacturers in this region, helping them achieve their business goals via exceptional cloud-based aftermarket service solutions."

In addition to Paris, Syncron has expanded with offices around the world, including its global headquarters in Stockholm, U.S headquarters in Atlanta and regional offices in Munich, Warsaw, Bangalore, Birmingham (UK), Tokyo, Chicago and Palo Alto, Calif., with future plans to expand throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S.

The new Paris office facilitates day-to-day operations for Syncron and allows the company to provide an enhanced level of technical support to existing French customers, such as Manitou Group.

"Syncron has significantly helped support our business growth," said Wim Vercauteren, Vice President, Business Unit Spare Parts at Manitou Group. "By having the ability to plan across our entire supply chain to optimize and right-size inventory, we are able to better serve our customers. We respond faster to customer demands, lead times have been minimized and repeat business is on the rise."

The contracting durable goods market has manufacturers around the word turning to aftermarket service as a new source of competitive differentiation, customer intimacy, revenue and profits. Syncron has a proven history of enabling manufacturers around the world to transform their aftermarket service businesses by delivering rapid ROI, dramatically enhancing profitability and providing superior customer experiences.

Syncron provides a suite of cloud-based inventory, pricing and data solutions to optimize the entire service supply chain, thereby increasing efficiency, reducing costs and offering transparency to assist dealers with providing exceptional service.

To learn more about Syncron's service parts inventory management, price management and data management solutions and how they can strengthen aftermarket service efforts, visit syncron.com.

About Syncron

Syncron is the global leader in cloud-based aftermarket service optimization. Syncron provides global inventory management, global price management, order management and master data management software to manufacturing and distribution companies around the world. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with U.S. offices in Atlanta, Chicago and Palo Alto, Syncron combines a passion for innovation, business process expertise, and a global collaborative workforce to deliver immediate and measurable improvements for its clients. For more information, visit us online at www.syncron.com.

SOURCE Syncron

Related Links

http://www.syncron.com


Investors received an annualized internal rate of return over the investment period of 33 percent. Terranova Chairman Stephen Bittel said, "we have been so proud to grow the value of Suniland throughout our holding period. Suniland has always been and will continue to be the heart of the Village of Pinecrest. With great demographics and traffic and Terranova's constant love and attention, we made magic. While we are sad to say goodbye, we are optimistic that the buyers, a Denver based private REIT will enjoy a future ownership as wonderful as ours has been. Suniland has provided one of the most remarkable returns on a real estate investment ever, returning an equity multiple of twenty five times."

The 82,000 square foot property on 7.11 acres on U.S.1 in Pinecrest includes as tenants Flanigans, SunTrust, Citicorp, the U.S. Post Office, CVS, Nicklaus Children's Hospital, and longtime community favorites Pete's Barber Shop and Wagons West. The sale was exceptionally brokered by Mark Gilbert of Cushman and Wakefield.

Terranova Corporation, South Florida's leading commercial real estate advisory firm, currently is involved with commercial real estate assets for its clients and its own portfolio valued at over $1 billion. Terranova offers complete commercial real estate services, including Highstreet Retail, Leasing & Property Management, Acquisition/Joint Ventures, Tenant Representation, Dispositions, Financing, and Development & Construction Management.

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:

Rebecca DeVille

305-779-8943

[email protected]

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374854

SOURCE Terranova Corporation

Related Links

http://www.terranovacorp.com


ATLANTA, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Already one of the most popular quick-service restaurants in Asia, Texas Chicken recently finalized a deal that will increase the brand's exposure in the Southeast region of the continent. The deal, which features seven planned restaurants over the next few years, will make Texas Chicken the largest, most visible quick-service fried chicken restaurant in the country and its famous, quality fried chicken and signature honey-butter biscuits readily available to more than 6 million people who call Laos home.

"Construction on the first restaurant location is expected to begin within 60-90 days," said Jean-Boris Roux, Hospitality Division Director of RMA Group of Laos  the new franchisee for this endeavor. "We look forward to bringing the taste and expertise of Texas Chicken to Laos, along with the quality that is synonymous with the brand worldwide."

The RMA Group, through its subsidiary EFG (Express Food Group), currently operates pizza, ice cream, and BBQ restaurants throughout the region and has vast experience in entering new countries. A diversified company and leader in creating sustainable solutions in the areas of automobile, heavy equipment, engineering services and Franchised Food Services, RMA boasts over 30 years of experience in the Asia Pacific region and a strong dedication to quality and integrity.

"With its strategic location near Thailand and Vietnam where we currently operate 13 restaurants, Laos is a logical next step in our continuing development in the Asia region," said Tony Moralejo, Senior Vice President & Chief Development Officer at Texas Chicken/Church's Chicken. "Any time we have the opportunity to bring our brand to a wider audience with an experienced franchisee like RMA Group, it's a welcome expansion for the entire Texas Chicken brand."

The first restaurant in Laos is planned for Vientiane with a target opening of late 2016. Like other international Texas Chicken restaurants, the Laotian restaurants will have a core menu of classic Texas Chicken favorites such as hand-battered, freshly prepared original and spicy fried chicken and honey-butter biscuits.

About Texas Chicken / Church's Chicken

Founded in San Antonio, TX in 1952 by George W. Church, Church's Chicken, along with its sister brand Texas Chicken outside of the Americas, is one of the largest quick service chicken restaurant chains in the world. The brands specialize in Original and Spicy Chicken freshly prepared throughout the day in small batches that are hand-battered and double-breaded, Tender Strips, sandwiches, honey-butter biscuits made from scratch and freshly baked, and classic, home-style sides all for a great value. Church's Chicken and Texas Chicken have more than 1,650 locations in 25 countries and global markets and system-wide sales of more than $1 billion. For more information, visit www.churchs.com. Follow Church's on Facebook at www.facebook.com/churchschicken and Twitter at www.twitter.com/churchschicken.

Contact:

Tara Hamp

866.252.1750, x129

[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374365LOGO

SOURCE Texas Chicken
BEAVERTON, Ore., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Enli Health Intelligence, a market leader in population health management technology, and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, a multi-school institution and the fourth university in the Texas Tech University System, announced today results of the health system's Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program. DSRIP is an incentive program focused on reforming how care is accessed, delivered, and paid for among the region's Medicaid population.

"Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, as one of several regional healthcare partners, sought to establish an enterprise disease management capability through a $6.5 million incentive payment from the state," stated Oscar Perez, Senior Director of Strategic Clinical Initiatives and 1115 Waiver/DSRIP/NAIP/FQHC Program Manager. "We worked with Enli to develop new workflows, reporting tools, and patient care plans founded on the latest evidence-based guidelines and accessible to our providers in the EHR at the point of care. Among other improvements, we saw a 60% increase in foot exams and a 100% increase in Pneumovax screenings, two clinical quality indicators and program outcome measures, over a 12-month period."

Seven states, led by Texas, California, and Massachusetts, have received approval and implemented DSRIP programs. While requirements vary from state to state, all DSRIP initiatives tie reimbursement to a series of performance metrics. Those metrics initially focus on infrastructure development and system redesign, but also include clinical outcomes and population health improvements over the five-year term of the program.

In 2011, the state of Texas received federal approval to launch a demonstration project focused on transformation and quality improvement through a section 1115 Medicaid waiver. The project was initially funded between 2012 and 2016. Based upon its ability to meet certain delivery system reform targets, the state received a three-year extension to support ongoing Medicaid payment and system redesign, as well as maintain its DSRIP program.

"Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso has a strong primary care network and orientation," observed Dr. Joseph Siemienczuk, Enli's Chief Medical Officer. "Its ongoing focus on education and patient care, along with a commitment to harness technology, is accelerating care delivery transformation. Enli CareManager complements delivery system innovation and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso's rapid transition toward value-based care by placing real-time clinical decision support where it matters most, in the hands of providers."

"We are making investments in the technology foundation that supports our comprehensive population health strategy," agreed Mr. Perez. "CareManager is a critical tool for Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso providers and we are continuing to harness Enli's population health IT capabilities to coordinate the complex healthcare needs of 2.5 million Medicaid beneficiaries in western Texas while meeting key DSRIP program requirements."

Provider organizations interested in learning more about Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and its approach to population health management, including the DSRIP initiative, are invited to view a webcast to be hosted on June 8 at 11 am PST / 2 pm EST. View here.

Enli Health Intelligence works collaboratively with healthcare delivery systems, allowing them to pursue population health-based initiatives and close priority gaps in care. The Enli platform curates and codifies the latest evidence-based guidelines and programs, supports the creation of a unified care plan, and facilitates care team collaboration at the point of care, wherever that may be.

For more information about Enli Health Intelligence and its population health management solutions, please visit Enli.net.

About Enli

Enli Health Intelligence is the market leader in population health management technology. Enli enables care teams to perform to their full potential by integrating healthcare data with evidence-based guidelines embedded in provider workflows across the population and at the point of care.1

Media Contact

GCI Health on behalf of Enli Health Intelligence

Edie DeVine

1-415-403-8316

[email protected]

1 See: KLAS Population Health Management 2015 Performance Report. See also: Chilmark 2016 Care Management Market Trends Report; and IDC Marketscape: U.S. Population Health Management 2014 Vendor Assessment.

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SOURCE Enli Health Intelligence

Related Links

http://www.enli.net


BERLIN and DRESDEN, Germany, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The international aerospace industry meets up from 1-4 June 2016 at ILA Berlin Air Show, Germany's most important trade show for the industry. In Berlin, the Dresden technology region will be showing how its local expertise in multidisciplinary and key technologies is deployed to benefit products, materials and applications for the modern aerospace sector.

The aerospace industry is one of the key innovation drivers for the Dresden technology region and Saxony as a whole. In a total of 160 companies and research institutions, some 7,000 employees generate revenue of around EUR 1.4 billion every year.

Dr Wolfgang Gohler, Chairman of the Competence Center for Aerospace and Space Technology Saxony/Thuringia (LRT) and Managing Director of HTS GmbH, says: "To this day, it's still true that you 'step into Saxony' when you board an aircraft, for example: all of the floor sections for Airbus are, after all, manufactured at Elbe Flugzeug Werke GmbH in Dresden."

At this year's ILA COTESA GmbH will exhibit CFRP structural components from various Airbus models such as the Airbus A380's vertical stabiliser, CRFP drive shafts and services offered by the company's internal, Airbus-certified composite material testing lab.

The Dresden-based technology firm EAST-4D Carbon Technology GmbH will be using the trade show to exhibit its unique manufacturing methods for complex lightweight structures.

Directly following the ILA, the German aerospace industry turns its attention to Dresden, the State Capital of Saxony. On June 16th, the industry will meet here for the 11th German Aerospace Regions Conference.

Full Press Release: http://datas.weichertmehner.com/ddila2016.pdf

Contact:State Capital of Dresden, Kai Schulz, Press Officer, tel. +49-351-4882390, [email protected]

SOURCE State Capital of Dresden
BEIJING, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- To demonstrate the contributions made by immigrants, The City council of Chicago has dedicated June of every year as "Immigration Month" starting in 2014. This dedication has gained support and is now observed in over 100 cities across the United States. On the other side of the world, Worldway Immigration Group (Worldway) initiated the first "U.S. Immigration Month in China" in June 2015, which created a new chapter for the joint celebration of China and United States over U.S. Immigration Month. Worldway is celebrating "The Second U.S. Immigration Month" across seven cities in China again.

The year of 2016 is meant to be a significantly remarkable year for Worldway. With 10 years of EB-5 industry experience, Worldway is one of the first professional institutions that promoted EB-5 immigration investment program in China. While celebrating its 10th anniversary for successful promotion of U.S. investment immigration, Worldway has initiated the theme of "2016, the Year for Asset Allocation" at the start of the year, and the effort has led to an increase of overseas asset allocation investment among Chinese investors.

Worldway will be celebrating in seven different cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Hong Kong and Macao. During this month, Worldway invites numerous Chinese and foreign experts in different fields to participate in different activities including immigration policies and interpretation, EB-5 news updates, gatherings and parties for new and existing customers in the US and China, the American education system, U.S. real estate, U.S. tax & finance, and overseas asset allocation investment salon.

A U.S. immigration specialist of Worldway has pointed out three new challenges in 2016: the continuing severe visa backlog issue, the potential increase of investment threshold, and the urgent need for asset allocation. It is wise for investors to lock in premium EB-5 projects before 30th September to avoid any unexpected changes in the near future.

In 2016, Worldway accurately predicted the potential policy changes related to EB-5 immigration investment.

Worldway welcomes the Second U.S. Immigration Month with four outstanding projects that will not be impacted by the TEA changes nor requirement of raise in capital investment.

"DLJ Four Season Resort" which already has the individual I-526 approval and is backed up by large real estate fund company for repayment 90 Columbus Drive with exemplar approval and very rare Manhattan Apartments Empire Outlets Mall & Hotel giving investors the chance to invest with prestigious investment bank that has done ample due diligen ce on c ommercial real estate, Nevada Silver State South Solar Project with repayment guarantee from the New York Stock Exchange listed company and large job creation cushion.

With excellent qualities in terms of job creation, repayment, collateral guarantee and other aspects, they should be the top choices to deal with potential policy changes in September 30, 2016.

Worldway Group L.A. Customer Service Center

Devoted to U.S. investment immigration for over ten years, Worldway has set up a customer service center in L.A. to provide landing services, taxation planning with professional accountants, asset allocation planning, financial advisory service, insurance, and additional services at your request. Please feel free to contact us at our L.A. service center +1-626-522-6522 or our China 24hr hotline 400-0909-899.

Worldway is celebrating the Second U.S. Immigration Month in June 2016 with various events and attractive discounts. Times for the event: June 1st  June 30th. For any inquiries, feel free to contact our L.A. customer service center or China 24*7 hotline.

SOURCE Worldwayhk
IRVINE, Calif., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division, today announced a powerful new update to its UCedge client software that runs on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets and Windows and Mac OS X computers. UCedge 2.5 adds new capabilities for the contact center environment, including the option for agents and supervisors to log into the contact center and manage customer calls using mobile devices.

Available through Authorized Toshiba Dealers, UCedge is compatible with Toshiba's VIPedge cloud-based business telephone solution, IPedge on-site Unified Communications system and Strata CIX systems with an IPedge Application Server, all networking compatible within Toshiba's Hybrid Cloud solution. The UCedge agent and supervisor features require the Toshiba Contact Center Solution running with one or more of these networked Toshiba telephone systems.

"In addition to a full suite of UC capabilities, the latest version of UCedge software adds features that specifically benefit the contact center environment," said Brian Metherell, vice president and general manager of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division. "Through the UCedge client's built-in softphone, agents and supervisors can now manage customer calls and their own settings from anywhere, along with a number of key contact center functions."

With the UCedge client and built-in softphone installed on a smartphone, tablet, PC or Mac computer, agents and supervisors can take calls from virtually anywhere. Supervisors can see the group status and communicate with agents through instant messaging. Agents and supervisors can also pair the UCedge client with a Toshiba desk phone to conveniently initiate dialing via computer or mobile device.

Key UCedge Contact Center Features Include:

Agent/Supervisor Login  login to all or selected groups

 login to all or selected groups Agent Status Change  set up automatic status changes when on a call

 set up automatic status changes when on a call Call Handling  manage calls, including after-call wrap-up

 manage calls, including after-call wrap-up Call Notes  input notes for later review

 input notes for later review Broadcast  send important notifications to all ACD group members at once

 send important notifications to all ACD group members at once Real-time Display  view calls in queue, wait times and status of group agents

 view calls in queue, wait times and status of group agents Warning  receive warning messages and tones according to defined criteria

 receive warning messages and tones according to defined criteria Agent Help  send help calls or instant messages to supervisors or other agents

 send help calls or instant messages to supervisors or other agents Supervisor Monitor  monitor calls for quality assurance or agent evaluation

UCedge Benefits for Business Users and Owners

The new contact center capabilities build upon the full suite of UC capabilities already available with the UCedge client software, which enable any user to use a mobile device, laptop or desktop computer as a business phone extension. Users can take advantage of single-number reach in or out of the country, share presence and exchange IMs even with federated external users and access consolidated call and IM history information from multiple devices via the cloud-based Google Drive service. Click here for a complete list of UCedge benefits.

Compatibility & Licensing

Toshiba's new UCedge R2.5 brings the power of unified communications and mobility to users of VIPedge cloud-based business communications solution, IPedge EM, EC and EP business communications systems and Toshiba's Hybrid Cloud solution as well as Strata CIX phone systems with an IPedge Application Server. The latest contact center functionality is part of the UCedge Advanced full feature set, which is included with every VIPedge user seat at no extra cost or as an affordable license for IPedge users.

UCedge client software runs on Android and iOS smartphones and tablets and Windows and Mac OS X computers.

To find out more, contact an Authorized Toshiba Dealer at www.telecom.toshiba.com.

UCedge Downloads

For Windows and Mac computers:

click here



For Android devices:

click here



For Apple iPhone and iPad devices:

click here



About Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc.

Telecommunication Systems Division (TSD)

Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division is one of the six business units of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (TAIS) and offers business communication solutions for SMB enterprises and enterprises with multi-site or regional locations. Toshiba's VIPedge cloud-based business telephone solution supports up to 500 users, and the IPedge and Strata CIX systems support from 8 to 1,000 users and offer Voice over IP, voice mail and unified messaging, conferencing and collaboration, unified communications applications, networking, mobility and more. Together with Toshiba's PCs, tablets, copiers, and surveillance video cameras/recorders, Toshiba's Telecommunication Systems Division helps enterprises maximize business efficiency in communications and mobility. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., TAIS is an independent operating company owned by Toshiba America, Inc., a subsidiary of Toshiba Corporation. For more information, visit www.Telecom.Toshiba.com.

About Toshiba

Toshiba Corporation, a Fortune Global 500 company, channels world-class capabilities in advanced electronic and electrical product and systems into three focus business fields: Energy that sustains everyday life, that is cleaner and safer; Infrastructure that sustains quality of life; and Storage that sustains the advanced information society. Guided by the principles of The Basic Commitment of the Toshiba Group, "Committed to People, Committed to the Future," Toshiba promotes global operations and is contributing to the realization of a world where generations to come can live better lives.

Founded in Tokyo in 1875, today's Toshiba is at the heart of a global network of 550 consolidated companies employing 188,000 people worldwide, with annual sales surpassing 5.6 trillion yen (US$50 billion) (As of March 31, 2016).

To find out more about Toshiba, visit www.toshiba.co.jp/index.htm.

For additional information, or to purchase Toshiba telecommunication products, visit http://www.telecom.toshiba.com for an Authorized Toshiba Dealer.

Follow us on Facebook (ToshibaPhoneSystems), Twitter (toshibaphonesys) and LinkedIn (Toshiba-telecommunication-systems-division).

 2016 Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. All product, service and company names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. Information including, without limitation, product prices, specifications, availability, content of services, and contact information is subject to change without notice.

Toshiba PR Contact:

Teri Sawyer, T&Co.

714-801-1687

[email protected]

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SOURCE Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division

Related Links

http://www.Telecom.Toshiba.com


BELLEVUE, Wash., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wednesday's tragic shooting incident on the UCLA campus in California serves as yet another reminder that restrictive gun control laws and so-called "gun-free zones" provide a dangerous illusion, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

"California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, including universal background checks, and state lawmakers are presently working to add more," noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "But those laws, and the fact that firearms are not allowed on California college and university campuses, has once again provided a false sense of safety to the thousands of students and faculty affected by Wednesday's crime, which appears to be a murder-suicide.

"While authorities are still sorting out what happened," he added, "it is clear that simply writing a law or adopting a rule is not going to deter someone bent on committing a violent act. It should have been abundantly clear after San Bernardino that pursuing a policy of restrictive gun control has been a failure in the Golden State.

"Sadly," Gottlieb observed, "too many lawmakers in Sacramento are deliberately blind to this fact, and their likely reaction to the UCLA incident will be to propose still more laws that only restrict the rights of law-abiding California residents. That's not common sense, it's nonsense."

Gottlieb extended his sympathy to the victim and his family, and the UCLA community. He also congratulated university police and Los Angeles police for their quick response.

"It is both amazing and disappointing that some people still consider designating an area as 'gun-free' and passing a bunch of gun control laws is going to somehow deter, much less prevent, anyone from causing mayhem," Gottlieb stated. "Someone determined to cause harm is not going to be dissuaded by a sign or a statute. It is about time that state lawmakers, gun control extremists and newspaper editorial writers figured that out."

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.

SOURCE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Related Links

http://www.ccrkba.org


SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- New bank fraud proposals by the Bank of England and other financial institutions could result in consumers being held responsible for fraud, a move that could ultimately spur more criminal activity, says cybersecurity CEO Valery Marchuk. Bank and e-commerce fraud cost British financial institutions nearly 395 million last year, but those huge costs have been traditionally borne by financial institutions, not their customers. However, with fraud growing and the stakes continuing to mount, that may be changing. Marchuk, the CEO of Cybersecurity Help, points out in a post on Peerylst (https://www.peerlyst.com) that the Bank of England and the UK government are considering passing the cost of fraud on to customers.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374443LOGO

Under the proposals being considered, not only might the customers of financial institutions be held liable for some or all of the funds lost to fraud, the victims could be banned from using bank or credit-card services in the future. That means that people might be permanently frozen out of their accounts, even as they're forced to pay for funds siphoned out of their bank accounts, or charges that scammers racked up on their credit cards.

In Marchuk's view, the proposed change in UK fraud liability is extremely dangerous, because besides harming customers, it would help criminals: "If this practice will be widely accepted by other European countries, the amount of money stolen from bank customers' accounts will rise even more. A single person will not be able to force a fraud investigation and the criminals will run free."

Marchuk's postand thousands of other posts on security topicscan be found exclusively on Peerlyst:

https://www.peerlyst.com/posts/uk-lost-money-from-your-bank-account-well-it-s-your-fault-valery-marchuk.

About Peerlyst

Peerlyst is the place where information security pros go to share knowledge and build their professional reputations. With an audience of more than half a million and more than 10,000 posts by security experts, Peerlyst is the preeminent platform for spreading InfoSec news, asking a question, finding an expert, or offering product insight. For more information, email [email protected] or visit https://www.peerlyst.com.

Media Contact:

Maria Behan

650 281 7241

SOURCE Peerlyst

Related Links

https://www.peerlyst.com


COLLEGE PARK, Md., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of Maryland today announced the appointment of Dr. Sonia A. Hirt as dean of the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Dr. Hirt will officially assume her new role on October 1, 2016.

"Dr. Hirt's leadership skills and more than a decade of experience teaching and researching in the fields of architecture and urban planning make her the perfect candidate for this role," said Mary Ann Rankin, UMD's senior vice president and provost. "I am enthusiastic about the future of the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation under the leadership of Dr. Hirt."

Dr. Hirt joins the University of Maryland from Virginia Tech where she most recently served as professor and associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. In that role, Dr. Hirt oversaw academic affairs across the College's four schools, reported on all aspects of the College's performance, set diversity goals and strategies, and coordinated alignment of the College's academic programs with university priorities. She previously held positions as chair, director, associate professor and assistant professor of Urban Affairs and Planning in the School of Public and International Affairs.

"I am thoroughly excited and deeply honored to join the Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation," said Dr. Hirt. "The School's accomplishments are known nationally and internationally. What I find especially compelling is the unique integration of the School's four core fieldsarchitecture, urban studies and planning, historic preservation, and real estate developmentin a way that is intellectually coherent and thoughtfully centered on the notion of sustainability. The School has the potential to make (and remake) the world, literally speaking, one building, one development, one neighborhood, one community, and one city at a time. It will be an extraordinary privilege to serve a community of faculty, students and staff of such rare and incredible talent."

Prior to her tenure at Virginia Tech, Dr. Hirt was a visiting associate professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in the Department of Urban Planning and Design; an assistant professor at University of Toledo in the College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences' Department of Geography and Planning; and an instructor at the University of Michigan's Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning's Department of Urban and Regional Planning.

Professor Hirt's research explores three main themes: comparative urban form with a focus on Central and Eastern Europe, comparative urban planning and land-use regulation with a focus on Europe and the United States, and urban planning and design theory and history.

Her recent book Zoned in the USA: The Origins and Implications of American Land Use Regulation has received several honors, including being part of Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Titles List in 2016, Planetizen's Ten Best Books in Urban Planning, Design, and Development in 2016, and the Urban Affairs Association's Honorable Mention for the Best Book Award in 2015. Her earlier book Iron Curtains: Gates, Suburbs and Privatization of Space in the Post-socialist City received the Honorable Mention for the Book Prize in Political and Social Studies sponsored by Harvard University's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Dr. Hirt is the Co-editor of the Journal of Planning History and serves on the editorial boards of four other journals: Current Research on Cities, Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Planning Practice & Research, and Urban Design International.

Dr. Hirt earned her Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in urban and regional planning from the University of Michigan, and her B.A. from the University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in Sofia, Bulgaria.

About the University of Maryland

The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, 47 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.8 billion operating budget and secures $550 million annually in external research funding. For more information about the University of Maryland, visit www.umd.edu.

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SOURCE University of Maryland

Related Links

http://www.umd.edu


FARMINGTON, Conn., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- A webcast of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Akhil Johri speaking at the Deutsche Bank Global Industrials & Basic Materials Summit is scheduled for 10:20 a.m. ET (9:20 a.m. CT) on Thursday, June 9, 2016. The presentation will be broadcast live on the Internet at www.utc.com and will be archived on the website afterward.

United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. To learn more about UTC, visit the website or follow the company on Twitter: @UTC

UTC-IR

Contact: Kate Ruppar, UTC

(860) 728-6515





Investor Relations, UTC

(860) 728-7608

SOURCE United Technologies Corp.

Related Links

http://www.utc.com


PHOENIX, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Viad Corp (NYSE:VVI) will host an analyst meeting for investment professionals at the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, June 15, 2016 from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

During the meeting, Steve Moster, Viad's president and chief executive officer and other senior executives will discuss the Company's operations and strategies for growth.

Space is limited and only registered participants will be admitted. Analysts and investors who are interested in attending the meeting should contact Preston Graham at [email protected] no later than June 6, 2016.

For those unable to attend in person, the presentation will be accessible by webcast through Viad's Web site at www.viad.com. A replay of the webcast will be available for a limited time.

About Viad

Viad (NYSE: VVI) generates revenue and shareholder value through two distinct business groups: the Marketing & Events Group (GES) and the Travel & Recreation Group (T&R). GES is a global, full-service live events company offering a comprehensive range of services to the world's leading brands and event organizers. T&R is a collection of iconic destination travel experiences that showcase the best of Banff, Jasper, Glacier, Denali and Kenai Fjords National Parks. Viad is an S&P SmallCap 600 company. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.viad.com.

Contact:

Carrie Long

Viad Corp

(602) 207-2681

[email protected]

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SOURCE Viad Corp

Related Links

http://www.viad.com


Beijing is not only the capital of China, but also the capital of world heritage with 7 listed sites in the city. As one of the most famous heritage sites, the Great Wall attracts thousands of travelers around the world every year. Under the name of "the Great Wall Hero", Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development (BMCTD) launched a global marketing campaign (www.thegreatwallhero.com) this year, with an aim to recruit the first-ever "hero" who is ambitious enough to conquer one of the most majestic relics on earth  the Great Wall. Its online recruitment lasted for two months, receiving thousands of applications from 64 countries.

As the official "Great Wall Hero", Sawyer Hartman from the US has embarked a 72-hour Great Wall Tour in Beijing. Hartman is a global award-winning filmmaker and travel blogger with over 4 million followers. His amazing adventure with Visit Beijing began with a private helicopter ride for an aerial view of the ancient fortification.

The Great Wall Hero Tour included 5 popular sections of the Great Wall in 3 districts of Beijing:

"Turn Left" in Yanqing County  Badaling, Shuiguan

"Off the Path" in Huairou County  Mutianyu, Huanghuacheng

" Sun Catching " in Miyun County  Simatai

"Through this campaign, we want to tell the world that Beijing is ready to show our precious wonders, bringing more surprises to global travelers", said Cao Pengcheng, Vice Chairman of BMCTD. Wang Rui, on behalf of City Image & Marketing Department, BMCTD, shared the digital strategies and marketing highlights of the campaign with all media and guests on site. Apart from introducing the three customized Great Wall Hero routes, Rui expressed special thanks to the support from tourism organizations like Gubei Water Town, an international tourism resort next to the Simatai Great Wall. Sawyer spoke highly of the night tour experience in Gubei Water Town, in which he witnessed the magic scenery of Simatai and boat trip at night. Lu Chuan, Director of City Image & Marketing Department, BMCTD, added that it was also important to introduce related tourism resources and services as combined packages.

From jogging on the ridge-backed dragon to strolling around the crisscrossed hutongs, from feasting traditional royal cuisine to snacks on the street, he is truly experiencing and sharing the beauty and culture of Beijing with his audience. (https://www.youtube.com/user/sawyerhartman). After spending 3 days at the Great Wall, Sawyer will also join several Priceless Beijing experiences sponsored by MasterCard, to explore the culture and local life of the Beijingers in depth.

Media Enquiry

Leo Wang | Guru Online

[email protected]

About Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development is the governmental department responsible for managing the tourism industry in Beijing, China. For more information, please visit http://english.visitbeijing.com.cn/.

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SOURCE Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development
ATLANTA, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Broadband Forum today announced the conclusion of a special three-day meeting held in Atlanta and subsequent agreement of the Board of Directors, with the purpose of examining common strategies for the future of broadband and IP networking. It also aimed to develop a new operational model and immediate actions that leverage new technology and development approaches to serve the business requirements of the stakeholders in the broadband market.

The outcome of the meeting was a course of action that included the following:

The Forum must embrace the best of both open source and standards development and will immediately instigate new methods for rapid delivery of innovative software and standards for key use cases to the community of manufacturers, service providers and open-source organizations that replace traditional Standards Development Organization (SDO) approaches.

To complement the above action, the Forum will take action to significantly increase its collaboration with key industry groups including developing open initiatives, including both members and non-members, for the benefit of the whole broadband community.

The Forum must emphasize the work and methodology that is bringing the most value to stakeholders, such as new value added services, enabling the broadband smart home; a safe harbor for intellectual property, virtualized business and residential gateways, YANG data models, interop testing for ultra-fast networking and guidance for deployment best practices.

Service providers and equipment manufacturers which support broadband came from around the world to the Atlanta meeting to present their latest thinking on broadband networks to a large audience of Broadband Forum members and invited guests. AT&T, BT, CenturyLink, China Unicom, NTT Labs, Orange, Spark New Zealand, Sky, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, along with key broadband market equipment suppliers Adtran, Calix, Huawei, and Nokia, as well as analyst house Infonetics Research and test organization European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC), gave their visions of the future along with their views on how the Forum should contribute to the future of networking in terms of its work and operations.

An important context for the meeting was the emergence of the Cloud Central Office (CO). Demonstrations and presentations of the Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD) project  an open source project led by Open Networking Lab and partners  were sponsored by AT&T at its Foundry lab in Atlanta. The demos showed participants how the Cloud CO concept could accelerate operators' deployment of new technologies in a re-imagined central office.

Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said: "The meeting, regarded by many as one of the best in our history, pulled no punches. Perhaps the most important message is that while we have made significant strides towards 'agile, programmable and ultra-fast networks' in the last year, we need to dramatically extend and accelerate delivery of standards and software to enable the innovation the broadband industry needs."

The Atlanta meeting outlined many different perspectives and commonalities with some specific conclusions for actions to be taken by the Broadband Forum. The meeting participants expressed agreement on the following:

Ahead of the technology and deployment issues, the most significant theme from providers was the need for programmable networks that enable new sustainable business models. This is in line with the Forum's Broadband 20/20 service oriented vision initiative published last October.

The need for interoperable standards may still be important but the traditional SDO approach of defining requirements and specifications for all possible eventualities is over, supplanted by agile development and an emphasis on best practices. Collaboration will be key. With the advent of locally distributed dynamic compute and software functions and Cloud CO, the model of end-to-end architecture may no longer have the same meaning.

Next, the advent of virtualization, networking programing, open-sourcing and projects such as CORD has clearly been understood. The value of IT technologies to transform carrier business is evident and the industry is ready to start this transformation. The standard implementation of these approaches is far from settled and there is a consensus that this needs rapid resolution.

There are many unresolved issues in terms of migration, testing and intellectual property rights. The role of provider and manufacturer as system integrator has become blurred with open sourcing and there is concern about standardization becoming replaced by integrator lock-in especially for smaller providers.

The Forum does have extensive liaisons with industry associations but the anticipated initiatives will have to include much closer collaboration with OPNFV, IETF, ETSI NFV-ISG, Open Networking Foundation, TM Forum and the CORD community, among others. The Forum looks forward to working on some key initiatives with all its partners.

From the various inputs, the meeting looked at new roles and important changes to be adopted by the Forum to enhance its industry impact and interactive delivery processes.

The exciting new areas where the Broadband Forum can provide great value and lasting impact for the broadband industry include: providing a safe harbor for intellectual property rights (the Broadband Forum has taken a leadership role in this area); providing migration guidance and software; interoperability and performance testing; implementation; functional broadband expertise; and defining software service platforms on which providers, vendors, and application developers can innovate. In addition, the Forum will provide iterative specifications, test initiatives and supporting software, upstream and downstream of specific solutions open to members and non-members. The Forum can provide invaluable implementation best practices guidance to the large number of regional and local services providers which do not have the resources to keep pace with developments.

Many of the innovative definitional, testing and implementation projects currently underway are very well aligned with both adding valuable service and industry thinking. The projects include virtual residential and business gateways, Cloud CO, Software Defined Networking (SDN) broadband management, G.fast deployment projects, residential and business user services platform, hybrid wireline-wireless and broadband assured IP services, etc.

A full meeting report is available to Broadband Forum members.

About the Broadband Forum

Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and faster broadband networks. Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device & service management tools, and is key to redefining broadband. Our free technical reports and white papers can be found at www.broadband-forum.org. Twitter @Broadband_Forum.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to http://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information, please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or [email protected] or Jayne Garfitt on +44 (0) 1636 812152 or [email protected].

SOURCE The Broadband Forum

Related Links

http://www.broadband-forum.org


REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Wynd Technologies, Inc., a startup that helps people breathe healthier air, today announces the launch of Wynd, a personal air quality tracker and purifier. Wynd is available internationally starting June 2nd on Kickstarter for the introductory price of $139. Wynd monitors the air in your personal space and cleans it as needed.

The team at Wynd is committed to improving air quality for everyone. According to the CDC, air pollution and airborne allergens will likely increase across the globewhich will worsen allergy, asthma conditions and respiratory illnesses over the coming years. Wynd's team of scientists, engineers, and designers (including industrial designer Mike Nuttall, cofounder of IDEO), have developed a device that purifies the air in your personal space, by filtering out particles including allergens, bacteria, mold spores, and particulate matter from traffic and industrial pollution.

The complete Wynd system includes the Air Quality Tracker (also sold separately), the world's smallest mobile air quality sensor that monitors for particulates and displays measurements in real time. It can actually detach from the purifier and be used independently, so that users can clip it to backpack straps, baby cribs, keychainsanywhere they want to monitor for particulate pollution. Wynd's air quality tracker and purifier can connect together to engage Auto mode, which automatically changes the purification level based on the current air quality. Wynd connects to iOS devices via Bluetooth, and the accompanying iOS app provides vibrant, detailed information about your air quality and how much air pollution you've filtered.

"We set out to create a product that enables a healthy and comfortable air environment wherever life takes you," said Raymond Wu, CEO and cofounder of Wynd. "Wynd is committed to improving the air quality problem which many people around the world encounter on a daily basis, whether from allergens or industrial pollution."

Wynd features include:

Portability - Easy to grab and carry around in a handbag, briefcase, messenger bag, or backpack, which is ideal for travelers or anyone on the go. You can also use Wynd on a flat surface such as a desk or bedstand.

- Easy to grab and carry around in a handbag, briefcase, messenger bag, or backpack, which is ideal for travelers or anyone on the go. You can also use Wynd on a flat surface such as a desk or bedstand. Proprietary airflow design - Wynd's airflow path was inspired by rocket turbine engineering to maximize purification power while minimizing noise.

- Wynd's airflow path was inspired by rocket turbine engineering to maximize purification power while minimizing noise. Medical-grade filter - The filter captures unhealthy particles in the air and kills bacteria and microbes.

- The filter captures unhealthy particles in the air and kills bacteria and microbes. World's smallest particulate sensor on the market - The Air Quality Tracker detaches from the Wynd Purifier and allows for full mobility. The tracker can clip on your belt, clothing, or bag to continuously monitor the air quality around you. You can use the tracker to monitor spaces such as bedrooms, kitchens, hotel rooms, offices, car interiors, and more.

- The Air Quality Tracker detaches from the Wynd Purifier and allows for full mobility. The tracker can clip on your belt, clothing, or bag to continuously monitor the air quality around you. You can use the tracker to monitor spaces such as bedrooms, kitchens, hotel rooms, offices, car interiors, and more. Auto mode - Automatic adjustment of air-cleaning power based on sensor air quality measurements.

- Automatic adjustment of air-cleaning power based on sensor air quality measurements. Connected device - Our iOS app syncs with Wynd via Bluetooth to provide deeper insights into air quality data and trends, including your air quality over time, how much pollution you've filtered, the air quality outside, and the ability to keep tabs on your friends and loved ones' air quality.

- Our iOS app syncs with Wynd via Bluetooth to provide deeper insights into air quality data and trends, including your air quality over time, how much pollution you've filtered, the air quality outside, and the ability to keep tabs on your friends and loved ones' air quality. Replacements - Wynd knows how used up your filter is and alerts you when it's time for a new one. You can subscribe to have filters automatically sent to your door when it's time for a refill, or you can easily order one through the app.

- Wynd knows how used up your filter is and alerts you when it's time for a new one. You can subscribe to have filters automatically sent to your door when it's time for a refill, or you can easily order one through the app. Accessories - The Wynd Kickstand enables you to prop Wynd up on tables, desks, and bedstands and funnel clean air towards you. The Wynd Stroller Holder helps you set Wynd up in a baby stroller to provide a bubble of clean air for your child.

"Living in environments free from pollutants and allergens is crucial to our overall health and well-being. Wynd's smart and portable purifier is a groundbreaking advancement that will help people breathe healthier air wherever they are," said Alan Cohen, MD Pediatric Pulmonologist and Adjunct Clinical Faculty, Stanford University School of Medicine.

For more information and to purchase Wynd on Kickstarter until July 12th, please visit our Kickstarter page at http://www.hellowynd.com/kickstarter. The Air Quality Tracker will be available for separate purchase for $69.

About Wynd

Wynd Technologies, Inc. is based in Redwood City, California and was founded by Ray Wu. As an avid traveler, Ray was concerned about air pollution and air quality issues, especially when visiting relatives in Beijing. Ray and the Wynd team wanted to create products that help people breathe healthier air wherever they go, so they launched Wynd in 2014. For more information, visit http://hellowynd.com/.

SOURCE Wynd Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

http://hellowynd.com


Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Anakhanum Idayatova - Trend:

Azerbaijani-UK relations are very constructive, realistic and pragmatic, Charles Hendry, former UK prime ministerial trade envoy to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, said in an exclusive interview with Trend, while in Baku.

Companies like BP and SOCAR, as well as the government of Azerbaijan, are all working together to address the problems which appear in terms of up and downs of global oil prices, Hendry, who worked in Azerbaijan in 2012-2015, said.

BP is the largest foreign oil and gas operator in Azerbaijan, which produces oil and gas at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and Shah Deniz fields and exports them via several oil and gas pipelines.

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is a wholly state-owned national oil company headquartered in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is one of the largest fossil fuel corporations in the world. The company produces oil and natural gas from onshore and offshore fields in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea.

Relations between Azerbaijan and the UK remain very strong, Hendry said.

Everyone adjusted to international circumstances in terms of global oil prices getting low, but the UK sees that BP is actively involved to address these issues, he added.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

Nuran Kerimov, Managing Partner of Deloitte Azerbaijan, has been elected to the Deloitte CIS Board of Directors, read a message from the company June 2.

In his new role, together with the other board members, Kerimov will be responsible for providing governance and oversight as well as guidance on priority matters including the firm's strategy, risk mitigation and talent development.

Kerimov will continue his responsibilities as the managing partner of Deloitte Azerbaijan. He joined Deloitte in 2003 to start Deloitte's tax practice in Azerbaijan, having devoted most of his professional life to local and international taxation. Kerimov became a partner in 2008.

Commenting on Kerimov's new role, Ian Colebourne, Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte CIS, noted: "His recognition by the partners highlights the growing role of the Baku office for Deloitte CIS and demonstrates the significance of the Azerbaijani market for Deloitte."

"It is a big honour and responsibility to be a member of the Deloitte CIS Board of Directors, and once again, it confirms how important Azerbaijan is for the Deloitte network," said Nuran Kerimov in a statement issued on June 2.

Deloitte has operated from its Baku office since 2002. Deloitte Azerbaijan is a leading provider of professional accounting, audit, consulting, tax and legal services to various enterprises, financial institutions, public and commercial organizations in Azerbaijan. Deloitte has built a reputation as a trustworthy and reliable partner and its goal is to deliver comprehensive, integrated solutions and exceptionally detailed industry knowledge to clients.

Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee ("DTTL"), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as "Deloitte Global") does not provide services to clients. Please see www.deloitte.com/about for a more detailed description of DTTL and its member firms.

Deloitte provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, tax and related services to public and private clients spanning multiple industries. With a globally connected network of member firms in more than 150 countries, Deloitte brings world-class capabilities and high-quality service to clients, delivering the insights they need to address their most complex business challenges. Deloitte's more than 225,000 professionals are committed to making an impact that matters. Deloitte serves 4 out of 5 Fortune Global 500 companies.
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Dhaka, May 30 : Fresh charges were pressed against Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khaleda Zia and 26 others in two arson cases that took place in Dhaka in February and March last year.

In both cases, Zia was named the perpetrator of the crimes even though her name was not mentioned in the First Information Reports (FIR) relating to the cases, the Daily Star reported.

The cases were filed on Sunday accusing a total of 27 leaders and activists of BNP-led 20-party alliance for arson attacks on passenger buses in February and March last year in the capital's Darussalam and Gabtoli areas during the party's non-stop anti-government movement.

Of the 27 accused, the charge sheet showed Khaleda and 19 others as fugitives as they did not secure bail in the cases. The investigation officers of the cases appealed to the court to issue arrest warrants for them.

In the first case on February 14, it was alleged that as per directives from Zia, a group of BNP leaders and activists set ablaze a minibus with a petrol bomb.

In the second case on March 3, it was alleged that on Zia's instructions, some BNP-led 20-party combine activists set fire to a minibus at the bypass road of Darussalam.

Metropolitan Magistrate Imdadul Haque set May 31 and June 1 for the approval and signing of the charge sheets, court police official Mirash Uddin said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has promised justice for the victims of violence, saying that the BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami unleashed the violence in the name of protests to destabilise the country.

BNP leaders, on the other hand, have been alleging that the cases against Khaleda were aimed at keeping her away from politics.
New Delhi, May 30 : Automobile major Maruti Suzuki on Monday said that it has suspended production of cars at its Manesar and Gurgaon facilities, due to component supply constraints.

According to the company, a fire incident at its component manufacturer Subros' production facility on Sunday (May 29) has disrupted supplies.

"Owing to an unfortunate incident of fire at the Manesar facilities of our supplier Subros Limited on Sunday (May 29), supplies of components from that plant have been disrupted," the company said in a statement.

"As a consequence, Maruti Suzuki India Limited will have to temporarily suspend manufacture of cars at its facilities in Manesar and Gurgaon, starting second half Monday (May 30)."

The statement said that Subros and Maruti Suzuki were jointly assessing the extent of damage the fire caused to essential equipment.

"We are also examining the options available to start supply of components from other facilities. Production will resume as soon as components become available," the company added.
Ranchi, May 30 : Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Monday filed his nomination papers for the coming Rajya Sabha polls in the state.

Elections to two seats in the upper house from Jharkhand are scheduled to be held on June 11. The last date for filing of nominations is May 31.

Naqvi, who arrived in Ranchi on Monday from New Delhi, was accompanied by Chief Minister Raghubar Das when he filed his papers in the assembly secretariat here.

Except for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, no other party has made its intentions clear on fighting the polls.

The Congress is likely to extend support to the JMM's probable candidate Basant Soren, who is party chief Shibu Soren's third son.

Two of the six Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand will fall vacant in June after BJP's M.J. Akbar and Congress' Dheeraj Sahu complete their terms.
Islamabad, May 30 : A Pakistani foreign affairs advisor here on Monday met with Afghan ambassador Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal to discuss regional situation.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said both the countries should not allow their territory to be used against each other.

Aziz and Zakhilwal also discussed the prospects of reconciliation between the two governments.

This was the first formal meeting between Pakistani and Afghani officials since after Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US drone strike on May 21.

Relations between Pakistan and the US have been soured since then.

Pakistan deemed this strike an attack on its sovereignty and has stated this has foiled peace attempts between the Taliban and the Afghan government.
Tikamgarh (Madhya Pradesh), May 30 : The Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh is reeling under a severe crisis following drought and unemployment.

Despite a Supreme Court directive to provide the people of drought-hit regions five kg of sudsidised food grain per person and employment opportunities, no such measures are visible on the ground here.

Taking serious note of the crisis, four NGOs have got together to learn first-hand about the gravity of the situation and to make people aware of the apex court's directions.

The campaign being run by the NGOs Swaraj Abhiyan, Ekta Parishad, National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM) and Jal Biradari (water conservationists) is called 'Jal Hal Yatra'.

After a tour of Maharashtra's drought-hit Marathawada region for five days, the group visited Aalampura, Bela and Gaurali villages in Tikamgarh district to examine the ground reality.

The 'Jal Hal' activists interacted with the distraught people of the villages who revealed that they have not been receiving the apex court-directed five kg of food grain per person and even the schools were not providing free mid-day meals to their children.

Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav informed the villagers about the Supreme Court directive on subsidised food grain. He said that besides the free mid-day meal in schools, the state government should also provide eggs or milk at least thrice a week and employment opportunities to adults through the MGNREGA scheme.

It came as a shock to the activists when they found that children were not given any mid-day meals during the summer holidays and that villagers had not received any food grain. The villagers told the activists that there was no arrangement for drinking water for them or fodder for their animals.

The activists learnt that people had begun to migrate to other regions to earn their livelihood and for basic necessities.

Water conservationist Rajendra Singh advised people to work unitedly to fight for their rights and use their democratic right of vote to "teach a lesson" to those who ignore their plight.

Jal Jan Jodo activist Sanjay Singh appealed to people to take adequate measures to conserve rain water during the monsoon and not rely on the government.

Questioning the intention of the government, former legislator and popular farmer leader Sunilam said that while the government claims it is helping people in drought-hit areas, the ground reality is totally different as is evident from the visit to the villages.

Villagers also told the activists that their electricity has been cut off and they are receiving bank notices for repayment of loans. Some were also being threatened by the banks.

Yadav told the villagers that he would present the actual facts to the apex court during a hearing on August 1.

The activists are to take their campaign also to the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and conclude it 1 in Mahoba.
Panaji, May 31 : Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has said that Goans are "annoyed" with the behaviour, attitude and way of life of Nigerians living in the coastal state.

Speaking to IANS, Parsekar also said that he was getting complaints against Nigerians on many occasions from locals.

"The Goans in general are complaining about these foreigners. We get people from all other countries, but in general the people of Goa are very much annoyed with their (Nigerians') behaviour, with their attitude, with their way of life," Parsekar said, even as police on Monday arrested a Nigerian for allegedly raping a 31-year-old woman in Assagao village, 20 km from Panaji.

"I cannot generalise. But generally people in Goa are not happy with these people," Parsekar said, adding that he regularly hears complaints about Nigerians.

Earlier, Goa's Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar had demanded a new law to facilitate quick deportation of Nigerians, who Parulekar claimed got embroiled in criminal cases on purpose, in order to extend their stay in India.

"Nigerians create problem not just in Goa, but in the entire country. Nigerian students come to Goa and India to study, they get an FIR filed (against them), make it a judicial matter and they try to stay in India or Goa and indulge in drugs and other unwanted things," Parulekar said on Monday.

In October 2013, over 50 Nigerians had blocked the National Highway 17 in Goa, to protest against police inaction following a murder of a Nigerian national, allegedly by a local drug cartel.

The blockade had also seen police and locals being beaten up by the protesting Nigerians, before some of the foreigners were also beaten up in retaliation by a local mob.
Mumbai, May 31 : Director Raam Reddy, whose Kannada film "Thithi" won the National Film Award, says that it is nothing short of a miracle that a subtitled Kannada language film is getting immense admiration from industry leaders.

After filmmaker Kiran Rao, Anurag Kashyap too held a screening of the film on Monday which was attended by celebrities like Kangana Ranaut, Shekhar Kapoor, Sudhir Mishra, Vicky Kaushal, Kartik Aaryan, Gulshan Devaiah, Swara Bhaskar among others.

"Firstly, I am completely and utterly indebted to Anurag Kashyap for his amazing support and championing of the film ever since I met him in Locarno last year. Without him, the film would not be where it is today. It really is nothing short of a miracle for the kind of appreciation a subtitled Kannada language film is getting from industry leaders," Reddy said in a statement.

He said it was an "amazing honour" to have names like Kangana and Kapur at the film's screening.

"It was such an amazing honour to have guests like Shekhar Kapur and Kangana Ranaut at the screening and to meet them and hear their words of encouragement. Yesterday (Monday) Aamir Khan tweeted warmly with overwhelming praise for the film and today (Tuesday) Irrfan Khan has tweeted with similar appreciation. I cannot describe how deeply grateful I am in every possible way," the 25-year-old director added.

After a successful run in Karnataka, Reddy's internationally acclaimed directorial debut will hit theatres across India on Friday with English subtitles.

The film made its Asia premiere at Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) last year and won the Jury Grand Prize in the international competition.

"Thithi" recently won the 2016 National Award for Best Feature film in Kannada and also won three awards at the Karnataka State Film Awards 2016 -- Best Film, Best Dialogues and Best Supporting Actress.
Islamabad, May 31 : The mortal remains of Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who was killed in a US drone strike, were handed over to his kin in Afghanistan after a DNA test confirmed his identity, it was announced here on Tuesday.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the body of Akhtar Mansoor was "handed over to his heirs in Afghanistan after fulfilling all legal requirements".

Earlier on Sunday, a spokesman of the Interior Ministry had said that it had been confirmed through DNA test that the second person killed in the US drone attack in Balochistan was Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Mansoor.

"It is confirmed that Mullah Mansoor was killed in the US drone strike in Noshki area of Balochistan," the interior ministry's spokesperson said.

"DNA of Mansoor matched with one of his relative who came to receive his body from Afghanistan."

The interior minister said: "The government has arrested the suspects who facilitated Mullah Mansoor in acquiring a Pakistani NIC. These include an assistant commissioner, a Risaldar-Major and several FIA and Nadra officials".

Nisar further said that a Federal Investigation Authority official assisted Mullah Mansoor's wife in acquiring the NIC.

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz also confirmed the death of Afghan Taliban chief in Balochistan.

The drone strike was also the first in the restive province of Balochistan, considered a red-line by the Pakistani government. Authorisation for the strike came directly from US President Barack Obama.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

Armenian armed forces have 20 times violated the ceasefire with Azerbaijan on the line of contact over the past 24 hours, said the message of Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry June 2.

Armenian army violated ceasefire from the positions near Chilaburt village of Azerbaijan's Terter district, Kuropatkino village of the Khojavand district, Horadiz village of the Fizuli district, as well as from the positions located on nameless heights in the Khojavand, Fizuli districts.

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.
Srinagar, June 1 : Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday filed her nomination papers for Anantnag assembly constituency by-elections in south Kashmir, which had fallen vacant after the death of her father and then Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed.

Mehbooba Mufti, who has never lost an assembly election in her 26-year-long political career, was accompanied by her senior Peoples Democratic Party leaders.

Mehbooba Mufti has to be elected to either house of the state's bicameral legislature within six months of assuming the office of the chief minister of the state.

The opposition National Conference has fielded Iftikhar Hussain Misgar and the Congress has given the mandate to Hilal Ahmad Shah from the PDP's south Kashmir bastion.

Mufti Muhammad Sayeed defeated his nearest rival Misgar in 2014 state assembly elections by 6,000 votes while Shah of the Congress finished third in that contest.

Independent MLA from north Kashmir Langate assembly constituency, Engineer Rashid has also said he will stand against the state chief minister for the Anantnag by-polls.

Mehbooba Mufti presently represents the south Kashmir Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency in the Lok Sabha.

She has in the past won assembly elections thrice, in 1996 from Bijbehara, in 2002 from Pahalgam and in 2008 from Wachi assembly constituencies.
Kabul, June 1 : At least nine people were killed and 13 others injured in a suicide bombing in Ghazni city on Wednesday, an official said.

"The nine casualties included four civilians, four attackers and one policeman," Xinhua quoted an official as saying.

A four-member suicide-bomber group stormed a court in the city, triggering a gun battle. The attackers then blew themselves up.

The Taliban militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Panaji, June 1 : The Goa government is in the process of identifying land for setting up an "isolated detention centre" for foreign nationals awaiting deportation, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in Panaji, Parsekar, whose comments about Nigerian nationals have sparked a controversy, said that the land was being "identified" for the detention centre for to-be deported foreigners.

Under the Indian laws, a foreign national cannot be deported in the course of a trial or until the legal case reaches its fruition.

Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on Monday said that Nigerians often used this loophole to extend their stay in India by getting purposely embroiled in criminal cases.

The upcoming isolated detention centre will enable state authorities to house the deportees in the facility and ensure they are in check until the deportation process is completed.

The Goa government had expedited the process of creating an "Isolated Detention Centre" a few years back after a mob of Nigerian nationals blocked the National Highway No.17 protesting the murder of a compatriot allegedly by a local drug mafia.

Many locals, policemen and Nigerians themselves were injured in the ensuing clashes.

In 2012 alone, nearly 40 Africans from Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, etc. were arrested for overstaying using doctored visas in the North Goa district.

Since 2011, 160 foreigners have been booked in Goa for overstaying under the Passports Act.

Parsekar on Monday said that Goans were "annoyed" with the behaviour, attitude and lifestyle of Nigerians living in Goa and that he was getting numerous complaints about them.
Hyderabad, June 1 : Telangana is gearing up to celebrate its foundation day on Thursday. Elaborate arrangements have been made to mark the occasion across the state.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao will join in the celebrations at the Parade Ground in Secunderabad.

Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014, under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of parliament.

Public spaces and government buildings have been illuminated here. Tank Bund, banks of Hussain Sagar Lake, Lumbini Park, state secretariat, the international airport at Shamshabad and places of worship are sparkling bright as India's 29th state readies itself for the celebrations.

Several cultural programmes have been lined up across the state. The state government has sanctioned Rs 30 lakh for each of the 10 districts to hold celebrations between June 2 and June 7.

Adilabad Additional Superintendent of Police G.R. Radhika -- who scaled Mount Everest a few days ago -- will be felicitated along with 62 other noted individuals with a citation, cash award and a shawl.

The chief minister has also directed that family members of the martyrs who sacrificed their lives during the Telangana movement be felicitated in Hyderabad and the districts.
New Delhi, June 1 : Two days after an Ola cab driver accused a group of Africans of assaulting him for refusing to allow more than four passengers in his vehicle, the Delhi Police on Wednesday said it had identified the five accused but had no clue yet to their hideouts.

"We have identified all the five Africans. There are some problems but they will surely be caught very soon," Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh told IANS.

The DCP, however, refused to reveal their names and nationality.

Singh said an African woman Kefa, arrested on Monday morning soon after the incident, was not cooperating in the investigation and was very evasive.

"Kefa knows all of them very well and their whereabouts but is giving wrong information...."

Kefa, a 26-year-old from Rwanda, was caught from the spot in Mehrauli area in south Delhi while her five African friends fled after attacking taxi driver Nooruddin Ali, 51, early on Monday morning.

She is said to be staying illegally in India as her visa expired a few months ago.
Bangkok, June 1 : More than 40 dead tiger cubs and a bear were found in the freezer of Thailand's Tiger Temple, which is being probed for wildlife trafficking, officials said on Wednesday.

The grisly discovery at the Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi province on Wednesday morning came after a raid launched on Monday for relocation of 137 adult tigers of the temple by at least 1,000 personnel.

The raid was launched following complaints that monks at the remote forest temple in Thailand were mistreating and trafficking the animals. But the monks have denied the allegations.

The bodies of the tiger cubs were discovered by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation teams on Wednesday together with the carcasses of other protected species, EFE news reported.

They were stored in the freezer where the temple kept the food for tigers, said Adisorn Nuchdamrong, deputy director-general of the wildlife department, who claimed the temple had never registered the dead cubs.

He believed the carcasses must be of some value for the temple to have kept them.

The tiny tiger cubs found after authorities stormed the temple's secret stash were aged from birth to one week old.

Observers said on Twitter that they appeared to have been killed recently.

The raid that began on May 30 is the latest move in a tug-of-war since 2001 to bring the tigers under state control, which was being widely obstructed by the monks.

The Buddhist temple in the west of Bangkok had become a tourist destination where visitors snapped selfies with bottle-fed cubs.

The temple promotes itself as a wildlife sanctuary, but in recent years it was investigated for suspected links to wildlife trafficking and animal abuse.

Some animal rights organisations have claimed the tigers appear sedated when interacting with tourists and have accused the temple of being a facade to cover illegal animal trafficking.

The temple has denied claims that the monks carry out irresponsible breeding programmes, traffic endangered species and sell the animals.

Animal rights activists were long campaigning against the temple's illegal possession of the big cats, describing it as "hell for animals" and called on tourists to stop visiting animal attractions at home and abroad.

The rescued tigers, some of them autochthonous to Thailand, will be taken to different specialised centres in the country.

The temple in Kanchanaburi has been closed to the public since the raid.
New York, June 2 : Oil prices were down slightly ahead of a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The West Texas Intermediate for July delivery on Wednesday lost 9 cents to settle at $49.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for August delivery decreased 17 cents to close at $49.72 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, Xinhua news agency reported.

OPEC will hold a meeting in Vienna, Austria, on Thursday. Media reports said the organization may consider the reintroduction of an output cap at its Thursday meeting.

Analysts said the decision would be a major compromise for OPEC, which failed to agree on an output ceiling at its last meeting in December.

The expectation for such an agreement helped oil prices erased most of the day's losses on Wednesday.
Washington, June 2 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fourth visit to the US next week is seen here as consolidating and celebrating the India-US relationship that has undergone a transformation since 2000 under three presidents.

An important dimension of Modi's June 6-8 visit at the invitation of President Barack Obama will be his address to a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8 - eleven years after Washington revoked his visa under a religious freedom law passed by that very body.

Modi, the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address the US Congress starting with Rajiv Gandhi, will also get another rare honour - a lunch hosted by the Republican Speaker Paul Ryan and a reception by the Republican chairs and top Democrats on the House and Senate Foreign Relations panels.

"Many people have articulated that the invitation and the visit are really a part of consolidating and celebrating the India-US relationship," said Arun Singh, Indian ambassador to the US.

The visit will consolidate "what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into the next year when there will be transition of the administration in the US and also elections to the US Congress".

It will also celebrate the achievements in the relationship "because in a sense the new phase in India-US relationship was started from 2000 when President (Bill) Clinton went to India," he noted.

Then President George W. Bush transformed it with the landmark Civil Nuclear Deal and Barack Obama with his two visits to India - including the one as chief guest at India's Republic Day - saying the India-US relationship will be a "defining partnership of the 21st century".

Singh also noted Obama's articulation of support for India's membership of the UN Security Council, US support for India's membership of multilateral export control regimes and advances made in India-US defence partnership.

These include through the US-India Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) where among others things the two sides are looking at cooperation in projects related to aircraft carrier technology and jet engine technology.

Celebrating a lot of progress made in the two Obama terms, the visit will in a sense launch into the next administration, he said. "That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit."

The unique reception on the Capitol Hill is also seen "as a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship", Singh said. "It's also a reflection of the value that people attach to this relationship."

"Clearly people feel that India-US relationship has matured significantly," he said citing the growth in the partnership in trade and economy, defence and technology among others.

Modi who lands in Washington on June 6 after a visit to Switzerland, will meet Obama on June 7 to review the progress made in key areas of defence, security and energy over a working lunch at the White House.

He will also have an interaction with top corporate leaders and address the annual meeting of the US India Business Council (USIBC) comprised of over 300 top American and Indian companies seeking stronger trade and commercial ties with India.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
London, June 2 : After facing much criticism for temporarily suspending the parody accounts of famous politicians, including President Vladimir Putin in Russia, micro-blogging website Twitter has reinstated all the accounts, a media report said.

The Russians were dismayed over the fact that they were being denied the satirical delights offered by these accounts, especially President Putin's.

On Tuesday, Twitter suspended parody accounts of President Putin @DarthPutinKGB and other Russian-themed parody accounts, including @SovietSergey -- a lampoon of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and @AmbYakovenkoNot -- which mocks the Russian ambassador to Britain, Alexander Yakovenko, BBC reported.

@DarthPutinKGB has 50,000-plus followers and its suspension in particular provoked much indignation from Twitter users and also plenty of humour.

Well-wishers tweeted their support for the suspended Darth and criticism of Twitter using the hashtag, #NoGulagforDarthPutinKGB.

While, former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov accused Twitter of "taking lessons on censorship from the Kremlin", the editor of the Moscow Times opinionated: "Among Darth's high-profile supporters were the real Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves."

When contacted by journalists over Darth's suspension, Twitter refused to comment on the case and referred them to its rules on parody accounts.

These state that accounts should "indicate that the user is not affiliated with the account subject by stating a word such as 'parody', 'fake', 'fan', or 'commentary', and be done so in a way that would be understood by the intended audience", the report said.

Meanwhile, Darth's bio on the restored account remains the same as it was before the suspension: "146 percent of Russians didn't elect me. You don't visit Russia, I visit you. I serve tea to those that call this parody. Tweets made topless signed vvp."
New Delhi, June 2 : Punitive action against lawyer Indira Jaising's NGO Lawyers Collective shows the "intolerant" attitude of the government towards those championing people's causes, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Thursday.

"Indira Jaising, a senior advocate, is being targeted for fearlessly taking up people's cause. Intolerance of Modi Sarkar," Digvijaya Singh posted on Twitter.

"Advocates would you please show some spine and stand up for her? You never know you may be the next!," he said in another tweet.

The home ministry on Tuesday suspended for six months the registration under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) of Lawyers Collective for alleged violations of foreign funding norms.

A former additional solicitor general, Jaising is the founder-secretary and her husband Anand Grover is the president of the Lawyers Collective.

Reacting to the government's decision, Jaising posted on Twitter on Wednesday, "Condemn the beaten attack by government disguised as alleged violations of FCRA, days after I spoke at Rana Ayub book release."

She was referring to 'Gujarat Files: The Anatomy of A Cover Up,' a book on 2002 Gujarat riots, written by journalist Rana Ayyub.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:

There is no exact date for holding the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Maria Zakharova, Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson.

She made the remarks at a press conference June 2, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry's official website.

"As for the exact date of the meeting, the conflict sides should agree on it," said Zakharova. "We expect that after agreeing upon the dates and details, they will make a corresponding statement."

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.
Islamabad, June 2 : Pakistan authorities on Thursday acknowledged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's wishes for his counterpart Nawaz Sharif's recovery after open heart surgery in a London hospital.

"PM Narendra Modi sent flowers to PM Nawaz Sharif along with message 'All good wishes to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his speedy recovery'," Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted.

The surgery took place on Tuesday and according to the premier's family, he is fast recovering.

Sharif called Modi from London on Monday night ahead of the heart surgery.
Bengaluru, June 2 : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday invited seven senior Indian diplomats to be ambassadors of the state to promote it at various international fora.

"You are the ambassadors and high commissioners of India. While you proudly represent our great country at various fora, I call upon you also to be the ambassadors of Karnataka. Help us promote our state, even as you promote our nation," said Siddaramiah in a meeting here.

The chief minister met J.S. Mukul, Ambassador to Netherlands; Nandini Singla, Ambassador-designate to Portugal; Ruchi Ganashyam, High Commissioner to South Africa and Kingdom of Lesotho; Radhika L. Lokesh, Ambassador to Ireland; Vikram K. Doraiswamy, Ambassador to Korea; and Gaurav Shrestha, High Commissioner to Mozambique.

Siddaramiah also invited the senior diplomats to the next Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, scheduled in January 2017 at Bengaluru Palace in the city.

Highlighting that the state government is pursuing the vision of 'Shared growth and prosperity', he said Karnataka has always welcomed better and long lasting relationships with other states and nations.

Further elaborating, Siddaramiah said: "We have focused on three key elements: Create large scale employment by promoting industrial growth, moving industry to all parts of the state including the most backward regions of the state and focus on improving on the socio-economic health of all the residents."

According to Siddaramaiah, Karnataka is third among Indian states in attracting FDI while its GDP grew at seven per cent to reach $120 billion in 2015.

"The state's degree of openness to export is 48 per cent against a national average of 24 per cent. Karnataka's share in all India exports stands at 13 per cent and it accounts for 40 per cent of all software exports from the country," he said.

Showcasing several other favourable indicators, Siddaramaiah informed the diplomats about the excellent opportunity Karnataka offers to various industries, nations and expatriates.
Toronto, June 2 : Men who live in small cities and have sex with other men are less likely to get an HIV test than their metropolitan counterparts, says a study.

The lower testing rates are likely connected to internalised feelings of homophobia and a reluctance to disclose sexual preferences at a doctor's office, the researchers said.

"This study shows that a lack of feeling accepted appears to not only pose mental health risks, it poses physical health risks," said Susan Holtzman, Associate Professor of Psychology at University of British Columbia in Canada.

"The fact that these men are reluctant to tell their doctor about their sexuality is something that requires attention in our healthcare system if we hope to increase the number of people tested for HIV," Holtzman noted.

The study, conducted in cooperation with the Living Positive Resource Centre in Kelowna, British Columbia, surveyed 153 people recruited through online dating sites and events in the gay community.

The researchers found that 24 per cent of men living in smaller communities had never had an HIV test, compared to the 14 to 17 per cent of untested men living in large Canadian cities such as Vancouver and Toronto.

The findings were published in the journal AIDS Care.
Mumbai, June 2 : Short covering, coupled with lower-level value buying, lifted the Indian equity markets on Thursday.

The key indices provisionally closed the day's trade with appreciable gains, as healthy buying was witnessed in banking, metal and capital goods stocks.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) gained 39 points, or 0.48 per cent, at 8,218.95 points.

The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 26,694.28 points, provisionally closed at 26,843.14 points (at 3.30 p.m.) -- up 129.21 points, or 0.48 per cent, from the previous close at 26,713.93 points.

The Sensex during the intra-day trade touched a high of 26,835.16 points and a low of 26,641.02 points.

In contrast, the BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bears -- with 1,364 declines and 1,259 advances.

The key indices on Wednesday had closed flat -- marginally in the green -- led by healthy macro-economic data.

The barometer index had edged up by 45.97 points or 0.17 per cent, while the NSE Nifty had risen by 19.85 points or 0.24 per cent.
Kabul, June 2 : Seventeen civilians were abducted in Afghanistan's Sari Pul province, an official said on Thursday.

"Armed men intercepted two mini buses and a truck late on Wednesday along a road connecting provincial capital Sari Pul city to Balkhab district. The attackers shifted the passengers to an unknown location," the official told Xinhua news agency.

Efforts by security forces and local elders were underway to secure the safe release of the abductees from militants' custody, the official said.
New Delhi, June 2 : The abandoned cluster of rickety and burned walls, which once was home to upper-middle-class Gujarati Muslims in the Hindu-dominated Chamanpura of Ahmedabad, bears a mute witness to the harrowing journey for justice of families who lost their all in the massacre by a mob a day after the February 27, 2002, Godhra train burning episode.

And on Thursday when a court in Ahmedabad convicted 24 and pronounced 36 persons as innocent in the case, the families who have relentlessly been fighting the legal battle say justice is still not done.

Among them is Zakia Jafri, a frail 77-year-old widow who has been fighting a lengthy legal battle to get justice for the murder of her husband Ehsan, a former Congress MP, who along with 68 others, was hacked to death and later burnt.

"Complete justice has not been done. I will carry on the fight, will do whatever it takes," Zakia said of her unending fight that began since the orgy of sectarian violence saw thousands of Muslim families devastated.

Zakia has seen way too many lows in her battle to bring the murderers to justice and pin the blame on the authorities for turning a blind eye to the weeks of the communal pogrom that saw about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, dead in 2002 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Gujarat chief minister.

Modi has denied the allegations and has been exonerated three times -- in 2011, 2012 and 2013 -- by Supreme Court-appointed panels.

Police in Gujarat was accused of refusing to act against the provocateurs. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in its June 10, 2002, report pointed out the "lack of credibility" in the charge-sheets filed "inasmuchas they (charges) are reported to depict the victims of violence as the provocateurs".

Some 67 people were arrested over the years. Of these, three accused died before the trial began on September 7, 2009, and six others passed away during the trial.

Three out of the total nine charge-sheets were found to be "defective", and were challenged in the Supreme Court by the Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) that provides legal aid to the victim-survivors of those dark days of Gujarat.

The top court in November 2003 put on hold judicial proceedings after allegations were made that the state police was shielding the accused. In March 2008, the court constituted a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by R.K. Raghavan, a former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director, to probe afresh nine riot cases, including the Gulberg massacre.

The probe panel was also authorised to examine Zakia's complaint against then Chief Minister Modi and other Gujarat officials. But the probe got into a controversy after the Gujarat government appealed to the Supreme Court saying that it was exceeding its jurisdiction in examining Modi's role.

Modi was questioned for two days on March 27-28, 2010, and an initial report was filed in February 2011. On May 5 that year, the Supreme Court asked newly appointed amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran to examine the probe panel report.

After about two months -- on July 25, 2011 -- Ramachandran submitted his report that was kept confidential. Meanwhile, the probe panel in February 2012 filed its final report before a trial court. The panel gave a clean chit to Modi in the Gulberg massacre.

Zakia filed a petition against the panel for giving a clean chit to Modi. On December 27, 2013, when the city court dismissed the plea, she took her battle against Modi to the Gujarat High Court in August 2015.

Meanwhile, the city court on September 22, 2015, concluded the trial in the massacre after prosecution examined 338 witnesses and the final arguments ended. Nine months later, 24 people were convicted and 36 acquitted for the massacre.

Those convicted will be sentenced on June 6.

But Zakia's long trek to justice is unlikely to end any soon because she and others in the battle have longed to challenge the city court verdict. Those convicted also vowed to challenge the conviction.

(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at sarwar.k@ians.in)
Lucknow, June 2 : A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed against "Shorgul", an upcoming Bollywood film touching upon Muzaffarnagar, Godhra and post-Babri Masjid demolition riots, over apprehensions that it "may damage the reputation" of BJP legislator Sangeet Som. He has demanded the film's promotions and release be put on hold.

Milan Som, a local leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), on Thursday filed the PIL against the movie, which stars popular actors Jimmy Sheirgill and Ashutosh Rana.

According to Milan Som, Jimmy's character Ranjeet Som is inspired by Sangeet Som, while Sanjay Suri's role of Mithilesh Yadav is based on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and actor Narendra Jha's portrayal of Alim Khan is based on cabinet minister Azam Khan.

So, he has demanded "cancellation of the certificate granted to this film" for "deliberately and maliciously outraging the image of Sangeet Som, an MLA of Sardhana".

The PIL states: "The film 'Shorgul' is based on politics, on the basis of religion and on riots of Muzaffarnagar... In the film, in a large number of scenes, Jimmy Sheirgill has used words and dialogues in objectionable scenes, which are definitely indecent, offensive, destructive..."

He is also concerned that the movie "may ruin the image of Sangeet Som" and may also lead to communal riots.

"Respondents to immediately stop all songs, promos, advertisments and exhibition of this film till the disposal of the instant petition," the PIL further read.

Set against the backdrop of Uttar Pradesh, the film, co-directed by P. Singh and Jitendra Tiwari, is based on intolerance and aspires to make the audience contemplate where humanity stands amidst the noise of religious, social, political and economic prejudice.

From the film's trailer, Milan Som conjectures that the character played by Jimmy is "very negative".

"We will take to every street, town and city and protest against this. We will not let this movie release, our sentiments have been hurt," Milan Som told IANS.

"The trailer of the film was launched five days ago, and the role of Sangeet Som (played by Jimmy) is very negative. He (his character) has been shown consuming alcohol, involved in violent activities and on top of that, he has been shown in an objectionable position with a female," he said.
Berlin, June 2 : Germany's parliament on Thursday approved a resolution declaring that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War was a "genocide".

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, as well as Pope Francis, have recognised the 1915 killings where over 1.5 million Armenians were killed as genocide, BBC reported.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was not in the Bundestag (parliament) for the vote.

Her Christian Democrats (CDU), their coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens all supported the resolution, and the vote in favour was overwhelming.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan hailed the resolution and said it was a "valuable contribution" to the "international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide".

However, Turkey has slammed the move, and has warned that it could hurt ties.

The country has denied that there was a systematic campaign to slaughter Christian Armenians as an ethnic group during the First World War. It also pointed out that many Turkish civilians also died in the turmoil during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim responded by saying he would withdraw his ambassador to Germany "for consultations".

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus called the move a "historic mistake".

Before the approval, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned Merkel, warning that ties would suffer "if (Germany) falls into such a game".

It has rejected the term genocide.
London, June 2 : London's world famous Tower Bridge will be shut for three months starting from October 1 for a major facelift, authorities announced on Thursday.

The closure to all road traffic will enable important structural repair and maintenance works to take place on the 122-year-old drawbridge, the City of London Corporation said.

To the joy of tourists from around the world who include Tower Bridge on their must-see list, the bridge will remain open to pedestrians daily, except for three weekends during the closure period, Xinhua news agency reported.

During the closures to pedestrians, a free ferry service across the Thames river close to Tower Bridge will be provided.

The corporation said the work will help ensure the bridge's smooth operation for decades to come. The viewing gallery along the walkways of the bridge will remain open to visitors for the entirety of the works, and exhibitions will continue as planned.

The work on the bridge will be paid for by a charitable trust tasked with maintaining five bridges that cross the Thames.
Hyderabad, June 2 : Information technology (IT) will no more be confined to Hyderabad but will be expanded to tier two cities of Telangana, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao said on Thursday.

Telangana had 1,300 new IT units after it became a state, separate from Andhra Pradesh.

Rao was addressing a large gathering of people at Secunderabad Parade Grounds on the occasion of the state's formation day.

More than one lakh jobs have been created through the new industries set up in the last two years, the chief minister said.

He claimed success of his industrial policy, which emphasises on 'TS-iPASS' (Telangana State Project Approval and Self-Certification System) and promises to grant all statutory permissions through a single wondow.

The coming into being of Telangana has indeed resulted in people's dreams being realised, said Rao, who led the movement for a separate state for more than 10 years.

The Andhra Pradesh government, however, has been creating hurdles in the irrigation projects, though Karnataka and Maharashtra are cooperative, he said.

"We will not let their (Andhra Pradesh's) games succeed. We will go ahead with our irrigation projects as redesigned by us to suit our needs," the chief minister said.

There would be no power cut in Telangana for three years, by when new power generation capacity of 24,000 MW would become available, he said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

As Azerbaijan respects foreign media's professional interest in visiting to the occupied territories, foreign media must also respect the laws and rules in Azerbaijan, Hikmat Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, told Trend June 2.

He made the remarks in connection with the visit of representatives of the foreign media to Azerbaijan's occupied territories.

"Armenian lobby organizations, located in Armenia and Europe, by paying all the expenses, organized the illegal visit of the representatives of some international media to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan," said Hajiyev. "Thus the Armenian side wants to deceive the international community about the true causes of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in particular, trying to hide its responsibility for the tensions on the contact line since April 2."

Despite the illegal visits of some media representatives to the occupied Azerbaijani territories, a positive dynamics is observed in this issue, noted Hajiyev.

He said that recently, Ukraine's national TV channel ICTV and the Polish Public television have officially appealed to Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry with a request for obtaining permission and appropriate accreditation to visit the occupied territories for realization of professional journalism activities.

"Expressing respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and laws of Azerbaijan, the Public Television of Poland and Ukraine's national TV channel ICTV said the visit will not serve for promotion of the illegal regime established in Azerbaijan's occupied territories by Armenia," explained Hajiyev.

"Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry considered the appeals of both TV channels in accordance with the existing rules and issued them the corresponding accreditation that permits the foreign media representatives to be engaged in journalism activities in the entire territory of Azerbaijan," added the spokesman.

Hajiyev also noted that previously, the media agencies, which are being guided in their activities by the principle of respect for domestic laws and international law, visited Azerbaijan's occupied territories as well on the basis of accreditation issued by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

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.
Copenhagen, June 2 : A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced an Islamic State (IS) sympathiser to five years in prison on charges of preparing a terrorist attack.

The Attunda court in northern Stockholm considered that the 20-year-old Swedish convict, under temporary custody since last February, had possessed materials and equipment to make a bomb, and despite getting rid of some of them later, he still posed a threat, EFE news reported.

Also, guidelines to make bombs were found in the convict's house as well as some jihadi propaganda material.

The accused was arrested twice in June 2015 in Turkey while trying to travel to Syria to join the IS ranks.

The prosecution explained that the man's family warned the Swedish authorities that he had adopted extremist ideologies, and was planning to blow himself up to die as a martyr.
Osaka, June 2 : Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said he was "reasonably hopeful" that the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill would be passed by the Rajya Sabha, Indian parliament's upper house, in the next session, and that all supporting legislations required will be in place by the year-end.

"I intend bringing up the Constitution Amendment Bill for consideration in the Upper House in the very next session of parliament, which starts next month, and I am reasonably hopeful of this being passed," he said, addressing the India Investment Promotion Seminar here, adding that members in the Rajya Sabha are "overwhelmingly in favour of GST."

"Now, on the assumption that the GST will be passed in the monsoon session (starting in July) of parliament, then by the end of the year those draft legislations are ready and the GST Council has to approve it," he said.

"After the constitution amendment is approved, there are three legislations that are required to be passed, two by the central government and one by state assemblies."

The constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by more than half the states of the Indian republic.

The finance minister explained that the overall GST rate, which would vary for different goods, would be set by a newly constituted GST Council.

"Under the GST Bill, the rate of tax is to be decided by GST Council. The council comprises of states and central government," he said.

"I think in the long run, GST rates will moderate further. At what rate, the GST Council will start it, I don't know."

"There have been recommendations which have been made by expert committees, including the one that Ministry of Finance had set up. I'm sure we will try to keep rates as moderate as possible," he added.

The bill for a pan-India GST to thoroughly overhaul India's indirect tax regime has been passed by the Lok Sabha, Indian parliament's lower house, but is stalled in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) currently lacks a majority.

Jaitley is here on the second leg of his six-day visit to Japan aimed at attracting investments from the country to India.
New Delhi, June 2 : India on Thursday rejected the contention of an Islamabad conference that the Kashmir issue had "global dimensions", and said that Pakistan needed to instead "vacate its illegal occupation" of parts of Kashmir.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup, in response to a question on a two-day conference in Islamabad on Kashmir, said: "We completely reject the insinuations by vested interests against India, which has rightful sovereignty over the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir."

"We also stress there are no 'global dimensions' of the Kashmir issue except in the minds of those who seek to needlessly internationalise a bilateral matter."

The spokesperson also said that Pakistan needed "to vacate its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and address the suffering caused to millions in those parts".

The two-day Kashmir Seminar, which began on Wednesday, is being held at Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad.

On Wednesday, the conference urged the international community that it can no longer "stay a mute spectator towards the matchless struggle of the people of Kashmir to achieve their inalienable right to self-determination".

The seminar was organised by the Mirpur University of Science and Technology to "deliberate upon global dimensions of the Kashmir dispute and current Indian plans to suppress the Kashmir liberation movement".
New Delhi, June 2 : BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday said the world is "stunned" by India's rate of economic growth and also hailed as "unprecedented" the government decision to hike the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of kharif crops.

"The growth rate of 7.9 per cent during the last quarter of 2015-16 is not only highest in India in the recent years, but it is also higher than those of China, US, Russia and Brazil," Shah said, adding that India's economic feat has "stunned" the world.

Lauding the government's move to hike the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of kharif (summer) crops, particularly pulses, he said: "The Bharatiya Janata Party welcomes this step by the government and on behalf of crores of farming families thanks Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the same."

"This step by the government would help increase the production of pulses in the country. This in turn would decreases our dependence on imports and would save foreign exchange," Shah added.

He said the Modi government has shown during the last two years as to how a "corruption free and transparent government" is run.

"During the Congress rule, every other day a new scam would surface. The Congress government had become synonymous with corruption," he said.

Shah said that at present prestigious institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are praising India, global investors are "making a beeline" to the country and the Foreign Direct Investment was "continuousy increasing".
New Delhi, June 2 : The Congress on Thursday accused the Centre of arm-twisting India's largest petroleum company ONGC to buy what the party said was "scam-tainted" Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) in order to cover up its Rs 20,000 crore scam.

A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has accused the GSPC of squandering Rs 20,000 crore raised as loans from 15 public sector banks, the Congress said and accused Petroleum Minister Dharmemdra Pradhan of pressurising the officials to merge the GSPC with the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to cover up the wrongdoings.

The opposition party alleged that the GSPC borrowed all the money at the behest of the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi between 2005 to 2014.

"Pradhan is desperate to protect his prime minister. He wants to palm off GSPC's KG block to another PSU, the ONGC, because the former is in deep financial distress and is unable to repay even the loan interest," Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh told the media here.

"The GSPC has squandered Rs 20,000 crore and handed out lucrative contracts to dubious Barbados entities and apparel companies," he said, asserting that the GSPC could not ensure any gas yield from the Krishna Godavari basin with that money.

"It is all unraveling so fast for the GSPC and Modi that Pradhan is caught completely off-guard in safeguarding his master," Ramesh said.

He also accused the GSPC for involvement in suspicious transactions in Yemen, Egypt and using the loan money for the purpose.

"The Egypt government wrote a letter to the Gujarat government, asking for an explanation as to how $135 million, claimed to have been spent by the GSPC in Egypt, were spent in reality. The state government is suppressing the letter," Ramesh said.

The Congress leader said the Egyptain government had also said that it could not see any evidence of the money spent on discovering gas.

"Maybe the money was spent (by GSPC) on beautifying the pyramids. Who knows, but it was not spent on discovering gas," Ramesh said.

The Congress leader also accused the Centre of lying to the nation on the issue of gas reserves.

Modi had claimed that the GSPC's gas reserves are 20 trillion cubic feet while Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in parliament that they were about 14 tcf, Ramesh said, adding that in reality, the actual proven and extractable reserves are just 1.1 tcf.

He said that even from this amount, the chances of gas yield was less than 10 percent.
Imphal : Imphal June 2 (IANS) Civil body elections in 27 wards spread in the Imphal East and West districts ended on Thursday evening, amid tight security, with an estimated 80 per cent turnout reported.

In view of the boycott call, ban on non-locals from casting votes and public curfew, police tightened the security measures and no major incident was reported.

Turnout was only 35 per cent by late morning but picked up to 50 per cent in the afternoon.

There was a heated exchange between Congress legislator R.K. Imo and former lawmaker K. Loken inside the T.G. Higher secondary school campus following allegations that some Congress workers had impersonated voters. Workers and security guards allotted to them joined the brawl. However police managed to remove them from the spot.

In another incident, Congress workers had distributed leaflets with the name and symbol of the Congress candidate at the Thangmeiband ward. Protesting the incident, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Moiranghtem Ashwnikumar BJP said: "This illegal action only establishes how desperate the Congress is since the leaders know of the stunning defeat. BJP is lodging complaints with the election commission."

Though the Joint Committee on Inner Line Permit System went out of the way to prevent the non-locals from casting votes, there was free voting in several wards. Besides many non-locals were also the inner election agents.

Police barricades were set-up and no vehicles were allowed in the wards where the non-locals stay. Only pedestrians were allowed to enter after being frisked and their identity established.

Police said that there were strict instructions not to prevent any Indian citizens from casting votes.

A total of 58 candidates were in fray for 27 councillors' posts while 128 others were in the fray for the 54 ward development committee members. The electorate comprised 1,50,648 voters.
New Delhi, June 2 : Following an Enforcement Directorate (ED) request for extradition of former IPL chairman Lalit Modi, who is in the UK, the external affairs ministry's legal arm has vetted the request and is waiting for the ED's response, a top official said on Thursday.

"The Directorate of Enforcement sent a formal extradition request with respect of Lalit Modi to the Ministry of External Affairs," ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said at his weekly media briefing here.

"The extradition request was examined by the CPV (Consular Passport, Visa) division in consultation with the legal entreaties division of the ministry," he said.

"Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the case, the Directorate of Enforcement has been requested to intimate its concurrence on the options and suggestions made by the Ministry of External Affairs and to advise us how to proceed further in the matter."

Swarup said the ministry was now awaiting for the ED's comments on the matter.

He said that once the ED concurred with the suggestions made by the ministry's legal experts, the extradition request will be forwarded to Britain.

A special court in Mumbai two months back issued an order allowing the ED to begin extradition proceedings against Modi in connection with its money laundering probe against him and others.

In August last year, the agency moved the Interpol to get a red corner notice issued against Modi but the international police organisation has not obliged yet.

Interpol authorities have sought additional information from ED investigators on their money laundering case against Modi as part of the process to issue such a world-wide warrant against him.

The ED is probing Modi, the Indian Premier League and its executives for alleged violation of anti-money laundering laws after registering a first information report in 2012.

Latest updates on IPL 2020
Panaji, June 2 : Goans who have opted for Portuguese citizenship under a unique provision in Portuguese nationality laws and have not surrendered their Indian citizenship will now have to make a choice between the two, Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said on Thursday.

Calling for a public debate the dual citizenship issue, he also said that he was pained to see large number of Goans thronging to Portugal for a better living, adding that migrating for better prospects was alright, but further arguing that people should not cut off their roots and opt for foreign citizenship.

"People who queue up outside the Portuguese consulate braving sun and rains should think. They have to think whether they want this relation to break. We may migrate for basic necessities, but when taking another citizenship and surrendering this one, one should think," Parsekar said, adding that there was no scope for dual citizenship.

"It is a point of introspection for all of us. I do not want to hurt anyone, but it is an important issue and the media should discuss this. As chief minister, I am pained," he added.

Parsekar's comment come two days after media reports, citing a Union Home Ministry committee report, said that nearly two lakh Goans who had obtained a Portuguese passport or a Bilhete de Identidade and had also at the same time, retained their Indian citizenship, would have to make a choice between the two.

Goa was one of the oldest colonies of the Portugal and was liberated by the Indian army in 1961. After the liberation, all Goan natives were granted Indian citizenship by the Indian Home ministry via a common notification. However, the departing Portuguese, preferred not to completely snip the umbilical cord by allowing those living in Goa during the Portuguese regime to register their birth in Portugal and avail of citizenship and Portuguese travel identity documents.

The privilege was later extended to two more generations of Goans.

Over the years, nearly two lakh Goans are estimated to have opted for a Portuguese citizenship and at the same time retained their Indian citizenship, creating a unique crisis of sorts.

The Union Home Ministry had appointed a committee under Additional Home Secretary B.K. Prasad to examine the issue after a controversy in which a sitting Goa legislator was accused of holding Portuguese nationality.

Last week during his visit to Goa, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had said that an authority would be established in Goa to examine the unique issue case by case.
New Delhi, June 2 : Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse should resign and also demanded that allegations against the minister be probed.

"Khadse should resign. All allegations against him should be probed," the Aam Aadmi Party convenor tweeted.

Khadse is facing twin charges of an illicit land deal and alleged connection with underworld Mumbai don Dawood Ibrahim, who is living as a ugitive in Karachi, Pakistan.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday met Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah and submitted a report in this connection. Fadnavis is also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
New Delhi, June 2 : Realising the spread and importance of yoga world over, the Indian government has decided to include "attending a short term yoga programme" in the list of permissible activities under the tourist and e-tourist visas, an official statement said on Thursday.

A Union Home Ministry release also said it has been decided to include "attending a short term yoga programme" and "short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine" in the list of permissible activities under e-Tourist Visa.

At present, a tourist visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing and casual visit to meet friends or relatives.

Similarly, e-Tourist Visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing, casual visit to meet friends or relatives, a short duration medical treatment or casual business visit.

All Indian Missions abroad and Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs)/ Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs) in the country have been accordingly requested to take action as per the new norms, the release said.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

The Vienna meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as the possible holding of the next meeting on reaching consensus on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a very positive indicator, Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Malena Mard told reporters in Baku.

A meeting was held in Vienna on May 16 with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, French Minister of State for European Affairs Harlem Desir, OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, and special representative of the OSCE chairperson-in-office Andrzej Kasprzyk.

Mard said that the EU welcomes holding of such meetings.

The EU is very pleased that such steps are being taken towards the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mard noted. The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs also work actively for holding the next meeting of the presidents, she added.

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.
New Delhi, June 3 : Three Indian tourists carrying valid documents were illegally detained by the Italian police and were later freed only after intervention by the Indian embassy in Rome, a senior government official said on Thursday.

"Our mission in Rome has reported that they received a distress call on May 30 from one Miss Apoorva, who informed that her brother Akshit Goel along with two of his friends -- all Indian nationals -- had been illegally detained by the Italian police in the town of Ventimiglia in north Italy," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said at his weekly media briefing here.

"All the three Indian nationals were visiting Italy for tourism purposes and were carrying valid passports with valid Schengen visas," he said.

Following this, Swarup said, the embassy assured the family of all possible help and contacted the Italian police authorities in Ventimiglia and the country's interior ministry in Rome.

"The embassy was also able to establish contact with Akshit. He told our mission that he and his friends had been detained by the Italian police in the Ventimiglia railway station during a checking for illegal immigrants," the spokesperson said.

"Later, they were flown along with other detainees to Bari, a town almost 1,000 km away in the south of Italy," he said.

"Our embassy immediately contacted the police authorities of Ventimiglia and Bari as well as the ministry of interior affairs in Rome and apprised them of the problem."

Swarup said that after checking, it was found that the Italian authorities had made a mistake and they promised to release the three Indians.

"Finally, at around 9.30 p.m. on May 30, they were released from police custody," he said.

"The embassy coordinated with the authorities to ensure proper arrangements and safe transportation of the Indian nationals from Bari to premises of the Indian embassy in Rome."

Stating that the three reached the Indian mission on May 31 around 9 a.m., the spokesperson said that all three Indian nationals were lodged at the Indian embassy premises and provided adequate care.

"The embassy made arrangements for their onward journey to Nice in France on the same day where they are enrolled for an internship programme at a French university," Swarup said.

"Their families were informed of their safe release and the embassy assured them of all necessary assistance in getting them back safely to the university in France," he said, adding that the three reached the university on June 1.

Swarup also said that India "strongly raised the issue" with the Italian authorities and was in touch with them to ensure adequate steps were taken so that such unfortunate incidents involving Indian nationals did not recur in the future.
New Delhi, June 2 : The Railways Ministry on Thursday signed an MoU with the Haryana government for formation of a joint venture company for development of rail infrastructure in the state.

Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said that this was an "achievement" for the railways and it would help in "focused" project development.

"This is a great achievement. There are demands for new railway lines in many states which require huge funds. Setting up of these joint ventures with states will result in focussed project development, resource mobilisation, land acquisition and monitoring of critical rail projects," he told reporters here.

Prabhu had announced in his 2016-17 budget speech that his ministry would work in tandem with state governments for developing rail infrastructure.

He also said that World Bank as well as Asian Development Bank have also shown interest in financing such projects.

"We also plan to redevelop 400 stations across the country. With the signing of these MoU, many problems like financing, land acquisition will be solved," he added.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who was also present on the occasion, said that this would help in the state's overall development.

According to the MoU, a joint venture company will be formed with 51 percent share of the state government and rest with the ministry.

"The company will primarily identify projects and possible financing avenues in addition to the state and central government. After finances for a project are tied up, project specific Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) shall be formed. These SPVs can have other stakeholders from public sector undertakings," said a ministry statementd.

"However the the joint venture companies shall be mandatory stakeholder with minimum 26 percent share in the SPVs."

The most important aspect of the MoU is that the land ownership will vest with the SPVs so that it can exploit its commercial potential.

"At the end of the concession period, the railways will have option to take over the assets at nominal price," it added.

So far six states -- Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, have signed these MoUs, while 17 state governments have agreed to this proposal.
New Delhi, June 2 : About 500 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (Prime Minister Skill Centres) will be set up across the country this year even as all profit-making PSUs will scale up apprenticeships to give a major boost to skill development in the country, said an official source.

The government on Thursday also decided that 50 Overseas Employment Skill Training Centres will be opened this year.

The decisions were taken at the end of the first meeting of the governing council of National Skill Development Mission held under chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, an official source said.

"Profit making Public Sector Units (PSUs) will be mandated to scale up apprenticeships, upto 10 percent of total manpower," the source said.

Moroever, 500 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras, "which will provide skill training free of cost" will be opened this year, to impart training to aspiring youth, it said.

Speaking at the meeting, attended among others by Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and Minister of State for Skill Development Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Modi stressed on the need for proper skill mapping and identification of the future requirements for skills, which will help school-children and parents to be aware of the emerging trends in the job market.

The Prime Minister also emphasised on the importance of imbibing safety norms and soft skills as integral parts of skill development.

The meeting was also attended by Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Minister Kalraj Mishra and Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

A number of top bureaucrats and corporate leaders, including Tata Group Chairman Cyrus P. Mistry, Flipkart founder and CEO Sachin Bansal and Team Lease Services Chairman Manish Sabharwal also participated in the governing council meeting.

Other decisions that emerged at the meeting include skill training to be scaled up to cover at least 1.5 crore people during 2016-2017, the Central Board for Skills Certification to be set up by September 2016 to infuse quality into India's skill development ecosystem, and 500 Rozgar Utsavs will be held across Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and Central Training Institutes to make skill training aspirational amongst youth.

"This year, a national level Convocation will be held for candidates who successfully complete ITI courses, to recognize their success," an official release said.

It further said over the next one year, the capacity of ITIs to be further enhanced from 18.5 lakhs to 25 lakhs and over 5000 new ITIs will be created.
New Delhi, June 2 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday met Bhartaiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah in the face of a looming Jat agitation in the state.

Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan and party general secretary and Haryana in-charge Anil Jain were also part of the the meeting. Balyan is a Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh and has been roped in to negotiate with community leaders in Haryana.

Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Khattar said that the government was talking with Jat leadership and that law and order would "not be allowed be disturbed".

With the Punjab and Haryana High Court putting brakes on the state government's move to provide reservation to Jats, the community leadership has threatened to re-launch the agitation from June 5.

At least 30 people were killed and 320 injured and property worth hundreds of crores of rupees was destroyed during the violent agitation by Jats earlier this year.

The state government then passed a law to provide reservation for Jats and five other communities under a newly carved Backward Classes 'C' category. However, acting on a public interest litigation, the high court stayed the legislation.
Kabul, June 2 : Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani met visiting British Secretary of Defence Michael Fallon on Thursday here, the country's presidential palace Arg announced.

"The two sides discussed the general security situation in Afghanistan and in the region while underscoring the importance of anti-terror measures," said a statement from Arg.

Fallon has reiterated Britain's continued support to Afghanistan during the meeting, according to the statement.

They also exchanged views about increasing abilities of Afghan security and defence forces as the Afghan troops have changed their fight against insurgents from defensive to the offensive style, the statement said, adding that expanding security cooperation and matters about the Afghan refugees also figured in the talks.

The NATO and US forces completed their combat mission in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, after 13 years of military presence in the country.

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

More than 350 British service members have been serving within the framework of RS in the country.
New Delhi, June 2 : The BJP appears to have prepared its mind to seek resignation of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, who is facing twin charges of an illicit land deal and alleged connection with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and also looking at the possibility of removing him in case he doesn't follow the party line.

The development took place after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah seperately over the issue.

He also submitted a report to Shah on the charges against Khadse.

"I have submitted a factual report on recent developments to Amit Shahji and also held discussions over the issue. Now, the party will direct us on further steps that need to be taken," Fadnavis told reporters here after the meeting.

Later, he met the Prime Minister and discussed the situation.

Sources in the BJP said that party leadership is of the view that Khadse should resign from his post untill he is proved innocent.

Fadnavis has been asked to convey this message to Khadse.

The BJP has also planned to remove him if he denies to do so.

"This matter has come at a time when Modi government is celebrating its two year in office and claiming to have given corruption-free government. Under such circumstances, if Khadse doesn't resign it will send a wrong message among the people," a BJP leader told IANS on the conditions of anonymity.

"The party is under moral pressure to ask for Khadse's resignation," he added.

Meanwhile, sources also said that Khadse was earlier asked to resign but he had refused.

After his refusal, Shah had summoned Fadnavis to Delhi to discuss the matter.

Sources said that Shah and Fadnavis also discussed the possible repercussions in case Khadse doesn't resign and revolts against the party.

Khadse, one of the most senior ministers in Maharashtra government, was mired in a fresh controversy this week as a Pune-based businessman accused him, his wife and son-in-law of various irregularities in the purchase of a piece of land.

The BJP's ally Shiv Sena and social worker Anna Hazare have been mounting pressure for Khadse's resignation.

The Congress and the Same Aadmi Party has also sought his resignation.

Khadse is also facing allegations that mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar had made calls to him from his landline number in Karachi, where he is believed to be living as a fugitive.
Kolkata, June 2 : IIT-Kharagpur Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti on Thursday expressed grief at the "senseless loss of life" following the killer of University of California-Los Angeles professor being identified as Indian doctoral student and institute alumnus Mainak Sarkar.

"We are extremely sad at this senseless loss of life and our hearts go out to the families who lost their loved ones," Chakrabarti said when asked about the development.

Sarkar, 38, who was born in India before going to the US for higher study, shot dead engineering professor William Klug, 39, in his office on the university campus before turning the gun on himself, the Daily Mail quoted the Los Angeles Police Department as saying.

He appeared to have had a long-running feud with Klug.

As per reports, Sarkar graduated from the IIT-Kgp with a degree in aerospace engineering.
Paris, June 3 : France pledged to take in 400 refugees per month from Greece, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced on Thursday.

In a statement, Cazeneuve added that 97 refugees arrived this week from Greece and Italy. An additional 253 asylum seekers are due to come next week, Xinhua reported.

The French minister also reiterated determination to honour commitment to help handling migration crisis.

France promises to receive 30,000 refugees over the next two years.

Last September, European leaders agreed on the EU proposal to redistribute 160,000 refugees across European states in order to help struggling Greece to cope with chaotic flows of migrants at its doors.

Escalating wars in Syria and Iraq, adding to persistent political instability in many African countries and in the Middle East, forced millions of people to risk their lives by boarding rickety boats to seek better life on the other Mediterranean rim.
After eight years of record or near record residential sales, the Miami real estate market is normalising with steady growth, according to various prominent local market experts.

The fast sales growth of Miami middle market properties, the continued high percentage of all cash buyers, preconstruction condo inventory in the rapidly-growing Downtown Miami area and South Floridas overall population and job increases are boosting the market, they told the recent Real State of the Miami Market event.

According to Anthony Graziano, senior managing director of Integra Realty Resources, 2013 and 2014 were extremely strong for the Miami market for fundamental reasons, including pent-up demand.

When we look at our numbers today, we are getting back to normal. Its okay that our market is not growing 15 to 20% every year. In fact, its a good thing. I want to grow 5% a year because at some point our wage growth cant keep up, he told the meeting.

The event hears that single family homes priced between $200,000 and $600,000 saw a 5.8% year in year increase in April, with the sector representing 63% of total Miami single family home sales.

Existing condos priced between $150,000 and $300,000 saw a 2.7% rise in sales in April, representing 39.2% of total existing Miami condo home sales in April 2016.

The audience also heard that Miami offers bargain prices compared to other world class cities and the lack of available land are also key factors in todays market. For example, a 120 square meter condo in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach cost $149,900 on average, according to the National Association of Realtors NAR. Prices for the same condo in London would be $960,840, in Hong Kong $776,280 and in New York $1.6 million.

It was also pointed out that the lack of Miami-Dade County available land means the value of local single family homes will rise and more residents will purchase multifamily units.

Most Miami preconstruction condo developers require a 50% cash deposit on new units, one of the highest in the United States and significantly higher than the 20% required during the last real estate cycle. However, the experts said that the large all-cash deposits are a strong sign home buyers are committed and invested in the Miami market.

The majority of new construction is happening in Downtown Miami, and developers are being cautious not to overbuild. About 85% of condos under construction in Downtown Miami are sold, according to Integra Realty Resources and the Miami Downtown Development Authority. Downtown Miami has about 7,200 units under construction, a 61.2% smaller inventory than the 18,500 units under construction in 2006.

The reason downtown Miami is important is because it is what is leading Miami in the marketplace. Its our urban core. Downtown is the poster child of what is happening in the market, said Graziano.

While noting preconstruction sales have normalised compared to the previous record activity, Graziano believes developers are taking a break and doing site plans before announcing future plans. He pointed out that the overall percentage of all-cash buyers is 48.6% and is double the national average. However, in hot submarkets such as Brickell in Downtown Miami, the all-cash percentage is 82%.

The conference also heard that South Floridas growing population will continue to fuel more home sales. The Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach metro area recently became the eighth most populous region in the US, eclipsing six million residents for the first time, according to new Census Bureau data. South Florida has gained almost 500,000 new residents in the past five years.

Another strong indicator for housing is job growth. The number of employed Miami-Dade County residents increased 2%, growing from 2.13 million residents in 2013 to 2.18 million in 2014. The percentage of Miami-Dade residents earning more than $75,000 a year increased 4.1% in the same time period.

The remainder of the 2016 will see fewer sales than last year and pricing will be hard to predict, according to Graziano, who added that waterfront properties or other unique projects will outperform. The pricing for properties below $1 million will remain strong but inventory expansion should be watched.

The overall average pricing remains strong in South Florida. Sellers should expect to see more competition as buyers become more selective. South Floridas economic growth and population increases will play key roles in the direction of 2016 residential pricing.

Miami is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and I dont see that slowing down, said Alicia Cervera Lamadrid, managing partner of Cervera Real Estate.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:

The founding conference of the 'Stop Metsamor' international NGO coalition was held in Baku June 2.

The event was attended by NGO representatives from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Israel, Ukraine, Iran, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Armenia.

Following the conference, the participants signed a declaration on founding the international NGO coalition.

Head of the Armenian Intra-national Liberation Movement Vahan Martirosyan, who joined the event through the videoconference, said that the creation of the 'Stop Metsamor' international NGO coalition is very important, since the Metsamor nuclear power plant poses threat not only to Armenia, but the whole region.

Armenia's Metsamor nuclear power plant was built in 1970. The power plant was closed after a devastating earthquake in Spitak in 1988. But despite the international protests, the power plant's operation was resumed in 1995. Moreover, a second reactor was launched there.

Martirosyan noted that the organization led by him has joined the coalition.

"The European Union has proposed to suspend this plant's operation, but the talks on this issue have deadlocked as a result of the disruptive activities of Armenian authorities," he added.

Martirosyan said that the Metsamor nuclear power plant is located in a seismically active zone.

"In this regard, Metsamor is one of the most dangerous nuclear power plants in the world," he said. "Therefore, not only NGOs, but all international organizations should be active in order to suspend its operation."
Turquoise is the lustrous blue stone that shines with the unique and zestful vibrancy that best represents the Boho style

Now, more than ever, the fashion industry is seeing a return of the Bohemian Boho style. A combination of artistic, avant-garde, and truly unique. Department stores and designers are embracing the messy, yet whimsical style that came to the fashion world in the 60s. Now referred to as simply "Boho," people admire it for its unconventional aesthetic value. Recognizing the rise of the rejuvenation of Boho in 2016, TurquoiseJewelry wants people to know the top 5 ways turquoise jewelry best reflects the Boho style. Turquoise is the lustrous blue stone that shines with the unique and zestful vibrancy that best represents the Boho style. TurquoiseJewelry urges people that before they go out to buy turquoise pieces for your new Boho collection, to take a look at these 5 things to everyone needs to know about turquoise and the Boho style.

Top 5 Ways Turquoise Jewelry Reflects the Bohemian Trend

The Healing properties of turquoise goes back centuries, originating from a popular Native American belief. This rich cultural context is what makes turquoise the perfect stone for the new age Boho style. The legend holds that turquoise was created after Native American tribes celebrated the return of rain after a long period of drought. The life-giving stone embodies the spirit and fluidity of water and is said to protect and heal the wearer from both bodily harm and evil spirits. Embracing the mystic and unconventional is what makes this style so unique.

History is another powerful element of the Boho style. Not only does turquoise jewelry have a rich background in the Native American culture, but its also the oldest gemstone used for jewelry in human history. Dating back thousands of years from cultures around the world, turquoise is believed to be a sacred stone. For this reason, Native American jewelry designers place great care and attention to detail when crafting these beautiful works of art, to honor their heritage and culture.

The matrix of turquoise jewelry also makes it a perfect complement to your Boho style. Perfectly manufactured jewelry is never flawed, but that often makes it dull, common, and unappealing. Since turquoise comes from nature, theres always a remembrance of that natural beauty pressed into each piece. Depending on the turquoise mine, the deposit and stone can drastically change. Different mines can have a higher concentration of naturally forming minerals, ultimately changing the shape or color of the stones matrix. For this reason, artists must work with designs already made by nature to craft something truly beautiful.

Another recent occurrence is the rise of Kingman turquoise jewelry. If youre new to turquoise jewelry, you might not know that many turquoise mines around the world have stopped producing altogether. However, the Kingman mine in Arizona seems to be thriving, trying to fill the current demand.

People looking to embrace the Boho style, should also know that somewhere around 90-95 percent of turquoise jewelry sold in stores and online is fake. The best defense against scammers is buying your Boho chic jewelry from reputable sites, that advertise the specifics of their turquoise and the artists that make them. You should also take the time to research how to tell the difference between real turquoise and fake.

TurquoiseJewelry wants people to be artistic, creative, and most importantly themselves at TurquoiseJewelry.com.
Delegates at 2013s ISO/TC 145 Plenary Meeting in Stockholm, Sweden ISO/TC 145 is helping to invent a global language of symbols that helps people safely navigate their way through life. Ill do my best to provide the leadership necessary for this committee to continue to have a positive effect around the world. Past News Releases RSS Interview with Clarion Safety...

Clarion Safety Systems Expands...

Clarion Safety Systems Launches...

Clarion Safety Systems, a leading designer and manufacturer of safety signs and safety labels, is pleased to announce that its CEO, Geoffrey Peckham, has been formally appointed by the British Standards Institute (BSI) as the chair-elect of the International Organization for Standardizations (ISO) Technical Committee 145 (ISO/TC 145). He has also been appointed as the chair of the committee's leadership Advisory Group.

BSI, the secretary of ISO/TC 145, discussed its succession plan at the May 23 ISO/TC 145 Advisory Group meeting and May 25 ISO TC/145 Plenary meeting, both held in Rome, Italy. Peckham has accepted BSIs proposal, and ISO's Technical Management Board is expected to officially confirm his appointment to the position of chair-elect in the end of July. According to the succession plan, Peckham will replace Barry Gray as chair of ISO TC/145 in the beginning of January 2018, after Grays term ends.

Mr. Peckham has been a long-standing and active member of TC 145, including the subcommittees and working groups. He has good knowledge of all aspects of TC 145 activities and has taken a particular interest in the promulgation of our standards and produced an excellent video of the committees work. He is also the chair of the U.S. committee and should make a good appointment to follow Barry Gray, says Dr. Charles Whitlock, Secretary of TC 145.

ISO/TC 145 is one of the most influential standards-writing committees in the world. This international committee standardizes the symbols that appear on products and for use in built environments  symbols that indicate, for example, the controls for windshield wipers and headlights in cars, fast and slow on lawn tractors, and the location of departure gates and baggage claim areas at airports.

"Its a great honor to have BSI reach across the pond and ask me to be the next chairman of this important ISO committee. Barry Gray has admirably chaired the committee for many years and through his leadership, the depth and breadth of the committee's standards have impressively evolved to the point where they are well-recognized today as defining global best practices for every topic they touch, says Peckham.

ISO/TC 145 is helping to invent a global language of symbols that helps people safely navigate their way through life. Ill do my best to provide the leadership necessary for this committee to continue to have a positive effect in the ever-more complex world we live in."

Safety sign standards are a large part of ISO/TC 145's work. It is the only international committee responsible for the standardization of graphical symbols used on safety signs. It currently has 19 countries as participating members and 32 countries as observing members.

For twenty years, Clarion has been a member of ISO/TC 145, along with the likes of John Deere, Caterpillar, and a number of other organizations. Peckham currently serves as chairman of both the ANSI Z535 Committee for Safety Signs and Colors and of ANSIs U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to ISO/TC 145.

Clarion is an active member of the preeminent standards bodies responsible for safety sign standards  the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) domestically and ISO internationally. In addition to its prominent roles on the ANSI and ISO standards committees, Clarion actively participates in leadership roles in standards-related initiatives headed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), the Association of Aquatic Professionals, and the Laser Institute of America.

Visit Clarions website to learn more about the companys standards expertise and industry leadership. Clarion has a number of resources available to share its safety sign and label standards expertise in its comprehensive online Learning Center. This includes a video library focusing on important topics related to safety, risk reduction, the legal implications of warnings, and standards-related issues. One of its videos, The Case for the Standardization of Graphical Symbols, describes how ISO is creating a new global language  independent of words  that helps to keep people safe from harm.

ABOUT CLARION SAFETY SYSTEMS

Clarion Safety Systems, LLC, is the leading designer and manufacturer of visual safety solutions that help customers in more than 180 industries worldwide to make their products and premises safer. Clarion offers a full range of standard and custom products including machinery safety labels, environmental and facility safety signs, pipe and valve identification markings, lockout/tagout products, and safety-grade photoluminescent egress path-marking escape systems. Founded in 1990, the company continues to play a leading role in the development and writing of international and national standards for safety signs, labels, and markings. Clarion is headquartered at 190 Old Milford Road in Milford, PA, 18337, and online at http://www.clarionsafety.com.

ABOUT ISO

ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 161 national standards bodies. Through its members, it brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market-relevant international standards that support innovation and provide solutions to global challenges. The formation of ISO/TC 145 dates back to 1970. The standards body has three subcommittees: Public Information Symbols (SC1), Safety (SC2), and Equipment and Control Symbols (SC3). To learn more, visit http://www.iso.org.
Ravinia was able to complete the transaction swiftly and thereby avoid other restructuring options.

Ravinia Capital LLC, a Chicago-based boutique investment bank focused on sell-side M&A for distressed middle market companies, is pleased to announce the sale of Medivative Technologies, LLC, a prominent Indiana medical device manufacturer, to Kimball Electronics Group, LLC. Ravinia Capital, in collaboration with John Kemp of Wolverine Partners, led the transaction team and completed the sale process in less than 90 days.

Due to a market recall of a key product line in late 2015, Medivative experienced rapid profitability and liquidity challenges. Once retained, Ravinia worked quickly to launch a full sales process, and marketed the Company to various distressed-focused private equity firms and strategic companies. Working closely with the Clients other professional advisors, Ravinia was able to complete the transaction swiftly and thereby avoid other restructuring options.

The Companys professional advisors on the transaction were:

Investment Bankers:

Ravinia Capital: Tom Goldblatt, President and Ben Schmidt, Senior Analyst

Wolverine Partners: John Kemp,Managing Partner

Legal Counsel:

Taft Stettinius& Hollister LLP: Michael ONeil, Partner and John Humphrey, Partner

Financial Advisors:

Hamernik, LLC: Kevin Hamernik, Managing Partner and Tyler Klaehn, Associate

About Ravinia Capital

Ravinia Capital LLC is a Chicago-based boutique investment bank that serves as transactional advisors to middle market clients on capital market initiatives including sales, mergers and acquisitions, and refinancing. It helps its clients understand their funding needs, sources the correct funding opportunities or buyer, and then structures and closes transactions. With its focus on middle market companies, Ravinia Capital seeks to address the unique complexities that are often found in privately-held or family-owned businesses. Please visit our website at http://www.raviniacapitalllc.com/ or email info(at)raviniacapitalllc.com for more information.
Origin Consulting has proven to be an invaluable business partner in support of SMECO's Oracle Utilities suite of business systems. Origin's team is the best in the energy industry!

As an Oracle Platinum partner and a long-time supporter of this independent utility users group, Origin was awarded the 2016 OUUG Partner Pacesetter Award for outstanding contributions made to both their utility customers success and to this for-users, by-users grassroots industry event. This inaugural award honors those partners who demonstrate innovation and unparalleled success in the deployment of Oracle enterprise applications as nominated and voted upon by OUUG delegates worldwide.

This Pacesetter designation by our customers and peers truly reaffirms our companys vision and commitment to nothing less than beyond excellence in the utility enterprise consulting space, commented Pam Glanvill, longtime utility veteran and President, Origin Consulting. This award will be celebrated by our entire team of esteemed Origin professionals, who are ultimately responsible for routinely delighting our clients.

Founded in 2006 by CEO Mark Black, Origin specializes in implementation, integration and upgrade services for the Oracle Utilities product suite, including Customer Care & Billing (CC&B), Customer Self Service (OUCSS), Mobile Workforce Management (MWM), Meter Data Management (MDM), Smart Grid Gateway (SGG), Application Framework (OUAF) and Operational Device Management (ODM).

As the largest energy utility in the state of Alaska, ENSTAR has the pleasure of dealing with a number of consultants. The bar, however, will forever be set based off of our excellent experience and ongoing relationship with Origin, Pam Glanvill and her team, said John Sims, vice president Corporate Resources & Business Development, ENSTAR Natural Gas Company. Truly understanding what the customer needs, and how they plan to implement the customer's vision, is imperative to building a strong partnership and Origin has mastered this key attribute and developed it into a core competency.

Joe Trentacosta, senior vice president and CIO of Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative added to the accolades. Origin has proven to be an invaluable business partner for SMECO in support of our Oracle suite of business systems. They did an outstanding job as our implementation partner for a highly complex deployment, bringing the project in both on time and under budget. The resources they bring to bear on all our engagements are dedicated, customer-focused and extremely knowledgeable on Oracle technologiesthe best in the energy industry!

About Origin Consulting

As a Platinum member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN), Origin Consulting, LLC provides implementation services and solutions for Oracle Utilities products to the utilities industry. Our team of 100+ professionals has extensive experience in implementing and enhancing utility solutions utilizing various approaches, such as agile, phased and big bang. We offer solutions for full or partial product replacements, upgrades and introduction of new product features. Our goal is to partner with utilities to gain operating efficiencies across their business, from financial assurance and regulatory issues to improved customer service and satisfaction. Our extensive implementation experience, deep industry knowledge and professional consultants will help your project implementation initiatives be successful. Our resources have an average of 10 years of hands-on experience implementing enterprise solutions in the utility industry. Visit http://www.originconsults.com to learn about our service and solution offerings. Oracle and its products are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

About OUUG

Founded in 2009 by Oracle utility customers, the Oracle Utilities Users Group (OUUG) is a "for-users, by users" grassroots professional organization that is dedicated to bringing together client utilities, solution partners and Oracle staff to leverage and share the utility product brain trust within the user community-at-large. OUUG product-specific user groups, such as CC&B, WAM, MDM, etc., host monthly community conference calls as well as collaborate at the annual OUUG users group conference, which is separate from Oracle corporate and fully funded by customers, solution partners & industry media. To learn more and join in, visit http://www.OUUG.org
Moodle, the worlds open source learning platform, today announces Moodle for School, the latest initiative from MoodleCloud. Moodle for School has been created specifically for schools and educational settings. The package includes a friendly new configurable theme as well as a number of special customisations to make it ideal for K-12 teaching and learning environments.

Key features of the Moodle for School package include:



Hosted by MoodleCloud

The latest version of Moodle, Moodle 3.1

Automatic Moodle version updates

A range of popular plugins including video-conferencing and gamification tools

Unlimited courses and activities

Brand new, configurable theme to add your own colours, styles and logo

Available in over 100 languages with multilingual capability

Full support for Moodles official app  Moodle Mobile

See https://moodle.com/cloud for full details on all of these features and more.

Moodle for School is available from https://moodlecloud.com. The package is comes in three sizes, suitable for schools with under 500 staff and students.

These new plans are available alongside the existing MoodleCloud package, Moodle for Free, which can facilitate very small educational setups, individual teachers or users looking to explore Moodle features.

# # #

About Moodle

First released in 2001 by Martin Dougiamas, Moodle has since developed into a full-featured, flexible open source learning platform currently used in more than 230 countries with more than 70 million users worldwide. The focus of Moodle is to provide educators with the best tools to manage and promote learning. Supported by a global network of certified Moodle Partners, Moodle HQ continues to work with developers and educators worldwide to support a fast growing community of Moodle users. For more information, visit http://moodle.org

ENDS

Contact

Collette McCann

Moodle Marketing Officer

press(at)moodle(dot)com

Sources

Moodle.com

Moodlecloud.com
Both of our organizations are committed to the education of our members to ensure that they have the up-to date skills and certifications vitally needed in the constantly evolving wireless industry.

The Radio Club of America, Inc. (RCA) and Electronic Technicians Association International (ETA) jointly announced today that the two organizations have signed a memorandum of understanding of partnership to provide improved benefits to their members. Members of ETA will be able to join RCA at a reduced rate, and vice-versa. Each organization will list the others meetings and events on their respective websites.

ETA provides industry-recognized certifications for its members with career training from approved providers. RCA members who join ETA will be able to avail themselves of those services. RCA has a presence at many wireless industry events, and ETA members who join RCA will be able to participate in those events, including the all-day Technical Symposium at RCAs annual meeting in November.

The Radio Club of America has embarked on an initiative to partner with a number of critical and prestigious organizations in the wireless industry, thanks to the efforts of Director John Facella. Our first partnership is with ETA International, which is well known in our industry for providing vital training and credentialing to technical personnel who keep wireless working. This partnership is very much in synchrony with RCAs other education efforts: getting youth interested in wireless through amateur radio, our college scholarship program, and the professional engineering continuing education training provided at our Technical Symposium, said Tim Duffy, 2016 RCA President.

ETA is pleased to partner with the Radio Club of America said Teresa Maher, ETA President. Both of our organizations are committed to the education of our members to ensure that they have the up-to date skills and certifications vitally needed in the constantly evolving wireless industry.

About RCA

Founded in 1909, the Radio Club of America is the oldest, most prestigious group of wireless communications professionals in the world, with members in many countries. Its members are dedicated to the wireless art and science for the betterment of society. The Radio Club of America is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all contributions made to RCA are tax exempt. For more information, visit http://www.radioclubofamerica.org.

About ETA

Since 1978, ETA has delivered over 200,000 professional certifications. ETA certifications are widely recognized and frequently used in worker job selection, hiring processes, pay increases, advancements, and often required as companies bid on contracts. ETAs certifications are personal and travel with the individual, regardless of employment or status change and measure competencies of persons, not products or vendors. All ETA certifications are accredited through the International Certification Accreditation Council (ICAC) and align with the ISO-17024 standard.

http://www.eta-i.org

Download this press release at 

http://www.eta-i.org/pr/Radio_Club_of_America_and_ETA_International_Sign_Partnership_Agreement.pdf

###
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:

Azerbaijani diaspora will very actively oppose the resolution adopted by Germany's Bundestag (parliament) on recognizing the 1915 events as "Armenian genocide", Nazim Ibrahimov, head of Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with Diaspora, told reporters June 2.

He noted that Turkey and Azerbaijan have always together fought the recognition of the "Armenian genocide".

When this issue was raised in various countries, Azerbaijan's diaspora organizations have repeatedly prevented the recognition of the "Armenian genocide", said Ibrahimov.

The committee head noted that the Azerbaijani diaspora will actively raise this issue everywhere.

"We consider Turkey's problems as our own problems and will oppose it," he added.

Germany's Bundestag adopted a resolution on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide June 2. Previously, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there has never been genocide in Turkey's history.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.
Workers have rights, and they need a strong advocate to help protect those rights.

Best Lawyers has recognized three of our lawyers for their accomplishments. Inclusion in Best Lawyers is an honor bestowed upon a select group of attorneys. This year, Best Lawyers has recognized the efforts of Richard Johnson, Phil Bareck, and Stanley Eisenstein with these distinguished awards.

Richard Johnson has been honored as 2016's Lawyer of the Year for Illinois Workers' Compensation Law for claimants. Mr. Johnson joined Katz Friedman in 1983. Since then, he's worked to establish the rights of injured workers in many precedent setting cases before the Illinois Supreme Court. Mr. Johnson's knowledge and efforts are highly regarded by his peers.

"Workers have rights, and they need a strong advocate to help protect those rights. I've dedicated my career to enhancing employee protections within the workplace and I look forward to continuing my efforts," commented Chicago workers' compensation attorney Richard Johnson.

Phil Bareck has been awarded the honor of being named among 2016's Best Lawyers in Illinois Workers' Compensation Law. Mr. Bareck joined Katz Friedman in 1991. Since then, his efforts have earned him multiple awards and honors from the state's legal community.

"It's a privilege to advocate for workers who have been injured throughout the state and a genuine honor to have this award bestowed upon me. There is nothing more satisfying than representing clients and seeking compensation and justice for their injuries," remarked Chicago workers' compensation attorney Phil Bareck.

Stanley Eisenstein has been named among 2016's Best Lawyers in Labor & Employment Law. Stanley has dedicated his legal career to protecting labor rights and is among the state's most respected attorneys.

"The challenge of protecting and advancing workers rights is never ending. It's an honor to be recognized for my efforts and the accomplishments I have achieved in that regard," remarked Chicago labor attorney Stanley Eisenstein.
LiveAdmins, the pioneer of aiding online sales and live customer support for businesses, has introduced Handover, a groundbreaking solution which allows companies to earn more by streamlining their business opportunities.

Handover by LiveAdmins uses cutting edge technology that allows chat agents to quickly transfer hot leads to businesses after qualifying prospects. This is done in real time just by the click of one button in a chat window.

Brian Smith, General Manager Operations at LiveAdmins, says, We are truly revolutionizing the way Live Chat assists businesses around the world. It is no more a simple operation rather it is a mix of robust systems, ultra-fast response times, superior technology and world class customer service. We were the pioneers in the Live Chat technology. We are now taking it a notch above the rest.

In addition to providing business intelligence reports, Handover by LiveAdmins helps businesses increase Marketing Return on Investment by decreasing costs of managing additional staff to pre-qualify business opportunities.

Handover is available for instant deployment. For more information, please visit http://www.liveadmins.com/handover. It is the next big thing in Live Chat!

About LiveAdmins LLC

LiveAdmins is a leader in providing multilingual live chat solutions and services that enrich online visitor experience, customer satisfaction and the bottom line of businesses of all sizes. Our solutions are fully customizable, easy to set-up and always online, catering to over 10 industries across 8 time zones.
Jim Tompkins, an international authority on supply chain and logistics strategy, reveals the biggest challenges set to disrupt to the 3PL industry, as well as discussing the threat of Amazons business model on the traditional logistics set up.

In an exclusive Q&A conducted by eft, a business intelligence organization, the CEO of Tompkins International gives his outlook on how IoT is driving real time logistics through advanced analytics and increased data availability. He also explains how 3PLs must invest in automated material handling systems to provide efficient and effective order fulfillment for eCommerce and ultimately become a leader in this area. Access the Q&A here: http://1.eft.com/LP=12185

Friend or Foe? Amazon may soon be able to offer excess capacity to other companies looking to transport their own goods. They already have a truck fleet and a set of warehouses while rumours of an air cargo operation are rife. Regarding the threat of Amazon Jim commented Amazon is an awesome retailer, an awesome marketplace, an awesome cloud provider and an awesome 3PL. So, they clearly are a top tier customer and a competitor. One needs to proceed with caution and eyes wide open.

Jim goes on to summarize which HOT and HUGE technologies he determines will impact the industry. He discusses how IoT will allow for new levels of flexibility and adaptability throughout logistics operations. A recent Gartner report predicted a thirty-fold increase in Internet-connected physical devices by the year 2020 and that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016. Evidentially this deep connectivity will influence all areas of the end-to-end supply chain including warehousing, last-mile delivery and fleet management.

Jim Tompkins will be sharing more of his thoughts on Next Generation Supply Chain Metamorphosis in his keynote opening address at the 14th Annual 3PL Summit & Chief Supply Chain Officer Forum. Jim will be joining C-level executives from CH Robinson, Avnet, XPO, Johnson Controls, ArcBest, Sealed Air and more in Chicago on June 20-22. For more information visit http://www.3plsummit.com

About eft

eft Supply Chain and Logistics Business Intelligence is the global leader in business intelligence and C-level networking for the transport, logistics and supply chain industry. We specialize in connecting senior industry executives with their industry peers, and with the crucial information they need to excel in their work.

http://www.eft.com

Contacts:

Speaker & Event Agenda Contacts:

Sarah Reynolds

+44 (0) 207 375 7243 or (USA Toll Free) 1 800 814 3459 ext 7243

sreynolds(at)eft(dot)com

Sophie Farrow

+44 (0) 207 375 7587 or (USA Toll Free) 1 800 814 3459 ext 7587

sfarrow(at)eft(dot)com

Media and Press Contact:

Fabia Palmer

Marketing Manager

fpalmer(at)eft(dot)com
Global Experiences announced today its formal partnership with Fairfield University offering academic credit for Global Experiences international internship and career-development programs. It represents a shared commitment to internationalization and to global workforce preparedness. This pairing solidifies Global Experiences as the premier international internship program provider and Fairfield Universitys place as an innovative leader in international education.

As a formal School of Record Fairfield will be awarding transcript credit for Global Experiences international internship program, career development program, and other academic programs year round. This credit-bearing program will be open to all university students with the first cohort expected in Spring Semester 2017. Emily Merson, Global Experiences CEO says, It is fantastic to celebrate our 15 year anniversary in 2016 and our new partnership with Fairfield University. The ability for students to gain full semester and summer credit for international internships is a game changer for our industry and will allow a true integration of global skills into US higher education like never before. We are very proud to be collaborating with such a respected institution and look forward to building more bridges globally with this new partnership.

Fairfield Universitys Director of Study Abroad, Jennifer Ewald, says 80% of employers believe recent graduates dont truly understand globalization and how to work with a diverse population, while 75% of employers believe recent grads lack the experience and creativity necessary to function in the workplace. Fairfield Universitys commitment to prepare students for leadership and service in a constantly changing world is reflected in our strategic partnerships across the globe. Through our Global Centers and partnerships, we are proud to provide academic and experiential learning that expands both personal and career horizons. Global Experiences seeks to provide students with the necessary skills and real-world experience to be successful in future employment.

About Global Experiences: Global Experiences was founded in 2001, by Emily Merson and Stephen Reilly, with the mission of providing life-changing experiences for young people. Today is has over 30 staff worldwide and a European office located in London, England. The program has over 5,500 alumni and works with over 2000 host employers. Through robust career development and international internship programs in 10 cities around the world, Global Experiences is committed to helping college students and recent graduates discover who they are, and equip them with the tools and life experience they need to become globally engaged members of the workforce.

About Fairfield University: Fairfield University is a co-educational, comprehensive Jesuit university founded in 1942 in Fairfield, CT. The University is comprised of approximately 6,000 undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees within 5 schools: The College of Arts and Sciences, The Charles F. Dolan School of Business, The School of Engineering, The School of Nursing, and The Graduate School of Education and Allied Professions. All schools of the university are committed to a liberal humanistic approach to education, encouraging interdisciplinary learning and fostering ethical and religious values.

https://www.globalexperiences.com

https://www.fairfield.edu

https://www.instagram.com/globalexperiences/

https://twitter.com/internabroad

https://www.facebook.com/globalexperiences1/?fref=ts
Napoleon I Era Officers Tunic, lot 661 "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Greg Martin & Associates on this world class auction event. Gregs reputation and category expertise, combined with our sales, marketing, and operational leadership, makes this an ideal partnership." - Dan Morphy

Morphy Auctions, the finest auction destination for fresh to the market collections, is pleased to announce this once-in-a-lifetime sales event to be held on Friday, July 8th through Sunday, July 10th at the companys Las Vegas, Nevada auction gallery. This sale features the estate collection of a southern California gentleman who had a lifelong passion for all things militaria. All items in this sale will be available for preview beginning June 8th, 2016.

This sales selection of over 1,200 weapons from the 16th  20th centuries is truly cutting edge. Swords, rapiers, sabers, pole arms and variations from England, Europe, the USA, Asia, and the Ottoman Empire are on offer. Highlights include lot #786, an English made, deluxe Indo-Persian officers sword estimated at $2,500-3,500; lot #791, a French First Empire Sapeurs infantry sword estimated at $3,500-4,500; and lot #793, a magnificent English Napoleonic era (Prince of Wales) officers sword estimated at $3,000-5,000. Collectors will also undoubtedly set their sights on lot #444, an interesting and ornate 16th century German wheel lock long gun fitted with an Indo-Persian barrel. This fine firearm is estimated at $1,200-4,000.

This sales amazing range of military uniforms, including a full spectrum of coats, vests, pants, shirts, footwear, and other garments, is tailor made for enthusiasts. The 800 lots on offer - representing dozens of countries and periods - all have uniform appeal. Lot #661, a Napoleon I Era officers tunic, is a real standout. This red and black wool dress jacket, estimated at $3,000-8,000, is ornately constructed and detailed with bullion wire cording and silver-finished ball buttons. And lot #659, a British Diplomatic or Officer ensemble, is the whole package. This handsome lot, featuring a heavily embroidered black wool tunic, a pair of antique black boots, and red and white plumes, is estimated at $2,000-4,000.

With over 200 lots of military headgear on offer, this sales breathtaking range of hats and helmets is certain to make headlines. Two original French Cuirassier or Chasseur helmets are among the top picks in this category. Lot #172, a helmet with three fleur-de-lis, and lot #173, a helmet with a horsehair plume, are both estimated at $2,000-4,000. Lot #698, a French 48th of the Line shako cap featuring a white cockade, yellow pom-pom, and star chin scale retainers, will turn heads with its $2,000-4,000 estimate. And battle lines will no doubt be drawn over lot #699, a French Napoleonic 95th of the Line shako cap, also estimated at $2,000-4,000.

Fine and decorative artwork also ranks highly in this sales event. Collectors will have the opportunity to decorate their personal barracks with over 100 lots of fine paintings, prints, sculptures, trophies, and other attractive military themed collectibles. Lot #2073, a battle scene bronze by Theodore Gechter (1795-1844, French) features a fallen man-at-arms, a crouching boar attacked by dogs, and a Renaissance-era lord on a horse, blowing his horn and wielding a sword. This masterpiece, set on a rectangular naturalistic base, is estimated at $2,000-4,000. Lot #2076, an unsigned and unnamed larger than life mixed marble bust, comes to life with a white marble head and green marble circlet and robe. This stunning work rocks a $6,000-8,000 estimate. And two bronze Napoleon bust highlights command the auction spotlight. The first is lot #2074, a stunning, large bust of the leader by Renzo Columbo (1856-1885, Italian.) It features Napoleon in a bicorn hat and the Empire Eagle figure at his chest. The piece, inscribed "D Co. 1st Regt. Infty. N.G.P. To The Albany Zouave Cadets, July 21-24 1886, is estimated at $2,000-4,000. And the second is lot #2075, a shoulderless bust of Napoleon I signed by Jean-Antoine Houdon (French, 1741-1828). Houdon was the preeminent sculptor of the French Enlightenment. This piece depicts Napoleon with tousled hair and a headband and is inscribed, La Majeste/LEmpereur/et Roy/ Fait lApres Nature/St. Cloud/1806/Houdon Fit. Circa 1806. This lot is estimated at $3,000-5,000.

Armor, flags, hand weapons, sashes, badges, epaulettes, medals, and other collectible militaria round out this exceptional auction event.

According to Dan Morphy, Morphy Auctions President, "We are thrilled to be collaborating with Greg Martin & Associates on this world class auction event. Gregs reputation and category expertise, combined with our sales, marketing, and operational leadership, makes this an ideal partnership. We both look forward to welcoming bidders from all over the world to Las Vegas for this cant miss sale. Greg Martin adds, The breath and scope of this fresh to the market collection is astounding. I am certain militaria enthusiasts will agree as well. Examples from the early 1600s through the 20th century are all on offer. The collection is particularly strong in edged weapons, headgear, uniforms and selections from the Napoleonic period. There is truly something for everyone in this remarkable collection.

About Morphy Auctions:

Morphy Auctions, the finest auction destination for fresh to the market collectibles, is headquartered in Denver, Pennsylvania. The company also has an office in Las Vegas, Nevada. A full service auction house, the company presents over 30 premier auctions annually, as well as monthly discovery sales. Morphy's team of specialists includes the nation's finest and most recognized experts in popular collecting categories including advertising; firearms; fine automobiles, automobilia and petroliana; coin-operated machines; antiques, fine, and decorative art; dolls, bears, toys, and trains; cast iron; coins; marbles; and jewelry. Morphy Auctions is owned by President and Founder Dan Morphy, himself a lifelong and passionate collector of antiques, banks, and numerous other categories. Morphy's has been in business since 2004 and has grown from two to over 65 employees in over a decade.

Morphy Auctions, Las Vegas is located at 4520 Arville Street, Las Vegas, NV 89103. We can be reached by phone at 702-382-2466, by fax at 702-382-6513, and by email at info(at)morphyauctions(dot)com. Our Las Vegas gallery is open Monday through Friday from 9:00am-4:00pm. For more information on Morphy's, please visit http://www.MorphyAuctions.com.
Bill Morgans book, Hagar And Ishmael  The Blessings And The Reconciliation, ($6.99, paperback, 9781498405645; $4.99, e-book, 9781498405652) presents a refreshing account of Abrahams sons. The author uses biblical evidence to show readers how eventually the two brothers, Isaac and Ishmael, were united as witnessed at the burial of Abraham. Many Christians focus primarily on the separation of Hagar and Ishmael from Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and their descendants. Revisit the story, learn how God shows his love, pours out His blessing and demonstrates that His promises are eternal and his love conquers all things  even death. Morgan also delves into how eternal life does not come by works, however, accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is how eternal life becomes one's inheritance. This book is ideal for personal or group study  guaranteed to challenge and encourage each readers faith as a believer.

I pray readers understand that a person thinking they are an outcast of Society, will learn from Scripture how they can receive their inheritance of Eternal Life, states the author. And live a life pleasing to the GOD of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, by accepting JESUS CHRIST as their LORD and Savior. And they are special in the eyes of GOD.

Bill Morgan was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. He was a powerlifting champion, winning many trophies in this sport. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior in 1971. He is a member of a Church that believes the Bible is the true Word of God. He has been married to Grace Morgan since 1973. Bill is a retired Postal worker. He served on the Pastors council and was a Sunday school teacher and bus driver. Bill was also a youth camp counselor and a mission representative for a local Church and in Eastern Canada. He is a Mens Fellowship President and participates in a church team that conducts service at a nursing home monthly. Bill has taken many Bible school courses and seminars over the years. He was also an usher at the Billy Graham Crusade in Toronto.

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 15,000 titles published to date. Retailers may order Hagar And Ishmael  The Blessings And The Reconciliation through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. The book is available online through xulonpress.com/bookstore, amazon.com, and barnesandnoble.com.

Media Contact: Bill Morgan

Email: contact(at)girlsrunique(dot)com

Website: girlsrunique.com
Dr.James Peters, VP of Technology, Quasar The service offerings of both companies complement each other and provide a win-win solution for customers.

Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE, a leading telecommunications service provider headquartered in Houston, Texas, is pleased to announce its network presence at Quasar Data Center located at 1001 Texas Avenue, Suite 300, Houston. Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE will offer colocation, carrier-neutral access, cloud transport and Department of Information Resources (DIR) direct purchase opportunities under Quasar, a Tier 1 Point of Presence (PoP) and a proven leader in providing enterprise-class cloud, colocation and managed services.

We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with Quasar as we will be able to extend our capabilities beyond our dense Houston metro market footprint to offer direct connections to other markets, multiple carriers and cloud transport. At the same time, customers can benefit from Quasars carrier-level SLAs, 100 percent availability, public and private cloud solutions and its enhanced security portfolio, said Dan Wickersham, Senior VP of Strategic Business Development for Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE.

Both organizations offer built-in redundancy, 24/7/365 local Network Operations Center (NOC) support, highly secure infrastructure, and scalable, customized solutions. Quasar and Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE are Woman-Owned and Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUBs), which provide an advantage to Texas buyers seeking to meet HUB spending targets.

The service offerings of both companies complement each other and provide a win-win solution for customers, said Dr. James Peters, Quasars VP of Technology. Through this agreement, customers will be able to access Cloud Infrastructure and Desktop-as-a-Service for mission-critical and high-performance applications as well as cloud transport over the network. These same cloud services can be offered to state and local governments, educators and other public entities in Texas through Quasar's Department of Information Resources (DIR) cloud services contract with the state of Texas.

Quasar Data Center is an SSAE16 certified facility that offers customers private cloud solutions supported by N+1 Infrastructure along with 24/7/365 support and security. The Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE infrastructure footprint includes more than 5,000 route miles of fiber cable with approximately 1,400 on-net locations and coverage which extends to seven counties in the Greater Houston Area.

About Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE

Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE, a leading telecommunications service provider headquartered in Houston, Texas, provides managed Gigabit Ethernet services, Internet, Voice over IP (VoIP), and Dark Fiber over one of the nations largest facilities-based private Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). The switched Layer 2 network, backed by 24/7/365 Network Operations Center (NOC) support, encompasses 5,000 route miles and 1,400 on-net locations and connects 50+ fault-tolerant multi-gigabit Ethernet rings for built-in redundancy, security, high-availability, and sub 2ms latency. At Phonoscope LIGHTWAVE Great Connections Happen Here. For more information please visit http://www.pslightwave.com or call 832-615-8000.

About Quasar Data Center

Quasar Data Center is located in the Binz Building at 1001 Texas Avenue in downtown Houston, Texas. Quasar offers a wide range of 24/7 services from Colocation, Cloud Services including Desktop-as-a-Service, Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Managed Back-Up Services, Managed Virtual Firewall and Offsite Business Continuity services. Quasar provides dual underground power, redundant connectivity, primary and backup cooling, secure facility, locked cabinets, humidity control, server monitoring, troubleshooting services, and more for colocation and hosting customers.

Quasar also manages a Tier 1 Point of Presence (PoP) and is capable of providing "peered" bandwidth for greater redundancy and expeditious routing. The PoP makes Quasar truly carrier neutral and offers customer access to multiple carriers and Wide Area Network (WAN) providers. For additional information, visit http://www.quasardata.com or contact klambert(at)quasardata(dot)com, 713-936-0598.
we have direct access to an ever growing audience of seniors and their loved ones

Seniors Guide Online provides ongoing information about Alzheimers disease and related dementiasfrom how to live with the disease to the research being conducted to where seniors and their loved ones can find specialized care. In June, which is Alzheimers & Brain Awareness Month, the online resource will increase its efforts in raising awareness about these debilitating diseases by helping the Alzheimers Association and local chapters disseminate information and provide resources.

Unlike most organizations or typical publication, we have direct access to an ever growing audience of seniors and their loved ones, who listen to us and trust us, says Katharine Ross, vice president of Seniors Guide. We are leveraging that access to open eyes and hearts about Alzheimers disease and related dementias during Alzheimers & Brain Awareness Month.

In June, Seniors Guide Online will be posting a series of articles about Alzheimers disease, including the warning signs of Alzheimers, things you should know about the disease, and firsthand accounts from caregivers to its website. This content will come from the publishers own contributing writers as well as the national Alzheimers Association and its local chapters in the Triangle area of North Carolina; Western Virginia; Richmond, Virginia; Indianapolis; and Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati, OH. These resources will join the extensive body of information already on SeniorsGuideOnline.com.

In addition, Seniors Guide Online will devote its June Bulletin, which is emailed to its subscriber list, to raising awareness for Alzheimers. Social media channels will also be used to communicate this information to an even broader audience.

By escalating the publication of these resources, we hope to give caregivers more support, increase contributions toward Alzheimers and dementia research and help people gain earlier diagnoses so they can receive the treatment and care they need, Ross explains. For us, thats what this month is all about!

Seniors Guide, a Richmond, Va. -based company, publishes Seniors Guide magazines throughout Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Roanoke-Lynchburg, Virginia and features a correlating website of SeniorsGuideOnline.com. Seniors Guides mission is to help seniors and their families find the information they need on options available in senior housing, senior care, assisted living, independent senior living, retirement communities and other retirement living needs. Seniors Guide also has resources at http://www.HomeCareChoice.com for Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Dayton, Ohio; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; and Richmond, VA. Ross Publishing, Seniors Guides parent company, began in 1991 and has been publishing helpful, free publications and websites ever since. In addition to the many Seniors Guide titles, the team at Ross Publishing is behind lifestyle magazine BOOMER and real estate publication Apartment Navigator.
Understory, the developer of the next-generation of weather sensor hardware and hyper-local data networks, announced today the expansion of their platform to the Metropolitan Dallas, Texas area. The platform is presently deployed in Kansas City, Missouri, and Metro Boston, Massachusetts as well. The platform consists of patent-pending sensors networked together to feed ground-truth weather data to the Amazon Web Services cloud.

The initial deployment will include 14 schools in the Plano, Texas Independent School District. Understory now offers free sensors and data analytics to area schools as part of their educational program Weather is Cool The program is designed to help students better understand the impact of weather-related sciences on their environment and daily lives.

Why ground-truth weather detection?

Founded in 2012, Understory detects rain, hail, wind and other weather events directly at the earths surface, where the risk to life and property is greatest. Texas was selected by Understory as an important deployment area as it is one of the top US states for severe weather events.

Traditionally weather data is collected by analyzing conditions observed in the atmosphere via Doppler radar or satellite. Understorys ground-truth-based detection is a marked enhancement in both resolution and fidelity, providing real time datasets and graphical views of the movement and intensity of weather events, leading to better insight and early detection of risks.

Supporting quotes

The Plano Independent School District is pleased to offer a new learning tool for our students, stated Dr. Jim Wussow, Assistant Superintendent for Academic Services for the district. We are thrilled to have this data available to our students and look forward to providing our learners with better data about the climate in which they live.

Severe weather accounts for the majority of insured losses in the United States and has a profound impact on the economy, stated Alex Kubicek, CEO of Understory, Inc. Dallas is one of the cities in the U.S. most prone to severe weather events such as tornados and hail storms. We hope that the deployment of our platform in the metro Dallas area will augment current systems to better predict and prepare for damaging weather.

About Understory

Founded in 2012, Understory is a weather data company that provides dense surface observations generated by proprietary weather stations with no external moving parts. This composite of granular weather data has applications across a variety of markets, including broadcasting, insurance, agriculture, forecasting, and risk mitigation. The information collected by Understory is analyzed and processed to create real-time datasets, views, and actionable information from historical, current, and forecasted weather events to provide better insight and early detection of risks.

The data applications for Understory's sensors are enormous, as $485 billion of the U.S. economy fluctuates with weather. This new, sensor-enabled big data will impact insurance, agriculture, utilities, and many other industries.

More information on Understory is available at http://www.Understoryweather.com.
FirstService Residential, New York Citys leading residential management company, has announced the results of its second semi-annual study which analyzed more than 9,150 unique apartment vacancies at 121 of New York Citys luxury rental buildings, tracked from July 1, 2014 to March 31, 2016.

The comprehensive report updates the top 10 luxury rental properties in New York City, all of which are in Manhattan, based on average annualized asking rent per square foot, as well as additional insights into current luxury housing trends  from asking rents and apartment type to commercial conversions and number of units.

Based on FirstService Residentials study, New York Citys top 10 luxury rental buildings are:

1. Grand Tier

2. The Corner

3. 2 Cooper Square

4. Prism at Park Ave South

5. Beatrice

6. The Larstrand

7. Hawthorn Park

8. The Caledonia

9. New York by Gehry

10. Avalon Bowery Place

Nine of the 10 buildings on this list were also included in the top 10 reported in the companys Fall 2015 report  only Avalon Bowery Place is new. These buildings showed an average asking rent of $99 per square foot, however, the rate of concessions  including free rent and owner-paid fees  has increased since last fall.

We are starting to see a softening in New York Citys luxury rental market with a lot of supply in the pipeline, says Robert Scaglion, executive managing director, FirstService Residential. Our goal was to not only call out the top buildings in New York, but to also analyze trends in operations across the city to gain better insight into what is driving the continued success of top rental properties.

In addition to Manhattan, FirstService Residential also gathered data from luxury high-rises in Long Island City, Downtown Brooklyn and Williamsburg. Key insights include:



The frequency of lease concessions has increased in Manhattan (including the top 10) and Williamsburg, but has decreased in Downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City.

Top 10 properties have asked more per square foot for larger apartments than for studio apartments; this is the reverse of the pattern observed at other luxury rentals.

The number of units at a property has affected asking rents differently depending on tier and location, but has had relatively little impact at top 10 properties or in Long Island City. In Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, smaller buildings (those under 200 units) asked slightly more per square foot, while the reverse is true in Williamsburg.

Buildings converted from commercial to luxury residential use in the past 15 years have shown a pattern of seasonality similar to recently developed rental properties, although some buildings in the conversions group increased asking rents earlier in the year compared to new developments, recovering comparably faster from the softer winter market.

In New York City, FirstService Residentials management portfolio comprises more than 500 rental, condominium, and cooperative properties with an aggregate value of more than $6 billion. This includes more than 70,000 residences that are home to over 200,000 people in properties ranging from luxury towers and new developments to prewar landmark buildings and apartment complexes.

For additional insights into New York Citys luxury housing market, and to view the complete report findings, click here.

About FirstService Residential

FirstService Residential is North America's largest manager of residential communities and the preferred partner of HOAs, community associations and strata corporations in the U.S. and Canada. FirstService Residential's managed communities include low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives, single-family homes, master-planned, lifestyle and active adult communities, and rental and commercial properties.

With an unmatched combination of deep industry experience, local market expertise and personalized attention, FirstService Residential delivers proven solutions and exceptional service that add value, enhance lifestyles and make a difference, every day, for every resident and community it manages. FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation, a North American leader in the property services sector.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Vice-Chair of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament, Eastern Partnership rapporteur for Azerbaijan Norica Nicolai and member of the European Parliament Iveta Grigule.

The president said the European Parliament's resolutions on Azerbaijan played a central role in the relations between the country and the organization.

President Aliyev said relations between Azerbaijan and the European Parliament were cut off because of the organization's adopting absolutely groundless resolutions on Azerbaijan, which were full of insults.

"Azerbaijan and the European Parliament do not have any relations now, and Azerbaijan is not to blame for this. Our country just defended its just position," he said.

The president said the top officials of the organization - its president and vice-president - in fact, were part of the anti-Azerbaijani force, adding that their insulting statements, attacks and slander questioned the prospects of Azerbaijan-European Parliament relations.

President Aliyev said that because of such relations, no working group on cooperation with the European Parliament had been created at the parliament of Azerbaijan.

However, the president said, some members of the European Parliament had a just attitude towards Azerbaijan, adding that they took an unbiased approach to the issues.

The president also stressed the importance of the fact that these members of the European Parliament demonstrated great support for Azerbaijan during the adoption of the latest resolution last September. President Aliyev said the unjust anti-Azerbaijani position of some senior officials of the European Parliament contradicted the position of the European Commission.

He said that during the visit of President of the European Council Donald Tusk to Azerbaijan last year both sides expressed interest in developing the relations.

"The visit of High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to the country this February contributed to strengthening European Commission-Azerbaijan cooperation. These relations are now successfully developing. Documents on strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and a number of member countries of the European Union were signed or adopted," said President Aliyev.

"At the same time, Azerbaijan successfully continues its activity in the Council of Europe, and the Council of Europe highly appreciates the processes taking place in Azerbaijan. All this is another testimony that some top officials and anti-Azerbaijani groups of the European Parliament want to spoil Europe-Azerbaijan ties with their unjust position. And Azerbaijan will not restore its relations with the European Parliament unless these destructive forces correct their policy," he added.

Vice-Chair of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament, Eastern Partnership rapporteur for Azerbaijan Norica Nicolai said the situation relating to Azerbaijan was changing, adding that she wanted the relations between the country and the European Parliament to normalize.

Noting that the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe at the European Parliament supported Azerbaijan, she said the group would continue its activity on this front. Saying that they prepared a report on Azerbaijan-European Parliament cooperation, Norica Nicolai noted that their visit aimed to conduct the final exchange of views on the report.

President Aliyev thanked Norica Nicolai for her objective and just stance, and asked her to extend his greetings to the members of the European Parliament that were Azerbaijan's friends.
Ben Tiblets, Co-President of Enterhost, today announced the company has attained a new level of Microsoft certification, securing gold competencies in hosting, communications, datacenter, and devices and deployment; and silver competencies in small and midmarket cloud solutions, and midmarket solution provider. This years renewal reflects the companys commitment to and competency in cloud and productivity solutions, including services around Microsoft's Office 365 products.

According to Enterhost, Microsoft's competency program has changed over the past few years, as they have created new programs and retired others to reflect Microsoft's cloud focus. Enterhost works closely with Microsoft and has been shifting its business and solutions as well, evolving their expertise and offerings, which includes Enterhost obtaining Microsoft Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) status in 2015.

"We used Microsoft's competency evolution as an opportunity to propel our business forward by increasing the number of Microsoft Certified Professionals on staff while focusing on Microsoft's innovative cloud solutions," said Mr. Tiblets. "These competencies give our team the tools we need to implement a variety of programs for customers in all industries."

A high-level overview of what the competencies mean for Enterhost and its customers:



Gold Communications: Microsoft Skype for Business and unified communications solutions

Gold Hosting: datacenter and hosted solutions

Gold Datacenter: private cloud, datacenter, and management and virtualization services

Gold Devices and Deployment: desktop, Windows migrations and upgrades

Silver Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions: Office 365 cloud and hybrid solutions for small and mid-sized businesses

Silver Midmarket Solution Provider: midsize business infrastructure support and management

Enterhost previously held a gold competency in management and virtualization, and a silver competency in server platform, but Microsoft merged the two disciplines to form a new, evolved competency: datacenter.

These gold-level achievements enable Enterhost to provide Planning Services Days for Microsoft customers that have software assurance vouchers as a result of EA agreement purchases.

The Microsoft Certified Partner Gold and Silver Competencies are reserved for companies who meet Microsofts most stringent and demanding partnership requirements. Almost all Enterhost employees participate in the annual renewal process: the technical support team is Microsoft Certified by excelling at a host of technical exams, the sales and marketing departments undergo extensive product and service training, and the company provides numerous customer references, as well as meets aggressive annual sales goals set by Microsoft.

Microsoft updates its partner program requirements on an annual basis, continuously raising the bar and making it more difficult to obtain Gold competencies. According to Enterhost, despite the yearly changes to the rigorous program, the company has achieved Gold status at each renewal since 2007, consistently dedicating time and resources towards Microsofts evolving protocol.

This demanding annual process is an opportunity to challenge our team to be the best there is in our field, which in turn directly benefits our customers," said Mr. Tiblets. "Our long-standing relationship with Microsoft since 2000, and our ability to offer the highest level of technical ability and fluency in the IT industry are represented by this industry gold standard: the Microsoft Gold competencies.

ABOUT ENTERHOST

Founded in 2000, Enterhost is a leading provider of IT business solutions, specializing in Windows applications for unified communications, as well as cloud storage, backup, disaster recovery, virtualization and colocation. Enterhosts team of Microsoft-certified professionals provides support for clients worldwide. The company has achieved key partner competencies with Microsoft (Gold Communications, Gold Hosting, Gold Devices and Deployment, Gold Datacenter, Silver Small and Midmarket Cloud Solutions, and Silver Midmarket Solution Provider), Dell (Premier), VMWare (Professional Service Provider), For more information, visit http://www.enterhost.com, or follow Enterhost on the companys blog (http://enterhost.com/blog/), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/enterhost), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/enterhostIT), Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/enterhost), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/enterhost) and Google+ (https://plus.google.com/+Enterhost/posts).
National nonprofit organization, Path2Parenthood (P2P) and California Cryobank, announced today that their next Gay Womens Gathering: An Evening on Lesbian Pregnancy is coming back to Washington, D.C. The free event will be held at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church on Wednesday, June 15th from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

The highly acclaimed series, now in its fourth year, focuses on educating gay women with critical information they need when considering pregnancy. A core focus on family-building safety for LGBT families, from legal and medical perspectives, is stressed. Issues discussed include the real differences between known and unknown sperm donors, deciding upon at-home pregnancy options or opting to conceive in a medical setting, and how tos about fertility health. The relaxed and conversational event will feature dedicated local professionals, Meryl Rosenberg, Esq. of ARTparenting and Barbara Osborn, M.D. of Shady Grove Fertility.

Path2Parenthood is bringing our Gay Womens Gathering series back to Washington D.C., in response to the overwhelming number of requests we have had from women in the area, who are ready to build their families and want information on how to do it safely. We are grateful to our generous sponsor, California Cryobank, for their support of our work with the LGBT community, says P2P Executive Director, Ken Mosesian.

Finding a sperm donor, selecting an insemination procedure, and protecting both parents legal rights can all have significant, long-term, financial, medical and emotional impact on a lesbian family, stated Scott Brown, Director of Client Experience & Communications at California Cryobank. Brown, a faculty member for the event also stated, California Cryobank is proud to be part of this incredibly important evening of family building education and support.

The event will take place on Wednesday, June 15th from 6:30-8:30 p.m., at St. Stephen & the Incarnation Episcopal Church, 1525 Newton St. NW, Washington D.C. 20010.

The evening is focused on the lesbian community, but all are welcome to attend. A drawing for one free vial of sperm from the donor of your choice, valued at $595-$795, will take place, compliments of California Cryobank. Refreshments will be served and educational gift bags given to all participants. The events are free, but reservations are preferred. Call Corey Whelan at 718-853.1411 or email corey(at)path2parenthood(dot)org

About Path2Parenthood: Path2Parenthood is an inclusive organization committed to helping people create their families of choice by providing leading-edge outreach programs and timely educational information. The scope of our work encompasses reproductive health, infertility prevention and treatment, and family-building options including adoption and third party solutions. Path2Parenthood is a national, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization headquartered in

New York City.

Contact Info:

Corey Whelan

Program Director

(718) 853-1411

corey(at)path2parenthood(dot)org
SPHYNX Plating System The SPHYNX is the latest innovation coming from our R&D department in Geneva, Switzerland, says Mourad Ben Mokhtar, President of Eden Spine Europe, SA.

Eden Spine (http://www.EdenSpine.com), an R&D driven medical technology company, announced today that the SPHYNX plating system was granted CE Mark approval.

Made of titanium, the low profile SPHYNX is to be implanted via the antero-lateral approach for the treatment of thoraco-lumbar instabilities. Indications include spinal fractures, vertebral tumors, secondary instabilities of the thoracic and thoraco-lumbar spine, and any other indication requiring an anterior stabilization low profile.

The SPHYNX is the latest innovation coming from our R&D department in Geneva, Switzerland, says Mourad Ben Mokhtar, President of Eden Spine Europe, SA. Our goal was to develop a technology that was simple to use, intuitive, and worked with the anatomy. To achieve that goal we have developed a cutting edge integrated locking system, minimized the thickness of the implant in an effort to respect the surrounding tissues, and maximized the range of precurved plates, to provide optimal adaptation to patients anatomy.

The SPHYNX is the ideal complement to Eden Spine proprietary corpectomy device, the GIZA; an expandable titanium vertebral body replacement implant, with rotatable endplates, that provide multiple angulation options by simple endplates rotation. The GIZA is intended to replace and fuse a collapsed, damaged, or unstable vertebral body due to a tumor or a fracture.

Distribution opportunities for the SPHYNX and the GIZA are available.

###

About Eden Spine:

Eden Spine LLC is a privately held, technology driven spinal organization headquartered in Florida, with a wholly owned subsidiary in Geneva, Switzerland. The company distributes a range of innovative spinal technologies in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Eden Spine patented portfolio is composed of a mix of fusion and non-fusion technologies.

Contact Information:

Mourad ben Mokhtar

M.BMokhtar(at)EdenSpine(dot)com

Tel: +41 22 310 29 11
Aptus Court Reporting and law firm Simpson Delmore Greene joined together to host the 3rd annual Food From the Bar event on Tuesday, May 17, 2016 in San Diego. The event included a happy hour and silent auction. A variety of items were available for bidding with the end goal of raising funds for those suffering from hunger in the San Diego area. Items included a vacation package to Mexico, private chef dinner, sporting and concert tickets, and yoga sessions to name a few.

All of the proceeds from the event benefited Feeding America, which offers relief to families in need through its nationwide network of food banks. This network spans 200 food banks and about 60,000 food pantries in the United States today. Last year, Feeding America served more than six billion meals to those in need.

This years Food From the Bar event raised a total of $6,740, an increase of 20% over last years donation from the same event. An anonymous donor also matched this donation 2:1, bringing the total donation amount to $20,220. The funds raised will provide more than 80,800 meals to those in need in the San Diego area.

Aptus Court Reporting founding partner, Ashley Walton, said "Every year this event keeps feeding more individuals and families in need. We're grateful for our partnership with Simpson Delmore Greene and all of our team members who take the time to help with the event."

About Aptus Court Reporting

Aptus is a full service court reporting firm. They handle deposition and trial support while leveraging the most efficient technology for law firms and corporations globally. For further information, please see the Aptus website at http://www.aptuscr.com.

About Simpson Delmore Greene

Simpson Delmore Greene is a business law firm that focuses on practical legal advice and efficient solutions in creative ways. The two companies worked to host Food from the Bar in partnership, and both look forward to hosting this event again in the future. For further information about the law firm, please see the Simpson Delmore Greene website at http://www.sdgllp.com.
Steven Drexel, President and CEO of Cornerstone Staffing Solutions I expect Fridays Employment Situation Report covering Mays activity to indicate that the labor market expanded by 180,000 jobs and the unemployment rate will again hold steady at 5.0 percent.

With the release of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2016 employment data on Friday June 3, Steve Drexel, Cornerstone Staffing Solutions president and chief executive officer, is ready and available for interviews or commentary on the economic and employment impact.

Drexel is an economist, a member of the Business Research Advisory Council of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and past chairman of the American Staffing Associations Industry Information Committee. He has been interviewed for The Washington Post, Bloomberg Business News, CNN Radio, the Associated Press, The Houston Chronicle and The Houston Business Journal -- among many other national, regional and local media organizations.

Drexels biographical profile is available at http://www.cornerstone-staffing.com/. Please contact Brian Hatfield for any information or insights related to a wide range of employment and economic topics Drexel is prepared to comment on.

I expect Fridays Employment Situation Report covering Mays activity to indicate that the labor market expanded by 180,000 jobs and the unemployment rate will again hold steady at 5.0 percent, comments Drexel. I believe that the labor markets are still healthy and growing -- but at a modestly slower rate than we saw during recent years and below the expectations with which we started 2016. The other factor that plays into the forecast is the knowledge that Mays results likely will be affected by the Verizon strike that was in full effect during May and while temporary, this could depress the reported results.

Some additional perspectives from Drexel:



Aprils disappointing report. On Friday May 6, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly summary of labor market activity for April 2016. The attention-grabbing number was a disappointing increase of 160,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.0 percent. Economists, who form their predictions based on a number of factors, had expected an employment increase of around 200,000, more in line with the 208,000 (revised) increase reported for March. The slower rate of growth was disappointing, and tends to confirm the narrative that the broader economy has slowed during recent months as was evident in the announcement that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was only 0.8 percent during the first quarter of 2016. Other softer results included the observation that the labor force participation rate declined slightly to 62.8 percent, indicating that fewer unemployed workers were actively seeking employment during April. Additionally, of the 262 industries reported, a smaller percentage was growing as this metric declined from 58.6 percent to 56.3 percent.

Mays report likely to be below trend, as well. Fridays Employment Situation Report covering Mays activity to indicate that the labor market expanded by 180,000 jobs and the unemployment rate will again hold steady at 5.0 percent. Drexel believes that the labor markets are still healthy and growing -- but at a modestly slower rate than we saw during recent years and below the expectations with which we started 2016. The other factor that plays into the forecast is the knowledge that Mays results likely will be affected by the Verizon strike that was in full effect during May and while temporary, this could depress the reported results.

Positive employment-related economic indicators during April included the following:



The American Staffing Associations Monthly Index was 0.9 percent improved during May compared to April suggesting that job growth is a bit better than recent trends; and

The private employment surveys that I participate in continued to suggest growth during May albeit at slow but steady pace.

Less than positive employment indicators included the following:



The Philadelphia, Richmond and Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Surveys sub-indexes for Employment and the Average Workweek all were weaker during May as compared to April. Only the Richmond Fed Services Employment Index improved during May;

Initial Jobless Claims as well as Continuing Jobless Claims increased during May, particularly during the reference weeks from which the Bureau of Labor Statistics draws its survey. The levels are not alarming but the direction suggests slower growth (likely influenced by the Verizon strike);

The Wall Street Journals April Economic Survey of 72 leading economists forecast of employment for 2016 was 2.9 percent lower than the April forecast reflecting lower expectations; and

The Conference Boards May differential of jobs plentiful versus jobs hard to get slid to a net -0.1 during May, down from +1.4 during April.

Expectations for June, the balance of 2016 and beyond. Slower but still positive is the key message this month, and to a lesser degree, the same is true looking forward with respect to the general economy. Employment growth remains a key element supporting the broader U.S. activity with continued backing coming from vehicle production and housing. Wage growth is not slowing but rather, gradually increasing, which is important to boost retail sales, another necessary driver of continued growth. There are fewer headwinds represented by declining oil prices, unsettled financial markets, falling commodity prices and an overpriced dollar to obstruct or derail growth. However, there is a bit less momentum as the expansion is aging, earnings are soft and GDP was challenged during the early part of 2016. Expect jobs growth during the remainder of 2016 to average about 190,000 per month while the unemployment rate trends down slightly to 4.7 percent by year end.

The substandard jobs increase, could foreshadow a change in the trajectory of growth Ive advocated, although, it is worth noting that 2015 was overall, a good year for employment growth, and yet, it included three months in which employment grew at a slower rate than Aprils 160,000 increase. I expect that May produces 180,000 net new jobs and a 5.0 percent unemployment rate. Employment growth slowed a bit during recent months, but remains positive and is expected to continue to grow albeit as slightly slower rates. The risk of recession remains low and the expansion should continue through at least 2018. The amassed effect of over five years of employment growth results in more severe labor shortages and accelerating wage pressure, says Drexel.

More About Cornerstone Staffing

Cornerstone Staffing Solutions is among the top 120 largest staffing firms in America, as ranked by Staffing Industry Analysts and received Inaveros 2016 Best of Staffing Client Award. Since 2003, Cornerstone has grown from a neighborhood staffing provider to a $100 million national firm that employs thousands of people at hundreds of companies from coast to coast. Providing candidate searching and job placement for administrative, industrial, technical, sales and transportation positions, Cornerstone truly is where talent and jobs meet.

Visit Cornerstone at: http://www.cornerstone-staffing.com.

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Get a Haircut  Help Change a Life

Huntington Beach Salon to Give Haircuts at No Cost to Support Wheelchairs for Kids

Global Mobility USA, a Van Nuys, California-based nonprofit humanitarian organization providing wheelchairs at no cost to children and adults in need around the world, and daniel & co, a full-service salon in Huntington Beach, California, today announced a special event to promote the support for persons with disabilities. On June 12, 2016, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., skilled stylists from daniel & co will provide professional haircuts to the public at no cost. Haircut recipients will be asked to make a donation towards a life-changing wheelchair for a child.

We are honored to be partnering with daniel & co to help kids around the world get the wheelchairs they need to live a fulfilling life, said Chris Grange, COO of Global Mobility USA. The commitment of daniel & co  and their expert stylists  to the cause of global mobility is a testament of their honor and dedication not only to their local community but also to the global community.

It is estimated that 70 million people around the world need a wheelchair but only 5-15 percent have access to one. Since 2012, Global Mobility USA has been providing appropriate wheelchairs for free to persons with disabilities in countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe, Vietnam and Indonesia. Each donated wheelchair is of the highest quality, and is custom-fitted for each recipients individual needs.

As one who personally needs assistance from a mobility device, I am privileged to partner with Global Mobility by helping to make a way for children living in poverty to receive the life- changing gift of a wheelchair, said Dan Kafer, owner of daniel & co.

Global Mobility USA representatives will also be on-site to receive donations of used wheelchairs. Used wheelchairs will be taken to the Global Mobility warehouse, where they will be expertly up-cycled and prepared for a child, teen or adult in need.

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About Global Mobility USA

Global Mobility USA is a 501(c)3 nonprofit humanitarian organization committed to serving the needs of persons with disabilities around the world who are in need of a wheelchair or other mobility assistance. Founded by David Richard in 2012, Global Mobility USA has a particular focus on ensuring that persons with disabilities are properly matched and fitted for the wheelchair that best serves their need. For more information about Global Mobility USA, visit http://www.globalmobilityusa.org.

Contact: Chris Grange

818-616-0638 x 101

714-614-5556
Meet "up and coming startups" as well as established leaders transforming financial services.

The iValley Innovation Center in the San Francisco Bay Area announces the first edition of FinTech Talk - a financial services innovation event, that brings together leaders in financial services, technology startups and early stage venture capitalists. The one-day event will be held on June 21, 2016 at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon. With more than 35 speakers and 300 expected attendees, this event is slated to be the intersection of the best in financial services and Silicon Valley.

Register at http://www.ivalley.co/fintechtalk.php.

Transformation in Financial Services Marketplace

The Financial Services industry is undergoing a transformation largely driven by FinTech companies, there being an estimated 2,000 FinTech startups and more than $44 billion in venture capital funding, contributed towards innovation. FinTech startups leverage technologies such as the Blockchain distributed ledger, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and other digital technologies to create unique value propositions to customers; enhancing modes of customer acquisition; significantly reducing the cost to serve; using data innovatively to monetize or reduce risk; adding segment-specific value propositions such as creating digital banks for millennial customers.

We are hosting FinTech Talk at iValley as part of an ongoing effort to create an ecosystem where financial services firms and technology startups can synergistically collaborate. iValley connects innovation demand to supply in a sharing economy type model with value-added acceleration services which reduces the cost of innovation for the enterprise and the cost of capital for startups through de-risking said Paddy Ramanathan, Founder and Managing Director of iValley Innovation Center.

Thought Leaders Addressing Todays Challenges

Meet up and coming startups as well as the established market leaders, such as Andy Harmening, vice-chairman for the Consumer Banking Division at Bank of the West, a regional financial services firm headquartered in San Francisco. Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, provides a wide range of personal, commercial, wealth management and international banking services through more than 600 branches and offices in 23 states and digital channels. Harmening will deliver the events keynote on why the time is right for traditional financial services firms to partner with FinTech start-ups.

At Altiscale, we are working closely with banks and other financial institutions to help them use Big Data to understand customers better, create new products and services, fight fraud and improve cyber security and operations, says Raymie Stata, CEO of Altiscale and a keynote speaker at FinTech Talk. We are just at the start of what new technologies can do to help the financial services industry grow and thrive.

For more than 30 years, Silicon Valley has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) provides targeted financial services and expertise through its offices in innovation centers around the world. With commercial, international and private banking services, SVB helps address the unique needs of innovators and Eduardo Vergara, Head of Payments Services at Silicon Valley Bank, joins the speaker panel at FinTech Talk offering insights in payments innovations.

Sample Session Topics



Will Conversational UI powered by AI bots be the next banking app

What would be the next Big Data opportunities in financial services

Will permissioned Blockchain distributed ledgers create the new fabric for financial services and deliver on the promise of Bitcoin without its drawbacks

How are Banks building new channels with APIs to grow revenue and scale up innovation.

Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Blockchain Startups and the Workplace of the Future Showcase

New advancements in deep learning and natural language understanding (NLU) are leading to powerful software bots for process automation and in augmenting human decision making in back office and the front office, says Kamesh Raghavendra early-stage VC at The Hive who is speaking at the event. The Hive is a venture-building studio for startups specializing in data-driven applications in enterprise, IoT and on-line segments.

Several Blockchain startups will be at the event so will R3, a financial innovation firm that leads a consortium partnership of over 40 of the world's leading banks, helping to design and deliver advanced distributed ledger technologies to global financial markets. Projects like iValley provide a forum where up-and-coming technologists can collaborate constructively with end users and potential adopters, says Kathleen Breitman Strategy lead at R3 who will be speaking at the event on the work R3 is doing with its member banks on innovation using blockchain distributed ledgers.

The innovation imperative is changing the workplace in financial services with a more distributed workforce requiring an immersive video collaboration capability. FinTech Talk is planning to showcase and stream the event with PanaCast 2 from Altia Systems, an immersive video collaboration experience for the workplace of the future.

"We're happy to host iValley's FinTech Talk event here at Bishop Ranch this year. The FinTech industry's growth is unprecedented, and its importance cannot be understated. We look forward to seeing what innovations are to come from Bay Area companies and minds." said Alexander Mehran, Jr. President and COO of Sunset Development.

Registration

http://www.ivalley.co/fintechtalk.php

Sponsorship and Media Inquiries

info(at)ivalley(dot)co or call (925) 575-7832

About iValley Innovation Center

Please visit http://www.ivalley.co or follow us on Twitter @ivalleyIC

About Altiscale

Please visit http://www.altiscale.com or follow us on Twitter @Altiscale.

About The Hive

Please visit http://hivedata.com/why-the-hive/

About R3CEV

Please visit http://r3cev.com/about/

About Altia Systems

Please visit http://www.getpanacast.com/company

About Sunset Development and Bishop Ranch

Please visit http://www.bishopranch.com/
Backwoods Mustard Companys new Honey Habanero mustard won first place in the mustard category at the 2016 International Hot Sauce Festival and World Hot Sauce Awards held in Lafayette, LA. The winners were selected by approximately 30 judges from across the country, including executive chefs, restaurant owners, elected officials, hot sauce industry experts, and enthusiasts.

Nearly 300 companies from 14 countries submitted product for the competition and categories ranged from hot sauce to salad dressing. Winning 1st place at a global event is a huge honor and personal victory for us. says Brian Ernst, President of Backwoods Mustard Company. Brian goes on to say, Its not only a win for us, its also a win for Michigan.

The hot Honey Habanero mustard is made with 100% raw Michigan honey. The flavor profile is very unique, says David Saterstad, Vice President of Backwoods Mustard Company, It starts with a distinct honey flavor and slowly finishes with the classic heat of the habanero. 

This isnt the first time Backwoods Mustard has won an award. Their original Sweet Jalapeno mustard took 2nd place in the mustard category in the 2014 World Hot Sauce Awards. The same flavor also garnered 1st place in the Gourmet Food category in WDIVs local and very popular Vote 4 the Best competition, where hundreds of thousands of people participate to vote on more than 12,000 businesses in various categories.

Backwoods Mustard Company brought their first product, Sweet Jalapeno mustard, to market in June of 2013 and followed up with their second and hotter flavor, Honey Habanero, in December of 2015. Their product can be found in nearly 200 retail stores, restaurants, and breweries.

About Backwoods Mustard Company:

Backwoods Mustard Company creates premium Michigan-made craft mustard utilizing family recipes with a focus on tradition, Michigan, and the Great Outdoors. The goal of Backwoods Mustard Company is to provide a unique product experience that goes beyond taste buds by delivering premium specialty foods that reflect their appreciation for the outdoors and by creating a medium of conversation for like-minded individuals. Find out why Its better with Backwoods at http://www.backwoodsmustard.com
The acquisitions of nMode Solutions and their subsidiary, Triton Microtechnologies, is a critical next step in Samtecs technology roadmap.

Samtec, Inc., a leading provider of high bandwidth and micro-pitch interconnect systems, announced today the acquisition of nMode Solutions, of Oro Valley, Arizona.

The acquisitions of nMode Solutions and their subsidiary, Triton Microtechnologies, is a critical next step in Samtecs technology roadmap. This furthers our Silicon-to-Silicon strategy of helping designers optimize the high-speed signal path from the bare die, to IC package and assembly, to the PCB, to connectors and cable assemblies, and back again, said Steve Groothuis, Chief Technology Officer of Samtec Microelectronics. With these requirements in mind, Samtec is investing in advanced technology to enable next generation systems. nMode uses its high frequency design and fabrication expertise to provide advanced 2D, 2.5D and 3-D stacked package solutions. nMode smart sensor modules, RF filters, and evaluation boards support the high-performance, high-density demands of the IC Packaging industry. Utilizing Triton Microtechnologies patented Glass Core Technology, nMode designers use the superior performance and material characteristics of glass to achieve significant miniaturization and integration far beyond what is possible with organic materials.

We are thrilled to be part of the Samtec team, said Tim Mobley, CEO and President of nMode Solutions. nMode and Tritons processes and technologies, combined with Samtecs advanced IC packaging capabilities, enable us to provide unprecedented design, development, and fabrication support for next generation systems.

About Samtec, Inc.:

Founded in 1976, Samtec is a privately held, $625 million global manufacturer of a broad line of electronic interconnect solutions, including IC-to-Board and IC Packaging, High Speed Board-to-Board, High Speed Cables, Mid-Board and Panel Optics, Flexible Stacking, and Micro/Rugged components and cables. Samtec Technology Centers, which develop and advance technologies and products that provide both performance and cost benefits, ensure complete system optimization from the bare die to an interface 100 meters away, and all interconnect points in between. With 33 locations in 18 different countries, Samtecs global presence enables its unmatched customer service. For more information, please visit http://www.samtec.com.

About nMode Solutions:

nMode is an Oro Valley, Arizona based company founded in 2010 by Tim Mobley and Sergio Cardona. nMode Solutions develops unique innovative components through advanced 3-D packaging technology for next generation wireless communications products. The company provides unique high-frequency electronic component and system designs for high performance. nMode utilizes a proprietary new revolutionary glass that will provide the market with never-before-seen RF, analog, digital and Microwave components.

Contact Information:

Samtec, Inc:

Steve Grroothuis

CTO, Samtec Microelectronics

steve(dot)groothuis(at)samtec(dot)com

nMode Solutions:

Tim Mobley

CEO and President, nMode Solutions

TMobley(at)tritonmicrotech(dot)com
Bangladesh Army using MASA SWORD MASAs commitment far exceeds what is written in the contract; their flexibility and ability to adapt to the Armys needs beyond the contract has really helped us to achieve program completion in such good time.

Just thirteen months after contract award, MASA has delivered a completely customized version of its wargame with automated forces, SWORD, to the Bangladesh ARTDOC, in order to equip its Computerized War-Game Center (CWGC). The simulation has been adapted to reflect specific requirements including the Armys doctrine, equipment and supplies as well as its operational terrain.

The ARTDOC has chosen to employ SWORD for command post training from Battalion to Division level. The software enables the Army to immerse its training audience in different types of military and civil emergency scenarios. SWORD can simulate and control tens of thousands of soldiers and units.

The customization program was delivered in just over a year, much faster than the industry standard for a fully personalized simulation system. The timely delivery of such a detailed and technical program, including training Bangladesh Army personnel to use the system, has been enabled by a strong working relationship between the ARTDOC personnel and MASAs engineers as well as by a shared belief in long-term partnership between the Bangladesh Army and the company. The delivery was expedited by the ongoing availability of key Army officers during the preparation and test exercises, as well as by the Bangladesh Armys deep knowledge of simulation tools and their high level of professionalism.

In total, the ARTDOC and MASA conducted three test exercises before the final program delivery, one at the start of the contract before any modifications to SWORD had been made, one midway through its customization process, and finally one after the software had been fully tailored for the Bangladesh Army. The ARTDOC chose SWORD not just for its capabilities to enhance training exercises but also for its features that can enable the use of simulation for analysis use cases, such as planning and decision-support.

The collaboration between the company and the ARTDOC meant that in February 2016 some 80 senior military personnel, including major generals, brigadiers, colonels and a range of subject matter experts, were involved in the final, week-long test exercise conducted by the ARTDOC and supported by MASA. A reflection of the Armys commitment, all 80 personnel were also involved in a week of training for the exercise before the test week itself. The exercise allowed for a final validation of the system, enabling Bangladesh Army personnel to use SWORD autonomously.

Colonel Minhaz, Director of the CWGC at the Bangladesh ARTDOC commented that MASA and the Bangladesh Army have been able to build an incredibly positive relationship. MASAs commitment far exceeds what is written in the contract; their flexibility and ability to adapt to the Armys needs beyond the contract has really helped us to achieve program completion in such good time. We anticipate an ongoing strong relationship with MASA as the Armys demands for further SWORD features evolve with our use of the software.

The CWGC is the latest addition to the Armys ARTDOC and was inaugurated in November 2015 by President Abdul Hamid. Located in the Dhaka cantonment, the CWGC has been set up to help the army work towards the Forces Goal 2030, ensuring the modernisation and technological advancement of all of Bangladeshs armed forces. As well as ensuring national security, the Army has a proud history of supporting the United Nations and providing aid to the civil authorities in the wake of natural disasters, and has topped the league for the leading troop contributor, providing around 120,000 troops over 28 years. The customized version of SWORD has been designed to train the command staff to retain these core responsibilities and skills.

We are extremely proud to have been selected by the Bangladesh Army last year after such a thorough tendering process, said David Chouraqui, MASAs Chairman and CEO. Bangladesh was the third country in the region to adopt SWORD. The ARTDOC understood extremely well the full pedagogical potential of SWORD as a simulation tool, which has led the Army to a solid commitment to train, educate and maintain wargame-specialized personnel, and helped in the smooth setup of the fully customized software. MASAs ability to respond to the Bangladesh Armys specific requirements demonstrates its potential to do the same for other Asian and Commonwealth countries in the future.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

Azerbaijan has always attached great importance for the creation and development of civil society institutions, including the NGOs operating in the country, said Ali Hasanov, the Azerbaijani president's aide for public and political affairs.

He made the remarks addressing the presentation of the Civil Society Dialogue project in Baku June 2. The event was organized by the Council of Europe and the European Union.

Aside from Hasanov, Director of the Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity at the Council of Europe Claudia Luciani, Azerbaijan's Deputy Justice Minister Togrul Musayev, Head of the Council of Europe's Office in Baku Dragana Filipovic, Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Malena Mard, Deputy Executive Director of the Council of State Support to NGOs Rauf Majidli and representatives of local NGOs took part in the event.

"The Azerbaijani state plays a role of the biggest donor for the civil society institutions and allocates grants not only to the local NGOs," said Hasanov.

"Starting from 2013, the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of Azerbaijan has been financing the projects presented by foreign NGOs on peace, democracy, protection of rights, development of social pluralism, conveying the Azerbaijani realities to the world and other topics," he said.

Commenting on the concern of some representatives of the public sector and international organizations over the amendments made to the legislative acts in recent years, the top official noted that in reality, the practice shows that those amendments were made to increase the transparency, accountability and orderliness in this sphere and to simplify the communication of NGOs with the state bodies.

"The reasonable proposals of NGOs on improving the mechanism of cooperation between the state and public organizations, alternative ways of resolving the problems in various spheres of the social life, will be in the limelight," he added.

The NGOs will be involved in the process of preparing important state programs and their active participation in the work of state commissions will be ensured, Hasanov said.

"I believe that our support to the Civil Society Dialogue project fully corresponds to this policy," he said. "I am confident that the cooperation with the Council of Europe and other international structures in this sphere will bring positive results."

Further, addressing the presentation, Director of the Directorate of Democratic Governance, Culture and Diversity at the Council of Europe Claudia Luciani noted that the Civil Society Dialogue project is important for Azerbaijan.

She said one of the goals of the project is to expand the potential of state structures that take part in the relations between the government and civil society organizations.

Azerbaijan's Deputy Justice Minister Togrul Musayev for his part said that the large-scale reforms were carried out and very important results were achieved in Azerbaijan as a result of the country's cooperation with the Council of Europe.

The deputy minister said a legislative framework has been created in Azerbaijan for the free operation of NGOs, adding that the implementation of the Civil Society Dialogue project will contribute to increasing the potential of NGOs.

Addressing the event, Head of the Council of Europe's Office in Baku Dragana Filipovic noted that the creation of the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of Azerbaijan is the embodiment of a dialogue between the government and the NGOs.

She added that the active media and independent court are the integral parts of the dynamic democracy.

This project is a good platform for the joint work of the Council of Europe, the EU and other partners, said Filipovic.

Further, Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Malena Mard said that an open society is very important for the sustainable development.

She pointed out that Azerbaijan is a successful member of the Council of Europe and is an important part of the Civil Society Dialogue project.

Mard also expressed hope that over the two years, during which this project is to be implemented, it will be possible to share the experience and move forward.

Rauf Majidli, deputy executive director of the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of Azerbaijan, for this part noted that after Azerbaijan's gaining independence, the country's civil society institutions came a way of continuous development.

"The adoption of the concept of state support to NGOs in Azerbaijan should be assessed as a new stage in the development of civil society organizations," he said. "The work to be carried out within the presented project will also make contribution to this."
CRDF Global Instead of responding to the next epidemic after it reaches U.S. borders, we hope that the U.S. will be a leader in supporting programs to address emerging public health threats regardless of their point of origin.

Recently the U.S. Congress proposed funding to support response to the ongoing Zika virus outbreak in Central and South America and the Caribbean. As an independent nonprofit organization promoting international science collaboration, CRDF Global supports strengthening the domestic response to this pressing epidemic. However, we recognize that a purely domestic approach to the outbreak after it has happened is inadequate to address a disease known to have increasing or widespread transmission in 38 countries. Response by this country to the 2015 Ebola outbreak was driven in large part by the arrival in the U.S. of patients infected by the disease, which many health experts deemed was too late. The ongoing Zika outbreak serves as another stark reminder of the global impact of infectious diseases.

CRDF Global strongly believes that to head off global health crises like Zika, a multi-pronged international approach to global disease is required. This can only be achieved if governments move their focus and efforts beyond a reactive, disease-specific approach that costs both dollars and lives. In order for the U.S. and other countries to effectively mitigate public health threats, international organizations and governments must support holistic programs of global health preparedness. That is one of the reasons why CRDF Global has been a strong advocate for the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) as a mechanism for multi-sectoral, multi-national global health collaboration. It provides a clear framework to address Zika and other emerging global health threats.

Through the GHSA, the U.S and others can multiply global contributions to help partner countries minimize the spread or impact of epidemics. Through vaccine research, improving and sharing diagnostic tools, and enhancing disease surveillance and public health initiatives, global communities can move beyond response and onto the path of prevention. CRDF Global looks forward to pending action by Congress and other U.S. agencies to support a global Zika response. In the meantime, CRDF Global will continue its activities in support of global health preparedness in Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Instead of responding to the next epidemic after it reaches U.S. borders, we hope that the U.S. will be a leader in supporting programs to address emerging public health threats regardless of their point of origin.

EXPERTS AVAILABLE

CRDF Global has the following experts on staff who can discuss the importance of strengthening multi-sectoral, international partnerships to combat infectious diseases:

-Andrew Parsons, M.S. in Biotechnology & Biomedical Science

Associate Program Director, Science Engagement

Mr. Parsons brings over 20 years of expertise in biosafety, biotechnology and laboratory science to CRDF Global and serves as the lead for the organizations Biosecurity Engagement Program. His exceptional science career includes work in public and private research organizations including the Boston Public Health Lab, where he conducted whole genome sequencing of Influenza virus specimens for the Centers for Disease Control. Apart from his research career, Mr. Parsons is a former U.S. Army Officer, having held several positions including Science Officer with the 1st Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team. Pairing his academic and military backgrounds, Mr. Parsons is an expert on the intersection of scientific research, emergency preparedness, and biological and chemical nonproliferation.

-John Crockett

Senior Program Manager, Science Engagement

Mr. Crockett has over two decades of experience in international development, including living and working in a dozen countries and leading programs for large non-profits and government agencies. Since 2014, he has led CRDF Globals strategic initiative in global health security, which has included managing responses to Ebola and most recently the Zika virus. Mr. Crockett is an expert in the Global Health Security Agenda and has presented and led events on this topic in the U.S. and internationally. Mr. Crockett works closely with CRDF Global partners and donors to advocate and pursue numerous global security projects with a focus in East Africa and the Middle East.

CONTACT: Media interested in interviewing one of these experts should contact Becky Sheetz-Runkle at bsheetz(at)beckysheetz.com or 703-501-0533

About CRDF Global

CRDF Global is an independent, nonprofit organization established in 1995 to promote international scientific and technical collaboration through grants, technical resources, training, and services. CRDF Global has 20 years of experience managing international research funding programs and supporting emerging science and technology infrastructure in more than 40 countries in Eurasia, the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

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Datamars, a leader in delivering high performance identification and tracking solutions, announced today that Wade King has joined the Datamars US team as the Vice President for Livestock Identification Sales.

We are pleased to add another accomplished leader and industry expert to the Datamars US executive team. Wades deep experience and commitment to excellence will ensure our continued successful expansion and growth in the Livestock Identification market, said Klaus Ackerstaff, CEO of Datamars, SA.

King comes to Datamars with over 25 years of experience in the animal health industry, serving in sales, sales management, marketing and key account/distribution positions with notable animal health companies including, Lextron, Novartis Animal Health and Elanco. Most recently, he served as the Director of Sales at Agri Laboratories. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration/Marketing from Tarleton State University.

In his new role, King will be responsible for all North American Livestock Identification Sales, and will report to Robert Bailey, CEO of Datamars U.S. Subsidiary. Wade brings a wealth of knowledge and sales leadership experience to our Sales team, added Bailey. This will not only ensure a seamless transition for the team, but also facilitate further sales success for the organization.

Im honored to join the Datamars team, and look forward to supporting the Livestock Sales team as we accelerate revenue growth, add new customers and expand our market position, said King, who will be based out of Greensboro, North Carolina, where he resides with his family.

Contact: media(at)datamars(dot)com

About Datamars:

Datamars is the global leader for high performance RFID solution for the companion animal, livestock and textile identification markets. Our expertise, track record of technological innovation and profound understanding of customers needs have earned Datamars a reputation for unsurpassed quality and performance. Datamars employs more than 800 people with offices in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Datamars is a private company, headquartered in Bedano, Switzerland. For more information, please visit http://www.datamars.com.

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The theme of this years event is Engaging Tomorrow's Maintenance Enterprise Challenges, Today!

The 2016 DOD Maintenance Symposium, an event administrated by SAE International, will be held Dec. 5-8, 2016, at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. The theme of this years event is Engaging Tomorrow's Maintenance Enterprise Challenges, Today!

Developed as the maintenance community's primary venue for networking and content sharing, the mission of the 2016 DoD Maintenance Symposium is to create an environment that enables attendees to share relevant information, identify critical issues, discuss key topics, and increase their awareness of Department of Defense maintenance initiatives. Join military, government, industry leaders, and maintainers from all levels at this unique, first class event.

Special Interest Area - Call for Innovations: The Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Maintenance challenges authors to submit maintenance related innovations. An evaluation board comprising maintenance subject matter experts will select six candidates to participate in the challenge during the 2016 DOD Maintenance Symposium, December 5-8, 2016.

Presentations must be technical in nature  focused on current or potential maintenance operations or management  and strictly void of commercialism. Abstracts (300-500 words) for the 2016 Maintenance Innovation Challenge will be accepted through Wednesday, September 14, 2016. For more information about the Call for Innovations, or to submit an abstract, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about the 2016 DoD Maintenance Symposium, visit http://www.sae.org/events/dod/. To request media credentials, email pr(at)sae.or or call 1-724-772-8522.

The DoD Maintenance Symposium is co-located with the Defense Maintenance and Logistics Exhibition. View more information at http://www.sae.org/defexpo.

SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By uniting over 128,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our charitable arm, the SAE Foundation, which helps fund programs like A World in Motion and the Collegiate Design Series.


Pots & Co Puddings in Aegg Packaging The Pots & Co desserts are provided on most British Airways flights in Aegg's crystal PS embossed clear lidded pots.

Pots & Co chooses Aegg Creative Packaging to produce its bespoke engraved 75ml injection moulded PS plastic food packaging pots for the launch of its new contract with British Airways. The Pots & Co desserts are provided on most British Airways flights in Aeggs crystal PS embossed clear lidded pots, including salted caramel and malted milk chocolate. The puddings, in Aegg pots, are also available on some Delta Air Lines.

Pots & Co and Aegg collaborated closely for several months to ensure the process as well as food packaging solution worked seamlessly before going live. For example, the clip-on lid, embossed with the Pots & Co logo, is automated as part of the overall pots production line to provide efficiencies, whilst keeping the level of quality high. As well as featuring on the lid, the Pots & Co logo is also embossed on the pot, ensuring that the packaging matches the luxury element of the product.

Pots & Co founder and CEO, Julian Dyer, said We are delighted to be working with Aegg. We have found them to be very flexible and proactive. They have provided ideal solutions through their understanding of the whole process as well as their great working relationships with machine manufacturers. They also get our brand and our joint no-compromise on quality has resulted in a fantastic end product.

Managing Director of Aegg, Jamie Gorman, said Pots & Co is a quality brand and were proud they have partnered with Aegg to introduce their luxury desserts to the in-flight market. We have made a sizeable investment in top quality tooling for the pot and lid moulds, as well as introducing the latest in filling and packaging automation. This means that we are able to provide efficiencies on the production line, whilst sticking to the no compromise attitude to quality, adopted by both Pots & Co and Aegg.

Andover-based Aegg is a specialist food and beverage glass and plastics packaging company. Aegg packaging can be found in the premium shelves of all major UK supermarkets and on in-flight ranges. All Aeggs packaging is manufactured at accredited production sites. Its plastic products are manufactured in the European Union, which lends itself to short lead times and flexible delivery options. Its glass is manufactured in world class production factories with recognised accreditations. Aegg offers both a catalogue of off-the-shelf products as well as a turnkey project management service, with its own in-house design team, ideal for more bespoke or creative packaging. For more information about Aegg, go to http://www.aegg.co.uk

Pots & Co, the Acton-based luxury pudding maker which was launched in 2008 as a rival to G, makes the most expensive desserts on supermarket shelves. Its team of chefs, who have worked at some amazing restaurants (including Bath Priory, and The Square), are fanatical about the best ingredients, ethically sourced, and British grown or manufactured where possible. For more information about Pots & Co, go to http://www.potsandco.com
Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP

Date: June 22, 2016, 12 p.m.  2 p.m.; lunch will be provided

Location: One Commerce Square, 2005 Market Street, Suite 2200, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Details: Intellectual property attorneys Patricia S. Rogowski and Bridget H. Labutta of Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP will host a roundtable discussion on behalf of the International Trademark Association (INTA) called Staying Afloat When Navigating the Waters of the Madrid Protocol.

Join other trademark practitioners to discuss the pros, cons, and best practices for managing international registrations through the Madrid Protocol. This event is open to the public and the registration fee is $50 for INTA members, $75 for non-members and includes a luncheon. Please bring a photo ID to the event to enter.

To register, visit http://www.inta.org/Roundtables/Pages/Roundtables.aspx.

INTA coordinates these popular two-hour discussions on current trademark topics that are held in cities throughout the world on a regular basis. They are an ideal way to network with other professionals, stay current on trademark issues, and share ideas with peers.

About Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP  Panitch Schwarze Belisario & Nadel LLP is a boutique intellectual property law firm with offices in Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware. The firms IP law practitioners provide strategic litigation, licensing and counseling service relating to patents, trademarks, copyrights and trade secrets, domain names and internet issues domestically and internationally. The firms long-standing relationships with a network of associates worldwide enable its attorneys and advisors to provide clients with global intellectual property advice and protection.
In todays competitive environment, law firms cannot afford to be in a position of losing revenue due to poor timekeeping practices

Bellefield Systems, LLC, the leader in mobile and anywhere time entry solutions for firms of all sizes, announced the release of a new, first-of-its-kind, infographic depicting the state of time entry in legal from a recent survey focused on time entry in law firms.

The infographic explores the time card as a unit of revenue, central to the financial health of modern law firms. Themes addressed in the State of Time Entry in Legal include:



How poor timekeeping practices have resulted in time leakage and decreases in revenue at law firms.

The impact of a firms time entry policy.

Ways to improve revenue through contemporaneous time entry.

At Bellefield, we are passionate about helping firms create better timekeepers, said Gabriela Isturiz, President of Bellefield Systems. We are proud to release The State of Time Entry in Legal, bringing awareness to one of the biggest challenges faced by law firms today  revenue, Isturiz continued. As you will see in the infographic, 95% of todays firms are leaking time and missing out on revenue. In todays competitive environment, law firms cannot afford to be in a position of losing revenue due to poor timekeeping practices.

The State of Time Entry in Legal is based on Bellefields research, as well as a survey conducted by Legal Vendor Strategies, among firms with 150 plus attorneys, representing almost 100 law firms worldwide.

View the infographic here.

About Bellefield

Bellefield is committed to helping lawyers improve their work lives by developing innovative and intuitive applications that solve real-world challenges. Bellefield does this by identifying a problem, evaluating it from many different perspectives, and working tirelessly to create the best possible solution. Bellefields flagship product iTimeKeep ranks #1 as the most adopted Mobile Time Entry Solution for attorneys for the third consecutive year. Founded by software veterans Gabriela Isturiz, Daniel Garcia, and John Kuntz, Bellefield is an independent, privately held company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. To learn more, visit Bellefield Systems.

About iTimeKeep

iTimeKeep is a game-changing mobile application that simplifies contemporaneous time entry while eliminating the burdens of complicated and invasive time capture applications. Upon hearing the frustrations of attorneys required to use technology that is counterintuitive to the way they work, Bellefield developed iTimeKeep to give them the ability to easily get the job done anytime and everywhere, increasing adoption and improving internal operations. iTimeKeep is delivered as a Time Entry as a Service (TEaaS) model in order to maximize the benefits of mobility to firms, without taxing on their resources. iTimeKeep was recently ranked by ILTA as the most adopted Mobile Time Entry Solution for attorneys for the third year in a row. To learn more, visit iTimeKeep.
NACDFL

The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Florida Chapter, the advocate for the profession of directorship, today announced that Sherrill Hudson, Chairman at TECO Energy, will take on the Chairmanship of the Chapter. Hudson is a current board member of CBIZ, Inc., United Insurance Holding Corp, and Lennar. He also served on the board of Publix Super Markets, Inc. for 12 years and spent 37 years with Deloitte & Touche, LLP. Hudsons experience as a public company CEO, and his depth of knowledge in corporate governance will bring best-in-class corporate governance practices to Florida through the work of the Chapter.

I am proud to be spearheading the chapter efforts to ensure that Florida directors are well educated and well connected through the work of the NACD Florida Chapter Hudson said. After more than a decade in Florida, the chapter is planning on expanding its reach and impact in todays rapidly changing world of corporate governance.

Lauren E. Smith, Managing Director, Diversified Search, will take on the President role for the Chapter. Lauren has a deep understanding of board composition, the boards role in strategy, and the Florida marketplace. She serves on the boards of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and the American Red Cross South Florida Chapter, and has been involved in the leadership of the NACD Florida Chapter since its inception.

To learn about upcoming NACD Florida Chapter programs in markets within Florida visit florida.nacdonline.org.

About NACD

The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is the advocate for the profession of directorship, and is focused on advancing exemplary board leadership. Informed by more than 35 years of experience, NACD delivers insights and resources that more than 16,000 corporate director members rely on to make sound strategic decisions and confidently confront complex business challenges. NACD provides world-class director education programs, national peer-exchange forums, and proprietary research to promote director professionalism, ultimately enhancing the economic sustainability of the corporate enterprise and bolstering stakeholder confidence. Fostering collaboration among directors, investors, and governance stakeholders, NACD is shaping the future of board leadership. To learn more about NACD, visit NACDonline.org. To learn about full board membership for your company, visit http://www.nacdonline.org or contact Steve Kalan, mailto:skalan(at)nacdonline.org, or by visiting NACDonline.org/Join.

About NACD Florida Chapter

The NACD Florida Chapter was established by National Association of Corporate Directors in 2005 to create a local, cross-industry peer-to-peer director forum for the exchange of knowledge and ideas throughout Florida. Events are held in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Tampa and Naples. By convening directors and experts to examine leading practices and anticipate developing issues, the Chapter helps participating directors be more effective in the boardroom, add value to their organizations, and foster the positive image of corporations and business organizations through improved corporate governance. The Chapter also provides a grass-roots channel through which members can participate in NACDs nationwide dialog on corporate and organizational governance practices and principles. Press inquiries can be directed to Lauren E. Smith, National Association of Corporate Directors Florida Chapter, 305-679-6230 or lauren.smith(at)divsearch.com.
This year, were honored to be speaking at IRCE with two of our clients, WEBS and the Sak.

WebLinc, the commerce platform provider for the fastest growing online retailers, is pleased to announce that they will exhibit and present at the 12th Annual Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) in Chicago at McCormick Place West in Chicago happening June 7-10, 2016. For the first time, WebLinc will present demos of the WebLinc Commerce Platform and the recently acquired Orderbot order management system at booth #1303.

WebLincs CEO and Co-founder Darren C. Hill will be presenting a session with two of the companys clients, WEBS President Steve Elkins and The Sak Brand Groups Head of Ecommerce Gabrielle Gallo. The session is called Prescriptions for the Growing Pains of Mid-Market E-Retailers, and it will take place on June 8, from 1:15 to 1:45 p.m. in the Small Retailers Track of the conference agenda.

WebLincs Session at IRCE 2016

Attendees will hear strategies for ramping up an ecommerce team, meeting customer service needs, scaling marketing efforts and more. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the key performance indicators they should monitor to ensure they dont outgrow order management systems, warehousing or fulfillment, and that their platform can scale with growing traffic and catalog size.

Its always great to be back in Chicago for IRCE, said Darren C. Hill, CEO and co-founder of WebLinc. This year, were honored to be speaking at IRCE with two of our clients, WEBS and the Sak. The material well be presenting affects all retailers climbing through the mid market.

If you are an analyst or member of the press looking to speak with WebLinc team members, please email John Forberger at jforberger(at)weblinc(dot)com or dial 267-417-4199.

To see a demo of the newly enhanced WebLinc Commerce Platform, including the Orderbot order management system, visit booth #1303.

About WebLinc

WebLinc is the commerce and operations management platform for fast growing online retailers. Mid to large-size retailers consistently outpace their competition with the modern, agile technologies of the WebLinc Commerce Platform and the companys strategic expertise. Based in Philadelphia with satellite offices in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto, WebLinc powers commerce sites for dynamic, high-growth retailers including Sanrio/Hello Kitty, Urban Outfitters, Inc.s brands Terrain and BHLDN, U.S. Polo Assn., Stila Cosmetics, Rachel Roy, and others. To learn more, visit http://www.weblinc.com.
As an organization, we are deeply committed to strengthening the diversity of the legal community.

Clutch Group, a leading legal, risk, and compliance analytics and consulting firm sponsored the Leadership in Diversity Gala hosted by New Jersey Law and Education Empower Project (NJ LEEP). The gala was held at the Westin Jersey City in honor of Mark Roellig, EVP and General Counsel at MassMutual.

Clutch is a Minority-Owned Business Enterprise certified by the New York & New Jersey Minority Supplier Development Council (NYNJMSDC). Clutchs commitment to diversity is present throughout the organization in its hiring practices, its global expansion, and its philanthropy.

As an organization, we are deeply committed to strengthening the diversity of the legal community, says Varun Mehta, EVP, Client Engagement at Clutch Group. In the past, we have supported organizations like the Urban Assembly School of Law and Justice, Urban Justice Center, Equal Justice Works and Race Judicata as we continue to do our part to make the legal services industry open to all.

NJ LEEP was founded in 2006 to empower youth from underserved neighborhoods in northern New Jersey to greater educational achievement through a three-fold focus on skills, habits, and exposure. NJ LEEP focuses upon combining law-related education programming with college access programming.

About Clutch

Clutch Group is a leading legal, risk, and compliance analytics and consulting firm headquartered in Washington D.C., with offices in NY, Chicago, London, Bangalore, Zurich and Hong Kong. The firm is dedicated to helping companies in the financial services, life sciences, and energy industries solve complex problems presented by the exponential growth of data and regulation. Clutchs global team of attorneys, consultants, and technologists leverage deep subject-matter expertise and Clutch.IQ, a suite of cutting-edge data analytics solutions, to help clients manage large-scale litigation and investigations, conduct comprehensive communications surveillance, and re-engineer their internal legal and compliance functions. Clutch has been recognized by industry authorities including Nelson Hall, the New York Law Journal, Chambers Global, Frost & Sullivan, and Dun & Bradstreet and is regularly featured across major industry and market publications. For more information, visit http://www.clutchgroup.com.
Plumbline Consulting, LLC was recently named as one of the 2016 Best Employers in Ohio. As a leading technology consulting firm, Plumbline Consulting provides accounting and business solutions support to Microsoft Dynamics partners across the United States. The annual list of Best Employers in Ohio is managed by the Ohio SHRM State Council and Best Companies Group. Plumbline has been ranked ninth in the list of the top best employers in the small/medium company list.

To be selected as one of the Best Employers in Ohio, companies from across the state enter into a two-part survey process. The first part consists of evaluating each nominated company's workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics. The second part consists of employee surveys taken to measure the employee experience.

We are thrilled to be named to the Best Employers in Ohio list for the fourth time. This nomination reflects our continued commitment to our employees, clients and partners. Organizations across the United States leverage our friendly and knowledgeable team members to help them solve their business technology challenges, states Todd Michael, General Manager of Plumbline Consulting.

Joseph Longo, President of Plumbline Consulting, adds, It is a great honor to be recognized as one of the Best Employers in Ohio. This award reflects our strong company values and dedicated employees. I am proud to be part of the Findlay community, the number 1 ranking micropolitan in the United States, which has supported our growth and offers a talented workforce. I also wish to extend our congratulations to the other winners of this award."

About Plumbline Consulting

Plumbline provides software engineering and consulting services for Microsoft, Microsoft Dynamics Channel Partners and Microsoft Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). Plumbline offers software development, application support, technology and business process consulting, with a focus on delivering excellence and building lasting relationships. Plumbline also provides the Dynamics SL (formerly known as Solomon Software) Product Development, Marketing and Support services for Microsoft Corporation. The company is headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. More information about Plumbline Consulting can be found at http://www.plumblineconsulting.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

The resolution adopted by Germany's Bundestag (parliament) on recognizing the 1915 events as "Armenian genocide" is prejudiced and biased, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesperson for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, told Trend June 2.

The falsification of history and using it for political purposes is unacceptable, he added.

The fact that Germany's parliament remains indifferent to the Armenian aggression and occupation policy against Azerbaijan, the bloody ethnic cleansing committed by Armenia against Azerbaijanis, as well as the Khojaly genocide, and the adoption of the one-sided resolution on the falsified "Armenian genocide", allegedly committed 101 years ago, is a striking example of double standards, said Hajiyev.

He noted that expressing attitude to the falsified 1915 events at the parliamentary level is aimed at misleading the German society and international community.

Germany's Bundestag adopted a resolution on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide June 2. Previously, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there has never been genocide in Turkey's history.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.
We are honored to have helped unleash these legacy opportunities and are gratified by the deep and long-standing relationships we have forged.

Carter Morse & Mathias (CMM), a boutique investment bank which specializes in advising privately held middle market companies, is pleased to announce the launch of Creating a Legacy  Life After a Sale. The series gives unique insight into some of the successful business people that CMM has advised, and what they are doing with the resulting time and money to help create their own personal legacies.

Over the course of 29 years, we have completed over 300 assignments and have been fortunate to meet and work with entrepreneurial people in preparing for and completing their once-in-a-lifetime transactions, said Frank Morse, managing director of CMM. We are honored to have helped unleash these legacy opportunities and are gratified by the deep and long-standing relationships we have forged.

The series recently launched with profiles of four individuals and one couple, each detailing their background, the transaction, and their plans for their personal legacies. These strategies include using technology to improve education effectiveness, becoming an angel investor to help support the next generation of entrepreneurs and committing to help others prosper.

One legacy featured is that of Oni Chukwu, a survivor of the Nigeria/Biafran civil war in the late 1960s, who earned an MBA from the University of New Haven, held a series of executive roles in global finance and technology, became a university board member and went on to serve as CFO of Triple Point Technology, where he led the companys global expansion. After the successful sale, he merged his expertise of technology and entrepreneurship, becoming the CEO of a cloud-based software company while continuing to fulfill his lifelong passion to help the disadvantaged.

In 2011, Chukwu and his wife Leslie started the Africa Plan Foundation with the broad mandate to help underprivileged people and organizations around the world in tangible and measureable ways. The organization currently focuses on helping entrepreneurs in developing countries with guidance and financial support, global womens health, including tackling issues such as female mutilation, and promoting youth education.

Im a staunch believer in giving back, says Chukwu. Ive been helped by a lot of people to get where I am, so it is important for me to do the same.

Another story featured in the series is that of Lisa Braden-Harder, who in 1993 founded Butler Hill Group, a leading language technology consulting and services firm. When the company merged with Appen, Inc., headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the transaction created a new global leader in linguistic solutions. After becoming co-president and then CEO of Appen, she took the company public in Australia. Braden-Harder then decided to step away from the company to fulfill her passions, enrolling in Harvard Universitys Advanced Leadership Initiative. The program is designed to help former executives put their expertise to work within the social impact sector.

Braden-Harder ultimately plans to combine her vast experience with linguistic technology and her interest in education, potentially creating unique educational software to aid schools and teachers.

People ask me about ringing the bell at the Australian Stock Exchange and the celebratory lunch in front of the Sydney Opera House, but what really excites me is what I can do with this new opportunity, said Braden-Harder.

Ramsey Goodrich, managing director of CMM says, For a business owner, a sale unleashes two previously scarce commodities, time and money. Following the sale, they now have the freedom to decide how those resources can be put towards making a meaningful impact in their communities. We share these stories of both personal and professional achievement post-sale with the hope that they inspire others to create their own legacies. We look forward to following these successes over the years and working with other inspiring individuals who seek to do the same.

To read all of the inspiring legacy stories, please visit http://www.cartermorse.com/our-clients/legacy-series.

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About Carter Morse & Mathias:

Founded in 1987, Carter Morse & Mathias is a boutique investment bank specializing in advising privately held middle market companies. CMM provides a full range of investment banking services: business sales and divestitures, equity and debt capital raises, acquisition services, and pre-transaction and strategic advisory services. Time and time again, our strategic guidance and seamless transaction execution has proven crucial for clients, many of whom we represent in their once-in-a-lifetime transaction. For nearly 30 years, CMM's combination of hands-on Managing Director involvement and extensive network of domestic and international resources has enabled us to help hundreds of business owners plan, execute, and close transactions that maximize shareholder value.

CMM's Broker/Dealer affiliate, Carter Capital Corporation, is a FINRA member firm registered with the SEC and SIPC. CMM is also a charter member of AICA, an international network of M&A professionals in over 20 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
Attorney George Sink

The VA recently bestowed Attorney George Sink with a United States Of America Vietnam War Commemoration Vietnam Veteran lapel pin after he and his team visited the South Carolina Regional VA Office in Columbia, SC. This token of appreciation recognizes, thanks, and honors Vietnam veterans who served on active duty between November 1955 and May 1975.

George was presented with the handsome pin by a member of the VA. The pin contains the following symbolism:



Stars: The six stars represent the six allies who served, sacrificed, and fought alongside one another  Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and the United States.

Stripes: The stripes behind the eagle represent the American flag.

Laurel wreath: A time-honored symbol representing victory, integrity, and strength.

Eagle: The eagle represents courage, honor, and dedicated service to our nation.

Blue circle: The color blue matches the canton of the American flag and signifies vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

Message: A Grateful Nation Thanks and Honors You is embossed on the back of the pin, closest to the heart of the wearer.

George Sink, P.A. Injury Lawyers maintains a great working relationship with the VA and puts this connection to work for the benefit of our clients. If you are in need of VA benefits after being disabled during the course of your military service, please call a South Carolina veterans disability attorney at George Sink, P.A. Injury Lawyers. We can assist you with the claims filing or appeals process to potentially increase your chances of receiving benefits. For more on how an attorney from our firm can help, visit our Veterans Disability page on our website.

George Sink, P.A. Injury Lawyers has assisted South Carolina veterans with the VA claims process for more than 35 years. In addition to veterans disability, the firm also handles social security disability cases and the full range of personal injury cases. To learn more about the firm and to schedule a complimentary case evaluation, please visit the firm online at http://www.sinklaw.com.
Sarkhan Alakbarov, Representative of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of the Azerbaijani Republic (ASK) This presentation before over 30 local industry kingpins gave an invaluable overview of the economic fabric of the country.

The French city of Reims, located 143km from Paris, hosted an event featuring an enthralling mix of Azerbaijani business, culture and music on 26 May. This was hosted by the CCI Reims-Eperney, and organised by the French office of The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), in partnership with Jazzus Productions, CCI International Champagne-Ardenne and the Azerbaijani Embassy to France. This was also a celebration of Azerbaijani Republic Day  remembering the achievements of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), the first democracy in the Muslim East  which existed from 191820.

The afternoon began with a roundtable focusing on how cultural co-operation can create economic opportunities as a vehicle for increasing understanding of the country, its tolerance, and westward-facing stance, attended by over 30 company representatives of Reims and its region. Marie-Laetitia Gourdin, Director, TEAS France, explained how the meeting came in the wake of events held in Reims in 2012 when it hosted the now-famous Azerbaijan  Pearl of the Caucasus exhibition, opened by Mrs Mehriban Aliyeva, First Lady of Azerbaijan. Last year, TEAS decided to support the creation of a new jazz festival in the city, known as the Sunnyside Festival, founded by Jazzus Productions. It facilitated the participation of Azerbaijani jazz pianist Emil Afrasiyab and his Quartet. The enthusiasm generated by this collaboration provided the groundwork to add cultural and business roundtables to the proceedings.

Mrs Gourdin explained how Azerbaijan is a close partner to the EU, and that the country is officially secular, combining the oriental and European. She outlined how TEAS is contributing towards developing links between French and Azerbaijani cities, mentioning examples from Colmar and Mulhouse, where TEAS organised its Azerbaijan Through the Lens exhibition and participated in the Christmas Market, which showcased typical Azerbaijani products for French consumers.

Composer Pierre Thilloy spoke of his experiences in Azerbaijan since he began visiting the country regularly as Composer-in-Residence for the French Embassy in Azerbaijan in 2001. He explained how music remains integral to every element of Azerbaijani life and is a key to comprehending the country. Mr Thilloy referred to the great 20th century symphonic tradition of such Azerbaijani composers as Gara Garayev and Fikret Amirov, and how music can be harnessed to speak of difficult or challenging subjects.

His sentiments were reflected by Jean Delestrade, Co-Founder of Jazzus Productions, organiser of the Sunnyside Jazz Festival. Looking forward to the concert by the Elchin Shirinov Trio that evening, he commented how the three participations of Azerbaijani jazz musicians in the Festival Jazz a Saint-Germain-des-Pres Paris  organised by TEAS France  and this second participation in the Sunnyside festival were placing Azerbaijan on the map for jazz fans. The Paris festival has previously featured the now-famous Isfar Sarabski and Emil Afrasiyab and will now also place Elchin Shirinov in the spotlight. He commented that those musicians from France and other countries who were collaborating with Azerbaijani jazz artistes are now beginning to understand the country through its music.

Ayaz Gojayev, Cultural Counsellor and First Secretary, Azerbaijani Embassy to France, spoke of the cultural work undertaken by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in France, such as the restoration of five 14th century stained glass windows in Strasbourg Cathedral; contributing to the restoration of several rural churches in the Basse-Normandie region; and playing an integral role in creating the Islamic art department in the Louvre Museum. He discussed the importance of establishing friendship and co-operation charters between French regions and towns and those in Azerbaijan. Since 2011, 11 such charters have been signed, and there is a high level of decentralised co-operation between France and Azerbaijan in business and cultural terms. An agreement on academic exchange has also been signed between Ganja University and Reims University, and it is hoped that todays meetings will prompt new areas of collaboration between Reims and Azerbaijan.

A second roundtable concentrating on economic opportunities in the Azerbaijani non-oil sector followed. The Azerbaijani government is currently seeking to diversify the economy away from over-reliance on hydrocarbons and is seeking collaboration with French businesses. This presentation before over 30 local industry kingpins gave an invaluable overview of the economic fabric of the country; its business climate; investment opportunities; and presentations covering a range of sectors, including viticulture; agribusiness; tourism; and pharmaceutical manufacture.

Mrs Gourdin began by outlining the strengths of the Azerbaijani economy, but also the challenges that it currently faces in seeking to achieve diversification. She explained that the country is open to French investment, joint ventures and the application of French industrial specialist knowledge, and that such developments as the Baku International Seaport and the launch of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are aimed at kickstarting the non-oil economy.

Lawyer James Hogan, Partner at Dentons, which supported the event, gave an insight into the judicial and business environment in Azerbaijan, including its political stability, the emergent middle-class, the respect for the inviolability of contracts and the genuine will to diversify the economy. He explained some of the agreements that have been ratified by France and Azerbaijan, aimed at eliminating double-taxation and fiscal fraud, and the legislation that has been passed to attract and protect the interests of foreign investors. The tax and customs dispensations and simplifications of SEZs were also outlined, as was the concept of the single window for business registration that facilitates completion in less than five working days.

Sarkhan Alakbarov, Representative of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of the Azerbaijani Republic (ASK), who was recently nominated as official representative of ASK in France, explained how ASK provides a platform for Azerbaijani entrepreneurs to enter the French market and vice-versa, providing legal counsel and match-making opportunities.

Finally, Claude Humbert, Director of Industry, Innovation, International Relations and Durable Development, CCI International Champagne-Ardenne, outlined the industries of the region, many of which mirror those currently being developed in Azerbaijan, indicating where there is scope for future collaboration, especially in the agricultural sector, the region being the primary producer of cereals in France.

The evening culminated with a jazz concert by the Elchin Shirinov Trio as part of the annual Sunnyside Jazz Festival before around 120 ecstatic fans. Pianist Shirinov combines elements of post-bop jazz, blues and funk with the modes, melodies and microtones of Azerbaijani mugham and classical music. Throughout, Shirinovs pianistic pyrotechnics entranced the jazz cognoscenti, particularly in his variations around the Waltz from Gara Garayevs ballet The Seven Beauties  one of the most best-known Azerbaijani classical pieces; Sari Gelin and Durna, two of the most popular Azerbaijani folksongs; and his reflective self-penned compositions Waiting, Missing and Muse, many of which featured the sound of the Melodica, a wind-operated keyboard, which he balanced on top of the grand piano.

The evening saw him team up with Muraitian electric bassist Linley Marthe, who previously played with fusion pioneer and Weather Report group founder Joe Zawinul; and American drummer Eric Harland, who has played with the free jazz figurehead Charles Lloyd. The Elchin Shirinov Trio will play again on 27 May in Paris, as part of the renowned Festival Jazz a Saint-Germain-des-Pres Paris, with the support of TEAS.

Go to http://www.elchinshirinov.com to experience the innovative work of Elchin Shirinov.
ODU MEDI-SNAP

ODU, a worldwide leader in designing and manufacturing high performance connectors, is now promoting to the US market its advanced ODU MEDI-SNAP miniature connector solution designed for a wide range of medical, industrial and test & measurement applications.

The German-engineered ODU MEDI-SNAP is a plastic circular connector with miniature push-pull locking designed for medical, industrial and test & measurement applications.

Available now in 48 hours, this connector solution is valuable for applications such as catheters, defibrillators, inhalation devices, patient monitoring systems, medical hand tools but also wearable computer devices, vibration sensors, hand controllers, power supplies, signal generators, hand held devices and foot switches.

Some additional features of the ODU MEDI-SNAP include versatile coding possibilities, lightweight and high chemical resistance, 2,000+ mating cycle durability, simple assembly, customizable capabilities, RoHS compliant, touch-proof housing, IP67 rating, and a unique right angle plug option.

Additionally available with multiple coding options through color or keying as well as customized cable assembly integrated solutions. The connectors are also autoclavable and sterilizable.

ODU-USA is vertically integrated and provides in-house molding and custom connector capabilities, cable assembly integrated solutions, competitive lead time, rapid prototyping and product development, local one-on-one engineering support, factory direct.

For more product information go to: http://www.odu-usa.com/products-solutions/push-pull-circular-connectors/odu-medi-snap.html

ODU Group: global representation with perfect connections

The ODU Group is one of the worlds leading suppliers of connector systems, employing 1,650 people around the world. In addition to its company headquarters in Muhldorf am Inn (Germany), ODU also has an international production and distribution network throughout Europe, North America and Asia. ODU combines all relevant areas of expertise and key technologies including design and development, machine tool and special machine construction, injection, stamping, turning, surface technology, assembly and cable assembly. The ODU Group sells its products globally through its eight subsidiaries in Denmark, England, France, Italy, Sweden, the US, China and Japan, as well as through numerous international sales partners. ODU connectors ensure a reliable transmission of power, signals, data and media for a variety of demanding applications including medical technology, military and security, eMobility, energy, industrial electronics, and measurement and testing.

For press inquiries, please contact:

Dana Stoica - Head of Marketing, North America

Phone +1 (805) 484-0540 Fax: +1 (805) 484-7458

Email: dana.stoica(at)odu-usa(dot)com
It is our hope that people will celebrate their own dads and support the many folks who have shown grit in the face of this terrible disease by bringing a father, son, daughter, or loved one to the movies on June 19

John Wayne Cancer Foundation (JWCF) whose mission is to bring courage, strength, and grit to the fight against cancer today announces a special screening of the Western cult classic and John Wayne fan favorite film True Grit on Fathers Day, June 19, 2016. The film is scheduled to show in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Scottsdale, and Pasadena with a portion of the ticket proceeds being donated to JWCFs Show Your Grit campaign.

We are thrilled to be able to bring a special screening of True Grit to John Wayne fans around the country, and are equally excited that a portion of the ticket proceeds will be donated to our Show Your Grit campaign, said Ethan Wayne, chairman of JWCF. This foundation was created to honor my fathers legacy, so its fitting that as we remember his strength in life and throughout his battle with cancer this Fathers Day, we can share this piece of him and continue his work through the screening event. It is our hope that people will celebrate their own dads and support the many folks who have shown grit in the face of this terrible disease by bringing a father, son, daughter, or loved one to the movies on June 19.

JWCF hopes that the True Grit screening will serve as a way for John Wayne fans and cancer fighters of all ages and backgrounds to support the campaign and honor the memory of The Duke and the many others like him who fight cancer with grit every day. Individuals who wish to attend a screening in one of the designated cities can now purchase tickets on the John Wayne Cancer Foundation website or on the Tugg events website. For any showings that are not sold out in advance, tickets will also be available at the door on June 19.

It is the goal of JWCF that the Show Your Grit campaign serve as a platform for anyone whose life has been touched by cancer to come together, show support, and fight to get one step closer to a cure. All money from the ticket proceeds and the campaign will work to support the innovative programs funded by JWCF that improve cancer patients outcomes and help save lives through research, education, awareness, and support.

To purchase tickets for a True Grit screening, visit http://www.johnwayne.org/tickets. To learn more about John Wayne Cancer Foundation and to donate, visit http://www.johnwayne.org.

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About John Wayne Cancer Foundation

Founded in 1985, the John Wayne Cancer Foundation was created in honor of John Wayne after his family promised to use his name to continue his fight against cancer. The John Wayne Cancer Foundations mission is to bring courage, strength and grit to the fight against cancer. The foundation serves to fund novel and innovative programs that improve cancer patients outcomes and helps save lives through research, education, awareness and support. Fight cancer with GRIT at http://www.johnwayne.org.
The experimental primers are formulated for flexible packaging applications and higher performance labels.

Michelman will introduce drupa 2016 visitors to two new offline applied primers formulated primarily for use by HP Indigo WS6X00 series and the new HP Indigo 8000 digital press owners. The experimental primers are formulated for flexible packaging applications and higher performance labels.

According to Mr. Jan Denies, Industry Manager for Michelmans Printing & Packaging Group, For those companies using HP Indigo WS6X00 series presses without inline priming units, we have developed and are testing two new primers that are applied offline on a flexo or gravure station. They are currently in extensive beta-testing at a variety of customer locations and we expect to commercialize them later in the year.

Each of these offline primers is designed to serve specific, demanding applications. The first is used for labels that require high water-resistance, such as those found on personal care products including shampoo bottles. The second primer is especially effective on laminated flexible packaging structures, as well as shrink sleeves. The new primers will bolster Michelmans already wide variety of HP-approved solutions for HP Indigo press owners.

Michelman will show its extensive and continued support for the HP Indigo platform at drupa 2016, and provide a glimpse of what is to come in the second half of 2016. The company will exhibit in hall 4, booth #A24 at the show, which is being held May 31-June 10, 2016 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

About Michelman

Michelman is a global developer and manufacturer of environmentally friendly advanced materials for industry, offering solutions for the coatings, printing & packaging and industrial manufacturing markets. The companys surface additives and polymeric binders are used by leading manufacturers around the world to enhance performance attributes and add value in applications including wood and floor care products, metal and industrial coatings, paints, varnishes, inks, fibers and composites. Michelman is also well-known as an innovator in the development of barrier and functional coatings, as well as digital printing-press primers that are used in the production of consumer and industrial packaging, paper products, labels, and commercially printed materials. Michelman serves its customers with production facilities in North America, Europe and Asia, product development and technical service centers in several major global markets, and a worldwide team of highly trained business development personnel.
New Era Of Steel Service Production At Klein Steel "Many talk about the new era of manufacturing. Today, we unveil the new era of steel service production." Todd Zyra, President and CEO

+ Klein Steel invests $8M to expand its NYS footprint and distribution to NY, PA, MA. VT & CT.

+ Klein Steel sets new industry benchmark with digital and intelligent operations devices for increased capacity, efficiency and reliability.

+ New facility and expansion will support new clients and increased demand from existing customers.

+ Through the next 5 years, Klein Steels expansion will create 50 new jobs that represent career opportunities to become highly skilled and certified Klein Steel technicians through the Klein Steel University, an in-house employer paid training program.

+ Klein Steel receives support from the Empire State Development valued at up to $750K and RGE valued at up to $100K.

Klein Steel Service (http://www.kleinsteel.com) today announced the grand opening of the industrys most advanced steel service center that provides Klein Steel with increased capacity, productivity, efficiency, tracking and reliability. The new 40,000 sq. ft. facility is located adjacent to the Companys headquarters in Rochester, New York. Klein Steel Services also announced an aggressive growth plan with the firm projecting to double in size within the next three years. In 2016 alone, Klein Steel Services will create twelve new jobs and promote ten percent of its existing team members. Moreover, it aims to expand in all of its geographic territories and invest in emerging markets.

Were excited by the progress weve made as the leading steel service center in the Northeast and by the news we are sharing today, said Todd Zyra, President and CEO. Todays grand opening of our new hub facility represents a new era of steel service and signals a major opportunity for our customers, our team members and the communities which we serve. It is a direct result of our continuing investments, our commitment and our strong belief in our direction. Many talk about the new era of manufacturing. Today, we unveil the new era of steel service production.

Zyra added, What really sets us apart are the investments we have made into both technology and people. I firmly believe that the fundamental strength of Klein Steel is the commitment, dedication, talent and loyalty we receive from our team members, our customers and our partners, including Empire State Development, RGE, Monroe County, the City of Rochester and FICEP, an outstanding firm that manufactured hardware and software so we can now perform multiple production sequences automatically.

The steel industry this past year has been filled with bad news: a plunge in prices, a flood of low-priced imports and a collapse in investments that affect steel demand. Wolfgang Eder, Chairman of the World Steel Association, called the problem enormous, serious and critical. Klein Steel, however, outpaced the steel service industry by growing almost 10% in 2015, while the industry slipped by 7%. Klein Steel also expanded its Albany and Massachusetts markets, which increased by 40% in 2015.

Senator Charles Schumer said, Klein Steels expansion will not only create 50 new jobs, it will enable this cutting-edge company to expand its products, secure more customers, and grow its business all thanks to this new $8 million investment and state-of-the-art facility here in Rochester. Since it was first forged here in Rochester 45 years ago, Klein has been a company that plays by the rules and works each day to make their company as strong as the steel it produces. Thats why Ive been proud to work on behalf of Klein to crack down on countries like China that thwart trade agreements and unfairly dump low-priced steel here and why I joined Klein in the successful drive to ensure the Defense Department once again purchases their steel from U.S. companies. I commend Klein Steel for investing in Rochester and congratulate all their workers for their hard work to make this expansion possible.

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter added, Our manufacturing sector continues to strengthen Rochesters position as a center of innovation. I congratulate Klein Steel on the opening of this new advanced steel service center that is helping create new jobs and grow our economy."

Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Howard Zemsky said, Klein Steels new state-of-the-art facility will feature the countrys most advanced steel processing equipment and will bring 50 jobs to Rochester. If youre planning on doubling your companys footprint, like Klein Steel, theres no better investment you can make than expanding your New York State workforce.

NYSEG and RG&E have a decades-long history of supporting growing businesses through our robust economic development grant programs, said Mark S. Lynch, president and CEO of NYSEG and RG&E. Klein Steel, a homegrown success story having expanded from a three-garage warehouse to five locations across the state, is continuing to invest and the New York State economy is benefitting. In recognition of Klein Steels stellar growth, we have committed to an RG&E economic development grant of up to $100,000 to assist with electric infrastructure and energy efficiency improvements for the firms latest expansion. We congratulate Klein Steel on its track record and wish the firm continued success.

Klein Steels Engineers and Operations experts partnered with the worlds leading manufacturers for the steel construction industry to configure an innovative, intelligent steel production system that performs multiple productions sequences automatically and that are managed and monitored through intelligent devices that assure maximum efficiency and quality. The result is a custom configured system that runs different operations - from shot blasting and sawing through tracking and loading - automatically with Klein Steel Certified technicians performing vital diagnostic and quality control tasks. Ficep S.p.A., located at the foot of the Alps on the northern border between Switzerland and Italy, was the lead partner with support from their US subsidiary located in Forest Hill, Maryland. In addition to Ficep, Klein Steel partnered locally with RGE, M&T Bank, Buckingham Properties to fast track the new facility.

About Klein Steel Service (http://www.kleinsteel.com)

Founded in 1971, Klein Steel Service Inc., a premier metals supplier and processing center, is the recognized industry leader in the Northeast and one of a few NQA-1 compliant metal service centers nationwide. With a 45-year track record for quality, innovation, performance and customer service, Klein Steel has grown to a 300,000 sq. ft. footprint that supports reliable delivery to customers in NY, PA, MA, VT and CT.

Klein Steel provides world-class JIT inventory and supply management solutions with over 3,500 line items of carbon, stainless steel, aluminum and specialty metals. Klein Steel also offers a full range of value-added processing services from high speed mill and drill to oxy and plasma, as well as component manufacturing and kitting for commercial applications as well as nuclear commercial-grade dedication materials.

Klein Steel is acknowledged as an industry leader having been named the 2015 winner of the Platts Global Metal Distributor of the Year award, a finalist in 2014, 2015 and 2016 for the Service Center of the Year award from American Metal Market (AMM), a finalist in 2016 for the Advocate of the Year award from AMM, a 2016 finalist for the Most Valuable Employer For Military by CivilianJobs, a 2015 winner of a Rochester Top Workplaces award, a 2015 Rochester Top 100 company, a 2012 recipient of the Rochester Business Ethics Award, and winner of the Industry Week Best Plants award in 2011.

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A few of the Jesuits being ordained this year gathered at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. This is a joyful time of year for the Jesuits because we are celebrating the ordinations of so many fine men to Jesuit priesthood. Fr. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States

This month, the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits, the largest order of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church, celebrates the ordination of 15 new priests in the U.S. Four more are being ordained in Haiti and one in Canada. (Editors Note: Video interviews and photos available at http://www.jesuits.org/ordinations.)

The new priests hail from across the U.S. and around the world. Before entering the Jesuits, they worked in a variety of fields. Kevin Spinale, S.J., 37, volunteered with the Peace Corps in Romania; Andres Vall-Serra, S.J., 38, served in the Navy for three years; Javier Diaz, S.J., 42, was a doctor; and Paul Robson, S.J., 37, worked in a group home for the handicapped.

Their call to Jesuit priesthood required them to undergo extensive training from the moment they entered as novices to their ordinations, a process (formation) that can take anywhere from eight to 12 years. As part of their formation, all ordinands earn advanced degrees from Jesuit universities and serve at Jesuit high schools and colleges worldwide.

This is a joyful time of year for the Jesuits because we are celebrating the ordinations of so many fine men to Jesuit priesthood, Fr. Timothy Kesicki, S.J., president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, said. During the ordination ceremony, the bishop says, May God who has begun the good work in you, bring it to completion. Theres something special about seeing our newly ordained Jesuits as they begin their priestly work for the people of God.

The first ordination Mass was held on May 21, 2016, at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Toronto. Additional ordinations will take place on June 4 and June 11 at the Church of the Gesu in Milwaukee; Fordham University Church in the Bronx, New York; St. Aloysius Gonzaga Parish in Spokane, Washington; St. Francis Xavier College Church in St. Louis; and the Chapelle des Freres de lInstruction Chretienne in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

As new priests, they will continue their lives of service by engaging in pastoral work; teaching at Jesuit universities and high schools; continuing their studies; and working at Jesuit parishes.

The 20 Jesuit priests being ordained this year are:

Jason E. Brauninger, S.J., 34, is from St. Rose, Louisiana. He trained as a fire and explosives investigator before entering the Jesuits and worked at Tufts Medical Centers emergency department as part of his Jesuit formation. After ordination, he will serve at Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church in New Orleans.

Stanley Charles, S.J., 36, was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He speaks Haitian Creole, French, Spanish, English and Italian. Charles serves as a collaborator at the Peter Faber Center of Spirituality in Port-au-Prince.

Patrick N. Couture, S.J., 34, grew up in Quincy, Washington. Before entering the Jesuits, he worked as an assistant to the brewmaster at a local brewery. After ordination, he will complete an advanced theology degree from the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California.

Brillaire Delices, S.J., 37, was born in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. In 2012, he was missioned to study theology at Laval University in Quebec City, where he earned a bachelors in pastoral theology and a diploma in spiritual accompaniment. Following ordination, he will serve with Fe y Alegria in Haiti, an international organization devoted to transforming communities through education.

Jean Robert Dery, S.J., 34, grew up in Saint-Jean-du-Sud in the south of Haiti. In 2012, he was missioned to Regis College at the University of Toronto, where he learned a fourth language while earning a Master of Divinity degree and a masters degree in theology. After ordination, he will work for Jesuit Migrant Service at Haitis southern border.

Francisco Javier Diaz Diaz, S.J., 42, is a native of San Jose, Costa Rica. He was a doctor before entering the Jesuits, and his Jesuit formation included work for Catholic Charities Spanish Catholic Center in Washington, D.C. After ordination, he will complete graduate studies at Boston College.

Matthew R. Holland, S.J., 34, is a native of Seattle. He studied at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, Colombia, and taught at Bellarmine Preparatory School in Tacoma, Washington, his alma mater. After ordination, Holland will work in parish ministry.

Roy M. Joseph, S.J., 40, is from Atlanta. After earning his medical degree, Joseph joined the Jesuits. The son of Indian immigrants, Joseph looks forward to serving as a bi-ritual priest in both the Latin and Syro-Malabar traditions. After ordination, he will serve at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in Denver.

Juan Carlos Rivera Castro, S.J., 31, was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was an art student before entering the Jesuits and studied philosophy at Spains Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca as part of his Jesuit formation. After ordination, he will serve as associate pastor at St. Francis Xavier College Church on the campus of Saint Louis University.

Paul H. Robson, S.J., 37, is a native of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. In addition to working in India and Nepal, he has worked with First Nations communities in Espanola and on the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, both in northern Ontario. After ordination, he will continue work toward a masters in theology from Saint Paul University in Ottawa.

Andrew A. Rodriguez, S.J., 40, was born in the Philippines. He taught in public schools for seven years before entering the Jesuits and traveled to China, Guatemala and El Salvador as part of his Jesuit formation. After ordination, Rodriguez will serve at the Jesuit Retreat Center of Los Altos in California.

Christopher J. Ryan, S.J., 33, is from Haddon Township, New Jersey. He served in Brazil and also accompanied migrants along the Central American migration corridor as part of his Jesuit formation. After ordination, he will serve at St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Emmanuel R. Saint-Hilaire, S.J., 32, was born in Gros-Morne in Haiti. Fluent in four languages and the author of three books, Saint-Hilaire will work with Jesuit Migrant Service and in a Jesuit parish in Haiti after ordination.

Kevin C. Spinale, S.J., 37, is from Arlington, Massachusetts. He served with the Peace Corps for two years in Romania before joining the Jesuits. After ordination, Spinale will work at his alma mater, the College of the Holy Cross, while completing his masters degree in English from Boston College.

Daniel T. Spotswood, S.J., 33, was born in Mobile, Alabama. At the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, he earned a masters degree in theology while pursuing high-altitude mountain climbing. After ordination, he will study social anthropology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Vincent L. Strand, S.J., 33, grew up in Dousman, Wisconsin, and attended St. Bruno Parish, where his family has been members since the church was founded in 1852. His brothers Luke and Jacob are both priests of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. After ordination, Strand will study for an advanced degree at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

George D. Teodoro, S.J., 36, is from Renton, Washington. He entered the Jesuits after a career in real estate. For the past year, Teodoro has taught history and art history at Verbum Dei High School in Los Angeles, where he will return after ordination.

Marc P. Valadao, S.J., 36, grew up in Fort Bragg, California. He earned a Master of Divinity degree and a Bachelor of Sacred Theology at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University while doing ministry at San Quentin State Prison. After ordination, he will study in Rome at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

Andres Vall-Serra, S.J., 38, was born in Colombia and settled with his family in Wichita, Kansas. He served for three years in the Navy before joining the Jesuits and will serve in Punta Gorda, Belize, after ordination.

Samuel M. Wilson, S.J., 44, was born in Orange County, California. He studied philosophy at Saint Louis University and taught at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. After ordination, he will serve in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

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About the Society of Jesus in Canada and the United States

Founded in 1540 by Saint Ignatius Loyola, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) is the largest order of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church. Jesuit priests and brothers are involved in educational, pastoral and spiritual ministries around the world, practicing a faith that promotes justice. In Canada and the United States, there are 30 Jesuit colleges and 80 pre-secondary and secondary schools with a shared goal of developing competent, compassionate and committed leaders in the service of the Church and society. Jesuits minister in parishes and at retreat houses and serve as chaplains at prisons, hospitals, nursing homes and in the military. In Canada and the U.S., the Jesuits are represented by the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, headquartered in Washington, D.C. For more information on the Society of Jesus, visit http://www.jesuits.org.
The Wilshire Group Logo HIM is often the lynchpin to an organizations financial success

The Wilshire Group, a leading healthcare consulting firm, has added Dave Jansen to its team as Senior Consultant. In this role, Dave will be responsible for developing and managing sustainable solutions for healthcare organizations HIM departments, with the twin goals of increasing efficiency and minimizing revenue leakage.

Ensuring complete and timely capture of revenue inside a highly complex, integrated healthcare organization requires the kind of perspective that only comes from real experience, said Hank Smither, Managing Partner of The Wilshire Group. Daves uniquely broad track record allows our clients to access the best solutions drawn from a wide range of leading healthcare organizations.

As a former Epic employee, Dave previously worked with over a dozen healthcare organizations to implement, optimize and upgrade their Epic systems. Dave bridged the IT and Operational gap to identify key problem areas, devise efficient solutions and outline sustainable implementation and maintenance plans.

"HIM occupies a unique and critical position in the revenue cycle, as it bridges the clinical and revenue worlds, said Dave. "With such an influential positioning, HIM is often the lynchpin to an organizations financial success."

At The Wilshire Group, Dave will apply his IT and Change Management expertise to assist with undertakings ranging from optimizing coding workflows and workqueues, to auditing and enhancing a clients Legal Medical Record, to managing substantial projects like implementing Simple Visit Coding. In a dynamic healthcare industry with a continually evolving EHR, Dave will address Operational and end-user needs, while promoting efficiency and maintainability from an IT perspective.

Dave received his BA in Risk Management & Insurance from the University of Wisconsin Madison. He is also Change Management certified through PROSCI. Dave resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

ABOUT THE WILSHIRE GROUP

The Wilshire Group is a healthcare consulting company that helps hospitals and health systems transform their health information and financial operations, with a focus on Revenue Cycle Management.

Wilshires consulting services and operational solutions cover the full spectrum of the revenue cycle from patient access to claim denials, as well as all aspects of health information management and clinical documentation integrity.

Wilshires team members average over 25 years of revenue cycle experience and over 7 years with Epic build and re-design. The company also provides best practice strategic design, project management, training, mentoring, application and workflow optimization, claim audits and net reimbursement improvements.

For more information, visit http://www.thewilshiregroup.net.

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If a manufacturer in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee, is struggling to remain competitive, they should look to Prince.

Prince Precision Products, a Georgia-based contract manufacturer specializing in the rapid production of precision cut-and-formed and machined metal products for suppliers involved in the air handling, food processing, material handling, and power generation industries, will exhibit its solutions for Tier 2 and Tier 3 manufacturers during the Southeast Design-2-Part Show at the Raleigh Convention Center in Raleigh, N.C., June 1516, 2016.

Building on the success of its attendance at the Southeast Design 2-Part Show in Atlanta, Ga., earlier this year, Prince Precision Products will continue to connect with suppliers located throughout the Southeastern United States that could benefit from its rapid manufacturing capabilities, which include precision cutting, CNC machining, and robotic welding, all grounded in a rigorous quality control program.

Company principals will be on hand at Prince Precision Productss booth  number 315  throughout the show to discuss the companys approach to developing precision manufacturing solutions for suppliers located in the Southeast.

We specialize in helping suppliers within 300 miles of our home base in Macon, Ga., make seemingly impossible deadlines, said Art Prince, President of Prince Precision Products. If a manufacturer in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, or Tennessee, is struggling to remain competitive, they should look to Prince.

Visit http://www.princeprecision.com to learn more about Prince Precision Products.

About Prince Precision Products

Prince Precision Products is a contract manufacturer that specializes in the rapid production of precision metal products that require cutting, forming, machining, assembly, and finishing. Founded in 2008, Prince Precision Products is an outgrowth of parent company Prince Service and Mfg., a heavy metal fabricating company in business since 1965. Based in Macon, Ga., Prince Precision partners with a diverse array of clients throughout its home state of Georgia and the surrounding Southeast.

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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2



Trend:



Foreigners, who are willing to visit Azerbaijan, will be able to get visas online, after Azerbaijan launches its "ASAN Visa" system.



"From now on, visas will be issued through a single online portal," Inam Karimov, chairman of the State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the Azerbaijani president, told reporters in Baku.



"Foreign citizens, tourists can use the services of the ASAN Viza portal to arrive in Azerbaijan," he said. "Visas will be issued online within three days without applying to state organizations."



He said that the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan will approve a list of countries, the citizens of which will get e-visas.



Karimov added that the innovation will be applied within several months.



Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on June 1 signed a decree on simplification of e-visas issuance procedure and the creation of the ASAN Viza system.



The decree was signed in order to simplify procedure for issuing visas to foreigners and stateless persons arriving in Azerbaijan, as well as creation of an e-visa system ensuring transparency and efficiency with the use of modern information technologies.
ProMIS Neurosciences (ProMIS or the Company), a company focused on discovery and development of precision treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that multiple unique therapeutic candidates have successfully completed the screening stage of validation, and will be further developed as potential treatments for Alzheimers disease (AD). These monoclonal antibody (mab) therapeutics selectively bind to distinct epitope targets specific for the neurotoxic, prion-like strains of misfolded Amyloid beta (A), which are widely believed to play a key role in the development and progression of AD.

Our screening program has successfully generated multiple mab product candidates directed at five unique epitope targets, enabling us to proceed to our in vitro validation program, said ProMIS CSO, Dr. Neil Cashman. The validation program will confirm mab binding profiles in cadaveric brain tissue from confirmed AD patients, and evaluate each candidates ability to stop prion-like progression and neurotoxicity. The results will determine the most promising product candidates to progress to clinical development.

The Company applied its proprietary discovery platform, consisting of ProMIS and Collective Coordinates, to identify unique target epitopes on prion-like strains of misfolded A. During the screening program, multiple mabs raised against five unique epitopes were selected as they demonstrated tight binding to the epitope targets and to forms of misfolded A, with no measurable off-target binding.

The key to effective therapy against Alzheimers disease is to create drugs that selectively target the root cause of disease, the prion forms of Amyloid beta, stated ProMIS Executive Chairman, Eugene Williams. The successful validation of three prion-selective products targeting misfolded variants of SOD1 for ALS, combined with the progress we have made in identifying multiple promising product candidates for Alzheimers makes us confident as we move forward with our in vitro validation program.

About ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc.

The mission of ProMIS Neurosciences is to discover and develop precision medicine therapeutics for effective treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimers disease and ALS.

ProMIS Neurosciences proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two, complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platformProMIS and Collective Coordinates  to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes (DSEs) on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique "precision medicine" approach, ProMIS Neurosciences aims to develop novel antibody therapeutics and specific companion diagnostics for Alzheimers disease and ALS. The company has also developed two proprietary technologies to specifically identify very low levels of misfolded proteins in a biological sample. In addition, ProMIS Neurosciences owns a portfolio of therapeutic and diagnostic patents relating to misfolded SOD1 in ALS, and currently has a preclinical monoclonal antibody therapeutic against this target.

The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release may contain certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information please consult the Company's website at:

http://www.promisneurosciences.com

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NATIONAL Equicom

Michael Moore

Tel. 858-886-7813

mmoore(at)national(dot)ca

Abby Garfunkel

Tel. 403-218-2887

agarfunkel(at)national(dot)ca

or contact

Dr. Elliot Goldstein

President and Chief Executive Officer, ProMIS Neurosciences Inc.

Tel. 415 341-5783

Elliot(dot)goldstein(at)promisneurosciences(dot)com
Malarkey Roofing Products 60th Anniversary Logo Malarkey is a family company and we want our employees and customers to feel like part of that family. Im proud to be part of a company with such a long history of innovations that focus on quality." - Jim Fagan, President of Malarkey Roofing Products

Malarkey Roofing Products is proud to mark sixty years of asphalt roofing manufacturing by celebrating their history of innovation across multiple campaigns in 2016. Since its establishment in 1956, Malarkey has been a family owned business with a focus on quality roofing products providing long-term solutions for customers.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Malarkey Roofing Products has expanded over the years to include production facilities in South Gate, California and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Throughout the company history, Malarkey has been an innovator of notable roofing industry advances including the first polymer modified asphalt shingle in 1986, the first Scotchgard Protector shingle in 1994, and the creation of The Zone patented nailing area for improved architectural shingle installation in 2001.

The sixtieth anniversary of Malarkey Roofing Products is being celebrated throughout 2016 with a focus on historical innovations of the company as well as looking to the future of sustainable manufacturing practices. An anniversary logo was released the beginning of 2016 and anniversary promotions will be held throughout the year at trade shows, on social media, and during special events.

To mark the milestone anniversary, the video The History of Malarkey Roofing Products was created to highlight the company focus on innovation and how they have laid a foundation for future roofing products that are mindful of environmental needs. The video focuses on the collaboration of customers, employees, products, and continual innovation for a company to succeed. Malarkey takes this concept into the slogan A Bunch of Malarkey to highlight the groups of customers, employees, and products that celebrate what it is to be a part of the Malarkey team.

Malarkey is a family company and we want our employees and customers to feel like part of that family, states Malarkey Roofing Products President Jim Fagan. Im proud to be part of a company with such a long history of innovations that focus on quality. We are looking forward to continuing that tradition with roofing solutions that will take us into the future of sustainable roofing.

For more information on Malarkey Roofing Products or to find a representative, call 800.545.1191 or visit http://www.MALARKEYROOFING.COM.

About Malarkey Roofing Products

Malarkey Roofing Products is a Portland, Oregon based roofing manufacturer that provides performance-driven residential, commercial, and sustainable roofing solutions with unparalleled service and integrity. Since 1956, Malarkey Roofing Products has consistently valued innovation and is motivated to provide products that are committed to sustainability through long-term solutions, creating value for customers and business partners.
Those who have been trying for years to remove stubborn belly fat or love handles will soon have a way to finally get the body theyve always wanted, with SculpSure. SculpSure is a noninvasive laser procedure to remove fat. It is a simple, 25 minute long procedure that provides permanent results, without surgery or downtime. Dr. John Tang of Rejuve is proud to announce that he will now be offering SculpSure.

SculpSure is safe  it has been approved by the FDA to treat the abdomen and flanks  and can be used on any skin type. It is a light-based treatment that destroys the fat cells under the skin by raising the temperature of the body fat. In just 25 minutes, up to 24% of a patients fat is destroyed. In about 6 weeks, these damaged cells are absorbed and removed by the body.

Patients who have had SculpSure report that they were quite comfortable during the procedure; most of them say that the only sensation was a feeling of warmth/heat. And, because there is no down time, patients can return to their normal activities right away.

Dr. John Tang of Rejuve is known for his expertise in cosmetic dermatology and has over 11 years of experience. He has been recognized as a National Top 100 Restylane injector, and has been Chairman Level Injector, the top designation, for his experience with Restylane, Dysport and Sculptra. In 2012, he was recognized by the Consumers Research Council of America as one of Americas Top Physicians. He appeared in the Global Registers Whos Who in 2006, received the American Medical Association Physician Recognition Award, and was named as San Jose Magazines Top Doc in 2008. He is also an active member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging.

In 2004, Dr. Tang and his wife Alexandra founded Rejuve, a practice dedicated to patients health, both inside and out. Serving the Bay Area and the cities of San Jose, Los Gatos, and Campbell, Dr. Tang and his team develop a custom plan for each patient, designed to revive, rejuvenate, and renew through nonsurgical cosmetic procedures and proven anti-aging practices. Dr. Tang is an expert in not only cosmetics, anti-aging and dermatology, but also in traditional internal medical and orthopedic procedures. It only seemed logical that Dr. Tang and his staff would offer the SculpSure procedure, the latest technique in fat reduction and one which is convenient, effective and pain-free for patients.

SculpSure is a whole new approach to non-invasive body contouring, says Dr. Tang. Now, patients can receive treatment on their lunch hour and return to work right after, since no recovery time is required. Also, the amount of time to complete a treatment is a vast improvement compared to other similar procedures, taking only an hour from start to finish.

Fans of The Doctors may have heard about SculpSure in a segment titled Put It to the Test: SculpSure with plastic surgeon Christine Petti, MD. It was also featured in the E!News segment titled New Year, New You in early 2016. Dr. Mitch Chasin demonstrated the treatment on a male patient, who beautifully described it as feeling like a heating pad on my back. It has also been a featured topic on EXTRA, in a segment titled Traceys Tricks and Trends: How to Get Rid of Love Handles and Tummy Fat. In the segment, Kyle Richards (from the show Real Housewives of Beverly Hills) and Beverly Hills aesthetic expert Dr. Rand Rusher talked about the SculpSure laser treatment and its advantages.

Ms. Richards is one of the celebrity endorsers of SculpSure, and she will soon be launching the If Your Clothes Could Talk #IYCCT campaign.
VisionGate Chief Medical Officer Dr. Javier Zulueta I am excited about the impact VisionGates technology can have on early lung cancer detection by solving many of the problems associated with low-dose CT. Im also driven by the potential to eradicate this deadly disease with its chemoprevention therapy.

VisionGate, Inc. today announced the appointment of Dr. Javier Zulueta as its Chief Medical Officer. A world-renowned pulmonologist, professor and 16-year Director of Pulmonary Service at the University Clinic of Navarra, the teaching hospital of Spains University of Navarra School of Medicine, Dr. Zulueta will provide expert counsel and oversight of VisionGates clinical collaborations and associated clinical trials in lung cancer early detection and chemoprevention therapy.

After more than 16 years in lung cancer screening, I am excited about the impact VisionGates technology can have on early lung cancer detection by solving many of the problems associated with low-dose CT. Dr. Zulueta said. Perhaps even more importantly, Im driven by the potential to eradicate this deadly disease with its new chemoprevention therapy.

Prior to joining VisionGate, Dr. Zulueta led the longest ongoing lung cancer screening trial in Europe. The study is part of the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) consortium, of which he has been a Principal Investigator since its inception in 2000.

Dr. Zulueta has served as a member of VisionGates Medical Advisory Board (MAB) for nearly five years. His research interests include lung cancer screening and the relationship between lung cancer and COPD and emphysema. He has authored more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has been an invited lecturer at more than 100 international conferences.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and Member of the American Thoracic Society, American Respiratory Society, European Respiratory Society and Spanish Association of Pulmonary Medicine and Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Zulueta received his Medical Doctorate from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. His specialization in pulmonary and critical care medicine was earned at the New England Medical Center, Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston.

As VisionGate enters its translational phase leveraging the companys patented technologies for lung cancer early detection, pre-cancer detection, and chemoprevention drug therapy, Dr. Zulueta will assume the leadership role in driving the multi-center clinical trials toward regulatory clearance in the U.S. and Europe while the company drives toward commercialization and physician practice acceptance, VisionGate Founder and CEO Alan Nelson, PhD said. Dr. Zulueta has been a clinical pioneer for improved patient outcomes in lung cancer and is well aligned with VisionGates corporate mission to eradicate lung cancer globally using its pioneering products for screening and treatment.

There is a very close relationship between the technical and clinical drivers of VisionGate. VisionGate Chief Technology Officer Michael Meyer said. Dr. Zulueta will be an important hire to help bridge the two, and we are delighted he is joining VisionGate at this pivotal time.

For more information, visit http://www.visiongate3d.com.

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About VisionGate

VisionGate, Inc. is led by Dr. Alan Nelson, physicist, bioengineer and entrepreneur who previously developed the worlds first and only automated screening test to detect cervical cancer, marketed globally today as FocalPoint by Becton Dickinson. VisionGates proprietary LuCED test is a non-invasive diagnostic test for early-stage lung cancer, demonstrating exquisite sensitivity and specificity in blinded clinical studies. This physician-ordered, take-home sputum test is processed on the worlds first automated 3D cell imaging platform, the Cell-CT, named aptly because it is similar in principle to taking a CT scan of individual cells, but using visible light without harmful radiation. Moreover, with the new exclusive patent license from the University of Colorado for the drug called Iloprost, VisionGate will drive the therapeutic market for chemoprevention of lung cancer and, ultimately, the eradication of this killer. With 145 issued patents in 13 countries, VisionGate expects to play a leading role in the battle against the
Advanta IRAs goal is to educate individuals about self-directed investing from experts in the field, such as real estate investment legend Bill Cook, who is speaking at next week's Brewing Success event.

Self-directed retirement plans give account owners total control over their investing funds and decisions. Many alternative investments are permissible in these accountsbut real estate is the number one asset in these plans.

Advanta IRAs goal is to educate individuals about self-directed investing from experts in the field, such as real estate investment legend Bill Cook, who is speaking at next week's Brewing Success event, says Jack Callahan, managing partner of Advanta IRA with locations in Florida and Georgia. We are proud to have someone with his expertise meet and talk about real estate in self-directed retirement plans.

Cook has been investing in real estate since 1995. He specializes in buying single-family homes, mobile homes, mobile home parks, notes, and options. His primary focus is on creative deal structuring and managing his rental portfolio. Cook plans to show attendees how he creatively funds his deals using self-directed IRAs and solo 401(k) accounts.

Brewing Success on June 8 is the first in a series of upcoming complimentary events planned by Advanta IRA to provide expert knowledge by successful investors on how to build wealth in retirement plans. Investors of all levels are invited to attend.

Event: Brewing Success

Location: Big Storm Brewing Co., Clearwater, Florida

Time: 6:00  8:45 PM

Cost: None. Food and beverages are provided.

Registration: Space is limited so the firm asks that attendees register in advance. Register and get additional details and directions by visiting: http://brewingsuccess.advantaira.com/register
Liberty Universitys School of Nursing recently received full accreditation for its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program through the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) for the maximum 5-year period allowed for new programs.

CCNE is recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education as a national accreditation agency and serves higher education institutions and acute care hospitals throughout the United States. CCNE ensures the quality and integrity of programs in nursing by assessing and identifying curriculum that engages in effective educational practices.

Dr. Sharon Kopis, chair of Libertys DNP program, said this accreditation demonstrates a hallmark of excellence for Libertys nursing program.

There are many standards that have to be achieved in order to be accredited, she explained. The DNP has met these national standards at the doctoral level in education through curriculum, scholarship, leadership, and clinical practice.

Kopis added that the nursing program not only has the resources needed for this accreditation, but it also has outstanding academic support and faculty.

The accreditation process not only evaluates curriculum, but it also evaluates faculty, student outcomes, processes and structures of the program, and resources. Our faculty is academically and clinically prepared, and we have amazing resources within the school itself, she said. She pointed to the School of Nursings Simulation Center, which includes 18 exam suites, a 13-bed medical surgical unit, pediatrics and neonatal intensive care simulation, and a postpartum and newborn nursery lab, and utilizes standardized patients.

Libertys DNP program trains nurses to become leaders, family nurse practitioners, and clinical experts. Two paths are available  an online post-MSN and a residential post-BSN  that incorporate additional clinical training to prepare students for advanced careers in nursing. The residential program prepares students to take a national certification examination for family nurse practitioners.

Libertys Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) are also accredited by CCNE.

Libertys School of Nursing is committed to student success, upholding high academic standards and an atmosphere of encouragement in both the classroom and clinical areas. Last fall, 98 percent of BSN graduates passed the National Council Licensure Examination on their first try  one of the highest passage rates in the state.

In addition to the DNP program, Liberty offers a BSN with rigorous courses in pharmacology, critical care, and childbearing. The school also offers advanced degrees, including an MSN that is offered completely online. Additionally, the school offers an online RN to BSN program to help nurses continue their education and advance their careers.

About Liberty University

Liberty University, founded in 1971, is the largest private, nonprofit university in the nation, the largest university in Virginia, and the largest Christian university in the world. Located near the Blue Ridge Mountains on more than 7,000 acres in Lynchburg, Va., Liberty offers more than 500 unique programs of study from the associate to the doctoral level. More than 200 programs are offered online. Libertys mission is to train Champions for Christ with the values, knowledge, and skills essential for impacting tomorrows world
StayNTouch, an innovator in mobile technology and Property Management Systems (PMS) for hotels, today announced that Danielle L. Metlzer has been named Chief Financial Officer.

Metlzer brings more than two decades of financial and accounting experience, including leading financial organizations at multiple software companies during periods of rapid growth, and helping orchestrate significant fundraising rounds and successful exits. StayNTouchs systems are now in place in more than 60,000 rooms at distinctive hotels throughout the U.S, and in the UK, Holland and Belgium. The company sees accelerated growth in the months ahead.

We are pleased to welcome Danielle Metzler to StayNTouch, said Jos Schaap, CEO and Founder of StayNTouch, Hotels across the industry are embracing the trend toward giving guests maximum choice and freedom to design their stays their own way, and technology solutions that make it possible. StayNTouch is proud to power the trend, with a unique suite of solutions that are gaining rapid adoption. As our footprint expands, we are grateful to have a financial professional with Danielles skill set and breadth of experience to help guide our growth.

Metlzer comes to StayNTouch from AnyPresence Inc., where she served as CFO. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Finance at Mandiant, where she helped lead and manage the companys rapid growth, assisted with a $70M Series C fundraise, and helped support the international expansion of three international subsidiaries. Metlzer also served as CFO for Momentum Systems, Inc., acquired by OpenText, and was Director of Finance at Network Solutions. She has a B.A. from Harpur College at the State University of New York at Binghamton, and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Danielle Metlzer said, Im proud to join StayNTouch at this important and dynamic moment in the companys growth. Joining a leading-edge company in an industry ripe for change is an exciting and challenging opportunity, and I look forward to making meaningful contributions.

StayNTouch offers hotels the opportunity to integrate multiple cloud-solutions on one platform:



Rover PMS: A fully cloud-based, Next Generation PMS that fits on every device, optimizing all aspects of hotel operations  from groups to housekeeping to revenue management. Simple monthly pricing includes training, integration and configuration.

Rover PMS Overlay: Mobilizes existing hotel PMS front desk operations through mobile/tablet, via a touch/graphic user experience. Drives revenue and reduces guest wait times. Includes check-in, check-out, visual upgrades, upsells, signature and, remote key encoding.

Zest: Enables guest pre-engagement and guest services via mobile web. Guest-enabled mobile check-in & out via smart phone or desktop. Private labeled, PMS-integrated mobile check-in &/or checkout. Bill review, preference collection, upsell opportunities, and remote key fulfillment. Promote and monetize late checkouts.

Zest Station - Lets guests skip the line and get on with their stay via self check-in, key retrieval and check-out processes. Minimal investment, low maintenance system that promotes upselling and frees staff for other activities.

About StayNTouch

Driven by the need for hoteliers needs to raise service levels to respond to the needs of todays guests and increase hotel revenues, StayNTouch delivers a cloud-based Hotel PMS and a suite of tablet-based solutions to optimize the existing PMS and make it mobile. The companys PMS Mobile Overlay brings mobility to both hotel staff and guests in order to drive guest revenue while enhancing the guest experience.

Via any tablet or touch device, Guest Service and Housekeeping have mobile access to PMS via a touch-optimized interface. Guests, from their smart phone, can self check-in and out, view room bill and receive upgrade promotions. StayNTouch dramatically streamlines operations and increases margins, and revolutionizes how the hotels connect and engage their guests and how guests experience their hotels.

StayNTouch partners with many of the most forward thinking brands in the industry, including Yotel, Great Wolf Hotels and Resorts, Zoku Amsterdam and the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.

Learn more by visiting http://www.stayntouch.com.
Charlie has worked in this industry for more than two decades, and he has both tremendous expertise and highly refined instincts for how to execute an ECM implementation most effectively.

Buddha Logic, a leading provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and business process management services and solutions, has made available on its YouTube channel a video recording of its Mile High Denver ARMA Spring Seminar presentation. Charles Weidman, Buddha Logic founder and president, described his ECtM (Examine, Confirm then Manage) approach to content management.

Charlie has worked in this industry for more than two decades, and he has both tremendous expertise and highly refined instincts for how to execute an ECM implementation most effectively, said Larry Matthews, Buddha Logic executive vice president. His willingness to openly share the best practices hes fine-tuned over 20 years is a testament to his role as a leader and a resource to others in our industry.

The Mile High Denver ARMA Spring Seminar is an annual gathering of Records and Information Management (RIM) professionals from around Colorado that seeks to advance the practice and profession of records management.

The attendees I shared my thoughts with at the ARMA Spring Seminar event are some of the brightest, most dedicated records management pros in the business, said Weidman. It was an honor to be on the agenda.

The recording of the video may be viewed at: http://buddhalogic.com/blog/ecm-consultants-buddha-logic-present-at-arma-spring-seminar

About Buddha Logic (http://www.buddhalogic.com)

Founded in 2003 and located in Boulder, in the heart of Colorados technology community, our team is a close-knit group of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) experts skilled and certified in design, development, implementation and support. We work with leading solution providers and serve clients throughout the U.S. and Canada in a wide range of markets, including government, transportation, corporate, banking, insurance, medical and mortgage. Buddha Logic has a long history of success in providing clients with automated document management, optimized business processes, business process mapping, AP automation and workflow management.
From left to right: Ronald deVlam, President, Webb deVlam; Rob McCarthy, CMO, sgsco; Aidan Tracey, CEO, sgsco; and Tim Perry, Managing Director, Webb deVlam.

Sgsco, a global leader in package production and related marketing services, has acquired Webb deVlam, an international strategic brand design and innovation firm. The Webb deVlam studios in London, Chicago and Singapore  plus its sister innovation lab facility, R5, located in Chicago  are included in the acquisition.

For brands and retailers, the acquisition presents an opportunity to combine Webb deVlams world-class upstream strategic thinking in the design of new products with sgscos scalable and influential production platform to create cost efficiencies. In todays hyper-competitive business landscape, sgsco believes there is demand for strong strategic thinking, high-quality design, and a cost-effective production model.

With the addition of Webb deVlam, sgsco now offers clients the industrys most complete end-to-end solution, from strategy and innovation to digital content management and social e-commerce distribution, said Aidan Tracey, CEO, sgsco. The vision of sgsco is to bring together world-class people and service companies to meet the needs of leading brands and retailers. The addition of the Webb deVlam team is our latest step forward in solidifying our vision.

Through this acquisition, Webb deVlam employees will continue operating under the leadership of Ronald deVlam, President, Webb deVlam, who will report to Tracey.

This is a monumental new day for Webb deVlam, our employees and our clients, said deVlam. Today we have the unique opportunity to become part of something greater, while continuing to provide the kind of award-winning strategy, innovation and beautifully designed brand experiences weve delivered for the past 25 years.

Sgsco is building a formidable suite of integrated marketing services to help clients win at shelf and within a rapidly evolving digital marketplace  whenever and wherever consumer desire can be converted into action. The sgsco collective of companies now includes the following brands and expertise: SGS, global production engine; Webb deVlam, strategy and innovation; Marks, brand design; Traffik, integrated marketing; Armstrong-White, 3D-CGI; and Kwikee, digital content management and distribution.

About sgsco

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, sgsco is a global leader in package production and related marketing services with a strong history as a provider of design-to-print graphic services. Comprising a collective of companies and people, sgsco offers many of the worlds leading CPG, Pharma, Retail and Printing companies a full spectrum of innovative packaging solutions that streamline the capture, management, execution and distribution of graphics information in all channels. A strong global infrastructure, built around the SGS production engine, provides the opportunity for sgscos 3,200 professionals to share worldwide learning, insights and understanding to create unique physical and digital solutions for all customers. To learn more, visit http://www.sgsco.com.

About Webb deVlam

With offices in London, Singapore and Chicago, Webb deVlam helps build brands with strategy, innovation, design and activation. Since 1992, Webb deVlam has been working with leading companies across multiple sectors including CPG, Technology and Health Care to create meaningful connections between consumers and iconic brands that deliver valuable results. To learn more, visit http://www.webbdevlam.com.
Luis Barajas, MD, RPhS, ABVLM

The Center for Vein Restoration (CVR), the nations largest, physician-led, vein treatment medical organization, is proud to announce expansion to Indiana. CVR will begin seeing patients on June 2nd and June 6th of this year at the four new locations of Avon, Greenwood, Evansville and Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

With these new locations, local patients will have access to an expanded suite of advanced treatments for venous insufficiencythe underlying cause of varicose and spider veinsas well as access to a large Patient Services call center offering person-to-person assistance to discuss treatment options, answer insurance questions, and make appointments.

CVR names Luis Barajas, MD, RPhS, ABVLM as the Regional Medical Director for Indiana. Dr. Barajas states, "Venous treatments are very safe and effective with no major restrictions following the procedure. CVR's physicians are well trained and dedicated to the treatment of venous disease providing a candid plan of care that will best match patient outcome desires. With over 7,000 performed over the last several years, I am excited to join the admirable Center for Vein Restoration family."

ABOUT LUIS BARAJS, MD, RPhS, ABVLM

A native of Northwest Indiana, where he attended Purdue University and obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biology. He moved to Southport, IN as a medical student, and completed his medical degree from Indiana University in Indianapolis. Dr. Barajas has also accomplished the following:



His residency training was completed in Family Practice at Methodist Hospital in Gary/ Merrillville.

After four years of emergency medicine, he opened his own family practice in Hobart, IN.

In 2007, he received additional training in treating patients with vein disease, and began performing vein procedures for Decatur Vein Clinic in Indianapolis.

In 2009, Dr. Barajas became Assistant Medical Director for Decatur Vein Clinic, and has treated countless patients in the northern Indiana.

Dr. Barajas received board certification in venous medicine by the American Board of Venous and Lymphatic Medicine in 2009.

As of 2015, he is one of only 718 physicians to receive this distinction, which recognizes a physicians skill and expertise in the vein field.

Associate clinical professor at Indiana University School of Medicine educating future physicians in venous disease and the latest in evidence-based treatments.

Center for Vein Restorations Avon, IN clinic is located at:

105 S. Raceway Rd., Suite 135, Indianapolis, IN 46231

Center for Vein Restorations Greenwood, IN clinic is located at:

33 E. County Line Rd., Suite D, Greenwood, IN 46143

Center for Vein Restorations Evansville, IN clinic is located at:

6540 Logan Dr., Suite 2, Evansville, IN 47715

Center for Vein Restorations Ft. Wayne, IN clinic is located at:

7230 Engle Rd., Suite 101, Ft. Wayne, IN 46804

ABOUT VENOUS INSUFFICIENCY

Venous insufficiency, the cause of varicose veins and spider veins, indiscriminately affects between 3040 million Americans. Numerous factors including age, weight, prolonged sitting or standing, genetics or a history of DVT (blood clots) can increase the risk of developing this all-to-common and often underdiagnosed disorder. Treatment options range from lifestyle changes like exercising or taking regular breaks from prolonged sitting or standing to an array of minimally-invasive, outpatient procedures that close problem veins, redirecting blood flow to healthier ones.

ABOUT CENTER FOR VEIN RESTORATION

Having performed its first procedure in 2007 under President and CEO Dr. Sanjiv Lakhanpal, Center for Vein Restoration (CVR) has since become a nationally recognized leader in the treatment of varicose and spider veins. Dedicated to relieving leg pain, treating the vascular cause of severe leg wounds, and eliminating unsightly veins, CVRs minimally invasive procedures allow patients to look better, feel better, and live better. With 55 locations and counting, they have assembled the most qualified and experienced team of physicians, researchers, and staff to serve patients across Alabama, Indiana, Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC.

For more information, visit http://www.centerforvein.com. You may also contact Nicole McMillan at nicole(dot)mcmillan(at)centerforvein(dot)com or 240-965-3277.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2



By Ilhama Isabalayeva - Trend:



The creation of the ASAN Visa system will make it possible to increase the number of tourism companies engaged in inbound tourism in Azerbaijan from 70 to 100 soon, Muzaffar Aghakarimov, advisor to the head of Azerbaijan Tourism Association, told Trend June 2.



He noted that currently, around 70 tourism companies are engaged in inbound tourism in the country.



Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on June 1 signed a decree on simplification of e-visas issuance procedure and the creation of the ASAN Visa system.



The decree was signed in order to simplify procedure for issuing visas to foreigners and stateless persons arriving in Azerbaijan, as well as creation of an e-visa system ensuring transparency and efficiency with the use of modern information technologies.



Simplification of the visa issuance procedure creates conditions for developing the inbound tourism and the country's economy in general, Aghakarimov added.



The creation of the ASAN Visa system, issuance of online visas within three days, will help attract more tourists to Azerbaijan, he said.



Aghakarimov recalled that in February 2016, the period of e-visa issuance was reduced from ten to five working days in accordance with the decree of Azerbaijan's president. He noted that the country launched a simplified visa regime for the tourists arriving in Azerbaijan from the Persian Gulf countries, China, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.



In recent years, Azerbaijan is working hard to improve overall conditions in the country for a bigger tourist flow. In 2015, during the inaugural European Games, over 28,000 foreign tourists visited Azerbaijan, according to Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.



The "ASAN Visa" system should help the country to increase the number of visiting tourists. Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev had previously said that Azerbaijan's goal is to be able to host 5 million tourists per year.
In Defense of Christians Executive Director Kirsten Evans issued the following statement:

Today, In Defense of Christians (IDC) commends the German Parliament for standing tall in solidarity with Christians and other vulnerable communities in the Middle East.

Its recognition of the 1915 massacre of Armenians and other Christians by Ottoman forces as a genocide calls the international community to conscience in the face of the ongoing genocide waged today against Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities by the so-called Islamic State.

With German affirmation of the crime, over 25 countries have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. The brutal campaign of religious and ethnic-cleansing took place between 1915-1917, targeting Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and other vulnerable Christian communities, and murdering more than one million men, women, and children.

In the face of the genocide against Christians and other religious minorities being waged today by ISIS, and the targeting of Christians by extremist groups in other parts of the world, acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide is a moral and historical imperative. Recognition is necessary to strengthen the modern conscience, to protect the world from the repetition of similar horrors, and is critical for any hope of reconciliation and healing between communities.

Last year, on the one-hundredth anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Pope Francis insisted that only through recognition and reconciliation will new generations open themselves to a better future, and will the sacrifice of so many become seeds of justice and peace.

IDC stands in solidarity with the descendants of the Armenian Genocide, as well as with the many Middle Eastern Christian communities that suffer similar persecution today.

We call upon President Obama to honor his pledge to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, and call upon the United States Congress to enact legislation seeking a truthful and just resolution of this dark chapter of world history.

IDC calls upon the entire global community to acknowledge the historic reality of the Ottoman genocide of the Armenian, Assyrian, Greek, and other Christian communities, and to work unremittingly to protect religious minorities suffering similar atrocities today.

IDC exists to empower the Middle Eastern Christian Diaspora and energize the American people to stand in solidarity with the Christian communities in the region.

Last September, IDCs National Leadership Convention, Mobilizing America for Christians in the Middle East was the platform for Congressman Jeff Fortenberrys (R-NE) public announcement of House Con. Resolution 75, an initiative to declare the systematic persecution of Christians and other religious minorities under ISIS as genocide. On March 14th the resolution passed with a historic and unanimous vote.
Wuhan Xinmeiya Technology LTD logo Xinmeiya Technology has years of experience. This includes experience in commercial, productive, design capability and quality control capability.

Wuhan Xinmeiya Technology Ltd is a China based company that designs, develops, manufactures and tests products by utilizing its exceptional engineering talent. The companys mission is to provide through the utilization of internal manufacturing capability and supply chain resources an outstanding international supply chain that provides customers with a highly competitive product value. Xinmeiya Technologys objective is to provide world class value to our customers by our team of highly skilled engineers on time and of high quality.

Xinmeiya Technology is certified ISO 9001-2008 with UL and CE capability. Engineering in Mechanical Design, Manufacturing, Electrical, Electronics, Quality and Supply Chain is complemented by their U.S. operation.

Xinmeiya Technology has years of experience. This includes experience in commercial, productive, design capability and quality control capability. Xinmeiyas technical skills in producing all kinds of temperature sensors and cables are based on US techniques. The companys suppliers have spread all over the world which allows it to match the best for customers' specific demands. Xinmeiya is also experienced in sourcing, designing and quality managing, as well as processing products.

For over 50 years, OVEN Industries has specialized in the design and manufacture of electronic, digital Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) temperature controllers, temperature control systems and temperature sensors. Along with custom design services, OVEN provides a standard line of temperature controller and sensor products for heating and cooling applications, including those that use thermoelectric modules (Peltier modules). The company combines extensive experience in the design of temperature controllers and temperature sensors in its state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Visit http://www.xinmeiyatech.com/ for more information on Xinmeiya Technology Ltd.

Visit http://www.ovenind.com for more information on OVEN Industries

http://www.bioer.com.cn/

http://www.fyjs.casic.cn/index.html

Company Contact for Wuhan Xinmeiya Technology Ltd.

Address: 2nd Floor,Building 3,Modern Manufacture Hatcher Base, City industry Zone, 418# Dihou street, Bashazhou, Wuchang district, Wuhan.

Contact: Xinmei Bu

Tel: 0086-27-88161550

Mobile: 13871290256

Email: xinmei.bu(at)xinmeiyatech(dot)com
HMR Designs made New Trier High Schools final days of the semester extra special by creating custom decor for their annual lock-in event.

While most students cant wait until the final bell of the day, New Triers graduating seniors look forward to the annual lock-in, where they spend the night at the school having one last adventure as classmates. The lock-in is planned by a committee of the seniors parents and about 100 students attend.

The theme of the evening, Trevian Tales, included vibrant fabric, metals and star lanterns throughout. Event designer Jessica Griffin Pfluegl had fun with the design, creating colorful tents to house lounge furniture and floor pillows for the students to enjoy.

"We hope that our role in the event helped make for an even more memorable evening for the seniors before they move on to their next adventure," said Jessica.

The students enjoyed the lock-in, which was enhanced by the custom-made decor. They will carry the memories of the evening forward as they transition from students to adults.

For more information about HMR Designs and how they can create incredible memories for your event, please visit hmrdesigns.com/about/ and hmrdesigns.com/blog/.

About HMR Designs

Located on Goose Island, clients visit our design team at our boutique-style sales offices, which are backed by a 100k sq. foot production space. This location includes designated areas for all of our design and production capabilities, as well as a warehouse of custom furniture, props, and decor pieces, an expansive floral studio, and a sample studio for mock up events where we show it all off. With a core staff of nearly 55 and a diverse lineup of freelance artisans regularly in-house, HMR is always teeming with creative endeavors.

Contact Details:

Jessica Griffin Pfluegl, Event Designer

Phone: 773.782.0800

JessicaG(at)hmrdesigns.com

Address:

1200 N North Branch Street

Chicago, IL 60642

Source: HMR Designs

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"We have since added Tru-D to our enhanced cleaning strategies as an important line of defense in protecting our patients and staff.

During a recent presentation at the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Spring Conference, leading researcher Deverick Anderson, MD discussed the effectiveness of UV disinfection on reducing facility-wide, hospital-acquired infection rates. During the seminar, Anderson confirmed that UV disinfection effectively kills bacteria and keeps microorganisms from replicating. Further, he explained that when UV is used hospital-wide to disinfect isolation discharge cases, HAI scores drop for the entire facility.

Tru-Ds efficacy and role in reducing HAIs continues to be proven by leading researchers and independent, third-party validations, said Chuck Dunn, president and CEO of Tru-D SmartUVC. We are eager for the first-ever, randomized, clinical trial on UV disinfection, the Benefits of Enhanced Terminal Room Disinfection study, to be released. This trial ultimately proved Tru-Ds ability to affect HAI rates throughout entire healthcare facilities.

Due to its patented Sensor360 technology that removes any chance of human error in the disinfection process, Tru-D was the only UV robot of its kind chosen for the first randomized, clinical trial on UV disinfection. The Benefits of Enhanced Terminal Room Disinfection (BETR-D) study, which was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, proved that enhanced terminal room cleaning strategies decreased the cumulative incidences of multidrug-resistant organisms, and the largest decreases were seen when Tru-D was added to the standard cleaning protocols. During his presentation, Anderson noted that one of the additional analyses for the clinical trial was not to focus solely on the next patient in the room but to expand the analysis to all patients in the hospital. In doing so, significant, hospital-wide HAI reductions were observed with cumulative incidences of MRSA, VRE and C. diff decreasing by statistical significant amounts. This indicates that targeting highest risk rooms with enhanced disinfection practices make hospitals safer overall, improving outcomes for every patient who walks through its doors. Final results are undergoing peer-review and are expected to be published in the near future.

The BETR-D study was a well-controlled, 28-month, intensive clinical trial that involved nine hospitals and more than 600,000 patient days, said Ron Halleen, Director of Environmental Services at Alamance Regional Hospital, one of the BETR-D study participating hospitals. We have since added Tru-D to our enhanced cleaning strategies as an important line of defense in protecting our patients and staff.

Tru-D is an automated, remotely-operated UV disinfection system that self-adjusts to the size and content dynamics of any room to deliver a continuous, lethal dose of UVC light energy necessary for complete, total room disinfection. It works by generating and measuring UVC light to deliver a consistent dosage, which is proven to modify the DNA structure of infectious bacteria and spores such as C. diff, MRSA and VRE, and eliminate the risk of transmitting infections through contaminated surfaces. As energy is reflected around the room, shadowed areas are reached and pathogens are eradicated ensuring a thorough disinfection outcome, every time.

For more information and links to independent studies, visit Tru-D.com.
Journalists are invited to enter their work in the 2016 Barlett & Steele Awards for Investigative Business Journalism.

The awards contest, administered by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, annually honors the best investigative business reporting in the country. The contest is named for the renowned investigative reporting team of Don Barlett and Jim Steele, whose numerous awards include two Pulitzer Prizes.

Gold, silver and bronze winners receive cash awards of $5,000, $2,000 and $1,000, respectively.

The Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune and The Palm Beach Post won the top awards in 2015. Seafood from Slaves by the APs Robin McDowell, Margie Mason, Martha Mendoza and Esther Htusan went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in April.

Money and the economy are increasingly important topics to readers and viewers, and we want to encourage and recognize media organizations that tackle those subjects in meaningful and creative ways, said Andrew Leckey, president of the Reynolds Center. Leckey said many of the best business investigations combine the traditional tools of investigative reporting, such as data analysis and public records, with compelling storytelling.

Entries for this years contest must have been published between July 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016. Editors or contest coordinators of media outlets may submit up to two entries, each containing up to four articles. The entry deadline is Aug. 1, 2016.

Entry rules and a link to the application are available at http://businessjournalism.org/barlett-steele-awards/.

The deadline to enter this years competition is Aug. 1, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. EST.

About Barlett and Steele

Don Barlett and Jim Steele have worked together for more than three decades, first at The Philadelphia Inquirer (1971-1997), where they won two Pulitzer Prizes and scores of other national journalism awards, then at Time magazine (1997-2006), where they earned two National Magazine Awards, becoming the first journalists in history to win both the Pulitzer and its magazine equivalent. They are now contributing editors at Vanity Fair. The Washington Journalism Review said of Barlett and Steele: They are almost certainly the best team in the history of investigative reporting.

About the Reynolds Center

The Reynolds Center is part of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU. Since 2003, more than 22,000 journalists have benefitted from the Reynolds Centers free training. The centers mission is to help journalists improve business coverage through in-person and online training and its website, BusinessJournalism.org.

The center is funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, it has committed more than $145 million nationwide through its journalism program.
TDWI Accelerate TDWI Accelerate condenses decades of education and training experience into three days that will help data professionals reach their analytics and data visualization goals faster.

TDWI, a division of 1105 Media, announces keynote addresses from prominent business intelligence (BI) leaders Wayne Eckerson, Kirk Borne and Jennifer Shin at TDWI Accelerate, a new conference on analytics and data visualization taking place July 1820, 2016, in Boston.

Wayne Eckerson presents: The BI Power Shift: Creating a Shared Organization

Wayne Eckerson, director of research and principal consultant of the Eckerson Group, will share his insight as a 20-year BI and analytics expert on the ways to survive and thrive in the new world order. Specifically, Wayne will challenge the attitude of BI and analytics professionals that they can continue to operate solo and give guidance on how they can partner with other analytics players to create a shared data vision for their organization.

Eckerson has conducted many groundbreaking research studies, chaired numerous conferences, and written two widely read books: The Secrets of Analytical Leaders: Insights from Information Insiders (2012) and Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business, 2nd ed. (2010). He is currently working on a book about data governance.

Dr. Kirk Borne presents: Data Trek: The Expanding Universe of Data Science

As a former NASA data scientist on the Hubble Space Telescope program, Dr. Kirk Bornes views on the expanding universe of data science are more informed than most. Now the principal data scientist for NextGen Analytics and Data Science in the Strategic Innovation Group at Booz Allen Hamilton, he brings that same sense of exploration to the Internet of Things (IoT).

In the beginning, the Internet was a thing. Now, things are becoming the Internet and the future of your business will be determined by what happens at the edge of this network of things. This revolution is less scary, though, when you follow a rigorous scientific approach. Dr. Borne will take his audience on a mission to explore strange new worlds of discovery, to seek out new business opportunities, and to boldly go where few analysts have gone beforeupward into analytics maturity and outward to the edges of the network.

Jennifer Shin presents: Empower Your Visualizations

In this keynote, Jennifer Shin, Founder of 8 Path Solutions and data science writer for the IBM Big Data & Analytics Hub, explores the power behind data visualizations by asking the question: What makes a data visualization powerful? Jennifer will identify the key takeaways for effective real-world data visualizations using a series of case studies, finishing with an examination of how such visualizations lead to better decisions.

About TDWI Accelerate

At TDWI Accelerate, TDWI condenses decades of education and training experience into three days that will help data professionals reach their goals faster. Accelerate focuses on these key areas of analytics:



Self-service analytics and data visualizationthe language of images, data storytelling, democratization, and data preparation

Advanced analytics and data sciencepredictive analytics, data mining, tool selection, Internet of Things, advanced algorithms, cognitive analytics, and more

Analytical organization and leadershiporganizing and building teams for success, developing an analytics culture, and making it happen

Participants will attend case study presentations, expert sessions, panel discussions, half-day courses, a broad range of structured and unstructured networking opportunities, and survey the latest analytics technologies.

To register, visit the event website at http://tdwi.org/Accelerate. Conference attendees who register by June 17, 2016, are eligible for a special discount of up to $475.

For the Media

Members of the media are invited to cover the event. Interviews with TDWI spokespeople are available upon request.

Media passes are reserved for press representatives and analysts who can verify that their publication or organization regularly covers data warehousing, business intelligence, or related topics. Media passes will not be issued to publishing, sales, marketing, advertising, public relations, or technical support staff from any organization.

To apply for a media pass, please send an email to bwoodbridge@tdwi.org with the following information: name, title, company, email address, telephone number, dates of attendance, publication/website name (including website URL), and links to three articles/blogs/podcasts published in the last three months that cover business intelligence, data warehousing, or related topics.

About TDWI

For 20 years, TDWI has advanced the art and science of realizing business value from data by providing an objective forum where industry experts, solution providers, and practitioners can explore and enhance data competencies, practices, and technologies. TDWI offers five major conferences as well as topical seminars, onsite education, membership, certification, live webinars, resourceful publications, industry news, and in-depth research. Visit http://tdwi.org or follow us on Twitter @TDWI.

About 1105 Media

Based in Chatsworth, California, 1105 Media, Inc., is a leading provider of integrated information and media in targeted business-to-business markets, including specialized sectors of the information technology community; industrial health, safety, and compliance; security; environmental protection; and home healthcare.
Michael Cecere and Erick Santana An attorney can navigate the claim process for you, including documenting and presenting your claim. Also, if you have to file a lawsuit against your insurance carrier, and you prevail, the insurance carrier will be responsible for your attorney fees. Past News Releases RSS Attorneys at Cecere Santana Share...

This years Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be the most active since 2012. In light of this, attorneys at Cecere Santana, which focuses on cases relating to property damage and personal injury, stress people be prepared to protect not only themselves, but their assets.

People need to prepare now, said Erick Santana, a founding partner at Cecere Santana. First and foremost, have a plan to protect you and your family. Dont wait until it is too late to secure water, food and safety supplies. Once a storm begins, stay inside and ride it out.

In regards to insurance and protecting assets in the event property is damaged or destroyed by a storm, attorney Michael Cecere lists the following three tips:

No. 1: Be prepared to document a claim before it occurs. Take still pictures or videos of your house and personal belongings to ensure there is no doubt as to what you owned before the storm, said Cecere.

No. 2: Gather receipts for expensive items. If people do not have receipts, Cecere suggests creating an inventory, including the make, model, year of purchase and cost of an item, and storing the information in a safe place where it cannot be destroyed. You should also consider an electronic copy of these documents or sending a copy to a friend or family member out of state, he added.

No. 3: Contact an attorney after any loss. If you have any questions after a loss, an experienced attorney can help with your property claim, said Cecere. An attorney can navigate the claim process for you, including documenting and presenting your claim. Also, if you have to file a lawsuit against your insurance carrier, and you prevail, the insurance carrier will be responsible for your attorney fees.

About Michael Cecere and Erick Santana, Cecere Santana Attorneys at Law

Attorney Michael Cecere is a Board Certified Civil Trial lawyer and cofounder of the firm Cecere Santana, PA. He works on civil trial litigation and has over 15 years of experience in the courtroom, trying over 65 cases to verdict. Attorney Erick Santana has been evaluating personal injury cases for over 20 years, and has successfully settled thousands of cases for his clients. As a former insurance adjuster, he knows first-hand what challenges clients face when dealing with insurance companies. Cecere Santana, PA represents cases relating to homeowners and property claims, personal injury, workers compensation and immigration. For more information, please call (800) 753-5529, or visit http://www.ceceresantana.com.

About the NALA

The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361.
MI-Skin Dermatology Center "The main goal, no matter what the treatment, is to find what fits the patients individual needs, goals, and skin type, said Dr. Isaac.

An article in Newswise Magazine recently addressed the ever-changing treatment of acne within the United States. The American Academy of Dermatology states that acne is the most common skin condition in the United States, affecting up to 50 million people every year.

Acne can be a tricky condition to treat. There are a lot of misconceptions floating around when it comes to how to treat acne and what causes breakouts. There are so many different types of acne and not every treatment works for every patient. This is vital to remember when seeking treatment, explains Dr. Isaac, founder and dermatologist at MI-Skin Dermatology Center in Washington, DC.

For most dermatologists, two or more combinations are now considered the best treatments for the majority of acne patients. For example, when antibiotics are used for the treatment of moderate to severe breakouts, the guideline recommends that topical therapy be used at the same time. Additionally, some female patients may see their acne improve with the use of oral contraceptives, which can be combined with other treatments.

A lot of people think that there is a one cure-all for breakouts, and its just not true. Each type of acne requires a different type of treatment, and if that treatment works for one patients skin, it doesnt necessarily mean that it will work for another, Dr. Isaac said.

Although limited data has shown that in-office procedures like laser treatments or chemical peels may improve acne, the guidelines do not recommend such procedures for routine acne treatment. For more information: http://www.MI-Skin.com/Acne/

At my practice, I do perform laser treatments on patients with more stubborn and problematic acne. (Not zits). Also, a combination of Dermasweep and chemical peels can help to renew and rejuvenate acne-prone skin. This is a treatment that would need to be performed repeatedly for more troublesome acne, but the goal would be to reach a point to where the breakouts have been managed or cured. For lesser acne, of course, a milder form of treatment would be the best-case scenario, such as the aforementioned creams and antibiotics. The main goal, no matter what the treatment, is to find what fits the patients individual needs, goals, and skin type, explained Dr. Isaac.

Dr. Melda Isaac is a board-certified dermatologist located in Washington, DC. Her practice, MI-Skin Dermatology Center, is a comprehensive skin care practice, which offers the latest and most advanced state-of-the-art technology to improve the skins appearance. Dr. Isaac obtained her medical degree from Penn State University, and completed her dermatology residency at George Washington University. She is an active member of the American Academy of Dermatology, the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, the Womens Dermatologic Society, the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and the Washington, DC Dermatologic Society.

You can find out more about Dr. Isaac and MI-Skin Dermatology Center at http://MI-Skin.com/Contact.

MI Skin Dermatology Center

2440 M St NW # 703

Washington DC 20037

(202) 817-2249

DrIsaacInquiry(at)gmail(dot)com
Evas Village hosted a dozen employees from neighboring Pharmachem Laboratories, Inc., who participated recently in a hands-on, team-building,Fund-A-Meal program. Pharmachems $5,000, gold-level sponsorship underwrites the cost of approximately two days of hot meals served to nearly 400 guests daily in Evas Community Kitchen. Pharmachem specializes in the manufacture, processing and supply of custom and branded nutritional ingredients, serving the natural and nutritional, food and beverage, flavor and fragrance industries. The volunteers, who hailed from around the country and Canada, were in town to attend Pharmachems annual sales meeting. The group pitched in to serve and clean up the meal after learning how Evas Village grew from a simple soup kitchen 34 years ago into the 20 integrated antipoverty programs offered today. They also toured Evas facilities, spanning several city blocks, and listened to an alumna describe how the programs at Evas Village helped her find a path to recovery and a new life.

Pharmachems Partnership with Evas Village

Fund-A-Meal participation continues Pharmachems support of Evas Village, which began in 2011 when the companys president first learned about Evas programs that serve the local community. We are pleased to have Pharmachem, a local Paterson business, participate once again in our Fund-A-Meal program, stated Marie Reger, Executive Director of Evas Village. By reaching out and helping those in need in their community, Pharmachem is demonstrating their commitment to corporate citizenship, she said. Pharmachem is dedicated to giving back to the community on both local and global levels. In addition to helping in the Community Kitchen, Pharmachem provides funding, in-kind donations and volunteer assistance throughout the year, participating in the Summer Program for the children of Evas Village and the Holiday Shoppe. Bob McCrimlisk of Pharmachem noted, Our Fund-A-Meal volunteers were impressed with Evas mission and dedication to serving the needs of our community. Evas has been providing meals for longer than some of our volunteers have been alive, he observed.

More About Pharmachem

Pharmachem Laboratories, Inc.s mission is to provide the nutrition industry with consistently superior ingredients and value-added services, world-wide, and, by doing so, help improve the nutritional standards and lifestyles of people on a global level. Pharmachems charitable giving is the legacy of its founder and president, the late David Holmes, who was inspired to share the companys good fortune with those less fortunate. In addition to supporting local anti-poverty organizations like Evas Village, Mr. Holmes played a key role in establishing Vitamin Angels, which provides nutritional support to underserved women and children around the globe. Pharmachem was established in 1979 with the purchase of Stanley Blackman Laboratories, a leading supplier of ingredients to the emerging natural and nutritional industries. Today, Pharmachem has expanded to comprise 13 processing and manufacturing facilities in North America, as well as five divisions across the United States.

More about Evas Village

Founded by Msgr. Vincent E. Puma in 1982, Evas Community Kitchen began by serving 30 meals a day in Paterson to feed the hungry. In response to the related issues of poverty, addiction, mental illness and homelessness in the community, over the decades additional programs and services grew out of the Community Kitchen to become Evas Village, a non-profit, social service, anti-poverty organization that is one of the most comprehensive in New Jersey. For more than 30 years, Evas Village carried out its mission to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, treat the addicted, and provide medical and dental care to the poor with respect for the human dignity of each individual. Today, Evas Village helps thousands of individuals rebuild their lives each year through 20 integrated programs addressing needs in the community for Food & Housing, Medical & Recovery Services, and Education & Training.
Victor Cardenas, Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer LLP We have the business to expand the Houston office, and hope to attract more exceptional lawyers like Victor.

Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer LLP, a Texas-based law firm specializing in civil litigation and trials, is pleased to announce the addition of Victor Cardenas Jr. to the firm's Houston office.

Mr. Cardenas joins Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer LLP after more than 8 years with Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs, PC in Houston, Texas where he was a founding member and shareholder. Mr. Cardenas was instrumental in helping clients recover historic settlements in watershed environmental cases and successfully litigated multi-million dollar CERCLA contribution actions, railroad cases, contamination cases, and complex commercial disputes.

Mr. Cardenas represents public entities, transportation companies and commercial businesses in complex matters involving environmental claims in matters arising under virtually every major federal environmental statute, particularly including the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), in jurisdictions from coast-to-coast. He has extensive experience in Superfund and hazardous substance sites, including negotiation of consent decrees, agreed orders, and settlements, cost-recovery and contribution actions, contaminated property damage and devaluation claims, NRD assessment and litigation, third-party and citizen suits, and other matters relating to contamination or impaired real property. He has also represented commercial landowners in enforcement and administrative proceedings concerning the release and migration of hazardous materials in all environmental media, and coordinated remedial process among various stake-holders.

Mr. Cardenas also advises international and domestic midsize energy, industrial, and transportation sector clients manage their environmental risk through appropriate environmental indemnity clauses, environmental due diligence, and regulatory compliance in cross-border transactions.

"Were so glad that Victor has joined our Houston office," says Jeff Patterson, Managing Partner at HDBD. "We have the business to expand that office, and hope to attract more exceptional lawyers like Victor.

About HDBD

Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer LLP is a Texas-based law firm specializing in civil litigation and trials, with offices in Dallas, Corpus Christi and Houston. The firms attorneys pride themselves on providing uncompromising excellence to their clients in a variety of areas, including products liability, commercial litigation, class action and multidistrict litigation, intellectual property, personal-injury defense, premises liability, labor and employment, insurance coverage, healthcare, construction, and dealer/franchise litigation. For more information about HDBD, visit http://www.hdbdlaw.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

The ASAN Visa system, which is a part of the progressive management reforms carried out by the Azerbaijani leadership, is of particular importance in terms of promoting the tourist flow to the country, Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry, told Trend June 2.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on June 1 signed a decree on simplification of the e-visa issuance and the creation of the ASAN Visa system.

Specialists of Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, State Agency for Public Services and Social Innovations under the President of Azerbaijan, and other relevant state structures will in coming days hold a working meeting on execution of the Azerbaijani president's decree, said Hajiyev.

He noted that the ASAN Visa system envisages simplification of the procedure of issuing visas to foreigners and stateless persons arriving in Azerbaijan, as well as creation of an e-visa system ensuring transparency and efficiency with the use of modern information technologies.
Paresh Vadavia, Co-Founder and CEO, OPMpros.com The Lifetime Achievement Award nomination is a complete and total honour.

OPM Pros Co-Founder and CEO Paresh Vadavia has been recognized as a Finalist for the 2016 Rakuten Golden Link Lifetime Achievement Award. While he won the Publisher Choice Award in 2008, a nomination for the Lifetime Achievement Award is an exciting first for Vadavia.

The Lifetime Achievement Award nomination is a complete and total honour, says Paresh Vadavia. I look back with fondness at the relationships Ive created over the years with the Rakuten Affiliate Network. I am absolutely thrilled and am looking forward to being recognized at what will be my 11th Symposium New York.

With a background in marketing and club promoting, the affiliate marketing space was a perfect fit for Vadavia to shine. He began his affiliate marketing career in 2006 as Affiliate Manager for Ice.com and Diamond.com. In two short years, he made a name for himself thanks to his hard work, dedication, and networking skills. These qualities, among others, led to Paresh winning Rakuten Marketings Golden Link Publisher Choice Award in 2008 and earning a nomination for the same award the following year.

After early recognition from his peers, a demand from retailers for his unique and effective methods of promotion, and establishing incredible relationships with many of the top affiliates, Vadavia decided to make the leap from employee to entrepreneur along with his childhood friend Sonny Lamba. What began as a two-man operation has grown into a 50+ person agency responsible for driving billions of dollars in sales for some of the internets biggest retailers.

Realizing that attendees of major affiliate marketing conferences had nowhere to go the night before the main event, Vadavia created PareshConnect, which has been held at various venues across the country to encourage relationship building in the industry. Since its inception in 2009, PareshConnect has become the official kickoff party to many events and has helped retailers and affiliates worldwide build relationships and drive revenue.

Vadavia and team have been nominated and won many prestigious awards over the last 7 years, but this nomination is very special as Vadavia is being recognized by the network where he started his affiliate marketing career.

The 2016 Rakuten Marketing Golden Link Awards will bring together more than 350 people representing leading Advertisers, Publishers, and Agencies to celebrate excellence and innovation in the performance marketing industry, and will be held on Wednesday, June 22, 2016 during Rakuten Marketings Symposium New York. For more information about Symposium New York and to register, visit the Rakuten Marketing website or view this video from last years awards ceremony.

About OPM Pros

OPM Pros is an award-winning, full-service digital marketing agency. With origins in affiliate marketing, the company has grown to offer expert services in Paid Search, Display Advertising, SEO, Web and Mobile Analytics, Creative Services, and others. Based in Montreal and led by Co-Founders Paresh Vadavia and Sonny Lamba, OPM Pros is counting a team of 50+ employees, a client roster of 100+ retailers across the globe, and multiple awards recognizing vision, innovation, and financial performance of OPM Pros in the affiliate marketing field.

See more at OPMpros.com.
PPA members at the annual Imaging USA convention Whether youre a PPA member in New York, NY or Jackson, WY, you have more options than ever before to Be More Connected.

PPA, the nations oldest and largest professional photography association, is spending the summer advocating the power of connections to its members and that they dont have to go it alone. Most businesses success, especially in their earlier stages of development, depends a lot on who knows who, the quality of the contacts, the variety of connections and the frequency of new introductions. This is even more valid for small creative business owners like professional photographers. Thanks to all the peer-to-peer connections made possible through a PPA membership, getting help, support and inspiration is now accessible to photographers like never before. In 2016, there are even more powerful ways to connect and network with your photography friends, says Kristen Hartman, Director of Member Value and Experience. Whether youre a PPA member in New York, NY or Jackson, WY, you have more options than ever before to Be More Connected. And these connections help you be more profitable and more sustainable.

In addition to sharing a lot of resources and information on social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, PPA offers its own private social network, theLoop, reserved for members of PPA. This is the spot where photographers can hone in on specific topics and turn to the nearly 30,000 photographers that make up PPA for advice on things like image reviews, finding a mentor, client relations, business planning, and more. This is the place to get tips on topics like What are the best photography business books out there? or Can I deduct mileage on my taxes for driving to free gigs? For members looking for more personalized business help, PPA has launched its Business Challenge, a members-only 12-month, step-by-step learning program, designed to help photography business owners be more sustainable and be more profitable.

Another resource is PPAs nationwide search engine: Find-A-Photographer. Here members can create a profile that includes an image gallery, headshot, contact information and studio logo, so that potential clients can find them when looking for a photographer in their area.

Members can stay up to date with the latest photography and business news, inspiration, updates and reads with the PPA Today blog and for more drone photography related information and news, consider joining the conversation on theLoop, or visiting the section on PPAs website: PPA.com/Drones.

Theres even more to learn with Reliable Copyright Help. Because most photographers are too busy to sort through the clutter surrounding legal issues, they need help to know what to do in order to keep their businesses protected and above-board. PPAs Government Affairs team is constantly lobbying on Capitol Hill for stronger copyright laws and small-business matters, helping protect photographers and bringing them updates on the current copyright law issues and changes. And even when things seem to get bad, theres help: PPAs online copyright infringement assistance tool lets members know what they should do to cut through the infringement chase. Theyll find resources, tools and recommendations that save hundreds of photographers each month.

The next time a professional photographer is feeling alone, PPA wants them to reach out and connect. There are so many ways the member community at Professional Photographers of America can help these artists never have to go it alone again.

About PPA:

Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is the largest international nonprofit association created by professional photographers, for professional photographers. Almost as long-lived as photography itself, PPA's roots date back to 1869. It assists nearly 30,000 members through protection, education and resources for their continued success. See how PPA helps photographers be more at PPA.com.
Russ Widdall in the November 2013 revival of "RFK" in Philadelphia. "Russ Widdall's portrayal of Robert F. Kennedy, a man trying to honestly change the world for the better is convincing and, of course, tragic without an awareness of its tragedy. " -- The Washington Post

New City Stage Company is pleased to announce the featured production of our 2015-16 Season, the world premiere of ROSEBURG, conceived, written, and directed by award-winning theatre artist Ginger Dayle along with the Voices for a New City Ensemble. This play parallels a gun control speech given by Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and the tragic Umpqua community college shooting in 2015, events that both happened in Roseburg, Oregon.

The show runs from July 9  31st, 2016 at the Adrienne Theatre Second Stage. Tickets can be purchased Staring June 3 by visiting http://www.NewCityStage.org or calling (215) 563-7500.

Ginger Dayle (writer of the hit play "Hinckley") and New City Stages educational ensemble have crafted a melding of eras and attitudes that bring a progressive hero and a conservative conundrum into the withering focus of a nation gone numb. Featuring Russ Widdall, from the award-winning production of "RFK," reprising the role of Bobby Kennedy.

BASIC INFO:

ROSEBURG

Written and directed by Ginger Dayle

Starring Russ Widdall as Senator Robert Kennedy

Running July 9 - 31, 2016

Opening Night is Saturday, July 11th at 8:00 PM

Adrienne Theatre Second Stage

2030 Sansom Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Interviews/Press Tickets: Contact Publicist Ginger Dayle at 215-603-9600

Please request all interviews and complimentary press tickets at least 24 hours in advance.

ABOUT THE SHOW:

On May 27, 1968, Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy gave a speech on gun control on the steps of the courthouse in Roseburg, Oregon. He was heckled and went on to lose the Democratic primary in that state Less than 2 weeks later his life would be cut short by an assassins bullet.

Almost 47 years later on October 1, 2015, the sleepy logging town found itself in the spotlight of the second amendment controversy yet again. A mentally disturbed student opened fire in a classroom at Umpqua Community College killing nine and injuring several more before turning his gun on himself.

ROSEBURG examines the simmering synapses between the gun control argument of the Vietnam era and its stepchild; the modern Twitterverse, that holds any and every conflict under the microscope of bipartisan disdain and infotainment ennui. Why are we still arguing about this and when will the killings cease?

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

The project was conceived by Ginger Dayle, who directed New City Stages Philadelphia premiere of "RFK" in 2012, a sold-out hit which then premiered in Washington, D.C. at the Studio Theatre and then returned to Philadelphia to another sold-out run. Ms. Dayle won the 2013 Broadway World Award (Philadelphia region) for Best New Work for directing "RFK," which was her directorial debut. Ms. Dayle then went on to pen "Hinckley," a play about the assassination attempt on president Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr. The show received much acclaim and earned her a critic's pick in Philadelphia. "ROSEBURG" is her second original play.

Televsion and film actor Russ Widdall starred as Bobby Kennedy in the hit one-man show "RFK" and has always had a passion for politics and theatre, and is reprising this role for ROSEBURG. He was on two seasons of HBO's "The Wire" and featured in the film "My One and Only" alongside Renee Zellweger. He recently wrapped up shooting for the independent film "Wetlands," directed by Emanuele Della Valle, to be released this winter.

The Voices for a New City Ensemble includes several current Temple University students and recent graduates, including Andre M. Evers, John O'Donnell, Julia Dolan McIntyre, Jackie DiFerdinando, and Kate Brighter.
Taccia Reserve Raden Pen Taccia's Reserve Limited Edition pens are inspired by traditional Japanese Urushi art and materials.

Taccia Pen Company, a manufacturer and wholesaler of fine pens, today announced that Pen World Magazine has awarded Taccias Reserve Raden pen as the winner of the Best Urushi Arts Award for 2016.

This year, the Annual Readers Choice Awards, sponsored by Pen World, is celebrating its 22nd year of recognizing the best pens in the world. This is Taccia Pens third Readers Choice Award, preceded by the award for Most Incredible Value in 2015 and the award for Most Creative Use of Materials in 2012.

We applaud all of the finalists and feel honored to be selected as the Winner of the Best Urushi Arts category, said Shu-Jen Lin, founder of Taccia. Taccias Reserve Limited Edition pens are inspired by traditional Japanese Urushi art and materials, and are developed by talented maki-e masters. They have honed their techniques to craft pen barrels that take months to develop, so we are extremely thankful to Pen World magazines readers for recognizing the craftsmanship that goes into each Reserve Raden pen.

Winners were based on the votes of Pen World magazine readers, who chose their favorites from a list of pens featured in Pen World during 2015. The complete results of the 2016 Readers Choice Awards will be revealed in the June issue of Pen World magazine with awards presented to winners on August 5, 2016, at the Washington, DC Fountain Pen Supershow.

For further information, please contact info(at)itoya(dot)com.

About Taccia

Taccia Pen Company was founded on the core belief that pens should be affordable, stylish, and well-built. Pens are the perfect accessory  fun to collect, display, and wear, and used as an intimate form of communications often lost in this internet age. Taccia strives to develop and produce pens that cater to both men and women, young and old, and for all occasions. All Taccia products carry a limited lifetime warranty. Taccia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Itoya of America, Ltd, and is headquartered in the city of Carson in the greater Los Angeles area. You can learn more about Taccia at http://www.taccia.com
David S. Jonas, legal expert in national security issues, named to board of directors of the Young Marines "David Jonas not only brings tremendous legal expertise but also experience serving on non-profit boards," said William Smith, chairman of the board of directors of the Young Marines.

The members of the board of directors of the Young Marines, a national youth organization, announce a new board member - David S. Jonas, a partner at the law firm of Fluet Huber + Hoang, PLLC in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

"The entire board of directors is very excited about Dave Jonas joining the Young Marines leadership team," said William Smith, chairman of the board of directors of the Young Marines. "Dave not only brings tremendous legal expertise but also experience serving on non-profit boards. He has a proven record of both leadership and management having served in command assignments in a Regimental Headquarters Company, as a judge advocate and in the private sector as corporate vice president at PenFed Credit Union. We could not be more pleased with his appointment."

Jonas has extensive experience in national security issues and is recognized as one of a handful of experts worldwide in nuclear nonproliferation law. He was a career member of the Senior Executive Service and served as general counsel of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for nearly ten years. He also served as general counsel of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board

Jonas has negotiated numerous multilateral and bilateral international agreements including the U.S.  India Civil Nuclear Agreement for which he was a lead negotiator. He has extensive experience dealing with the International Atomic Energy Agency on nuclear nonproliferation issues.

Prior to his civilian service, he was a career U.S. Marine Corps officer. He is one of the only judge advocates to have commanded two units, including Headquarters Company, 5th Marines.

His final assignment was nuclear nonproliferation planner for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Additionally, he was the first uniformed military lawyer in the history of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force to argue a case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

He received the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces Award for Excellence in Legal Writing in 1992 and was selected as the Outstanding Career Judge Advocate in the Marine Corps in 2000. He concluded his military service as a lieutenant colonel.

Jonas is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington (GW) University Law School. He teaches nuclear nonproliferation law and policy and was a pioneer in developing the academic coursework in this discipline. He has also taught this course at the U.S. Naval War College. He frequently speaks, consults and is widely published on this topic. He has recently spoken at Penn Law School, Baltimore Law School, the ABA National Security Law Conference, Daemen College and on ESPN radio about the Iran nuclear deal. He was recognized as Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law at GW.

Besides serving on the board of directors of the Young Marines, he is a board member of the Naval War College Foundation and the Marine Executive Association. He is on the American Bar Association Advisory Committee on Law and National Security and the Advisory Committee of Penn Law Schools Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law.

Jonas holds a bachelor of arts degree from Denison University, a Juris Doctorate from Wake Forest University School of Law, an LL.M. from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate Generals School and an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center. In addition, he earned a master of arts degree from the U.S. Naval War College.

He resides in Alexandria, Virginia, with his wife, The Honorable Tina W. Jonas, and their two schnauzers, Trooper and Tribble.

About the Young Marines

The Young Marines is a national non-profit 501c(3) youth education and service program for boys and girls, age eight through the completion of high school. The Young Marines promotes the mental, moral and physical development of its members. The program focuses on teaching the values of leadership, teamwork and self-discipline, so its members can live and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

Since the Young Marines' humble beginnings in 1959 with one unit and a handful of boys, the organization has grown to 281 units with 9,600 youth and 2,400 adult volunteers in 40 states, the District of Columbia and Okinawa with affiliates in other countries.

For more information, visit the official website at: http://www.YoungMarines.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Samir Ali - Trend:

The Baku City Narimanov District Court has again extended the arrest term for Jahangir Hajiyev, former head of Azerbaijan's International Bank, Hajiyev's lawyer Agil Lahijov told Trend June 2.

He noted that Hajiyev's arrest term has been extended for three months again.

"We have filed an appeal against the court's decision. It will be considered June 3 at the Baku Court of Appeals," said the lawyer.

Jahangir Hajiyev was arrested Dec. 5, 2015 in accordance with the decision of the Baku City Narimanov District Court. His arrest term has been extended three times.

Hajiyev is charged under various articles of the Criminal Code, including misappropriation, abuse of office, causing huge damage by fraud, embezzlement through the abuse of office, and bribing.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Today Azerbaijan is turning from the importer country into the producer country, said Michael Hoffmann, a representative of the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce (AHK) and the CEO of Access Bank.

From this point of view, the German companies have particular interest in Azerbaijan, added Hoffmann.

He made the remarks June 2 in Baku at the Technology Forum Saxony-Azerbaijan "Innovative Technologies for Modernization of Industry".

"We are glad that with the current economic conditions, we still have good opportunities for cooperation," Hoffmann noted.

He also touched upon the strategy of Azerbaijan's economic development and noted that the diversification of economy and industry, as well as the creation of the export-oriented economy are playing a key role in this regard.

"The German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce will cooperate actively with Azerbaijan to support the development of the country's economy," he said.

The trade turnover between Germany and Azerbaijan totaled $355.25 million (7.04 percent of Azerbaijan's total foreign trade volume) in January-April 2016, according to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee.
News

From Bulgaria

Bulgaria, Greece to Build Joint LNG Terminal near Alexandroupoli

The Alexandroupoli terminal is expected to cost about 370 million euros and is expected to be operational at the end of 2018

AUTHOR: publics.bg



 Daniel2005, flickr.com



Bulgarian state energy holding company BEH and Greek natural gas company Gastrade have set up a joint task force to prepare a proposal to build an off-shore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in northern Greece,Kathimerini wrote, citing Reuters.

Greece currently has one LNG terminal on an islet off Athens and Gastrade, part of Greek energy group Copelouzos, is planning a second LNG terminal near the northern city of Alexandroupoli.

The task force will prepare and submit a proposal to the Bulgarian government for the best possible way to take part in the project, Gastrade said in a statement.

The facility, with an estimated annual capacity of 6.1 billion cubic meters (bcm), will seek to supply gas to southeastern Europe via another natural gas pipeline scheme that will cross through Greece, the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB). Bulgaria and Greece signed the final investment agreement for the pipeline last year.

The IGB and the LNG terminal fit with the construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will transport Caspian gas to European markets and was signed off by Greece and its partners this month.

The Alexandroupoli terminal is expected to cost about 370 million euros and is expected to be operational at the end of 2018, an official at Gastrade said.

Cheniere Energy, a US-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, is interested in a minority stake in the LNG project, a senior company official said last year.
Mister Cleghorns Seal, written and illustrated by Judith Kerr, is the venerable authors first childrens novel since 1987s A Small Person Far Away  and is also the nonagenarians first chapter book for early middle-graders. In the book, due out next week from HarperCollins, a man on holiday at the seashore rescues an orphaned sea pup, names him Charlie, and brings him home to his city apartment. There the seal spends time on the flats balcony and in the bathtub, until a lucky turn of events lands them both in far more desirable digs.

The story was inspired by an incident in the life of Kerrs father, who made a similar seal rescue more than 100 years ago, while staying with a fishermans family in Normandy. He traveled home to Berlin by train, with the pup nestled in a box of seaweed in the luggage compartment. Unfortunately, Kerrs father was unable to give his adopted pet the care it needed, so it did not fare as well as the fictional Charlie. More happily, it was the fate of this real-life seal that sparked Kerrs interest in retelling the story with a new conclusion.

On the train, my father visited the baby seal from time to time to give it milk and trickle a little water over it to keep it cool, Kerr explained. When he got to Berlin, he and the seal took a taxi to a restaurant to buy some milk. He tried to keep it on the balcony of his apartment for a little while, but sadly the seal wasnt strong enough to survive.

Kerr said that during her childhood the pups story was always vaguely around, and more details gradually emerged as my father wrote about the seal. Yet she added that the idea of basing a childrens novel on the story, and its format, came to her only recently. I had always wanted to do a book like this, with far more words and black-and-white illustrations, something halfway between a picture book and a novel, she noted. And that kind of book seemed right for this story. But I knew it had to have a happy ending  it wouldnt have worked without it. And the characters are purely fictional. Mr. Cleghorn is nothing like my father. Purely the idea of rescuing a seal and keeping it on a balcony was based on my fathers story.

More Family Inspiration

Born in Berlin in 1923, Kerr left Germany with her family in 1933 to escape the rise of the Nazi party; they settled in England several years later, after living in Switzerland and France. Kerr studied art in college, and then worked as a scriptwriter for the BBC. She married the late, celebrated screenwriter Nigel Kneale, with whom she had two children, artist Tacy Kneale and novelist Matthew Kneale.

Though she dreamed of being a famous writer as a child, Kerr only started writing and illustrating books when her children were learning to read in the early 1960s. Her first picture book, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, was published in 1968, and has sold many millions of copies worldwide. Kerr went on to write more than 30 books for children, including 17 picture books starring Mog, a well-meaning and mischievous cat.

For middle-grade readers, Kerr penned the semi-autobiographical Out of the Hitler Time trilogy, recounting, from a childs perspective, the rise of the Nazis in 1930s Germany, life as a refugee, and life in Britain during and after WWII. In 2012, Kerr was made an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the U.K. for her services to childrens literature and Holocaust education.

I dont think I would ever have written childrens books if I hadnt had children, said Kerr. The Tiger Who Came to Tea was written as a bedtime story for my daughter, Tacy, when she was little. I told her other stories, but she always wanted the tiger. The Mog books were meant to help children learn to read  I was inspired by Dr. Seuss to write something with very few words. And When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit [the debut novel of her trilogy] was written as a way of telling my children about my childhood.

A Warm Reception on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Rachel Denwood, publisher of childrens books at HarperCollins U.K., noted that her company is privileged to have published Judiths work for nearly 50 years, since her very first book! Its a special relationship. Denwood said she was thrilled to learn that Kerr had a new novel in the works after almost four decades. When Judith gave us the manuscript of Mister Cleghorns Seal, and brought in her artwork to show us, we knew immediately that is was an extraordinary book, she recalled. So we straightaway let Judith know wed love to publish it, and started making plans.

Denwood emphasized that Kerrs new novel contains the classic, enduring elements of her earlier works. Its a truly timeless tale with universal themes, and you cant help but be uplifted by the story and the wonderfully warm drawings that illustrate it, she said. Judith has always been, at heart, a storyteller, and her ability to find the warmth and heart in every situation shines through, and allows her to give life and immediacy to events long past. And its part of the charm of all of Judiths books that there is an alchemy between illustrations and text  they seamlessly enhance each other and the overall story.

In the U.S., Jean Marie Kelly, affiliate publisher of HarperCollins 360, looked forward to adding Kerrs book to the list. We love Mog and The Tiger Who Came to Tea, but I couldnt have wished for any better book to reestablish Judith in the U.S. market, she remarked. Sometimes funny, always poignant, Mister Cleghorns Seal is a classic in the making. And her gorgeous line illustrations bring the story to life. There is one particular drawing where, when Charlie gets scared, he puts a flipper onto Mr. Cleghorns knee for comfort. Pure Judith!

Kerr, who will soon turn 93, had good news for her many fans across the globe, though she was reluctant to share specifics. I can say I have just started another picture book, she said, but I cant say what its about  yet.

Mister Cleghorns Seal by Judith Kerr. HarperCollins, $14.99 June ISBN 978-0-00-817083-7
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A series of farm tours this summer will allow families to explore modern dairy farming practices in northern Indiana.

The Northern Indiana Dairy Trail, co-sponsored by Purdue Extension, will take place June 18 and 25, with five to six dairy farms open to the public from noon to 5 p.m. each day. Participants will have an opportunity to visit each farm's facilities and talk with the operators about animal care and feeding, milk production, and the influence of dairy farming on the community and environment. Visitors may tour as many farms as they like each day. All tours and events, including milk and yogurt tastings and children's activities, are free.

The 12 participating farms are in Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Marshall, Noble and St. Joseph counties, which together contain 28 percent of all dairy cows in the state. Farms on the trail range in size from 110 to more than 3,000 cows.

"Each of these outstanding farms does something a little different in how they produce milk," said Kelly Heckaman, Kosciusko County Extension director. "Each has a different herd size. Some have robots, some have automatic calf feeders, one is organic, one has a digester and one is Amish. We wanted a representative cross section of the dairy industry in northern Indiana."

A panel of private and public volunteers and sponsors, including the American Dairy Association Indiana and Indiana Dairy Producers, organize the Diary Trail. Funding for the event comes from more than 40 industry and state sources.

In addition to the focus on modern dairy farming, some farms will feature displays and activities based on historical farming methods as part of Indianas bicentennial celebration.

The trail has been designated a Bicentennial Legacy Project by the state.

No registration is required. Volunteers and tour guides will assist with parking and guide visitors around each farm. For more information about the participating farms and the history of the Dairy Trail project, visit http://www.dairytrail.com/.

Writer: Jessica Merzdorf, 765-494-7719, jmerzdor@purdue.edu

Source: Kelly Heckaman, 574-372-2340, kheckaman@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-2722;

Keith Robinson, robins89@purdue.edu

Agriculture News Page
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) sold $50 million to 13 banks through an auction held by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA), SOFAZ said June 2.

SOFAZ will continue selling foreign currency through auctions in 2016. The foreign currency is sold as part of SOFAZ's transfers to the Azerbaijani state budget, which are envisaged to stand at 7.615 billion Azerbaijani manats in 2016.

SOFAZ was established in 1999 with assets of $271 million.

As of April 1, 2016, SOFAZ's assets increased by two percent and amounted to $34.25 billion compared to early 2016 ($33.57 billion).
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Law enforcement agencies helped to return bad loans worth around 400 million manats to the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA), Samir Sharifov, Azerbaijani finance minister, said in an interview with The Voice of America.

Special measures are taken to return the bad loans, the minister said.

"In some cases, the law enforcement agencies participate in these measures, because sometimes we face fraud," added Sharifov. "As a result of this intervention [the participation of law enforcement agencies], it was possible to return around 400 million manats."

As for the IBA's privatization, the minister said the process will begin after the bank's recovery.

"The bank's recovery will take some time," the minister said. "Financial advisors, most likely influential investment companies, will be involved immediately after this process. Thus, the bank will be prepared for privatization."

The IBA was founded in January 1992.

The official exchange rate is 1.4934 AZN/USD as of June 2.
Politics, Otto von Bismarck famously said, is the art of the possible, the attainable.

Tell that to Illinois lawmakers as they hit the campaign trail to explain why the state they were elected to govern is knocking on the door of a second year without a responsible spending plan.

The regular legislative session which ended Tuesday was a colossal failure on every level, save one: The Democratic leaders who hold huge majorities in the General Assembly appear to have succeeded in delaying until after the November election any of the tough choices required to rescue our broke and broken state.

Once Gov. Bruce Rauner said he could support an 11th hour stopgap spending plan aimed at getting money to social services and ensuring that the schools would open this fall, he cleared the path for the kings of legislative Kick the Can to once again declare victory in what has become Illinois official state game.

Its prescient. It makes my comments prescient, the Chicago Tribune quoted Senate President John Cullerton as saying. He appeared to be enjoying the GOP leaders capitulation to an idea Sen. Cullerton had floated days before. The Chicago Democrat liked the word so much, he spelled it: P-R-E-S-C-I-E-N-T.

We can think of a few other choice words for what happened here. But even spelling them would be too much for this family newspaper.

No wonder hes happy, however. He and House Speaker Michael Madigan now can commandeer that pesky semi-independent legislative working group that had been negotiating with Gov. Rauner to create a meaningful compromise budget plan that would have included some of the fundamental reforms our state needs.

Instead, their leaders have channeled their efforts in a more manageable direction by tasking them with crafting an interim spending plan, which presumably will keep voters in the dark until after November about such pesky things as impending tax hikes and spending cuts.

And the kind of reform Illinois so desperately needs? Forget about it, along with other matters that beg to be addressed; for example, the future of Exelon nuclear power plants in Illinois. A bill to help save facilities including the one in the Quad-Cities took a back seat to the budget impasse, as did what many saw as the best chance yet for reforming the states unfair school funding system. In the end, our so-called leaders did what many suspected they planned to do all along: Nothing.

So what did the many months of maneuvering leading up to Tuesdays failure accomplish? Party leaders have mountains of campaign fodder to feed the endless political mailers that soon will be jamming our mailboxes.

Clearly, its a strategy theyre comfortable with and it will continue to be -- unless voters find a way to afflict the comfortable by making the election a referendum on the future of Illinois.

Dont rely on television commercials and campaign mailers. Ask the tough questions of candidates running for the Illinois House and Senate; not just incumbents but their challengers. And above all, support only those who refuse to support the status quo.

We already know where that has gotten us.

Demand more.
The Chicago Tribune reports that North Central College trustees voted last month to rescind the honorary doctor of laws degree awarded to Hastert when he gave the college's commencement address in 2004.

Northern Illinois University trustees also voted last month to rescind the honorary doctor of laws degree presented to Hastert in 1999. Wheaton College decided last year to remove Hastert's name from its Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy.

Hastert pleaded guilty last year to violating banking laws while seeking to pay $3.5 million to someone he sexually molested.

He must report to prison by June 22 to begin serving a 15-month sentence.
A St. Ambrose University journalism graduate has written a book about an Illinois poet, well-known in his day, who read his "Unknown" at the Tomb of the Unknown on Memorial Day 1873 to 10,000 people.

Dustin Renwick, 28, of Monmouth, tracked down that poem and more than 80 others for "Beyond the Gray Leaf: The Life and Poems of J.P. Irvine." The book covers the life and work of Mr. Irvine, who lived in Kirkwood, 23 miles south of Aledo. He died in 1892.

"I found a copy of the single book he published about six years ago," Mr. Renwick said of the 1891 collection of 40 poems, which didn't include "Unknown." "I had never heard of this person."

In The Washingtonian magazine recently, Mr. Renwick wrote that Mr. Irvine -- a clerk at the Bureau of Pensions -- had lived in Washington for about a year before he addressed the crowd at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1873, for the holiday then known as Decoration Day.

How event organizers chose Mr. Irvine remains unclear, but some connections offer clues. Irvine grew up 150 miles from Decatur, Ill., home of the Grand Army, and 150 miles from Galena, the former home of President Ulysses S. Grant who presided over the gala 1873 event.

I wanted to find the poem he read in front of President Grant, Mr. Renwick said. After that, I was curious about what other writings might be lost, so I kept looking. Historical documents dont always cooperate with your research goals, but I found plenty of Irvines work hidden among thousands of microfilmed newspaper pages.

Fearing the text of "Unknown" was lost, Mr. Renwick researched at the Library of Congress and in newspapers of the day to find it. One of the newspapers printed Irvine's poem on its front page; two weeks later, it appeared on the front of a weekly Monmouth newspaper.

Mr. Renwick explores Mr. Irvines life, from his pioneer upbringing as one of the first settlers in western Illinois to his years in Rockford and Washington. He combines biography and history with Mr. Irvine's rediscovered poems.

"He writes about the war so eloquently," Mr. Renwick said. All four of Mr. Irvine's brothers served in the Civil War; one was killed. The poet registered but was not called into service.

In part, Mr. Irvine's poem reads: "And the valiant are here; and the weak, and the strong; The known, and unknown, and the army is Fames / And the roll is a wonderful roll, and so long / That we weary of reading its dearest of names."

His family returned to rural Illinois by 1875, Mr. Renwick said, and Mr. Irvines poetic record diminishes to near silence. He added that "Unknown stands as one of Mr. Irvine's most ambitious and noteworthy efforts.

Mr. Renwick, who earned a master's degree at the University of Missouri, worked in Washington for three years in communications for the Environmental Protection Agency. He has since traveled the country for five months, writing freelance.

"Beyond the Gray Leaf: The Life and Poems of J.P. Irvine" is available in major digital formats, as well as paperback and audiobook versions. Mr. Renwick also will speak at 6:30 p.m. today in Monmouth's public library and on June 11 at Galesburg's public library.

For more on his work, visit dustinrenwick.com.
Meng Brings NASA Astronaut To Queens On October 17, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) brought NASA astronaut Dr. Jonny Kim to Queens where he met and spoke with students at Francis...

Celebrating Columbus The Federation of Italian-American Organizations of Queens (FIAO) held their annual Columbus Day parade in Astoria, on Saturday, October 8, during Italian Heritage Month. The...

Russo-Elling Mourned More than 300 first responders lined up on Thursday night to honor FDNY EMT Lt. Alison Russo-Elling, as her body was placed into a waiting...
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The United Kingdom has invested $25 billion in Azerbaijan's economy, said Shahin Mustafayev, Azerbaijan's economy minister.

He made the remarks June 2 at a meeting with Baroness Emma Nicholson in Baku.

The minister pointed to the development of the UK-Azerbaijani ties and emphasized the importance of mutual visits in the development of cooperation.

It was also noted that currently, the two countries cooperate in various areas of economy, including energy, trade and investments.

Mustafayev said Azerbaijan is interested in expanding the economic cooperation with the UK in such spheres of non-oil sector, as tourism, agriculture and investments.

He added that the British companies, operating in the area of industry, have great opportunities for investing in Azerbaijan's petrochemical sphere.

Baroness Nicholson, in turn, said the two countries have potential to develop ties in various directions of economy.

She added that in order to expand the export of Azerbaijani agriculture products, it is possible to cooperate with the UK National Farmers Union, as well as organize the mutual visits to study the agricultural and tourism opportunities.

The trade turnover between the UK and Azerbaijan totaled $169.5 million in January-April 2016, some $166.9 million of which accounted for the imports from the UK, according to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee.
Susan Graver Printed Chiffon Cascading Open Front Cardigan is rated 4.3 out of 5 by 264 .

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G'day! It's Murray here. I've put together a little quiz to test your musical knowledge. Think you can score top marks in Murray's Magic Music Quiz? Give it a go now!
The contract, which includes an option for another five years, will come into force in January 2019. In the next two years Mermec will build a 160km/h dual-mode train which will be equipped with measuring systems to detect infrastructure faults and evaluate the state of the network in order to improve maintenance and renewal of the infrastructure.

A Mermec team will be set up in Finland to work closely with staff from the Finnish Transport Agency.
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To United Arab Emirates Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, the Middle East is a place of both peril and promise. Although, from his vantage point, Iran and Islamic extremists pose a threat to the entire region, the next generation of young people is spreading a culture of optimism, opportunity, and openness, the ambassador said.

On June 1 at RAND's Santa Monica headquarters, Al Otaiba discussed what he saw as the UAE's progress as both an emerging power in the Middle East as well as a reliable ally of the West.

The Emirates has diversified its economy over the past two decades so that oil and gas make up just 30 percent of gross domestic product, Al Otaiba said, and it is the largest U.S. export partner in the Arab world despite being a country of just 10 million people. Al Otaiba mentioned that the Emirates has played a leading role in a fight against Iranian-backed forces in Yemen, and he also noted that it joined the coalitions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.

But what Al Otaiba most sought to convey was his sense of optimism about the next generation of Middle Easterners. Last week he gave the commencement address to 130 students from 58 countries graduating from New York University Abu Dhabi. The university has already produced six Rhodes scholars from its three graduating classes, he said.

These are the world's best and brightest. They could have attended the best schools in their own countries. But instead they challenged tradition and opted to live and learn among the most diverse student body in the world, he said.

Al Otaiba relayed an inspirational story told by President Clinton about his giving the first commencement address at NYU Abu Dhabi in 2014. Clinton was to make awards to two teams that had won a university competition: On one were students from India and Pakistan, and on the other were youths from China and Taiwan. Clinton asked if the students were sure they wanted to be photographed together for fear of reactions back home. They said,'We're so over that stuff. That stuff doesn't matter.' Instilling that in young people is the only way we get out of these problems, Al Otaiba said.

When I look ahead in the region, I see more Rhodes scholars and fewer terrorist recruits, Al Otaiba said. More Mars missions and fewer ballistic missiles, more women leaders and fewer Jihadi Janes, more online start-ups and fewer extremist websites. An Islam of peace and inclusion, not of extremes. In the UAE, this is our way forward.

In a wide-ranging address and Q&A, Al Otaiba took on other topics:

Nuclear Deal with Iran

The UAE supported the nuclear deal but remains disappointed, he said. The U.S. continues to identify Iran as the leading state sponsor of terror. In Gaza, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, among others, Iran continues to fund and arm radical and subversive groups. Last December, Iran fired unguided rockets dangerously close to a U.S. aircraft carrier. In October, November, and again in March, Iran conducted ballistic-missile tests in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Iran has clearly rejected the promise of change.

The U.S. Political Environment

Al Otaiba said he is honestly confused about the polarization that has dramatically altered the environment in Washington and worries it will paralyze the country's ability to solve critical challenges like climate change. Asked specifically about Donald Trump, Al Otaiba said the candidate's proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States would hinder the battle against extremism. What I think is being promoted is this 'us vs. them.' We're on the same side. We're on the same side when it comes to fighting extremism; we're on the same side when it comes to teaching our kids. We're not that different.

Photo by Diane Baldwin/RAND Corporation

Social Media and the Perception of Islam

Asked about countering radical Islam's use of social media, he said, We have to out-communicate them We have to use the same exact tools, but we have to be better. We have to be more effective, whether it's on social media, whether it's on educating people about our religion, whether it's on how we raise our kids and showing them the right values. I think it's very important to focus on how Islam is taught, explained, and perceived  around the world today. And it's our problem to fix.

Relations with Israel

Asked about the implications of Israel's plans to open in Abu Dhabi a diplomatic mission that will officially be accredited to the UN's International Renewable Energy Agency, Al Otaiba said: Israel is part of our region We have no problem with Israel being part of a multilateral, UN-mandated organization. The question I often get is what about UAE's relationship with Israel? When are you going to normalize relations? And my answer is very simple: As soon as there is a Palestinian deal. That's when the entire Arab League will be able to normalize their relationship with Israel the day after.

 Melissa Bauman
As of this year, an additional 5.5 million devices and appliances are being added each day to the Internet of Things, a growing network that is expected to reach 6.4 billion devices worldwide in 2016. By 2020, connected devices should outnumber people by 6 to 1.

This was some of the outside research the RAND Corporation's Lillian Ablon shared May 25 during a presentation on The 'Internet of Things': Lessons from a Hacker at RAND's Santa Monica headquarters. Ablon, a cybersecurity and emerging technologies researcher, spoke at a RAND Policy Circle Conversation, a series of talks with RAND's most senior researchers for a community of philanthropic individuals committed to supporting RAND's objective research and analysis.

In addressing how an increasingly digital world is presenting new risks, Ablon spoke about the world's expanding cyber vulnerability, those who are out there to take advantage of those vulnerabilities, as well as consumer attitudes toward breaches. The Internet of Things and its increased and pervasive connectivity has added functionality to everyday life, Ablon says, but also has vastly increased the attack surface. And these connected things go beyond computers and smartphones to include toasters, refrigerators, pacemakers, lightbulbs and carsessentially computers on four wheels.

Functionality often trumps security, said Ablon, a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School and the first female to win the Social Engineering competition at DEF CON's hacker conference.

In discussing cyber vulnerabilities, Ablon talked about human weakness, pointing out that people are gullible, like to click on links, and like to open attachments. She described a lack of focus on teaching developers to keep security in mind when creating applications, systems, websites, and devices used by billions of people worldwide, and few consequences when products have bug-riddled code.

As an example, she cited the potential dangers of software vulnerabilities in cars. While the software in modern high-end cars have approximately 100 million lines of codewith this number planned to grow to 200 million to 300 millions lines of code in the near futureshe said car companies do not have standard procedures in place to develop and implement security patches.

When a software vulnerability in Jeep Cherokees was discovered, Chrysler mailed USB drives to more than a million drivers, for them to install the patch on their own (and plug an unverified thumb drive insomething security professionals often warn against). When Tesla needed to patch its vehicles, however, the company was able to install the patch directly into the cars through over-the-air software.

There's no clear path from vulnerability, Ablon said, adding that the threat is no longer just about crashing computers, but about the software crashing in cars or causing cars to crash. But everyone can play a part in creating a more secure world, she said. Consumers can hold vendors accountable; and manufacturers can implement bug bounty programs and support vulnerability research, so that companies can fix bugs before they are exploited; and policymakers can develop standards for methods of security patch deployment.

Ablon described the four types of cyberthreat actors: state-sponsored actors, such as those responsible for the Sony Pictures hack, who often believe they are acting within their own laws; cybercriminals, whose main goal is to make money, like those behind the data breaches at Target, Staples, and Home Depot; cyberterrorists, whose disruption of networks often results in violence, and whom Ablon described as over-hyped and mostly fiction; and hacktivists, who are politically or socially motivated, such as those behind WikiLeaks. She also said overlap can occur among the four groups: One man's freedom fighter is another man's cyberterrorist.

While there is no doubt that data breaches and cybercrimes are widespreadthey have impacted more than 105 million American adults and about a quarter of American adults in the last yearwhat effect have they had on consumers? Surprisingly, not much, according to Ablon's research. Ablon found that 77 percent of consumers surveyed who had personal data stolen from a company were satisfied with the company's response and only 11 percent stopped doing business with company. All in all, consumers are pretty forgiving, she said.

It's not possible to be 100 percent secure, Ablon said, but the goal is to make it harder for potential cybercriminals. Security is everyone's responsibility, she said, from the company intern to the CEO.

The event, which RAND hosted with Morgan Stanley and American Funds, brought together leaders in business, finance and philanthropy. The previous day, Ablon spoke in depth on the Hackers' Bazaar, underground black markets where cybercriminals buy and sell the tools to carry out cybercrime attacks, as well as the stolen goods from those attacks, during a presentation at RAND's Santa Monica headquarters as part of RANDNext, a group of RAND's early- to mid-career philanthropic supporters.

 Sara Rouche
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

A complex gas pipeline infrastructure will be created in Europe and a number of countries will be provided with Azerbaijani gas following the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project, said Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijani energy minister.

The minister made the statement at the Caspian Oil & Gas Conference in Baku June 2. The conference kicked off on June 1.

The minister added that the implementation of the project envisages the creation of the technically complex infrastructure of gas pipelines in South-East Europe.

"The Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP), through which the Azerbaijani gas will be supplied to Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is planned to be constructed," the minister said. "The Hungary-Romania Gas Interconnector with a capacity of up to six billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, which will be also connected to the Southern Gas Corridor, is also planned to be built."

"The Slovak-Hungarian Gas Interconnector with a capacity of five bcm a year has been already built," the minister said. "In general, over 30,000 jobs will be created after the implementation of the project."

According to the minister, it's a positive sign that the Balkan states are not staying away from Azerbaijani energy projects.

"It is obvious that all Balkan countries are supporting us and are interested in our projects," the minister said. "Thus, in my report, I did my best to emphasize the points of their interest."

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani 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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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
Viacom is taking Comedy Central News (CCN) onto Spanish TV following success in Italy, thus furthering its strategy of developing content for both global and local audiences (glo-cal).





CCN is set to premiere on Monday 6 June on Comedy Centrals prime time slot, and will see 25 episodes air Monday through Friday.Presented by Antonio Castelo, the ten-minute format looks to present a humorous and satirical view of current events.Originally produced by Comedy Central in Italy, where it has had two successful seasons, the show has been adapted for the Spanish audience in collaboration with El Terrat. Comedians such as Eva Cabezas, Miguel Iribar and Luis Fabra will join Antonio Castelo during the shows.After coining the glo-cal term with the production of MTV Super Shore, Viacom has been expanding this strategy, looking to design shows that can work for the same type of audiences in different parts of the world.Viacom has also announced the production of five local versions of Ridiculousness.
The importance of Latin America in the new world of TV has been demonstrated clearly in a report from Digital TV Research which has revealed a surging over-the-top (OTT) sector.





The Latin America OTT TV & Video Forecasts report projects that OTT TV and video revenues in 18 Latin America countries will reach $3.59 billion in 2021, more than triple the $1.15 billion recorded in 2015.The report also estimates that by 2021 there will be 31.87 million SVOD subscribers up from only 12,000 in 2010 and 11.22 million at end-2015. It predicts that over the next five years, subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) will remain the regions largest OTT revenue source, contributing $2,093 million by 2021 (or 58% of the total)  up from next to nothing in 2010.Yet Digital TV Research cautioned that the fast take-up of SVOD will adversely affect download-to-own (DTO)/electronic sell-through (EST) buying patterns, albeit less so than in the rental sector. In addition, the analyst believes that the move towards SVOD services will stifle the pay-per-view or rental market as they provide similar consumer propositions.On a brighter note, the Latin America OTT TV & Video Forecasts report that OTT TV and video rental/pay-per-view revenues look set to continue to expand rapidly, climbing from $100 million in 2015 and to $295 million in 2021. Advertising on OTT sites is expected to bring in $727 million by 2021  up from $266 million on 2015. Digital TV Research adds that free-to-air catch-up viewing is unlikely to be as prevalent as it is in other regions such as Europe.Commented Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research: 2015 and 2016 are seminal years for Latin American OTT TV and video. Several high profile platform launches from some very well-positioned companies have already take place  with more still to come. Launched across the region in September 2011, Netflix is already established. However, substantial SVOD competition is now a reality from the likes of America Movils Claro Video, Telefonicas Movistar Play, HBO Go, Televisas Blim and Millicoms Tigo Play.
Netflix has been thwarted in its hope to release two upcoming films from Relativity Media prior to their official theatrical release.





A judge has ruled that Netflix exclusive streaming deal with Relativity doesn't mean it gets to jump the line for the release window.Netflix wanted to release the films because Relativity missed the original 2015 release dates due to financial woes, leading to bankruptcy. Just because that the theatrical release has been delayed, the streaming release date shouldnt be, argued Netflix.However, bankruptcy court Judge Michael Wiles said that the problem is that Relativity, which filed for bankruptcy in July 2015, only recently emerged from Chapter 11. Given the situation, pre-releasing the two upcoming movies, Masterminds, starring Zach Galifianakis and Kristen Wiig, and The Disappointments Room, starring Kate Beckinsale, would "threaten the bankruptcy process" by cutting into the films box-office and therefore profits.The Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix has paid around $283 million in licensing fees to Relativity since 2010 to gain exclusive access to movies like Limitless, Act of Valor and The Fighter. And, Netflix argued that its contracts with Relativity were "clear and unambiguous" when it came to streaming release dates for the films.But re-negotiation was not in the cards, according to both parties."Netflix waited so that it could interfere with implementation of these arrangements to have leverage to terminate the contract," Wiles said, according to the WSJ.
Russian official charged with negligence after fire destroyed over 50 houses

MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI)  A court in the Zabaikalsky Krai will hear a negligence criminal case against former head of the Smolenskoye village where 50 buildings were burnt in the widespread fire in 2015, causing 140 million rubles ($2.1 million) of damages to the residents, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.

According to investigators, the accused official was not fulfilling his responsibilities as head of the settlement and did not provide adequate fire safety measures. Investigators allege that he did not provide enough water sources and fire safety equipment. On April 13, 2015 firefighters were not able to get needed water in the village and had to get water from the military base located far from the village.

Also, investigators allege that former head of the village did not take needed measures to warn residents about the incoming fire.

The accused official did not admit his guilt during the investigative process. The case was transferred to court.
"Crossbow Coup" plotter pleads not guilty to making public calls for terrorism

MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) - Retired Russian military intelligence colonel Vladimir Kvachkov, who was convicted for attempted instigation of an armed riot, has pleaded not guilty to making public calls for terrorist activity, his lawyer Oksana Mikhalkina told RAPSI on Thursday.

In March, a new criminal case was opened against Kvachkov over public calls for terrorist activities or justifying terrorism. Under Article 205 of Russias Criminal Code, he could face up to 7 years in prison.

According to the attorney, Kvachkov has refused to cooperate with investigators.

Kvachkov, who was acquitted of charges in the attempted murder of former UES CEO Anatoly Chubais in 2005, was found guilty on February 8, 2013, of organizing an armed coup and was sentenced to 13 years in prison and one year of custodial restraint.

Later, the Supreme Court mitigated the sentence to eight years in a high security prison.

Kvachkov is thought to have masterminded plans to oust the government with a small group of followers. Kvachkov has denied all charges but during the trial defended the right of Russian citizens to hold an uprising."

A career military officer, Kvachkov commanded a Special Forces unit in Afghanistan in 1983. In 1984, after sustaining a head injury, he was awarded the prestigious Order of the Red Star and later received the Order of Courage.
Foreign insurers appeal ruling over 2012 Superjet crash in Russian Supreme Court

MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI) - Twenty foreign insurers have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of Russia seeking review of a court ruling ordering the companies to pay Kapital Strakhovaniye about $16 million over the Superjet 100 aicraft crash in Indonesia in May 2012, RAPSI learned in the court on Thursday.

The Commercial Court of the Khanty-Mansi region in April 2015 granted a lawsuit filed bt Russias Kapital Strakhovaniye against foreign insurance companies. The Eighth Commercial Court of Appeals and the West-Siberian District Federal Commercial Court upheld the ruling in July 2015 and March 2016 respectively.

Twenty-four companies were initially defendants in the case. However, due to partial payment of the debt, the plaintiff withdrew claims against some of them.

Kapital Strakhovaniye initially claimed $32.4 million in damages from the companies that provided insurance for 48 people on board. The sum was reduced to $16 million after partial payments were made.

General Insurance Corporation of India, Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A., UK Branch, Swiss Re Europe S.A., Starr Insurance and Reinsurance Limited (London) are named among defendants in the case. The lawsuit was filed back in June 2013.

The Moscow Commercial Court also heard another plane crash related suit. Sukhoi Company demanded $29.5 million in insurance payouts for the SSJ-100 from Kapital Strakhovaniye. In September 2013, the parties signed an amicable agreement under which the underwriter committed to pay the plaintiff $14.1 million in addition to the previous payments. The insurance company claimed that the insurance agreement on the plane was 95% reinsured in the Western market.
Google appeal in anti-monopoly lawsuit to be reviewed on June 30

MOSCOW, June 1 (RAPSI)  The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals postponed the review of Google appeal against the decision of lower Moscow commercial court, which had confirmed the lawfulness and justification of the Russian Antimonopoly Service (FAS) claim that the US company restrained competition and abused its dominance on the Russian market of mobile applications, RAPSI learnt in the courtroom on Thursday.

Yet on March 15, the Moscow Commercial Court dismissed Googles petition requesting to abolish the FAS decision and order issued in September 2015, which stated that the company had violated the Federal Law on Protection of Competition and accusing it of abuse of dominance on the market of preinstalled applications in the Android operating system.

FAS has requested Google to remedy the detected breeches by amending agreements the company made with producers of devices until December 18. The case was opened at the request of Yandex, one of the largest internet companies in Europe, operating Russia's most popular search engine and a website. Google filed a lawsuit against the FAS order but it was dismissed by the Moscow Commercial Court.

At the end of March, FAS informed that Google had submitted the complete set of data with regard to the companys operations on the Russian market in 2014, including information about earnings on the part of Google Play and related products. At that time the antimonopoly watchdog stated that it could calculate the amount of fine, but did not make it public.

On April 19, Igor Artemyev, FAS Head, said that Google was to be fined for its operations on the Russian market; however, the amount of the fine would be much less than in Europe.

Earlier, a Google representative said that the company had lodged an appeal against this decision. According to this representative, Google continued to cooperate with Russian authorities and explain how Android ecosystem operated.

[It  ed.] actively encourages competition allowing consumers to get mobile devices of superior quality across the price range,  the Google representative noted, adding that the platform permitted consumers and producers of gadgets, as well as carrier service providers to make choices.

In its turn, Yandex claimed that Google was trying to deflect attention away from the main issue of the case, since the FAS decision and order have nothing to do with Android merits as a platform and in no way restrict its development and potential. According to a Yandex representative, the question was primarily about anti-competition practices, i.e. bans and restrictions on the distribution of competitors applications Google used to prohibit them preinstall applications and to gain unjustified advantage.
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.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Aygun Badalova - Trend:

OPEC hope that the talks that have evolved over the past year with non-cartel producers, will continue, Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Qatar's minister of energy and industry and president of the OPEC conference said in the opening address to the 169th meeting of OPEC June 2 in Vienna.

"It is important that we maintain all possible avenues for cooperation and understanding for the benefit of OPEC countries in particular, and the world at large," Al-Sada said.

He stressed that since the last meeting on December 4, 2015, the global oil market has seen further volatility.

Global exploration and production spending fell by around 20 percent last year, and a further 15-percent drop is anticipated this year, according to Al-Sada.

"This is a major concern for an industry that generally sees investments increasing year on year to sustain production," he said.

He said that world oil demand this year remains healthy, with growth of over 1.2 million barrels per day. The majority of this, he said, will come from non-OECD countries.

He said OPEC anticipates non-OPEC oil supply to contract by 740,000 barrels per day this year, which is more than two million barrels per day lower than the growth of 2015.

The overall demand increase year-on-year for OPEC crude is around 1.8 million barrels per day, he said.

At the same time he stressed that stock levels remain high.

"The five average for OECD commercial stocks is currently at a surplus of around 360 million barrels. It is important that we take note of this figure on a downward trend. A more stable and balanced market will be beneficial to all," Al-Sada said.
This article first appeared in TomDispatch.

We have it on highest authority: the recent killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan marks an important milestone. So the president of the United States has declared, with that claim duly echoed and implicitly endorsed by media commentary -- the New York Times reporting, for example, that Mansours death leaves the Taliban leadership shocked and shaken.

But a question remains: A milestone toward what exactly?

Toward victory? Peace? Reconciliation? At the very least, toward the prospect of the violence abating? Merely posing the question is to imply that U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Islamic world serve some larger purpose.

Yet for years now that has not been the case. The assassination of Mansour instead joins a long list of previous milestones, turning points, and landmarks briefly heralded as significant achievements only to prove much less than advertised.

One imagines that Obama himself understands this perfectly well. Just shy of five years ago, he was urging Americans to take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the president insisted, the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance.

These long wars, he promised, were finally coming to a responsible end. We were, that is, finding a way out of Washingtons dead-end conflicts in the Greater Middle East.

Who can doubt Obamas sincerity, or question his oft-expressed wish to turn away from war and focus instead on unattended needs here at home? But wishing is the easy part. Reality has remained defiant. Even today, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that George W. Bush bequeathed to Obama show no sign of ending.

Like Bush, Obama will bequeath to his successor wars he failed to finish. Less remarked upon, he will also pass along to President Clinton or President Trump new wars that are his own handiwork. In Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and several other violence-wracked African nations, the Obama legacy is one of ever-deepening U.S. military involvement. The almost certain prospect of a further accumulation of briefly celebrated and quickly forgotten milestones beckons.

During the Obama era, the tide of war has not receded. Instead, Washington finds itself drawn ever deeper into conflicts that, once begun, become interminable -- wars for which the vaunted U.S. military has yet to devise a plausible solution.

The Oldest (Also Latest) Solution: Bombs Away

Once upon a time, during the brief, if heady, interval between the end of the Cold War and 9/11 when the United States ostensibly reigned supreme as the worlds sole superpower, Pentagon field manuals credited U.S. forces with the ability to achieve quick, decisive victory -- on and off the battlefield -- anywhere in the world and under virtually any conditions. Bold indeed (if not utterly delusional) would be the staff officer willing to pen such words today.

To be sure, the United States military routinely demonstrates astonishing technical prowess -- putting a pair of Hellfire missiles through the roof of the taxi in which Mansour was riding, for example. Yet if winning -- that is, ending wars on conditions favorable to our side -- offers the measure of merit by which to judge a nations military forces, then when put to the test ours have been found wanting.

Not for lack of trying, of course. In their quest for a formula that might actually accomplish the mission, those charged with directing U.S. military efforts in the Greater Middle East have demonstrated notable flexibility. They have employed overwhelming force and shock-and awe. They have tried regime change (bumping off Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, for example) and decapitation (assassinating Mansour and a host of other militant leaders, including Osama Bin Laden). They have invaded and occupied countries, even giving military-style nation-building a whirl. They have experimented with counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention, retaliatory strikes and preventive war. They have operated overtly, covertly, and through proxies. They have equipped, trained, and advised -- and when the beneficiaries of these exertions have folded in the face of the enemy, they have equipped, trained, and advised some more. They have converted American reservists into quasi-regulars, subject to repeated combat tours. In imitation of the corporate world, they have outsourced as well, handing over to profit-oriented private security firms functions traditionally performed by soldiers. In short, they have labored doggedly to translate American military power into desired political outcomes.

In this one respect at least, an endless parade of three- and four-star generals exercising command in various theaters over the past several decades have earned high marks. In terms of effort, they deserve an A.

As measured by outcomes, however, they fall well short of a passing grade. However commendable their willingness to cast about for some method that might actually work, they have ended up waging a war of attrition. Strip away the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel reassurances regularly heard at Pentagon press briefings or in testimony presented on Capitol Hill and Americas War for the Greater Middle East proceeds on this unspoken assumption: if we kill enough people for a long enough period of time, the other side will eventually give in.

On that score, the prevailing Washington gripe directed at Commander-in-Chief Obama is that he has not been willing to kill enough. Take, for example, a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed penned by that literary odd couple, retired General David Petraeus and Brookings Institution analyst Michael OHanlon, that appeared under the pugnacious headline Take the Gloves Off Against the Taliban. To turn around the longest war in American history, Petraeus and OHanlon argue, the United States just needs to drop more bombs.

The rules of engagement currently governing air operations in Afghanistan are, in their view, needlessly restrictive. Air power represents an asymmetric Western advantage, relatively safe to apply, and very effective. (The piece omits any mention of incidents such as the October 2015 destruction of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in the Afghan provincial capital of Kunduz by a U.S. Air Force gunship.) More ordnance will surely produce some version of victory. The path ahead is clear. Simply waging the Afghanistan air-power campaign with the vigor we are employing in Iraq and Syria, the authors write with easy assurance, should do the trick.

When armchair generals cite the ongoing U.S. campaign in Iraq and Syria as a model of effectiveness, you know that things must be getting desperate.

Granted, Petraeus and OHanlon are on solid ground in noting that as the number of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan has decreased, so, too, has the number of air strikes targeting the Taliban. Back when more allied boots were on the ground, more allied planes were, of course, overhead. And yet the 100,000 close-air-support sorties flown between 2011 and 2015 -- thats more than one sortie per Taliban fighter -- did not, alas, yield some version of victory. In short, weve already tried the Petraeus-OHanlon take-the-gloves-off approach to defeating the Taliban. It didnt work. With the Afghanistan Wars 15th anniversary now just around the corner, to suggest that we can bomb our way to victory there is towering nonsense.

In Washington, Big Thinking and Small

Petraeus and OHanlon characterize Afghanistan as the eastern bulwark in our broader Middle East fight. Eastern sinkhole might be a more apt description. Note, by the way, that they have nothing useful to say about the broader fight to which they allude. Yet that broader fight -- undertaken out of the conviction, still firmly in place today, that American military assertiveness can somehow repair the Greater Middle East -- is far more deserving of attention than how to employ very expensive airplanes against insurgents armed with inexpensive Kalashnikovs.

To be fair, in silently passing over the broader fight, Petraeus and OHanlon are hardly alone. On this subject no one has much to say -- not other stalwarts of the onward-to-victory school, nor officials presently charged with formulating U.S. national security policy, nor members of the Washington commentariat eager to pontificate about almost anything. Worst of all, the subject is one on which each of the prospective candidates for the presidency is mum.

From Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford on down to the lowliest blogger, opinions about how best to wage a particular campaign in that broader fight are readily available. Need a plan for rolling back the Islamic State? Glad you asked. Concerned about that new ISIS franchise in Libya? Got you covered. Boko Haram? Heres what you need to know. Losing sleep over Al-Shabab? Take heart -- big thinkers are on the case.

As to the broader fight itself, however, no one has a clue. Indeed, it seems fair to say that merely defining our aims in that broader fight, much less specifying the means to achieve them, heads the list of issues that people in Washington studiously avoid. Instead, they prattle endlessly about the Taliban and ISIS and Boko Haram and al-Shabab.

Heres the one thing you need to know about the broader fight: there is no strategy. None. Zilch. Were on a multi-trillion-dollar bridge to nowhere, with members of the national security establishment more or less content to see where it leads.

May I suggest that we find ourselves today in what might be called a Khe Sanh moment? Older readers will recall that back in late 1967 and early 1968 in the midst of the Vietnam War, one particular question gripped the national security establishment and those paid to attend to its doings: Can Khe Sanh hold?

Now almost totally forgotten, Khe Sanh was then a battlefield as well known to Americans as Fallujah was to become in our own day. Located in the northern part of South Vietnam, it was the site of a besieged and outnumbered Marine garrison, surrounded by two full enemy divisions. In the eyes of some observers, the outcome of the Vietnam War appeared to hinge on the ability of the Marines there to hold out -- to avoid the fate that had befallen the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu slightly more than a decade earlier. For France, the fall of Dien Bien Phu had indeed spelled final defeat in Indochina.

Was history about to repeat itself at Khe Sanh? As it turned out, no... and yes.

The Marines did hold -- a milestone! -- and the United States lost the war anyway.

In retrospect, it seems pretty clear that those responsible for formulating U.S. policy back then fundamentally misconstrued the problem at hand. Rather than worrying about the fate of Khe Sanh, they ought to have been asking questions like these: Is the Vietnam War winnable? Does it even make sense? If not, why are we there? And above all, does no alternative exist to simply pressing on with a policy that shows no signs of success?

Today the United States finds itself in a comparable situation. What to do about the Taliban or ISIS is not a trivial question. Much the same can be said regarding the various other militant organizations with which U.S. forces are engaged in a variety of countries -- many now failing states -- across the Greater Middle East.

But the question of how to take out organization X or put country Y back together pales in comparison with the other questions that should by now have come to the fore but havent. Among the most salient are these: Does waging war across a large swath of the Islamic world make sense? When will this broader fight end? What will it cost? Short of reducing large parts of the Middle East to rubble, is that fight winnable in any meaningful sense? Above all, does the worlds most powerful nation have no other choice but to persist in pursuing a manifestly futile endeavor?

Try this thought experiment. Imagine the opposing candidates in a presidential campaign each refusing to accept war as the new normal. Imagine them actually taking stock of the broader fight thats been ongoing for decades now. Imagine them offering alternatives to armed conflicts that just drag on and on. Now that would be a milestone.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), the country's largest oil and gas company, can take part in the project for construction of the Oil and Gas Processing and Petrochemical Complex (OGPC) in Azerbaijan, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters June 2 in Baku.

"CNPC is the largest company in China's gas processing and petrochemical sphere," he said. "The talks with this company are underway. CNPC wants to take part in the OGPC project as an investor."

The OGPC will be located 60 kilometers from Baku and will consist of three processing enterprises and a thermal power plant.

The project's implementation will improve the product quality, enhance the export potential of the country and help protect the environment of the capital.

The cost of construction of the OGPC is $17.1 billion (including interest on loans received during the construction period). Some 30 percent of the project's cost is planned to be financed with the authorized capital (nearly $5 billion), while 70 percent- with the borrowed capital (about $12 billion).

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Follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov


A prominent Warsaw-based priest is calling on the Catholic Church to remain political. But opinions among Polish Catholics are split - even within families, as Monika Sieradzka discovered when she visited Warsaw.

The shops open early in the Warsaw high-rise neighborhood of GocA?aw - even on Sunday morning. Barbara, 42, is one of the first customers. She works as a nurse and earns around 600 euros a month. She normally does her weekly shopping on Sundays. The priests don't approve: Sundays and holidays are for church, not for consumption, they preach.

After Barbara takes her shopping home, she goes to church with her husband. Mass at St. Patrick's parish starts at 9:30.

'Protecting the unborn'

Photos of fetuses in various stages of development decorate the foyer of the church. The images are accompanied by numbers that are meant to shock: 18 million dead in World War II and 17 million "innocent children killed by abortions in the EU between 2006 and 2009."

The sermon is delivered by an apostolic Pallottine priest, who describes himself as a "protector of the unborn." He recently made headlines when he sued a hospital in Warsaw for performing abortions. He believes that Europe and "its gender ideology" are a threat to family life. And in his sermon, he says that artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF) are particular problems and a "violation of God's laws."

Following his sermon, the priest passes out flyers with a bank account number: The donations are for the construction of a clinic where women can seek natural treatment methods for infertility. The topic of his sermon was chosen deliberately: Poland's conservative bishops are currently putting the government under pressure and demanding a law that would totally ban abortions. In return, they are promising political support.

The priest who become too radical

Behind the altar, another priest sits in silence: Stanislaw MaA?kowski is a close ally of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the chairman of the national-conservative governing party, PiS. MaA?kowski would like to preach again, but in Warsaw, he's not allowed.

Two years ago, he performed an exorcism in front of the Presidential Palace in order to drive evil spirits out of former President Bronislaw Komorowski. The reason? Komorowski had signed a bill regulating state funding for IVF. For Warsaw Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz - one of the few moderates among the Polish clergy - it was a step too far. As a result, MaA?kowski is only allowed to serve at the altar in his parish in silence. But outside Warsaw, he continues to preach in front of sizeable congregations.

Restoring moral order

Nurse Barbara would like to see the gag order against MaA?kowski in Warsaw lifted. "He says what we Catholics really think," she said, adding that many are reluctant to admit that they are against abortion. She thinks it's good when the Church takes a clear position, especially now that there is renewed discussion in Poland over tightening the country's already strict laws regulating abortion.

But Barbara's husband clearly has a different opinion. "I would rather not comment on the topic," he said, adding that he only agreed to speak with DW as a favor to his wife. She thinks foreigners ought to know the opinions of Polish Catholics. But he prefers to remain anonymous. "I don't want to lean too far out the window, I don't want to create problems for myself at work," the 41-year-old said. He works at a government ministry and is worried about his future. The PiS is making room for new people in all public offices, he says. Barbara reacts a bit strangely, and then admits that she voted for PiS. For a moment, a rift can be felt between the couple.

'Churching' for young Poles

On this Sunday, the couple's 20-year-old daughter is coming to visit. Klaudia recently moved out into her own apartment, together with her boyfriend, a law student. The two are not married. It's a difficult situation for her parents to accept.

The young couple also goes to a different church than Klaudia's parents - a more liberal student parish, St. Anna, in the center of Warsaw. She says she and her boyfriend are still deciding which church they like the most. "We call it churching," she says. "You visit different churches, listen to the sermons, and then decide if you want to go back." Klaudia says she then posts her impressions of the church on Facebook.

Although she describes herself as "liberal," Klaudia is like her mother in that she also supports the Catholic Church in Poland as well as the PiS government. She also favors a total ban on abortion. Her opinion only differs in one respect: While Polish priests preach that abortion is an eternal sin, Klaudia agrees with Pope Francis who says priests can forgive the sin of abortion as long as the woman is remorseful.

'The Church has no obligation to be politically correct'

The ultra conservative priest MaA?kowski sees this very differently. He has criticized Pope Francis for allowing absolution for people who've divorced or had abortions. For the exorcist and PiS ally, there should be no separation between church and state.

"People in Poland have lost their orientation. They need moral guidelines," he told DW.

MaA?kowski has many loyal followers. He was once one of the most popular spiritual leaders in Poland, engaging with opposition politicians during the era of communist dictatorship. In those days, his masses were attended by tens of thousands. He was constantly under observation by the Polish secret police.

"Now I have to fight against the political correctness taking over the Polish Church," he said, adding that many more "liberal" priests would rather avoid tackling difficult, sensitive issues.

Avoiding religion at family gatherings

He even says his friend Jaroslaw Kaczynski is too moderate at times, adding that he ought to fast track the anti-abortion bill. "Kaczynski has to sometimes appear to be more mild, so that he doesn't spark a rebellion from within his own party," said MaA?kowski. Overall though, he thinks his friend is "on the right path." He describes Polish President Andrzej Duda as a god-fearing man: Unlike his predecessor, he doesn't need the devil driven out of him, he says with a grin.

Barbara, the nurse, describes the priest as "her hero." Her daughter, on the other hand, would like to see a healthy distance between church and state. "The Church is the Church, and that's the way it should stay," she says. That's why she's chosen to go to a church where the sermons are not political. And that's also why the family members try to avoid discussing religion during Sunday lunch.
The resolution in the lower house of the German parliament, the Bundestag, could lead to a diplomatic row with Turkey.

Germany's Bundestag passed a resolution qualifying the Ottoman era Armenian killings as 'genocide'. The lower house of parliament voted almost unanimously, with one vote against the motion and one abstention. House speaker Norbert Lammert spoke of a "remarkable majority."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and the leader of the Social Democrats, Sigmar Gabriel, failed to attend the vote on account of other appointments. Critics have said, however, that they deliberately attempted to dodge a difficult vote.

Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian praised the decision as "Germany's valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides, crimes against humanity."

Diplomatic row

Recently elected Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed "the racist Armenian lobby" for the passing of the resolution and announced that he has called Turkey's Berlin ambassador Husein Avni Karslioglu to report in Ankara in response to the vote in the Bundestag. Yildirim claimed that Turkey had nothing in its past that it needed to be ashamed of.

"Ours is a country that prides itself with its past," Yildirm said and added on Twitter that the resolution was "truly testing Germany's friendship with Turkey."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said ahead of the resolution that it could damage "diplomatic, economic, business, political and military ties" between the two countries - a sentiment later repeated by the spokesman of the ruling AK Party, which Erdogan founded. Erdogan later stressed that the recalling of the ambassador was only a "first step."

The Turkish parliament, known as the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, had earlier issued a statement in cooperation with Turkey's Commission for Foreign Affairs criticizing the draft resolution:

"We strongly condemn and reject this unlawful motion brought before the Bundestag, for which historical truths relating to the events of 1915 were deliberately distorted," it read.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu went a step further and implied that Germany was not trying to avoid ahving to deal with its own history, saying on Twitter that "irresponsible and unfounded parliamentary decisions designed to denigrate another country's history amount to no way of going about closing the dark chapters of one's own history."

Turkey in isolation

However, it is unlikely that the passing of the resolution would actually put a dent in bilateral affairs, as there are no legal consequences associated with the vote. Turkey has in the past called in ambassadors during similar political disagreements as was the case in 2015 when Austria, Luxembourg and the Vatican passed similar resolutions with regard to the Armenian massacre.

Michael Brand, head of the parliamentary committee on human rights, stressed that he doubted Germany's relationship with Turkey would suffer after the resolution:

"I can't imagine that Turkey, which is currently finding itself isolated in its foreign policies in the face of mounting pressure from IS and the PKK, could afford to sever its ties with Germany - one of its most reliable partners," he told reporters. "This isn't about embarrassing Turkey but about articulating a historical truth. We cannot apply tact when it comes to the truth."

German complicity

The co-leader of Germany's Green party, Cem Ozdemir, who has a Turkish background, told reporters that Germany was even involved in the massacres 101 years ago, highlighting that the German Empire at the time provided the Ottoman Empire with the weapons needed to carry out such war crimes. Ozdemir added that the German Empire had also sent military consultants, who supported and fought with the Ottomans.

"They knew exactly what was going on," Ozdemir said. "In this respect we're guilty of complicity, and have to admit this."

During the parliamentary hearing, Germany's former Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung admitted that the German Empire allowed the events to happen and supported them quietly.

"Only those who recognize the past can take part in shaping the future," he said. "We want this resolution to revive the process of reconciliation (between Turkey and Armenia)."

Both politicians also called on parliament to address another past massacre, this time actively carried out by the German Empire. In what is Namibia today, up to 100,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama tribal people were reportedly killed under German colonial rule. The massacres took place between 1904 and 1907 and are commonly referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century.

A reflection of the state of affairs in Turkey

Ozdemir and other parliamentarians said during the debate ahead of the vote that current generations or Turks were not to be held guilty of the crimes, but responsible for remembering them - "in the same manner that Germans were responsible for remembering the events of the Holocaust."

Ozdemir pointed out that the question of the Armenian massacre also reflected deteriorating freedom of expression in Turkey, affecting all levels of society - including parliamentarians:

"When I go home tonight I won't be arrested or beaten. This isn't true for my colleagues in Turkey fighting for Armenians."

Consequences beyond diplomatic ties

Murat Kayman, head of Germany's Turkish-Islamic Union of Religious Institutions (DITIB), said that the resolution would not only affect relations between Berlin and Ankara but would also aggravate relations between Germans and Turks in Germany.

Many representatives of Germany's 3 million-strong minority with a Turkish background (half of which have been naturalized as German citizens) had protested against the resolution on the streets of Berlin and elsewhere in Germany.

Jaklin Chatschadorian, chairman of Germany's Central Council of Armenians, meanwhile said that the resolution would help the Armenian community in Germany and beyond.

"It will mean that we (descendants) can finally depart from having to continually justify ourselves and enable us to refer to the fact that the genocide is a recognized fact in Germany and in many other countries," he said.

"This is a necessary reply to Turkey's highly professional policy of denial."

Key points of disagreement

One of the Turkish government's objections, albeit only a technical issue, is the fact that "genocide" was only introduced as a term in international law by the United Nations in 1948 following the events during the Holocaust, and was only made law in 1951. The mass murder of Armenians, however, predated the end of World War II by 30 years.

Turkey has repeatedly criticized the wording, claiming that the term 'genocide' conjured up images of the Holocaust and other industrial-scale killings.

Another issue that Turkey disagrees with is the question of whether the deaths were premeditated. According to international law, however, the term "genocide" also includes the deliberate degeneration of living conditions for entire ethnic groups as well as their forced deportation and starvation, regardless of the result.

Turkey engaged in what historians call a meticulously planned resettlement policy for Armenians, whom they blamed among others for undermining the Ottoman Empire in its dying days at the height of World War I.

Turkey also questions the number of deaths, with official numbers varying from 800,000 to 1.5 million victims. Qualifying for "genocide" under international law, however, does not take numbers into account.
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Blocks showcases the latest releases from LEGO and gives in-depth reviews and opinion on each. Covering all palates, Blocks covers all the classic construction toy themes - City, Pirates and Technics - licensed lines such asand Super Heroes, as well as perennial in-house favourites like Mindstorms, Friends and Chima. The magazine also covers events from around the world, showcases custom builds, interviews with the the people behind the sets and reveals inside information, useful hints, tips and how-to features from LEGO experts.Most of all Blocks helps you get the most out of the hobby - whether you are a builder, a collector or a MOCer there is something for you. Just a little warning before you dive in - several issues of this monthly magazine were published a year or two ago, and may now be out of print. If you're interested there are digital editions or the secondary market, so read on and discover what your options are in the ultimate paragraph.From the start it's been pretty obvious that the editorial staff have got big plans for the magazine. I can tell you from experience that it takes balls to produce a national magazine, and Mark and his team released their launch edition with two covers. An unexpected change in the editorial line-up occurred early in 2015 with Rob taking the helm and adding Graham, Chris and Richard to the crew. Despite concerns from the LEGO community, the magazine maintained its high standards and quality content.First impressions first - these should come with free deodorant because they reek of professionalism, and each of the issues I've seen pack a lot of wow. This isn't a fanzine that wandered onto your newsagents magazine rack: the paper quality is right up there with the best periodicals, and the print is crisp and clear. Without a doubt your 5 is well spent. There are plenty of reviews of the twenty or so issues that have come out to date ( brickset.com brickrader.com and thebrickfan.com ) so we thought we'd highlight those issues that had more than a smattering of LEGOcontent.The pilot issue was billed more as a special bookizine than a regular magazine, and had a bumper crop of set coverage and community news. Opening with a huge and in-depth look at the UCS Jawa Sandcrawler and reviews of the UCS R2-D2 set and the Ewok Village, the spotlight was a no brainer because everyone - even if you live on the planet furthest from the the bright centre of the universe - knows that LEGOsells. The custom-build element of the community was represented by an up-close and personal reveal of Mark Borlase's Battle of Hoth diorama, while an interview with Vesa Lehtimaki - the author of LEGO: Small Scenes from a Big Galaxy (available from DK) - discussed what inspired his unique brand of photography. Devotees ofsets enjoyed a write-up on the Republic Dropship with AT-OT, which the team picks as an upcoming classic and the final article, which was cheekily titled First Look: The Phantom, provided a sneak peak at one of the firstsets.The launch edition sold out so quickly and the trial one-off distribution deal that Blocks had with newsagent WHSmith came to an end, so the team commissioned a short print run with a limited edition collectors cover. This edition was initially made available at the Great Western Brick Show in Swindon (October 2014), and the final few leftovers were sold through the Blocks website. This special edition is the most sought after of all Blocks magazines and can go for five times the original cover price on the secondary market.The cover featured the UCS Tumbler set and it got the lion's share of the inside pages. Rather than sticking to the tried and tested content filler of reviewing more current sets there was a retrospective feature on Imperial Star Destroyers, which were looked at in detail and each version is compared and contrasted to great effect.Everyone's favourite interstellar steam iron got the Blocks treatment in this issue, with a ten page high-resolution review of the UCS Slave I, which also got the cover. Further in is an interview with Peter Brookdale, a LEGO MOCcer who put together an impressively massive minifig-scale AT-AT, a UCS-style Rebel Hoth Transport and my all-time favourite ship in theuniverse - the TIE Defender. The article has wonderful photographs and some enlightening questions are asked. A mere six turns of the page is a review on the latest AT-AT, and capping off thecontent of this issue is a Death Star play set done in the style of the LEGO Friends theme! The Empires orb of destruction never looked so gay (in the original sense of the word) and trendy.This issue was all about law and order and featured the new modular Detective's Office, with additional reviews of the Ultra Agents, Mobile Command Unit and Crook's Hideout sets. The ultimate force in justice and control was represented with a close look at army building with LEGObattlepack sets, while the Death Star "doll house" got the special treatment with a photo spread highlighting the immensity of this long running favourite.Featuring an exclusive Jurassic World LEGO designer interview, this issue also included reviews on key new sets, a break down of the UCS TIE Fighter and coverage ofCelebration in Anaheim.The Force awakened in this issue, with reviews of the new and hotly-anticipated new LEGOsets. That wasn't all for most fans favourite LEGO theme though, as it also includes a mammoth special feature with a look at the top 50 LEGOmoments, from sets to MOCs, brick films, photography and much more.arrived in cinemas, and to celebrate Blocks assembled the best builders in the galaxy to construct seven iconic saga scenes, from the classic trilogy to the new film. They also took a look at the buildablefigures, and pitted the old and new larger scale versions of Darth Vader in a showdown of galactic proportions. This build-filled issue was topped off with an exclusive interview with Michael Price, the mind behind the LEGOseriesThe focus on all things Batman vs Superman permeated throughout the magazine, with an exclusive series of builds, reviews of the new sets and the lowdown on how to create the perfect Dark Knight Tumbler. Representing LEGOwas Daniel Konstanski's article on how you can improve your Carbon Freezing Chamber with a few simple mods.This Marvel-lous issue saw a second month of superheroes, with Captain America duking it out against Iron Man to mark the cinematic release of Captain America: Civil War. There's plenty of other movie focus with a behind-the-scenes look at a series of The Jungle Book vignettes and the Brickpicker team weighed up how the latest LEGOUCS sets compared to previous entries in the theme.Timed for the initial airing ofanimated series and Celebration Europe 3, this issue was aextravaganza, with over 50% of its 114 pages devoted to the theme. Articles included mini builds, set reviews, an inside look at the creation of theTV series, a look at Uglies and an interview with the team who designed and made the half-million brick Death Star at LEGOLAND Windsor.On top of features on Spiderman and the Firends theme park ride sets, this issue includes an exclusive interview with two of the talented minds responsible for turninginto the biggest video game hit of 2016, and marking the release of 75150 Vader's TIE Advanced vs. A-wing Starfighter is a look at how how these two sets have evolved over the years.As you can see there are more than enough issues with a chunk or more of LEGO, as well as content to draw in members of the LEGO community who prefer other themes (as inconceivable as that is!). The editorial staff at Blocks have gone to great effort to avoid giving the reader a reason to do an about face and go back to getting their LEGO news from the web. In my mind the best reason to buy these magazines is accessibility - if I want to look at vibrant photos of LEGO sets I don't want to have to go through the rigmarole of getting the right link on a web site. I just want to pick up the magazine and flick through the pages. Who said print is dead?Sound good? Check out the digital sampler from a medley of issues if you still need convincing, or head to Blocksmag.com where you can get a subscription, order back issues or get your digital editions. If you prefer the traditional approach you'll find the latest issue of Blocks in Waitrose, Co-Op, Spar, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco, WHSmith and plenty of independent newspapers throughout the UK. Alternatively there is also the secondary market where issues are already commanding double and triple their cover prices. You can also keep track of special content reveals and upcoming articles on their Facebook page as well.Special thanks to Paul Lonergan for sharing his copy of the limited edition collectors cover issue with a complete stranger who contacted him randomly through Facebook.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Dalga Khatinoglu, Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

While the members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are in talks to elect the best nominee for the position of the carter's secretary-general, Iran makes efforts to prevent Saudi backed candidates from securing the chair.

Parviz Mina, who earlier served as a member of OPEC Long-Term Strategy Committee, told Trend that Tehran is reluctant to see a pro-Saudi nominee in the position of secretary general due to the existing tensions between Tehran and Riyadh.

This is while Tehran has expressed support for the Nigerian nominee Mohammed Barkindo in election for the position.

Parviz Mina further played down the role of technical knowledge and capabilities of nominees in the latest round of election in OPEC highlighting the role of political incentives.

According to the expert, although a secretary general does not have a direct role in making decisions and he is responsible for implementing decisions made by the members during conferences, a secretary general can impact the decisions through research works carried out before the conferences.



Ties between Riyadh and Tehran escalated after execution of a prominent Shia cleric, Nimr al-Nimr by the Saudis on Jan. 2.

Following the execution, angry Iranian protesters stormed Saudi embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad. Right after the attacks on its diplomatic missions, the Saudi Arabia said it severed ties with the Islamic Republic.

OPEC has been looking for a replacement for Libya's Abdalla El-Badri, who was elected as acting secretary-general in December 2007 until the end of July after serving full terms.

The consensus of all members, which in the past had sometimes been elusive, is required for the appointment of a new secretary-general.
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Seminar explains Veteran Launch loans

The Shasta Cascade Small Business Development Center in Redding will host a seminar detailing the Veteran Launch loan program on June 9.

Veterans Launch has $2 million in loan capital available to veterans-owned businesses. The program can provide business resources and funding dedicated to veterans, active military, spouses or their families.

The seminar will be at 5800 Airport Road in the Frozen Gourmet building. Cost to attend is free but reservations are required.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. with appetizers. The seminar is at 6 p.m.

To sign up, go to http://necsbdc.ecenterdirect.com/events/13742. You can also call Lori Flugrad at 222-8323.

Event will benefit Anderson Teen Center

An event to support the Anderson Teen Center will take place at the T Mobile store in Anderson at 5020 Rhonda Road on Saturday.

Customers are asked to stop by the store between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. and take a selfie and post it on Instagram or Facebook with the hashtag #TMobilize.

MobilOne will donate $5 to the Anderson Teen Center for each attendee.

For more information, call 365-1970.

Reporter David Benda can be reached at 225-8219 or at david.benda@redding.com.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Aygun Badalova - Trend:

OPEC will refrain from any initiatives that would drive the oil market higher, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo bank believes.

OPEC is holding a meeting as of currently in Vienna. The previous meeting regarding the possible oil production freeze did not yield any results.

The talks on oil output freeze collapsed after Saudi Arabia surprised the group by reasserting a demand that Iran also agrees to cap its oil production.

"Opec will try to show unity but at the same time refraining from initiatives that would drive the market higher thereby risking ruining the gradual and longer term sustainable recovery," Hansen told Trend June 2.

"The introduction of a production limit will not have a fundamental impact but could still be short term bullish considering the recent failures," he added.
All in the family: Owners of Trendys  Kathi Potter, left, Travis Bowen and Wendy Krause

SHARE The Shroom in Calif four-egg omelette Eggs Benedict special The Trendy burrito on the breakfast menu

By Marc Beauchamp

Wow, talk about a strong opening  dropped by the barely 6-week old Trendys restaurant on Gold Street in west Redding last Friday and then again on Sunday morning and had trouble getting in.

The retro-looking diner, the former Gold Street Cafe about a block east of Court Street, is open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday and for brunch on Sundays.

Its a family affair, run by Kathi Potter, her daughter Wendy Krause and Krauses chef husband, Travis Bowen. Mother and daughter have been serving at and managing restaurants for decades and Bowens resume includes Country Waffle, Tortilla Flats, Cicada Cantina, Clearies and Woodys.

They clearly know restaurants. Our family has been in the business for over 20 years, Krause wrote in an online business pitch. We now want the chance to do it for ourselves.

Trendys boasts that it uses real butter, olive oil, rice bran oil and R&R Quality Meats. We dont have any yucky stuff, said Potter, a friendly and unflappable woman, as she seemingly effortlessly worked the restaurants busy back room on Sunday morning.

Bowen is especially proud of his house braised carnitas on the lunch menu. Theyre featured in the carnitas gringo sandwich, tacos and a taco salad. Also popular at lunch is the chicken caprese sandwich and the towering Bomb Burger.

Im very happy with the food and to be working with my family, he said.

Best-selling breakfast items include the corn beef hash and griddle cakes, the house-made country fried steak, the chorizo eggs and the Shroom in Cali four-egg omelette.

What about the name, Trendys? Potter said it was a mash-up of Travis and Wendy. Check out Trendys Facebook page for mouth-watering pictures of breakfast and lunch specials.

On Sunday morning, Trendys got rave reviews from Luke Stratte-McClure and Samantha Sam Dunnachie, Hollywood residents (he's an actor, she's a marketing manager for Califia Farms, best known for its almond milk) in Redding visiting relatives. He had the Trendy burrito and she had the eggs benedict special. Dunnachie praised the potatoes: They were spot on, well cooked and you could taste the real butter.

On Yelp.com Chris Rosier wrote in late May, My new favorite breakfast place. Ive been there three times this week and probably going back tomorrow.

go now 

Trendys

Address: 1730 Gold Street, Redding

Phone: 768-1499

Hours: Monday - Friday 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Social media: Facebook

Owners: Trendys LLC

Established: April 2016



Sample menu items:

Shroom in Calif omelette $11

Corn beef hash & cakes $11

Country fried steak $11

Monte Cristo $12

Carnitas Gringo tacos $12

Chicken caprese sandwich $12

The Bomb Burger $12

Carnitas taco salad $13
De Colores owner Isabel Quiroz with her display of pinatas.

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By Tim Holt

De Colores, located on Weeds main street, is not your average small town boutique, not with its sugar skull theme, its colorful pinatas, its pottery and artwork crafted by students from the nearby College of the Siskiyous. And then theres Bob and his pot-bellied pig, which well get to later.

De Colores, with its comfy, overstuffed chairs near the entrance, is a welcoming place, a hangout with a heavy Latino influence, presided over by Isabel Quiroz, the daughter of farmworkers from the Delano area and the shops owner.

On the day I visited there was a steady stream of Quirozs grandchildren and other relatives coming through the front door and hanging out in a back room. The shop is an extension of Quirozs Latino roots and personality, the neighborly and family-oriented side of her culture. The sugar skull theme of the store is a direct tie-in to the Day Of The Dead, an annual celebration in Latino communities in the U.S., and in Latin American countries, that honors departed ancestors and loved ones.

On both sides of a tall beverage cooler in the shop there are colorful paintings of white skulls adorned with flowers and rhinestones. Its the work of Nabahe Benally, a COS art student and former graffiti artist from Southern California. More of his artwork  his oils, acrylics and graphic designs  is on display in the shops back room.

The shop also features the colorful pottery of Yurimila Yamamoto, a native of Hawaii whos working on her degree at COS.

In the months to come Quiroz plans to feature more artwork by COS students, as well as the work of local artists, including the landscapes of Bob Hodges, a local character known for walking his pot-bellied pig down Weeds main street.

Quiroz sees De Colores as part of a new surge of revitalization in downtown Weed. Her business, which opened last November, has been joined in recent months on Weed's main street by a natural foods store, a tattoo parlor, and a furniture and antiques store. The downtown theater has re-opened and is starting to feature live concerts.

Im really excited to be part of this revival in Weed, Quiroz says. And to be able to share my Latino roots and culture with the community.

go now 

What: De Colores Ongoing Art Exhibit

When: Open 9:30 a.m.  8 p.m. every day

Where: 151 Main Street, Weed

Contact: 471-3322
Pool coverage photo by Kasey Kershner/KDRV Channel 12 Ronald Beau Marshall, shown during his arraignment, has been released from prison after serving his sentence for starting the Boles Fire in Weed.

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By Jim Schultz of the Redding Record Searchlight

The 26-year-old man sentenced last year to three years in prison for starting the 2014 Boles Fire in Weed that destroyed 157 buildings  most of them homes  has been released from prison after serving his time.

Ronald Beau Marshall was released April 11 from California State Prison, Solano, in Vacaville, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections said Wednesday.

He was released to the Siskiyou County Probation Office under AB 109 provisions, but where he's living has not been disclosed.

A spokeswoman for the Siskiyou County Probation Office in Yreka said Marshall is not living in Weed.

Marshall, a former Weed resident, was sentenced on July 28 to three years in prison under a plea bargain after he pleaded guilty to recklessly starting the devastating fire.

He was required to serve 50 percent of his prison sentence before being eligible for parole.

Marshall, who was booked into Siskiyou County Jail on Oct. 11, 2014, had all the time he served in jail as well as good behavior credits applied toward his prison sentence.

Siskiyou County District Attorney Kirk Andrus said in an email to the Record Searchlight that he and his office were notified last month of Marshall's release.

As the community of Weed continues to rebuild and recover from the fire, Marshall's release from prison dismayed some residents unaware that he's no longer in prison.

"Our system has failed us once again," said Gordon Howard, owner of Gordon's Barber Shop on Main Street.

Howard, who was evacuated from his business and shop due to the fire, said he did not know that Marshall had been released from prison. And, he said, none of his customers ever mentioned it to him.

Prosecutors initially believed Marshall intentionally set the Boles Fire to get revenge on the managers of his former apartment complex but abandoned that theory after the investigation into that tip didn't turn anything up.

Prosecutors then turned their investigation to the reckless handling of a warming or cooking fire Marshall had started near the complex.

He was homeless and told investigators that he tried to put the fire out but was unable to do so.

Originally charged with three felony counts of arson and related enhancements in connection to the fire, Marshall later pleaded guilty to recklessly starting the fire.

The Boles Fire broke out Sept. 15, 2014, and, fueled by strong winds, tore a 516-acre swath through the middle of the small Siskiyou County city, leaving scores of residents homeless. It damaged a building at Weed Elementary School and forced the temporary shutdown of the Roseburg Forest Products mill, one of Siskiyou County's largest employers.
Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight President Bill Clinton addresses a packed student union at Shasta College Thursday night. He is campaigning in support of his wife, Hillary.

SHARE Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight People wearing their support for Clinton wait to get in to Bill Clinton's event at Shasta College on Thursday in Redding. Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight A person waits to get in to the Bill Clinton Get Out the Vote event for his wife, Hillary, at Shasta College on Thursday. Andreas Fuhrmann/Record Searchlight People show their support for Bill Clinton to become the "First Husband" while waiting to hear him speak on Thursday at Shasta College in Redding.

UPDATED 7:40: Bill Clinton wraps up his speech: "If you want to get the nation moving again, vote for Hillary."

He exits to the song, "Happy."

Updated 7 p.m.: Bill Clinton has taken the podium and greets the crowd.

"Thank you Shasta, thank you Redding," he said. "Thank you for coming and thank you for supporting Hillary."

Clinton noted how he and Garamendi helped set aside more land for preservation in California than any other president.

Clinton said we need to acknowledge the anger of the electorate, noting that most Americans have not received a pay raise in past several years.

He said all over world people are screaming about reduction of middle class, declining wages and refugee crises.

"All over the world, people are fighting these battles," he said. "I want to say not as Hillary's husband but as a former president, you need to consider how this election will affect you, your family, your state, and the rest of the world."

Addressing' Trump's motto, he said: "Make America great again means making America like it was," he said. "And it wasn't so great for about half of us."

"Are we going to choose a future that's great for the 21st century? A future built of bridges not walls?"

"Here's my pitch, I come here as a biased but highly well informed person. I'm the only person who has known my candidate since spring of 1971. I also know what it takes to do this job and bring prosperity and share prosperity," he said.

Clinton said Hillary Clinton is the candidate who knows the role of government, and that includes investing in infrastructure and making sure every American drinks water through clean pipes.

He also said we need to bring manufacturing back to the United States, but it won't be like it used to be. Instead, it needs to be a mix of technology and products.

He said Hillary wants to invest in ways to make products in a more smart, economically efficient way to create more good-paying jobs.

Clinton talked about how a university in Florida helped spin off 100 businesses that create simulators used at Disneyworld and NASA. He said such a successful outcome could be done in California and everywhere.

"You have to believe in a tomorrow economy, and you can't turn people away from the door because you don't like their religion or race," he said.

Part of creating that economy is to get those who have a hard time finding work get into jobs. He said the government must create ways to get veterans hired, as well as those who have served time in jails and prisons.

"In last three months' period, U.S. finally showed enough hiring that wages finally started to go up. But our growth went down a half point because of all the turmoil in the rest of the world," she said. He added that the world will continue to drag us down unless we help and care about bringing up the rest of the world. Hillary is the only candidate who has a plan for that, he said.

Clinton expressed a bit of surprise why the Republicans are now going after his wife because they liked her when she got the Iran sanctions in place, when she helped farmers hold onto their farms, when she brokered deal with Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and stopped the fighting between it and Israel. He also told a touching story about how Hillary Clinton encouraged Tom DeLay to work with her to increase adoptions of children out of foster care by offering families tax cuts if they did so.

He said voters must think about the world their grandchildren will grow up in.

"I cannot overstate the importance of this election," he said. "We just have to remember this election is about you, your children, your grandchildren, your country."

He again said he understands why white Americans in particular are so angry, they've seen the Democratic party concentrate on so many other populations. But he said that Hillary sees everyone, even those who feel left out. And whether they vote or her or not, "we are coming back to take you along into the future, and that's what we got to say to everybody," he said.

Clinton said he appreciated Gov. Jerry Brown endorsing Hillary, but when they called Brown to thank him, they brought up the minimum wage hike to $15. Bill Clinton said he should have set it up to stagger that in different areas of the state, otherwise "you put a lot of small businesses out of business."

Updated 7 p.m.: Congressman John Garamendi is introducing Bill Clinton, asking everyone if they're ready to hear from the 42nd president of the United States.

Updated 6:50 p.m.: Former President Bill Clinton has landed and is on his way to Shasta College where he will stump for his wife, Hillary, this evening.

Shasta County Democratic Committee Chairman and state Senate candidate Rob Rowen addressed the packed, standing-room only crowd in the college's student union a few minutes ago, calling on those gathered to make history again by electing the nation's first female president.

More people than expected turned out, and organizers set up speakers outside so those who could not fit into the building can still hear the speakers.

Rowen remarked on the size of the crowd, saying that "I can honestly say this is the largest gathering of Democrats I've seen in redding in my lifetime."

Original story:

Former President Bill Clinton will visit Redding Thursday on behalf of his wife, Hillary, who is running for president and is on the June 7 ballot for the Democratic nomination.

Bill Clinton will be speaking at the Shasta College Student Union on Thursday. Doors will open at 6:15 p.m. and the former president will speak at 7:15 to 8:15 p.m.

Parking for the Clinton rally will be in the college's north parking lot.

The Clinton campaign checked different places before settling on Shasta College.

Frank Treadway, serving as a point of contact for the Hillary Clinton campaign, said the North State is in play in the Democratic presidential primary.

Anyone attending the rally is encouraged to use the hashtag #ClintonRedding when sharing posts, photos and video on Twitter and Facebook so their posts show up in the Record Searchlights live coverage on Redding.com. Those at home can also add comments after entering a display name in the platform below.

Bill Clinton

What: Bill Clinton holds campaign rally on behalf of wife and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton

Where: Shasta Colleges Student Union

When: Thursday evening. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. Clinton expected to talk from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m.

Details: It will be standing only. Park in the north parking lot. Its first-come, first in. Follow live team coverage on Redding.com starting at 6 p.m. Thursday.
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Two fugitives wanted on felony warrants out of Pennsylvania were arrested Wednesday by Shasta County sheriff's deputies.

Sheriff's officials said deputies with the Shasta County Sheriffs Office AB109 team began an investigation into the fugitives on May 17 after they were determined to have warrants out of Snyder County, Pa.

Deputies said Craig Poust, 42, and Chanel Kantz, 24, were wanted for failing to appear in court on multiple drug charges and weapons offenses.

They are also suspected of drugging, raping and photographing several women between the ages of 19 and 24 over the past few years, deputies said.

The Shasta County Sheriffs Office AB109 team received information Wednesday on the pair's whereabouts and, with the assistance of the Siskiyou County Sheriffs Office and California Highway Patrol, took them into custody without incident, deputies said.

The pair was taken to Siskiyou County Jail in Yreka where they were booked on the felony warrants.

They are to be extradited to Pennsylvania.
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By Damon Arthur of the Redding Record Searchlight

Whiskeytown Lake is hosting its first-ever kokanee salmon fishing derby this weekend.

Gary Coe, president of Kokanee Power, said there were already about 50 teams signed up for the first Whiskeytown Lake Team Kokanee Derby on Saturday.

The tournament pays $600 for first prize with a total payout of over $3,000 to those who place as far down as 15th place, based on 125 teams, Coe said.

Whiskeytown has long been a popular kokanee fishing spot, he said. Over the past five years, the lake has not been stocked with hatchery fish because the kokanee have been naturally spawning in tributaries to the reservoir, he said.

Entry fee is $45 for Kokanee Power members and $55 for nonmembers. Anglers 16 and younger fish for free. The team with the heaviest three fish wins, he said. Coe said he expects visitors from Oregon, Nevada and several other parts of California.

In addition to the fishing derby, the group also plans to raffle off numerous items and provide a catered lunch. Kokanee Power is a nonprofit group that promotes kokanee fishing and donates a portion of its derby proceeds to public service projects, Coe said.

The group also puts on numerous fishing derbies each year at lakes around the state, including at Lake Shasta, with payouts over $8,000, he said.

For those who need a primer on kokanee tactics before the tournament, Anthony Cox of AC Guide Service, will give a presentation at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Sportsman's Warehouse, 1659 Hilltop Drive in Redding.

Registration for the fishing derby is from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Friday at the Brandy Creek Marina parking lot. Those wishing to sign up for the event can also call 916-221-0806.
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DA's office warns of fire fee scam

The Shasta County District Attorney's Office on Wednesday issued an alert warning residents of a telephone scam revolving around an annual fire prevention fee.

The DA's office posted on its Facebook page that a Shasta County resident recently got a telephone call from someone purporting to be with a state agency collecting the annual fire fee.

The resident, knowing he had to pay the fee and believing the caller was legitimate, paid it over the phone.

Some weeks later, however, he received by mail the actual bill from the Board of Equalization for his annual fire fee. The individual then learned he had become a victim of a phone scam.

The DA's office urges people who receive telephone calls from anyone requesting payment over the phone to exercise caution and verify the information by calling the actual agency to learn more about any alleged debt.

Deputies arrest wanted fugitives

Two fugitives wanted on felony warrants out of Pennsylvania were arrested Wednesday by Shasta County sheriff's deputies.

Sheriff's officials said deputies with the Shasta County Sheriff's Office AB109 team began an investigation into the fugitives May 17 after they were determined to have warrants out of Snyder County, Pennsylvania.

Deputies said Craig Poust, 42, and Chanel Kantz, 24, were wanted for failing to appear in court on multiple drug charges and weapons offenses.

They are also suspected of drugging, raping and photographing several women between the ages of 19 and 24 over the past few years, deputies said.

The Shasta County Sheriff's Office AB109 team received information Wednesday on the pair's whereabouts and, with the assistance of the Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office and California Highway Patrol, took them into custody without incident, deputies said.

The pair was taken to Siskiyou County Jail in Yreka where they were booked on the felony warrants.

They are to be extradited to Pennsylvania.
The former Redding Police headquarters on California Street.

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It didnt take too long for new tenants to move into the former Redding Police Department headquarters on California Street.

Police said they arrested early on Wednesday two people who had taken up residence there and had turned its old patrol briefing room into an impressive encampment and virtual drug den.

In a news release, Sgt. Walt Bullington said officers of the Neighborhood Police Unit were patrolling the area about 1:45 a.m., when they noticed suspicious activity at the former police headquarters, which has been vacant for about nine months.

Officers said they found a fence securing a portion of the property had been broken through and two people were discovered living in what used to be the old patrol briefing room.

Clifford Rey Robinson, 58, and Jessica Rae Cannon, 41, were subsequently arrested, police said.

Police said Robinson told them he had moved into the building and allowed Cannon to also stay there with him.

Police said both Robinson and Cannon, who reportedly admitted to being drug addicts, had been using their new home to entertain their friends and associates and to host the use illegal drugs.

Officers said they found numerous needles and syringes, empty drug packaging, spoons and paraphernalia used for preparing and injecting narcotics.

Rotting food and an excessive accumulation of filth and soiled clothing cluttered the room, police said in the news release.

Robinson was arrested on suspicion of breaking and entering the city-owned building and maintaining it for the purpose of using drugs, police said.

Cannon was also arrested on suspicion of maintaining the building for the purpose of using illegal drugs, police said, adding that both were booked into Shasta County Jail but quickly released.

The 42,000-square-foot building had been eyed as a potential site for a new restaurant by Redding contractor Jamie Lynn. But he walked away from the idea recently after finding that it would cost too much to retrofit the aging building.

The city still hopes to sell the building, appraised at $625,000.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump answers questions during a news conference in New York, Tuesday, May 31, 2016. A super PAC supporting Donald Trump is hiring a former operative from the Trump campaign. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

SHARE Former President Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Friday, May 20, 2016, in Sioux Falls, S.D., . (AP Photo/James Nord)

By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

UPDATED 10:14 a.m.: Donald Trump will hold a rally at 1 p.m. Friday at Redding Municipal Airport.

Doors open at 10 a.m., and people are required to register. There's a limit of 2 tickets per party. To register, go here: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/schedule/register/redding-ca/

Expect heavy traffic and possible delays beginning at 10 a.m. around the airport.

The areas that will be affected are Airport, Rancho, Knighton and Meadow View roads.

Residents planning to arrive at the airport to travel or pick up incoming passengers are advised to allow extra time for possible delays, airport officials said.

There will be some traffic control in place help enter and leave the airport.

Original story:

Both former President Bill Clinton and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will visit Redding this week.

Clinton will be speaking at the Shasta College Student Union on Thursday, according to Rob Rowen, Shasta County Democratic Central Committee chairman.

Trump is expected to hold a rally from Air Shasta Rotor & Wing on Friday, according to sources. A time has not been announced, and Trump had no events listed for Redding on his campaign website.

For Clinton's visit, doors will open at 6:15 p.m. and the former president will speak at 7:15 to 8:15 p.m., Rowen said.

Rowen said he was excited to have the former president visiting Redding on a campaign trip for his wife, Hillary Clinton.

"To me, it's a pretty big deal," Rowen said. "Anytime you have a president or former president come here, it's a big deal."

Parking for the Clinton rally will be in the college's north parking lot.

At Air Shasta, an employee who picked up the phone said the owner, Dave Everson, had signed some paperwork on Wednesday and referred all questions to him.

The Clinton campaign checked different places before settling on Shasta College.

Nathan Parmelee, marketing and talent director for the Redding Civic Auditorium, said staff fielded calls from people inquiring about the facility's size and availability. They didn't always name the candidate they were with though, he said.

Reading between the lines, Parmelee thought one of the calls may have come from Bernie Sanders' campaign. They were interested in booking the civic for Wednesday.

One of the calls specifically mentioned Bill Clinton.

But the Civic Auditorium was booked Wednesday and Thursday for graduations. Parsons Junior High School held its ceremony Wednesday and Central Valley High School's commencement ceremony is scheduled Thursday night.

Moseley Family Cellars also received an inquiry about the winery's availability Thursday night for Bill Clinton.

"We were asked to host the former president at our winery but sadly we could not hold the expected crowd," Mimi Moseley posted on Facebook.

"For those of you who think Redding is a hick town ... well we have Bill Clinton coming tomorrow and Donald Trump soon. And Bernie Sanders in Chico," she wrote. "Regardless of one's thoughts on any of these men, it would have been nice to have a former president in our winery."

Parmelee said they were aware the Trump campaign was looking for a large venue to hold an event.

It was believed the Republican's campaign had checked with Shasta Speedway in Anderson and Redding Municipal Airport.

After Cory McCandliss, the Civic Auditorium's general manager, said the facility could easily accommodate a presidential candidate's visit on Friday, Parmelee on Wednesday placed a call to Trump's general campaign line.

"I told them we have an amazing front lawn for north of 5,000 people," he said.

Not one to give up, Parmelee then walked the lawn and snapped photos on his iPhone. He tried to capture the scale of the lawn and the view Trump would have in addressing his supporters. Afterward, he emailed the photos to the camp.

Trump would stand between the flag poles in the ramp area to the second floor.

"That is an area that could be secured and where everyone in the crowd would have a view of him," Parmelee said.

Frank Treadway, serving as a point of contact for the Hillary Clinton campaign, said the North State is in play in the Democratic presidential primary.

"They know there are votes here," Treadway said.

He recalled meeting Hillary Clinton's during a visit to Redding in 1992, when she spoke in Caldwell Park and his handshake with Bill Clinton in 1996 during the Democratic state convention in Sacramento.

"It was electricity going up my arm, I have to tell you," Treadway said. "He is a force."

Damon Arthur contributed to this report.

Bill Clinton

What: Bill Clinton holds campaign rally on behalf of wife and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton

Where: Shasta Colleges Student Union

When: Thursday evening. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. Clinton expected to talk from 7:15 to 8:15 p.m.

Details: It will be standing only. Park in the north parking lot. Its first-come, first in. Follow live team coverage on Redding.com starting at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Donald Trump

What: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump expected to hold campaign rally.

Where: Air Shasta Rotor and Wing, 3770 Flight Ave., Redding Municipal Airport, Redding.

When: Time had not been determined by press time.

Details: No details had been released as of press time. Follow live team coverage on Redding.com.
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By Nathan Solis of the Redding Record Searchlight

As candidates in the race for Shasta County supervisor add more money to their campaigns, a few are refusing contributions to avoid sending a message of bias.

Walter Albert, District 4 candidate, has not formed an election committee in his bid for the supervisor's seat, according to county documents.

Albert has avoided fundraising to set an example on how he'll perform in office if elected supervisor.

"I have a vision and a plan for the county," Albert said. "I don't want to feel that I owe anyone if I'm elected. I've done a little bit of advertising (in my campaign), but the rest of it has been word of mouth and on social media. It's free and organic."

Like Albert, District 4 candidate Steve Morgan shares a similar principal in his bid for the supervisor's seat.

"I've refused individual donations. It's a personal matter as far as I'm concerned and it's the right call for me," said Morgan, who has spent $6,000 of his personal money in his campaign.

Incumbent Bill Schappell has not filed his most recent campaign finances due to a medical emergency. His previous statement filed on April 28 shows his campaign committee had a $4,375 loan. Schappell said this was carried over from his 2012 campaign for supervisor.

Meanwhile, District 4 candidate Wally St. Clair received a $5,000 contribution from Anderson-based manufacturer Voorwood Co. St. Clair has sat on the Voorwood Co.'s executive board for several years.

Company president Adam Britton said St. Clair's critical thinking has served him well in business and would fit in a supervisor's position. The $5,000 should not be taken as the company trying to warm up to a potential county supervisor, Britton said.

"That's a huge reason we are behind him and we don't want special treatment. We really believe that no matter what, (St. Clair) would do the right thing for anyone in the county," said Britton.

District 3

In the race for the District 3 seat candidate Mary Rickert added $10,000 to her campaign, bringing her total campaign funding to $69,447, with $50,000 of her personal money in that mix.

San Francisco architect Lewis Butler gave $1,000 to Rickert. Butler is a land owner in Fall River Mills and believes in the candidate's approach to mental health and agriculture issues. The Redding-based law firm Greco Traficante Schulz & Brick gave Rickert's campaign $2,500.

Attorney Clyde Greco said he believes if elected, Rickert would be able to resist excessive regulations going on in the community and prevent confiscation of "basic rights and liberties."

Rickert has made payments of $13,820 in her campaign for radio and TV advertising, campaign consultants and workers' salaries, according to county documents.

As of May 21, incumbent Pam Giacomini spent $10,258 on marketing, $3,500 for graphics and $520 for signs. She has raised $14,787 in contributions and made no personal loans to her campaign.

Candidate Janet Chandler has spent less than $500 in the most recent filings and she has raised about $3,349 according to county documents.

District 2

In District 2, incumbent Leonard Moty has raised $7,650 in campaign contributions, made no personal loans to his campaign and has spent $7,496 on print and TV advertising.

Moty's challenger, Jerome Venus, has spent about $800 of his personal money in his campaign.

"The other day I made fliers," he said. "Being a novice and so naive, I thought people would start contributing, but they didn't. I continually ask people to help out in different ways."

He added he will continue campaigning in his own way, handing out fliers and meeting with people on the street.

Related Links

Database: 2016 Candidate Contributions

Use the interactive database to search campaign finance information ahead of the June 7 Primary Election.

About Nathan Solis Multimedia reporter Nathan Solis has been telling stories through articles and photographs for 9 years as both a freelance writer and beat reporter in Los Angeles. Most recently he has relocated to Northern California where he reports on county issues for the Record Searchlight/Redding.com. He engages the general Shasta County community through social media, video, photographs and articles.

Infogram:
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 2

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

The ARETI International Group of Companies is interested in participating in the new projects in Turkmenistan, head of the ARETI, Russian businessman Igor Makarov, said at a meeting with the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.

He said ARETI is very interested in boosting the mutually beneficial contacts with Turkmenistan, read a message from the Turkmen government, issued June 2.

ARETI is primarily involved in the projects in the fuel and energy spheres, especially in developing the Turkmen sector of the Caspian shelf, trading, engineering, development projects and investments in the real sector of the economy.

The company started to operate in Turkmenistan in 2009 based on a production sharing agreement.

ARETI is operating the work on Turkmenistan's offshore block 21.
Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at the Redding Municipal Airport in Redding on Friday.

By Jenny Espino of the Redding Record Searchlight

Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump told thousands of people gathered at the Redding Municipal Airport to not only vote next Tuesday but to also turn out in November.

The Redding stop was one of many the candidate was making before the June 7 primary. He said he chose to visit Redding with his eye on November. He says he thinks this could be the first time the state chooses a Republican president since Reagan in 1984.

"We have a tighter path, but I'm not your typical person," he says.

As temperatures reached 100 degrees on the tarmac, medical crews attended to people overcome by the heat. At one point, Trump stopped his speech as medics attended to a woman having a medical emergency.

"Is she OK? She was here for five hours, five hours, they said," he said. "Some were here for seven hours. Oh, we love you. Are you OK, honey? Give her hand, everybody, give her hand. She's tougher than all of us. Look at the medics, the police, what a great job they do. EMTs. Give them a hand, great job."

Trump addressed the crowd with a mix of jocularity, outrage and down-home charm.

"Wow, this is amazing, thank you," he said to the cheers that greeted him after he disembarked from his jet bearing his name that parked behind the podium. "Redding, Redding, Redding, we love Redding. I think it's 104 degrees. Is everyone OK?"

He spoke for the next hour on a range of subjects, from the economy, how the military needs more funds, the "beautiful wall" he plans for the border with Mexico, the longtime strained relationships between Barack Obama and the Clintons and the bad international "deals" Obama and Clinton made when she was secretary of state.

"If you choose Hillary, this country is going to die," he said.

The rambling address included attacks on the press ("They're biased against us ... they're deceptive), on Hillary Clinton ("Hillary Clinton is weak, Hillary Clinton is a thief, she should be in jail") and on Obama, calling him the great divider and Hillary Clinton will be worse."

He got lots of cheers when he directly addressed members of the audience. He gave a shout-out to the several hundred people who stood outside the gathering area, kept out after Redding Fire Chief Gerry Gray declared the area at capacity.

"Hi, back there! Look at all those people," he said, waving to them. "Couldn't they have moved these fences back a bit and let more people in?"

But it was the statements that he's become known for making that got the crowd chanting "USA, USA, USA."

He defended his plans to build a "big beautiful wall" on the border with Mexico. "Maybe they'll name it after Trump, but I'd rather have a statue in Washington, D.C.," he said, adding that he has talked with border guards who said they want a wall built to stop the flow of drug traffic.

Responding to recent criticisms about his temperament from Hillary Clinton, he said he had "a beautiful temperament, ... a tough temperament" and that America "needs a tough temperament at this time."

He also summed up his speech saying that he was going to continue to "win win win win."

Trump said California's votes are important because "we're sending mandate. And we are ahead by millions of votes. The more votes we have, the stronger the mandate we'll have. In November, you have to go and vote. We are going to start winning again. We will have a winning military and we will beat the hell out ISIS. We will have strong borders, have the all, have a great country again. We are going to repeal Obamacare."

He wrapped up his nearly hourlong speech with: "Remember this folks, we are going to put America first. We are going to have a policy of putting America first. And we are going to make America great again. Get out and vote on June 7 and in November."

Then, he blew air kisses to the crowd, left the podium to shake hands before getting back on his plane.

UPDATED at 12:40: Fire officials have cut off any more people from coming into the area at the airport reserved for the Donald Trump rally expected to begin at 1 p.m.

Redding Fire Chief Gerry Gray tweeted: "No additional persons allowed in to Trump event. Regardless if they have a ticket. We have reached capacity for this event."

Thousands are packed into the area on the south end of the airport, waiting for the presumptive GOP presidential nominee to arrive.

There are reports that at least two people have fainted from the heat. Many are standing directly under the hot noon sun as temperatures reach toward 100 degrees. Others huddle together under the few shade tents available to seek relief.

UPDATED at 12:30 p.m. Thousands have streamed into Redding Municipal Airport to hear Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump speak. He's scheduled to talk at 1 p.m.

People wearing Trump clothing and patriotic colors started lining up before 8 a.m. to get a spot on the tarmac.

To beat the heat, some brought ice chests and water bottles. Free water is being provided. Authorities commissioned a RABA bus to serve as a cooling center.

The temperature in Redding is 97 degrees, but for those standing on the hot tarmac with no shade, it's much hotter.

At least one person received emergency care for heat related issues, according to Redding Fire Chief Gerry Gray.

A few minutes ago, Assemblyman Brian Dahle addressed the growing crowd, proclaiming the North State "Trump country" and leading a prayer. Those in attendance also recited the pledge of allegiance.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump rolls into Redding for a rally at 1 p.m. Friday at Redding Municipal Airport.

Get there early. The roads will be busy and delays are expected. Doors open at 10 a.m. and people are required to register. There is a limit of two tickets per cellphone number. To register, visit https://www.donaldjtrump.com/schedule/.

The Record Searchlight will provide a live chat from the rally. Join the conversation using the hashtag #TrumpRedding.

Airport officials say the streets that will get heavy traffic are Airport, Rancho, Knighton and Meadow View road.

People who plan to arrive at the airport to travel or pick up incoming passengers are advised to allow extra time for possible delays.

Like during the Redding Air Show, the airport will have a designated parking area for those who plan to attend the rally. There will be signs and traffic control to direct motorists.

Bryant Garrett, airports manager, said the Trump campaign told him to expect from 3,000 to 4,000 people. Because the airport has handled more than 40,000 for air shows in the past, he doesn't see a problem in accommodating the expected turnout for Friday's rally.

He said that free water will be available to those in attendance, but there won't be concessions. There will be some shade available, but not enough for everybody. "It's going to be hot," he said.

Weather forecasts put the temperature at around 100 degrees at 1 p.m.

Garrett said he will also have portapotties available and EMTs on standby in case people get overcome by the heat.

He described how it will work when people arrive. Parking for the rally will be separate from the regular paid parking areas of the airport. People will walk through a gate on the south side of the airport near the Fed-Ex building.

Security personnel from the Secret Service and other federal agencies will conduct security checks on people and the items they bring in.

People will then head out onto the tarmac near a stage that was set up on Thursday. Trump's plane is expected to land a bit before 1 p.m.

Garrett said he hopes the heat won't cut Trump's appearance short. "I saw that Mr. Trump's event was short in Sacramento because of the heat. Hopefully we can keep him cool so he can be here longer."

Garrett said that Trump plans to return to New York in the evening, and "he's wheels up by 3 p.m."

Garrett said the airport was in communication with Trump's campaign when it first decided to come to Redding. When the campaign couldn't find a large enough venue in Redding, it asked the airport whether they could hold it there.

"I like to say it shows that Redding is relevant," Garrett said of visits to the North State by Democrat Bernie Sanders, former President Bill Clinton's rally for Hillary Clinton at Shasta College and Trump. "I'm very proud of my town."

Others, too, are excited about the candidates' coming to the area.

"I'm excited about all the candidates visiting the North State," said Nadine Bailey, a Republican from Anderson, noting also Thursday's visits by Democrat Bernie Sanders in Chico and former President Bill Clinton's get out the vote rally for Hillary Clinton at Shasta College. "One of the problems we have is that no one knows we exist."

North State residents excited about the attention took to Facebook to announce they had their tickets to be at the Trump event.

"I think you can run the country better as a business than a government," said Doug Christian, a Redding resident who was going to the rally with his friend, Jerry Glovak.

There are too many bought-and-paid-for people in Washington. Trump doesn't need to run for president. He's already successful, but he wants to help, Christian said. "This is someone who is willing to speak his mind and represent the people."

He supported Trump's plans to secure the borders, Second Amendment rights, investment in military defense and tariffs on corporations that have outsourced manufacturing jobs.

Bailey was trying to make it to Clinton's chat on Thursday and planned to attend Trump's rally on Friday.

Politicians, who get a tour of the area's forests and water resources, make better and more informed decisions, she said.

"You have to see it with your own eyes," she said. "My hope is that when the jets take off, they get a good view of Mt. Shasta and the fires we have had, whether that's Bill Clinton or Donald Trump, maybe even Bernie will come this way."
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News from the campaign trail has Latinos across America cringing.

It happens every time a scene like this splashes across the news: Protesters went plumb loco outside a Donald Trump rally in Albuquerque, N.M. Waving Mexican flags, they lobbed rocks at police, set fires, pushed aside barriers and generally acted like little hooligans.

The outburst was followed by the inevitable. Cable news talking heads, as they always do, wondered why the protesters were so angry.

Really? The United States is veering shockingly close to electing as president a man whose version of "making America great again" includes scapegoating some of the very people who helped make the country so incredible  Latino immigrants.

That's the problem. That this has to be explained. And, no, this is not an excuse for the riotous behavior of a few.

Most Hispanics know such out-of-control displays of emotion will not help. Decapitating a Trump pinata might feel good  a symbolic display of cultural fury. But when it's televised, such an act merely lends credibility to Trump's innuendo that Latinos are interlopers intent on mayhem and criminality.

Nothing could be further from the truth  even for those who arrive here without all the legal paperwork. If you want to find someone willing to literally die to become an American, find a recent Latino immigrant. Talk to the Central Americans who risked their lives to cross through multiple countries, hoping to gain asylum in the U.S.

They can tell you about yearning for the dignity and freedoms in America, privileges that so many third-, fourth- or nth-generation Americans take for granted.

Latinos have some of the highest rates of service in the U.S. military. They are highly entrepreneurial, creating businesses wherever they settle.

In a nation that so prides itself of being created from immigrant stock, an awful lot of Americans are naive about migration. Many of Trump's supporters are unaware that their own forefathers did not arrive here with documents in hand, not like what is required now, a system that didn't even exist until recent decades.

Nor did their ancestors instantly master English. Rather, they followed the same patterns of language assimilation that we observe among Latinos today. Adult immigrants rarely become proficient in English, but their children become bilingual. Following generations are monolingual  in English.

The process of assimilation is a blessing and a curse. It helps bind us together as a nation: one people from many sources. But as we lose our accents and the stigma of origins in another country, we tend to lose contact with a certain historical truth: Not everybody is welcomed in America. America might admit them for their cheap labor, but if these immigrants want to get a piece of the American dream they're going to have to fight for it.

When you're ignorant of what previous generations went through to become Americans, it's easy to believe the sort of isolationist screeds that Trump preaches.

Following the New Mexico melee, Trump headed to the heavily Latino Anaheim for another rally. The Los Angeles Times reported that warm-up speakers told stories about loved ones who had been murdered by immigrants not legally in the U.S. Trump followed up by leading his supporters in a chant of "Build that wall!" the Times reported.

Never mind that much of border control is better managed by drones and high-tech sensors and the dull monotony of paperwork. Also ignore the fact that so many of the workers who keep California's agriculture and restaurant industry humming crossed that border at some point. Trump has a simple, effective message for the ignorant of America: Immigrants are murderers and rapists, and my wall will keep you safe from them.

By the week's end, Trump had reached the threshold of enough delegates to clinch the GOP nomination. Latinos have taken notice. Reports from around the country are of an increase in Latino migrants moving from legal permanent residency to full U.S. citizenship. They are registering to vote. And many cite Trump's obnoxious anti-immigrant slogans as the impetus.

Wouldn't it be rich if these new Americans proved to be the voting bloc that shut Trump out of the White House?

These novice voters embody a truth: Donald Trump not only lacks presidential credentials; he fails to understand what makes America great. Latino immigrants do, and that's why so many proudly become Americans.

Email Mary Sanchez at msanchez@kcstar.com.
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A number of children in our county attend schools with cracked blacktops, leaky roofs, rotting wood and plumbing issues.

They make their way around campuses that need basic upgrades such as new lighting, air conditioning and changes to make the facilities ADA compliant.

The administrators say that if voters don't pass bond issues in next Tuesday's election, they may have to cut staff to make the most needed repairs.

Black Butte and Junction elementary school districts are asking their communities to support $4 million and $3.5 million bonds, respectively, to help upgrade the schools.

They point out that the repairs not only benefit students and staff, the campuses have become community centers that house various events and meetings.

Palo Cedro residents will be asked to approve Measure A, the $3.5 million bond that would help get Junction Elementary School a new roof, upgrade the electrical system, and help the school meet American with Disability Act requirements.

"It's no longer just repairing and maintaining (needed)," said Junction Principal and Superintendent Rich Gifford told the Record Searchlight.

It would cost residents about $30 per $100,000 of assessed property value every year.

Shingletown residents in the Black Butte school community will vote on Measure B, a $4 million bond measure that would also cost property owners $30 a year per $100,000 of assessed value.

Black Butte Principal and Superintendent Don Aust said his school also needs significant repairs and upgrades.

A leaky roof has left water damage in every room in the school. The plumbing is in such bad shape that the school doesn't have hot water in students' bathrooms. A leaking air conditioner and cracked asphalt also need to be fixed. The list goes on to include replacing outdated single-pane windows with double-pane windows, renovations to the gym and outdoor lighting upgrades.

Some may wonder why the schools don't use existing budgets to make the repairs. But both districts don't have the funds available to tackle the many renovations needed. Junction's most recent budget, from March, had an ending balance of about $654,000 and Black Butte has about $988,000 at hand.

The administrators are banking on residents agreeing to approve the measures. If history is any indication, they face good chances. About two-thirds of local school bonds passed from 1998 to 2008, according to Ballotpedia.

No one filed official opposition to the measures with the Shasta County Clerk's office, and we're also in full support of the bonds.

Yes, it seems every year more and more agencies want a piece of our property taxes, adding $10 here, another $40 here. It all adds up, and property owner scan be left wondering how much more can be asked of them.

Others may say they don't care about the local schools' conditions because they don't have children attending them.

Fair enough. But like the superintendents point out, it's not just students and staff using the facilities. These small schools are true community centers in their towns where various groups hold meetings and events.

And better-equipped schools can help raise nearby property values as families consider where to move.

"It improves the entire community," Gifford said.

And for those who fear the money instead will be used for salaries or taken by the state, rest assured that the money raised by the bonds are monitored by an oversight committee to ensure the funds are used exclusively on facility improvements.

We are not supportive of every new tax or bond that comes along, but when it comes to ensuring that our children have safe and modern facilities to learn in, we fully support doing what it takes. They shouldn't have to worry about leaky roofs, tripping on cracked asphalt or rotting wood while they try to concentrate on the math, English and science classes they need to master to help lay down a strong foundation for a successful life.
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California is a proud leader in health care, spearheading Affordable Care Act efforts with our own Covered California and Medi-Cal programs, and boasting some of the finest health care facilities in the nation. However, two bills under consideration in Sacramento would backtrack on this progress by allowing certain healthcare professionals to perform procedures for which they are neither trained nor provided with adequate regulatory oversight, risking the health of their patients.

Both SB 323 and SB 622 should concern all Californians, as they promise access at the expense of safety, an unacceptable trade-off.

Proponents of SB 323 have argued incorrectly that allowing nurse practitioners the independent ability to practice primary care and prescribe controlled substances will meet a growing need for health care in California. However, this conclusion is completely unfounded.

Nurse practitioners are concentrated in urban and suburban areas already rich in access to medical services and facilities. SB 323 would do very little, if anything, for rural and inner city communities that are most likely to need increased access thanks to the ACA. Furthermore, a report by the California Legislature found that there would be no increase to access for Medi-Cal patients under the bill.

While the so-called benefits of SB 323 are unlikely to pay dividends for California consumers, the consequences for them are very real. The bill would allow nurse practitioners to perform duties that they are simply unqualified to perform without the supervision of a physician, who has far more training and receives oversight from the Medical Board of California. Placing oversight responsibility under the Board of Registered Nursing  which has no experience with such activities  is irresponsible.

Similarly, SB 622 would grant optometrists the right to perform eye surgery with lasers and scalpels with trivial additional training  hours instead of the years of training undergone by ophthalmologists, medical doctors who specialize in eye surgery. Optometrists with such expanded privileges would also be overseen by a body that has no real world experience with the things that they would be regulating  the State Board of Optometry. How much sense does that make?

The result of these bills would likely be the development of two very different standards of care: the highest quality of care for those in well-heeled urban and suburban communities, and lesser quality of care for our most at-risk communities.

There is a reason that training takes so many years for physicians. The human body is complex and the ability to treat it unsupervised requires the extra time it takes to complete a residency. Nurse practitioners simply are not equipped educationally to provide the care that SB 323 would authorize them to give. SB 622 is no better with regard to optometrists who would become "surgeons" after completing a weekend of extra training and performing a handful of surgical training procedures.

As a physician, I stand behind anything that increases access to high quality health care. These bills, frankly, do not do that. Instead, they water down standards of care and put the health of Californians  many of whom have waited long enough for access to the health system  at risk.

California deserves to lead the country in health care and has continued to be a beacon for the rest of the nation to emulate. We cannot continue our success if we allow undertrained health professionals to overstep their skill sets and give patients anything but the best care possible.

Despite the fact that SB 323 and SB 622 have been rejected by the state Legislature multiple times, they continue to come back. I urge the Legislature to once again defeat both bills.

Dr. William Reeder III lives in Redding and is the North Valley Medical Association president.
Laddan Mian, left, a close aide of former Rashtriya Janata Dal member of Parliament Mohammad Shahabuddin, and a key accused in the murder case of senior journalist Rajdeo Ranjan on Thursday surrendered before a Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Siwan.

The development comes after the arrest of five people in connection with the brutal murder of the scribe.

Bihar Police Additional Director General Sunil Kumar had earlier said that the five men were engaged by contract killer Mian, known to be close to Shahabuddin.

The Bihar Police had earlier said that initial investigations into the murder of Hindi daily Hindustans Siwan bureau chief Ranjan, indicated at the possible involvement of the jailed RJD leader.

The ADGP said that Ranjan was shot from point blank range.

Mian, who had been released from jail 15 days before Ranjans murder, left Siwan with his family two hours after the crime, the top cop said.

Ranjan was shot dead last month near Siwan Railway station. Five shots were fired at him from extremely close range. Ranjan was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.
The decision has been taken after this years toppers failed to answer basic questions on camera, reports M I Khan from Patna.

In a bid to send out a strong message and to crack down on the nexus between the 'education mafia' and state officials, the Bihar government has decided to conduct interviews of all class 12 exam toppers from next year before preparing the final merit list.

"The state education department has decided to conduct interviews of class 12 exam toppers from next year to test their merit and quality before making the results public," an official of the department told Rediff.com.

On Wednesday, the Bihar School Examination Control Board had stayed the results of this years class 12 (science and arts) exams following a controversy over the toppers' knowledge after they failed to answer basic questions on camera. The department will now interview them to evaluate their merit. A team of experts will examine whether the toppers were helped by the 'education mafia', the official said.

Bihar Education Minister Ashok Choudhary on Wednesday told news-persons that the government had made a lot of efforts to improve the states image after video clips of mass cheating in state board exams went viral on social media last year. We cannot allow anyone to play with the states image as we have conducted cheating-free exams this time. I will act tough against the 'education mafia' for spoiling our hard work, he said.

Choudhary admitted that he had information about the 'education mafia' which organises everything for the students. We will not spare the 'education mafia' and wont let them defame our states image anymore, he said.

The BSECB on Wednesday put the results of class 12 (science and arts) toppers Rubi Rai and Saurabh Sresth on hold and ordered them to appear before a team of experts for an interview and written examination on June 3 in Patna.

Also read

On Tuesday, Rubi, who topped the Bihar boards class 12 (arts) examination, said political science was a subject concerned with cooking. She also failed to pronounce it correctly and called it prodical science. Rubi didn't know much about her other subjects also. She even said she had obtained 444 marks out of 600, while the exam was for 500 marks only.

Saurabh Sresth, who topped the intermediate exams in science, said aluminium was the most reactive element of the Periodic Table. When asked about sodium (which is the most reactive element) and its electron configuration, he failed to reply.

Rampant mass cheating in Bihar board exams had been reported till last year. This year, however, it was said to be under control. The board claimed that this year's exams were free of cheating and cited the steep fall in pass percentage as a proof.

Strict measures against cheating, like installation of CCTV cameras and prohibitory orders during the board exams conducted in February this year, resulted in a fall in pass percentage, a board official said.

Also read

Image used for representational purpose only.
Joining the chorus for Maharashtra Revenue minister Eknath Khadse's ouster over allegations of wrongdoings, the Shiv Sena on Thursday reminded ally Bharatiya Janata Party of its promise of a corruption-free rule and demanded Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to clarify his stand on the issue.

The BJP, however, retorted saying the Sena should stop interfering in its internal affairs and that the party leadership was capable of taking a call on the issue.

"Eknath Khadse is a senior leader of the BJP and at a time when allegations are being leveled against him, he is the only one answering everybody. The chief minister is not speaking on the issue at all," Sena Member of Parliament Sanjay Raut told media persons.

"The CM should immediately speak on the issue. The BJP, before coming to power, had promised of corruption-free governance and today serious allegations are being leveled against its leader. There seems to be inconsistency in the promises made by the BJP," he said.

Raut said if Khadse has not done anything wrong, the CM should come forward and say so. "The BJP should maintain moral standards. We will take a stand on the issue once the CM speaks on the demand for Khadse's resignation," he said.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, however, said that party president Raosaheb Danve has already backed Khadse over the issue.

"The Sena should stop advising the BJP and stop interfering in our internal matters. We have already taken a clear stand on Khadse and the BJP leadership is capable enough to take the necessary decision over the issue," he said.

Khadse has found himself embroiled in a series of controversies over allegations of impropriety in purchase of a Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Pune and alleged calls from fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim's residence to his mobile.

It is also alleged that when he was a minister in Shiv Sena-BJP government in late 1990s, he had conceived the Tapi Irrigation Development Corporation and got awarded contracts to his relatives and supporters.

Also, a plot purchased by Khadse's wife in April 2012 was not mentioned in Khadse's election affidavit in 2014, and the user (the stipulated purpose for which the land is to be used) was changed arbitrarily from educational purpose to residential.

Meanwhile, former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan demanded that Khadse be immediately sacked and a case registered against him.

Former Aam Aadmi Party leader Anjali Damania has launched a hunger strike demanding an inquiry into the allegations of corruption against Khadse and has sought his ouster from the state cabinet.
India and the United States on Thursday signed a key pact for exchange of intelligence on terror on a real time basis that include biographic information of known and suspected terrorists.

An arrangement between the authorised Indian governmental agencies and the government of the United States of America for exchange of terrorist screening information was signed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma.

As per this pact, India and the US will provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations, an official spokesperson said.

The agreement would enhance the counter terrorism cooperation between India and the US.

With signing of the key pact, India has formally entered into the US Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6, which will enable it to access 'unclassified biographic information of known and suspected terrorists' maintained by the US on a reciprocal basis.

The HSPD-6 is a model text agreement for exchange of terrorist screening information between Terrorist Screening Centre of the US and an Indian agency.

There have been several rounds of discussions between the interlocutors of the two countries in the past one year and both sides have narrowed down their differences on several key issues with the aim of signing the pact.

The US has already finalised such agreements with 30 countries.

TSC is a multi agency organisation administered by Federal Bureau of Investigation which consolidates several terrorist watch lists maintained by different US government agencies into single terrorist database on terror suspects.

The database includes the name of the terror suspect, nationality, date of birth, photos, finger prints (if any) and passport number.

Officials said, initially some Indian security agencies had expressed their reservations saying the arrangement primarily protects US interests.

However, later, the security agencies came to the conclusion that there was no disadvantage in entering into the proposed pact with TSC. The Intelligence Bureau will be the nodal agency and designated as the Indian party to the agreement.

It was agreed that while signing the pact, it must be ensured that privacy issues are taken care of, officials said.
'William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy,' Mainak Sarkar had posted on social media. 'He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust.'

The gunman who killed a University of California Los Angeles professor was on Thursday identified as his former doctoral student Indian-American Mainak Sarkar, who had accused him of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, a media report said.

Sarkar, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, shot and killed professor William Klug in a small office in the UCLA before killing himself on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources.

Meanwhile, Sarkar had left a "kill list" at his Minnesota home that led authorities to find a woman's body.

When authorities searched Sarkar's Minnesota home, they found a "kill list" with the names of Klug, another UCLA professor and a woman, police chief Charlie Beck said on Thursday.

The woman was found shot dead in her home in a nearby Minnesota town, he said. Beck said he could not release that woman's name. The other professor on the list is safe.

The shooting prompted a complete lockdown of the campus and deployment of hundreds of police officers as well as federal agents. The lockdown was lifted shortly after noon.

All university classes were cancelled on Wednesday. Some 43,000 students are enrolled at the UCLA campus, according to its website.

Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and had been the target of Sarkar's anger on social media for months, the paper said.

He accused the professor of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, it said. 'William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy,' Sarkar wrote on March 10. 'He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust.'

In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar had expressed his gratitude to Klug for his help and support, the paper said. 'Thank you for being my mentor,' he had then written.

Before enrolling at UCLA, Sarkar earned a master's degree at Stanford University, according to his LinkedIn page. In 2000, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, with a degree in aerospace engineering.

He also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer. After UCLA, Sarkar worked remotely as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company, Endurica LLC, where he worked until August 2014.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 2

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

Representatives of the French company Schneider Electric are in Ashgabat and discussing the possibilities of developing the mutually beneficial cooperation with Turkmenistan, the Turkmen Oil and Gas Ministry said in a message June 2.

Schneider Electric creates integrated energy-efficient technologies for energy sector, as well as oil and gas infrastructure, industrial enterprises, civil and residential construction facilities and data processing centers.

Implementation of new joint projects aimed at ensuring reliable and uninterrupted energy supply to both existing industrial and social facilities, and the ones that are being commissioned, is a model of reliable cooperation of Turkmen enterprises with their foreign partners, and Schneider Electric, the world expert in energy management and automation, is one of those partners, said the ministry.

The company has worked in the Turkmen market since 1998 and cooperates with the Turkmen oil and gas enterprises.



Schneider Electric's equipment is installed at the Turkmenbashi refinery, as well as at the Yashyldepe, Dovletabat-2, Dovletabat-3, Akpatlavuk oil and gas fields.
Attacking Congress' "gareebi hatao" slogan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said though intention of those who gave the slogan may have been good, the path they chose for delivering the promise was wrong.

Addressing a rally in coastal Odisha town of Balasore on completion of two years of his government, he called for a 'balanced' development in the country and wondered why the eastern belt had remained backward despite being generously bestowed with natural resources.

Pitching for development of Odisha, eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam, Modi said his government was committed to the welfare of the poor people who would be at the centre of all schemes.

Questioning former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 'gareebi hatai' slogan, he said, "We have for the last 60 years heard the slogan of 'gareebi hatao'. I do not doubt the intention of those who gave this slogan. The intention may have been good but the path they chose to eradicate poverty was certainly wrong because poverty, umemployment and disease grew."

He said governments are not for the rich, but the poor and they should work towards fighting poverty. Till the time scientific solutions to the problems are found, poverty will not be eradicated, he said.

"I had said that my government is dedicated to the welfare of poor people in the country. When I said this, my purpose was that no state or area should be left behind in development. There should be a balanced development and everyone should benefit from it...

"Governments are not for the rich but for the poor and should work for them. The poor should be at the centre of all governments schemes," he said.

During his almost hour-long speech, Modi welcomed public scrutiny of governments and said it was his responsibility to give an account of the work being done and every penny spent, unlike the governments in the past that never came forward with any such account.

On the issues of poverty and backwardness in the eastern belt, he said, "What is the reason that the eastern belt has not seen development? Why should the people from these areas migrate to western states for jobs? These states have been blessed with natural resources. You have the sea and the coal reserve and God has bestowed the resources on you generously. But then why are you still poor?"

The prime minister said, "The government seeks to develop the e1astern part of the country. All our schemes are targeted towards the poor and we are giving priority to the development of these states."

Modi said all BJP-ruled states were developing faster than other states.

"Being a BJP worker, my only mantra is development. We see development in all BJP-ruled states. But where BJP is not there you can see what is happening, like in Odisha. BJP's objective is development. BJP is the other name for development. If we have to eradicate poverty, unemployment and bring about a change in life, we need development. It is the solution to all the problems," he said.

Attacking Congress governments, Modi said, "Previous governments thought they were good to the country. But we have seen the results. We believe in Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas."

He said the poor need the government's help in healthcare, education and other needs and schemes initiated by the Centre are aimed at empowering the poor so that they can work with the government as partners to fight and remove poverty.
Raising a banner of revolt, senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi on Thursday threatened to form a new party and attacked his parent party as B team of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state, drawing sharp reaction from the All India Congress Committee.

Jogis rebellion from Congress came almost six months after the party expelled his son Amit Jogi over alleged fixing of a 2014 assembly bypoll to ensure the ruling BJPs win in Chattisgarh.

The AICC had then also contemplated taking action against Ajit Jogi but no decision was taken after that.

Jogis move to quit Congress and float a new party to challenge the Raman Singh government is also being linked to the speculation about expected elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party president but he denied the suggestion saying that has nothing to do with it.

The former chief minister of Chhattisgarh said that he is under tremendous pressure from his supporters.

Around 15,000 persons are talking to me personally or on phone. I am under tremendous pressure from my well-wishers, supporters and friends that if Chattisgarh has to be made free from Raman Singh, then I will have to take this big step.

Otherwise, Raman Singh will win the state for fourth time as well as there is no hope from Congress, which is playing as B Team of Raman Singh, Jogi said.

His remarks are significant coming in wake of media speculation that he will break away from Congress and announce formation of a new party on June 6 in Marwahi.

Jogi said that his workers are pressurising him to get rid of this government and unless I lead that is not possible. That is why on the 6th, I will go to Marwahi, which is my birth place. That day I have also called 5,000 of my core supporters from all over the state. I will ask them.

To a question about whether he talked to the leadership in this regard, Jogi said, Enough of talks have taken place in last three years. Now there is compulsion.

Reacting sharply to the remarks, Jogis old rival AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister, recalled his role in the Antagarh assembly bypoll and referred to the audio tape regarding fixing of the election by Jogi.

The manner in which Jogi has sold off the Congress candidate Manturam Pawar to the BJP is for all of you to see. It is beneficial for Congress if such persons leave the party, who are engaged in trading the declared candidate of Congress for some crores of rupees, Singh said.

On January 6, cracking the whip over the issue of alleged fixing of Antagarh by-poll, the AICC had expelled Amit Jogi for six years and sought a report from the state unit on the entire matter.

The next day, Chhattisgarh unit of Congress had submitted a report to the AICC demanding sacking of Ajit Jogi.

The action had come days after some audio tapes emerged suggesting financial inducements behind the party's candidate withdrawing from an assembly by-election in the state last year.

The purported conversations among key political players of that time also hinted at the role of Ajit Jogi and Amit.

The PCC had asked for an explanation from Amit Jogi after this. In his communique, Amit had then denied the allegations.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Afghanistan on Saturday where he will hold talks with President Ashraf Ghani and inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province.

Announcing the visit, external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said the meeting between Modi and Ghani will also provide an opportunity to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and how the two countries can cooperate further for promoting peace and stability in that country.

Afghanistan is part of Modis five-nation trip beginning June 4 which will also cover Qatar, Switzerland, the United States and Mexico.

Asserting that the completion of the dam project represents culmination of years of hard work by about 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions, Swarup said it also highlights Indias continued commitment to Afghanistans reconstruction and development. He said the dam will help irrigate 44,000 hectares of land.

In an oblique reference to Pakistan, the MEA spokesperson said unlike those who contributed to terrorism and instability in Afghanistan, India always stood by Kabul.

Last year, Modi and Afghan President Ghani had jointly dedicated to the Afghan nation the new Parliament Building constructed under India-Afghanistan development cooperation.

India is consistently ranked by Afghan people as a country which has stood by them and is of greatest help to them. At the same time, doing all these projects, we had to face lot of challenges.

Not just geographical challenges but also security challenges because of the kind of situation you have in Afghanistan. Repeated attempts were made to disrupt the peace and stability of Afghanistan... cross border terrorism, you know from where, said Swarup, without naming Pakistan.

India has invested in excess of $2 billion in the last few years in Afghanistan. Our commitment to Afghanistan remains despite these challenges, he said.

Asked what message the prime minister will give during his address at the US Congress, he said it would be of partnership, mutual respect and accommodating each others concerns.

He said the PM would be pressing for deeper ties between the worlds largest democracy and the worlds oldest democracy.

When the PM addresses the combined House and Senate, the message he would convey is that the relations between the two largest democracies in the world need to strengthen, need to further diversify so that we are both fully equipped to handle the challenges of 21st century, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modis United States visit next week at the invitation of President Barack Obama is about consolidation and celebration of bilateral ties, Indias envoy to the US has said.

"The invitation and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters on Wednesday ahead of Modi's visit to the White House next week.

Modi is scheduled to arrive at the Joint Air Force Base Andrews on June 6 and is expected to spend a little over 50 hours in the American Capital. While his schedule is still being given final shape by officials in Washington, DC, he is likely to lay wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery the afternoon of his arrival.

The prime minister is likely to stay at Blair House, the personal guest house of the US President on Pennsylvania Avenue across the White House.

Leaders of the two largest democracies of the world are scheduled to meet at the White House on June 7, which would include meetings at the delegation level and one-o-meeting, following which the two are likely to address mediapersons.

Thereafter, Obama would host lunch for Modi. Later in the evening, Modi would interact with a select group of top American corporate leaders including Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos and address the annual gala of US India Business Council as part of his relentless effort to attract foreign direct investment in India.

"Another important dimension of his visit would be his address to the joint session of the Congress (on June 8)," the Indian ambassador said.

Modi is expected to spend some four hours at the Hill attending four back to back meetings. He would be received by House Speaker Paul Ryan, who decided to invite Modi for his first joint address to the Congress. Ryan would also host a lunch for him. Thereafter, Modi would attend a rare reception hosted in his honour by the Senate and House foreign relations committees and the India Caucuses in the House and the Senate.

Some 400 people are likely to attend this reception.

"It is a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship with India. It is also a reflection of the value people attach to this relationship," Singh said.

Describing the visit as consolidation and celebration of relationship, Singh said consolidating what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into next year when there would be transition of administration in the US and to celebrate the achievements in the relationship.

In a sense the new phase in Indo-US relationship started from 2000 with visit of the then President Bill Clinton to India. This was further consolidated by George Bush and Obamas visit to India twice. Obama has described India-US relationship as the defining partnership of the 21st century, Singh said.

"His articulation of support for our permanent membership to the United Nations Security Council, US support to India's membership to the multilateral export control regimes, the advances we have made in defence partnership -- including through the defence trade and technology initiative where among the projects we are now looking at our projects related to aircraft career technology and jet engine technology," Singh said.

"So a lot of progress has been made in the two terms of President Obama. And then to celebrate that, see where we are and then launch it into the new administration. That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit," he said.

The US has repeatedly articulated that India is the net provider of security in that region, Singh said.

"The US sees India as not adversarial but as a very useful partner. So the visit is a reflection of that," he said.

Ahead of the visit, the two countries are likely to sign a series of agreements this week and early next week both in Washington and New Delhi. Some of them related to wildlife trafficking, global entry program.

Intense discussions are currently underway between Westinghouse and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to arrive at some kind of agreement before or during Modis trip. The discussions are mostly believed to be in the domain of cost and financing.

With defence and security being one of the key issues of discussions, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter would call on him. Secretary of State John Kerry would be away in Beijing attending the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

During his visit, Modi is expected to participate in a ceremony for repatriation of 16 historic stolen items to India.
Pakistan on Thursday alleged that India was involved in creating instability through "subversive and terrorist activities" in Karachi and Balochistan province.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said at a briefing that the international community had already been informed about the alleged Indian involvement.

"The apprehension of a serving officer of Indian intelligence agency RAW has vindicated Pakistan's longstanding position that Indian intelligence agencies are involved in subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan especially Balochistan and Karachi," he said.

"Our security agencies are fully aware of all threats and are actively working to counter them, wherever required. You are aware that we have briefed the international community. As the investigations are in progress, we would apprise the world community accordingly," he added.

Zakaria also said that the all necessary actions have been taken based on "Kulbushan Yadav's confession and I am aware that many arrests have been taken place".

He said that the phenomenon of terrorism has affected Pakistan more than any other country in the world.

"We have deeper concern over foreign hands behind perpetration of terrorist attacks and terrorist financing in Pakistan," he said.

He said Pakistan was ready for dialogue with India to resolve all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir. He said in addition to other issues, the dialogue would include the discussion on terrorism.

To a question about what was discussed when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi before his operation, he said it was an exchange of telephone calls, which related to Sharif's health.

"This was hardly the occasion to discuss other issues though I am not privy to the exact details of the conversation," he said.

The spokesperson said Pakistan's Nuclear Suppliers Group application stands on solid grounds of technical experience, capability and well-established commitment to nuclear safety.

"Pakistan has operated secure and safeguarded nuclear power plants for over 42 years. Safe and sustainable civil nuclear energy is essential for Pakistan's future energy security and its economic development," he said.

Zakaria said Pakistan's NSG membership is in the interest of nuclear trading countries as it will further promote NSG non-proliferation objectives by the inclusion of a state with nuclear supply capabilities and its adherence to guidelines.

"We are, therefore, hopeful that NSG decision for expansion in membership for non-NPT countries will be for an even-handed approach since any country-specific exception will not be beneficial for the non-proliferation regime, the objective of strategic stability in South Asia or the credibility of NSG itself," he said.

To a question about India and Japan agreement to build six nuclear reactors in Andhra Pradesh, he said India was given a waiver.

"Our position on the issue has been very clear. We don't want any discriminatory treatment for any country which is not party to NPT. Pakistan calls for a non-discriminatory and criteria-based approach lest that would actually further add to the reasons disturbing the strategic stability in the region," he said.
The war of words between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Wednesday intensified as the Democratic presidential frontrunner accused the Republican presumptive presidential nominee of "scamming" the American people after he got embroiled in a fresh 'TrumpUniversity' controversy.

"He (Trump) is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at TrumpUniversity. It's important that we recognise what he has done, because that's usually a pretty good indicator of what he will do," Clinton said at an election rally in New Jersey.

"Today, we're learning about another scam: the so-called TrumpUniversity. The New York Attorney General is suing Donald Trump for fraud," she alleged.

"And his own employees testified -- I want you to hear this -- his own employees testified that Trump U -- you can't make this up -- that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where

Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hardworking people," she said.

"Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. This is just more evidence that Trump himself is a fraud," Clinton said.

In documents released this week from one of the three pending lawsuits against TrumpUniversity, former employees have described the now-defunct business as a "fraudulent scheme" and "total lie" that "preyed upon the elderly and uneducated".

In its sales efforts, the varsity relied on high pressure tactics and intimidation to drum up customers, encouraging them to take out new credit cards or drain their retirement accounts to pay for TrumpUniversity.

Clinton and Trump are expected to clash in the November general elections. The Democratic presidential primary is scheduled for June 7 and Clinton is pitted against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, unleashing a new round of attack against Clinton, Trump said the 68-year-old former secretary of state has "no natural talent" to be the US president.

"She has no natural talents to be president. This is not a president," the 69-year-old business tycoon told his supporters at an election rally in Sacramento in California.

"A lot of people think I look extremely presidential. This (Clinton) is not presidential material," Trump said.

Referring to the email scandal of the former secretary of state, Trump said she should not be allowed to run.

Honestly, she should not be allowed to run. It's a disgrace to the laws of our country.

"I'll tell you what. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing. It's going to be another four years of disaster," he said, adding voters would probably be "better off" with Bernie Sanders as their president.

"But that's not going to happen," he said.

Democratic US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign event in San Francisco, California. Photograph: Stephen Lam/Reuters
IMAGE: Police officers conduct a search on people at the University of California's Los Angeles campus after it was placed on lockdown following reports of a shooter that left 2 people dead in Los Angeles, California. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/Reuters



Mainak Sarkar, the man who carried out a murder-suicide at University of California's Los Angeles campus left a "kill list" at his Minnesota home that led authorities to find a woman's body.

Sarkar, an alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, shot and killed professor William Klug in a small office in the UCLA before killing himself on Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources.

When authorities searched Sarkar's Minnesota home, they found a "kill list" with the names of Klug, another UCLA professor and a woman, Police chief Charlie Beck said on Thursday.

The woman was found shot dead in her home in a nearby Minnesota town, he said. Beck said he could not release that woman's name. The other professor on the list is OK.

Beck said it appeared mental issues were involved and that Sarkar's dispute with Klug was tied to Sarkar thinking the professor released intellectual property that harmed Sarkar.

The shooting prompted a complete lockdown of the campus and deployment of hundreds of police officers as well as federal agents.

All university classes were cancelled on Wednesday. The lockdown was lifted shortly after noon. Some 43,000 students are enrolled at the UCLA campus, according to its website.

Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and had been the target of Sarkar's anger on social media for months, the paper said.

He accused the professor of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, it said. "William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy," Sarkar wrote on March 10.

With inputs from PTI
On Thursday, June 2, a special investigation team court convicted 24 out of the 66 accused in the 2002 Gulbarg society case and acquitted 36 accused.

Tanveer Jafri -- son of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the massacre -- on how the carnage was a conspiracy against the community and their continuous fight for justice.

IMAGE: The home of Ehsan Jafri, who was killed by a mob in the Gulbarg society massacre in Ahmedabad, February 28, 2002. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

The Gulbarg Society carnage during the Gujarat riots was a huge tragedy in which my father Ehsan Jafri was burnt to death.

I feel this entire incident was a conspiracy (against Muslims) because the police did not reach the spot even 10 hours after the rioters had set flames to the society. They wanted all the people in the premises to die.

My father was killed because of this conspiracy. The policemen were involved as they did not take any action to stop this carnage.

My mother Zakia Jafri's petition is already pending in the Supreme Court and the Gujarat high court. Therefore, I won't comment now on whether my father got justice after this verdict or not.

My father had been staying in the Gulbarg society from 1950. Not a single stone was thrown at him. In 1977, he won the Ahmedabad parliamentary elections. He was a very popular leader.

I feel he was targeted because he had campaigned against then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in the Rajkot by-election. Modi had to win the election because he was the chief minister.

The Gulbarg Society is huge, it is not an easy place to burn down. It burnt for 10 hours, but there was no help from the government.

If there was no conspiracy, this horrific incident would not have taken place. 'Big people' were involved in this incident. There was a conspiracy for sure and it is unfortunate that the court did not find a conspiracy angle to it, but we will appeal against this in the higher courts.

While I was in Surat at the time of the incident, my mother saw the massacre. She saw thousands of people entering the colony, burning our homes and killing my father.

Today when the court read out its verdict, she is disturbed how only 24 people were convicted. We will only come to know why the others were acquitted after we read the judgment.

It gives us a bit of satisfaction, but I am not completely satisfied. We were fighting for justice under a hostile environment. The Gujarat state government and now even the central government was interfering in the case, but we feel vindicated that 24 people were convicted.

Our witnesses pointed out in court how the police destroyed evidence intentionally to save the accused rioters.

My mother is unable to fathom why the police could not catch the rioters. The 60 rioters whom we named in our petition were the only people who could be found by the police. They too were caught only after the Supreme Court intervened and formed a Special Investigation Team.

If you see the old FIR, there were only 20 accused in the first list of rioters. My mother said that she saw 1,000 rioters on that tragic day and the least the police could do was arrest at least 100 people and convict them.

What the court has said about all these things I will need to read about in its judgment. We have to fight more as justice has already been delayed. So many people were killed that day. The judgment should have come five years ago.

I am unhappy that Bipin Patel, the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) councillor was acquitted. The police inspector who was in charge of that area too was left off. We continue to ask the question: Who burnt the bodies?

Lastly, I would say if Narendra Modi (as the chief minister) had taken timely action my father would have not died.

Not only my father, but all the people of Gulbarg Society would have been alive.

There are witnesses who said in court that my father called Narendra Modi to save them, but he did not give a positive response and help did not arrive. When he did not get any response from Modi he told all the people trapped in the Gulbarg society to run away and save their lives.

Ehsan Jafri could not survive as the rioters killed him on February 28, 2002.

As told to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 1

By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:

Once, OPEC members failed to reach an agreement to decline ceiling output several months after starting oil prices in mid-2013, the oil futures faced rapidly plunge and the prices fell to bellow $30/barrel in early 2016.

Then, Venezuela, one of the worst economies in the world, started tough negotiations to convince OPEC and some non-OPEC members like Russia to freeze the production at January level. It's attempts, supported by Russia were field in Doha meeting on April 17 as well.

After all, with keeping production level at 32.5 million barrels per day (mb/d), OPEC succeeded to make non-OPEC producers, especially the US, to decline output. For 2016, it is expected the non-OPEC output decrease by 0.7 mb/d and the glut on markets would be clear by late 2017.

Once, in 2008, the global markets faced glut and prices declined significantly, OPEC's production level was about 32.5 mb/d, but they decreased the volume by 2.5 mb/d to support the prices. Since then, non-OPEC output increased by about 6 mb/d, while the Cartel's production level is currently stood at around 32.3, including 730,000 b/d is Indonesian production, which returned to OEPC recently.

During last two years, also the upstream investment declined by 40 percent, while the figure had doubled during 2000-2013 to $500 billion per year.

It means that the global oil production wouldn't increase significantly in coming years and returning glut to markets in near future is not expected.

Then, Iran and the Persian Gulf states can develop their upstream sector confidently, because the oil extraction costs in these countries are about $10-$14/barrel, very less than Russia, the US, Canada, etc.

For instance, Iran has a plan to absorb $85 billion investment in upstream oil sector by 2021. Now, it can go ahead with more confidence.

The oil ministers of OPEC members are preparing to hold the annual meeting, no more worried about the future of oil markets seriously.

Dalga Khatinoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Iran news service, follow him on Twitter: @dalgakhatinoglu
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran has expressed support for the Nigerian nominee Mohammed Barkindo for the post of the secretary-general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"Ten months ago, I promised the Nigerian Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu to support their nominee for the post," Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said, SHANA news agency reported June 2.

OPEC has been looking for a replacement for Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri.

A consensus of all the OPEC members is needed to appoint a new secretary-general.

Barkindo, who has been recently nominated for the post by the Nigerian Federal Government, led the country's National Petroleum Corporation from 2009 to 2010, and served as the acting secretary-general of OPEC in 2006, as well as represented Nigeria at OPEC.
External panel calls for 'paradigm shift' in UN Police operating model

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 1 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, External panel calls for 'paradigm shift' in UN Police operating model, 1 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe2eb40b.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

1 June 2016 - As the United Nations' role in countries affected by complex conflicts has grown in scale and scope throughout the years, UN Police (UNPOL) have increasingly become the central pillar of the Organization's peace operations, working both to reinforce the provision of security and also to build or re-build a basic system of policing in countries, and as such, require a new operating model with enhanced capacities, an external review team has found.

According to the findings of the 'External Review of the Functions, Structure and Capacity of the UN Police Division,' released today at UN Headquarters in New York, the ability of both the Police Division and police components in the field to fulfil their mandate is limited by the current operating model for UNPOL.

"The current model appears largely supply driven and dependant on the capabilities that Police Contributing Countries provide," the report found. "It is somewhat rigid and based on ad-hoc, relatively short-term deployments to influence structural changes and to build institutional capacity."

Specifically, the report found that the current operating model is based on a series of assumptions that directly limit the ability of both the Police Division and police components within missions to fulfil their mandate.

"In short, Member States and the Security Council are left with a stark choice. They can maintain the status quo and authorize more achievable mandates aligned to what police components can actually deliver under the current operating model (limited capacity building and institutional development). Or, they can support a change to the current operating model to enable police components to deliver on tailored mandates, by providing enhanced police capacities that could better meet the challenges of today's peace operations," the report said.

The independent review team that undertook the review was appointed by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Herve Ladsous, in January.

The review was prompted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report, 'The future of United Nations peace operations: implementation of the recommendations of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations,' published in September 2015.

The review team is co-chaired by Hilde F. Johnson, former Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and Abdallah Wafy, Permanent Representative of Niger to the UN, as well as former Police Commissioner and subsequently Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General with the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).

In the context of monitoring human rights conditions, a team from the United Nations Police (UNPOL) component of MONUSCO, accompanied by a local magistrate, visited police holding cells in Kalemie town, Katanga province, DRC. Photo: UNPOL/Al-Shami Hussein

Three of the members of the review team spoke at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York following the release of the report, including Ms. Johnson, Mr. Wafy, and Mark Kroeker, another member of the team.

Ms. Johnson underscored that the role of police in peacekeeping operations is not fully recognized in the UN system, as military deployments take precedence.

"The military deployment model has for far too long also influenced the way police officers are deployed. The focus has largely been on numbers and less on the competencies they bring," Ms. Johnson said.

The review team has proposed a new operating model that would focus on institution building and specialized capacities, rather than on the number of personnel being deployed.

The approach of the review was field-focused, initially concentrating on the needs of host-States of UN peace operations, and subsequently on their police components. The review team then explored the required responsibilities and functions of the Police Division and its needed capacities.

Indeed, the report found that the Police Division and UNPOL processes remain overly influenced by a military culture of peacekeeping, and significant gaps still remain. While UNPOL should not be a development agency, it should take a development approach to the reform and restructuring component of its mandate, if it is to be effective.

In addition, police components in the field have expressed deep concerns about the lack of field orientation of Headquarters, the report found.

"In reality, the Police Division's current capacity and resourcing is insufficient and has not kept pace with the increased tasks and complexity of police mandates in peace operations," the report said.

A call for a new operating model

The report found that it is imperative to address the constraints within which the Police Division operates and to change the approach of UNPOL. In order for police components to have a better chance of achieving such results, there is a need for a paradigm shift in UNPOL's operating model.

Among the key imperatives that the new operating model must follow include putting police at the centre of peace, stability and development. For this, the Police Division must take its "rightful and political place" in the UN's decision-making and UN Headquarters structures. In addition, this has consequences for the positioning of the Police Division within the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and for Police components in field missions.

A coordinated search for weapons and restricted items being undertaken at the Tomping POC site in Juba, South Sudan. UN Photo/JC McIlwaine

Other key imperatives include that the mandates of Police components must be sequenced and flexible; UN Police must be field- and results-oriented; authority must be decentralized to empower Police components to deliver; recruitment should be results-driven; a culture of accountability must be developed; and there must be coordination and coherence in the approach between actors and institutions across the criminal justice chain.

"If we forget the oversight institutions, the Ministry of Interior and others that provide the checks and balance to a police, reforms are not going to succeed. There needs to be a comprehensive approach. For this reason, civilian capacities are needed, and urgently needed, in police missions," Ms. Johnson stressed during the press conference.

Using South Sudan as an example, Ms. Johnson noted that "if there had been a stronger police mandate and the new operating model had been in place prior to the crisis, you might have seen the South Sudan National Police hold better against ethnic divides and being embroiled in this conflict, if the institution had been built."

"Of course, this is a longer-term process, but this is the intention of this model. It is that you are doing institution building in a much more systematic way," she added.

Key recommendations of the report

In order to implement a new operating model for the Police Division and UNPOL, the report proposes several key recommendations. Among them is that the Police Adviser position should be upgraded to an Assistant Secretary-General level and include being an adviser on policing to the UN leadership and also the Director of the Police Division.

In addition, the current staffing level of the Police Division needs to be increased in order to align proportionally with the expanded role of police in contemporary peace operations.

The report also recommends that planning peace operations and their police mandates are based on a thorough political and technical analysis of the context, as the assessment of the context, capacities and needs of host-States will determine the need to address the protection needs and the institutional development requirements.

Further to the report's recommendations, UNPOL recruitment should be mandate-based, focused on protection and development streams. The protection stream would include seconded Police Protection Officers and Formed Police Units, while the reform, restructuring and institutional development stream would include Police Development Officers/Teams and Seconded Civilian Experts.

The report also recommends that finalization and rollout of the Strategic Guidance Framework is done urgently. The report also recommends that a series of concrete recommendations are made to put in place an accountability framework for the Police Division and to reinforce the procedural integrity of the recruitment process.

In addition, the review team recommends that a Police Advisory Committee should be created, to advise and assist the Secretariat on all questions relating to the use of police to maintain international peace and security, the deployment of officers placed at its disposal, and the capacity development role of UNPOL missions.

Lastly, the review team found that given the forthcoming transition in the leadership of the UN, the Secretary-General should appoint a senior officer to oversee the follow-up of the report, working with the Police Division and DPKO leadership.

The report will feed into the 2016 Secretary-General's report on UN Police, as requested in Security Council resolution 2185 (2014). The Secretary-General's report will take up a number of issues, such as the need for better gap assessments of host-state capacity, for planning that is based on a realistic appraisal of the UN Police capacity to deliver, as well as on an understanding of where and how UN Police can have the greatest catalytic effect, and for frameworks for monitoring and evaluation of delivery and performance.

The Chiefs of Police Summit that will take place at UN Headquarters in New York on 3 June will bring together national chiefs of police, key partners and senior UN representatives to chart the way forward for UNPOL to deliver greater impact on the ground and tackle the policing challenges of the twenty-first century.
Syria: UN experts urge protection of civilians amid ISIL offensives in country's north

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 1 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Syria: UN experts urge protection of civilians amid ISIL offensives in country's north, 1 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe30740b.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

1 June 2016  Two United Nations human rights experts today urged immediate protection for thousands of civilians caught up in offensives by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) in the Aleppo region of northern Syria.

The experts voiced their concern at the prospect of massive new displacement of populations in the region and the targeting of trapped and vulnerable civilians including those already internally displaced and highly vulnerable due to the conflict.

According to the UN in Syria, ISIL has rapidly seized a number of villages and advanced to within two kilometres of Azaz town in recent days, putting at risk those internally displaced living in camps near the Turkish border and other vulnerable communities.

An estimated 9,500 people were also encircled by fighting around Mare'a city as ISIL advanced into areas held by other non-state armed groups on 27 May.

ISIL's swift takeover of Kiljibrin and Kafr Kalbein left some 6,000 civilians stranded in the two towns and unable to access safety.

"Despite some reported action to clear routes and allow blockaded civilians safe passage, this situation is deteriorating and urgent responses are needed to save lives," said Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.

"That means ensuring immediate and unhindered passage of all civilians out of the conflict areas and their protection until they are able to return as well as rapid, safe and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid to all those in need," he stressed.

Mr. Beyani noted that some 165,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain stranded at the Turkish border in settlements hit by shelling and airstrikes which have killed and injured dozens of civilians since the beginning of the year. "If safety cannot be secured for IDPs inside Syria it is incumbent on neighbouring countries to open their borders and offer safe passage as well as the right to seek asylum," the expert urged.

Humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have evacuated some staff, restricting essential assistance and humanitarian programmes for IDPs and other civilians, including medical care. Hospital staff have been evacuated and at least three humanitarian workers were reportedly critically wounded in areas close to the conflict.

"Unconfirmed yet disturbing reports indicate that ISIL militants have executed families, including women and children, with alleged links to Free Syrian Army affiliated groups in the town of Kiljibrin," said Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. "If verified any such actions would constitute arbitrary executions and could amount to war crimes."

The experts noted that IDPs and others in the conflict area are also allegedly being arrested and they face an uncertain fate, suspected of belonging to opposition groups.

Disregard for the rights and the lives of civilians has regrettably become the norm in this conflict, the experts said, stressing that it is imperative for all parties to return to the rule of law and protect civilians as required under international humanitarian and human rights law and standards.

The experts called for the cessation of violence to allow trapped civilians to leave conflict areas as quickly and safely as possible.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Mali: Ban 'outraged' by latest attack on UN mission; urges authorities to investigate

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 1 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Mali: Ban 'outraged' by latest attack on UN mission; urges authorities to investigate, 1 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe37440d.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

1 June 2016 - In two separate incidents that took place yesterday in the Gao area of Mali's restive north, terrorists attacked an outpost of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA), as well as the services of a local provider for the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the most recent in a string of deadly attacks against the UN in the country.

"The Secretary-General is outraged by the terrorist attacks carried out yesterday in Gao, Mali, against the United Nations," said a statement issued by a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon.

According to preliminary reports, one peacekeeper from China was killed and a dozen UN personnel were injured when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated at the MINUSMA camp. In the second incident, one civilian contractor from France and two security guards from Mali were killed when the camp of a UN contractor, in another area of the city, was attacked by unknown assailants, the statement explained.

"[Mr. Ban] is deeply concerned by the recent series of attacks directed against MINUSMA that have killed 12 peacekeepers and injured many more in May alone," said the statement, reiterating that nothing can excuse these acts of terrorism against men and women who are serving with the United Nations to help the people of Mali to restore stability and peace across the country.

Urging the Government of Mali, with the support of its partners, to expeditiously investigate and hold the perpetrators accountable, the UN chief in his statement, also calling on the people of Mali to provide information on the attacks to the authorities.

The Secretary-General extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to the Governments of China, France and Mali, and he also wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

Mr. Ban reiterated that the UN will continue to support the peace agreement and stabilization of Mali.

Senegalese UNPOL Officers patrol the streets of Gao, Mali. Photo: MINUSMA/Marco Dormino

According to the statement, in the coming days, the Secretary-General intends to present to the UN Security Council proposals to strengthen the Mission's posture and capabilities. The UN chief also reiterated the long-standing demand to ensure that MINUSMA forces are adequately equipped to operate in a dangerous and unpredictable environment such as Mali.

In a separate press statement, the members of the Security Council strongly condemned the attacks and reiterated their full support for MINUSMA and the French forces that support it.

They also reiterated their strong support for the head of the Mission, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, and for MINUSMA to assist the Malian authorities and the Malian people in their efforts to bring lasting peace and stability to their country, including through MINUSMA's support to the implementation of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali.

Echoing the Secretary-General's concern about the security situation in Mali, the Council members also noted that the full implementation of the peace agreement and the intensification of efforts to overcome asymmetric threats can contribute to improving the security situation across Mali. They further stressed the importance that MINUSMA has the necessary capacities to fully fulfil its current mandate.

MINUSMA for its part condemned the attacks and provided more details, noting that while the exact facts are still being determined, preliminary damage is being assessed and the information revealed that staff housing had been destroyed in the deadly incident. The wounded were being treated and the Mission has deployed attack helicopters to conduct aerial surveys and a rapid reaction force is on patrol in Gao, MINUSMA said in a press release.

"I am outraged by these vicious, cowardly and totally unacceptable attacks against the MINUSMA camp of [mostly civilian personnel], and against the staff of the partner company of UNMAS [] in a city where the MINUSMA and UNMAS have invested heavily in efforts to support local authorities and in support of the local population," said Mr. Annadif.

The MINUSMA chief went on to urge the Malian Government and local authorities in Gao to ensure that those responsible for these "heinous crimes" are identified and brought to justice.

"These crimes against MINUSMA and United Nations staff [] can no longer be tolerated and [can no longer] go unpunished," he emphasized.
Burundi: UN agency warns 4.6 million people facing food insecurity

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 1 June 2016 Cite as UN News Service, Burundi: UN agency warns 4.6 million people facing food insecurity, 1 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe38e40b.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

1 June 2016 - Some 4.6 million people in Burundi are food insecure, with more than 500,000 of them requiring urgent emergency food assistance, the United Nations food relief agency has said, warning that food stocks are stretched as a result of the fragile socio-economic context in the country.

In a situation report, the World Food Programme (WFP) highlighted that as of 30 May, more than 265,000 Burundians had fled the country into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and as far away as Zambia. In all, there are 1,000 new arrivals weekly into neighbouring countries.

In addition, WFP said it requires $57 million for the next six months to meet the needs of new arrivals and existing refugees, particularly in Rwanda and Uganda.

The Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) conducted in April 2016 in 18 provinces across the country concluded that about 4.6 million people are food insecure. Of these, about 590,000 are severely food insecure and require urgent emergency food assistance, WFP said.

"The assessment further indicates that the socio-political crisis has aggravated an already fragile food security, nutrition, and socio-economic context in Burundi," the agency said.

WFP noted that among the drivers of food insecurity include increasing poverty levels; reduced agricultural production; El Nino phenomena associated with heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides, which resulted in displacements and destruction of crops; adoption of severe livelihood coping strategies, such as reduction of expenditure on agricultural inputs; and disruption of markets.

The assessment recommends provision of short-term food assistance and farm inputs for shorter-season crops.

In addition, the assessment recommends strengthening of resilience activities for vulnerable food insecure households and strengthening or expanding social protection programmes for the most vulnerable, to enable them to cope with shocks, WFP said.
Gambia: Crackdown and brutal repression in run up to elections

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 2 June 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Gambia: Crackdown and brutal repression in run up to elections, 2 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe4834.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Authorities in Gambia must free dozens of political prisoners and end the brutal crackdown on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly ahead of elections later this year or face suspension from the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), Amnesty International said in a new report published today.

Dangerous to Dissent: human rights under threat in Gambia, launched two days before ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government meet in Dakar and six months before Gambia's presidential elections, outlines the brutal repression of opposition demonstrations in April and May 2016. Dozens of peaceful protesters and bystanders were beaten by police and arrested and 51 people, including the leader of the United Democratic Party (UDP) and several members of the executive, are awaiting trial. At least 36 more people remain detained without charge and one man Solo Sandeng, the UDP National Organising Secretary, died in custody after having been tortured.

"Gambia's elections are just six months away and yet opposition members are arrested and beaten, journalists are muzzled, and civil society muted," said Alioune Tine, Amnesty International Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

"Gambia has a long and brutal history of repression of critical voices, and demonstrators such as Solo Sandeng have paid a high price for peaceful protest."

Nogoi Njie, a businesswoman arrested on 14 April and currently detained, described in an affidavit filed at the High Court how she herself was tortured at the NIA. She explained how she was beaten with hose pipes and batons by men clothed in black hoods and black gloves while water was poured over her.

No thorough, impartial, independent and transparent investigation into Sandeng's death has taken place, despite appeals by the United Nations, ECOWAS, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, European Union and United States.

On 29 May President Jammeh told magazine Jeune Afrique that "People die in custody or during interrogations, it's really common. This time, there is only one dead and they want investigations? No one can tell me what to do in my country."

Other recent cases highlighted in the report include the death in custody in February 2016 of union leader Sheriff Dibba, the arrest in October 2015 and enforced disappearance of Imam Sawaneh after he submitted a petition to the President, and the arrest and trial of independent journalist Alhagie Ceesay in July 2015 for sharing a photo on Whatsapp.

The report outlines patterns of violations since the last Presidential elections in November 2011, which ECOWAS refused to monitor due to "intimidation, an unacceptable level of control of the electronic media by the party in power, the lack of neutrality of state and para-statal institutions, and an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation."

Since that time new laws have been introduced to further restrict the right to freedom of expression, such as laws repressing online dissent, and three media outlets have been closed on five different occasions. Dozens of journalists have fled the country because of persecution. Gambian authorities have long used the Public Order Act to prohibit gatherings of opposition parties, although a period of relaxation between April 2015 and April 2016 was observed before the most recent crackdown.

Political opponents have also been arrested and tortured, including three members of the UDP imprisoned since 2013. Civil society organizations, human rights defenders and even government officials who are perceived to dissent have been arbitrarily arrested and harassed, while the widespread practice and perception of surveillance adds to a climate of fear in which the majority of people dare not openly speak out against the government.

A civil society activist told Amnesty International: "You don't feel safe anywhere, even in your home. You don't trust even your maids or drivers. You can pay someone $10 and they will give information. In public spaces you don't speak about sensitive things or in public transport. You are trying to protect yourself and your family and want to keep safe."

The report documents how Gambia's National Intelligence Agency (NIA) regularly prints out telephone records of people without any judicial authorisation or oversight, and maintains a system of informants, to report on the activities of those under surveillance.

A journalist in exile told Amnesty International: "You don't know who is going to report you. You don't know who is behind you. You don't know who is paid by the NIA to be an informant."

Amnesty International calls on the international community to consider stronger measures if Gambia does not make significant progress towards meeting its human rights obligations under international law. In particular, Amnesty International is calling ECOWAS - whose leaders meet for a Summit on 4 June in Dakar - to take action to ensure that its own rules are respected and fully observed.

In addition to a Commission of Inquiry into the recent repression of opposition protests, Amnesty International is calling for ECOWAS to consider the possible suspension of Gambia if no progress on human rights is made. Amnesty International's report highlights how Gambia is in contravention of its treaties it has signed as a member of regional body ECOWAS.

These include its failure to effectively implement and observe ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which demands full respect for the right to freedom of expression, and its refusal to implement three legally-binding judgements by the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice relating to the torture of journalist Musa Saidykhan, the enforced disappearance of journalist Ebrima Manneh, and failure to investigate the murder of journalist Deyda Heydara.

"If ECOWAS is serious about being a community of states that respect and promote the human rights of their people, it can no longer remain silent as one of its members so flagrantly disregards its treaty obligations", said Alioune Tine.

"ECOWAS should speak out on the deplorable situation in the country and engage with the Gambian authorities to secure the release of political prisoners, the repeal of repressive laws and to ensure judgements of the regional Court are fully enforced. If the Gambian government refuses to comply, ECOWAS should consider suspension until Gambia's obligations are met.

Background

In December 2016, Gambia holds Presidential elections amid serious concerns about the ability of opposition leaders, journalists, human rights defenders, civil society organizations and voters to express themselves freely and without fear of reprisal.

ECOWAS refused to monitor 2011 Presidential election due to "intimidation, an unacceptable level of control of the electronic media by the party in power, the lack of neutrality of state and para-statal institutions, and an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation."

According to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), President Jammeh won the 2011 election with 72% of the votes with Lawyer Ousainou Darboe of the United Democratic Party (UDP) coming second with 17% of the votes. The voter turnout was 83%.

Between January 2015 and May 2016, Amnesty International researchers interviewed 127 individuals, including victims and eyewitnesses of human rights violations, relatives of victims, UN and INGO representatives, diplomats, lawyers, human rights defenders, representatives of civil society organizations, journalists, opposition members, academics, former members of security forces and sources from telecommunications companies.

Relevant desk research was also undertaken, such as review of media reports, UN and civil society reports, court documents and video footage. Amnesty International wrote to the President of Gambia on 2 May 2016, copying relevant government Ministries, requesting an official response to the concerns raised in this report. No response was received despite repeated follow up.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Niger Delta: Government clean-up does not let Shell off the hook

Publisher Amnesty International Publication Date 1 June 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, Niger Delta: Government clean-up does not let Shell off the hook, 1 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe5024.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The multinational oil giant Shell must not be allowed to palm off its responsibility to clean up decades of oil pollution which continues to blight the Niger Delta, said Amnesty International ahead of the Nigerian government's long overdue clean-up of Ogoniland, due to begin on 2 June.

Scores of oil spills from Shell operations in the Niger Delta have yet to be properly cleaned up, and even sites the multi-national company claims to have cleaned remain polluted. To make matters worse, there were at least 130 oil spills from Shell operations in 2015.

Under Nigerian law, companies are obliged to clean up whatever the cause.

"The Niger Delta is one of the most oil-polluted places in the world. That is because companies like Shell are failing to prevent or clean up spills years, sometimes decades, after they happen. Shell cannot rely on the Nigerian government to clean up its dirty work for it," said Joe Westby, Business and Human Rights Campaigner at Amnesty International.

"The tragedy is that the oil spills continue to destroy the livelihoods of thousands of local people to this day. Shell will tell you that the vast majority are a result of theft, even though Amnesty International has repeatedly published evidence showing Shell misstates the cause of oil spills.

"But whatever their cause, Nigerian law still says that the company who operates the pipeline has to clean up. That is something Shell has failed to do for decades."

After years of lobbying, on 29 April President Buhari's government announced it would start the clean-up programme on 2 June. The clean-up was called for in 2011 by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), in a report exposing massive levels of pollution caused by oil spills from Shell pipelines in the Ogoniland region.

"The start of the clean-up is a much-needed, long-awaited step for people who have lived with polluted waters and farmlands for decades. They have a right to be sceptical, they have seen clean-ups promised and people paid to do the work in the past, only for little improvements to be delivered. This time the rhetoric must translate into action on the ground," said Joe Westby.

The Niger Delta is the biggest oil-producing region in Africa. The largest international oil company there is Shell. It operates around 50 oil fields and 5,000 km of pipelines, much of them ageing and poorly-maintained. The oil giant's own figures admit to 1,823 oil spills since 2007, though the real number is probably higher.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
The Millions Left Behind in Afghanistan

Publisher Amnesty International Author Olof Blomqvist Publication Date 1 June 2016 Cite as Amnesty International, The Millions Left Behind in Afghanistan, 1 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe57b4.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Farzana shivers with her seven children in what has been her home for more than a decade in Chaman-e-Babrak, Afghanistan. This settlement in northern Kabul houses hundreds of displaced families who have been forced to flee the conflict between Afghan forces and their international allies and armed groups like the Taliban. A tarpaulin hangs over the edges of her small, damp, mud-brick hut where the windows and doors should be. The roof leaks from the recent heavy rains; outside, the settlement's barely walkable roads have turned to mud.

Farzana is 30 years old, and life on the run from the war has taken its toll. She fled her native Parwan province in the late 1990s because of fighting between the Taliban and local warlords and made her way to Kabul after a stint as a refugee in Pakistan. She has been her family's sole breadwinner since her husband, a drug addict, left years ago and her oldest son was killed in a car accident. Aid  which she says was paltry to begin with  has dried up even more over the past years, with the Afghan government's resources dwindling and international interest in the country fading. The family relies mostly on handouts  old bread from a nearby bakery, mostly  but it is not enough to feed them. "When you can't put food on the table for your children, it is worse than being shot with a gun," Farzana said. "I'm worried about my children and that they will die [this winter]."

As the conflict in Afghanistan has intensified over the past year, due to a resurgent Taliban and the withdrawal of international troops, the growing violence has exacted a devastating toll on ordinary Afghans. In the West, stories of Afghans risking their lives on dangerous journeys to reach European shores have made headlines. Almost 200,000 Afghans applied for asylum in EU states in 2015, four times as many as the year before. But the vast majority of Afghans lack the resources to pack up and leave. Like Farzana, they end up becoming displaced within their country's borders.

Internal displacement has exploded in Afghanistan in recent years. Today, some 1.2 million people have been forced to flee their homes due to the conflict in the country. This is more than double the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) just three-and-a-half years ago (almost 500,000 by the end of 2012).

These are the Afghan conflict's forgotten victims. As a new Amnesty International report released Tuesday shows, IDPs are forced to live in squalid conditions, clinging to survival. We interviewed more than 100 IDPs in camps and settlements in Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-e-Sharif, and all told the same stories. Most cannot find enough food for the day, let alone access essential services like education and health care. While these are common struggles for many poor Afghans, those displaced  uprooted from their communities, deprived of their livelihoods, traumatized, and without shelter  are facing even greater hurdles.

The Afghan government has failed to improve the situation of IDPs, and many government officials often treat their plight with callous indifference. At the same time, the United States and international governments risk abandoning these people who are bearing the brunt of an increasingly brutal war.

In 2014, Kabul endorsed a new National Policy on IDPs, which could have been a lifeline for those displaced. Widely hailed as one of the most comprehensive such documents in the world, the policy, for the first time, spelled out the human rights of IDPs and the Afghan government's primary responsibility to uphold these rights. Crucially, the IDP policy also set out a thorough implementation plan and assigned roles and responsibilities across state institutions for turning it into reality. Food, schools, and clinics for the displaced looked within reach.

But more than two years later, the IDP policy is nothing but a failed promise. It has resulted in virtually zero tangible benefits for the internally displaced. If anything, those we spoke to said that their situation has worsened with time. The massive influx of the newly displaced means that competition for the meager resources on offer has intensified, and there are fewer essentials like food and job opportunities. With international donor money drying up as the world turns its attention away from Afghanistan, most people also reported receiving less aid over the past years.

There are several reasons why the IDP policy stalled, all of which point to wider failures to respect and protect human rights in Afghanistan. For one, there is an enormous lack of capacity and expertise in the Afghan government when it comes to IDPs. The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, charged with coordinating the policy's implementation, is badly under-resourced and has been beset by allegations of corruption for years, to the point that some international actors have stopped funding it.

The ministry simply lacks the tools to handle a task as complex as implementing a policy meant to benefit more than 1 million IDPs. Other ministries charged with allocating funding for IDPs and developing programs to aid them have either not done so or are unaware of the policy's existence, as was evident from Amnesty International's meetings with them. There is a major need for training and capacity building across the Afghan government on IDP rights and the policy. Thankfully, some such programs are already underway. But to make an impact, the Afghan government must expand them.

At the same time, the international community has failed to cover Kabul's funding and resource gaps. With other crises grabbing global attention and donor money, organizations working for IDPs in Afghanistan have experienced major budget cuts over the years. Aid workers also spoke to us of a "human resources crisis," where it is harder than ever to fill positions and the most competent staff are often shipped to more headline-grabbing crises.

The United Nations has asked for $393 million in humanitarian funding for Afghanistan in 2016. While this might sound like a big number, it is the smallest figure in years, despite the worsening situation. By May, less than a quarter of the requested money had arrived. While Kabul is supposed to take the lead on the IDP policy, its obvious shortcomings make increased international engagement all the more urgent.

This is the tragedy of Afghanistan: While the humanitarian situation is worsening by the day, many international governments are less interested than ever. Many NATO countries are trying to spin a dangerous narrative that they have left a stable and peaceful country behind after the troop withdrawal, while the reality on the ground is the complete opposite.

While the world looks the other way, the conflict in Afghanistan is intensifying, and ordinary people are paying the price. Farzana is desperate to leave her settlement and build a new life for her family but sees no way out. "I hate it here. Every corner of this camp reminds me of my son's death," she said. A 16-year-old girl in the same settlement told us: "I see no improvement; our situation has gone from bad to worse. I feel like we are being forgotten. There is no attention on displaced people anymore."

The Afghan government and its international partners must act now to meet the country's exploding displacement crisis before it is too late.

Copyright notice:  Copyright Amnesty International
Visa-free to Mauritania

Publisher IRIN Author Mamoudou Kane Publication Date 31 May 2016 Cite as IRIN, Visa-free to Mauritania, 31 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe7c24.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

After Algeria started requiring visas for Syrians last year, Mauritania became the only country in North Africa that offered visa-free travel for Syrians. They flew into Nouakchott, the capital, from Turkey or Lebanon.

Officially, there is still no visa requirement for Syrians, but starting in February, dozens of Syrians have been turned back after arriving at the airport in Nouakchott.

Mohamed Abdellahi Ould Zeidane, from Mauritania's interior ministry, confirmed that a prior agreement on visa-free travel with Syria was no longer valid.

Abdelaziz Abderzak, a doctor from Darah in southern Syria, moved to Mauritania as war broke out in earnest in 2012.

"Our family has lost many of its members, including children. The survivors, besides me, are between Jordan and border villages in Israel," he said. "I left a son in Algiers who I can no longer see."

Abderzak came to Mauritania alone, but has since met and married a fellow Syrian. The couple now live with their two-year-old son, Mohamed, in Nouakchott, where he works as a pharmacist. Despite being born in Mauritania, Mohamed is essentially stateless. "Other than his refugee card from UNHCR, he is without papers," said Abderzak.

The question of papers is crucial for many of the Syrian refugees in Mauritania who view the poor, mainly Muslim country as a temporary refuge and are hoping for resettlement to Europe or the United States. "Without documents we cannot move, and as Arab countries do not want us, the hope of families who want to continue is in the West," Abderzak explained.

Helena Pes, a spokeswoman with UNHCR in Mauritania said that 40 Syrians had recently been accepted for resettlement to the United States.

She noted that many Syrian refugees in Mauritania struggle to find work, despite being highly educated. "It is difficult for them to find employment in Nouakchott while being overqualified," she told IRIN.

Zeidane, of the interior ministry, said the government had offered to accommodate the Syrians in a camp, but that they had refused and instead settled in Block C, a neighbourhood of Nouakchott.

"Most of them have become beggars, cramming themselves into rented flats with several other families," he told IRIN, adding that in the last year, more had been approaching UNHCR to apply for refugee status in the hope of being resettled elsewhere.

UNHCR has now registered 405 Syrians, split between Nouakchott and Nouadhibou, the economic capital. The figure does not include those hoping to make their own way to Europe who pass through the country. "Many Syrians are moving towards Europe, via southeast Mauritania to northern Mali and Algeria. We are developing a project to better identify them with the International Organization for Migration (IOM)," said Pes.

"Mauritania is a prime hub for illegal immigration towards Europe," confirmed Momme Ducros, a spokewoman with IOM.

UNHCR is assisting the most vulnerable Syrians who remain in Mauritania to pay for their food, medical and schooling costs.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh underlined the calm atmosphere of a meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) here on Thursday, Irna reported.



'On production there were several discussions; the first discussion was about continuing the same trend and the members to scrutinize on the volume of their production and also not to make the market's conditions instable,' Zangeneh told reporters on Thursday.



As regards the issue of production discussed in OPEC meeting on Thursday, he said, 'Another issue was that each country to be given a specific production ceiling which was not accepted by us and the majority of the member-states.'



The 169th (Ordinary) Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Meeting started work in Vienna on Thursday.



To attend the 169th OPEC Meeting, Zangeneh arrived in the Austrian capital on Wednesday evening.



The petroleum ministers of OPEC member states met in Vienna to decide on policies regarding oil production activities.



Zangeneh discussed issues of mutual interest with his counterparts on the sideline of the OPEC meeting.



The OPEC should work toward maximizing the interests of its members, Iran's oil minister said prior to the meeting.



The organization should help stabilize the market and also be able to manage the situation when markets get unbalanced, he said.



Iran is supportive of such a trend adopted by the OPEC, the minister said.



It is expected the participants formulate the OPEC policy for next six months, discuss the situation of oil market and elect a new secretary general for the organization.



According to reports, OPEC countries have produced 32.439 million oil barrels a day in April.



Iran as an OPEC member-state has raised its oil production as well as export of its crude oil after removal of sanctions against the country on January 16.



Zangeneh has announced that Iran has exported 2,023,000 barrels of crude oil in May, 2016.
Making do in Mali

Publisher IRIN Author Katarina Hoije Publication Date 31 May 2016 Cite as IRIN, Making do in Mali, 31 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe8444.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The last year witnessed a small but growing trend of Syrians taking the long way round to Europe via Mauritania, and then overland to the north African coast. But some have end up settling for a while in Mali, along the way.

Mouna Khalil and her family arrived in Mali in 2013, after first fleeing Syria into Lebanon, and then flying to Mauritania and travelling overland. They hoped to make a fresh start, but life in the poor, majority Muslim nation's capital Bamako was not what the family had expected. While relieved to have escaped the constant shelling and the sound of fighter jets, the harsh living conditions in their new home make them feel they have replaced one kind of suffering for another.

"Mali is a poor country. There is nothing here, no life," says Mouna, seated on the porch of the house the family is renting on Bamako's outskirts.

"I wish we could leave and go somewhere else - Algeria, Morocco or even back to Syria, anywhere but here," says her husband, Bakary.

Many of the Syrians arriving in Mali via Mauritania hope to continue onwards with smugglers and make the perilous journey through Algeria and Morocco to reach the seaside Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Between January and April this year, according to UNHCR, at least 436 Syrian refugees crossed the Mauritania-Mali border.

Others, like the Khalils, lack the money to pay smugglers and fear making long, desert treks with small children.

Mali is hardly the ideal destination for refugees. Its own four-year-long crisis has left tens of thousands of Malians displaced or living as refugees in neighbouring countries. Government resources and humanitarian agencies are strained to the limits. Many Syrians say they have received little or no assistance from the authorities or from NGOs. They rely for help on their Malian neighbours, many of whom have themselves been displaced.

"People here are poor just like us; still, everyone is helping out bringing clothes and toys for the children," says Mouna.

A wealthy Malian businessman has offered to pay for the children's school fees. Another neighbour paid the rent when the family was facing eviction.

Mali has only granted refugee status to 92 Syrians, while a further 10 are awaiting the outcome of asylum claims. The Khalils abandoned their efforts to be recognised as refugees and many other unregistered Syrians are thought to be residing in the country.

Idrissa Maiga, the head of a local association organising yearly trips to Mecca during the hajj, says at least 20 Syrians arrive at the Maison de Hajj every month.

"We house them for a few days while they try to find their bearings and look for other accommodation," he says.
Shared language and religion in Sudan

Publisher IRIN Author Zeinab Mohammed Salih Publication Date 31 May 2016 Cite as IRIN, Shared language and religion in Sudan, 31 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe8ad4.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

It's not surprising that Sudan has become a popular alternative destination for many Syrians. Not only are there regular direct flights between Damascus and Khartoum and no visa requirements, but a shared language and religion can ease the transition.

According to Sudan's foreign ministry, more than 60,000 Syrians have settled in the country since the start of Syria's protracted civil war. The real number is probably considerably higher. A survey conducted by a local NGO in July 2015 found that more than 100,000 Syrians were already living in the country.

Although Sudan does not recognise the Syrians as refugees, they are allowed to work and access state healthcare and education services.

"Syrians are treated in Sudan as citizens, not as refugees," explained Adil Dafallah, from the Sudanese Refugee Commission.

"It is important to provide them with their basic needs, including health, education and housing."

Many of the new arrivals have nevertheless struggled to adapt to a country where the culture and social norms are foreign and the cost of living high. While some of the wealthier refugees have established their own businesses such as factories and restaurants, often employing other Syrians, those with no wealth or connections are reduced to begging on the streets.

Abdul-Raheem Riyadh, 22, who arrived in the country in 2012, works at a Syrian restaurant in Kafory district. He claims that he was arrested by Sudan's moral police in September last year, after they found him sitting and chatting with his Sudanese girlfriend at a park in Omdurman.

He says they were taken to the police station where he was beaten for two hours with sticks. "I have never experienced such a thing in Syria because I was sitting with a woman," he told IRIN.

According to the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, new arrivals often struggle to find houses to rent, schools for their children, and jobs.

"The Syrians are skilled people, and they can find jobs because of that. However, getting a work permit is sometimes a problem for them," said Amal Dirar of UNHCR. He explained that Sudanese authorities charge a fee of around $500 to apply for a work permit.

Nasra's family arrived in Khartoum from the Ghouta area on the outskirts of Damascus a month ago. "We were told by Syrians who came here earlier that Sudan is safe and the Sudanese people are kind," explained the 32-year-old, who now lives in one room with her husband and four children.

Lacking the money to apply for work permits or start a small business, they spend most of their day begging at mosques in Khartoum so that they can pay rent and buy food. "If I only had enough money, I would stop begging and buy equipment to sell Syrian food, but I don't have any," Nasra told IRIN.

UNHCR is partnering with a Sudanese NGO, Al Manar, to help Syrian refugees with some of their basic needs. "We offer them medical assistance, money based on the family size, and legal assistance and protection," said the UN agency's Khadija Agab.

Diaspora groups are also trying to assist recent arrivals. "We help all the Syrian families in Khartoum, especially the ones in need, and ask them to stop begging," said Anas Mohamed, a member of the Syrian Association in Sudan, which in addition to organising social programmes, helps the most vulnerable with money and finding jobs.

"We collect money from the richer ones and give it to the vulnerable ones," said Mohamed, who fled Syria himself three years ago.
"A peaceful life" in Brazil

Publisher IRIN Author Sam Cowie Publication Date 31 May 2016 Cite as IRIN, "A peaceful life" in Brazil, 31 May 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe8e04.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Eyad Abuharb, a 26-year-old former head chef from Damascus, arrived in Brazil nearly two years ago and now runs his own kebab restaurant in Sao Paulo.

"If I had stayed [in Syria], I would have been forced to join the war or die. I just want a peaceful life," he told IRIN.

He chose Brazil because of its open-door policy for Syrian refugees. Since 2013, around 8,000 Syrians have been issued with humanitarian visas by Brazilian consulates in neighbouring countries and over 2,000 asylum claims have been granted. Most have gone to Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, which has a long history of migrants from Lebanon and, to a lesser extent, Syria settling there, and many Arabic restaurants and shops.

Abuharb flew to Sao Paulo on a humanitarian visa and 10 days later had the necessary documents to be able to starting working and accessing public services. He quickly found work in the kitchen of an Arabic restaurant in the Bras neighbourhood - ground zero for Syrian refugees arriving in the city - after making enquiries at the local mosque.

After saving some money, he bought his own shawarma kebab machine and rented space to sell his kebabs in a local bar. When the bar went under, Abuharb took over the lease and opened his own restaurant: "Ogarett". Seven months later, and now with full refugee status, he is weeks away from opening a second restaurant.

"In Brazil, all you need to do is work. If you work, you can make it," he said.

But Abuharb's success story belies the tough reality for many other Syrians as they try to forge new lives for themselves in Brazil, a middle-income developing country without a coherent policy for integrating refugees.

"We have a very open policy. But then, once you are here, you are basically on your own," said Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist and a professor of external relations at Rio de Janeiro State University. "We don't have the structure to help in the same way that the US or Germany does. Most refugee assistance comes through private charities or religious organisations."

Brazil may be on the verge of accepting a new wave of Syrian refugees. In March, it was reported in the Brazilian press that talks were under way with Germany and the European Union to negotiate a deal whereby Brazil would receive an unknown number of refugees in or on their way to Europe. European governments would then fund the cost of their integration in Brazil.

For Abuharb, the next priority is to bring over his parents and siblings who are still in Syria. "God willing," he said.
Fancy a holiday in a former Taliban stronghold?

Publisher IRIN Author Aamir Saeed Publication Date 1 June 2016 Cite as IRIN, Fancy a holiday in a former Taliban stronghold?, 1 June 2016, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/574fe91a4.html [accessed 26 October 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

With peace returning to the Swat Valley, Pakistan has opened up the former tourism hotspot to visitors once again, but the army retains tight control as the threat from militants remains.

The Swat Valley was once so popular with tourists who came to ski and hike among its hills and crystal lakes that it was nicknamed "the Switzerland of the east". But that was back in the 1970s, before Islamist militants began their inexorable spread across the country. The trickle of tourists finally ended when the Taliban took over the area in 2007.

About 1.5 million civilians fled Swat in 2009 as Pakistan's military launched an offensive to drive the Taliban out of the valley. When residents returned, they found homes, schools, and other public buildings destroyed, either by the Taliban or during battles with government troops.

The economy was wrecked too, and the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is now hoping tourism will provide a much-needed infusion of cash.

"The area is quite safe now, not only for residents to return, but local and foreign tourists are welcome too," Zarmina Waheed, an assistant coordinator with the Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told IRIN.

She said the corporation, which is a provincial government entity, has been in touch with tourism offices in Nepal, China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and South Korea to spread the word that tourists are welcome.

On 30 March, the government withdrew the requirement for foreigners to get a special certificate from the interior ministry in order to travel to Swat.

Signs of war

Travelling through Swat, signs of the recent conflict are everywhere - a reminder of the constant threat that the Taliban could return. Visitors have to pass through checkpoints on their way in, and it's common to see soldiers on patrol throughout the valley.

"We keep combing different areas all the time and do snap-checking to nab nefarious elements," Shahzad Ajmal, a soldier at a checkpoint in Malam Jabba, told IRIN.

He said the military and intelligence agencies had thwarted hundreds of attempted attacks by the Taliban over the past few years.

The government has also tried to restore normal life by thus far rebuilding 101 of the 113 schools that were destroyed, along with eight of 13 medical clinics and 79 other government buildings.

However, the once-bustling ski resort that crowned the town of Malam Jabba remains a burnt out remnant of better days since the Taliban torched it. Restoration work is in progress, but it will take another two or three years to rebuild.

"We are visiting Malam Jabba after nine years, but it is still not back to what it was pre-Taliban times," said Muhammad Saleem, visiting from the city of Lahore along with seven family members.

Waheed, of the provincial Tourism Corporation, said hundreds of people now visit Swat each day, which is far from the thousands who once poured into the valley daily to marvel at the glaciers towering above the churning whitewater of the Swat River.

Looking up?

Still, things are better than they were a few years ago, and locals welcome the return of tourist rupees.

Fazal Sher was a tourist guide in Swat before the Taliban came. When the militants took over, he fled to the city of Rawalpindi where he drove a taxi for about 600 rupees (about $6) per day. But he longed to return to Malam Jabba.

"Rawalpindi is a polluted city," he said. "The noise pollution would cause sleep disturbance, so I always wanted to return to my peaceful and lush-green hometown."

Sher finally got the chance to go home last year, and he's back to guiding tourists around and helping them buy local food and traditional items like clothes and caps. He now makes between 1,500 rupees to 2,000 rupees (US$14-19) per day.

"My daily income could treble and reach the pre-Taliban times if all roads are rebuilt, army troops withdrawn and people are assured the militants would never return," said Sher.

While most visitors these days are from elsewhere in Pakistan, Sher hopes international tourists will return too. In addition to its natural beauty, Swat boasts archaeological sites from its distant past when it was a centre of Buddhism before Islam swept through the region.

That ancient history has already begun pulling in visitors, according to Waheed. She said a group of Chinese tourists visited archaeological sites in April, and a delegation of Buddhist monks from Bhutan travelled to Swat in mid-May.
Iran's Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh arrived in Vienna late on Wednesday to attend the the 169th meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Zangeneh is expected to discuss issues of mutual interests with his counterparts on the sidelines of the OPEC meeting.

The OPEC should work toward maximizing the interests of its members, Iran's oil minister said prior to the meeting.

The organization should help stabilize the market and it should be able to manage the situation when markets get unbalanced, he said.

Iran is supportive of such a trend adopted by the OPEC, the minister said.

Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Ali Tayyebnia is also in Vienna to attend the 169th ordinary meeting of the OPEC.

The global oil market presently is relatively balanced and OPEC oil basket price has increased almost five dollars as compared with the 168th meeting of OPEC around six months ago.

It is expected the participants formulate the OPEC policy for next six months, discuss the situation of oil market and elect a new secretary general for the organization.

According to reports, OPEC countries have produced 32.439 million oil barrels a day in April.
See what to expect in coming months along I-69 Finish Line corridor

As the leaves begin to fall and air temperatures begin to cool, the 2022 road construction season will soon slow down.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran is ready to launch human right talks with Europe, Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif said.

Speaking in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Zarif said that the will to talk should be mutual, Fars news agency reported.

"As I already told Federica Mogherini [the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy] the human rights talks will be mutual and no doubt during that every party will hear unpleasant things," Zarif said.

"However we should seriously enter the talks," he added.

He further criticized the use of human rights issue as tool for achieving political goals.

Elsewhere in his speech, the diplomat said that Iran wants stability in the Persian Gulf.

"All of us are dependent on the Persian Gulf," Zarif said, adding the region countries should highlight their commonalities.

The regional problems impose negative effects on all parties, he said.

"The problem is the inability of our region to respond to the demands of the people, Zarif said, adding that failure to response to the people requests has resulted with perverted reactions such as extremism and terrorism.

He further said that extremism and terrorism are not restricted to a single region, and are global menaces.

He underlined rethinking the loser-loser approach and advised the international community to opt for winner-winner strategy as Iran did during the nuclear talks with world powers.

Zarif arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, later on May 31. He is heading an economic and political delegation during his ongoing European tour aimed at promoting trade and economic opportunities.

The foreign minister has already visited Poland and Finland as part of his tour kicked off May 29. Latvia will be the final destinations of the delegation.
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.
In addition to its usual flights to and from Dallas-Fort Worth, San Angelo Regional Airport's runway is being used to test an unmanned aircraft system used for border security.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine Operations began testing the Predator B aircraft recently, and operations will continue for another three weeks.

AMO is a federal law enforcement agency, which is a component of Homeland Security. AMO conducts law enforcement and homeland security missions at and beyond the U.S. borders.

San Angelo was chosen because of the weather, which right now is more favorable for launching the aircraft than the high winds of Corpus Christi, said John Wassong, director of Air Operations at the National Air Security Operations Center in Corpus Christi.

"We're trying to see if this is a logical place to keep it. It should be," Wassong said. "We're going to do the same (border security) mission we do in Corpus."

This is the first U.S. drone deployment at a civilian airport.

San Angelo Regional Airport Operations Manager Mitch Sprunger said he and airport Director Luis Elguezabal were excited about being approached to host the testing.

"This is an opportunity for potential growth with the CBP here at the airport and can lead to more operations," Sprunger said.

Sprunger said there hasn't been any interference with the airport's commercial airplanes, and he has heard good feedback from air traffic control that everything has been running smoothly.

On Thursday, local media was invited to watch the aircraft take off from the runway headed toward Del Rio, operated by pilots on the ground.

The aircraft has a 66-foot wingspan, is 36 feet long and about 12 feet high and averages about 10,000 pounds when it's fully loaded, he said.

The $10 million aircraft's purpose is to maintain border security more effectively.

"The airplane provides a long persistence," Wassong said. "So instead of leapfrogging multiple other airplanes or helicopters, you can look at one thing, if you want, for a long time or you can point out illegal activity to other assets that will go there."

Currently, seven unmanned aircraft monitor the border area stretching all the way from San Diego to Central Houston, he said.

"There is always somebody sitting in our pilots' seats with our airplanes," he said. "There's a pilot and sensor operator, and depending on which facility is flying it, there is always someone there."

Two aircraft, which can both fly more than 20 hours, will be tested and kept at the airport during the remainder of the operation.

"(The testing is) really to see if San Angelo is going to be a good place for us to come back next year and fly more because the weather is better and just get the logistics straightened out better," he said. "Just to see how this is going to work."

Whether San Angelo's airport could become a permanent location to operate the drones is a discussion that is a "little far off," Wassong said, but so far testing has gone well.

PREDATOR B AT A GLANCE

Although the Predator B  or MQ-9, as it is called by the U.S. military  is capable of carrying armaments, the two units being used by the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol at the San Angelo Regional Airport are strictly for surveillance.

Background

The Air Force proposed the MQ-9 Reaper system in response to the Department of Defense directive to support initiatives of overseas contingency operations. It is larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator and is designed to execute time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision, and destroy or disable those targets. The M is the DOD designation for multirole, and Q means remotely piloted aircraft system. The 9 indicates it is the ninth in the series of remotely piloted aircraft systems.

General characteristics

Primary function: find, fix, and finish targets

Contractor: General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.

Power plant: Honeywell TPE331-10GD turboprop engine

Thrust: 900 shaft horsepower maximum

Wingspan: 66 feet

Length: 36 feet

Height: 12.5 feet

Weight: 4,900 pounds empty

Maximum takeoff weight: 10,500 pounds

Fuel capacity: 4,000 pounds (602 gallons)

Payload: 3,750 pounds

Speed: cruise speed around 230 mph (200 knots)

Range: 1,150 miles

Ceiling: Up to 50,000 feet

Crew (remote): two (pilot and sensor operator)

Unit cost: $64.2 million (includes four aircraft, sensors, GCSs, and Comm.)

Initial operating capability: October 2007

Inventory: total force, 93

Source: U.S. military data, current as of September 2015
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has left Stockholm, Sweden, for Latvia.

The visit is taking place as part of Zarif's tour in Europe, during which he is heading an economic and political delegation aimed at promoting Iran's trade and economic opportunities, IRNA news agency reported June 2.

Latvia is the final destination of the delegation that has already visited Poland, Finland and Sweden during the tour, which kicked off May 29.

The business delegation accompanying Zarif has signed a number of documents on cooperation with European companies.

Members of the Iranian business delegation attended dozens of business-to-business meetings in Helsinki, Warsaw and Stockholm to discuss the ways for expansion of trade ties.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

Trend:

Armenian government at its meeting June 2 approved the agreement on establishing a visa-free regime between Armenia and Iran, Tert.am reported.

Armenia's Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said the agreement's signing is based on the need to encourage bilateral relations between Armenia and Iran.

The agreement aims to regulate the mutual visits of the two states' citizens.

The agreement envisages that the two countries' citizens, holding regular and diplomatic passports, can enter, leave and stay in the territory of one of these two countries without a visa for a maximum of 90 days after every 180 days.
Updated at 12:20 p.m. EST on 2016-06-03

Prime Minister Hun Sens government lashed out Thursday at other countries that have expressed concern about Cambodias deepening political crisis, saying they are trying to meddle in the internal affairs of the Southeast Asian nation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is surprised by such interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state that has only carried out the same rules of legal and judicial procedures [that are] also in effect in [those] states, the ministry wrote in a press release.

The ministrys release follows a call U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry placed to Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sakhon earlier this week, RFAs Khmer Service has learned. The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh declined to comment on the call and the State Department in Washington did not respond to RFA queries about the conversation.

Various foreign governments including the U.S. and the European Union, as well as the United Nations, have expressed varying degrees of concern and urged a peaceful end to the political crisis that has seen Hun Sens government try to arrest the top leaders of opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), forcing one into exile and another effectively into hiding.

The ministry criticized those foreign governments, saying they dont understand Cambodia or its laws.

These reactions reflect the lack of knowledge or the will to pretend not to know the rules of the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the press release reads.

The U.S., the EU, and the U.N. have all expressed concern over an extended crackdown on opponents of Hun Sens ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) that has featured a raid by heavily-armed police on the opposition party's headquarters in an attempt to arrest Kem Sokha, the CNRPs acting president.

New summons

On Thursday, a Phnom Penh court issued a new summons for Kem Sokha to appear in court on June 14 regarding to his refusal to appear in court as a witness in May.

Kem Sokhas defense team planned a meeting for Friday to examine legal procedures on the failure-to-appear charge and develop a strategy if the court continues to issue new summonses, sources tell RFA.

Sam Sokong, a member of the defense team, told RFA that a group of attorneys sent a letter to the court asking it to stop issuing new summonses to Kem Sokha.

So far, the prosecutor has not responded to our group, but instead issued a new summons, he said. If the judge has already decided, then we can file a complaint to the prosecutor regarding the decisions of the investigative judge.

Cambodian authorities have also jailed four members of the human rights group ADHOC and an election official, and have issued a warrant for the arrest of a U.N. employee as part of the governments wide-ranging probe into an alleged affair Kem Sokha had with a young woman named Khom Chandaraty.

The government has ordered Kem Sokha to appear before the court in connection with at least two complaints that have been filed related to his alleged affair, but he has refused as the CNRP and its supporters claim the charges are a trumped-up attempt to damage the CNRP ahead of elections slated for 2017 and 2018.

On May 30, the EU condemned the dangerous political escalation that is gripping the country as the Hun Sen government pursues members of the CNRP on various cases.

CNRP President Sam Rainsy has been staying in France or traveling since an arrest warrant was issued for him in November over a 2008 defamation case and he was removed from his office and stripped of his parliamentary immunity. After Sam Rainsy left the country, the CNRP named Kem Sokha its acting president.

The conflict with Kem Sokha is just one of the legal cases the government or the ruling CPP has brought against opposition party members.

Human rights workers say the entire scandal is an attempt by the ruling party to crack down on its political opponents and silence its critics ahead of the elections. Hun Sen has ruled the country for 31 years.

Attempt to free NEC member

In a related move, National Election Committee Vice Chairman Kuoy Bunroeun says the NEC is seeking a way to get committee Deputy Secretary-General Ny Chakrya released on bail so that he can help with the upcoming elections.

Ny Chakrya and ADHOC staffers Ny Sokha, Nay Vanda, Yi Soksan, and Lim Mony are in jail facing bribery or accessory charges, accused of attempting to pay Khom Chandaraty to keep quiet about the alleged affair with Kem Sokha.

A warrant was also issued for the arrest of U.N. staffer Sally Soen.

Kuoy Bunroeun told RFA that he and a group of lawyers visited Ny Sokha to examine possible legal procedures, because the NEC is an independent institution which must implement the law.

Ny Chakrya is in poor health as he is suffering from high blood pressure and intestinal and respiratory problems.

Sam Sokong, an attorney for Ny Chkarya, told RFA that he is legally qualified for bail.

We hope the investigative prosecutor and the appeals court will consider the conditions and will compare them with the law, and decide properly and fairly in accordance with the law to give him justice, he said.

Forensic analysis

Also on June 2, the Ministry of Interior formed a new commission to perform forensic analysis of 170,000 thumbprints affixed to a CNRP petition submitted to King Norodom Sihamoni on May 30 that seeks his intervention in the case of the Kem Sokha five.

While the CNRP welcomed the move, independent political observer Kem Ley said he considered it a threat to citizens rights and an attempt to intimidate them.

Thumb printing is a kind of expression of opinion, he said. Citizens can express their opinion by words, by writing, open and secret, but sometimes the government acts with political anger without considering the impact on the peoples rights.

Reported by Sokunthea Hong, Sarada Taing and Neang Ieng for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Yanny Hin. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
A US Air Force Thunderbird F-16 jet has crashed after conducting a flyover of an Air Force Academy graduation commencement attended by President Barack Obama, Sputnik reported.



The incident occurred south of Colorado Springs airport, where the president delivered the commencement address for the graduating class at the Air Force Academy.



The pilot safely ejected before the plane crashed into a field, according to Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michal Kloeffler-Howard.

President Obama visited with the ejected pilot shortly before boarding Air Force One.



The cause of the crash is not known at this time.


Tiananmen Square victim Qi Zhiyong (center) flanked by Wang Fulei and Jiang Jianjun, wear T-shirts protesting the 1989 massacre near Tiananmen Square on June 1, 2016.

As the ruling Chinese Communist Party steps up security measures targeting dissidents ahead of the politically sensitive anniversary of the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, a handful of rights activists are traveling around the country displaying placards mourning those who died in the crackdown.

Beijing-based activist Qi Zhiyong, who was maimed when a tank ran over his legs on the night of June 3, 1989 in Beijing, along with Guangdong-based Li Xiaoling, Dalian-based Jiang Jianjun and Shandong-based Wang Fulei had taken photos of themselves as an act of protest.

All four activists wore T-shirts with the words "June 4th. Never Forget" printed on them. By Thursday, state security police had launched a probe into the photographs, Qi told RFA.

"I am now under surveillance, because my health isn't good enough to take a forced vacation," he said. "The state security police are investigating me."

Li Xiaoling said the group hadn't been able to get through a security cordon around the square, however, and had taken the photos nearby instead.

"The whole place was surrounded by police, although there weren't too many of them," Li said.

"State security police have ordered me to leave Beijing, but we didn't break any laws," she added. "I don't know what happened to the other two people."

T-shirt protest

The protest came as a group of activists posted photos of themselves online also wearing T-shirts commemorating the bloodshed, which came when People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops cleared Beijing of thousands of protesters calling for democracy who had camped for weeks in on Tiananmen Square.

Guangdong activist Bu Yongzhu said he fears younger people in China, who must get past the "Great Firewal" of Internet censorship to read about the events of 1989, will forget, or never learn, what really happened.

"It's a sensitive topic, but I wanted to commemorate it, because if we don't, maybe young people, or future generations, will forget about it altogether," Bu said.

"The state security police are always getting in touch for a 'chat,' lately, probably because it's a politically sensitive date," he said. "They keep asking me whether I plan to take part in any events."

The activists' protests come after authorities in Beijing detained three people out of seven who met to pray for those who died in the crackdown last weekend.

Chongqing-based activist Han Liang told RFA that he had been taken on forced "vacation" away from his home city by state security police.

"I managed successfully to commemorate June 4, 1989 twice, once when I unfurled a banner ... on a square where there were a lot of people around," Han said.

But he said it is common for the authorities to take him on "vacation," around politically sensitive dates linked to the 1989 democracy movement.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on China to end the ruling Chinese Communist Party's culture of denial around the 1989 massacre of civilians in Beijing.

"Beijing should ... immediately [end] its detention and harassment of individuals marking the occasion, meeting with survivors and their family members," the group said in a statement on its website ahead of Saturday's anniversary.

It also called for the release of Zhengzhou activist Yu Shiwen, an activist held since July 2014 for commemorating the massacre.

"Chinese authorities owe a debt of justice and accountability to survivors of the massacre and their family members," HRW China director Sophie Richardson said. "Political repression since 1989 has not eliminated yearnings for basic freedoms and an accountable government  instead it has only compounded the partys lack of legitimacy."

A 'vacation'

Bao Tong, former top aide to late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, and veteran political journalist Gao Yu have both been forced to leave Beijing on "vacation" in the company of state security police.

Bao's wife Jiang Zhongcao confirmed the reports to RFA on Wednesday, saying she supposes he has been escorted back to his birth town in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

"They never said, but what can I do? It's the same every year," Jiang said. "If he didn't go, then they would cut off our phone line, and we wouldn't be able to call an ambulance if we needed one."

She said Bao, whose health is frail, will be watched over by the couple's granddaughter while on vacation.

"My granddaughter will tell me that he's OK, but they won't let her say exactly where they are," she said

Reform regression

The administration of President Xi Jinping has broadened government control over freedoms of expression, assembly, and association, and the right to political participation, continuing a trend set in place after the 1989 crackdown, HRW said.

"The government has drafted or promulgated new state security laws that put in place more restrictive controls over civil society [and] further curtailed expression on the Internet and media," it said, adding that hundreds of activists have been held in recent years.

Since 1989, former student leaders including Wu'er Kaixi and Xiong Yan have been unable to re-enter China, and were refused entry into Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014, it said.

The Tiananmen massacre was precipitated by the peaceful gatherings of students, workers, and others in Beijings Tiananmen Square and other cities in April 1989 calling for freedom of expression, accountability, and an end to corruption, but the government responded by instituting martial law, HRW said.

The number of deaths in the violence remains unknown, although the victims' group the Tiananmen Mothers have compiled exact accounts of the deaths of 202 people across China, including Beijing.

HRW called on Beijing to reappraise its verdict that the protests were a "counterrevolutionary rebellion" that had to be suppressed with force.

It said officials should meet with and apologize to members of the Tiananmen Mothers and launch an independent public inquiry into the events of June 1989.

"Instead of advancing, China has stagnated, and even regressed, in terms of political reforms since 1989," Richardson said. "Beijing can only move forward by facing up to its painful past, as others have had the confidence to do, and as people across China clearly want."

Reported by Hai Nan for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Qiao Long for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written by Luisetta Mudie.


The ruling Chinese Communist Party is continuing to tighten controls over what the country's 700 million internet users see and post online, issuing reporting forms to its officials who are expected to list content that could be seen as problematic by censors.

Party members and government officials across China have been issued with forms requiring them to list any content on popular chat apps like WeChat and QQ that could go against government guidelines.

The forms require the full details of any administrator of chatrooms on QQ or WeChat, as well as the group's identification numbers, according to a copy of a form seen by RFA.

A Beijing-based academic surnamed Jia said he had also seen the form posted in chatrooms.

"After they fill out these forms detailing the issues with these chatrooms, then this will form the basis of an investigation," Jia said. "Once they know which chatroom you are talking in and what you are saying, they can infiltrate it."

"It's just another tool in their bag of tricks," he said.

A journalist who gave only his surname Li said he saw the move as an attempt to further clamp down on any form of free expression online.

"I saw this; it's ridiculous," Li said. "They just want to shut down public opinion, or to control it very tightly."

"It remains to be seen whether they will succeed," he said.

Matter of concern

Smartphone-based chat apps have taken off in China in recent years, replacing Twitter-like services like Sina and Tencent Weibo in popularity, partly because they are not so publicly visible.

Beijing-based democracy activist Zha Jianguo said the growth of chatrooms or groups on WeChat and QQ is also a matter of concern to the government.

"I have a chat group with 400 people in it, and I'm the admin," Zha said. "They sometimes ask people if they're in that group, or they ask me the time and date that I sign in, and what I say."

"But they are the ones who decide when to listen in," he said.

Technically speaking, it's not hard to monitor chatrooms, but in reality, China has tens of millions of them, Zha said, making it difficult even for China's censors to keep up with all of them.

Stakes in content providers

The move comes amid reports that China's press regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), may soon be able to buy mandatory stakes in online content providers, making it easier for the state to govern what gets posted on China's internet.

The SAPPRFT is recommending that each video website sells anywhere from 1 to 10 percent of its shares to state-owned enterprises, all of which are subject to local branches of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Consultations are currently under way for the scheme, which is just one of many ways of consolidating government control over content providers, a recent report by the cutting-edge magazine Caixin said.

The aim of the plan is to exert stricter scrutiny over video content before publication, said the report, which has since been deleted.

Xiang Ligang, CEO of telecommunication industry portal cctime.com, said the "special management stake" proposal shows the government is exploring new ways to exert control over online content.

"For many years, there have been various problems on different media platforms," Xiang told the Global Times newspaper.

"In the past, the government has had little influence over the operations of video websites," the paper quoted him as saying. "The government cannot punish [the websites] on a daily basis or shut down [a website]."

Current regulations only allow for officials to sanction an organization after unwanted content has already appeared online, the paper said.

Reported by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
Electricity rates are skyrocketing in Laos, just as the hot season tightens its grip on a country that aims to be the battery that powers Southeast Asia with hydropower from river dams.

Some people have watched as their rates for electricity have more than tripled, and they are scratching their heads as to why they are suddenly paying so much for power when Vientiane has been touting the countrys power generating ability as a way to bring Laos out of poverty.

Over the past few months, my household paid only 80,000 kip (U.S. $9.80), but this month I am charged 250,000 kip (U.S. $31), said a resident of Savannakhet province, who requested anonymity. That surprises me.

At first the Savannakhet dweller told RFAs Lao Service that he thought he was the only one paying the high bills, but then he talked to his neighbors.

I thought I was the only one over-charged, but my neighbors also have the same problems, and some of them brought their bills to Electricite du Laos to ask about the high cost, he said.

The Vientiane-based Electricite du Laos is the state corporation that owns and operates the former French colony's power generation, transmission, and distribution system.

Southeast Asia has been roasting in an extended heat wave with temperatures reaching unprecedented levels, allowing at least three countries to set new all-time national heat records and several others to come very close.

The heat wave has driven record energy consumption and prompted health warnings on everything from food-borne illness to drowning throughout the region.

Laos, Cambodia and Thailand set new all-time record highs for any day of the year during April, according to The Weather Channel, a U.S.-based network. In addition, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam have all come very close to setting new national heat records.

The new all-time record high for Cambodia was set on April 15 when the mercury soared to 108.7 degrees Fahrenheit (42.6 degrees Celsius) in Preah Vihear, beating the previous record set just two days earlier in Banteay Ampil, the Weather Channel Reported.

Who gets paid?

Record heat often pushes up the rates for electricity as demand outstrips supply, but Lao electricity customers wonder if theres something more nefarious behind the price jump.

I always hear that the government declares that Laos will become Asias battery, though the Lao government gets less of a percentage of revenue than the shareholders in each hydropower project, said a resident of Vientiane who requested anonymity.

Laos and many other Asian countries are on a dam-building spree as they try to harness the power of the Mekong and other rivers. While the Lao government sees power generation as a way to bootstrap the countrys economy, the projects are still controversial for their environmental impact and their financial arrangements.

According to International Rivers, an environmental advocacy group, the current Lao hydropower development plan includes 72 new large dams, 12 of which are under construction and nearly 25 in advanced planning stages.

There are many things Laos people do not know about the power projects, like how much income goes into Laos treasury and overseas investors pockets, the Vientiane resident told RFA. The majority of the income generated by electricity production will be in the hands of the investors, while dams in Laos are damaging a huge amount of natural resources.

While the Lao government claims the dams will help pay for anti-poverty and other social welfare programs, International Rivers claims that much of the power generated by Laos is sold to neighboring countries and then resold to Laos at higher rates.

Unfortunately for the Laotian people, the government has been importing the same hydro-generated power back from Thailand at an increased price, International Rivers reported. The companies and investors driving the current Lao hydro-boom hail from Thailand, China, Vietnam and Malaysia, though the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and companies from Japan, France and Norway remain on the scene.

No real number

Phongsavath Kaisinh, a power company official in charge of billing, blamed the heat on the spike in demand that is driving prices up.

Overcharges for use of electricity is normal because it is the hot season and people need to overuse the electricity in their houses, Kaisinh said.

On 24 May, Electricite du Laos held a press conference to explain the reasons for an increase of the charge.

A reporter who attended the press conference but declined to be named told RFA that power company officials gave two reasons why prices have shot up, aside from the weather.

The cost of electricity in Laos is low when compared with the other nine countries of ASEAN so it needs to be adjusted to be in line with the other countries, and the staff who record the statistics of electricity use in the households do not do so based on the real number  they estimate it, the reporter said.

Reported by RFA's Lao Service. Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
Kyaw Kyaw Oo, executive member of the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association, speaks at a press conference in Yangon, June 2, 2016.

UPDATED at 4 P.M. EST on 2016-06-09

Members of a Myanmar gem association called on authorities on Thursday to investigate the disappearance of roughly U.S.$100 million from its funds, including U.S. $1.1 million allegedly taken by former President Thein Sein, said one of the groups members.

Kyaw Kyaw Oo, an executive member of the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association, told reporters at a press conference in Yangon that the trade groups members have demanded that the new National League for Democracy (NLD) government take action against the previous administration for its role in the embezzlement scandal.

The fund, opened under the Ministry of Mines during former President Thein Seins government, contained about $104 million accumulated from fees paid by entrepreneurs who worked in the gem industry, according to a Myanmar Times report.

Win Htein, director general of the Department of Mines and chairman of a tribunal investigating the matter, said the value of the fund has dwindled to less than U.S. $8 million, the report said.

First we heard 7 million [U.S. $7.8 million] from the fund was given to the former president, Kyaw Kyaw Oo said. So we raised the issue with retired Colonel Win Htein, who is now presiding over an inquiry committee. He said that only 1 million [U.S. $1.1 million] was given to Thein Sein. Its on a recording.

Allegations rejected

Also on Thursday, former Minister of Mines Myint Aung, who was appointed by Thein Sein in September 2012, told a press conference in the administrative capital Naypyidaw that the allegations against the former president were false, and that the missing money had been properly spent and accounted for.

Now we can clear up everything, he told reporters at the conference. We didnt have any corruption here. What we had done was decided by the central committee [of the Myanmar Jade and Gems Emporium], not by a single individual, and it was carried out according to working protocol.

The emporium is the country's largest gem marketplace where local retailers and producers of finished products purchase millions of dollars of precious stones.

The money was distributed to areas in various states and regions that needed development funds, Myint Aung said. Of the U.S. $7.8 million in question, Thein Sein placed U.S. $1.1 million in the Ministry of Constructions bank account, he said. The remainder, which was raised separately from businessmen, also remains in the bank.

Myint Aung said he will seek legal action against those who have accused former government ministers and Thein Sein of embezzling funds from the trade association, state-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported.

Some current members of the Myanmar Jade and Gems Emporium's central committee and the gem association signed a petition urging Shwe Mann, the ousted former parliamentary speaker under the former ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), to take up the alleged corruption case in parliaments Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission.

In February, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi appointed Shwe Mann, whom she considers an ally, to lead the legal advisory panel.

At a press conference addressing the complaint on May 30, Zaw Myint Pe, a member of the parliamentary commission, recommended that an independent body be created to investigate the matter, the Global New Light of Myanmar report said.

Precious stones are weighed at a gem merchant's house in Mogok, some 125 miles northeast of Mandalay in central Myanmar, May 25, 2015. NurPhoto Politically motivated?

In the meantime, the complaint and embezzlement accusations have been submitted to President Htin Kyaw, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Bureau of Special Investigation, Ministry of Mines, Mining and Resource Affairs Committee, and Myanmars upper house of parliament, the Myanmar Times report said.

Former information minister Ye Htut, who also served as Thein Seins spokesman while he was in office, told reporters at the Naypyidaw press briefing that the trade associations accusations are politically motivated.

This is a problem within the jewelry organization where many of the complainers are members of the Myanmar Jade and Gems Emporium Central Committee, he said.

The association should have first raised the issue of the missing funds at its own meetings, and then filed a complaint with the government if no satisfactory explanation was made, he said.

The complaint should have gone to administrative authorities of the government led by President Htin Kyaw, the parliamentary committee which oversees mining, or the complaints and appeals committee, Ye Htut said. But instead, the [association] sent the complaint to parliaments special commission led by many ousted USDP leaders.

This raises questions as to whether the reason behind the move might be a political one that runs deeper than organizations internal affairs, he said.

The NLD government, which took office in early April, has announced that it plans to combine the Ministry of Mines and Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry into a new Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.

Myanmar's jade industry alone is worth U.S. $31 billion, according to a report issued last October by London-based anti-corruption and environmental advocacy group Global Witness.

The group said a network of former generals, drug lords, and crony businessmenincluding former junta chief Than Shwe and senior figures in Myanmars military-backed USDPtightly control the jade industry and keep the sectors vast profits exclusively for themselves.

Reported by Myo Zaw Ko, Myo Thant Khine and Win Ko Ko Latt for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to the government's Central Executive Committee instead of the central committee of the Myanmar Jade and Gems Emporium.
At least five people including two policemen died in a bloody incident in a juvenile jail in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China in late May that sources tell RFA was sparked when Uyghur youths rebelled after a Chinese guard shot and killed an inmate for praying.

While details are sketchy because Chinese authorities in Urumqi are trying to keep the incident quiet, RFAs Uyghur Service has learned that the incident occurred in the early morning on May 25 or 26 in the Urumqi No.1 Juvenile Labor Camp located in Ulanbay district of Urumqi, the capital of the restive Xinjiang region.

I know the incident occurred in Ulanbay jail, but I cannot tell you any details about it, because we are ordered to keep it secret, a police official at Ghalibiyet (in Chinese, Shengli) Road police station told RFA.

Even if you ask me a thousand times, I will repeat the same thing over and over again. We cannot reveal anything on this incident. Period. We have a very urgent directive on this, he added.

While police have been ordered to keep silent on the issue, and little has been said by anyone directly involved, one police officer told RFA he was on patrol when he heard about the incident.

I was informed that an incident had happened in Ulanbay jail on the 26th of May at 2 a.m., but I was not called to the scene, said the officer, who also requested anonymity. I did the street patrol as I was ordered, but a SWAT team was sent to the jail and we were notified by 6 a.m. that the incident was contained, so I returned home.

The officer added: There was some discussion among the police about how many people were killed and who they were. After we have a written report on this, then we can say something about it.

Inmate education

While the cause of the incident remains unclear and first-hand accounts are scarce, a police officer told RFA that he overheard another police who said an officer named Hemit was educating an inmate who prayed in the jail.

The so-called education was harsh and the inmate protested against Hemit by brandishing a chair. Hemit then attempted to subdue the inmate by firing toward him, but he missed what he was shooting at and the shot was fatal, the officer said.

After the shooting, 50 to 60 other inmates rushed the guards office, surrounded three guards, and argued with them, but the SWAT team arrived and fired on the, the officer said.

A number of inmates were killed, but I do not know if any police were among the dead, the officer said. I heard that inmates also injured the guards before the SWAT team arrived.

According to a letter from an RFA listener: The police officer who died in the incident was named Hemit and he graduated from Banong Fuzhong, a high school affiliated with Xinjiang Agricultural University.

Staff at the high school and the university confirmed they had heard about the incident, telling RFA that 10 juvenile prisoners escaped from the camp after killing two police officers.

The staff said three of the prisoners were killed and seven others captured as they tried to escape. Staff at the schools identified the police officers killed in the incident as Hemit Halmurat, 29, and Yong Chun, 41.

The martyr Hemit graduated from our school a long time ago, said Zheng Guojing, a staff member at Banong Fuzhong.

The incident occurred on May 25th in the early morning. We visited his parents the next day and expressed our condolences, Zheng Guojing said. On May 26th the authorities held a memorial ceremony at the juvenile camp, our schools director attended the ceremony, and we happened to get a little information about the incident from the director.

Ma Zhiqiang, a staff member at Banong Agricultural University, said he received an official notice from the Urumqi City Police Department saying: On the early morning of May 25th, 10 juvenile prisoners escaped from the camp after killing two police officers in the guardhouse. We got the situation under control by 10 a.m. on May 26. Three prisoners have already been killed, and seven were captured.

Halmurat Eset, the father of Hemit Halmurat, said his son had studied Russian for two years, and was only working at the prison because he could find no other job.

'Sorry your son was killed on duty'

He started to work at that place against his will, Halmurat Eset told RFA. Unfortunately I have not been given any detailed information about the incident, other than being told: Sorry, your son was killed on duty.

The story Halmurat Eset tells differs slightly from the version obtained by RFA.

According to one of my sons friends in the police department, the police officer Yong Chun shot a prisoner, and other prisoners attacked Yong Chun and killed him. My son then blocked the prisoners while they attempted to escape and they then killed my son. Actually, my son had good relations with the prisoners.

Saniye Tursun, the mother of Hemit Halmurat, said officials havent been forthcoming with details of her sons death other than saying he was stabbed.

I am wondering how the prisoners could get a knife, she said. I just saw my sons face in the funeral room. His face was turning blue. 

According to Saniye Tursun, all the prisoners in the group had been charged with endangering state security and most had been punished for watching illegal religious films on cell phones.

A staff member at the Huagong Institute of Banong Agricultural University told RFA that the notice of the incident was very short, and left more questions than answers.

There is no information on why or how the prisoners escaped, the staffer said. What was the cause of the escape? Some say they were tortured. Some say the prisoners clashed with police in the camp, but it is clear that they knew that they couldnt go anywhere even if they got out from the camp. I believe that they faced some urgent situation or incident which pushed them to try to escape from jail as a last resort.

Dolqun Isa, executive chairman of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, told RFA they had received some information about the incident.

According to our source, the torture of the prisoner by police caused the unrest, he said. The unrest ended so bloodily, we are wondering what to say to Chinese authorities at this time.

Dolqun Isa said it is time for more transparency from China about this and other incidents.

At this stage we call on China to disclose information about the incident, rather than keep it secret, he said. It is helpful to avoid disturbing rumors and exaggerated information which could trigger ethnic clashes.

We also call on international organizations to pay attention the situation of East Turkestan, he said, using the preferred Uyghur term for the region. And to send an independent investigative group to look into incidents related to juveniles rights and safety.

Reported by Shohret Hoshur for RFA's Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma and Shohret Hoshur. Written in English by Brooks Boliek.
Afghan officials say gunmen have kidnapped 17 members of the Hazara minority traveling in vehicles in northern Afghanistan -- the second group abduction this week.

The governor of Sar-e-Pul Province, Zaher Wahdat, said the passengers, all civilians, were pulled out of their vehicles in Sancharak district on June 2 and taken to an area controlled by the Taliban.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

Mohammad Noor Rahmani, head of the provincial council, said the kidnapping occurred a day after a Taliban commander in the area was detained by Afghan forces.

"The Taliban may have abducted the passengers to exchange them with their local commander," Rahmani added.

Hazaras are a Persian-speaking, Shi'ite community that has long been persecuted in Afghanistan.

The incident comes two days after the Taliban killed at least 13 people and took several others hostage after ambushing a bus convoy in the northern province of Kunduz.

Two of the hostages were later found dead.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters
KABUL -- Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansur in a U.S. drone strike has damaged the prospects of a negotiated peace settlement with the militant group.



Karzai, in an interview with RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal in Kabul on June 2, also called the war in Afghanistan a "foreign problem and called on countries such as Russia, Iran, and India to be involved in the peace process.



He said the May 21 drone strike that killed Mansur in the Balochistan Province of southwestern Pakistan "has hurt the peace process."



"If the intention was peace, then this shouldnt have been done," Karzai said.



During the last years of his 2002-14 presidency, Karzai had a rocky relationship with the United States and was critical of U.S. air strikes, which he said were killing too many civilians rather than the militants they targeted.



Washington and Kabul hailed Mansur's death as a possible breakthrough in restarting stalled peace talks with the Taliban.

Mansur had refused to engage in a series of talks held in Islamabad and attended by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG), made up of officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United States, and China.



The group has been trying to facilitate direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban since 2015.

Under Mansur's leadership, the Taliban made substantial military gains against Afghan security forces and carried out deadly bombings in Kabul.

WATCH: Video Purports To Show Mansur's Car In Flames

Since Mansurs death, the Afghan Taliban has announced that Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, a religious hard-liner, is the new Taliban leader.



In a recent audio recording, a voice purported to be Akhundzada's vowed in a recent audio recording that there will be no return to peace talks.

The drone strike that killed Mansur was the first known U.S. attack on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil.



The attack angered Islamabad, which has accused Washington of violating its territorial integrity.



"As it looks now and from all that I have heard in the statements from the Taliban, the government of Pakistan, others, it has hurt the peace process," Karzai said.



The ex-president also called for a regional solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.



He specifically called for Russia and neighboring Iran and India to be involved in any political settlement with the militants.



"If peace in Afghanistan was our own issue, a matter among Afghans, then why did the United States get involved or why did Pakistan and China engage in talks?" Karzai said. "Their involvement [in the peace efforts] proves that our problem exists outside and is foreign."



He added: "Since it is a foreign problem, there are foreigners that are powerful and strong and can have influence [on the talks]. Such actors are Russian, India and Iran -- these countries should also be included in the process so that we can have results."



Karzai has close ties with India, where he once studied and which he has visited often, including after stepping down as president in 2014.



India has been a key supporter of Kabul since the U.S. invasion in 2001, a stance that has led observers to point to the threat of a "proxy war" in Afghanistan between India and archrival Pakistan.



Karzai has also forged warm ties with one-time Afghan nemesis Moscow.



During his time in power, Karzai was keen to bolster ties with regional players like Russia to shore up security after the pullout of most NATO troops from Afghanistan in 2014.



Moscow has a vested interest in containing the Islamic State (IS) militant group and other extremists. IS and Taliban fighters have made advances in northern Afghanistan, near the border with the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Moscow is also worried about the Afghan drug trade, which could worsen Russia's destructive heroin epidemic.



Russia has signaled its willingness to boost its involvement in Afghan security and provide weapons and training to Afghan forces.



In October, Russian President Vladimir Putin described the situation in Afghanistan as "genuinely close to critical" in an address to fellow Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) leaders at a summit in Kazakhstan.



Putin warned of "terrorists of different stripes...gaining more influence and not hiding their plans for further expansion" and urged neighbors to "be ready to react in concert."



In the past year, a number of Afghan lawmakers and high-profile officials, including Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, a former warlord and Afghan Army general, have visited Russia to request helicopter gunships and heavy weapons.



But Moscow has so far been wary of increasing its role in Afghan affairs. The Soviet Union's calamitous 1979-89 military venture in Afghanistan killed or displaced millions of Afghans and sapped Moscow's precious political, military, and economic resources in the Soviet Union's dying decade.



Written by Frud Bezhan, based on reporting by Rabia Akramkhan
Officials in Afghanistan's northern province of Kunduz say Taliban militants have killed two of the hostages abducted from a bus convoy this week.

Kunduz police spokesman Hejratullah Akbari said on June 2 that the bodies of the two hostages had been found along a road on June 1.

According to Akbari, security forces have launched an operation to rescue the remaining eight hostages.

On May 31, Taliban militants killed at least 13 people and took several people hostage after ambushing several buses on a highway in Kunduz.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they were targeting security officials.

Taliban forces regularly stop passenger vehicles to search for members of the Afghan government, security forces, and international organizations, and the number of such incidents appears to be growing.

With reporting by dpa
A Belarusian opposition leader has been detained "brutally" by police in a town some 110 kilometers east of the capital of Minsk and charged with illegally distributing printed material.

Anatol Lyabedzka, leader of the opposition United Civic Party (AHP), and two associates were taken into police custody in Krupki on June 2.

Speaking to RFE/RL, an AHP spokeswoman accused the police of brutality when arresting Lyabedzka, and Dzyanis Krasochka, a party activist, and Henadz Veratsinski, a photographer.

Hanna Krasulina said the three were facing charges of illegally distributing printed materials.

According to Krasulina, Lyabedzka was in Krupki to try to organize a public roundtable discussion on how to tackle local unemployment.

Lyabedzka has been fined and briefly jailed several times in the past for his opposition activities.
PRAGUE -- A Czech television station has come under fire after details emerged of an editorial meeting in which journalists were told to report negatively on the migrant crisis or find employment elsewhere.

In a secret recording of the TV Prima meeting last September that has now been released by a watchdog website, the station's news editor can be heard intimating to journalists that refugees should be presented as a risk to the country and anyone who disagreed with this stance should consider finding another job.

The vice chairman of the board of directors of the company that owns the privately owned TV station also weighed in at the meeting, telling reporters in no uncertain terms what was expected of them.

Describing the current situation with refugees as potentially "the beginning of the end" and claiming that he didn't want his 9-year-old daughter to be wearing a burqa in 20 years, Lubos Jetmar told the gathering that he was afraid the migrant crisis "could really be a far bigger problem than we realize."

"There are now a few hundred thousand [migrants] here [in Europe], maybe a million, I don't know," he is heard saying in the leaked recording. "But, as of the moment there are lots of them here, they really won't respect our rules."

Jetmar also told the journalists that once these floods of migrants arrive, they will start "really, really pushing their truth, their way of seeing the world, their religion, and their rules."

Fanning The Flames

The revelations have now triggered a furious debate on how the migrant crisis is being covered in the Czech media.

Like much of Central Europe, media coverage in the Czech Republic has been dominated in recent months by the influx of migrants coming to Europe, many of whom are fleeing conflict in places like Syria and Afghanistan.

Although only 1,525 people actually sought asylum in the Czech Republic in 2015 (compared to 162,000 in Sweden, for example), news reports showing throngs of migrants en route to Western Europe have helped turn the migrant crisis into a divisive issue.

WATCH: Czechs Clean Up After Protests End With Firebombing

A number of ugly incidents recently, such as the firebombing of a refugee help center and the vandalizing of businesses that had signed up to a tolerance campaign, have highlighted how fraught the issue has become. According to one recent survey, more than 70 percent of Czechs now believe all foreigners living in the country represent a massive threat to national security.

The media has exaggerated the situation, says Klara Kalibova, a human rights lawyer who also runs the In Iustitia NGO, which works with victims of hate crimes including migrants. They dont use actual numbers. They dont use important sources. They dont use sources which are reliable. And sometimes they also invite so-called experts on the topic of migration and refugees who are actually not experts -- who are, for example, politicians from some marginal parties who tend to be far right.

Although Kalibova says many Czech media outlets have been remiss in their reporting, she singles out TV Prima as one of the worst offenders.

The station, which is estimated to have nearly a one-quarter share of the market, has also been criticized by others for its increasingly strident reporting, which some say has helped foster a climate of fear in a society that is not really used to having so many foreigners in its midst.

Now, this leaked recording appears to lend credence to these allegations.

One of the reporters who was at the TV Prima meeting and spoke to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity said that the journalists had been called in because management had been "livid" about two recent reports on the migrant situation. One had been about a volunteer center that was providing food and clothing to refugees and another had debunked rumors that migrants were bringing serious diseases with them to Europe.

A Big Mass Of People

In the weeks after the meeting, the journalist said a lot of material was excised from reports, including interviews with actual refugees that showed the human face of the crisis.

"They didn't want anything that portrayed refugees as human, but which showed them as a big mass of people," the source said. "Essentially, we were told that...we would not be objective, and we would not be balanced. It was a clear breach of the journalistic code of ethics."

Robert Brestan, the editor in chief of Hlidaci Pes, the website that broke the story, said he had also noticed a change in TV Primas coverage since the meeting last September.

In his opinion, Primas reports on the migrant crisis were quite balanced and normal until then, but after this editorial meeting the style of coverage changed a lot.

According to Brestan, Primas news reports have now become more opinion-oriented, which he claims breaks one of the most fundamental rules of journalism.

Its a basic, maybe the first, lesson in every journalistic school all over the world, he says, that you cant mix opinion and news.

A Comprehensible, Consistent Approach

After initially dismissing Hlidaci Pess reporting as speculation, TV Prima eventually published a statement on the matter. While maintaining that its news coverage was based on an independent description of events, the station said the meeting in September was held for the purpose of establishing a comprehensible and consistent approach toongoing refugee issues.

It also denied that its journalists had been ordered to report negatively on migrants and said Jetmar had been invited by the head of news, Jitka Obzinova, simply as a person with several years of experience of working in the Arab world.

According to rights lawyer Kalibova, Primas uncompromising approach to the migrant issue is now polluting the entire media space.

I would say that TV Prima is kind of influential, because the other news [outlets] see that its paying off and theyve changed how they do the news for example, she says. They see that the ratings of TV Prima have increased so theyve changed a little bit the way they report on these topics.

In its defense, TV Prima has cited a report, published in December by the Czech medias regulatory body, which it says confirms the balanced nature of its news output.

In fact, the Council for Radio and Television Broadcasting actually said that TV Primas coverage of the migrant situation unduly ignored the perspective of refugees themselves and instead portrayed them as a problem for Europeans.

This significantly Eurocentric attitude could implicitly reinforce negative (antirefugee) attitudes among the Czech public," it added. Nonetheless, the council eventually concluded that it did not believe such an approach would in itself breach any of the provisions of the Broadcasting Act."

In light of Hlidaci Pess revelations, the Czech broadcasting authority says it will conduct another detailed analysis of television news reports concerning the migrant crisis.
On his East African tour, Turkey's president again declared that "the world is bigger than five," slamming the veto power of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

"The world cannot be given up to five permanent members' initiative. You cannot take this situation, formed in the midst of World War I conditions, and shove it down humanity's throat," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at Uganda's Makerere University, where he received an honorary doctorate.

Erdogan decried how the Security Council has no African nations among its permanent members.

"Is there a Muslim country [among the permanent members], while there are 1.7 billion Muslim people in the world? No. What kind of justice is this? What kind of law is this?" he added.

The UN Security Council, which has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, has 15 members, including five permanent members with veto power over any resolution: China, France, Britain, the U.S., and Russia.

Permanent members often use their veto to protect their interests or those of their allies, and in the past, Erdogan has criticized the blocking of UN resolutions on Syria by Russia and China.

Erdogan also underlined Turkish ties to Africa.

"We believe that here [Africa] is a continent of opportunities for the happiness, peace and welfare of African nations," Erdogan said.

He added that Africa will be focused on the 21st century.
The things that can get you arrested in Vladimir Putin's Russia are, quite frankly, pretty ridiculous.

Consider the case of Maksim Kormelitsky, a resident of the Novosibirsk region who was recently sentenced to 15 months in a penal colony.

His crime? Reposting a photo on social media that had a caption questioning the sanity of Epiphany bathers, Orthodox Christians who jump into icy lakes in the dead of winter.

He was convicted of inciting hatred against Christians.

Or consider Andrei Bubeyev, an electrician from the Tver region. He's serving a 27-month sentence.

And what did he do? Well, he reposted a photo of a tube of toothpaste with the caption: squeeze Russia out of your system as well as articles criticizing Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

A SWAT team surrounded and stormed his country cottage when they arrested him.

He was convicted of extremism, separatism, and inciting hatred toward Russians.

And as a result, his wife, Anastasia, has been forced to raise their 4-year-old son alone.

There are many other cases, but you get the idea.

Part of this is the result of a regime that is determined to control the Internet to prevent it from becoming a hotbed of dissent.

Part of it is the defensiveness of a regime can't stand to be lampooned.

But most of it is explained by the deep insecurity that defines Vladimir Putin's Kremlin.

Because if posting harmless Internet memes is a threat to the Russian state, then it must be a pretty damn weak state.

Keep telling me what you think on The Power Vertical's Twitter feed and on our Facebook page.
BRUSSELS -- The European Parliament has decided to reestablish contacts with Russias lower house of parliament, the State Duma.

The decision was taken on June 2 during a meeting of the European Parliament's Conference of Presidents, which includes European Parliament President Martin Schulz and the chairmen of the eight political party groups.

A parliamentary source told RFE/RL that the lawmakers made the move because the European Parliament has been excluded from relations with Russia while the governments of several EU member states and the European Commission have had several meetings with members of the Russian government.

The European Parliament decided to cut ties with Russian lawmakers after Russia illegally annexed Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in March 2014.

But the Conference of Presidents decided on June 2 to send a European Parliament member to the Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region to be held in Russia on June 14-16.

It was also decided that members of the Duma will be invited to participate in a conference on the upcoming Russian legislative elections to be hosted in Brussels at an unconfirmed date.

However, the European Parliament will refrain from doing business with Duma members blacklisted by the EU.

The formal dialogue between the two chambers will also continue to be suspended, and only Russias EU ambassador and his chief adviser will continue to be allowed on the European Parliament's premises  a move decided in 2015 after Russia introduced visa bans on several European Parliament members.
Germany's lower house of parliament has approved a resolution recognizing the mass killings of Armenians during World War I by Ottoman forces as a "genocide," unleashing a furious reaction from Ottoman successor state Turkey.

The five-page, symbolic resolution passed in the Bundestag on June 2 calls for a "commemoration of the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities in the years 1915 and 1916," when up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians are thought to have been massacred.

Turkey adamantly opposes the characterization of the killings as a genocide.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that the resolution "will seriously affect relations between Germany and Turkey," and Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus called it a "historic mistake."

Erdogan said Ankara recalled its ambassador to Germany, Huseyin Avni Karslioglu, for consultations.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry also summoned the German charge d'affaires to discuss how the resolution could impact ties.

In a reference to the Nazi Holocaust of World War II, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavosoglu angrily suggested via Twitter that Germans were seeking to bury guilt over "dark pages" in their own history.

"The way to close the dark pages in your own history is not to besmirch the history of other countries with irresponsible and groundless parliamentary decisions," he tweeted.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus called it a "historic mistake."

WATCH: Bundestag Declares 1915 Mass Killings Of Armenians 'Genocide'

Turkeys Foreign Ministry later issued a statement accusing the Bundestag of trying to alienate millions of Turkish citizens who live in Germany from their national history.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian praised the vote, saying Germany was making a "valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides, crimes against humanity."

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Kurtulmus called the resolution "null and void."

"The German parliament's recognition of 'distorted and groundless' allegations as 'genocide' is a historic mistake," he said on Twitter.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel brushed aside the storm of criticism from Ankara and questioned Erdogan's assertion that it would hurt German-Turkish ties. She said Germany's relations with Turkey remain "broad and strong."

Merkel said that "there is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey. And even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is vast -- starting with defense issues and many other issues, and last but not least the 3 million Turkish citizens living in our country."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said later on June 2 during a visit to Buenos Aires that as expected, Turkey has reacted and that he hopes the two countries will succeed in the next days and weeks to avoid any overreaction.

Franz Josef Jung, a politician who is in charge of the foreign policy portfolio of Merkel's Christian Democrats, acknowledged Turkey's fury but said that recognition of historical facts and "taking responsibility for the past is indispensable for reconciliation" between Turkey and Armenia.

A dispute between Turkey and Germany over the resolution could further strain implementation of an agreement on the return and hosting of migrants between the European Union and Turkey amid the continent's most serious refugee flow since World War II.

Merkel has staked her political fortunes on the deal as part of a solution to the humanitarian crisis as millions of Syrians and other non-Europeans have risked their lives to flee conflict and other sources of hardship.

Under the terms of the March agreement, Ankara agreed to stem the flow of refugees to Europe in exchange for cash, visa-free travel rights, and accelerated talks on European Union membership.

German officials have expressed hope the genocide vote doesn't doom the EU-Turkey migrant deal, but they are bracing for that possibility.

German lawmakers noted the resolution acknowledges that the German Empire during World War I, then a military ally of the Ottoman Empire, did nothing to stop the killings.

It says Germany is aware of the "uniqueness" of the Nazi Holocaust and it "regrets the inglorious role" of Germany for failing to stop the "crime against humanity."

The resolution also urges the German government to "encourage" Turkey to "deal openly with the expulsions and massacres" in order to "lay the necessary foundation stone for a reconciliation with the Armenian people."

Volker Kauder, Merkel's conservative ally and the parliamentary faction leader of the Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union alliance, stressed that the resolution did not condemn the Turkish people or the current Turkish government.

Speaking on Germany's ARD television, Kauder said Germany wants to work with Turkey and recognizes that "Turkey is making an incredible contribution to the migrant issue as it has taken in 2 million people and looked after them."

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the resolution shows that Merkels government is attempting to divert attention from a situation where they are experiencing trouble in domestic policy.

Tensions between Berlin and Ankara also flared in April over Erdogan's demand that a German satirist be prosecuted under a rarely applied section of the German penal code that threatens offenders with up to five years in prison for insulting foreign leaders.

The United Nations defines a genocide as an action that intend to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.

But since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, each successive government in Turkey has historically rejected the notion that the killings constituted genocide.

Ankara continues to argue that Armenians died because of civil strife related to the war rather than an organized campaign by Ottoman rulers to annihilate the Christian minority.

Turkey's government also points out that many Turkish civilians died in the disorder that accompanied the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

On June 1, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian urged German lawmakers to ignore the warnings from Erdogan and Yildirim.

"It's not fair that you cannot call the genocide of the Armenians genocide just because the head of state of another country is angry about it," Sarkisian told the German daily Bild.

Advocates in Germany's parliament for the resolution have included the opposition Greens party as well as lawmakers from Merkel's conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats.

More than 20 countries -- including France, Russia, Italy, Brazil, and Canada -- recognize the killings and deportations of the Armenians by Ottoman Turks as a form of genocide.

The European Parliament and 44 states of the United States also have recognized the killings as genocide, along with an overwhelming majority of historians around the world who are not Turkish.

Tensions between Berlin and Ankara also flared in April over Erdogan's demand that a German satirist be prosecuted under a rarely applied section of the German Penal Code that threatens offenders with up to five years in prison for insulting foreign leaders.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, Bild, ARD-TV, BBC, Hurriyet, 24 TV, and Anadolu
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In a searing indictment of her Republican rival, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump is "unfit" for the White House and holds foreign policy ideas that are "dangerously incoherent."

Billed as a major foreign policy address, Clinton devoted much of the June 2 speech to attacking Trump while seeking to bolster her case that she would offer the country a steady hand in dealing with the rest of the word.

She said it would be a "historic mistake" to elect Trump, a wealthy businessman and reality TV star who has never worked in government and whom she accused of being too volatile and impulsive for the job.

"This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes," Clinton told an audience that included military members and their families in San Diego, California.

She suggested that Trump could lead the country into war "just because somebody got under his very thin skin."

Citing her experience as secretary of state, a U.S. senator, and first lady, Clinton said she has a record of "helping shape" U.S. foreign policy.

She described Trumps foreign policy views as "not really even ideas" but rather a "series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies."

Clinton challenged calls by Trump to reexamine the role of the United States in the world, saying Washington needs to "stick with our allies."

Trump has said that if other NATO members do not step up their spending on the military alliance, then Washington would "let countries defend themselves" if he is elected president.

Clinton accused Trump of threatening to "abandon our allies in NATO" at a time when "Moscow has taken aggressive military action in Ukraine," a reference to Russias illegal annexation of Ukraines Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and backing of armed separatists in the country's east.

Clinton said Trump would be incapable of defending U.S. interests in dealing with countries like China and Russia, which she said "often work against" the United States.

Trump has vowed to seek better relations with Russia if he is elected, but only if Washington approaches the relationship "from a position of strength."

"Moscow and Beijing are deeply envious of our alliances around the world, because they have nothing to match them," Clinton said. "Theyd love for us to elect a president who would jeopardize that source of strength."

"If Donald gets his way, theyll be celebrating in the Kremlin," she added.

Trump has cited his interactions with foreign states in real-estate deals and beauty pageants as relevant to his foreign policy credentials, a claim that Clinton ridiculed.

"He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia," Clinton said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

Clinton also defended last years nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, under which Tehran curbed its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of economic sanctions.

Trump has said that his experience negotiating business deals would have allowed him to strike a better accord, and that he would have walked away from a bad agreement.

But Clinton said that while that might work in negotiating a golf course deal, "it doesn't work like that in world affairs."

On the Islamic State, Clinton said a Trump presidency would embolden the extremist group by giving it fodder for recruiting new militants with his pledge to bar all Muslims from entering the United States temporarily.

Trump criticized the speech on Twitter on June 2 without directly addressing Clintons accusations that he is unfit for the presidency.

He wrote that Clinton "no longer has credibility -- too much failure in office" and that "she doesnt even look presidential."

"People will not allow another four years of incompetence," Trump wrote.

Trump later described Clinton's speech as a "hit job" at a rally in San Jose, California. At the same time, he said the speech was so boring it was "hard to stay awake" and joked that Clinton would make a lot of money delivering speeches to insomniacs.

The location of Clinton's speech was strategic. San Diego is home to several military installations, a large population of veterans and active duty personnel, and military-related industries.

The address also came five days before California holds its primary election, when she is hoping to defeat her tenacious Democratic rival, Senator Bernie Sanders, and clinch her party's nomination.

With reporting by dpa, Reuters, and AP
Ali Khomeini, a grandson of revolutionary leader and Islamic Republic of Iran founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, has defended thousands of summary executions of political prisoners in 1988 following a fatwa by his grandfather.

Some sources claim that more than 5,000 members of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) and further leftist groups, students, and others were executed in the span of a few months. The prisoners were said to have been executed after brief interrogations by three-member committees -- dubbed "death commissions" -- about their political and religious beliefs.

Speaking at a June 1 event in Qom marking the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death, Ali Khomeini, a cleric, suggested that the executions of political opponents, particularly MKO members, was a wise move.

"Today, some people feel sorry for the hypocrites" -- a term used by Iranian authorities to refer to MKO members -- "and say, 'Why did you execute them?' These were people who stood against the establishment and committed crimes that [militant Islamist group Islamic State] would not commit," the younger Khomeini was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

"They assassinated the president, the prime minister, and many other senior figures," Khomeini, who teaches at the Qom seminary, said in reference to a series of bombings by the MKO in the 1980s.

Known in Iran as "The Little Ali," Khomeini added that if his grandfather had shown flexibility toward them, "the country would not experience any peace even after 30 years."

He also claimed that Khomeinis "management" of the crisis -- he was the country's first supreme leader under Iran's postrevolutionary theocracy -- that Iran faced following the 1979 revolution brought peace to the country.

"Maybe several years ago, it wasnt as easy as today to speak about the management of The Imam," he said of the elder Khomeini in an allusion to the "Arab spring" uprisings for social justice that swept some states in the Middle East and northern Africa in 2010-11 but many critics say were reversed in what some dub an "Arab winter." "Its easier to speak about it today."

"Who today has a clear idea of the fate of those revolutions? Beside it, we have to look at why Irans Islamic revolution was successful." He said, according to the text of his speech published by the hard-line, semiofficial Fars news agency.

The 1988 executions are rarely discussed publicly in Iran, where families of the victims have faced state pressure and harassment for attempting to hold commemorations for their lost loved ones.

Amnesty International has called on Iran "to uphold the right to truth, justice and reparation of the families of those killed" in the 1988 executions, which the rights group said will remain known to Iranians as The Prison Massacre.


Iraqi government forces have slowed their advance on the major city of Fallujah, held by Islamic State (IS) fighters, as U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters opened a major new offensive against the extremist militants in northern Syria.

At the United Nations, meanwhile, Britain called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to push forward with air drops of humanitarian aid to areas besieged by government forces.

In Syria, the push by the Syrian Democratic Forces toward Manbij, a town near the Turkish border, is the latest effort by U.S.-backed forces to squeeze the extremist group and uproot it from its self-declared capital, Raqqa.

Officials said taking Manbij would deny IS militants the ability to move supplies and foreign fighters across the border from Turkey.

The region is the last remaining tract of territory IS holds at the border with Turkey, a top priority for the U.S.-led campaign.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on June 1 that the Kurdish and Syrian Arab troops seized control of 16 villages and were about 15 kilometers from Manbij.

Aircraft from the U.S.-led international coalition pounded Manbij before dawn, killing at least 15 civilians, the British-based monitoring group said.

The clashes were "fierce and intense," said Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the Syrian Democratic Forces.

One unnamed Kurdish official told Reuters on June 1 that IS defenses on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign earlier this week, but it was too soon to say how the Manbij battle would go.

Unnamed U.S. officials were quoted as saying thousands of forces were deployed in the operation, which could take weeks. A small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces will support the push on the ground, acting as advisers, they said.

At the United Nations, meanwhile, France and Britain urged the world body to begin humanitarian aid airdrops in Syria.

The call for action came despite land deliveries of aid supplies to two towns besieged by Syrian government forces where civilians are facing food shortages.

Britain called the emergency Security Council meeting for June 3 to discuss humanitarian access and to press ahead with the airdrops agreed to at a meeting last month of the International Syria Support Group.

The 20-country support group set June 1 as the deadline for aid convoys to reach all besieged areas.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States also supported moving forward on plans for the airdrops.

According to the United Nations, about 592,000 people live under siege in Syria -- the majority besieged by regime forces -- and another 4 million live in hard-to-reach areas.

Peace talks to end Syria's five-year war stalled in April after escalating fighting on the ground and lack of humanitarian aid prompted the opposition to walk out.

Islamic State militants also faced an offensive in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered his troops on June 1 to slow an advance at the city gates, two days after the army poured into rural areas on the city's outskirts.

The order was intended to limit harm to tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city.

Fallujah has been a bastion for the IS militants, who raised their flag in the city in 2014 before sweeping through Iraq's north and west.

The United Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families in the center as human shields.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP
ASTANA -- A court in the Kazakh capital, Astana, has sentenced a local resident to nine months in prison for membership in a banned Islamic group.

The Sary Arqa District Court on June 2 found Murat Taqaumov guilty of being a member of the Tablighi Jamaat group and sentenced him the same day.

Taqaumov pleaded not guilty and vowed to appeal the sentence.

In February, the same court in Astana found five local residents guilty of being members of the same group and sentenced them to prison terms of between 1 and 2 years.

Tablighi Jamaat is officially banned in Kazakhstan, Russia, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Islamic groups have been under increased scrutiny from the Kazakh authorities since a suspected Islamist militant carried out the country's first-ever suicide bombing in the northwestern city of Aqtobe in 2011.
Moldova has become the latest former Soviet republic to consider adopting a law against so-called gay propaganda, following a path blazed by Russia in 2013.



Late last month, the parliament's Culture and Education Committee approved a bill that would impose fines for spreading "homosexual propaganda" to minors "through public meetings, the media, the Internet," and other means.



The latest salvo in Moldova's long-running cultural conflict was fired by the Socialist Party, the parliament's largest party. They brought the measure to committee on May 25, four years to the day after the country adopted a European Union-backed antidiscrimination law that social conservatives angrily opposed. Since that law was adopted, "homosexual propaganda in Moldova has become more aggressive," the new bill's sponsors wrote.



"What we are talking about is the public impact," Socialist deputy Vlad Batrancea told RFE/RL. "We want to ban the propaganda of this phenomenon because there is the danger that children might fall victim to it in schools. This danger is real because so many parents are working abroad and the children left behind are vulnerable to such actions."

Earlier this year, the Socialists presented a bill to overturn the antidiscrimination law, but that measure was not adopted by the legislature. Moldova's parliament is almost equally divided between socially conservative Socialists and Communists, on the one hand, and three generally pro-EU liberal parties on the other.

'Distorted Ideas'

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the first "gay propaganda" law in 2013, making it an offense to present "distorted ideas about the equal social value of traditional and nontraditional sexual relationships" to minors. That measure prompted outrage among Russia's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and among rights activists around the world. Critics say the law has led to increased discrimination and violence against gay people.



Russia's move has galvanized similar efforts around the region.



LGBT rights "are seen as a modern Western value that the West is trying to impose," International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) activist Bjorn van Roozendaal told The Guardian last month. "And this mindset really comes at the cost of the LGBT community."



A similar bill has passed two readings in Kyrgyzstan's parliament but has been awaiting a third and final reading for months. Kazakhstan adopted such a law in 2015, but it was struck down by the Constitutional Court as unconstitutional. No other former Soviet countries have followed suit, but Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan both criminalize homosexual relations between men -- as the Soviet Union did.





Moldova's bill faces an uphill battle, although Batrancea says he believes it can garner enough support to pass the legislature. Sergiu Sarbu, an official with the pro-Europe Democratic Party, says he believes the bill is unconstitutional, violating guarantees of freedom of speech.



"I have strong reservations concerning the legality of this bill," he told RFE/RL.



However, analysts say, the Socialists are playing a longer game and are looking ahead to Moldova's presidential election in October.

'Stoking Tensions'



Polls show that Socialist Party leader Igor Dodon is the leading candidate and efforts to support "traditional values" play well among his electorate, says Artiom Zavadovschi, an activist with Moldova's only LGBT-rights organization, Genderdoc-M. The party's support is strongest among Russian-speakers and those who look toward Russia instead of the European Union.



Political analyst Petru Macovei agrees.



"The Socialist Party, which gives all possible support and promotion to [anti-LGBT] movements, is simply stoking social tensions," he told RFE/RL.



Dodon, a former Communist, has called for closer relations with Russia, including joining the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union. He was a featured speaker last month at the World Congress of Families gathering in Tbilisi last month.



On May 21, Moldovan LGBT activists and supporters tried to hold a march in Chisinau. The event was interrupted by egg-throwing counterdemonstrators, including Orthodox clergymen. Nonetheless, the organizers considered the event a success because it was the longest such demonstration they have ever managed to hold.



"We marched five blocks," Genderdoc-M activist Angela Frolov told media after the event.

RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson contributed to this report


NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said the military alliance is not seeking confrontation with Russia by bolstering its battalions in Eastern Europe.

"We are strengthening our collective defense not to provoke a conflict but to prevent a conflict," Stoltenberg said at a news conference in Berlin on June 2 with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Stoltenberg stressed NATO was not seeking a "new Cold War," but instead was striving for a "more constructive relationship with Russia."

Relations between Russia and NATO are already at levels last seen during the Cold War, largely over Russia's actions in Ukraine.

On May 30 in Warsaw, Stoltenberg said an upcoming NATO summit in the Polish capital will discuss bolstering the alliance's presence in Poland and other countries on its eastern flank.

"There will be more NATO troops in Poland after the Warsaw summit, to send a clear signal that an attack on Poland will be considered an attack on the whole alliance," he said.

Based on reporting by Reuters
A court in Ankara on Wednesday remanded 22 people in custody on suspicion of financing the "parallel state" terror group.

Eight others were freed on bail by the Sixth Ankara Criminal Court of Peace following a series of arrests across five Turkish provinces on Tuesday.

The suspects are said to have funded the Fetullah Terrorist Organization, also known as FETO or the parallel state, through a U.S. non-profit institution. The group is led by U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen, who is accused of attempting to overthrow the Turkish government through a network of supporters, known as Gulenists, within state institutions.

Another 16 people are still wanted, including nine thought to be in the U.S., according to a police source who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

Warrants were issued after the Financial Crimes Investigation Board compiled a file on the institution in Pennsylvania accused of funding his group. Gulen has lived in Pennslyvania since 1999.

According to the source, sums of $9,999 -- just below the level that requires reporting to the U.S. authorities -- were sent to the U.S.-based entity. Most was channeled through Turkey's Bank Asya, which was close to the Gulen movement until it was taken over by the government in February last year.

Turkish investigators believe the money was earmarked for spending on U.S. election donations, the source said.
Iran has officially announced it won't be sending pilgrims to the hajj this year, blaming Saudi Arabia for failing to provide what Tehran says is adequate security for the pilgrims.

The hajj has become a contentious issue as tensions between the two Middle East powers escalated after last year's hajj disaster killed at least 2,426 people, including more than 400 Iranians.

Said Ohadi, head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, said on June 2 that "Saudi Arabia knows it will pay a heavy price" for its behavior.

Since the 2015 disaster Iran had demanded additional security guarantees, but a second round of talks in Saudi Arabia this week failed to resolve the issue.

Ohadi said Riyadh sought to restrict the number of makeshift clinics Iran had wanted to set up for its pilgrims.

Based on reporting by AP
Tajikistan has sentenced two leaders of the banned Islamic Renaissance Party (HNIT) to life imprisonment while several others have received lengthy prison terms.

A court in Dushanbe on June 2 delivered life sentences to the deputy party heads Saidumar Husaini and Muhammad Hayit.

Eleven other high-ranking HNIT officials were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 14 to 28 years.

Zurafo Rahmoni, the party's lawyer and the only woman in the high-profile trial, was sentenced to two years in prison.

The group stands accused of conspiring with former Defense Minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda in a supposed armed bid to seize power in early September 2015.

The trials have been held behind closed doors. The relatives of the defendants say they all pleaded not guilty and asked for lenient sentences.

The authorities said Nazarzoda led attacks on a police station and an arsenal that killed at least 26 people. Nazarzoda was reportedly killed in an operation by government forces.

Authorities blamed the HNIT for organizing the mutiny, while the Supreme Court banned the party, designating it an "extremist and terrorist organization."

Party leader Muhiddin Kabiri, who now lives in exile, has rejected the accusations.
ON MY MIND

It is impossible to read the pieces featured below by William Courtney and Donald Jensen, Anton Barbashin, Maxim Trudolyubov, and Ilya Klishin, and not come to an inescapable conclusion: Vladimir Putin's Russia is repeating the mistake of Leonid Brezhnev's Soviet Union.

The Kremlin is again failing to understand that great power status and a strong, dynamic, and resilient economy are inseparable.

Foreign adventures, intimidating your neighbors, and playing spoiler to the West may provide a quick patriotic rush and catch your opponents flat-footed. But in the long run, the high is unsustainable.

Sooner or later, the illusion fades, the bubble bursts, and the reality of a third-rate economy dependent on commodities sets in -- usually too late.

Putin's glib dismissal of former Finance Minister Aleksei Kudrin's advice to dial down the conflict with the West and get on with reforming the economy was revealing. Putin said he would not "bargain with Russia's sovereignty."

He just doesn't get it. And probably never will.

LATEST FROM THE POWER VERTICAL BLOG

In my latest post on The Power Vertical blog, Putin's Little Hackers, I look at this week's arrest of a group of cybercriminals and ask: Was it a victory for law-enforcement? Or a recruitment exercise?

IN THE NEWS

Russia has detained 50 hackers suspected of stealing $45 million.

The mayor of Vladivostok, who was detained as part of a corruption investigation, has reportedly been flown to Moscow.

Mikhail Prokhorov has suspended negotiations to sell RBK.

Four Crimean Tatars suspected of terrorism have pleaded not guilty at their trial in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Three alleged members of the banned Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir have been detained in the Chelyabinsk region in Russia's Ural Mountains.

The Kremlin says it is still waiting for Turkey to apologize for shooting down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border last year and to pay compensation for the incident.

WHAT I'M READING

Friends, Allies, And Enemies

The Levada Center has a new poll out on Russians' attitudes toward the outside world. Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, and India top the friends list. The United States, Ukraine, Turkey, and Poland are the leading enemies.

A Crisis Of Scholarship

Vladislav Inozemtsev has a piece in Slon.ru titled: Nonsense and Lies: How Russian Scholars Are Losing Touch With Reality.

"From all sides, Russians are being bombarded not so much with disinformation as with pseudoscientific fabrications which then become the basis for public policy," Inozemtsev writes.

The Promise That Wasn't

Stephen Blank of the American Foreign Policy Council has a piece on The Atlantic Council's website arguing that the West needs to once and for all expose Russia's false NATO narrative.

"A staple of Russian, pro-Russian, and so-called realist narratives is that NATO not only reneged on its promises to not enlarge after German reunification, it also rebuffed all Russian efforts to integrate with the organization. To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, it is pretty to think so -- but that is not the truth," Blank writes.

"The integrity of the historical record is under attack, and defending it will help strengthen the foundations of European security. The false narrative peddled by Moscow and its supporters is not only factually wrong, it is morally and strategically corrosive. It is high time we defend that record and expose this deceitful narrative for the fraud it is."

Blank was, in part, reacting to a piece in the Los Angeles Times by Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson, an international security fellow at Dartmouth College, that argued "Russia's Got A point: The U.S. Broke A NATO Promise."

NATO's Test

In a piece in The New York Times, Steven Erlanger reports that NATO is struggling to"find a country to lead the last of four military units to be deployed in Poland and the three Baltic nations."

"Despite the growing threats, many European countries still resist strong measures to strengthen NATO," Erlanger writes. "Many remain reluctant to increase military spending, despite past pledges. Some, like Italy, are cutting back. France is reverting to its traditional skepticism toward the alliance, which it sees as an instrument of American policy and an infringement on its sovereignty."

The Great Power Complex

Former U.S. State Department officials William Courtney and Donald Jensen have a piece in U.S. News and World Report titled Russia's Great Power Choice arguing that Russia's actions in Ukraine are undermining its efforts to become a world power.

Likewise, Anton Barbashin's piece in Intersection magazine, Russia's Expensive Great Power Dreams, evaluates the Council of Foreign and Defense Policy's recent policy paper.

"For Russian foreign policy strategists, the economy is neither so important, nor comprehensible," Barbashin writes.

And on his blog for the Kennan Institute, Maxim Trudolyubov, editor-at-large for Vedomosti, has a post titled Everybody Wants To Be Great Again, which places Russia's great power ambitions in a global context.

"Everybody wants to be great again these days (perhaps for the admirable exception of Canada)," Trudolyubov writes.

"But few are ready to come up with openly irredentist claims on neighboring countries' territories and few announce their utter dissatisfaction with global and regional security arrangements, as Russia does. Few think that addressing economic problems is for losers, as the Kremlin appears to think. Russia has learned that using force pays."

What Is Putinomics?

Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Open Wall portal has a post up by Ilya Klishin that looks at the peculiar phenomenon of "Putinomics."

"Putinomics is the name given to a new type of economic theory -- where nothing adds up," Klishin writes.

The Pessimism Paradox

In a piece in BNEIntellinews, New York University professor Mark Galeotti examines "Russia's Pessimism Paradox."

"Objectively, Russias current economic problems are nothing like the crisis of 2008. But politically, what matters are not the facts but the feelings, and subjectively Russians are feeling distinctly pessimistic," Galeotti writes.

What's Going On At MK?

Moskovsky Komsomolets hardly has a reputation for voicing dissent. But it has sure been getting surly this week.

Just days after Moskovsky Komsomolets editor in chief Pavel Gusev published a column slamming the Kremlin's favorite television propagandist Dmitry Kiselyov, the newspaper ran a piece by political analyst Aleksandr Minkin taking on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
Parliament in Ukraine has passed judicial reforms that Westerns backers say are needed to fight corruption.

The changes aim to curb influence on the appointment of judges and limit their immunity in case of malpractice.

An entrenched culture of bribery in the court system is seen as a key roadblock to Ukraine's broader reform effort under a $17.5 billion International Monetary Fund bailout program.

The legislation was backed on June 2 by 335 lawmakers, 35 more than the required votes needed for changes to the constitution.

"There is no more important reform than judicial reform," President Petro Poroshenko told parliament. "This is proof that the country is being reformed."

The legislation was opposed by some lawmakers, including the servicewoman Nadia Savchenko, who returned home last week after spending nearly two years in a Russian jail.

Savchenko appealed to the parliament to keep its hands off the constitution, "or else the country will blow up like a hand grenade." She did not take part in the vote.

"Today we have a historic opportunity to carry out this judicial reform, to break the back of the current corrupt judicial system," the head of the opposition Radical Party, Oleh Lyashko, said.

One of the more important changes involves the establishment of an independent anticorruption and intellectual-property body within the next 12 months.

The new system also sets up an independent panel for selecting judges based on their professional merits instead of their political or business ties.

Poroshenko said more than 40 percent of Ukraine's current judges would not qualify under the new ethics system.

In a joint statement, the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn welcomed the adoption of the constitutional amendments and said they look forward to the implementation of a comprehensive reform of the judiciary enabled by today's vote.

Based on reporting by AFP and AP
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

There is no an ethnic conflict between Turks and Kurds in Turkey, the TRT Haber news channel quoted Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as saying June 2.

He pointed out that Turkey has a problem of terrorism, which is aimed at splitting the country.

Turkey will fight terrorism until it is eliminated completely, according to Yildirim.

Earlier, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that over 5,359 PKK members have been eliminated as a result of the operations against this terrorist group since July 2015. The president added that 355 Turkish servicemen were killed during the operations, which will continue until the complete destruction of the PKK.

The conflict between Turkey and the PKK, which demands the creation of an independent Kurdish state, has continued for over 25 years and has claimed more than 40,000 lives. The UN and the European Union listed the PKK as a terrorist organization.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
A new 120-bed veterans care center in Fauquier County will be named for the Puller family, honoring the legacy of Gen. Lewis B. Chesty Puller, one of the most highly decorated Marines in U.S. history; his son, Lt. Lewis B. Puller Jr. and former state lawmaker Linda T. Toddy Puller who pursued legislation to aid veterans.

Fauquier County, the Vint Hill Economic Development Authority and Vint Hill Village donated the land at no cost to the state, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said in a statement.

The new veterans care center will be a state-of-the-art facility providing skilled nursing care, Alzheimers/demential care, and short-term rehabilitative care, McAuliffe said.

I am also very pleased to announce that this care center will be named the Puller Veteran Care Center in honor of the multigenerational commitment by the Puller family to military service and veteran advocacy.

Construction is to start in late 2017 and be completed in late 2019. A similar center is planned for Hampton Roads. Together, funding for the projects is estimated at $96 million.

The Veterans Care Center in Northern Virginia will be the states third. The Virginia Veterans Care Center in Roanoke opened in 1992. The Sitter & Barfoot Veterans Care Center in Richmond opened in 2008.

Lewis Burwell Chesty Puller, a native of West Point, was a legendary Marine who was awarded five Navy Crosses.

His son, Lewis Burwell Puller Jr., was grievously wounded in Vietnam when he stepped on a land mine in 1968. He later won the Pulitzer Prize for Fortunate Son, his autobiography. Lewis Puller Jr., took his own life in 1994.

His widow, then-Delegate Linda T. Toddy Puller said at the time: To the list of names of victims of the Vietnam War, add the name of Lewis Puller. He suffered terrible wounds that never really healed.

The state senator, D-Fairfax, retired in January. She served in the House of Delegates from 1992-99 and had served in the state Senate since 2000.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Turkey will switch to the presidential form of government and a new constitution will be adopted in the country, said Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, the TRT Haber news channel reported June 2.

Yildirim believes it is politically incorrect to demand that the Turkish president not interfere in the political affairs.

He also said the current Turkish constitution doesn't meet the country's interests.

Earlier, a source in the Turkish presidential administration told Trend that adoption of a new constitution is very important for Turkey.

The source said it is necessary, first of all, that the new constitution gets vote of the Turkish parliament.

If the parliament isn't able to adopt a new constitution through voting, there will be a national referendum, added the source.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Go ahead, load up on the toppings at Sweet Frog on Thursday night.

Nearly 20 of the frozen yogurt companys Virginia locations are hosting a fundraiser from 6 to 8 p.m. benefiting Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals, which is partnering with the Miss Virginia program for the event. Sweet Frog is donating 25 percent of sales from customers who mention Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals.

Miss Virginia contestants will attend the fundraiser at the various locations. Sweet Frog is encouraging its young customers to dress in princess costumes for the event.

It is going to be a lot of fun, said Miss Greater Richmond Michaela Sigmon, who will be at the Sweet Frog on Forest Hill Avenue in Richmond on Thursday night. Sigmon had the idea for the statewide fundraiser after hosting a smaller event at the Carytown store in March.

Sigmon, 20, credits the hospital organization with saving her life when she was 3. Sigmon said she had been sick with a bad cough and her heart stopped beating. Her father resuscitated her, and her parents took her to the hospital, but the staff said she simply had fainted. Her mother called Childrens Miracle Network, whose doctors quickly convinced the hospital that Sigmon needed more care.

Her enthusiasm for the Childrens Miracle Network is infectious, said Michelle Finkbeiner, marketing manager for Sweet Frog.

She added: We are thrilled for the opportunity to share the Miss Virginia organizations commitment to raise funds and awareness for childrens hospitals across the county. The national Miss America organization also partners with Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals.

The money raised Thursday will be equally distributed among five hospitals in Virginia, including Childrens Hospital of Richmond at VCU, said Amanda Miller, who is leading the organizations fundraising efforts for the hospital network. The former Miss Virginia contestant is now a physician assistant student at Eastern Virginia Medical School.
A 14-year-old Dinwiddie County Middle School student was taken into custody Thursday morning after authorities found him with a pistol and the weapons loaded magazine.

There was not any threat directed toward anyone, said Dinwiddie Superintendent David Clark. He had the gun in his possession. It was in his pocket, and it was not loaded at the time.

The eighth-grader had placed the guns magazine in a separate pocket, Clark said.

The student was in a second period classroom late Thursday morning when the discovery was made.

Fellow students who learned the boy had the firearm alerted the schools principal, and the boy was placed into custody with assistance from the schools resource officer within five minutes, Clark said.

They directly went to the classroom, Clark said.

He said it wasnt immediately known what explanation the boy may have provided for bringing the gun to school.

He was charged with possession of a firearm on school property, underage possession of a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon, said Dinwiddie Sheriffs Maj. William Knott.

He is being held at Crater Juvenile Detention Center in Disputanta pending a hearing in Dinwiddie Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
A Henrico County judge has set a deadline in two months for prosecutors to decide whether a man accused of killing his parents on Easter will face the possibility of the death penalty if convicted.

William Roy Brissette, 22, of the 3800 block of Forge Road, is charged with two counts each of capital murder and use of a firearm in the deaths of Henry J. Brissette III, 59, and Martha B. Brissette, 56. If convicted, the punishment for a capital offense is life imprisonment or death.

On Thursday, Judge James Stephen Yoffy ordered Henrico Commonwealths Attorney Shannon Taylor to decide by Aug. 16 whether she will pursue the death penalty in the case.

Yoffy said this gives Brissettes attorneys, Jeffrey Everhart and capital defender Doug Ramseur, time to prepare their defense by the trial date, which was set for next June.

Brissette was in court Thursday and waived his right to a speedy trial. Unless waived, a trial must be scheduled within five months of an indictment to ensure the constitutionally guaranteed right.

Ramseur objected to the June 2017 trial date, saying it would take more than a year to prepare.

He cited information provided by David Bruck, a professor at Washington and Lee University and director of the schools death penalty defense clinic, who said it takes on average 20 months for a capital case to go to trial.

Bruck is an expert in the death penalty and represented Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He is now part of a legal team for Dylann Roof, the defendant in the Charleston, S.C., church massacre that occurred last June.

Ramseur originally asked for 18 to 24 months to bring the case to trial. Judge Yoffy insisted on keeping the June 5, 2017, start date but told Ramseur it could be delayed if he needed more time. The trial is slated to take two weeks, but Ramseur said it could take longer.

Its not just the gravity of the charges or the potential punishment that will draw out this case. William Brissettes mental health could come into play and require the opinion of experts. Ramseur said the defense has until 60 days prior to trial to notify the court of any psychological defenses.
The Hanover County Sheriff's Office is asking the public for help to identify a burglary suspect.

Deputies responded about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday to a burglar alarm at a business in the 11200 block of Airpark Road. Surveillance video revealed the suspect entered the business and stole merchandise.

The suspect is described as a white male with white facial hair. He was wearing glasses, a camouflage hat, a green short-sleeve shirt, dark pants and flip flops. He also appeared to have tattoos on his arms.
ROANOKE  Tens of thousands of electric cars were to be rolling off assembly lines by now at a Mississippi factory funded by millions of dollars in foreign money. But last year, GreenTech Automotive, the company Terry McAuliffe co-founded and described as part of a rebirth for American manufacturing, produced just 25 vehicles and sold none, according to federal records.

A total of 75 people worked at the plant in rural Tunica County and at the companys Virginia office  less than a fifth the number of employees the company projected in 2011. The operation lost money from 2009 to Aug. 31, 2015, the records state.

A GreenTech business plan pledges better days to come, but the federal agency that decides whether the companys foreign investors get green cards doesnt buy it. Company projections, a federal official wrote, are not credible by the preponderance of the evidence.

That conclusion helped prompt officials to reject an EB-5 green card application filed by a GreenTech investor from Inner Mongolia, China, according to a 34-page U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decision obtained by The Roanoke Times. The document provides a rare and deep look inside the struggles of the company McAuliffe left behind in December 2012 to concentrate on his successful run for governor.

His foreign business dealings before taking up residence in the Executive Mansion are being investigated by the federal Department of Justice, James Cooper, an attorney for the governor, said last week. The governor has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Cooper has said officials have mentioned the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register if they are seeking to influence the domestic or foreign policy of the United States on behalf of a foreign entity. CNN has reported that the Department of Justice investigation into McAuliffe began roughly a year ago. Federal authorities have declined to comment.

An inspector generals report published March 24, 2015, said McAuliffe received favorable treatment from former immigration services chief Alejandro Mayorkas in 2011, when the GreenTech chairman and future governor sought help getting EB-5 visas approved for foreign investors in his fledgling car company. Cooper said in an email to The Roanoke Times that McAuliffes lobbying of Mayorkas is not a focus of the probe. The governors lawyer could not be reached for further comment on whether GreenTech is part of the investigation .

Asked earlier this month about GreenTech, McAuliffe replied: Ive been out of the company 3 years and I have no idea what theyre doing today.

***

Several months after losing the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2009, McAuliffe advocated for GreenTech to Virginia economic officials, who raised concerns about the companys reliance on EB-5 money.

Under the federal program, foreign nationals who have invested at least $500,000 in a domestic business venture may receive green cards if they show their investment generated at least 10 jobs or comparable economic value. An investor seeking a green card may present either tax records of 10 qualifying new employees or a company business plan that demonstrates a need for 10 new employees and lists their likely hiring dates.

Nicholas Colucci, chief of the federal immigrant investor program, signed the decision that said companywide payroll at GreenTech, which operates an office in McLean in addition to the Tunica factory, totaled 75 people. The decision also dismissed a company projection that GreenTech would employ 125 people this year, 175 next and 250 in 2018.

GreenTech said three years ago it had lined up almost 150 EB-5 investors; the company would have needed to create at least 1,500 jobs, or exhibit the potential to do so, for those petitioners to win green cards.

That number seemed possible in the fall of 2009, shortly after McAuliffe joined Xiaolin Charlie Wang in founding GreenTech. The company touted plans to Mississippi officials to bring to the state a $1 billion plant employing 1,500 people.

A former Wall Street securities lawyer raised in China, Wang led the firm with McAuliffe, a Democratic fundraiser who guided longtime friend Hillary Clintons unsuccessful 2008 bid for the partys presidential nomination.

Following his earlier gubernatorial defeat, McAuliffe turned his pitchman skills to GreenTech, describing it as part of a wave that would reshape American manufacturing as well as automobile travel. A new line would feature two-seat, low-speed electric vehicles with ranges of 50 to 115 miles per charge.

GreenTech, McAuliffe predicted, would produce thousands of high-quality manufacturing jobs starting with the factory in Mississippi and possibly including a second plant in Virginia.

I want to create jobs here that will be around for the next 20, 30, 40 years, McAuliffe told an interviewer in 2011.

A site near Martinsville was included among potential locations for a GreenTech plant when McAuliffe first queried state officials about locating in Virginia. But GreenTech never came through when asked to provide Virginia economic officials with more information.

Tunica County, in Mississippis northwest corner, embraced GreenTech, hoping to diversify an economy built on agriculture until the 1990s, when casinos came to the region. A March 2013 GreenTech prospectus described investments of $73 million by 146 EB-5 investors. And the company sought more.

In mid-2011, state and local officials in Mississippi packaged loans, tax rebates, exemptions and other support worth at least $8 million for GreenTech, which agreed to invest $60 million and create 350 jobs paying at least $35,000 annually apiece by the end of 2014. A temporary plant in Horn Lake, Miss., hosted a celebration attended by former President Bill Clinton and then-Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in summer 2012.

Five months later, McAuliffe left the company. In fall 2014, with McAuliffe in the Executive Mansion and his GreenTech shares sold, the company finally opened its Tunica factory. The plant was smaller than expected. Hiring moved slowly. By the end of the year, GreenTech had reached neither its investment nor jobs goals, said Jeff Rent, a spokesman for the Mississippi Development Authority.

Last year, GreenTech asked officials to renegotiate its 2011 incentives deal, Rent said.

At this time, Rent said, there is not a modified agreement, but the state of Mississippi is working with the company to best protect its investment and to keep Mississippians working at the plant.

Local officials are undaunted.

When you come in and start a new business, Tunica Mayor Chuck Cariker said, theres always setbacks that you dont foresee. As long as youre working to meet the goal and obligation, Im glad theyre here.

***

Coluccis decision was less sanguine.

In a year when new-vehicle sales in the U.S. hit a record 17.5 million, GreenTech records showed that as of December 2015, the company had produced 25 vehicles  10 for demonstration, 10 for engineering and testing and five for marketing, according to the Colucci decision. GreenTech business plans submitted in the companys early years turned out to be unattainable.

The projections for this company have gone from, in July 2009, a factory, machine shop, office building, museum and residential housing while having the expectation of being able to produce 1 million vehicles a year, to the December 2015 business plan where GTA has produced 25 vehicles, the decision said.

Past struggles cast a shadow over company forecasts, Colucci wrote, describing GreenTech as experiencing a general lack of credibility from the failure to meet any projected timelines. Colucci raised doubts about the companys production targets of 2,050 vehicles in 2016, 6,200 in 2017 and 12,400 in 2018.

Regulators said they had yet to see proof of a market for the companys products, which include a gasoline-engine pickup and van and the electric MyCar, which is 5 feet shorter than a typical 14-foot American sedan, specifications show.

Neither federal immigration officials nor a lawyer named in Coluccis decision would comment on the document. The investor whose visa application was rejected could not be reached for comment.

Investors rejected for EB-5 visas can appeal but must have federal approval to enter and remain in the country. A GreenTech financial prospectus says investors denied green cards may request repayment of their investment.

Immigration services spokesman Steve Blando said investor petitions are judged on a case-by-case basis and denied for failure to meet specific eligibility requirements. He declined to summarize agency rulings on GreenTech investor petitions or to address the outcomes for other GreenTech investors who relied on the company meeting its business plans to back their visa applications.

Asked if he still wished GreenTech had located in Virginia, McAuliffe said: Its not fair for me to talk. Im not part of the leadership of the company.

Wang did not respond to multiple requests for comment left at his McLean office and another left at his Great Falls home. Minnie Xin, Wangs assistant, said Wednesday that he was out of the country on business. She said she did not know when he would return.

Xin said she could not locate a representative of Gulf Coast Funds Management, GreenTechs fundraising affiliate, to talk to a reporter. Gulf Coast is based in the same McLean office as GreenTech. The firm formerly was headed by Tony Rodham, Hillary Clintons brother, who traveled across China with Wang seeking EB-5 investors.

Eighty-five percent of EB-5 green card applicants in fiscal year 2015 were from China, according to the State Department.

***

Virginia economic officials have softened their resistance to EB-5 since McAuliffe took office, according to emails obtained by The Roanoke Times.

In 2015, a Shanghai law firm posted a Facebook ad soliciting EB-5 money for China-based UniTao Pharmaceuticals a few months after the company said it was idling a Petersburg project into which it planned to invest $22.5 million and hire 376 people. McAuliffe helped broker that deal, meeting with company officials in China to discuss a project in Virginia and approving a $1 million grant for the company. UniTao did not collect the grant.

Signed into law in 1990, EB-5 was largely obscure until the recent recessionary credit crunch sent investments under the program soaring. Concerns also began rising.

In April, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused two men and their companies of misusing portions of $350 million raised from EB-5 investors to build a ski resort and biomedical research plant in Vermont. A civil complaint outlined what regulators called a massive, eight-year fraudulent scheme.
Cuba lies 90 miles off Florida's coast. Vietnam lies on the other side of the planet. President Obama has visited both countries. The trips to Havana and Hanoi symbolized warming relations with Washington.

While in Hanoi, Obama authorized arms deals btween Vietnam and the United States. The U.S, could be selling ordnance to an entity it fought in a divisive war. Indeed, the Vietnam War continues to affect attitudes in the States, although the bitterness created by the conflict dissipated years ago. Sen. John McCain - a war hero despite Donald Trump's cowardly assertions to the contrary - has set an example for reconciliation. He has visited Vietnam and supports selling it defensive weapons.

China's belligerence has made Vietnam a potential American ally. The misconceptions that led to an misguided land war in Southeast Asia included assumptions that North Vietnam acted as a surrogate for Red China. The two regimes hated one another then and hate one anoither now. Vietnam could frustrate China's imperial appetites. Obama is playing the Vietnam card.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The Ankara-Berlin relations will greatly deteriorate following German Bundestag's adoption of the resolution on recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide", Yasin Aktay, spokesman for the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told Trend by phone June 2.

Aktay said that the Bundestag's decision will also negatively impact on the internal situation in Germany.

"The fact that the Bundestag has adopted an anti-Turkish resolution testifies that Germany has ignored Turkey's interests," Aktay added.

Germany's Bundestag (parliament) adopted a resolution on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide June 2.

Previously, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there has never been genocide in Turkey's history.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan also previously said that the events of 1915 were a difficult time not only for Armenians, but also for Arabs, Kurds and representatives of other nations living in the country.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
ORLANDO

If any single phrase can describe the marching orders for a Libertarian Party convention, it is Expect the unexpected.

Unlike the Republican and Democratic national presidential nominating conventions, which are pre-scripted with pre-determined outcomes, the Libertarian Partys quadrennial gatherings are loose and rough around the edges.

Everyone has observed how the two older parties conventions are rigidly controlled; they have become little more than a prime-time infomercial spread over three or four nights. For instance, when I covered the 1996 Democratic convention in Chicago as a reporter for Alexandrias Metro Herald, another journalist found a discarded script that specified the time that a spontaneous demonstration for then-First Lady Hillary Clinton would begin, and how long it would last.

This years Libertarian convention in Orlando had its nail-biting and forehead-slapping moments. The delegates collectively slapped their foreheads when, in front of a live television audience on C-SPAN, a declared candidate for party chairman performed an impromptu striptease on the podium. (He was roundly booed, and delegates called for his expulsion from the convention and demanded that his party membership be revoked.)

The nail-biting came in the balloting for presidential and vice-presidential nominations. As in previous LP conventions, the nomination required multiple ballots.

Although former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, the LPs 2012 standard-bearer, was widely considered to be the front-runner for the 2016 nomination, he faced vigorous opposition from four other candidates.

Johnson nearly won on the first ballot, but he came five votes short, within a few hundredths of a percentage point of outright victory.

Johnsons chosen running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, faced a rougher path. Throughout the convention, skeptics challenged Weld over his libertarian bona fides, even though he asserted that he has self-identified as libertarian since law school.

Many Libertarian delegates felt it was an imposition to nominate Weld, since by tradition, the convention has been charged with making an independent judgment about the tickets second place. Libertarians, unlike Republicans and Democrats, see candidates openly campaign for the vice-presidential slot in the weeks leading up to the nomination.

Despite opposition by Libertarian purists, Weld did eke out a second-ballot victory with just over 50 percent.

The Libertarian presidential and vice-presidential candidates complement each other and stand in stark contrast to their Democratic and Republican opponents.

Johnson, a triathlete who has climbed Mount Everest, is warm and unassuming, unlike the abrasive Donald Trump and chilly Hillary Clinton. When Jon Stewart created a moment of Zen for Comedy Centrals The Daily Show, he could have had Gary Johnsons lifetime of Zen mind  calm under pressure, firm in his convictions, indifferent to power for its own sake, and welcoming of criticism. (At one Q&A with delegates, Johnson requested hardball questions  and he got them.)

In comparison, Weld has the patrician bearing of a Boston brahmin, although he grew up in a middle-class Long Island family. While Johnson is thoughtful and given to self-deprecation, Weld is cerebral and reserved.

Both candidates are passionate about the issues they emphasize, and both showed clear affection to each other. Johnson frequently said that, when he was elected governor of New Mexico, Bill Weld was who I wanted to be when I grew up. The two connected intellectually and politically when both were members of the National Governors Association in the 1990s.

Weld also brings something to the ticket that previous Libertarian vice-presidential candidates did not: fundraising ability and broad connections within the higher echelons of politics. Johnson readily admitted that, in his entire political career, he has raised about $8 million, while Weld, he said, has raised close to a quarter of a billion dollars.

That money, if it is channeled to the Johnson-Weld campaign and the Libertarian Party, will be key to one of Johnsons primary goals: reaching the 15 percent threshold in public opinion polls that brings with it an invitation to participate in the presidential and vice-presidential debates in the fall. No third-party candidate has done that since Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, and Perot was something of an anomaly with quirkiness that both Johnson and Weld lack (as well as a personal fortune bigger than Donald Trumps).

Whether money and coverage by the news media can move Johnson and Weld toward that goal remains to be seen. If they reach it, however, Americans can count on a shift in the conversation about public policy and who is best suited to sit in the Oval Office. More often than not, a governor  Grover Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan  was up to the task.
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Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The adoption of the resolution by Germany's Bundestag (parliament) on recognizing the 1915 events as "Armenian genocide" is a big mistake, the 'YeniSafak' newspaper quoted Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as saying June 2.

He pointed out that this resolution is unacceptable for Turkey.

Turkey is neither ashamed nor fears its history, added Yildirim.

Germany's Bundestag adopted a resolution on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide June 2. Previously, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there has never been genocide in Turkey's history.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan also previously said that the events of 1915 were a difficult time not only for Armenians, but also for Arabs, Kurds and representatives of other nations living in the country.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
Troutville Trail Days boasts fun for the whole family this Friday and Saturday. The festival began in 2012, the same year Troutville was designated as an AT Trail Town. It celebrates the local community and outdoor activities in Botetourt County while providing a rousing welcome to through-hikers of the Appalachian Trail.

The festival features live music, food and vendors and is held at Troutville Town Park, with related activities taking place around the town. For more information and a comprehensive schedule, visit troutvilletraildays.org.

For the racers

Included in the weekends events is an annual race dubbed the Hiker Hustle 5K starting at 9 a.m. at Greenfield Recreation Park.

Awards will be given to the top male and female overall finishers, as well as to the top three male and female finishers in their designated age bracket. Winners will be announced at Greenfield Park and during Troutville Trail Days at Troutville Town Park.

The race costs $25 per runner. Packet pickup and on-site registration will take place from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m.

For the foodies

The second annual BBQ Cook-Off will stir up some friendly competition, with the first-place winner taking home $125 in cash. After the barbecue is judged, the public can purchase tickets to taste the remaining barbecue. Proceeds benefit Warrior Hike, which promotes the therapeutic effects of long-distance hiking for war veterans.

The cook-off is limited to 10 teams of one to six people each and requires a $50 entry fee.

Competitors will be supplied with a cooking space, lighting, water, sample cups, buns, plates and napkins. Participants provide their own pork butts/shoulders, spices, rubs, sauces, charcoal and cooker. Lighter fluid, propane, alcohol, pets and bad attitudes are prohibited.

For the music lovers

The festivals live music begins with a free concert Friday at 6 p.m. and continues with an all-day musical lineup Saturday.

From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., audiences can take in the sounds of the following bands: Live Remote from WYYD, Cody Dean, Another Roadside Attraction and the Blue Cedars.

Closing out the festival will be another free concert headlined by Firecracker Jam at 6 p.m. Saturday.

The concert series is held outdoors. Those attending are encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets.

For the through-hikers

Troutville Town Park offers free camping year-round to all through-hikers as they traverse the 2,200-mile trail from Georgia to Maine. The fire station across the street from the park offers free showers and laundry services for the hikers.

On Friday, events for the hikers begin at 4:30 p.m., with a free dinner provided by local churches at Troutville Town Hall. The community is encouraged to come and welcome the hikers during the event. On Saturday at 7 a.m., hikers can enjoy a free breakfast at the Masonic Lodge, provided by Boy Scout Troop 137, with free coffee from Land of a Thousand Hills. Afterward, hikers can take a free shuttle to the 5K race, where they can race for free.

After the race, a variety of vendors will offer the through-hikers free gear repair and support. That afternoon, Roanoke Parks and Recreation will offer stand-up paddleboarding trips to Carvins Cove with the Ridgerunners. Other amenities include a free charging station, a free tubing trip to the Roanoke River, first-aid supplies provided by the Appalachian Center for Wilderness Medicine and free foot washings.
The Supreme Court of Virginia has set a special session July 19 to hear arguments in Virginia Republicans lawsuit against Gov. Terry McAuliffes blanket restoration of rights order.

The states high court rejected Republicans bid to set the arguments for next week.

The GOP had filed a motion last week to seek expedited hearing of the suit against the governor with the aim of preventing Virginians whose rights have been restored from voting in the presidential election in November.

McAuliffe has estimated that at least 206,000 Virginians had their rights restored under his blanket order, issued April 22.

McAuliffe signed a new order Tuesday restoring the civil rights of all felons who had completed their sentences and finished supervised release between April 22, the date of his original order, and the end of April. That action added roughly 1,200 felons to the list of those who have had their rights restored.

Almost 5,000 ex-offenders who had served their sentences and completed supervised probation had registered to vote as of May 24, according to the commissioner of elections.

Republicans in the General Assembly filed a lawsuit May 23 in the Supreme Court of Virginia challenging McAuliffes authority to order the mass restoration of rights covering more than 200,000 felons who served their time.

The lawsuit, led by Speaker of the House Bill Howell, R-Stafford, and Senate Majority Leader Thomas Norment, R-James City, argues that McAuliffe exceeded his executive authority under the state constitution.

The Constitution of Virginia forbids this unprecedented assertion of executive authority, the filing states. Governor McAuliffes executive order defies the plain text of the Constitution, flouts the separation of powers, and has no precedent in the annals of Virginia history. The governor simply may not, with a stroke of the pen, unilaterally suspend and amend the Constitution.

The suit  filed against the governor, Secretary of the Commonwealth Kelly Thomasson and members of the State Board of Elections and Department of Elections  petitions the states highest court to stop implementation of the order and any subsequent mass rights restoration actions taken by the governor.

McAuliffe says he has authority under the constitution to take action. He blasted Republicans the day they filed the suit, saying they are attempting to preserve a policy of disenfranchisement that has been used intentionally to suppress the voices of qualified voters, particularly African-Americans, for more than a century.
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The resolution of the German parliament (Bundestag) recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide" will negatively affect Germany's relations with Turkey, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan said that first of all, it was decided to recall Turkey's ambassador from Germany for political consultations, TRT Haber news channel reported June 2.

Turkey will take the next step after a thorough acquaintance with the text of the resolution adopted by Bundestag, added Erdogan.

The German parliament adopted June 2 a resolution recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide".

Earlier, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the relations between Berlin and Ankara can worsen if the German Bundestag adopts a resolution recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide".

He added that there has never been genocide in the history of Turkey.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915.

While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

The resolution adopted by Germany's Bundestag (parliament) on recognizing the 1915 events as "Armenian genocide" is a shameful decision, read a statement issued by Turkey's Foreign Ministry June 2.

This anti-Turkish resolution is also groundless, said the statement.

"If Germany intends to learn the truth about the 1915 events, it should call for creating a joint commission to study those events," added Turkey's Foreign Ministry.

Germany's Bundestag adopted a resolution on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide June 2. Previously, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there has never been genocide in Turkey's history.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan also previously said that the events of 1915 were a difficult time not only for Armenians, but also for Arabs, Kurds and representatives of other nations living in the country.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2

By Orkhan Guluzade - Trend:

Europe wants to put pressure on Turkey by using the 1915 events, Mufit Yuksel, well-known Turkish historian and researcher, told Trend June 2.

He was commenting on the resolution adopted by Germany's Bundestag (parliament) June 2 on recognizing the 1915 events as "Armenian genocide".

He noted that Europe uses the Armenian diaspora as a lever of pressure on Turkey.

Bundestag's decision regarding Turkey was expectable, since a strong Armenian diaspora has long been operating in Germany, said the historian.

Yuksel believes that Turkey should strengthen its ties with the friendly countries in order to counteract the Armenian claims.

The Armenian claims regarding the 1915 events are a problem of not only Turkey, but also of the whole Islamic world.

Germany's Bundestag adopted a resolution on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide June 2. Previously, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there has never been genocide in Turkey's history.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan also previously said that the events of 1915 were a difficult time not only for Armenians, but also for Arabs, Kurds and representatives of other nations living in the country.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @o_quluzade
(jingdaily.com) - A new report by travel technology group Amadeus has a cautious outlook on the future growth of luxury trips taken by Chinese consumers based on the repercussions of Chinas ongoing anti-corruption crackdown. The report, which looked at high-end travel trends across the globe, found that Chinas luxury outbound travel market will experience larger overall double-digit growth at 12.2 percent compared to Europes until 2025. However, that growth will slow during this time period, while Europes will continue to steadily rise. The projected compounded annual growth rate for Europe until 2025 is 6.7 percent, while its 5.9 percent in the Asia-Pacific region. The trend, according to Amadeus, is attributed to Chinas slowing economy, but also to a likelihood that Chinese travelers will be hesitant to over-expose their riches. Fewer people want to be perceived as ultra-rich and attract scrutinyas illustrated by the nations declining private jet market, the report said. In other words, luxury travelers in China are more conscious about flaunting their wealth, and will make travel choices accordingly.
GJEPC India will present the India Pavilion at JCK Las Vegas for the 13th consecutive year with 50 leading gem and jewelry exporters. Scheduled from 3-6 June, the India Pavilion is spread across 81 booths, located at the Diamond Plaza and the Passport Location, says a release from the GJEPC.

The Indian manufacturers and retailers will exhibit a scintillating array of exquisite, gems & jewellery  including loose diamonds, loose coloured gemstones, plain gold jewellery as well as diamond and coloured stone and studded jewellery manufactured especially for the visitors of the JCK LV show.

GJEPC Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya said, India is burgeoning with vibrancy, passion and dynamism creating a niche for itself. The rise in the percentage share of Indian gems & jewellery imports to the USA reflects the retailers and consumers' growing interest for jewellery from India. Today India accounts for 23% of Jewellery imports by the USA. The platform like JCK Las Vegas plays an important role in further improving our trade relationship with the country.

Indias total exports worth of US$ 38.44 billion recorded for the period Jan-Dec 2015 out of which a staggering US$ 8,706.59 million export (23% of the total G&J exports from the country) were to the USA. Cut and polished diamonds exports accounted for US$ 6,381.06 million; Gold jewellery at US$ 1,681.62 million whereas coloured gemstones recorded exports worth US$ 82.73 million to the market.

This year GJEPC organized 4th India Diamond Week & the Indo-US Business Development Conference (BDC) last year. The next India Diamond Week is scheduled on August 16, 2016 at Diamond Dealers Club, New York.



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




United Airlines Expands Further into the Heart of China

United Airlines added flights into China's second-tier cities. (Photo : Getty Images)

United Continental Holdings Inc. will expand further into the heart of the Asian giant as they plan to connect more second-tier cities in China to the United States.



According to a Wall Street Journal report, the stakes are getting higher for the airline company after it began serving travelers from San Francisco bound to the Chinese city of Xi'an using its Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners fleet.



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In July, the company plans to roll out service to Hangzhou in another bid to maximize their relatively small, 219-seater air buses, which are perfect for long-range flights.



Apparently, United aims to establish itself further inside China, which is currently set to overtake the U.S. as the largest business-travel market in the world.



Why Flights to Xi'an Are Significant



In May, United made a significant step toward their target when they rolled out flights from the Asia-Pacific gateway in San Francisco to Xi'an.



According to Financial News UK, these flights will be the first trans-Pacific service to the Chinese city, which is a popular destination for travelers seeking tourist spots and commerce in the central region of China.



The outlet noted that the move was wise considering that Xi'an has an over 8 million strong population and is situated strategically at the eastern end of the Silk Road.



It is also a known destination for beauty-seekers since it is home to thousands of life-size hand-molded statues known as the Terracotta Warriors, who were buried with China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang.



The thrice weekly service is set to run between May 8 and Oct. 27 this year.



"United operates more nonstop U.S.-China flights, and to more cities in China, than any other airline and we expect the addition of flights to Xi'an to continue to create opportunities for trade and collaboration between our two countries throughout the U.S.-China Tourism Year and long into the future," United's vice president of Atlantic and Pacific sales Marcel Fuchs told PR Newswire.



China as Top Travel Market



United's goal is not without challenges as U.S.-Chinese aviation treaty minimizes flights to and from the country's first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai where opportunities are bigger.



But United will not let that hinder them as they see China as a treasure trove of travelers to and from the U.S.



"It's still a huge, hot economy. The middle class is really booming. And the secondary cities are the growth engine," United's vice president for Network Brian Znotins told WSJ.



The WSJ report cited a recent study conducted by the Global Business Travel Association indicating China's potential in unseating the U.S. as the world's biggest business travel market.



According to the study, China's international travel is steadily and strongly growing over time even though it only comprises 5 percent of the total local business.






The Cabinet office is slated to release the Japan consumer confidence index for May at 1:00 am ET Thursday. The index is seen at 40.1, compared to 40.8 in April.

Ahead of the data, the yen held steady against its major rivals.

As of 12:55 am ET, the yen was trading at 122.31 against the euro, 157.66 against the pound, 110.54 against the Swiss franc and 109.16 against the U.S. dollar.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Forex News
Results of a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll suggest the U.S. Senate election in California this November will feature two Democratic candidates on the ballot.

Democrats Kamala Harris and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., are leading in California's open primary, which will see the top two finishers advance to the general election.

Harris, who currently serves as California Attorney General, has the strongest support among likely primary voters at 37 percent.

Sanchez comes in second at 19 percent, while Republicans Tom Del Beccaro, Ron Unz, and Duf Sundheim garner single-digit support.

A notable 24 percent of likely primary voters are undecided, although they are split when asked if they would lean toward voting for a Democratic or Republican candidate.

California has not elected a Republican Senate candidate since former Senator Pete Wilson, R-Calif., was re-elected in 1988.

With the election in November potentially featuring two Democratic candidates, Bloomberg News reported that Republican consultants are talking up Sanchez.

Sanchez is seen as the more moderate of the two Democrats and has joined Republicans on some issues during her time in the House.

The survey of 984 likely primary voters was conducted May 29th through 31st and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
DR Customs V15 Cafe Racer looks radically different from a stock Bajaj V15 commuter motorcycle

Bajaj Auto launched its V15 commuter motorcycle in India back in 2016 before giving it an update by 2018 end. Ex-showroom prices started at around Rs 67,000. However, owing to poor sales, it had to be temporarily discontinued later in 2019. Bajaj operates in multiple countries across the world including Peru, which got its first Bajaj dealership in November 2014.

It is a known fact that Bajaj products have got an overwhelming fan following in India. This seems to be true for foreign markets as well. To exemplify, here is a Bajaj V15 that has been modified into a cafe racer by Peru-based DR Custom. It comes with a long list of modifications and DR Custom has another example dubbed as N51 Bajaj V15 Cafe Racer. Either customisation is different from each other by a slight margin.

One must appreciate DR Customs expertise in creating a completely different product from an unassuming donor motorcycle. It follows a neo-retro design philosophy with backings of chrome, silver and gloss black. Except for its power plant, no other major component remains in stock format. Instead of V badges on either side, DR Custom opted for a VIKRANT lettering in a classy font.

DR Custom has employed stainless steel clubman handlebars (complete with bar-end mirrors), above which a twin-pod analogue instrument console rests. Braking and de-clutching duties are done by CNC 7/8 aluminium levers. A full-LED headlamp with integrated turn signals alongside, other minimal lighting systems, carries forward its neo-retro theme. Twin stainless-steel exhausts (with custom resonators) and other CNC aluminium components contribute a lot to overall aesthetics. To finish off, DR Custom has added a custom single-seat configuration, towards the end of which hangs a tail-tidy registration plate.

Interestingly, DR Custom has left its wheels untouched albeit shod with bigger tyres: 120/90 R18 (F) and 140/90 R16 (R). As mention before, there are no changes to its engine department. An output of 12.8bhp and 13Nm is generated from a 149.5cc air-cooled single-cylinder motor that is coupled to a 5-speed transmission. A lesser Bajaj V12 version was initially available in India and certain other markets. It had a 124cc air-cooled engine, good for 10.5bhp and 10.9Nm.

DR Custom had listed its cafe racer mod for sale a long time ago on Facebook. By now, it would have most likely reached a new owner. It was advertised for an asking price of 6,500 PEN (Peruvian Nuevo Sol) which roughly converts to Rs 1.41 lakh or the price of a new Bajaj NS200 (on-road).
Global NCAP has conducted first of its kind car to car crash test. This crash test reveals the double standards in car safety applied by car makers.

Getting a Global NCAP rating may or may not be on everyones minds, but its essential to understand what the data points of a result indicate. Global NCAP Car to Car crash test is one of a kind but hopefully becomes standard practice in many countries, including India.

Global NCAP crashed the 2019 Nissan NP300 Hardbody sold in Africa and a second-hand Nissan Navara NP300 manufactured in Europe in 2015. The video demonstrates that the new African Nissan crash test dummy would have likely sustained fatal injuries. The other would have likely walked away from the crash. The old European car features a crash avoidance anti-skid system, and Electronic Stability Control (ESC), which isnt seen in the model sold in Africa now.

As crash tests are a study at predetermined speed and path, the outcome indicates what can be. And this offers an insight into the crashworthiness of a vehicle. CEO and President of Global NCAP, David Ward says this particular test uniquely illustrates the double standard in vehicle safety performance between models sold in Europe and those sold in Africa.

The concern though highlighted far far away is one that plagues even India. For example, Maruti Baleno made in India for Indian market, is about 80 kgs lighter than Baleno manufactured in India for export / Europe market. Though it is not clear as to why there is such a huge weight difference, a crash test between Baleno sold in India vs Baleno sold in Europe can surely give some answers.

As the automobile market is still growing in India, and not as developed as a number of European nations, the focus on safety has been negligible, and it is only now that a dialogue around it has begun. In fact there are just over 25 cars that have any sort of a crash test rating that is relevant to India. When it comes to features, India too has always dealt with the handout of stripped cars.

In Africa, the test output shows the new Nissan Hardbody perform significantly worse than the used European Nissan Navara. The simple observation in this case is a new car, which one would expect to have a better body, shell and tech isnt necessarily safer. This would mean a region thats on the receiving end of such cars would actually be safer if it relier on used car imports from regions with tougher regulatory requirements for safety, and environmental performance. Sounds bizarre but this is true.

Executive Director of the FIA Foundation, Saul Billingsley asks an important question. Does Nissan believe an African life is worth less than a European life? The answer may not be this straightforward though. Its the same reason that plastic and toxic waste gets offloaded on lesser nations. This is a global problem thats pervaded all business and growth, and car crashworthiness and safety is just another casualty in the larger scheme of things.

Global NCAP is concerned as it aims towards a 2030 target of halving road deaths. For this to be a reality, the governing body says, we must stamp out this kind of unethical behaviour by some in the car industry.

Willem Groenewald, CEO of the AA said, We have for a long time been concerned that vehicles available in Africa are inferior to those in other markets such as Europe and Asia, and these results seem to confirm that concern.

He further explains the result indicates complete disdain for African vehicle consumers and their safety in favour of profit. There is a need for stricter regulation of standards so as to not allow inferior vehicles to be sold in Africa. While such test results do generate interest around a dialogue, they may not necessarily impact buying immediately. In the backdrop of sales slowdown, Maruti Suzuki continues to dominate the market in terms of sales despite not providing customers crash test results. Of course it helps that MSIL has a large vehicle portfolio. Mahindra and Tata have gotten a few of its vehicles crash tested. Mahindra XUV300 is now recognised as Indias safest car. However, its yet left to be seen if this can help the car sell in greater numbers than it is at present.
Toyota is in the process of deriving crossover variants of its popular hatchbacks and sedans to keep up with global trend

The auto giant recently premiered that Yaris Cross which which will share its platform and components with its hatchback sibling. The company is also reported to be working on a slightly larger crossover based on the new Corolla.

It was recently discovered that the trademark Corolla Cross was filed in Australia two years ago. A heavily disguised prototype was seen testing in Thailand a few days ago, indicating that the Toyota Corolla Cross is in advanced stages of development.

Also Read  2020 Toyota Corolla Gets 5 Star Safety Rating

It seems that the test mule is donning RAV4 body panels as a decoy. If the Yaris Cross is anything to go by, the Corolla Cross can be expected to feature a fresh styling. While the interior too is expected to feature fresh styling, we expect the crossover to share a significant number of components with the existing Corolla.

The powertrain lineup is expected to comprise 1.8-liter and 2.0-liter petrol hybrid systems which are employed by a range of Toyota products across the world. Toyota is also likely to introduce an all-electric powertrain. The SUV will be based on the modular TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture). One can expect the upcoming Toyota to be equipped with comprehensive suite of advanced driver assistance systems.

With customer preference turning towards crossovers steadily, it is imperative for automakers to configure their product lineups accordingly. The Corolla may be the best selling car in the history but if it doesnt adopt the crossover avatar, the nameplate may slowly fade away into oblivion.

In global markets, it will be positioned between the C-HR and RAV4. South East Asia, Australia, North America and Europe are expected to be the primary target markets. It is too early to say if Toyota Kirloskar Motor will launch the Corolla Cross in India but if it does, the vehicle would be positioned to take on the likes of MG Hector Plus, Jeep Compass, Tata Gravitas, etc.

Also Read  Toyota Corolla Discontinued in India

The Toyota Corolla Cross is expected to be ready for its international debut in late 2021 or early 2022. Given that it will be a Corolla, one can expect it to emerge as an important volume spinner for the brand. Rivals like Hyundai and Honda may adopt a similar strategy and migrate their existing hatchback and sedan nameplates (like Elantra, Accord, etc) to crossover platforms.
Suzuki Motors global sales have been on a decline. Their production in home market Japan, fell for the 21 straight month. Similar is the situation of Suzuki in other global markets, except for India. Here, 2016 will see Maruti, a subsidiary of Suzuki, produce double the number of cars Suzuki has produced.

Suzuki is all-set to end the year 2016 with annual sales of about 7.65-7.75 lakh units in Japan, while its subsidiary  Maruti is on its way to end the year with sales of 15.2-15.5 lakh units. Suzuki owns 56% stake in Maruti.

In Japan, Suzukis production this year is lowest in about 5-6 years. But in India, Maruti has been reporting record growth, year after year. Not only Maruti is improving domestic presence, they are also exporting new cars to newer markets. For example, their new Baleno hatchback is exclusively made in India, and exported to the world. It is also the first car Maruti has exported to the home country of its parent.

India is expected to see an increase in the production of Suzuki cars even further as the company will setup their first plant in India which will be 100% owned by them. This is being setup in Gujarat, and will start production by February 2017. Cars produced at the Suzuki plant will be sold in India as well as exported.

Suzuki in India

The interesting point to note here is that Suzuki will be operating as a completely different organization than Maruti Suzuki. This means that Maruti will have to buy cars from Suzuki, which are produced at the Gujarat plant and then sell to customers. This transaction is expected to result in higher profits for Suzuki.

At the same time when Suzuki is finding it difficult to stop decline in sales, it is also contending with a scandal back home, which emerged earlier this year. The company has pleaded guilty for having misrepresented fuel efficiency figures on as many as 16 of their cars.

Suzuki blames the 2008 global financial crisis for this, but states that it was not done to cheat buyers. Suzuki admitted to use of deceptive measures for getting fuel economy of their cars. Suzuki claimed that windy conditions at the companys seaside testing grounds made it mandatory to test some vehicles in the lab rather than outdoors as stipulated by the Government.

via ET Auto
China is dubbed as Europe's drug wholesaler. (Photo : Getty Images)

A report from the European Union dubs China as the fastest growing drug wholesaler of Europe, citing the Asian countrys rapidly expanding pharmaceutical industry as a major player in international drug trade.



According to the EU Drug Markets Report 2016 posted on Europol's official website, China is already "the chemical and pharmaceutical wholesaler and retailer of new psychoactive substances to the world."



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The South China Morning Post said that the EU report scrutinized the drug markets all over the world and found that China's increasing pharmaceutical production may serve as a breeding ground for illicit drug abuse and trade.



The EU Report



"The report illustrates the widespread impacts of drug markets, how they are related to other criminal activities, create a strain on government institutions, and have a serious impact on legitimate business and the wider economy, not to mention the negative consequences for neighborhoods, families and individuals," the report's introduction stated.



It presented the dynamics of the entire trade process in the main drug markets in Europe, beginning from the point of production "to the consumer and all points in between."



It also considered outside forces that affect the entire drug situation in the continent and warned authorities that there may be an increase in criminal activity due to the massive profits, low production risks, and emergence of new psychoactive substances, which are primarily produced in China



China's Pharmaceutical Industry



China's pharmaceutical industry continues to grow as 66 Chinese herbs have recently been listed in an authoritative reference for quality control of medication in the EU known as the European Pharmacopoeia.



According to the Xinhua News Agency, this list only includes high-quality medications and herbs that have passed the EU's standards.



Dr. Gerhard Fran, the chairperson of the European Pharmacopoeia's Traditional Chinese Medicine Working Party, explained that this simply means that the herbs have been accepted in foreign markets, expanding the reach of local Chinese drugs.



But with this good news comes a grave consequence as China is singled out in the study conducted by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol.



Return of Ecstasy



A recent report from the China-based EMCDDA indicates that ecstasy has made a comeback and it appears to be targeting the youth.



"The return of MDMA [or ecstasy] as a common stimulant of choice for young people is illustrative of some of the new challenges posed by the contemporary drug market," the agency told the Xinhua News Agency in a statement.



The agency said that more than 2 million people aged 15 to 34 years old were found to have used ecstasy last year, a significant increase that may be due to the dealers' new-found strategies in production and distribution.






Shenzhen is a bustling city for telecommunication companies and other firms, but it is seeing the exit of many of them recently. (Photo : Getty Images)

Mayor Xu Qin of Shenzen refutes media reports that huge telecommunications companies such as ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies have plans to follow about 15,000 other firms that have already left the city due to the increasing property and labor costs.



Situated in the Guangdong Province of South China, Shenzhen has been renowned as one of the primary technology hubs in the country for years. However, the recent increases in operational costs forced many companies to depart and move to other cities.



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During an interview on Sunday, Xu stated that Huawei has already submitted its company development plan to the city government, signifying that the telecom giant will not leave Shenzhen any time soon.



However, it is true that ZTE is on the works of transferring its assembly business and phone production to Heyuan.



Both telecom giants cooperate with Shenzhen in its counterpart assistance program, according to Xu, who implied that the companies and the city government have strong ties.



The Global Times reported that Shenzhen is gradually dropping its edge when it comes to costs and resources for these technology-oriented companies, despite the city being the birthplace of many high-tech firms.



"While ZTE enjoys the benefits of Heyuan government policies, the company also brings in a stream of tax revenues for the government," according to market analyst Song Ding of the China Development Institute.



Song also said that firms in Shenzhen have no option but to transfer their low-end business departments and chains such as customer service and manufacturing to cities that offer cheaper property rental and labor costs. However, they are likely to keep their main business departments in Shenzhen, a move that is being done by ZTE.



"The reason why those companies [in Shenzhen] have excelled is not only because they are hard-working--policy support for innovative businesses from the local government and stable public services have also played a key role," said Internet industry analyst Liu Dingding. He believes that Shenzhen remains attractive to many companies despite the recent loss of thousands of firms.


The government aims to lure more luxury spenders to Hainan. (Photo : Getty Images)

China plans to entice its citizens to spend their money shopping in a duty-free paradise located in Hainan, rather than splurge in other countries big cities such as Seoul, Paris, Tokyo and Milan. With over 60 beaches and several luxurious resorts, Hainan is a fine spot for duty-free shopping, according to market analysts.



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About 80 percent of the luxury goods of rich Chinese citizens are purchased abroad, according to Bain Consultancy.



Erwan Rambourg, an HSBC analyst from Hong Kong, said, "Whether it is Burberry or Richemont recently, many brands in the space have noted that the future of luxury demand will be about the Chinese and incrementally at home."



Companies do their best to keep the luxury spenders at home by providing access to world-renowned brands in the duty-free place in Hainan. Two of these firms include the China International Travel Service Corp. Ltd. and HNA Group Co. Ltd. The latter saw an increase of 160 percent in sales during the first quarter of 2016.



Meanwhile, the government plans to build more duty-free shopping centers across China. However, the current deceleration of economic growth and the recent reports of public officials demonstrating their wealth are both important factors behind the 2-percent drop in luxury good sales in 2015.



Reuters reported that since 2011, buyers can purchase duty-free goods worth up to 8,000 yuan or $1,220 biannually.



However, things changed since Feb. 2016 as the government allowed the customers to buy duty-free goods anytime with a maximum limit of 16,000 yuan per year.



Despite efforts from both private and public sectors, shoppers still notice that the duty-free shops in China offer less choices in products and brands compared to other cities like Seoul and Tokyo. However, many Chinese luxury spenders now prefer to purchase goods in local duty-free shops because of the cheaper prices.


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SACI Instagram: Statement on Diversity and Inclusion  South African Chemical Institute The South African Chemical Institute is committed to diversity and inclusivity in chemical sciences. The Institute opposes discriminatory acts or threats based on race, ethnicity, citizenship, culture, language, disability, age, religious or spiritual beliefs, political opinion, gender, sexual identity, sexual orientation and economic class. The Institute is dedicated (i) to endorsing excellence and scientific credibility across chemical sciences conducted in academic, industrial, and governmental institutions, and (ii) to nurturing the values of diversity, inclusivity, and equity in the chemical sciences in South Africa. Hence, SACI will continue to play a leading role in assuring the professional competence and integrity of chemists and fostering international collaboration whilst upholding inclusivity and diversity. Statement on Sexual Harassment  South African Chemical Institute The South African Chemical Institute will not permit any kind of sexual harassment (physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct) in the Institute or at events organised by or related to the Institute. The Institute is committed to and fully supports environments that are free of any form of unfair discrimination and harassment, including gender-based violence. Allegations of any form of sexual harassment will be dealt with seriously, expeditiously, sensitively and confidentially. Statement from SACI Council on tertiary training in chemistry as a result of disruptions to the 2020 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the professional body representing the interests of all chemists in South Africa, we recognise the challenges that the current COVID-19 crisis presents to all our members in academia, research and industry. We also acknowledge the challenges the current situation presents to our tertiary institutions and specifically the challenges presented by moving to online teaching. We applaud the efforts of all our members who work at tertiary institutions who have adapted and innovated to ensure that we can continue as far as possible with our teaching and learning of chemistry even when on campus face-to-face contact is not possible. Our tertiary institutions play a critical role in not only training the next generation of chemists, but they are also tasked with the important responsibility of ensuring that many people from other professions and disciplines are trained in the fundamental principles of chemistry. We reaffirm our belief that this training is essential, as chemistry is one of the central sciences. Key to this training is the practical component and laboratory based skills development. While we accept that this critical component of our training is not possible under the current situation, we strongly urge that plans be put in place to preserve this component of training as part of the curriculum as far as possible. In some cases, virtual laboratory tools can facilitate learning, but we believe that in laboratory practical training particularly for senior level courses should be preserved. SACI strongly recommends that at least a critical minimum practical experience should form part of the plans to complete the 2020 academic year at our tertiary institutions. We believe that this is essential to preserve the validity and integrity of the academic training programmes in chemistry. Latest Updates: Pay your SACI membership fees with SnapScan SACI Ties, Scarfs and T-shirts Periodic table ties and ladies scarfs R130 each. Periodic table T Shirt Short sleeve R180, Long sleeve R200 Please contact head office to place orders. There is also a courier charge of R150 per order for delivery.


By SA Commercial Prop News

Charles Wright, Stefauntti Stocks enterprise development director, who has assisted the board in awarding gradings, said giving a company a grade beyond its capability had a devastating effect on the country.



A presidential proclamation allowing the Special Investigating Unit to investigate a construction industry watchdog could open a can of worms.

The proclamation grants the SIU power to investigate government contracts that were awarded to companies that did not comply with the requirements set out in the invitation to tender.

The SIU has been ordered to look into practices at the Construction Industry Development Board, including the awarding of gradings.

The grading a contractor receives from the board determines the maximum value of the project for which it can tender. Grade 9 contractors are able to apply for contracts worth R130-million or more.

The SIU has also been asked to investigate if the process used to appoint a panel of service providers to conduct investigations for the board violated Treasury regulations.

According to the proclamation, the SIU should investigate the validity of construction work contracts awarded by state institutions to contractors, where these institutions relied on the unlawful or invalid registration as contractors in the register of contractors and contractor grading designations awarded by the board to those contractors.

The unit will also establish if board officials improperly disseminated confidential information.

The board yesterday stated that it welcomed the investigation and had requested it to counter allegations of fraud and corruption.

Charles Wright, Stefauntti Stocks enterprise development director, who has assisted the board in awarding gradings, said giving a company a grade beyond its capability had a devastating effect on the country.

The collapse of service delivery can be seen in every town, from roads falling apart to other vital infrastructure either not working or projects lying incomplete for years.

Tinus Maritz, a member of the boards advisory forum and head of Pretoria Universitys construction economics department, said the board raised the issue of corruption at a stakeholders meeting in Pretoria three weeks ago.

The board experiences huge difficulties in monitoring the countrys thousands of contractors. Its a capacity problem.

Maritz said contractors often acted as fronts and sold off contracts to competent companies at a profit.
By SA Commercial Prop News

New and carefully planned developments will play an increasingly important part in The Pivotal Fund's coming years, says the MD Jackie van Nieker.



Pivotal Fund's strategy of growing its property portfolio through property development is already paying off so well, Chief Executive Jackie van Nieker said.

The fund, which recently announced its financial results ending 29 February 2016, has a development pipeline of 674,000m.

Chief Executive Jackie van Niekerk said: Our focus remains on creating sustainable value for our investors by focusing on consistent growth through our extensive development pipeline, international investments and proactive management. Pivotal has a secure long-term development pipeline that was further bolstered with the acquisition of additional development land to the value of R494m,

The conversion of our secured pipeline to current development commenced at Loftus Park mixeduse development phase one, Kyalami Corner shopping centre phase one, Hill on Empire building A, as well as the redevelopment at Wonderboom Junction shopping centre, she said.

During the reporting period, the company grew its net asset value per share 23.19% to R22.80, ahead of market expectations.

Closing 5.71% lower at R16.50, the companys share price is trading at a significant discount to net asset value and some fund managers have deemed it to be a buy, saying it offers value.

The growth in our NAV per share was attributable to the revaluation of the income-producing properties, fair value adjustments on current developments and financial instruments, an increase in net working capital, and gains on foreign currency translation, said financial director Aaron Suckerman at the release of financial results for the year to February.

Pivotals market capitalisation was about R5bn when it listed and is now nearly R6bn. Its total assets increased 33%, growing to R13.8bn over the financial year.

Pivotal also attained R1.2bn worth of international assets, having had no offshore exposure previously, as it looked to diversify against risk. Post financial year-end, the fund has exposure to various African countries, and eastern Europes fastest growing economy, Poland.

As at February 29 this year, Pivotals combined property portfolio was valued at R11.3bn and R1.2bn for directly and indirectly held assets respectively. Pivotal has also concluded the purchase of its first asset held directly in the rest of Africa, being a 37.1% share in the Oando Wings Office development being built in Nigeria.

The fund also entered into an agreement with Mara Delta Property Holdings Limited, previously Delta Africa to incorporate its rest of Africa investments into Mara Delta and to invest up to R370 million in the company.

Pivotal is 45.8% geared, with R5.8bn worth of borrowings.

Suckerman said the company was well-insulated against economic risk. We believe we are wellpositioned to weather the current economic and political uncertainty by derisking our current development pipeline.

This was done through preletting activity, development contracts which are fixed so we are not exposed to currency fluctuations, and cash flows that are underpinned by quality incomeproducing assets which account for 74% of our property portfolio.

Listed property analyst Lawrence Koikoi said Pivotal was an attractive NAV play.

Pivotal delivered good sets of results, with strong NAV growth above guidance. It is encouraging to see that the company is diversifying into offshore, given slow growth in SA, while also maintaining a quality portfolio in SA.

Their South African office and retail vacancies are (among) the lowest in the sector at 2.2% and 2.0%, respectively. There seems to be value in the share price currently, if such good performance is maintained, he said.

Post year end Pivotal entered into a share sale agreement and a co-investors agreement with Redefine Properties Limited which will result in Pivotal acquiring approximately 6.06% of Echo Prime Properties B.V. (Echo) for a consideration of 31.07 million.

Echo owns a 1.18 billion portfolio of prime shopping centres and offices across Poland. The effective date of the transaction will be 31 May 2016.
By SA Commercial Prop News

In March, mayor Danny Jordaan apologised to Ward 41 residents for the decision to build toilets without houses.



Outcry from residents over the 'toilet city' in Despatch's Khayamnandi township prompts the government to focus on building more than 800 houses in the area over the next 10 months.

This will cost about R70-million, according to the Department of Human Settlements.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality decided two years ago to build toilets first in Khayamnandi as a way of eradicating bucket toilets, but delays in relocating peoples shacks to the area has led to the toilets being vandalised.

In March, mayor Danny Jordaan apologised to Ward 41 residents for the decision to build toilets without houses.

He said it must never happen again.

The Department of Human Settlements said it would pay attention to the toilet city and build 823 units in the area by March.

More than 4000 RDP houses would be built and services installed across the city over the next 10 months, it said.

This will be done through the Housing Development Agency (HDA).

The municipalitys acting executive director of human settlements, Mandla George, said the HDA had managed to get 23 contractors on site to meet its targets after months of negotiations with housing contractors over its database.

We are now ready to roll. In the end, it is the people of the city who are in need of decent shelter, George said.

Houses will be built in Joe Slovo West, Chatty, Soweto- on-Sea, Khayamnandi, Mandelaville, Walmer Gqebera, Tiryville, Missionvale, Kruisrivier, Ebhongweni and KwaNobuhle.
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More parents are sending their kids abroad to go on summer camps. (Photo : Getty Images)

Parents are sending their kids overseas to camps organized by professional organizations to have them gain new life experiences, according to top travel agency Ctrip. This is a current trend that breaks away from the common reasons of students going abroad, such as language studies or short tourist visits.



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"Before, study tours were basically focused on two aspects: trips to renowned universities or middle schools, or language skills. It was more like preparation for studying (long term) overseas," said Zhang Jie, head of Ctrip's overseas study tours. However, Jie noted that campgoers are focused on having novel adventures as they live for a week or more in another country.



The report by Ctrip also revealed that the Chinese students who plan to travel abroad for summer camps are three years younger than the travelers in 2014. The age ranges from 8 to 15 years old.



Study-tour bookings for summer camps are about 30 percent of the total overseas study tours booked by the parents with Ctrip this year. Meanwhile, more parents seem interested and are inquiring about summer camp tours abroad, as reported by China Daily.



International Admissions director Sun Kai of Sappo School in New York has the same opinion as Jie, and also said that the parents wanted their children to get into the activities that are not accessible or available to them when they are in China.



According to Sun, parents enrol their kids in summer camps that offer piano, martial arts, violin, ballet, pottery, and other activities. Many of these students come from Guangdong Province, Shanghai, Beijing and Shanghai.



"More parents hope short-term overseas study will give their children new experiences and help them to build knowledge of the unknown," said Sun. According to him, parents are expressing their willingness to allow their kids to go on paths of discovering their likes and dislikes.


A United Nations peacekeeper holds back voters as they try to form a line in front of a polling center on Feb. 7, 2006 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (Photo : Getty Images)

China is set to become the second-largest contributor to the United Nations peacekeeping costs between 2016 and 2018, just behind the U.S., making up for 10.2 percent of the total, the head of the U.N.s peacekeeping operations told the press on Sunday.



Herve Ladsous, U.N. undersecretary-general for peacekeeping operations, said that China is also the largest troop provider of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members.



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"Chinese units are well-equipped and well-trained," Ladsous said, adding that Chinese peacekeepers are prepared for the tasks and disciplined.



According to the U.N., the top three contributors between 2013 and 2015 to its peacekeeping operations were the U.S., Japan (10.83 percent) and France (7.22 percent). China placed sixth with 6.64 percent.



China will increase its contribution to the U.N. peacekeeping operations budget by 10.3 percent, surpassing Japan for the first time, Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the U.N., said in December.



The country will also pay 7.92 percent of the total U.N. regular budget from 2016 to 2018, making it the third-largest contributor among 193 member-states, following the United States and Japan.



China will shoulder its responsibilities as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, provided that the membership fee has been calculated in a just, impartial, and reasonable manner, Wang said.



In September, President Xi Jinping pledged to build a standby force of 8,000 peacekeeping troops. As of May 2015, 30,178 Chinese officers and soldiers have been sent to peacekeeping operations across the world, according to a report from the state-owned Global Times.



According to the report, Chinese peacekeepers have renovated and built more than 300 bridges and roads spanning 110,000 kilometers. They have also disarmed 9,400 landmines and explosives, shipped 1.1 million tons of materials, completed 450 patrols and 230 convoys, and treated approximately 149,000 patients.



In the future, the U.N. can work with China on peacekeeper training and bringing in modern equipment to peacekeeping operations, Ladsous said.



However, since Chinese peacekeepers are often assigned to the least developed areas in the country, they regularly face violence. Aside from gang violence, tensions and fighting among refugees from various ethnic groups or families, often involving large numbers of people and weapons, have put Chinese peacekeepers at risk. They likewise face constant lack of food and water, according to several media reports.



But despite these challenges, Chinese peacekeepers have a record of "zero repatriations, zero discipline violations and zero battle casualties," and have received praise from the international community, said Xu Naigang, deputy director of the International Cooperation Department at the Ministry of Public Security.


Fijis Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has sent his countrys well wishes to Samoa on their 54th anniversary of independence celebration.

In a letter to his Samoan counterpart Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Mr Bainimarama expressed his desire to see Fiji and Samoa strengthen bilateral relations, especially in the face of common challenges faced amongst Pacific nations, in particular the existing threat of climate change impacts.

Mr. Bainimarama also wished all Samoans happiness and prosperity.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has cautioned the leadership of the Africa Caribbean Pacific (A.C.P) concerning the future of the group.

Speaking on behalf of Pacific countries at the 8th A.C.P Summit of Heads of States and governments held in Papua New Guinea, Tuilaepa said the meeting was a defining moment for the group and they need to make informed and far-reaching decisions for a better future.

I am aware that the Eminent Persons Group under the able leadership of Chief Obasanjo will formally table its report during this Summit and that Council has considered and endorsed the Ambassadorial Working Groups Report of the Future Perspectives of our Group, Tuilaepa said.

Clearly, the merging of the salient and practical recommendations of both reports on key strategic issues such as foundation pillars to guide our work post 2020 is, in our estimation, the way to proceed.

But I caution against us taking decisions that we are not yet in a position to make regarding our future. There is too much at stake and too important a matter to be glossed over.

According to the Prime Minister, the A.C.P must construct a future that will strengthen global influence in key strategic areas utilizing the groups strength in numbers.

To this end, it is possible to envisage a post-2020 A.C.P Group as a cohesive force capable of articulating its shared concerns and interests in a participatory and inclusive manner at the global level.

A Group with strong and effective institutions geared towards speedy and timely decision-making and implementation. A Group focusing on and embracing its constituents and development partners, capable of demonstrating its value-added and utility. A Group that will forge new links and strengthen existing ones.

One thing is certain  we shall face many challenges that will test our resolve and resilience as a Group in the coming years. Some will be familiar; others will be new and untested.

But the common denominator is the imperative for us to meet them together and front-on with clarity of purpose and vision, unwavering commitment, renewed hope as was evident in Sipopo, and above all in unity and solidarity. There is no other choice but to succeed  it is a moral imperative and our duty to the people we are honoured to represent and to serve.

We are a Group steeped in traditions that cherish our diversity, seek to uphold the rule of law and the principles of democracy and good governance, believe in the equality of opportunities for all our communities and above all in seeing poverty become a thing of the past and the attainment of sustainable development.

We must never forget the hopes of our peoples, whether in the land continent of Africa, or the ocean continents of the Caribbean and the Pacific. For we all share a strong and common commitment to remove injustice and poverty.

In other parts of his address, Tuilaepa focused on the implementation of Agenda 2030 and Climate Change.

Climate change is an existential threat for all of our member countries that are low lying atolls. Population displacement  is fast becoming a reality and more importantly we must ensure that every avenue is explored to guarantee migration with dignity, should the need eventuate.

The world must realize and accept that saving small countries like Tuvalu and Kiribati from the adverse impact of climate change, is in effect saving our planet, he said.

The Sustainable Development Goals is our roadmap for the future. The A.C.P Group must learn from each other  share best practices and lessons learnt and wherever possible execute these responsibilities through south-south and triangular cooperation.

As a family, we need to strengthen our resilience not only to climate change but other exogenous shocks whether they be natural disaster induced or economic and social in nature. The land is what defines us. It is integral and a part of who we are.

Land rights, particularly in the context of developing countries, are inextricably linked with the right to food, the right to work and a host of other human rights.

In many instances, the right to land is bound up with a communitys identity, its livelihood, its very survival and a vital component of our particular way of life.
The University of Otago (U.O.O) has presented gifts to the National Health Service (N.H.S) in their efforts to continue building and strengthening the relationship between the National University of Samoas F.O.M and N.H.S.

The donation follows the recent visit to Samoa by a U.O.O delegation, headed by the Pro Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences, Professor Peter Crampton.

In presenting the gifts, the U.O.O was represented by Associate Professor, Dr. Faafetai Sopoaga and the N.U.S Vice Chancellor, Professor Fui Le'apai So'o, representing the Faculty of Medicine (F.O.M).

Dr. Sopoaga was in country to attend the Samoa Medical Association A.G.M and had been accompanied by Dr. Viliame Sotutu, a paediatrician and senior Clinical Lecturer in Paediatrics at the UoO.

Dr. Sotutu presented at the A.G.M and has given a couple of lectures at the F.O.M.

As it continues to develop and strengthen, N.U.Ss medical programme has welcomed a number of teaching staff recently from Otago to share in their areas of expertise and to support F.O.Ms growing curriculum.

Professor Peter Crampton, accompanied by a large delegation of senior academics and clinicians, in a visit two weeks earlier expressed the U.O.Os commitment to supporting the F.O.M, and also in a talk to the N.H.S staff while he was here, shared the strength of a developing Medical school was in its integration into the N.H.S and support within the Health sector.

Earlier this year in April, the University of Otago hosted Leituala Dr. Ben Matalavea, Clinical Director of Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital, and Dr. Malama Tafunai to build on Samoas collaborative networks with the University.

It was also a chance to welcome Dr. Tafunai as Otagos newest part-time staff member in P.I.R.S.S.U (Pacific Islands Research and Student Support Unit), to be its Samoa-based Clinical Senior Lecturer (Pacific Health).

The University of Otago is delighted to be coordinating this donation of a large shipment of medical and hospital supplies to NUSs new Faculty of Medicine and the national hospital.

Medical equipment, scrubs, sheets, blankets, and hospital gowns will provide much needed supplies for the NHS, and it is hoped it will assist in particular in areas of teaching.
Samoa and American Samoa are looking at setting up a Free Trade Agreement.

Although the details are still being ironed out between the two countries, the issue was one of the topics discussed during the inter island talks held in Apia at the beginning of the week.

The two Samoas Committee on Economic Integration Trade and Investment is looking at how to advance the outcomes of the latest meeting.

The meeting was co-Chaired by the Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour, Peseta Margaret Malua and the Director of the Department of Commerce in American Samoa, Fuiavailili Keniseli Lafaele.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer, Fuiava said the meeting was very positive for both countries.

We will be interacting throughout the two months on the results of this meeting and we will use that to put together an agreement, then we will present to the two governments before we inform the media and the public, he said.

According to Fuiava, the possible Free Trade Agreement does not mean that every trade transaction and activity between the two countries will be free of charge.

Right now we are looking at all the areas and possibilities that will allow the two countries to trade freely and easily, he said.

It would also be a trade that will not only cater for the needs of our countries but will also spur more industries and investments.

For example, the raw materials can be sourced by Samoa and we can add value to such materials and export the final materials to the U.S markets.

And thats why we couldnt come up with the agreement in this meeting. The meeting gave us the opportunity to discuss and share our ideas on how we can improve in terms of economic integration. And the results of this meeting will help us put together this agreement.

Fuiavailili said it will take them approximately two months to put together the agreement.

Speaking on the outcomes of the meeting, Fuiavailili described the 8th meeting as fact filled and fruitful. He said trade was the first item on the agenda of the meeting.

There were a lot of discussions on trade in terms of goods and services between the two Samoas.

According to Fuiavailili, the two Samoas have traded and conducted businesses for many years now, yet they have not effectively improved in terms of economic arrangements to facilitate our businesses.

Weve touched on ways that can allow the free flow of goods and services between the two countries. And after the discussions we are looking at dropping down the costs of duties on both sides so that we are able to facilitate more trade between the two countries. And like the Minister said yesterday (Monday), there is no more time for talk; it is time for us to make it happen.

Travelling between the two countries was one of the areas that they focused on during the meeting, said Fuiavailili.

We want everything to be easy and we had a very fruitful discussion on this particular area, he said.

This issue has been a concern for many years. And discussing and sharing our ideas on how we can improve, can help us address this issue. Because the two countries share the same objective of facilitating trade and investment and creating opportunities for our countries.

However, Fuiavailili said the main concern is that American Samoa is still part of the United States.

Us being a part of the U.S means that there are certain rules and regulations in terms of immigration. However, we also control our own customs and immigrations to the extent that we can make things easier for our people to travel from Samoa to American Samoa and vice versa.

Employment opportunity is one of the main issues that was discussed during the meeting, said Fuiavailili.

Fuiavailili said that there is a need for man power in American Samoa. He said that 80 percent of the work forces in American Samoa are citizens of Samoa.

So there is no doubt that there is man power available here in Samoa, he said.

But there is a greater need for man power in American Samoa for we are developing in the telecommunication areas. And in an event where we will be looking for skilled workers or experts in this area, the nearest place where we can look to provide such man power is Samoa.

The development in I.C.T means that we are developing our knowledge based industry or internet and we will need more educated people for this and Samoa is definitely the place to look for workers.

Speaking of technology and internet, Fuiavailili said that they have their eyes on the Samoa Submarine Cable with a lot of interest.

This will significantly support us and our efforts to invite telecommunication based industry to the territory. We will require skilled people, and if American Samoa cannot provide the labor force then we will have to ask Samoa to help us.

All in all, Fuiavailili strongly believes that both countries will significantly benefit if we put the outcomes of the discussions into actions.

Communication makes the world go round, he said. And were more than just communicating.

In these meeting we get to discuss and look at ways in which we can help improve our business and economic development for the benefit of all our people.

We cannot expect sustained opportunities at the international level when the opportunities between our own two countries have yet to be fully realized.
Parliament observed a minute of silence to honour the memory of fallen colleagues on Tuesday.

It happened at their makeshift base at Tuanaimato when it reconvened for the first time since the swearing in of this Parliamentary Term.

The former M.Ps honoured included Vaeolenofoafia Tapasu Leung Wai, Tuala Falenaoti Tiresa and former Speaker, Leota Leuluaialii Ituau Ale.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was not in attendance as he was in Papua New Guinea to attend an A.C.P meeting.

But Speaker of the House, Leaupepe Toleafoa Faafisi, called for the honour. He expressed his sympathies to the families of the former members, thanking them for their services to Samoa.

He also asked the Assembly to observe a moment of silence to honour the M.Ps.

Vaeolenofofia was an M.P. for Aana Alofi No. 3 from 2006 to 2011.

He was an Associate Minister for the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Tuala entered parliament on 14th May 1996 to 2001 as the M.P. for Gagaemauga no2.

She was a member of parliamentary committees.

Lastly was Leota Leuluaialii who served four parliamentary terms and he was also appointed the Speaker for one of those terms.

Leota entered parliament in the year 1970 and lost his seat when he was unsuccessful in the 1996 general elections.
A Chinese laborer smokes a cigarette at a local market on Sept. 26, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Photo : Getty Images)

China has reversed its stance on a proposed national smoke-free law, saying it now plans to grant exemptions to restaurants, bars, hotels and airports.



Under the latest version of the Ordinance on Smoking Control in Public Spaces, restaurants, bars, hotels and airports will be allowed to set aside smoking areas, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday citing insider sources.



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The changes are a major departure from the version put up for public consultation in Nov. 2014, which proposed a ban on smoking in all indoor and select outdoor public spaces.



Bernhard Schwartlander, the World Health Organization's (WHO) representative in China, said the WHO was worried by the changes.



"You see again and again in the world such exceptions built in the law and it doesn't do much to protect the health of the people from second-hand smoke," Schwartlander said. "A law that has so many exceptions can't be enforced. We have learned the best law is one that is 100 percent smoke-free. That is very simple and clear."



With an estimated 315 million smokers in the mainland, China is the biggest producer and consumer of tobacco products. And roughly 700 million people are routinely exposed to second-hand smoke, said the WHO.



Tobacco regulation in China has proven to be difficult as the industry is state-owned and lucrative, generating more than 1.09 trillion yuan in profit and tax revenue for 2015 alone.



Some cities already have strict laws banning smoking in all indoor public areas and "we'd rather have no law at all than have a national law that says it is OK to smoke indoors," the Post reported, citing a national health official.



Eighteen mainland cities have already implemented municipal smoking bans since 2008, with Beijing's being the strongest. The law, introduced in the capital in June the previous year, complies fully with the WHO's call for a complete ban on smoking in all indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public areas and other public places.



A year after it went into effect, smoking in indoor public areas in Beijing fell from 23.1 percent to just 6.7 percent, and smoking in restaurants dropped from 40.3 percent to 14.8 percent, said Fang Laiying, director of the Beijing Health and Family Planning Commission.


Life in Lhasa (Photo : Getty Images)

Sexual relationship between teachers and students recently became headlines in China, including a sex video of a male Changzhou University professor having sex with a female student inside the classroom.



Another one involved a teacher in a Nanjing university who harassed 14 female students into taking half-naked photos. It is the sexual harassment of students by teachers which should be banned and not romantic relationship between the two, 90 percent of Chinese netizens said, based on social media comments.



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The comments were made in response to a proposal by Yan Yiming, a Beijing Institute of Technology professor, who wrote an article published on Monday in China Youth Daily. In pushing for an explicit ban on romance between teachers and students, Yan said it had become a problem in Chinese higher education, reported Global Times.



He cited a similar ban existing in the U.S. In opposing the professors suggestion, some netizens pointed to known Chinese figures in similar situation. One of those cited was Lu Xun, a 20th century writer who had a son with one of his students, reported NDTV.



The following day after the publication of Yans article, the Beijing Times, in a commentary, noted the basis of the U.S. ban on romance between teachers and students is based on feminist theories that dominate American society. Chinas tradition is shaped by a different understanding of what is love, which makes it wrong to ape western values.



In 2014, the Ministry of Education issued a directive banning teachers from sexually harassing their students. But it did not explicitly state that a teacher-student romance is forbidden.






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Newborn panda cubs lie in baskets at Ya'an Base on Aug. 21, 2015 in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, China. (Photo : Getty Images)

A global nature conservation group will assess the status of the giant panda after a Chinese survey found the population of the threatened species in the wild jumped by nearly 17 percent in the space of a decade.



The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a Swiss-based organization that classifies the rarity of animal species on a seven-point scale, announced on Tuesday that it is carrying out an reassessment of the status of the giant panda, the London-based Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.



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"The bear-specialist group is carrying out an assessment of the giant panda's status, based to a large extent on results of [China's] fourth national survey, as well as an assessment of habitat conditions," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the IUCN's red-list unit.



According to Hilton-Taylor, the group will assess various information including population sizes and trends from the past and projected into the future.



"The [assessment] group has also been investigating potential effects of climate change," he added.



China says its efforts to conserve the panda, its national animal, and expand its natural habitats in Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces are having a real impact. According to the fourth national panda census by the State Forestry Administration, the number of wild giant pandas had increased by nearly 17 percent from 1,600 in 2003 to 1,864 in 2013.



Chinese officials are hopeful that the IUCN will downgrade the animal from being "endangered" to merely "vulnerable"--a lower level classification on a scale ranging from "extinct" to "least concern."



"Scientifically, the wild population is increasing and the natural habitat is expanding," a source with "direct knowledge" of the possible change told the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong daily.



However, Lu Zhi, a professor of conservation biology at Peking University, told the Post that, despite the reassuring figures, any decisions on the change of status of the giant pandas should be done cautiously as its habitats are fragmented and there is a loss of pristine habitats from road construction.



The IUCN also expressed caution over the reassessment of the giant panda as it is not yet complete and "no results are available." The organization did not say when an announcement would be made.



Preserving the giant panda population has become a matter of national pride in China, whose conservation efforts are being hampered by the panda's notoriously low reproduction rates. Several hundred animals are also held in captivity in zoos worldwide.


The power of the Supreme Court has long been a sore point to critics who dislike the idea of lifetime-appointed judges with a supreme power to overturn the laws produced by Congress.

Writing for the Post in 1916, Reuben Melville Wanamaker argued that the Court was defying the will of the people, as reflected in the work of their representatives. Melville, a judge on the Ohio Supreme Court, was particularly outraged by the federal courts broad interpretations of the 14th amendment. The 14th Amendment may not be as familiar to Americans as the 1st and 2nd, but it has continued to make a significant impact on Americans lives.

Originally, Congress passed the 14th amendment to guarantee the civil rights of black Americans recently freed from slavery after the Civil War. Wanamaker felt the amendment had been little help to black Americans, and that the Supreme Court had used the amendment to protect the interests of corporations. Wanamaker was particularly angered by the Supreme Courts opinion that corporations had constitutional rights as people did and were entitled to equal protection under the law guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.

In the 1886 case Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific, the Supreme Courts chief justice stipulated that the equal protection rights guaranteed by the 14th Amendment applied to corporations as well as people. Today, any act of Congress, unless otherwise stated, equally applies to corporations, associations, firms, and other legal entities as it does to individuals.

So when Mitt Romney said, Corporations are people, my friend, in 2011, he was only stating a legal fact.

Recent court decisions have taken the principle of corporate personhood even further. In Citizens United v. FEC (2010), the Court ruled that corporations have the same rights as people to spend money to influence the outcome of elections. And the Courts 2014 ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby acknowledged that a business may hold a religious belief that can exempt it from federal laws.

Having been with us for well over 100 years, the corporations-as-people conundrum will not soon fade away. Nor will the arguments, made by Wanamaker and others, that the Supreme Court exerts too much influence on the shape of the government.

But in his article, Wanamaker proposes a check on the Courts ability to overturn the work of the legislature. Congress, he claimed, could require the Court to meet a higher standard of concurrence before ruling a law unconstitutional. Instead of acting on simply a one-vote majority decision, the Court would need to obtain a three-fourths vote.

We, the People, or We, the Judges?

By R.M. Wanamaker, Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio

Originally published on June 10, 1916 (excerpted)

Some years ago the New York City Library published an official statement as to the number of state and Federal statutes that had been nullified by the supreme courts of the states and nation, covering the period from 1902 to 1908 inclusive. That report showed four hundred statutes, passed mostly in exercise of the police power, which had been nullified by the courts on the ground that they were contrary to the provisions of some state or Federal Constitution.

Professor Collins, in his most excellent work on The Fourteenth Amendment and the States, by a carefully prepared chart shows that there have been fifty-five cases decided adversely to state statutes by the Supreme Court of the United States under the Fourteenth Amendment alone up to 1910; and that over eighty percent of them were during the last fifteen years of that period. Assuming that each decision affected only ten of the forty-eight states, it would show a slaughtering of over five hundred statutes as being in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment alone  to say nothing about other statutes found in conflict with other provisions of the Federal Constitution.

In this same excellent work another chart shows that the Fourteenth Amendment has been invoked before the Supreme Court of the United States in over six hundred cases, in which the Supreme Court assumed jurisdiction and rendered opinions. In three hundred and twelve of these cases corporations were parties complaining of the statute; two hundred and sixty-four were individuals who were, in the main, only nominal parties, some corporation being the real party in interest; and there were only twenty-eight cases in which the negro race itself was affected, though the latter was the prime and paramount consideration for the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. Surprising, isnt it?

What has caused this large increase in the slaughtering of statutes in our courts? The answer may be found in the surprising and expansive interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment by the Federal Supreme Court, as will speedily appear.

This amendment, as every student of history knows, was intended as the great Magna Charta for the negro race, which had been but five years previously emancipated by the immortal Lincoln.

The chief part of that amendment  Section 1  reads as follows:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

That the amendment failed as the great Magna Charta of the black race is a matter of common knowledge; that its surprising interpretation by the Supreme Court of the United States has enabled this amendment to destroy the great Magna Charta for both negro and white races, and substitute therefore a City of Refuge for the corporations of the several states, does not admit of doubt on an examination of the official record.

The first cases in the United States Supreme Court calling for a construction of this amendment were decided in 1873, and  known as the Slaughterhouse Cases.

Justice Miller, who delivered the opinion in these cases for the court, said, among other things:

FIRST. This court is thus called upon for the first time to give construction of these amendments.

SECOND. An examination of the history of the causes which led to the adoption of those amendments, and of the amendments themselves, demonstrates that the main purpose of all three last amendments was the freedom of the African race, the security and perpetuation of that freedom, and their protection from the oppressions of the white men who had formerly held them in slavery.

THIRD. In giving construction to any of those articles it is necessary to keep this main purpose steadily in view, though the letter and spirit of those articles must apply to all cases coming within their purview, whether the party concerned be of African descent or not.

FOURTH. We doubt very much whether any action of a state not direct by way of discrimination against the negroes as a class, or on account of their race, will ever be held to come within the purview of this provision. It is so clearly a provision for that race and that emergency that a strong case would be necessary for its application to any other.

The last language quoted from Justice Millers opinion shows that, though he was a good interpreter of the Fourteenth Amendment, as to what its primary purpose was, yet, indeed, he was a bad prophet; for just thirteen years later this same Supreme Court, in Santa Clara versus the Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S., 394, decided in 1886, held, by the syllabus of that case, as follows:

The provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which forbids a state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law, applies to corporations.

The only reference in the opinion of this radical reversal of the doctrine laid down by Justice Miller in the Slaughterhouse Cases appears in the following language, which is self-explanatory:

Announcement by Mr. Chief Justice Waite:

The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of the opinion that it does.

The corporations referred to in this announcement were the Southern Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad.

Are Corporations Persons?

By what legal legerdemain or judicial inspiration this Fourteenth Amendment was amended by the Supreme Court of the United States, the court does not tell us. It seems content with a Thus saith the court!

The Fourteenth Amendment is composed of five sections, and the word person appears in the first three. The language of the amendment itself, reinforced by the debates thereon, the paramount purpose of the amendment, unmistakably, and without the shadow of a doubt demonstrates that in using the word person the framers and adopters intended it to mean a human being and nothing else. Judge-made law is bad enough, but judge-made constitutions are infinitely worse.

No wonder the Supreme Court of the United States denied to counsel all opportunity to argue the question as to whether or not the word person included a corporation! This interpretation was in defiance of the Congress that framed the amendment; in defiance of the negro race, to protect which the amendment was passed; in defiance of the general public understanding and interpretation of the amendment; in defiance of the Supreme Courts own construction of it in the Slaughterhouse Cases. And, had such an interpretation been anticipated by the states when they came to adopt it, I challenge a denial of the fact that not half a dozen states of the Union, North or South, would ever have ratified that amendment.

The natural and necessary effect of this interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment made the Supreme Court of the United States the supreme guardian and final supervisor not only of Federal statutes but of all state statutes, and even of municipal ordinances. The Supreme Court of the United States had passed from a court of law and equity, as those words are understood in the worlds jurisprudence, and had now become a political court  I do not mean a partisan one  a court that spoke the last word as to municipal, state and national public policies.

During the first century of our Government the Supreme Court of the United States confined its doctrine of nullifying legislative acts chiefly and sparingly to questions pertaining to the organization of courts and judicial procedure; questions relating to the exercise of powers not delegated in the Constitution; interference with state powers; ex post facto laws; laws impairing obligations of contract; denial of trial by jury, and other fundamental individual rights, as recognized generally by the laws of all civilized lands. But, following the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, the nullified laws partook of quite a different character. It would be difficult to classify all of them, but the large majority of the laws were nullified on the claim that they were in conflict with some provision of the Fourteenth Amendment, either the due process clause or equal protection of the laws clause  or both.

A very large percentage of the statutes nullified by the Federal courts, or by the state courts following precedents of the former, may be classified as follows:

FIRST. Labor statutes: Those providing for safety appliances to protect the life and limb of the workingman; sanitary regulation in mines, workshops and factories; workmens compensation laws; abolishing company stores; providing for hours of labor, pay days, and so on; and the right of laborers to organize and protect themselves in such organization by denying the employer the right to coerce them out of a labor union, or, if they had not yet joined such union, to prevent membership in such union.

The Bureau of Labor, in 1910, issued a bulletin alleging that one hundred and fifty statutes and ordinances relating to labor had been held unconstitutional, either entirely or in part, by the courts of the land.

SECOND. Rate laws: Those undertaking to fix and regulate public-utility rates; for the Governmental control of public-service corporations; and also for the inspection and taxation of the same.

THIRD. Trade and occupation statutes: Those undertaking to safeguard the public interest under the police power of the state, and providing for certain qualifications, inspection and regulation of certain lines of business closely allied with the public welfare.

Numerous other lesser classes might be named, but these will be sufficient to indicate the general class of statutes that have been challenged and, too often, declared unconstitutional on the ground that they were in conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.

Shall this growing political power under the name of the Supreme Court of the United States go on unchallenged and uncontrolled as the guardian of our American democracy, and as a substitute for We, the people, not only in our Federal Government but even in our state and municipal governments?

Justice Hughes, of the Supreme Court of the United States, before the New York State Bar Association, on January fourteenth last, delivered an address in which he used the following language:

If there were centered in Washington a single source of authority from which proceeded all the Governmental forces of the country  created and subject to change at its will  upon whose permission all legislative and administrative action depended throughout the length and breadth of the land, I think we should swiftly demand and set up a different system. If we did not have states we should speedily have to create them.

This language is as simple as it is striking. However, there was little need for the learned justice to put the case hypothetically. The great mass of our people believe that there is today a single source of authority from which proceed all the Governmental forces of the country  created and subject to change at its will  upon whose permission all legislative and administrative action depends.

The Views of Lincoln and Jefferson

But they go farther than the learned justice and point their finger at the Supreme Court of the United States as that assumed single source of authority.

It is but fair to Justice Hughes to say that, during his six years as a member of the Supreme Court of the United States, he has been a frequent dissenter from the prevailing policy of the Supreme Court.

No state statute can be passed today without asking the question: Will the Supreme Court let it stand?

No city ordinance can be passed today without asking the question: Will the Supreme Court of the United States let it stand? But why have states at all if the states shall be mere shapes and shadows; if the states shall not be sovereign in state affairs; if the states must all the while anticipate the viewpoint and judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States, and finally be forced to surrender to the courts view and veto on public policies?

A judicial body was what was intended to be created by the Constitution of the United States; but, instead, we have a political body passing on political questions  not partisan ones  great questions of public policy affecting not only national interests but state and even municipal interests, all the while exercising over them the right to veto, the right to supervise, the right to modify, the right to destroy. And when the people once thoroughly wake up, will they not consider the suggestion of the learned justice to, swiftly demand and set up a different system?

Lincoln, on the battlefield of Gettysburg, in an immortal address closed with these words:

That we here highly resolve  that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Lincoln placed the paramount power of the Government in the hands of the people, and forty-six of the forty-eight state constitutions have reaffirmed this doctrine by declaring: All political power is inherent in the people.

From time to time various reforms have been suggested to correct this growing evil, all the way from a constitutional amendment denying such power to the recall of judges, the recall of judicial decisions, and various other ways and means of correcting this use and abuse of the power.

Federal constitutional amendments are so difficult and tedious that this method is hardly worth considering. Only two amendments to the Federal Constitution have been adopted in the last fifty years.

The recall of judges and the recall of judicial decisions presuppose that the wrong has been done in a particular case and that an effort should be made to correct it by removing the judge, though his successor may be little if any better; or by recalling the decision, which would be difficult in its practical political operation.

The Ohio Remedy

Ohio has paved the way for a remedy by the states by adopting, in 1912, as part of its constitution the following provision  Article IV, Section 2:

No law shall be held unconstitutional and void by the supreme court without the concurrence of at least all but one of the judges, except in the affirmance of a judgment of the court of appeals declaring a law unconstitutional and void.

I do not commend the exception. It results in this anomaly: that if the state court of appeals by a vote of two to one holds the law unconstitutional, four of the supreme court judges may hold it unconstitutional; and if the court of appeals by a vote of two to one, or unanimously, holds the statute constitutional, then six of the seven judges are necessary to hold it unconstitutional. There should not be this discrimination. The exception should have been omitted from the constitution.

As a step in the right direction this constitutional provision of Ohio is generally approved by our people and has been found to work well as an effective and salutary restraint on the judiciary.

Though Ohio furnishes the suggestion of a remedy for the several states, this remedy is of little consequence where a Federal question is involved under the Fourteenth Amendment; for there the Supreme Court of the United States would take jurisdiction, and could, by a vote of five to four, or six to three, as has been quite common of late, hold the state statute dealing with state matters as unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court of the United States, in the exercise of the power to nullify a statute, state or Federal, on the ground that it is contrary to some provision of the Federal Constitution, has uniformly held that it must be  clearly so; and as a standard of clearness has again and again held that the conflict must be beyond a reasonable doubt.

Now, how can the conflict between the statute and the Constitution be clear or be- yond a reasonable doubt when nine men, sitting as judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, presumably of equal integrity of mind and heart, equally patriotic, equally learned in the law and the Constitution, divide on the judgment of unconstitutionality by five to four or six to three?

When we deal with the criminal, no matter how atrocious or how overwhelming the evidence may be against him, he is presumed to be innocent; and before he is found guilty the twelve men in the jury box must find that guilt to a moral certainty or beyond a reasonable doubt. On that proposition all twelve must concur. On a matter affecting the millions of people of a state, and perhaps the hundred millions of a nation, the statute should not only be presumed constitutional  and this is the law  but, before that presumption can be overcome, should it not be by at least a three-fourths concurrence, or seven of the nine judges of the Supreme Court?

Melville Davisson Post, in an article in this weekly under date of December 18, 1915, uses this language with reference to the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States:

Out of seventy-seven consecutive decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States, twenty-nine were given by a vote of five to four, and forty-six by a vote of six to three; in only two instances did as many as seven out of the nine justices agree.

On the ordinary legal question a mere majority must be sufficient for a judgment, else in many cases there could be no final judgment. But in cases involving public policies, as defined by state and Federal statute  cases involving questions of eminent domain, taxation, police power, and the like, which are inherent and sovereign in the domestic affairs of the state and the home-rule affairs of our municipalities, questions that are more of a political nature than legal  why should not at least a three-fourths vote be required by the Supreme Court of the United States on the fact of clear conflict, before the statute or ordinance should be nullified by the Supreme Court of the nation?

When the statute clearly permits what the Constitution clearly prohibits, or the statute clearly prohibits what the Constitution clearly permits, you then have, in such a situation, that clear conflict where both statute and Constitution cannot stand. Of course the statute should yield to the fundamental law  the Constitution.

But who shall be the judge as to such clear conflict? We have seen that, in England, Parliament alone determines this question  not the courts. In France it is the Senate and Chamber of Deputies  not the judges. And in every leading nation of the world, save the United States, it is likewise the legislative body that determines whether or not there is such clear conflict; and the action of such legislative bodies is final.

The courts of those nations have nothing whatever to do with the question. Their legislative bodies are representative bodies  at least, the controlling branch is elected directly by the people.

But here in the United States, for more than a century, the courts have exercised this power without warrant of the Constitution, but by authority of judicial custom and precedent, which the courts themselves have widened and extended; so that they are not only the Supreme Court but the supreme legislature, the supreme executive, the supreme government of the nation, the states and our municipalities.

How Congress Can Mend Matters

Now the thing that is proposed is not entirely to reverse this order, but to recognize and restrain it by applying the very principles and rules that the Supreme Court itself has for a century or more announced  this doctrine of clear conflict; this doctrine of a conflict beyond a reasonable doubt, which should be clear to more than a mere majority; else it is clearly not clear.

There is nothing radical or revolutionary about requiring more than a mere majority vote in unusual or exceptional procedure. Legislatures of state and nation, when they depart from the regular order in lawmaking, frequently require a two-thirds or three-fourths vote. Why should not the courts, when they depart from the regular order by law-unmaking, be required to do so by more than a mere majority vote  by a two-thirds or three-fourths vote?

In order that Congress may propose an amendment to our Federal Constitution it is expressly provided that two-thirds of both houses shall concur; and such proposed amendment cannot become a part of our Federal Constitution until three- fourths of the states have ratified the same by their legislatures or conventions.

Of course the adoption of a Federal Amendment to the Constitution limiting the power of our Federal courts in this behalf would be effective when accomplished; but the difficulties in the way of its accomplishment would be a repetition of the time and effort made in behalf of the amendment for the election of United States senators by a direct vote of the people, and for an income tax. And it is utter folly, under the enlarged jurisdiction asserted by the Supreme Court of the United States, on the Federal questions arising under the Fourteenth Amendment and other amendments, to attempt to cure this evil through state constitutions; for, as was said of old, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

So it can be truthfully said today that though the state courts have assumed jurisdiction to nullify legislative acts, the chief offender in this behalf, and from whom the state courts have found precedents more or less obligatory on them, has been the Supreme Court of the United States. Now, how can this limitation on the power of the Federal courts, touching constitutional questions, be brought about?

After a careful examination of the Federal Constitution I am persuaded that there is no need of a further amendment in order to authorize Congress to place a limitation on the Supreme Court of the United States on Constitutional questions. The power and authority are there now in the clearest and most unambiguous terms. It is found in the Federal Judicial Article III, Section 2, in this language:

In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.

If now Congress should pass an act declaring that no state or Federal statute should be declared null and void, as contrary to public policy or contrary to any state constitution or the Federal Constitution, unless by the concurrence of a three-fourths vote of the Supreme Court of the United States, the evil would be very largely if not entirely remedied.

If this article shall have produced an interest in this subject, a discussion of the underlying principles of democracy, a consideration of the remarkable growth and evolution of this power of centralized government by the Supreme Court of the United States, and whether or not some practical and effective restraint is not highly and immediately essential to the preservation of our American system of government, then it will not have been in vain.
Penndel, PA -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/02/2016 -- General Partition Company, Inc., based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is an organization that provides customers with all types of chipboards, SBS partitions, and layer pads. This company, which has been a designer and manufacturer of chipboard and corrugated box partitions for the past 50 years, relies on out of the box thinking to produce in the box solutions. They pride themselves on their exceptional customer service. That is why they have announced that they're offering free box partition samples for their customers.



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Samples from General Partition Company, Inc. are ready to be sent or taken to the customer within 24 hours. General Partitions Company, Inc. relies on a process to find the perfect fit for the customer's sample. The company asks for a sample or specifications of the product that they will be designing and manufacturing the partition for, then they let their sampling department closely analyze it. After they determine the proper thickness or caliper, they design a cell size and count depending on the size and number of the customer's product. Last but not least, they send the personalized sample to the customer at no cost.



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General Partition Company, Inc. also has services to assist businesses plan and engineer intelligent shipping solutions using their box partitions. Their delivery services have a reputation for being fast and reliable. They also accommodate special orders like unique labeling. Reach General Partition Company, Inc. by phone nationwide at 888-501-4685.



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Pune, Maharastra -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/01/2016 -- The report titled "Japan Home Furnishing Market: Size, Trends and Forecasts (2016-2020)" provides an in-depth analysis of the Japan home furnishing market with detailed analysis of market size and growth. The report also provides market size of each segment of the market.



Complete report available at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/480905.html.



The report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall Japan home furnishing market has also been forecasted for the period 2016-2020, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends. The competition in the Japan home furnishing market is stiff and dominated by the big players like Nitori Holdings Co., Ltd. Further, key players of the home furnishing market, Ikea Group and Otsuka Kagu, Ltd., are also profiled with their financial information and respective business strategies.



Company Coverage of Home Furnishing Market: Nitori Holdings Co., Ltd., Ikea Group & Otsuka Kagu, Inc.



Home furnishings market includes manufacturers of furniture, upholstery, carpets, wall coverings, and bedding, as well as soft home furnishings such as bedspreads and other bed-related items, linens, tablecloths, and candles. The industry is unregulated except for standard state and federal regulations against deceptive sales practices and laws that regulate the use of credit financing.



The Japan home furnishing market increased at a significant CAGR during the span of 5 years, i.e. 2010-2015 and projections are made that the market would rise in the next five years, i.e. 2016-2020 tremendously. The upsurge in the market was due to the increased new housing construction and increase in per capita disposable income.



Order a copy of this Japan Home Furnishing Market research report at USD 800 (Single User License) http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=480905.



The major growth drivers for the Japan home furnishing market are: increase in the number of households, population migration and rise consumer expenditure on home furnishing products. Despite the market is governed by various growth drivers, there are certain challenges faced by the market, such as, decline in marriages/divorces, consumption tax hike and some business challenges faced by the companies operating in the market.



Few points from List of Tables & Figures (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/480905-toc.html) Provided in Japan Home Furnishing Market Report:



List of Tables



Table 1: Japan Home Furnishing Market Segments

Table 2: Nitori Holdings Co., Ltd. Sales, Customer Traffic & Average Sales per Customer YoY Growth

Table 3: Outline of Major Players of the Japan Home Furnishing Market



List of Figures



Figure 1: Furniture Market Value Chain

Figure 2: Home Furnishing Accessories Market Value Chain

Figure 3: Global Home Furnishing Market Top Producers, Exporters and Importers

Figure 4: Japan Home Furnishing Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 5: Japan Home Furnishing Market by Value; 2016E-2020E (US$ Billion)

Figure 6: Japan Home Furnishing Market by Segments; 2014-2015E (%)

Figure 7: Japan Home Furniture Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 8:Japan Bed Linen Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 9: Japan Interior Fabric Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 10: Japan Home Lighting Fixtures Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 11: Japan Kitchen Ware/Table Ware Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 12: Japan Towel Goods Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 13: Japan Home Wear Market by Value; 2010-2015E (US$ Billion)

Figure 14: Japan Total Number of Households; 2010-2020E (Million)



Browse All Latest Consumer Goods Market Report at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/cat/consumer-goods-market-research.html.



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Beaverton, OR -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/02/2016 -- Sunil K. Raju, former DUI prosecutor with an experience of 10 years, founded Oregon Diversion Firm to help DUI drivers take care of their case and protect their reputation. He started as a District Attorney and has spent over 5 years reviewing, charging and prosecuting over 1,000 DUI cases.



Oregon Diversion Firm will assure that first-time offenders are eased through the process of a DUI. They help them in several ways. One is that they aid in getting through the "firsts". For example, the client's first arrest, first night in jail, first driver's license suspension, first criminal charge and first court date. They also offer reminders regarding important timelines to avoid complications. The program usually offered to these First-Time offenders is Oregon's DUI "Diversion" Program that lasts for 12 months (up to 18 months with an extension), during which the clients still have all the risks of a criminal mistakes if they make any mistakes.



Oregon Diversion Firm also offers its services to repeat offenders. For those clients facing their second, third or even fourth DUI, there is aggressive prosecution by the DA. They are at risk of facing significant jail or prison time, long-term suspension or revocation of their driver's license and expensive mandatory fines. The DUI Lawyers at Oregon Diversion Firm shall help their clients in clearly viewing their options, reviewing evidence and anticipating the actions of the DA and judge. Meanwhile the clients can balance their other obligations with greater ease. He will also help clients by not hiding any facts (negative or positive) from the clients and also guide them towards the best decisions possible.



Oregon Diversion Firm provides the client the option to do bothtaking care of their DUI quietly or prepare for proper court arguments.



According to one satisfied client, "Sunil's background as a District Attorney was instrumental in helping me win my case. I am blessed to have found him in a time where my life was in the most turmoil. I would strongly recommend them to any family member or friend in need of a lawyer."



Other client reviews can be found on the firm's website: http://www.oregondiversionfirm.com/oregon-dui-client-testimonials/



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Contact: Oregon Diversion Firm, info@oregondiversionfirm.com, 503-575-1244



Oregon Diversion Firm

8625 SW Cascade Avenue

Suite 450 Beaverton, Oregon 97008

Phone: 503-575-1244

Fax: 503-200-3505

info@oregondiversionfirm.com
In a paper published last week in the journal Current Biology, scientists described a new species of trap-jaw ant found in 99 million-year-old pieces of Burmese amber.

The new species is named Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri and belongs to the tribe Haidomyrmecini, possibly the earliest ant lineage.

Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri lived during the Creataceous period, 99 million years ago, according to lead co-author Dr. Bo Wang of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology and his colleagues.

Workers of this ant species had a prominent horn and oversized, scythelike mandibles.

Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri differs from all other extinct and living ants by the presence, in workers, of a long cephalic horn arising from between the antennal insertions and curved forward and by very long, scythe-like mandibles, their tips reaching above head near to the horns apex, Dr. Wang and co-authors explained.

The scientists think that these head structures functioned as a highly specialized trap for large-bodied prey.

Haidomyrmecine ants were probably solitary specialist predators, they said.

Soon after the advent of ant societies in the Early Cretaceous, at least one lineage, the Haidomyrmecini, became adept at prey capture, independently arriving at morphological specializations that would be lost for millions of years after their disappearance near the close of the Mesozoic.

The well-preserved specimens of Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri were found in four different pieces of amber from the Hukawng Valley in northern Myanmar (also known as Burma).

_____

Vincent Perrichot et al. Extreme Morphogenesis and Ecological Specialization among Cretaceous Basal Ants. Current Biology, published online May 26, 2016; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.03.075
Cincinnati gorilla's shooting incident has led to indignation, despite the zoo keepers' claim that shooting the 400-pound ape Harambe was needed to save the four-year old boy who got into the gorilla's enclosure. However, a video of the said encounter that seems to show that the gentle was, in fact, being protective of the child is making some to believe otherwise.

The Cincinnati gorilla Harambe had to be immediately put down to save the boy, according to the zoo director Thane Maynard. The director further explained that the use of a tranquilizer was not a safe alternative since it would have taken at least 10 minutes to become effective on such a big adult, male gorilla. However, some believe that the decision was made just to keep the zoo from facing the likelihood of legal liabilities.

Based on reports, the zoo staff used a coded whistle to call the two female gorillas away from the enclosure. But Harambe did not react to the call. Some think that the act of his family leaving the enclosure has added to the gorilla's confusion even more, aside from the fact that the onlookers and the child were also screaming, which might have made the situation more intense.

In defense of the decision, other zoo directors argue that it was a difficult, yet the right call. Associate director of Accredited Zoos and Aquariums in Canada, Greg Tarry, said that it was evident that Harambe was not going to leave the child, since it took 10 minutes to persuade him. With no alternative left, Tarry believes that the zoo keepers had to think fast and employ any available solution, Examiner reported.

On the other hand, animal behavior expert Gisela Kaplan said that a gorilla has the intelligence to perceive a child as a threat to his family or territory or family. Kaplan further explained that if Harambe was going to attack, he would have given signs of warning like to charge and beat their chests. Similarly, animal rights group PETA condemned the incident, noting that excessive force was used, according to Vox.
The design of Galaxy Note Edge is extremely superior and hence offers a great competition to the metallic exterior of Huawei. (Photo : YouTube/Samsung)

Android Marshmallow is rolling out for Samsung Galaxy S5 on the Verizon network. Canadian network carrier Rogers is also releasing the update for the users of Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note 5 and Note Edge.



Verizon is releasing the Android Marshmallow update, which has the build number MMB29M.G900VVRU2DPD1. It is releasing in a phased manner for all the users and they can expect to get it by next week.



Advertisement

Users can check their devices to see if the Android Marshmallow update is available for them or not. To do so, they need to go to Settings> About Device> Check for Software Update.



In case the Samsung Galaxy S5 user is prompted to download the Android Marshmallow update then they need to connect the device to a power source if the battery levels are less than 50 percent. Samsung Galaxy S5 also needs to be connected to a stable and reliable Wi-Fi connection for an uninterrupted download experience.



Network carrier Sprint was the first one to release the Android Marshmallow update for Samsung Galaxy S5. It was followed by T-Mobile, according to the carrier's support page. Other carriers such as AT&T and US Cellular are currently testing the update and will release it soon for their subscribers.



Canadian users of Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Note 5 and Note Edge on the Roger network are also getting the Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update. It is around 1.5GB in size and will reach all the users in a fortnight, according to Android Authority.



Other Canadian network carriers such as Telus and Koodo released the Android Marshmallow update for their users of Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge. Bell also followed suit and rolled out the latest update for their users.



Meanwhile, Sony released the Android Marshmallow update for the Xperia series. The company was soon inundated with complaints about the performance of the update and the numerous issues plaguing the device. Sony immediately responded and released a patch to fix the bugs.



Watch the video to know more about the features of Android Marshmallow here:






A burlesque dancer from Seattle was asked to change clothes before boarding a flight from Boston back to Seattle. She recalled a JetBlue crew told her that the outfit she was wearing was inappropriate for the flight.

Maggie McMuffin told CBS News that she was stopped by JetBlue crew when she tried to board her connecting flight at Logan because she was wearing a tiger sweater, a thigh high socks and a pair of white shorts. She said she was told, "The flight crew had discussed it and the pilot had decided that I needed to put something else on or I would not be allowed to board the flight."

She recalled flying from New York to Boston on a JetBlue flight in the same outfit but did not have any problems boarding the aircraft. According to 9news, McMuffin said she was surprised during the second leg of her trip home when the flight crew in Boston had something to say about what she had on. "A few minutes before boarding was set to start, the gate lead approached me and said there was a problem and that what I was wearing was not appropriate," said Maggie. "And they were hoping I could put something else on. And I informed them that I didn't have anything else. I had two small carry-ons with me, and they suggested I go buy something."

McMuffin hurriedly ran to a store in the airport terminal to buy a $22 pair of extra-large women's pajama bottoms to make sure that there was "proper coverage" in order for her to continue her journey home. The Toronto Sun reported that since what happened, JetBlue has already reimbursed Maggie for the cost of the pajama bottoms she had purchased and the airline company also offered her a $162 credit for a future flight with them.

However, despite these gestures, McMuffin still feels like she was hugely disrespected.

"It was a nice gesture," she said. "But I don't really want to fly JetBlue again and they told me they couldn't give me a cash refund."
Migraines are episodes that can affect both males and females but a large study published in the BMJ claims that women may be a high risk of cardiovascular diseases or even death if they are not properly addressed.

Researchers pointed out that women suffering from migraines were at greater risk of potential heart attacks or angina which may eventually lead to them resorting to undergo heart-related procedures. That includes coronary artery bypass or grafting when compared against women who do not have bouts with severe headaches.

More to that, worst case scenarios in the study including women possibly dying of heart-related issues as well, something that could raise the alarm on women who may be frequently hit by migraines.

"This study provides really good quality evidence that migraine in women is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease," said Dr. Rebecca Burch, an instructor in the department of neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston .

Migraine has been tied up with symptoms that include dizziness or ringing in the ears (referred to as an aura) which may lead to an increased risk of developing both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes.

As far as the current study is concerned, a team composed of US and German researchers were behind the large study. Data from 115, 541 women enrolled in the Nurses Health Study II aged 25-42. All did not have angina or cardiovascular disease.

The researchers kept a close watch on the women from 1989-2011 for cardiovascular events, disease and mortality. They eventually found 1,329 cardiovascular-related events and 223 of the female participants succumbed to cardiovascular disease.

As far as linking migraine to the results on women, the report showed how such had greater risk for major cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks, strokes and coronary revascularization procedures, including cardiovascular mortality.

"Given the high prevalence of migraine in the general population, an urgent need exists to understand the biological processes involved and to provide preventive solutions for patients," bared the authors behind the study.

Editorialists Rebecca Burch and Melissa Rayhill believe that it may be time to add migraine to the list of early life medical conditions, something that could be early markers for cardiovascular risk that may occur later on life.

Despite these findings, more research may be needed to determine possible causes, not to mention determining if treatments to prevent migraines can help reduce the risks.
Scientists have recently suggested that one of Jupiter's Galilean Moons, Europa, may be able to support life even if there is negligible or nil volcanic activity under the icy shell of the satellite. Researchers believe that beneath Europa's icy surface, there is a salty ocean of liquid water which could be habitable. The liquid pool could be life supporting if it has the right measures of elements, like the correct ratio of oxygen to hydrogen, as well as the necessary chemical building blocks to give energy for biological systems.

Now, a new research reportedly conducted by a team of scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California has suggested that such a scenario is actually true, and there is in fact enough energy on Europa, as it probably produces 10 times the oxygen as compared to its hydrogen, just like our planet. Such a ratio is possible, even without taking into account the status of the moon's volcanic processes.

According to the researching team, the hydrogen on Europa is produced when the ocean water reacts with the rocks on the satellite's crust. Over the ages, the Galilean moon has considerably cooled down and formed new cracks which expose more rock to the ocean water, thus creating more hydrogen. The oxygen on Europa meanwhile forms from the ice on its surface. The intense radiation from Jupiter, which is far more potent than anything experienced on our planet, breaks the water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. Subsequently, the oxygen reacts with the other compounds present in the ocean water as well as the hydrogen. The oxidants get recycled into Europa's interiors, and then into its ocean as they sink.

Most planetary scientists believed until now that Europa would be volcanic-ally active due to the effect of Jupiter's gravity. For instance, another satellite of Jupiter, Lo is considered the most volcanic-ally active celestial body in our solar system, due to Jupiter's gravity and tidal effects that deform the crust and mantle of this moon, and in the process produces a massive amount of heat.

The experts are now speculating whether such a phenomena is possible for Europa too, but no one is absolutely sure. Scientists generally believe that Europa could support a biosphere akin to the life clusters found close to the hydro-thermal vents on our planet's ocean floor. However, what the new research does suggest is that volcanic activity is not necessary to churn chemicals through the ocean, and therefore not all together necessary for living things to survive.
A dead baby plucked out of the sea whose picture sparked international outrage this week was probably a six-month-old Somali boy whose mother also most likely died in the shipwreck, Italian police said on Wednesday.

Like the photograph of the three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan lying lifeless on a Turkish beach last year, the image put a human face on the more than 9,000 people who have died in the Mediterranean since the start of 2014.

The baby was pulled from the sea last Friday by a German rescuer working for humanitarian organisation Sea-Watch after a wooden boat carrying more than 400 migrants capsized and sank some 58 km (36 miles) off the Libyan coast.

Sea-Watch immediately handed the boy's body over to the crew of the Vega, an Italian navy ship. The Vega brought 135 survivors and 45 bodies recovered after the shipwreck to the southern port city of Reggio Calabria on Sunday, including those of three small children, two boys and a girl.

Sea-Watch said it had distributed the photograph of the baby because it wanted to persuade European authorities to ensure safe passage to migrants after at least 700 were feared to have drowned in three separate shipwrecks in the Mediterranean last week.

"The photograph corresponds with the corpse of a six-month-old boy, who survivors of the shipwreck said was from Somalia," a high-ranking police official told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Survivors we talked to said the mother was not among the bodies recovered," he said.

There were discrepancies among the survivors as to the boy's name, which remains a mystery, he said.

Police arrested two men, a Syrian and a Moroccan, who were among the survivors of the shipwreck brought to Reggio Calabria on Sunday, accusing them of disaster at sea and international people smuggling, according to a statement.

A third man from Sudan, who is thought to have been the captain of the vessel, drowned, migrants told police.

The severely overcrowded wooden fishing boat described by survivors as "old, decrepit, un-seaworthy" and carrying no life jackets or floatation devices left late last Thursday from Sabratha, Libya, police said.

A leak developed in the hull and from there "water poured in and the vessel sank, leaving no escape for any of the many migrants below deck, nor for those unable to swim," the police statement said.

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Iran's foreign minister said on Wednesday that Tehran had no intention of leaving Iraq and criticised "arrogant" Saudi Arabia for accusing it of stoking sectarian violence.

"We will leave Iraq whenever Iraq asks us to. And we will help Iraq to confront terrorism, as long as Iraq wants us to," Mohammad Javad Zarif said at a press conference in Stockholm during a European tour to attract investors.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia accused Iran of sowing "sedition and division" in Iraq and sending in Shia militias, and urged Tehran to "stop intervening" in the affairs of its neighbours.

But Zarif, whose Shia-dominated country is an arch rival of Saudi Arabia, bristled at the remarks by the Sunni-led kingdom's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir.

"It's an absurd statement, it's an arrogant statement. Nobody should arrogate themselves to talk on behalf of other countries," he said in English.

Tehran and Riyadh, a traditional ally of Washington, are at odds over a raft of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen in which they support opposing sides.

Iran has advisors on the ground in Iraq and also in Syria to help the military in both countries battle armed groups fighting the national governments.

Saudi Arabia is also taking part in a US-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Without naming names, Zarif warned countries which consider groups such as IS and the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Nusra Front as "leverages that can be used for political gains".

"That's the worst miscalculation anybody has made in our region," he said.

"I believe the sooner Saudi Arabia comes to understand that ISIS is first and foremost a threat against them, then, anybody else, the sooner we are able to confront this total menace for all of us, not only in the region but in the world," Zarif added, using another acronym for the IS group.

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The success of Egypt's President Sisi is in the interests of Hungary, says Prime Minister Viktor Orban

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban agreed during Cairo talks Wednesday to bolster trade cooperation and join forces in the fight against terrorism.

El-Sisi told a nationally televised press conference that the two leaders discussed "recent developments in the Middle East and Europe as well as pressing issues affecting stability and security in the region," mainly in Syria and Libya.

The duo discussed means to bolster mutual ties in all fields and promote economic cooperation and investment. They also discussed fighting terrorism and extremism, and curbing illegal immigration, El-Sisi added.

Orban expressed his country's condolences to Cairo over the recent crash of an EgyptAir passenger jet in the Mediterranean that killed all 66 on board.

He described talks with Sisi as "constructive," saying that the success of the Egyptian president is in the interests of Hungary.

Orban highlighted plans to reinforce counter-terrorism efforts. He said stability in Libya is a pivotal matter for Egypt and the European Union that can only be achieved through a strong army and by cutting off aid to armed factions in the country.

The Hungarian prime minister said that Cairo and Budapest agreed to boost cooperation in water, agriculture and education as well as bolster investment in the energy sector.

Orban is currently in Cairo on a three-day visit that began Tuesday.

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The transfer was inaugurated in a celebration at the port of Toulouse in France; Cairo has named the carrier after late president Nasser

Egyptian navy officers raised the country's flag Thursday on the first Mistral-class Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) which Cairo acquired from France in 2015.

Egypt has named the carrier after the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The transfer of the Mistral took place in an inauguration ceremony at the port of Toulouse attended by the Egyptian Minister of Defence Sedki Sobhi and the commander of the French naval forces as well as other top military officials from both countries.

Sobhi had traveled on Wednesday to France to attend the celebration of the carrier's transfer to Cairo in Toulouse.

Sedki was accompanied by a military delegation that included the Head of the Egyptian Naval Forces Osama Rabie.

French and Egyptian military offiicials held a short press conference on Thursday morning before the commencement of the flag-raising ceremony.

French Navy Commander Admiral Bernard Rogel explained during the presser that the Mistral delivered to Egypt is one of the most technologically advanced carrier of its kind manufactured by his country.

"We are extremely happy with our joint Egyptian-French success and we look forward to more cooperation [with Cairo] to combat terrorism," says Rogel.

The Egyptian Navy Commander Osama Rabie said during the presser he was honoured to recieve the first mistral ever to serve in in Egypt and the Middle East.

Rabie said advanced military equipment such as the Mistral are key to defend Egypt given the challenges currently facing the MENA region.

The celebration was attended by tens of Egyptian naval officers who recently received training on the Minstral by French officers.

Earlier this month, 170 Egyptian crewmen participated in a week-long training on board the carrier to prepare for taking over its helm.

According to AFP, another Mistral helicopter carrier, named after the late Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat, will be delivered to Cairo in September.

The contract for the two Mistral carriers, which was finalised in September last year, was valued at 950 million Euros.

France now tops the list of countries which signed military supply agreements with Egypt during the two-year tenure of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

Earlier in May, Cairo finalised the purchase of a military reconnaissance and monitoring satellite from France.

Last year, Egypt successfully concluded a purchase of 24 Rafale fighter planes, seven of which were recentlt delivered to Cairo.

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Phase three of Operation Martyr's Right has seen over 100 militants killed so far, according to army statements

With the help of navy, air and police forces, Egypt's army announced killing 22 militants in North Sinai and the detention of five others, a statement by army spokesperson Mohamed Samir announced Thursday.

As a continuation of an earlier campaign that started in September 2015, the army recently announced that it began the third phase of the operation, named Martyr's Right.

On 25 May, Samir announced that during the third phase the army killed 88 militants in central and North Sinai.

Armed forces have also created many security checkpoints all over Sinai, to gain more control.

"The military were able to destroy 28 hideouts and nine houses," the statement read.

Martyr's Right is the largest and most comprehensive military operation aimed at rooting out militants operating in the restive peninsula.



The Egyptian army announced the end of the first stage of the operation, which lasted 16 days, on 22 September, after the "achievement of its primary objectives.

The first phase of the operation concluded with the reported killing of over 500 militants and the destruction of various militant hideouts and artillery storage facilities in North Sinai.



Phase three of the operation, according to a statement released by the army, will pave the way for creating suitable conditions to start economic development projects in Sinai.



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KPI Bridge Oil said the merger will strengthen the groups foothold in the East Asian market and compliment its long established presence in Singapore, the worlds largest bunkering port.

KTB, which is now renamed to KPI Bridge Oil South Korea, will continue to be headed by Minah Kim, who established KTB in 2006.

Carsten Ladekjaer, ceo of KPI Bridge Oil Group, commented: This merger will further strengthen the KPI Bridge Oil brand in a consolidating market and it will position us even stronger to meet todays demands of the highest level of service from financially secure and safe counterparts.

The merger followed KPI Bridge Oils acquisition of Denmarks Trumf Bunker last year.
Koreas ailing shipbuilding industry, which has been a key engine of industrialisation and growth for the countrys economy, is now in a crippled state with the big three shipyards forced to restructure due to mounting debts and lacklustre operating environment.

The big three, Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME), have all implemented self-rescue restructuring plans as urged by their creditors. The austerity measures include massive staff lay-offs, executive pay cuts, and disposing of non-core assets and subsidiary businesses.

The difficult plight of the Korean yards has been magnified by the collapse of the offshore oil and gas market due to low oil prices, as orders for offshore newbuilds such as drillships and FPSOs, the main product focus for the Korean yards, have virtually come to a halt. The similarly depressed state of the conventional shipping market, including container shipping, has also resulted in a dearth of new orders for large boxships, which is also one of the key products at Korean yards.

Apart from Koreas big three, other small to medium sized yards such as Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction (HHIC), Sungdong Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Dae Sun Shipbuilding & Engineering are also going through restructuring, while STX Offshore & Shipbuilding has filed for a court-led restructuring.

Early casualties of the shipbuilding slump were Samho Shipbuilding and 21st Century Shipbuilding, which were liquidated in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Another yard SPP Shipbuilding, which became insolvent, was revived after it was acquired in April this year by SM Group, which also owns shipowner Korea Line.

The only profitable yard at present is Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, which is part of the HHI group. Daehan Shipbuilding, which only has one dock, is also surviving after it exited receivership in October 2015 to be managed by DSME.

To put things in perspective, the victims of the gloomy shipbuilding market are not just the shipbuilders themselves. The ripple effect on the creditors, mainly the banks, can in turn have an impact on the overall financial health of the country.

According to numbers cited by the local press, the exposure for Korean banks to the shipbuilding sector is a whopping more than KRW70trn ($58.7bn). State-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) is the main bank that is hit, and other banks affected included KEB Hana Bank and Woori Bank, as well as Korea Export-Import Bank (Kexim). Between KDB and Kexim, the two have around 60% of their banking sectors credit exposure to shipbuilding, according to a recent report published by Societe Generale.

In todays volatile and unpredictable global economy, the notion that one is too big to fail should be discarded. The death knell is already sounding for the big three yards if their restructuring plans are not carefully managed and if the severe recession of the shipbuilding market persists. Such failures on the yard side will lead to a definite spillover to the banking sector, posing serious threats to the countrys economy.

In Koreas shipowning sphere, the situation is not looking good either. The countrys two leading shipowners, Hanjin Shipping and Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), are struggling to survive, choked by tight liquidity, hefty charter fees and low freight rates.

Hanjin Shipping has filed for a creditor-led debt restructuring and HMM might have managed to avert court receivership as it has secured bondholders approval to restructure its debts, though it continues to engage in negotiations with shipowners to cut charter fees.

Both Hanjin Shipping and HMM are streamlining their businesses to focus on container shipping. With Hanjin Shipping already named as one of the six-member of the new THE Alliance, HMM is soon expected to join the alliance as well after it pulled through some last minute efforts to mitigate its financial mess.

Merger and consolidation are perhaps seen as the tickets to surviving the current industry storm, as attested by the recent coming together of container alliances forging new partnerships, and the consolidation of shipyards and shipping conglomerates in, for example, the huge maritime market of China.

Chinas two major state-owned yards, China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) and China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), are reshuffling their operations internally and they could potentially merge certain sections of their businesses in time to come. Shipping conglomerates China Cosco Group and China Shipping Group have merged to form China Cosco Shipping Corporation (Coscocs).

In South Korea, while talks have surfaced on possible mergers among the big three Korean yards and between owners Hanjin Shipping and HMM, there are yet confirmed signals that such marriages will happen. Restructuring efforts for the distressed Korean corporations, however, are continuing apace and the outcome could go either way.
Hapag-Lloyd said in a statement that UASC had called an extraordinary general meeting for 2 June.

The German line revealed a month ago that the two companies were discussing a business combination based on a valuation of the two businesses at 72% (Hapag-Lloyd) and 28% (UASC).

The talks between HL (Hapag-Lloyd) and UASC regarding a potential combination of their respective container shipping operations are ongoing; no binding agreement has yet been reached, Hapag-Lloyd said on Thursday.

The merger would also be subject to the approval of Hapag-Lloyds shareholders and regulatory approvals.

The business combination would effectively see UASC become the seventh member line of new planned liner grouping THE Alliance.
The military court found the 187 defendants guilty on multiple charges stemming from violence that followed August 2013 dispersals of pro-Morsi protesters

A military court sentenced 187 supporters of former president Mohamed Morsi to life in prison Thursday on multiple charges including an alleged assault on the Maghagha police station after the dispersal of pro-Morsi sits-in in Cairo's Rabaa and Nahda squares in August 2013.

The defendants, who are all from the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, were referred to a military court by the general prosecution in March 2015 on a number of charges including incitement to violence and riots, attacking public property and blocking traffic.

Hundreds of civilian cases have been referred to military courts since the 2011 uprising that toppled veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

The practice has faced strong opposition from rights campaigners and pro-democracy advocates.

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Egypt's State security prosecution referred the country's former top auditor Hisham Geneina to a misdemeanor court for spreading false news, shortly after he rejected to pay EGP 10,000 bail Thursday evening.

Geneina is accused of "spreading false news in order to disturb public order" over his report claiming that theft by public officials has cost the treasury EGP 600 billion since 2012.

Earlier on Thursday, according to Geneina's lawyer Ali Taha, the former top auditor refused to pay bail and warned his legal team against paying in it on his behalf.

In January, Egypt's prosecutor general issued a gag order on Geneina's report.

In March, a presidential decree dismissed Geneina from his post and appointed his deputy, Hesham Badawy, as the acting head of the Central Auditing Agency.

In the same month, the State Security prosecutors said that Geneina had exaggerated the sums lost to corruption by referring to violations that took place prior to 2012, and that he had abused his position as head auditor in gathering documents to make his case.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2016-106

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a New York City-based trader with defrauding investors out of millions of dollars by misrepresenting her investment track record, the profitability of her investments, and her use of investor funds.

The SEC alleges that Haena Park touted her supposedly profitable futures and foreign currency (forex) trading strategy when soliciting friends, family, former Harvard classmates, and individuals with connections to them. She proceeded to pool investor funds and incur heavy trading losses month after month in the futures and forex markets, yet repeatedly told investors that their investments were profitable and sent them monthly account statements showing fictitious profits. At times, Park used new investor funds to make Ponzi-like payments to earlier investors. She raised at least $14 million from more than 30 investors since 2012, and has suffered more than $16 million in trading losses during that time period.

We allege that Park brazenly obtained investor money under false pretenses and compounded her egregious conduct by using phony monthly statements to convince some investors to significantly increase their investments based on fictitious positive returns, said Andrew M. Calamari, Director of the SECs New York Regional Office.

In a parallel action, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York today brought criminal charges against Park.

The SECs complaint charges Park with violations of Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. The SEC is seeking a permanent injunction as well as the return of alleged ill-gotten gains plus interest and penalties.

The SECs continuing investigation is being conducted by Wendy Tepperman, Rhonda Jung, and Teresa Rodriguez in the New York office. The litigation will be led by Jack Kaufman. The case is being supervised by Sanjay Wadhwa. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.


Press Release

June 2, 2016 Cayetano to Gov't agencies: No more excuses, stop inconveniencing the people, cut the red tape "No more excuses. Cut the red tape bureaucracy. Stop buderning the public with poor public service. Provide the people with swift, courteous and efficient services." This was the statement issued today by Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano to all government agencies. Cayetano said that all government agencies must become "ambassadors" of the "real change" that the people are expecting from the incoming Duterte administration. "It's time to end the long lines in all frontline services, expedite the issuance of driver's licenses, licensed plates, passports and other public documents necessary for people to do their work and conduct business," he said. "It's time to end the awful public service which the government is infamous for," Cayetano added. The Senator said that he is also supportive of President-elect Rodrigo "Rody" Duterte's push for a "three-day-window" to process business permits and clearances. Cayetano said that the proposal is part of their campaign platform to eliminate corruption and the barriers for small businesses to prosper. Duterte and Cayetano are also studying the possibility of crowd-sourcing the best ideas for red tape reduction similar to the what is being done by the European Commission, which holds a competition "aimed at identifying innovative suggestions for reducing unnecessary bureaucracy stemming from European law." "We would like to involve the people and civil society as red tape deprives the people of quality public service and in forging positive dynamics between the government and its citizens. Worse, it breeds a deep culture of corruption and indolence that is hard to eliminate," Cayetano explained. "We start the process of real change by starting with how the government relates with the people. We begin by providing the people the services they truly deserve from their public servants," Cayetano concluded.
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The intense manhunt for a gunman accused of shooting two Fremont police officers came to a violent and fiery end early Thursday, when officers launched tear gas into a home the suspect was holed up in, which then erupted into flames.

When firefighters squelched the large blaze at the home on Roberts Avenue, police found the suspect, 44-year-old Santa Clara resident Gerald Villabrille Jr., dead inside a closet. The alleged gunman, who had an active bench warrant at the time of his death, is well known to law enforcement in the South Bay and has been in and out of jail for the past two decades, following violent run-ins with police.

He was given a number of opportunities to come out during that negotiation, but he refused to do so, Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police spokeswoman, said shortly after the suspect was confirmed dead at the scene.

Authorities on Thursday defended using tear gas that possibly destroyed the home and may have killed the suspect.

In a situation like this, police surround the building, try to call out to the suspect and establish contact or communication, said Alameda County sheriffs Sgt. Ray Kelly. If that fails, they do things like shoot tear gas or flash grenades, use technology like cameras or robots to see inside. The last thing is to storm the house or building. Thats the last resort against an armed suspect.

Police later lifted a shelter-in-place order sent out around the Fremont neighborhood as residents collected themselves after a nerve-racking night when officers from two dozen agencies assisted going door-to-door in the hunt for the gunman.

Officers in hospital

The wounded officers remained at Regional Medical Center in San Jose where one was in critical condition. The other officer was stable, Fremont Police Chief Richard Lucero said during a Thursday afternoon news conference. Authorities did not release the names of the injured officers.

The Alameda County coroner was working to determine whether Villabrille died as a result of the fire or from wounds he may have received in the gunfight with police.

We do have reason to believe he was injured, Bosques said. We dont know whether he was already deceased prior to the fire.

The chaotic scene unfolded shortly after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, when a patrol officer stopped a white 2016 GMC pickup truck with no front license plate and three people inside in a shopping center parking lot near Fremont and Washington boulevards.

The driver of the pickup backed into the patrol vehicle, pulled a gun and opened fire, hitting the officer once during an exchange of gunfire, said Bosques. The truck was believed to have been stolen from a car rental company in the San Jose area.

Next thing you know, cops are everywhere  Newark police, Fremont police, Hayward police, said Jesse Schaa, 49, who owns a lawn mower shop in the area and heard at least three shots fired in the parking lot confrontation.

Police said they later took into custody a man and a woman, who were in the pickup truck with Villabrille at the time of the first shooting. They were not immediately identified, and it was not clear what charges they may face.

Flees on foot

Villabrille fled on foot as responding officers chased him through a shopping center and onto city streets, and then into a home on Roberts Avenue. Thats where the suspect exchanged gunfire with police, wounding a Fremont detective, a 10-year veteran of the force.

Back at the scene of the attacks, police quickly set up a perimeter as tactical teams began going door-to-door scouring the neighborhood, while alerting residents by phone to stay put in their homes.

Schaa said he and his family were locked down overnight in his business, which is three doors away from the house that burned. He said that at one point, a police tactical team set up in his backyard.

Residents within a mile radius received what Bosques called a Code Red phone message urging them to remain indoors and call 911 to report any suspicious activity.

Authorities learned Villabrille had shot through the back-door lock of the home where the second officer was shot, and he was hiding inside. Around 11:15 p.m., police fired tear gas into the home in an attempt to flush him out.

Possibly suicidal

But rather than evacuate, Villabrille  sounding despondent and possibly suicidal  called 911, saying he had a hostage, Lucero said. But police determined he was lying and around 2 a.m. after further negotiation, during which Villabrille fired a shot in the home, tactical teams fired more gas into the residence.

We believe the gas ignited a fire, which firefighters made numerous attempts to extinguish, Lucero said.

Police move in

But under the threat of the armed-and-dangerous suspect, firefighters battled the blaze, which whipped up into a fully involved inferno, from engines parked on the street. By 7:30 a.m., they appeared to get the upper hand on the flames, and police moved in.

Officers found Villabrille dead in a closet along with the gun believed to have been used in the attacks. A small dog belonging to the family renting the home perished in the fire, Lucero said. That couple were not in the residence when the suspect forced his way in.

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.

Wednesdays episode was not Villabrilles first encounter with law enforcement. His rap sheet of more than a dozen cases in Santa Clara County includes charges as recent as 2013 of being under the influence of drugs, narcotics possession, weapons violations and providing false information to police.

Sent back to jail

Hes been paroled and returned to jail scores of times dating to the mid-1990s for crimes such as assault with a deadly weapon, and being a felon in possession of ammunition and carrying a loaded firearm.

On at least two other occasions, Villabrille was charged in connection with evading San Jose police. In July 2010, officers used a stun gun while arresting him when he tossed an icepick and hypodermic needles out his car window while fleeing police, Santa Clara County Superior Court records show.

Then in April 2011, while on parole for a weapons violation, he ditched his drugs and ran on foot when he was stopped by officers. When the police caught him, he told them he had smoked PCP and methamphetamine before their encounter, according to court records.

Villabrille had an active bench warrant, issued two weeks ago, for his arrest at the time of Wednesdays shooting.

His family in San Jose, who had been estranged from him, were left stunned by the deadly turn of events.

Out of the blue

I honestly dont know what to feel, Villabrilles half-brother, Joseph Villabrille, 29, told The Chronicle Thursday. Its been years since Ive seen him.

He said hed seen his brother only a handful of times when he would show up out of the blue.

Gerald Villabrille recently lived at a home on the 2400 block of Karen Drive in Santa Clara. His next-door neighbor, 59-year-old Joe Viorato, described the man on Thursday afternoon as very nice and friendly with everybody.

Viorato, who recently underwent a liver transplant, moved into the neighborhood five months ago and said Villabrille helped him carry boxes into his home. Learning his neighbor was the suspect in Wednesdays violent episode was shocking, Viorato said outside his home.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this report

Kevin Schultz, Kimberly Veklerov, Hamed Aleaziz and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kschultz@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, haleaziz@sfchronicle.com and esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: KevinEdSchultz @KVeklerov @Haleaziz @EvanSernoffsky
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Marin County authorities were hunting Wednesday for a 19-year-old man named as a third suspect in the brutal slaying of a Novato High School student off a hiking trail in a rural canyon.

Javier Guevara, a purported gang member, is wanted on an arrest warrant alleging murder, assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated mayhem, said Dori Ahana, a county prosecutor. She said Guevara used a machete to slash the victim, 17-year-old Edwin Josue Ramirez Guerra, and a second boy who survived the May 25 attack.

Officials would not release many details of the case, citing the ongoing investigation. But Novato police officials have said they are investigating the possibility that a sexual assault involving two Novato High students, which happened one week earlier, may have been related to the killing.

I think its a brutal murder, Ahana said Wednesday. Thats all I can say.

Marin County sheriffs detectives, who have taken the lead in the murder case, raided a San Mateo home Wednesday morning in pursuit of Guevara, but did not find him.

The search happened on the same morning that two Novato High students, 16-year-old Edwin Guevara and 17-year-old Juan Carlos Martinez Henriquez, made their first court appearance, a day after being charged as adults with murdering Guerra and attempting to murder the second victim.

All three suspects will face the special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait, prosecutors said. Because of their age, the two boys now in custody will not be eligible for the death penalty under the allegation, but could face the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted.

Edwin and Javier Guevara are related, authorities said.

Henriquez also faces a count of aggravated mayhem, a charge that often refers to disfiguring a victim. Court documents indicate that detectives believe he shot both Guerra and the other victim.

A fourth man, 20-year-old Elmer Fernando Machado-Rivera, also appeared in court Wednesday after being charged with being an accessory after the fact for allegedly aiding one or more of the suspects. The suspects are due back in court June 8, when they may enter pleas.

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.

The attack that killed Guerra happened at a waterfall site in a canyon about three-fourths of a mile down a hiking trail leading from a country club along Fairway Drive in Novato.

The surviving victim scrambled away from the scene with a gunshot wound in the chest and a stab wound, calling 911 around 4:50 p.m. after gaining cell phone service, said Lt. Doug Pittman, a sheriffs spokesman.

Guerra died at the scene from his wounds as paramedics were preparing to airlift him to a hospital.

Henriquez and Guevara were arrested Thursday when SWAT officers raided two homes in Novato, police said.

Kevin Schultz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kschultz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: KevinEdSchultz
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The owner of the home that burned during a standoff between a suspect in the shooting of two Fremont police officers and authorities lives in China and was shocked when she heard the news Thursday morning, family members said.

More for you Suspect in Fremont cop shooting found dead inside burned home

The home was owned by Lynn Zengs sister-in-law who lives in China but bought the home as a future residence.
Theres an L-shaped alley connecting Harrison and Eighth streets in SoMa. Its called Heron Street and might just be one of the most industrially chic half blocks in San Francisco. Off Eighth, a metal walkway connects buildings so perfectly worn, they look like a beautifully designed set for West Side Story. Colorful graffiti splashed across brick walls is just the right level of dirty. Strings of lights crisscross above the narrow pavement. And at the corner, where Heron Street cuts a tight right and opens onto Harrison, sits Heron Arts, an art gallery that is currently home to Captured: People in Prison Drawing People Who Should Be.

In the realm of great art project titles, Captured: People in Prison Drawing People Who Should Be is up there. Last Thursday evening, May 26, was the exhibits opening reception, where the projects creators, Andrew Tider and Jeff Greenspan, mingled with guests, sipped Pacifico and happily answered questions.

Heron Arts studio space is ideal for the rustic urban vibe of Heron Street. A massive mirrored garage door is kept rolled open, allowing vines of ivy and wafts of street urine to meander into the simple, skylit space. A loft overhead looks down on heavily hip art fans earnestly discussing art and prison reform in Toms shoes and Army jackets. The modern, doorless bathroom is unisex and always has been.

Across from the beer, wine and water table, someone had set up a voter registration table, complete with vintage bunting and a DIY Register To Vote banner hanging overhead.

Captured is the result of years of work from Brooklyn artists Tider and Greenspan. The duo set out to explore a connection between people serving hard time for hard crimes versus corporate CEOs who they feel get away with things like child exploitation and murder. The result is Captured, a 1,000-copy run of an art book with all the proceeds going to the Bernie Sanders campaign, and this brand-new exhibit. Even if youre not feeling the Bern, the exhibit is provocative.

The studio walls are sparsely filled with portraits by 30 incarcerated artists. Some of the portraits are in pencil, others in paint. Next to each is the name of the CEO subject and a list of what Tider and Greenspan say are their crimes. Below that is displayed the artists name and, as they say in the joint, what theyre in for. Occasionally, the crimes of the CEO matched with those of their artist. For example, a bank CEO, whose accused crimes were listed as conspiracy, securities fraud and theft, was illustrated by Jose Velasquez, a convicted bank robber.

If an individual had done this, those people would be in jail, said Tider when explaining how he and Greenspan selected their (allegedly) shady CEOs. The fact that a company could pay away these crimes was really shocking to us.

Tider and I sat in Heron Arts back courtyard, where the artists resemblance to pop star Adam Levine was occasionally distracting. His cheeky co-creator Greenspan popped back to join us, revealing that at the height of the project, my mailbox was all prisoners and J.Crew catalogs.

A dear friend of Greenspans mom wandered outside to offer her thoughts on the exhibit. Grabbing Greenspans arm, she insisted, The bios are way too small for people over 60!

Inside, a question-and-answer session soon got under way. A gentleman with one of the nights many man-buns sat cross-legged on the concrete floor. Behind him sat a woman with a small dog. As the 70 or so guests sat and stood for rather fascinating prison art project information, a man who never removed his bicycle helmet wandered from portrait to portrait.

This being San Francisco, someone asked a question that offended someone else  not about prison reform, but about how the projects art is labeled on gallery walls, with the CEOs information presented in far greater detail than those of the prisoner artist. From across the large studio, a woman dramatically stood to insist that Captured was done correctly because thats the way they do it at the Legion of Honor.

This is very art-meets-social-change, said San Franciscan Shilpi Jaiswal, enjoying her first visit to Heron Arts. I think its very clever.

Its tough to pick a favorite piece in Captured, though the portraits are impressively done. However, convicted felon Joseph Ackers double portrait of the Koch brothers is particularly intriguing. Acker received stolen goods and altered some passports. He is serving 10 years.

Beth Spotswoods column appears Thursdays in Datebook.
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A traffic stop in Fremont turned into a life-and-death struggle Wednesday when a motorist shot two police officers after being pulled over and then fled into a residential area, prompting a huge manhunt that lasted into the night, investigators said.

The chaotic scene began shortly after 1:30 p.m., when a patrol officer stopped a white pickup truck with no front license plate in a shopping center parking lot near Fremont and Washington boulevards. The driver of the pickup backed into the patrol vehicle, pulled a gun and opened fire, hitting the officer once during an exchange of gunfire, said Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police spokeswoman.

The shooter then fled on foot. He opened fire again about 10 minutes later when confronted by a Fremont detective on the 1300 block of Roberts Avenue. The 10-year veteran of the force managed to return fire, but was hit twice during the exchange, Bosques said.

The assailant, described as a bald man, about 6 feet tall, wearing a San Francisco Giants T-shirt, gray shorts and black shoes, fled on foot through neighborhoods in the Irvington area of Fremont, where police were conducting a door-to-door search as night fell.

Video collected near the scene of the crime, and witness accounts, confirmed that the man was still carrying the gun after he shot the two officers, investigators said. Besides the shooter, police were looking for as many as two other people who may have been in the vehicle at the time of the first shooting.

The bullet-riddled pickup truck and a police vehicle with bullet holes in the side windows remained at the scene Wednesday night.

The officers, who were not immediately identified, were rushed to Regional Medical Center in San Jose. The beat officer, who has been with the department for a little over a year, was reported in critical condition after surgery.

Pow. Pow. Pow

Bosques would not describe the nature of the wounds, declining to comment on reports that the first victim was suffering from a gunshot wound to the head. The detective was listed in stable condition, Bosques said.

Several pedestrians witnessed the dramatic events, including Joe Crab, a homeless man who said he was resting in his truck on Roberts Avenue when the confrontation started.

Next thing you know, the cops are chasing this guy and they are shooting at each other, Crab said. Pow. Pow. Pow.

He said he saw one officer run back, clutching his side and bleeding, before a police van came and picked him up.

Wielding a knife

Sarbjeet Johal of Fremont said he had just finished having lunch at Pakwan Restaurant on Fremont Boulevard shortly before 2 p.m., when he saw a man knock down a nearby fence and run past the restaurant wielding what he believed was a knife.

He said officers in pursuit stopped to tend to someone on the ground near the area where he saw the man jump the fence.

A large perimeter was set up around the area where the assailant was believed to be hiding. Hundreds of officers and police dogs from law enforcement agencies around the East Bay and the FBI fanned out across Fremont.

The searchers, led by the Alameda County Sheriffs Department tactical squad, scoured backyards, homes, bushes and under parked cars in an area bounded by Fremont Boulevard, Washington Boulevard, Carol Avenue and Roberts Avenue. At one point, officers wearing helmets and camouflage battered down a locked wooden side gate at Lee and Union streets and began searching the yard with a police dog.

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Law enforcement helicopters and police drones buzzed overhead, scanning the area for clues to the assailants whereabouts.

Code Red alert

Residents within a 1-mile radius received what Bosques called a Code Red phone message urging them to remain indoors and call 911 to report any suspicious activity.

Investigators were sorting through conflicting information from multiple witnesses to determine what happened and where the shooter might be, but they said one thing is clear.

This is obviously a very dangerous individual, said Sgt. Ray Kelly, a spokesman for the Sheriffs Department. Hes already shown a propensity for violence.

Kelly said nobody is sure whether either of the two officers hit the man when they exchanged gunfire.

He may be wounded, Kelly said, but we dont know.

As the manhunt escalated, Fremont police asked media helicopters to leave the scene to allow officers to conduct tactical operations.

Michael Cabanatuan, Kevin Schultz and Peter Fimrite are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com, kschultz@sfchronicle.com, pfimrite@sfchronicle.com Twitter: ctuan @KevinEdSchultz @pfimrite
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The San Francisco Police Commission approved a body-worn camera policy for police officers, bringing the city force one step closer to rolling out the devices amid heightened scrutiny and calls for transparency.

The vote late Wednesday ended more than a year of negotiation and debate, and means officers may be recording their interactions on the streets within a few months, just as their counterparts do in Oakland and many other Bay Area cities.

But the approval also drew controversy over one of the more contentious issues in the national discussion on police accountability: whether officers who wear cameras should be allowed to view their footage before filing reports on critical incidents such as police shootings.

The policy that passed with a 5-2 vote will allow officers involved in shootings to view footage only after they provide an initial statement of facts, with a fuller statement coming later. It was a compromise made by the officers union, the Police Officers Association, after months of negotiations and meetings that were held under department policy.

Several commissioners said that after the events of recent months  including controversial police shootings, the emergence of racist text messages exchanged between city officers, and the May 19 resignation of Chief Greg Suhr  the department needs to deploy body cameras as soon as possible to rebuild trust.

But Commissioners Petra DeJesus and Victor Hwang, the two holdouts on the vote, said the policy  and the compromise on the issue of officers viewing footage  veered from what the community called for and was too vague to be effective.

This is a travesty, DeJesus said.

Union President Martin Halloran had said Tuesday that he believed the compromise on the policy was what the Police Departments biggest critics wanted.

Under the policy, an officer must provide an initial statement to investigators, including a brief summary o f the officer s actions as well as answers to what prompted the officer to use force and what other actions the officer took to mitigate the alleged threat.

The officer will be allowed to watch any body-camera videos of the incident before a more lengthy interview with investigators.

Police watchdogs and civil rights activists have long argued that officers should not be allowed to watch body-worn camera footage at all, saying viewing video could sway their statements, limiting the power of the cameras to increase accountability.

Police advocates like Halloran, though, had argued that stressful situations can affect memory and that not allowing officers to view footage set them up for gotcha moments.

In December, the Police Commission voted on a policy that would have allowed officers to view videos at the discretion of the chief, sending that proposal to the police union for negotiation. The union voted Tuesday to instead pass the compromise.

Acting Chief Toney Chaplin, attending his first Police Commission meeting since succeeding Suhr, called the policy put forth by the union a huge concession and said it represented the best course to get the devices put into use.

My concern as chief is, we need these cameras, Chaplin said. We need to be able to get that and I think that affords us the best opportunity.

Several commissioners supported Chaplins stance, with Commissioner Sonia Melara saying it would be possible to revisit the policy should any issues come up.

My concern at this point is to get the cameras on the streets, she said.

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Mayor Ed Lee announced in May 2015 that he was setting aside more than $3 million in the city budget to equip 1,800 officers with body cameras. At that time, Police Commission President Suzy Loftus said the devices could not be rolled out without proper policies, and convened a working group composed of stakeholders such as the police union, the public defenders office, the San Francisco Bar Association and alliances within the police force.

Alan Schlosser, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said Wednesday that the compromise was not what his organization wanted.

When we said there should be an initial report, we didnt mean there should be a brief report, he said. We meant there would be a full report and then the officer would see the video and then there would be a supplemental report, with the understanding that recollections change.

DeJesus and Hwang argued that without more clearly defined criteria over what an initial statement entails, the policy could allow officers to hold back in their first interview and then watch the video, which could skew their memory of the incident.

They and several members of the public said the decision on the camera policy made them worry about the Police Commissions other significant project: an overhaul of the Police Departments use-of-force policy. In coming up with a new draft, the commission has followed a process similar to that used to develop the camera policy.

It makes me discouraged in starting the use-of-force discussion, Hwang said. We spent all that time in community meetings and public input and put all this time into it and the POA gets to change it at last minute.

With the commissions approval of a policy, officials said, San Francisco police officers could be wearing cameras as early as Aug. 1.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: VivianHo
The interview will discuss the president's first two years in office and the challenges currently facing Egypt

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to give on Friday a TV interview hosted by media figure Osama Kamel, the Egyptian presidency announced Thursday.

The interview, which is scheduled for 7:30pm, will be aired on the Egyptian State TV.

According to state-owned MENA news agency, the interview will last an hour and 40 minutes.

MENA added that the interview would cover a number of topics, including El-Sisi's achievements over the past two years and the challenges Egypt currently faces.



The former defence minister was elected president in June 2014, almost a year after Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted after mass protests against his rule.

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Rank-and-file police officers value transparency, and we welcome body cameras as an effective tool to improve public safety and strengthen accountability. Body cameras are not a panacea, but they provide a key record of events for use in investigations  and are a clear signal to our community that police officers hold ourselves to the highest standards. Building trust with the community we serve is always a top priority.

The effectiveness of body cameras will depend largely upon sound policies to govern their use. Last year, under the direction of the San Francisco Police Commission, I joined representatives from the San Francisco Police Department, the public defenders office, the Office of Citizens Complaints, the Human Rights Commission, the Department of Human Resources and a number of police employee groups to develop a proposed strategy for the implementation and use of body-worn cameras. In spirited discussions at public meetings, we studied best practices, and considered policy implications. In the end, we came up with a solid proposal.

Last month, the Police Officers Association worked closely with the new police chief and the Mayors Office to agree on the final details of the proposed policy, and we jointly submitted our agreed-upon version on Tuesday to the Police Commission for approval.

Together we came up with some commonsense rules for when cameras should be turned on, and when they should be turned off. Officers should activate the camera during all detentions and arrests, when transporting a detainee, during traffic or pedestrian stops, during vehicle or foot pursuits, when conducting a personal or property search, or when interacting with a hostile or unstable individual. In these situations, recorded footage will serve as a valuable piece of evidence, ensure that protocols were properly followed, and encourage community cooperation.

We also decided that there are certain situations where body cameras do more harm than good. Officers should leave their cameras off when speaking with victims of sexual assault or child abuse, out of respect for their privacy and trauma. Also, while cameras are an effective way to document witness testimony, they can also be intimidating and may cause the witness to clam up. Officers should use discretion and turn off their cameras if the witness might be withholding potentially useful information because he or she is being recorded; the same logic applies when an officer is speaking with a confidential informant.

To ensure transparency and accuracy, officers will review the footage from their body-worn camera prior to filing an official report or giving a statement. Current policy encourages officers to review any and all available video related to the incident before a report or statement, so it follows that officers should review the footage from their body-worn cameras as well. We want our officers to provide the most complete, accurate and thorough account of the incident, and barring them from viewing the footage  as some critics have suggested  would impair their ability to do so. The officers report is one of the most crucial pieces of evidence in a case, and we should use this new state-of-the-art technology to make sure that our evidence is as accurate as possible.

When it comes to the most serious incidents  officer-involved shootings and in-custody deaths  the rules are a bit different. Officers will be asked to provide an initial statement of facts, summarizing the circumstances that called for use of force, before reviewing any footage from a body-worn camera. After that statement is made, an officer will have the opportunity to review the footage as well as any other audio or video recordings of the incident before being interviewed by an investigator. This process will allow investigators to collect key information in a timely manner while also encouraging officer cooperation and transparency.

We believe the commonsense policy that the Police Officers Association has put forth to the Police Commission  in collaboration with other law enforcement, public safety, human rights and civic leaders  will help make San Francisco a safer city. This policy, combined with a commitment to consistent internal and external review of its implementation and effectiveness, will be a key step forward in fostering greater trust between the Police Department and the community that we serve.

Martin Halloran is the president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at http://bit.ly/SFChronicleletters.
After months of consideration, the San Francisco Police Commission approved rules Wednesday for use of the latest innovation sweeping law enforcement nationwide  police body-worn cameras. Toney Chaplin, San Franciscos acting police chief, had announced on his first full day in the job last month that deploying body cameras was his top priority. Just strapping cameras to police officers, however, wont solve anything. The commissions rules are a reasonable starting point, but it must monitor deployment closely and be prepared to shift course if the program falters.

There are good ways to deploy body cameras and bad ones. If they are to live up to their promise as tools to hold police accountable for their actions and to vindicate officers falsely accused of misconduct, its crucial to get the details right. The policy the Police Commission approved is a good start, but lessons learned by other police departments suggest that additional measures may be necessary to make sure these cameras live up to their promise to provide transparency, protect civil rights, and instill trust in the officers the public authorizes to protect the community.

There is unusual consensus that its a good idea to deploy body cameras. Police commanders support it. The privacy-conscious American Civil Liberties Union (where I used to work) does, too. Public support is very broad: 88 percent of Americans support body cameras. For once, political ideology barely matters. Ninety-one percent of self-reported Democrats, 88 percent of Republicans and 87 percent of independents supported requiring officers to wear body cameras. The White House has pledged millions of dollars to speed their adoption.

But it is not enough to give officers body cameras and expect technology to magically solve the problem of police violence. There are a host of difficult questions about how body cameras should be used that police departments and the elected representatives who oversee them must answer. And how these questions are answered will make the difference between a successful body-camera program and a failed one. The adopted policy does better on some of these points than others. Here are three matters the San Francisco Police Commission should still consider:

Discretion to record. One crucial question is how much latitude officers have to turn the cameras on and off. The policy is complex, containing 13 instances in which officers must record. The commission should consider a more clear-cut rule, mandating recording in all police-citizen interactions, subject to the already enumerated exceptions. Moreover, the commission should consider what discipline officers will face if they do not comply with the requirement to record.

Body cameras arent good for much if they arent turned on. And yet there have been numerous instances in which officers have failed to turn them on. For example: In fall 2015, 11 Alameda County sheriffs deputies apprehended Stanislav Petrov, a suspect in a car theft who led officers on a high-speed chase. Petrov alleged the officers beat him brutally. Despite the fact that all 11 officers wore body cameras, not a single one hit the record button. Fortunately, a nearby security camera did capture the event, which showed Petrov being hit more than 30 times with a metal batons. Prosecutors brought criminal charges against two officers for assault and battery.

The Petrov case prompted the county to move toward mandating that officers activate their body cameras whenever they interact with a citizen. This is a good idea, goes further than the San Francisco Police Commissions policy, and suggests that the commission should monitor whether officers consistently record their interactions with members of the public. (That said, mandates to record alone are not enough. They should be backed up with the possibility of departmental sanctions for violations of the duty to record. Also, as my co-author Matthew Segal and I argued in another essay, elsewhere, courts should also take steps to encourage officers to record their interactions with civilians.)

When officers can view footage. One major issue of contention in San Francisco has been whether officers should be able to view body-camera footage before giving statements about an incident. The Police Officers Association initially strongly favored prior video review, reasoning that it would improve the accuracy of statements. Police accountability advocates pushed back. They contended that allowing officers prior review would lead some officers to take advantage of gaps in the footage to shape their accounts in the ways most advantageous to them or most likely to secure a conviction.

Last week, the Police Officers Association gave significant ground, agreeing that officers should write initial statements without prior video review in serious circumstances, such as officer-involved shootings. The commission acted reasonably in accepting this compromise, but accountability advocates raised important concerns about whether officers would draft initial statements so bare bones as to effectively evade the prohibition on prior video review. The commission should monitor this issue as well and be prepared to amend the policy if these fears prove justified.

Who controls the footage. Body-camera footage wont increase police accountability to the public if the public cant see the footage. But this creates a dilemma. Not every domestic violence call or DUI arrest belongs on YouTube. Body cameras can capture information and events that are deeply private or embarrassing. Someone needs to balance citizens privacy interests against the publics interest in disclosure.

Thepolicy states a sweeping commitment to disclose footage to the greatest extent possible but contains a number of broadly worded exceptions. But the real problem is that the Police Department is the entity in charge of deciding when footage will be released and when it will be kept secret.

There is a real danger that the Police Department will withhold footage because it is embarrassing to the department. For example, researchers at Yale Law Schools Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic found that the San Diego Police Department used exemptions in Californias public records laws for investigative records to reject requests for body cam footage of a high-speed chase that ended after multiple officers fired on the driver and of a standoff where police shot and killed an armed and mentally ill veteran.

Bronx, N.Y., public defender Sarah Lustbader has proposed that neutral third parties control police body-camera footage. She makes the good point that the body camera footage is better regarded as a public resource rather than the property of police. Creating a mechanism for third-party control might require state-level legislation, but it is nonetheless worth considering.

It is too late for San Francisco to be on the leading edge of body-camera adoption. But it could still be a national model for how to get the implementation details right. It has been decades since the publics interest in police reform has been this high. This is a rare window to enact meaningful reforms, and San Francisco should show the way.

Catherine Crump is an assistant clinical professor at UC Berkeley Law School. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at http://bit.ly/SFChronicleletters.
In San Francisco, theres little debate that the beleaguered police force should be wearing body cameras as soon as possible.

I believe, once cameras are turned on, everybody straightens up, said Mayor Ed Lee in a recent Chronicle Editorial Board meeting. Police officers and community members agree that the cameras could increase transparency and confidence around controversial use-of-force incidents.

So its a very good thing that the San Francisco Police Department and its union, the Police Officers Association, have come to an agreement that will allow the officers to begin wearing body cameras as soon as Aug. 1, pending a decision by the Police Commission.

The POA voted unanimously Tuesday to support a compromise path where officers should be allowed to view footage on hot issues like officer-involved shootings. Officers will be required to provide an initial statement before screening footage of in-custody deaths and officer-involved shootings.

Civil rights and criminal justice advocates had been concerned about the unions previous insistence to allow officers to view the videos before providing any statement at all, noting that there have been problems  in San Francisco and other cities  when officers statements dont match up with whats caught on video.

For this compromise to be effective, the commission will have to address outstanding questions.

How long will the officers initial statements be? How many details will they be required to include before viewing footage?

There are also larger questions about the role of body cameras once theyre in the field. What happens if an officers body camera isnt switched on during a critical event?

In theory, body cameras should erase all doubt  but tests have shown that context is incredibly important, because the cameras dont show all of an event and the footage can be misinterpreted. Who will have the job of handling situations if the camera footage doesnt tell the whole story?

It wont be possible to plan for all of the potential problems that could come up, but its important for the commission, the police union, and City Hall to do as thorough of a job as possible. Body cameras are an important tool, but theyre only part of the answer.
San Franciscos proposed $9.6 billion budget pours money on all the needy sore spots  homeless street camps, potholed streets and an undersize police force. A city reaching an all-time high number of residents needs services to match.

But the towering sum is also a throw-down challenge for city leaders: If they had the money theyve always wanted, could it make a serious difference? The citys roaring economy is spinning off tax revenue undreamed of a few years ago. Now its showtime for promised improvements, and the problems are everywhere.

There are no cuts in Mayor Ed Lees spending plan, which takes effect July 1 after a usually perfunctory review by the Board of Supervisors. Nearly every city function will expand, including a larger new police training class, more street paving and even extra dollars for the tiny Ethics Commission. Budgets for the airport, Muni, the public utilities system and the port will be sweetened. The official job roll grows by more than 750 positions to 30,750, a body itself the size of a small city.

San Franciscos spending has slowly curved upward over the past decade. But that trend line is taking off in this years proposed package, with an increase of $700 million.

The prime sources are property and real estate transfer taxes that grow in tandem with a soaring housing market. Added to this is a local sales tax enriched by tourism and conventions, which fill stores, restaurants and hotels.

Its a volatile mix that can slow quickly when the economy weakens. But for now the formula is a godsend, giving the city breathing room to take on serious issues.

The mayor wants to reshuffle homeless care by creating a super-agency that moves people off the streets for good instead of just feeding and temporarily sheltering them. Hes also spending big on training more police to respond to a wave of car break-ins and neighborhood crime. This step will be a delicate one, given tensions over use-of-force policies and the ouster of Police Chief Greg Suhr.

San Francisco may be both blessed and cursed by this ocean of budget money. There are ample funds to improve every service. Now its up to city leaders to make sure that happens.
The three board members, who are accused of sheltering fugitives and spreading false news, said they would appear in court on Saturday

The board of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate confirmed Thursday that three of its leading members will appear before a misdemeanor court Saturday to face trial in the latest twist of an ongoing stand-off between the union and the interior ministry.

Syndicate head Yehia Kalash, secretary-general Gamal Abdel-Reheem and undersecretary Khaled El-Balshy have been officially charged with sheltering fugitives - journalists Mahmoud El-Sakka and Amr Badr - as well spreading false news about the police raid of the union's headquarters on 1 May to arrest the two journalists.



The syndicate's board, which held a meeting on Thursday, asserted its full support to Kalash, Abdel-Reheem and El-Balshy, noting that the charges against them constitute a "fierce attack" against Egyptian journalists and freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Egypt.

The syndicate added that their referral to trial is "unprecedented" in the history of Egyptian unions and syndicates.

The three board members were questioned by prosecutors earlier this week before being released on bail that was paid anonymously against their will.



Unprecedented move

The unprecedented move by security forces against the union last month has left the syndicate and the interior ministry at loggerheads.

Last Sunday, the union leaders underwent hours of questioning by prosecutors on the two charges levelled against them.

Shortly afterwards, prosecutors set bail at EGP 10,000, which the trio refused to pay as a form of protest against the legitimacy of the investigation and charges.

However, after their bail was paid anonymously against their will, the union leaders grudgingly agreed in the early hours of Tuesday to leave detention.

Kalash told reporters later on Tuesday that the journalists' syndicate cannot be broken, insisting that "whoever bets against it will lose in the end".

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Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature approved the new California Earned Income Tax Credit last year. This investment reflected a common belief that hard-working people have earned basic economic security and a commonly accepted principle that rewarding work is good economic policy. The credit is widely acknowledged as the single most effective program for lifting people out of poverty.

By making $380 million available in the programs first year, California took a critical step in increasing income for the lowest-wage earners. However, only $600,000 was allocated for outreach to encourage use of the new state tax credit. Knowing that California has historically had one of the lowest-in-the-nation participation rates for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, a group of Californians launched CalEITC4Me, a statewide campaign that brought together the governors office, state agencies, statewide partners, community-based organizations, the faith community and the business community.

Due to this effort, preliminary results showed that more than 360,000 low-income Californians received the new state tax credit. But many more struggling working families earned too much  more than the $13,870 annual income threshold  to be eligible. For perspective, a person working full time at minimum wage ($20,800 annually) makes too much to receive the state credit; self-employed workers are ineligible entirely.

Tax credit CA tax credit for working poor aims to avoid US credits pitfalls

There are two important ways the governor and the Legislature can improve the California tax credit in this budget: increase the income threshold to reflect full-time minimum wage and include self-employed or what are commonly called 1099 workers. Our analysis shows that these policy changes could be made without increasing the amount already designated for the tax credit  and could help many more very low income Californians by rewarding full-time work and acknowledging the large numbers of self-employed workers in our state.

In this first year, the campaign focused on the two-thirds of Californians eligible for free tax preparation. If we could help more people take advantage of free tax prep by removing barriers  lack of trust, high cost, inconvenience  they would save the $200 typically paid for tax prep and find out if they qualify for the earned income tax credit.

So we partnered with Intuits Financial Freedom Foundation to offer a multilingual calculator to help people determine their eligibility and find convenient free tax preparation services. By the end of the campaign, the calculator had been used almost 110,000 times, our partners had made more than 75,000 referrals to local tax preparation sites and prepared almost 35,000 tax returns themselves, and our CalEITC4Me website had more than 250,000 views.

So far, this has resulted in $180 million in refunds. In the Bay Area, where low-wage workers face very high living costs, and 90,000 families were eligible for the tax credit, these dollars translate to a huge reinvestment in the local economy.

The impact of the state earned income tax credit cannot be underestimated. While we celebrate the unprecedented participation in this first-time program, we call on state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Assemblyman Philip Ting, D-San Francisco, chairs of the Senate and Assembly budget committees, to send the governor a budget that expands CalEITC eligibility.

Fiona Ma is chairwoman of State Board of Equalization. Joseph Sanberg is co-founder of Aspiration.com, an online financial services firm, and is chair of CalEITC4Me.
With her once-powerful lead sputtering away, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is hurrying back to California Thursday for a five-day, all-out effort to salvage victory in a state she doesnt really need to win.

Clinton will arrive in California to find a new Field Poll that shows her with a bare 45 to 43 percent edge over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has been drawing crowds of young people and independent voters to high-profile, media-friendly rallies across the state.

From Sanders point of view, this is his last hurrah, said Bruce Cain, a Stanford political science professor. If he wins, he can keep his flame alive, with more of a voice at the July convention in Philadelphia.

But what a win in California cant do is give the outspoken, 74-year-old progressive the Democratic presidential nomination. Clintons lead in both pledged delegates won in state caucuses and primaries, and unpledged superdelegates who have promised their support puts her on the brink of a first-ballot nomination. Voters in New Jersey, where she holds a double-digit lead over Sanders in the polls, are expected to push Clinton over the top Tuesday, hours before the polls close in California.

Crucial contest

But politics is as much perception as reality. While even a loss to Sanders wont cost the 68-year-old Clinton the nomination, the perception that one of the countrys best-known politicians cant put away a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist in one of the bluest states in the nation could be devastating.

Gabrielle Lurie/Special to The Chronicle

California matters not so much for the nomination as for the fall, said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at UC San Diego. Does she limp into the convention, or take a victory lap?

The two candidates are taking very different routes to Tuesdays primary, with Clinton already proclaiming her ultimate victory.

I will be the nominee for my party, she said in a May 19 interview with CNN. There is no way that I wont be.

If California could decide the nomination, Clinton would be challenging Sanders at every stop. But convinced the final result is well at hand, the former secretary of state can avoid the type of biting attacks that could alienate Sanders supporters, voters she needs on her side come November.

In the weeks since that CNN interview, Clinton has run her California campaign with her eyes fixed firmly on November, virtually ignoring Sanders in favor of nonstop attacks on businessman Donald Trump, the almost guaranteed GOP nominee.

Speaking to 1,000 people in downtown San Jose last week, Clinton briefly praised Sanders for running an issues-oriented campaign, and then called for him and his supporters to rally behind her.

We are all on the same page, Clinton said. We are going to come together as a unified Democratic Party to make the case against Donald Trump.

Even with the California polls turning toward Sanders, Clintons first stop in the state will be in San Diego for whats billed as a major foreign policy address. Thats a speech aimed at Trump in the fall, not Sanders on Tuesday. Shell also be at events in El Centro and Perris Thursday, while her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will appear in Redding.

Meanwhile, Sanders has virtually taken up residence in California, barnstorming across the state in a frenzied schedule of more than 25 rallies and dozens of other visits to restaurants, coffee shops, churches and union halls.

Smaller spots

The stops havent only been on the usual Democratic turf, such as college campuses and big urban centers like Sacramento, Oakland and Los Angeles. Sanders has also hit smaller spots like Cathedral City (Riverside County), Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County) and Chico (Butte County), communities that seldom see someone running for state treasurer, much less a candidate for president.

Calling California the big enchilada, Sanders said on NBCs Meet the Press Sunday that victory is in sight.

I think we have a good chance to win in California, maybe win big, he said.

Its virtually impossible for Clinton to match the excitement Sanders has generated with young progressives and the growing number of voters who dont identify with either Democrats or Republicans, Kousser said.

Sanders has got the new rock star appeal and (Clintons) the aging rock star forced to play the county fairs because everyone has already heard her, he added.

But Sanders all-rallies, all-the-time philosophy may be more effective at getting visibility and press coverage than in actually moving his supporters to the polls, especially because independents and voters under 30 typically are less likely to vote than the older, more traditional Democrats who back Clinton.

Sanders is running the type of grassroots campaign thats virtually unknown in California, said Darry Sragow, a veteran Democratic strategist in the state. But in a state with about 40 million people, those rallies only get you so far.

The visibility those high-energy rallies provide wouldnt make much difference to Clinton, he added.

I dont know that theres anyone in California who doesnt know how they feel about Hillary Clinton, Sragow said. There are no minds left to change.

What does matter, though, is getting her backers to cast their ballots for her and thats what Clinton will emphasize as she campaigns across California.

And while Clinton may have spent fewer days in the state than Sanders, surrogates like her husband, labor leader Dolores Huerta, big-city mayors like Ed Lee of San Francisco, Libby Schaaf of Oakland, Sam Liccardo of San Jose and Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, and dozens of other big-name Democrats have been making Clintons case across California.

As long as Clinton has people on the ground, walking and calling, shell be fine, said Barbara OConnor, a professor emerita of political communication at Cal State Sacramento.

But Sanders knows California is a must-win state if he wants to credibly argue that hes a better choice than Clinton for the fall campaign against Trump and hes campaigning like it.

For Clinton, the results in California might not be as important, and that lesser concern also may show up in the final days of the campaign.

Clinton would clearly prefer to win California and avoid all the negative momentum a loss would bring, Sragow said. But what happens in California in June may be little known nor long remembered in the minds of America next fall.

John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: jfwildermuth
Horsefeather, the new bar in Nopa, has been a long time coming.

Owners Justin Lew and Ian Scalzo had worked for the Future Bars group  which owns Bourbon & Branch, Rickhouse and others  for nine and six years, respectively, when they left in 2014. Theyd climbed the ladder as high as they could go.

Being a manager, a beverage director, you have these great expectations for how the company should be, but youre not in the drivers seat, Lew says. It seemed like the right time for the two to strike out on their own, so they got to work setting up a new Future Bars-like company, christened High-Proof. For their first bar, they secured a space on Divisadero.

From July to December of last year, Lew and Scalzo gave that space a test run as Tsk/tsk, a pop-up bar specializing in adult slushies. No frills and largely unadorned, Tsk/tsk served as a waystation while they obtained permits to do the larger renovations they wanted for Horsefeather, the bar that would permanently live there.

We couldnt even change a light fixture on the outside of the building without going through the Planning Department, Scalzo says.

Unexpectedly, Tsk/tsk ended up serving a more important purpose: It helped the owners get a sense of what their neighborhood wanted from a bar. As the Nopa area is growing, its growing in a high-end way, says Lew. With gimmicky slushies and just a simple black sign out front, not everyone in the neighborhood got Tsk/tsk, they say. That helped to inform Lew and Scalzo as they continued to develop Horsefeather. (The name alludes to the Marx Brothers movie Horse Feathers; the term is old-fashioned slang that Lew translates as ridiculous, with a positive connotation.)

It was worth the wait; the bar is gorgeous. Lew and Scalzo collaborated on the design with Local Produce Designs James Lagoc, who also did Nopa restaurant, the Independent and Bi-Rite Creamery. Its semi-outdoor patio at the front feels like a greenhouse, with a peaked glass ceiling and lots of pendant plants. (Side note: Are we now calling that a living wall?) A colorful geometric theme persists  through the patios wood paneling, the striking blue floor pattern and the leather padding on the walls inside. It feels like youre inside a Fort Point beer can.

John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

Right off the bat, we knew we would be a bar with food, Lew says. Now were kind of evolving into a hybrid of a cocktail bar and a restaurant. You can eat a substantial meal at Horsefeather  chef Ryan Chinchilla offers a burger, a generously portioned halibut curry, a two-piece fried chicken plate  but unlike other nearby restaurants (ahem, Nopa) you can usually count on getting a seat. And unlike nearby 4505, which serves just wine and beer, you can get a cocktail.

But while it may serve a neighborhood-specific niche, its hard to see what distinguishes Horsefeather among the ever-growing chorus of San Francisco craft-cocktail bars with ambitious food offerings. With some notable exceptions, the bar looks better than it tastes.

The tangerine-colored Red Rooster cocktail ($12), slightly bitter with a kind of medicinal-orange flavor, brought me back to my childhood of drinking Sunny D; a little more booze would have helped it harmonize. Meanwhile the Nightrain ($11) tasted too boozy: The nose is all Fernet, the finish all bourbon, both spirits heat drowning out any other flavors.

On the other hand, the California Cooler ($10) was wonderful, as botanical as the bars patio. In the drink, celery turns sweet rather than assertive  though I had trouble making out any horseradish flavor, or any carbonation from the sparkling wine. And though theres a scotch-based cocktail called the Mad Dog, it was the Strawberry Hill ($10) that most reminded me of Mad Dog 20/20  in a good way. The intense, concentrated strawberry flavor might have been cloying but for the additions of tart, acidic lemon and savory black pepper.

John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

Many of the drinks, which Scalzo creates, list wine as a component  but theyre in fact wine-based syrups. That was something Id wanted to do for a while, Scalzo says. Making simple syrups, but using wine instead of water as the base. In some cases, he infuses other ingredients too: thyme in the California Coolers Sauvignon Blanc syrup; grilled pineapple in the Red Roosters Riesling syrup.

As with the drinks, some of the food items miss the balance mark. A baby beet salad ($10) has great-tasting beets (and was topped with deliciously crunchy-chewy beet chips), but theyre sitting on a cheddar-vanilla-cauliflower puree that tastes like vanilla frosting  a puzzling attempt to enhance an already very sweet vegetable. The beet green mascarpone ravioli ($15) was ambiguously soupy, resting in a shallow broth; both the broth and the pasta were overwhelmed by extreme doses of salt and pepper. (And yes, that is a lot of beets.)

The best thing we ate was the halibut ceviche ($15, and yes, that is a lot of halibut), which had just the right amount of acid, inflected with lots of green components: chermoula, avocado, cucumber.

John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

Still, despite the focus on food, you wouldnt mistake Horsefeather for anything other than a bar. And its a fine neighborhood bar  the kind thats popping up everywhere in town these days  but its hard to see it becoming a destination. For Lew and Scalzo, its the first of many food-focused bars that they hope to open under High-Proof. Their next venture will be in downtown Oakland, though theyre not saying what the concept will be.

If the long-term plans for High-Proof  a small empire of Bay Area upscale cocktail bars, each with its own identity  sound heavily inspired by Future Bars, thats not a coincidence. But theres one important difference: Lew and Scalzo want to foster some of their star employees to eventually become partners in the business. Its their way of securing valuable talent  and its something they didnt get at Future Bars themselves. When youre not an owner, theres just this knowledge gap, Lew says. Ive learned you really cant bridge that gap unless youre the one whose moneys getting spent.

Its an ambitious 10-year plan. Will High-Proof be the future of Future Bars? If Horsefeather is any indication, theres still some work to do.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob

To order: California Cooler ($10), Strawberry Hill ($10), halibut ceviche ($15).

Where: Horsefeather, 528 Divisadero St. (at Fell), S.F. (415) 817-1939. www.horsefeatherbar.com

When: 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. daily (food served until 1 a.m.); weekend brunch 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Robert Kirkman goes from The Walking Dead to the walking possessed with the horror thriller Outcast premiering Friday on Cinemax.

The series has a lot going for it, including the fact that its getting the jump on the fall premiere of The Exorcist series on Fox. Now that TV is awash with zombies, vampires and superheroes, the medium seems to be turning to exorcism as a new content trend. If thats true, Outcast will do just fine.

Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit, Gone Girl) is a deeply troubled young man who is considered an outcast in the town where he lives, but in fact, has absented himself from the general population because hes afraid of what he might do. As a child, he was terrorized by his mother, who now resides in a state of permanent detachment in a long-term-care facility. He is certain that its all his fault and that hes a kind of demonic jinx to people around him. Thats why he wont see his ex-wife or their young daughter.

Kyle teams up with the Rev. Anderson (Philip Glenister, Life on Mars), who has abandoned his own family to devote his life to exorcising demons from the souls of the possessed, of which there seem to be an inordinate number in tiny Rome, W.Va.  rather like the overpopulation of murderers in Murder, She Wrotes Cabot Cove, Maine.

The series, based on the comic book created by Kirkman and artist Paul Azaceta, has both an overarching plot  Kyle is desperate to get to the bottom of his mothers possession and put his own life back in order  and a kind of episodic possession of the week structure.

Kyles first case with Anderson involves a young boy named Joshua Austin (Gabriel Bateman, Stalker), who is just not himself. He contorts his young body like a pretzel, spews black tar-like gunk at his would-be exorcists and floats above his bed. All thats missing to evoke Linda Blair in The Exorcist is pea-green projectile vomit and his head spinning around.

Exorcism isnt easy, though, and Joshua takes a beating to get un-demonized. You could say Kyle beats the devil out of the kid.

Other cases are even more challenging than Joshuas, as the exorcists find out when they confront Blake Morrow (Lee Tergesen, Oz), who has killed his best friends wife and seems immune to every attempt to exorcise his resident demon.

What turned him from a seemingly decent, average Joe into a maniacal killer? It was the way people use forgiveness as a way of excusing their own faults.

What turned my stomach wasnt the sin, he seethes. It was the forgiveness. He sees through the hypocrisy of his upstanding fellow Romans.

The shows structure is smart in many ways, giving us more immediate satisfaction as individual stories play out, while piling on layers of mystery about many of the characters. Kirkman does it so well that we almost miss the fact that several subplots are pretty timeworn.

For the most part, it doesnt matter, thanks to a riveting anchor performance by Fugit, gotcha-laced direction by Adam Wingard, Howie Deutch and Julius Ramsay, and several notable performances by supporting players, such as Wrenn Schmidt (Boardwalk Empire) as Kyles adopted sister, David Denman (13Hours) as her cop husband who has little use for Kyle, and by Glenister and Tergesen.

Character actress Grace Zabriskie (Ray Donovan) is memorably chilling as a judgmental elderly churchgoer who used to be known for her sweetness but has inexplicably become cantankerous and then some. And even without all the special effects needed to depict his possession, young Gabriel Batemans performance lays the foundation for the entire series in the premiere episode.

David Wiegand is the TV critic and an assistant managing editor of The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: WaitWhat_TV. Follow me on Facebook

Outcast: 10-episode series. 10 p.m. Friday, June 3, on Cinemax.
Then last fall came the surprising passage of Californias End of Life Option Act, giving terminally ill adults with six months to live the right to request lethal medication to end their lives. The law takes effect June 9.

Shavelson decided he had to act, although he feels quite guilty about having been away from the issue while others pushed it forward.

Can I just sit back and watch? Shavelson told me from his cottage office in his backyard in Berkeley. This is really an amazing opportunity to be part of establishing policy and initiating something in medicine. This is a major change  [that] very, very few people know anything about and how to do it.

His website, Bay Area End of Life Options, went up in April, and hes outlined the law at grand rounds at several Bay Area hospitals this spring. His practice will be focused on consulting not only with physicians whose patients request aid-in-dying, but also with patients themselves, including offering care to patients who choose him as their attending End-of-Life physician, as he indicates on his site.

Shavelson is adamant that this is something that has to be done right. To him, that means starting every patient encounter with a one-word question: Why?

In fact, its the only initial approach that I think is acceptable. If somebody calls me and says, I want to take the medication, my first question is, why? Let me talk to you about all the various alternatives and all the ways that we can think about this, he predicts he will say.

Shavelson worries that patients may seek aid-in-dying because they are in pain, so first, he would like all his patients to be enrolled in hospice care.

This can only work when youre sure that the patients have been given the best end-of-life care, which to me is most guaranteed by being a part of hospice or at least having a good palliative care physician. Then this is a rational decision. If youre doing it otherwise, its because of lack of good care.

California is the fifth state to legalize aid-in-dying, joining Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana. The option is very rarely used. For example, in 2014 in Oregon, 155 lethal prescriptions were written under the states law, and 105 people ultimately took the medicine and died, a death rate under this method of less than 0.5 percent.

Under the law, two doctors must agree that a mentally competent patient has six months or less to live. One of the patient-doctor meetings must be private, between only the patient and the physician, to ensure the patient is acting independently. Patients must be able to swallow the medication themselves and must state, in writing, within 48 hours before taking the medication, that they will do so.

Shavelson says he has been surprised by the lack of understanding he hears from some health care providers about the law. One person insisted the law was not taking effect this year; another asked how the law would benefit his patients with Alzheimers disease. To be clear, the law takes effect next week, and patients with dementia cannot access the law because they are not mentally competent.

The law does not mandate participation by any health care providers. Many physicians are queasy with the new law, Shavelson says hes hearing, and are unwilling to prescribe to patients who request the lethal medication  even though they tell him they think the law is the right thing to do.

My response to that is as health care providers, you might have been uncomfortable the first time you drew blood. You might have been uncomfortable the first time you took out somebodys gall bladder, he says. If its a medical procedure you believe in and you believe its the patients right, then its your obligation to learn how to do it  and do it correctly.

Shavelson said he predicts that many physicians who are initially reluctant to provide this option to their patients may become more comfortable after the law goes into effect and they see how it works.

Burt Presberg, an East Bay psychiatrist who works specifically with cancer patients and their families, said a talk he attended by Shavelson sparked a conversation at his practice. Yet, in my own talk with him, he peppered his statements with on the other hand, as he clearly wrestled with his own comfort level of handling patient requests.

Presberg spoke of his concern that patients suffer from clinical depression at the end of life, sometimes feeling they are a burden to family members who could really push for the end of life to happen a little sooner than the patient themselves. He spoke from his experience of successfully treating terminally ill patients with clinical depression.

Depression is something thats really undertreated, Presberg said. I often talk to people about the difference between normal sadness and normal grieving at the end of life.

He said he believes Shavelson will be aware of treating depression, but I do have concerns about other physicians, he said. On the other hand, I think its really good that this is an option.

Shavelson says hes already received a handful of calls from patients, but hes mostly spent this time before the law takes effect talking to other physicians. He needs a consulting physician and a pharmacist that will accept prescriptions for the lethal dose of medicine.

Then he returns to the patient. Its important  that were moving forward, he says. Its crucial that we do that because this is part of the rights of patient care to have a certain level of autonomy in how they die.

To many of the doctors who feel queasy about moving to end a patients life, this type of care isnt so tangibly different to me, Shavelson says, than other kinds of questions doctors address.

Im just one of those docs who sees dying as a process, and method of death is less important than making sure its a good death.
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SACRAMENTO  Presidential hopeful Donald Trump paid another visit to California on Wednesday, bringing his boilerplate calls for a border wall and more American jobs to the state capital, while Sen. Bernie Sanders spent among the final days before the states Tuesday primary on the Peninsula.

The presumptive Republican nominee spoke amid sweltering temperatures in a hangar next to the Sacramento International Airport, appearing to talk off the cuff on topics that ranged from Gov. Jerry Brown to Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton, she lies, lies, lies, lies, Trump said to the screaming applause of about 3,000.

Standing at a podium in front his plane, the real estate mogul riffed on what may be the latest setback for the candidate: the World Golf Championships event long held at Miamis Trump National Doral course is reportedly being moved to Mexico, a shift the PGA Tour said had nothing to do with politics yet it follows criticism from the Tour after his divisive comments about women and minorities.

Trump: Not good

Think of it: Miami to Mexico City. Not good, Trump said.

Trump also weighed in on Browns recent endorsement of Clinton, expressing halfhearted disappointment.

I know Jerry Brown. I love Jerry Brown. Who loves Jerry Brown? he said.

Trump notably made no mention of Californias historic drought, which last week in Fresno he said was nonexistent and pledged to start opening up the water if elected.

He spelled out few policy prescriptions during his roughly 35 minutes on the stump.

The crowd, which began lining up for the 7 p.m. rally as early as 10 a.m., braved 90-plus degree temperatures at the Sacramento International Jet Center to hear the billionaire reality-TV star speak.

The lines are way longer at AT&T Park, said Hunter Stevens, of Lodi, who didnt mind the wait, even if it meant using the hastily set up portable toilets.

About two dozen protested in the parking lot next to the hangar chanting, Dump Trump now and No more hate in our state. Conflicts between protesters and police have led to arrests at recent Trump events in Fresno and San Diego.

Trump is scheduled to hold another rally at 7 p.m. Thursday at the San Jose Convention Center.

Nonstop tour of state

Meanwhile, Sanders kept up his seemingly nonstop tour of California on Wednesday, drawing distinctions with Clinton, but saving his toughest attacks for Trump.

Because of the rise of Trumpism, suddenly a lot of the racism that has been kind of pushed down has popped up again, Sanders said at a town hall forum dubbed Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders for Bernie at a community center in Palo Alto.

In the wake of Trump calling for a ban on all Muslims entering the United States, Sanders said, Muslim parents have told him their children are afraid to walk the streets.

This cannot and must not be allowed to go on in the United States of America, Sanders said. And together we will fight back against this bigotry, this attempt to divide this country up. We will not allow Donald Trump and his friends to break our unity.

It was one of three Sanders stops Wednesday, that included not just the Palo Alto forum and a rally outside the community center, but a news conference in the Salinas Valley hamlet of Spreckels (Monterey County) where he stated his opposition to fracking. The visits were his latest in a string of California appearances that have taken the Vermont senator from the southern reaches of the state to the Central Coast and Central Valley.

Needling, not scathing

As polls tightened in California leading up to next weeks presidential primary, his tone toward Clinton in Palo Alto wasnt so much scathing as needling. He noted that the presumed front-runner was canceling events elsewhere to make last-minute California appearances as polls show her lead here shrinking to within the margin of error.

I just saw Hillary Clinton racing to California. I saw Bill Clinton racing to California, Sanders told the crowd outside Cubberley Community Center. Maybe they think this race is not over.

Clinton is likely to clinch the Democratic nomination next week, needing just a third of the remaining delegates awarded in the remaining state primaries.

Sanders for carbon tax

When Sanders drew contrasts between him and Clinton, he did so comparatively gently. He pointed out that she voted in the Senate to give the George W. Bush administration the authority to invade Iraq, while he opposed the resolution. To combat climate change, Sanders noted, he supports a carbon tax while Clinton doesnt.

And although they both oppose the U.S. Supreme Courts Citizens United decision allowing unlimited contributions to independently run political campaigns, Sanders said he has discouraged super PACs from supporting his campaign. Clinton has chosen a different path, he said, saying she has raised many millions from Wall Street and many special interests.

He was accompanied in Palo Alto by Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, a military veteran who said she resigned her position in the Democratic Party leadership so she could support Sanders. She said he is more likely than Clinton to oppose unnecessary U.S. military intervention overseas, and noted specifically that Clinton has supported a no-fly zone in the Middle East.

Combatting gentrification

Thats why Im supporting Sen. Sanders  because I dont think he would get us into these types of conflicts, Gabbard said in an interview after the forum.

In the heart of Silicon Valley  where the price of housing is among the highest in the country  Sanders called for creative approaches to tackling gentrification, in addition to building millions of units of affordable housing nationwide.

If youre a developer and you have the money to build fancy condos, you should not be able to drive people out of the neighborhoods where they have grown up and they have lived, Sanders said.

Joe Garofoli and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: joegarofoli @SteveRubeSF
Editor's note: This is one of many stories about LGBTQ life in the Bay Area that San Francisco Magazine is publishing over the next month, all part of the June 2016 Pride Issue. To peruse the rest of the issue's contents, and to read stories as they become available online, click here.

The orgy on the floor before dinner failed to shock me as much as when, a couple hours earlier, Id found myself in the middle of the forest cutting down a mighty tree. Hacking away at the three-story redwood in the Mendocino wilderness, I had felt a kind of trepidation I hadnt experienced since high school PE. My life as a gay man in San Francisco had always felt relatively safe; I had never considered living anywhere else. But now, there I was channeling an inner lumberjack that Id never known was inside of me. I felt much more natural sitting courtside at the orgy, trying to spot the most well-endowed guy through the flickering candlelight.

Such is life at the Groundswell Institute, a two-year-old, 200-acre eco-village in Mendocino County dedicated to creating a queer space that overlaps with environmental activism. Here, campers learn everything from how to cut down trees and build swales to how to don drag and participate in better group sex. Groundswell offers a chance for city dwellers like myself to break free of Castro stereotypes and, if nothing else, play woodsman for a weekend. But its also a budding queer community where people come to live, an attempt to build a gay ghetto outside of a metropolitan area. You wont find a two-for-one well-drink night or a rainbow crosswalk for miles.

Inspired by similar communes around the country, Groundswell was conceived in 2014 by Kyle DeVries, Jim Montgomery, and William Stewart, all three of whom are gay and veterans of communal life. What does being gay have to do with going back to the land? DeVries argues, convincingly, that LGBTQ folks have long experienced injustice and oppression in the same way that Mother Earth has experienced hardship and abuse. Besides the fact that queer rights and environmentalism generally sit together on the left side of the political spectrum, the idea of people with lifestyles slightly outside the norm decamping to some remote piece of land has historical antecedents. See: Thoreau. (Or maybe thats all BS and Groundswell is just an excuse for outdoorsy gay dudes to cavort in the woods. After a weekend there, Im still not sure.)

All the film festival flicks and overwrought gay literature I had ever consumed suggested that being in a gay community meant living in a big city. Sure, there are vacation communities like Provincetown and Guerneville, but these always struck me as short-term getaways, not permanent living places. Could a gay community possibly thrive long-term outside of a citys boundaries? With my mind open and my pecs needing some ax work, I headed up to Groundswell to find out.

A few days before I left, I got an email from the fine folks at Groundswell. Special will be driving you up, it read. It took a second to register, but someone named Special, it seemed, was going to act as the Virgil to my Dante. Visions of a creaking VW bus piloted by a Gandalf-cum-Liberace character puttered through my head. When he arrived, Special turned out to be Kevin Clark, an attractive young professional who works at a local medicinal marijuana company and had rented a sleek 2015 Mazda for the weekend. During our ride up, I peppered him with questions about what to expect. Its not as burner or hippie as you think, he reassured me. Well, it is, but its also different. A great group.

Groundswell mostly serves as a retreat center, hosting short-term experiences like this one using a sliding scale payment system. (I paid $100 for the weekend.) Though its technically open to folks of any persuasion, a majority of the institutes visitorsand every one of the 20 attendees of this retreat, titled Queer Forestry Campare queer men. There are also a handful of permanent residents who have flocked from various lifestyles in various places to help establish this new community in the woods. They joined in throughout the weekend, acting as guides to the property and leading workshops on homesteading skills.

When Special and I finally arrived at the camp, located in the emerald-hued town of Yorkville, my eyes and mouth went agape at the scene before me: It is, indeed, a camp in the manner of Wet Hot American Summer or Meatballs. But its also stunning. Ten little cabins, each lodging up to eight people, decorate the tree-studded land. Theres a dining hall. There are goats. Theres a fire pit replete with a stage for a nightly cabaret. Theres even a little creek cutting across the land.

Formerly a childrens camp with the innocent name of Camp Rancheria, the lands prepubescent past reveals itself in the communal bathrooms that still feature childlike pastel colors and a pint-size trough urinal. Any ghosts of a kiddie past, however, are banished by the following inscription on one of the doors: This stall reserved for hook ups.

It was time to meet my fellow campers. All types of men, ranging in ages, body types, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, were on display. Most of them were return visitors, some using their Radical Faerie names. (Members of the hippie-like Radical Faeries, who strive to define queerness through spirituality, paganism, and a lack of deodorant, are frequent visitors of Groundswell.) We stood in a circle, joined hands, and introduced ourselves.

Im Lion. Im Wow. Im Longevity. ImBrock?

After intros, we plopped down for dinner. Id imagined a meal of vegan slop accompanied by twig-and-bark tea, but the reality was much kinder: pork rotini, vegetables roasted to a crisp, cheese-laced mashed potatoes, and ginger-lemon water. The dinner conversation was surprising, better than I had experienced in ages. Cattiness (or, more precisely, fear) had been left behind. No one felt the need to ask, What do you do for a living?; talk of the 2016 election was more or less absent.

But talk of what it means to be queer outside the confines of a metropolis eventually made the rounds. San Francisco, the consensus was, wont stay a gay mecca forever. Skyrocketing rents, the recent acceptance of queerdom by a majority of society, and a new Castro vibe that features fewer refugees from small-town America and more moneyed, privileged bros have started to erode our gay ghetto. In a city that once had even a minor gay presence in almost every neighborhood (be it a bar, bookstore, or bathhouse), most of the citys visible queerness is now quarantined in the Castro, with a few scattered remnants in SoMa and the Tenderloin. Rainbow lights decorating a Castro Station Muni escalator dont bring a community together the way this strange little camp in the woods seems to.

These ideas solidified after dinner as I sipped ginger water and watched my brethren blow one another in a multipronged floor pile. I felt neither pressure to join in nor fear of rejection. Other campers were passing around a bottle of red wine, laughing and swapping stories. I basked in the joy of hanging out with newfound friends, not worrying about who I was going home with or how the night would end.

The next morning, after a breakfast that rivaled the most artisanal hipster brunch (soft-cooked eggs, biscuits, crispy potato hash), we all donned our most flattering outdoorsy gear and hiked up a hill to find a tree to knock over. Some of the forest area at Groundswell is in need of attention; new trees have sprouted out of fallen seeds and led to claustrophobic clusters of redwoods and Douglas firs. After deciding on an enormous tree, we took turns hacking a notch into the base with an ax and a hacksaw, eventually felling it to a round of primal cheers.

Work is also being done to further open up the camp for those seeking out the communal lifestyle. Bedrooms are being added, cabins are getting renovated, and a hot tub is being installed. DeVries says interest in an outdoor gay paradise is growing, a fact confirmed at the end of the weekend when several participants elected to prolong their stay. As for myself, I left Groundswell more relaxed and aware of my natural surroundings than I had been in years. After exchanging numbers and hugging my new friends goodbye, Special and I got into the car and began the drive back to the original gay mecca. Leaving the wilderness behind us, we reflected on the potential Groundswell holds. Perhaps it is time to create a new community, we agreed, the way our gay forebears once flocked to San Francisco. Maybe even somewhere in the woods.

Originally published in the June issue of San Francisco, and online at ModernLuxury.com
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Ivy Tam, a dancer during the peak of the 1960s Chinatown nightclub scene who worked in recent years to keep the tradition alive, has died. She was 81.

Ms. Tam, who had pulmonary fibrosis, died early last month after a brief hospital stay.

Ms. Tam was 19 in 1954 when she left Hong Kong for San Francisco, getting a job as a cashier  and later dancing in elaborate and artistic costumes  at the Forbidden City nightclub in Chinatown. She married club owner Charlie Low and was frequently mentioned by columnists who noticed her natural charm and impeccable dress at the symphony, opera and other events.

In those days, how many Chinese went to those events? Ms. Tams friend Cynthia Yee said. She would steal the show from all the other city celebrities who were there. She was so beautiful, in all those beautiful gowns. She was always the Hollywood movie star, so to speak.

Ms. Tam danced through much of the 1960s, before the North Beach strip clubs impacted the business of the less risque Chinese nightclubs. Ms. Tam divorced Low, Forbidden City closed in 1968, and she spent nearly four decades working as a waitress in San Francisco and on the Peninsula.

Preserving tradition

In 2004, Ms. Tam and Yee helped co-found the Grant Avenue Follies, dancing in elaborate costumes in the Chinese nightclub tradition.

She performed in April at the Art Deco Preservation Ball at Bimbos 365 Club, which featured a Forbidden City theme.

Ms. Tams daughter, Ivy Ong, said her mother was always a positive force, making close connections at the restaurants and cocktail bars where she worked, including Senor Pico, Trader Vics and, until her retirement in the 2000s, the hotel Sofitel in Redwood City.

She believed you work because you have to, and you might as well make it a happy situation, Ong said. Be happy and make the people around you happy.

After her retirement, Ms. Tam moved from Foster City back to San Francisco, living near Point Lobos. Yee said she would always dress immaculately even when leaving her apartment for a short walk, and loved to host.

She was always very welcoming, up until the last few weeks of her life, Yee said. She made beef Stroganoff for all of the Follies. Fourteen of us ladies after rehearsal, crammed in her apartment. She was just so generous about everything. You dont find people like that.

Celebration of life

Yee said that when Ms. Tam went to the emergency room weeks before her death, she put on full makeup first. Ong said her mother didnt want life-extending measures and wasnt sick for long. Before she died, Ms. Tam asked for a celebration of life instead of a memorial.

Ong said other children might want to rebel from their mothers, but she always admired Ms. Tam.

For me, it was the highest compliment for someone to say, Youre just like your mom, Ong said.

Ms. Tam is survived by her daughter and two grandchildren. A celebration of life for family and friends is scheduled for Sunday in San Mateo. Donations can be made to On Lok Lifeways, 1333 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94109.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: PeterHartlaub
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. faced another financial hit for shoddy record keeping Wednesday as a state hearing officer recommended a $24.3 million penalty for lapses in natural gas records leading to a March 2014 explosion that destroyed an unoccupied cottage in Carmel.

The California Public Utilities Commission has already fined PG&E $10.8 million for the Carmel explosion, which also damaged three nearby homes. A CPUC administrative law judge recommended the additional penalty Wednesday for the companys failure to keep accurate records of gas line locations, resulting in digging that damaged pipelines, interrupted gas service and ultimately caused the explosion. Failing to keep those records is a violation of state regulations.

The wrongdoing implicates the safe operation of a natural gas system, which is by its very nature dangerous, said the administrative law judge, Maribeth Bushey. Complete compliance with safety requirements is essential.

She said PG&E had other incidents of poor record keeping from 2010 onward that should have set off warning signals, including mistakes in charting and monitoring pressure gauges in October 2012 that interrupted gas service to 987 customers in Milpitas. A July 2013 natural gas leak in Mountain View, causing an evacuation but no injuries, was a result of the penetration of a one-inch plastic pipe insert that wasnt listed on any PG&E maps or records, Bushey said  the same thing that happened eight months later in the Carmel explosion.

While PG&E violated the law and its duties to its customers, she said, a mitigating factor was that the actions caused no deaths or injuries, just environmental degradation from gas releases and customer inconvenience.

The penalty is much less than the $111.9 million fine recommended by the commissions safety division, or the $652 million levy sought by officials in Carmel. If PG&E or anyone else contests Busheys assessment, it will go to the full commission for a vote.

PG&E has denied wrongdoing and argued against further penalties related to the Carmel explosion. Company spokesman Greg Snapper said the utility is reviewing Busheys decision.

Weve made significant improvements to our distribution records to promote safety, reduce risk and enhance reliability, Snapper said in a statement. We have more work to do and we are dedicated to doing it right.

PG&Es failure to keep records of its underground lines has been central to other regulatory disputes and punishments.

In 2014, the state commission fined the company $1.6 billion for a 2010 natural gas explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. This month, PG&E faces a federal trial on criminal charges, brought by the U.S. Justice Department, of violating pipeline safety laws and obstructing the San Bruno investigation. Convictions would carry fines of up to $562 million.

The utilities commission fined PG&E $38 million in 2011 for a 2008 explosion in Rancho Cordova (Sacramento County) that killed a homeowner. In 2012, it levied a $16.8 million fine for PG&Es failure to check gas distribution lines in the East Bay for leaks. Those are the smaller lines that branch off from transmission pipelines and snake through neighborhoods.

In 2013, the commission hit PG&E with a $14.4 million penalty for misleading regulators about the extent of flaws in its records of a transmission pipeline in San Carlos. Later that year, the commission fined PG&E $8.1 million for incomplete testing of welds on new pipelines.

In Carmel, PG&E crews were installing a street distribution gas line and linking it to another pipeline that, according to PG&E records, was made of steel. But PG&E or a contractor had inserted a plastic pipe, slicing the steel line, without making the changes on company maps. When workers drilled into the steel line in 2014, gas flowed out of the plastic pipe, escaped through a cut in the steel line and reached the empty one-bedroom cottage, where it was apparently set off by a pilot light.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: egelko
The state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to require environmental reviews for a controversial plan to ship coal by rail through Oakland, which has pitted legislators in Sacramento against a developer who is closely connected to Gov. Jerry Brown.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, could be the first major hurdle for the $250 million Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, a giant export depot that developer Phil Tagami hopes to build near the east end of the Bay Bridge. Coal wasnt part of the plan until 2014, when Tagamis shipping operator, Terminal Logistics Solutions, began courting investment from four coal-mining counties in Utah  on the promise that Utah coal would be shipped through Oakland.

In March, Utahs Legislature voted to spend $53 million in taxpayer dollars on the Oakland project.

Wednesdays bill was one in a package that Hancock introduced in February to disrupt the plans. It will go to its first Assembly committee in the coming weeks.

Hancock hopes to introduce a second anti-coal bill on Thursday, aimed at cutting off taxpayer funding for any coal terminal in the state that sits near a poor neighborhood.

In an interview Wednesday, the Berkeley senator was exuberant.

This will require that they (the developers) face up to the fact that theyre proposing to bring a highly polluting substance through many communities in California, she said. Hancock noted that 11 East Bay mayors  from Berkeley, Dublin, Fremont, Livermore, Hayward, Richmond, San Leandro, Union City, Emeryville, Albany and El Cerrito  signed a joint letter denouncing the coal-shipping plan, because rail lines that serve the Port of Oakland also run through some of those cities.

Brown, who Tagami says is a close friend of his, spent Wednesday hosting a clean energy event in San Francisco. He has kept mum on the coal plan and declined to comment for this story.

The Oakland City Council approved the port development in 2013, giving Tagami the green light to build without barring him specifically from shipping coal from the port. On June 27 its members will decide whether to alter the terms of that deal.

City officials are walking a fine line between honoring their agreement with Tagami and catering to residents who believe his project will cause lung-damaging coal dust to waft through Oakland. Theyre gambling on a clause in the contract that says the city has the right to look after the health and safety of residents  even if that means prohibiting a legal product.

In May, representatives of Terminal Logistics Solutions, along with several churches and labor groups, held a news conference to tout the planned shipping terminal and surrounding 366-acre development, which would bring a rail line, warehouses and maritime businesses to the long-defunct Oakland Army Base. They say a coal ban could derail the entire project and eliminate thousands of jobs.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: rachelswan
The veteran political activist and National Council for Human Rights member passed away after long struggle with illness

Veteran leftist political activist and member of the National Council for Human Rights Shahenda Maklad passed away Thursday evening after a long struggle with illness.

Her funeral will be held in her hometown of Kamshish in the Nile Delta Menoufiya governorate, according to her son.

The 78-year-old Maklad's long history of activism for social justice in Egypt began after the 1952 revolution. As a young teen, Maklad famously stood with her cousin, political activist Hussein Salah, to demand the end of feudal families' control of land in their Nile Delta village.

Salah, who married Maklad shortly after, was assassinated by one of the village's families for his activism.

After her husband's assassination, the mother of three vowed to continue the fight against feudalism in Egypt and became one of the famous women activists in the country.

A supporter of late President Gamal Abdel-Nasser's policies, Maklad opposed the economic and foreign policies of successors Anwar El-Sadat and Hosni Mubarak.

Despite her age, she joined the famous 18-day sit-in at Cairo's Tahrir square that demanded the ouster of autocrat Mubarak in January and February of 2011.

Maklad also opposed the policies of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. In December 2013, a video showing a Morsi supporter attacking her during a sit-in outside the Presidential Palace caused widespread outrage.

Maklad, who declared her full support for current president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, was appointed at the National Council for Human Rights in August 2013.

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It's 1:15 in the morning. You are deep in REM sleep when the roar of turbine engines jolts you awake.

As you lie there trying to fall back to sleep, a rumble rises in the distance, snowballing into another crescendo of sound that overwhelms your earplugs and double-paned windows. A few minutes later, a third jet soars overhead. Then another and another, a total of six in less than 45 minutes.

Pacifica used to be known for two things: fog and quiet. It's still known for fog.

Fifteen years ago, plane fly-overs were common, but infrequent enough that they didn't bother most residents. Today, a virtual conga line of airplanes parades overhead  200 to 250 per day.

More for you Are airport line-skipping options worth it?

Nights of sleep deprivation have become the new normal for parts of Pacifica, according to about 30 residents attending a meeting on aircraft noise last month in the city's Council Chambers. Many complained about the racket, some reporting suffering physical and mental problems.

"We've all had problems with sleep," said Park Pacifica resident Janice Weeks, who serves on the city's airport noise advisory board.

Robert Farrow of the city's Fairmont West neighborhood says the planes  as low as 1,200 feet  practically buzz his house every morning at breakfast.

"I could serve coffee to the pilots," he said.

FAA's upgrade increases efficiency  at a cost

How did this once sleepy coast-side city turn into ground central for airport noise? For starters, there are simply more planes flying over the Peninsula than ever before.

But what has really had an impact is NextGen, a new air-traffic control system that the Federal Aviation Administration launched in 2014 and has been gradually implemented at airports across the country.

Using satellite-based technology to replace ground-based navigation, the FAA has dramatically increased air-traffic volume, making it possible for airlines to schedule more flights, service more customers, use less fuel, reduce crew and maintenance, and subsequently enjoy heftier profits.

The agency estimates savings of nearly $80 billion to passengers in terms of time saved via shorter flights through 2030. It also sees $400 million in carbon dioxide emission reductions.

A glance at the NextGen page reveals just how proud the FAA is of its new system, which it calls an "experience." But one experience that isn't mentioned is that of the people trying to sleep under the revised, much busier flight paths.

San Francisco International Airport used to direct departing west- and southbound flights out over the ocean, minimizing air time over residential areas. But in March 2015, NextGen changed the northeast takeoff route for these flights.

One of the citizen advisers for the city's aircraft noise group, Ray Ramos, explained that the planes are vectored, or directed to a designated waypoint, earlier than they previously were to save fuel and time. Immediately after takeoff, they make a U-turn that routes them right over Pacifica.

Most of the southern flights are headed to the Los Angeles area  623 flights per week, more than any other destination by far. A huge increase in China-bound travelers over the last five years accounts for many of the westbound flights. China is SFO's No. 1 international destination with 176 flights per week.

In addition, any "aborts"  landings that are aborted on approach at SFO  are regularly rerouted over Pacifica.

Surprise! Not all planes from SFO

To make matters worse, FAA information that came to light for the first time last month revealed that about one of every six planes flying over the city is coming from Oakland International, said Dan Stegnick of the noise advisory group. The Oakland planes fly even lower than SFO jets and closer to SFO than many of OAK's own flights, even though they are supposed to be giving SFO a wide berth.

Because NextGen's satellite-based navigation is so precise, flight paths can be concentrated over relatively narrow corridors, such as the Pacifica route, which the FAA calls SSTIK.

Previously, planes relied on radio frequencies or beacons, or simply followed directional headings provided by controllers. The result was flight paths scattered over a broad swath of airspace. Many homes got some noise each day, but it was manageable. Now fewer houses are affected, but the ones that are get slammed.

Residents at the meeting all appeared to be in the latter category.

"We moved to Pacifica because it was quiet (and it was) until mid-October. Then it was an invasion," said one.

Some people expressed worries about property values declining, and at least two said they were contemplating leaving. Others asked about imposing a curfew at SFO (not possible under current regulations, according to the city's airplane noise advisers). One wanted to know why the planes can't be forced to take off on a steeper trajectory (older, heavier planes are unable).

A man asked if the jets could be outfitted with mufflers (the technology doesn't exist).

Disrupted sleep seemed to be the No. 1 cause of suffering and stress, with some people saying they were having difficulty working or even just functioning in their daily life.

"My quality of life has gone way down," said a woman.

Health effects of noise

Various studies link aircraft noise to health problems. A European Heart Journal study found that noise from aircraft or street traffic can increase a person's blood pressure even if it does not wake them.

Another study found that Dutch and British children living in homes regularly exposed to aircraft noise showed higher than normal rates of high blood pressure, especially when the noise occurred at night. And a Swedish study of 2,844 European children affected by plane noise found a high incidence of reading deficiencies and memory impairment.

Pacifica isn't the only Bay Area community suffering from noise pollution, of course. It's been a longstanding beef in Brisbane, just north of SFO.

Silicon Valley residents from Redwood City to Los Gatos are complaining about an arrival route to San Francisco called SERFR ONE that beginning on March 5, 2015, moved air traffic three miles inland from a previous route that skirted the coast over Big Sur and less populated areas.

Palo Alto alone saw a tenfold increase in noise complaints, from 587 to more than 5,000 in the first six months of 2015, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

And while SERFR ONE noise is certainly significant, the problem is not as severe as Pacifica's, as planes approaching for landing make a lot less racket as they're not throttling against the wind to gain loft.

Prompted by a surge in noise complaints, the FAA is currently studying changes to flight paths that could give Pacifica and other Peninsula communities some relief, but their final recommendations are not expected for many months if not years.

Some of the suggestions that have been deemed feasible and earmarked for further study are:

 Reduce vectoring, eliminate early turns over land. Focus on leaving aircraft over water as long as possible.

 Push the SSTIK route farther over water.

 Begin a nighttime south departure.

 Adjusting NITE (a nighttime route) air traffic to eliminate early turns over land between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier, whose 14th District includes Pacifica, is co-sponsoring legislation to fund a study on the impact of airplane noise and air pollution on residents' health.

Several Phoenix neighborhoods have also suffered increased noise due to the new FAA routes.

The city sued the FAA last year, claiming the agency refused to make changes even when officials proposed alternatives that they say would have reduced noise and retained 80% of desired fuel and efficiency benefits. The suit charges the FAA has created a negative impact on the Phoenix community without proper due process, notification and consideration.
The Ramones blazing through their storied CBGB sets in New York, the Sex Pistols creating general mayhem in London: These are among punk rocks quintessential images.

But Los Angeles had its own thriving punk scene, even if its significance tends to be overlooked, and John Doe of X (along with collaborator Tom DeSavia) pays tribute to that citys punk past in Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk (Da Capo; $26.99). Now a resident of Richmond, Doe will discuss his book Friday, June 3, at Diesel bookstore in Oakland.

Under the Big Black Sun covers events from 1977 to 1982, featuring essays by Doe and a dozen other contributors, including his X bandmate (and ex-wife) Exene Cervenka, Black Flags Henry Rollins, Minutemens Mike Watt, and Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Gos. (The chapters by the latter two are graphic reminders of how punk rock the Go-Gos were before achieving mainstream success.)

It was gratifying to see that everybody had a s time in high school and loved David Bowie, Doe said of reading through the contributors entries.

Written with immediacy and brio, the book is suffused with the heady feeling of finding your tribe. But many of the essays take a dark turn, with the initial feelings of endless possibility receding as punk shows turned violent and as heroin use became widespread. I tried not to romanticize it, and I encouraged the other authors not to, Doe said.

The 1980 suicide of the front man of the Germs marked an ending of sorts. After Darby Crash killed himself, people started feeling that things were changing, Doe said. I think that by the end of 1980 there were definite changes, something slipping away as youre standing on it, some shifting sands.

Still, it wasnt until later that Doe realized how important the Los Angeles scene had been. At the time, everyone was busy just being there and doing it, he said. There might have been a hint of recognition that something was going on, but no one had an idea of the impact it would have later.

Doe also wanted the book to recognize the contributions of Chicano musicians to the L.A. sound; if the citys slice of punk history as a whole is underappreciated, its Chicano influences are often completely disregarded. Essays by Robert Lopez (a.k.a. El Vez) and the Brats Teresa Covarrubias offer a corrective to that historical erasure.

Its weird that it keeps being shuffled off to the fringes, Doe said of the role of the East Los Angeles Latino rockers. Maybe its latent racism or something  Im not sure.

Its apt that Doe is the one ensuring that these stories are told. X, whose 1980 debut LP, Los Angeles, was well received, were the brightest stars of the L.A. punk world. In the book, Cervenka recalls the bands early years with particular insight, writing that she and her cohorts were all the same freedom-loving rebels, doing our job as young people do  changing and destroying, creating and rebuilding culture.

X will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year, a milestone Doe calls astounding and amazing. The band, original lineup intact, still tours.

People realize it doesnt last forever and want to see something thats stood the test of time, Doe said of Xs audiences, which range widely in age. We feel really fortunate for that.

Barbara Spindel has covered books for the Daily Beast, Salon, Details and Spin. Email: books@sfchronicle.com

John Doe: Under the Big Black Sun discussion and book signing. 7-8 p.m. Friday, June 3. Diesel, A Bookstore, 5433 College Ave., Oakland. www.dieselbookstore.com
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Honda and Contra Costa County officials on Wednesday previewed a not-too-distant future of self-driving cars on a dusty, mothballed Navy bomb storage facility in north Concord.

Honda is using a site named GoMentum Station, on a portion of the decommissioned Concord Naval Weapons Station, to test its autonomous Acura RLX Sport Hybrids. The sites grid of roads, closed to the public, serves as an ideal test track, free of pedestrians and traffic.

We can stage and set scenarios that are just not possible to experience in normal driving, said Jim Keller, senior manager and chief engineer of Hondas North American research and development efforts.

The old weapons station opened in 1942 to supply military ships docked at nearby Port Chicago during World War II. The Navy decommissioned the depot in 2007 and the the city of Concord is in the process of assuming control.

The navy left behind 19.6 miles of paved roads, including a segment laid out in a grid between rows of grass-covered bunkers and other areas that can be used to replicate average city streets.

On Wednesday, Honda showed reporters how an Acura using slightly older self-driving technology  equipped with radar, Lidar, cameras and GPS sensors  can navigate those streets by itself.

The car, which had a rooftop dish array of sensors, stopped at existing stop signs, avoided three live pedestrians at crosswalks, and completing right-hand turns. A driver, there for safety purposes, didnt touch the wheel.

Honda also showed off another Acura, with the protruding dish array replaced by sleeker sensors and cameras, which represents the companys next generation of experimental self-driving cars.

Many restrictions

Honda and other major carmakers, along with tech companies like Google, are already testing autonomous cars on public roads under tight restrictions imposed by various states, including California.

But Keller said the GoMentum Station is needed because it is closed to the public and allows repetitive testing under different conditions.

On public roads, If we drive 99 percent of the time, theres no issue, but that 1 percent of the time, theres a unique scenario, Keller said. So we need an area thats exclusive, secure and large enough to stage any situation we want.

Other than the lower-speed driving situations Honda demonstrated for reporters, the carmaker wouldnt specifically say what it is testing. But, Keller said, You can imagine where balls will come out, kids would come out running, someone would dart out across the road. Were doing all of that.

At the moment, Honda is the only carmaker using GoMentum Station even though all the major carmakers have opened research and development facilities in Silicon Valley.

In September 2014, Mercedes-Benz announced it was leasing the site to test self-driving vehicles. But the German automaker stopped using the facility about nine months ago, after a disagreement over how much it would pay, said Guy Bjerke, Concords director of reuse planning for the naval center.

The county has licensed about 2,100 acres for testing and is set to bring in an autonomous shuttle bus company later this year, said Randell Iwasaki, executive director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, which administers GoMentum Station.

The county used the press demonstration day to show off how the stations existing network of older roads, buildings, crosswalks, bridges, overpasses, 1,400-foot tunnels and stop signs create a ready-made facility for other carmakers and autonomous-vehicle firms.

The existing grid, for example, can be used to create custom zones that replicate left-hand and right-hand driving conditions in other countries.

Developing site

Last month, the Concord City Council voted to hire developer Lennar Urban for the first phase of an ambitious project to redevelop the old weapons station. Lennar Urban won the right to redevelop 500 acres for a planned $6 billion housing, commercial and recreational project.

The countys plans to redevelop the naval station should leave the testing area untouched for several years, enough time for self-driving car technology to develop,

This is where innovation and commercialization converge, Iwasaki said. However, he said, The idea is not to bring Silicon Valley to Contra Costa County. The idea is to bring some of the jobs to the Concord area.

Keller laid out Hondas own ambitious but long-term goal of creating a cooperative car society of completely self-driving, connected vehicles by 2050. The company hopes to put automated highway merging, lane changing and exiting into practical use in cars as soon as 2020, creating on-ramp to off-ramp automation.

I firmly believe that while we tend overestimate what we can achieve in three years, we tend to underestimate what we could achieve in 10 to 20 years, Keller said.

Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: ChronicleBenny
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San Franciscos scandal-ridden crime lab should be an independent agency rather than a division of the police force in order to remove potential bias and better handle investigations, the citys civil grand jury said in a report released Wednesday.

A six-month investigation by the government oversight panel, consisting of 19 volunteer jurors, found the Police Departments management of the lab resulted in bungled forensic science, theft in the drug-analysis lab and the embarrassment of two criminalists failing a national proficiency test.

The report was submitted to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and recommends that the city create an autonomous, independently funded crime lab  much like the city medical examiners office, which runs death investigations.

The grand jury really hit it out of the park with this report, said San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi. Not only did they do their homework on the scandals that have plagued the crime lab, but they identified the reasons for it.

Adachi has been frustrated by the crime lab for years, seeing a conflict in an agency operated by a police force with a big stake in the results. The grand jury report outlined instances previously reported in the media in which the lab breached protocol or failed to reveal exculpatory evidence to defendants.

Not only is it a conflict of interest to have the Police Department run the crime lab, but all of the best practices and forensic national guidelines say it is best to have an independent lab, Adachi said.

He said an independent lab would save the city money because the public defenders office would view the labs work as unbiased and would not have to independently test evidence in criminal cases.

Police officials have read the report and are digesting some of the recommendations  including relinquishing control of the crime lab  as the agency moves forward with a host of department-wide reforms, said police spokesman Sgt. Michael Andraychak. Those reforms come amid a series of controversial police shootings, a racist text-messaging scandal and the forced resignation of Police Chief Greg Suhr.

The San Francisco Police Department is committed to providing the city with the highest level of forensic services at our crime lab, Andraychak said. The department is committed to modernizing crime lab facilities and equipment, providing ongoing education and training to our scientific staff, and evaluating our command structure to ensure that we have an accountable and professional chain of command.

During its investigation, the grand jury panel interviewed crime lab personnel, directors of other crime labs, forensic experts, prosecutors and defense attorneys.

The crime lab suffers from being too closely managed by the Police Department, the report said. It has been headed by a rotating succession of police captains who lack the scientific knowledge to understand the intricate workings of the laboratory.

The panel recommended that, for the time being, the police captain overseeing the lab be replaced by a civilian who is a professional scientist.

The civil grand jury also recommended that the drug-analysis lab be reopened in conjunction with creating an independent crime lab.

In 2010, the drug lab was shut down due to allegations that a former technician, Deborah Madden, had stolen and used cocaine held as evidence. Drug analysis was outsourced to Alameda County following the scandal.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: EvanSernoffsky
The owner of the home that burned during a standoff between a suspect in the shooting of two Fremont police officers and authorities lives in China and was shocked when she heard the news Thursday morning, family members said.

More for you Suspect in Fremont cop shooting found dead inside burned home

The home was owned by Lynn Zengs sister-in-law who lives in China but bought the home as a future residence.
In every possible way but one, The Measure of a Man is an excellent film  conscientious, timely, passionate, well acted, artfully conceived and ingeniously cast. Its only problem is that its not enjoyable, and by enjoyable Im not talking about superficial pleasure. The film is not enjoyable either viscerally or intellectually. It doesnt stimulate thought, and its of only sporadic interest. Its a very good movie that isnt very good.

The American title is evocative, while the original French title  roughly translated as The Law of the Market  is more descriptive. A 51-year-old man, who has done skilled work in a manufacturing business, is now unemployed because his firm has moved overseas. Over the course of the film, we see him doing everything he can to get a job.

At the center of the film is the wonderful French actor Vincent Lindon, who, for this performance, finally won a Cesar. To say he deserved it isnt enough. Rather, this performance is like an apotheosis of everything Lindon has been and meant in French cinema. Onscreen, he is the modern-day Jean Gabin, the French cinemas idea of the regular guy. So who better than Lindon to tell the story of a normal citizen  a decent, rough around the edges, not fancy, hardworking, good Frenchman  who finds himself under threat in the global marketplace?

The movie begins documentary-like, in the midst of a conversation between Thierry (Lindon) and an employment counselor. Apparently, Thierry has just finished wasting months getting trained for a job that he cant possibly get. Later, we see him suffering through a dispiriting job interview, by Skype, and taking classes in how to get hired. Its an ordeal, not quite humiliating enough to be unendurable, but enough to kill hope and make a person feel like a stranger in the world.

If the performances feel particularly untheatrical and realistic, its probably because Lindon is the only professional actor in the movie. The others are playing people something like themselves, who do the kind of work that theyre depicted onscreen as doing. Lindon  who in his movies always seems like the only person who is not acting, just being himself  fits right in.

Thats all great. The problem of the film  not as a sociological study, not as a historical document, not as a polemic on behalf of the working man, and not as a cry of pain that deserves to be heard, but as a piece of narrative art that must be watched from beginning to end  is that we get it. In fact, we get it within 15 minutes. We get all of it. We agree. Its lousy. Something ought to be done about it. This man deserves better.

But as 15 minutes turns into a half hour, and then an hour, and then more, viewers will get tired of nodding their heads. The movie makes a point, but it doesnt build on it. And so the movie becomes as dull and depressing for us as it must be for the central character.

Still, theres much here to respect  not love, but respect. Curiously, the thing most to be valued is in what director Stephane Brize crafts for Lindon. Brize, who directed Lindon previously in Mademoiselle Chambon, really understands this actor and knows what to bring out of him, and how to bring it out. Somehow thats even more beautiful than politics.

Mick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicles movie critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: MickLaSalle

The Measure of a Man

Drama. Starring Vincent Lindon. Directed by Stephane Brize. In French with English subtitles. (Not rated. 93 minutes.)

To see a trailer for The Measure of a Man, go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qop962e4M5Y
HONOLULU  Six miles from the scenic beaches of south Maui sits a small, deserted island with a rich history and a big problem.

Researchers say Hawaiians traveled to Kahoolawe Island as early as 400 A.D., and its home to nearly 3,000 archaeological sites. Its also littered with unexploded ordnance.

The U.S. Navy used the barren island as a bombing range for decades starting in World War II. It later joined with the state and spent millions on cleanup, but they didnt finish the job.

Today, live grenades and bombs remain scattered across about a quarter of the 45-square-mile uninhabited island. But the agency tasked with restoring Kahoolawe is likely on its own next year after lawmakers passed a bill pushing it to become financially self-sufficient.

Now, the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission and community advocates are looking for ways to fund the rest of the cleanup so they can bring back native wildlife and use the island as a Native Hawaiian educational center.

Its no small effort. Restoring and then replanting the entire island could take decades and cost billions of dollars, despite about $400 million spent between the commission and the Navy since 1994, the agency said. The commission also has depleted a $44 million federal trust fund since the state gained control of the island in 2004.

It speaks volumes to the amount of bombing Kahoolawe sustained that so much work still needs to be done to complete this effort, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said. She added she will work to help find solutions to finish the cleanup at the culturally significant site, which is banned from commercial use.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

COLORADO SPRINGS  President Obama implored the next generation of U.S. military leaders Thursday not to give in to isolationism or pull back from U.S. leadership in the world, drawing a contrast with a foreign policy vision thats been laid out by Donald Trump.

Obama used his final commencement address as president to reassure the military that it remains the worlds dominant fighting force, implicitly pushing back against critiques that the militarys might has ebbed under his watch. Under searing sun and sweeping blue skies at the U.S. Air Force Academy, he told graduates theyd be called upon to strike a complicated balance between realism and idealism, withdrawal and overreach.
Yemen's nearly two-month-old ceasefire has improved humanitarian access but civilians are still facing an "immeasurable" crisis, the United Nations said Thursday.

The fragile truce was declared on April 11, 10 days before Houthi Shia rebels and the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi began UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait.

"The ceasefire has provided us an opportunity to get to areas we haven't been able to get before," the UN humanitarian chief in the country, Jamie McGoldrick, told AFP.

He said that while no part of Yemen had been besieged, a number of areas have proved extremely hard to reach since the conflict escalated in March last year, when a Saudi-led Arab coalition began air strikes in support of Yemeni forces resisting the Houthis.

McGoldrick said it was difficult to estimate the number of civilians reached with aid since the ceasefire came into force.

The UN was trying to assess the needs nationwide during the lull in violence, he added.

Fighting has also continued despite the truce.

McGoldrick called Yemen's war "an invisible crisis", voicing regret at the lack of global concern given to the country, for instance compared to Syria.

"The scale of the emergency is tremendous. The scale of the need is massive and the depth of the crisis is immeasurable," he told reporters.

Government services and the health system were hardly functioning before the conflict and "the war has all but broken them completely," McGoldrick said.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since the coalition began its campaign against the rebels who have controlled the capital Sanaa since September 2014.

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Keeping 25 yards away from the wildlife is generally a good rule to follow when visiting any national park, but Yellowstone tourists are proving it is a necessary rule of thumb.

To add onto the unfortunate pile of stories regarding tourists behaving badly, a visitor to Yellowstone National Park was caught on video being rushed by an elk, after she got too close to the animal while taking a photo.

Tour guide Jody Tibbitts posted the video below to his Facebook page. In the video, Tibbitts can be heard as he's starting to warn the woman about getting too close the elk  then the elk charges her.

The moment of impact is out of frame, but ends with the tourist on her back as the elk walks away.

Tibbitts told East Idaho News, however, that the woman was not hit but instead the elk stopped short of the woman and she tripped and fell. She appeared uninjured in the video.

"She was practically stomping up to it," Tibbitts told the East Idaho News. "Honestly, I'd say she was probably 25 feet away from the elk as opposed to the 25 yards (outlined in Yellowstone National Park visitor guidelines)."

Tibbits can be heard in the video telling the woman, "I was just going to tell you you're too close to that elk  and that's why."

"I know," the woman says as she moves away from the elk. "It's been a long time since I've been out here. Thank you ... it won't happen again."

"I'm sure it won't," Tibbits replied.

Yellowstone has had a number of issues with tourists this year, including two tourists who separated a baby bison from its herd and placed the animal in their car last month, insisting that the animal was freezing. Later, Yellowstone officials announced that the bison had to be euthanized after being rejected by its herd. That tourist was later cited by federal officials for disturbing the wildlife.

Four Canadian tourists also visiting Yellowstone last month were being sought after photos of the group surfaced of them in a hot spring area of the park that is off-limits to visitors. A criminal complaint was filed against the group, who also filmed video of their trespassing. The men, however will not be forced to return to the United States from Canada to face charges, authorities decided.
Human Rights Watch on Thursday condemned the decision of Bahrain's appeals court to double the jail term of Shia opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman as a "travesty of justice".

Cleric Salman, who heads the largest opposition formation in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, had his jail sentence increased on Monday to nine years from the original four.

He had been convicted of inciting violence but the appeals court overturned an earlier acquittal of advocating regime change by force.

The appeals court "increased the sentence despite strong evidence his initial trial was unfair and the fact that two of the charges on which he had been convicted violated his right to freedom of expression", HRW said in a statement.

"Sheikh Salman is the latest casualty of Bahrain's war on dissent, but he won't be the last unless Bahrain's allies in London and Washington loudly protest this travesty of justice," said HRW's deputy Middle East director, Joe Stork.

"This level of repression will not create stability for Bahrain, but quite the opposite," he warned.

Salman was originally convicted in July 2015, drawing condemnation from rights groups as well as both the United States and Iran.

The tiny but strategic Gulf state has been shaken by unrest since it crushed a month-long, Shia-led uprising demanding reforms in 2011.

The Shia-majority kingdom, connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shia Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

Despite the 2011 crackdown, protesters still frequently clash with police in Shia villages outside the capital Manama.

Salman's Al-Wefaq political association was Bahrain's largest parliamentary bloc until its 18 MPs walked out in February 2011 in protest at the use of violence against demonstrators.

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In 2014, a man named Aitabdel Salem was caught and charged with stealing a coat from a Zara store in New York City and for then allegedly attacking his arresting police officer. Shortly after, he was sent to the notoriously dangerous Rikers Island prison to be held before the trial.

At the time, Salem, a native of Algeria, was given a bail set at $25,000  which was too much for him to be able to afford. However, as the Washington Post reports, prosecutors weren't able to get an indictment for the alleged assault, so the presiding judge ordered that the charges be dismissed a week later.
Ric Francis/AP

Napa County will supply polling-place translators for Spanish-speaking voters and print all its ballots in both English and Spanish under an agreement with the Obama administration, which had threatened a lawsuit.

Several Bay Area counties, including San Francisco and Alameda, already issue ballots in multiple languages, reflecting their diverse populations and legal obligations under the Voting Rights Act. But Napa County will be the first in the North Bay with bilingual ballots, said John Tuteur, the countys registrar of voters.
Libya's supreme court has ordered the release of six officials from ousted dictator Moamer Gaddafi's regime pending an appeal, the prosecutor general's office announced Thursday.

Seddiq es-Sour of the prosecutor's office told Libyan news agency LANA they would be released "for reasons linked to their health and age" and at the request of their lawyer.

He said that the appeal trial had also been postponed.

Tripoli prison authorities would be informed of the decision for the defendants to be released, he said.

Among those who had been convicted in July 2015 for their role in the violent suppression of the revolt which toppled Gaddafi were former minister Mohamad Belgassem al-Zwai and Abdelhafidh al-Zlitni, an ex-central bank governor.

A total of 36 accused in that trial were convicted, including Seif al-Islam, a son of Gaddafi, who was handed the death sentence.

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The San Francisco Police Commission approved a body-worn camera policy for police officers, bringing the city force one step closer to rolling out the devices amid heightened scrutiny and calls for transparency.

The vote late Wednesday ended more than a year of negotiation and debate, and means officers may be recording their interactions on the streets within a few months, just as their counterparts do in Oakland and many other Bay Area cities.

But the approval also drew controversy over one of the more contentious issues in the national discussion on police accountability: whether officers who wear cameras should be allowed to view their footage before filing reports on critical incidents such as police shootings.

The policy that passed with a 5-2 vote will allow officers involved in shootings to view footage only after they provide an initial statement of facts, with a fuller statement coming later. It was a compromise made by the officers union, the Police Officers Association, after months of negotiations and meetings that were held under department policy.

Several commissioners said that after the events of recent months  including controversial police shootings, the emergence of racist text messages exchanged between city officers, and the May 19 resignation of Chief Greg Suhr  the department needs to deploy body cameras as soon as possible to rebuild trust.

But Commissioners Petra DeJesus and Victor Hwang, the two holdouts on the vote, said the policy  and the compromise on the issue of officers viewing footage  veered from what the community called for and was too vague to be effective.

This is a travesty, DeJesus said.

Union President Martin Halloran had said Tuesday that he believed the compromise on the policy was what the Police Departments biggest critics wanted.

Under the policy, an officer must provide an initial statement to investigators, including a brief summary o f the officer s actions as well as answers to what prompted the officer to use force and what other actions the officer took to mitigate the alleged threat.

The officer will be allowed to watch any body-camera videos of the incident before a more lengthy interview with investigators.

Police watchdogs and civil rights activists have long argued that officers should not be allowed to watch body-worn camera footage at all, saying viewing video could sway their statements, limiting the power of the cameras to increase accountability.

Police advocates like Halloran, though, had argued that stressful situations can affect memory and that not allowing officers to view footage set them up for gotcha moments.

In December, the Police Commission voted on a policy that would have allowed officers to view videos at the discretion of the chief, sending that proposal to the police union for negotiation. The union voted Tuesday to instead pass the compromise.

Acting Chief Toney Chaplin, attending his first Police Commission meeting since succeeding Suhr, called the policy put forth by the union a huge concession and said it represented the best course to get the devices put into use.

My concern as chief is, we need these cameras, Chaplin said. We need to be able to get that and I think that affords us the best opportunity.

Several commissioners supported Chaplins stance, with Commissioner Sonia Melara saying it would be possible to revisit the policy should any issues come up.

My concern at this point is to get the cameras on the streets, she said.

Mayor Ed Lee announced in May 2015 that he was setting aside more than $3 million in the city budget to equip 1,800 officers with body cameras. At that time, Police Commission President Suzy Loftus said the devices could not be rolled out without proper policies, and convened a working group composed of stakeholders such as the police union, the public defenders office, the San Francisco Bar Association and alliances within the police force.

Alan Schlosser, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said Wednesday that the compromise was not what his organization wanted.

When we said there should be an initial report, we didnt mean there should be a brief report, he said. We meant there would be a full report and then the officer would see the video and then there would be a supplemental report, with the understanding that recollections change.

DeJesus and Hwang argued that without more clearly defined criteria over what an initial statement entails, the policy could allow officers to hold back in their first interview and then watch the video, which could skew their memory of the incident.

They and several members of the public said the decision on the camera policy made them worry about the Police Commissions other significant project: an overhaul of the Police Departments use-of-force policy. In coming up with a new draft, the commission has followed a process similar to that used to develop the camera policy.

It makes me discouraged in starting the use-of-force discussion, Hwang said. We spent all that time in community meetings and public input and put all this time into it and the POA gets to change it at last minute.

With the commissions approval of a policy, officials said, San Francisco police officers could be wearing cameras as early as Aug. 1.

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: VivianHo
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More Americans are having gay sex  and even more people know that's OK.

A new study released Wednesday showed that the percentages of adults reporting they've had a same-sex partner has doubled from 1990 to 2014 for both men and women.

In 1990, 4.5 percent of men reported they've had same-sex experiences, compared to 8.2 percent in 2014. For women, 3.6 percent admitted to having same-sex experiences in 1990, versus 8.7 percent in 2014.

It also turns out that more people are accepting of homosexual behavior than ever.

The study, published in "Archives of Sexual of Behavior" showed that by 2014, 49 percent of the population surveyed found that same-sex experiences were "not wrong at all," versus 11 percent in 1973 and 13 percent in 1990.

The increase in same-sex partners are partly being attributed to those who are having bisexual experiences, versus those who identify as homosexual. In fact, the study found that there was "little consistent change in those having sex exclusively with same-sex partners." The survey asks only about sexual behavior, not orientation, The Daily Beast pointed out.

Another possible reason for the increase in gay sex? More people being open about their experiences. Along with increased acceptance comes a willingness for individuals to discuss all of their sexual experiences, including discussing it in a national survey.

Study co-author Jean Twenge, psychology professor at San Diego State University, told Time that there's been a movement toward more sexual freedom.

"Overall, it suggests that our sexuality has become much more free and open, that Americans feel much more freedom to express themselves sexually in a way that they see fit," Twenge says. "That's why it comes down to this individualistic viewpoint: do what's right for you."

The figures were all taken from the General Social Survey, looking at data from more than 30,000 adults in the United States from 1972 to 2014. The age of participants ranged from 18 to 96.
The head of Israel's foreign ministry said Thursday that France's bid to revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks was doomed to failure, like a 1916 colonial effort to carve up the Middle East.

"This effort utterly failed then and will completely fail today," Dore Gold told journalists on the eve of an international meeting in Paris, referring to the Sykes-Picot agreement to draw up the region's borders.

"The only way to get a stable regional arrangement that will allow us to create real peace in the Middle East is if the parties of the region come to understandings between them," Gold said.

"We believe the Arab states would give backing to direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," the foreign ministry's director general added.

"Therefore we prefer a Middle Eastern process and not a process that somebody is trying to create in Paris."

British diplomat Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot of France drew the borders of a new Middle East in May 1916 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

"It was at the apex of the era of colonialism in our area," Gold said. "Their effort failed as we see today in the deserts of Iraq and Syria."

Israel has rejected any French-led multilateral effort and insists instead on direct talks with the Palestinians.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians will be represented in Paris at Friday's talks, which aim to lay the ground for a fully-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year.

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Six children were among 19 civilians killed Thursday in regime bombing of opposition-held neighbourhoods in Syria's second city of Aleppo, the civil defence said.

Regime air strikes and rocket attacks hit several neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the divided town, a civil defence official said.

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Two people were shot dead on Wednesday at the University of California's Los Angeles campus, prompting a lockdown of the massive facility as police searched for a possible shooter.

"We have confirmation of two people killed for now," police spokeswoman Jenny Houser told AFP.

Officials said the two victims, both males, were found inside Boelter Hall, which is part of the school of engineering, located in the center of the campus.

"It is possible one of the victims is the shooter," James Herren, head of the UCLA police department, told reporters, saying the possibility of a murder-suicide had not been ruled out.

"What we know is that a shooting happened," Captain Andy Neiman, of the Los Angeles police department, earlier told reporters. "The message to everybody on campus is to shelter in place.

"Lock yourself in a safe place until authorities can get to you or provide you a message that it's safe to come out."

Police said the shooting was reported shortly before 10 am, prompting a campus-wide lockdown.

Dozens of police cars and tactical response teams as well as federal agents rushed to the site as helicopters hovered overhead.

Authorities also placed the city of Los Angeles on a tactical alert which means that police throughout the area can be mobilized.

Officials urged people to avoid the area around the campus. A nearby elementary school was also placed on lockdown.

Some 43,000 students are enrolled at the massive UCLA campus, according to its website.

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Police in eastern Germany say they're looking for three men from a suspected vigilante group after a video surfaced of them pulling an Iraqi migrant out of a supermarket.

Goerlitz police told the dpa news agency Thursday the 21-year-old Iraqi was arguing with supermarket employees over a defective phone card on May 21 in Arnsdorf when three men in black shirts stormed in, grabbed him, took him outside and zip-tied him to a tree.

The men fled when police arrived.

Bild newspaper on Thursday posted a video of the incident, which it said has been making the rounds on far-right websites.

Police are looking for witnesses who can identify the men. They're also investigating the migrant, who supermarket workers said threatened them with a bottle.

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Gunmen holed up in a central Mogadishu hotel for more than 12 hours killed at least 10 people in the latest attack in Somalia by the Al-Qaeda group, the Shebab.

A huge car bomb that tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel in the heart of the capital signalled the start of the assault on Wednesday evening, with shooting continuing until Thursday morning when Somalia's security minister declared the attack over.

"All the gunmen were killed by the security forces," said security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed.

"More than 10 people are so far confirmed dead and many others are wounded," he told reporters, adding that rescuers were searching the badly-damaged building for survivors and bodies.

The toll is expected to rise as rescue and recovery efforts continue Thursday.

Medical sources said that around 40 people were so far known to be injured.

As Mohamed spoke, the bodies of three suspected attackers were displayed in the dirt outside the hotel.

The Shebab was quick to claim responsibility for the attack and has regularly in the past targeted hotels popular with government officials and wealthy Somalis.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which protects the internationally-backed government and fights the Shebab, said two parliamentarians were among the dead.

Witnesses said the initial explosion, believed to be the result of a suicide car bomber ramming a vehicle into the hotel, was large by Mogadishu standards.

Smoke rose from burning cars and debris was strewn across Maka al-Mukarama, the capital's usually busy main street.

Mohamed Elmi, who was nearby at the time, said the blast "destroyed the whole area."

After the blast an unknown number of gunmen then entered the hotel. Gunfire continued throughout the night and could still be heard at dawn on Thursday.

The Shebab, an Al-Qaeda group, lost its foothold in the capital in 2011 but continues its battle to overthrow the Somali government and launches regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Violence is expected to increase with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week, a time when Shebab traditionally ups the tempo of its attacks.

Also on Wednesday, Somali special forces claimed to have killed Mohamed Mohamud Ali -- also known as Dulyadin and Kuno -- the suspected organiser of an attack on a university in Garissa, Kenya, in April 2015 that killed 148 people, mostly students.

"Sixteen armed men, four of them senior commanders including Mohamed Mohamud Ali... were killed by the Somali commandos and the special forces of Jubaland," said Abdirashid Janan, security minister for Jubaland, a federal state in southern Somalia.

The Garissa attack was the deadliest in Kenya since the Al-Qaeda bombing of the US embassy in 1998 and was carried out by four gunmen, all of whom died.

The US also said it had killed a senior Shebab planner, Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, in a drone strike on May 27, the latest in an increasing number of air strikes and US-led or US-backed raids in Somalia targeting Shebab leaders and recruits.

"Da'ud was one of Shebab's most senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of militia attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. He said Da'ud was "presumed killed".

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A man has taken his ex-girlfriend to court to recover $600 he spent on wooing her including a romantic break to Crimea, she told Russian media on Thursday.

The woman, Nina Zgurskaya, told Business FM radio station their relationship had initially gone well with dates and gifts.

But she broke up with him while they were on holiday in Crimea because he failed to pop the question as she had hoped.

"It was discussed as a romantic trip, that he would propose to me -- which didn't happen," she told Siberian channel CTC-Prima. "I got mad and left."

When she got back to their home city of Krasnoyarsk, she found an even more unwelcome surprise: a court summons and a demand to return more than 40,000 rubles ($595).

"I received a court summons and found out he wanted to be reimbursed," she said.

"We've been in court since October 2015," she said. "He filed two suits against me, for money transfers to me and for the holiday. He had receipts."

The man had both suits thrown out and "is now appealing in another court", she said.

She said the man, who was not named but was described as a lawyer, had argued that they were not in a romantic relationship and therefore she should pay her share.

She said she had provided photographs and witness statements to the contrary.

Siberian television channel CTC-Prima spoke to the man, who was shown outside the city's Sverdlovsky district court.

"She can't prove we were in a relationship, that it was a gift or a free trip, I never said that," he told the channel.

"Do I have to give every girl on the street money and trips?"

The channel's presenter commented to camera: "I can only draw one conclusion: men nowadays are going downhill."

A lawyer, Alexander Yevdokimov, commenting on the case to Business FM, said he believed the man was unlikely to win the case unless he had asked the woman to sign receipts.

"I think there's little prospect of winning a case for the man -- even if the situation has a certain music-hall or comic quality," Yevdokimov said.

"In day-to-day life, this is quite a common occurrence."

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California lawmakers seem intent on making Sacramento the place where reasonable reforms, much like runaway trains, jump the tracks. In that no-speed-limit spirit Tuesday, the California Assembly voted 41-37 to allow convicted felons to vote in jail. (Yes, you read that correctly  in jail.) If Assembly Bill 2466 becomes law, the ACLU estimates that 50,000 adults will be able to vote behind bars. The state doesnt trust these people on the streets, but they are welcome in the voting booth.

When individuals commit crimes that endanger public safety, they forfeit their civil rights upon conviction. The National Conference of State Legislatures notes that the concept of civil death goes back to the Greeks and Romans. In some states  Florida, Iowa  convicted felons are permanently disenfranchised. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe recently made news by suspending permanent disenfranchisement by temporary order. No need for that in California. In 1976, voters amended the Constitution to end the permanent disenfranchisement of felons. The California Constitution now reads: The Legislature shall provide for the disqualification of electors while mentally incompetent or imprisoned or on parole for the conviction of a felony.
Editors note: While Rick Steves spends most of the year updating guidebooks and gathering fodder for his column (which often runs in this Travel section), at some point he pops open his notebook and pours out all the new and timely developments for the year  essential intel for visitors and the closest youll come to a locals guide for a continent. (Each year he leaves out a region or two to keep it from being too long, in this case most of central Europe.)

France

Paris: The Eiffel Towers first level  after a $38 million renovation  is decked out with new shops, places to eat and a multimedia presentation about the towers construction, paint job, place in pop culture and more. The highlight is the breathtaking, vertigo-inducing glass floor that lets you experience what its like to stand atop an 18-story building and look straight down, right. Just a few blocks away, the Rodin Museum is now fully open after a three-year renovation.

Elsewhere in Paris, the Carnavalet Museum  which covers the history of Paris and has a great exhibit on the French Revolution  is undergoing renovations in 2016 (it will remain open, but some rooms may be closed). The Louis Vuitton Foundation is the latest entrant to the Paris art scene. Its cool, sailboat-like glass building, set in the Bois de Boulogne park, features modern and contemporary art.

All over Paris, more museums are offering free apps that serve as an audio guide for their collections. Youll also find more opportunities to buy your sightseeing tickets online (which, depending on the museum, can help you avoid a queue).

There are also some fresh budget options for getting into Paris. A new EasyBus shuttle service runs from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Paris, with dirt-cheap fares. Uber now provides airport transport, and may save some money over a taxi, but because its drivers cant use the bus-only lanes as normal taxis can, expect some added drive time.

Up on the Norman coast, Mont St-Michel is a true island once again at high tide. Its reachable by a new super-sleek bridge rather than the old causeway that blocked the flow of water around the island. A new minivan service (Bayeux Shuttle) offers service between Bayeux and Mont St-Michel  a huge help to those traveling sans car.

Loire Valley: Since the Loire Valley boasts more than 100 castles, it can be hard to choose which ones to visit. Heres a tip: This year, Id skip the Chateau dAzay-le-Rideau, as some wings may be closed during your visit, and scaffolding will likely cover parts of the exterior (renovation should wrap up in spring 2017).

Colmar: To the east, Colmars Unterlinden Museum has reopened after a multiyear restoration, and its masterpiece, Matthias Grunewalds gripping Isenheim Altarpiece, is back on view. While Colmar is no longer the departure point for any minivan tours of the Alsaces Route du Vin wineries, travelers based in Strasbourg can ride along with Ophorus Tours, which visit several wine villages and include wine tastings and time to wander.

Verdun: This year marks a milestone in Frances World War I history  the centennial of the Battle of Verdun. Just in time, the Memorial de Verdun museum has completed its three-year renovation, and now offers the best historic exhibits on this monumental battle anywhere.

Farther south, in the Dordogne, its become even more critical to reserve ahead for tours of the Grotte de Font-de-Gaume prehistoric caves. Sales of advance tickets (available by email or phone) usually open on January 2 for the entire year  and most slots are usually sold out by March. For Lascaux II, a replica of another prehistoric cave, reservations are easier to nab, but still highly recommended for visits in July and August, and accepted only two to five days in advance by phone.

French Alps: Good news for Alp-oholics: Chamonixs gondola over the Alps to Italy has opened again after years of closure (at the mountaintop Helbronner border station). The new lift, called Skyway Monte Bianco, offers an amazing ride as you head into (or from) Italy  rotating 360 degrees as you sail along. Down in the valley, Chamonixs new Mountaineering Center (part of the Espace Tairraz) showcases local ascents and has an interactive climbing simulator.

Provence: And in Frances sunny south, the ancient Roman sights of Provence will also be easier to enjoy this year. In Avignon, a direct express bus now goes to Vaison-la-Romaine, a picturesque town full of ancient ruins. At the Pont du Gard, visitors have two new options for seeing the Roman aqueduct in the summer: an after-hours program that lets visitors enjoy the sight until midnight, and (in July and August) half-hour tours through the water channel at the top of the aqueduct.

Italy

Any traveler to Italy needs to pack a little extra patience. Even with reservations or sightseeing passes in hand, crowds are basically unavoidable at major destinations in peak season. Crowding at state museums is now especially bad on the first Sunday of the month, when admission is free and reservations arent accepted. Avoid visits on free days to top museums such as Florences Uffizi Gallery and Naples Archaeological Museum.

Florence: Visitors with advance reservations or the Firenze Card sightseeing pass can skip the ticket-buying line (but youll still have to get through security-check bottlenecks). At the Uffizi, there may be a queue to pick up your reservation, another 30-minute wait to enter, and then a slow shuffle through security  and thats with a reservation or a Firenze Card.

At Florences Duomo, the big news is the reopening of the completely revamped Duomo Museum, whose masterpieces (such as Ghibertis bronze doors) once adorned the adjoining cathedral, baptistery and bell tower. New themed tours at the Duomo (which cost about $40) include a visit to the north terrace of the cathedral (otherwise not accessible to the public), an opportunity to watch contemporary stonemasons chiseling away in the Duomo workshop, and an up-close look at the baptisterys glittering mosaics.

Florences Uffizi Gallery is still undergoing its massive, years-long renovation to improve security, lighting, and climate controls. Most recently, the Early Renaissance rooms  the first rooms that visitors enter  have reopened.

On Florences Piazza S.S. Annunziata, the Brunelleschi-designed Hospital of the Innocents now houses a new museum, the Museo degli Innocenti. It tells the story of the Renaissance-era institution devoted to the care and protection of children, with exhibits focusing on the infants left at the wheel of the innocents  a sort of lazy Susan that allowed the destitute to abandon their babies anonymously.

Rome and Vatican City: Always-crowded Rome will be particularly jammed this year. Pope Francis has declared 2016 to be a special Jubilee Holy Year, and the Holy Door at St. Peters Basilica will be open (its usually only opened once every 25 years). Expect plenty of pilgrims and some extra security precautions at St. Peters.

With the ever-present crowds at the Vatican Museums these days, advance reservations are a must. But if you havent planned ahead, you can often get priority-entry tickets at the tourist office in St. Peters Square or in the basilicas foyer.

Renovation on the Trevi Fountain, left, has been completed. Neptune is surfing through his wet kingdom again, and tourists are tossing coins into the fountain to ensure theyll return to Rome.

Cinque Terre: Five years after a flash rainstorm caused devastating flooding in the Cinque Terre, the hiking trails linking Italys five cutest towns, above, are finally beginning to reopen. The trail from Monterosso to Vernazza is officially open; the trail from Vernazza to Corniglia is passable but officially closed, and the trail from Corniglia to Manarola and Riomaggiore (the famed Via dellAmore) is expected to reopen by summer.

Great Britain & Ireland

London: The city seems intent on building itself out of any economic recession  and most new buildings come with a viewing deck thats open to the public. The One New Change shopping center, just east of St. Pauls Cathedral, has a public-parklike space on the roof terrace, with great views of the church. And the towering London Hilton on Park Lane skyscraper has an unforgettable viewpoint lounge on the 28th floor.

Londons Tate Modern art museum is expanding with a new wing that will double the exhibition space when it officially opens in June. At the Orbit, Londons Eiffel-Tower-like landmark built for the 2012 Olympics, workers are constructing the worlds longest, tallest tunnel slide, right  slated to open this spring. But visitors should expect some closures, too: The wine-tasting experience Vinopolis has poured its last glass, and at the British Library, the Magna Carta, which celebrated its 800th birthday last year, may be off display for parts of 2016.

Advance booking remains a good move for Britains most popular sights. And you can now avoid ticket lines at Westminster Abbey and St. Pauls Cathedral by booking online; Stonehenge visitors are now required to book a timed-entry ticket before arriving.

Brighton: In this beach resort town directly south of London, the i360 Tower, set to open this summer, will lift tourists 450 feet in a doughnut-shaped elevator for a birds-eye view of the city.

Bath: The Building of Bath Collection has been renamed the Museum of Bath Architecture. The Roman Baths have added a display of the Beau Street Hoard  more than 17,500 Roman coins that were discovered near the baths.

In the Cotswolds, Northleachs delightful Keith Hardings World of Mechanical Music  following Hardings death and subsequent scandalous revelations in the media about him  is now called the Mechanical Music Museum.

Stratford-upon-Avon: The city is marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeares death with some major refurbishments: The Royal Shakespeare Companys Swan Theatre has opened after a total renovation. And New Place & Nashs House, a sight showcasing whats left of one of the houses Shakespeare lived in, is set to reopen this summer.

Up in the Lake District, the Beatrix Potter Gallery in Hawkshead is hosting a special exhibit called Realism and Romance to mark the 150th anniversary of Potters birth.

Durham: At Durham Cathedral  Englands greatest Norman church  the new Open Treasure exhibit will display a number of treasures, including a 1216 copy of the Magna Carta and items from the Norman/medieval period (when the monks of Durham busily copied manuscripts), the Reformation, and the 17th century.

Wales: Caernarfon Castles Eagle Tower now houses the Princes of Wales exhibit  featuring a chessboard of Welsh and English princes as life-size chess pieces  and a skimpy exhibit on the life of Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I.

Ireland: In Dublin, look for a new Museum of Tenement Life to open sometime in 2016 (possibly soon to be renamed the 14 Henrietta Street Townhouse Museum). And at the Book of Kells exhibit in the Trinity Old Library, purchasing a ticket online now allows you to skip the line at the entrance. In another sign of changing times, ferries no longer run from Dun Laoghaire (near Dublin) to the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland: A new Discovery Tour, part of the Titanic Belfast museum, explains the striking design and architecture of the new building and the adjacent slipways where the ship was built. And the Museum of Free Derry, currently closed for renovations, should reopen in May with new multimedia exhibits.

Eastern Mediterranean

Greece: Tourists traveling to Greece will experience some higher prices as the Greek government tries to pay down its debt. Specific increases include tickets to the great archaeological sites and museums, and new hotel taxes that will be passed on to visitors. Some good news in Athens: The wonderful Acropolis Museum, previously closed on Mondays, is now open seven days a week.

With recent help from the European Union, the idyllic island of Hydra now has a plant for desalinating sea water, giving the island a reliable water supply and drinkable tap water.

On the Cycladic island of Mykonos, right, a cheap shuttle boat now runs between the New Port and Mykonos town, giving people arriving by ferry from Athens or Santorini an easy way to reach the old town. Near Mykonos, the archaeological site of Delos, reachable only by boat, is more accessible than ever to sightseers. Its now open every day (previously closed on Mondays), and in peak season, travelers may be able to tour the site later in the day, when the sun is more forgiving, thanks to a late-afternoon ferry that returns in the early evening.

Croatia: North of Greece, in Croatia, transportation upgrades are making a big difference for travelers. A new express bus from the remote Plitvice Lakes National Park runs frequently in summer, connecting to Zagreb in the north and to the city of Split in the south. Visitors can now connect several coastal destinations by seaplane (European Coastal Airlines).

And traveling by boat in Croatia is easier now that you can buy tickets online for national ferry operator Jadrolinijas catamarans and for smaller Krilo catamarans, meaning travelers no longer need to get up early and wait in line at ticket offices. (Tickets can sell out quickly, though, so book well ahead in busy times.) Boat service has been revamped in Dalmatia, and Dubrovnik is now better connected by fast catamarans.

Istanbul: At the far eastern end of the continent, Istanbul straddles Europe and Asia. Though not a national capital, it is Turkeys largest and most touristed city. And several upgrades are making things easier for sightseers.

The city will soon offer a revamped set of sightseeing passes. Costing about $30 for three days (or about $40 for five days) and covering the citys top sights, these passes can save substantial money. They can also save you a lot of time, as they allow you to bypass ticket lines. If a pass doesnt pencil out for your plans, you can still avoid long ticket lines at top sights by purchasing tickets online  Id at least book ahead for Hagia Sophia (closed on Mondays starting this month) and Topkapi Palace.

At Topkapi Palace, the Imperial Treasury may be closed for renovation throughout 2016, but the stark interior of Hagia Irene, an early Christian church on the palace grounds, has reopened. Much of the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum has reopened after extensive renovation.

A third bridge over the Bosphorus strait  the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge  is still under construction, but should finally open sometime this year. And while the Karakoy Limani cruise ship port remains under renovation (expected to last until the end of 2017), cruise ships are docking at Salipazari Limani, located in the New District.

Rick Steves writes European travel guidebooks and hosts travel shows on public television. E-mail: rick@ricksteves.com
AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan  A barbed wire-topped fence encircles a section of this bleak U.N.-run camp, isolating thousands of recent arrivals  whom Jordan considers a potential security risk  from other Syrian refugees.

This camp-within-a-camp, called Village 5, was set up in late March as part of an uneasy trade-off between Jordan and international aid agencies trying to speed up admissions of tens of thousands of refugees stranded in remote desert areas on the kingdoms border.

Under the deal, Jordan agreed to let in about 300 Syrians a day, or five times more than before, on condition that newcomers are isolated in Azraq for more security checks. Jordan says strict vetting is crucial to prevent Islamic State extremists, who control large areas of Syria, from infiltrating the kingdom.

In turn, aid agencies agreed to put traumatized war survivors behind barbed wire, if only temporarily.

Yet neither side expects the new admissions deal to empty out two rapidly growing encampments on the Syrian-Jordanian border. Instead, the population there  currently at 64,000, half of them children  is expected to reach 100,000 by the end of the year if fighting in Syria continues.

The two encampments sit between low earthen mounds, or berms, that run in parallel lines, about 1.2 miles apart in an area where the border isn't clearly marked.

Refugees live in tents or shelters made of tarp, wood scraps and even womens scarves, exposed to the desert's extreme cold, heat and sand storms. Lack of latrines and trash collection has led to the spread of diarrhea and infections.

Delivering aid to the berm has become one of the U.N. refugee agencys most challenging and costly operations in the Middle East, said spokeswoman Ariane Rummery, citing remoteness of locations, extreme weather conditions, lack of access roads, and risk of escalating insecurity.

Other aid officials worry that ramping up support will inadvertently transform the jumble of shelters into de facto refugee camps in unsafe areas.

Neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, which have absorbed the bulk of close to 5 million Syrian refugees since 2011, have severely restricted admissions, while doors to Europe are slamming shut.

Jordan has taken in about 650,000 refugees and says it has already done more than its share.
WARSAW  The European Union says Polands government is not following the rule of law as required by the blocs membership and has taken a step toward sanctions, a senior EU official said Wednesday.

The European Commission has sent a critical opinion to Polands conservative government about its actions, which have paralyzed the countrys Constitutional Tribunal, EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans said. The move is considered a warning for an EU member to address the concerns and prevent more serious steps from being taken, such as stripping Poland of its EU voting rights.
Beltone Financial, Egypt's largest asset manager, signed an agreement to acquire 51 percent of New York-based brokerage firm Auerbach Grayson & Company, the Egyptian firm told Reuters on Wednesday.

The acquisition will be submitted for regulatory approvals and is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, the company told Reuters in a statement.

"We are delighted to be making this investment and look forward to working with Auerbach Grayson as we expand our global reach and product offerings to the U.S. market, in addition to boosting our expansion plans in frontier markets," said Beltone Financial Chairman Sameh El-Torgoman.

Beltone Financial was advised by Beltone Investment Banking, Covington & Burling LLP in Washington DC, and Zaki Hashem & Partners in Cairo, the company said. Auerbach Grayson was advised by Berkshire Capital in New York and Sullivan & Worcester LLP in Boston.

Beltone Financial's board agreed to a 1 billion Egyptian pound ($112.6 million) capital increase on May 17, aimed at expanding the company's operations both inside and outside of Egypt. The Cairo stock exchange delayed approving the request on May 25 until Beltone provided a reason, the exchange said.

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BERLIN  The German parliament overwhelmingly adopted a symbolic but fraught resolution on Thursday declaring the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide, escalating tensions with Turkey at a diplomatically sensitive juncture.

The Turkish government angrily denounced the vote as null and void and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalled theambassador back to Ankara for consultations.

Germany needs Turkeys help in following through on a deal with the European Union to manage the refugee crisis arising from the Syrian civil war, but at the same time, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been under pressure not to be seen as caving to outside pressure. Her Christian Democratic Union and its coalition partners supported the resolution.

For Turkey, there is scarcely a more sensitive topic than what historians say was the murder of more than 1 million Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915-16. The Turkish government has long rejected the term genocide, saying that thousands of people, many of them Turks, died in the civil war that destroyed the Ottoman Empire. It also says that the estimates of the number of deaths have been exaggerated.

But the issue is also fraught for Germany. At the time of the killings, Germany, led by Kaiser Wilhelm I, was allied with the Ottomans, fighting alongside the Austro-Hungarian Empire against Britain, France and Russia in World War I. Acceptance of German responsibility for the atrocities of World War II has become an established part of the nations culture, and historians and activists have said that the Armenian resolution was an important step in acknowledging Germanys indirect involvement in the 1915 killings.

Pope Francis called the killings a genocide last year, but the United States has long skirted the issue. President Obama has stopped short of using the word  most recently in a statement marking Armenian Remembrance Day on April 24  though he used the term genocide before becoming president.

The vote in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, was nearly unanimous, with one lawmaker voting no and another abstaining.

To date, 11 of the European Unions 28 members have recognized the Armenian killings as genocide.
MANILA  International media groups have joined the condemnation of Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Dutertes statement that many journalists have been killed in the country because they were corrupt and those who have done wrong are not exempt from assassination.

Reporters Without Borders expressed outrage and urged the Philippine media to boycott Dutertes news conferences until he issues a formal, public apology. The Committee to Protect Journalists said the remarks apparently excusing extrajudicial killings threaten to make the Philippines into a killing field for journalists.
1 Printed building: There are office printers that spit out documents and others that always seem to jam. And then there those that make the office itself. A small group of employees in Dubai is moving into a new work space that the emirate says is the worlds first functional office building made using three-dimensional printer technology. Dubais ruler quietly inaugurated the whitewashed buildings last week. Looking like a mashup of a Jetsons abode and an Apple Store, the compact office was printed out layer by layer over 17 days at a cost of $140,000.

2 Residents return: Some residents returned to Fort McMurray, Alberta, on Wednesday for the first time since wildfires forced them out and ravaged their city four weeks ago. But it was hardly a triumphant homecoming, as the citys gradual reopening came amid concerns that it was premature. The returning residents were watched over by more than 300 Royal Canadian Mounted Police and were given a long list of warnings. Officials told them to keep their gas tanks topped up and to take at least two weeks worth of food, water, medicine and other essentials with them, because stores and other services in the city have not fully reopened.
Farah Abdi Warsameh/Associated Press

MOGADISHU, Somalia  Somali security forces ended an overnight siege Thursday by extremist gunmen at a hotel in the capital that killed at least 15 people, including two members of parliament, officials said.

The assault started when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated outside the Ambassador Hotel Wednesday evening and three militants stormed inside the building, said the African Union Mission in Somalia. The AU multinational force is bolstering Somalias weak government against an insurgency by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.
Restaurant Brands New Zealand lifted first-quarter sales 8.5 percent as the acquisition of New South Wales' biggest KFC franchise bolstered revenue in the period.

Total sales rose to $96.6 million in the 12 weeks ended May 23 from $89.1 million a year earlier, of which the 42 Australian KFC stores contributed $8.1 million, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Stripping that out, revenue in New Zealand was down 0.6 percent due to the closure of nine Pizza Hut stores, one Starbucks Coffee outlet and weak sales in the Carl's Jr chain.

On a same-store basis, sales rose 0.4 percent with gains in Restaurant Brands' KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks franchises offsetting a 14 percent drop in revenue at Carl's Jr, which enjoyed rapid growth since it joined the group in 2014.

Restaurant Brands carried out a major expansion in March, making its first foray across the Tasman by buying QSR Pty, the biggest KFC franchisee in NSW, with 42 stores, for A$82.4 million in cash and scrip. Its shares have soared on the prospects of Australian earnings growth from KFC, its most successful New Zealand brand.

The company's shares last traded at $5.50 and have climbed 25 percent so far this year. The stock is rated a 'buy' based on four analyst recommendations compiled by Reuters, with a median price target of $5.63.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Several OPEC oil ministers expect the crude price to pick up, proposing a new collective output ceiling in an attempt to ease the glut and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices.

Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are meeting in the Austrian capital with the international Brent crude oil futures were just under $50 a barrel on Thursday.

UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said the market needs the oil price to appreciate to sustain investment in the sector.

Iraqi Deputy Oil Minister Fayadh al-Nema said he expected the oil price to be $55 to $65 per barrel in the second half of this year.

Kuwaiti acting Oil Minister Anas al-Saleh said that oil at $50 to $60 a barrel is an appropriate price.

Qatar's Energy Minister Mohammed al-Sada said that the atmosphere at the OPEC meeting was positive in reference to oil markets. He said a fair price to encourage investment would require crude to be above $50 per barrel.

Angolan Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos believed that there was a possibility that he and his OPEC counterparts could reach a decision on a possible ceiling on the group's crude output.

Botelho de Vasconcelos told reporters that an oil price of $60 was not bad, but "$80 would be better."

Algerian Energy Minister Salah Khebri hopes OPEC will return to an oil output ceiling with production quotas for individual member countries.

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Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Nany inspected on Thursday the Giza Plateau development project and the new phase of #ScanPyramids

Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany toured Giza Plateau on Thursday to inspect the latest work being carried out on the development project there and to solve any problems that could hinder its completion.

The Giza Plateau development project aims in part to improve security measures in order to make the site more tourist friendly.

Ashraf Mohi, Director-General of Giza Plateau, told Ahram Online that the project started in 2009 but stopped after the 2011 uprising.

Late last year, the project resumed and it is now near completion, Mohi explained.

Mohi added that several works have been achieved as part of the project, including the completion of the administration building has been constructed, the construction of a visitors' centre, and the installment of a state-of-the-art security system with monitoring cameras and TV circuits.

A new lighting system to illuminate the Giza Pyramids and the plateau at night will also be installed soon

At the end of his tour, El-Enany stopped at the #ScanPyramids Project along with former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass who is leading the project's scientific committee.

Hamada Anwar, who heads the project, told Ahram Online that four telescopes were installed in front of the northern and eastern side of King Khufu's pyramid to collect the cosmic rays (Meoun) found in the air in order to explore the inner architecture of the pyramid and determine if it houses any hidden corridors or cavities.

Next month, a detailed report based on the #ScanPyramids project will be submitted to the antiquities minister.

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Hawass told Ahram Online that " All previous results of this project is completely wrong and we hope that this new technique would be accurate." The committee appointed by the minister of antiquities which I led, Hawass went on, would review all the readings and results submitted in order to tell the world the accurate results. "Personally I don't believe in the results of these new techniques used but I hope to be wrong and they show me something accurate because all scientific research that have been done along the last 21years are results in the air," Hawass told Ahram Online.
Minister Sameh Shoukry said that Egypt is not dealing with the dam issue 'on the basis of suspicion, doubt and exaggerated risks'

Egypt's foreign affairs minister said Tuesday that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has become a reality and that it is "pointless to bury our heads in the sand by not acknowledging a tangible physical reality."

Minister Sameh Shoukry, speaking on the Egyptian El-Hayat TV channel Tuesday night, stated that Egypt is not dealing with the dam "on the basis of suspicion, doubt and exaggerated risks."

Egypt has longed maintained that the dam  currently under construction on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia's highlands would affect its supply of Nile water.

However, he did emphasise that "there are definitely clear risks [to Egypt], and we are discussing them with our Ethiopian and Sudanese partners" to reach an agreement on how to deal with any harm to Egypt.

The minister did not elaborate on the nature of these risks.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are currently conducting impact studies on the dam.

There is a "transformation," according to Shoukry, in Ethiopia's approach to the matter ever since the signing of the Malabo agreement in June 2014; signed by Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

The agreement maintained Ethiopia's rights to development.

The foreign affairs minister described that the agreement was a "turning moment," that made Ethiopia willing to join in talks.

Prior to the Malabo agreement, Ethiopia was reluctant to join talks over doubts about Egypt's intentions and goals, Shoukry added.

In June 2013, Egypt's president at the time, Mohamed Morsi, gave a speech on the threats of the dam, saying that a dialogue is the "best means of resolving the crisis."

However, the now-ousted Morsi had also said that a committee had been drawn up to prepare Egypt for the "defence of its security from any possible threat."

Last week, Ethiopian communication Minister Getachew Reda, speaking to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, said Dam has become a "reality," and "no matter what happens, things will not change."

He added that 50 percent of construction work on the dam had been completed and most of the dam's civil engineering projects were complete.

When turbines are installed, 70 percent of the project will be complete, he stated.

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Desperate for food and water, residents are fleeing the Iraqi city of Falluja as Islamist militants seek to fend off an assault by the army, only for hundreds to be detained by the authorities on suspicion of siding with those they are escaping.

A week after Baghdad announced the start of its offensive on Falluja, its troops advanced into the city limits for the first time on Monday, pouring into rural territory on its southern outskirts but stopping short of the main built-up area.

By Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called a pause to the advance because of concerns about the safety of the tens of thousands of people still believed trapped inside.

Residents who fled Falluja ahead of the army's attack and were sheltering in a village school nearby said that while they are glad to escape Islamic State militants, they now feared for hundreds of men and boys detained by the army.

"Don't treat us like we are Daesh," said 54-year-old Mahdi Fayyadh, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Fayyadh, who lost a leg to diabetes while under Islamic State's rule due to a lack of medication, said he fled the city with 11 family members after the assault began.

His relatives helped him to walk on crutches. But once they reached army lines, the other men in the group were separated from the rest and detained. He was left vulnerable, with nobody to help him walk.

"I already lost a leg," Fayyadh said, a battered pair of crutches leaning against his shoulder. "I ask all the good people to not treat us like they (the militants) treated us."

The government says it has no choice but to screen fleeing men and boys to prevent Islamic State fighters from escaping among civilians, and that it carries out the screening as quickly and with as much care for those detained as is possible on the battlefield.

SECURITY SCREENING

The United Nations said on Tuesday around 500 men and boys over 12 years old from Falluja were being held by the authorities, in a screening process meant to take up to seven days. About 30 were released on Monday, it said.

Conditions in detention centres in Anbar province are known to be squalid. Last month, London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International said people as young as 15 were being held in "inhumane and degrading conditions".

Fayyadh said he just hoped his detained relatives' screening would be over soon so they could together leave the school where he was housed in Garma, a village east of Falluja. The authorities are using the school to shelter 1,500 refugees.

"I hope that the security commanders hurry up with the security screening of my relatives, so that we can move to other areas that have services and we don't stay here crowded with little food and medicine," he said.

Falluja, where U.S. troops fought their biggest battles after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, is the militants' closest stronghold to Baghdad, and thought to be the base for their campaign of suicide bombings on the capital less than an hour's drive away. It was the first Iraqi city where Islamic State raised its flag in 2014, before sweeping through most Sunni Muslim parts of the country in the months that followed.

The Shia-led Baghdad government faces the task not only of driving out the militants but of winning over the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population.

Shia militias assisting the army in its offensive have said they will take part only in the encirclement of Falluja, to avoid fanning sectarian tension.

Government forces and allies began a siege on the city six months ago during which the humanitarian situation has deteriorated. Now they have begun to try to retake Falluja, the United Nations has warned that tens of thousands are trapped inside, lacking food, drinking water and medicine.

HUMAN SHIELDS

The United Nations says the militants are forcing civilians to serve as human shields, a tactic they have employed in other locations in Iraq. At least 20,000 children are trapped inside the city, facing the risks of forced recruitment or separation from their families, the United Nations said.

At the shelter in Garma, some escaped residents said they had been forced apart from their relatives by the militants.

Holding a baby in her arms, 40-year-old Umm Salam said Islamic State fighters had used the men of her village as human shields as the army closed in on them last week.

The militants moved her and her family to another house in the village, Umm Salam said. "We remained trapped in the house for five days without food."

They were freed when Iraqi security forces captured the village.

Hassan Farhan Salih, a 45-year-old school head, said that as shortages in Falluja become more acute in recent months, militants had pressured residents to provide them with money and food.

"They demanded produce from farmers and cattle from herders," he said. A group of older men sitting with Salih inside the Garma school nodded in agreement.

Once the militants took $4,000 from him with which he was going to pay for a used car, he said.

The unfolding offensive could determine the fate of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose government is in turmoil as months of political deadlock drag on. He has repeatedly promised that civilians would not be harmed.

The fate of those taken by Islamic State is more uncertain than those being held by the authorities. Umm Salam does not know if she will see her male relatives again.

"We don't know if they're alive or dead."

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Bahrain has charged 18 people with contacting Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the Shia Muslim Lebanese Hezbollah group with the aim of stirring up unrest in the kingdom, state news agency BNA reported on Wednesday.

Bahrain cut diplomatic relations with Iran in January, a day after Riyadh severed ties with Tehran following attacks by Iranian demonstrators on Saudi diplomatic missions in response to the execution of a prominent Shia Muslim Saudi cleric convicted on terrorism charges.

BNA said the prosecution had established after the investigation that the group had formed a "secret cell" to incite Bahrainis against the ruling system and to propagate information calling for changing the government by force.

It said the group had contacted leaders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the Lebanese Hezbollah group to "obtain financial and logistical support" in exchange for regular reports on the political, economic and social situation in the kingdom. Bahrain has designated Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

"It had been established that the money that had been received had been used to support those held in jail in relation to terrorism cases and terrorist groups to encourage them to carry out more terrorist acts," the report said.

The agency said 10 of the suspects were in custody while eight would go on trial this month in absentia.

Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, has blamed Iran for fomenting mass protests by the island's Shia Muslim majority in 2011 demanding bigger participation in running the country's affairs. Iran denies the charges.

On Monday, Bahrain more than doubled to nine years from four the prison sentence it had imposed last year against the leader of the country's main opposition group, al-Wefaq, after an appeals court found him guilty on the charge of seeking to overthrow the government by force.

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CHANDIGARH: A delegation from China Fortune Land Development Co. today met Haryana Industries and Commerce Minister Captain Abhimanyu to discuss investment opportunities and establish a JV in the state.

After Wanda Group of China, another company China Fortune Land Development Co. Ltd. has evinced interest to establish a joint venture with the state, an official spokesman said.

A five-member delegation headed by Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company, Xingchuan Liu, called on Haryana Industries and Commerce Minister Capt Abhimanyu here, the spokesman said. China Fortune Land Development is in the field of setting up industrial parks.

"The delegation discussed about their investment schemes in the field of electronics, automobile, aerospace and food processing in Haryana," he said.

During the meeting, Xingchuan Liu said that their company would submit its proposal of schemes by the end of this month. Success of Happening Haryana - Global Investors Summit has attracted a number of foreign investors to invest in the state and set up their ventures here, the spokesman said. The Industries and Commerce Minister apprised the delegation about aplenty investment opportunities available in Haryana due to its favourable geographical location for entrepreneurs from country and abroad.

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TOKYO: India will move up "rapidly" on the Ease of Doing Business ranking within a couple of years following an array of reforms undertaken by the government to ease rules, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.



India ranks at 130th out of 189 economies on the World Bank's Doing Business report, which is topped by Singapore as the easiest country in which to do business. Though India has moved four places up, it ranks way below China, which is placed at 84th position.



"India has taken a number of steps to ease doing business and I have not the least doubt that over the next 1-2 years we will move up more rapidly in the Ease of Doing Business ranking," he said at a conference organised by Institute of International Economic Studies here.



Jaitley, on a six-day investor wooing tour of Japan, said India's taxation system required some more reforms.



"Major reforms are underway as far as direct tax system is concerned. It is work in progress because all exemptions have to be phased out and corporate tax has to be brought down to 25 per cent (from current 30 per cent)," he said.



Stating that retrospective taxation can no longer visit an investor investing in India, he said that any form of unpredictability or surprise is being done away with.



He advised Japanese investors, wanting to invest in India, to be "very patient. "It will pay to be very patient. As you say the Japanese companies have been very patient."



A combination of Japanese innovation and technology with human resource of India can be rewarding in a market as big as India where the purchasing power of that market was rising.



"And therefore the Japanese companies have a lot to look forward to as far as the Indian market is concerned," he said.



India, he said, is passing through a phase where the per capita income of every Indian is going to increase significantly over the next decade.



"With the purchasing power increasing...I think this is the right time for those who haven't entered India to enter India. The markets are open, the entry has been made far easier and wide open and as a fast growing economy in the world those who don't look at Indian market will miss a great opportunity," he added.

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NEW DELHI: India looks forward to strengthen its relationship with Italyin all sectors of mutual interest, President Pranab Mukherjee said today, citing long tradition of friendship between the two nations.



He extended his greetings and felicitations to the government and people of the Republic of Italy on the eve of their Republic Day.



In a message to Sergio Mattarella, the President of Italy, Mukherjee said India and Italy have a long tradition of friendship based on shared values and complementaries.



"India looks forward to the strengthening of our relationship with Italy in all sectors of mutual interest," he said in the message.



Mukherjee said: "I take this opportunity to convey my best wishes for your personal well-being as well as for the progress and prosperity of the friendly people of Italy".

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NEW DELHI: India's federal system is challenging good governance leading to issues of religious intolerance and extra-judicial killings, a US senator said here on Wednesday.

"Good governance is challenged by India's federalism system," Senator Benjamin Louis 'Ben' Cardin, a Democrat and a ranking member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), said while delivering a lecture on "Role of good governance in international relations" organised by the US embassy and think tank, the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

"I believe in federalism system. I served in the United States legislature," he said, adding that it can help a country to develop policies to deal with critical problems.

"However, the current federalism system here in India is challenging the effectiveness of national policies to combat corruption and other human rights violations.

"There are extra-judicial killings here in India, in different areas of this country.

"That cannot be allowed to continue."

Cardin also flagged the issue of religious intolerance in India.

"There are religious tolerance issues, you have anti-conversion laws a long time ago for different reasons that exist today and yet they are being used in some parts of India to infringe people's rights to religious freedom," he said.

He also said that women were particularly vulnerable in India.

"Crimes against women have been permitted to exist for too long a period of time," he said, adding that these were national challenges.

He referred to US President Barack Obama's observation that how a nation treated its women is a clear barometer of how well it would do.

"India must do better," he stressed.

Cardin also raised the issue of human trafficking in India.

"And I must tell you it is particularly troublesome on the issue of human trafficking.

"India has been a Tier II country in the Trafficking of Persons (TIP) Report prepared by the United States government primarily because of the situation of forced labour," he said, noting that the Global Slavery Index indicated that India's has 14 million people trapped in forced labour and that the latest report showed that this figure has now increased to 18 million.

He said the 2015 TIP Report stated that officials' complicity in India in human trafficking occurred at various levels of government.

"The government did not report investigations, prosecutions or convictions of government officials complicitous in human trafficking offences," he said.

Cardin said some corrupt law enforcement officials protected suspected traffickers and took bribes from sex trafficking establishments.

The senator also flagged the scourge of corruption in India and said that fighting corruption was still a work in progress in India.

"India has made progress but there is still much more needs to be done in this country," he said.

"According to the 2015 US Human Rights Report, (Indian) officials frequently engage in corrupt practices with impunity. Corruption was present at all levels of government. That should be unacceptable to the people of India."

He said that an NGO reported the payment of bribes to expedite services such as police protection, school admission and water supplies for governmental assistance.

However, though he made these comments ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US next week, Cardin praised Modi's comments in the Wall Street Journal last week.

"The Modi administration has been speaking out against corruption," he said, but added that they need to act by the use of strong laws and by funding enforcement of those laws.

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NEW DELHI: Underscoring that relationship between India and US is "not about one person", key American Senator Ben Cardin today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to Washington because of the country he represents and not his name.



"The Prime Minister was not invited to address the joint session of the Congress because of his name but because of his country," he said here at a seminar after which he responded to some questions.



The relationship between the two countries is "not about one person", Cardin said in his response when it was pointed out that Modi was a pariah in the US until recently but now he has been invited to address the joint session of the Congress.



This is "representation of the importance of that relationship" between the two countries, he said.



Modi will travel to Washington on June 7 for a visit during which he will address a joint session of the US Congress.



Earlier, the US had refused to grant visa to Modi post Gujarat riots.



Cardin, who has been vocal about the "religious intolerance" in India, said the relationship between India and the US will continue to go strong beyond the election of the next administration in the United States.



"It underscores by the fact that here we are in an election year in a Republican controlled Congress and PM is to speak before the joint session of the Congress," Cardin said.

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Source: PTI
WASHINGTON D.C.: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone from somebody who was basically a "pariah" to someone who is now going to be celebrated in the course of just two years, a top American think-tank has said ahead of his meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House next week.

"This would probably be the Prime Minister's seventh meeting with the President since he took office which probably is a record both for Modi and for the President with respect to meeting a head of government from a country which is not a formal ally of the United States," Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for InternationalPeace said yesterday.



"This speaks to the personal relationship that the two have developed over the last two years and also the surprising quality of it, given the history that Modi had with the United States," Tellis said ahead of the Obama-Modi meeting on June 7 at the White House.



During his US visit, the Prime Minister will also address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8.



"The close personal relationship that has now developed between Modi and Obama is one of the surprises of the last two years," Tellis said.



Echoing Tellis, Milan Vaishnav of Carnegie said the personal transformation that Modi has undergone is nothing short of remarkable.



"In the course of just two years, Modi has gone from just who could not step foot on American soil as a legal matter to addressing a joint meeting of the US Congress. He has gone from somebody who was basically a pariah to someone who is now going to be celebrated by Washington.



"Despite that President Obama and the US Government having zero relationship as a matter of stated US Government policy, it is fair to say that the two have forged a close working relationship. It is an achievement that should not be minimised. The two have forged a pretty close rapport and Modi has invested in broadening and deepening ties with the US," Vaishnav said.



Giving "full marks" to the foreign policy success of the Prime Minister in the two years that he has been in power, Tellis said it is "really hard to identify any conspicuous failures" and oddly the two areas where he has fallen short is within the region - Pakistan and Nepal.



"The broader foreign policy of India (under Modi) has been remarkable successful," he said.



Modi has demonstrated, if not in words, but certainly by his actions that he is willing to take the relationship as far as he can take, Tellis said.



The India-US relationship, he noted, has a full agenda.



"Defence and defence cooperation is going to be the flagship deliverables coming out of this visit," Tellis added.

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Source: PTI
WASHINGTON D.C.: A Congressional commission will hold a hearing to examine the current state of human rights in India, coinciding with the White House meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama.



Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission said the hearing among other things will also examine the challenges to fundamental freedoms, and opportunities for advancement in India.



A "wide variety of serious human rights concerns persist," the commission said in a statement explaining the reasons for holding the hearing on India.



Despite Constitutional provisions abolishing the legal existence of "untouchable", the caste system remains deeply ingrained within Indian society, leading to ongoing discrimination, it said.



"Dalit communities, which make up a quarter of India's population, are also disproportionately at risk of suffering from another major human rights concern in India, that of human trafficking.



"Tens of thousands of individuals, including children, are believed to be trafficking annually within India for the purposes of commercialised sexual exploitation or forced labour. Religious minorities also face growing challenges," the commission said.



A large number of international non-governmental organisations supporting a range of causes, including human rights, have been added to government watch lists or had funding cut off by Indian officials, it said.



"These actions, coupled with perceived crackdowns on groups or individuals critical of the Indian government, have many concerned that the rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association are being increasingly curtailed," it alleged.



The hearing will examine these and other issues, while seeking to provide concrete recommendations for how US policy makers can most effectively encourage the protection of human rights given the strategic importance and continued growth of the US-India bilateral relationship, the commission said.



"In 2015, religious tolerance deteriorated and religious freedom violations increased in India. Minority communities, especially Christians, Muslims and Sikhs experienced numerous incidents of intimidation, harassment, and violence, largely at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups," the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its latest report.



Modi will embark on a five-nation visit from June 4 which will cover Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.



He will travel to the US on June 7 at the invitation of Obama, with whom he will review the progress made in key areas of defence, security and energy. During his stay, he will also address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress.

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Source: PTI
The Philippines, a nation in Southeast Asia made up of thousands of islands, has a new leader. After his opponents decided to withdraw from the election, Rodrigo Duterte was unofficially declared the country's president. The question many investors are now asking is whether his victory is good news given his pro-business stance, or troublesome given his more authoritarian and occasionally controversial views.

In the fight against crime and corruption, he has labeled himself a "dictator". It seems the people of the Philippines embraced his outspoken and somewhat unpolished style. His popularity stems from the fact that he speaks his mind, expressing things others do not always dare to say, but some worry that his approach may bear on the totalitarian in some regards.

Business observers have also expressed concerns that Duterte may be too left-leaning in some aspects and thus the market may reflect a little uneasiness and a general sense of uncertainty. There is also worry that some of the positive government policies of the past administration may not be continued. The country's global credit rating was raised to investment grade under President Benigno Aquino III, and growth rates have been strong over the past few years, with gross domestic product growth expected to reach 6 percent this year, according to data from the IMF World Economic Outlook database. That type of growth is clearly impressive, and there is some market fear that the progress Aquino has made within the economy may end with his term at the end of June.

Another important aspect of Mayor Duterte's platform is his belief that the Philippines should start moving toward unity. During his term in government, Duterte has kept friendly ties with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and was very close to the leader of this group. Duterte has proposed the inclusion of CPP members into his cabinet and this has sparked controversy within the business community. It remains to be seen if he can lead such a bi-polar cabinet in terms of political ideology. However, if the integration of the CPP into his administration is successfully established, I believe the Philippines can look forward to a new era of peace and unity that has not been achieved by past administrations.

The Philippines has bounced back from adversity time and again, including its recovery from the devastating Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. The country has been relatively resilient to global economic shocks and has a similarly resilient domestic focus, aided by large remittances from about 10 million overseas Filipino workers and migrants. Since 2003, the country's current account balance has recorded consecutive surpluses.

Of course, the Philippines has faced various challenges over the years, not only weather-related ones. Corruption has been a key challenge. Aquino has worked to stamp it out, and passed a number of reforms and laws including the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act and the Sin Tax Reform Act that outside observers felt were necessary despite an initial lack of popularity with certain groups within the country. Nonetheless, the Aquino administration made good progress in terms of attracting international investors, including removing restrictions on foreign ownership of banks in 2014.

Some observers say the victory of such a flamboyant personality reflects some of the discontent many Filipinos still feel  particularly the middle class  who feel squeezed by what they perceive to be high taxes and a lack of government support. Infrastructure remains a noted sore spot for the country, and is clearly in need of improvement.

Based on his rhetoric and track record, it appears Duterte will not hesitate to wield the strong hand of the government. He will likely continue to come down hard on criminals. In that respect, he does represent a continuation of the Aquino anti-corruption stance (perhaps even more forcefully), which should be positive for businesses and the economy.

Despite some socialist leanings, Duterte's record as former mayor of the fourth-most-populous city in the country, Davao, speaks for his business-friendly attitude, with major business groups in the city doing very well under his administration.

In our view, Duterte's first 100 days in office will be crucial, and we will need to watch what initiatives he comes out with. Business people including us would like to see a continuation of the elimination of corruption and promotion of lean government which characterized Aquino's administration. Based on his track record and campaign statements, there is a good chance Duterte will not only continue Aquino's stance but may even come out harder against crime and corruption. He has the reputation for cleaning up Davao and even executed a number of criminals, an act which caused concern among human rights groups. Clearly, the Philippine population would like to have a strong and clean government that will come out hard against criminals and corruption. Duterte has the background to deliver that.

During my most recent visit to the Philippines, I spoke at an event marking the opening of a new apartment building for business process outsourcing (BPO) workers. I see great potential in this area; the outsourcing industry has become huge in the Philippines because of the availability of English-speaking young people. India is well known for BPO but the Philippines is grabbing market share  this year the BPO industry in the Philippines is expected to employ some 1.2 million workers and annual revenues will hit US$ 25 billion. This involves 24-hour operations with BPO workers having to travel to and from work at odd hours and workers living a unique daytime/nighttime lifestyle.

On a visit to the Makati and Fort Bonifacio areas of Manila, I was surprised to see the bars and restaurants humming at six in the morning as night-shift BPO workers were exiting their jobs to have drinks and dinner! The main problem for these workers seems to be travel to and from work, and their homes are often substandard. It's estimated that 50 percent of Manila's population is in need of affordable housing as supply has not kept up with demand. With a population of 15 million, Manila is one of the largest and most densely populated urban areas in the world, and has perhaps the worst traffic in Asia as a result of decades of infrastructure underinvestment. Young professionals live in suburbs and commute two or more hours to work each day, often sharing subpar rooms with up to 12 people. About one-quarter of the metro Manila population live in illegal squatter areas. Although real estate in the Philippines is among the cheapest in Asia, housing is still unaffordable for most young professionals.

Because of these substandard conditions, we think affordable housing to meet BPO-worker needs represents a potential investment opportunity. One building we visited was in a new suburb of Manila where several BPO operations were established. Although the units were small, the building had attractive amenities including security guards, a clubhouse with a movie screening room showing films around the clock, a swimming pool on the roof, a coffee shop and laundromat so that the BPO workers could have a social life as well as a convenient place to stay near their offices.

We think the Philippines appears to be in a demographic sweet spot, and the country should continue to grow as long as there is no dramatic change in government policies and the path toward reform continues. It seems likely Duterte will continue to make progress in many areas. Taking a long-term view, I am optimistic the country will remain a good destination for international investors.

Mark Mobius is the chairman of the emerging markets group at Franklin Templeton Investments
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The Void Embrace

Most of us have had the vertiginous experience of being alone in an unfamiliar country, but we can't all express it through art. Canberra artist Shellaine Godbold can, though. The drawings and sculptures in her new exhibition at ANCA Gallery are a response to her travels in Japan and Taiwan: "Moving back and forth between transparency and opacity these pieces slowly reveal their secrets to viewers. Painstakingly drawing shimmering crystal mountains and figures tangled up in clouds, Shellaine's work deals with the sublime nature of landscape and the body's insignificance within it. By using her own connection with the Australian landscape she investigates foreign territories, love, loss, and all that falls between." The Void Embrace, by Shellaine Godbold, opens June 8 at ANCA Gallery, 1 Rosevear Place, Dickson, and closes June 26.

Shellaine Godbold's We have been measured, 2016, is part of a response to travels in Japan and Taiwan.

Making memories last

In another travel-related show, this time at Suki & Hugh in Bungendore, Julian Laffan has something to say about our yen for bringing home reminders of our travels. "The exhibition presents a series of woodcuts, each hand rendered and hand painted," says the gallery. "Their production defies today's fixation with the instant and the prolific. The process from experience to end creation is intensive and each phase is considered and gradual." The works are small-scale and intricate, bringing you in for a closer look. In the end, you'll feel you've been on a journey, too. Momento, by Julian Laffan, is showing at Suki & Hugh Gallery, 38A Gibraltar Street, Bungendore, until July 31.
A Canberra man will fight an allegation he tricked a home owner into believing their house contained deadly Mr Fluffy asbestos.

Garry John Miller, 54, was arrested in May after police alleged he produced paperwork that implied loose-fill asbestos had been found at the property.

Mr Miller, of Deakin, has yet to appear in the ACT Magistrates Court but the case was mentioned briefly on Thursday.

Defence lawyer Tim Sharman entered a not guilty plea on Mr Miller's behalf to one charge of producing a false or misleading document.

Mr Sharman expected a hearing into the matter would include a significant amount of documentary evidence and take about four hours.
A former Australian soldier who allegedly assaulted police and an RSPCA inspector in a violent scuffle that broke out after he tried to retrieve his companion dog from an rescue shelter will fight the charges at trial.

Shane Van Duren, 41, was arrested after he allegedly cut through three fences at the RSPCA's Weston Creek premises in an attempt to free his Belgian shepherd last December.

Ex-soldier Shane Van Duren and his dog, Kalu, which has since been returned to him. Credit:Facebook

The animal had been picked up after it was found wandering the streets by a member of the public.

Van Duren posted on social media after the alleged break-in that he had "sprung" the dog, which was a companion dog to assist in treating his post-traumatic stress disorder, a court previously heard.
It was a special reunion on a cold day in the shadow of their past achievements.

The last man to walk on the moon, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, met with former Canberra-based technical staff from the Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla.

Hamish Lindsay, John Saxon, Gene Cernan, Mike Dinn, and current CSIRO director of the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex Dr Ed Kruzins. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Cernan, an 82-year-old former navy pilot captain, arrived in Canberra on Wednesday to host a Q&A session before a screening of the award-winning movie The Last Man on the Moon, based on his autobiography.

When Cernan stepped off the moon in 1972 he famously left his footprints and his daughter's initials in the lunar dust.
Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon has not backed away from an earlier forecast that his airline could sell all or part of its 25.9 per cent stake in Virgin Australia by June 30 despite the Australian carrier's surprise share placement to China's HNA Aviation.

The Kiwi airline last month told investors its board ideally wanted to resolve the Virgin situation by June 30, in a move that could result in Air New Zealand paying a special dividend to its shareholders, the largest of which is the New Zealand government with a 53 per cent stake.

Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon says his airline will maintain its trans-Tasman alliance with Virgin. Credit:Simon Watts

"Nothing has changed for us," Mr Luxon told Fairfax Media on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Dublin.

"We are right in the middle of the process and obviously have got to follow it through to its logical conclusion. I appreciate there is lots of speculation but there is a big process that is going to play out and there are going to be multiple phases to it and we are just working our way through that really."
Kneejerk reactions to security incidents like the bombings at Brussels Airport need to be avoided because they can create more problems than they solve and can prove tough to reverse without undermining public confidence in the industry, aviation leaders say.

"What happened in Brussels could happen at any airport in the world," Brussels Airlines chief executive Bernard Gustin said at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meeting in Dublin.

The bombs went off at the check-in area before passengers were screened, leading to some calls for security checks to occur before anyone entered the airport.

But Association of Asia Pacific Airlines director general Andrew Herdman said that would be an overreaction with the potential for unintended consequences.
Hawaiian Airlines, whose objections to regulators have helped to delay a revenue-sharing agreement between Qantas Airways and American Airlines for the past year, is continuing to push for a better balanced playing field for smaller airlines.

Qantas and American agreed on a trans-Pacific joint venture last June but have yet to receive approvals from the United States Department of Transportation following opposition from Hawaiian and JetBlue.

Hawaiian Airlines has raised objections to Qantas' plan to share revenue with American Airlines on trans-Pacific routes.

There is industry speculation the inability to share revenue on the route could be among the factors contributing to declining fares on Qantas' international routes, because Qantas switched flights from the proven Sydney-Los Angeles route to reopen the Sydney-San Francisco route as part of the proposed deeper alliance agreement.

Hawaiian chief executive Mark Dunkerley said his airline objected to such joint ventures because they represented "virtual mergers" between dominant airlines on both ends of the route.
"We've tried to give [workers] as much notice as possible  so we can give our people as much time to plan as possible," a spokesman said.

A spokesman said the first redundancies wouldn't occur for at least 12 months.

Glencore, one of Australia's largest coal producers running 18 mines and employing some 7650 workers, said it had started consultation with the 350 employees at the mine.

Swiss miner Glencore will close its Tahmoor coal mine in NSW by early 2019, blaming continued low prices in global coal markets.

"We do our best to look for redeployment opportunities for them elsewhere within out business and at other mines in the industry."

The underground mine, in the southern highlands of NSW about 75 kilometres south-west of Sydney, has been operating since 1979 and last year produced 2.1 million tonnes of metallurgical coal used in steel making.

Like other miners, Glencore has been hit hard by the collapse in commodity prices linked to slowing demand from China. It has also slashed production of copper and oil as well as cutting investment and costs.

"The decision has been made as a result of continued low prices in global coal markets, which has meant the economic return from reserves still available at Tahmoor are not sufficient to warrant the investment required to mine them," Glencore said in a statement.

Global metallurgical coal prices have dropped from more than $US300 a tonne in 2011 to around $US94 in step with weakening steel prices.
A gorilla was shot in a Cincinnati zoo after a young boy found his a way into an enclosed zoo area. Now, outraged animal rights activists blame the boy's mother for letting him out of her sight.

I was inclined to be critical, too. Then certain memories came back at me. Like the times I "lost" my children. It happened once with my daughter, at the aquarium. And once with my son, at the local zoo. Each incident happened when they were about 4.

At the aquarium, I was alone with my daughter. We were both looking at the sea creatures, or so I thought. But when I looked down, she was gone. I could feel the panic build as I walked, then raced to retrace our steps. I was heading toward the security desk, when I saw her running toward me. Now 22, she still remembers the incident and tells me she deliberately "booked it" to see what would happen.

At least, I was the only witness to that moment of parental carelessness. My son disappeared briefly during a preschool class trip, which I took time off work to attend. Another mother asked if I would keep an eye on her son until she got there, and of course, I said yes. They were with the group, and then they weren't. It was only a matter of minutes before they turned up, running toward us on the path. But during those minutes, which felt like forever, the other mother showed up and told me exactly what she thought of me.
She is surrounded by the smiling faces of three politicians  Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton and Opposition leader Bill Shorten.

The hyper-realistic, life-sized sculpture of a child, her face covered by hair, her body positioned as if crucified, hangs on the wall in an upstairs gallery at the new public library in Melbourne's Docklands.

Van T Rudd with his sculpture Vast Ocean, part of the group exhibition Vessels to a Story at the Library at the Dock. Credit:Justin McManus

She wears pink patterned tights, an embroidered denim skirt, red jumper, blue shoes, purple gloves, a yellow Pooh Bear beanie with a pom pom  and a bright orange life vest.

Richard Flanagan and Ben Quilty on Lesbos, surveying the physical remnants - including a life jacket - of the refugee crisis.

Above her bowed head sits a sign for Wilson Security, the company contracted to provide security services at Australia's offshore immigration detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

Called Vast Ocean, the piece by Melbourne artist Van T Rudd is part of the group exhibition Vessels to a Story at the Library at the Dock, supported by Refugees, Survivors and Ex-Detainees (RISE) and the City of Melbourne.

Rudd's work references both asylum seekers who try to come to Australia by boat but most clearly children who have drowned while their parents seek asylum in Europe, most notably Syrian boy Alan Kurdi, 3, who made global headlines last year.

An activist as well as an artist, Rudd is the nephew of former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
The new film is written by David Magee but based upon Travers' stories. It will be directed by Rob Marshall, who helmed the Stephen Sondheim musical adaptation Into the Woods for Disney in 2014. Blunt was one of the stars of that film.

Emily Blunt, with James Corden, in Into the Woods.

It will be set in Depression-era London and will see Mary Poppins return to the now grown-up Jane Banks, Michael Banks and his three children after they suffer a personal loss.

"Through her unique magical skills, and with the aid of her friend Jack, she helps the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives," Disney said.
The music icon Prince died from an overdose of a synthetic opioid called fentanyl, the local medical examiner has found.

The report from the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office was issued in the US on Thursday, more than a month after the music superstar was found dead at age 57 at his Paisley Park mansion.

The single-page report said Prince "self-administered fentanyl," referring to a synthetic opioid many times more potent than heroin.

The report - which was signed by Quinn Strobl, the office's chief medical examiner - gave no indication of how Prince obtained the drug, nor did it list any other cause of death or "significant conditions".
The Avalanches have ended the rumours, and a 16 year break, by not just confirming a new album next month but revealing the first single from that album and its budget-breaking, awe-inspiring videoclip.

The Melbourne group, which broke fresh ground in electronic music with the sample-heavy debut album Since I Left You in 2000, became the most talked about Australian band across the world - and then virtually disappeared from sight - are back and will release a 21-track album called Wildflower on July 8.

Back and bold as ever - The Avalanches announce the first album in 16 years. The lineup includes Tony Di Blasi, Robbie Chater and James Dela Cruz.

Made by the two remaining original members, Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi, it's safe to assume that the 21 tracks (some of which may only be short, linking segments or sketches) will be packed with the weird and the unexpected snatches lifted from 100 years of recorded music.

The first single, Frankie Sinatra, for example, incorporates a 1950s calypso by the wonderfully named Wilmoth Houdini, some Rodgers and Hammerstein, ambient voices recorded at what might be a carnival and the all too rarely heard tuba. This is before noting the vocal contributions of Danny Brown and MF Doom.
While "new kids" Phil Cunningham on guitars/keys and, especially, Tom Chapman on I'm-not-Hooky-and-that's-ok bass were audience-busy, even dancing and  hello!  smiling, Stephen Morris was head down, all business all night up the back, and Gillian Gilbert matched him for seeming imperviousness to the outbreaks of middle-aged mayhem only metres in front of her keyboard.

This show began with Bernard Sumner telling us that "we're players on a stage, with roles already scripted", for a group approaching its fifth decade, and ended with him declaring "it's over, it's over", as it was, indeed, over. Work is work then and here are the parameters. Right?

In keeping with this sense of practicalities, I could note there were 19 songs, one of which was a "cover" (by some band who may have been named after a Wombats song) and seven of which were from their most recent album. I could tell you a decent spread of a 36-year (on and off) career was canvassed and the show ran for two hours, more or less. And I could confirm the audience enjoyed themselves after a slow start, both on and off stage.

But practicalities be damned, this wasn't work at all, not least because Sumner has become the kind of frontman who chats with ease, raises his arms in gratitude and triumph, and giggles. (Who would have predicted that 36 years ago? But then who would have thought a tour would one day include alternate nights of New Order augmented by the Australian Chamber Orchestra? Read part two tomorrow.)

This was a glorious evening of the weird and uniquely New Order sense of sunshine melancholy, that combination of a wistful, pained even, look back while dancing right now and for hours yet, which feels not so much English as perfectly Manchester.

Here simple, almost prosaic lyrics, and dry, almost detached singing, leave space for our emotions to suggest much more (or less). Here projected images of the apparatus of 1970s police states and street rebellions precede brilliantly vibrant and e-triggering graphics.

Here too tempers and tempos move from a trans-Europe express to a costa del sol beach party to a New York bacchanal to a Detroit machine house, mostly driven by the incongruous-turned-defining lead instrument, that high, questing, bass.
It's going to be an indoors weekend: the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting an absolute dumping of rain for Canberra.

The forecast rain is expected to come in by Friday, but Thursday's forecast had Saturday and Sunday with a combined predicted rainfall of up to 90 millimetres.

Up to 70 millimetres of rain could fall on Sunday. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Saturday is expected to be relatively light, with 10 to 30 millimetres forecast before a deluge of 20 to 60 millimetres on Sunday.

The Bureau of Meteorology's Helen Reid said several dynamic systems would come together over the weekend to bring significant total rainfalls across the ACT and NSW.
Sydneysiders wanting a bit of rain after the city's fifth driest May on record better get the mops and buckets ready.

A complex east coast low is likely to form around south-east Queensland in coming days, bringing potentially heavy falls for many parts of NSW particularly coastal ones, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

For Sydney, falls could reach at least 100mm from Saturday to Monday with totals dependent on how long the low lingers just off shore.
Australia is on track to meet official clean energy targets, says Environment Minister Greg Hunt, as new figures show 18 large-scale wind, solar and biogas projects worth at least $2.2 billion are set to be built.

However, the clean energy industry has warned that a surfeit of old, dirty power plants and long-term uncertainty over the renewable energy target continue to challenge investors, and a leading analyst has questioned the veracity of the government's figures.

Experts have recently warned the 2020 goal of 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy was unlikely to be met, given difficult market conditions, skittish banks and an investment drought under the Abbott administration, which substantially set back progress towards the target.
According to AP, Prince died after "self-administered fentanyl," referring to a synthetic opioid many times more potent than heroin. Prince was found dead at his estate in April. Credit:AP 3. Peter Costello dragged into 60 Minutes case The briefing and counter-briefing goes on. Here's Nine's case (via News Corp) against sacked producer Stephen Rice about why he got the chop. The Daily Telegraph says Nine considered four people were potentially going to be sacked for their Beirut child-abduction bungle including presenter Tara Brown. The decision to ultimately sack only Rice, and not the executive producers who were involved in organising the disastrous idea, was made in a phone hook-up involving the CEO Hugh Marks and the Board led by none other than Chairman Peter Costello.

Costello's former staffer Mitch Fifield is now the Communications Minister and has been noticeably quiet on the Nine sage which has sparked public outrage.. Fifield's strongest comments for the broadcaster so far seem to be that the Beirut kidnap "appears to have been unwise." Don't even bother getting that lettuce out of the fridge. 4. Clinton blasts Trump on foreign policy As I write, Hillary Clinton is delivering a much-hyped foreign policy speech, attacking the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump whom most people expect she will fight in the presidential election. She pulled no punches, blasting his "bizarre rants" and "outright lies" and said he could not be trusted with the nuclear codes, lest someone gets under his "very thin skin" and starts a war.

5. Europe needs Abbott Prominent tory politician Daniel Hannan told me Britain needs to turn back the migrant boats arriving on the Kentish coast via the English channel. My story here. Don't forget, Tony Abbott said exactly this in his Margaret Thatcher lecture in London last year which was perceived badly and as misreading the European problem at the time. Meanwhile, Tony Abbott's given a really interesting extended interview to Michelle Grattan. He says he's not seeking advancement post the election and promising to be a "useful" member standing up for conservative positions. His observations on what you give up when you become the leader and the toll the last 12 months has taken on his friendships are insightful and fascinating. Transcript here. One of those friendships was former Bronwyn Bishop. She's given a car-crash interview on Sky overnight in which she basically said nothing but admitted her $4,000 helicopter ride at taxpayers expense was "dumb." Hope she was worth the Speaker's fees. Boom tish.

6. Merkel backs Remain German Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the media during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as part of a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) Credit:Michael Sohn Some really interesting dynamics playing out. Today the unions were criticising Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn for not doing enough to advocate the Remain campaign. At Tuesday night's public rally I attended in Hammersmith, the Labour MP Graham Stringer told the audience (it was a pro-Brexit rally) that he knows Corbyn's real views ie. he's a secret Leaver or at the best half-hearted. And this is probably what's most fascinating about the EU Referendum, there is no typical Brexiter or Remainer and right now the polls are evenly split. The media has obviously focussed on the internal war in the conservatives, given it's the prime minister's leadership on the line but the Labour party's membership is just as fascinating a study. German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she hopes the UK will stay inside the EU but said it was not her place to tell voters what to choose. She's warned the best deal will be negotiated at the table, not outside of it.
Treasurer Scott Morrison accused Labor of declaring "war on business" and using "tax as their bullets" at the exact moment the first of two RAAF planes carrying the remains of Australian soldiers touched down on home soil.

The war rhetoric had been building for a few days but, amid its own woes over superannuation, the Coalition chose Thursday of all days to elevate this punchy and angry stuff to its main campaign grab.

It was a staggering display of oblivious timing on the day that the remains of 25 Australian soldiers  who actually died in war, some from bullets  and eight family members were being repatriated.
"I'm going to have a rest. I'm going to go and have four weeks off and just sit on a beach with my little boy," the bubbly star said. The star split from her husband of nine years, Chrys Xipolitas, earlier this year. "He's never been to Cyprus before and all of our family is over there, so it will be really nice for him... I'm really looking forward to it." Johnas comes first in all aspects of life, even before Nicodemou's own needs. She said their main focus is now on their three-year-old son, Johnas. Credit:Ada Nicodemou/Instagram

"The older they get the more they need you around as well," she explained. "When I am with him, I really like to give him quality time." 'People don't like Pia' Posing with Home and Away's Logie award in May, Nicodemou said she takes issue with "anyone bagging the show". Credit:Getty Images While Nicodemou kept conversation to a minimum about her private life, she was happy to dispute claims of infighting and back-stabbing on set. An unnamed source was reported as saying in Monday's Woman's Day that "people don't like Pia" adding that she "throws [her modelling career] in their faces any chance she gets.

"She has one of the smallest acting portfolios on the show, but carries on like she's a five-time Oscar winner," they added. Nicodemou, 39, put the story down to the need for magazine sales and said she didn't even bother reading it. "We were laughing at how comical the story was. There are no on-set tensions. I don't even know what they are talking about," she said. "It's a shame. isn't it? That we are still doing that and there is negative press out there when there is no reason for it." She explained that the soap stars are more like "a real family" and she takes issue with "anyone bagging the show".

"You look forward to seeing people every day and we have great laughs. We hang out with people outside of work as well. This Sunday I am going out to dinner with Lynne McGranger [who plays Irene Roberts]. "We are always hanging out, so we really must like each other," she laughed. "I'm really, really proud of the show," she added, giving a special mention to their recent Logie win in the Best Drama category. Seven issued a statement to Fairfax Media on Tuesday also refuting the claims.

"Reports from unnamed sources in the media are untrue," a Seven spokesperson said. "Since beginning on Home and Away 18 months ago, Pia has undertaken a massive career change, had to relocate from Melbourne to Sydney and had to work through a relationship breakdown." Miller, 32, who split from retired AFL player Brad Miller last year and who is now dating Cheyenne Tozzi's ex Tyson Mullane, has yet to comment. Beauty regime Lending her voice to the Palmolive campaign, before she headed to the Home and Away set for a day's work, Nicodemou said her main aim is to influence women to start thinking about themselves, even if that just means taking some time to body moisturise daily.
Prince died from an accidental, self-administered overdose of fentanyl, the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office said in a report released Thursday.

The report gave no indication of how Prince obtained the drug, nor did it list any other cause of death or "significant conditions".

The 57-year-old musician was pronounced dead the morning of April 21, one day before he was scheduled to meet with a California doctor in an attempt to kick an opioid addiction.

Two of his staff members - longtime friend Kirk Johnson and personal assistant Meron Bekure - found his lifeless body in a Paisley Park elevator about 9:40 am.
We are a recently retired, healthy married couple, aged 68 and 66, and financially unsophisticated. We jointly own our home worth $1.5 million to $1.8 million. Each of us has our own super of $1 million  husband in balanced, wife in capital guarded. We jointly own blue chip shares worth $500,000, with an annual dividend of $30,000 franked. We own two new cars, have no debts and no inheritances or future income. We don't want to end up living in penury but we do like to "live", travel a bit, buy a car, have nice things and certainly don't want to leave a huge inheritance to anyone! We would appreciate feedback on what annual income stream might be budgeted based on the figures above that allows comfortable living until the statistically calculated likely date we'll shuffle off the mortal coil. I'm seeking a model where I can plug and play with the numbers. And build our lifestyle to suit what the numbers say, rather than start the tedious process of working out how many scrapes of Vegemite I can afford on my toast. P.S.

I don't know that anyone who has accumulated your level of assets should call themselves unsophisticated, you've done rather well. If you want calculators, check the websites at Colonial First State (look under "Forms & Tools") and AMP (hard to find, so Google "AMP What's my number").

A reader worries about whether they will be comfortable in retirement  or have to ration their Vegemite. Credit:Ryan Osland

When estimating one's expenditure throughout retirement, too many people plan to spend the last dollar on the last day. Life doesn't work like that. Rarely does a person stay healthy for the period of his or her life expectancy and then suddenly drop off the perch.

Firstly, if one member of a couple begins to fail in 10 to 20 years' time, it will probably cost between $0.5 million to $1.0 million to enter an aged care facility. The average entry cost for facilities in Sydney's northern suburbs is already about $600,000. Secondly, you can spend roughly a quarter of your lifetime health costs in the last year of life.
A Triple J listener who became "dangerously obsessed" with sending text messages to the station has been jailed after demanding up to $110,000 and making threats to kill staff, including on-air presenters.

Melbourne man, Nicholas John Williams, pleaded guilty to two charges in the Victorian County Court last month, including extortion with threats to kill and inflict injury.

A man has been jailed after making threats against presenters at Triple J. Credit:James Brickwood

The 40-year-old was sentenced to five years in prison, with a non-parole period of three years, after sending 15 text messages to the station threatening violence, including rape and stabbing.

Williams admitted sending the series of violent, abusive and sexually explicit text messages over a one-month period between December 2014 and January 2015.
A Sydney businessman accused of frauds of $5.5 million sent a picture of a coffin to an alleged victim, threatened another with "maximum harm" and called their lawyer "a dead man", police say.

George Dimitriou has been charged with defrauding ANZ bank and an elderly immigrant couple in a $2 million property transaction that could cost them their home. Last year he was convicted of assaulting a key witness in a civil case involving the same matter.

George Dimitriou leaves the NSW Supreme Court. He has been accused in a civil case of defrauding an elderly, illiterate couple. Credit:Peter Rae

Police are also investigating a larger fraud of $3.5 million that Mr Dimitriou, a director of financial services companies, allegedly perpetrated against his former client Mark Leishman.

Mr Dimitriou confronted Mr Leishman and his lawyer Hector Ekes in Macquarie Street in Sydney's CBD after a day in court last November, according to a police fact sheet.
An 18-month-old boy has been airlifted to hospital with serious injuries after he was hit by a car in the state's central west on Thursday evening.

Police said the boy was hit by a reversing car on the grounds of a school at Bathurst just before 5pm.

Police and paramedics treat a toddler after he was hit by a car at Bathurst. Credit:Western Advocate

Emergency services were called to All Saints' College and treated the boy on the scene for around 40 minutes until an air ambulance arrived.

The toddler was taken to Westmead Children's Hospital. The hospital was not permitted to release information on his condition.
Two former officials of the Parramatta Girls Training School, known for its notorious dungeon, have been charged over alleged historical sexual assaults in the 1960s and 1970s.

Former boss of the NSW-run institution, Frank Valentine, 75, and former school official Noel Greenaway, 78, were charged on Wednesday with a litany of sexual assault offences against female students.

Girls work in the grounds of Parramatta Girls Home.

Since 2014, investigators of Strike Force Bilvo received reports of sexual abuse and assaults that allegedly occurred at the Fleet Street school between 1961 and 1973.

At the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse 16 former inmates of the home gave evidence of being raped, bashed and put in isolated detention for lengthy periods of time when they were children.
They presented a united front during his trial but Sydney banker Oliver Curtis and his publicist wife Roxy Jacenko left court in opposite directions after a Supreme Court jury found him guilty of insider trading after deliberations spanning two days.

A tearful Ms Jacenko embraced Curtis' father Nick, the former chairman of rare earth miner Lynas Corporation, after the guilty verdict was read out on Thursday in the historic St James Supreme Court.

Mr Curtis snr, who sat in a wooden pew behind Ms Jacenko with his wife Angela, kept his eyes closed and bowed his head briefly to the bench in front of him after the verdict was delivered.
Police are looking into a four-car crash that sent two women to hospital in Brisbane's south overnight.

A woman believed to be in her 30s was fighting serious abdominal injuries in the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, while another woman was in a serious condition at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Four cars collided in Yeronga on Thursday night. Credit:Shannon Marshall-McCormack

Emergency services were called to Fairfield Road in Yeronga about 10.10pm Thursday after the four cars collided.

Police believed the car the woman in her 30s was in crossed to the wrong side of the road, colliding with the other vehicles.
Animal rights activists have called on the Queensland government to ban the controversial practice of calf scruffing, labelling it "mindless animal exploitation".

Footage released by Animal Liberation Queensland shows members of the public tackling and pulling the tails of calves at the recent Boonah Show, south-west of Brisbane.

Competitors take part in calf scruffing at the Boonah Show. Credit:Animal Liberation Queensland

The competition known as scruffing pits pairs against each other, the goal being to bring a calf to the ground as quickly as possible.

In the video, one contestant is heard saying he'll put his fingers up the calf's nostrils, to which the ground announcer responds "just choke him out you reckon?".
A major homeless camp with more than a dozen tents and a growing collection of furniture has been established next to the Yarra River in Melbourne's CBD.

Enterprize Park is experiencing a large influx of rough sleepers seeking safety in numbers following a series of reports about aggressive beggars "blighting Elizabeth Street".

Tents, tarps, garbage bins and milk crates set up as part of a homeless camp at Enterprize Park. Credit:Pat Scala

Camping is illegal in the City of Melbourne and the council recently used this law to compel homeless people and others protesting in City Square to dismantle tents and tarps erected on the busy corner of Collins and Swanston streets.

But a tent camp still remains at Enterprize Park, which has a long history as a homeless squat, and is far less visible to the public than City Square.
Writer Jamila Rizvi said she ordered a coffee from The Kitchen at Weylandts in Abbotsford , without looking at the menu, only to be served a wooden paddle with three beakers.

A "deconstructed coffee" served in three separate glass beakers at a cafe in Melbourne's north has drawn the ire of social media users nationwide, with the trend being dubbed "peak hipster".

Is this "hipsterism" gone too far?

One beaker contained espresso, the second water and the third warm milk. She was also served a large dessert spoon.

Jamila Rizvi's deconstructed coffee from The Kitchen, Weylandts in Abbotsford. Credit:Facebook

"I just waited almost 20 minutes for an actual cup, before realising it would not be forthcoming," Rizvi wrote on Tuesday, alongside the photo of the coffee.

"Sorry Melbourne but no. No no no no no. I wanted a coffee. Not a science experiment.

"Hipsterism has gone too far when your coffee comes deconstructed."
The protracted, bitter and highly public industrial stoush with the United Firefighters Union has suddenly left Labor bogged, axle deep, with no easy way out of the quagmire.

The Premier must decide on a trade-off between protecting the interests of Victorian taxpayers, caving to hardcore unionised firefighters or infuriating tens of thousands of volunteers.

Andrews looks set to come down on the side of the union. Such a decision would carry obvious political risks, including infuriating volunteer firefighters in marginal seats and adding to public concerns about union clout.

But there is also a less obvious, although no less damaging trade-off he must now also confront.
Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barnes said La Trobe University appeared to have breached Victoria's charter of human rights, which says people have a right to political communication and freedom of speech. "I cannot think of any justification as to why a university would suspend an employee who simply makes an assertion that millions of other Australians would also make," he said. "She is not inciting violence, engaging in discriminatory conduct or race hate. There are millions of Australians who think we should have a new flag." He said the move sent a chilling message to academics. On Wednesday, university management told Ms Ward that she had been suspended from work for "engaging in misconduct". It followed Ms Ward posting a photo of the rainbow flag on her Facebook page last week, along with the words "Now we just need to get rid of the racist Australian flag on top of state parliament and get a red one up there and my work is done".

Maurice Blackburn employment lawyer Josh Bornstein said employers who disciplined or sacked an employee based on an expression of a political view could be in breach of the Fair Work Act. La Trobe University academic Bianca Fileborn, who works with Ms Ward at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, said she was "absolutely appalled and shocked" by the university's action over a private Facebook post.

Victoria University law lecturer Su Robertson said that freedom of expression was "central to being an academic". The Victorian government said on Thursday that it played no part in the university's decision. "This is an individual employment matter for Roz Ward and La trobe University - the government had no part in the decision," a spokeswoman said.



The government reiterated its support of Safe Schools, an anti-bullying program that promotes the acceptance of LGBTI people and runs out of La Trobe University. It will become mandatory in all Victorian state secondary schools by 2018. The National Union of Students said it was unfair for someone to lose their job over personal political views posted on a private Facebook feed.

Members of the LGBTI community have come out in support on a Facebook group called We Stand With Roz Ward. Meagan Michelle said Ms Ward was supportive of her family when her daughter was transitioning at a Christian school. "She supported us over a period of our lives that was one of the most difficult, and not once in that time did she ever not be a professional," she said on the I Stand With Roz Ward Facebook page. Matthew Lesh, a research fellow at right wing think tank the Institute of Public Affairs said the university had set a "dreadful precedent". "I fundamentally disagree with her sentiments, however I stand stead-fast in supporting her freedom of speech," he said.

The hashtag #IstandwithRozWard was also trending on Twitter on Wednesday night. Transgender student, Erik Ly, tweeted his support for Ms Ward. A T-shirt calling for Ms Ward to stay at La Trobe has also been launched online for sale.

Jo Hirst, author of The Gender Fairy also came out in support of the academic. Southern Cross University's emeritus professor James Jackson, an expert on academic freedom, said Australian universities traditionally stood by academics who expressed controversial and unpopular views. He said the suspension was unjustified, and referred to a clause in the La Trobe University Act, which states that the university strives to promote "critical and free enquiry, informed intellectual discourse and public debate within the University and in the wider society". He said Ms Ward's claim that the Australian flag was racist may not be popular, but it would trigger a worthwhile debate.
Siriyakorn "Bung" Siriboon went missing five years ago Credit:Penny Stephens "There's no indication she's gone or passed, so we have to believe she's still alive and able to one day come home. "If that's not going to happen, we still want some sort of information. Good or bad." A $1 million reward is on offer for information that solves the disappearance of the 13-year-old Boronia schoolgirl who went missing five years ago. The last confirmed sighting of Bung was about 8.30am on June 2, 2011, when a neighbour saw her after she left her home in Elsie Street, Boronia.

Police say there were two other possible and unconfirmed sightings of her that morning, and on Thursday revealed details of a potential third. Bung's parents, Fred Pattison and Vanidda Siriyakorn. Credit:Jason South his possible sighting was in nearby Rowville, where an Asian girl was spotted in the passenger seat of the 1970's Holden wagon. The rear seat of the car was folded down. The Kingswood was being driven by a white man, aged in his late 30s or early 40s and either bald or with light hair, who had sleeve tattoos on both arms and a large tattoo on the left side of his neck. The car was seen on Napoleon Road near the intersection of Kelletts Road between 8.45am and 9am.

About two years after the report was made to police, police have released images of a similar car. Homicide Squad Detective Inspector Michael Hughes said the delay in releasing information about the possible sighting had given detectives a chance to investigate it further, but public help was now needed. It was possible the man did not own the car but had access to it either because it was owned by a friend or family member, or because he worked as a panelbeater or mechanic. It is unclear how many of the vehicles are in Victoria, and it was possible the car was actually another large station wagon, not a Kingswood. Detective Inspector Hughes said linking the car to the tattooed man could be the key to cracking the case.

"There are two specific pieces of information we are asking the public to consider, the description of the male with a large tattoo on his neck, and the description of the white-coloured station wagon. "It's now been five years since Bung left home and failed to arrive at school that day and has not been seen or heard from since. "We continue to hold grave concerns for her safety and are desperate to provide her family with some answers." There had been about 1200 information reports made about the disappearance, but none of these had referred to a similar station wagon, Detective Inspector Hughes said. The description of the driver does not match any of the almost 30 suspects, some of whom have not been discounted, he said.

Several of these suspects have been arrested and interviewed, including a Boronia man who claimed in the months after Bung's death that he had run over the girl, then dumped her body in a nearby reserve. Early 1970s Holden similar to that seen in Bung Siriboon sighting. Photo: Victoria Police The information led to a week-long search of the Old Joe's Creek retarding basin, only a few kilometres from where Bung was last seen, that did not uncover any trace of her. More than 250 registered sex offenders have been questioned over the disappearance. Bung's mother, haunted by the loss of her daughter, who would now be 18, has returned to Thailand to live but has returned several times in the search for Bung. Bung also has an older sister.
A search for two missing fishermen off the coast of Coral Bay, 1200 north of Perth has been called off.

Water Police and State Emergency Services volunteers have been looking for Andy Hinds, 57, and Nigel Kitchen, 50, since the pair went missing on Sunday.

Police have called off the search for two fisherman off the coast of Coral Bay. Credit:WA Police

Police again scoured the coast off Coral Bay on Thursday, but after finding no trace of the men have decided to suspend the search.

Police found a human arm as part of their search for the fishermen on the sea floor near Bill's Bay on Tuesday by divers on a charter vessel.
Jakarta: An Indonesian Cabinet minister personally signed a letter guaranteeing an Australian permanent resident accused of poisoning her friend with cyanide will not face the death penalty.

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly confirmed the Indonesian government had provided written assurance that Jessica Kumala Wongso will not be executed if found guilty.

Accused: Jessica Kumala Wongso. Credit:Jakarta Post

"Yes, I was the one who guaranteed it," Mr Yasonna told Fairfax Media.
Berlin: The German parliament overwhelmingly adopted a symbolic but fraught resolution on Thursday declaring the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide, escalating tensions with Turkey at a diplomatically sensitive juncture.

The Turkish government angrily denounced the vote as "null and void" and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recalled their ambassador back to Ankara for consultations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party supported the resolution. Credit:Michael Sohn

Turkey's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, denounced the vote on Twitter, writing, "The way to close the dark pages of your own history is not by defaming the histories of other countries with irresponsible and baseless decisions."

Germany needs Turkey's help in following through on a deal with the European Union to manage the refugee crisis arising from the Syrian civil war, but at the same time, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been under pressure not to be seen as caving to outside pressure. Her Christian Democratic Union and its coalition partners supported the resolution.
Klug, an El Segundo resident who was married with two young children, loved surfing and frequently took his family to Los Angeles Dodgers games. He earned his undergraduate degree in engineering physics from Westmont College in 1997, his master's degree in civil engineering at UCLA in 1999 and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2003. A SWAT officer searches a student who was evacuated from the UCLA campus near the scene of a fatal shooting. Credit:AP With school shootings so often in the news in recent years, many UCLA students feared that the situation unfolding on their normally serene campus might evolve into something far deadlier. "It's unfortunate it happened here," said Andrew Avelino, 23, a senior majoring in history. "You see school shootings happening on the news at high schools, on other campuses, at other places. But you never thought it would happen here until it does." Los Angeles Police officers escort people at the UCLA campus after a fatal shooting at the University of California. Credit:AP

The wave of panic and adrenaline, slew of campus alerts and swarms of police were all too familiar for Jeremy Peschard. The 22-year-old geography major transferred to UCLA from UC Santa Barbara, near where a student's rampage left six people dead and 14 injured in Isla Vista in 2014. "It's crazy to go through this again," said Peschard, who said he experienced flashbacks of the attack as he hid inside a UCLA office. "It's sad that it's normalised at this point. It's like I almost know the drill." Police attend the UCLA campus after reports of an active gunman. Credit:Screenshot, 7NewsBoston WHDH Wednesday's shooting took place inside the university's engineering complex in a small office, according to Beck, who confirmed at a noon news conference that the shooter was one of the two dead men. "The campus is now safe," he said.

UCLA professor William Klug Credit:UCLA Authorities did not identify the victims and a motive was not immediately clear. Andy Neiman, the LAPD's chief spokesman, confirmed a note was found at the scene, but investigators had not determined whether it was connected to the shooting. Based on the appearances of the deceased, police believed that a professor was shot by someone young enough to be a student, who then turned the gun on himself, a law enforcement source also told the Los Angeles Times. A photo of the UCLA engineering building classroom door that was barricaded during the school lockdown. Credit:AP Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz, whose district includes UCLA, said LAPD officers had told him it appeared "a professor was the victim" and that little was known about the shooter.

When police first discovered the two men who had been fatally shot, they feared they were the first victims of an active shooter, Koretz said. "We're at a point in this country where there's some kind of small massacre every day, somewhere," he said. The campus was locked down for about two hours, ending around 12.05pm. Classes were cancelled after the shooting but will resume Thursday, the university said. The shooting prompted a massive response from local and federal law enforcement. Police officers in riot gear ran across campus, guns and battering rams drawn, while students exited buildings with their hands above their heads. Neiman said the first emergency caller reported at least three gunshots and possible victims. A number of additional calls and social media postings suggesting there was an active shooter led police to send hundreds of officers toward Westwood.

"It's much easier to tell people it's OK to come out, than to have to go and tell their families that they're not coming home," Neiman said. Students hid in buildings across campus. Many said they struggled to lock the doors of the classrooms where they sought shelter and were forced to use their belts, nearby projectors and furniture to barricade themselves against any potential threat. While Beck said there were no other suspects, many students said they received mass text messages and social media blasts announcing that as many as four shooters may have been roaming the campus. "There's a ton of information spreading over social media and group messages and it's hard for everyone to sort out what is true and what isn't," Rafi Sands, vice president of UCLA's student government, said as he hid with 30 other students inside a hall during the lockdown. "They are saying there are multiple shooters, one near here." Christos Kampouridis, 23, said he found the door to his engineering class locked at 9.50am, then turned to find a man with a gun walking through a nearby hallway. The man, who had a rifle at his side and appeared to be wearing a tactical belt, yelled, "Come here."

Kampouridis said he fled immediately, and shouted at nearby students to run. He burst out of the building and called the police, then began sending messages to friends and posting social media updates urging them to "stay away from Engineering." He was unsure whether he saw a police officer or the gunman, but wanted desperately to warn friends either way. While some students rode out the lockdown hidden behind barricades, others desperately tried to flee the campus after they were unable to find shelter. Maria Shafer said she ran out of her Spanish final exam in the Public Affairs building after the campus issued the first shooting alert. Shafer and about 20 other students ran into several locked doors as police sirens blared and helicopter roared overhead. They ended up climbing over bushes and sprinting across Sunset Boulevard before they found safety in the yard of a Bel-Air home. "We didn't know where to go, we were trying to get as far away from campus as possible," she said. "The scariest part was running through the campus after we had gotten that alert."
Albany: Put the music on "For the Love of Money" by the O'Jays. Keep the room temperature cool - a maximum of 68 degrees fahrenheit (20 degrees celsius). Create a sense of urgency to enrol students as quickly as possible. And if an attorney-general shows up at a Trump University seminar, contact a senior staffer immediately.

Those are among the instructions embedded in the "Trump University Playbook", one of a number of documents that Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has fought to keep sealed in several legal cases alleging that his education courses were shams.

New York State Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman, who is leading one of several lawsuits against Trump University, applauded the release of documents on Tuesday.
Suspects appeared before judge of instruction on Wednesday.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The three men who got injured during the May 30, 2016 shooting at the Westin Dawn Beach Resort parking, at approximately 10:00am are all suspects in the ongoing investigation called Mahi Mahi. They are being suspected of involvement in the shooting and money laundering. The latter suspicion has to do with a large sum of money that had been found in one of the cars and has been confiscated.

Two of the suspects K.L. (45) and J.A. (43), both from St. Maarten have been released from the hospital and are currently detained at the Pointe Blanche Prison. Today the two men were led in front of the judge of instruction who deemed their detention lawful.

The third suspect L.W. (37), also from St. Maarten, has been flown out to the Dominican Republic for medical treatment due to the injuries he sustained during the shooting. He is still in a critical condition.

Furthermore the Prosecutors Office cannot comment at this point in time on any other detail regarding the ongoing investigation.

Prosecutor's Office Press Statement

SMN News understands the two suspects are Karim Lake and Joseph Ambroise. It should be noted that Joseph was born on the island of Dominica and not St. Maarten as released by the prosecution. Seemingly the prosecutor's office have the name of the second suspect completly mixed up as SMN News learnt that the suspect's name is Ambroise Joseph who was born in Dominca and not St.Maarten as indicated by the prosecutor's office in their press release. Even the age of the suspects ages that were released by the prosecution are incorrect.

The third suspect that is in critical condition is Levi Webster a former convict who was convicted in 2009 for an armed robbery where a person lost his life. Two of the three suspects are employees of Checkmate Security.

Detectives took Westin Shooting Suspects from SMMC to Court House in hospital robe.

The two suspects that were involved in the shooting incident on Sunday at the Westin Resort was taken out of the St. Maarten Medical Center on Wednesday and taken directly to the Court of First Instance, Karim Lake underwent surgery around midday on Tuesday and he was taken to court in his hospital robe,while the other suspect Ambroise Joseph had on normal clothing.

Eyewitnesses say that the suspects were taken from SMMC around 10:30am and taken directly to the Court of First Instance. SMN News further understands Lake suspect went into surgery around midday on Tuesday and less than 24 hours after the surgery he was taken out of the hospital and directly in front of a judge and he was not even given enough time to properly dress.

SMN News understands that relatives of one of the suspects protested because the suspect/victim only underwent surgery on Tuesday since he was shot in the neck area and somewhere under the chest. According to information provided to SMN News the attorney that is representing Lake was not properly informed of the hearing that was scheduled for Wednesday morning, however, that information could not be confirmed since the attorney could not be reached on Wednesday night.

SMN News will follow up on the events of Wednesday hearing with the attorney on Thursday for further details on the procedures.

CORRECTION

Regarding the June 1, 2016 press release concerning the Mahi Mahi investigation relating to the May 29, 2016 shooting at the Westin Dawn Beach Resort parking the Prosecutors Office would like to make the following corrections:

- The suspect with the initials J.A. should be A.J.

- The suspect with the initials K.L is 33 years old and not 45 years old as stated in the June 1, 2016 press release
PHILIPSBURG:--- The three suspects that were arrested on Monday in the Colade investigation namely, Regina Labega, Fabian Badejoe and Erica Fortuno will appear before the judge of instruction on Thursday. Detectives arrested the trio on Monday after conducting a six year investigation after the former head of Finance Bas Roorda filed a complaint against them for theft.

Based on information SMN News gathered Labega, Badejoe and Fortuno owned a company called DMC, that company has an offshore bank account in Anguilla where they were transferring up to USD 1.2M per year claiming that the company was doing marketing for the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau. At the time when the complaint was filed in 2010 Labega was the director of the Tourist Bureau on St. Maarten while Fortuno was the heading the Tourist Office in New York. While DMC is registered to Badejoe and Fortuno, Labega is a shareholder of the marketing company.

On October 16th, 2015 the National detectives conducted five house searches which were led by the judge of instruction, on the request of the public prosecutors office.

SMN News learnt that the detectives were busy these past two days questioning close relatives of the three suspects.

However, on Monday May 30th 2016 the detectives made a second move, this time they arrested the three suspects. Regina Labega, Fabian Badejoe and Erica Fortuno. The fourth suspect Edward Dest appeared before the court on March 25th, 2015 and was sentenced to one day in prison.
Castries/Nassau:--- The Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE), and human rights and LGBT organisations across the region have come together in support of Bahamian activists and organisations condemning the recent anti-gay statements by a top government official.

Earlier this month Bahamian Member of Parliament, Leslie Miller, suggested all transgender persons should be exiled to an island of their own. In addition to airing these sentiments Miller also made other derogatory and erroneous statements about transgender persons, causing concern amongst human rights activists throughout the region.

ECADE Director, Kenita Placide, stated that Millers message was flawed on all counts and demonstrates a gross lack of understanding, which many persons in power across the region have regarding LGBT persons.

The idea that LGBT people lead frivolous lives and just want to play with each other is downright disrespectful as most transgender and lesbian, gay and bi-sexual individuals contribute greatly to their communities. That the MP continues to perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices about LGBT people, many, who for the most part are already vulnerable across the region, is reprehensible. We urge informed persons of influence in government, religious groups and the community to correct others when they spout such misleading rhetoric, Placide said.

Erin Greene, human rights activist and leading advocate of LGBT rights in the Bahamas, noted that Millers statements about the procreation of transgender persons are similar to those often used to invalidate LGBT lives. She said the first issue to be addressed was the fact that LGBT people all across the Caribbean and the world do have and raise children. The second issue is the question of the choice to reproduce or not that all individuals,regardless of sexual orientation, must make for themselves.

Millers statements speaks to a pattern of shaming that continues across our region when discussing matters that relate to family, sexual orientation and gender identity. This shame causes mental, emotional and physical stress to LGBT persons and can have dire consequences for their lives. Across the Caribbean LGBT people continue to face stigma and discrimination. This is not the time for jargon and baseless ranting about vulnerable and marginalised people. It is a time for learning, understanding and empowering all of our citizens across the Caribbean on all fronts, Greene said.

Lysanne Charles-Arrindell, President of St. Maarten/St. Martin Alliance for Equality (SAFE) said the organisation definitely supported ECADEs message on this matter and looked forward to continued conversations with the community and government on the issue of LGBT equality and empowerment.

St. Maarten/St. Martin has a small transgender community, but as a LGBT organisation we definitely stand up for our transgender people and for their rights as human beings to be respected. Too often, when discussing the lives of LGBT people many, on the various islands, including St. Maarten/St. Martin, forget that these are the lives of real human beings we are talking about. So we desire more dialogue with our governments on all levels, religious and community representatives, Charles-Arrindell said.

Fast-track hate crime legislation

Paco Nunez of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA) concurs that it is time to fast- track hate crime legislation. Everyone should be allowed to express themselves and promote their own

interests and that of their community without facing humiliation or fear for their safety, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, nationality, heritage, religion, political persuasion, or any other arbitrary consideration.

Alexus DMarco, head of Bahamas Transgender Intersex United (BTIU), also recognised the immediate need for such a legislation, stressing that members of her association, and the LGBT community, are now among the most vulnerable in The Bahamas.

Placide stressed that ECADE and its regional network remain committed to engaging in meaningful dialogue with concerned human rights organisation's and state representatives in order to better the understanding of LGBT realities in the region.

We understand the need for the further sensitising those who play important roles in the communities where LGBT people live. However, we also implore those in positions of power to use better judgment in these matters. This is not the first time that a government official has used the platform of politics to bully LGBT people and this has to stop. There are enough resources online, from credible sources, and even activists willing to have conversations about this matter. Ignorance has no excuse, Placide said.

It was noted that as LGBT people assert their right for equal treatment and visibility on their respective islands as there continues to be varying responses, from tolerance to hostility. However, organisations note that there are also more people standing up with and for LGBT people and the safeguarding of human rights in the Caribbean. Placide encourages all persons who believe in the sanctity of life to urge government, religious and community leaders to continue to defend the rights of the minority.

ECADE - The Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality Inc. is a regional network of organisations working across the Eastern Caribbean. Drawing on The Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law, ECADE is providing an empowering environment to increase skills and capacity for advancement of LGBTQI and marginalised populations in Saint Lucia and the eastern Caribbean.

Ex. SAFE  St. Maarten/St. Martin Alliance For Equality is a platform for LGBT people and their allies to engage in meaning conversation about the state of affairs of the community/communities on St. Maarten/St. Martin. The objectives are: 1) To promote the social acceptance and inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people, in order to create an island free of stigma and discrimination with freedom and equality at all levels of society. 2) To promote personal empowerment by encouraging the awareness of one's own (sexual) identity, and social situation in general, and where needed (and possible) support those LGBT individuals who are in need of assistance and care. 3) To represent the collective interests of LGBT persons,

4) To improve awareness, promote equality, as well as educate the LGBT community and general population on matters pertaining to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially where they relate (but are not limited) to the LGBT community.
Sanders within 2 points of Hillary Clinton in Latest Polls

Update: Bernie Sanders is in Santa Monica again tonight, Sunday night, campaigning this time at the Santa Monica Pier. In Culver City, has has been seen at Tanner's Coffee on Sepulveda. The guy is really trying hard, that's for sure!

In the last 30 days, the State of California has registered 650,000 new voters, 500,000 Democrats, and 138,000 Republicans. This is a hint that young people are registering, specifically so they can vote for Bernie Sanders. This author predicts he will win the California primary, and surprise the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The New York Times and LA Times agree that the Vermont Senator is close to leading Hillary Clinton in the polls. In fact one poll, released May 26 by the Public Policy Institute of California, showed Mrs. Clinton leading Mr. Sanders among likely voters.

About half of California voters will have voted by mail prior to the polls even opening on Tuesday, June 7th. But the polling places are also important, and Sanders Voters are much more energized and much more likely to show up than Clinton supporters.

This was supposed to be a showdown between two family scions; Hillary of the Clinton's, and Jeb of the Bushes. On the Republican side, "Low Energy Jeb" was almost the first candidate of 17 to drop out.

On the Democratic side, ironically, almost the diametric opposite has happened. A total of six major candidates entered the race starting April 12, 2015, when former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton formally announced her second bid for the presidency. She was followed by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, former Governor of Maryland Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Rhode Island Lincoln Chafee, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb, and Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig. There was some speculation that incumbent Vice President Joe Biden would also enter the race, but he chose not to run. A draft movement was started to encourage Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren to seek the presidency, but Warren declined to run.

The other candidates quickly dropped out of the democratic primary.

Prior to the Iowa caucuses on February 1, 2016, Webb (citing frustration with Democratic Party leadership) and Chafee withdrew due to low polling numbers. Lawrence Lessig withdrew after the rules of a debate were changed such that he would no longer qualify to participate.[3] Clinton won Iowa by the closest margin in the history of the caucuses over Sanders, in what would be a rare caucus victory for her. O'Malley suspended his campaign after a distant third-place finish, leaving Clinton and Sanders the only two candidates. The electoral battle turned out to be more competitive than expected, with Sanders winning the New Hampshire primary while Clinton scored victories in the Nevada caucuses and South Carolina primary. On three different Super Tuesdays Clinton secured numerous important wins while Sanders scored various victories in between.

Precisely because of the tenacity of the Sanders campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton is perceived as weak, both by the electorate and the Washington elite. The two are neck and neck in the California Democratic primary, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released today. Among surveyed voters likely to participate in the California primary, the former Secretary of State polled at 49 percent and Sanders at 47 percent. These numbers are similar to those in a poll released last week from PPIC, which showed Clinton at 46 percent and Sanders at 44 percent.

Clinton continues to hold a sizable lead over Sanders in her national delegate count, merely 73 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination. Clinton currently has 2,310 bound delegates and super-delegates who have pledged to vote for Clinton at the Democratic National Convention.

The California primary has reasonably been considered the last big prizes of the primary season. Sanders and Clinton will be battling for 546 delegates in the California Democratic primary, scheduled for June 7. Mrs. Clinton will probably garner the number of delegates she needs to win the Democratic nomination after votes are counted in New Jersey, where polls will close before California's because of the difference in time zones. But her loss in California will haunt her campaign into the convention.

According to NBC, the poll also showed that Sanders held a 36-percent advantage among voters younger than 45 and a 44-point lead among first-time voters. Even if Clinton wins the primary in California, these voters will continue to play an important role in the general election.

Also on June 7, Clinton and Sanders will compete in Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and North Dakota for 235 delegates.
There has been no claim of responsibility for the crash.

People light candles during a candlelight vigil for the victims of EgyptAir flight 804, at the Cairo Opera house in Cairo, Egypt May 26, 2016

A French search vessel has picked up signals from one of the black boxes of EgyptAir flight MS804, Egyptian and French investigators said, a potential breakthrough in efforts to uncover why it plummeted into the Mediterranean last month.

Search teams are working against the clock to recover the two flight recorders that will offer vital clues to the fate of the plane that crashed en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19 killing all 66 people on board.

Without the black boxes, say investigators and aviation disaster experts, there is not enough information to determine what went wrong or whether the plane was brought down deliberately.

The recorders are designed to emit acoustic signals for 30 days after a crash, giving search teams fewer than three weeks to spot them in waters up to 9,840-feet (3,000 meters) deep, which is on the edge of their range.

The Egyptian investigation committee said on Wednesday that the search was intensifying ahead of the arrival of another vessel, the John Lethbridge, from Mauritius-based company Deep Ocean Search to help retrieve the devices. That ship is expected to arrive within a week, it said.

"Search equipment aboard French naval vessel Laplace ... has detected signals from the seabed of the search area, which likely belong to one of the data boxes," the Egyptian committee said in its statement.

France's aviation accident bureau BEA confirmed that the signal had come from one of the recorders.

The Laplace has equipment from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, which can pick up black box pinger signals over long distances up to 5 km (3 miles) and was contracted by the Egyptian investigators last week.

Egyptian investigators have said that the EgyptAir plane did not show any technical problems before taking off and the pilot made no distress call to air traffic control.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the crash.

The jet transmitted a series of messages in the minutes before it crashed showing a rise in temperature at the co-pilot's window and smoke on board, but investigators say these shed little light on the cause.

There are also conflicting reports of the plane's last moments as it crossed from Greek to Egyptian airspace.

The head of Egypt's air navigation has told Reuters the plane disappeared suddenly from the radar while at a cruising altitude of about 37,000 feet.

That conflicts with the account given on the day of the crash by the Greek defense minister, who said the plane swerved and dropped to 15,000 feet before disappearing from radar.

The air disaster is the latest in a series for Egypt, complicating its efforts to restore tourism, which has suffered since the 2011 uprising ushered in a period of instability.

In March, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked an EgyptAir flight. In late October, a Russian plane carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort crashed in Sinai.

Islamic State said it downed the plane with a bomb. Britain and Russia suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh pending improvements to security.
Anti Gun Legislation Pending in California State Legislature

Group Calls on Sanders, Clinton to Endorse Gun Safety Measures in California After UCLA Shooting

CALIFORNIA -- As the Democratic Presidential primary race heads to California and polls show the race tightening significantly, the California-based Courage Campaign is calling on Senator Bernie Sanders and Secretary Hillary Clinton to endorse a series of new gun safety bills currently being debated by the California legislature, as well as the Safety for All ballot measure that would enact a series of reforms to reduce gun violence.

Regardless of whether Californians #FeelTheBern, say #ImWithHer, or are undecided, we expect those seeking to lead our country to pay attention to the critical issues impacting the daily lives of the people who live in the largest and most diverse state in the nation, explained Eddie Kurtz, executive director and President of Courage Campaign. California was the site of two of the countrys more recent high-profile mass shootings: Santa Barbara in 2014 and San Bernardino in 2015. Just yesterday, the UCLA campus was put on lockdown due to a shooting that left two dead. Its clear that even in California where we have fairly aggressive gun laws, we must do more. No other industrialized nation endures this kind of gun violence. It can and must be stopped.

The gun safety bills currently pending in the California legislature that Courage Campaign is calling Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders to endorse includes:

SB 1235 / AB 156 - requiring background checks for ammunition purchasers, licenses to sell ammunition, and the collection of sale information;

SB 880 / AB 1135 - redefines assault weapons to encompass specified guns capable of accepting any type of detachable magazine;

SB 1446 - prohibiting the possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds;

SB 1407 / AB 857 - requiring a person to get a serial number from DOJ before making or assembling a gun;

SB 894 - requiring the reporting of a lost or stolen gun within five days of when the person knows or reasonably should have known of the theft or loss;

AB 1511 - limiting infrequent lending of guns to specified family members;

SB 1006 - establishes a firearm violence research center at the University of California, filling the gap left by Congressional research into firearms.

In addition to the various pieces of legislation, Courage Campaign is calling on Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders to endorse the upcoming Safety for All gun safety ballot measure which would ban high-capacity military-style magazines, require background checks for ammunition, require reporting of lost or stolen guns, and ensure that people who possess guns illegally are caught. The ballot measure, organized by California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, far exceeded the necessary signatures to put the measure on the ballot, and the NRA has pledged to do everything in [its] power to put an end to this.

Last month, Courage Campaign sent a letter to Senator Bernie Sanders and Secretary Hillary Clinton asking them to address critical state and local issues impacting California voters -- including gun safety measures.

READ THE FULL LETTER HERE: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.couragecampaign.org/images/Dear_Sec_Clinton_and_Sen_Sanders.pdf
GLI Announces the Acquisition of Bulletproof Solutions, Inc.

LAKEWOOD, NJ  (Marketwired)  06/01/16  Gaming Laboratories International (GLI)  together with affiliates, the GLI Group  is pleased to announce the acquisition of Bulletproof Solutions Inc. Bulletproof is Atlantic Canadas Trusted IT Services Company with a strong and growing portfolio of successful contract and project services. The investment further underscores the GLI Groups commitment to Canada, and in particular, New Brunswick and the Atlantic Provinces.

The GLI Group announced that, as part of the acquisition, the entire leadership team and executives at Bulletproof, including the senior management team led by Steven Burns, Jeff Shaw and Andrew Jefferies, will continue to operate the company just as they have since inception. Both companies plan to leverage Bulletproofs strong IT services capabilities throughout other provinces in Canada and in the United States. In addition to traditional and core market clients in the public and commercial sectors that Bulletproof serves today, Bulletproofs offering of IT services will be available immediately to gaming, lotteries and voting machine related companies  all sectors where the GLI Group maintains a dominant market share of testing related services.

Bulletproof CEO Steven Burns said, This is the ideal scenario for Bulletproof to take it to the next level. Weve done a good job growing our company to over 80 people in Atlantic Canada, we have a strong foundation of great processes and especially excellent people. GLI Group immediately saw the awesome potential we have to become more and wants to nurture that potential into growth and success for Bulletproof.

In selecting GLI to be its shareholder, Steve Burns commented, Personally, I became convinced that the GLI Group was our ideal partner due to their track record of successfully investing in and building industry leading businesses focused on providing best-in-class services to clients and customers and their commitment to New Brunswick and Canada.

The GLI Groups principal owner James Maida said, Were very pleased to invest in Bulletproof and their management team. While the GLI Group has businesses globally, the Atlantic Canada region is critically important to our strategy. The Bulletproof team has done an impressive job building a globally competitive company in New Brunswick. Were excited about the opportunity to expand Bulletproof throughout Canada and globally with New Brunswick as the base of operations. This is great for us and its great for Atlantic Canada because we see opportunities to expand into markets across Canada and the rest of the world. Atlantic Canada is a great place to do business and an ideal place to concentrate some key centralized services Bulletproof provides. Were going to deliver those services to a wider export market across the world. At the same time, we see an opportunity in parallel for on the ground operations to expand into other key regions of Canada and the USA which will only further strengthen the GLI Group and Bulletproofs market position and success.

GLI is committed to jobs and growth in the Maritimes. James Maida noted, Given the provinces recent announcement on the development of their cyber-security strategy, we (GLI) see great potential in being part of the implementation and growth opportunity by investing in existing infrastructure and competencies in the region. We find great synergies investing our capital there.

Bulletproof Solutions Inc. was founded in 2000 and began operations in 2001 as a security consulting firm but quickly diversified into offering a wider menu of Information Technology (IT) services with a focus on Managed Services. Bulletproofs competitive advantage is our agility and responsiveness to our clients and our proven track record to deliver projects and services on-time and on-budget. Our executives are approachable, accountable and committed to our clients success.

Bulletproof employs some of Atlantic Canadas most accredited and experienced IT professionals. The consistent growth Bulletproof has experienced since its inception in 2000 is a testimony to excellence, competency, dedication and talent. Clients trust Bulletproof and our employees, knowing they are backed by some of the biggest IT solutions companies in the world. Our partners ensure our employees receive the best support and training enabling them to deliver world-class solutions to businesses. By leveraging the Bulletproof team of IT experts, our clients can meet any technical challenge they face, while they maintain focus on growing their businesses. For more information, visit .

The GLI Group of Companies form an inter-disciplinary approach to Compliance, Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) and Quality Assurance (QA) testing solutions to our clients while meeting their cyber-security and other IT professional services needs. The GLI Group is made up of several entities as described below.

Bulletproof will be closely aligned with GLIs Quality Assurance and Professional Services Division, based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada that provides a team of world-class IT professionals and thought leaders who serve as a global resource and knowledge bank to our clients; capable of providing complete and thorough business solutions. This division has a number of dedicated practice areas including; Software Quality Assurance and Test; Core Systems Modernization Project Management, Governance Risk and Compliance and Gaming and Lottery. Each of these specialized practice areas has service offerings that enable continuous process improvement, retain project learning, and shared knowledge, delivering consistent client value driving the bottom line. Whether clients require; cyber-security penetration testing, software testing, IT consulting, or ISO security certification services, our team prides itself in helping our clients succeed. More information can be found at .

GLI also operates SLI Global Solutions LLC, a nationally recognized partner with State and Local Government agencies, providing Project Management Oversight, IV&V and Assessment Services, QA Management (QM), and software testing services. SLIs Government Solutions focuses on improving the quality of state and local IT systems through the application of field-tested methodologies delivered by highly qualified experts in the disciplines of IV&V and QA assessments and risk management. SLIs proprietary QM methodology and framework, SQM3, has earned an ISO 9001:2008 Certification and is derived from industry standards articulated by IEEE, PMBOK, ISO, SWEBOK, and COBIT. SQM3 ensures that findings and recommendations are fact-based and aligned with appropriate standards. More information can be found at .

The GLI Group was originally founded as the worlds first private gaming test laboratory in 1989, under the name Gaming Laboratories International, and has continuously delivered the best quality compliance testing and professional services for 27 years to regulators, operators and suppliers in the gaming, lottery, and iGaming industry thereby reducing the time to market of products undergoing regulatory scrutiny from its 20 locations spread across Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and South America. GLI is the only global organization of its kind to hold U.S. and international accreditations for compliance with ISO/IEC 17025, 17020, and 17065 standards for technical competence in the gaming, wagering and lottery industry. More info can be found at .

GLI also operates SLI Compliance, a global compliance testing division that specializes in the fields of Electronic Voting equipment and Health IT headquartered in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. SLI Compliance is a recognized global leader in electronic voting system technology and has assisted not only vendors in their compliance testing requirements but also consults with state, federal and foreign election officials in the proper use and implementation of electronic voting equipment. More information can be found at .

In all, the GLI Group consists of more than 950 employees based throughout 25 offices on 6 continents.

Charit Khatri

Marketing

+1 (506) 452-8558

Christie Eickelman

Vice President of Worldwide Marketing

+1 (702) 914-2220
Kobetron(TM), LLC Acquires Gaming Informatics, LLC

WHEAT RIDGE, CO  (Marketwired)  06/01/16  Kobetron is pleased to announce the acquisition of assets of Gaming Informatics (GI), which includes the IRIS software suite. The Gaming Informatics software suite allows casinos and regulators to track the inventory of electronic gaming equipment throughout the casino property, whether the equipment is on the floor or offline. This transaction combines Kobetron, the leading specialized gaming verification tools company, with GI, the leading enterprise-resource planning software company.

As part of the transaction, it was announced that Grant Stousland, President and CEO of Gaming Informatics, will remain in a strategic leadership and business development role with Kobetron overseeing the ongoing sales, support and product development of the GI line of products.

Stousland said, This transaction solidifies the future of IRIS, placing it into the hands of a company that can continue to support and develop the product beyond today. Kobetron, which recently debuted Verify+ by Kobetron, the leading multipurpose signature tool in the gaming industry announced that it will provide IRIS, the industry-leading ERP system with respect to the managing of the regulatory needs of the casino floor, with expanded capital and resources to provide scale throughout the casino industry.

In addition to the acquisition of GIs technology and tools, I am pleased to welcome Grant, a highly respected gaming industry veteran, to the Kobetron team. We are equally passionate and committed to supporting all those who have purchased or will purchase the GI software and tools going forward, said Founder Greg Kobe.

For over 10 years IRIS has been a strong brand in the industry and is synonymous with quality industry specific technology that delivers state of the art enterprise asset tracking solutions for casino operators and regulators. IRIS customers are some of the largest and most well-respected casino operations and gaming regulators in the world. These customers know that in order to be best-in-class, best-in-class technology and tools are required.

With the acquisition of Gaming Informatics, Kobetron continues to fulfill its mission to develop and acquire important industry-specific technologies that have a strong value proposition for the gaming industry. The combination of Kobetron and Gaming Informatics technologies will have a synergistic impact on enhancing casino floor operations compliance. In addition, the integration of product line offerings will further support the objective of achieving the highest level of integrity for the gaming industry.

Gaming Informatics is the leader in enterprise-resource planning systems within the gaming industry. Founded by Mr. Grant Stousland, Gaming Informatics, through its IRIS software suite, is widely recognized as the most sophisticated slot floor management systems. Gaming Informatics will join Kobetron but will maintain an office presence in Madison, Wisconsin.

Kobetron is recognized worldwide as the industry standard in providing test equipment to the regulated gaming industry. Kobetron is renowned as a prudent and innovative company with a mission to develop and manufacture the most sophisticated and reliable test equipment. Kobetrons commitment to innovation, research and development, quality products and customer service has firmly established Kobetron at the forefront of the regulated gaming industry. Kobetron is a Delaware limited liability company and is headquartered in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Grant Stousland

Kobetron

President and CEO of Gaming Informatics

+1 (608) 609-9299

David Elmore

Kobetron

Manager of Sales & Support for Kobetron

+1 (850) 939-5222 (ext. 102)
Positive Reviews Roll In for Momentum Telecoms BBX Fiber

BIRMINGHAM, AL  (Marketwired)  06/01/16  , a premier provider of Business Voice, and Unified Communications solutions, has continued to receive acclaim for their BBX Fiber product. BBX Fiber has become the industry standard for a single platform to monitor, manage and troubleshoot fiber networks. Fiber to the Home Connect will be one of the first opportunities for Momentum to showcase the powerful capabilities of BBX Fiber, firsthand.

This years Fiber to the Home show will be the perfect opportunity to share the many innovative tools and benefits of BBX Fiber with the industry, said Momentums Vice President of BBX Development Phillip Roland. The unique and intuitive platform delivers providers with a faster time to revenue while using a single platform for all of their needs.

After receiving positive customer reviews and praise, Momentum is excited to show the attendees of Fiber to the Home Connect, BBX Fibers effective and comprehensive set of features.

BBX Fiber has dramatically improved our ability to deliver and manage our fiber to the home offering, said Sam Carbine, COO at Crystal Clear. Weve been continually impressed with BBX Fibers ability to empower our implementation and support representatives, and ultimately to improve our companys efficiency.

We chose BBX Fiber because it is unparalleled in the marketplace. The range of functionality from a singular platform is ground-breaking and it will surely change the way we do business, said Bob Fortner, Director of Network Service at ImOn.

FTTH Connect will be held June 13-15th at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. BBX Fiber will be featured at Momentum Telecoms Booth #909 throughout the event.

For more information about Momentum Telecom or to discuss partnership opportunities email or call 877-258-3821.

Momentum Telecom is a premier provider of , and . Momentums solutions offer smart, customizable cloud-based applications including voice, video and collaboration tools that enhance business productivity and efficiency for direct customers and more than 500 nationwide white label and channel partners. Momentum Telecom is committed to delivering best-in-class products backed by a geo-redundant network paired with industry-leading uptime and customer service. Headquartered in Birmingham, AL, Momentum Telecom has regional offices actively serving customers across the United States. To learn more visit or connect with us on , , , or check our . At Momentum Telecom, our mission is to enable others to thrive by combining smarter technology with seasoned experts while delivering unmatched customer experience.

Beth Hildreth

315-579-7112
Worlds leading companies shape the future of Broadband networks

Posted by Publisher Internet

Atlanta, Ga. June 2, 2016: The Broadband Forum today announced the conclusion of a special three-day meeting held in Atlanta and subsequent agreement of the Board of Directors, with the purpose of examining common strategies for the future of broadband and IP networking. It also aimed to develop a new operational model and immediate actions that leverage new technology and development approaches to serve the business requirements of the stakeholders in the broadband market.

The outcome of the meeting was a course of action that included the following:

The Forum must embrace the best of both open source and standards development and will immediately instigate new methods for rapid delivery of innovative software and standards for key use cases to the community of manufacturers, service providers and open-source organizations that replace traditional Standards Development Organization (SDO) approaches.

To complement the above action, the Forum will take action to significantly increase its collaboration with key industry groups including developing open initiatives, including both members and non-members, for the benefit of the whole broadband community.

The Forum must emphasize the work and methodology that is bringing the most value to stakeholders, such as new value added services, enabling the broadband smart home; a safe harbor for intellectual property, virtualized business and residential gateways, YANG data models, interop testing for ultra-fast networking and guidance for deployment best practices.

Service providers and equipment manufacturers which support broadband came from around the world to the Atlanta meeting to present their latest thinking on broadband networks to a large audience of Broadband Forum members and invited guests. AT&T, BT, CenturyLink, China Unicom, NTT Labs, Orange, Spark New Zealand, Sky, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, along with key broadband market equipment suppliers Adtran, Calix, Huawei, and Nokia, as well as analyst house Infonetics Research and test organization European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC), gave their visions of the future along with their views on how the Forum should contribute to the future of networking in terms of its work and operations.

An important context for the meeting was the emergence of the Cloud Central Office (CO). Demonstrations and presentations of the Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD) project  an open source project led by Open Networking Lab and partners  were sponsored by AT&T at its Foundry lab in Atlanta. The demos showed participants how the Cloud CO concept could accelerate operators deployment of new technologies in a re-imagined central office.

Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh said: The meeting, regarded by many as one of the best in our history, pulled no punches. Perhaps the most important message is that while we have made significant strides towards agile, programmable and ultra-fast networks in the last year, we need to dramatically extend and accelerate delivery of standards and software to enable the innovation the broadband industry needs.

The Atlanta meeting outlined many different perspectives and commonalities with some specific conclusions for actions to be taken by the Broadband Forum. The meeting participants expressed agreement on the following:

Ahead of the technology and deployment issues, the most significant theme from providers was the need for programmable networks that enable new sustainable business models. This is in line with the Forums Broadband 20/20 service oriented vision initiative published last October.

The need for interoperable standards may still be important but the traditional SDO approach of defining requirements and specifications for all possible eventualities is over, supplanted by agile development and an emphasis on best practices. Collaboration will be key. With the advent of locally distributed dynamic compute and software functions and Cloud CO, the model of end-to-end architecture may no longer have the same meaning.

Next, the advent of virtualization, networking programing, open-sourcing and projects such as CORD has clearly been understood. The value of IT technologies to transform carrier business is evident and the industry is ready to start this transformation. The standard implementation of these approaches is far from settled and there is a consensus that this needs rapid resolution.

There are many unresolved issues in terms of migration, testing and intellectual property rights. The role of provider and manufacturer as system integrator has become blurred with open sourcing and there is concern about standardization becoming replaced by integrator lock-in especially for smaller providers.

The Forum does have extensive liaisons with industry associations but the anticipated initiatives will have to include much closer collaboration with OPNFV, IETF, ETSI NFV-ISG, Open Networking Foundation, TM Forum and the CORD community, among others. The Forum looks forward to working on some key initiatives with all its partners.

From the various inputs, the meeting looked at new roles and important changes to be adopted by the Forum to enhance its industry impact and interactive delivery processes.

The exciting new areas where the Broadband Forum can provide great value and lasting impact for the broadband industry include: providing a safe harbor for intellectual property rights (the Broadband Forum has taken a leadership role in this area); providing migration guidance and software; interoperability and performance testing; implementation; functional broadband expertise; and defining software service platforms on which providers, vendors, and application developers can innovate. In addition, the Forum will provide iterative specifications, test initiatives and supporting software, upstream and downstream of specific solutions open to members and non-members. The Forum can provide invaluable implementation best practices guidance to the large number of regional and local services providers which do not have the resources to keep pace with developments.

Many of the innovative definitional, testing and implementation projects currently underway are very well aligned with both adding valuable service and industry thinking. The projects include virtual residential and business gateways, Cloud CO, Software Defined Networking (SDN) broadband management, G.fast deployment projects, residential and business user services platform, hybrid wireline-wireless and broadband assured IP services, etc.

A full meeting report is available to Broadband Forum members.
Puppet Announces Availability on Docker Hub, New Modules and Product Updates to Bridge Todays Reality to Tomorrows

PORTLAND, OR  (Marketwired)  06/02/16  , the standard for automating the delivery and operation of the software that powers everything around us, today announced the latest in Puppet Enterprise 2016.2 and , along with a new set of Puppet modules. With this latest release, Puppet builds on the industrys most comprehensive support for data center automation so businesses can make current investments more efficient and take advantage of new investments efficiently and securely.

Project Blueshift is focused on ensuring that organizations can rely on Puppet as a bridge between todays reality and tomorrows, said Deepak Giridharagopal, CTO and chief architect of Puppet. So, whether teams are delivering applications running across containers in AWS, or updating middleware on the mainframe, they can provide and operate it in a standard way, with one common language. With Puppet, organizations can more easily adopt new technologies and deliver software faster, even in brownfield environments.

Puppet recently announced Project Blueshift to give organizations the tools needed to manage next generation infrastructure, simply and reliably. Through Project Blueshift, Puppet has focused on providing modules, examples, and guidance to help customers deliver and operate modern software like CoreOS, Docker (Compose, Swarm, Network, UCP), Kubernetes, Mesos, and more. Today it is announcing the next set of innovation associated with Blueshift  a new set of Docker images for running Puppet software released to Docker Hub.

A set of Docker images for Puppet Server, PuppetDB, and Puppet agent are now available on Docker Hub. Now, Puppet itself can be deployed and run on top of Docker, making it more portable and easier to maintain, test, and scale. In addition to the images on the Docker Hub, Puppet is providing examples and documentation to help people adopt this technology and use it to advance their practices.

In this release Puppet adds to the broad range of technology you can manage with Puppet through new integrations and modules for:

 Many of the largest enterprise companies in the world run their business-critical applications on IBM z Systems and LinuxONE. These organizations are looking to adopt cloud management best practices while ensuring their systems meet security and compliance policies. In collaboration with IBM, Puppet is introducing a new agent to manage Linux VMs on IBM z Systems and LinuxONE. This gives joint customers a common language to manage their platforms and applications, whether theyre running on x86 servers or scale up systems such as z Systems or LinuxONE. Additionally, it provides built-in intelligence for orchestrating changes across distributed applications. A fully supported agent with packages for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and 12 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 will be available later this summer. For more details see our .

Puppet helps to simplify the management of IBM WebSphere with a new module that provides a repeatable and consistent process for deploying IBM WebSphere instances including deployment managers, application servers, and IBM HTTP Servers (IHS) for IBM WebSphere Application Server traditional. The is now available with full support expected by the end of the .

 With the latest release of the , weve added support for the 5k, 6k, and 7k line of Cisco Nexus switches, in addition to existing support for the 3k and 9k series of switches. By extending Puppet to networking, IT teams can realize the benefits of practices, including automating time-consuming and error-prone manual processes, tighter collaboration across teams, and faster deployment times.

Businesses must develop and deploy new applications faster than ever to keep up with new customer demands and stay ahead of competitors, said Mike Dessens, vice president of offering management for IBM z Systems and LinuxONE. Puppet Enterprise for IBM z Systems and LinuxONE can help simplify IT management and speed application deployment for systems administrators across their hybrid cloud environments, so they can spend more time enhancing and adding services for customers.

Puppet Enterprise 2016.2 adds new discovery and filtering tools to help you segment your infrastructure, make rapid changes, and troubleshoot faster. The latest release of Puppet Enterprise features:

 Without accurate situational awareness in the state of infrastructure its difficult to understand the impact of proposed changes and deploy with confidence. Building on the recent direct change updates to Puppet Enterprise, this release provides a new level of granularity to show which changes were successful, which failed, and which failed but were able to revert to the last known, good state. This means that operators get a clearer sense of how failures affect the environments they are managing.

 Without granular access to metadata about infrastructure, its challenging for IT to classify and manage servers efficiently and make rapid changes. The Puppet Enterprise node classifier web UI now consumes richer metadata about infrastructure so nodes can be segmented with more granularity to drive change more quickly, efficiently, and with greater consistency.

Learn more about .

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Puppet is driving the movement to a world of unconstrained software change. Its revolutionary platform is the industry standard for automating the delivery and operation of the software that powers everything around us. More than 32,000 companies  including more than two thirds of the Fortune 100  use Puppets open source and commercial solutions to adopt DevOps practices, achieve situational awareness and drive software change with confidence. Based in Portland, Oregon, Puppet is a privately held company with more than 400 employees around the world.
Labour  June 2, 2016  Leon Cremieux

The 49-3 is a brutality. The 49-3 is a denial of democracy. Despite French President Francois Hollandes opinions on this article of the French constitution in 2006, his government under Manuel Valls (who had himself been among the MPs proposing it be suppressed in 2008) used it to force through the unpopular law proposed by Minister for Labour Myriam El Khomri on May 10. This provoked an immediate reaction from the coordinating committee of workers and students unions calling days of national mobilization and strikes on May 12, May 17, May 19, to continue on May 26 and June 14.[1] This article, originally written just before the governments decision to use the 49-3, explains the development of the movement against the El Khomri law up to that point. It was updated on 24 May.

France has entered a new situation since the beginning of March. Previously it was dominated by the political polarization exerted by National Front and the parallel rise of the national security climate following the terrorist attacks in January and November 2015. None of these elements has been cancelled out and you would have to be blind to think that all of that had been swept away by the present movement.

But the key political event of recent weeks is that despite these two elements, which weigh heavily on political and social life, there has developed a multifaceted mobilization which already deserves to be compared with the great mobilizations of workers and youth over the last fifteen years: those of 2003, 2006 and 2010.

Social Confrontation

In the months preceding March, we could sense the beginnings of a social confrontation. First of all with the broad current of sympathy expressed with the mobilization of Air France workers, with the episode of the shirt last October.[2] In the same period, the number of walk-outs and strikes in workplaces, especially small and medium-sized ones, increased significantly, especially on issues of wages during mandatory annual negotiations. Similarly, there was the strength of the mobilization on climate change at the time of COP21, even though the terrorist attacks in November and the introduction of the state of emergency allowed the state to break the momentum of the street mobilizations. Big demonstrations against the Notre Dame des Landes airport and the establishment of support networks for migrants were also the result of action by tens of thousands of young people and activists that were coordinated by associations and social networks.

The first lesson of these reactions and these mobilizations was that the management of capitalist interests by social democracy, weak political opposition to the left of the PS and the lethargy of the union leaderships were not synonymous with an equivalent lethargy and drift of the whole of society, starting with a large section of workers and young people, hit hard by policies of austerity and unemployment. On the contrary; the situation already gave an illustration of the profound alienation from and discredit of the institutional parties, who have alternated in government over the last twenty years. It is this discredit, in the absence of social struggles, that has favoured the steady rise of abstention and the vote for the National Front among popular layers in recent years.

On the social terrain, since the beginning of Hollandes term of office, many demands of the MEDEF (employers organization) concerning labour law have been implemented through the Macron and Rebsamen laws, continuing the work of unravelling workers rights that was begun in particular by the Fillon laws in 2008. The adoption by the Socialist governments of the employers credo on labour costs was the prelude to the National Inter-professional Agreement establishing competitiveness agreements. All this represented so many steps toward aligning France on the same level as other European countries in terms of pushing back social rights.

The El Khomri Law, a Social Detonator

So the El Khomri law, at the heart of which is the reversal of the hierarchy of norms, has become a social detonator. Obviously, because of its content  which abolishes the principle of favour while including many other attacks  but especially because of all the other elements of the present context, it has been a real catalyst.[3]

This is not the place to lay out immediate perspectives and it is much too early to make a balance sheet of this movement, which could lead to a major confrontation and a political crisis, but could just as well fail in the face of the many brakes on it that exist.

However several elements can already be highlighted:

First of all, the way it started. There was a lot of preparatory work done by activist networks, including the Copernicus Foundation, the CGT and the Solidaires union federation, on the Combrexelle report and the Badinter project. But the mobilizing factor, the trigger and the call to demonstrate on March 9 were clearly and directly due to the scial networks with what is known as the Caroline De Haas petition. [4]

What is revealing is the tone of the petition, clearly demanding the withdrawal of the law, branding it as a frontal attack, a tone which should be compared with the declaration on February 23 by the union leaderships. Not only did they not at all demand the withdrawal of the law, limiting themselves to a few measures, they complained especially about the lack of dialogue and concluded on the need for the government to meet with them Without any call to the slightest mobilization.

Similarly the call to the first event, which was also the occasion numerous calls to strike, came from an appeal that started from social networks and was supported very quickly by the initiators of the petition.

We must insist on this point, because what might seem to be trivial is indicative of a general orientation of passivity by the confederal union leaderships (the position of Solidaires is not to be put in the same category). This obviously draws support from the feeling of pessimism present among many union activists after the failure of the last great mobilization in 2010 (which was again linked to the policies of the union leaderships); but it is the result of a general orientation in relation to austerity policies that has been combined since 2012 by the refusal to create too much trouble for a left government.

So the union leaders in no way sought, before the announcement of this law, to prepare their activists for a mobilization by conducting campaigns of explanation, providing information, and raising the awareness of workers. And that is without even talking about conducting more political preparatory work, making the balance sheet of 2010 and putting forward the need for an a broad united movement, for a general strike to force the government to retreat. Two months later, the absence of this preparatory work is still being felt. It was even more necessary because over the last 30 years the working class and all the popular strata have accumulated many defeats on the social terrain, following a series of neoliberal attacks.

The Mainsprings of the Mobilization

But in this country other contradictory elements are present and it is from them that the dynamics of the mobilization draw support:

The French situation is still at odds with those experienced by other European countries, in which the capitalist juggernaut has done much more harm. There is a broad consciousness of what still remains to be preserved, of what not to lose in the fields of services, social security, employment regulations, labour laws. From this point of view, the neoliberal cultural revolution of the Socialist Party faces many obstacles, even in what is left of its electoral support and its networks of activists. The reactions of the dissident Socialists and the initiators of the petition express this reflex of self-preservation of circles close to the PS or to the Front de Gauche (Left Front). [5]

The activists of the social movement as a whole keep in mind the memory of defeats, but also of strong mobilizations of workers and youth. Until 2010 the country had regularly experienced full-scale confrontations, by workers against pension reforms in 1995, 2003 and 2010, in a powerful movement drawing its strength from university and school students in 2006, leading to victory against the CPE (First Employment Contract). It should also be emphasized that the victory of 2006 against the Villepin government was obtained after the government had to force through its law by using Article 49.3. This lesson should be retained because the government is following the same procedure which will take at least until the end of June (with a necessary passage through the Senate and return to the National Assembly). [6]

In a different vein, many people, young and not so young, in the popular neighbourhoods also preserve the memory of the urban revolt led by the youth of those popular neighbourhoods for four weeks in October-November 2005, after the death of Zyed and Bouna in Clichy-sous-Bois. This revolt provoked a profound break between the youth and practically all parties and movements, apart from some of the far left (including the LCR). This break with the neighbourhoods, which were stigmatized by Sarkozy at the time, [7] especially as regards young Arabs and Blacks  who were targeted by all the law and order campaigns, but who were also the first victims of unemployment and job insecurity  has persisted in recent years and has been compounded by the wave of Islamophobia that has swept the country since January 2015. This break is also visible in the present movement, whereas, paradoxically, these young people were very active in the movement of 2006, a few months later, against the CPE.

especially as regards young Arabs and Blacks  who were targeted by all the law and order campaigns, but who were also the first victims of unemployment and job insecurity  has persisted in recent years and has been compounded by the wave of Islamophobia that has swept the country since January 2015. This break is also visible in the present movement, whereas, paradoxically, these young people were very active in the movement of 2006, a few months later, against the CPE. The dismantling of social, political and trade-union structures. Until the late 1990s (the late twentieth century, therefore ), the workers movement, including its political wing, constituted a fabric made up of many threads, a fabric with many tears in it, but which still maintained some common references coming from its from history and its great battles.

The 2000 decade and the return of social democracy to government transformed the earlier tears in the fabric into deep cuts. This has meant, in particular, that new generations of, often radical, activists, involved in migrant, anti-fascist, or climate struggles, active in many union branches, especially in precarious sectors, do not live their struggles as being part of a defunct workers movement. Contradictorily, whereas the old generations of activists, absorbed by institutional politics, have thrown away their revolutionary hopes, the new generations, which do not have the same traditional baggage, often have a strong awareness of the evils of capitalist barbarism and are always receptive to political arguments about the need for revolutionary transformation. This consciousness is often combined with a very strong demand for real democracy, and a rejection of delegation of decision-making  the heritage of the fiascos of Stalinism and of social democratic governments. There remains a profound heterogeneity among these younger generations (there is not a youth, there are young people ). There is obviously a social cleavage, which is reinforced by the cleavage of young people from the popular neighbourhoods, driven by a racist society to define themselves as Blacks, Arabs and Muslims. All young people were not Charlie The present movement can overcome many of these divisions, but it has not happened yet.

The restructuring of the economic fabric, in industry and services, obviously has very considerable effects on the difficulties of organizing and the atomizing of consciousness. As well as political disintegration of the workers movement there is objective destructuring (subcontracting, undermining of job status ) whose effects have not really been opposed by the trade union movement. The difficulties of mobilization and extension in many sectors are obviously also related to this reality, which further weakens the consciousness of belonging to the same class.

Political Crisis

Recent weeks have also revealed the level of political crisis. There is obviously first of all the crisis of the institutional parties. The permanent repudiation of the government and the Socialist Party is reflected in the situation of blockage in which the government finds itself, unable to get its own MPs to vote in support of its policies (whatever the final outcome of the parliamentary debate on the El Khomri law).[8] This discredit is also reflected in the polls; the trend is undeniable and makes this government and the Hollande-Valls couple the most widely rejected in the polls, probably since the beginning of the Fifth Republic. The corollary of this crisis is obviously the internal crisis of the PS, illustrated by the grotesque debates around the idea of a primary on the left  which accentuates the crisis of the PCF  and the place that is being taken by Emmanuel Macron.[9] Even the project of Valls, to rapidly make the PS the French equivalent of Matteo Renzis party in Italy, is losing its substance, overtaken on the right.

This crisis is finding its symmetrical counterweight in the crisis of the Republicans.[10]  In the final analysis, for the same reasons.

Today, all the mainstream parties in Europe are hit and severely attacked by the changes imposed by globalization and the neoliberal reforms brutally imposed since 2008. After Greece, Italy and the Spanish State, in its way, France is seeing a level of discredit of these parties that is sending out alarm signals. This obviously poses the need for the bourgeoisie to restructure its political apparatus, breaking down boundaries that appear obsolete.

In France, the crisis may soon be matched by a deeper crisis of the institutions and of the political system itself. The institutions of the Fifth Republic were designed for a system dominated by one party, the same party in the Senate, in the National Assembly and in the Elysee Palace, around a strong regime and a strong President. With the crisis of Gaullism and of the dominant bipartisanship, it was necessary to introduce the reform of 2001 which established a presidential regime, welding the parliamentary majority to the President. It was a crisis solution to the vagaries of cohabitation. But once again, this meant maintaining a supremacy of the dominant parties.

Today, the rise in the level of abstention and of the National Front, the discredit of the Socialist Party and the Republicans (LR, former UMP) is rendering this edifice fragile. It also illustrates that France, despite the values of the Republic, is  along with the United Kingdom  the country that has the most archaic electoral system, with election in single member constituencies and no proportional representation. France is even worse than the UK, since the direct election of a President holding strong political power makes it the only country effectively led by a monarch in the major countries of the European Union.

Valls and Hollande have tried in recent weeks to curb the political crisis in various ways.

First, by trying to muzzle the Socialist Party and its parliamentary group. The use of 49-3 for the adoption at first reading of the El Khomri law was obviously aimed at trying to cut short a public policy debate, that would further undermine the government. But it also sought to rein in the minority of dissident PS MPs, forced to choose submission or an open break through presenting and voting for a motion of censure. In fact, for a time, the internal opposition in the PS dodged the issue. Only 28 members of the PS (over 40 dissidents) supported the putting down of such a motion. The text of a motion of censure must win support of 10% of MPs to be submitted to the vote. The left motion gathered support from only 56 members instead of 58  In any case, the PS has sunk further into crisis.

Furthermore, while it is politically weakened, the government is seeking all the more to assert its authority through repression. Recent weeks have seen a rising crescendo of police violence, the affirmation of the power of a police state, strengthened by the prolongation of the state of emergency which is turned directly against the movement, strikes and demonstrations. The media, in government hands and big business, serve as direct channel of propaganda masking police violence, orchestrating a campaign against thugs while seeking to criminalize the movement. This authoritarianism tends to mask the weakness of this government and the PS. Weakness in its ranks, weakness in the Assembly and weakness in its own social base.

So the last element characterizing this movement, seen especially in the debates of Nuit Debout[11] is the profound gap between the demands of democracy, between the choice of decisions made by those concerned and not by uncontrollable officials and the reality of the system and its institutions. It clearly appears both that the political system is profoundly undemocratic and that real power lies obviously outside the elected assemblies. The banks and the multinationals, the centres of capitalist power, not only make laws but exonerate themselves from respecting them.

The rejection of the financial system, energy choices, border closures, policies of unemployment and precarious work are the ingredients that are producing a rejection of the political system, but also of the capitalist system itself. This is latent in society and it is patently obvious in places where people express themselves, such as Nuit Debout.

So this movement contains many strengths and weaknesses. The coming weeks will tell which will dominate.

Necessity and Lack of Political Representation of

the Exploited and Oppressed

This only highlights the need and the absence of a political party with a discourse and action that unifies, and unites, all these different elements by staying focused on what makes a common force, and it must define a common goal: the general struggle against a political system that has produced the Panama Papers, Calais and the thousands of migrants killed in the Aegean, climatic disturbances, insecurity and social misery

The movement that is developing calls into question both the objectives and the structures of the capitalist economic and social system and denounces the reality of the places where power lies and the anti-democratic rules of political life and decision making.

It therefore poses the question of the political representation of the exploited and oppressed and of a project of society capable of meeting the demands that are emerging. The social struggles of recent months (over the climate, migrants, Notre Dame des Landes, the El Khomri law and many, many strikes) pose all the elements of resistance to the system; they pose demands, both fundamental and immediate, and they outline the paths toward a society that will be guided by fulfilling social needs and will provide the political instruments to achieve these demands, instruments of real democracy, involving choice, debate and decisions. Social struggles and political perspectives (not electoral politics) will be a permanent part of it. All these elements of struggle and resistance will come up against a class society that is brutal, determined to maintain and increase exploitation and that is forging and reforging national and European institutions to be seats of untrammelled power, entirely dedicated to maintaining the system and escaping more and more from any kind of democratic and popular control.

The Greek experience, the rejection of migrants, the Panama papers and TAFTA have illustrated, in less than a year, many elements of the way that this society really functions. The debate around these issues is indispensable among those who have been activists of social movements for years. It is indispensable among the younger generation, which by different paths is raising the same strategic questions. This requires putting forward transitional demands that attack the heart of the system of capitalist exploitation, that attack the social oppression that structures it and also the institutions and the undemocratic rules of the political system; transitional demands that trace the path toward a society free of capitalist exploitation and able to eliminate all forms of oppression. 
JUNE 1, 2016

Red Cross urges blood and platelet donations during challenging summer months

Donors can choose their day to help save lives during summer awareness campaign

TUCSON, Ariz.  The American Red Cross urges blood and platelet donors to choose their day to give and help ensure blood is available for patients all summer long during its annual summer awareness campaign, sponsored by Suburban Propane.



Many Americans will be celebrating the unofficial start to summer this Memorial Day weekend, but seasonal activities that bring joy to so many can also lead to a shortage of blood and platelet donations when regular donors become busy, said Julia Dailey, Red Cross Southern Arizona executive director. Patients dont get a summer holiday from needing lifesaving blood and platelet donations and are counting on generous volunteers to help maintain a sufficient supply this summer.



To encourage donations around the Memorial Day holiday, those who come to give blood or platelets from May 27-31 will receive a Red Cross T-shirt, while supplies last. The Red Cross relies on volunteer donors for the 14,000 blood donations needed every day to support patients at about 2,600 hospitals and transfusion centers nationwide. However, during the summer months of June, July and August, about two fewer donors schedule an appointment to give blood at each Red Cross blood drive than what patients need.



As official national sponsor of the summer campaign, which begins Memorial Day weekend and runs through Labor Day weekend, Suburban Propane will help promote the need for blood and platelet donations and will encourage its employees and customers to give.



Suburban Propane is proud to partner with the Red Cross and help raise awareness of the ongoing need for blood and platelets  especially during the crucial summer months, said Suburban Propanes Chief Development Officer Mark Wienberg. By expanding our partnership with the Red Cross this year, we can continue to support the life-changing work of the Red Cross and make an even bigger difference in communities across the country.



Suburban Propane employees will also volunteer at Red Cross blood drives nationwide in one of the largest national volunteer commitments to the Red Cross Blood Services from a corporate partner. Additionally, this year Suburban Propane is expanding its partnership with the Red Cross to include participation in the Home Fire Campaign in some markets, as well as support for disaster relief efforts and Service to the Armed Forces.



The Red Cross has partnered with Suburban Propane since 2012, and last years 100 Days of Summer. 100 Days of Hope. campaign marked our first nationwide, summerlong partnership, said Donna M. Morrissey, director of national partnerships for the Red Cross Biomedical Services. The Red Cross depends on corporate partners like Suburban Propane to help ensure blood and platelets are available for patients in need of lifesaving transfusions and to help our communities prepare for and respond to disasters large and small.



Several local opportunities:



Phoenix



5/30/2016: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m., Phoenix Memorial Park and Mortuary, 200 W Beardsley Rd.

5/31/2016: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., 4600 Washington Building, 4600 E. Washington, 3rd Floor

6/7/2016: 9 a.m. - 1:15 p.m., American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter, 4747 N. 22nd St. Suite 100



Scottsdale



5/31/2016: 11 a.m. - 5 p.m., Doubletree Paradise Valley Resort, 5401 N. Scottsdale Road

6/2/2016: 9 a.m. - 2 p.m., Frys Food Store, 6321 E. Greenway Rd.

6/16/2016: 3 p.m. - 7 p.m., Tradition at Kierland, 6633 E. Greenway Parkway



Set an appointment to donate blood quickly and easily at http://www.redcrossblood.org/donating-blood.
Ask Dr. Rick | By Rick Redalen, M.D. | JUNE 1, 2016

Prescription Woes

Anybody wonder today when we have all this new medication available to us why we are not living longer and better? How many of the medications we take actually do something for us?

When I first started practicing medicine in 1969, we had a nursing home in Princeton, Minnesota called the Elim Home. I guess now the term nursing home is probably politically incorrect. Now we are upgraded to a senior retirement facility.



When I first started taking care of patients at the Elim home it was pretty typical of many nursing homes. Many of the residents were on long lists of medications. This is not necessarily the fault of any one physician or nurse. It is just that often orders are given to take care of an acute problem and they do not have a die date of when the order or medication should no longer be given.



And so the list grows. I decided in the first couple weeks that we had to start over. All medications on all patients were discontinued unless the medications were absolutely critical. As it turned out most medications did not need restarting and it seemed that many of the patients were mentally more clear and functioning better.



What do all the new medications we have do for us? We do know they make the pharmaceutical industry one of the strongest money making machines in the world. But of one thing I am sure, they are doing it all for you. Money is just a byproduct of their altruistic aims.



Dr. Rick R. Redalens medical career has spanned over forty years in just about all areas of medicine, including family practice, general surgery, obstetrics and emergency medicine. He has taught surgery in the Department of Family Practice at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Redalen recently formed Quest Global Benefits in response to the failures of the medical system in America. Frustrated by the high cost and poor delivery of medicine, Dr. Redalen has forged a better way for business owners and their valued employees to get the health care benefits they need and deserve with the creation of Quest Global Benefits. Dr. Redalen, founder and formerly CEO and CMO of ExitCare, was instrumental in guiding and mapping out a successful strategy allowing ExitCare to become the premier, best of brand company in the U.S. producing patient education.
JUNE 1, 2016

Yearly Dementia Test

It's that time of year to take our annual senior citizen test. Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it's important to keep mentally alert. If you don't use it, you lose it! Below is a very private way to gauge your loss or non-loss of intelligence.

Take the test presented here to determine if you're losing it or not. The spaces below are so you don't see the answers until you've made your answer.

OK, relax, clear your mind and begin.



1. What do you put in a toaster?











Answer: 'bread.' If you said 'toast,' give up now and do something else.

If you said, bread, go to Question 2.



2. Say 'silk' five times. Now spell 'silk.' What do cows drink?









Answer: Cows drink water. If you said 'milk,' don't attempt the next question. Your brain is over-stressed and may even overheat. However, if you said 'water', proceed to question 3.



3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a green house made from?











Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass. If you said 'green bricks,' why are you still reading these?

If you said 'glass,' go on to Question 4.



4. It's twenty years ago, and a plane is flying at 20,000 feet over Germany (If you will recall, Germany at the time was politically divided into West Germany and East Germany ) Anyway, during the flight, two engines fail. The pilot, realizing that the last remaining engine is also failing, decides on a crash landing procedure. Unfortunately the engine fails before he can do so and the plane fatally crashes smack in the middle of 'no man's land' between East Germany and West Germany . Where would you bury the survivors? East Germany , West Germany , or no man's land'?







Answer: You don't bury survivors..

If you said, 'You don't bury survivors', proceed to the next question.



5. Without using a calculator - You are driving a bus from London to Milford Haven in Wales . In London , 17 people get on the bus. In Reading , six people get off the bus and nine people get on.. In Swindon, two people get off and four get on. In Cardiff , 11 people get off and 16 people get on. In Swansea , three people get off and five people get on In Carmathen, six people get off and three get on. You then arrive at Milford Haven.

What was the name of the bus driver?











Answer: Oh, for crying out loud!

Don't you remember your own name? It was YOU!!
SPOOF SPACE BY STEELE CODDINGTON | June 1, 2016

Neo-communism, Bernie's real message

The real threat of Communism is expressed in this famous limerick: "There was an old bastard named Lenin Who did two or three million men in. That's a lot to have done in, But where he did just one in That old bastard Stalin did ten in."



But not to worry  that's yesterday's communism. Today's version markets a "New Man" format. New leaders who have "transitional" happy face solutions based on their cheery impression of what they know society really needs. Their new description is "neo-communist". Not a name publicized too much because the word is still threatening. It's new scams help remove any memory of the known failures of the old ideology. It's much more acceptably benign to call yourself a "democratic socialist" or progressive. But the reality is America's hard left, including Obama, Hillary and Sanders, can best be defined by their public agendas. Voila! Neo-communists! That conclusion is validated by an amazingly increasing number of intellectuals like David Horowitz who has defined neo-communism as, "Alive and well and is now the heart of the progressive movement and Democrat Party." He is joined in that opinion by the overwhelming intellect Andrew McCarthy, author of "The Grand Jihad," who identifies Obama as a student of Saul Alinsky and as a neo-communist. (Hillary, by the way, was a serious acolyte of the same Alinsky!) But Bernie Sanders' promotion of his "democratic socialism" has mesmerized the millennial ignoramuses so convincingly, that over 52 percent in the latest polls approve socialism over capitalism. Shocking, when they could research on their cell phones and discover the truth that defines the aspects of both socialism and communism, as opposed to the garbage they are fed by their liberal professors and the major media. TV and the Press have become adult pacifiers for the ignorant. "Come suck on us," they implore, "And we'll be your 'trigger warnings' to reassure you it's okay to believe us as we endorse or spin the neo-communist ideology." Check out the true Bernie Sanders in a Feb. 22, 2016 Investors Business Daily editorial labeled, "SOCIALIST OR OUT-AND-OUT STALINIST." They listed his, " Long resume of radicalism," and participation in various communist meetings for years. His agenda is replete with focus on the hard left's agenda. You know it well. Bring down capitalism, support the socialism/communism play book, ever the same, featuring: Redistribution of Wealth, Inequality, Class Warfare, Raise Taxes on the Rich, etc, etc, etc. Always including unfairness, using racism, gender warfare, homophobia, discriminatory police, or lately "bathroom use." All ways to distort or subvert the Rule of Law with "Social Justice."



So here's a new limerick for Sanders: "There is an old commie named Bernie With idiot ideas on his President's journey. Redistribution's a communist dream, And raising taxes is sick and obscene, Just the thought he might win makes me squirmy!!
Guest Editorial



By Matt Barber | JUNE 1, 2016

No, Hitler was not a Christian

[T]he only way of getting rid of Christianity is to allow it to die little by little.

~ Adolf Hitler



Yes, there have been evil men who have done evil things in the name of false Christianity. To a limited degree, Adolf Hitler was one such man. Still, and as even he frequently admitted outside the public eye, he was no Christian.



As a counterweight to stigma associated with the tens of millions slaughtered in the 20th century alone under the atheist regimes of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, et al., the secular left is quick to thunder, But what about Hitler? He was a Christian!



Bad news, kids. Herr Fuhrer was your guy, too.



I shall never come personally to terms with the Christian lie, Hitler confessed (audio transcribed in Hitlers Table Talk [1941-44]). It would always be disagreeable for me to go down to posterity as a man who made concessions in this field [to be labeled a Christian].



Did Adolf Hitler ever call himself a Christian? Certainly. He did so, and as he would later admit, for the singular purpose of disseminating political propaganda.



To whom should propaganda be addressed? he wrote. It must be addressed always and exclusively to the masses.  The whole art consists in doing this so skillfully that everyone will be convinced that the fact is real.



The Nazi Germans of the 1930s and 40s are not alone in swallowing Hitlers Christianese-peppered puffery. Todays secular-progressive establishment likewise bandies about a handful of carefully crafted Hitlerian quotes released for public consumption. His pro-Christian proclamations in Mein Kampf and elsewhere, for instance, were universally a perversion of biblical Christianity leveraged for the sole purpose of justifying the extermination of the Jewish people.



My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter, he wrote. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge [the Jews] to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison.  For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.



That was the extent of Hitlers plastic Christianity. The Bible, always taken out of context, served as a twisted weapon to justify the mass slaughter of over 11 million Jews, Christians, disabled people and other undesirables.



In reality Hitler insisted, In the long run, National Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together.



Sounds an awful lot like todays American church-state separatists. Roger Baldwin, founder of the ACLU, for example, held, I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself.  I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.



Indeed, the ACLUs promotional materials similarly advocate anti-Christian discrimination and mirror Hitlers directive that, Socialism and religion will no longer be able to exist together. The message of the Establishment Clause is that religious activities must be treated differently from other activities to ensure against governmental support for religion, imagines the American so-called civil liberties union.



Pure poison.



This is secular socialism in a nutshell. Its a religion, and its devotees, be they Nazi Germans or American leftists, are Communist Manifesto-thumping fundamentalists.



There is something very unhealthy about Christianity, Hitler opined. As far as we are concerned, weve succeeded in chasing the Jews from our midst and excluding Christianity from our political life.  The heaviest blow that ever struck humanity was the coming of Christianity. Bolshevism is Christianitys illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew.  Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless.



Indeed, Hitlers robust anti-Christian hatred lives on beyond the death of the Third Reich. Modern-day progressives like Hillary Clinton, though, tend to take a kinder, gentler, more surreptitiously totalitarian approach: Rights have to exist in practice  not just on paper, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee recently said in the context of some phantom right to exterminate undesirable infants. Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.



Yikes. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.



While Hitler was more direct, he nonetheless shared Hillarys secular socialist vision: Well see to it that the Churches cannot spread abroad teachings in conflict with the interests of the State. We shall continue to preach the doctrine of National Socialism, and the young will no longer be taught anything but the truth.



Sound familiar? Progressive truth, of course, invariably means Christian torment.



Hitler, borrowing from socialist icon Karl Marx, said that all Germans must free themselves from the drug of Christianity. Lets be the only people who are immunized against the disease. Marx, a hero to the secular socialist left, famously called religion, the opium of the people.



Hitler a Christian? No chance.



Myth busted.



Moreover, like the preponderance of todays similarly anti-Semitic secular progressives, Hitler, too, was an apologist for Islam. As Americas own Dear Leader has done, Hitler partnered with Iran, present-day Palestine and other Islamist regimes in the shared goal of eliminating the Jews: The world had fallen into the hands of the Jews, so gutless a thing was Christianity! he fumed. Then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism, that cult which glorifies heroism and which opens the seventh Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered the world. Christianity alone prevented them from doing so!



To truly understand todays anti-Semitic vitriol read The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism: Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin Al-Husseini



Hitler also parroted the godless ideology of modern atheists. Like so many of todays secular progressives, he was an avowed materialist, neo-Darwinian evolutionist and hardhearted God-denier: When understanding of the universe has become widespread, when the majority of men know that the stars are not sources of light but worlds, perhaps inhabited worlds like ours, then the Christian doctrine will be convicted of absurdity.



Christianity, of course, has reached the peak of absurdity, he said. And thats why one day its structure will collapse. Science has already impregnated humanity. Consequently, the more Christianity clings to its dogmas, the quicker it will decline.



Two thousand years and counting.



And so Hitler endeavored to assist natural selection and, as he wrote in Mein Kampf, establish an evolutionary higher stage of being. He placed his hope in Germanys youth because they were absolutely indifferent in the matters of religion.



A beloved Hitler Youth marching song captured the Fuhrers heart on matters of Christ and Christianity:



We follow not Christ, but Horst Wessel,



Away with incense and Holy Water,



The Church can go hang for all we care,



The Swastika brings salvation on Earth.



Todays progressive social justice warriors are angling for a dystopian, Swastika-free repeat. Their hope, too, lies in the youth (witness the socialism-fueled anarchist insurgence occurring on college campuses nationwide).



Like then, progressive secular socialists endeavor to rule the world.



And, like then, Christianity alone [can prevent] them from doing so.



Matt Barber is founder and editor-in chief of BarbWire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter: @jmattbarber)
Guest Editorial



By Natalia Castro | JUNE 1, 2016

Why Millennial women are not voting for Hillary



The only thing more sexist than not voting for Hillary Clinton because she is a female is voting for her simply because she is a female. Finally, there is a generation that understands that, and the Clinton campaign must surely be hating it. Millennials are not buying the simple gender standard, but rather forcing Clinton to represent all their interests, and she is failing.



Before the New Hampshire primary in February, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at a Clinton rally, A lot of you younger women dont think you have to, [that] its been done. Its not been done. And you have to help Hillary Clinton, who will always be there for you. And just remember, theres a special place in hell for women who dont help each other.



But voters didnt fall for it. Clinton lost the New Hampshire primaryand she is losing young women.



Women support Clinton as their presidential pick by large margins, but not as large as the Democrat establishment has been hoping, and certainly not comparable to President Obamas minority grab in 2008. Among Democrats, Clinton loses young women votes by about 30 points to Sanders. Clinton represents a generational divide between young women eager for political change and non-Millennial women eager for a female president.



Anoa Changa, a young, Hispanic feminist who supports the Im not with her movement, told The Guardian in a May 23 report some women I encounter act as if Ive betrayed some kind of secret society. I reject this brand of feminism. Im not only voting for my gender, Im voting for other issues.



Clinton began running in 2016 with the presumption that being a female would mobilize the female voter bloc, but without energizing Millennial females Clinton has lacked consistent support.



The desire to have a female president is not as strong as the desire to have a successful president, making many believe it is ok to wait. Across the political spectrum, 49 percent of women see Clinton as unfavorable because she is not reflective of a vast majority of women.



As Politicos Molly Roberts explains, Clinton has more elements of privilege than she does minority, and in backing her husbands incarceration and welfare reform policies, critics say, and its not just that Clinton doesnt personally embody intersecting identities  its that as a politician, shes been part of the problem.



Clinton is a wealthy white female, while the Millennial voters she is attempting to appeal to are in some cases middle to low income, minority females. Clinton does nothing for their voice in politics, while other candidates like Sanders appear to be much more appealing.



The lead Sanders maintains over Clinton among young women is not surprising, who tend to be supportive of change and political movement. Clinton represents none of this, even as a female, she was First Lady, and a Senator and Secretary of State  she is very much the establishment.



The Iowa caucus sent Clinton a clear message when 84 percent of women under 30 years old voted for Sanders, and the trend has only continued. Just two weeks ago when West Virginian women took to the polls the results were similar, with more than half favoring Sanders to Clinton and, according to preliminary exit polls. With Clinton failing to connect with these young eager voters now, the risk for her is they may not show up en masse in November either.



Clinton might be a female, but that does not make females eager to vote her into office. Modern feminism is not centered around being a female, but being a competent leader, a test Clinton is failing consistently among the voters she needs.



Natalia Castro is a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.


Guest Editorial



By Frosty Wooldridge | JUNE 1, 2016

Four Tribes Competing For Supremacy in 21st Century America (Part 4)
Guest Editorial



By Pastor Carl Gallups | JUNE 1, 2016

Why the D.C. establishment hate Donald Trump

Here is why the establishment elite of Washington hate Donald Trump so badly. It really is this simple.



The Muslim world is largely divided between its two largest camps of distinction; Sunni and Shia. The divide between Sunnis and Shia is the largest and oldest in the history of Islam. Both groups are card-carrying Muslims, hardcore Islamists, that are looking for the Middle East (and world) to one day be dominated by Islam and Sharia. While they most certainly have a few "doctrine" and ideological differences, their biggest beef with each other is determining which of the two main groups will get to be in charge of the new Islamic world they wish to create. And so, they constantly fight and kill each other.



However, if an infidel shows up in their midst - one is who not "one of them" - they will join forces to fight that outsider to the death. Why? Because there would then be an outside possibility that the infidel would defeat them and then neither of the two groups would get to "run the kingdom."



Now let's talk about establishment Republicans and Democrats. They undoubtedly have ideological and "doctrine" differences. But they ultimately want the very same end goal. They are each looking to build a "new world order." Representatives from both groups routinely use that "globalist" terminology for their dreams of their "kingdom on Earth."



One used to be considered a "conspiracy theorist" if you pointed out this fact - but no longer. The elitist spokespeople (from the Bush family to John Kerry and everyone in between) constantly use the terms. They have spilled the beans. They are basically two sides of the same coin. They both hold to the same "religion."



So what are they fighting about in Washington? It is what they have always fought about - who gets to run the show! They will fight each other, impeach each other, threaten each other, attempt to outmaneuver each other, lie to each other, and cheat each other - until ... an outsider comes along and threatens to wipe the whole slate clean and perhaps turn it all back over to We The People.



That prospect is unthinkable to them. It would snatch their dreams, wealth, and power right out from underneath them. In order to prevent that from happening, they will hold their noses, compromise, and strike deals to let the "other side" have the "power" for a while until they can regroup and try to retake their "territory."



Into the room steps Donald Trump. The man that Newt Gingrich said, "Couldn't be controlled or manipulated. He's an outsider. He doesn't belong to the secret societies.



Watch and listen to Gingrich's comments here:



(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO-NA73FsW8)"



The bottom line is that Trump scares the elitists to death. He gives the establishment crowd sheer nightmares. He's not one of them. He's an infidel. He has the potential to be the exterminator. He has a different worldview. He is much more of a nationalist. They are globalists. He probably can't be bribed - he's already richer than all of them combined. He most likely can't be manipulated, blackmailed, or controlled - if he doesn't allow himself to be.



Listen to what Donald Trump is promising and remember - THIS is what the Washington insiders hate him for:



Protect our borders - build a wall if necessary



Stop illegal immigration and refugees



Stop Islamists who wish to destroy us from entering our country



Restore America's military might and greatness



Restore America's economic engine of greatness



Return America's Corporations back to the mainland



Create new, good, high-paying jobs



Get people off welfare and into a viable job market



Respect our constitution, heritage, and Judeo-Christian heritage



Deal firmly with those who hate us - not genuflecting and cowering to them (probably won't kiss the Saudi King's ring)



And for this - the establishment hates him. Some of them are even saying "I will vote for Hillary before Donald Trump!" Really? Yes! Of course they would. They must! And now you know why.



Here is who hates Trump:



The Washington elite and establishment shills



The liberal media



The socialists



The communists



The entitlement mentality crowd



The racist Black Lives Matters - type groups



Islamists



ISIS



Globalists



The Chinese



The Russians



The anti-Israel nations and groups



Those who hate Christians



Those who hate America



Those who hate the Constitution



Those who want America's borders open to the world



Now you know at least a part of what's really going on in Washington these days.



Carl Gallups is the senior pastor of Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, FL (since 1987), an Amazon Top 60 best selling author, and a conservative talk radio host heard nationally and internationally (since 2002). He is also a TV, radio, and print media guest commentator, and a former decorated Florida law enforcement officer. He is a current sworn Special Deputy with the Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff's Office under the appointment of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Carl is the founder of the internet PNN News and Ministry Network (www.ppsimmons.com).
By Linda Bentley | June 1, 2016

Ninth Circuit orders expedited appeal in Melendres v. Arpaio

Klayman says Montgomery is an innocent bystander and victim of Snows unethical and unconstitutional misconduct

Larry Klayman



PHOENIX  Attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch and previously Judicial Watch, sat in on Tuesday mornings hearing in U.S. District Court in the Melendres v. Arpaio case, and said District Judge G. Murray Snow, a George W. Bush nominee, stood behind the bench like Il Duce as he was meting out what he thought the civil sanctions should be against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and other defendants.



G. Murray Snow



Snow stated the sanctions should consist of $1,500 to each plaintiff, $200 for every hour they were detained and whatever other damages they are able to prove.



The complaint was originally filed in 2007 to put an end to the enforcement of immigration laws and establish amnesty for illegal aliens.



On Oct. 2, 2013, the court issued a permanent injunction against Arpaio and MCSO enforcing immigration laws.



However, since that time, the ACLU has pushed the court to find Arpaio in contempt of court.

Snow also indicated he is considering referring the case for criminal charges against the defendants, including criminal allegations made by the ACLU and Snow against Dennis Montgomery, who worked on many different projects with MCSO, including a forensic analysis of Barack Obamas birth certificate.



A year ago, Montgomery requested Klayman be admitted pro hac vice (allowing an out of state lawyer to appear in court for a particular case) to represent him and that he be allowed to intervene in the case to respond to the scurrilous allegations being made against him.



Snow refused to allow Klayman to appear pro hac vice and denied Montgomerys motion to intervene.



Klayman stated, Ironically, the lawsuit claims to be about protecting constitutional and civil rights. Yet Judge Snow is violating the rights of Montgomery and others. The Ninth Circuit has been asked to protect those rights.



Klayman says Montgomery is an innocent bystander and victim of Snows unethical and unconstitutional misconduct.



Despite the revelation that Snows own wife said her husband was out to destroy Arpaio, Snow has refused to recuse himself from the case.



Snow never refuted his wifes statements nor can he since it was confirmed by an independent witness.



Arpaio and MCSO admitted in January 2015 that they were slow to implement the injunction and offered to accept a contempt finding.



According to Klayman, Snow refused but wasted almost 18 months to reach the same conclusion and ruled on completely unrelated matters in an effort to destroy Arpaio.



Meanwhile Snow, in his decision to bring criminal charges, guided by editorials in Phoenix New Times, a long-time foe of Arpaio and advocate for illegal immigration, appears to be doubling down on his efforts to destroy Arpaio and anyone in his wake, including Montgomery.



Klayman said, The Ninth Circuit will now address these serious ethical and constitutional violations at its next calendar, which is scheduled for oral arguments in September (case no. 15-16440).



Klayman said he was disappointed in Arpaios lawyers, who seemed more interested in representing themselves rather than the sheriff, and said theyre probably concerned about having other cases that may be assigned to Snow.
June 1, 2016

Defective Clean Elections initiative ineligible for ballot



PHOENIX  The Arizona Free Enterprise Club has released a legal analysis on the proposed Clean Elections initiative, a ballot measure that would dramatically increase the amount of taxpayer fun ding politicians would receive to run their campaigns.



The analysis shows that this poorly drafted initiative contains multiple defects, most significant of which is the fact that the initiative attempts to change and amend state statutes that no longer exist. Since the proposed changes are not based on existing law, the initiative is defective and will be kept off the ballot.



After careful review, it is clear that the proponents of taxpayer money for politicians were sloppy and failed to draft their initiative based on current law. Club President Scot Mussi said. The campaign finance reform amendments that rewrote state statute were passed back in March. Clean Election supporters have known this for months, yet they didnt modify their language to take this into account.



Even if the proponents collect enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, there is extensive case law that initiatives cannot amend non-existent statutes and that this is grounds for kicking it off the ballot.



Mussi continued, Even if they are successful in their signature gathering efforts, the petitions will likely be rejected, either by the state or by a challenge in court.



The deadline to submit a new initiative application and submit signatures is July 7.
By Linda Bentley | June 1, 2016

Guccifer enters plea deal in computer hacking case





ALEXANDRIA, Va.  On May 25, Marcel Lehel Lazar, the Romanian national also known as the hacker Guccifer, who claims to have easily hacked into Hillary Clintons email server, entered into a plea agreement, pleading guilty to one count of unauthorized access of a protected computer and one count of aggravated identity theft, which was accepted by U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris.



In exchange, the court agreed to dismiss seven other counts, which included wire fraud, unauthorized access of a protected computer, cyberstalking and obstruction of justice.



Lazar, while residing in Arad, Romania, was indicted by a federal grand jury on June 12, 2014, was extradited to the United States and taken into custody on March 31, 2016.



Lazar specialized in gaining unauthorized access to the online accounts of high-profile individuals and publicly releasing his victims information, including the content of emails, personal identifying information and other private property.



In a previous scheme, Lazar called himself Micul Fum (Little Smoke) in connection with similar hacking activity, where he unlawfully accessed the email accounts of Romanian celebrities and athletes and released their private information on the internet.



In this case, the victims, who were not named, included a family member of two former U.S. presidents, a sanitation engineer, a former U.S. Cabinet member, a former member of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, a journalist and former presidential advisor, and a foreign national who was a former senior foreign government official.



According to the Statement of Facts supporting his guilty plea, beginning in at least October 2012 and continuing into January 2014, Lazar intentionally gained unauthorized access to numerous personal email and social media accounts, including those belonging to high-profile individuals in the United States.



Lazar is said to have victimized approximately 100 individuals in the United States, including former government officers or employees and the immediate family members of former government officers or employees.



In an effort to conceal his identity, Lazar accessed the victims accounts from proxy servers located in other countries, including Russia.



After accessing one victims Facebook account, Lazar changed the passwords and then posted the following, among others, as public messages: You will burn in hell, Bush! and Kill the illuminati! Tomorrows world will be a world free of illuminati or will be no more!



Lazar signed some of his content with the alias Guccifer.



After accessing victims accounts, Lazar would reset the account password and security questions to retain control of the accounts.



Lazar would send correspondence from one victims breached account to another victims account and, in some instances, sent emails from one victims account to multiple media organizations attaching content, dubbed the Guccifer Archive, he had unlawfully obtained from another victims account.



In December 2013, Lazar destroyed a computer and mobile phone with the intent to impede the investigation into the matter, which he knew was within the jurisdiction of a department and agency of the United States, and in contemplation of an investigation by federal authorities into his fraudulent and unauthorized access of protected computers.



On Jan. 6, 2014, The Smoking Gun published a story based upon the contents of the Guccifer Archive that included a list of previously unknown victims along with details about the hacks and the contents Lazar illegally obtained from his victims hacked accounts.



The maximum penalties for the offense of unauthorized access to a protected computer are: a maximum term of five years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, full restitution, forfeiture of assets, a special assessment of $100, and one year of supervised release. The maximum penalties for the offense of aggravated identity theft are: a mandatory minimum term of two years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, full restitution, forfeiture of assets, a special assessment of $100, and one year of supervised release.



After being convicted in Romania in February 2012 on charges of gaining unauthorized access to the online accounts of Romanian nationals, Lazar received a suspended sentence of three years imprisonment.



Lazar was arrested again on Jan. 22, 2014 by Romanian authorities and subsequently convicted of gaining unauthorized access to the online accounts of Romanian nationals, including the personal accounts of the then-director of the Romanian Intelligence Service.



In June 2014, Lazar was sentenced to a term of four years imprisonment for those crimes plus three years for his prior offenses for a total of seven years.



Lazar is scheduled to appear at 10 a.m. on Sept. 1, 2016 for sentencing and remains in custody as a flight risk.



It wasnt clear from court documents if Lazar will serve his sentence in the United States first or if he will serve his sentence in Romania first.



There was mention of an international agreement, under which Lazar could possibly serve his entire sentence in Romania, if he were to make such a request and if it is approved.



There has been some speculation that the plea agreement, which involves Lazars complete cooperation with the FBI and probable disclosure of hacked emails from Clintons private email server, could lead to an indictment of Clinton.
June 1, 2016

Arizona joining Texas in lawsuit to stop federal overreach



PHOENIX  Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane Douglas announced they have joined ten other States in a federal lawsuit to challenge President Obamas mandate requiring all public K-12 and postsecondary schools to open up boys and girls locker rooms and restrooms to students of the opposite sex, based on students perceptions of their "gender identity." The Heber-Overgaard Unified School District has also joined the States lawsuit as a plaintiff.



Since the President has threatened to deny federal funding to all schools that object to this outrageous decree, Arizona has joined Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The lawsuit is focused on who should set these sensitive policies  the federal government via unaccountable agencies or States and local school districts. The challenge seeks declaratory relief against a number of federal agencies in order to block the implementation of the administrations unprecedented interpretation of the law.



President Obama has no business setting locker room and restroom policies for our schools, said Attorney General Brnovich. Deciding how to protect our children and preserve their privacy, while balancing these complicated issues, is best done locally and not by some one-size-fits-all decree from Washington.



When Arizona students attend school, they deserve a safe environment that is free from bullying and discrimination, regardless of their gender identity, said Superintendent Douglas. I know that our districts and schools have policies in place to ensure that is the case. The fact that the federal government has yet again decided that it knows what is best for every one of our local communities is insulting and, quite frankly, intolerable.



On May 13, the President issued so-called significant guidance to K-12 and postsecondary schools nationwide instructing those schools to grant students access to Title IX facilities including restrooms, locker rooms, and showers based on their gender identity. The non-binding guidance broadly defines gender identity as an individuals internal sense of gender, regardless of the persons sex assignment at birth. The guidance also carried the threat of withholding federal funding if schools are found by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice to be out of compliance.
By Linda Bentley | June 1, 2016

Riders USA holds 10th annual

Flags for Our Fallen tribute





PHOENIX  Riders USA held its 10th annual Memorial Day Flags for Our Fallen tribute over the weekend by adorning both sides of Cave Creek Road at the National Memorial Cemetery from Pinnacle Peak to Deer Valley roads with over 350 American flags.



Each flag had a special ribbon attached with the names of warriors who gave their lives in service to our country.



On Monday morning, an honor guard of approximately 200 bikers and hot rod enthusiasts were positioned alongside the flags greeting and offering respect to the families and friends who stopped by on their way to ceremonies or to visit loved ones interred at the cemetery.






By Linda Bentley | june 1, 2016

Obamas dangerous mix of Communism and the Muslim Brotherhood



WASHINGTON  On Jan. 10, 1963, Rep. Albert S. Herlong, Jr., D-Fla., read into the congressional record excerpts from Cleon Skousens 1958 book: The Naked Communist, identifying the 45 stated goals of Communism to achieve the dissolution of our countrys constitutional republic.



We published an article titled Muslim Brotherhood and Communist plans for America in the July 1, 2015 edition of Sonoran News listing those goals and noted the U.S. Supreme Court a week earlier had checked off Goal 26: Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural, healthy.



When the U.S. Supreme Court declared homosexual marriage a basic constitutional right, it also checked off goal 16: Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.



Number 1 on the list was: U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.



President Barack Obama is plowing ahead with his plans to seed cities throughout the country with Syrian refugees, despite our own intelligence claiming they cannot be properly vetted and ISIS proclaiming it has infiltrated that population.



Goal 3 states: Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.



The Arms Control Association (ACA), founded in 1971 by leading military, defense, and diplomatic officials involved in the early years of nuclear and chemical arms control and nonproliferation, touts 45 years of accomplishments.



Since its founding, ACA says it is proud to have played a part in advancing and securing major arms control and nonproliferation successes that have helped avoid bad situations from becoming much worse. The ACA has shown it can deliver authoritative information, ideas, and analysis that help shape the public policy debate in Washington, across the United States, and around the world.



ACA claims, Enhancing U.S. national security by verifiably reducing superpower nuclear arsenalsa counter-intuitive idea to somehas a long bipartisan tradition.



In June 2013 in Berlin, Obama, who negotiated the New START Treaty with Russia in 2010, calling for a bilateral reduction of nuclear weapons, said, We can ensure the security of America and our allies, and maintain a strong and credible strategic deterrent, while reducing our deployed strategic nuclear weapons by up to one-third.



However, the ACA also notes our most pressing security threats today are not war with Russia or China, but nuclear terrorism and proliferation.



While the ACA states the United States needs to sustain a strong international coalition to secure nuclear materials across the globe and turn back nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, it claims U.S. arms reductions are essential to such goals and states, Excessive U.S. nuclear forces have no meaningful role to play in this regard.



Meanwhile, Obama has foisted a deal with Iran upon us ensuring it will be able to produce nuclear weapons while providing the country with ample funding to achieve that goal.



Goal 4 states: Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.



Obama pushed through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which reads right out of the United Nations Agenda 21 playbook; recently lifted sanctions against Cuba; and on Monday, announced the United States is lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment and arms to Vietnam.



The 45 goals of Communism now appear to be seamlessly blended with the Muslim Brotherhoods strategic goals to take over North America, which was entered into evidence in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial.



Although the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations (CAIR) has been identified by the FBI as an unindicted co-conspirator of the Holy Land Foundation, Congress has yet to brand it a terrorist organization, thus allowing money to flow through CAIR, as a nonprofit organization, to fund terror.



So, where the Communist goal 45 states, Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party, CAIR has successfully pushed for Islam to be recognized as a religion, a means to expand its base, one of the Muslim Brotherhoods strategic goals for North America.



Subsequent goals include: Presenting Islam as a civilization alternative and Supporting the establishment of the global Islamic State wherever it is.



Following the mandate of Goal 15, Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States, the Democratic Party appears to be almost completely infiltrated by Communists, which has pushed the Republican Party farther to the left.



Goal 17 states: Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks.



Goal 41 states: Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.



The goals go on to push for gaining control of newspapers, key positions in radio, TV, motion pictures, art critics and directors of art museums with a plan to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.



Piss Christ, a photograph of a small plastic crucifix submerged in a jar of artist and photographer Andres Serranos urine, was the winner of the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts Awards in the Visual Arts competition in 1987.



It should be noted, Serranos piece was sponsored, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, a U.S. government agency that provides support and funding for artistic projects.



The goals seek to transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies and treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders, which no one but psychiatrist can understand, while goal 39 seeks to dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.



Goal 40 encourages discrediting the family as an institution, encouraging promiscuity and easy divorce.



The Obama administration is now pushing to establish transgenderism, a mental disorder affecting approximately 0.3 percent of the U.S. population, as something mainstream rather than as gender dysphoria, the official psychiatric term, formerly labeled gender identity disorder.







Dr. Paul McHugh, University Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Medical School and former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, addressing the assumption that the exchange of ones sex is possible, stated, Transgendered men do not become women, nor do transgendered women become men. All become feminized men or masculinized women, counterfeits or impersonators of the sex with which they identify.



McHugh points out gender dysphoria, the feeling of oneself being of the opposite sex, belongs in the family of similarly disordered assumptions about the body, such as anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder.



He states, Its treatment should not be directed at the body with surgery and hormones any more than one treats obesity-fearing anorexic patients with liposuction. The treatment should strive to correct the false, problematic nature of the assumption and to resolve the psychosocial conflicts provoking it.



The Obama administration recently issued a mandate to schools across the country to reinterpret the term sex to include gender identity rather than biological sex as a way to force intermingling of the sexes in bathrooms and locker rooms under the threat of losing federal funding.



Other goals call for: eliminating prayer or any phase of religious expression in schools as a violation of the separation of church and state; discrediting the U.S. Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs; belittling all forms of American culture and discouraging the teaching of American history; supporting socialist movements to give centralized control over any part of the culture; discrediting and eventually dismantling the FBI; infiltrating and gaining control of unions and more.



Groups such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter seems to meet the demands of goal 42: Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.



As we live through the last several months of the Obama presidency, he appears to be adamant about fulfilling the goals of Communism and the Muslim Brotherhood.
By Linda Bentley | June 1, 2016

PHOENIX  Riders USA held its 10th annual Memorial Day Flags for Our Fallen tribute over the weekend by adorning both sides of Cave Creek Road at the National Memorial Cemetery from Pinnacle Peak to Deer Valley roads with over 350 American flags.



Each flag had a special ribbon attached with the names of warriors who gave their lives in service to our country.

Submitted by Ron Sova | June 1, 2016

As a resident of Cave Creek, I am running for a seat on the Cave Creek Town Council. I am running as an independent, not part of any group or slate, and without a hidden agenda. I believe the mayor and council should act in a nonpartisan, unified manner to maintain and improve the environment of our town.

By Linda Bentley | June 1, 2016

Klayman says Montgomery is an innocent bystander and victim of Snows unethical and unconstitutional misconduct

PHOENIX  Attorney Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch and previously Judicial Watch, sat in on Tuesday mornings hearing in U.S. District Court in the Melendres v. Arpaio case, and said District Judge G. Murray Snow, a George W. Bush nominee, stood behind the bench like Il Duce as he was meting out what he thought the civil sanctions should be against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and other defendants.

By Linda Bentley | June 1, 2016

Larry Wendt, imbedded somewhere near the center of the photo, flanked by family, friends, employees, the Cave Creek town manager and a few members of town council, held a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday morning to commemorate the rebuilding of his Buffalo Chip Saloon and Steakhouse, which burned to the ground on Thanksgiving Day.

By Linda Bentley | June 1, 2016

WASHINGTON  On Jan. 10, 1963, Rep. Albert S. Herlong, Jr., D-Fla., read into the congressional record excerpts from Cleon Skousens 1958 book: The Naked Communist, identifying the 45 stated goals of Communism to achieve the dissolution of our countrys constitutional republic.

June 1, 2016

Washington, D.C.  Rep. Matt Salmon (AZ-05) released the following statement after introducing a bill to subject executive agency guidance to Congressional oversight. When we watch the news at night, we see the countless ways the federal bureaucracy has involved itself in our lives. Unfortunately, existing laws that subject rules and regulations to congressional scrutiny only apply to items called rules or regulations. As the Presidents minions in the alphabet soup of Washington D.C. agencies increasingly issue lawless edicts termed guidance to harass the American people, we need to extend these requirements to include all decrees from the officers of the state.

By Linda Bentley | JUNE 1, 2016

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  On Wednesday morning, Marcel Lehel Lazar, the Romanian national also known as the hacker Guccifer, who claims to have easily hacked into Hillary Clintons email server, entered into a plea agreement, pleading guilty to one count of unauthorized access of a protected computer and one count of aggravated identity theft, which was accepted by U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris.

June 1, 2016

PHOENIX  The Arizona Free Enterprise Club has released a legal analysis on the proposed Clean Elections initiative, a ballot measure that would dramatically increase the amount of taxpayer fun ding politicians would receive to run their campaigns.



The analysis shows that this poorly drafted initiative contains multiple defects, most significant of which is the fact that the initiative attempts to change and amend state statutes that no longer exist. Since the proposed changes are not based on existing law, the initiative is defective and will be kept off the ballot.

June 1, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C.  Controversial oil and gas permits allowing surface discharge of fracking fluids into a stream on a Wyoming Indian reservation have been significantly modified. The revisions contained in the wastewater permits now posted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) resolve a challenge filed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Proud Boys aimed to disrupt South Bend event. This time they failed.

The all-ages drag show audience was protected by two dozen supporters who formed a barrier between the venue and a handful of anti-LGBTQ protesters.
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The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft's protective cover is removed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A NASA asteroid-sampling probe has entered the home stretch of its prelaunch preparations.

On May 20, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a journey from aerospace company Lockheed Martin's facility near Denver. (Lockheed built the probe for NASA.)

Mission team members are now fueling OSIRIS-REx and testing its software, scientific instruments, solar panels and other critical systems before moving the probe to the pad for an expected Sept. 8 launch, NASA officials said.

"Delivering OSIRIS-REx to the launch site marks an important milestone  one that's been many years in the making," Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said in a statement.

"The spacecraft has undergone a rigorous environmental test program in Denver, but we still have plenty of work ahead of us," Kuhns added. "Many on our team have temporarily moved to Florida so they can continue final processing and have the spacecraft ready for the Sept. 8 launch date."

After liftoff, OSIRIS-REx  whose name stands for Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer  will embark on a two-year cruise to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

Upon arrival in 2018, the probe will study the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) Bennu from orbit for two years. In 2020, OSIRIS-REx will snag a sample weighing at least 2.1 ounces (60 grams), and this sample will come back to Earth in 2023, if all goes according to plan.

Bennu is expected to harbor water and organic molecules that could share a history similar to that of such substances on Earth, NASA officials have said. Bennu is also a potentially hazardous asteroid, so studying the space rock up close could have planetary-defense implications as well, mission team members have said.

OSIRIS-REx will not be the first spacecraft to return asteroid samples to Earth. That distinction belongs to Japan's Hayabusa probe, which sent pieces of the space rock Itokawa home in 2010.

OSIRIS-REx arrived at Kennedy Space Center after a flight aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane, which took off from Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Looking down "Wall Street," from Sunset Point in Bryce Canyon National Park. The "buildings" in this image are natural rock formations called hoodoos.

Space.com staff writer Calla Cofield is heading to the annual Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival in Utah this week. The park is one of the best skywatching locations in the U.S. Read her dispatches about her trip here.

June 3: Back to those bright city lights

Bryce canyon is known for its red rock landscapes, but it is also one of the best places in North America to stargaze. (Image credit: Space.com/Calla Cofield)

It's time to leave the beauty and serenity of Bryce Canyon National Park.

I've been planning on attending the park's annual astronomy festival for months, but prior to my arrival I didn't realize the degree to which stargazing is a part of the park's identity.

Bryce has had an official astronomy focus since the 1960s, according to the National Park Service website. In addition to the annual astronomy festival, the park hosts astronomy programs two or three nights a week year-round. The programs include an hour-long multimedia presentation and stargazing (with telescopes).

The park was formed to preserve the features that are best seen in daytime hours: those beautiful striped hoodoos (the tall, skinny rock formations) and the other scenic outlooks that lie along the 18-mile (29-kilometer) road that runs through the heart of the park. But at every talk I went to at the festival, the rangers emphasized the importance of preserving the diminishing resource of darkness. Bryce is now one of the best places in north America for stargazing. I wonder if the people who founded the park in the 1920s had any idea that it would develop this dual identity.

June 2: Look at those giant solar panels

These giant, Concentrating PhotoVoltaic (CPV) solar panels are located just next to the Bryce Canyon National Park visitor center. The solar panels follow the path of the sun throughout the day. (Image credit: Space.com/Calla Cofield)

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Utah  Look at those giant solar panels! (In case you couldn't tell, that's a 15-passenger van parked underneath them in the photo). These babies are located just west of the visitor's center at Bryce Canyon National Park, and they pivot so they can follow the sun throughout the day. Here's a description of the technology from an information sign posted by park officials:

"The Bryce Canyon Solar Array consists of two dual-axis trackers that perfectly follow our sun throughout each day during every season of the year. Such telescope-like precision is required because unlike regular photovoltaic panels, Concentrating PhotoVoltaic (CPV) technology does not generate electricity from ambient light. For the Fresnel lens to concentrate sunlight and for the tiny triple-junction chips to convert it to electricity, the sun alignment has to be within 1-2 degrees."

Apparently the high tech trackers are worth it because "CPV outperforms all other kinds of solar energy, both in sunlight conversion efficiency and energy density."

The solar panels are part of an initiative to keep the park functional and in good shape for future generations.

June 2: The power of the sun

Bryce Canyon National Park hosted its 16th annual astronomy festival began June 1, 2016. (Image credit: Space.com/Calla Cofield)

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Utah  High altitude deserts always remind me of the power of the sun. Standing directly under the midday sun makes it feel as though one's skin is actually cooking, even though temperatures in the shade can be quite pleasant. Then, when Earth's nearest star dips below the horizon, temperatures can plunge to winter coat levels.

I guess that's also a demonstration of the power of a good atmosphere and some humidity, but either way, it's a reminder that living in the universe is hard. Life needs heat and energy, and a nearby star is a great source of both those things  but a nearby star can also scorch a planet with radiation. Even if a planet lands in the sweet spot around its parent star, a location where liquid water can exist on the planet's surface, the star could change its energy output, which could also cause drastic changes for the planet.

On the second night of the Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival, Donald Williams, a ranger at Bryce Canyon National Park, delivered a talk about planets around other stars (exoplanets). Scientists suspect that there are billions of planets in the Milky Way. I think about exoplanets a lot, but I'm typically thinking about them in the context of new observations or other new data, which means I've probably got my nose buried in a research paper. At Bryce Canyon, I'm thinking about exoplanets while looking up at "one of the world's most pristine dark skies," as another ranger put it. It's a different experience to ponder the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe when you actually have a nice, clear view of the universe.

June 1: The sky at night

It's telescope setup time at the Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival. (Image credit: Calla Cofield/Space.com)

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Utah  There's a phenomenon called "celestial vaulting" which is where a person feels as though they are going to fall into the night sky. This "only happens under the darkest skies," according to Kelly Ricks, a ranger at Bryce Canyon National Park. An hour before the actual stargazing began, Ricks delivered a talk about what visitors can expect to see and experience when they look skyward while visiting the park, which she described as "one of the world's most pristine dark skies."

There are approximately 7,500 stars are visible to the naked eye at Bryce Canyon National Park, Ricks said. The park is ideal for stargazing because of its geographic isolation from major sources of light pollution (it's over 200 miles to the nearest mid-sized city). Other factors that make it ideal are the low number of days with cloud cover (an average of 60 per year), its altitude (up to 9,000 feet or 2,743 meters above sea level) and its low humidity. The Earth's atmosphere blurs the view of the stars, so higher elevation means less atmosphere, and low humidity means less "stuff" (water vapor) in the atmosphere obscuring the view, Ricks said.

Besides the number of objects in the sky, one of the most striking things I noticed at Bryce were the colors of the celestial objects  Mars was so red it looked like a berry on a holly bush, as opposed to the washed out, orange-white I'm used to seeing in the city.

Amateur astronomers setting up telescopes at the Bryce Canyon National Park. Volunteers with the Salt Lake Astronomical Society brought the telescopes to the festival. (Image credit: Calla Cofield/Space.com)

About 25 telescopes were set up at the stargazing location just outside the park entrance, right on the rim of Bryce Canyon. The scopes were all owned by volunteers from the Salt Lake Astronomical Society (SLAS). Members of the public were welcome to walk up and look through each lens to see planets, galaxies and nebula. Through a 7-inch (177 millimeter) refractor telescope I saw stripes on Jupiter (once again the color was amazing) and four of its moons. (If you're looking for tips to pick the right telescope for you, take a look at our Best Telescopes for the Money guide.)

The day had been hot, but the nighttime temperatures soon dropped into the low 50s Fahrenheit (around 10 degrees Celsius). I craned my neck to get a full view of the sky, waiting to see if I felt like I was falling.

Getting out of town

Signs of civilization become sparse on the road to the 2016 Bryce Canyon Astronomy Festival. (Image credit: Space/com/Calla Cofield)

I'm headed to Bryce Canyon National Park for the annual Astronomy Festival that's held there each summer. The canyon is spiritual-experience-level beautiful in the day  it's best known for the tall, thin, colorful rock formations known as hoodoos. It's also extremely dark at night, so it's a prime spot for stargazing.

Bryce Canyon is located about 275 miles (440 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City and 260 miles (420 km) northeast of Las Vegas. Driving there from Salt Lake City takes about four hours. Bryce is surrounded by wilderness.

The human population of Utah (about 2.94 million) is mostly clustered in and around the Salt Lake Valley (home to Salt Lake City) and the two valleys directly north and south of it. Nearly 65 percent of Utah is government land, and the state is home to five national parks  only California and Alaska have more (8 each). Directly east of Salt Lake City, human habitats are thinned out by the Rocky Mountains. Drive for an hour west or south, and homes gradually evaporate in the desert. Take a map of the state, throw a dart at it, and there's a good chance you'll hit wilderness or maybe a ranch.

Utah's desert has variety and beauty. There are rocky hills covered in desert grasses and other drought-resistant plant life; there are copper-red mountains dotted with evergreen trees; and there are vast, wide-open stretches that could be mistaken for landscapes on Mars.

And then there are some totally unique surprises, like Bryce Canyon, known for its hoodoos: tall, thin rock formations that look sort of like totem poles. Nowhere else in the world has such a large clustering of hoodoos as Bryce Canyon, according to the National Parks Service website. There are plenty of photos of the park to drool over here.

Beautiful Bryce Canyon, where the wind frequently blows in your face while you're trying to take a picture. (June 1, 2016) (Image credit: Space.com/Calla Cofield)

It takes about four hours to get to Bryce Canyon National Park from Salt Lake. The park is located on the western edge of a massive wilderness area that hosts three official Dark Sky Parks. There are places to stop for gas along the way. Humanity certainly doesn't disappear on the way to Bryce, but it is sparse enough to make you want to stock up on gas and water when an oasis finally rises out of the dust.

The long drive is the cost of getting away from light pollution. I am purchasing an uninhibited view of the sky.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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Copenhagen (Denmark, June 02, 2016 (SPS) - The main board of Danish Social Democratic Youth (DSU) adopted a resolution in solidarity with the just struggle of the Saharawi people stating that DSU support for the Saharawi cause, urging Denmark to recognize Western Sahara, urging the international community to grant Western Sahara an observant seat at UN and pushing for referendum.

On the occasion of Danish constitution day, DSU will launch an online campaign to support a referendum and recognition of Western Sahara as an independent state.

DSU is the Youth wing of the Social Democratic Party, the biggest party in the opposition in Denmark.SPS

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A 44-year-old Greenwich man - on the run since last April - has been indicted in in connection with embezzling $54 million from the private equity firm for which he worked.

Iftikar Ali Ahmed, aka Ifty, 44, was indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston on four counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements on income tax returns. Ahmed is currently a fugitive from justice. He was charged in a separate scheme in April 2015, and fled the country while on pre-trial release.

The indictment alleges that between 2004 and April 2015, Ahmed embezzled more than $54 million from the private equity firm for which he worked as a general partner and fund manager.

The indictment further alleges that Ahmed used the proceeds of his fraud to purchase a $9.6 million residence in Greenwich and a luxury condominium in New York for approximately $8.6 million.

An elaborate scheme

According to U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said, Ahmed embezzled the money through an elaborate scheme to defraud in which he submitted false invoices, substantially overstated the prices of international business deals he orchestrated on behalf of his employer, and by setting up fraudulent bank accounts in the name of the private equity firm for which he worked and the companies in which his employer invested.

On one occasion in November 2014, it is alleged that Ahmed recommended to his private equity firm that it invest $20 million in an international company and justified the price by submitting fraudulent financial documents. At the same time, Ahmed informed the international company that his employer had agreed to purchase shares for $2 million.

The indictment alleges that Ahmed then directed the private equity firm to wire $2 million to another company and the remaining $18 million to an account that Ahmed falsely claimed was the companys account, but actually belonged to Ahmed.

On Jan. 12, 2015, Ahmed transferred the $18 million in fraud proceeds to his spouse and a portion of these funds was used to purchase a luxury condominium in New York City, according to the indictment.

According to The Hindu, Ahmed and another Indian-origin entrepreneur were charged in April 2015 for insider trading for making over a million dollars in illegal profits through the proposed acquisition of Cooper Tire and Rubber by Indias Apollo Tyres. Amit Kanodia, of Massachusetts, a 47-year-old entrepreneur and private equity investor, and his long-time friend Iftikar Ahmed, a general partner at a venture capital firm were charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

While the acquisition of American company Cooper by Apollo was never completed, the SEC complaint said that Cooper Tires stock price jumped 41 per cent when the acquisition was announced in June 2013.

The SEC alleges that Kanodia tipped Ahmed and another friend prior to the acquisition announcement after learning of the deal from his wife, who was Apollos general counsel at the time, more than two months before the merger was announced.

Assets frozen

In May 2015, the SEC obtained a court order freezing $55,089,446 million of Ahmed's assets.

According to the SEC's complaint, Ahmed had Oak funds pay $20 million for a $2 million stake in an Asian e-commerce joint venture in December 2014, pocketing the $18 million difference for himself. It alleges that in another investment in August 2014, an Oak fund overpaid for shares in a China-based e-commerce company, allowing Ahmed to pocket $2 million. In a third transaction, the complaint alleges that in 2013, Ahmed advised an Oak fund to invest $25 million in a U.S.-based e-commerce company without disclosing his interest in I-Cubed Domains LLC, which had a significant stake in the same company. The following year, at Ahmed's advice, the Oak fund paid $7.5 million to I-Cubed to buy shares in the company that I-Cubed had acquired for $2 million. The complaint alleges that Ahmed again failed to disclose his ties to I-Cubed, violating his duty to act in the best interest of the Oak fund investors and avoid self-dealing.

According to Bloomberg, Ahmed received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1999 and an undergraduate degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi in 1993. He was a general partner at Oak Investment Partners, spent three years with Fidelity Ventures as senior associate and worked in the private equity and special situations group of Goldman Sachs.

What he faces

If Ahmed is captured - and convicted - the charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of no greater than 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 on each count.

The charge of making false statements in income tax returns provides for a sentence of no greater than three years in prison, one year of supervised release, and a fine of $1 million on each count.
S hares in Fastjet nosedived again today as the embattled low-cost African airline remained mired in the red last year with little sign of improvement.

The AIM-listed company revealed operating losses for 2015 were $42.3 million (29.3 million)  smaller than the $56.6 million it racked up a year earlier, but still greater than expected.

Revenues rose from $53.8 million to $65.1 million, but the company, which was spun out of Lonrhos legacy aviation business Fly540, said they would not improve enough for the business to turn a profit this year.

It admitted that trading had not improved this year, blaming a weak economy and political instability in Tanzania.

Former chief executive Ed Winter was forced out in March by major shareholder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the outspoken founder of easyJet. Last week, Haji-Ioannou called for Colin Child to be replaced as executive chairman.

Child today responded: Weve taken action to mitigate the effects of this prolonged downturn and have reduced operating costs and overheads.

The share price fell 3.47p, or 12%, to an all-time low 24.78p.
A n Italian economist is swapping statistics for Southwark to bring his urban street food market concept to the UK.

Andrea Rasca has secured a deal with housing association Peabody to invest 1.2 million and open a market at a three-storey, 45,000 sq ft building at Newington Causeway near Elephant & Castle station.

Peabody has leased the site to Mercato for an initial one year contract. Its design will be based on Rascas Mercato Metropolitano which opened in Milan last year and serves 600,000 meals a month.

Mercato Metropolitano London will open at the end of this month and include a bakery, fishmonger, pasta maker and butcher as well as a barber shop on an upper floor. Businesses will initially be able to lease space for up to a year.

Rasca, who has degrees in business and international relations, said: We need good and tasty food to share with our friends and family. That is what Mercato Metropolitano offers.

He is in talks to open further venues in the capital over the next two years.
I read recently that not enough female voices are being heard in the referendum debate and, although I hadnt noticed until it was pointed out, I think thats right.

It reminds me of whats happened over the years in financial services, where women start out in equal numbers to men but very few make it to the top.

When asked why this is, men and women say it is down to culture.

The alpha male culture of banking has disenfranchised women by creating a cut-and-thrust I win, you lose environment, where success has been measured in short-term profits rather than through social impact and sustainable growth.

That sort of culture led to the financial crisis, which had an impact on our country, our economy and ourselves.

Eight years later, we have not fully recovered and the industry still has to work hard to ensure men and women are heard, that behaviour is right and that culture is sound.

Lets not allow the same destructive behaviour to influence the EU referendum, where rational argument seems too often shouted down by self-interest, fanciful rhetoric and a war of words.

The issue is too important for anger and argument  the heat of todays latest battle. We need to carefully consider the future we want for our country, for our friends and for our children.

I want our children to enjoy the relative peace that I have experienced during my lifetime.

As we watch the First World War commemorations of the battles of Jutland and Verdun this week, it is too easy to forget that Europeans fought each other in our seas and on our soils so recently.

And it is easy to forget in our currently peaceful land that war doesnt work.

For me, a vote for Europe is a vote for peace.

I want our children to benefit from the prosperity that only peace can bring. Our economy is strong because we trade freely with the biggest trading bloc in the world.

Europe gives our businesses free trade with 500 million souls and brings their business and their money to Britain too.

Let no one claim that these agreements can be replaced and renegotiated easily. At best, it will take years. And during that time, uncertainty about Britains future in the world will reduce investment and shrink our growth.

For me, a vote for Europe is a vote for continued and stable economic prosperity.

I want our children to live in a world where British sovereignty is strong and undisputed because we are a key voice at the negotiating table.

We cannot have influence by withdrawing from it and diminishing our power and position in the world. No family is changed by outside voices, only by the influence of those within.

For me, a vote for Europe is a vote for British sovereignty and influence.

I want our children to live in a world where all people are treated equally as human beings and are welcomed to our country, where they are fleeing persecution at home or building a better future for their families.

Our economy doesnt need to stretch to cope with immigration. Migrants enable our economy to develop and expand. New people create new jobs. New jobs create more wealth. More wealth creates more taxes. More tax creates better services, expanded infrastructure and a more prosperous society.

For me, a vote for Europe is a vote for humanity and a vote for growth.

I want our children to live in a world where social justice is as important as economic development. Europe brings with it bureaucracy and red tape. But it has also brought health and safety rules that have saved countless lives.

It has brought working-time rules that have protected millions of workers from exploitation. It has introduced maternity and paternity leave that has enabled parents to spend critical time with their children.

For me, a vote for Europe is a vote for fairness and compassion, and an opportunity for equality for all.

And finally, I want our children to know that we voted for them and were thoughtful about their world and their future. I want our children to have the world at their feet. Travel, education, experience, careers, all enriched by being Europeans.

For me, a vote for Europe is a vote for a richer, brighter and broader future for all.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia is chief executive of Virgin Money
R yanair is reducing baggage fees for the bulk of its customers from today, the Irish no-frills airline revealed as it posted a 12% jump in passenger numbers.

The carrier said passenger numbers were 10.6 million in May, meaning traffic in the year to last month soared 16% to 108.5 million against a tough travel market backdrop that has been rocked by terrorist attacks and strike action.

Ryanair toasted the growth by rewarding 92% of its customers with a cut in bag fees. They will pay the same price for checking in a bag whether they paid at the time of their initial purchase or added to the booking later.

Ryanair yesterday admitted it has had to cancel 75 flights as French air traffic controllers go on strike.

Travel chaos is set to continue with three more days of strikes planned for this weekend.

The firm, headed by racehorse owner Michael OLeary, has called on the European Commission to take action to stop strikes causing so much disruption for travellers.
Suspected arsonists have burned down a new refugee center in Austria near the German and Czech borders.

The Red Cross said 48 asylum seekers had been expected to move into the residential center in two weeks. Authorities said the building at Altenfelden in northern Austria was deliberately set ablaze overnight.

No injuries were reported, but it took several dozen firefighters to control the flames that swept through the wood-frame building.

The Red Cross said the arson attack was a shocking act of vandalism, unlike any it had seen previously in Austria during the current refugee crisis, which has left nations across Europe struggling to cope with a swelling tide of migrants, most of them from the Middle East and Africa.

The Red Cross estimated the fire damage at $335,000 but said it will build a new shelter on the same site.

The Altenfelden attack was a rare instance of violence in a country that took in 90,000 asylum-seekers last year, more than 1 percent of its population.
S audi Arabias new oil minister has spurred hopes that Opec may cap production to arrest the oil-price slide after a long-running dispute over the proposal.

Saudi, the de facto leader of the 13-member oil club, is trying to heal a rift within the organisation over whether it should put a production target in place.

New energy minister Khalid al-Falih, who was appointed last month, said he will listen to the demands from Iran, which has strongly resisted a cap.

He added that it was time to steward the oil market to rebalance but said he did not want to see a reduction which would shock the market.

Opec met today in Vienna. Its meeting in December ended in acrimony after plans to restore production targets were scrapped.

A huge rise in the oil price in recent months  up around 80% to about $50 a barrel  has led some members to conclude that the market can rebalance without the introduction of a production cap.

Opec also said today that it was considering bringing the West African country of Gabon back into the group. Brent crude rose 22 cents to $49.94.
T he great divide is increasingly being written by the Brexiteers in Roman terms, between the elite and the plebs, between what Boris Johnson calls the fat cats and the rest of us. The Brussels-friendly big businesses and Masarati-owners are reaping the benefits of EU membership. Others, less financially secure, fear its overrated and even downright dangerous. How many more migrants, the Brexit-leaners wonder, can our island take?

The division thats emerging could hardly be more familiar, especially to a classicist such as Johnson, who also knows from his Roman history that its not that simple. But then referendums have a habit of polarising people through over-simplified arguments. Class is just one of the criteria by which the battlelines over Europe are being drawn up. Its also the most inevitable. Class wars which seek to liberate the people from the powers above (in our case, the bureaucrats of Brussels) have been waged for thousands of years.

The Romans were particularly partial to them. Elite vs plebs was a struggle right at the heart of the Republic. On several occasions, the plebs withdrew from the military in a bid to wrestle power from the elite. Even after plebeians were granted their own political office, the tribunate, tensions between different interest groups ran high. Championing the powers of the wealthy fat cats in the Senate were the optimates (best men). Tickling the fancy of the more liberal-minded Romans were the populares. All-out civil war ensued when one of the plebs favourites, a military man named Marius, challenged the authority of the Senates man in the East, the aristocratic Sulla. The more the reformers knocked at the Senates walls, the weaker it grew.

Boris Johnson recently compared the Roman Empire to the modern EU. Much of his argument for leaving it is founded on the impossibility of empire in the 21st century. He is of the opinion  and he is quite right  that the grape-popping, bed-hopping, toga-dropping Romans created an empire that can be neither replicated nor outstripped. For Johnson, the EU is little more than a sorry attempt at a nation state modelled on glorious golden-age Rome of the first century AD.

Johnsons book of a decade ago, The Dream of Rome, makes for interesting reading in the context of the Europe battle. He explicitly described the EU as the inheritor of the Roman Empire, an attempt to unite this vast and disparate territory in the way that Romans did, to create a single market, a single currency, a political union. The only trouble is, he wrote then, the love between nations has gone. The thing that held the Roman Empire together was the fact that Rome was a concept and Roman a label of pride, not nationality, which could be worn by people as far-flung from Rome as Africa and the Middle East. One might add that these peoples were allowed to keep their own identities but with an extra layer of Roman on top.

Boris today is torn. He loves his Romans but he knows that in all their inclusivity, generosity to migrants, and ties to a central power base, headed by an emperor, they are better models for the Remain campaign than they are for Leave. As the Europe battle is defined more and more along class lines, however, he can be sure that he hasnt seen the last of them. The two-camp, cross-party class war that the referendum is turning into is nothing short of a throwback to late Republican politics.

The class politics of this referendum were established long before Augustus began his empire-building as first emperor. Ambitious politicians of the Republic eroded the powers of the old elite by capitalising on the same kind of class conflict were witnessing now. One of the more memorable politicians of the people, Publius Clodius Pulcher, was rumoured to have committed incest with his sisters. A ruthless demagogue, who claimed always to be acting in the plebs interest, Clodius treated the people to bread and circuses, and even rendered the senators powerless to act by surrounding their building with armed bandits.

For all his egalitarian leanings, however, it was all a ruse. Clodius came from one the oldest and most elite families in Rome. To get himself elected as a tribune and engage in popular politics he had himself demoted to plebeian class.

Then, as now, class war was never quite class war. Who was Clodius, a man who changed the spelling of his name from the more traditional Claudius in order to appear a man of the people, to speak for the plebs? Who, indeed, was the aristocratic Julius Caesar to understand their troubles? Or Catiline, the revolutionary who is said to have planned to overthrow the Republic and its powerful Senate in the first century BC? As so often, the greatest challengers of elite big-wigs in Rome were themselves elite, if not always the wealthiest men in the city.

If the Leave campaign is now being cast as a class struggle between the comfortable-off for Remain and ordinary Joes for Leave, then we shouldnt be surprised to see Oxford-educated Michael Gove and Boris Johnson at the helm of the latter. It was ever thus.

Johnson and Gove are no bandit-wielding pair of Clodiuses, nor are they Caesar and Pompey. But if the examples of the Romans are anything to go by, its tempting to believe that the more the cause for Brexit comes to be seen as the popular cause, the greater the opportunities for its leaders later on. It was only after Caesar and Pompey forged an alliance with the wealthy money-lender Crassus that they managed to weaken the powers of the Senate and bring their own popularising legislation to the people. The Romans might not have liked what they eventually got  a messy fallout that eventually culminated in civil war  but they werent too keen on what on they had in the first place, either.

Dr Daisy Dunn is author of Catullus Bedspread: The Life of Romes Most Erotic Poet (William Collins)


T he UK has a proud history in global wildlife conservation, leading campaigns on everything from ending commercial whaling and the ivory trade to increasing protection for species such as polar bears and bluefin tuna. EU supporters make glib claims about having a seat at the table but when it comes to wildlife conventions we are losing our voice. Since the Lisbon Treaty it is now, extraordinarily, unlawful for the UK to speak and vote without first getting permission from the European Commission.

On fisheries conventions, deemed an exclusive competence, the UK is there only on the off-chance that an overseas territory such as Bermuda might want us to speak on its behalf while we are not allowed to speak for ourselves. It is about to get worse. Inside the EU, we are set to be stripped of our voting rights, perhaps as early as September, when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) next meets.

The first sign of trouble came in 2010 at the CITES convention in Qatar. In the dying days of the last Labour government there was an attempt to curtail international sales of bluefin tuna. A compromise fell through, leaving just the more ambitious motion put forward by Monaco left standing. The EU ordered member states to abstain. However, ministers disagreed so they broke with the EU to back Monaco. Quite right too.

What happened next was unbelievable. The EU started infraction proceedings against the UK for disobeying EU orders. The legal advice concluded that the UK might well have the moral high ground but the European Commission had the letter of the law on its side. In order to prevent huge fines, the UK apologised and gave an undertaking never to speak out of turn again.

Some claim such humiliations are worth it if we can stitch up the collective EU position the way we want and have a block vote of 28 but that argument no longer holds. Increasingly, all 28 members of the EU have just one vote between them. This is already the case on fisheries conventions and there are moves to make it the norm elsewhere.

Things came to a head in Costa Rica, which recently hosted a meeting on shark conservation under the Convention on Migratory Species. When agreeing the rules of procedure, the US made a pertinent point. If its against the law for any EU state to disagree with the European Commission, why is it fair that the EU has 28 votes but the US only one? This led to an almighty row and it fell to British officials to quietly save the day.

The sharks agreement was adopted by consensus without a vote, and the thorny issue of voting rights was deferred until September, when the larger CITES convention meets. The US will have support, which means if we stay in the EU we could lose our voting rights on all international wildlife conventions within months.

The most pressing environmental challenges today are global. The world needs an independent UK and we should be free to build coalitions around the world. We are responsible for multiple patches of the marine environment around the globe and we fund international conservation work. Its time to leave the EU and regain our seat at the table.

George Eustice is the Minister for Farming, Food and Marine Environment
A fashion showcase which saw everything from fish skin coats to gowns crafted from Waitrose plastic bags paraded down the catwalk has reconfirmed that theres nowhere quite like London when it comes to pushing creative boundaries.

Kicking off a week of shows from fashion colleges across the UK, world leader Central Saint Martins, UAL unveiled the collections of some of its most celebrated graduates.

Students hoping to follow in the footsteps of Saint Martins's alumni Alexander McQueen and Phoebe Philo affirmed the Kings Cross-based University as an incubator for unique and innovative talent.

Among the 40 chosen to display their work at last nights well attended production were numerous new talents from a host of fields including menswear, knitwear and print.

Students also presented their collections to a panel of judges which included Jefferson Hack and esteemed course director Willie Walters, who retires this summer following 24 years at the college.

Lucy Young

Among the standout talents was Soyoung Park, who scooped the top prize for her eccentric take on prim yet imperfect eveningwear. Dishevelled fur coats were teamed with paper-thin cocktail dresses and jewel encrusted slips, while accessories came in the form of crochet berets and uneven platform sandals.

Yuhan Wang came a close second with a collection which took loungewear to new heights with sheer pyjama suiting and satin lingerie detailing, while third place went to knitwear student Adnan Salman Jalal who showcased their technical ability through gowns festooned with fur pom-pom trims, mesh crochet and glitter lurex fringing.

Among the more adventurous creations on the catwalk last night belonged to womenswear designer Joe Boon, who crafted coats from fish skin and cut silk dresses to resemble scales, while Jaeeun Shin sought to hammer home a sustainable message with gowns made from supermarket carrier bags. Liam Johnson's giant foam jackets and Alex Po's pastel-toned seventies surfer menswear collection were also a hit with the audience.

The Central Saint Martins production precedes the graduate show from London College of Fashion as well as a Graduate Fashion Week Gala which celebrates the work of more than 40 schools from across the UK.

The Royal College of Art will present its graduate showcase during London Collections Men - the capitals menswear fashion week - on Thursday.
A black movie producer who clashed with Matt Damon over the lack of diversity within the industry is coming to London to encourage female and ethnic minority film-makers.

Damon apologised after telling Effie Brown that diversity behind the camera was not an issue on HBOs reality show Project Greenlight in September last year.

The incident, which was much discussed in the US, took place before the Oscars race row again put the spotlight on discrimination and the difficulties faced by marginalised groups. Brown, who produced the award-winning satire Dear White People, said the film industry risked losing talent to TV and streaming services unless it embraced change.

Dear White People trailer

She said: The ball is not entirely in the other court. We can do something. Its about empowerment, getting over the mindset we have to ask permission. We can invest, hire, mentor women and people of colour. The biggest obstacle is finance. Independent film-makers are adaptable and nimble, always looking out for the next thing on the horizon.

Brown, who advises the Oscars on how to promote equality, will take part in a BFI-backed diversity event on Saturday at Picturehouse Central as part of Sundance Film Festival London, which runs from today until Sunday.

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F or the past 11 years the Italian journalist Roberto Saviano has been under police protection.

His bestselling expose of the Neapolitan Mafia, Gomorrah, published here in 2007, became an internationally celebrated film that put his life at risk. When I interviewed Saviano in a London hotel last year, plainclothes police were in evidence. Baldheaded and dark-stubbled, Saviano is instantly recognisable to most Italians. Paradoxically, the more famous the 37-year-old becomes, the greater his need for invisibility.

Savianos latest book, My Italians, gathers nine essays on the subject of organised crime in Italy. Expertly crafted, they go to the heart of the Italian financial sectors dependence on drug capital and its depredations.

The Naples-based Mafia  the Camorra  generates a vast amount of cocaine capital and is deeply woven into the political and social fabric of what Saviano calls his beautiful, ill-fated country. Most of the coke sold in Italy (and, for that matter, Britain) is cut with Levamisole used for treating intestinal worms, or with benzocaine anaesthetic. Camorra bosses typically have no idea how the drug tastes and what sensations it produces. Id never use cocaine, a former Mafioso tells Saviano, adding: A good killer cant be a cokehead, otherwise hell mess up.

In Waste and Contaminants, a bravura performance, Saviano considers the Camorras involvement in toxic waste trafficking. Each day the proceeds from narcotics are directed into industrial waste disposal operations and landfill sites. The legal economy needs our illegal money, a Camorra affiliate lets on  otherwise Naples will drown in garbage. I Swear, another excellent essay, chronicles the Mafias initiation ceremonies involving thumb-pricking (for blood) and other pseudo-masonic spook-dabbling.

The Ndrangheta in the North, the longest essay, shows how the Calabrian Mafia has infiltrated Milan and other cities in northern Italy. Drugs remain at the heart of their operations. In the Eighties, lethally, the Ndrangheta established links with Colombian-Mexican cartels (if cocaine is the carburant that fuels the world economy, Calabria in southern Italy is part of the reason why).

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These essays, written in the authors trademark pithy style, lament the decline in Italy generally of civic values and the rise of a hoodlum class who are in cahoots with politicians and their hangers-on.

A while ago, Neapolitan gangland bosses set Christmas 2008 as the deadline for Savianos elimination. A group of Nobel Prize laureates  among them Bishop Desmond Tutu and the German novelist Gunter Grass  added their names to a 200,000-strong pro-Saviano petition which appeared in the Rome-based daily La Repubblica. An estimated 585 people in Italy are under state-provided armed guard. On the evidence of this first-rate collection, one can see why. Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
J ust seven weeks after he had been elected to a junior fellowship at Magdalene College, Cambridge, in July 1929, William Empson was sent down, after a college servant, moving him into his new rooms, discovered condoms in his bags  then a scandal.

He was already well established as poet and critic and in 1930 Chatto & Windus published his classic, Seven Types of Ambiguity, on which whole schools of literary criticism were subsequently founded. But Empson, still only in his mid-twenties, needed a job and the only one that turned up in 1931 was a three-year appointment at a newly established teacher- training institute in Tokyo.

In Japan, in the city of Nara, in the spring of 1932, the beauty of a particular set of Buddhist sculptures struck Empson with revelatory force, says Rupert Arrowsmith. Over the next few years, Empson tenaciously pursued his interest in the image of the Buddha, visiting Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, India, Ceylon, several parts of China, and collections in the United States (although, oddly enough, apparently not Siam, Thailand).

In 1936 he published an intriguing short essay on his observations, The Faces of the Buddha, in The Listener, presenting himself as an amateur on the subject but saying it is the simplest conception of high divinity the human race has devised. After the Second World War he returned to writing and in 1947 completed a book on the subject, with illustrations he had collected himself. Empson gave this manuscript to a friend, John Davenport, to find a publisher while he was abroad. Davenport lost it, believing he had drunkenly left it in a taxi. There was no copy  and the text seemed gone forever.

What the addled Davenport had in fact forgotten was that he had passed the manuscript on to an editor, and in 2005 it was discovered among the papers of Richard March in the British Library. Here it is now, an amazing find, carefully edited to be the book that Empson would have published back then, with his own illustrations. It is fascinating both to those who cherish Empson and those moved by Buddhist sculpture  and if you happen to qualify on both counts, an uncovenanted treasure.

Empson had a unique faculty for putting subtle and surprising insights into conversational language and he applies this to images of the Buddha just as he does to literature, in a way that academic specialists of the subject never permit themselves to do. Thus in his introduction to The Type in General, he casually acknowledges the afterdinner look of many Buddhas, while saying that their drooping eyelids and raised eyebrows are in effect an appeal to us to feel, as they do, that it is odd that we let our desires subject us to so much torment in the world.

The bulk of the book is made up of an illustrated survey of the historical evolution of the Buddha image, beginning with its emergence in the Kushan period (first century BC to third century AD) in Mathura and Gandhara (present-day Afghanistan) up to the great periods of Buddhist art in Japan and China.

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He is especially eloquent on Khmer art, noting that it is the only part of the world which made a success of colossal heads as a unit of architecture, observing of the Bayon, which he visited in 1938, that the Khmer effect of being completely withdrawn into a dream, and yet dreaming with great activity and pleasure, is for some reason compatible with great size.

In a letter to Edith Sitwell from Hanoi that year he was even franker: I found my prejudices against Hinduism stronger than ever; the Vat itself is a dignified public building but it hasnt the noble and tender and extraordinary imagination of the Buddhist things like the Bayon and Neak Pean and Prah Khan ... The whole point of the repeated head of the Boddhisattva of Mercy, coming in and out in an elaborate order as you stand on the terrace, is that you are perfectly protected and enclosed, safe in thine arms, a hushing, nursing, milky security...

Empson follows his survey with a discussion of Expression, circling around the paradox that a full and untrammelled emotional life has been attained by a system of renunciation  and then introduces a more controversial theory, Asymmetry, in which he applies to this art the same technique of valuing ambiguity that he had applied to literature.

Far Eastern Buddha heads combine things that seem incompatible, especially a complete repose or detachment with an active power to help the worshipper and they do this, he contends, by vertical asymmetry, the right side of the face active, the left calm, a stylisation which he believes was actually a rule among the sculptors, even a trick.

To prove it, he prints photographs doubling up left-left and right-right of the same sculpture, making it look dramatically different.

Clearly, such asymmetry is present in much Buddhist art  just as it is present in nearly all human faces, and such left-right differences continue to be explored in neuroscience (Empson is frustrated by the contemporary paucity of this discipline, little advanced then beyond Darwins Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals  indeed the human face itself is little known, he admits).

He does not push his special case too far, acknowledging that some Buddhas appear not to show asymmetry, while offhandedly admitting of course one should remember that it is fairly hard to make a face symmetrical...

But it is a valuable observation that can only add to our appreciation of these wonderful, most moving of images. This message-in-a-bottle of a book is a glorious rediscovery.
B y the time I meet Ryan Gosling in an unserviced suite at Claridges, I feel like Ive already been beaten down through psychological warfare. Over the past few days, my interview with him has been on, then off, then back on again maybe; then almost certainly off, then finally confirmed at midnight the night before our appointed date. I have been heavily cautioned that I should, under no circumstance, ask Ryan any personal questions; and am left to wait next to a plate of half-eaten omelette on the coffee table  perhaps as an anti-aphrodisiac  which is further taking the shine off things. I wonder if this is all part of the strategy.

In fairness, Goslings week has been gruelling. Hes just made an unscheduled detour to Los Angeles in the 48 hours between his departure from Cannes and the London premiere of The Nice Guys, the 1970s-set private-detective caper with Russell Crowe. (Gosling in a blockbuster buddy comedy? Yes, I know, it sounds like a contradiction in terms.) When he shuffles into the room fresh off the red-eye from LA in a stonewashed denim jacket, Doc Martins, hands in his jean pockets, he makes me think of a disaffected sixth-former attending detention at 6am (West Coast time for him). In fact, I suspect hes just woken up and may not be a morning person. He searches for a coke in the empty minibar, shrugs and tries his best to be jovial. I always request to be close to a half-eaten omelette at all times, he deadpans.

He deliberates over which chair to take, joking about our interview feng shui. Hes placid but also rather on edge  less giving an interview than tolerating one. Only a week after the birth of Amada, his second daughter with actress Eva Mendes, hes been hauled onto the juggernaut that is the global press tour for The Nice Guys, which involves such heavyweights as director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Iron Man 3) and producer Joel Silver (The Matrix)  one can feel the commercial pressure steaming off the cybersphere. Hes tweeted viral trailers about his bromance with Crowe and been the apotheosis of droll on TV slots all across America; laughing off flirtatious female hosts, squirming in the face of oestrogen-heavy audiences, batting away questions about the new Baby Goose (Gosling detests invasions of his privacy). This bromance thing, I say, is clearly a ploy to draw attention away from his personal life. He sniggers: Well, yes, the bromance is almost over, lets be honest. He seems a little on autopilot.

Ryan Gosling in pictures 1 /9 Ryan Gosling in pictures The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) 2013 Focus Features Only God Forgives (2013) Nice Guy bromance: Gosling and co-star Russell Crowe 2016 Dave J. Hogan Lars and the Real Girl (2007) Blue Valentine (2010) The Notebook (2004)

Goslings favourite metaphor for his craft was once that he was like a cat burglar sneaking on and off screen; an illusion that required his anonymity as an actor. His performances  often made up of suppressed emotion channelled through faded blue glances under a fringe of sandy hair  had the power to get small films (The Believer, Half Nelson, Derek Cianfrances Blue Valentine) nominated for major awards (the Cannes Grand Jury Prize, a Best Actor Oscar, Golden Globes). Gosling was a young actor who wasnt interested in grandiosity, or playing macho leads and winners: he played beautiful losers, whom he imbued with ambiguous charisma. He cried. He made romances, such as his breakout role as Noah in The Notebook, Nick Cassavetess 2004 World War II tear-jerker.

TODO: define component type brightcove

Then, in the perfect PR storm of 2011, Gosling went mainstream. He outacted George Clooney in The Ides of March, upped his cool cache in Nicolas Winding Refns heavily stylised, Oscar-nominated Drive, and pumped-up for his role as the lothario with a heart in Crazy Stupid Love. The image of oestrogen-whisperer stuck, fuelled by his coupling with Mendes. Gozmania mushroomed, took on a life of its own and threatened to overshadow his work.

Yann Rabanier

Before a few years ago, Gosling could do no wrong in the eyes of critics: but more recently the Sundance Kid has, perhaps, been punished for his success. The proximity of the release dates of three restrained performances that dealt with the empty posturing of masculinity  Cianfrances The Place Beyond The Pines, Drive, and Winding Refns follow-up Electra-complex film, Only God Forgives  didnt help. Some felt he was now just doing a Gosling. And when he returned at Cannes three years later, with his self-penned directorial debut, Lost River, a surreal neo-noir fantasy, it was eviscerated. If hed been badly burned, its understandable. This is fine, he reassures his publicist who later checks in on us for the third time. I dont feel like youre trying to trap me. Yet.

The Nice Guys, in some respects, still bares the hallmarks of a Gosling choice: it is the anti-Dick Tracy, a portrait of inept masculinity as the two PIs blunder and drink their way through an investigation into a missing porn star. This is Gosling showcasing a talent for physical comedy, firing on all cylinders, delivering reams of dialogue. Its a smart anti-pigeonholing manoeuvre and a reminder of his range. It must be relief to do comedies after all of his erstwhile silent types. Whats nice with comedy is that you know its working if its funny. With drama you can watch people in the wings [of a theatre] and you dont know if they are suffering [with you] through your movie or they are just deeply bored. But yeah the externalisation was a relief He hesitates and blurts, A long time ago I went to see a shrink and he wrote me a prescription that said: Do Comedy. He leaves this hanging.

2013 Focus Features

Gosling, the contrarian, is not perturbed by silences; he seems to stifle himself from serving up sound bites. But then, I guess he has to be careful with women these days. Three waitresses traipse into the room were occupying to bring a single pot of coffee. The cavalry has arrived, he chuckles. They fumble and faun until I am forced to shout: Ladies! Please! Outta the room! I must say, the way women behave around him is remarkable. When hes in town, they take to the streets and hunt him down. Gay men are also obsessed. He has been fetishised perhaps like no other contemporary actor. Its our time as men to be on the receiving end of the stick. I grew up with women so Ive always been aware of it. When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory; a hunt.

Gosling grew up in a Mormon family in the Canadian town of Cornwall, Ontario, close to his mother Donna, then a secretary, and sister Mandi. His father, Thomas, was a travelling salesman for a paper mill. His parents relationship broke down and they split when he was 13. But Gosling had behavioural problems that predated this. He hated being a child, was bullied and struggled with authority at school. After seeing Rambo: First Blood he took a Fisher Price Houdini Kit packed with steak knives in to school and proceeded to lob the knives at another child. I saw Rambo raging against the machine and I identified with that at six or whatever the f*** I was. The incident led to suspension and psychological assessment for ADHD, though he was never officially diagnosed, he says, and his mother refused to put him on Ritalin. Instead, she homeschooled him for a year, which was the turning point of his childhood.

The other gamechanger was the day his uncle announced that he was going to be an Elvis impersonator. I came in the living room and he was bedazzling in a white jumpsuit. He had a birthmark, a moustache and no hair. He looked nothing like Elvis. But, by God, he was Elvis when he performed. The whole family joined the act. We would put these big shows on at malls. Women were throwing themselves on stage at him. Gosling saw the power of self-belief and commitment to transform and his ticket out of a factory job. He was already singing with his sister at weddings, during the garter ceremony. And, as a year seven, developed his own dance aimed at female members of the audience. I did what I had to do to get where I wanted to go. I had unearned confidence.

It won him talent shows, a Disney audition, aged 12, and a place on The Mickey Mouse Club alongside Justin Timberlake. Later, he landed the title role on the Canadian TV series Young Hercules, and, at 20, based on raw talent alone, the role of the self-loathing Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer, which won the Cannes Jury Prize. In the space of a year, the child star was reborn as the new electrifying indie anti-hero.

Gosling, now 35, still has a reputation for being in touch with his feminine side. What per cent woman is he? Id say 49 per cent, sometimes 47 per cent, it depends on what day you catch me. What day of his period? He laughs again, a brief eruption of sniggers and snorts. I think women are better than men, he says. Wait, how are they better? They are stronger. More evolved. You can tell especially when you have daughters [Esmeralda, 18 months and Amada] and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately. He hopes there will be a female president soon. I think it needs a womans touch. He wont say more: I can almost see the headlines flash before his eyes. Ive always liked women more. I was brought up by my mother and older sister. I found my way into dance class. My home life now is mostly women. They are better than us. They make me better.

2016 Dave J. Hogan

His next release is another feel-good work: La-La Land, by Whiplash director Damien Chazelle, co-starring Emma Stone. Gosling is finally unleashing his all-singing, all-dancing 12-year-old self in adult form: of course this will do nothing to quell the hysteria. Hell also star in the upcoming Terrence Malik-directed Weightless. I wonder if hell direct again. He says the reaction to Lost River has not deterred him: People dont step outside themselves and make the film they want to make because theyre afraid of the reaction. But once you get that reaction, and have lived through it, theres nothing they can do to get you down. Apart, perhaps, from put you on a punishing press schedule when your girlfriend has just given birth.

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D amien Hirst is known for being the enfant terrible of the art world but to his girlfriend Katie Keight he is an upbeat force who played a part in turning her life around. The model-turned-writer, aged 26, says that this time last year she was struggling with alcoholism and felt I only existed to suffer.

So what changed to make her the chirpy picture of happiness sitting next to me? Meeting certain people helped stop that way of thinking, she says, a smile spreading across her delicate features. Damien is very passionate and positive, just being around him made me realise you can have anything you want. You think: I can have a good or bad day; I need to decide right now.

Keight and Hirst met at a Foundation for Aids Research party hosted by Harvey Weinstein two years ago (I said hello, he was hilarious) and now live together in Barnes. He is 24 years her senior, though she says the age difference doesnt really exist. I dont notice it. We are both Geminis, so its like there are four of us all the time and you cant get a word in edgeways.

But enough about men; weve met to discuss a project that shes deliberately kept Damien out of the loop on. Her web series, Letting Go, which she wrote, produced, directed and stars in, is out in a few weeks and she is proud and excited. Its an excerpt of a girls life, she says, stirring a sugar cube into her cappuccino. Shes dealing with grief and alcoholism and its a clip of the challenges she faces. Its about the things that manifest from not loving yourself and insecurities.

Hirsts friend Jeff Wootton, the guitarist from Gorillaz, has composed the score. She chose to star in it because I trusted myself to play this character. None of it was lifted from my life but its not too far away from my battles with drinking.

Growing up in Weston-super-Mare, the daughter of a builder, Keight was aware of Hirst but art wasnt part of my life. There was a painting of my mum on the wall that my uncle Martin did for my dad but in my room it was all posters ripped out of pop magazines.

When she moved to London aged 19 to model she started going to galleries and now Damien has opened up this whole new amazing world to me. Im really grateful. I would never have thought that Id be into art or be touched by it but I am. Ive seen so many things by default. Damien is encyclopaedic when it comes to art and culture; Ive learned a lot. Has he given her any art? I have a little collection, she says coyly.

She has no desire to become an art WAG, writing is my outlet, and doesnt want to go there too much talking about Hirst because I probably wont be able to stop talking about it. But its very good there.

He has three sons with his former partner, designer Maia Norman, and everyone is on good terms. Keight goes to Normans fashion shows with Hirst and says: Maia is so talented. Its all easy, breezy and chilled.

Picture perfect: with Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons / Instagram/@katiekeight

When Keight was four her mother, who was Thai, passed away from brain cancer. Her father also died of cancer and Keight says she is so grateful to Macmillan nurses. She still has family in the South-West and Hirst gets on well with her relatives. They went back to Weston for Banksys Dismaland project: Damien is a supporter of Banksy and he is super-smart.

Suddenly it all makes sense: is Keight in fact the anonymous artist Banksy? OK, yes, she says putting her hands up.

Banksy or not, Keight has impressive drive. At 19 she sent pictures off to a modelling agency because I really wanted it and moved to London, which felt huge and lonely. At first she enjoyed modelling, especially for ASOS, but it became clear that I wanted to be able to show some personality rather than be an object on a conveyor belt. I thought I was having an existential crisis for the past couple of years but I think I was feeling frustrated and not creatively happy. I wanted to create. Self-help books such as Eckhart Tolles The Power of Now helped her when she was in a place where she would wake up crying and feeling hopeless.

She stopped modelling last year. It took a while to realise how liberating that was. What I ate was so ingrained. If I had a pizza I made sure I walked everywhere the next day.

Famous art in London 1 /24 Famous art in London The Water-Lily Pond, Claude Monet, 1899 National Gallery, WC2N, nationalgallery.org.uk

This Monet masterpiece, painted in his garden in Giverny where he lived until his death, was painted during the early part of his iconic Water Lily series, before the great painter suffered from cataracts. A Japanese style bridge arches over shimmering greens and pinks, a view Monet painted 17 times in one year alone. The National Gallery, London The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, JMW Turner, 1839 National Gallery, WC2N, nationalgallery.org.uk

Political, but oh-so-beautiful: Turner shows the once-fearsome gun ship Temeraire headed away from the sunset, being tugged by a paddle boat to be broken up, while another tug ominously waits in the lower right hand corner. Turner is evoking a sense of loss, lamenting the decline of Britain's naval power. Messages aside, the painting itself is a gorgeous contrast of styles: details of the ship are finely done, the rigging lightly sketched, the paddles of the boat slicing the water, while the sky is a glorious explosion of colour, thick layers of oil paint, the sun and sky by turns silver and gold, red and purple. In 2005, it was chosen as the nation's favourite painting in a Radio 4 poll. The National Gallery, London Self-Portrait with Two Circles, Rembrandt, c. 1669 Kenwood House, NW3, english-heritage.org.uk

Just look in the eyes for this one: Rembrandt, at the time an old man, showed every ounce of pain and heartbreak he'd endured with the blackness of his pupils, which seems to spill out over his worn-to-grey skin. At the time of painting, he'd lost his wife, three of his children, and his mistress. He sits upright, square-jawed, jaw set defiantly, if a little sourly  it's a long way from his early, energetic, playful self-portraits. Four years later, after the loss of another son, he would by dead, having killed himself. The painting is a large one: give it some time. It's a peculiar experience to stand in front of it and sympathise with a stranger. Kenwood House Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh, 1888 National Gallery, WC2N, nationalgallery.org.uk

Van Gogh's series of Sunflowers caused an uproar when they were first presented: artist Henry de Groux declared them 'laughable', a remark which saw him only narrowly avoid a fist fight with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Signac. It's said van Gogh was spurred to paint the flowers in order to have new work to impress Paul Gauguin, whom he planned to share a studio with. On a diet of coffee and booze, he painted the first four in just six days. While visiting the Sunflowers, be sure to see his famous Chair; A Wheatfield, with Cypresses; and the magnetic 1899 painting Two Crabs, which sometimes, sadly, goes overlooked. The National Gallery, London Blue Nude II, Henri Matisse, 1952 London Print Studio, W10, londonprintstudio.org.uk

Among his final ever work, Matisse's playful, vibrant cut-outs are a triumph of form. Too ill to paint, Matisse invented a new form with the cut-outs and the later Blue Nude series, as seen here, are deceptive: they seem simple, but the limbs swirl around each other, and Matisse captures something very human in the posture  particularly noticeable here in the slight incline of the neck. Straightforward, but captivating. DACS Venus, Sandro Botticelli, c. 1490 The V&A, Cromwell Rd, SW7, vam.ac.uk

It might not be the famous Birth of Venus, but this piece is as close as one can currently get in London. It contains the same ground-breaking nudity  Christian influence had put a bit of a damper on that for a few centuries beforehand  and again, it's all in the eyes here: the expression could mean one of a thousand things. Afterwards, head to the National to see Venus and Mars, from a few years earlier. Volker-H. Schneider / Gemaldegalerie, SMB / Jorg P. Anders The Skiff (La Yole), Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1875 National Gallery, WC2N, nationalgallery.org.uk

Some Renoir is looked at a little sniffily  that's what being so successful your work is printed on everything from T-shirts to table mats does to you  but this remains a stunning example of Impressionism, showing off Renoir's famous use of vibrant colour: the orange and blue stand brightly against each other, and while the piece is a picture of calm, Renoir puts motion into the Skiff (La Yole, if you're showing off). The National Gallery, London A Bar at the Folies-Bergere, Edouard Manet, 1882 The Courtauld Gallery, WC2R, courtauld.ac.uk

There is more to this extremely famous painting than it first seems: the picture of an ordinary functioning bar quickly unravels with the questions it asks  why her expression? Who is the man? Is he asking about buying a drink or her? Though it feels lively and offhand, like a night in the bar might be, the piece is thoroughly kitted out with detail, including a well-hidden trapeze artist. It's partly famous as the barmaid's reflection has puzzled onlookers since it was first shown: still, Manet's last major work proved to be a hit, and so it has remained. The Courtauld Gallery The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28th June 1919, William Orpen, 1919 Imperial War Museum, SE1, .iwm.org.uk

William Orpen's piece, commissioned at the then huge cost of 3000, is more notable for its scene than the painting itself, but what a scene: as the title says, it shows the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919, where the Allies decided the terms of peace following the First World War. In the painting are US president Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and many, many soldiers, diplomats and politicians. Spend a while with it: the facial expressions and how much they differ are particularly interesting. The architecture, as Orphen sees it, is vast, leaning over the politicians, making them seem small, insignificant, weak. It's subtle, perhaps, but reveals what the artist thought of them. WM (Art.IWM ART 2856) Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Vincent van Gogh, 1889 The Courtauld Gallery, WC2R, courtauld.ac.uk

The shades of green which run through this piece seem to exaggerate van Gogh's despondency. In this self-portrait, painted shortly after his ear was slashed and he almost bled to death, he sits staring, saying something, while wrapped up as if outdoors in a biting winter. Whether van Gogh slashed himself or it was the result of a fight with Gauguin remains unknown, but the two men never met after the incident again, and van Gogh's pain, insecurity and questioning in this picture is undoubtedly clear. The Courtauld Gallery Two Dancers on a Stage, Edgar Degas, 1874 The Courtauld Gallery, WC2R, courtauld.ac.uk

Degas's dancers are notable for their movement: while ballet is physically demanding, draining, and emotionally consuming, here the pair seem relaxed, joking, as if in rehearsal. That they aren't centre of the painting gives the piece of a feeling of being a spontaneously captured. Not Degas's most famous work, but a beautiful example from a beautiful painting nevertheless. The Courtauld Gallery Jane Austen, Cassandra Austen, c.1810 National Portrait Gallery, WC2H, npg.org.uk

This painting of the famous English novelist was done by her elder sister Cassandra. As the only two girls among eight siblings, the two were extremely close throughout their lifetime and frequently wrote to each other. This incomplete watercolour is thought to be the only known portrait from life of Jane. This does not, however, mean it looks much like her: her family were not convinced by it, although the expression apparently convinced her niece. Still, from 2017, it's the portrait we'll see on 10 notes everywhere. National Portrait Gallery, London An Allegory ('Vision of a Knight'), Raphael, c. 1504 National Gallery, WC2N, nationalgallery.org.uk

Seeing any Raphael is extraordinary, especially as there are far too few in London. It's not entirely clear what this piece means, though some think the sleeping knight is meant to represent the Roman General Scipio Africanus, and the piece is an allegorical painting which has taken influence from the epic poem Punica, by Latin poet Silius Italicus. An example of Renaissance painting, it features the typical faraway long perspective in hues of blue, and fine detail throughout. The National Gallery, London The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533 National Gallery, WC2N, nationalgallery.org.uk

Hans Holbein the Younger managed to be a hugely influential figure in art without founding a school, making him something of a rarity. This double portrait might not be as famous as the copy of his lost Henry VIII portrait (head next door to the National Portrait Gallery for that one), but it remains extremely striking, and draws the viewer in with what appears to be a white smudge across the bottom of the canvas: in fact, it is an early example of anamorphosis, and shows a skull, a symbol of death and mortality. While cynics suggest Holbein incorporated it simply to show off his skill (and hence secure future commissions, the canny so-and-so), it forces any audience to engage, to look and consider the work from all angles, and to get a more thorough appreciation for the piece. The National Gallery, London Mont Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine, Paul Cezanne, 1887 The Courtauld Gallery, WC2R, courtauld.ac.uk

Odd to think this series of beautiful, calming landscapes once caused a stir, but it did, if only for its form: unlike the Impressionists, Cezanne outlined his shapes and details, and the piece isn't about hundreds of little details blurred together. The colours are prominent and striking, and the painting feels warm, humid, sunny  something in it acts like a teleporter to south of France. The techniques here and striking lines shows why Cezanne is sometimes remembered for helping usher in Abstract art. The Courtauld Gallery Bathers at Asnieres, Georges Seurat, 1884 National Gallery, WC2N, nationalgallery.org.uk

Famous enough that a bar in Pimlico have a drink dedicated to it. That's how you know you've made it big time. At 2m by 3m, Seurat's painting of young men relaxing by the water is impressively sizeable, and another example of a deceptively simple style: in real life, the painting seems to gleam, shine and wink  an effect achieved by contrasting dots of colour. The water is the best example of it, but the boys hat has dots of blue on the orange, making it stand out, drawing attention to him as he braces himself to swim. The side-on figures draws to mind Egyptian art. The National Gallery, London William Shakespeare, attributed to John Taylor, c. 1600-10 National Portrait Gallery, WC2H, npg.org.uk

The Chandos portrait (named after a former owner) is currently on tour for about a year, but once it's home in the National Portrait Gallery, is well worth seeing. The painting is mystery itself: no-one is certain who actually painted it, and there's even some scepticism over whether it depicts the Bard or not. Nevertheless, it's this portrait which has formed the basis for countless portrayals of Shakespeare in the four hundred years since his death. An icon, not to be missed. National Portrait Gallery, London Queen Elizabeth I, unknown continental artist, c.1575 National Portrait Gallery, WC2H, npg.org.uk



Known as the Darnley portrait, this painting is one of the most important visions of Elizabeth I, and would have been painted from a sitting. Though it has come partly to define how people imagine the Queen, with her pale complexion and withering stare, technical goings-over have revealed the paint has faded, and that she would have had much rosier cheeks when the work was finished, which rather changes how one might see her. National Portrait Gallery, London

After giving up modelling I began to realise it doesnt matter if I gain five pounds, and hell, I can not shave.

Keight is reluctant to comment on the size zero debate because plenty of my model friends are naturally thin and healthy. But of course you want people to be protected.

She is still slim, wearing a black leather jacket with silver splashes on it and shiny Prada trainers. She walks a lot but isnt at a stage where exercise is a priority, and says the Sunday roast at Hirst and Mark Hixs restaurant Pharmacy 2 is killer  if I cant make it he brings back a sack of potatoes and Yorkshire puddings.

Every morning Keight checks Instagram and says I couldnt have no tech in the bedroom. She shares her life on the site  there are pictures of her eating pasta with Hirst, selfies with Jeff Koons, in town for an exhibition at Hirsts Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall, and in thigh- skimming dresses on red carpets. She deletes the odd comment towards me and Damien. Theyll say something like shes pulling away and actually its that Im sober and uncomfortable having my photo taken by the paparazzi. It makes me giggle because theyve bothered to find me and write a comment.

Hirst doesnt have Instagram, he already has his platform to be creative.

She is laid-back about social media: People say why do you Instagram  why not? Theres no agenda. I posted a picture outside therapy because I felt like it. So many friends and acquaintances messaged asking where Id gone, funnily enough mostly boys. After that I thought I dont mind sharing. You can also use it to gauge what people like. It is ridiculous how it makes people happy. Ive seen so many friends smile mid-conversation because theyve had likes. Those smiles used to mean they were texting a boy.

Occasionally she deletes the app because its not good to compare yourself to others  you can be lying in bed eating fried chicken and see someone doing what you want in career terms or going out and you feel bad.

Hirst stopped drinking a year ago. There is so much social pressure Im still dealing with, she says. Learning to say no is powerful. Alcohol is a depressant. It gives you this feeling of purposelessness. I couldnt sustain that lifestyle and felt I had too much to lose. I could either lose my career and creativity or stop drinking.

She helped her friends get Glastonbury tickets through Hirst but isnt ready to go herself because of my new lifestyle. Instead, she and Hirst are going to the Amalfi coast for her birthday to eat crab, swim and drive on the whirly roads.

Writing is her priority. She is a homebody. When she does go out, she tries not to gush too hard at celebrities, though she made an exception Leonardo DiCaprio at the Oscars: he looks uncomfortable in my selfie.

Does she miss her former life? Not even remotely. Its hard because I think you are expected to be seen but I dont know if I need to be. I want to write.

She and Hirst are chillers. They like watching television and eating out  the manager of Le Caprice, where we meet, asks her to pass his regards to Hirst.

Now its all about Letting Go. She says: If you relate to anything about depression, grief and alcoholism, Id love you to see it and know youre so not alone. I wish Id known it would get better. I used to wake up crying but my life has done a 180-degree turn.

Follow Susannah Butter on Twitter: @susannahbutter

Coming soon on vimeo.com/lettinggo

Instagram @katiekeight
NATO members will likely agree during a summit meeting in Warsaw next month to designate cyber as an official operational domain of warfare, along with air, sea, land and space, a senior German defense ministry official said Wednesday.

Major General Ludwig Leinhos, who heads the German military's effort to build up a separate cyber command, told a conference at the Berlin air show that he expected all 28 NATO members to agree to the change during the coming Warsaw summit.

Leinhos, who previously held a senior job at NATO headquarters, said he also expected NATO members to agree to intensify their efforts in the cyber security arena.

The United States announced in 2011 that it viewed cyberspace as an operational domain of war, and said it would respond to hostile attacks in cyberspace as it would to any other threat.

Evert Dudok, a senior official with Europe's largest aerospace company Airbus Group SE, called for adoption of Europe-wide or global standards in the cyber arena.
A father-of-two who was stabbed to death after chatting to a group of women on a night out in Camden has been named by police.

Dutchman Romeo Nkansah, 37, was killed minutes after he started talking to the women in Greenland Road at around 3.30am on May 29.

Detectives say an argument broke out between him and a group of men the women knew before he was fatally stabbed at around 3.45am in Greenland Street.

Mr Nkansah, who lived in Holloway, was rushed to hospital but died from his injuries around an hour later.

CCTV: Police want to trace two women who may hold vital information / Met Police

A post-mortem carried out at St Pancras' Mortuary on Tuesday concluded he died from a single stab wound.

Police now want to trace two women caught on CCTV who may hold vital clues to what happened that night.

Detective Chief Inspector Jamie Piscopo, who is leading the investigation, said: "I would appeal to those people who were part of either group that Sunday morning to come forward and talk to police.

"It is clear that you may have vital information about the events that led up to Romeos murder and who is responsible.

Witnesses: Mr Nkansah was seen chatting to a group of women before he died / Met Police

There are two women in particular that we believe Romeo was trying to talk to and I would like to speak to them as a matter of urgency.

"This is a really popular and busy area, with a nightlife that runs until the early hours so I know there will be other people who may have seen something that have yet to come forward.

This is why we have taken the decision to release CCTV images of people seen in the area. If you are one of those shown in the images or know who is, please get in touch and help use with our enquiries."

Argument: Mr Nkansah was killed after an argument broke out, police believe / Met Police

He went on: Romeo was a loving and committed father of two, and a much loved brother and son.

"I would urge anyone who may have seen something, or knows the identity of Romeos murderer to get in touch with us and help us find answers for his family.

Anyone with information should call the incident room on 020 8345 3715, via 101, or contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A gang of gun-runners who shipped machine guns into Britain from the same European dealers who supplied the Charlie Hebdo terrorists are today facing jail.

The 22 AK47-style machine guns and nine Skorpion sub-machine guns  capable of unleashing carnage on a terrifying scale  were bought on the black market in Slovakia and smuggled into Britain by boat up the Medway, the Old Bailey heard.

National Crime Agency officers who smashed the crime ring said the seizure  the largest haul in British history  constituted four times as many weapons as used in the terror attacks in Paris in November last year.

They also linked the supply chain to the Charlie Hebdo massacre in the city in January last year. Rob Lewin, from the NCA, said: I think we have probably got very similar weapons to those that were used in the Charlie Hebdo attack.

The same supply route and the same methodology of deactivated and then reactivated. We think they have come from the same source in the same country.

It is believed the guns, for which some buyers had been lined up, were destined for gangs in London and the South-East rather than terrorists, but Mr Lewin said: The thing for us which is quite shocking is that we seized four times as much firepower in this job as was used in the recent Paris events.

Convicted: Michael Defraine / NCA

The mastermind, Harry Shilling, 25, from Swanley, Kent, and Michael Defraine, 30, from Bexleyheath, were both convicted today of importing firearms and possession of firearms with intent to endanger lives.

Shillings lieutenant Richard Rye, 24, from Swanley, skipper David Payne, 43, from Halling, and Christopher Owen, 30, from Cuxton, all in Kent, admitted smuggling the guns. Rye and Payne also admitted conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life.

Paynes girlfriend Jennifer Arthy, 42, and John Smale, 58, both from Rochester, were acquitted of smuggling firearms and conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: The defendants intended these guns to be used, and to be used with ammunition for the purpose for which they were designed  as lethal weapons capable of unleashing carnage on a terrifying scale  and they clearly intended to profit from doing so.

The Albernina boat was under surveillance from its departure in Boulogne until it arrived at Cuxton Marina in Kent on August 10 last year.

Payne texted Rye all done when it arrived and Shilling messaged Defraine to say: There home. Shilling then bragged: We now officially gangsters, and Defraine replied: F***ing nice one. Shilling then messaged: Duck and run for cover bitches.

At least one buyer was waiting for the shipment and the gang planned to bury the guns before more buyers were found when NCA officers swooped.

Judge Michael Topolski QC adjourned sentencing so that all the members of the gang could be brought to court.
A poker cheat who won almost 60,000 in a single game at an exclusive London casino has been jailed.

Russian Valeriy Mikhaylets, 57, cheated on several occasion during a Texas Holdem poker game at Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair and caused other players to lose 57,025.

His wins from November 30 and December 1, 2014 were placed on deposit with the casino.

In the weeks leading up to the competition, his play raised suspicion and when Mikhaylets returned to the casino on January 26, 2015, he was arrested for fraud.

Police found Mikhaylets, from Moscow, was in possession of two casino membership cards  one in his name and another in someone elses  and 2,000 in cash.

He was also found with playing cards, dice and sandpaper, which he claimed was for smoothing out card edges.

Mikhaylets was bailed but failed to return to police and a European Arrest Warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was arrested on April 9 crossing from Russia to Finland and later extradited to the UK where he was charged.

He pleaded guilty to one count of cheating at gambling and was sentenced to four months in prison at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.

Mikhaylets was also fined 86,000, ordered to pay 57,025 in compensation and 893.75 in costs and handed a deprivation order amounting to 50,000.

Detective Constable Mat Wake, from the Met's Serious and Organised Crime Command, said: Valeriy Mikhaylets was an accomplished cheat who made just short of 60,000 profit in one poker game using sleight of hand.

His sentence should act as a deterrent for those considering committing similar offences in Londons casinos.
E leven London nurses are giving up their holidays to help perform life-changing facial surgery in Ethiopia.

They will spend a fortnight as part of a 25-strong medical team sent by charity Project Harar to operate on 50 children and adults with major disfigurements.

The nurses, who work at Guys and St Thomas NHS trust and Great Ormond Street Hospital, will head to Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa from next week.

Lead nurse Catherine Collins, 31, who has been on three surgical missions run by Project Harar, said: Its two weeks of pure adrenaline. You get very little sleep, its stressful, and you spend a lot of hours working. And you come back to London and everyone says, How was your holiday?

The team, led by Professor Mark McGurk, maxillofacial surgeon at Guys Hospital, tackle conditions such as noma (a facial gangrene), huge tumours, animal attack injuries, burns and gunshot wounds. The surgery changes and saves lives in a country where such conditions are regarded as acts of God and sufferers are ostracised. Children are able to finally make friends. Adults have found jobs and got married.

Project Harar, based in Highgate, has treated more than 5,000 patients since it launched in 2001. It hopes to set a new record by treating 1,000 patients this year.@RossLydall

To donate to the mission, visit: justgiving.com/fundraising/surgicalmission
A world-renowned art collector killed after being knocked down by a bus in Oxford Street had devoted herself to raising money for childrens charities following her daughters suicide, a close friend revealed today.

Baroness Marion Lambert was on her way to meet renowned auctioneer and art dealer Simon de Pury to discuss her latest plans to raise money for young Syrian refugees when she was knocked down on Tuesday May 24.

The 73-year-old, who died in hospital on Saturday, raised millions for charity, with the NSPCC one of the major beneficiaries.

Her daughter Philippine took her own life in 1997 aged 20.

Swiss police investigated allegations of sexual abuse made by Philippine against a family friend in her suicide note, but after a protracted legal battle the public prosecutor in Geneva decided there was insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.

Mr de Pury, a friend of more than 25 years, said the death of Baroness Lamberts daughter had been heartbreaking for her family and added to their desire to help vulnerable children.

He said: I dont think anyone can ever get closure on losing a child. It was the worst thing that can happen to anyone. She did so much to raise money for the NSPCC and other charities after.

He added: Philanthropic issues were always on her agenda and I hope we will be able to continue some of her plans in her honour.

Mr de Pury also paid tribute to his extremely loyal friend.

I was struck by her enthusiasm and passion for art and her exceptional tastes.

Her son Henri, 37, a venture capitalist who lives in Earls Court, was devastated by her death, Mr de Pury said. Mr Lambert was too upset to speak last night.

Gordon Watson, art collector and presenter of BBC programme The Extraordinary Collector, which featured the sale of more than 300 pieces from her collection last month, also paid tribute to her.

He said: Her energy was legendary and my world will be a much blander, more sedate place without her.

Police are investigating the crash in which she died, where she was hit by a double-decker 73 bus at about 4.45pm. The bus driver stopped at the scene and has not been arrested.
A caretaker at one of Londons top public schools has launched a desperate appeal to the Home Office to allow his brother to visit the UK from Nigeria for a life-saving bone-marrow transplant.

Isaac Aganozor, who works at Dulwich College, was diagnosed with leukaemia in August and needs an urgent stem cell transplant from his brother Patrick, who lives with his family in Nigeria.

Patrick, a tricycle courier who earns 2.30 a day, was refused a visa to enter the UK as he did not meet economic requirements. This was despite the 36,000-a-year school offering to sponsor his month-long mercy mission and pay 1,500 for his return flight.

His brother Isaac, 44, who lives in Sydenham Hill, is being given regular high-dose chemotherapy sessions at St Bartholomews hospital but has been told that time is running out.

A search of the national donor database revealed that Patrick, 38, is a 50 per cent match for his brother, and the only realistic hope of his receiving the stem cells in time. Despite a letter from hospital specialists detailing Patricks status as the only available matching donor for the urgent stem cell transplant, he was refused a visa in April.

Man's plea for donor brother to be allowed into UK to save his life

A rejection letter from the British High Commission in Lagos, seen by the Standard, reads: You have stated your brother has acute myeloid leukaemia and you are to be a stem cell donor. I must take into account your personal socio-economic circumstances in Nigeria when reaching my decision. I note that you are a tricycle driver earning 69 a month in Nigeria but you state you have 1,500 for this trip.

Given your limited economic circumstances in Nigeria I am not satisfied that these provide you with an incentive to leave the UK at the end of your stay as claimed. Mr Aganozor, who has been off sick from work since December, said there is no danger that his brother will try to stay in the UK after the transplant as he has to care for his four-year-old daughter and ailing mother in Lagos.

Dulwich College is offering to sponsor his brother Patricks mercy mission

He said: I was so happy when I found out that my brother was a match. But when his application was rejected it was a bigger shock than getting told I had leukaemia in the first place. The immigration officers didnt consider my health, only economics. It is incredibly frustrating to know that the solution that could save my life is only six hours away by plane. I feel the sickness inside me, I dont know what to do. My life is gradually slipping away.

Simon Yiend, chief operating officer at Dulwich College, where Mr Aganozor has worked since April last year, said: Isaac is a quietly spoken, hard-working man who gets on with his job incredibly well. Im appalled by the Home Offices decision.

It is essentially because Patrick is a poor man that he cant come across to do the only thing he wants to do  save his brothers life.

I understand the concerns around immigration and people who want to take advantage of our system, but Patrick wants to go back to his family in Nigeria straight after the operation.

Nigeria was part of the Commonwealth yet we dont allow an individual in on humanitarian grounds for a mercy mission  it is disgusting.

Helen Hayes, the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, has held discussions with immigration minister James Brokenshire. But she was told a priority appeal for a new visa is necessary, which will require the involvement of specialist immigration lawyers.

She said: Im appalled that the Home Office is showing so little flexibility and compassion.

I am doing everything possible to press the Home Office to consider the new application as a matter of urgency, so that Patrick can travel before Isaacs health deteriorates further.

The Home Office confirmed: All cases are carefully considered on their individual merits and the onus is on the individual to provide the necessary supporting evidence to meet the UK immigration rules. We are sensitive to cases with compassionate circumstances but all visa applications must be assessed against the immigration rules. The applicant is free to submit a new application with supporting evidence.
P ollution from Londons increasingly slow buses is choking the city, according to a report published today.

Professor David Begg, former chairman of the Governments Commission for Integrated Transport, found some routes were now close to walking speed as they pushed more toxic fumes into the air.

One of the worst routes was named as the 11 from Fulham Town Hall to Liverpool Street station, which averaged just 4mph at peak times.

Professor Begg said the main cause of the extra pollution was that worsening gridlock had caused bus fuel efficiency to drop by more than a third since the millennium.

He said: Stop-start conditions caused by congestion are a key factor (and) lower operating speeds are bad for pollution.

Congestion dramatically increases carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles.

Under heavily congested conditions tailpipe emissions can be increased by a factor of three or four times.

Professor Beggs report, commissioned by the Greener Journeys campaign group, also blamed the explosion in on-demand Uber cars and delivery vans from online retailers such as Amazon for worsening congestion.

Professor Begg called for minicabs, including Uber and other car services, not to be exempted from 11.50 daily Congestion Charge.

Slower speeds also led to the capital facing one of the fastest declines in bus use anywhere in the UK, said Professor Begg, which he urged Mayor Sadiq Khan to prioritise.

Garrett Emmerson, TfLs chief operating officer for surface transport, said: Were doing everything possible to mitigate congestion, including deploying a team of new on-street officers to clear obstructions and move unlawfully stopped vehicles.

Professor Begg report follow World Health Organisation findings that London is among the worst capitals in Europe for toxic air.

Londons concentration of PM2.5 microgrammes per cubic metre is about a third higher than New York and Copenhagen and on a par with Athens.

The WHO said that PM2.5 - which contains pollutants such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon - poses a grave risk to human health.
T wo police officers were injured when a man charged at them with an axe in south-west London.

Police in Kingston were called to an address in New Malden at 4.20pm on Wednesday by ambulance crews to reports of a man acting aggressively as a result of mental health problems.

Officers discovered while en route to the house that a 52-year-old man had armed himself with an axe inside.

Taser officers were called as backup but those at the scene approached the house after they heard screams coming from inside.

As police officers walked towards the home, with their shields drawn, they were confronted by a man who appeared angry and agitated.

As they attempted to calm him down, the man suddenly grabbed an axe and charged at the officers who eventually overpowered him using their shields.

Two officers were injured during the struggle and were treated at the scene for minor cuts and bruises. They have since returned to duty.

The man was disarmed and taken to a nearby hospital to receive treatment.
P olice who seized a 200,000 Lamborghini claiming it had no insurance took it for a spin on the way to the pound and drove it at twice the legal speed limit, it is claimed.

Officers confiscated the Huracan supercar after checks mistakenly showed that it had no insurance, but as it was being driven to the pound the cars hidden tracker recorded it reaching speeds of 47 mph, 53 mph, and 63 mph in 30 mph zones.

The car, owned by City Supercars, a London-based luxury car hire company, was pulled over yesterday as a delivery driver was taking it to be collected by a client at a hotel near Heathrow Airport.

City Supercars managing director Erwyn Mackee said there was confusion because the company had recently changed its insurance company and the new details had not registered on the national insurance database.

The owners filmed police as the car was pulled over

He said the Met officers refused to believe a letter he sent to them from the insurance broker saying he could have photoshopped the document.

Mr Mackee, 32, said : Eventually they said they were going to impound the car.

City supercars

"But each of our cars has a tracker fitted so we can follow what is happening to them and I could not believe it when I saw the car was being driven over double the speed limit.

The police pound is just across the road from where the car was stopped but the officer obviously decided to take the long way round.

The tracker records show the car being driven on the North Perimeter Road in Hounslow at speeds of 53mph, 47 mph and 63 mph - all in a 30 mph limit.

Mr Mackee posted a Tweet to @MetPolice saying : Your officers unlawfully impounded our Lamborghini tonight&went for joy ride at over double speed limit.

There was no reply to the Tweet.

Mr Mackee told the Standard : The information on the tracker is seen by the insurance company and can affect my insurance. It is going to be difficult to explain to them that it was the police who were speeding.

It is quite annoying, the police charged us 50 to take the car out of the pound when we finally gave them the insurance documents. But I have a sense of humour about it, I cannot really blame them, it is a lovely car and they obviously enjoyed it. 

Mr Mackee, whose company also hires out Ferraris, Aston Martins and Bentleys, added he was going to make a formal complaint about the police actions to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The Met said it was investigating the incident today.
A sharp decrease in the number of public toilets in the UK is denying elderly and disabled people a vital human right, campaigners say.

Figures from the British Toilet Association show 1,700 toilets have closed across the UK over the past decade, in cuts blamed on tightened local authority budgets.

Raymond Martin, the association's managing director, told The Times the Government needs to introduce legislation forcing councils to provide enough facilities for disabled people or tourists.

He told the paper: "They are valuable to everyday life.

"If the government wants us to live healthily and enjoy our green spaces and get off our sofas and out walking in open spaces, we have to have the infrastructure and part of that is having public toilets.

"People will use alleyways, railway tracks, street defecation, as more toilets close down."

Caroline Abrahams, charity director for Age UK, warned older people were more likely to stay at home without the facilities.

She told the paper: "For an older person to have their life restricted in this way can have serious consequences for their self-confidence and their capacity to remain part of the community."

According to Freedom of Information requests from the BBC, Wandsworth borough doesn't have a single council-run loo, something the local authority firmly denies.

A Wandsworth council spokesman said: We do provide public toilets in Battersea Park, Tooting Common, Wandsworth Common, in all of our town centres and several other busy locations across the borough.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association told the BBC councils were running community toilet schemes at shops, bars and restaurants to make up the shortfall as they had less to spend on community services.
Thailand's military-led cabinet could formally agree as soon as next week to pursue Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) membership after clear signals from cabinet members in favor of joining history's most expansive trade agreement.

Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told Japanese business leaders in Tokyo that Thailand would ask Japan for its support in joining the U.S.-led trade pact when it considers additional members in 2018.

Commerce Minister Apiradi Tantraporn, who leads a TPP preparation committee, also said Tuesday the kingdom needs to improve its competitiveness to prepare to join the trade pact. After a visit to Washington in April, Apiradi said the U.S. government had encouraged Bangkok to modify rules and regulations in numerous sectors if it wants to become a signatory.

Thai diplomatic officer Jesda Tivayanond, who is attached to the prime minister's office, told VOA on Wednesday that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is to meet next week with his international economic advisory team to discuss Thailand's TPP membership application.

A formal TPP decision by the cabinet could occur during its June 8 meeting, according to government officials.

Speaking at an event in late March organized by the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Prayuth noted, "eventually we will have to join the TPP," but he gave no timeline.

Prayuth, who led the military coup against the civilian government in May, 2014, said his military-led government, however, could find itself facing public protests -- which the junta has outlawed -- against the controversial trade pact.

Farmers have threatened to organize demonstrations if Thailand decides to pursue TPP membership, according to domestic media reports.

The chairman of the National Farmers' Council, Prapat Panyachatrak, was more cautious on Wednesday when contacted by VOA, saying "we need more time" to make a decision on the organization's position on TPP.

Prapat, a former environment minister and deputy agriculture minister, has previously expressed concern that Thailand's inclusion in TPP could run small farmers out business and predicted "confrontation" if the government becomes a member of the free trade group.

Farmers raising pigs and chickens would be most affected because of potential imports of cheap pork and poultry from the United States, according to advocacy groups in Thailand.
J eremy Corbyn supporters were today condemned by Labour MP Chuka Umunna after they hissed at BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg.

Mr Umunna said he agreed with a tweet that people needed to get a grip after the journalist was abused when she was chosen to ask a question at the end of the Labour leaders speech.

Mr Corbyn was speaking earlier in central London about the upcoming EU referendum and appeared to smile faintly and held up a hand to signal to the crowd to stop the hissing.

Journalists at the event condemned the crowd behaviour as pathetic and disgraceful.

Conor Pope tweeted: Laura Kuenssberg just got booed by Labour supporters for wanting to ask Corbyn a question. Pathetic. People need to get a grip.

Mr Umunna, MP for Streatham, said he agreed with the post.

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg

Adam Hampton wrote: Corbyn followers and activists hissing like snakes at people doing the their job. Meanwhile, Corbyn is doing what exactly? Nothing. Pathetic.

While another added: Utterly Infantile Corbyn fans hissing at @bbclaurak before a she's even asked question?? Making a total show of themselves! #beyondpathetic.

Ms Kuenssberg later tweeted an ironic reference to Mr Corbyns speech, saying: Corbyn also mentioned importance of free press in his speech ...just sayin.

The incident comes after an online petition launched by Corbyn backers to get Ms Keunnsberg fired from her job, which sparked a campaign of trolling that Labour MP Jess Phillips denounced as institutionalised sexism.

It also comes on the heels of a documentary by Vice News in which Mr Corbyn claimed the BBC was obsessed with trying to damage his leadership.
K en Livingstone has defended his controversial comments about Hitler, claiming the Labour Party anti-Semitism row had been "blown out of proportion to smear Jeremy Corbyn."

Speaking at the Oxford Union last night, the former London Mayor blamed "embittered MPs" for branding him an anti-Semite over his controversial remarks about Hitler.

Mr Livingstone was suspended from the Labour Party over his claim Hitler supported Zionism.

His comments sparked a row with fellow Labour MP John Mann, which was broadcast on live television, and saw Mr Livingstone branded a "disgrace" and a "Nazi apologist".

Mr Livingstone, who was suspended by the Labour leader in April, last night defended his comments, saying they were "historical fact" and comparable to "1+1=2".

He claimed he had been a victim of a well-orchestrated campaign against the party by the Israel lobby.

He said: "I think this has been largely manufactured by people trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.

"If someone says something anti-Semitic they will be expelled but you can't expel someone for telling the truth."

When questioned by Robert Harris, the union's president, on the outrage and disgust his remarks had caused, Mr Livingstone said: "I put all of this in my autobiography five years ago and no one said anything then.

"Embittered MPs (think) here we can start screaming at Ken Livingstone, 'Nazi apologist' and so on, and create all this stuff about anti-Semitism."

Mr Livingstone added that he had refused to apologise throughout his career when he had faced criticism for making similar remarks.

"When I have gone through lots of people saying I should apologise to this reporter or apologise for saying Hitler was a supporter of Zionism... I have never apologised," he said.
B ritains first plastic banknote, which features an iconic photograph of Sir Winston Churchill, has been unveiled.

The wipe clean and tear-resistant 5 note was revealed at Blenheim Palace today  the birth place of Sir Winston in 1874.

The new note will begin being issued in September and becomes the first durable and secure polymer note to be used by the Bank of England.

Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, said: Our banknotes are testaments to the outstanding achievements of the nation's greatest individuals.

"They are repositories of the United Kingdom's collective memory.

Unveiled: The new 5 note will come in to circulation in the autumn / Joe Giddens/PA

"That contribution will continue with the new 5, which brings together the future, in the form of polymer and the most advanced security features yet, and Britain's glorious history, in the achievements of Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.

Paying tribute to the wartime prime ministers part in British history, Mr Carney added: This spirit is just one, only one, of his many contributions that the Bank commemorates with the new fiver.

Sir Winston's grandson, Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames, said the note was "a wonderful tribute" and thought the man himself would have liked it.

Speaking at the launch, he said: "I think he would regard it as an amazing tribute.

Timeline: History of the five pound note

"When he was a young man I think he used to get through a fair bit of the stuff himself, so I think he probably would have thought it unlikely he would ever feature on a bank note himself.

"I think it's a wonderful tribute and it's a living tribute."

The new design is set to enter circulation in the autumn with a first print-run of 440 million notes, marking the start of the old notes' withdrawal. The current 5 notes feature prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.

The announcement by the Bank of England in 2013 that Fry was being replaced caused an outcry as it could have meant that, apart from the Queen, there would be no female faces on the UK's notes.

Thousands of people signed a petition in protest at the move, and it was subsequently announced that novelist Jane Austen would be the face of the new 10 note from 2017.

Like the new fiver, the new 10 and 20 notes will also be printed on polymer.

In April, the Bank announced that artist JMW Turner will appear on the next 20 banknote, due to be issued by 2020.

Australia introduced the world's first plastic bank notes in 1988 and more than 30 countries have since followed suit.
A student has told of the terrifying moment a British Airways captain announced to passengers the plane they were travelling on had been the subject of a "bomb" threat.

The passenger plane from Heathrow to New Jersey received a threat before it was due to land at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday

The Boeing 777-200, which was carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members, landed safely shortly after 6pm UK time and was greeted by scores of police and firefighters.

Annie Fielding, 21, who was travelling to the United States with her brother Jacob, 20, and parents Frank and Karen, said the captain calmly told passengers they had to leave the aircraft immediately after it landed.

She told the Standard: When we landed, the captain said there was a threat made against the aircraft but he thought it was a hoax.

But you can never be so sure with things that are happening recently.

He was calm on the announcement. I think they found out in the flight and couldnt say anything to us. All the staff stayed calm  they had to be calm.

It seemed like everyone was really nervous when I looked around the plane.

My dad said to me dont worry, Im sure it will be fine. When I looked outside and saw all the police, it was really scary.

Safe: Annie Fielding was travelling with her parents Frank and Karen when the captain made the shock announcement / Annie Fielding

Miss Fielding, a fine arts student at the University of the Arts London, said passengers were told to get off the plane about 50 people at a time, and were all told to put their phones away.

She continued: I was scared. One older woman looked terrified but when I looked outside before I got off the plane, there was a young girl and her mum crying.

Everyone seemed really nervous and on edge.

Passengers on flight BA185 left the aircraft with their hand luggage and were ordered to place it down on the tarmac outside the plane for sniffer dogs to examine.

Miss Fielding, from Greenwich, said cabin crew also told travellers to put their phones away, adding they would confiscate them if they saw them in use.

She added the atmosphere outside the aircraft was tense and silent.

After bags had been examined, passengers were allowed to pass through security and continue with their journey.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police spokesman Joe Pentangelo said: K-9 has swept the cabin of the aircraft, negative results.

Passenger luggage has been off loaded and is being screened by US Customs.

The student added: I felt at ease once I got off the plane. I just wanted to get off the plane after they told us [about the threat].

I come every summer to America for a holiday and to see family and I have never had anything like that happen before.

A British Airways spokesman told the Standard: "The aircraft has landed normally. Security checks will carried out as a precaution.

"We do not discuss details of operational security. The safety and security of our customers and crew is our number one priority."
A hero pilot who died when his helicopter was shot down by elephant poachers in Tanzania was unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled.

Roger Gower, 37, suffered a head injury and a gunshot wound to his shoulder and leg when he came under fire while flying over a wildlife reserve.

He and a colleague, Nick Bester, were helping the Tanzanian authorities to track ivory hunters when they were attacked, on January 29.

Mr Gower heroically managed to crash land the helicopter despite his injuries, but it took several hours for a doctor to reach him because of the remote location they were stranded in.

Mr Bester told West London coroners court this afternoon how he broke his back in the crash, but still managed to pull Mr Gower out of the wrecked helicopter and out of sight of the gun-toting poachers.

He said Mr Gower, from Feltham in west London, made his last sound just five minutes before a doctor finally got to them several hours later.

Coroner Jeremy Chipperfield ruled: "There is very little doubt in my mind that it was an unlawful killing.

"Roger was involved in heroic and important work when he was attacked by suspected elephant poachers.

"Injuries sustained from the bullet wounds and the crash when the helicopter landed caused his death."

Wreckage: Mr Gower's aircraft was fired on as he tracked elephant poachers in Tanzania / Wildlife At Risk

Birmingham-born Mr Gower lived on the Mwiba Wildlife Ranch in Tanzania that he was patrolling at the time of his death.

Mr Bester said they were following up reports of gunfire and looking for dead elephants when they spotted one of the animals lying prone with its tusks missing.

They landed to investigate but as they took off again, the helicopter came under fire "from the bushes below".

"As he attempted to gain altitude and retreat a bullet came through the bottom of the helicopter hitting Roger", he said.

"I looked over and saw that Roger had been badly wounded, his right forearm was shattered and hung limp, his shoulder was also seriously damaged. He had a visible wound on his right eyebrow.

"Roger could no longer control the helicopter due to his wounds and we steadily went downwards to the ground.

"We crashed in to the ground eventually coming to a halt, leaning to the left, the helicopter on its side."

Mr Bester said he broke his back on impact but managed to struggle free from the wreckage and got Mr Gower out as well.

"He had great difficulty in standing and I had to make him lie down while I retrieved the first aid kit, radio and GPS", he said.

Mr Bester said he bandaged the wounds and radioed in their position, all the while hiding from the poachers in dense bushes, but he noticed that the bullet had pierced Mr Gower's skull.

Shot: Roger Gower, 37, survived the impact of the crash

He was himself too injured to bandage a wound to his colleague's right thigh, and it was not until two hours later that help first arrived.

The men sent to help had been forced to swim through a river to reach the pair, and only had limited medical supplies with them.

The doctor took "several hours" to reach the scene, the court heard, because of recent flooding, and despite CPR Mr Gower could not be revived.

"Roger last made sound about five minutes before the doctor arrived", added Mr Bester. "Up until this point he had been conscious to semi-conscious."

Mr Chipperfield recorded the cause of death as acute blood loss from head injuries.

The inquest heard Mr Gower was a trained accountant, but gave up his job to pursue his dream as a wildlife helicopter pilot.

His parents and brother Max were in court for today's hearing. They have set up the Roger Gower Memorial Fund in his memory, and have already raised 250,000 towards the development of a school in Kenya.
P rince Harry got told off by a 91-year-old D-Day veteran for not wearing a bloody tie at a Normandy invasion anniversary event.

The prince met 45 veterans at Southwick House near Portsmouth, where the Allied commanders planned the military action that charged the course of the Second World War.

But as Harry arrived on Thursday, he became aware he was under-dressed for the occasion.

He asked John Phipps, founder of the D-Day Revisited charity, which organises visits to the Normandy beaches each year: "Are they all wearing ties in there? I should have worn a tie. Oh well, it's too late now."

When the prince met Ivor Anderson, a sapper in the 591 Para Squadron Royal Engineers, he was told off jokingly for not wearing the right attire.

Telling off: Ivor Anderson, 91, told the prince he should have worn a "bloody tie" / Ben Mitchell/PA Wire

Harry replied to him: "I was told not to wear a tie and then you all turn up wearing ties, I feel under-dressed."

Afterwards, Mr Anderson, from Salford, Manchester, said: "I told him he should wear a bloody tie.

I said I had a spare one, he said he couldn't wear mine because he didn't have his wings."

Speaking to the veterans, Harry said: "I have so much respect for you guys - running off a boat on to those beaches."

He continued to wish the group well on their trip to France for the commemorations and added: "Don't get into trouble and if you do, don't get caught."

D-Day Revisited has been organising trips for the annual pilgrimage to France for D-Day veterans since 2008, providing medical support as many of the retired servicemen get older and less mobile.
T he Duke of Edinburgh was back on public duty today visiting a hostel for homeless military veterans  and met a resident who once stood guard at Buckingham Palace.

Just days after being forced to pull out of the Battle of Jutland commemorations on medical advice, Philip toured the Veterans Aid hostel in Limehouse, east London.

The Duke chatted to Army Air Corps veteran Nathan Rooke, 25, who was stationed at the palace in 2009 and is now among the first to occupy a room at refurbished New Belvedere House,

Mr Rooke, who served with 4 Squadron from 2007 to 2011 as an aviation communications specialist, told the Duke how he fell on hard times after leaving the services.

He said: My relationship broke down and I lost my job and it just spiraled downwards after that.

The Duke spoke to veteran Nathan Rooke at the charity event / AFP

I found myself on the streets. All I had was my guitar and a bag of clothes and my screaming eagle belt buckle from my days in the Army Air Corps, said musician Mr Rooke, from the West Country.

He was advised to contact Veterans Aid, who told him they would help if he got to London.

I busked my way to London and Veterans Aid were amazing. I was put up in a hotel at first and given money to get something to eat. I just burst into tears, added Mr Rooke.

The charity has now paid for him to attend a sound engineers course and bought him a computer so he can work on his music.

Along with another resident, Ross de Freitas, he has composed a song called Hearts and Minds about the experiences faced by veterans when they fall on hard times.

The Duke, who turns 95 next week, was at the hostel to see work on the ongoing 7 million refurbishment project.

Today was his first public engagement after he was advised not to travel to Orkney for the Jutland centenary commemorations.

Son-in-law Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence said Philip had been very frustrated and disappointed to miss out but it would have been unwise at the Dukes age to go and stand in a windswept cemetery for a long period.

The prince has appeared to be in robust health recently, accompanying the Queen in Windsor during her 90th birthday celebrations last month.

Veterans Aid was started in 1932 in response to the homelessness caused by poverty and unemployment among the ex-service community.

CEO Dr Hugh Milroy said, The New Belvedere House makeover project is the largest single investment of money, human resource and community engagement in the charitys history and it is on track to deliver a facility that will change the way people think about hostels.

The Duke of Edinburgh has attended all of our carol concerts but this is the first time he has seen how money raised by donors and supporters translates into delivery of practical help. We were delighted and honoured when he accepted our invitation to visit..

Phase One of the flagship hostels 7m upgrade and refurbishment was completed in January. This enabled 12 veterans from the main hostel to move into four flats, fitted out to the highest standards with the help of volunteers from Bloomberg and Habitat for Humanity.

Readers of the Evening Standard raised 700,000 for homeless veterans with our 2014 Christmas appeal, which gained the support of Prince William and David Cameron.

Actors and sportsmen, including Stephen Fry, Angelina Jolie Pitt, James Blunt and David Beckham, also gave their backing.

To donate directly to Veterans Aid visit this link
A supermarket was forced to scrap a discount deal after canny shoppers realised they could buy bottles of prosecco for 2.63 each.

Three Sainsbury's deals stacked on top of each other led to the bargain price. The fizz was on offer at 7.50 a bottle.

Shoppers were given a further 25 percent off if they bought six bottles. A third deal for a voucher code gave new online shoppers 18 off if they spent more than 60, bringing the overall price per bottle down to 2.63.

People rushed to take advantage of the deal when alerted to it on the Money Saving Expert website.

Withdrawn: Sainsbury's scrapped its prosecco offer after a surge of shoppers noticed they could buy it for a much cheaper price

Soon news of the bargain price spread on social media with users boasting about how much money they had saved.

One wrote on Twitter: "My mum is currently sat waiting for her Sainsbury's order that consists of 12 bottles of prosecco.

While Mollie Kerry posted: "Six bottles of prosecco from Sainsbury's, should be 60 but came to 33.75, you heard it here first."

However, on Tuesday shoppers were sent an email that explained the offer had been withdrawn because of depleting stocks.

Customers were told those who had ordered online but not received their delivery would now be charged the full 10, with a voucher making up the difference as compensation.

A Sainsbury's spokeswoman told the Times: "Our prosecco offer has been extremely popular and, as with all offers, was subject to availability. We understand that some customers may be disappointed so, as a gesture of goodwill, have offered them e-vouchers."

Some users of the Money Saving Expert website threatened to boycott the supermarket after voicing their unhappiness with the compensatory vouchers.
A shipping magnates son walked free from court today after being cleared of harassing the grieving father of a woman who accused him of rape.

Alexander Economou, 37, was accused of a vendetta by branding Eleanor de Freitas as a prostitute and bombarding her father David with threatening emails and letters.

He set up a website in Miss de Freitas name after she killed herself, said to have been part of an 11-month campaign against Mr de Freitas. However, Economou, from Chelsea, argued that this was the only way he could defend his reputation.

Miss de Freitas had accused him of rape in 2013, but the case was never pursued against him. In response, he launched a 200,000 private prosecution which was eventually taken over by the CPS.

In April 2014, three days before she was due to stand trial for perverting the course of justice, Miss de Freitas, 23, a trainee accountant, killed herself at the family home in Fulham.

Magistrate Tan Ikram today cleared Economou of harassment, saying his campaign would have been upsetting and embarrassing to Mr de Freitas by calling his daughter a call-girl and a liar.

Eleanor de Freitas killed herself three days before a court case brought against her

However, he said: I find the defendants actions were calculated to counter the continuing incorrect assertions that the allegation of rape was true. The material published was relevant to his innocence.

He said it had been robust and uncompromising and had caused offence, but added: The prosecution have been unable to satisfy me to the criminal standard that his conduct was oppressive, nor in all the circumstances unreasonable.

Economou was accused of pursuing a vendetta between November 2014 and October last year, including hand-delivering a letter to Mr de Freitas on the eve of his daughters inquest which said: Keep quiet or face the consequences.

Mr de Freitas had spoken out in the media after his daughters death, attacking the Crown Prosecution Services decision to bring the case against Miss de Freitas, who suffered from bipolar disorder, and asserting that the rape claim had been true.

In response Economou set up the website, eleanordefreitas.com, accusing her of working as a prostitute and featuring footage of her buying sex toys.

He sent explicit pictures of Miss de Freitas to Mr de Freitas solicitor, which was seen by her father, as part of his case that sex had been consensual as part of a relationship.

He said he was setting the facts straight because he had been accused of rape. Colin Gibson, defending, said: My clients desperate attempts to get the truth across in this case were something that Mr de Freitas wouldnt accept.

Mr Ikram issued a restraining order against Economou from contacting the de Freitas family. He said: There has been upset and distress caused.

Economou is also suing Mr de Freitas for libel, in a case due to be heard this month.
A British Airways plane has been surrounded by police in New Jersey after a threat was reportedly made against the passenger jet.

The flight, carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members, arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport at about 1pm local time [6pm BST].

The British Airways aircraft, which is believed to have arrived from Heathrow, has reportedly been moved to a remote section of the airport and is surrounded by police and emergency crews.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police spokesman Joe Pentangelo said the passengers checked bags and carry-ons will be rescreen as a precaution.

A British Airways spokesman told the Standard: "The aircraft has landed normally. Security checks will carried out as a precaution.

"We do not discuss details of operational security. The safety and security of our customers and crew is our number one priority."
Three North Korean women who recently defected from a restaurant in China have arrived in South Korea, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday.

The ministry declined to say how they made their way to Seoul, but sources said they came via Thailand and have been here for a few days.

According to the source, the three women are from Pyongyang. Two were born in 1987 and one a year later.

They had been working in a North Korean restaurant in Shenyang, Liaoning Province but moved to a joint North Korean-Chinese shabu-shabu restaurant in Weinan, Shannxi Province because business was bad.

From there they were able to escape, the source said.


T he first US patient to be given a penis transplant has hailed the operation a success after leaving hospital - but admitted it took him a few days to look at his new bodypart.

Thomas Manning was given a dead donors organ during gruelling surgery lasting 15 hours at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Now, three weeks later, he is travelling with his mother and a family friend back to his home in Halifax, Massachusetts, looking forward to a spaghetti dinner and a night in his own bed.

Mr Manning, 64, said as he prepared to leave his hospital room: "We're going to go home, just take it easy, have a nice, relaxing night.

Meet the first man in the U.S. to have a penis transplant.mp4

"It's almost all over. The worst of it is all done."

After two follow-up surgeries, Mr Manning says he can urinate normally and walk around. But sexual function is still months away, and reproduction is impossible because he did not receive new testes.

Mr Manning, whose penis was amputated after he was diagnosed with penile cancer in 2012, never married and has no children.

When he described looking under the bandages for the first time, he became emotional. He still has dozens of stitches and the swelling has yet to subside.

'It' over': Thomas Manning chats with nurses / AP Photo/Elise Amendola

"It took me a few days to look at it, so confidence comes and goes," he said, blinking away tears.

"It's one of those things that, if you look at it, it doesn't look too good."

But he is optimistic that he will make a full recovery in the coming months and that his body will accept the transplant. Through it all, Mr Manning said he had not felt any pain from the surgery.

"I got the A-Team here," he said. "They've been taking care of me like you can't imagine. I'm recovering no matter what they do to me."

Mr Manning is the third man in the world to receive a new penis, following transplants in South Africa in 2014 and China in 2005.

Additional reporting by the Press Association.
D ownton star Elizabeth McGovern will be reunited with the shows creator Julian Fellowes for her next project  and hopes to start filming this year.

The actress, who played the Countess of Grantham in the ITV drama, is appearing at the National Theatre as the wife of a CIA agent in a new play set in Greece in the Sixties and Seventies.

She is also set to take on the title role in The Chaperone, based on a novel about silent film star Louise Brookss early days in Twenties New York as a dance student and her relationship with the older woman who looks after her.

McGovern, 54, has her fingers crossed that work will start on the film, which she has developed over many years. She convinced Lord Fellowes, 66, to write the screenplay.

She said: It is the story of a young Louise Brooks who  at the age of 15 before she became a very famous silent movie star  moved from Kansas to New York in order to study dance.

Its a fictional tale based on the idea that she was accompanied by a middle-aged chaperone, and its about the relationship between the two in changing America.

Downton Abbey: keepsakes

McGoverns turn at the National in Sunset At The Villa Thalia is her first theatre role since she signed up for Downton Abbey in 2009.

The US star said she had not planned her stage return but was attracted to Alexi Kaye Campbells play, about two couples who meet on a remote Greek island at a time of political upheaval, by the writing.

She said: I never really strategise, I always just respond to writing that I like and it is interesting because Julian is a writer who was once an actor and so is Alexi, and for me they both write for actors so its just such a pleasure for me to go from one to another.

It really predates Downton, my desire to work at the National, and for me it is literally every dream come true.

Ive been living in the country for 22 years and have seen so much work here and never really thought I would be one of those actors that could actually be on the stage.
A fter months of waiting, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May finally announced the name of their new Amazon series in May.

While The Grand Tour might not have been the title that many were expecting (Gear Knobs was apparently an early working title), it did reveal the idea behind the new series.

The show will see the original Top Gear presenting trio head around the globe to film all kinds of vehicular mayhem in front of live audiences.

The first stop on the tour will be Johannesburg, as revealed by Jeremy Clarkson on Twitter.

So there we are. First stop on our Grand Tour is Johannesburg. Mid July, he confirmed, adding: Details on how to get tickets follow shortly.

He also confirmed that the tour will "definitely" come to "several places" in Europe.

Amazon will be giving away free tickets to the Johannesburg studio (or giant tent, apparently) recording to competition winners, with fans asked to share a photo of the most unusual place theyve ever put up a tent.

Top Gear: Clarkson's last episode - in pictures 1 /9 Top Gear: Clarkson's last episode - in pictures Clarkson, Hammond and May bbc James May and Richard Hammond present their final episode Ellis O'Brien/BBC/PA Wire The trio of presenters star in footage shot before Clarkson's departure Ellis O'Brien/BBC/PA Wire What would a Top Gear special be without caravans? Ellis O'Brien/BBC/PA Wire Hammond, Clarkson and May BBC Hammond, May and Clarkson Ellis O'Brien/BBC/PA Wire Car trouble BBC

Clarkson, Hammond and May will hand-pick three entries, who will receive tickets, travel and accommodation for the Johannesburg shoot.

Viewers switch off as revamped Top Gear fails to impress

Fans of the trio will be eagerly waiting to see how The Grand Tour compares with the newly re-launched Top Gear  which saw opinions split over new hosts Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc.

The Grand Tour is due to arrive on Amazon Prime this autumn.
North Korea state TV on Wednesday broadcast footage of a ballistic missile launched from a submarine in April.

In a propaganda program, leader Kim Jong-un is seen watching the missile spouting flames and soaring into the air. Other senior officials look on and cheer.

The footage coincided with a cap-in-hand visit to China by Kim's special envoy Ri Su-yong and came only a day after yet another attempt by the North to launch a mid-range Musudan missile failed disastrously.

Pundits speculate that this is deliberate posturing. "It's their message that they won't change their policy of seeking nuclear and economic development in tandem ahead of talks with China," said Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University.

Indeed, if Ri's mission was to charm China into easing sanctions and end the North's growing international isolation, he did himself no favors by delivering a message to that effect to Song Tao, the head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Liaison Department.

Ri told Song the North would seek both nuclear and economic development "permanently," according to the official [North] Korean Central News Agency.

The program also showed a rocket from a 300 mm multiple rocket launcher striking an island in the East Sea, the launch of a surface-to-air missile and a Scud missile, and rockets fired from the ground and a helicopter destroying a disused tank.


The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese negotiators in stalled six-party talks with North Korea on Wednesday agreed that pressure rather than negotiations are necessary in dealing with the Kim Jong-un regime.

The three envoys met in Tokyo.

"Firm international pressure needs to continue" to get North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons and missile programs, South Korea's chief negotiator Kim Hong-kyun told reporters.

Kim added that the three countries will "further encourage" the implementation of UN Security Council sanctions against the North and bolster their roles in implementing them.

The envoys met on the 90th day since UNSC Resolution 2270 against North Korea was passed to assess its effectiveness and discuss their future moves.

The meeting was overshadowed by an unexpected visit to China by senior North Korean official Ri Su-yong, who told his hosts that his country's nuclear program is "permanent."
A North Korean propaganda mouthpiece called U.S. Republican Party's presumptive candidate Donald Trump a "wise politician" and "farsighted presidential candidate."

The assessment of the bizarrely coiffed property developer was apparently based on his ill-informed remarks that the U.S. should stop paying for South Koreas defense.

But the DPRK Today website dismissed the Democratic Party's likely candidate Hillary Clinton, who is a more traditional hawk, as "dull."

The assessment came in a column by self-described Korean-Chinese academic Han Yong-mook on the DPRK Today website on Wednesday.

Han says that the Republican candidate is creating a "Trump shock" by bringing up issues such as South Korea's "free security ride on U.S. taxpayers' money," "pullout of the U.S. forces from South Korea," and direct Washington-Pyongyang conversation.

"This has put South Korea's foreign affairs and security officials on alert," he adds.

"There are many positive sides in Trump's campaign promises," the column says. "Trump said he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North, isn't this fortunate from North Korea's perspective?"

"Who knew that the slogan 'Yankee Go Home' would come true like this? The day when the 'Yankee Go Home' slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean reunification," it adds.

"The president that U.S. citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary, who claimed to adapt the Iranian model to resolve nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula, but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea."
Chinese President Xi Jinping made no mention of North Korea's nuclear program in a meeting with the renegade country's former foreign minister Ri Su-yong on Wednesday.

Xi merely voiced hopes of "strengthened dialogue" and trotted out the familiar formula urging "all parties to remain calm and exercise restraint," according to Xinhua News.

But he told Ri, now director of the Workers Party's International Relations Department, that Beijing's stance is "consistent and clear."

In a meeting with North Korean envoy Choe Ryong-hae three years ago, Xi did use the word "denuclearization," but not this time.
Thirteen state senators  including five Republicans  pushed back Monday against Gov. Pete Ricketts call that platform Republicans, who will consistently support his positions, be elected to the Nebraska Legislature.

In a public statement, the senators expressed concern that Ricketts was trying to add partisanship to Nebraskas officially nonpartisan Legislature and noted that the states constitution calls for a separation of powers between the Governors Office and the Legislature.

Governor Ricketts believes political party trumps principle, the state senators wrote. Our nonpartisan, unicameral legislature has lasted for 80 years, and, barring the will of the people for a new legislative experiment, we will not surrender our nonpartisan and constitutional duties.

Ricketts had made his comments at the state Republican convention on May 14.

A spokesman for the governor provided a brief response Monday night: Gov. Ricketts respects the separation of powers delineated in the constitution. It is appropriate in a public forum for the governor, or anyone else, to point out the public votes cast by legislators. The collective will of the voters is greater than the will of any elected official.

The lawmakers in their statement quoted George Norris, the former U.S. senator and founder of the states nonpartisan, unicameral Legislature: Qualifications, not politics, should be the criterion for public service.

Today, his message is more important than ever, the senators wrote. We support the Nebraska Constitution and not any particular political party.

The senators signing the letter were Laura Ebke of Crete (Republican); Mike Gloor of Grand Island (Republican); Ernie Chambers (independent), Tanya Cook (Democrat), Burke Harr (Democrat), Sara Howard (Democrat), Bob Krist (Republican) and Heath Mello (Democrat), all of Omaha; Colby Coash (Republican), Kathy Campbell (Republican), Adam Morfeld (Democrat) and Patty Pansing Brooks (Democrat), all of Lincoln; and Kate Sullivan (Democrat) of Cedar Rapids.

They said: Individually we are Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Independents. Together we are the singular Nebraska Legislature  an institution which operates through collaboration and expertise to uphold its distinct powers and privileges to create laws and policies.

The statement was released Monday, Memorial Day, but was written by committee over the past couple of weeks, expressing ideas all the senators could agree on, Harr said by phone Monday evening.

We want to make it abundantly clear that partisan politics does not work, Harr said. He said he would push back against a Democratic governor the same way.

We believe in the importance of nonpartisanship, he said. The Washington way doesnt work.
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U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert on Wednesday criticized Korea's trade practices in unusually blunt terms.

"There is widespread recognition that there are too many business regulations that are unique to Korea," Lippert told a forum at the Institute for Global Engagement.

One example is law firms. "Korea needs to open up the legal service sector, such as those restrictions on areas in which lawyers can practice," he said. "This will improve the quality of legal counsel, create new jobs and expand employment choices."

A government official here said that it is unusual for the ambassador to make such comments in public.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government last week said it will not support the re-appointment of Korean judge Chang Seung-wha for a second term at the WTO appellate body.

There is speculation that the move heralds wider U.S. trade pressures on Korea.
The former secretary of state, who has repeatedly called Trump a "loose cannon," will seek Thursday to contrast her foreign policy experience with Trump's. Foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan said Clinton would make clear how high the stakes are in the race, as well as share her "larger vision of who we are, what we're all about as a country."

"She is going to make clear why Donald Trump is simply unqualified to be commander in chief," Sullivan said, adding that the speech "will go into specifics in a very direct and clear way about what makes Donald Trumpunfit, both in terms of temperament and ideas. This is as full-throated and full-bodied a case as you will have seen from anyone on the danger that Donald Trump poses."

During an appearance in Newark, New Jersey Wednesday, Clinton assailed Trump over his past statements, criticizing him for proposing to ban Muslims from entering the country, for advocating the use of torture and for saying other countries should acquire nuclear weapons.

"This is not just divisive rhetoric, my friends, this is dangerous," Clinton said. "What he has already said has given aid and comfort to terrorists."

Clinton and Trump offer starkly different visions of U.S. foreign policy. Clinton's detail-oriented proposals reflect the traditional approach of both major parties. Despite differences on some issues, such as the Iraq war and Iran, Democratic and Republican presidents have been generally consistent on policies affecting China, Russia, North Korea, nuclear proliferation, trade, alliances and many other issues.

Trump says U.S. foreign policy has failed. His strong-man "America first" approach is short on details, but appeals to the emotions of angry voters who believe that successive leaders have weakened the country, made it vulnerable to terrorism and have been duped into bad trade deals that have cost American jobs.

Trump accused Clinton of lying about his foreign policy plans at a rally at an airport hangar in Sacramento, California, Wednesday night.

"She lies. She made a speech and she's making another one tomorrow. And they sent me a copy of the speech and it was such lies about my foreign policy," Trump said.

"They said I want Japan ... to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break," he objected. "I want Japan and Germany and Saudi Arabia and South Korea and many of the NATO nations  they owe us tremendous. We're taking care of all these people. And what I want them to do is pay up."

Trump has suggested in the past that he might be OK with Japan one day obtaining nuclear weapons.

Clinton's campaign hopes her foreign policy experience will appeal to voters who may be wary of Trump'sbombastic style and lack of international experience. They hope those points, combined with Trump'scontroversial statements about women and minorities, will give Clinton opportunities with independent and moderate Republican voters.

In recent days, Clinton has criticized Trump over his past business practices, his recent promises to raise money for veterans and his now defunct education company, Trump University. On Wednesday Clinton calledTrump a "fraud" and said the real estate mogul had taken advantage of vulnerable Americans.

Trump has pushed back against the critiques. On the education company, he has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings.

While Clinton is stressing her concerns about Trump, she is still dealing with her primary race. Clinton needs just 71 more delegates from states voting Tuesday to win the Democratic primary, but is dealing with an increasingly tough fight with rival Bernie Sanders in California, where the Vermont senator is gaining in polling. Clinton plans to be in California though Monday as she seeks to avoid a primary loss there.
Baosteel issues its profit distribution plan for 2015

Thursday, 02 June 2016 10:30:56 (GMT+3) | Shanghai



Shanghai-based Chinese steelmaker Baosteel has announced its profit distribution plan for 2015. Accordingly, it has decided to distribute a cash bonus of RMB 0.06 (including tax) per share on the basis of the overall 16,466,927,224 shares to its shareholders. The cash bonus totals RMB 988,015,633.44 (including tax) and will be granted on June 8 this year.

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Thursday, 02 June 2016 17:39:10 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

International commodities producer and trader Glencore has announced that it plans to close its Tahmoor coal mine in Australia by early 2019 due to low coal prices, according to media reports.

Accordingly, Glencore will begin consultation with the 350 employees at the Tahmoor mine, which has been operating since 1979 and which last year produced 2.1 million mt of metallurgical coal used in steelmaking.

The company said in a statement that the decision has been made as a result of continued low prices in the global coal markets, which has meant the economic return from reserves still available at Tahmoor are not sufficient to warrant the investment required to mine them.
Wednesday, 01 June 2016 23:34:41 (GMT+3) | Sao Paulo

Brazilian long steel producer Siderurgica Norte Brasil, Sinobras, reverted a BRL 25.7 million ($7.1 million) net profit in 2014 and posted a BRL 68.6 million ($19.1 million) net loss in fiscal year 2015, the company said on Wednesday in a filing at the nations securities exchange commission, CVM.





According to the steelmaker, net revenues in 2015 rose nearly 5 percent, year-on-year, to BRL 897.6 million.





Gross profit in FY15 was BRL 170.8 million, 21.7 percent down, year-on-year, impacted by a higher cost of products sold.





Cost of products sold in 2015 rose to BRL 726.8 million from BRL 638.1 million in the year prior.





1 USD= BRL 3.59 (June 1)








Thursday, 02 June 2016 10:29:57 (GMT+3) | Shanghai

On June 1 this year, Chongqing-based Chinese steel producer Chongqing Iron & Steel Co. (Chongqing Steel) announced that trading of the companys shares would be suspended as of June 2 due to uncertainties regarding its major assets reorganization plan.





Chongqing Steel stated that the suspension of trading of its shares was to ensure the fairness of information disclosure and avoid abnormal fluctuations in its share price. Chongqing Steel added that it would decide as soon as possible whether to carry out the major assets organization and would keep the public informed of progress within five working days as of the day of suspension.





Chongqing Steel announced that it registered a net loss of RMB of 5.987 billion ($0.91 billion) for 2015, while it recorded a net loss of RMB 992 million ($150.81 million) for the first quarter of this year.
Thursday, 02 June 2016 17:31:00 (GMT+3) | Istanbul

As stated by the Turkish Iron and Steel Producers' Association (TCUD), Turkey s steel imports from China in the January-April period of this year rose by 48 percent on year-on-year basis to 989,000 mt.

In the first four months of this year, Turkey s billet imports from China increased more than tenfold compared to 50,000 mt recorded in the same period of last year to 564,000 mt. In the first four months this year, Turkey s flat steel imports from China decreased by 58 percent to 172,000 mt, while its long steel imports from China were up by 29 percent to 109,000 mt, both on year-on-year basis.

In the January-April period of this year, billet , flat products, long products, and pipes and tubes constituted 57 percent, 17 percent, 11 percent and 10 percent of Turkey s total steel imports from China , respectively.




By MARK EVANS mevans@stegenherald.com During last Thursdays county commission meeting, the topic of tourism came up. First District Commissioner Karen Stuppy reported on the Tourism Advisory Council and Tourism Tax Commissions joint meeting earlier that week, at which a task force was formed. She said that the tourism department has an $89,548 budget, with $45,000-50,000
Diane Arbus and Howard Nemerov were two famously talented siblings and artists  she the New York photographer and he the poet laureate and professor at Washington University.

In Arthur Lubow's book "Diane Arbus," which goes on sale Tuesday, he discusses the close relationship the pair had as children and their apparent rivalry as adults. Some of the details, however, probably won't expand either's reputations.

On Pages 18-19 Lubow writes: "As Howard later acknowledged, he and his sister experimented sexually when they were young." They liked to "play house," he writes.

More surprisingly, though, Arbus told her psychiatrist during her last two years that her sexual relationship with her brother had never ended; she went "to bed with him" in New York in 1971, a few weeks before her death.

"Characteristically, she referred to their ongoing sexual liaison in an offhand way, as if there was nothing so remarkable about it."

Later, Lubow references the pair's sister, Renee, and her husband, Roy, as confirmation: "Renee believe that they were adolescent lovers, and her husband, Roy, told her he was convinced that they continued their amorous relationship throughout their lives. Indeed, Roy attributed Howard's worsening alcoholism to torment and guilt over the relationship."

Nemerov died in 1991, leaving his wife, Margaret, and three sons. He was one of the country's most respected poets, having served as poet laureate from 1988-90. He won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award in 1978 and received a National Medal for the Arts from President Ronald Reagan.

His papers, held at Washington University Libraries, are cited in the notes for "Diane Arbus," which also draws heavily on Patricia Bosworth's 1984 biography of the photographer.

Lubow, as Bosworth did, cites one of Nemerov's poems that refers to a portrait of him with his sister.

Reports and reviews of the new biography are already up at The New Yorker and The New York Times; author Lubow has contributed to both publications. His book goes far beyond the Nemerov's privileged upbringing on Park Avenue, of course, delving into Arbus' controversial photos of circus performers and transvestites and her affairs with both men and women.

In The New Yorker, critic Anthony Lane ultimately finds the biography, and Arbus, "exhausting." He asks:

"Did she carry the hothouse of the Nemerovs around with her forever, and, if so, did it heighten or stunt her art? Can you be honest to a fault, and does that fault lure you not merely into wild indiscretion but right to the brink of ferocity? Was there a mote of meanness in her eye, or did it just see more than our lazy gaze can ever hope to do? Arbus photographed her own father, at his funeral, in his coffin, and confessed to being jealous of her younger sister, Renee, for having been raped as a teen-ager."
FARGO, N.D.  Authorities say no charges will be filed against one of the twin brother stars of HGTV's "Property Brothers" following an incident at a North Dakota bar.

According to a police report, Jonathan Scott repeatedly refused to leave the Fargo bar at closing time early April 24. A bar staffer told police that Scott said, "Do you know who I am?" when asked to hand over his drink.

Security camera footage shows Scott resisting bar staff while being escorted out. The video shows Scott returning before being physically removed again.

Police asked prosecutors to consider charges of disorderly conduct against Scott. Fargo City Attorney Erik Johnson says there's not enough evidence to establish a crime.

A spokeswoman for Scott says "he simply tried to diffuse a situation between other people."
On one day in May, Rex Sinquefield helped make Fred Sauers case that Missouris campaign finance system needs an overhaul.

It was May 27, and Sinquefield  the most prolific political donor in the state  wrote three checks to three different political committees he controls. Total outlay? More than $6.8 million. In. One. Day.

It is pocket change for Sinquefield, a retired financial wizard who has made St. Louis his home and politics one of his playthings. Frankly, its likely pocket change for Sauer, too, who is also a wealthy man who made much of his money in the financial industry.

So what does Sauer, one of the citys most prominent conservative Republicans, have against Sinquefield, a member of the same party who shares many of the same political views?

Rex Sinquefield behaves like an arrogant secularist who is preoccupied with destroying representative government in Missouri for his own interests, Sauer writes in an 87-page treatise hes produced and distributed called: Wake Up St. Louis County! Rex Sinquefield Wants You To Pay For His Empire.

Known mostly for his staunch anti-abortion views, Sauer has set his sights on standing in the way of Sinquefields empire. Make no mistake: Its personal.

In his book, distributed to lawmakers and others, Sauer calls his nemesis King Rex and Tyrannosaurus Rex. He labels him a phony, a bully and a fraud.

He wants what he wants, and will pay what is necessary to get it, Sauer writes.

In November, Sauer is hoping voters will help him strip the king of his crown. Last month, a committee funded by Sauer called Returning Government to the People submitted petitions to the Secretary of States Office that, if approved, would put a ballot issue before voters to limit the amount of money that can be donated to politicians.

Missouri is one of the only states in the nation that has no limits on political giving. Combined with not having any limits on lobbyists gifts, and, until this year, no cooling-off period before lawmakers become lobbyists, the Show-Me State hits the trifecta for being an ethics-free political zone. If Sauers petitions are approved  and it appears he has plenty of signatures  voters will have an opportunity to limit individual donations to statewide candidates to $2,600 per cycle. Big donors could give up to $25,000 to political parties.

But Sinquefield could no longer write six- or seven-figure checks to individual candidates, as he has to most of the Republican candidates seeking statewide office this year. Neither could corporations or big law firms, or unions. The latter two tend to be the biggest donors to Democrats. On one weekend in April, for instance, four national unions wrote nearly $1 million in checks to Attorney General Chris Koster, the Democratic candidate for governor.

Just as important as limiting the size of donations, the Sauer proposal would also address the legalized money laundering that takes place in Missouri, where a donor writes a check to one committee, and that committee then donates to another committee or a candidate, thus obscuring the original source of the funds.

This is a Sinquefield specialty. His checks on May 27 all went to committees that he primarily funds and controls. One check for $2.5 million went to Missourians for Excellence in Government, which is run by the same people who run the nonprofit Better Together that Sinquefield also funds. That is the group that has studied the need for government consolidation in the St. Louis region. Missourians for Excellence in Government has donated mostly to lawmakers from the St. Louis region in both parties, but the money all comes from King Rex. Sinquefield also wrote a check for more than $1.5 million to Missouri Club for Growth, which, despite a name similar to national grass-roots Republican organizations, is also funded nearly entirely by the St. Louis billionaire.

Finally, Sinquefield wrote a check for more than $2.8 million to a new committee he created called Great St. Louis. What that committee is up to at the moment is anybodys guess.

Sauers problem with Sinquefield is about more than his campaign largesse. Sauer blames him for getting the Legislature to agree to a massive tax cut that will mostly benefit people like Sauer and Sinquefield, while presenting it to the public as something else. Sauer calls the tax cut a fraud that will only benefit the ultra-rich. He criticizes Sinquefield for trying to get rid of the St. Louis earnings tax with nothing to replace the revenue that funds police and fire service in the city. And he rails against the amorphous proposal pushed by Sinquefield and many others for some sort of reunification between the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County.

On this last point, I disagree with Sauer, but, hey, nobodys perfect.

When it comes to bringing sanity to Missouris sordid state of campaign finance, Sauer hits on a point that knows no party. In fact, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who has often found herself as a target of Sauer, says she hopes to help him pass it.

I am their ally on this, she said. I intend to help, if theyll have me.
OVERLAND  Police say the carjacker who commandeered a rental car from a woman getting gas in Overland -- and then drove off as a good Samaritan briefly clung to the car -- was a 14-year-old boy from St. Louis.

On Wednesday, the boy was charged under the juvenile code with robbery, second-degree assault and resisting arrest. The Family Court will determine if he is certified to stand trial as an adult, said Overland Police Lt. Steve Branham.

The carjacking happened May 23 in broad daylight at a QuikTrip, 8815 Page Avenue. A woman from California, 53, was getting gas for her rental car on her way to the airport. A man pushed her to the side, jumped into the car and began to drive away.

A 20-year-old man at another gas pump saw what was happening and tried to intervene. He punched the carjacker and held onto the vehicle as the car sped off. The good Samaritan then fell from the vehicle before it left the parking lot. He had been carried, or dragged, a short distance.

The carjacker raced away in the stolen car. Police say it was later found abandoned in the 4000 block of Shreve Avenue, in St. Louis.

The woman is from San Francisco, and her purse and other belongings were in the rental car. After detectives finished talking with her, they took her to the airport so she could try to catch her flight.

Police released surveillance videos from the convenience store taken moments before the crime. Someone who saw that video recognized the boy and called police, Branham said.

Detectives went to the boy's apartment in the 4000 block of North Kingshighway in St. Louis and recovered property that belonged to the carjacking victim, including her ID, Branham said. Then, police saw the boy walking down the street and tried to arrest him, but he ran, which explains the resisting arrest charge, Branham said.

Branham said the boy was picked up by St. Louis police for being a runaway, and officers found out he was wanted in the Overland carjacking.
ST. LOUIS  Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce announced Thursday that she will not file charges against two city police officers who fatally shot a man they said flourished a gun at them during a raid.

Her report says there is not sufficient evidence to support a charge, but does not take a position on whether they were justified to shoot.

Police said Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, ran out the back door of a home in the 1200 block of Walton Avenue that was being searched for guns and drugs about noon Aug. 19.

Authorities say he pointed a handgun with an extended ammunition magazine at police, who opened fire. Officials said Ball-Bey did not shoot.

Joyces announcement was made two weeks after she charged a former St. Louis officer, Jason Stockley, with murder in the killing of a man in 2011.

In the Ball-Bey case, Joyce said that with the evidence and witness accounts, she would not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the officers did not kill in self-defense.

One of the biggest challenges we face in this case is that there is no independent, credible witness we can put in front of a grand jury or regular jury who contradicts police statements, Joyce said in a statement. None of the other witnesses had a clear view at the moment when Ball-Bey was shot.

She said her decision was based on her own offices inquiry, as well as a report delivered to her office in April by the police Force Investigative Unit.

Joyce called the shooting a tragedy and said, Im sorry for the pain that the Ball-Bey family is experiencing right now.

Ball-Bey was black. The officers who fired are white and were identified Thursday by the police department as Ronald Vaughan, 29, and Kyle Chandler, 33, who fired the fatal shot. Both graduated from the police academy in 2008.

The two officers were interviewed only by police and refused through their attorney to talk to prosecutors. Their attorney, Brian Millikan, said Thursday, Were relieved the inquiry is over  . This shooting, Ill agree with Jennifer Joyce, is a tragedy but was absolutely justified.

Todd El, leader of the Moorish Science Temple, spoke on behalf of the Ball-Bey family in an impromptu news conference on the steps of the courthouse Thursday.

He called for Joyce  along with Police Chief Sam Dotson and the city medical examiner, Dr. Michael Graham  to step down.

There was enough evidence to bring charges against these officers, El said.

Two versions of a shooting

Ball-Bey was shot on the first anniversary of the controversial police shooting of Kajieme Powell in St. Louis and a little more than a year after a Ferguson officer fatally shot Michael Brown, 18.

Joyce said two versions of the Ball-Bey shooting emerged from accounts by five key witnesses.

The first account came from an unidentified friend of Ball-Bey who was with him as at least 15 police officers and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives tried to serve a search warrant at the apartment on Walton Avenue.

The friend, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, told authorities he did not witness the shooting and gave conflicting statements about where he and Ball-Bey were before the incident, Joyce said. In one interview, the friend said he and Ball-Bey were in an alley at the time; in another, he said they were in a gangway between two apartment buildings on the block. Ball-Beys friend told police neither he nor Ball-Bey had been armed.

The second account came from the two officers who shot at Ball-Bey, an off-duty police officer who was in a yard across the alley, and a member of the ATF.

An ATF agent and the off-duty officer said they saw Ball-Bey and his friend run from the back door of the apartment.

Hes got a gun, hes got a gun! The off-duty officer said he yelled to the officers who were chasing Ball-Bey. The off-duty officer also said he had heard one of the officers say, Police, stop!

Police said they saw Ball-Bey holding a gun. Joyce said Ball-Beys palm print was found on the magazine of a loaded gun witnesses said he tossed near an alley trash bin behind the apartment.

The two officers who shot at Ball-Bey told police they had no choice but to shoot when they saw Ball-Bey turn and point the gun toward one of them. One officer took cover behind a telephone pole at one end of the yard and said he thought Ball-Bey was about to shoot the other officer who was standing near a trash bin. Both officers said Ball-Beys gun flew out of his hands after being shot.

The off-duty officer said he saw Ball-Bey running with a gun in his hand and his arm extended before the witness ducked behind a parked truck. The witness said he could hear the shooting but could not see it but reported seeing Ball-Bey toss a gun near a trash bin afterward.

Ball-Bey, who worked at Fed-Ex, had no criminal history in Missouri, but photos found on his cellphone and YouTube videos show him wearing T-shirts naming a gang in St. Louis. Joyce said prosecutors had found social media photos of Ball-Bey with a gun that appeared to match the loaded .40-caliber handgun found at the scene. Joyce said that the gun had been reported stolen and that text messages on Ball-Beys cellphone discuss a gun of the same make and model.

Jermaine Wooten, a lawyer representing the Ball-Bey family, said at Thursdays news conference that police were fortunate when they picked up a gun that resembles the one that prosecutors say Ball-Bey is seen with on social media postings, but that the gun that police found was not his.

Two other .40-caliber guns were found at the scene of the shooting, but DNA and fingerprint samples were not a match to Ball-Bey, Joyces report says. Police said initially that they found the presence of fingerprints and DNA on Ball-Beys gun, but ultimately, forensic tests revealed no usable DNA.

Joyce said the lack of DNA on the gun was not unusual, given forensic limitations.

The only evidence to show that Mr. Ball-Bey did not have a gun was his friend who was with him that day, Joyce said. His friend, however, told numerous versions of the events, to the point where we found him to not be credible.

Joyce said perhaps the most critical evidence was the independent eyewitness testimony of the off-duty officer across the alley who said he had seen Ball-Bey with a gun. That officer, Joyce said, has reported misconduct of fellow officers in the past and was deemed a credible eyewitness.

Meanwhile, the credibility of Vaughan  one of the officers who shot Ball-Bey  has been previously deemed questionable by a judge. In 2013, the judge tossed out drug evidence in a case amid allegations that Vaughan may have planted the evidence.

No independent witness

Graham, the city medical examiner, has told the Post-Dispatch that an autopsy revealed Ball-Beys spine was severed. However, Graham said, Ball-Beys spinal cord didnt sever immediately, suggesting he could still move after being shot. The finding surprised police because officers and witnesses said Ball-Bey had been running after being shot.

According to Joyces report, Graham concluded Ball-Bey died not from a severed spinal cord but from a bullet that punctured his heart, and that his spine could have been severed by the bullet, by movement while running, by police kneeling on his back while handcuffing him, or while his body was being transported or autopsied. Police have said Ball-Bey struggled with officers as they tried to handcuff him.

One key finding in Joyces conclusion:  there were several factors in the execution of this search warrant that we believe need to be reviewed and addressed by the police department.

Joyce said the two officers who shot at Ball-Bey and the ATF agent mistakenly entered the backyard of a nearby corner store instead of the backyard of Ball-Beys apartment.

Joyce said no officer conducted surveillance on the rear of Ball-Beys building before serving the warrant.

Joyces report said prosecutors had interviewed more than two dozen people during the investigation and had made multiple requests for people to come forward with information.

No independent witness or the person who was with Ball-Bey claims to have seen the entirety of the incident, Joyce wrote.

Now that Joyces office is finished with her review, Dotson says the department will conduct an additional review to discuss tactical lessons learned from the incident.

Meanwhile, Wooten and fellow Ball-Bey family attorney Jerryl Christmas said they would have an independent forensic expert review Grahams work. They say the family believed police had planted the gun on Ball-Bey.

Ashley Jost and Christine Byers of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
The University of Missouri-Columbia has lost its third dean in a span of a week.

Michael O'Brien, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, announced that he is leaving to take a job as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Texas A&M-San Antonio.

O'Brien has been with the university 36 years, including 10 years as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He is scheduled to begin his new job July 15 in Texas.

O'Brien's announcement follows two other departures.

On May 26, Thomas Payne, dean of the university's College of Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources, announced that he will retire at the end of the year.

The next day, Gary Myers, dean of the Law School, announced his resignation effective Aug. 14.

The departures come as Mizzou is expecting its smallest freshman class in nearly a decade.

The university announced last month that the number of students paying freshman tuition deposits  a key indicator of fall enrollment  has decreased by 1,470 compared with last year.

School officials say the university could have a freshman class of fewer than 5,000 students for the first time since 2007.

Mizzou enrolled 7,600 freshmen last fall, including second-year students who did not complete enough credits to qualify as sophomores.

University leaders blame the drop-off on two main factors: fewer high school students in the pipeline, and last year's protests.

School administrators say they've been seeing less interest from out-of-state students, and recruiters are hearing more concerns from students in the Chicago area, in particular.
WASHINGTON  The television ad campaign in Missouris U.S. Senate race is starting to rev up.

A report from the Center for Responsive Politics and the Wesleyan Media Project tracking campaign advertising in federal elections said that through May 8, just under $2 million had been spent on advertising. Of that amount, $1.6 million was to benefit incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt. R-Mo.

About $300,000 had been spent to benefit Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander, who opposes Blunt, according to the study.

All of the spending had come from outside the candidates campaigns, through political committees. By law, those committees must act independently of the campaigns, according to the study.

The three most active in Missouri so far have been political committees One Nation, a conservative group based in California; the Washington, D.C.-based American Chemistry Council, which supports Republicans by a roughly 3-1 margin; and the liberal group, End Citizens United, which opposes the Supreme Court decision opening campaign spending to corporations.

The Center for Public Integrity says that as of the latest reports, End Citizens United has raised almost $12 million and spent almost $8 million in federal elections since last year.

The spending in Missouri so far has been dwarfed by other states important in control of the Senate and have had or will have contested Senate primaries, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Television advertising spending in Illinois Democratic U.S. Senate primary, won by Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Schaumburg, was about $7.3 millon, 44 percent of it from outside groups not directly affiliated with a campaign. About $1.8 million had been spent through May 8 on pro-Republican Senate ads in Illinois, where Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., is trying to keep his seat. Just under 14 percent of that pro-Republican spending came from groups not directly tied to Kirks campaign, according to the study.

The Center for Responsive Politics-Wesleyan study found that spending on advertising in the presidential campaign has more than doubled the 2012 pace, to over $408 million through May 8. About $270 million of it was by Republican candidates and Republican-leaning groups.
SPRINGFIELD, ILL.  Visitors to one of a handful of Illinois state agencies would be automatically registered to vote under legislation sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The House approved the idea 86-30 on the final day of the Legislatures spring session Tuesday, after days of tweaking to make it palatable to state officials who must carry it out. With the Republican governors approval, Illinois would join just four other states that have or are planning automatic registration programs.

In Illinois, people who do business with one of five state agencies  the Department on Aging and the departments of Human Services, Healthcare and Family Services, Employment Security and the Secretary of State  would have information automatically filed with election authorities to allow them to enter voting booths The law would take effect in 2018.

This is simply to make sure all citizens are registered to vote  and they can opt out, said the House sponsor, Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston.

At most agencies, visitors would be asked whether they want to register. They may refuse. If they choose to register, they would be asked for documents sufficient to satisfy the State Board of Elections, which then would verify eligibility.

Because of the Secretary of States existing machinery, those getting drivers licenses or other services at motor vehicle centers would have information automatically sent to the elections board. Later, those eligible would get a mailed form that would require a signature before voting.

Oregon automatically registers voters. California, West Virginia, and Vermont have approved similar plans. At least two dozen others are considering similar plans, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Critics complained the process is too easy. Rep. David Harris, an Arlington Heights Republican, said a voter who doesnt get off the couch to register wont do the work necessary to be properly informed on Election day.

Democratic Rep. Will Guzzardi of Chicago countered that voting is a fundamental right not subject to tests or taxes or other hurdles.

Rauner did not comment Tuesday on the plan. He told reporters two weeks ago he wanted to see the details, but added, I am a big fan of simplifying the voter registration process and trying to get everyone who should be able to vote, to get them registered and vote.
WASHINGTON  Declaring oneself to be non-religious might have once been a death knell to a political career. But two members of Congress are doing that in a very public way this week.

One is Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, an Army National Guard veteran and one of two female combat veterans in Congress (Rep. Tammy Duckworth, a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Illinois, is the other).

Gabbard is an up-and-coming member of the Democratic House caucus, and she has an independent streak. You may remember that she quit her post as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee after criticizing embattled party chair, fellow Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., for restricting the number of Democratic presidential debates to allegedly protect front-runner Hillary Clinton. Gabbard has endorsed Clinton rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The other non-religious-declaring member of Congress is Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., a veteran legislator from the Richmond-Hampton Roads area.

Gabbard and Scott are scheduled to be among more than 40 politicians, actors, comedians, musicians and scientists speaking at the Lincoln Memorial this Saturday for Reason Rally 2016.

Their goal is to mobilize to voice the power and influence of non-religious Americans, according to an advisory from organizers.

The number of Americans who say they are religious has been falling, making it easier for politicians to say they non-religious.

Thats why the organizers of Saturdays event say they expect 30,000 people to attend a day-long rally on the National Mall. Speakers will include Gabbard, Scott, comedian Penn Jillette, and Bill Nye "the Science Guy."

The percentage of Americans who say they were absolutely certain that God exists dropped from 71 percent in 2007 to 63 percent in 2014, according to a report late last year by the Pew Research Centers Religion & Public Life initiative. Just under one in four Americans now answers none when asked for religious affiliation, up from one in six in 2007, according to Pew. (Chuck Raasch)

BY THE NUMBERS:

65  Percent of those describing themselves as very religious who said they donated time or money to the poor the previous week, according to a Pew Research Center Religion & Public Life report released in April.

41  Percent of less religious who said they had donated time or money to the poor in the previous week.

On the web:

THEY SAID IT:

A growing share of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, including some who self-identify as atheists or agnostics as well as many who describe their religion as `nothing in particular.' " From the Pew report.
ST. LOUIS  The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agencys decision to build its next western headquarters in St. Louis became final Thursday, ending a bitter bi-state battle and clearing the path for the largest federal project in city history.

Robert Cardillo, the agencys director, preliminarily chose St. Louis in March as his preferred location. He has stood by that billion-dollar decision in recent months as officials from Illinois sought to reverse it in favor of a site near Scott Air Force Base.

On Thursday, Cardillo filed the decision with the federal register, unceremoniously closing a two-month comment and review period.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay greeted the news with two words: Im thrilled.

Slay said he had spoken with Cardillo on Thursday, and his thoughts turned to the future.

This is going to be very impactful, Slay said. Its going to be impactful for the neighborhood its in. Its going to be impactful for the surrounding area. Its going to be impactful for the entire city of St. Louis.

Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, called the decision a decisive victory for St. Louis.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will build the facility. Construction could begin in mid-2017.

Slay said NGA was looking at advanced design concepts meant to connect the facility with the surrounding area, which has been beset by poverty and decay.

They dont want this to be an island, Slay said. They want this to be connected with the community.

The agency has been improving its relationship with the technology industry in recent years and has prioritized efforts to attract more tech workers. Leaders also hope to partner with nearby educational institutions and incubators, such as the Cortex district in the Central West End neighborhood.

In Washington, Missouri officials embraced the decision while Illinois officials blasted it. Federal officials competed for the project as the 2016 election cycle looms in the background.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., lauded the decision. He is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and stressed the NGAs critical mission in intelligence gathering.

With todays decision, the NGA has rightly acknowledged the numerous benefits St. Louis provides to the current and future generation of intelligence professionals. Blunt said.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., added: This is what sustained, bipartisan cooperation can look like for Missouri, and for our national security.

Across the river, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., criticized the decision.

I am deeply concerned about the security of the St. Louis site and I do not believe we have received acceptable answers from Director Cardillo, said Durbin. His decision today is short-sighted and ignores not only safety issues, but also legitimate concerns about cost overruns which will hurt taxpayers in the long-term.

He said he supported calls by Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, for a Government Accountability Office study into the process that was used to come to todays conclusion.

Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., also said he supported a GAO investigation.

This isnt the first time NGA has deliberately used bad information to make a bad decision, which is why I have asked the top government watchdog to ensure this decision is best for the warfighter and taxpayer, Kirk said in a statement.

But as Missouri delegation members have pointed out, such investigations are not unusual after major decisions such as this, and Missouri politicians say they are confident any challenge will be unsuccessful.

The construction of a $1.75 billion campus will be the largest federal expenditure in St. Louis history. Officials are hoping to use it to reshape an area north of downtown, but it will also force the demolition of several homes and businesses.

Cardillo cited St. Louis as the most attractive site to recruit younger workers to the agency. NGA employs about 3,100 workers in St. Louis and could add employees after the move, expected in 2022 or 2023.

The city will now begin the process of clearing the 99-acre site just north of the former Pruitt Igoe housing complex.

Otis Williams, the citys economic development director, spent years navigating the complicated project and persuading residents to move. In one case, he agreed to physically move an elderly residents house to another neighborhood.

Slay said Williams focus and determination is the reason NGA will stay in the city it has called home for more than 70 years.

The effort has come with a hefty price. So far, the state has committed $131 million to the project: $95 million in tax-increment financing, a portion of which would include diverting state income tax payments of NGA employees; and $36 million in brownfield tax credits  an amount higher than originally expected.

The city has committed $1.5 million a year over the next 30 years, including diverting half of the 1 percent earnings tax paid by NGA workers. Currently, NGA workers pay more than $2 million in income tax to the city, and officials expect employment and payroll to grow over time.

The old Arsenal complex, just south of the Anheuser-Busch brewery, has housed the agency since 1952. That site is controlled by the Air Force. Officials havent said what they will do with the campus, which is packed with historic buildings dating to the Civil War.

Chuck Raasch of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
LONDON MARKET CLOSE: FTSE 250 steals show; pound keeps lid on FTSE 100

Tuesday, October 25, 2022 - 17:20

London's FTSE 100 edged lower on Tuesday, as a stronger pound put paid to the blue-chip index's hopes of replicating the climbs delivered by its European peers.

The pound jumped to $1.1464 at the London equities close Tuesday, from $1.1295 on Monday, as new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak restored some investor confidence in UK finances.

The FTSE 100 index closed down 0.51 of a point at 7,013.48 on Tuesday. A stronger pound acts as a drag to the international earner-heavy index.

In European equities on Tuesday, the CAC 40 in Paris ended up 1.9%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended 0.9% higher.

There was an eye-popping climb for the more domestic-focused FTSE 250 in London, however.

The FTSE 250 ended up 494.08 points, or 2.9%, at 17,831.63. The AIM All-Share closed up 11.89 points, or 1.5%, at 799.44.

The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.1% at 700.90, the Cboe UK 250 closed up 2.8% at 15,222.68, and the Cboe Small Companies ended up 0.2% at 12,269.51.

Sunak pledged to fix the "mistakes" of Liz Truss's leadership as he made his first speech as PM.

Sunak said Truss was "not wrong" to want to drive up growth but added that "some mistakes were made."

He vowed to place "economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government's agenda", after the financial chaos triggered by Truss.

In the FTSE 100, Segro finished 2.1% higher on Tuesday as UBS raised the British property investor and developer to 'buy' from 'neutral'.

At the bottom of the blue-chip index was HSBC, falling 4.2%, as it reported a decline in profit and revenue in the third quarter of 2022.

In the three months to September 30, HSBC reported pretax profit of $3.15 billion, down 42% from $5.40 billion a year before. Revenue decreased by 3.2% to $11.62 billion from $12.01 billion.

HSBC explained that its third quarter results included a $2.4 billion impairment, following the reclassification of its retail banking operations in France to held-for-sale, as well as a net charge for expected credit losses and other credit impairment charges.

Whitbread fell 0.8% despite swinging to an interim profit and return to dividends as the hotel sector recovered from Covid-19.

In the first half ended September 1, the Bedfordshire-based owner of the Premier Inn chain said revenue more than doubled year-on-year to 1.35 billion from 661.6 million.

Whitbread swung to a pretax profit of 307.4 million, compared to a loss of 19.3 million a year before. Compared to the same period of financial 2020, pretax profit was 40% higher than 219.9 million.

"The strong recovery in UK accommodation sales continued during the first half, and while Food & Beverage sales remained challenging and 5% behind pre-pandemic levels," Whitbread said.

In the FTSE 250, Urban Logistics added 1.5%, but was up over 10% earlier in the day.

The UK logistics real estate investor said trading in its first half was strong, as demand strengthened and vacancies fell.

"Lettings have been strong across the portfolio, as we see a robust occupational market with high demand and low vacancies. In particular, we're very pleased that our new development at Blenheim Park has let so quickly, with the final unit expected to be let shortly, and providing an expected 6.6% yield on cost across the project," said Chief Executive Richard Moffitt.

Elsewhere in London, Made.com plunged 93% as it said talks with possible suitors fell through, with the sofa seller now edging precariously closer to collapse.

"Following further discussion, those parties have all now confirmed to the company that they are unable to meet the necessary timetable. As a result, those discussions have been terminated and the company is no longer in receipt of funding proposals or possible offers for the issued and to be issued share capital of the company," Made said.

Made.com is also mulling whether a suspension of trading of its shares is "appropriate".

The euro stood at $0.9963 at the European equities close Tuesday, higher against $0.9877 at the same time on Monday.

Against the yen, the dollar was trading at JP147.77 late Tuesday, lower compared to JP148.82 late Monday.

Stocks in New York were firmly in the green at the London equities close, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 0.9%, the S&P 500 index up 1.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite up 2.0%.

US equities received a boost from well-received updates from the likes of soft drinks maker Coca-Cola and courier UPS, with both firms posting rises in third quarter revenue and net income.

Coca-Cola shares were 1.3% higher, UPS was up 1.9%.

Brent oil was quoted at $91.91 a barrel at the London equities close Tuesday, up from $90.88 late Monday.

Gold was quoted at $1,655.96 an ounce at the London equities close Tuesday, sharply higher against $1,648.76 at the close on Monday.

In Wednesday's UK corporate calendar, Barclays will publish its third-quarter results and Bloomsbury Publishing posts its half-year results.

In the economic calendar, there's a services PPI reading from Japan overnight before the Bank of Canada make an interest rate decision at 1500 BST.

Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
SHIPSTON-ON-STOUR Wool Fair took place on Bank Holiday Monday, 30th May, as people flocked to celebrate the towns history as a sheep town.

The fair was part of an expanded Woolly Weekend, which included the Totally Locally Shipston-on-Stour Arts and Crafts Market and an evening of tight-knitted French jazz called Smooth Weave on Saturday.

Twenty stalls from local producers made up the arts and crafts market on Saturday, while local musicians Ben Bryan and Hannah Porter entertained the crowds.

Organised by Louise Harvey and Lucy Kirkham from Shipston Totally Locally, customers could buy anything from paintings and ceramics to jewellery, soaps and preserves.

On Saturday, St Edmunds Church hosted the Smooth Weave concert, featuring performances by a four-piece ensemble called Chimera, followed by jazz group Montparnasse.

After the Shipston-on-Stour Rotary Club Songs of Praise concert at the church on the Sunday, the scene was set for the main event  the popular Wool Fair.

That was formally opened by the Duke of Montrose, after a few words from new Shipston-on-Stour mayor, Cllr Ronnie Murphy.

The event included a strong musical programme with performers, including the Shipston-on-Stour Town Band, Ben Bryan, Shipston-on-Stour High School Jazz Band (led by Head of Music, David Hunt) and the Porter Family.

There were also meet the sheep sessions with various rare breeds on display, including Leicester Longwool, Cotswold, Portland and Wensleydale.

Sheep shearing was demonstrated by James Scorer and James Tuffen while the Stratford Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers were on hand to demonstrate how to spin on historical weaving machines.

A historic hand-operated organ was played by Roy and Grace Tanner to entertain visitors.

Cllr Murphy said: It has been a really successful event, and thanks as always go to Bob Armstrong, Robin Payne and the rest of the Shipston-on-Stour Rotary team.
By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON (Reuters) - Activist investor Barington Capital turned up the heat on apparel chain Chico's FAS on Thursday with specific demands to cut costs, boost revenue and buy back more shares one week after mounting a fight to win two board seats.

The New York-based hedge fund, which owns a 1.5 percent stake in the retailer, said it wants Chico's to slash selling, general and administrative costs by $100 million, improve merchandising and grow its Soma intimate apparel brand by 200 to 300 stores over the next five years.

It also warned the company against making new acquisitions and urged it to keep buying back stock now that the share price has fallen.

In response, Chico's said that many of the suggestions are already being considered and that its leaders have the skills and expertise to "fully realize the value of the Company."

After weeks of private discussions, Barington went public with its demands to ratchet up pressure on a company it thinks can perform better.

"Chico's could more than double its earnings per share in three years, which we estimate could translate to a stock price of approximately $25 to $27 per share," Barington's founder, James Mitarotonda, wrote to Chico's board chairman, David Walker, in a letter attached to a public filing.

Shares of Chico's, which caters to older women, have fallen 33 percent over the last 12 months while the S&P 500 apparel retail index has dropped 0.2 percent in the same period.

Chico's shares on Thursday were up 3.8 percent at $11.42.

Barington nominated Mitarotonda, who started his career at Bloomingdale's and has made successful retail investments before, plus former Macy's executive Janet Grove as directors. Chico's nominated retail executives Bonnie Brooks, vice chairman of Hudson's Bay Company, and Bill Simon.

Chico's last year hired Shelley Broader as its chief executive, and Mitarotonda criticized the current board for her generous pay. Broader's pay package is almost twice as large as what some rival CEOs earn, Mitarotonda wrote, complaining that the bulk of the $13.5 million package is not tied to performance goals.

Chico's plans shareholder-friendly changes by proposing that directors be elected every year, and Broader disclosed more cost cuts when the company reported earnings last week.

"We recognize Mr. Mitarotonda's interest in serving on the Board. However, Chico's FAS already has a catalyst for change with Ms. Broader, and with her new team and our new Board candidates," the company said in a statement.

Mitarotonda took aim at the company's board nominees saying Brooks might have a conflict because she works for a competitor.

While Broader may like having friends in the board room, Mitarotonda wrote, "It is more important that she be surrounded with experienced directors that are solely focused on creating long-term value for shareholders and will not feel constrained to challenge the CEO if necessary."

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Leslie Adler)
An oil pump jack can be seen in Cisco, Texas, August 23, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Stone

By Barani Krishnan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices edged higher on Thursday, with Brent settling above $50 a barrel the first time in seven months, after the latest drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles offset OPEC's failure to set a ceiling for its output.

U.S. crude stockpiles fell 1.4 million barrels last week, drawing for a second straight week, data from the Energy Information Administration showed. Although lower than a 2.5 million-barrel draw forecast by analysts, the decline helped crude futures reverse early losses. [EIA/S]

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures settled up 16 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $49.17 a barrel. It had tumbled more than $1 earlier.

Brent futures rose 32 cents, or 0.6 percent, to settle at $50.04, after peaking at $50.30. It was its first settlement above $50 since Nov. 3.

"It was more a definitive day for the EIA than OPEC," said Carl Larry, director of business development for oil & gas at Frost & Sullivan in New York. "Leaving aside the crude draw, the demand numbers for U.S. gasoline and diesel were a bit too large to ignore."

U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell by 1.5 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 157,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed. Inventories of distillates, which includes diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.3 million barrels, versus a forecast 891,000 barrels.

Brent and WTI had largely traded in a $3-$5 range below $50 for weeks due to uncertainty over oil demand and strong technical resistance for crude at above $50.

Crude futures have gained more than 80 percent from this year's lows as supply outages in Canada, Venezuela, Libya and Nigeria eased a two-year long glut. Still, analysts said, the key to real recovery was balancing supply-demand from the biggest producers, which include OPEC.

Thus, Thursday's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna was closely watched for signs it may revive OPEC's group output ceiling, as proposed by Saudi Arabia, or introduce individual member production quotas, as suggested by Iran.

OPEC did neither.

Saudi's new Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih instead promised the kingdom would not flood the market with extra oil. His remarks suggested a softening of Riyadh's previous stance, when it rigorously pumped to defend its share of a crude market oversupplied by around 1.5-2.0 million barrels per day.

Iran maintained its right to steeply raise crude exports to pre-sanction levels, although Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said he didn't think others in OPEC would ramp up supply.

(Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in LONDON and Reem Shamseddine, Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler in VIENNA; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli and Chizu Nomiyama)
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Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX) today announced the acceptance of five PROVENGE (sipuleucel-T) scientific abstracts and one abstract regarding results from the Phase II study of DN24-02 at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which will take place June 3-7 in Chicago. The accepted abstracts include three poster presentations and one poster discussion. PROVENGE is an autologous cellular immunotherapy indicated for the treatment of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castrate-resistant (hormone-refractory) prostate cancer (more details below).

"We are proud to have the opportunity to present at the world's largest and most prestigious oncology meeting," stated Joseph C. Papa, chairman and chief executive officer. "Driving innovation is a key pillar of Valeant's strategy, and our team at our Dendreon business looks forward to sharing its promising research, which underscores our commitment to improving outcomes for patients."

"Extending survival for prostate cancer patients is at the heart of our development efforts, and we are excited with the potential that PROVENGE is showing across these studies," said James Caggiano, senior vice president and general manager of Dendreon.

Of note, the Company will present "Characteristics and Anticancer Interventions in African-American and Caucasian Patients Treated with sipuleucel-T: Real-World Experience from the PROCEED Registry." The research shows that African-American patients presented with higher baseline prostate-specific antigen and shorter prostate-specific antigen doubling time than Caucasian patients, but were less likely to have primary Gleason score 5. Despite the higher baseline prostate-specific antigens in African-American patients, which has been a predictor of worse clinical outcomes historically, Caucasian and African-American patients had similar time to anticancer interventions after sipuleucel-T. Additional follow-up will assess potential overall survival differences in these two patient groups.

For more information on ASCO's 2016 meeting, please visit http://iplanner.asco.org/am2016/#/.

On February 23, 2015, Valeant acquired the worldwide rights to PROVENGE, as well as certain other assets, from Dendreon Corporation.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is working to change its stress tests, which would lead to a "significant increase" in capital requirements for the eight largest banks, Fed Governor Dan Tarullo said in an interview on Bloomberg TV on Thursday.

The changes would probably not take place until 2018, Tarullo said, and the Fed would have to formally make a rule to implement them. Tarullo added the Fed would release the results of the recent round of stress tests "late this month."

(Reporting by Lisa Lambert)
LOS ANGELES, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Former Los Angeles Mayor and Speaker of the California State Assembly Antonio Villaraigosa today announced the launch of a new voter activation committee designed to empower Californians to engage in the national political process in advance of the November 2016 General Election. 'Building Bridges, Not Walls' is a federal political action committee (PAC) that will specifically harness the compassion and power of Californians to combat the anti-immigrant policies that will no doubt be included in the national Republican Party platform and be exploited by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Building Bridges, Not Walls is a unique committee in that, in addition to encouraging Californians to register and turn out to vote, it will activate them - providing them with the tools and motivation needed to take an active role in the political process outside of California, particularly in swing states. Through Building Bridges, Not Walls, Californians will be able to reach out to immigrant voters in swing states and encourage them to participate in the November election.

"Building Bridges, Not Walls is about Californians rising to the occasion and fighting for candidates and policies that will move America forward," Villaraigosa said. "Californians want to step up and respond in every way possible to protect our families, friends and neighbors from the threat of Donald Trump's scapegoating anti-immigrant politics. I am proud that the people of California are so generous in their giving to campaigns and causes, but we have more to offer than just our pocket books. We have the power of passionate people who will engage on a person-to-person level to mobilize and turnout people to vote."

Building Bridges, Not Walls was founded by Villaraigosa, and will be run by a veteran campaign team. The campaign will begin by targeting voters in Arizona, Florida, Nevada and Colorado, but will direct its efforts towards wherever it is needed to stop Trump.

Villaraigosa added, "Building Bridges, Not Walls is about standing up and saying, 'Enough!' We will help mobilize the passion we see in Californians who say 'No!' to Trump and direct it  through calls, texts and emails  towards swing states where it matters most."

For more information, visit www.BuildingBridgesNotWalls.com

Contact: Roger Salazar415.548.1256/[email protected]

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/antonio-villaraigosa-launches-building-bridges-not-walls-committee-300278370.html

SOURCE Building Bridges, Not Walls
COLOGNE, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE: AXTA), a leading global manufacturer of liquid and powder coatings, is launching its Nason Finishes refinish brand in Russia. With its clear focus on its customers, Axalta has identified a requirement in Russia for a cost-competitive, easy-to-use refinish paint system thats suitable for straight-forward spot, panel and overall repairs.

By adding Nason Finishes to our stable of refinish brands in EMEA, we are able to meet our customers requirements, regardless of their size, or whether they require a premium brand, something more mainstream or an economy solution. But whatever they choose, they know they have Axaltas innovation behind it, says Matthias Schonberg, Vice President of Axalta and President of its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

Nason Finishes regionally-specific product portfolios are well-established in the economy refinish paint sectors in the US, Canada, Australia and Asia Pacific, where the brand has been delivering reliable, cost-competitive results for many years.

For further information on Axalta worldwide, please visit www.axaltacs.com

About Axalta Coating Systems  Celebrating 150 Years in the Coatings Industry

Axalta is a leading global company focused solely on coatings and providing customers with innovative, colorful, beautiful and sustainable solutions. From light OEM vehicles, commercial vehicles and refinish applications to electric motors, buildings and pipelines, our coatings are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and enable the materials we coat to last longer. With 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, the 12,800 people of Axalta continue to find ways to better serve our more than 100,000 customers in 130 countries every day with the finest coatings, application systems and technology. For more information visit axaltacoatingsystems.com and follow us on Twitter @axalta and on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602006224/en/

DA Public Relations Ltd

Chantal Bachelier-Moore

D +44 207 692 4964

[email protected]

Source: Axalta Coating Systems
GoodFarms brand packaging displays EFIs Responsibly Grown. Farmworker Assured trustmark

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI), a nonprofit that brings together workers, growers and retailers in the effort to produce safer, more responsibly grown fruits and vegetables, today announced that the GoodFarms brand will debut its craft blueberries, craft strawberries and organic strawberries from EFI-certified farms at Costco locations on the West Coast, Northeast and in Hawaii.

GoodFarms, a new brand from Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce (A&W), seeks to enhance the connection between consumers and the hands that grow and harvest their produce. GoodFarms believes in using sustainable growing practices, farmworker empowerment and affordable access to fresh, healthy food.

Ernie Farley, partner at A&W GoodFarms, noted that EFIs workforce development has been integral to the successful certification of the farms. When workers participate in EFIs leadership team training, they better understand their role in the value chain and become more engaged. That engagement benefits all of us  from the grower to the farmworker, all the way to the consumer.

Product availability is as follows:

Craft blueberries, which come from the first EFI-certified farm in Oxnard, California, will be stocked first by Costco locations in Hawaii.

Craft strawberries and organic strawberries, which come from the EFI-certified farms in Watsonville, California. Costco locations in California, Arizona, Oregon, some of the Hawaiian Islands, and the Northeastern United States will be the first to stock the craft strawberries and organic strawberries, with plans to increase distribution.

Andrew & Williamson was a real pioneer in the development of the Equitable Food Initiative. We're excited to see their commitment to their workers and to consumers reflected in their GoodFarms brand, said Peter O'Driscoll, EFI executive director. This effort to educate consumers should increase demand for produce that is responsibly grown and farmworker assured. More retail sales generate a premium so that growers can reward workers for their hard work. Together, EFI and GoodFarms create value for workers, growers, retailers and consumers alike.

For more information on EFI, visit: http://www.equitablefood.org/.

About GoodFarms

GoodFarms is on a mission to improve lives from farm to table. A portion of your purchase is making a difference by cultivating positive change.

Together we can:

Reduce food waste

Protect our environment

Feed a hungry world

Find alternatives for hazardous pesticides

Increase productivity and farm wages

End slavery and forced labor

Get children out of the fields and into schools

We also want to help you have fun and celebrate life with food that nourishes your body and delights your soul.

Heres to good food, good health, good friends, good times, good farms.

Cheers

For more information on GoodFarms, visit http://www.goodfarms.com and follow GoodFarms on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest.

About Equitable Food Initiative

The Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) brings together workers, growers and retailers to provide Responsibly Grown. Farmworker Assured. fruits and vegetables. As produce farms comply with the EFI Standards  for improved working conditions, pest management, and food safety  the entire food system sees benefits, from farmworkers to businesses to agricultural communities and consumers.

EFI is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, and receives funding support from The Atlantic Philanthropies, Broad Reach Fund, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Rosenberg Foundation, Cedar Tree Foundation, Oxfam America and The Walt Disney Company.

Members of EFIs multi-stakeholder board, which were instrumental in the development of the EFI Standards, include:

Andrew and Williamson Fresh Produce International

Bon Appetit Management Company

Center for Science in the Public Interest

Consumer Federation of America

Costco Wholesale Corporation

Farmworker Justice

Farm Labor Organizing Committee

Keystone Fruit Marketing, Inc.

NatureSweet Tomatoes

Oxfam America

Pesticide Action Network North America

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste

United Farm Workers

Windset Farms

Website: http://www.equitablefood.org

Twitter: @EquitableFood

Facebook: facebook.com/EquitableFoodInitiative

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/equitable-food-initiative

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005075/en/

Equitable Food Initiative

Jessica Felix Romero, 202-800-2524

[email protected]

Source: Equitable Food Initiative
DotLab shares primary market research findings for its novel DotEndo test Findings highlight the need to democratize and scale access to clinical diagnosis for endometriosis NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, DotLab is sharing primary, qualitative market research findings regarding receptivity to and interest in the company's novel endometriosis diagnostics. The DotEndo test was well-received; most patients agreed that the test is relevant to their situation (86%), are interested in learning more (96%), and would ask their... (continue reading...)



Jessica Word Honored by Orange County Business Journal With Women In Business Award ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Word & Brown General Agency today announced that Chief Executive Officer Jessica Word has been selected by the Orange County Business Journal (OCBJ) as an honoree in the publications 2022 Women In Business Awards. She received the award during the awards luncheon on Thursday, October 20, 2022. With more than 20 years of experience at Word & Brown, Jessica has been CEO since 2021. She was selected by the OCBJ from among 200... (continue reading...)



Solera National Bancorp Announces Third Quarter Results Year to Date Net Income of $13.1 million LAKEWOOD, CO / ACCESSWIRE / October 25, 2022 / Solera National Bancorp, Inc. (OTC PINK:SLRK) ("Company"), the holding company for Solera National Bank ("Bank"), a business-focused bank located in the Denver metropolitan area, today reported financial results for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2022. For the third quarter of 2022, net income was $4.9 million and $13.1 million year to date as of September 30,... (continue reading...)



More Press Releases
Lethbridge, Alberta (PRWEB) June 02, 2016

Screamin Brothers is changing the way the world views Generation Z. The Screamin Brothers founders are a far cry from the stereotype of the uninformed "screen addict." Rather, teenage brothers J.R. and Dawson Wikkerink are globally-conscious, successful builders -- they've ingrained the concept of doing social good into their core business model.

The Screamin Brothers are in the business of producing handmade allergen-free frozen treats, using locally-sourced quality ingredients. The company was founded in 2010 by the Wikkerink brothers, following the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Their business model was built off an idea to help the kids in Haiti by donating a percentage of their profits.

There's an added bonus in helping those with severe food allergies enjoy the delight of a sweet treat. "When people say they have not had ice cream in five years, and they try our product, their face lights up and they are so enthusiastic," explains J.R. Wikkerink.

At first, the brothers sold their products at farmers markets and at local fairs and events. They've used their charisma and work ethic to further their exposure, attaining investment on CBC's Dragon's Den. Along the way, they've continued their social consciousness by sourcing sustainable, Fair Trade ingredients for their products, and ensuring that 5% of their net profits will always support children-focused charities locally and internationally.

Today the Screamin Brothers brand is a huge success, selling in over 700+ stores in Canada and gaining more than a million dollars in revenue. These teenagers show no signs of slowing their ambition -- they are setting their sights on US expansion in 2017 and are looking for distributors to grow and scale their business.

Today's Generation Z company founders are motivated by more than revenue growth and expansion. A big part of their inspiration stems from wanting to help kids and continue their philanthropic efforts. The Screamin Brothers are a bright new voice of this generation: they highlight a widespread passion for sustainably-made products, matched equally with a commitment to giving back.

See the charities that Screamin Brothers are supporting.

Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/screamin-brothers/2016/prweb13453996.htm
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL) announced today that Christopher E. Kubasik, its president and chief operating officer, and Ralph G. DAmbrosio, its senior vice president and chief financial officer, will be jointly presenting at the Deutsche Bank 2016 Global Industrials and Materials Summit on Thursday, June 9 in Chicago.

The presentation will begin at 10:40 a.m. CT. The audio portion of the presentation will be webcast live and an audio replay will be available. To access the webcast, please visit www.L-3com.com. Presentation slides will also be available for viewing on this site. Mr. Kubasik and Mr. DAmbrosios presentation will include a discussion of L-3s current business environment and its financial outlook.

Headquartered in New York City, L-3 employs approximately 38,000 people worldwide and is a leading provider of a broad range of communication and electronic systems and products used on military and commercial platforms. L-3 is also a prime contractor in aerospace systems. The company reported 2015 sales of $10.5 billion.

To learn more about L-3, please visit the companys website at www.L-3com.com. L-3 uses its website as a channel of distribution of material company information. Financial and other material information regarding L-3 is routinely posted on the companys website and is readily accessible.

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release are forward-looking statements. Statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to events or conditions or that include words such as expects, anticipates, intends, plans, believes, estimates, will, could and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements set forth above involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in the companys Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking Statements included in the companys recent filings, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602006363/en/

L-3

Corporate Communications

212-697-1111

Source: L-3 Communications
Vizient recognizes Medline for driving innovation in health care supply chain

MUNDELEIN, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Medline has been awarded aptitude Seller of the Year by Vizient, Inc., the largest member-owned health care company in the country. It honors Medline for showing continuous commitment to improving healthcare supply chain innovation through insightful research and ideas, candid and transparent communications and outstanding direct contracting performance through aptitude, an online direct contracting platform between suppliers and healthcare systems.

We are pleased to recognize Medlines commitment to collaboration and service excellence that helps our members meet their supply chain goals while also delivering exceptional care to the patients they serve, said Pete Allen, executive vice president, sourcing operations for Vizient.

We are grateful to the aptitude team for their continued support and valued partnership, says Dan Braun, senior analyst, national accounts, Medline. Medline is committed to helping healthcare providers perform at their very best across the continuum of care. We have a constant desire to create new products and solutions that enhance the healthcare supply chain and it is an honor to receive this award.

The award was presented at the 2016 Vizient Supplier Summit held in Las Vegas. For more information on Medlines capabilities, visit www.medline.com.

About Medline

Medline is a global manufacturer and distributor serving the healthcare industry with medical supplies and clinical solutions that help customers achieve both clinical and financial success. Headquartered in Mundelein, Ill., the company offers 350,000+ medical devices and support services through more than 1,200 direct sales representatives who are dedicated points of contact for customers across the continuum of care. For more information on Medline, go to www.medline.com or http://www.medline.com/social-media to connect with Medline on its social media channels.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602006226/en/

Medline

Stacy Rubenstein, (847) 949-2286

[email protected]

Source: Medline
SAN MATEO, Calif. and TOKYO, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced the appointment of Tomoyuki Nakanishi as its Vice President and General Manager for Japan. In this role, Nakanishi is charged with driving the business growth and operational strategy in Japan.

"NetSuite's position and reputation continue to grow in Japan," Tomoyuki said. "I am excited to join this company and help Japanese businesses reap the rewards of the agility, flexibility and scalability of NetSuite's business management suite."

Tomoyuki brings to NetSuite strong experience in sales and marketing in the enterprise software industry. Prior to NetSuite, Tomoyuki was with Apple where he was responsible for driving the transformation of the Enterprise Partner business for Apple in Japan. Before that he served as Director of Dynamics at Microsoft where he led the implementation of the product into the market and contributed to the growth of the business by five times in five years. He also has a wealth of experience in cloud software as he led Office365 and Azure initiatives when he was Director of SMB at Microsoft. Tomoyuki started his career with Software AG of Far East, Inc. Tomoyuki received his B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and is a Certified Public Accountant.

"Nakanishi-san brings a wealth of industry expertise to help us expand on our success bringing the world's #1 cloud ERP to businesses in Japan," said Lee Thompson, Senior Vice President and GM, Asia Pacific & Japan. "We're excited to have him join our team and address the huge market opportunity for cloud solutions. His appointment demonstrates NetSuite's commitment to their international operations and Japan is expected to grow under Nakanishi-sans' leadership with the addition of new talent as part of this expansion."

Today, more than 30,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of cloud-based financials/enterprise resource planning (ERP) and omnichannel commerce software applications for businesses of all sizes. Many FORTUNE 100 companies rely on NetSuite to accelerate innovation and business transformation. NetSuite continues its success in delivering the best cloud business management software to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud accelerates.

Follow NetSuite's Cloud blog, NetSuite's Facebook page and @NetSuite Twitter handle for real-time updates.

For more information about NetSuite please visit www.netsuite.com.

NOTE: NetSuite and the NetSuite logo are service marks of NetSuite Inc.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090924/SF81218LOGO-b

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netsuite-appoints-tomoyuki-nakanishi-as-vp-and-gm-japan-300277588.html

SOURCE NetSuite Inc.
Large and expanding pipeline of UK opportunity to be led by two industry experts with strong experience from stints at large wireless and IT organisations

SYDNEY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Australian ASX-listed data services start-up, Skyfii (ASX: SKF), has launched operations in the United Kingdom to meet strong market demand for data-driven analytics from bricks-and-mortar venues and businesses.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601007100/en/

Wayne Arthur, CEO at Skyfii (Photo: Business Wire)

Founded in 2012, Skyfiis software allows retail centres, hospitality venues, campuses, hospitals and other large public venues to monitor mobile devices throughout their premises and then track those devices around the complex identifying, for example, high-traffic areas. By providing opt-in Wi-Fi to visitors, the cloud-based solution also offers additional sales and marketing capabilities for venues by gathering information that can be shared with commercial tenants or departments.

Skyfiis customers include The GPT Group, Mirvac Group, Blackstone and Jen Properties.

The companys launch into the UK coincides with its expansion into the United States through the opening of an office Dallas, Texas.

As in our other markets, bricks and mortar venues in the UK understand that data is not just useful to online business but has become a critical component of their own revenue-generating and promotional strategies, said Wayne Arthur, Chief Executive Officer at Skyfii.

Whether they operate shopping malls, airports, hospitals, stadia, universities or even restaurants and bars, these companies want to learn more about their visitors. These insights can be used to monitor the asset performance in order to provide specialised and targeted digital marketing for themselves or their commercial tenants to generate greater value, and in turn, boost brands.

Skyfii has made two senior executive appointments to manage the new office located London, England. Michael Owen joined the company as Director of Technical Operations, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), while Andrew Clark is Sales and Alliances Director, EMEA. Owen and Clark are charged with heading sales, go-to-market and channel sales operations.

Michael and Andrew are industry veterans who have held senior leadership roles at some of the wireless and IT industrys largest organisations, said Arthur. With their extensive experience in helping organisations adapt to the digital, cloud and application-driven world, UK venues will be able to capitalise on the opportunity of smart marketing by better understanding the needs of the consumers visiting their facilities.

Owen joins Skyfii from Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, where he was Channel and Pre-Sales Manager for its UK and Ireland operations. In this role, he led a team of experienced engineers with responsibility for the enablement of distributors and partners. Before Aruba, Owen held leadership roles at Lifesize and BT.

Clark comes to Skyfii with 20 years channel management experience, having held senior roles at Computerlinks, Nokia Security and Check Point Software before moving to lead Arubas partner business in the UK and Ireland as Channel Director.

About Skyfii

Advancements in cloud, mobile technology and Wi-Fi systems have enabled bricks-and-mortar venues to become more competitive by better understanding the needs of their diverse types of visitors. Today, every smartphone is a chatterbox of information. The cloud-based Skyfii platform uses existing Wi-Fi infrastructure, BLE beacon networks, door-to-people counters, video sources, web and social platforms to allow various types of venues to not only analyse behaviour of anonymous visitors, but also capture data from those who opt-in to free Internet connectivity. In doing so, it converts the data into a critical sales and marketing tool that allows venues and their commercial tenants to deliver content that is catered to each visitors needs and interests. For more information visit www.skyfii.io.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601007100/en/

For Skyfii

Watterson Marketing Communications

Nermin Bajric, +61299297533

[email protected]

Source: Skyfii
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian police secured a fenced-in migrant processing center near the Serbian border on Wednesday to block about 300 protesting migrants from marching to Budapest, police said in a statement.

A Syrian chosen as spokesman for the protest gave a petition to officials at the camp in the town of Kiskunhalas, it said, and then urged the migrants to march to the Hungarian capital, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) to the north.

A video posted on the news website index.hu showed dozens of people chanting "freedom, freedom!" behind a high wire fence while dozens of police vehicles and officers with dogs patrolled the area to secure the perimeter of the camp.

"About 300 of the 484 detained migrants protested against closed quarters and slow processing of their cases," said the statement. "Police have deployed significant force to secure the processing center and the surrounding area and will stop migrants from leaving the premises of the center."

The camp is closed because it houses migrants who have been expelled from Hungary legally but have not yet been deported. Police spoke with the migrants and a conflict was unlikely, Gyorgy Bakondi, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's national security advisor, told public television M1.

Hungary was on the main overland route that about a million migrants took last year from the Middle East to Western Europe. Budapest diverted that traffic with a razor wire fence along its southern border with Serbia and Croatia.

The flow has since slowed but thousands have still managed to make it through this year, keeping the issue in the public eye as Orban prepares a referendum in which he will ask voters to reject an EU plan to re-distribute migrants.

Thousands of migrants camped out in front of a central Budapest train station for weeks last August before a large group of them decided to march for the Austrian border, forcing Hungary to abandon its efforts to process their claims and elevating tensions about the migrant crisis across Europe.

(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Bergen, 20160429: A helicopter has crashed west of the Norwegian city of Bergen with 13 people on board. A rescue vessel lifts up parts of the helicopter. NTB Scanpix/Torstein Boe/via REUTERS

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's Civil Aviation Authority has extended its ban on the use of Airbus H225 Super Puma Helicopters in Norway to include search and rescue missions, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

The ban, which also includes an older version of the aircraft, follows the discovery of metal fatigue in the gear box of a Super Puma helicopter that crashed in Norway on April 29, killing all 13 people on board.

The Super Pumas, a workhorse of the oil industry, were banned from commercial traffic in Norway and Britain following the accident, but search and rescue missions had still been allowed.

The findings were published in a preliminary report by Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN) on Wednesday, in which the board urged the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to take immediate action to ensure the safety of the helicopter's main gearbox.

EASA said it was planning to issue another safety directive on Thursday, but did not elaborate.

Norwegian oil major Statoil said in a separate statement it would find other ways of operating its emergency services for the Oseberg Field Centre and Statfjord B platforms in the North Sea, as well as at the airport at Sola.

"Statoil is currently mobilizing the necessary resources to safeguard preparedness requirements," the company said.

The helicopter that crashed in April was working for the Norwegian firm and operated by Canada-based CHC Helicopter.

CHC said it welcomed the latest report from the AIBN and that it had suspended all flights with the H225 model as a result, even before the Norwegian ban was announced.

Airbus Helicopters declined to comment further as the investigation continues, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Investigators have ruled out human error, saying the crash was caused by a technical fault.

On Wednesday, the AIBN said it had found metallurgical evidence "strongly consistent with fatigue" in a part of the gearbox, while adding it was focusing simultaneously on several different scenarios for the crash.

Previous Super Puma incidents linked to gearbox problems included a 2009 crash off Peterhead, Scotland, in which the rotor also flew off and 16 people died.

Airbus Helicopters told operators in a bulletin this week that there were "significant elements" differing from the 2009 crash, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

It placed most emphasis on a possible failure of one of the struts holding the rotors to the aircraft, saying that could have been caused by either faulty bolts or missing safety pins.

Design and production are the responsibility of Airbus Helicopters; maintenance is handled by CHC.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Stine Jacobsen in Oslo, Victoria Bryan in Dublin and Cyril Altmeyer in Paris; Editing by Richard Pullin and Hugh Lawson)
By Manuel Mogato and Karen Lema

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines will not distance itself from its long-time security ally, the United States, but neither will it be a lackey to any foreign power, incoming Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told Reuters on Wednesday.

In his first interview with the foreign media since being appointed by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, the lawyer by training sought to underline the Philippines' independence in dealing with disputes with China over the South China Sea.

"We should not be a lackey of any nation," Yasay said in Manila, the day after Duterte named his cabinet.

Under outgoing President Benigno Aquino, the Philippines moved closer to Washington, in turn straining ties with China.

Yasay said relations with China should improve.

"For as long as it (China) adheres to the rule of law, respects our territorial integrity and sovereignty...we should continue to make sure that our friendship and relationship would be stronger," he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the door was always open to dialogue, which would be helpful for "breaking the deadlock" in China-Philippines relations in recent years.

"If the Philippines sincerely wish to come back to the track of dialogue and negotiations we welcome that," Wang told reporters in the Canadian capital Ottawa.

"We would be happy to see the new government in the Philippines make wise choices."

Duterte, the tough-talking mayor who takes office on June 30, said on Tuesday that the Philippines would not rely on Washington, signaling a potential shift in approach to the South China Sea and broader security issues.

"He was simply articulating the position that, according to the constitution, we are supposed to carry an independent foreign policy," Yasay said of Duterte's remarks.

Yasay added that the president-elect would honor existing treaties with the United States, including the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that allows U.S. troops increased access to local bases.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Duterte on May 17 to congratulate him on his election win.

"That was a very strong indication about our friendship with America not being affected, and will not be affected by his election," Yasay said.

At the same time, Duterte has not ruled out renegotiating agreements in the future if it was deemed necessary.

"When he said he is committed to agreements we have entered into...he does not discount the possibility that in the future, if it is determined that there is a need to further negotiate on these agreements on the basis of pursuing the mutual interest of both countries, we should not hesitate to do so," Yasay said.

The Supreme Court this year upheld the constitutionality of the agreement that lets the United States build warehouses and logistics hubs anywhere in the Philippines.

Washington is also helping its former colony to bolster its defenses, providing three Hamilton-class cutters, radar equipment and a research ship that will arrive in July.

The build-up is part of an effort by the Philippines to strengthen its claims in the disputed South China Sea, where China has been constructing artificial islands.

Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines also have overlapping claims in the sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas and a key trade route through which an estimated $5 trillion worth of goods pass each year.

Yasay, who has participated in global trade deals in the past, said Manila would respect whatever decision is handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, where the Philippines is challenging China's position on the disputed waters. It is not clear when a ruling will come.

Duterte has said he was open to joint ventures with China to explore and exploit resources in the South China Sea.

The Philippines was willing to pursue bilateral talks with China to resolve a dispute over the Scarborough Shoal, but would stick to multilateral discussions for the Spratly islands, because there were other claimant states, Yasay said.

(Additonal reporting by David Ljunggren in OTTAWA.; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Lincoln Feast)
Demonstrators hold up an image of Rizana Nafeek as they shout slogans during a protest against her execution, in Colombo January 11, 2013. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte

By Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka will gradually stop sending house maids abroad, mainly to the Middle East, due to rights abuses, social costs and a local labor shortage, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka's expatriate workers, mainly house maids and unskilled laborers, send back remittances - the island nation's main foreign exchange earner - that help earn around $7 billion a year for the $82.2 billion economy.

Senaratne said President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a committee to study strategies to reduce the numbers gradually and finally stop sending maids abroad.

"We want to discourage the house maids category in the foreign employment because the social cost is very high," he told Reuters.

Human rights abuses and social costs due to rapes, drug addiction and child abuse in many families of house maids, and labor shortage locally, have prompted the government to take such a decision, he said.

The total number of departures for foreign employment declined by 12.4 percent last year to 263,307, partly due to the slowdown of economic activities in the Middle East.

Sri Lanka is already encouraging sending skilled male workers abroad instead of low-skilled females and house maids.

In 2013, around 1,650 Sri Lankan house maids complained of being physically and sexually abused by their employers mainly in the Middle East, the latest data from the Foreign Employment Bureau showed.

In 2013, the Saudis beheaded a young Sri Lankan housemaid for killing an infant left in her care, rejecting repeated appeals by the Indian Ocean island against her death sentence. Colombo recalled its ambassador from Riyadh in protest.

After their Sri Lankan maid complained of too much work in 2010, a Saudi couple tortured her by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead. The maid returned home.

Last year, however, Saudi authorities reduced a Sri Lankan maid's sentence for adultery from death by stoning to a three-year jail term after an appeal.

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Union Pacific Chairman, President and CEO, Lance Fritz speaks during an interview in New York, U.S., June 2, 2016. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

By Nick Carey

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rhetoric against free trade from both likely U.S. presidential nominees poses a risk to the economy and consumers who would lose out if international trade is restrained, the chief executive of the largest U.S. railroad said on Thursday.

"Global trade is not getting a fair shake in the dialogue," Union Pacific Corp (NYSE: UNP) CEO Lance Fritz said during a discussion with Reuters journalists. "We've devolved to a form of populism in the rhetoric and that strikes me as having a lot of negative consequences."

Free trade agreements and their impact on U.S. workers have been a major theme in the 2016 campaign for the presidential election on Nov. 8.

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and promised to rip up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, has criticized the partnership deal, which was signed in February but has not yet won congressional approval.

Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific has a growing business serving cross-border trade with Mexico, and over the past decade has reported increased shipments of containers full of consumer goods, many of which come from Asia.

Fritz said both candidates are arguing that NAFTA is "a bad thing," even though Trump has been more vocal than Clinton in warning about losing jobs to foreign competition and threatening to slap tariffs on imported goods.

"That's concerning to me," Fritz said. "That's telling the U.S. public that free trade is a bad idea, and that's patently not in the interest of the U.S. consumer."

"We are worried and thinking about what-ifs," Fritz said when asked how his company would deal with a Trump or Clinton administration. "What I'm hoping is we get a little more clarity as we get closer (to the election) and it starts making sense and we can plan around it."

Fritz, who has served as Union Pacific CEO since February 2015, also noted that despite low fuel prices, U.S. consumers still have not taken up the slack in the broader economy.

"We haven't seen a strong consumer in a little while," he said.

Fritz said he did not know when the railroad would meet its target of an operating ratio, a measure of efficiency, of 55 percent. The ratio expresses operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, so the lower the figure the better.

"We're going to get there as soon as we can in a reasonable fashion," he said. Union Pacific posted a first-quarter operating ratio of 65.1 percent.

U.S. railroads generally have a significantly higher operating ratio than the 58.9 percent reported in the first quarter by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd (NYSE: CP) and Canadian National Railway Co (NYSE: CNR).

Fritz also said Union Pacific would have an anti-collision system mandated by Congress in place by the deadline of 2018. But the company would need the two one-year extensions allowed to "debug" the Positive Train Control (PTC) system, he added.

Last year, Congress extended the deadline for the system's implementation beyond 2015, despite opposition from some lawmakers following a fatal Amtrak crash in Pennsylvania in May 2015.

(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Eric Effron and Richard Chang)
By David DeKok

HARRISBURG, Pa (Reuters) - A Pennsylvania judge ruled on Wednesday that former professional wrestler Jimmy Superfly Snuka was mentally incompetent to stand trial for murder in the 1983 death of his girlfriend in Allentown, his lawyer said.

Snuka, 73, was ordered by Lehigh County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Banach to return in December for re-evaluation of his competency, Robert Kirwan II, the ex-wrestler's lawyer, said.

Kirwan could not comment on the ruling because of a gag order from Banach. The Lehigh County District Attorneys office said it could not comment for the same reason.

Snuka was charged in September with third-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the 1983 beating death of his girlfriend, Nancy Argentino, 23, in a motel near Allentown.

The case was revived after a 2013 investigation by the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown on the 30th anniversary of Argentinos death. An autopsy report unearthed by the newspaper suggested that the death was a homicide, not an accident.

Snuka, a native of the Pacific island nation of Fiji, was a World Wrestling Federation star in the 1980s along with wrestlers Hulk Hogan, Roddy Piper and Andre the Giant. His signature move was climbing to the top rope and diving onto an opponent's chest.

During a competency hearing, Frank Dattilio, a Harvard University psychologist, testified that he had examined Snuka over a period of months and believed he suffered from severe dementia.

Dattilio said he believed Snuka was not competent to help his lawyer with his defense and a trial would worsen his mental state.

Prosecutors showed recent videos that appeared to show that Snuka was aware and competent and still able to compete in the ring. A prosecution psychiatrist, John OBrien, said he believed the former wrestler was faking dementia.

The Morning Call reported that Banach denied a prosecution motion on Wednesday to have Snuka involuntarily committed to a mental facility for 60 days. She granted Snuka permission to leave the state to live with his son in Florida.

(Editing by Ian Simpson and Leslie Adler)
UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 6-K

REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER

PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16

OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the month of June 2016

ALON BLUE SQUARE ISRAEL LTD.

(translation of registrants name into English)

EuroparkYakum, France Building,

Yakum 60972 Israel

(Address of principal executive offices)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40 F:

Form 20-F x Form 40-F o

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1): ______

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7): ______

Contact:

Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd.

Zehavit Shahaf, Adv.,

General Counsel and Corporate Secretary

Telephone: 972-9-9618504

Fax: 972-9- 9618636

Email: [email protected]

ALON BLUE SQUARE ANNOUNCES RESIGNATION OF

KEREN BAR - HAVA AS DIRECTOR

YAKUM, Israel, June 2, 2016, Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd. (OTC: BSIRY) (the Company) announced today the resignation of Ms. Keren Bar-Hava as a member of the Company's board of directors effective immediately. Ms. Bar-Hava also served on the Company's audit committee. The Board of Directors thanks Ms. Bar-Hava for her contribution to the Company.

* * * *

Alon Blue Square Israel Ltd. (hereinafter: "Alon Blue Square") operates through subsidiaries. Continued operations - its Tel Aviv Stock Exchange ("TASE") listed 53.92% subsidiary, Blue Square Real Estate Ltd., which owns, leases and develops income producing commercial properties and projects. The others activities include the clearance of purchase coupons and operating the logistic center in Beer Tuvia. Companies designated for sale the 63.13% held subsidiary, Dor Alon Energy in Israel (1988) Ltd, listed on the TASE, is one of the four largest fuel retail companies in Israel based on the number of petrol stations and a leader in the field of convenience stores operating a chain of 211 petrol stations and 218 convenience stores in different formats in Israel, and Na'aman Group (NV) Ltd., a 77.51% subsidiary listed on the TASE, operates specialist outlets in self-operation and franchises and offers a wide range of "Non-Food" in the houseware and textile segment.

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to, plans or projections about our business, our future revenues, expenses and profitability. Forward-looking statements may be, but are not necessarily, identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "anticipates," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," and words and terms of similar substance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events, results, performance, circumstance and achievements to be materially different from any future events, results, performance, circumstance and achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, the following: failure to reach a settlement with holders of our bank debt and guaranteed bank debt and holders of our Series C Debentures as well as the trustees and creditors of Mega Retail and whether we will continue operations; failure to satisfy all closing conditions for the proposed debt arrangement; acceptance by the court of all or part of the claims made by the trustees of Mega Retail; exposure to third party claims for significant amount of Mega Retail's outstanding debts and liabilities; financial and operational restrictions imposed by the proposed framework for debt repayment with our financial creditors; commitments to issue additional shares which would dilute existing shareholdings and may lower the trading price of our securities; economic conditions in Israel which may affect our financial performance; dependence of BSRE on Mega Retail as a lessee of its properties; our ability to compete effectively with large fuel companies and our other competitors; enactment of new laws and regulations, including the enactment of recommendations of governmental appointed committees and regulations with respect to the procurement of petroleum products by fuel companies and the price of petroleum products that are subject to regulation; the effect of increases in oil, raw material and product prices in recent years; and other risks, uncertainties and factors disclosed in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including, but not limited to, risks, uncertainties and factors identified under the heading "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2015. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Except for our ongoing obligations to disclose material information under the applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 6-K

REPORT OF FOREIGN PRIVATE ISSUER

PURSUANT TO RULE 13a-16 OR 15d-16 UNDER

THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

June 2, 2016

Commission File No.: 1-34455

Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV

(Translation of registrants name into English)

Belgium

(Jurisdiction of Incorporation)

Brouwerijplein 1,

3000 Leuven, Belgium

(Address of principal executive offices)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F:

Form 20-F u Form 40-F

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(1):

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is submitting the Form 6-K in paper as permitted by Regulation S-T Rule 101(b)(7):

Indicate by check mark whether by furnishing the information contained in this Form, the registrant is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Yes No u

THIS REPORT ON FORM 6-K SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE IN EACH OF THE REGISTRATION STATEMENTS ON FORM F-3 (FILE NO. 333-208678), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-172069), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-171231), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-169272), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-165566), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-165065), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-178664), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-188517), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-192806), FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-201386) AND FORM S-8 (FILE NO. 333-208634) OF ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV SA/NV AND TO BE A PART THEREOF FROM THE DATE ON WHICH THIS REPORT IS FURNISHED, TO THE EXTENT NOT SUPERSEDED BY DOCUMENTS OR REPORTS SUBSEQUENTLY FILED OR FURNISHED.

EXHIBIT INDEX

Exhibit Number Description 99.1 Press release dated 2 June 2016

SIGNATURE

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

ANHEUSER-BUSCH INBEV SA/NV (Registrant) Dated: June 2, 2016 By: /s/ Jan Vandermeersch Name: Jan Vandermeersch Title: Global Legal Director Corporate

Exhibit 99.1

PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 2 June 2016  1 / 6

The enclosed information constitutes regulated information as defined in the Belgian Royal Decree of 14 November 2007 regarding the duties of issuers of financial instruments which have been admitted for trading on a regulated market.

Anheuser-Busch InBev Announces Results of Solicitation of

Participation to General Bondholders Meetings

On 6 May 2016, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev or the Company) (Euronext: ABI) (NYSE: BUD) (MEXBOL: ABI) (JSE: ANB) announced invitations to holders of certain outstanding notes issued under its EMTN Programme (each a Series and, together, the Notes) to consent to certain modifications of the terms and conditions (the Conditions) of the relevant Series in the context of the proposed combination of the Company with SABMiller plc (SABMiller), by approving a resolution of the holders of such Series (a Resolution), all as further described in the participation solicitation memorandum dated 6 May 2016 prepared by the Company (the Participation Solicitation Memorandum). Capitalised terms used in this notice and not otherwise defined shall have the meanings given to them in the Participation Solicitation Memorandum.

Results of Meetings

The Meetings to consider the Resolution were held on 1 June 2016, and the Resolution was approved by the holders of the following Series of Notes:

Series ISIN Description Block Voting Instructions

or Meeting Notifications

received from

Noteholders as a

percentage of

Outstanding1 Principal

Amount (%) Block Voting

Instructions or Meeting

Notifications in favour,

as a percentage of total

votes received from

Noteholders (%) 2 BE0934985020 EUR 600,000,000 8.625% Notes due 30 January 2017 68.90 99.94 3 BE0934986036 550,000,000 9.750% Notes due 30 July 2024 93.86 99.61 8 BE6000183549 750,000,000 6.500% Notes due 23 June 2017 87.66 99.68 9 BE6000782712 EUR 750,000,000 4.000% Notes due 26 April 2018 79.34 99.18

- 1-

PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 2 June 2016  2 / 6

10 BE6221503202 EUR 750,000,000 4.000% Notes due 2 June 2021 78.12 99.11 11 BE6243181672 EUR 750,000,000 1.250% Notes due 24 March 2017 55.12 99.64 12 BE6243180666 EUR 750,000,000 2.000% Notes due 16 December 2019 68.06 99.49 13 BE6243179650 EUR 750,000,000 2.875% Notes due 25 September 2024 82.94 99.03 14 BE6248644013 EUR 500,000,000 3.250% Notes due 24 January 2033 95.14 99.48 15 BE6258027729 EUR 750,000,000 2.250% Notes due 24 September 2020 84.11 99.36 16 BE6258029741 500,000,000 4.000% Notes due 24 September 2025 90.40 99.62 17 BE6265140077 EUR 850,000,000 Floating Rate Notes due March 2018 79.74 99.47 18 BE6265141083 EUR 650,000,000 1.950% Notes due 30 September 2021 84.69 98.40 19 BE6265142099 EUR 1,000,000,000 2.700% Notes due 31 March 2026 89.01 97.86 20 BE6276038419 EUR 750,000,000 Floating Rate Notes due October 2018 61.65 99.07 21 BE6276039425 EUR 1,000,000,000 0.800% Notes due 20 April 2023 66.87 95.97 22 BE6276040431 EUR 1,250,000,000 1.500% Notes due 18 April 2030 82.17 98.20

1 Neither the Company nor any Guarantor holds any outstanding amount of the Notes

The Company and the Guarantors have executed each Amended and Restated Final Terms in order to give effect to the Resolution. The Company will pay any applicable Participation Fee by no later than 8 June 2016.

Further Information

A complete description of the terms and conditions of the Participation Solicitation is set out in the Participation Solicitation Memorandum.

- 2-

PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 2 June 2016  3 / 6

Further details about the Participation Solicitation can be obtained from:

The Solicitation Agents

BNP Paribas

10 Harewood Avenue

London NW1 6AA

United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 20 7595 8668

Attention: Liability Management Group

Email: [email protected]

Deutsche Bank AG, London Branch

Winchester House

1 Great Winchester Street

London EC2N 2DB

United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 20 7545 8011

Attention: Liability Management Group

Email: [email protected]

ING Bank NV, Belgian Branch

Avenue Marnixlaan 24

B-1000 Brussels

Belgium

Telephone: +31 20 563 2132

Attention: Liability Management Team

Email: [email protected]

The Tabulation Agent

Lucid Issuer Services Limited

Tankerton Works

12 Argyle Walk

- 3-

PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 2 June 2016  4 / 6

London WC1H 8HA

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 20 7704 0880

Fax: +44 20 3004 1590

Attention: Thomas Choquet / Yves Theis

Email: [email protected]

None of the Solicitation Agents, the Tabulation Agent or any of their respective agents accepts any responsibility for the information contained in this announcement and none of the Company, the Solicitation Agents, the Tabulation Agent, or any of their respective directors, employees or affiliates makes any representation or recommendation whatsoever regarding the Participation Solicitation. This announcement must be read in conjunction with the Participation Solicitation Memorandum. No offer to acquire any Notes is being made pursuant to this announcement.

Solicitation Restrictions

This announcement and the Participation Solicitation Memorandum do not constitute an offer to purchase Notes or the solicitation of an offer to sell Notes. The distribution of the Participation Solicitation Memorandum in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession the Participation Solicitation Memorandum comes are required by the Company, the Guarantors, the Solicitation Agents and the Tabulation Agent to inform themselves about, and to observe, any such restrictions.

CONTACT

- 4-

PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 2 June 2016  5 / 6

About Anheuser-Busch InBev Anheuser-Busch InBev is a publicly traded company (Euronext: ABI) based in Leuven, Belgium, with secondary listings on the Mexican (MEXBOL: ABI) and Johannesburg (JSE: ANB) stock exchanges and with American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUD). It is the leading global brewer by volume and one of the worlds top five consumer products companies. The company has a portfolio of well over 200 beer brands and it aims to continue to forge strong connections with consumers. This includes global brands Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois; international brands Becks, Leffe and Hoegaarden; and local champions Bud Light, Skol, Brahma, Antarctica, Quilmes, Victoria, Modelo Especial, Michelob Ultra, Harbin, Sedrin, Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona, Chernigivske, Cass and Jupiler. Anheuser-Busch InBevs brewing heritage and quality is rooted in brewing traditions of more than 600 years and the Den Hoorn brewery in Leuven, Belgium, as well as the Anheuser & Co brewery, with origins in St. Louis, USA since 1852. Geographically diversified with a balanced exposure to developed and developing markets, Anheuser-Busch InBev leverages the collective strengths of more than 150,000 employees based in 26 countries worldwide. In 2015, Anheuser-Busch InBev realized 43.6 billion USD revenue. The company strives to be the Best Beer Company Bringing People Together For a Better World.

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PRESS RELEASE Brussels, 2 June 2016  6 / 6

NOTES

Cautionary note regarding forward-looking statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current expectations and views of future events and developments of the management of Anheuser-Busch InBev and are naturally subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. The forward-looking statements contained in this release include statements relating to Anheuser-Busch InBevs proposed combination with SABMiller and other statements other than historical facts. Forward-looking statements include statements typically containing words such as will, may, should, believe, intends, expects, anticipates, targets, estimates, likely, foresees and words of similar import. All statements other than statements of historical facts are forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the current views of the management of Anheuser-Busch InBev, are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties about Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller and are dependent on many factors, some of which are outside of Anheuser-Busch InBevs control. There are important factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be materially different, including the satisfaction of the pre-conditions and the conditions to the transactions described herein, the ability to obtain the regulatory approvals related to the transactions and the ability to satisfy any conditions required to obtain such approvals, and the risks relating to Anheuser-Busch InBev described under Item 3.D of its Annual Report on Form 20-F (Form 20-F) filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 14 March 2016. Other unknown or unpredictable factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. There can be no certainty that the proposed transactions will be completed on the terms described herein or at all. The forward-looking statements should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included elsewhere, including Anheuser-Busch InBevs most recent Form 20-F and other reports furnished on Form 6-K, and any other documents that Anheuser-Busch InBev or SABMiller have made public. Any forward-looking statements made in this communication are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments anticipated by Anheuser-Busch InBev will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, Anheuser-Busch InBev or its business or operations. Except as required by law, Anheuser-Busch InBev undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Future SEC Filings and This Filing: Important Information In the event that Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller implement a transaction relating to the combination with SABMiller by Anheuser-Busch InBev, Anheuser-Busch InBev or Newbelco SA/NV (a Belgian limited liability company formed for the purposes of such transaction) may be required to file relevant materials with the SEC. Such documents, however, are not currently available. INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ ANY DOCUMENTS REGARDING SUCH POTENTIAL TRANSACTION IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors will be able to obtain a free copy of such filings without charge, at the SECs website ( http://www.sec.gov/ ) once such documents are filed with the SEC. Copies of such documents may also be obtained from Anheuser-Busch InBev, without charge, once they are filed with the SEC. Notice to US investors US holders of SABMiller shares should note that the steps of any transaction requiring approval by SABMiller shareholders may be implemented under a UK scheme of arrangement provided for under English company law. If so, it is expected that any shares to be issued under the transaction to SABMiller shareholders would be issued in reliance upon the exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act of 1933, provided by Section 3(a)(10) thereof and would be subject to UK disclosure requirements (which are different from those of the United States). The transaction may instead be implemented by way of a takeover offer under English law. If so, any securities to be issued under the transaction to SABMiller shareholders will be registered under the US Securities Act, absent an applicable exemption from registration. If the transaction is implemented by way of UK takeover offer, it will be done in compliance with the applicable rules under the US Exchange Act of 1934, including any applicable exemptions provided under Rule 14d-1(d) thereunder. This filing shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

- 6-








UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF

THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of report (Date of earliest event reported): June 2, 2016

OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

Delaware 001-33805 26-0354783 (State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation) (Commission File Number) (IRS Employer Identification No.)

9 West 57th Street, New York, New York 10019 (Address of Principal Executive Offices) (Zip Code)

212-790-0000

(Registrants Telephone Number, Including Area Code)

Not Applicable

(Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report)

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions ( see General Instruction A.2. below):

 Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)

 Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))

 Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

































Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure.

Estimated Unaudited Net Returns

The following information is being provided to investors in the alternative investment vehicles (the funds) that affiliates of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC (collectively, the Company) manage with respect to the estimated net returns of certain of the Companys most significant master funds for the month ended May 31, 2016 . The following information is not necessarily indicative of the Companys anticipated financial results.

May 2016

Net Returns

Estimate (1)(2) May 2016

Year-to-Date

Net Returns

Estimate (2)(3) OZ Master Fund +1.67% -1.22% OZ Asia Master Fund -0.67% -2.88% OZ Europe Master Fund +2.81% -0.19%

______________________________________________

(1) Monthly net returns are based on managements estimates as of the date hereof for performance of the referenced funds from May 1, 2016 to May 31, 2016 . Such data may change upon completion of the Companys month-end valuation procedures, and any changes could be material.

(2) Year-to-date net returns are based on managements estimates as of the date hereof for the performance of the referenced funds from January 1, 2016 to May 31, 2016 . Such data may change upon completion of the Companys month-end valuation procedures, and any changes could be material.

(3) Net return represents a composite of the average return of the feeder funds that comprise each of the referenced funds. Net return is presented on a total return basis, net of all fees and expenses (except incentive income on unrealized gains attributable to investments that the Company, as investment manager, determines lack a readily ascertainable fair value, are illiquid or otherwise should be held until the resolution of a special event or circumstance (Special Investments) that could reduce returns on such Special Investments at the time of realization) and includes the reinvestment of all dividends and other income. Performance includes realized and unrealized gains and losses attributable to Special Investments and initial public offering investments that are not allocated to all investors in the feeder funds. Investors that were not allocated Special Investments and/or initial public offering investments may experience materially different returns. The performance calculation for the OZ Master Fund excludes realized and unrealized gains and losses attributable to currency hedging specific to certain investors investing in OZ Master Fund in currencies other than the U.S. Dollar.

Estimated Unaudited Assets Under Management

In addition, the Company is disclosing to investors in the funds that it manages that, as of June 1, 2016 , the estimated unaudited amount of assets under management was approximately $42.4 billion , which reflects a net increase of approximately $400 million since May 1, 2016 . The Companys estimate of assets under management is inclusive of performance for the month ended May 31, 2016 and capital flows from May 2, 2016 through June 1, 2016 .

Assets under management includes assets attributable to the Companys multi-strategy, opportunistic credit, real estate and equity funds, Institutional Credit Strategies products, and other alternative investment vehicles it manages. Management fees and incentive income earned on assets under management may vary depending on the asset class, commitment period, amount of capital committed by investors, and other factors related to a particular fund.

The information in this report is being furnished, not filed, for purposes of Section 18 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, pursuant to Item 7.01 of Form 8-K and will not be incorporated by reference into any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, unless specifically identified therein as being incorporated therein by reference.

















Forward-Looking Statements

The information contained in this Current Report on Form 8-K may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that reflect the Companys current views with respect to, among other things, future events and financial performance. The Company generally identifies forward-looking statements by terminology such as outlook, believe, expect, potential, continue, may, will, should, could, seek, approximately, predict, intend, plan, estimate, anticipate, opportunity, comfortable, assume, remain, maintain, sustain, achieve, see, think, position or the negative version of those words or other comparable words.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this Current Report on Form 8-K are based upon historical information and on the Companys current plans, estimates and expectations. The inclusion of this or other forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by the Company or any other person that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated by the Company will be achieved.

The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are subject to numerous assumptions, estimates, risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the following: global economic, business, market and geopolitical conditions; U.S. and foreign regulatory developments relating to, among other things, financial institutions and markets, government oversight, fiscal and tax policy; conditions impacting the alternative asset management industry; the Company's ability to retain existing investor capital; the Companys ability to successfully compete for fund investors, assets, professional talent and investment opportunities; the Companys ability to retain its active executive managing directors, managing directors and other investment professionals; the Companys successful formulation and execution of its business and growth strategies; the Companys ability to appropriately manage conflicts of interest and tax and other regulatory factors relevant to the Companys business; and assumptions relating to the Companys operations, investment performance, financial results, financial condition, business prospects, growth strategy and liquidity.

If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the Companys assumptions or estimates prove to be incorrect, the Companys actual results may vary materially from those indicated in these statements. These factors are not and should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements and risks that are included in the Companys filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including but not limited to the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 , dated February 11, 2016 . There may be additional risks, uncertainties and factors that the Company does not currently view as material or that are not known. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, because of new information, future developments or otherwise.

This Current Report on Form 8-K does not constitute an offer of any Och-Ziff fund.

















SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

OCH-ZIFF CAPITAL MANAGEMENT GROUP LLC (Registrant) By: /s/ Joel M. Frank Joel M. Frank Chief Financial Officer and Executive Managing Director

June 2, 2016




As part of the upgrade of the Arlington Apartments in Mt Cook, Wellington City Council is calling for private sector developers to submit development options. Council would retain ownership of social housing, but developers could develop private housing alongside this.

Wellington City Council is calling for private developers to partner with it for its latest social housing development, amid claims of a looming Auckland-style "affordability crisis".

The council, which owns around 2200 social housing units on 40 locations across the city is calling for submissions on the government tender website for a public-private partnership on the Arlington 1 site, on the western side of Hopper Street in the suburb of Mt Cook.

The development appears to mark a significant philosophical shift for the council, as the first time private sector developers would be involved in social housing developments.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Councillor Paul Eagle says the council may be willing to "embrace" the private sector in a bid to intervene in the affordable housing market.

Although the council says it would retain ownership of all social housing which flowed from the development, it is open to developers building private housing alongside it, which could be rented or on sold.

READ MORE: Retirement village-type companies will enter social housing in 5 years: English

Councillor Paul Eagle, chair of the committee responsible for social housing, acknowledged that while the council was simply "putting out feelers" at this stage, if successful, the model was likely to be used elsewhere.

Wellington City is committed to spending $180 million on upgrading its social housing stock over the next decade.

The issue of private sector involvement in the provision of social housing is a politically charged subject, but Eagle said the real philosophical shift for Wellington City was that it was taking steps to intervene in the affordable housing market.

"We've got a housing affordability crisis potentially looming. We would like to embrace the market or embrace the sector," Eagle said.

"We are putting an intervention into the housing continuum for affordable housing, that's the philosophical thing.

"All social housing will be run by us, owned by us. That will be untouchable. But in terms of the land, if we can fit 60-100 [social housing units] on that land, but also start using that same bit of land...if we can fulfil other parts of the housing continuum with the private sector, then that is fine."

Figures from QV this week suggested the average house in Wellington City had risen in value by more than $60,000 in one year

Some of the biggest gains have come in what were once the more affordable parts of the city.

The private housing market has "simply failed" to deliver housing which people could afford just above social housing level, Eagle claimed, and that Wellington was facing an Auckland-style affordability crisis.

As a representative of the southern suburbs, Eagle said the likes of Island Bay, Berhampore and Newtown were historically "working class" but prices were now out of reach for many.

"You would not get a decent house in any of those suburbs now for anything under 600k. They are unaffordable, right now."

The tender for Arlington 1 close on July 8. The council is expected to consider development options for the site in September.
Michael Coelli explains why a desire to make the world more equal lead him to investigate if an equation can provide the answer.

There is an actual mathematical formula for finding the perfect principal.

It's so complex that few principals, and even fewer parents, can understand it.

Call it the "principal effect": University of Melbourne economist Mick Coelli has created an equation that takes into account the quality of students, the demographics of a school and the amount of time a principal spends at the helm to calculate the impact he or she has in the top job.



For all its complexity, the equation's meaning is relatively straightforward. Principals significantly boost their students' grades if they set goals, promote professional development and encourage interaction between staff.

EDDIE JIM Trish Horner, principal of Melbourne's Mill Park College, and Year 8 student Keaton.

READ MORE:

* Naenae College principal wins Senior New Zealander of the Year

* How we radically re-imagined our school

New research by Coelli and Mike Helal has found that students with high-quality principals were up to two months ahead of their peers in other schools.

University of Melbourne economist Mick Coelli has written a formula for finding the perfect school principal.

"It's important that new principals are told that if you want to have these effects, particularly on literacy and numeracy, these are the kind of things you need to do," Coelli said. "Leadership is extremely important."

The research will be used by Australia's Education Department to train future and current principals. It could also inform policies on "turnaround schools", where new principals breathe life into under-performing schools.

The research, released on Thursday by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, also found that a school's morale improved with effective principals.

It feeds into a growing body of work which says pumping more money into schools will not necessarily lead to better student results. A recent Australian Council for Educational Research report on the country's education system found that "a decline in outcomes has often occurred in parallel with increased spending".

The top 10 per cent of Australian 15-year-olds now perform at about the same level in maths as the top 40 to 50 per cent of teenagers in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

The importance of good principals and teachers is highlighted in new ABC documentary series Revolution School, which aired on Tuesday and captures the success and challenges at Kambrya College, a state school in Melbourne's outer south-east.

Principal Michael Muscat is determined to turn the school's results around  it was in the bottom 10 per cent of the state in 2008.

"When you are rock bottom, there's only one way to go," he says during the first few minutes of the episode.

Trish Horner, the principal of Melbourne's Mill Park College, does all the things highlighted in the research, and the results are paying off.

When she took over the top job eight years ago, just 30 per cent of students went to university when they finished school.

Around 50 per cent of students now embark on university degrees.

The school has set three goals which Horner said were "simple enough to be tattooed inside the eyelids of every staff member".

They are to improve academic outcomes, students' ambitions and the school's connection with families and the community.

"I'd like to keep pushing and pushing. The real success stories are the students who are the first in their family to go to university, and the students who you didn't expect to finish year 12, and then they do."

The school employs 21 Teach For Australia teachers, high-achieving professionals who are fast-tracked into schools.

Every term, the school runs workshops for an entire week where staff can choose from multiple sessions every day. Staff run the after-school workshops, sharing their knowledge about targeted teaching, using student feedback in the classroom and catering for students with special needs. It doesn't cost any money to run the workshops.

The research, which is the first of its kind in Australia, was based on Education Department data including literacy and numeracy results and detailed parent and staff surveys.
A dumping of snow in wider Manawatu last month was a chilling change from the warmest May on record.

Winter is officially upon us and the chill is starting to hit but, believe it or not, the temperatures have been warmer than normal. And a mild winter is expected.

The coldest season of the year began on Wednesday but both MetService and Niwa say that it will not be as cold as normal.

May 2016 was the warmest May on record for large parts of the country, including Auckland, Tauranga, Wellington, Palmerston North, Levin and Whanganui.

Palmerston North had a monthly average of 13.9 degrees Celsius for May 2016, compared with 11.5C last year, and 11.8C in 2014.

READ MORE: Manawatu and surrounding regions get first snow

Whanganui had an average of 15.2C for May 2016, up from 13.2C last year, and 13.1C in 2014.

However, there was a rude awakening to the beginning of winter, with MetService noting it had been an "unusually" cold start. It was not expected to stick around, however.

"The monthly temperatures will likely end up on the warm side of the ledger, but overall, large temperature swings are expected in June," the weather forecasting organisation said in a statement.

MetService said it had been an "extremely mild" May across the country, due to the combination of frequent northwesterlies and warmer-than-usual seas around the country.

"The first half of the month was exceptionally warm, and even with the wintry end to the month, many new May temperature records were set."

It was the warmest May on record for five of the six main centres; Auckland, Hamilton (Ruakura), Tauranga, Wellington and Christchurch.

Meanwhile their counterparts at Niwa were not hedging bets either, putting an 80 per cent likelihood that temperatures for the central North Island, Taranaki, Whanganui, Manawatu, and Wellington would be above average for the next three months.

Despite the forecasts, farmers were bracing themselves for the cold.

Federated Farmers Tararua president Clint Worthington said sheep and beef farmers were tight for feed for the winter ahead.

"The snow last week just stopped grass growth suddenly. We could have done with a few more weeks of growing."

He said that after the rain, which made farmers a bit depressed, some sunshine was great news.

"In the sun, you forget your troubles, see the green pasture and stop worrying as much."

Worthington said the cold was expected, though some farmers had been expecting to milk their herds into June.

"But the cold weather came and many have pulled the pin and dried herds off."

Cows were usually dried off in May, to allow them to put on condition ready for spring calving.

Worthington said dairy farmers could not afford to buy extra feed, and most were relying on pasture rather than paying for supplementary feed.

"But people did grow good winter crops right through the summer. They'll be fed to cows to get them through the cold months ahead."

Feilding-based farm adviser Gary Massicks said stock condition was good going into the cold months.

"Growth has slowed because of a drop in air and soil temperatures. The rain was good, but we have had too many days in a row of it."
A Housing New Zealand property in Blenheim has been taken off the market after one of two units tested positive for meth.

The sale of a Housing New Zealand property in Blenheim has fallen through after a positive methamphetamine test.

Two units were being sold together on a Lucas St section when one of the units was found to have traces of the class A drug.

Both units were to be taken off the market.

The sale of the property was put on hold on Friday after a prospective buyer reported the property was contaminated with the illicit drug after doing their own test.

READ MORE:

* Housing New Zealand puts off property sale over meth concerns

* More than $1.1 million for Auckland state house, decontaminated for P and still affected by lead

* Meth 'drug of choice' in Marlborough

A Housing New Zealand spokeswoman confirmed their tests showed methamphetamine at levels above Ministry of Health guidelines.

The other unit tested clear for meth contamination, she said.

An online listing described the two-bedroom units as a good renovation project for someone with the right skills and motivation.

"This opportunity provides two residences on the same title, both with two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and separate laundry.

"Although they are needing some TLC, this property on a large parcel of land, makes for an ideal project at an affordable price."

A Housing New Zealand spokeswoman said the Blenheim property would be removed from the market and staff would decide on next steps as part of the corporation's usual decontamination process.

Housing New Zealand had a zero tolerance policy to any illegal drug use in homes, she said.

If tenants used drugs in a property or were cooking methamphetamine, they could be suspended from living in a Housing New Zealand home for up to a year.

Tenants who were responsible for the meth contamination were expected to pay for the costs of getting the property tested and repaired, the spokeswoman said.

The average cost for an initial test was $2750, decontaminating a property cost $10,000 on average while retesting the property cost about $1600.

Sometimes properties would have to be decontaminated and retested multiple times before meth levels fell below Ministry of Health guidelines, she said.

A policy introduced at the beginning of May required all Housing New Zealand properties to be checked for meth contamination before sale.

The Blenheim property was listed for sale on May 3, after the policy was implemented.

Housing New Zealand only tested rental properties if there was a suspicion they had been contaminated either by meth use or cooking.

Figures from Housing New Zealand showed the state housing provider had made $1.39 million in sales of Marlborough state homes over the past two years.

During a speech at REAP House in Blenheim on Friday, Marlborough police community constable Russ Smith said methamphetamine was easier to get in Marlborough than cannabis following successful police operations to crack down on cannabis cultivation.

The drug was a contributing factor in many arrests in the Marlborough region, Smith said.

How to spot a P House

* Brown stains on walls and red or yellow staining on the floors

* Chemical stains around the kitchen sink, laundry, toilet or storm water drains

* Oily residue on surfaces

* Unusual chemical smells, blocked drains, missing light bulbs, numerous chemical containers, stained glass equipment and cookware

* Cold tablet packages (in the rubbish or lying around)

* Drug paraphernalia including glass pipes and needles on the property

Source: Housing New Zealand
New government guidelines on housing make it clear that councils must undergo a "culture change" to ensure they provide enough land for new homes, Housing Minister Nick Smith says.

However, Labour has accused the Government of "firing blanks" and says the new rules will not do enough to address Auckland's housing crisis.

The Government has released its new national policy statement (NPS) on urban development capacity, which Smith said would address a lack of available land for development.

CAMERON BURNELL/FAIRFAX NZ Nick Smith announces housing plans, which he says send a "very clear directive" to councils.

Under the NPS, councils would be required to supply more land than demand suggests, to ensure there was competition in the market - 20 per cent more in the short to medium term, and 15 per cent in the long term.

READ MORE:

* Beat nimbyism to slash prices - economists

* Auckland soon to be the $1m city

* Housing plan 'no magic bullet'

* Govt could force councils to link planning to house prices

* What housing crisis?

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They must also provide enough land for new housing to match projected growth, as well as monitoring and responding to data on housing affordability, resource consents, and the value of land on urban boundaries.

JOHN BISSET/FAIRFAX NZ Housing Minister Nick Smith has released the Government's national policy statement on urban development.

Smith said section prices and land use were "at the core" of Auckland's housing problems, with section prices increasing at five times the rate of inflation.

The NPS was a "very clear directive" to councils that they needed to free up more land to meet demand, and consider the national importance of housing rather than just the views of locals.

Councils who did not implement the NPS in their plans or follow its guidelines could be challenged in the Environment Court, or directed to change their rules by Smith in his role as Environment Minister.

LEGAL POWERS AVAILABLE

He denied it would override the Auckland Council's work on a unitary plan, saying it would "buttress" their work, but confirmed the Government would intervene if necessary.

The Government is not telling councils whether they should grow up or whether they should grow out - what we are very clearly saying to them, and what we have the legal powers to enforce them to do, is make sure that the total of that meets the development capacity that is required."

Smith confirmed a range of metrics, such as housing affordability measures and the value of land, would need to be considered by councils when making planning decisions.

"This policy is about a culture change to support development that connects planning decisions to economics, ensures plans are regularly updated and recognises the national importance of housing."

'DAMP SQUIB'

Labour housing spokesman Phil Twyford described the NPS as a "damp squib", saying it was unlikely to make a real difference in Auckland.

"The Government has been talking tough for the past few weeks: you'd think this was going to be the big gun, but its only Nick Smith firing blanks."

Twyford said the NPS had nothing to say about how infrastructure would be funded or the need to abolish Auckland's urban growth limits, instead setting up a "bureaucratic mechanism" which councils already followed.

"There's very little in here that signifies any kind of change - this is business as usual."

Green Party finance spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter said the NPS was "good in theory", but the Government needed to build affordable houses rather than rely on regulatory changes.

"Another planning tool isn't going to help families sleeping in cars or garages tonight."

NZ First leader Winston Peters described the NPS as "a derriere-covering exercise" which would not change the situation in Auckland, as councils already planned for growth.

"Well that's what councils are doing now, that's the logic of all forward planning ... did Mr Smith not know that?"

Consultation on the NPS will take place until mid-July, with the Government hoping it will become operational in October this year.
Tamati Neho and son, cuts the cake with Eliza Wilson and grand-daughter to celebrate a smoke free project focused on Maori culture.

Taranaki Maori are getting back to basics by embracing a smoke-free project.

The Tupeka Kore Challenge was introduced June 1 at New Plymouth's Te Kohanga Reo (TKR) O Waiwhakaiho to help Maori families reach smoke-free goals.

"Quitting is harder than being a mother. It's harder than being a teacher," Inglewood's Te Rangiora TKR Eliza Wilson said.

The goal is to get everyone involved smoke free by December 2016 and the way to achieve that is to stick together.

READ MORE:

* South Kaipara wins national smokefree challenge

* Taranaki has above average number of people dying from cancer

* Budget 2016: Cigarettes to soar in price

* Manawatu health advocate applauds cigarette tax hike

The project was created to educate Maori families on healthier life choices by shifting the focus to children.

"Quitting smoking was in the core of kohanga but it somehow got lost over the years," Wilson said.

"I go into the classroom and I know that I stink."

Wilson said she has smoked her whole life, giving up once five years ago before stress and anxiety got her to start again.

"It isn't an easy journey and you can't do it by yourself. This project has a support group."

The smoke-free project was tailored to focus on core issues in Maori culture and is careful not to shame smokers.

"Having support is essential. I have it at home and now I'll have it at work."

"Smoking is the weakest part of my life," Wilson said.

Created by Maori for Maori, the project will offer workshops, which should begin next month.

Chairman Tamati Neho said it was time to return to Maori culture and protect Maori children.

"We used to not be at the top of these charts you see now. It's as though smoking became a part of our culture," Neho said.

"We've always been a fit culture and it's time to get back to that. It's not going to change over a day but we have to change our frame of mind," Neho said.

Neho said Maori children grow up and see their family smoke, so they think it's OK.

"It's time to shift away from thinking it's normal," Neho said.

"In reality, it was never a part of our people."

"I didn't want to see Maori become another statistic."
A rail tunnel running deep beneath the Swiss Alps opens, hailed as an engineering marvel and a symbol of unity in an often divided European Union.

Just like Hannibal in ancient times, Swiss engineers have conquered the Alps.

More than 2200 years after the commander from the ancient North African civilization of Carthage led his army of elephants and troops over Europe's highest mountain chain, the Swiss have completed another gargantuan task: Burrowing the world's longest railway tunnel under the Swiss Alps to improve European trade and travel.

European dignitaries on Wednesday inaugurated the 57km Gotthard Railway Tunnel, a major engineering achievement deep under the Alps' snow-capped peaks. Nine people reportedly died during construction and it took 17 years to build at a cost of 12.2 billion Swiss francs (NZ$18.1 billion) - but workers kept to a key Swiss tradition and brought the massive project in on time and on budget.

AARON WOOD/FAIRFAX NZ The world's longest railway tunnel: by the numbers.

Many tunnels crisscross the Swiss Alps. The Gotthard Pass itself already has two - the first, also for trains, was built in 1882. But the Gotthard base tunnel is a record-setter eclipsing Japan's 53.8km Seikan Tunnel as the world's longest - and it also bores deeper than any other tunnel, running about 2.3km underground at its maximum depth.

READ MORE:

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RUBEN SPRICH/REUTERS Performers dressed as miners, take part in a show during the opening ceremony.

The tube bores through the Gotthard massif that includes the 2500m Piz Vatgira on the way to Italy. It is part of a broader, multi-tunnel project to shift the haulage of goods from roads to rails amid concerns that heavy trucks are destroying Switzerland's pristine Alpine landscape.

The tunnel's impact will be felt across Europe for decades.

The thoroughfare aims to cut travel times, ease roadway traffic and reduce the air pollution spewed from trucks traveling between Europe's north and south. Set to open for commercial service in December, the two-way tunnel can handle up to 260 freight trains and 65 passenger trains per day.

PETER KLAUZNER/POOL/REUTERS French president Francois Hollande, German chancellor Angela Merkel and Swiss president Johann Schneider-Ammann look on after travelling through the Gotthard Rail Tunnel.

Swiss planners have dreamt of such a tunnel for decades, and Gotthard's 17 years of construction don't include the many years spent to scope out suitable paths.

Switzerland pulled out all the stops for Wednesday's inauguration. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, President Francois Hollande of France and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi all visited southern Switzerland for an upbeat, glitzy celebration featuring musical bands, dancers and even a theme song for the tunnel.

Under purple neon lights, performers dressed in orange miners' suits and protective helmets danced atop a moving rail car, while others in skimpy outfits feigned wrestling and trapeze artists hung from chains or ropes.

ARND WIEGMANN/REUTERS A stagecoach pulled by horses takes part in a show during the opening ceremony.

The tunnel runs between the German-speaking Swiss town of Erstfeld in the north to the Italian-speaking town of Bodio in the south, cutting through central Switzerland. The tunnel journey takes about 20 minutes for passenger trains.

Split-screen TV images showed two trains in opposite directions entering and leaving the tunnel entrances nearly simultaneously.

The project, funded in part by Swiss taxpayers and fees on trucks, received financial support and industrial know-how from around the European Union. Although Switzerland isn't one of the bloc's 28 members, the EU railway network gets a big boost from this shortcut through the Alps, notably on the route from Germany to Italy.

POOL/REUTERS A video grab taken from SDR footage, shows a split screen displaying VIP trains entering the northern end of the tunnel in Erstfield and southern side of the tunnel in Bodio.

"The new tunnel fits into the European railway freight corridor, which links Rotterdam and Genoa" - key ports in the Netherlands and Italy, Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann said.

"Aside from saving time, more merchandise can be carried through the Alps.''

A test run by the EU leaders on Wednesday turned into a sort of mini-summit beneath real Alpine summits: Merkel, Renzi, Hollande and Schneider-Ammann sat face-to-face for a ride in first class through the tunnel. A band played Rossini's "William Tell Overture'' after they arrived.

RUBEN SPRICH/REUTERS Performers dressed as miners, take part in a show during the opening ceremony.

Merkel said it was a "wonderful feeling'' to be on the train. Though "more than 2000 metres of rocks" were above, she said she felt a "feeling of security, because I believe in the security of the Swiss civil engineers".

She congratulated the punctual Swiss and noted how costs were kept within targets.

"That's something Germany still needs to strive for," she added

ARND WIEGMANN/REUTERS Performers dressed as miners take part in a show during the opening ceremony.

Hollande, host of the UN climate change summit held in Paris last year, pointed to the tunnel's environmental benefits.

"You have created a great European infrastructure," Hollande said at the tunnel's southern exit.

"It will be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, redirect traffic from the road to rail and move passengers and goods faster.''

He also used the chance to remind Britons of the unity that the tunnel under the English Channel has brought between Britain and the continent - comments that came just weeks before Britons vote June 23 on whether to stay in the EU or leave.

"More than 20 years ago, a construction was completed between France and the United Kingdom: The Channel Tunnel,'' Hollande said.

"Since then, we are united like never before, and I hope the British remember that when the time comes."

Renzi echoed that connective symbolism, despite the current discord in the EU over how to best handle a surge of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

"At a time when some are thinking about building walls ... today Switzerland gives us a beautiful signal about building a tunnel, connecting, and making chances for meeting," Renzi said.

Swiss forces took no chances with security for the inauguration. Almost 2000 additional Swiss troops were called, helicopters buzzed overhead and air space restrictions were put over the tunnel area.

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A trip to the Clevedon weekend farmers markets should help you stock the fridge for the week with an array of fresh produce.

Wanting a Queen's Birthday long weekend getaway but strapped for time, money, or both? Consider the daycation.

It offers all the fun it's big brother the vacation does, but with the extra benefits of lower costs, less organisation, and less whining from the backseat if you've got children in tow.



There are plenty of great spots for a daycation in the Auckland region, so we've rounded up the best for you to take your pick.

1. Puhoi

CHRIS SKELTON/FAIRFAX The Puhoi hotel is ideal for a pint and a meal after a long day of adventuring.

Hit the northern motorway, and in just under an hour you'll find a city-fringe oasis - also known as Puhoi.

The small northland town is perfect for the inner history buff - hit the Bohemian museum to learn more about the town's history, and browse the quaint little shops.

For the more adventurous, a kayak down the Puhoi River or take a hike in the Puhoi valley.



Whichever way you're inclined, stopping for a bite to eat and a drink at the Puhoi Pub Hotel is a perfect way to end the day.



Top tip: Pop into the Puhoi Cafe and Cheese Store on your way home, to take a slice of your daycation with you.



2. Bethells Beach

ABIGAIL SIMPSON Feeling outdoorsy? Make like Tay-Tay and head to Bethells beach.

Ah, the wild west coast. This area might conjure images of Piha rescue for some, but there's actually a whole lot more to do on the coast than struggle against the waves.

Take a stroll along the Te Henga walkway, have a go running up the dunes on Bethells beach itself, or if you're feeling brave, try a mid-season dip in Lake Wainamu - the hidden gem behind the dunes.



Top tip: On Fridays the Bethells Cafe hosts family-style BYO, where all are welcome to bring along a bottle of wine and the kids to enjoy the live music. Rumour has it they do amazing pizza.

3. Manukau Heads lighthouse

DEBBIE GRIFFITHS/FAIRFAX The Manukau Heads lighthouse sits at the northern tip of Awhitu Peninsula

Take the Drury off-ramp from the Southern motorway and from here signs should guide the way to the Manukau Heads Lighthouse - one of the only lighthouses in New Zealand you can climb to the top of.

The gates to the lighthouse are open 9am to 5pm daily, and a voluntary donation is encouraged to put towards looking after the venue. Warning: there are a fair few steps to get you up to the lighthouse, so consider pulling out the activewear.



Top tip: On the way back home, stop off in Waiuku which has a range of good eateries, including the historic The Kentish Hotel which does a traditional Sunday Dinner Buffet or the Wolf and Beaver.

4. Miranda bird sanctuary and hot pools

LAWRENCE SMITH/FAIRFAX Keith Woodley runs the Pukorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre in Miranda, Hauraki Plains.

Miranda offers the perfect opportunity for a pleasant weekend drive; its about a 90 minute drive from the heart of the Auckland CBD. Head out around a loop via Clevedon, then along the East Coast Road through to Papakura.

Perfect for those waterbabies after a winter dip, but not keen to brave the ocean, the Miranda Hot Pools are just one attraction of this Auckland fringe spot.



The Miranda Shorebird Centre is always a good place for bird watching, and if you go at the right time you could just spot one of NZ's Birds of the year - the Bar-tailed Godwit.



Top tip: Tie this trip in with a visit to the Clevedon Village Farmers Market on Sunday morning, and you'll find yourself choosing from a range of tasty treats to fuel your day venture.

5. Clevedon

Melissa Kinealy Helen Dorresteyn selling her cheese, yoghurt and buffalo products at the Clevedon farmers market.

Clevedon, just south of Auckland, is the perfect little village to visit at the end of your Sunday country drive.

The McNichol Homestead Museum is on offer for those wanting to pick up a bit of local knowledge - but a better idea is to get to know the place through the local produce. Oh, and the wine.

The Clevedon Village Farmers Market is the place to go to pick up some tasty morsels (our recommendation is the pasties or pizza and the locally made buffalo mozzarella) while the village market (separate from the farmers market, at the village hall) is great place to pick up some nic-nacs, maybe a present for that birthday you forgot next wednesday.

Top tip: If you're looking to hit the wineries in the area (there are a handful of goodies) there are some good BnBs out that way. After all, vacations are still pretty fun, too.

Stay in the know with what's hip and happening in the City of Sails. Sign up to the So Auckland newsletter here.
Kenya Moore

Kenya Moore attends the NBCUniversal 2016 Upfront Presentation at Radio City Music Hall on Monday, May 16, 2016, in New York.

(Evan Agostini | Invision | AP)

Another reality TV couple bites the dust.

"Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Kenya Moore and Syracuse native Matt Jordan have broken up after less than a year of dating. Sources told TMZ the pair got into a "huge dispute" during a vacation in Mexico over Memorial Day weekend, culminating in Moore locked herself in their hotel room and Jordan allegedly kicking in the door while calling her names.

Jordan, a celebrity personal trainer who won sectional titles in track and cross country while attending Corcoran High School, was introduced as Moore's boyfriend on season 8 of the Bravo series earlier this year.

Both also chronicled their romance on social media, but all photos of Jordan wave been removed from Moore's Instagram page and Jordan appears to have deleted his account altogether.

E! News reports the "RHOA" star confirmed the split in a since-deleted post that showed a pair of broken sunglasses, telling fans she removed pictures "at Matt's request."

"Looking back I blame myself totally," Jordan wrote on Instagram earlier. "I learned very late in the relationship that a woman will not trust a man fully if he seems irresponsible or not up to standard in areas of a relationship. If she doesn't feel like she can put trust in a man emotionally, spiritually, financially etc. ...That will cause a woman to feel resentment and most of all untrusting in her man."

Jordan added that he felt distrust "because I did not feel like I had her FULL love and attention," but denied that infidelity was a problem for either of them. Ultimately, he blamed his own "immaturity not hers."

During the relationship, pregnancy rumors swirled around Moore and Jordan. Last month, she told The Daily Dish at the NBCUniversal upfront presentation that "this year is my year" when asked about possibly having children. She elaborated more when asked about Jordan, praising him as "sweet" with "a pretty amazing body."

On Tuesday, another "Real Housewives of Atlanta" couple split. Cynthia Bailey and Peter Thomas announced that they separated after six years of marriage.

Other current cast members on "RHOA" include Kandi Burruss, Phaedra Parks, Porsha Williams and Kim Fields.
crimescenetape.jpg

Auburn, NY - Walter C. O'Conner, also known as "Bobby Fingers," is in custody, almost seven weeks after Auburn police asked for the public's help in finding him.

O'Conner, 41, was taken into custody Wednesday in Rochester by members of the U.S. Marshal Service, Auburn police said. He was then turned over to members of the Auburn Police Department and sent to the Cayuga County Jail. He will appear in Cayuga County Court today.

Walter C. O'Conner

O'Conner was wanted on bench warrants for three cases, two in Cayuga County Court and one from Auburn City Court.

On April 18, police asked for help in locating O'Conner. At the time, they cautioned the public not to approach him because he has a history of violence, weapons and drug possession.

Auburn police seeking 'Bobby Fingers' aka Walter C. O'Conner

O'Conner is accused of the felonies of second-degree assault, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, third-degree grand larceny and the misdemeanors of fifth-degree welfare fraud and misuse of food stamps.

O'Conner's last known address was 656 Mumford Road, Scottsville in Monroe County.

O'Conner uses several aliases including the name "Bobby Fingers," police said. Back in April, police did not know why he was called Bobby Fingers. "We've been dying to ask him about that. We would like to know a lot about his aliases," Detective Bryant Bergenstock said at the time.

Thursday the Auburn police thanked the Marshal Service, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, the Greece Police Department, the Cayuga County Sheriff's and District Attorney and the public for their help.
A state corrections officer who was badly injured when he opened an explosive package delivered to his Oneida County home Sunday morning remains in critical condition at Upstate University Hospital, according to Oneida County sheriff's deputies.

Alan Dobransky, who turns 53 today, was burned on his upper extremities when the package exploded outside home in Floyd, NY, deputies said.

Dobransky is a corrections officer at the Marcy Correctional Facility. Gov. Andrew Cuomo visited Dobransky at the hospital following the incident, and has pledged a full investigation.

The investigation into the explosion is continuing, Oneida County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jonathan G. Owens told Syracuse.com.

"The investigation is progressing,'' he said. "We have been taking statements, following up on leads and processing evidence."

Owens said deputies are soliciting video from area residents and businesses which might reveal some type of evidence.

Dobranksy has two children who were reportedly at his home at the time of the explosion.

Dobransky is active in the Rome VFW, and had just completed a year as commander, said Dick Petroski, who took over as commander.

Dobransky served with the U.S. Air Force in Aghanistan, and has been there twice,

Petroski said . He also is part of the Air National Guard.

Dobranksy served as a member of the Air Force security police, according to Jeff Ward of Rome, Ga., who served with him during the early 1980s in West Berlin.

Local, state and federal agencies, including the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are helping with the investigation.

A GoFundMe page to raise money for medical expenses has raised $7,000 so far.
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Martin County Sheriff's Office dive team member Angelo Minella (right) brings up a blade Wednesday at the Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area in Hobe Sound. Minella and fellow diver Justin Lundstedt (left) were searching the canal for evidence in the Tricia Todd murder case. (MOLLY BARTELS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

By Nicole Wiesenthal of TCPalm

MARTIN COUNTY  A Sheriff's Office investigation into 30-year-old Hobe Sound mother Tricia Todd's death and dismemberment revealed Friday that her former husband purchased a chain saw and reciprocating saw about a month before Todd went missing.

Steven Williams bought the saws on Amazon.com in late March and shipped them to his home in North Carolina, Sheriff William Snyder said.

On Wednesday, divers recovered a chain saw and a reciprocating saw as well as nine human teeth and pliers in or near a canal in the Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area that straddles Martin and Palm Beach counties.

Todd went missing April 26. Williams confessed to killing her May 24, later pointing deputies to an area in the Hungryland preserve where deputies dug up a container with acid and partial remains believed to be Todd's.

While detectives have been unable to determine the type of acid found with the remains, Dr. Heather Walsh-Haney, a forensic scientist with Florida Gulf Coast University, was at the Sheriff's Office on Thursday with a medical examiner inspecting the acid in hopes of identifying it.

In return for showing deputies the location of Todd's remains, attorneys agreed to a plea deal limiting Williams' sentence to 35 years in prison. Snyder said the evidence not currently being examined is being put away, in case the attorneys need it for the June 24 sentencing or any other court proceedings.

"It's packaged in our evidence storage," Snyder said, "and ready if they need it."

He said detectives have completed their search of the Hungryland area.

John Hetherington, an assistant public defender, has been assigned as Williams' lawyer.

MEMORIAL SERVICE

Tricia Todd's family and friends will conduct a public memorial service for her.

When: 7 p.m. June 7. Doors open 6:30 p.m.

Where: Stuart campus of Christ Fellowship, 10205 S.W. Pratt Whitney Road

Who: Open to the public

Donations: Guests are asked to donate to the No Place Like Home Orphanage, in lieu of flowers. It is an orphanage ministry in Haiti founded after the 2010 earthquake.

"Tricia loved that charity," family friend Michelle Rocker said. "It was so important to her. She served and supported them."
PORT ST. LUCIE  A man suspected of check cashing fraud is being sought by police.

On May 20, Port St. Lucie Police responded to the Bank of America, 2300 S.E. Veterans Memorial Parkway. Bank employees told police that a man entered the bank and presented the bank teller a Pennsylvania driver's license and a check for $4,730 to be cashed.

The bank teller told the suspect the bank would have to verify the accounts funds before cashing the check. The man fled the bank leaving the check and the driver's license, according to police.

Detectives learned that the driver's license was counterfeit but the name used was from a victim of identity theft.

The suspect is described as a Latin male, in his late 20s, approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighing about 190 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information should call the Port St. Lucie Police Department at 772-871-5001 or Treasure Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-800-273 TIPS.
U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, flyover of the city of Nashville, Tennessee, June 2. (Photo: Shelley Mays / The Tennessean)

By Nancy De Gennaro and Stacey Barchenger, USA TODAY NETWORK, The Tennessean

SMYRNA  Vero Beach Air Show officials are standing by to learn how the U.S. Navy Blue Angels jet crash might affect the group's appearance at the show June 25-26.

Retired Air Force Col. Martin Zickert, Blue Angels liaison for the 2016 Vero Beach Air Show, said the No. 6 plane involved in the crash was part of the team scheduled to perform later this month.

Zickert said no one knows what will happen because they don't have substitute pilots. The Blue Angels have different teams, each with members who train and perform together.

Vero Beach Air Show officials are standing by and waiting for more information, he said.

U.S. Navy officials have confirmed Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss was killed when his Blue Angels jet crashed about 3 p.m. Thursday.

The pilot of the F/A-18 jet was taking off to start a practice flight when the crash occurred, according to the Naval Air Forces. The crash was about 2 miles from the runway.

To read the full story, visit The Tennessean.

Treasure Coast Newspapers contributed to this report.
A single-car accident in the parking lot of Vero Beach Magazine hospitalized one person Wednesday. (LAMAUR STANCIL/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

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By Staff Report

VERO BEACH  A car overturned in a parking lot Wednesday afternoon, hospitalizing one person, Vero Beach Police said.

The crash happened about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday on 20th Street at Tenth Avenue, police spokeswoman Officer Anna Carden said. The Toyota crashed through some bushes and a power structure in the northeast corner of the intersection and landed on its driver's side in the parking lot of Vero Beach Magazine.

One person was hospitalized, while another suffered minor injuries, Carden said. Their names were not available.

The crash knocked out power to the traffic lights at the intersection, Carden said.
Gov. Rick Scott is asking the Obama administration for immediate help to fight the Zika virus. (Scott Keeler/The Tampa Bay Times via AP)

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By Ledyard King, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON  Florida Gov. Rick Scott is asking the Obama administration for immediate help to fight the Zika virus, saying Congress' inability to pass a funding bill is imperiling Floridians' health and the state's $67 billion tourism industry.

In a letter to President Barack Obama on Wednesday, the governor asked for 5,000 Zika preparedness kits as well as "resources" to enhance mosquito surveillance, expand mosquito abatement, increase training for mosquito control technicians, and enlarge mosquito laboratory capacity.

Scott said he discussed the list of items with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell when he came to Washington last month. At the time, he was hopeful lawmakers would quickly reach a compromise on Zika funding, but a deal has yet to materialize.

In his letter to the president, Scott called Congress' inaction "profoundly disappointing"  a rare public swipe at fellow Republicans who control Capitol Hill.

"However, in order to best protect the 20 million people in Florida and our many visitors from the spread of Zika, I cannot waste any time on disappointment," Scott wrote. "Florida needs action from the federal government now."

Senior officials at Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a conference call with state officials Wednesday morning "to review these requests and ensure that HHS can provide as much assistance to Florida as possible," Kevin Griffis, an Health and Human Services spokesman, wrote in an email.

"HHS is working closely with the State of Florida and agrees with the Governor's sense of urgency around the steps that need to be taken to combat the Zika virus, as well as the imperative of congressional action to provide supplemental funding to support preparedness and response in states," he wrote.

No state has been affected by Zika more than Florida.

On Wednesday, state officials reported two new travel-related Zika cases  one in Miami-Dade and one involving a pregnant woman. The state now has logged 162 total cases  including 38 affecting pregnant women  by far the largest tally in the nation.

That number is expected to grow as warmer, wetter weather brings an expected onslaught of mosquitoes. In addition, Florida is considered especially vulnerable to an outbreak, given its tropical climate, proximity to Latin America (where the virus is rampant), and the volume of travelers constantly funneling in from abroad through the airports and seaports.

The Zika virus poses the biggest threat to pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant. It has been linked to birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and incomplete brain development.

Last month, separate bills funding anti-Zika efforts passed in the House for $622 million, and the Senate for $1.1 billion. U.S. Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio both said they back Obama's $1.9 billion request but could live with the Senate bill for now.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has tried to deflect criticism, saying the administration can continue using Ebola money to combat Zika  as lawmakers have recommended  until Congress reaches a deal on a Zika plan.

"The reality is that Congress has been on top of the Zika threat from the beginning," Ryan said. "Over the past several months, it has made available the money necessary to prepare for an outbreak. In fact, the administration is already spending that money. Put simply: There is no funding shortage. There never has been."

The administration has identified $589 million  including $510 million of existing Ebola resources  that can be used for "time-critical activities" such as mosquito control, lab testing, vaccine development and support for expectant mothers at risk of exposure to Zika.

But the administration said it needs the full $1.9 billion from Congress to fund its best effort against Zika.
SHARE Ed Alonzo Judge Nirlaine Tallandier Smartt

By Paul Ivice, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

ST. LUCIE COUNTY  When Nirlaine Smartt was appointed last June to fill an opening as a county judge, attorney Ed Alonzo was on the short list submitted to the governor.

Now Alonzo is challenging her 19th Judicial Circuit Group 3 seat on the heels of a dust-up between the two stemming from an eviction case last year, in which Smartt was the judge and Alonzo represented a client seeking an eviction. Neither one will say if the contentious case had any impact on Alonzo's decision to try to unseat her.

"Even though it will mean giving up my successful business, I cannot pass up this opportunity to combine the rest of my experience into a full-time judicial seat in St. Lucie County," Alonzo, 45, said. "For me, it is about service."

A 1995 graduate from the University of Florida law school, Alonzo is a sole practitioner who has been in private practice for 20 years, the past 15 in St. Lucie County. In 1997, Alonzo also became a Florida certified public accountant.

Smartt, 49, was a prosecutor in the State Attorney's Office until she became the first woman African-American judge at the county or circuit level in the 19th Judicial Circuit, which encompasses Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties.

Neither has any disciplinary history with the Florida Bar in the past 10 years. A county judge serves a six-year term.

COURT CASE

In August 2015, Alonzo ceased being a traffic hearing officer for the 19th Judicial Circuit in St. Lucie and Martin counties, which he did since the start of 2014.

That happened about a week after Smartt recused herself from an eviction case in which Alonzo represented the landlord. Her order said it was "based upon ex parte communications" initiated by Alonzo to Smartt's judicial assistant. Rules ban attorneys from speaking to judges or their assistants about decisions in a case outside of court.

Smartt's judicial assistant warned Alonzo in an Aug. 5 email that because of previous texts he'd sent, "Judge Smartt is recusing herself from the case and she is now forced to report this incident to the professionalism panel."

A week later, Court Administrator Thomas Genung sent a letter to Alonzo notifying him he was suspended immediately as traffic hearing officer and his contract, which had been extended to June 30, 2016, was being terminated on Sept. 11, 2015.

Chief Judge Elizabeth Metzger said that because Alonzo is a candidate for county judge, she is bound by judicial rules not to talk about why his contract was terminated.

Asked to explain Alonzo's termination, Genung responded in an email that, "Chief Judge Metzger and I believed it was in the best interest of the 19th Judicial Circuit to suspend, then terminate the contract."

Alonzo said in an email this his position as a traffic hearing officer "was cut by court administration."

"I knew when I signed up that court (administration) could cancel the position at any time," he wrote.

THE CAMPAIGN

Alonzo said that as a longtime resident of St. Lucie County, "I bring over a decade of local experience to the bench that someone new to our area simply does not have."

Smartt said she deserves to retain her seat.

"I believe I am a good judge because I operate with a clear, concise understanding of the law and I believe in the rule of law." She said. "I believe everyone deserves a judge with experience and high ethical standards."

Nonpartisan judicial elections are held Aug. 30, coinciding with the primary elections for state offices.
SAM WOLFE/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS Thousands of acres near the Stick Marsh in Fellsmere are being cleared and a dike is being erected around the Fellsmere Water Management Area. The land eventually will be flooded in an effort to restore wetlands and decrease the discharge of fresh water through the C-54 Canal.

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By Janet Begley, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

FELLSMERE  A project to turn 10,000 acres of former agricultural land back into wetlands could be completed by next spring, opening the door to recreational opportunities and increased ecotourism in northwest Indian River County.

The Fellsmere Water Management Area has been under development since 2010. It is just east of the 6,500-acre Stick Marsh. The City Council will hear a presentation by representatives of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the St. Johns River Water Management District during their meeting Thursday.

"This is a tremendous economic development opportunity for the city," City Manager Jason Nunemaker said. "A project like this will foster ecotourism and really make sure Fellsmere is on the radar when it comes to fishing and other recreational opportunities."

About 2,000 acres of fisheries and wildlife habitat were added to the water management area, according to Dustin Everitt, an FWC fisheries biologist. Using bulldozers and excavators, biologists manipulated created islands, drop-offs and false creek channels and other wildlife habit in areas that previously were cow pastures and sod fields. More than 15,000 cypress and red maple trees were planted to provide habitat for nesting birds and cover for fish and other wildlife species.

"We put a lot of forethought into stabilizing the land and creating the right habitat," said Everitt. "There's water in there already and the fish are growing. Within a couple of years, people will be out there sport-fishing."

About $1.35 million was spent to create the habitat and stock native sport fish into the reservoir. So far, more than 1 million largemouth bass and other fish have been stocked by FWC into the reservoir, which already is attracting anglers.

Biologists studied data from the Stick Marsh and believe the Fellsmere Water Management Area project could generate up to $13 million annually for the local economy, Everitt said. Once the reservoir is flooded and the public has access through a boat ramp at the north end, FWC plans to conduct research to document the biological and economic effects of the habitat-enhancement project.

IF YOU GO

What: Fellsmere City Council meeting

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

Where: City Hall, 22 S. Orange St.

Details: Representatives of the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will make presentations about the Fellsmere Water Management Area.
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By Lidia Dinkova of TCPalm

MARTIN COUNTY  The county is paying some of its employees less than what they would make at other agencies, including other counties on the Treasure Coast and south and west of here, according to a consultant's draft report.

Whether Martin increases its salaries and by how much remains to be decided.

The report suggests three salary-increase options, which could increase the county's budget for salaries by $337,000, $895,373.36 or by $1.23 million. A fourth option, recommended by the county staff, would increase the cost of salaries by about $1.2 million.

There's no property-tax rate increase planned to fund the increase, since a large portion of the positions are funded by self-supporting enterprise funds and by gas taxes, according to the county.

None of the suggestions consider hikes in health and other benefits.

For its study, consultant Evergreen Solutions LLC, of Tallahassee, looked at 15 entities, mostly local governments.

However, it didn't compare the salaries of Martin County employees with their counterparts at the 15 entities. Instead, it compared the salaries of some Martin County positions with the median salary for corresponding jobs at some of the 15 entities, according to the draft report.

Evergreen looked at three salary ranges  minimum, midpoint and maximum  for each position. Minimums usually are entry-level salaries, and midpoint and maximums are higher salaries for the same positions.

Among the comparison agencies, Martin County on average is 11.9 percent below the median minimum salary range, 8.3 percent below the median midpoint range and 6.4 percent below the median maximum range, according to Evergreen. That excludes some county Fire Rescue staff.

County Commissioner Sarah Heard on Tuesday questioned the 15 entities Martin's salaries are compared against.

They are Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Sarasota, Palm Beach, Indian River and St. Lucie counties; the cities of Jupiter, West Palm Beach, Stuart, Fort Pierce and Boca Raton; the South Florida and St. Johns River water management districts; and Martin Health System.

"Those are just not our market peers. This study is extremely lopsided favoring the salary ranges of much more expensive counties in which to live, much more high-growth counties," Heard said. "That's one thing we try to do in Martin County is to be sustainable, to manage our growth so we don't get out of control, so we don't have to pay salaries like these counties."

Some of the comparison governments and agencies are Martin's competitors for employees, according to Evergreen's report.

Commissioner Ed Fielding suggested the county give performance and achievement-based financial rewards instead of comparing itself with other places.

The $30,000 study was conducted because the county has had issues attracting and retaining employees. It has about a 10 percent turnover rate for some positions, County Administrator Taryn Kryzda told the commission on Tuesday.

The county's had hard time hiring for some positions, for example lifeguards, because the starting salary is lower than in other places, she said.

Evergreen's numbers could be revised in its final report. The commission is to further consider this issue at a workshop for next fiscal year's budget.

OTHER REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

Consultant Evergreen Solutions recommends the county adopt new titles for 31 positions to reflect current work being performed.

There are no great disparities between Martin County and others agencies in terms of health and other benefits, but Evergreen recommends the county explore increasing the number and type of health care plans offered.

The county conduct localized market salary surveys to assess its positions among competitors for the workforce.

Source: Evergreen Solutions LLC
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By Staff Report

PORT ST. LUCIE  The City Council on Wednesday plans to select its finalists for city attorney.

Mayor Greg Oravec on Tuesday called the special meeting  8:45 a.m. Wednesday, June 8 in City Hall  to narrow the list of seven remaining candidates to an unspecified number, who will be interviewed.

Oravec asked council members identify their top four to five candidates, according to his memo.

The field of candidates late last month was whittled from 56 to seven. All seven live in Florida and have government experience, according to their applications and background checks, compiled by search firm Colin Baenziger & Associates.

Public candidate interviews will be held within the next 30 days, and the new city attorney will be hired in late July, a firm representative said.
DALE NESEMAN/SPECIAL TO THE COURIER NEWSWEEKLY

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EDITOR'S NOTE:

The following is a Guest Editorial written by a resident of Palm Beach North and the Jupiter area community.

A growing area must build many things, and building a true community is one of the hardest yet most essential. Efforts to do that here have been undertaken for years and we can see numerous fine examples.

One of the latest is in Juno Beach, where a video portraying the town is being spearheaded by the Juno Beach Civic Association. Its goal is to show residents the town's history and qualities, thereby enhancing their awareness of the similar experiences that unite them.

This project, which should be finished in a few months, is an excellent model of community spirit in action. Working with the Civic Association are the Frenchman's Creek Beach Club, town government and residents from a variety of fields.

single best word

As a former resident of Juno Beach, where I grew up, I'm on the committee for this endeavor. And at one of our meetings, we discussed what single word best summarizes the town's essence. I answered "community."

In the 1950s and early 1960s, when rural Juno Beach had only around 100 occupants, there was a strong feeling of community, as residents cooperated to do whatever was needed  from making street signs to landscaping public places.

Today, with a higher population in a semi-urbanized setting, the town is developing community through different means, with more organizations and events  events to mark holidays, enjoy the arts, hear speakers and in other ways encourage residents to gather.

But the result is the same.

THE TEST

Juno Beach, of course, is not the only place in this region where the benefit of community is being sought.

Jupiter, which is far larger and more diverse, has a bigger challenge. But its public and private sectors are trying to meet the test.

The annual Jupiter Jubilee brings together thousands of people and showcases the town's civic, business and cultural offerings.

On a deeper level, though, Jupiter and residents from Tequesta and elsewhere are promoting harmony and greater understanding through El Sol (where I am vice president) and the One Jupiter program.

Both of these are forging bonds between local Hispanic immigrants and the wider population.

welcoming hands

With their welcoming hands of community consciousness, they are overpowering the hate and prejudice that maliciously remain in some quarters.

Juno Beach also values and honors its diversified population, though public celebrations of Lithuanian heritage and Hanukkah observances  longtime traditions to embrace all residents.

These outreaches illuminate one of the most important aspects of building a community  that an authentic community can't omit anyone.

We must include all people, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, political belief, income, sexual orientation or gender identity. Anything less is merely a tense collection of segregated factions and not a real community.

Therefore, those who want to build a community must reject any divisiveness that demonizes minorities and pits groups against each other. That's exclusion. Community is inclusion.

THE QUESTION

What is a real community?

It's hard to define but easy to recognize.

A community is expressed in what then- Gov. Lawton Chiles called "a covenant to help one another"  the responsibility we feel to advance our common welfare. It does not deny our differences but appreciates that we nevertheless share basic interests because we share the same home.

Fostering that sensibility is particularly vital in a place that is growing with so many newcomers who have no local roots or long-standing connections to their neighbors. All of us, but especially our new residents, must have multiple opportunities to form and nurture those ties.

The video, festivals, socials, institutions and array of other civic goods we are producing all serve this purpose.

sense of oneness

In the end, however we define it, community must be part of our infrastructure just as much as parks and roads and utilities. But unlike those physical elements, it must be constantly tended.

A road may last for many years with only routine maintenance. Community, though, is more fragile and needs persistent renewal or it will wither and die.

Fortunately, we have leaders in and out of government who know this and work to keep community alive.

Thus, as our population grows and becomes ever more varied, we must continually find new ways to create and keep an overriding sense of oneness ... of genuine community.

Roger Buckwalter

Tequesta

Buckwalter is a retired editorial page editor of The Jupiter Courier.
Digital rights and free speech advocates are up in arms over Tuesdays announcement of an agreement between the European Commission and four leading U.S. social media firms  Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Microsoft  on a Code of Conduct designed to crack down on hate speech.

The companies have agreed to adopt a system that allows users to flag illegal hate speech and incitement to violence. They also agreed to review flagged posts within 24 hours and to take appropriate action, such as removing them or blocking access.

The announcement comes six months after terrorist suicide attacks in Paris killed 130 people and injured hundreds of others, and just two months after terrorist bombings in Brussels took 32 lives and injured hundreds more.

Governments in Europe and the U.S., which are engaged in an air and low-intensity ground war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, have urged technology companies to help crack down on the use of social media for recruitment, propaganda, fundraising and other uses by terrorist groups.

The recent terror attacks have reminded us of the urgent need to address illegal online hate speech, said Vera Jourova, EU commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality. Social media is unfortunately one of the tools that terrorist groups use to radicalize young people, and racists use to spread violence and hatred.

Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube, last year agreed to a plan to remove hate speech from their social media sites in Germany within 24 hours of its being reported. That agreement came in the wake of a rise in xenophobic postings as refugees from Africa and the Middle East began streaming into Europe by the thousands.

Censorship Fears

Microsoft, Facebook and Twitter already had announced a crackdown on speech that encourages terrorism following last years San Bernardino shooting, which reportedly was inspired by ISIS but not directly organized by the group.

Hateful conduct has no place on Twitter and we will continue to tackle this issue head-on, alongside our partners in industry and civil society, said Karen White, head of public policy for Europe.

Facebook, Microsoft and Google officials offered similar expressions of support, promising that offending content would be reviewed swiftly, and deleted or blocked pending substantiation of complaints.

Open technology and privacy groups have widely condemned the agreement, however, raising concerns over a lack of transparency in its development, and contending that it leaves the door open for censorship within Europe.

No Transparency

European Digital Rights and Access Now said they would withdraw from any further discussions with officials on the plan and expressed no confidence in the Code of Conduct based on its development process thus far.

No outside civil society organizations were invited to participate in discussions on terrorism, the groups maintained, although several were allowed to participate in talks on online hate speech. The groups were excluded completely from participation in the ECs talks with technology companies, which led to the Code of Conduct released earlier this week.

Although Access Now was not part of the discussions, it was asked to endorse the process, said policy analyst Estelle Masse.

Access Now would consider sitting down at the table if the process were changed to include more transparent discussions with outside groups, she told the E-Commerce Times.

EFF is deeply disappointed in the crafting of this code of practice, said Danny OBrien, international director of the Electronic Freedom Foundation.

With it, the EU companies have rubber-stamped the widespread removal of allegedly illegal content, based only on the flagging by third parties, he told the E-Commerce Times.

The policy does not take into account that whether speech is considered illegal depends on the jurisdiction where it is seen, OBrien pointed out.

Further, voluntary agreements such as this one might be misused by parties outside of Europe, he added. This is a dangerous precedent, as any wider discussion between the EU and international human rights groups would have revealed. Civil society was systematically excluded from negotiations over this code of conduct, and it shows.
Tally Solutions has announced that all versions of its flagship product, Tally.ERP 9 have been enabled to support the newly passed Krishi Kalyan Cess through an update. This is done to support Indian businesses in complying seamlessly with the government regulation, effective from 01 June 2016. Implementing the new cess will be fast and smooth for all businesses that use Tally.ERP 9.

The Krishi Kalyan cess at 0.5% has been introduced by the Union Government for the purpose of financing and promoting initiatives to improve agriculture thus revising the new rate of service tax to 15%.

In Tally.ERP 9, the Krishi Kalyan cess is auto calculated in transactions, be it regular sale, reverse charge, sale of service with abatement or sale value which is inclusive of tax. The printed invoice will also display the cess value. Additionally, provision has been made to allow adjustment of Krishi Kalyan cess credit against Krishi Kalyan cess liability, and to account for interest and penalty on the cess.

@Technuter.com News Service
While Now on Tap is pretty useful, it's still not quite the killer feature that Google hoped it would be. But now, the company is giving it an update that could result in more people using its functions.

For those who don't know, the Now on Tap feature, which shipped with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, is activated by holding down a device's home button. It scans the contents of a screen for key words and shows related details, apps, and actions, all without having to leave the application you're currently using.

One of the reasons it hasn't been a huge hit is because it can be quite imprecise. But with the update, users now have the option of manually highlighting a specific word before activating Now on Tap to get information about it.

"If you use Now on Tap in an app, email, chat, or news article with a lot of text," wrote Google's product manager, Aneto Okonkwo, in a blog post."Sometimes the results aren't as precise as you'd like. Starting today, you can give Google a nudge by selecting exactly what you want help with, and you'll get the right information, right away."

The update also introduces a cool new image search feature, which means Now on Tap will work on pictures as well as text. By holding down the home key with a photo of, say, the Eiffel Tower on the screen, you'll be presented with information relating to the French landmark.

But easily the best part of the update, and something I've been using quite a bit over the last hour, is the way Now on Tap now works with a smartphone's camera app. Simply point your device's lens at something, and you can bring up information about it without even having to take a picture. It's worked on the majority of items I've tried it on, including a Spider-Man painting and a can of Monster.

The updates are available worldwide today. Word definitions are currently only available in English but will be rolling out to other languages over the coming weeks.
Not only is Xiaomi one of the world's biggest smartphone manufacturers, it's also the second largest wearables vendor behind Fitbit, mostly thanks to the success of its devices in the Chinese market.

Now, Xaiomi is adding a third fitness tracker to its range of products. Following the release of the successful Mi Band and Mi Band Pulse comes the all-new Mi Band 2, which cost RMB 149, or just under $23.

The new tracker is slightly more expensive than its predecessors, but this one has a 0.42-inch OLED display made from scratch-resistant glass that's said to reduce smudges and fingerprints.

The Mi Band 2 tracks basic movements, has an improved optical heart rate sensor, measures sleep and calories, and comes with an ADI accelerometer. It's also IP67 waterproof, uses Bluetooth 4.0, and will vibrate to remind you to move whenever you're inactive for too long.

With the previous bands, users had to open the accompanying app on their smartphones and pair it with the wearable whenever they wanted to see their progress. While the Mi Band 2's display does make checking your stats a lot easier, it also means you'll now get around 20 days usage from the 70mAh battery, as opposed to the 30 days offered by the previous bands.

Finally, anyone with a Xiaomi smartphone can use the Mi Band 2's unique ID to unlock it instantly. While this sounds like it could be a bit of safety issue, the passcode will be reactivated if the phone moves out of the band's Bluetooth range

Xiaomi says the Mi Band 2 will be available in black, blue, green, and orange. It goes on sale in China on June 7.
After successfully launching its reusable mini space shuttle into space, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is once again preparing for another historical milestone.

This June, the agency will dispatch as many as 22 satellites into space in just a single mission, including one cartographic series satellite. Three of the satellites are of Indian origin, while the remaining 19 satellites are commercial.

Kiran Kumar, chairman of the ISRO, spoke at an event organized by the Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) to announce the mission. Kumar said the launch is expected to occur at the end of June.

During the launch, ISRO's workhorse PSLV C34 rocket will be used and satellites will be released all at once. The commercial satellites are from Canada, the United States, Indonesia and Germany.

Immediately after that, the ISRO will launch a scatterometer and the INSAT 3DR. This will provide the vertical temperature and humidity profile from the geostationary satellite, said Kumar.

In 2008, the ISRO sent 10 satellites into orbit in a single mission, making India the first country to do so. The record was subsequently broken by other countries. In 2014, the maximum number of satellites to be launched in a single mission was set by the DNEPR rocket from Russia, releasing 37 satellites.

Meanwhile, the ISRO has been achieving many great firsts.

Last week, the organization successfully lifted off an unmanned model of its space shuttle or "swadeshi," showcasing the agency's ability to develop reusable spacecraft.

The Reusable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) blasted off from Sriharikota in Andra Pradesh. The launch was proclaimed mission accomplished 20 minutes after liftoff.

The 1.75-ton (3,500-pound) RLV-TD flew up to 70 kilometers (43 miles) and then free-glided at an initial velocity that is five times that of sound.

The RLV-TD landed in the Bay of Bengal about 500 kilometers (311 miles) from the launch site.

The May 23 launch was an epic milestone for India as it was the first time that it flew a shuttle into space and landed it on a makeshift runway.

In the future, flight tests will include an undercarriage so that the space shuttle would potentially land at Sriharikota.

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On Memorial Day, two San Francisco police officers helped rescue a stranded sea lion pup.

The call about a sea lion pup wandering along the Great Highway, a short distance from Balboa Street, came in early last Monday to the Richmond District station. An earlier report said that the pup seemed disoriented.

At 6:30 A.M., police officers Annie Burrows and Tracy Turner arrived on the Ocean Beach promenade, they found the sea lion seemed to be exhausted and cold. It also appeared that the animal wanted people to be around it.

When the Marine Mammal Center said their rescue van wasn't available immediately, they asked the police officers to kindly stay with the sea lion pup until the center's rescue workers arrive.

And that's what the two San Francisco police officers did on the morning of Memorial Day. They "babysat" the stranded sea lion pup for approximately three and half hours.

As requested by the Center's rescue workers, the police officers named the pup "George C. Bison" after the station's alphanumeric identifier for units in the field and their softball team.

The center's staff said the animal is about 11 months old. Apart from being lost, the sea lion pup was dehydrated and malnourished. Marine Mammal Center's spokesman Giancarlo Rulli said the pup was roughly 27 pounds.

George C. Bison is currently recuperating at the Marine Mammal Center. In the following week, the veterinarians will monitor him closely as he continues to feed through a tube.

Officer Turner has spent almost 20 years in law enforcement, with five years spent at the San Francisco Police Department. Turner has been with the Richmond District police station for one and half years.

"I don't think we've ever been called to a sea lion on the Great Highway before," shared Turner.

In the blog, the district shared a helpful, animal emergency handy pocket card [PDF] that people can print out and keep on their wallets. The card provides useful tips and information on what to do if you find an abandoned or ill mammal. People can also call the Marine Mammal Center's 24-hour hotline at 415-289-SEAL (7325).

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Sony recently released teaser videos that hint that the company's Xperia X Series smartphones is coming to the United States very soon as part of a wider global release.

Customers who have been waiting for the arrival of the Xperia X, the Xperia XA, Xperia X Performance and Xperia XA Ultra will not have to wait that much longer, with Sony already launching preorders for the Xperia X.

At Sony Mobile's official website, the dedicated page for the Xperia X shows that interested customers can preorder the smartphone through a variety of options, namely Best Buy, B&H, Amazon and Reagan Wireless.

Customers interested in sending in preorders for the other Xperia X Series smartphones, on the other hand, will have to wait a bit longer, as preorders for those devices will begin on June 17.

As a bonus, preorders for the $550 Xperia X and the $700 Xperia X Performance will come with a free 128 GB microSD card and a Sony Quick Charge 2.0 wall adapter. Preorders for the $370 Xperia XA Ultra, on the other hand, will come with a free 64 GB microSD card.

Preorders for the $280 Xperia XA will also come with a free microSD card, though the capacity was not mentioned. Most likely, the free card will be a 32 GB capacity.

Another bonus for customers who preorder any of the Xperia X Series smartphones is that they will be receiving three free downloads for Sony Movies films.

A report in mid-May claimed that Sony will be dropping its Xperia Z, Xperia C and Xperia M lines, with its focus solely to be on the Xperia X Series. The information was obtained from leaked slides of a Sony presentation, where it was shown that the company will exclusively bank on the Xperia X Series until at least 2018.

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Samsung launched the Gear Fit  a fitness wristband  in February 2014, and the company has not yet confirmed a successor. Rumors suggest that the Korean company may unveil the Gear Fit 2 in June.

Rumors about the Gear Fit 2 have been around for some time. A leaked promo image of the Gear Fit 2 gives a glimpse of what the wearable may look like.

Latest rumors of the Gear Fit 2 suggest that it will feature a 1.55-inch Curved Super AMOLED display with 216 x 432 pixels resolution. The fitness band is expected to be powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor 512 MB of RAM.

The device is speculated to have 2 GB of internal storage, and the Gear Fit 2 is estimated to run on Tizen 2.3. If rumors are to be believed, then the Gear Fit 2 will have a 200 mAh battery. The original Gear Fit included a slightly bigger 210 mAh battery that offered typical usage of 3 to 4 days.

The original Gear Fit had heart rate sensor, pedometer, stopwatch, timer, exercise mode and sleep mode. The next-generation Gear Fit 2 is also expected to offer these features.

At the launch of the original Gear Fit, the company boasted that the wearable had "industry's first curved, Super AMOLED wearable device." The leaked promo image suggests that the next-gen band will be similar in design to its predecessor, but it will be more curved to fit the wearer's wrist comfortably.

The original Gear Fit was IP67 certified, which means it was fully dust proof and can withstand water immersion of a maximum of 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. However, the Gear Fit 2 will be IP68 certified, making the device fully protected by dust and immersive in 1.5-meter-deep water for up to 30 minutes. The IP68 certification will make the Gear Fit 2 suitable for swimmers as well.

The Gear Fit has a price tag of $150 at launch, which is a bit steep as many other fitness bands are available at a pocket-friendly cost.

Samsung has not yet confirmed any details of the Gear Fit 2. However, the presence of the Gear Fit 2 manual on the company's website suggests that customers should expect the company to launch the wearable sooner than later.

Photo: Maurizio Pesce | Flickr

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Canadian carrier Rogers has started rolling out Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software update to the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note Edge and Galaxy Note 5.

Rogers has confirmed on its community forum that the latest Android operating system is available for three Galaxy smartphones.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy Note Edge during the 2014 IFA. Both the handsets came running on Android 4.4 Kitkat at launch but they have received several updates since then. Carriers in many parts of the world including Canada have already rolled out Android 6.0 Marshmallow to their version of Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy Note Edge.

A previous report noted that Telus and Koodo have released Android 6.0 Marshmallow to their versions of Galaxy Note 4.

The Korean company launched the Galaxy Note 5 in August 2015 and it came running on Android 5.1 Lollipop. Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow update is the first major update that the phablet has received after launch.

T-Mobile and Verizon in the U.S., and Bell and Telus in Canada have already released the Marshmallow update to their versions of Galaxy Note 5. However, AT&T subscribers are still waiting to receive a software update on the Samsung device.

Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow brings a host of new features and bug fixes to devices. The software release brings an updated TouchWiz user interface, which has enhanced usability and updated visual design.

The software update also brings new power management tools such as Doze and App Standby modes, which conserve battery of smartphones.

"Starting from Android 6.0 (API level 23), Android introduces two power-saving features that extend battery life for users by managing how apps behave when a device is not connected to a power source," says Android. "Doze reduces battery consumption by deferring background CPU and network activity for apps when the device is unused for long periods of time. App Standby defers background network activity for apps with which the user has not recently interacted."

Apart from Android 6.0 Marshmallow features, Samsung has also announced Internet 4.0 and Cross App Boost functionality for Galaxy devices with Android 6.0 Marshmallow update.

The download file weighs about 1.4 GB and normally carriers suggest that a device should be connected to a strong Wi-Fi network before starting the installation process. It is also recommended that mobile phones have 100 percent charge before downloading and installing the software update.

Carriers do not release software updates to its devices at once, which means some customers may have to wait longer than others to receive Android 6.0 Marshmallow on their phones.

Photo: Karlis Dambrans | Flickr

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Women who are diagnosed with migraine have a slightly elevated risk of developing cardiovascular issues, mainly heart attack and stroke. They are quite more likely to die from these diseases than other women not suffering from migraines, a new study has revealed.

Migraine has been associated consistently with a higher stroke risk, but not a lot of studies have linked it with cardiovascular condition and death. Some experts think that migraine should be deemed an important marker for cardiovascular disease, although further research is necessary to investigate the link and find out whether migraine treatments could help decrease the related risks.

U.S. and German researchers then conducted a large prospective study evaluating the said associations, analyzing health data from more than 115,000 women involved in the Nurses Health Study II. The subjects were from ages 25 to 42, had no cardiovascular illness and were tracked from 1989 to 2011.

About 17,500 women or 15.2 percent had a diagnosis of migraine. After two decades, results showed that there were 1,329 cardiovascular disease cases that developed, with 223 females dying from the illness.

The risks for major cardiovascular events  such as heart attack, stroke and angina  emerged higher among migraine-afflicted women than those who werent. Cardiovascular death was also higher in the group across age ranges and subgroups.

Women with migraine should be evaluated for their vascular risk, the authors concluded, pushing for preventive strategies to reduce the risks that surfaced for female migraine patients.

Previous studies show a connection between women with migraines  specifically headaches preceded by signs such as dizziness or ringing in the ears  and a greater risk of suffering both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. The former type of stroke results from blood flow being blocked in the brain, while the latter is caused by a rupture in blood vessels.

In an accompanying editorial, Dr. Rebecca Burch of Harvard Medical School said the findings offer quality proof of migraine as a risk factor in this spectrum of conditions, but added that the severity of the risk should not be overstated.

[I]t is small at the level of the individual patient, but still important at a population level because migraine is so prevalent, she explained.

One in four American women experiences migraines.

The findings were published May 31 in the The BMJ.

Photo: R. Nial Bradshaw | Flickr

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Lenovo's Zuk brand is at it again, introducing the new Zuk Z2 with impressive specifications for its price tag.

After launching the Zuk Z2 Pro last month with a Snapdragon 820 processor and a massive 6 GB of RAM at just $415, the company is now offering an even cheaper powerhouse. The new Zuk Z2 packs the same Snapdragon 820 CPU but lowers the RAM at 4 GB (still hefty) and will retail at less than $300.

The Zuk Z2 launched in China at a CNY 1,800 price point, which would translate to roughly $275 or 245 based on current exchange rates. It has a slightly smaller display than the Z2 Pro  5-inch instead of 5.2-inch  with the same full HD 1080p resolution and 2.5D curved glass. On the other hand, the Z2 Pro has a 3,100 mAh battery, while the new Zuk Z2 packs a larger 3,500 mAh unit.

The Zuk Z2 also supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 via the USB Type-C port, promising to juice up the device up to 80 percent in just one hour. A wireless charging pad is also available as a separate purchase.

As previously mentioned, the Snapdragon 820 processor powering the Zuk Z2 is paired with 4 GB of RAM, as well 64 GB of internal storage space. No microSD support is in the mix, so expandable memory is out of the question. On the software side of things, Android 6.0 Marshmallow runs the show, with the OEM's own ZUI 2.0 on top.

The Lenovo Zuk Z2 further features dual-SIM support, Cat. 6 LTE connectivity (China Telecom and China Unicom) and a fast fingerprint reader that can recognize even wet fingers.

Other specs of the Zuk Z2 include a 13-megapixel main camera with a Samsung ISOCELL sensor, electronic image stabilization (EIS) and phase-detection autofocus, and an 8-megapixel front camera for video calls and selfies.

The smartphone only made its debut in China for now, where it went up for preorder via Suning Tesco, Zuk's website and the Lynx flagship store. The Zuk Z2 will officially become available on June 7.

The company offered no information regarding a wider release, so it remains unclear at this point whether the Zuk Z2 will reach other markets outside of China. As always, we'll keep you up to date as soon as we learn more.

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Costuming just doesn't seem to get much of the limelight these days. Even as costuming in films continues to get better and better, wardrobes always seem to play second fiddle to CG explosions and fight scenes.

That being said, with a franchise as iconic as Assassin's Creed, it's hard not to notice the outfits. Even back in its earliest outings, the series was instantly recognizable thanks to the distinctive hood-and-robes combo that its protagonists wore into battle. Thankfully, it seems as if the franchise's patented sense of fashion has made the transition to Hollywood: judging from what fans have seen, Ubisoft's upcoming Assassin's Creed adaptation is looking like it'll be pretty faithful to its source material.

As it turns out, Ubisoft wants any fan-made costumes to be just as faithful: the publisher released a "cosplay guide" for Aguilar de Nerha's particular set of robes (that's who Michael Fassbender is playing, in case you were wondering), with the promise of another set of high-res photos coming soon.

It's not a step-by-step guide on how to make the costume, but rather an extremely detailed look at the smaller touches that Ubisoft has made  and "extremely detailed" is putting it lightly. If you ever wondered what sort of beads Aguilar wore, Ubisoft has you covered:

(The full-size photo can be seen here)

Granted, it's safe to say that only the most dedicated of cosplayers would ever think to get this detailed, but it's nice that Ubisoft even released such high-res photos in the first place. Say what you will about the publisher's games, but Ubisoft has always done a great job of encouraging its community to take on projects like this.

In addition to Aguilar's robes, Ubisoft has promised that a second set of photos  centered around the film's female protagonist, Maria  will make their way online sometime soon. Considering that fans have only ever caught glimpses of her character, the upcoming cosplay guide could end up being the best look at Maria's outfit yet.

Who knew the Assassins were so good with so many different kinds of stitching?

As for the movie itself, there's still a ways to go before Ubisoft's premier video game franchise makes it to the big screen: Assassin's Creed is set to hit theaters on Dec. 21.

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Yahoo is being transparent when it comes to the subpoenas it received from the government.

On June 1, the company publicly announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) previously issued national security letters to obtain information, and published these letters.

This marks the first time a company has been able to address and release national security letters (NSL) because these demands have come with a gag order to prevent it from doing so in the past. However, Yahoo is now able to go public with the letters because of changes made to the USA Freedom Act.

As part of the USA Freedom Act, the FBI must now review gag orders when an investigation that involved a NSL closes or when it has been three years in an open case. At this point the gag order is lifted as in the Yahoo case.

This means the FBI has officially given Yahoo the green light to address these letters, although private information remains censored. The letters were received in April 2013, August 2013 and June 2015, and Yahoo revealed that it did comply with the NSL demands.

Now that the FBI has dropped the gag order, here's what the government knows about these users:

"Specifically, we produced the name, address and length of service for each of the accounts identified in two of the NSLs, and no information in response to the third NSL as the specified account did not exist in our system," the company writes. "Each NSL included a non-disclosure provision that prevented Yahoo from previously notifying its users or the public of their existence."

Two of the national security letters were sent from an FBI agent from the Dallas, Texas bureau's office, whereas the other was sent from Charlotte, North Carolina.

According to the letters, the FBI now knows not only the account numbers, names, addresses, phone numbers and length of service of the specified accounts, but it also has the activity logs and activity/transaction records. The logs can include the user's IP address they used at this name, and the transaction records reveal billing information and credit card info.

The FBI knows the sender and recipient address on each email, which means they know who the specific users were communicating with. Yahoo also had to turn over screen names associated with the account, URL related to the account, hardware-related information such as ISDN or DSL data and names of upstream and downstream providers.

Yahoo releasing the national security letters allows for more discussion regarding NSLs and the demands for user data.

Photo: Josh Hallett | Flickr

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Egyptian pharaohs were once believed to be half-man, half-god  almost a cosmic deity.

King Tutankhamun, who rose to prominence in the modern world when his tomb was discovered, was no exception.

Although it's been nearly a hundred years since archaeologists unearthed the boy king's 3,300-year-old tomb, it turns out there are still more to learn about his life and burial.

Now, the spotlight is on one of two daggers discovered within the wrapping of the mummified king.

Cosmic Blade

In 1925, Egyptologist Howard Carter found one iron dagger and one gold blade in the tomb of King Tutankhamun or King Tut. The iron dagger was tucked near the mummified abdomen, while the golden blade was placed on the right thigh.

What scientists found interesting was the design of the iron dagger. It had a gold handle, rock crystal pommel and lily, as well as a jackal-decorated sheath.

This design left scientists puzzled, especially because the ironwork was rare in ancient Egypt. Also, the blade's metal had not rusted.

Through the use of X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a team of Italian and Egyptian scientists analyzed the dagger to determine its chemical composition.

They found that the metal's high nickel content and levels of cobalt strongly suggest an "extraterrestrial origin." Researchers say the iron used in the dagger was from a meteorite. They compared the composition of the metal to known meteorites within 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) around the Red Sea coast in Egypt and detected similar levels in one.

The said meteorite was named Kharga and was discovered about 150 miles of Alexandria in Mersa Matruh. During the age of Alexander the Great, this place was called Amunia.

Indeed, the nickel was a huge giveaway to the origin of the metal, experts say. Typical iron ore contains only about 4 percent nickel, while King Tut's dagger had 11 percent. The traces of cobalt supported this idea.

Falling Rocks From The Sky

King Tut's dagger is not the only object whose material came from the sky.

Researchers say that because ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron in producing precious objects, others like the dagger have been fashioned out of the cosmic material. One example is the small beads from Gerzeh, Egypt, which are likely made from meteoritic metal.

Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist from University of Manchester who was not involved in the study, says ancient Egyptians may have revered celestial objects that fell on Earth.

"The sky was very important to the ancient Egyptians," says Tyldesley. "Something that falls from the sky is going to be considered as a gift from the gods."

The study suggests that ancient Egyptians were already aware that rare portions of iron fell from the sky during the 13th B.C.E., even millennia before Western culture. This indicates that ancient Egyptians had an advanced understanding of the source of the metal.

Additionally, the results of the research also mean that significant mastery of ironworking was already evident among ancient Egyptians during King Tut's time. Skilled ironworkers may have supported the boy king.

The details of the study are published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

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Male orb-weaving spiders are eaten after mating, but they get to choose the female spiders that get to devour them, a new study found.

Ideally, the females get to choose which male spider they mate with but biologist Eric Yip from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and colleagues found that in the colonies of Cyrtophora citricola spiders from the Mediterranean, the opposite happens  the male spider surveys the females and chooses which of them he is going to be his mate.

Mating Behavior

Yip said that there might be two reasons the male spiders practice this behavior. Firstly, they only have one chance to mate. Secondly, males live with scores of females in their colonies and they encounter hundreds to thousands of females daily. This means that they are more likely to be devoured even before they can look for their partner, if they are not the one to choose.

The experiments in the study showed that indeed males are choosy when it comes to their partners and they look for certain traits before choosing whom to mate with. They observed that male spiders can spend days in the webs of the females without even mating, even if the female spider was a virgin.

"The ideal female is a very well-fed, recently molted female to adulthood," said Yip. "So she's got a lot of resources for eggs, she's a virgin so he may not have any competition for those eggs with other male sperm, and she's young, so she hasn't expended any of these resources that she's gathered throughout her juvenile life."

They also observed that older male spiders are less choosy, probably because they have lesser time to find a partner to mate with.

Self-Preservation

The species show 100 percent rate of sexual cannibalism and perhaps the male's way of preserving itself is by choosing a mate that would produce more eggs and transfer more of his sperm. The male spiders choose well-fed female spiders because they tend to have more eggs. They allow the females to eat them so the females can feed longer, produce more eggs, copulate for much longer and transfer more sperm.

Darwin's bark spiders, however, evade sexual cannibalism by performing oral sex on their partners.

The study was published in PLOS ONE on June 1.

Photo: Dinesh Rao | Flickr

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With a deadly fungus threatening the population of salamanders, experts across the United States are working together to hunt for these amphibians and find out whether the disease has already affected them.

Wildlife officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and biologists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are partnering to ensure that measures to combat Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) are working.

Bsal is the fungal pathogen that has been proven to be lethal to amphibians all over the world. Earlier this year, the FWS banned the trade and importation transfer of 201 salamander species in order to halt the spread of this fungus.

Although no reports of Bsal have occurred in North America yet, its deadliness to amphibians has left officials on the defensive. They fear that Bsal could be the biggest fungal threat ever since the outbreak of the white-nose syndrome in U.S. bats.

Salamanders' ecological importance has pushed scientists to make the fight against Bsal a significant conservationist work. These amphibians' place in the food chain include results in insect control and reliable nourishment for bigger animals.

Unfortunately, the decline in salamander population has had major effects on climate change and soil quality. And when Bsal arrived in Europe, it resulted in a 96 percent fatality rate among infected salamander species.

An Martel, a Belgian professor from Ghent University, says very few salamanders are left after the devastating wipeout in Europe. Martel first discovered Bsal's impact on Dutch salamanders.

"It has had a huge impact. The populations where the fungus is present are almost gone," says Martel. "We don't find any salamanders anymore."

Dan Ashe, the director of FWS, said in January that because Bsal has the potential to kill all native salamanders in the U.S., they are doing everything in their power to preserve and protect these amphibians.

FWS and USGS will analyze 10,000 individual salamanders across North America, which is home to about one-third of all 655 known species of salamanders. Their goal is to make sure the fungus is not present in any of the local species.

Fortunately, news from research has been good so far. Evan Grant, a biologist for the USGS Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative, says a national survey of newts, which are relatives of salamanders, is almost complete. About 1,000 salamanders have also been studied so far by the USGS with zero cases of Bsal.

Photo : Matt Reinbold | Flickr

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Sydney, Australia, will soon deploy traffic lights at street level to save the lives of smartphone users too busy checking their feed while crossing the street.

The authorities in New South Wales are preparing a pilot program to ground level traffic lights, with further implementation possible in the future. The first phase will last for six months, during which five places from Sydney's business district will get ground-level embedded street lights. The cost of the action will reach AUS $250,000 (US $180,663).

Mashable reached out to Bernard Carlon, the Executive Director at Centre for Road Safety.

"We need to create a road system that keeps [pedestrians] safe, and this includes situations when they may not be paying attention," he notes.

Statistics show that pedestrian casualties are on the rise in Australia, and excessive smartphone use is partially responsible. A number of 61 pedestrians lost their lives in 2015 on New South Wales' roads, a surge of 49 percent compared to 2014's casualties.

Carlon mentions that street level lights should help pedestrians who are glued to their mobile screens to notice dangerous traffic situations.

The lights will act as an additional layer of warning, as they will complement the signals and lights already in place.

Australian authorities explain that the initiative is part of the Towards Zero advertising campaign, which aims to raise awareness about traffic risks for pedestrians.

Australia is not the first country to make use of extra warning signals.

The German town of Augsburg placed similar traffic lights at two stations within the town. The pedestrian safety measures were installed after a teenage girl lost her life earlier this year, as she crossed a railway crossing without checking.

The local authorities are considering expanding the use of ground level warning lights, should the pilot program prove successful in curbing the number of accidents.

To refer to the phenomenon easier, young people from Germany coined the term "smombie" to refer to users who are always focused on their phones instead of the outside world.

A DEKRA survey that took place in six European capitals determined that 17 percent of pedestrians keep their eyes fixed to the screens while walking down the street. When looking at the 25 to 35 demographic, the number reaches 25 percent.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Is Oscar-winner Brie Larson the next to headline a Marvel movie?

According to sources, the Room actress is in early talks to play Captain Marvel. It's not clear where negotiations stand at the moment but not only is she leaning toward taking up the part but she's also Marvel's top pick to bring Carol Danvers to life.

Captain Marvel is one of the movies the studio has lined up until 2019. It doesn't have a director yet but Marvel is looking for a female to take charge and work from a script by Guardians of the Galaxy's Nicole Perlman and Inside Out's Meg LeFauve.

Before Larson, Ronda Rousey made it known that she's interested in portraying Captain Marvel.

The first Marvel movie to have a female lead, Captain Marvel will follow the story of Danvers, an American security officer working with Captain Mar-Vell, an alien studying Earth. She developed superhuman powers when her DNA was fused with genes from an alien race called Kree.

Danvers first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes #13. She became known as Ms. Marvel when she debuted as a super-powered character but went on to be officially known as Captain Marvel in 2012.

According to Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios president, the Captain Marvel that will be gracing the big screen will be a part of two worlds.

"Her origins are very much Earthbound, but her adventures and power base come from the cosmic realm," he said.

In April, Feige also said that the studio may be ready to announce Captain Marvel's director and cast by the end of summer. Memorial Day has heralded the unofficial start of summer so that it means it won't be long until more details about the movie are revealed.

Marvel has plans to produce other female-led movies after Captain Marvel and it looks like Black Widow has dibs on the next slot.

Before Captain Marvel hits the big screen though, we'll be seeing Doctor Strange; Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2; Spider-Man: Homecoming; Thor: Ragnarok; Black Panther; Avengers: Infinity War - Part 1; and Ant-Man and the Wasp first.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Let's start from the beginning.

Before Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain launched back in 2015, Konami seemingly went off the deep end. Reports of employees under surveillance and social media lockdown were rampant, and the publisher started canceling some of its biggest projects - this included the rebooted Silent Hills, which had quickly become one of the most popular horror games in recent memory.

Konami rubbed salt in the wound when it announced that, instead of focusing on triple-A video games, it would restructure to focus on mobile titles and pachinko machines featuring Silent Hill and Castlevania characters. It was starting to look like Metal Gear Solid V would be the last big-budget game that the publisher ever created, especially with series creator Hideo Kojima leaving the company.

Suddenly, fans had no idea what would become of one of the most influential franchises in gaming history - many were worried that Konami would cheapen the brand, or try to pump out cheap knock-offs. There looked to be some serious animosity between Konami and Kojima - but would the publisher really be willing to ruin such an important franchise over a disagreement?

Thankfully, nothing like that has happened yet, but fans probably won't be much happier with Konami after seeing this:

Yes, that is a Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater pachinko machine.

Going by the trailer alone, it'd be easy to assume that Konami simply announced another re-release of the classic PS2 game: the remastered visuals are admittedly gorgeous (if a little stiff), with the scene between Snake and the Boss looking better than it ever has.

Unfortunately, that's just not the case. As the trailer pulls back, it's easy to see the familiar silhouette of a pachinko machine - apparently, this is what the future holds for the franchise.

Remember, this was a series that helped redefine storytelling and characterization in gaming - and more recently, proved that open-world stealth doesn't just work, but can produce some of the most engaging experiences in the medium.

...and now it's a pachinko machine.

Unsurprisingly, the YouTube video is not going over well with fans: at the time of writing, the trailer has nearly 9,000 Dislikes. Compare that to the 300 Likes the video has received, and it's starting to look like we've got another Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare situation on our hands.

Either way, it doesn't look like Konami is going to slow down its pachinko machine production anytime soon: the Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater machine is due out in Japan later this year.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A 40 anos de Malvinas

"Revisar el pasado es pensar el futuro". La frase de la presidenta de Telam, Bernarda Llorente, resume el espiritu del documental coproducido entre la agencia de noticias y el canal publico de TV sobre la cobertura que los medios de comunicacion hicieron del conflicto, plagada de censura y mentiras. Una autocritica necesaria para mirar hacia adelante en un (ya viejo) contexto de fake news y negocio informativo.
"Any unfriendly action by Western countries will receive a timely and adequate response in the future," the Russian diplomacy stressed. | Read More
Korea will host an all expenses paid acceleration program for 40 high potential startups from around the world this autumn.

The first of its kind in Asia, the program is sponsored by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, which was created in 2013, as part of President Park Geunhyes initiative to transform Koreas economy.Startups selected for the acceleration program, known as the K-Startup Grand Challenge, will receive $4,100 per month to cover living expenses, along with free roundtrip flights to Korea for three team members.

The government will further provide them with offices and lab space in its $160 million Startup Campus in Pangyo. The campus is within walking distance to the R&D labs of many Korean tech giants, which have signed on to mentor the startups. It is also just 14 minutes from Gangnam by subway.

At the facilitys opening ceremony held on 22 March, President Park Geunhye said, I hope that the Startup Campus will become the cradle of creative economy, a gateway that links Korean startups to the world. The president also expressed the governments support for the campus and its initiatives to help Korea step up as Asias startup hub.

Based on online applications, representatives

Read the complete story here
Conglomerate Vingroup, which has been expanding its retail business, has entered a deal with an allegiance of nearly 250 local manufacturers and suppliers, promising not to squeeze their profit margins.

The move came amid a war between Vietnamese suppliers and foreign retailers. As large retail chains compete with one another on aggressive low-price models, some have reportedly forced suppliers to cut prices or offer higher rebates.

Vingroup has pledged support to the group of suppliers by accepting low commission payments for a year. Organic food products, including meat, fruit and vegetables, will be carried by Vingroup's retail stores for free.

Over the past two years Vingroup has opened 650 convenience stores around the country, making its the largest chain in Vietnam. The conglomerate, which has invested $300 million in the retail sector, is also operating 100 supermarkets and 50 shopping malls.

Conflicts between suppliers and retailers became more intense a few months ago.

According to local media reports, foreign retailers are controlling more than 50 percent of the local market, which gives them negotiating power and earns them up to 20 percent in commissions. In comparison, local retailers usually demand a commission rate of 10 percent from suppliers.

In a high-profile case, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) last month sent a letter to Big C, the country's biggest foreign supermarket chain, asking it to stop demanding more from suppliers and threatening to cut supplies.

Besides high commissions, Big C, which is now owned by Thailand's Central Group after a 1 billion euro (US$1.1 billion) acquisition from France's Casino Group in April, was also accused of charging various fees to carry products for local suppliers.

Vietnam's retail sales rose 10.6 percent from 2014 to VND2,469 trillion ($109.4 billion) last year, according to official figures.
In a new attempt to boost state revenue, the Ministry of Finance has sought the central bank's intervention to collect cash dividends from BIDV and Vietinbank, two of the largest lenders in which the government is a major stakeholder.

In April, the shareholders of BIDV, Vietnam's largest partly-private bank by assets, agreed on distributing stock dividends at a yield of 8.5 percent, compared to the original plan of nearly 10 percent. The second biggest lender Vietinbank's shareholders voted on no dividend payment in either cash or stock. The government now owns over 95 and 64.46 percent of the banks, respectively.

Both the banks said profits from the financial year 2015 should be reinvested into expansion plans, local media reported.

However, in its letter to the central bank, the finance ministry cited existing rules as saying that as a major stakeholder, the government has to be consulted on dividend payout plans.

The central bank should order its representatives at BIDV and Vietinbank to overturn their shareholders' decisions and demand cash dividends be fully paid, according to the ministry.

The proceeds, totally nearly VND5 trillion (US$219.5 million), will be added to the state budget, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing Finance Minister Dinh Tien Dung.

Vietnam's government is still a major shareholder or even the sole owner in many local businesses, including some of the country's largest firms.

The government is expecting total 2015 dividends and profits worth VND55 trillion ($2.41 billion) from these companies.

Speaking to news website Saigon Times Online, an unnamed senior official from the central bank said it will seek the Prime Minister's advice on this matter.

The official said the central bank had earlier allowed BIDV and Vietinbank to retain their net profit, estimated nearly VND11 trillion ($482.85 million) in total, so their capital adequacy ratios are above the legally-required minimum of 9 percent.

Together with eight other major lenders, including Vietcombank and Techcombank, BIDV and Vietinbank are now under pressure to increase their capital to meet the international Basel II standards. The banks started their two-year trial period with the new banking governing standards in February, as ordered by the central bank.

A study by Vietcombank Securities has found that if Basel II norms are applied, Vietnamese banks' capital adequacy ratios will decline by 10-20 percent, while many of them are barely above the minimum requirement with the ratios of 9-10 percent.

The demand was the newest effort to improve the state revenue of the finance ministry, which has anticipated financial struggles amid falling oil prices and lower tariffs.

Vietnam's state revenue posted a year-on-year increase of 1.2 percent to VND317 trillion ($13.91 billion) in the first four months, compared to the rise of 9.4 percent recorded the same period last year, according to the finance ministry's data.
Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce at a graduation ceremony of a joint Bachelor program of the Auckland University of Technology and the University of Science in HCMC in 2015. Photo: Ha Anh. New Zealand looks forward to expanding tourism and trade with Vietnam after direct flights between the two countries are established, according to Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce.

Minister Joyce will be in Vietnam this week for the launch of Air New Zealands first direct flights between Auckland and Ho Chi Minh City on June 4.

The direct flights will make it easier for businesspeople, students and tourists to travel between the two countries, Joyce said in an email to Thanh Nien.

They will strengthen existing connections and enable new ones to grow between the two countries, he said.

More than 2,000 Vietnamese students are studying in New Zealand, and more than 70,000 New Zealanders visited Vietnam in the last three years. Tourism is the main sector that we expect to grow as a result of the direct flights, Joyce said.

He pointed out that the new direct flights will enable businesspeople to connect and facilitates effective use of free trade agreements of which the two countries are members, namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA).

They will make access to goods and services of our two countries much easier, he said.

Vietnam emerged as the fastest growing Southeast Asian trade partner of New Zealand in the past five years and two-way trade reached more than NZD1 billion, Trade Minister Todd McClay said in February.

Last year recorded the first surplus in trade with New Zealand, and the gap is only going to expand as Vietnamese producers become more export-oriented and improve to meet stricter market demands, Joyce said.

Trade will further improve after the two countries became members of the TPP, which will benefit exporters by offering much better access to large and important markets, according to the minister.

He hailed the trade agreement, which covers a region that accounts for 36 percent of the global economy, and has a population of over 800 million, as one that will shape trade and investment flows in the Asia Pacific region.

He said New Zealand and Vietnam have carried out a number of programs to facilitate the latters ability to benefit from trade agreements, including the TPP.

The visit will be Joyces third to Vietnam in a year. He will visit some of Vietnams new leaders during the trip.

(Repoted by Kieu Oanh)
A photo shows a house being damaged after an explosion on Phu Quy Island, BinhThuan Province June 1, 2016. Photo: CTV

At least five people were injured when an explosion ripped through a row of houses in the south central province of Binh Thuan on Wednesday.

The blast occurred at around 7:45 p.m. at a rural village on Phu Quy Island. Residents heard a very loud sound and saw smokes rising from the house of Nguyen Van Be.

When they rushed to the site, the house was totally damaged. Two houses next door had their roofs and windows blown off.

Around 20 other houses in the neighborhood were also damaged.

Be was severely burned. Four others were injured. They were rushed to a nearby hospital.

Local authorities are investigating the incident.
Men pass the site where a vehicle carrying a group of Vietnamese people from Thakhek Town in central Laos to Vietnam's Nghe An Province suddenly exploded at around 4 a.m. on June 2, 2016. Photo credit: Zing

Eight Vietnamese people were killed and three others were seriously injured when the bus they were on exploded in central Laos on Thursday morning.

A large quantity of timber could be seen at the site. Photo: CTV/Thanh Nien

The accident occurred at around 4 a.m. in Khammouane province's Nong Bua Village, about 15 kilometers from Cha Lo Border in the Vietnamese province of Quang Binh.

The cross-border bus was carrying the 11 Vietnamese passengers from Thakhek Town to Nghe An Province.

All the passengers are Nghe An natives, as are the driver and his assistant.

The injured victims were rushed to a Nghe An hospital for treatment after receiving first aid in Laos.

Driver Nguyen Duc Tu, 26, is working with Lao authorities as they are investigating the incident. Tu and his assistant had minor injuries.
The Embassy has issued a second advisory in a week and assured assistance to reach border.
The waste treatment reservoir of an industrial park in Da Nang, which locals have accused of doing a poor job. Photo: Hoang Son/Thanh Nien

More than 150 people in Da Nang gathered on Wednesday in front of a local industrial park, accusing it of polluting their river, killing fish and making many locals sick.

Many said waste discharge from Lien Chieu Industrial Park in the namesake district has been "a nightmare." The park, opened in 1998, now houses many rubber, metallurgy and packaging companies.

The waste from the park creates an unbearable odor around midnight every day and many locals cannot sleep at all.

Some blame the pollution for their health conditions.

There has been an increase of people getting cancer around here. Does it have anything to do with the pollution? Pham Ba Duong, a 67-year-old with colorectal cancer, said.

Duong said the authorities should conduct an investigation to conclude the impacts of the discharge, and force the park to fix its waste treatment system.

Another local said the Cau Trang River, which the discharge has been dumped into, has no fish left.

People express anger about pollution that they say is caused by an industrial park at a meeting with Da Nang officials June 1, 2016. Photo: Hoang Son/Thanh Nien

The park has a waste treatment plant but a manager admitted that the facility has been overloaded on certain days and cannot guarantee treatment quality.

The manager told a meeting with the locals and Da Nang officials on Wednesday that the treatment facility started operating in July 2009 and was designed to handle around 600-700 cubic meters of sewage a day. But there were days when it had to treat 1,000 cubic meters, he said.

Ho Truong Thanh Hai, deputy director of the Saigon-Da Nang Investment JSC, the developer of the industrial park, said the company is building another waste treatment plant. It is scheduled for operation in January 2017.

Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, vice chairman of Da Nang People's Committee, has ordered the city's environment department to carry out an inspection by June 15.
Scottish judo star Stephanie Inglis in a file photo. She is under treatment in Thailand's capital of Bangkok, where she was flown last week after around two weeks in a Hanoi hospital. Photo credit: AFP

A Scottish judo star who suffered head injuries from a motorbike accident in Vietnam last month has shown signs of recovery following treatment in Thailand.

Family of the Commonwealth Games silver medalist Stephanie Inglis said her brain is healing after a surgery at a hospital in Thailand, the BBC reported.

They said doctors are undergoing a process to bring her out of a medically-induced coma. The process can take around two weeks.

They are optimistic at the moment that the brain activity is returning, said a statement from Inglis family and friends, as cited by Scotland's The Evening Times.

Inglis has been in a coma since the accident on May 10, when she was taking a xe om motorbike taxi to an English language center in Quang Ninh Province in northern Vietnam. Her ao dai was caught in the wheel, pulling her off the bike.

The 27-year-old has taught English to Vietnamese children for four months under a charity program.

She was flown to Bangkok last week after being treated around two weeks in a Hanoi hospital.
Almost 60,000 Australian military personnel fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, with 521 losing their lives. All remains were returned to Australia, except for 36 in Malaysia and Singapore

The remains of Australian troops killed in the Vietnam War and their families were returned to Sydney Thursday in a formal military ceremony, half a century after being buried in Malaysia and Singapore.

Thirty-three bodies, interred in Malaysia's Terendak Cemetery and Singapore's Kranji War Cemetery, were brought home in flag-drapped coffins on two Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft.

Almost 60,000 Australian military personnel fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, with 521 losing their lives. All remains were returned to Australia, except for 36 in Malaysia and Singapore.

In May last year, then prime minister Tony Abbott offered repatriation to the families, with the bodies of 25 servicemen, including 22 soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, and eight dependents now back to Australia.

The other three soldiers died in the fight against insurgents in Malaysia, according to the Army Museum, which oversees Terendak Military Cemetery.

The ceremony at Richmond air force base near Sydney, marking one of the biggest single repatriations of Australian servicemen, was attended by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, Vietnam War veterans and the families of those who died.

"Today's ceremony is an opportunity to commemorate the sacrifice of the men and women who serve in our armed forces and the families who support them," Defence Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.

"For the families of those whose loved ones are returning to them and the veterans and mates who served alongside them, I hope today will bring some solace and closure."

The director of the Office of Australian War Graves, the government agency that organised the repatriation, said it was an emotional time.

"(People will be) extremely happy that the 50 years of waiting has finally come to fruition," Ken Corke told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"But equally for some, the grief is as raw today as it was 50 years ago. And for some of them, they will find it a very difficult day."

Private memorial services were to follow the military ceremony.

Australian soldiers killed in World Wars I and II and the Korean War were buried near to where they fell but around the time of the Vietnam engagement this policy changed and bodies were usually brought home.

This year also marks half a century since the Battle of Long Tan, which took place in August 1966 and was Australia's costliest day in the Vietnam War, with 18 soldiers killed.
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Who is Canberra? Yes, we really do mean who rather than what because Sean Costello of the indispensable Capital Yarns (his online and zine fictional yarns about Canberra, inspired by Canberrans) has invited people to imagine Canberra as a person.

We will return to this fascinating exercise in a moment after observing that whoever Canberra is, he or she is likely to suffer from that peculiarly Canberran condition, the BTE (Big Thing Envy) syndrome.

Caroline Ambrus' Self Portrait. Credit:Caroline Ambrus

Average Canberrans (those of us, most of us, in touch with our inner bogan) have always envied those places graced by a Big Thing. We envy Coffs Harbour its Big Banana, Glenrowan its Goliath-sized Big Ned Kelly and (sigh) go green at the thought of Meninidie's towering Big Scotsman playing his behemoth bagpipes. Meanwhile our city's governors, blinkered aesthetes, strenuously deny us the joy of anything colossally kitschy.

We mention BTE Syndrome because Bendigo is as we speak blessed with Seward Johnson's monumental sculpture Forever Marilyn. Normally decorating Palm Springs in the US (after a guest spell in Chicago) the work honours the most famous of all Monroe images. It is that moment in The Seven Year Itch (1955) when a street air vent plays erotic havoc with her dress. 
It's a year since Molly the terrier started her job as a service dog at Ainslie School. She's been warmly embraced by the school but the little dog has found she is not welcomed everywhere.

Molly has been ejected from a chemist and a restaurant despite the fact she is legally recognised as a service dog who is trained to keep a close eye on eight-year-old twins Hannah and Olivia Weber, who are in year three and have diabetes and severe anxiety.

Molly, a certified service dog, attends Ainslie School with twins, Hannah and Olivia Weber, who have diabetes and anxiety. The rest of the school loves her as well. Credit:Jay Cronan

According to the Federal Disability Discrimination Act, all assistance dogs like Molly are guaranteed access to all public places in Australia, as long as they meet acceptable standards of hygiene and behaviour.

And they can come in all shapes and sizes.
"I would rather have those partners and the relationships we have created," Mr Joyce said in reference to HNA on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meeting in Dublin. "We think our position in China and Asia is very, very strong given we have a massive network in Australia. We will play our own game."

Qantas flies to Hong Kong from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne and to Shanghai from Sydney. It has partnerships with two of the three large state-owned carriers, China Eastern and China Southern.

Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce has brushed off any threat from changes in the Virgin Australia share register to his airline's position in the domestic and international market.

A faulty pressure gauge at a Qantas hangar in Brisbane has been blamed for the spill. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Mr Joyce said the indications so far were also that Virgin would act rationally in the domestic market, which along with the Qantas loyalty program comprises about 70 per cent of the airline's business.

Qantas in April warned of tougher conditions in the domestic market due to falling consumer confidence and the upcoming federal election that led it to cut capacity. Virgin has made similar moves to help shore up falling airfares at a time when its balance sheet is stretched.

"When it comes to the competition, we want a stable competitive environment where the competition is acting commercially," Mr Joyce said. "I think it is very clear from what the shareholders in our competitor have said is that they want a return. There is nothing anybody is saying which is that the competitive dynamic is going to change and that [Virgin] is not going to be a commercial operation."

Virgin's major shareholders include Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airways and Richard Branson's Virgin Group. HNA's arrival on the register will dilute their stakes, and Virgin is undertaking a capital structure review that could result in it raising up to another $800 million.
Cameron Diaz. Matt Damon. Leonardo DiCaprio. If there is one "must have" accessory for these Hollywood A-listers, it isn't the latest smartphone or piece of jewellery. No, it is a car. And a very specific type of car at that.

A Tesla has become almost indispensable amongst America's celebrity community, reflecting status and wealth at the same time as denoting an interest in the environment that is de rigueur in the sunshine state of California.

The key to Tesla is, after all, not its sleek design or its 17 inch touchscreen dashboard, but the fact that it is battery powered.

One of the first breed of Teslas, a Model S, costs a cool $US71,500 ($98,631) in the US, at the high end in a market where, according to industry specialists the Kelley Blue Book, the average car cost $US34,428 in December.
China's quest for raw materials for its aluminium smelters and alumina refineries promises to deliver a 15-year boom for exporters of bauxite such as Australia, Rio Tinto says.

Global demand is already growing rapidly and will outpace the 4 per-cent-a-year growth Rio forecasts for aluminium in the medium-to-longer term, said Alf Barrios, who runs the mining giant's aluminium unit. Rio is spending $US1.9 billion ($2.6 billion) to raise output to tap the opportunity.

Just when you thought the mining boom was over, Bauxite is poised to soar. Credit:Waldo Swiegers

"Bauxite is a different story," Barrios said in an interview posted on Rio's website. "China's bauxite demand growth is forecast to be significant over the next 15 years, and it is something we are very keen to capture." Rio's Amrun development on Queensland's Cape York peninsula, approved last year, will produce about 23 million tons from 2019, offsetting declines at an existing operation and raising total output by 10 million tons a year.

China has raised annual imports from 2.2 million tons to 50 million tons in the past decade as the quality and volume of its domestic sources of supply deteriorates, Barrios said. With further growth forecast and rival suppliers in Malaysia and Indonesia restricted by limits on raw material exports, Australia is seen as poised to benefit. Australian exports may rise at an average of 36 per cent a year between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2021, according to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
And if volunteers, often the lifeblood of country towns, are angry, you can bet their friends and family will be too. The decision could cost Daniel Andrews his job if CFA volunteers maintain their rage for the next two years. Credit:Chris Hopkins There are a handful of Labor seats in the regions and outer suburbia that may be hit by mass volunteer resignations and a political scare campaign. These seats are critical for Labor. Questions remain about Mr Andrews' involvement. For months he backed his Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett in the fight against the union's "outrageous" demands.

Then he and his department became involved in the stagnated negotiations that Labor inherited from the Napthine government which expired more than 1100 days ago. It was portrayed as a circuit breaker for MPs but instead it became a political crisis, dividing his own cabinet and leaving his minister exposed. Those close to the Premier mimic his mantra that any deal to end the dispute will ensure that both volunteer and professional staff are looked after - they argue that a fair and reasonable deal will be worked out. But in the absence of any tangible guarantees that volunteers' right will be protected, fear has spread like wildfire. It has been a failure of government to let Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria and the CFA's scare campaign to run unchecked.

Now Mr Andrews, who is in North America on a trade mission, must decide whether to ram a deal through cabinet or search for a better deal. The fight has also taken plenty of political skin off Minister Garrett, who for a time was seen as one of Labor's rising stars. She too faces some very tough decisions. Does she fight for the CFA and potentially be sacked or be forced to resign, or does she have to swallow her pride and back whatever the government decides? She is not without internal critics, who say she has mishandled the whole dispute, and got too involved with a battle that was between an agency and a union. The minister remains silent on the matter, as many of her allies counsel her to suck it up for the sake of her long-term future.

The public used to sympathise with firefighters - heroes from central casting - but over time their expensive claims and belligerent behaviour have worked against them. The resistance to the recruitment of women hasn't helped; the investigation of their workplace culture by the state's human rights office won't improve matters. Pressure is also mounting on the ministers who control the public purse: Treasurer Tim Pallas, Finance Minister Robin Scott and Special Minister of State Gavin Jennings, who sit on the expenditure review sub committee with the Premier. Will they allow such an expensive deal to go through? Those close to the Premier say the cost is much less, but his supporters are light on detail. Mr Andrews' loyalists point to the fact that volunteers have never been Labor people and are naturally close to the opposition, who are now making political hay, and they suspect this is part of a broader anti-government strategy.

The whole ugly mess has shone a light on the disgraceful state of relations within and between Victoria's firefighting services. There is bad blood all round. An independent report released earlier this year spelt out how bad things were between management, volunteers and the union. And according to the report, all parties were to blame for the poor state of affairs. This is a major test for the Premier. Does he back the union to end the protracted dispute and get the issue off the books or work harder for an outcome that does not alienate Victoria's volunteer firefighters?
This week, following the discovery of a patient in the US with a superbug that is resistant to treatment even by the so-called "antibiotic of last resort", researchers have raised an alarming question: are we at the end of the road for antibiotics? The 49-year-old woman in Pennsylvania was found to have a strain of E coli from a family of bacteria known as CRE (Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae). Doctors here and in the US warn that CRE superbugs can kill up to 50 per cent of people who become infected. This is the first time anyone in the US has been found to be carrying a bacteria that is resistant to the antibiotic colistin. Closer to home, just last month an elderly Melbourne woman was also found to have a CRE infection. The 81-year old contracted the bacteria after having surgery at St Vincent's Hospital six months earlier and is now being cared for with strict infection control procedures. The emergence of the CRE case locally is fuelling grave concerns that Australia may be facing a post-antibiotic era. Imagine that for a moment: no antibiotics to fight infections, no antibiotics to fight diseases such as pneumonia. Routine operations could become life-threatening and minor infections potentially deadly.

A British review into antimicrobial resistance found superbugs could kill 10 million people a year by 2050. This is not the first case of CRE in Melbourne. In June last year St Vincent's Hospital revealed that dozens of its patients had been infected by CRE since 2012, including two whose deaths the bacteria may have caused. At that time, after the discovery that a particular type of CRE, known as KPC, had been spreading between patients for the first time, mainly at St Vincent's facilities, all Victorian hospitals were ordered to update their infection control procedures. But the new case resonates with growing concerns worldwide about the spread of superbugs, which experts warn may pose a greater threat than cancer. Global health authorities are right to raise the alarm over superbugs, but as disastrous as these deadly bacteria are to individuals, the bigger threat to global health is their potential to render antibiotics useless. Antibiotics are a precious resource and we are at least partly to blame for the current predicament, because of our overuse and misuse of them, both among humans and in animal populations. This last point is crucial, with the increasing globalisation of our food chain, we must remember that human health and animal health are inextricably linked. But we can take action. Dr Deborah Williamson, a microbiologist at Melbourne University's Doherty Institute, said recently that the key strategies to prevent antibiotics becoming obsolete included raising patients' awareness of when they should and shouldn't have antibiotics, strict monitoring of superbugs and preventing infections through means such as hand washing and vaccinations. Last month, British Treasury secretary Jim O'Neill said an 18-month review into antimicrobial resistance had found that superbugs could kill 10 million people a year by 2050  more than cancer kills today. However, in Australia, the federal Health Department said that while the UK report echoed many of the strategies already in place here, the government could not commit to implementing its recommendations ahead of the July election.
Elizabeth Potter, Brighton The real issues that should concern us Memo to David Morrison: Priorities, guy. How about all those guys who are banged up on Nauru and Manus Island? And all those Indigenous guys who are incarcerated in jails across this country? Not to mention all those guys who are trying to do something about racism, sexism, marriage reform and equality, and those guys who are doing their best to address the growing divide between the haves and the have nots? Get real, guy, and we might listen to you. Stewart Bessant, Moonee Ponds The slow Americanisation of our language

The main problem I have with the word "guys" is that is yet another example of Americanisms being foisted upon Australian English. The gender issue is of secondary relevance. My grandmother thinks it plain stupid to be included as a "guy" in announcements by flight attendants Paddy Lyons, East Melbourne You will only say what we want you to say Who appointed David Morrison as our Australian of the Year? What rock has he been living under? The word "guy" has been gender neutral for decades. The way that this political correctness-speak idiocy is going, we will only be permitted to open our mouths to utter "yes" or "no"  and even then, we had better be careful. Jim Ewing, Nelson

Support our authors I am a grateful, recently published author. Peter Martin (Opinion, 2/6), like the Productivity Commission, oversimplifies the debate about parallel importation of books. Yes, if we allow parallel imports,it is likely that book prices will drop. But this will reduce profits to local publishers and their ability to invest in new local authors. The extra price we pay for books is a form of protection which props up the local industry. It is no different to the fuel excise discount for miners or the (former) support for the car industry, except that in the case of books it is users who pays. If we take that protection away by allowing parallel imports, a lot fewer local authors will have the chance to be published. Is that what we want? David Brewster, Brunswick And pay fair royalties

Yes, Peter Martin, cheaper book prices for Australian consumers would result from the Productivity Commission's recommendations but not necessarily at the expense of the writers. The paperback of my novel, Model Citizens, sells for around $20 in the United States, around $25 in Britain and around $50 here in Australia. Yet I get paid the same author's royalty for sales in all three countries despite the significant price difference. Henry Pepper, Thornbury Please come home We have heard a lot about Jobson Growth, but what happened to Manu Facturing? When he was around, the country had full employment. Since the scrapping of tariffs and import restrictions, it seems he has scarpered offshore and taken jobs with him. We would all benefit from his return. Let us offer encouragement by restricting imported goods, reintroducing tariffs, ditching free trade agreements and investing in our own instead of encouraging foreign investment. Come home, Manu Facturing. Your country needs you.

Sue Bennett, Sunbury Big Brother lives here So freedom of speech in Victoria is getting closer and closer to freedom of speech in Russia. La Trobe University has suspended Safe Schools co-founder Roz Ward for stating on her Facebook page, "Now we just need to get rid of the racist Australian flag..." (The Age, 2/6). Two pages further on, there is the report from Russia, "Jailed for sharing views online with 12 friends" (World, 2/6). Andrei Bubeyev shared a picture on social media of a toothpaste tube with the words "Squeeze Russia out of yourself" and was jailed for two years and three months. La Trobe University appears to be one step removed from what is happening in Russia. Big Brother is always watching you. Joe Morris, Fairfield

Brutal thrill killing New South Wales MP Robert Borsak boasted of shooting and eating an elephant in a speech at state parliament (The Age, 2/6). How anyone could stoop so low as to kill an elephant is beyond me, and that comes from someone with a shooting background. I shot feral animals, such as rabbits and foxes, but nothing else. There is no room in today's society for "thrill killing". Ben Leif, Wodonga Why hide your face? Sue Bolton, one of the organisers of Moreland Says No to Racism rally, defends the right of people in Coburg to protest (Opinion, 1/6). Most people would support this. I have protested for many causes  against South Africa, against Rhodesia, for women's rights, for Cambodia, against going to Iraq.

However, I have never seen participants cover their faces. I have always been proud of my beliefs so why would I hide my face? Did Gandhi or Martin Luther King hide theirs? The only reason I can see for doing so would be if someone intended to break the law. Sue, I support your right to demonstrate for a good cause but I think your group needs to learn from the methods of Gandhi and King. Joan Campbell, St Kilda Plea for perspective We formed a peaceful assembly near the closed Coburg Library on Saturday because we care. A bunch of angry people met near the school and had a fight. Was our assembly worth it? Yes. Why? Because we heard from Nasrin, a woman who expresses herself strongly. We heard from an Indigenous bloke, a Hazara refugee, a local councillor and a good local trade unionist. Do we hear these voices often? No, not really. Our crowd included babies, kids, pensioners, women and locals. The first recorded clash on Sydney Road was in 1896. A sectarian blue between two religions. Our community survived that and continues to thrive. A bit of history and perspective would not go astray.

Cindy O'Connor, Brunswick Towards renewables Thank you to the Age for voicing what the majority know to be true ("Great Barrier Reef crisis: Time to address coral catastrophe", Editorial, 31/5). Many of us despair at the lack of government leadership in addressing the biggest issue facing life, climate change. Preventing further coral bleaching simply by reducing polluted run-off  while maintaining our dependence on fossil fuels, opening new coal mines, exporting more coal and deinvesting from renewable energy  is a dismally flawed thought process. I am disappointed with both main parties and particularly Malcolm Turnbull who, for a minute, had us believing change was possible. RIP life as we know it unless we look beyond our myopic interests and demand a transition to renewable energy. Sophie Small, Drysdale

Shameful self interest ACTU secretary Dave Oliver thinks the wage bargaining system is working because the Fair Work Commission made sure workers were not worse off after the Coles deal was struck (The Age, 1/6). Am I mistaken or isn't that the role of the trade union? Surely unions are there to protect the interests of their members and that is why members pay their dues. Shameless behaviour, but reassuring that both sides of the political spectrum are able to put their own narrow political interests ahead of ordinary working people. No wonder the electorate is looking for a principled alternative. Jim Corcoran, South Yarra Protect the workers So, will the Labor Party and the ACTU deregister, penalise, refuse to take money from the disgraced Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association? Will the ACTU move that union's members to a decent one which will represent and assist them?

Colin Patterson, Maldon Up you get, kids Since when has it been acceptable for school students to sit on trains while full fare-paying adults stand? In my book, this is not acceptable. Susan Livsey, Box Hill A charity? Prove it.

Here is a suggestion on how to increase the nation's finances. Remove the tax-free status from all charities. Only those which submit their books for audit, and can clearly show how much income was used for genuine charity work would qualify for an appropriate tax deduction. Margaret Barrett, Carnegie Pride turns to shame Matt Wade ("Nation lacks generosity", Opinion, 1/6) is right about our diminishing foreign aid budget. But it is not only that we are less generous. We are also forfeiting our right to stand on the international stage, play our part in reducing poverty, and promote equality and opportunity.

Not many years ago, I was congratulated for being Australian in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. Australian military intervened and stopped a massacre, and they will never be forgotten. In Palestine, I was congratulated for being Australian because of our government-funded aid projects there. In Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan, the elders were delighted that Australia was taking an interest. What will they say now? Alan Nichols, Montmorency A step too far, Premier Daniel Andrews, for well over 50years I have been a devoted Labor supporter. Nothing could induce me to vote Liberal. I am also a strong union supporter but when it comes to the CFA versus the fireys' union (The Age, 2/6), you are wrong. The CFA is entrenched in the country. We are dependent on the volunteers and very proud of the wonderful job they do. If you continue with your "head in the sand" attitude, you will lose enormous support in the country. This will be remembered for many years to come. Listen and be strong enough to change your mind. Bob Cornelis, Wonthaggi

Our world, our right Lorikeets think the world is theirs for the taking. They sit up in the gum trees, shrieking their heads off, ripping blossoms from the branches and chucking them on the ground. Rather like parliament, really. Ann Lanagan, Rosanna AND ANOTHER THING

Environment Australia has had its hottest autumn on record. I wish climate change was the hottest election issue. Jenny Smithers, Ashburton Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky in the morning, global warming. George Houlder, Cambrian Hill

I have my doubts Greg Hunt and Queensland identity Barry R.Reef have ever been close friends. Chris Della Bosca, St Kilda East Mr Turnbull, we're still waiting for your prime ministerial statement on the Great Barrier Reef. Ralph Judd, Blackburn North Workplace

Two guilty parties: Coles for abusing the wage rules for its advantage and the SDA for not seeing how this would reduce its members' income. Peter Johns, Sorrento Coles' wages and penalty rates are down, down. Brian Henderson, Kallista I'm surprised Shorten is telling the SDA what to do. It's usually the other way around.

Brian Sanaghan, West Preston Furthermore Male spider: "I love it when you nibble my ear". Female spider: "I have an all-consuming passion for you". David Johnston, Healesville Some people are concerned about the use of the gender-specific "guys". We could use "youse".

David Lamb, Kew East Or how about C.J.Dennis' fellows, blokes, coves or coots? Bob Greaves, Mount Eliza One morning I'll walk to the gate to pick up the Age and find nothing but a sad piece of plastic shrink wrap. Jeannie Howard, Ballarat
I believe B'nai B'rith must apologise unequivocally to all of us. Anti-Semitism must always be taken seriously. False claims of anti-Semitism used to drive political agendas only trivialise and undermine our fight and resolve to eradicate it and other forms of racism.

Most alarming was the false accusation by the B'nai B'rith organisation that the play "peddles classic anti-semitic themes" (ABC radio, May 27). For the record, the play does not mention Jews, Judaism, the Jewish people or have any Jewish characters. This false allegation insults me as the author of this play as well as others including the cast and crew, La Mama theatre, the VCAA, the Australian Jewish Democratic Society as well as any one else who supported, attended, applauded and worked on this production.

Cast of the play, Tales of A City by the Sea, when it premiered in 2014. Playwright Samah Sabawi is seated in the middle. Credit:Simon Schluter

It seems that I, the writer, missed the memo that I can't write an artistic piece about Palestinian life without inserting Israel's point of view into my art. This is wrong on so many levels.

My play Tales of a City by the Sea sold out its 2014 and 2016 seasons to standing ovations by many, including people from a Jewish background. Despite this overwhelming support, a small yet vocal group hit the panic button when the play was selected for the VCE drama curriculum.

Some criticised the play for not including Israeli voices. The reality is the only times Israeli voices are heard in Gaza is when an Israeli soldier phones a Palestinian family and orders them to leave their house before it is bombed, over a megaphone if a Palestinian boat gets too close to the forbidden line in the sea, or when a Palestinian walks too close to the fence that surrounds Gaza and Israeli soldiers shout at them from the surveillance towers to turn back.

The sad reality is that there are no human interactions between Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis outside of this paradigm. Palestinians know the Israelis are there all the time, surveying them with drones in the sky, cameras on the walls and towers and naval gunships at sea. Had Israeli voices been included, this would have been the realistic depiction as experienced by Gazans. But they were not included because all of this was irrelevant to the play.

What the critics don't seem to grasp is this play is not about the Palestine/Israel conflict. Ordinary Palestinian life in Gaza does not revolve around political discussion. It is consumed with the daily battle for survival.

The two Palestinians falling in love in this play argue over where to live, what choices to make and the cultural differences between those who have left and those who have remained. The husband and wife in this play argue over how to make the water, a precious and increasingly scarce resource in Gaza, last longer.

Inserting a conversation about Hamas rockets and the Israeli army's point of view would have seemed unnatural and out of place in the context of daily lives. The play touches only briefly on politics to the extent that it mixes with daily life, for example when characters complain about Hamas' restrictions on civil liberties or when a fisherman recalls his encounter with Israeli naval ships at sea.
In news that could spell trouble for Sony Pictures' animated The Emoji Movie, a German licensing lawyer has expressed surprise that no one from the company had approached him for rights to use the name, which he began trademarking around the world in early 2013.

Marco Husges told The Hollywood Reporter he was "curious how Sony would want to produce a movie under that name and do accompanying merchandising ... given the fact our brand has already been successfully established with license partners and retailers all over the world".

He also claimed: "Sony's trademark application in the US has been rejected, while ours are all registered and actively in use."

Mr Husges has registered at least 55 emoji-related trademarks as well as several more related to the words "iconic" and "emoticon", though none of these relate to the use of emojis or emoticons in the realm for which they were created, digital and telephonic communications.
Gary Bartz Quartet

505, June 1



Gary Bartz knows that truth has a beauty deeper than mere aesthetics. When the American puts his alto saxophone to his lips he tells you some things you already know and some things you don't, but he never tells a musical lie. He is deeply connected to the wellspring of jazz, not just because of his early-career associations with Art Blakey, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Max Roach and McCoy Tyner, but because he understands that, more than any scales, harmonies or rhythms, the music is about making oneself naked enough to tell emotional truths with absolute conviction.

Gary Bartz understands the music is about making oneself naked enough to tell emotional truths.

Bartz mostly held back his full power, and then when he did storm to the peaks of which he was capable  when his saxophone was wailing and scything  the impact was like being impaled on a stake.

He and his band have no set-lists and don't stop playing. After a predetermined opener Bartz segued directly into an introduction to the next piece, decided upon in the moment, and so on in a constant flow, like a river with many tributaries, keeping pianist Barney McAll, bassist James King and drummer Kassa Overall on their toes as to where Bartz was headed. Each set presented an array of standards, grooves, moods and thrilling solos, as though that river were in flood, and diverse beautiful towns, bridges and mountains were rushing past.
In the end, they were reduced to talking about super. "Normally when you discuss superannuation, the eyes start to glaze over," Bronwyn Bishop noted - and for anyone watching, they almost certainly did.

Sky News had promoted the bejeezus out of David Speers' prime-time interview with Ms Bishop, her first since departing the Parliament last month. She of Choppergate infamy, who had soared so high but fallen so far; who had been dumped by her close ally Tony Abbott and ultimately dumped from her seat, would be given the opportunity to tell it all.

What stories would she set straight? What secrets would she reveal? What truth-bombs would she drop?
Tony Abbott says he is not seeking or expecting "advancement" into Malcolm Turnbull's cabinet if the Coalition is returned at the election and is promising to "stand up for good, Liberal conservative positions" including on same-sex marriage in the next term.

In an extended interview with The Conversation's Michelle Grattan, the former prime minister expressed hope of campaigning for Sophie Mirabella, with whom he controversially stood in front of a sign calling Julia Gillard a witch.

Mr Abbott confirmed he would not be campaigning for the seat of Lindsay, which his seat of Warringah traditionally supports, amid suspicions the sitting member Fiona Scott, who he infamously described as having "sex appeal", backed Malcolm Turnbull in the leadership spill.
"They will benefit, or leave no worse off, 96 per cent of the superannuants in this country and they are positive changes and we stand by them 100 per cent." A scene from the Labor ad. Mr Morrison said the changes were limiting "generous concessions that have been in place for quite a period of time and are unsustainable into the future". "What they are doing is making sure that we are able to invest in making positive superannuation available for people on lower incomes in particular," he said. "More than 3 million people will benefit from the superannuation changes we have announced in the budget."

Mr Morrison was critical of Labor leader Bill Shorten in his press conference, accusing the opposition of declaring war on businesses, on growth, on mums and dads and on capital. He said a Labor government after July 2 would mean higher taxes, higher debt and higher deficits. The Labor ad shows golden eggs being taken away from a nest by a person wearing Liberal Party cufflinks. "You made plans thinking your nest egg would always be safe," a voice says. "Now Mr Turnbull wants to raid that nest egg." Opposition Leader Bill Shorten on Thursday accused the government of having one economic policy for before the election and another for after the election.

"Clearly Senator Sinodinos is picking up the jungle drums of angry conservatives and now he's saying they may change the policies," he said. "The truth of the matter is that this government is saying on thing before an election, they're already flagging they're going to do something else after the election and if you can't trust them on superannuation, what can we trust them on in any aspect of their economic plan to keep their promises?" Earlier on Thursday, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said there would be consultation on its super policy after the election, echoing comments from Cabinet Secretary Arthur Sinodinos on Wednesday. "The consultation, as there always is, will be in relation to administrative implementation arrangements," Senator Cormann said at Parliament House. "That is just business as usual. The substantive changes that we have put forward, the reforms to superannuation arrangements that we have put forward, if we are successful at this election will be implemented.

"But as is always the case, we will ensure that the implementation is administratively as efficient as possible," he said. Accounting peak body CPA Australia said a poll of 1300 of its members suggested the government was underestimating the number of Australians who will be affected by the changes to superannuation rules. The poll found 70 per cent believe the changes would affect more than 6 per cent clients, above the government's estimate of 4 per cent of taxpayers. Almost 40 per cent of respondents expected 20 per cent or more of their clients would be affected, while another 25 per cent expected the changes to hit a third of their clients. Chief executive Alex Malley said the results suggested there was "widespread uncertainty and confusion created by the proposed retrospective changes".
Japan has temporarily stopped accepting live feeder and breeder cattle exports from Australia after a number of animals tested positive for bovine Johne's disease.

The Department of Agriculture confirmed it was aware of the announcement by Japanese authorities and would investigate whether the cattle were prepared according to requirements.

Senior vet Dr Lynn Simpson has blown the whistle on the shocking conditions on cattle export ships. Credit:Tamara Voninski

"It's a concern to us and our department is working closely with Japanese authorities, trying to resolve it as quickly as possible," said a spokeswoman for Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.

Johne's disease, relatively rare in Australia, is caused by bacteria and leads to diarrhoea, tissue wastage and eventual death. Cattle are commonly infected as calves but many do not display symptoms for many years, according to Animal Health Australia.
In different ways, allegations of disloyalty have shadowed the careers of both challengers for the prime ministership in this election.

So it is perhaps unfortunate for the parties' election campaigns teams that obsess over televisual imagery and its associations that a rat has crashed the campaign not once but twice this week.

After Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met "Splinter" the rat during a shopping centre walk in Sydney on Monday, another rat hit the campaign trail on Thursday.
In a separate note to Mr Turnbull, who married Mr Hughes' businesswoman daughter Lucy 36 years ago, he said "there is room only for improvement and the party's present folly will pass".

Not even the highest office in the country is immune to internal politics. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

In a letter to his brother, prominent art critic Robert Hughes, the giant of the Australian legal fraternity said making Mr Abbott leader was akin to putting "the principal lunatic in charge of the asylum" and predicted it would be a "potentially catastrophic decision".

Malcolm Turnbull's father-in-law, former attorney-general Tom Hughes, called Tony Abbott a "lunatic" and urged Mr Turnbull to stay in politics after losing the Liberal leadership in 2009, predicting the party's "folly" would pass.

The Prime Minister said on Friday afternoon that Mr Hughes had apologised to Mr Abbott for the revelations contained in a new biography of him by historian Ian Hancock, called Tom Hughes QC: A Cab on the Rank, to be published this week.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, former attorney-general and prominent barrister Tom Hughes QC and daughter Lucy Turnbull earlier this year. Credit:Mick Tsikas

The scathing commentary and predictions of his son-in-law's return to power from December 2009 would ultimately be vindicated, although the wait was long. Six years after he wrote the letters, Mr Turnbull was back in the leadership after the Abbott government was characterised by chaos and dysfunction.

In the letter to his brother, Mr Hughes said that Mr Turnbull "paid the price" for his erstwhile support for an emissions trading scheme in the face of his party's opposition. He said it was "to his great credit" that he stood up for his principles.

"To elect Abbott in his place is the equivalent of putting the bull in charge of the china shop or the principal lunatic in charge of the asylum," Mr Hughes wrote.
For decades, the Prince of Wales' band room has played host to some of Melbourne's best rock gigs and club nights. Now, thanks to a smart renovation (the work of award-winning firm Six Degrees), the old smoking balcony has been converted into a modestly appointed mod-Asian restaurant.

Meanwhile, the made-over back bar faces the inner part of the restaurant which has been decorated with bamboo detailing, fetching cubic lampshades and, on one wall, nostalgic photos from past gigs. Niftiest of all is that while it looks as though the hallowed band room has been cut in half, music fans can breathe easy: the inner walls of the restaurant fold away when a band or DJ takes over, leaving just the bar open, while the outer part of the restaurant resumes its original function as a smoking balcony.

The Prince Hotel in St Kilda: the made-over back bar faces the inner part of the restaurant which has been decorated with bamboo detailing. Credit:Pat Scala

Pleasingly, the food is just as clever, and very reasonably priced, too. A Korean-style beef tartare, made with tiny cubes of raw meat garnished with slivers of nashi pear and a sesame crisp, is delicious, fresh and light, while white pepper chicken wrapped in pandan reveals itself to be incredibly tender, made tastier still with zingy green chilli nahm jim. Chicken and water chestnut dumplings with ponzu and sesame are flavoursome, albeit in wrappers that are just a tad too chewy. Better are the unctuous and decadent "Kalbi" beef short ribs, with shiitake and fresh nashi pear working to offset the richness, and the salads  one of charred fish and banana blossom, Thai basil and red nahm jim, another of "Bang Bang" chicken, sesame and Sichuan pepper. Both are on the spicy side.

Dessert has never been an area in which Asian cuisines shine, but here the selection is both inventive and rewarding. Spongy, lurid-green pandan chiffon cake with coconut cream, fresh jackfruit and a wonderfully tangy jackfruit ice-cream was our favourite, while coal-grilled monkey bananas with duck-egg custard and peanut praline is divine in its simplicity. An extensive selection of wines, beers and cocktails will draw punters wanting only to drink, with 14 beers available on tap, another five from the tin. Wine by the glass starts from an almost unheard of $7, while cocktails such as the Basil Fawlty (pisco, strawberry, purple basil and thyme), evoke tropical climes and holiday vibes.
Thousands of women doing much of the heavy lifting in the Australian public service are at risk of being left behind in the bureaucracy's push for gender diversity, a leading workplace academic has warned.

Nearly 19,000 women work in the service at the middle management EL1 and 2 levels and are doing it as tough as anyone, toiling long hours under family-unfriendly conditions, says Sue Williamson of the University of NSW.

Labor also wants to extend the success of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which has achieved a big boost in female senior managers by using a "blind" hiring system. Credit:Michelle Smith

The push for more women in the elite Senior Executive Service is great, Dr Williamson says, but more needs to be done for the great bulk of female public servants in middle management and rank-and-file jobs.
The state government has defended the independence of the consulting firm whose sums were the basis for its controversial push to slash Sydney councils.

Accounting and consulting giant KPMG, whose figures have been used to justify the government's controversial merger policies, donated about $100,000 to the NSW Liberal Party shortly before the elections that brought the Coalition to power in 2011.

The firm was also paid about $870,000 to audit Liberal Party accounts in 2015.

"How can you claim KPMG's report on your forced council mergers is independent," asked the opposition spokesman on Planning and Infrastructure, Michael Daley, in question time in the NSW Parliament on Thursday.
When Deo Nuyu arrived in Australia as a student five years ago, he thought he had found safe haven.

His homeland, the tiny central African country of Burundi, was rapidly descending into strife with Mr Nuyu suffering repeated threats due to his political beliefs.

Over the past five years the situation has worsened, with more than 250,000 people fleeing the country as it teeters on the brink of civil war. The Department of Foreign Affairs warns Australians not to travel to Burundi due to the "high level of violence".

Fearing for his life, Mr Nuyu asked for a protection visa to allow him to stay in Australia but his application was refused and a series of appeals were unsuccessful.
A man who allegedly attempted to hold up a Sydney pharmacy but was beaten off by female staff members wielding walking sticks has been charged over the attack.

The 59-year-old man was arrested at a home on Bradman Street in Merrylands on Thursday and charged over the botched robbery at Birrong Pharmacy on Tuesday afternoon.

A staff member uses a walking stick to stop a robbery at Birrong Pharmacy. Credit:Getty Images

Police will allege in court that the man entered the Auburn Road pharmacy about 4.30pm armed with a sharpened wooden skewer and approached the female pharmacy owner, who was standing at the prescription desk at the rear of the shop.

He allegedly assaulted the woman, before a male customer intervened and attempted to disarm him.
The witness list for the Sydney siege inquest will be streamlined, with the most critical decision makers expected to begin giving evidence next week.

Coroner Michael Barnes on Thursday accepted an application from counsel assisting the inquest into the Sydney siege, Jeremy Gormly SC, that the witness list be cut so as to expedite the inquiry process.

Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson, victims of the Lindt Cafe siege two years ago.

The ruling in favour of the application came despite objections from lawyers representing the family of slain Lindt Cafe manager Tori Johnson, who insisted the family had a right to hear from certain witnesses, including a sniper that saw their son in his final minutes.

Mr Barnes said the new witness list could be altered further following applications from counsel, including on the grounds of wanting "to satisfy a bereaved family member".
A 10-year-old boy has become the second person to be struck by a vehicle within a few hours in Brisbane on Thursday.

Paramedics were called to the scene - Stanley Street South Brisbane - just after 7pm, where it is believed the boy had suffered injuries to his foot.

The Hume Highway is closed southbound at the Federal Highway after a crash.

Several units attended including a regular ambulance and two single occupant vehicles.

The boy is being treated at the scene while paramedics assess whether he requires hospital treatment.
Police working on new leads in the Sharron Phillips cold case say they are not investigating a 30-year-old hit-and-run.

Homicide chief detective Inspector Damien Hansen also said a search of drains under Cobalt Street at Carole Park, west of Brisbane, was not related to Ms Phillips's father, Bob Phillips.

Mr Phillips's three oldest children recently questioned their father's alibi for his daughter's 1986 death, but he was never treated as a suspect. He died in 2015.

Police received fresh information a fortnight ago that prompted a search of the Cobalt Street site.
A Fair Work inspector says he felt completely and utterly intimidated after a Queensland union official allegedly missed ramming his car by centimetres.

The CFMEU's Kane Pearson, 37, has pleaded not guilty to six charges of intimidation of a commonwealth official in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

At the hearing, Fair Work Building and Construction inspector Ken Fitzjohn echoed his colleague's evidence about a union official's language when they had visited the Sunshine Coast University Hospital construction site.

Fair Work Building and Construction inspector Ken Fitzjohn on Thursday told a hearing there was "only a matter of centimetres" between his and colleague Steven Lovewell's car when Pearson drove towards him at Enoggera in 2013.

He described feeling "completely and utterly" intimidated at the time, during which Pearson was assistant secretary of the Builders Labourers Federation.
An advertising peak body has had it with Wicked Campers, announcing it is "fed up" with the hire company "thumbing its nose at the government", while other advertisers urged the company to "get out of the gutter".

Queensland members of the Outdoor Media Association have called on Wicked Campers to "lift its standards" in the wake of New South Wales councils moving to ban vans with offensive slogans from caravan parks and camping grounds.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath had indicated last year a review into the state's anti-discrimination act could potentially tackle offensive slogans.

But the review by the Queensland Law Reform Commission was never started.
Life just got easier for travellers, with Google Translate speaking new languages thanks to the latest in artificial intelligence research.

Rather than scrambling for a phrase book, you can use the free Google Translate app to listen to spoken words or interpret handwritten text and translate it between dozens of languages. The Word Lens feature is particularly useful, letting you point your smartphone's camera at foreign writing, such as street signs or menus, and see a real time translation on the screen.

Bruegel's Tower of Babel. Had Google been around, the Old Testament would have been significantly different. Credit:Pieter Breugel

Word Lens could already read more than two dozen languages but the latest Google Translate update adds support for both Simplified Chinese and the more complex Traditional Chinese. The improvements come courtesy of Google's advances in machine learning  computers which can teach themselves  as well as "convolutional neural networks" which mimic the visual cortex of an animal's brain to perform complex analysis.

These research areas underpin Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence efforts, with DeepMind's AlphaGo software recently defeating legendary Go master Lee Sedol to become the first program to beat a professional player of the ancient Chinese board game which is considered far more complex than chess.
If you feel like everything has been getting faster lately, you're not alone.

Astrophysicists, including Brad Tucker at the Australian National University, have calculated the most accurate measurement yet for the expansion rate of the nearby universe.

ANU astronomer Brad Tucker. Credit:Stuart Hay/ANU

They've found that in our little corner of the cosmos everything is flying apart quite a bit quicker than we've previously thought.

Within 10 billion years, the distance between local galaxies will double. That means something a bit odd is going on.
The father of murdered Melbourne teenager Cayleb Hough stood up in court, pointed at one of the men accused of killing his son and shouted: "You slimy coward. Every dog gets his day."

Steven Hough then said: "You better hope you have protection in there."

Earlier in the day at the Melbourne Magistrate's Court, when the first of the two men accused of the murder appeared by videolink, he shouted "coward."

After his second dramatic outburst he was escorted from the court.
Three deaf people have now been found unfit to stand trial for the murder of a profoundly-deaf man who fell 12 metres to his death from an apartment balcony last year.

On Thursday, Warwick Toohey, 37, was found unfit to stand trial by a Supreme Court jury after just a few hours' deliberation.

Robbie Wright fell from a balcony and died from his injuries three days later.

He joins his two co-accused, Georgia Fields, 19, and Jake Fairest, 27, who have previously been found not fit to stand trial.

The three were accused of murdering Robbie Wright, 36, who fell from a balcony outside his Ringwood apartment on January 15, 2015.
The manager of a Melbourne cafe at the centre of a social-media storm in a coffee cup says its controversial "deconstructed" brew is aimed at the city's notorious coffee snobs, not hipsters.

Writer Jamila Rizvi shared a photo on Facebook of an unusual coffee she was served at the Abbotsford cafe, which came to the table in three separate beakers on a wooden paddle.

"Sorry Melbourne but no. No no no no no," Rizvi wrote on Tuesday.
The family of a woman stabbed to death in Melbourne two years ago will hold a public march to the murder scene this weekend.

Rani Featherston, 34, was found in a pool of blood in an industrial area in Doveton, in Melbourne's south-east, on the morning of April 2 in 2014.

More than two years on, the crime remains unsolved.

On Saturday, the Featherston family plan to walk from Autumn Place to the exact spot on Lace Street where Ms Featherston's body was discovered by factory workers.
Pressure is mounting on Premier Daniel Andrews to come clean on what deal has been struck with the firefighters union, amid burning anger from CFA volunteers who fear a union takeover.

After a rancorous dispute, Fair Work Commissioner Julius Roe delivered non-binding recommendations on Wednesday night supporting the demands of the United Firefighters Union for greater control of the CFA, infuriating the association and its volunteer base.

Speaking to reporters in New York, where he is on a trade mission, Mr Andrews said the Fair Work Commission had come down with "balanced and fair points" fuelling speculation that he had struck a sweetheart deal.
On Thursday, police said she had been found but did not specify where.

Natasha, who is 37 weeks pregnant, had not been seen since 4am on Monday in Heidelberg West.

The 14-year-old's disappearance on Monday had prompted police to appeal to the public to help find her.

Heavily pregnant missing teen Natasha Boko has been found safe and well.

"Good News! Missing teen Natasha Boko was found safe and well this afternoon. Police would like to thank the public for their assistance," Victoria Police tweeted at 1.45pm.

On Wednesday, Detective Senior Sergeant Troy Papworth said police had feared for Natasha's welfare as she had missed medical appointments relating to her pregnancy.

Police believed she had been staying with friends, but she had not been in contact with her family.

Natasha's family have criticised negative comments on social media about the teen's pregnancy.

"Her age should never determine how good of a mum she will be," her sister, Anna Boko, said. "I have many young mum friends and all of us love our children very much and do everything to keep them safe."
Two men with links to the Hells Angels were in possession of a traffickable amount of unregistered firearms when arrested by police, according to court documents.

Dennis Basic, 36, and Ivan Filipovic, 30, are both charged with possessing a traffickable amount of firearms, four counts each of being a prohibited person in possession of firearms, and charges of possessing cartridge ammunition without a licence.

The men were arrested after a raid by detectives from the anti-bikie Echo Taskforce on a Sunshine North home on Wednesday. Credit:Penny Stephens

Mr Basic is also charged with possessing body armour, possessing anabolic steroids and being in possession of $11,450, which police suspect is proceeds of crime.

The two men were arrested following a raid by detectives from the anti-bikie Echo Taskforce on a Sunshine North home on Wednesday.
A bid by one of Australia's largest pension funds to buy the Port of Melbourne is being investigated by the competition watchdog.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has sent letters to dozens of port users asking for advice on whether industry superannuation fund IFM should be allowed to bid for the coveted asset.

The competition watchdog is consulting on whether a pension fund with stakes in other east coast container ports should be able to own a stake in the Port of Melbourne.

The potential problem is that the fund, which manages $67 billion, already owns a stake in the Port of Botany, Port Kembla and the Port of Brisbane.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said the question was whether adding the Port of Melbourne to the list could give IFM an anti-competitive level of control along the east coast.
Victoria Police has backed down on plans to pull officers from Victoria's three major ski resorts this snow season.

The emergency services and resort staff working on Falls Creek, Mount Hotham and Mount Buller feared their safety and that of holidaymakers would be put at risk after a late proposal to reduce police presence on the snowfields.

Victoria Police has abandoned a plan to withdraw officers from the state's major ski resorts, including Mount Hotham.

But, after a meeting on Thursday afternoon between force command and the Police Association, the plan was scrapped.

Union secretary Ron Iddles said the same number of officers as last year, if not more, would now be stationed on the resorts this snow season, which starts in little more than a week.
Baker Jason Marion said the win came after three days of judging at Foodservice Australia in Sydney with his creation up against 80 others.

Toodyay Bakery's pasties have been crowned as the best in the country by the Baking Association of Australia.

Jason Marion of Toodyay Bakery holds one of Australia's best pasties, as judged by the Baking Association of Australia. Credit:Timothy Williams

Look no further than a humble country bakery in Western Australia.

Mr Marion said the pasty crown was a title he had been chasing for a number of years.

"To win a national award finally, gives us some recognition for all the people that work here," he said.

"The staff work really hard to try to get the perfect pasty," he said.

"You have to bake for the competition and it's hard to get it right for just that one day, so have you to try and practice through the year to get it absolutely right.

"You also have to constantly taste it, which is not a bad thing," he joked.
A serial bank robber dubbed the "Postcard Bandit" has appeared briefly in a Perth court over a prison escape 27 years ago.

Brenden James Abbott, 53, appeared in Perth Magistrates Court via video link from Casuarina prison on Thursday, charged with escaping legal custody over his 1989 breakout from Fremantle prison.

Notorious "Postcard Bandit" Brenden Abbott was brought to Perth from Queensland to face charges. Credit:Channel Nine News Perth

It was his second appearance in a Perth court following his extradition from Queensland last month and he had the matter adjourned until August 4 for legal advice.

Abbott was granted parole in Brisbane in April, having served 18 years of a 25-year sentence for a string of robberies and another brazen escape from a Queensland prison in 1997, but WA authorities ensured he was swiftly arrested.
The state government is scrambling to find new managers for the Perth Motorplex in Kwinana.

The current operators have decided not to take up a new contract to manage the popular venue.

The state government has begun a search for new managers for the Perth Motorplex in Kwinana Credit:Perth Motorplex

It has been run by the Miocevich family since 2000 but for family and health reasons they have pulled out of the new contract.

They will manage the drag racing and speedway complex until the end of this month.
Guantanamo Bay Navy Base, Cuba: The FBI agent who first interrogated Abu Zubaydah - the "war on terror" captive who became the guinea pig in the CIA's post-9/11 interrogation program - said on Wednesday that the case of the captive represents "the A to Z of where we went wrong as a nation".

Abu Zubaydah, a 45-year-old Saudi citizen of Palestinian parentage whose real name is Zayn al-Abideen Mohammed al-Hussein, is due to appear in front of a military commission at the Guantanamo Bay base on Thursday afternoon US time to testify in the September 11 case about a very narrow topic: Whether he can vouch for claims by an accused 9/11 plotter, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, that somebody is causing noises and vibrations in Guantanamo's most clandestine prison, Camp 7.

The two men are held there with 12 other former CIA "Black Site" captives.
A month has passed since wildfires devastated Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, burning down entire suburbs and forcing the city's population of 90,000 to flee. The world's attention has largely moved on, and most of those who fled won't be able to return to their homes, if they still have one, for months. Parts of the charred city are covered in toxic ash.

To top it off, the blaze is still as ferocious as ever, covering 1.43 million acres (3600 square km) of forest south of Fort McMurray.

That's where 300 South African firefighters come in. They were flown 15200 km miles from home by the Canadians, who needed extra help to battle the monstrous fires. The group is part of Working on Fire, a South African government-funded program that trains unemployed youth to become firefighters. For many of them, the prospect of earning C$1500 ($2000) a month held the promise of transforming their lives.

A smaller contingent came last year, and each was paid about that much in daily allowances and expenses, according to Llewellyn Pillay, managing director of Working on Fire. That's 10 times what the firefighters earn in South Africa.
Hollywood tough guy Arnold Schwarzenegger has been chased by an elephant while on safari in South Africa.

The former Californian governor filmed the terrifying encounter before posting it to social media on Wednesday.

The footage shows the elephant initially approach the four-wheel-drive Schwarzenegger was in before bypassing the vehicle.

The driver and guide is heard on the footage explaining what normally occurs when elephants approach.
Pangolin in Asia are now classified "critically endangered" or "endangered". But the pressure is shifting to the two species of African pangolin, now considered "vulnerable". This week, a Chinese oil worker in South Sudan was arrested after a sniffer dog at the Juba airport detected 10 kilograms of frozen pangolin meat in his luggage. In an example of lax controls helping the illegal trade, the man was given a warning and released, still carrying his contraband. Authorities have seized an estimated 107,000 of the creatures in the six years  indicating a huge and thriving illegal market. More than 90 per cent of all seizures of pangolins were bound for China or Vietnam. "Massacre in the rainforest"

When household spending in China goes up, so does the number of elephants lost to poaching, according to statistical analysis by CITES  the organisation founded by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species. It examined Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, but only the Chinese market was "strongly related" to elephant poaching. Tens of thousands of elephants are estimated to be illegally killed every year for ivory tusks and China is the largest market. Master craftsmen use it to make large ornate carvings or jewellery, buttons, bangles and chopsticks. China's President Xi Jinping has pledged to abolish the ivory trade in China, but products remain highly sought after as a gift, conveying status to the recipient and presenter alike. Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta claims the elephant loss in his country is 70 per cent in the last decade, branding the rising value of ivory trade "a massacre in the rainforest of Africa".

According to the UN report, more than 73 metric tons of ivory was seized in China in the five years to 2014  another 50 tons in Malaysia, and 35 tons in Vietnam, both key transit countries. To put the size of this haul in perspective, the average elephant tusk weighs about 5.5 kilograms. But even this may underestimate the problem: the report also warns most of the illegal trade escapes detection. "Demand and supply" If elephant ivory is out of reach, "red ivory" is the knock-off version. Red ivory, or golden ivory, is taken from the helmeted hornbill, a large wild bird killed by the thousands for their unique "casques" - a solid lump of fibrous keratin spanning from beak to the skull. Casques can be carved much like ivory, and at times, may fetch an even higher price.

Hornbill casques seized in Indonesia. Credit:Getty Images These birds are mostly found in Indonesia and Malaysia, but have long been sought after in China. A single casque can be worth as much as US$1000, and a recent BBC report estimated more than 6000 are killed each year. Like any product when the supply is restricted, possession offers cachet  the power that comes with special connections. Meanwhile the helmeted hornbill is listed as "critically endangered". "Every part of a tiger has a market" Big cats are highly prized  both in traditional medicine and to consume as a symbol of power and virility.

A tonic known as tiger bone wine can be as simple as a tiger bone left to soak in rice wine for a couple of months, or brewed by a complex recipe. The drink has become an elite indulgence in China. The shocking discovery of a freezer stuffed with 40 tiger cubs at a Thai temple this week has provoked outrage. The Buddhist monks at the temple have been accused of illegally breeding and trafficking the animals and their parts. The carcasses of 40 tiger cubs found undeclared are displayed at Tiger Temple on Wednesday. Credit:Getty Images Tigers have suffered a 95 per cent decline in Asia in the last 100 years. But despite some conservation success, for example persuading Tibetan religious leader to appeal against the use of big cat skins in traditional costumes, almost every part of a tiger has a market. The UN reported seizures of tiger claws, fat, genitals, hair, heads, oil, teeth, whiskers, and more.

"Lost in the coral triangle" Sea turtles' long migration from the beach in search of food makes it extremely difficult to monitor the size of various turtle populations  and makes them vulnerable as a by-catch for deep sea fishing vessels. "There could be turtles coming to lay in Australia that instead get stuffed and mounted on a wall in Asia," says Elizabeth McLellan, head of the Wildlife Crime Initiative at the World Wildlfe Fund. The international trade in sea turtles has been prohibited since the 1980s, but the illegal trade persists, mostly for ornaments  whole stuffed turtles, whole polished shells, and shell products. The price isn't high, up to US$600 for a whole shell  not enough for commercial farming, but worth poaching. The UN report warns of poaching is "most problematic" in what is known as the Coral Triangle, waters around Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. "Multiple seizures have involved Chinese and Vietnamese nationals," the report states.

"A dying business" For a long time, it was more profitable for a fisherman to slice the fins from a shark and cast the still living fish overboard, saving room in the hold. All to put a $100 bowl of shark fin soup on a restaurant table. "A decades-long upward trend in the shark fin trade was driven by economic growth and the expansion of the Chinese middle class," observed a report in February into the global preservation of sharks. The trade included endangered sawfishes, guitarfishes, and wedgefishes. But the report also included a crucial caveat - the shark fin market is declining, one of the rare good news stories. Demand in Hong Kong has dropped especially, and another recent report quoted traders in the southern province Guangzhou complaining "shark fin is a dying business" after activists mounted a long campaign against the practice.

It's not all good news, though: the global trade in shark and ray meat from other parts of the creatures is "on the rise," said the February report. "A majesty lost" Rhino horn, ground down and added like spice to water to drink, is seen as a ostentatious pick-me-up in Asia's nightclub scene, especially in Vietnam. No, the horn is not seen as an aphrodisiac, at least not typically. More like a hangover cure. Or even a miracle cancer treatment, lessening the effects of chemotherapy. Rarity drives demand. Rhino commands a price higher than diamonds, more than $60,000 per kilogram, according to a recent estimate.

"In China, research suggests that while traditional medicine is still one of the main uses - as a fever suppressant or to detoxify the body," says Katherine Johnston from Save the Rhino International in London. But the demand is growing from rhino as a conspicuous display of wealth. "The horn may be displayed whole, or ground and consumed as a social activity, particularly in a business environment," says Johnston. The rhino population was relatively stable in the 1990s and early 2000s but the current poaching crisis drives the rhino ever closer to extinction. Ten years ago only 60 of Africa's majestic rhinos fell to poachers guns in 2006 - but by last year the number had soared to 1338, the highest recorded.
"Immediately we were highly suspicious," Beck told the Los Angeles Times. "That made me uneasy about what we would find when we got to Minnesota." A SWAT officer searches a student who was evacuated from the UCLA campus on the day of the fatal shooting. Credit:AP The LAPD worked with the FBI and Minnesota authorities and served a search warrant at Sarkar's home, Beck said. Inside, they found extra ammunition and a box for one of two pistols found at UCLA, as well as the "kill list" with the three names, the chief said. Authorities went to the woman's home in Brooklyn Park, a Minneapolis suburb, and found her body just after midnight Thursday, police said. Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck comments on the investigation into a murder-suicide on the UCLA campus. Credit:AP

It appeared she had been dead of a gunshot wound for "maybe a couple of days," Beck said. Beck declined to name the woman but said Sarkar was suspected in her death. Victim Bill Klug, a professor of mechanical engineering. Credit:AP "We would physically arrest him were he still alive," the chief said. Sarkar drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles, according to Beck, but it was unclear how long he was in LA before Wednesday's shooting. Detectives don't think it was "more than a couple of days", the chief said.

On Wednesday, Sarkar carried a backpack, two semi-automatic pistols and extra magazines to Klug's fourth-floor office, where he fatally shot the professor before turning the gun on himself, Beck said. Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Sarkar had accused him of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, according to police. A source called the gunman's accusations "absolutely untrue." Klug had been the target of Sarkar's anger on social media for months. On March 10, Sarkar called the professor a "very sick person" who could not be trusted. "William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor," Sarkar wrote. "He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy," Sarkar wrote.

"He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust." Klug, who was described by friends as a kind and caring man, worked diligently to help Sarkar finish his dissertation and graduate, even though the quality of Sarkar's work was not stellar, one source said. "Bill was extremely generous to this student, who was a subpar student," the person said. In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar expressed gratitude to Klug for his help and support. A syllabus from 2010 lists Sarkar as one of two teaching assistants in a mechanical and aerospace engineering course, MAE: 101: Statics and Strength of Materials. Sarkar was listed in the 2014 doctoral commencement booklet with Klug as his adviser. It is not immediately clear, Beck said, whether Sarkar tried to find the other professor on his list. The second professor, whom Beck did not name, was not on campus at the time of the shooting. Police have been in contact with that person, who "is fine", the chief said.

Investigators are trying to determine Sarkar's actions in recent days, particularly his drive from Minnesota, Beck said. Police are searching for Sarkar's car, a 2003 grey Nissan Sentra, with Minnesota licence plate 720KTW. Beck said police don't expect the vehicle to be "any significant danger", but officials have asked anyone who sees it to call police. Before enrolling at UCLA, Sarkar earned a master's degree at Stanford University following an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, according to his LinkedIn page. In the US, he also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer. After UCLA, Sarkar worked remotely as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company, Endurica.

Will Mars, the company's president, confirmed to the Times that Sarkar worked for Endurica until August 2014. He declined to provide more details. On Wednesday, thousands of students and UCLA staff members found themselves racing to barricade classroom doors with desks, projectors and anything else they could find after mobile phones buzzed across campus with alerts of a possible shooting. By 12.05pm, police confirmed that two men had been killed in an engineering building. The campus was declared safe, and UCLA officials lifted a lockdown that had cancelled classes for the day. TNS
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Acura NSX Plant

Washington DC The AIADA newsletter reported that it's easy to miss the big picture when it comes to the 2017 Acura NSX and the small plant where it is built in the rolling hills of Central Ohio, reports The Detroit Free Press.

Acura executives are quick to say that the low-slung, 2017 Acura NSX with all of its curvy, seductive lines is the "pinnacle expression for this brand."

Honda is building its new super car in a 206,000-square-foot plant that is designed to be a cauldron of new, high-tech manufacturing processes that Honda can learn from and, in some cases, adapt at other plants around the world. The plant, which Acura calls its Performance Manufacturing Center, along with the nearby Honda Heritage Center, also is designed to be a showpiece for customers and tourists.

"When our team got together, we brainstormed what we wanted this plant to be. The way we looked at this whole project is based on Formula 1 racing," said Clement D'Souza, who led the creation of the innovative plant. If it all goes as planned, the 2017 Acura NSX and the plant will evolve into the crown jewel of Honda's North American manufacturing presence and will become the envy of other automakers who lack similar gleaming showpieces.

Read about Honda's plans for its NSX plant in Ohio
HEELS ON WHEELS: 2016 Lexus RC 200t Review +VIDEO

HEELS ON WHEELS REVIEW

By Katrina Ramser

San Francisco Bureau

The Auto Channel

INTRO TO THE LEXUS RC 200t VEHICLE

The Lexus RC is a luxury coupe defined by more aggressive looks and versatile performance: choose a turbocharged 241-horsepower 2-liter four-cylinder engine; a 3.5-liter V6 with 255 horsepower and all-wheel drive; or a second 3.5-liter that can output 306 horsepower and 277 pound-feet of torque. And in typical Lexus fashion, the RC skillfully blends refinement and technology into one.

I drove a 2016 Lexus RC 200t with the turbocharged 2-liter four-cylinder delivering 241 horsepower paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission with Variable Valve Timing (VVT-i). Available in one model (with or without optional packages and features including the popular F SPORT) standard equipment for the RC lineup includes: ten-way power drivers seat and eight-way passenger; leatherette upholstery; steering wheel mounted paddle shifters; eighteen-inch wheels; Lexus Enform Safety Connect; seven-inch display; ten-speaker audio system; Lexus Premium Display Audio System; Bluetooth; Driver Mode Select; and touch-based climate controls. Pricing as described without options or packages is $39,995.

Although not as racy in appearance, there is also a Lexus IS 200t (or IS lineup) to consider in put some zest back in your driving life. Main competitors include the Audi A4 2.0T and the Mercedes-Benz C350.

HEELS ON WHEELS REVIEW CRITERIA

Stylish But Comfortable Results: High-quality interior materials make an immediate statement, along with smartly laid out seats (there is just seating for four in the RC). You want a feeling of both firmness and comfort in a coupe  youll melt right in. There are a few add-ons or changes in standards depending upon the engine you opt for, such as heated seats only for all-wheel drive vehicles. Touch-sensitive electrostatic temperature switches are a classy addition to the tech-heavy center console. In terms of extra packages, I recommend the F SPORT which adds must-have items like a unique front bumper, LED headlights, and a special wheel design, among other features. They must call these vehicle entry-level luxury cars, because although attractive at the base level, youll want to attach the many options  from a $1,000 moonroof to a $2,610 premium navigation and Mark Levinson audio package  to build out something spectacular.

Reliability & Safety Factor: The 2016 Lexus RC 200t has ratings of Good in all areas with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and is a Top Safety Pick. The model year has not been tested by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Standard safety equipment includes: ten airbags, Vehicle Dynamics Integrated Management system; Anti-Lock Brakes, Electronic Brake-force Distribution, Traction Control and Vehicle Stability Control. Lexus Enform Safety Connect is also standard and incorporates automatic collision notification, a stolen-vehicle locator, an emergency-assist button and roadside assistance. In regards to ease of use with child seats, it rates Marginal with the IIHS and it was almost impossible for my five-year old to buckle her own belt.

Cost Issues: The Lexus RC 200t starts at $39,995 with the RC 300 F SPORT reaching $46,310. The Lexus IS series pricing is a touch lower at a base price of $37,325 for the 200t to $44,025 for the IS 350 F SPORT.

Activity & Performance Ability: Keep in mind there is some order to the engine configurations: the eight-speed transmission is standard on rear-wheel drive models and the six-speed is used for those with all-wheel drive  and the eight-speed delivers that sought-after smoothness. I found the 2-liter turbocharged engine to have an appropriate quick response and nimbleness; any 3.5-liter V6 from the RC or IS lineup can certainly deliver more guts and attitude. Outfitted in the F SPORT package, Lexus can mirror what an Audi and Mercedes deliver in terms of a race-inspired experience  these options are a must have and my main recommendation for going with the brand.

The Green Concern: A nice addition to the vehicle are the ECO, Sport and Normal drive modes, with ECO controlling the throttle more to conserve fuel for an overall fuel economy of 22-city and 32-highway for a combined 26 miles-per-gallon.

FINAL PARTING WORDS

But German engineering in the backseat and get behind the wheel of the 2016 Lexus RC that represents affordable luxury with all the details. The F SPORT package is a serious draw as it heightens suspension performance and the overall look of the vehicle.

2016 Katrina Ramser Parrish

The Most In-Depth Lexus Vehicle Shopper's Research - Anywhere!
New 2015+ ROUSH F-150 Power Packs Boost Performance, Enhance Drivability







PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, MICH. May 26, 2016; An increase in horsepower and torque is within reach for 2015-16 Ford F-150 owners, thanks to six new Level 1 and Level 2 Power Packs from ROUSH Performance.

Ford F-150 owners can now crank up the power with ROUSH Performance Level 1 and Level 2 Power Packs, which are vigorously designed, engineered, manufactured, and tested for high-performance reliability and drivability, said Justin Schroeder, vice president of products and strategy.

ROUSH engineers extensive OEM calibration experience ensures that the calibration included in ROUSH Power Packs offers strong performance without sacrificing drivability. Hundreds of hours spent in the lab and on the dyno, testing and validating, set these Power Pack calibrations apart from guesswork tuning.

In addition to more horsepower and torque, improved throttle mapping enhances drivability all through the power band.

ROUSH Power Pack calibrations are programmed easily into the factory engine control unit via industry standard J2534 re-flash interfaces with a free Roush Diagnostic Tool utility.

Authorized ROUSH Performance dealerships can complete the calibration upgrade in under an hour.

In addition to the ROUSH Diagnostic Tool flash software, each Level 1 and Level 2 Power Pack includes a cold air intake kit. ROUSH Performance cold air intake kits are the most highly engineered in the industry, designed and tooled in computer-aided design (CAD) to maximize available under-hood space. Each kit is injection-molded from premium automotive-grade materials for durability, and features a high-flow, high-capacity, washable, and reusable performance air filter that does not require oiling. With a lower intake restriction over stock, drivers will never need to upgrade, regardless of planned future modifications.

Level 2 Power Packs build on the previous package to supply even greater torque and horsepower, with the addition of a cat-back exhaust system. Constructed entirely from stainless steel three-inch tubing, the system features ROUSH resonators designed to intensify sound characteristics while minimizing harshness, and is finished off by dual chrome-flashed tips.

Approximate Power Gains*



2015+ 3.5L V6 F-150:



Level 1 Power Pack: 18 horsepower and 18 lb-ft of torque

Level 2 Power Pack: 18 horsepower and 18 lb-ft of torque

2015+ 3.5L EcoBoost F-150:



Level 1 Power Pack: 57 horsepower and 51 lb-ft of torque

Level 2 Power Pack: 68 horsepower and 61 lb-ft of torque

2015+ 5.0L V8 F-150:



Level 1 Power Pack: 16 horsepower and 19 lb-ft of torque

Level 2 Power Pack: 32 horsepower and 28 lb-ft of torque

An optional three-year/36,000-mile limited powertrain warranty is available for each Power Pack.

About ROUSH Performance: ROUSH Performance, a division of Roush Enterprises, designs, engineers and manufactures completely assembled pre-titled vehicles, aftermarket performance parts, performance crate engines, and marine engine superchargers for the global performance enthusiast market. Based in Plymouth Township, Michigan, ROUSH Performance was founded in 1995 by motorsports legend Jack Roush. Visit us at ROUSHperformance.com

*Power gains are based on the use of 91-octane fuel. These packages are compatible with lower octane with reduced power gains.
Roush Brand Celebrates 40th Anniversary at Worlds Largest All-Ford Event







Plymouth Township, Mich. May 31, 2016 ROUSH Performance will kick off the 40th anniversary of the Roush brand at the Carlisle Ford Nationals event June 3 - 5, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. For the first time, ROUSH will be featured in the events Building T with a special display of six ROUSH vehicles from the famed Roush Automotive Collection Museum, coordinated in partnership with ROUSH Road Crew members.

With almost 3,000 vehicles on site, Carlisle Ford Nationals is the place for Ford enthusiasts to see some of the most exciting vehicles ever produced, said Mike Rey, ROUSH Performance marketing manager. Well be displaying six vehicles that will show the range of ROUSHs capabilities from the 1970s into the present. Its the perfect venue to celebrate our 40th anniversary with Fords biggest fans.

Well be displaying six vehicles that will show the range of ROUSHs capabilities from the 1970s into the present. Its the perfect venue to celebrate our 40th anniversary with Fords biggest fans.

Super Stock. Purchased by Jack Roush in 1971, this vehicle showcases Gapp & Roushs parts and tuning business.

1994 ROUSH Performance Mustang Prototype 1. Roush Industries prepared this Mustang to demonstrate the companys capabilities to Ford Special Vehicle Operations. Modifications include a 5.8L V8, stiffened suspension and custom cowl induction hood.

2005 Roush Propane-Powered Mustang. A three-time NMRA Modular Muscle champion, Donnie Bowles Mustang features a propane autogas-fueled 5.4L V8, bored and stroked to 324 cubic inches of displacement, making over 750HP.

2008 ROUSH Performance P-51A. This very limited edition Mustang, owned by Jack Roush, features a three-valve 4.6L Roush V8 producing 510HP and 510 lb-ft. of torque and exterior paint that mimics its World War II fighter namesake.

2010 Roush Drag Team Propane-Powered Mustang. This vehicle, driven by three-time champion Susan Roush McClenaghan in NMRAs Modular Muscle, runs on propane autogas and produces 890 horsepower from a 5.0L Coyote block, bored and stroked to 311 cubic inches of displacement.

2015 Chris Buescher Xfinity Series Race Car. Driving for Roush Fenway Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Buescher drove ROUSH Performance-sponsored Mustangs en route to the 2015 Xfinity Series Championship.

ROUSH Performance will also be well represented in the Manufacturers Midway, completing performance part installations for many of the thousands of Ford enthusiast attendees.

On display in the Manufacturers Midway will be a 2016 ROUSH F-150 SC pickup, equipped with a fully integrated and calibrated ROUSH F-150 5.0L V8 Phase 1 Supercharger Kit. The ROUSH TVS 2300 supercharger boosts the pickups power to an incredible 600 horsepower and 557 lb-ft of torque. Also on display will be a 2016 ROUSH Stage 3 Mustang, capable of 670 horsepower with a ROUSHcharged Coyote 5.0L V8 engine. This pony has more horsepower-per-liter than any other American muscle car, while maintaining an unrivaled level of drivability.

About ROUSH Performance: ROUSH Performance, a division of Roush Enterprises, designs, engineers and manufactures completely assembled pre-titled vehicles, aftermarket performance parts, performance crate engines, and marine engine superchargers for the global performance enthusiast market. Based in Plymouth Township, Michigan, ROUSH Performance was founded in 1995 by motorsports legend Jack Roush.
CONCORD, Calif., June 2, 2016 -- GoMentum Station, in coordination with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) and its partners Honda and the City of Concord, showcased Honda's automated vehicle testing program at GoMentum Station, the largest secure Connected Vehicle (CV) and Autonomous Vehicle (AV) proving grounds in the U.S.

GoMentum Station features 20 miles of paved roadway on a 5,000-acre site located in the decommissioned zone of the Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS). The site contains paved, city-like roadway grids, buildings, and other urban infrastructure, providing a realistic environment to accelerate Honda's development of automated and connected vehicle technologies. There, GoMentum Station and its partners will incubate a new generation of technology that has the potential to revolutionize transportation infrastructure.

"The Contra Costa Transportation Authority and GoMentum Station are committed to supporting innovative research that will influence transportation and enhance safety for all road users," said Randy Iwasaki, Executive Director, CCTA. "Our partners are developing autonomous and connected vehicle technology that will help accelerate the next generation of transportation infrastructure and make the future of driving safer around the world."

Honda Advanced Technology and Safety Leadership

In pursuit of a collision-free society, Honda is broadly deploying advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), which represent a technological bridge to automated driving technology, across the Honda and Acura line-ups. The majority of Honda core models available today, including some of the industry's most popular models such as the Civic, CR-V, Accord and Pilot, can be equipped with Honda Sensing. Every Acura model is available with the AcuraWatch suite of safety and driver-assistive technologies.

The automaker's second-generation automated development vehicle was also featured at the GoMentum Station a modified version of the Acura RLX Sport Hybrid SH-AWD luxury performance sedan that has been fitted with a new suite of radar, Lidar, camera and GPS sensors, complemented by higher performance CPUs and GPUs, and improved cabling, heat management and circuitry.

Honda intends to put automated driving technologies into practical use on highways around 2020, supported by inter-connected research efforts in Japan, Europe and the U.S. Honda's research at GoMentum Station is spearheaded by Honda Research Institute USA.

"Automated vehicles have the potential to significantly improve safety and expand access to mobility," said Jim Keller, senior manager and chief engineer, Honda R&D Americas. "We believe that safe and secure sites like GoMentum provide a unique opportunity to accelerate technology development and the advent of a cooperative car society."

"The City of Concord is looking forward to tracking the evolution of the new technology being developed by Honda at the GoMentum Station," stated Laura Hoffmeister, Mayor of the City of Concord. "It's exciting to be the host city for GoMentum Station, and to know that our roads will be safer in the future thanks to the work being done there."

Saving the Spectrum for Auto Safety

The demonstration of connected and autonomous vehicles at GoMentum highlights the need for federal action to preserve the 5.9 GHz radio spectrum for the use of Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC), a wireless technology optimized for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) safety applications. The use of DSRC can help address up to 80% of non-alcohol-related vehicle collisions according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

"DSRC-enabled vehicles can make the nation's roads safer for all users, including pedestrians," said Edward Cohen, vice president, Government and Industry Affairs, Honda North America. "To accomplish the goal of enhancing road user safety, we need the support of policymakers to preserve 5.9 GHz radio spectrum."

"Spectrum is a prized resource - and there is no better use of the portion dedicated to Intelligent Transportation Systems than to save lives on our nation's highways," said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Association of Global Automakers. "We need to ensure that public policy encourages the significant societal benefits that come with connected and automated vehicle technologies."

About GoMentum Station

GoMentum Station in Concord, California is where the Contra Costa Transportation Authority leads and facilitates a collaborative partnership among multiple automobile manufacturers; original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers; communications suppliers; technology companies; researchers and academia; public agencies and other partners. At GoMentum Station, technology, innovation and commercialization will converge to define the next generation of transportation network infrastructure. More information about GoMentum Station is available at gomentumstation.net.

About Honda Research Institute USA

Honda Research Institute USA (HRI-US) conducts research in the areas of computer and materials science, and develops strategic partnerships with public and private institutions to foster innovation. HRI-US was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Silicon Valley. Learn more at honda-ri.com/HRI_Us/.

About City of Concord

Concord, California is located 29 miles east of San Francisco, adjacent to beautiful Mt. Diablo. The city covers 31.13 square miles. With a 2010 census count of 122,067 residents, it is the largest city in Contra Costa County. For more information about the City of Concord, or the redevelopment of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, please contact Leslye Asera at 925.671.3272 or Leslye.Asera@cityofconcord.org.

About The Contra Costa Transportation Authority

The Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) is a public agency formed by Contra Costa voters in 1988 to manage the county's transportation sales tax program and oversee countywide transportation planning efforts. CCTA is responsible for planning, funding and delivering critical transportation infrastructure projects and programs that connect our communities, foster a strong economy, increase sustainability, and safely and efficiently get people where they need to go. CCTA also serves as the county's designated Congestion Management Agency, responsible for putting programs in place to keep traffic levels manageable. More information about CCTA is available at ccta.net.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 2, 2016 -- For the summer traveler looking for something slightly off the beach path, The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery has premium craft beer and pure outdoor enjoyment that belongs on your summer bucket list. This North Carolina craft brewery, located just south of downtown Charlotte (LoSo District), specializes in brewing authentic, refreshing German-style beers. OMB takes the world famous German beer purity law very seriously. Known as the "Reinheitsgebot", it says that beer should be made using only water, malt, hops and yeast. It's not only what guides OMB, but also cause for a weekend celebration.

July 22-24 The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery pays homage to the Reinheitsgebot and invites all to eat and drink in their authentic Biergarten setting for this three-day fest. Mecklenburger Lager (a Munich-style Helles beer) which took a short sabbatical makes a special return to usher in the celebration.

"This is a time we celebrate the purity law that forms the foundation of our brewing philosophy," said John Marrino, owner of OMB, "and we join with brewers and others around the world on the same weekend to mark the anniversary of this 500-year tradition."

Beer enthusiasts who find they can't make a mid-July commitment to visit shouldn't cry in their craft brew. OMB's indoor/outdoor space has a festive vibe anytime, making this the perfect summer spot for day-trippers and weekend travelers alike. Free tours are offered on weekends at 2, 3 and 4 o'clock.

About The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery

Founded in 2009 in Charlotte, NC, The Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is a privately held brewery founded on the basis of delivering fresh, local beer and adhering to Germany's oldest beer purity guidelines, known as the "Reinheitsgebot." Four beers are available year-round and at least 8 others make seasonal and holiday appearances -- always delivered in refrigerated trucks to preserve freshness and meet the demands of ultra-premium beer consumers. OMB is one of only nine craft breweries included on the Inc. 5000 list, and the only one in North Carolina. The brewery has received numerous regional medals plus international medals in North America and Europe. OMB was also named best brewery tour in the country by readers of USA Today, and receives many accolades for its multi-acre Munich-inspired Biergarten, which seats 1,000. For more information, visit oldemeckbrew.com or @oldemeckbrew on social media.
PRI 2016 Attendee Registration & Housing Opens

With the Indiana Convention Center floor plan already jam-packed with exhibitors, attending buyers are advised to consider applying for credentials and securing hotel accommodations early for the 29th Annual Performance Racing Industry Trade Show.

Indianapolis IN June 2, 2016; Attendee registration and housing are now open for the 2016 Performance Racing Industry Trade Show. Buyers can apply for credentials at www.pri2016.com/attendeereg. Attendees also will be instructed to make their hotel room reservations as part of the credential registration process; or they can go directly to the online Performance Racing Industry Trade Show housing web page at www.pri2016.com/hotels.

A unique email address is required for each registered attendee (PRI does not make these emails available to any other organization). PRI 2016 is a trade-only event, and qualified registrants will first receive an official confirmation by email. Then, several weeks before the Show, credentials will arrive by mail, allowing buyers to bypass long lines at the registration desk on site at the Convention Center.

The PRI Trade Show experienced record attendance last year, and were already hearing about how much members of the racing industry are looking forward to PRI 2016, said John Kilroy, producer of the PRI Trade Show. We urge everyone to avoid waiting in line at the Show by registering in advance. It only takes a few minutes, and its a great convenience to depart for Indianapolis with credentials in your briefcase.

Also, attendees and exhibitors take over virtually all of downtown Indianapolis, so its always wise to secure hotel accommodations as early as possible, continued Kilroy. Were gearing up for another blockbuster racing industry event!

Kilroy said attending buyers can check the online PRI 2016 floor plan at www.pri2016.com/floorplan to review exhibitors participating in this years PRI Trade Show. The Show started with 1165 exhibitors on the initial floor plan; that number will surpass 1200 companies by the time the Show opens.

PRI 2016 will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 810, 2016. The Show is the centerpiece event of Race Industry Week 2016, which actually kicks off with events as early as Monday, December 5. Altogether, over 35 conferences, seminars and social events will be held the week of PRI 2016.

Its the racing industrys three biggest business days of the year, said Kilroy. Come to Indy and see all of the hottest new racing products for the next racing season. Stay all three days of the Show. If youre in the business of racing, you cant miss it!

For more information, visit www.pri2016.com.
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North Korea has all but endorsed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and prescient presidential candidate, Han Yong Muk, labeled a China-based Korean scholar, wrote Tuesday in DPRK Today, a state media outlet.

After calling Trumps presumptive opponent thick-headed Hillary, Han told American voters to cast their ballots for the real estate tycoon and former reality TV star.

The compliments are all the more remarkable in light of Trumps advocacy of the assassination of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader and, in the Donalds words, a bad dude.

Bad dude or not, Kim has thrown his considerable weight behind Trump, as has another authoritarian superstar, Chinas Xi Jinping. Over the last several months, there has been what looks like a concerted Chinese campaign to elect the Republican. Trump could in fact be the best president for China, said Wu Jun, a commentator on Phoenix Television, at the end of April. Phoenix is a private station in Hong Kong that serves as a front for Beijing.

It was not long ago that Chinese state media was firing warnings in Trumps direction. In February, after the Nevada caucus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the relevant candidateTrumpto behave in a responsible manner.

Trump, famously, has created his presidential brand by attacking Beijing, suggesting for instance a 45% tariff on goods from China. And from time to time his language has been incendiary. At the beginning of last month, for instance, he said We cant continue to allow China to rape our country, and thats what theyre doing.

So why have the political establishments in Pyongyang and Beijing decided to support the GOP candidate?

In the case of North Korea, the answer is clear. On March 29, the candidate expressed willingness to walk away from a decades-old alliance in East Asia. We are better off frankly if South Korea is going to start protecting itself, Trump told CNNs Anderson Cooper. They have to protect themselves or they have to pay us.

For decades, North Korea, trying to unify Korea under Kim-family rule, has tried to break the relationship between Washington and Seoul. Tens of thousands of American military personnel stationed on the peninsulaand many more elsewherehave defended the South Korean state every minute of every day, preventing an invasion like the one that started the Korean War in June 1950.

Even when South Korea was led by the left-leaning governments of Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo-hyun, in the nineties and the first decade of this century, Pyongyang was unsuccessful in splitting Seoul from Washington. And during the current conservative administration of Park Geun-hye and that of her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, the alliance has looked indestructible.

Pyongyang heard Trumps comments to CNN and perceived an historic opportunity to take over, by intimidation or force, the southern half of the peninsula. Han Yong Muk specifically praised Trump for threatening to remove U.S. troops from Korean soil.

For China, the calculus appears to be much the same. Trump, in the Anderson Cooper interview, also suggested America consider ditching Japan, often called Americas cornerstone ally in Asia. Japan is better if it protects itself against this maniac of North Korea, he told the CNN anchor.

If Tokyo is left alone to protect itself against North Korea, then it will also be alone against China, which is currently using forceful tactics to pry away the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Moreover, the Chinese have designs on the Ryukyu chain, which includes the strategically critical island of Okinawa.

Not surprisingly, the Chinese are getting excited. He Liangliang, a Phoenix Television anchor, on air at the beginning of last month said It looks like Trump is Gods tool to end American imperialism.

But while Beijing often calls Americas presence imperialistic or hegemonic, the countries on Chinas peripheryand many farther afieldwant U.S. forces to stay to guarantee the peace and stability that has allowed them and the rest of the world to prosper since the end of the Second World War.

History is often marked by stretches of decades, and sometimes centuries, of relative calm, interrupted by truly horrendous events. President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remembered the end of the worlds last great tragedy with their solemn remarks in Hiroshima on Friday. That global conflict began with grabs of territory by aggressors who believed the Western democracies would not stand firm.

Trump, with his desire to end treaty alliances and withdraw from Asia, can start a chain of events leading to the next horrific period as new sets of ambitious leaders see opportunities to take reefs, shoals, islands, and land of their neighbors, unopposed by America.

No wonder Asian tyrants are endorsing Trump.
ROME  Karl Marx once said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Never is that more true than the case of three aging radical left-wing German terrorists who have been leaving tracks at the scenes of recent crimes after retiring nearly 20 years ago. But like many people who slow down as their birthday candle count goes up, these once crafty criminals are clearly showing their age, bungling heists and leaving their DNA behind.

They werent always so inept. Ernst-Volker Staub, 61, Daniela Klette, 57, and Burkhard Garweg, 47, were once part of Germanys deadly Red Army Faction or RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, who were responsible for around 30 murders of German capitalists and American military officials during a reign of home-grown terror that lasted from the 70s until 1998, when the group officially disbanded.

In its heyday, the gang was infamous for intricate plots that kept law enforcement officials on their toes and made ordinary Germans feel vulnerable. No one knew when they would strike nextor how. There was the time, in 1977, when a woman pushing a baby buggy seemed to accidentally step onto the street in front of a chauffeur-driven car in Cologne, causing the driver to screech to a halt. The woman then pulled two semi-automatic weapons out from under the baby blankets and killed the driver and bodyguards while her associates commandeered the car and, with it, took Hanns Martin Schleyer, a noted industrialist, hostage. He was found dead a month later in the trunk of the car.

The group formed as a revenge protest movement after German police killed an activist at a rally against the Shah of Iran who was on a state visit to Berlin. According to the BBC rap sheet on the group, Andreas Baader, one of the groups founders, vowed revenge for the death of the young activist by detonating bombs in department stores in Frankfurt. The mastermind was caught but escaped during a prison visit to a local library after Ulrike Meinhof, his close female friend and left-wing journalist, orchestrated a plan for his escape.

The two then led a group of followers to Jordan, where they were trained in weaponry and guerrilla warfare by members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, according to numerous court documents and historical records associated with their violent history. They returned to Germany and started a campaign of bombing and kidnapping, which was financially supported by swift robberies. Both Baader and Meinhof were eventually captured and took their own lives in their prison cells, but the RAF lived on and enjoyed the support of around 25 percent of young Germans during the height of its dubious glory in the 70s and 80s.

Once the darlings of German wanted posters and news stories, the group then simply disappeared, announcing its end. Today we are ending this project. The urban guerrilla group in the form of the RAF is now history, they wrote in a statement to various press outlets in 1998. We are stuck in a dead end.

Several of the group members have since finished their prison terms, and no one in Germany has given much thought to the group until last June, when three of the terrorists came out of retirement with a hapless attempt to get up to their old tricks. Dressed in somewhat dated camouflage garb, according to witnesses and surveillance footage, the three staked out an armored security van in the parking lot of a supermarket in Bremen, Germany. They approached the van carrying assault rifles and a rocket launcher after blocking it with their Volkswagen van. They fired on the van, but their out-of-date munitions were no match for the updated reinforcement armor on the vehicle. The officers inside were unable to use their cellphones to call for help because of jamming devices, but since the gang members couldnt get into the vehicle, they gave up and escaped in a beat up Ford Focus, which they later abandoned, apparently failing to realize that their DNA could still be collected in the absence of fingerprints.

A similar incident happened in December, again in a supermarket car park in a small German town. Again the trio failed to penetrate the armored vehicle, and they once again left DNA in their abandoned getaway car.

Now German authorities are offering a 200,000 ($220,000) reward for the threesome who have been reduced to quick-hit grocery store heists. They have stolen sums of 380,000 ($420,000) and 70,000 ($78,000) in two separate incidents, again leaving sloppy traces that tie them to the crimes.

German officials say the Baader-Meinhof alumni are likely stooping to grocery store hold-ups to pay for their retirement. Klaus Ziehe, a spokesman for the German prosecution investigating the ties that link the former RAF thugs together, said that there is no other explanation.

They have lived undercover for a long time, supported by sympathizers who are now all dead or having their own economic problems, Ziehe told reporters in Germany. These are obviously desperate times for them and they have to do something to make ends meet.

If caught, the trio face life sentences for crimes tied to ancient RAF activity, which would certainly take care of any concerns about retirement costs.
Conservative activist, plastic Christmas tree salesman and convicted felon Dinesh DSouza is peddling a new movie, this time about Hillary Clinton, and by the looks of the preview he aired on Fox News Tuesday night, it will be every bit as factual and fair as his previous work.

Who are these Democrats? DSouza asks in the trailer for Hillarys America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, which is set to open in theaters in July. When he says Democrats, he sounds like Donald Trump trying to pronounce the word muchachohis voice is at once a mixture of total unfamiliarity and full-throated contempt.

Fox News host Megyn Kelly, by the way, introduced DSouza as someone known for his documentaries.

DSouza then suggests, as he has many times before, that he went to jail not because he pleaded guilty to the felony of making an illegal campaign contribution in a name other than his own (which he did), but because the Obama administration wanted to shut me up.

What did I learn? DSouza asks, as if its a question on the minds of many. He then answers himself. All crime is about stealing, he says.

At this moment in the trailer, DSouza is, inexplicably, speaking over moodily-lit footage of a man in a velour tracksuit and large gold watch drinking a beer.

The big criminals are still at large, DSouza warns. In the event that youre wondering who on earth he might be referring to, DSouza answers with all the subtlety in the world when a clip of Hillary Clinton appears onscreen.

The system doesnt go after them, he says, because they run the system. Its time to go behind the curtain and discover the soul of the Democratic Party.

This is the part when things get really fucked up.

The trailer cuts to a scene of a slave owner demanding 50 lashes for a female slave, who shrieks helplessly while shes assaulted.

The Democrats support slaves! the voiceover says.

DSouza then asks, why has all this been swept under the rug?

DSouza rose to prominence in the early 1990s as a critic of liberal political correctness, with the publication of Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus. The text was warmly received by critics and the book-buying public alike, the latter of whom kept it on The New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks.

DSouza, a rare young, non-white conservative intellectual, became a media star.

But over the ensuing decades, he seemed to move further away from his intellectual, Dartmouth roots and closer and closer to telling the public to buy gold and build a bunker.

Hes written 18 books in total since 1984, and you can plainly see the shift in his thinking in their titles.

In 2000, he was still producing earnest work like, The Virtue of Prosperity. But around 2007, with the publication of The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, things started to go off the rails.

In 2012, he made a movie (or a documentary, if you work for Fox News), 2016: Obamas America. The picture, which has one star on Rotten Tomatoes, was shred apart by critics.

The New Yorkers Richard Brody called it a work of propaganda that offers base innuendo in lieu of argument, but beloved by audiences, who went to see it in droves.

In 2014, the same year he was indicted on the felony charge, he released a sequel of sorts.

America: Imagine the World Without Her also has one star on Rotten Tomatoes and was similarly dismissed by critics but supported by moviegoers.

DSouza had all of the commercial incentive in the worldand timing on his side, with the election mere months awayto make his descent into madness a trilogy.

In response to an interview request from The Daily Beast, DSouza, who puts two spaces after periods, said, Im open to doing this but its premature now. You need to see the movie before you go ape on it. Good principle of journalism.

Asked why it was too soon to be interviewed about his movie by The Daily Beast but not too soon to talk about it on a primetime Fox News show, DSouza said, Hahaha. Because a trailer is just a teaser. You want to debate the trailer?

That DSouza would find his work promoted on Fox Newss most-watched programming is no surprisehe remains a conservative star, and what he produces, though of dubious journalistic or educational merit, is immensely popular. The difference, in 2016, is that DSouza is not alone.

Conspiracy theories and theorists have found a home in the mainstream media and, in fact, on the campaign trail itself thanks to Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump. The de facto GOP nominee, has batted around all sorts of nutty ideas, even going as far as to suggest one of his Republican primary opponents fathers was somehow wrapped up in the assassination of JFK.

This type of rhetoric, employed day in and day out on the stump, has led to a normalizing of sorts. When Trump brought up the 1993 suicide of Vince Foster, deputy White House Counsel in the Clinton administration and friend to the then-president and First Lady, a subject conspiracy theorists have long seized-on, hardly anyone batted an eye.

The irony, of course, is that the outrageous pomp of DSouzas anti-Clinton propaganda obscures a very good point: that illegal or corrupt behavior performed on a large scale by elites is often hidden in plain sightso broad and institutionalized as to cease to appear illicitwhile petty crimes which harm fewer people, or no people at all, are vigorously prosecuted.

Thats not quite as sexy as blaming the likely Democratic nominee for slavery, though, in DSouzas defense.
SAN DIEGO  Looking ahead to a general election and even a prospective presidency, Trump has one last chance to patch things up with Hispanic Americans, and do so with enough finesse that he doesnt alienate his white supporters who detest Hispandering.

As a businessman, Trump understands that hes selling to a much broader market now than he had been during the GOP primaries. Fifty thousand Hispanics turn voting age each month and Hispanics are registering in large numbers to vote against Trump. Hispanics represent a sizable presence in three decisive states (Florida, Colorado, Nevada) and also a large part of two Democratic strongholds that Trump says he intends to compete for (California and New York).

He needs to make peace with Hispanics, and that takes more than tweeting a photo posing with a taco bowl on Cinco de Mayo. A little respect goes a long way.

And so far, Trump has shown Americas largest minority very little respect. Instead, he has gone out of his way to alienate, mock, and demonize them.

If the real estate mogul wants to thaw the relationship, he can start by pivoting on immigration. In fact, he may have already left a trail of breadcrumbs to lead him back to a saner policy.

For instance, Trump has often said that he supports legal immigration, which sets him apart from the hardcore nativist elements of the Republican Party who are flat-out anti-foreigner and would impose a moratorium on immigration across the board.

He has also said all along that, while he would build a wall on the border, he would also put in a big beautiful door so that the people who are deported could come back legally.

Besides, Trump has noted, from his years of hiring and employing people, that Mexican immigrants have an awesome work ethic. Hes likely to want to keep them around as opposed to shipping them out.

Then there is the fact that were dealing with a businessman who, for all his tough talk on immigration, will likely not do anything that hurts business, which includes deporting millions of workers.

Lastly, there could be something to the story from a few months ago that The New York Times Editorial Board is sitting on a tape recording of off-the-record remarks by Trump where he all but admits that his anti-immigration tirade is nothing but a shrewd marketing tactic and that he doesnt really intend to crack down on immigrants.

If Trump is sincerely angry at what he sees as a broken immigration system, then he should direct that anger where it belongsat the U.S. Government, President Obama, Congress, even businesses and homeowners who hire illegal immigrants (something he has himself been accused of doing).

In announcing his presidential bid last summer, Trump called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists and insisted they were scraped off the bottom of the barrel. He didnt even distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants, and instead lumped them all together as undesirables with lots of problems.

No wonder Hispanics got so hot under the collar. How would you react if someone insulted your grandparents?

If Trump wants cooler heads to prevail before the general election, he needs to do what American politicians have always found it tough to do when discussing immigration and separate the policy from the people. Just because youre frustrated with one doesnt mean you have license to attack the other.

Hispanic voters may be a lost cause for Trump, but hes proven that his core supports are open to his stances on issues from abortion to tax cuts to trade where he sounds like anything but a typical conservative. His backers like him, trust him, and believe in him. They think hes looking out for them, and that gives him a lot of space to pivot on immigrationespecially during an election when the alternative is Hilary Clinton.

Its not too late for Trump to do the right thingwhich is also the smart thingwith Hispanic Americans.
If you think Donald Trump just started demonizing minority groups for personal gain during this current presidential campaign, then you dont know Trump. The perpetually tan alleged billionaire has been spreading lies about minorities in order to help himself get ahead since at least 1993.

That was the year Trump testified before Congress in an effort to stop Native Americans from expanding the number of casinos they were building across the country. At the time of the hearing, Trumps organization operated three casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Trump didnt want the Indians to open up any casinos on his turf because he feared they would cut into his profits.

So what did Trump tell the congressional subcommittee on Native American affairs in an effort to stop it? Well, as The Washington Post reported in 1993, Trump devoted much of his testimony to bad-mouthing Indians.

Trump warned the congressional committee that if the Indians were allowed to open up more casinos it would bring more crime. In fact, Trump claimed that organized crime is rampant on Indian reservations and had already gotten out of control. And in true Trump fashion, he then ratcheted up the rhetoric, telling members of Congress that unless they stopped them now, the crime at the Indian run casinos would lead to the biggest scandal since Al Capone.

Trump then added the kind of comment we have come to expect him to say after he demonizes a minority group: No ones more for the Indians than Donald Trump. Reportedly that statement elicited laughter from people at the hearing.

The Trump of 1993 apparently created the playbook that the Trump of today has been using of demonizing a minority group in pursuit of his agenda with baseless accusations that they are bringing crime or a threat, etc. Then Trump swears to us that he loves the very same minority group that he has just publicly demonized.

As Native American activist and author Gyasi Ross of the Blackfeet Nation explained to me, Trumps racism is neither creative nor intelligent. Rather, Trump simply follows a template for racist bullying. Ross added that Trumps outrageous claim that Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers in 2015 was identical to the way he contended that Native Americans would bring the biggest organized problem since Al Capone in 1993.

Ross is absolutely correct. Trump launched his presidential campaign last year with the lie that Mexico was sending people to America who were bringing crime and were rapists. And of course Trump later commented, I love the Hispanics, calling them incredible people.

Trump also followed that very roadmap with Muslims, calling for a total and complete ban of Muslims entering America, stating that Islam hates us and calling for surveillance of Muslim Americans. And true to form, Trump later told us, I love the Muslims. I think they are great people.

Well thankfully the members of the 1993 congressional committee were not as easy as a pushover for Trump as GOP primary voters in 2016. Trump was immediately pressed by subcommittee chair Rep Bill Richardson (D-NM) on why hasnt he reported this alleged widespread crime ring at the Indian casinos to the FBI. Trump stunningly responded, That's not my job.

The reality is that Trump cant report something that doesnt exist. As Jim Moody, the FBIs then chief for the organized crime/drug operation testified, there was no evidence to support Trumps outrageous claims. And a Justice Department lawyer added, To date there has not been a widespread or successful effort by organized crime to infiltrate Indian gaming operations."

Rep. George Miller (D-CA) then unloaded on Trump: "In the 19 years I have been on this committee, I have never seen such irresponsible remarks. He added, You have cast on the Indians in this country a blanket indictment that organized crime is rampant. You don't know this; you suspect this."

The criticism of Trump by the Native Americans leaders at the hearing was just as swift. They called Trumps lies about them economic racism. Tim Wapato, the then-executive director of the National Indian Gaming Association, remarked that "Congress must not allow itself to be used to implement the racist agenda of a greedy commercial gaming tycoon.

But Trump was not done with his slandering of the Native Americans in pursuit of profit. In 2000, with the help of his long time friend/lobbyist Roger Stone, Trump secretly funded an ad campaign claiming that the St. Regis Mohawk Indian tribe was involved in organized crime. Why would he do that? Well, because Trump wanted to stop the St. Regis Mohawk Indians from opening a casino in New York State that would compete with Trumps casinos. Of course there was no factual support for Trumps claim that this Indian tribe was involved in organized crime and tribal leaders were understandably outraged.

The problem for Trump was that his secret plot to demonize the St. Regis Mohawks was discovered by the New York state lobbying commission. Consequently, Trump and Stone paid $250,000 in fines for failing to disclose, as required by law, that they had financed the negative ads.

And we have seen Trump ridicule Native Americans during this presidential campaign. As Ross explained, Trumps badgering of Elizabeth Warren as Pocahontas is simply the continuation of his pattern of racist bullying.

To those Trump supporters who think Trump is a breath of fresh air, they are wrong. Trumps been employing the same hateful playbook for over 20 yearshe just changed the minority groups hes targeting to help him in the election. Who knows what other minority groups Trump will demonize in pursuit of personal gain going forward? And lets hope we never have to deal with Trump using the office of President of the United States to engage in more of this un-American bullshit.
Harold Bloom, one of Americas foremost literary scholars and Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale, provided a terse response when asked about the latest student protests to grip the university.

I am too weary to comment again on this nonsense, he wrote in an email to The Daily Beast.

Capping off a year of political unrest and student protests at Yale University, English department faculty emerged from their final meeting of the semester to a petition from students hoping to return next fall to a refurbished, decolonized undergraduate curriculum for English majors.

The petition calls on department faculty to reassess the English majors core and introductory courses, and demands that the Major English Poets survey coursea two-semester prerequisite for the majorbe overhauled entirely.

It is unacceptable that a Yale student considering studying English literature might read only white male authors, the petition states, referring to the poets studied in the course: Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Donne in the fall semester; Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Eliot, and one other modern poet in the spring semester, according to the course description.

The petition argues that a year spent around a seminar table where the literary contributions of women, people of color, and queer folk are absent actively harms all students, regardless of their identity.

It also insists that the introductory course creates a culture that is especially hostile to students of color, alienating talented prospective majors and failing to prepare them for higher-level courses relating to race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, ability or even to engage with critical theory or secondary scholarship.

Inspired by the activism that has roiled campus this past year, the petitions anonymous authors demand that the English department decolonizenot diversifyits course offerings.

Similar issues were raised last fall by undergraduate students, according to Jill Richards, Assistant English Professor and Associate Director of Undergraduate Students.

Richards applauded the student activism Yale has seen this past year and is cheered that the University has responded in part to some of their demands, she told The Daily Beast, adding that she hopes the English department will do the same when it comes to the latest petition.

I think its time to revisit our understanding of what is foundational to an English major, Richards said.

When asked what authors shed include to diversify the Major English Poets prerequisite and other introductory courses in the major, Richards cited 17th century British playwright and poet Aphra Behn; Phillis Wheatley, the first published African-American poet; Victorian poet Christina Rossetti; Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, and Derek Walcott.

Richards admitted that shes relatively new at Yale, where the Major English Poets course is a longstanding tradition within the department. But diversifying the canon is not really a controversial stance in wider academia, she said.

While Yales introductory survey course is designed to give prospective English majors a set of skills to use in higher-level major coursesproviding a generous introduction to the abiding formal and thematic concerns of the literary tradition, according to the course descriptionRichards believes replacing one or two white male poets wouldnt preclude the development of those skills.

Yet one anonymous studentan English major and rising junior at Yale who helped draft the petitionsaid its aim was to abolish the introductory survey altogether.

The survey is discriminatory and not representative of all the people who contributed to English language and literature, so to suggest that is the basis for English language or literature or that these are the most important voices discounts a huge narrative, she said.

With the exception of a modern poet selected by the professor each semester, the course mostly avoids queer people or people of color, she added. Were living in a new time in which were trying to account for everyones perspective. Throughout history a lot of peoples voices were erased, and this course suggests thats OK.

In an April op-ed for the Yale Daily News, graduating senior and English major Ariana Miele wrote that the department had belittled, frustrated, and disappointed me.

She didnt single out any faculty members for making her feel this way, but the material she studied and her lack of exposure to feminist theory or post-structuralism or post-colonial theory.

Her argument is aligned with that of students at elite schools who have petitioned for trigger warnings in their course syllabi, from Ovids Metamorphosis to Antigone.

We read Chaucer, but we are told to view his misogyny with an objective lens, Miele writes, a daunting task for the one in three female students who have experienced sexual violence.

Miele also highlights a discomfiting statistic: of 98 faculty members in Yales English Department, only seven identity as nonwhite.

But Richards isnt the only faculty member in the department who sympathizes with Mieles concerns.

I think its critically important to teach literature in a way that recognizes the genius, brilliance, virtuosity, and world-transforming power of writers of color and women writers, and doesnt seem to relegate them to a minor role, Briallen Hopper, a Lecturer in English at Yale, wrote in an email to The Daily Beast, expressing her gratitude to the students who signed the petition.

From their first year in the department, English majors need to have a sense of how vast and varied and complicated and contested the world of literature in English is.

Professor David Bromwich, who has taught the Major Poets course 13 times during his 28-year tenure in Yales English department, quietly defended the curriculum as it stands.

In my experience, graduates of the English major commonly cite it as their favorite course, he said, stressing that common choices for modern poets in the courses second semester include Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, and Sylvia Plath.

Leslie Brisman, a professor in the department for more than 45 years, was more forthcoming in his personal rejection of the latest student petition.

Ive seen this petition in the 60s, the 70s, and many times since then, and we have in fact already responded to petitions like this by creating a Comparative Literature major, he said, because the department realized that some students are more interested in studying literature from the perspective of how it influences society as a whole.

Indeed, the Comparative Literature undergraduate major was established in 1972 with emphasis on cross-cultural course material.

The English major at Yale has since been modified in more responsible ways, Brisman said, noting that prospective Comparative Literature Majors are not required to take Major English Poets.

Langdon Hammer, Professor of English & Department Chair, did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Beast, but a source within the department indicated that students and faculty would address the matter in the fall.
JERUSALEM  Israel ended its last military operation in Gaza almost two years ago. But among some Israeli military officials, national security experts, and activists here, there is a palpable sense that another war is imminent, and that soon Hamas rockets will again be raining down on Israeli cities, prompting a crushing military response on the beleaguered, 25-mile long strip.

The signs, to hear these people tell it, are plain to see: Despite Israeli efforts to increase the flow of goods in and out of Gaza, its economic health remains desperate. Hamas militants also may be under pressure to move now to strike Israeli neighborhoods along the Gaza border before a network of tunnels that gave them free entry into Israel is sealed up. Recent Israeli intelligence suggests that Hamas fighters have closely studied Israeli tactics from the last war, possibly in preparation for another conflict. And Israels new defense minister, sworn in this week, has threatened to assassinate the leader of Hamas, in turn prompting him to dare Israel to enter Gaza again.

The feeling is now were on a countdown. Theres going to be another war, said Sharon Stav, with the Movement for the Future of the Western Negev, an activist group whose members live in neighborhoods along the Gaza border and have been pressuring the Israeli government to find some diplomatic or humanitarian solution to the conflict with Hamasanything short of another war. Stav and a colleague met with a delegation of U.S. and European visitors, which I joined, in the town of Netiv HaAsara, which came under daily rocket fire during the 2014 Gaza operations. The house where we met sits just feet from a guarded security barriera combination of concrete barricades and barbed wire fencesthat seals Gaza off from Israel, at least above ground.

The residents anxieties about another conflict were echoed in private conversations with current and former Israeli military and intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified by name. They werent ready to predict the time and day of another outbreak in fighting. But in their expert opinion, the chances were high, maybe even as high as any point since July 2014, when Israel began a military campaign that lasted seven weeks and ended in the loss of thousands of lives, mostly in Gaza.

Its hard to know whether their dire predictions are the result of some inescapable pessimism born of proximity to war or the residue of the last Gaza operation, as officials prefer to call it. One resident of Netiv HaAsara freely described herself and neighbors as suffering from post-traumatic stress after days on end of hearing air raid sirens that signaled residents had mere seconds to scramble into basement shelters to survive incoming rocket fire.

But the warning signs are real, and were brought into sharp relief this week with the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman, a right-wing politician whose bellicose, nationalist pronouncements had many Israelis I spoke to on edge and comparing him to Donald Trump.

Consider the facts on the ground: Thanks to technological innovations, the Israeli Defense Force has had more success lately finding and destroying the notorious tunnels that Hamas had once used to send waves of shooters into neighboring communities, terrifying local residents. Several security experts opined that Hamas may now try to use the tunnels again before theyre permanently closed.

At the only Israeli border checkpoint with Gaza, I saw huge piles of dirt where Israeli technicians had been digging in a search for new tunnels, like those that had come up not far from the checkpoint. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has praised the new technology as unique in the world, a breakthrough in [Israels] efforts to locate tunnels.

Israeli citizens I spoke to knew the military had developed some new techniquethough precisely what it is still a mystery. But no one was celebrating an end to the wave of tunnel attacks that saw Hamas fighters popping up secretly in the night next to Israeli neighborhoods. Rather, more people were convinced that Hamas would send fighters now through whatever tunnels havent been discovered, a kind of last gasp attack.

Still others worry that an economic chokehold over Gaza will continue to make life unbearable for ordinary citizens and give Hamas a motivation to punish Israel for crippling the Gaza economy, especially during the sweltering Mideast summer. Currently, all goods in and out of Gaza move through that single Israeli check point along the strips eastern border. Situated on a vast, dusty expanse of flat, open land, huge trucks carrying fruit, furniture, fabric, all the trappings of daily life, queue up to head through a giant X-ray scanner which checks for weapons and contraband. Its an arduous process that involves three stagesscreening the goods in Israel, loading them onto trucks that carry them into Gaza, and finally distributing the goods via Palestinian drivers.

Israel says it has made strides increasing the amount of goods flowing into Gaza. Almost 400 tons of cargo head in every day now, doubling the figure of a year ago, according to official figures. And exports are coming, too, though not in sufficient volume to resuscitate Gazas devastated economy.

Egypt has cut off its crossing point into Gaza, leaving the residents entirely dependent on trucks from Israel for their daily needs, including cooking fuel. The people are in bad shape. Its too much suffering. They live with no hope, one Israeli observer of the situation, who asked not to be identified by name, told me.

Then there is the unknown variable: Lieberman. Again not unlike Trump, some are wondering if hell change his tune once actually ensconced in office and scale back some his more ferocious rhetoric. In April, Lieberman promised the host of a TV interview show that were he to get the defense minister position, he would kill Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in 48 hours if the militant group didnt return the bodies of two Israeli soldiers believed to have been killed in the 2014 Gaza operation and that are still in Hamas custody.

Liebermans pronouncements prompted a response from a senior Hamas official, who declared in a press statement, If Lieberman is a real man, let him approach Gaza.

Not everyone takes Liberman at his word. His chest-thumping threat spawned a mocking Website that asked, Is Ismael Haniyeh dead yet? complete with a 48-hour countdown clock. The answer: No.

But the position of defense minister is arguably the most powerful and important position in the Israeli government behind the prime minister. One former defense official told me privately she worried that Netanyahu might defer to Lieberman, whose own lack of experience in military operations troubles Israeli soldiers. He hasnt been in the room, making those split-minute decisions, she said. In Lieberman, some see a man so cavalier about war that he might be foolish enough to start one.

There is a clear concern about the temperament and experience of a man some derisively call Corporal Lieberman, owing to his bare bones experienceone year as a military supply clerk. In a country where defense ministers usually claim an extensive military pedigree and significant combat time, Lieberman is a big question mark, and a red hot one at that, which makes people nervous. In Israel, war is too important not to be left to the generals, who these days may be the last ones who want another Gaza war.

Whether there will be a war with Gaza, there is clearly one among the countrys politicians and its generals. The prime minister sees the defense establishment as a competitor to his authority and an opponent of his goals, the prominent Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman, who is deeply sources in the countrys defense and intelligence agencies, wrote last month in the New York Times. Putting Mr. Lieberman, an impulsive and reckless extremist, in charge of the military is a clear signal that the generals and the intelligence chiefs opposition will no longer be tolerated.

Despite all the ominous warning signs, there are plenty who discount the prospects of another Gaza war, and who are urging Israelis to take a deep breath. In April, Amos Gilad, a senior defense ministry official and a retired general, said he was all but certain Israel and Hamas would keep the peace.

This summer will be hot only because of the high temperature, Gilad said. Our deterrence is still very effective. Hamas will not attack us because it fears for itself.

And yet, in communities close to the border, which would bear the brunt of renewed fighting, that confidence seems shaky, and at odds with the apparently political winds.

Israel is getting more and more right wing, and the dream of living a normal life is getting further away, said Sharon Sheli, another member of the Movement for the Future of the Western Negev. Unfortunately in Israel, peace is a forbidden word.
The Republican National Committees head of Hispanic outreach is on her way out the door due to her reported disgust over Donald Trumps bigoted rhetoricand her successor doesnt seem too enamored by the new GOP standard bearer, either.

On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that Ruth Guerra, a bilingual spokeswoman of Mexican descent who was charged with delivering the GOPs message to Latino voters, was resigning her post this month. The reason seemed obvious: She had apparently told colleagues that she was growing increasingly uncomfortable working for Trump, a man whose attacks on Mexicans and immigrants have come to largely define his campaign.

Guerras replacement, a Floridian commentator and strategist named Helen Aguirre Ferre, was announced the same day.

I am proud to be joining the RNC at such a critical time, the new Director of Hispanic Communications said. This is one of the most important elections of our lifetime, and Im eager to make the case to the Hispanic community why Republican ideas and values are the way forward for our country after eight years of an Obama agenda which has failed all Americans.

It wasnt too long ago that Ferre was sounding the alarm about the dangers and the violence of Trumps presidential run.

In March, she appeared on NewsmaxTV to discuss, among other topics, the frequency of brawling and physical violence at Trump rallies.

Donald Trump has contributed to this [culture of violence that were seeing], she said. And there is very clear evidence in his speeches and his rallies that he does instigate that violence. And then hell say, I will pay for your attorney, or Dont rough them up too much, as if [the anti-Trump protesters] were going to be...roughed up anyway. But just the introduction to that in the political context from a candidate is so dangerous, and so divisive. And even when he speaks in defense of his [actions]...he comes back to illegal immigration and immigrants, as if immigrants were a problem with the violence yesterday. He [also] doesnt denounce the violence that was committed against journalists  Trump hasn't come out and said, Don't do that. We don't condone that, this is a place of peace. And he's not trying to be peacefulhe's actually rallying up the support.

Hes not a peacemaker, she continued. Were looking for a better future for our children, were not looking for a police state...Donald Trump loves to stir up the pot, but hes not offering any solutions.

She concluded by calling Trump one of the principal instigators of the violence that were seeing.

On Thursday, the Democratic National Committee began circulating a two-month-old video of Ferre stating that, what weve seen is a pattern from Donald Trump thats anti-women. Ferre herself has already scrubbed her Twitter feed of posts slamming the now-presumptive Republican presidential nominee, including one tweet declaring that women & country deserve better than Trump.

Its all hell ever be & its not flattering. Trump back to being Trump, she tweeted in late April.

[I] wonder if [Chris Christie] and [Jeff Sessions] now regret supporting Trump or do the means justify the end? Telling either way, she tweeted in late February.

The Trump campaign, the RNC, and Ferre did not immediately respond to The Daily Beasts requests for comment on this story.
The Notorious R.B.G. is now the one handing out nicknames.

Scientists at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History announced Wednesday they named a new species of praying mantis, Llomantis ginsburgae, after the 83-year-old Supreme Court Justice.

We named it for her in honor of her commitment to womens rights and gender equality, said Sydney Brannoch, a Ph.D. student at Case Western Reserve University who led research into the Llomantis genus, along with Gavin Svenson, in a video posted to YouTube by the Cleveland museum.

The museum says the research is the first formal study to use female genital structures to delimit a new species of praying mantis.

As a feminist biologist, I often questioned why female specimens werent used to diagnose most species, Brannoch says in the announcement. This research establishes the validity of using female specimens in the classification of praying mantises. It is my hope that our work not only sets a precedent in taxonomy but also underscores the need for scientists to investigate and equally consider both sexes in other scientific investigations.

Brannoch also said the team named the species after Ginsburg in appreciation of her jabot, the ornamental ruffle she regularly wears with her robes. The decorative neck accessory apparently resembles the neck plate of the insect.

Ginsberg is just one of a long line of famous people to have animals named after them. A new tarantula was named after Johnny Cash in February, and a species of swamp pigs was named in honor of Mick Jagger in September 2015.
By now youve read all the I told you sos.

After weeks of speculation into the details of Princes death, and media liberally quoting defense attorneys and anonymous sources, the worst has been realized. Prince died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a powerful painkiller many times more potent than heroin.

Painkillers like OxyContin are measured by the milligram, but fentanyl is so strong that it is measured in micrograms. For some perspective, if a few grains of salt were fentanyl, that amount would be lethal if swallowed. Typically, it is only prescribed if a patient becomes opioid tolerant to the point other drugs no longer work. It has yet to be confirmed whether or not Prince was prescribed the fentanyl.

This news, however, does not make the details of Princes death any less dizzying.

The frenzy began on April 15, less than one week before Prince was found dead, when his private plane made an emergency landing in the middle-of-nowhere Illinois. Shortly after that, it was revealed the plane landed so Prince could be treated for an opioid overdose. He was then taken to a nearby hospital where he left against medical advice.

In the following days, friends close to Prince told the press he had suffered from chronic pain after a 2009 hip surgery, linked to years of high-impact performances, often in high heels. His close friend Sheila E. said he was in pain all the time. Fans said they noticed he no longer did the splits, that he walked with a cane, and that some concerts consisted only of Prince singing on the piano bench (which isnt to say that those performances were anything but stunning).

Then came the story about a Bay Area opioid specialist, Dr. Howard Kornfeld, who flew his son on a redeye to Princes residence in Minnesota, in order to assess his health and begin a treatment plan for chronic pain and possibly addiction. But by the time the younger Kornfeld arrived, it was too late. Prince was already dead. It was eventually the younger Kornfeld who made the 911 call. The last puzzle piece to be revealed was that on the day before his death, Prince was also treated by a local doctor for opiate withdrawal symptoms.

Whats left to be answered is how Prince obtained the fentanyl that killed him, and from whom it was prescribedif it was indeed prescribed at all. His death is currently being treated as a criminal investigation, headed by Federal Prosecutors and the DEA.

Taking into account all of the doctor visits, an entourage of concerned friends, along with Princes vast resources, one cannot help but wonder how in the hell the end result was still fatal. The simple answer is he simply took too much fentanyl. But there are an infinite number of remaining what ifs, all orbiting how someone dependent on opioids is to be clinically treated.

What if Prince hadnt left the ER in Illinois against medical advice? What if he had gone straight to treatment? Or, had the addiction doctor in California been called a day earlier, would Prince have received the care that could have saved his life? What was the hold up? What about the doctor who treated him for withdrawal? Why didnt this doctor urge Prince to be hospitalized? If being addicted to opiates wasnt so stigmatized, would Prince have been helped sooner?

Ive been writing about opiates and their magical allure since 2013, ever since I kicked my own habit. But Im not going to pretend here that my own experience qualifies me to opine about Princes interior life, and what kind of addiction with which he may have struggled.

He could have been on a chronic pain regiment, and the dose to which he was prescribed no longer did the trick. Part of the reason fentanyl is so dangerous is that the lethal dose is so close to the therapeutic dose, making any margin of error deadly. In an effort to kill the pain, maybe he began taking too much.

Whats also possible is that Prince loved the feeling produced by a head high on opiates. Fentanyl, after all, is the Ferrari of painkillers. Its onset is rapid, and before you know it youre somewhere in the clouds, so numb and weak you cant even make a fist. I doubt how Prince felt on opiates will ever be known. Maybe he loved them.

But what Princes death reveals is that treating an addiction to opiates is not so cut-and-dry, especially when chronic pain is thrown into the equation. Whats sorely missing from our health care system is a standard protocol, similar to what we have for other chronic medical conditions. One sane solution would be to prescribe naloxone (brand name Narcan), the lifesaving antidote, with every bottle of painkillers. But the drugs recent price hike will make that even more difficult.

If youre diabetic and your blood sugar is off, nurses can bring it back to safe levels. If you go to an ER with high blood pressure, the nurses can lower it. But when you go to an ER for an opioid overdose, or because youre addicted to painkillers and want to get off, everyones hands go up. In fact, its likely youll be treated as a second-class citizen, because culturally, opiate users are judged unscientifically.

Which partly explains, as Christopher Moraff thoroughly reported for The Daily Beast already, how America has made a mess of addiction treatment. Theres still no science to it. You could be told to pet horses on a farm or live by the beach, maybe pay exorbitant prices for swanky amenities that do nothing to address ones actual addiction. And the one effective treatment, the indefinite maintenance on methadone or Suboxone, is shunned by the professional treatment industry, who in their own self-interest cling to dated models of abstinence that may not apply to present day opiate users.

If Prince couldnt get the help he needed in time, how in the hell are the vast majority of heroin users supposed to get better?
The steel mills of northwest Indiana had no harder worker than Salvador Curiel.

He was one of these guys who never missed a days work, his oldest son, Raul Curiel, told The Daily Beast this weekend.

Salvador Curiel originally arrived on his own from the small town of Moscota in Jalisco, Mexico. He joined a cousin in working in the mills, starting with the most difficult and dangerous tasks, but counting himself lucky.

It was a very good job for any immigrant to have, the son said.

The father went from U.S. Steel in Gary to Youngstown Sheet and Tub in East Chicago, where he settled down with a woman he had married on a return trip to his native town. Salvador and Francisca had four children, first a daughter, then three sons.

The neighborhood was a mix of seemingly every kind of ethnic group. Raul recalled, It was blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Greek, Polish, and Irish. We all kind of enjoyed each others company.

The father had only gone to the sixth grade before leaving Mexico. He now taught himself to read and write English. The children approached their school studies with the same spirit.

Nobody ever forced us to do homework, Raul reported. We always wanted to do it. We kind enjoyed doing it.

On two or three occasions, the father paused in his otherwise ceaseless working, and the family drove down to Mexico. The children enjoyed the luxury of spending time with him in the land of their parents birth, briefly away from the demands of the life they were all striving as a family to build in America.

Bonding, Raul said.

After years of grunt-level dangers on the job, the father was promoted to working the controls in the coke-making process, selecting particular coals to be mixed and pulverized and laced with oil so as to achieve an ideal density before it is fed into the ovens. He returned home from work one day in 1964, well on the way to achieving the American dream, when he suffered a massive fatal heart attack.

The mother went to work in local factories and kept the dream going along with the household. Raul noted to the Beast, She was a very strong woman.

Raul proceeded from high school to Purdue University but was drafted into the Army when he took a brief leave. He was sent to Vietnam in 1970 while his widowed mother and siblings worried at home. He often wrote to his mother and his youngest brother, Gonzalo, who was just entering high school.

In 1971, Raul returned safely home. The family had another reason to celebrate, as the middle brother, Antonio, received an undergraduate degree from Indiana University and proceeded on to the law school. He was just three months from receiving his law degree when his mother suffered a stroke and died in 1975.

She was just 58. She and her husband were cheated of witnessing what all their hard work had enabled the next generation to achieve.

They never saw the end result, Raul said.

The youngest brother, Gonzalo, received an undergraduate degree from Indiana University the following year. He was a notably talented guitarist, but he also continued on to the law school, graduating in 1979.

Gonzalo entered private practice in Dyer, Indiana, for several years before heading west. He became an assistant U.S. attorney in San Diego and in Los Angeles, eventually heading the narcotics division.

The middle brother, Antonio, served as a U.S. attorney in Chicago and then embarked on a career in private practice, only to suffer the first of three strokes in 1990. He was forced to retire but continued to volunteer for a legal clinic that assisted the disabled. He suffered a third and fatal stroke in 1996. A scholarship at Indiana University was established in his memory.

Gonzalo was in the midst of becoming the first prosecutor to take down a major Mexican drug cartel, the Arellano-Felix Organization . A cartel hit man was recorded saying in 1997 that he had been authorized to murder Gonzalo, and the prosecutor moved for a time to Washington, D.C. Gonzalo continued prosecuting, making more than 300 cases, widely respected as one of the nations most effective and fearless cartel busters.

In 2006, then California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Gonzalo a Superior Court judge in San Diego County. President Obama nominated him to become a federal judge in the Southern District of California in 2012. Raul was among the family members who attended the swearing-in.

Things worked out, Raul said.

Raul understood that Gonzalo would approach each and every case with the same guiding principle.

The letter of the law, Raul said. He doesnt show any favorites.

As for himself, the oldest of the Curiel brothers had gone from Vietnam to the steel mill where his father worked, the company now named LTV. He was retiring after 30 years when LTV went bankrupt and he was left without a pension.

He still had bills to pay, and he went to work in construction at 59. He found himself, age 65, shoveling beside men nearly a half-century younger than himself.

It took its toll, Raul allowed.

Raul might have been the very kind of working-class vet in tough times who is targeted by Donald Trump.

But along with being someone who does not like to talk badly about people, Raul is of Mexican heritage. He is also the brother of the judge against whom Trump had directed bigotry such as the Curiel family never suffered in East Chicago.

And Trumps bigotry was of the worst kind. His was not the bigotry born of ignorance such as the Curiels were liable to encounter if they ventured into southern Indiana. Trumps bigotry was purposeful.

In this instance, Trumps immediate intent was to slander Gonzalo Curiel for having the temerity to follow the law and order the release of documents from the class action lawsuit against Trump University that The Donald did not want the public to see.

Trump also sought to rouse the bigotry in his followers so as to make them dismiss not only the judge but also the truth that the documents make so manifest: Trump had been operating a shameful hustle .

On Friday, with the document release due following Memorial Day, Trump complained at a rally in San Diego that he was being railroaded.

I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater, Trump said. Hes a hater.

Trump then sought to summon the worst in the true haters.

The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican... Trump went on.

Trump added in the very same breath, ...which is great. I think thats finepretending he had not engaged in purposeful bigotry when that was exactly what he had just done.

Trump lacked the courage to own up to his sliming even as he directed it at a judge who had in earlier years shown the courage to take on a cartel. Trump then actually said:

I think Judge Curiel should be ashamed of himself. I think its a disgrace that hes doing this.

On Memorial Day, Raul Curiel was at home in East Chicago, not saying much about Trump because he figured that whatever he did say would not make much difference.

Raul is 67 now and finally retired, as is his sister, Maria Rybicki, who is 69. He has two sons of his own, one a cancer drug researcher, the other in the accounting department of a major company.

Raul had made it back from a long-ago war and was keeping himself busy on this day of remembrance by pouring a small cement pad beside the shed in his yard. He figured it would be good for a barbecue grill or some such.

Its only 4 foot by 4 foot, he told The Daily Beast.

He said his surviving brother usually comes back to East Chicago in November, when this family that embodies what makes America truly great gets together for a uniquely American holiday.

For Thanksgiving, Raul said.
LONDON  Lice shampoomore than one bottle for every two residents. Sand-fly netsmore than 1,000 of them, designed to stop the spread of leishmaniasis, a sand-fly-borne skin disorder that isnt prevalent in southern Syria.

After four years, the 4,000 residents of the besieged Damascus suburb of Darayya received their first official multi-agency United Nations aid convoy Wednesday. But documents viewed by The Daily Beast show that the convoy carried items that are largely useless to the population, whose primary concerns are starvation and disease. And even at that, the Assad government gave the convoy permission for the partial delivery in an eleventh-hour concession to stop the UN from staging air drops of desperately needed aid.

Darayya is only 15 kilometersfewer than 10 milesfrom downtown Damascus. Despite extensive social media fanfare by the agencies taking part in the convoy, the first successful delivery to the area since 2012 was far from cause for celebration for the besieged residents.

It is unprecedented in areas of conflict that the UN and the aid community as a whole is not allowed to access an area for four years, a UN official who did not want to be named for fear of the impact on the work of their organization, told The Daily Beast.

The U.S, Britain and France have pressed the UN to start the air drops, but as the BBC is reporting, UN deputy special envoy for Syria Ramzi Essedine Ramzi says they are not imminent. Jan Egeland, UN humanitarian coordinator, says deliveries are planned for Friday, but suggested they may be delayed, claiming there are clear indications the deliveries will go ahead some time in the next several days.

So, for now, theres no food and precious few medicines. A Darayya resident told The Daily Beast that even the small number of medicines received were, not close to enough according to the field hospital, and only small part was [what was] really needed.

Images apparently from the besieged suburb, which could not be independently verified by The Daily Beast, showed trucks arriving that were half empty and contained boxes which appeared to have been ransacked en route.

Former UN staff members told The Daily Beast that on other occasions, even once the location of a delivery had been approved by the government and the contents of the delivery agreed between the UN agencies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interference can then occur while the trucks are loaded and again at checkpoints.

This previously occurred in Darayya when a partial delivery of aid finally was approved last month, but turned back on May 13 by Syrian government forces manning the final checkpoint at the edge of the suburb. At the time a UN spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters that the UN aborted the mission to Darayya because the convoy was refused entry, due to the medical and nutritional supplies on board.

Following the departure of the convoy, civilians in Darayya were shelled by Syrian army positions. Negotiations among all parties have been ongoing since, to secure access.

According to information provided to The Daily Beast, written approval from the Syrian government, which approves or rejectsbut frequently simply ignoresall requests for aid delivery, came late on May 30, just 24 hours before the deadline to provide access to besieged areas set by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG).

The deadline was set after the international coalition of countries met last month and agreed that airdrops of aid would begin if access to besieged areas was not forthcoming; 16 of the 19 areas in Syria under siege are besieged by the Syrian President Bashar Assads government.

The viability of deliveries in the coming days, remains unclear as the 48 hour local truce between government forces and rebel groups in Darayya is due to expire at midnight Thursday night, prior to the scheduled delivery of food items to the besieged area.

In the days leading up to the current truce there was heavy shelling in the area and residents of Darayya expect it to continue. The frequent shelling means most residents live primarily in basements, and field clinics are run underground, to avoid injury. This makes Wednesdays delivery of sand-fly nets all the more baffling. The risk of transmission is very low in the south, especially for those living underground.

Darayya was one of early strongholds of dissent against the Assad government when the uprising began in Syria in 2011. When many local residents were arrested, locals took up arms. In August 2012, a massacre of several hundred people took place at the hands of Syrian Arab Army forces and regime loyalist militias (shabiha). In November of that year, military checkpoints appeared around the suburb and access into or out of Darayya has been extremely difficult since.

Many humanitarian workers are appalled that their work is impeded so extensively in Syria. The truth is, these places arent hard-to-reach in a way that would normally require airdrops; theyre hard-to-reach because theyve become political bargaining chits, says Ashley Proud, humanitarian director of Mercy Corps in Syria. The only reason we arent able to get aid in through cost-effective ground access is the intransigence of parties to the conflict. The ISSG and international community must push harder for consistent, unfettered access for all humanitarian groups. The continued failure to allow for the delivery of life-saving aid to innocent civilians is shameful.

According to information shared with The Daily Beast, 23 requests for access were made by UN agencies in Damascus in May, aiming to reach 35 areas; 15 of those were approved, of which yesterdays delivery was one. Not all of the approved requests have resulted in deliveries for varying reasons, some to do with security and others because local actors have blocked them, including localized Syrian government officials. For the month of June, similar numbers of requests for access were made, while the Syrian government added a number of locations to the list which they have recently regained control of, such as Palmyra. The outcome of these requests to reach hard-to-reach areas is still unclear.

While in the majority of besieged areas access is restricted by the Syrian government forces, in a handful of cases the areas are besieged by other actors. Notably, in the eastern city of Deir Ezzour, government loyalists are under siege by ISIS forces.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is working with Syrian and Russian actors to provide food aid to those civilians by airdrop. Over 40 kilos of food aid per resident has so far been delivered, according to UN documents, although the nature of airdrops prevents aid agencies from verifying how much is received by each beneficiary. These drops have been heralded by United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura as an example of the success of such measures, despite the fact they required no concessions by the Syrian government and did not result in access to any of the areas the government has under siege.

The system of approval and denial of access for aid convoys has been controversial throughout the conflict, which has now been raging for more than five years. The Syrian government has used starve and siege all along, meaning dozens of areas are deprived of food, medicines and basic needs, despite the enormous humanitarian presence in the country.

In 2014, United Nations Security Council resolutions were passed to allow humanitarian aid to enter Syria cross-border from neighboring countries without the governments permission as access had been repeatedly denied and NGOs were working secretly in the country at great risk.

In Damascus, out of respect for Syrian sovereignty, United Nations agencies are forced to work closely with the Syrian government, to determine where they can provide aid and which items they can provide. Agencies are terrified of losing access to large parts of the country, or having their visas and imports denied, if they do not cooperate.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Wednesday that the latest agreement was a cynical move designed to avoid airdrops of aid to besieged areas of the country. While air drops are complex, costly and risky, they are now the last resort to relieve human suffering across many besieged areas, he said after the convoys arrived in Darayya and Moadamiyeh, another area under siege.

The threat of airdrops is being used in political circles to attempt to force the hand of the Syrian government, but in reality they are unlikely to begin any time soon.

In fact, airdrops are not the best way to deliver food and medicine. The International Committee of the Red Cross position paper on the use of airdrops for aid identifies the difficulty in assessing need and the likelihood of doing harm in the process of dropping the aid as reasons to proceed cautiously. Combined with the fact many of Syrias besieged areas are urban and surrounded by multiple hostile actors, the likelihood of the ISSG, or any of its members, coordinating and approving unilateral airborne aid drops to Syrias most deprived areas any time soon is slim.

But until then, the residents of Darayya and other besieged areas have no choice but to wait, and hope that a food delivery makes it through, if not tomorrow, then soon. And even food isnt enough, says one: UN resolutions are about ending siege, not just delivering aid. Siege and starving people is a war crime. What people need is to lift sieges and enable people to get back to their normal lives again.
LOS ANGELES  Mainak Sarkar murdered his ex-wife Ashley Hasti in Minnesota before killing his former professor, then himself, at the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday.

WCCO-TV reports Sarkar and Hasti were married in 2011. Hasti's body was discovered at her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota after a note from Sarkar was discovered asking someone to "check on my cat." When police searched Sarkars home in Minnesota, they discovered a "kill list," which led them to Hasti's home where she had been dead for maybe a couple of days, according to the local police chief.

Another name on the list was UCLA engineering professor William S. Klug, who Sarkar shot and killed before turning the gun on himself. Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck told reporters that a second professors name was on Sarkars list and that the doctoral student likely sought to kill him but couldnt find him. Authorities have not named the professor.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Sarkar called Klug a very sick person in a since-deleted blog post, writing that he could not be trusted. Klug had been Sarkars adviser at the UCLA engineering school and he expressed gratitude to Klug for his help and support in a 2013 doctoral dissertation, the newspaper reports.

One of the worst days in UCLA history began when the campus went into lockdown at approximately 10 a.m. Wednesday after three gunshots were heard.

Freshman Genesis Ramirez was in English class when her phone and the others around her exploded with text messages from campus police telling everyone to shelter in place.

We didnt know what to do and our professor said, Its probably nothing, Ramirez told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.

A call from a colleague changed the professors mind, and he rushed to lock the doorsbut they didnt obey.

We were really panicked, Ramirez said. We didnt know what to do.

Ramirez said students and faculty improvised, in a scene that was repeated across campus.

The lights went out and people stayed away from the window and stacked chairs against the door to make sure nobody could get in, she said.

The initial news of the shooting spread across the nation within minutes. All three cable television networks interrupted programming to cover the scene unfolding at UCLA and President Obama was immediately briefed on the situation while he was en route to Indiana on Air Force One.

The news also quickly reached Ramirezs mother, Martha, who came to campus fearing the worst. The two embraced for several minutes following the end of the lockdown as TV news choppers screamed above.
Photo courtesy Ken Davis The city of Henderson's first stand-alone high school was built in 1888 at 531 Washington St, and remained the city high school until Barret Manual Training High School opened in 1910. In 1920 it became the city's first junior high school, and in 1941 it became Central Elementary School. The building was razed in 1975.

The city and county school systems were undergoing dramatic changes 100 years ago.

Inside the city there was talk of starting the city's first junior high school, while the county school board authorized its first high school, which was at Niagara. There was also talk by the county board of discontinuing a number of smaller schools, although at the same time it was constructing four new schools.

And that's not counting ferment in the Dixie neighborhood about a proposal to close that community's school altogether.

The proposed junior high school for the city system was to be placed in what originally was the city's first high school, a building at 531 Washington St., across Washington Street from Barret Manual Training High School.

The school had been built in 1888 and it was converted to a gym in 1910 when BMTHS opened but mostly remained unused because it was run down.

But according to The Gleaner of June 6, 1916, the city school board's buildings and grounds committee recommended to the board that the old high school be repaired and used for the seventh and eighth grades "in order to relieve the crowded conditions in the (elementary) schools."

The only action taken at that meeting was to schedule a special meeting, in which the entire board would tour the building with an architect.

The Gleaner of June 14 reported the results of that meeting, and the idea of using the building was voted down 4-3, with one abstention. A motion to ascertain the costs of renovating the building failed on a tie vote.

The building didn't get converted to Central Junior High School until 1920. It opened as Central Elementary School Sept. 8, 1941, at which time the junior high students were transferred to BMTHS. The building was razed in 1975.

Meanwhile the county school board also was experiencing problems. The county had numerous small schools (63 as of 1910) and was beginning to look at the idea of consolidating smaller ones.

The idea had been under discussion for a while when the county school board learned of a letter from the state superintendent of public instruction to Superintendent R.L. Cinnamond. That letter made it clear that no state financial aid would be paid to any school having fewer than 25 students, according to The Gleaner of June 6.

Three schools did not meet that criteria: Spencer with 11 students; Washington with 13; and Oak Grove with 17.

They were to be consolidated with adjoining schools that also had low enrollments.

The county school district served 4,104 white students that year and 1,169 black students. Total enrollment for both city and county schools was 8,838. So you can see the proportion of city and county residents differed radically from current conditions.

While some schools were closing, other county schools needed new and larger buildings, according to The Gleaner of June 15. New school buildings were authorized at Niagara, Pleasant Valley and McDonald's Landing.

A follow-up story on July 2 told of the consolidation of the Knoblick school with the Niagara school, and authorization of the county school district's first high school at Niagara. The county would eventually operate eight high schools.

The Niagara school was pretty small potatoes, however. The high school offered only the freshman and sophomore years.

"A modern school building will be erected (by mid-August), and the prospects are favorable for a splendid school. There will be three teachers, including the principal."

The school board's action in June had also authorized a new school at Cherry Hill, which was to accommodate the combined Compton and Spencer schools. However, no building lot could be obtained for a reasonable price, and the combined school would have only 26 students, so it appeared to be a bad investment, which was shelved.

A $2,000 contract for construction of the Niagara school was awarded to D.W. Cummins, according to The Gleaner of July 15. Plans called for a frame structure with three classrooms and a front porch. Two rooms were 24 by 36 feet and the third was 30 by 60.

The dedication planned upon its completion included "a big dinner on the ground" and speeches by educators from across the state.

But not all was lightness and sunshine. A contingent from the Knoblick neighborhood appeared and complained that placement of the building at Niagara "would be unjust to patrons living in the extreme end of the Knoblick district." No student transportation was provided at that time.

There were 40 pupils in the Knoblick district and 71 in the Niagara district.

People in the Knoblick area weren't the only unhappy taxpayers in the summer of 1916.

At the first of July the Dixie neighborhood held an election that voted 54 to 31 to abolish the school in that neighborhood, which had been authorized by the General Assembly March 19, 1888, as an independent school district.

Most of the school trustees joined in voting to close the independent school. (Dixie, as well as Corydon, had independent high schools that predated the county school district's first high school at Niagara.)

Those on the losing side of the vote were not happy, as you might surmise, and they were consulting attorneys as to what to do.

"The point they raise is that no order of court was made for the election, and besides the school was authorized by an act of the Legislature 28 years ago."

The upshot of the controversy was that the trustees of the Dixie independent school voted in 1917 to merge with the county system, according to Maralea Arnett's "Annals and Scandals of Henderson County, Ky."

75 years ago

H.S. Hutchen, a Henderson native who was serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force, wrote a letter home to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.C. Hutchen, describing the bombing of Britain, according to The Gleaner of June 3, 1941.

He had been fighting in England since the previous fall, and described the destruction of "palatial homes for many blocks. It seems such a shame to see them reduced to ruin."

50 years ago

Donna Hagedorn received her law degree from the University of Kentucky May 9, 1966, according to The Gleaner of June 5, making her one of Henderson's first female attorneys.

Her father, Ray Hagedorn, was supervisor at Kargis Furniture Co. and she had attended her junior and senior years at Barret Manual Training High School.

25 years ago

The Henderson County Board of Tax Appeals unanimously ruled Ellis Park racetrack should continue to be taxed at a value of $10.7 million, according to The Gleaner of June 5, 1991.

That decision was a compromise of sorts. Racing Corporation of America maintained the track's taxable value should be set at $6.5 million. However, a lawsuit filed by former owner Roger Kumar indicated his family received the equivalent of about $18 million when he sold it in 1990.

Frank Boyett can be found on Facebook or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
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By Gleaner Staff

The next Kyndle Tech Tuesday luncheon will focus on Skype for business.

Kyndle will host its Tech Tuesday luncheon at noon Tuesday at in the training room at Kyndle offices on the fifth floor of the Soaper Building at Second and Main streets. It is free to Kyndle stakeholders.

The presentation will be made by Bob Parsons, president and founder of Automated Office Solutions in Evansville. Parsons has been in the IT field for more 36 years and holds numerous IT certifications as well as a bachelor's degree from Purdue University in general management/marketing.

Parsons will focus on four main topics related to Skype that include: Using Skype across different devices, complete meeting solutions, business calls using Skype and security, controls and compliance. At the end of the luncheon Kyndle will give away one free year of Microsoft Office 365.

For reservations, contact Kyndle at info@kyndle.us or 270-826-7505.
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By Beth Smith of The Gleaner

When Henderson District Judge Rob Wiederstein retired this week, it left many wondering how smoothly the judicial process will run in Henderson County with the vacancy.

While the judge's seat will appear on the ballot in the November election, it is Gov. Matt Bevin's responsibility to select someone to preside over Henderson District Court on an interim basis until that time.

Between Wiederstein's retirement and Bevin's appointment, an official with the state Administrative Office of the Courts said there is a system in place to fill the gap.

"On the vacancy left by the retirement of Judge Wiederstein, the chief regional judge for the Purchase Region  which includes Henderson, Union and Webster counties  will ask sitting judges in the region to preside in Henderson County District Court until the vacancy is filled. Retired judges may also be used as needed," said Jamie Neal, public information specialist for the AOC.

As for choosing an interim judge, Neal said a Judicial Nominating Commission will be formed to select three nominees for the Henderson District Court judgeship. The names of the three nominees will be submitted to the governor and he will make the final decision, she said.

"A Judicial Nominating Commission is made up of seven members  the chief justice (chair), two attorneys elected by all attorneys in the vacancy's jurisdiction (Henderson County) and four non-attorney Kentucky citizens who are appointed by the governor," Neal said. "The four citizens must equally represent the two major political parties. Chief Justice of Kentucky John D. Minton Jr. and the two attorney members are in place for the Henderson County District Court JNC. The attorney members are Frank N. King Jr. and Martha Quinn Polk," Neal said.

"Now we need the four non-attorney citizens from the governor. Once all the JNC members are in place, the executive secretary for the JNC will put out a vacancy notice and a questionnaire for nominees," she said.

There is a time limit by which an interim judge needs to be in place.

According to the Kentucky Constitution, "If the governor fails to make a (judge) appointment from the list of nominees within 60 days from the date it is presented to him, the appointment shall be made from the same list by the chief justice of the Supreme Court."

Those wishing to run for the vacant district court judge seat have until Aug. 9 to file with the Secretary of State's Office. Potential candidates "must be a citizen of the United States; have been a resident of Kentucky and of the district in which you seek appointment for two years preceding taking office; and be licensed to practice law in the courts of the Commonwealth, as well as a licensed attorney for at least two years," according to information from the office of the Supreme Court of Kentucky.

The winner of the general election will serve the remaining two years of Wiederstein's term, then would be eligible to seek election to a full term in 2018.
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By Jayne Tsuchiyama Los Angeles Times (Tns)

It is now politically incorrect to use the word "Oriental," and the admonition has the force of law: President Barack Obama recently signed a bill prohibiting use of the term in all federal documents. Rep. Grace Meng, the New York congresswoman who sponsored the legislation, exulted that "at long last this insulting and outdated term will be gone for good."

As an Oriental, I am bemused. Apparently Asians are supposed to feel demeaned if someone refers to us as Orientals. But good luck finding a single Asian-American who has ever had the word spat at them in anger. Most Asian-Americans have had racist epithets hurled at them at one time or another: Chink, slant eye, gook, Nip, zipperhead. But Oriental isn't in the canon.

And why should it be? Literally, it means of the Orient or of the East, as opposed to of the Occident or of the West. Last I checked, geographic origin is not a slur. If it were, it would be wrong to label people from Mississippi as Southerners.

Of course I understand that some insults have benign origins. "Jap," for example, is simply a shortening of the word Japanese, but that one stings. As 127,000 Japanese-Americans were carted off to internment camps during World War II, they were repeatedly referred to by their fellow citizens and the media as Japs. It was meant as an insult and understood as such. Clearly context is important.

The problem with "Oriental," San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jeff Yang told NPR, is that "When you think about it, the term  feels freighted with luggage. You know, it's a term which you can't think of without having that sort of the smell of incense and the sound of a gong kind of in your head." In other words it makes Asians sound exotic because it was in circulation at a time when exoticizing stereotypes were prevalent.

Erika Lee, director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota and author of "The Making of Asian America: A History," offered a similar explanation to NBC News: "In the U.S., the term 'Oriental' has been used to reinforce the idea that Asians were/are forever foreign and could never become American. These ideas helped to justify immigration exclusion, racial discrimination and violence, political disfranchisement and segregation." Lee also claimed that continued use of the term "perpetuates inequality, disrespect, discrimination and stereotypes towards Asian-Americans."

I don't see it that way; I see self-righteous, fragile egos eager to find offense where none is intended. A wave of anti-Oriental discrimination is not sweeping the country. Besides, the term has been steadily falling out of circulation since the 1950s, and it's mainly used today by older Asians and the proprietors of hundreds if not thousands of restaurants, hotels, shops and organizations with Oriental in their name. The well-intentioned meddlers will create trouble for exactly the population they want to defend.

My profession, Oriental medicine, is among those on the receiving end of the identity-politics outbreak. A funny thing I noticed is that my Caucasian (dare I say Occidental?) colleagues, not my Asian colleagues, are most eager to remove Oriental from public discourse. I suppose they're busy shouldering their burden of guilt. Margaret Cho said it best: "White people like to tell Asians how to feel about race because they're too scared to tell black people."

In my field, the word "Oriental" appears in the title of 17 of the 58 accredited graduate-level schools, 21 of the 33 state associations and eight of the 24 national associations. Though the new federal legislation does not require us to act, it has increased pressure to toe the politically correct line.

Are we really going to waste time, energy and millions of dollars to rebrand our entire discipline  rename our schools and boards, redesign corporate identities, websites and publications and send out thousands of revised diplomas  all to wipe away an insult that doesn't exist?

We have more important things to worry about. Big pharma is busy patenting the active compounds in the herbal formulas that Orientals have been prescribing for millenniums. The World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health have long recognized the efficacy of acupuncture (the mainstream of Oriental medicine) in treating dozens of conditions. More than 20 million Americans have used acupuncture. Yet neither Medicare, Medicaid nor federal employees' insurance covers the procedure. Practitioners of Oriental medicine have struggled for years to gain acceptance with the Occidental medical community and with insurance companies and federal and state governments. Yet here we are focusing our efforts on language.



ABOUT THE WRITER

Jayne Tsuchiyama is a doctor of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. She wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.



2016 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
New Burlington Area Homeless Shelter director carrying mission forward

The new executive director of the Burlington Area Homeless Shelter says she's excited for her new role and here to serve the community.
NORWALK  a Stamford woman was arrested on narcotics charges Wednesday evening after, police said, she was stopped for a seat belt violation.

Ashley Riddle, 26, of 24 Lewis St., was charged with possession of narcotics, failure to keep drugs in original container, and failure to wear seat belt.
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WESTPORT  The Connecticut Department of Transportation will lay out its findings for rehabilitation of the Saugatuck River Bridge during an information meeting next month.

The meeting is set for June 15 in the Westport Town Hall Auditorium, 110 Myrtle Ave.

An open forum for individual discussions with ConnDOT officials will start at 6:30 p.m. A formal presentation will begin at 7 p.m.

At the meeting, transportation officials will discuss the findings of the Rehabilitation Study Report related to the span, which is also known as the William F. Cribari Bridge. Cribari was a well-known police officer who directed traffic with flair, often at the intersection of Bridge Street and Riverside Avenue.

The (Rehabilitation Study Report) has been a much discussed topic over the past several months given the existing and proposed historic designation of the bridge, Westport First Selectman James Marpe said in a statement.

The impact on traffic flow and related safety along Bridge Street, Greens Farms Road and in the Saugatuck area of any possible remediation is also of great concern. I invite all Westporters and interested individuals to attend in order to understand the relevant facts from the engineers who have conducted the study.

The bridge, which was built in 1884 and reconstructed in 1993, carries Route 136 traffic over the Saugatuck River, one lane in each direction. The bridge carries an of average 13,100 vehicles daily, according to ConnDOT.

The bridge has a steel, multi-girder swing span and fixed spans. The deteriorated condition of the Pier 2 piles and cross bracing, and vehicle strikes to the trusses, are driving the rehabilitation project.

The bridge has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1987, according to ConnDOT. It is the oldest movable bridge in the state.

Marpe said he anticipates the report will address questions related to the bridges structural and functional deficiencies, how critical those deficiencies are, the rehabilitation alternatives studied, and costs associated with each alternative.

We look forward to having these important questions answered, and to having the opportunity to discuss the report and the proposed project directly with DOT officials, Marpe said.

The Rehabilitation Study Report will be available online beginning June 1 at www.ct.gov/dot/cribari-bridge. Copies of the report will be made available at the meeting June 15.
AURORA  The attorney for Derrick Shirley, who is accused of entering into a conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, has three weeks to submit a written argument that his client should not have been bound over to Hamilton County District Court.

District Judge Rachel Daugherty on Thursday granted attorney Mark Porto until June 23 to submit a written argument in his request for a plea in abatement. The state will then have until June 30 to respond, after which Daugherty will issue a written reply.

Porto is contesting the Hamilton County Court finding on April 5 that sufficient probable cause existed to bind Shirley over to district court. He filed the plea in abatement on May 5.

Shirley, 30, is charged with conspiracy to commit a Class 1 felony, which is a Class 2 felony.

Shirley, who lives in Bradshaw, is accused of entering into an agreement with Robert Honken of Aurora to kill Honkens wife, Bethany.

On Thursday, Porto presented the court with a transcript of the preliminary hearing.

In an interview, Porto said he will argue that there never was an actual agreement between Honken, and Shirley and even if there was an agreement, Shirley "made the affirmative decision not to participate."

Porto does not believe a conspiracy existed. But even if one did exist, Porto believes it was legally terminated prior to law enforcement becoming involved. "So we think thats a proper legal defense," he said.

At the preliminary hearing, Deputy Hamilton County Attorney Benjamin Dennis said numerous overt acts taken by Shirley can be used to prove a conspiracy existed.

The state contends that Honken attempted to hire another man after Shirley abandoned the idea.

Also on Thursday, Daugherty granted a motion for discovery requested by Porto.

On May 12, Honkens attorney, Charles Brewster, requested a plea in abatement for his client. Daugherty gave him 30 days to provide a written argument, followed by seven days for the state to respond.

Honken, 37, faces two charges of conspiracy to commit a Class 1 felony.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner was at the Alton Mental Health Center, along with members of the Illinois Department of Human Services, making a push for citizens to urge local politicians to pass his stopgap budget proposal to support critical government operations and a K-12 funding bill.

After calling the spring session of the General Assembly a stunning failure, for not passing a budget, the governor said funding must be restored to support vital services.

James T. Dimas, secretary of IDHS, said the situation at state hospitals is critical.

With no budget and no authority to spend money, the demand for patient care never ends, Dimas said. People dont plan their psychiatric crisis around the next election cycle.

Dimas said without a stopgap measure the Alton Mental Health Center and the six other psychiatric hospitals in the state are in peril.

This has to end and we cant keep going down this path - we have run out of time, he said. The people who work at these facilities receive calls and letters from angry vendors. They work hard and knock themselves out to keep the lights on, the water flowing and the people fed. Thats a terrible way to treat the people who are responsible for the care of some of the most fragile people in our society.

Rauner has proposed a stopgap funding measure to keep human services, prisons and other government operations open until January.

Dimas said it's time for elected officials to put aside politics and vote to support the vital services the state provides to its residents.

I am pleading with the rank and file Democrats in the General Assembly to do the right thing, to put politics aside, to see that the human suffering that is about to be unleashed if this impasse continues is far more serious than the consequences of the next election cycle.

State Sen. Jason Barickman puts the failure of the state to pass a budget squarely on Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

This political charade led by speaker Mike Madigan and the Democrats who continue to follow him, embrace the political chaos we are seeing play out in our state, Barickman said. They are doing this at the expense of our children and at the expense of all Illinoisans.

Rauner said Madigans proposed $40 billion budget was more than $7 billion in debt.

The Illinois budget office claims the bill would have required an increase in the personal income tax rate to sustain the Madigan proposal. A move, Rauner said, state Democrats want to keep hidden from the public.

They hold a super majority in the General Assembly, they could have passed a budget, Rauner said of the Democrat legislators. Their actions suggest they are willing to hold schools and other services hostage for this political charade.

Barickman said the budget proposals were thinly veiled disguise to bail out Chicago Public Schools. He said metro-east democrats need to stand up to Madigan and the Chicago machine.

Locally, my colleagues, like Sen. William Haine and Rep. Dan Beiser, need to stand up and say enough is enough. They need to stand up to Madigan and start representing the needs of their legislative districts and not the needs of Chicago, he said.

The funding proposals would fully fund universities, prisons, health facilities and critical government operations as well as K-12 schools.

Rauner said there have to be reforms to assist the economy of Illinois as well as the well being of Illinois residents.

He said Illinois has the highest unemployment rate and the highest property taxes in the country. He added that Illinois led the nation in the number of people leaving the state and that family incomes are now lower than they were 17 years ago.

Madigan has controlled the state of Illinois from Chicago for more than 30 years, he said. The Democrats have had complete control of spending. Yet they have failed to pass a balanced budget, failed to pass economic reforms, failed to pass property tax reforms, constitutional pension reforms and political reforms - they failed in every regard.

Barickman said Illinois has to change directions and Democrats have to stand up for their districts.

Facilities like this one in Alton have not been invested in years, he said. Our tax dollars are going to other things, patronism, cronyism - Chicago. The money is not being put where it belongs.
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Linkedin Kundhavi Kadiresan (The Jakarta Post) Bangkok  Thu, June 2, 2016

Asia has witnessed remarkable growth in its production and consumption of milk and dairy products in recent years and this trend is almost certain to continue. Indeed, the Asia-Pacific region has overtaken Europe as the worlds largest milk producer, with India alone producing one in every five glasses of milk.



This increased consumption of dairy products in Asia and the Pacific is playing a vital role in improving child nutrition and boosting the livelihoods of smallholder farmers  as the latter are the source of production for the vast amount of milk and dairy products that we consume.



By the end of 2015, the Asia-Pacific region, as a whole, had achieved the Millennium Development Goal to reduce hunger and undernutrition by half in the past quarter-century. Clearly, the increased consumption of dairy products has contributed to the overall success in improving nutrition, particularly among children.



During a recent visit to Bangladesh I learned about a successful school milk pilot scheme implemented by the Food and Agricultural Organization ( FAO ) and how it had made a difference in the overall wellbeing of the children who had received 200 mililiters of milk each school day.



Other countries such as Thailand have long-running national school milk programs which have served as useful models in other countries. China, India, Japan and Vietnam also have experience with school milk programs at various levels.



Milk is rich in minerals like calcium, magnesium and zinc among others. The wide range of vitamins and amino acids in milk are important building blocks for cells, bones, and muscles.



So as we work toward a world of zero hunger, milk and dairy products will continue to be among the important foods to help address undernutrition.



With 490 million people still undernourished in our region we must intensify our efforts and collaboration with the dairy sector for milk and dairy processes to become even more coordinated and productive.



And there is a clear business case to do so.



Between 1980 and 2013, milk production in the Asia-Pacific grew at almost 4.5 percent per annum against the global average of 1.5 percent. By 2013, milk production in the region had reached 290 million tons  38 percent of global production  or more than a third of all milk produced in the world.



Dairy is among the top three commodities produced in the Asia-Pacific in terms of gross value worth more than US$110 billion annually. During the next decade, it is expected that global production of milk will increase by more than 120 million tons and two-thirds of this increase will come from the Asia-Pacific region.



FAO is working with stakeholders in the dairy sector on a strategic development framework in Asia and developing an action plan for implementation and improved collaboration among countries in the region as development of the dairy sector progresses.



Value chains will need to improve and we will also need to see improvements in productivity and competitiveness while introducing ways to reduce negative environmental impacts, because with increasing scarcity of, and competition for, natural resources the sector must produce more efficiently and sustainably.



It is expected that the private sector will play an increasingly important role in attracting private investment.



But we must also ensure that millions of smallholder farmers scattered across the region, including millions of women who contribute to this growing dairy sector, are treated fairly and that everyone involved is properly rewarded for their efforts.



Improving the ability of smallholders to organize themselves and attain greater bargaining power in the market place must be a core element of our work as we move forward.



This week we observe World Milk Day on June 1 in recognition of the importance of milk. So lets all raise a glass of milk as a toast to the people who produce and bring us one of the worlds most healthy, nutritious, natural drinks.

***

The writer is assistant director general and regional representative of the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization ( FAO ).

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Linkedin Civita Patriana and Shaffira D. Gayatri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

A recent demonstration carried out by nine women from Mount Kendeng, Rembang, in protest against a cement plant development in their Central Java hometown managed to catch the publics eye. They cemented their feet for two days in front of the State Palace to attain President Joko Jokowi Widodos attention and his support for their protest against the development by the cement firm in their area, seen as a threat to their livelihoods and the local ecosystem.



Sukinah, one of the female protestors, dubbed Kartini of Kendeng, after national heroine RA Kartini, stated that their protest was based on nature needing to be preserved. They insisted any potential harm from cementing their feet inside large wooden boxes was insignificant compared to the longer-term damage the cement firm would do to their community and future generations. The cement plant could cause the loss of 51 million liters of water from the protesters local environment, experts say, while also disrupting the groundwater basin. This symbolic act was the womens last resort after years of fruitless protests.



Netizens asked, where were the men in the protest? Environmental degradation surely impacts both men and women, but the burden often falls disproportionately on the latter. Studies show that women are more vulnerable to climate change due to an unequal distribution of roles, resources and power. In developing countries including Indonesia, women, particularly working-class women, are simultaneously domestic caretakers and paid laborers.



They thus feel acutely dependent on natural resources, such as agricultural production, water and firewood. Environmental problems thus affect both their homes and their livelihoods; unequipped with the power or resources to adapt, women are most likely to be hit the hardest.



However, a report published by UN Women Watch in 2009 pointed out that women also acted as effective agents of change in mitigating natural disasters and promoting adaptation strategies. The closeness between working-class women and nature strengthens their position as preservers of local wisdom on environmental protection that gets passed down through generations. The Kartinis of Kendeng have proven that despite a lack of formal education, they have a deep knowledge of this issue, including of the potential environmental impact of the cement plant. They have also demonstrated strong advocacy strategies, making their voices and concerns be heard as they fight for their rights.



The Kartinis of Kendeng represent only one of many similar movements. As womens livelihoods depend heavily on the environment, they quite naturally live and work on the frontline of environmental protection.



For instance, in Sungai Berbari village in Siak regency, Riau, conflict occurred when a palm oil company reneged on its commitment to twice-a-day wet down the main roads passed by its heavy vehicles.



As a result, the severe volume of dust from the roads created respiratory problems among locals, particularly children. After several attempts to confront the company failed, the local women took the initiative to blockade the road with logs until the company finally fulfilled their demands.



In East Nusa Tenggara, one of the most notable demonstrations took place in Mount Mutis, Timor island. Led by a local woman known as Mama Aleta Baun, 150 women carried out a peaceful protest called a weaving protest. Occupying the marble rocks of a mining site, they quietly weaved traditional cloths in protest against the companys mining activities that were damaging the local forest.



Without the forest, the women would lose their source of livelihood; the place where they collect food, herbs and raw materials for cloth-weaving. Mama Aleta later won the 2013 Goldman Prize from the Goldman Environmental Foundation for her leadership in protecting natural resources.



Thus, the question is not why women are taking action. With womens strong record of environmental protection, the question should be: Why have we overlooked these womens actions until today?



This is perhaps due to the fact that their protests have one thing in common: they are all non-violent. The women of Kendeng used their bodies as a symbol to communicate peaceful resistance, while the women of East Nusa Tenggara and Riau tapped into their local wisdom to design peaceful strategies.



Excluding women from the discourse of conflict resolution means losing a vital partner in the struggle for environmental protection and, ultimately, human rights.



By dismissing the significance of their peaceful gestures, we risk losing the opportunity of learning. Learning from and listening to the locals, particularly women, is the key to managing the risk of environmental disasters. But are we willing to learn?



RA Kartini, the heroine of womens rights, expressed herself through her letters, the only option at the time. Now, modern-day Kartinis are expressing their political beliefs by weaving, cementing their feet and taking to the streets  whatever it takes for them to make their voices heard. We should at least listen.

***

The authors are recipients of the Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education ( LPDP ) and researchers at the Women Research Institute. The opinions expressed are their own.

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Linkedin (Associated Press) Geneva  Thu, June 2, 2016

Capping a mammoth 17-year, $12 billion project, Switzerland has built the world's longest railway tunnel: The Gotthard Base Tunnel.

Here's a look at it and others among the longest railway tunnels in the world.

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GOTTHARD BASE TUNNEL, Switzerland

The inauguration of the 57-kilometer (35.4-mile) Gotthard Base Tunnel through the Alps and central Switzerland drew the leaders of France, Germany and Italy for the celebration Wednesday. At its maximum point, the tunnel is more than 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) underground, deeper than any other rail tunnel. The 17-year project cost $12 billion but is expected to reap benefits across Europe for years, including faster travel between Italy and points north and less reliance on trucks that were polluting the Swiss Alps air.

(Read also: Swiss inaugurate $12 billion rail tunnel, world's longest)

___

SEIKAN TUNNEL, Japan

This tunnel in Japan reigned as the world's longest railway tunnel for nearly 30 years. It travels 53.9 kilometers (33.5 miles) under the Tsugaru Straits, linking the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido. While the Gotthard goes deepest underground, Seikan hits the lowest elevation for a tunnel  240 meters (790 feet) below sea level.

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CHANNEL TUNNEL, between Britain and France

More than 13,000 workers took over five years to complete this 50.5-kilometer (31.4-mile) undersea tunnel between Britain and France, which was inaugurated in May 1994. The Channel Tunnel runs as deep as 75 meters (250 feet) below sea level and had been Europe's longest tunnel until the Gotthard Base Tunnel came along.

___

LOETSCHBERG BASE TUNNEL, Switzerland

Inaugurated in 2007, the second-longest Swiss tunnel runs for 34.6 kilometers (21 miles) and is part of the same three-tunnel project in Switzerland as the Gotthard Base Tunnel to its east.

(Read also: MRT Jakarta: Digging the city)

___

GUADARRAMA TUNNEL, Spain

This 28.4-kilometer (17.7-mile) tunnel in Spain was inaugurated in 2005 after about 32 months of construction. It links Madrid, the capital, with northwestern Spain.

___

Rhoda Shafner contributed from New York.
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Linkedin Sebastian Partogi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

As part of its annual literary fiction program, Indonesias leading daily newspaper Kompas has launched its annual best short story anthology, consisting of work printed by the paper throughout 2015. The event was held in conjunction with an awards ceremony for its best fiction writers.

Many writers flocked to Bentara Budaya Jakarta on May 31. As well as those whose works were selected for the anthology, Education and Culture Minister Anies Baswedan, pianist and composer Ananda Sukarlan, painter and scholar Mudji Sutrisno, Nano and Ratna Riantiarno of Teater Koma were also seen among the crowd.

Kompas has a short story page that runs every Sunday that publishes the works of numerous literary writers across the nation. The tradition started in 1972 to give space for writing outside the journalistic discipline, according to Kompas chief editor Budiman Tanuredjo.

Education and Culture Minister Anies Baswedan (left) shakes hands with Indonesian poet, prose writer and playwright Putu Wijaya (right) as others look on.(Kompas/Lucky Pransiska)

In his opening speech, minister Anies Baswedan said that it was the duty of literary writers to spur the growth and development of the Indonesian language by exploring and opening themselves up to the possibilities of its usage.

According to Anies, the Indonesian language had around 23,000 dictionary entries in 1943, a number that has expanded to 94,000 in 2015. The expansion is relatively small when compared to the English language, which has around a million dictionary entries and expands at a rate of 8,500 entries per year.

This is because English writers open themselves up to new words. Indonesia has [more than] 700 local languages, which should serve as a good reserve to enrich our language, he said.

He added that the ministry was considering the idea of collaborating with short story writers to support its policy of a mandatory 15-minute reading period of non-school textbook materials by students, in order to promote reading habits among Indonesians.

(Read also: 12 Indonesian books you should add to your reading list)

This policy was one of several implemented in response to a recent study conducted by John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, which put Indonesia in the second-lowest position of 61 measurable countries for its literate behavior characteristics. The study observes various factors, from numbers of libraries and newspapers to years of schooling and availability of computers.

The human face of Indonesia

This years best short story anthology was given the title Anak Ini Mau Mengencingi Jakarta? (This Kid Wants to Urinate all over Jakarta?).

The book contains the works of 23 writers spanning four generations of the Indonesian literary tradition, namely Agus Noor, Ahmad Tohari, AK Basuki, Anggun Prameswari, Budi Darma, Dewi Ria Utari, Djenar Maesa Ayu, Faisal Oddang, Gde Aryantha Soethama, Guntur Alam, Gus TF Sakai, Indra Tranggono, Joko Pinurbo, Jujur Prananto, Martin Aleida, Miranda Seftiana, Ni Komang Ariani, Oka Rusmini, Putu Wijaya, Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Tawakal M Iqbal, Triyanto Triwikromo and Warih Wisatsana.

The anthology is named after the years best short story, written by veteran literary writer Ahmad Tohari, famous for his Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk trilogy (translated by the Lontar foundation with the title of The Dancer). Anak Ini Mau Mengencingi Jakarta? depicts the life of a poor family living beside the train tracks in the Senen area of Central Jakarta in meticulous detail, which can be seen in the writers description of them as a raw instant noodle-eating family of three.

The story is centered on the behavior of the young boy in the family, who constantly urinates in random places with his father who always reminds him to be careful so as not to let the urine splash onto his sleeping mothers body or a pile of clothes.

I was a bit surprised when my story was chosen as the best one, because the story is a bit vulgar. The father tells the boy that he can urinate anywhere in Jakarta, but not near his mother. This story reflects the anger that I and other artists have when we see what happens in Jakarta, especially along its rivers, Ahmad said upon receiving the award.

Effix Mulyadi, a member of judges who curated the anthology says in his preface that the story describes how the poor are greatly marginalized in the city.

Meanwhile, Balinese journalist and writer Gde Aryantha Soethama received the lifetime achievement award for his consistency in literary writing.

Born in Bali, he has written numerous journalistic pieces, non-fiction as well as fiction books in the last thirty years. His works are rich with references to the Balinese culture and way of life. His anthology Mandi Api (Immersing Oneself in Fire) won the Khatulistiwa Literary Award in 2006.

Literary writers are people who sacrifice themselves in order to walk a difficult path, which has become even more difficult these days thanks to so many digital distractions. They, however, persist in enlightening society, Kompas deputy chief editor Rikard Bangun said.

Fresh themes

This years anthology contains a number of new topics rarely seen in previous Kompas best-of collections. Among the most prominent themes are those relating to the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and the persecution of religious minorities in Indonesia.

Guntur Alam, a writer from Palembang, South Sumatra, for example, contributes the story Upacara Hoe (The Hoe Ceremony), about gay and lesbian siblings who find a new life after their father passes away.

I want to write about this because the topic is quite popular. Meanwhile, in the Palembang area there are lots of Indonesian-Chinese communities and they have a unique style of funeral procession. So I wanted to incorporate that element, said Guntur, who has written short stories for various Indonesian media outlets since 2010 and published an anthology last year.

Meanwhile, a newcomer to Indonesias literary scene, 19-year-old Miranda Seftiana also writes about various aspects of the lives of LGBT people in her short story.

I am a psychology student and homosexuality has already been dropped from the classification of mental illness in our diagnostic book (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). It was also inspired by a number of salons in my hometown of South Kalimantan, Miranda, who started writing short stories at the age of 13, said.

Meanwhile, Faisal Oddangs story tells of how followers of the Tolotang local religion in South Sulawesi are forced to convert to one of the religions recognized by the nation, and are witch-hunted and killed by the military along the way.

At the end of the ceremony, writers were challenged to spontaneously compose a short story. A laptop was set down on the stage, and a number of writers like Agus Noor, Dewi Ria Utari and Jujur Prananto were invited to write opening and closing sentences. The frame of the story will be distributed via email to all 23 writers to complete and the collaborative effort will be published in conjunction with the papers anniversary on June 28.

The audiences spirits were still high at around 10:30 p.m. and they broke into laughter at one of the spontaneously written fragments about an old writer who received a letter from the Culture Minister telling him that he has won a Rp 100 million prize, only to be told later by the same minister that it was probably just the writers dream.

Anies was challenged to give a title to the story. Initially, he titled it Lagi, Surat Menteri Beri Harapan Palsu (Again, the Ministers Letter Gives False Hope), drawing laughter from the audience, but then changed it to Sang Menteri dan Mimpi Penulis Tua (The Minister and The Old Writers Dream). (asw)
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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

In a bid to counter the spread of illegal hate speech online in Europe, the European Commission has implemented a code of conduct to remove such content in less than 24 hours in collaboration with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft.

"The recent terror attacks have reminded us of the urgent need to address illegal online hate speech. Social media is unfortunately one of the tools that terrorist groups use to radicalize young people and they use racism to spread violence and hatred," said EU commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality Vera Jourova in a press release on Tuesday.

(Read also: Excessive Facebook usage linked with depression in new moms)

"This agreement is an important step forward to ensure that the internet remains a place of free and democratic expression, where European values and laws are respected. I welcome the commitment of worldwide IT companies to review the majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours and remove or disable access to such content, if necessary."

(Read also: Twitter to exclude photo, link from character limit)

According to the code of conduct, tech firms would also educate and raise awareness with their users and provided regular training to their staff regarding illegal content.

Last year's report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said that the growing use of social media among Indonesian supporters of the Islamic State (IS) had helped the group reach a wider audience.

"[Social media usage] is ensuring that IS propaganda is reaching new audiences," said Sidney Jones, the director of the Jakarta-based IPAC.

Since last year, social media companies have started to do their share. Twitter reportedly suspended more than 125,000 accounts that mostly promote IS-related terror acts since mid-2015. Facebook, Google and Twitter also signed an agreement late last year with the German government to delete hate speech within 24 hours amid refugee crisis in Europe. (kes)
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Moscow  Thu, June 2, 2016

Russian social media users are voicing their outrage at Twitter's decision to suspend popular accounts parodying President Vladimir Putin and other officials.

Several Twitter accounts, such as @DarthPutinKGB, which parodies Putin, and @SovietSergey, which mocks Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, have been unavailable since Tuesday.

The parody Putin account had attracted more than 50,000 followers before it was shut down. The link to the account said it was suspended. Lavrov's parody account along with two others mocking the Russian Embassy in London and the Russian ambassador were restored and available to users after a reported suspension on Tuesday.

(Read also: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft to remove hate speech across Europe)

Social media users launched the #NoGulagForDarthPutinKGB hashtag on Twitter in protest.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an avid social media user, condemned the suspension, calling it "one of the funniest parody accounts around."
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Linkedin The Jakarta Post Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Pelita Harapan University (UPH) students have take the drug awareness campaign to the stage in Maias World, a play that follows the journey into a delusional world as a result of drug abuse.

Maias World is a collaborative effort by student activity units (UKM) under UPH's art division, including vocal, theater, choir, band and dance groups along with photography and movie production clubs. Staged at Teater Jakarta in Taman Ismail Marzuki cultural center in Central Jakarta on Saturday and involving 350 UPH students as cast and crew, the play is also part of the National Narcotics Agency (BNN)'s campaign against casual sex, alcohol and drug use.

The interesting part of Maias World is its storyline, in which we divide Maias emotions into several different clans and present it with a digital mapping concept, said producer and director Boy Marpaung.

Maia is caught and locked up by the Sgurd clan in her own delusional world.(JP/Viriya Paramita Singgih)

Maias World follows a girl named Maia who develops a drug problem after despairing over the death of her little sister Yuna.

In a scene in which Maia is approached by drug dealers, an image of a news article on a 14-year-old girl who was brutally raped and murdered by 14 drunk boys in Bengkulu was projected onto the backdrop. It was as if the play was reminding the audience, especially youths, about the dangers of alcohol.

(Read also: UI's Teater Sastra explores moral collapse, sexual violence on stage)

However, Maia finds herself unable to resist the allure of drugs and becomes trapped in her own delusional world called Semosimesta. Later in that world, she meets clans that represent each of her emotions, from Der (the reverse of the word red, which means anger), Hsub (bush: despair), Enots (stone: stubbornness), Sgurd (drugs: addiction to narcotics) and Ecarg (grace: conscience).

Digital video mapping was used throughout the entire play, mostly on the backdrop. For instance, there was night sky in the scene on Yunas appearance and images of each clan's distinctive features in the delusional world.

Eventually, Maia succeeds in returning to the real world with the help of the Ecarg clan. Wake up, Maia! Do not dwell in the past. The past never returns. The past is not meant to be regretted! said one member of the clan.

A scene in which the queen becomes angry and plans to make Maia vanish. (JP/Viriya Paramita Singgih)

Meanwhile, music director Andreas Arianto was the orchestra conductor for the play, which was intended to be a musical. But Maias World did not fully match the libretto, the words sung or spoken in a musical work.

Later after the show, Andreas acknowledged that that he had faced challenges in interpreting the music for both the real and imaginary worlds on stage. Music in all scenes in the real world was organic music, but we used electronic music for the scenes in the world of Maias mind, he said.

Unfortunately, the quality of the sound system was criticized by some members of the audience.

The music was great, but the bad sound quality made it hard to hear what the actors or actresses were saying, said Titus Christopher after the play. (vps/kes)
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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, June 1 2016

Publicly listed pharmaceutical company Kalbe Farma is seeking to construct new factories to maintain its dominant market position as the largest drugmaker in the country.



Kalbe has set aside Rp 1.3 trillion (US$95.48 million) to finance the construction of two new plants this year in an attempt to upgrade production capacity and maintain a strong foothold in the industry.



Kalbe Farma corporate secretary Vidjongtius said on Tuesday that the two factories would produce oral powders for mild ailments and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines for common sicknesses.



The firm has not yet determined the location of the future plants, but expects construction to begin in the third quarter.



It is also in the process of completing a $30 million factory in Cikarang, West Java, to produce biomedical raw materials and reduce dependency on imports.



The Cikarang factory will run trial operations before commencing commercial production in 2018.



With the three new plants, Kalbe is looking to increase its overall factory utilization rate to 70 to 75 percent from only 65 to 70 percent at present.



Higher capacity would allow the firm to anticipate a bounce in the economy this year, Vidjongtius said, adding that economic slowdown and low consumer demand had resulted in its factories producing below capacity.



The economy seems to be better this year with good sales. We hope it will continue rising even after the fasting period [in June and July], Vidjongtius said.



According to Kalbes estimates, the new plants and improved customer demand would increase sales by 8 to 10 percent this year, to around Rp 20 trillion.



Meanwhile, in addition to opening new plants, Kalbe is also eyeing a new market as part of its expansion strategy. The market it will target this year is Thailand.



Expansion into Thailand to provide cancer drugs will increase its exports to 10 percent of total sales, from only 5 percent at present. Exports are needed to offset expenses from imports of raw materials, Vidjongtius said.



Thailand will add to the companys list of foreign markets, which currently consist of the Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam and Nigeria.



Its latest financial report showed that Kalbe booked a 7.1 percent increase in total sales to Rp 4.55 trillion in the first quarter of this year. The growth rate was only slightly higher than the 4.4 percent rate posted in the first quarter of 2015.



Meanwhile, its first quarter profits went up by 6.5 percent to Rp 563.24 billion in the January to March period.



Shares of Kalbe, traded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) under the code KLBF, stood at Rp 1,430 apiece on Tuesday, rising by 1.1 percent from the previous day.

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Linkedin Suherdjoko and Andi Hajramurni (The Jakarta Post) Semarang/Makassar  Wed, June 1 2016

The governments hard-line approach to sexual violence against children has failed to discourage the brutality as more rape cases have occurred this month.

While the government has announced plans to take bold steps against child rapists by giving out harsh punishments that can go as far as death, young Indonesians continue to be preyed upon.

In Semarang, Central Java, six male individuals, five of them minors, persuaded and seduced a 12-year-old girl, still in the sixth grade, to have sex. The sexual abuse began in early May and took place in four locations in Pedurungan, Semarang, Central Java.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

A classroom at a state elementary school in Sumberjo, Lamongan, East Java, was set ablaze on Wednesday afternoon after four schoolchildren reportedly set fire to 21 grade report books.

Sumberjo elementary school principal Wiku Handoko said the four students had told investigators that they were ashamed of being scolded for getting the worst marks in the classroom.

They admitted that they were ashamed for being scolded by their classmates for getting bad marks in the final exam even though the result of the final exam has not yet been announced by the teachers, Wiku Handoko was quoted as saying by local news outlet Berita Metro.

According to Wiku, the incident took place at 2:45 p.m..

I was contacted by Pak Abdul Wahab, the school caretaker, who told me that the fifth-grade classroom was on fire, he said.

The fire was immediately extinguished.

After I questioned some eyewitnesses, I found out that the fire had been set by those four students, he said.

Sarirejo Police chief Adj. Comr. Wisnu Prasetyo said the students, MA, MZ, RS and HT had been taken to the police station for further questioning.

Wisnu said the students broke into the locked classroom through the window. They took out all books from the cupboard and set them on fire inside the classroom, he said.

Police did not detain the students, as they are underage.

Currently, the case is being handled by our women and child protection unit, Wisnu said. (dmr)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Bank Indonesia ( BI ) has prepared Rp160 trillion (US$11.7 billion) in cash to replace worn-out notes and meet an expected surge in demand for currency during the fasting month Ramadan and Idul Fitri festivities.

The figure is a 14.5 percent increase from last year's Rp 124 trillion.



BI head of communications Tirta Segara said the central bank would utilize its branch offices throughout Indonesia and cooperate with 20 commercial banks to distribute the money.



"The 14.5 percent growth is projected because we will see longer holidays over this year's Ramadan and Idul FItri. The festivities will also coincide with school holidays and holiday allowance payment for civil servants, so we expect people will use more money," Tirta said in Jakarta on Wednesday.



He added that more than 60 percent of the money would be distributed in Java, while the remainder would be distributed outside Java.

He also said that the central bank had expanded its distribution in Jakarta, from 80 distribution points to 200 points, and would cooperate with 20 banks. "Last year, we cooperated with 13 banks," Tirta said. (dmr)
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang, Central Java  Thu, June 2, 2016

Indonesian people must stay on guard against gang rape, a growing phenomenon across Indonesia, a National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas PA) commissioner has said.

Komnas PA chairman Arist Merdeka Sirait said gang rape perpetrators were not only adults but also children.

The latest gang rape incident, which affected a 12-year-old girl who was still in sixth grade at elementary school, has shocked our society. Earlier, a similar case occurred in Bengkulu, affecting a junior high school student, who later died. Other cases occurred in Tangerang [Banten], North Sumatra, Pemalang [Central Java] and several other areas across Indonesia. We must fight against this crime, said Arist after he met with six suspect perpetrators of a gang rape at the Semarang Police station in Semarang, Central Java, on Wednesday.

Arist said he had also met with the female victim, who was reportedly raped on three separate occasions between May 7 and May 21. He said the victim, who just finished her final exams, was getting better.

Citing a recent statement from President Joko Jokowi Widodos, the Komnas PA chairman said sex crimes were extraordinary crimes.

This crime attracts a base sentence of minimum 10 years in prison and maximum 20 years. That sentence can be increased to life imprisonment. If the sex crime is planned and involves a premeditated murder, the perpetrator might be sentenced to death, said Arist.

Violations of Article 82 of the 2002 Child Protection Law carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison for sex crimes and 5 years at a minimum. With the President's recent amendment of the law, a sex crime perpetrator now faces a minimum 10-year imprisonment.

The Semarang Police have compiled three case dossiers for six suspects allegedly involved in the rape of the 12-year-old girl. The police said they were ready to hand over their case dossiers to the Semarang Prosecutor's Office so the case could be brought to trial at the Semarang District Court.

The six suspects have been identified as Wahyu, 38, Lutfi, 18, Johan, 18, Iq, 16, Rif, 16, and Ir, 16.

The Semarang Polices deputy chief for crimes and investigation, Comr. Sukiyono, said the police were still pursuing two other suspects. One of the suspects, identified only as Naim, reportedly introduced the suspects to the girl.

Arist said that from his conversation with the suspects, he learned that they all raped the victim, each having sexual intercourse repeatedly with her, and for each time they each paid Rp 20,000 (US$1.46) to Naim.

Commenting on the finding, Sukiyono said: "We will investigate it further to find whether there was a human trafficking aspect in this case. (ebf)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Bank Indonesia has called for the development of smart cities throughout the country in a bid to boost the economy amid a fast-growing population and low quality urbanization.

According to the United Nations World Urbanization Prospects (2014), the Indonesian population grew at a faster rate than the global population. While the global population recorded annual growth of 1.27 percent, Indonesias population grew 1.35 percent per year.

Likewise, the country's urban population grew 3.51 percent annually, higher than the global urban population, which increased 2.24 percent per year. Unfortunately, in Indonesia high urban growth has not led to stronger economic growth.

BI director of economic and monetary policy Arief Hartawan said the amount of infrastructure in a city should make individuals and companies increase productivity, innovation, business and economic growth.

"It means we need to improve the quality of urbanization in the future, since we are no better than the Philippines [] One thing that we must push is electronic-based urban development," Arief said in Jakarta on Thursday.

In Indonesia, 1 percent of urbanization accounts for only 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, according to a 2012 World Bank report. In Thailand, Vietnam and India it contributes 10 percent, 8 percent and 6 percent GDP per capita, respectively.

Most people who migrate to the cities in Indonesia, Arief further said, are unskilled workers whereas skilled worker preferred to live in other areas or countries.

As part of efforts to accelerate development in urban areas and their surroundings, as well as to develop smart cities and a stronger e-commerce industry, BI will hold a coordination meeting with the central government and local administrations on June 2.

BI head of the Jakarta region Doni P Joewono added that the central bank and the Jakarta administrative would also hold a "smart money, smart city festival" to make Jakartans more familiar with non-cash transactions.

"We will launch a multi-function card, Jakarta One, as Jakarta smart city card tomorrow, he said.

BI director Pungky Purnomo Wibowo said the card could be used to access public services in Jakarta, as well as to support Jakarta administration programs. "The Jakarta One card is designed as a media identity, electronic money and as a savings account," he said. (ags)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

The central bank has reiterated its commitment to continue efforts to strengthen monetary resiliency in the wake of Standard and Poor's (S&P) decision to keep Indonesias sovereign rating unchanged at BB+ with a positive outlook..

In its latest report published Wednesday, the global ratings agency said Indonesia had managed to improve its policy and institutional settings including a better fiscal framework, credible monetary policy and buoyant economic growth.

Responding to S&P, Bank Indonesia governor Agus Martowardojo said the central bank would keep a number of measures in place to strengthen resiliency, including issuance of a regulation on the prudential principle in the management of external debt for non-bank corporations.

In addition, BI adopted a more flexible exchange rate in line with its fundamental values, while maintaining adequate foreign exchange reserves and provision as the second line of defense at the bilateral, regional and global levels.

"Efforts to improve fiscal revenue are continuously taken by the government amid infrastructure financing needs while taking into consideration fiscal prudence and the impact on macroeconomic and financial stability," Agus said in Jakarta on Thursday.

He also pointed out the governments measures on structural reforms through a series of policy packages to stimulate economic growth in a bid to achieve healthy, sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

These structural reforms are expected to have a positive impact on Indonesias economy in the medium and long term. "Indonesia is seeing more favorable economic growth than peer countries," Agus added.

According to S&P, the improvement in the fiscal framework should improve the quality of public expenditure and lead to more predictable fiscal outcomes. "However, fiscal performance has not improved in tandem for cyclical and structural reasons," the report said.

S&P highlighted that the rating, slightly below investment grade rating of BBB, could be upgraded if improvements in institutional settings, particularly the fiscal framework, delivered better-quality spending, a declining deficit, moderate government debt and limited fiscal liabilities.

On the opposite end, Indonesia's outlook may be downgraded to stable if problems in the banking or public enterprise sector are left unaddressed, reform momentum slows or stalls, fiscal metrics do not improve or the trend in weakening external liquidity does not abate.

S&P had previously improved the outlook of Indonesia from stable to positive and affirmed the Sovereign Credit Rating at BB+ on May 21, 2015.

Earlier this month, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo asked his Cabinet to focus not only on the ease of doing business, but also to strive for investment rating upgrade to improve the perception of Indonesia in the global economy.

"We must get the investment grade rating to expand Indonesia's access to international financial markets. I want to see several measures on economic, fiscal and monetary policies so that we can attain an investment grade," he said in a limited meeting on May 9.

Other global rating agencies, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, have given Indonesia an investment grade rating. Moodys maintained the credit rating at Baa3 with a stable outlook in January while Fitch gave Indonesia a BBB- rating with a stable outlook in January 2012.

It was the first investment grade rating given by Fitch after 14 years. (ags)

Contributor: Anton Hermansyah
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Comr. Gen. Tito Karnavian has called on Indonesia's most wanted terrorist, Santoso, and his fellow guerillas to come out of hiding for the sake of public security amid the ongoing Operation Tinombala in Poso regency, Central Sulawesi.

Santoso's terrorist group, the East Indonesia Mujahidin, has caused public unease following the deployment of thousands of security personnel involved in the manhunt for his capture, Tito said on Thursday.

"We hope they will come down from the mountain, not surrender, for the sake of the people," he said in Jakarta as quoted by Antara news agency.

Santoso and his followers are being hunted down by security personnel, who have cut their access to supplies, Tito said. The group's members have been reduced to only 22 people as some have been arrested or killed in shootouts with security personnel.

"If the group's members really care for the people, they must come down and face legal procedures with big hearts," said the former Jakarta Police chief.

At least 3,500 joint police and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel have been deployed in Operation Tinombala, which began in January, to capture Santoso, aka Abu Wardah, and his followers, who are believed to be hiding in Poso forests.

The government has intensified Operation Tinombala as well as used persuasive measures in a bid to bring an end to Santoso's alleged reign of terror. No deadline has been set for the operation to end.

Despite fewer members and a lack of supplies, Tito acknowledged that there had been challenges in capturing Santoso and his group, particularly the difficult terrain.

Poso's mountainous terrain and thickly forested areas has hampered the movement of thousands of security personnel in sweeping the area in search of the group's members, who have allegedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group. (rin)
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Linkedin Evi Mariani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta/Yogyakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

After a sexual abuse case at University of Indonesias (UI) School of Law emerged in 2008, several lecturers at the school, mostly women, realized the campus needed stronger legal mechanisms to protect their students and colleagues from predators.

The reported lecturer was dismissed for good as an academic at the state university, while other lecturers who helped the victims, decided in 2011 to establish a legal clinic dedicated to women and children.

But not all campuses realize that one report of abuse does not mean it was only a one-off. One reported case means there are many more that go unreported, Lidwina Inge Nurtjahjo, head of the women and children law clinic, told The Jakarta Post. The system actually allows such things to happen again and again.

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Linkedin Catherine Lucey (Associated Press) Washington  Thu, June 2, 2016

Hillary Clinton is set to unleash a major foreign policy attack on Donald Trump, using a speech in San Diego to cast the Republican as unqualified and dangerous.

The former secretary of state, who has repeatedly called Trump a "loose cannon," will seek Thursday to contrast her foreign policy experience with Trump's. Foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan said Clinton would make clear how high the stakes are in the race, as well as share her "larger vision of who we are, what we're all about as a country."

"She is going to make clear why Donald Trump is simply unqualified to be commander in chief," Sullivan said, adding that the speech "will go into specifics in a very direct and clear way about what makes Donald Trump unfit, both in terms of temperament and ideas. This is as full-throated and full-bodied a case as you will have seen from anyone on the danger that Donald Trump poses."

During an appearance in Newark, New Jersey Wednesday, Clinton assailed Trump over his past statements, criticizing him for proposing to ban Muslims from entering the country, for advocating the use of torture and for saying other countries should acquire nuclear weapons.

"This is not just divisive rhetoric, my friends, this is dangerous," Clinton said. "What he has already said has given aid and comfort to terrorists."

Clinton and Trump offer starkly different visions of US foreign policy. Clinton's detail-oriented proposals reflect the traditional approach of both major parties. Despite differences on some issues, such as the Iraq war and Iran, Democratic and Republican presidents have been generally consistent on policies affecting China, Russia, North Korea, nuclear proliferation, trade, alliances and many other issues.

Trump says US foreign policy has failed. His strong-man "America first" approach is short on details, but appeals to the emotions of angry voters who believe that successive leaders have weakened the country, made it vulnerable to terrorism and have been duped into bad trade deals that have cost American jobs.

Trump accused Clinton of lying about his foreign policy plans at a rally at an airport hangar in Sacramento, California, Wednesday night.

"She lies. She made a speech and she's making another one tomorrow. And they sent me a copy of the speech and it was such lies about my foreign policy," Trump said.

"They said I want Japan ... to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break," he objected. "I want Japan and Germany and Saudi Arabia and South Korea and many of the NATO nations  they owe us tremendous. We're taking care of all these people. And what I want them to do is pay up."

Trump has suggested in the past that he might be OK with Japan one day obtaining nuclear weapons.

Clinton's campaign hopes her foreign policy experience will appeal to voters who may be wary of Trump's bombastic style and lack of international experience. They hope those points, combined with Trump's controversial statements about women and minorities, will give Clinton opportunities with independent and moderate Republican voters.

In recent days, Clinton has criticized Trump over his past business practices, his recent promises to raise money for veterans and his now defunct education company, Trump University. On Wednesday Clinton called Trump a "fraud" and said the real estate mogul had taken advantage of vulnerable Americans.

Trump has pushed back against the critiques. On the education company, he has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings.

While Clinton is stressing her concerns about Trump, she is still dealing with her primary race. Clinton needs just 71 more delegates from states voting Tuesday to win the Democratic primary, but is dealing with an increasingly tough fight with rival Bernie Sanders in California, where the Vermont senator is gaining in polling. Clinton plans to be in California though Monday as she seeks to avoid a primary loss there.
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Linkedin Evi Mariani (The Jakarta Post)  Thu, June 2 2016

Many victims of abuse seek help in a broken condition and with a crushed self-esteem and it is sometimes hard for those who want to help them to understand the victims indecision or inconsistency in pursuing justice.

Lawyer Kamal Firdaus has so far received the confidence of two students who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of their lecturers at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta.

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Linkedin Rendi A. Witular (The Jakarta Post) Ranai, Riau Islands  Thu, June 2, 2016

The captain of fishing vessel Gui Bei Yu 27088 has admitted to having repeatedly entered Indonesia for poaching before being caught by the Indonesian Navy last week.

Ziang Tuang Chean said he was aware that he had been operating in Indonesias exclusive economic zone ( EEZ ) in the South China Sea, and that he was forced to fish there because it was among the few remaining places that still held an enormous amount of fishery resources.

"It was my third time fishing in the area before being caught by the Indonesian Navy," said Ziang through his interpreter on Thursday.

"I am aware that I had operated in Indonesian waters. There are still many fish there compared to other places," he said, adding that it took him around a week to arrive in Natuna from Guangxi, China.

The Navy seized the vessel and arrested its eight crew members on May 27 after it entered the resource-rich Natuna area off the northwest coast of Kalimantan for alleged poaching.



The Navy said the arrests should serve as a warning to the world that the Indonesian military would not tolerate any breach of Indonesian sovereignty by foreign vessels.



Ziang and his crew are currently detained in a cell at a naval command base in Ranai, Riau Islands.

"We were forced to detain them because they resisted arrest, and we're afraid they may cause nuisance," said Ranai Navy commander Col. Arif Badrudin.

Only the captain, chief mechanic and fishmaster will face prosecution for the violations while the remaining crew will be sent home. (dmr)
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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

For Tisha Dewi Langgani, 37, a resident of Pluit, North Jakarta, it is such relieving news to know that people can now renew their identity cards without recommendation from community unit (RW) and neighborhood unit (RT) heads.

She had this opinion because her RT head seemed to be the busiest man in the neighborhood, she told The Jakarta Post.

It is very difficult to see my RT head just to ask for a recommendation letter. He always says he is busy, Tisha said. The last time [I had to ask him for a recommendation], I had to leave the application form at his house, where I received the letter two weeks later.

Tisha further questions the function of her RT head in her neighborhood as he rarely engages with residents.

I dont think he knows how many family members I have without seeing my ID card, Tisha added. He only comes to my house to collect Independence Day or Idul Fitri celebration contributions.

Hence, she doubts that her RT head will be able to play an assisting role in her neighborhood as argued by Jakarta Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama recently.

RT and RW heads, in Ahoks opinion, have to focus on supervising their neighborhoods, instead of merely assisting with administrative matters.

RT and RW should know when children are not in school or when mothers are expecting babies, as well as if the elderly are not getting their health regularly checked. Hence, they should be able to help residents make decisions, Ahok said.

In consideration of this, Ahok has implemented a policy obliging RT and RW heads to report daily three times on their neighborhood through a government monitoring application, Qlue.

Every report by a RT head will be paid Rp 10,000 (US$73 cents), while a RW head will receive Rp 12,500 per report.

Aside from the fee, according to the 2016 Gubernatorial Decree on guidance of RT and RW heads duty and function in Jakarta, communitylevel heads also receive a Rp 900,000 honorarium and a Rp 75,000 operational fund, while a Rp 1,125,000 honorarium and an operational fund of Rp 75,000 is also granted to neighborhood-level heads.

The policy to report, however, aroused objections from many RT and RW heads in the capital, who consider the regulation burdening for a job that is not their main occupation. They also found the fee for each report insulting given the low amount.

While protests occurred regarding the fees amount, Gunadi Wijayanto, 28, was more concerned about RT and RW heads being incapable of using current communication technologies, like his RT head in Pondok Kopi, East Jakarta.

My RT head is already 60 years old and he has been in his position for more than 10 years. No one is willing to substitute him because of their own busy lives, Gunadi said. He is rarely on standby by his phone, which can only text and call, as technology is such a burden for him.

The administration, hence, should figure out solutions for elderly RT and RW heads not able to operate the current technologies, added Gunadi, who felt workshops familiarizing them with the Qlue app could be a solution.

We [residents] are thankful for having a RT head like him as no one else is willing to be in his position. Its a waste to burden him with such reporting tasks, Gunadi added.
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Linkedin Fadli (The Jakarta Post) Batam  Thu, June 2 2016

The government needs to issue a diplomatic note to Singapore to protest against a Singaporean companys claim of ownership and renaming of an island for commercial purposes, a former minister has said.

Former maritime affairs and fisheries minister Rohmin Dahuri said the government, through the foreign ministry, should take the issue up with Singapore.

He said Singapore-based developer Funtasy Island Development Pte. Ltd. had made Air Manis Island in Batam an exclusive resort and renamed it.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

The Jakarta Small and Medium Enterprises Cooperatives Agency (UMKMP) plans to hold bazaars in four low-cost rental apartments (rusunawa) and a residential area in Jakarta in order to help low-income residents buy basic necessities amid pre-Ramadhan price hikes.

UMKMP head Irwandi said on Wednesday that the four apartments were Rawa Bebek in East Jakarta, Dakota in Central Jakarta, Muara Baru in North Jakarta and Tambora in West Jakarta. The residential area that will host a bazaar is Setu Babakan in South Jakarta, he added.

The price of goods will be cheaper, he said. Irwandi said the price of sugar at the bazaars would only be Rp 12,000 (88 US Cents) per kilogram while the normal price was Rp 15,000, and the price of cooking oil would decrease from Rp 12,500 to Rp 11,000.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

The Kebayoran Baru Police have named a 36-year-old man, identified only as SNT, a suspect of a theft and assault that occurred at the North Gandaria subdistrict office, Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, where the man worked as a contract worker.

He was caught red-handed while committing burglary and he assaulted a witness, Kamal, who is currently in a coma, Kebayoran Baru Police precinct head Adj. Sr. Comr. Ary Purwanto said Wednesday as quoted by beritajakarta.com.

He added that the police received a tip-off that there was a man lying down on the street near the subdistrict office. When we came to the scene, we found a severely wounded man and around 20 meters from him we also found a number of PCs and other devices covered by leaves, Ary said.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Hard-line Islamic groups and a number of retired army generals plan to hold a rally in front of the State Palace on Friday to protest the government's efforts to bring about reconciliation for the victims of 1965 tragedy.

The rally will start after Friday prayers at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Central Jakarta, from where protestors will conduct a long march to the State Palace, Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) patron Muhammad Rizieq Shihab said on Wednesday.

We want to go to the State Palace because it is the source of problems. The palace has been trying to find a formulation of reconciliation," Rizieq said during a national symposium entitled Protecting Pancasila from the Threat of the Indonesian Communist Party [PKI] and Other Ideologies in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Furthermore, Rizieq also slammed thhe "government's plan to apologize to the PKI", even though no detail has yet emerged from President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration on how to resolve the 1965 political conflict and bloodshed.

The official reconciliation is also a waste of time as the survivors and victims have been through a natural reconciliation within the society, he added.

That means that they have got their rights in terms of civil society, economy and politics. So why would we open old wounds? he said referring among others to the removal of the label "political prisoner" on the identity cards of former political detainees and the restoration of their electoral rights.

Still, survivors and their descendants have reported continued stigma and discrimination.

Meanwhile, symposium coordinator Kiki Syahnakri said that hundreds of fellow retired Army generals would also join the rally.

They are old and could easily catch a cold. But for this matter, we are ready to die, he said at the event.

At least 300 retired military generals are involved as organizers of the symposium that was also attended by several mass organizations.

The event was set up to challenge the Symposium titled "Dissecting the 1965 Tragedy" held in April as participants said they were not satisfied with the previous event. The national symposium on the 1965 tragedy brought together victims and families of the 1965 communist purge, human rights activists, academics and state officials to discuss how to settle the dark chapter in Indonesian history.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said on Monday that he welcomed the Symposium on protecting Pancasila initiated by retired generals as it would also provide input for the government to make a decision on settling past human rights abuses.

The kidnapping and murder of six Army generals on Sept.30, 1965, led to the purge of PKI members, sympathizers and their families, resulting in hundreds of thousands of victims across the country, with at least 500,000 people killed during the massacres in 1965 and 1966.

Soeharto seized power in 1966 with the controversial March 11 Indonesian Presidential Executive Order (Supersemar). The 1966 Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) banned the dissemination of communism, Leninism and Marxism in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, retired army general Kivlan Zein claimed that he had found indications that the PKI would soon be revived, echoing fears stated by among others Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu. The indications range from the spread of communist symbols to the gathering of leftist activists recently. The PKI had also renovated its old office in Jakarta as part of preparations for the revival, he said.

They are ready to proclaim themselves once again in 2017, soon after the government apologizes to them, Kivlan said.

Before they become strong, we must hit them hard.

Activists have cited several instances of disrupted discussions and other events on 1965, raids on books and even T-shirts.

Dave Lumenta, an anthropologist at the University of Indonesia (UI), said that most people had no access to the countrys history except the lesson materials taught in schools.

Hence, the single narrative of the 1965 mass killings provided by the government has formed collective memories among people that communists were only brutal atheists, he said in an interview in May. (vps)
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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

The House of Representatives has passed the revision of the 2015 Regional Elections (Pilkada) Law into law despite the rejection of two political party factions over an article on the mandatory resignation of legislators who want to run for regional head positions.

In a plenary meeting on Thursday, a report on the results of the Pilkada bill deliberation, read out by the chairman of House Commission II overseeing home affairs, Rambe Kamarulzaman, was met with interruptions from three factions  the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Gerindra Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Two main concerns plagued the deliberation of the draft Pilkada law, namely the minimum amount of support required for independent candidates and a mandatory resignation issue.

Rambe said all party factions had in fact demanded that legislators running for regional head positions not be required to resign. During the deliberations, however, only Gerindra and the PKS provided notes on the mandatory resignation article in the bill.

Commission II deputy chairman Al Muzzamil Yusuf said that during the deliberations, the PKS reiterated its stance, saying members of the House, Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) should not have to resign from their jobs if they wanted to run as a regional head candidate. The party opposed the mandatory resignation, which is stipulated in Constitutional Court ruling No. 33/2015.

The Islamic-based party reiterated that any lawmakers intending to run in regional elections should simply file a leave of absence request, instead of resigning.

"If the idea of mandatory resignation is based on worries that they [legislators] will abuse their authority as state officials, regional leaders are more prone to abuses of power than House, DPD and DPRD members," Al Muzzamil said.

Meanwhile, the PAN faction highlighted during the meeting an exception for an article in the draft law detailing ex-convicts deemed eligible to run in regional elections.

PAN faction secretary Yandri Susanto said the draft bill stipulated the prohibition of drug and sex crime convicts running in regional elections.

Meanwhile, Gerindra highlighted the minimum percentage of votes a political party needed to obtain to endorse a regional leader candidate, which was reduced to between 15 and 20 percent, from 20 to 25 percent previously. The lower percentage will give greater opportunities for regional leaders to propose regional candidates.

Similar to the PKS' stance, Gerindra said state officials and legislators should only be required to submit a leave of absence request in order to run in regional elections.

The concerns contributed to the House's failure to endorse the revised law in its plenary meeting at the end of April. (ebf)
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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

The House of Representatives is set to complete the deliberation of the tax amnesty bill and pass it into a law in the middle of June, a lawmaker has said.

House Commission XI overseeing finance and banking chairman Ahmadi Noor Supit said it was expected that the tax amnesty draft law could be passed into law in a plenary meeting set for June 16.

"I'm certain we can finish deliberating the bill. We're striving to create one voice. In the end, it all depends on the government's readiness," the Golkar Party lawmaker told journalists on Wednesday.

The House's working unit deliberating the bill has been synchronizing the controversial bill with a government team in closed meetings for two weeks.

However, the deliberation of the bill itself is still in the preliminary stage, in which the House lawmakers discuss the bills key points, which are divided into several clusters.

The House has said it is still waiting for the government's explanation on several issues, such as on the implementation of several articles and the preparedness of investment instruments that would accept asset repatriations.

The government has high hopes for the repatriations.

Finance Minister Bambang S. Brodjonegoro previously targeted government earnings of Rp 180 trillion (US$13.16 billion) from repatriations if the bill was passed. The Finance Ministry recorded 6,519 Indonesia citizens living abroad.

Speaking separately, House Deputy Speaker Agus Hermanto, however, said that the amount of funds collected with the passing of the bill remained unknown.

"We must have certainty on the impacts, human rights protections, and all good governance-related aspects from the tax amnesty implementation," said the Democratic Party politician.

The House failed to meet its initial target of passing the bill into a law in its previous sitting session, which ended on April 29.

Supit said Commission XI would start working on the revised 2016 state budget next week. Deliberations on the tax amnesty bill will be completed prior to the revised state budget, he added.

In the tax amnesty bill, the government offers tax breaks to individuals and companies who declare their untaxed wealth.

Separately, the government plans to revise the state budget to a more realistic figure, including its tax revenue target.

For the 2016 state budget, the total tax revenue target is currently set at Rp 1.36 quadrillion, or 28.2 percent higher than the Rp 1.06 quadrillion achieved in 2015. (ebf)




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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

House of Representatives Commission VIII overseeing religious and social affairs is set to meet with representatives of the Culture and Education Ministry and the Religious Affairs Ministry to discuss a more concerted effort to combat sex crimes, says a lawmaker.

Commission VIII chairman Ali Taher Parasong said on Wednesday that an exact date for the work meeting with the two ministries had yet to be set.

Earlier, two House lawmakers expressed the need to involve the education and religious ministries in the deliberation of the sexual violence eradication bill.

They were speaking in a work meeting between Commission III and two ministers, Womens Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise and Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, as well as Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) chairman Asrorun Niam Sholeh on Monday.

The meeting highlighted the need for the government to be swifter in handling sex crimes involving children. Several political party factions called for greater involvement from the two ministries in the sexual violence bill.

Golkar Party lawmaker Endang Srikarti Handayani and Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Samsu Niang deemed it important to involve the two ministries in formulating measures to prevent sex crimes.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Commission VIII deputy chairman Ledia Hanifah Amalia slammed the Religious Affairs Ministrys antipornography divisions very slow action.

We all know pornographic content can trigger sex crimes and such content is easily accessed by those under the age of 17, said the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker.

Ali pointed out the need for cross-sector cooperation to implement regulations in the fight against sex crimes.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo signed a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on sexual violence against children on May 25.

The Perppu stipulates harsher sanctions and additional punishments for sexual abuse convicts, such as chemical castration for child rapists. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

In the wake of a public outcry to resolve past human rights abuse cases, retired Army general Kiki Syahnakri has said Indonesians must learn to move on as nothing good comes from opening old wounds.

Kiki compared the 1965 tragedy with the 1948 Madiun affair, a failed armed insurrection by the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

In 1948, the victims were Muslims and Indonesian soldiers. But, we, the current generation of Muslims and the military never discuss the past ferocity of PKI, he said during the national symposium titled Protecting Pancasila from Threats of PKI and Other Ideologies in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Hence, Kiki questioned 1965 survivors and victims whom have called on the government to apologize for violating their human rights.

That is so wrong, he said, As what this country needs is to forget the past and look forward to the future.

We dont need to open old wounds.

The kidnapping and murder of six Army generals on Sept. 30, 1965, led to the purge of PKI members, sympathizers and their families, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands across the country.

The two-day national symposium, held in April, titled "Dissecting the 1965 Tragedy", brought forth recommendations for the government to resolve the 1965 case. The symposium brought together victims and families of the 1965 communist purge, human rights activists, academics and state officials.

However, several retired Army generals were displeased by the event and organized a counter symposium on Wednesday and Thursday, involving a few hundred retired officers and several mass organizations.

I have heard that President Joko Widodo will officially say sorry to [1965 survivors] on Independence Day [observed on Aug. 17], said retired Army general Kivlan Zein during the second day of the symposium in Jakarta on Thursday.

We cant let that happen, he added.

Meanwhile, Haryono, spokesman of Lembaga Perjuangan Rehabilitasi Korban Orde Baru, an NGO working for the rehabilitation of New Order regime victims, said during the April symposium that it was important for the government to apologize.

We dont want to re-raise communism in Indonesia. We just ask the President to engage in reconciliation, said Haryono.

Furthermore, Kiki also said that the latest symposium might recommend the government to gather those two opposing sides in order to find an ideal resolution. (vps/bbn)
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Linkedin Dylan Amirio and Esther Samboh (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

The nations second-largest telecommunications operator, Indosat Ooredoo, owned by Qatars Ooredo Group, is allocating a large share of its revenue for expansion as it eyes a big leap in income from data in the next three years.



Indosat has an annual budget of Rp 7 trillion (US$511 million) to Rp 8 trillion for capital expenditure, representing around 30 percent of its revenue. That is the highest revenue proportion that parent company Ooredo allows its subsidiary to invest, compared with around 14 percent in other countries where it operates, said Waleed Mohamed Al-Sayed, deputy CEO for the Ooredoo Group.



Were spending more on Indonesia because of the size of the country. If things get better then hopefully we can spend more on increasing our networks capacity and speed. These are the streams that we want to improve in, focusing on strengthening our data services, said Al-Sayed, who is also Indosat Ooredos president commissioner.



The capital expenditure will be mostly spent on further expanding the coverage of Indosats 4G network, which currently covers 27 cities, and also increasing the rollout of its fiber optic service.



Indonesian telcos are riding a data consumption wave as the number of internet users in the country is expected to triple to 280 million by 2030, from 93.4 million in 2015. Internet penetration reached almost 40 percent last year from only 4 percent a decade ago.



Other telcos such as XL Axiata have begun to gradually decrease space for voice networks on broadcast spectrums to make way for 4G networks.



Indosat Ooredoos data revenue is expected to exceed 50 percent this year, from 46 percent of 2015s revenue of Rp 26.76 trillion, president director Alexander Rusli said.



It will reach 90 percent in no time, maybe in the next three to four years, Al-Sayed added.



Indosat Ooredo, which was acquired by Ooredoo Group and rebranded from Indosat in November last year, saw a positive financial performance in the first quarter of this year, after suffering losses in the past few years over foreign exchange (forex) losses despite growth in revenues backed by a data boost.



The company booked Rp 217.2 billion net profit in the January-March period of this year, a significant reverse from Rp 455.6 billion losses in the same period last year as revenue grew 11.8 percent to Rp 6.8 trillion.



A 52.5 percent surge in data traffic to 60,814 terabytes in the first quarter year-on-year (yoy) explained the business growth, as well as a 54.7 percent drop in costs to Rp 477.3 billion. The company also made Rp 330 billion in forex gains in the first three months of this year, compared with Rp 717.6 billion forex loss in the same period last year.



Going forward, Indosat Ooredoo will also focus on cost efficiency measures to keep up its positive financial performance seen in the first quarter of 2016, with a partnership in the pipeline with XL Axiata on tower infrastructure sharing.



By doing so, it could potentially reduce Indosat Ooredoos usual cost allocation for tower renting, which currently takes up almost 80 percent of the companys costs.



Together we will build a business plan [with XL], but its still too early to talk about this yet. However, any reduction of that 80 percent is considered significant, Waleed said.



Shares in Indosat Ooredoo, which has Rp 35.7 trillion market capitalization, traded at Rp 6,550 apiece on Wednesday. The stocks have risen 19 percent so far this year, outperforming the broader benchmark Jakarta Composite Indexs (JCI) 5 percent gain.

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Linkedin Arya Dipa and Ina Parlina (The Jakarta Post) Bandung and Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

In a bold move to promote tolerance as one of the countrys foundations, President Joko Jokowi Widodo established on Wednesday that June 1 marked the birth of Pancasila and constituted a national holiday.

The announcement was made in Bandung, West Java, during an event held by the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) to commemorate the date 71 years ago when first president Sukarno made a speech describing Pancasila as the ideology that would be used to build a new nation.

Pancasila, which became the countrys ideology upon independence, consists of five principles  divinity, humanism, nationalism, consensual decision-making and social justice.

Commemorating the founding of Pancasila was previously banned by the government under the leadership of former president Soeharto. His New Order regime instead promoted Pancasila Sanctity Day every Oct. 1 to mark the defeat of communism.

Recalling various experiences during his overseas trips since taking office in late 2014, Jokowi said he had found that many countries had begun to lose confidence in diversity amid growing radicalism and terrorism.

Jokowi said he was grateful to have Pancasila as the national ideology.

With Pancasila as the nations ideology, there is no reason for us not to be optimistic. We must be optimistic in facing the future; we must believe that we can overcome all problems as we are becoming a better nation, he said during the event held at the historical Merdeka Building in Bandung.

The bottom line is that Pancasila is the state ideology; this is the highest position in a country. So, we decided to declare June 1 a national holiday for the birth of Pancasila, Jokowi told reporters after the event, which was also attended by political party elites including Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chair and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Other than presidential spokesman Johan Budi, who mentioned Jokowis plan to name June 1 a national holiday, the State Palace has been tight-lipped on rumors that the Presidents decision was made in favor of Megawati, one of the daughters of Sukarno, who was forced to leave his presidency during a political crisis in 1965.

Last year, Megawati called on the government to declare June 1 a national day to remember the founding of Pancasila. Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the countrys largest Islamic organization, also recently asked Jokowi to declare the date as the anniversary of Pancasila.

In an emotional speech, Megawati said that without Pancasila, there would be no such thing as the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia, as Pancasila was not merely the nations ideology, but also a tool that unified the nation. Therefore, she added, the country should commemorate the founding of Pancasila.

Happy anniversary of Pancasila; let the nation rise with the spirit of Pancasila, she said. Lets make the Pancasila of June 1, 1945, the way of life for our nation, to keep moving forward, she said, her voice shaking as she held back tears.

However, questions remain whether declaring a national holiday will increase peoples awareness and promote the values of Pancasila.

The country has been confronted recently with unresolved matters from the past regarding the communist purge in 1965 that scarred the nation, as well as the growing threat of radicalism and terrorism.

Jokowi said the government and MPR would follow up on the decision by drafting a mechanism to implement the values of Pancasila in peoples daily lives.
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

A number of religious leaders proposed on Wednesday that lawmakers include a deradicalization strategy in the ongoing amendment of a terrorism law.

During a hearing with the House of Representatives special committee on the bill, Rev. Agus Ulahayanan from the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) said the law was currently only focusing on repressive measures against terrorism.

Repressive actions can lead to human rights abuses, Agus said.

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Linkedin Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

Being gay in a religious neighborhood in Indonesia is certainly tough, but Hendro Yudistira faces even tougher odds. He has been living as a gay man and deaf person in a judgmental and ignorant community for 38 years.



Hendro was born deaf and was sexually abused by a male servant at his house when he was 3 years old. He was too afraid to talk about the abuse to his parents or to report the incident to the police because none of his neighbors could fully understand what it is like to be deaf.



For years, he received devastating stigma, being called a source of disease by neighbors due to his homosexuality. As a deaf man he had nobody to talk to about how to have safe homosexual sex.



I came to a point where I found out that my movements were restricted because people thought that as a gay person I spread diseases. No one told me how to use a condom, which is important, until I connected with an NGO working in the HIV and AIDS sector, who told me how to do so, Hendro testified during a minority group forum at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Wednesday.



Now a member of the Indonesian Deaf Peoples Welfare Movement (Gerkatin), Hendro said people who were deaf and gay faced a double burden of suffering in society, especially at schools and universities, because most people tended to have negative views about them.



My message to LGBT people is this: Go have yourselves tested for HIV/AIDS to ensure that you are OK and have not contracted [HIV AIDS], he said.



He has one simple wish: that the suffering he has endured for being deaf and a gay will not happen to others. He hopes Komnas HAM will launch further public awareness campaigns.



As well as facing stigma, gay people are also denied access to religious education. Mohamad Safiq, 25, was expelled from a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Brebes regency, Central Java, after a teacher found out about his sexual tendencies.



I had to give up on my goal: being able to read the Kitab Kuning [Islamic classical textbooks written in Arabic]. I have nowhere to study the Kitab Kuning now, said Safiq, who grew up in an Islamic family.



He became more frustrated about his sexuality after witnessing local people forcefully kick out a transgender person from a mosque while the person was praying in male clothing



Why did that mosque become a place where a persons right to pray to God was violated? It scares me, Safiq said, calling on Komnas HAM to step up social campaigns with regard to the rights of homosexuals to pray and receive religious education.



Transgender people are arrested on the street by security officers and when they want to get closer to their God they are also expelled. We need a safe place, Safiq added.



Rina Prasarani, a campaigner with the Indonesian Blind Union (Pertuni), said many members of the organization suffered discrimination when it came to praying at mosques.



In addition to difficulties faced by friends who use wheelchairs to access mosques, some friends also have experiences like this: They go to a mosque to pray but people give them money [because they think they are beggars]. This kind of image is well established in society, but the state never corrects it. Rather, its lack of addressing [the stereotypes] only serves to justify them, Rina said.



This violence-without-violence stigma is an effective way to kill peoples character. Its impact stays with a person forever, Rina added.



Komnas HAM commissioner Muhammad Nurkhoiron said LGBT people were at the top of the list of persecuted minority groups in Indonesia, given the widespread stigma that LGBT people faced.



We can say that attacks on LGBT people come from almost all directions, Nurkhoirun.



As part of Wednesdays forum to hear directly from minority groups about the suffering they face, Komnas HAM officially identified five types of minority groups that the government should prioritize in formulating policy in the future.



The five types are sexual orientation and identity minorities, racial minorities, ethnic minorities, disability-based minorities and religious and faith-based minorities.



The Commission will later put all minority groups in Indonesia into one of the five types in order to help identify their needs so that there will be no ambiguous terminology used to describe minority groups in any future government policies.

______________________________

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Linkedin Haeril Halim (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Being gay in a religious neighborhood in Indonesia is certainly tough, but Hendro Yudistira faces even tougher odds. He has been living as a gay man and deaf person in a judgmental and ignorant community for 38 years.

Hendro was born deaf and was sexually abused by a male servant at his house when he was 3 years old. He was too afraid to talk about the abuse to his parents or to report the incident to the police because none of his neighbors could fully understand what it is like to be deaf.

For years, he received devastating stigma, being called a source of disease by neighbors due to his homosexuality. As a deaf man he had nobody to talk to about how to have safe homosexual sex.

I came to a point where I found out that my movements were restricted because people thought that as a gay person I spread diseases. No one told me how to use a condom, which is important, until I connected with an NGO working in the HIV and AIDS sector, who told me how to do so, Hendro testified during a minority group forum at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Wednesday.

Now a member of the Indonesian Deaf Peoples Welfare Movement (Gerkatin), Hendro said people who were deaf and gay faced a double burden of suffering in society, especially at schools and universities, because most people tended to have negative views about them.

My message to LGBT people is this: Go have yourselves tested for HIV/AIDS to ensure that you are OK and have not contracted [HIV AIDS], he said.

He has one simple wish: that the suffering he has endured for being deaf and a gay will not happen to others. He hopes Komnas HAM will launch further public awareness campaigns.

As well as facing stigma, gay people are also denied access to religious education. Mohamad Safiq, 25, was expelled from a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in Brebes regency, Central Java, after a teacher found out about his sexual tendencies.

I had to give up on my goal: being able to read the Kitab Kuning [Islamic classical textbooks written in Arabic]. I have nowhere to study the Kitab Kuning now, said Safiq, who grew up in an Islamic family.

He became more frustrated about his sexuality after witnessing local people forcefully kick out a transgender person from a mosque while the person was praying in male clothing

Why did that mosque become a place where a persons right to pray to God was violated? It scares me, Safiq said, calling on Komnas HAM to step up social campaigns with regard to the rights of homosexuals to pray and receive religious education.

Transgender people are arrested on the street by security officers and when they want to get closer to their God they are also expelled. We need a safe place, Safiq added.

Rina Prasarani, a campaigner with the Indonesian Blind Union (Pertuni), said many members of the organization suffered discrimination when it came to praying at mosques.

In addition to difficulties faced by friends who use wheelchairs to access mosques, some friends also have experiences like this: They go to a mosque to pray but people give them money [because they think they are beggars]. This kind of image is well established in society, but the state never corrects it. Rather, its lack of addressing [the stereotypes] only serves to justify them, Rina said.

This violence-without-violence stigma is an effective way to kill peoples character. Its impact stays with a person forever, Rina added.

Komnas HAM commissioner Muhammad Nurkhoiron said LGBT people were at the top of the list of persecuted minority groups in Indonesia, given the widespread stigma that LGBT people faced.

We can say that attacks on LGBT people come from almost all directions, Nurkhoirun.

As part of Wednesdays forum to hear directly from minority groups about the suffering they face, Komnas HAM officially identified five types of minority groups that the government should prioritize in formulating policy in the future.

The five types are sexual orientation and identity minorities, racial minorities, ethnic minorities, disability-based minorities and religious and faith-based minorities.

The Commission will later put all minority groups in Indonesia into one of the five types in order to help identify their needs so that there will be no ambiguous terminology used to describe minority groups in any future government policies.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

The government will hand awards to one governor and one regent or mayor who are able to protect the environment in their region.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry is scheduled to give the awards, called Nirwasita Tantra, after the last round of assessments on June 2 to 4.

We know that theres the Adipura award and the Kalpataru award, but this time we are focusing on capable leadership [in protecting the environment], ministry secretary-general Bambang Hendroyono said.

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Linkedin Liza Yosephine (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

No Indonesian citizens have been reported to have fallen victim in a murder-suicide shooting at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the US, on Wednesday.

"I have received a report from the Indonesian Consulate in Los Angeles that there were no Indonesia victims in the shooting incident, perpetrated by several people on the UCLA campus," Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi said in a written statement received by thejakartapost.com.

Retno said the Indonesian Consulate in Los Angeles would continue to monitor the situation. Three staff members have been assigned to monitor developments in the case and to coordinate with local authorities, she further said.

Retno, who was on her way to Paris, France, for a ministerial meeting, received information from the consul that a shooting had taken place on the UCLA campus at 10 a.m. local time. The attack was reportedly perpetrated by four men dressed in black.

Within less than an hour, campus security had locked down the university grounds, which sprawl across 170 hectares. Shortly after the incident, authorities announced that two men had been killed.

It was reported that authorities managed to contain the situation shortly after noon. Results of a preliminary evaluation by the police revealed that the incident was a murder-suicide. They announced one perpetrator and one victim dead.

Associated Press reported William S. Klug, a professor of mechanical engineering, was gunned down in an engineering building office. Local authorities also reportedly found a gun and what might be a suicide note. (ebf)
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Linkedin Tassia Sipahutar and Esther Samboh (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

President Joko Jokowi Widodos work, work, work administration may not be working hard enough to deserve a much-awaited ratings upgrade from Standard & Poors (S&P).

On Wednesday, S&P, the only Big Three international ratings agency not to rate Indonesia at investment grade level, announced it had maintained the countrys sovereign credit level just one notch below, at BB+ with a positive outlook, against widespread expectations of an upgrade.

Its statement gave credit to the governments structural reforms, including redirecting costly energy subsidies into productive infrastructure spending as well as cutting red tape for investment, but they were not enough for a ratings upgrade with many improvements still needing to be made.

Fiscal performance has not improved in tandem for cyclical and structural reasons, S&P said in the statement, which repeatedly mentioned that more works needed to be done to improve fiscal performance  the responsibility of the Finance Ministry.

Jokowis administration, with its aptly named Working Cabinet, based on the Presidents desire for his ministers to work to improve livelihoods in Southeast Asias largest economy, has set an ambitious state revenue target as it seeks to boost Indonesias historically low tax payments to fund massive infrastructure projects which, in theory, would get the economy moving.

The reality, however, is not so sweet. The government failed to meet its tax collection target last year by a wide margin, achieving only 81.5 percent of the Rp 1.29 quadrillion target. As a result, the state budget deficit rose to 2.5 percent of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, nearing the 3 percent that is, legally allowed.

The fiscal deficit is expected to worsen this year to 2.7 percent of GDP, according to S&P. Better revenue performance should also come from improved tax compliance and higher non-oil revenues through higher excise taxes on tobacco and luxury goods. Indonesias tax to GDP ratio was at 12 percent recently, lower than neighboring peers Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand.

We could raise our ratings on the government this year or next if the improvement in institutional settings, particularly its fiscal framework, delivers better quality spending, deficits on a declining trend, moderate government debt and limited contingent fiscal liabilities, S&P wrote, adding that the full and timely execution of fuel subsidy reform would be a step in the right direction.

Before the ratings decision, S&P executives visited Indonesia and met with Jokowi as well as a number of high-ranking officials, at which time the President expressed hope of an upgrade and called on his ministers to work all-out in making sure the upgrade was secured.

Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, who is responsible for a lot of the points raised by S&P, looked at the glass half full, saying the result was a little below expectations, but was good enough considering other emerging economies, some of which suffered downgrades.

Still, he could not help feeling disappointed. [Im] a little disappointed because its reasons seemed made up, he told The Jakarta Post after the ratings announcement. [S&P] argues that our deficit and loans increased, whereas our debt to GDP ratio is way below that in developed countries.

Indonesias total loans to GDP ratio reached 26.8 percent in 2015 and the government expects to see it rise only slightly to 27 percent this year, the latest data from the Finance Ministry showed, lower than in Malaysia, India, Germany and the US.

Analysts said the impact of no ratings upgrade from S&P would not be huge, but was a setback for the countrys economy that is working to attract investments to stoke growth, which slowed to the weakest level in six years at 4.79 percent in 2015.

CReco economist and founder of the Danareksa Research Institute, Raden Pardede, acknowledged that Indonesia had not made solid and significant progress in managing the whole economy, even though it has issued 12 reform packages.

The government budget is in bad shape with uncertainty in revenues, including the tax amnesty, hence it transformed into uncertainty in development spending, said Raden.

Bahana Securities head of corporate strategy and research Harry Su said it would affect the governments plan to lure back billions of dollars stashed overseas by Indonesians in a tax amnesty program for which a bill is currently being deliberated at the House of Representatives, with a target to pass it into law this month.

I think no upgrade from S&P effectively means a no-confidence vote on the governments tax amnesty program, Harry said.

The central bank said it had taken all S&P suggestions on board, although it had its own opinion about improvements Indonesia has made in managing the economy.

We respect the decision, even though we believe we gave thorough information regarding all five aspects: governance, economy, external, fiscal and monetary. We will continue to strengthen macroeconomic indicators, Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo said.
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Linkedin Suherdjoko (The Jakarta Post) Semarang  Thu, June 2 2016

The public, particularly parents, need to be cautious in response to frequent cases of sexual assault and to take a role in combatting these crimes, child protection activist Arist Merdeka Sirait has said.

He said there was a growing trend of gang rape in the country.

The most recent case occurred in Semarang, Central Java, in late May. A 12-year-old girl was gang raped by up to eight males, adults and minors, leaving her injured and traumatized.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Police have arrested a 23-year-old babysitter, who they suspect abused an 11-year old baby in her care.

The woman, Mutiah, was arrested on Tuesday in her hometown of Kampung Agung Timur, Kalirejo, East Lampung on Tuesday, a police officer said on Wednesday.

West Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Rudy Hariyanto Adi Nogroho said the police received a report from the parents of the baby on Monday, who said that the babysitter had been returned to the Nurses & Baby Sitter agency in Depok, West Java, soon after the incident occurred two weeks ago.

However, when the police went to the agency, they were informed that Mutiah had returned to her hometown in Central Lampung, Lampung province.

The incident caught the publics attention after the parents of the baby, posted a short video online that was taken by the CCTV camera in their house.

The incident allegedly occurred on May 24 in a bedroom of their house in Kebon Jeruk district, West Jakarta. In the CCTV footage, a woman is seen pushing and hitting the baby, causing him to fall off the bed.

Police said that Mutia had confessed that she treated the baby that way because he would not go to sleep. She said she was tired, but the baby did not want to sleep. She tried to make the baby sleep but failed. She said she needed to take a rest and tidy the babys clothes, Rudi added.

She reportedly admitted that she had treated the baby that way several times in the two and a half months she worked for the family.

She was accused of violating Article 76c and 80 of the Child Protection Law as well several articles of the Criminal Code. If found guilty she faces a maximum prison term of five years. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

The Semarang Police have arrested an IT staffer with a Pertamina cooperative for allegedly sending a terror phone message that an explosive had been planted at Pertaminas Central Java and Yogyakarta marketing office on Jl. Thamrin in Semarang, Central Java.

The suspect, Nurul Fazri, 32, is a resident of Greenwood, Semarang. Police say he sent a terror message, which turned out to be a hoax, claiming that he would set off a bomb at his own office on Wednesday.

Nurul said he was offended by accusations by the management that he had stolen Rp 25 million (US1,825) from the cooperative.

I am offended that theyve accused me of stealing money. I sent an SMS to the cooperative head, Pak Suban, Nurul was quoted by tempo.co as saying of his motives.

He told police investigators that he had never used the money reportedly stolen from the cooperative and that he had also attempted to seek an amicable solution to the problem, but to no avail.

Nurul later bought a new cell phone sim card and sent an anonymous message to the Pertamina Persada cooperative head at 7:30 a.m., claiming to have planted a bomb at the Pertamina office. After sending the message, he disposed of the card and went to the office acting as normal, even participating in the evacuation when police bomb squad were deployed to comb the complex for explosives.

Pertaminas region IV spokesman, Suyanto, confirmed the terror message.

The message was not specific about the planted bomb; it was simply a threat to blow up the office, Suyanto said, adding that the message had been immediately forwarded to the police. (dmr)
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Linkedin (thejakartapost.com) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

The police seized on Thursday a large truck loaded with a sound system as well as a number of vehicles owned by musician Ahmad Dhani intended for use in a demonstration in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) office on Jl. Rasuna Said in South Jakarta.

Police officers stopped the vehicles in front of the Dutch Embassy on Jl. Rasuna Said on their way to the KPK office.

Imagine if the truck parked on Jl. Rasuna Said. It would be in violation of traffic rules and cause traffic congestion, said Jakarta Police Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.

The police also arrested eight people, who intended to demand that the KPK arrest Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, who was recently questioned by KPK investigators in connection with alleged irregularities in land acquisition in West Jakarta and a city administration agreement with developers in a reclamation project.

We will question them within the next 24 hours to determine whether there is a criminal element, Awi said.

Hundreds of demonstrators from a number of organizations, such as the Confederation of Indonesian Workers Unions (KSPI) and the Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers Unions (FSPMI), have demonstrated in front of the KPK office and City Hall in Central Jakarta in the past.

Hundreds of police officers have guarded the KPK office since early Thursday. They are equipped with water cannon to anticipate possible unrest, such as what happened in a previous demonstration. Dozens of trucks carrying police officers were parked along the road near the KPK office.

In response to the protest, which had the slogan Arrest Ahok, the governor calmly said: Am I a bird that they can call to be arrested? I have seen frequent demonstrations. Dont say arrest Ahok, but ensnare Ahok, Ahok said while laughing.

Ahmad Dhani said he had been phoned by Jakarta Police general crimes director Sr. Comr. Krishna Murti on Wednesday, who advised him that the police would not allow the demonstration to proceed as President Joko Jokowi Widodo had prohibited the staging of demonstrations in front of the KPK office.

He said he was surprised that the President had prohibited demonstrations in front of the KPK office. Why does the President intervene in demonstrations in front of the KPK? he added. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Residents living in Community Unit (RW) 7 in Cengkareng, West Jakarta, have voiced support for a crackdown by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) on the distribution of drugs in two neighborhoods in the area.

There are 15 neighborhood units (RT) in RW 7, which was previously called Kampung Ambon.

BNN Jakarta head Iwan Abdullah Ibrahim said on Thursday that drug distribution had been stopped in most neighborhood units in the area, except for in RT 009 and RT 013.

We can solve drug problems with various measures, such as through the legal approach, the customs approach or even a military approach. Why cant we rid RT 009 and RT013 of drugs? said Iwan during an event to inaugurate a multi-function building in the area on Thursday.

Kampung Ambon had a reputation of being a drug hub. The name of the area was changed to Kampung Permata in a bid to rid it of its bad reputation.

Do you agree with evicting drug dealers? Let's evict them together, cried Iwan, which was met with a positive response from attendees of the event.

He voiced appreciation for local residents who had cooperated with the BNN in the fight against drug trafficking.

In the past, this area was known as Kampung Ambon and many stalls sold drugs. We found it difficult to conduct raids in this area back then. The area has gradually changed for the better because of the contribution of local stakeholders, he said.

The BNN built a building in RW 7 that is equipped with a healthcare center, a rehabilitation center and doctors. (bbn)
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Linkedin Farida Susanty (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

It is no secret that Indonesia has been heavily dependent on Bali for tourism, but that will soon change as the government is luring tourists to new destinations.



In promoting tourism, the government has now turned to the virgin beauty of the countrys remote islands, from the deep blue sea that houses rich marine life surrounding North Kayong in West Kalimantan, to the sights of granite beaches in Tanjung Kelayang, Bangka Belitung.



The Tourism Ministry is of the view that these places have the potential to be future tourist attractions that could help meet the governments target of increasing foreign tourist arrivals to 20 million by 2019, which would double last years figure of 10 million.



For this cause, the Sail Karimata Strait event in October is expected to give tourists a taste of what these places, with addition of Jambi and Riau province, have to offer.



We expect an increase in the number of tourists. Our foreign tourist visits stood at about 10.4 million last year, relatively small compared to the beauty and diversity of Indonesias marine life, said Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Rizal Ramli, whose office covers tourism as well.



The four provinces that would host the festival would also represent major cultures, he said, from Melayu culture to Chinese culture, boosting its attractiveness.



With optimism, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya pinned hope on the event attracting 5,000 foreign tourists and 10,000 tourists, which would potentially provide the region at least Rp 75 billion (US$5.4 million) in additional revenue.



He also boasted that so far, 300 yachts had signed up to join the sailing event.



As this is a tourism event, it has to be promoted early and it has to be a trending topic, Arief said.



The Tourism Ministry wants to also take advantage of the countrys vast seas, by boosting the income from marine tourism from $1 billion to $4 billion by 2019, even though Arif thought it was still pale compared with the $8 billion raked in by neighboring Malaysia in the same sector.



The ministry has also pushed for quicker development of the top 10 emerging destinations chosen by the government, particularly Morotai in Maluku, where year-long festivals have been launched under the name Wonderful Morotai.



Morotai, a forested island whose villages were made up by coastal settlements, is set to welcome 5,000 tourists this year for the event, although the government hoped to attract at least 500,000 tourists to the area by 2019.



Things have looked up for the government in the tourist sector, as latest Central Statistics Agency (BPS) data revealed that there was a 7.51 percent year-on-year (yoy) increase of foreign tourist visits in the January to April period to 3.52 million visits.



Arif maintained the figure was still on track to attract 12 million foreign tourist visits this year.



Regulation-wise, I think the visa-free policy had the biggest impact on the figure, as well as our promotion work, he said, adding that first quarter figures had exceeded expectations with 2.5 million visits in March.



He referred to the visa-free policy for 90 countries increasing the number of foreign tourists to Indonesia. Eighty-four more countries are expected to be added to the list soon.



He acknowledged that the emerging tourism destinations had still not contributed much to the number.



Amenities remained the problem for remote areas.



North Kayong regent Hildi Hamid, where Sail Karimata Strait would be held, admitted that hotels in the regency were limited to only several small hotels and some three-star hotels.



In Morotai, publicly listed property developer Kawasan Industri Jababeka will build 1,000 new homestays to help meet the potential increase in tourist arrivals.

---------------

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Linkedin Words I Wayan Juniarta Photos Anggara Mahendra (The Jakarta Post)  Thu, June 2 2016

From numerous enlightening discussions and packed food stalls serving both street and restaurant foods, to a hilarious pig pageant and entertaining live events featuring local music sensations, this years Ubud Food Festival has hit all the right notes.



The closing night on Sunday saw local blues band Unbroken play to an attentive crowd that begged for encore after encore, before turning into a horde of party animals when Denpasar-based banker DJ Marlowe spun his eclectic digital repertoire.



The jovial atmosphere reflected the general ambience of the three-day festivities, the brainchild of Ubud restaurateur Janet De Neefe of Ubud Writers and Readers Festival fame.



I love the laidback ambience of this festival. People come to enjoy themselves and have some together time with their friends and loved ones while enjoying good food, one visitor said.



People did indeed love the food. It was nearly impossible during the festival to find individuals sitting or walking without food in their hands, be it a best-selling burger from Locavore or the addictive beras kencur gelato of Gelato Secrets.



During lunch, and even more so at dinnertime, getting a table in the festivals two main food venues  Pasar Kuliner and Pasar Senggol  was a difficult task due to the sheer number of diners.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Thu, June 2 2016

Reports of sexual harassment and abuse on campus, usually against students and either by lecturers or peers, are believed to be vastly underreported. Each reported case is only the tip of an iceberg; many more victims are silent. The Jakarta Posts Evi Mariani investigated and here is her report.

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Linkedin Dewanti A. Wardhani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

As the holy month approaches, households are beginning to scour markets for ingredients to make sweet snacks for breaking the fast. Such searches, however, can turn sour when customers learn about the skyrocketing sugar prices amid a lack of supply.

In Jakarta, for instance, sugar was sold for an average of Rp 15,663 (US$1.14) per kilogram on Wednesday. The price has risen by 16.1 percent over the past two months.

The highest price was recorded at Cengkareng Market in West Jakarta at Rp 17,000 per kilogram, while the lowest was reported at Pasar Minggu Market in South Jakarta, with Rp 14,000 per kilogram.

The rising prices have prompted the government to intervene. It is now set to import 381,000 tons of sugar to stabilize prices and ensure sufficient supply throughout the fasting month.

Trade Minister Thomas Lembong said the importing task had been handed to state-owned sugar mill company PT Perkebunan Nusantara X (PTPN X).

With the imports, the government aims to reduce the price of sugar to Rp 12,500 per kilogram at traditional markets. Based on our monitoring, many markets still sell sugar that is more expensive than our desired price, Thomas told reporters recently at a press conference.

The press conference was also attended by Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno.

Rini said the imported raw sugar would be distributed for manufacturing to six state-owned sugar mills.

They are PTPN X, which will receive 115,000 tons, PTPN XI with 100,000 tons, PT PG Rajawali II with 52,000 tons, PT PG Rajawali I with 48,000 tons, PTPN IX with 41,000 tons and PTPN XII with 25,000 tons.

PTPN X president director Subiyono said the firm had established a team to begin importing raw sugar. He, however, said it had not made a decision on the countries from which the commodity would be imported.

Indonesian Sugar Association (AGI) executive director Agus Pakpahan said the association was already anticipating decreased sugar production this year as a result of prolonged rain.

When it rains, sugar mills delay crushing because machinery becomes too wet to operate and produces low yields. The mills had only produced 100,000 tons of sugar by June as a result of rain. The figure was lower than the 380,000 tons produced as of June last year.

The AGI estimates that this years local sugar production will only reach about 2.5 million tons, 500,000 tons less than the estimated 3 million ton demand. As the situation persists, the association has welcomed the governments sugar import decision to meet domestic demand.

Meanwhile, Agus said the governments plan to give incentives to sugar farmers in the form of harvest price and purchase guarantees could help to increase production.

By 2018, the government expects to see local sugar production at 3.2 million tons, rising from 2.49 tons in 2015.
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Linkedin Yuliasri Perdani and Stevie Emilia (The Jakarta Post)  Thu, June 2 2016

Design details: The preliminary rendering of Museum MACANs education area. (Courtesy of MET Studio Design Ltd)

Indonesian art lovers will soon have a chance to admire not only the works of Indonesian masters and prominent contemporary artists but also works by renowned world artists  from Andy Warhol, Banksy and Jeff Koons to David Hockney right here in Jakarta.



The museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Nusantara (Museum MACAN) director and lead curator Thomas J. Berghuis and his team have access to an extensive collection belonging to businessman and collector Haryanto Adikoesoemo, who built and funded the museum, which will open its doors early next year.



In the past 25 years, Haryanto  president director of chemical and energy logistics company PT AKR Corporindo and property developer AKR Land Development  has collected some 800 artworks; 40 percent from Indonesia, 25 percent from the greater Asia region and 35 percent from the US and Europe.



Berghuis said people in the art world knew Haryanto as a major international art collector. But I must also say the collection, which is 40 percent Indonesian art, actually allows a perspective of Indonesia in touch with international art, he said.



The collection includes works by Indonesian masters like Raden Saleh, Affandi and S. Sudjojono, as well as prominent contemporary artists like Heri Dono, FX Harsono, Agus Suwage, Christine Ay-tjoe and Handiwirman Saputra.



Were aiming for as soon as possible, but lets say end of the first quarter [or] second quarter of the year we want to open the museum with an exhibition of the collection, he said.



Berghuis said the exhibition would intertwine the highlights of Haryantos collection with stories and history about Indonesian art.



He said some would like to see what Haryanto had collected and how successful he was as a collector. We know that Haryanto has collected Andy Warhol, so Andy Warhol will be exhibited in that space.



Apart from Warhol, Haryanto has also collected works by Robert Rauschenberg, Anish Kapoor, Gerhard Richter, Banksy, Jean Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, Keith Haring and David Hockney. Top Asian artists in his collection include Fernando Amorsolo, Sanyu, Yang Maolin and Wu Guanzhong.



The other thing is that we also need to allow people, especially when it comes to our international collection, to have a little bit of an experience of different styles and movements, as well as individual artists and their role in the development of modern and contemporary art.



With the upcoming acquisitions of artworks, exhibitions and commissions of new works, it will come as no surprise if Museum MACAN is bursting at the seams with a more diverse collection in its first months of operation.



The collection is growing, Berghuis noted. Were going through an acquisition process but also it will grow through exhibition-making and commissioning in the future.



Art curator Jean Couteau said the move to engage reputable collectors in museums was a good sign and that Haryanto was an important collector of international and Indonesian art.



What worries me is if outside parties take too big a role in the definition of Indonesian art, and compel a monopolar [American/Western] or bipolar [West+ China] understanding of contemporary art  which should be multi-polar in my eyes. Foreign capital and taste  even though useful  should remain no more than marginal players in Indonesia, Couteau said.



He added that it was not Haryanto who worried him but another collector, who, the word goes, intends to build a huge contemporary museum somewhere north of Ubud, Bali.



Curator and Sidharta Auctioneer auction house owner Amir Sidharta said it would be a pleasure to be able to visit Museum MACAN to enjoy Haryantos extensive collection.



By hiring a world-class curator like Berghuis  who brings over two decades of experience working as a curator, educator, and museum practitioner to the museum  Amir believed Museum MACAN would become a world-class museum and attract international attention toward Indonesian art.



He raised hope there would also be major educational projects allowing Indonesians to become familiar with art from an early age.



We also hope that the museum will not be a private museum that is only open by appointment, but a museum that is accessible to the public all year round, with daily operational hours of at least nine hours, Amir says.



 JP/Yuliasri Perdani and Stevie Emilia

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Linkedin Ahmad Almaududy Amri (The Jakarta Post) Wollongong, Australia  Thu, June 2 2016

The US Department of Defense (DoD) publishes its Freedom of Navigation report from time to time. In the report, the DoD has stated that numerous countries with excessive maritime claims are allegedly exercising

rights against the use of the sea guaranteed to all nations by international law.

Since 2000, the US has included Indonesia in its report. Only one alleged excessive maritime claim by Indonesia is usually stated in the report, nonetheless since 2010, more than one claim have been filed against Indonesia. In fact, in 2014 there were three maritime claims listed.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2 2016

The government has issued a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) stipulating harsher punishments for those who sexually abuse children, but there is skepticism about whether the legislation also protects the victims of those crimes.

Perppu No. 1/2016 sets out punishment for the perpetrators of sexual crimes but not protection for the victims.

AM, 50, a mother of three, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that her husband had raped their youngest daughter in February last year and the government did nothing to help her handle the problem.

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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Kuta  Thu, June 2 2016

The Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) is unable to work effectively due to limited budget and human resources, agency chairman Abdul Haris Semendawai has said.

Abdul said the agency was currently unable to meet public demand for protection and to fix this he hoped the government would provide greater resources and open regional offices.

The agency received over 670 requests from the public in the first three months of the year, mostly demanding protection in relation to cases of human rights abuse.

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Linkedin (Associated Press) Kuala Lumpur  Thu, June 2, 2016

The families of six crew members on a Malaysian passenger jet shot down over Ukraine nearly two years ago have filed lawsuits against Malaysia Airlines for negligence and breach of contract.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by a surface-to-air missile on July 17, 2014, at the height of fighting in the Ukraine conflict.

The lawyer for the families Thomas Philip says Malaysia Airlines was negligent for failing to conduct an adequate risk assessment and for charting a course which flew through a known conflict zone, posing an unreasonable risk to those on board.

He said Thursday that the families contend the airline was in breach of contract for failing to ensure the safety and welbeing of the flight crew.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Manila  Thu, June 2, 2016

International media groups have joined the condemnation of Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte's statement that many journalists have been killed in the country because they were corrupt and those who have done wrong are not exempt from assassination.

Reporters Without Borders urged the Philippine media to boycott Duterte's news conferences until he issues a formal, public apology. The Committee to Protect Journalists says the remarks apparently excusing extrajudicial killings threaten to make the Philippines into a killing field for journalists.

Duterte told a news conference Tuesday that "just because you're a journalist [doesn't mean] you're exempted from assassination if you're a son of a bitch."

Local media groups have widely condemned his remarks.

The International Federation of Journalists says the Philippines has been the second-deadliest country for journalists since 1990.
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Manila  Thu, June 2, 2016

Philippine communist rebels say they plan to meet with the government of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to discuss a resumption of long-stalled peace talks, and will demand an end to the US military presence in the country.

Rebel negotiator Fidel Agcaoili told a rare news conference in Manila on Thursday that the demand "is non-negotiable." He said government and rebel negotiators are preparing to meet soon in Europe to discuss the resumption of talks, which could start as early as July.

Duterte, who takes office June 30, has offered two Cabinet posts to left-wing allies of the rebels, who have freed kidnapped policemen in return to encourage the resumption of talks.

The rebels have been fighting for a Marxist state since 1969 in one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies.
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Linkedin Masajeng Rahmiasri (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, June 2, 2016

Eco Music Camp 2016 is on again. Running from Thursday until Sunday, this year the event has shifted place to the Halimun-Salak Mountain National Forest in Bogor, West Java .

West Java Vice Governor Deddy Mizwar told antaranews.com on Wednesday, This event is held to showcase performances from local and international musicians. It is also held to promote the importance of preserving the environment, especially to the younger generation.

He also stressed the importance of humans living in harmony with nature, We want to invite people from around the world to enjoy the beauty of a protected forest that shows how important it is for humans to live in harmony with nature.

(Read also: Nature conservation: The choice is there, the decision is ours)

According to Franki Raden, director of Eco Music Camp 2016, there will be around 100 musicians from countries including Vietnam, the United States, Hungary, and Africa performing at the event. From Indonesia, there will be Tataloe, Debu, and Glenn Fredly. Aside from music performances, Eco Music Camp also features discussions, scientific presentations and film screenings.

Franki said, We are voicing our environmental concerns. Every country has an interest in this global issue. So, we are aiming for more representatives from other countries to be present in West Java.

(Read also: Stepping up conservation efforts)

There is camping area provided, which can accommodate 500 attendees, and a shuttle bus running from several areas of Bogor to the venue. Franki said the bus was provided to help conserve the beauty of the national park, and also because there were only limited parking spaces available.

Last year, the Eco Music Camp was held in Mekarsari park, Bogor, West Java, from August 7 to 9. The free event was attended by musicians from various countries, including Peru, the Netherlands, Spain and several African countries. Famous Indonesian musicians in last year's lineup included Endah N Rhesa, White Shoes & The Couples Company and rock legend Iwan Fals. (asw)
Several Lower East Side rabbis, and a few from outside the neighborhood, are calling on two local synagogues to publicly distance themselves from a group pushing for acceptance of gay Jews in Orthodox congregations.

The Eshel Downtown Shabbaton is scheduled to take place this coming weekend at the Stanton Street Shul and the Sixth Street Community Synagogue. According to Eshels website, the organizations mission is to create community and acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Jews and their families in Orthodox communities.

As The Jewish Press first reported in a story that carried no byline, rabbis from the Bialystoker Synagogue, Young Israel of Manhattan and Congregation Chasam Sofer were among a group that released a statement titled, An Important Message to the Community. The letter was also signed by Rabbis David and Reuven Feinstein, the sons of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a towering figure in Orthodox Judaism who died in the 1980s.

The statement read, in part:

There has been a monumental shift in the larger worlds attitude towards homosexual expression over recent years. Unfortunately, acceptance of what the Torah forbids has seeped into parts of the Jewish community, including parts that identify as Orthodox All Jews, whatever their challenges or levels of observance, are welcome in all of our shuls. However, the basic mandate of the Orthodox synagogue is to promote fidelity in our Torah and our mesorah. Sadly, Eshel demands that we change the Torahs timeless standards to accord with prevalent secular attitudes. We are saddened that the Stanton Street Shul and the Sixth Street Community Synagogue have unilaterally chosen to associate our community with an organization that we cannot consider to be Orthodox No Jewish that allies itself with such a group can rightfully claim to be Orthodox. We call upon (the synagogues) to publicly distance themselves from Eshel and its decidedly non-Orthodox worldview.

This morning, we contacted Rabbi Aviad Bodner of the Stanton Street Shul. He provided the following statement:

At the Stanton Street Shul, Im proud to partner with the board in our decision to embrace the LGBT Jewish community, welcome them in our shul, and love and encourage them to observe mitzvot to the best of their ability just as we do with every Jew who joins our community. This is not a compromise but rather an expression of the mitzvah     Love thy neighbor as yourself. Its that simple, and its unfortunate that we need to justify our obligation to observe one of the greatest values of Judaism. We believe that we may invite an organization or and individual to come to the Stanton Street Shul even if we do not agree on everything or even strongly disagree. The rabbis who made the statement do not have the monopoly over Orthodoxy or the Torah. Disagreements are healthy and welcome, but they must be voiced with respect. Decisions about what is best for each shul will rightfully differ, but they should be left to the synagogue leadership, and no one should be subject to public shaming.

The Stanton Street Shul, established in 1913, is one of the only tenement synagogues left on the Lower East Side. It has a longstanding reputation for welcoming people from all types of backgrounds and walks of life. As The Jewish Press noted, the shul is seen as an alternative to the more traditional synagogues (such as the Bialystocker), which serve the Grand Street Jewish community.

The article intimates that Stanton Street Shul could be in jeopardy if it doesnt acquiesce to the demands in the rabbinical letter. The prospects for a herem, an excommunication, is seen, at least in some quarters, as an idle threat regarding a shul thats served the Lower East Side community for more than 100 years.
Within the fashion industry, there is a constant categorisation of body types: women are slim or curvy; men are broad or boyish; bodies are standard or plus-size.

Recent news in the media suggests that plus-size male models are now gaining recognition in the industry, following the growing inclusion of female plus-size models in fashion. Recent news in the media suggests that plus-size male models are now gaining recognition in the industry, following the growing inclusion of female plus-size models in fashion.

Male model Ben Whit is technically plus-size according to the industry definition. He has recently been signed to Bridge Models, making him one of the first official plus-size male models in the UK. His signing reflects the growing acceptance of a more diverse range of male body types in the industry.

It is promising to hear of Whit being signed to a modelling agency, but it is nonetheless disappointing that the label plus-size remains seemingly immovable.

When earlier this year US Glamour magazine released a plus-size edition, they attempted to show acceptance of larger body sizes. Instead, the magazine received backlash for describing women as plus-size who do not identify as such, highlighting issues with the use of the phrase.

Amy Schumer in particular was vocally opposed to being mentioned in the US Glamour issue as plus-size as she was not of a size that qualifies as plus-size, emphasising a major issue with the term: there does not appear to be a universal agreement of what plus-size means. The industry is categorising with indefinable categories, presenting subjective ideas as objective.

Schumers reaction also suggests that she was offended by the use of the term, which draws attention to a much wider problem. There are generally negative connotations attached to the phrase plus-size, based on a misconception that thin bodies are the ideal body type, as implemented and enforced by the continuous use of slim models throughout the history of fashion.

It is arguable that the term plus-size allows media reports on the diversification of body types in the industry to become clearer when showing the efforts of fashion professionals to become more inclusive. However by categorising models as plus-size as opposed to simply referring to them as models, the industry is arguably worsening the issue, encouraging divisions rather than fixing them.

Bodies of all shapes and sizes should be recognised and reflected within the fashion industry. It is counter-productive for body types and sizes that belong outside of the industrys narrow and fabricated definition of ideal to be distinguished by differentiating labels.

As people, we are all indescribably unique. Categorising people as plus-size forces them into boxes that are unnecessary, unhelpful, and unhealthy.

If models were all described as models regardless of size, perhaps the industry would be able to achieve genuine inclusivity of all body types and vastly improve body image issues in society.
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Hughes State Attorney finds no facts to support investigation into Noem airplane use

The Hughes County States Attorney found Tuesday that there were no facts to support a criminal prosecution" for Noem's alleged misuse of the state airplane.
It's our annual Labour Weekend tradition ...The Sound 'Hall Of Fame' Countdown... Where we honor the greatest 500 songs of all time as voted by you.


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People are escorted by emergency personnel away from the scene of a fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wednesday., June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)
#Korean Air Korean Air plane heads to Cebu to bring back stranded passengers An alternative Korean Air plane departed for the Philippines on Tuesday to bring home passengers stranded after another plane run by the air carrier overran the airport runway in C...

#(G)I-dle I-dle tops local music charts with 'Nxde' Girl group (G)I-dle topped daily and weekly charts of five major local music streaming services with its release "Nxde" on Tuesday, a week after it dropped. "Nxde," the main tra...
The Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Sharad Kumar, has given Pakistan its best defence so far in the Pathankot terror attack, of which it is accused by India of complicity.

In a statement that stumped diplomats across the world, especially those from India, Kumar has said that there was no evidence to indicate direct complicity of Pakistan government or Pakistani agencies in the Pathankot attack.

Usually it is either the minister of external affairs or its designated spokesperson who give out statements that are in the domain of foreign policy or of significance to national security.

In an interview to a news channel, Kumar also said it was entirely possible that Jaish-e-Mohammadthe Pakistan-based terror group India accuses of masterminding the Pathankot attackcould have been operating without the knowledge of the Pakistan government.

His statements come at a time when India, for the first time, has been able make Pakistan acknowledge the possibility of its agencies being involved in a terror plot in India. It filed an Fir and set up a five-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the terror strike.

Following the militant raid, Pakistan had arrested Jaish-e-Mohammad head Maulana Masood Azhar and even promised to prosecute him if evidence connected him to the Pathankot raid.

Militants launched a deadly attack on an Indian Air Force base near the Pakistan border in Punjab on January 13. Four terrorists were killed and two security personnel were martyred in the gun battle.
The video of Bihar's Intermediate Board toppers failing to respond to elementary questions from their favourite subjects may tickle the funny bones, but it also exposes the rot running deep in education system in the state.

After a sting video by a local television channel went viral, an embarrassed state education department has identified about 14 toppers and ordered them to retake exams to prove that there were no foul plays in securing top marks.

A local news channel interviewed, Ruby Rai, a student of arts, who has scored 88.8 percent in her class 12 board exam. She was caught mispronouncing Political Science as 'Prodigal Science' on camera. What's more, she was under the belief that the subject dealt with 'cooking.'

Another topper in Science stream, Saurabh Shresth, who secured an impressive 97 per cent, failed to answer elementary questions regrading electrons and protons.

Most reactive element in the periodic table is aluminium," said a visibly unsure Saurabh. He was answering to a question about the most reactive element in the periodic table. Aluminium is part of the less active group.

After the interviews were aired, the government ordered a probe and directed students in question to appear before a special committee on June 3 for an interview and re-exam.

State Education Minister Ashok Chaudhury, though he admitted to the lapses, sought to underplayed the matter.

"I agree that there has been some lapse. But you can't raise questions over the whole examination system due to a couple of such cases," Choudhury was quoted in media reports as saying.

He also added that either proxies took the exams for the students or their answer sheets were replaced with better ones. He assured the role of evaluators in the scam will also be probed and a strict action will be taken against those responsible.

Choudhury has also claimed that the government has undertaken effective measures to check cheating in exams, resulting in decline in overall pass percentage. This year only 56.73 percent students passed, which is steep decline against 86.47 per cent last year. In science, only 67.06 per cent cleared the exams as against last year's 89.32 per cent.

Bihar education system has been reeling under serious exam irregularities. Last year, parents and friends were photographed scaling a wall of the school in Vaishali district to hand over chits to examinees during a matriculation exams.

As part of the anti-cheating measures by the government, all exam centres were brought under CCTV surveillance. It also announced a fine of Rs 10,000 for students who caught cheating, besides punishing those caught helping them.
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Jerusalem Councilman Aryeh King spoke out again against public chilul Shabbos by a city funded organization, blaming this latest incident on the Shas party.

King explains that the citys Finance Committee, of which he is a member, refused to fund an organization that has been receiving funding for the past 17 years since its functions result in public chilul Shabbos. King, who is dati leumi, explained the committee decided it has had enough and will no longer have the city directly fund public chilul Shabbos. He notes the organization receives several hundred thousand shekels annually.

King explains after the funding was voted down, mysteriously, Mayor Nir Barkat became personally involved and spoke with Councilman (Shas) Tzvika Cohen, who ultimately voted in favor of the funding.

King explains when he asked Cohen how he could raise his hand to fund public chilul Shabbos he was told HaGaon HaRav Shalom Cohen Shlita told him he could vote for it. King admits he hasnt a clue what the mayor told Councilman Cohen but he is certain that once again, because of Shas, a vote to protect Shabbos in Yerushalayim was defeated. He added he has never heard a leading posek approve voting in favor of public chilul Shabbos.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Donald Trumps heated war with the media reached new heights as he turned the brag-worthy feat of raising $5.6 million for veterans charities into a sparring match with reporters pressing him on the issue.

The press should be ashamed of themselves, a defensive Trump railed during a Tuesday news conference at Trump Tower, called to announce a list of 41 charities that received a cut of the money he raised during a highly publicized January fundraiser.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee had previously declined to disclose which charities had received the $6 million hed claimed to have raised, and his campaign had gone back and forth about how much pledged money had come through. The Washington Post had pressed for an accounting of the donations, and several charities said they received checks just last week.

Throughout Tuesdays 40-minute question-and-answer session, Trump accused the media of being unbelievably dishonest in their treatment of him.

I sent people checks of a lot of money.  And instead of being like, Thank you very much, Mr. Trump, or Trump did a good job, everyones saying: Who got (the money)? Who got it? Who got it? And you make me look very bad, he complained. I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job.

While Trump has frequently made the media a punching bag, calling out reporters during his signature rallies, the taunts Tuesday were intense, even for him. The billionaire mogul interrupted his recitation of the list of groups receiving portions of the money to complain about the way reporters had called up charities to try to verify his contributions. He called the political press disgusting and dismissed one ABC News reporter as a sleaze.

While Trumps fundraiser, held opposite a Fox News debate he chose to boycott, should have been a positive story for Trump, his campaigns refusal to disclose details about the money raised became a sticking point. Trump insisted Tuesday that most of the money went out quite a while ago, but that didnt seem to be the case.

The Associated Press spoke or left messages with each of the organizations Trump named. Of the 26 groups that responded by Tuesday, half said they had received checks from Trump just last week.

Several said the checks were dated on or about May 24 and shipped out by overnight express  the same date as a Trump interview with The Washington Post, which for weeks had been pressing his campaign to disclose the recipients of the millions raised during the splashy telethon-style fundraiser in Iowa.

Indeed, more than a dozen big checks were rushed out of New York early last week, bound for veterans charities around the country. The largest, a $1 million check dated May 24 and drawn from Trumps personal account, was addressed to the Marine Corps-Law Enforcement Foundation, a small Tuckahoe, New York, group that provides scholarships to the children of fallen Marines. The foundation had presented Trump with an award at its 2015 gala held at a ritzy New York hotel.

Trumps campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, had originally told the Post that the Iowa event had raised about $4.5 million  less than the $6 million originally announced by Trump  because some whod pledged contributions had backed out.

Appearing Tuesday on CNN, Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton said she was glad Trump had finally given out the promised money.

The problem here is the difference between what Donald Trump says and what Donald Trump does, Clinton said. Hes bragged for months about raising $6 million for vets and donating $1 million himself, but it took a reporter to shame him into actually making the contribution.

Trump repeatedly insisted during the news conference that he didnt want credit for the contributions. However, he hadnt appeared shy about giving away poster-size checks at campaign events in the weeks after the fundraiser.

On Jan. 30, just before the Iowa caucuses, he gave a $100,000 check to the Puppy Jake Foundation, which provides service dogs to wounded veterans. Representatives from the foundation, accompanied by several service dogs, accepted the check at the Adler Theater in Davenport, Iowa, where Trump was being interviewed on stage.

The next day, in Council Bluffs, Trump presented another check, also for $100,000, to Partners for Patriots, which also provides service dogs to disabled veterans.

The public check presentations trickled off within days, though some of the groups contacted by the AP did report receiving checks in February, March and April.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied Tuesday that timing had anything to do with questions from the media.

Mr. Trumps team worked very hard to complete this lengthy process prior to Memorial Day Weekend, she said. The campaign also said it had taken months to carefully vet each of the groups receiving money.

Trump, who has refused calls to moderate his tone and temperament, also said he has no plans to change his tone with the press if hes elected to the White House.

Yeah, it is going to be like this, he said of potential future news conferences led by a President Trump.

(AP)
We begin this report with a number of facts that may not be known to all. For one thing, there are ongoing tensions between Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett and his party members from the Tekuma faction; Uri Ariel and Betzalel Smotrich.

Bennett would be glad to rid himself of them as they often do not see eye-to-eye. Ariel spoke with Kol Chai Radio, expressing disapproval of his party constantly challenging the Prime Minister. On Tuesday, Ariel spoke with Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), and told a similar story. When asked about ongoing tensions with party leader Bennett, Ariel declined to comment regarding tensions on a personal level, compelling the conversation to address facts and not personalities. Ariel would also not comment on the recently-resolved coalition crisis created by Bennett other than to say it was unnecessary and unfortunate. He did mention Bennett did not receive his goal and in essence, the entire matter was futile and almost led to the destruction of the coalition.

Ariel asked rhetorically What was accomplished, aware his party and the cabinet received nothing new for the National Security Council chief in the past would respond to cabinet ministers on any issue, so in essence, the Prime Minister just gave Bennett a way to climb down his high ladder before collapsing the coalition. Cabinet ministers have free access to the NSC director and his deputy, enabling them to be briefed before any cabinet meeting.

The bottom line is Bennett felt he had to act amid the realization that he was not going to be Foreign Minister or Defense Minister because his party only has eight seats. When he realized Avigdor Lieberman, with six seats, would be appointed Defense Minister, he felt compelled to act, to show voters he can get the Prime Minister to meet his demands. In hindsight one can see that once again, Bennett is a political novice and his success is extremely limited and likely to be very short-lived.

Now, with Lieberman in government Bennett can know with absolute certainty that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will strike the next blow at his first possible convenience.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Fire Service rescuers from the southern district on Wednesday morning 24 Iyar responded to a call for a man who fell in a pit near the Canyon Ashkelon Shopping Center.

The pit was described as three meters (9.8 feet) in depth. Magen David Adom paramedics treated the man, in his 50s whose condition was described as serious. He was transported after being placed under medical sedation and intubated.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photos: Fire Service S. District Spokesman + MDA Spokesman)
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) ahead of Yom Yerushalayim, one-third of the residents of the capital are chareidi. The statistics were released this week ahead of Jerusalem Day, which is observed on 28 Iyar, motzei Shabbos and Sunday.

At the end of 2015 there were 870,000 residents of Yerushalayim, the largest city in the nation with 21% of the citys residents being secular. At the end of 2014, Jews comprised 63% of the citys population (534,000) and Arabs 37% (316,000).

The number shows a significant increase from a year earlier, with only 534,000 residents at the end of 2014.

Some of the numbers

 32% of the citys residents are chareidi

 21% of the citys residents are secular

 17% of the citys residents are religious

 15% of the citys residents are traditional

 77% of the citys residents have been living in Jerusalem for 20 years or more. This includes 68% Jews and 94% Arabs.

The city grew by some 20,000 residents in 2014, of which 19,800 from births and 3,700 from immigration. During that same time period, 3,700 residents left the city. most residents came to the capital from Bnei Brak, Tel Aviv and Beit Shemesh.

As for those leaving, most head for Beit Shemesh, Tel Aviv and Givat Zeev.

Birth Rate

The average Jerusalem woman has 3.91 children, which is higher than the national average of 3.08.

Household Makeup

The average Jerusalem Jewish household is comprised of 3.8 people, once again larger of the national average of 3.3. The average in Tel Aviv is 2.3, Haifa 2.5 and Rishon LTzion 3.0.

The average Jerusalem Arab household is 5.2, which is larger than the national average for Arab households of 4.6.

Earning Power of Jerusalemites

If one measures Israels eight largest cities, one will find that Jerusalemites earn the lowest monthly income, NIS 12,164 per person. Monthly expenses are recorded at NIS 11,528.

While the national average for percentage of the labor forces is 64.1%, in Jerusalem only 51.9% are working of which 88.4% work near their home.

Renting or a Homeowner?

57.9% of Jerusalem residents are home owners, referring to a private home or apartment. The cost of the average home in the capital is NIS 1.862 million.

30.9% are renting and the average monthly rent in the city is reportedly NIS 3,178.

Most Jerusalemites plan to remain where they are for the coming five years, 73%, which includes 76% of the Jewish residents and 94% of the Arab residents.

The segregation continues

79% believe people of different backgrounds can get along in the same neighborhood which includes 90% of the Jews and 62% of the Arabs. The national average in this category stands at 86%

Are you satisfied with your life?

89% of the adult population, which includes anyone over 20-years-old, are satisfied with their lives which includes 92% of the Jews and 82% of the Arabs. The national average in this category stands at 88%.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Members of Israels United Hatzalah worked with IDF personnel simulating a response to a major shooting attack in the Binyamin Regional Council community of Psagot, in the Shomron. During the simulated attack about 10 victims were evacuated from the scene in UH and MDA ambulances.

Among those observing the performance of the emergency responders were Paz Rokeach (Deputy Head of Binyamin Council), the Binyamin Battalion Chief Medical Officer, and Lazer Hyman (UH Assistant Executive Director).

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photos:  )
The trial continues in the case of IDF soldier Sgt. Elor Azariya, who shot and killed a wounded terrorist on the ground in Hebron on Purim. Sgt. Elor fired at the wounded terrorist shortly after he perpetrated a stabbing attack, wounding a soldier.

According to the testimony of a military police investigator during the trial in the Jaffe Military Court on Wednesday, 24 Iyar, Elor fired at the terrorist after he was down. He added that EMT Ofir Ochana, a resident of Kiryat Arba, is witnessed pushing the knife closer to the terrorist with his foot. According to the investigator, video footage reviewed in the case shows the knife was further away and was pushed significantly closer to the terrorist later on, Walla News reports.

The investigator, Ron Kenan explained to the court that Elor first stated he fired at the terrorist because he saw the knife near him about 90 minutes after the incident occurred. He told this to a senior battalion officer. A female paramedic from Kiryat Arba interviewed by Kenan said Elor was scared the terrorist would reach the knife. She was questioned under warning and then explained Elor said he stabbed a friend of mine and deserves to die. Police gave Elor the opportunity to confront the witness to challenge the statements but he declined.

Kenan added that regarding Elors contention he feared the wounded terrorist was wearing a bomb belt, video footage they reviewed showed his outer garment was open and clearly, there was no bomb. He adds that shortly following the incident, Elor sent a text message to his dad reading There was a terrorist attack. A friend was wounded and he killed the terrorist and wounded the second terrorist. I killed the second terrorist.

Kenan adds that 17 soldiers were interviewed following the incident and the statements made by Elor before he fired were different than the statements after the fatal shooting. Investigators also confiscated footage from BTselem and reviewed it during the investigation along with other videos from the scene.

In one of the videos reviewed, they see Elor shaking hands with Ochana as well as local resident and activist Baruch Marzel. He adds that Ochana, who is well-known in the area, responding to many incidents and attacks, would only hand over his video footage after served with a court order.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
German Foreign Minister Dr. Frank Walter Steinmeier met on Tuesday night the eve of 24 Iyar with Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, Rabbi of the Jewish community in Berlin. The meeting took place on the margins of an event to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the State of Israel and Germany.

The two, who have been friends for years, discussed the state of the Jewish community in Berlin in light of the recent developments in Germany. During the meeting Rabbi Teichtal updated Foreign Minister Steinmeier about the Jewish activities in the city and about his communitys development plans. At the end of the meeting the two concluded that they will keep working together for the community and to promote the relations between the German government and the Jewish community.

As mentioned, the meeting took place on the margins of a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the state of Israel and Germany. The ceremony took place at the Israeli embassy during which 50 medals were awarded to different persons and organizations who helped and supported the development of the relationship between Israel and Germany.

The German Foreign Minister was amongst the people awarded by Israeli Ambassador Yaakov Hadas-Handelsman. During the ceremony, Foreign Minister Steinmeier addressed the crowd saying that The Germans and the Israelis have walked a long road together, from the darkness of the trenches of the past to peace and reconciliation, and Im hopeful that this road will lead us to friendship.

Rabbi Teichtal attended the ceremony as the official representative of the Jewish community in Berlin.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo: Berlin Jewish Community)
A mentally ill taxi driver who went on a knife rampage at a London subway station had images of a slain British soldier and an Islamic State militant on his phone and claimed his attack was for Syria, a British prosecutor said Wednesday.

Muhiddin Mire, 30, went on trial this week at Londons Central Criminal Court on attempted murder charges for slashing the throat of musician Lyle Zimmerman and lashing out at several others at Leytonstone station on Dec. 5.

Mire, who was born in Somalia and came to Britain as a child, has admitted the attack but denies attempted murder.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees told jurors that Mires phone contained images of Fusilier Lee Rigby  who was hacked to death in a London street by al-Qaida-inspired attackers in 2013  and Mohammed Emwazi, a British militant nicknamed Jihadi John who appeared in IS videos showing the beheading of hostages.

The contents of the defendants phone, when looked at alongside what he said during the course of the incident  provides an insight as to what motivated the defendant to do what he did, Rees said.

He said Zimmerman suffered a deep and ragged wound to his neck and was kicked repeatedly during the attack.

Mire was eventually detained by police, who used a stun gun to subdue him. Rees said as Mire was led away by police, he said: This is for Syria, for my Muslim brothers.

Rees told the court earlier that Mire had suffered delusions of a persecutory, religious and grandiose nature, including a belief he was being followed by British spy agencies.

(AP)
Even as Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to insist he can win the Democratic nomination, several prominent liberals have lined up behind front-runner Hillary Clinton in recent days  signaling that the time is now to begin unifying the party to take on Republican Donald Trump.

In endorsements of Clinton this week, California Gov. Jerry Brown and an influential environmental group, the NRDC Action Fund, argued that Democrats must stop fighting each other over their partys nomination. Brown wrote in an open letter that Clinton offers the best chance to defeat Trumps dangerous candidacy, while the fund, a political affiliate of the National Resources Defense Council, wrote that liberal groups must rally around Clinton because Trumps policies would take us back 100 years.

Both efforts seemed aimed at bolstering Clinton in California, an enormous liberal state that Clinton could lose next Tuesday even as she is expected to effectively clinch the nomination in other states. Both reflected how damaging it could be to Clinton to kick off her battle against Trump with such a symbolic defeat.

This is no time for Democrats to keep fighting each other, Brown said in a message addressed to California Democrats and independents who will vote in next weeks primary. The general election has already begun.

Perhaps the biggest sign that a new effort is underway among liberals to begin healing fissures within the party comes from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the heroine of the left. Although Warren still has not endorsed Clinton  and remains the lone Democratic woman in the Senate not to do so  she has stepped up her attacks on Trump, and her advisers have begun communicating regularly with the Clinton campaign.

We are in regular contact with her team and are very excited about the prominent role she has taken in defining whats at stake in the election, said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon. Both sides continued to insist that there is no formal coordination  and most likely, no endorsement by Warren until after the last round of primaries.

The effort is a delicate one given the ardor of Sanderss most steadfast fans  and their insistence that he can still win the nomination. Sanders is already preparing supporters to reject any pronouncements of Clinton as the partys presumptive nominee next Tuesday, when primary results in New Jersey are expected to bring her total of pledged delegates (those won in nominating contests) and superdelegates (party leaders and elected officials who may back the candidate of their choosing) past the 2,383 she needs to secure the nomination.

At a rally in Santa Cruz, California, on Tuesday, Sanders warned that the media is expected to declare the primary process is over, Secretary Clinton has won. His statement was met with boos.

That is factually incorrect. Its just not factually correct, the senator from Vermont said, predicting that he would win California and some other states next Tuesday and head into the convention with enough momentum to flip allegiances of superdelegates who have previously announced support for Clinton.

Voting will also take place next Tuesday in Montana, New Mexico and both Dakotas.

Currently, Clinton leads in all delegates 2,312 to Sanders 1,545, according to a tally by The Associated Press  although that number includes support from a large majority of superdelegates, who are free to switch their allegiance any time, for instance if Sanders pulls ahead in pledged delegates. Clinton leads among pledged delegates 1,769 to 1,501, meaning it is possible, if entirely unlikely, for Sanders to overtake her with landslide victories Tuesday, when 546 pledged delegates are at stake in California alone.

Although Clinton and her advisers remain confident about her prospects for securing the nomination, they have grown increasingly antsy about California. The former first lady canceled an event in New Jersey on Thursday to head to the West Coast sooner. She announced a five-day schedule chock full of campaign stops throughout the state, from Northern to Southern California, including a national-security speech in San Diego aimed at strengthening her position against Trump.

During an interview Tuesday with MSNBC, Clinton did not give any hint of nerves over the outcome of Californias primary, though.

Im feeling very positive about my campaign in California, she said. We are working really hard.

Democrats had largely accepted that Sanders was unlikely to concede the race until after the last votes are counted June 14, when the final nominating contest will take place in the District of Columbia.

But the latest rumblings among progressives this week reflect a new level of worry about Clintons weaknesses heading into the fall and the need for her to shore up her support in the partys liberal wing  starting now.

There are two clear messages: one, that we need to work together, and two, that Hillary Clinton will move forward a populist, progressive agenda, said Mo Elleithee, a former Democratic National Committee official and a former Clinton aide. Its reassuring them that their message and their goal will be heard.

He added: Do folks want to be responsible for putting Donald Trump in the White House? Because it could happen.

The challenge is one that former Vermont governor and presidential contender Howard Dean knows well. He recalled coming to his own recognition of the need to unify after he lost the Democratic nomination in 2004  and spoke to former vice president Al Gore.

After my ranting and raving, he just said: Look, its not about you. Its about the country,  Dean recalled. Thats where Jerry Brown is  its where most of us are.

Dean, who supports Clinton, said that there has been a ferment of calls for unity among progressives so early because of the mathematical near-impossibility that Sanders could overtake Clinton. And, he added, unification will take time.

They are going to have to get to a place where Hillary Clinton is the candidate that they are going to support, having supported somebody else in a contested, occasionally bitter primary, Dean said. And thats a hard thing to do, to climb down from your position. It takes time.

Its a challenge that Brown, who competed against Bill Clinton in the 1992 Democratic primary, also knows well. Browns support for Clinton this week follows decades of sometimes acid criticism of both Bill and Hillary Clinton  including one zinger in which he called Bill Clinton the prince of sleaze. In a debate in 1992, Brown raised the issue of Hillary Clintons ethics, accusing the then-Arkansas governor of funneling money to his wifes law firm for state business. Clinton famously replied that Brown was not worth being on the same platform as my wife.

More than 20 years later, Brown is finally standing with Clinton, lending the weight of his progressive credentials to her cause.

Its not like hes a long-time Clintonite, Elleithee said. This is a guy who is a hero to many progressives, and the fact that he came out and said it is time for us to focus . . . that was a very strong signal to Sanders.

Still, even in his endorsement, Brown signaled the challenge she faces with liberals. The open letter was lukewarm in its praise for Clinton, and while Brown laid out his reasons for his own vote, he did not expressly urge California Democrats to vote for her.

Brown also praised Sanders on his way to calling Clinton qualified and capable.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Abby Phillip, Karen Tumulty
During a campaign stop in Montana over Memorial Day weekend, Donald Trump promised he would expand the traditional presidential battleground into states long held by Democrats. Were going to play heavy, as an example, in California, Trump said, before adding that his home state of New York was also on his list of targets.

Trump has broken lots and lots of long-held political rules in the course of his march to the Republican nomination. Given that record, theres a tendency to assume that anything he says about what he will do in the future must be taken as fact. He said he was going to make a run at New York and California? Must be true!

Um, no.

Lets count the reasons why.

1. New York and California are two of the most consistently Democratic states in the country.

The last time a Republican candidate for president won California was in 1988. That was four years more recent than the last time a Republican presidential candidate carried New York  and in that election Ronald Reagan won every state but one against Walter Mondale.

Heres the Democratic candidates winning percentage in California for the past four presidential elections, starting in 2000: 60, 61, 54, 53. And here are those numbers for New York: 63, 63, 58, 60. In other words, not close  and trending toward even less close. (More on the why of that trend below.)

And, its not just at the presidential level where Democrats dominate. The last Republican to win a statewide federal election in New York was Alfonse DAmato in 1992. In California, it was Pete Wilson  also in 1988. Californias Democratic senators were most recently reelected with 63 percent and 52 percent of the vote. In New York, the reelection numbers for the Democratic incumbents were 66 percent and 72 percent.

There are 39 Democrats and just 14 Republicans in the California U.S. House delegation. In New York, its 18 Democrats to nine Republicans.

2. New York and California are two of the most diverse states in the country.

Donald Trump  and Republicans more generally  have struggled to win over nonwhite voters in both this election and in recent past ones. (Mitt Romney got a meager 27 percent of the Hispanic vote nationally in 2012.) Any state that has a large nonwhite population is going to be very hard, therefore, for a Republican to win.

California is almost 40 percent Hispanic, according to the Census Bureau. More than one in three New Yorkers is not white.

In a statewide Siena College poll in New York released Tuesday, just 12 percent of African Americans and 15 percent of Latinos said they had a favorable impression of Trump. Among black voters, Trump was losing 84 percent to 9 percent to Hillary Clinton. Clintons margin among Hispanics was 53 points.

3. New York and California are two of the most expensive states in which to run ads in the country.

Both New York and California are huge  both in population and pure size. That makes reaching voters an incredibly costly proposition for any candidate.

California has 11 separate media markets, with Los Angeles being the most expensive.

New York has 10, with New York City being the most expensive.

If you want to advertise  and have anyone actually see the commercials  in either state, you need to make a multimillion-dollar-per-week investment in TV time. That price tag means no campaign can realistically afford to take a flier on making New York or California competitive. Trump could run ads in three actual swing states  Colorado, New Hampshire and Iowa, say  for the cost of a single week of TV in New York or California. Actually, for less.

Trump doesnt need California or New York to get to 270 electoral votes and the White House. Thats a good thing for Republicans. Because no matter what he says, he has no chance of winning either state.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post  Chris Cillizza
Irans foreign minister says the nuclear deal reached last year with world powers cant be renegotiated despite Republican presidential contender Donald Trumps pledge to do so if elected.

After a lecture in Stockholm, Mohammad Javad Zarif said the deal is not an Iran-U.S. agreement for the Republican front-runner or anybody else to renegotiate. Its an international understanding annexed to a Security Council resolution.

Trump has denounced the deal and said hed seek to renegotiate it if elected president.

Zarif also criticized Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir for calling on Iran to stop intervening in Iraq, saying we will leave Iraq whenever Iraq asks us to leave.

Iran says its military advisers in Iraq are there at Baghdads request to help Iraqi forces fight Islamic State militants.

(AP)
The United States is proposing new penalties aimed at preventing North Korea from laundering money that could be used for its nuclear weapons program.

The Treasury Department has now designated North Korea as a primary money laundering concern.

Treasury official Adam Szubin (ZOO-bin) says its a further step toward severing banking relationships with North Korea.

In March, the United Nations imposed the toughest sanctions yet against North Korea after the isolated communist nation conducted atomic and missile tests.

(AP)
TSB has added another cashback perk to its Classic Plus current account, boosting potential annual earnings to 217.80.

The bank will now allow accountholders to clock up an extra 1 per cent cashback on the first 500 of spending made on a TSB MasterCard credit card.

The new benefit could earn customers an extra 5 per month - but only if they have a TSB credit card.

The account already offers 5 per cent interest on balances up to 2,000 and 5 per cent back on their first 100 of contactless spending each month.

TSB's cashback perks and in-credit interest on its Classic Plus account could earn up to 200 a year

The news comes hot on the heels of a new 200 current account sweetener added to both HSBC's Advance and Premier accounts.

Co-operative Bank has also boosted its Current Account offering with a 150 'golden hello' for new customers. This is paid on top of its existing Everyday Rewards scheme, which earns customers up to 5.50 in rewards each month if you complete a number of everyday banking tasks.

Andy Piggott, head of cards at TSB, said: 'We know that people love the cashback they earn on their Classic Plus account and we wanted to give them more.

'We understand that when we work in partnership with our customers, everyone benefits. We believe our Plus account gives you more, the more you use it  its what we call Plusness.'

Here's what you get

The Classic Plus current account pays 5 per cent interest on balances of up to 2,000 - earning up to 97.80 per year.

You also get 5 per cent back on the first 100 of contactless spending each month, boosting earnings by an extra 5 per month. New customers will be able to take advantage of this new perk until September 2017.

The new offer allows you to clock up 1 per cent cashback on up to 500 worth of spending each month, when using any of the bank's MasterCard credit cards (including the Platinum, Advance and Student cards).

The offer only last until September 30 2017 but it could boost your earnings by an extra 60 per year.

There is no annual fee on the account and the minimum monthly deposit required is set at just 500. This is much lower than many similar interest-paying accounts.

Watch out

The account won't be the best fit for anyone who strays into their overdraft regularly.

The bank offers a 25 interest-free overdraft plus a 10 free buffer. After that you will pay a 6 monthly usage fee plus 19.94 (EAR) per cent interest.

Unplanned borrowing is even more expensive. You will be slapped with same 6 monthly borrowing fee and 19.94 per cent interest but the bank will also add a daily charge as well.

Borrowing beyond your limit between 10 and 25 costs 5 per day, anything over this will cost you 10 per day (daily fees are capped at eight per month).

This is Money verdict:

The Classic Plus accounts already offers one of the best options for anyone with a small in-credit balance, particularly as the rate does not drop off after a year, unlike the Nationwide Flex Direct account which pays 5 per cent on a slightly higher 2,500.

One of the major benefits of the account is that you won't necessarily have to pay in your salary into the account to keep it open as the bank only requires a monthly minimum deposit of 500.

It also allows you to open both your own account and a joint account, meaning a couple could potentially earn 5 per cent interest on up to 6,000 if the both hold a sole account and share a joint account.

The cashback perks are an added bonus, meaning a potential extra 120-a-year in earnings but you should make sure the account works for you before racing to sign-up.

The contactless spending deal only lasts until December 31 for existing customers meaning only six months left to take advantage, but TSB has extended the deal for new customers until September 2017.

Accountholders should resist taking out a TSB credit card if they don't have one already simply for the new money-back offer.

Although you can earn 60-a-year for using your card to pay, there may be better deals available if you are in the market for a new credit card.
My husband had the Claims Guys in Altrincham acting for him on a Payment Protection Insurance claim. The total he had due back to him was 492 and its fees for this was 172  or 35 per cent.

We were on holiday in Cuba when it first started chasing us for payment, receiving calls in the middle of the night.

While away, my husband was taken ill with a heart condition. On return to the UK last month, we went straight to the hospital where my husband has been since.

Bold claims: At the top of the Claims Guys website, it offers a 'free check' - but the small print at the bottom highlights its fee of +30%

He is receiving call after call chasing for the money. I telephoned them willing to make the payment but was very rudely told "we cannot speak to you as this is your husbands account".

I asked them to at least make a note on the system to say he was in hospital and as soon as he was released he would make the payment.

Last week we were advised he needs a triple bypass and would therefore be in hospital for at least another couple of weeks.

The phone calls from these PPI people kept coming along with e-mails, texts and letters. I again telephoned and asked them to stop harassing him - he does not need this constant phone calling. Again they said they would note the system.

Yet more phone calls came more letters came and we are now being told that unless payment is made it will affect his crediting rating.

I rang them again and once again I was told they couldnt speak to me. Can you please help? K.W, Gillingham.

Lee Boyce, consumer affairs editor at This is Money, replies: This is a prime example of why, if you believe you were mis-sold PPI, you are better off going alone  all you have to do is use our free letter template, fill in it and send it to your bank.

Instead, your husband is being hounded for the payment after his claim through this firm was successful  and it's a meaty 35 per cent of the total redress. It almost makes it seem it was more hassle than it was worth.

PPI is the insurance sold alongside credit cards, loans and other finance agreements to insure payments are met if the borrower is unable to make them due to sickness or unemployment.

However, significant numbers of policyholders found that the insurance is useless to them because they would be unable to claim, for example if they are self-employed or retired. Huge numbers of policies were mis-sold for this and other reasons.

FCA: Data from the City watchdog showed there were nearly 1m PPI complaints opened in the last six months of 2015

The scandal has cost banks billions of pounds. The constant stream of complaints has started to slow slightly according to the Financial Conduct Authority.

In the second half of 2015, there were 932,298 complaints opened about PPI compared to 2.1million in the second half of 2012. There have even been talks of putting a deadline on it.

Nevertheless, PPI complaints still make up 44 per cent of all financial gripes, according to the City watchdog.

I asked a number of questions to the Claims Guys. Is it commonplace to chase people daily for money that has been won back, does it have authority to amend a credit rating and is 35 per cent the amount it charges everybody?

I also asked that given the circumstances, should Mr.W have been given some breathing space?

Mark Simpkins, the director of the firm, got in contact with me to note the complaint and that it would respond to Mr.W according to its policy  but he had no further comment.

On its website, the first claim it makes under a banner headed why check? it reads: FREE service*; no commitment, no obligation.

When you scroll to the bottom of the website, in the small print, it reads: When we tell you that we have located your PPI, we will send you some further paperwork to complete to start the claims process.

Once you return the paperwork, or confirm over the telephone that you wish us to proceed with your claim, we will commence the claims process.

If the claim is successful, our fee of 30 per cent + VAT will be payable as per the attached Terms of Engagement or you can complete your claim yourself.

On its website, it claims to have won back 510million since 2009. Based on a 35 per cent fee, this equates to 178.5million  or nearly 30million a year. Not bad work if you can get it.
GOLDMANS AXE Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has slashed dozens of senior jobs at its investment banking arm.

The cuts have hit employees in London, New York and Hong Kong, sources told Bloomberg.

They follow a first quarter profit slump from 7.4billion to 4.4billion. Staff took a 40 per cent pay cut in the period.

PROFITS SLUMP Profits at Johnson Matthey have fallen by more than a fifth due to restructuring costs.

The company, which makes catalytic converters and chemicals, reported a 22 per cent fall in annual profits to 386.3million.

But shares rose 5.9 per cent, or 168p, to 2995p after it announced a dividend of 71.5p per share, up 5 per cent on a year ago.

WEAK DEMAND Global demand for air travel may be shifting down a gear, according to aviation body IATA.

The group said it expects a slowdown in passenger demand, with growth of 6.2 per cent in 2016, down from 7.4 per cent in 2015.

But thanks to cheaper fuel, industry profits are expected to rise by almost 12pc this year to 24.4m.

PET PROJECT Premier Veterinary Group saw its shares spike yesterday after signing a deal in the US.

The company agreed a five-year tie-up with Veterinary Products to supply its preventative healthcare scheme, which is expected to reach 200,000 pets across 15 states over the period.

Shares rose 7.3 per cent, or 10p, to 147p.

FUND RAISING Investec Bank is launching a 145million share sale to raise extra cash.

The firm, down 5.1 per cent or 24p to 447p, will sell up to 30.9million shares to institutional investors in a deal being arranged by JPMorgan Chase.

Cash raised will be used to buy back special shares issued in South Africa ten years ago to boost black ownership of the economy.

BUDGET BOOM Budget airline Ryanair said traffic in May rose by 12 per cent to 10.6million customers.

It also said it has cut its baggage fees for the majority of customers by simplifying its options.

Low-cost east European-focused airline Wizz Air said May passenger numbers rose 21.8 per cent to 2.17million.

BROKER DEAL Scandal-hit stockbroker WH Ireland is outsourcing part of its wealth management operation to US company SEI Investments.

The seven-year deal will see SEI oversee communications with clients and other routine business activity.

It comes after WH Ireland was fined 1.2million for systems failures during 2013. WH Ireland shares rose 1.1 per cent, or 1p to 92p.

CRUISE CONTROL Tour operator Tui, up 0.4 per cent, or 4p to 1042p, is beefing up its cruise business with the purchase of a 63,000 tonne vessel from rival Royal Caribbean International.

The Legend of the Seas has 915 cabins, nearly 40 per cent of which have balconies.
Confident: Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said 'the worst is clearly behind us'

Some of the worlds biggest oil producers yesterday declared that the worst was over for the industry and prices would continue to recover this year.

At a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna, leading oil ministers decided against capping output on the back of the recently climbing oil price.

Saudi energy minister Khalid Al-Falih said the worst is clearly behind us, while Iraqs deputy oil minister Fayadh al-Nema predicted prices could reach as much as $65 in the coming months.

A sustained recovery in oil prices could push up the cost of fuel and household energy bills in a blow to millions of households.

But the price of crude swung violently on international markets yesterday, as traders digested the developments in Vienna.

Brent crude dropped 2 per cent immediately after Opec revealed it would not be capping output  a move that would have driven prices higher.

But it bounced back later in the day rising above $50 per barrel after figures showed that US stockpiles have fallen in the last week.

The price of oil fell dramatically from $115 a barrel two years ago to around $27 a barrel early this year before recovering to its current level.

Traditionally Opec countries club together to cut output when prices are low to boost demand.

But recently, amid tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, they have been fighting it out to gain market share, boosting supply at a time of weak demand and driving down oil prices.

Industry experts have suggested that Opec is losing its stranglehold over the global oil market with rising production elsewhere, including in the US.

Opec secretary-general Abdalla al-Badri insisted that the failure to cap output did not undermine its status.

Opec will be powerful, will be strong. Opec is alive, he said.
The boss of the London Stock Exchange has seen his shares rise in value by 2million since news of a German takeover hit the press.

Xavier Rolets 519,069 shares in LSE were worth around 12million when the markets closed on February 22  the day before the deal with Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse leaked.

Since then, they have risen to about 14million as share prices jumped following the proposal.

Cashing in? Xavier Rolets 519,069 shares in LSE were worth around 12m when the markets closed on February 22  the day before the deal with Frankfurt-based Deutsche Borse leaked

The Frenchman has another 509,805 shares coming his way under various bonus schemes  and at present prices these are worth 13.8million.

Rolet, 56, has always been at pains to insist he believes the deal is in the best interests of investors and the market.

But campaigners warned that large shareholdings could create a perverse incentive for bosses to pursue high-risk, dramatic deals.

Stefan Stern of the High Pay Centre said: A short-term hit that benefits directors off the back of an extravagant share price movement is maybe not always the best reason for doing a deal.

Rolet earned 6.6million last year, including a 745,000 salary and 5.6million bonus.

He will not pick up a bonus specifically related to the takeover but has agreed to step aside if it goes ahead  a move chairman Donald Brydon has described as a typically selfless act in the interests of shareholders.

However, the small print of the deal reveals Rolet will stay on for up to a year as an advisor. The fees he will pocket under this arrangement have yet to be disclosed.

Both sides insist the 21billion tie-up between LSE and Deutsche is a merger of equals.

But the new company will report profits in euros, it will be run by Deutsche boss Carsten Kengeter and his businesss shareholders will get a 54.4 per centcontrolling stake.

The takeover has been blasted by critics who fear it goes against Britains national interest but the decision will ultimately come down to a vote by LSE shareholders on July 4.

If investors approve it, British and European watchdogs will have to give their backing.

French finance minister Michel Sapin has called on the European Commission to intervene, saying the takeover would create a dangerously dominant player.
MoneySupermarket investors were shopping around yesterday after Jefferies cut its rating on the stock.

The broker moved the firm, which is known for its price comparison websites and money site MoneySavingExpert, from a buy to hold and shaved 128p off its target price to 312p.

The groups operating profits rose 26 per cent in 2015 to 80.5m but the insurance arm, which accounts for about half that, grew just 2 per cent.

The broker said it had changed its forecasts after reviewing data from online data analytics site Hitwise.

Review: MoneySupermarket investors were shopping around yesterday after Jefferies cut its rating on the stock

Analysts said the comparison site was no longer leading the pack and that an anticipated pick-up in growth in the insurance arm could be more anaemic than previously expected.

Not feeling So MoneySupermarket as the ads say, shares slumped 6.4 per cent, or 21.2p, to 309.8p.

N Brown was another to suffer at the hands of a downgrade. Citigroup cut its target price for the struggling plus-size fashion retailer to 235p.

The group, known for its Simply Be and JD Williams brands, has battled bad British weather over recent months. Underlying profit dropped 2 per cent to 84.5million in its last financial year. Yesterday shares fell back 1.4 per cent, or 3.3p, to 236.7p.

It was something of a Pharma Thursday with news coming out on some of the biggest FTSE players in the industry.

GlaxoSmithKline revealed that following discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration it has brought forward its plan to file an application for its drug to treat patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

The pharmaceutical giant behind antibiotic Amoxil, cold sore treatment Zovirax, and Sensodyne toothpaste says it expects US regulatory submission by the end of this year, two years sooner than anticipated.

The condition COPD encompasses a number of ailments including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Perhaps investors arent so optimistic about the timeline though  shares slipped 0.2 per cent, or 3p, to 1444.5p.

Elsewhere AstraZeneca announced it has entered into a licensing agreement with a German pharma firm.

Family-owned Grunenthal will have the exclusive rights to Zurampic, a gout treatment, in Europe and Latin America where the condition affects more than 7.8million people.

Astra will receive tiered, low double-digit royalties on annual product sales. Grunenthal will have the option to take over manufacturing the drug from October 1, 2021. Shares advanced 0.6 per cent, or 26.5p, to 4042p.

Meanwhile, Oxford BioMedica revealed a partnership with Green Cross LabCell, a subsidiary of South Korean pharma group Green Cross Holdings.

The two companies will be focusing on gene and cell-based treatments for life-threatening diseases such as cancer.

Gene modification and editing is a fast-growing area of cancer treatment where a patients genetic code is analysed to find mutated cells which can then be altered.

Through this pairing, Oxford said it hopes to generate a pipeline of different products in areas of unmet medical need. The two companies will share the costs associated with the research collaboration equally.

Oxfords shares gained 3.4pc, or 0.18p, to 5.5p on the news.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals had been having a strong week after it emerged it was to replace satellite firm Inmarsat (up 0.6 per cent, or 4.5p, to 709.5p) in the FTSE shuffle.

The firm, which specialises in branded, injectable and generic pharma products, has climbed more than 100p over the past five days. The business has had a notoriously rocky ride.

Following a profit warning last November, the firm was only relegated from the FTSE 100 three months ago after gaining entry just a year before in March 2015.

Experts suggest it could be a sign that pharma firms are back in fashion.

But yesterday Hikma shares slipped 0.3 per cent, or 8p, to 2300p.

ULS Technology has signed up a major mortgage expert to its services. The firm provides online technology platforms for businesses.

Its latest service, eConveyancer, has ten UK law firms which are rated against each other based on service, price and proximity to a customer. Mortgage advisers can use the system to find the best conveyancer for their client.
A firm making noodles in Sussex is to start selling its wares to China.

Kabuto Noodles, founded by former Pieminister director Crispin Busk, has sold its five millionth noodle pot this week and is in talks with a distributor to sell through Chinese supermarkets.

The Sussex-made noodles will be shipped to China by the end of the year.

Noodle master: Crispin Busk has sold its five millionth noodle pot this week and is in talks with a distributor to sell through Chinese supermarkets

Busk said his products are premium instant noodles because they use quality ingredients and taste as youd expect from a fresh noodle dish.

He set the company up in 2010 and sells his posh pot noodles in major UK supermarkets.
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By Madina Toure

State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Flushing) has rolled out a new initiative to make Flushing cleaner.

The three-point plan, which Stavisky unveiled at a news conference last Friday, is centered on education, sanitation and communication.

The educational component of the plan calls for educating residents and business owners about the rules and regulations for garbage disposal by handing out fliers in English, Chinese and Korean.

The sanitation part of the plan would establish a third sanitation inspector who oversees areas within the 11354-355 zip codes. Community Board 7 currently has two sanitation inspectors.

Lastly, the plans communication component requests the creation of a roundtable with stakeholders so that small business owners can share their concerns, ideas and questions.

Through programs such as graffiti removal, power washing and the founding of the Flushing BID, this area has seen improvement over the years, but trash continues to be problematic, Stavisky said. We cannot solve the issue merely by handing out citations to small business owners, but rather by using a multi-pronged approach.

As a state senator, Stavisky was a founding member of the Downtown Flushing Transit Hub Business Improvement District.

She has also allocated funds for graffiti removal and sponsored power-washing programs with the BID.

Last year, she worked with the state Department of Agriculture and Markets to combat supermarkets illegal storing of food deliveries on the street.

Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing), who endorsed Staviskys re-election campaign at the news conference, said Flushing needs a senator who is familiar with the problems of everyday New Yorkers.

Senator Stavisky has done great work in our community to make sure our streets are clean and our quality of life gets the right attention and resources from the state of New York, Koo said.
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By Madina Toure

Elected officials and community leaders said it was a combination of numerous issues affecting Flushing that ultimately caused the city to put its plan to rezone Flushing West on hold.

Mayor Bill de Blasios proposal sought to clean up and rezone 60 acres on the Flushing waterfront and form a planned community with waterfront access for its housing and commercial space.

The 32-acre study area runs from Prince Street to Flushing Creek on the west, Roosevelt Avenue on the south and Northern Boulevard on the north. The proposal would have created 1,600 units of housing in the area.

The mayor decided to temporarily halt the proposal just days after Councilman Peter Koo (D-Flushing) wrote a letter to City Planning Chairman Carl Weisbrod asking for the project to be withdrawn.

De Blasios plan aims to create and preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing in the five boroughs over the next decade.

Austin Finan, a spokesman for de Blasio, said the city will work with the community to refine the proposal.

We are continuing to work with the community to address the important quality of life and planning issues that are unique to Flushing, Finan said.

In a letter dated May 27 to Koo, Weisbrod said the councilman had raised some important quality-of-life and planning issues unique to Flushing and that the city would focus on planning efforts in other neighborhoods.

We agree that it would not be prudent to move forward with a neighborhood planning strategy that cannot adequately achieve these goals, Weisbrod wrote. We will continue to work with you and community stakeholders to determine if solutions to these issues are plausible.

A City Planning spokesman said the city could revisit Flushing West if the underlying challengesthe Federal Aviation Administration flight paths and remediation in Flushing Creekare resolved.

In his letter, also dated May 27, Koo asked Weisbrod to withdraw the plan and said he submitted scoping comments in December 2015 in response to the draft environmental impact statement for Flushing West.

Koos main concerns centered on environmental issues, including air quality, noise and the need to remediate Flushing Creek where new residents would live as well as rerouting the pre-2012 LaGuardia Airport flight path over Flushing Meadows Corona Park instead of downtown Flushing.

From day one, Ive said that before we attempt to rezone this community, we need to have commitments to infrastructure, affordable housing, transit and traffic improvements, Koo said.

Other issues were creating new school capacity and addressing streetscape infrastructure, road repair, bus terminals and the capacity of the No. 7 train.

The Greater Flushing Chamber of Commerce, for its part, was disappointed by the announcement.

We are a diverse community of hard working entrepreneurs, immigrants, and visionaries, Simon Gerson, the chambers president, said. In that respect, this unfortunate decision shows that the city never really made an effort to understand who we are.

Joe Sweeney, chairman of Community Board 7s land use committee for Flushing West, said he agreed with state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) and state Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) when they announced their opposition, but Koos announcement has more weight given that such a plan would go to City Council upon approval.

He (Koo) listened and he listened and listened, he continued. This wasnt just a decision that he made overnight.

Avella, the first elected official to call for the plan to be withdrawn, said putting an additional development next to the already overburdened 7 subway line was a bad move.

Im glad that City Planning finally came to realize that this was an awful plan and I dont blame them, he said. This was the mayors proposal, so Im glad that City Planning finally convinced the mayor that this was just insane.

Kim said smart infrastructure development must precede additional housing.

When we have these types of rezoning opportunities, we have to make sure that city and state agencies are on the same page and I hope that we can go back and come up with a better long-term solution for the future of Flushing, he said.
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By Bill Parry

For nearly two decades, students at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City have been lining up for affordable meals of chicken and gyro over rice at the Halal Guys food cart on Thomson Avenue. Last week, the street-food vendors celebrated their phenomenal growth in the last few years with a $30,000 gift to the schools scholarship fund.

Three immigrants from Egypt opened a Midtown Manhattan hot dog cart in 1990 and switched to Middle Eastern halal food to feed Muslim cab drivers. They have grown to five carts and two restaurants in the city and 10 franchise restaurants nationwide with plans to open 335 franchise locations around the world.

A friendship between a faculty member and Hesham Hegazy, the Halal Guys director of business and brand development, spurred their support of the college with a gift of $6,000 in 2013. Last year, Halal Guys upped its donation to $7,000 to the LaGuardia Community College Fund.

When my friend, engineering professor Yasser Hassebo, told me about the students in his classes who were working very hard to excel in their studies, while struggling to make ends meet and also balancing work with family obligations, I was moved to help out, Hegazy said. LaGuardia Community College students, faculty and staff have been loyal supporters of our food cart on their campus, and so it felt right to give back by establishing the Halal Guys Scholarship Fund.

LaGuardia Community College has one of the most ethnically diverse campuses in the nation with more than 50,000 students, two-thirds of whom are now new Americans. The students face a unique challenge in that the majority have family incomes of less than $25,000 a year.

The Halal Guys Scholarship Fund gives full-time students in good academic standing $1,000 for two semesters of study. Thus far, their support has gone to more than eight LaGuardia students.

The Halal Guys scholarship allowed me to complete my final semester at LaGuardia, graduate Adeline Romero said. The Halal Guys scholarship lightened my financial burden and allowed me to focus on my last class load. The generosity extended to me by the Halal Guys and LaGuardia has inspired me to give back to the community. I hope to pay it forward one day and help other students achieve their goals.

Romero graduated with a 3.85 GPA and is now studying political science at John Jay, with plans to pursue a career in public policy and advocacy. The Halal Guys are the very best friends our college can have, LaGuardia Community College President Gail O. Mellow said. They have been unwavering in their support of our students.

Mohamed Abouelenein, the companys president and co-founder, sent three of his children to the school.

All had excellent experiencesthey enjoyed their time here and were very well prepared for the next chapters of their educationtransferring to four-year schools, Abouelenein said. I know the value of this college firsthand, and so Im very pleased that were able to support it with this scholarship fund.
Turkey recalled its envoy to Germany and threatened consequences Thursday, in a furious reaction over the Bundestag\s decision to adopt a resolution recognising the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.

Only one MP voted against and another abstained, as the German parliament approved overwhelmingly by a show of hands the resolution titled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

In the public gallery of the Bundestag, onlookers including members of the Armenian community held up banners saying "thank you" as the parliamentary speaker announced the result of the vote to applause.

Armenia Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian praised the decision as "Germany\s valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides, crimes against humanity."

But Turkey swiftly condemned the resolution, and recalled its ambassador to Germany for consultations. Ankara also summoned the German charge d\affaires to the Turkish foreign ministry later Thursday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned "the resolution adopted by the German parliament will seriously affect relations between Germany and Turkey."

Erdogan\s condemnation came after Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus called the Bundestag recognition a "historic mistake" and dismissed it as "null and void".

The resolution, put forward by the ruling left-right coalition and the opposition Greens, carries the contentious word throughout and also puts partial blame on the German Empire, then allied with the Ottomans and which failed to prevent the atrocities.

The "genocide" recognition comes at a particularly awkward time as Germany and the European Union are relying on Turkey to help stem a record influx of migrants even as tensions are rising between both sides over human rights and other issues.

Yerevan has long sought international recognition of the "genocide", but Ankara rejects using the term to describe the killings more than a century ago and argues that it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died.

Acknowledging Turkey\s fury over the Bundestag move, political leaders argued however that a clear recognition of historical facts was a key step to healing old wounds.

"We are not looking to put Turkey in the dock. Instead, this is about making clear that taking responsibility for the past is indispensible for reconciliation," said Franz Josef Jung, speaking for Chancellor Angela Merkel\s Christian Democrats.

Turkish leaders heaped on the pressure ahead of the vote, with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim saying earlier Thursday that it would "amount to a real test of the friendship" between the two nations.

Erdogan had warned that passing the resolution "would harm our future ties", and telephoned Merkel over the text.

Merkel backed the resolution, her spokeswoman said, even though she did not attend the vote due to other official engagements.

Before now Berlin has not taken a clear position on the WWI massacre, and President Joachim Gauck had been the highest-ranking German official who has called the killings a "genocide".

His speech last year during commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the killings had drawn fire from Turkey, but was also rejected by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

He has said he hoped the Bundestag resolution would not derail efforts to reconcile Turkey and Armenia.

The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, which has special ties with Ankara not least due to its three-million-strong ethnic Turkish population which settled following a massive "guest worker" programme in the 1960s and 1970s.

Revealing the pressure that lawmakers came under over the vote, parliament speaker Norbert Lammert said that "many threats were sent to colleagues, particularly those with Turkish background, including death threats".

Yerevan and Ankara have long been at loggerheads over the massacre.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

But modern Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman empire, says that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, have recognised the Armenian genocide.

Referring to the atrocities against the Armenians, the German resolution says: "Their fate exemplifies the mass exterminations, the ethnic cleansing, the expulsions and indeed the genocides that marked the 20th century in such a terrible way."

It also states that the "German Empire bears partial responsibility for the events".

SOURCE: AFP
Iran officially announced on Thursday that it won\t be sending pilgrims to the hajj this year, blaming Saudi Arabia for the move and claiming the kingdom has failed to provide adequate security for the pilgrims.

The hajj has become a contentious issue as tensions between the two Mideast powers escalated after last year\s disaster at the hajj killed at least 2,426 people, according to an AP count. Iran has said the disaster killed 464 of its pilgrims.

Iran has since demanded additional security guarantees for pilgrims but a second round of talks in Saudi Arabia this week failed to resolve the issue.

Saeed Ohadi, head of Iran\s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, said Thursday that "Saudi Arabia knows it will pay a heavy price for depriving pilgrims" from Iran of the chance to perform the hajj, considered a duty for every able-bodied Muslim.

He also said Riyadh sought to restrict the number of makeshift clinics Iran wanted to set up for its pilgrims and the amount of medicines it wanted to supply them with. In addition, last month the kingdom said it would not allow Iranian pilgrims to perform a Shiite ritual during the hajj.

After the hajj disaster, tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia escalated further after Riyadh executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric convicted of a string of charges, including sowing dissent in the majority Sunni kingdom. This sparked widespread protests in Shiite-led Iran, which views itself as the protector of Shiites around the world. Iranian protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic posts and Riyadh responded by cutting diplomatic relations with Tehran.

The two countries also support opposing sides in Syria\s civil war and the ongoing conflict in Yemen, the Arab world\s poorest country.

SOURCE: AP
Mushcup's Brian Steff takes his turn in 'My Favorite Guitar'

Mushcup's Brian Steff has an arsenal of guitars though his favorite is one loved and admired by fans
Knew it wouldn't be easy to get back to this keyboard after a three-week absence. Emails and unanswered voice mails need tending. Many of them sweetly expressing sympathy for the passing of my mother three weeks ago.

I still have no idea how long it will take for the autopilot on my car to reset. This morning we headed out for Texhoma Christian Care.

Most days before I went to work I'd leave early enough to pick up sugar free vanilla syrup sweetened coffee for Mom and visit her at TCC. Over the years Mom was tickled to see me and the coffee. It was something Alzheimers/dementia didn't change.

Lots of people view the death of a loved one as a loss. Stopping at the corner to remember I'll no longer see that beaming smile, something those who knew and met her loved, takes a second and will probably happen again.

Long enough to know the smile will never fade. No matter where I have lived or worked, phone calls or not, Mom was part of everyday life.

There may never be a bracelet but the question will still be asked, "What would Mom do? What would Mom have to say about that?"

A great Wichita Falls ISD administrator, Mom kept everything in order. Days spent in the recliner after foot surgery (scheduled a week after her funeral, she would have made clear, "don't postpone.") gave me time to go through records, photos, memories she kept organized file after file.

There I discovered the makings of a time line, Mom's life before a mind and body began to fade. Along with snapshots of family get-togethers were fun trips taken across Texas with the Super Friends, a group of other school food service directors from different districts.

Planning had always been a part of Mom's world but lists for these and other events, tasks and responsibilities began to get longer and more detailed. During the years she lived with me words in her regular vocabulary were sometimes forgotten and worked around.

In the days before her passing, my three brothers learned things about Mom. She had an advance medical directive, an outline of actions to be taken when she no longer could. Years ago she took care of final arrangements, funeral services and her resting place next to her mother, Sudie Simmons.

Funeral luncheons and dinners give family and friends a chance to gather, express regrets and share the best stories about someone loved and appreciated. All Mom's children had to do was choose one of her favorite restaurants, Hunan. It was a day to remember.

In my heart I know by now Mom has set up her office in heaven, making sure all the angels get plenty of manna. Healthy with ingredients for eternal life.

She keeps and eye on her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all of whom would be wise to ask themselves from time to time, "What would Mom-Mamaw-Great-Mamaw do?"

Judith McGinnis, whose column appears here on Thursdays, may be reached at mcginnisj@timesrecordnews.com or 940-763-7534.
SHARE Contributed photo by Eric Snoza Daniel Black Contributed photo/Raul Rubiera Fouad Fakhouri Contributed photo Darryl One

By Times Record News

The Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra has named Daniel Black, Fouad Fakhouri and Darryl One as finalists for music director and conductor. Previous conductor Candler Schaffer, who helmed the symphony for two decades, retired recently.

Over the past nine months, a 12-member search committee made up of board members, orchestra musicians and community leaders reviewed applications from more than 140 candidates from around the world.

Each finalist will conduct one classical program during the 2016-17 season.

Before each of their respective concerts, the finalists will conduct rehearsals with the orchestra and meet with members of the community. Audience members also will have an opportunity to participate in the selection of the next conductor.

Darryl One, who will conduct the symphony Oct. 1, is the music director of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

Black will conduct the WFSO on Nov. 12. Described as "vital and engaging" with "a droll sense of humor on the podium. He is the assistant conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.Fakhouri will conduct the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra Feb. 18, 2017. From 2004-2016 Fakhouri served as music director and conductor of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina.Selection of the new music director and conductor will be made after the final audition concert, based on an evaluation process conducted by the search committee with input from the WFSO Board of Directors, members of the orchestra, audience and community members. The orchestra's next music director and conductor will assume the podium for the 2017-2018 concert season.

For more information, contact the WFSO office at 723-6202 or wfso@sbcglobal.net.
Vandalism

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By Times Record News

Wichita Falls police are investigating several reports of tires being slashed along Clovis Drive in City View.

WFPD Public Information Officer Brandie Young said the department has received two reports of the criminal mischief in the 3800 block of Clovis Drive.

Young said the first report, which was called into the front desk of the police department around 6:14 a.m. Tuesday, indicated two cars  a Toyota Tacoma and a Honda CR-V  had three tires slashed on each vehicle. The person said the crime happened sometime between 9 p.m. Monday and 5:40 a.m. Tuesday.

About 34 minutes later, a second caller said sometime between 7 p.m. Monday and 5 a.m. Tuesday their Chevrolet Colorado, Kia 4-door sedan and Chevrolet Cruze had all four tires slashed on each vehicle, Young said. The person said the Colorado also appeared to have been scraped with a key.

Police ask for anyone with information that could help in the investigation of the criminal mischief to call Crime Stoppers at 940-322-9888, or toll-free from outside the Wichita Falls area at 800-322-9888.
SHARE An image of a featured rancher, Mary Ellen Dude Barton, who was both rancher--as well as rodeo participant during the 1940's and 1950's. In 1947 she helped start the Girls Rodeo Association. She is also a member of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame. The 92-year-old Barton will be in attendance at the Friday symposium. Alice Kleberg East (1893-1997), the granddaughter of Richard King (founder of the King Ranch), grew up with ranching and she married rancher Tom East. Together, they operated ranches in South Texas. After he passed away, she ran them with her children. Cecilia Gutierrez Venable, a PhD student at the University of Texas El Paso, will talk about East at the first session of the Women Ranchers in Texas program at 9:15 a.m. Friday at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University.

By Richard Carter, Special to the Times Record News

When we think of the grand Texas cattle industry, C. L. Douglas' famous history tome, "Cattle Kings of Texas," comes to mind.

But contemporary research shows that the 19th and 20 century Texas cattle industry was not just about men.

"There were a good number of women who were the primary decision-makers of their ranching operations," said Leland Turner, Midwestern State University history professor.

Turner helped arrange a collection of articles about women ranchers called "Women Ranchers in Texas." Most of these pieces will be presented at a program 6 p.m. Thursday, June 2, with a keynote lecture at the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at MSU. A symposium follows from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, June 3, at the museum with 10 historians giving lectures on noted Texas women ranchers.

The scope of the research spans from Spanish Texas to more current times, such as Big Bend's Hallie Stillwell (1897-1997). One of the featured ranchers, 92-year-old Mary Ellen "Dude" Barton, will be in attendance at the Friday symposium.

The two-day event is sponsored by the office of the provost and the history department.

Turner said the papers will be part of a manuscript being sent to Texas A&M University Press for publication as an anthology in 2017.

"A working title for the book is the 'Cattle Queens of Texas: Women Ranchers in the Lone Star State,'" he said. The book is part of the "Women in Texas History" series promoted by Nancy Baker Jones, director of the Ruthe Winegarten Foundation.

"This isn't about women who just lived on ranches or those who helped on ranches but women who were the primary decision-makers. They were the boss," he said.

Turner and his organizing colleagues, University of North Texas history lecturer Deborah Liles and University of Texas at El Paso doctorate student Cecilia Gutierrez Venable, were at first concerned about finding enough women for an anthology.

"We found plenty and have some waiting in the wings for future publications."

The program opens Thursday night, June 2, with Carolina Crimm's keynote address, "Tejana Ranchers: Surviving the onslaught from 1836 to 1900," about two Tejana women struggling to maintain their land rights but losing them.

Crimm, a fellow of the Texas State Historical Association, said she was tired of stories of victimization. The retired history professor from Sam Houston State University shows that while the two women may have lost their land in the end, in the meanwhile, they survived, raised their kids and adjusted to the hardships.

On Friday, June 3, 10 scholars, including Turner, will read 20-minute papers on female ranchers divided into primarily geographical sessions. Each session lasts one hour and includes two papers and time for listeners to ask questions. Turner will lecture on "Lizzie Crosson: Big Bend Land and Cattle Magnate."

"These were women who could ride and work cattle," Turner said. "They knew exactly what they were doing. They were working women. And, while the Panhandle's Cornelia Adair may not have worked cattle," he said, "she knew what it took and could make decisions."

In one essay, he noted that Stillwell, a Big Bend rancher, said she had to learn not only to be able to act like a man, but to think like one, as well.

"They were all living in a time and place, when it was out of the ordinary to do what they did," he said.

Another essay, Turner said, suggested that female ranchers approached problems differently than a man in their position would have. In the Texas wire-cutting wars of the early 1880s, he said, women were more diplomatic in their solutions and less likely to turn to violence.

The program is for everyone, he said, but especially for those interested in Texas history, women's studies and the cattle industry.
TIMES RECORD NEWS file photo A Culex mosquito is one type of mosquito which can carry the West Nile Virus, which has been spotted in the past. Insects are trapped at a variety of locations around the city and county and tested for a variety of diseases.

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By Claire Kowalick of the Times Record News

Early summer in North Texas brings rain showers, warmer weather and inevitably swarms of mosquitoes.

The Wichita County-Wichita Falls Health District reports there are more than 40 different species of mosquito regularly found in the area, only five or six of which has the capability to carry diseases.

Susan Morris, general health administrator, said the district received more than 150 calls Tuesday about mosquitoes.

"We've had rain in a different way this year and the mosquitoes are hatching differently. The mosquitoes are bad and people are angry," she said.

Some of the very large mosquitoes people are reporting are "nuisance" mosquitoes meaning they do not carry diseases.

"So they can bite you and it may hurt or itch, but they do not have the ability to carry diseases," Morris said.

Morris said the department is aware that residents want mosquito-control measures in place quickly and she assures they are doing everything within their power to help the issue.

Several mosquito-control tactics are used by the department, including treating water to prevent development of larvae and spraying to kill adult mosquitoes. Spraying is only intended to kill adult mosquitoes that are active at the time of spraying. It does not kill creatures that emerge later and is not designed to be a complete preventative measure for mosquito control. "It's the most expensive and least effective (method for controlling mosquitoes.)" Morris said, but the WCWFHD system is designed to protect beneficial insects such as butterflies and honey bees.

The department has seven sprayer trucks that run in the early morning or evenings on non-rainy days.

"There are barrier sprays that people can purchase to treat their yards that are more effective than what we provide. There are other things that can be done, other than waiting for us to come by," she said.

Morris said the "4 D's" are still the best way to control mosquitoes: Wear repellent with DEET; avoid going outdoors during dusk and dawn; dump and drain standing water; dress in long sleeves and pants.

The aedes aegypti mosquito species that carries Zika is confirmed to exist in the Wichita Falls area, but no cases of Zika have been reported here.

The national Center for Disease Control reports there are 279 pregnant women in the U.S. suspected of having Zika. The disease seems to be most harmful to unborn children, but Zika is also linked to Guillain-Barre, an auto-immune disorder similar to multiple sclerosis, which can affect people of any age.

David Shoop, owner of Shoop's Termite and Pest Control, said his business' social media page is swarming with questions from people with mosquito concerns. He highly recommends people wear repellent with DEET all the time and spray their yard. Due to the Zika crisis, the business is providing a free can of 10-hour DEET repellent to any pregnant woman that would like one, while supplies last.

The 10-hour repellent contains 98-percent concentration of DEET as opposed to other products with up to 25 percent DEET. The repellent is also available for purchase ($7) at the Shoop's location on Kemp.

DEET repellent is not recommended for use on animals and Shoop said there are other protection methods for use on pets.

Shoop said for long-term control, his business can spray a property or people can come in and purchase the products and do the job themselves.

The insect disease control system (the spray together with an insect growth regulator) can kill off the pests in nesting/breeding areas, kill adults and absorb into plants to repel mosquitoes from about three months to up to one year.

He recommends being wary of all mosquitoes because they all have the potential to carry disease.

"There are no safe mosquitoes, but we're here to kill them," Shoop said.

The WCWFHD mosquito control can be reached at (940) 761-7890. Shoop's number is (940) 767-8811
Linda Stewart/Special to the Times Record News Red River Valley Museum Executive Director Sherry Yoakum admires several pieces of art entered in the 15th annual International Juried Art Exhibition at Red River Valley Museum. The exhibit will be on display at the museum from June 4 to July 29.

SHARE A bronze sculpture by Terrel W. Silvers of Iowa Park is one of several pieces of art entered in the 15th annual International Juried Art Exhibition at Red River Valley Museum. The exhibit will be on display from June 4 to July 29.

By Linda Stewart, Special to the Times Record News

Work from 31 artists from eight states has been accepted into the 15th annual International Juried Art Exhibition and sale at the Red River Valley Museum in Vernon. The show opens Saturday and ends July 29.

The Red River Valley Museum Guild will host an Artist Preview Party at 6:30 p.m. Friday where winners of the International Juried Art Exhibit awards will be presented.

Entries include works of artists from California, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.

Artists from the local region include Laurie Thompson of Mangum, Okla., and from Texas, K. W. Whitley of Crowell, Richard Whittenberg of Graham. Laura M. Gillis and Terrel W. Silvers of Iowa Park, James Segler of Holliday, Anne Bomar, Ann C. Hunter, James McClain and Kim Ward all of Wichita Falls, and Ron Gordon of Vernon.

The Red River Valley Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 10:30 a. m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and is closed on Sunday and Monday.

For more information contact the museum at 940-553-1848 or by e-mail at rrvm1@yahoo.com.
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Donald Trump: crazy or evil? That's the question that has loomed over his presidential candidacy from the start. But we now have a definitive answer. He is a raging tsunami of both qualities. Without one or the other, he would just not be the Trump we know.

All this became blindingly obvious Tuesday, which by any reasonable standard should have been doomsday for his White House aspirations. A news conference about his fundraising for veterans causes was the site of the scariest meltdown since the Fukushima nuclear disaster.

That coincided with the release of evidence from a lawsuit against Trump University indicating it was, as one sales manager attested, "a fraudulent scheme" that preyed ruthlessly on the vulnerable and the gullible.

What did we learn about the man who may become president? Nothing that came as a complete surprise but plenty to prove he is even worse than previously realized: a pathological narcissist, a world-class whiner, an indefatigable con artist and a vicious enemy of anyone seeking the truth.

Trump's eruption against the news media was that of someone who is so hopelessly in love with himself that he thinks he can do no wrong. Anyone who doesn't automatically agree, in his view, is not just mistaken but corrupt. He said, "I find the press to be extremely dishonest. I find the political press to be unbelievably dishonest."

What provoked such venom? The objects of his ire were doing one of the most basic tasks of journalism: taking note of claims and promises he made in his campaign and trying to find out whether he has done what he said.

In January, Trump boycotted a Fox News debate to protest his treatment, holding a televised event to raise money for veterans. The effort was so successful, he announced, that it yielded more than $6 million.

But it turned out the amount was several hundred thousand dollars short of his claim. He didn't give the $1 million of his own money he had promised until last week, after reporters inquired about it. Many of the other checks sent to veterans organizations were not cut until May 24  nearly four months after his event. At least one gift went to a group that spends only 10 percent of its funds on programs for veterans.

Rather than manfully address his own lapses and delays, Trump threw a pity party for himself. "Instead of being like 'Thank you very much, Mr. Trump' or 'Trump did a good job,' everyone's saying, 'Who got it, who got it, who got it?'" he bleated. "And you make me look very bad. I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job."

The searing injustice he decried brings to mind what Oscar Wilde said about a particularly heart-rending scene in a Charles Dickens novel: "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing."

If a high-school student responded to his parents' inquiries about his schoolwork in this fashion, they would probably tell him: "Grow up." Yet many Americans who are mature and responsible are willing to follow a man who is the exact opposite.

Following through on commitments is part of being an adult. Accounting for your conduct is something you should mind only if you have something to hide.

Trump has a lot to hide. The lawsuit against Trump University has uncovered information to suggest that the chief education its students received was in the folly of trusting him.

One former sales executive said Trump's promise to be "actively involved" in the classes "was not true" and his school was "a total lie." Another employee quit over "fraudulent and dishonest" tactics he was expected to use in fleecing potential customers.

The judge who ordered the release of this material got the same treatment as anyone who doesn't take Trump's word as gold. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel is "Mexican" and a "hater of Donald Trump." Curiel, born in East Chicago, Indiana, served 17 years as a federal prosecutor. Like the news media, he is vilified by Trump for simply carrying out his duties.

The picture of Trump on view this week is an unstable egomaniac and dishonest huckster who sees enemies everywhere. His supporters may enjoy seeing him snarling and snapping like a rabid dog. What makes them so sure that, someday, he won't bite them?

Steve Chapman blogs at newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/steve_chapman. Follow him on Twitter @SteveChapman13 or at https://www.facebook.com/stevechapman13.
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There may be no greater paradox than the concept of free-speech zones on college campuses. Not because college students aren't sophisticated enough to deal responsibly with their freedom of speech, but because campuses are by definition free-speech zones.

Yet Iowa State University restricts dissenting speech to two places on campus, which are available on a first-come, first-serve basis, to those who first sign up with the school's event management office. Student senators passed up the chance last year to expand the range of speech zone, fearful that students would suffer from exposure to heated and aggressive demonstrations. But unless the speech is explicitly hateful or demeaning of a particular group, a university should be promoting healthy exchanges of opinion, not squashing them  and insist on respectful discourse.

A national organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, whose stated mission is upholding free speech and other rights on college and university campuses, say Iowa State and others follow policies that "seriously infringe upon the free speech rights of students."

The beauty of a college campus is that it's a safe place to explore ideas and points of view you might never have considered, and learn to voice your opinions without fear of persecution  violence, imprisonment or firing, for example. It's also the place to learn to disagree civilly.

Sure, universities can face a tough balancing act. Hate speech that gratuitously condemns specific people should not be allowed. But what about when a point of view has potential to give offense but is not explicitly intended as offensive speech? You might even hear it in class, from a professor. As an undergraduate, I was shocked and offended to hear one of the most heralded professors of Western civilization lecture that India (my homeland) was a failed civilization incapable of self-governance. I took his disparagement personally. But I learned to sharpen my own responses.

Still, the boundary lines can get confusing. FIRE goes beyond free-speech zones to slam what it calls "speech codes," which include regulations prohibiting harassment against people of protected class status. The organization gives a code-red rating to universities that have, in its view, at least one policy restricting freedom of speech. (You can look up reports on individual colleges at: https://www.thefire.org/spotlight/). It cites, among others, the private Grinnell College in Iowa for a policy spelled out in the handbook that students found responsible for bias-related charges may face suspension, dismissal or other penalties. Another policy FIRE holds up for criticism is that the college's Web servers cannot be used to annoy, abuse, libel, threaten, or harass anyone.

With that criticism FIRE, in my view, is taking the concept of free speech too far. The organization also faults the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for pressuring universities into adopting "unconstitutional speech codes under the guise of harassment policies." Sometimes defining harassment is an individual judgment call.

It's likewise absurd to lump policies designed to lessen sexual assault on campus  such as getting someone's verbal permission before having sex  as a restriction on free speech. Then there are trigger warnings, where professors alert students to upcoming material that could revive traumatic past events.

But what of a legitimate debate on a policy issue, like abortion? True, it's a visceral subject, but we have to be able to discuss it civilly. The University of Iowa went too far in April by washing away hearts drawn in chalk on university sidewalks by abortion opponents. Those students had every right to express their views. And students who support abortion rights have every right to answer them with equal decorum.

What seems to be missing from these free speech debates is faculty laying the ground work. It's a college's responsibility to prepare students to interact with people of other backgrounds and perspectives, and to demand civility in dealing with controversial issues.

At Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, supporters of Donald Trump painted concrete blocks with graffiti that said "Build a wall," in reference to Trump's proposal to keep out unauthorized immigrants. That led other students to paint over the blocks with slogans supporting immigrants. Latino students said they felt personally targeted by the graffiti. Conservative students said they didn't feel welcome to express their views. It's no surprise, given the intense political polarization in society, that these divisions would find their way onto a college campus. Was the graffiti intended to advance a political position or just to provoke a particular group? Only the students who wrote it can answer that. But the college should have clearly spelled out, in orientation and other forums, that provocation designed to inflame or alienate a group is not welcome on campus.

It's not enough to say, "We permit free speech. Now have at it!" without helping to facilitate those difficult dialogues. And while colleges don't need to protect students from different perspectives, they need to strengthen their ability to respond to them. Because most often, the best response to speech you find disagreeable is exercising your right to disagree with it.

Rekha Basu is a columnist for the Des Moines Register.
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In mid-May, Iraqi officials and U.S. advisers expressed deep concern that Islamic State fighters defending the city of Fallujah would employ "human shields."

On May 31, Islamic State fighters began using human shields  hostages  to blunt an Iraqi Army attack in Fallujah's southern neighborhoods. Fox News reported that the shields consisted of "several hundred" families  in other words, an entire neighborhood. A USA Today source reported that Islamic State thugs were "locking some families down inside the hospital building." The Iraqi government and the U.N. also estimated at least 50,000 innocent people were trapped in Fallujah.

Human shield is a euphemism for a hostage placed between an attacker and a legitimate military target. The objective is to stop the attack or, failing that, forcing the attacker to shed innocent blood. It is a purposeful, calculated war crime. Using prisoners of war as "human shields" during World War II was the subject of several postwar war crimes trials.

Terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas frequently employ fellow Muslims as flesh and blood armor. They will invoke the term "involuntary martyrdom," suggesting Muslims killed by attackers (usually Israelis) will enter Paradise as martyrs. An Islamic State-affiliate terror group in the Philippines, Abu Sayyaf, has used a variant. Abu Sayyaf has warned Filipino security forces that its fighters will execute hostages if Filipino troops approach their base camps.

Saddam Hussein employed human shields. Some political commentators are committed to the foolish notion that Iraq was better off under Saddam and his murderous dictatorship, but they peddle a grand falsehood that relies on willful loss of memory. How many Iraqis did Saddam murder during his 23 years in power? One reliable source estimates 600,000 people were executed  and that is a genocidal figure. Kurds and Shia contend he murdered at least 200,000 more. For comparison, 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Genocide and the use of human shields go hand in hand. Saddam hid command bunkers, radars, weapons and ammo dumps in civilian neighborhoods. His goal was to deter U.S. and coalition air attacks on logistics and anti-aircraft defense and surveillance systems. He didn't limit "neighborhood shields" to Desert Storm and the U.S. invasion in 2003. He used them during the "slow war" the U.S. fought from 1992 through 2003 to enforce U.N. post-Desert Storm sanctions. That "slow war" has faded from media memory, but it happened.

During Desert Storm, and again in 2003, Saddam employed another variant: volunteer human shields. Many of these volunteers were European leftists who came to Iraq to battle American imperialism. They would handcuff themselves to buildings to deter U.S. attack. They also handed Saddam a propaganda boon. The volunteers would go on television and accuse the U.S. of committing war crimes.

Honest observers acknowledge that those who use human shields are the war criminals.

According to Iraqi sources, the Islamic State has somewhere between 500 to 1,500 fighters in Fallujah, far too few to hold the city. Islamic State commanders know this, but they appear to believe defending Fallujah serves two purposes. They want to force the Iraqi military to fight for every street and alley and suffer very high casualties  a Stalingrad-type battle. Every rubble pile may hide an IED or other booby-traps. High Iraqi military casualties could shake the politically fragile Iraqi government. A bitter, drawn out fight could force Iraq and the U.S.-led coalition to stall or halt the looming attack on Mosul, the Islamic State caliphate's capital.

"Human shields" make it more tactically and politically difficult for the Iraqi military to use U.S. and coalition air power (air attacks) and artillery to destroy or suppress Islamic State defenses.

The Islamic State may use Fallujah as an apocalyptic execution chamber. Cellphone camera videos recording the gruesome deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians might also topple the Iraqi government.

Genocidal warfare? Like Saddam, Islamic State commanders and fighters are not only war criminals, they are genocidaires.

Austin Bay is a commentator on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition," covering foreign affairs but often addressing issues in Texas that have a national interest.
Check out the slideshow above for a handful of great local places that serve tasty and inexpensive food.

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Schenectady

Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney said Thursday he will ask a judge to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the May 19 confrontation between Mayor Gary McCarthy and a female motorist.

Carney's move comes in response to a letter City Councilman Vince Riggi sent Tuesday asking that the district attorney's office consider having an outside agency review the encounter.

The mayor has said he confronted Sarah Dingley, 38, of Rotterdam because he thought she was breaking into cars on Lexington Avenue where he lives. He followed Dingley and her female passenger in his car to the police station.

McCarthy did not return a call to his cellphone Thursday seeking comment.

In 911 calls, a frantic Dingley tells a dispatcher that a "rich" looking man, who identified himself as the mayor, smells of alcohol and is "highly intoxicated."

McCarthy has repeatedly denied he was drunk. At the police station, Dingley and the mayor were interviewed separately and let go after police determined that neither of them committed a crime.

Carney said early Thursday afternoon that he was in the process of filling out the paperwork to ask Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Michael V. Coccoma to consider appointing a special prosecutor for the case.

He said the special prosecutor would likely come from a neighboring district attorney's office  which he said he prefers  or it could be a lawyer who has an office or lives in Schenectady County.

"It would be an easier situation to handle if there were pending charges because I could just disqualify myself and do the same thing," Carney added.

He noted there have been calls by Riggi, an independent and fellow Democratic City Council members to have the matter reviewed by an outside agency.

The City Council met in executive session Wednesday and was briefed on the matter by the city attorney.

Carney said his interpretation of the law is that the state Attorney General's Office can only conduct an investigation if the governor supersedes him or if he invites the agency in to assist him.

The problem with the latter, said Carney, is "that they are still acting under my authority, so the better route is to, if I know that I'm disqualified altogether, is to get out of it completely."

In his letter to Carney, Riggi cites the "very serious allegations made by both parties" and the fact that McCarthy holds such a high office as major reasons for the outside investigation.

"Since two of these allegations are directed at the highest elected official in the city of Schenectady, who by nature of his office has close ties with the Schenectady police department, and by nature of his former employment has close ties with your office, the best option in my opinion to bring clarity to this issue is for your office to turn this over for an independent review," Riggi said.

McCarthy, a Democrat in his second term as mayor, worked as investigator for the district attorney's office for 30 years before he retired for the post.

pnelson@timesunion.com  518-454-5347
A one-time Albany massage therapist was found guilty last week by a Virginia Beach, Virginia, jury of murdering his girlfriend and putting her body parts in a swamp.

Justin Keith Cornell, 39, received the maximum sentence of 40 years in prison after the May 27 conviction. Cornell lived around the Capital Region from 1996 to 2005, according to public records. He owned the now-closed Albany Massage Therapy Associates on Madison Avenue.
Albany

Veteran local defense attorney Terence L. Kindlon is coming out of retirement  just two months into it  to take a role in the Albany County public defender's office where he will help train lawyers.

Kindlon, 69, will earn $50,000-a-year as senior counsel for the office, where he worked from 1974 to 1980 before launching his longtime private practice. Kindlon will work 17 1/2 hours-a-week when he begins his new role in about two weeks.

County Executive Daniel McCoy said hiring Kindlon is part of a restructuring of the public defender's office that he hopes will include more positions. The office still needs a chief public defender.

"We do have attorneys who have been with us forever and we love them and they do a great job, but this will help us," McCoy said.

Kindlon  widely known as the defense attorney for Christopher Porco, the college student from Delmar convicted of the 2004 ax murder of his father, Peter, and wounding his mother, Joan  was introduced by McCoy at a morning news conference in the County Office Building.

"The public defender is for people who can't afford a lawyer. It is a good office. That doesn't mean it can't be a much better office," Kindlon said, wearing one of his customary light-colored suits. "The most important thing to remember is that the most important people in the public defender world are the defendants and it is, I can now say, our obligation to take the best care of them, to provide them with the most powerful defense we possibly can."

Kindlon predicted that "within he next couple of years we will be able to say, with absolute confidence, the Albany County public defender's office is the best public defender's office in upstate New York."

Kindlon, a Marine, was awarded the Purple Heart after being shot in the head during the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War in 1968. He said he realized he wanted to be a lawyer when, while on duty in Camp Pendleton, Calif., he needed to transport a fellow Marine to jail. The man's crime was leaving the base for his native Mexico to visit his pregnant wife for the birth of their child. And for that he was court-martialed and received a 30-day jail stint.

"I can remember as a young person being appalled at the injustice and the unfairness of what had happened to this young man. It was terrible," Kindlon said. "This light bulb went on over my head and it said, 'This guy needs a lawyer. He should have had a lawyer' and then it occurred to me, I could do that."

Kindlon said the public defender's office provides services to help indigent defendants avoid similar miscarriages of justice.

In his new role, Kindlon also will help train attorneys. He will assist office defenders as a second chair in major trials.

"It's going to make them better attorneys," McCoy said.

Kindlon's son and law partner, Lee Kindlon, and Kindlon's wife and law partner, Laurie Shanks, attended the news conference. Shanks was director of training at the Maricopa County public defender's office in Phoenix when the two met.

"His guidance will help protect the rights of every client in the office," Shanks told the Times Union. "On a personal level, he has promised me that there will still be time in his 'retirement' to travel and spend time with our children and grandchildren."
HALFMOON - A half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. went on display at Halfmoon Town Park on Thursday afternoon.

The Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall has toured the country for three decades and offers the public a chance to experience the memorial's powerful message without having to travel to Washington. In past years, the wall was set up in Albany's Corning Preserve and in Bethlehem.
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Cairo

A French ship searching the Mediterranean has detected black box signals from a missing EgyptAir flight in the waters between the Greek island of Crete and the Egyptian coast, a development that could help solve the mystery of why the aircraft crashed into the sea last month, killing all 66 on board.

The discovery, announced Wednesday, could help guide search teams to the wreckage and the flight's data and cockpit voice recorders, which if retrieved unharmed could reveal whether a mechanical fault or a hijacking or bomb caused the disaster.

In the two weeks since Flight 804 disappeared from radar en route to Cairo from Paris, only small pieces of debris and human remains have been retrieved from the crash site.

No terrorist group has claimed responsibility, though Egypt's civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, has said terrorism is a more likely cause than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event.

The flight recorders will be critical to determining whether the disaster was caused by an accident or a deliberate act.

Equipped with sophisticated underwater sensors, the French naval vessel Laplace had been taking part in the search for the missing Airbus A320 since last week. On Wednesday, the Egyptian agency leading the inquiry into the crash said the ship had received signals "from the seabed of the wreckage search area, assumed to be from one of the data recorders."

Hours later, the French company Alseamar confirmed that its equipment aboard the ship had detected signals from one of the black box recorders.

It said the naval vessel started searching for the signals at midday Tuesday, and "less than 24 hours were necessary ... to locate signals from one of the recorders of flight MS804."

The statement did not indicate how the company knew the signals were from the plane's black box, and the French air accident investigation agency BEA said it was impossible to tell whether they were from the flight's data or voice recorder.

However, Sebastien Barthe, an agency spokesman, said the signal was specific enough to indicate that it came from one of the flight's data recorders. BEA investigators are aboard the Laplace.

Locator pings emitted by flight data and cockpit voice recorders can be picked up from deep underwater. The Laplace is equipped with three detectors designed to pick up those signals, which in the case of the EgyptAir plane are believed to be at a depth of about 9,800 feet.

By comparison, the wreckage of the Titanic is lying at a depth of about 12,500 feet.
For our regular Capital Region Q&A feature, we ask a local person a few questions about the area we call home. Today's subject is Liz Hammond, who in May was appointed manager of the Troy Waterfront Farmers Market. A graduate of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., Hammond began working in agriculture during her senior year and apprenticed at organic farms in the U.S. and Canada for several years. Before starting with the farmers market, Hammond worked with the Capital Roots Veggie Mobile program and helped launch the organization's online food marketplace. She was also a project coordinator for a heating and plumbing contractor. Now 28, Hammond lives in Troy with two cats, Tibby and Ang. The Troy farmers market is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays along River Street around Monument Square. Answers have been minimally edited for space and clarity.

Q: The outdoor season at the market started with a bang last month, drawing about 8,000 people in five hours to shop at the market's 86 vendors. How were the following weekends?

A: Comparable the second week, slightly smaller the third because it was overcast with the possibility of rain, then strong again on the holiday. What I heard back from vendors each week was a lot of excitement and steady sales.

Q: What's new or different this season?

A: We're incubating four new vendors  including a kombucha vendor and one that has jerky  that are new businesses, haven't been part of the market and aren't quite fully established yet.

Q: The market's stalls stretch along River Street from Third Street to about First Street. A photo and caption I saw on social media from a merchant farther down River Street seemed to suggest the businesses on the next block were feeling left out, that most market patrons don't venture down that far. Have you heard that criticism?

A: I haven't heard that directly. I would love to have a discussion with anyone who has an issue or concern or suggestion.

Q: Would it be possible to make the market bigger? Why not add another 20 or even 40 vendors?

A: The market has three tiers that we consider: vendors, customers and community. We need to make sure it's economically viable for our producers, in terms of the composition of the market, who's selling what, what our brick-and-mortar businesses are selling and what the community can actually support. The market's bylaws cap it at 100 vendors, and we've been growing toward that every season. But we do so very carefully. It's about making sure the market is sustainable for all three tiers.

Pop quiz: What is the largest farmers market in the world?

A: I don't know.

Q: Tokyo Central Wholesale Market, which covers 54 acres and has 1,700 stalls.

A: Oh, my gosh. Wow.

Q: Would you like to work there?

A: No, not really. I have a nephew, and I want to be close to him.

Q: Do you speak Japanese?

A: Not one bit.

Q: A chef I was talking to lamented that, to him, it seems like there are as many people selling items like soap, marshmallows and crackers are there are selling produce and meat. Is that a fair criticism?

A: Yes, in a way. We want to make sure the market is balanced. I can see why a chef might want more produce and meat, or more vendors with different kinds of produce, but we know our general customers want those other products, too.

Q: While it is possible to find some items at farmers markets priced comparable to the supermarket, many things are much more expensive. I once shopped the Troy market with a friend who was on food stamps at the time, and while he was pleased he could use the program at the market, he was genuinely shocked when he saw a whole chicken for $18  three times the supermarket price. Is it generally true that farmers markets are more expensive?

A: I think that depends on the products. When you go to the supermarket, you're getting things from a one-track system from very large commercial enterprises that are often international in scope, but at the farmers market, most vendors are from within 50 miles. In terms of produce, a lot of our vendors are comparable in price with supermarkets. With meat, it's definitely more expensive, but I feel like in our current system, we often expect food to be among the cheapest things out there. I feel producers of quality products should be paid for those products.

Q: Speaking of cheap food, we're in world where a fast-food chain is selling 10 chicken nuggets for $1.49. You can definitely fill up on 10 chicken nuggets.

A: I don't even consider that part of the same marketplace.

Q: I thought you were going to say you didn't consider that food.

A: (Laughs.) I'm not going to go that far.

Q: Because I write about food and my photo is at the top of my blog and with my in-print column, people sometimes recognize me in the supermarket, and I've had them take photos of my grocery basket. The possibility of this happening definitely disinclines me to buy Fritos, which I love, and Spam, which I do not. Do you ever feel a conflict between your agricultural background, your job running the farmers market and a craving for processed food  or a really cheap steak of feedlot beef?

A: Yes, I do actually feel that, especially now with you asking me questions and putting my picture in the paper so more people will recognize me. I've always been very passionate about food. I used to be a super-vegetarian, getting in people's faces about where they were getting their food and what they were putting into their bodies. I'm still definitely concerned about it, but I'm human, and you've got to have some weaknesses and indulgences.

Q: What are yours?

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A: I can't tell you!

Q: I won't tell anyone but my readers.

A: OK, I'll tell you my worst one: I like a can of soda every once in a while.

Pop quiz: Rank these in order of how fast they grow and are ready to pick: Spinach, radishes, snow peas.

A: I'm going to go for radish, spinach, snow peas.

Q: That's exactly right. Radishes are ready in as little as three weeks, spinach in four to six weeks, snow peas in eight.

A: See, I knew that.

Q: Where, locally, do you go to get away from it all?

A: I go to Grafton a lot, and to Hudson. I like my backyard. I can see the Poestenkill a little bit. I know I'm in Troy, but I feel like I'm not in the middle of everything.

Q: What's in your garden in your backyard?

A: Dirt, right now. We're just building it. I've started a bunch of herbs  basil, cilantro, others  and hopefully in the next few days we'll be getting things into the ground.

Q: Because I have magical powers, I can arrange for you to trade jobs for one day with someone else in the Capital Region and give you the skills to do that job. With whom would you trade?

A: With this position I've been exposed to many different aspects of the economic and political structure of the city, so I guess I'm going to say my predecessor, Monica Kurzejeski, who is now deputy mayor of Troy. Maybe her  or the mayor. I'd like to try their jobs.

sbarnes@timesunion.com  518-454-5489  @Tablehopping  >http://facebook.com/SteveBarnesFoodCritic>
Hey, we're not judging. Whatever you're into, pal.

Swiss Army Man, the upcoming dramedy starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, has been making waves thanks to its truly unorthodox story. Paul Dano's marooned on a desert island, on the verge of suicide. Just as he's about to finish himself off, Daniel Radcliffe's corpse washes up on the shores.

Bizarrely, Dano strikes up a friendship with Radcliffe - who, we need to underline is dead - and begins to see a new way of living. With a dead body that looks like Harry Potter.

Art, man. Here's the trailer.

Anyway, the film's US distributor - A24 Films - have come with an ingenious marketing tool for the film. If you log on to SwissArmyMan.com, you can play with the lifeless body of Daniel Radcliffe to your heart's content.

What's more, if you click on the virtual Radcliffe, he farts. Isn't that lovely? Marvels of modern technology, folks.

Via SwissArmyMan.com
Most people recognize Kim Neaton by her voice. For some, it is the familiar sound that rings out from an open second-story window of a putty-colored Victorian house on a side street in Manchester, Vt. For others, it is the voice that comes across the radio during the workday when the dial is turned to 102.7 FM.

That voice  sweet enough to be your kid sister, but with a hint of rasp best described as stoner-chic  is part of the backbone that forms WEQX, one of the few remaining independent commercial radio stations in the Capital Region. The station went live at 10:27 a.m. on Nov. 14, 1984, and has been a fixture in the Capital Region music scene ever since.

WEQX is known for its irreverent blend of alternative music that spans genres and styles, ranging from heavy, driving bass lines of Red Hot Chili Pepper's latest single, "Dark Necessities," to funky head-bobbing vibes of Vulfpeck's "Back Pocket." The music  selected and chosen by the WEQX staff  displays the passion that imbues every aspect of station operations.

Passion wasn't always the root of the station, however. When Brooks Brown, a lanky Texan with sandy hair, first moved to Manchester and discovered there was no radio station in town, he set out to put his childhood interest in radio to work and start his own. The choice to play alternative rock was more a business decision to fill a void in the on-air soundscape than one based on musical preference. Brown was more James Brown than Jesus and Mary Chain in his tastes, but it didn't prevent the local airwaves from filling with the post-punk sounds of the mid-1980s.

Brown was given many offers to sell the station in an era marked by corporate giants gobbling up smaller stations, but the decision to remain independent was more important than the income from the sale. Even in lean times and with the death of Brown in 2013, the station still operates much the same as it did in the early years.

A staff of four core members, with a half dozen part-time DJs and an overnight sound engineer, operate from the Elm Street Victorian that Brown converted into studios. (Mimi Brown, his widow and current station manager, says he wore mostly suits in the 1980s, but by the mid-1990s she would have to remind him to take off his Carhartts and toolbelt.) A 50,000 watt antenna on top of Mount Equinox (the tallest peak in the Taconic range) broadcasts tunes across four states, from Killington, Vt., to Woodstock, N.Y., and as far west as Cooperstown.

Jeff Morad, program director and morning drive host, attributes this success to the personal connection the station and its personalities make with the listeners. The only metric used for gauging that connection is the interaction with the listeners online and in person. A Listener Advisory Board allows the audience to rank and review new songs, and Morad's "Bandwidth" segment features a new song suggested by listeners.

"If you don't like one song we're playing, the next one is completely different," says Neaton, and that variety of music, unheard of on most mainstream stations, is the core of EQX's brand.

Morad estimates that he, Neaton and production director and afternoon drive host Jason Keller collectively attend 500 concerts a year, which helps give the station a public face. The internet has also strengthened the brand, and the station is active on Spotify and YouTube.

EQX House Sessions is the forward-looking foray into video production and deeper audience engagement. The new Studio BB, a former office space in the building remodeled by Neaton's boyfriend Chris Jordan into a live performance space, is the setting for these sessions.

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"Albany is a warm-up town" and many bands start their tours here before moving to bigger cities, says Morad. EQX capitalizes on the deference many passing-through bands and artists have for the station by having them perform stripped-down songs to share with WEQX's fans.

"Artists know about this station," says Keller, and performing in the House Sessions is a way to pay respect to the station's role in building a band's career. The studio itself is like a museum of WEQXs history, built from the talismans, ephemera and oddities left behind by Brown's packrat tendencies. Holding live sessions to air online connects the rich history of the station with the forward momentum that propels it into the next chapter of radio and music.

Despite what has and might change for WEQX ("I'm not a DJ anymore, I'm a MP3-J," jokes Morad), Brown's advice to staff remains the guiding principle: Just keep doing what you do really well.

If one song could sum-up the pillars of WEQX's radio philosophy, Neaton says it would be "The Distance," by Cake. As the song suggests, "reckless and wild, they pour through the turns. Their prowess is potent and secretly stern," no offer to buy the station, no change in guard, and no devastating loss of equipment will diminish the soul of what WEQX does, which is simply to have passion for good music. Thankfully, passion is still transmittable on FM radio.

Deanna Fox is a frequent contributor to the Times Union. www.deannafox.org @DeannaNFox
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Albany

The city's new convention center is steadily rising near the Capitol and is expected to open in March.

Some of you believe the building is a taxpayer-funded folly destined to fail. Others think it's just what Albany needs  another shot in the arm for a reviving downtown.

I'm going to set that debate aside for now. Instead, I come with an appeal to the powers-that-be regarding the center's name.

More Information Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

Please don't do it. Don't name the building after a politician.

Albany being Albany, that's usually what happens with public projects here.

Just a short distance from the convention center site is the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, the Erastus Corning Tower and the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building.

To the west, there's the W. Averell Harriman State Office Campus. Along the river we find the Corning Preserve and Jennings Landing. You can get to the city on the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway.

The examples are plentiful, and the reason for these names is simple enough. Politicians chose them, and politicians think what they do is of utmost importance.

In their minds, they make the world tick. They are the keys to our happiness. They decide whether the rest of us succeed or fail. They alone provide the pathway to a brighter future.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about: During any campaign, you'll see a candidate describe how many jobs he or she created, even when private businesses deserve the credit. The candidate alone made the world a better place.

It's hogwash, but I fear that too many voters buy into it.

We actually believe that it is the politicians who can deliver "hope and change" or "make America great again," even when such slogans are always eventually revealed as empty promises.

The reality is just the opposite. It's ordinary people who can truly bring hope and change to our communities. It'll take millions of individual decisions to make America better. The power is with the people.

Naming buildings, parks and highways after politicians perpetuates this politician-as-mythic-figure fallacy. It advances the idea that they, and not taxpayers, are what made the buildings possible. It's a top-down view of the world.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not entirely against the idea of naming buildings for politicians.

I would, for example, have no problem with the Sheldon Silver Museum of Political Corruption. I would also give my blessing to the Dean G. Skelos Sewage Treatment Plant. But those are exceptions to the rule.

At the Albany convention center, it would be difficult to know which politician to credit anyway. Governors George Pataki, David Paterson and Andrew Cuomo all played roles in providing the funding, so who gets the name?

On the local level, Jerry Jennings was mayor when the building was proposed. But Kathy Sheehan will be mayor when the convention center opens.

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The assumption here is that the $78 million project will most likely be named for Jennings or Mario Cuomo. Both are as deserving as any other politician, I suppose.

Yet Cuomo would be an ironic choice, given that he seemed suspicious of the hero treatment. He famously refused to sit for a Capitol portrait and has been quoted as saying he'd like nothing more than a stickball court in Queens to carry his name.

So let's abide by his wishes. For the convention center, let's go in a different direction.

How about a name that reflects a real local hero? Henry Johnson jumps quickly to mind. Or what about an unsung person from the city's early history? We could pick one of the thousands of names on Albany Rural Cemetery tombstones.

The folks in charge should be open to all suggestions. Pick from outside the usual box.

On Wednesday I asked Gavin Donohue, chairman of the Albany Convention Center Authority, about the naming issue. He said it isn't clear if the authority could legally sell the building's naming rights, as was done at the Times Union Center, and said many seem satisfied with its current moniker, Albany Capital Center.

"What I'd like to see is the most marketable name, the name that gets the biggest return on the investment," Donohue said. "This isn't just an Albany thing. We're trying to attract people from beyond New York's borders."

I have two final thoughts. One, we can certainly do better than Albany Capital Center, which is almost as boring as a Sunday in Utica. Two, I don't believe for a second that there won't be pressure to name the building after a politician.

That's Albany.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
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Albany

The state Health Department is continuing to withhold the results of blood samples taken four months ago from hundreds of Rensselaer County residents who were exposed to a toxic chemical that contaminated public water supplies in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh.

The sampling began after a Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in the village of Hoosick Falls was declared a state Superfund site because state officials said the company's McCaffrey Street plant was suspected of contaminating public water supplies with perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, which was used in manufacturing at the facility for decades.

State officials initially said the blood-sample results were going to be mailed to residents beginning last week. But the plan was delayed as the agency has internally debated how much additional background medical information to include with the test results. The agency also has consulted with local doctors whose patients had their blood tested and may reach out to their physicians for guidance.

More Information Click here to read our series of stories on the Hoosick Falls water crisis Click here for a digitial timeline of the Hoosick Falls water crisis See More Collapse

Three years ago, a science panel released the results of a multiyear study that examined PFOA exposure and health risks in several Ohio Valley communities, where PFOA, also known as C8, was emitted since the 1950s from a manufacturing plant in Parkersburg, W. Va. The study found probable links between PFOA exposure and high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancy-induced hypertension.

In Hoosick Falls, many residents said they believe the village has endured a higher-than-normal rate of thyroid disease and rare cancers, although there has not been a long-term study on the community's health problems.

Recently, an official with the Health Department's Center for Environmental Health told a county resident that the blood-sample results were ready to be mailed out but the agency has been blocked from sending out the results as they came back from the laboratory that did the testing. The resident taped the conversation with the agency official, but asked that the state employee not be identified because of concern the person could face retribution at work.

"We have a commissioner but he reports to the governor so our actual approvals to get these letters out and to tell people the results ... the buck stops with the governor's office," the Health Department official said during the conversation. "It's my managers that talk to the governor's office but we work with the people that are in the governor's office that basically manage (us)."

Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said the release of the blood tests is pending and that it has been an involved process.

"At the governor's direction, the Department of Health has undertaken a comprehensive blood testing program in Hoosick Falls for any interested resident," he said. "We've been informed that the analysis of more than 2,000 blood samples and patient histories is almost ready to be mailed to residents and  as we've made clear  DOH will be sending them out the moment they're finalized. We expect this to happen in the coming days."

A state official familiar with the work said the Health Department also has been working to include additional background materials on PFOA in the mailings so that residents will have a broader understanding of what their test results may mean. The mailings may also include "comparison information so they can see how their levels compare to people in other communities who have PFOA in their water," according to the Health Department official whose conversation with a resident was recorded.

A spokesman for the state Health Department did not immediately for comment late Wednesday.

The state began collecting blood samples in Hoosick Falls in February, more than 18 months after the hazardous chemical was discovered in the village's water supply by a resident, Michael Hickey. More than 2,000 blood samples were collected since the testing began.

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Similar blood-sampling tests are being conducted in communities in Vermont and New Hampshire, where PFOA was detected in water supplies as a result of environmental investigations spurred by the widely reported discovery of PFOA in the Hoosick Falls' public water system.

State and federal investigations of the contamination are ongoing.

Thousands of people whose blood was tested in the Ohio Valley area where the contamination has resulted in a class-action lawsuit had elevated levels of PFOA, including at levels as high as 40 parts per billion.

In February, the state Department of Environmental Conservation asked Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell International, which formerly owned the McCaffrety Street plant, to accept consent orders that would require them to clean up the remnants of the toxic chemical that polluted water supplies in and around Hoosick Falls.

Saint-Gobain operates two plants in Hoosick Falls, including a McCaffrey Street facility the company has owned since 1999. The McCaffrey Street plant is a few hundred yards from the village's water-treatment plant and has been a focus of the contamination.

PFOA has been used since the 1940s to make products such as nonstick coatings and heat-resistant wiring.

blyons@timesunion.com  518-454-5547  @brendan_lyonstu
Heaven Berry (right) accepts the Ida Tarbell Journalism Award from Chris Fiely, Berry was one of more than 40 students who received academic awards during Wednesdays Senior Awards Night.
While at times you will wonder how director Gianfranco Rosi will marry the two narratives here, Fire At Sea's disparate stories hold together better than his previous outing, Sacro GRA.

The small Sicilian island of Lampedusa is visited regularly by overcrowded boats of African refugees, escaping poverty, war, ISIS and more horrors. Here twelve-year-old Samuele doesn't have the aptitude for fishing his father has, throwing up on board and unable to steer a rowing boat with any degree of skill. He's much more comfortable with his slingshot, a skill the boy takes pride in not only his hit rate but also in his construction; like a sage he advises a friend what branch from which tree makes the best sling (pine preferably). This talent is diminished considerably when he's forced to wear a patch to correct his lazy eye, however.

Where Samuele's story is very personal, the story of the asylum seekers is told as a group. The refugees are prone to chemical burns from the fuel of the poorly constructed boats. The 'class system' with those able to pay $1500 granted a place topside and those with only $800 in the hold, which is like a furnace. Pietro Bartelo, the doctor in the village, is haunted by the dead women and children he encounters on a regular basis; one woman was pulled from one boat dead, her stillborn child still attached to her by umbilical cord. Bartelo must then go about an autopsy: "Another affront." He says he dreams of this often and stresses that one doesn't become desensitised to it all.

But these are just stories and one would be forgiven in thinking that we're going to be spared scenes of horror. Not so. Although opening with the distressing pleas for help by lost refugees in a sinking boat, Rosi holds back on the horror until the final twenty minutes and then the dam bursts. Survivors, dying of dehydration, are pulled from the dinghies onto rescue boats and laid on the deck, shaking. The rows of body bags. One woman, visibly exhausted to the point of tears, asks if 'all the black men made it aboard' and, having got her answer, promptly falls asleep.

Where their story and Samueles thematically meet is, in typical Rossi fashion, two or three steps removed. At one point he goes to Bartelo claiming he can't catch a breath, that he suffers from anxiety. Perhaps, even in his safe little world, hes feeling an echo of the fear these pour souls experience every day.
[June 02, 2016] Church Mutual expands reach in school market

Church Mutual Insurance Company, the largest insurer of property and casualty in all denominations of religious organizations, completed on June 1 its acquisition of School Boards Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, Inc. and School Claims Services, LLC. The acquisition allows SBIC, SCS (News - Alert) and Merrill, Wisconsin-based Church Mutual to deepen their financial strength, expertise and commitments to their communities. The companies, aligned in their missions to protect the greater good, enjoy the endorsement of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA). Church Mutual had announced in October 2015 its intent to acquire SBIC and SCS, both based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, to expand its reach in the public schools market. "This is a monumental day in Church Mutual's history and we are excited to extend our financial strength and stability to two companies that closely align with our values," said Rich Poirier, CEO of CMIC. "Today, we open the doors to the first day of our shared journey." The acquisition is a win-win for everyone. Joining with a national insurance company licensed in all 50 states gives SBIC and SCS the opportunity to expand beyond Pennsylvania, mitigating the geographic concentration risk for their customers and the company. "Our companies and cultures are aligned in our commitment to offer insurance protections and risk control solutions to our customers," said Roy Jacobs, president of SBIC. "The future will be exciting as we combine our expertise across public and private schools to deliver deeper expertise and value to our customers." The acquisition also allows CMIC to diversify its holdings and continue to grow and PSBA to concentrate on its mission of providing tools, training and advocacy to its elected school board membership. "We are honored to officially welcome SBIC and SCS into our Church Mutual family," said Scott Names, vice president - CIO of CMIC. "Our shared missions of protecting organiations that improve the human condition have set us up for success and we feel confident that there will be tangible benefits for our current and future customers."



About Church Mutual Insurance Company Church Mutual Insurance Company was founded in 1897 and offers specialized insurance for religious organizations of all denominations, schools, camps, denominational offices and senior living facilities. Church Mutual markets all lines of commercial property and liability insurance, including multi-peril, workers' compensation and commercial auto insurance.

Fact Sheet Church Mutual's mission is to be the premier provider of insurance services to our customers in the religious institutional marketplace and other compatible markets. Headquarters  3000 Schuster Lane, Merrill, Wisconsin Founded  1897 Financials  $1.6 Billion in Assets (2015)  $585 Million in Policyholders' Surplus (2015)  $663 Million in Direct Premiums Written (2015) Market Area  All 50 states and the District of Columbia Products and Services  Most lines of commercial property and liability insurance, including multi-peril, workers' compensation and commercial auto insurance Insurance Specialty  Churches, schools (public/private, K-University), camps, conference centers and assisted living centers Number of Employees  Approximately 800 in Merrill  Approximately 240 in the field Awards and Recognition  "A (Excellent)" rating with A.M. Best Company  2015 Ward's 50 Top Performing Property and Casualty Insurance Companies  National Customer Service Center ranked top 10 in nation by BenchmarkPortal (News - Alert) Website  www.churchmutual.com About School Boards Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, Inc. The company's mission is to provide property, casualty and other insurance coverages and services needed by Pennsylvania public schools and related entities. Located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Assets $186 million (2015) Market area Pennsylvania About School Claims Services, LLC School Claims Services, LLC, created for the benefit of public schools, has dedicated itself to setting the standard for the delivery of claims and risk management services, as well as employee benefit type programs. Located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Assets $8.7 million (2015) Market area Pennsylvania For more information about School Claims Services, visit https://www.schoolclaimsservices.com/. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005182/en/

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[June 02, 2016] Dashlane Debuts Revamped iPhone and iPad Apps; Most Innovative Password Manager Across Apple Devices

NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dashlane, the award-winning password manager and leader in online identity management, announces the release of its redesigned iOS app. The app features an entirely new user interface that has been rebuilt from the ground up and streamlined following the Apple Human Interface Guidelines for maximum user efficiency. The redesigned app includes optimized in-app navigation, enhanced to make finding passwords and other securely-stored data easier than ever. Dashlane's iOS overhaul creates a seamless user experience with all devices in the Apple ecosystem, including the latest line of iPads, iPhones, and Apple Watches. "Today Dashlane offers the most innovative and user-friendly password management solution across Mac, iOS, Android and PC devices," says Emmanuel Schalit, CEO of Dashlane. "Apple users gravitate toward the platform's easy-to-use interface and clean design  and we're excited to announce our new Dashlane app continues to deliver the best-in-class password manager experience for Apple users." The app includes all of the features that have made Dashlane the world's favorite password manager, such as Password Changer, secure Password Sharing, and Emergency Contacts, and it now includes the following improvements: Accessibility  Users can adjust fonts for better viewing, just as they can in standard Apple apps.

 Users can adjust fonts for better viewing, just as they can in standard Apple apps. Password Changer on iPad  Users can automatically change weak or compromised passwords whenever and wherever needed on iPad with Dashlane's exclusive Password Changer, which has been available on iPhone and Apple Watch since last year.

 Users can automatically change weak or compromised passwords whenever and wherever needed on iPad with Dashlane's exclusive Password Changer, which has been available on iPhone and Apple Watch since last year. Quick Search: Personalized data at your fingertips as users can now access the credentials they need immediately upon opening Dashlane.

Personalized data at your fingertips as users can now access the credentials they need immediately upon opening Dashlane. Improved Navigation: Accessing passwords is easier thanever thanks to improvements such as: A tabbed-bar menu that has been upgraded to make in-app actions faster. A new 'Contacts' view that provides a cleaner sharing process. The introduction of a 'Recent' tab that provides quick access to frequently accessed information.

Accessing passwords is easier thanever thanks to improvements such as: Safari Enhanced: Dashlane has enriched its integration with Safari to provide users a better auto-fill and auto-login experience.



$39.99 /year to sync between an unlimited number of devices. The Dashlane iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch apps are available on the App Store.

About Dashlane Dashlane makes identity and checkouts simple with its password manager and secure digital wallet app. Dashlane allows its users to securely manage passwords, credit cards, IDs, and other important information via advanced encryption and local storage. Dashlane has helped over 5 million users manage and secure their digital identity. The app is available on PC, Mac, Android, and iOS, and has won critical acclaim from top publications, including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Dashlane is free to use on one device, and Dashlane Premium costs $39.99/year to sync between an unlimited number of devices. Dashlane was founded by Bernard Liautaud and co-founders Alexis Fogel, Guillaume Maron, and Jean Guillou. The company has offices in New York City and Paris and has received $52.5 million in funding from TransUnion, Rho Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners. Learn more at Dashlane.com Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160531/373588 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dashlane-debuts-revamped-iphone-and-ipad-apps-most-innovative-password-manager-across-apple-devices-300276964.html SOURCE Dashlane

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[June 02, 2016] Government Offices of Sweden Connects over 100 Locations Worldwide with Secure Orange Business Services Network

Orange (News - Alert) Business Services has won an extended contract to deliver global networking services for the Government Offices of Sweden to 100 embassies and consulates around the world. A customer since 2001, the Government Offices of Sweden expanded the current contract Orange Business Services (News - Alert) has held since 2013. Under this new four-year agreement, Orange Business Services will provide networking services to connect the Swedish representation entities abroad securely and reliably. The network combines Business VPN, satellite, Ethernet and internet for sites in a variety of locations, including urban areas, remote places and countries with limited infrastructure. "There are few organizations that depend as much on their international connectivity as Ministries of Foreign Affairs. We have developed a strong expertise in supporting Ministries on a global scale to improve their operations with reliable and secure communications solutions. Orange Business Services will give Sweden's Government Offices access to the world's largest network, along with the peace-of-mind that network security and business continuity are at the very forefront of our business," said Anne-Sophie Lotgering, senior vice president, Europe, Russia and CIS, Orange usiness Services.



Orange Business Services has extensive experience providing integrated ICT services to Ministries of Foreign Affairs around the world, including: Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand. About Orange Business Services

Orange Business Services, the Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, is not only a telecom operator, but also an IT solutions integrator and applications developer in France and around the world. Its 20,000 employees support companies in all areas of their digital transformation: mobile and collaborative workspaces; IT/cloud infrastructure; fixed and mobile connectivity; private and hybrid networks; applications for Internet of Things, 360 customer experience and Big Data analytics; and cybersecurity thanks to dedicated experts and infrastructure to protect information systems. More than 3,000 multinational organizations and 2 million SOHOs, enterprises and local authorities in France rely on Orange Business Services as their trusted partner.

Learn more at www.orange-business.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and our blogs. Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with annual sales of 40 billion euros in 2015 and has 155,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2016. Orange is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN). Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005112/en/

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[June 02, 2016] Newborn Screening Study for AADC Deficiency Published in Molecular Genetics and Metabolism

Agilis Biotherapeutics (Agilis), a biotechnology company advancing innovative gene therapies for rare genetic diseases that affect the central nervous system (CNS), announced today the publication of the results of a newborn screening study for Aromatic L-Amino Acid Decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency. The study, "3-O-methyldopa levels in newborns: Result of newborn screening for aromatic L-amino-acid decarboxylase deficiency," published in Molecular Genetics and Metabolism (online May 2016) is authored by Agilis' collaborator, Dr. Paul Hwu, and colleagues at National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital. Using the simple dried blood spot test, Dr. Hwu and colleagues screened 127,987 newborns in Taiwan from September 2013 to December 2015, identifying four newborns with elevated 3-O-methyldopa (3-OMD (News - Alert)) concentration (subsequently confirmed as AADC deficiency by genetic sequencing) for an estimated incidence of AADC deficiency of 1:32,000 (95% confidence interval: 1:12,443-1:82,279). The false-positive and false-negative rates were zero. "This work at National Taiwan University is an impressive demonstration of newborn screening methods for rare genetic and neurotransmitter disorders, and an important step forward for AADC deficiency," said Keith Hyland, PhD, a noted expert in AADC deficiency and Executive Vice President at MNG Laboratories. "Availability of robust, yet simple, tests for the disease may help improve diagnostic accuracy and identify patients who can benefit from medical intervention." AADC deficiency is a rare CNS disorder arising from mutations in the DDC gene that reduce the levels of the enzyme AADC. Reductions in AADC lead to deficits in multiple neurotransmitters, including dopamine. Dopamine is ordinarily formed from its precursor called L-dopa. When AADC activity is reduced, levels of the L-dopa precursor rise, and a by-product called 3-OMD is formed. The diagnosis of AADC deficiency is typically established by measuring the levels of neurotransmitter metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid obtained via lumbar puncture. Clinically, AADC deficiency is associated with severe developmental delay and inability to develop motor strength and control (global muscular hypotonia/dystonia). In its profound forms, these deficits result in breathing, feeding, and swallowing problems, frequent hospitalizations, and premature death within the first decade of life. "AADC deficiency is a rare disorder, with an often catastrophic clinical course," said Dr. Paul Hwu, MD, Professor of Pediatrics at NTU and senior author on the publication. "This study is the first to empirically document the incidence of AADC deficiency in a prospective screening study and identifies a frequency in this patient population that is higher than previously estimated. Given the incidence of AADC deficiency and the confusion of symptoms with more common disorders such as cerebral palsy, this study marks a milestone in characterizing the incidence of this disorder and suggests that misdiagnosis may be more common than previously thought. It highlights the importance of awareness of AADC deficiency in assessing patients with neurological disorders characterized by hypotonia and dystonia."



Newborn screening for AADC deficiency has not been implemented in part because of the lack of availability and standardization of non-invasive testing methods, suited for screening. Recently, a simple, low cost, reliable test using a dried blood spot has been developed to test for 3-OMD levels. Because the clinical presentation of AADC deficiency shares similarities with more common disorders such as cerebral palsy and seizure disorders, AADC deficiency may be misdiagnosed, and a straightforward screening test would be an important complement to facilitate diagnosis. "Early ascertainment is key for optimal clinical management and care, and will be of paramount importance, with the emergence of gene therapy for AADC deficiency," said Christopher Silber, MD, Agilis Chief Medical Officer. "The rigorous demonstration of the incidence of this disorder enhances our commitment to developing our novel gene therapy treatment for these patients who often have few, if any, treatment options. We continue to believe the AADC gene therapy program is one of the most advanced CNS gene therapy programs in the world, and we are on course to take the next steps in clinical development later this year."

In January, Agilis announced that it had entered into an exclusive worldwide agreement with NTU for the treatment of AADC deficiency using gene therapy developed by Dr. Hwu and NTU Hospital. The AADC gene therapy program has treated 18 patients in two prospective clinical cohorts. Following a single administration of the gene therapy, treated subjects have exhibited substantial, durable gains in motor and cognitive function over multiple years, shown de novo production of dopamine as visualized by F-DOPA PET imaging, and realized improvements in metabolic biomarkers. In contrast, natural history cases routinely fail to achieve developmental milestones and show continued clinical deterioration as the disease course progresses. In collaboration with NTU, Agilis is now preparing for a Phase IIb clinical study. In preparing the program for clinical trials, The University of Florida Powell Gene Therapy Center was instrumental in the development of the initial product manufacturing and toxicology work. About AADC Deficiency Aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AADC) deficiency is a rare genetic condition resulting from deficits in the enzyme, AADC, which is responsible for the final step in the synthesis of the neurotransmitters dopamine (a precursor of norepinephrine and epinephrine) and serotonin (a precursor of melatonin). AADC deficiency arises from mutations in the dopa decarboxylase (DDC) gene. In its profound forms, AADC deficiency results in severe developmental failure, global muscular hypotonia and dystonia, severe, long-lasting episodes known as oculo-gyric crises, frequent hospitalizations (including prolonged stays in intensive care), and the need for life-long care. Symptoms and severity vary depending on the type of underlying genetic mutation which abrogates AADC enzyme function. Severe forms of the disease can arise from specific DNA mutations. Patients with severe forms usually die before the age of seven years due to extreme motor dysfunction, autonomic abnormalities, and secondary complications such as choking, hypoxia, and pneumonia. No treatment options other than palliative care currently exist for patients with severe AADC deficiency. About Agilis Biotherapeutics Agilis is advancing innovative gene therapies designed to provide long-term efficacy for patients with debilitating, often fatal, rare genetic diseases that affect the central nervous system. Our therapies are engineered to impart sustainable clinical benefits, and potentially a functional cure, by inducing persistent expression of a therapeutic gene. The Company's technology is aimed at the precise targeting and restoration of a lost gene function, while avoiding unintended off-target effects. Our integrated strategy increases the efficiency of developing DNA therapeutics into safe, targeted gene therapies that achieve long-term efficacy and enable patients to remain asymptomatic without continuous invasive treatment. Agilis' rare disease programs are focused on gene therapy for AADC deficiency, Friedreich's ataxia, Angelman syndrome, and Fragile X syndrome, rare genetic diseases that include severe neurological deficits and result in physically debilitating conditions. We invite you to visit our website at www.agilisbio.com Safe Harbor Statement Some of the statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations and projections about future events and generally relate to our plans, objectives and expectations for the development of our business. Although management believes that the plans and objectives reflected in or suggested by these forward-looking statements are reasonable, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual future results may be materially different from the plans, objectives and expectations expressed in this press release. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005442/en/

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[June 02, 2016] SpaceResources.lu - Georges Schmit Joins the Luxembourg Government's Advisory Board

The Luxembourg Government today announced that Mr. Georges Schmit, Consul General and Executive Director at the Luxembourg Trade & Investment Office in San Francisco, joins the Government's Advisory Board of the recently announced spaceresources.lu initiative. The initiative defines a framework for the exploration and commercial utilization of resources from Near Earth Objects (NEOs) such as asteroids. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005886/en/ Georges Schmit (Photo: Business Wire) Prior to his current position which he holds since 2009, Georges Schmit was Director General for Enterprise Policy, Economic Development and Foreign Trade, Secretary General, and Director of Industry at the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade which he joined in 1981. From 1995-2002 he was Executive Charman of the National Credit and Investment Corporation (SNCI), a State-owned development bank.



In these various capacities, Georges Schmit was for more than 17 years a Member of the Board of Directors of Luxembourg-based mining and steel company Arbed, and later ArcelorMittal. Until 2009 he was also a Director of Luxembourg Government promoted satellite services provider SES (News - Alert) and the Luxembourg post and telecom services incumbent POST. Georges Schmit is a recognized expert on trade and investment, innovation and start-up promotion, economic development and enterprise policy.

Georges Schmit stated: "I am honored to continue serving the Luxembourg Government in its efforts to position Luxembourg as an ideal location for innovative projects in advanced space technologies. Spaceresources.lu is a bold but highly promising initiative, taking humankind to new unexplored horizons and creating new opportunities on Earth." Georges Schmit joins Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) from 2003 to 2015 and Dr. Simon "Pete" Worden, longstanding Director of NASA- Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, who already serve as high-level advisors to guide the Luxembourg Government. Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Etienne Schneider, commented: "I am delighted to welcome Georges Schmit in this new role in his country of origin which he has well served during his distinguished career. I am convinced that Georges' valuable expertise and long expertise further strengthen the Advisory Board of spacereources.lu, an initiative of which he was one of the early instigators. His contribution and advice will have an important and positive impact on future activities in the frame of the spaceresources.lu initiative." The "Luxembourg Government Advisory Board on Space Resources" will meet on June 3, 2016. The meeting is followed by a press conference scheduled for 5:00 PM (Note: Times are in Luxembourg Time GMT+2) to highlight the latest developments and the future strategy of the recently announced spaceresources.lu initiative. The press conference will be hosted by Mr. Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister, Minister of State, Minister for Communications and Media and by Mr. Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy. Released by the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005886/en/

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[June 01, 2016] iValue Partners with DTCC for Post-trade Processing

SINGAPORE and HONG KONG, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- iValue Consulting, a premier consulting company in the banking and finance sector with specific focus on capital markets, today announced a partnership with The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC). iValue's iConfirm, an industry-demanded and unique middleware solution that establishes seamless integration between clients' systems, will interface with DTCC's Omgeo Central Trade Manager (Omgeo CTM), its flagship strategic platform for the central matching of cross-border and domestic transactions, thereby enabling clients to quickly and efficiently link their existing OMS/PMS systems and Omgeo CTM in an automated, straight-through-processing (STP) environment. "iValue is partnering to provide platform- and system-independent capabilities for client on-boarding onto DTCC's Omgeo CTM. Clients can take advantage of the iConfirm and Omgeo CTM interface to meet their changing business needs across entities, markets and asset classes," said Matthew Nelson, Managing Director of Global Product and Strategy at DTCC's Omgeo. "This partnership will help to increase post-trade automation levels quickly, in light of cost pressures." Bradford Chung, who oversees operations at Aspen Hill Partners (Hong Kong) Limited, said, "We were pleased with the agility and flexibility of the iConfirm and Omgeo CTM interface. The entire implementation was completed within weeks, despite bespoke requirements to meet our processing needs." Trupti More, Director at iValue Consulting, said, "This partnership allows our mutual clients to benefit from non-intrusive processing capabilities of iConfirm andquickly realize the benefits of faster on-boarding to the Omgeo CTM platform. With the industry's drive towards STP processing, iValue has focused on offering custom implementation options to significantly lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) using on-premises or cloud-based hosted solution options."



About iValue Consulting iValue Consulting is a premier consulting company in the banking and finance sector with specific focus on capital markets. Established in 2005 and based from Singapore, we provide professional consulting services with highly experienced and qualified consultants. In the FinTech product space, iConfirm is our latest unique offering of platform independent and system independent middleware solution to establish flexible communication between client's host systems with Omgeo CTM using MTI. Clients have the flexibility of a traditional on-premises installation or a full-service, cloud-based ASP with real-time monitoring and integrated connectivity. Established to provide institutional-grade functionality and support for broader asset classes for businesses of all sizes and complexity, iConfirm is being adopted by customers in multiple countries.

For more information, visit www.ivalueconsulting.com.sg or contact us at +65-6701-8501. About DTCC With over 40 years of experience, DTCC is the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry. From operating facilities, data centers and offices in 16 countries, DTCC, through its subsidiaries, automates, centralizes, and standardizes the post-trade processing of financial transactions, mitigating risk, increasing transparency and driving efficiency for thousands of broker/dealers, custodian banks and asset managers worldwide. User owned and industry governed, the firm simplifies the complexities of clearing, settlement, asset servicing, data management and information services across asset classes, bringing increased security and soundness to the financial markets. In 2015, DTCC's subsidiaries processed securities transactions valued at more than US$1.5 quadrillion. Its depository provides custody and asset servicing for securities issues from over 130 countries and territories valued at US$45.4 trillion. DTCC's global trade repository maintains approximately 40 million open OTC positions and processes roughly 280 million messages a week. To learn more, visit us at www.dtcc.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. For further information and media inquiries, please contact: iConfirm Sales, iValue Consulting [email protected] +65-6701-8501

Trupti More, Director, iValue Consulting [email protected] +65-9119-0784

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[June 01, 2016] TUV Rheinland Hong Kong Named Caring Company

HONG KONG, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TUV Rheinland Hong Kong, an internationally recognised testing and certification service provider, has been awarded the "Caring Company Logo" by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service in recognition of its commitment to caring for the community, its employees and the environment. Mr Raymond Chan, COO of TUV Rheinland Hong Kong, said, "I am honoured that we have received this recognition. TUV Rheinland's work is profit-oriented with respect to our social and environmental responsibility. We strive to be the worlds best sustainable and independent provider of technical services for testing, inspection, certification, consulting and training".



TUV Rheinland Hong Kong has sponsored and cooperated with the Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong to launch corporate social responsibility initiatives and programmes to promote child safety education and elderly services. For instance, the TUV Rheinland Safety Hero programme is aimed at preventing children from being injured while playing with toys. The programme was launched in Greater China in April 2014. In 2015, TUV Rheinland hosted over 50 safety awareness education sessions for more than 5,500 children in schools, shopping centres and youth centres, etc. "As a corporate citizen, we have the responsibility to contribute to our local community. Thus, we organize and support our employees in volunteering in social and environmental projects. We are proud that our employees are enthusiastic and see the value in giving back to the society," said Mr Chan. He went on to pledge to continue developing the company's corporate social responsibility programmes to reach out to various strata of the society.

Media contact:

Simon Hung

Tel: +852-2192-1948

Email: [email protected] Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20160601/8521603547

Logo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20150602/8521503584LOGO

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[June 01, 2016] Pivot Technology Solutions Provides Operational Update on ARC

TORONTO, June 1, 2016 /CNW/ - Pivot Technology Solutions, Inc. ("Pivot" or the "Company") (TSX-V: PTG), today announced that its distribution, administrative services and license agreements (the "ARC Agreements") with Austin Ribbon & Computer Supplies, Inc. ("Austin Ribbon") will terminate on August 31, 2016. In 2011, a subsidiary of Pivot, ARC Acquisition (US) Inc. ("AcquisitionCo"), had entered into an agreement with Austin Ribbon in connection with the acquisition of certain assets of Austin Ribbon. Further to the agreements entered into between both companies, AcquisitionCo has been selling products and services for resale by Austin Ribbon since that date, and has been providing certain administrative services to Austin Ribbon. Austin Ribbon is certified as a historically underutilized business ("HUB") in the United States. Austin Ribbon advised AcquisitionCo that it proposes to terminate its relationship with AcquisitionCo effective August 31, 2016. Once terminated, Pivot expects that the Company's sales reported in respect of Austin Ribbon will decrease significantly over time. In anticipation of this outcome, Pivot is refocusing its strategy in the markets Austin Ribbon is active in, including a shift to direct sales, engagement with other resellers with HUB status, and leveraging of its growing brand recognition in the market. "While short-term the termination of the agreements by Austin Ribbon will impact our top line, we are very well positioned to leverage the geographic footprint, capabilities, and networks of the wider Pivot organization, and penetrate the markets Austin Ribbon is active in," stated Kevin Shank, CEO of Pivot. As disclosed in Pivot's MD&A for the period ended March 31, 2016 and prior periods, Pivot is deemed to have the primary exposure to the significant risks and rewards associated with sales by Austin Ribbon to its third-party customers, and therefore the results of operations of Austin Ribbon are consolidated in Pivot's consolidated results. Total gross sales reported by Pivot in resect of Austin Ribbon were approximately $24.1 million for the three month period ended March 31, 2016, and $120.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2015. Austin Ribbon's sales efforts were concentrated in the state of Texas, serving both public and private organizations.



In connection with the termination of its relationship with AcquisitionCo, Austin Ribbon has requested the reimbursement of certain amounts paid to AcquisitionCo in respect of administrative services provided by AcquisitionCo in 2015 and to date in 2016. The Company does not believe Austin Ribbon is entitled to any reimbursement, and is evaluating any claim it may have against Austin Ribbon. About Pivot Technology Solutions, Inc.

Together with its portfolio companies and partners, Pivot delivers solutions that enable organizations to design, build, implement and maintain computing and communication infrastructure that addresses their unique business needs. Pivot's approach supports improvement of business performance, helps organizations reduce capital and operating expenses, and accelerates the delivery of new products and services to end-customers. With over 2,000 customers, many of whom are Fortune 1000 companies, Pivot extends its value added solutions to help organizations of all sizes improve operating efficiency, reduce complexity and enhance service delivery through virtualization and cloud computing. Pivot enables businesses to extend their enterprise through mobility solutions to better connect business partners and customers. Pivot has offices throughout North America and can be found online at www.pivotts.com.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains statements that, to the extent they are not recitations of historical fact, may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding the termination of the ARC Agreements, the Company's shift to direct sales, the Company's future engagement with other resellers with HUB status and claims by Austin Ribbon and the assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Pivot uses words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "expect", "believe", "intend" and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Any such forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and analyses made by Pivot in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, including the assumption that claims by Austin Ribbon are without merit and that the Company has the ability to penetrate the markets Austin Ribbon is active in. However, whether actual results and developments will conform to Pivot's expectations and predictions is subject to any number of risks, assumptions and uncertainties. Many factors could cause Pivot's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this news release. These factors include, without limitation: the risk that termination of the agreements with Austin Ribbon will negatively impact Pivot's results of operations, starting as early as Q2 of 2016, the risk that Pivot will not be successful in increasing its sales in the markets that Austin Ribbon is active in, and the risk that AcquisitionCo may be required to reimburse Austin Ribbon for payments previously received in respect of services provided. The "forward-looking statements" contained herein speak only as of the date of this press release and, unless required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise such information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Pivot Technology Solutions, Inc.

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[June 02, 2016] Konica Minolta Acquires ProcessFlows to Offer Clients Agile Processes and Expand on Existing IT Services

LONDON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd. has today announced its acquisition of ProcessFlows Holdings Ltd, a provider of technology and services for the capture, processing, management and delivery of documents, information, voice and data. ProcessFlows' solutions manage information as it enters an organisation taking intelligent action to recognise and store it securely. This enables instant access whilst ensuring the information reaches the correct person on time in the most appropriate format, supporting informed decision making. Implementing ProcessFlows' solutions and propositions ensures the whole business can manage its inbound information - rather than be managed by it. ProcessFlows provide businesses with visibility and controls for compliance purposes and real-time reporting allowing management teams to measure effectiveness. The technology is adaptable across private and public sectors. Speaking of the acquisition, Neil Dingley, Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Ltd; Managing Director: "This acquisition allows Konica Minolta to further develop and deliver complete and sophisticated process based IT services for new and existing clients across the private and public sectors. The coming together of Konica Minolta Business Solutions and ProcessFlows builds synergies with our existing managed print services and Managed Content Services, workflow and storage businesses. It will enable us to offer clients the benefits of agile process based IT services solutions, which will benefit their customers, employees, and citizens." ProcessFlows has over 1200 customers across abroad spectrum including NHS, Central and Local Government, Legal, Banking, Insurance and most commercial sectors. They have long term supplier relationships with Nuance for Equitrac and Safecom, OpenText Rightfax and Alchemy, Hyland Onbase, Readsoft, Intuitive Dashboards and AVsT CallXpress.



About Konica Minolta Business Solutions Konica Minolta Business Solutions UK Ltd is based in Basildon in the UK, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Konica Minolta Inc., Tokyo, Japan, forming part of its Business Technologies business area. As a leading global services provider in the field of IT and document processes as well as digital production printing solutions, the company excels in services-led business consulting, implementation and management and provides a range of world-leading printing systems and solutions. To support customers optimally with powerful and sustainable solutions, technology leader Konica Minolta continuously invests in research and development work and regularly sets new standards. Konica Minolta Business Solutions is represented by subsidiaries and distributors in more than 70 countries in Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa, with over 35,000 employees around the world (as of March 2016), Konica Minolta's Business Technologies business area earned net sales of over EUR 6.2 billion in financial year 2015/16 http://www.konicaminolta.co.uk About ProcessFlows ProcessFlows, based in the centre of Winchester, Hampshire, is a leading provider of solutions and services designed toimprove business processes and communications. Since 1987, ProcessFlows has helped thousands of businesses, local councils and government departments to increase efficiency, improve customer service and implement controls for regulatory compliance. ProcessFlows combines business process expertise with market leading technology to provide flexible applications and workflows that augment existing systems and can be deployed quickly to provide a fast return on investment. Our nearshore outsource centre in Sofia provides expert support and managed services 247. ProcessFlows offers expert advice at every stage - understanding requirements and providing implementation, training, support and on-going customer care.

http://www.ProcessFlows.co.uk Contact: David Cotterill, Director of Marketing, Konica Minolta, Business Solutions UK Ltd. Tel: +44(0)1268534444 Email: [email protected] Media enquiries only: Konica Minolta press office Email: [email protected] Product images are available at: http://www.konicaminolta-images.eu.

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[June 02, 2016] Victorian Tech Firms Announce Deals at CommunicAsia

SINGAPORE, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Three leading Victorian tech companies have announced a range of partnerships, licensing deals and ventures at Asia's largest integrated ICT event, CommunicAsia 2016. The companies are among more than 40 Victorian businesses participating in the trade mission to Singapore led by Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade Philip Dalidakis. Melbourne-based software developer flexAnswer was recently awarded a three-plus-two year Whole of Government contract for the provision of a Virtual Assistant (VA) system to all Singapore Government agencies. There are now 18 Singapore Government agencies that have rolled out the flexAnswer VA service with many more due to come on board. flexAnswer was also awarded a VA system contract with Tenaga Nasional Berhad, the largest Malaysian electricity supplier. Victorian laser technology company Optotech has successfully developed and commissioned three new innovative laser-based systems for hard disk drives for leading computer hardware company Seagate in Malaysia. Seagate holds 40 per cent of the world market for hard disk drives and data storage devices. Cloud-based software company, Urbanise, also announcd it has selected Singapore as its base in the region and is partnering with a number of global companies in the property and facility management sectors to deliver improve building efficiencies and reduce operational costs.



These deals further highlight Victoria's reputation as a magnet for tech investment in the Asia Pacific. Victoria's tech industry now generates more than AUD 34 billion in annual revenue and employs more than 83,000 people across the state. Victoria's presence at CommunicAsia this year also provides a great opportunity to grow our relationship with businesses and investors in Singapore -- a relationship which is primed to grow much stronger this year with the opening of a new trade and investment office in-country.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade, Philip Dalidakis "Victoria is leading the country in tech and events like CommunicAsia are the best platform for our local companies to showcase their ideas and expertise to the rest of the world." "Targeted trade missions are a great opportunity for our local firms to engage with some of the world's industry experts and explore trade and investment opportunities that will help them grow their business at home." For photos please visit: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B2Y7MXWl43_JSDNRbnI5bmxKSXc&usp=sharing About the Victorian Government Business Office (VGBO) Established in 2009, the Victorian Government Business Office (VGBO) in South East Asia is operated by the State Government of Victoria to help promote Victorian education, trade and investment in the region. Through a variety of programmes and business initiatives, the VGBO assists Victorian exporters and provides assistance to South East Asian regional companies and organisations to source products and services, business introductions and investment opportunities with Victoria. For information, please visit www.invest.vic.gov.au

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You know what to expect from a Michael Moore documentary by now and theres not a lot in Where To Invade Next, his first since 2009's Capitalism: A Love Story, that messes with the formula. While the idea is a little flimsy and the title is misleading (it's not a critique of his country's warmongering foreign policy) this turns out to be his most optimistic outing to date.

The Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 director sets about 'invading' European countries, 'stealing' their best ideas and hightailing it back to America in the hope that Washington will implement them. Looking a lot more frail than usual, Moore's first stop is Italy and their idea of paid vacations (gasp), before moving on to France for a Jamie Oliver-esque expose of school dinners (lamb skewers over couscous for seven-year-olds compared to pizza and Sloppy Joes at home). Then it's on to Finland and its art-loving education system and Slovenias policy of no Third Level fees. Theres also Germany's universal health care (including a three week stay at a spa) and the employee-friendly company laws. He swings by Norway too and checks out the humane prison system.

Its when he moves into Tunisia and Iceland, exploring the former's newfound women's rights movement and the latter's implementation of gender equality on the boards of banks and businesses, that Where To Invade Next hints at the documentary it could have been. There's also a short dalliance into murkier territory when he states that every day in every German school students are taught about the holocaust and that his own country should explore its own terrible history re Native Americans and horrors doled out to people of colour. Either one of these ideas would have made for a stronger documentary but Moore frustratingly only touches on them. Perhaps next time.

What will infuriate his detractors is once again Moore tends to oversimplify any given situation (the lax drug laws of Lisbon will most definitely curtail drug use; the well-to-do Italian couple raving about paid holidays are described as working class!) and, like in 2007's Sicko, paints each and every country he visits as a social paradise full of happy people. He interviews those only who back up his points and ideas; Moore has always been as biased as his bete noir, Fox News.

But despite the flaws in approach, Moore is determined to highlight what is rotten at the core of the American Dream and he does so in an entertaining fashion thats very accessible and with no little black humour. They are difficult balls to juggle.
[June 02, 2016] Ketchum's David Gallagher Honored with Individual Achievement SABRE Award

BERLIN, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ketchum Maslov Named Russian Consultancy of the Year David Gallagher, senior partner and European CEO of leading global communications firm Ketchum, was honored with the Individual Achievement SABRE Award at last week's EMEA SABRE Award ceremony held in Berlin. In addition, Ketchum Maslov was named Russian Consultancy of the Year and the agency picked up another three Gold SABRE Awards plus one In2 SABRE Award for its work on behalf of clients. Explaining why Gallagher received the Individual Achievement designation, the Holmes Report cited his work to drive growth of Ketchum Europe, his noteworthy communications counseling skills, his deep international experience and, underlying it all, his tremendous contributions to the public relations practice. In 2015, Gallagher was honored with the Public Relations Consultancy Association's Mark Mellor Award for his significant contributions to the PR industry, and in 2014 he received the Atlas Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Public Relations Society of America. Reacting to the wins, Gallagher said, "Our approach is to create campaign-leading ideas that come to life across paid, earned, shared and owned media, and nearly all of our winning work embraced that philosophy. We're incredibly grateful for the partnership we have with our clients, who inspire us to take creative risks and experiment with the latest technology. I'm also very honoured to have been recognized s an individual. We work hard at Ketchum and also have a lot of fun; it's always special when a big industry voice recognizes your work and passion."



Ketchum's award-winning programs include: Gold SABRE Awards

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT

David Gallagher, Senior Partner and CEO Europe, Ketchum

RUSSIAN CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR

Ketchum Maslov DACH

"The 2 Euro T-Shirt - A Social Experiment"

Fashion Revolution with Ketchum Pleon EDUCATIONAL & CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

"Virtual Campus Tour" in collaboration with BBDO

Ministry of Sciences and Economic Affairs of the State of Saxony-Anhalt with Ketchum Pleon FINANCIAL SERVICES

"Selfie Pay"

MasterCard with Ketchum In2 SABRE Awards

SPONSORED CONTENT & NATIVE ADVERTISING

"Mehr Leben im Leben (More to Life than Living)"

Janssen Deutschland with Ketchum Pleon

The EMEA SABRE Awards (Superior Achievement in Branding, Reputation & Engagement) are open to anyone working in public relations, advertising, digital and social media firms, marketing, corporate communications, investor relations, public affairs, employee communications or any other field related to branding, reputation management and stakeholder engagement. They attract entries from consulting firms, agencies, corporate departments, not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, or other institutions. The In2 SABRE Awards built upon the SABRE Awards' 20-year heritage by introducing a host of new categories to reflect the great digital content being created in a variety of places, from content created for paid, owned and earned channels; storytelling in print, digital and video forms; social media and community management; and the use of data and analytics. These latest award wins follows a number of high honours bestowed to Ketchum in recent months. Earlier this year, Ketchum received three North American SABRE Awards, three PRWeek U.S. Awards, and four PRWeek Global Awards, including Campaign of the Year. Last year, Ketchum was named CorpComms Magazine's Agency of the Decade and received three Cannes Lions and four Silver Anvil awards. About Ketchum

Ketchum is a leading global communications firm with operations in more than 70 countries across six continents. The winner of 17 Cannes Lions and an unprecedented five PRWeek Campaign of the Year Awards, Ketchum partners with clients to deliver strategic programming, game-changing creative and measurable results that build brands and reputations. For more information on Ketchum, a part of the DAS Group of Companies, visit http://www.ketchum.com. About the DAS Group of Companies

The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (http://www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.

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[June 02, 2016] Flashpoint Releases New Research on Organized Russian Ransomware

NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Flashpoint, the global leader in Deep & Dark Web data and intelligence, today released the findings from a five-month study of an organized Russian ransomware campaign. The new research report, Inside an Organized Russian Ransomware Campaign delves into the details of how cybercriminals are using Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) to successfully target victims, with the healthcare industry being identified as a priority target. The report reveals ransomware campaign key metrics, including average salaries for various members of ransomware schemes, ransom amounts per US victim, and average monthly ransom payments. The typical 'Ransomware Boss' makes an average annual salary of $90,000 USD ($7,500 USD/month), or 13x the average current wages in Russia.1 The company has also released a companion research report, titled Hacking Healthcare which provides further examples of some of the latest healthcare-focused attacks and the response in underground forums. "Ransomware is clearly paying for Russian cybercriminals. As Ransomware as a Service campaigns become more wide-spread and accessible to even low-level cybercriminals, such attacks may result in difficult situatios for individuals and corporations not yet ready to deal with these new waves of attacks," said Vitali Kremez, Cybercrime Intelligence Analyst, of Flashpoint. "Corporations and users are unfortunately faced with a commensurately greater challenge of effectively protecting their data and operations from being held ransom, with no guarantee that sending a ransom payment will result in return of the stolen data."



In the report, Flashpoint's subject matter experts provide important context around the points of compromise, distribution, development, and the threat profile of one prolific Russian-organized ransomware campaign. The recent success of the Russian hacking community is due in part to increasingly lower barriers that unsophisticated Russian cybercriminals need to overcome in order to engage in ransomware campaigns. Once recruited by a crime boss, it then becomes relatively easy for newcomers, who become part of the boss's affiliate network, to start spreading ransomware quickly, attacking corporations and users via botnet installs, email and social media phishing campaigns, compromised dedicated servers, and file-sharing websites. As far as priority targets for these campaigns, Flashpoint found affiliate ransomware targeting hospitals and healthcare networks being advertised specifically on Deep & Dark Web forums and marketplaces. And while numerous users have purchased ransomware promoted specifically for targeting hospitals, Flashpoint analysts, who closely monitor these schemes, assess that cybercriminals utilize such malware across a wide spectrum of industries.

With recent, highly publicized ransomware attacks on several hospitals and health networks resulting in large payouts to retrieve critical files, cybercriminals are clearly beginning to recognize that holding the data hostage is often more lucrative than simply stealing the data and selling it on the black market. For more information and to download the full reports, please visit www.flashpoint.com. About Flashpoint Flashpoint provides the reports, tools, data, and access to experts necessary to obtain tactical, operational, and strategic intelligence from the Deep & Dark Web. The company offers a state-of-the-art platform with data curated by world-class subject matter experts. Flashpoint's products illuminate threatening actors, relationships, behaviors, and networks concealed within these hidden areas of the Internet. Security and intelligence teams across the Fortune 500 and government use the company's data, tools, and expertise to reduce the costs of fraud, data loss, reputational damage, or other attacks. Flashpoint is backed by TechOperators, Greycroft Partners, K2 Intelligence, Bloomberg Beta, and Cisco Investments. For more information visit www.flashpoint-intel.com or follow us on Twitter at @FlashpointIntel. 1 Russia Average Monthly Wages, April 2016: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/wages Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374699LOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flashpoint-releases-new-research-on-organized-russian-ransomware-300278384.html SOURCE Flashpoint

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[June 02, 2016] Flexpoint Sensor Systems and Idrogenet Announce Launch of Next Generation, Glove-Based Rehabilitation System

DRAPER, Utah, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (FLXT) and Italy-based Idrogenet (http://www.gloreha.com/index.php/en/home-eng) are very pleased to announce the commercialization and launch of "Gloreha Sinfonia", an advanced, next generation medical rehabilitation technology suite of products. The Flexpoint Bend Sensor was chosen by Idrogenet as a cornerstone of the innovative, glove-based (wearable), virtual reality system. According to Mr. Carlo Seneci, Idrogenet Managing Director, "Gloreha is a robotic glove, which already has an established, appreciative market audience of therapists and patients, and is well known for its comfortable and smooth mobilization/operation. With this new product release known as Gloreha Sinfonia, which uniquely combines the new software and Flexpoint enhanced sensor gloves, we are dramatically increasing the effectiveness of the system and device. This product release introduces a number of active games, active assisted therapies, bi-manual exercises and other elements. These are truly unique features which incorporate industry leading "best practices" to guide and improve the patients' recovery." The Gloreha suite is comprised of a number of integrated and complimentary product offerings  The Gloreha Hand Rehabilitation Glove, Sinfonia, DAS  Dynamic Arm Support, Workstation, and the innovative Virtual Reality Rehabilitation and customized Therapy Management software. Gloreha Sinfonia was designed to be used by patients of all ages, at all stages of care and deployable in hospitals, physical therapy centres, physician offices, as well as in a patient's home, providing a comprehensive "life cycle" rehabilitation experience expected to increase the efficacy and success of every individual's post trauma care.



Dusseldorf Germany , where the initial launch phase began. Production Purchase Orders have now been issued and the commercial launch of Gloreha Sinfonia is underway. Gloreha solutions are made available through an existing and rapidly growing distributor and dealer network world-wide. Idrogenet, established in 2004, was born by the will of eleven distinct manufacturing companies of Lumezzane (Brescia district), Italy, whose vision was to change the market of rehabilitation. Idrogenet worked in close cooperation with Universities, research centers, physiatrists, hospitals and rehab centres to develop Gloreha - an upper limb rehabilitation system.

"Flexpoint is honored to be a part of this exciting, collaborative relationship with Idrogenet. Gloreha sets a new standard for next-gen, virtual reality enabled technology in the medical rehabilitative space," commented Paul Sexauer, Flexpoint Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "We continue to distinguish ourselves in these ever evolving markets through close client collaboration and as the Bend Sensor repeatedly differentiates itself competitively because of its adaptability, durability and exceptional product quality," he continued. Flexpoint is in receipt of production orders and expects this relationship to increasingly contribute to the company's success on a quarterly basis in 2016 and for many years to come. About Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc. (FLXT) is an innovative technology firm specializing in developing products that feature the Company's patented Bend Sensor and related technology. The Bend Sensor is a groundbreaking sensing solution that is revolutionizing applications in many industries such as sports/fitness, automotive, safety, medical and industrial; some of which can be further categorized in the rapidly growing "wearables" space. The Bend Sensor's single-layer, thin film construction cuts costs and mechanical bulk while introducing a range of functions and stylistic design possibilities that have never before been available in sensing technology. Flexpoint's technology and expertise have been recognized by the world's elite business and academic innovators for over 17 years. The company is setting a new standard for sensing solutions in the "smart" age of technology. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that certain statements in this release are "forward-looking statements" and involve both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such uncertainties include, among others, certain risks associated with the operation of the company described above. The Company's actual results could differ materially from expected results. Contact Information: Flexpoint Sensor Systems

Clark Mower, President

801-568-5111 Brokers and Analysts

Chesapeake Group

410-825-3930

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flexpoint-sensor-systems-and-idrogenet-announce-launch-of-next-generation-glove-based-rehabilitation-system-300278489.html SOURCE Flexpoint Sensor Systems, Inc.

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[June 02, 2016] ClassOne Announces Major Savings with Solstice Gold Plating

KALISPELL, Mont., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ClassOne Technology (classone.com), manufacturer of budget-friendly wet processing equipment, is reporting significant savings in the plating of gold in =200mm applications using its Solstice systems. The savings come from elimination of gold waste, faster and simpler processing, and innovative Solstice-enabled techniques that can substantially reduce gold usage. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374705 "Many users have been spending millions of dollars on gold each year," said Byron Exarcos, President of ClassOne Group. "It's a major issue, especially in emerging markets such as lasers, LEDs, RF and MEMS which often require gold layers as thick as 3 to 35 microns. "That's why they're becoming keenly interested in Solstice to cut their gold spending." "One fundamental advantage of Solstice electroplating is its elimination of gold waste," explained Kevin Witt, President of ClassOne Technology. "Previously used CVD and PVD methods deposited gold not just on the wafer but also on the entire chamber interior. That 'oversprayed' gold was difficult to remove and inefficient to reclaim  which led to a considerable net loss of gold. By contrast, Solstice deposits only on the wafer, so there's no gold waste, and no need for cleaning or gold reclamation efforts." Witt pointed out that Solstice economies also come from its higher gold deposition speed. Plating at 150 to 300nm/min, it is roughly ten times faster than CVD and PVD methods. In addition, Solstice starts processing immediately, not requiring an hour or more for pump-down as vacuum-based tools do. All of this translates to additional savings, from higher throughput and more cost-efficient production. Innovative Solstice layering technique can cut gold usage dramaticaly



The unique 8-chamber design of the Solstice S8 enables it to readily replace a solid gold layer with a multi-metal stack  and reduce gold usage very substantially... For example, a feature that previously required a 5m layer of solid gold can now be replaced with a "sandwich" of 0.25m Au, 1m Ni, 2.5m Cu, another 1m Ni, topped with 0.25m Au  to achieve equivalent functionality while reducing gold usage by a factor of ten! And Solstice's multi-chamber design enables it to deposit all five layers in a single cycle; so no additional process steps or time are required to gain very significant cost savings.

ClassOne noted that over a year, total gold savings can grow quite large. For example, in the case cited above, if the solid gold 5m layer covers 50% of a 150mm wafer area, and if the fab is running 1500 wafers per week through a metal lift-off process and gold costs $1200 per troy ounce  even if all oversprayed gold were recovered, the user's annual gold expenditure would be roughly $2,150,000. However, if the special Solstice multi-metal layering technique were used, the total metal cost (for Au, Ni and Cu combined) would be reduced to approximately $108,000. This would yield an annual savings of over $2,042,000, which would more than pay back the cost of a Solstice. (Additional details on the Solstice multi-metal layering technique and gold-usage reduction may be seen on the ClassOne Technology website.) The Solstice S8 provides eight modular chamber positions that can be used for plating a wide range of metals as well as performing additional processes. Solstice tools are available in three different models for production and development, and they serve many cost-sensitive emerging markets that use 200mm and smaller wafers. The systems are priced at less than half of what similarly configured plating systems from the larger manufacturers would cost  which is why Solstice has been described as "Advanced Plating for the Rest of Us." About ClassOne Technology ClassOne Technology (classone.com) develops and delivers innovative wet-chemical equipment solutions especially for the budget-conscious users of smaller substrates, who traditionally have been underserved by larger equipment manufacturers. ClassOne's products include electroplating, spin rinse drying, spray solvent tools and more. Based in Kalispell, Montana, ClassOne Technology is built upon many decades of experience from industry veterans who continue the ClassOne tradition of delivering first-class quality and performance at an affordable price. ClassOne Technology is a sister company to ClassOne Equipment (ClassOneEquipment.com), long respected as the industry's premier provider of refurbished processing tools, with over 2,500 systems installed worldwide. For more information, contact:

Byron Exarcos

ClassOne Technology

109 Cooperative Way

Kalispell, MT 59901

United States

tel: +1 (678) 772-9086

email Solstice is a registered trademark of ClassOne Technology. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/classone-announces-major-savings-with-solstice-gold-plating-300278587.html SOURCE ClassOne Technology

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[June 02, 2016] Fang Announces First Quarter 2016 Results

BEIJING, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- SouFun Holdings Limited (NYSE: SFUN) ("we," "our," or "Fang"), the leading real estate Internet portal in China, announced today its unaudited financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2016. First Quarter 2016 Highlights Total Revenue increased by 62.3% year-on-year to $204.6 million . Revenue from e-commerce services increased by 154.0% year-on-year to $130.9 million .

increased by 62.3% year-on-year to . Revenue from e-commerce services increased by 154.0% year-on-year to . Operating loss was $110.2 million . Non-GAAP operating loss was $108.1 million . A description of the adjustments from GAAP to non-GAAP operating income is set forth below.

was . was . A description of the adjustments from GAAP to non-GAAP operating income is set forth below. Net loss attributable to Fang's shareholders was $ 113.7 million.

was $ million. Non-GAAP net loss attributable to Fang 's shareholders was $ 111.6 million, a $0 . 23 loss per fully-diluted earnings ADS.

was $ million, a . loss per fully-diluted earnings ADS. GMV increased by 664 % from $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2015 to $12.7 billion in the first quarter. The following table shows GMV by quarter for the 3 months of 2016. GMV: Q1 2016 (in millions of US dollars)



















2016Q1 & 2015Q1

Variance

2015Q1 2015Q2 2015Q3 2015Q4 2016Q1 Amount % New Home * 1,281 3,441 4,580 5,644 3,406 2,125 166% Secondary Home 384 3,321 5,951 7,860 9,311 8,927 2,325% Total 1,665 6,762 10,531 13,504 12,717 11,052 664%

















* Only including direct sales services. "62.3% revenue growth was our highest quarterly growth rate in the past five years which leads to the increase of our annual revenue guidance". Said Vincent Mo, Chairman and CEO of Fang.com. " Our E-commerce businesses, directly targeting at consumers, are contributing close to 70% of our total revenue. This is a clear sign that our transformation to serve individual end users is right on track and we expect to see a complete turnaround in quarter four of this year." First Quarter 2016 Results Revenues Fang reported total revenues of $204.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, representing an increase of 62.3% from $126.0 million for the corresponding period in 2015, primarily driven by the growth in e-commerce services. Revenue from marketing services was $30.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, a decrease of 25.1% from $40.6 million for the corresponding period in 2015, primarily due to the offset by our e-commerce services. Revenue from listing services was $24.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, which is higher than the $23.6 million for the corresponding period in 2015. Revenue from Internet financial services was $10.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, an increase of 200.1% from $3.5 million for the corresponding period in 2015 primary due to rapid growth in our financial services to the real estate brokerage services. Revenue from value-added services and other services was $8.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, an increase of 27.8% from $6.7 million for the corresponding period in 2015, primarily due to the growth of our data and research related products. Cost of Revenue Cost of revenue was $209.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, an increase of 357.6% from $45.8 million for the corresponding period in 2015. The increase in cost of revenue was mainly attributable to increased staff cost. Operating Expenses Operating expenses were $105.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, an increase of 44.3 % from $72.8 million for the corresponding period in 2015. Selling expenses were $61.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, an increase of 27.3% from $48.4 million for the corresponding period in 2015, primarily due to the increased advertising and promotional expenses. General and administrative expenses were $43.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, an increase of 77.9% from $24.4 million for the corresponding period in 2015, primarily due to increased staff cost. Operating Income/Loss Operating loss was $110.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to operating income of $7.5 million for the corresponding period in 2015. Income Tax Benefit/Expenses Income tax expense was $5.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to income tax expenses of $5.6 million for the corresponding period in 2015. Net Income/Loss and EPS Net loss attributable to Fang's shareholders was $113.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to net income $6.1 million for the corresponding period in 2015. Loss per fully-diluted ordinary share and ADS are $1.87 and $0.37, respectively, for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to earnings $0.05 and $0.01 for the corresponding period in 2015. Adjusted EBITDA Adjusted EBITDA, defined as non-GAAP net income before income taxes, interest expenses, interest income, depreciation and amortization, was $100.4 million loss for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to income of $11.3 million for the corresponding period in 2015. Cash As of March 31, 2016, Fang had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $708.4 million, compared to $880.5 million as of December 31, 2015. Net cash used in operating activities was $67.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2016, compared to Cash flow used in operating activities was $54.7 million for the same period in 2015. Business Outlook Fang adjusts its total revenue guidance for 2016 from $1,060.2 million, representing a year over increase of 20%, to around $1,148.6 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 30.0%. This forecast reflects Fang's current and preliminary view, which is subject to change. Conference Call Information Fang's management team will host a conference call today at 8:00 AM U.S. EDT (8:00 PM Beijing/Hong Kong time). The dial-in details for the live conference call are: International Toll: +65 6713-5090 Local Toll:

United States +1 845-675-0437 / +1 866-519-4004 Hong Kong +852 3018-6771 / +852 800-906-601 Mainland China +86 400-620-8038 / +86 800-819-0121 Passcode: SFUN A telephone replay of the call will be available after the conclusion of the conference call from 23:00 HKT on June 2 through 23:59 HKT June 10, 2016. The dial-in details for the telephone replay are: International Toll: +61 2-8199-0299 Toll-Free:

United States +1 855-452-5696 / +1 646-254-3697 Hong Kong +852 800-963-117 / +852 3051-2780 Mainland China +86 400-602-2065 / +86 800-870-0205 Conference ID: 23123724 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on SouFun's website at http://ir.fang.com. About Fang Fang operates the leading real estate Internet portal in China in terms of the number of page views and visitors to its websites. Through our websites, we provide marketing, e-commerce, listing and other value-added services for China's fast-growing real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors. Our user-friendly websites support active online communities and networks of users seeking information on, and other value-added services for, the real estate and home furnishing and improvement sectors inChina. Fang currently maintains about 100 offices to focus on local market needs and its website and database contains real estate related content covering more than 320 cities in China. For more information about Fang, please visit http://ir.fang.com. Safe Harbor Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "is expected to," "anticipates," "aim," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "are likely to," "estimates," "may," "should" and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the proposed transactions contemplated by the Restructuring and the Concurrent Share Placement. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Fang's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, whether the transactions contemplated by the Restructuring will receive the requisite approvals, whether the Restructuring will be carried out as planned, the impact of the Restructuring on the Fang Assets, the impact of Fang's transformation from a pure Internet information platform to a transaction-oriented platform, the impact of Fang's implementation of a "zero tolerance policy" that has resulted in dismissal of employees, the impact of the slowdown in China's real estate market on Fang and the impact on revenues of our existing and new service fees reductions, the ability of Fang to retain real estate listing agencies as customers during challenging economic periods, the success of Fang's new business initiatives, the ability of Fang to manage its operating expenses, the impact of, measures taken or to be taken by the Chinese government to control real estate growth and prices and other events which could occur in the future, economic challenges in China's real estate market, the impact of competitive market conditions for our services, our ability to maintain and increase our leadership in China's home related internet sector, the uncertain regulatory landscape in China, fluctuations in our quarterly operating results, our continued ability to execute business strategies including our Fang membership services and Fang Online Shop, our ability to continue to expand in local markets, our reliance on online advertising sales and listing services and transactions for our revenues, any failure to successfully develop and expand our content, service offerings and features, including the success of new features to meet evolving market needs, and the technologies that support them, the quality of the loans we originate and resell and the performance of those loans in the future, our ability to successfully service and process customer loans for our own benefit and for the purchasers of those loans and, should we in the future make acquisitions, any failure to successfully integrate acquired businesses. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Mr. Kent Cangsang Huang

CFO

Phone: +86-10-5631-9668

Email: [email protected] SouFun Holdings Limited Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share data and per share data)

ASSETS March 31, December 31,







2016 2015



Current assets: (Unaudited) (Audited)





Cash and cash equivalents 564,652 817,921





Restricted cash, current 103,696 103,179





Short-term investments 143,784 62,559





Accounts receivable, net 132,230 147,516





Funds receivable 47,902 45,400





Prepayment and other current assets 51,615 60,265





Commitment deposits 9,905 10,646





Loan receivable, current 221,410 266,990





Amount due from related parties 566 262



Total current assets 1,275,760 1,514,738



Non-current assets:









Property and equipment, net 336,005 326,504





Prepaid land lease payments - 774





Loan receivable, non-current 97,493 55,349





Deferred tax assets, non-current 31,040 5,490





Deposit for non-current assets 136,648 137,715





Long-term investments 235,528 244,678





Other non-current assets 8,557 10,078



Total non-current assets 845,271 780,588



Total assets 2,121,031 2,295,326















LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY







Current liabilities:









Short-term loans - 100,000





Deferred revenue 152,774 145,321





Accrued expenses and other liabilities 353,468 361,593





Customers' refundable fees 80,261 59,107





Income tax payable 195,490 9,948





Convertible senior notes-current 397,712 400,000



Total current liabilities 1,179,705 1,075,969



Non-current liabilities:









Convertible senior notes 288,228 287,887





Deferred tax liabilities, non-current 77,326 76,631





Other non-current liabilities 298 312



Total non-current liabilities 365,852 364,830



Total Liabilities 1,545,557 1,440,799















Equity:









Class A ordinary shares, par value Hong Kong Dollar ("HK$") 1 per share, 600,000,000 shares authorized for Class A and Class B in aggregate, and 70,739,054 shares and 58,477,084 shares issued and outstanding as at March 31, 2015 and March 31, 2014, respectively 9,130 9,110





Class B ordinary shares, par value HK$1 per share, 600,000,000 shares authorized for Class A and Class B in aggregate, and 24,336,650 shares and 24,336,650 shares issued and outstanding as at March 31, 2015 and March 31, 2014, respectively 3,124 3,124





Additional paid-in capital 481,154 478,391





Accumulated other comprehensive income (17,872) (10,364)





Retained earnings 99,178 373,505



Total SouFun Holdings Limited shareholders' equity 574,714 853,766





Noncontrolling interests 760 761



Total equity 575,474 854,527



TOTAL LIABILITIES AND EQUITY 2,121,031 2,295,326















SouFun Holdings Limited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income ( in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share data and per share data)







Three months ended







March 31,

March 31,







2016

2015







(Unaudited)

(Unaudited)



Revenues:











E-commerce services 130,904

51,542





Marketing services 30,432

40,623





Listing services 24,086

23,643





Financial services 10,625

3,540





Value-added services and other services 8,576

6,708



Total revenues 204,623

126,056

















Cost of Revenues:











Cost of services (209,806)

(45,809)



Total Cost of Revenues (209,806)

(45,809)

















Gross Loss/Profit (5,183)

80,247

















Operating expenses:









Selling expenses (61,597)

(48,387)





General and administrative expenses (43,377)

(24,384)



Operating Income (110,157)

7,476





Foreign exchange loss (35)

(14)





Interest income 3,513

8,044





Interest expense (4,610)

(4,101)





Government grants 2,600

302



Income before income taxes and noncontrolling interests (108,689)

11,707



Income tax expenses











Income tax expenses (5,160)

(5,622)



Net income (113,849)

6,085





Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests (22)

(22)



Net income attributable to SouFun Holdings Limited shareholders (113,851)

6,107



Other comprehensive income, net of tax









Foreign currency Translation (44,176)

(4,619)





Realized gain on available-for-sale security -

-





Unrealized gain on available-for-sale security (18,666)

2,613



Total other comprehensive income, net of tax (62,842)

(2,006)



Comprehensive (Loss)/income (176,691)

4,079





Comprehensive loss attributable to noncontrolling interests (2)

(22)





Comprehensive income attributable to SouFun Holdings Limited's shareholders (176,689)

4,101



Earnings per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares





Basic (0.44)

0.05





Diluted (0.44)

0.05



Earnings per ADS











Basic (0.09)

0.01





Diluted (0.09)

0.01



Weighted average number of Class A and Class B ordinary shares outstanding:





Basic 95,075,704

82,731,556





Diluted 95,075,704

89,924,291



Weighted average number of ADSs outstanding:





Basic 475,378,522

413,657,780





Diluted 475,378,522

449,621,455

















SouFun Holdings Limited Reconciliation of GAAP and Non-GAAP Results (in thousands of U.S. dollars, except share data and per share data)



Three months ended



March 31,

March 31,



2,016

2,015

GAAP income from operations (110,157)

7,476

Share-based compensation expense 2,075

434

Non-GAAP income from operations (108,082)

7,910











GAAP net income (113,849)

6,085

One-off tax benefit -

1,005

Share-based compensation expense 2,075

434

Non-GAAP net income (111,774)

7,524











Net Income attributable to SouFun shareholders (113,851)

6,107

One-off tax benefit -

1,005

Share-based compensation expense 2,075

434

Non-GAAP net Income attributable to SouFun Holdings Limited shareholders (111,776)

7,546











GAAP earnings per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares:







Basic (1.22)

0.07

Diluted (1.22)

0.94

GAAP earnings per ADS:







Basic (0.24)

0.01

Diluted (0.24)

0.19

Non-GAAP earnings per share for Class A and Class B ordinary shares:







Basic (1.20)

0.09

Diluted (1.20)

0.08 Non-GAAP earnings per ADS:





Basic (0.24)

0.02

Diluted (0.24)

0.02

Weighted average number of Class A and Class B ordinary shares outstanding:







Basic 95,075,704

82,731,556

Diluted 95,075,704

89,924,291 Weighted average number of ADSs outstanding:

Basic 475,378,522

413,657,780

Diluted 475,378,522

449,621,455











Non-GAAP Net income (111,774)

7,524 Add back:







Interest expense 4,610

4,101

Income tax expenses 5,160

4,617

Depreciation expenses 5,045

3,073 Subtract:







Interest income (3,513)

(8,044)

Adjusted EBITDA (108,262)

11,271 To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fang-announces-first-quarter-2016-results-300278590.html SOURCE SouFun Holdings Limited

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[June 02, 2016] HispanoPost signs agreement with EFE News Agency for mobile video content production

MIAMI, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HispanoPost, the leading global media group that produces, packages and distributes video content for television and digital media across the world, and the American affiliate EFE News, ranked as number one news agency in Spanish-speaking language, have signed a partnership in which the agency reporters will be able to produce stories on video as part of HispanoPost's B2B content service provision. EFE reporters will cover information directly from the main points of the United States of America. The videos with original content, exclusives, in-depth and investigative journalism stand out because it will be produced for the first time with mobile devices. Manuel Aguilera, CEO of HispanoPost said regarding this matter: "We have a golden opportunity to demonstrate the value for future that cell phones have as a tool for journalism. To support this challenge we have partnered with the best associate, the network of correspondents of EFE NEWS in the United States. Their experience and rigorousness when reporting news is the perfect complement to our abilities to tell stories with mobile devices. We will both be served from the knowledge ofour areas of specialization to maximize synergies and increase the added value of our products and services."



"We participate on the development of this project with HispanoPost," Laureano Garcia said, Vicepresident of EFE NEWS, "with the purpose of widening our presence in the world with information launched in Spanish and in order to increase visibility for the great work our reporters do in the United States. I am sure that HispanoPost will have a long journey not only because is a new perspective and a different way of telling stories but also because they will be soon established as a suggestive window to contemplate reality." This collaboration will initially include the main markets in the United States. But is expected to gradually be expanded to other countries around the world.

The Video Content Collections will be destined for distribution to the various digital and television media that access the service portfolio of HispanoPost, making it available within its "Business to Business" clients. ABOUT HISPANOPOST HispanoPost is the first media platform in Spanish that responds to the current demand for information in digital video with high quality, original, with investigative journalism reliable and rigorous about stories and themes from around the world that engage and commit the new consumers of news. Launched in December of 2015 with an international network that operates in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Middle East, in few months HispanoPost has managed to position itself as a global media force, operating the first online videos platform that have been recorded with mobile and mini-cameras; an international network of provision of video content and technological solutions for TV channels, digital media and brands; a suite of production of television, documentaries and films, high level events and even a creative agency of its own. Divisions of HispanoPost Media Group include in its digital platform information from Hispanopost.com, the B2B content provider service and Marketing Agency. The HispanoPost team is located in all the hot spots on the planet: United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Guatemala, Cuba, Argentina, Spain, Brussels, Israel and Iran. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374724

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hispanopost-signs-agreement-with-efe-news-agency-for-mobile-video-content-production-300278640.html SOURCE HispanoPost

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[June 02, 2016] VAI S2K ERP Delivers 45% ROI to Black River Produce, With Payback in 2.3 Years

VAI, a leading ERP software provider, today announced the results of an independent case study conducted for Black River Produce, a $78 million food service distributor located in North Springfield, Vermont. The study found that Black River Produce experienced 45 percent ROI after deploying VAI S2K Enterprise for Food with Voice Picking Warehouse Management software, with a payback of 2.3 years and an average annual benefit of $1,188,539. Completed by Nucleus Research, the case study ROI was determined by quantifying the initial and ongoing costs of software licenses and maintenance fees, hardware expenses, personnel time to implement and support the application, employee training time and consulting to calculate the total investment in VAI S2K. Key benefits from the VAI S2K deployment include: Increased warehouse productivity and efficiency with voice picking automation.

Reduced shrinkage losses with voie picking and real-time analytics.

Decreased errors due to greater visibility from automation resulting in fewer customer credits issued because of delivery errors and incomplete deliveries.

Increased customer satisfaction resulting from reduced returns.

Increased visibility in business operations across the board.



"VAI's S2K technology has transformed the Black River Produce business model," said Seth Lippincott, analyst, Nucleus Research. "Their investment in S2K has provided them with full accountability of all departments, greater efficiency and a support plan for continued growth. The company can now accurately measure its technology investment with real-time data, companywide accountability and improved operating efficiencies."

To access the case study, visit: http://www.vai.net/documents/success_stories/vai_success_story_black_river_produce.pdf For more information about VAI S2K Enterprise for Food, visit: http://vai.net/solutions/s2k-enterprise-for-food.html. About VAI (Vormittag Associates, Inc.)

VAI is a leading independent mid-market ERP software developer renowned for its configurable solutions and ability to automate critical business functions for the distribution, manufacturing, specialty retail and service sectors. An IBM (News - Alert) Premier Business Partner, VAI is the 2012 IBM Beacon Award Winner for Outstanding Solutions for Midsize Businesses. VAI continues to innovate with new solutions that leverage analytics, business intelligence, mobility and cloud technology to help customers make more informed business decisions in real-time and empower their mobile workforces. VAI is headquartered in Ronkonkoma, NY with branch offices in Florida, Illinois and California. For more information, visit www.vai.net, follow @VAISoftware on Twitter (News - Alert) or "like us" on facebook.com/VAISoftware. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005270/en/

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[June 02, 2016] HappyCo Hits 1.2 Million Inspection Mark, Integration with Yardi Voyager

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HappyCo today announced that its customers have completed more than 1.2 million inspections with Happy Inspector, the leading mobile app for conducting inspections of residential properties, commercial facilities, product quality and workforce performance. To date more than 6,000 businesses have used the Happy Inspector mobile app to modernize their operations, logging more than 58 million individual ratings for assets and incorporating 15.1 million photos in their inspection reports. When combined with Happy BI, a robust business intelligence solution, customers can perform real-time analysis of operations performance across the enterprise. HappyCo also announced full integration with Yardi Voyager, a leading provider of property management software worldwide. The two-way integration automates the inspection workflow between the software systems, streamlining unit setup, inspection scheduling and unit reporting. Property management companies now import units into the HappyCo platform directly from the Yardi interface. When a resident status chnges in Yardi, the API automatically schedules the unit inspection in Happy Inspector. And when on-site staff completes the inspection, the report is automatically saved in Yardi.



"Passing the one million mark for inspections performed with the Happy Inspector mobile app validates our platform as an invaluable solution for business operations, and we continue to gain tremendous market traction, signing on more of the top multifamily businesses over just the last few months," said HappyCo CEO Jindou Lee. "The integration with Yardi Voyager is another key milestone for our company and our customers. Streamlining the workflow for unit setup in Happy Inspector and automating the inspection scheduling and reporting process will greatly reduce the workload for our customers, and it makes overseeing property operations and asset management more efficient, simple and even delightful." HappyCo customers have realized significant operational improvements. Last Call Operating Company, a Dallas-based operator of sports-themed bar/restaurant chains, reduced inspection time by 50 percent while increasing their internal shopper score 7.1 percent in a single month since leveraging the HappyCo product suite. CA Student Living, one of the fastest growing student housing businesses in the country, reduced turn times by hundreds of hours and inspection operations labor by 50 percent, increased damage deposit recovery by 20 percent and reduced disputed move-out charges by implementing the HappyCo platform.

About HappyCo

HappyCo (www.happyco.com) is a San Francisco-based software company that builds mobile applications for enterprise workforces to run their operations more efficiently. Its Happy Inspector product is used by thousands of companies and has facilitated more than one million inspections. The company was founded in 2011 and is privately held. Press Contact:

VerbFactory for HappyCo

Richard Berman, 415-359-4906

[email protected] To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/happyco-hits-12-million-inspection-mark-integration-with-yardi-voyager-300278883.html SOURCE HappyCo

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[June 02, 2016] Wireless Telecom Group Announces Appointment of Vice President of Sales, Americas, Network Solutions

Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. (the "Company"), a global provider of radio frequency and microwave-based components and instruments for wireless and advanced communications industries, announced today the expansion of their Network Solutions (News - Alert) and Microlab Subsidiary Sales Team with the hire of Christian Newton as Vice President of Sales, Americas. Christian comes to Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. with almost 30 years of experience in the Telecommunications and Wireless Infrastructure industries. Throughout his career, Christian has demonstrated a proven track record of strategic sales, business and revenue growth. Prior to joining the Company, Christian most recently held the position of Vice President of Sales Connectivity/Network Solutions for TE Connectivity where he was instrumental in establishing and expanding successful carrier relationships. Christian holds a Bachelor's of Science Degree in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Arizona. "Christian's extensive experience in executing sales and securing long-term contracts with Tier 1 carriers further supports our plans for growth and expansion of our Network Solutions Segment," stated Paul Genova, CEO of Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. "We are excited to have Christian join our team."



Forward-Looking Statements Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this news release may be considered "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such statements include declarations regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the Company and its management. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could materially affect actual results. Further information regarding risks and uncertainties that could affect the Company's results are identified in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Wireless Telecom Group, Inc. Wireless Telecom Group designs and manufactures radio frequency (RF) and microwave-based products for wireless and advanced communications industries and markets its products and services worldwide under the Boonton, Microlab and Noisecom brands. Its complementary suite of high performance components and instruments includes RF combiners and broadband combiner boxes for in-building distributed antenna systems deployments (DAS), RF power splitters and diplexers, hybrid couplers, peak power meters, signal analyzers, noise modules, precision noise and generators. The Company serves both commercial and government markets with workflow-oriented, WiFi, WiMAX (News - Alert), satellite, cable, radar, avionics, medical, and computing applications. Wireless Telecom Group is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area, and maintains a global network of Sales and Service offices for excellent product service and support. Wireless Telecom Group's website address is http://www.wtcom.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602006250/en/

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[June 02, 2016] California Tech Company: We Can Fix TSA, VA Line Problem in 90 Days

PASADENA, Calif., June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of a surge of complaints about long waits in Transportation Security Agency (TSA) lines and Veterans Administration (VA) facilities, QLess (www.qless.com), the global leader in customer experience and wait management solutions, today announced that it can solve the problem for both government agencies within 90 days. The company, which just won the Gold Stevie for the Best Computer Services Company at the American Business Awards for the fourth year in a row, has already eliminated lines for government organizations, including several motor vehicles and tax offices, as well as for healthcare providers, colleges and universities, and airports. "The long lines that travelers and veterans have to suffer are a national embarrassment  but it doesn't have to be this way," said Dr. Alex Backer, CEO of QLess. "We founded QLess to eliminate waiting in line and have already saved 50 million people over 1,600 years of time. Our challenge tothe TSA and VA is simple: deploy the QLess technology platform and watch the lines disappear in 90 days. We already accomplished this for dozens of government agencies, and if a community college in Seattle can eliminate its lines, reduce costs, and create stellar satisfaction reviews, the Federal Government should also be able to do it, too. As people scratch their heads on how to fix long lines, the solution is already available and used by millions of people every month."



The cloud-based QLess solution allows people to enter a virtual queue remotely via mobile app, phone call, text, website, or at an on-site kiosk. Timely updates and two-way communication through the QLess platform alert users as they move to the front of the line so they can tend to other business while they wait. Around the world, QLess enables government agencies and businesses to reduce on-site wait times by 60 to 97% and increase customer satisfaction by 20 to 100%. The race is on: will TSA or the VA be the first to solve the problem of waiting lines?

About QLess

QLess is the global leader in customer experience, wait management, and mobile check-in technology. The cloud-based platform eliminates lines and time spent in waiting rooms, reduces operating costs, increases staff productivity, and boosts customer satisfaction. Clients span five continents and include Vodafone, the United States Air Force, Renown Medical Group, the University of Texas, as well as government offices, colleges, and healthcare providers in 35 states. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/california-tech-company-we-can-fix-tsa-va-line-problem-in-90-days-300278909.html SOURCE QLess

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It seems that Axl Rose's temporary partnership with AC/DC is going better than expected.

The Guns n' Roses frontman was drafted in as a replacement for Brian Johnson after the latter was warned to stop touring by doctors, or risk losing his hearing.

Rose debuted with the Aussie rockers at a gig in Lisbon last month and has been playing with the band across Europe since. Now it seems like the probation period might be over, as they have just added American tour dates to their calendar, beginning in August.

It's going to be a busy summer for Rose, as he is also on tour with GnR throughout June, July and August.

Hopefully he doesn't mix up the words. (Or cancel some tour dates due to 'exhaustion', which is more likely).
[June 02, 2016] Canada's Investment in Clean Energy Technology and Emission-Reducing Research and Development Will Double to $775 million by 2020

SAN FRANCISCO, June 2, 2016 /CNW/ - Investments in clean energy and emission-reducing research and development are essential to growing the economy and protecting the environment as we transition to a low-carbon future. As such, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources, the Honourable Jim Carr, says Canada will double its funding for clean energy and clean technology research and development, increasing from $387 million in 2014-2015 to $775 million by 2020. Minister Carr made the announcement today during the inaugural Mission Innovation Ministerial in San Francisco. The Government of Canada joined Mission Innovation in November 2015 with 20 other nations and the European Union as part of a global effort to accelerate clean energy innovation with the goal of making clean energy widely affordable. Minister Carr and energy ministers from around the world held the Mission Innovation meeting while gathered for the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM). At the CEM, Minister Carr outlined several Canadian initiatives addressing climate change, such as government support for schools and hospitals to adopt higher-efficiency lighting, and encouraging the adoption of more climate-friendly cooling products. The CEM's CleanTech Solutions Showcase, held alongside the government meetings, promoted six Canadian companies to potential customers and investors. The Government of span >Canada hosted a complementary Canada Cleantech Showcase with an additional 17 Canadian companies seeking international sales and investment.



For Minister Carr, Mexican Secretary of Energy Pedro Joaquin Coldwell and U.S. Secretary of Energy Dr. Ernest Moniz, the CEM marks the first 100 days since signing the Memorandum of Understanding concerning Climate Change and Energy Collaboration in Winnipeg. The ministers used the occasion to measure progress against work plan objectives and to discuss advancing clean energy action ahead of the upcoming North American Leaders' Summit in Ottawa at the end of June. Quotes

"Homegrown emission-reducing and clean energy technologies play an increasingly important role in Canada's economic growth as we support the global transition to a low-carbon economy. Government and private sector investments in clean energy and technology research and development will help us meet our climate change objectives, increase Canada's competitiveness and support employment opportunities across the country. The progress we are already making on global clean energy cooperation in making clean energy affordable bodes well for the future as we advance common energy, environment and economic goals." Jim Carr, Canada's Minister of Natural Resources Related Products Mission Innovation in Canada

Clean Energy Ministerial  joint news release

Mission Innovation  joint news release Follow us on Twitter: Natural Resources Canada: @NRCan (http://twitter.com/nrcan) NRCan's news releases and backgrounders are available at www.news.gc.ca. SOURCE Natural Resources Canada

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[June 02, 2016] QHR Acquires PatientPrep Technology

KELOWNA, BC, June 2, 2016 /CNW/ - (TSX-V: QHR) QHR Corporation ("QHR" or the "Company"), a leader in the Healthcare Information Technology sector, is pleased to announce that it has acquired ownership of the Canadian rights to PatientPrep from TrueVation Technologies Inc. The purchase price is $500,000 paid in two parts, the first of which $380,000 will be paid at closing and the balance of $120,000 will be paid over a twelve-month period during which the PatientPrep product will be enhanced by further development. The structure of the deal grants exclusive Canadian ownership of PatientPrep to QHR. TrueVation will continue to own and market the product in other countries, including the United States. "This acquisition is aligned with our strategy of acquiring technology that adds value to our customers. What PatientPrep brings to current QHR customers is direct time savings through workflow efficiencies. With this offering now under QHR it can be offered through both our Accuro and Medeo product lines," says Mike Checkley, President and CEO of QHR Corporation. PatientPrep is a product used by healthcare providers to collect specific health condition information from patients as they are waiting to see the provider. The product is designed to run on a tablet and contains clinical templates (there are currently 118 templates) that allow the patient to communicate their symptoms and status of their chronic conditions, which are then summarized to the physician just before the visit, saving the provider and patient time while improving documentation in the Electronic Medical Record. Dr. Ryan Sander, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of TrueVation Technologies, noted that "as a doctor, and long-time user of Accuro EMR, I am very confident in the benefits and fit of the 2 products together. I am already uing PatientPrep in my practice and saving an average 3 minutes on every patient visit by spending less time on the background information and documentation, allowing me to spend more time on the treatment discussions."



About QHR Corporation QHR is a leader in Healthcare Technology, empowering providers and connecting patients. With a 12-year track record offering what is now the single leading Electronic Medical Records platform in Canada, QHR has a suite of complementary offerings that empower health professionals and drive growth. QHR's technologies and services enable secure medical records management for clinical environments, empowering health providers with tools for virtual care, including secure video and messaging, as well as tools for clinic management including scheduling, billing, and patient management. Health providers choose QHR to drive efficiencies within their practice and improve the quality of care delivered to patients.

About TrueVation Technologies TrueVation is a health technology company focused on developing innovative solutions to enhance the delivery of healthcare services. The company's flagship platform, PatientPrep, improves physician productivity and patient satisfaction by collecting and documenting condition specific medical information prior to the appointment. The company is an alumni of New York City's Blueprint Health Accelerator and is actively marketing PatientPrep across Canada and the United States. For more information, visit www.TrueVation.com. On behalf of the Board of Directors Mike Checkley, President & CEO Legal Notice Regarding Forward Looking Statements This news release may contain "forward looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. These statements are subject to risks that may cause the actual results to be materially different in future periods from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statement. Forward-looking statements in this news release include those concerning the Company's belief that it is strengthening its position as the leading EMR provider in Canada, and that it can continue to expand its leadership position through organic sales growth and complementary acquisitions and partnerships. Risks that may prevent or delay the forward looking statements from coming to fruition include the possibility that the Company may not offer products that are acceptable to industry regulators or customers; competition, the availability of capital, changing regulatory requirements, the Company's ability to attract and retain key personnel, product obsolescence, work flow and market factors that could increase costs more than expected. QHR is a technology business development enterprise where investment and product enhancements must be carefully managed to achieve long-term revenue growth and profitability. It is the Company's policy not to update forward looking statements except to the extent required under applicable securities laws. Further information on the Company is available at www.sedar.com or at the Company's website, www.QHRtechnologies.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE QHR Corporation

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[June 02, 2016] EXO U announces advisory agreement with Tyton Partners

MONTREAL, June 2, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - EXO U Inc. ("EXO U" or the "Corporation") (TSXV: EXO) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement (the "Agreement") with Tyton Partners Capital Markets, LLC ("Tyton Partners") for the provisions of certain strategic and corporate advisory services. Under the Agreement, Tyton Partners will provide the company with advisory services including, but not limited to, assessing business development and partnership opportunities, including channel joint venture partnerships and identifying, evaluating and coordinating capital market opportunities. "Tyton Partners have extensive experience and a deep network in the global education technology industry. We are confident that they will be able to help EXO U realize its potential" said Kevin Pawsey, CEO of EXO U. Pursuant to the Agreement, the Corporation has agreed to issue to Tyton Partners 370,370 common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants"), subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"). Each Warrant will be exercisable, for a period of five years from the date of grant, to acquire one common share of the Corporation (a "Common Share") at an exercise price per Common Share equal to $0.125. The Warrants will vest as follows: (i) 25% on June 15, 2016; (ii) 25% on July 15, 2016; (iii) 25% on August 15, 2016; and (iv) 25% on September 15, 2016. The provisions of the Agreement are subject to the approval of the TSXV and to compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements. About EXO U EXO U's shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol "EXO". EXO U develops an innovative software platform tat enables businesses and educational institutions to securely mobilize and manage their mobile workforce and students by delivering engaging experiences spanning desktop and mobile applications. At the core of EXO U's platform is the smart and agnostic EXO engine that unifies multiple software platforms, allowing devices to interact and communicate seamlessly together. For more information, visit EXOU.com or follow us on Twitter @exo_u.



About Tyton Partners Tyton Partners is a dynamic advisory firm that serves clients across the education, information and media markets within the global knowledge sector. Tyton Partners helps clients capitalize on opportunities and solve for challenges through its dual-practice platform: investment banking services built on a foundation of strategy development and operating experience, and strategy consulting services built on a foundation of transactional experience and data-based market insight. These two complementary practices are relentlessly focused on one singular outcome: Tyton Partners' clients' optimal path forward. Visit us at www.tytonpartners.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements included herein, including those that express management's expectations or estimates of EXO U's future performance or future events, constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking information and statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as ""plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases (or the negative form thereof) or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, regulator and competitive uncertainties and contingencies that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other assumptions and risk factors, please refer to EXO U's management's discussion and analysis for the year ended March 31, 2015, available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information contained herein is presented as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE EXO U Inc

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What you need to know about Powerball and the $700 million jackpot
Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates and distributes the world's most differentiated and comprehensive portfolio of content and brands across television, film and streaming. Available in more than 220 countries and territories, and in 50 different languages, Warner Bros. Discovery inspires, informs and entertains audiences around the world through its iconic brands and products, including: Discovery Channel, discovery+, CNN, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HBO Max, HGTV, Food Network, OWN, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Magnolia Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, WB Games, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery en Spanish, Hogar de HGTV, among others. More information: www.wbd.com.
The results of the toxicology report on the late, great Prince are in, and it's been confirmed that the musician's cause of death was an opioid overdose.

There had been much speculation that the 57-year-old had been treated for an overdose on painkillers the week before he died, but the rumours had been unfounded - until now.

The Associated Press reports that law enforcement officers have told them that the cause of death was indeed an opioid overdose on April 21st, when he was found unresponsive in his Paisley Park studio complex/home.

FYI, the FDA defines opioids as: "Prescription opioids are powerful pain-reducing medications that include prescription oxycodone, hydrocodone and morphine, among others, and have both benefits as well as potentially serious risks. These medications can help manage pain when prescribed for the right condition and when used properly. But when misused or abused, they can cause serious harm, including addiction, overdose and death."

UPDATE: 19.41

The Minnesota Medical Examiner has released an official statement, confirming the earlier report. According to AP, Prince Rogers Nelson died of an "accidental overdose of powerful painkiller fentanyl."
Volunteer walks in honor of her husband Thousand Oaks resident Joan Hull will be among those participating in this years Conejo Valley Walk to End Alzheimers at 9 a.m. Sat., Oct. 22 at the Westlake Promenade. Hull...

Overpass could get protective fencing A substantial safety upgrade for the areas most notorious overpass is finally getting some Caltrans considerationbut dont expect changes any time soon. At the Sept. 21 Moorpark City Council meeting,...

Early detection is the best way to survive breast cancer Every October, we celebrate those men and women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. But what is breast cancer and how can it be diagnosed and managed? There are...
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This season of 'Love Is Blind' is shaping up to be absolute madness  here's what people are saying about it
After two long years since the release of Winterbournes debut EP All But the Sun (which peaked at #9 on the iTunes Albums Chart) the talented indie pop duo are back at it with their latest effort Pendulum.

Since the release of their debut EP the guys havent slowed down, festival appearances, national supports (Patrick James, Little May, The Rubens), a headline tour and constant writing sessions have kept best friends James Draper and Jordan Brady busy and away from home but their dedicated work ethic has certainly paid dividends with the release of Pendulum.

To celebrate the release of Pendulum, the guys have kindly penned a track by track run down of the record which you can check out below along with the EP stream, give it a listen and if you like what youre hearing stay locked to the bands Facebook page for more info.

Pendulum is out now via Island/ Universal.



Shape

The first track on our Pendulum EP, Shape, was one we wrote pretty late in the piece. We were writing a lot of really cruisey songs and wanted something with a driving beat and lots of energy.

We put down the drums first and the song came out in a day. It touches on a few frustrations we had at the time but not in an obviously negative way. We still tried to keep it fairly conversational and the first line we came up with was guess Im going out tonight.

My Perfect Sunday

Track two My Perfect Sunday came from us jamming a really catchy riff and just immediately making it into a song. I think we intended for the lyric to be quite sarcastic but it didnt really come out that way. It makes reference to the feeling of wanting the lives of various idols of ours.

But I Do

Track three But I Do is essentially based on a relationship between two people who have a history of some kind, and the way in which peoples perspectives change the way things are felt and observed. We tried to keep the lyrics simple in keeping with the simplicity of the riff and rhythm.

Floating Around

Floating Around the fourth track from our EP was the last track to be written before we went into the studio, only about three weeks before we started recording. It was written and recorded in about 3 hours and is different to anything else we had written until that point. Its from the perspective of an older man, looking back on his life while in conversation with a younger person.

To Get To Know You

To Get To Know You is a song about wanting to get to know someone.

When Im Under

Track 5 When Im Under is about highs and lows. We tried to emulate that with the way we tracked it and the instrumentation we used.

Tour Dates

Fri 10 Jun, Ed Castle, Adelaide SA

Sat 11 Jun, Jimmys Den, Perth WA

Sat 18 Jun, Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW

Fri 24 Jun, Shebeen Bandroom, Melbourne VIC

Fri 01 Jul, Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD

Tickets and info at www.winterbourne.com.au
Our blog community. . .and now the Pitch is the last one to the party attempting to roundup a story that mostly passed them by from the perspective of bar buddies. Take a peek at this bit of persuasion aimed at turning the Crossroads into a bar district: How long can Crossroads landlords keep the district quiet?
Get outside and enjoy National Trails Day on June 4! Snap a picture of you, friends, family, and/or dog taking a walk, ride, or run on any trail in Kansas City, Missouri. Post your images on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with #TrailsDayKC for a chance to win a KCMO Prize Package. Post by 8 a.m. on Monday, June 6 to be eligible for a prize.

THIS KANSAS CITY PROMOTION FOR PARKS AND TRAILS PUTS THE LIVES OF LOCAL AT RISK AND IGNORES THE RISING DANGER ON LOCAL TRAILS!!!

While we attempt to brighten the mood and the morning with. . . A recent promotion from City Hall once again ignores reality.Nevermind that city hall promos never pay out to anyone who isn't politically connected. What's more important is that just this weekthis week as well.Most Midtown Parks turn into shooting galleries for the rising number of heroin junkies in Kansas City which also makes them unsafe for children during the day.To wit . . .Put simply, KC Parks & Trails can turn dangerous quickly and this bit of social media hype ignores this tragic fact of local life.You decide . . .
CHECK THIS TKC EXCLUSIVE AUTHOR INTRO ABOUT A NEW BOOK DETAILING KANSAS CITY STREET LIFE!!!

Peckerwood in the Hood

Tonight we're taking another look at an upcoming and really interestingthat offers a unique perspective on crime life from an up-close and personal perspective.To wit . . .Here's the word from this highly anticipated KC work of non-fiction for the Summer . . ."The main thrust of my book is showing how human cops can be (are) through the eyes of the main character Peckerwood (me), an average white guy that tried to save the hood from itself. It is based on real events. My hope is it will bring the police and the community closer together and help pique interest in police careers. I took a bit of creative license with names, some details and conversation but it is very, very close to what really occurred. Theres plenty of cop stuff. There is also quite a bit of off-duty drinking & dating (in my 20s, before I met my wife). The text is very readable, broken down into short, very entertaining stories. Its a real slice of Americana in KC in the 80s, 90s, & into the New Millennium. This is not your typical Im Gods gift to policing cop book. To the contrary, I was (and still am) a wise guy. So are my friends. I never set out to be a cop but it was a perfect fit for me. Nothing else can compare."My interest in policing started when I was three years old, as you will see in the opening story. I zip through my childhood (a few more brushes with the law) and my wild teen years (mischievous stuff with my posse). During college I searched for the meaning of life and a purposeful life. That led me to policing, a real roller coaster ride. There is a ton of dark cop humor and bizarre incidents. My rough draft was 1,066 pages. My manuscript was 400 pages. My publisher & I whittled it down to the best 326 pages. We skimmed the cream off the crop. LOL! I have been told what is left is a very good book. I didnt want to write this book, I had to write this book. Its too good not to share."Hang onto your hat. This is policing, Kansas City style, through the eyes of one guy that could barely tear himself away from it when it was time to hang up his badge."########Hopefully, more for the morning update . . .
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will pay an official visit to Greece on June 2-3 with the view to boost the bilateral relations of the two countries

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will pay an official visit to Greece on June 2-3 with the view to boost the bilateral relations of the two countries.

Valls will be accompanied by Finance Minister Michel Sapin and Deputy Minister for European Affairs Harlem Desir.

"The visit, which takes place only a few days after the European Union decided to provide further financial assistance to Greece will be an opportunity to express France's support to Greek reforms and the consolidation of Greece's position in the eurozone," according to a statement of the French embassy in Athens.

The French Prime Minister is expected to have an extended discussion of the migrant and refugee issue and assist Greece in its effort to handle the large refugee flows.

Valls will meet with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Many of the employees have complained that they have not received their wages in over two months

About 150 employees of the Athens Ledra Hotel have gathered outside the hotel on Syngrou Avenue in Athens demanding their unpaid wages. Many employees have not been paid in over two months and have announced that they will not back down until they are vindicated.

The hotel management is not currently accepting any new customers and has been forwarding tourists to other hotels. Employees told ANT1 that many customers left the hotel en masse on Tuesday evening.

With the hotel having accrued debts of about 33 million euros, the main creditor Alpha Bank attempted to auction it, however this was called off at the last moment after consultation with the Paraskevaidi family, which owns and operates the business.

Source: tovima.gr

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Greek consular offices issued 90 thousand visas to Russians in May 2016, 32% more than the same period last year

Greek consular offices issued 90 thousand visas to Russians in May 2016, 32% more than the same period last year, the press service of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency announced on Wednesday.

"This year, Greece can be a major outbound direction for Russians. Currently, the Greek Consulate issues 50% more visas than consular services of other Schengen countries. In May alone, the Greek Consular Office issued 90 thousand entry documents, which is 32% higher the same period last year," the statement noted.

As explained by the press-service, issuing of Greek visas for Russian citizens has become the main issues at various meetings between representatives of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency and the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Chief of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov said that the agency expects Greece to undertake initiatives so as to improve the visa services and is ready to support them. Until now, the Greek consular service in Russia issues about 5-6 thousand visas a day, but it is possible to increase this figure to 10 thousand.

"I have been instructed by the Prime Minister of Greece, to remove all the problems associated with the issuing of visas to Russians. Technical issues have been resolved and staff of consular service has been expanded and now stands at 55 employees," said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, Nikos Xydakis.

In May holidays, increased travel demand for Greece created problems with issuing of Schengen visas to Russian citizens. Rosturizm sent a letter to the Consul General of Greece in Moscow asking to solve the problem with the issuance of visas as soon as possible. This topic was also raised during the Russian-Greek conference in Athens, which was held on 11 May.

According to estimates, up to 1 million Russians can visit Greece in 2016 while there is also an increased interest by Greeks to travel to Russia.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), a special economic zone in Saudi Arabia, has leased a plot of land to Venezuela-based Golden Tuna, to build its first tuna production facility in Saudi Arabia.



Construction work on the project which will be located on a 35,906-sq-m parcel of land in Phase 3 of its Industrial Valley, and is scheduled to start later this year, with production set to begin by the beginning of 2018 for sales in the GCC, Saudi Arabian and Egyptian markets, said a statement from KAEC.



Golden Tuna is investing in KAECs Industrial Valley in order to boost its production capacity and expand into global markets, following the companys dramatic growth in sales, production and manpower this year, it said.



Fahd Al-Rasheed, group CEO and managing director of KAEC, said: The eagerness of national and international corporations to invest in KAEC is proof positive that we are well on our way to achieving our strategic objective of making the Industrial Valley the regions manufacturing and logistics hub.



The economic city has a unique set of compelling advantages, including a world-class infrastructure, advanced public services, efficient logistics, social, commercial and industrial facilities, and a giant global seaport, all of which have made it the go-to place in which to invest, live and work. The city is fully equipped to become the dynamic centre of Saudi Arabias non-petroleum economy, which will put the kingdom in a position of power among the worlds 20 biggest economies. Our city actively succeeds in meeting the needs of all the industries we target, he said.



Dr Khaled Khalil, general manager of Golden Tuna, said: The companys decision to invest in KAECs Industrial Valley is part of our plans to expand into global markets and increase our investments in the GCC and Egypt.



Our decision to manufacture at the Industrial Valley came after we explored all possible investment opportunities and studied KAECs existing achievements, after which we concluded that the city is the best possible place to take our national and international investments, given its capability to be an engine of change in the Saudi economy and the many facilities the government provides to accelerate growth, he added.



A comprehensive range of housing solutions, such as the Village project, provide an ideal residential environment for workers and supervisors, said the statement.



Rayan Qutub, CEO of the Industrial Valley, stated that the completion and opening of Phase 3 to investors was a breakthrough that has helped bring about many new achievements, underscored by its popularity with national and international investors and corporations, due to the wide range of services and advantages that facilitate the ease of establishing commercial and industrial operations in KAEC.



Qutub also noted that King Abdulla Port will play a major role in Golden Tunas growth in exports, and expand the companys reach to more than 620 million consumers in Red Sea region, it added.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi Ports, the master developer, operator and manager of ports and Khalifa Industrial Zone (Kizad) in the emirate, has renamed its subsidiary Abu Dhabi Marine Services as Safeen  meaning ships in Arabic.



Established in March 2013, Abu Dhabi Marine Services provides a comprehensive range of marine and ancillary quayside services to vessels calling at Abu Dhabi seaports in a safe, secure and efficient manner.



The announcement was followed closely by the brand winning the prestigious International Safety Management (ISM) certification from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), said a statement from the company.



Further, as part of expanding its fleet and improving services, Safeen has added a new tug boat named Maqtaa to its existing fleet of five tugs, five pilot boats, six speed boats, one buoy maintenance boat and two oil spill response boats. The company plans to acquire three more tug boats by the end of 2016, it added.



The International Safety Management (ISM) certification comes as recognition of Safeens compliance with the best international standards of safety. The ISM Code is part of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), an international standard for the safe management and operation of ships as well as pollution prevention, it said.



Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, said: The ISM certification coupled with our acquisition of the new tug boat mark the grand launch of our new brand, which gives utmost value to servicing our esteemed clients.



These achievements prove that this makeover is about achieving substantial improvement in the capacity and quality of our marine services, which play a major role in the regions maritime industry, he added.



The 4.15 million ($4.64 million)-tug boat Maqtaa has up to 15 tonne marine crane capacity and three-wire drum winches for anchor handling and towage operations of barges. Maqtaa will provide towing service and assistance to vessels for berthing and unberthing, along with anchor handling. Additionally, it offers maintenance service for Aids to Navigation (AtoN), such as buoys and beacons, said a statement.



Safeens AtoN department, established in compliance with IALA (International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities) standards, maintains nearly 1198 buoys and beacons. The department conducts regular inspections to facilitate safe and efficient movement of ships in Abu Dhabi waterways and channels, while conserving the maritime environment, it said.



Safeen also offers a wide range of services such as vessel services (tug services, towage, pilotage), vessel trafficking services (VTS), mooring and ancillary services (such as bollard pull test, quayside services, fresh water supply, garbage disposal, bunkering, issuing of permits), diving services (including underwater inspection and filming), bathymetric surveying, ferry management in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, navigational services (waterway and channel maintenance) and marine workshop services, it added.  TradeArabia News Service


Egypt has received the first of two French Mistral helicopter carriers and said the second would arrive in September as part of a deal signed last year.



France agreed last year to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers to Egypt for 950 million after their sale to Russia was cancelled last August.



"We now have advanced capabilities in confronting terrorism within our borders and on our shores," Minister of Defence Sedky Sobhi said at a handover ceremony at Saint-Nazaire, Western France.



"It increases our combat capabilities and our ability to carry out long-term missions at sea...and we are awaiting on the arrival of the second in September," he said.



Cairo has sought to boost its military power in the face of a two-year insurgency in northern Sinai and fears that the conflict in neighbouring Libya could spill over.



The Mistral is known as the "Swiss army knife" of the French navy for its versatility. Equipped with missile defence and radar navigation systems, it can store up to 16 helicopters and has enough landing pads for six helicopters, according to Egyptian state television.



The warship, named Gamal Abdel Nasser after the second president of Egypt, is headed toward Alexandria where it is expected to arrive within weeks, state television said.



In April France signed separate deals worth about 2 billion ($2.26 billion) with Egypt during a visit by French President Francois Hollande to Cairo.



The deals included a contract for a military telecommunications satellite expected to be built by France's Airbus Space Systems et Thales Alenia Space.



Egypt last year also acquired a French frigate as part of a 5.2 billion contract for 24 Rafale warplanes, France's first overseas export of the fighter jet. - Reuters
The European Union yesterday (1 June) formally warned Poland and urged it to find a solution to the constitutional crisis that followed after the governments overhaul of the Constitutional Court. The opponents of the reform fear that the government had endangered the independence of the countrys top court. We have decided to send a rule-of-law opinion to the Polish authorities, European Commission First Vice-President, Frans Timmermans, commented and stressed that an opinion meant a warning.

Both Poland and the EU have had several rounds of talks with the aim to soothe a dispute over the Polish governments reform of the constitutional court. Polish Justice Minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, however, called the criticism one-sided and added that he was surprised by the statement of the European Commission, saying that the EUs executive body has had a chance to see that the government was looking for a compromise. Mr. Ziobro concluded that Its a one-sided opinion, showing a distorted image, despite the European Commissions awareness of what the situation looks like.

Since 2009, when the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, the European Commission has been authorized to use specific measures under Article 7 when a Member State commits serious breaches to the values of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights. When Article 7 is activated, the country violating some of these rights might temporarily lose EU membership rights. However, before such a decision can be made, the Council has to hear the Member State in question and may address the recommendations.
Qatar Airways and Ireland's Aer Lingus are in talks to start direct flights between Dublin and Doha, said a report.



According to a report in Gulf News, the negotiations come three weeks after the Gulf carrier announced an increase in its stake in Aer Lingus parent company International Airlines Group (IAG).



Aer Lingus chief executive Stephen Kavanagh said Qatar Airways network would help the carrier compete with Middle East carriers Emirates and Etihad who both fly to Dublin from their Gulf hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the report said.



Now that we have not just a shareholder but also a partner with a competitive network in that regard I think its only a matter of time, he said.
Sabre Travel Network Middle East (STNME) is expanding in Lebanon with new offices in Beirut to support the companys growth.



STNME, which has operated in Lebanon for over a decade, recently signed and renewed agreements with key travel agencies including Al Ajouz Travel, Wild Discovery, Al Natour Travel, and Travel Club. Its move to new offices was marked by an official ceremony with clients, partners, and government officials on June 1, 2016.



STNME executives from Bahrain and the region attended the opening.



The Lebanon travel industry is a vital Middle Eastern hub and Sabre has long invested in its growth by providing industry-leading technology and expertise to support the success of local airlines, hotels and travel agencies, said Daniel Naoumovitch, CEO STNME. Our expansion in Lebanon reflects our continued commitment to the local industry and supports our regional plan to cater to a wider set of customers.



Ahmed Samir, commercial director of Levant, Iraq and Egypt, said: We have been in Lebanon for more than 10 years, providing the industry with latest technologies and solutions to improve business operations and create great experiences for travellers. Our new office in Beirut will allow us to build on our solid reputation for delivering top quality service to meet local needs such as training requirements faster than ever before. - TradeArabia News Service


Abandoned cars have been turned into something useful and charming in a resort in northern China. These cars have been beautifully and creatively turned into cute cartoon styled hotels.

Tai Tai Mountain Park owners have turned over 30 old buses into tiny hotels. These hotels have individual kitchens, bathrooms, stylistic interior and outer designs, as reported in CNN Edition. Tai Tai Mountain Park is located in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.

The individual hotel each projects a theme of its own. These themes range from Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse and Doraemon. Cartoon murals surround all over the exterior areas of the hotels.

Meanwhile, people will find vibrant bedspreads, unique dish utensils, and large stuffed animals inside the hotels. Guolin Han shared his explanation on the reason he has made a decision buses would be more useful into turning into cartoon-themed hotels. Han is the owner of The Tai Tai Mountain Park.

Han explained why buses were chosen to be turned into cute hotels. He said that:

"These abandoned buses are cheap to buy and it's a great reuse of waste."

Han shared the park invested over $9,000 to convert the buses into hotels. The Tai Tai Mountain Park in China has a fee of $43 a night stay bill for those who would stay at the tiny cartoon-themed hotel rooms. In local currency, the rooms cost 200 yuan per night, as reported in The Daily Mail UK.

The hotels have allegedly set sights on families and couples as potential customers for their newly opened establishments.

Ever since these hotels have opened services to customers in May The Tai Tai Mountain Park, business transactions have continuously been coming in. The inflow of these business transactions has particularly been continuous, more so, during the weekends. Owners of the hotels, though, have recommended that early bookings be made to assure the availability of rooms in these hotels.

Ten buses were picked to be turned into hotels in China, according to English.cri.cn.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
A naval vessel from France has observed underwater signals coming from the Egypt Air flight 804's black boxes, investigators announced on Wednesday.

The equipment in the French vessel La Place has seen signals coming in the seabed over the Mediterranean sea, as reported by the Egyptian investigation committee released in a statement. This detail was published in CNN Edition.

According to BEA's director, though, these signals were originating from the signals of the plane recorders. Remy Jouty shared his insights on the matter, saying:

"The signal of a beacon from a flight recorder could be detected. ... The detection of this signal is a first step."

Remy Jouty is a director of BEA. His statement was released by BEA's spokesman. The said Egypt Air flight reportedly had 66 people on board. The plane was an Airbus A320. It allegedly went down in the Mediterranean Sea on May 19.

Egypt Air flight 804 apparently was en route from Paris to Cairo. From the time the plane allegedly crashed, authorities and rescuers have been in search of the debris of the plane. Additionally, authorities have been in search of the flight data and cockpit recorders. These things, if found, would hold the key to the causes of the crash of the Egypt Air plane.

Authorized searchers are most especially concerned with finding the data recorders. This is because a vessel is meant for finding these recorders. This vessel is operated by the Deep Ocean Search company.

The Deep Ocean Search's vessel is scheduled to work with the search team in a week's time, according to the investigation committee. In so far as the search has progressed, authorities have retrieved tiny items of debris and victims' corpses, among others. Searchers, however, were not able to find the fuselage from the airplane.

The Egyptian committee team released a statement, sharing the progress of the investigation of the crash of the Egypt Air flight, as reported by Reuters.

"Search equipment aboard French naval vessel Laplace ... has detected signals from the seabed of the search area, which likely belong to one of the data boxes."

Egypt Air flight 804 departed Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport, 11:09 p.m. Paris time on May 18. The plane cut off contact with the radar system at 2:45 a.m. in the Mediterranean Sea, while it was getting close to getting to Cairo International Airport, according to Gma.yahoo.com.

See Now: The U.S. had the highest number of Most Wanted properties, dominating the Hotels.com Loved By Guests Awards 2018
Hanoi:2.June.2016: www.luxurytravelvietnam.com is a DMC and leading tour operator ha launched new packages to promote Sa Huynh Beach Stay said Pham Ha, CEO



(TRAVPR.COM) VIETNAM - June 2nd, 2016 - The Six coastal provinces of South-Central Vietnam are all surrounded by the imposing Truong Son Mountains on one sides and the east sea on the other. The coast features many ports and beautiful beaches, such as Qui Nhon, Ninh Chu, and Sa Huynh. Offshore there are also numerous islands of various sizes. Many short but beautiful rivers run through provinces and there are a lot of hot water springs. South central Vietnam, more specifically Binh Dinh province and Tam Quan district, is filled with coconut plantations.

South Central region possesses large options for a luxury Vietnam vacation due to the harmonious mingling of the sea and the mountains. But is also possesses a fascinating history since south central Vietnam was one the first areas in Vietnam to be populated. The archaeological site in Sa Huynh shows that civilization began developing in this area during the Iron age, then came to Cham whose kingdom reached its height between the 11th to 13th centuries. Valuable exceptional Cham civilization can still be seen in the whole region. Visitors can visit Chau Sa citadel and Cham Towers, such as Po Nagar, Pi Klong Garai and Prome. Cham Sculptural works, such as Statues of spirits, kings, queens and dancers, demonstrate the skilful techniques and eminence in caving strong and imaginative ornamental designs.

Sa Huynh Beach

This beautiful beach can be reached from Hanoi by car and or by train. Visitors can also travel by ship from Hai Phong or Ho Chi Minh City. The beach lies close to National Highway 1, in Pho Thanh Commune, Duc Pho District, 60km south of Quang Ngai City, making it an ideal location for a great Vietnam vacation. There are now some luxury beach front villas and hotels to provide travelers with a place to stay and relax by the sea for a day or two before continuing their journey, however, it is a beautiful beach with clear azure water, golden sand and pine trees, from here visitors can go on excursions to Liet Son lake and the nearby mountains, which are home to a great number of monkeys.

My Khe Beach

This is for sure one of the most beautiful beaches in central Vietnam; it is approximately 8km long and has fine white powdery sand, gently waves. Close to swimming beach and along the coast is the poplars forest with the age of 25-30 years creating a green space of hundreds hectares running along the internal tourist area with the direction of South-North.

Luxury Travel Vietnam, LTD

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Vienna, June 2

Saudi Arabia promised on Thursday not to flood the oil market with extra barrels as the OPEC headed into a heated debate about production policy, with Iran insisting on the right to raise output steeply.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shiite Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.

Several OPEC sources said Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies would propose to set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair OPECs waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment.

Failure to reach any deal would revive market fears that OPECs largest producer Saudi Arabia, already pumping near record highs, may raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.

We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we dont shock the market in any way, new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters ahead of the meeting.

We are going to be responsible but we are also going to be responsive, Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could flood the market with new oil.

Answering a question on whether Riyadh would propose setting a new collective output ceiling, he said: We will do that when necessary. He added that he would listen to anything Iran brings to the table.

Any agreement between Riyadh and Tehran would be seen as a big surprise by the market, which in the past two years has grown increasingly used to clashes between the political foes as they fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April.

It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.

Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze.

Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Irans nuclear programme.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual country production quotas.

Without country quotas, OPEC cannot control anything, Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of OPECs overall production.

OPEC is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehrans estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates.

Zanganeh said he supported a candidate from Nigeria for the post of OPEC secretary-general, which could emerge as a rare compromise within the organisation if Riyadh also backs the appointment.

Country quotas

Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output.

There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, OPEC might intervene and yet other situations - such as long-term growth of marginal barrels - in which case it should not, Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting.

At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will.

As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages.

UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said low oil prices were pushing all countries to limit production, whether they say so publicly or not.

Until December 2015, OPEC had a ceiling of 30 million bpd - in place since December 2011, although it effectively abandoned individual production quotas years ago.

Any ceiling below 32.5 million bpd would represent an effective cut.  Reuters
Vivek Katju

In the first two years of his term Prime Minister Narendra Modi has devoted time, energy and attention to the conduct of foreign policy. He has sought to enlarge India's influence through frequent interaction with his global peers in bilateral meetings. Modi's participation in international and multilateral conferences has conveyed the country's position in impressive, though pragmatic, interventions. In this largely successful canvas there is a one major dark spot: utter confusion that has prevailed in the pursuit of the nation's Pakistan policy.

The stated premise of Modi's Pakistan policy was recently reiterated by him in a written response to the Wall Street Journal. He said, inter alia,

There can be no compromise on terrorism. It can only be stopped when all support to terrorism, whether state or non-state, is completely stopped. Pakistans failure to take effective action in punishing the perpetrators of terrorist attacks limits the forward movement in our ties.

In my view, our ties can truly scale great heights once Pakistan removes the self-imposed obstacle of terrorism in the path of our relationship. We are ready to take the first step, but the path of peace is a two-way street.

There can be no quarrel with this position or the principle contained in Modi's comment. These have been the stated policy of all governments since Pakistan made the use of terror an essential ingredient of its security approach to India. The problem lies not in the enunciated principle and position but in not following them. It is also in compromising with their obvious logic in the country's diplomacy towards Pakistan. While diplomacy has to retain, at all times, a measure of flexibility, abrupt U-turns, somersaults or verbal contortions do not constitute the stuff of flexibility. This is especially so when there are no objective reasons to indicate a change in the prevailing realities of a relationship or the regional or international context.

The objective reality is that the Pakistan army continues to control that country's India policy. The elected leadership, including the Prime Minister, has little capacity to change its thinking. If it had, Pakistan would have agreed to begin a process of cooperative interaction with India, including in the areas of trade and connectivity. None of that has taken place and yet Modi, like his predecessors, proceeded to follow a "flexible" approach. The Generals have remained unmoved and through their actions have demonstrated so. Yet Modi has ignored all that and gone "forwards and backwards". How has that process unfolded in the past two years?

Modi invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony in May 2014. Nawaz Sharif, ignoring the reservations of the Generals, came to Delhi. The two Prime Ministers decided that the Foreign Secretaries would meet to consider how to take the relationship forward. The Generals reacted to Nawaz Sharif's decision to visit Delhi by sponsoring an attack on the Indian Consulate-General in Herat, Afghanistan, just before Modi assuming office. The bravery of the ITBP security detachment prevented a major disaster. This was the Generals' signal to both Prime Ministers: they should not be ignored.

Just before the then Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh was to travel to Pakistan in August 2014, the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi met the Hurriyat leadership despite the last-minute warning from the Indian side. Modi rightly called off the visit on the ground that, irrespective of India looking the other way in the past, it would no longer accept the projection of the Hurriyat as a party in the Jammu and Kashmir issue. A red line was correctly drawn but such an approach requires patience and perseverance.

A month later at the UN Modi signalled to Pakistan that all issues had to be settled bilaterally and terrorism had to be abandoned. Again these were words in keeping with India's basic approach. However, while the Generals showed no change, Modi sent Foreign Secretary Jaishankar to Islamabad in March 2015 to explore ways to take the relationship forward.

In July 2015 Modi met Nawaz Sharif in Ufa, Russia. They decided that bilateral interaction should begin and the two National Security Advisers should meet in Delhi to discuss all aspects of terror. Jammu and Kashmir found no mention in the Ufa joint statement. This angered the Generals who insisted that discussions should not be only on terror and that Pakistan would not accept a veto on the meeting with the Hurriyat in Delhi. The visit of the Pakistani NSA was called off and strong words were exchanged. Soon afterwards Pakistan appointed a retired and well-regarded General, Nasser Janjua, as its NSA. For some inexplicable reason Indian policy-makers construed Janjua's appointment as an indication of the army changing course and wanting to improve relations with India. There was simply no evidence of the Generals of wanting to do so.

It was this assessment that led to the activity of December 2015 when the Ufa decisions were set aside and the NSAs, accompanied by the Foreign Secretaries, met in Bangkok. This was immediately followed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj going to Islamabad to attend the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan. On its sidelines, India and Pakistan decided to begin a Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue Process with a meeting of the two Foreign Secretaries to work out its modalities.

On the Christmas day Modi made a stop-over visit to Lahore to meet Nawaz Sharif. This was a flamboyant gesture of goodwill but that aspect escaped the Generals who brushed it aside not only as of no enduring value to bilateral ties but also one that required a reminder that they are the bosses in Pakistan. The Pathankot attack followed and despite the brave front, Modi was severely embarrassed. In Pathankot's immediate aftermath an effort was made to save the Modi initiative by projecting that Pakistan was serious in investigating the Pathankot conspiracy. Special emphasis was given to the visit of the JIT. Even while it was in India the Generals responded by levelling charges of espionage and terrorism against retired naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, and worse, sought to target the Indian NSA in this concoction.

Thus the Generals' hostility towards India remains single-minded and abiding. However, Modi's response has been vacillating like that of his predecessors. Besides, Pakistani terrorism is not considered a strategic challenge by the Indian political and strategic establishment. As long as Indian policy-makers continue with the present approach, the Generals will not change. The focus has to be on ensuring that the Generals modify their India policy. That will not be achieved either through hope or considering that the NIA's visit  should it take place  will be the mark of a successful Pakistan policy.

 The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 1

A Delhi Police Constable has been arrested for allegedly taking bribe from a contractor in south-east Delhi, police said today.

A labour contractor had approached the Vigilance Branch of Delhi Police with the complaint that he is dealing in removing debris from old buildings demolished for reconstruction in the area of South Delhi, said the police. He hires trucks and dumps the debris in the low-lying plots in the area of Jaitpur police station in south-east Delhi.

On May 25, Constable Raj Karan stopped his truck and allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 10,000 and threatened that if the money was not paid, he would seize the truck, said the police. On the request of the complainant, he agreed on Rs 7,000 and received Rs 2,000. The balance was to be paid within two to three days. After May 29, Raj Karan had allegedly been demanding the balance by calling him on phone.

On May 30, the complainant reported the matter to the Vigilance Branch and a raiding team was constituted to trap the cop.

"The complainant brought Rs 3,000 for the purpose. When the raiding party reached the area of Jaitpur police station, Raj Karan again called the complainant on phone and a meeting point was fixed. On the signal of the witness, the raiding team caught him red-handed, said R.K. Jha, DCP.
Chandigarh, June 2

With Jat community leaders giving a call to re-start their agitation for reservation from June 5, Haryana Police on Thursday announced that leave of all police personnel has been cancelled.

With the Jat reservation agitation likely commencing from June 5 in various districts of Haryana, the police department has stopped leave of all kinds except in emergent cases till further orders, a Haryana Police spokesman said here.

A communication to this effect has been sent to all Commissioners of Police, District Superintendents and heads of other police establishments.

Haryana Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) Mohammad Akil said on Thursday that the police was fully geared up to meet any eventuality.

The police and district administration would maintain law and order and safety of the people would be ensured. Individuals or group of people found trying to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere directly or indirectly would invite stern action against themselves, Akil said.

There is neither shortage of police force nor of equipment in maintaining law and order. The police would not tolerate any act to block road or rail. The police officers are holding meetings with responsible citizens to maintain peace in rural and urban areas, he said.

Haryana saw the worst violence in its five decades of existence in February this year during the Jat agitation for reservation.

As many as 30 persons were killed and 320 other injured and property worth hundreds of crores of rupees was destroyed in Haryana during the violence in February. The state remained paralysed for nearly 10 days.

The BJP government in Haryana, led by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, which was blamed for inept handling of the violence in February, on Tuesday announced a state-level riot control room to deal with the forthcoming agitation.

The Khattar government had last month notified reservation for the Jat and five other communities in jobs and admissions but the Punjab and Haryana High Court last week stayed the notification.

Authorities have started mobilising security forces at various places in Haryana following the threat by a section of Jat leaders to renew from June 5 their agitation for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions under the Backward Class category.

Police personnel and para-military forces have been stationed in sensitive districts like Sonipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Jind, Panipat and Kaithal to ensure law and order.

In Sonipat district, orders have been imposed under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, prohibiting any assembly of five or more people at any place.  IANS
Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 2

To identify potential investment opportunities in various sectors in the state such as industry, tourism, power, health, horticulture, food processing and infrastructure, a group of Ambassadors, including Navtej Singh Sarna, High Commissioner of India to UK, Krishan Kumar, Ambassador of India to Czech Republic, R S Malhotra, Ambassador of India to Niger, Man Mohan Bhanot, Ambassador of India to Syria, today met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

The objective of the three-day visit is to understand the development that has taken place in Himachal besides identifying potential investment opportunities in various sectors which can be projected to potential investors in their respective countries. This is an initiative taken by the Ministry of External Affairs to familiarize and acquaint envoys of the country posted abroad.

The Chief Minister informed them about the measures initiated to promote tourism and industrial investments in the state. As the economy of the state was dependant mainly on horticulture and agriculture, discussions pertaining to opening of small food processing units were also held.

Our main focus was to promote industrial investment as the state government was offering many sops and incentives to the entrepreneurs. Issues pertaining to air and rail connectivity were also discussed, he added.

The main purpose of the visit was to familiarize and get ourselves acquainted with the immense potential of various regions in various sectors and to attract potential investors from various countries to invest in India, said Navtej Singh Sarna. The delegation would also conduct meetings and interactive session with various departments of the state government and representatives of industries in the state.

Senior government officers from departments like planning, agriculture and horticulture, forest, PWD, education, revenue, urban development and town and country planning, besides officers from the industries department, also conducted a meeting to help them better understand the socio-economic scenario of the state.

The officers of planning, tourism, horticulture, and industries departments delivered presentations about the scenario of respective sectors in the state. Various aspects related to the investment potential in various sectors and possibilities regarding attracting potential investors from these countries were discussed in detail.

The dignitaries spoke about the investment opportunities in their respective countries and about the help that embassies could extend, especially in promoting tourism, agriculture, horticulture and industries sectors. They gave valuable inputs regarding promotional strategy and improving the existing framework for better results.
Siwan, June 2

Laddan Miyan, a close aide of former RJD MP Shahabuddin, and a key accused in the murder case of senior journalist Rajdeo Ranjan on Thursday surrendered before a Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Siwan.

The development comes after the arrest of five people in connection with the brutal murder of the scribe.

Bihar Police ADGP Sunil Kumar had earlier said that the five men were engaged by contract killer Mian, known to be close to former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin. Bihar Police had earlier said that initial investigations into the murder of Hindustan dailys Siwan bureau chief Ranjan, indicated at the possible involvement of jailed RJD leader Mohammed Shahabuddin.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter@thetribunechd)

The ADGP said that Ranjan was shot from point blank range.

Mian, who had been released from jail 15 days before Ranjans murder, left Siwan with his family two hours after the crime, the top cop said.

Ranjan, a journalist with over 20 years of experience and the bureau chief of the Hindi daily Hindustan, was shot dead in Bihar's Siwan district.

Five shots were fired at him from extremely close range near Siwans railway station.

Ranjan was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. (ANI)
Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 1

In an out-of-the-ordinary order, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed judicial magistrates across Haryana to monitor and submit reports on investigations being carried out by the Haryana Police in 2,120 FIRs registered in connection with reservation agitation in February this year.

A Division Bench of the High Court also made it clear that it would, in turn, keep an eye on the probe by examining the judicial reports. For the purpose, the Bench of Justice SS Saron and Justice Gurmit Ram set a months deadline. The importance accorded by the Bench to the case can be gauged from the fact that it will now come up for further hearing on July 4, the first working day after the summer vacations.

This is, perhaps, the first time a High Court has made evident its intentions of keeping tabs on more than 2,000 FIRs registered in connection with an agitation or riots. The development is significant as the sweeping order with deep ramifications is expected to culminate in binary monitoring, first by the illaqua magistrates and then by the High Court itself. Already, 470 persons have been arrested by the Haryana Police in pursuance to the registration of FIRs. Of the total, 1,208 FIRs were registered in Rohtak alone.

Laying down the procedure, the Bench directed Haryana to submit its report in all the FIRs to the illaqua magistrates. The Bench added the magistrates shall then make a report of investigation and submit it to the Sessions Judges, who shall forward it to the High Court on the adjourned date.

At the very onset, the Bench said it was not possible for the High Court to go into each FIR registered in the reservation agitation matter. But the magistrates could be kept in picture in all stages of investigations.

The amicus curiae or the friend of the Court, Anupam Gupta, agreed with the view expressed by the Bench before asserting that in all the cases effective investigation carried out by the police could, indeed, be overseen by the illaqua magistrate before submission of reports.

Gupta also argued that the Prakash Singh committee has submitted report despite limitations of not including the political leadership. But in light of the report, the suo moto (on The Tribune news-report on Murthal incident) by Justice Amit Rawal assumes an altogether new meaning and lends more credence to his notice.

The assertion came after a volume of Prakash Singh panels report was placed before the Bench, with a request to submit the second volume in a sealed cover as it was on intelligence aspect of the agitation.

In his order, Justice Rawal had virtually placed BJP governments at the Centre and in the state in dock for their failure to act. Such a deplorable act of the Central and the state government cannot escape the notice of judicial review, Justice Rawal had ruled, while describing the incidents as murder of the Constitution.

Justice Rawal had also equated the situation with Partition violence before making it clear that the state was required to answer: Whether in these circumstances, the Council of Ministers be not made answerable for dereliction of their duties being representatives of the public and held personally liable towards payment of damages vis-a-vis attaching of their properties etc?
Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 2

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar headed off to Singapore and Vietnam tonight to pursue two different tracks of the Act East policy.

In Singapore on June 3 and June 4, Parrikar will attend the Shangri-La Dialogue where, on the sidelines of the summit, he is slated to meet his counterparts from the US, Japan, France, UK, Canada and Switzerland. At the dialogue, Parrikar is expected to address Indias concerns on various issues in Asia.

On his second leg of his tour (June 5 and June 6), he will visit Vietnam, a country that has a defence cooperation agreement with India, and is now seeking the BrahMos missile. Parrikar will be accompanied by the DRDO Chief, Secretary (Defence Production), Chief of the Eastern Naval Command, Director General Military Training and Director Generation Operations of the IAF.

This will be Parrikars second visit to a country that is seeking the Brahmos. On May 22 and May 23, he was in the UAE, which is also keen to have the BrahMos in its arsenal. As of now, there is no hint that New Delhi has agreed to sell the missile to either of the two nations.

The missile, a joint venture between Russia and India, can be launched from ship or land. Its supersonic speed and the ability to skim the surface at heights as low as 10 m make it hard for an enemys radar to track. It is practically invulnerable to modern anti-missile and air defence systems.

Vietnam, along with China, is one of the six countries locked in a bitter dispute over navigation rights through the South China Sea. More than $70 billion worth of Indian trade is routed through these waters. India also has rights to two oil-drilling blocks off the Vietnam coast. Indias relations with Vietnam in the past few years have been keenly watched by China. When Russia sold the Kilo Class submarines to Vietnam, the Indian Navy trained the Vietnamese Navy.

India, on its part, is also setting up a satellite tracking and imaging centre in southern Vietnam that will give Hanoi access to pictures from Indian earth observation satellites that cover the region, including China and the South China Sea.

On May 23, the US announced an end to its embargo on sales of lethal arms to Vietnam, a historic step that draws a line under the two countries old enmity.
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 2

About a week after reservation for Haryana Jats in government jobs and admissions in educational institutions under the BC (C) category was stayed, the Punjab and Haryana High Court did not vacate the order.

Taking up the matter, a Division Bench headed by Justice SS Saron fixed the case for further hearing on June 6. The Bench asked petitioner Murari Lal Gupta to reply to government's demand for vacating the stay.

It also asked the petitioner to file a reply on Jat leader Hawa Singh Sangwan's plea for being made a party in the case on behalf of the community.

Counsel for the state of Haryana stated that the petitioner had approached the High Court without exhausting the available channel for redressal of his grievances. Elaborating, he said it was mandatory for the petitioner to move the Haryana Backward Classes Commission, the statutory authority to entertain and examine complaints/issues raised by the petitioner in his writ petition.

Khattar briefs Modi, Shah

New Delhi: CM Manohar Lal Khattar met PM Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday. After meeting the PM, Khattar said: Issues relating to Haryana, including the situation with regard to the proposed Jat stir and polls to two RS seats in the state, were discussed.
NEW DELHI, June 2 (PTI). INDIA has accused China of having gone back hypocritically and unscrupulously" upon the Bandung Declaration, to which it had subscribed, and embarked on a policy of interference in the affairs of the Indian sub-continent. China had done this, an Indian Note pointed out, by publicly calling for the self-determination of the people of Kashmir - "a call which is gross interference in India's internal affairs since Jammu and Kashmir is an inseparable and integral part of India". Similarly, the Indian Note said, the Chinese Government's massive anti-Indian propaganda and their attempt to capitalize on India's temporary economic difficulties were "yet another example of unwarranted interference in the affairs of a neighbouring State."
Nemours, June 2

France faced more torrential rain on Thursday after a week of storms that have killed nine persons across northern Europe, submerging streets, closing schools and leaving people stranded on rooftops.

Eight persons have perished in Germany and six days of torrential rain in France have caused the Seine and other rivers to burst their banks, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people in riverside towns south of Paris and in the Loire Valley.

The body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France, where some towns have been hit by the worst flooding in more than 100 years.

In the small town of Montargis, the water had risen so high that only the tops of cars could still be seen peeking above the surface along the high street.

Rescue workers have responded to around 10,000 calls and evacuated more than 5,000 people since the deluge began at the weekend.

The situation remains tense and difficult in several areas. We still have many concerns, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said as he visited a crisis control centre in the flooded town of Nemours, south of Paris.

In southern Germany, dangerously swollen rivers have caused loss of life and severely damaged towns in Bavaria.

Rescue workers found the bodies of three persons in a house in Simbach am Inn yesterday and the police warned that several other people were missing.

The force of the water upended cars and washed away parts of the streets, with a thick layer of mud left throughout the town by the subsiding water. Huge piles of wood and rubbish deposited by the torrent were visible next to badly damaged homes and offices.

A womans body was also discovered caught on a tree trunk in the neighbouring town of Julbach, police said.

On Bavarias southeastern border with Austria, some residents scrambled on to rooftops to escape the waters on Tuesday.

The floods came so quickly that people had to escape to the roofs of their houses, a spokesman for the Lower Bavaria police said.

The deaths raised the toll in Germany to eight after four people were killed earlier this week in the southern Baden-Wuerttemberg region.  AFP
Nemours, June 2

France faced more torrential rain today after a week of storms that have killed nine people across northern Europe, submerging streets, closing schools and leaving people stranded on rooftops.

Eight people have perished in Germany and six days of torrential rain in France have caused the Seine and other rivers to burst their banks, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people in riverside towns south of Paris and in the Loire Valley.

The body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France, where some towns have been hit by the worst flooding in more than 100 years.

In the small town of Montargis, the water had risen so high that only the tops of cars could still be seen peeking above the surface along the high street.

Rescue workers have responded to around 10,000 calls and evacuated more than 5,000 people since the deluge began at the weekend.

The situation remains tense and difficult in several areas. We still have many concerns, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said as he visited a crisis control centre in the flooded town of Nemours, south of Paris.

In southern Germany, dangerously swollen rivers have caused loss of life and severely damaged towns in Bavaria. Rescue workers found the bodies of three people in a house in Simbach am Inn yesterday and police warned that several other people were missing.

The force of the water upended cars and washed away parts of the streets, with a thick layer of mud left throughout the town by the subsiding water. Huge piles of wood and rubbish deposited by the torrent were visible next to badly damaged homes and offices.

A womans body was also discovered caught on a tree trunk in the neighbouring town of Julbach, police said.

On Bavarias southeastern border with Austria, some residents scrambled on to rooftops to escape the waters on Tuesday.

The floods came so quickly that people had to escape to the roofs of their houses, a spokesman for the Lower Bavaria police said. The deaths raised the toll in Germany to eight after four people were killed earlier this week in the southern Baden-Wuerttemberg region.  AFP
Fallujah, June 1

With thousands of children facing extreme violence in Fallujah and food stocks in the besieged city dwindling, Iraq today decided to halt its assault for the safety of civilians. Iraqi forces halted at the citys edge in the face of ferocious resistance from Islamic State fighters.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis decision to halt, two days after elite Iraqi troops poured into the citys rural southern outskirts, postpones what was expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against the IS.

The government, backed by world powers, including the US and Iran, has vowed to win back the first major Iraqi city that fell to the group in 2014. It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasnt among our priorities, Abadi told military commanders at the operations room near the frontline in footage broadcast on state television. Thank God, our units are on the outskirts of Fallujah and victory is within reach.

Fallujah has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the US occupation of Iraq and the Shia-led Baghdad government. IS fighters raised their flag there in 2014 before sweeping through much of Iraqs north and west. Abadi first announced plans to assault Fallujah 10 days ago. But with 50,000 civilians still believed trapped inside the city, the United Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families in the centre as human shields.

After heavy resistance from IS fighters, the troops have not moved over the past 48 hours, keeping their positions in Fallujahs mainly rural southern suburb of Naimiya. Explosions from shelling and air strikes as well as heavy gunfire could be heard on Wednesday morning in the city that lies 50 km west of Baghdad.  Reuters
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia sentenced 14 people to death for terrorism on Wednesday after they were convicted of attacks on police in the Shia area of Qatif in Eastern Province, their lawyer said. Another nine people were given jail sentences of three to 15 years and one was acquitted, their defence lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, said. He said the 24 defendants had been held for about three years and accused of carrying weapons and shooting at police. During 2011-14 protests, 20 Shia and several police officers were killed. reuters

Israeli women MPs face sexual harassment

Jerusalem: At least 28 out the Israeli parliament's 32 female members have experienced sexual harassment or assault, and at least two of the cases took place in the Knesset building, a recent survey has found. The survey carried out by Israeli Channel 2 encouraged the lawmakers to speak openly about the challenges they have faced in their everyday life and at work, an RT online report said. Two of the women, Michal Biran of the centre-left alliance Zionist Union, and Merav Ben Ari of the centrist Kulanu party, reported that they had been sexually harassed just recently, during their current term in Parliament. IANS

NATO to designate cyber as war domain

BERLIN: NATO members will likely agree during a summit meeting in Warsaw in July to designate cyber as an official operational domain of warfare, along with air, sea, land and space, a senior German defence ministry official said Wednesday. Major General Ludwig Leinhos, who heads the German military's effort to build up a separate cyber command, told a conference at the Berlin air show that he expected all 28 NATO members to agree to the change during the coming Warsaw summit. Reuters
Lahore, June 2

Six Taliban terrorists have been killed during a raid at their hideout in Pakistan's Punjab province, law enforcement agencies said on Thursday.

The Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab police received information about the presence of some militants belonging to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Layyah district, some 350 km from Lahore, a statement said.

"A CTD team of Multan police raided the hideout and asked the suspects to surrender but they opened fire on the police team and lobbed hand grenades at it. During the exchange of fire six terrorists were killed," it said, adding two terrorists managed to escape taking advantage of darkness.

Two hand grenades and as many automatic rifles, scores of bullets and other weapons were recovered from their hideout.

The CTD said the terrorists planned to target the government buildings in the district.

Last month the CTD killed around 20 al-Qaeda terrorists in different parts of the province.  PTI
Jason Squires/Getty ImagesHELLYEAH's forthcoming album, Unden!able, features a cover of Phil Collins' song "I Don't Care Anymore." While that may seem like an unusual choice for the band, the song actually has deep history with drummer Vinnie Paul. In fact, Paul and his late brother Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott recorded their own cover of "I Don't Care Anymore" years ago, and HELLYEAH's version actually includes clips from that recording.

As frontman Chad Gray tells Billboard, guitarist Christian Brady suggested that HELLYEAH cover "I Don't Care Anymore" for Unden!able out of the blue.

"[Brady] kept going on about how he could see me singing that song, as it's very me: the subject matter, the title, everything," Gray says. "All of the sudden, Vinnie remembered that about 14 years ago he and his brother did a cover of that exact song."

After a lot of digging and software maneuvering, HELLYEAH was able to locate and work with Paul and Dimebag's recording. That wasn't the only obstacle in their way, though: Gray felt some apprehension about getting the vocals right. However, producer Kevin Churko was able to bolster Gray's confidence.

"Dude you're going to be singing this song for the rest of your life," Gray recalls Churko telling him. "Such a powerful moment for me."

Overall, Gray wanted to make the cover of "I Don't Care Anymore" "ours," and he also hopes HELLYEAH's version earns the approval of the man who wrote the song.

"It was unbelievable that it went from 'We should cover this' to 'Hey, we have this recording' to 'Hey, we need to get it off of this crazy, outdated system,' and here we are," Graysays. "People are going to love it. What I really hope is that Phil Collins loves it."

Unden!able will be released June 3.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Isuzu's Shaun Skinner Photo: Chris Wolski

Shaun Skinner was recently appointed president of Isuzu Commercial Truck of America, Inc., (ICTA); he succeeds Hisao Sasaki, who has returned to Japan. A 29-year Isuzu veteran, Skinner joined American Isuzu Motors in June 1987 and moved to ICTA in 2002. He was named ICTAs executive vice president and general manager in January 2008. Skinner also serves as president of Isuzu Commercial Truck of Canada. Mike Antich, Editor of HDT sister publication Work Truck, interviewed Skinner at the companys U.S. headquarters.

Q: Are you the very first American president of Isuzu Commercial Truck of America?

A: Yes, that is correct. Historically, the president of the distributor has always been Japanese. This is the first time an American was named President of Isuzu Truck of America.

Q: Will your role change with the new title?

A: It is evolving, but it will change. This is less about me, and more about a change in direction for our company, to get closer to the marketplace. There are three core areas we deal with as an organization. First, we have our customers and dealers. Our dealers are the closest point of contact to our customers. There are about 300 ICTA dealers. Second, we have the ICTA organization. Third, we have our parent company, which is Isuzu Motors Limited (IML), the majority stakeholder in Isuzu Commercial Truck of America. IML develops the products we sell in this marketplace.

Typically, the ICTA presidents role has focused on the relationship with our parent company. The president delegated to the staff much of the responsibility to build the relationships between ICTA and its customers and dealers.

With advances in technologies, new government regulations, and the complexities of our vehicles, ICTA will need to move closer to our dealers and, by virtue of that, closer to our customers. The closer we get to our dealers and customers, the better feedback we can give to IML, our parent company, on the product needed for this market. As a result, ICTA will become more market-driven.

Q: How will you bring Isuzu Commercial Truck of America closer to your dealers and customers? What will you do differently than what you are currently doing today?

A: Thats a really good question, but its too early in the process to offer a definitive answer. There are a number of things behind the scenes were doing based on feedback from dealers and customers.

We are talking to our customers to better determine their product needs. Let me give you an example of how were heading in that direction: The 2018 FTR, is our all-new entry in the Class 6 medium-duty truck segment and it will go into production in the U.S. in the middle of 2017. A lot of the design work on the FTR was done at the Isuzu Technical Center of America in Plymouth, Mich. Many of the components used in the FTR are sourced in the U.S. and the final point of assembly will also be in the U.S. at Spartan Motors in Charlotte, Mich. This is the same plant where the gasoline-powered NPR and NPR-HD trucks are assembled. The cab is Japanese built and will come in the form of knock-down kits. A lot of the things about the truck are unique to this market.

The 2018 FTR, Isuzu's all-new Class 6, being unveiled at the NTEA Work Truck Show in March. Photo: David Cullen

Q: How do you see the U.S. market changing in the future?

A: The population in the U.S. is growing, and isnt going to be moving to the suburbs as it did historically. Theyre going to be moving back to metropolitan areas, with populations of a million people or more. You are already seeing this renaissance taking place in cities such as Philadelphia.

Our belief is were going to need larger delivery trucks for urban environments. The FTR truck was a by-product of where we believe U.S. markets are going based on listening to our customers and studying the market.

Q: How else do you see your customers' product needs changing?

A: Again, another good question, but a little more difficult because there are subtleties. When the price of gasoline was high, and a barrel of oil was more than $100, I would have certainly thought we would see more growth in alternative fuels.

But, to our surprise, the price of a barrel of oil dramatically dropped. The price of a gallon of gasoline went way down, and some of the developments we expected to see in alternative fuels were diminished. So, sometimes, your best logic ends up being temporarily delayed or your path is slightly corrected because of something you didnt foresee happening. I believe theres going to be changes that are going to occur. But, I dont want to tip our hand too much as to things were looking at by identifying all of those changes.

Instead, Im going to flip your question around and say the single biggest challenge we face is going to be regulatory issues; in particular, complying with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards.

Safety and emissions are going to play a huge role in the actions we take to ensure we come to market with products that not only meet what the marketplace needs, but exceeds them.

I envision were going to see more, smaller displacement engines. The car industry is a bellwether for us, since they typically adapt to technologies pretty quickly. We have to go to smaller displacement engines from an emissions standpoint and the car industry has already moved very quickly in that direction.

This trend is emerging because customers are demanding a lower cost of ownership and lower initial acquisition cost. In addition to fuel economy, smaller displacement engines are important to meet Phase 1 of the greenhouse gas emission standards and, later, Phase 2 of the greenhouse gas emission standards were going to be dealing with in the 2020-2021 time frame.

Were going to have to find ways to make sure we get more performance out of smaller engines. The market will require it in more than one way. It will require it from customers needing a lower cost of ownership, but also to comply with government regulations requiring lower emissions. Again, I look to the car market because smaller engine sizes, which, in the past, were deemed unacceptable, are now commonplace.

The upcoming 2018 Isuzu FTR is a Class 6 equipped with a four-cylinder engine. Freightliner also announced theyre coming out with a four cylinder. This is where the future of the marketplace is going.

Q: Smaller displacement engines run hotter; will you use synthetic oils?

A: With todays metallurgy and current powertrain design, we are able to dissipate a lot of heat. The interesting thing is that with todays emission systems heat is not always our enemy. Heat, in many cases with SCR systems, is our friend. If you see our most recent packaging of the SCR system on our 2016 and 2017 model-year N-Series trucks where it used to be open, theyve now installed paneling around it to hold that heat in because it helps with the efficiencies. From an engine cooling standpoint, the motor oil requirements in our engines have not yet moved to synthetics at this point.

Q: Do you see yourself introducing higher-GVW trucks in the U.S. marketplace?

A: Beyond the FTR, I would say that right now there are no concrete plans for it, but thats something that were always looking at.

Q: Would you like to make any concluding observations?

A: Im optimistic about the market. I know there are challenges, whether you want to look at it from a regulatory perspective or how much longer the economy will continue to grow. Were always going to have those cycles.

What Im most excited about is that last year we set an all-time sales record for the Isuzu nameplate. In 2015, Isuzu dealers retailed 20,725 Isuzu-brand trucks to customers  a record in the U.S. and Canadian market.

Our business is good. Our dealers are strong. Were growing our product lineup. Weve announced the FTR, so I think were making the moves needed to put ourselves in the position for success. Theres a lot of things were doing right, from offering new products to constantly looking for ways to fill the gaps in the products we already have.
OKLAHOMA CITY  The acrimonious legislative session will bode well for Democrats at the polls, House Minority Leader Scott Inman said Thursday.

Inman, D-Del City, called the session, which ended last week, a national embarrassment.

It included attempts to outlaw abortion, reductions to tax credits for the working poor and a call to impeach President Barack Obama over his administrations guidance letter to schools saying transgender students can use the restroom of their choice.

Lawmakers had $1.3 billion less to craft the fiscal year 2017 budget due to depressed energy prices, tax cuts and an inability to significantly reduce the number of tax credits and incentives lawmakers doled out to generate economic activity.

The session drew attention from national publications and put the state in a light that is nothing but embarrassing for the citizens of Oklahoma, Inman said, which does not bode well for those in power.

Republicans control the House, Senate and governors office.

Inman said the irresponsible budget did not roll back the Jan. 1 income tax cut and reduced funding to education and other vital areas. It relied on one-time funds, cuts to agencies and a $200 million bond issue.

The people of Oklahoma will hold elected officials accountable, Inman said.

Weve got a lot of really good candidates who have filed against some incumbent Republicans, Inman said. We have a lot of good candidates who filed in open seats.

Democrats are poised to make some gains, but whether those gains are modest or significant largely depends on what happens at the national level, Inman said.

Our caucus feels energized, feels like the wind is at our sails for the first time in about a decade when it comes to the political election season, Inman said. And that is in no small part to the fiscally irresponsible decisions that have been made by the folks in charge.

House Speaker Jeff Hickman called Inmans statement a very bold prediction.

Hickman, R-Fairview, said Oklahoma voters are still very conservative.

Voters have rejected the ideas of Democrats time and time again, Hickman said. Those ideas include embracing Obamacare and raising taxes, Hickman said.

Oklahoma Republican Party Chairwoman Pam Pollard said the Legislature focused on the concerns of citizens.

Republicans funded common education and health care at the best level possible given the circumstances, she said. In addition, they protected roads and bridges and reformed the pension system.

The Oklahoma House has 71 Republicans and 30 Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans hold 39 seats in the 48-member Senate.

June 28 is the primary election. The primary runoff is Aug. 23. The general election is Nov. 8.
OKLAHOMA CITY  A statewide vote on increasing the sales tax by a cent to fund education moved a step closer to the polls on Wednesday.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court in an order said the number of signatures for State Question 779 appears to be numerically sufficient to place the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Supporters collected 301,512 signatures. The required number was 123,725.

Revenue from the measure would pay for a $5,000 teacher raise and for programs in common education, CareerTech and higher education.

Lawmakers and Gov. Mary Fallin ended the legislative session on Friday without a much touted teacher pay raise. The fiscal year 2017 budget included cuts to higher education as well.

The initiative petition effort was led by University of Oklahoma President David Boren.

Voter approval of State Question 779 would create the constitutionally protected Education Improvement Fund, which would invest about $615 million a year in education.

Supporters are expected to mount an advertising campaign to encourage voters to approve the measure.

It is incumbent upon us to get message to as many voters possible, said Amber England, executive director of Stand for Children.

She said the measure will provide a comprehensive funding solution to reverse Oklahomas school funding crisis and provide a teacher pay raise.

I think as we get closer to election day, you are going to see us launch an aggressive media campaign, England said.

The proposal withstood a legal challenge by OCPA Impact, the lobbying arm of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.

Theres likely to be extensive messaging on both sides of the issue between now and when President Borens tax increase appears on the ballot, said Dave Bond, CEO of OCPA Impact.

The proposal would force Oklahoma families to pay the highest sales tax burden of any state in America, Bond said.

At a time when thousands of Oklahomans in rural and metro areas have lost their jobs because of falling oil prices, raising taxes is not the solution, Bond said.

Jared Walczak is a policy analyst with the Washington, D.C., based Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research organization.

Were the ballot initiative to pass, Oklahoma would have the highest average combined state and local sales tax rate in the nation, he said.

The order issued Wednesday directs the Oklahoma Secretary of State to publish a text of the ballot title as rewritten by Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitts office.

Oklahoma residents may file a written objection to the signature count, or the rewritten ballot title, to the Oklahoma Supreme Court clerk, according to the order.

The objection must be filed no later than 10 days from the publication date, according to the order.

Meanwhile, Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform on Thursday is expected to turn in signatures to get two measures on the ballot, State Question 780 and State Question 781.

Were mobilizing Oklahomans across the state to vote for State Questions 780 and 781 this November, which will reclassify certain minor offenses like drug possession and low-level property offenses as misdemeanors and saving money by reducing the number of people in prison cells, according to the groups website.

Well return those savings to local governments for investment into community-based rehabilitation programs like mental health care, substance abuse treatment and job training.

The effort is being spearheaded by former Oklahoma House Speaker Kris Steele.
Meanwhile... the Movement for Social Justice is questioning if the lights from the deyas lit


Maribyrnong Council has rejected a filming application for SBS series Struggle Street.

KEO Films applied to film in Braybrook, in western Melbourne but Maribyrnong chief executive Stephen Wall said, It is our strong belief that this production will not present the City of Maribyrnong in a favourable light  but depict it as a place of disadvantage and poverty.

This is the very light that we  and our residents  fight so hard to overcome and defy.

Filming permits have already been knocked back by Hume and Brimbank councils to shoot parts of the series in Broadmeadows and Sunshine while Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk have both snubbed the series filming in Brisbane.

Brimbank council chair of administrators John Watson also said the council was extremely disappointed Film Victoria and Screen Australia were funding the program which would not accurately reflect our community, based on previous editions. The Victorian Public Tenants Association (VPTA), the peak body representing public housing tenants in Victoria, had also written to Maribyrnong Council.

We are also very concerned about the potential for vulnerable community members being taken advantage of for the sake of television ratings, he said.

The series is still able to film on private property without requiring a council permit.

SBS said in a statement the series intended to shine a light on social and economic disadvantage.

This week A Current Affair reported Corey Kennedy from the first SBS series was undergoing rehab in his plight to overcome ice addiction.

Source: Herald Sun, Star Weekly
iview is screening Housemates, a new documentary series that looks at three different and controversial ways to share a house, those who try to make it work and the horror stories of when it goes wrong.

At a time where finding a place to live is the number one concern for youth in Australia, it asks could you live in these houses?

The project is the first from Mashup Pictures, produced and directed by Rob Innes.

The idea for the show came about as my friends often talk about their shared living experiences,

and all of them were so different  we set out to capture those unique differences, says Innes.

Comedian Scott Brennan, who co-produces says, These segments allowed me to tick recreating a lounge room orgy entirely out of barbecue meat off my bucket list.

TV and film producer Mish Armstrong, who is a producer on the recently announced MIFF 2016 Opening Night film The Life and Death of Otto Bloom consults as executive producer, and Aleck Morton, who has worked on shows across all networks, is series editor.

Episode one features Crunchy Town, where 20-30 people live at any one time without any privacy; they share beds, couches and floor space. The food bill? Zero dollars. Sam is the leader of the house that works more like a community.

Episode two reveals the Private House, where boundaries between private and shared space are strict, but what happens when a housemate breaches one of these boundaries?

Episode three is the App House, which tries to achieve the ultimate share house utopia, turning shared living into an economic system  the more chores you do, the less you pay. Could you live in these houses?
ABCs newest drama Cleverman has been jointly-renewed for a second season with SundanceTV in the US.

The ambitious series premiered overnight in Australia and yesterday in the US. Attracting positive reviews, it has also been sold to channels including BBC Three in the UK. Last night it was also trending on social media to much praise from viewers.

Sally Riley, Head of Scripted Production, ABC TV, says: Its rare that you get the green light for a second series of a show before the first season has even gone to air, so for me its a testament to the quality and audience appeal of Cleverman. It is also a testament to the unflinching support the show has from our funding partners Screen Australia and Screen NSW here in Oz, and our international partners Red Arrow and Sundance TV.

Joel Stillerman, president of original programming and development for AMC and SundanceTV said, The world that Ryan Griffen and the rest of the team behind Cleverman have created is a perfect blend of timeless mythology seen through the prism of a near future lens. This is a series that sophisticated genre fans will no doubt fall in love with. We are thrilled to be working with our incredible partners at ABC TV, Goalpost Pictures Australia, Red Arrow International and Pukeko Pictures to continue the West brothers journey.

Screen Australia CEO Graeme Mason said: Cleverman fully deserves the local and international accolades that it has received  its engrossing, challenging, entertaining and unique. Following this original concept from inception through to development and now seeing its resonance with audiences both overseas and at home is a proud moment for Screen Australia. Congratulations to all involved.

Goalpost Pictures and New Zealands Pukeko Pictures will produce 6 more episodes with Weta Workshop again providing the creature design and physical effects manufacture.

Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell will both return to direct.

Cleverman is based on an original concept by Ryan Griffen. Series two writers are Stuart Page, Jane Allen, Jada Alberts, Justine Gillmer and Ryan Griffen. Producers are Rosemary Blight for Goalpost Pictures, Ryan Griffen, Jane Allen and, for Pukeko Pictures, Sharon Lark, with executive producers Sally Riley, Ben Grant, Kylie du Fresne, Wayne Blair, Angela Littlejohn, Lisa Chatfield, Adam Fratto, Jan David Frouman, Amelie Kienlin and Irena Ignatiew.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gZ_GdIVijE

Original Monkees star Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork reunited this week on Good Morning America to promote a brand new album Good Times.

The third surviving member Mike Nesmith later joined his fellow Monkees on radio.

Tonightwe are actually planning to have [Nesmith] Skype in a performance that we will be playing to live, just by way of saying, Hi, Mike. Thanks for coming around,' Tork said earlier.

Star Davy Jones died in 2012.

The album has already reached #1 on amazon.coms CD chart just six days after its release.

The Monkees, who were a pop culture phenomenon in the late 1960s, will be touring all year before a visit to Australia.
China Merchants Group plans network of ports, terminals Updated: 2016-06-02 08:23 By Zhong Nan(China Daily)

China Merchants Group said it plans to construct key infrastructure projects such as specialized marine terminals in countries along the Belt and Road Initiativeincluding Djibouti, Sri Lanka and Belarusduring the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

The Chinese conglomerate's Chairman Li Jianhong said on Wednesday the company will build a livestock wharf and liquefied natural gas terminal in the Port of Djibouti.

It is also constructing warehouses in Sri Lanka's Port of Colombo, as well as investing $152 million to build the first phase of a trade and logistics park in Belarus this year.

Under the schedule, the first phase of the trade and logistics park in the China-Belarus Industrial Park, located 25 kilometers from the Belarus capital of Minsk, will be operational by the end of this year.

Li said these moves would help build a comprehensive services platform, dominated by Chinese companies, in countries and regions along the initiative route. He said it could help Chinese businesses save costs on making new deals, in customs clearance, port services and maritime and multimodal transportation.

The trade-and-infrastructure networkproposed by the Chinese government in 2013envisions a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that covers about 4.4 billion people in more than 60 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and Africa.

CMG will invest $500 million to build the trade and logistics park in the China-Belarus Industrial Park and this year establish a logistics passage from South China to Central Asia and Europe, with cargo trains running from China to Europe.

As a State-owned enterprise based in Hong Kong with its main business in transportation, port management, finance and real estate, CMG's port assets are distributed in 16 countries and regions. They are in more than 30 ports in key locations along the Belt and Road Initiative, such as Nigeria, Togo, France and Turkey.

"We are also aiming to enhance the renminbi's status in international currency settlement through building our first Silk Road hub project in Djibouti this year," said Li. CMG now is the second-largest shareholder of the Port of Djibouti, after it acquired a 23.5-percent stake in 2012.
The militants launched 51 attacks on ATO troops in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press centre.

"The situation in ATO area tends to escalate. Over the past day, the Russian-terrorist groups launched 51 attacks on the positions of Ukrainian units," the report reads.

As noted, the attacks intensified in Mariupol direction, where 35 ceasefire violations were recorded. The enemy shelled the Ukrainian troops near Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk), Hnutove (19km north-west of Mariupol), Shyrokyne (20km east of Mariupol).

The Russian mercenaries also launched numerous attacks on our positions outside Avdiyivka (18km north of Donetsk), using small arms, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers and 82mm mortars.

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OSCE Special Representative in the Trilateral Contact Group Martin Sajdik has expressed concern about the shelling of the Special Monitoring Mission representatives working in Donbas.

Sajdik said this on June 1, after the meeting with representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group in Minsk, Radio Liberty reports.

"I am particularly concerned by the ceasefire violations which led to the military and civilian casualties, as well as the recent deliberate violations against unarmed personnel and assets of the OSCE SMM," Sajdik said.

As a reminder, the situation in ATO area in Donbas has recently escalated. According to the Ukrainian side, 26 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed there since the beginning of May.

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The government has created the Organizing Committee on preparation and holding in Ukraine Eurovision song contest in 2017, the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture reports.

In order to properly prepare for this event the government has established the Organizing Committee on preparation and holding in Ukraine Eurovision in 2017.

The priority tasks for the Committee are a choice of the city, where Eurovision-2017 event will be held along with further development and approval of a detailed plan of measures on preparation and holding of the song contest in Ukraine in 2017.

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The majority of Members of the European Parliament support the cancellation of visa requirements for Ukrainian citizens, but there has been no conclusion by the Council of Europe yet.

MEP from Poland Anna Fotyga told Ukrinforms own correspondent in Brussels.

We support the speedy, immediate introduction of visa-free regime for Georgia and Ukraine. But still we are waiting for a revelant decision by the EU Council. And yes, some countries want to postpone this process," said the Polish politician, who represents the faction of the European Conservatives and Reformists.

Also, Fotyga said she hopes that the EUs Justice and Home Affairs Council will consider the issue of free-visa regime for Ukraine at a meeting on June 10.

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Sanctions against Russia should remain in place until Ukraine restores control over its borders.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda said this after the meeting with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini on Thursday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports from Poland.

"A very important thing is implementation of the Minsk agreements and stabilization of the situation in Ukraine so that Ukraine could regain the control over its borders. The issue of sanctions against Russia should be viewed in the same context," Duda said.

The Polish President thanked Mogherini for common views regarding the importance of compliance of all countries with the international law.

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The NGO Reporters Without Borders has laid down a range of demands to the Ukrainian government.

Gemma Porzgen, a representative of the organization and expert on Eastern Europe, said in Berlin on Thursday, when presenting a new report on the freedom of speech in Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"In view of many challenges that journalists are facing in Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders are calling on the Ukrainian government and President Poroshenko to put into practice the law on the transparency of media ownership; President Petro Poroshenko to refuse from the control of 5 TV channel; the Government to clearly distance itself from the Ukrainian Myrotvorets (Peacekeeper) website and other attempts to publicly expose the journalists in connection with the fulfilment of their professional duties in eastern Ukraine; support the transformation of the state TV channel into the public and legal one; refuse from the ban on [certain] Russian books and films, and lift the ban on the entry of Russian journalists in Ukraine", reads the reports.

In addition, according to Gemma Porzgen, many important private TV networks are in the hands of oligarchs. The situation in Ukraine has a lot of opportunities, but journalists in Ukraine need help and support. Thus, according to the expert, staring from June, Reporters Without Borders together with Ukrainian partners, the Institute of Mass Media, within the Media Ownership Monitor project will hold the next stage of project on the investigation into ownership relations in the sphere of media and will report on the carried out work in September.

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Chinese 'Belt and Road' Initiative will benefit Russia Updated: 2016-06-02 10:10 (Xinhua)

VLADIVOSTOK - China's Belt and Road Initiative can benefit Russia, an economics expert said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Oleg Timofeyev, associate professor with the Department of Economics and Management at the State University of Management, said by implementing the project with China, Moscow will be able to expand its international influence and reduce the effect of sanctions imposed by Western countries.

Russia and China signed a joint declaration on May 8, 2015, integrating the development projects of the Eurasian Economic Union and China's Silk Road Economic Belt.

Timofeyev said China's northeastern provinces are now actively promoting the Maritime Silk Road to gain access to the seaports of the Russian Far East.

To accomplish it, "huge investments are needed to build the road corridor connecting Poltavka in Russia's Primorsky region and Dongning in China's Heilongjiang province, a high-speed railway and highway between Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and the Chinese city of Suifenhe, and the necessary infrastructure at Vladivostok's port," said Timofeyev.

The initiative of the "Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road" was put forward by the Chinese government in 2013 to connect the economies of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
| By Communications

The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center has been awarded the National Cancer Institutes highest designation.

The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center has been awarded the National Cancer Institutes (NCI) highest designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. The prestigious distinction recognizes the cancer centers high caliber of scientific leadership and robust programs in basic, clinical and population science research, placing it in the top tier of cancer centers nationwide. The new name of the center is the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The cancer center was granted NCI-designated Cancer Center status in 2008 and applied last fall to become a Comprehensive Cancer Center. NCI awarded the center the new designation after a rigorous review, which included a three-day site visit by 22 NCI reviewers in late February. The reviewers cited the cancer centers impressive progress over the past five years and rated the center outstanding. The new designation goes into effect at the start of the cancer centers next grant cycle Aug. 1.

We are extremely proud to have met the NCIs exacting standards to be recognized as a Comprehensive Cancer Center and to be ranked in the very top echelon of cancer centers in the country, says Kevin J. Cullen, MD, the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Distinguished Professor of Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (SOM) and the cancer centers director. This designation is a tremendous achievement for our entire team and will significantly enhance our ability to translate discoveries in the laboratory into better treatments for cancer patients in Maryland and beyond.

The Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only 46 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States. There are a total of 69 NCI-designated Cancer Centers in 35 states and Washington, D.C.

The Greenebaum family could not be more pleased that the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center has achieved this important milestone, says Michael Greenebaum, president of Greenebaum Enterprises, Inc. To see the cancer center reach the highest echelon under the direction of Dr. Cullen is truly a dream come true for my Mom and Dad.

As a result of the new designation, the cancer centers grant will increase 50 percent, to $1.5 million, and the center will be eligible for other funding from the NCI and other public and private sources.

We have made significant strides in expanding our basic and clinical research to include a strong population science program to help reduce disparities in both cancer treatment and prevention that threaten the health of minority populations, Cullen says. About 33 percent of the patients who take part in our clinical trials are African-American, reflecting our cancer centers unique position and mission to involve the minority community in state-of-the-art clinical and translational research.

Cullen adds that the cancer center also has developed a comprehensive education and training program to educate the next generation of clinicians and scientists.

NCI Comprehensive Cancer Centers have comprehensive, well-integrated programs in population health, education, and cancer prevention as well as outstanding basic, clinical, and translational research programs.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who was treated for stage III non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the cancer center in 2015, has advocated for the centers efforts to achieve Comprehensive Cancer Center status. Our state takes enormous pride in the Greenebaum Cancer Centers accomplishments and commitment to helping reduce cancer risks, increase access to care, and improve the health of all Marylanders, Hogan says.

The cutting-edge research being conducted at the cancer center has changed the ways cancer is treated, not only here in Maryland but around the world.

Personally, I could not be more grateful to have been the recipient of the outstanding medical care that the center is known for, Hogan says. And it is because of this expert and compassionate care, combined with a lot of support and prayers, that I am proud to say that I am now in complete remission and cancer-free.

This is a significant achievement for the Greenebaum Cancer Center, and one that perfectly reflects the research-intensive ethos and culture of the School of Medicine, says E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. With our commitment to discovery-based medicine, this designation further supports the culture and research productivity of our faculty in developing major breakthroughs in cancer that will benefit patients in our community and around the world.

This designation reflects the commitment to scientific discovery, precision medicine, and cancer prevention that makes the Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center a world-class institution, known for its innovative research but also its compassionate patient care, says Jay A. Perman, MD, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). Faculty members at the School of Nursing and other professional schools at UMB work very closely with the cancer center on a number of major research initiatives, including exploring methods to eradicate debilitating cancer-related pain.
Xi calls for restraint, dialogue Updated: 2016-06-02 02:28 By An Baijie(China Daily)

President tells DPRK delegation that stance on Korean Peninsula issues is clear and consistent

China's stance on the Korean Peninsula is consistent and clear, President Xi Jinping told a high-level Democratic People's Republic of Korea delegation in Beijing on Wednesday, urging those involved to maintain regional peace and stability.

Speaking with the delegation led by career diplomat Ri Su-yong, Xi said that China hopes the parties concerned will stay calm and restrained and enhance communication and dialogue on peninsula issues.

The delegation arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day visit. It was the first by a top DPRK official to China since the DPRK conducted a series of nuclear tests and missile launches early this year, defying United Nations sanctions.

Ri served as the DPRK's foreign minister from April 2014 until he was named a member of the Politburo during the recent Korean Worker's Party congress.

The visit reflected that DPRK top leader Kim Jong-un and the DPRK Workers' Party Central Committee attach great importance to the relationships between the two parties and the two countries, Xi said. He also expressed his wish that the DPRK's people will accomplish more in developing the country's economy and improving people's livelihoods.

Zhang Liangui, an expert on Korean studies at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said that Pyongyang has two main purposes for the delegation's visit: pushing China to lift sanctions and to acknowledge the DPRK's status as a nuclear country.

"China should firmly stick to its longtime principle of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which is among China's core interests," he said.

Ri conveyed a message from Kim to President Xi, in which Kim expressed willingness to work with China to strengthen and develop the DPRK-China traditional friendship, and to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

Ri also briefed Xi about the Seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea, which was held in early May and was the first such DPRK congress in nearly 40 years. During the congress, the country formally endorsed the policy of expanding its nuclear arsenal.

"For the DPRK, it is important to improve ties with China to ease the impacts of international sanctions," the Republic of Korea's Yonhap News Agency quoted Kim Heung-kyu, head of the China Policy Institute, as saying. "But it is too early to say that Ri's visit will lead to the onset of an improvement of their strained relations."

anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn
Media playing their role as a bridge between peoples Updated: 2016-06-02 07:52 By Wang Hui(China Daily)

As China's clout in the international arena and the significance of Australia-China ties are both on the rise, Australians now look to more information about China in such areas as the Chinese economy, Chinese culture, investment opportunities in China and Australia-China ties.

To meet this demand, China Daily and Fairfax Media were among a dozen Chinese and Australian media outlets that signed bilateral cooperative agreements on Friday in Sydney.

Under the agreement, Fairfax Media's daily newspapersthe Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Financial Reviewwill publish an English edition of China Daily's China Watch publication once a month. The first edition was published on Friday, drawing favorable responses from Australian readers on both the content and the model of cooperation.

As for the two media outlets, the cooperation will create a win-win situation for them: On the one hand, China Daily will be able to reach a wider readership in Australia. On the other hand, the China Watch publication, which caters to Australian readers' growing interest to learn more about China, will help enrich the Australian newspapers' content and increase their diversity, which, in turn, will make them more appealing to readers.

Yet, for me, the most significant part of the cooperation is the two media outlets' courage and efforts to blaze a new trail in forging a closer working relationship between them.

Obviously, media organizations in China and Australia differ from each other in cultural and political backgrounds, media philosophy, media ownership and even in the role each assumes in their respective society.

These differences used to form a big barrier for media organizations on both sides and impacted hugely on their coverage on each other's country. Australian media, as part of the Western media world, have often harbored a bias against developing countries, China included, and such a bias cannot possibly contribute to better understanding between Western countries and China.

In this context, the new agreements that signal wider and closer cooperation between media outlets in China and Australia can help mitigate the negative effects of their media differences and deepen mutual understanding between the two countries.

Chinese and Australian media may differ in many ways, but they also share increasing common ground, and they both need to present their countries to the world and vice versa, especially as globalization and new media have turned the world into a global village.

Hence, sharing content, launching joint media products and conducting journalist exchanges, as shown in the latest efforts in China-Australia media cooperation, will enable media on both sides to better play their role as a bridge that helps enhance understanding and friendship among the two peoples.

In recent years, people in both countries have viewed each other's country in a more positive way, with a number of opinion polls in Australia showing more Australians now attach greater importance to Australia-China ties. For example, the 2015 Lowy Institute Poll, released in June last year, found that most Australians see China as "more of an economic partner to Australia" than a "military threat".

Given the media's strong role in shaping public opinions, that media outlets in Australia are willing to cover China and Australia-China ties in a more comprehensive and objective manner should only further strengthen this perception.

Such a favorable momentum needs to be maintained as it helps foster a cordial atmosphere for reciprocal interaction between China and Australia, which is in the interests of both countries. Needless to say, media organizations on both sides, such as the ChinaDaily and Fairfax Media, can play an important role in this.

The author is deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily Asia Pacific. jasmine@chinadailyhk.com
Looks like a good news for those who missed the Red Planet's closest approach towards Earth in 11 years as the next Mars close approach is expected to happen soon.

On May 30 at around 12 midnight, Mars came close to Earth, in fact the red planet was only 46.8 million miles (75.3 million kilometers) away from the planet we call our home. This marks the point in Mars' orbit when it comes closest to Earth. This year the planet Mars will occur the brightest from May 18 to June 3, NASA reported.

The calculations provided by the U.S. space agency hint this is definitely not the last time Mars approached towards Earth, the red planet could repeat the action soon. In fact, the next occurrence could be as early as July 31, 2018 and this distance between the two planets is estimated to be just 35.8 million miles.

Mars has gradually moved close to Earth, especially in the past few month, but will vanish into the distance in time to come. The pinnacle of the red planet's close approach to earth was on Thursday, May 30.

Rumors doing rounds online recently have indicated that Mars will abruptly expand, balloon-like into the sky, giving an appearance of a big red moon. Gizmodo debunked these speculations noting that neither has this ever happened in the past, nor there is any possibility of this happening in future. In fact, Mars will never look anywhere as big as the Moon.

NASA ruled out the possibility of Mars replicating the size of the Moon as well, noting that an increase in the planet's size coupled with the bloody Red effect could only hint catastrophe, and that too of biblical proportions. However, this is highly unlikely to happen.

Considering the gravitational pulls on our Moon, Earth and Mars, if the red planet ever starts appearing as big as the Moon in our night sky, it would only spell trouble for us, the space agency noted.

NASA scientists unanimously agreed that the 2003 Mars-Earth close encounter was an event when Mars and Earth were separated by the shortest gap observed in the last 60,000 years, and this is likely to be repeated in 2287 - considering that's nearly three centuries to wait, enjoying what we are treated to at the moment, makes a lot of sense.

Mars is expected to continue being a nightly spectacle for this week. To track the planet at midnight, simply look south and find the bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius. Mars can be seen just above the constellation's head, towards the right of Antares.
Chicago's North Park University has been making great strides in developing well-rounded individuals in its campus halls, encouraging seminary students to take on an MBA on the side to give them an intensive training on various business processes.

The trend has becoming increasingly prevalent in previous years especially as churches need more "professionalizing of staff."

North Park, affiliated with the Evangelical Covenant Church built by Lutheran immigrants in the 1800s, is the only education and training center for ministers of the Evangelical Covenant in the continental United States. It also accepts students from other denominations in the Protestant faith and produced 41 graduates in the most recent commencement.

Dan Aleshire, the executive director of the accrediting body Association of Theological Schools also pointed out that two main reasons for seminarians bolstering their business resume are the expansion of religious organizations by creating nonprofits and the need for leadership in the various sects, Inside Higher Ed reported.

Other schools which offer dual degrees in divinity and business are Seattle Pacific University, University of Notre Dame and Eastern University. Duke University also offers a program which combines a Masters in Divinity and an M.B.A. on the way to a Juris Doctor law degree.

Seminary students and priests with business-related degrees are not exactly new. Notre Dame Federal Credit Union, located near the University of Notre Dame du Lac in South Bend, Indiana, for example has Fr. Mark Thesing, C.S.C., as a member of its Supervisory Committee, CU Insight reported.

Thesing has been a priest since 1986 and holds a B.S. in Mathematics, an M.B.A. and a Master of Divinity from Notre Dame. He also serves in Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business as the Director of Finance and Administration.

You may watch a video of North Park University below:
Remarks:

Registration information for February 2016 and data on space objects that ceased to exist in Earth orbit during that period.
One of four ambulances the City of Omaha recently donated to Xalapa, Mexico.

In a few weeks, four much needed ambulances will begin their journey to Xalapa, Mexico, in specially modified uni-level rail cars.

The ambulances are part of a donation from the City of Omaha, Nebraska, Union Pacifics hometown, to its sister city, Xalapa, located 120 miles east of Mexico City. The donation included seven Hurst Extrication Tools, also known as Jaws of Life, and several self-contained breathing apparatus. All the equipment will be transported nearly 2,000 miles via rail service provided free of charge by Union Pacific to the Mexican border, where Kansas City Southern de Mexico will complete the journey.

The donation was facilitated by the Omaha Sister Cities Association, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization that works to promote diplomacy, global awareness and cross-cultural relationships between Omaha and six sister cities located in Europe, Asia and Latin America.



Omahas sister city relationships are championed by local groups who have an ethnic or business connection, said John Murray, who serves on the Omaha Sister Cities Associations Board of Directors. Right now Omaha completes business, education, artistic and humanitarian exchanges with cities in Japan, Germany, Lithuania, Ireland, Mexico and China. The Omaha Sister Cities Association was one of the first Midwest chapters of Sister Cities International, founded in 1965.

The recent exchange was a continuation of an exchange that begun in 2010 when Omaha sent two ambulances to Xalapa. Theyve used them quite a bit, and the equipment is still badly needed, Murray said. When we found out Omaha had more equipment, we asked if the city was willing to donate it.

Murray says humanitarian exchanges are unique; most exchanges are of a cultural or academic nature.

Humanitarian exchanges show good faith, Murray said. Omaha is blessed with a lot of wealth, and I think its important that we share our resources in addition to sharing our culture.

Xalapas Mayor Americo Zuniga Martinez at the May 24 ceremony.

Xalapas Mayor Americo Zuniga Martinez was in Omaha for the May 24 ceremony held at the Durham Museum, formerly known as Omahas Union Station.

We are very proud to have this relationship with Omaha, Martinez said. It lets us know about the people, culture and history of this beautiful city. The Omaha Fire Department is not only a group of heroes in Omaha, but also in Mexico. We are grateful for all they have given us.

Omahas Mayor Jean Stothert, Omaha Sister Cities Association President Cynthia Buettner, Union Pacific Senior Vice President of Corporate Relations Scott Moore, Mexican Consul Guadelupe Sanchez Salazar and Omaha Interim Fire Chief Dan Olsen also were in attendance.

Martinez says the emergency equipment is much needed by the citys more than 700,000 citizens. We have communities that are very, very far from the hospitals, he said. We also have some very poor communities that are excited to receive this show of generosity.

The donation ceremony marked a decade of exchanges between Omaha and Xalapa.

We are grateful for Union Pacifics transportation, Martinez said. We are honored to have Union Pacific on board this excellent project. Its a humanitarian project with profound and deep roots of international social responsibility.
Published: June 02, 2016

Alternative Breakers Head to the Mountains

As soon as the spring semester ended, a group of UT students headed to Maryville, TN, where they spent about two weeks in the mountains focusing on environmental preservation and cultural education by working with the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation.They entertained the residents at Snowbird Senior Center and helped build a hiking trail nearby. They removed invasive species of privet and mimosa trees from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest, which helps allow the native trees to thrive, and cleared a massive creek for a Cherokee elder.He was so incredibly happy when he saw all the work we did and a true difference was seen and heard, said Jennifer Sanchez 17, explaining they could hear the water flow faster after their effort in removing the debris.Sanchez, a double major in philosophy and government and world affairs, was a site leader for the trip. Despite earning the group award for most likely to fall every single day while having a smile on her face," she had a memorable trip.Some of her highlights included chopping firewood as a group, which was part of the effort in living simply on the homestead where they spent the weeks.Everyone was able to wield an axe, many for the first time, Sanchez said. We were able to help each other chop tougher logs, like hickory, and encourage one another all throughout the service project.Every morning before the group headed off to do their service for the day, they sang a traditional Cherokee morning song.We used traditional Cherokee instruments to keep a heartbeat for the song, said Khadijah Khan 17, a journalism major with a leadership minor. There is no direct translation for this because it means something different to every person. Every morning after we sung this song, we knew it was going to be a good day of service.The group also walked part of the original Trail of Tears. The students reflected in silence as they walked in the rain.Getting the opportunity to see a part of that history was moving, Khan said. I was humbled that our hosts gave us that opportunity.Khan, who recently won Student Volunteer of the Year at Leadership Awards Night, said service has been second nature to her since she was a kid.I strive to incorporate the community into my values and all life choices, but there is also something heartwarming that comes from helping others and giving back to a community that has given you so much, Khan said. I think that everyone should have that feeling. I firmly believe that success doesn't come from what you do for yourself, but it is what you do for others.
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The only music camp in the state to offer instruction exclusively by resident university faculty will be held June 19-25 at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Camp COFAC-Music is for students entering grade nine through the first year of college. It is sponsored by UW-Stevens Point Continuing Education and Outreach and the College of Fine Arts and Communication.

Camp COFAC-Music gives students a minimum of four hours a day in concentrated study of their primary major, which may include: voice, piano, guitar, piccolo, flute, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, euphonium, tuba, violin, viola, cello, double bass or percussion. Activities include daily master classes, warm ups, group lessons, chamber ensembles, supervised practice time, opera and musical theater workshops for vocalists and reed classes for clarinet, oboe and saxophone.

Camp counselors are UW-Stevens Point music majors who will help lead evening activities, such as a talent show and faculty/counselor recitals. The camp closes with a final concert on Saturday morning, which families are encouraged to attend.

The camp cost is $575, which includes classes, meals, lodging, music and evening social activities. For more information or to register, call 715-346-3838 or visit www.uwsp.edu/campcofac.

Full tuition scholarships are available through the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Precollege program. For financial requirements and the application form, go to www.uwsp.edu/cofac/FineArtsCamp/Pages/MusicCamp/tuition.aspx.

A limited number of partial scholarships are available through UW-Stevens Point Continuing Education and ten $200 merit scholarships are available for outstanding string players. Contact Jennifer Hess, jhess@uwsp.edu, for more information.


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Sasha Banks seemingly has it all, the looks, the talk, and the skills to back it all up, however, Vince McMahon feels as if she gives her all; a little too much.

With many fans calling for the former NXT Women's Champion to be the one to dethrone the current Women's Champion Charlotte their dreams may have been put on hold.

Vince not banking on Banks

Vince McMahon feels Sasha Banks it too injury prone (image:insidepulse.com)

With The Boss only recently returning from a head injury, her return to the ring has been good news all round, but it may be her work rate inside the ring that could in a strange sense cost her the chance to become the top female star in the company.

Mr. McMahon has been heard on numerous occasions to being a critic of Banks saying that her "speed" in the ring is limited to just one "all out."

With Daniel Bryan recently announcing his retirement due to numerous concussions which were a result of "all out" style in the ring, the head of the company feels as though the 24-year-old is heading for a similar fate.

The leader of the Yes! Movement has been compared to Banks by Vince and this has led to hesitancy in putting her in the position for a title shot, despite her standout performance at WrestleMania 32.

Sasha's injury

Sasha Banks suffered a concussion during a house show (image: cagesideseats.com

As Sasha returned this weekend to perform in WWE's house shows, it was her injury that caused her to remain absent that was the biggest shock as her concussion was the result of a freak accident.

Banks (real name Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado) collided with referee Derrick Moore during a 6-woman tag team match causing what was later evaluated as a concussion leading to her removal from events up until this weekend.

This injury despite being a one off "freak incident" as reported by Dave Meltzer led to McMahon's judgement of the performer as "injury prone."

Sasha's reply

It is unlikely that an employee of WWE will ever actively speak out regarding the politics that exist backstage (unless you are CM Punk) but superstars do tend to find subtle ways to make their feelings heard.

Banks did just that as she 'reblogged' a fan's comment towards her that read: "All the marks and smarks will look up and shout "We want Sasha!"... and Vince will look down and whisper "No."

An intense and meaningful comment that the popular clearly may feel is true, but Vinnie Mac's mind was once set that Daniel Bryan was nothing more than a 'B+ player' so maybe with the right fan backing, his opinion of Banks can be changed also.
DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Tessa Crispin is handed the art she made, next to her grandmother Jill Johnson, in the childrenas art area Saturday during ArtWalk, the main fundraiser for the Conejo Valley Art Museum. The event continues Sunday at Wilbur Road and Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks.

SHARE DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Fern Tucker inspects a sculpture by Sig de Tonancour during ArtWalk, the main fundraiser for the Conejo Valley Art Museum. This yearas event got underway Saturday in the Bank of America parking lot at Wilbur Road and Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks. DAVID YAMAMOTO/SPECIAL TO THE STAR Potter Adam Rubinstein hands one of his porcelain and stoneware vases to customer Sandy Dahlgren on Saturday during ArtWalk, the main fundraiser for the Conejo Valley Art Museum. This yearas event got underway Saturday in the Bank of America parking lot at Wilbur Road and Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks.

By Rachel Mcgrath

The Conejo Valley Art Museum presents its annual ArtWalk this weekend showcasing the work of 96 artists in a variety of media, from watercolors and acrylics to ceramics, photography, textiles, wood carving and metal sculpture.

The two-day event started Saturday on the grounds of the Bank of America building at Wilbur Road and Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks.

It serves as a major fundraiser for the Conejo Valley Art Museum which has a storefront in the Janss Marketplace and continues to seek funding to create a permanent home for the visual arts in the city.

Maria Dessornes, president of the nonprofit's board of trustees, said this is the 27th year of the event.

"It's a lot of hard work throughout the year, but it's very, very rewarding," Dessornes said as she watched folks arriving at the show Saturday afternoon.

"The artists that are involved are getting better and better every year, and of course a lot of them have been with us for many, many years and keep coming back. And a lot of the artists have their own following, too, so that helps."

ArtWalk is a juried fine arts show, and that's important, said Leslee Adams, of Cathedral City, who has shown her paintings at the event for the past six years.

"I only do juried shows because I'm looking just to be in fine art shows. I don't want arts and crafts and street fairs," she said. "When it's a fine arts show and it's juried, people come and really buy art."

Berndt Heidemann, of Palm Springs, brought his mixed-media art to the ArtWalk for the first time after being told about the show by a friend and fellow artist.

"I used to be a concept designer at Paramount Studios, but I always wanted to open my own little Americana painting business, and after being in L.A. for 10 years, I had a little window, so I decided to pursue it," he said.

Heidemann brought several portraits of Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley as well as paintings of cars, all created through a mix of digital painting and acrylics and coatings.

Doug and Mary Price, Thousand Oaks, bought a colorful Chinese painting for $60.

"It just caught our eye, and we have a perfect spot for it in the living room," Doug Price said.

"We come every year, and we always seem to buy something. The caliber of the artwork here is always a step above anywhere else we go, and we really enjoy it every year."

Camarillo resident Rebecca Glick couldn't make up her mind which photograph of a California quail she preferred as Paul Abravaya, of Thousand Oaks, looked on and shared stories about taking the two pictures.

"I love quail," she said. "This one, he has a story. It's a singing quail and it's full of personality, and this one, it's just beautiful."

Abravaya, a naturalist turned photographer, said he enjoys participating in shows..

"I've been retired about six years, and this is a hobby more than anything," he said. "One of the things I think people like is I put information about each picture on a card hanging with the picture so people can read about it."

ArtWalk 2014 continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at 225 W. Hillcrest Drive. Admission and parking are free.
STAR FILE PHOTO

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By Kathleen Wilson of the Ventura County Star

Candidates Steve Bennett and David Grau were at a virtual draw in fundraising for their Ventura County Board of Supervisors race in the last reporting period before Tuesday's election, but interest groups have muddied the picture, campaign finance documents show.

Each man reported raising about $25,000 for the one-month period ending May 21, leaving Grau about $20,000 behind Bennett's total that topped $191,000, according to summary statements filed last week.

Neither has reached the county's $200,000 spending limit, with the incumbent's spending reported at a little over $111,000 and the challenger running $10,000 behind.

But interest groups have raised and spent money independent of the candidates in the race for the Ventura-based 1st District seat on the board that oversees the county government. The anti-Bennett forces appear for the moment to have put Grau tens of thousands of dollars ahead in the money race, although it's a moving figure.

The independent expenditure committees are supposed to act without the knowledge or involvement of the candidates. Under the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, there is no legal cap on the amount contributors may give to the committees. In contrast, contributions to county candidates are capped at $750.

A committee called Small Business for Balanced Government reported raising $56,000 for the effort to defeat Bennett in the statements filed last week. The Ventura County Republican Party reported spending $22,000 to support Grau, a retired businessman and former chairman of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association.

On Bennett's side, the union-backed Firefighters for Better Government supported the slow-growth proponent with a little over $29,000 in spending for consulting, direct mail and digital advertising. The organization sent a mailer in support of Bennett's record on fiscal issues and support for public safety. It was funded by payroll deductions from county firefighters' earnings, a document says.

Major contributors to Small Business for Balanced Government were listed as the Ditch Ranch Partnership in Ventura, McLoughlin Ranch in Simi Valley and April Marsh, a businesswoman in the Santa Rosa Valley.

A mailer funded by the group blames Bennett for alleged economic woes. Another called him a "bully," contending he derailed the candidacy of charity executive Bonnie Weigel, who briefly ran a campaign to oppose him.

The county Democratic Party has decided to invest funds in the race for the 3rd District seat on the board, rather than for Bennett's race.

"That is a much more difficult race," said Shawn Terris, chairwoman of the Ventura County Democratic Party, adding that turnout and Democratic registration favor Bennett in the 1st District.

In the 3rd District, the Democratic Party's endorsed favorite, Carla Castilla, faces six opponents in her quest to succeed Supervisor Kathy Long. It's important that Castilla finish among the top two who will head to a runoff in the general election in November, Terris said.

The party reported spending $6,000 for digital and mobile ads benefiting Castilla. The Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs' Association said it had spent more than $18,000 for a mailer on her behalf.

The GOP has reported spending almost $13,000 to benefit Kelly Long, whom the county Republican Party is backing in the 3rd District race.

Filings in that race show substantial sums of monetary contributions have come in since fundraising began last year, but money raised by the candidates barely eclipsed $10,000 for anyone over the last fundraising period.

The numbers:

Carla Castilla  $71,968 in total contributions, $65,254 in spending.

Dan Goldberg  nothing reported.

Martin Hernandez  $49,889 in contributions, $64,647 in spending.

Kevin Kildee  $37,794 in contributions, $26,229 in spending.

Kelly Long  $46,617 in contributions, $30,204 in spending.

Mike Morgan  $15,730 in contributions, $12,701 in spending.

Jesus Torres  $26,743 in contributions, $64,411 in spending.

To see the full reports, visit http://static.netfile.com/agency/vco
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By Staff Reports

An Oxnard man was arrested Wednesday in connection with a graffiti vandalism incident on a railroad boxcar.

Oxnard police said they were called to an area of McWayne Boulevard south of Arcturus Avenue in Oxnard on May 14 after being told that two people were spraying graffiti on a railroad boxcar.

Police said the pair fled on foot after seeing Oxnard Police Department officers.

Police said they served a search warrant at a home along the 500 block of Winchester Drive at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, where they arrested Brian Landry, 28, on suspicion of felony graffiti vandalism.

He was booked into Ventura County Jail.

Police said Union Pacific Railroad Company will prosecute anyone found vandalizing its property.
JOHNNY CORONA/SPECIAL TO THE STAR This was the scene Saturday afternoon after a small experimental aircraft crashed east of Ventura, killing two people.

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By John Scheibe of the Ventura County Star

Two people who were killed in an airplane crash between Santa Paula and Ventura on Saturday have been identified as Edgar Friederichs, 61, and Matthew Boutell, 21.

The Ventura County Medical Examiner said Friederichs lived in Castaic while Boutell was from Thousand Oaks.

Friederichs was piloting a single-engine VariEze aircraft when it crashed in an orchard near the 1600 block of Aliso Canyon Road north of Foothill Road on Saturday afternoon.

The National Safety Transportation Board is leading an investigation into what caused the home-built aircraft to crash.

The coroner's office said the cause of death was undetermined as of Wednesday afternoon. Officials could not say when they would have a cause of death.

The airplane had taken off from Santa Paula Airport before the crash, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Bob Hirsch, 62, a pilot who has a hangar next to the one Friederichs used at Santa Paula Airport, said the two had known each other since meeting at a picnic when they were boys.

"I was 6 years old at the time and our fathers worked for the same aerospace company," said Hirsch, as he fought back tears during at interview at his hangar on Tuesday.

Hirsch said Friederichs "was very meticulous and took extremely good care of his airplanes."

"He was probably as well rounded in aviation as anyone could be," Hirsch said.

Hirsch stayed in touch with Friederichs throughout the years.

"We lived parallel lives in many ways," Hirsch said, as he recalled working at Santa Monica Airport as a young man fueling aircraft, a job Friederichs also held there.

Friederichs went on to become a licensed aircraft mechanic and later an aeronautics engineer, Hirsch said.

Among the many projects Friederichs worked on, was the development of the MD-80 for McDonnell Douglas, a passenger jet that Hirsch flew when he worked as a commercial pilot. Hirsch is retired from American Airlines.

Hirsch eventually bought a hangar at Santa Paula Airport and later rented it to Friederichs. Friederichs ended up buying the hangar from Hirsch, he said, while Hirsch bought an adjacent hangar.

"Edgar didn't have to prove anything when it came to aircraft," Hirsch said. "He just knew it."

He said Friederichs quickly developed a reputation at Santa Paula Airport "for his deep knowledge of aircraft and flying."

Friederichs was flying a VariEze at the time of the crash, a homemade aircraft that takes some skill to pilot, Hirsch said.

Witnesses told investigators that the aircraft was in distress before going down, Kevin Donoghue, a sergeant with the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, said Saturday. They also said the aircraft's engine started cutting out and the plane got tangled in power lines before crashing.

"He was looking for a place to land," Hirsch said. "Unfortunately, he didn't make it."

A preliminary report on the crash should be ready within the coming week to two weeks, Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the NTSB in Washington, D.C.

The report will be available online. A more comprehensive investigation also is being conducted. Such investigations take an average of 12 months to complete, Knudson said.

Those first to the crash site on Saturday afternoon said they saw flames and heavy smoke coming from the orchard where the plane went down.
SHARE Henry Stern CONTRIBUTED Janice Kamenir-Reznk CONTRIBUTED Shawn Bayliss

By Gretchen Wenner of the Ventura County Star

If it seems your mailbox is filling up with more glossy political mailers than ever, it's true.

Spending by outside groups in California's legislative races has reached record levels leading up to the June 7 primary, according to a report by the California Target Book, a nonpartisan publication that analyzes political races.

So-called independent expenditures totaled $24.3 million as of Tuesday morning and were on track to possibly break the $30 million mark before the election, according to the analysis. That's a big jump from $16.7 million spent on the primary two years ago and continues a steady uptick seen since 2010.

At the local level, the outside spending is most noticeable in a state Senate race that includes Moorpark, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and surrounding unincorporated areas. The 27th District contest to replace outgoing Sen. Fran Pavley, the Agoura Hills Democrat, has drawn more than $889,000 in independent expenditures as of midday Wednesday, according to a tally by The Star.

State law prevents candidates from coordinating with independent groups, which can spend unlimited amounts while contributions to legislative candidates are capped at $4,200 per donor. Although funding sources for the independent groups are publicly disclosed, donations often are funneled through political action committees, California's equivalent of the "super PACs" that have become increasingly influential in federal elections.

As outside spending ramps up, it is taking up a larger share of the total spent on campaigns for state Legislature. In 2010, such funds made up about 11 percent of the total, the Target Book analysis found. For the current year to date, nearly one third of the $73.8 million spent so far has come from independent expenditure committees, with the figure possibly reaching 40 percent when final reports are tallied.

The result is voters are hearing less from candidates they're electing and more from oil companies, education advocates, business groups and labor unions.

"The candidate is not controlling the message," said Bob Stern, an attorney who helped write California's campaign finance rules. "It's special interests trying to control the race and buy their way into the Legislature."

RAREFIED TERRITORY

Rob Pyers, research director at the Target Book, said the current level of outside spending is on track to match or exceed the $30 million spent during both the primary and general elections in 2014.

"It's already in rarefied territory," Pyers said. Four primary races now boast independent expenditures of more than $2 million, he said, and nine have exceeded the $1 million mark.

None yet compare to a 2014 Assembly race that mustered $3.7 million during the primary, he added.

Of the two competitive state legislative primaries with a Ventura County footprint, the 27th Senate District is by far the most impacted.

With Pavley termed out, the race to replace her has become highly competitive among the five Democrats on the ticket. The lone Republican, Steve Fazio, is widely expected to win the most votes in June, creating a fierce fight for the second spot. In addition to eastern Ventura County, the district sweeps through western Los Angeles County from Malibu to Stevenson Ranch in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Three Democrats had attracted all of the $889,321 in independent expenditures as of Wednesday.

Henry Stern, an environmental attorney and senior Pavley adviser who has her endorsement, has had $359,930 spent in support of him by the Million More Voters committee, which is funded mostly by labor groups. Pavley's 2012 Senate committee has also contributed $10,000 to the group, filings with the California Secretary of State show.

Stern, no relation to Bob Stern, has been targeted by $155,416 of opposition spending aimed against him by committees for the California Association of Realtors and the California Dental Association.

Janice Kamenir-Reznik, a nonprofit leader and former land-use attorney whose endorsements include Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has had two groups spend $294,471 on her behalf. More than half came from the committee for the California Dental Association, with the rest from a committee for the California Apartment Association.

Shawn Bayliss, chief legislative deputy for L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz who is endorsed by Rep. Brad Sherman, has been supported with $79,504 through a committee devoted to his campaign. The largest contributor, at $50,000, is a Beverly Hills financial adviser.

Moorpark City Councilman David Pollock, the only Ventura County resident in the race, has not had outside groups spend for or against him, nor has publisher George Christopher Thomas.

SWIMMING WITH THE IE'S

Eric Hacopian, campaign consultant for Kamenir-Reznik, said it's unfortunate candidates have no control over what outside groups say about them.

"It's difficult enough to say what you want to say," he said, without having to differentiate yourself from the outside groups' messages.

Stern, in an email to The Star, said he is proud of the support he is getting from working families. "It's a shame that the Sacramento super PACs and the L.A. City Hall developers opposing me are trying to buy this seat," he wrote, "but the voters of this district are too smart to be fooled."

Pyers, the Target Book analyst, noted the district is something of an outlier, where spending by education advocates hasn't really come into play. Elsewhere, one group called EdVoice, for example, has poured more than $4 million into six races.

When you get fliers in the mail or see television ads, you can check the fine print to see if they were paid for by the candidate's committee or an outside group. The ad should list the name of the organization footing the bill. You can learn more about where the money is coming from at Cal-Access, a state website where you can look up a group's donors.

This story contains material from The Associated Press.
STAR FILE PHOTO A lifeguard tower at a beach in Ventura County.

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By Arlene Martinez, amartinez@vcstar.com

The lifeguards are back at Ventura Harbor beaches. From now until Labor Day, the sharp swimmers with the red rescue tubes will be perched on their lifeguard towers.

Harbor Cove will have a lifeguard on duty from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and South Beach/Surfer's Knoll will have them on duty from 11 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. The beaches are off Spinnaker Drive.

The Ventura Port District and the Harbor Patrol suggest beachgoers always swim near staffed lifeguard towers and recommend Harbor Cove as the best place for swimming. Not a swimmer? Small watercraft and paddling vessels are allowed outside the area designated for swimmers.

Park on the street or at one of the two beach lots. Bathrooms are available. Stay to eat or rent swimwear and other beach-related items at restaurants and shops in Harbor Village.

The Port District, which pays for the lifeguards, contracts with the California State Parks to offer the service.

Go to venturaharbor.com for more information.
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Most of us know about the struggles veterans can face trying to find jobs after they leave the service. In Ventura County and elsewhere, community colleges, universities, veterans groups, business organizations and government agencies have stepped up to offer them career education, retraining and a host of other services.

But there's another group of unemployed or underemployed people deeply connected to our armed forces who don't get many headlines  the spouses of military personnel. So we were glad to recently see another report that sheds light on their job struggles, in the hopes that our county and nation can provide them more assistance as well.

Blue Star Families, which coordinates resources and services for military families, commissioned University of Utah researchers to conduct a "Social Cost Analysis of the Unemployment and Underemployment of Military Spouses." The study echoed previous reports by the Department of Defense: Military spouses struggle to find jobs and are more likely to work for less pay or in jobs for which they are overqualified.

Their unemployment rate reaches 18 percent, compared with a national rate of 5 percent. (Defense Department surveys suggest an even higher unemployment rate of 23 percent). And military spouses with bachelor's degrees earn on average 40 percent less than civilian counterparts.

The total cost to society  unemployment and health care benefits, lost income taxes  may exceed $1 billion a year, the study found.

"If we work together to reverse the crippling employment trends facing military spouses, we will add money back to our economy," Blue Star founder Kathy Roth-Douquet told The Associated Press. She called on government and business to step up to the plate like they have with hiring veterans.

As of 2015, the nation had about 564,000 female civilian spouses of active-duty military personnel, AP reported, and 70 percent were under age 35.

Spouses may face moves every two or three years ("permanent change of station" in military talk), deployments, erratic schedules of their husbands or wives, and child care needs, among other things. The study found that more than half believe having a spouse in the military makes it harder to find a job that fits their education and experience.

The problem is not new, and various websites and jobs programs are now aimed at military spouses. At Naval Base Ventura County, the Fleet & Family Support Center and its Family Employment Readiness Program offer job search, resume, interviewing and other assistance, as well as guidance on planning a career compatible with the military lifestyle.

According to a Department of Defense report in 2012, the top 20 military spouse jobs included teaching and nursing, which can require state-specific licenses. So that same year, our state wisely enacted a law allowing spouses of active-duty military personnel to get temporary professional licenses to keep working when relocated to California.

But more must be done. Lauren Tamm, who writes the "Military Wife and Mom" blog, suggests reducing the number of permanent changes of station and offering military spouses more online-education opportunities that will transfer from station to station, more work-from-home government jobs that can transfer, improved access to child care, and better hiring preferences.

We like all those ideas. Because we agree with Mike McManus, Ventura County's veterans services officer, who at a recent National Military Spouse Appreciation Day event said: "The strength of our nation's military comes not just from the brave men and women who wear the uniform. It's also their families who serve alongside them."


WetnWild Las Vegas is partnering with Legends in Concert to allow valley residents and visitors to enjoy two days of outrageous fun for one low price.

This promotion includes one main floor seat at Legends in Concert plus one general admission ticket to WetnWild Las Vegas for $49.99. Tickets can be purchased at wetnwildlasvegas.com/offers/legends with the promo code: LEGENDS.

Legends in Concert is the longest-running show in Las Vegas, WetnWild Las Vegas General Manager Takuya Ohki said. Its full of amazing tribute artists, dancers, a live band and many fun elements. The fun nature of the show makes it a perfect fit for a pairing with all that our park has to offer.

The elaborate production takes audiences on an electrifying journey through some of musics most legendary performances. The show highlights tributes this summer to Prince, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston and the return of Elvis Presley. This Las Vegas original now performs 10 shows a week, year round in the Donny & Marie Showroom at Flamingo Las Vegas with performances at 4 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

To add to the fun, cast members from Legends in Concert will make special surprise appearances at WetnWild throughout the summer.
A car burns after Somalia's Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab launched a deadly attack at the Ambassador Hotel popular with MPs, setting off a car bomb and fighting security forces inside the complex. (MOHAMED ABDIWAHAB/AFP)

MOGADISHU: At least 10 people, including two lawmakers, were killed in a car bomb and gun attack on Wednesday on a top hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group, medical and security sources said.

Around 40 others were injured in the assault on the central Ambassador Hotel, where Somali security forces continued to battle Shabaab fighters into the evening, around five hours after the attack began. The initial blast took place at around 5.40pm (10.40pm Singapore time).

"The attack was started with a heavy explosion and members from the Mujahedeen fighters stormed the building," the Shabaab said in a statement.

A security source told AFP that "a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) exploded" after which a firefight erupted inside the hotel complex.

Mohamed Elmi, a witness, said the blast "destroyed the whole area." "I saw the dead bodies of seven people, most of them burned," he added.

Another witness, Ibrahim Sheikh Nur, said he saw "several dead bodies outside the hotel." "The security forces are now inside and the whole area is cordoned off."

Shabaab fighters were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 but the group remains a major threat in both Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, where it carries out frequent attacks. The militants are fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government.

On Wednesday, an official said the Shabaab commander who led a attack on Kenya's Garissa University in 2015 that left 148 people dead had been killed in a special forces raid in the south of the country.

Also on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said another senior Shabaab military commander was "presumed killed" following a US air strike on May 27.
After the revocation, Binh Dinh will call for investors to develop the project.

Previously, in December 2014, the province requested the Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Industry and Trade in Binh Dinh to propose plans to seamlessly conduct the investment revocation.

Licensed in 2009, the project was to be developed on a 250 hectare area in Phu Cat district and have a total designed capacity of 5,200MW.

The construction of the project is divided into three phases for three power plants, including a 600MW and two 1,000MW plants, which were expected to come into commercial operation in the 2016-2021 period.

The centre is part of the national power development plan towards 2020, and is intended to use the latest environmentally friendly technologies and coal imported from Australia or Indonesia. The plants will be fuelled by 12-14 million tonnes of coal annually and about 33,800 tonnes of diesel and fuel oil each year.

In 2009, the government requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade to approve the location of Binh Dinh power centre and support the investor in implementing each phase on schedule.

In 2012, the province agreed the investors proposal to use a 340 hectare water surface area and a 218 hectare ground area to develop the project. The province requested the investor to submit the projects progress report as well as commit to the agreed time to start and fish the construction of each phase.

However, as of now, the construction has yet to be implemented on schedule.
DJ Headhunterz.

Willem Rebergen, better known by his stage name Headhunterz, is a Dutch DJ and music producer. He kicked off his career in 2005, and grew into one of the biggest names in hardstyle music, becoming a major contribution to its growing popularity worldwide.

He has performed at major events and festivals, including Qlimax, Defqon.1, Q-Base, inQontrol, Decibel and Hard Bass, and at popular electronic music festivals Electric Daisy Carnival and Tomorrowland.

For the majority of his career Headhunterz has released his work on Scantraxx through his own sub-label, Scantraxx Reloaded, but in 2013 he started his own record label, HARD with STYLE. He signed with major North American electronic dance music label, Ultra Music in 2013 and left his own label in 2015, heading for a different musical direction.

Florian Picasso is a Vietnamese French DJ from France. He started his musical career in 2011 and has released more than 20 singles and many exciting remixes like Vanguard, Burning Gold or Kirigami. The most successful tune by Florian Picasso is Origami. He has performed at major music festivals, with names such as Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix or Nicky Romero. Recently, Florian released Sai Gon to remember where he was born. He said he would play this work at the festival in Vietnam this time.

Besides the two world-renowned DJs, the event will have the participation of Vietnamese musicians such as Minh Tri, Huy DX, SlimV, Mike Hao, and Get Looze.

The Danang Electronic Music Festival will be held on June 11.
Citi supporting Vietnam in connecting the global dots Vietnam is considered by US group Citi as an attractive market. Ramachandran A.S., Citi country officer, talked to VIRs Linh Le about the groups efforts to utilise its global experience in the Southeast Asian nation, and its priorities moving forward.

Radisson Hotel Group spearheading hospitality growth in Asia-Pacific With travel restrictions easing, air traffic increasing, and leisure and business travel bookings on the rise, Radisson Hotel Group is optimistic about the outlook for the hospitality industry in Asia-Pacific.

Secrets of the most special securities company in Vietnam Techcom Securities (TCBS) leadership, with cutting-edge vision and execution muscle, has changed the course of the company over the last nine years since Nguyen Xuan Minh became chairman of the Board of Directors. VIRs Tuan Khanh sat together with Minh and talked about his path, vision, and success story.

Promoting gender equality & enhancing women's economic empowerment Vietnarn's national strategy on gender equality for the 2021-2030 period sets a target that by 2025, 60 per cent of state management ageneies and local governments at all levels will have female key leaders.
On May 31 VIR contacted the Louis Vuitton store at Hanois Trang Tien Plaza and was told to wait 24 hours for a response of the representative company regarding the accusation. As of now there is no response yet.

On May 14 it was reported that Ms. H from Tu Liem district of Hanoi said she had bought a bag of the Louis Vuitton brand at the Trang Tien Plaza store at 24 Hai Ba Trung street in Hanoi in 2014 at VND34 million ($1,520), and discovered that the bag had many signs of being fake, with flaws in the leather of the strap, and difference in colour between the two links in the chain linking the strap to the bag.

H said since buying she had contacted the store many times but had not received a remedy.

Reporters of enternews.vn brought the bag to the office of Louis Vuitton Vietnam at 17 Ngo Quyen. An accountant of the company said she was not an expert but agreed that the bag did look fake. Ha Thi Thu Hien, the legal representative of Louis Vuitton Vietnam, said that she could not represent Louis Vuitton to answer the reporter and would give an official statement later.

In a recent interview with enternews.vn, Bae Kang Woo, managing director of Trang Tien Plaza, said that the accusation surprised him. He said the management of Trang Tien Plaza asked Louis Vuitton Vietnam to answer to the accusation and they too are waiting for the answer.

The Louis Vuitton store in Trang Tien Plaza opened in April 2013.

Louis Vuitton bags are popular in Vietnam because of the good quality, elegant design and brand name. The bags are the most counterfeited among bags of all brands all over the world.
Illustration of PVC blood bags. (AFP/Mychele Daniau)

NEW DELHI: More than 2,000 Indians contracted HIV over a 17-month period after receiving blood transfusions, data from the national AIDS body showed Wednesday (Jun 1).

In response to a Right to Information request filed by Mumbai-based activist Chetan Kothari, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) said 2,234 people had been infected between October 2014 and March 2016.

The reply, which was shared with AFP Wednesday, was sent to Kothari last month after he asked for data for that particular time period.

"I wanted to know what is the government doing to ensure people have access to safe blood," Kothari told AFP. "The data shows blood is not being screened for HIV despite so much awareness."

Access to safe blood is limited, especially in rural areas, because of a lack of proper screening devices, according to NACO's website.

The northern state of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous, topped the list with 361 patients found infected with HIV due to contaminated blood in hospitals, followed by western states of Gujarat and Maharshtra with 292 and 276 respectively. A total of 264 cases were recorded in the capital New Delhi.

The government estimates that about 2.5 million Indians are living with HIV/AIDS out of a population of 1.25 billion.

A NACO official Wednesday said the data collected was "not scientific" as it was based on subjective responses from patients and reflected less than one percent of total HIV-positive cases.

"There are several occasions when patients do not declare the exact reason or means of transmission because of societal pressure or even lack of awareness and sometimes ignorance," the Times of India newspaper quoted the unnamed official as saying.

"Therefore, the data cannot be considered 100 per cent accurate."

In a posting on its website, NACO - which falls under the health ministry - said the government was in the process of improving blood safety screenings and introducing technology to ensure zero HIV transmission.

Under Indian law, hospitals must screen donors and their donated blood for any kind of infections including HIV, Hepatitis B and C as well as malaria.
Thailand's third largest bank by assets Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) officially launched its Ho Chi Minh City branch earlier this month, after receiving a foreign banking licence from Vietnamese authorities last year. The bank had previously been operating in the country through a joint-venture with Vinasiam Bank for 22 years.

General director of SCB Ho Chi Minh City, Saraya Skontanarak, told the Bangkok Post that the bank was in the process of increasing its registered capital from $25 million to $70 million, which it expects to complete this month. After the recapitalisation, it hopes to support aggressive business expansion in line with Vietnam's economic growth.

According to the chairman of the executive committee, Vichit Surapongchai, the branch will mainly serve Thai and Vietnamese corporate customers in trade and investment. Vichit added that the branch is aiming to provide 25 per cent of the loans taken up by Thai businesses investing in Vietnam by 2018, along with a 10 per cent share of the Vietnamese-Thai trade volume by 2020.

Apart from the countrys solid economic growth, a flood of Thai investors expanding here is one reason SCB was ready to expand its business in Vietnam, Vichit said, adding that there are several Thai conglomerates with a foothold in Vietnam, including CP Group, Siam Cement Group (SCG), TCC Group, Central Group, Amata, and Red Bull.

Anand Panyarachun, chairman of SCB's board of directors, said that the branch is going to enter retail banking as the next step, after catering for its wholesale customers first.

Meanwhile, Bangkok Bank, Thailands largest lender by assets, has recently more than tripled the registered capital of its Vietnamese branch and is targeting a loan growth of 18 per cent this year in the country.

Multinational customers represent the largest portion of the Vietnamese branchs loan portfolio with 50 per cent of its total outstanding loans, followed by 40 per cent Thai and 10 per cent local customers. Most recently, Thai conglomerate Central Group has completed the 1 billion ($1.12 billion) acquisition of Big C Vietnam, taking up a bridge loan from Bangkok Bank to fund the deal.

Thailands FDI in Vietnam was $14.5 billion in 2015, up 16 per cent on-year. Thailand is Vietnams biggest trade partner in the ASEAN, with bilateral trade reaching $11.45 billion last year, slightly down from 2014s $11.62 billion.
Agnes Letestu, Mathilde Froustey, and Alice Renavand  stars (danseuse etoile) of the worlds oldest national ballet company - will dance a one-night performance of Paris Ballet.



The performance will also feature other principal dancers from Opera Berlin, La Scala Theatre Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet.



According to the artistic director of the Paris Ballet, Frederic Fontan, the performance will take audiences on a journey to discover French ballet, which is considered the origin of all ballet.



The performances repertoire has been arranged like a sightseeing tour for Vietnamese audiences. So they can learn about the development and specific style of French ballet through the centuries since the Paris Opera Ballet was founded under the reign of Louis XIV in the 17th century, Fontan said at a press conference in Hanoi recently.



The ballet feast will present extracts from nine famous ballets, including Carmen, The Nutcracker, Giselle, Don Quichotte, and In the Night.



The performances repertoire also features extracts from Les enfants du paradis (Children of Paradise), Non, je ne regrette rien (No, I regret nothing), Les intermittences du coeur (The Intermittences of the Heart), and La Parc.



The Paris Ballet will also present French pianist Henri Barda, dubbed The best kept secret of the French piano by Le Monde in 2008.



Born in 1941 and raised in Cairo, Bardas prodigious talent was recognised when he was 6 years old by the Polish pianist Ignace Tiegerman (1893-1968), who founded the Conservatoire Tiegerman in Cairo and became Bardas teacher.



At age 16, Barda moved to Paris to study under maestro Lazare Levy (1882-1964) and then under professor Joseph Benvenuti at the Conservatoire Nationale Superieur, where he graduated with top grades in piano and chamber music. In the late 1960s, he won a four-year scholarship to the Julliard School in New York, where he attended concerts by his favorite virtuosos Sviatoslav Richter and Vladimir Horowitz at Carnegie Hall.



Through the influence and guidance of such greats, Barda absorbed various traditions that helped him develop his style of brilliant and elegant -- and sometimes darkly passionate -- performances.



He worked with Jerome Robbins at the Paris Opera on his ballets tributes to Chopin. His recording of three Chopin Sonatas won the Warsaw Chopin Disc Award.



During the Paris Ballet, this renowned interpreter of Chopin and Brahms will beguile the audience with his amazing skill as he accompanies an extract from the ballet In the Night.



Other ballet extracts will be accompanied by the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Principal Conductor Honna Tetsuji.



Paris Ballet was brought to Vietnam by VPBank, with the collaboration of the French Embassy in Vietnam, the French Cultural Centre  lEspace, and Opal Vietnam. It will be staged at the My Dinh National Convention Hall at 8pm on June 11.
The conference is part of activities marking World Environment Day 2016 (June 5) themed The fight against illegal trade in wildlife.

Participants said illegal trade in wildlife is driving species to the brink of extinction, while posing environmental, economic, developmental, and security risks.

UN Resident Coordinator Pratibha Mehta said,The United Nations in Vietnam has been working very closely with the government and with international and national NGOs to combat wildlife crime through various initiatives and we will continue to collaborate and support these efforts in addressing very important issues.

Christopher Batt, representative from the United Nations on Drugs and Crime in Vietnam, said Vietnamese relevant agencies need to join hands in carrying out comprehensive investigations with inter-sector investigation teams.



The country should intensify international law to forbid and criminalise the possession of any wild species, organs or products hunted and traded illegally, regardless of the crime taking place in Vietnam or anywhere else in the world.

In 2014, Vietnamese Prime Minister issued a Directive on strengthening measures to control and protect endangered, rare and precious wild animals.
Amid opportunities and challenges faced by ASEAN, Dung said sustainable and inclusive development is a crucial goal in Vietnams development strategies and plans.



In the foreseeable future, Vietnam will continue with comprehensive reform, economic restructuring and shift to an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable growth models, he said, adding that the country will consistently strive to fine-tune its market economy mechanism, improve its business climate and human resources quality via comprehensive reform of education-training and infrastructure ramp-up, particularly in rural areas.



In his speech at the opening of the forum themed: Shaping ASEAN agenda for growth and inclusiveness, Malaysian PM Najib Razak said ASEAN is the seventh largest economic bloc in the world and has room for increasing internal trade by 30% by 2020.



Participants shared the view that ASEAN should strengthen mechanisms, improve human resources, infrastructure and connectivity among member states.



Attending a high-level dialogue on the fourth industrial revolution, Deputy PM Dung and Malaysian PM Najib Razak, Cambodian PM Hun Sen and Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla discussed the potential, opportunities and challenges facing the revolution.



On the occasion, the Deputy PM and Malaysian PM Razak pledged to carry out the Vietnam  Malaysia action programme for 2016-2018 and boost trade, investment and labour ties.



The Vietnamese official and WEF Executive Director agreed on increased joint work in WEFs initiatives and activities as well as thorough preparations for the WEF-Mekong conference to be held in Vietnam in late October.



Dung and Vice President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Stephen Groff were committed to accelerating infrastructure, climate change prevention, economic restructuring and poverty reduction projects between 2016 and 2020.



Both sides will work closely together to prepare for the sixth Greater Mekong Sub-region Summit in Vietnam in late 2017.
Photographed on April 15, 2016, Paulette Dunbar lives with her long-time boyfriend Donald Plante across the street from the Enfield Outing Club's shooting range in Enfield, N.H. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

Craig Bradford, of Denver, Colo., closes the gate to the Enfield Outing Club shooting range behind his father Alan Bradford, of Canaan, Friday, April 15, 2016. Alan Bradford, a member of the EOC, and his son said they were sighting in some new hand guns at the range, and planned to return at opening time for more practice the following morning. (Valley News - James M. Patterson) Copyright Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.

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Enfield  Police have cited a neighbor of the Enfield Outing Club with simple assault after viewing a video that appears to show her striking the clubs president during an April Selectboard meeting.

Paulette Dunbar, 66, is scheduled to be arraigned on June 6 in Lebanon circuit court, according to Enfield Police Chief Richard Crate. The Class B misdemeanor charge carries a maximum fine of $1,200, but no jail time.

Crate said the charge stems from an April 18 Selectboard meeting, where Dunbar and her partner, Donald Plante, were scheduled to discuss the clubs taxes. The two live across the street from the club on Shaker Hill Road and have said its expanded membership and offerings endangers the couple.

In January, Plante filed a petition for injunctive relief in Grafton Superior Court, arguing the club violated Enfields zoning ordinance by expanding use on its 4-acre site.

For nearly 30 minutes, Plante argued the club shouldnt have been granted tax-exempt status in 2015 without first applying as a nonprofit with the state. Selectboard members repeatedly told him the issue is closed, however, and asked him to change the subject.

Youre taking the other taxpayers money and subsidizing the Enfield Outing Club without any sort of documentation, without any sort of proof, and trusting them for a year with everybody elses money, Plante said, according to a cellphone video recorded by club President David Stewart.

After the Selectboard called for a five-minute break, Dunbar allegedly walked by Stewart, reached up, and grabbed his phone and kind of pushed it, Crate said.

Stewart went to the police department the next morning, Crate said, and Dunbar was charged with simple assault on April 22.

Stewarts recording shows both Plante and Dunbar seated about three seats away opposite Stewart. The camera is pointed directly at the two for the majority of the nearly 28-minute video, briefly panning to the Selectboard just a few times.

Plante is the first to leave after the board calls for a recess, passing by Stewart in the process. Dunbar follows a few seconds after, and the video shows her grabbing for Stewarts phone, blocking its camera lens and pushing the device upward.

Dont you touch me. Thats assault, maam, Stewart says, right before the recording ends.

In an email, Dunbars lawyer, Lebanons Charlie Buttrey, declined to comment on the incident, and advised Dunbar to do the same.

In a Tuesday phone interview, Plante said Stewarts recording made his partner very uncomfortable.

Hes not videotaping the meeting; he was videotaping Paulette and I, Plante said. He just sat there and videotaped us.

Although Plante admits he didnt see the incident, he said he heard Dunbar walk up to Stewart, tell him he was rude and then heard a click.

(I) believe that she tapped his cellphone with her fingernail, Plante said.

When police arrived at their house to speak with them, Plante said, the couple told officers their history with Stewart and that his videotaping at the meeting provoked Dunbar.

Shes really feeling so much pressure from this man, Plante said. Shes only human.

Stewart remembers things differently, however. He said he walked into the meeting and stood at an empty spot against a wall  which he said was a convenient place to take out his cellphone and record the meetings proceedings.

Stewart said he has been recording interactions with Plante since about mid-August, following several tense interactions between Plante and club members.

I never moved an inch the whole time I was there at the meeting, aside from squatting down several times to relieve the soreness of standing, he said.

When (Dunbar) walked by me, she just gave a swat at my camera and myself, Stewart said. I dont think I did anything to deserve that.

At Selectboard meetings, he said, people should be able to watch and comment without fearing an assault, whether it was physical or verbal.

I dont want to ramp things up. I dont want to call the police unnecessarily, Stewart said.

He said Plante made their long-running issues public, however, by bringing news of his lawsuit to the Valley News shortly before the meeting.

He decided to go to the court of public opinion, and lied and ramped up emotional fear in the community, Stewart said.

Plante makes similar claims about Stewart, accusing him of having blown up after past municipal meetings. He asked the police department to cite Stewart for harassment after the April 18 Selectboard meeting, but Crate said the complaint didnt fit the state statute for harassment.

Im disappointed that it happened and she didnt keep her cool, but on the other hand, Im proud of her, Plante said. Deep down in her soul, shes not really happy with these people.

Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.
Interior Minister Sar Kheng announced on Thursday that the government was creating a working group to analyze thousands of thumbprints attached to a petition the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party submitted to the Royal Palace on Monday.

The CNRP said it had collected more than 170,000 thumbprints of supporters who wanted King Norodom Sihamoni to intervene in the ongoing political turmoil that observers worry to plunge the country once more into violence.

Sar Kheng said the working group would be named the Investigation and Examination of Thumbprints Given by the Citizens to Petitions of the Cambodia National Rescue Party.

A letter from Su Phirin, secretary of state at the Council of Ministers, on Tuesday wrote to Sar Kheng requesting he form the working group.

Sar Kheng responded on Thursday saying his officers would conduct interviews with people listed on the petition in person to determine whether they had in fact signed it themselves.

Kem Sokha is accused of solicitation related to charges he used the services of a prostitute and also faces two separate defamation charges with compensation claims totaling $1.3 million.

Yim Sovann, a CNRP spokesman, said the government was wasting resources that would be better spent on issues such as border protection and poverty reduction.

All these issues are the issues that we have to think about, while this issue [the petition] is an issue between the people and the king, he said, adding that the petitioners were exercising their right to freedom of expression.

Gen. Khieu Sopheak, Ministry of Interior spokesman, could not be reached for comment.

However, on Wednesday he told VOA Khmer that if found to have submitted forged thumbprints the CNRP would be culpable for immoral activities and defrauding the monarchy.

Meas Ny, a social development researcher, said the formation of the working group was an attempt to take revenge on the opposition party and would only make the situation more tense.

I think this is just a waste of taxpayer money, taxpayers like me, on a useless activity that they [the government] think is a major issue, he said.
Cambodias Cambodian Peoples Party-controlled parliament on Wednesday dismissed accusations from the opposition that it was ignoring due process by approving court procedures against the oppositions deputy leader, Kem Sokha.

Parliament voted unanimously on Monday  despite an opposition boycott of the session  to allow the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to continue an ongoing investigation into allegations of defamation and that Kem Sokha procured a prostitute, a minor offense under the countrys criminal code.

In a statement on Sunday, the Cambodia National Rescue Party asked that parliament respect Kem Sokhas right to parliamentary immunity, which prevents legal action against elected representatives unless there is clear evidence of a crime having occurred.

The statement added that the CPPs actions contradicted the principle of Article 51 of the Constitution, which states that powers are separated between the legislature, executive and judiciary.

On Monday, and amid street protests from opposition supporters, the 68 CPP lawmakers voted in favor of continuing the case against Kem Sokha, a lawmaker for Kampong Cham province, after he failed to appear in court for questioning on two occasions.

Defending the decision, Leng Peng Long, a parliamentary spokesman, said on Wednesday that parliament has the right to express an opinion and make a decision independently, without being pressured or ordered by anyone.

He added that the vote was made in-line with parliamentary procedure and national laws.

However, Son Chhay, chief opposition whip, said the decision was in contravention of the right to immunity, and that action should in fact be seen as an obvious crime worthy of investigation.

Article 80 also discussed clearly about what an obvious crime was, meaning [we] talked about things that occurred in relation to violence, which must be stopped immediately in order to avoid affecting the lives of other people so on. It didnt talk about the lawmaker refusing to appear at court as requested by the court to be witness, he said.

Peng Long, however, said it was nothing to do with Article 80, as Kem Sokha had not had his immunity suspended and was being pursued for an obvious crime.

He added that in order to suspend the case, three quarters of all parliamentarians would need to vote for the courts to end their investigation.

Since Kem Sokha declined to attend court on two separate occasions under court subpoena, he could face a small fine as well as up to six months in prison if found guilty.

Following an attempt to arrest him on Monday, Sokha has been holed up at the CNRP headquarters in the capital.

Taing Sunlay, director of the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, on Wednesday said that the case was now in the hands of the investigating judge.

I dont know if he issued an arrest warrant or not, he said.

Sam Sokong, a lawyer for Kem Sokha, said his legal team would continue to argue that parliament would need to vote to suspend Kem Sokhas immunity before he could be arrested on suspicion of a crime.

Parliament didnt get a two-third vote, meaning the 68 voices didnt meet the two thirds voice. Therefore, it didnt comply with Article 80 of the Constitution, if we are making decisions based on the Constitution, he said.
The number of babies born to teenagers and young women continues to decline in the United States.

A record low number of teenagers and women in their 20s gave birth in the U.S. in 2015, according to new government data released Thursday.

Preliminary figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed the birth rate among mothers ages 15 to 19 fell by 8 percent last year, and has dropped 64 percent since 1991.

Overall, U.S. mothers gave birth to 3.98 million babies in 2015, only slightly fewer than the year before. The birth rate was 62.5 per 1,000 women.

The numbers continue the trend of women giving birth later in life.

Those aged 20 to 24 had 3 percent fewer births last year, a figure that has declined by 27 percent during the past decade. For those 25 to 29, the birth rate fell by 1 percent.

But women in their 30s saw their fifth consecutive year of increases, while the birth rate for women 40 to 44 jumped by 4 percent last year.

About one-third of the country's 50 states saw an increase in births, led by Florida and Delaware, which each rose just under 2 percent. In Florida, that increase included a 3.6 percent jump in births by Hispanic mothers and 2.9 percent by black mothers.

California (-2.3 percent), Vermont (-3.7 percent) and West Virginia (-2.5 percent) saw the biggest decreases. California's drop included declines of more than 4.5 percent for both black and Asian mothers, while in Vermont the number of births to white mothers plummeted more than 6 percent.

As far as how the babies were delivered, the rate of cesarean births fell for the third year in a row to 32 percent. The number of births to unmarried mothers also continued a multi-year decline, falling by 1 percent in 2015.

According to a separate set of date released earlier by the Social Security Administration, the most popular names for boys last year were Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob and William. For girls, the favorites were Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Ava and Isabella.
June 1 marks the anniversary of a historic meeting more than a quarter century ago between the leaders of the United States and what was then the Soviet Union that resulted in an agreement to end the production of chemical weapons. Three years later, more than 150 nations signed on to a comprehensive treaty banning chemical weapons - but despite those efforts they remain a threat today.

At a summit meeting in 1990 in Washington, D.C., then-U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev inked a deal agreeing that each country would stop producing chemical weapons and begin destroying 80 percent of their considerable chemical weapons reserves.

The agreement led to a worldwide chemical weapons convention overseen by an intergovernmental organization based in The Hague, Netherlands, known as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The organization conducts inspections of weapons production facilities, as well as sites where weapons are being destroyed. It can also investigate cases where chemical weapons are alleged to have been used.

International cooperation

Most of the nations of the world have agreed to be bound by the convention, which prohibits the use and production of chemical weapons. As of October 2015, about 90 percent of the world's stockpile of chemical weapons had been destroyed.

Three states have neither signed nor agreed to adhere to the treaty: Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan. Israel has signed the agreement but not ratified it.

Two of the most recent states to declare their chemical weapons are Iraq and Syria, in 2009 and 2013 respectively.

Modern chemical weapons were first used on the battlefields of the World War I, when troops released chlorine and phosgene gases into the air to kill or disable opposing forces. The gas caused tens of thousands of deaths and more than a million injuries, scarring some soldiers for life.

The Cold War of the 1950s and 1960s saw both the United States and the Soviet Union build up chemical weapons stockpiles. The governments of Iran and Iraq are recorded as having used chemical agents on their own citizens in the 1980s.

Lingering mistrust

The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was alleged to have used chemical weapons against his people in 2013. Since then, experts have said the danger of chemical weapons attacks still exists in Syria. British chemical weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a veteran of the British military and NATO, has been speaking out in recent weeks for a no-fly zone to be established over Syria, contending that President Assad is using helicopters to mount chemical attacks on civilians.

Russia and China, meanwhile, say they suspect rebel groups opposing Assad's government of trying to acquire chemical weapons. In April, the two nations sent a resolution to the Security Council calling on Syria's neighbors to inform the United Nations if they find that any extremists groups are trying to obtain them. Russian Ambassador to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin told reporters Russia thinks terrorists might have brought the components of chemical weapons with them from Syria to Europe.

Chemical weapons, along with biological weapons and nuclear weapons, are considered weapons of mass destruction. Biological and nuclear weapons are also subject to international nonproliferation treaties.
It is no secret Chinas communist leaders do not like having their human rights credentials questioned, but based on a response from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Canada Wednesday, it apparently is a topic that should not be brought up.

Speaking with reporters at the end of a high-profile visit to Canada, at a time when the two countries are said to be ushering in a new golden era of relations, Wang lashed out at a journalist, scolding her for asking a question about his country's human rights record.

Arrogant and unacceptable

In his response, Wang asked if the reporter had ever even been to China and argued that her remarks were full of arrogance and prejudice and totally unacceptable.

"I would like to suggest to you that please don't ask questions in such an irresponsible manner, Wang said. We welcome goodwill suggestions but we reject groundless or unwarranted accusations."

Wang went on to raise an argument his authoritarian government frequently uses when such concerns are raised, pointing out that hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty and that Chinas constitution guarantees the protection and promotion of human rights.

"Let me tell you who best understands Chinas human rights situation," he said. "It is not you, but the Chinese people. You have no right to speak about Chinas human rights. It is the Chinese people who have the right to speak about Chinas human rights."

Reality check

What do the Chinese people know and have to say about their human rights situation?

Plenty, but those who do, usually end up in the crosshairs of Chinas ever expanding security apparatus.

Since President Xi Jinping rose to power more than three years ago, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group, has documented more than 2,000 rights defenders who have been detained, a significant increase from the past, said one of its researchers, Frances Eve.

Within this group of 2,000 individuals who are Chinese citizens who want to talk about human rights and, according to the foreign minister, are the only ones allowed to, theyve been denied that right, Eve said.

Eve notes that those who have been detained include human rights lawyers, members of the New Citizens Movement who have called for government transparency and rule of law, and individual Chinese citizens expressing their support for the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, among others.

These are not particularly controversial areas, not particularly challenging the overriding supremacy of the Communist Party, she said, adding that in each case they have been detained and denied their right to talk about the human rights situation in their country, despite guarantees clearly outlined in the constitution.

And that just shows how bad the situation has become, Eve said.

Repression spreading

The repression is not limited to the mainland. Critics in China and Western governments have raised concerns about Beijings recent detentions of booksellers in Hong Kong  which the reporter raised in her question  and arrest of activists in Thailand and Myanmar.

The government prevents activists from traveling abroad to speak about Chinas human rights.

Cao Shunli, a Chinese activist who was trying to participate in Chinas human rights review at the United Nations, was barred from traveling to Geneva, detained and denied medical treatment. She died in March of 2014.

The government has a concerted policy to prevent Chinese citizens from commenting on the human rights situation in China, trying to control this narrative, Eve said.

Terror and suffocation

This weekend marks the 27th anniversary of Chinas bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. No one knows just how many died on the night of June 3-4, 1989, but estimates from rights groups and witnesses put the numbers in the hundreds if not thousands.

Since then, the parents of those who died  known as The Tiananmen Mothers  have been asking for three simple things: truth, accountability and compensation.

The government has repeatedly denied and ignored that request.

On Wednesday, the group issued a statement that talked about what their experience has been like as they have sought redress, describing the past 27 years as that of [state] terror and suffocation.

For 27 years, the police have been the ones who have dealt with us. For 27 years, they have also been our frequent visitors at home, the statement said. We the victims families are eavesdropped and surveilled upon by the police; we are followed or even detained, and our computers searched and confiscated.

Members of the group note that the surveillance and scrutiny intensifies around special dates, particularly the anniversary.

In their statement, they added that visits to the founder of the group, 79-year-old former university professor Ding Zilin, have been restricted and that only one individual may visit her at a time, only after receiving approval from Beijings Public Security Bureau.
Sweating, hoarse and jostled at every turn, opposition leader Henrique Capriles is back pounding Venezuela's streets, exhorting crowds and fuming about corruption and shortages.

Capriles' profile faded after his failed presidential runs in 2012 and 2013 but the Miranda state governor is again on the political front line, this time driving an opposition push for a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro.

"The only way to fix Venezuela's crisis is asking Venezuelans," he told Reuters after a day campaigning in the pressure-pot nation reeling from economic hardships, protests and viciously polarized politics.

Even though government officials insist a recall referendum will not take place this year, Capriles' new-found protagonism is restoring his image among Venezuela's opposition supporters.

Some had dismissed him as a loser despite doing well in the 2012 election against late socialist leader Hugo Chavez and almost beating Maduro a few months later after Chavez's death.

Supporters of hardline opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez painted Capriles as cowardly for not pressing vote fraud claims more aggressively in 2013 or backing street protests in 2014.

Yet he is now tied with the imprisoned Lopez as the most popular opposition figure, according to one recent poll. He could even have a third stab at the presidency should Maduro be recalled this year, triggering an election.

"He's recovering his lost splendor," said Luis-Vicente Leon, a leading pollster.

Under the constitution, a recall referendum is possible from half-way through the six-year presidential term but the opposition coalition needs it this year if Maduro's potential departure is to force a new election.

"Chavez subjected himself to a recall referendum, why not Maduro?" Capriles added, warning of a possible military coup or social explosion if the government and electoral authorities block such a vote.

If Maduro were to go next year, his vice president would take over, probably prolonging "Chavismo" until the next presidential election at the end of 2018.

The Capriles camp is frustrated the opposition's concerted push began in April rather than January, as soon as it took control of Congress following big wins in legislative elections.

The coalition's two dozen parties were unable to quickly reach a consensus over strategy.

Seizing on that delay, the government says there is now no time for a vote this year. It also accuses the opposition of inflating its first signature drive with the names of 10,000 dead people.

The election board is dragging its feet on the complex procedures involved: 1 percent of registered voters' signatures to start the process, then 20 percent to request the referendum.

"The government is trying to sow the idea there isn't time," Capriles said. "That is false ... Twelve years ago, they organized a recall referendum in four months," he added, referring to Chavez's August 2004 referendum victory.

The opposition's signature drive actually began in the second half of 2003 for that poll, which Chavez won with 58 percent in one of numerous vote wins during his 1999-2013 rule.

Militant

Officials accuse Capriles of trying to foment violence, recalling his activism during a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez, and have revived old innuendoes about his sexuality.

On the street, the wiry and sports-loving governor is taking a more militant approach. At one march, he followed youths who burst onto a highway and was pepper-sprayed in the face by a security official in the melee.

Despite government prohibitions and a Supreme Court ruling protecting the election board's premises, Capriles says the marches will continue even though numbers have not been massive, reaching just a few thousand in Caracas.

That, he says, is because people are preoccupied with daily problems, including hours-long lines for ever-scarcer food.

Opposition leaders are cheered by a build-up of international pressure against Maduro's government, including a push this week by the head of the Organization of American States (OAS) to have Venezuela suspended from the regional grouping for violating its democratic principles.

"Maduro is like a pariah ... Who wants to have their photo taken with him?," said Capriles, who describes himself as a center-leftist.

While Capriles may be the opposition's man of the moment, there is still quiet carping in some quarters of the opposition, especially among hardliners.

Some believe the referendum drive is doomed and Capriles has no alternative strategy, meaning his star will wane again and the more aggressive tactics prescribed by Lopez will be vindicated.

"Henrique is trying to play by the rules of a normal democracy, but Maduro is a dictator and won't go like that.

Leopoldo was right all long," said one Lopez supporter, identifying himself only as Luis, at a recent rally.
The remains of 33 Australian soldiers killed in the Vietnam War returned home Thursday, after more than 50 years.

Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, along with Vietnam War veterans and family members, was on hand when two military transport planes carrying the coffins of the fallen servicemen arrived at a military airbase near Sydney.

The soldiers' had originally been buried in Malaysia and Singapore, and their return marked one of Australia's largest repatriations of servicemen killed in combat.

About 60,000 Australians served in during the Vietnam War, when U.S.-backed South Vietnam fought the Soviet-backed North from the early 1960s until 1975, when the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon.

The 33 soldiers were among more than 500 Australians killed in the conflict.
German lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Thursday to recognize the World War I-era killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, triggering an angry reaction from Ankara.

"The resolution adopted by the German parliament will seriously impact relations between Germany and Turkey," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said shortly after the vote during a news conference, adding that, after the recall of the country's ambassador to Germany for consultations, the government would discuss what steps Ankara would take in response. Erdogan spoke in Nairobi while on a visit to Kenya.

Turkey summoned Germany's charge d'affaires to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara after the German parliament's vote.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the two countries have broad, friendly and strategic ties despite a difference of opinion on an individual matter.



Speaking at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin, Merkel said that Germany supported dialogue between Turkey and Armenia and sought good relations with Ankara.

Ankara's options seen as limited

Turkish government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus called the German vote a historical mistake and said Turkey's response to Berlin would be made in various forums. But with Germany being Turkeys biggest trading partner and home to 3 million ethnic Turks, political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Istanbuls Suleyman Sah University said Ankara's room to maneuver is limited.

"Turkish-German relations are much too big to be impacted by this. Of course there will be all sorts of nationalist propaganda for internal purposes. But I am sure the Turkish authorities will stop short of going further than that," Aktar said.



Ankara strongly denies the genocide charge, claiming the deaths of ethnic Armenians occurred in a civil war. It also says Armenians' claims that over 1.5 million people died is exaggerated. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara accused Berlin of seeking to cover up its own dark past.

The controversy comes as Ankara is playing a key role in helping the European Union to reduce the number of arriving migrants. A main beneficiary of that deal is Berlin. But observers say it is unlikely Ankara would use the migrant agreement against Berlin as Ankara is pressing Brussels for visa-free travel for its citizens.

Sensitive issue for Turks

But the genocide controversy remains a sensitive issue for Turkish nationalists, a powerful voting constituency in Turkey. Political columnist Semih Idiz of Turkeys Cumhuriyet newspaper warns with over 20 countries now recognizing the Armenian genocide claims, Ankara is finding itself increasingly isolated, but says Turkeys political leadership is trapped by its past.

"We are where we are today, because of this wrong attitude. This hardcore denialist attitude. Which in fact is only on the government side. As you see in Turkish society, the taboos relating to this subject are being broken down. I mean even the genocide is being commemorated even in Turkey now, without anyone attacking the demonstrators," Idiz said.

Until a few years ago, anyone in Turkey claiming that there had been an Armenian genocide would be subject to prosecution. In 2007, Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor, was murdered by a Turkish nationalist gunman for calling on Turkish society to face up to its past. Observers say today in Turkey people are openly delving into the countrys difficult past, but with the president whipping up Turkish nationalist sentiments, questions remain on how long this new process will continue.
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton called Republican rival Donald Trump dangerous and unqualified for the presidency in a blistering foreign policy speech Thursday in San Diego, California.

"He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility," Clinton said. "This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes."

Trump doesnt understand America, or the world, she said. "Its not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin."

In anticipation of the address, Trump attacked his Democratic opponent on Twitter. Crooked Hillary Clinton, who I would love to call Lyin Hillary, is getting ready to totally misrepresent my foreign policy positions, he tweeted.

Watch video report from VOA's Zlatica Hoke:



Clinton emphasized her own experience as first lady, senator and secretary of state, saying she would provide the steady diplomacy the country needs.

National security is the foundation of how we make sure our interests are pursued in the world, said Louis Goodman, Emeritus Dean of International Relations at American University in an interview with VOA.

With polls show terrorism is a major concern among Americans, Clinton targeted Trump's positions on the issue.

Trump anti-terrorism proposals

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has promised to temporarily block Muslims from crossing U.S. borders.

"The struggle against radical Islam also takes place in our homeland. There are scores of recent migrants inside our borders charged with terrorism. For every case known to the public, there are dozens more. We must stop importing extremism through senseless immigration policies," Trump said in a foreign policy speech in April.

Trump's other anti-terrorism proposals include a pledge to torture and murder the families of suspected terrorists and target Islamic State.

"I have a simple message for them," Trump said. "Their days are numbered. I won't tell them where and I won't tell them how. But they will be gone. And soon."

But Clinton said Trump's presidency would have the opposite effect.

A Trump presidency would embolden ISIS, she said referring to the group also known as Islamic State.

The two presidential candidates have presented very different approaches to terrorism, which experts like Goodman believe would likely produce different results.

While Donald Trump is making statements that push people away from us and make it difficult for our allies to cooperate with us, Hillary Clinton is consistently reaching out to our allies and trying to get them to cooperate so we can work together  and stop this criminal behavior thats called terrorism," he said. "And I fear that a practice or policies like those Trump is articulating will increase terrorism.

NATO, Russia, North Korea

Clinton listed Trump statements on everything from the NATO alliance to threats from Russia and North Korea  and played Trumps assertions about climate change for laughs.

If Donald gets his way, theyll be celebrating in the Kremlin, she said. We cannot let that happen.

Clinton also openly mocked Trumps Twitter habit.

We all know the tools Donald Trump brings to the table: bragging, mocking, composing nasty tweets, she said. Im willing to bet hes writing a few right now.

As if on cue, Trump did just that. Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton! Reading poorly from the teleprompter! She doesnt even look presidential!

California primary

Clinton's speech comes five days before California holds its Democratic primary, which is expected to give her the delegates she needs to capture her party's presidential nomination even though several polls show the race getting tighter in California.

Democratic rival Bernie Sanders has been campaigning vigorously there.

The address will not likely affect voters' opinions, as the minds of most are already made up.

"I highly doubt a foreign policy speech will sway a large portion of the public," Pennsylvania State University Political Scientist Mark Major told VOA.

For Clinton, "the best outcome is that it may shift the news media narrative for a few days away from her emails and untrustworthiness," Major added.
An Indian court convicted 26 people Thursday for their roles in the killing of 69 Muslims by a Hindu mob in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002.

Eleven of the 24 were charged with murder in one of the worst single incidents in three months of violence which left more than 1000 people dead fourteen years ago.

One of the 69 hacked or burned to death while taking shelter in a residential complex in Ahmedabad was former Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri.

Jafri's wife, Zakia, was pleased by the convictions, but disappointed by the judge's decision to acquit 36 other suspects.

"This is incomplete justice and I will fight till the end," she told reporters.

Since 2002, more than 100 people have been convicted over the riots, but many cases remain to be heard.

The sentences of the 24 accused will be announced Monday, and the 11 accused of murder could be sentenced to death.

In February 2002 a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was set on fire, killing at least 58 people. That incident was blamed on Muslims and ignited the communal violence that followed.

The 2002 riots continue to cast a shadow on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was chief minister of the state of Gujarat at the time and has been accused of turning a blind eye to the anti-Muslim violence. Modi has denied these allegations, and they did not hinder his election as India's leader in 2014.
An international tribunal will issue a ruling on July 12 on a territorial dispute between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea. Though the decision will not determine sovereignty of the territory in question, it could have wide-ranging implications for China's sweeping claims in one of the world's most important and bitterly contested waterways.

What's behind the dispute?

China claims nearly the entire 3.5 million square-kilometer South China Sea, based on its so-called "nine-dashed line," which it says is based on ancient maps. China's claims overlap with not only the Philippines, but also Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan. Some of the disputes stretch back decades or even centuries. But tensions have worsened in recent years, as Beijing has moved to assert its control over the territory.

Who brought the case against China?

The Philippines filed the case against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague in January 2013. Manila argues Beijing's territorial claims and recent aggressive activities in the South China Sea violate the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), an international treaty both nations have ratified.

How has China responded?

China refuses to participate in the tribunal, arguing it has no obligation to do so under UNCLOS. Beijing has also repeatedly insisted it will not recognize what it predicts will be a biased ruling. In the meantime, China has continued to build artificial islands and military outposts in the contested waters, in an attempt to create "facts on the ground."

What exactly is the court considering?

The Philippines brought a total of 15 complaints against China. The most significant is complaint number two, which claims China's "nine-dash line" is contrary to UNCLOS. So far, the court has not determined it has jurisdiction to rule on that complaint.

Instead, the tribunal announced late last year it will tackle seven other critical issues. These include complaints challenging specific Chinese activities around particular locations. It is also expected to officially categorize various land features as either rocks, islands, or low tide elevations - labels that would affect the rights of whoever owns the territory.

Is the ruling binding?

Technically, yes. But in reality, UNCLOS has no way to enforce its rulings, since it does not have a police force, an army or a way to impose sanctions on those who ignore its decisions. Some analysts have speculated that the matter could be taken to the U.N. Security Council, but China and Russia, which are permanent members, would inevitably veto any action there.

If the ruling is not enforceable, why does it matter?

If, as expected, the court rules at least partially in the Philippines' favor, it could put important diplomatic pressure on China. It could also provide an important symbolic victory for Asian leaders who say Beijing is ignoring international law as it seeks to assert its power in the region.

A ruling against China would also set an important legal precedent and become part of international law. It could also encourage other countries who have territorial disputes with China to take similar legal action.

What is the U.S. stance on the dispute?

The U.S. says it takes no official position on China's various territorial disputes. But top officials have repeatedly criticized China's actions in the South China Sea and have urged China to accept the court's eventual ruling. However, any U.S. efforts to publicly shame Beijing may be limited by the fact that Washington itself has refused to ratify UNCLOS.

So what's next?

China's next move is uncertain. Some have said it may withdraw in protest from the UNCLOS treaty system. But that can only be done with a year's notice, allowing other nations plenty of time to file last-minute cases. The move also may reinforce a perception that Beijing does not want to play by the established rules of international order.

China says it prefers to solve territorial disputes through direct negotiations, but has taken no meaningful steps toward holding talks. Instead, Beijing is seemingly content to let the disputes play out as it continues building in the disputed areas.

Will anything change under the Philippines new president?

The Philippines' incoming president, Rodrigo Duterte, says he is open to bilateral talks with China if the standoff is not resolved in two years. That represents a policy difference from his predecessor, Benigno Aquino, who took a hardline stance on the territorial dispute.

But Duterte also made it clear this week he does not intend to give up much ground, saying the disputed territory "is ours," and telling China: "You have no right to be there." The tough-talking politician has also threatened to personally ride a jet ski to one of the disputed islands to stake his country's claim.

What's at stake?

A lot of money, and a lot of national pride. More than $5 trillion in trade passes through the South China Sea every year. The area is also home to vital fishing grounds and is thought to contain vast natural gas and oil deposits. Political leaders in many claimant countries have also exploited the issue to rouse nationalistic sentiment.
Kenya's government has welcomed the reported death of Dulyadeyn, the al-Shabab militant who allegedly organized the massacre at Garissa University College in April 2105, says Kenyan spokesman Erick Kiraithe.

In an interview with VOA in Nairobi, Kiraithe said the death will help heal the wounds left by the deadly assault.

"What we would want to say as a government is that every victory against terrorism is very welcome, Kiraithe said. The pain and suffering of the parents, friends and relatives of those who died in Garissa is still very fresh among us and, therefore, there is a little bit of relief that those who were responsible are finally getting it, although it would have been greater for us if we had an opportunity to bring them to justice."

Mohamed Mohamud, better known as Dulyadeyn, was believed to be the organizer of the gruesome attack, in which al-Shabab gunmen killed 148 people, nearly all of them students.

Miriam Njeri was a student at Garissa University at the time, but transferred to Moi University in Eldoret after that school admitted all Garissa students unconditionally following the attack.

"And now that the mastermind is dead, I'm so happy and so relieved, Njeri said. I'm so relieved that they will not plan another attack on another university, but I'm also afraid that another mastermind may come up."

Dulyadeyn was reportedly killed Tuesday night in Bulo Gadud, a town loyal to al-Shabab, about 30 kilometers north of the port of Kismayo.

A local Somali official told VOA that Dulyadeyn was killed in a raid by U.S.-trained Somali commandos.

Another official said the militant was killed by U.S. missiles. However, a U.S. military spokesperson said Thursday that American forces played only an "advise-and-assist role" in a ground operation carried out by the Somali National Army.
The Latino population has grown into the largest minority group in the United States, a transformation that makes this voting bloc increasingly influential in this November's presidential election.

Latinos comprise more than 17 percent of the total U.S. population, according to the Pew Research Center, and U.S. Census figures project that number to reach 28.6 percent by 2060.

Growing population



Theyre growing, growing fast, Jens Manuel Krogstad, a Pew Research Center expert who focuses on Hispanics, immigration and demographic, told VOA.

The latest U.S. presidential election clearly shows the importance of the Latino vote in the race for the White House, said Gerver Torres, a Latin America specialist at Gallup Consulting. Hispanics in the United States have an increasing importance and their weight is even more significant in some states with higher numbers of Latinos."

Barack Obama received approximately 72 percent of the Hispanic vote in the last presidential election, according to Pew. This statistic and other data in this election cycle prove, the Hispanic vote will heavily concentrate around a Democratic candidate, said Torres.

According to Gallup, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton enjoys a more than 60 percent preference among Latinos, while presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is preferred by 14 percent of Latinos.

Power of Hispanic vote



The Gallup statistics alone do not mean the Latino vote would have the impact it could have on the general election. According to Krogstad, geography could be a definitive factor in changing the tendency of the Latino electorate to not maximize its potential.

Almost half of Latinos live only in two states: Texas and California. Those two states are generally not very competitive in the presidential elections, he said.

Krogstad, however, added Florida, Nevada and Colorado are three states where the power of the Hispanic vote has the potential to determine who will become the next president.

Reality or myth, the numbers highlight the potential impact of the Latino vote on the presidential election: 27 million people of Latino origin are able to vote. That represents 12 percent of the total U.S. population, the same percentage represented by African Americans, said Krogstad.

Nevertheless, the challenge of increasing Latino voter participation remains. Historically, the percentage of voting Latinos has been one of the lowest. Out of the potential 27 million Hispanic voters, only 46 percent actually cast their vote," Torres said.



Perceptions are important



As the Latino population becomes more educated, however, Torres said "it also becomes more civic-minded.

Besides the generational differences among Hispanics, another factor is more evident today than in previous elections: Latino immigrants are becoming U.S. citizens in very high numbers.

When Latino immigrants become naturalized U.S. citizens, they exercise their right to vote in higher proportions than U.S.-born Latinos, according to Krogstad.

Since 2012, more than 1.2 million Hispanics have become U.S. citizens, and that could be a game changer in the election process.

They tend to be more socially conservative. Hispanics born in America resemble more the beliefs held by the rest of the U.S. population," Krogstad said.

Six states have a Latino population of more than 15 percent: California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas. The presidential candidates are paying attention to those states, which experts say translate into many opportunities and challenges as well.

Is the Latino vote powerful enough to determine who wins the presidential election? The Heritage Foundation's Israel Ortega, who once worked as a Capitol Hill staffer, believes so, adding, "If this election is close, as many observers have pointed out, Nevada, for instance, a state with almost 20 percent of the Latino population eligible to vote, could determine the outcome of the election, undoubtedly.

Another determining factor about the potential impact such demographics could have on the general election is the steady expansion of the pool of eligible Latino voters. Every year, 500,000 more U.S. citizens of Latino origin are able to cast their vote in the presidential elections.

Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society, said statistics are only part of the equation.

Reality does not necessarily deal only with statistics, but with perceptions," he said. "Politicians are realizing that the Hispanic vote is very important. It shows on the campaign trail. And that is no myth."
The Lebanese parliament failed again  on its 40th try  to choose a new president after only 39 members showed up for the electoral session Thursday, which was boycotted by parliament speaker Nabih Berri and most MPs from Hezbollah's political bloc. The country has been without a president since May 2014.

The deputy speaker of parliament convened the electoral session in the absence of Berri and announced that legislators will meet June 23 to try again to elect a new president.

Former prime minister Fouad Saniora told journalists after the failed Thursday session that he thought it was the pro-Iranian Hezbollah group that was preventing an election from taking place.

According to Saniora, Hezbollah says it is supporting General Michel Aoun for president but is, in fact, using the election as a bargaining chip with respect to sanctions on the group and the debate over its role in the region.

Former president Michel Suleiman's term ended May 24, 2014, after Hezbollah and its allies refused to extend his term and clashed with the rival pro-Western March 14 coalition over the choice of a successor.

Aoun, whom Hezbollah says it supports for the post, told journalists a few days ago that recent municipal elections give a better picture of the balance of forces in the country than does parliament.

A heavy turnout in the Christian regions north of Beirut offer a clearer idea of the actual balance of forces in the country, Aoun says, since these areas are not well represented on the national level.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam, who is the acting head of state in the absence of a president, expressed frustration over the political impasse at a gathering of the country's industrial leaders.

Analyst Nadim Shehadi, who heads the Fares Center at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, tells VOA that Lebanon's political system is built to go into paralysis when political rivals are unable to reach a consensus.

"The system is paralyzed and it was built in such a way that if a consensus can't be reached it goes into paralysis, and we are in a situation where we either have to capitulate to Hezbollah and its demands or go into paralysis," Shehadi said.

Shehadi points out, however, that the recent municipal elections painted a rosier picture of Lebanon's political health, given the active participation of most communities, political parties and various NGOs.
The United Nations is appealing to the international community to come to the aid of millions of civilians in war-torn Yemen, struggling to survive as humanitarian conditions in the country continue to deteriorate.



U.N. Coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick calls Yemen an invisible crisis, a war waged in the shadows of the war being fought in nearby Syria. While all eyes are on tragic events unfolding in Syria, he said the humanitarian situation for some 22 million Yemenis is becoming increasingly dire.



"The scale of the emergency is tremendous," he said. "The scale of the needs is massive and the depths of the crisis is immeasurable and the suffering that goes with that is just incredulous. Every corner you turn; everyone you meet has been affected by this crisis. Everybody who you come across in any part of this country has felt this conflict, has felt this war."

The Yemeni government and Houthi rebels have been engaged in a sporadic civil war for many years; but, the depth of destruction and increased danger to the civilian population has seriously escalated since Saudi Arabia began its devastating aerial campaign in March 2015.



McGoldrick said it appears as though the fighting in Yemen has gone down since U.N.-mediated peace negotiations started a few weeks ago.

Nevertheless, he said conditions continue to deteriorate because people have to contend with the country's shattered infrastructure and broken economy. He said the war is having a particularly terrible impact on children.

\"Ten thousand kids under five was mentioned as a figure of people, of children who have died from preventable diseases because of the lack of services, the lack of medicine," he said. "And, dying, you know, of things like pneumonia and diarrhea  A lot of these deaths are covered up by the fact that a lot of them are related to nutrition as well."

McGoldrick said some 200,000 people have left Yemen, while 2.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes and remain internally displaced.

Last year, the United Nations appealed for $1.8 billion to provide life-saving assistance for 7.6 million of Yemen's most vulnerable people. Sadly, he says, only 17 percent of that appeal has been received.
A jury in Minnesota is deliberating the case of three Somali-Americans facing several charges, including conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State and conspiring to commit murder outside the United States.

After the prosecution and defense concluded their closing arguments and rebuttals Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Davis read instructions and told the jury of seven women and five men to reach a "just verdict," to rely on evidence and to conduct their deliberations without prejudice.

Mohamed Abdihamid Farah and Abdurahman Yasin Daud, both in their early 20s, and Guled Ali Omar are among a group of Somali-American men the FBI tracked over a period of months starting in March 2014, when one member of the group aroused suspicion when he applied for an expedited passport to travel to Turkey, but was unable to answer basic questions about his planned trip.

During the trial the government relied on the testimony of three key witnesses. Abdirahman Bashir, a paid FBI informant, told the court he plotted along with the defendants to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State militant group. Abdullahi Yusuf and Abdirizak Warsame, two of six men who pled guilty to the charges, agreed to testify against their former friends.

The government also played to the jury audio recordings of the men allegedly discussing travels to Syria.

Defense lawyers tried to counter that testimony by arguing that the FBI informant entrapped the defendants, encouraging them to engage in the incriminating recorded conversations. The defense witnesses included one of the defendants, Guled Ali Omar, who told the jury that the men were not serious when they were recorded talking about traveling to Syria. He said, "We all boast."

The other two co-defendants, Mohamed Farah and Abdurahman Daud, decided not to testify.

Mothers anxious

The case has divided not just the Somali community, but families and relatives. The parents of the defendants say they are "anxious" about which way the verdict will go and whether the all-white jury can give the men a fair hearing.

"These are white jurors, no Somali, no black person, no Muslims. Anyone who heard the case, on the air, will be scared when they hear terrorists'; these people are susceptible when it comes to terrorism," Farhiya Mohamud, mother of Daud, told VOA Somali after the case was handed over to the jury.

"Our religions are different. This is about religion.  Jihad is in the Quran, but if distorted it can be interpreted in any way. Allah knows how it will go, but I'm anxious," she said.

Mohamud said lawyers for her son worked hard and did everything in their power to defend the men.

"They urged the jury not to rush to judgment, not to be influenced by fear. I have confidence with the lawyers, but whatever happens is Allah's will," she said.

Ayan Farah, mother of Mohamed Farah, said she, too, is anxious and feels the case could go either way. It's 50-50," she told VOA Somali.

Farah indicated that if her son is found guilty, that will not be the end of the story.

"Until we get justice we will not give up. We are allowed to take appeals three times, and we will go all the way to the Supreme Court. But if it ends here, and our kids are let go and they come home, that is all we want."

Jury deliberations continue Thursday.
The Mormon Church called its program of placing Native American children in foster homes among its members "inspired" and a "priceless" opportunity for the kids.

For three Navajo Nation members who took part in the Indian Student Placement Program in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, the experience was a nightmare of repeated sexual abuse while under the care of multiple foster families.

Those are the allegations contained in two lawsuits facing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Navajo Nation court. One made public this week was filed by a woman identified only by the initials B.N. who says she was raped and molested multiple times between 1965 and 1972.

'I've shut my mouth for long enough'



"I just said you know what, I've shut my mouth for long enough and it was just time," she told Utah radio station KUER on Wednesday. "Being able to speak up and have people trust their leaders, that they're able to come forth with atrocious situations without fear and without being blackballed in any way."

The other lawsuit filed in March by plaintiffs named R.J. and M.M. gives a detailed account of what they say was a systematic failing of Mormon leaders to stop the abuse or report it to authorities.

R.J. was 10 years old when he first left his home on Navajo land in Arizona to live with a Mormon family in Utah. The lawsuit says an older step brother in the home molested R.J. multiple times, and that the mother there forcibly washed his mouth out with soap if he spoke in the Navajo language. When he reported the abuse, he was taken to another home.

Suffering 'great pain of mind and body'



The next year, it happened again, with a foster brother molesting R.J. at a different home. Two years later, more sexual abuse at still another home. R.J. kept reporting the incidents, but nothing happened. The result of the years of abuse, according to the lawsuit, is that he continues to "suffer great pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress... embarrassment, loss of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life."

For M.M., the story is similar. She was 11 years old when she was placed with a family in Utah. The lawsuit says a 40-year-old friend of a step brother there raped her. She later spent two years with another family, where the father sexually abused her as well as her younger brother and younger sister.

She cites the same kind of lingering effects as R.J., and both say their ability to earn a living has suffered.

Demanding change



They are asking for major changes in church policy, including for any member who is accused of sexual abuse to be kept from being around children and for leaders to report any abuse allegations first to police and child protective services instead of a telephone hotline run by the church.

"Defendants' failure to have proper policies and procedures that direct its members to report child sexual abuse to proper authorities has knowingly and/or recklessly endangered the safety and health of people by allowing child molesters to avoid prosecution and remain living freely in unsuspecting communities."

The lawsuit says the 50-year program, which has since disbanded, was an attempt to assimilate Native American children into white Mormon culture. The plaintiffs want letters of apology to themselves and their community, as well as outreach efforts to enhance and restore Navajo culture.

The Navajo number about 300,000 in the United States, and since a treaty signed in 1868 have lived on a reservation that spans the intersection of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.

Church rejects venue



The Mormon Church is rejecting the autonomous Navajo Nation court as the appropriate venue for the lawsuits, saying in court filings this week that none of the alleged abuses took place on the reservation. Church lawyers want the U.S. District Court in Utah to hear the cases instead. They also object to the proposed remedy, saying the Navajo court should not be able to impose worldwide changes to Mormon policies.

Church officials have not publicly commented on the allegations, but in the past they have said they do not tolerate such abuse and in recent years have instituted systems to track alleged abusers and keep them away from children.
The Bank of England unveiled its first plastic banknote on Thursday, featuring World War II leader Winston Churchill and giving campaigners in Britain's European Union referendum an opportunity to renew their skirmishes.

The central bank said in 2013 that Churchill would appear on its next five-pound banknote, which will be the first to be made from a very thin plastic. The BoE said the polymer notes will be more durable and harder to forge than paper ones.

"By adopting polymer, we're aligning with international best practice, alongside Australia, New Zealand, and Canada," BoE Governor Mark Carney said.

"As Churchill did, we may have to wait a while for the Americans to join up," he said, alluding to the United States entering the war in 1941, more than two years after Britain.

Carney was speaking as the Bank showed off its final design for the new note at Churchill's birthplace, the 18th-century Blenheim Palace, eight miles north of Oxford.

Inevitably, the appearance of Churchill on the notes was seized upon by campaigners ahead of the June 23 EU referendum.

Veterans for Britain, a group representing former service personnel which wants a so-called Brexit, pressed its claim that the wartime prime minister saw Britain as friendly towards a developing union in Europe after the war, but separate to it.

"It's wonderful that Churchill is on the fiver - it will remind people to put the country's interests first on June 23," Andrew Roberts, a history professor at Kings College London, said in a statement sent to media by the group.

Rival campaigners who want to keep Britain in the EU have also previously invoked Churchill. Prime Minister David Cameron said last month that his predecessor's legacy showed that "isolationism has never served this country well."

A new plastic 10-pound note featuring the author of "Pride and Prejudice", Jane Austen, will appear in 2017 and 19th century artist J.M.W. Turner, most famous for his seascapes, is due to feature on a plastic 20-pound note from 2020.

Churchill replaces 19th-century prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, who has appeared on the five pound note since 2001.
First, it was the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. Now, it's the Niger Delta Avengers.

The Avengers have taken credit for bombings that affected major pipelines in the delta, including the Nembe and Forcados pipelines.

The attacks have disrupted the supply of natural gas to Nigeria's power plants, leading to extended blackouts across the country.

Dolapo Oni, head of energy research at Ecobank, said the attacks have also led to cuts in oil exports in three of Nigeria's oil grades. He says daily production may be down to less than 1 million barrels, from the normal 2.2 million per day.

"We're talking about the most important grades in Nigeria, he said.

MEND, as the previous militancy was called, faded away after the government instituted an amnesty program in 2009 that gave ex-militants monthly stipends and enrolled some in training programs.

The identity of the Avengers is unknown, but Antony Goldman, director of Promedia Consulting, says the new group has learned a thing or two since the days of MEND. Members have taken to Twitter to announce attacks. They also have a blog where they list demands and have threatened Nigeria's military and oil majors like Shell and Chevron, both of whom they've attacked.

While MEND kidnapped  and occasionally killed  oil workers, the Avengers seem more interested in destroying petroleum infrastructure.

"This isn't a group that is looking to engage, particularly with the armed forces, Goldman said. It's not a group that has found to kidnap and ransom in that way that maybe is the case with earlier incarnations of militants."

Nor are they necessarily members of the previous insurgency, as they've feuded publicly with Government Ekpemupolo, known as Tompolo, a prominent former militant who is wanted by Nigeria's anti-graft agency.

Niger Delta activist Annkio Briggs says that while the tactics may have changed, the reasons for the insurgency are the same as when MEND took to arms. The group's demands include a redistribution of the ownership of oil blocks and a cleanup of spills in the delta.

Residents of the region have struggled with widespread poverty and polluted lands for decades.

"They're still talking about the same issues of the Niger Delta," Briggs said.

In a statement Wednesday, the military said it would stop the "economic saboteurs" in the Niger Delta.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has cancelled at the last minute a visit planned for Thursday to the oil-producing Niger Delta, which has been hit by a wave of militant attacks, a government source said.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will instead visit the restive southern region to launch a cleanup program of the Ogoniland, an area badly hit by oil spills, the source said, without giving a reason for Buhari's cancellation.

Buhari had already skipped a visit to the commercial capital Lagos in the south last month at the last minute. Posters with his picture had been already hung up to welcome the president before his spokesman cited "scheduling" difficulties.

It would have been the first visit of the former military ruler to the Delta since taking office in May last year. Critics have accused Buhari, a Muslim from the north, of ignoring the predominately Christian south.

The southern Delta swamps have been hit by a series of militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year low.

Hours after the announcement of Buhari's visit to the swamps on Tuesday the Niger Delta Avengers militant group, which has claimed several attacks on Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell facilities, issued a warning to oil firms that their "facilities and personnel will bear the brunt of our fury".

The Avengers have accused Buhari of ignoring local problems. Buhari said on Sunday the government would hold talks with leaders in Nigeria's main oil-producing region to address their grievances, in a bid to stop a surge in pipeline attacks.

Residents in the swamp areas have for years complained about oil industry pollution and about economic marginalization by the government.

Local officials and Western allies such as Britain have told Buhari that moving army reinforcements to the Delta region would not be enough to stop the attacks and that the population's grievances should be dealt with.
Pakistan has introduced new policies along its border with Afghanistan, ostensibly to reduce cross-border terrorism. But the measures are also likely to add to human suffering for the thousands of people who frequently travel back and forth for work or medical treatment.



This used to be a nearly open border, especially for Pashtuns, many of whom had relatives on both sides. Afghans seeking medical treatment in Pakistan, laborers who went daily to the other side to work, businessmen, and people going for family functions made up the thousands who crossed this border daily. Traveling back and forth was a breeze. That will now end.



Pakistan has announced that, for security reasons, only Afghans with proper documents will be allowed in.



Drop in crossings expected



Up to 25,000 people used to cross this border every day. Local officials say with the new restrictions the number is expected to drop significantly.

On day one of the new policy, thousands crossed over from Pakistan to Afghanistan, while the traffic from the other side was down to a trickle.

Those coming over from Afghanistan described long lines in the blistering heat.



Pashtuns with families across the border were worried about the implications.



Itll make it really difficult for the old people, the sick, the relatives who live on both sides of the border who travel frequently back and forth. Were all Pashtuns living on both sides of the border. The situation is so bad on the other side that I cannot even describe it, said Hameedullah Siddiqi, a Peshawar resident.
International media groups are condemning recent remarks by Philippine's incoming president defending the killing of journalists in the Pacific archipelago.

President-elect Rodrigo Duterte told reporters during press conference Tuesday that many journalists have been killed because they are corrupt, and warned that others could be assassinated."

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists, with nearly 200 reporters killed over the last two decades.

The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement Wednesday saying Duterte's comments "apparently excusing extrajudicial killings threaten to make the Philippines into a killing field for journalists."

The 71-year-old Duterte, who served two decades as mayor of the southern city of Davao, won last month's presidential election with with bombastic, profanity-laced promises to stamp out crime and corruption, including pledges to kill criminals  drawing obvious comparisons to Donald Trump, the billionaire U.S. real estate mogul and presumptive Republican presidential party nominee.

His comments earned him support among long-suffering Philippine voters frustrated with poverty and inequality, as well as accusations from human rights groups that he ordered hundreds of extrajudicial killings while mayor of Davao.

Duterte has also drawn scorn over boasts about his sexual escapades and vulgar comments about women. He said during the campaign that he wished he had been first in line in the gang rape of an Australian missionary killed during a Davao jail riot in 1989.

During Tuesday's press conference, Duterte whistled at a female reporter in a sexually explicit manner.
Nine former Haitian electoral officials and 11 Cabinet ministers in former President Michel Martelly's administration have been forbidden to leave the country.

The order from prosecutor Danton Leger was issued shortly after the release of a commission's report calling for the presidential election to be redone due to the appearance of significant electoral fraud.

On Wednesday, former Prime Minister Evans Paul and ministers who served under him confirmed they are on a travel ban list.

Flanked by his lawyer, Paul said that nobody has the right to take my freedom of movement away.'' He and other ex-ministers are seeking to have their names removed.

Justice Minister Camille Junior Edouard says the interim government had nothing to do with the prosecutor's decision.

Leger did not respond to a request for comment.
Signs of climate change are poking up through the lawn in southeastern Virginia's coastal Hampton Roads region.

Skip Stiles points to a leafy green seedling growing taller than the mowed grass in the manicured front yard of a handsome Norfolk home near one of the city's many inlets.

"Saltbush. It grows at the upper edge of the tidal range," he said. Stiles heads Wetlands Watch, a local environmental group. In khaki pants and a plaid shirt, the gray-haired Stiles belongs in an L.L. Bean clothing catalog.

Stiles says the water's edge is moving deeper into the neighborhood as sea level rises. Flooding is a growing problem.

"The houses are elevated," Stiles points out. "The sidewalks are discolored. You look down and you can see the change in vegetation. It's starting to convert to marsh grass."

Rising waters

While skepticism and outright denial of climate change dominate the national Republican party, the marsh grass is hard to deny.

"Hampton Roads is ground zero for coastal flooding and sea level rise here in the United States," says Ron Villanueva, a Republican state delegate from Virginia Beach, also in the Hampton Roads region.

Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay and the James River, Hampton Roads faces the double threat of rising water and sinking land. The tide is rising by about two inches a year at Sewells Point in Norfolk. Sea level rise accounts for about one-third of that.

It doesn't sound like much. But "nuisance flooding," which closes roads, overwhelms storm drains and corrodes infrastructure, is up 325 percent in the last half-century. Norfolk is in the top 10 U.S. cities for increased nuisance flooding.

And it's expected to get worse. While the land will continue to sink at the same rate, the ocean is rising faster. At least another 1.5 feet is expected to go underwater by the end of this century, and possibly as much as 7.5 feet.

It's not just homes at risk. The nation's sixth-largest container port and the world's largest naval base are located here.

Defending it all against climate change is going to cost a fortune. It's not entirely clear how much. Studies are underway. But figures in the billions are tossed around.

It's going to take state and federal government help, Stiles said. "There isn't enough money in anybody's local tax base to fix this problem."

'Recurrent flooding,' not climate change

Villanueva has a suggestion that is unusual for a Republican. Nine northeastern states are charging their power plants for their greenhouse gas emissions. They have collected about $2 billion since 2009 and invested it in energy efficiency, renewable power, low-income assistance and more.

It's known as a cap-and-trade program. Economists say the same market-based approach has been successful in tackling other pollution problems, beginning with acid rain.

"It was championed long ago by Republicans," Villanueva said. "Now it's championed by Democrats."

Democrats tried to pass a national version when they controlled Congress in 2010. Republicans said it would wreck the economy and blocked it. Since then, the Republican-controlled Congress has opposed action to address climate change.

And at the state level, the Virginia legislature won't even call the problem "sea level rise."

"The term that's used in Virginia is 'recurrent flooding,'" said Michelle Covi, a professor in the Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Initiative at Old Dominion University in Norfolk.

The phrase "sea level rise" is linked to climate change in a way that creates friction in the statehouse.

"As soon as you say those words, 'climate change,' people fall into their ideological groups," Covi said.

Problem outpacing solutions

Villanueva is cagey on where he stands on climate change.

But, he added, "The bottom line is, if you believe in climate change or not, someone's going to have to pay for helping to fix these things."

In the last two legislative sessions, Villanueva has introduced a bill that would add Virginia to the nine-state cap-and-trade program. The revenue raised would help pay to adapt the region to rising waters. It also would direct funds to help communities in the state's southwestern coalfields that are struggling through the industry's downturn.

The bill failed both times. Villanueva says he'll try again next session.

No other Republican delegates contacted for this story would comment on Villanueva's bill or alternatives.

Still, Stiles sees signs of progress. The issue has "gone through a number of stages," he said. "People didn't want to talk about it. Then they wanted to argue about it. But in the last couple years, most local governments now are going, 'Alright, I get it. What do I do? Where do I get the money?'"

Building the necessary infrastructure will take years, however. "The solution is not keeping pace with the problem," he said. "And that's what really worries me."
Somali officials say security forces have killed the gunmen who attacked a popular Mogadishu hotel, bringing the death toll from the assault to 24.

Security Minister Abdirisak Omar Mohamed tells VOAs Somali Service that security forces killed the three gunmen during a shootout in the Ambassador Hotel Thursday morning, and rescued 57 hostages the attackers had held overnight.

The attack began late Wednesday afternoon with a car bomb blast outside the hotel that killed a fourth attacker. Afterward, gunmen went floor to floor in the hotel, opening fire on hotel guests.

Omar says at least 17 people  12 civilians, three security guards and two members of parliament  were killed in or around the hotel. The director of Mogadishu's Madina Hospital said three other shooting victims brought to the hospital died of their wounds.

The Somali militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it targeted the hotel because it is used by Somali government officials. The hotel sits on the citys strategic Maka-al-Mukarama road, near the presidential palace.

Al-Shabab has carried out similar assaults on hotels in the past. An attack on the Sahafi Hotel last November killed at least 12 people, while an attack on the Maka-al-Mukarama Hotel in March 2015 killed at least 20.

Al-Shabab commander killed



Wednesday's attack came just hours after Somali officials announced a top al-Shabab commander had been killed in southern Somalia. Mohamed Mohamud, better known as Dulyadeyn, allegedly masterminded the April 2015 attack on Kenya's Garissa University College that left 148 people dead, nearly all of them students.

A U.S. military spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza, said Thursday that the U.S. is working with Somali officials to assess the results of the operation.

She said the ground operation was carried out by the Somali National Army, with the U.S. playing an "advise and assist" role.

American advisors



A U.S. official tells VOA that the American advisors were "at a different location, at a safe location" during the early Wednesday morning raid.

A small number of U.S. military personnel are in Somalia, helping the government and the African Union force known as AMISOM combat al-Shabab.

The Pentagon Wednesday reported an airstrike in south-central Somalia on May 27 that targeted Abdullahi Haji Daud, a senior al-Shabab military commander and attack planner. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said the U.S. is still assessing the results of that attack.
Regional officials in Afghanistan say Taliban abducted at least 17 passengers in the north of the country late Wednesday.

Zabiullah Amani, the provincial governors spokesman, said the passengers, local residents of Balkhab district, were traveling by bus to the capital of Sar-e-Pul province when Taliban kidnapped them.

He said local tribal elders were negotiating their release.

This is the second mass kidnapping in a week by the Afghan Taliban. Some 200 passengers were abducted earlier this week by insurgents who set up illegal check points on a highway in northern Kunduz province. They later released some of those passengers but executed at least 17 of them.

Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters gathered in Kabul Thursday for a demonstration against the Kunduz abductions and killings. The protest was organized by the Afghanistan Green Trend party led by former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh. Demonstrators chanted anti-Taliban slogans.

The protest ended after the organizers were allowed to enter the city and read out their resolution at Pashtoonistan square near the presidential palace gates.

From a different part of Afghanistan, a Parwan police chief said four people: a woman, a man, and two of their drivers, were killed as they drove from Baghlan province to Parwan province. They worked for the non-governmental organization Focus International.
The U.S. government has announced a near-total ban on domestic sales of elephant ivory, a move intended to protect the endangered animal.

Previously, ivory could be sold if it was brought to the U.S. before elephants were listed as endangered, or if there were documents proving the elephant had died of natural causes.

The new rules restrict sales to genuine antiques, such as ivory statues or artwork, and items like musical instruments made with less than 200 grams of ivory.

Todays bold action underscores the United States leadership and commitment to ending the scourge or elephant poaching and the tragic impact its having on wild populations, said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell.

The announcement comes just days before Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew visit China, one of several Asian countries where demand for ivory remains high. That demand has motivated poachers who kill African elephants for their tusks.

Dan Ashe, director at U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, said officials can now say President Barack Obama fulfilled his promise to nearly end domestic ivory sales and can ask Chinese leaders to do the same.

We still have much to do to save this species, but today is a good day for the African elephant," Ashe said.

The African elephant population in the wild is approximately 470,000  down from an estimated five million in the early 20th century.

This U.S. ban should be the catalyst for Chinas own ban, be the model for nations in Asia and Africa, and finally break down the worlds trade in ivory, said Christian Samper of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
The global terrorism threat is becoming increasingly decentralized with groups such as Islamic State spreading tentacles into regions including Southeast Asia, Russia's North Caucasus and Africa, the State Department said in its annual report on terrorism.

While al-Qaida, Boko Haram and al-Shabab continue to launch destabilizing attacks, the State Department said IS remained the greatest threat globally last year, with a formidable force in Syria and Iraq.

It says while some of the Islamic States forces in these two countries eroded during the latter half of 2015, fighters with the militant group managed to wage a series of attacks elsewhere, in countries including France and Turkey.

Islamic State also made gains in Libya and established affiliates in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The State Department lists nearly 60 U.S. designated foreign terrorist groups in its annual report, and it also singles out several countries as bad actors in the global fight against extremism.

In a VOA interview, Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism Justin Siberell said the report tries to provide a "better understanding of what is going on at the localized level" so that the U.S. and its allies can tailor efforts to fight extremists.

"Although our efforts have been quite successful in keeping these groups off balance, they continue to recruit new members," Siberell said.

"Our response really needs to be expanded into a better understanding of the drivers of radicalization," he said.

Other Key Findings:

Boko Haram: Declared Islamic State affiliation; Killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands in Lake Chad Basin region.

Al Qaida: Central leadership weakened, but group remained threat; Inspired network of affiliate groups in Arabian Peninsula, Maghreb and Indian subcontinent.

Al Shabab: Waged deadly attacks in Somalia; Sought to reverse progress made by Somali government and weaken political will of AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia).

Bad State Actors:

Iran: Considered foremost state sponsor of terrorism; Cited for support of Hezbollah, Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, extremists in Iraq and throughout Middle East.

Sudan: Retained State Sponsor of Terrorism designation due to U.S. concerns about support of groups including Fatah, Palestine Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah.

Syria: Assad regime provided political support to terror groups affecting regional stability; Provided weapons, political support to Hezbollah.

Progress:

-The State Department said 45 countries passed or updated laws dealing with foreign fighters.

-Thirty-five countries arrested foreign fighters.

-Twelve countries successfully prosecuted at least one foreign fighter, last year.
U.S. efforts to get badly needed aid from Turkey to Syria are being hampered by the ongoing impasse in negotiations and the Syrian governments continuing siege on areas held by opposition groups, including those supported by Washington.

Food scarce



As a result, U.S. officials say, nearly 20 towns have been deprived of food and humanitarian shipments, in some cases, for years, and food shortages are intensifying.

It is against this backdrop that the U.S., Britain, and France have issued an urgent call for the United Nations to begin humanitarian airdrops. U.N. officials, however, were quoted as saying airdrops were not imminent.

The call came ahead of a Security Council meeting to talk about the humanitarian crisis.

France is asking the United Nations, and in particular the WFP, to begin humanitarian airdrops for all the areas in need, beginning with Daraya, Muadhamiya and Madaya, where the civilian population, including children, risks dying of hunger, Frances U.N. ambassador, Francois Delattre, said at a news conference.

Officials said convoys reached the towns of Daraya for the first time in four years and a second one arrived in Muadhamiya Wednesday.

Some, however, say it is perhaps too little, too late. The U.S. Department of State called the deliveries far from sufficient.

The International Syria Support Group, including Russia and the U.S., agreed last month that it would call for airdrops if aid shipments were still being blocked by June 1.

On the day of that deadline, the Assad regime has cynically allowed limited amounts of aid into Daraya and Muadhamiya, but it has failed to deliver the widespread humanitarian access called for by the international community, Britains foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said in a statement.

Hammond said that while airdrops are complex, costly, and risky, they are now the last resort to relieve suffering in the besieged areas where U.N. officials say more than a half-million people are vulnerable.

Humanitarian aid



U.S. officials say getting American aid from Turkey to Syria has become very difficult as hostilities have continued and they are calling for third country actors in the Syrian conflict to use their leverage to make the aid deliveries possible.

Without pressure from Russia and Iran, and some other countries to push the regime in Damascus to provide humanitarian access to almost 20 besieged towns where people have not received food or humanitarian aid in some cases for years, I dont succeed, said Mark Ward, director of the Syria Transition Assistance Response Team at the U.S. embassy in Ankara.

Wards team is responsible for coordinating all U.S. assistance that is channeled to Syria via Turkey.

If the humanitarian situation doesnt get better and if the cease-fires dont work and if the hostilities continue, there will not be a political process because the environment has to be conducive to support the opposition and the Syrian people are not going to support the opposition in a political dialogue with the regime when they see no humanitarian access and increasing hostilities, Ward told VOA.

U.S. officials say getting both humanitarian aid to meet peoples basic needs and stabilization aid to get infrastructure running again have been impeded, not only by the Islamic State groups continued hold on territory, but by Turkeys moves to seal its border with Syria, as conditions have deteriorated in southeastern Turkey.
A Venezuelan political strategist has been granted asylum in the U.S., Colombian media reported Tuesday.

J.J. Rendon, who has been living in Miami, confirmed on twitter that the U.S. had accepted his request for asylum, retweeting his lawyer's photo of the official letter.

Rendon says he faces death threats in Venezuela where he openly opposes what he calls the pseudo revolution.

"There is no argument, or enough money on the face of the earth, that would convince me to work with anyone involved in Chavismo," he is quoted as saying in a biography on his website.

"Chavismo", named for the late socialist president Hugo Chavez, is a left-wing populist movement in Venezuela.

The opposition won a majority of parliament seats in December - the first time non-supporters of Chavez has been in power since the 1990s.

Rendon has worked on political campaigns at all levels across Latin America.

In 2013 Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro declared Rendon the number one public enemy of Venezuela and has accused him of conspiring against the government.
Its day two at Africa Unity Square in Harare where several political activists have decided to camp for 16 days and 16 nights to protest against the current social, economic and political problems in Zimbabwe.

At least 2,000 workers at Tongart Hullerts Triangle and Hippo Valley plantations in Zimbabwe are set to lose jobs as government threatens to grab several hectares of land at the sugar cane entity.

Police summon for the second time, Doctor Patson Dzamara, brother of abducted political activist Itai Dzamara, to question him about a photo released by the Dzamara family claiming that the masked person in the picture is Itai. The family claims that he was abducted by the Zimbabwe National Army, which has dismissed the allegations as baseless.

Government assists 15 women, who were allegedly abused in the Middle East, to return home.

And this evening we will feature Darlington Muyambwa, one of the 60 Mandela Washington fellows coming soon to the United States for the prestigious program initiated by U.S president Barack Obama.

Stay tuned for these stories and more coming up on Studio 7 at 7:30 pm on 9-0-9 Medium Wave and on the 4-9-3-0, 5-9-4-0 and 1-5-4-6-0 shortwave frequencies. We also broadcast on www.channelzim.net. Please check us out on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

This evening on Livetalk our hosts of the Womens Round Table Praxedes Jeremiah and Marvellous Mhlanga Nyahuye will be talking with listeners about human trafficking. At least 15 Zimbabwean women and girls trafficked to the Middle East are set to arrive back home today.

Participate by sending your messages on our WhatsApp number 001 202 465 0318. You can also post comments on this Facebook wall or send us your number so we can call you back. Please note that we are livestreaming on all Studio 7 Facebook pages. Stay tuned!!!!!!
Eleven civic society activists Wednesday braved the chilly weather in Harare and slept at Africa Unity Square as promised in protest over Zimbabwes social, economic and political problems.

The activists, drawn from several organizations, have vowed to stay at the place for 16 days and 16 nights.

Led by the Zimbabwe Activist Alliance and Zimbabwe Women in Politics Alliance, the activists agenda today was to encourage Zimbabweans to reject bond notes to be introduced in October this year, which the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe says are meant to boost subdued exports.

Lynette Mudehwe, coordinator and founder of the Zimbabwe Activist Alliance, told Studio 7 that Zimbabweans should also reject bank withdrawals as low as $50 per day.

The Zimbabwe National Students Union has joined the Occupy Africa Unity Square protest. Makomborero Haruzivishe, secretary general of the student body, said they are now tired of watching while Zimbabwes fruits of independence are being allegedly squandered by just a few individuals.

Linda Masarira, leader and founder of Zimbabwe Women in Politics Alliance, echoed the same sentiments, adding that the government has shown that it does not care about the needs of its citizens, especially women.

Ostallos Siziba, who is also among the protesters, said young people have decided to have a voice in national issues, including moves by the central bank to introduce bond notes.

The protesters said they will raise several issues per day at Africa Unity Square in order to generate debate on matters affecting local people, who are struggling to make ends meet, due to the current harsh economic environment in the country.
Some Zimbabweans are skeptical about moves by opposition parties to field a single presidential candidate in the 2018 general polls saying it is likely that they will be rocked by divisions before the polls.

Some argue that the current crop of opposition leaders in the Coalition of Democrats do not have the political stamina to dislodge President Robert Mugabes Zanu PF from power.

Their major concern is that two opposition parties  the MDC-T led by Morgan Tsvangirai and former Vice President Joice Mujurus Zimbabwe People First are not in the coalition, making it a shaky group of weak parties.

The coalition was signed by five opposition parties - the MDC led by former Industry Minister Professor Welshman Ncube, Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe led by former Energy Minister Elton Mangoma, former Finance Minister and Zanu PF member Simba Makonis Mavambo Kusile Dawn party, Democratic Assembly for Restoration and Empowerment and Zimbabweans United for Democracy.

How will they select a presidential candidate? Professor Ncube said everything has been put in place to ensure that the whole exercise works.

"The full modalities in terms of the details are yet to be developed. It is the principle, the principle we have agreed on ... We are not naive, we were not born yesterday. We know all the things we are warning against those challenges. And we will be alive to them at all material times.

"But what matters most is that we have looked at each other in the eye and we have said we must commit to each other that do not come into this coalition with the belief that you will be the candidate."

But political analyst Ibbo Mandaza of the Southern African Political and Economic Series, said all the leaders of the coalition of democrats are not presidential material.

"No one. There no one with an appeal as a presidential candidate ... And as long as all the big parties are not involved all others are minor parties as far as I see it."

He also noted that all opposition leaders in Zimbabwe have overstayed and need to pave way for new blood.

"I would go further to say the negotiations for a coalition should involve the need to effect a generational change in Zimbabwe, come 2018. We must agree, (Mrs) Joice Mujuru, Morgan Tsvangirai, Simba Makoni, Welshman Ncube must agree that they have had their chance. They can no longer lead this country."

And Zanu PFs deputy information director, Psychology Maziwisa, argues that the coalition of democrats is a non-starter.

"It's a coalition of zeros really. Zanu PF remains a formidable party. It's like having a coalition of a whole array of zeros. Zero plus zero plus zero will always give you zero."
Fifteen women and girls, who were trafficked to Kuwait in the Middle East by employment agencies, are expected back home Thursday.

Zimbabwes Ministry of Social Welfare bought air tickets for the women and girls that are expected to be welcomed by state officials and doctors at Harare Airport before being reunited with their families.

Kindness Paradza, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee of Foreign Affairs and Zanu PF legislator, said the abused Zimbabweans, who were promised lucrative jobs only to be turned into slaves and sex objects, are set to arrive in the evening.

"We are happy that the government through the social welfare ministry was able to buy air tickets for 15 women and girls and we expect more will be assisted as more are contacting the Kuwait Embassy wanting to return home daily. What is frightening is that its not only Kuwait but other Arab states where these women and girls are coming from," said Paradza.

More than 90 women and girls have now been repatriated after getting assistance from relatives, individuals and non-governmental organizations. At least 200 women were allegedly trafficked to the Middle East.

Paradza said the government is continually seeking ways to discourage women and girls from travelling to Arab states for employment opportunities without verifying job offers.

He added that those that believe their relative may be trafficked should contact the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Social Welfare for help in locating their loved ones.

"We hope this practice will stop soon and we will be tabling a bill in parliament regarding human trafficking, said Paradza.

We will give you more details tomorrow 
Police have, for the second time, asked Doctor Patson Dzamara, brother of abducted political activist Itai Dzamara, to report at a local police station following the release of a photograph by the Dzamara family claiming that the masked person in captivity in the picture with hands tied to the back is Itai Dzamara.

The police asked me to present the image I presented at the press conference. They asked me to present it to them, and so I was supposed to go there today but because of other commitments I could not, Dr. Dzamara said.

The family claims that Itai Dzamara was allegedly abducted by the Zimbabwe National Armys intelligence unit, an allegation which it has dismissed as baseless.

Dr. Dzamara Wednesday met with a team of detectives of the Law and Order section led by Assistant Commissioner Crispen Makedenge and two operatives of the Central Intelligence Organization, who indicated that they wanted to inquire about the authenticity of the information that he has concerning the abduction of his brother.

He said he will visit the police Friday in the company of his lawyers.
At least 2,000 workers at the privately-owned Tongart Hullerts Triangle and Hippo Valley plantations in Zimbabwes Masvingo province are set to lose their jobs as government is threatening to parcel out several hectares of land at the sugar cane entity.

Some of the workers claimed that the government has indicated that it would allocate 4,000 hectares of land at Triangle and Hippo Valley Estates in Chiredzi district to landless peasants and traditional leaders.

One of the employees, Elias Gwamure, said his future looks bleak as the sugar plantations are his only source of family income.

We are extremely concerned about our future because the land that is being pegged is where we are working from and this means we are definitely set to lose our jobs. This also means doom to us as we will no longer be able to fend for our families, said Gwamure.

Another worker, Emily Makamure, said her children will drop out of school if the government takes over the sugar estates.

Makamure said, I have been working here for close to a decade and have been able to look after my family and send my kids to school, so this is certainly going to affect me as we have been hinted that

2,000 people from my department will be laid off and this to me means my kids will stop going to school.

Temba Gumbo, who is also facing the same problem, questioned the governments move saying it is ill-timed as millions of people in the country are currently jobless.

The ruling party in its election manifesto in 2013 promised to create 2 million jobs but now they want to destroy 2,000 jobs. So, is that what they meant in creating jobs? We are now set to lose our jobs and the economic situation is not favourable to anyone. We are very angry with what they are doing, said Gumbo.

Although efforts to get a comment from Lands Minister, Douglas Mombeshora, were fruitless today, last week he told local media that pegging of the land for redistribution was already underway.

He said some of the intended beneficiaries are already complaining that the stands being pegged are unequal.

The continued grabbing of land at the plantations over the years has been blamed for the drastic decline in sugar production in the country. This year the company recorded a profit of only one million dollars compared to $35 million in 2015.

Zimbabwe embarked on a land reform program in 2000, which led to the displacement of thousands of workers. Critics have attributed the decline in agricultural production to the land reform program.
The logo of Boeing (BA) is seen in Los Angeles, California, United States, April 22, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo

By Alwyn Scott

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Boeing Co said on Thursday it plans to lay off 211 employees in Washington state on July 22, a group that includes information technology workers that Boeing is letting go in a cost-cutting drive.

The Chicago-based aerospace and defense company said last week it would cut an unspecified number of IT workers through involuntary layoffs.

Washington state's Employment Security Department said late on Wednesday that it had received notice of 211 layoffs planned by the company.

Boeing is slashing costs as it battles for sales with European rival Airbus and tries to widen its profit margins to the mid-teens by the end of the decade, from 7.9 percent in the first quarter.

Boeing spokesman Kent Cato said the layoffs include the IT positions and a few jobs from its defense business and corporate organization.

The company is simultaneously laying off IT workers in other states, including 11 in Texas, but the bulk of the job reductions are in Washington state, Boeing spokeswoman Lauren McFarland said. She said Boeing has about 6,500 IT workers.

The layoffs include management and non-management workers and are being made across the company, McFarland said.

Separately, Boeing is using voluntary layoffs to cut about 4,000 positions by mid-year and up to 8,000 by year-end at its commercial airplanes division.

At the end of April, Boeing had 158,916 employees, including 77,497 in Washington state.

Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg told an investor conference in New York on Thursday that the company is cutting costs to remain competitive with Airbus, but is not cutting airplane prices "dramatically" to win orders.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum, Dan Grebler and Bill Rigby)
Israel and Elliss Make It a Double, from 2016, at Gagosian Beverly Hills. Photo: Jeff McLane/Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis; images courtesy iStock and Gagosian Gallery

The first thought I had about Alex Israels show at the brightly lit Beverly Hills Gagosian was, This should be a career-ender. The second thought was, It also represents something bigger.

I usually write about New York shows, but I was in Los Angeles, so I went, and I discovered that I wanted to write about it. What was I looking at? Range Roversize bland paintings on photos of L.A.: skylines, palm trees, the beach, all manner of Southern California cliche. Over these derivative takes on Richard Prince and Ed Ruscha, Israel has printed words, a la Barbara Kruger, written by the Gen X novelist Bret Easton Ellis. The show is their collaboration. Two of the paintings are almost as big as the billboards on the Sunset Strip, and on them you get L.A. nightscapes with banalities like Im going to be a very different kind of star, or silly circular musings that begin The Uber driver rolled across an opulent stretch of Melrose, yadda yadda, He looked as blank as his headshot.

Which brings you to the next gallery of Israels rainbow-roll-shaped self-profile paintings. Headshots, I guess? The written-for-idiots press release says theyre part of Gagosians Oscar show program and that the work is about how the American dream, as embodied by Los Angeles mythos, remains affecting and potent. I would have said that its safely ready-made with built-in tells about Hollywood, the industry, and celebrity  all for local millionaires looking for art that reminds them of, well, them.

Maybe it rankles me that a young artist has figured out a facile formula to dupe L.A. collectors who want expensive visual comfort food. Regardless, the work feels flip, cynical, cellophane-thin  its an artist gaming the system with theatrical bric-a-brac. With their slick surfaces, soft-hued hazy peaches-and-cream palette, and shaped configurations that look made for the architectural niches in L.A. mansions, Israels paintings give anyone who looks at them knowing winks. Israel just adds saccharin to Abstract Expressionism and pretties up 1960s Color Field painting, giving those in the know the look of Jules Olitski backdrops and West Coast Rothko. Art as leisurewear. Easy-on-the-eye abstractions with cool cerebral cachet.

The view from Gagosian Beverly Hills. Photo: Jeff McLane/Alex Israel and Bret Easton Ellis; images courtesy iStock and Gagosian Gallery

So what? Oblivious collectors collecting cheeky art shown by opportunistic galleries are nothing new. And Ive really liked a couple of things by Israel, particularly his Reena Spaulings video exhibition As It Lays four years ago. (Founded in 2003, this Lower East Side gallery is so hip that almost anything shown here gains sway. I know people afraid not to like exhibitions there; the amount of coverage the gallery gets is off the charts.) In the talk-show-like video Israel showed there, he sits in a chair in front of one of his bland backdrop paintings wearing sunglasses he designed himself, asking celebs like Quincy Jones, Marilyn Manson, Paul Anka, and Christina Ricci silly questions like Did you ever cheat on a test? or Do you take advantage of duty-free shopping? (His Instagram of all the beautiful places he goes  thats the other thing I like about him.) The video is his version of Prousts questionnaire by way of Warhols Interview, maybe. While it does get creepy when he asks Ellis, Who should be the first female president? and Ellis responds, There shouldnt be one, I loved it. Its mesmerizing watching people mesmerized by being on camera mesmerize us. Old 1980s trope or not, it was the best feedback loop of 2012.

Since then, hes become a super-hot artist. Which makes him a very interesting case study, because success has changed him. Hes 34, and his works regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, and have topped $1 million at auction. One is always wary of making generalizations, but when an artist is surrounded by this much money and success, becoming an anointed member of the jet-set, global mega-wealthy, it can be hard to make work that is about anything but lifestyle and success. The early work really got under our skin: It was wild not to know if we were on the inside or outside of that feedback loop. This newer work just gets on our nerves with its one-note archness, pretend critique, and go-with-the-decor aesthetic. At first, I thought museums would be resistant to this strain of easy art. Then, not two hours after I left the Gagosian exhibition, I walked into the big multiplexed Los Angeles County Museum of Art with its new pavilions, and the first thing I saw was Israels gigantic, almost monochrome sunset-colored Sky Backdrop. Its a million-dollar selfie machine. I imagined a LACMA exhibition: Alex Israel: The Early Year. Whatever they call those people who fill seats at the Academy Awards when the stars step out, thats what this art looks like; there but unobtrusive.



Israel seems to move smoothly in this milieu. He looks the part: handsome, well-dressed, always wearing his shades, with the mien of a Hollywood actor, he pops up constantly at big-deal benefits with film producers, Academy Awardwinners, fashion designers, museum directors and trustees, and of course the globetrotting curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. True, the art world has always had flashes in the pan  posers, young male darlings, and theory-talking hipsters playing the system. Until now, most of them seemed to stay relatively nameless, part of the background, not gaining major market traction, existing more as dandies who turned up at parties. Perhaps more to the point, their ascents tended not to be quite so fast, and thus not so disorienting to the artists themselves and their work. Typically, over a decade theyd settle into a career, make middle-echelon work, get attention, cash in, and fade away. All not in such bright light.

Which brings me to the next point: I wouldnt be so worried about the market embracing these artists if I didnt suspect it was also destroying them, and in fairly short order. These days, we are getting more and more out-of-nowhere, or straight-out-of-art-school, one-hit wonders who break on the scene. And then theyre gone. Many of the so-called Zombie Formalists who rushed the stage a few years back making more or less the same process-based, abstract, almost-monochrome paintings, immediately selling them to collectors for hundreds of thousands of dollars  artists who were in the auction news all the time  are already seeing the market for their work evaporate.

Making matters more lurid, rather than exhibiting with their peers and the gallerists they started with, many of these artists instantly began showing in mega-galleries. Israel and Dan Colen signed up with Gagosian, Oscar Murillo with David Zwirner. The turn-of-the-millennium artist Terence Koh started bigger, with Deitch Projects, then moved all over the place, turning up in Kunsthalles and even Charles Saatchis private museum. Then he faded fast. (He too made early videos of himself interviewing celebrities like Marina Abramovic, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Lady Gaga.) The German artist Anselm Reyle started showing with Gavin Brown in 2002, left for Gagosian by 2009, started selling work for huge prices, and became an auction phenom. At only 46, hes all but gone. These young artists are spending less time with their peers and have been surrounded by a much richer, older, faster set. And when rough times come, the artist lacks a great support network. A painter doesnt join Gagosian to have studio visits with Larry or to call him on all those dark nights of the soul. The costs can be high. Recent reports found Murillo, for instance, destroying his passport on a plane and saying things like The West is a salivating penis. I feel bad for this 30-year-old. Sterling Ruby, an artist whose work Ive loved (notably his gigantic ceramic atomic ashtrays), has gone from Foxy Productions to Metro Pictures to Pace to Hauser & Wirth to Gagosian. Mega-galleries arent, by nature bad; it is great to strike it rich. But theres something foul about artists going almost from art school to one of these business behemoths and then disappear from any conversations except those about money and celebrity. This is how the art world eats its young.

Who knows whether Israel will meet these fates? Ive met him a couple of times and hes a nice guy, a smooth operator. Im told he grew up in the son of a wealthy L.A. collector. Which shows: Much of this work  like most of the stuff Im grouping it with  comes with heady underpinnings of art theory, art-about-art rationales, and other insider commentary, done in preapproved styles. The exact right ideas and periods of art history are put into conspicuous play: the 1960s and 1970s, permutations on Pictures Art, redoes of Koons, Kippenberger, Krebber, Wool, Warhol, Prince, etc. Art-world outsiders wont recognize the references, but insiders will. Everyone else can have them explained by patient gallerists excited to sell them another level of meaning. Which is only emptying this art more. The works appeal because they are simple, easy to digest, immediately recognizable as cool in a very decorative way  no one could object to them. But for those who need more, for those who want to feel flattered that they can see more historical content in the works, there is this secret second order of content, invisible on the actual surface, passed along almost like gossip  Mandarin and market code for the privileged. But an art that can so comfortably have it both ways cant really be about much at all, can it? As with the Israel-Ellis collaboration, its all air quotes.

Alex Israel/Bret Easton Ellis was on view at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills from February 25 through April 23, 2016.
So it begins. Photo: Getty Images

In the wake of last weeks deadly shooting at New Yorks Irving Plaza during a T.I. concert, other artists are already paying the price. Rolling Stone reports that concert promoter Live Nation has canceled or postponed six upcoming shows  nearly all featuring rap artists  at both Irving Plaza and Gramercy Theatre. In light of last weeks tragic event, we are acting with an overabundance of caution and coordinating a going forward strategy with the New York Police Department that may also include a curfew, a spokesperson tells RS. Because these discussions with New York Police Department are ongoing, we will be postponing a few of our upcoming shows. Those shows include concerts from rappers Joey Bada$$, Mac Miller, YG, and Vince Staples, as well as Guns N Roses cover band Appetite for Destruction and Canadian rock duo Black Pistol Fire.

In a since-deleted tweet, Bada$$ accused the NYPD on Wednesday of canceling his show, which the NYPD denied. Sources tell Rolling Stone that although the artists are mostly rap acts, the cancellations affected anyone scheduled to perform at either venue this weekend regardless of genre. Black Pistol Fire have reportedly already rescheduled their show, while the other artists are said to be in negotiations to play at alternate venues this weekend  which coincides with the New Yorkarea festivals Governors Ball and Hot 97s Summer Jam. Its currently unclear if Live Nation will cancel or move other upcoming shows at these venues.
Bulgarian border police personal stand between military vehicles donated to Bulgarian government by the United Kingdom at the border between Bulgaria and Turkey on May 22, 2016 (AFP Photo/Nikolay Doychinkov) (AFP/File)

Sofia (AFP) - Bulgaria has for the first time blocked around a hundred migrants from entering through its southern border with Greece, sending a "strong message" to human traffickers, a minister said Sunday.

Among them were 56 Afghans who were found hiding on board a freight train, as well as another group of some 40 Syrians and Iraqis.

Both groups were stopped on Saturday in what was the largest number of people caught trying to enter the eastern European country since the start of the migrant crisis.

"Their return was carried out at a record speed for Europe," said Prime Minister Boyko Borisov after meeting border police and an army unit in the southwestern town of Blagoevgrad.

"We have sent a strong message to traffickers who area exploiting these unfortunates," added Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova.

Following the recent evacuation of the squalid Idomeni migrant camp on the Greek-Macedonia border, where thousands had been stranded after Balkan states closed their borders, Bulgaria has been bracing for an influx of people seeking a new route to Europe.

The Afghans were returned to Greece the same day, while the other 40 are being investigated and will likely be sent back in the coming week, Borisov said.

The migrants had each paid traffickers 200 euros per person believing they were being taken into Macedonia, he said.

In order to manage any further incidents, a contingent of 65 soldiers equipped with 4x4 vehicles would be deployed along the western part of the Greek border to back up the border police, he said.

Bulgaria's border with Greece is nearly 500 kilometres (300 miles) long, and it also shares a 260-kilometre (160 mile) frontier with Turkey.

So far, Sofia has concentrated on buttressing its Turkish frontier, speeding up construction of a 132-kilometre (820-mile) fence which is some three metres (10 foot) high.

But earlier this year, Borisov said the Greek frontier was "the major threat", saying if necessary, Sofia would erect a barrier there too.

Situated on the European Union's eastern flank, Bulgaria registered 5,010 asylum seekers this year, among them Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.
Sixteen-year-old guitarist Jackson Anderson remembers the times that he and his two Rising Sons bandmates would set up their sound equipment for a gig, then start playing only to watch some in the audience start to fidget.

They were probably thinking, This sound check is really long,  he recalled. Then 10 minutes later, theyd realize we were the band and it wasnt a joke or a novelty.

Anderson, with 16-year-old bassist George Eichenberg and 15-year-old keyboardist Spencer Davis, take another big step away from novelty territory this month with something most high school-age groups usually fantasize about: a multistate tour.

The trio, which plays a blend of pop, blues, jazz and soft rock, heads off this weekend on a brief tour that features seven shows in four Gulf Shore states over nine days. The band will say goodbye to Waco fans and friends with a 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday show at Jakes Texas Tea House, 613 Austin Ave., a free concert, but one where theyll sell special tour T-shirts to defray expenses.

Rising Sons got its start three years ago as the five-person band 26th Street, playing local venues, school and community functions, and winning a 2014 Horizon Award from the Music Association of Central Texas. Anderson felt he could do more in music with a smaller, more committed group and pulled out what became Rising Sons, its name suggested by MACT President Brad Vaughn.

For the last couple of years, Rising Sons  the sons of Liz and Bage Anderson, Alex and Gretchen Eichenberg and Bob and Erin Davis  has played such Waco venues as Jakes Texas Tea House, Mannys, La Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, Tradinghouse Bar and Grill and a standing gig at the Waco Hippodromes patio. The trio also has performed at area festivals and last years Waco Wonderland, working a playlist that samples John Mayer, Coldplay, the Eagles, Maroon 5, Stevie Wonder and more.

With members still attending Vanguard School, gigs have largely been weekend affairs and a few nights, with heavy booking during the summer. Theyve already coped with a show where the house system blew its speakers, and the skepticism that young bands often encounter with older audiences. Lessons learned? If you act like you deserve respect, people will give you respect, said Anderson, who would like to pursue music studies at the University of North Texas after high school.

Kicking off this summers performance schedule is their June tour, in which the three researched live music venues near or on the way to the Davises summer home in Seaside, Florida. Weve been playing a lot in Waco, which we enjoy doing, but we thought this would be a fun little getaway, Anderson said.

After finding places that intrigued them, Anderson said parents took over to handle booking details with the venues, helped in part by a press kit (http://bit.ly/1TS4ck3 )prepared by his parents, Liz and Bage Anderson of E.H. Anderson PR.

The tour, with transportation from their families, will feature gigs in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, Louisiana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; and Seaside and Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. The musicians will travel with their families.

Rising Sons guitarist has been studying with Waco professional guitarist Pat McKee, and those lessons expanded to the trio in recent weeks as they prepare for their tour. McKee has had a standing Thursday night gig with bassist Trammell Kelly at Diamond Backs for more than a decade, and hes shared his experience in performing and repertoire with the young musicians.

Theyre a really good band and theyre friends, he observed. Theyre a real band in that sense. Thats what helped them a lot. Theyre very supportive of each other.

McKee started playing guitar when he was their age, but in garage bands that werent very good.

Performing away from home and with audiences that dont know them will provide valuable experience, McKee said. Itll raise their playing a few notches . . . Im happy for them. I wish I could go along.

-----

Rising Sons

Performance: 6 to 9 p.m. Friday at Jakes Texas Tea House, 613 Austin Ave.

Admission: Free, but $15 T-shirts sold to defray tour expenses.
Waco City Council will have eight candidates next Tuesday when choosing someone to fill the District 5 council seat vacated by Kyle Deaver, who was recently voted in as mayor.

The council will interview the candidates in public at its 3 p.m. work session June 7 and could make a decision at the 6 p.m. business session. The meeting takes place at the Bosque Theater at the Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave.

Deaver, who had a year left in his District 5 term, won the mayors seat without an opponent in the May 7 election.

The application deadline to be considered to fill out that term was 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Deaver said he is gratified by the strong response to the call for applicants.

I think its excellent that we have that many, and so many that appear to be very qualified, he said.

The council will give each candidate three to five minutes to present themselves and then will ask a standard set of questions, including whether the applicants have voted in previous city elections.

The candidates are as follows:

 LaRaine DuPuy, 59, a nonprofit development official who lives on Westover Road. She serves on the Waco Plan Commission and the board of Todays Action Tomorrows Leaders.

 Wes Filer, an attorney who lives on Fish Pond Road. He has served on the Plan Commission and Charter Revision Commission and now serves on the Airport Advisory Board as well as the board of the McLennan Community College Foundation.

 Thomas Martin Flowers, 64, a financial adviser who lives on Old Oaks Drive. He has served on the Waco Aviation Advisory Board, the City of Waco Transportation Committee and the Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation board.

 Roger A. Fuller, 56, an investor who lives on Oakwood Avenue. He has served as chairman of the McLennan County Library Commission and is a member of the Plan Commission.

 Edward E. Getterman, 37, an investor who lives on Bending Trail. He is active at First United Methodist Church and St. Pauls Episcopal Day School.

 Jennifer Hobbs, a social worker who lives at Bear Creek Crossing. She has worked in Rick Perrys gubernatorial campaign and is active at Calvary Baptist Church and Waco Montessori School.

 Bradford Holland, 45, a physician who lives on Castle Bluff Circle. He has served as president of the McLennan County Medical Society, chairman of Smoke-Free Waco, board of directors of Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and president of the McLennan County Republican Club.

 James Christopher Holmes, a director of FirstCity Financial Corp., who lives on Hillandale Road. He serves on the boards of the Greater Waco Chamber and the Waco Symphony.

Deaver said he considers past public service, especially on city boards, as a strong qualification for the position. Deaver had experience on the Plan Commission before he became the District 5 appointee.

Deaver is the third District 5 councilman in a row who has left the seat to become mayor. He was the District 5 replacement for Malcolm Duncan Jr., who in turn had filled the vacancy when Jim Bush became mayor.
Global-warming alarmists, youre doing it wrong.

Ask a Washington dinner party full of moderately well informed people what will happen with Iran over the next five years, and youll end up with a consensus that gee, thats tough. Ask them what GDP growth will be in fall 2019, and theyll probably converge on a hesitant 2 or 3 percent, I guess? On the other hand, ask them whats going to happen to the climate over the next 100 years, and what youre likely to hear is angry.

How can one be certain about outcomes in a complex system that were not really all that good at modeling? Anyone whos familiar with the history of macroeconomic modeling in the 1960s and 1970s will be tempted to answer, Umm, we cant. Economists thought that the explosion of data and increasingly sophisticated theory was going to allow them to produce reasonably precise forecasts of what would happen in the economy. Enormous mental effort and not a few careers were invested in building out these models. And then the whole effort was basically abandoned, because the models failed to outperform mindless trend extrapolation  or as Kevin Hassett once put it, a ruler and a pencil.

This lesson from economics is essentially what the lukewarmists bring to discussions about climate change. They concede that all else equal, more carbon dioxide will cause the climate to warm. But they say that warming is likely to be mild unless you use a model that assumes large positive feedback effects. Because climate scientists, like the macroeconomists, cant run experiments where they test one variable at a time, predictions of feedback effects involve a lot of theory and guesswork. I do not denigrate theory and guesswork; they are a vital part of advancing the sum of human knowledge. But when youre relying on theory and guesswork, you always want to leave plenty of room for the possibility that your models output is (how shall I put this?) . . . wrong.

Naturally, proponents of climate-change models have welcomed the lukewarmists constructive input by carefully considering their points and by advancing counterarguments firmly couched in the scientific method.

No, of course Im just kidding. The reaction to these mild assertions is often to brand the lukewarmists deniers and treat them as if what they were saying was morally and logically equivalent to suggesting that the Holocaust never happened.

If youre not familiar with the lukewarmist case, I urge you to read the nine-part series by Arizona business owner Warren Meyer at CoyoteBlog.com. I am not urging you to read it because I agree with every part. (In particular, Im much more eager to ensure against even a small chance of climate catastrophe, just as I would support even a very expensive system to detect and deflect massive asteroids that might hit our planet. Weve only got the one planet so far, and it would be a shame if something happened to it.)

I urge you to read it because it is a calm, measured, very thoughtful laying out of the lukewarmist case by a very smart person who has put a lot of time and effort into thinking about the subject  much more time and effort than 99 percent of the angry people on both sides who shout over dinner tables and type in all caps.

The series is also a model of how to talk about the subject. Meyer says this is what I think, and this is why I think it. People can certainly disagree with his conclusions, and I would be very interested to see climate bloggers engage with Meyers series in like manner: refraining from calling names or questioning motives, and instead calmly laying out the reasons that they think warming is likely to be catastrophic.

But vanishingly little of the debate is conducted in those sorts of terms. Skeptics are accused of being ideologues, or in the pay of the fossil fuel industry, or simply selfish monsters who care nothing for future generations. The other side  who expect big temperature jumps and catastrophic consequences  is accused of being ideologues, or interested in making an alarmist case in order to further their own careers as climate change activists, or authoritarian monsters who are less interested in saving the planet than in forcing their own left-wing economic order on the rest of the world.

The arguments about global warming too often sound more like theology than science. Oh, the word science gets thrown around a great deal, but its cited as a sacred authority, not a fallible process that staggers only awkwardly and unevenly toward the truth, with frequent lurches in the wrong direction. I cannot count the number of times someone has told me that they believe in the science, as if that were the name of some omniscient god who had delivered us final answers written in stone. For those people, there can be only two categories in the debate: believers and unbelievers. Apostles and heretics.

This is, of course, not how science works, and people who treat it this way are not showing their scientific bona fides; they are violating the very thing in which they profess such deep belief. One does not believe in science as an answer; science is a way of asking questions. At any given time, that method produces a lot of ideas, some of which are correct, and many of which are false, in part or in whole.

There is a huge range of possible beliefs that go into assessing the various complicated theories about how the climate works, and the global-warming predictions generated by those theories range from could well be catastrophic to probably not a big deal. I know very smart, well-informed, decent people who fall at either end of the spectrum, and others who are somewhere in between. Then there are folks like me who arent sure enough to make a prediction, but are very sure we wouldnt like to find out, too late, that the answer is oops, catastrophic.

These are not differences that can be resolved by name calling. Nor has the presumed object of this name calling  to delegitimize thoughtful opposition, and thereby increase the consensus in favor of desired policy proposals  been a notable political success, at least in the U.S. It has certainly rallied the tribe, and produced a lot of patronizing talk about science by people who arent actually all that familiar with the underlying scientific questions. Other than that, we remain pretty much where we were 25 years ago: holding summits, followed by the dismayed realization that we havent, you know, really done all that much except burn a lot of hydrocarbons flying people to summits. Maybe last years Paris talks will turn out to be the actual moment when things started to change  but having spent the last 15 years as a reporter listening to people tell me that no, really, were about to turn the corner, I retain a bit of skepticism.

Unfortunately, when you rally your own side with these sorts of tactics, you also rally the other tribe, and if theyre as numerous as you are, this can lead to defeat as easily as victory. It would be a lot better for everyone  including the planet  if we left off the tribalism and the excommunications and went back to actually talking about the science: messy, imprecise and always open for well-grounded debate.

Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist writing on economics, business and public policy.
WAHOO -- Ralph Sabatka of Wahoo is getting more anxious as the June 6 Washington D.C. departure date for the Nebraska Vietnam Combat Veterans Flight nears.

I dont know what my emotions will be like of the Wall, said the U.S. Navy veteran who served in Vietnam from November, 1969 to May, 1970.

Sabatka is one of 500 Vietnam veterans from almost 200 Nebraska communities who will visit the Vietnam Wall in Washington D.C. The monumental trip will make the Nebraska veterans the largest group of Vietnam veterans from any one state to visit the Wall, according to Jim Knotts, president and CEO of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund in Washington D.C.

Sabatka said he wants to take the opportunity to see the Wall, something he has never experienced up close. He hopes to meet veterans and share similar experiences with them.

Vietnam Veteran Lynn Maxson of Ceresco has only seen the Wall before its completion. He is hoping for a similar experience as Sabatka amongst his comrades.

Going back with people that have been there and done the same thing youve done makes it a very meaningful trip, and basically you can see the healing that takes place amongst each other, said the U.S. Army Veteran who served in Vietnam from September, 1967 to December, 1968.

Maxson said he didnt think he had a prayer to be qualified and selected to go on the all expense paid trip from Omaha to Washington D.C.

Theres so many other deserving people that had it probably a lot worse than I did. But you dont know how many people from Nebraska were in this war, so I thought I would give it a shot to see if I would qualify to go, and luck behold I was, he said.

Maxson will be looking on the Wall for one veterans name in particular from South Bend, Ind. He remembers escorting him to his final resting place.

More than anything, Maxson hopes to gain one thing from the experience.

Im hoping - thats another one of my expectations - is to maybe be able to converse a little more about the experiences that we had over there, he said.

Marv Bales of Cedar Bluffs said he has only briefly passed through D.C. by train during his time of service in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Im kinda getting excited about the trip and being with the other guys. There might be somebody that I know, but I dont know if there will be, said Bales, who served from October, 1966 to September, 1967.

Gus Moreno of Ithaca said he is not going for personal reasons.

For me, this is mainly to claim tribute for those who didnt come back, said the veteran U.S. Marine Corps Capt.

Moreno said the only way to get him on an airplane is knowing he will reconnect with Bill Clothier, the SMS Navy Corpsman he said saved his life not once but twice.

Clothier will travel from Atlanta to meet Moreno for the first time since 1968. In 1984, Moreno received the Purple Heart honor for being wounded during his service in 1966.

Talking about his experience in Vietnam is not something Moreno does.

My wife and I have been married 45 years and discussed maybe 10 sentences about that time of my life, Moreno said. I was a Marine Infantry man. I am very proud of that. No regrets and I would do it all over again.

Other area Vietnam veterans partaking in the Honor Flight include: Kenny Danner, Ashland; Ron Garner, Ashland; Don Hughes, Ceresco; Ed Linderman, Colon;

Doug Johnson, Mead; Leonard Bouc, Mead; Jerry Paes, Prague; Larry Urbanek; Dwight.

Patriotic Productions of Omaha is responsible for organizing the flight. Veterans will take three charter jets sponsored by The Theodore F. and Claire M. Hubbard Family Foundation, AuctionTime.com and TractorHouse. Other funding was provided by more than 500 donors from across the state.

A pre-flight dinner and program has been arranged for 6 p.m., June 5 at Embassy Suites in La Vista. Doors will open at 5 p.m. Members of the public are invited while seats last for $50 each or $500 for a reserved table of eight.

A celebration sponsored by Hy-Vee to welcome home the veterans will take place at 9 p.m. June 6 at Eppley Airfield. Patriotic Productions asks that citizens join to give the veterans a proper welcome home they never received.

Detailed information may be obtained at Patriotic Productions website, www.patrioticproductions.org.
LINCOLN  Stephanie Tabor was not surprised to see "a huge stack of gifts" from students on Alicia Shoemaker's desk. Tabor, a junior in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, had just returned from a semester of study abroad and stopped by Shoemaker's Waverly High School classroom to add to the pile. In typical Shoemaker form, she told her former student that her students were the greatest and she didn't deserve the gifts. Tabor knows better.

On Friday, Shoemaker will receive the 2016 Frieda Battey Distinguished Educator Award at a luncheon in the East Campus Union at UNL. The award recognizes excellence in teaching and comes with a cash award for both the teacher and school. Tabor nominated her for the honor.

"Alicia Shoemaker is the reason that I want to be a Spanish teacher," Tabor said. "She truly never stops teaching and helping her students, even once they graduate. I graduated from high school two years ago and she has taught and encouraged me so much."

"Above and beyond" are terms that were also used to describe the educator, who teaches Spanish, English and world geography, heads the Spanish department, is on the school improvement team and was chosen for the Waverly school district's first leadership cadre.

"She is willing to do all she can to impact as many students in our school as she can," Principal Ryan Ricenbaw said. "Alicia's expertise lies in her visionary thinking, her innovative classroom style and her deep desire to impact every student in her classroom."

Shoemaker said her personal mission as a teacher is to "engage and serve students within the global community via optimism, resilience and empathy." She leads study abroad trips for students and regularly brings international guests to her classroom in person or via Skype. Although she was educated in a one-room schoolhouse on the Nebraska prairie, Shoemaker has embraced a global view and has taught on three different continents through scholarships and Fulbright grants. She is working on a master's degree in educational leadership.

"Although I plan to use what I have gained in my graduate education leadership coursework by strategically planning for student programs and improving students' access to academic and private services, I have decided to remain a teacher because my true calling is encouraging student growth as I listen to students as well as learn with and from them each day," Shoemaker said.

The Battey Award honors the life and career of Freda Drath Battey, a 1923 graduate of the University of Nebraska Teachers College and a public school teacher in Ashland for many years. College of Education and Human Sciences students nominate recipients. The criteria for the award are "excellence in teaching coupled with recognition in other complementary education activities." In reviewing nominations, the selection committee looks for evidence of teaching excellence, efforts to continue to grow as a teacher, commitment to students and engagement with students outside the classroom. For more information on the Battey Award, visit http://go.unl.edu/battey.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Sacramento, California, U.S. June 1, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

Donald Trump is trying to get out in front of Hillary Clinton's big foreign-policy speech Thursday by launching counterattacks through his Twitter account.

Clinton's speech in California will focus on Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and his supposed lack of national-security credentials.

Trump, in turn, has questioned Clinton's fitness for the position of commander in chief.

He spread his tweet attacks out throughout the day:

Crooked Hillary Clinton has zero natural talent - she should not be president. Her temperament is bad and her decision making ability-zilch!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

Bernie Sanders was right when he said that Crooked Hillary Clinton was not qualified to be president because she suffers from BAD judgement!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

With all of the Crooked Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience, she has made so many mistakes - and I mean real monsters! No more HRC.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

Crooked Hillary Clinton, who I would love to call Lyin' Hillary, is getting ready to totally misrepresent my foreign policy positions.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, plans to cast Trump as different from any other nominee in recent history and "fundamentally unfit" for the role of commander in chief.

Republicans joined Trump in attacking Clinton over foreign policy on Thursday  the party released a memo headlined, "Hillary Clinton: A Disaster For US National Security." A line at the top of the memo reads, "A Failure As Secretary Of State Who Defends The Weak Obama Administration Foreign Policy Cannot Be Trusted With Our Security."

Story continues

The memo quoted a series of news articles about Clinton's foreign policy and defined "top takeaways," including Clinton's refusal to "categorize the terrorist threat as 'radical Islam,'" Clinton's support of President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran that "legitimizes and empowers" the "hostile" nation, and Clinton's support for the US military intervention in Libya, which it said is now "a safe haven for terrorists and has become an ISIS stronghold."

NOW WATCH: 'What magic wand do you have?': Obama calls out Trump





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By Ron Bousso LONDON (Reuters) - When it comes to the North Sea, there is no such thing as an easy sale, even for oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP . More than any other region in the world, the North Sea has suffered greatly over the past two years as a 60 percent drop in oil prices, high operating costs, dwindling reserves and a tough tax regime has hit operators hard. As a result, producers ranging from Shell and France's Total to smaller regional players such as Enquest and Tullow Oil have put dozens of assets in the region on the block to boost their balance sheets. But deals have been few and far apart. Buyers and sellers have found it hard to agree on the value of assets and how to share the costs of dismantling and cleaning up of obsolete fields, known as decommissioning. With around 30 percent of fields operating at a loss in 2016 and others seeing razor thin margins, "almost all UK North Sea assets are up for sale," said Fiona Legate, senior UK upstream oil and gas analyst at consultancy WoodMackenzie. "There is however a limited pool of buyers," she added. BP has struggled to sell a stake in its Forties pipeline system, one of the region's oldest and the main source for the eponymous crude used to price the global Brent crude benchmark. Talks with Swiss-based chemical giant Ineos recently collapsed after the sides could not agree on how to price the asset, sources close to the negotiations said. The Forties pipeline has a capacity to deliver over 1 million barrels per day and serves over 50 offshore oil and gas fields in the central North Sea, according to BP's website. But declining output has meant the pipeline operated at less than 40 percent of its capacity last year, WoodMackenzie says. Ineos wanted BP and other producers using the pipeline to commit to a fixed capacity fee that would guarantee revenue even if output continued to decline, industry sources close to the talks told Reuters. BP however sought to pay on a per-barrel basis, they said. "Buyers want something to protect them against a drop in throughput," one source said. The pipeline system remains on the market. BP and Ineos declined to comment. The UK North Sea was a trailblazer for the unlocking of new oil and gas resources deep under the sea. But since hitting peak production in the late 1990s, it has been in steady decline. VICIOUS CIRCLE Shell is starting an ambitious three-year $30 billion (20 billion pounds) global asset sale programme to pay for its $54 billion acquisition of smaller British rival BG Group in February. In the North Sea, the company is planning to bundle several assets in packages that will include mature fields along with more attractive assets such as the Buzzard field and pipelines, banking sources said. Bank of America Merrill Lynch will run the North Sea asset sales, banking sources said. The Anglo-Dutch company held talks in recent months with Neptune, a North Sea-focused investment company headed by former Centrica boss Sam Laidlow and backed by private equity funds Caryle Group and CVC Partners. Shell, Carlyle and Bank of America declined to comment. Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry remains confident it can meet its target within around three years. Shell will focus at first on selling infrastructure, refining and retail businesses that are less exposed to oil price fluctuations over production, or upstream assets, he said. "If the oil price stays at $48 a barrel maybe (the sale programme) will take us a little bit longer. We are not chasing sales of upstream assets at $48." Operating in the North Sea remains challenging even after Shell cut costs sharply in recent years, Henry said, adding that within the region, some areas are more profitable than others. "We've taken our costs down hugely and improved our reliability and availability. So the performance today is much better than it was two years ago but it is still not good," Henry told reporters on May 24. "In general it is high cost region in which you have to keep spending to stay in business and have significant decommissioning and restoration costs." An extended period of low oil prices also leads to an earlier decommissioning of fields, he said. WoodMackenzie estimates 142 fields will cease production over the next five years. Total UK North Sea decommissioning are expected to reach 55 billion pounds. "It is a vicious circle with the low oil price," Henry said. M&A activity has not stopped completely and is focusing mostly on consolidating existing positions, Legate said. The recent recovery in oil prices to around $50 a barrel was nevertheless expected to revive M&A activity in the second half of the year, she added. BP last month doubled its interest in the Culzean gas field development to 32 percent after buying a stake from JX Nippon. Shell and Exxon Mobil last year sold a small cluster of fields, including the Anasuria Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit, to two Malaysian firms. (Corrects paragraph 29 to say that total UK North Sea decommissioning costs, not just for the 142 field mentioned, will reach 55 billion pounds) (Additional reporting by Freya Berry, editing by David Evans)
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A logo of Takata Corp is seen with its display as people are reflected in a window at a showroom for vehicles in Tokyo, November 6, 2015. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp , Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) are still selling new vehicles with defective air bags that will eventually need to be recalled, according to a report by a U.S. lawmaker overseeing the agency handling the largest-ever auto safety recall.

Automakers confirmed they are continuing to sell some vehicles with ammonium-nitrate inflators without a chemical drying agent, and cited engineering and supply challenges to explain why they are still relying on the faulty airbags.

The vehicles are legal to sell but must be recalled by 2018. Legal experts said that based on previous cases, it was unclear if there could be additional legal liability for selling vehicles subject to future recalls, though if anything goes wrong with those vehicles, they could be subject to product-liability lawsuits.

The automakers and Takata have been hit with class-action lawsuits from owners, and Takata is the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation.

The report by the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the latest to raise concerns about the massive recall of close to 70 million U.S. air bag inflators and nearly 100 million worldwide.

"This may be the first time in history where multiple automakers are selling brand new cars with a known, and potentially deadly, defect," said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.

Takata inflators can explode with excessive force and spray metal shrapnel. They are suspected in 13 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries. There are no deaths or injuries reported in Takata inflators with a drying agent, NHTSA said.

It was not clear precisely how many new cars are being sold with defective inflators. The affected vehicles include the 2016-2017 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, 2016 Volkswagen CC, 2016 Audi TT and 2017 Audi R8.

Story continues

NHTSA said there have been no ruptures in any vehicles built since 2008, suggesting the vehicles won't be prone to danger for six years or more.

"There just aren't enough non-defective replacement airbags to go around," said Rich Newsome, an Orlando lawyer representing people who have sued Takata. "It's kind of like the ticking time bomb, and everyone's betting the bomb won't go off for six years."

According to NHTSA, the vehicles don't become vulnerable to exploding airbags without long-term exposure to high humidity. In the short-term, the agency says, they are safe to drive - and much safer than the older models.

NHTSA said it needs to prioritize replacing the oldest inflators in high-humidity areas. NHTSA has taken control of the massive recall from individual automakers, using its legal authority to do so for the first time.

"Whats troubling here is that consumers are buying new cars not realizing theyre going to be recalled," U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and the report's author, said in a statement. These cars shouldnt be sold until theyre fixed."

NHTSA did not directly respond to Nelson, but said it agrees more should be done to speed up recall completions. There is no required public disclosure by automakers or car dealers that vehicles include parts that will need to be recalled.

Takata inflators do not pose unreasonable risk when installed in a new vehicle or for several years afterward, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said last month. That gives automakers the legal footing to continue to sell the vehicles.

Takata spokesman Jared Levy said in a statement the company is "working aggressively" and has produced more than 15 million replacement kits.

MORE RECALLS EXPECTED

Ford Motor Co announced Wednesday it is expanding its Takata air bag recalls by nearly 1.9 million vehicles - and more recalls are expected Thursday.

Last month, Takata agreed to declare as defective another 35 million to 40 million U.S. inflators that lack drying agents in frontal airbags. Eight automakers announced recalls of more than 12 million vehicles as a result.

Previously, automakers recalled inflators in 24 million vehicles.

Wednesday's report also said more than 2.1 million ammonium-nitrate replacement inflators without drying agents have been installed in U.S. vehicles as of March - and will eventually need to be replaced.

Fiat Chrysler told the committee at least one of its current models contains a frontal passenger-side airbag that uses the ammonium-nitrate inflators without a desiccant or drying agent. It said Wednesday that no vehicle being sold is under recall and it is moving on an accelerated timetable.

Honda Motor Co , which has recalled 10.2 million vehicles in the United States for Takata inflators including some more than once, told the committee that 17,000 new vehicles are equipped with inflators without drying agents, but no additional new vehicles will be equipped with such inflators.

Toyota, one of two automakers that did not provide specific models to Senate investigators, expects to produce approximately 175,000 vehicles with the defective Takata inflators by July 2017, the report said.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Dye in New York and Paul Lienert in Detroit)
ITS hard to believe the much-loved Waterford Greenway has been open just five years, as many locals feel they have been living with the...
WATERFORD has taken two important steps towards the installation of faster broadband in both the city and the county. Rural and Community Development Minister, Heather...
Ever get the sense our public conversation about ethnic minorities is being gutted by left and right; with platitudes about community "harmony" on the one hand, and naked bigotry on the other?

That feelings are fetishised while facts get short-shrift? That politicians serve up either anodyne and jittery incantations about multiculturalism or toxic slurs about minorities, including refugees - the "good" refugees, no less, the ones queuing patiently in UN camps - whose very statelessness is apparently an affront?

That the weekend spectacle of incoherent brawling between radicals in Coburg is a perverse metaphor of a culture that's losing its capacity for rational debate?

On the progressive side of the ledger, identity politics is stifling evidenced-based thinking. A recent, though certainly not earth-shattering, example is the Victorian education minister's response to criticisms by Jewish groups about the inclusion on the VCE drama list of Samah Sabawi's Tales of a City by the Sea, a play set in war-torn Gaza. Those criticisms of the play are legitimate.

The play undoubtedly has literary merit; I found Sabawi's depiction of Palestinians confronting internal and external repression poignant. But as Dvir Abramovich, from the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, argued on this page on Tuesday, by omitting any reference to the context of Israel's military onslaught, being the Hamas rockets fired into Israeli civilian centres, Sabawi portrays the Jewish state as a killing machine motivated solely by bloodlust. Even an oblique and contested reference to the Israeli justification for bombing Gaza would, in my view, have covered the playwright; as it stands, the work promotes a kind of falsehood.
"Ban" strikes us as a nasty word, conjuring up memories of McCarthyism, the Spanish Inquisition and the third-grade teacher who washed your mouth out with soap. We tell ourselves that bans are never really effective, that it is too hard to distinguish between what should be banned and what shouldn't. Above all, we know that bans are blunt instruments, and believe that we are too sophisticated to employ such crude tools.

Nothing can shock us except this suggestion. We find it perfectly acceptable that smut, no matter how bestial or misogynistic, should be widely available. We even think it a moral imperative, a dictate of freedom. It does not trouble us that children can view acts of rape, real or simulated, with a click of a mouse, but if someone proposes that we prevent them from doing so, dirty old Uncle Sam begins to shudder. Respected citizens stand up to object. Gallant young civil libertarians come riding into town, ready to defend the imperiled modesty of Lady Liberty.

We are not averse to banning something when we think it is really wrong. We are happy to "ban" murder, rape and even certain types of speech (try yelling "Fire!" in a theatre). We do not hesitate over the fact that there will be marginal cases, or that the banned activity will not magically be brought to an end. Our tolerant reaction to pornography stems less from a principled commitment to free speech than from a belief that porn isn't so bad after all. Shouldn't we be "sex-positive"? Who doesn't need a little release?

This casual attitude would be impossible if we cared as much about misogyny as we say we do. Gail Dines, a feminist scholar who has succeeded Andrea Dworkin as the leading voice against pornography, has found that "the most popular acts depicted in internet porn include vaginal, oral and anal penetration by three or more men at the same time; double anal; double vaginal; a female gagging from having a penis thrust into her throat; and ejaculation in a woman's face, eyes and mouth." This is not sex-positivity; it is hatred of women. According to one survey, boys are inducted into this ritualised hatred at an average age of 11.

Restrictions on pornography may come sooner than we think. As the Christian right has lost its power, fears of a censorious "Moral Majority" have receded. This leaves room for activists on the left to criticise the misogyny of porn without seeming like the allies of the unenlightened.

Happily, the left appears ready to take up the censor's task. Campus activists  once champions of free speech  now call for safe spaces, trigger warnings and other hard limits on speech, especially on speech related to sex. Now that they feel confident in their cultural power, campus activists have ceased to plead for tolerance; they are ready to enforce compliance.

It is easy to criticise such reversals as hypocritical, but they reflect a basic truth, pointed out by Stanley Fish: "There's no such thing as free speech." Or, to put it another way, there are always limits on speech. The only question is who places those limits, and where. Even in the most laissez-faire society, some forms of speech will be tolerated while others will not. We say that "fighting words" or "incitements to violence" are not really speech. Why not say the same of pornography, which serves as an instruction manual for the subjection of women?
Speculation about WA Premier Colin Barnett's leadership is being perpetuated by those who deliberately seek to undermine the government, Treasurer Mike Nahan says.

Property developer Nigel Satterley recently flagged a leadership spill that didn't eventuate and now it has emerged Dr Nahan, Transport Minister Dean Nalder and Liberal backbencher Nathan Morton held a private meeting about the state's top job in 2014.

Mike Nahan says he has never worked to undermine Colin Barnett. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Dr Nahan told The West Australian on Wednesday the meeting was held at his house on a Saturday and he was surprised when Mr Nalder arrived but "it was a private conversation that ended very quickly".

He denied telling them the Liberals couldn't be returned to power next year under Mr Barnett.
Perth have seized drugs, jewellery and cash after raiding an apartment block in East Perth on Thursday.

Police searched the unit after getting a tip off from the public and found methylamphetamine, ecstasy, LSD, drug paraphernalia, jewellery, electronics and a quantity of cash.

Cash from the East Perth raid. Credit:Police

Seven people were taken into custody and are currently assisting police with their enquiries.

Police want anyone who see suspicious activity in their local area to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The family of Australian Rye Hunt are "hopeful but understandably cautious" of reports the 25-year-old has been seen alive on an island off Rio de Janeiro, nearly two weeks after going missing.

In a video posted on YouTube by Brazilian police, spokeswoman Elen Souta said Mr Hunt appeared to have swum to Cotunduba Island after taking drugs at a party and suffering a psychotic episode.

Cotunduba Island is an uninhabited island, located about 900 metres off Leme beach in Rio.
By Gernot Heller and Georgina Prodhan

BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Tuesday he would welcome an alternative offer for industrial robot maker Kuka (KU2G.DE) following Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group Co Ltd's 4.5 billion euro ($5 billion) takeover bid.

Kuka is the latest and biggest German industrial technology group to be targeted by a Chinese buyer as the world's second-largest economy makes the transition from a low-cost manufacturer into a high-tech industrial hub.

Government sources have said Berlin will examine how critical Kuka's technology is for the digitisation of industry, an economic priority for Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.

"Of course I would view it as appropriate if there were at least an alternative offer from Germany or Europe," Gabriel said at an economic conference, describing China's interest in German technology companies as "not worrying, but noticeable".

Citing government and industry sources, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung said on Wednesday that Gabriel wants to forge an alliance of German or Europe firms to prevent a sale to the Chinese company.

Gabriel has approached several companies in recent days, including German carmakers, to see if they would be interested, the paper said, adding it remained unclear who would lead such a consortium.

German industrial group Siemens (SIEGn.DE) had considered a counterbid for Kuka, but quickly dismissed the idea as too expensive, sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

The ruling coalition of Merkel's conservatives and Gabriel's Social Democrats (SPD) is loath to meddle in takeovers and Berlin has indicated it will not intervene to stop the transfer of Kuka and its technology to Chinese ownership.

Gabriel said ministers in Germany's cabinet had not addressed the bid, but he had discussed it with Merkel's office.

"The possibilities we have are basically limited to words," he said, adding: "Of course you can imagine that we have had a number of conversations in the last few days and weeks to support any such possibilities," he said without elaborating.

Story continues

Asked about the desirability of keeping Kuka European, the company's chief marketing officer and supervisory board member Wilfried Eberhardt said his priority was to safeguard jobs and, in the best case, to create new ones.

"There's no simple answer there as to what the right option is," he told a Frankfurt conference on the future of work.

"Of course know-how is important for jobs. On the other hand, markets are important for jobs," he said, noting that China is the world's biggest market for industrial robots.

"I'm sure that Kuka's management will make a sensible decision," added Eberhardt, who is an employee representative on the supervisory board.

Gabriel's emphasis on the benefits of keeping knowledge in Germany chimed with remarks by Germany's European Union Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, who called on majority shareholders to consider alternatives to Midea's bid. Kuka was of strategic importance to Germany, he said.

"Since there was no cry for help to China, we should be allowed to think about whether a European approach wouldn't be the better solution for Kuka," Oettinger told Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Industrial chiefs have urged that rules of free movement of capital must prevail in Europe and also in China. BDI industry association chief Ulrich Grillo told the economic conference it was a good sign if China wanted to buy something in Germany, but Beijing must give German companies equal opportunities in its country.

(Writing by Madeline Chambers; editing by David Holmes and G Crosse)
Berlin: The world's longest and deepest railway tunnel opened underneath the Swiss Alps, to an opening ceremony featuring acrobats dressed as miners, that has raised eyebrows online.

The 60-kilometre-long Gotthard Base Tunnel will allow high-speed rail travel across the Alps between northern and southern Europe for the first time.

Built at a cost of $16.5 billion and 17 years in the making, the tunnel was hailed as a marvel of ecological engineering that will help to preserve the environment of the Alps.

"Today is a historic day for our country," said Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann. "We have completed the Gotthard Base Tunnel, an epic feat of engineering, a project that has involved generations, from the first sketches, to the planning and construction of the tunnel. I feel extremely proud, but also quite humble."
Patrick Norman Pat Chapman is a 34-year-old, Caucasian male who was last known to be in Piedmont which is near the area of Greenville, Missouri on May 10, 2020.

Pat had stayed the night with a friend and his wife at their home. In the early morning when the friend woke to go to work.

Pat was gone in his own Burgundy color 1995 Ford Escort. That is the last anyone was known to have seen him. The vehicle was later recovered on May 29, 2020 in Mill Spring, Missouri.
Around 700 delegates gathered to attend the opening of the 2016 WCO IT Conference & Exhibition (ITC), taking place from 1 to 3 June in Dakar, Senegal, co-hosted by the Customs Administration of Senegal. The 15th ITC is taking place for the first time in WCOs West and Central Africa region where many new and forward-looking developments have been observed in the field of information technologies.

Digital Customs: Accelerating Connectivity  Bridging the Divide will be the guiding theme of the Conference which will discuss various strategic issues as part of ICT-enabled modernization efforts, such as leadership, communication, interconnectivity, innovation, governance and training.

On behalf of the President of the Republic of Senegal, Mr. Oumar Youm, the Chief of the Staff of Office of the President of the Republic, addressed the Conference. He stressed the importance of IT in managing government processes and the need to adapt to the ever-changing world. He also explained that in progressing automation, it was necessary to strike the right balance between trade facilitation and security.

The Director General of Senegal Customs Mr. Papa Ousmane Gueye stated that Digital Customs goes hand in hand with the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. Interconnectivity is pertinent for facilitating trade and the aim of his country is to bring it up in the Doing Business ranking and improve its competitiveness.

The Secretary General of the World Customs Organization Mr. Kunio Mikuriya emphasized Digital Customs as the theme of the Conference, and of the WCO for 2016. He stressed the importance of IT and data for Customs on a daily basis in monitoring the supply chains towards achieving its missions. He recalled that the IT Conference was an excellent opportunity for Customs and the private sector to engage and explore how best to use the advances in information technologies.

The WCO IT Conference and Exhibition is WCOs premium external yearly event with a tradition, which attracts hundreds of participants from around the world. The aim of the Conference is to bring together representatives from the public and private sector to discuss strategic issues and IT solutions for the purpose of improving Customs and border procedures in general.
Errol Flynn Robin Hood

Robinhood, an app that lets people trade stocks for free, has partnered with Chinese search engine Baidu to offers it services in the country.

The deal will let Chinese users invest in the US stocks and ETFs without paying commissions.

"Access to US securities in China is currently very limited and were excited to change that," Robinhood cofounder Baiju Bhatt said, in a press release Wednesday. "This will be the first time many Chinese citizens will have direct access to the largest stock market in the world at no cost."

Baidu is a Beijing-based Chinese web services company and one of Chinas leading search engines. Users in China can download Baidu's StockMaster app and create a Robinhood account.

With millions of smartphone users, China offers Robinhood the chance to capture a new user base hungry for stock trading. If successful, the company has the potential to reach millions of users in China, and could set a precedent for other US based startups looking to expand abroad.

But it could still face challenges, including China's increasingly uncertain regulatory regime. Chinese citizens face restrictions on the transfer of capital overseas, for example. A spokeswoman for Robinhood explained that the user has to fund the trade using a wire transfer for the account to be functional. While Robinhood doesn't impose limits on funds in the account, a Chinese bank might.

The company has appointed Amy Gu, the General Manager of Evernote China, to its advisory board. Gu succeeded in growing Evernotes user base in the country to 15 million in 3 years and will help Robinhood navigate Chinas regulatory grey area, Robinhood said.

The company says it has over 1 million users who have bought and sold more than $6 billion in U.S. stock., saving over $100 million in commission fees. It has raised $66 million from investors including Index and Slow Ventures as well as celebrities like Jared Leto and Snoop Dogg.

Five months ago, Robinhood said it had plans to expand into Europe, however this doesn't appear to have happened yet. The Palo Alto based company is currently in the regulatory approval process in Australia.

Story continues

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tapper

CNN's Jake Tapper slammed the State Department on Thursday over reports that someone within it intentionally deleted footage from a 2013 press conference about the Iran nuclear deal.

"It's literally someone at the State Department trying to bury something, hiding it from you ... a scrubbing of the public record," Tapper said. "It should outrage every American."

Tapper was referring to State Department spokesman John Kirby's stunning admission on Wednesday that video of an eight-minute exchange between a Fox News reporter and former State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was intentionally deleted by someone within the State Department.

When first questioned in early May about the deleted footage  which showed Fox News reporter James Rosen asking Psaki whether secret talks had occurred between the US and Iran before 2013  press-office director Elizabeth Trudeau said that it was "a glitch" and that no one had intentionally edited the video.

"It wasn't a glitch," Kirby admitted on Wednesday.

The deleted back and forth between Rosen and Psaki was potentially embarrassing for the State Department.

Psaki had essentially admitted to Rosen that nuclear talks had taken place as early as 2011, even though part of the administration's public-relations push for the deal was convincing skeptics that Obama did not begin to negotiate the deal until after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani  pushed by the White House as a "moderate"  took office in 2013.

"There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress," Psaki told Rosen. "This is a good example of that."

Tapper slammed Psaki's comments, too, saying that "the implication there from Psaki is that sometimes the government needs to deceive the public and the press to achieve goals."

The CNN anchor went on to recap the "lies" told by the Obama administration as it went about "doctoring the record."

"There were no secret talks between the Obama administration and Iran  we'll call that 'lie No. 1,'" Tapper said. The scrubbing of the video, Tapper said, was "lie No. 2," and Trudeau's claim that it was "a glitch" was "lie No. 3."

Story continues

In a statement, Kirby said that "this happened three years ago" and that "the recipient of the call doesn't remember anything other than the caller, the individual who called this technician, was passing on a request from someone else within the public affairs bureau."

Psaki has also denied any involvement, insisting that "I had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of any form of editing or cutting my briefing transcript on any subject while at the State Department. I believe deeply in providing the press as much information on important issues as possible."

Kirby noted that there "were no rules governing this sort of action in the past, so I find no reason to press forward with a deeper investigation." But he said that he will "make sure we have the right rules in place" to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Tapper found the entire situation unacceptable.

"The Obama administration needs to understand that it is not acceptable just to leave this where it is," he said. "Just as the public has a right to know the truth, we have a right to know who lied to us."

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Businesses have been receiving phone calls and fax messages that the National Insurance Board will not pay them for goods and services until the business proves it is compliant with its taxes with all other government agencies.

And apparently it is with immediate effect, without prior notice, even if the NIB has owed the business money for months with out paying their bill.

Bear in mind this is an agency that expects to receive your cheque for NIB contributions each month.

So just how many compliance certificates are businesses expected to obtain?

Cant the government ministries, agencies and departments provide each other with a report showing who is past due rather than sending people up and down and wasting hours and days waiting for letters from government agencies?

One businessman was told if his company is in arrears with either tax authority NIB would pay the balance owed by them toward settling the outstanding taxes.

That aside, how can NIB utilise a businesses goods and services and then decide they are not going to pay you? NIB should be placed on a cash basis if they want to transact business as a result. Its duplicitous on their behalf. In fact its more like theft to implement something like this after owing money for months.

As an aside, Bahamas Customs is now demanding a compliance certificate to pay a refund. Now think about that for a moment. A business must be compliant in order to put an entry in and Customs is sending one on a wild goose chase for other letters to prove compliance! Go figure!

A couple more points:

The government continues to make doing business more and more difficult for those businesses doing the right thing. The Government should automatically send compliant businesses a letter of compliance rather than wasting peoples time and money chasing after unnecessary documentation. Governments should have to seek payment for funds like business people do. Through the courts. To allow themselves the right to threaten to withhold payment of their past due balances and deny a similar privilege to business is yet another double standard. Complaint businesses should deduct balances owed them by NIB from the contributions being paid in and let the courts decide what is right.

In addition, it is up for serious debate whether or not NIB has the legal authority to do this whether the Ministry of Finance has told them to do this or not because they are not the Ministry of Finance.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - Finance and technology expert Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki recently praised Chile for the emphasis it has been placing on solar energy. The South American nation has become the region's leader in solar PV (photovoltaic cells) power, and as the need for renewable sources increases, Chile has provided an example of how to successfully move in the direction of sustainable energy use.

At the beginning of 2016, Chile became the first country in the region to reach one gigawatt of installed solar PV -- a considerable capacity for production of electricity through environmental power. Many additional projects are currently under construction, and a host of others have either received approval or are being considered. With the programs in progress expected to go online between now and the end of 2017, Chile is poised to become a major player in producing electricity from sustainable elements.

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki addressed the fact that with the considerable capacity for solar PV-produced electricity Chile is committing to, the country will be able to export power to adjacent countries in addition to using it locally. A transmission line to Argentina, which has been inactive for many years, was recently reactivated for this very purpose. The Chilean government has embraced this move, with their energy minister suggesting the export of solar energy could be considered one of North Chile's main industries. "With this type of governmental support," Witwicki said, "it is clear Chile is committed to its contributions of sustainable energy." Within the country itself, solar electricity will be consumed in a number of ways. It will be sold immediately on the public market and in electricity distribution company auctions as well as being provided to mining companies through contracts. Many of these companies are multi-national corporations, which will provide an influx of valuable foreign exchange that strengthens the economy. With so many options for the sale of solar energy, the list of projects continues to grow, and with it, employment opportunities both in the construction phase and the ongoing need for permanent personnel. "With plans like those by Andes Green Energy representing an investment of US $11 billion," Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki concluded, "Chile's dedication to solar energy is an example for the rest of the world."

Story continues

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki is a leader and driving force within Central and South America's technology and finance industries. Based in Mexico City, Mexico, he is the director of the investment banking firm Simple Trading Corporation and the manager and private advisor to telemarketing company Strelaline, S.A. DE C.V. Witwicki is actively involved in volunteer activities focusing on business education such as the DESEM Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs. He also supports ONG "Manitos Unidas", a non-governmental organization that focuses on the promotion, aid, and development of the Third World countries.

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki - Financial and Technology Expert: http://www.JulioCesarDiazWitwickiNews.com

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki -- Chilean Economy Exceeds Experts' Forecast: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/julio-cesar-diaz-witwicki-chilean-034658856.html

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki - LinkedIn: https://uy.linkedin.com/in/julio-cesar-diaz-witwicki-53633b116

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By West Kentucky Star Staff Jun. 01, 2016 | 08:49 PM | PADUCAH, KY







The McCracken County Sheriff's Department arrested several people on various drug charges over the past week.In April, detectives conducted an investigation into illegal drug trafficking by 37-year-old Chamar Munchie Wood of Paducah. Deputies said Wood sold marijuana and cocaine from a local business on Oscar Cross in downtown Paducah. Wood was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of trafficking cocaine 2nd or subsequent offense, two counts of trafficking marijuana 2nd or subsequent offense, possession of synthetic drugs, and being a persistent felony offender 1st degree.Deputies also arrested 49-year-old Walter George, of Paducah for allegedly selling a stolen handgun and trafficking in marijuana and cocaine. George was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of trafficking cocaine, trafficking marijuana, receiving stolen property, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, and being a persistent felony offender. He also had a warrant for his arrest from another state. George was on parole at the time of his arrest for a past reckless homicide conviction.Detectives stopped 31-year-old Brandon Seabolt, of Ledbetter on May 25 for traffic violations. Detectives said they determined that he was under the influence of methamphetamine, and during a search of Seabolt's vehicle, they found about 455 grams of methamphetamine, with a reported street value of $45,500. Seabolt was charged with trafficking methamphetamine over two grams. He was reportedly out on bond at the time of his arrest for a similar offense.Detectives said they saw what they believed to be an illegal drug deal going down Wednesday at a Cairo Road business. As they approached the vehicle at the scene, a deputy spotted a handgun that the passenger, 35-year-old Christopher Hyde, of Paducah was attempting to conceal in his waistband. Detectives also seized about 28 grams of crystal meth, drug paraphernalia, and two handguns. Both Hyde and 41-year-old Holly Hampton, also of West Paducah were charged with firearm enhanced trafficking methamphetamine over two grams and possession of drug paraphernalia. Detectives also arrested 44-year-old Callie Phillips, of Paducah for possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.All suspects were booked into the McCracken County Jail.
By The Associated Press Jun. 01, 2016 | 03:53 PM | FALLS OF ROUGH, KY

Kentucky State Police say debris spotted from a helicopter is from a plane that's been missing in western Kentucky since Monday, and that a body has been recovered from the plane.

Police said in a news release Wednesday night that officials have not been able to positively confirm the body is the 70-year-old missing pilot, Robert Dalzell Jr., but have notified the family. An autopsy was scheduled.

A news release from police said the site is in thick woods in the Fordsville community of Hancock County. The Federal Aviation Administration will be at the scene Thursday to investigate.

Police said earlier that Dalzell left the Owensboro Regional Airport on Monday morning and landed at Falls of Rough in Grayson County about 35 minutes later. The statement says he departed later from the Falls of Rough, but never returned to the Owensboro airport.
(Adds response from McDonald's)

June 1 (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp is nearing a deal to shift its headquarters to the former Harpo Studios campus in Chicago from Oak Brook, Illinois, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

The world's biggest restaurant chain is in advanced negotiations with Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay to move its headquarters to a building on Randolph Street, Crain's Chicago Business reported, citing people familiar with the deal. (http://bit.ly/25yPCQG)

Sterling Bay bought Oprah Winfrey's former Harpo Studios campus for more than $30 million in 2014.

"We're not going to speculate and when we have information to share, it will be with our employees first," McDonald's said in an e-mail.

Sterling Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
By The Associated Press Jun. 01, 2016 | 07:21 PM | FRANKFORT, KY

A Kentucky judge has compared one of Gov. Matt Bevin's executive orders to a neutron bomb in a case that challenges the governor's ongoing purge of state boards and commissions.

Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said Bevin's order abolishing the Workers' Compensation Nominating Commission and re-creating it with new members "is kind of like a neutron bomb. It destroyed all the people but left the structure in place." Shepherd has not yet ruled on the case but said Bevin's actions trouble him.

Bevin has used the tactic with several commissions, but this is the first order to be challenged in court. Bevin's attorney, Stephen Pitt, said the legislature allows the governor to do this, adding it can choose not to ratify Bevin's order when it reconvenes next year.
By Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing BODO/ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Militants launched new attacks in the Niger Delta on Thursday, vowing to bring Nigeria's struggling oil industry to a total halt, and the president cancelled a long-awaited visit to the region. The army said militants killed six people on Wednesday when they ambushed a boat belonging to state oil firm NNPC in the Warri area. Separately, the Niger Delta Avengers group said it had attacked two crude pipelines operated by Italy's ENI. "At about 2:00 am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State," the group said on Twitter. "This is in line with our promise to all international oil companies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oil production will be zero." But the NDA said in a statement late on Thursday that it was not responsible for the boat attack. "Killing of sleeping soldiers is not our style," the NDA said in an emailed statement. The Avengers group has claimed responsibility for other recent attacks on Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell facilities. A wave of such attacks have helped drive the country's oil output to a 20-year low. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled at the last minute a visit planned for Thursday to the Delta, source of most of Nigeria's crude. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made the trip in Buhari's place to launch a cleanup programme in an area badly hit by oil spills, vowing to work with community leaders to end militant attacks. POVERTY AND POLLUTION No reason has been given for the cancellation of what would have been Buhari's first visit to the region since taking office a year ago. Western allies and local officials have told the former military chief that he needs to address poverty and oil pollution in the Delta to stop unrest. "We are determined to put right the wrongs of the past, where the people of this land were treated unfairly and the environment unduly polluted and degraded," Osinbajo said in a speech in the town of Bodo in the polluted Ogoniland area. "The cleanup of this land will require change on the part of all those who deal with the Niger Delta environment - particularly the oil companies and our communities," he said. The Avengers have accused Buhari, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, of ignoring the problems of the predominantly Christian Delta. Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme, joined Osinbajo at the ceremony. He said the cleanup "cannot happen overnight" but he hoped the government, oil firms and locals could work together to reduce pollution. (Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja, Seun Sanni in Lagos, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)
Khalid al-Falih opec

It will still be business as usual at OPEC.

Meeting in Vienna on Thursday, the 13-member cartel of oil-producing nations again failed to agree on a production ceiling.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York extended losses and fell 1% after the news, to $48.59 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, also slipped.

A production ceiling, or cut, could reduce the oil-supply glut that triggered the largest price crash in decades. Higher oil prices would help the economies of member states that rely on oil exports to generate revenues.

One important thing OPEC agreed on was a new leader.

Bloomberg reported, citing a delegate, that OPEC appointed Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its next secretary-general. Barkindo is a former head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission, and he was an acting secretary-general of OPEC a decade ago.

The oil cartel was meeting for the second time since April. Bloomberg had reported that Saudi Arabia wanted to use the meeting, in part, to mend its relationship with other member states.

Saudi Arabia in April declined to move forward on a production deal without the involvement of Iran, a geopolitical rival. Iran was looking to boost its output and start exporting after the removal of economic sanctions.

Gabon will become OPEC's newest member.

Here's a chart of WTI trading after the reports of no deal crossed:

Screen Shot 2016 06 02 at 8.43.05 AM

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By Reem Shamseddine, Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC failed to agree a clear oil-output strategy on Thursday as Iran insisted on steeply raising its own production, though Tehran's arch-rival Saudi Arabia promised not to flood the market and sought to mend fences within the organization. Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shi'ite Islamic Republic had blighted several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group fell short of agreeing a formal output target for the first time in years. Strains were less acute on Thursday, however, as new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih showed Riyadh wanted to be more conciliatory and his Iranian peer Bijan Zanganeh kept his criticism of Riyadh to an unusual minimum. In a rare compromise, OPEC also decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary-general after years of friction over the issue. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose OPEC set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair the group's waning importance. But Thursday's meeting ended with no new policy or ceiling amid resistance from Iran. Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt OPEC's largest producer, already pumping near record highs, to raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share. "We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," Falih told reporters. "There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could accelerate production. The market has grown increasingly used to OPEC clashes over the past two years as political foes Riyadh and Tehran fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilizing oil markets - in April in the Qatari capital of Doha. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output. Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear program. Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual-country production quotas, effectively abandoned by OPEC years ago. "Without country quotas, OPEC cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of OPEC's overall production. OPEC is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates. "BENIGN DEAL" At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will. As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages. On Thursday, Brent prices were down 1.5 percent at $49 per barrel after the OPEC meeting but later rallied on data showing a weekly drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles. [O/R] That OPEC could not agree on a benign deal is a sign that political differences are undermining the organization, said Gary Ross, founder of U.S.-based PIRA consultancy. "It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market," Ross added. Zanganeh made a few conciliatory remarks, saying he was happy with the meeting and received no signals from other producers that they planned to increase output. For Amrita Sen of Energy Aspects, who like Ross traveled to Vienna to meet OPEC officials, the meeting sent an encouraging signal about the state of the organization. "After the Doha debacle, it actually restores market confidence that Saudi Arabia is committed to OPEC. This is a success compared to three days ago when people had been expecting Falih to walk out of the OPEC room," said Sen. Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signaling he takes the organization seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output. "There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, OPEC might intervene and yet other situations  such as long-term growth of marginal barrels  in which case it should not," Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting. For a Take-a-Look on Reuters stories on OPEC, click on (Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson)
Opinion

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Every artist tests boundaries, even if theyre simply the limits of a medium or ones own skill. For indigenous artists, though, theres more at stake.

A diverse, developing concept, decolonization is about more than renegotiating borders and resisting bigotry and genocide: its positive and sustaining, extending to every small act of being and becoming. Its about maintaining tradition and traditional knowledge in a contemporary context, about building self-determined communities at all levels, and about observing, honouring, and cultivating indigenous excellence in the face of systemic efforts to undermine and erase it.

Urban Shaman, one of only a handful of galleries in the country dedicated to indigenous contemporary art, has been a crucible for these ideas since its founding 20 years ago, and The Fire Throws Sparks celebrates their spread since 1996.

Sexy Beast by Kevin McKenzie

Comprising older, recent and reimagined works by 11 artists with ties to the gallery, the smartly curated exhibition spans generations and disciplines, embracing resistance, reflection and formal exploration, poetry and protest, tenderness and humour.

Two oversize posters from KC Adamss Perceptions project, familiar from their stints on bus shelters and storefront windows around the city, open the show with their bold but ambivalent good as you messaging.

Just around the corner, Scott Benesiinaabandans own defiant gestures are sillier but more nuanced. In three photographs he stands in front of retail echoes of colonialism (a Mayflower moving truck, the Occidental Hotel) brandishing a dead goldeye  the fish not just out of water but entombed in Styrofoam and shrink-wrap.

Governor Generals Award winner Rebecca Belmore delivers, as she often does, mixed messages with the impact of a one-two punch. Her ominous Mixed Blessings gives silent voice the twinned pride and degradations of being indigenous woman and artist in a violently racist and misogynistic culture. A plaster-white figure like a drowned woman or revenant ghost emerges from a pool of its own black hair, clad in a hoodie blazoned with the interlocking mottoes: F-N INDIAN, F-N ARTIST.

Sobey Art Award winner Nadia Myre meditates on red in dazzling photographic enlargements of beaded rondels, stitched freehand without pattern or premeditation, that evoke mandalas, areolae, drum skins or gently seeping wounds. In one early video, she slices through the surface of a steaming lake in a canoe, held aloft on a shaft of light that cuts across the screen. In another, bloodier video, she receives a tattoo of the Kanata flag the Canadian flags maple leaf swapped for a trio of red eagle feathers.

SUPPLIED Melissa Wastasecoot's One Who Wanders Silently In Grace... Okeemahpo.

Brandon-based Peter Morin, whose multimedia works posit revelatory but eventually obvious parallels between indigenous ceremony and conceptual art, obscures a pair of aged photographic portraits in glittering shards of rock candy. Called Thaw, the works dually invoke the yearly breakup of ice and sugaring as a method of preservation. Lita Fontaine strikes a similar balance of traditions in her multimedia installation The Womans Drum, in which a hide drum speaker thrums out a recorded heartbeat, flanked at the cardinal directions by Eagle Staffs and banners bearing photographs of womens torsos.

Kevin McKenzies engrossing Sexy Beast situates a neon-clad resin cast of a bison skull in a purpose-built room, evoking the light and space experiments of James Turrell.

Elsewhere, delightfully syncretic paintings by Fontaine, Linus Woods, Louis Ogemah, Roger Crait, and Melissa Wastasecoot playfully imagine Urban Shaman personas, blending references to western painting with indigenous motifs and motivations. (Ogemahs patchwork of painted canvas and denim and Wastasecoots overpainted reproductions of paintings by Raphael, Holy Families swapped for smiling Sasquatches, are particular highlights.)

A welcome show of strength from a vitally important gallery, The Fire Throws Sparks continues until June 30, culminating in Urban Shamans 20th Anniversary gala Aug. 4, where some of the works in the show will be up for auction.

Thaw by Peter Morin

Steven Leyden Cochrane is a Winnipeg-based artist, writer and educator.

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MONTREAL  Authorities staged raids at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Montreal on Wednesday because it had no permit from the Education Department to operate.

Police said there were no arrests.

Youth-protection officials intervene when a formal complaint is made and when laws are not respected such as in cases where children are not attending provincially approved schools that follow Quebecs curriculum.

Members of the Hasidic community stand outside a suspected illegal school where a youth protection operation is underway Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Montreal. The school is operated by the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish community, and it's suspected of operating without an Education Ministry permit. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

The targeted school is in a neighbourhood with a large Hasidic community.

We cant comment on a specific case because of confidentiality rules in the Youth Protection Act, said Claire Roy, a spokeswoman for Batshaw Youth Services.

So we cant give any details for the moment.

Lucie Charlebois, the Quebec minister responsible for youth protection, was just as tight-lipped.

They went to find out whether the childrens development had been compromised, she said in Quebec City.

I will wait for the results of the investigation. Theyre on the scene and I wont interfere in the process because they (the youth-protection officials) are autonomous but what we always want is the children to be protected.
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EDMONTON  The spring sitting of the Alberta legislature is going into overtime as debate rages over the governments climate change bill.

The sitting was supposed to end Thursday, but will continue next week as opposition members are proposing amendments to the bill.

They have particular concerns over the cost and implementation of the multibillion-dollar carbon tax.

The tax begins Jan. 1 and would increase the cost of heating bills and gasoline to encourage Albertans to go greener.

Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark said he believes the government needs to define where the tax money is going to go.

Theres a pool of money  $3.4 billion  in the carbon tax, which will be spent in some undefined way. Thats really troubling, said Clark.

I need some more information before I can vote in favour of this bill.

The Wildrose fought, and lost, an amendment Thursday to stop cabinet from raising the levy unilaterally in the future.

Wildrose house leader Nathan Cooper said more amendments are coming next week to bring some accountability to this piece of legislation.

Said Cooper, Well expect certainly a number of late nights next week.

The bill is at the stage where members can propose changes and speak to them at length, which can tie the legislature up in long days of debate.

Government house leader Brian Mason said he hopes to deal with all the amendments so that the government doesnt have to invoke its power to cut off debate to pass the bill.

I certainly dont want to bring in time allocation, said Mason.

I hope we can deal with all of their amendments and all of their other motions to delay passage of the bill without doing so.

Were certainly going to come back next week for a little while at least.

Progressive Conservative leader Ric McIver said he wants to see the carbon tax made neutral, meaning the money raised by the carbon tax is offset by tax breaks in other areas.

The carbon tax is going to change everything, said McIver.

Its going to make the way Albertans buy everything for all time more expensive. To cut short debate on something as far reaching as the carbon tax I think would be ill-advised.

The government used its majority Thursday to defeat the opposition motions. Mason said the bill is carefully crafted and is good as it stands.

The tax is part of a broader plan announced by Premier Rachel Notleys government last year to reduce Albertas carbon footprint both as the right thing to do environmentally and as a way to build up goodwill as it lobbies for new oil infrastructure such as pipelines.

The government is also capping oilsands emissions and phasing out coal-fired electricity.

The current bill before the house focuses on the carbon tax plan.

Under the terms of the bill two-thirds of Albertans, those in the middle to lower-income brackets, would receive full or partial rebates against the tax.

The rest of the money would be used to fund green initiatives and projects, including public transit.

Between the carbon tax and a fee on large industrial emitters, Alberta expects to raise $9.6 billion over the next five years.
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WINNIPEG  Cabinet ministers in Manitobas new Progressive Conservative government may escape a mandatory pay cut as they try to balance the budget over the next eight years.

The government is suspending the provinces balanced-budget law and plans to introduce a new one next year. Finance Minister Cameron Friesen would not commit Wednesday to reinstating a section that cuts the pay of all cabinet ministers every time the government runs a deficit.

The reason, Friesen said, is that the Tories inherited a billion-dollar deficit from the previous NDP government in the April 19 provincial election.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Finance Minister Cameron Friesen gets applause form his PC Party in the Manitoba Legislature.

Were going to  have to incorporate in any new bill we bring both those meaningful penalties in place for members, but also understand that were starting out with a billion-dollar deficit.

Friesen indicated there may be two sets of rules under the new law  one for the eight-year period in which the Tories have promised to balance the budget, and another for the ensuing years.

Theres going to be a conversation around what we do in the interim period in which we are trying to arrive back in balance, and there will be a conversation about what we do once we achieve balance.

The consequences would have to be reasonable.

Liberal finance critic Jon Gerrard accused the Tories of hypocrisy because while in opposition, they criticized the NDP government for watering down penalties under the balanced-budget law.

Turnaround is fair and now that the Conservatives are in government, if theyre not going to balance the budget, ministers should have pay cuts too, Gerrard said.

The Tories should also be able to put an end to deficits within four years instead of eight, he suggested.

All cabinet ministers are supposed to see the ministerial portion of their salary  not the base pay given to all legislature members  cut by 20 per cent the first time a government runs a deficit. At current salary levels, the cut works out to $10,186.

Any consecutive deficits cause the pay cut to jump to 40 per cent.

The NDP changed the law when it started running deficits in 2010 to cap the penalty at 20 per cent.

The law does grant a one-year grace period for new governments that inherit a deficit. Gerrard said that should be enough for the Tories.
(Adds comment from Temasek and GIC)

By Peter Henderson and Arathy S Nair

June 1 (Reuters) - Singapore state funds bought $1 billion of shares in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd as part of an $8.9 billion sale by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Alibaba's biggest shareholder, the company said on Wednesday.

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, and state investor Temasek Holdings each purchased $500 million of Alibaba shares at $74.00 apiece through subsidiaries, Alibaba said, offering details of the SoftBank sale announced on Tuesday.

GIC and Temasek confirmed the transactions but declined to provide further comment. Temasek is an existing investor in Alibaba. (http://bit.ly/1WxEce6)

Alibaba purchased $2 billion of its own stock at the same price, in a move which would add to earnings, Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai told analysts on a call.

Members of the Alibaba Partnership of senior executives and founders purchased another $400 million, as expected, at the $74 per share price, he added.

SoftBank also offered $5.5 billion in debt securities, which can be exchanged for Alibaba stock in three years, Tsai said.

SoftBank Group said on Tuesday it would sell at least $7.9 billion of shares in Alibaba to cut the Japanese company's debt. It said it would remain Alibaba's largest shareholder after the sale.

Shares of Alibaba fell about 6.5 percent to close at $76.69.

(Reporting by Parikshit Mishra in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Anshuman Daga in SINGAPORE; Editing by Richard Chang and Kenneth Maxwell)
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EDMONTON  Canadian Western Bank says its second-quarter profit was down 37 per cent from the same time last year, mostly due to previously announced increases to its provisions for bad loans to the energy sector.

The Edmonton-based bank (TSX:CWB) says its net income for the three-month period fell to $32.2 million or 40 cents per share from $51.5 million or 64 cents per share a year earlier.

The banks pre-tax provision for credit losses was $39.7 million, up from $7.4 million in the quarter ended April 30, 2015.

The bank also wrote off $15.7 million of bad loans, compared with $2.4 million in last years second quarter.

The company, which is working to expand beyond its base in Western Canada, said it had strong growth in loans and branch-based deposits during the quarter.

The second quarter ended before wildfires devastated and forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray, Alta., prompting the shutdown of significant portions of the provinces oil and gas production.

CWB president and CEO Chris Fowler said the bank has a limited presence within Fort McMurray but the impact of the disaster can be felt across the province.

Our top priorities are to take care of members of our CWB team who have friends and family affected by the fire, and to ensure our clients have the assistance they need, Fowler said.

Notwithstanding the short-term economic impact of reduced output from the oilsands, we are confident the community and related activity will be fully restored in time.
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OTTAWA  Shoppers in Ottawa have headed to Farm Boy grocery stores for years, fans of its high-quality fruits and vegetables, locally produced artisanal cheeses and private-label soups and tourtieres.

With Farm Boys commitment to both local farmers and products made by local suppliers, as well as the growing line of store-brand products, the retailer has a loyal following in Canadas capital region.

Now the chain is looking for new devotees as it brings its brand of fresh and local to the massive southern Ontario market.

Farm Boy CEO Jeff York poses for a photo in an Ottawa store, Thursday, May 26, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Over the last two years, Farm Boy has opened stores in London, Kitchener, Brantford and Whitby.

Each market is a little different, but at the end people want great food, great service in a friendly shopping environment, Farm Boy chief executive Jeff York said in a recent interview.

The company has avoided Toronto and its sky-high rents so far, but York has his eye on the market.

Farm Boy is working on what York is calling the chains first urban concept store set to open in Ottawa later this summer with more fresh prepared food and improved options for eating it in the store. He says the smaller format amounts to a laboratory where theyll work out the design close to home before taking it to the big city.

Well make our mistakes in Ottawa, and once we can hone the model, we can go into Toronto and maybe pay a buck or two more in rent, he said.

In November 2012, U.S. firm Berkshire Partners made an investment in the privately held company. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, it helped give the company access to cash and expertise to fuel its expansion.

When Berkshire made its investment, Farm Boy had 13 stores in Ottawa, Cornwall and Kingston. Today, the chain is set to open store No. 22 this fall in Pickering, Ont., east of Toronto.

York said his sights are set on $1 billion in annual sales in the next five to eight years, an increase that would represent a tripling of what Farm Boy does now.

Founded in 1981 in Cornwall, Ont., Farm Boy has made its name with a focus on high-quality produce, meat, bakery and prepared foods and private-label products.

York says he gets lots of ideas from U.S. chains like Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Fairway and Dean & DeLuca and tries to incorporate them in his stores.

Farm Boy isnt a one-stop shop, and York makes no apologies that you cant pick up your dish soap, paper towels and shampoo at the same time as you buy your carrots and bread.

We dont want to pretend we can compete in all the different areas, he said. We just want to fill that niche for the best fresh experience.

The grocery store business is a competitive field with major Canadian players like Loblaw and Sobeys as well as big U.S. players like Walmart and Whole Foods.

Ian Lee, who teaches strategy at Carleton Universitys Sprott School of Business, noted Farm Boy faces a number of hurdles, including finding prime locations that havent already been snapped up and raising brand awareness in markets where its not yet established.

Its going to be a tough slog because Loblaws is formidable, Whole Foods is formidable, Lee said of Farm Boys expansion. Location we know in retail of any kind, including grocery stores, is always extremely important, so theyre going to have to really spend money.

He added Farm Boy needs to be cautious in its expansion plans.

As long as Farm Boy does a controlled, slow, incremental expansion, so that they learn from each area that theyre going into, whether it is Pickering or Mississauga or Toronto or whatever, they should be OK, he said.
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TRTech is closing its Winnipeg research operation at the end of the week, at least partly because of the slumping resource sector in Western Canada.

TRTech, which billed itself as Canadas largest information and communication technology research and innovation consortium, has been around since 1986. It began with labs in Edmonton and Calgary and initially was focused exclusively on the telecommunications sector. It grew to two more locations in Saskatchewan before the Winnipeg lab was set up. Research in Winnipeg expanded into cyber-security and e-health.

Although Winnipeg was the final location to join the consortium, it was also the last one to close. The consensus is that of the three provincial operations, Winnipeg had arguably developed the most effective linkages with academia and business.

Harvey Kaita, the vice-president for Manitoba and Saskatchewan, praised the support TRTech received from the provincial government and the private sector here, who effectively split the funding of the $1-million annual operation 50/50.

In Manitoba, it has been great, Kaita said. I cant say the same in Saskatchewan and Alberta. We have struggled there for the last couple of years. It has had an impact on the Manitoba operations.

Manitobas five-year, $2.6-million funding commitment ended March 31.

The two Saskatchewan labs closed a couple of years ago. Federal funding through the Western Economic Diversification program ended, then Alberta provincial funding also dried up. The labs there closed several weeks ago.

We struggled raising funds out there, Kaita said. Weve had a really good track record in Manitoba. The provincial government has been very helpful, industry has been very receptive. We had a strong book of business, and financially we were very viable. Unfortunately, we were part of a larger organization.

Digvir Jayas, a TRTech board member and the University of Manitobas vice-president (research and international), said, TRTech in Manitoba was very successful supporting growth and solving problems for many small and medium-sized clients. Its very unfortunate it has come to this.

Kaita said the ex-Winnipeg staff have all found work in the private sector or at the U of M.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
A straw-roofed shelter burns at the Shangri-La at Hambantota hotel shortly after an opening ceremony presided by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena (AFP Photo/) (AFP)

Fireworks sparked a fire at a luxury beach resort in southern Sri Lanka minutes after it was opened by President Maithripala Sirisena, the hotel and local officials said.

Police have already begun an investigation into Wednesday's incident at the 300-room Shangri-La at Hambantota, the upmarket hotel operator's first hotel in the island.

"During the festivities, fireworks sparked a fire on a thatched roof covering a pool installation," the group's Hong Kong-based public relations chief Ilona Yim said.

"No one was hurt and we are thankful for the help of the fire brigade, which was onsite and extinguished the fire within 10 minutes."

The hotel said the president stayed on for a private dinner that was part of the opening at Hambantota, 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

"The president had just walked back to the hotel while the fireworks display was still on," his spokesman Dharmasri Bandara told AFP.

Initial reports said the president was immediately evacuated, but his security staff confirmed the president had moved to another location at a different part of the sprawling hotel complex and left the premises after dinner.

Local journalist Easwaran Rutnam, who was covering the hotel's opening, said the president was about 50 metres from the structure that was gutted by the fire.

A local police officer said no one was injured during the incident, but an investigation had been launched.

There had been several breaches of security at functions attended by President Sirisena who came to power in January last year. He has dispensed with much of the tight security accorded to his predecessors.
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MONTREAL  The founder of animation company Cinar and two former asset management executives were convicted Thursday on most of the charges they faced in a $120-million fraud case dating back more than 15 years.

The jury reached guilty verdicts against Ronald Weinberg, John Xanthoudakis and Lino Matteo following a trial that began in May 2014.

The three men were charged with transferring funds from Cinar to the Bahamas nearly 20 years ago.

Crown prosecutor Matthew Ferguson said he was pleased with the verdict.

This proves that, despite the complexity of the evidence, its still possible to have jury trials in fraud cases, he said.

Although the facts seemed very complex, in the circumstances it was evidence that was comprehensible, that was easy to understand and I believe the jury reached the right verdict.

Weinberg and his late wife, Micheline Charest, co-founded the Cinar animation company, which created popular childrens shows such as Arthur and Caillou. Charest died in 2004 after a lack of oxygen to the brain following six hours of facial and breast surgery at a Montreal clinic.

Weinberg was found guilty of nine of the 16 charges against him, including fraud and using false documents and false prospectus.

Matteo, who was president of the Mount Real investment firm, was aquitted on two charges but convicted of nine others, including fraud, using false documents and forgery.

Xanthoudakis, the former head of Norshield Financial Group Inc., was convicted on 17 charges.

The three men will remain behind bars pending sentencing arguments Monday.

Lawyers for the defendants have not said whether they will appeal the verdict.

Weinbergs lawyer said she plans to prepare for the sentencing arguments.

He was found guilty of certain counts but was still acquitted on seven others, Annie Emond said outside the courthouse, adding she was nevertheless disappointed by the result.

The fraud occurred between August 1998 and March 2000.

The men were arrested in 2011 following a lengthy provincial police probe that alleged the men orchestrated elaborate and large-scale fraud using money from Montreal-based Cinar.

A fourth accused, ex-Cinar senior executive Hasanain Panju, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four years in prison. He testified for the Crown at the trial.

Janet Watson, who speaks for the alleged victims in a separate trial involving Matteo and Mount Real, said she was overjoyed by the result.

I have my faith restored in the justice system, she said. Its been such a long wait.

Watson, who lost her retirement savings when Quebecs securities regulator shut down Mount Real in 2005, said the verdict is encouraging to victims.

These fraudsters in Canada need to realize they cant get away with this, she said.
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WINNIPEG  The president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce is stepping down after 17 years at the job.

David Angus says he will leave the post at the end of July to return to private business.

Executive vice-president Loren Remillard will be taking over.

The chamber credits Angus with driving up membership to its highest level in the organizations history. (CJOB)
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NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C.  A pedophile who digitally disguised his face in child pornography will spend longer in prison than recommended by the Crown after a B.C. judge noted that Christopher Neil repeatedly harmed his victims by posting their images online.

Neil, 41, was sentenced Wednesday to 5 1/2 years after pleading guilty to five child-sex crimes that occurred over a 10-year period in Cambodia, Vancouver and Maple Ridge, B.C. The Crown had recommended a five-year sentence.

When time served is taken into account, Neil must serve just over 14 more months.

Convicted pedophile Christopher Neil leaves Richmond Provincial court in Richmond, B.C., on Oct. 3, 2012. A British Columbia man who infamously disguised his face in child pornography he made in Southeast Asia will be sentenced today by a B.C. Supreme Court judge. Christopher Neil pleaded guilty in December to five child-sex crimes that took place in Cambodia, Vancouver and Maple Ridge, B.C., spanning a 10-year period. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Justice John Harvey of the B.C. Supreme Court said the two boys shown in the images were victimized when photos were taken and when those images were posted on the Internet.

Mr. Neil himself was a participant in some of the images of child pornography and therefore was instrumental in the childrens victimization, he said.

Mr. Neil posted the images taken of John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 onto the Internet, thus further victimizing them each time those images were subsequently viewed.

Outside court, Neils lawyer said the punishment was harsher than his client had hoped.

But thats the way it is sometimes, Mark Thompson said. Hes said also hes making a concerted effort to get treatment to change. He told everybody that asked  that he was remorseful and well go by his word on that.

Thompson had asked for a sentence of time served, arguing further incarceration wouldnt help with Neils rehabilitation or reintegration.

Neil initially faced 10 charges including producing images in Cambodia. He pleaded guilty in December to two counts of sexual interference in Cambodia in 2003, one charge of possessing child pornography in Maple Ridge in 2007 and two charges of accessing child pornography in Vancouver in 2013.

The sentencing concludes an investigation that began in 2004 and spanned two continents. Some of the convictions come under Canadas rarely used child-sex tourism laws.

Twelve years ago, German police discovered obscured images of a man sexually abusing two young boys in a hotel in Cambodia. Experts unscrambled his blurred face in 2007, prompting a global manhunt of a man the international media dubbed Swirl Face.

Neil was arrested in Thailand and jailed almost five years for molesting two boys on unrelated charges, before returning to Canada in 2012 on an early pardon.

But Neil was not prosecuted for the notorious images until Canadian investigators built new evidence against him.

He was jailed in 2014 after breaching orders prohibiting him from possessing a laptop. Vancouver Police subsequently discovered child porn and matched the evidence with thousands of images seized from Neils family storage locker and that set off the investigation in Cambodia.

Investigators with B.C.s Integrated Child Exploitation Unit tracked down one of the victims, who said he was about 13 years old at the time.

In sentencing Neil, Harvey read a statement from the boy where he revealed he kept the incident to himself.

Had I told anyone, I would have been ashamed of myself, the boy said in the statement.

Its been over 10 years and I feel much less of a burden and its water under the bridge. The day the police knew about it, they gave me my own picture. I felt very sad.

Neil was also sentenced to three years probation and an international travel prohibition. He is banned for five years from using electronic devices capable of accessing the Internet. He will be nationally registered as a sex offender and is barred from visiting places like parks and community centres.

Brian McConaghy, a former RCMP forensic scientist who gathered key evidence in Cambodia, said the judges decision to lengthen Neils sentence is a step in the right direction.

The judge did a good job today of addressing the gravity of what has been done to defenceless children overseas who do not have the social services available that children have here, said McConaghy, who runs the Ratanak International, a charity that works with former child-sex victims.

Obviously when you work with child victims, theres no sentence big enough.

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Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version identified the name of a group as Ratanak Foundation.
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OTTAWA  Syrians enrolled in language classes in Toronto are being told school is out for summer, thanks to federal funding shortages that are also seeing Syrians turned away from classes in Vancouver.

Settlement agencies told a House of Commons committee Thursday that while the federal government did top up their budgets to deal with the influx of over 25,000 Syrians in a matter of three months, the money isnt going far enough.

So a difficult decision had to be made, said Mario Calla, the executive director of Costi, which settles government-assisted refugees in Toronto.

Rather than scale back the number of classes altogether, they decided to just stop offering their 27 federally-funded courses over the summer.

Our hands are tied, Calla said. Its a compromise situation.

Federal funding for language classes is tied to the number of immigrants agencies served the year before. The base funding for 2016-2017 did not take into account the surge in Syrian refugees, who proved eager to access programs.

While Costi is trying to link Syrians up with provincial courses and other programs, that doesnt cover all the bases, Calla said.

Usually the women get cheated in that process because child minding isnt available.

In Vancouver, there are over 800 new immigrants on wait lists for language classes, said Karen Shortt, the president of the Vancouver Community College Faculty Association. Theyve cut 200 spots from their program because they lost federal funding.

The committee heard the budget for B.C. went from $4.6 million last year to $4.2 million this year.

Canada has well-intentioned policies and programs to assist refugees and immigrants, Shortt said. We do not want that intent to fail in the last stages after giving people so much hope and promise.

About $341 million was spent on the Syrian program across all federal departments in 2015-2016. A precise breakdown of that spending has yet to be released.

The Immigration Department earlier promised it by the end of May but is now saying they continue to work with other departments to tally up the final figures.

This year, settlement agencies will get $38 million in additional funds specifically for Syrian refugees.

As of May 29, there were 27,580 Syrian refugees who have come to Canada since the Liberals took power in November.
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VANCOUVER  Christopher Neil had been free in Canada for only months after serving time in a Thailand prison for sexually abusing young boys when police allege he started bragging about his past and seeking images of child pornography on the Internet.

The convicted pedophile was accused of sending a text message that said The Swirl liveth still to a Vancouver man as they chatted about their interest in prepubescent boys. Neil was dubbed Swirl Face by international media after authorities released pictures of a man engaged in sex acts with two young boys, showing his face disguised by a digital swirl.

The text is part of the evidence heard during a bail hearing for Neil held under a publication ban. It can be reported now because Neil was sentenced Wednesday in B.C. Supreme Court to 5 1/2 years in prison on five charges. With time served, he has just over 14 months left in his sentence.

Convicted pedophile Christopher Neil leaves Richmond Provincial court in Richmond, B.C., on Oct. 3, 2012. A British Columbia man who infamously disguised his face in child pornography he made in Southeast Asia will be sentenced today by a B.C. Supreme Court judge. Christopher Neil pleaded guilty in December to five child-sex crimes that took place in Cambodia, Vancouver and Maple Ridge, B.C., spanning a 10-year period. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Neil, 41, from the Vancouver suburb of Maple Ridge, pleaded guilty last December to two charges of sexual interference in Cambodia in 2003, one charge of possessing child pornography in Maple Ridge in 2007, and two charges of accessing child pornography in Vancouver in 2013.

At his sentencing hearing, Neil apologized to his victims and said he wants to change his behaviour.

In 2007, three years after finding more than 300 photos of a man sexually assaulting boys on the Internet, German police unscrambled the swirl.

Neil had kept a low profile while travelling through Asia teaching English until the new photo was released. He was identified and arrested within days.

At the bail hearing in April 2014, the Crown explained how the RCMP, the Vancouver Police Department and a former forensics investigator with unique expertise in Cambodia worked together building evidence against Neil.

Crown lawyer Brendan McCabe said Neil made significant efforts to cover his tracks. But he described how key evidence was scraped together from a storage locker in Canada, and from interviews and electronic communications with pedophiles who associated with Neil after he moved back to Vancouver.

Some of the images that German police worked from were found in Neils storage locker, court heard.

So we have not only the swirled images that were taken off the Internet, we have the unswirled versions  in the original form, McCabe said during the hearing.

In Cambodia, authorities tracked down one of the boys in the photos who said he was 13 years old at the time. The photos include data signatures indicating the 2003 date when they were taken and the 2004 date when they were modified, court was told.

There was also an expired passport in the storage locker showing Neil was in Cambodia at the same time the photos were taken, along with old plane tickets in his name for Asian destinations, and a psychological report prepared for Neils application to become a priest, court heard.

A B.C. judge imposed strict conditions on Neil when he arrived in Vancouver in the fall of 2012 after serving his sentence in Thailand. But just months later, court heard Neil was associating with pedophiles and searching online for child pornography, despite the court order.

An analysis of a laptop that Neil had to write about his experience in a Thai jail' turned up 25 child-porn images, two featuring Neil with his face digitally swirled, court heard.

Detectives also said they found Neil had accessed websites offering anonymous online surfing and military grade data-wiping software.

On a phone, police said they found text chats with a Vancouver man who Neil boasts to about his reputation. In a later police interview, the unnamed man said he showed Neil how to locate child porn on the deep web, the hidden web, McCabe said.

Court heard Neil was also living in the same building as a man convicted of child-sex offences who told police the pair purchased a laptop together.

The man, who was not identified in court, told police Neil used the computer to find child pornography, and always cleaned his fingerprints from the computer, court heard.

Neil told the man he desperately wanted to go back to Thailand, court was told.

Hed have more fun there because you can get away with more  sex with kids, the man said.

McCabe said there was no evidence that Neil sexually assaulted children in Canada.

But what there is evidence of is the fact that Mr. Neil seems to take pride in his reputation, he told the bail hearing.

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OTTAWA  Cows and tractors took over Parliament Hill on Thursday as thousands of milk producers gathered to demand the federal government enforce Canadas cheese laws regarding the use of diafiltered milk.

Protesters were preceded by a convoy of farmers who travelled by tractor to Ottawa after starting their multi-day journey earlier in the week in Quebec City.

The farmers say cheese companies are illegally using a cheap, non-tariffed U.S. milk protein in their products instead of real milk made in Canada.

They estimate the use of diafiltered milk cost them $220 million last year.

We need our government to stand tall, control its borders and start working for us, said Chris Ryan, a farmer from St-Isidore, Ont., who brought along his cow, Ninja.

Cheese sold in Canada must include a minimum percentage of actual milk, according to the countrys supply management laws.

Foreign milk entering the country is subject to high tariffs in order to protect the domestic industry.

Diafiltered milk, however, is considered an ingredient at the Canadian border and therefore is not subject to tariffs.

Diafiltration is occasionally done when processing milk to obtain a higher protein concentration.

Cheese companies are accused of illegally using diafiltered milk to fulfil their real milk quotas in their products.

Michel Crete, from Sainte-Agnes-de-Dundee, Que., said the importing of diafiltered milk is preventing him from modernizing his farm.

We have big losses, he said. It is affecting us and preventing us from investing in the company.

Serge Lapointe, who hails from Lambton, Que., says diafiltered milk is costing him $25,000 a year.

We were told last April that (action) was imminent, he said. Unfortunately, there doesnt seem to be a lot of political will on the part of the government.

Farmers accused the Liberal government of not doing enough to enforce the countrys supply management system, which protects eggs, dairy and poultry from foreign competition and guarantees certain farmers a price and demand for their products.

They also said they were promised financial compensation from Conservative and Liberal governments in exchange for signing Trans-Pacific and European trade agreements but that they have not received anything as of yet.

Danie Gilbert, the daughter of a milk producer from Quebecs Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region, said she doesnt know whether shell take over the family farm.

A lot of money is being lost, said Gilbert, 20. With supply management being threatened, we dont know whats going to happen. Will farms disappear?
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OTTAWA  The federal government is set to ratify an international agreement on combating child labour, but internal documents suggest Canada has little ability or experience enforcing similar provisions in trade agreements.

Those agreements with the worlds most advanced and fastest growing economies allow Canada to exact monetary penalties, including up to $15 million as part of a labour agreement with Colombia.

However, documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the access to information say Canada has little experience in ensuring that international partners meet the binding labour obligations outlined in agreements.

The background material prepared by the labour program at Employment and Social Development Canada last year also says dispute resolution and financial penalty processes are untested internationally.

Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk said Canada still needs to work on its enforcement and compliance efforts.

There are various approaches, she says.

Instead of looking at enforcement and penalties, were actively engaged with Colombia, Honduras, Vietnam, she said.

We would look at providing technical assistance, assisting them to find a different path, encouraging them to follow best practices that comply with the declaration.

So I would rather see us working co-operatively with other nations rather than looking at penalties.

Mihychuk said she is looking to increase capacity in the area by boosting the federal labour programs budget, because domestic businesses want the government to make competitors arent using child labour to gain an economic advantage.

Next week, Mihychuk will put her signature on the International Labour Organizations convention on the minimum age for work, bringing Canada on board with 168 other countries that have ratified the convention.

The convention states that the minimum age for work should be 15.

Its basically saying that we see the value of young people and that they should be at school, that they should not be in the workforce, Mihychuk said.

Mihychuk said signing the agreement wont outlaw having tweens help out on the family farms, babysit, or take part in traditional aboriginal practices.

The decision to ratify the convention comes after more than a year of reviews by federal officials and talks with provincial and territorial governments.

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OTTAWA  Justin Trudeau frankly admitted Thursday that his government bungled the launch of its electoral reform initiative by leaving the impression it was planning to rig the way Canadians vote to benefit the governing Liberals.

The prime ministers candid admission came as the government moved to cede control over the process that is supposed to come up with an alternative to the current first-past-the-post voting system.

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef announced two major concessions Thursday, one of which was to give up the Liberal majority on the all-party committee that is to explore alternative voting systems.

Minister of Democratic Institutions Maryam Monsef leaves after speaking to reporters in the foyer of the house of commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, June 2, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Monsef also opened the door to an eventual referendum, leaving it up to the committee to advise on the best way to consult Canadians on whatever alternative it winds up recommending.

It was a significant change of heart for the Liberals, whove been pilloried for their insistence on retaining the governments traditional majority on the committee and for refusing to commit to a referendum.

Opposition parties have accused the government of stacking the deck to ensure the committee ends up recommending a ranked-ballot system, which Trudeau has indicated in the past is his personal preference and which opponents maintain would unfairly boost the Liberals chances of re-election.

Trudeau said his government had been acting more like the previous Conservative regime, which hes frequently derided for ramming through changes to election laws without any support from other parties.

We heard the oppositions concerns that we were perhaps behaving in a way that was resembling more the previous government than the kind of approach and tone that we promised, Trudeau said.

Were happy to demonstrate that absolutely, were looking for ways to better work with our colleagues in the House, to better hear from Canadians and their concerns, and I look forward to working towards reforming our electoral system with the input of as many Canadians  including opposition parties  as possible.

Trudeau did not directly promise a referendum, but said all Canadians need to be involved in the discussion.

Its important that we hear not just from political parties and their opinions, but from all Canadians as to how were going to establish better governments, better governance for our country.

The concessions came in response to an NDP motion calling for the committees membership to reflect each partys share of the popular vote in last falls election.

The logjam is broken, the impasse has been overcome, at least on the process, said NDP democratic reform critic Nathan Cullen.

The biggest winner out of this is Canadians who want to see our voting system changed in a positive and hopeful way and that the parties work together.

But the Conservatives, whove resisted any changes to the electoral system and have been demanding a referendum, were far from mollified.

Conservative democratic reform critic Scott Reid said cabinet will still make the final decision on any change to the voting system. And he accused the government of using the committee to fritter away time so that there wont be time to introduce any new electoral system other than the ranked ballot system the Liberals want.

Reid also accused the Liberals and NDP of cooking up a backroom deal on the committee membership, without consulting the official Opposition.

Any talk of inclusiveness is just nonsense.

Under the governments original plan, the committee would have been composed of six Liberals, three Conservatives and one New Democrat, with a Bloc MP and May on the committee but not entitled to vote.

The NDP motion changes that to five Liberals, three Conservatives, two New Democrats, one Bloc MP and May  all with voting rights  and requires the committee to begin meeting within 10 days.

The committee is to explore other voting systems that would ensure that a partys share of seats in the House of Commons is more reflective of its share of the popular vote. The current system is widely criticized for routinely delivering a majority of the seats to a party that wins less than 40 per cent of the vote, over-representing regionally-concentrated parties and under-representing small national parties.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had a misspelled version of Monsefs first name.
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OTTAWA  Manitoba Senator Murray Sinclair gave his full support to the governments medically assisted dying bill Thursday, saying the law is constitutional and that without passing it by the June 6 Supreme Court deadline, Canadian doctors will not have legal protections to participate in assisted deaths.

Sinclair, Manitobas former associate chief justice, explained his position to the Free Press in an interview shortly before he delivered his maiden speech in the Senate on the bill.

This is an issue that is important to all of Canada, Sinclair said from his fifth-floor office in Centreblock.

Senator Murray Sinclair smiles as he waits for a television interview to begin in the foyer of the House of Commons, Tuesday, April 12, 2016 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

In February 2015, the Supreme Court said it should no longer be illegal for a competent adult who is suffering from a grievous and irremediable illness or disability to request and receive help to end their life. The court gave the government one year, until Feb. 6, to allow Ottawa or provincial governments time to craft regulations to enact medical-assistance in dying. That deadline was pushed back to June 6 at the request of the federal government to account for time lost due to last falls election.

The courts ruling did not specifically limit access to a medically assisted death to someone who is dying, nor did they limit it to physical conditions only. Bill C-14 does both those things, and critics say by limiting access to assisted dying to people who are dying, and preventing someone suffering only from a psychological illness from the same right, the bill is unconstitutional.

Sinclair said the government doesnt have to introduce a bill that mirrors exactly what the court said for that law to be constitutional, as long as the new law complies with the charter.

In this case, the charter says that every charter right you have is subject to such reasonable limits as are demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society, said Sinclair. Our obligation in the Senate is to ensure the government has carefully considered that provision before they enact this legislation. They have certainly given a right to individuals under this law that is less than what the court said but they have the right to do that as long as they can justify it under article one of the Charter. I think that they have.

Sinclair is also concerned if the bill isnt passed by June 6  something that is virtually impossible at this point  patients wont be able to access assisted deaths because doctors wont feel they are fully protected by the law to provide that assistance.

Manitobas other independent senator, Raymonde Gagne, told the Free Press Thursday she is listening to voices on all sides of this debate and has not yet made up her mind where she stands on C-14.

When I first saw the bill, my first thought was it was quite balanced, she said. But she has since also heard of amendments which could make sense.

This is the first major legislation Sinclair and Gagne are dealing with as new senators. They both took their seats in April. Both say they feel the independence in the Senate is growing and neither feels beholden to anyone on an issue.

Sinclairs appointment came just four months after he wrapped up work as the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Donald Trump may still be having trouble corralling the votes of some conservative Republicans in the U.S., but he is well on his way to rounding up the endorsements of dictators and leaders of pariah states. The latest--approving articles about him appearing in two media mouthpieces of the regime in North Korea.

Trump, who has also basked in the praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin (while expressing admiration for the authoritarian and anti-Democratic tactics of the Kremlin) was praised as a wise politician and a far-sighted leader in an article published this week in the regime-backed website DPRK Today.

Related: Why Donald Trump Is Vladimir Putins Favorite Presidential Candidate

The so-called Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea is, of course, not Democratic at all, and its people have little say in how the country is run. Kim Jong-un, the leader of the country and the son and grandson of its two prior rulers, runs a viciously oppressive regime that has gladly relegated much of its population to famine and destitution while pursuing greater military capability while regularly threatening its enemies -- including the United States -- with nuclear annihilation.

Under Kims rule, nothing is published by the state-run media without the consent of the regime, which suggests that the DPRK Today piece, written by a man identified as a Korean scholar studying in China, had the implicit backing of the government.

And the article appeared to see some promise in the Trump candidacy. The candidate the Americans must choose is not the thickheaded Hillary, who tries to apply an Iranian model to solve the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula, but Trump, who says he will try to solve it through direct dialogue with us, he wrote.

The remarks were an apparent response to Trump saying that he would consider withdrawing US troops from South Korea, which is still officially at war with the north, unless the government in Seoul pays the US more for the protection they provide.

Story continues

Related: Donald Trumps New Role -- Apologist for Vladimir Putin

Leave Now! Hurry! the article read. The day that the Yankee Go Home slogan becomes reality would be the day Korea is unified again.

Trump has also said that he would be willing to sit down with North Koreas Kim for discussions about nuclear weapons.

Another of the regimes media outlets, the newspaper Rodong Sinmun, was more sparing in its praise for Trump, but was plainly delighted by the discomfort the presumptive Republican presidential nominees comments are causing in South Korea. In an editorial Wednesday, it urged South Korea to stop living as a servant of foreign forces and come back to the side of the Korean nation.

The editorial came on the same day that the U.S. Treasury Department further tightened restrictions on North Koreas ability to access the global financial system by declaring the regime a primary money laundering concern. That designation makes it unlawful for US banks to provide correspondent accounts to North Korean banks.

Correspondent accounts allow institutions in one country the ability to do a significant amount of business in another country without actually operating there. Barring North Korean banks from US correspondent accounts is a major blow to the regime in Pyongyang in terms of access to the global banking system.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
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A former youth treatment worker at the Behavioural Health Foundation in Selkirk describes the centre as glorified babysitting.

Dal Redmond is a former Child and Family Services worker with more than 25 years of experience in Winnipeg and Kenora and a wealth of firsthand knowledge as a mental-health worker on northern Manitoba First Nations.

He spent January to March 2015 as a youth treatment worker at the Selkirk centre. Redmond disclosed he was fired from the post but described the work environment while he worked there as toxic and the treatment of clients as punitive.

MIKE APORIUS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Del Redmond, a social worker with more than 25 years of experience working for several child welfare agencies in Winnipeg and Kenora, said working conditions at the Behavioural Health Foundation in Selkirk were "toxic" during the three months he worked there before he was let go.

I knew what it was like there. I knew how management treated staff and I believed they would not be supportive of her, said Redmond, who visited assault victim Jackie Healey in hospital Wednesday. The 23-year-old woman was badly beaten Sunday and two male youths, 16 and 17, are facing charges.

The Healey family referred Redmond to the Free Press and late Wednesday afternoon, the 74-year-old retired social worker sat down to offer an insiders perspective on work at the facility.

Redmond described a facility that drew its clients from northern parts of the province, mostly indigenous teen boys struggling with addictions. Many of them were trouble with the law and were sent to Selkirk by the courts. Almost all of them were wards of the province, Redmond said.

They were given very little treatment at the Behavioural Health Foundation, Redmond said.

It was glorified babysitting. The boys in their care were provided with food and shelter but their therapeutic needs, their emotional and psychological needs, were not adequately addressed, he said flatly.

Redmond described a centre that was understaffed and overworked, with few qualified professionals to offer therapy to the boys, all of whom were high-risk, vulnerable and angry.

Other sources within the indigenous child welfare system described high hopes for the centre as a treatment facility when it launched the boys program years ago. But there were unconfirmed reports some agencies were reluctant to send wards there, unsure of treatment services at the facility.

There have been also recent reports of funding woes and bureaucratic battles over federal and provincial jurisdiction for services.

The Selkirk centre is a private addictions rehab facility with a 45-year history of treating troubled youth and adults. The facility announced two weeks ago the male youth program is closing June 25. The program in St. Norbert for female youth is shutting down later this week.

Calls to an official with the facility were not immediately returned.

In one media report, Jean Doucha, executive director of the Behavioural Health Foundation, acknowledged the assault as the most serious in the foundations history .

Redmond said the staff were primarily support workers with little or no secondary education in social work.

There may have been a couple of people with BAs out there. I was the only person with a social work degree out there, Redmond said.

The receptionist out there was the best therapist in the whole damn place, Redmond said. She was a grandma figure. Youd see boys talking to her constantly, just TLC. They felt comfortable with her there.

Beyond that, Redmond described a punitive atmosphere, where staff could be heard yelling and screaming at clients and where staff, in turn, were also subject to intimidation from management.

And although Redmond said he never witnessed drug abuse at the centre, he was informed of reports the boys would find ways to slip the supervision of staff to escape outside to smoke dope behind the building on Breezy Point Road.

One boy said he was embarrassed to say he was stoned the day he was brought into Winnipeg to see a mental health professional, Redmond said.

For the boys, the facility was a better alternative than the Manitoba Youth Centre where they would have otherwise been sentenced, Redmond said.

Theyre all coming from a pretty bad place, to end up at the Behavioural Health Foundation in the first place. But if you talk to any one of them, theyd say it was all right, because it was better than they were used to. But all right isnt good enough, Redmond said.

Redmond said he was fired after three months, and although he was never given a reason for the dismissal, he believes it was probably due to his vocal complaints about the lack of professional standards he said he saw and the working conditions he experienced.

In some ways it was the worst work experience Ive had but it was also definitely the best, because of the boys. The boys were not the problem, management was the problem, Redmond said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
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A group of five researchers, including Shannon Sampert of the Winnipeg Free Press, has won the 2016 Jill Vickers Prize at the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) 2016 annual conference at the University of Calgary.

Angelia Wagner, Linda Trimble, Daisy Raphael, Bailey Gerrits and Sampert were honoured for their collaborative research paper called, Gender, Competitiveness and Candidate Prominence in Newspaper Coverage of Canadian Party Leadership Contests, 1975-2012.

The paper is described by the CPSA as Meticulously well-researched and argued, Wagner et al.s research makes a novel contribution to the study of gender and media in Canada. Using a content analysis over a broad period of time (1975-2012), the paper examines the importance of gender and competitiveness during political party leadership campaigns.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Winnipeg Free Press Perspectives & Politics Editor Shannon Sampert.

The description notes that the paper found that a candidates media visibility is largely, although not exclusively, regulated by journalistic assessments of a candidates actual level of support among voters, donors, and party officials.

The papers authors argued that while gender matters, a candidates percentage of the vote on the first ballot is more strongly correlated with the degree of prominence in leadership coverage.

It concluded by praising the paper as making an important contribution to gendered mediation research.

The Jill Vickers Prize, awarded for the 30th time, was established by the CPSA in honour of Vickers, who is an activist and a leader in Canadian feminist scholarship.

The winners received a commemorative plaque.

Sampert is the Perspectives and Politics editor at the Free Press.
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Canadian police chiefs are determined their action plan following a two-day meeting in Winnipeg can help mend the relationship between police and Canadas indigenous people.

The Moving Forward Safer Futures conference gathered around 180 police, policymakers and indigenous people to solve some of the problems between them, with a focus on evidence-informed solutions and why indigenous people are more at risk than others.

Clive Weighill, Saskatoon police chief and president of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said there were a few key points the chiefs should take away from the meetings. Following the event at a news conference, Weighill said the next step is getting different police forces across Canada to adopt the recommendations, which he said shouldnt be a hard task.

Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press Assistant Commissioner RCMP D-Division Kevin Brosseau (from left) with Winnipeg Deputy Chief Danny Smyth, who was speaking during a news conference at the end of a two-day conference that brought together Canadian police chiefs.

Those recommendations focus on co-operation, collaboration and mutual respect, and include:

Continued calls to action prior to the announced missing and murdered indigenous women inquiry;

Lobbying the government to improve indigenous peoples quality of life by investing in basic needs;

Improving the First Nations Policing Program and no longer considering it a program, but an essential service;

Encouraging police services to support indigenous culture and promote inclusivity;

Building programming around the Youth Criminal Justice Act like addictions assistance, programming and interventions to prevent youth from becoming more involved in the criminal justice system;

Reducing the proportion of indigenous people in the criminal justice system through alternative approaches;

Enhancing the fundamentals of policing by developing relationships, especially with indigenous youth; and

Working with other justice partners to create responsive and restorative solutions.

Meanwhile, deputy chief Danny Smyth highlighted Winnipeg Police Services responsibility when it comes to both criminal investigations and investigations into missing and murdered indigenous women.

Training is essential, Smyth said. Not just cultural awareness, but also training that centres around some of the systemic racism that we need to acknowledge.

Smyth said there also needs to be more work done within the force to improve both internal and external relations with indigenous people.

We have a lot of indigenous members within our ranks and I think we need to celebrate their achievements, Smyth said. Its important to normalize them as members of our community and members of our service. People need to see indigenous members in our ranks to know that they are part of the fabric of our community.

Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press Saskatoon Police Chief and President of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Clive Weighill speaks during a press conference at the end of a two-day conference called "Moving Toward a Safer Future: An inclusive dialogue among police, policy makers and Canada's Aboriginal Peoples."

bailey.hildebrand@freepress.mb.ca
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Pilots will soon be warming up their engines for one of the biggest air shows the province has ever seen.

The 2016 Manitoba Air Show is set for Saturday at the Southport Airport, three kilometres south of Portage la Prairie.

The goal is to get others interested in flying  something Jill Oakes, executive director of the 2016 Manitoba Air Show, has experience doing.

SARAH TAYLOR / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES The 2016 Manitoba Air Show will feature the world-renowned Canadian Forces Snowbirds, who travel around North America with their thrilling air performances.

Oakes is part of the Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots. Oakes said over the last few years she and other Ninety-Nines as well as male pilots in Manitoba had been offering free rides and flying lessons for women, introducing them to aviation.

Oakes said the small events were a reminder of what inspired many pilots at the start of their careers. But they wanted to do something bigger.

Oakes said she spoke to her colleagues and friends in aviation, who said it would be expensive to put the event together and insurance would be hard to get. But, Oakes said, about two years ago, the Ninety-Nines went forward despite the cost. Now the 2016 Manitoba Air Show is ready to take flight.

Oakes said organizers looked at a number of places across the province to hold the show, including airports and other places with runways, but Southport was the most accessible.

Portage was the best site that actually had the runways and the ramps and the little bit of infrastructure that we wanted for the air show, she said.

Southport, a former Royal Canadian Air Force base, last held an air show in 2009. Air shows were held until 2004 at Winnipegs international airport.

The show will feature the world-renowned Canadian Forces Snowbirds, who travel around North America with their thrilling air performances. The show will start with the Skyhawks, Canadas only military parachute demonstration team. In between, spectators will see a cadet glider demo, Sky Dancer Anna Serbinenko, as well as the CF-18 Hornet.

Dennis Scharf is the shows director of operations and looks after aircraft movements and performances. Its his first time working for the show, but he was a performer in the past. Hes currently in the military with the C-130 Hercules search and rescue  a job hes dreamed of since he was a kid.

This is all about kids, Scharf said. Were trying to inspire them and promote aviation in Manitoba. For a lot of us that are in aviation, we were inspired in some way in the past. For myself, I grew up on a farm at Lundar. Every second day, a C-130 Hercules would fly overhead. So it didnt take too long to figure out thats what I wanted to do.

It may be all about future flyers, but the show is hoping to attract entire families to the airport. Rockin the Runway will start the show, with a number of local musical acts performing in the morning until the Skyhawks take their leap in the air.

The first air display, the Skyhawks, take flight at noon Saturday. The show wraps up with the Snowbirds taking off at 3:30 p.m. For more information and the full schedule, visit mbairshow.com.

Their fashion show is going to be on the runway, and it is truly the runway, so theyre getting a big kick out that, Oakes said.

bailey.hildebrand@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 02/06/2016 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The countrys big city mayors concluded their day-long working session Thursday with assurances Ottawa will provide cities with the cash they need to fix crumbling infrastructure.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi told reporters that Ottawa wants to get cash into municipal hands as quickly as possible and allow local leaders to decide which projects will be funded.

Our goal is to provide sustainable and predictable funding to municipalities, Sohi said following his meeting with the mayors from the countrys 21 largest communities. The City of Winnipeg will get its share and that share will come very soon.

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman, centre, hosting the Federation of Canadian Municipalities Big City Mayors Conference at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg.

The mayors met for two hours with Sohi Thursday afternoon, clearing up any misunderstanding over how Ottawa will allocate $120 billion for infrastructure projects over the next 10 years.

The new Liberal government vowed in its March budget to provide municipalities an additional $60 billion for infrastructure, in addition to the $60 billion already committed by the former Harper government.

Ottawa will allocate those funds in two phases: $11.9 billion to be spent on projects over the next two to five years; with the remaining funds to be allocated in the remaining five years.

What Sohi told the mayors during the closed door meeting was good news for Mayor Brian Bowman.

What we wanted to hear is that there is going to be flexibility, Bowman said. The federal government is going to continue discussions and we were able to start that dialogue today. Were looking forward to having additional conversations in the coming weeks.

The Big City Mayors Caucus (BCMC) is the prelude to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference, which runs Friday to Sunday at the RBC Convention Centre. The mayors spent the day behind closed doors discussing partnerships between all levels of government and First Nations in tackling a variety of issues, including economic development, housing, infrastructure, and environmental protection.

In addition to Sohi, the mayors held discussions with Family Minister Jean-Yves Duclos, Adam Vaughan, parliamentary secretary for intergovernmental affairs, and with Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will lead off the conference Friday morning, with a speech to the more than 1,500 mayors and councillors from across the country who are in Winnipeg for the FCM event.

NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and Green party Leader Elizabeth May will address the municipal leaders on Sunday.

Local officials had expressed concern that Ottawa had put a short timeline to access infrastructure funds  all projects have to be completed by March 2018. That would rule out using some of that $60 billion for mega projects like the eastern BRT corridor route to Transcona or upgrades to the citys sewage treatment plants.

But Sohi said the funding will be allocated in a way to allow municipalities full access to the funds. He said design and planning stages will be eligible for funding in Phase 1, while the actual construction of projects will receive funding through Phase 2 of the infrastructure program.

Sohi said Ottawa insisted on the March 2018 deadline for Phase 1 projects because it wants to see municipalities access existing funds to fix roads and bridges as quickly as possible.

We need to fix those cracks and thats what the focus is going to be in phase 1, Sohi said. Any project that is long term, funding will also be available for those projects in the long term, 10-year plan that were developing as we speak.

Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, who chairs the big city mayors caucus, said he was pleased with the days discussions, adding the discussion with Duclos on housing was positive.

We had an excellent conversation about the importance of housing in Canadas big cities, certainly for vulnerable Canadians who tend to concentrate in large numbers in our large cities, Iveson said, adding there was agreement that Ottawa will provide funding for more affordable housing units across the country, money which will be provided in the second phase of long-term funding.

Iveson said Sohi assured the mayors that infrastructure projects that got underway April 1 will also be eligible for infrastructure funding.

That gives us the assurance that projects that we want to move ahead with in this construction season will get federal funding, Iveson said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 02/06/2016 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Northern indigenous people carry box cutters in case they have to suddenly try to save someone from suicide by hanging, Liberal MLA Judy Klassen told a hushed legislature Thursday.

In my community, most people carry box cutters, because you never know when you will find a child hanging from a tree, said Klassen (Kewatinook).

Shes never had to do so personally, Klassen said later in an interview, but knows others back home in St. Theresa Point First Nation who have.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Judy Klassen, Liberal MLA for Kewatinook at question period.

Often, she said, people searching for children whom they fear will kill themselves are first on the scene, and cut them down to try to save them.

Isnt it tragic  thats where we are today, Klassen said.

With that statement getting the attention of all MLAs, Klassen made impassioned pleas in the legislature for clean water and affordable fresh food for the north. At one point, Klassen said she would bring water from St. Theresa Point and challenge Conservative ministers to drink it.

A plan of action is needed today. I dont doubt everyone here is committed to the people of southern Manitoba, she told the legislature. There is ignorance to the real life and death situations that people north of the 52nd parallel face.

Klassen pressed Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen for help, particularly in dealing with a diabetes crisis that forces so many northern indigenous people to come to Winnipeg for dialysis.

In Canada, were supposed to provide universal health care for all people, she said.

Goertzen agreed that, We have a significant issue with diabetes.

In his few weeks as health minister, hes learning how many diabetes patients have moved to Winnipeg for treatment. Goertzen is looking for ways that those individuals receiving dialysis can do so closer to home.

Goertzen invited Klassen to join him in appealing to the federal government for help, which Klassen later said she would gladly do.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 02/06/2016 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police have issued Canada-wide arrest warrants for two males, aged 18 and 27, regarding a May 15 shooting in the North End of Winnipeg.

Bryce Keating, 18, and Clifford Jobb, 27, are both suspects following an investigation by the Major Crimes Unit into the incident.

Both suspects are considered armed and dangerous, said police. Members of the public are advised not to approach the suspects, and anyone observing either of them is asked to call 911.

POLICE HANDOUT Bryce Keating

On May 15 at around 6:30 a.m. police were alerted to an adult male and female arriving in hospital with gunshot wounds, along with a male youth who was also injured in the incident.

The victims were in a vehicle in the area of Magnus Avenue and Aikins Street when the shooting occurred and both suffered upper body wounds. The driver of the vehicle was able to transport the victims to hospital immediately afterward, police said.

Const. Rob Carver with Winnipeg Police said all three individuals injured have since been released from hospital.

At the time, Carver said police did not believe it was a random shooting.

When they issue a warrant of this nature (Canada-wide), theyre saying that were prepared to have them conveyed to Winnipeg, no matter where they are in Canada, Carver said. That means that Manitoba Justice feels the case is serious enough that they are prepared to transfer the individuals back to the Winnipeg jurisdiction.

POLICE HANDOUT Clifford Jobb

Members of the Major Crimes Unit are continuing to investigate, police said. Anyone with information that may assist investigators is asked to call 204-986-6219 or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-TIPS (8477).
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 01/06/2016 (2337 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to answer pointed questions Wednesday about why his government fast-tracked legislation to ease job requirements on Air Canadas operations in Manitoba.

Bill C-10 amends the Air Canada Public Participation Act to no longer require the airline to keep heavy maintenance jobs in Winnipeg, Montreal and Mississauga, Ont.

The government says it will make Air Canada more competitive, but opponents and former heavy maintenance workers in Winnipeg argue it lets Air Canada off the hook to send the most highly skilled, high paying maintenance jobs out of the country.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Bill C-10 amends the Air Canada Public Participation Act to no longer require the airline to keep heavy maintenance jobs in Winnipeg, Montreal and Mississauga, Ont.

Final debate on C-10 finished Wednesday and the bill was voted on at third reading in the afternoon.

The Commons vote took place at a quickened pace after the Liberals voted for time allocation to limit debate on the bill. They did the same thing for the bill at second reading.

During question period, Trudeau was asked twice by NDP Leader Tom Mulcair to give one single reason he is in such a rush to pass C-10.

Why is the prime minister in such a rush to give Air Canada a blank cheque? Mulcair asked. Theyve never complied with the act and there were no consequences. Why are they so naive to think Air Canada will keep its word this time?

Trudeau didnt answer the question, saying only the government is working tirelessly to ensure that Canadians have good jobs in the aerospace industry and that we have an aerospace industry in the short term, medium term and long term. Thats what were working on. Thats what Canadians expect of us.

Bombardier deal raises suspicions

Elmwood-Transcona NDP MP Daniel Blaikie said when the government announced plans to amend the act the same day Air Canada announced it was buying new planes from Quebec-based Bombardier, it raised suspicions the two things were linked.

He said the governments insistence to expend political capital to fast-track a bill that isnt an election promise is also a mystery unless the bill is quid pro quo for the airlines agreement to buy jets from a troubled Quebec airplane manufacturer.

Its hard to believe there is no deal at all, Blaikie said in a speech in the House of Commons on the bill Wednesday. Clearly C-10 is really important to this government and they wont say why.

The act was passed when Air Canada was privatized. The airline had heavy maintenance workers in Winnipeg until 2012, when its subsidiary doing that work went bankrupt. Most of that work has since been sent out of the country.

Quebec sued the airline for violating the act and Manitoba supported the lawsuit. But both governments are negotiating deals with the airline to have maintenance centres of excellence built in Winnipeg and Montreal in exchange for dropping the legal action.

Both provinces have asked the federal government to hold off passing the bill until those negotiations are complete.

The legislation now moves to the Senate, but its unclear if it has any chance of passing into law before Parliament rises for its summer break later this month.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Monsignor Richard Colletti has resigned his positions with the Diocese of Winona as Vicar General and Chancellor.

The announcement of the resignation was contained in a Wednesday evening email from Bishop John Quinn to diocesan clergy.

Monsignor Collettis resignation stems from recent media reports involving accusations of sexual misconduct with an adult female that dates back to 1986, Quinns email said.

The bishops announcement coincided with a Rochester Post-Bulletin story published Thursday morning detailing a personal injury lawsuit filed in 1992 against Colletti, the Diocese, Saint Marys University and others.

Colletti admitted in court documents to having a sexual relationship with a female student he was counseling while on staff at Saint Marys. The lawsuit was closed in December 1993. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

Quinns email described Collettis service as Vicar General and Chancellor as exemplary.

Monsignor Colletti tendered his resignation to me because of his concern that the situation would impede the effective administration and governance of the Diocese, Quinn said in a statement Thursday.

Colletti was also assigned as rector of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, pastor of St. Casimirs Church and chaplain of the WSU Newman Center. Colletti has also resigned from his chaplain role, Quinn said Thursday; his other ministerial duties are under review.

I am not able to address the specifics of the claim due to the Confidentiality Agreement signed between the parties to the lawsuit, Quinn said in the statement. The Diocese of Winona takes every allegation of clergy sexual misconduct very seriously and remains committed to upholding the inherent dignity of every person.

Colletti, 63, had served in those roles since 2011. He had previously been assigned to a number of roles in the diocese in Rochester and Mankato dating back to the mid-1990s.

Colletti admitted in Winona County District Court documents filed in the early 1990s to an ongoing relationship with the woman he had been counseling. They met at Saint Marys, where she was a first-year student and Colletti was then the director of campus ministry.

Colletti soon started scheduling appointments almost daily, according to court records, with the two meeting for several months and the relationship eventually turning sexual in nature.

Colletti, having told diocese administration about the relationship, was eventually transferred to Rochester. It wasnt clear whether Colletti and the woman had any contact after the suit was filed in 1992. She is in her 40s and now lives in a different state, the Post-Bulletin reported.

The revelation comes amid a time of growing uncertainty about the Diocese of Winonas future and the close of the Minnesota Child Victims Act, which allowed a three-year window for victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil claims against their abusers. The woman would not have qualified to file suit under the act because she was 18 at the time.

More than 100 cases seeking financial compensation for damages have been filed against the Winona diocese during that period, connected to incidents that date back in some cases to the 1940s, all against clergy members who either have died or are no longer active in the diocese.

The diocese has not clearly said yet whether it is considering bankruptcy protection, as the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis and others have done.
Southeast Technical College this week announced that even amid a mandated tuition freeze for all state colleges and universities, it will lower tuition for all students by 1 percent for the 2016-17 school year.

On paper, that means the cost of each credit will fall from $167.31 to $165.64. While the change wont zero out student loan balances, the decision is as much symbolic as it is practical, administrators said.

Nate Emerson, vice president of student affairs at Southeast Tech, said Wednesday the tuition decrease serves as a sign to both current and potential students that the college takes debt seriously and is doing what it can to help.

Students leave colleges with more and more debt these days because of tuition increases, Emerson said. The tuition decrease will help with that problem.

The ongoing tuition freeze came out of the Minnesota Legislature in 2013 as part of ongoing negotiations with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system over the overall cost of attending college.

(The freeze) provides an opportunity for students earning a degree to leave school with as little debt as possible, Emerson said. Students today are concerned with how much money they will have to borrow to go to school.

Emerson also talked about changes to the Minnesota State Grant Program, which helps income-eligible students attending state colleges and universities with expenses.

Emerson said Southeast Tech received around $125,000 as part of the programs latest funding round, which averages out to around $3,500 for each student. Students are eligible for the grants for up to six full-time semesters.

Weve allocated every penny of that scholarship to students, Emerson said. Its brought more students to us ... theres still 15 or 20 eligible students that we hope to help when the funds can be reallocated (in August).

Students who attend state technical colleges and who receive state and federal grants pay an estimated $894 for full-time enrollment, Southeast Tech said in a release.
The Mississippi River and the bluffs that tower above it make this a place where people want to be.

But on occasion some of those people will fall off the bluffs, will fall into the river, and will need someone to come to their rescue.

Wednesday morning, seven people  five veteran members of the Winona County Dive and Rescue Team, and two employees of Ames Construction, whose training and quick action recently saved a womans life  were recognized for their service.

Scott Klein and CJ Ruhl, employees of Ames Construction, were at work at the interstate bridge site May 10 when they saw a woman plunge from the bridge walkway into the main channel of the Mississippi. The two launched a rescue boat and went to the womans aid, bringing her to shore.

If they hadnt been there and acted as quickly as they did, it would have been a recovery, not a rescue, said Steve Buswell, sheriffs department jail administrator.

Theyve been quite humble ... said they were just doing their job. Done what theyd been trained to do as part of the job, Buswell said. Ames should be commended for providing that training, he said, but their action that day was more than just doing their job ... much more.

Klein and Ruhl were presented with certificates recognizing their action. Thank you for being there and reacting so quickly, Buswell said.

The five retirees from the Dive/Rescue Squad who were honored Wednesday represent more than 122 years of service to the community.

Organized in 1983 under the direction of Sheriff Vern Spitzer, the Dive and Rescue team is composed of a group of volunteers who are on call 24 hours a day. The team is responsible for rough country and water search-and-rescue in Winona County and is called upon to assist in other jurisdictions.

The team was barely a year old when Brian Buerck joined in 1984. In 32 years, Ive had a lot of memorable moments, he said, finding the person, bringing them back to their loved ones.

Brad Benke said, No organization Ive ever been with has had such a bond among the members.

Were tight, tight, tight, the 27-year veteran said.

Mark Fremling said the moment that stood out in his 27 years was the day he was set to rappel down to rescue a stranded dog. Before he descended, he asked what the dogs name was.

Chompers, he was told.

Just what you want to hear when youre about to go over the edge, he said.

Jon Krofchalk recalled the training session that turned into the real thing when a man fell 120 feet from Sugar Loaf just after theyd assembled for training nearby. That they were close and could respond so fast may have been the difference between life and death. He went to school that fall, Krofchalk said.

Keri Wegman said that in her 16 years shed always been called the mom of the team. These guys were always so supportive, she said. I always knew Id be okay, and there were a lot of first things Id never done before.

Sheriff Ron Ganrude presented each of the retirees with a plaque, congratulations and thanks. I really appreciate everything youve done for me as chief deputy and as sheriff, he said. The team was always there.
Something new is brewing for Saturdays seventh annual Brew at the Barn.

The Multiple Sclerosis Society fundraiser will feature members of three area brewing clubs. The Bluff Hoppers of Sauk Prairie and the Clown Town Brewery of Baraboo will try to supplant the reigning peoples choice, Dells United Frequent Fermentors of Wisconsin Dells.

This year will be significantly larger than the past six, said organizer Christin Harding. All are bringing outstanding brews, which have won national, state and regional awards.

In addition, there are a handful of independent brewers that are bringing some unique brews, wine, mead and soda to share.

The event will be held Saturday afternoon at the Barn Restaurant in Baraboo. Beer lovers can sample varieties produced by major breweries, craft independents and amateurs: And they can vote for the flavors they like most.

Unlike other beer competitions, there are no long lines to the unlimited samples, Harding said, and anyone interested in brewing their own will have the opportunity to ask questions and get details of how to make their own.

A new attraction this year will be John Rogers of Rogers Pure Honey in Baraboo. He will bring mead, a honey wine. He also will answer questions about how honey can be used to sweeten wine and beer. A lot of brewers and winemakers use honey, Rogers said.

A familiar favorite  American Beer Bread  will offer bread, smoked cheddar and bacon for the fifth consecutive year. Plus, local bluesman Mark Tully will perform starting at 4 p.m.

Tickets cost $35 at the door, or $25 in advance. Theres a $10 discount for designated drivers.

The event raises money for the Wisconsin chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. In addition to ticket proceeds, the fight against MS will benefit from a raffle whose items include tickets to the Duck Blind for a Madison Mallards game, brewery accessories such as signs and bottle openers, and gallons of Rogers honey. Hardings fundraising goal is $4,000.

This event is so much fun, she said. There is no better way to spend a gorgeous Saturday afternoon than on the deck of The Barn under the willow trees, enjoying tasty drinks and listening to live blues.
Mosquitoes are bad enough in Wisconsin without having to worry about bites causing terrible birth defects.

Congress should quickly grant the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions request for funding to fight the Zika virus.

Health officials on May 27 confirmed a second Wisconsin woman  this time a resident of Dane County  has contracted the illness. Both women had traveled to Latin America, where the virus is concentrated.

Wisconsin cant pretend its not at risk. Though no mosquitoes here carry the virus  yet  Zika also can be transmitted by sexual contact.

Congress needs to act, not play political games with public health.

In a public health emergency, speed is critical, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, told the National Press Club on May 26. A day, a week, a month can make all of the difference.

The U.S. Senate, with bipartisan support, just approved $1.1 billion for efforts to exterminate mosquitoes that carry the virus, testing and vaccine research. Thats down from the presidents request of $1.9 billion but more than the $622 million the House wants to spend.

Congress should be able to hammer out a reasonable agreement.

Its been three long months since President Barack Obama requested the money. All the while, the CDC has issued increasingly urgent warnings about the need to act quickly to prevent an outbreak in the United States.

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his fellow Republicans who control the House want to offset the cost of Zika funding with cuts in other spending. Thats a fine idea  but not if it delays action.

This isnt  or shouldnt be  a partisan issue. Unfortunately, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., pulled Obamacare into the debate. Republicans have been unrealistically trying to repeal the presidents signature health care law for years. Johnson voted against bipartisan Zika funding in the Senate, saying he wanted to take dollars for battling the virus from an Obamacare prevention plan instead.

Other Republicans, including former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio from the swampy state of Florida, backed Obamas full $1.9 billion request. Florida and other states closest to Latin America face higher risk of exposure than the rest of the nation.

This is a public health emergency that cannot wait for this extended debate on this issue, Rubio said.

Hes right.

The longer Congress waits to steer money to the CDC, the more likely the virus will spread  costing more money to contain than it would now to prevent. That point should resonate with Johnson and other funding sticklers.

America shouldnt panic. At the same time, America shouldnt put off prudent effort and expense to ensure the public is safe.
There is room for debate about global warming and its man-made cause, unless you are a student in Portland, Oregon public schools.

That was the directive from the Portland school board recently when it ordered any texts contravening that theory be purged from the districts textbooks and other curriculum. Any insidious words like may or might or could that cast even a shred of doubt on the settled science of global warming will be stricken from student view.

And thats a pity.

There is no question there is a strong consensus among climate scientists that the current global warming trend exists, is ongoing and is likely linked to human activity and the rise in carbon dioxide emissions. But there are also doubters who question whether the changes are outside normal climactic variations.

In the United States, the political and economic debate over global warming, what to do about it and how effective  and how damaging to our carbon-fueled economy  remedial measures would be continues to rage.

The Portland school board vote was one such skirmish. The effort there was led by environmental and left-wing groups that want to stamp out any dissent  as demonstrated by one of the leaders, Bill Bigelow, who acknowledged: We dont want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry.

And Portland is not alone in beating the drum to curb any dissent. Earlier this spring Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the Justice Department was looking at the possibility of pursuing civil action against climate change deniers and had referred a request to the FBI to determine whether the department could act. Nothing warming about that, global or otherwise.

It is not the first time that settled science has caused some unsettling events when someone has had the audacity to question it. Back in 1633 Galileo was excoriated for postulating that the earth was not the center of the universe. After studying the heavens with his telescope, Galileo postulated that the earth was moving around the sun  a theorem that was roundly rejected by the scientific community and theologians at the time. He was brought up on charges by the Roman Catholic Church, found guilty of heresy, had his writings banned and was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life. It only took the church 392 years to correct the record.

Portland, by banning any dissent or debate, has abandoned its duties to educate its school children and instead decided to indoctrinate them.

The goal of education  and the task of educators  is to foment debate, teach students to think critically and to weigh arguments. Those are the students who will make the discoveries, in science and other fields, that will help us face the challenges of the future.

In Portland, meanwhile, this crop of students will probably stay safely ashore and not risk going out on the Pacific for fear of sailing off the end of the earth. That, too, was once settled science.
Robert Neuman

Robert Bob R. Neuman, 91, formerly of Beaver Dam, passed away on Wednesday, May 25, 2016.

Bob was born Dec. 9, 1924, at The Lutheran Hospital in Beaver Dam, the son of Leonard and Norma (Jones) Neuman. He graduated from Beaver Dam High School, and proudly served his country in the U.S. Marines. During his two and one half years of service, he was stationed in the South Pacific, Guam, and Iwo Jima. Bob worked as a service representative for Mercury Marine for more than 30 years. In his free time, he enjoyed hunting, fishing, and traveling.

Bob is survived by his three sons, Clark Allen (Leanne), Louisville, Richard Robert (Sherry), Greenville, Indiana, and Thomas Kirk (Angela), Louisville; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; the mother of his children, Janet Woodill; other relatives and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents; good friend, Pat Davis; and other relatives.

A memorial gathering will be held on Sunday, June 5, from 10 until 11 a.m. at Cornerstone Funeral & Cremation Services, 135 Keller Blvd., Beaver Dam, followed by a graveside service at Oakwood Cemetery, Beaver Dam, with military honors provided by John E. Miller American Legion Post 146. A luncheon will follow back at Cornerstone.

Cornerstone Funeral & Cremation Services in Beaver Dam is honored to be serving the family. Send private online condolences or sign the familys guest book at www.cstonefs.com.
I can't blame the mom whose child fell into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo. Harambe, the 450-pound endangered gorilla, had to be shot and killed after roughly dragging the child through the enclosure. As the father of a 3-year old, I know has easily kids can elude even the most attentive parents.
Now that work has begun on the replacement of one of Columbia Countys oldest and most precarious wooden railroad bridges, county highway officials have set their sights on replacing three more.

But it will likely be years, maybe decades, before the wooden bridges on County Highway A, Sterk Road and Inglehart Road are dismantled and replaced with sturdier spans.

A step in that direction happened at Wednesdays meeting of the County Boards Highway Committee, when Highway Commissioner Chris Hardy presented a draft of a proposed agreement with the owner of all three wooden bridges the Union Pacific Railroad.

Such an agreement is needed, he said, as a step toward securing federal funding to pay for the lions share of the cost.

Hardy said it could cost about $1.5 million to replace each bridge. Thats the cost of the current project to replace a wooden bridge, on Highway M in the town of Randolph.

That bridge has been taken apart, piece by rotting piece, and there currently is no bridge there.

But thats changing day by day, as a crew from Black River Falls-based Lunda Construction Co. has brought in a pair of cranes for the pouring of new piers for what will be a concrete bridge  a bridge that, according to Hardy, will be 29 feet above the Union Pacific tracks, or about 4.5 feet lower than the old bridge.

Of the remaining three wooden railroad bridges, only one  on Highway A, in the town of Courtland  is on a road that is county-owned.

Sterk Road is a town of Randolph road, and Inglehart Road is a town of Scott road.

All the bridges have a posted weight limit of 5 tons, and all but the Inglehart Road bridge have a posted speed limit of 5 mph. The posted speed limit on Inglehart Road is 10 mph.

A key reason why an agreement with the railroad is needed, according to Hardy, is because the railroad owns the Highway A, Sterk and Inglehart bridges, and used to own the Highway M bridge until the County Board voted in November 2013 to take possession of it.

About 80 percent of the bridge replacement cost would be paid for with federal money, Hardy said  but only if the municipality whose road the bridge is on is declared to be the bridges owner, and not the Union Pacific.

The government cannot pay for a privately-owned bridge, Hardy said.

Highway Committee Member Kirk Konkel of Portage expressed uneasiness Wednesday about the legalities and logistics of the county, or towns, legally owning a bridge that the railroad has long considered to be its own. Although the actual train tracks run several feet below the bridges decks, Konkel said the ownership change could mean that trains would be running through what is, in fact, county or town property.

Which I dont like, Konkel added.

Hardy said the boundaries of the property that the town or county would have to acquire are among the many issues that still need to be worked out.

All the legalese hasnt been finalized yet, he told the committee.

Hardy said the proposed agreement is likely to come back to the Highway Committee in September for further consideration.

Also, he said, he plans to meet this week with officials of the towns of Scott and Randolph.

In the case of the Sterk and Inglehart bridges, he said, it would be the town, and not the county, that would need to take possession of the bridge to qualify for federal money to replace it.

But, when the bridge is on a town road, the local share of the replacement cost, 20 percent, would be split evenly, with the town and the county each responsible for 10 percent.

For the Inglehart and Sterk bridges, the towns would have to acquire any right-of-way needed for the construction of the replacement bridge, and the towns would also be responsible for any rebuilding that needs to be done of the approaches on either side of the bridge. Also, the maintenance of the town-owned bridges would be the responsibility of each respective town, in perpetuity.

According to Hardy, the wooden bridges on Highways M and A are the oldest, built in about 1910. The Sterk and Inglehart bridges were constructed about 1930.

All are near the end of their useful lives, he said.

For example, there has been discussion at the countys Highway Safety Commission about oversize, overweight vehicles crossing the Inglehart bridge, possibly because the drivers have been directed there by global positioning devices.

Because all the bridge replacements cant happen at once, decisions will have to be made, sooner or later, as to which bridge has the highest priority for replacement, Hardy said.

He noted that it took several years to meet all the requirements (including establishing an agreement with the railroad, choosing a design and ensuring that endangered bats dont live under the old bridge) for the Highway M project to get off the ground. Expect similar delays for any future bridge replacements, he said.
Is it any wonder voters dont trust Hillary Clinton? Her chronic obsession with secrecy  laid out in a new report on her email practices while secretary of state  makes them wonder what shes trying to hide.

The report by the State Departments inspector general last week was damning not only because she failed to comply with department rules but also because she failed to cooperate with investigators.

The Office of the Inspector General spoke with Secretary of State John Kerry and former secretaries Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice but through her counsel, Secretary Clinton declined OIGs request for an interview. Whats more, eight former State Department employees, most of whom were appointed by Clinton, refused to talk.

Why the secrecy? In this case, thats hard to say. But it does fit a Clinton pattern going back decades. When she ran the Clinton administrations health care project in 1993, the meetings were secret. When she was under investigation for the Whitewater land deals, she resisted releasing the records. She still hasnt released transcripts of her multimillion-dollar speeches to Wall Street bankers. This latest news about her private email server  operated out of the Clintons home in New York  is of a piece with the rest.

The report concluded Clinton didnt seek legal approval for her use of the private email server and that agency staff wouldnt have approved it if they had known because of obvious security risks. Clinton handled email in a way that was not an appropriate method for preserving public records, the report said, and it found that while Clinton said the system was secure, she never provided details to officials responsible for ensuring that it was. In fact, when IT staff raised concerns about the system, they were told never to speak of the Secretarys personal email system again, the report says.

There was every reason to fear for the security of the system. Indeed, the report found several cases in which either Clinton or her aides expressed fear that the server she shared with her husband, the former president, Bill Clinton, might have been hacked. There is no evidence that it ever was.

Clinton has not adequately explained her actions or even acknowledged she understands the severity of the issue. We get it: She is overly cautious after years of political attacks and wants to shield herself from more attacks. Understandable.

But hiding emails from the public only reinforces a well-deserved reputation for secrecy and raises concerns about what kind of government she would lead if elected president in November. Her halfhearted attempts so far to explain away her secret email server are not reassuring.
One of the Reedsburg Area Historical Societys largest fundraiser kicks off on June 4 at the Pioneer Log Village.

Civil War: Life on the Homefront will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 4 and 5 at the historic site, located just east of Reedsburg on Highway 23/33. This live reenactment includes cannon demonstrations, displays of Civil War-era clothing, music and food.

New this year is the Regimental Volunteer Band of Wisconsin, which will play songs of the times all day on June 5.

Admission is $5.

Historical Society President Craig Braunschweig said the Civil War Weekend is only in its second year but is already proving to be an important feature of the Log Village. The first event attracted around 300 spectators, and the Society hopes to draw even more this summer.

The Societys other major fundraisers include the annual Chicken Barbecue and bowling day.

Braunschweig said the nonprofit is based out of the Log Village but doesnt have a building with climate controls. He said it would be nice to be able to build some kind of office or headquarters.

At the moment, the Log Village is preserved as a piece of history, complete with no plumbing or air conditioning. It still has outhouses and the cabins are maintained with as much historical accuracy as possible.

Those cabins also need attention. Braunschweig said a few are due for new roofs while others need chinking, a special kind of sealant used on cabins.

Open hours

The Log Village is open for visiting outside of the Civil War Weekend. Visitors can stop out anytime between 1 and 4 p.m. Saturdays. The site opens on Memorial Day weekend and closes after Heritage Days in September.

Admission is by donation; whatever a guest can afford.

Braunschweig said the village is open for weddings and special events. It has a chapel and can accommodate other kinds of gatherings.

For more information visit www.facebook.com/PioneerLogVillage.
For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL  June 02, 2016  Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A), Eni SpA (E), Chevron Corp. (CVX) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM).

Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free.

Here are highlights from Wednesdays Analyst Blog:

How the Nigeria Crisis Affects Energy Companies

African oil powerhouse Nigeria has been rocked by attacks on its oil industry. In fact, the wave of hostilities over energy infrastructure by militants since February has sunk Nigerias oil output to a 20-year low of around 1.4 million barrels per day.

Calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers, the main militant group claims that their fight is for the natives of the oil rich Niger Delta to get a bigger share of oil wealth. It is also angry about the winding down of a 2009 amnesty program that paid monthly stipends to disarming militants for safeguarding the installations they once targeted.

The West African nation houses the worlds tenth-largest oil reserve and the commodity contributes substantially to its revenue and foreign exchange earnings. However, the slew of militant attacks have not only knocked out over 50,000 barrels of crude oil output per day from OPECs largest African producer but also magnified the impact of low oil prices on Nigerias economy.

Energy Companies at Risk

Niger Delta Avengers has warned oil companies working in the region to leave by May 31 and issued a warning last weekend that something big is about to happen. The bombing campaign by the group has forced many energy companies to evacuate their staff and wrap up operations.

The most affected is Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., the state enterprise that is losing 200,000 barrels a day.

Story continues

Meanwhile, let's take a closer look at how the Nigeria crisis is playing out for the big U.S./European energy firms:

In Feb, Royal Dutch Shell plc (RDS.A)  operating in Nigeria since 1937  declared force majeure (or legal indemnity allowing it to stop shipments without breaching contractual obligations) on exports of crude following the bombing of the Forcados subsea pipeline. The damage to the underwater pipeline has forced the Anglo-Dutch major to halt loadings  of around 250,000 barrels a day from multiple producers  to the export terminal. Following a militant threat, Shell has also started evacuating workers from its deepwater Bonga field in the southern Niger Delta, though production is still continuing.

Last month, Niger Delta Avengers attacked the Ogbaimbiri-Tebidaba pipeline belonging to Italian energy company Eni SpA (E). Eni, which operates through the Nigerian Agip Oil Co., said about 4,200 barrels of oil per day of its equity production was cut by the incident. This came days after insurgents attacked the companys gas pipeline in Ogbembiri, impacting 1,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.

U.S. energy behemoth Chevron Corp. (CVX) saw its 90,000 barrels per day Okan offshore platform  feeding the Escravos export facility  shut down in early May subsequent to an attack. After a few days, the militants damaged an oil pipeline, leading to serious supply disruptions.

Though Exxon Mobil Corp.s (XOM) activities in Nigeria remained unscathed from terrorist attacks, the worlds biggest publicly traded oil company also declared force majeure on exports of Qua Iboe  Nigerias largest crude grade  after damage on a pipeline by a drilling rig.

Deepwater Relatively Safe

Till now, the uprising is limited to the onshore fields, while Nigerias deepwater areas  to which Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell have significant exposure  remains largely unaffected. But an escalation of violence could pose significant threat to these areas that account for about 35% of the total production.

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IAEA fuel 'bank' on target for September 2017 launch

02 June 2016

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The IAEA Low Enriched Uranium Storage Facility - or 'bank' - is scheduled to be ready for operations by September 2017, following the conclusion of a partnership agreement between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Kazakhstan this week. The agreement was signed on 27 May in Vienna by IAEA LEU Bank project executive Mark Bassett and UMP sales director Alexander Khodanov.

Khodanov and Bassett signing the agreement for construction of the storage facility

(Image: IAEA)

To be built in Oskemen and operated by Kazakhstan, the bank will be a physical reserve of LEU - the basic ingredient of nuclear fuel - and act as a supplier of last resort for the Vienna-based agency's Member States in case they cannot obtain LEU on the global commercial market or otherwise.

The facility is also seen as an important part of international efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation - as a way to dissuade countries from building enrichment facilities that might be misused to purify uranium to weapons-grade levels. The bank will be a physical stock of up to 90 tonnes of LEU suitable to make fuel for a typical light water reactor, the most widely used type of nuclear power reactor worldwide. The LEU can be used to make enough nuclear fuel to provide power for a large city for three years.

In an IAEA statement issued yesterday, Khodanov said: "We expect to receive the necessary approvals from the relevant Kazakhstan authorities, and have the facility built and ready for operation by September 2017."

The design for the new facility, including its equipment, was developed by UMP. IAEA experts concluded during an on-site visit in March that the design meets the applicable provisions of the IAEA safety standards and security guidance documents, according to the IAEA statement.

Since signing the basic legal framework with Kazakhstan in August 2015, the development of the IAEA LEU Bank has made significant progress, the agency added. The IAEA and Kazakhstan have established a Joint Coordination Committee and agreed a plan of activities necessary to complete the infrastructure required to host the bank.

The IAEA Board of Governors authorized the establishment and operation of the bank in December 2010. In July the following year, Kazakhstan offered to act as host in response to the IAEA's request for expressions of interest. A host state agreement, governing the establishment and hosting of the bank, was signed in August 2015 by IAEA director general Yukiya Amano and Kazakhstan's foreign minister Erlan Idrissov.

In yesterday's statement, the IAEA noted that the safety and security of the bank is "the national responsibility of Kazakhstan and thus will be governed by Kazakhstan's legal and regulatory requirements, while meeting the applicable provisions of the IAEA's safety standards and security guidance documents. The LEU will also be subject to IAEA safeguards, it added.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topics
Chicken (illustration)

By: Chan Yuan

Police are looking to arrest a woman and her two children on a charge of murder after allegedly killing their neighbor by beating her with a shovel, according to police in Bangladesh.

Dharampur police said that the incident unfolded on Tuesday around 12:00 p.m., after 60-year-old Afia Begum found a dead chicken in her bedroom.

The chicken belonged to her neighbor Asia Begum. When Asia learned that the dead chicken was in Afiaas home, she blamed her for killing it.

Afia fled from her house, but Asia and her two sons, 22-year-old Tariq Hasan and 14-year-old Wahidul Islam, chased her and beat her with the handle of a shovel.

Hearing their mother scream, Afiaas son Sobhan and his wife Mina, came to her rescue, but they were also beaten. Asia and her children fled from the scene after Afia fell unconscious.

Afia Begum died on the way to a hospital. So far, no arrests have been made.
A young man wanted to make a point about racism in the United States, but his plan backfired when he was exposed for a liar by police. 20-year-old Khalil Cavil of Texas was working at the Saltgrass Steak House in Odessa when he claimed he was discriminated against because of his Muslim name. Cavil took
Chief Scout Bear Grylls Helicopters In To Visit North East Wales

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jun 2nd, 2016

Chief Scout and international adventurer Bear Grylls took to the air at the weekend to meet up with thousands of Scouts from across the UK, including 650 from across Wrexham, Flintshire, Llangollen and the Vale of Clwyd.

Bear visited six different venues, where he participated in a range of activities with thousands of local Scouts.

Ahead of the weekend, Bear Grylls, Chief Scout, said: I am so excited to visit the Scouts from across North East Wales. The best part of my role is always meeting so many inspiring young people who play such a positive part in the adventure that Scouting provides.

This week marks Volunteers Week and one of my main objectives for the weekend is to encourage more adults to volunteer with the Scouts to ensure that all young people have the opportunity to join in the adventure that Scouting offers to all its participants.

Hannah Maddocks, a Scout from Esclusham Scout Group said Meeting Bear Grylls was a fantastic opportunity that not many people get. Seeing him arrive by helicopter caused masses of excitement around camp. I was lucky enough to show him around some of the activities that were going on and he was really enthusiastic and enjoyed seeing the kids and leaders having fun. He even joined in himself!

Moz Morris, Volunteer District Commissioner for Wrexham District Scouts adds: Bears visit was such an inspiration to everyone, Scouts and adults alike. Hes so passionate about getting kids away from their screens and into the outdoors, learning practical skills and appreciating their environment.

Our top team of volunteers from Wrexham District put their all into filling the weekend with a massive array of activities, and it was clear they had just as much fun as the young people. This is the sort of thing that Scouting does best!

Pics: Bear Grylls in the crowd of Cubs and Scouts and Bear high-fiving Scout Hannah Maddocks!
Wrexham BHS To Close As Administrators Call In Liquidators

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jun 2nd, 2016

Wrexhams BHS store is to close, with administrators today appointing liquidators after failing to find a buyer for the chain.

The Guardian initially reported just after 3pm that Administrators Duff & Phelps calls in liquidators, with it later confirmed an orderly wind down of BHS will take place with all 163 stores to close.

Administrators say 8000 staff are likely to go along with 3000 contract jobs.

Administrators Duff & Phelps said Despite the considerable efforts of the administrators and BHS senior management it has not been possible to agree a sale of the business. Although multiple offers were received, none were able to complete a deal due the working capital required to secure the future of the company.

Our thoughts today are with the employees. We thank them for their professionalism and hard work. We would also like to thank the great British public for helping us in our efforts to save BHS resulting in several weeks of significant sales.

As a result of the wind down all 163 stores will be in close down sale mode over the coming weeks and whilst continuing efforts will be made by the administrators to sell stores the jobs of 8000 members of staff are likely to go. A further 3000 jobs of none BHS employees who work in the stores may also be at risk.

The chain entered administration in April, with efforts being made to find a buyer for all or part of the store.

Pics: BHS Wrexham just before 3pm today.
Strikes are spreading in France as transport, nuclear and civil aviation workers joined striking oil refinery workers against the Socialist Party's (PS) El Khomri labor reform law.

Workers at the French National Railway (SNCF) began an open-ended strike Tuesday evening, while Paris metro and commuter train workers are beginning indefinite strikes today. Air France pilot unions have called a strike next week, while civil aviation involving air traffic controllers voted a three-day strike beginning on Friday.

On Wednesday, the national and regional train services of the French national railways (SNCF) were hit by rolling strikes, halting around half of train services nationwide. It was the eighth day of industrial action at SNCF since early March, and the first time workers voted an open-ended strike. In addition to opposing the laborlaw, workers are also fighting changes to working times and conditions.

Industrial action halted around some 40 percent of high-speed TGV trains and up to two-thirds of services on other lines and disrupted Thalys services to Belgium and the Netherlands. In the Paris region, only 40 percent of train service operated, whereas 45 percent service was reported in other regions. The SNCF said that about 17 percent of its workforce joined the strike, compared to 10 percent who struck last week.

The three main SNCF unions, led by the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT), called an open-ended strike, while the PS-linked French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT) union withdrew its strike call after claiming that it succeeded in obtaining concessions from the PS.

This week will be the strongest mobilization in three months now, said CGT General Secretary Philippe Martinez.

Strike action is spreading to civil aviation industry representing air traffic controllers, and yesterday, the Union of Air France pilots (SPAF), representing about a quarter of Air France pilots, issued a two to four day strike notice for the end of next week. These strike calls come after pilots from the majority National Union of Airline Pilots (SNPL) overwhelmingly voted in favour of a six-day strike. Pilots are protesting against wage cuts.

The multiple strikes come as oil refinery workers continued strike action against the labor law that caused oil shortages across France last week. The government sent CRS riot police to violently break up workers blockades of oil depots.

Four of Totals refineries remain halted. About 20 percent of gas stations were dry or faced shortages on Tuesday.

Yesterday, workers at the operator of Le Havres oil terminal, which handles 40 percent of French imports, voted to continue the strike until Monday. Nuclear sector workers also voted in favour of a strike.

The escalating industrial unrest points to deep opposition to the labor law, which allows companies more flexibility to fire workers, lengthen the work week and cut wages, in line with the PS' austerity agenda. The government rammed the bill through without a parliamentary vote in the face of overwhelming popular opposition.

The government has repeatedly vowed it would not back down on the overhaul. On Monday, President Francois Hollande told Sud Ouest, The bill will not be withdrawn. The philosophy and principles of Article 2 [allowing trade unions to negotiate company-level contracts violating the Labor Code] will be maintained.

As anger in the working class spreads, the unions are being compelled to call strike action to keep political control over the strikes and avoid being outflanked by militant sentiment in the working class. They feared that if they had not called strikes, wildcat strikes would have erupted against the law anyway.

After posing as an opponent of the law and briefly calling for its withdrawal, the CGT has begun toning down its verbal opposition to the law, which the CGT helped negotiate with the government from the outset. Prime Minister Manuel Valls spoke over the phone with CGT head Philippe Martinez, who has refused to publicly comment on the content of the secret talks he had with Valls.

Yesterday, Le Monde asked itself: Is the CGT changing its strategy in its frontal assault on the labor law? It wrote, The question is out in the open since the statements of its general secretary, Philippe Martinez, during a May 30 debate on RTL with CFDT leader Laurent Berger. Asked about whether the withdrawal of the law was still a 'precondition' for opening discussions with the government, Martinez replied, There are no preconditions. We have been waiting three months to have a chance to have discussion. He added that 'an acceptable solution' is being sought.

The paper reported that high-ranking CGT officials were looking for an exit from the crisis. A source close to the CGT leadership told the paper, Philippe Martinez has understood that he cannot hold indefinitely on a line demanding the withdrawal of the law.

These events fully confirm the WSWS's analysis of the treachery of the union bureaucracies and their supporters among the pseudo-left parties, such as the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA), which are totally hostile to the working class and its struggles.

As broad layers of the working class enter into struggle, the fight against the PS' agenda of austerity and war must be organized independently of the unions and their political allies. As long as workers struggles remain under their control, they will seek to divide, sabotage and sell out the successive mobilizations of the working class as they erupt, while also allowing the repressive powers of the state to be mobilized against strikers, as the media and the ruling class are increasingly demanding.

As the unions are preparing to betray workers struggles, the media and the ruling class are denouncing striking workers as terrorists and threats to national security. Yesterday, Franz-Olivier Giesbert wrote an editorial in Le Point titled Don't give in to the CGT, for God's sake!

Giesbert provocatively compared the CGT with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). While acknowledging that such a comparison could appear scandalous, he went on to denounce strikers, writing: France today faces two threats that, while they may be different, both threaten its integrity: ISIS and the CGT.
6 years, 4 months ago by Scott Hardy

Negotiations continue on properties on Sixth, Vermont

The Adams County Board committee overseeing the building of the new Jail will likely see final plans for the building by the end of the summer.

The County Board's Jail Sub-committee learned Wednesday that proposed final plans for the 192-bed jail should be finished by September. Representatives from Chicago-based firm HOK met Tuesday with the Adams County Sheriff's Office to gather info about the new facility, and met Wednesday with the Quincy Police Department. Committee Chairman Mark Peter says the committee's 2018 completion date for the new jail is still likely, but does depend on acquiring several properties on both Sixth and Vermont Streets.

Mark Peter audio :13

Peter says that revised initial plans for the Jail from HOK may be ready in three weeks.
A U.S. Navy Blue Angels jet crashed in Smyrna, Tennessee Thursday afternoon.

The La Vergne fire chief confirmed to ABC affiliate WKRN that the crash happened around 3:00 p.m.

LifeFlight helicopters from Vanderbilt University Medical Center were at the scene.

The Blue Angels were practicing for the Great Tennessee Airshow, which was set to happen this weekend.

This is a developing story. This article will be updated with more details as we learn them.
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) -- Florida A&M University's marching band reached a milestone Wednesday. "The Marching 100" celebrated its 70th anniversary.

The band also recently welcomed a new director.

Dr. Shelby Chipman says he's "blessed" to lead this group, which has been a hallmark at the university now for seven decades.

"The Marching 100" was founded on June 1, 1946, under the direction of Dr. William Foster.

The band grew over the years, making a number of national and international performances, including Super Bowl appearances and the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Chipman says his time marching with the band as a student was special.

"Those were great times," he said, "and I never thought being here as a young pup, trying out for 'The Marching 100' in 1982 would lend itself to me being in the position I am."

Chipman takes over the role from Sylvester Young, who will stay at the university. Chipman says he's excited to take the band to the next level.

"I would hope that I would be able to continue this legacy with adding a new 21st century, innovative technique or techniques that would allow the FAMU band to always be one of those that, when you see, you always want to come back and see more of what they're presenting."

As part of the band's anniversary, the university launched a social media campaign called "70 for 70."

The goal is to have 10,000 people donate $70 to support band operations and student scholarships.

Wednesday night, a special documentary called "Point and Drive" -- directed by Marching 100 alum Brandi Mitchell -- was screened in the band room.

The doc takes a look at the history of the band, in light of its major milestone.
TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL)  Thursday afternoon police released information about a second suspect in the murder of FSU professor Dan Markel. The co-defendant, Luis Rivera, was said to have traveled to Tallahassee with Sigfredo Garcia to kill Markel.

TPD Police Chief Michael DeLeo said that charges are pending for Rivera, but he is already in federal custody for charges unrelated to the Markel murder investigation.

Rivera, also known as "King Tato", was a member of the Latin Kings when he was arrested for his part in a violent racketeering conspiracy, says the DOJ.

He, along with 22 other accused members of the Latin Kings, were arrested for RICO charges in 2015.

According to the DOJ, Rivera held a leadership position in the gang possibly conducting meetings, collecting dues and maintaining discipline among members.

The Justice Department says the gang is, "...one of the largest and most well organized gangs operating in the United States."

Rivera is serving time in a a facility near Sumterville, Florida.

Garcia's attorney has denied that his client has had any involvement with Rivera. He was arrested last week for charges of murder in the first degree for Markel's death.

Markel, an FSU Professor, was shot and killed in 2014. Police say the motive for the murder may have been related to his 2013 divorce and custody battle with his ex-wife.
MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) -- Bonnie, the former tropical storm that turned into a remnant low off the coast of the Carolinas, had regained some organization, and the National Hurricane Center reclassified the system as a tropical depression Thursday. The depression is producing periods of heavy rain near the Outer Banks. The system will move farther offshore in the next few days, while losing its tropical characteristics in the open Atlantic.

Of higher local interest, a wave of disturbed conditions has lingered over the far southwestern Caribbean, and remains there with a broad low-pressure circulation. Wind shear in the region, caused by faster upper-level wind flow, remains moderately brisk, which should lessen immediate concerns for development. However, indications point to the moisture source and the ragged low moving northwest to north into the Yucatan Channel and the southeastern Gulf of Mexico over the weekend. Shear is forecast to decrease, while the low tracks over warmer waters in that region.

Modeling is still less than precise this far out, but chances are slightly elevated for the system to acquire further organization into a tropical low early next week in the eastern Gulf. Regardless of future development, periods of heavy rain are expected between Sunday and Tuesday in the Florida peninsula.

If the system were to become a tropical storm, its name would be Colin.
A Prosser man facing both state and federal charges related to molestation and child pornography will not be employed as a Granger teacher next year.
Esmeralda Gonzalez Armenta, originally from Mexico, is photographed at Grandview High School in Grandview, Wash. on Wednesday, June 1, 2016. Armenta spent five school years in English Language Learner Courses to become bilingual, a goal she has been working hard to achieve. (SHAWN GUST/Yakima Herald-Republic)
A year after he started taking male hormones as part of his gender transitioning process, Guy Tiram, today a 22-year-old trangender man, walked into the IDF's induction center, ready to start his service. Though he was prepared to face some level of friction, the unusual (and avoidable) harshness of the experience made it into something that to this day he remembers down to its smallest details.

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"(At first) they gave me a bag full of men's equipment, and after that I went to the men's dressing room. I had prepared for this ahead of time: I was wearing boxers and everything to look like everyone else, but then one of the female soldiers in the induction center thought that there had been a mistake: Apparently, she saw noticed my information on her computer under my previous name, Sahar, with me assigned as female.

Transgenders volunteering in Israeli society (Photo: Yuval Chen)

Tiram continued his story. "I was half-dressed when suddenly she came in yelling 'Is Sahar here?' And then she brutally yanked me out of the dressing room. "

"Then they took all the men's items out of my bag, gave me women's items and forcefully brought me to the women's dressing room, basically throwing me in there. The second that I went in, the girls started screaming, 'No! There's a guy in here! Get out of here!' I went out and cried for half an hour. They called an officer who came over and began yelling at me, and then finally they found a place where I could change privately. It was just terrible, a terrible feeling of humiliation."

From the induction center, Tiram continued to basic training in the mixed-gender infantry battalion Caracal, where he joined friends he had made during his national service year (an optional pre-army year of volunteer work and went through a completely different experience. "My crewmembers had my back whenever anyone dared to say anything unacceptable about me. My commanders also knew how to handle it."

Tiram spoke at length about the support he received in his army unit. "When things got hard for me, my commander would say, 'Now you listen to me: We're going to sit here every day for half an hour, you're going to tell me what isn't working out, and then we'll figure it out together. ' There was that, and also funny comments from the other guys, who would say things like, 'Wow, you get to shower with the girls, you to see that one or that one naked.' I was the star of my unit, and it in hindsight it helped me build up this whole trans thing. My social life really blossomed there."

Despite receiving support from his friends and commanders, after four months in uniform, Tiram decided to leave the army. "The people around me didn't care if I was a guy or a girl, but it did matter under the army's rules and system," he said. "My service became a burden, mainly because of the sleeping arrangements. The army didn't know how to deal with it. I was drafted as a guy, and I referred to myself as a guy, but I still had to sleep in the girls' barracks."

And did the women agree to that?

"They didn't have a choice. Nobody asked them. Both the men and women wanted me to be able to sleep in the men's quarters, but it wasn't possible. In the beginning, before everybody knew about me, there were comments like, 'Look, this is the girls' barracks; what are you doing here?' I felt uncomfortable, like I was invading their personal space. Al that without even going into the difficulty of being a combat soldier, far from home, spending 21 days straight on base."

Since then, the IDF has made a significant leap forward in its approach to transgender soldiers, implementing more advanced policies. Tiram himself said that if he had been drafted today, he would have been allowed to sleep in the men's barracks.

A source at the IDF Manpower Directorate explained that the army is putting a lot of effort into integrating transgender soldiers into a variety of units, bases and positions, adding that the IDF encourages them to enlist and tries to answer their questions in special meetings held on the related issues. A central figure in this effort is Deputy Women's Affairs Advisor to the Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Limor Shabtai, who works with civilian organizations that also offer support to transgenders, while providing her phone number to anyone who wishing to speak to her on the matter.

Currently, there are 60 transgender soldiers serving in the IDF. One of them, who is now a captain, began his service as a woman, going through officers' training and eventually returning as a man to his unit.

"In principle," said an IDF representative. "There's no reason why transgenders can't serve in such positions as pilot or in the Shayetet (an elite naval unit). What happened to Guy is a thing of the past. These days, even combat units understand that you can go through a sex change and remain in the army."

For Tiram, the IDF reform came too late, but he did find an alternative. After his discharge, he looked for another setting that would allow him to contribute to society, and he ended up in national service. The Shlomit Foundation, which takes steps to educate its volunteers about the gender spectrum, set him up with the LGBT youth organization IGY (Israel Gay Youth), where he is now a counselor for transgender youth, whose job includes creating educational content for them.

Along with 14 others, Tiram has been participating in the Trans-Breaker program, which guides transgenders through their national service. Five additional transgenders are alumni of the project. Thus, another door for transgenders has been opened.

Tali Wasserman, the founder of the Trans-Breaker Project and the Tel Aviv secretary for the Shlomit Foundation, explained what had initiated the project."We started it after trans people began coming to us and saying that they wanted to do national service. At first, we said we'd start with a pilot and search for trans-friendly places. There are places that tell us, 'Of course, of course we'll be able to include transgender people,' but in the end, they can't. Sometimes, third parties such as technicians use the wrong pronoun, which can make them feel inadequate. There's also a large hospital in the center of Israel that won't even accept one trans person to join their ranks; Apparently, they feel that having a transgender receptionist isn't presentable enough."

We meet at Tel Aviv's Gay Youth Center. In addition to Tiram, there are Adi Ben-Barak, Alex Gal and Eden Ziv. Out of the whole group, three have decided to serve in the army.

Ben-Barak explained his own approach to the army. "When I got my first subpoena, I made sure that I would get to see an IDF mental health officer. After I explained to him that I was trans, he asked if I think I can serve, and I told him no. That said, I still wanted to do national service."

His experience in national service hasn't all been positive, though. At the first place he was sent to, people were less than understanding. "I got all kinds of responses: 'Are you a boy or a girl?' 'Why don't you put on some make up?' 'How about a makeover?' I was a real outsider."

Eventually, things became so bad that Ben-Barak sunk into a depression. Fortunately, though, things turned around for him. "Unlike the army's strict way of doing things, I managed to move, which was how I ended up continuing my service year at Ma'avarim, an organization for the promotion of transgenders."

Gal, who is Ben-Barak's roommate, has only recently joined the Trans-Breaker program. "I always felt that I wouldn't be able to serve n the army," he said. "I'm a pacifist, a vegan, and I assumed I wouldn't do well in the IDF because of my gender." When he didn't find a position that felt right for him, he decided instead to volunteer for National Service, believing that it contributes to the country in a way that is "even greater than the army."

Ziv was among the project's first crop of volunteers. He recalled the positive reactions he received as a kindergarten aid both from the parents and the children. "Kids don't see gender," he said. Their thinking only begins to harden around age six, so if you tell them that someone's a boy, he's a boy."

"There was this one boy," he said. "Who would always refer to me as a boy, telling me he loved me while using the male pronoun. One day, after he had already graduated from kindergarten, he told his mom he wanted to come by and say hi to me. When his mother told him that 'She doesn't work there anymore,' he corrected her to 'he'. I was so touched when she told me that."

Usually, those doing their national service are sorted into apartments by the gender they were assigned at birth, but with transgenders it is not so simple. For this reason, the Trans Breaker Project places transgenders with other transgenders. "Being in a likeminded environment helps," admitted Ben-Barak. "When I got my first hormone prescription, my roommates threw me a party with snacks and everything, and it was one of my roommates who taught me how to give myself my first shot."

As opposed to other options available for national service, where those in charge of the young volunteers visit them once a month, coordinators at the Trans Breaker Project make sure to visit more often and offer its transgender participants all the support they need, as they transition not only from one gender to another (or somewhere in between), but from adolescence to adulthood. They receive practical guidance over matters big and small, including resume writing, filling out government forms and setting up a bank account.

"Have you any idea how hard it is to go somewhere and have to explain that 'Inside, I feel like a man?'" said Wasserman. "Or insist that you be body searched (for security) according to the gender you have chosen for yourself? What we're trying to do here is use their time in national service to gain work experience, improve their communication skills and become more assertive."

Wasserman described the how the project manages to touch not just the participants but also the staff. "Seeing them change before our eyes definitely brings us to tears. Each time they look a little different, a bit more like themselves. It can really move you."
On Wednesday, the besieged suburb of Daraya, which is a part the Syrian capital of Damascus, received humanitarian aid for the first time since 2012, as the United Nations said it was looking into "every possible means" to reach besieged Syrians now that a deadline set by world powers has passed.

Daraya has been subject to a crippling government blockade since residents had expelled security forces in the early stages of the 2011 uprising against President Bashar Assad. Cross-border fire from Syria has reportedly killed 21 people and wounded dozens of others in the border town of Kilis this year.
Two Palestinian suspects who were arrested two weeks ago on suspicion of committing a nationalistically-motivated rape against a mentally disabled Jewish young woman were released on Wednesday after the alleged victim backtracked on her version of events and admitted that, in fact, the sex was consensual.

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The case began a little over two weeks ago when the woman filed a complaint with the Tel Aviv police in which she claimed to have been the victim of a violent rape and humiliation based on the fact that she was Jewish. As a result of the womans complaint, two Palestinian suspects, Omar Aldin Draghmah (42) from Nablus, and a 17-year-old boy from the territories, were arrested.

During the investigation, the police discovered on the womans cell phone that she and the Palestinians had had sexual relationships prior to the complaint.

On Wednesday however, 15 days after the commencement of the investigation, during which the police did not succeed in finding evidence supporting the young womans version of events, she confessed that my auntie told me to say it.

According to the rape complaint, the suspects also humiliated the girl while making racist and nationalistic remarks, said the Tel Aviv local police on Wednesday. The police opened up an investigation immediately and one day after the complaint had been filed two suspects were arrested. They denied the charges leveled against them. Already by the first stage of the investigation it became clear that the investigation was sensitive and complicated and required a...special investigator from the Ministry of Social Affairs to collect evidence.

One of the rape suspects (Photo: Yariv Katz)

After 15 days, the statement continued, of an intense investigation, the police drew the conclusion that, at this stage, an insufficient quantity of evidence had been gathered to prove the charges. In light of this fact, it was requested that the arrest of the two individuals not be extended and that they be released under certain conditions.

Following the womans contradictory accounts, the police is currently contemplating how to deal with her and her aunt who, according to the formers claims, told her to fabricate the story.

Responing to the new developments, MK Issawi Frej (Meretz) called on Wednesday upon the Police Commissioner to instruct that an investigation be launched against the girls family. After Netanyahu and the police slammed Arab nationalism , it turns out that in this case the nationalistic motivations were on the part of the Jews.
The Jerusalem Unity Prize, established after the murder of three Israeli teens by Hamas terrorists two years ago, was handed out on Wednesday at the Presidents Residence as part of Jerusalem Unity Day. The prize honored organizations that made significant contributions towards unity in Israel and in the Jewish world at large.

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The Jerusalem Unity Prize and Jerusalem Unity Day, which we mark today, is a day which asks of us to preserve that togetherness, this time out of choice, President Reuven Rivlin said in his address.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat approached us during the shiva (mourning period) and suggested that we participate in something like this, Rachel Frenkel, bereaved mother of murdered teenager Naftali Frenkel, told Tazpit Press Service (TPS).

It developed into the Jerusalem Unity Prize and then into Jerusalem Unity Day with the help of the organization Gesher so people are doing special unity activities today, she continued.

Barkat had approached the families of the teens during the period of mourning after witnessing the very prevalent sense of unity in Israeli society after the teens abduction.

Rachel Frenkel (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

During those difficult days of uncertainty about the fate of the three boys, we saw all the people of Israelsecular, ultra-Orthodox, young, old, on the right, and on the leftpraying together, shoulder to shoulder, in an extraordinary display of the strength of Israels unity, related Barkat at the awards ceremony.

Days later, during the week of shiva for the boys, I felt that the bridges that the families had built between the different sectors of Israeli society, especially at the most difficult of times, must be preserved and that we must build other such bridges, added Barkat.

Frenkel already felt the need to act by the time Barkat had approached her with the idea for a Jerusalem Unity Prize.

We became very aware of the special spirit that evolved over that summer and we personally felt a responsibility both to give back and to try to preserve that spirit, Frenkel noted to TPS.

In addition to the awards ceremony, the special spirit noted by Frenkel is preserved on Jerusalem Unity Day through a plethora of events and activities promoting the concept of unity throughout Israel and the Jewish world.

Jewish communities are doing things to bring different types of Jews together both in the State of Israel throughout the education system, the army, youth movements, and in adult education as well as in 25 other countries around the world, Frenkel explained.

In Israel, this also includes other populations such as the Druze, Arabs, and people that are marginalized for other reasons like special needs and we hope that out of the bitter comes forth sweetness.

Frenkel says that when people in Israel look back to that bitter time, they always recall that sweet sense of unity that existed throughout the country and that it serves as a motivating factor for any future challenges.

When people recall that period, I see that they remember the tragedy and sometimes have tears in their eyes, but they also feel good about who we were as individuals, as a people, and about our ability to connect with and really care about and open up to other kinds of people, Frenkel told TPS. Thats something that we like remembering in order to be able to reach that point again in the future.

Frenkel hopes not only for internal Jewish unity, but for unity with Israels Arab neighbors as well.

When I speak to my children who lost their beloved brother to a group of 30 Palestinian terrorists who organized the attack, I tell them that I dont want them to be raised on hatred, Frenkel stated. I make sure that they know the difference between Hamas and our Arab neighbors.

It sounds like a cliche, Frenkel noted. But its simply about the ability to open up and feel close to others despite the differences and to find common ground.
The IDF has recently upgraded its enemy simulation process during combat training, but its Nahal infantry brigade has taken things one step further, ordering some of its fighters to plan and simulate a battle against the IDF while acting as a Hezbollah combat company.

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As part of the Nahal's training, which has been taking place over the past several months, some of the brigade's companies were converted to replicate those of the Lebanese-Shiite terror organization, with the rest of the forces fighting against them.

The Nahal Brigade drill. (:  ")

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The Nahal's "Hezbollah Companies" wear camouflage uniforms (as opposed to the IDF's olive-green uniform), use weapons that were actually captured from Hezbollah such as AK-47 rifles and RPG launchers, and employ Hezbollah tactics, such as placing bombs on the IDF's expected path.

In addition, these companies have been provided command and control centers modeled on intelligence information relating to the originals, which would be used by Hezbollah in case of a third armed conflict in Lebanon. These centers have deliberately been placed by Hezbollah in the midst of civilian areas, and thus so have the simulated command hubs of the IDF "Hezbollah Companies."

The "Hezbollah Companies" operated in the Druze village of Samia in the Galilee, with regular Nahal troops being assigned the task of taking and clearing their positions, following a 30 kilometer march. Both sides fired blanks at each other during the drills and used pyrotechnics to simulate the battle scenarios they would likely encounte in a Southern Lebanon clash with Hezbollah's real fighters.

The Nahal's 'Hezbollah companies.' coming as close as possible to the original. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

"Enemy simulation is a profession for us, and we check the commanders and fighters in enemy simulations as a legitimate way of gauging how they would act in the face of the IDF if they were Hezbollah's people?," a senior Nahal officer said, "They are tested on where the correct place to lay their Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) is on the outskirts of the village in the face of IDF forces. A 'Hezbollah Company' needs to cleverly place lookouts, whose goal is to identify battalion soldiers approaching."

"When the enemy simulation company identified (the regular Nahal troops) first, we 'destroyed' the force that was identified and the battalion continued without it," the officer continued. "This all happens in a Galilee village, with barking dogs, surrounded by building structures in town outskirts with large vegetation. (It smells like ) the scents of the village. Construction is low, there are fences around houses, and (we evem simulate) the same way of parking on the sides of narrow streets. It's the closest (we can get) to the expected reality in Southern Lebanon."
First of all, relax. Drink a glass of cold water. Lower the level of angry "apartheid" cries. The revised Knesset member termination bill, which is set to go before the Israeli parliament for its second and third round of votes, says that a 75 MK majority, of whom at least five must be from opposition parties, will be able to terminate the employment of an active MK. This sounds logical and even necessary  a law that actively protects democracy, even if not in the most delightful way. There isn't a country in the world in which the termination of a parliament member's term would be considered a cause for celebration.

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There are those who claim that this is a nationalistic law behind which stands the real agenda of expelling Arab MKs, or at least removing them in favor of "good Arabs"  those who don't ruffle anyone's feathers. The first MK that springs to mind when contemplating this suspicion is Haneen Zoabi, whose participation in the Mavi Marmara flotilla six years ago caused the storm which precipitated the bill's composition.

MK Haneen Zoabi. Her actions sparked the termination bill's genesis. (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Were the law in place back then, Zoabi's term would have been terminated  perhaps in favor of another female Arab MK who would have attempted to promote  wait for it  the interests of the Israeli-Arab public; equality, employment, education, improved infrastructure in Arab towns and the like, to name but a few examples. Yet Zoabi felt an urgent need to advocate for the interests of Palestinians in Gaza, enemies of Israel (one last reminder: The country she represents). Therefore, her place is not in the Knesset.

So, will Zoabi's term be struck with an early expiration if and when the law is passed? Not so fast. People in the Knesset have long memories. The opposition remembers the sweet taste of power and is fully cognizant of the fact that it's Arab members are crucial for any future prospect of regaining it. A termination is not something that is forgotten so quickly.

The Knesset may soon be able to fire one of its own by a 75-ote majority. (Photo: Amit Shabi)

Even an opposition member such as Yesh Atid party Chairman MK Yair Lapid, who has expressed his displeasure about the group of people he called "The Zoabis," will hesitate to vote alongside the hated coalition government. First and foremost, the MKs remember the chairs on which they sit, and they are aware that those who see to the demise of one political career today, may see the demise of their own tomorrow.

Oren Hazan (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Don't worry, there's no need to declare the law a waste just yet. It could be used against other MKs who leave a sour taste in the mouths of 75 of their colleagues. For instance, if an MK was found to have been involved in past scandals that have to do with gambling, prostitution, drugs, and other hair-raising plots, and if this MK happens to also shame the Knesset by mocking the disabled, his colleagues could seek to terminate his tenure as a legislator (of course, this is just a hypothetical. Surely no one like this exists in real life).

And if, for instance, it turns out that an MK or minister tends to give in to his urges and allow his hands to wonder whenever a secretary or parliamentary aid walks by, may his colleagues kick him down the Knesset stairs and out the door. And if a naughty minister or prime minister happens to, in some far-fetched science fiction universe, build a palace for his own use while the public is on the cusp of financial collapse, 75 of his angry co-workers would be able to show him the door, the other side of which he'll almost certainly find his fifth term of office
This summer is expected to be the busiest in the history of Ben-Gurion Airport (TLV). Tourists may not be coming in record numbers, but millions of Israelis will surely be traveling in and out of the holy land, creating plenty of traffic. Airplane traffic at Ben Gurion is expected to rise 10 percent  five times that of the average worldwide rise. To prepare for this jump, Ben Gurion Ariport has recently begun operating its new control tower.

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The tower is one of the most sophisticated in the world. It oversees everything that happens at the airport, the parking lot, the runways, and more. Each air traffic controller can determine the height of their own desk and computers. Every worker has several monitors that allow them to see everything that takes place in the air and on the ground.

The new control tower when it was still under construction. (Photo: Danny Sadeh)

"There was quite a bit of criticism about this tower in the past," said Udi Baroz, deputy director-general of the Israel Airports Authority, "but those who recommended the height, the placement, and the view angle were experts from the American Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Due to the tower's height, it can control the entire airport, and due to the large windows, who's phrames are hyper-thin, controllers have nearly no 'dead spots' to obstruct their view of what happens on the airport's areal side."

Amir Weinstein, shift manager at the new tower, mentioned that "in the previous tower, which was half as tall as the current one, there were a lot of blind spots. That isn't the case today. An air traffic controller in the tower has a continuous view of the plane sees everything that goes on, including on the farthest runways. This is ergonomics on a scale that we have not yet seen, with the capacity to train new controllers while working, with very comfortable standing positions, with capacity for future development, and a human-machine interface that has improved significantly. Technologically, we have the best systems you could expect (to have)."
CAIRO- Egypt on Thursday received the first of two French Mistral helicopter carriers and said the second would arrive in September as part a deal signed last year.

France agreed last year to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers to Egypt for 950 million euros (656 million pounds) after their sale to Russia was cancelled last August.

"We now have advanced capabilities in confronting terrorism within our borders and on our shores," Minister of Defence Sedky Sobhi said during a handover ceremony in Toulouse.
PARIS- France plans to take in 400 refugees a month from Greece under a European Union plan for distributing asylum seekers, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Thursday, substantially increasing its intake.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Manuel Valls was in Athens to offer reassurances that Paris would live up to its commitments to take in 32,000 additional asylum seekers over the next two years.

Nearly 100 additional refugees arrived this week from Greece and Italy and another 253 are due from Greece next week, Cazeneuve said in a statement.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed openness to dialogue with the new Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman in a meeting with Israeli mayors from the Galilee earlier this week.

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If Lieberman says he supports the two-state solution, nothing will prevent us from speaking with him, Abbas said in the meeting held at the Palestinian presidential compound in Ramallah.

Lieberman, who has earned a reputation as a tough-talking hawk, described the Arab peace plan for two states as containing positive elements on Monday night in a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after being sworn in as defense minister.

Israeli mayors meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Photo: Ehud Amiton/TPS)

If he really means it, well forget everything he said about us  that were diplomatic terrorists, Abbas said, referring to harsh comments Lieberman has made about the Palestinian leadership. We wont judge him by the past but rather by what he does now and in the future.

The Israeli delegation of mayors arrived on the eve of an international peace conference in Paris on Friday  and as Israeli leaders turn to Egypt to spearhead new talks with the Palestinians  to discuss another peace conference to be held in, of all places, the small northern Israeli town of Maalot Tarshiha.

(Photo: Ehud Amiton/TPS)

I call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to hold a conference in Maalot Tarshiha  not in Paris and not in Egypt, said Shlomo Bohbot, the towns mayor of forty years, to Abbas.

Abbas, declined to answer if he would attend the conference planned for the end of summer, though he welcomed the visit by Bohbot and the 18 other Israeli leaders as proof of the depth of commitment to advance peace.

Bohbot, a former Knesset member, hailed his Ma'alot Tarshiha, which was formed in 1976 by the union of the Jewish community of Maalot with the Arab village Tarshiha, as a model for peace and coexistence. He also tried to allay concerns about the current right-wing Israeli government.

Mr. President, theres nothing to be afraid of with Lieberman, Bohbot told Abbas. He says a lot of things to get attention but in fact hes much more practical, he claimed.

Im not a fan of Lieberman  quite the opposite, Bohbot, a member of the center-left Labor party, clarified. But Israeli politics has proven that only the rightist camp gets support from the public to make concessions, noting two hawkish Israeli prime ministers, Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon, who boldly returned swaths of territory Israel had conquered in war.

(Photo: Ehud Amiton/TPS)

Abbas seemed to welcome the analogy, emphasizing that he wont judge someone by their political affiliations and that the Israeli right has the potential to initiate peace.

Its not a matter of right or left, Moti Dotan, head of the Lower Galilee Regional Council and a member of the right wing Likud party, told TPS when asked why he attended the meeting with Abbas. We must do everything to advance dialogue, and if this does anything to bring peace closer than I did my part.

I think Abbas is our last chance for the next decade for a leader whos willing make the effort and put himself out there to engage us in dialogue, Dotan added. And Im worried that if we miss this chance, then well find ourselves later on talking to someone much more extreme.

The mood among Israelis and Palestinians alike was buoyed by optimism, as the leaders exchanged warm words and smiles. Only the journalists were irritated, since security ejected us from Abbass speech just moments after it began  despite the presidents objections that we be allowed to stay (causing some to openly wonder whether the president, in fact, controlled his own office).

I came because I believe in coexistence and that our region must somehow find peace, Fawad Awad, mayor of the northern Arab-Israeli town of Mazraa, told TPS. We have no other land.

Another northern mayor, Ofer Ben-Eliezer of the town Ramat Yishai, echoed the sentiment. If we engage in dialogue then we can make progress, he said. Leaving politics aside, were just people  people who live in a country that wants peace and security.

After the meeting, as the Israeli delegation and their Palestinian hosts loosened up at a dinner at Ramallahs luxurious Grand Park Hotel, the spirits soared even higher.

I met a very simple, warm man  and we can make peace with him, Bohbot told TPS, adding that the meeting exceeded his expectations.

Ive met the president many times before, but this is the first time I really got excited, Awad told the group. I saw that theres a real leader who actually wants peace.

Nazim Mahoul, a businessman from the Druze town of Pekiin in the Galilee next to Maalot Tarshiha, waxed poetic.

This is a turning point. The crisis of trust is ending, he said in both Arabic and Hebrew. Then he quoted a line Mahmoud Darwush, the great poet of Palestine: Show me one soldier who, after he died, knows who won the war.
The first ever photo of Talal Hamia, the head of Hezbollahs foreign operations unit - Unit 910- and whose name is linked with the attack on the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires in 1994, was published online Thursday afternoon.

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Hamia was recently mentioned as someone who is likely to be promoted to a more central role following the death of the senior Hezbollah leader Mustafa Badr al-Din in Damascus .

Head of Hezbollah's Unit 910, Talal Hamia

It was Ronen Solomon, the intelligence analyst for Intelli Times which closely monitors Hezbollah, who came upon the picture.

Hamia, who comes from Baalbek in Lebanons Bekaa Valley, is considered one of the veteran commanders of Hezbollahs military wing. According to reports in recent years, based on intelligence sources, he in effect replaced Badr al-Din after the International Court included the latter on the indictment regarding the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Similar to Badr al-Din, Hamia is also a mysterious figure. His name has been linked to the planning of terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hezbollah abroad. In 2012, the US Treasury Department placed sanctions on him.

In a recent publication of Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic language newspaper published in London, reported the person to replace Badr al-Din - who served as a senior figure in Hezbollahs military wing and the commander of the terrorist organization in Syria - is Mustafa Mughniyeh, Imad Mughniyehs eldest son, who was killed Damascus in 2008. But the credibility of the report is in doubt as the newspaper, owned by Saudi Arabia, is known for its biased coverage against Iran and Hezbollah. virtue of being owned by a Saudi.

At the same time, the Special Tribunal for Lebanon - the international court dealing with the assassination of former Lebanese President Rafik Hariri in 2005 - does not accept the assertion that Badr al-Din is involved in the formers assassination. Therefore the trial is taking its usual course.
A new peace organization called "two countries, one homeland" which is made up of both Israelis and Palestinians had its first convocation on Thursday morning whereby it announced its principals: two independent states based on the 1967 lines, economic cooperation, and a shared capital in Jerusalem.

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Hundreds of peace activists came to the first of annual convocation at the Ganei HaTa'arucha meeting hall in north Tel Aviv.

The organization, which was founded three years ago, counts Israelis who live in settlements in the West Bank, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and West Bank Palestinians among its members.

The movement recently presented its founding principles to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and also to the chief rabbi of the Efrat settlement Shlomo Riskin, who gave the movement his blessing.

Amongst those in attendance at the meeting were writer Nir Baram, former head of Peace Now Moriah Shlomit, and Hadassah Froman of Tekoa in the West Bank and whose husband, Rabbi Menachem Froman, was a promoter of interfaith dialogue between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims.

Prof. Oren Yiftachel speaking at the event (Photo: Nitzan Dror)

In contrast to other peace organizations, this new movement agrees that Jerusalem should not be split and that Jewish settlers will be able to remain and be fully integrated into a Palestinian state, while Palestinians in the diaspora will receive monetary compensation. It should be noted that the settlers who are a part of this movement recognize the Palestinian right to a state, and agree to live under Palestinian sovereignty.

A letter containing the solidified principles of the organization was passed around, in which the group calls for two sovereign states divided along the 1967 lines, and that the two countries will be closely intertwined with joint security, human rights courts, cultural cooperation and economic cooperation.

The organization further calls for open borders between the two countries, and the ability for Israelis to live in Palestine and Palestinians to have the ability to live in Israel. Jerusalem will be the capital of the two countries, and each country will have its own immigration policy. There is also a call for a joint mechanism for restitution for citizens of both countries that were negatively affected by the conflict.

The organization has conducted more than 200 "parlor meetings" in Israel and the West Bank, events, and lectures over the past few years.

The organization stated in a message that "we proves that settlers and leftists, ultra-Orthodox and Arabs - all of whom who have gotten used to thinking of themselves as rivals  can find a common denominator for cooperation and to work together for a just solution of this conflict."
Rivers in Europe have burst their banks from Paris to the southern German state of Bavaria, killing six people, trapping thousands more in homes or cars and forcing everything from subway lines to castles to the Louvre to shut down.

French authorities were especially concerned about the rising waters of the Seine River, which winds through Paris and was expected to peak Friday.

Paris police upgraded their flood warning to "orange" -- the second-highest level -- for areas in the French capital near the Seine, which has already overflowed its banks in many places. The warning means floods could have "a significant impact" on buildings and people.

The Louvre Museum in Paris says it will be closed Friday to remove artworks from rooms threatened by rising waters from the Seine and preventatively shift them upstairs. Its most famous painting, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," is staying put on an upper floor, however.
The staff of a Jabel Mukaber elementary school in East Jerusalem were questioned by police under advisement on suspicion of incitement, following a meeting they organized between the elementary school students and the families of terrorists who murdered Israelis.

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However, police sources said that it seems that indictments will not be served to those involved in the meeting as criminal offenses as incitement had not been established during the investigation.

The investigation's file was transferred to the polices investigations division for further study, and it will be decided there on how to continue. The event at the elementary school was brought to light by the Go Jerusalem (Lech Yerushalayim) organization, which seeks to apply Israeli sovereignty over all the areas of Jerusalem and monitors different Palestinian media organizations.

Mohammad Alian's son killed 3 Israelis in a terror attack

The organizations head Maor Tsemach said he hoped that "justice will be meted out to these people who incite to violence, and which provide a source for terrorist activities".

The meeting with the families of the terroriststook place two months ago in Jabal Mukaber, in a school named after the neighborhood near Armon HaNatziv in Jerusalem. At the meeting, the parents of terrorists who killed Israelis during the current terror wave spoke to the students.

Among the speakers was Mohammed Alian, the of father Baha Alian who together with Bilal Abu Ghanem, murdered three Israelis in an attack on a bus in Armon HaNatziv last October.





The bus Mohammad's son Baha attacked (Photo: Reuters)

In pictures from the event posted on a Facebook page with the school's emblem, Alian can be seen speaking with the children and taking pictures with them. A post on the page praises the terrorists and their families, and thanks the families for their visit.

Two days after Ynets publication of the event, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan ordered to check whether the activity constituted incitement. Netanyahu addressed the issue to the Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit. Erdan requested that the police investigate the incident and bring those involved to justice if in fact there is a suspicion of inciteful offenses.
An army bag containing binoculars, night vision goggles, and advanced electronic arms were stolen from a reservists unit at Tzeilim base in the south in the middle of the week. The base commander decided to prosecute the unit officer and soldiers who were training in light of the fact that the weapons stolen are classified as "weapons of crucial importance to the IDF."

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Theft of military property is a phenomenon which has been increasing in recent years, and which neither the IDF nor the police have found a solution for. The IDF Military Police opened an investigation into the incident, and according to the evidence, a worrying picture has emerged.

Residents of the western Negev  almost daily  steal military property from the various units who train in the area.

According to the evidence, while the soldiers were unloading their gear from the truck, a man on an ATV approached them, waited until the soldiers had their backs turned to him, drove up, stole a bag, and ran away  all in broad daylight. The soldiers gave chase, but the man on the ATV got away.

Soldier training at Tzeilim base (Photo: IDF Spokespersons Unit)

Additionally, according to various reserve officers and logistics personnel at the base, this trend has only been increasing over the past year, with 50 caliber heavy machine guns affixed armored personnel carriers (APC) and tanks parked on the edge of the base.

Following this worrying phenomenon which has caused considerable damage to the IDF and endangers the security of Israeli citizens, the investigation further revealed that many of these weapons are smuggled into Egypt. Therefore, a plan to upgrade the defenses on the base costing millions of shekels has been approved.

"Despite the cooperation between the IDF and the police on this issue, the thieves are continuing to steal from the base around the clock. We are beginning to feel helpless," said a reserve officer who is currently training on Tzeilim.

"A majority of the soliders and officers have heard about what's going on and are familiar with the phenomenon, and are really focusing their efforts on making sure that military equipment doesn't get stolen, but on the other hand, soldiers are prohibited from carrying out the rules of engagement procedure on thieves, and the thieves know this."

The IDF Spokesperson's unit said in response "the issue of military equipment being stolen is know and is being dealt with by law enforcement officials. In the IDF in general and bases in the area in particular are carrying out extensive operations to prevent weapons thefts, including advancing overall efforts in security, prevention, and enforcement. This particular case is being investigated by the IDF Investigations Unit."
GENEVA- UN officials on Thursday all but rejected a call by a group of world powers for the United Nations to act unilaterally to air drop food to besieged Syrians, saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad has final say on any such deliveries.

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Assad's forces have surrounded most of the 19 UN-designated "besieged areas" and there was no immediate sign that his government would authorize air deliveries of aid. The UN has dropped aid onto the city of Deir Ezzor, parts of which are loyal to Assad while other parts are controlled by ISIS group fighters.

The International Syria Support Group, a coalition of world powers, had called for the World Food Programme to unilaterally deliver food to besieged Syrians starting June 1 if access wasn't granted by the Syrian government. Thursday's comments from Jan Egeland, a top humanitarian aid coordinator for Syria, and Ramzy Ramzy, deputy to UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, suggested that the UN is unwilling to take that step.

Egeland said the companies who are subcontracted to carry out airlifts for WFP require government authorization. He added that the government in Damascus hasn't provided permission for nearly all of the areas in need.

"The World Food Program has not finalized its plans, I don't think there is something imminent, but I think the process that will lead to airdrops has already started. So we will just have to wait and see when it will be put into effect (which will be) at the earliest possible date," Ramzy told reporters in Geneva.

A Syrian tank in Homs (Photo: AFP)

A day earlier, an aid convoy involving the UN and the International Committee for the Red Cross reached the town of Daraya, but it didn't include food aid. Egeland said he had "good hopes" the deliveries of food will happen "very soon" -- without specifying. He also said the UN was adding another town, al-Waer in Homs province, to its list of "besieged" areas -- now numbering 19.

UN officials have repeatedly pointed to the high cost, complexity and security risk of air drops compared to delivering aid by road -- which in addition usually allows for more aid to be delivered than is feasible by plane. But access by road has been repeatedly rejected by the Assad government and its forces manning checkpoints.

"At the end of the day, to be able to carry out these air deliveries -- it's not just air drops, but air deliveries -- you would need the consent of the government. I think that's quite clear," Ramzy said.

The two UN officials said fighting near the northern city of Idlib is jeopardizing a vaccination campaign there. Opposition activists said earlier this week that airstrikes on the village of Kfar Takhareem destroyed two vaccination centers.

Britain has called an emergency Security Council meeting due to take place Friday to discuss aid drops. Britain's UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said, "there has been some modest progress but ... that is too little too late."

Syrian artillery shelling the besieged town of Zabadani (Photo: EPA)

"What we need is full access everywhere. Of course it's better to have a bit of aid going into places like Daraya than no aid at all, but the Assad regime has not done what is required," Rycroft said.

The announcements came as Syrian forces launched a fresh offensive under the cover of "intense" Russian and Syrian airstrikes on ISIS group positions east of the northern town of Ethraya, state TV and a Lebanon-based TV station said.

The Pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen channel based in Beirut said the offensive aims to regain control of the ISIS stronghold of Tabqa near the city of Raqqa, the extremists' de facto capital.

Also in northern Syria, US-backed fighters pushed ahead in their offensive, aiming to eventually capture the town of Manbij, also an ISIS stronghold. The Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces aided by US-led airstrikes on Wednesday launched their offensive on Manbij, which is on a key supply route linking the Turkish border to the city of Raqqa.

"We have taken more than 20 villages but we still have to clear them of mines," SDF official Sherfan Darwish told The Associated Press in an exchange of text messages. "We are advancing on several fronts."

A Syrian fighter jet dropping bombs (Photo: Reuters)

IS has also been attacking opposition fighters and allied militants near the border with Turkey, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee.

The international aid group, Doctors Without Borders, warned that an estimated 100,000 people are trapped in northern Syria's Azaz district, with battle lines approaching. It called on Turkey and Europe to open their borders to these refugees.

Also Thursday, state TV reported that an explosion struck outside a mosque in the coastal government stronghold of Latakia, killing two people and wounding four. State TV said the blast occurred as people were leaving the Khulafa Rashideen mosque after afternoon prayers.

The explosion came a week after a series of coordinated bombings struck the coastal city of Tartus and the town of Jableh on the Syrian coast, killing some 160 people.

The coastal provinces of Latakia and Tartus have been a government stronghold since the country's conflict began in 2011.
WASHINGTON - The United States Treasury said on Thursday it had imposed sanctions on two pro-government Burundian officials and a member of an armed opposition group for "engaging in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, or stability" of the African country.

A Treasury statement said sanctions were imposed on:

- Marius Ngendabanka, a military commander under President Pierre Nkurunziza who is "one of several Nkurunziza regime officers alleged to be involved in 'purification' operations in Bujumbura against those opposed to the president's third-term bid."

- Ignace Sibomana, who has been involved in operations to target those opposed to Nkurunziza.

- Edouard Nshimirimana, a former senior army officer who leads the Force Republicaine du Burundi (FOREBU) rebel group.
TORONTO- The brother-in-law of ousted Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has disappeared in Canada ahead of his deportation, but his lawyer says he will continue to challenge the removal order.

Belhassen Trabelsi, a wealthy Tunisian businessman, moved to Canada after Ben Ali was ousted in 2011 in a wave of protests against his 23 years of power. Trabelsi was due to be deported on Tuesday and had been challenging that order.

Jean-Francois Bertrand, a lawyer in Montreal, said on Thursday he still represents Trabelsi, despite telling a Canadian court last week he does not know where his client is.
OTTAWA - A Libyan-Canadian man acquitted by a United Arab Emirates court of aiding militants left the country on Thursday after initially being prevented from departing, campaigners on his behalf said in a statement.

Salim Alaradi was released from prison late on Tuesday but UAE officials prevented him from catching a flight on Wednesday, citing issues with paperwork.

"A few minutes ago, Canadian Salim Alaradi boarded a flight from Dubai and is safely en route to be reunited with his family," said the statement, thanking Canadian diplomats for arranging the departure.
Chuck Diven, a retired 33 year military member, recently spoke with several groups of 940th Air Refueling Wing members on how to write excellent evaluation reports. Diven broke down the dos and donts of evaluation writing and how vital those reports are to career progression. But the retired lieutenant colonel didnt only speak on report writing, he concluded with personal insights illustrating how to be more resilient.





In case you missed Divens seminars heres his advice in a nutshell:





Be THIS kind of worker, not THAT kind

Reservists might not be in control of every aspect of their jobs, but some things, like handing a quality evaluation draft to a supervisor, are in your control. Members career progression can be helped or hindered by how well you and your supervisor communicate your accomplishments in an evaluation report.





Be a contributor: take on challenging projects, classes, or volunteer work. Stepping outside your comfort zone not only broadens experience and enhances an EPR, but also rounds out and polishes a reservists skills.





Working hard and regularly jotting down accomplishments makes turning in an EPR draft to a supervisor much easier. The more straw, or information, given to a supervisor, the more that straw can be spun into gold.





These elements are all within your control and developing these habits are crucial for growing in your civilian career too.

Understand the three part bullet system

With the ushering in of the new enlisted performance report forms, Air Force forms 910 and 911, and the complementary Airman Comprehensive Assessment Worksheets, the Air Force hopes to better rate an Airmens behavior and actions based on the Whole Airmen Concept, including personal and professional development, esprit de corps and community relations.

Heres the skinny on forming bullets - supervisors and supervisees should break it down into a formula: A+I=R, or, action + immediate impact= long range result. Bullets (or resumes, for that matter) shouldnt read like just a job description or task list, use verb rich details to show action, but action with result. Active verbs like hurdled, authored, or hand-selected keep pushing the reader through the bullet line.

Bullet Language

1. Aim for every bullet to avoid jargon because every time we use acronyms or job specific language we create a puzzle for the reader.

2. Use active verbs, and include an action, impact, and result in each bullet.

3. Just as in other forms of writing  avoid using cliches and verbs, i.e., spearheaded.

4. Dont follow The Tongue and Quills advice and use one line and one bullet. These are outdated examples and much too long!

5. Dont separate independent clauses with semi colons.

6. Check your word usage! Make sure you arent misusing a word and it means what you think it means.

7. Dont spell out numbers under 10.

8. Dont add a period after your bullet, it isnt a sentence.

9. Dont add sub bullets within bullets.

10. Make a real contribution and truthfully report it (this should go without saying).

Write steak bullets, not twinkie bullets

Fluffy or twinkie bullets arent results oriented and are full of meaningless jargon and have little to no data. Steak Bullets have meat on them  meaning specific, relevant concrete data and measurable impact.

Whether developing your own bullets or a troops, ask who, what, when, where, how, and why. Who benefitted from the action? The wing, base, community?

For example, if an airman volunteered 50 hours of his time to help build a playground in his local community think of the larger picture of what this airman accomplished  by creating a place for children to play, the community may see a reduction in crime and obesity, plus, the airman enhanced community relations by representing the Air Force positively.

The airmans action are a small piece of a larger picture, so you need to look at the implications of the action. For example, why does an airman turn a wrench? To fix the plane that flies the missions that supports the combatant command or humanitarian mission.

Lessons in Resilience

When Divens house was completely destroyed in a tornado, he said he made sure to continue practicing two things that helped him become more resilient.

Be thankful- keep a gratitude journal. It is scientifically proven that keeping a positive, thankful attitude improves physical and psychological health and helps foster relationships. During times of trial, look back in the gratitude journal and reflect on all there is to be thankful for.

Be mindful  Try and practice being present in the moment and accepting thoughts and feelings without judgement. Allowing the mind to focus on the present can help maintain a more relaxed, meditative state and aids psychological and physical health.

Build community  Diven said although emergency responders and support agencies like FEMA and the Red Cross will help out disaster victims, his community, new and old friends, family, and coworkers locally and from all over the country were invaluable in helping his wife and he get back on their feet after the tornado.

Diven said dont wait until an emergency to know your neighbors. Kindliness and paying attention to the needs of others can go a long way in building lifelong relationships.

So, be thankful, mindful, and foster relationships within your community to cultivate an attitude of resilience.

Suggested Reading List:

10% happier, How I tamed the voice in my head, reduced stress without losing my edge

By Dan Harris

After having a televised panic attack, Nightline anchor Dan Harris, decided to make some life changes. The author delves into the many faces of spirituality and self-help.

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World

By Eric Weiner

A travel memoir and a New York Times bestseller foreign correspondent Eric Weiner. In the book, Weiner travels all around the globeincluding Iceland, Bhutan, Moldova and Qatarto search out how different cultures pursuit of happiness.

Please Understand Me

By David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates

The book contains a lengthy personality questionnaire, developed by Keirsey which sorts behavioral patterns into four temperaments and sixteen character types. The detailed characteristics of a type can help ascertain who you may clash or get along with and what career best suits a specific personality type. The personality types can help someone discover how they relate to the world and manage energy.
The 910th Airlift Wing, based here, launched a Civic Leader Tour (CLT) consisting of 35 civic leaders and their military escorts to Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West and Homestead Air Reserve Base (ARB), Florida, April 28-29, 2016.

The tour departed Youngstown Air Reserve Station (YARS) in the early morning of April 28, heading south aboard a 910th C-130H Hercules aircraft for a two-day, one-night event designed to give attendees a better understanding of the Air Force Reserve and Joint Operation missions and how they differ from base to base around the country. During the flight to the Florida Keys, attendees were able to visit the aircraft flight deck and interact with aircrew and loadmasters as mission requirements allowed.

Upon arrival at Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West, attendees toured the NAS Tactical Combat Training System, a system designed to aid in the training of Navy combat pilots, then were greeted and briefed by the NAS Skipper on the local mission including how 910th aircrews receive water survival training at NAS Key West. After the commanders mission briefing and lunch, the attendees visited the NAS adversary aircraft squadron. This visit included a mission briefing on the units role of playing bad guys during combat pilot training flying scenarios, a hangar tour and an opportunity to take an up-close look at one of the aircraft assigned to the squadron.

Following check-in at the groups overnight lodging location and some personal time, CLT attendees attended a social networking event at one of the local establishments in Old Town Key West followed by a sunset sea cruise. These events allowed a relaxed atmosphere for attendees to learn about ways to support the 910th and YARS including membership opportunities in the Youngstown Air Reserve Base community Council and the Eastern Ohio Military Affairs Commission.

The tour continued the morning of April 29 when the attendees returned to NAS Key West to board the 910ths C-130 aircraft to make the short trip to Homestead Air Reserve Base (ARB), Florida, home of the 482nd Fighter Wing, flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Upon arrival at Homestead, the group received a mission briefing from the 482nd commander. The tour attendees also heard from the Homestead and Miami-Dade County Pest Management team about their fight with the local mosquito population and how the 910ths unique aerial spray capability plays a big role in that ongoing Sunshine State battle. The attendees tour of Homestead concluded with the chance to see an F-16 aircraft static display, speak with a fighter pilot and observe F-16 launches from an edge of the runway vantage point.

After the Homestead visit wrapped up, the group boarded the 910th C-130 aircraft to journey back to YARS and conclude the two-day civic leader tour. During the return flight, attendees were again able to visit the flight deck and interact with aircrew and loadmasters as mission requirements allowed.

According to Department of Defense (DoD) regulations, Civic Leader Tours are held in the best interest of DoD, Air Force (AF) and Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) public affairs objectives and invitees are civic leaders, employers or other audiences which can make positive contributions to the public's understanding of the missions of the DoD, AF and AFRC.

We want you to help tell our story; share what you have seen over the last two days with the people you know out in the community, 910th Airlift Wing commander Col. James Dignan told the civic leaders at the end of the tour. Tell them about the great things the Air Force Reserve and our sister services are doing in Northeast Ohio, in South Florida and all around the world.
This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

As of 2020, Minuteman Review is now the proud owner and operator of Your Defence News, a website with a long history of breaking huge news stories and investigative journalism.

We hope you are equally as excited as us.

This means that now the teams of Minuteman can combine with the firepower of Your Defence News to stay at the absolute forefront for our readers.

Keep an eye. Big things are coming soon. We couldn't be more excited.

In the meanwhile, here are some of our most popular posts and categories to keep you busy.

Happy shootin' my friends!

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CoreLogic RP Data is currently tracking 1,936 auctions across Australias capital cities, down from the 2,480 held last week.

Last weeks national clearance rate finalised at 67.7%, down from the previous weeks mark of 68.9%.

Melbourne is again the busiest individual market, with the Victorian capital set to hold 941 auctions this week.

Last week saw Melbourne hold 1,170 auctions and finish with a final clearance rate of 71.5%, the second highest mark for the week.

Nine of Australias 10 busiest suburbs are in Melbourne, with Glen Iris set for the most activity with 17 auctions scheduled. The next busiest will be Epping and South Yarra, both of which are set to hold 15 auctions.

In Sydney, 641 homes are scheduled to go under the hammer this week, down from the 811 that did so last week.

Sydney finished last week with a clearance rate of 73.2%, the highest mark recorded over the week.

Mosman, with 11 auctions will be Sydneys busiest suburb and is the only non-Melbourne suburb in the top-10 busiest this week.

After holding nearly 200 auctions last week, Brisbanes volumes have fallen to 119 this week.

The Queensland capital finished last week with a clearance rate of 41.7%, the second lowest mark recorded.

Adelaide held 125 auctions last week, but volumes look to have pulled back to double digits, with just 97 scheduled this week.

Adelaides clearance rate finalised at 52.6% last week

Following Sydney and Melbourne, Canberra had the next best clearance rate last week, with the nations capital finishing the week at 70.5% from 109 auctions.

This week Canberra is scheduled for 77 auctions.

Perth recorded the lowest clearance rate of nay market last week at 30.6% from it 58 auctions and is set to hold 26 auctions this week.
Arizona News

Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey today hosted a signing ceremony for landmark legislation that will open the door for home sharing in Arizona. Senate Bill 1350, passed and signed into law in May, is the latest in several actions the governor has taken to support 21st-century business models and ensure Arizona remains on the leading edge in the new sharing economy. The first of its kind in the nation, this bill will serve as a model for other states and policy makers who want to embrace this innovative industry.

From Day One, Ive made it clear that government regulation and outdated laws should not get in the way of people trying to earn an honest paycheck; nor should they block everyday citizens from connecting to the products and services they want and need, said Governor Ducey. Companies like Airbnb have already made groundbreaking contributions to the travel industry, including in Arizona. Their economic impact is significant, they give back to the community and theyre transforming the way we live and travel. These are the kinds of 21st-century companies we want to be helping, not hurting. This legislation sends a loud message, to homeowners and visitors alike, that our door is open and ready to do business in the home sharing economy.

With SB 1350, Arizona takes a major step towards realizing Governor Duceys bold vision for leadership in the sharing economy, said Chris Lehane, Head of Global Policy and Public Affairs, Airbnb. The legislation takes a balanced approach to protecting the rights of homeowners and their neighbors, ensures a fair and level playing field on regulation across the state, and streamlines tax collection to maximize revenues to cities and the State.
Latest News

New York - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver remarks to students at United Nations International School during a commencement ceremony at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 2, 2016, in the United Nations General Assembly Hall, in New York City.

Graduating seniors will leave United Nations International School for 70 of the world's universities in 12 countries, and 43 colleges in the United States and the District of Columbia. The 102 graduates represent 41 nationalities with 38 languages spoken. Sixty percent of the student families are affiliated with the United Nations. Taught by faculty representing 32 countries, students receive an academically rigorous international education in nine languages.

The speech will be streamed live on www.state.gov and www.webtv.un.org.
Yuma News

Yuma, Arizona - On Tuesday, just before 4:30 pm, a fire was reported in the 1900 block of 6th Avenue. Yuma Fire Department personnel arrived to find a large shed at 1927 South 6th Avenue completely on fire, with fire extending to a second nearby shed. Firefighters began the work to contain and extinguish the fire but their efforts were hampered due to live high voltage electrical wires down in the yard.

The wires kept them from coming directly into the yard until Arizona Public Service employees were able to arrive and shut down those power lines. Several occupants of the home were safely evacuated.

The fire was quickly extinguished once firefighters had clear access to the fire. The two sheds and their contents were badly damaged but the fire was kept from spreading to the house on the property. A vacant house in an adjoining lot received minor damage from the heat. There were no injuries and the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Due to a large amount of smoke, this fire was widely visible and attracted many onlookers whose vehicles congested the streets in the early phases of fighting this fire. We would like to remind people that fires are not spectator sports, uncongested streets are necessary for effective firefighting response. Even when police are not there to block traffic, stay clear of an area when the fire is occurring. You dont want to be the cause of critical resources not arriving when and where needed.

Never attempt to drive over fire hoses in the street, and if you are on foot in the area.dont stand in the smoke, you have no idea what is burning and what chemicals might be in it. Dont be the cause of a Police Officer having to go into the smoke to ask you to move to a safer area.
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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.
Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: In wake of the recent incident, where a gorilla was shot dead by zoo authorities for saving a young child, there is a question in everyone's mind about how dangerous gorillas really are.

The Zoo authorities faced a public backlash over the killing of the gorilla,named Harambe, which focuses on whether it was necessary to kill the ape or could the incident be avoided.

This gives birth to a very important point regarding measures that should be taken to handle gorilla's.

Experts suggest that gorilla's can act differently in various circumstances and can be very brutal and dangerous at times, so they need careful handling and they should be carefully dealt with.

According to wildlife experts, it is difficult to figure out how dangerous a gorilla could turn out to be, but as per expert advice, it is better to stay away from these apes as there have been numerous cases where gorillas have attacked, which has sometime proved fatal.

Many argued that non-lethal methods like tranquilisers should have been used instead of killing the gorilla. To this, the zoo authorities defended their action and said that it would have put the child at further risk.
New Delhi: In a gruesome incident in Western Australia, a surfer lost his leg after a shark attacked him during his search for a big wave.

Ben Gerring, 29, a keen big wave surfer paddled out further into the sea and screamed for help before being dragged under the water.

Other surfers lurking around in the sea immediately swam out to the rescue and brought Gerring back to the shore, propped up on a board.

The 4.2m-long shark, meanwhile, was trapped in baited drum lines and killed by the Western Australia fisheries department, according to reports.

However, as per The Guardian reports, fisheries confirmed in a statement that the shark was caught on drum lines set following the attack and died on the line before fisheries staff arrived. The carcass was disposed off at sea, after measurements and samples were taken.

According to procedure, sharks that are suspected to be connected to an attack are taken in for autopsy to confirm their involvement in the same.

In this particular case, the shark's jaw samples were left out, since that could be examined against the bite marks on Gerrings surfboard.

Ben Gerring is currently in a critical condition at the hospital where he was admitted after the life-threatening attack. His rescuers, meanwhile, have received a huge amount of praise and appreciation for going into the part of the sea where the shark had been spotted, to save Gerring.

Watch the video below:

Courtesy: BBC World News
Ahmedabad: Residents of a locality in Gujarat's Vadodara have sent a letter to the municipal corporation asking it not to go ahead with the planned move to relocate some 300 Muslim families there.

Kapurai is a neighbourhood in Vadodara. The Vadodara Municipal Corporation is due to move in some 300 displaced families, mostly Muslims, there after their homes in Suleiman Chawl were demolished.

However, Kapurai residents are protesting against the move and have said in the letter to the municipal body that letting Muslims move into their locality will hamper the peace-loving nature here, a report in The Indian Express said on Thursday.

The letter further states that Muslims' daily activity involves assaulting and abusing.

On Tuesday, the municipal corporation had demolished over 300 clustered homes in Suleiman Chawl as part of its Slum Free Vadodara campaign.

Just a day ago, the civic body had conducted a draw of lots to choose homes for 218 families, who are being relocated under the Basic Services for Urban Poor housing scheme, the daily reported.

However, the demolition of homes had led to violence with some of the residents reportedly setting on fire a police chowki, a city bus and 10 two-wheelers. Police had to use force to quell the violence.
Gurgaon: Ahead of the proposed Jat agitation on June 5, Gurgaon district administration and police officers on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of various Jat organisations and appealed them to maintain peace and harmony in the district.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy Commissioner TL Satyaprakash said that by blocking roads or railway tracks, no community can get sympathy from general public, on the contrary, the public gets irritated and they do not form good opinion about the community.

He appealed the people from Jat community to not get swayed by rumours and to inform the district administration and Gurgaon police if any issue of agitation surfaces.

The Jat representatives assured that peace of Gurgaon would not be disturbed and maintainance of peace would be ensured.

Recollecting the Jat agitation during February in which Gurgaon remained unscathed, Satyaprakash said this time also the Gurgaon administration expects cooperation from all sections of society particularly the Jat community for maintaining peace and harmony.

Meanwhile, Gurgaon police will keep surveillance on social media sites and Whastapp to check the spread of rumours and also take action against such anti-social elements.

"The DGP of Haryana has directed all the district police of Haryana including Gurgaon to take action on such culprits. The residents and Jat unions should not take any rumour messages on Whatsapp and social media sites seriously and inform to nearby police station if messages were found," said Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Dahiya.

Satyaprakash said that if the representatives of Jat community do want to demonstration and protest, the district administration is ready to demarcate places where they can do so as organizing peaceful demonstration is permitted in a democracy.

For this, they need to inform the administration in advance and take prior permission, so that necessary advisory can be issued to the general public to avoid inconvenience.

He reminded that National Security Act has already been implemented in the state and no community or group should resort to such activities, persuading the administration and police to use force.

DCP (Headquarter and west) Balwan Singh Rana said that no agitators would be allowed to stage protest near the railway lines or national highways.

However, the Jat Sangharsh Samiti, has decided to postponed its agitation till?July 21 and wait for the decision of the court.


A day after Haryana-based body of Jat community moved the Supreme Court challenging the stay on Jat quota by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, another group that aims to 'protect' the OBC quota, Thursday, approached the apex court and pleaded to be heard.

The OBC Aarakshan Raksha Samiti filed a caveat in the SC saying that the court should hear it before passing the court decides on the plea against the Punjab and Haryana HC order.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court, on May 26, had stayed the reservation for Jats and five other communities while hearing a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the Haryana Backward Classes (reservation in services and admission in educational institutions) Act 2016 that was passed unanimously by the state Assembly on March 29.

In its plea, the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) contended that the operation of a legislation passed by a state legislature cannot be stayed during the pendency of a writ petition.

It also deprecated the interim order of the High Court saying it amounted to granting final relief.

"The interim relief granted in favour of the petitioner amounts to grant of final relief which is not permissible under the law.

"...Because the High Court has committed a error of law by entertaining the writ petition contrary to its own PIL Rules, 2010," the leader of the Jat body said in his plea.

The petition said that the High Court "erred in law" in not holding that the state enactment was in accordance with law.

"While granting the interim stay the High Court has failed to appreciate that the admissions in the educational institutes are likely to take place in the coming months and there are students who would have taken admission under the reserved category but deprived of the same due to the interim stay order," it said.

The SC is likely to take up the case for hearing in a day or two, a report said.

With PTI inputs
New Delhi: CBI today questioned Hindu Janajagruti Samiti member Virendrasing Tawde whose residence in Panvel near Mumbai was searched by the agency in connection with the murder case of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The agency had recovered some material during its earlier searches in connection with the murder case which brought the needle of suspicion on Tawde, believed to be an ENT surgeon and an alleged follower of 'Sanatan Sanstha' Sarang Akolkar, against whom Red Corner Notice was issued by Interpol in July 2012 in connection with the 2009 Goa blast case on NIA request, CBI sources said.

The residences of Tawde and Akolkar were searched by the agency yesterday which claimed to have recovered several SIM cards, cell phones and data from computer, they said.

They said the two came under the scanner after the agency found some "cyber forensic evidence" about their alleged role in the murder case of Dabholkar.

34-year-old Akolkar is suspected to be one of the key conspirators in the murder of Dabholkar, a rationalist who fought against superstitions all his life, on August 20, 2013 in Pune.

Akolkar is believed to be linked to 'Sanatan Sanstha', a Hindu right wing organisation whose headquarters are located in Ponda, Goa.

He has been on the run ever since his name cropped up during NIA investigations in the Goa blast case.

NIA had secured an Interpol Red Corner Notice against him in 2012 but security agencies are yet to track him down.
Chandigarh: Dr Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Zee and Essel Group, on Thursday expressed confidence that he would be elected to the Rajya Sabha from Haryana later this month.

Dr Chandra has filed nomination papers as an Independent candidate for the second Rajya Sabha seat falling vacant from Haryana.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Chandra said he has been assured of support by the BJP for the Rajya Sabha elections due on June 11.

I am in touch with individual MLAs as well, including from parties like the BSP, the Akali Dal and others. From the Congress, we have sought support as a party, Dr Chandra stated.

Dr Chandra said one can reach out to and help crores of people by being in Parliament.

While doing social work, you can help only thousands or lakhs but by being in Parliament, you can help lakhs and crores of people, he told reporters at the press meet.

Dr Chandra also talked about the Sarthi initiative launched by Zee Media which among other things would help students from the poorest sections of the society claim 20% of the seats reserved for them in private colleges under the Right to Education.

Watch the full video of the press conference here:
New Delhi: As Robert Vadra faces heat over an alleged 'benami' property in London, former Press Council of India chairman and Supreme Court of India judge Markandey Katju on Thursday suggested how the investigation in the case should be done.

What should be investigated is what were Vadra's assets before he married Priyanka, and what are his assets today, Katju tweeted.

What should be investigated is what were Vadra's assets before he married Priyanka, and what are his assets today.https://t.co/17Whf1I23g  Markandey Katju (@mkatju) June 1, 2016

Besides the benami property land case in London, Robert Vadra is also under the scanner over land deals in Haryana and Rajasthan.

Vadra is under the scanner after a probe by the Income Tax department into certain transactions carried out by arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari suggested links between them, especially with regard to the ownership of a house in London.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has termed the allegations against her son-in law part of "a political conspiracy" and dared the Narendra Modi government to probe the matter "unbiasedly".

Earlier this year Vadra had said, "I don't need my wife Priyanka to enhance my life, I have enough, I have always had enough. My father gave me enough. I have been educated enough to sustain in all types of situations."

Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier filed a case against Vadra in connection with a land scam in Bikaner in 2015. The case was registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The Haryana government, in May 2015, had announced the name of retired Delhi High Court judge, Justice SN Dhingra, to head a one-man commission to probe the grant of licences to Vadra's company and other firms for developing commercial properties in Gurgaon's Sector 83.

Vadra and others were allegedly granted favours by the then Congress government in Haryana headed by Bhupinder Singh Hooda in issuing licences to develop commercial properties in Gurgaon's Sector 83.
New Delhi: Punitive action against lawyer Indira Jaising's NGO Lawyers Collective shows the "intolerant" attitude of the government towards those championing people's causes, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Thursday.

"Indira Jaising, a senior advocate, is being targeted for fearlessly taking up people's cause. Intolerance of Modi Sarkar," Digvijaya Singh posted on Twitter.

"Advocates would you please show some spine and stand up for her? You never know you may be the next!," he said in another tweet.

The home ministry on Tuesday suspended for six months the registration under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) of Lawyers Collective for alleged violations of foreign funding norms.

A former additional solicitor general, Jaising is the founder-secretary and her husband Anand Grover is the president of the Lawyers Collective.

Reacting to the government's decision, Jaising posted on Twitter on Wednesday, "Condemn the beaten attack by government disguised as alleged violations of FCRA, days after I spoke at Rana Ayub book release."

She was referring to 'Gujarat Files: The Anatomy of A Cover Up,' a book on 2002 Gujarat riots, written by journalist Rana Ayyub.
New Delhi: The central government on Thursday set a deadline of one year to completely seal the 223.7 km Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam and hoped the entire exercise will be completed by June 2017.

The sealing of borders including riverine areas and "technological barriers" will have to be completed by June, 2017, it was announced at a high-level meeting here attended among others by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The decision of the government comes close on the heels of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government taking charge in Assam.

In the run up to the polls, the party had pledged to complete sealing of the international border with Bangladesh in order to prevent illegal immigration.

"Additional Director General, Border Security Force and Additional Director General (Border), CPWD are already on site visit on Indo-Bangladesh Border in Assam to prepare comprehensive plan for sealing the border by June, 2017 by means of physical and non-physical barriers," an official spokesman said here.

The 223.7 km Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam should be sealed, the Home Minister said in presence of Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, Secretary, Border Management, Susheel Kumar along with senior officials of the department of Border Management, the spokesman said.

However, sources said there are 122 locations (60.7 km.) where there is no physical barrier.

"In order to achieve the objective of sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border it was decided that 100 locations covering 11.9 km will have physical barrier," the source said.

At the meeting, the Secretary, Border Management, briefed the ministers about the progress of border security infrastructure, programmes of border management and the way forward.

"It was informed that 4,374 km fence, 5,329.6 km border roads, 3,974 km floodlights and 2,420 numbers Border Out Posts (BOPs) have been constructed along the international borders for security of the borders," an official release said.

The government has also claimed that major impediments hampering the development of border infrastructure have been resolved during last two years which will increase the pace of development of border infrastructure in coming years.

"In the meeting it was also outlined that almost all the remaining infrastructure works at the border will be completed in next three years," the release said.

The Home Minister further directed that full use of technological solutions be made to secure sensitive areas along the borders.

This will involve networking of equipments like high resolution cameras, radars, unattended ground sensors, optical fibres, infra red sensors, aerostats, hand-held thermal imagers and integration of these with command and control architecture, the release said.


New Delhi: Former Press Council of India chairman and Supreme Court of India judge Markandey Katju, who never shies away from speaking his mind, on Wednesday opined that Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student Umar Khalid was not a traitor.

The ex-apex court judge tweeted: I do not regard Umar Khalid of JNU as a traitor. He is brave and honest, but immature, and has to learn a lot.

I do not regard Umar Khalid of JNU as a traitor. He is brave and honest, but immature, and has to learn a lot  Markandey Katju (@mkatju) June 1, 2016

Katju's reaction comes days after the Delhi High Court Friday stayed all disciplinary action, including rustication orders of the JNU student.

Khalid was rusticated for one semester and fined Rs 20,000.

Umar Khalid has been in trouble since he was arrested in a sedition case over an event against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

The university took the action on April 25 after a high level inquiry committee set up by the varsity administration found them guilty of "misconduct" and "indiscipline".

Staying the disciplinary action order, the court said they if their appeal against disciplinary action order is rejected by the appellant authority (headed by vice chancellor), the order of disciplinary order shall not be given effect for two weeks.

This will give a window to the students to challenge the appellant authority decision before the high court.

The February 9 event led to the arrests of Kanhaiya Kumar, Khalid and Bhattacharya on sedition charges after it was alleged that participants at the event shouted anti-national slogans. Delhi Police repeatedly claimed they had evidence against Kanhaiya Kumar and the other students but failed to produce it in court, leading to their release from jail on bail.
Bhubaneswar: At least seventeen people were killed and nine others injured in lightning that struck different parts of Odisha on Wednesday.

The lightning, which was followed by heavy shower, also claimed lives of 21 livestock.

The southern and coastal parts of the state were the most affected by this natural disaster.

The casualties have been reported from Kendrapada, Bhadrak, Ganjam, Khurda and Mayurbhanj districts.

With this, the total number of lightning deaths in a month has touched a total of 25.

On May 1, eight persons were killed in different lightning incidents in the state. According to the special relief commissioner's office, the total number of lightning deaths till date in 2016 is 85.

Pre-monsoon rains are likely to occur in the state from 5th of this month, as the regional MeT department said that they would occur in south and interior pockets of the state on June 6 and 7.
New Delhi: Aiming to create greater synergy between various central ministries and departments, the Modi government has firmed up plans to build a Common Secretariat in Delhi.

The new mega building will come up on Lodhi Road in central Delhi. The Rs 20,000 crore project will involve demolition of residential complexes housing 4,000 families. The new secretariat will come up in five years.

As per a report in the Economic Times, the proposal will be placed before Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his final approval.

The report adds that important ministries functioning out of North Block and South Block  home, defence, finance and external affairs - on Raisina Hill are unlikely to be relocated.

The Prime Minister's office located in South Block will also not move to the new complex, the report adds.

But other ministries and departments that jostle for space in Krishi Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan etc will all be relocated to the common secretariat.

However, the government is yet to decide on how to use these bhawans once the offices shift to the new secretariat. One proposal is to convert, at least a part, of the building into museums and lease the rest for office space.
Delhi: Director General of National Investigation Agency (NIA) Sharad Kumar has said that there was no evidence so far to indicate direct complicity of Pakistan government or Pakistani agencies in the Pathankot attack.

In an interview to News18, Kumar said, "No evidence to show that Pakistan government or Pakistani government agency was helping JaisheMohammed or Masood Azhar or his aides carry out Pathankot attack."

On being asked whether there was any inside help to terrorists in Pathankot he said, "Investigation so far does not point to any inside hand."

He added that the NIA had completed its India leg of investigation and were now waiting for Pakistan to allow the team to visit their country.

Kumar further said that chargesheet would be filed in the terror attack even if Pakistan did not give NIA access.

At the same time, he maintained, "We have sufficient and stringent evidence against Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf Azhar and we will include those in our chargesheet."

A Pakistan JIT had visited India in March in connection with the probe in the Pathankot terror attack. After the visit, NIA DG had said that the interaction with JIT was held in accordance with terms of reference mutually agreed on the basis of reciprocity.

The terrorists had entered the strategic air base at Pathankot on the intervening night of January one-two and mounted the brazen assault.

In the fierce encounter that had ensued, seven security personnel besides four terrorists were killed.
Los Angeles: A disgruntled Mainak Sarkar, Indian doctoral student who had been working on his thesis for 10 years, has been identified as the killer of his professor at the University of California-Los Angeles on Thursday.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, who was born in India before coming to the US for higher study, shot dead engineering professor William Klug, 39, in his office on the university campus before turning the gun on himself, the Daily Mail quoted the Los Angeles Police Department as saying.

Sarkar appeared to have had a long-running feud with Klug.

Sarkar took his own life after gunning down William Klug, 39, in a small office in UCLA Engineering Building 4, sources confirmed.

Sarkar, a resident of Minnesota, appeared also to have killed a woman in a small town in that state, officials said.

The womanAs name was found on a Akill listA in SarkarAs residence, Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck said during an interview. A second UCLA professorAs name was on that list as well, along with KlugAs.

AThere is no good reason for this,A Beck said.

Klug was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and had been the target of SarkarAs anger on social media for months. On March 10, Sarkar called the professor a Avery sick personA who should not be trusted.

"I am absolutely devastated," Alan Garfinkel, professor of integrative biology and physiology who worked with Klug to develop a computer-generated virtual heart, was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times.

"You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug," Garfinkel added.

Klug earned his under-graduate degree in engineering physics from Westmont College in 1997, his MasterAs in civil engineering at UCLA in 1999 and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from California Institute of Technology in 2003.

In a blog post uploaded on March 10 under his name, Sarkar wrote that the professor "stole all my code and gave it another student". Sarkar branded him a "sick man".

The post, which was uploaded to a blog called Long Dark Tunnel but has since been deleted, says: "William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy."

"My name is Mainak Sarkar. I was this guy's PhD student. We had personal differences. He cleverly stole all my code and gave it to another student. He made me really sick."

"Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust. Stay away from this sick guy," the blog reads.

However, a source told the LA Times that Sarkar's claims were "psychotic", adding that his characterisation of Klug as a thief was "absolutely untrue".

On the UCLA website, Sarkar was listed as part of the Klug Research Group, a team of six post-doctoral and PhD students researching biomechanics.

The website shows Sarkar has been studying for his PhD since 2006 with no graduating date, two years longer than any of the other researchers.

Before enrolling at UCLA, Sarkar earned a MasterAs degree at Stanford University following an under-graduate degree in aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, according to his LinkedIn page.

In the US, he also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer.

Around 200 armed police, SWAT officers, FBI agents and firefighters were called to the campus as at least three shots rang out, fired inside the Engineering IV building around 10 a.m. on Wednesday. The bodies of both men alongside a 9mm semi-automatic pistol were later found.

Officers say a piece of evidence, believed to be a suicide note, was found at the scene -- but they refused to give any more details.


New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday submitted a factual report to BJP president Amit Shah regarding the graft allegation against his Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse after the issue has become a political flashpoint, with a key government ally demanding his resignation.

The party (BJP) will direct us on further steps that need to be taken on the basis of the report, Fadnavis told reporters after his meeting with Shah on the Khadse issue at the party headquarters here.

I have given a factual report on the recent developments (regarding Khadse) to Amit Shah ji, and also held discussions on the same, Fadnavis said.

Earlier, Shah had asked Fadnavis to handle the Eknath Khadse issue at the earliest, raising speculation that his resignation may be just a matter of time.

Khadse, the senior most minister in the state Cabinet, has been embroiled in two major controversies involving an illegal land deal and his phone number appearing in the call records of India's most wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

NDTV on Thursday reported that in keeping with BJP's 'zero-tolerance for corruption' policy, party chief Amit Shah, has asked the party's Maharashtra unit to submit a detailed report on the charges against Khadse.

It also said that Fadnavis was asked to "handle the issue" at the earliest.

"It was expected he (Khadse) may resign on Monday, but he didn't. The central BJP is mounting pressure. He will have to give in. There is little room for defiance now," NDTV quoted a senior BJP source as saying.

Citing BJP sources, the report however said that the party feels that the allegations over Dawood phone link are not substantial.

Khadse had denied any links with Dawood.

The NDTV report said that the bigger concern for the party is over the sale of a government-owned land in April to Khadse's wife and son-in-law.

It is alleged that the land was sold to them for only about three crores, when its market value is reportedly 23 crores.

Meanwhile, another media report, citing sources, said, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is upset with the allegations against Khadse.

On Thursday, demands for Khadse's resignation grew stronger with Shiv Sena, one of the key allies of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra, has asked him to step down from the Cabinet on moral grounds.
Bengaluru: Authorities on Thursday arrested Karnataka state police association leader V Shashidhar for planning to spearhead a strike on June 4, protesting exploitation, low pay and poor working conditions.

"A case has been registered at Yelahanka New Town police station and Karnataka police association president Shahidhar has been arrested and presented before local court which remanded him to judicial custody till June 16," said Bengaluru Police Commissioner NS Megharikh.

Earlier on Tuesday, Karnataka government stringently warned against the planned agitation and invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) for maintaining public order and safety across the state.

Despite the warning, the Karnataka state police association which includes a 60,000 constabulary force has decided to push forward with their en masse leave on Saturday.

Shashisdhar alleged that constables are being forced to work for irregular and long hours, without proper leave mechanism and harassment by senior officers.
Mumbai: In more trouble for Maharashtra Minister Eknath Khadse, Bharatiya Janata Party's ally Shiv Sena demanded the resignation of the Revenue Minister, reports said on Thursday. Khadse is facing corruption allegations and is also embroiled in a controversy that he received phone calls from Dawood Ibrahim's house in Karachi.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that BJP president Amit Shah has sought report on Khadse.

Sena said Maharashtra Chief Minister Devemdra Fadnavis has a clean image and if such allegations are levelled against a minister (Khadse), then our image is at stake.

The beleaguered Khadse -- number two in the state Cabinet and holding around 10 key portfolios, including revenue -- has been accused of corruption by different opposition parties too, which have demanded his sacking or resignation.

On Monday, Pune-based businessman-cum-activist Hemant L Gawande accused Khadse, his wife and son-in-law of various irregularities in the purchase of a piece of land.

Gawande charged Khadse with misusing power and authority, subverting laws, bypassing norms, evading tax, pressurising officials and other wrongdoings in closing the land deal in April to benefit his family members.

As far the phone calls from Dawood's residence in Pakistan is concerned, spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Preeti Sharma Menon, had levelled the allegation against Khadse.

Menon had alleged, citing the call records obtained from a Pakistani telecom company by an Ahmedabad-based hacker, that calls were made from Dawood's house in Karachi to a mobile number registered in Khadse's name.

Khadse had later rubbished the allegation saying the number was not in use for the last one year.
Mumbai: It seems Prime Minister Narendra Modi's idea of zero tolerance on corruption has set a benchmark within his party. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has sought report on Maharashtra Minister Eknath Khadse, who is accused of graft and against whom allegations have been levelled that he received phone calls from Dawood Ibrahim's house in Karachi, a report said on Thursday.

The beleaguered Khadse -- number two in the state Cabinet and holding around 10 key portfolios, including revenue -- has been accused of corruption by different opposition parties too, which have demanded his sacking or resignation.

On Monday, Pune-based businessman-cum-activist Hemant L Gawande accused Khadse, his wife and son-in-law of various irregularities in the purchase of a piece of land.

Gawande charged Khadse with misusing power and authority, subverting laws, bypassing norms, evading tax, pressurising officials and other wrongdoings in closing the land deal in April to benefit his family members.

As far the phone calls from Dawood's residence in Pakistan is concerned, spokesperson of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Preeti Sharma Menon, had levelled the allegation against Khadse.

Menon had alleged, citing the call records obtained from a Pakistani telecom company by an Ahmedabad-based hacker, that calls were made from Dawood's house in Karachi to a mobile number registered in Khadse's name.

Khadse had later rubbished the allegation saying the number was not in use for the last one year.
Mumbai: Former AAP leader Anjali Damania on Thursday launched a hunger strike demanding an inquiry into allegations of corruption against Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse and sought his ouster from the state cabinet.

Damania, who met social activist Anna Hazare yesterday, to seek his blessings before beginning with the hunger strike, reached Azad Maidan for the fast here.

She also demanded that the inquiry be completed within six months and the case be heard by a fast-track court.

"There are so many corruption allegations against Khadse and the government should take action regarding this. I met Anna and showed him all the documents against Khadse. Anna said it is a grave issue and assured me that he will call the chief minister and bring it to his notice. I also sought blessings from him before beginning the fast," Damania said.

"I won't give up my fast till the chief minister gives me a written assurance that the probe against Khadse will be completed in six months," she said.

The activist had alleged that Khadse's son-in-law had been flouting norms while modifying his car Limousine without seeking proper permission from the Regional Transport Office (RTO).

There were also allegations that Khadse had received calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's residence, she said.

Damania claimed that she wanted to hold the hunger strike near Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' official bungalow but was denied permission by the police.

The former AAP leader said this time she wanted the government to take action against the minister and withdraw all the departmental responsibilities from him.

"Whenever we bring corruption cases to the notice, we are told to go to the court. I have already filed PILs in the court on various issues. But then what is the government doing? It should act on the corruption cases. The court will do its duty. But the government should take action against Khadse," she said.

Asked what action she expects to be taken against Khadse, Damania said the government should conduct an inquiry.

"The government should conduct an inquiry into all the allegations against Khadse within six months. It has to be time-bound else it will never reach any conclusion. Also, the cases should be heard by the fast track court," she said.

Meanwhile, AAP today announced its activists will hold protests against Khadse at five places in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) this evening, including Dadar and Parel.

An AAP delegation will meet Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan here this evening to request immediate dismissal of Khadse and an independent probe on all charges, party's spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon, who will lead the delegation, said.
Mumbai: Nearly four hours after a major fire broke out at the Metro House building in south Mumbai on Thursday evening, fire-fighters were still battling to completely douse the fire which seems to have been brought under control.

The fire at the Metro House, located near Regal Cinema in Colaba, broke out at around 4 pm.

The Colaba Causeway, a popular commercial street, is also not far off from the fire incident site.

The popular Cafe Mondegar is, in fact, located at street level in the building which caught fire.

In visuals broadcast on TV channels soon after the fire started, thick black smoke could be seen billowing out of the top floor and rooftop of the building.

Eight fire tenders were initially rushed to the spot after the fire started. They were later joined by four fire tenders from Naval Dockyard.

Nearby buildings were evacuated as a precautionary measure, reports said.

Manoj Sharma, DCP, Mumbai Police said two persons were rescued from the building.
Nashik (Maharashtra): Two students of a city-based engineering college drowned in the Ozarkhed dam in the district, police said today.

The incident took place last evening when four friends had gone to swim in the dam, an official attached to the Vani police station said.

Of the four, Kaustubh Agale (22) and Akshay Jagtap (23) slipped into the dam and drowned. Their bodies were fished out by police and villagers late last night, he said.

A case has been registered at the Vani police station and the bodies were handed over to their family members after post-mortem, the officer added.
London: Tom Kibble, a leading British physicist whose work helped lead to the discovery of the Higgs boson, died Thursday aged 83, his university in London said.

In 1964, Kibble worked on one of the three earliest research papers theorising the existence of the Higgs Boson, a sub-atomic particle believed to explain how matter acquires mass.

In 2012, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced it had discovered a particle commensurate with the boson.

This led to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert, who had worked on the two other papers in 1964, being jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2013.

Kibble told the Guardian that year that it had felt "quite surreal" to watch a webcast of the results from the CERN experiments.

"To find that something we`d done that long ago was again the focus of attention is certainly not a normal experience, even in physics," Kibble said. "It was rather peculiar."

In a statement, Professor Jerome Gauntlett, head of theoretical physics at Imperial College London, said Kibble had been a man of "extraordinary modesty and humility".

"Professor Sir Tom Kibble was distinguished for his ground-breaking research in theoretical physics and his work has contributed to our deepest understanding of the fundamental forces of nature," Gauntlett said.

"He was held in the highest esteem by his colleagues and students alike. He will be very sadly missed".

Imperial College did not give details of the cause of death.
Peshawar: At least six people including three women were killed on Thursday and 44 others injured as a passenger bus rammed into an oil tanker in this northwestern city of Pakistan, police said.

The incident occurred on Indus Highway near Noshapa oilfield in Karak district of KPK.

The Karachi-bound passenger bus collided head on with an oil tanker coming from opposite direction, District Police Officer Mian Naseeb Jan said.

Drivers of both the passenger bus and oil tanker are among the dead.

The heavy machinery and crane of the nearby oilfield were called to extract the bodies of the dead and injured from the deformed bus after the incident.

The condition 20 of the injured is stated to be critical who have been shifted to Peshawar.
Islamabad: The US drone strike which killed Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor not only undermined relations with Pakistan but also affected the ongoing Afghan peace process, Pakistan's top foreign advisor said here on Thursday.

Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister, dispelled the notion that the government preferred to remain silent on the attack, Geo TV reported.

"The impression that we are silent on this issue is not correct... the important thing is the drone attack in Noshki affected Pakistan-US relations and peace process in Afghanistan," he said while addressing the Senate.

Aziz clarified that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Raheel Sharif were immediately informed about the strike.

Last month a US drone strike targeted a vehicle and killed then Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansoor and the driver in the country's resistive southern province of Balochistan.

The attack evoked strong condemnation from Pakistan's civil and military leadership, who termed it as an attack on the sovereignty of the country.


Rameswaram (TN): Four Indian fishermen were today arrested by Sri Lankan Naval personnel while allegedly fishing near Neduntheevu, a small island near Jaffna in the north of the neighbouring nation.

This is the second instance of arrest of fishermen from Tamil Nadu this week after the detention of seven persons from here on Tuesday, on the very first day they put out to sea at the end of 45-day breeding season ban on fishing by trawlers.

The four fishermen from Kottaipattinam in Pudukottai District were arrested this morning and had been taken to Kangesanthurai Port for interrogation by Sri Lankan officials, Assistant Director of Fisheries Sekar said.

In another mid-sea incident, the fishing nets of 15 boats of fishermen from here were allegedly snapped by Sri Lankan navalmen when they were fishing near katchateevu.

The fishermen from this island, onboard 697 boats, were fishing in the Palk Strait when the Lankan navalmen chased away many found fishing in their territory, local fishermen association President T Sesuraj said.

The association had yesterday condemned the arrest of the seven fishermen and urged Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to seek the Centre's intervention and arrange for talks between the fishermen community of the two countries to resolve the dispute over fishing in "traditional" areas (Katchatheevu).

Jayalalithaa had already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to secure the release of the seven fishermen and boats in the custody of Sri Lanka.
Sydeny: The remains of 33 Australian soldiers killed during the Vietnam War and buried in Malaysia and Singapore returned to rest in Australia on Thursday, in one of the country`s largest single repatriation operations.

The soldiers, who were buried overseas under an interment policy that was scrapped in 1966, were flown into a military airfield around 40 kms (24.85 miles) west of Sydney onboard two military transport jets.

They were met by around 100 family members, veterans and dignitaries, including Defence Minister Marise Payne and Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, a Vietnam veteran who now represents Australia`s head of state, Britain`s Queen Elizabeth.

A priest, accompanied by a Scottish piper, led the flag-draped coffins in a sombre procession from the lowered tail-section of the two C-17 transport planes and into a nearby hanger, where family members held a private ceremony.

The Australian government last year announced that it would fund a repatriation programme for the fallen soldiers following pressure from families and a public petition that drew more than 40,000 signatures.

For family members and veterans in attendance, it was a bittersweet moment more than 50 years in the making.

"When I saw the smoke of the nose wheel of the second aircraft I thought, they`re at home," Vietnam veteran Lieutenant Colonel Ian Henderson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"The Army went to great lengths to discover those who had been missing in action, at great lengths to find their bodies a couple of years ago. This is right that this ought to happen and bring them back as they have."

More than 60,000 Australians served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972. Over 500 Australians were killed during the deeply unpopular war between the Soviet-backed Communist government of North Vietnam and South Vietnam`s US-backed regime, which ceased to exist after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

After the private ceremony the coffins were loaded onto 10 hearses, which drove slowly under police escort down roads lined with men and women, some wearing service medals, who had come out to pay their respects.

The individual remains will be buried privately by their families.
Beijing: China on Thursday said it will not allow any foreign organisation or individual to interfere in its religious affairs as it defended the crackdown against Islamic militants in Xinjiang province, bordering countries like Pakistan, as a "just act" to safeguard its fundamental interests.

Religious extremists, in the name of religion, spread radical and extremist views and take extremist means to try to establish a theocracy, a Chinese government white paper titled 'Freedom of Religious Belief in Xinjiang' released here said.

Xinjiang enjoys unprecedented religious freedom, the paper said asserting that the freedom of religious belief in the province" cannot be matched by that in any other historical period."

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, citizens' freedom of religious belief fully respected and believers' normal religious needs effectively met, it said.

In Xinjiang, "the positive role of religious circles in promoting economic development and social stability is well displayed, the government's capability of administrating religious affairs is constantly strengthened, international exchanges in the religious field are being expanded and the proliferation and spread of religious extremism is being effectively contained," it said.

Religious extremism is by nature "anti-human, anti- society, anti-civilisation and anti-religion," it said and defended China's efforts in fighting religious extremism, saying it is a just act to safeguard the fundamental interests of the country and the people.

The paper said the Chinese government resolutely opposes the politicisation of religious matters and any other country's interference in China's internal affairs in the name of religion.

"China...Will never allow any foreign organisation or individual to interfere with China's religious affairs," the white paper said.

Xinjiang, which has over 10 million Uyghur Muslims of Turkik origin, is in turmoil for the past few years over Uyghur unrest over the settlements of Hans, the dominant community in China from different provinces settling there.

The province as well as other places in China including Beijing witnessed several terrorist attacks for which Beijing blames the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

Xinjiang shared borders with the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Afganistan, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The reference to any foreign or individual organisation in the white paper comes in the backdrop of reports that the leader of the Pakistan-based Jamat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e- Taiba, Hafiz Saeed has criticised China for the crackdown on Uyghur Islamic militants in Xinjiang.
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Hambantota: Fireworks sparked a fire at a luxury beach resort in southern Sri Lanka minutes after it was opened by President Maithripala Sirisena, the hotel and local officials said.

Police have already begun an investigation into Wednesday`s incident at the 300-room Shangri-La at Hambantota, the upmarket hotel operator`s first hotel in the island.

"During the festivities, fireworks sparked a fire on a thatched roof covering a pool installation," the group`s Hong Kong-based public relations chief Ilona Yim said.

"No one was hurt and we are thankful for the help of the fire brigade, which was onsite and extinguished the fire within 10 minutes."

The hotel said the president stayed on for a private dinner that was part of the opening at Hambantota, 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of the capital Colombo.

"The president had just walked back to the hotel while the fireworks display was still on," his spokesman Dharmasri Bandara told AFP.

Initial reports said the president was immediately evacuated, but his security staff confirmed the president had moved to another location at a different part of the sprawling hotel complex and left the premises after dinner.

Local journalist Easwaran Rutnam, who was covering the hotel`s opening, said the president was about 50 metres from the structure that was gutted by the fire.

A local police officer said no one was injured during the incident, but an investigation had been launched.

There had been several breaches of security at functions attended by President Sirisena who came to power in January last year. He has dispensed with much of the tight security accorded to his predecessors.

aj/co/jah
Nemours: France faced more torrential rain today after a week of storms that have killed nine people across northern Europe, submerging streets, closing schools and leaving people stranded on rooftops.

Eight people have perished in Germany and six days of torrential rain in France have caused the Seine and other rivers to burst their banks, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people in riverside towns south of Paris and in the Loire Valley.

The body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France, where some towns have been hit by the worst flooding in more than 100 years.

In the small town of Montargis, the water had risen so high that only the tops of cars could still be seen peeking above the surface along the high street.

Rescue workers have responded to around 10,000 calls and evacuated more than 5,000 people since the deluge began at the weekend.

"The situation remains tense and difficult in several areas. We still have many concerns," Prime Minister Manuel Valls said as he visited a crisis control centre in the flooded town of Nemours, south of Paris.

In southern Germany, dangerously swollen rivers have caused loss of life and severely damaged towns in Bavaria.

Rescue workers found the bodies of three people in a house in Simbach am Inn yesterday and police warned that several other people were missing.

The force of the water upended cars and washed away parts of the streets, with a thick layer of mud left throughout the town by the subsiding water. Huge piles of wood and rubbish deposited by the torrent were visible next to badly damaged homes and offices.

A woman's body was also discovered caught on a tree trunk in the neighbouring town of Julbach, police said.

On Bavaria's southeastern border with Austria, some residents scrambled on to rooftops to escape the waters on Tuesday.

"The floods came so quickly that people had to escape to the roofs of their houses," a spokesman for the Lower Bavaria police said.

The deaths raised the toll in Germany to eight after four people were killed earlier this week in the southern Baden-Wuerttemberg region.
Shakai: House after house flicks by hundreds of feet beneath a military helicopter, many distinguished by one arresting feature: their roofs have been removed by the army to allow an "aerial view" of militants who may take refuge there.

South Waziristan was once a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, where the extremists operated with impunity, but the military says the region in the country`s mountainous northwest has been cleared of its last militant stronghold.

Now the district, part of Pakistan`s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the border with Afghanistan, is welcoming thousands of displaced families back to their homes, many of which no longer offer shelter.

Some were damaged by weather, said a military official who flew with media on the army-controlled helicopter trip earlier this month over the towns of Makeen, Ladha and Kanigurm.

But not all. "(The) military has removed the roofs of the houses to have a better aerial view and stop militants taking refuge in these abundant, fort-like mud houses," the official told reporters.

From the helicopter journalists could see scores of homes with no roofs but appearing otherwise intact, their interiors exposed to the elements, though it was unclear how many had been removed by the military and how many had been damaged by the weather and fighting.

The Rah-e-Nijat operation was launched by the military against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its then-leader Baitullah Mehsud in 2009, displacing more than 72,000 families, according to the military.

Seven years later, some 42,000 families have been sent back, head of development Colonel Muhammad Imran told journalists during a briefing earlier this month in Shakai town, with another 30,000 expected by the end of 2016. Pakistani authorities have rebuilt roads, constructed health facilities and schools and reinforced the water supply in villages in the area.

"We are trying to make all the facilities available for IDPs (internally displaced people) before their return," Imran said.

But the lack of shelter, residents warn, will be a serious issue.

Traditionally roofs in South Waziristan are built of wood and iron sheets to hold off heavy winter snows, but from the helicopter hundreds could be seen with their wooden skeletons bared and interiors exposed.

The government says it is providing up to 400,000 rupees ($4,000) to families for the rebuilding of their homes.

"400,000 rupees is not a sufficient amount even to build one room," said Haji Muhammad, 55, a tribal elder from Makeen.

"My family, especially women, are anxiously waiting to go back but it may not be possible," he said.

When asked if the funds allocated were enough to rebuild a house, development head Imran said: "I can`t answer to the question."

A senior military official told AFP some $285 million is needed to tackle reconstruction in FATA, but the government has so far released only $48 million, with $12.5 million of that distributed to displaced families.

Muhammad Aslam, from Kanigurm, said the security situation was "peaceful" and "under complete control of the military".

But only two rooms in his three-story house are still standing, he said -- adding that he and the 20 members of his extended family are "lucky" to have that much.

The 32-year-old told AFP $15,000 in compensation would be enough for the average home.

In neighbouring North Waziristan, resident Malik Muhammad Ghulam said "the majority of the houses" in the region`s administrative headquarters Miranshah had been demolished.

"Authorities implement curfew from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am... we cannot even go to the market. (They) tell us not to leave the compound of our house."
New York: ISIS made a whopping USD 2.4 billion in 2015 despite losing territory by simply adjusting its business from oil to taxes and is still the richest terror group on the planet, according to a report.

The new report, by the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism on the finances of the Islamic State, said that despite the constant airstrikes on its oil infrastructure, ISIS still has an over USD 2 billion empire and it is making up lost revenue by squeezing about 8 million people under its control through raising of taxes.

The authors of the report, terrorism experts Jean-Charles Brisard and Damien Martinez, conclude that "ISIS's military defeat is not imminent...As things stand, ISIS economic collapse remains some way off in the mid-term."

The report says ISIS made USD 2.4 billion in 2015. That is a USD 500 million drop from the center's revenue estimate the previous year, but ISIS remains the richest terrorist organisation on the planet.

The Islamic State's extortion of the people living inside its territory in Iraq and Syria has skyrocketed from USD 360 million in 2014 to USD 800 million in 2015, according to researchers.

The theoretical value of assets under ISIS control (oil reserves, gas reserves, minerals, cash assets) was estimated at USD 2,260 billion by the end of 2015, up by 11 per cent compared to late 2014, the report released yesterday said.

"It's really an adaptive organisation. What strikes me is the fact that they're clearly behaving as managers, not simple looters. They really have budget requirements, and they're compensating," Brisard told CNN Money.

The report is a sobering take on what has been an image of ISIS as a terrorist organisation in disarray. In recent months, ISIS has cut fighter salaries in half and a nonstop bombing campaign has cut its oil production.

It has also lost 40 per cent of its territory, according to the US military, but ISIS still has about 8 million people under its control.

Brisard and Martinez were quoted as saying that ISIS has simply adjusted its business from oil to taxes. As oil fell from 38 per cent to 25 per cent of its revenue stream last year, ISIS cranked up its extortion racket.

In 2015, taxes went from supplying 12 per cent of yearly ISIS revenue to 33 per cent.

Those taxes include a 10 per cent income tax, up to 15 per cent business tax, road tolls, 5 per cent fees for bank cash withdrawals and up to 35 per cent taxes on pharmaceutical drugs.

There are also fees for leaving the territory, even temporarily. And there's a special tax on non Muslims called jizyah.

However, the US Treasury Department said the coalition's effort to disrupt the Islamic State's economy is working.

"We are seeing progress... Since late-2015, ISIL's production of oil has declined by about 30 per cent. Their ability to generate revenue has been reduced by at least that much," the Treasury was quoted as saying.
Washington: The Islamic State terror group remained the greatest threat globally in 2015, maintaining a formidable force in Iraq and Syria, including a large number of foreign terrorist fighters, a US report said on Thursday.

IS' capacity and territorial control in Iraq and Syria reached a high point in spring 2015, but began to erode over the second half of 2015, the State Department said in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2015.

"IS did not have a significant battlefield victory in Iraq and Syria after May. At the end of 2015, 40 per cent of the territory IS controlled at the beginning of the year had been liberated," it said in its annual Congress-mandated report.

In Syria, local forces expelled ISIL fighters from several key cities along the routes connecting the two IS strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul, and reclaimed about 11 per cent of the territory IS once controlled.

These losses demonstrated the power of coordinated government action to mobilize against and confront terrorism, it said.

Despite this, IS "remained the greatest threat globally, maintaining a formidable force in Iraq and Syria, including a large number of foreign terrorist fighters," it said.

Noting that IS' loss of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2015 diminished its availability of fund, the State Department said the terrorist organization relied heavily on extortion and the levying of "taxes" on local populations under its control, as well as a range of other sources, such as oil smuggling, kidnapping for ransom, looting, antiquities theft and smuggling, foreign donations, and human trafficking.

Coalition airstrikes targeted IS' energy infrastructure -- modular refineries, petroleum storage tanks, and crude oil collection points -- as well as bulk cash storage sites.

"These airstrikes have significantly degraded IS' ability to generate revenue. The United States led the international effort, including through the UN, to confront IS' oil smuggling and its antiquities dealing, delivering additional blows to its financial infrastructure," it said.

Along with IS, al-Qaeda and both groups' branches increased their focus on staging mass-casualty attacks including attacks on international hotel chains in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Tunisia; other popular public locations; and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane, it added.

While IS lost significant territory in Iraq and Syria during the second half of 2015, the group made gains in Libya amid the instability there.

And in January, IS publicly announced the establishment of an affiliate, known as ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K), in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it said.

"At year's end, the group had focused the majority of its attacks against Afghan government and civilian targets, although the group has also claimed a small number of attacks in Pakistan's settled areas.

"ISIL-K gained a small foothold in southern Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, but was significantly challenged by the Afghan government, Coalition Forces, and the Taliban, and had little support among the region's population," the State Department said.
Washington: There has been 'no visible blowback' from Pakistan after a US drone strike killed Taliban chief Mullah Mansour last month, a top Pentagon official based in Afghanistan has said but admitted "some tension" in ties.

Asked if there has been a "visible blowback" from Pakistan after Mansour's killing, Army Brigadier General Charles H Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communications, Resolute Support Mission, Afghanistan, said: "In this case, we haven't yet.

"And we certainly hope not," Cleveland told Pentagon reporters during a video conference from Kabul.

"That is part of the effort that General (John) Nicholson (Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan) takes in terms of engaging his counterparts. But at this point, we have not really seen any military-to-military issues," he said.

Cleveland was responding to questions on the sharp reaction from Pakistan after a US drone strike killed Mansour in Balochistan on May 21.

Pakistan Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif has described US drone strikes in Pakistani territory as "regrettable". Senior Pakistani leadership has said that the US air strike "violated its sovereignty".

At the same time, Cleveland said there is "some tension".

"Clearly, there is still some tension and there is some back-and-forth. What we're trying to focus, though, is sustaining and maintaining the military-to-military relationship that we've already got established. And that really starts with General Nicholson and goes down a couple of different levels," he said.

"So by and large, what we're trying to focus on is ensuring that we maintain a good, positive, healthy military- to-military relationship with the Pakistani military," Cleveland said.
London: At least 17 million women and girls in Africa collect water every day, which increases their risk of sexual abuse, disease and dropping out of school, a study published on Wednesday has found.

It is one of the first studies to calculate how many women and children were responsible for water collection in Africa, the researchers said.

Using datasets from the World Bank, the UN children`s agency UNICEF, and the US Agency for International Development, researchers found that around 3 million children and 14 million women collect water in sub-Saharan Africa.

"The absolute number of adult females affected by this practice was a shock to me," Jay Graham, lead author of the study, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"I knew it would be large... but I didn`t realise it would be that high," added Graham, who is professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University.

The daily practice causes musculoskeletal damage, soft tissue damage and can lead to early arthritis, Graham said.

People also have to contend with water-borne diseases like schistosomiasis, an infection caused by parasitic worms living in fresh water, he said.

Across all 24 countries examined, including Sierra Leone, Malawi and Niger, more girls were tasked with water collection than boys. Women were also the primary water collector in all countries.

Children are pulled out of school for the daily task, and many women cannot earn an income because of the time and energy it takes to collect water, Graham said. Since they often need to walk long distances to find water, women and children are also at a higher risk of sexual abuse, he added.

In a statement issued last month, the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone said drought was putting even more pressure on children to find water.

"Children, particularly girls, are out in the street very late at night or as early as 4a.m. in search of water," the statement read.

"This heightens their vulnerability and contributes to increase in teenage pregnancy, child labour, high rates of school drop outs, and poor school performance," it said.

Demand for water is expected to increase by 2050 as the world`s population is forecast to grow by one-third to more than 9 billion, according to the United Nations.

As climate change strengthens, drought is becoming more frequent and severe in southern Africa, and that  combined with this year`s El Nino phenomenon  is taking a heavy toll on rural lives and economies.

"With climate change, it`s going to be more of an uphill battle," said Graham. "If there`s focused attention on it and resources, we can improve upon the situation but I do think it`s going to become more difficult."

But it also crucial to address gender inequality and to recognise the unpaid labour that women do across the globe, he said, which he believes is the underlying issue.

"There is a need to address cultural values and really shifting the belief that women and men are equal too."
Washington: Terrorist safe havens not only continue to exist in the tribal areas of Pakistan, but also militants are able to openly raise funds from heavily populated areas, the US on Thursday said alleging that Islamabad is not taking action against terror groups like Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

As a result, Pakistan-based terrorist groups continue to conduct terrorist attacks inside India and Afghanistan, the State Department said in its annual 'Country Reports on Terrorism ? 2015', which is mandated by Congress.

"In 2015, an assortment of terrorist groups, to include the Haqqani Network, attempted to hide in or operate from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, a mountainous region along Pakistan?s northwest border with Afghanistan," the State Department said.

It said some UN-designated terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) affiliates Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, were able to raise funds and hold rallies in Pakistan.

LeT and JuD leader, Hafiz Saeed, who is also a UN-designated terrorist, was able to make frequent public appearances in support of the organization's objectives, which were covered by the Pakistani media, for much of the year.

"In September, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Agency prohibited media coverage of LeT and affiliated groups, although the groups continued to recruit and operate around the country. Despite JuD and FiF's proscription under UN sanctions regimes, the Pakistani government affirmed in December that neither organization was banned in Pakistan," the State Department said.

India, the State Department said continued to experience terrorist attacks, including operations launched by Maoist insurgents and transnational groups based in Pakistan.

Indian authorities continued to blame Pakistan for cross-border attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

In July, India experienced a terrorist attack in Gurdaspur, Punjab; the first in Punjab state since the 1990s, the report said.

Over the course of 2015, the Indian government sought to deepen counterterrorism cooperation with the US.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to prioritize counterterrorism cooperation during Obama's visit to India in January and Modi's visit to Washington in September.

The Indian government closely monitored the domestic threat from IS and other terrorist organisations, it said.

The State Department said Pakistan is slow in taking action against 2008 Mumbai attack perpetrators.

"Anti-Terrorism Courts had limited procedures for obtaining or admitting foreign evidence. The trial of seven suspects accused in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack was ongoing at year's end, with many witnesses for the prosecution remaining to be called by the court," it said.

"Security concerns and procedural issues resulted in a slow pace of trial proceedings," the State Department said.

In December 2014, the court granted bail to the lead defendant, alleged Mumbai attack planner and LeT operational commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.

Lakhvi was released from prison on bail in April 2015 and the government of Pakistan reports he remained under house arrest at the end of 2015, it added.

According to the State Department, money transfer systems persisted throughout much of Pakistan, especially along the border with Afghanistan, and may be abused by drug traffickers and terrorist financiers operating in the cross-border area.

While Pakistani authorities did report having frozen assets of UN-designated entities during 2015, the amount was unclear.

The US government was not informed of any successful terrorism financing prosecutions in 2015.
Bogota: Indigenous people in Panama are using drones as a new weapon to monitor deforestation on their lands as thousands of hectares disappear every year in one of the world`s most biodiverse rainforests, the United Nations said.

More than half of Panama is covered with tropical rainforest, home to various indigenous groups who rely on the forests to survive.

"The main objective of monitoring with drones is to identify changes in specific points of the forest cover," the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The monitoring is carried out in areas under deforestation and degradation pressure, which are only observable with high resolution spatial images."

Indigenous people make up nearly 13 percent of Panama`s population of 4 million, with about 200,000 living on autonomous tribal lands, known as comarcas.

"These tools enable us to better know the forests` characteristics and resources we have in our territories," Eliseo Quintero, a leader of the Ngabe-Bugle tribe, said in a statement.

Panama`s indigenous groups first started using drones to monitor their ancestral lands last year, the FAO said.

The current FAO drone project began in February and is being carried out through the UN`s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme (UN-REDD), in partnership with Panama`s environment ministry and the non-governmental Rainforest Foundation.

The project focuses on seven ethnic tribes in Panama. Up to three representatives of each tribe, including women, are trained to use drones, download and interpret images, produce detailed maps and collect data.

The project`s first drone flight was last month, the FAO said.

Drones can be used year-round and can also help indigenous groups to monitor forest fires, crop harvests and water sources, it said.

Giving indigenous groups tools like drones to help them protect their forests is also one way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by deforestation, the FAO said.

For Panama`s indigenous groups, like others in the world, forests are a key source of water and food.

Panama loses about 20,000 hectares each year to deforestation, according to the National Association for the Conservation of Nature (ANCON), a Panamanian non-profit.

Across Latin America and the Caribbean nearly 2 million hectares of rainforest disappear every year, largely due to illegal logging, the FAO says.

Since the 1980s Panama has introduced legislation to protect indigenous rights and land, including a 2008 law that gives indigenous communities living outside the comarcas the right to request official recognition of their lands.

Still, the report said swathes of indigenous lands have been lost, taken over by hydroelectric dam projects, private mining companies and cattle ranchers, and destroyed by illegal loggers who cut down precious timber such as redwood and mahogany.
Seoul: South Korea welcomed on Thursday the US decision to label North Korea a "global money laundering concern" -- a move that will further isolate Pyongyang from the global financial system.

The measure will prevent both direct and indirect North Korean financial activities within the US banking network, ensuring that any third-party deals involving significant sums of US dollars or other currencies cannot transit the United States.

"The government highly appreciates the action which reflects the firm US commitment to strongly pursuing its own separate sanctions" against North Korea, South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Washington led the drive for a UN Security Council resolution that imposed the harshest sanctions to date on North Korea following its fourth nuclear test in January.

As well as unprecedented inspections of all cargo to and from North Korea, the resolution called on UN members to terminate banking relations with Pyongyang.

Last week, the European Union also tightened sanctions on Pyongyang, blocking any trade finance activity and banning certain trade and investment with the country.

The foreign ministry statement said South Korea would "continue to step up sanctions and pressure against the North to force it towards a path of denuclearisation.

The UN Security Council yesterday strongly condemned a recent series of attempted ballistic missile launches by North Korea and urged world governments to ramp up efforts to implement the recent sanctions resolution.
New York: Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton made a campaign appearance in New Jersey to tout her plan to provide social wellbeing to Americans and defeat her rival Bernie Sanders there in the last big primary on the East Coast.

With 142 delegates up for grabs, New Jersey will holds its Democratic and Republican primaries on the same day as California -- June 7 -- and with a time difference of three hours the result in the eastern state may well influence voters in the West Coast state with its whopping 546 delegates.

In addition, New Jersey is key because after decades of being a firmly Democratic state, forecasts are that it could swing to Republican Donald Trump in the November election, although Clinton on Wednesday accused the real estate magnate of "fraud" and emphasised what she called his complete "incompetence" to be the nation's next "commander in chief", EFE news agency reported.

Clinton took advantage of the rally at Rutgers University in Newark to list her plans if she's elected president regarding health care, education, equality and social benefits, all of which have been key campaign themes of Sanders, whom she did not mention even implicitly.

The former secretary of state and first lady said that she will honour the "historic legacy" left by current US President Barack Obama with programmes such as Obamacare, at the same time that she will make priorities of providing aid for childcare, family counseling, mental health services and services for addicts.

Clinton said to applause and cheers that when she talks about social rights some people say she's "playing the woman card", and she said she was guilty of that if defending pay equality between men and women and opportunities for all is playing that card.

While Clinton never mentioned Sanders in her speech, she lambasted Trump time and again on the same day that a new election poll by Quinnipiac University came out showing the former first lady leading the billionaire by 4 percentage points.

The Democratic frontrunner said that Trump was a "con man" because of the scandal that erupted in recent days over his donations to veterans' groups, as well as a "fraud" because of the Trump University case involving numerous complaints from "students" who purchased the real estate courses accusing him of bilking them out of thousands of dollars.

She said that his statements on foreign policy were "dangerous" and questioned his ability to be commander-in-chief, adding that he had attacked key US allies, wants to ban all Muslims from entering the US and is promoting nuclear energy abroad in contradiction of long-standing US policy.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia Vakhtang Mirumyan denies rumors about the Committee demanding businessmen to make overpayments.

Such thing cannot exist. After all, if we presumably took money beforehand, there are still 6 months ahead of us, right? In this case what would we do during these 6 months? In this context a similar things is not in favor of revenue provision, Mirumyan said.
Its no surprise that Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to strip former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank of his duties as co-chair of the rules committee at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.

Sanders, the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, and Frank, the cantankerous former House Financial Services Committee chair from Massachusetts, have been at each others throats for years and couldnt be further apart in their views on how to regulate the big banks on Wall Street or avert a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.

Related: Some Democrats Pray for Clintons Indictment as Sanders Pushes On

By Sanderss lights, Frank is the poster child for establishment Democrats who have done just about everything possible to rig the Democratic primary elections and candidates debates to assure Hillary Clintons nomination. And as Frank sees it, Sanders is a dyed-in-the wool independent and a late comer to Democratic politics who simply cant accept the fact that Clinton is beating him.

Just a week before the critical Democratic primary grand finale in California, New Jersey and four other states, Frank lashed out at Sanders on Tuesday as a spoil-sport who was willing to jeopardize Clintons chances of beating Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump in the general election campaign for the sake of his political vanity.

Sen. Sanders is disappointed that he hasnt won, Frank said during an interview with Kate Snow of MSNBC. Hes losing not because anything was rigged or there was dirty trickery. Hes losing because Hillary Clinton has gotten more votes.

With 2,383 delegates needed for nomination, Clinton currently holds 2,323 delegate  just 71 shy of the nomination. That includes 1,769 pledged delegates won during the primaries and caucuses and 543 superdelegates who automatically get to vote at the convention.

Related: Clintons Staff Ignored Investigators as They Looked into Her Emails

Sanders -- with 1,501 pledged delegates but only 44 superdelegates -- insists he can win the California primary and overtake Clinton in pledged delegates next week. An emboldened Sanders would then turn his attention to persuading hundreds of superdelegates to switch their allegiance from Clinton to Sanders.

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I think he has a right to stay in, Frank said, although he remains highly dubious Sanders has a legitimate chance of gaining the nomination at this point, especially after losing a substantial part of the African-American vote to Clinton. I never said he should stay out. I just wish he would stay in and talk about the issues where he wants to focus, and not make the bogus claim that he is being cheated.

To say the tension between the two seasoned politicians is fraught with danger for the party is an understatement. Sanders and his campaign organization last Friday stepped up their attacks on the Democratic National Committee and demanded that Frank and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy be removed as co-chairs of the Rules Committee and Platform Committee, respectively. Both men have endorsed Clinton for election.

Sanders has also vowed that if he is elected president, he will oust Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the DNC chair who he blames for many of the party rules and the low-profile debate schedule that he said worked against his interests. Sanders recently endorsed Wasserman Schultzs Democratic primary challenger, a little-known law professor named Tim Canova who embraces Sanders stand against global trade agreements and other issues.

Related: Five Clinton vs. Sanders Policy Battles That Could Blow Up the Convention

While Brad Deutsch, a Sanders campaign lawyer, complained in a letter last week that Frank and Malloy have both been harsh, vocal critics of Sanders, the Vermont senators aides have been targeting Frank for special treatment for months.

Back in April, Tad Devine, Sanders top political strategist, told reporters that Frank shouldnt have a role in the national convention after he criticized the 74-year-old democratic socialist by invoking his age. Devine said Frank mocked Sanders performance in discussing financial reform during an interview with the New York Daily News editorial board.

Devine cited Franks April 6 statements on MSNBC that Sanders confused several things in his responses to questions about his core issue of breaking up big banks. Frank  who co-authored the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation with former Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut in 2010 -- also said Sanders responses to the editorial board were not coherent.

These are remarks that do not speak merely to the substance of policy proposals but speak to his capacity and obviously his age, an irate Devine declared, according to various reports. I think theyre trying to suggest that he does not have the capacity to be president of the United States. That is part of their attack on his qualifications."

Related: While Clinton Braces for Trump, Sanders Sets Sights on Dem Platform

Things only got worse last week when Sanders campaign advisers accused Frank of defaming the senator in a March interview with Slate. It was in that interview that Frank accused Sanders of being outrageously McCarthyite by suggesting Clinton would have a major conflict in dealing with Wall Street because of the millions of dollars in speaking fees and campaign contributions she has received from big banks.

Sanderss demand that Frank and Malloy be pushed aside at the convention came closely on the heels of a compromise allowing Sanders to hand pick five of the 15 members of the platform committee that will draft party positions on a wide array of economic, trade and foreign policy issues Sanders and his liberal Democratic allies want to heavily influence.

The letter, first reported by Politico, denounced Frank and Malloy as "self-proclaimed partisans intent on marginalizing" Sanders campaign supporters. The letter ends with a threat that if the national committee insists on keeping Frank and Malloy as leaders of the rules and platform committees, Sanders forces would do everything in their power to grind the convention process to a halt by taking their case to relevant committees or the convention floor.

Frank has differed sharply from Sanders on financial policy, especially on the Vermont senators repeated call for breaking up big banks still deemed too big to fail and resurrecting the Glass-Steagall separation of banks commercial and investment activities.

Related: Why Californias Clinton-Sanders Primary May Not Be So Important After All

Frank has argued that the repeal of Glass-Steagall during the administration of former Democratic President Bill Clinton had nothing to do with the financial meltdown and crisis in 2008, and that reinstituting the law wouldn't address the problems that still exist  a view shared by Hillary Clinton.

With tensions running high between the Clinton and Sanders camps, Frank warned of a danger to his party if the two presidential contenders dont ultimately reconcile their differences and unite their party to battle Donald Trump in the general election. But that may prove difficult as the two sides dig in and nearly a third of Sanderss supporters say they dont trust Clinton and could never vote for her. And its far from clear how committed Sanders would be in rallying to the former secretary of states side if he loses the contest.

You know what the biggest lie politicians tell? he said. Its not that Im going to cut your taxes or pick up your garbage. Its only that We ran against each other but were still good friends. Theres nothing about running against each other that avoids enmity.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Andrei Bubeyev, a 40-year-old electrician from Russia, was sent to prison for sharing a picture of a toothpaste tube with the words: "Squeeze Russia out of yourself!" with 12 friends.

From ABC News:

In spring 2015, [Bubeyev] left town to work on a rural construction site. After investigators couldn't get through to him on the phone, they put him on a wanted list as an extremism suspect. When Bubeyev stopped by to visit his wife and young son at their country cottage, a SWAT team stormed in and arrested him.

His wife now lives alone with their 4-year-old son in a sparsely furnished apartment on the ground floor of a drab Soviet-era apartment block. After her husband was arrested, Anastasia Bubeyeva, 23, dropped out of medical school because she couldn't find affordable day care for her child, who still wears an eye patch for an injury he suffered when he bumped his head during the raid.

Several months after his arrest, Bubeyev pleaded guilty to inciting hatred toward Russians and was sentenced to a year in prison. His offense was sharing articles, photos and videos from Ukrainian nationalist groups, including those of the volunteer Azov battalion fighting Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Among them was an article about the graves of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine and a video describing Russia as a "fascist aggressor" and showing Russian tanks purportedly crossing into Ukraine.

Less than two weeks after the verdict, Bubeyev was charged again. This time, he was accused of calling for "acts of extremism" and "actions undermining Russia's territorial integrity." He had shared the picture of a toothpaste tube and also an article under the headline "Crimea is Ukraine" by a controversial blogger, who is in jail now, calling for military aggression against Russia.
By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada on Wednesday pressed China about a Canadian citizen charged with spying and also raised the need to improve human rights around the world, Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said. Dion, part of the new Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said that while Canada wanted closer trade ties with China, it would not hesitate to speak out on sensitive matters. In January, China indicted Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt on charges of spying and stealing state secrets. He was detained in August 2014 near China's sensitive border with North Korea. "The case ... of Mr Garratt has been raised by the prime minister and by myself," Dion told reporters after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. "We never miss an opportunity to raise human rights, but the details should not be revealed publicly for the sake of Mr. Garratt. It's something the two governments will have to work together (on)," he said. Canada wanted to improve human rights globally and therefore had to talk to China, which has a sixth of the world's population, Dion said. A Trudeau spokesman declined to answer when asked about the prime minister's talks with Wang on Garratt. Wang did not mention the Garratt case but said through an interpreter that it was "normal and natural for our two countries to disagree on some issues." He did, however, criticize a female Canadian reporter who had asked about human rights problems in China, accusing her of displaying an unacceptable arrogance. Trudeau wants closer trading ties with China and other fast-developing nations to help boost a sluggish Canadian economy. Wang said he had told Dion that China wanted to speed up the process of starting talks on a free trade deal. Dion stressed the need for closer ties but did not mention free trade. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources in Ottawa said Trudeau plans to visit China for a week in the run-up to a Sept. 4-5 Group of 20 Summit in Hangzhou. Details of the trip have not been finalized. The Liberals took power last November after defeating the Conservatives, who had an uneven relationship with China. Wang hailed Trudeau's victory, noting that his father - former Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau - was in office when Canada established diplomatic relations with China in 1970. The Conservatives complained about China's human rights record, accused Chinese hackers of cyber espionage and curbed investment by state-owned enterprises in the energy sector. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Alan Crosby)
By Leah Schnurr OTTAWA (Reuters) - Even with some parts of the Canadian economy operating near capacity, economists say business investment is unlikely to pick up soon because many companies are wary about the outlook for growth. Canadian business investment fell again in the first quarter, gross domestic product data released on Tuesday showed, the fifth straight quarterly decline, which weighed on economic growth. The business investment decline, heavily influenced by the oil price slump, contributed to Canada's slip into a mild recession last year. Stronger business investment, along with a pick up in exports, is key to the central bank's outlook. Weak global and Canadian growth expectations mean businesses do not need to invest as much in expanding their operations as they might have otherwise, said Eric Lascelles, chief economist at RBC Global Asset Management. Additionally, there has been a shift toward risk aversion and away from investing for growth, he said. "Sometimes that means leaving something on the table in terms of growth opportunities and I think that is still very much central to business decision making around the world right now," Lascelles said. The Bank of Canada said in April it expects business fixed investment will take 0.8 percentage points off economic growth this year before contributing modestly in 2017. It more recently noted investment and intentions remain disappointing. Lascelles expects the bank may have to lower that forecast, possibly in its next monetary policy report in July. The bank had highlighted that some sectors, such as wood products and transportation equipment, are operating at capacity utilization rates that are close to historical highs, suggesting they will need to invest in factories and equipment as demand increases. But companies may wait to see that the demand is there first, given the risk that the U.S. economy does not rebound from a weak first quarter as strongly as anticipated. That means any bump up in spending in the near-term may be modest, if it comes at all. "Autos are running flat out and the problem with that is it doesn't look as though there's any more investment coming on that front," said Benjamin Reitzes, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, pointing to a fourth-quarter capacity utilization rate of 97.8 percent for the transportation sector. "That high number does not portend new investment, unfortunately." While there may be some bright spots outside the energy sector, the drag from the commodity slump is going to be a bigger weight on overall business investment, said Bill Adams, senior international economist for PNC Financial Services Group. (Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by David Gregorio)
By Rod Nickel WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) - The Western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, hit hard by weak crude oil and potash prices, expects a C$434 million ($331.68 million) deficit in 2016-17, the government said on Wednesday as it released the year's budget. Premier Brad Wall's right-leaning Saskatchewan Party government plans to spend C$14.5 billion on revenue of C$14 billion in Canada's biggest canola- and wheat-growing province. Both figures are up 1 percent for the year that began April 1. "There are years when unforeseen events  drops in the price of oil or potash, or costly natural disasters  make it prudent to run a manageable deficit rather than implement severe cuts to programs and services or increase the tax burden," Finance Minister Kevin Doherty said in a statement. "This is one of those years." For fiscal 2015-16, which ended March 31, Saskatchewan ran a C$427 million deficit, its first in two decades. The Sask Party government plans to return to a surplus in 2017-18. Wall, the province's charismatic premier since 2007, led his Sask Party to its third straight election victory in April. Saskatchewan's real gross domestic product will grow 0.4 percent in 2016, the third-slowest among the 10 provinces, due to its ties to the slumping energy sector, according to a TD Economics forecast in April. Saskatchewan estimated the price of West Texas Intermediate oil would average $40.50 per barrel in 2016, down from $48.79 last year. Production is expected to fall 7 percent to 164.5 million barrels, the government said. The province forecast average potash prices of $205.10 per tonne in 2016, down sharply from $274.85 last year. Production is likely to be flat, it added. Saskatchewan is working on revising its complex potash royalty formula by the end of 2016. The province is the home of Potash Corp of Saskatchewan. Rivals Mosaic Co and Agrium Inc also operate potash mines there. Revenue from non-renewable resources, which includes oil and potash, is forecast to fall 19 percent in 2016/17 to C$1.5 billion, the lowest in 13 years. Saskatchewan, with a population 1.1 million, expects total public debt to climb to C$14.8 billion, up C$1.2 billion, by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2017. Neighboring province Manitoba on Tuesday forecast a C$911-million deficit for this year. ($1 = 1.3085 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Richard Chang)
By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Mainstreet Health Investments Inc is looking to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire senior housing and care properties in Canada and the United States after tapping the Canadian equity market, a top executive said. The company, which owns a portfolio of U.S. seniors housing and care properties, on Thursday raised about $95 million and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The move is an attempt to emulate the model deployed at Healthlease Properties, a real estate investment trust that was listed in Toronto in 2012 and sold to Health Care REIT - now called Welltower Inc - for about C$1 billion ($762.20 million) in 2014. Healthlease was launched by Carmel, Indiana-based Mainstreet Investments, the biggest U.S. developer of post-acute health care properties and the company behind Mainstreet Health. Several top executives at Mainstreet Health have held roles at Healthlease and are part of the parent's executive team. Its the same team. Its the same strategy. Its the same opportunity. Here we go again, said Scott White, president of Mainstreet Health, which is listing under the same ticker symbol that Healthlease held, HLPu.TO. Mainstreet Health has also attracted interest from several investors in Healthlease, White said on Thursday in an interview with Reuters. The company owns a portfolio of 11 properties in the Chicago area. It acquired them with the help of U.S. hedge fund Magnetar Financial, which owns about half of Mainstreet Health. The company is using proceeds from the offering to buy 13 additional U.S. properties in deals expected to close over the next few weeks. Historically... weve spent between $200 million to $400 million per year. The market, the opportunity is the same, if not better, said White, adding that he expects to make acquisitions at least at that pace. The market itself is very fragmented. Theres a lot of opportunity for consolidation. he said. Zeke Turner, who is well-known in the Canadian real estate industry, will be chairman of Mainstreet Health, while Adlai Chester will be CEO and Scott White president. Mainstreet Health is expected to be structured as a real estate operating company. The lead underwriters for the offering were BMO Capital Markets, CIBC Capital Markets and National Bank Financial. Goodmans LLP and Blake, Cassels & Graydon are providing legal advice. The stock was trading at $10.16, above the offering price of $10 at mid-morning on Thursday. ($1 = 1.3120 Canadian dollars) (Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by Dan Grebler)
By Heather Somerville SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Uber [UBER.UL] has raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the U.S. ride-hailing service said on Wednesday, gaining a crucial partner in its expansion into the Middle East. The investment from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund was part of Uber's most recent financing round that valued the company at $62.5 billion, Uber said, making it the most highly valued venture capital-backed company in the world. In a written statement, Uber co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick called the investment a "vote of confidence in our business." As part of the investment, a managing director at the Saudi fund, Yasir Al Rumayyan, will take a seat on Uber's board, the company said. Other board members include Benchmark Capital general partner Bill Gurley and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington. Uber said the Saudi's investment puts the company's total balance sheet, including cash and debt, at more than $11 billion. The funding round is a departure from the startup investing climate, which has seen contraction in recent months as technology companies face greater scrutiny over their valuations. It shows that the some of the most high-profile companies with mass consumer adoption -- among them also Snapchat, which last week disclosed a $1.81 billion funding raise -- can still demand investor dollars, even as other tech firms are downsizing to weather a funding drought. Uber has committed to investing $250 million in the Middle East and North Africa, where it has grown aggressively and is now operating in nine countries and 15 cities in the region. But, as in other regions including China and India, Uber is competing in the Middle East against local ride-hailing startups such as Careem, which operates in 20 cities across the region. In the first quarter of the year, Uber had more than 395,000 active riders across the region, a five-fold jump from the first quarter of 2015, and 19,000 active drivers, representing a four-fold increase over the same period. Uber says it has operated in Saudi Arabia since early 2014 and about 80 percent of its more than 130,000 riders in that country are women. (Reporting by Heather Somerville; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Tom Brown)
By Andreas Cremer BERLIN (Reuters) - Volkswagen is looking at on-demand mobility services such as smartphone ride hailing to earn a "notable share" of future revenues as the carmaker pushes a strategic shift in the wake of its emissions scandal, its top executive said. Volkswagen, or VW, which posted 213 billion euros ($237.90 billion) of revenue last year, on Wednesday signed a cooperation with ride-hailing company Gett after announcing a $300 million investment in the firm last week. Cooperation with Gett may lead to business models involving car sharing, limousine rides and taxi services in the fast-growing ride-hailing market which in Europe alone may yield 10 billion euros of sales by 2025 and could grow more than 30 percent annually, VW Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said. "In future, our core product will not be just the car," Mueller said. "Our core product, our promise to customers, is mobility." Europe's largest automaker will this month unveil a new business strategy aimed at improving accountability and speeding up model development, with greater investments in electric cars, new technologies and mobility services among the key elements, company sources have said. But VW's rivals are not standing idly by. Toyota Motor Corp last week said it would invest in mobility company Uber Technologies Inc while General Motors invested $500 million in Lyft, Uber's main U.S. rival. The growing number of deals reflects the desire by automakers to avoid becoming bystanders if a significant number of consumers around the world choose to forego vehicle ownership and buy transportation by the mile or the minute. "Through this partnership, we're getting access to 100 million VW customers," Gett founder and chief executive Shahar Weiser said. Volkswagen and Gett declined to disclose the financial terms of their agreement. Wolfsburg-based VW has long ignored alternative mobility concepts unlike its German rivals Daimler and BMW who have for years been running their own car-sharing operations. The advent of smartphones has fundamentally changed customer expectations, with travelers seeking to connect to different modes of transportation through apps. CEO Mueller on Wednesday pledged that post-dieselgate VW will open up to new investments and partnerships such as with Gett. "Volkswagen now is not the same as Volkswagen before I became CEO" in September 2015, Mueller said, indicating the group is willing to expand beyond manufacturing and selling cars as a means to broaden its appeal with customers. "The times when we thought that the world revolves around Wolfsburg are history." (Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by David Gregorio)
By Joseph Sipalan MIRI, Malaysia (Reuters) - Spotting a large vessel off the coast of Sarawak state in March, officers on a Malaysian patrol boat were shocked when it steamed toward them at high speed, blaring its horn before veering off to reveal "Chinese Coast Guard" emblazoned on its side. According to an officer from the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been sighted several times before around the South Luconia Shoals, off the oil-rich town of Miri. But such an aggressive encounter was a first. "To us, it looked like an attempt to charge at our boat, possibly to intimidate," said the officer, who was not authorized to speak publicly but showed Reuters a video of the previously unreported incident. Spurred by the incident and the appearance of some 100 Chinese fishing vessels in the area around the time, some in Malaysia are hardening the nation's previously muted responses toward their powerful neighbor China. One senior minister said Malaysia must now stand up against such maritime incursions as China flexes its muscles along dozens of disputed reefs and islands in the South China Sea. China's growing assertiveness has already alarmed the Philippines, Vietnam and other claimants. It has also increased U.S.-China tensions, with the two heavyweights trading accusations of militarizing the vital waterways through which some $5 trillion in trade passes each year. But heralding its "special relationship" with China, and heavily reliant on trade and investment, Malaysia's previous responses to China's activity in the region have been described by Western diplomats as "low-key". It downplayed two naval exercises conducted by China in 2013 and 2014 at James Shoal, less than 50 nautical miles off Sarawak. And in 2015, concerns raised by Malaysian fishermen in Miri about alleged bullying by armed men aboard Chinese Coast Guard vessels were largely ignored. FISHING FRACAS But when scores of Chinese fishing boats were spotted in March encroaching near South Luconia Shoals, a rich fishing ground south of the disputed Spratly Islands, Malaysia sent its navy and uncharacteristically summoned China's ambassador to explain the incident. China's foreign ministry downplayed the matter, saying its trawlers were carrying out normal fishing activities in "relevant waters". Just a couple of weeks later, Malaysia announced plans to set up a naval forward operating base near Bintulu, south of Miri. The defense minister insists the base, which will house helicopters, drones and a special task force, is to protect the country's rich oil and gas assets from potential attacks by Islamic State (IS) sympathizers based in the southern Philippines, hundreds of kilometers to the northeast. Some officials and experts however say China's activities off the coast are a more important factor. "If you beef up security for oil and gas assets, you are protecting yourself from non-state and state actors so there is some plausibility to what he's saying," said Ian Storey, a South China Sea expert at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. "But is it really being driven by Daesh? I don't think so," Storey added, using an alternative name for IS. Underscoring the hardening attitude, one senior federal minister told Reuters that Malaysia must take more decisive action on maritime incursions or risk being taken for granted. The minister, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, highlighted the contrast between Malaysia's response in March to a similar incident just days earlier in neighboring Indonesia. "When the Chinese entered Indonesia's waters, they were immediately chased out. When the Chinese vessels entered our waters, nothing was done," the minister said. Last month in parliament, Malaysia's deputy foreign minister also reiterated that like other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia did not recognize China's controversial Nine Dash Line, which it uses to claim over 90 percent of the South China Sea. LIMITED OPTIONS Asked about the incident described by the MMEA officer, China's foreign ministry said both countries had a "high degree of consensus" on dealing with maritime disputes through dialogue and consultation. "We are willing to remain in close touch with Malaysia about this," spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. Malaysia's reliance on China goes some way to explaining Kuala Lumpur's reluctance to react more strongly. China is Malaysia's top export destination and Malaysia is the biggest importer of Chinese goods and services in the 10-member ASEAN group. Corporations owned by the Chinese government also paid billions of dollars last year to buy assets from debt-riddled state investment firm 1MDB, which has been a major embarrassment for Prime Minister Najib Razak. Chinas influence in Malaysias domestic affairs has always been a concern for the Malay-majority nation. Ethnic Chinese in Malaysia account for about a quarter of the population. Diplomatic ties between the two countries were tested in September when the Chinese ambassador visited China town in the capital Kuala Lumpur ahead of a pro-Malay rally, and warned that Beijing has no fear in talking against actions that affect the rights of its people. The ambassador was summoned to explain his comments but the Chinese foreign ministry defended the envoy. Seeking to balance its economic and national security interests, Malaysia is pursuing various strategies including bolstering its surveillance and defense capabilities while promoting a code of conduct between China and ASEAN countries signed in 2002. A more sensitive option is to seek closer military ties with the United States. One senior official told Reuters that Malaysia has reached out to the United States for help on intelligence gathering and to develop its coast guard capabilities, albeit quietly to avoid angering Beijing. Storey said moves to secure closer U.S. military ties could be twinned with soft diplomacy to try to convince China to be less assertive on its claims, but resolving the issue would be difficult regardless. "None of these strategies work very well, but what can you do?," Storey said. "This dispute is going to be around for a very long time." (Additional reporting by Rozanna Latiff in KUALA LUMPUR and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING.; Editing by Praveen Menon and Lincoln Feast)
[Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a pride flag raising ceremony on Parliament Hill, Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld]

A majority of LGBTQ Canadians believe Canada is a world leader when it comes to LGBTQ issues, according to a new Ipsos poll, but many issues still need to be addressed for that statement to true, activists say.

It would be nice if Canada was a world leader in LGBTQ issues but the truth is we arent, says Stephen Seaborn, North America co-chair of international human rights association ILGA. Its one thing to change laws, its another to change the culture that is so deeply ingrained in our lives.

Seaborn was responding to an exclusive Ipsos poll commissioned by Yahoo Canada released Wednesday as Pride Month began in Toronto, in which 83 per cent of LGBTQ Canadians surveyed said they were more likely to agree that Canada is a world leader when it comes to LGBTQ issues. But only 29 per cent felt strongly about it. Furthermore, 62 per cent of LGBTQ Canadians said community issues dont receive enough attention.

READ MORE: Canadians have little interest in battling over bathrooms and gay rights: Ipsos/Yahoo Canada poll



READ MORE: Experience bears out Ipsos/Yahoo Canada poll on LGBTQ, advocates say

True the federal government has introduced legislation to protect transgender Canadians and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau supports lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual individuals in Quebec as well as across the country. Plus hes the first sitting prime minister scheduled to attend the Toronto Pride parade in July.

But activists like Seaborn, 69, who is the former Solidarity and Pride vice-president at the Ontario Federation of Labour, argue many other serious LGBTQ issues remain unresolved. (Advocates are also drawing attention to the plight of intersex individuals, sometimes collectively referred to by the acronym variant, LGBTI or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex).

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Overall, the statistics behind these issues are alarming: 21 per cent of Canadas homeless youth are LGBTQ; 35 per cent of transgender people in Ontario have considered suicide; and 64 per cent of LGBTQ students report feeling unsafe at school.



How can the Liberal government change deep-held biases inside Canada and uphold LGBTQ human rights globally?

It is not as simple as protecting the rights of LGBTI people here in Canada, Amnesty International Canadas LGBTI co-ordinator Alexander Kennedy said, explaining that the government must commit to protecting the rights of all LGBTI people in order for Canada to be regarded as a true world leader.

Canadian and American evangelicals have been linked to devastating homophobia in Africa and the Caribbean, he said. However, there are tremendous opportunities for Canada to show leadership by bringing this commitment to upholding the rights of LGBTI people to the world stage.

Difficult to rank countries



Canada lags slightly behind Europe according to the 2014 Pew Research Centers Global Divide on Homosexuality survey. It reported that 80 per cent of Canadians responded yes to the question, Should society accept homosexuality? compared to 88 per cent of Spanish citizens and 87 per cent of Germans. Support for equality is sluggish south of the border; in the United States, 60 per cent of citizens said yes, putting the country on par with Mexico and Brazil.

Kennedy said its difficult to rank countries on LGBTI rights because different parts of LGBTI communities face many issues, such as family issues, legal gender recognition, non-consensual intersex surgery in infancy, and asylum rights.

And Amnesty has repeatedly expressed its disappointment to the Liberals over its sale of light-armoured vehicles.

The Canadian government recently decided to approve the largest arms sale in Canadian history to one of the worlds worst violators of human rights, Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is a crime punishable by death, he said.

Canadas unsafe streets

The numbers show the clear and present danger. In 2013, nearly two-thirds (66 per cent) of crimes motivated by hatred of a sexual orientation were violent, according to the most recent data available from Statistics Canada. People and places are attacked, such as the May arson at the Centre Metropolitain de Chirurgie in Montreal, the only clinic in Canada that performs transition-related surgeries.

Alex Abramovich is an award-winning transgender scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto specializing in homelessness faced by gay, lesbian and transgender youth. In the last decade Abramovich has studied data and uncovered similar patterns of homelessness, lack of social support structures and despair in the U.S., Canada, Hungary and Cuba.

In Toronto, hes interviewed many LGBTQ youth, who slept in a park for eight months because they werent safe from physical violence in city shelters.

When young people are targeted because of what they look like, whom they love or what they believe in, it is a really big problem, he said. That is horrifying and shameful. And this is in a country that is a leader in LGBTQ issues.

He worked for a decade before Canadas first transitional housing for LGBTQ youth opened this February in Toronto at YMCAs Sprott House. Hes since been disappointed, he said, because the mandatory LGBTQ cultural competency training for front-line staff in all youth shelters  scheduled to begin in March  has not yet been implemented.

As he prepared to attend this Fridays White House policy briefing on ending LGBTQ youth homelessness in the U.S. by 2020, Abramovich considered Canadas role on the world stage. He sighed and said: I dont think Canada is the safest country in the world for LGBTQ. Transgender people are often afraid to leave their homes.

Its important to note that in Canada, all provinces and territories protect transgender rights but only five provinces  Alberta, Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Prince Edward Island  explicitly have a human rights act or code that protects both gender identity and gender expression for trans people.

1 in 3 trans Ontarians consider suicide

A June 2015 study that investigated transgender people in Ontario, found 35 per cent had seriously considered suicide, while 11 per cent had attempted suicide. Lacking family and community support, transgender youth were found to be at the greatest risk.

Despite these numbers, CAMHs Abramovich believes Canada is doing a good job recognizing and advancing LGBTQ rights.

But I wouldnt say we are the leader, he said. I dont know if anybody is. Were just not there yet anywhere in the world.

LGBTQ youth dont feel safe at school. A 2011 joint study of 3,700 high school students by researchers at the universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba, found that 74 per cent of transgender students faced verbal harassment about their gender expression, and more than 21 per cent of all LGBTQ students reported being physically harassed or assaulted due to their sexual orientation.

As a result, ILGAs Seaborn is adamant about the importance of introducing campaigns that will educate the public and help protect LGBTQ children: We need to get at the social prejudice that exists because school kids are reflections of their parents and their attitudes.

He sees the LGBTQ movement gaining support and momentum but he doesnt want to become complacent.

As we see, by looking south of the border where theres pressure to roll back laws, everything you have can disappear relatively quickly.
By Jim Forsyth SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The Brazos River in Texas surged to its highest level in more than a century in an area outside of Houston on Wednesday after floods killed at least six people, damaged hundreds of buildings and turned roads into lakes over the past week. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a flash flood watch for large parts of the state, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. Storms lasting until the weekend could send even more rivers over their banks, it said. As much as 10 inches of rain could fall in the Houston area in the coming days due to slow-moving thunderstorms, the NWS said, just weeks after eight people were killed in floods. This could touch off another round of flooding in the fourth most-populous U.S. city, it added. Houston has activated its emergency operations center and opened evacuation shelters as forecasters warned of a new round of heavy rains and flooding. "After all the rain we have had recently, the ground is saturated in a lot of places. It is just a muddy bog. If we put 1 to 3 inches of rainfall an hour on top of that, it is only going to aggravate flooding," said Kent Prochazka, a meteorologist with the NWS Houston-Galveston office. The NWS reported the Brazos River, which winds over 840 miles (1,350 kms) through Texas, reached levels not seen since 1913, about 30 miles southwest of Houston. In the most recent floods, hundreds of people across the state have fled their homes. "It's scary, we have never had anything like this before," said Mary Hernandez of Richmond in metropolitan Houston, where evacuations were underway. Evacuation orders have been issued for parts of Rosenberg, another town along the Brazos and not far from Richmond. More than 120 high-water boat rescues from buildings and cars have been reported in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston. Several rivers in southeastern and eastern Texas were in a major flood stage. (Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales, Brendan O'Brien and Jon Herskovitz; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Chris Reese)
Egypt's ambassador to Canada was in Cape Breton this week to promote business and education links between the island and his country.

Motaz Zahran toured Sydney Harbour on Wednesday with Cecil Clarke, the mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, who pitched for Egypt to consider Sydney's port as traffic increases in the newly-expanded Suez Canal.

Zahran also made a stop at Cape Breton University, which has a small campus at the University of Cairo.

The ambassador told reporters in Sydney that a memorandum of understanding has been negotiated between Egypt and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality for potential shipping business.

"It's a matter of formalities" before it's signed, he said.

"Basically, it's training. It is provision of facilities, both here and in the Suez. It is the exchange of information on the development of the port here, and there," said Zahran.

Suez Canal Zone

Egypt's Suez Canal is developing the Suez Canal Zone, Zahran said. It will be a logistical hub for maritime traffic.

In May, a Montreal-based real estate developer, the Canderel Group, announced plans to create a logistics park in Sydney.

Zahran said the memorandum of understanding sets the groundwork for "a much more integrated approach" between Sydney's port and Egypt's Suez Canal.

'The potential is huge'

Zahran said his presence in Sydney is an indication of how serious Egypt is about establishing partnerships with ports in the North Atlantic.

"Let me say that the potential that this MOU provides is huge," said the ambassador.

"If you look at the maritime traffic around the world, and you see that over 75 per cent of the maritime traffic goes through the Suez Canal, you will understand where that potential would come from."

Egypt has already signed an MOU with the Port of Halifax, he said.

"What we're looking at is an expansion of our partnerships, and Sydney is definitely the one that will be coming soon."

Story continues

Port traffic will increase

Clarke said the visit indicates how serious the Port of Sydney is being viewed.

"The people that will be spending the money from the Suez Authority itself will be coming next, we anticipate in July," he said.

Clarke called the ambassador's visit satisfying.

"How can you not be happy, when you've put so much time in and tried to explain to people here in your community about how Sydney fits into the wider world?" he said.

"To have the wider world recognize Cape Breton and the Port of Sydney shows the confidence that is being built."
By Samia Nakhoul and Richard Mably TEHRAN (Reuters) - Hopes that Iran would quickly reintegrate with world markets after its nuclear deal, bringing investment and opportunities to a young population, are turning to frustration. An opaque business environment in Iran and political uncertainty in the United States are to blame. Tehrans hotels are buzzing with businessmen keen for a slice of a big new emerging market, more industrially developed than most oil and gas-rich nations but isolated since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that turned Iran into a pariah state for most of the West and many of its Middle Eastern neighbors. Yet potential foreign investors have found that the removal of international sanctions in exchange for monitored curbs on Irans nuclear program is only part of the story. Barriers to entry include resistance from hardliners within Iran who worry an opening to the world will undermine their entrenched interests, and fear among foreign investors of falling foul of residual U.S. sanctions. Under the nuclear deal, the U.S. and Europe lifted sanctions in January. But other U.S. restrictions remain. These include a ban on Iran-linked transactions in dollars being processed through the U.S. financial system and sanctions on individuals and entities identified as supporting "state-sponsored terrorism". The chief target of the anti-terrorism sanctions is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the theocratic establishment's enforcer at home and strike-force abroad. The IRGC is also behind a business empire, encompassing construction to banking, and is expert at hiding its involvement. Investors and top-tier foreign banks fear U.S. action could shut them out of the international banking system if they deal, even by mistake, with sanctioned bodies. Adding to the uncertainty, Iranian analysts and foreign executives say, is the rise of Donald Trump, the U.S. tycoon set to clinch the Republican nomination in this years presidential election, who has threatened to tear up the Iran deal. Yet even without this uncertainty, prospective dealmakers are finding themselves blocked. IRGC TIES Foreign executives scouting for business in Iran say when they examine the tangle of ownership behind companies they approach, they often detect IRGC ties. Claude Begle, executive chairman of SymbioSwiss, a logistics and infrastructure company, says he found that one exploratory project turned up such links. "We did a lot of due diligence and we found that the names of institutions appearing on the OFAC (the US Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control) sanction list are sometimes not far away," he said in apparent reference to the Revolutionary Guard. "When you look at the shareholders structure at the second or third level, then you see that such names may appear. They are sitting there." "Very often when you look at Iran's successful companies, you can see that. And unless those companies are willing to modify accordingly their board structures, it will be very hard to raise international financing to work with such entities." The central problem for potential foreign investors is that even unwitting contact with an Iranian counterparty under sanctions could result in heavy U.S. Treasury penalties, effectively cutting them off from Americas financial markets - a powerful disincentive for any globalized business. Alexander Gorjinia, part of the second German business delegation to visit Iran since August 2015, says the biggest problem is the banks. While businesses and banks may have German go-ahead to operate in Iran, OFAC puts the responsibility of establishing whether the (Iranian) company is clean on the foreign company. The foreign company has to investigate the Iranian company, whether it is linked to or is part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Gorjinia told Reuters. It has to investigate their dealings, how they operate behind the scenes. We have to work with companies that have money in their pocket and most of them are part of the Revolutionary Guard. This is what our information tells us. European companies feel all these rules are part of a U.S. administration plan to block business between Europe and Iran, he complains. Part of the problem is that units of the Revolutionary Guard are intervening in several of the wars across the Middle East. In Iraq, Iran is aligned with the U.S. in the fight against the jihadis of Islamic State. But in Syria it is on the opposite side along with Russia, propping up the government of President Bashar al-Assad, while in Yemen Tehran has backed the Shiite Houthi insurgency that last year prompted U.S. ally Saudi Arabia to launch an air war across its southern border. Few expect the U.S. to loosen sanctions on the IRGC and its business empire against this backdrop. FEAR AMONG BANKS While Western businessmen commonly assume that their Chinese or Russian counterparts would be less inhibited by US sanctions, one Chinese executive in Tehran, who asked not to be named, also highlights the issue that international banks, fearful of being locked out of US capital markets, are so far spurning Iran. Representing an oil and gas machinery company, he has visited Iran several times after the nuclear accord, but has yet to sign a single deal. Most Iranian companies, he says, even when there is clear demand for his drilling equipment, dont have money to pay. They ask the sellers to provide financing, he says but that is impossible because throughout the world no foreign bank dares to do business with Iranian banks because they are scareduntil the big (international) banks start doing business, but European banks are still scared of U.S. banks. Iranian leaders are complaining they have been short-changed on the sanctions relief part of the nuclear deal. "On paper the United States allows foreign banks to deal with Iran, but in practice they create Iranophobia so no one does business with Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said last month. Begle, the Swiss executive, says President Hassan Rouhani earlier this year asked the visiting Swiss president to press leading Swiss banks to start financing foreign operations in Iran. "But of course the Swiss government cannot tell a private company to do this," Begle says. "It can indicate that it would see it favorably, it can even consider some guarantees, but after all, it is a decision for the bank itself." HOSTILITY There are other obstacles. The IRGC and other vested interests built up by hardliners grouped around Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, are hostile to foreign entry into Irans economy. Khamenei, whose power far outweighs that of Irans elected officials in parliament or the presidency, gave decisive support to the nuclear deal which greatly strengthened the position of Rouhani, the reform-minded centrist president. Rouhani, in coalition with reformists and independent conservatives, wrested back control of parliament from hardliners in Februarys elections. This, some of his allies believe, should make it easier for the government to introduce business-friendly laws. Yet four years ago, parliament passed a law intended to reduce the states role in the economy, put in place credible regulators and investor guarantees, and eventually get entities like those controlled by the IRGC to pay taxes. It has not been implemented. Rouhani embodies popular expectations that IRGC-linked vested interests seem determined to thwart, some Iranian analysts believe, because sanctions have enabled them to win and keep control of the economy. Hossein Raghfar, professor of economics at Tehrans Alzahra University, says there are many interest groups that have become very rich because of the economic crisis. They dont want sanctions to be lifted. Saeed Laylaz, an economist close to Rouhani, says Irans economy was brought to its knees more by mismanagement than by sanctions. Jailed after hardliners cracked down on protests at the allegedly rigged presidential vote that gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term in 2009, he does not underestimate the hostility of vested interests towards a more open economy. I strongly believe some clear part of the regime has and had the project of creating sanctions against Iran to hide their mismanagement and their organized looting of economic wealth. To change the general atmosphere for business in the country, the Supreme Leader, the Revolutionary Guard and the judicial system must all be on board, Laylaz says. These are very important elements to attract foreign investment, just having the support of parliament doesnt work at all. Because of this I am not too optimistic about it." (Created by Samia Nakhoul, editing by Janet McBride)
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's president and the leader of the opposition held rare talks on Tuesday amid hopes they can reduce political tensions after opposition protests over the past month against an election oversight body led to repeated clashes with police. The violence, more than a year before presidential and parliamentary elections due in August 2017, prompted calls from church leaders and Western diplomats for dialogue in a nation prone to political strife. Fighting after the 2007 election killed 1,200 people. The opposition has staged regular protests since late April in Nairobi and other cities, accusing the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of bias and demanding it be scrapped. Three people were killed last week in western Kenya. President Uhuru Kenyatta held a brief meeting in the presidential State House with opposition leader Raila Odinga and the leader of the opposition in the senate, Senator Moses Wetangula, the presidency said in a statement. It gave no details, but one opposition official said before the talks that the IEBC was expected to be on the agenda. The announcement of Tuesday's meeting followed last week's decision by the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD), led by Odinga, to suspend its weekly demonstrations, saying it wanted to give dialogue a chance. The government has said any changes to the IEBC must be pursued within the provisions of the constitution, which could include a petition to parliament. But parliament is dominated by allies of Kenyatta and a previous bid was thrown out. For any changes to go through, Kenyatta's Jubilee alliance would have to rally their supporters behind any proposals to reconstitute the electoral body. Odinga, a former prime minister who lost the 2013 vote to Kenyatta and unsuccessfully challenged the result in court, is expected to run again for the presidency in 2017. Kenyatta is also expected to seek a second and final term, in a nation where ethnic loyalties usually trump policy at the ballot box. IEBC officials have dismissed the charges of bias and have said they will not quit. The government has accused the opposition of criticising the IEBC because they cannot win via the ballot box. (Reporting by George Obulutsa and Edmund Blair; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Laila Kearney (Reuters) - After shooting dead a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo to save a 3-year-old boy, zoo officials said they had collected a sample of his sperm, raising hopes among distraught fans that Harambe could sire offspring even in death. But officials at the main U.S. body that oversees breeding of zoo animals said it was highly unlikely that the Western lowland gorilla's contribution to the nation's "frozen zoo" of genetic material of rare and endangered species would be used to breed. "Currently, it's not anything we would use for reproduction," Kristen Lukas, who heads the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Gorilla Species Survival Plan, said on Wednesday. "It will be banked and just stored for future use or for research studies." That undercuts a weekend statement by Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard that the death of the 17-year-old young silverback, who had been too young to breed, was "not the end of his gene pool." Zoo officials did not respond to calls on Wednesday seeking more detail on their plans for Harambe's sperm. There are currently 350 gorillas of Harambe's species in U.S. zoos, according to the AZA, which accredits zoos, including Cincinnati's and approves breeding plans. That population is large enough to maintain a breeding program so robust that many females of child-bearing age are given hormonal contraceptives. Zoo officials have stood by the decision to shoot Harambe dead on Saturday, saying the 450-pound (200-kg) animal could have easily slain or grievously injured the toddler. But their decision to kill the gorilla has drawn criticism online and sparked a Cincinnati police investigation into the boy's family. The highly charismatic animals are closely related to humans, making them popular zoo attractions. Major U.S. zoos from New York's Bronx Zoo to the San Diego Zoo rely on gorillas as a major draw for visitors. INTO THE 'FROZEN ZOO' Harambe's sperm will likely go into a collection of samples taken from gorillas and other animals that are preserved in liquid nitrogen and typically viable for hundreds of years, said the American Association of Zoo Veterinarians Director Robert Hilsenroth. "We call it the frozen zoo," said Hilsenroth. "It's nice to have that in your pocket just in case." Given the numbers of gorillas in captivity, Harambe's genetic material would likely be drawn on only in the event of some new disease that took a heavy toll on the population, the AZA's Lukas said. "In a dire situation like that, we would then be able to continue the population," Lukas said. There are about 175,000 of the gorillas in the wild, but habitat destruction, hunting and disease are resulting in a rapid decline in the population. The practice of breeding gorillas in captivity has been criticized by animal rights groups. "In theory, conserving is great but without a habitat what's the point," said Julia Gallucci, primatologist for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York,; Editing by Scott Malone and Sandra Maler)
By Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka will gradually stop sending house maids abroad, mainly to the Middle East, due to rights abuses, social costs and a local labor shortage, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said on Wednesday. Sri Lanka's expatriate workers, mainly house maids and unskilled laborers, send back remittances - the island nation's main foreign exchange earner - that help earn around $7 billion a year for the $82.2 billion economy. Senaratne said President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a committee to study strategies to reduce the numbers gradually and finally stop sending maids abroad. "We want to discourage the house maids category in the foreign employment because the social cost is very high," he told Reuters. Human rights abuses and social costs due to rapes, drug addiction and child abuse in many families of house maids, and labor shortage locally, have prompted the government to take such a decision, he said. The total number of departures for foreign employment declined by 12.4 percent last year to 263,307, partly due to the slowdown of economic activities in the Middle East. Sri Lanka is already encouraging sending skilled male workers abroad instead of low-skilled females and house maids. In 2013, around 1,650 Sri Lankan house maids complained of being physically and sexually abused by their employers mainly in the Middle East, the latest data from the Foreign Employment Bureau showed. In 2013, the Saudis beheaded a young Sri Lankan housemaid for killing an infant left in her care, rejecting repeated appeals by the Indian Ocean island against her death sentence. Colombo recalled its ambassador from Riyadh in protest. After their Sri Lankan maid complained of too much work in 2010, a Saudi couple tortured her by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead. The maid returned home. Last year, however, Saudi authorities reduced a Sri Lankan maid's sentence for adultery from death by stoning to a three-year jail term after an appeal. (Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
By Joseph Akwiri MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Suspected al Shabaab militants shot and killed three village elders, including a Muslim cleric, in Kenya's coastal region on suspicion of helping security agencies fight the insurgents, police said on Monday. Village chairman Juma Mwanyota, religious leader Hassan Mwasanite and a member of local neighbourhood security group, Mohammed Manguze, were shot and killed separately on Sunday in Kwale county, south of Kenyas port city Mombasa. Kwale county police chief Joseph Omija said they believed the killers were young recruits who had returned to Kenya from training by al Shabaab in Somalia. They (the suspects) think these elders have information about them which they are sharing with us and other security agencies, and that is why they are targeting them, Omija told Reuters by phone. Al Shabaab has said in the past its frequent attacks in Kenya are in retaliation for Kenya sending its troops into Somalia in 2011. They are now part of an African Union peacekeeping force. Several raids targeted coastal sites. The al Qaeda-linked group also seeks to overthrow the Western-backed Somali government and impose its own strict interpretation of Islamic law. In early May, a young man who had returned from Somalia and surrendered to government was shot and killed by what Omija said was a group of al Shabaab militants. Coast regional coordinator Nelson Marwa told a news conference in Mombasa they were seeking the suspects in Sunday's killings. In 2014, a prominent Muslim cleric, Sheikh Mohamed Idris, was shot and killed at a mosque in Kwale county and police linked the killing to his stand against terrorism and radicalisation. A madrassa teacher who was arrested and charged for the murder was found guilty and sentenced to death. In 2014, about 100 people were killed by al Shabaab militants in the Mpeketoni area of Lamu County. Police said in a statement late on Sunday they had arrested four suspects in connection with the killings, and published pictures of eight others they were looking for. There are indications that some al Shabaab terrorists fleeing from AMISOM action in Somalia could be making attempts to infiltrate into our country and stage attacks during the holy month of Ramadan, the statement said. (Editing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
THURSDAY, June 2, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Preliminary research suggests that injecting adult stems cells directly into the brain may give stroke patients a new shot at recovery long after their stroke occurred.

"We don't want to oversell this," stressed study lead author Dr. Gary Steinberg, chair of neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo, Alto, Calif.

"This isn't the first stem cell trial for stroke, and we're in the early phase, with only 18 patients. But after injecting stem cells directly into the brain of chronic stroke patients, we were blown away," he said.

"These were patients who had significant motor deficits for six months or more," said Steinberg. "People who had a hard time moving their arm or leg, or walking. People for whom we have no real treatment. But after the injections we saw improvement in all 18 patients, as a group, within a month. Within days some were lifting their arms over their head. Lifting their legs off their bed. Walking, when they hadn't in months or years. The results were very exciting."

About 800,000 Americans experience a stroke every year. There are roughly 7 million chronic stroke survivors in the United States. Many of these survivors end up facing a new reality, in which lost motor function is unlikely to return, the researchers said.

"We're used to 90 percent or more of stroke recovery taking place in the first six months," Steinberg said. "So the thinking has been that we really can't restore function in chronic stroke patients because their circuits are dead."

But the new research set out to upend this thinking.

First, the research team selected people who had severe, but not extreme, motor impairment from a stroke. Most had experienced their stroke at least one year prior to the study launch. Their average age was 61.

One such patient was Long Beach, Calif., resident Sonia Olea Coontz.

"I was 31 when I had my stroke on May 14, 2011," she said. Between then and her 2013 enrollment in the trial, Coontz struggled with a debilitating loss of mobility.

"I could only move my right arm very little," she recalled. "And I was in a lot of pain. Same with my leg. Walking was very difficult. Every time I went to the hospital I was in a wheelchair because it was just a lot easier. And speaking was hard. I always needed someone to help me communicate."

The experimental stem cell procedure began with doctors drilling a small hole through the skull. Patients had minimal anesthesia. In turn, neurosurgeons injected modified stem cells directly into multiple areas of the brain near the site of each patient's stroke.

The result: with no apparent blood abnormalities or significant side effects, all of the patients experienced significant motor control recovery within the first month. Younger patients tended to fare better, the investigators found.

Mobility continued to improve throughout the first three months. Gains were maintained at both the six month and one-year follow-up.

"After the surgery I was immediately better," said Coontz. "It was amazing. After the surgery the pain in my shoulder was gone. My arm, I could move it all the way up to the ceiling and back. And my leg was stronger. I didn't use a wheelchair after that. Ever."

And, she added in a clear voice, "I was also much better with speaking. I still needed a little help. But my words were stronger. And it continued to get better. Even now it's still getting better."

How do the stem cells seem to help?

"We're still not exactly sure what's happening," admitted Steinberg. Because the stem cells tend to die off one to two months following injection, he suggested that "it's probably not that the stem cells are becoming neurons and reconstituting circuits. That's not what appears to be going on."

Dr. Ralph Sacco is chairman of neurology at the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine. "A lot of people assume that the point of stem cells is that they will become new brain cells," he said.

"But in fact, we know that much of stroke recovery seems to take place in the parallel or surrounding or connecting regions next to the damaged stroke area," he added. Sacco is also the president-elect of the American Academy of Neurology.

"The latest thinking is that the big virtue of stem cells -- in addition to their anti-inflammatory and immunological effect -- may be their ability to secrete chemicals that activate those surrounding brain cells so that they can start to pick up function for the parts of the brain that no longer work right," Sacco said.

"In other words," Steinberg said, "we think these cells turn the adult brain into a neonatal or infant brain. And infants recover very well after a stroke, because their brains have greater plasticity, and the ability to form new connections between cells already in the brain."

Steinberg said that "somehow putting these stem cells directly into the brain jumpstarts circuits we had thought were irreversibly damaged or dead, with remarkable results."

But as the research team embarks on a larger study involving 156 chronic stroke patients, Sacco urged caution.

"The results do sound amazing," he said. "But keeping in mind that everyone has long been looking for a miracle cure for stroke, it's really premature to draw conclusions. This is one very small study that was really set up to establish safety. More work will be needed."

But for patients like Coontz, the jury is already in.

"The other treatments before surgery didn't work," she said. "Not really. I felt like my whole body was dead. Like it wasn't working at all. Rehab didn't help. But after the surgery, it felt like my body was all of a sudden awake."

The study was published online June 2 in the journal Stroke.

More information

The American Heart Association has more on current stroke treatments.
AIM: MARL







1 June 2016



Suite 102, 3 Eden Street

North Sydney, NSW 2060

Australia

THIS NEWS RELEASE IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.

Issue of Equity- Warrant Exercise

GUERNSEY, United Kingdom, June 1, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mariana Resources Ltd ("Mariana" or the "Company"), the AIM listed exploration and development company with projects in Turkey and South America, announces that 9,800,000 warrants exercisable into ordinary shares at 2.636p each have been exercised and funds have been received. The warrants were issued pursuant to a Convertible Security Agreement with Bergen Global Opportunity Fund, LP, the details of which were announced to the market on 17 September 2014. The facility was subsequently terminated, as announced on 23 February 2015.

The Company will issue and allot 9,800,000 new ordinary shares.

Admission to AIM

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. Dealings are expected to commence on or about 6 June 2016 ("Admission").

Following Admission, there will be a total of 1,199,318,272 ordinary shares on issue.

**ENDS**

For further information please visit website at www.marianaresources.com or contact the following.

In Australia: Glen Parsons (CEO) Mariana Resources Ltd +61 2 9437 4588 Eric Roth (COO) Mariana Resources Ltd +56 9 8818 1243 Rob Adamson RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0041 Will Souter RFC Ambrian Limited (Nomad) +61 2 9250 0050 In U.K. Oliver Stansfield Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5061 Jonathan Evans Brandon Hill Capital (UK Broker) +44 20 3463 5016 Camilla Horsfall Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3224 Megan Ray Blytheweigh (Financial PR) +44 20 7138 3203

About Mariana Resources

Mariana Resources Ltd is an AIM quoted exploration and development company with an extensive portfolio of gold, silver and copper projects in South America and Turkey.

Mariana's most advanced asset is the Hot Maden gold-copper project in north east Turkey, which is a joint venture with its Turkish JV partner Lidya (30% Mariana and 70% Lidya). A maiden mineral resource estimate of 2.03 Moz gold Equivalent (Indicated Category) and 0.97 Moz gold Equivalent (Inferred Category) (100% basis) was reported for Hot Maden on August 18, 2015. Elsewhere in Turkey, Mariana holds a 100% interest in the Ergama gold-copper project.

In Suriname, Mariana has a direct holding of 10.2% of the Nassau Gold project.) The Nassau Gold Project is a 28,000 Ha exploration concession located approximately 125 km south east of the capital Paramaribo and immediately adjacent to Newmont Mining's 4.2Moz gold Merian project.

In southern Argentina, the Company's core gold-silver projects are Las Calandrias (100%), Sierra Blanca (100%), Los Cisnes (100%), Bozal (100%). These projects are part of a 160,000+ Ha land package in the Deseado Massif epithermal gold-silver district in mining-friendly Santa Cruz Province. Mariana acquired 100% interests in the Dona Ines gold-silver and Exploradora East copper prospects in northern Chile through the Aegean Metals Group transaction which closed in January, 2015, with Mariana exploration now being funded by Asset Chile through the provision of $1.65m for a total 50% interest.

In Peru, Mariana is focusing on acquiring new opportunities which complement its current portfolio.

Safe Harbour

This press release contains certain statements which may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as at the date of this press release and include, without limitation, statements regarding discussions of future plans, the realization, cost, timing and extent of mineral resource estimates, estimated future exploration expenditures, costs and timing of the development of new deposits, success of exploration activities, permitting time lines, and requirements for additional capital. The words "plans", "expects", "budget", "scheduled", "estimate", "forecasts", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "may", "will", or similar expressions or variations of such words are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to: the effects of general economic conditions; the price of gold, silver and copper; misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements; risks associated with international operations; the need for additional financing; risks inherent in exploration results; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters; currency and commodity price fluctuations; title matters; environmental liability claims; unanticipated operational risks; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities; political risk; and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's annual financial statements for the most recently completed financial year which is available on the Company's website at www.marianaresources.com. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions and have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

HUG#2017011
Houston, June 02, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --   Noble Energy, Inc. (Noble Energy or the Company) (NYSE: NBL) today announced that it has received approval from the Petroleum Commissioner in the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources for the development of the Leviathan project offshore Israel. The approved Plan of Development (POD) contemplates a subsea system that connects production wells to a fixed platform located offshore with tie-in onshore in the northern part of Israel. The fixed platforms initial capacity is anticipated to start at 1.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (Bcf/d) and is expandable to 2.1 Bcf/d. Leviathan is expected to provide a second source of supply and entry point into Israels domestic natural gas transport system, while also delivering exports to regional countries.



The Company also announced the execution of a gas sales and purchase agreement (GSPA) to supply natural gas from the Leviathan field to IPM Beer Tuvia Ltd (IPM). Under terms of the GSPA, Noble Energy and the Leviathan partners will supply a gross quantity of up to 473 billion cubic feet of natural gas to a new-build independent power facility over an 18-year term, or up to 72 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d). The Company expects natural gas sales to IPM to commence at field startup.

The price for the natural gas is linked to the Public Utility Authority Index and includes a firm floor price. The Company expects total gross revenues under the contract to be in excess of $2.5 billion. The agreement is subject to regulatory approvals.

J. Keith Elliott, Senior Vice President, Eastern Mediterranean, commented, Receiving support from the Government of Israel for the POD further builds upon recent regulatory momentum, including the Israeli Government's approval of the revised stability language in the Natural Gas Regulatory Framework as well as the National Planning Committees approval of the offshore location for the Leviathan platform and pipeline connection onshore. In addition, Noble Energy and partners have made quick progress marketing natural gas to new customers. Combined with a prior executed sales agreement, we have now contracted volumes from Leviathan to the Israel market in the amount of approximately 100 MMcf/d, with substantial volumes yet to contract in Israel and the region. Strong momentum on the regulatory and marketing fronts represents major steps in advancing the Leviathan project towards final investment decision.

Noble Energy operates Leviathan with a 39.66 percent working interest. Other interest owners are Delek Drilling with 22.67 percent, Avner Oil Exploration with 22.67 percent, and Ratio Oil Exploration (1992) Limited Partnership with the remaining 15 percent. The Leviathan field has an estimated 22 Tcf of recoverable natural gas resources.

Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL) is an independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company with a diversified high-quality portfolio of both U.S. unconventional and global offshore conventional assets spanning three continents. Founded more than 80 years ago, the company is committed to safely and responsibly delivering our purpose: Energizing the World, Bettering Peoples Lives. For more information, visit www.nobleenergyinc.com.  

Forward Looking Statements



This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities law. Words such as anticipates, believes, expects, intends, will, should, may, and similar expressions may be used to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and reflect Noble Energys current views about future events. They may include estimates of oil and natural gas reserves, estimates of future production, assumptions regarding future oil and natural gas pricing, planned drilling activity, future results of operations, projected cash flow and liquidity, business strategy and other plans and objectives for future operations. No assurances can be given that the forward-looking statements contained in this news release will occur as projected and actual results may differ materially from those projected. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and assumptions that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. These risks include, without limitation, the volatility in commodity prices for crude oil and natural gas, the presence or recoverability of estimated reserves, the ability to replace reserves, environmental risks, drilling and operating risks, exploration and development risks, competition, government regulation or other actions, the ability of management to execute its plans to meet its goals and other risks inherent in Noble Energys business that are discussed in its most recent annual report on Form 10-K and in other reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These reports are also available from Noble Energys offices or website, http://www.nobleenergyinc.com. Forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management at the time the statements are made. Noble Energy does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances, managements estimates, or opinions change.

The Securities and Exchange Commission requires oil and gas companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose proved reserves that a company has demonstrated by actual production or conclusive formation tests to be economically and legally producible under existing economic and operating conditions. The SEC permits the optional disclosure of probable and possible reserves, however, we have not disclosed the Companys probable and possible reserves in our filings with the SEC. We use certain terms in this news release, such as recoverable natural gas resources, which are by their nature more speculative than estimates of proved, probable and possible reserves and accordingly are subject to substantially greater risk of being actually realized. The SEC guidelines strictly prohibit us from including these estimates in filings with the SEC. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosures and risk factors in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and in other reports on file with the SEC, available from Noble Energys offices or website, http://www.nobleenergyinc.com.
DETROIT, June 02, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marygrove College invites the business community, students, parents, trustees, alumni and the community at large to Explore Marygrove and Meet and Greet its new President Dr. Elizabeth Burns on Thursday, June 23, 2016, from 4 till 6:30 p.m. on campus at W. McNichols and Wyoming in northwest Detroit.



Several activities will take place across campus during Explore Marygrove to introduce the many academic programs and specialties of Marygrove College. Dr. Burns will address the community at 5:15 p.m. in the Marygrove Theatre.

Marygrove College is excited to welcome our neighbors, former students, trustees and the business community to experience all that this more than 100-year old college has to offer, said Dr. Glenda Price, 7th president of Marygrove. We are as relevant today as we have always been, teaching critical thinking and problem solving skills through the liberal arts and imbuing our students with the skills of urban leadership so that they can lead with competence, commitment and compassion.

Marygrove welcomes its 9th president, Dr. Elizabeth Burns, a 1972 alumna of the college and a physician, during this celebration of Marygrove. I am looking forward to personally greeting everyone who comes to campus on June 23rd, she said.

A schedule of events is listed below. Please reserve your spot at www.marygrove.edu/meet-doctor-burns or secondcentury@marygrove.edu. For more information, please contact Dr. Glenda Price at gprice@marygrove.edu or Renee Ahee at 313-927-1438.

4-5 p.m.

Explore Marygrove

Faculty Art Exhibition

Science Exhibits and Demos

Dance Mini-recital by Institute of Music and Dance Students

Studio Poetry Reading

Change the Vibe at Six Mile and Wyoming

The Chapel Windows  Talk and Tour

Visit the Community Garden

Color Purple Garden

Herbal Healing Garden

Book Store Open

Piano and Vocal Recital

5:15-5:45 p.m.

Meet and Greet Marygroves New President Dr. Elizabeth Burns

Remarks by Dr. Burns

5:50-6:30 p.m.

Reception

ABOUT MARYGROVE COLLEGE

Founded by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) in 1905, Marygrove College is an independent liberal arts college and a Catholic institution of higher learning. The Colleges commitment to the city of Detroit comprises an institutional mission and vision for developing urban leaders. The main campus is situated on 53 wooded acres in northwest Detroit.

8425 W. McNichols Rd., Detroit, MI 48221

www.marygrove.edu 313-927-1200
CHICAGO, June 2, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Recognizing its work to assist veterans navigate the Veterans Administration (VA) claims process, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois awarded The John Marshall Law School Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic (VLSC) its Excellence in Public Service Award on May 25. Nominated by the magistrate judges of the Northern District of Illinois, Judge Geraldine Soat Brown presented the award to the VLSC, stressing the importance of the relationship the court has developed with the VLSC.

"The magistrate judges have seen the results of the clinic's work: veterans who appeared before us initially in very bad shape return a few months later looking much better, dealing with substance abuse problems, and feeling less frustrated and angry as they find help," Brown stated. "The VLSC, in turn, has used the connections made though the court's Petty Offense Committee to develop a better relationship with the staff and social workers at the VA hospitals to help each veteran get the support he or she needs."

Prior to the VLSC's involvement, the court's magistrate judges had recognized consistent patterns of concern with the veterans who appeared in court. As the judges were evaluating how to best address these problems, then VLSC Director Joseph Butler contacted the court offering to help. Together they developed a plan where VLSC staff attorneys and students would attend each monthly petty offense call to identify veterans in need of help. If a veteran agreed to work with the VLSC, their case would be deferred, and if the veteran could show they successfully worked with the VLSC, the original ticket would be dismissed. In the six years since this plan was created, the VLSC students and staff have never missed a petty offense call, even when the law school was not in session.

In addition to continuing its work with the court, the VLSC, under the guidance of Executive Director Brian Clauss, provides veterans with free legal services and resources, including assistance with health care and mental health benefits, family law issues, housing matters, and employment and education issues.

Recently, the VLSC secured four new grants to expand its work fighting for the legal rights of veterans to those in rural communities with limited access to legal help. Partnering with Southern Illinois University's School of Law, the new Urban/Rural Initiative will provide legal services to veterans who reside in southern Illinois's rural communities and to the more than 375,000 veterans who reside in the urban northeastern area of the state of Illinois. Illinois has a total veteran population of 721,575.

"There's a tremendous need in Southern Illinois for these types of services," Clauss said. "They simply do not have access to the same resources a veteran in Chicago has."

The grants will also support the VLSC's efforts in the Veterans Court Project where the VLSC provides services to veterans who have pending narcotics felony charges.

About the John Marshall Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Veterans Legal Support Center & Clinic (VLSC) at John Marshall has a long-standing tradition of honoring and working with service members. Started in 2006 by three former service members attending John Marshall, the VLSC is a model for veterans legal clinics throughout the country. It operates out of an award-winning space specifically designed to accommodate veterans and those who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
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Stephen Hawking Has An Important Message About Donald Trump

If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.

LOL Love that, Trump is a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Yup, that's Eagle.

Stephen Hawking is probably one of the most intelligent figures alive today. His formidable body of scientific work has helped humanity understand some of the biggest mysteries about the universe as we know it. With popular books like A Brief History of Time, The Grand Design, and The Universe in a Nutshell, the world-renowned physicist has single-handedly become synonymous with the word genius not just in the world of science, but in popular culture as well.And yet, even he cannot fathom what it is that has made Donald Trump the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential elections. The British physicist appeared on ITV on Monday morning, claiming that Trump is a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Apparently he doesnt understand much of the Republican Partys voter base at the moment.Hawking is not necessarily shy when it comes to politics. In fact, he is an outspoken critic of neoliberal capitalism, often aligning himself with the political left when speaking on social, economic, or political matters.Last year, when asked in a Reddit Q & A session about the possibly apocalyptic future surrounding the increased robotic automation of the global workforce, Hawking insisted that it wasnt automation itself that would lead to an economic disaster for workers, but unfettered capitalism that allows the greedy class of machine owners to siphon their wealth at the expense of the immense majority of the worlds population, who would otherwise benefit from automation if the worlds wealth was redistributed appropriately. He stated specifically:Read in full on: Stephen Hawking Wants The World To Hear His Message About Donald Trump ................................
Agencies Working to Stop Spread of Colistin-Resistant Gene

CDC and HHS are involved. The Department of Defense notified stakeholders this week that its Multidrug-resistant Organism Repository and Surveillance Network at the Walter Reed Institute of Research had identified the first colistin-resistant mcr-1 E. coli in a person in the United States.

A public health response is under way by units of the CDC and HHS after the Department of Defense notified stakeholders last week that its Multidrug-resistant Organism Repository and Surveillance Network at the Walter Reed Institute of Research had identified the first colistin-resistant mcr-1 E. coli in a person in the United States, according to a May 31 announcement by CDC and a May 26 blog post from HHS. They reported that E. coli bacteria carrying the MCR-1 gene was found in a urine sample from a Pennsylvania woman with no recent travel outside of the United States; the gene makes bacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin, which is a last-resort drug to treat patients with multi-drug-resistant infections, including carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), which exists on a small piece of DNA that can move from one bacterium to another, spreading antibiotic resistance among bacterial species. CDC and its federal partners have been hunting for the gene in the United States since it emerged in China last year.

The Pennsylvania State Health Department investigated and has determined the woman did not have CRE, and the bacteria identified is not resistant to all antibiotics, according to CDC, but it cautioned that the presence of the mcr-1 gene and its ability to share its colistin resistance with other bacteria such as CRE raise the risk that pan-resistant bacteria could develop.

"The investigation is currently focused on identifying close contacts, including household and healthcare contacts, of the Pennsylvania patient to determine whether any of them may have been at risk for transmission of the bacteria containing the mcr-1 gene," the agency reported.

Dr. David J. Smith, M.D., deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Health Readiness Policy and Oversight; Cathie Woteki, Ph.D., USDA under secretary for Research, Education & Economics; and Dr. Beth P. Bell, M.D., MPH, director of CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, wrote in the blog post that, beginning in fall 2016, CDC's Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network will provide the infrastructure and lab capacity for seven to eight regional labs and labs in all states and seven major cities/territories to detect and respond to resistant organisms recovered from human samples . State labs will be able to detect new forms of antibiotic resistance, including mutations that allow bacteria to survive the effects of the last-resort drugs, and report those findings to CDC.
News

Microsoft and Xiaomi Ink Android Mobile Device Deal

Microsoft and Xiaomi Inc. announced an intellectual property deal this week that will put Microsoft Office and Skype on Xiaomi's Android-based tablets and mobile phones.

As part of the deal, Xiaomi's devices will be sold with Microsoft Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and Skype applications preloaded, starting this September. Xiaomi's "Mi 5, Mi Max, Mi 4s, Redmi Note 3 and Redmi 3" products will come with those apps included, according to a joint announcement by the companies.

Low-cost device maker Xiaomi sells mobile devices in China and India, but it's also working on globally expanding its products, according to an article published by The Wall Street Journal. Xiaomi is looking to sell its smartphones in the U.S. market, although not this year, per the article.

This deal is characterized as a "cross-license and patent transfer agreement" by the two companies, although it's a little different. Microsoft's has struck many such intellectual property deals with hardware makers using the open source Android operating system, fostered by Google. Typically, the hardware company pays Microsoft royalties for using certain software capabilities, with few exceptions. However, in this case, Xiaomi is reportedly buying 1,500 of Microsoft's patents related to video, wireless and other technologies, per the Journal's account.

While that approach seems unusual, the Journal article cited a Microsoft legal spokesperson as saying that Microsoft periodically sells some of its 60,000 patents.

Microsoft has generally been moving away from the mobile device hardware manufacturing business after acquiring device maker Nokia two years ago. Its latest shift in that direction was an announcement this month of a $1 billion write down and hundreds of job cuts, mostly affecting its Nokia Mobile Oy operations in Finland.

In that announcement, Microsoft signaled it was putting more emphasis on getting Office onto other operating system platforms as part of its mobile strategy. Terry Myerson, head of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group, explained at that time that Microsoft was "scaling back," but wasn't wholly out of the smartphone business. Microsoft's fortunes on the mobile OS side have been grim of late, slipping below 1 percent in Q1 this year.

The Xiaomi deal will potentially extend Microsoft Office apps to "tens of millions of customers and business customers in China, India and around the world," per the companies' joint announcement.
Venezuela's opposition called for calm Thursday after electoral authorities cancelled a key meeting on whether they could go ahead with efforts to remove embattled President Nicolas Maduro in a referendum. Opponents are racing against the clock to hold a recall referendum by the end of the year and ditch the leftist leader, whom they accuse of driving Venezuela into economic and political chaos. The National Electoral Board (CNE) had been due to deliver its ruling on whether it accepted or rejected an initial petition with 1.8 million signatures endorsing a recall vote. But just after their meeting with the CNE was due to start, opposition spokesman Jesus Torrealba said the electoral authorities had postponed it indefinitely. The opposition warns the country faces an explosion of unrest if authorities do not allow a referendum this year. A grinding economic crisis has made daily life increasingly difficult for Venezuelans, who face hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine, daily power outages, the near-paralysis of government offices and violent crime. "We call on the Venezuelan people to remain calm," Torrealba told journalists, saying leaders of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) would hold an emergency meeting on the "unprecedented situation." In a sign of the tension gripping the country, hundreds of soldiers and police fired tear gas to break up a relatively small protest by dozens of anti-Maduro demonstrators just before the meeting was suspended. Rallying to cries of "We are hungry" and "This government is going to fall," the protesters defied the heavy security presence, erecting barricades in the streets and trying to reach the presidential palace. "I'm protesting because we're tired of the lines, of not finding products" at stores and markets, said Francis Marcano, a 21-year-old student who was carrying a stone in his hand, which he said was for protection. A journalists' union said at least 17 reporters covering the protest were assaulted by security forces or robbed by armed thugs. - Long road - The opposition accuses electoral authorities of dragging their feet on the referendum in order to protect Maduro. Maduro's camp in turn accuses the opposition of massive fraud in its petition drive. Even if the CNE eventually accepts the petition submitted on May 2, Maduro's opponents would face a long and winding road to call a referendum. And they may not get there by the crucial date of January 10 -- four years into the leftist leader's six-year term -- at which point a successful recall vote would no longer trigger new elections but simply pass power to Maduro's vice president. For the petition to be accepted, the CNE must recognize at least 200,000 signatures as valid. Signatories would then have to present themselves in person to confirm their identity with a fingerprint scan. The opposition would then have to submit a second petition, this time with four million signatures, or 20 percent of the electorate, for the CNE to organize a referendum. To remove Maduro from office, the pro-recall camp would need more votes than the 7.5 million he won in the 2013 election. - Waiting game - That adds up to a lot of ifs, and political analysts say the CNE could easily stall the process until next year, when Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) could orchestrate the unpopular president's replacement by another party leader. Polls show nearly seven in 10 Venezuelans want Maduro to go. But the divided opposition has struggled to rally a substantial protest movement or effectively wield the congressional majority it won last December, which has been hamstrung by a Supreme Court seen as loyal to Maduro. Venezuela's economy is forecast to contract eight percent this year, with inflation of 700 percent. Home to the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela has undergone a spectacular implosion as crude prices have plunged over the past two years, threatening Maduro and the socialist economic model he inherited from late predecessor Hugo Chavez. Yet Venezuelans have not yet erupted into mass protests, whether because they are too busy waiting in lines, intimidated by security forces or haunted by the violence that killed 43 people during pro- and anti-government demonstrations in 2014.
Burkina Faso police have arrested six "foreigners" suspected of being behind jihadist attacks in January that left 30 people dead, the government and police said. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed it was behind an assault on a top hotel and a cafe, both popular with foreigners, which also left 70 people wounded. "Six individuals of foreign nationalities were arrested on Monday May 30 in Ougadougou," the national police said in a statement sent to AFP. These people are believed to have "sheltered and aided the perpetrators of the attack in Ougadougou, and worked with the ringleader of the attacks (who is) still being tracked down". Burkina's Minister of Internal Security, Simon Compaore, told reporters the arrests were made thanks to intelligence shared by other West African security forces. Security forces have already detained a 38-year-old local man in connection with the attacks on the four-star Hotel Splendid and the nearby Cappuccino cafe. Until this year, Burkina Faso had largely avoided the attacks and hostage-taking by jihadist groups that have wracked other Sahel countries since 2008. On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen killed three police officers in northern Burkina Faso near the Malian border -- the second attack on a police station near the frontier in less than a fortnight. The day after the January attacks, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped in the north of the country where they had lived for more than four decades. The woman, Jocelyn Elliot, was released in early February, but her 82-year-old husband Kenneth Elliot is still being held.
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia will put aside its strong views on curbing immigration and act as an honest broker on the issue when it holds the European Union presidency later this year, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday. The leftist Fico, who was reelected for a third term in March, said last week that Islam had no place in Slovakia, an extension of anti-immigration rhetoric in the election campaign. "We won't change our national position but we won't put it on the table during our presidency. We want to act as an honest broker and reach compromise wherever possible," Fico said at news conference in Brussels that was shown live on the European Commission website. Fico said he supported a return to the border-free Schengen zone after some counties introduced temporary border checks, stronger protection of the bloc's outside borders and a speedy formation of the European border and coast guard. His previous government filed a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against last year's EU decision to redistribute 160,000 asylum seekers among member countries, including those who do not want to take any. He has also criticised the European Commission's plan to reform the so-called Dublin system of EU asylum rules so that each of the 28 states would be assigned a percentage quota of all asylum seekers or have to pay 250,000 euros for each refugee they refuse to take. "The reform of Dublin is one of issues where we see many divisions among member states and we see it will be very hard to overcome them and reach any compromise," Fico said after a meeting with Commission President Jean Claude Juncker. Slovakia has a tiny Muslim community of several thousand and has seen only a few hundred asylum requests from places like Syria in the past year. ($1 = 0.8957 euros) (Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Thousands of people marched in Peru's capital against Keiko Fujimori, the frontrunner ahead of Sunday's presidential runoff. Marchers shouted slogans such as "Keiko No!" and "No to a state run by drug traffickers", an allusion to her father, disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori. His decade in office, veered from elected to almost authoritarian rule, and was plagued by corruption. His supporters however praised his hard line against the communist guerrilla group Shining Path, and some economic strides. Keiko Fujimori, a right-wing populist who would be Peru's first woman president, is the political heir to her father's controversial rule from 1990 to 2000. Alberto Fujimori, 77, is now serving a 25-year sentence for massacres committed by an army death squad during his rule. His daughter, 41, a right-wing populist with the Popular Force party, has 46 percent of public backing going into the June 5 vote, polling firm Ipsos found in a survey also published on Sunday. Her rival, 77 year-old center-right economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, running under the banner of his self-created party Peruanos por Kambio (Peruvians for Change), is lagging with 40.6 percent support. But the group "Keiko No Va" (It is not going to be Keiko) organized the demonstration hoping its last chance to keep her from leading Peru would bear fruit. Front and center in the protest was leftist Veronika Mendoza, who placed third in the first round. She has endorsed Kuczynski, despite huge ideological differences with him, in the hope of derailing Keiko Fujimori. Some demonstrators carried a huge paper doll called an Ekeko, an Andean god of abundance, with money hung around its neck. In this case, it had Fujimori's face on it. Kuczynski, who goes by the nickname PPK, says a Keiko Fujimori presidency would be a return to widespread graft and abuse of power. Kuczynski has vowed to create jobs if elected by boosting business and growth. Peru has one of Latin America's fastest-growing economies despite a recent fall in commodity prices and a slowing under outgoing President Ollanta Humala. Fujimori has promised to spend generously on infrastructure and to have more prisons built as part of a crackdown on crime.
Two US troops were wounded over the weekend in separate Islamic State attacks in Iraq and Syria, Pentagon officials said. The casualty in Syria marks the first time an American soldier has been injured in that country since military advisors deployed there at the end of last year. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the soldier was wounded by "indirect fire" -- a term that typically refers to rocket or artillery fire -- north of Raqa, the jihadists' de facto capital. The Iraqi incident occurred near in northern Iraq near the city of Erbil, also by indirect fire, Davis said. He stressed the troops was "not on the front line" and "were not engaged in active combat." But Defense Secretary Ashton Carter later told reporters that "of course" the troops were in fact in combat. President Barack Obama has repeatedly assured the American public there would be no US combat boots on the ground in Iraq or Syria, but troops are edging ever closer to the front lines, leading many to question what constitutes "combat" versus simply advising local partner forces. The United States has sent more than 200 special forces personnel to northeastern Syria to advise and assist rebels fighting the Islamic State group. American soldiers are focusing on aiding the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition dominated by the Kurdish militia YPG. Fighting is currently raging in northern Raqa eight days after the start of an SDF offensive, with support from air strikes by a US-led international coalition.
Learning Management Systems

Moodle Releases K-12 Edition of LMS

Moodle has introduced new fee-based packaging versions of its cloud-based learning management system intended specifically for K-12 schools. Moodle for School comes in three plans, with basic variations on the number of users licensed to access the cloud service and the amount of file upload space.

Moodle is an open source learning platform with functionality that can be developed with "plug-ins." These are used like blocks that work together to create a custom version of the application. For example, a school might use a plug-in that allows students to perform peer assessment or add specific plug-ins for various types of reporting. Although the "core" of Moodle is managed by Moodle HQ, based in Australia, community members from around the world contribute to its ecosystem. Funding is provided by a network of certified Moodle partners that provide consulting, installation and related services.

The new school packages are available alongside the organization's "Moodle for Free" cloud offering, which was announced last July. That free edition works for classes with up to 50 users and provides for a maximum of 200 megabytes of file uploads. The newest formats come in three flavors: "Tiny," "Small" and "Medium." User counts are 100, 200 and 500, respectively. File upload limitations are 200 megabytes, 400 megabytes and one gigabyte. Annual pricing runs from about $180 to about $722.

All four versions of the cloud edition of Moodle include software that's always kept up to date (currently, version 3.1), offers a personalized site name, includes video and screen-sharing and is mobile enabled. The paid versions include additional modules for a school environment:

Attendance, for enabling a teacher to track and provide a grade for student attendance;

BigBlueButton, which allows up to six users to do online collaboration with video, audio, whiteboards and desktop sharing;

Checklist, which lets the teacher create a to-do list for students to use. Students can also add their own tasks and due dates;

Chemistry editor, to provide a periodic table of the elements, as well as science symbols;

Group choice, to allow students to enroll in groups within a course;

Level Up!, to add gamification features, such as scoring, to class activities;

Quizventure, a game that takes quiz questions from a course and turns them into space ships for students to shoot; and

Word count, which displays the word count for documents to help students monitor progress and stay within limits.

It also offers a new, configurable theme that allows the school to set colors, styles and logo.
Gaming

Nevada Schools to Pilot New Game-Based STEAM Platform

Planet3, a year-old company that has developed a new digital platform intended to use the Earth as a "living laboratory" will undergo pilot testing at 25 middle schools in six school districts in Nevada this fall as part of an early adopter pilot program.

Among those will be the Clark County School District, which encompasses Las Vegas and is the state's largest school district.

Using the Planet3 platform, students will be immersed in games designed to use data from NASA, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and other research sources to learn real-world science that meshes with the Next Generation Science Standards. The intention is to encourage students to gather evidence and craft conclusions through the use of data analytics and visualization.

For instance, students can play the role of a storm chaser to track and predict the path of a tornado. Another mission will take students deep into an Icelandic volcano to learn about earthquakes, tectonic plates and other elements unique to the island's natural environment.

At least eight online and in-person professional development training sessions have been planned to help teachers use the tool. The teachers and districts will offer their feedback throughout the year on the platform, which is expected to go into wide distribution in fall 2017.

Planet3 was founded by a group headed by Tim Kelly, who for 30 years was president of the National Geographic Society. It started out with $10 million in seed funding from the Nevada-based Switch, which developed the Supernap Data Centers. Switch recently invested an additional $3 million in Planet3.

"Planet3 is an advanced storytelling platform for STEAM [science, technology, engineering, art and math]," Kelly said. "It is delivered by a powerful software developed specifically for schools striving to take advantage of new technology."
By Kizito Makoye

KILOSA, Tanzania, June 2 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The huge stock of maize Jumanne Masele put aside last year was enough to spare his family from hunger and earn him cash to repay his debts - or so he thought.

A short while after Masele had finished stuffing the grain into a traditional storage cocoon, he realised much of it had been infested by fungus as ground moisture from heavy rain seeped in through the bottom of his store made of dried soil, sticks and grass.

"There was nothing I could do to salvage my grains - it was a total loss," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Despite a bumper harvest, the farmer, 44, from Mbumi village in the east Tanzania district of Kilosa lost most of his crops, threatening his family's food supply.

"I still don't know how to store my harvests - traditional techniques are no longer effective as the grain easily rots when we get unexpected extra rains," Masele said.

Agriculture is the backbone of Tanzania's economy, providing work for more than four fifths of the population. The rural sector accounts for over half the country's gross domestic product and export earnings, according to national statistics.

Yet as Tanzanian farmers struggle to market their crops, nearly 40 percent of grains are lost to poor storage and extreme weather, costing the nation $332 million every year, the government says.

Efforts are underway to curb these losses. Since 2013, smallholder farmers in nine African countries have been getting help to trade staple foods across borders and store their crops better under a five-year programme managed by Development Alternatives, Inc (DAI), a U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) .-based company that works with the private sector to overcome barriers to development.

As part of the FoodTrade East and Southern Africa programme, funded by the British government, a 3 million ($4.3 million) grant was announced in April to enable 70,000 smallholder farmers in Tanzania and Uganda to access regional export markets.

Story continues

Those two countries produce a surplus of staple foods almost every year, whereas Kenya only grows enough to feed itself one year in five, according to lead agency Farm Africa.

STEP TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Until recently, high tariffs on trade within East Africa meant it was cheaper for Kenya to import crops from outside Africa, but recent policy developments have removed barriers to regional trade, Farm Africa said in a statement.

Since 2012, grain trade policies under the East African Community Customs Union have made it easier for farmers to sell their produce to nearby countries.

Steve Ball, country director for Farm Africa Tanzania, said the new project's push to promote food trade was a step towards agricultural self-sufficiency in the region, and would help lift tens of thousands of small-scale farmers out of poverty.

Such farmers grow 80 to 90 percent of staple crops in the region, Farm Africa noted.

Local experts hope the FoodTrade scheme will curb post-harvest losses while increasing the amount of grain crops for sale outside the peak harvest season.

"(It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) ) will help poor farmers who don't have the resources to invest in better storage facilities for their crops," said Edith Kija, an agricultural consultant and extension officer.

Lucy Mtemvu, Masele's neighbour in Mbumi, who also stocks maize, rice and beans while waiting for market prices to rise, lost most of her crops last year and the year before after they were invaded by rodents.

Local farmers struggle to find a ready market for their produce as millers who previously bought the grain now rarely come after the roads were destroyed by rains, she said.

A 90 kg bag of rice fetched 140,000 Tanzanian shillings ($64) a few years ago. "But now you can hardly get 90,000 shillings - if you are lucky enough to sell," she added.

CREDIT FOR FARMERS

Tanzania's fight against hunger received a major boost from the government's "Big Results Now" initiative which raised maize production from 100,000 hectares (247,105 acres) per year to 350,000 hectares in 2016. But it is only now that the effects of poor grain storage are becoming clear, analysts say.

Tanzania, through its National Food Reserve Agency, owns 33 storage facilities with a total capacity of 246,000 metric tonnes, but officials say that is insufficient.

Farm Africa and its partners will help Tanzanian and Ugandan smallholders store their surpluses of rice, maize and beans.

The farmers will initially sell products to more than 100 moisture-controlled depots with the capacity to stock up to 500 tonnes each and carry out quality checks.

The farmers will also get access to G-Soko, an online marketing platform run by the East African Grain Council, through which they can sell their maize or beans across the region via certified warehouses.

Once issued with a warehouse receipt, farmers can use it as collateral to obtain finance. That will prevent them having to sell for a low price after harvest and buy high later.

The project will also enable smallholder farmer cooperatives to sell their grain collectively, and build strong links with grain traders, incentivising them to grow a larger amount of better-quality crops.

Jacob Kilasi, who lives with his family in a mud-walled shack in Mbumi, lost most of his harvest two years ago when the village was engulfed by floods, destroying stocks of food.

To avoid further losses, Kilasi - who grows maize, rice and pineapples - resolved to sell his crops earlier when prices are still low.

"If I wait, the grains will be infested by insects, and I will get nothing," he said.

Another FoodTrade project in Kenya has attracted 10 warehouses and five banks which have so far provided credit against warehouse receipts for up to 150 million Kenyan shillings ($1.49 million).

"I can't wait to take advantage of this new innovation - it will probably help me sell my maize to Kenya before it's spoilt," said Masele in Tanzania. ($1 = 0.6933 pounds) ($1 = 2,186.0000 Tanzanian shillings) ($1 = 100.8000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Kizito Makoye; editing by Megan Rowling. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) , that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - May 30, 2016) - On Tuesday, May 31, the Fraser Institute will release a new study on health-care spending in Canada and the consequences of spending increases.

The study, The Sustainability of Health Care Spending in Canada, spotlights projected government spending over the next two decades, comparing spending levels among provinces.

A news release with additional information will be issued via Marketwired at 5:30 a.m. (Eastern) on May 31.

Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter | Like us on Facebook

The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute's independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org
(Adds Niger Delta Avengers statement, paragraphs 6-7)

By Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing

BODO/ABUJA, Nigeria, June 2 (Reuters) - Militants launched new attacks in the Niger Delta on Thursday, vowing to bring Nigeria's struggling oil industry to a total halt, and the president cancelled a long-awaited visit to the region.

The army said militants killed six people on Wednesday when they ambushed a boat belonging to state oil firm NNPC in the Warri area.

Separately, the Niger Delta Avengers group said it had attacked two crude pipelines operated by Italy's ENI (LSE: 0N9S.L - news) .

"At about 2:00 am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State," the group said on Twitter (Xetra: A1W6XZ - news) .

"This is in line with our promise to all international oil companies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oil production will be zero."

But the NDA said in a statement late on Thursday that it was not responsible for the boat attack.

"Killing of sleeping soldiers is not our style," the NDA said in an emailed statement.

The Avengers group has claimed responsibility for other recent attacks on Chevron (Euronext: CHTEX.NX - news) and Royal Dutch Shell (Xetra: A0ET6Q - news) facilities. A wave of such attacks have helped drive the country's oil output to a 20-year low.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled at the last minute a visit planned for Thursday to the Delta, source of most of Nigeria's crude.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made the trip in Buhari's place to launch a cleanup programme in an area badly hit by oil spills, vowing to work with community leaders to end militant attacks.

POVERTY AND POLLUTION

No reason has been given for the cancellation of what would have been Buhari's first visit to the region since taking office a year ago. Western allies and local officials have told the former military chief that he needs to address poverty and oil pollution in the Delta to stop unrest.

Story continues

"We are determined to put right the wrongs of the past, where the people of this land were treated unfairly and the environment unduly polluted and degraded," Osinbajo said in a speech in the town of Bodo in the polluted Ogoniland area.

"The cleanup of this land will require change on the part of all those who deal with the Niger Delta environment - particularly the oil companies and our communities," he said.

The Avengers have accused Buhari, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, of ignoring the problems of the predominantly Christian Delta.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme, joined Osinbajo at the ceremony. He said the cleanup "cannot happen overnight" but he hoped the government, oil firms and locals could work together to reduce pollution. (Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja, Seun Sanni in Lagos, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)
OTTAWA, ON--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - The Dairy Processors Association of Canada (DPAC-ATLC) joins its voice to that of Canadian dairy producers in celebrating World Milk Day.

Annually, processors across Canada transform about eight (8) Billion liters of raw milk into the high quality, cheeses, yoghurt, butter, ice cream, cartons of milk and many other products that Canadians enjoy.

"To put it in perspective, processors across Canada purchase the equivalent of some 371,000 tanker trucks of Canadian milk annually, the totality of the domestic production, which is transformed into quality products Canadians can find on the shelves of their grocery stores. This is only made possible through the hard work of both producers and processors" said Jacques Lefebvre, President and CEO of DPAC-ATLC.

The dairy processing sector in Canada creates jobs for over 23,000 families across the country and supports milk production of some 12,000 dairy farms, here at home.

Combined, the dairy producing and processing sectors generates nearly $18 billion a year to Canada's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

About the Dairy Processors Association of Canada

The Dairy Processors Association of Canada (DPAC/ATLC) is Canada's national industry association representing the public policy and regulatory interests of the Canadian dairy processing industry. Members of DPAC-ATLC include some of the most recognized organisations in Canada, including Agropur, Arla Foods, Agrifoods International Co-op Ltd., Danone Inc., Gay Lea Foods Cooperative Limited, General Mills Canada, Kraft Canada Inc., Laiterie Chalifoux, Parmalat, Saputo Inc., and Vitalus.

The dairy processing sector provides work to over 23,000 Canadians and contributes $17.3 billion to our national economy.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Armenia's president has urged German lawmakers not to be cowed by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's warnings of damage to Berlin-Ankara relations and to go ahead with a motion declaring a 1915 mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces genocide. The opposition Greens have pushed the resolution onto the agenda at a time when Chancellor Angela Merkel, driving force behind an EU-Turkey deal cutting the number of illegal migrants entering Europe, can ill afford frictions with Erdogan. German lawmakers are expected to approve a symbolic resolution on Thursday that labels the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians "genocide". It follows similar steps pressed in other parliaments, including France, Canada and Germany. "I am sure: the politicians in the Bundestag see it the same way and will not allow themselves to be intimidated," President Serzh Sargsyan told German mass-selling daily Bild in an interview published on Wednesday. "If one makes compromises for short-term political interests, then one ends up doing so again and again. And that is bad for Germany, that is bad for Europe and the world." Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were massacred in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One. But it denies that hundreds of thousands were killed, that there was any organised campaign to wipe out the Armenians or that there were any such orders from Ottoman authorities. Erdogan said at a televised news conference on Tuesday that the German parliamentary resolution would damage ties between Ankara and Berlin. The migrants deal between the EU and Turkey has eased political pressure on Merkel at home. But it has been under a cloud since its strongest proponent in the Turkish government, Ahmet Davutoglu, was pushed out as prime minister last month. Since then, Erdogan has questioned aspects of the agreement and some of his allies have even threatened to unleash a new wave of refugees on Europe. "I have the feeling that this deal is anyway built on sand and, with a partner like Turkey, will be difficult to implement over time," Sargsyan said. The resolution, which is formally supported by Merkel's conservative bloc, the centre-left Social Democrats and the Greens, uses the word "genocide" in the headline and text. (Writing by Paul Carrel; editing by Ralph Boulton)
DUBAI (Reuters) - A court in Bahrain has ordered the release of a prominent activist, the state news agency BNA said on Tuesday, citing the well-being of Zainab al-Khawaja's one-year old son who lived in the prison with her. Khawaja began serving five sentences totaling over three years in March. The charges related to insulting Bahrain's king, according to her lawyer. She chose to take her son Hadi with her into detention rather than leave him in the care of relatives. A Bahraini judge ordered her release and that of another mother "on account of their humanitarian situation and for the well-being and interests of their children," the public prosecution statement said. It was not clear what the charges were against the other mother, named as Irina Bojutova. Khawaja has been arrested and freed several times since an uprising in 2011 mainly by Bahrain's majority Shi'ite Muslims demanding reforms and a bigger share in government of the Sunni Muslim-led kingdom, and has already served time in prison. Political unrest in Bahrain has tapered off since 2011 due to a security clampdown on opposition leaders and activists. A Bahraini appeals court on Monday more than doubled the prison term imposed on the country's most prominent opposition leader, Sheikh Ali Salman, to nine years from four, a ruling that could increase political tensions in the Gulf kingdom. (Reporting By Noah Browning Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China will "pressure" the United States on maritime issues at talks in Beijing next week because of Chinese concern about an increased U.S. military presence in the disputed South China Sea, a major state-run newspaper said on Tuesday. China has been angered by what it views as provocative U.S. military patrols close to islands China controls in the South China Sea. The United States says the patrols are to protect freedom of navigation. "Beijing will pressure Washington over maritime issues during the upcoming Strategic and Economic Dialogue, as the United States' increasing military presence in the South China Sea is among China's major concerns," the official China Daily said, citing unidentified officials. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. This month, Beijing demanded an end to U.S. surveillance near China after two Chinese fighter jets carried out what the Pentagon said was an "unsafe" intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea. The South China Sea is also likely to feature at a June 3-5 security forum in Singapore known as the Shangri-La Dialogue. China's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday that Admiral Sun Jianguo, a deputy chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, would lead China's delegation at the Singapore talks. At the Beijing talks with the United States, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will attend, other issues will also be on the table. China will bring up the issue of self-ruled Taiwan - claimed by Beijing but which elected a pro-independence party to power in January - as well as the situation on the Korean peninsula, the China Daily added. "The two countries have differing pursuits on major issues at the strategic level. However, the two still have many common interests," the paper said. "Whether it is on the South China Sea issue or on the Korean Peninsula issue, the two countries have a shared security goal to maintain regional stability," it added. The newspaper did not elaborate. China is reclusive North Korea's only major ally but has been angered by Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests and signed up to tough U.N. sanctions against it in March. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore, Robert Birsel)
By Amanda Becker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lambasted Donald Trump's foreign policy platform as "dangerously incoherent" in a speech on Thursday that cast her Republican rival as both a frightening and laughable figure. In remarks that at times resembled a comedy roast, Clinton unleashed a torrent of polished zingers and one-liners to attack Trump's policies and character, suggesting Trump might start a nuclear war if elected to the White House simply because "somebody got under his very thin skin." "Donald Trump's ideas are not just different, they are dangerously incoherent," she said to a room of supporters in San Diego, California. "They're not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies." Clinton, the front-runner in the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee, delivered her speech as she seeks to shift her attention to the Nov. 8 election against likely rival Trump and away from Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, who is continuing his long-shot bid for the nomination. Clinton was speaking in San Diego ahead of California's June 7 primary election. Democratic Party leaders have fretted about how to best oppose Trump, who managed to knock out all 16 rivals for the Republican nomination in part with his uninhibited style of assailing them with personal insults. Trump revels in referring to Clinton as "Crooked Hillary" and dredging up the infidelities of her husband, Bill Clinton, the former president. Clinton's remarks were intended in part to show she would not be cowed and that she could go toe-to-toe with him in scornful put-downs. "He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia," she said as the crowd guffawed, and she suggested Trump would run the U.S. economy "like one of his casinos." During her speech, Clinton predicted Trump, who has been deeply critical of Clinton's foreign policy record, would take to his Twitter account to insult her, and he did. "Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton!" ran one posting during the speech, which included a typo. "Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesn't even look presidential!" Trump has said previously that Clinton is distorting his actual policies. TWO VISIONS Amid the laugh lines, Clinton cited her own experience as secretary of state, in particular her role advising President Barack Obama during the mission to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, to suggest her approach to foreign policy was the more serious. "He praises dictators like Vladimir Putin and picks fights with our friends, including the British prime minister, the mayor of London, the German chancellor, the president of Mexico and the pope," Clinton said, listing some of the allies with whom Trump has verbally sparred in the last year. Obama, who has also been repeatedly mocked by Trump, has criticized Trump as being ignorant or cavalier about world affairs and has said that Trump's rise has "rattled" foreign leaders. Trump has talked tough on foreign policy. He has said he would bring back waterboarding and other brutal interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects that are widely regarded as torture and were discontinued by Obama. Trump has also vowed to renegotiate trade deals, called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, and said he would ask members of the 28-nation NATO alliance to "pay up" or "get out." He has said he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program. Clinton derided these and other positions, promising she would do a better job keeping the United States safe. Standing in front of a backdrop of 19 large U.S. flags, an unusual abundance even by the standards of presidential campaign events, Clinton painted the election as a choice between "two very different visions." "One that's angry, afraid and based on the idea that America is fundamentally weak and in decline," she said, summing up Trumpism. "The other is hopeful, generous and confident in the knowledge that America is great, just like we always have been." Trump has criticized Clinton for her handling of foreign policy during her 2009-2013 stint as secretary of state, including the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by Islamist militants on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. He cites Clinton's support for the war in Iraq, launched by former Republican President George W. Bush, as another example of her shortcomings. In assailing each other's suitability for the White House, Clinton and Trump are reflecting a negative voter mood ahead of next month's party conventions that will choose the presidential nominees. Both Clinton and Trump are facing record-low favorability ratings. A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken Friday through Tuesday shows half of Trump supporters say the primary reason they are going to vote for him is "I don't want Hillary Clinton to win," while 41 percent of Clinton supporters cite their primary reason as not wanting Trump to win. (Additional reporting by Chris Khan in New York and Ginger Gibson in Washington; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Frances Kerry and Leslie Adler)
(This June 1 story has been corrected to add missing words 'United Arab Emirates' in paragraph 36) By Ned Parker ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - For at least a decade, Iraqi business mogul Khamis Khanjar has bankrolled Sunni politicians and fighters alike. Now, he wants to use his multi-million dollar fortune to create an autonomous region for Iraq's Sunnis. Khanjar's emergence from backroom deal-maker to would-be Sunni champion is just one sign of Iraq's continued political drift. Efforts by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to reconcile Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ites have mostly foundered, despite increased U.S. engagement in Iraq. Shi'ite parties and militias are often more focused on their own internal power struggles than brokering a political compromise with Sunnis. Sunni tribes tell security officials and politicians they are at the mercy of both Sunni extremist group Islamic State and Shi'ite militias. Dubai-based Khanjar says he offers an alternative: a federation in which Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds could all run their own parts of the country without formally breaking it up. A Sunni federal region would win billions in investments from Gulf Arab states and Turkey, Khanjar and partners in his alliance said. Last week, Khanjar, a native of the embattled Sunni city of Falluja, announced in a televised address that he was forming a delegation to investigate "extrajudicial killing," the "demolishing and looting of property" and other alleged human rights violations by Shi'ite militia there. "The Iraqi government is granting a political cover to militias and consistently denies the systematic violations of human rights" Khanjar said. The government has consistently denied any involvement by state forces in killings or abductions and said it actively works to arrest criminal gangs behind such actions. Over the past year, the six-foot-tall tycoon, flanked by a gaggle of aides and British private security contractors, has made a series of trips to northern Iraq. He limits himself to Kurdistan, because, he says, his life is in danger from Islamic State and Iranian-backed forces in other parts of the country. He is also paying $65,000 a month to a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House officials to promote his cause in the United States. Iraq's ruling Shi'ite leaders deride him as a destabilising opportunist. Jabbar al-Abadi, a member of parliament from the Prime Minister's Dawa party, described Khanjar's push for Sunni autonomy as "an invitation to tear Iraq apart." Sunni rivals of Khanjar describe him as a self-promoter and accuse him of putting his desire for power above Iraq's stability. Khanjar's advantage is his checkbook, which has helped bankroll political coalitions, finance tribal uprisings and fuel nationwide protests. Sunni and Shi'ite politicians alike have tried to woo him at one time or another, including some who despise him. Former U.S. diplomats say that Khanjar's sizeable fortune and close ties with Gulf States and Turkey allow him to be a secret and enduring force in Iraq's politics. "Khanjar will play any side so as to gain advantage for himself," one former U.S. official said. "Question is: does he really want to influence his country for the best, or is he just protecting and expanding his business networks? Or is it all just a game for a guy who is a billionaire?" That matters because over the past decade, assassinations by Islamic State and Shi'ite militias, and political infighting have severely winnowed the pool of budding Sunni politicians. Ex-U.S. diplomat Ali Khedery, who worked in Baghdad from 2003 to 2010, said "Khanjar is one of the very few Sunni figures with vision, intellect, and money, who is left standing, although he is far from perfect in a country wracked by violence, sectarianism and corruption." Khanjar's history is controversial. Former Sunni guerrillas in Iraq say he helped fund the anti-U.S. insurgency that began soon after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Later, they say, he backed the 2006 pro-American Sunni tribal uprising that helped destroy Islamic State's original incarnation, Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2010, Khanjar says he helped found one of the two main political lists in Iraq's national elections. Three years later, he helped finance nationwide Sunni protests against Baghdad. Ezzat Shabandar, a Shiite politician, who negotiated with Khanjar during the 2010 Iraqi government formation process, described the tycoon as the man the Shi'ite parties had to talk with earlier this decade. "He had power and wealth," Shabandar said, though cautioned that the emergence of Islamic State meant it would be harder for Khanjar to be an unrivalled "strongman" for Sunnis today. Khanjar's net worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. His assets include manufacturing, banking, financial services and commercial and residential real estate across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. Detractors  from former insurgents to Iraqi intelligence officers  say his family built its fortune by setting up front companies for members of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1990s. They accuse Khanjar of seizing his partners' assets for himself after the 2003 invasion, accusations he denies. Asked his worth, Khanjar laughed and answered: "God has been very good to me." PANDORA'S BOX? Earlier this year, Khanjar flew into Iraqi Kurdistan to inspect some of the 14 schools and three clinics he funds for the one million Sunnis who have settled there after being displaced from their homes across Iraq. Dressed elegantly in a dark suit, he was greeted by dozens of Sunni children in matching blue and white uniforms. The children dutifully recited poems praising him as their rescuer from Iraq's sectarian conflict. Khanjar smiled, folded his hands and addressed them. Iraq's Sunnis must fight both Islamic State terrorists and Iraqi government-backed Shi'ite militias, he said. "We are heading towards a borderless, bloody Sunnistan if there is no immediate action by the Iraqi government to address Sunni rights," he told Reuters later. "Once we cross the threshold, no wise men  myself or any other  can close Pandora's box." Khanjar argues that a federal region modelled on Iraq's nearly independent Kurdish territory will grant Sunnis rights and help them to fight Islamic State. The Iraqi constitution allows the country's provinces to create a federal region. Sunni provinces have attempted to do so twice but were rebuffed by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Abadi, who took over two years ago, has endorsed the principle of greater local governance. But he has been reluctant to address the campaign for a broader Sunni region. To push his case, Khanjar has recruited powerful Sunni political allies, including the former governor of Mosul, Atheel al-Nujaifi, and ex-finance minister Rafaa al-Issawi. U.S. officials viewed Issawi as a leading Sunni moderate before former Prime Minister Maliki issued a controversial arrest warrant against him for terrorism in December 2012. But Khanjar and his allies complain that they have been frozen out by the Obama administration. They say U.S. officials do not believe their complaints that the Iraqi government is failing to reconcile with Sunnis or to address abuses carried out by the Shi'ite militia forces. They say the U.S. government has refused to issue visas for Issawi and Nujaifi to travel to the United States after the two visited Washington last spring and criticized the Iraqi government. U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Stuart Jones, denied that there was a deliberate policy to keep the men out but declined to elaborate on why their visas had been refused. Jones said it was against policy to speak about individual visa cases. "The US embassy has no interest in silencing Iraqi voices in Washington DC or anywhere else," Jones said. "Nor do we have that capacity." U.S. officials declined to speak publicly about Khanjar. Seeking to address the impasse with the United States, Khanjar has deployed his wealth in Washington. In September 2015, he hired the Glover Park Group, a lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House and Democrat campaign officials. This winter, he opened an office in Washington. And his current media point man is the former spokesman of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. "We have great relations with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey," Khanjar said, while emphasizing he was an Iraqi patriot. "We want to leverage these relationships." Nujaifi, the former Mosul governor, says he is focused on securing the support of Turkey for the Sunni federal project. The pair are also building their own paramilitary forces to fight Islamic State. Nujaifi says his force now includes 4,000 men from Nineveh province who have been trained by Turkey. Khanjar says he has funded 2,400 men now fighting Islamic State just outside Falluja. He claims to have another 4,000 recruits who are ready for training. Khanjar insists he is trying to save his country for its sake, not his. "Anyone would like to see his country stable and secure," he said. "If it was stable and secure, I would never have thought of going into politics." (Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Edited by Simon Robinson and David Rohde)
By Sylvia Westall KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaiti security service officers raided farmhouses near the Iraqi border late last summer, slicing through carpets and smashing open concrete floors. Hidden in large plastic containers was a weapons cache, the largest discovered in Kuwait's history. State television showed Kuwait's Interior Minister, a senior ruling family member, solemnly viewing the results of the operation. Kuwait charged 25 of its nationals  all of them Shi'ites  and an Iranian with spying for Iran and Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah. The case has opened up sectarian divisions in Kuwait. While Kuwait's Sunni majority and Shi'ite minority get on better than in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, tensions still exist, and relatives of some of the charged men say they are innocent victims of regional politics. It also highlights the delicate position of many of the Gulf's smaller states, which find themselves caught up in a power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran. One Middle Eastern diplomat said Kuwait, a major OPEC oil producer and home to U.S. military bases, was squeezed between the two regional giants, who have jousted in recent months over everything from Iran's nuclear programme to oil production. "Kuwait is in a critical situation, a small dot in a very big triangle," he said. "They are killing themselves to be in the middle." Kuwaiti prosecutors said the men intended to carry out "hostile acts" against Kuwait. Members of the "Abdali cell," as local officials dubbed the group for the place the weapons were found, were charged with buying, transporting and storing weapons and explosives. Several were also accused of receiving military training in Lebanon from Hezbollah, according to an investigation by Kuwaiti Homeland Security referred to by prosecutors in a Kuwaiti court. The men denied the charges. In January a Kuwaiti court found 23 of the 26 guilty of various crimes. Two were sentenced to death, including one, the Iranian, in absentia. The others were fined or received jail terms between five years and life. Three were acquitted. The prosecution is appealing the sentences, saying some of the men should have received tougher punishments. The men have all appealed their convictions. The charges, the lawyers say, were based on confessions nearly all of the defendants allege were extracted under torture. Khalid al-Shatti, a defence lawyer for Hassan Hajiya, the Kuwaiti man sentenced to death, said the case was politically motivated. "There is a conflict in the region and those who pay the price of this conflict are the accused." The Interior Ministry declined to comment for this story, referring queries to the judiciary. The judiciary did not respond to requests for comment. The Information Ministry, which deals with general media enquiries, said it was unable to comment on the topic. The government and state security officials have said the weapons show that Tehran was seeking to destabilise Kuwait and other countries in the region by infiltrating and manipulating local Shi'ite communities. In recent months Kuwait has accused Iran of stirring up local politics and ignoring "basic diplomatic norms." Iran has denied any connection with the alleged cell and has said Kuwaiti authorities have not contacted it regarding the Iranian defendant. Last September, the Iranian embassy issued a rare statement expressing "deep dissatisfaction with the association of the name of Iran" with the case. A senior Kuwaiti government official said that while Iran may not be happy with the court decision "they should respect our laws and they should also respect our internal affairs." Historically, relations between Kuwait's Sunnis, who make up between 70 and 85 percent of the country's 1.4 million citizens, and its minority Shi'ite community, have been mostly amicable. Shi'ites hold important positions in business, government and parliament. And last June, Kuwait's ruling emir comforted worshippers and families at the scene of a suicide bombing in a Shi'ite mosque. Claimed by Sunni extremist group Islamic State, the attack killed 27. But the Abdali case, said Abdullah Bishara, a Kuwaiti diplomat and former secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), has opened up splits. "Iranian politics, Hezbollah politics, have played a role in the agitation of differences in Kuwait," he said. "Abdali sharpened differences." The editor of one of Kuwait's main newspapers, who mixes regularly with senior ruling family members, agreed. The Kuwaiti government overdid it, the editor said. The Shi'ites say: This is against us." GUNS, GRENADES AND EXPLOSIVES The weapons cache Kuwait's security forces uncovered included Kalashnikov rifles, submachine guns, grenades, 144 kg of explosives, and 19 tons of ammunition, according to a 186-page court judgement issued in January. "These are all high explosives. To have them in thousands and tens of thousands of kilograms is very significant," Sheikh Thamer al-Sabah, President of Kuwait's National Security Bureau, told Reuters. But lawyer Shatti, whose own nephew was among those charged and jailed, said the weapons were for self defence. Members of Kuwait's Shi'ite community regularly keep weapons at home, he said, in part because of the rise of Sunni militant groups in the region. "It is in their interest to defend themselves, to defend their honour and defend their homeland, to defend the Kuwaiti government and the ruling family, to keep their weapons," Shatti told Reuters at the start of appeals proceedings in March. Hassan Hajiya, the primary defendant in the case, owns the Abdali farmhouses where the weapons were found. The prosecution said he smuggled the weapons by sea from Iran. Hajiya told the appeals court that the weapons were left over from local resistance to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The defence has asked the prosecution to examine the serial numbers of the weapons which they say will prove the weapons are old. Thamer of the National Security Bureau, which assesses domestic security risks, said the number of weapons suggest they were for more than just self defence and that the case fitted a pattern of Iran-linked militant and espionage activity in Kuwait dating back to the 1980s. "This is the Iranian influence again, like with militias in Iraq," he said. TRAUMATIC INJURIES The men's appeals hinge in part on the evidence used in the trial. The defence questions the testimony of two Homeland Security officers and the Interior Ministry investigation because, it says, they were based on confessions extracted under torture and duress. The defence team wants to see CCTV footage of the interrogations and video from cells where the men were held before the trial. It has also asked for the clothes the men were wearing when they were arrested; one lawyer said he saw blood stains on his client's garments. Homeland Security told the court it cannot locate the clothes. The CCTV footage, it said, was erased. A request for medical files for one of the defendants who was twice taken to a military hospital during interrogations was also denied, according to Fawaz al-Kateeb, whose law firm Taher Group is representing three of the defendants and is coordinating the entire defence team. "So no CCTV, no clothes, no medical files. Is it a fair trial? Are these fair proceedings?" Kateeb asked. An August medical report from the Interior Ministry's general department of criminal evidence, referred to in closed court but seen by Reuters, described doctors' examinations carried out on three of the defendants after they were interrogated. The report said the men, Hassan al-Attar, Hassan al-Bathar and Yousef Ghudunfary, all sustained "frictional abrasions" on their wrists as the result of restrictive handcuffs. Attar had bruising on his upper right arm, Bathar on his neck and left arm, and Ghudunfary had abrasions on his elbows and feet, the report said. It also described "traumatic injuries" seemingly due to a "collision with a solid object" but said the cause was not clear. The men were not in severe physical pain and their injuries were expected to heal within 30 days, the report said. The Interior Ministry declined to comment. The Paris-based Arab Commission for Human Rights said medical reports "clearly showed visible injuries of some of the detainees and confirmed that they have been tortured during their detention." The statement, signed by 13 regional rights groups in February, said the legal proceedings "discredit the image of the Kuwaiti judiciary and State of Kuwait." (Additional reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh in Beirut; Edited by Simon Robinson)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has appealed to politicians to "freeze" their wrangling over his anti-corruption reforms and unite behind the army as it battles Islamic State in Falluja, near Baghdad. Abadi has been grappling with a political crisis since February and has been unable to rally the main blocs in parliament to back an anti-corruption plan that includes a cabinet reshuffle. He ordered the offensive on Falluja on May 22, after the political crisis degenerated into deadly street violence in and near to Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, and a series of bombings, claimed by Islamic State, hit Shi'ite districts of the city. "I appeal (to the politicians) to freeze all differences until the land is freed," he said on state TV late on Wednesday during a visit to the army's frontline near Falluja, 50 kilometers (32 miles) west of Baghdad. "Daesh is the ultimate corruption and whoever prevents us from fighting Daesh is corrupt," he added, referring to the ultra-hardline Sunni group by one of its Arabic acronyms. Since the offensive on Fallujah began, there have been no attempts by demonstrators to storm the Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi parliament, government offices and embassies. Protesters, including followers of powerful Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, had previously stormed the Green Zone twice to press for reforms, on April 30 and May 20. Abadi pledged last December that 2016 would be the year of "final victory" against the militants, predicting the capture of their de-facto capital Mosul in northern Iraq. Falluja is the second largest Iraqi city after Mosul to remain under Islamic State control. It is the first Iraqi city that the group captured, in January 2014. It is a historic bastion of the insurgency against both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led authorities who took over after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, who was a Sunni. (Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Maher Nazeh SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq has delayed its assault on the city of Falluja because of fears for the safety of civilians, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday, as his forces halted at the city's edge in the face of ferocious resistance from Islamic State fighters. Abadi's decision to halt, two days after elite Iraqi troops poured into the city's rural southern outskirts, postpones what was expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against Islamic State. The government, backed by world powers including the United States and Iran, has vowed to win back the first major Iraqi city that fell to the group in 2014. "It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn't among our priorities," Abadi told military commanders at the operations room near the frontline in footage broadcast on state television. "Thank God, our units are at the outskirts of Falluja and victory is within reach." Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government. Islamic State fighters raised their flag there in 2014 before sweeping through much of Iraq's north and west. Abadi first announced plans to assault Falluja 10 days ago. But with 50,000 civilians still believed trapped inside the city, the United Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families in the center as human shields. After heavy resistance from Islamic State fighters, the troops have not moved over the past 48 hours, keeping their positions in Falluja's mainly rural southern suburb of Naimiya, according to a Reuters TV crew reporting from the area. Explosions from shelling and air strikes as well as heavy gunfire could be heard on Wednesday morning in the city that lies 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the Sunni militants, after Mosul, their de facto capital in the north that had a pre-war population of about 2 million. Abadi's initial decision to assault Falluja appears to have gone against the plans of his U.S. allies, who would prefer the government concentrate on Mosul, rather than risk getting bogged down in a potentially drawn out fight for a smaller, potentially hostile Sunni Muslim stronghold like Falluja. "You do not need Falluja in order to get Mosul," a spokesman for a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, said in a phone interview ten days ago when the government first announced its plans to recapture Falluja. However, Falluja is Islamic State's closest bastion to Baghdad, believed to be the base from which militants have staged a campaign of suicide bombings in the capital that has increased pressure on Abadi to act to improve security. BAGHDAD BOMBS PRESSURE ABADI Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, is trying to hold a ruling coalition together in the face of public protests against an entrenched political class. He has called for politicians to set aside differences and rally behind the army during the Falluja offensive. Falluja would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by the government after former dictator Saddam Hussein's home town Tikrit and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western Anbar province. Falluja lies in Anbar on the highway from Baghdad to Ramadi, and capturing it would give the government control of the main population centers of the fertile Euphrates River valley west of the capital for the first time in two years. The United States is leading a coalition conducting air strikes in support of the Iraqi government offensive, and says it is having success in rolling back Islamic State both in Iraq and in Syria. Shi'ite militia groups backed by Iran are also taking part in the offensive against Islamic State, but say they are holding back from participating in the main assault on Falluja to avoid inflaming sectarian tension. "EXTREME VIOLENCE" Although most of Falluja's population is believed to have fled during six months of siege, 50,000 people are still thought to be trapped inside with limited access to food, water or healthcare. The United Nations' children's agency on Wednesday said at least 20,000 children remain in Falluja. "We are concerned over the protection of children in the face of extreme violence," UNICEF Representative in Iraq Peter Hawkins said in a statement. "Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting" inside the besieged city, and "separation from their families" if they manage to leave, he added. The World Food Programme said the humanitarian situation in the city was worsening as family food stocks were depleting, pushing prices to a level few can afford. "The city is inaccessible for assistance and market distribution systems remain offline," the WFP said. "The only food available does not come from the markets, but from the stocks that some families still have in their homes." (writing by Maher Chmaytelli and Peter Millership; editing by Peter Graff)
By Maher Nazeh and Saif Hameed CAMP TARIQ, Iraq (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters halted an Iraqi army assault on the city of Falluja with a counter-attack at its southern gates on Tuesday, while the United Nations warned of peril for civilians trapped in the city and used by militants as human shields. The Iraqi army's assault on Falluja has begun what is expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against Islamic State, with the government backed by world powers including the United States and Iran, and determined to win back the first major Iraqi city that fell to the group in 2014. A week after Baghdad announced the start of the assault, its troops advanced in large numbers into the city limits for the first time on Monday, pouring into rural territory on its southern outskirts but stopping short of the main built-up area. Baghdad describes the assault to retake the city as a potential turning point in its U.S.-backed campaign to defeat the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militants who rule a self-proclaimed caliphate across much of Iraq and Syria. Falluja, where U.S. troops fought the biggest battles of their own 2003-2011 occupation against Islamic State's precursors, is the militants' closest bastion to Baghdad, believed to be the base from which they have waged a campaign of suicide bombings on the capital less than an hour's drive away. Retaking it would give the government control of the main population centres in the fertile Euphrates River valley west of the capital for the first time in more than two years. But the assault is also a test of the army's ability to capture territory while protecting civilians. Although most of Falluja's population is believed to have fled during six months of siege, 50,000 people are still thought to be trapped inside with limited access to food, water or healthcare. "HUMAN CATASTROPHE UNFOLDING" A human catastrophe is unfolding in Falluja. Families are caught in the crossfire with no safe way out, said Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the organisations helping families displaced form the city. Warring parties must guarantee civilians safe exit now, before its too late and more lives are lost, he said. The United Nations said there were reports that the militants were using several hundred families as human shields in the city centre, a tactic they have employed in other locations in Iraq. It said 3,700 people had managed to escape the city in the past week. "Most people able to get out come from the outskirts of Falluja. For some time militants have been controlling movements, we know civilians have been prevented from fleeing," said Ariane Rummery, spokeswoman for UN refugee agency UNHCR. "There are also reports from people who left in recent days that they are being required to move with ISIL within Falluja," she said, using an acronym for Islamic State, also known as ISIS or Daesh. Soldiers from Iraq's elite Rapid Response Team stopped their advance overnight about 500 meters (yards) from the al-Shuhada district, the southeastern part of city's main built-up area, an army commander and a police officer said. MILITANTS DUG IN "Our forces came under heavy fire, they are well dug in in trenches and tunnels," said the commander speaking in Camp Tariq, the rear army base south of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Reuters journalists in the area could hear explosions from artillery shelling and air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition supporting the Iraqi forces. A staff member of Falluja's main hospital said it received reports of 32 civilians killed on Monday. Medical sources had reported that the death toll in the city stood at about 50 -- 30 civilians and 20 militants -- during the first week of the offensive which had yet to involve street fighting. Foreign aid organisations are not present in Falluja but are providing help in camps to those who manage to exit. Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the militants, after Mosul, their de facto capital in the north that had a pre-war population of about 2 million. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the assault on Falluja on May 22 after a spate of bombings that killed more than 150 people in one week in Baghdad, the worst death toll so far this year. A series of bombings claimed by Islamic State also hit Baghdad on Monday, killing more than 20 people. In Washington, U.S. officials said the Falluja operation would take time to complete, without giving a timetable. "The Falluja offensive is tough ... They have faced a lot of heavy fighting in the past couple of days, machine gun fire, artillery fire, not to mention the constant threat of IEDs," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said on Tuesday. POLITICAL PRESSURE ON ABADI The worsening security situation in the capital has added to political pressure on Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority who is trying to hold a ruling coalition together in the face of public protests against an entrenched political class. He has called for politicians to set aside their differences and rally behind the army during the Falluja offensive. Shi'ite militia groups backed by Iran are also taking part in the offensive against Islamic State, but are holding back from participating in the main assault on Falluja to avoid inflaming sectarian tension. Reuters journalists saw hundreds of Shi'ite militia fighters rallying at one location near Saqlawiya, a village north of Fallluja still under IS control. The United States is leading a coalition conducting air strikes in support of the Iraqi government offensive, and says it is having success in rolling back Islamic State. In neighbouring Syria, U.S. forces have also aided mainly Kurdish fighters who have seized territory from the militants, as has the Russian-backed government of President Bashar al-Assad. Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government that took over after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003. It would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by the government after Saddam's home town Tikrit and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western Anbar province, which also includes Falluja. (Reporting by Maher Nazeh and Saif Hameed near Falluja; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Idrees Ali and Timothy Gardner in Washington.; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli and Peter Graff, editing by Peter Millership and Alan Crosby)
By Maher Nazeh and Saif Hameed SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - The Iraqi army stormed to the southern edge of Falluja under U.S. air support on Monday and captured a police station inside the city limits, launching a direct assault to retake one of the main strongholds of Islamic State militants. A Reuters TV crew about a mile (about 1.5 km) from the city's edge said explosions and gunfire were ripping through Naimiya, a largely rural district of Falluja on its southern outskirts. An elite military unit, the Rapid Response Team, seized the district's police station at midday, state TV reported. The unit advanced another mile northward, stopping about 500 meters (yards) from the al-Shuhada district, the southeastern part of city's main built-up area, army officers said. The battle for Falluja is shaping up to be one of the biggest ever fought against Islamic State, in the city where U.S. forces waged the heaviest battles of their 2003-2011 occupation against the Sunni Muslim militant group's precursors. Falluja is Islamic State's closest bastion to Baghdad, and believed to be the base from which the group has plotted an escalating campaign of suicide bombings against Shi'ite civilians and government targets inside the capital. As government forces pressed their onslaught, suicide bombers driving a car and a motorcycle blew themselves up in the capital. Along with another bomb planted in a car, they killed more than 20 people and injured more than 50 in three districts of Baghdad, police and medical sources said. Separately, Kurdish security forces announced advances against Islamic State in northern Iraq, capturing villages from militants outside Mosul, the biggest city under militant control. The Iraqi army launched its operation to recover Falluja a week ago, first by tightening a six-month-old siege around the city 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Falluja, in the heartland of Sunni Muslim tribes who resent the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad, was the first Iraqi city to fall to Islamic State in January 2014. Months later, the group overran wide areas of the north and west of Iraq, declaring a caliphate including parts of neighboring Syria. On Monday, army units were "steadily advancing" to Falluja's southern outskirts under air cover from a U.S.-led coalition helping to fight against the militants, according to a military statement read out on state TV. A Shi'ite militia coalition known as Popular Mobilisation, or Hashid Shaabi, was seeking to consolidate the siege by dislodging militants from Saqlawiya, a village just to the north of Falluja. The militias, who took the lead in assaults against Islamic State in other parts of Iraq last year, have pledged not to take part in the assault on the mainly Sunni Muslim city itself to avoid aggravating sectarian strife. Between 500 and 700 militants are in Falluja, according to a U.S. military estimate. The U.S.-led coalition conducted three air strikes near Falluja over the past 24 hours, destroying fighting positions, vehicles, tunnel entrances and denying the militants access to terrain, it said in a statement. ISLAMIST MILITANT STRONGHOLD Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government that took over after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003. American troops suffered some of their worst losses of the war in two battles in 2004 to wrest Falluja back from Al Qaeda in Iraq, the insurgent group now known as Islamic State. The latest offensive is causing alarm among international aid organizations over the humanitarian situation in the city, where more than 50,000 civilians remain trapped with limited access to water, food and health care. Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the militants, after Mosul, their de facto capital in the north that had a pre-war population of about 2 million. It would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by the government after Saddam's home town Tikrit and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western Anbar province. Falluja is also in Anbar, located between Ramadi and Baghdad, and capturing it would give the government control of the major population centers of the Euphrates River valley west of the capital for the first time in more than two years. On the northern front, the security forces of the autonomous Kurdish region launched an attack on Sunday to oust Islamist militants from villages about 20 km (13 miles) east of Mosul so as to increase the pressure on Islamic State and pave the way for storming that city. The Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, have retaken six villages in total since attacking Islamic State positions on Sunday with the support of the U.S.-led coalition, the Kurdistan Region Security Council said on Monday. That represents most of the targets of their latest advance. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi hopes to recapture Mosul later this year to deal a decisive defeat to Islamic State. Abadi announced the onslaught on Falluja on May 22 after a spate of bombings that killed more than 150 people in one week in Baghdad, the worst death toll so far this year. The worsening security in the capital has added to political pressure on Abadi, struggling to maintain the support of a Shi'ite coalition amid popular protests against an entrenched political class. Monday's bombings targeted two densely populated Shi'ite districts, Shaab and Sadr City, and a government building in one predominantly Sunni suburb, Tarmiya, north of Baghdad. A car bomb in Shaab killed 12 people and injured more than 20, while in Tarmiya eight were killed and 21 injured by a suicide bomber who pulled up in a car outside a government building guarded by police. In Sadr City, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed three people and injured nine. The battle of Falluja is helping Abadi refocus the attention of Iraq's unruly political parties on the war against Islamic State, so as to defuse popular unrest prompted by delays in a planned reshuffle of the cabinet to help root out corruption. In a speech to parliament on Sunday, he called on political groups to "put on hold their differences until the military operations are over." Washington says Islamic State's territory is steadily being rolled back both in Iraq and in Syria, where it has lost ground to U.S.-backed, mainly Kurdish insurgents in the north and to the Russian-backed forces of President Bashar al-Assad. (Additional reporting by Saif Hameed and Kareem Raheem in Baghdad; Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Peter Graff)
By Paul Carrel BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel has public commitments that mean she will miss a disputed vote in Germany's parliament on Thursday on a resolution that labels the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, a spokeswoman said. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier on Wednesday the resolution, which German lawmakers are expected to approve, was "ridiculous" and would damage relations between the two countries. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan urged German lawmakers not to be cowed by Turkey's warnings and to go ahead with the motion. "I am sure: the politicians in the Bundestag see it the same way and will not allow themselves to be intimidated," Sargsyan told German mass-selling daily Bild in an interview. The symbolic resolution labels a mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces in 1915, during World War One, as "genocide". It follows similar steps pursued in other parliaments, including France and Canada. The opposition Greens thrust the resolution onto the agenda at a time when Merkel, a driving force behind an EU-Turkey deal to cut the number of illegal migrants entering Europe from Turkish territory, cannot afford friction with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. "At the moment, this vote is due in the morning or at lunchtime and as things stand the chancellor will not take part in the vote in the German Bundestag because she has public appointments," spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said on Wednesday. By skipping the vote, Merkel risks criticism at home over her stance towards Turkey. Critics accuse her of going soft on Ankara over human rights because of her desire to stem the flow of migrants. COMEDIAN'S CRUDE POEM INFURIATED ERDOGAN In April, she drew fire for allowing German prosecutors to look into charges against a comedian who mocked Erdogan in a crude poem. The comedian, Jan Boehmermann, has accused Merkel of serving him "up for tea to a highly strung despot". Wirtz said Merkel had told her she voted with her conservatives' parliamentary party in an internal straw poll on the Armenian issue on Tuesday at which only one lawmaker voted against and five abstained. Merkel is due to give a speech on digital issues in Berlin late on Thursday morning, before having a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians were massacred in clashes with Ottoman forces but denies that hundreds of thousands were killed, that there was any organised campaign to wipe out the Armenians or that there were any such orders from Ottoman authorities. Sargysan, the Armenian president, urged the Bundestag not to buckle to Turkish warnings. "If one makes compromises for short-term political interests, then one ends up doing so again and again. And that is bad for Germany, that is bad for Europe and the world," he was quoted by Bild as saying. Erdogan said at a televised news conference on Tuesday that the German parliamentary resolution would damage bilateral ties. The migrants deal between the EU and Turkey has significantly reduced undocumented migration into Europe, easing political pressure on Merkel at home. But it has been under a cloud since its strongest proponent in the Turkish government, Ahmet Davutoglu, was pushed out as prime minister last month. Since then, Erdogan has questioned aspects of the agreement and some of his allies have even threatened to unleash a new wave of refugees on Europe. "I have the feeling that this deal is anyway built on sand and, with a partner like Turkey, will be difficult to implement over time," Sargsyan said. The resolution, which is formally supported by Merkel's conservative bloc, the centre-left Social Democrats and the Greens, uses the word "genocide" in the headline and text. (Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
By Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell HELSINKI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp announced more big cuts to its smartphone business on Wednesday, just two years after it bought handset maker Nokia in an ill-fated attempt to take on market leaders Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS>. In a move that clearly puts the stamp of two-year chief executive Satya Nadella on the U.S. company, Microsoft said it would shed up to 1,850 jobs, most of them in Finland, and write down $950 million from the business. It did not say how many employees currently work on smartphones in the group as a whole. Shares of Microsoft were trading around $52 late Wednesday, roughly flat with their $51.59 close Tuesday, but significantly up from $34.20 when Nadella became CEO in February 2014. Remaking Microsoft, known primarily for its software, into a more device-focused company was a hallmark of previous chief executive Steve Ballmer. In one of his last major acts, Ballmer closed a deal to buy Nokia's struggling but once-dominant handset business for about $7.2 billion in late 2013. The deal closed in April 2014, two months after Nadella became CEO. Since then, Nadella has shaved away at the phone business, starting with a 2015 restructuring that put the devices group, previously a stand-alone unit under former Nokia chief Stephen Elop, under the Windows group. Run by Terry Myerson, the Windows division is the company's biggest. A Finnish union representative told Reuters the cuts would essentially put an end to Microsoft's development of new phones. "My understanding is that Windows 10 will go on as an operating system, but there will be no more phones made by Microsoft," said Kalle Kiili, a shop steward. Microsoft said in a statement it would continue to develop the Windows 10 platform and support its Lumia smartphones, but gave no comment on whether it would develop new Windows phones. Global market share of Windows smartphones fell below 1 percent in the first quarter of 2016, according to research firm Gartner. Last year, Microsoft announced $7.5 billion of writedowns and 7,800 job cuts in its phone business. Earlier this month, Microsoft sold its entry-level feature phones business for $350 million. The company said on Wednesday it expected to cut all 1,350 jobs at its Finnish mobile phone unit and close down a research and development site in the country. A further 500 jobs will go in other countries, it said, without giving details. "We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation," Nadella said in a statement. "We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms." Nokia dominated around 40 percent of the world's mobile phone industry in 2008 before it was eclipsed by the rise of touch-screen smartphones. As a result, Nokia and Microsoft have slashed thousands of Finnish jobs over the past decade, and the lack of substitute jobs is the main reason for the country's current economic stagnation. Nokia, now focused on telecom network equipment, just last week said it was cutting around 1,000 jobs in Finland following its acquisition of Franco-American rival Alcatel-Lucent . The Microsoft phone business still has a dedicated fan in Ballmer, who bragged about his device at a San Francisco dinner hosted by Fortune in March. "It's a Windows phone," he said as the audience laughed. "Why wouldn't it be?" (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl, Tuomas Forsell and Sarah McBride; Editing by Adrian Croft and Andrew Hay)
By Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and Kieran Guilbert ABUJA/DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A promising student who dreamed of going to university, Mary was 16 when a woman approached her mother at their home and offered to take the Nigerian teenager to Italy to find work. Pushed to go by her family who hoped she would lift them out of poverty, Mary ended up being trafficked into prostitution. Her voice faltering, Mary described three years of being forced to sell her body, beatings, threats at gunpoint and being made to watch as a 14-year-old virgin was raped with a carrot before being sent on to the streets of Turin in northwest Italy. After being arrested by Italian police, Mary was repatriated to Nigeria's southern Edo state in 2001, but she was rejected by her family and left feeling like a failure. "I returned with nothing," Mary, now 35, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Benin city in Edo. "I hated myself." While Mary's ordeal ended 15 years ago, a soaring number of Nigerian girls like her are being trafficked to Europe - mainly Italy - and forced to sell sex by gangs taking advantage of the chaos caused by the migrant crisis, anti-slavery activists say. Thousands of women and girls are lured to Europe each year with the promise of work, then trapped by huge debts and bound to their traffickers by a religious ritual - the curse of juju. "The victims are getting younger as girls, mainly those in rural areas, are more likely to focus on the positive stories of those who made it to Europe and didn't end up in prostitution," said Katharine Bryant of the Walk Free Foundation rights group. She spoke ahead of the launch of the third Global Slavery Index, which found Nigeria has the world's eighth highest number of slaves - 875,500 - and is a key source country for women trafficked to Europe and sold into sex work. BOUND BY JUJU More than nine in 10 of the Nigerian women trafficked to Europe come from Edo, a predominantly Christian state with a population of about 3 million, according to the United Nations. While Edo is not among the country's poorest states, its history of migration to Italy has fuelled locals' hopes of easy money in Europe - leaving people vulnerable to traffickers, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says. Before going to Europe, women and girls must sign a contract with traffickers to finance their move, racking up debts of up to $100,000. They then must seal the pact with a juju ritual. "I was taken to a native doctor's shrine, and told to bite the neck of a chicken to add its blood to a concoction made with bits of my hair and fingernails, and my underwear," Mary said. This belief in black magic means victims fear they or their family may fall ill or die if they do not pay off their debts. Most of the women and girls know they will have to sell sex but are pressured by their families and deceived by traffickers, said Nigeria's anti-human trafficking agency (NAPTIP). Many have no idea they will live under the control of older "madams" and be forced to work for several years to clear their debts, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Madams, who make up almost half of traffickers in Nigeria, are mostly former victims who target others in order to escape prostitution - perpetuating a cycle of exploitation, the UNODC said in its latest global report on human trafficking. MIGRANT CRISIS Traffickers and gangs in Nigeria are now exploiting Europe's migration crisis - moving girls to lawless Libya, before crossing the Mediterranean to Italy on flimsy, overloaded boats, said Bryant from the Walk Free Foundation. More than 5,600 Nigerian women and girls arrived in Italy by sea last year, up from 1,200 in 2014, and at least four in five were trafficked into sex work, the IOM said. At least 1,250 Nigerian women have landed in Italy this year, up from 373 for the same period in 2015, IOM data shows. Traffickers also take victims to Europe by plane, using forged documents and flying via other West African countries to avoid suspicion, said Mikael Jensen of the UNODC. British airports such as Gatwick are increasingly used as entry points by Nigerian trafficking gangs with forged documents, Spanish police said earlier this year. "Many traffickers are careful with their goods, they don't want to risk them on a dangerous sea crossing," Jensen said. About 3,770 migrants and refugees died in 2015 crossing the Mediterranean, making it the deadliest year on record for those fleeing conflict and poverty, according to the IOM. RE-TRAFFICKED Human trafficking by Nigerian organised crime gangs is one of the greatest challenges facing police forces across Europe, according to the EU's law enforcement agency Europol. A lack of coordination between European states and Nigeria is allowing traffickers to act with impunity, said Kevin Hyland, who was appointed Britain's first anti-slavery chief in 2014. "There has been some progress, but it's been a piecemeal plan, and responsive rather than proactive," Hyland said. Nigerian anti-trafficking official Arinze Orakwe said more European nations should criminalise the purchase of sex to curb the number of Nigerians trafficked into prostitution in Europe. "If nobody is buying, nobody will sell," said the official at NAPTIP, which has rescued some 1,340 victims in Nigeria over the past year, and works with NGOs to support them. The Women Trafficking and Child Labour Eradication Foundation (WOTCLEF) clothes and feeds victims, provides counselling and attempts to reunite them with their families. "But sometimes families are hostile, and not interested in getting them back," said WOTCLEF coordinator Veronica Umaru. Disillusioned by her parents' disappointment at her return home, Mary hoped to go back to Italy before being resocferred to Girls' Power Initiative, a Nigerian NGO that housed her, trained her to run a business and encouraged her to help other victims. Yet Mary says many former victims have been re-trafficked to Italy, and fears not enough is being done to stop traffickers or persuade women and girls not to go abroad and into prostitution. "Girls today, unlike me, know exactly what they are in for when they agree to go to Italy to work," Mary says tearfully. "But they do not understand the trauma they will face." (Reporting by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and Kieran Guilbert, writing By Kieran Guilbert, editing by Alisa Tang. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
Qatar's Energy Minister and OPEC President Mohammed al-Sada sits behind an OPEC flag during a news conference after an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, June 2, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader

VIENNA (Reuters) - Qatar's Energy Ministry said on Thursday OPEC members had agreed to meet in Algeria in September on the sidelines of the global energy forum.

Mohammed al-Sada, Qatar's energy minister, is the current president of the OPEC conference.

(Reporting By Rania El Gamal; Writing By Maha El Dahan)
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia will put aside its strong views on curbing immigration and act as an honest broker on the issue when it holds the European Union presidency later this year, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday. The leftist Fico, who was reelected for a third term in March, said last week that Islam had no place in Slovakia, an extension of anti-immigration rhetoric in the election campaign. "We won't change our national position but we won't put it on the table during our presidency. We want to act as an honest broker and reach compromise wherever possible," Fico said at news conference in Brussels that was shown live on the European Commission website. Fico said he supported a return to the border-free Schengen zone after some counties introduced temporary border checks, stronger protection of the bloc's outside borders and a speedy formation of the European border and coast guard. His previous government filed a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice against last year's EU decision to redistribute 160,000 asylum seekers among member countries, including those who do not want to take any. He has also criticised the European Commission's plan to reform the so-called Dublin system of EU asylum rules so that each of the 28 states would be assigned a percentage quota of all asylum seekers or have to pay 250,000 euros for each refugee they refuse to take. "The reform of Dublin is one of issues where we see many divisions among member states and we see it will be very hard to overcome them and reach any compromise," Fico said after a meeting with Commission President Jean Claude Juncker. Slovakia has a tiny Muslim community of several thousand and has seen only a few hundred asylum requests from places like Syria in the past year. (This refiled version of the story fixes headline). (Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - The Turkish army killed five Islamic State militants in Syria in cross-border shelling, Turkish military sources said on Thursday, hitting positions west of where an offensive on militants was launched by Syrian fighters with U.S. backing. Thousands of Syrian rebels supported by a small U.S. special operations team launched a major offensive on Tuesday to drive Islamic State from the "Manbij pocket" near the Turkish border, which Islamic State has used as a logistics hub. Washington informed Ankara of the Manbij operation, but it was beyond the range of Turkish artillery and Turkey would not back a campaign in which Syrian Kurdish fighters played a role, another Turkish military source said on Wednesday. Turkish border guards fired artillery at two Islamic State positions near the Syrian town of Azaz on Wednesday, the Turkish military sources said, west of the U.S.-backed operation and directly south of the Turkish border town of Kilis, which has been repeatedly hit by Islamic State rockets. Turkey objects to the United States' backing of the Kurdish YPG militia against Islamic State in Syria because it considers the group to have deep ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group waging an insurgency in the Turkish southeast. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Wednesday said weapons given to the YPG militia in Syria were making their way to PKK militants in Turkey. "The side elements of the terrorist organization (PKK) in Syria and Iraq are procuring these in the name of the struggle against terrorism and transfer them to the terrorist organizations in Turkey. This is unacceptable," he said. Turkey is trying to stamp out the PKK insurgency after it re-ignited last July when a two-year ceasefire collapsed. The United States and Turkey both list the PKK as a terrorist group. Turkish jets struck PKK camps in northern Iraq early on Thursday and destroyed seven rebel targets the Metina area, the military sources also said. The PKK is mainly based in mountainous northern Iraq, and Turkey regularly enters Iraqi airspace to strike their camps and weapon stores, despite objections from Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. (Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Raissa Kasolowsky)
By Phil Stewart and John Davison WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S.-backed fighters opened a major new front in Syria's war, launching an offensive to drive Islamic State out of a swathe of northern Syria it uses as a logistics base and appearing to make swift initial battlefield advances. The operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of quiet preparations, aims to choke off the group's access to Syrian land along the Turkish border that the militants have long used to move foreign fighters back and forth to Europe. "It's significant in that it's their last remaining funnel" to Europe, a U.S. military official told Reuters, which was first to report the offensive. A small number of U.S. special operations forces will support the push on the ground to capture the "Manbij pocket" of territory, acting as advisers and staying back from the front lines, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning. "They'll be as close as they need to be for the (Syrian fighters) to complete the operation. But they will not engage in direct combat," the official said. The operation will also count on air power from the U.S.-led coalition, which pounded Islamic State positions near Manbij with 18 strikes on Tuesday, including six militant tactical units, two headquarters facilities and a training base. A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town. It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that Islamic State defences stationed on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign. ASSAULT Driving Islamic State from its last remaining foothold at the Turkish border has been a top priority of the U.S.-led campaign against the group. The group controls about 80 km (50 miles) of the frontier stretching west from Jarablus. Still, some U.S. military and intelligence officers caution that Islamic State has proved adaptable, willing to change tactics. In Iraq, for example, the Sunni extremist group has countered some territorial and other losses by staging attacks in Baghdad, the seat of the countrys Shiite-led government. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said U.S.-led air strikes in support of the ground operation killed 15 civilians including three children near Manbij in the past 24 hours. The Observatory's reporting is based on an activist network in Syria. It said the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, which is conducting the assault to capture the Manbij pocket, had taken 16 villages and was 15 km (9 miles) from Manbij town itself. The U.S. officials said earlier the operation would be overwhelmingly comprised of Syrian Arabs instead of forces with the Kurdish YPG militia, who will only represent about a fifth or a sixth of the overall force. That is seen as important to NATO member Turkey, which has opposed any further expansion of Syrian Kurdish sway at the frontier. Ankara sees the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, who already control an uninterrupted 400-km (250-mile) stretch of the border, as terrorists and has been enraged by U.S. backing for the militia in its battle with Islamic State in Syria. But the Observatory said the Kurdish YPG militia made up the majority of the fighters taking part in the SDF assault. SDF and YPG officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The U.S. officials told Reuters the YPG would only fight to help clear Islamic State from the area around Manbij. Syrian Arab fighters would be the ones to stabilise and secure it once Islamic State is gone, according to the operational plans. "After they take Manbij, the agreement is the YPG will not be staying. ... So you'll have Syrian Arabs occupying traditional Syrian Arab land," the official said. TURKISH SENSITIVITIES A U.S. official said Turkey supported the operation, but another clarified it was not expected to directly participate militarily. A Turkish military source said Ankara had been informed by Washington about the operation but could not contribute to it because of the involvement of Kurdish YPG militia fighters and because it was beyond the range of artillery stationed in Turkey. Still, Turkey has been shelling Islamic State positions in northern Syria by firing across the border in recent weeks. The operation precedes an eventual push by U.S.-backed Syrian forces toward the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and the prime objective in Syria for U.S. military planners. The U.S. military official said depriving Islamic State of the Manbij pocket would help isolate the militants and further undermine their ability to funnel supplies to Raqqa. U.S. President Barack Obama has authorised about 300 U.S. special operations forces to operate on the ground from secret locations inside Syria to help coordinate with local forces to battle Islamic State. One U.S. service member was injured north of Raqqa over the weekend, the Pentagon said. The YPG has been the most effective ally on the ground for U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State, and last year captured large areas from it in Hasaka province. The United States hopes that success will draw more and more recruits from Arab populations in Syria to battle the militants and reclaim territory from it. U.S. officials caution that territorial gains would not spell the end of Islamic State, which has "metastasized" and established itself outside of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, spreading to Libya, Afghanistan and beyond. "It would be premature to say that the gains in Syria, even if theyre sustained, will spell defeat for ISIL, any more than the pummelling of al-Qaeda in Pakistan has meant the end of that group, said one official, using an acronym for the group. "They arent nations that will surrender," the official added, saying the ideas driving them were far "harder to kill." (Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara and John Walcott in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)
By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe is seeking support from its neighbours to be allowed to engage in international trade in ivory and will not burn its 70 tonnes of ivory stocks as Kenya did last month, the environment minister said on Wednesday. Zimbabwe and Namibia are bidding to open up international trade in elephant ivory, against initiatives led by Kenya for a complete global ban. Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri told diplomats from the Southern African Development Community that Zimbabwe was counting on their support at the next U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting in September. Muchinguri said banning trade in ivory would not stop poaching and gave the example of how the rhino population remained under threat 40 years after trading in the rhino horn was outlawed by CITES. "There is no tangible evidence that trade bans have ever saved a species from extinction," Muchinguri said. "It is imperative for our regional economy that SADC countries unite in defending our right to sustainably use our natural resources." Muchinguri said plans by the European Union to ban hunting trophies from Africa, as the United States did after the killing of Cecil the lion last year, would cause hunting revenues to fall and push people living near wildlife to resort to poaching. Cash-strapped Zimbabwe says trade is the only way to pay for the costs of protecting its 83,000 elephants. Zimbabwe says it has 70 tonnes of raw ivory in government storage estimated to be worth $35 million. "To us, burning is not an option, we need the resources for sustainable wildlife conservation," Muchinguri said. On May 3, Zimbabwe put the wild animals in its national parks up for sale, saying it needed buyers to step in and save the beasts from a devastating drought. Democratic Republic of Congo ambassador Mwampanga Mwana Nanga said his country supported Harare's proposals and was talking to Zimbabwe on the possibility of importing wildlife, including elephants. At a meeting of African countries in Uganda on Wednesday on protecting lions, delegates agreed that carefully controlled hunting could help keep the species from extinction. The final communique from the meeting of 28 states convened by CITES said: "the benefits that trophy hunting, where it is based on scientifically established quotas ... contributed to the conservation of lion populations." Trophy hunting has been in the global media since Cecil the lion was killed in Zimbabwe by an American dentist after it strayed outside Hwange National Park. Lion numbers in Africa fell 43 percent between 1993 and 2014. But in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, which have regulated hunting industries, the lion populations have grown, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Additional reporting by Ed Stoddard in Johannesburg; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
There has been a significant increase in the number of GP-led transactions reviewed by LPs over the past 12 months, according to a study by Capstone Partners focused on GP-led Secondaries.
A new development over the proposed Costco Wholesale poultry processing plant surfaced this week when opposition to the proposal, emboldened by the support of Jane Kleeb of Nebraska Bold, pressured the City of Fremont with a lawsuit.

Kleeb narrowed the focus of the accusations to an issue concerning the legality of a monetary exchange between Costco Wholesale and the City of Fremont in the form of a reimbursement for services rendered. The issue primarily encompasses two components: a contract agreement and a reimbursement agreement that the opposition believes is the illegal use of tax dollars to pay for corporate expenses.

The first component addresses a contract existing between the Fremont Department of Utilities (DU) and HDR Inc., a design firm out of Omaha that specializes in engineering, architecture, environmental and construction services. The contract addresses the DUs agreement with HDR Inc. to meet a timeline set for January of 2018 by Costco for the functional operation of its proposed facility. The DU plans to contract with HDR Inc. for consultation engineering and design services pertaining to the feasibility of establishing water and waste water utility services. The location of these services would lead south of Fremont to the approximately 400 acres upon which the Costco operation would sit, known as Hills Farm.

A staff report presented to the Fremont City Council Brian Newton, general manager of utilities, stated the fee estimate for the utility extension services comes to $195,825 to be paid by Fremont to HDR Inc. That sum includes costs such as project management, data gathering, documents, permits and also the construction phase.

The second issue, and the one that Costco opposition groups dispute, concerns a reimbursement and indemnification agreement between Costco and the City of Fremont. According to the staff report, that agreement  between Costco and the DU  obligates Costco to reimburse a total of $195,825 to the DU for the services provided by HDR.

Opposition accused the city of using tax dollars to cover the utility extension service. According to Kleeb, the use of tax payer dollars to fund corporate expenses is illegal. In an interview she stated that during Nebraska Bolds fight with the Keystone XL pipeline, that specific topic played a key role in halting pipeline construction.

Government agencies cannot use tax payer dollars to pay for corporate expenses even if they plan on getting reimbursed, Kleeb said.

Kleeb informed the city that if the agreement between Fremont and Costco turns out to be the illegal use of tax dollars then the opposition will file a lawsuit against the city through the Domina Law Group out of Omaha, a firm that worked with Nebraska Bold in its opposition to Keystone.

However, according to Newton and Fremont Mayor Scott Getzschman, tax dollars do not serve as the financial source for the utility extension.

Getzschman specified that the agreement is between the DU and Costco, not between the City of Fremont and the Costco  clearly stated on the documents available on the city council agenda packet for May 31. The DU uses rates collected from water, gas and electric bills to cover the cost of all their projects Getzschman added, while only the city uses taxes. The only part the city council played in the agreement was the approval process.

Truly, it is a distinction as to how it would be paid for, Getzschman said. No tax payer dollars will be spent.

We dont think theres an issue, Newton said. I think (Kleeb) is mistaken because this (money) is rate payer money. The department of utilities is using money collected from (utility rates)  it is not tax payer money  it would be irresponsible to ask rate payers to pay for someone else.

Newton described the agreement as consistent with the way a city utilities sector operates. He explained that as a city expands and grows it requires further utility districts to be established. Those improvements are funded by the department of utilities. In the future, as housing developments spring up or new businesses arrive, they will establish connection to those utilities. Newton clarified that the connection fee serves as the reimbursement to the department of utilities for the establishment of that infrastructure.

Newton also stated that the city continues to work with the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality to make improvements in its waste water treatment plant. Currently, the city falls under a consent decree with DEQ to resolve issues related to an out of date treatment plant needing mandatory upgrades.

Weve been working with the DEQ for over a year now. Newton said. The state knows we need to make improvements and theyve (imposed) a consent decree to give us time to make the appropriate improvements.

Additionally, the indemnification agreement between the city and Costco clearly states that the construction of the water and sewer line extensions will be established for, and subsequently, owned by Costco. It states that should Costco back out of their plan to establish a large poultry facility in the area of the proposed utility extensions, they would owe the city any out-of-pocket expenses that accrued prior to their decision to discontinue. Costco will also compensate the city for any additional added costs should the corporation fail to provide the reimbursement; such costs would include legal fees, regulatory penalties, damages and fines.

Yes (Costco) can cancel (the agreement) and then yes we would cancel the agreement with HDR, Newton said. And (Costco) would owe us any out of pocket services that we incurred. So it doesnt cost the department of utilities anything.

Kleeb maintained her reservations. She said she has witnessed the business practices of companies like HDR Inc. and Costco. Those practices give her cause to question such contracts and agreements between governments and large corporations. She also criticized Costco for the consistent curtain of secrecy it uses to divide itself from the community of Fremont. She highlighted the fact that most of the information received thus far trickles its way to the citizens through middlemen like city officials and other community organizations.

If Costco is a good corporate citizen, they would be the one telling us. They would show their face, be on the ground and be the ones earning the trust, Kleeb said.

Getzschman reiterated his support.

A project like this is so exciting because Costco would be a large user of all utilities, Getzschman said. And because they would be such a large user it will help offset projects and other upgrades it really allows us to keep utility costs and rates much lower.
Nebraska Department of Roads will hold an Information Open House June 16 regarding the proposed improvement of Nebraska Highway 63 (N-63), in Cass County, known as Alvo North.

The open house will be held from 4:00 6:00 p.m. at the Alvo Fire Station  Fire Department and Rescue Squad Meeting Room, 135 Main Street, in Alvo.

The proposed project would begin just south of the northern corporate limits of the Village of Alvo, at mile marker (MM) 4.20, and extend north to MM 10.49, approximately 0.32 miles south of the Interstate 80 (I-80) and N-63 interchange. The planned construction would replace the existing asphalt pavement with doweled concrete pavement on a shifted alignment for approximately 6.29 miles, which would include 0.14 miles of shoulder work on N 63. The alignment of N-63 would be shifted to the west or east of the existing highway centerline at various locations along the project to minimize impacts to streams, wetlands, homes and two cemeteries.

Construction could begin as early as spring of 2017 with completion by fall of 2018. The proposed project would be constructed in two phases and would require detouring N-63 traffic.

A designated detour would be provided, utilizing U.S. Highway 34 (US-34), Nebraska Highway 50 (N-50), Nebraska Highway 66 (N-66), and I-80. Phase 1 would begin in spring of 2017 and take approximately one construction season. It is anticipated that work would begin on the south end, just north of Alvo, and extend to a point south of Church Road.

The detour would be temporarily lifted during the winter of 2017 and put back in place in the spring of 2018 to begin work on Phase 2. Work would begin a point south of Church Road to the end of the project, just south of the I-80 Interchange, and would be complete by fall of 2018. During the 2018 construction season (Phase 2) the already completed south portion of the highway would be made available to local traffic.

The proposed project would require the acquisition of additional property rights from adjacent landowners, which includes new right-of-way (ROW), permanent easements (PE), and temporary easements (TE), for construction throughout the project area. Access to adjacent properties would be maintained during construction, but may be limited at times due to phasing requirements.

Personnel from the Department of Roads will be available to answer questions, receive comments, and discuss any aspect of the proposed highway improvement project. Information regarding the project will be available after the meeting on the NDOR website at www.roads.nebraska.gov/projects/future-projects/ by clicking on the Alvo North link.
by Blaine Blontz | Thu, Jun 2nd 11:39am EDT

Hunter Pence will be placed on the 15-day disabled list due to his hamstring injury, the team has announced.

Fantasy Impact:

Pence suffered the injury during Wednesday's game. The Giants have said that it's similar to the one that sidelined Pence last month for a stretch of games. While Pence was able to avoid the DL that time, he won't be as lucky at this point. Owners will want to look for the grade of the strain to help determine how long they'll be without their OF. He's been one of the most productive hitters for San Francisco with an OPS of .861 and seven HRs.
On June 1, registered nurses in California, Ohio, and West Virginia will be participating in a national day of action to call for safe patient care and fair treatment of RNs at Community Health Systems and Quorum Health Corporation facilitiesstating that the for-profit corporations are not making patients their first priority.

"I work at Watsonville Community Hospital in California because this is where I live, and I wanted to be a registered nurse who cares for my community. But since CHS/Quorum took over our hospital, the dangerous short staffing, deteriorating patient care conditions, and retaliation against nurses who speak out makes me realize how truly little this lawless corporation cares about any of us, said Shanandrea Castro, RN. Our nurses are joining this national day of action on June 1 to let CHS/Quorum know that we will never back down as long our patients' and community's rights and safety are put at risk."To draw attention to RN concerns, the following actions will take place:JUNE 1 NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION TO CALL FOR SAFE PATIENT CARE, FAIR WORKING CONDITIONSCORRECTION: Watsonville Community Hospital, Watsonville, CA  Informational Picket, Vigil: 4 p.m.- 6 p.m. PSTContact Teresa Mack at 510-289-3291Affinity Medical Center, Massillon OH  Informational Picket  6:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m. ESTContact Michelle Mahon at 234-207-6706Barstow Community Hospital, Barstow, CA  Informational Picket  6 p.m.  8 p.m. PSTContact James Moy at 818-433-2119Greenbrier Valley Medical Center, Ronceverte, WV  RNs will take part in a variety of activities to draw attention to safe patient care.For details, contact Michelle Mahon at 234-207-6706Bluefield Regional Medical Center, Bluefield, WV  RN Media Availability, 9 a.m.-12 noonContact Vanessa Sylvester at 207-441-6762RNs from CHS and QHC facilities recently spoke at the CHS shareholders meeting about their belief that these systems do not pay attention to RNs regarding patient safety issues, including safe staffing. Many studies have shown that when there is a safe nurse-to-patient ratio, patients have better health outcomes including a reduction in hospital acquired infections (HAIs), falls, and bedsores. A University of Pennsylvania study has shown that on a medical floor with appropriate ratios, patient deaths could be reduced by 14 percent.Affinity nurses are united and focused on our mission to provide safe patient care at all times said, Stephanie Still, RN, of Affinity Medical Center in Massillon, Ohio. We are committed to securing these protections for patients in our contract, as well as expanding them to all Ohio patients. Ohio nurses have even worked with our Senators to introduce SB 324 The Ohio Hospital Patient Protection actwhich would set an enforceable limit on the number of patients that any nurse could be made to care for at any one time. RNs know from experience that less profitable units and facilities CHS hospitals have ended up closing their doors. In 2014, at Fallbrook Hospital in California, the corporation suspended OB services, then demanded the cash-starved local healthcare district compensate CHS for lossesbefore eventually walking away from operating the hospital, which was shuttered within weeks. RNs will be speaking out about recent CHS threats to close the Bluefield Regional Medical Center OB department and call on CHS to maintain all services and units at the hospital.CHS has also violated the National Labor Relations Act many times including the illegal discharge of an RN, bad faith bargaining, and other illegal actions including intimidations of nurses. CHS is current on trial with the National Labor Relations Board for this activity.For more information: http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/state/eyeonchs National Nurses United Press Release, 6/1/16National Nurses United
Oakland, May 31, 2016  New data analyses conducted by the Drug Policy Alliance and ACLU of California (see PDF) find that racial disparities in marijuana policing have persisted, following the reduction of low-level marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to an infraction in 2011. Possession of under an ounce of marijuana is punishable in California by a base fine up to $100 (plus substantial fees).

Despite marijuana usage rates being similar across racial and ethnic lines, data provided by the Los Angeles and Fresno Police Departments show that black and Latino people in those cities were issued marijuana possession citations at higher rates than white people in the years immediately following the penalty change from misdemeanor to infraction. The data also reveal that marijuana possession enforcement falls mostly on young people. In both cities, the majority of infractions were issued to persons 29 years of age and younger.In both cities black people are issued marijuana possession infractions at nearly 4 times the rate of white people and Latinos are cited at nearly 1.5 times the rate of white people. In Los Angeles, approximately 1 in 532 black people are cited for a marijuana possession infraction as compared to 1 in 1,351 Latinos and 1 in 1,923 white people. The numbers are even more stark in Fresno, where approximately 1 out of every 200 black people are issued marijuana infractions as compared to 1 in 457 Latinos and 1 in 800 white people.Racial disparities in marijuana enforcement are widespread and longstanding. Los Angeles and Fresno are very different places; yet they reveal similar disparities. Its likely that young black and Latino Californians experience these disparities statewide, said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, Criminal Justice and Drug Policy director for the ACLU of California. A $100 citation can easily become several times that, after all the fees are added. This presents a significant burden for young people and low-income families.It is disappointing to see that even at the level of infractions, California law enforcement are incapable of applying the law equally across racial lines, said Alice Huffman, president of the CA-Hawaii NAACP. I am hopeful that full legalization as proposed in the Adult Use of Marijuana Act will drastically reduce the numbers of young people of color being funneled into the criminal justice system for minor drug offenses.In November 2016, Californians will have the chance to vote for the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA). Voting for the AUMA will not only regulate the marijuana industry in the state but will also remove marijuana possession penalties both prospectively and retroactively for adults. For youth, these penalties will be replaced with drug treatment and education in an effort to reduce the harms associated with criminal justice involvement at an early age.While many may believe that marijuana is already legal in California, these data show that young adults of color continue to experience hugely disproportionate enforcement, said Amanda Reiman, manager of Marijuana Law and Policy for the Drug Policy Alliance. The only way to begin to unravel this legacy of disparate enforcement is to move marijuana into a fully regulated market at the statewide level.Learn moreFact Sheet: Why Marijuana Decriminalization Isn't EnoughACLU of Northern California
Caliber Charters was started in the San Francisco offices of Fortress Investments on the the 42nd floor at One Market Plaza in the Spear Tower on October 31, 2013. It's board of directors are nearly all speculators and hedge fund operators.Caliber Charter Board of DirectorsRon Beller has been active in education for the past 11 years. He led the Children First reform program and restructuring of the New York City school system, the largest in the country with more than one million students, working under Chancellor Joel Klein. He is co-founder and Chair of Governors of King Solomon Academy an all-through state school in London which has been rated Outstanding, the highest ranking by OFSTED, the UK schools inspectorate. He is a co-founder and board member of Ark Schools, a high performing network of 31state schools in the UK and is a founding board member of Leading Educators, a New Orleans based teacher leader training organization. Ron was founder and CEO of investment companies Branch Hill Capital and Peloton Partners and was a partner at Goldman Sachs, a global investment bank. Ron is a graduate of Brown University. He is married with three children.Pete Briger, Board MemberPete Briger is a principal and Co-Chairman of the board of directors of Fortress. He has served as a member of the board of directors of Fortress since November 2006 and was elected Co-Chairman in August 2009. Pete has been a member of the Management Committee of Fortress since March 2002. He is responsible for the Credit and Real Estate business at Fortress. Prior to joining Fortress in March 2002, Pete spent fifteen years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he became a partner in 1996. He serves on the board of Tipping Point, a non-profit organization serving low income families in the Bay Area. Pete received a B.A. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.Dan Katzir, Board MemberDan Katzir joined Alliance College-Ready Public Schools in LA as CEO and President in March 2015. Most recently, Katzir has been an independent strategic education advisor to CEOs and boards of directors in school districts, charter management organizations, state departments of education, and education for-profit and non-profit organizations. He has helped numerous clients across the country in curriculum design, operational planning, executive/board training, and many other issues educational institutions and organizations face today. Prior to serving as an independent consultant, Katzir was the founding Managing Director at the Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation, where he served for elevn years. During his time at the Broad Foundation, he designed and implemented four national flagship initiatives, including the Broad Prize for Urban Education and the Broad Institute for School Boards.In his more than two decades of leadership in the education sector, Katzir has also been Regional Director for Sylvan Learning Systems, the Executive Director for UCLA School Management Program, and Chief Operating Officer for Teach for America. He began his career as a consultant for Bain & Company, an international management consulting firm. Dan has served on many education boards, including The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College, and the advisory board of the Los Angeles Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools. Katzir has an MBA from Harvard Business School, and received a bachelors degree in history from Dartmouth College. In his spare time, he lectures at Stanfords Graduate School of Business and is a Volunteer Leader at Dartmouth College and Harvard Business School.Jennifer Moses, Co-FounderJennifer Moses has spent the past decade in education, public policy and philanthropy after a career in investment banking. She is a founding Trustee of Absolute Return for Kids (ARK), one of the largest childrens charities in the UK, and co-founder of King Solomon Academy, an all-through state school in London. She is a partner at Ed-Mentor, LLC, a VC fund that invests in education technology startups. Prior to moving to California in late 2009, she was a senior policy adviser to then British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. She was previously Chief Executive of the policy think tank Centreforum, following her banking career with Goldman Sachs. Jennifer is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School. She is married with three children.Vivian Wu, Board ChairVivian currently runs education technology impact investments for Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. Her focus is on investments in innovative for-profit companies serving PreK-12 with a dual focus on impact and sustainable, scalable business models. Vivian has over 15 years of experience in private equity and venture capital, most recently running investments for a family office. Previously, she was a Principal at TA Associates where she invested in and served on the boards of several growth technology businesses. Prior to TA, Vivian worked at Accel Partners, a leading venture capital firm, as well as Morgan Stanley Capital Partners in Hong Kong, where she focused on private equity investments in Asian growth companies. She started her career as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company. Vivian holds an MBA from Harvard University, a B.S.Econ in finance, summa cum laude, Beta Gamma Sigma, from the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School, and a B.A. in history, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania.Tony Adams, Board MemberAnthony Adams is an independent consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area working with organizations through his firm, groupVision (US). Anthony graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in economics. Prior to moving to California, as president of groupVision (Switzerland) AG in Zurich Switzerland, he consulted with companies and institutions throughout Europe and Asia for twenty years. Anthonys European clients included management teams in banking, re-insurance, technology, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, the food Industry, state agencies and the United Nations. Prior to his consulting career Anthony was a captain in the US Air Force stationed at Travis AFB and for three years in France. For seventeen years, he managed the family contracting, arid-plant nursery and tree business in Arizona. Anthony consulted on environmental projects for the Saudi royal family and for five years managed a start-up contracting firm in the Middle East for a Lebanon-based company.Anthony was a routine guest lecturer at business schools including the University of St Gallen, University of Zurich, Rotterdam School of Management and the EPFL and IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland specializing in group collaboration and brainstorming techniques for risk-assessment, decision making, problem solving, negotiations, visioning and strategy development. Anthony trained consultants in risk-assessment skills at Deloitte, Cap Gemini, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Over-arching themes emerging from Tony's work with computer-supported collaboration tools include: Learning Organizations, Knowledge Management, Vision Mapping and Systems Thinking for management teams. Anthony is currently a planning commissioner and chair of the general plan working group for the city of Vallejo where he also serves on the board of directors for two local museums.Jose A. Lopez, Ph.D, Board MemberJose Lopez is a professor of Educational Leadership at the California State University East Bay in Hayward. Jose was the director of the CSUEB doctor of education program, Educational Leadership for Social Justice, for seven years until 2014. This program focuses on development of executive-level leadership for PK-12 school systems.Jose was awarded his Ph.D. degree in Educational Leadership from the University of North Texas. Prior to his current position, Jose was a school administrator in Texas for 19 years. He served in numerous position in five school districts. He held the position of Superintendent, and in a variety of system-level positions and was a school principal for eight years.Jose is also the Chief Operations Officer of Ragar Consulting. Ragar specializes in supporting schools and districts in addressing English Learner achievement. Until December 2015, Jose served on the Personnel Commission of the Hayward Unified School District. He served as Chair and Vice Chair on the Personnel Commission. The Personnel Commission is responsible for the implementation of the Merit System of the classified employees of the Hayward USD. Jose also served on the Board of Directors of the Emergency Shelter Program (ESP) in Hayward as President and Vice President. The ESP addresses domestic violence and provides shelter, support and training for abused persons and their families.
The Department of Water Resources claimed in their testimony, New, properly screened intakes, as proposed in the California WaterFix, would better protect fish and allow us to use the existing south Delta pumps in a strategic and flexible manner in a dual conveyance system with the proposed north delta diversions.



To this we say, prove it! Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), responded. The environmental impact report for the project already tells us you cant! Show Californians, and federal wildlife agencies, proof that the Delta Tunnels plan will protect West Coast fisheries, because that proof is certainly not found in the environmental impact report.



Delta Group Challenges Brown Administration Case For Twin Tunnelsby Dan BacherThe state and federal governments pleaded their case for Governor Jerry Browns controversial Delta Tunnels plan in testimony submitted to the State Water Resources Control Board on May 31 and in a media teleconference held on June 1, claiming that the planned new water diversion points won't endanger other water users.The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Bureau of Reclamation submitted their testimony and evidence as required for upcoming public Water Board hearings regarding their request to add three new points of diversion on the Sacramento River for the "California WaterFix." That's the new name for the plan to build two tunnels under the Delta to export water to agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies.In response, Restore the Delta, a coalition opposed to the project, described the testimony as largely a rehash of unsubstantiated claims about the Delta Tunnels project that have not been proven, despite more than 40,000 pages of environmental review that the US Environmental Protection Agency has declared is still inadequate (a failing grade.)Part 1 of the hearings, scheduled to begin July 26, focuses on two questions: Does the new point of diversion alter water flows or affect water quality such that there would be injury to any legal user of the water, and does the project in effect initiate a new water right? ( http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/california_waterfix/docs/cwfnotice_pet_hrg.pdf In Part I of the hearings and with the submitted testimony, DWR claimed it will present evidence to show that the proposed change will neither initiate a new water right nor injure any other legal user of water.John Laird, Secretary for the California Natural Resources Agency, touted the alleged water supply reliability and environmental benefits of the Delta Tunnels Plan.With California WaterFix, we seek to improve upon the unreliable way water is now conveyed through the Delta, reduce or eliminate costs to the environment and economy from our aging water infrastructure and better prepare the state for effects of climate change, said Laird. The key elements of California WaterFix have long been part of the States comprehensive vision for the Delta, and the Water Board hearings are an important step in the advancement of the project.In the conference call, Laird claimed the Delta Tunnels plan "protects and restores" the Delta ecosystem.We believe that WaterFix mitigates the risk to our water supply due to climate change and earthquakes, and protects and restores the Delta ecosystem, and offers clean and secure water for much of California, Laird said. Without this, California and the states economy risk devastating losses of water supply. ( http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/delta/article81209072.html#storylink=cpy Mark Cowin, Director of the Department of Water Resources, contended that the California WaterFix would not establish a new water right.Through hundreds of pages of testimony submitted yesterday in advance of the hearings, DWRs team of engineers, lawyers and water experts shows that WaterFix will not establish a new water right, will not injure any other legal user of water and will not negatively impact flows or water quality, said Cowin.DWR also claimed in their testimony, New, properly screened intakes, as proposed in the California WaterFix, would better protect fish and allow us to use the existing south Delta pumps in a strategic and flexible manner in a dual conveyance system with the proposed north delta diversions.To this we say, prove it! Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), responded. The environmental impact report for the project already tells us you cant! Show Californians, and federal wildlife agencies, proof that the Delta Tunnels plan will protect West Coast fisheries, because that proof is certainly not found in the environmental impact report.In fact, the CalFed Record of Decision of 2000 required the installation of state-of-the-art fish screens to protect salmon, steelhead, striped bass, Delta and longfin smelt and many other fish species, but the water contractors have refused to pay for these new screens to stop the massacre of millions of fish at the Delta pumping facilities every year. Delta advocates are very skeptical that effective new fish screens would ever be installed at the new intakes when the mandated screens were never built for the South Delta pumping facilities.And when it turns out the Tunnels are not protective of endangered species, what then? Will the Delta Tunnels remain dry from ongoing drought? Barrigan-Parrilla asked. If not, where is the proof with a water availability analysis?The CA WaterFix is nothing more than a very expensive gamble based on cherry picked science. But now we have the opportunity to get at the facts in a formal hearing process. We relish the opportunity," she said.Tim Stroshane, policy analyst for RTD, challenged DWRs contention that their petition is not a new water right.DWRs case-in-chief maintains that an old diversion point in their permits at Hood in the north Delta is close enough to the new Tunnels intakes at Clarksburg and Courtland to justify the Board deciding this is a small change in their permits," said Stroshane.Instead we think Hood is a different location than either Clarksburg or Courtland. Board rules require that water availability analysis is done for new water right applications. And the outcome of this decision could result in the Tunnels getting water rights that are over fifty to seventy years junior to the rest of the State Water Project," he stated.DWR also argues that their petition is not a new water right because they claim that several operational aspects of the Tunnels, including upstream storage, and overall Banks/Jones pumping, will not change materially; this is merely a modification of the existing CVP and SWP permits.Delta advocates beg to differ," said Stroshane. Any added diversion point requires issuance of a new water right permit. If the State Water Board agrees with Delta advocates and decides its a new water right, Tunnel backers would need to do a water availability analysis to follow their procedures.We doubt they would find enough water to sustain the Tunnels project. They already dont have enough," Stroshane said.Stroshane also noted that DWR provided no costs-benefits analysis in its submissions.While DWR submitted over 5,000 pages for its case to the Board, they submitted no exhibits addressing why the economic benefits and costs of the Delta Tunnels proposal are in the public interest. This is a huge omission, he emphasized.It appears likely that the agency has refined its modeling to buttress their existing talking points, such as the alleged benefits of dual conveyance providing flexible response to listed fish for real time operation of diversions. They also continue to claim that water rights holders will not be injured by Tunnels operations, without specifics, Stroshane stated.Tunnel opponents say the construction of the two massive water diversion tunnels would hasten the extinction of Sacramento River winter run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and other species and endanger family farms on the Delta. The project will also imperil salmon and steelhead populations on the Klamath and Trinity rivers, since massive quantities of Trinity River water are diverted every year through a tunnel through the Trinity Mountains to the Sacramento River watershed every year.Part II of the hearings is expected to take place in early 2017 and will focus on the extent to which fish and wildlife and other beneficial uses will be affected by the requested change in point of diversion and any measures needed to protect fish and wildlife from any unreasonable impacts of the change, according to DWR.DWRs testimony regarding its petition for change to its water right permit is available here: http://cms.capitoltechsolutions.com/ClientData/CaliforniaWaterFix/uploads/CWF_ChangePetition_TOC_V21.pdf The petition for the new points of diversion can be found here: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/california_waterfix/docs/ca_waterfix_petition.pdf On the same day that DWR and the Bureau submitted their testimony, Governor Jerry Brown endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary. It is believed that one of the key reasons why Brown endorsed Clinton is to get her to support the Delta Tunnels and his other controversial water policies. ( http://www.jerrybrown.org/an_open_letter_to_california_democrats_and_independents
A California Court has allowed two women sexually assaulted by Uber drivers to proceed in a lawsuit against Uber, despite the companys motion to dismiss arguing it could not be held liable for crimes committed by the drivers who they consider independent contractors.

Jane Doe 1 of Connecticut and Jane Doe 2 of Florida brought a single lawsuit against Uber. Boston Uber driver Abderrahim Dakiri assaulted Doe 1 during a ride home on in February 2015. Police later arrested and charged Dakiri with assaulting Doe 1 on February 7, 2015.The driver was a recent immigrant who had been in the country for three years, and a background check would not have turned up other relevant information. While driving Jane Doe 1, Dakiri drove more than 15 minutes off route and parked in a remote area in order to increase his opportunity to sexually assault her, according to the opinion.Jane Doe 2 asserts that driver Patrick Aiello, also a middle school teacher, in Charleston, S.C., raped her. Aiello was arrested on August 9, 2015 on charges of kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.Ubers seven-year background check did not pick up Aiellos 12-year-old assault conviction stemming from a domestic violence arrest in 2003.While driving Jane Doe 2 home, Aiello locked the car doors and drove the car to a remote parking lot near a highway where he proceeded to viciously rape her and threaten her with harm multiple times.Afterwards Doe 2 was able to run to the highway where she was hit by a car while waiving it down for help. Police took her to a hospital where she became suicidal and remained in a psychiatric unit for three days.Doe 1 and Doe 2 asserted claims for negligent hiring, supervision, and retention, fraud, battery, assault, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress under a theory of respondeat superior.Uber requested the court dismiss the lawsuit, claiming no employment relationship exists between Uber and drivers because they are independent contractors. Uber recently settled two class action lawsuits for $100 million brought by drivers who sought to be classified as employees.The settlement allowed Uber to continue classifying drivers as independent contractors, although various concessions were given to drivers.The court agreed with Doe 1 and Doe 2s argument that Uber is an employer, who retains control over customer contact and fair price, uses a pool of non-professional drivers with no specialized skills, and may terminate drives at will.In determining that an employment relationship existed, the court wrote, it matters not whether Ubers licensing agreements label drivers as independent contractors, if their conduct suggests otherwise.In the alternative, Uber argued the sexual assaults that occurred were outside the scope of the drivers employment, rendering Uber not liable for their crimes. The court wrote that a sexual assault by ataxi-like driveris not so unusual or startling and assaults such as these are exactly why customers would expect background checks of Uber drivers.Amidst concerns about the safety of female passengers and a Buzzfeed article publishing screen shots of Ubers customer support system showing thousands of entries containing the words rape and sexual assault, Uber revealed that it received only five claims of rape and 170 claims of sexual assault between December 2012 and August 2015.The court ruled that despite Ubers effective argument, the court could not determine as a matter of law that sexual assault by an Uber driver is always outside the scope of employment. For the purpose of Ubers motion to dismiss, the court found that the drivers were acting in the scope of employment as drivers.Holding Uber liable could also forward the underlying policy goals of respondeat superior, including prevention of future injuries and assurance of compensation to victims, wrote the court.The court, in its ruling, dismissed the claims against Uber for the negligent hiring, supervision, and retention of Dakiri, the driver who assaulted Doe 1, because nothing was claimed to have existed in his background that Uber knew or should have known that should have prevented his approval as a driver.The same claims against Uber for driver Aiello remain however, because Uber should have known about his criminal history.The court denied all other of Ubers motions to dismiss, allowing Doe 1 and Doe 2 to proceed on its claims against Uber as the employer of the drivers.The case isCase No. 15-cv-04670-SI, in the United States District Court Northern District of California.
Area residents can get their cholesterol tested for free this summer.

During John C. Fremont Days, the Fremont Cosmopolitan Club 100 will help offer no-cost diabetes and cholesterol screenings to the public.

The screenings will be available from noon until 4 p.m. July 8 in the Shaw, Hull and Navarette parking lot at Military and Park avenues in Fremont.

No appointments are necessary. Those wanting a cholesterol screening need to fast for six hours before the testing.

The club is partnering with Nebraska Methodist College, which operates a mobile diabetes clinic out of a 36-foot recreational vehicle.

This marks the 19th year that the club has help provide free diabetes screenings to the public. This year, theyre also helping to offer the cholesterol testing.

The Nebraska Methodist Mobile Diabetes Center travels to communities in Nebraska and western Iowa and provides screenings to people who might not always have easy access to health care, said Gail Nielsen, a Cosmopolitan club member.

Every year, the clinic sees new visitors along with returnees from previous summers.

No treatment is done at the mobile center. If the screening suggests the person tested is at risk for diabetes, the individual is referred to the appropriate medical providers.

The American Diabetes Association states that the disease is growing at an epidemic rate in the United States.

Nearly 30 million Americans have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The ADA also said 1.4 million Americans are diagnosed with diabetes every year.

Other ADA statistics include:

* In Nebraska, 157,405 people, 10.6 percent of the population, have diabetes.

* Of these, an estimated 45,000 have diabetes but dont know it, greatly increasing their health risk.

* In addition, 487,000 people in Nebraska, 35.8 percent of the adult population, have prediabetes with blood glucose levels higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.

* Every year, an estimated 8,000 people in Nebraska are diagnosed with diabetes.

* People with diabetes have medical expenses approximately 2.3 times higher than those who do not have diabetes.

Nielsen urges people to be tested.

The longer you let diabetes go untreated, the more severe the consequences will be, he said.

Nielsen encourages people to know the symptoms of diabetes.

Symptoms, according to the ADA, include:

* Urinating often.

* Feeling very thirsty.

* Feeling very hungry  even though you are eating.

* Extreme fatigue.

* Blurry vision.

* Cuts/bruises that are slow to heal.

* Weight loss  even though you are eating more (Type 1).

* Tingling, pain or numbness in the hands/feet (Type 2).

Some people with Type 2 diabetes have symptoms so mild that they go unnoticed.

Early detection and treatment of diabetes can decrease the risk of developing complications, the ADA website states.

Nielsen said those involved with the mobile unit have been pleased that people have participated, but would like to see more.

The mobile unit is part of a non-profit Cornbelt Diabetes Connection project undertaken by Cosmopolitan clubs in Nebraska and Iowa.

Internationally, Cosmopolitan clubs have taken on diabetes detection and care as a project and contribute to research.
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- The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) failed to remit 12.9 billion dollars between 2005 and 2013.

- The Senate has invited Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) boss to that effect

- The day when he will appear before the Senate is still unknown

The Nigerian Senate

Source: UGC

The Senate on Thursday, June 2, resolved to invite the executive secretary of Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Waziri Adio following his audit report.

The audit report alleged that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) did not remit 12.9 billion dollars between 2005 and 2013.

This decision was taken after the motion by Senator Tijjani Yahaya Kaura representing Zamfara North senatorial district.

The motion is titled: The urgent need for the Senate to look into the NEITI 2013 oil, gas and solid minerals audit report.

READ ALSO: How NNPC Robbed Nigeria Of $20 Billion - CBN Governor Sanusi

Kaura while making his contributions said the Senate notes that one of the key functions of NEITI is to conduct regular audits of the extractive sector.

He also said the details from the 2013 audit and financial report of activities in Nigeria's oil and gas industry which was conducted by the initiative has shown that Nigeria made $58.07 billion from its hydrocarbons indistry that year.

The Senate is also further aware that the federation realised N33.86 billion from solid minerals sector in 2013 as contained in the 2013 solid minerals audit report of NEITI.

"The sum of $3.8 billion and N358.3 billion stands as outstanding revenues from the NNPC and its subsidiaries in 2013.

"These outstanding payments were dues from unpaid considerationfrom divested oil mining leases from NNPC to NPDC and cash call refunds by National Petroleum Investment and Management Services (NAPIMS).

"The Senate is disturbed that between 2005 to 2013, the sum of $12.9 billion paid by the Nigerian Liquidifies Natural Gas (NLNG) to NNPC was not remitted to the federation account," said Kaura.

While making his contributions, Senate president Bukola Saraki said the normity of the report and findings when looked at unexplained causes is too enormous for the Senate.

READ ALSO: NNPC yet to remit N4.9trn into Federation account - RMAFC

"We should seek he leave of the Senate to let the MD explain the Senate because we are talking about losses of one trillion," he said.

The 2013 audit report of the Nigeria oil and gas as well as the solid minerals sectors Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has been published with the non-remittance of N2.23 trillion raising eyebrows.

Kayode Fayemi who is the minister of solid minerals and also the chairman of the NEITI board said the audit focused on all aspects of the extractive industries.

Source: Legit.ng
- Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force is the new militant group that emerged in the region

- The group claimed that Buhari is set to divide Nigeria

- The militants threatened to test six missiles if Nigerian army wouldnt leave there communities

The new Niger Delta militant group has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is set for the final breakup of Nigeria, Daily Post reports.

The group naming itself the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF) has emerged recently.

It threatened to launch six missiles in the region on June 7 in an operation it said would surprise Nigerians and the entire world.

The militants demanded that the Nigerian army must peacefully leave Ijaw communities and promised to bring down military helicopters if any to be deployed.

The group said that their missiles are capable of bringing down any aircraft no matter how big.

READ ALSO: See President Buhari visiting Ogoni land (Photos)

The statement of the group, that affiliated with Niger Delta Avengers, was signed by General Akotebe Darikoro, Commander, General Duties; General Torunnanaowei Latei, Creeks Network Coordinator; General Agbakakuro Owei-Tauro, Pipelines Bleeding Expert; and General Pulokiri Ebiladei of its Intelligence Bureau.

It reads: We have seen and noted that President Muhammadu Buhari (a.k.a. Pharaoh) is set for the final breakup of the country. Mr. Buhari should also know that we are also prepared and set for his proposal. The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) which is the highest organ of all the freedom fighting body has finally endorsed the followings:

1. After extensive and exhaustive deliberation by all Commanders of various groups in Yenagoa, the heart of the Niger Delta struggle met last night and as part of our mission, we are going to test six (6) of our MISSILES in the region. This is to show the federal government of our readiness of the American prediction.

2. There should be NO any form of helicopter to fly around in the region as we will not guarantee the safety of such object.

3. The people of the Niger Delta region should not be panic in course of test running the 6 MISSILES.

4. We may also decide within the week to shut down the Nigerian satellite orbit, so that there will be no communication in the country if needs arise.

5. Within our three (3) days operations, NO airplane should fly out of the country because it can target such object no matter how small or big it may be.

6. Our Fighter Expert Team shall be positioned in the six (6) Niger Delta states, who are already arrived the region from training through our countrys porous borders with our foreign partners who are going to showcase what they have learnt in the past one year.

7. Our struggle is not for any human blood, but we have been pushed to the wall for justice because our patience is running out on a daily basis as Nigerian uniform men are killing our innocent people continuously.

8. Nigerian military should as a matter of urgency leave peacefully the Ijaw communities they are presently in, the next 48 hours under the guise of searching for the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) or else we should not be blamed of whatever catastrophe that may befall such officers and the likely affected families of the officers should be blamed not the region.

READ ALSO: Why President Buhari cancels his visit to Ogoni land

9. We have consulted our war gods (deities) that enough is enough and that the time has come. Since the present Pharaoh of Nigeria, President Buhari is to preside over the disintegration of the country, it is a good omen.

10. Henceforth, any attack on Ijaw communities or person(s) by the military or para-military body in the region, we will not hesitate to order our shoot-at-sight squad of any uniform personnel in the region.

11. We ask all Service Chiefs including Minister of Defence to shamefully resign their positions because Nigeria has no security in whatever form. Bravo to our Foreign Marine Crack Team for their ability to shut down Nigerian obsolete surveillance equipments.

12. For the records, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) are not in Delta state, we only go there to strike and return back safely to the struggle base, Bayelsa state.

13. We further warn especially, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, Information Commissioner in Bayelsa state not to criticize our activities any longer or else he has a choice of leaving the planet earth anytime he made such statement(s).

"14. All oil and gas operations should shut down immediately as our MISSILES testing will affect their equipments.

"15. NOTE, we shall commence MISSILES testing on Tuesday 7, June 2016 which coincides with the date of our training abroad. Since the present Pharaoh of Nigeria (Buhari) has failed us in our demands, we promise Nigerians and the entire world that we are going to surprise them."

READ ALSO: Who are the Nigerias newest militants Niger Delta Avengers?

In recent months the Niger Delta Avengers has carried out many attacks on oil pipelines and facilities run by international companies, comprising Shell and U.S. firm Chevron.

The attacks are partly responsible for a fall in Nigerias oil production of 800,000 barrels per day.

President Buhari was scheduled to visit the region to launch the clean up programme of Ogoni land.

However, he later cancelled his trip, reportedly over the assassination threats.

Source: Legit.ng
- Delta state Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa defended the Fulani herdsmen invasion into other states

- The governor also said they have the rights as the citizens of Nigeria to visit anywhere they deemed fit

- Indigenes of the state decries their invasion and they urge the government to stop them from infiltrating into their farmlands.

Amidst the call from all quarters to send the killer Fulani herdsmen packing from the southern states, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has said that it is unconstitutional to send the herdsmen packing from the state, saying every Nigeria has right to live in any part of the country.

This is even as community members who participated in a town hall meeting in the state government house unanimously called for the evacuation of the herdsmen from every part of the state.

In the town hall meeting where representatives of the Fulani herdsmen, security officers, comprising the state commissioner of police, Alkali Baba Usman, air force, the Nigerian navy and the army, Okowa said it was against the constitution of Nigeria to send the Fulani herdsmen out of the state.

He said since it is unconstitutional, he cannot make unconstitutional pronouncement against Fulani herdsmen, an action which he said could throw the state into a war zone.

Though he concurred that criminal elements and kidnappers are among the Fulani herdsmen, he, however, said he cannot send them from the state.

Delta state Governor, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa

Prior to his verdict, representatives of the communities including local government chairmen, community leaders, youth bodies, vigilante groups, religious organisations had urged the governor to send the herdsmen from the state, insisting that the Fulani herdsmen have wroth havoc in the local communities in the state.

They gave lurid details of the hazards being perpetuated by the Fulani herdsmen which include raping women, manslaughter among other obnoxious acts in the rural communities.

READ ALSO: Delta man sentenced to death for armed robbery

As the meeting progressed, anger rose to a high pitch as the youths took to the microphone expressing their anger over the destructive tendencies of the Fulani herdsmen whom they said have become landlords in Delta communities.

The community leaders described the Fulani herdsmen as ruthless, heartless and should not be accommodated in the state for whatever reason.

Some of the community leaders said there is hunger in their communities as the people can no longer go to farm for fear of being massacred by the Fulani herdsmen in the bush.

One of the youths said; we are not begging them to stay in our communities, nor are we begging them to make peace with us. This is our land. We cannot be in our land and people from the north will come, take over our land and begin killing our people, no, we cannot take it."

Speaking on behalf of Chairmen of All Local Government of Nigeria, Delta state Chapter, Constantine Ikpokpo, Chairman of Isoko South, said he aligned with the view of the people of Delta who have unanimously agreed that the herdsmen should vacate the state for good.

But, Governor Okowa turned down the argument of his people, saying the herdsmen invasion is not only peculiar to Delta State, hence he set up committees to liaise between the Fulani herdsmen and the community members.

Source: Legit.ng
- Nigeria's Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase has been taken to the cleaners

- The IGP drew the wrath of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) over his recent comment on their activities

- Arase had ordered for the disarmament of the group

IPOB has responded to calls by IGP Solomon Arase for his men to disarm them in order to quell their agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra.

In a statement released to the media yesterday, June 1 by the group's spokespersons, Clifford Iroanya and Emma Nmezu, IPOB stated that the IGP should hide his face in shame for the statement he made.

The statement was titled ''The retiring & tired IGP Solomon Arase and his unfounded allegations against IPOB."

Tough times for Police boss, Solomon Arase

READ ALSO: Read what Fayose calls Igbo people after alleged killing of IPOB members

According to the group, Arase is complicating and deepening his indictment, conviction, and sentencing at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In a direct jab at the IGP, the part of the IPOB statement read: ''Mr Solomon Ehigiator Arase, you are aware of the menace of Boko Haram, the serial killings of Biafrans by Buharis killer squad known as Fulani Herdsmen, and the extra-judicial killings of Biafrans by Nigerian security outfits, yet you have failed to issue a single press statement on them.

''But you shamefully issued tissues of lies which you called press statement even after your policemen and Nigerian soldiers killed unarmed Biafrans some of them in their sleep inside a church as they prepare to remember their fallen heroes and some of these fallen heroes were similarly killed by Buhari in 1968 at Owerri.

''Mr. Arase, as you retire on June 21, 2016, be it known to you that you will have no rest until you get to your final destination which is ICC prison in the Hague.

''You can tell all the lies in the world and try to manufacture evidence for your colleagues in the DSS so that they can use it against the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu who is currently standing trial in court but the incontrovertible fact is that nobody can stop the restoration of the nation of Biafra.

''The restoration of the nation of Biafra is an ideology and no human being born of a woman has ever defeated or exterminated an ideology.''

IPOB informed Arase that the consequences of his actions are limitless, adding that it can include members of his immediate and extended family.

''No one takes a Biafran life and gets away Scot-free,'' the statement said.

The Biafra protests turned violent on Monday, May 30 after confrontations between the protesters and security agencies

READ ALSO: 88 MASSOB members in trouble, read what is happening to them now

Not done, the group also stated that ''It is a shame that Solomon Arase is displaying crass incompetence and ignorance by lying through his teeth with concoctions that IPOB members were armed and that they attacked Nigerian policemen and killed two of them in Asaba, Delta state on Saturday, May 30.

''Perhaps he would have saved himself this embarrassment by conducting thorough investigation and checking with the CP in Anambra state.

''Now the entire world has seen through his lies and he is complicating and deepening his indictment, conviction, and sentencing at the ICC with these latest lies from the pit of hell.''

Meanwhile, prominent Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has cautioned against the use of excessive force on pro-Biafra protesters in the South east region and beyond.

In a statement released to the media yesterday, June 1, the group accused security agencies of carrying out mass murder in Anambra state in the name of quelling the protests.

Source: Legit.ng
- Federal government has scrapped post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for candidates

- Tertiary institutions are now at liberty to conduct screening for candidates seeking admission

- Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) pegged the cut off mark for admission for 2016 at 180

Students writing UTME/JAMB exam

The post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for candidates seeking admission into higher institution has been scrapped by the federal government.

The federal government explained that all tertiary institutions were at liberty to conduct screening for candidates seeking admission into any school.

According to The Nation, Mallam Adamu Adamu, the minister of education, disclosed this on Thursday, June 2, in Abuja after declaring open the 2016 Combined Policy Meeting on Admissions to Universities, Polytechnics and other higher institutions in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Post-UTME: Check out cut off marks for your school of choice

Adamu, expressed confidence in the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), adding that there was no need for other examination to be conducted by universities after JAMB.

He said: As far as I am concerned the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing. The universities should not be holding another examination and if the universities have any complain against JAMB let them bring it and then we address it.

If JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission.

The minister of education has also asked JAMB to stop extra charges on several categories of changes on admissions such as the change of course, change of school and others.

Meanwhile, JAMB has pegged the cut off mark for admission for 2016 at 180.

The 180 cut off mark, applies to all universities and higher institutions in the country, including polytechnics, colleges of education, and others.

Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, JAMBs Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, after a long debate with delegates from various institutions, said that no institution would go below the 180 cut-off set by the board.

READ ALSO: JAMB CBT: A look at then and now

About 9 months ago JAMB registrar had predicted that the post-UTME screening exercise would stop following the introduction of the Computer-Based Test (CBT).

Ojerinde said the reason for this is that the Computer Based mode of UTME had helped to completely eradicate examination malpractice.

Post-JAMB tests for applicants was introduced my many universities and polytechnic before they are offered admission, irrespective of whether they passed the JAMB examination, which has attracted its fair share of criticism as it was described as a means of extorting money from applicants.

Source: Legit.ng
- Niger Delta Avengers claimed responsibility for blowing up the Ogboinbiri-Tebidaba and Clough Creek-Tebidaba pipelines in Bayelsa state

- The group did not say which oil company is operating the pipelines

- The Avengers said that the latest attack was in line with our promise to all international oil companies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oil production will be zero

A new militant group Niger Delta Avengers, which has attacked oil and gas installations in the region, has claimed responsibility for blowing up the Ogboinbiri-Tebidaba and Clough Creek-Tebidaba pipelines in Bayelsa state.

The group announced the latest attack via its official Twitter handle on Thursday, June 2.

READ ALSO: Niger Delta Avengers threaten to kill Buhari this week

However, the Avengers did not say which oil company is operating the pipelines.

Last week, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a gas pipeline belonging to Chevron in Delta state.

We warned Chevron, but they didnt listen. NDA just blew up the Escravos tank farm main electricity feed pipeline, it said.

The militants said the oil facilities were sabotaged following attempts by Chevron to carry out repairs of main Escravos crude oil pipeline it blew up earlier.

Following the continued bombing and sabotage of economic assets, particularly oil platforms, the Defence headquarters has declared a massive war against the Niger Delta Avengers.

The Defence headquarters also denied allegations that the military was harassing and arresting innocent inhabitants of the Niger Delta saying: It is the same group of people that are wreaking havoc on the critical national assets that are blackmailing the armed forces and other security agencies to divert attention.

Source: Legit.ng
This sprawling metropolis will woo you with more than just its cowboy sentimentalities and southern hospitalityand if you think youre too much of an animal lover and gun hater for this city, youre wrong.

In fact, as the most populous and diverse city in Texas, Houston has cultural surprises lurking around every corner. From adrenaline junkies seeking their next adventure to history buffs looking to learn, every type of traveler will find satisfaction in this burgeoning city. Venture into the unknown with these fanciful and fun activities on your next trip to Houston.

Level 9 Tour

Photo courtesy of Visit Houston

You may not be able to go to space, but this tour will get you pretty close. Book tickets in advance with Space Center Houston to get an exclusive peek into the life of an astronaut that will make your inner Spaceman Spiff jump over the moon. The tour, including a visit to ISS Mission Control, is followed by a luncheon in their quarters so you can eat where the astronauts eat. Then youll head over to the training grounds to see the Sonny Carter Training Facility and its Neutral Buoyancy lab. When you enter the Apollo Flight Control Room (used for missions from 1965 to 1992), youll be allowed walk around and sit at the actual consoles that were used.

And thats not even the best part. Seeing the Orion capsulethe Mars Exploration Vehicle Prototypeand space suits that will be used for anticipated missions in the 2030s is worth the visit on its own.

Bayou Biking and Bat Viewing

Photo courtesy of Visit Houston

The flutter of wings within the nooks and crannies of Waugh Drive Bridge is an indication that the Mexican free-tailed bats are preparing for a flight of hunting and scavenging for their evening meal. Unlike other densely populated cities where there are only vestiges of nature left, Houston has it in spades. In the heart of the city, 250,000 of these creatures come out every night and explore their world; they are non-migratory and permanent residents of the Bayou all year-round.

Head over in the late afternoon to arrive right at sunset to see the bats. Rent a city bike from B-Cycle ($5 for 24 hours) and careen through the various pathways along the Buffalo Bayou to catch the bats, sunset, breeze and modern art sculptures that enrich the 160 acres of landscape.

North Houston Skate Park

Spanning 78,000 square feet, North Houston Skate Park (pictured at top) is the largest of its kind in North America. If you fancy yourself a speed demon and daredevil, this free park will prove to be the ultimate urban wonderland. The concrete jungle comes with endorphin-inducing thrills, which include a Texas-shaped bowl, 12-foot vertical ramp, 20-foot full pipe, banked walls, speed hips, and a snake run pathway. Also available is the street-skating experience, which offers real world elements to practice your tricks on (ledges, rails, benches, banks, quarter pipes, stair obstacles, etc.). From dawn till dusk, this playground oasis welcomes everyone from newbies to experts.

Wake Nation

Photo courtesy of Visit Houston

Wake Nation is a water park on steroids. The 12-acre lake features five 35-feet high steel towers on a technologically advanced overhead cable systemso theres no need to wait on boats to haul people around. Six riders can be taken out at the same time and glide at speeds of 18-20 miles per hour. Novices and experts can wakeboard, wakeskate, water ski and kneeboardall without needing a board. Then there are the fun obstacles for practicing impressive stunts: custom-built jumps, grind rails, and sliders. Riders as young as five are allowed to traverse the course and challenge themselves to feats of water-splashing glory.

Lead photo courtesy of Tiffany Leigh

Tiffany Leigh is a food, drink, and travel writer. She is a James Beard Foundation Scholarship Recipient and always travels with her companions #PinchietheLobster and #PJthelobster.
Cabelas has found an as-yet unidentified buyer for its credit card operation based in Lincoln, according to a report.

The New York Post, citing three anonymous sources, reported Thursday that the Sidney-based outdoors retailer has an agreement to sell its Worlds Foremost Bank to an unnamed buyer.

According to the Post, the deal is contingent on the sale of the retail part of the business and would be formalized at the same time such a deal is struck.

The newspaper said the team of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Bass Pro Shops remains the favorite to buy the company, which has a market value of about $3.3 billion.

But it said there also has been interest from KKR & Co., a large private equity firm. According to the Post, final bids for Cabelas are due by the end of June.

What effect a sale of the chains credit card operation would have on Lincoln is unknown.

About 700 people work at the Cabelas office at 4800 N.W. First St., including more than 500 involved in the credit card operation.

Experts have said a separate sale of the credit card operation could be positive or negative for the Lincoln operation depending on who the buyer is, although one expert said a sale to a financial institution could mean job cuts in Lincoln.

Cabelas said in December it was working with investment bank Guggenheim Securities LLC to explore strategic alternatives including a sale.

The company has been under pressure since late October, when Elliott Management announced it had amassed an 11.1 percent stake in the company. Elliott is an activist hedge fund known for forcing changes at the companies in which it invests.

Cabelas did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday afternoon.
Parents, teachers, or anyone who has spent ample time with children can quickly appreciate how malleable they are. Under our nourishing (or negligent) care as guardians, they consequently grow up to become saints, monsters or something in between.

Which is what its so important for us as adults to not only lead by example, but to teach these younglings good principles. Obviously the study of art, science and humanities can have a positive impact. But so will travel, which is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, according to Mark Twain.

Need a little help inoculating them? Try thesetheyre some of the best picture books I know to instill a sense of wanderlust, adventure and understanding in our children.

This is the tale of a tiny snail and a great big, gray-blue humpback whale, writes picture book extraordinaire Julia Donaldson. More specifically, The Snail and The Whale is about an itchy footed mollusks desire to leave home and see far-away islands, underwater caves and storm-filled skies, this despite the other snails counsel to, Be quiet! Dont wiggle! Sit still! Stay put! With the whale as her ride and Axel Sheffler as illustrator, this book is undeniably charming. Read also: Donaldsons and Schefflers The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom.

Written and illustrated by Allen Say, this deeply personal and award-winning book is about one mans love for two countries and his constant desire to be in both at the same time. Not only will it teach your child about what makes a home a home, but it will help them see the good in different places. The more he traveled, the more he longed to see new places, Say writes of his grandfather. The funny thing is, the moment I am in one country, I am homesick for the other, he says of his own American and Japanese experience.

Its okay to make mistakes. Unfortunately, fear of mistakes keeps many adults from worthwhile endeavors, travel very much included. To counter this, author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg shows clumsy kids and grown-ups alike how mistakes such as spills, tears, stains and detours can turn into something wonderful. Not only are mistakes human nature and the way we learn, Saltzberg reminds us, but theyre usually the beginning to bigger and better things.

Consider this the junior edition of my favorite travel book. Published by Lonely Planet and featuring mind-blowing stuff on every country in the world, The Kids Travel Book tours the worlds 200 countries, one dedicated page at a time. Because these are kids were talking about, theres lots of illustrations here to appease their tastes. And the book is loaded with iconic trivia and landmarks to help orient children with the world and cultures around them.

Although a popular and deserving book for many graduating students, this Dr. Seuss classic arguably addresses overcoming setbacks and failed plans more than it does a desire to see the world. It remains an adventurous, profound, and beloved read, however.

Off the Grid columnist Blake Snow writes epic stories for fancy publications and Fortune 500 companies. Follow him on Twitter.
HBO is taking comedy as series with their movies as they do with their stand-up specials and Sunday-night one-two punch of Silicon Valley and Veep. The premium cable channel added High Fidelity to a movie lineup that already included recent comedies like Trainwreck and Spy and classics like Raising Arizona. But this list of the best movies on HBO also includes lots of gangsters, Oscar-winning dramas, documentaries, and animated films.

Several of these movies will be leaving HBO on June 30, including The Godfather Epic, Knocked Up, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Pretty In Pink, What We Do In the Shadows and Malcolm X.



Year: 2007

Director: Ridley Scott

With American Gangster, Ridley Scott harkens back to the more measured style of filmmaking evidenced in his defining sci-fi document Blade Runner. The directors world-building skills, never in doubt, are on full display as he recreates mid-70s Harlem. But his storytelling once again prioritizes character over fast action. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, with the help of a talented supporting cast, light up this actors piece, turning in one audience delight after another. Washington is Frank Lucas, once right-hand man to a Harlem crime lord and eventually the most powerful and independent heroin dealer in New York City. Criminal or not, Lucas defines the American dream. Crowe is Ritchie Roberts, a too-honest cop given license to create an independent anti-drug unit, and he submerges into Roberts, displaying his considerable abilities in every frame. Meanwhile, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ted Levine and Armand Assante all contribute a unique strength and credibility. Scott even makes T.I. and RZA look like actors. But the movie belongs to Washington and Crowe; the former cool and menacing, the latter slumped and disheveled. When they finally collide, the film sparks into overdrive. From beginning to end, American Gangster crackles with just performances that make genre filmmaking look like art.Russ Fischer





Year: 2016

Director: Jessica Edwards

Mavis! celebrates the remarkable career of Mavis Staples, one that started when the woodsy-throated Chicagoan was only 16, backed on guitar by her father Roebuck Pops Staples, and belting out the religious standard Uncloudy Day. Just as Greg Kots biography avoided the temptation to focus on scandal fodder, Jessica Edwards movie avoids the easy path of relying on celebrities to deliver on-camera testimonials about how terrific Mavis is. The filmmaker trusted that the audience could figure that out from the plentiful performance clips, so she only used talking-head interviews if the subjects had worked directly with Mavis and could advance the narrative. The result is one of the best music documentaries of this decade. The film includes the scene of Mavis receiving her first Grammy Award in 2011; she looked up overhead and said, Its all because of you, Pop, that I am here. You built the foundation, and Im still working on the building. The picture ends with Mavis and her recent producer Jeff Tweedy fleshing out Pops final recordings, which he left unfinished when he died in 2000.Geoffrey Himes





Year: 1973

Director: Martin Scorcese

Of all Martin Scorseses gangster flicks, none feel as personal as Mean Streets. The main character, played wonderfully by Harvey Keitel, could very well be Scorsese himself, an Italian-American caught in the middle of two lives: crime and religion. Gritty and vigorous with an exhilarating performance from a young Robert De Niro, the film marks Scorseses first great gangster feat.Staff





Year: 2014

Director: Ryan Murphy

Among HBOs most prestigiousand star-studdedrecent efforts is this 2014 adaptation of Larry Kramers seminal 1985 stage play about the earliest, darkest days of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York City. Its also among the most necessary. Kramer adapted the teleplay, directed by Ryan Murphy (Glee, American Horror Story), which casts a brilliant Mark Ruffalo as Kramers onscreen alter ego, a gay writer who consults with a local doctor (Julia Roberts) about this mysterious, fatal new cancer thats devastating the community and his inner circle of friends (portrayed by Jonathan Groff, Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, all excellent). Just as devastating is the ignorance and inhumanity shrouding what was then viewed as a death sentence and, worse, a deserved retribution. Some 35 years after the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit critical mass, and in light of a generational complacency accompanying new medical breakthroughs like PrEP, The Normal Heart is a timely reminder of the physical, emotional and psychological ravages of the disease. Murphy and co. revisit a not-too-far-away era of fear, in which the basic function of breathing the same airlet alone holding someones handwas a gesture of dangerous courage, and compassion. Though it obviously plays much differently four decades vs. four years after Kramers original play, the relevance is undeniable, as is his still-coursing anger at the systemic and individual indifference to those affected. Murphy dials down his own flourishes for a harrowing document that needs to be seen.Amanda Schurr





Year: 2015

Director: Judd Apatow

Think of Trainwreck as Amy Schumers comedy fed through Judd Apatows directorial dehydratorTo the credit of both Apatow and Schumer, who wrote the whole damn thing, theyve made a funny filmand in fairness, funny is all that Trainwreck needs to be. When the picture clicks, youll be too busy bearing down and expelling laughter to catch any air or worry about politics. Schumer and her colossal supporting cast easily prove that all anyone needs to cut together a solid comedy is good old-fashioned chemistry, sharp delivery, and a surfeit of killer punchlines. Andy Crump





Year: 2014

Director: Laura Poitras

Few documentaries have cameras rolling as history is being made. But director Laura Poitras found herself in the middle of momentous times while making Citizenfour, which takes us behind the scenes as NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden works with (among others) journalist Glenn Greenwald to expose the organizations systematic surveillance of everyday Americans. From the worried initial meetings in a Hong Kong hotel room to the later fallout across the globe, Citizenfour has the rush of a thriller, humanizing its subjects so that we see the uncertainty and anxiety coursing through them, along with the guts and indignation.Tim Grierson





Year: 2015

Director: Paul Feig

Rose Byrnes comedic talent has always been criminally under-appreciated, as evidenced by Melissa McCarthys much broader Bridesmaids performance garnering an Oscar nomination while Byrnes complex, nuanced, hilarious turn as Helen. This woman can do no wrong, which is proven even more thoroughly by her performance in Paul Feigs Spy. As Rayna Boyanov, an international fugitive with a mouth like a sailor and a penchant for feeding men poison until their throats dissolve, Byrnes villainess is the perfect counterpoint for Melissa McCarthys titular hero. Spy marks Melissa McCarthys third effort with director Paul Feig, following Bridesmaids and The Heat, and the two keep their streak a winning one: Spy manages to be funny, thrilling and empowering all at once. McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a skilled CIA analyst who finds herself spending her days behind a desk rather than out on missions. Its a violent action-comedy that never once is able to take itself too seriously, and yet has a lot of serious commentary to lace throughout all of its whimsy about just how powerful any woman can be when given the same resources and consideration as any other male. Spys surprise may not be that Susan turns out to be an unassuming hero, but that she is matter of factly a deserved one, the only thing standing between her and unmitigated success being yet another upstanding performance by Byrne.Andy Herren





Year: 1987

Director: Oliver Stone

Like many fine actors before and after him, Douglas will be remembered for taking home an Oscar for a role thats probably not his best work. Wall Streets Gordon Gekko may be too showy, too much of a representation of 1980s greed to be a flesh-and-blood person. (And on a nit-picky level, hes not even the lead character: Thats Charlie Sheens impressionable Bud Fox.) But its the kind of strapping, swaggering bit of gusto that Douglas could execute with that slightly oily charm of his. If his other performances from the time suggested that such strutting men had weaknesses, Gekko threw cold water on our hopes: Even when the character finally gets his comeuppance, there was a sense that he remained master of the universe. Its an iconic performance that unfortunately still feels all too relevant.Tim Grierson



Year: 1992

Director: Spike Lee

Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok! When director Spike Lee introduced us to Detroit Red, he reminded the world of a time in American history more readily forgotten by some than others. Based on The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Lee (in typical fashion, with a brilliant score and with the grand influence of French cinema throughout) brought us the story of a troubled boy who could have easily become any unknown black man in the 60swho indeed, almost did, until he committed his life to Allah and The Nation of Islam. Denzel Washington perfectly, eerily embodied the role of the young Detroit Red who would become Malcolm X. As a team, Lee and Washington (along with Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz) created the perfect biopic, where all that we assumed about an icon was troubled or complicated by this new translation of his life.Shannon Houston





Year: 2013

Director: Lucy Walker

Walkers favored extremity in The Crash Reel is snowboarding, which, as extreme sporting events go, appears rather mildits traumas and injuries are thoroughly wince-inducing, but compared to, say, wingsuit diving, the mortality rate among its practitioners remains low. But Walker has seized upon snowboarding just as it approaches a newly hazardous precipice, and one of the remarkable things about The Crash Reel is how it chronicles the sports sudden drop off the other end. The catalyst, as the Cold War-like dramatics of the form dictate, is rivalry: Kevin Pearce and Shaun White, former friends and embittered adversaries, come to represent the films evenly matched hero and villainPearce the good-natured underdog on his way up, White the vainglorious champion whose years-long reign seems threatened. Of course, story, in a documentary, is nothing more than a pretense in thrall to the life from which its fashioned, and a filmmaker can only do so much to sculpt reality to her liking. But Walker has no need to anyway: here shes happened upon a real-life conflict of almost inherently cinematic interest.Calum Marsh





Year: 2001

Director: Ron Howard

A Beautiful Mind is Russell Crowe in his prime. John Nash began showing early signs of schizophrenia as he entered graduate school at Princeton and Crowes eyes simulated perfectly the isolation and anti-social feelings Nash must have been going through during those times. Ed Harris plays the government agent who recruits Nash to look for patterns in newspapers. Their chemistry is intense and Nashs frustration and fear of the Soviets brings insight into his character and his mind.Muriel Vega



Year: 2002

Director: Joel Zwick

The little indie rom-com that could, Joel Zwicks My Big Fat Greek Wedding was the surprise hit of 2002 thanks to a hilarious, loving portrayal of Greek-American culture that hadnt been seen much on the big screen. Nia Vardalos plays Toula Portokalos, who to the consternation of her family, is engaged to a decidedly non-Greek man. The clash of cultures is at the center of this funny, sweet and original film based on Vardalos Oscar-nominated screenplay.Josh Jackson





Year: 1986

Director: John Hughes

Lets ignore the fact that she ends up with the wrong guy in the end (Team Duckie for life!) and examine what makes Pretty in Pinks Andie so impossibly cool: She works in a record store and has killer taste in music. Her outfits are daring and incredible. She brushes off insults from evil richie-rich Steff (James Spader) like they aint no thang. She supports her deadbeat dad and essentially serves as head of their household. But most importantly, shes the picture of courage, staying true to herself the whole way through and never changing to please Blane and his wealthy friendsand if theres any single movie character teen girls should be modeling themselves after as they attempt to swim the treacherous waters of high school without drowning, shes the one.Bonnie Stiernberg





Year: 2000

Director: Curtis Hanson

The weekend it all goes wrong, hapless toke-happy English professor Grady (Michael Douglas) is grumpily attending the writers festival hosted by the liberal college where he works. His wife is leaving him. Hes hosting his dissipated agent (Robert Downey, Jr.) and struggling to cover the fact that his long-overdue novel has ballooned to an unnatural size. Oh, and hes having an affair with the colleges chancellor (Frances McDormand), whos married to someone else. Wonder Boys is the rare enjoyable adaptation of an equally enjoyable novel by Michael Chabon, a sort of madcap cross between a heros journey and a belated coming-of-age story that also features Toby Maguire and Katie Holmes as two of Gradys students. Its about relocating the narrative of your life when youve lost itand its a ton of fun.Alissa Wilkinson



Year: 2015

Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Greg (Thomas Mann) describes himself as a groundhog-faced, insufferably awkward social chameleon. He can blend in with any of the cliques that populate his school, but he chooses to belong to none (hes trying to save himself from that aforementioned awkwardness and escape high school without suffering too many embarrassments). His only real friend is Earl (newcomer RJ Cyler), though Greg would never acknowledge him as such. Greg and Earl are filmmakersand merely co-workers, according to Gregwho spend most of their free time making parodies of classic films like Apocalypse Now, The Third Man and Citizen Kane. (The titles and brief clips of Greg and Earls hilarious parodies are a highlight.) Greg is content to have the most limited of high school experiences and just make his movies until he has to face the looming threat of college. But when Gregs mom (Connie Britton) forces him to hang out with Rachel, he has to abandon his casual-interactions-only policy and actually spend meaningful time with someone other than a colleague. So begins what Greg dubs his doomed friendship with Rachel. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl follows Greg and Rachel as they help each other cope. Greg helps Rachel deal with all the pity, anger and exhaustion that come with having cancer, and Rachel helps Greg deal with his fear of connection. No one really knows how to handle cancerno one knows the correct thing to say. Were all just stumbling about, hoping to be even a little bit helpful. The film gets this exactly right, and its refreshing when compared to recent teen-with-a-terminal-illness romances.Regan Reid



Year: 2011

Director: James Marsh

In Man on Wire, director James Marsh recounted French tightrope walker Philippe Petits exploits, most notably his unauthorized 1974 walk between the Twin Towers that held most of the city of New York breathless for an entire morning. In Project Nim, a team of researchers (only one year earlier, in 1973) sets out to accomplish an even more audacious and thrilling goalto teach a chimpanzee human sign language and initiate meaningful dialogue. Technically the film is flawless. But the really compelling angle for the film is the very idea of inter-species communication.Michael Dunaway





Year: 2006

Director: Gus Van Sant

Actor Michael Pitt portrays the lost figure at the center of Last Days, a stark walk through a dying artists final moments inspired by the death of one of rock historys great tragic heroes. Like Van Sants prior films, Gerry and Elephant, an improvised script and freedom from routine cinematic language gives Last Days a hyper-real, oddly poetic flow of events Pitt plays Blake, first seen stumbling alone in the wilderness, a caveman in pajamas and sunglasses. Through a random series of events we learn that hes a rock musician living in a once-elegant mansion gone seedy with neglect, with a small entourage of housemates who incessantly seek him for advice, money and affirmation. Presumably stoned beyond repair, Blake spends Last Days dodging so-called friends, bandmates and other intrusions of the outside world, unable to secure the peace he craves. Theres no doubt that Blake is intended to recall the late Kurt Cobain; Pitts emaciated frame, bedraggled blonde shag, pink sunglasses and general demeanor is sometimes uncanny in its resemblance to the long-mourned star. But the Last Days story has little in common with the facts of the case, keeping only the essential themes. Pitt submerges so deeply into the swampy depths of Blakes character that he ends up somewhere beyond acting. The film benefits from Pitts real-world rock n roll experiences with Thurston Moore also on board as music consultant.Fred Beldin





Year: 2015

Director: Brett Morgan

Despite its limitations, the documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is an honorable attempt to restore the gunk, anger and volume to Nirvanas legacyand to Cobains as well. Dead at 27the same age when Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison diedthe songwriter-guitarist is remembered as a talented, troubled stalwart, but The Kid Stays in the Picture director Brett Morgen wants us to look closer at Cobain, and what Montage of Heck reveals isnt all that pretty. A junkie, a pain in the ass, an inveterate malcontent: This is the Cobain we see in Morgens documentary. Yet, by emphasizing the messy, ugly humanness of his subject, Morgen manages to make him heroic and tragic, too. Though Montage of Heck is undoubtedly geared to fans, it gives fans reason to be grateful for this guy and this band all over again. (Read the full review here.) Tim Grierson





Year: 2007

Director: Tim Burton

Whoever said murder couldnt be wonderfully melodic? Although the Tony-winning Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was right up Tim Burtons alley, his 2007 film took his macabre look at a homicidal English barber and made it fun. Heres another Burton flick that relies on the tested chemistry of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, but we also see great performances from Alan Rickman as the corrupt Judge Turpin and Sasha Baron Cohen as a rival barber. The film sees Burtons on-screen gruesomeness at an all-time high, but its all balanced out by some infectious musical numbers.Tyler Kane





Year: 2008

Director: Gus Van Sant

Sean Penn took home a Best Actor Oscar, and writer Dustin Lance Black an Original Screenplay statue, for their work in Gus Van Sants vibrant snapshot of slain San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk, Californias first openly gay individual to be elected to public office. As the activist-turned-politicianwho was assassinated in November 1978 by fellow city supervisor Dan WhitePenn is characteristically intense, but theres a singular ebullience to his portrayal of a public servant at a watershed moment for civil rights, a decade after Stonewall and with four decades to go until marriage equality. In Penns chameleonic characterization, Milks journey is a personal one writ large, a midlife crisis that prompted landmark campaignsand not just for LGBTQ rights. Van Sant captures the energy of San Franciscos counterculture, especially in the Castro District, with Milks spirited calls for action igniting the community. Despite his understandable martyrdom, Penn doesnt shy away from Milks flaws, tantrums and lapses in judgment. Its a fully fleshed, utterly astonishing turn in a career of them. The ensemble cast is uniformly outstanding; you can feel Josh Brolin at once imploding and exploding as the repressed White, and Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, James Franco, Victor Garber and Denis OHare, as Milks assorted lovers and colleagues, lend emotional depth and purpose to his journey. One of the best, most moving biopics in recent memory. Amanda Schurr





Year: 1996

Director: Roland Emmerich

Independence Day is basically a compilation of the best explosions ever. Treasured monuments and government buildings get decimated, and then the alien mother ship follows suit. This movie is a pyrotechnicians dream, which makes the title that much more fitting. Starring Will Smith as the earths savior, the film also gave us one of the better Jeff Goldblum characters, an MIT-graduate character discovers the countdown to a possible alien attack hidden in satellite transmissions. The brain to Will Smiths brawn, Goldblum played an unlikely hero protecting the world from an impending alien invasion, among an all-star cast including Mary McDonnell who would later go on to lead a team against an invasion of another kind, the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica and the President Bill Pullman.Staff



Year: 2014

Directors: Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi

Who knew that the undead fight over dirty dishes or primp before going out? Its these types of little moments, paired with almost throwaway bits of dialogue, that turn the vampire mockumentary What We Do In the Shadows into a sublime comedy. As written, directed and starring Jemaine Clement, half of the comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and Taika Waititi, writer and director of Boy, New Zealands highest-grossing film, the film not only tweaks the vampire genre by adding a number of mumblecore elements, but also pays a tongue-in-cheek homage to its history. The film opens with a series of title cards that credit the New Zealand Documentary Board and also explain the films premise: A documentary crew was given full access to follow a secret society based in Wellington, New Zealand during the months leading up to the Unholy Masquerade Ball, the social event of the year. The intertitles also note that the crew was assured protection from their subjects, and issued crucifixes, just in case. What We Do In the Shadows played the festival circuit after its Sundance debut, and picked up a number of audience awards in its wake. We can see the appeal: While theres really not that much action or bloodletting in the fake documentary, the laughs are definitely authentic.Christine N. Ziemba





Year: 1996

Director: Wes Craven

Before Scary Movie or A Haunted House were even ill-conceived ideas, Wes Craven was crafting some of the best horror satire out there. And although part of Screams charm was its sly, fair jabs at the genre, that didnt keep the director from dreaming up some of the most brutal knife-on-human scenes in the 90s. With the birth of the Ghost Face killer, Craven took audiences on a journey through horror-flick fandom, making all-too-common tricks of the trade a staple for survival: sex equals death, dont drink or do drugs, never say Ill be right back. With a crossover cast of Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan and Drew Barrymore (okay, for like 10 minutes), Scream arrived with a smart, funny take on a tired genre. It wasnt the first film of its kind, but it was the first one to be seen by a huge audience, which went a long way in raising the genre IQ of the average horror fan.Tyler Kane







Year: 1987

Director: Mel Brooks

Originally perceived as one of writer/director Mel Brooks lesser works, this loving send-up of the sci-fi/fantasy genre (specifically, Star Wars) has, over the years, wormed its way into the hearts of a new generation of fans who caught it on video. May the Schwartz be with you, Ludicrous Speed, Mawgif these are all terms that mean nothing to you then its high-time you checked this movie out and see what all the fuss is about.Mark Rozeman





Year: 2008

Directors: Mark Osborne, John Stevenson

Like Stephen Chows Kung Fu Hustle, DreamWorks Kung Fu Panda punctuates its light-hearted, comedic tone with surprisingly poignant moments along with nonstop homages to a giant list of truly classic Kung Fu films, often scene by scene. In the end, I had to give it to Kung Fu Panda as the more tightly constructed film, though really, they both might as well share this spot with the sheer amount of love for the genre that comes through when watching either film. Jack Black voices Pos (totally awesome) journey from bumbling martial arts fanboy to unlikely hero with such sincerity that its hard not to get swept along, especially given the equally strong performances by Dustin Hoffman as the perpetually exasperated Master Shifu and Ian McShane as the menacing Tai Lung.K. Alexander Smith





Year: 2007

Director: Judd Apatow

Sure, theres a graphic scene involving a baby coming out of a womb. Yes, theres nudity and plenty of expletives. And okay, it is sort of strange how a schlub like Seth Rogen can get a girl like Katherine Heigl. Even so, theres an inherent sweetness to Knocked Up that make it such a pleasure to watch. Judd Apatows treatment of the supporting characters, like Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann, also help catapult the romantic comedy into one of the genres very best.Jeremy Medina





Year: 1993

Director: Jane Campion

Without ever saying a word, Holly Hunter still has one of the great performances of the early 90s. The Piano also introduced the rest of the world to New Zealands Jane Campion, creator of Top of the Lake, and to actress Anna Paquin (True Blood). Set in 1850s New Zealand, the film tells of a mute, young mother trapped in arranged marriage and the farmworker (Harvey Keitel) who falls for her.Josh Jackson





Year: 2014

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Inherent Vice shares Thomas Pynchons instability: always in flux, it perseveres as a screwball elegy to a lost time, refusing to function solely as a stoner comedy or a serious drama or any one thing. Anderson is mannered enough to shift from one tone to another organically, making the whole seem part of one larger kaleidoscopic feeling rather than a series of disjointed vignettes, and that alone is a huge accomplishment. That he also characteristically includes a series of unforgettable scenes makes this film one that must be seen again.Jeremy Mathews





Year: 2015

Director: Alex Gibney

Alex Gibneys up-close examination of Scientology, its practices and the controversies that surround the religion founded by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard is also a stirring portrait of eight former adherents, who tell their stories of how they came to practice Scientology and their reasons for leaving the church. While much of the ideological content in Gibneys film has circulated on the Internet for years, there were still a number of items to be learned from watching the film and hearing from the men who made it. While Going Clear is part expose and part condemnation of a controversial religion, director Gibney has said that he was most interested in the journey of the key characters in the film  and how people got lost in the prison of belief.Christine N. Ziemba





Year: 2015

Director: Thomas Vinterberg

Try not to judge Thomas Vinterbergs adaptation of Thomas Hardys Far From the Madding Crowd as a product of Dogme, the Dutch-born filmmaking movement that Vinterberg co-founded with career bad-boy Lars von Trier in 1995. A Victorian-age romance yarn about female independence that honors the law of Chekhovs gun seems a poor fit for a philosophy created in the pursuit of cinematic purity. But Far From the Madding Crowd isnt a Dogme film. Its a latter-day Thomas Vinterberg film, and a damn good one at that. Vinterberg is best-loved for his excellent 2012 film The Hunt, a story of communal insularity and the fracturing effect a lie can have on the body politic. With Far From the Madding Crowd, he again studies the effects of rumors and murmurs on a persons reputation, but that element is less prominent in Hardys novel than his profound examination of feminine will.Andy Crump





Available June 4, 2016

Year: 2015

Director: Ridley Scott

Ridley Scotts The Martian is largely a cold, deliberate film, but theres still something undeniably stirring about it. Instead of showering us with treacle, the film pays tribute to simple human attributes such as smarts, teamwork, sacrifice and determination, going about its business much like its resourceful characters do. And yet, the films underlying message is nonetheless inspiring: We can do great things if only we put our minds to it. Based on Andy Weirs 2011 novel, The Martian is set in a not-too-distant future in which U.S. astronauts are conducting manned missions to the Red Planet. The latest expedition finds a crew that includes Commander Melissa Lewis (Jessica Chastain) and botanist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) getting ready to return home to Earth when a deadly storm suddenly bears down on them. In the rush to return to their ship, Watney is hit by debris and presumed dead, Lewis reluctantly taking the rest of her crew into space. Except, of course, Watney hasnt really died. As you might imagine, much depends on the films outcome, and Scott finds a way, even in the storys final moments, to undercut the obviously emotional stakes with a calm precision that makes it all the more thrilling and harrowing. Consequently, The Martian is subtly heroic, peeling away the potential histrionics of the stranded-on-Mars plot to look at the very human men or women who ensure that the spaceships can fly in the first place.Tim Grierson





Year: 2015

Director: Dee Rees

It may have taken 20 years to make it, but when Bessie finally arrived, she came, she saw and she conquered. The HBO film has garnered 12 well-deserved Emmy nominations, with Queen Latifah, co-stars Michael Kenneth Williams and MoNique, and director Dee Rees all getting the nod. One scene in particularwith the reverse paper bag testis one of Bessies finest moments, as it encompasses all that makes the HBO film so wonderful. Theres Queen Latifah in all her glory, finally setting up her own tour and making sure everyone knows whos boss. Theres the hilarity when she lets down one of the hopefuls auditioningYou must be darker than the bag to be in my show! After all, Bessie is an incredibly funny movie at times. And theres the whole inversion of the brown paper bag test. Where Bessie Smith grew up in a world that demanded black women performing back-up be lighter than a brown paper bag, Bessie makes up a new rule that gives her back some agency and sets a different tone (literally and figuratively) for her showcase. Bessie was, in no way, your average blues performer and for that reason Lili Fini Zanuck and her husband Richard D. Zanuck knew they couldnt just deliver your average black-performer-who-grew-up-poor-and-made-it-big biopic. The familiar story of a talented woman done in by a man (or many men), or childhood tragedies, or her own celebrity was not Bessies storyshe wasnt lighter than a brown paper bag, and, thankfully, wasnt presented as such.Shannon M. Houston





Year: 2014

Director: Luc Besson

Who knew Luc Besson still had a movie like Lucy in him? Its a startling blast of cinematic zeal and philosophical provocationthe work of someone fully engaged by the medium. Somewhat improbably, its also an ideal culmination of a sci-fi trilogy Scarlett Johansson may not have even realized she was making. In Her, Under the Skin and now Lucy, the young veteran has not only delivered some of the finest work of her career, shes found a trio of characters in conversation about what it means to be human through the eyes of an outsider. Geoff Berkshire





When Brendan Gleeson gets together with John Michael McDonagh, magical things happen. The two first teamed up in 2011 for the black comedy, The Guard, which, though it gets dark when it needs to, showcases Gleesons easy charm, humor and ability to absolutely take control of the frame. Hes proven time and time again that hes one of the best and most underappreciated character actors working today. Their latest collaboration, Calvary, takes a different approach than their last endeavor, but is no less impressive, illustrating again that Gleeson is equally adept in the lead of this character study as in any supporting roles.Brent McKnight





Year: 2003

Directors: Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman

Harvey Pekars American Splendor books are fascinating in that Pekar believed that even the most mundane and seemingly uncomplicated lives were worth documenting. American Splendor does a great job of showcasing that theory by using real footage of Pekar, fictionalized versions and even the comic version to create a cohesive whole that documents a fascinating, albeit ordinary life.Ross Bonaime





Director: Spike Lee

Year: 2006

Part indictment of FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, part celebration of the unfailingly resilient spirit of New Orleans, Spike Lees four-hour-long look at The City That Care Forgot a year after the near-obliteration of Hurricane Katrina is an exhausting, comprehensive, worthwhile experience. Theres a reason so many residents refer to the catastrophe as the Federal flood and not Katrina itselfLees Peabody-winning doc examines the systemic failure at all levels of government to maintain the storm barriers and deal with the consequences of their negligence. Its political, its racial, its accusatory and its utterly compelling viewing. Its also inspiring, thanks to the resolute locals shown struggling to survive and rebuild in the disasters aftermath. This is very much a Spike Lee joint; dont expect anyone in the Dubya administration to come away without a tongue-lashing. But the heart and soul of the doc is the people of New Orleans, and they wont let you downon the contrary.Amanda Schurr



Year: 2001

Directors: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson

Dreamworks announced itself as an animation powerhouse with this wonderful twist on the Beauty and the Beast saga. Its wickedly funny thanks to a crisp adaptation of William Stiegs picture book and voice acting from SNL vets Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, who are given the whole of fairyland to roam. Cameron Diazs princess as ninja warrior was a cutting response to some of Disneys delicate flower leadsjust one of the many subtle digs at the Disney-industrial complex. The film manages to satirize the tropes of childrens movies without losing its heart, an apt parallel to its titular ogres gruff exterior/softie interior dynamic.Josh Jackson





Year: 2015

Director: Noah Baumbach

Mistress America is so far Noah Baumbachs most vivacious output, fiercer in its convictions and sense of self than anything to come before. He treats it with equal affection for his past films, but is less protectiveits gassed with a smiling fuck-you attitude, revved up by an 80s Euro synth-pop score from husband-wife duo Dean Wareheim and Britta Phillips, who provided the music for Baumbachs Squid and the Whale in 2005, arguably his magnum opus. As exhausting as his characters can be, both agonizing in their belligerence and endearing in their complete oblivion, the adoration with which he writes them and the ferocious wit for which hes revered make Baumbach one of contemporary cinemas greatest character sketchersand Mistress America falls right in line. (Read the full review here.) Melissa Weller





Year: 2008

Director: Darren Aronofsky

American filmmakers may have rediscovered emotional realism, but no conversion is more surprising than Darren Aronofskys. His unadorned portrait of a pro-wrestling has-been is built around a fantastic, physical performance by Mickey Rourke, captured with a documentary style that renders his dingy world all the more strange, funny and heartbreaking. In his own words, hes a broken-down piece of meat, and Rourke, back from actor purgatory, brings ample baggage to the roleincluding his bulked-up, modified body, his sandpapered larynx and his craving for an unlikely comeback. Randy The Ram Robinson cant keep doing pile drivers forever, especially as the game evolves into something even more brutal, but what else is there? Hes distant from his daughter, but he has a flirtatious, tentative relationship with an aging stripper (Marisa Tomei) whos facing the same injustice of the ticking clock. The movie, with its dime-store romance, breezy dialogue and telegraphed emotion, feels a bit like a grungier Rocky, but at times the understated attitude, grime and destitution are closer to Raging Bull.Robert Davis





Year: 2000

Director: Guy Ritchie

Love or hate him, Guy Ritchie has redefined the gangster genre with his hyper-stylized touch. Snatch may be a lesser remix of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but it boasts a multifaceted plot, frenzied action and dazzling eye candy. And how can you not love characters with names like Franky Four Fingers, Bullet Tooth Tony and Doug the Head?David Roark





Year: 2009

Directors: Henry Selick

Director Henry Selick matches the Gothic whimsy of Nightmare Before Christmas and adds even more compelling emotional content with this adaptation of Neil Gaimans novella. An unhappy little girl discovers an alternate reality that seems to offer all the magic and wonder her real home lacks, only to discover the sinister implications behind the candy-colored exteriors. Gaimans inventive approach to fairy-tale rules matches Selicks luminescent colors and blend of everyday emotions and dream-like wonders. Perhaps the greatest stop-motion film ever, it even looks great in 3D.Curt Holman





Year: 2007

Director: Jason Reitman

At the center of Diablo Codys quickly drafted first movie script is a teenage girl going through a difficult situation and handling it with more maturity and aplomb than most of the adults around her. Ellen Pages Juno is a delightful counter to vapid high-school stereotypes that litter the genre, but the challenges of pregnancy and the arrested development of Jason Bateman as the potential adoptive father take the precocious teenager in way over her head. The films honesty in tackling these issues makes its many laughs well-earned.Josh Jackson





Year: 1999

Director: Brad Bird

Brad Birds feature debut was traditional 2-D animation when computer animation was the craze, released by studio folk who didnt realize just how special a film they had on their hands. Luckily, The Iron Giant received its due recognition on home video. Set in the 1950s and drawing off the nuclear fears of the time, it incorporates the hallmark of the eras science-fictiona giant metal robotinto a touching coming-of-age story. Bird effortlessly moves between riotous comedy (such as young Hogarths efforts to hide his enormous new robot friend from his mother), high-spun action and poignant moments of fear and friendship.Jeremy Mathews



Year: 2002

Director: Roman Polanski

While many great performances rely on dramatic and affecting dialogue, Adrien Brodys turn as real life musician Wladyslaw Szpilman in Roman Polanskis Holocaust drama The Pianist is hushed, a sullen-eyed lost soul hanging on to a world cloaked in gray. As the title character, Brody became a living skeleton, an all-too-real representation of one of historys darkest periods.Justin Jacobs





Year: 1975

Director: Milos Forman

Theres a reason this film swept the Oscars with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher anchor a dynamic cast in Formans New Hollywood masterpiece about a state mental hospital.Josh Jackson





Year: 2015

Director: George Miller

Three decades since we last visited George Millers arid, dystopian world, the latest installment stars Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky with Charlize Theron as his co-leada casting coup. But the long wait had Miller swinging for the fences. Try naming a modern blockbuster that has as much chutzpah as Mad Max: Fury Road. You cant, because there isnt one. This is what happens when you lay out all your crazy on the screen at once: glorious, crackling entertainment. Every single dollar of its reported $150 million budget is in the frame at all times, but Miller is so unpretentious that you wont catch the price tag. Real people cruise in real vehicles across real expanses of desert. When the film does lean on computers, its to fill in the margins or summon the occasional dust storm. Miller defines his aesthetic through physical texture, tells story through action, and shows no interest in the routine of contemporary Hollywood spectacle. Whats more, Mad Max: Fury Road is an inclusive effort that invites us to join its heroes in breaking down gender dichotomies. George Miller has made a phenomenal action film with a righteous cause, a movie that layers smart commentary atop jaw-dropping set pieces. May he ride eternal, shiny and chrome.Andy Crump







Year: 2000

Director: Stephen Frears

Nick Hornby really is tapped into the psyche of the turn-of-the-century male. John Cusack plays the every-man type who retraces his past girlfriend history only to find he let the perfect woman slip through his fingers. Funny, insightful and insanely quotable, High Fidelity plays like an ultra-hip Woody Allen movie, which is a very good thing indeed.Jeremy Medina





Year: 1987

Director: Joel Coen

Understated dramatic performances are all well and good, but it takes pinpoint control on behalf of both directors and cast to deliver the sustained overstated performances found throughout Raising Arizona. From its opening courtship sequence to the struggles of H.I. (Nicholas Cage) and Ed (Holly Hunter) to form a family by borrowing an extra from another to the final battle with the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse, the Coen brothers film remains an immensely beguiling and quotable farcical fable.Michael Burgin





Year: 1999

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Andersons magnum opus follows multiple plotlines, while still deeply developing each of the films many principle characters, played more than ably by some of the decades greatest actorsJulianne Moore, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Robards and Alfred Molina, to name but half. Father/child relationships are explored, but the themes throughout are grand ones. Add in Tom Cruises best performance of his life and a killer soundtrack from Aimee Mann, and you have one of the greatest movies of the 1990s.Josh Jackson



Year: 1972

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Whats there to say about this cinematic staple that hasnt already been said? Francis Ford Coppolas classic crime drama epitomizes the word epic in every way. The performances, the characters, the narrative, the scope, the setting, the scoreeverything comes to the screen so, well, epically. For that and a whole slew of other reasons, The Godfather should have your loyalty as the greatest gangster film of all time. The second chapterreleased just two years laterset a new precedent for sequels by proving just as triumphant. Anchored by prevailing performances from Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, the follow-up carries on the mafia saga and explores the parallels between father and son. Its another tour de force with epic proportions. The Godfather Epic edits together the first two films of the trilogy into one long, glorious viewing experience.David Roark


For anyone looking for a kung-fu saga bereft of anything resembling passion, thrills or even high drama, look no further than The Final Master. Actually, if youve seen writer/director Xu Haofengs first feature, The Sword Identity (2011), youll already have an idea what youre in for: an obsession with martial arts history and tradition, with the dramatic stakes made stubbornly low and the stylistic temperature even lower. Xu also co-wrote Wong Kar-Wais 2013 Ip Man biopic The Grandmaster, and watching his two directorial efforts, one cant help but yearn for Wongs romantically melancholic touch to do something, anything to add some of the heat that is crucially missing.

Though the plot details of The Final Master and The Sword Identity are different, the themes they tackle are broadly similar. Questions of legacy are chief among them, especially when it comes to passing down martial arts traditions. In The Sword Identity, the servant of a late general who created a new form of martial arts to fight off Japanese pirates spends much of the film trying to challenge the masters of the four already extant martial arts schools in Guangcheng in order to establish a new school to keep his masters fighting techniques alive. The threat of extinction of another martial artWing Chun, the self-defense method at the heart of the recent Ip Man craze in Chinese cinemahangs over The Final Master as well, as Master Chen (Liao Fan) similarly aims to figure out a way to pass down his art so that it doesnt get lost to history. His efforts in Tianjin, the center of martial arts back in 1912, run up against the obstacles of political and military maneuvering as well as his own internal conflicts.

If those bare-bones summaries make the films sound rather dry and academic, dont expect Xu to be so easily accommodating if you dont already have an interest in martial arts going in. Considering Xus odd cinematic style in The Final Masterstrangest of all, coupled with a score by An Wei that keeps even the most seemingly dramatic of scenes feeling inconsequentialone wonders if he is, on some deeper level, aware of how insular his thematic preoccupations really are. But damned if he wont at least try to open those concerns up to a wider audience.

It might help if Xu were a better dramatist, on film at least. Hes also popularly known in China as a novelist and a martial arts scholar, but however well he may have dramatized his obsessions on the pagelike The Sword Identity, The Final Master is adapted from his own novelhes awfully clumsy when it comes to characterization in his films, often putting stilted expository dialogue into peoples mouths to offer historical context and explain character motivations. The nadir in that regard comes early on in The Final Master, when Xu has Master Chen risibly deliver gobs of biographical backstory to his wife (Song Jia) while fighting off about 20 attackers.

Speaking of risible, Xu often attempts bits of comedy throughout both of his films (e.g., the three female exotic gold-digger dancers who latch onto Guangcheng soldiers in The Sword Identity; the scenes between Chens protege Geng (Song Yang) and his tea-serving maybe-love interest in this film), but his touch is so heavy that they instead pop like lead balloons. And though Chen supposedly loves his wife, theres no chemistry between Liao Fan and Song Jia in any of their scenes, only a series of ostensibly romantic glances which the actors convey without much conviction.

Worst of all, the fight scenes carry no electric charge whatsoever. With Xu himself masterminding the choreography (as he did with the action in The Sword Identity), one can guess that this is where his real passion lies, and its easy to admire the obvious physical and technical skill put into these scenes. But without any dramatic involvement built into these confrontations, such sequences as Chens climactic alleyway confrontation between a bunch of opposing Master Zous (Jiang Wenli) henchmen become monotonous bores, with precious little variety in the slicing and dicing to give it any life. Then again, such intellectualized distance is par for the course in The Final Master. It aims for meditative, but barely even clears the bar of dullness.

Director: Xu Haofeng

Writer: Xu Haofeng

Starring: Liao Fan, Song Jia, Jiang Wenli, Chin Shih-Chieh, Song Yang, Huang Jue

Release Date: June 3, 2016

Kenji Fujishima is a freelance film critic, contributing to Slant Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, The Playlist and the Village Voice. He is also Deputy Editor of Movie Mezzanine and former editor-in-chief of In Review Online. When hes not watching movies and writing and editing film criticism, hes trying to absorb as much music, art, and literature as possible. He has not infrequently been called a culture vulture for that reason.
AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets has agreed the acquisition of the Asticus Building in a prime location in Victoria, central London, for a total amount of 105 million (80 million). The transaction is made on behalf of AXA IM - Real Assets' recently launched AXA CoRE Europe Fund, managed

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The B2B online booking platform for temporary housing Homelike has expanded its business to Switzerland. Homelike now offers more than 12,000 furnished apartments in 20 cities in the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region, which can be booked entirely online. The German based property technology (PropTech) startup is currently the

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Allcon Group has sold Allcon Park, the headquarters of Intel. Under the agreement concluded, Intel Technology Poland became the new owner of a real estate consisting of 5 office buildings of a total area amounting to 24,000 sqm and an expansion land plot located in Gdansk. Allcon Park office complex

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Rabo Real Estate Group has sold the building De Rotterdam in Rotterdam to a consortium of Korean Investors, led by Amundi Real Estate. The iconic building was designed by OMA/Rem Koolhaas. The sale comprises approximately 75,000 sq m of office space, the nhow hotel with 278 rooms and approximately 2,000

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Schroder European Real Estate Investment Trust plc completed the purchase of the convenience retail property located in Rodelheim (Frankfurt) at a purchase price of 11.05 million reflecting a net initial yield of 5.6%. The investment is well located in a growing inner urban area of Frankfurt am Main and is

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The Standard Life Investments Long Lease Fund has invested 22.5 million (17.4 million) in Blythswood House, a student accommodation development in Glasgow. Blythswood House opened in September 2015 and was purpose-built for the Glasgow School of Art. It is situated on 200 West Regent Street in the heart of the

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ABC/Randy HolmesMarcus Mumford will be on hand to help honor songwriters at this year's Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Dinner. The Mumford & Sons frontman will be among the performers and presenters at the ceremony, which will be held June 9 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City.

The Byrds guitarist Roger McGuinn will also be making an appearance at the event.

The 2016 class of Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees includes Tom Petty, Elvis Costello and the late Marvin Gaye. Tickets for the gala start at $1,250 -- you can buy yours via Buckley Hall Events by calling 914-579-1000. Visit the Songwriters Hall of Fame's official website for more information.

A week after Mumford makes his appearance at the induction ceremony, Mumford & Sons will release their new EP, Johannesburg, on June 17.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Many college graduates are starting their careers and applying what they've learned to a position in their field. Regardless of their chosen professions, there are certain skills every student needs to be a successful employee, and those include communication skills -- specifically, oral and interpersonal communication.

According to a new Iowa State study published in Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, employers recalled oral communication skills more than others for new college graduates. Tina Coffelt, lead author and an assistant professor of communication studies and English, says one-third of employers surveyed identified strong verbal skills more than written, visual or electronic communication skills. The results do not diminish the need for these other skills, but more likely reflect usage.

"We talk a lot more than we write and we talk almost subconsciously; it's just something we have to do to get work done," Coffelt said. "The other forms of communication are more focused, more strategic. Certainly, some of oral communication is strategic as well, but the day-to-day work of talking on the telephone, with a co-worker down the hall or a customer who walks into a store -- there's just more oral communication."

Electronic skills, while growing in importance, ranked second in the study. Visual communication skills were rarely mentioned. Coffelt says there are several possible explanations as to why. Some employers may view visual skills as a support to other forms of communication, or as less of a priority in some occupations. Electronic skills -- primarily email and phone -- may be less important to some employers than human interaction, Coffelt said.

The data is based on responses from 52 employers in engineering, business, health sciences and social work. Each employer was asked about the type, frequency and manner of communication an intern or new, entry-level hire would use through the course of the workday. The employers identified 165 different communication skills.

How to best prepare students?

Collecting data that universities and colleges can use to shape curriculum motivated Coffelt to take a different approach. She and co-authors Matt Baker, a doctoral candidate in English; and Robert Corey, a lecturer in English, designed the study so that employers could list the types of communication they required, rather than ranking a set of skills predetermined by the researcher. Oral skills included interpersonal communication, presenting and listening skills, as well as team or group work, Coffelt said.

To better prepare students in these areas, Iowa State and several other universities have shifted to a multimodal teaching approach blending all forms of communication -- written, oral, visual and electronic -- into one course. This is an important step, because it reflects how we simultaneously use these skills at work, Coffelt said.

"Previously, students would take an English class to write, a speech class for public speaking or an interpersonal class and that's all you focus on," Coffelt said. "As we develop curricular assignments and focus on teaching, we need to recognize that teaching a separate class for each mode does not help students synthesize how different modes of communication weave together."

Coffelt says there also needs to be a stronger emphasis on communication curriculum before students even step foot on campus to make sure they're prepared for their courses. Technology is one way college instructors can help those students struggling with grammar rules or sentence structure. For example, offering online quizzes or additional assignments to complete outside of class will help students enhance their skills. It also gives instructors the ability to focus on more advanced skills and critical thinking in class, Coffelt said.

There are some limitations to research that Coffelt wants to examine in the future. This study looked only at prevalence of skills mentioned, based on employer recall. Coffelt says it would be beneficial to have data on the importance of these skills for employers. Still, employer responses indicate they value effective communication.

"When an employee is hired, that person is expected to have a blend of communication skills. Some positions are going to be more technical and may require a greater emphasis on writing skills, but there are hundreds of jobs in which students are going to be expected to have a combination of all skills," Coffelt said.
A long-term study of nearly 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 38 has found that people who smoked marijuana for up to 20 years have more gum disease, but otherwise do not show worse physical health than non-smokers.

The international research team assessed a dozen measures of physical health, including lung function, systemic inflammation and several measures of metabolic syndrome, including waist circumference, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure, glucose control and body mass index.

Tobacco users in the study, which appears online the week of June 1 in JAMA Psychiatry, were found to have gum disease as well as reduced lung function, systemic inflammation and indicators of poorer metabolic health.

"We can see the physical health effects of tobacco smoking in this study, but we don't see similar effects for cannabis smoking," said Madeline Meier, an assistant professor of psychology at Arizona State University who conducted the study with colleagues at Duke University, King's College in the UK and the University of Otago in New Zealand.

While study participants who had used marijuana to some degree over the last 20 years showed an increase in periodontal disease from age 26 to 38, they did not differ from non-users on any of the other physical health measures. To measure cannabis use, they asked study subjects to self-report their use at ages 18, 21, 26, 32 and 38.

The study's statistical analysis found that the decline in periodontal health in pot smokers was not explained by tobacco smoking, alcohol abuse or less tooth brushing and flossing. The lack of physical health problems among cannabis users also was not attributable to their having had better health to begin with or to living healthier lifestyles.

"We don't want people to think, 'Hey, marijuana can't hurt me,' because other studies on this same sample of New Zealanders have shown that marijuana use is associated with increased risk of psychotic illness, IQ decline and downward socioeconomic mobility," Meier said.

"What we're seeing is that cannabis may be harmful in some respects, but possibly not in every way," said study co-author Avshalom Caspi, the Edward M. Arnett Professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke. "We need to recognize that heavy recreational cannabis use does have some adverse consequences, but overall damage to physical health is not apparent in this study."

"Physicians should certainly explain to their patients that long-term marijuana use can put them at risk for losing some teeth," said Terrie Moffitt, the Nannerl O. Keohane University Professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke and co-director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, from which these data were gathered.
In a colonial orb-weaving spider, Cyrtophora citricola, females often eat the males after mating, but it is often the males that choose their mates, according a study published June 1, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Eric Yip from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and colleagues.

Choosing a high quality mate can confer advantages on an animal's offspring. Due to the relatively low abundance of eggs compared to sperm, the choice is often made by females, while males attempt to increase their number of offspring by mating promiscuously. However, this may be different in species that exhibit sexual cannibalism, like the group-living C. citricola spider, where males are often eaten after mating and so may be "choosier" due to a single mate choice. The authors of the present study investigated how sexual cannibalism may promote male choosiness by pairing captured virgin male and female orb-weaving spiders randomly in the laboratory and observing which sex was more selective and which mates were selected.

The researchers found that males were choosier than females and were twice as likely to mate with well-fed females, which may be a proxy for fertility. Females ate more than 80% of their mates. The authors suggest that cannibalism by females may therefore act to promote the evolution of mate choice by males.

Eric Yip notes: "With over 80% of males cannibalized after their first copulation, males need to make their one shot at paternity count. In a colony, males are likely to encounter multiple receptive females, and we found that males prefer to court and mate with younger, fatter, and therefore potentially more fecund females."
Using a new satellite-based method, scientists at NASA, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and two universities have located 39 unreported and major human-made sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions.

A known health hazard and contributor to acid rain, sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) is one of six air pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Current, sulfur dioxide monitoring activities include the use of emission inventories that are derived from ground-based measurements and factors, such as fuel usage. The inventories are used to evaluate regulatory policies for air quality improvements and to anticipate future emission scenarios that may occur with economic and population growth.

But, to develop comprehensive and accurate inventories, industries, government agencies and scientists first must know the location of pollution sources.

"We now have an independent measurement of these emission sources that does not rely on what was known or thought known," said Chris McLinden, an atmospheric scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada in Toronto and lead author of the study published this week in Nature Geosciences. "When you look at a satellite picture of sulfur dioxide, you end up with it appearing as hotspots -- bull's-eyes, in effect -- which makes the estimates of emissions easier."

The 39 unreported emission sources, found in the analysis of satellite data from 2005 to 2014, are clusters of coal-burning power plants, smelters, oil and gas operations found notably in the Middle East, but also in Mexico and parts of Russia. In addition, reported emissions from known sources in these regions were -- in some cases -- two to three times lower than satellite-based estimates.

Altogether, the unreported and underreported sources account for about 12 percent of all human-made emissions of sulfur dioxide -- a discrepancy that can have a large impact on regional air quality, said McLinden.

The research team also located 75 natural sources of sulfur dioxide -- non-erupting volcanoes slowly leaking the toxic gas throughout the year. While not necessarily unknown, many volcanoes are in remote locations and not monitored, so this satellite-based data set is the first to provide regular annual information on these passive volcanic emissions.

"Quantifying the sulfur dioxide bull's-eyes is a two-step process that would not have been possible without two innovations in working with the satellite data," said co-author Nickolay Krotkov, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

First was an improvement in the computer processing that transforms raw satellite observations from the Dutch-Finnish Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA's Aura spacecraft into precise estimates of sulfur dioxide concentrations. Krotkov and his team now are able to more accurately detect smaller sulfur dioxide concentrations, including those emitted by human-made sources such as oil-related activities and medium-size power plants.

Being able to detect smaller concentrations led to the second innovation. McLinden and his colleagues used a new computer program to more precisely detect sulfur dioxide that had been dispersed and diluted by winds. They then used accurate estimates of wind strength and direction derived from a satellite data-driven model to trace the pollutant back to the location of the source, and also to estimate how much sulfur dioxide was emitted from the smoke stack.

"The unique advantage of satellite data is spatial coverage," said Bryan Duncan, an atmospheric scientist at Goddard. "This paper is the perfect demonstration of how new and improved satellite datasets, coupled with new and improved data analysis techniques, allow us to identify even smaller pollutant sources and to quantify these emissions over the globe."

The University of Maryland, College Park, and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, contributed to this study.
An international team of scientists has pushed the limits of radio astronomy to detect a faint signal emitted by hydrogen gas in a galaxy more than five billion light years away -- almost double the previous record.

Using the Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US, the team observed radio emission from hydrogen in a distant galaxy and found that it would have contained billions of young, massive stars surrounded by clouds of hydrogen gas.

As the most abundant element in the Universe and the raw fuel for creating stars, hydrogen is used by radio astronomers to detect and understand the makeup of other galaxies.

However, until now, radio telescopes have only been able to detect the emission signature of hydrogen from relatively nearby galaxies.

"Due to the upgrade of the Very Large Array, this is the first time we've been able to directly measure atomic hydrogen in a galaxy this far from Earth," lead author, Dr Ximena Fernandez from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, said.

"These signals would have begun their journey before our planet even existed, and after five billion years of travelling through space without hitting anything, they've fallen into the telescope and allowed us to see this distant galaxy for the very first time."

As an archaeologist digs down they find older and older objects. The same is true for astronomers -- as they build bigger telescopes and develop new techniques to see farther into the Universe, they look further and further back in time.

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"This is precisely the goal of the project, to study how gas in galaxies has changed through history," Dr Fernandez said.

"A question we hope to answer is whether galaxies in the past had more gas being turned into stars than galaxies today. Our record breaking find is a galaxy with an unusually large amount of hydrogen."

This success for the team comes after the first 178 hours of observing time with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope for a new survey of the sky called the 'COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey', or CHILES for short.

Once it's completed the CHILES survey will have collected data from more than 1,000 hours of observing time.

In a new approach, members of the team including Dr Attila Popping from International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and the ARC Centre of All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) in Australia are working with Amazon Web Services to process and move the large volumes of data via the 'cloud'.

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"For this project we took tens of terabytes of data from the Very Large Array, and then processed it using Amazon's cloud-based servers to create an enormous image cube, ready for our team to analyse and explore," Dr Popping said.

Professor Andreas Wicenec, head of the Data Intensive Astronomy team at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the limiting factor for radio astronomers used to be the size of the telescope and the hardware behind it.

"It's fast becoming more about the data and how you move, store and analyse vast volumes of information," he said.

"Big science needs a lot of compute power--right now we're designing systems to manage data for several large facilities around the world and the next generation of radio telescopes, including China's 500m radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array and the SKA's pathfinder telescopes that are already up and running in outback Western Australia."

The study involved researchers from the US, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Korea and Chile, and was published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The previous record was set in 2014 when two researchers from Swinburne University used the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to detect atomic hydrogen in a galaxy three billion light years from Earth.
A multinational team of astronomers has found an Einstein Ring, a rare image of a distant galaxy lensed by gravity. The scientists, from Spain, Italy and the USA, report their discovery in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

In his seminal general theory of relativity published a century ago, Albert Einstein predicted that gravity would distort the fabric of spacetime, and that light would follow curved paths as a result. Astronomers first observed this effect in 1919, by measuring the position of stars near the Sun during the 1919 total solar eclipse, and noting a slight shift resulting from the gravitational field of our nearest star. On a larger scale, light from distant galaxies is bent by black holes and massive galaxies that lie between them and Earth. The intervening objects act as lenses, creating arcs and 'Einstein rings' of light.

These rings are still comparatively rare and usually appear as small features in the sky. This makes them hard to see clearly, and most are observed with radio telescopes, or with the Hubble Space Telescope. Their rarity derives from the huge distances involved, and the low probability of our Galaxy, the lens galaxy and the distant galaxy all being almost exactly in line.

The newly discovered ring lies in the direction of the constellation of Sculptor in the southern sky. Margherita Bettinelli, a PhD student at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, found it while looking at archive images from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Victor Blanco 4-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Margherita and her team named the ring 'Canarias', in homage to the work carried out by astronomers on La Palma and Tenerife.

Light arriving at Earth today left the Einstein ring 8 billion years ago, so we see the ring as it was 5 billion years after the Big Bang. Despite its relatively small apparent size (it stretches across an angle on the sky of 4.5 arcseconds or about 1/800th of a degree), it is larger than most of the other rings found to date. Follow up work with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) confirms its distance and shows that the intervening lens galaxy has a mass equivalent to around a trillion (million million) Suns.

The scientific research following the discovery has been conducted and coordinated by the Stellar Populations group at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), led by Dr Antonio Aparicio Juan and Dr Sebastian Hidalgo. The Einstein ring was found in plates of the Sculptor dwarf galaxy, a companion to our own Milky Way, but is a far more distant object.

Ms Bettinelli is supervised by Dr Santi Cassisi and Dr Hidalgo. Another PhD student, Matteo Simioni, carried out further analysis, under the supervision of Dr Aparicio and Giampaolo Piotto of the University of Padua.
Mexican steelmaker Deacero is reevaluating its operations in Chile , following a 13.1 percent AD imposed over the imports of Mexican rebar

If the measure isnt reverted, the Mexican steelmaker would need to reorganize all its operations in Chile , a Deacero executive said.

According to the steelmaker, the ad-valorem provisional tariff shouldnt be applied, since there is no adequate reasoning to do so. Deacero said it will work with the Chilean authorities to revert the measure.
Caesar the bear spent the first part of her life in hell. For years, the brown bear lived at a bile farm in China. Like thousands of other bears, she was packed into a tiny cage, never seeing the sun or having room to run, while an open wound on her side drained bile from her gallbladder for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

Animals Asia

But Caesar also wore a torture vest, a cruel metal cylinder that was belted around her abdomen. The contraption kept in place the "crude" latex catheter that siphoned out the bile, as well as a metal box to collect it in. "[It's] the worst imaginable bile farm torture," Animals Asia, which eventually rescued Caesar, said of the vest.

Animals Asia

And the device was as uncomfortable as it looked. "I remember only too well her rescue some four years ago when she bounced violently in her rusting cage on the bear farm in Tianjin and I thought she would crash through," Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia, wrote. "Caesar was understandably a very unhappy bear."

Animals Asia

Fortunately, Caesar was one of the lucky ones to escape the bile industry. When Animals Asia rescued her in 2004, she was frustrated and miserable, her abdomen wet and hairless from the painful vest. She had never lived a natural life.

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Animals Asia

But now, after years of recovery at Animal Asia's Chengdu sanctuary, Caesar looks like a different bear. Happy and healed, she's turned into a strong, muscular bear with a "majestic" coat, Animals Asia said.

Animals Asia

"Caesar's scars have all but disappeared and today she is an astonishingly beautiful (and formidable) bear," Robinson said, noting that she's "in robustly good health" despite her years in the bile cages. "Weighing in at a humongous 271 kgs [598 lbs], Caesar is all muscle and all woman!"

Animals Asia

And her favorite activities couldn't be further from the dark, tiny environment where she spent the first part of her life. "She has now spent a dozen happy years with Animals Asia in Chengdu, enjoying swims in the sunshine as well as indulging her natural digging instincts - particularly when the weather cools in the autumn," Animals Asia said.

Animals Asia

Photos shared by the group show Caesar lounging happily in her sunny pool, splashing about and stopping only to shake the water off her thick fur.

"Seeing a bear shake themselves like this is always a moment full of awe - they're such incredibly beautiful, powerful animals and none more so than Caesar," Nic Field, director of the group's China bear and vet team, said in a statement. "To see her out in the sunshine - a dozen years on from her rescue - it's hard to imagine her existence back then."

Animals Asia

While Caesar's transformation is incredible, it's also a reminder of just how much life is still cooped up in Asia's bile farms. There are an estimated 10,000 bears locked up in China alone, according to Animals Asia. Most are moon bears, but some are brown bears like Caesar.

Animals Asia

And while the cruel metal vest she wore has since been outlawed, that doesn't mean there aren't bears like her still trapped in the medieval-looking devices.

Animals Asia

"These metal jackets are now illegal so less common, but it's likely that there are still some out there," Steve Jackson, head of communications for Animals Asia, told The Dodo.

Animals Asia

But while Caesar's rescue might be one small dent in the bile industry, it made a world of difference in the life of one happy brown bear. Even after all these years, she's still making up for the time she spent tucked away in darkness - which means lots of swimming, climbing and running through the grass.

Animals Asia

"[She was a] huge presence trapped in such a tiny, confining space," Field said of Caesar's life before her rescue. "We're honored to be able to provide her a better life, and watching her enjoy her surroundings every day is an absolute pleasure."

Animals Asia
Without his parents noticing, a 4-year-old boy crawled under a railing, over wires and through a moat to reach Harambe, a 17-year-old Western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo, who was shot dead shortly after. According to reports, just before he fell almost 20 feet into the enclosure, the boy told his mother he wanted to enter it.

Harambe and the child who went into his enclosure | Facebook

"The little boy himself had already been talking about wanting to go in, get in the water, and his mother is like, 'No you're not, no you're not,'" a witness told CNN. "Her attention was drawn away for seconds, maybe a minute, and then he was up and in before you knew it." Because they believed the boy was in danger, zoo officials killed Harambe. While many disagree about whether or not Harambe was a threat to the child, the zoo officials stand by their decision. But in the aftermath, Harambe's death has sparked debate about who is to blame - the parents? The child? The zoo? Harambe himself?

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Many of these questions have no certain answer. But one might ask a more basic question: How and why it is possible for such a small child to even get into an enclosure with a 450-pound animal? The Dodo ask an expert what one might think would be a simpler version of the question: Why do people sometimes end up in enclosures with zoo animals? The answer delves into the sad and fascinating history of animals in captivity.

An old image from an uncertain year shows a gorilla gripping the bars of his cage at the London Zoo. | The New York Public Library

"If we look back 40 or 50 years, you'd go to zoos and see animals behind bars. You'd see them in a way that they're imprisoned, truly imprisoned, which means they're protected and people are protected," Ron L. Kagan, executive director and chief executive officer of The Detroit Zoo, a leading institution for animal welfare, told The Dodo. As zoos learned more about what animals actually need, Kagan said, things began to change. Zoos opted for more natural, immersive exhibits that would help the animal live more like they would in the wild. But that involved compromises.

Animal cages in Central Park, New York City, 1899 | The New York Public Library

Kagan fears that the backlash from the Harambe incident could cause zoos to move backward in their treatment of animals in their hard-won naturalistic enclosures. Kagan pointed out that the "naturalistic and immersive" exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo has been open for about 30 years. "If you take into account over a million visitors per year, that incident is horrible but still a rare one," he said. Even the best designs for animal enclosures often can't guarantee everyone's safety when there's a will to get inside. "When there's an intention to go into an enclosure, it's almost impossible to prevent that," Kagan said. He cited a number of examples of suicide attempts, most recently in Chile, where a man threw himself into a lion's enclosure, forcing zookeepers to kill two lions.

Postcard of lions in the zoo at Lincoln Park, Chicago, 1901 | The New York Public Library

Thriving, not just surviving The Detroit Zoo was the first major zoo in the U.S. to decide on ethical grounds to no longer keep elephants at all. The Dodo asked Kagan whether he could see this happening for other animals, like great apes, in the future. "All of us are on this journey to continuously improve things, whether that's conservation or welfare, and thinking of what we could do better for the animals and the public," Kagan said. "What was a big discussion for elephants is now a discussion for cetaceans ... Great apes obviously have complicated needs and it's up to us to provide for those needs, to make sure the animals can behave in a natural way and have a lot of control and choice in their daily lives."
<p>Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue Weston<span></span></p>

Nothing was going to keep this determined mom cat away from her kittens - not even a beating that nearly killed her.

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Princess's kittens | Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue Weston

Late last month, Dee Walton, owner of Australia's Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue, found a missed call on her answering machine. It was from a woman who said she had been feeding a stray cat with kittens in her yard, but her neighbor had killed the mother cat. "I was informed that the [neighbor] had [the mom] by the tail and threw her up against a trailer," Walton told The Dodo. "I'm assuming until he thought she was dead." The mother cat's only crime was slinking into the man's yard - and getting caught. By the time Walton received the message, another rescue group arrived on the scene to collect the 1-week-old kittens.

Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue Weston

The mother's body remained where it lay. But the next day, something remarkable happened. Princess, as she was later named, dragged herself back to the spot where she had left her kittens, using just her front paws. Her back legs were paralyzed from the injuries she sustained from being brutally attacked. "It would have taken her ages to crawl back by her two front paws," Walton said.

Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue Weston

But despite the difficulty, nothing was going to stop Princess from being reunited her babies. Her wish was granted when she was discovered alive and picked up by the local RSPCA, then reunited with her kittens. As it turns out, Princess had a microchip and her original owner was tracked down - and decided to relinquish her and her RSPCA, which in turn gave up the cat family to the pound, since it was unlikely that the paralyzed Princess would a home with her babies, Walton said. After learning their story and discovering their fate, Walton expressed interest in caring for Princess and her babies - and decided to bring the entire family home from the pound. The cat family now resides at the rescue with Walton. Princess is unfortunately paralyzed for life. She can't urinate or defecate on her own. Since she is a cat with extensive special needs, she'll remain at Sawyers', her new forever home, for the rest of her life. For now, as her kittens are still quite young, Princess has the comfort of nursing them and raising them until they're old enough to part ways.

Sawyers Gully Animal Rescue Weston
There were barking dogs packed into carriers, piled on top of one another like cargo, with cats in a similar situation. Pigeons were stuffed into small plastic crates with mostly their feathers, not faces, discernible. Live geese were packed into small black boxes, the only opening facing the wall. Most notable of all were two goats, sharing a pen so small that they were pressed up against one another with barely any room to move.

Hani Levi

This was the scene that animal advocate Hani Levi recently saw and caught on video behind stage at the V Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Hani Levi

"Situations like this are very common," Lisa Wathne, captive wildlife manager for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), told The Dodo. "In fact, they are the norm. When animals are carted around to be used for shows at circuses, fairs, festivals and the Las Vegas strip, they are subjected to intense confinement, the noise and chaos of large crowds of people, the lack of opportunity to exercise and irregular access to food and water," she said.

Hani Levi

Levi was tipped off by employees to check out the situation she ultimately caught on tape. "I went there on [Memorial Day weekend], when they had a few shows a day, and I took some video," Levi told The Dodo. "From what I saw, they were brought out from a room next to the back door of the V Theater where they perform, out to the [backstage] hallway, so they will have an easy access to them between shows," Levi said, adding that there appeared to be no supervision while the animals remained in the back hallway area and that the equipment the animals were stored in looked old.

"They were all packed in boxes," Levi told local news outlet Action News 13. "Some of them didn't even look like they had access to air or anything."

Hani Levi

Levi told The Dodo that the animals did look well-fed, at the very least. "I don't know or think [they were] in the [backstage area] all day, but from what I saw, they were there for at least 2 to 3 hours with breaks [in between performances.]"

Hani Levi
Dudley and Destiny are two rescue cows who could not be more different if they tried - and they're also the very best of friends.

The 2-year-old cows live at The Gentle Barn, a farm sanctuary in Tennessee, and both came from farms where they were being raised for slaughter. Dudley was taken from his mom when he was only a baby and sent to a ranch without her. While there, he got his foot tangled in some twine, which cut off the circulation and caused him to eventually lose his entire foot.

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In a moment of compassion, the farmer in charge of Dudley decided not to send him to slaughter, and to instead get him the help he needed. He contacted The Gentle Barn, which was able to fit Dudley with a prosthetic foot with the help of the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Now Dudley can run and play like he never could before, and is loving every minute of it. "Dudley will spend the rest of his life at The Gentle Barn Tennessee giving hope and inspiration to children and adults with physical challenges of their own," Andrea Burritt of The Gentle Barn told The Dodo.

Destiny was born with an umbilical cord infection that affected her right front leg, but the vet didn't want to give her antibiotics because she lived on a beef ranch and was meant to be eaten. In another moment of compassion, Destiny's farmer decided to help her heal, and bonded with her during that process and didn't want to see her killed. She contacted The Gentle Barn, which immediately said it would take her.

"Destiny will need ongoing acupuncture, massage therapy and ultrasound on her fused elbow to build muscle and keep her walking," Burritt said. Both Dudley and Destiny arrived at the sanctuary last June, and the rescue always knew they would be the perfect pair.

"Dudley and Destiny could not be more opposite," Burritt said. "Dudley is very silly, social and like a big, happy giant puppy. He loves people and he loves all the other animals. Destiny is very independent and sassy. She's had to be a fighter since the day she was born and she still feels the need to show how tough she is." Dudley knew he and Destiny were meant to be together as soon as he saw her.

"With Dudley and Destiny, it was love at first moo," Burritt said. "They began talking to each other the moment we opened the trailer to unload Destiny. Dudley watched her coming out and could tell she was very nervous. He would call out to her as if he was telling her it was OK. When she finally got out of the trailer, she went straight to him and they nuzzled and continued talking. Since that day they have been inseparable."

The pair are clearly so in love, and do absolutely everything together. Even though Dudley is naturally more outgoing and playful, he always makes sure to check up on Destiny and make sure she's OK. When she gets nervous around people, he's there to comfort her, and she knows she's always safe with him by her side. "When she is with Dudley she lets her guard down," Burritt said.

Dudley and Destiny have stalls right across from each other, and are constantly having conversations across the hall. They play together, graze together and even groom each other. It's as if they know that they've both been through so much. And this weekend, the sanctuary is going to help Dudley and Destiny finally make their love official - by marrying them. It's the perfect happy ending.
Following this week's discovery of 40 dead tiger cubs inside a freezer, believed to be intended for sale on the black market, Thailand's "Tiger Temple" just made itself an even bigger target to authorities. On Thursday, a monk at the temple, along with two other staff members, attempted to flee from ongoing raids - with tiger skins, fangs and amulets made from tiger parts in tow, AFP reports.

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An investigation into the monks' living quarters revealed 20 containers of preserved tiger parts. A living lion, sun bear, hornbill (a kind of bird) and endangered banteng cattle were also found inside the temple's compound, adding weight to wildlife trafficking allegations that have been made against it for years. "This confiscation shows that the temple is likely involved in illegal tiger trade," Teunchai Noochdumrong, director of Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office, told BBC News. "They are clearly violating the law in selling, distributing [and] transferring the protected animals or their parts." "The recent discovery of the tiger skins and necklaces comes as a shock to us as well as the rest of the world," Tiger Temple wrote on Facebook in response. "We are disgusted at this discovery and we don't condone this. We are looking forward to the authorities bringing the culprits to justice."

Tiger body parts in particular are highly valuable in Asia, where they're sold on the black market to be used in traditional Chinese medicinal practices, such as tiger bone wine, a "potion" made from the bones of tigers that is mistakely believed to make its consumers strong and virile. This is a jarring reality in a world where tigers are an endangered species - an estimated 7,000 of them are held in captivity in Asian countries for practices like tiger farming. In contrast, the estimated global total of tigers living in the wild stands at 3,200. "A coalition of NGOs will be working together to try and help the government with the aftercare of the tigers that have been removed from the Tiger Temple," Tom Taylor, assistant director at Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), told The Dodo. Details on how aftercare efforts will proceed have not yet been finalized.
Fifty the pit bull's mom was pregnant with him when she was rescued, and so Fifty has been a rescue dog since birth. He's always known what it's like to be a fighter and has never given up - even after he lost two of his legs.

In 2007, Fifty was shot by a police officer in both of his right legs for what his Facebook page describes as breed discrimination. Fifty had to have a double amputation, meaning he now only has his left legs to stand on ...

... but if you watch him run, you almost might not notice.

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Having only his left legs has never stopped Fifty from running around and living his life. He can still run, and he can still run fast.

Fifty barely seems to notice that he's different, and neither do his siblings or friends. He's still just one of the gang, four legs or two.

Fifty's original family lost their home sometime after his accident and couldn't keep him anymore, and so he was taken in by a shelter. Anywhere else, Fifty might have been put down because of his handicap, but the Animal Welfare League in Chicago made it its mission to find Fifty the perfect new home. Nine months later, Fifty finally found his forever family.

Now, Fifty lives with a family who fosters dogs in need, meaning he constantly gets to be a big foster brother and show other dogs what it means to never give up.

He has never let his missing legs stop him from going on adventures ...

... and despite everything he's been through, he's still standing tall.

Fifty is the true definition of a fighter and certainly has a lot to celebrate ...

... and will never stop enjoying his life to the fullest. He's absolutely earned it.
The life of one lonely little lobster, destined for the dinner plate, might not amount to much for some folks. But you can be sure that it means everything to him - and it means everything to Christine Loughead, too.

Christine Loughead

Last month, while shopping at her local supermarket in the small town of Red Lake, Canada, Loughead was inspired to come to the rescue of one such animal after seeing him languishing inside a tank in the deli department. He was the only lobster left. "I suddenly had a very strong realization that out of all the dead bodies in the deli, he was the one who was still alive," Loughead told The Dodo. "He was a living being and he still had the chance to be saved. Then it hit me. I thought, 'I can't just leave him here.'" So, like any other customer might, she paid $20.23 for him. But her plans were far kinder than most.

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Christine Loughead

After she took the lobster home, Loughead and her boyfriend had initially intended to keep him safe inside a spacious saltwater tank to live out his days in peace. Returning him to the ocean, some 2,000 miles away, didn't seem like a viable option at first, though the more she thought it over, the more it seemed that's what was truly best. "I felt he wouldn't be happy in an aquarium," she said. "He needed to go home. So, I started thinking how to do that." In the meantime, however, at least he was now free from his binds.

Christine Loughead

Loughead did some research online and found that the lobster she rescued was likely caught off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Seeing as how it would take more than 24 hours for her to drive there, she decided to ship the lobster instead - figuring he'd survived the journey inland that brought him to her town. "We found a UPS Store in Winnipeg, six hours away, that would ship a live animal," said Loughead. "But we needed someone in Halifax to receive and release him. I messaged a vegan group in Halifax and found a woman, Beth Kent, who agreed to receive him and release him." To limit the lobster's discomfort, Loughead decided to overnight him - at a cost of $225. Sure enough, the next day, he arrived safe and sound.

Christine Loughead

"I was so excited to know that he was back in his hometown," Loughead said. "I cried and was so happy." As had been arranged, Kent carried the once-ill-fated little lobster to the realm that he was born in. It seems as if he knew that he'd been returned to where he belonged. "She told me when she put him into the water, BOOM, he was gone," said Loughead. "He was happy to be free."

Christine Loughead
Move over Leamington. Toronto will soon become Ontarios new ketchup capital.

Frenchs Food Company has struck a deal with Select Food Products Ltd., a food manufacturing plant near Bermondsey Rd. and OConnor Dr., to produce ketchup with Canadian tomatoes beginning in 2017.

We are thrilled to be partnering with Frenchs on this opportunity, said Select Food Products president Andrew Mitchell in an interview. Weve been talking to Frenchs for a little while. They have come to visit us, too.

We wanted to make sure its a right fit because this is a long-term partnership, Mitchell said. I like them. I can work with them. Our values align with their values.

The move comes after a huge public uproar over Canadian pride and what makes a ketchup a truly Canadian ketchup.

The social media firestorm started after Orillias Brian Fernandez posted on Facebook that Frenchs was using Ontario tomatoes, pointing out rival Heinz pulled out of Leamington, Ont., and now makes its ketchup in the United States with American tomatoes. That sent Frenchs ketchup flying off the shelves.

But other people quickly pointed out that even though Frenchs might use Canadian tomatoes, the ketchup is produced at a plant in Ohio and shipped back over the border.

Presidents Choice ketchup uses California tomatoes but its processed in Canada.

Elliott Penner, president of Frenchs Food division, which is part of international conglomerate Reckitt Benckiser, committed in the spring to move ketchup production to Ontario.

Increasing manufacturing and production in Canada is an important part of our business model, Penner said in a news release.

For 75 years, Select Food Products has produced barbecue sauces, salad dressings and gravy, but has never made ketchup. It plans to renovate its 100,000-square-foot facility and use up to 30,000 square feet for ketchup production, while installing new high-tech equipment.

The company employs 145 full-time staff, along with up to 50 temporary workers during peak production season. Mitchell expects the company could hire an additional 10 per cent if another shift is added, or possibly more depending on demand.

Its a big client that will need dedicated service, he said. Its not just direct line jobs but associated jobs such in account management. Were pretty excited.

Frenchs also announced a partnership with Leamingtons Highbury Canco, which produces the tomato paste for its ketchup. In 2014, Highbury Canco bought the old Heinz plant and now makes products for Heinz and other companies.

The companies are looking at developing two new products for Frenchs to launch in 2017.

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Chris Lorway, the founding director of Luminato, is about to join a special (and controversial) club: Canadian arts workers who move onward and upward by leaving the country.

Lorway has been named the new executive director of Stanford Live and Bing Concert Hall in California. So at the end of June, Lorway (originally from Cape Breton) will leave his post as director of programming and marketing at Roy Thomson Hall and Massey Hall. In July, he will fly away to his new job on the Stanford University campus near San Francisco.

That raises the question of why Canada does not seem to offer a smooth path for arts leaders to make their way up the ladder to top positions. The evidence suggests that an effective way for a Canadian to secure a top arts job is to spend significant mid-career time at a prestigious institution in the U.S.

Janice Price, CEO of the Banff Centre, worked at several arts organizations in Ontario before moving to the U.S., but it was her experience as interim president of Lincoln Center and then CEO of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia that made led Luminatos founders recruit her as the founding CEO of Torontos daring and risky new festival in 2007.

More recently, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television has repatriated Beth Janson, who was born in Montreal, to replace the departing Helga Stephenson as its CEO. Janson made her name as executive director of New Yorks Tribeca Film Institute.

Im betting Lorway will be lured back to Canada at some point, but there are no guarantees.

Bing Hall, entering its sixth season, showcases top names in the music world. Among those appearing in the 2016/2017 season (which has already been fully programmed) are Yo-Yo Ma, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joyce DiDonato and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Lorway will program the 2017/2018 season.

After his five-year stint at Luminato, Lorway became executive director of Soundstreams, a Toronto music presenter that promotes contemporary composers, before moving to Roy Thomson and Massey.

Awards Postscript

As I wrote earlier, diversity was the prevailing note at the annual Mayors Arts Award Lunch last week. My focus was on three big prizes. But there was a fourth winner who deserves attention, especially because his career has emphasized the union of culture and diversity in this city.

David Buchbinder is this years winner of the William Kilbourn Award for the Celebration of Torontos Cultural Life. A writer, teacher and member of Toronto City Council, Kilbourn, who died in 1995, also served as president of the Toronto Arts Council more than three decades ago. The $5,000 prize named for him is given every second year to someone who celebrates the arts in this city.

Original cross-cultural creation seems to sneak into everything I do, says Buchbinder, a Juno-winning trumpeter and composer. He is best known as the founding artistic director of the Ashkenaz Festival. He also founded the urban transformation organization Diasporic Genius. Other Buchbinder projects have included the Flying Bulgars, Nomadica, Odessa/Havana and the David Buchbinder Jazz Ensemble.

In his warmly applauded acceptance speech, Buchbinder said, Let us celebrate the gifts we have been given by this land on which we stand, by its first inhabitants, by our own ancestors, by the many overlapping communities to which we belong and by the cultures of the world, which have come together in this place, in this time. From all of this  and the spark of creativity we all share  let us build our city.

With a platform like that, maybe he should run for mayor.

mknelman@thestar.ca

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Body Politic

Written by Nick Green. Directed by Alisa Palmer. Until June 12 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander St. BuddiesinBadTimes.com or 416-975-8555

Its absolutely fitting that Torontos first full-out Pride Month coincides with the end of the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre season, and that season is capped with a play about Torontos tumultuous history with the LGBTQ community told through the lens of The Body Politic, a legendary newspaper focused on gay issues that published from 1971 to 1987.

It ceased publication when Xtra, its less radical and overtly political sibling publication, took off. Now that Xtra itself has stopped printing, Nick Greens new play Body Politic feels all the more timely.

The strength and weakness of Greens play is its ambition to cover all contemporary links between Torontos gay community in the 1970s and today, while delivering a historical account of the newspapers conception, major stories and end. It creates a complicated setting for the central figure to reflect on his past.

Philip (Geordie Johnson), a gay man in his 60s, meets up with Josh (Aldrin Bundoc), a 22-year-old barista at his regular Starbucks, after starting a chat on Grindr. An awkward beginning to their evening sees Philip and Josh pull out some weed and a vaporizer. In his altered state, Philip begins flashing back to the heyday of The Body Politic and pivotal moments in Torontos queer history: the newspaper publishing an article called Men Loving Boys Loving Men and their subsequent persecution by the police; the riots following the 1981 bathhouse raids and the AIDS crisis.

All these moments, performed by a strong ensemble of Cole Alvis, Craig Pike, Jonathan Seinen and Diane Flacks, illustrate the power of the citys gay community rallying together for the first time and the strength gained from that solidarity; also demonstrated in the growing friendship between Brian (Pike) and the groups only female member, Deb (Flacks), who at first struggled with the gender divide between gay and lesbian movements.

This is contrasted with Josh, representing todays gay youth who dont share the same cultural references (like Bette Davis) or the need to cling to their own community for survival.

There are intricate, sticky and deeply interwoven issues here, and its impossible to tell the story of The Body Politic in a way thats isolated from its role in Torontos identity. But Green doesnt do himself any favours by adding a mysterious element between Philip and Deb to explain his flashbacks on this particular day.

The traditional two-act structure of the play (a rarity for the often experimental Buddies in Bad Times) has it bursting at the seams with ideas while still somehow feeling like its only skimming the surface.

But kudos go to the excellent cast, in particular the fiery Flacks as Deb. She jokes about having the lesbian voice like its a medical diagnosis and doesnt let the other white members of The Body Politic collective forget that there is a major community unrepresented by the papers staff.

Her monologue about organizing the bathhouse raid protests will make you wish you could go back in time to join the fray.

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NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C.A pedophile who digitally disguised his face in child pornography will spend longer in prison than recommended by the Crown after a B.C. judge noted that Christopher Neil repeatedly harmed his victims by posting their images online.

Neil, 41, was sentenced Wednesday to 5  years after pleading guilty to five child-sex crimes that occurred over a 10-year period in Cambodia, Vancouver and Maple Ridge, B.C. The Crown had recommended a five-year sentence.

When time served is taken into account, Neil must serve just over 14 more months.

Justice John Harvey of the B.C. Supreme Court said the two boys shown in the images were victimized when photos were taken and when those images were posted on the Internet.

Mr. Neil himself was a participant in some of the images of child pornography and therefore was instrumental in the childrens victimization, he said.

Mr. Neil posted the images taken of John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 onto the Internet, thus further victimizing them each time those images were subsequently viewed.

Outside court, Neils lawyer said the punishment was harsher than his client had hoped.

But thats the way it is sometimes, Mark Thompson said. Hes said also hes making a concerted effort to get treatment to change. He told everybody that asked ... that he was remorseful and well go by his word on that.

Thompson had asked for a sentence of time served, arguing further incarceration wouldnt help with Neils rehabilitation or reintegration.

Neil initially faced 10 charges including producing images in Cambodia. He pleaded guilty in December to two counts of sexual interference in Cambodia in 2003, one charge of possessing child pornography in Maple Ridge in 2007 and two charges of accessing child pornography in Vancouver in 2013.

The sentencing concludes an investigation that began in 2004 and spanned two continents. Some of the convictions come under Canadas rarely used child-sex tourism laws.

Twelve years ago, German police discovered obscured images of a man sexually abusing two young boys in a hotel in Cambodia. Experts unscrambled his blurred face in 2007, prompting a global manhunt of a man the international media dubbed Swirl Face.

Neil was arrested in Thailand and jailed for almost five years for molesting two boys on unrelated charges, before returning to Canada in 2012 on an early pardon.

But Neil was not prosecuted for the notorious images until Canadian investigators built new evidence against him.

He was jailed in 2014 after breaching orders prohibiting him from possessing a laptop. Vancouver Police subsequently discovered child porn and matched the evidence with thousands of images seized from Neils family storage locker and that set off the investigation in Cambodia.

Investigators with B.C.s Integrated Child Exploitation Unit tracked down one of the victims, who said he was about 13 years old at the time.

In sentencing Neil, Harvey read a statement from the boy where he revealed he kept the incident to himself.

Had I told anyone, I would have been ashamed of myself, the boy said in the statement.

Its been over 10 years and I feel much less of a burden and its water under the bridge. The day the police knew about it, they gave me my own picture. I felt very sad.

Neil was also sentenced to three years probation and an international travel prohibition. He is banned for five years from using electronic devices capable of accessing the Internet. He will be nationally registered as a sex offender and is barred from visiting places like parks and community centres.

Brian McConaghy, a former RCMP forensic scientist who gathered key evidence in Cambodia, said the judges decision to lengthen Neils sentence is a step in the right direction.

The judge did a good job today of addressing the gravity of what has been done to defenceless children overseas who do not have the social services available that children have here, said McConaghy, who runs the Ratanak International, a charity that works with former child-sex victims.

Obviously when you work with child victims, theres no sentence big enough.

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OTTAWADalton McGuinty says the rough patch Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government has been going through lately is normal for a fledgling administration.

The former Ontario premier says it takes time for a new government to find its footing.

While Trudeaus Liberals remain popular, theyve encountered a series of bumps in the road over the past few weeks.

Their assisted-dying bill has been widely panned; the launch of their promised electoral reform initiative has been denounced as a blatant bid to stack the deck in their favour; theyve infuriated opposition parties by limiting debate; and Trudeau himself was forced to apologize for grabbing a Conservative MP and accidentally elbowing a New Democrat in the Commons.

And now Fisheries Minister Hunter Tootoo has quit the cabinet and the Liberal caucus to deal with addiction issues.

McGuinty ascribes the difficulties to growing pains.

I think youve got a government thats growing stronger, learning in a very public forum, McGuinty said Wednesday during a visit to Parliament to meet several of his former staffers who are now MPs.

I think we owe them some time and some patience as they grow stronger and get their sea legs under them.

McGuinty suggested voters will forgive hiccups as long as the government delivers progress.

Every government is made up exclusively of human beings, with all their noble strengths and their human frailties. I dont think Canadians expect perfection but they do demand progress. Im convinced this government will bring us progress.

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Who wants a chance to win a KitchenAid Mixer? I do, I do! I'm guessing you do, too...so enter this giveaway to win NOW!



KitchenAid Artisan 5-Qt. Stand Mixer Giveaway

Full Belly Sisters, My Dairy-Free Gluten-Free Life, and a great group of bloggers have joined together to bring you this Summer Dream KitchenAid Artisan Giveaway! This KitchenAid Giveaway is a Blogger Sponsored Event which means the bloggers, who you find on the Rafflecopter for entry options, have donated money to help pay for this 5 qt KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer! One lucky reader will be the lucky winner of a 5 qt KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer!





This giveaway begins June 1, 2016 at 12:00 AM Eastern Time and ends June 22, 2016 at 11:59 PM Eastern Time. This giveaway is open WorldWide.**

** Prize is available in the United States only. Cash equivalent of $250 via PayPal will be awarded if the winner is outside of the United States.

Enter for a chance to win a KitchenAid 5-Qt. Artisan Stand Mixer below:
VANCOUVERA man accused in a media report of training Sikh terrorists at a training camp in British Columbia has written to the prime minister asking for help to clear his name.

The Times of India reports that Indian intelligence agencies have alerted the Liberal government that pro-Khalistan extremists near Mission, B.C., plan to carry out strikes in Punjab.

Hardeep Nijjar, of Surrey, confirmed to The Canadian Press that he sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which asks the federal government to dispel fabricated, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated allegations against him.

I have never believed in, supported or been involved with any violent activity, he wrote.

The letter said Nijjars work campaigning against anti-Sikh violence in Punjab has made him a target of the Indian government and led to authorities placing his name on Interpols wanted list.

He said the Indian government has previously accused him of transporting ammunition through paragliding, an allegation that he described as absolutely preposterous and more like a bad Bollywood movie plot.

The letter said that Nijjar is a Canadian citizen who operates a small plumbing business to support his wife, two children and parents, and that he has spent years collecting signatures for a complaint the UN Human Rights Council on anti-Sikh violence.

Prime Minister Trudeau, my Sikh nationalist activities are peaceful, democratic and protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the letter said.

When reached by The Canadian Press, Nijjar declined to comment on the allegations made against him in Indian media, referring all questions to his lawyer in New York.

His lawyer could not be reached but in a statement released by Sikhs for Justice his legal counsel said Nijjar has been falsely accused.

Indian authorities often label Sikh activists as terrorists, who are simply trying to raise awareness in Canada about human rights violations being committed against Sikhs in the Punjab, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said in the statement.

A spokesman for the Prime Ministers Office declined comment on the letter, saying the office had not yet had time to review it.

Canadian authorities have remained tight-lipped about the reported allegations.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Monday that he doesnt comment on specific security allegations, and if there is information that needs to be acted on, Canadian police and security agencies respond.

B.C. RCMP spokesman Rob Vermeulen said Monday that the Mounties are aware of the media report, but would not comment on specific allegations, threats or ongoing investigations.

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A month has passed since wildfires devastated Fort McMurray, burning down entire neighbourhoods and forcing the citys population of more than 80,000 to flee. The worlds attention has largely moved on, and most of those who fled wont be able to return to their homes, if they still have one, for months. Parts of the charred city are covered in toxic ash.

To top it off, the blaze is still as ferocious as ever, covering nearly 580,000 hectares of forest south of Fort McMurray.

Thats where 300 South African firefighters come in. They were flown 15,000 kilometres from home by the Canadians, who needed extra help to battle the monstrous fires. The group is part of Working on Fire, a South African government-funded program that trains unemployed youth to become firefighters. For many of them, the prospect of earning 1,500 Canadian dollars a month held the promise of transforming their lives.

A smaller contingent came last year, and each was paid about that much in daily allowances and expenses, according to Llewellyn Pillay, managing director of Working on Fire. Thats 10 times what the firefighters earn in South Africa.

But this year, in what some might call typical Canadian fashion and others might simply call good ethics, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) insisted that the South Africans be paid more, if not on par with their local counterparts. Pillay said the number would be between $15 and $21 an hour, whereas Canadians typically make between $21 and $26 an hour.

We had a dialogue and said lets make sure that these firefighters are being compensated appropriately, said Kim Connors, CIFFC director, adding that the pay for South Africans would still be lower than normal Canadian rates. The only thing to come up last year was that we felt that their salaries are so low, theyre a long way from home, heres an opportunity: You could increase their salaries a little bit while theyre here, but (not so much) that it upsets their economic balance there.

The South Africans were apparently taken aback  and impressed  with the generosity. Pillay, of Working on Fire, said he was convinced that the raise made sense from Canadas standards of equity. It opened our eyes, he said. Its a much more ethical way of doing it. Its the right way to operate, morally. We had never thought about it. We were just happy to have the chance to go to Canada. Now we realize we cant assume that South Africas rates are at parity.

The South African firefighters are considered highly professional. Alberta Wildfire spokesman Travis Fairweather told the Globe and Mail that they will be doing laborious, intensive work digging up and extinguishing hot spots.

Last year, the South Africans who worked in Canada used their earnings to open businesses at home, build houses and take educational courses. Many were simply grateful for the opportunity to travel.

More on thestar.com

Residents head back to Fort McMurray amid extreme destruction

Canada gives young South African firefighters unexpected raise

$125M in donations raised for Fort McMurray recovery, says Red Cross

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OTTAWAThe Liberals have agreed to give up their complete control over recommending a new electoral system, requiring at least one other major party to support their ultimate proposal.

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef made the surprise announcement Thursday morning after weeks of criticism the Liberals were out to stack the deck on electoral reform.

Monsef had originally proposed a Liberal-dominated committee, reflecting the results of election rules she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had pledged to change.

Instead, the government will voluntarily give up their majority  retaining five seats, and allotting three to the Conservatives, two to the NDP, and one seat each for the Bloc Quebecois and Green parties.

We know there are a lot of good ideas out there, Monsef told reporters. And the purpose of coming together with the parties across the aisle today was to demonstrate that co-operation in this place is possible.

The committee structure was originally proposed by the New Democrats in February. NDP democratic reform critic Nathan Cullen argued a committee changing something so fundamental as how Canadians vote should reflect how Canadians actually voted in the last election.

Cullen said requiring the support of more than just one party will go a ways to assuring Canadians the Liberals arent rigging the game.

Credibility is at the heart of this whole conversation. How can we construct a process on something so vital as our voting system that Canadians, both in perception and in reality, see as credible, Cullen said outside the House of Commons.

What we saw from the minister today was the result of, I believe, some good faith negotiations in which the definition of a good deal is when all sides have to give up a little.

Far from ending weeks of acrimonious debate over how Canadians vote, Thursdays announcement seems to only have re-drawn the battle lines.

The Conservatives, adamant that any change to Canadas electoral system need to be put to a national referendum, accused the Liberals and NDP of cooking up a backroom deal to push their preferred reforms.

Conservative MP Scott Reid called the new committee wildly undemocratic and said that without a referendum, any proposed changes could be unconstitutional.

(The committee) is not a replacement for a referendum on something as fundamental as changing the way Canadians get to exercise their sacred franchise . . . to elect parliamentarians, Reid said.

Reid said he and his Conservative colleagues were caught completely by surprise by Monsefs announcement, and said it was inaccurate that the official Opposition was consulted.

We were sideswiped and . . . wouldnt it make sense for the government to try and explain, demonstrate that they are capable of working with others rather than blindsiding others while talking a fine line about this? Reid said.

Monsef has not ruled out a referendum explicitly, but has repeatedly said shes not convinced its the best way to go about judging Canadians buy-in. At the same time, she has said the Liberals wont move forward without widespread support of voters.

Speaking to reporters later Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he found it curious the Conservatives would demand a referendum  given they unilaterally changed elections rules through the Fair Elections Act when last in power.

What we committed to in reforming our electoral system is listening, consulting, talking about the values that underpin our electoral system and making sure that the new system we will be bringing in reflects both the concerns and the values of Canadians, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa.

In so doing, we look forward to working with all parties in the House, we look forward to consulting broadly with Canadians. But the focus we have is on being inclusive and respectful while continuing to be committed to making electoral change happen.

Once the committee is struck, it will have less than six months to report with recommendations to overhaul the electoral system. Monsef is also encouraging all MPs to hold townhalls in their ridings, and give her written submissions to what they hear.

Trudeau has said before that he prefers a ranked ballot system, where voters could rank candidates in order of preference. Since taking power, however, the Liberals have been careful to say they dont wish to prejudice the committee process.

The Conservatives appear to prefer the status quo of the first-past-the-post system, but have focused their efforts on pushing for a national referendum on whatever system the government ultimately suggests.

The New Democrats have long championed proportional representation, which advocates say would better reflect the popular will of voters. Cullen has previously said, however, that any improvement on first-past-the-post would be welcome.

Whatever the outcome of the committee process, Elections Canada has said legislation would have to be put forward in early 2017 to make ready for the next federal election in 2019.

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Mid-term blues have hit Ontarios Liberal government hard.

Voters are giving the opposition a second look. Kathleen Wynne is waning in the polls. At the midpoint in the premiers four-year mandate, a planned cabinet shuffle to give her tired front bench a fresh face will look skin deep.

So what happens when times up in two years?

The predictions are not as predictable as they might seem. Despite her sagging popularity, no one is counting Wynne out, least of all the Tories trying to replace her.

Interviewed for a column last week, Wynne insisted she would run again in 2018, and that Liberal support should not be underestimated as her policies take root. While such self-serving rhetoric is commonplace for politicians, her comments may be more than mere bravado.

To understand how Wynnes Liberals could possibly make a political comeback, recall that between elections few voters pay attention to Canadas second-biggest government. Despite the unrivalled power and influence of Queens Park in their daily lives  hospitals, schools, policing, transportation, energy  people remain oblivious to the big picture.

In ordinary times, Ontarians are in referendum mode, rendering judgment on the incumbent alone: Ask about the premiers performance, and they tend to give him or her a poor grade because its just a question asked by a pollster. But ask voters in the polling booth if they are ready to swap in a Progressive Conservative or NDP government and they shift from a referendum mindset to an election dynamic.

Will they be ready in 2018 to support the newish, youngish, PC leader who is slowly, painstakingly, making himself heard? Impossible to say, for Patrick Brown remains an enigma more than a year after taking over the job. Voters are giving him high grades even though most cant even name him.

While Brown remains a blank canvas  unknown but unthreatening compared to his unloved predecessor, Tim Hudak  the same cannot be said for Wynne as premier. What to make of her embarrassingly low approval ratings?

A recent Forum Research poll found a mere 20 per cent of Ontarians approved of her premiership, with two-thirds disapproving. Brown had better ratings, but more than half of respondents didnt know enough about him to offer an opinion.

Those numbers suggest Wynne is a polarizing figure, but she is being measured against a phantom opponent in polling terms. Her low approval rating might be bruising for Wynnes ego, but its not all bad news. Pollsters know that white, male, rural Tory voters detest her far more than they disliked Dalton McGuinty before her  dragging down Wynnes ratings. But if these Tory men were never going to vote Liberal in the first place, their stronger antipathy to the premier will be irrelevant on voting day.

What counts is whether prospective and progressive voters stray from the Liberal fold to the NDP. Will Wynnes controversial decision to privatize Hydro One be a vote-determining issue in 2018? Despite my own opposition to the sale, its hard to imagine it enduring three years after the decision was made, given how smoothly (and profitably) it has proceeded to date.

As for Brown, he is rapidly repositioning himself  embracing same-sex marriage (despite opposing it as an MP under ex-PM Stephen Harper), carbon pricing (despite past opposition), and an expanded CPP (opposed under Harper). The challenge for Brown, however, is not just remaking himself for centrist voters, but retaining his right-wing base on voting day.

His newfound support for carbon pricing has caused more internal PC tumult than expected. The more Brown shows his modern, moderate face on climate change, the more he digs himself into a hole among bedrock Tories. Global warming is an unwelcome wedge issue within the party, and could worsen by 2018.

By then, the Liberal budget deficit will have disappeared as a target, and a new provincial pension plan (which tests well among all voters, as opposed to business owners) could be in place. A weak NDP is also starting to worry the Tories, depriving them of three-way races in which they often squeak through. Redistribution of riding boundaries to reflect urban growth will also be unkind to the PCs.

At mid-term, there is little doubt the Liberals are feeling blue. Whether that translates two years from now into the province voting blue  the traditional Tory colour  is an entirely different question. And impossible to predict.

* * * * *

IN MY TUESDAY COLUMN on reconciliation with indigenous people, I described legislative Speaker Dave Levac as a former high school principal. The Speaker has called me out of order: In fact, Levac is a former elementary school principal  an even better training ground for keeping recalcitrant MPPs in line. Withdrawn, Mr. Speaker. . .

Martin Regg Cohns Ontario politics column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. mcohn@thestar.ca , Twitter: @reggcohn

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Toronto Fire Chief Jim Sales, who has been on the job since 2012, is on a leave of absence for personal reasons.

The reasons behind Saless absence are a mystery.

Im off for a few weeks and thats it, Sales told the Star when contacted at his Barrie home earlier this week.

In a letter last Friday to senior city staff, Mayor John Tory and city councillors, deputy city manager John Livey said he has appointed deputy fire chief Matt Pegg as interim fire chief until further notice, with no reason for Sales absence or an expected return date.

Matt will fulfil all of the obligations and responsibilities of the Fire Chief in accordance with the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, Livey wrote.

Frank Ramagnano, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters Association, told the Star: We wish Chief Sales the best with whatever he is currently dealing with.

Sales is a former fire chief in Edmonton and Markham but joined the Toronto Fire Service after working as a top manager in Barrie.

In a 2012 interview with the Star, Sales said he believes the department should be run like a business and that with tax dollars shrinking fire services across the country must find efficiencies and do more with less.

Trust me Im not going there to cause problems, he said at the time. Im going there to make improvements. I take my job seriously and Im really looking forward to it. I take it as a challenge and also an opportunity.

Sales is rarely in the news. He was quoted in February, after Toronto Community Housing was charged in connection with a fire that killed three senior citizens, saying that if the cause turned out to be careless smoking someone broke the law and many people paid a terrible price.

Toronto Fire Services has 3,151 full-time employees and an operating budget of $433 million. It is the largest municipal fire service in Canada.

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At least 50 people have been arrested following a series of police raids across the GTA early Thursday morning.

Led by the Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force, police executed 42 search warrants simultaneously.

Police say search warrants were also executed in Montreal with the help of the Montreal Police Service. Ten police departments from across Ontario also helped conduct the raids.

According to Toronto police, the raids are part of an ongoing investigation dubbed Project Sizzle.

Toronto police chief Mark Saunders will be holding a press conference Friday morning to talk about the raids.

Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash didnt rule out that the investigation was related to two murders, as some news outlets have reported.

Its not unusual in a case where youre targeting guns, gangs and other things to come up with things that arise as the investigation is underway, he said.

Asked if the investigation was prompted by the murders, he said details will be provided Friday.

Operation Sizzle doesnt appear to be an immediate response to recent gun violence across the city.

This work goes on all the time, so something like this as Im sure you understand has been in the planning stages for some considerable time, Pugash told the Star.

There have been 19 deadly shootings in Toronto this year, a 137 per cent jump from the same time in 2015, according to Toronto Police statistics. There were 162 shootings in total, up from 103 over the same period last year.

Though exact details are still unclear, police say several search warrants also led to the the seizure of property.

Officers were spotted outside a condominium complex in the Fort York neighbourhood and an apartment building at Dufferin St. and Liberty St.

With files from Geoffrey Vendeville

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OTTAWASyrians enrolled in language classes in Toronto are being told school is out for summer, thanks to federal funding shortages that are also seeing Syrians turned away from classes in Vancouver.

Settlement agencies told a House of Commons committee Thursday that while the federal government did top up their budgets to deal with the influx of over 25,000 Syrians in a matter of three months, the money isnt going far enough.

So a difficult decision had to be made, said Mario Calla, the executive director of Costi, which settles government-assisted refugees in Toronto.

Rather than scale back the number of classes altogether, they decided to just stop offering their 27 federally-funded courses over the summer.

Our hands are tied, Calla said. Its a compromise situation.

Federal funding for language classes is tied to the number of immigrants agencies served the year before. The base funding for 2016-2017 did not take into account the surge in Syrian refugees, who proved eager to access programs.

While Costi is trying to link Syrians up with provincial courses and other programs, that doesnt cover all the bases, Calla said.

Usually the women get cheated in that process because child minding isnt available.

In Vancouver, there are over 800 new immigrants on wait lists for language classes, said Karen Shortt, the president of the Vancouver Community College Faculty Association. Theyve cut 200 spots from their program because they lost federal funding.

The committee heard the budget for B.C. went from $4.6 million last year to $4.2 million this year.

Canada has well-intentioned policies and programs to assist refugees and immigrants, Shortt said. We do not want that intent to fail in the last stages after giving people so much hope and promise.

About $341 million was spent on the Syrian program across all federal departments in 2015-2016. A precise breakdown of that spending has yet to be released.

The Immigration Department earlier promised it by the end of May but is now saying they continue to work with other departments to tally up the final figures.

This year, settlement agencies will get $38 million in additional funds specifically for Syrian refugees.

As of May 29, there were 27,580 Syrian refugees who have come to Canada since the Liberals took power in November.

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With 35 per cent of male newcomers returning home and a growing middle class in developing countries less inclined to migrate, an internal government review is calling the future of Canadian immigration into question.

The report by Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada also points to the challenge of reconfiguring an immigrant-selection system in a rapidly changing labour market where a growing number of jobs are temporary and theres increasing mismatch of available skills and the skills in demand.

What changes, if any, does Canada want to make to its current managed migration,  asked the 23-page study, titled Medium-Term Policy: Balanced Immigration and stamped for internal discussion only. To what extent is the current overall immigration level appropriate and/or necessary?

With major changes made in the last decade under the former Conservative government, legal and immigration experts are calling on Immigration Minister John McCallum to have a national conversation on the future of Canadian immigration.

Ottawa must take a step back to do a review of the whole immigration program and reach a national consensus in moving our country forward as a nation-building exercise rather than as an economic imperative, said Debbie Douglas of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants.

The Liberals have good political instincts and like to be seen as doing more on the immigration front. Its the right time to take a look at what is working and what is not working in the system.

The new government has already announced reviews of certain immigration programs involving temporary foreign workers and the Express Entry processing system, but critics say such reviews must be done in a holistic manner rather than a piecemeal fashion.

This is the most thoughtful brief (on Canada immigration) Ive seen in 10 years, said Queens University immigration law professor Sharry Aiken. Its asking all the right questions that are useful starting points for a wide-ranging discussion of the future of our immigration system.

The internal report, obtained by the Star, also devotes attention to the estimated 2.8 million Canadian citizens  9 per cent of the population  who live abroad, including a million people in the United States, 300,000 in Hong Kong and 75,000 in the United Kingdom.

Some 35 per cent of male immigrants to Canada return home, many within the first year. Between 1996 and 2006, the annual exit rate for citizens born in Canada was 1.33 per cent compared to 4.5 per cent for naturalized citizens.

There has been a rather negative view of these expatriate Canadians, as they have been regarded as evidence of brain drain, Canadas lack of competitiveness in retaining high-skilled professionals and business leaders, and our insufficient success in integrating new arrivals, the report noted. Canada could choose to take a more proactive stance with expatriates.

Measures implemented by other countries include: extending voting right to expats, providing non-resident representation in the national legislature, facilitating business and research networks, doing outreach to communities abroad to promote ties as well as creating tax treaties with other countries to facilitate work abroad.

The report also points to the greater emphasis the former Tory government put on selecting economic immigrants based on in-demand occupations in a so-called project economy marked by limited length of employment based on the duration of a contract or project.

This environment makes it a significant challenge to target occupations and industries that are priorities for addressing through immigration, it said.

While the report forecast does mean potentially lower immigration to Canada in the longer term, University of Toronto professor Jeffrey Reitz said global migration is still driven by inequality from poor to rich countries.

Although Ottawa introduced the Express Entry system in 2015 to let employers pick prospective immigrants from a pool of candidates to ensure newcomers are quickly employed, Reitz said the uptake of candidates outside the country has been small.

Anything that improves the employment situation contributes to immigrant retention, but there is an aspect of retention in the family class. When you lose your job and you have no family, you move. A support group gives people a reason to stay, explained Reitz, the director of ethnic, immigration and pluralism studies at U of T.

Hence, the immigration report raised the question over the strict differentiation of economic and social immigration in the current system, which channels applicants into the skilled and nonskilled streams.

Regardless of how their application was accepted, immigrants make many contributions to Canadian society; economic migrants make social contributions; social immigrants make economic contributions, it said.

Given the somewhat artificial distinction between social and economic immigration, there may be grounds for giving greater weight to non-economic criteria and on criteria related to the success of subsequent generations.

Ryerson University professor John Shields said recent immigrants are caught up in the same new economy faced by young Canadians entering the workforce.

All immigrants including the refugee class contribute to the society economically. They pay dividends economically in five, ten years as integration is a long-term process that can take a lifetime, said Shields, whose research focuses on labour markets and immigrants.

Recent immigrants and young Canadians face a different kind of roadblock from those who are already established in Canada. The issue we need to deal with is creating higher quality employment in Canada and educate Canadian employers of the values of ones work experience from somewhere else.

McCallums office declined to comment on the study but said the immigration minister is committed to improving family reunification, humanitarian efforts, citizenship reforms and creating economic opportunities through immigration.

The minister is always looking at ways to make the system more fair and compassionate while making improvements to client services, said Camielle Edwards, McCallums spokesperson.

At the end of the day, the aim is to have an immigration system that contributes to Canadas overall strength as a country and society.

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LOS ANGELESUCLA students went to school Wednesday expecting to take on routine end-of-school-year tasks: final exams and presentations. But those concerns were forgotten around 10 a.m., when cellphones buzzed to life across campus, announcing that a shooting had taken place.

Within minutes, thousands of students found themselves racing for cover, building makeshift barricades against classroom doors that wouldnt lock and arming themselves with anything they could find as information about the gunfire  some of it rumour about a wave of assailants  spread across campus via text messages and social media.

In the end, it was a murder-suicide involving two men inside an engineering building near the campus south side, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said.

Several sources identified the victim as William S. Klug, 39, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who studied the interaction between mechanics and biology and was the father of two young children.

Klug, 39, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was described as both brilliant and kind, a rare blend in the competitive world of academic research, colleagues said.

I am absolutely devastated, said Alan Garfinkel, a professor of integrative biology and physiology who worked with Klug to develop a computer-generated virtual heart. You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug.

Melissa Gibbons, one of Klugs former Ph.D. students, said he was an exceptional mentor. She recalled that Klug noticed another student struggling in his finite element modelling class and asked Gibbons to tutor her. He didnt want to see her fail. To care that much in an undergraduate class says a lot about his character, she said.

Klug, an El Segundo resident who was married with two young children, loved surfing and frequently took his family to Los Angeles Dodgers games. He earned his undergraduate degree in engineering physics from Westmont College in 1997, his masters degree in civil engineering at UCLA in 1999 and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 2003.

With school shootings so often in the news in recent years, many UCLA students feared that the situation unfolding on their normally serene campus might evolve into something far deadlier.

Its unfortunate it happened here, said Andrew Avelino, 23, a senior majoring in history. You see school shootings happening on the news at high schools, on other campuses, at other places. But you never thought it would happen here until it does.

The wave of panic and adrenalin, slew of campus alerts and swarms of police were all too familiar for Jeremy Peschard. The 22-year-old geography major transferred to UCLA from UC Santa Barbara, near where a students rampage left six people dead and 14 injured in Isla Vista in 2014.

Its crazy to go through this again, said Peschard, who said he experienced flashbacks of the attack as he hid inside a UCLA office. Its sad that its normalized at this point. Its like I almost know the drill.

Wednesdays shooting took place inside the universitys engineering complex in a small office, according to Beck, who confirmed at a noon news conference that the shooter was one of the two dead men.

The campus is now safe, he said.

Authorities did not identify the victims and a motive was not immediately clear. Andy Neiman, the LAPDs chief spokesman, confirmed a note was found at the scene, but investigators had not determined whether it was connected to the shooting.

Based on the appearances of the deceased, police believed that a professor was shot by someone young enough to be a student, who then turned the gun on himself, a law enforcement source also told the Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz, whose district includes UCLA, said LAPD officers had told him it appeared a professor was the victim and that little was known about the shooter.

When police first discovered the two men who had been fatally shot, they feared they were the first victims of an active shooter, Koretz said.

Were at a point in this country where theres some kind of small massacre every day, somewhere, he said.

The campus was locked down for about two hours, ending around 12:05 p.m. (3:05 p.m. EST) Classes were cancelled after the shooting but will resume Thursday, the university said.

The shooting prompted a massive response from local and federal law enforcement. Police officers in riot gear ran across campus, guns and battering rams drawn, while students exited buildings with their hands above their heads.

Neiman said the first 911 caller reported at least three gunshots and possible victims. A number of additional 911 calls and social media postings suggesting there was an active shooter led police to send hundreds of officers toward Westwood.

Students hid in buildings across campus. Many said they struggled to lock the doors of the classrooms where they sought shelter and were forced to use their belts, nearby projectors and furniture to barricade themselves against any potential threat.

While Beck said there were no other suspects, many students said they received mass text messages and social media blasts announcing that as many as four shooters may have been roaming the campus.

Theres a ton of information spreading over social media and group messages and its hard for everyone to sort out what is true and what isnt, Rafi Sands, vice president of UCLAs student government, said as he hid with 30 other students inside Haines Hall during the lockdown. They are saying there are multiple shooters, one near here.

Christos Kampouridis, 23, said he found the door to his engineering class inside Boelter Hall locked at 9:50 a.m. (12:50 p.m.), then turned to find a man with a gun walking through a nearby hallway. The man, who had a rifle at his side and appeared to be wearing a tactical belt, yelled, Come here.

Kampouridis said he fled immediately, and shouted at nearby students to run. He burst out of the building and called 911, then began sending messages to friends and posting social media updates urging them to stay away from Engineering.

While some students rode out the lockdown hidden behind barricades, others desperately tried to flee the campus after they were unable to find shelter.

Maria Shafer said she ran out of her Spanish final in the Public Affairs building after the campus issued the first shooting alert. Shafer and about 20 other students ran into several locked doors as police sirens blared and helicopter roared overhead. They ended up climbing over bushes and sprinting across Sunset Boulevard before they found safety in the yard of a Bel-Air home.

We didnt know where to go, we were trying to get as far away from campus as possible, she said. The scariest part was running through the campus after we had gotten that alert.

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MONTPELIER, VT.A Muslim high school student from Florida who hopes to become a Navy officer is going to attend Norwich University after the Vermont military school said it would allow her to wear her head scarf beneath her uniform.

Sana Hamze had initially hoped to attend The Citadel, but the Charleston, S.C., school would not change its uniform policy to accommodate her head scarf. The 17-year-old from Sunrise, Fla., said she chose Norwich, which touts itself as the nations oldest private military college and the birthplace of ROTC, after the school agreed to her request.

Sana said Wednesday she was caught off guard by media attention that followed her efforts to attend a military college while staying true to her Muslim faith.

My goal is still to go to Norwich and be an officer, a naval officer. It doesnt change anything, she said.

Sanas father, Nezar Hamze, said his daughter never sought publicity, but he felt she should publicly thank Norwich school for its decision.

As a father I cant tell you the pressure thats off my shoulders that shes actually being accepted and theyre letting her practise her faith, said Nezar Hamze.

Norwich, located in the town of Northfield, has a total on-campus student body of about 2,250. About two-thirds of students are in the Corps of Cadets, its military program, while the rest are civilians who dont participate in military training. The students sit side by side in classrooms, though they have separate residences.

Norwich officials said privacy rules prevented them from confirming that Sana had agreed to attend, though she showed The Associated Press some correspondence from Norwich that confirmed her plans.

Last week, Norwich president Richard Schneider sent a message to the college community saying the school had agreed to accommodate a request from an accepted female student to wear a hijab beneath her uniform.

While Sana was not named in the letter it said the student who had made the request was told the religious headgear must be in authorized colours and fabrics that can be covered by the uniform.

As educators of future leaders, it is our duty to matriculate a diverse student body that reflects our society, Schneider wrote. Norwich prepares traditional students and the young men and women of our Corps of Cadets to welcome and respect diversity and to be inclusive of all people.

Norwich spokeswoman Daphne Larkin said Wednesday the reaction from Norwich alumni and others was mixed, but generally positive.

Norwich was founded in 1819 by a former West Point instructor. Its considered the birthplace of the Reserve Officers Training Corps, which prepares students to become officers in the armed forces. In April, top military leaders visited the school to help celebrate the centennial of college ROTC.

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WASHINGTONFor Hillary Clinton, the presidential campaign has been about building an approachable image: Shes often eschewed big arenas in favour of town halls, peppered her ads with personal stories and planned less-scripted gatherings with voters.

But emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal a careful, behind-the-scenes effort to review introductory remarks for college presidents and students presenting the Democratic front-runner as a speaker, as well as suggesting questions that happened to be aligned with her campaign platform.

While its not unusual for campaigns to plan detailed appearances, the exchanges preview the kind of image-control apparatus that could be deployed in a Clinton White House, including attempts to steer conversations with her audiences. They also run counter to her campaigns efforts to make Clinton look less wooden and scripted than she did when running eight years ago.

The former secretary of states preparedness appears in contrast with the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, who rarely pulls punches in his speeches, speaks more spontaneously and has far more apparently unplanned, unscripted interactions.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said, We take pride in Secretary Clintons ability to answer tough questions. We do not screen questioners at events, nor do we script interactions. He said Clinton has answered about 900 questions in formal events on the campaign, and that more-memorable moments came from the fact her events were completely unscripted.

The newly revealed exchanges, which surfaced in open-records requests, show the workings of a Clinton campaign that touts off-the-cuff moments, like the story of a little girl who asked Clinton: If youre elected the girl president, will you be paid the same as the boy president? That line is a stump speech favourite.

But the campaign still injects itself into the minute details of the candidates appearances down to the stemless glassware in her green room. That fixation on planning has sometimes pulled local officials uncomfortably into the political arena.

They offered to write your introduction. I told them no, Becky Mann, the head of public relations for South Carolinas Greenville Technical College, wrote in an email to the colleges president, Keith Miller.

Clintons campaign also suggested questions that Miller could pose such as, We have a number of students who have a financial need  what do we need to do to make college affordable? College affordability is one of Clintons campaign issues.

But Miller dismissed the suggestions, calling them bad questions and said he would develop his own. Probably after hearing her speech, he wrote.

In South Carolina, state director Clay Middleton asked another college to provide a list of 2 or 3 students that would be fitting to introduce the Secretary.

Des Moines Area Community Colleges president, Robert Denson, incorporated talking points sent by Clintons campaign into his August 2015 opening remarks ahead of her appearance. In an interview, Denson said the college was visited by several candidates including Clinton and Trump, and handled each campaign the same: reaching out for specific remarks ahead of time to incorporate into his usual introduction, which notes the school is nonpartisan and doesnt favour any candidate.

We did the same thing with Trump, he said, adding that candidate visits at community colleges provide insight into whats important and the opportunity to hear from future White House occupants who could shape the nations policies.

Merrill said the campaign at times assists people as part of an event, especially those introducing Secretary Clinton, with the points on our campaigns message. More often than not, its because theyve asked.

Clintons campaign also reviewed the Des Moines transit agencys press release prior to Clintons visit there in July 2015, where she called climate change one of the most urgent threats of our time. I have the changes and OK from their team, so well get it out shortly, one transit official said in a July 2015 email.

Later that year, at Keota High School in Keota, Iowa, Clintons staff had asked to see a students introductory remarks before the event, according to a December 2015 email.

That exchange came a month after Clintons appearance at a middle school in Clinton, Iowa, which was preceded by a flurry of emails in which school officials were worried about her campaigns plans to film media ads.

Four days before the event, a campaign official wrote to the school: We are wanting to do some small commercial filming in the vocational spaces at Clinton High School earlier in the day before the town hall at the middle school. School officials, concerned the schools name might be used for political purposes, moved quickly to limit the filming  asking that the school not be identified in any advertisements and making sure no school signs would appear in the ads.

About 400 Clinton residents, campaign officials and media filed into the cafeteria the Sunday that Clinton appeared for her event. She touted her Caring Economy plan to cut federal taxes, promote tax credits and expand Social Security.

As a public school, wrote John Jorgensen, the school systems director of learning and collaboration, we cannot appear to be supportive of one candidate over another.

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TALLAHASSEE, FLA.The fatal shooting of a Florida State University law professor in his upscale neighbourhood two years ago was part of a murder-for-hire scheme that may have been set in motion by a bitter divorce between the Canadian professor and his ex-wife, according to court records released Thursday.

Sigfredo Garcia was arrested last week in South Florida and charged with murder in connection with the July 2014 death of Daniel Markel, who was shot in the head in his garage as he talked on his cellphone in the middle of the day. A second man, Luis Rivera, is also considered a suspect and will also be charged with murder, Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said at a news conference Thursday.

According to police affidavits contained in court records, both Rivera and Garcia came to Tallahassee from South Florida as part of a plot to kill Markel. While DeLeo would not say whether the two men were paid, he said there was "good information" that they were hired to shoot Markel.

"It was not a random act that they came up here," DeLeo said.

Rivera is currently in a federal prison for an unrelated crime. Garcia's lawyer, Jim Lewis, says his client will plead not guilty to the murder charge filed against him and will ask to be released from jail.

The marriage between Markel, an attorney from Toronto known internationally, and fellow attorney Wendi Adelson, made the pages of the New York Times in 2006. Wendi Adelson's father and brother run a well-established dental practice in South Florida.

A Tallahassee Police Department affidavit unsealed by a judge contends that Markel's death was the result of a contentious divorce from Adelson, who now lives in Miami Beach and works for a federal judge. DeLeo echoed that as well, saying, "Their relationship was a motivating factor in his murder."

Markel and his wife divorced in 2013, but before it was finalized the two fought over Wendi Adelson's push to move her two small children to South Florida to be closer to her family, court records show. At the time of Markel's death, the two were battling over money, with Adelson contending that Markel did not pay her as much as he was supposed to under their divorce agreement, according to the records. Markel also complained that his mother-in-law was disparaging him and wanted the court to prohibit her from having unsupervised visits with his children.

The arrest affidavit states that "investigators believe motive for this murder stemmed from the desperate desire of the Adelson family to relocate Wendi and their children to South Florida, along with the pending court hearing that might have impacted their access to the grandchildren."

Wendi Adelson has not returned phone calls made to her in the past week, but in an email she sent last Friday she stated that she hoped Garcia's arrest "will finally bring some closure" to the case. She did not respond immediately to phone calls and an email Thursday.

DeLeo said Thursday that he would not say if any other people were suspects in the case.

According to court documents, investigators contend that Garcia and Rivera followed Markel from a nearby gym before he was shot.

The police say that cellphone information showed the two men were in the Tallahassee area shortly before Markel's death and that there are records linking the two men to a Prius that a neighbour of Markel reported seeing pull out of the driveway right after hearing a gunshot. Investigators also say that an unidentified eyewitness met with Garcia and the other man in Tallahassee a month before the shooting.

Lewis, however, said that none of the information contained in the court documents shows that his client killed Markel.

"What's absent in this case is that there's no physical evidence linking my client to it," Lewis said. "There's no eyewitness. I'm not aware of any video showing them there."

Markel's shooting in the middle of the day stunned colleagues as well as residents in the affluent Tallahassee neighbourhood where he lived. He died at a hospital where he was taken after being shot.

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Alexandria M. Vera, a Grade 8 English teacher at Stovall Middle School in Houston, told police in April that the relationship she had with one of her students started through messages on Instagram  and had evolved into a great love.

On Wednesday, two months after the police investigation began and nearly eight months after 24-year-old Vera started having sex with the 8th grader, authorities issued a warrant for her arrest on a felony charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child. The student is under the age of 14.

Vera turned herself in at a suburban jail in Montgomery County and later bonded out on $100,000, reported the Associated Press.

Court documents filed last week in a Harris County District Court offer a detailed look into Veras account of their blossoming relationship, which she told police was not only approved, but celebrated by the boys parents. It wasnt until April, when Stovall principal Elsa Wright got a tip about Vera, that the school districts police department began investigating.

The English teacher admitted to both the principal and a police officer that shed been having an ongoing relationship with the boy for months, court documents show.

The bizarre and layered saga began nearly a year ago, Vera told police, when she met the boy during summer school in 2015. She said at first he was rude, asking for her Instagram account name and sending her a follow request after she refused to provide it or accept his invitation, according to court records.

But their interactions picked back up in the fall, when the regular school year began and the boy was assigned to one of her Grade 8 English classes. Vera described for police a period of flirting that she claims she initially resisted, until the month of September. The teacher said she became worried when the boy didnt show up to class, so she sent him a message on Instagram and reminded him to turn in an upcoming assignment.

He replied, according to court documents, and asked for her phone number. Then the boy asked his teacher if they could hang out.

She said yes.

Vera drove the boy around in her car, she told police, and they kissed. The next day, when the boys parents werent home, she returned and the two had sex for the first time, according to the documents.

After that, the sexual encounters occurred almost daily, Vera told police.

She stated that she and the Complainant had sex on almost a daily basis at her home and that they love each other, police wrote in the documents.

In January, Vera said she discovered the boy had gotten her pregnant. When the couple told the boys family, according to the teacher, they were ecstatic and supportive.

His parents had known about the relationship since October, Vera told police, when they came to the school for an open house. Afterward, she was invited back to their home and introduced to the family as the boys girlfriend, documents show.

They were accepting of the relationship, Vera told police, and she was welcomed to family gatherings thereafter.

Things began to deteriorate in February, when an unannounced visit and questioning from Child Protective Services about the relationship spooked her. Vera denied the relationship and the pregnancy at the time, documents show, then chose to abort the baby. She did, however, hand over her cellphone and gave police permission to search it.

Police said they found many messages between the boy and his teacher, confirming much of the story Vera had revealed. In a separate interview, the boy also admitted to the sexual relationship, police said.

The Harris County District Attorneys Office told ABC 13 News that the parents could be charged with failure to report child abuse if they did indeed know about the relationship. The boys mother is being investigated by Child Protective Services, the TV station reported.

Wearing a Golden State Warriors T-shirt, Vera was captured on video leaving the jail Wednesday. When asked about the allegations, she told reporters she had a lawyer and did not want to comment.

Parents told various local media outlets they were appalled and shocked by the news.

When you send your kid to the school you think everything will be safe for them and everything, Gerson Bonilla told KPRC 2 Houston. But I think this is something that is serious that needs to be investigated.

One student told ABC 13 News that there was chatter among the student body about suspicious behavior between Vera and the boy, and that once he saw him grab the teachers butt.

Another parent, Mary Claycomb, told the TV station she just couldnt believe the teacher would do this.

I have chills because of this, she said.

The Aldine Independent School District issued the following statement: Aldine ISD has been made aware that charges have been filed against a former Stovall Middle School teacher involved in inappropriate behaviour with a male student. When the allegation was made in April, the teacher was immediately removed from the school and placed on administrative leave. Aldine ISD Police investigated the incident and turned their findings over to the Harris County District Attorneys Office. The safety and security of Aldine ISDs students and staff remains a priority of the school district.

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BERLIN  Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says Turkey is recalling its ambassador to Germany for consultations after what he calls a historic error by the German parliament to recognize the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.The vote heightened tensions between Germany and Turkey at a time Ankara is playing a key role in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.

Yildirim said Turkish people take pride in their past and that there is no event in our past that would cause us to bow down our heads in embarrassment.

The German Parliament overwhelmingly approved a motion labeling the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide. The resolution, which was put forward by Chancellor Angela Merkels governing coalition of right and left and the opposition Greens, passed Thursday with support from all the parties in Parliament. In a show of hands, there was one abstention and one vote against.

Yildirim said the vote was a true test of friendship. Armenias foreign minister welcomed the vote.

Merkel was not present, with officials citing scheduling reasons, though spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz has made clear that the chancellor supported the motion. Her foreign minister, who also backed it, was on a trip to Latin America.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks at the time of the First World War, an event viewed by many scholars as the 20th centurys first genocide.

Turkey denies that the killings that started in 1915 were genocide and contends the dead were victims of civil war and unrest. Ankara also insists the death toll has been inflated.

Opening Thursdays debate, Parliament speaker Norbert Lammert acknowledged that addressing historical events can be painful.

But we have also seen that an honest and self-critical appraisal of the past does not endanger relations with other countries, he said. In fact, it is a precondition for understanding, reconciliation and co-operation.

He said Turkeys current government is not responsible for what happened 100 years ago, but it shares responsibility for what happens with it in the future.

When other countries have called the killings genocide it has led to diplomatic strife with Turkey, but not lasting damage.

Last year, for example, Turkey temporarily recalled its ambassadors to Vienna and the Vatican after Austria and Pope Francis described the killings as genocide.

The German motion says that the Armenians fate is exemplary for the history of mass destruction, ethnic cleansing, expulsions and genocides which marks the 20th century in such a terrible way.

That echoes the words German President Joachim Gauck used in a speech in April last year. His comments marked a shift in Germanys stance after officials previously avoided the term.

Turkey was irked by Gaucks words, which were supported by the German government, but there were no serious consequences for German-Turkish relations.

The motion stresses that Germany is aware of the uniqueness of the Nazi Holocaust and it regrets the inglorious role of Germany, the Ottoman Turks main military ally at the time of the Armenians killings, of failing to stop the crime against humanity.

It also urges the German government to encourage Turkey to deal openly with the expulsions and massacres in order to lay the necessary foundation stone for a reconciliation with the Armenian people.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said that Germany had made a valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides, crimes against humanity.

In February, as the EU prepared for a summit with Turkey, the Greens agreed to withdraw a motion on the killings in exchange for assurances from the governing parties that they would draw up a joint resolution. While it is symbolically significant, it has no legal effect.

Thursdays vote comes amid tension between Turkey and the European Union over the EUs conditions for granting visa-free entry for Turks. Speeding that up was one of the incentives for Turkey to accept a deal with the EU, championed by Merkel, on curbing migrant flows to Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans increasingly authoritarian behaviour is also causing concern in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

Yildirim on Thursday accused the German Parliament of using the vote to distract from unspecified domestic issues.

At times countries that we consider to be friends come up with these bright ideas to distract attention when they fall into despair with their domestic policy, he said. This is one of them.

In Berlin, centre-left lawmaker Rolf Muetzenich said that the motion is not an indictment.

We as lawmakers will not let ourselves be intimidated . . . by whatever side, he said.

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This is not the first time I have written about tragedies at Grassy Narrows Reserve. Known in Ojibwa as Ausubpeeschoseewagong First Nations, it is located north of Kenora along the Wabigoon-English River system.

As a result of the now closed Dryden Chemical Companys decision to dump more than 9,000 kg of mercury into the river in the 1960s, an overly large percentage of indigenous people have suffered the ravages of mercury poisoning that has crept forward malignantly through the generations affecting men, woman, children and babies to this very day.

Diseases and chronic symptoms ranging from muscular dystrophy, speech defects, paralysis, mental illness and even death have all been associated with mercury poisoning.

Seventeen-year-old Calvin Kokopenace was a member of the Grassy Narrows reserve. In 2014 Calvin succumbed to complications from mercury poisoning and muscular dystrophy. His death devastated his family, especially so his 14-year-old sister, Azraya Ackabee-Kokopenace.

Azraya had already displayed signs of depression and instability; even more so following the death of her brother. In and out of foster homes, following Calvins death, Azraya was living in the custody of the Anishinaabe-Abanooji Child and Family Service. Some in the community feared the same mercury poisoning that took her brothers life was also affecting Azrayas mental stability.

After a suicide attempt that almost succeeded in March 2015, Azraya was once again in living in the custody of family services, before returning to her loving family after seven months.

All too often when dealing with mental disorders, love and support is not enough. Azraya continued to spiral out of control. She was a habitual runaway, severely depressed and known to be potentially suicidal. On April 5, police intercepted Azarya driving a car without a licence. This led to her being once again placed in care, this time with the Kenora Childrens Aid Society. Her parents signed her into custody with the belief she would be sent for the treatment she so badly needed. This was not to be the case.

On April 15, Azarya was picked up by the OPP and dropped off at the Kenora District Hospital. Police refused to elaborate, though a few weeks earlier there was an altercation between Azraya and an OPP officer caught on video, which has put into question physical confrontation techniques used by police most often against indigenous children. Azraya disappeared from the Kenora hospital just prior to midnight. Her body was found by the First Nations Bear Clan Patrol less than two blocks from the hospital two days later. They believe she committed suicide.

Azarya is not the only indigenous teenager from the area to be found dead. In fact, she was the second in a month. Sixteen-year-old Delaine Copenace from nearby Onigaming First Nations was found in the water by a wharf in Lake of the Woods after missing for three weeks. Questions remain as to the circumstances of her death.

There have been other suicide attempts in the last few weeks as well.

Undoubtedly, as many believe, the system failed these young people. It is also very likely their indigenous heritage made it easier for authorities to act in a manner different than had these children not been aboriginal. Indeed, it seems that after Azraya disappeared the on-call CAS worker whom Azraya trusted never received a call from police, or the hospital informing her she disappeared.

This is a tangled web of complexities. Yet a few things are more than clear. These tragedies are occurring in an area where mercury poisoning has impacted the lives and well-being of generations of indigenous families; suicide in the Grassy Narrows reserve, given its size, is reaching tragic proportions among its young inhabitants, there has been at best a benign neglect by police and child welfare authorities.

As Canadians we should be demanding answers. You can be sure that had these tragedies occurred to young people in Torontos tony Forest Hill or Calgarys Mount Royal the hue and cry would be rightly deafening. Sadly, in Kenora the silence is even more deafening.

Bernie M. Farber is executive director of Mosaic Institute.

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The problem is pot stigma, not the black market.

Last weeks police raids of marijuana dispensaries in Toronto exposed an important feature of the so-called war on drugs in Canada. For years, most Canadians have told pollsters that pot should be legalized or decriminalized. More and more people are recognizing the medical benefits of weed. Our war, then, seems not so much on marijuana as it is on people who have been selling and using it illegally, especially for recreational use.

Pot advocates have warned that the black market of presumed gangsters will benefit from the dispensary raids. To me, the black market is just another term for the people you bought your weed from before dispensaries.

Our government has exploited the stigma of consuming pot for fun, rather than for health, to criminalize the market and create space for armed, organized gangs to control it. Its going to take a lot more than legalization to end a stigma around weed that has encouraged crime and led to an untold waste of public resources.

Its easy to hate the players in the drug trade, especially those who cant afford a Kensington storefront, but the foolish drug game of prohibition itself is the reason people cannot access marijuana in peace and safety. The problem is not that people with shady motives want to sell weed, but that the government has incentivized such people by making it a crime to grow and sell pot.

Graham Clark, a local criminal lawyer, seized on this in his reaction to the recent dispensary raids. Every person who now cannot go to a dispensary will instead have to trek into the black market that government and police, through prohibition, create to the great benefit of actual criminals, Clark said.

The latter part of Clarks statement, about government creation of crime through prohibition, is absent from many condemnations of the raids. Rather, the spectre of a dangerous criminal market is being used to explain why police should leave dispensaries alone.

In a news release calling for all charges to be dropped against dispensary operators and employees, the Toronto Cannabis Coalition argued, when compared with (government-sanctioned) mail order or the black market, dispensaries in Toronto provide a safe, informative environment where patients can source high-quality medical cannabis.

This statement is true, but the contrast between dispensaries and street drugs reinforces stigma. Just as people who use pot for medicinal purposes have long relied on illegal, recreational suppliers, recreational users have almost certainly been benefitting from dispensaries whose stated purpose is to provide medical marijuana.

Some Toronto dispensaries reportedly have very lax standards for determining a persons medical need for marijuana. If this is true, dispensaries are successfully blurring the line between selling pot for health reasons, and simply helping people get high.

This line needs to be blurred in order to erase pot stigma. Yes, there is a big difference between needing pot for a diagnosed illness, and wanting it for pleasure. But the difference should never be used to justify the violence, policing costs, criminal records, prison sentences, and court expenses the government currently employs for recreational users and suppliers.

I dont care if someone without a medical condition can get weed from a dispensary, or her local dealer, or by growing it at home, as long as no one is harmed or threatened in the process.

Removing the stigma associated with marijuana can help us to avoid more foolish time and resource expenditures in the future. For example, in a post-legalization era, the government should make it cheap and easy for people to receive pardons with criminal records related to pot.

There shouldnt be any sanction for smoking weed in public, selling it on the street, or growing small amounts of it on the balcony  it cannot be added to the preposterous regime of provincial offence tickets for such horrors as drinking in public, begging for change, or sleeping in a public park.

Pot proponents will have to fight for these realities  they will be less successful in doing so if they reinforce the stigma around weed that makes it okay to sell weed in a posh dispensary, but not okay to grow at home, smoke in public, or trade on the street.

If people want marijuana, let them have it without shame or sanction. Instead of reinforcing fear of a black market, lets just make such a market irrelevant.

Desmond Cole is a Toronto-based journalist. His column appears every Thursday.

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Recently, Mayor John Tory reached out to Black Lives Matters to request our advice with respect to carding data that has been stored with the Toronto Police Service. In keeping with our commitment to have public conversations around the issues we are working on, we felt it appropriate to reply in a public forum.

Were hopeful Mayor Tory is looking to take action on the carding data that has been collected in violation of the human rights of hundreds in our community. Though the province had committed to taking this on, their recently adopted regulation misses the mark and leaves many of our concerns unaddressed. With an issue as urgent and troublesome as this, we hope the city will be taking action and showing leadership on this matter soon.

The carding data that has been collected amounts to a systemic violation of the human rights of the black Torontonians. Carding is a practice that subjects members of this community to scrutiny and surveillance by law enforcement in ways that non-black groups are not subject to.

The practice is racist and anti-black and countless human rights organizations, lawyers, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and even the province has acknowledged as much. And as we learned in the recent coroners inquest, had carding been considered an unlawful practice by the province two years ago, Jermaine Carby would still be alive today.

There is no question what needs to happen to this data: it must be eliminated from the Toronto Police Service and anywhere else it exists and this must happen immediately.

There is no reason data collected through the unjust surveillance and documentation of people in our communities should remain on file. No one else should bear the sometimes fatal consequences of this type of systemic discrimination by law enforcement.

But we also want to learn from this data. So we are also suggesting to the mayor that the carding data be provided confidentially to the Anti-Black Racism Network  a social justice group established in 2014 comprised of university professors, students, lawyers, social workers, activists, and community and organizational leaders  for study into the ways carding has targeted and negatively affected black communities.

Throughout the public discussion on carding, community members have made it clear that the lack of quantitative data available on how anti-black racism manifests in Toronto is a significant problem. The data should be given to trusted members of our community to review it in a way that can assist other municipalities in policy creation and to help us analyze and prevent certain manifestations of anti-black policing in the future. We are suggesting the data on file be transferred to the Anti-Black Racism Network because of its academic expertise with respect to this type of analysis.

The provincial government has taken steps to enact new regulations that supposedly are meant to end carding, but a close review of the regulation makes it very clear it will not outlaw the practice as has been widely reported. Even more concerning to us, is that this regulation does nothing to address the carding data that has been collected across the province and remains on file at police boards. For whatever reason, the province has failed to take action on this issue and has failed black and indigenous communities across Ontario as a result. We are hoping the City of Toronto can take stronger action on this issue.

There is so much more to be done with respect to carding and anti-black racism in policing as a whole. We have not yet heard much about the citys plans for a public meeting on the matter and it is time for the mayor to make good on this promise. This is the citys chance do right by our communities where the province has failed. We hope the city takes it.

Sandy Hudson and Yusra Khogali are co-founders of Black Lives Matter Toronto.

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Its hard to imagine any legislation that could possibly satisfy everyone on the fraught subject of physician-assisted suicide. Sincere and well-intentioned opinion has been expressed on every side of this issue. It is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.

So its no surprise that the federal government is encountering significant resistance to Bill C-14, a measure that would make Canada one of the worlds few nations to legalize doctor-assisted dying. The bill passed third reading on Tuesday night, by a 186-137 vote, and is now before the Senate. But indications are that the Red Chamber will not grant this legislation the speedy passage necessary to meet a June 6 Supreme Court deadline.

Thats unfortunate. Part of the blame rests with the previous Conservative government for months of foot-dragging on this issue. But actions taken by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have also made it difficult to meet the looming deadline  including his decision two years ago to grant independence to Liberal senators, turning them into free agents.

As a result, after next Monday, Canadians and their doctors will likely be making end-of-life decisions in the absence of federal law.

In February last year, Canadas Supreme Court unanimously struck down existing law criminalizing participation in assisted suicide. Justices found that Ottawas rules were cruelly condemning critically ill people to severe and intolerable suffering. The court gave Parliament until Feb. 6 to correct this injustice but later allowed a four-month extension to pass a new law.

In response to that deadline, the government produced a sound legislative package, adopting an appropriately cautious approach to implementing the Supreme Courts judgment. Under its provisions, people wanting a doctors assistance to end their life must have a grievous and irremediable condition leaving them in a state of irreversible decline. Although the court didnt specify that this condition had to include impending death, Bill C-14 allows for assisted suicide only when a persons natural death is reasonably foreseeable.

On the whole, the government crafted a credible and compassionate law that would ease the burden of suffering borne by Canadians while also protecting vulnerable people from opting for state-sanctioned suicide in a moment of weakness or despair.

But this more cautious approach is not without controversy  and recent court cases appear to highlight a significant legal problem with the bill. For example, Albertas Court of Appeal, in weighing a request for physician-assisted death, noted that the Supreme Court had nowhere indicated that someone seeking assisted suicide had to be terminally ill. The appeal court found that, in setting a foreseeable death requirement, Bill C-14 fell short in complying with the Supreme Courts decision.

That concern is likely to figure prominently in Senate debate. The bill is to be considered by the upper chambers legal and constitutional affairs committee before going back to the full Senate for further discussion. Amendments are expected.

Several senators, including James Cowan, Liberal point man in the Red Chamber, have already indicated they will not support Bill C-14 as written. Trudeau has scant leverage in this forum, having abruptly announced in 2014 that Senate Liberals would no longer be part of his caucus and would, instead, sit as independents with no partisan responsibilities.

This was meant to help restore the scandal-wracked Senates role as a place of sober second thought. Presumably, independent senators will consider bills free of partisan concerns. But this liberty significantly reduces the prime ministers ability to sway hearts and minds in the upper chamber.

Trudeau might well find that assisted suicide isnt the only issue in which independent senators, free to speak their mind, slam the brakes on his agenda.

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Re: No logo right for tobacco, editorial, June 1

No logo right for tobacco, editorial, June 1

Your editorial is a model of what a well-researched, well-written position on standardized packaging for tobacco products should be.

The only problem is that you recommend that tobacco manufacturers should stand down on this issue because its the right thing to do. When your business model involves selling an addictive product that kills more than half of long-term users, as well as a great many non-users, and sickens many of those it doesnt kill, then do the right thing simply does not enter the equation.

In its pre-emptive protest against Health Minister Jane Philpotts announcement of the plain-packs consultation, Imperial Tobacco Canada noted, The health risks associated with smoking have been known for decades. But what are those risks, according to Imperial? Your editorial states them to tragic perfection. So, if a firm knows it has more than half the market share of a product killing 37,000 Canadians each and every year, what gives it the right to even comment on public health policy?

Do the right thing? They never will, which is why government has an important role to regulate the tobacco industry as stringently as possible.

Plain and ugly packs to tell the plain and ugly truth about a plain ugly product.

Stan Shatenstein, editor and publisher, STAN (Smoking and Tobacco Abstracts and News) Bulletin, Montreal

Studies have shown...

I notice even the Star has fallen into using this simple phrase or variations on it to give validity to an argument whose usefulness is doubtful.

I would be classed in todays world as a reluctant smoker. Ive tried every method of quitting from gum to prescriptions to hypnosis. I stopped smoking in my house and car over 20 years ago, and now limit myself to about eight cigarettes a day, outside, and I stay well away from children and other non-smokers. Im proud to say that of my five children and 10 grandchildren, none smokes.

The bottom line is I am addicted. Why? Because in high school, many of my friends smoked and I didnt want to feel left out. Thats how it all started.

I dont recall any of my friends saying Oh, look at the pretty package; I think I will start smoking.

And Im not sure how packaging could entice young people to smoke, because with current laws they are not going to see the package until theyve made the purchase, which seems a little late.

Rather than wasting money and time on legislation and court battles over packaging, use that money to subsidize smoking-cessation products. Ive often wondered why mint gum is $1 a package and nicotine gum is $10.

After all, studies have shown that this would encourage more people to quit smoking.

Richard Coleman, Toronto

I have no problem with the government doing what it can to curb the use of tobacco. It is a proven killer. But what about a similar campaign against the use of alcohol?

Excessive use of wine, beer and spirits kills thousands every year, ruins families and leads to addiction, spousal abuse and automobile deaths. Yet the government does virtually nothing to curb its use. Why dont bottles of alcohol carry the same gruesome warnings on the labels that cigarette packages are forced to display?

And whats worse, in Ontario the government not only profits from the sale of liquor through heavy taxes, but it actually owns and operates the stores.

Why is the government putting so much attention to curbing the use of one harmful drug, tobacco, while at the same time giving a pass to the another harmful drug, alcohol, and even profiting doubly from its sale?

Michael Cole, Toronto

Does the federal government believe that inhaling smoke into ones lungs is healthy or unhealthy? There appears to be some difference of opinion among our lawmakers. Theyve successfully attempted, for years, to reduce the dangers of cigarette smoke, and news regarding plain packaging reveals that further success is on the way.

However, theres something very wrong when the government also favours the legalization of marijuana smoking. Does the health minister not believe, as many in her profession do, that any kind of smoke in the lungs is bad for our health?

George Dunbar, Toronto

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Over the years, wealthy individuals and organizations have relied on tax havens such as Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Panama to hide income. That's because of these countries' secretive banking and tax laws. But things are changing for these tax havens and wealthy people still want to find ways to shield their income from taxes.

They now have new options: Bitcoin's Zerocash, DarkWallet and similar products. Zerocash and DarkWallet offer Bitcoin clients the ability to process financial transactions with minimum risk of revealing their identities. This comes as banks and their wealthiest clients have come under increased scrutiny for their practices. It is an after-effect of the 2008 financial crisis.

A number of governments from major industrialized countries had to overhaul banking industries that many considered corrupt. Tax evaders and tax havens that helped them were obvious targets.

The U.S. government fined UBS, Switzerland's largest bank, $780 million; Credit Suisse, $2.6 billion; and Julius Baer, $547 million. It also requested that Swiss banks hand out account details of all alleged U.S. tax evaders. Soon, similar pressure was brought to bear by the EU.

Among the end effects: roughly 80 Swiss banks signed a deal with U.S. tax authorities to hand out data on roughly 34,000 accounts of U.S. citizens suspected of tax evasion. Eventually, Switzerland signed a treaty with both the U.S. and EU promising to share data, such as names, addresses and tax Identification.

Bitcoin Succeeds Where Switzerland Fails

The chain of events has created an opening for Bitcoin.

On the surface, Bitcoin seems more transparent than the conventional banking system. Every transaction is documented in the Blockchain, open for all to see. If transactions are done from the same address more than once it becomes simple to track the source, or more accurately, the owner of the account. Some will argue that using a different address for each Bitcoin transfer improves the security and protects your identity. That may be true, but even that is still potentially exposed to investigating tax authorities.

Nevertheless, some Bitcoin Wallets provide higher levels of secrecy. Zerocash allows transfers and payments without disclosing the payment's origin, the amount of the transfer or its destination. Zerocash is not unique; there are a few others, including DarkWallet, Tor Integration and Shared Coin. Each uses a slightly different technology, but all have the same intention: to provide maximum privacy that is difficult to hack.

Because the sovereignty of those technologies is difficult to ascertain it's hard to see how governments can use the same leverage that they used on Swiss banks. This potential trend underscores demand for secretive banking products.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
The world was a simpler place back when Google was Google.

Last year, the Internet company created a parent, Alphabet (GOOGL) to operate its business, elegantly separating itself from the other firms that the company had acquired.

These other acquisitions are what Alphabet and analysts refer to as "moonshots," innovative technology projects that could either provide huge profits or weigh on their parent's bottom line.

As with much disruptive technology, each of these moonshot projects is a risky gambit. And when they don't pay off, the best way to deal with them is to sell them to another big company in turn.

Alphabet is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. See how Cramer rates the stock here. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells GOOGL? Learn more now.

On Wednesday, news broke that the research and development wing of major Japanese car maker Toyota Motor (TM) is a hair's breadth away from signing a deal that would give the company two Alphabet moonshots: Boston Dynamics and Schaft.

Both companies are robotics design and engineering firms.

Boston Dynamics is best known for creating the BigDog quadrupedal robot commissioned with funds from the U.S. military that became something of a viral video superstar. Google purchased Boston Dynamics in 2013 for $500 million.

Despite its Germanic name, Schaft is actually a Japanese robotics project that has also received funding from the U.S. military. Google purchased Schaft in 2013, as well.

Alphabet is selling these companies with the intention of refocusing energy and resources to developing self-driving vehicles. The company has already entered into an alliance with car maker Fiat Chrysler.

Google began experimenting with self-driving technology in 2009.

Alphabet is wise to make more room for this technology. What had once been the stuff of science fiction is quickly becoming a reality.

Analysts project the profits to be made from this technology in the hundreds of billions of dollars for the right companies.

Toyota will also benefit from the purchase of these robotics companies. The car maker has an interest in robotics that goes beyond the obvious application in a car factory production line, and it set up a special unit to develop medical robotic technology in 2005.

In January, the automaker established the Toyota Research Institute to explore robotic and artificial intelligence technology. The institute has about $1 billion to spend, which would fund this purchase.

If the deal goes through, Toyota will beat out e-commerce superstar Amazon, which has also expressed interest in the sale.

Alphabet shares are down on Thursday, making this innovative and savvy tech company a great investment. When the autonomous car profits start rolling out, investors who snap up shares beforehand stand to profit most.

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This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Does the idea of reality television star Donald Trump in the Oval Office give you the night sweats? You're not alone. Mental health professionals report a growing stream of patients who express enormous anxiety about the political rise of the brash and confrontational billionaire. It's not just liberals, minorities and Democrats; many corporate CEOs and even conservatives are worried as well.

Even if you're a Trump supporter, the turmoil of this extraordinary (and sometimes violent) election year hangs over your investments like a cloud. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and independents alike should all agree on at least one thing: the need for portfolio protection. Below, we examine two precious metals plays that offer a bulwark against uncertainty, as well as outsized growth potential.

This summer's party conventions are likely to be highly contentious, demonstrating to millions of TV-watching Americans that the social landscape is undergoing its worst upheaval since the late 1960s. The time to consider these two investments is now, before their prices are pushed higher by political fear. Let's take a look.

1. Silver Wheaton undefined

This Canada-based company is an unconventional play on the silver market, with smaller interests in gold. Rather than producing silver, Silver Wheaton is a "silver streaming" company that ponies up an advance payment to silver miners for the right to purchase a designated portion of their future production. Silver Wheaton subsequently doles out regular, smaller payments as it receives silver shipments.

With a market cap of $8.07 billion, Silver Wheaton is the largest firm of its type. The company holds 19 long-term purchase agreements and one early-deposit long-term purchase agreement associated with silver and gold.

Silver prices now hover at $16.06 per ounce. The forecast on the high end for silver prices is $18.18 per ounce by the end of June and $21.25 by the end of December. Some analysts say silver could rise as high as $140 per ounce by 2019. Driving demand for silver are its many industrial applications, including its use in electronic gadgets such as smartphones. Silver Wheaton is a safer play on rising silver prices than silver miners, which shoulder most of the production risk.

With shares of Silver Wheaton lnow trading at around $18.36, the average 12-month price target from analysts who cover the stock is $24, which suggests share can gain another 31% in the next year. That's a highly enticing growth prospect amid this overvalued and choppy broader market.

2. Goldcorp (GG)

With a market cap of $13.92 billion, Canada-based Goldcorp is the world's largest gold miner by market value.

Goldcorp boasts several competitive advantages compared to its smaller and more volatile rivals, such as Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining, including production growth, a robust balance sheet, and mines in politically safe regions.

Goldcorp benefits from one of the lowest all-in production costs of any primary gold producer in the world, which will hold it in good stead if gold prices rise as expected. Gold prices now stand at $1,212 an ounce. Strategists at Citi Research recently raised their gold price forecast to an average of $1,280 per ounce in the current quarter. Analysts at J.P. Morgan are even more bullish, forecasting a rise to $1,400 by the end of the year.

Goldcorp shares now trade at $16.70. The average 12-month price target from analysts who cover the stock is $19.54, which suggests that shares can gain 17% in the next year.

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As we've just explained, Silver Wheaton and Goldcorp are effective hedges, as well as superb growth plays, in these worrying times. But if you'd rather avoid stocks altogether while the market goes through its current turmoil, I know a way you can make a guaranteed $67,548 over the next 12 months. In fact, this technique is so successful and simple, you might want to give up stock investing forever! Click here now to learn more.

John Persinos is an editorial manager and investment analyst at Investing Daily. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Cancer drug maker Medivation (MDVN) wasted no time locking in the shareholders who will be able to vote on Sanofi (SNY) plan to replace its board, setting June 1 as the so-called record date for its register, just hours after receiving a request from its hostile suitor.

Medivation moved quickly to close the list of shareholders eligible to vote in the hope of limiting the number of short-term shareholders, including arbitragers, whom it fears are more likely to vote in favor of a board overhaul in the hope of profiting from a change of control.

"It is a tactical matter," said a person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be named. "If you have more arbitragers and fewer long-term shareholders then that changes the dynamic of the vote."

Sanofi in late May called for a vote to replace Medivation's board after the San Francisco-based biotechnology group rejected the French company's $9.3 billion bid as too low and refused meetings to discuss an improved offer. The French company is proposing to replace the current board with its handpicked directors, who will presumably be more open to discussing a takeover.

The French company on Wednesday, June 1, asked Medivation to set a record date for the register of shareholders eligible to vote on its motion to replace the board, a technical step necessary prior to the vote being able to take place. Sanofi noted that Medivation had 10 days to respond to its request and could set the date a further 10 days after that response, giving it a deadline of June 22 at the latest. Medivation responded immediately, setting the close of business on June 1 as the record date.

Shareholders still have a significant wait before they will have their say on Sanofi's proposal.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is reviewing documents relating to the vote and is not expected to clear them for a further week to 10 days. That process could be extended if Medivation's lawyers succeed in convincing the SEC that the documents need to be amended.

Once Sanofi's request for a vote is approved it can begin to solicit support, or so-called consent forms, for the board overhaul. The receipt of a first consent form, probably within a day or two of SEC clearance, then sets the clock ticking on a 60-day timetable during which time Sanofi will need to secure a majority of votes for its motion.

The wait promises to be a nerve-wracking one for Sanofi. Medivation has been linked with a host of potential bidders, most recently Gilead Sciences (GILD) and Celgene (CELG) , that could rival the French company's offer of $52.50 per share. Pfizer (PFE) was also said to have made an approach.

Medivation shareholders clearly expect a better offer, either from Sanofi or someone else. Shares in the biotech company have traded above $60 since Sanofi made its offer public on April 28.

Medivation closed Wednesday at $61.14, up 68 cents, or 1.1% on the Tuesday close. Sanofi shares traded Thursday in Paris at 73.35, down 12 euro cents, or less than 1% on the Wednesday close.
Tribune Publishing (TPUB) Chairman Michael Ferro won the battle but his war with Gannett (GCI) is still not over.

The newspaper publisher announced on Thursday that a majority of its shareholders approved a slate of board directors backed by Ferro. But Gannett, in a press release, said that roughly 49% of shareholders not affiliated with Ferro or the company had withheld their support from the publisher's slate of nominated directors.

It was unclear what percentage of shareholders voted to withhold their support. Ferro owns a roughly 17% stake in the company. Gannett had urged shareholders to withhold their support to force Ferro to negotiate the company's $15 per share offer valued at $864 million including debt.

Earlier on Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Gannett was leaning toward dropping its bid if shareholders supported Ferro and his board, citing a person familiar with the matter. Yet a withhold vote over greater than 30% would symbolize that shareholders prefer that Tribune open talks with Gannett rather than endorse Ferro's plans to remake a company that lost $6 million in the first quarter, said Bruce Goldfarb of Okapi Partners, a proxy solicitor.

"A 30% or 40% vote of the shares that would vote 'withholding' is a strong number in a vote-no campaign," Goldfarb said in an interview in New York prior to Gannett's press release. "That's an indication of some significant investor support because you're voting against the recommendation of the proxy voting advising firms. These are investors who have made a decision not to following the proxy voting advisers or actively indicate that they're voting no most likely because of the campaign to negotiate."

The vote is being closely watched by dissident shareholders led by Oaktree Capital and St. Louis-based Towle & Co., which hold about 20% of Tribune shares. Both firms have urged Ferro to negotiate a deal with Gannett, which has offered $15 per share to to buy the owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. The proposed bid is a 99% premium to Tribune's $7.52 closing price the day before its initial offer was made public.

Tribune shares were falling 4.7% on Thursday to $11.05 after tumbling as much as 13%.

The vote followed the filing of a shareholder lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday charging Ferro, CEO Justin Dearborn and the investor Patrick Soon-Shiong with acting in the interest of personal gain. The lawsuit, filed by Capital Structures Realty Advisors , a commercial real estate company based in Del Mar, Calif., alleges that Ferro sought to entrench himself at Tribune when the company's board issued 4.7 million new shares in the company to Soon-Shiong, a California-based billionaire investor and Ferro friend.

Although the new shares were sold at $15 each, the same price Gannett is offering for the entire company, that was little solace to Oaktree and others who cried foul that their stakes had been watered down in the process. The transaction gave Soon-Shiong a roughly 13% stake in Tribune Publishing.

The sale to Soon-Shiong, the lawsuit said, was an effort "to silence the dissident stockholders' voices." Ferro became chairman of Tribune Publishing in February after his Merrick Media acquired a 17% stake in the company for $44.4 million or $8.50 a share.

In a statement, Tribune Publishing said that it had "just received a copy of the complaint and is reviewing it carefully. The stock sales to Merrick Media and Nant Capital were approved by the board of directors and will provide valuable growth capital to allow the company to execute on its new value-creating business plan."

Ferro has steadfastly refused to sell Tribune, arguing that he has a plan to infuse the company's newspaper operations with a "content monetization engine" that relies heavily on artificial intelligence and opening new bureaus in Lagos, Nigeria, among other global locales.

Dearborn, on the company's investor conference call last month, said Ferro's plan, called "Tronc," is "a transaction-based revenue business model that we believe allows us to leverage our massive content creation capabilities more effectively." "Tronc" is a British term for pooling tips or resources.

In a statement, Gannett said "the lawsuit is further validation that Tribune Publishing's own stockholders believe that the board has shown a disregard for all its stockholders' best interests and has prevented stockholders from realizing superior and certain cash value for their shares by approving a series of questionable actions over the past few months."

The independent advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass, Lewis & Co. had recommended shareholders approve Ferro's slate of directors.
Updated to include OPEC's decision.

OPEC members met in Vienna on Thursday but failed to reach a deal that caps production.

With Brent prices up 18% so far this year, nearing $50 a barrel, one analyst predicted the tone of the meeting would be different than the previous one in April.

"Any discussion in an environment of $50 a barrel Brent is going to be a somewhat easier discussion than one in a $30 per barrel environment," said Damian Kennaby, director of research at IHS Energy, based in London. "Perhaps things may not be quite as tense as before."

Kennaby said plenty of other factors have changed since the April 17 OPEC meeting in Doha.

During the April meeting, Iran was unwilling to cap production because it was focused on ramping up production to levels seen before burdensome sanctions were imposed by western nations. Iran will soon start to produce four million barrels per day, in line with its pre-sanction production.

"That additional supply has not been met with a large fall in oil prices so I think it's indicative that markets have been expecting that," he said, adding that the market is also grappling with supply outages of 800,000 barrels a day in Nigeria and roughly one million per day following wildfires in Canada. "Perhaps it's a happy circumstance that [the Iran supply] comes to the market at a time when the market can absorb it," Kennaby added.

He said the global glut and increase in supply over demand is slowing down and he sees it balancing out in the third quarter of 2016. "It's a slight different background at the moment than what we saw in Doha."

Thursday's meeting is also the first OPEC gathering for Saudi Arabia's new oil minister, Khalid al-Falih.

Kennaby expects oil to trade between $48 and $50 in the coming months. Prices for West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark price for oil, stood at $48.43 on Thursday morning, while Brent, the international price, traded at $49.37.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Westar Energy (WR) are rising by 0.04% to $56.30 in midday trading on Thursday, after rival electric utility company Great Plains Energy (GXP) announced plans to acquire the business for $8.6 billion earlier in the week.

Great Plains, the parent company of Kansas City Power & Light, will assume $3.6 billion of Westar's owed debt, increasing the value of the deal to $12.2 billion. In return, Great Plains' customer base will rise to 1.5 million in Kansas and Missouri.

The companies plan to close the deal by the spring of 2017.

As a result, Barclays raised its price target on the stock to $60 from $45 and maintained its "equal weight" rating this morning.

"We maintain our 'equal weight' rating on WR and our price target is $60 assuming the merger closes within 12 months," Barclays analysts said in an investor note.

Westar is an electric utility company headquartered in Topeka, KS, which provides electric generation, transmission and distribution services.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings rated Westar Energy as a "buy" with a score of A+.

This is based on the convergence of positive investment measures. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its increase in net income, good cash flow from operations, expanding profit margins, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and solid stock price performance.

TheStreet Ratings feels its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat disappointing return on equity.

You can view the full analysis from the report here: WR

TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.
A large minority of participating shareholders at Tribune Publishing (TPUB) on Thursday voted against the company's directors - in a move that could drive the Chicago-based media company to consider an $864 million hostile bid made by USA Today publisher Gannett (GCI)

Gannett issued a statement noting that about 49% of shares not affiliated with Tribune Publishing or its non-executive chairman, Michael Ferro, voted against the media company's slate of director nominees. Ferro's investment vehicle owns a 16.5% stake. Tribune Publishing issued a statement noting that based on preliminary voting data all of Tribune Publishing's directors were re-elected to the board noting that "the majority of our voting shareholders agree."

The vote had no binding impact on the company's management or board. However, the large negative vote against Tribune Publishing's directors - even though it is a minority of participating shares -- could send a strong message that shareholders wanted the two sides to engage in discussions about a combination.

However, even with a large minority vote of support it is unclear whether Gannett will continue to pursue a deal. It said in its statement that it is reviewing whether to proceed with its acquisition offer, taking into account the results of the vote at the meeting and the latest Tribune actions.

The vote of support for Gannett's bid by a large minority of shareholders comes after a small shareholder filed a lawsuit early Thursday seeking to halt a recent sale of a 12.9% stake to Nant Capital founder Patrick Soon-Shiong, a California-based billionaire investor and friend of Tribune Publishing's non-executive chairman. Soon-Shiong was also invited onto the media company's board as vice chairman, a role he was expected to take on Thursday.

Nevertheless, the vote of a majority of shareholders for Tribune Publishing's board - including Tribune Publishing insiders -- did send a message that the two major proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, carried a lot of weight in the outcome. Last month, ISS and Glass Lewis recommended that shareholders back Tribune Publishing's board. The two proxy advisers recommendations likely influenced some large institutional investors, such as BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street (STT) , all of which own significant stakes in the company. Their specific votes have not yet been disclosed.

Glass Lewis waded into the debate with a report charging that Gannett has offered "insufficient cause for investors" to support its current campaign and that Tribune Publishing's board "is well positioned to fully evaluate and reject any bids that seem particularly opportunistic." ISS suggested that based on its analysis that the revised bid still "materially underrepresented the intrinsic value of the company."

The large vote of no confidence by shareholders may be tampered a bit by the fact that at least two large disgruntled investors held large blocks of shares and have urged the media company to engage in negotiations with Gannett. Asset manager Oaktree Capital Group, which owns a 15% stake, on May 6 reported in an activist securities filing that it was urging the media company to "pursue discussions" with Gannett. In addition, Towle & Co., which owns a 4% stake, charges that Tribune Publishing has "abandoned its fiduciary responsibility."

On the other side of the battle, Tribune Publishing's non-executive chairman Michael Ferro, through his investment vehicle, accumulated a 16.5% stake in the media company in February, a deal that some shareholders consider to be an illegal effort to thwart Gannett's hostile bid. In addition, Nant Capital's Soon-Shiong last month made a $70.5 million investment in Tribune Publishing in exchange for a 12.9% stake and a board seat, a move also considered by some to be a blocking stake even though it was not permitted to participate in the vote Thursday.

Tribune Publishing could also be driven to the negotiating table as a result of the lawsuit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court on Wednesday charging Ferro, CEO Justin Dearborn and the investor Soon-Shiong with acting in the interest of personal gain rather than that of shareholders. The lawsuit, filed by Capital Structures Realty Advisors alleges that Ferro sought to entrench himself at Tribune when the company's board issued 4.7 million new shares in the company to Soon-Shiong.

In addition to seeking the halt of the stock sale to Soon-Shiong, the suit seeks to have Tribune Publishing set up a special committee of independent directors to consider Gannett's offer. It also seeks to have the media company "reform" its governance to "prevent outsized control and influence by defendant Ferro."

A person familiar with the situation noted that Capital Structures Realty Advisors owns a stake in Tribune Publishing and is not affiliated with Gannett. It is possible that some other shareholders could file their own lawsuits, in a move that would ultimately result in a consolidated case. Gannett, for example, owns 1,100 Tribune Publishing shares as of a May 16 securities filing, and could file a suit of its own. In addition, it is possible that Oaktree or Towle, the two disgruntled large shareholders, could file their own lawsuits.
15 days itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Guatemala City - transfer to Antigua

Individual private transfers from the airport to Antigua. Meeting with the guide and other participants at the welcome dinner.



Day 2: Hiking up to Pacaya volcano

Transfer to Pacaya, short hike, setting up camp and exploring the volcanoes activity in the afternoon-evening-night.



Day 3: Sunrise on Pacaya - Transfer back to Antigua

Morning observations at Pacaya, transfer back to Antigua for lunch, followed by a free afternoon and evening



Day 4: Transfer to Lake Atitlan - giant ash & pumice deposits

Observation of spectacular pumice outcrops and short stops at viewpoints over Lake Atitlan with Toliman, Atitlan and San Pedro volcanoes.



Day 5: Lake Atitlan - sunrise viewpoint - lakeshore hike & boat tour

Optional excursion to a viewpoint for sunrise over lake Atitlan. After breakfast at the hotel we start exploring the lake: boat tour on the lake, a hike along the stunning lake shore, and visit of a lively Mayan market town.



Day 6: Transfer to Quetzaltenango town  Cerro Quemado volcano

Option for another sunrise excursion to enjoy the beauty of the lake. After breakfast, transfer to Quetzaltenango town where we have lunch and settle into our hotel. The afternoon is used for a short hike and visit of the historic lava flows of nearby Cerro Quemado volcano.



Day 7-8: Climbing Santa Maria - observing active Santiaguito

Climb about 1300 m of elevation to reach the spectacular viewpoint on the top of Santa Maria volcano (about 3660 m). After lunch on the summit we make a short descent to reach the sublime viewpoint onto the active Santiaguito dome where we will be camping for the next 2 nights.



Day 9: Descent from Santa Maria - return to Quetzaltenango

In the course of the morning we make the descent down from Santa Maria volcano and return to our hotel in Quetzaltenango where we have lunch. The afternoon and evening are free for you to rest and/or explore this charming colonial style town and its local market.



Day 10: Observing Santiaguito from the South

Transfer from Quetzaltenango to a comfortable hotel south of Santiaguito from where you have a stunning view onto the volcanos active dome.



Day 11: Transfer to the Volcano Observatory of Fuego - camping and nighttime observation

After an optional morning excursion to observe active Santiaguito volcano, we have breakfast at the hotel and then make our way to the volcano observatory of Fuego. We set up camp in the fields nearby the observatory and get ready for a first night of observing Fuegos activity.



Day 12: Morning observations of Fuego volcano - return to Antigua

In the course of the morning we break down the camp and travel by minibus back to Antigua. After lunch, the afternoon and evening are free.



Day 13: Fuego volcano from Acatenango volcano

Transfer to Acatenango volcano - climb 1200 m to a great viewpoint at 3600 m elevation facing active Fuego volcano - optional climb to the summit - evening & night-time observation of Fuego's fireworks.



Day 14: Morning observations of Fuego volcano - transfer back to Antigua

Optional morning excursions (further approach Fuego volcano / climb Acatenangos summit), morning observation of Fuegos activity from the campsite. Descend back to the start of the hiking trail, pick-nick lunch and return to Antigua. The remaining time in the afternoon is free, but the group meets up for a farewell dinner in a selected restaurant in historic Antigua.



Day 15: Transfer to airport - departure or extension

Individual private transfers to the airport. Extension tours e.g. to Tikal can be offered at request.



Dates and details
Background:

Colima volcano is one of the most active in North America and one of the potentially most dangerous ones. It has had more than 30 periods of eruptions since 1585, including several significant eruptions in the late 1990s. Scientific monitoring of the volcano began 20 years ago.The Colima volcanic complex is the most prominent volcanic center of the western Mexican Volcanic Belt. It consists of two southward-younging volcanoes, Nevado de Colima (the 4320 m high point of the complex) on the north and the 3850-m-high historically active Volcan de Colima at the south.A group of cinder cones of probable late-Pleistocene age is located on the floor of the Colima graben west and east of the Colima complex. Volcan de Colima (also known as Volcan Fuego) is a youthful stratovolcano constructed within a 5-km-wide caldera, breached to the south, that has been the source of large debris avalanches. Major slope failures have occurred repeatedly from both the Nevado and Colima cones, and have produced a thick apron of debris-avalanche deposits on three sides of the complex. Frequent historical eruptions date back to the 16th century. Occasional major explosive eruptions (most recently in 1913) have destroyed the summit and left a deep, steep-sided crater that was slowly refilled and then overtopped by lava dome growth.---
Walmart says it is testing drones to better manage its warehouse inventory. (David Gottschalk/AP)

ENERGY

OPEC fails to reach deal on output strategy

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree on a clear oil-output strategy Thursday as Iran insisted on steeply raising its production, though archrival Saudi Arabia promised not to flood the market and sought to mend fences within the organization.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and Shiite Iran had blighted several previous OPEC meetings, but the strains were less acute Thursday, as new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih demonstrated a more conciliatory tone, and Iranian counterpart Bijan Zanganeh kept his criticism of Riyadh to a minimum.

Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf allies had tried to propose that OPEC set a new collective ceiling to repair the groups waning importance. But Thursdays meeting ended with no new policy or ceiling amid resistance from Iran.

Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt OPECs largest producer to raise output further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.

We will . . . make sure we dont shock the market in any way, Falih said. There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign.

 Reuters

AUTOMOTIVE

1.9 million GM vehicles recalled over air bags

General Motors announced its largest recall of Takata air-bag inflators yet, but the nations biggest automaker said the parts are unique to its trucks and SUVs and do not pose a safety risk.

The governments highway-safety agency disagrees. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said GM must proceed with two recalls adding up to 1.9 million trucks from the 2007 through 2011 model years.

The recalls were unveiled Thursday along with those from six other automakers totaling 4.4 million vehicles. They are part of the first round of a massive Takata recall expansion announced in May. A total of 17 automakers are adding 35 million to 40 million inflators to what already was the largest auto recall in U.S. history.

Takata inflators can malfunction and spew shrapnel into drivers and passengers when exposed to humidity and repeated hot-and-cold cycles.

GM said it would begin the recall process in cooperation with the NHTSA even though it said it does not believe inflators in its trucks are unsafe.

The company said no inflators in its trucks have ruptured during an estimated 44,000 crashes or in testing of returned inflators. It said the inflators were uniquely made for GM trucks and SUVs.

 Associated Press

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Reputation is fleeting. During his lifetime Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) stood high among the most popular writers in the English-speaking world and was particularly esteemed for his generational saga, The Herries Chronicles. From the start his books were greatly admired, so much so that the fledgling author was taken under the wing of no less than the master himself, Henry James. Gregarious and immensely likable, Walpole eventually counted Joseph Conrad, Arnold Bennett and, a bit later, Bennetts sometime critic Virginia Woolf among his good friends. During several lecture tours of the United States, he regularly drew the kind of crowds that, in an earlier generation, had come to hear Charles Dickens.

Nowadays, though, Walpoles fiction gluts the shelves of used bookshops, and he is largely remembered  if at all  for three reasons, each of which would have surprised him. In his lifetime, he provided the model for the social-climbing Alroy Kear, who is mercilessly satirized in Somerset Maughams witty masterpiece Cakes and Ale. Then after his death, he became the subject of Rupert Hart-Daviss exceptionally entertaining Hugh Walpole, subtitled in one reprint: a remarkable portrait of a man, an epoch and a society. From it we learn that Walpole worked for the British propaganda office in Russia at the time of the 1917 revolution and that in 1925, at Bayreuth  where hed gone to hear his former protege Lauritz Melchior sing in Parsifal  he shared a box with a weeping, rather down-at-the-heels Wagnerite named Adolf Hitler: They met several times and even dined together. Having just now reread Hart-Daviss book after many years, I still rank it among the best literary biographies of the 20th century.

[Review: Everything Explained That Is Explainable]

But what is the third reason that Walpole is remembered, at least by some? Quite simply, he produced a small handful of superior psychological shockers and ghostly tales. As John Howard notes in his introduction to the Valancourt reissue of All Souls Night, Walpole was a master of mood, uncanny atmosphere and the quietly chilling vignette. His stories are carried along, too, by an exceptionally easygoing and seductive narrative voice, what the costive Henry James described as his acolytes enviable flow.

First published in 1933, All Souls Night collects most, but not all, of Walpoles supernatural short fiction. It opens with The Whistle, a wonderful tear-jerker about a servant and his mystical bond with a powerful dog, proceeds to The Silver Mask, in which middle-aged Sonia Herries finds her settled life overturned by a devilishly handsome but insidious young man (who is more than a little reminiscent of Patricia Highsmiths talented Mr. Ripley), and then follows that conte cruel with the much-anthologized shape-shifter story Tarnhelm and two ghostly tales about wives who come back from the dead: Mrs. Lunt and The Snow. All these are excellent and The Silver Mask an absolute masterpiece, so eerily inexorable in its development that it should be as famous as Shirley Jacksons The Lottery or Charlotte Perkins Gilmans The Yellow Wallpaper.

Many of Walpoles stories do feel distinctly autobiographical. The protagonist or narrator is often an author, sometimes he is looking for an ideal friend  Walpole himself was gay  and sometimes the plot reflects the jealousies and psychological complexities attendant on the literary life. Walpole was obviously obsessed with the price of success. Mrs. Lunt starts this way:

 Do you believe in ghosts? I asked Runciman. I had to ask him this very platitudinous question more because he was so difficult a man to spend an hour with than for any other reason. You know his books, perhaps, or more probably you dont know them  The Running Man, The Elm Tree, and Crystal and Candlelight. . . . Such men do fine work, are made but little of in their own day, and perhaps fifty years after their death are rediscovered by some digging critic and become a sort of cult with a new generation.

That hinted-at anxiety about literary merit grows even more overt in The Tarn, included in Tarnhelm: The Best Supernatural Stories of Hugh Walpole (from Britains Tartarus Press). Two writers have known each other since their youth, but while one, Foster, has become a celebrated writer, the other, Fenwick, has fallen into obscurity. Walpole tells the story from Fenwicks point of view, probing a hatred that has festered over many decades, ever since Fosters novel The Circus stole the glory that should have gone, in Fenwicks opinion, to his own overlooked masterpiece, The Bitter Aloe. But at last, here in the lonely Lake District, retribution is at hand. Some bonds, however, prove indissoluble.

Not all of Walpoles weirds are horrifying or macabre. For instance, Mr. Huffam, A Christmas Story  found in the Tartarus collection  offers a sentimental variation on The Silver Mask. This time the mysterious stranger who invades an upper-class household charms everyone with his exuberance, love of life and genial storytelling powers:

And, as Mr. Huffam told these things, all these people lived before your eyes, the pompous mistress with her ear-trumpet, the cooks husband who had a wooden leg, the second footman who was in love with a pastrycooks daughter. The house of the young page-boy took on life, and all the furniture in it, the tables and chairs, the beds and looking-glasses, everything down to the very red woolen muffler that the footman wore in bed, because he was subject to colds in his neck.

Mr. Huffam, as the reader soon guesses, once bore another and far more famous name.

Although Walpole is hardly in the Dickens class, his tales are always smoothly, reliably enjoyable. Thats not meant to sound like faint praise. Start reading The Little Ghost or Major Wilbraham, and after just a few sentences you will find yourself relaxing into the story, as you might into an Adirondack chair or Pawleys Island hammock. This may not sound like much until you remember: Summer Is Coming.

Michael Dirda reviews each Thursday in Style and is the author, most recently, of Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living With Books.
There are few tragedies more haunting than the death of innocents, as Shakespeare, Euripides and the daily news remind us.

One of the best known of these tragedies gains new power through a moving and boldly original treatment. Juliet and Romeo is Swedish choreographer Mats Eks version of the ill-fated lovers tale, told in a way that honors its Renaissance source while tying it directly to todays world. The Royal Swedish Ballet gave this 2013 work its North American premiere on Wednesday at the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Eks ballet has little in common with those heavily draped and chandeliered productions of the Shakespeare story that most balletgoers know. Eks characters look pretty much like us, in their slacks, skirts and ponytails. There are no pointe shoes. The teenage boys behave like teenage boys, goofing around and punching each other.

It is always night here. The set has a stripped-down look, with a smoky, shadowy stage and forbidding walls that bring to mind cities under siege. This could be modern-day Syria or Iraq, or a U.S. town in crisis. The Capulets patrol their turf on Segways, with the rigid bearing that we instantly recognize as policelike.

The music is not the familiar Prokofiev, but Tchaikovsky. In a previous conversation, Ek told me he found that Tchaikovsky evoked young love beautifully, though there wasnt much in the way of true violence and aggression in his music. Ek needed the violence, too, but love was most important. He chose his excerpts well, and they were splendidly performed by the Opera House Orchestra.

Ek took his flip-flopped title from an early short story, Giulietta e Romeo, which was probably one of Shakespeares sources. Having given his heroine top billing, he also gave her moxie and strength. Again and again it is Juliet who takes the most decisive action and who stands up to her parents. In this austere world, Mariko Kidas Juliet is the lone bright spot. We first see her wearing yellow, hopping about like a puppy and teasing her Nurse.

Ana Laguna, the extraordinarily expressive dancer who is Eks longtime muse (and wife), gave the role of the Nurse a grounded moral force. Throughout the ballet she is a witness to the key moments, often peering from the shadows. In her 60s, with her long gray hair in a thick braid, she is also a vigorous and deeply musical member of the cast, matching the bounding Mercutio and Benvolio, for instance, step for step. Her presence highlighted one of the many glories of this company and this production: Not everyone looks alike. There are dancers of varying ages, sizes (Jerome Marchands Mercutio towers over Jokuto Kodams Benvolio) and backgrounds, with some more trained in ballet, others in modern dance.

It takes time to adjust our ears when were at a Shakespeare play, and in the same way, it may take a short while to feel engaged by Eks unique physical expression: the long, stretched-out lunges, the blown-back torsos and moments when everyone rolls on the floor.

It is Eks genius, however, that his weighted, earthy, unusual moves arouse vivid emotions. When Mercutio, Benvolio and Anthony Lomuljos sweet Romeo are messing around, you ache for them. Especially the big, tattooed Mercutio, who roughly pushes the other two away, yet also yearns for their company. An unnameable change is in the air  we see how the boys sense it, in their intentionally awkward, artless responses to the music, in the way they link arms and take comfort in being together.

The giddy beauty of young love is Eks high achievement here, but so is the ugliness of hatred, which Ek depicts with equal inventiveness and immediacy.

Its easy, therefore, to link this ballet with whats going on in todays world. Age-old frictions and factions continue to tear loved ones apart: The same day that Juliet and Romeo opened at the Kennedy Center, this newspapers front page told the story of an Israeli woman fatally knifed in her kitchen by a teenage Palestinian boy. Both her family and his spoke poignantly of their grief, confusion and loneliness in the aftermath.

That Eks ballet seems to anticipate, respond to and add more layers to such heartbreaking violence speaks to his masterful command. How acutely he communicates something real in the make-believe world of the stage.

In fact, his art draws us in not by making us believe, but by making us feel. By expressing the yearning, resistance, helplessness  and the hopefulness  of love. Hope is Eks coda, as it was Shakespeares, and as it must be ours, too.

The Royal Swedish Ballet performs Juliet and Romeo, by Mats Ek, in the Kennedy Center Opera House through Saturday. Tickets: $29-$129. 202-467-4600 or kennedy-center.org.


The farmhouse interior at Straw Stick & Brick on Georgia Avenue NW give the storefront an Old World feel. (April Greer/For The Washington Post)

The moment you shut the blue door behind you at Straw Stick & Brick, the world outside disappears. The predatory traffic on Georgia Avenue NW, the neon-and-iron-bar storefronts, the sweet, distressing shuffle of the wired life. They all seem to go up in smoke inside this shop that time forgot.

Or maybe thats just the impression I formed when I walked in and the acrid aroma of wood smoke hit my nostrils. My opinion was reinforced by the molasses-like pulse and no-tech farmhouse interior of Straw Stick & Brick, a delicatessen and charcuterie shop started by Jason and Carolina Story, husband and wife, who met at the Culinary Institute of America.

The decor is a study in natural resources. Wood shelves are stocked with cookies, chips, jams and olive oils. A communal table has been fashioned from sawhorses and a weathered wood-slat door, the hinges still attached. A wood block near the front door offers toothpick samples of smoked Toulouse sausage, Manchego cheese or other delicacies. The outline of a giant pig has been etched into the boards beneath your feet. The only concession to modernity is the refrigerated display case packed with sausages, pates, cured meats, cheeses and other products made with Old World craftsmanship.

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The shop opened in March 2012 under the name Three Little Pigs, with a focus on house-made charcuterie and only a few sandwiches. Four years and one lawsuit later  a New York shop with a similar name claimed a trademark violation  the renamed deli offers more than 20 sandwiches, most built from meats cured, smoked or roasted in-house. If you cant find a favorite, youre not trying hard enough.



Cured and smoked meats hang in the aging room at Straw Stick & Brick, a deli and charcuterie shop on Georgia Avenue NW. (April Greer/For The Washington Post)

A jalapeno-cheddar bun gives the saucy pulled pork sandwich at Straw Stick & Brick an extra kick. (April Greer/For The Washington Post)

The menu draws inspiration from all over our big blue marble, although a cautionary note is perhaps necessary: The creative minds behind Straw Stick & Brick  the Storys as well as chef Adam Goodison  are not culinary archaeologists, looking to re-create the muffuletta from Central Grocery in New Orleans or some archetypal ur-banh mi from Saigon. Theyre more interpreters than mimics, an approach that will probably drive traditionalists mad.

Take the banh mi. The toasted baguette comes stuffed with two thick slices of house-made pate plus slow-roasted pork belly glazed with gochujang, the spicy and fermented Korean condiment. The roll includes a second stowaway, too: a modest layer of kimchi, which doubles down on the Korean umami gamble. This hybrid beast wanders so far from Vietnam, you might not recognize the landscape. But then again, if you can surrender all preconceptions, the sandwich may reveal a new world of possibilities for the banh mi, itself a fusion of French and Vietnamese ingredients.

Cured meats hog the spotlight in Straw Stick & Bricks muffuletta, pushing the acid tongue of the olive salad further into the shadows. Even if you disagree with the preparation, you cant argue with the results: a crusty ciabatta bun so densely packed with painstakingly cured salumi that assaulting the meats with a briny vegetable spread would constitute a crime against charcuterie.



Carolina Story is a co-owner of Straw Stick & Brick, where sandwiches are made with meats that have been cured, smoked or roasted in-house. (April Greer/For The Washington Post)

A selection of charcuterie at Straw Stick & Brick in Northwest Washington. (April Greer/For The Washington Post)

The chefs biggest risk may be their take on the Philly cheesesteak, a sandwich whose preparation inspires more fights than a Caps-Flyers game. Their version piles on the beef (the top round is sliced a shade too thick for true believers, I suspect) and sauteed peppers, perhaps at the expense of the provolone and onions. The soft roll from Lyon Bakery (which supplies every loaf here) somehow wrangles all this juiciness without spilling a drop or disintegrating into hoagie mush. The sandwich is undeniably delicious, but two words never crossed my mind while devouring it: Pats and Genos. That may not be a bad thing.

The sandwiches are divided into hot and cold categories, and there are winners under both headings. The saucy, slow-smoked pulled pork, served on a jalapeno-cheddar bun for an invigorating slap of heat, can stand up to any barbecue sandwich in the area. By contrast, the lush smoked brisket on toasted white bread doesnt immediately register as barbecue, largely because the horseradish mayo borrows more from steakhouse traditions. Im not complaining, just observing.

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Whatever you do, do not skip over the line of cold-cut sandwiches, lest you think the kitchen shaves meat from the commercial logs found in every other corner deli. The house-made ham-and-cheese sandwich, known as the Fat James, made me rethink my position on honeyed ham. Shaved thin like prosciutto, the honey-and-brown-sugar-brined meat shares a hoagie roll with Swiss cheese, Thousand Island dressing, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes, the meaty sweetness just one of many mouthwatering components. Even better, the Italian sub, stuffed silly with house-made salumi and smoked ham, will make you regret every sandwich youve ever ordered at Subway.

My quibbles with Straw Stick & Brick are few and probably too pedantic for the Dagwoodians among us. In no particular order: The 3  -year-aged prosciutto in the Prosciutto Panini is sliced too thick, resulting in wads of fat resistant to mastication. Likewise, the casing on the otherwise excellent house-made half-smoke can be impenetrable by mere mortals. And Id love to see the creative team develop a better bark on the pastrami.



While you wait for your order at Straw Stick & Brick, you can try one of the house-made sodas. (April Greer/For The Washington Post)

Now, if Im totally honest, Id also prefer not to wait so long for my sandwiches, but at least that is within my control. I can either order ahead or just figure out a way to enjoy the downtime: I could use the wait to suck down a house-made Italian soda through a bendy straw. (I recommend the refreshing lime-ginger.) Or, better yet, I could sit down at the communal table, take a deep breath and feel my heartbeat start to slow as I soak in the woodland calm of Straw Stick & Brick.


Paul Danquah, who lived until he was 90, made his way through the world with stunning grace and courage. He was a film star, a lawyer and a lover of the arts. And he was my uncle, who nutured me like a flower in his garden. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

In early July of last year I received a call from Dr. Fouad, a man I didnt know, informing me that Paul Danquah, my uncle in Tangier, had been non-responsive for days, not speaking and not eating. Dr. Fouad, whod been connected with me through the Ghana Embassy in Morocco, said he didnt think Uncle Paul, who was 90, would survive the night. His suggestion was to simply allow my uncle to pass away in his home. I insisted my uncle be taken to a hospital, then I booked a flight to Morocco.

Riding to the airport, I was flooded with memories of a childhood in Washington, D.C., that, courtesy of my mothers older brother, was imbued with wonder. He took great pride in revealing to me a world that existed as another pulse in the city known primarily as the center of politics: a parallel universe of paintings, poetry, movement and song.

As we drove, I took note of each jacaranda tree. They were barren, their season having passed, yet the sight of them brought me comfort. Each May when the jacarandas bloom and transform Los Angeles, where I now live, into a purple empyrean heaven, I always think of my uncle.

One of my earliest memories of Uncle Paul is of him standing by the garden at his home on Oakwood Terrace in Northwest Washington, talking to me about flowers. He was of average height for a man, about 5-foot-9, but the way he stood, elegant and straight-spined, the result of theatrical training, made him striking. His loose Afro sat atop his head like a cloud, lush billows of silver with dark, shadowy strands sifting through.

It was spring 1974. I had just emigrated from Ghana the year before to join my mother, who had been living with him for three years while attending university. I was 6, unmoved by whatever it was my uncle was telling me. What did I care about flowers? They served no purpose in my life besides background decoration.

Darling, you miss the point entirely, he said.

A few days later, he and I embarked on an afternoon escapade, something we would do regularly over the years.

We went to the Jefferson Memorial and walked around the Tidal Basin, which was lined with cherry trees, their pink and white flowers in full bloom. It was breathtaking.

Is it always like this? I wanted to know.

Of course not, Uncle Paul laughed. He told me that the trees had been a gift from Japan and that the blossoms symbolize how beautiful yet fleeting life is.

Entering Tangier is like entering a painting, a piece of nouveau realisme. Its intoxicating, a jumble of wide streets and narrow pathways, with Moorish and colonial architecture. The sidewalk cafes are filled with men sitting languidly, sipping coffee in the midday sun. The intersections are crowded with people, some in jeans and sneakers, some in djellabas and babouches  color, color everywhere.

I could see why my uncle retired here in a proverbial house on a hill with a view of the sea.

When I arrived Uncle Paul still hadnt spoken, but he was alive. He was in a public hospital, being fed intravenously. His face was sallow, the eyes vacant, his body almost skeletal. Dr. Fouad said it was actually an improvement.



Danquah signing autographs during a press junket in 1961. He had interrupted his law studies to make movies. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

I stared at the doctor as he spoke. He was handsome, a middle-aged Moroccan with a solid frame and a serious demeanor. I sensed a kindness about him. Grateful as I was for his help, I believed my uncle would fare better in a private facility.

In the 32 years Uncle Paul had been living in Tangier, Id seen him only once. For many years, I was plagued with immigration issues that prevented me from traveling internationally. After he left Washington, we communicated by telephone and postal mail, especially during the first two decades.

The first time Id set foot in Morocco had been in December, seven months before Dr. Fouads call. The uncle Id encountered was wrinkled and bent, his legendary diastemic smile now altered by missing teeth. Though there were moments of lucidity, he was altogether bewildered, stumbling through past episodes of his life as though they were the present. This was not the uncle Id frozen in time.

This time when I went to his house it was in search of documents, such as health directives, life insurance or a will. My uncle kept everything, every menu, receipt, business card, announcement and correspondence. There were piles of papers, most of which looked to be junk: grocery receipts, to-do lists, old Christmas cards and dusty newspaper clippings. I didnt care; I took it all.

I breezed through the first pile, electricity bills from the 1990s and correspondence from a bank long closed.

The next pile was more revealing. Id only ever seen my uncles life through the purview of a child. Now with each piece of paper I touched, the full expanse of the life led by this man whod cared for me as though I were his daughter began to unfold.



Joseph Paul Walcott-Danquah was the son of an English mother, Bertha May Walcott, and Joseph Boakye J.B. Danquah, one of the six men considered to be the founders of Ghana. In this photo circa the 1950s, Paul Danquah greets a chief in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

There was a 1963 letter from Amnesty International. As soon as I saw it, I removed my glasses and started to cry.

Though my uncle, Joseph Paul Walcott-Danquah, identified as a black man, a Ghanaian, he was born in London to a white English mother, Bertha May Walcott. His father was a black Ghanaian, Joseph Boakye J.B Danquah, who is widely considered the doyen of Ghana politics.

Uncle Paul was the first of his 18 children from two marriages and various relationships. My uncle and my mother, Josephine, were close. She named my sister, Paula, after him, and she chose him to be godfather to us both.

J.B. Danquah is one of the six men recognized as Ghanas founding fathers, known as The Big Six. Political power often breeds paranoia. After the country gained independence, Kwame Nkrumah, another of the Big Six, was elected its first president. Eventually, he began detaining political opponents, real and perceived, including J.B. Danquah. Two years after the date of that Amnesty letter, my grandfather died in a condemned cell in political detention.

Sliding my glasses back on, I fell through time to fourth grade, to my first pair. Uncle Paul picked me up for our Sunday outing. Boys dont make passes at girls who wear glasses, hed said, paraphrasing Dorothy Parker.

We were off to dinner and an opera at the Kennedy Center. During the drive he told me about Miss Parker and the Algonquin Round Table, the vicious circle. His stories about artists always made me wish I could have been of their era.

1 of 16 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  A life as wide as the world View Photos It wasnt until her uncles death that Nana-Ama Danquah understood the full measure of the man. Caption It wasnt until her uncles death that Nana-Ama Danquah understood the full measure of the man. Paul Danquah on the set of the film A Taste of Honey in 1960. He died last year at the age of 90 after a life that took him from London to Ghana, Washington and Morocco. Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah Wait 1 second to continue.

The next in the pile were love letters to Peter Pollock, his life partner. Peter, also born in London, was heir to a light-steel engineering company. He had the looks of a film star: blond hair, piercing eyes and a chiseled jawline.

The house on Holly Street NW, the last place they lived in the District, was a declaration of love and commitment. It was where family and friends gathered for holidays, with Peter cooking and Uncle Paul serving drinks and holding court.

Peter died in 2001. During a phone conversation shortly after, I asked Uncle Paul how long theyd been together. Fifty-six years, he told me. I was awed. What courage and integrity it must have taken for my uncle to be proudly black and openly gay during times when the world considered both to be liabilities.

The oldest letter I found is dated June 1945, just after Uncle Pauls 20th birthday. It is addressed to Lt. Peter Pollock.



Paul Danquah, with his cousin, Adeline Akufo-Addo nee Ofori-Atta, after being called to the bar in Ghana 1966. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

In his formal court attire. He would eventually move to Washington to work for the World Bank. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

I learned that Peter had spent four years in a German prisoner-of-war camp and that prior to his life with Uncle Paul, hed been involved with Guy Burgess of the Cambridge Five spy ring.

Both Peter and Uncle Paul were art enthusiasts, and they often hosted salons in their home. When they lived in London, their friend Francis Bacon, then a struggling painter, stayed with them rent-free for years at a time.

While studying law, Uncle Paul was cast in the 1961 film A Taste of Honey, alongside Rita Tushingham, with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship. He placed his studies on hold to pursue acting and was featured in more films and popular television shows such as Danger Man and The Avengers. Eventually he resumed his studies and was called to the bar in the United Kingdom, as well as in Ghana and in Washington.

In the late 1960s Uncle Paul took a job at the World Bank, becoming its first sub-Saharan African employee. He and Peter moved to the District, where they continued to host their gatherings, invitations to which were quite coveted.

The last document I handled that day was a 1969 letter from the Times of London, written by the exiled South African journalist Dennis Kiley. He wanted Uncle Paul to put him in touch with Maya Angelou so he could commission her to write an article.

I had barely made a dent in the piles of papers, but already I knew they belonged in the archives of an institution, not in plastic bags and torn, finger-smudged file folders.



Pages from a life: Amnesty International writing to Paul Danquah about his father, Joseph Boakye Danquah, a founder of Ghana who later died a political prisoner. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

Washington Mayor Walter E. Washington responds to a complaint from Paul Danquah about the use of race identification on traffic tickets. (Courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

Saudade is a Portuguese word that is similar to nostalgia, but more weighted with melancholy. Its exactly what I felt while in Tangier. I longed for the years of my youth spent with my uncle.

After I checked him into the best facility in Tangier, his condition improved almost overnight. Chokran, he said that morning, thanking Dr. Fouad in Arabic. By the next day his personality had returned.

Darling, open the window, he said to me. I want to see the sun.

He had still not eaten, so I tried to feed him a spoonful of soup.

No thank you, darling, he insisted. Ive had quite enough.

But you havent had any at all, I countered.

My point exactly!

It was classic Paul Danquah. He was polite, witty and delightfully cheeky, a perfect gentleman. Yes, this was the man I knew.

He used to take me to Old Ebbitt Grill and Tabard Inn for Sunday brunch. He was an epicure; of course hed refuse to eat something that resembled gruel.

Saudade.

I longed, too, for the Washington of those days gone, the hub of black culture, innovation and creativity. In the 1970s the city was a mecca for some of the most influential artists and intellectual minds.

Melvin Deal was introducing the African Heritage Dancers and Drummers, one of the first African dance troupes in the nation. Robert Hooks had created the D.C. Black Repertory Company, which fostered the careers of many actors, including Kene Holliday and Lynn Whitfield. Bernice Johnson Reagon was the companys vocal director. While there, she formed the famous all-female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Frederick Wilkie Wilkerson, a vocal coach who worked with Reagon, Angelou, Paul Robeson and numerous other performers, had a bustling studio on S Street NW. Wilkie convinced one of his opera students to give pop music a try. That student, Roberta Flack, used to be a regular performer at Mr. Henrys Restaurant on Capitol Hill.

Many of these people were Uncle Pauls friends. He introduced me to their work and, sometimes, to them. This was the soil from which I grew, nurtured with attention and love, not unlike the flowers in Peter and Uncle Pauls garden, so that when my season arrived I, too, would bloom.



Paul Danquah on a movie set. He lived the way many imagine how life should be. He was fearlessly himself. (Photo courtesy of Nana-Ama Danquah)

Miraculously, Uncle Paul was soon well enough to be discharged. I returned home to tend to bills, deadlines and other obligations. It was my intention to return to Morocco within a month and stay for a long while.

Dr. Fouad sent me regular reports, photos and videos of Uncle Paul. After a week I noticed his health was rapidly declining. Eleven days after Id left, Dr. Fouad called to tell me my uncle had died.

I traveled to Tangier once more, this time with my mother, to plan his funeral. We buried Uncle Paul near Peter, as he had requested. Hed written in one of his many notes I read that if there were such a thing as a next lifetime he wanted to spend it with Peter as well.

My uncle had an extraordinary life and lived to a ripe old age, but he is now gone from this world, and knowing that hurts.

He took hold of my hand, nurtured within me a love of the arts. It felt like a rite of passage, his guiding me through the cultural landscape that ultimately drew me to this literary life.

The heavens could not have granted me any greater privilege than the ability to have one last adventure with my uncle, Paul; to be there with him, holding his hand, expressing my love and gratitude in the weeks and days before he made his final passage.

Nana-Ama Danquah wrote the memoir Willow Weep for Me and is senior editor of African literature and culture at the Los Angeles Review of Books.

E-mail us at wpmagazine@washpost.com.

For more articles, as well as features such as Date Lab, Gene Weingarten and more, visit The Washington Post Magazine.

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Dear Amy: How do you tell someone you love that they are ruining your life?

My mother has dealt with mental illness, addiction and depression for most of her life. This came to a climax when I was in high school, resulting in legal trouble, divorce, rehab and losing the people closest to her.

I was very angry at her but have now grown to realize that she is a victim of an illness and I need to support her.

With that being said, it has gotten to the point (10 years later) where I am basically her parent, therapist, bank, chauffeur, etc. She tells me about how she wants to die, how unhappy she is, and how everything is everyone elses fault, while she sits around with no job (and no intention to get one) and does nothing to improve her life.

She makes no effort to make herself happy while complaining to me every day how miserable she is. Everyone else in the family has shut her out, but I feel too guilty to do something like that because I am worried she may take her own life.

I suffer from bouts of anxiety and panic attacks and struggle to keep myself in a positive frame of mind.

I dont know how to tell my mom that all of her constant negativity is really bringing me down and piling on my own mental illnesses. I have tried to express this to her, but it does not seem to work. I understand she is dealing with serious issues, but she is taking a toll on my own happiness.

DAC

DAC: Talking to your mother about her behaviors impact on you would have a limited impact in terms of getting her to change.

If she is depressed and suffering from other mental and emotional challenges, she may not be willing or able to make big changes for your sake.

I hope you will instead concentrate on yourself. You have been a very good and loyal child, but at this point, you have become part of your mothers illness. Because you are functioning for her, she has no incentive to even try to function for herself.

You must seek professional mental health services for yourself. You have a duty to try your very hardest to be healthy, in order to create boundaries with your mother. Taking good care of yourself may necessitate that you keep some distance from her. You should take these important steps guided by a counselor, and also attend Al-anon (or another support group) meetings, where you can learn about creating and maintaining healthy boundaries.

Dear Amy: A few years ago I was boarding a full airport shuttle bus with my mom, when three men immediately stood up and offered their seat to her. I took note of their courteous behavior and hoped to be like them someday.

Fast-forward a few years and I am a college student at a large university. I often utilize the free buses to get around campus. The buses are often full.

Being a male college-age student, am I expected to give up my seat to a female peer? If not, what age (or for what situation) do I give up my seat? I have yet to see any other man give up his seat on a campus bus and am afraid the woman would be weirded out (or just say no) if I tried. Your opinion?

Curious

Curious: You are not expected to give up your seat to a female peer. What you should do is give up your seat to any person (regardless of gender) who is carrying a child, pregnant, who has heavy packages, who struggles with the bus steps or with their balance, or who seems particularly road weary on that day.

You should rise and offer your seat, and the person you are offering it to may thank you and demur. This offer should be received graciously, regardless of the circumstance.

Dear Amy: Furious Mom was upset that her son was a lazy slob. It is wrong to blame the parents. The kid has a serious problem  basically he is a slob. This is not the parents fault. Stop blaming parents for everything! Kids need to take responsibility.

Roz

Roz: In this letter, the parents laid out a very neat path, leading from their parenting style directly to their sons horrible habits. Their refusal to do anything other than complain about their son is lazy parenting.

Amys column appears seven days a week at washingtonpost.com/advice. Write to Amy Dickinson at askamy@tribpub.com or Ask Amy, Chicago Tribune, TT500, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
The remains of Stephanie Czech Rader, who was finally recognized with a posthumous Legion of Merit for her years as a spy, are carried to her grave at Arlington National Cemetery (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

Stephanie Czech Rader finally got what was rightly hers at the Old Post Chapel at Fort Myer on Wednesday, though the recognition came 70 years late.

A 19-piece band gave fanfare, Raders flag-draped coffin was wheeled past the chapels stained-glass windows, and the woman who lived to 100 was finally, officially recognized for her dangerous and essential work as a spy at the end of World War II.

Twice she was nominated for the Legion of Merit for her singular intelligence-gathering on Soviet troop movements in Poland. But twice the honor was denied. No one knew why.

It was because she was a woman, that was part of it, said Michael Golden, Raders longtime Alexandria neighbor, who didnt know for years that the dog-loving, ukulele-playing senior citizen on his street had been one of only two American spies working in Poland after the war.

In this 1940s photo provided by the OSS Society, U.S. Army Capt. Stephanie Rader poses for a photograph. (Associated press)

After I found out, I outed her at her 95th birthday party, Golden said.

[Stephanie Rader, undercover spy in postwar Europe, dies at 100]

Rader, who served as Capt. Stephanie Czech, was born to Polish immigrants and got a full scholarship to Cornell University, where she earned a degree in chemistry. She worked in the cafeteria, and her parents sold their wedding rings to cover her living expenses.

She was one of the few trailblazing women in the 1930s in the sciences, said Cornell chemistry professor Barbara Baird.

Though she had excellent grades, there were no jobs for women in this field, Baird said.

After working as a translator, Rader joined the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps at the start of World War II.

The Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA, recruited her to take advantage of her fluency in Polish. She had the accent, the look and all the mannerisms down solid.

She moved around Poland, tracking troop movements and ferrying sensitive documents. She pretended to be looking for long-lost Polish relatives. She was one of only two operatives in the country, and the only one who was fluent in Polish.

They gave me a gun, but I never carried a gun, she said in an interview about her service. What the heck was I gonna do with a dumb gun?

Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society, attributed the decades-long refusal to honor Rader to the secrecy surrounding the espionage agency.

Like many of those who served so heroically in the OSS, she was never properly recognized for her heroism, Pinck said.

When OSS personnel records were declassified in 2008, the OSS Society, which honors members accomplishments during the war, learned that Rader had been nominated for the Legion of Merit but never received it. So Pinck began his campaign.

He visited her at her Alexandria home and told the society about her. He got her neighbors involved in encouraging her to work with the Army to get the award.

Ken Elder, 80, was friends with Rader and her husband for years, and it blew him away when he learned of her service. Shed retired as a major.

People in that generation didnt ask for awards or recognition, Elder said. And I know that as a woman, it wasnt part of the culture for her to ask. Its just the way it was back then.

A few years back, he took her to an OSS event at the Smithsonian Institution. She was quiet, hung back, and didnt brag and tell stories like the others.

And at the end, they asked everyone who served in the OSS to stand up, Elder said. Rader reluctantly stood up. All these other guys  most of them were trying to sell books they had written.

The speaker asked everyone standing to describe what they did for the OSS. A string of rather mundane tasks performed by some of the 4,500 men and women of the OSS were ticked off.

When it came to Rader, she said, I was X-2.

X-2? I didnt know what that was, Elder said.

As she said that, the whole room gasped. And a grizzled man in a wheelchair slowly lifted himself up to his feet and saluted Rader.

The crowd went wild, Elder said. Everyone was asking her to autograph their programs.

Someone asked her whether she knew Julia Child.

Julia Child was just a clerk, Rader snapped back.

And amid the chaos, Rader grabbed Elders arm and whispered in his ear, Ive got to get the hell out of here.

Nope, she didnt seek attention or glory.

But Pinck and Elder and others thought it was an important message to have the service of Rader and other women who served their country recognized.

So they got Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) to help out.

They worked with the Army, and Rader did a historical interview about her time with the OSS. She received a meritorious service award from the society. But that medal? Nothing.

She was 100, and she was growing frail. She died Jan. 21.

It took the Army five more months to decide, but they announced last week that she would get the medal posthumously.

[Deny her 95-year-old grandma burial at Arlington National Cemetery? No way]

This is not a new pattern. The family of Elaine Danforth Harmon lobbied to get her a spot in Arlington Cemetery after an exception allowing female World War II pilots to be buried there was reversed.

Harmon and her fellow Women Airforce Service Pilots risked their lives just like their male counterparts did. They ferried planes, tested repaired aircraft, instructed male pilots and towed targets for air-combat training.

In fact, 38 of them died while serving their country.

It took months of lobbying, interviews and campaigns to get Harmon her place in Arlington.

On Wednesday morning, Rader got the full military honors. The horses, the caisson, the guns, the band.

And amid rows of headstones that said His Wife with a womans name on the back, Stephanie Czech Rader was buried with all the honors and medals she had earned, the exact same number as her husband, a B-17 pilot who died 12 years ago.

At long last, everyone would know she was much, much more than his wife.

Twitter: @petulad
Lawyers for a former State Department staffer who worked on Hillary Clintons private email server told a federal court Wednesday that he will invoke his constitutional right against self-incrimination and decline to answer questions at his June 6 deposition in a civil public records lawsuit in Washington.

Bryan Pagliano worked on Clintons 2008 presidential campaign before setting up a server for her in her New York home in 2009 during Clintons tenure as secretary of state.

His deposition is set in a lawsuit over public records brought by Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, regarding its May 2013 request for information about the employment arrangement of Huma Abedin, a longtime Clinton aide.

Pagliano last summer similarly declined to appear before a House panel investigating the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. In refusing to appear then, Paglianos lawyers cited an ongoing FBI inquiry into the security of Clintons email system, and quoted a Supreme Court ruling described the Fifth Amendment as protecting innocent men . . . who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances. 

The Justice Department has since granted Pagliano immunity as part of the a criminal investigation into the possible mishandling of classified information, The Washington Post reported in March.

The Inspector General's office said on May 25 that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a personal email account was not an appropriate method for preserving those emails. (Peter Stevenson,Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

On Wednesday, Paglianos lawyers said he will decline to testify in the Judicial Watch case and asked that U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District order that no video of the deposition be recorded given the constitutional implications, the absence of any proper purpose . . . and the considerable risk of abuse.

Mr. Pagliano is a nonparty caught up in a lawsuit with an undisputed political agenda, Connor Mullin wrote in a court filing that also raised the concern that Paglianos constitutionally protected statements might be manipulated into soundbites for attack ads.

An existing court order seals video records, but while that reduces the risk of dissemination, Mullin said, Judicial Watch may move to unseal the materials at any time. Furthermore, in the event of a leak or data breach at the court reporting company, Mr. Pagliano would be hardpressed to prevent further dissemination and republication of the video.

Judicial Watch said it will oppose the request not to record video in a filing due Thursday, the groups president, Tom Fitton, said. We think its important for Judge Sullivan to assess Mr. Paglianos demeanor, Fitton said in an interview Wednesday. Its always important to assess credibility when the Fifth Amendment privilege is invoked.

The dispute over Paglianos deposition is the latest in a running exchange between current and former Clinton and State Department aides and Judicial Watch, and comes a week after the State Department inspector general sharply criticized Clintons email practices, saying they were unauthorized and presented a security risk.

[State Dept. inspector general report sharply criticizes Clintons email practices]

Sullivan last month allowed Judicial Watch to depose a half-dozen officials by the end of June  including members of Clintons inner circle who did not meet with the inspector generals office  to determine whether the department intentionally thwarted federal open-records laws, known as Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) rules, by allowing Clintons use of a private email server throughout her tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

On Friday, former Clinton chief of staff Cheryl D. Mills appeared for a six-hour-plus deposition. Asked if she had any reason to believe Clinton used the server because Clinton or anyone else at the department sought to avoid FOIA, Mills said absolutely not, the deposition transcript shows. Mills also said she did not know or could not recall many specifics, and declined to answer other questions because they were outside the scope of the case at hand or because she said she represented Clinton after she left office and invoked attorney-client privilege.

Mills said she spoke with Pagliano after Clinton had left office, transcript shows.

Mills expressed regret that she did not think about how the State Department would retain records of Clintons emails to non-State Department or nongovernment addresses, according to the deposition.

I dont recall having discussions about how someone might access her e-mail apart from what was already in the State Department system. So I dont  I wish I did, Mills said, according to the transcript, which was released by Judicial Watch. I wish I had thought about the fact that someone could be nongovernment, non  non-State and  and those records might be not being captured. I didnt think about that.
Montgomery County

The following information, provided by the Montgomery Count Police Department, shows only initial calls for service received by the 911 center. Many of these reported incidents could turn out to be classified under a different crime category or determined to be unfounded. And some calls for service could be resolved with no further action needed.

REWARDS FOR INFORMATION

Crime Solvers of Montgomery County, a nonprofit organization, pays up to $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and indictment in connection with felonies. Call the 24-hour hotline at 800-673-2777. Callers may remain anonymous.

District 1

Rockville Station

Telephone: 240-773-6070

ASSAULTS

Bupp Rd., 20200 block, 11:17 p.m. May 22.

Gibbs St., 100 block, 2:25 a.m. May 22.

Gibbs St., 100 block, 2:27 a.m. May 22.

Horners Lane N., 400 block, 8:24 p.m. May 19.

Jefferson St. E., 100 block, 5:10 a.m. May 21.

Monroe St., 700 block, 12:25 a.m. May 19.

Monroe St., 700 block, 12:27 a.m. May 19.

Monroe St., 700 block, 8:14 p.m. May 21.

Monroe St., 700 block, 5:24 p.m. May 22.

Thomas St., 100 block, 5:32 a.m. May 21.

First St., 1200 block, 6:17 p.m. May 22.

ROBBERY

Rollins Ave., 200 block, 10:09 p.m. May 23.

INDECENT EXPOSURE

Veirs Mill Rd., 1300 block, 12:35 p.m. May 20.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Ambiance Dr., 15600 block, 6:59 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Briardale Rd., 16700 block, 3:07 p.m. May 19.

Chapman Ave., 1700 block, 5:36 p.m. May 21.

Coral Gables Way, 14400 block, 7:08 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Darnestown Rd., 12200 block, 11:46 a.m. May 17.

Fisher Ave., 19500 block, 6:13 p.m. May 20.

Frederick Rd., 15900 block, 5:01 p.m. May 17.

Frederick Rd., 16100 block, 9 a.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Hungerford Dr., 600 block, 3:05 p.m. May 23.

Jefferson St. E., 1700 block, 6:04 p.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Ladyshire Lane, 100 block, 3:25 p.m. May 23.

Monroe St., 100 block, 3:26 a.m. May 20. Theft.

Monroe St., 700 block, 1:58 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Montgomery Ave. W., Unit block, 10:35 p.m. May 19.

Rockville Pike, 700 block, 5:30 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Rockville Pike, 700 block, 12:54 p.m. May 18. Theft.

Rockville Pike, 800 block, 1:52 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Rockville Pike, 800 block, 11:01 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Rockville Pike, 1000 block, 8:27 a.m. May 22. Theft.

Rockville Pike, 1300 block, 1:58 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Rockville Pike, 1300 block, 12:35 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Rockville Pike, 1300 block, 7:59 a.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Rockville Pike, 1800 block, 2:08 a.m. May 19. Theft.

Rockville Pike, 12000 block, 3:49 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Rockville Pike, 12000 block, 4:43 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Rockville Pike, 12000 block, 7:32 p.m. May 17. Theft.

Shady Grove Rd., 14900 block, 1:43 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Shady Grove Rd., 15700 block, 10:20 a.m. May 23. Theft.

Shady Grove Rd., 16100 block, 4:17 p.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Stonestreet Ave. N., 200 block, 4:54 p.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Tower Oaks Blvd., 2000 block, 9:03 p.m. May 21. Trespassing.

University Blvd. E., 1300 block, 1:56 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Upper Rock Cir., Unit block, 6:08 p.m. May 18.

Upper Rock Cir., Unit block, 10:37 a.m. May 20. Theft.

Wooden Bridge Rd., 9200 block, 11:33 a.m. May 21.

BREAK-IN

Gainsborough Rd., 11200 block, 3:59 p.m. May 23. Burglary.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Montgomery Ave. W., Unit block, 3:16 p.m. May 19.

Rockville Pike, 800 block, 2:51 a.m. May 19.

VANDALISM

Frederick Rd., 15800 block, 8:02 p.m. May 20.

District 2

Bethesda Station

Telephone: 240-773-6700

ASSAULTS

Barn Wood Lane, 10900 block, 1:12 a.m. May 21.

Chestnut St., 4400 block, 7:39 p.m. May 20.

Chestnut St., 4400 block, 7:40 p.m. May 20.

Connecticut Ave., 9300 block, 5 p.m. May 21.

Connecticut Ave., 9800 block, 5:36 p.m. May 23.

Grosvenor Lane, 5700 block, 11:04 a.m. May 19.

Highland Ave., 4400 block, 8:42 p.m. May 20.

Old Georgetown Rd., 10400 block, 11:30 a.m. May 20.

Pooks Hill Rd., 5200 block, 4:48 p.m. May 19.

Woodmont Ave., 7200 block, 4:28 p.m. May 17.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Abilene Dr., 2800 block, 2:02 p.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

Bradley Blvd., 5400 block, 3:21 p.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

Bradley Blvd., 6600 block, 9:40 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Cedar Lane, 9600 block, 9:23 a.m. May 19.

Connecticut Ave., 10500 block, 10:08 a.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Connecticut Ave., 10500 block, 2:36 p.m. May 19. Theft.

Delaware St., 6800 block, 12:27 p.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Democracy Blvd., 7100 block, 12:27 a.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Democracy Blvd., 7100 block, 6:13 p.m. May 18.

Elm St., 4900 block, 6:37 a.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Friendship Blvd., 5300 block, 2:15 p.m. May 21. Theft.

Grubb Rd. and Washington Ave., 12:57 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Huntington Pkwy., 5600 block, 8:28 p.m. May 20.

Ipswich Rd., 5900 block, 2:14 p.m. May 20.

King Charles Way, 5100 block, 8:48 a.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Kittery Lane, 9100 block, 5:53 a.m. May 22. Theft from auto.

Landon Lane, 6600 block, 9:18 a.m. May 23.

Montauk Ave., 9900 block, 3:39 p.m. May 18. Theft.

Oxford St., 4800 block, 1:16 p.m. May 21. Theft from auto.

Parklawn Dr., 11700 block, 10:19 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Preston Pl., 8700 block, 6:47 a.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Ridge Dr., 6400 block, 6:06 p.m. May 17.

River Rd., 7000 block, 1:43 a.m. May 23.

Rockville Pike, 8800 block, 9:37 a.m. May 20.

Sangamore Rd., 4700 block, 7:49 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Smallwood Dr., 5000 block, 4:26 p.m. May 19.

St. Elmo Ave., 4900 block, 8:30 p.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Stewart Drw, 3700 block, 8:05 a.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Thornapple St., 3700 block, 7:58 p.m. May 18.

University Blvd. E., 1300 block, 1:56 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Virginia Pl., 4000 block, 2:08 p.m. May 18.

Wisconsin Ave., 7400 block, 11:41 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Wisconsin Ave., 7700 block, 1:49 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Wisconsin Ave., 7800 block, 11:08 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Wisconsin Cir., Unit block, 9:47 a.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Woodhollow Dr., 3100 block, 12:34 p.m. May 21.

Woodmont Ave., 7100 block, 9:25 a.m. May 22.

Woodmont Ave., 7700 block, 10:49 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

BREAK-INS

Falls Bridge Lane, 9300 block, 1:48 p.m. May 20. Burglary.

Rock Spring Dr., 6400 block, 9:14 p.m. May 21. Burglary.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Rosemary Hills Dr., 1900 block, 8:31 a.m. May 23.

Strathmore Hall St., 10300 block, 3:37 p.m. May 21.

District 3

Silver Spring Station

Telephone: 240-773-6800

SEXUAL ASSAULT

University Blvd. E., Unit block, 6:07 p.m. May 17. A sexual assault was reported.

ASSAULTS

Arliss St., 8700 block, 2:24 p.m. May 21.

Arliss St. and Piney Branch Rd., 11:47 p.m. May 18.

Belvedere Pl., 9700 block, 5:24 a.m. May 21.

Castle Blvd., 14100 block, 1:17 a.m. May 23.

Colesville Rd. and Wayne Ave., 10:06 p.m. May 18.

Colesville Rd., 8600 block, 1:47 p.m. May 21.

Colesville Rd. and Georgia Ave., 7:50 p.m. May 18.

Fenton St., 8100 block, 4:56 p.m. May 18.

Flower Ave. and Piney Branch Rd., 3:41 a.m. May 22.

Garland Ave., 8800 block, 4:19 p.m. May 23.

Georgia Ave., 8300 block, 1:22 a.m. May 17.

Heather Hollow Cir., 1500 block, 3:41 p.m. May 19.

Mount Pisgah Rd., 9700 block, 3:26 p.m. May 19.

New Hampshire Ave., 11200 block, 3:06 p.m. May 17.

New Hampshire Ave., 11200 block, 5:56 a.m. May 22.

Piney Branch Rd., 8600 block, 2:58 p.m. May 22.

Robey Rd., 13600 block, 3:43 p.m. May 18.

Sligo Ave., 600 block, 12:20 a.m. May 23.

Valley Brook Dr., 200 block, 11:24 a.m. May 20.

ROBBERIES

Colesville Rd., 10100 block, 8:57 p.m. May 20.

Gateshead Manor Way, 3400 block, 9:54 p.m. May 20.

Hampton Point Dr., 3300 block, 4:59 p.m. May 23.

University Blvd. E., 800 block, 11:15 a.m. May 22.

INDECENT EXPOSURE

Ellsworth Dr., 900 block, 2:43 a.m. May 19.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Apple Grove Rd., 300 block, 10:47 p.m. May 20.

Brahms Ct., Unit block, 11:56 a.m. May 21. Theft from auto.

Brunett Ave., 9600 block, 11:42 a.m. May 22.

Cameron St., 8500 block, 7:22 a.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Canberra St., 3400 block, 3:26 p.m. May 17.

Castle Blvd., 13800 block, 9:36 a.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Castle Blvd., 13900 block, 2:33 a.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Castle Blvd., 14100 block, 8:27 p.m. May 19.

Cherry Hill Rd., 12000 block, 2:18 p.m. May 17.

Cherry Hill Rd., 12000 block, 6:33 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Colesville Rd., 8400 block, 6:31 a.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Colesville Rd., 8400 block, 7:41 a.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Colesville Rd., 8400 block, 12:18 a.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Colesville Rd., 8500 block, 9:11 a.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Colesville Rd., 8500 block, 4:25 p.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Colesville Rd., 8600 block, 11:09 a.m. May 18. Theft.

Colesville Rd., 8600 block, 3:45 p.m. May 20.

Colesville Rd., 8600 block, 11:21 a.m. May 21.

Colesville Rd., 8700 block, 8:02 a.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Colesville Rd., 8700 block, 11:31 p.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Colgate Way, 13600 block, 9:28 p.m. May 19.

Columbia Pike, 11300 block, 9:11 a.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Columbia Pike, 11300 block, 3:37 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Easley St., 500 block, 12:24 p.m. May 19. Theft.

East-West Hwy., 1200 block, 1:36 a.m. May 18. Trespassing.

East-West Hwy., 1200 block, 10:06 a.m. May 18. Theft.

East-West Hwy., 1200 block, 1:18 p.m. May 18.

East-West Hwy., 1200 block, 2:51 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Ellsworth Dr., 900 block, 12:46 p.m. May 20.

Ellsworth Dr., 900 block, 10:15 p.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Ellsworth Dr., 900 block, 5:37 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Evans Dr., 2600 block, 4:09 p.m. May 20.

Fairland and Musgrove roads, 5:01 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Featherwood Dr., 12300 block, 9:44 p.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Featherwood St., 1800 block, 3:41 p.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

February Cir., 11500 block, 1:09 p.m. May 22.

Fenton St., 8200 block, 7:19 a.m. May 23.

Fenton St. and Roeder Rd., 6:48 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Fenton St., 8600 block, 1:53 p.m. May 20.

Fidler Lane, 1100 block, 9:27 a.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Forest Glen Rd., 1500 block, 12:07 p.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Garland Ave., 8800 block, 9:37 p.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Garland Ave., 8800 block, 2:20 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Georgia Ave., 8100 block, 10:52 a.m. May 18.

Georgia Ave., 8400 block, 11:16 a.m. May 18.

Georgia Ave., 8400 block, 8:04 p.m. May 18. Theft.

Georgia Ave., 8500 block, 9:56 p.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Georgia Ave., 8700 block, 7:21 p.m. May 20.

Georgia Ave., 8700 block, 12:39 a.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Hampshire West Ct., 1400 block, 3:25 p.m. May 17. Theft.

Hastings Dr., 9800 block, 3:46 p.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Hayden Dr., 2400 block, 11:29 a.m. May 21.

La Grande Rd., 1200 block, 5:38 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Live Oak Dr., 1500 block, 9:47 a.m. May 21. Theft from auto.

Lockwood Dr., 11200 block, 6:03 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Lockwood Dr. and New Hampshire Ave., 8:54 p.m. May 21. Theft.

New Hampshire Ave., 11200 block, 3:24 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

New Hampshire Ave., 11200 block, 2:06 p.m. May 20.

New Hampshire Ave., 11200 block, 1:47 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Newhall St., 900 block, 12:38 a.m. May 19.

Northampton Dr., 800 block, 2:35 p.m. May 21.

Oak Leaf Dr., 11200 block, 7:41 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Old Columbia Pike, 15600 block, 6:34 p.m. May 17.

Pershing Dr., 800 block, 11:38 a.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

Piney Branch Rd., 8700 block, 3:06 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Red Oak Dr., 1500 block, 6:33 a.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

Schindler Dr., 900 block, 10:19 a.m. May 18.

Schindler Dr., 900 block, 10:25 a.m. May 20.

Seminary Rd., 2200 block, 7:04 a.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

Silver Spring Ave., 800 block, 11:17 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Silver Spring Ave., 900 block, 3:04 p.m. May 22. Theft from auto.

Sligo Ave., 600 block, 11:32 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Sligo Ave., 600 block, 1:27 a.m. May 23.

Southampton Dr., 400 block, 6:33 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Stewart Lane, 11600 block, 9:31 a.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Thayer Ave., 700 block, 6:43 p.m. May 19.

Thayer Ave., 900 block, 2:53 p.m. May 20.

Treetop Lane, 1900 block, 8:20 p.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

University Blvd. E., 1300 block, 1:56 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Wayne Ave., 800 block, 4:33 p.m. May 17. Theft.

Wayne Ave., 900 block, 8:55 a.m. May 20. Trespassing.

13th St., 8000 block, 7 a.m. May 20. Trespassing.

13th St., 8000 block, 9:32 a.m. May 22. Trespassing.

16th St., 8300 block, 8:05 a.m. May 21.

BREAK-INS

Daleshire Way, 14000 block, 7:47 p.m. May 19. Burglary.

Fenton St., 8500 block, 11:40 p.m. May 22. Burglary.

Mount Pisgah Lane, 1700 block, 7:11 p.m. May 20. Burglary.

Sligo Ave., 700 block, 10:05 a.m. May 22. Burglary.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Beacon Rd., 600 block, 4:25 a.m. May 20.

Greenwood Ave., 8600 block, 8:24 a.m. May 21.

Milestone Dr., 900 block, 6:24 a.m. May 17.

Oak Leaf Dr., 11200 block, 10:55 p.m. May 23.

10th Ave., 8400 block, 9:09 a.m. May 21.

VANDALISM

Colesville Rd., 8600 block, 9:54 p.m. May 23.

Thayer Ave., 900 block, 3:34 p.m. May 21.

District 4

Wheaton Station

Telephone: 240-773-5500

SEXUAL ASSAULTS

Lamberton Dr., 900 block, 10:47 p.m. May 17. A sexual assault was reported.

Newport Mill Rd., 11300 block, 2:15 p.m. May 19. A sexual assault was reported.

Turkey Branch Pkwy., 13300 block, 5:39 a.m. May 20. A sexual assault was reported.

ASSAULTS

Batchellors Forest Rd., 16300 block, 7:46 p.m. May 20.

Beaverwood Lane, 3300 block, 12:13 a.m. May 22.

Ferrara Ct., 4300 block, 4:54 p.m. May 22.

Finley St., 2700 block, 1:09 a.m. May 23.

Georgia Ave., 11400 block, 12:23 p.m. May 19.

Georgia Ave. and University Blvd. W., 8:09 p.m. May 17.

Hathaway Terr., 2800 block, 3:12 p.m. May 17.

Hewitt Ave., 3000 block, 10:34 p.m. May 18.

New Hampshire Ave., 14300 block, 6:53 p.m. May 20.

Newport Mill Rd., 11300 block, 3:22 p.m. May 18.

ROBBERY

Sampson Rd., 4100 block, 1:26 a.m. May 17.

WEAPON

Littleton St., 12700 block, 9:54 p.m. May 21.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Aspen Hill Rd., 3900 block, 6:17 p.m. May 20.

Aspen Hill Rd., 3900 block, 8:09 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Bel Pre Rd., 2900 block, 3:57 p.m. May 22. Theft from auto.

Blueridge Ave., 2400 block, 11:33 a.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

Cloverly St., 700 block, 9:41 a.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Collins Ave., 2900 block, 10:33 a.m. May 23.

Connecticut Ave., 13500 block, 8:57 a.m. May 23.

Connecticut Ave., 13700 block, 4:17 p.m. May 21.

Connecticut Ave., 14000 block, 5:21 p.m. May 18. Theft.

Crest Hill Lane, 13800 block, 11:01 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

E200 X8 To X10 Hwy. and Georgia Ave., 7:59 p.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Frankfort Dr. W., 4600 block, 10:51 a.m. May 20. Theft.

Garrett Park Rd., 4400 block, 5:11 p.m. May 23.

Georgia Ave., 10800 block, 9:22 p.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Georgia Ave., 11200 block, 5:57 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Georgia Ave., 11200 block, 7:28 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Georgia Ave., 11200 block, 4:41 p.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Georgia Ave., 11200 block, 6:34 a.m. May 22. Theft.

Georgia Ave., 11200 block, 7:32 a.m. May 22.

Georgia Ave., 12300 block, 10:28 p.m. May 19. Theft.

Georgia Ave., 12400 block, 6 a.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Georgia Ave., 14000 block, 6:06 p.m. May 20.

Grandview Ave., 11300 block, 10:34 a.m. May 18. Theft.

Henderson Ave., 2700 block, 1:21 p.m. May 21.

Hines Rd. and Macduff Ave., 9:05 p.m. May 21. Theft.

Irwin St., 300 block, 3:10 p.m. May 19.

Lamberton Dr., 1300 block, 4:59 p.m. May 17.

Lamberton Dr., 1300 block, 12:48 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Layhill Rd., 14400 block, 2:20 a.m. May 18. Trespassing.

London Bridge Ct., Unit block, 9:19 a.m. May 20.

Middlevale Lane, 13000 block, 3:41 p.m. May 23.

Mistletoe Ct., 14800 block, 6:30 a.m. May 18.

Monticello Ave., 11400 block, 2:01 p.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

New Hampshire Ave., 15200 block, 4:20 p.m. May 21. Trespassing.

New Hampshire Ave., 15400 block, 1:08 p.m. May 20. Theft.

Peachwood Dr., 14700 block, 6:39 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Piping Rock Dr., 200 block, 7:03 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Piping Rock Dr., 600 block, 9:43 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Randolph Rd., 2600 block, 5:42 p.m. May 22.

Reedie Dr., 2400 block, 5:16 a.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Sampson Rd., 4100 block, 1:25 a.m. May 17. Theft.

Seattle Ave., 2000 block, 6:15 p.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Shilling Lane, 1700 block, 11:15 a.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Singers Glen Dr., 3500 block, 9:57 p.m. May 21.

Superior St., 13200 block, 10:27 a.m. May 22.

Tucker Lane, 1400 block, 6:49 p.m. May 19.

Turkey Branch Pkwy., 13100 block, 5:06 p.m. May 19.

University Blvd. E., 1300 block, 1:56 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

University Blvd. W., 2500 block, 9:58 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

University Blvd. W., 2800 block, 4:47 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11000 block, 2:44 p.m. May 23.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 3:29 p.m. May 17.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 5:59 p.m. May 17.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 6:40 p.m. May 17.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 12:39 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 5:50 p.m. May 18.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 6:53 p.m. May 18. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 12:39 p.m. May 19. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 2:49 p.m. May 19. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 4:38 p.m. May 19.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 9:12 p.m. May 19. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 11:51 a.m. May 20.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 5:08 p.m. May 20.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 8:48 a.m. May 21.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 2:25 p.m. May 21.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 7:08 p.m. May 21.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 7:41 p.m. May 21.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 8:49 p.m. May 21. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 9:19 a.m. May 22.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 1:49 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 3:48 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 12:02 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 1:34 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 11100 block, 7:35 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Veirs Mill Rd., 12200 block, 11:35 a.m. May 19. Theft.

Westchester Dr., 2000 block, 11:02 p.m. May 21. Trespassing.

BREAK-INS

Lindenwood Dr., 2500 block, 12:58 a.m. May 21. Burglary.

Marden Lane, 18000 block, 10:36 a.m. May 21. Burglary.

Monticello Ave., 11800 block, 2:33 a.m. May 18. Burglary.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Andrew St., 11900 block, 7:43 p.m. May 21. Stolen vehicle.

Dodson Lane, 11100 block, 6:10 a.m. May 18.

Duxbury Rd., 300 block, 7:11 p.m. May 23.

Georgia Ave., 10800 block, 10:31 p.m. May 22. Stolen vehicle.

Kendall St. and Randolph Rd., 4:55 p.m. May 17.

New Hampshire Ave., 14600 block, 7:27 a.m. May 18.

VANDALISM

Limetree Rd., 13100 block, 1:51 a.m. May 21.

District 5

Germantown Station

Telephone: 240-773-6200

SEXUAL ASSAULTS

Observation Dr., 19800 block, 7:21 p.m. May 17. A sexual assault was reported.

Staleybridge Rd., 19100 block, 3:49 p.m. May 22. A sexual assault was reported.

ASSAULTS

Aircraft Dr., 19900 block, 6:15 p.m. May 19.

Briarcliff Terr., 13100 block, 4:22 p.m. May 21.

Catawba Hill Dr., 23900 block, 2:49 p.m. May 19.

Country Meadow Rd., 18500 block, 10:05 p.m. May 17.

Great Park Cir., 12400 block, 1:41 p.m. May 23.

Great Seneca Hwy. and Wisteria Dr., 2:17 p.m. May 21.

Lullaby Rd., 13900 block, 6:06 p.m. May 21.

Richter Farm Rd., 13500 block, 1:16 p.m. May 17.

Sparkling Water Dr., 18800 block, 7:02 p.m. May 18.

Winding Creek Way, 12000 block, 4:33 p.m. May 17.

Wisteria Dr., 13700 block, 3:09 p.m. May 20.

INDECENT EXPOSURE

Seneca Meadows Pkwy., 20600 block, 6:52 p.m. May 19.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Aircraft Dr., 19900 block, 10:39 a.m. May 19.

Autumn Gold Rd., 14200 block, 6:02 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Brink Rd., 8200 block, 2:39 p.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Carlow Point Cir., 13500 block, 9:34 a.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Century Blvd., 19900 block, 3:26 p.m. May 20.

Century Blvd., 20000 block, 2:55 a.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Circle Gate Dr., 19300 block, 8:14 a.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Clopper Rd., 12800 block, 9:07 a.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Demetrias Way, 13500 block, 4:48 p.m. May 22. Theft from auto.

Desert Wine Ct., 24000 block, 8:26 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

DruMcAstle Ct., Unit block, 7:10 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Dutrow Dr., 13400 block, 8:04 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Frederick Rd., 19700 block, 11:27 a.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Frederick Rd., 20900 block, 6:10 p.m. May 18. Theft.

Frederick Rd., 20900 block, 8:31 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Frederick Rd., 20900 block, 8:32 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Frederick Rd., 20900 block, 7:21 p.m. May 19. Theft.

Frederick Rd., 20900 block, 2:58 p.m. May 20.

Frederick Rd., 20900 block, 4:22 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Frederick Rd., 21000 block, 8:35 p.m. May 22. Trespassing.

Frederick Rd., 23100 block, 10:12 a.m. May 21. Theft.

Garden Stone Ct., 1100 block, 3:40 p.m. May 18.

Germantown Rd., 20400 block, 10:17 a.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Greenridge Dr., 12200 block, 1:59 p.m. May 18.

Henderson Corner Rd., 21000 block, 10:33 a.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Henderson Corner Rd., 21000 block, 3:19 a.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Herefordshire Way, 11400 block, 5:25 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Hopkins Rd., 13800 block, 8:44 a.m. May 23.

Jockey Club Terr., 23900 block, 9:25 p.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Mateny Rd., 18000 block, 7:51 p.m. May 22.

Middlebrook Rd., 12900 block, 4:54 p.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Middlebrook Rd., 12900 block, 9:30 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Middlebrook Rd., 12900 block, 3:06 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Neerwinder St., 20600 block, 8:52 p.m. May 21.

New Church St., 9700 block, 12:26 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Staffordshire Dr., 20500 block, 2:02 a.m. May 22.

Stoney Point Ct., Unit block, 4:32 p.m. May 23.

Tapwood Rd., 18300 block, 11:54 a.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

University Blvd. E., 1300 block, 1:56 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Waters Rd., 19500 block, 3:03 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

First St., 21600 block, 5:50 p.m. May 23.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Frederick Rd., 23100 block, 8:38 a.m. May 21.

Metz Dr., 18200 block, 2:30 p.m. May 18.

VANDALISM

Cross Laurel Ct., Unit block, 11:03 a.m. May 20.

Gallop Terr., 14100 block, 5:52 p.m. May 18.

District 6

Gaithersburg Station

Telephone: 240-773-5700

SEXUAL ASSAULT

Fern Hollow Way, 9500 block, 8:41 a.m. May 19. A sexual assault was reported.

ASSAULTS

Broschart Rd., 15000 block, 12:50 p.m. May 17.

Cobbler Pl., 700 block, 3:32 a.m. May 22.

Cypress Hill Dr., 7000 block, 7:09 p.m. May 18.

Deer Park Dr. E. and Frederick Ave. S., 7:22 p.m. May 20.

Diamond Ave. E., 200 block, 11:02 a.m. May 21.

Flower Hill Way, 18200 block, 11:42 a.m. May 18.

Frederick Ave. N., 400 block, 1:51 a.m. May 21.

Frederick Ave. N., 18700 block, 10:33 p.m. May 18.

Frenchton Pl., 19300 block, 6:27 p.m. May 19.

Lost Knife Cir., 18200 block, 11:16 p.m. May 20.

Lost Knife Rd., 9600 block, 2:40 a.m. May 22.

Montgomery Village Ave., 19300 block, 1:06 a.m. May 21.

Muncaster Mill Rd., 7200 block, 5:51 p.m. May 20.

Professional Dr., 200 block, 7:33 a.m. May 23.

Quince Orchard Blvd., 800 block, 3:49 p.m. May 23.

Shady Spring Dr., 8100 block, 4:25 a.m. May 22.

Shady Spring Dr., 8300 block, 12:36 p.m. May 22.

Sunnybrook Terr., 300 block, 3:12 p.m. May 19.

Travis Ct., Unit block, 2:33 a.m. May 21.

ROBBERIES

Emory Grove Rd. and Washington Grove Lane, 8:41 p.m. May 19.

Fertile Meadow Ct., 18000 block, 3:36 p.m. May 18.

Lost Knife Cir., 18400 block, 1:22 p.m. May 23.

Summit Hall Rd., 500 block, 2:34 a.m. May 17.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Apple Seed Lane, Unit block, 10:43 p.m. May 23. Theft from auto.

Beacon Hill Ct., Unit block, 3:16 p.m. May 18.

Beacon Hill Terr., 500 block, 7:26 a.m. May 20. Theft from auto.

Boysenberry Dr., 18500 block, 12:39 p.m. May 21. Theft from auto.

Brassie Pl., 19400 block, 7:49 p.m. May 19. Trespassing.

Center Point Way, 600 block, 7:41 p.m. May 17.

Cessna Ave., 8100 block, 10:40 a.m. May 18.

Chevy Chase St., 100 block, 9:35 p.m. May 17.

Contour Rd., 18300 block, 2:07 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Crabbs Branch Way, 16800 block, 7:45 p.m. May 17.

Delcris Dr., 8700 block, 2:53 a.m. May 21. Trespassing.

Frederick Ave. N., 400 block, 3:20 p.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Frederick Ave. S., 400 block, 4:54 p.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Frederick Ave. S., 400 block, 3:01 p.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Heritage Farm Dr., 7800 block, 7:59 a.m. May 18. Theft from auto.

Lazy Hollow Dr., 100 block, 4:59 p.m. May 23.

Lost Knife Rd., 9600 block, 1:12 a.m. May 17. Trespassing.

Maple Leaf Dr., 9800 block, 2:33 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Mill Creek Dr., 17800 block, 7:32 p.m. May 19.

Mills Choice Rd., 18900 block, 3:43 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Montgomery Village Ave., 19100 block, 8:32 p.m. May 19. Trespassing.

Montgomery Village Ave., 19100 block, 12:10 p.m. May 21.

Montgomery Village Ave., 19100 block, 1:09 a.m. May 23. Theft.

Montgomery Village Ave., 19100 block, 9:55 p.m. May 23. Theft.

Montgomery Village Ave., 19300 block, 2:09 p.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Muddy Branch Rd., 800 block, 7:05 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Nathans Pl., 18700 block, 7:33 p.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Odend Hal Ave., 100 block, 6:16 p.m. May 17.

Professional Dr., 200 block, 8:04 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Queen Victoria Ct., 17100 block, 10:37 a.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Queenair Dr., 7900 block, 3:13 p.m. May 19.

Quince Orchard Rd., 600 block, 12:04 p.m. May 17.

Rolling Dr., 5800 block, 8:11 p.m. May 23.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 2:12 p.m. May 17.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 10:28 a.m. May 18. Theft.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 11:36 a.m. May 18. Theft.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 4 p.m. May 18.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 10:39 a.m. May 19. Trespassing.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 10:56 a.m. May 19. Theft.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 1:27 p.m. May 19.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 1:20 p.m. May 21.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 4:41 p.m. May 21. Theft.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 3:29 p.m. May 22. Theft.

Russell Ave., 700 block, 5:26 p.m. May 22.

Strawberry Knoll Rd., 18800 block, 8:05 a.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Summit Hall Rd., 500 block, 2:40 a.m. May 17. Theft from auto.

Summit Ave. N., 400 block, 6:46 p.m. May 23.

Summit Dr. N., Unit block, 9:07 a.m. May 19.

University Blvd. E., 1300 block, 1:56 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.

Water St., Unit block, 9:44 p.m. May 23. Trespassing.

Watkins Mill Rd., 19300 block, 1:59 p.m. May 17.

West Side Dr., 1000 block, 11:02 a.m. May 18.

VEHICLE THEFTS

Clopper Rd., 800 block, 2:42 p.m. May 21. Stolen vehicle.

Clopper Rd., 900 block, 6:57 p.m. May 19. Stolen vehicle.

Mills Choice Rd., 19000 block, 9:40 a.m. May 20. Stolen vehicle.

Park Ave., 100 block, 9:12 p.m. May 17.

VANDALISM

Swan Stream Dr., 18300 block, 8:53 p.m. May 21.

Takoma Park and other areas

ASSAULTS

Carroll Ave., 7600 block, 5:09 p.m. May 23.

Houston Ave., 600 block, 6:23 p.m. May 21.

Piney Branch Rd., 8400 block, 8:44 a.m. May 22.

ROBBERY

Darwin Ave., Unit block, 10:53 p.m. May 19.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Carroll Ave., 7000 block, 11:34 p.m. May 18. Trespassing.

Piney Branch Rd., 7400 block, 2:21 p.m. May 19. Theft from auto.

University Blvd. E., 1300 block, 1:56 p.m. May 20. Trespassing.
A letter, seen front and back, by Charles Darwin that was stolen more than 30 years ago was recovered by the FBIs Art Crime Team and returned to the Smithsonian on May 26, 2016. (Courtesy FBI)

More than 30 years ago, a Smithsonian intern came upon an 1875 letter written by British naturalist Charles Darwin  and pocketed it. Last month, the letter was returned.

The letter came into the possession of a good Samaritan who contacted the FBI earlier this year, bureau spokeswoman Katherine Zackel said. Working with the Smithsonian, FBI agents authenticated the letter and returned it to the Smithsonian Institution Archives.

The FBI, which announced the return Thursday, said the letter was among a collection of papers on North American geology given to the Smithsonian. The letter was stolen before it could be inventoried, Zackel said, so officials did not realize it had disappeared until researchers at Cambridge University asked for a copy. Smithsonian spokeswoman Effie Kapsalis said the FBI told the organization only that the thief was an intern.

Because the statute of limitations on the crime has run out, Zackel said, no one will be charged and thus the FBI will not reveal the name of the thief or how the letter got into the hands of the person who turned it in. She would say only that the letter was found in the Washington area and was remarkably well preserved.

Its in great condition. Its surprising  it actually still looks really good, she said.

This undated engraving released on Feb. 10, 1959, shows English naturalist Charles Darwin. (AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

In a statement, Smithsonian Institution Archives Director Anne Van Camp thanked the federal agents involved, saying that this type of crime is not easily detected.

Darwin penned the two-page letter, dated May 2, 1875, to American geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, thanking him for sending two field studies of the American West. Part of the land Hayden surveyed soon after became Yellowstone National Park.

I am much obliged to you for your kindness & for the honour which you have done me in sending your Geological Report of the Yellowstone River & your Preliminary Field Report on the Colorado & New Mexico, Darwin wrote. I had heard of your Geological researches on the Colorado & was anxious to see the conclusions at which you had arrived, & I am therefore especially obliged to you for having sent me your works.

He signed it, With much respect & my best thanks. I remain, Dear Sir, yours faithfully Charles Darwin.

Kapsalis said the Smithsonian Institution Archives, which stores historical documents related to the organizations history, has only two Darwin letters.

The public is fascinated by anything related to Charles Darwin, and were happy to get it back, she said. The two letters are a pair once again.

The letter was among papers collected by George Perkins Merrill, a geologist who worked for many years in the geology department of the U.S. National Museum, a precursor to the Natural History Museum.

Although it could not be verified that the author was the good Samaritan, a few months ago a poster asked about a Darwin letter on a website that provides experts to answer legal questions. What is the statute of limitation on a theft from the smithsonian, the person asked. I recently found out something by a relative was stolen there about 30 years ago?

The poster, who was anonymous, said the item was a letter by Darwin and a piece of history that should be returned. The poster said the person who took the letter had been an intern.

Tim Berra, a Darwin expert from Ohio State University, said the famous evolution theorist wrote about 7,000 letters in his life.

Anything to or from or by Darwin is of historical significance and scientific significance, he said. Darwin was interested in what was going on in America. . . . Darwin was primarily trained as a geologist, so he was interested in geological formations all over the world.

He noted that Cambridge has been assembling all of Darwins letters into a series of volumes; the 23rd, just published, includes the year this letter was written.
D.C. police using DNA evidence found at a fatal stabbing of a woman nearly a quarter of a century ago in Northwest Washingtons Petworth neighborhood arrested a suspect in Baltimore on Wednesday.

Therion Clyde Bryant, 48, was charged with first-degree murder while armed and ordered detained until a preliminary hearing on Monday in D.C. Superior Court. Bryant, who lives in Parkville, north of Baltimore, is charged with killing Charlene Johnson, 25, of Northwest Washington in the fall of 1993.

Police said in an arrest affidavit that Bryant admitted to having sex with the victim but denied any involvement in her killing. He told police that he knew Johnson from elementary school but had not seen her in years before they met up again about October 1993.

Johnsons relatives could not be reached Thursday. Bryant was arrested in South Baltimores Morrell Park neighborhood.

The arrest ends a lengthy police investigation in which detectives said in court documents that they had considered, but ruled out as suspects, the victims boyfriend, a man confined to a mental institution who they said falsely confessed to the killing, and another man suspected in a series of killings in Petworth at the time.

Johnsons body was found about 9:40 a.m. on Oct. 16, 1993, at the bottom of an outdoor stairwell leading to a basement door to a rowhouse in the 3600 block of New Hampshire Avenue NW, near the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro station. She was found wearing a red and white robe, lying next to a rug and a refrigerator that had blood spattered on the door. A broken beer bottle was next to her hand.

An arrest affidavit filed by police said that Johnson had been beaten, stabbed and her throat cut after she had sex or was sexually assaulted. The FBI linked blood and semen DNA to Bryant in 2014, the arrest affidavit said. Police said additional tests were run this year and a more decisive link was made to the suspect.
After six years on the bench, D.C. Superior Court Judge Stuart G. Nash announced Thursday that he will be stepping down to join Holland & Knight LLP as co-head of the law firms national white collar defense and investigations practice.

In a statement from the firm, Nash, a former prosecutor with the U.S. attorneys office, said he will step down from the bench effective June 30.

It has been an honor and privilege for me to serve my fellow citizens of the District of Columbia over the past six years, and I remain grateful to Presidents Bush and Obama for nominating me to the bench, Nash said in a statement. I am excited to embrace a new set of professional challenges and opportunities and look forward joining the outstanding attorneys and professionals at Holland & Knight.

Currently, Nash hears cases on the courts domestic relations and neglect calendars. In 2013, Nash oversaw the high-profile murder case of a 21-year-old District man who was charged with fatally stabbing his 72-year-old roommate after what police described was a sex-for-pay relationship.

[Detective: Defendant was in sex for pay relationship with elderly victim]


Carlo Piras and colleague Maurice Connaughton look at a homeless man passed out on the sidewalk of Main Street in Sarasota, Fla. The city passed an ordinance against "lodging out of doors," which prohibits sleeping or camping outside on public or private property without permission. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

 David Cross had been such a fixture at Five Points Park, a patch of green in the prospering heart of this city, that residents dubbed the homeless man the mayor.

But that was before the city removed the park bench where he held court. Before a new panhandling ordinance made it illegal to ask for money in most places. Before he was given a written infraction for sleeping outside.

So the 66-year-old did what an increasing number of homeless people across the country are doing: He sued, claiming that the city had virtually regulated away his right to sleep and scratch together an existence. He and others in similar suits argue that homelessness has been effectively criminalized in some cities.

The lawsuits are, in part, a byproduct of the dazzling renewal of many downtowns, where new residents, tourists and businesses have come into conflict with the homeless as once-blighted corners have gained a fresh cachet.

Cities have enacted a wave of crackdowns and new laws against panhandling, camping and other activities associated with homelessness. They say such efforts help preserve the renewed vitality, curbing crime, health problems and behaviors that bother residents and disrupt business.

Between 2011 and 2014, the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty found that bans on sleeping in cars shot up 119 percent, citywide camping prohibitions jumped 60 percent, anti-loitering laws increased 35 percent and anti-begging laws increased 25 percent in a survey of 187 cities.





The push includes controversial measures such as bans on distributing food to the homeless, making it illegal to sit or lie in public and, in one city, a ban on using blankets outdoors. The latter law was reversed after an outcry.

Cross and some advocates argue that the approach is cruel, aimed at making the homeless disappear rather than addressing the issue. To them, it is another sign of the growing gap between Americas rich and poor.

Its not illegal to be homeless, Cross said.

Sarasota, dubbed the Meanest City in America by advocates a decade ago for its ordinances, has been the scene of one of the fiercest and most anguished battles over homelessness in an era of urban renaissance.

The citys balmy weather has drawn a large homeless population. On the streets, the contrast between panhandlers shaking cups and shoppers clutching bags from upscale boutiques is jarring.

City officials deny the allegations in Crosss lawsuit and say that the city has moved to a progressive approach on homelessness in recent years. Officials have created teams to engage the homeless, adopted a comprehensive plan to deal with homelessness and are looking to create new housing.

We still have work to do but are making gradual progress, City Manager Tom Barwin wrote in an email.

A nationwide fight



Homeless men and women bed down for the night outdoors in the alcoves of the Sarasota County Jail. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Similar legal fights are playing out across the nation as the homeless challenge anti-panhandling ordinances, anti-camping laws and the seizure of their belongings in sweeps.

In Virginia, more than a dozen homeless alcoholics represented by the Legal Aid Justice Center sued the states prosecutors in March, claiming Virginias habitual drunkard law criminalizes addiction among those on the street and violates their constitutional rights.

The law allows prosecutors to ask the courts to designate someone a habitual drunkard if they have been shown to have a drinking problem. After the designation, the person can be jailed if they are caught with alcohol. Prosecutors say the law keeps drunks off the street. They have used the designation in more than 1,200 cases in recent years.

In Honolulu, a group of homeless people sued the city last fall, after what the mayor called a war on homelessness prompted by complaints from residents and tourists. The city passed a law banning sitting and lying on sidewalks, closed parks at night and dismantled one of the nations largest homeless encampments.

The lawsuit accused the city of illegally trashing medicine, identification papers and food storage during the sweep, leaving homeless children hungry. A settlement was recently reached that forbids the city from seizing certain items.

The homeless have also challenged broad anti-panhandling laws in Springfield, Ill., Oklahoma City and Sacramento County, Calif., on grounds it violates freedom of speech. Some locales have altered their laws in response.

The increase in laws targeting the homeless, and the legal battles surrounding those efforts, have drawn the attention of the Obama administration.

Last August, the Justice Department filed a brief in a Boise, Idaho, lawsuit challenging that citys camping ordinance. The case was dismissed over an issue of standing, but the federal officials argued that it was unconstitutional for police to cite the homeless for sleeping outdoors when there is insufficient shelter space.

And last fall, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would consider whether a municipality has implemented a strategy to prevent the criminalization of homelessness when awarding some grants.

Where to go?



David Cross, 66, is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the City of Sarasota. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

David Cross beds down for the night on the patio of the downtown Sarasota public library. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Cross said he was a successful machinist before the recession hit and he lost his job and home. He still remembers the day he became homeless: June 5, 2008.

Cross eventually staked out a regular spot on the bench in Five Points Park, near an opera house and luxury condominiums. But after complaints about the homeless, the city removed the benches in 2011.

Cross said it was the start of a tougher time for the homeless in Sarasota, crystallized by headline-grabbing interactions between police and the homeless.

In 2012, Sarasota police arrested a homeless man for theft of utilities for charging his cellphone in an outlet at a city park. A judge dismissed the charge. The same year, the American Civil Liberties Union obtained messages between officers who described themselves as bum hunters.

And last year, the department put an officer on administrative leave after video surfaced of him tossing peanuts into the mouth of a handcuffed homeless man, like a person might feed a dog.

Cross reached his breaking point one night last August. He said he was roused by a police officer about 4 a.m. outside the citys main library, which he said was his refuge from heat, robberies on the street and harassment by police.

Cross was given an infraction for lodging outdoors on a night that he said the officer told him there was no room at Sarasotas only homeless shelter. Cross said he wondered: Where was he supposed to go?

He sought out the ACLU, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of Cross and five other plaintiffs. The suit claims that Crosss experience is common.

The city criminally prosecuted 882 individuals in 2013 and 2014 under its lodging ordinance and another that prohibits trespassing in parks after dark, according to the lawsuit. On many of those nights, the lawsuit alleges, the Salvation Army shelter was at or above its zoned capacity, which includes 260 beds and dozens of mats on the floors of a cafeteria and hallways.

Sarasota has more than 800 homeless people, including most of the approximately 180 who are chronically on the streets in the city and the surrounding county.



Homeless man Sty Mergina , 21, dresses for work in Sarasota, Fla. Mergina and his girlfriend were arrested in January and charged with "lodging out of doors." (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

A homeless man who goes by the name of Jake, 65, sleeps between vending machines in the cafeteria at the Salvation Army shelter in Sarasota, Fla., on April 8. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

The plaintiffs argue that it is a violation of the Eighth Amendments ban on cruel and unusual punishment to cite the homeless for sleeping outdoors on nights when the shelter is full.

Even if the shelter had more room, Cross said the citys expanded anti-panhandling law made it difficult to raise the nightly fee for a bed. The law enacted in 2013 bars soliciting at bus stops, cafes, parks, garages and a host of other locations. The lawsuit argued that the ordinance was a violation of free-speech rights.

Michael Barfield, vice president of the ACLU of Florida, said the citys approach has made it tougher for people such as Cross to get off the street. Arrests and convictions can make it more difficult to get a job and housing, and can lead to the loss of a drivers license.

This is perpetuating the cycle of homelessness, Barfield said.

An evolving approach

Sarasota officials reject the claim that the city is criminalizing homelessness, saying that the lodging ordinance and others are necessary and are enforced legally and humanely.

The Sarasota Police Departments policy and practice is to offer a shelter bed to the homeless individual prior to any consideration of warnings, tickets or enforcement, Barwin wrote of the lodging ordinance.

Barwin said many chronically homeless people refuse to go to the citys only shelter or accept other services. He said the Salvation Army always finds room for the homeless, despite the crowding on some nights.

Barwin said the ordinances arose out of problems, not from an effort to make the homeless go away. He said encampments have created large volumes of unsanitary waste and trash. And crime has posed dangers for the homeless and city residents alike.

In recent years, one homeless man decapitated another in a camp during a fight over spilled food. Another stabbed a man at a library, and a merchant and a homeless man went hurtling through a window during an altercation on a downtown street. Sarasota police say homeless-related issues are one of their most common calls for service.

Barwin said the city has evolved on homelessness in recent years, moving away from simple crackdowns. He pointed to a multi-pronged plan adopted last year that includes a jobs program, an initiative that puts the homeless into apartments and more mental-health caseworkers.



Sarasota police officer David Dubendor, left, and case worker Sherree Brown visit a homeless camp on an empty lot. They're part of a HOT team (Homeless Outreach Team), a dedicated police officer teamed with a social worker who meet and work with the homeless population. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Among the centerpieces of this new approach are Homeless Outreach Teams, joint patrols of police officers and social workers who engage the homeless on the street and try to get them into services. Police said they made 5,300 such contacts in two years and got about 150 people into a shelter, although they say it is too soon to say how many have stayed off the streets permanently.

Cross and the other plaintiffs won one concession. In response to the lawsuit and a Supreme Court ruling, the city recently revised its panhandling law to allow solicitation in more places.

Some in Sarasota think a tough approach is exactly what is needed  at least toward some homeless people.

Ron Soto, who owns a downtown eyewear store and is president of the local merchants association, blames a hard-core minority of the homeless people that he calls vagrants for disrupting business, drinking in public and scaring tourists.



Ron Soto with one of many signs urging shoppers to refrain from giving money to panhandlers along Main Street in Sarasota, Fla. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

A young boy stares at Jennifer Nipper, 41, who is homeless, as she panhandles on Main Street in Sarasota. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Soto has created a series of signs, one of which reads: DONT GIVE IN TO PANHANDLING...93% OF THE MONEY YOU GIVE GOES TO DRUGS & ALCOHOL.

Some businesses display the signs, and Soto said he is planning to pay people to hand out anti-panhandling fliers in hot spots for homelessness. He also plans to collect money to give to established programs that help the homeless.

We are one of the most enabling towns in Florida, Soto said.

Win or lose, Cross said he hopes his lawsuit spurs Sarasota officials to action.

He would like the city to build a downtown emergency shelter, which a consultant recommended the city do in 2013. The project got bogged down in politics over where to locate it, as well as other issues.

Its getting the city to do something, Cross said of the lawsuit.

Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.
A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Bowie, Md., wife and husband to 10 and seven years in prison, respectively, for orchestrating a multiyear campaign to defraud D.C. Medicaid of more than $80 million between 2009 and 2014, the largest local health-care fraud scheme ever prosecuted in the city.

Florence Bikundi, 53, and Michael D. Bikundi Sr., 63, were ordered to forfeit more than $11 million in cash, their $1 million home and five luxury vehicles by Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who also imposed a money judgment of $40 million and ordered the couple to pay $80.6 million in restitution.

Florence and Michael Bikundi enriched themselves for years by operating a rogue home care agency, at the expense of people in need, U.S. Attorney for the District Channing D. Phillips said in a joint statement with the FBI and Secret Service Washington field offices, as well as inspectors general for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the District of Columbia.

Hopefully the sentences today will serve as a deterrent to other unscrupulous health care providers who aim to steal the taxpayers money, Phillips said.

[Jury convicts Md. couple in $80 million D.C. Medicaid fraud case]

A federal jury in November found the couple guilty of multiple counts of money laundering, health-care fraud and conspiracy through their District-based home health-care firm, Global Health Care Services.

At trial, prosecutors said the Bikundis used the company as a simple, yet massive, get-rich-quick scheme that enlisted trusted relatives and others to sign up and coach Medicaid recipients who received kickbacks for submitting fraudulent claims for health care that never was provided.

Seven others had earlier pleaded guilty to charges in the investigation, including Florence Bikundis son and two sisters. Two others indicted in the investigation remain at large, prosecutors said: Christian S. Asongcha, 39, formerly of Lanham, Md., and Atawan Mundu John, 39, formerly of the District.

[Medicaid fraud epidemic in District as prosecutors charge more than 20]

U.S. authorities in the District announced charges in February 2014 against 25 people in separate and even competing schemes, stating that Medicaid fraud was at epidemic levels in the city. The number of beneficiaries billing for personal-care services had quadrupled to 10,000 since 2006, and billings grew sevenfold, to $280 million.
A 62-year-old Maryland man accused of killing his estranged wife in Prince Georges County, fleeing, and then killing two strangers in Montgomery County was indicted on two counts of first-degree murder Thursday in the Montgomery deaths.

The grand jury indictments against Eulalio Tordil were not unexpected. On May 7, he was charged by Montgomery police with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and four gun charges. The indictments, which came after a panel of grand jurors reviewed the case, cover the same charges and move the Montgomery portion of the case from district court to circuit court, where felony cases are handled, said Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for the Montgomery States Attorneys Office.

Earlier: Tordil lost eyeglasses and was unable to flee after Montgomery shootings

On Thursday, May 5, authorities say, Tordil shot his estranged wife as she waited to pick up her daughters outside a Beltsville high school. Tordil made his way to neighboring Montgomery County, and on May 6, according to police, he fatally shot two people during attempted carjackings at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda and outside a Giant supermarket in Aspen Hill.

Tordil has been held for nearly a month at the Montgomery jail. He had been a longtime officer with the Federal Protective Service.

Eulalio Tordil, 62, of Adelphi, Maryland. (Montgomery County Police Department) (Montgomery County Police Department/Montgomery County Police Department)

Tordil also faces charges in Prince Georges County of first-degree murder, use of a firearm in a violent crime and another gun charge, according to authorities.

Tordil had a long background in law enforcement. In addition to his work with the Federal Protective Service, he previously worked security for the National Institutes of Health, according to Montgomery County prosecutors.

His estranged wife, Gladys Tordil, had taught chemistry at Parkdale High. The death shook students, who left more than 100 notes on her door after she was shot.

In Montgomery County, Tordil allegedly shot and killed Malcom Winffel, 45, who had come to the aid of a woman at Montgomery Mall whose SUV Tordil also was attempting to take, according to prosecutors. Later that day, authorities said, he shot Claudina Molina, 65, outside the Giant as he was trying to take her SUV.
A 3-year-old boy from Southeast Washington who died in January succumbed to injuries he suffered years earlier as an infant, when D.C. police accused his father of shaking him so hard the child bled in his brain, according to authorities.

Authorities on Thursday announced that the childs death had been ruled a homicide and that the case had been closed.

The childs father, Jerome Ortiz Drayton, pleaded guilty in 2012 to committing cruelty to children in connection with the shaking incident. D.C. Superior Court documents said prosecutors agreed as part of the plea deal to forgo additional charges against Drayton, who is now 23, in the event his son Javion Drayton died. Neither Jerome Ortiz Drayton nor his attorney from the 2012 case could be reached for comment.

Drayton was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and three years probation, which he successfully completed.

Dustin Sternbeck, the chief spokesman for D.C. police, said homicide detectives applied for an arrest warrant after the childs death, but prosecutors declined. Bill Miller, spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office, said no further criminal charges are planned in the case.

The death of Javion Drayton is a tragedy and the U.S. Attorneys Office extends its condolences to the many people who loved him, according to a statement from the prosecutors office. The plea agreement in this case was determined to be appropriate at the time.

The statement adds that prosecutors considered the fathers young age  20 at the time  a nonviolent minor prior record, his willingness to accept responsibility and statements by the childs mother asking for him to get a second chance. These are difficult decisions and we make the best judgment calls based on the factors and all of the information known at the time, they said in the statement.

A relative of Javions, reached through the church where the boys funeral was held, did not wish to discuss the matter.

The case dates back to June 16, 2012, when D.C. police and paramedics rushed to a residence in the 1500 block of Tubman Road SE for a 4-month-old who was not breathing. Doctors at Childrens National Medical Center found that Javion had suffered a brain injury and was bleeding from a retinal hemorrhage, according to a police affidavit.

The doctor at Childrens concluded, according to the affidavit, that Javion had suffered a vigorous and repetitive episode of being shaken.

Police said in the affidavit that Javions mother had left the house the morning of June 16 and left her son in the care of his father and paternal grandmother. She listened to her son on the phone at 1:30 p.m. and said the child sounded fine, according to the affidavit.

Later that afternoon, police said, Javion began to cry and his father took him upstairs. The grandmother told police that the baby stopped crying and that her son carried him downstairs and told her he thought the infant was sleeping. The affidavit says the grandmother found the infant unresponsive with his eyes rolled back in his head.

According to the affidavit, Drayton at first told police that Javion went unconscious after going to the bathroom. He said he shook the child in an effort to revive him, the court document said.

Later that week, Drayton told police that a month earlier he had accidentally dropped Javion in the bathtub and that the boy hit his head on a rail, the affidavit says.

Later, the document said, Drayton told police that he was tired and he started shaking the child while telling him to stop crying.

Police initially charged Drayton with aggravated assault, but he pleaded guilty to cruelty to children.

It could not be determined with whom Javion was living in January.
Surveillance video shows a man who, police say, is involved in a burglary of a J.C. Penney store in Wheaton. (Courtesy of Montgomery County Police)

Police in Montgomery County are looking for a man who, they say, stole $150,000 worth of jewelry from a J.C. Penney department store in the Westfield Wheaton mall, in Wheaton.

The incident happened May 21, and police put out video surveillance photos showing the person.

Police received a call just before 9 a.m. that a store employee had found a burglary had happened. Footage from a video surveillance camera showed that earlier that morning, around 3:19 a.m., a man had entered the store by throwing rocks and breaking a glass door on the third floor.

Once inside, he went to the jewelry department, broke two of the glass cases and stole jewelry, police said. The man was seen on the video leaving the store around 3:26 a.m.

A cash reward of up to $10,000 is being offered. Anyone with information in the case is asked to call 240-773-5500.

Dana Hedgpeth contributed to this report.
The year-long Metrorail rehabilitation plan includes 15 projects that will require the longest stretches of single-tracking and station shutdowns.

The year-long Metrorail rehabilitation plan includes 15 projects that will require the longest stretches of single-tracking and station shutdowns.

The year-long Metrorail rehabilitation plan includes 15 projects that will require the longest stretches of single-tracking and station shutdowns. View Graphic

For decades, political leaders, Metro board members and others overseeing the regions transit agency deferred major maintenance, allowing the rail system to deteriorate until it became failure-prone and often hazardous.

Now riders are about to pay a price for that neglect.

Metros SafeTrack maintenance blitz is set to begin Saturday, with 15 repair and rebuilding projects to be conducted over 10 months  a schedule that guarantees headaches for hundreds of thousands of riders who use the system daily.

Beginning at midnight, weekend revelers accustomed to a 3 a.m. closing will need to find another way home. No more late-night closings.

The first to experience the daily aggravation of SafeTrack-related delays and crowded trains and platforms will be Orange and Silver line riders in Virginia.

Metro's plan to overhaul the transit system officially begins on June 4. Here's what Silver Line riders need to know about how the repairs will affect them. (Claritza Jimenez,Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post)

[With Metros big rebuild project looming, some in Washington are still in denial]

The projects, or surges, are catch-up work designed to help restore the 40-year-old system to what the transit industry calls a state of good repair. Scheduled to be conducted one after another until mid-March, the surges will involve shutting down sections of rail lines during some of the work and reducing train traffic at other times.

Because all the surges will cause service disruptions, riders will hear plenty of advisories like the one issued recently about the first surge, set for June 4 through June 16. Orange and Silver line trains may be very crowded, especially during rush hour due to severe service reductions, Metro warned. The agency is suggesting that commuters find alternative transportation or try to avoid traveling during rush hour.

Expect significantly longer wait times at the following stations: Vienna, Dunn Loring, West Falls Church, Ballston, East Falls Church, Wiehle-Reston East, Spring Hill, Greensboro, Tysons Corner, McLean.

With those delays looming, and other big inconveniences ahead for commuters elsewhere in the system, preparations have begun to try to mitigate the hassles.

[Metros SafeTrack maintenance blitz will cause prolonged rail delays.]

Metro will beef up bus service, as will Washington-area jurisdictions that operate suburban bus routes. The ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft have poured millions of dollars into promotional campaigns to entice patrons and encourage their drivers to be more active. And Capital Bikeshare said it will add bicycles and racks at Metro stations affected by the series of maintenance projects. Its also adding a Bikeshare station.

Metro's plan to overhaul the transit system officially begins on June 4. Here's what Orange Line riders need to know about how the repairs will affect them. (Claritza Jimenez,Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post)

This will not be easy, and we need to make sure that we are being flexible and responsive, Sharon Bulova (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said at a news conference last week detailing the countys plans. Fairfax, the regions largest jurisdiction, will be impacted by 10 of the 15 projects.

Right now we have a crisis, Bulova said, referring to chronic, occasionally dangerous subway problems, including frequent track fires and train breakdowns.

During SafeTrack, Metro plans to install about 50,000 new rail ties, clean 87,000 feet of drains, plug hundreds of water leaks and fix or replace thousands of pieces of infrastructure in the 117-mile system, including rails, electrical insulators, power cables and the connector assemblies used to attach cables to one another.

[Metro at age 40: A mess of its own making.]

The system is deteriorating big time, Bulova said. We need to do what we need to do to make [it] . . . the kind of system we can rely upon.

The regions commuter railroads, MARC and Virginia Railway Express, are planning for a jump in ridership. Some businesses in the area are stockpiling laptops and testing their remote computer networks for employees who decide to work from home.

As for possibly changing traffic rules, such as easing HOV restrictions to accommodate more motorists, officials said they are taking a wait-and-see approach.

[Heres Metros SafeTrack schedule]

Our emphasis is going to be on ride-sharing and additional transit services, said Virginia Transportation Secretary Aubrey Layne. We think its going to be tough, obviously. [But] HOV changes may make it worse. Thats what were concerned about.

However, he said, none of that is set in stone. A month from now we might have to do something different. I dont think anybody knows exactly whats going happen.

For 13 days starting Saturday, round-the-clock track work will be conducted between Metros Ballston and East Falls Church stations, forcing trains headed in both directions to share one track on that stretch of the rail system.

That translates to nine workdays of single-tracking, causing delays not only in that area but also in other parts of the system because of the ripple effect of reduced service.

Orange and Silver line trains normally run at six- or 12-minute intervals on weekdays, depending on the time of day, and every 20 minutes late at night.

While the track work is going on, Metro said, weekday Orange trains between the Vienna and New Carrollton stations will run only every 18 minutes, with the usual 20-minute intervals late at night. Additional trains will run between Ballston and New Carrollton during rush hours. But those extra trains wont benefit commuters who use the Vienna, Dunn Loring, West Falls Church and East Falls Church stations.

[Read more of the Posts coverage on SafeTrack and Metro]

The frequency of Silver trains also will be reduced to 18 minutes during the project.

The next surge, starting June 18, will force a 16-day shutdown of service along the Orange, Blue and Silver lines from the Eastern Market station to the Benning Road and Minnesota Avenue stations. Blue Line service will be limited to Virginia during that project, and the two other lines will have reduced service, with buses replacing trains.

Then, beginning at 8 p.m. July 5 and lasting through July 11, service on the Yellow and Blue lines will be shut down between the Reagan National Airport and Braddock Road stations. Another shutdown will occur in that area for a week starting July 12, with no service between the airport and the Pentagon City station.

Two more shutdowns are scheduled for the fall and early winter  from Oct. 10 through Nov. 1 between the Red Lines NoMa-Gallaudet and Fort Totten stations and from Dec. 7 through Dec. 24 on the Blue Line between the Pentagon and Rosslyn stations.

Besides the five shutdowns, there will be 10 periods of prolonged single-tracking in various places across the system, the longest of which, from Sept. 9 through Oct. 20, will be on the Orange Line between Vienna and West Falls Church.

Transportation officials all over the region have been trying to figure out ways to soften the impact of SafeTrack on commuters. Metro said the first project, between Ballston and East Falls Church, is expected to inconvenience about 73,000 riders daily.

[Heres what Fairfax plans to do during SafeTrack]

We dont anticipate being able to carry 73,000 people on our bus system, Jack Requa, a senior Metro executive, told Fairfax supervisors last week.

Fairfax officials said they will enhance the Fairfax Connector bus schedules and promote the service as an alternative. They also will start a temporary express shuttle service to accommodate riders from areas such as Reston to Pentagon, to augment Metros shuttle buses,when SafeTrack work is underway in the county.

Arlington County said it will add larger buses to routes in Metro work areas. To help buses move faster, the county said it will adjust traffic signals and temporarily restrict street parking in some areas.

[Heres Arlingtons plan for the first surge]

Montgomery County has yet to unveil a plan, but County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) said last month they will add buses and adjust traffic signals and parking rules. But he did not sound confident that all will go smoothly during SafeTrack projects in Montgomery.

Youll be putting buses into traffic that already cannot move, he said. In an area that is already congested, it will have only a limited effect.

In Prince Georges County, officials said they do not plan to increase local bus service or make any other changes related to SafeTrack.

The District plans a number of measures to ease traffic congestion during SafeTrack, including an expansion of rush-hour parking restrictions in busy bus corridors, a moratorium on some public space construction and a $2-per-trip option for users of Capital Bikeshare; the normal cost is $8 per day.

To meet increased demand, the D.C. Taxicab Commission will allow shared riding, allowing drivers to pick up multiple fares within one mile of a Metro station. The option allows cab drivers to pick up multiple passengers who dont know one another and are going to different locations.

Meanwhile, traffic-control officials and police will establish a shared traffic-control headquarters to monitor and reduce congestion. And more traffic-control officers will be put on the streets, officials said.

I want to stress something very important. The project will affect every single commuter, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said at a news conference Thursday. And no matter if the surge is happening in the District proper or not, we think that Washington, D.C., will be affected by all 10 months of the work.

Bowser said officials also are exploring extending the D.C. Circulators operating hours until 3 a.m on weekends to make up for Metros early closing.

Meanwhile, Uber, which has more than 30,000 active drivers in and around Washington, has expanded the coverage area of its cheaper ride-splitting service, UberPOOL, to encompass the entire region. The company also plans to offer bonuses to drivers who pick up passengers in areas where SafeTrack work is underway.

Its rival Lyft slashed fares by 75 percent for its discount ride-splitting option Lyft Line, hoping to capitalize on Metro users seeking alternatives. The company said it also will offer half-price rides to first-time users traveling between the District and Northern Virginia during the SafeTrack program.

Capital Bikeshare plans to address the surges one by one. For the first project, for example, a new Bikeshare station will be installed at the East Falls Church Metro station by Saturday, Arlington officials said. Capacity will be added to existing Bikeshare stations in the area, with the bulk of the efforts centered on Ballston.

Across the region, employers concerned about the impact of SafeTrack are scrambling to put backup systems in place. Some are considering buying train tickets on VRE and other transit services or covering Uber or Lyft fares for their employees.

The federal government has given decision-making authority on the issue to individual agencies. Given the scope, duration, and nature of the rail disruptions, the impact to agencies will differ, said Samuel Schumach, spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management. Agencies should make decisions regarding how to adjust.

For instance, the Arlington-based National Science Foundation, headquartered not far from where the SafeTrack program will begin this weekend, is allowing workers facing miserable commutes to request earlier start times or later quitting times to avoid the crush.

On the first two workdays of the repairs, Monday and Tuesday, NSF staffers may telecommute or take unscheduled leave without making previous arrangements. For the rest of June, employees can ask to work from home more frequently than usual without changing their existing telework documentation.

David Verardo, a climate scientist and president of the agencys union, American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403, said the moves make sense, given that some employees will find themselves in a bind.

One of the things were emphasizing is, supervisors and their employees really need to communicate to make this thing work, Verardo said. Were trying to be as flexible as possible while getting the governments work done.

Lori Aratani and Michael Laris contributed to this report.
A boat that sank in the Chesapeake Bay had 23 people, including students, aboard. They all were safely rescued by a waterman. ( Maryland State Trooper 4/Courtesy of Maryland Natural Resources Police)

Jeremy Shockley heard the distress call come across the marine radio channel Wednesday as he and his son, Daniel, checked on their boat after catching crabs at a Chesapeake Bay marina on Marylands Eastern Shore.

Mayday. Mayday, Shockley heard over the radio about 5:30 p.m. Vessel taking on water.

He quickly surmised the coordinates and realized it was at Bloodsworth Island in Dorchester County, about 35 minutes north of his remote location in Wingate.

I hollered, Lets go get them,  Shockley, 42, of Toddsville, Md., recalled Thursday. He, his son and two friends took off to help rescue the boats passengers.

But they didnt realize as they raced in Shockleys 36-foot boat exactly who they were about to save  14 fourth-graders, five parent chaperones and a teacher, as well as two instructors and a captain from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation who were leading the educational trip on the areas ecology.

Jeremy Shockley, 42, of Toddsville, Md., helped rescue several people from a sinking boat in the Chesapeake Bay. (Courtesy of Daniel Shockley)

No one said anything about it being kids or 20-plus people, Shockley said. We thought it was a fishing-party boat with two or three people.

We wanted to assist them and help them get home, he said. I didnt know what I was looking for.

He and his crew arrived to find the youths and adults huddled in life jackets on top of the boats canopy, surrounded by 67-degree water half a mile from the shoreline.

My heart went to my feet, Shockley said. When we got closer I realized there were 20-some people and there were 14 kids. . . . I just couldnt imagine it. Seeing children sit on top of the boat like that.

The custom 40-foot aluminum boat had hit a submerged object, leaving it punctured. The boat took on water and sank at least 8 feet, hitting the sand bottom.

Some of them were shivering, Shockley said, adding that the passengers were calm and quiet as he helped them safely board his boat. He wasnt sure how to fit everyone he rescued, but he made room.

By the time local police and fire rescuers  along with the states natural resources police  had arrived, Shockely and his crew had safely rescued everyone.

It is always hard to say what the outcome would have been, said Candy Thomson, a spokeswoman with Marylands Natural Resources Police. In a vessel with 14 children aboard that goes down in a remote area, thats trouble. We were lucky in two respects  one, everybody was in life jackets, and two, that waterman was nearby.

As Shockley took the children to the dock at Wingate, some emotional parents were waiting.

Reality started sinking in when they got back, he said. It could have been a lot worse.

No one suffered major injuries. The captain of the stricken boat, who has worked for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for 10 years, was airlifted to a hospital and released. Others were treated for minor injuries and discharged.

At the time of the distress call, Shockley said he jumped into his boat and headed out without too much thought.

I hope someone would do the same thing for me if I got in a jam, he said.

Shockley prepared himself for the possibility of seeing a disaster as he arrived at the scene. He said the tide runs hard in that area and the children could have become separated if they had tried to get off the boat.

They would have gone out in the ship channel and God only knows what would have happened, he said.

Shockley also credited the captain of the boat, named the Karen N., for safely getting passengers on the canopy.

The Kent School said it has taken students on educational field trips for at least a decade with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation without incident.

The group in the sunken boat had been in the area on a trip and was involved in projects such as testing water quality; harvesting oysters, fish and crabs; looking at underwater grasses; and studying the ecology of the area.

It wasnt known what the sunken boat hit, but local water users said it isnt uncommon to find unexploded ordnance or other debris in the water near Bloodsworth Island, which was once a naval gunnery range.

The U.S. Coast Guard is conducting an investigation, officials said. The foundation said it plans to work with the Coast Guard to figure out how the accident happened, but it has no plans to cancel its educational programs using boats along the bay.

They were calm and cooperative, said William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Im so proud of students, staff and parents. They turned a bad situation into something as manageable as can be expected.

Shockley described the people he rescued aslittle kids trying to take a school trip and they wind up sitting on the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.

Its not a really good feeling, he said. Its a feeling nobody wants to see. I was glad to see all eyes open.
An early draft of Primo Levis holocaust memoir, "Survival in Auschwitz," which was donated to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

Manuela Paul had the precious documents in a plastic folder, inside an artists satchel, inside a Whole Foods shopping bag, which she kept at her side the entire bus ride from New York to Washington.

The package in her custody was a rare 1946 draft of one of the most revered books to come out of the Holocaust  Italian author Primo Levis classic memoir of his 10 months in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

And when Paul and her sister, Eva Yona Deykin, arrived at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum last month with Levis signed and edited draft, they were greeted by a delegation of grateful officials.

On Wednesday, the museum unveiled the partial manuscript of Survival in Auschwitz, which Levi wrote shortly after his return from the camp and is a wrenching and eloquent account of the horrors there.

The typewritten draft appears to be a copy, in Levis native Italian, with his edits in red and signature in pencil.

Italian author Primo Levi ion Dec. 10, 1984. (AP)

Survival in Auschwitz is considered one of the great Holocaust books, along with The Diary of Anne Frank and Elie Wiesels concentration camp memoir, Night, the museum said.

The manuscript includes 10 of the eventual 17 chapters, dating from the winter and spring of 1946. Levi had been liberated by the Russians in January 1945. He died in 1987.

[A Primo Levi recorded oral history]

The manuscript was donated to the museum by Paul and Deykin, of Brookline, Mass., who were given it by their mother, the late Anna Foa Yona. She was a close second cousin to Levi and had fled fascist Italy with her family to the United States in 1940.

Levi was having trouble finding an Italian publisher for his book and hoped his cousin might find an American publisher. She tried, and failed, but kept the manuscript copy.

The sisters said in interviews that they were getting on in years and wanted to put the historic manuscript in a place that would care for it.

They first approached the museum in December and delivered the draft May 20, said museum curator Kyra Schuster.

Curator Kyra Schuster goes over a manuscript of Primo Levi's famous holocaust memoir, "Survival in Auschwitz," which was donated to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)

This was really one of the first published memoirs of a survivors experience that really talked about the camps, Schuster said Wednesday.

He describes . . . an ugly situation incredibly beautifully, she said. But its also very matter of fact. Its not very metaphorical and philosophical. Its like: This is what happened. This is what we had to do to survive. 

[Defiant Hungarian doctor hid Jewish boy as Nazis scoured Budapest]

Levi, who was a trained chemist from Turin, was a member of a ragtag Italian resistance group when he was captured by a fascist militia on Dec. 13, 1943. He was 24.

In February 1944, he was crammed aboard a freight train bound for Auschwitz from Fossoli, Italy. Levi writes about this in his first chapter, Il Viaggio, or the journey. The manuscript includes four pages of this chapter.

The climax came suddenly, Levi wrote in the English version of the book about the arrival in Auschwitz.

The door opened with a crash, and the dark echoed with outlandish orders in that curt, barbaric barking of Germans in command, he wrote. A dozen SS men stood around, legs akimbo, with an indifferent air.

Levi goes on to catalogue months of inhuman cruelty. In the chapter Sul Fondo, or on the bottom, he wrote:

Imagine now a man who is deprived of everything he loves . . . his habits, his clothes . . . everything he possesses: he will be a hollow man, reduced to suffering and needs, forgetful of dignity and restraint.

The manuscript includes seven pages of that chapter.

Levi survived the camp when he was stricken with scarlet fever and was left behind when the Nazis evacuated it in 1945. He recovered and reached home several months later.

When Primo Levi returned from Auschwitz . . . this story literally poured out of him, Deykin, one of the donors, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. He would talk about Auschwitz and his experience there with anyone who would listen to him.

He was so overwhelmed by what had happened to him, she said. He was just bursting with wanting to tell people.

Levi tried in vain to find an Italian publisher. The war was over, Deykin said. No one wanted to review again the horrors of the war. [Publishers] didnt think it would be successful publication.

[Holocaust diarist to be named Righteous Among the Nations]

He sent it to Deykins mother, who translated part of it, but couldnt find a willing publisher. Afterward, my mother kept these chapters in a file cabinet, she said.

Later, Deykin had the manuscript, and then gave it to her sister, who stored it in a cabinet in the study in her home.

The book was eventually published in Italy in 1947 and was translated into English and published in the United States in 1959. An earlier Italian title is translated, If This Is a Man.

Deykin said she met Levi when he visited the United States in the 1980s. He struck me as quite a charismatic man, she said.

The sisters worried about the future of the fragile draft. We decided that we wanted to find a place that would be equipped to take care of it, Deykin said.

By the time they arrived with the manuscript, word had spread among the museum staff that it was coming. Many people wanted to be present for the handover, Schuster said.

His words have moved us because theyre so beautifully written, she said. Many colleagues have said the book launched their interest in Holocaust studies, she said.

Schuster said her favorite part of the book is Il Canto di Ulisse, the Canto of Ulysses. The draft includes four pages from the chapter.

In it, Levi recounts trying to teach Italian to a fellow prisoner, who speaks French.

Amid his squalor, Levi tries to remember elegant verses he had once memorized from Dantes Inferno to teach his friend. The verses come with difficulty, but he finally recalls them, and recites them.

As if I also was hearing it for the first time, he wrote. Like the blast of trumpet, like the voice of God. For a moment, I forget who I am and where I am.
A Capitol Hill nanny and her parking permit made this top Pentagon official mad. Now hes in big trouble. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

A Capitol Hill nanny and her parking permit made this top Pentagon official mad. Now hes in big trouble. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

Bryan Whitman, the senior Pentagon official charged with stealing a Capitol Hill nannys license plates, was placed on paid administrative leave Thursday and had his top-level security clearance revoked.

It remains unclear whether Whitman, the highest-ranking career civilian in the Defense Departments public affairs office, had informed his superiors of the alleged crimes  which he was required to do.

The Pentagons top public affairs officials were stunned by the news Wednesday that he had been charged nearly a month ago.

Whitman did not immediately respond to a call Thursday morning, and his attorney declined to comment.

A source close to Whitman said the 58-year-old former Army Special Forces officer had informed appropriate personnel at the Pentagon after he was charged in May with three counts of misdemeanor theft.

Bryan Whitman presents Larry the Cable Guy, Daniel Lawrence Whitney, with a picture and a coin in the Pentagon briefing room in 2011. (Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/U.S. Department of Defense)

[A warning left on a nannys car. License plates stolen. And a top Pentagon official in big trouble.]

But Gordon Trowbridge, the Pentagons deputy press secretary, said that he had never been told of the alleged crimes. Though he acknowledged that other staffers might have been, reporters had not located any who said they were aware of the accusations before being contacted by The Washington Post on Wednesday.

In light of the pending criminal case involving Bryan Whitman, he has been placed on administrative leave while the department reviews this matter, Trowbridge said in an email Thursday afternoon.

The move is significant, according to a senior Pentagon official, in large part because Whitman has now lost his top secret sensitive compartmented information security clearance  the highest level attainable in the U.S. government. The official said it could take years for Whitman to regain that status because he will need to start the clearance process from the beginning.

In early April, court records say, Whitman stole two license plates from the car of a nanny who had used a visitor pass to park in his neighborhood, where she cares for a young couples 1-year-old son. Two days later, after the plates were replaced, he stole another from the car. Then, in late April, he struck once more  but this time the couple caught him on a video camera that they had mounted inside their homes front window.

After handing over the plates to police and being charged, Whitman agreed to a deal this week that would lead to the cases dismissal if he pays $1,000 in restitution, performs 32 hours of community service, remains out of trouble for the next 10 months and stays away both from the nanny and the woman for whom she works.

The source close to him insisted he did not know his target was a nanny. Whitman, who has worked at the Defense Department for more than two decades, thought that the person using the visitor pass worked on Capitol Hill and was taking advantage of the available street parking.

Whitman, in his official Pentagon portrait, in 2014. (Eboni Everson-Myart/U.S. Department of Defense)

A spokesman for the Districts Transportation Department said that it is legal for nannies to use visitor passes when they are working.

Washington has a lengthy history of parking wars, but Whitmans status at the Pentagon makes this incident especially strange.

In Whitmans current role, his LinkedIn page says, he personally advises the Secretary of Defense and senior leadership on the public impact of proposed policies, programs, operations, and activities of the Department.

Whitman is a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), and is considered to be the civilian equivalent of a general. According to the Office of Personnel Management, SES members serve in key leadership positions just below political appointees. They are supposed to provide deep institutional knowledge and continuity, including during administration changes.

Federal pay scales indicate that, at Whitmans level, he makes at least $170,000 a year.

[A Marine fights to prove hes innocent of sexual misconduct. Then a lost cellphone is found.]

Whitman was once among the Pentagons most visible spokesmen  especially amid the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan  although he has largely retreated from public dialogue in recent years. From 2002 to 2010, according to his lengthy work biography, he was responsible for all aspects of media operations for the Defense Department.

He started in his current position  principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs  six years ago. Though it was a promotion, one Defense Department official said Whitman has been sidelined from regular daily operations and most contact with reporters.

He had played an integral role in developing and managing the early days of the U.S. militarys journalist embed program in Iraq, describing himself on his LinkedIn page as its principal architect. Just ahead of the invasion, he and other defense officials met repeatedly with editors and reporters.

Whitman helped manage some of the Pentagons most public firestorms. In 2008, he responded to a New York Times expose that revealed how the Pentagon pushed retired senior military officers to defend the Bush administrations foreign policy and military strategies in news interviews. Those officers, the Times found, often had ties to defense contractors with financial interests in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Whitman defended the program, saying it was a bit incredible to think the retired officers could be turned into puppets of the Defense Department. The programs sole intent, Whitman said, was to inform the American people.

The Pentagon ended the program within days of the Times report. Congress soon mandated an investigation that found the Defense Department had not acted improperly. Still, investigators did find that analysts who were critical of the administration reported being thrown out of it by former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, with whom Whitman worked closely.

Emails later obtained by the website Raw Story showed that Whitman was regularly involved in the program, although he denied running it.

He was known both among colleagues and journalists as a stickler for the rules who was sometimes angered when people broke or bent them. After security was stiffened in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, reporters recalled, he was insistent that  per the established guidelines  they come to the Pentagon at least twice a week in order to keep their building passes. That was impossible for those who periodically deployed to cover war zones. But Whitman, they said, wouldnt budge.

He also didnt hesitate to voice his displeasure with stories that embarrassed the military, multiple journalists said.

Ray Locker, a senior editor at USA Today, got a call from Whitman in 2009 after the paper revealed that dozens of retired admirals and generals were being paid by the Pentagon to advise the government while they were also employed by defense contractors.

Whitman almost immediately began to scream and curse at him, said Locker, who had never met the spokesman.

I just thought it was way beyond the pale, the editor said. In more than 30 years of doing this, I can count on the fingers of one hand how many people have flipped out on me like that.

Whitman has lived on First Street SE on Capitol Hill for about 20 years, court records show. His rowhouse is valued by city tax assessors at nearly $900,000.

On April 4, two days before the nannys plates were first stolen, a note was left on her front windshield, just next to a guardian angel prayer written in Spanish and displayed on her dashboard.

I know you are misusing this visitor pass to park here daily, the April 4 note read. If you do not stop I will report it, have your car towed and the resident who provided this to you will have his privileges taken away.

Baffled, the young couple who employ the nanny sent out a message on the community email group asking for the notes anonymous author to contact them. No one came forward.

Only after the third theft three weeks later  when Whitman was caught on camera  did the couple realize that the culprit lives just around the corner.

On May 2, detectives arrived at his home with a search warrant, and he gave up the plates.

Even with the charges filed and Whitman ordered by the court not to harass the nanny or her employer, his contact with them did not end.

On May 5  the day of his arraignment  the homeowner reported to investigators that he walked in front of her rowhouse. Then, on the night of May 10 until the next morning, he parked in front of their house.

As part of his agreement with the government, Whitman has been ordered to stay away from the familys entire block.
SOMALIA

U.S. strike targets al-Shabab figure

The United States carried out a drone strike last week in Somalia, targeting Abdullahi Haji Daud, a senior leader in the al-Shabab militant group, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday.

The Defense Department is still assessing whether the strike Friday killed Daud. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said that, if confirmed, his death will disrupt near-term attack planning, potentially saving many innocent lives.

According to Cook, Daud was one of Shababs senior military planners and helped coordinate attacks in Somalia, Kenya and Uganda.

On Wednesday, al-Shabab asserted responsibility for an attack on a downtown hotel in Mogadishu. The Associated Press, citing police, said al-Shabab fighters killed at least six people, including two members of the countrys parliament, and took a number of hostages in the Ambassador Hotel.

In March, the Pentagon carried out a series of strikes on al-Shabab, one of which targeted Hassan Ali Dhoore, a senior leader in the organization and also a member of al-Qaeda. Earlier that month, a series of U.S. airstrikes killed upwards of 150 people after targeting what U.S. officials described as an al-Shabab training camp.

 Thomas Gibbons-Neff

FRANCE

Seine overflows as floods wreak havoc

Regions across France were devastated by flooding Wednesday, the worst in a century or more in some areas. The Seine River overflowed its banks, one town was evacuated, travelers trapped on a submerged highway were rescued by soldiers, and boat cruises in Paris were canceled.

Schools in one region were shut down, and the government was working to rescue thousands of people trapped in homes or cars in provincial towns.

No casualties have been reported, but emergency workers have carried out more than 8,000 rescue operations over two days, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Wednesday.

Paris City Hall closed roads along the shores of the Seine as water levels rose about 14 feet higher than normal.

 Associated Press

CANADA

Residents returning to fire-damaged oil city

A steady stream of traffic headed to the fire-damaged Canadian oil-sands city of Fort McMurray on Wednesday as thousands of people who fled a wildfire last month began returning to see what is left.

The fire destroyed 2,400 structures, or about 10 percent of the city, when it ripped through, forcing more than 80,000 residents to flee.

Bob Couture, director of emergency management for the regional emergency operation center, said he expected 14,000 to 15,000 people to return Wednesday  the first day of a staged reentry. Residents in areas that were not damaged have been asked to come first.

Motorists on the only highway into the area found the forest on both sides blackened about half an hour from town. A strong smell of smoke hung in the air.

Returning residents were told to bring two weeks worth of food, water and prescription medication as crews continue to work to get basic services restored. Workers have been laboring to get critical businesses running again.

 Associated Press

Bodies of 40 tiger cubs found in Thai temple freezer: Forty dead tiger cubs were found in a freezer at a Buddhist temple in Thailand that operated as a zoo, a national parks official said. The discovery was made while authorities were removing mostly full-grown live tigers from the temple after accusations that monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals. The cubs seemed to be up to a week old, the official said.

Afghan Taliban fighters in burqas, military garb kill 6: Taliban fighters disguised in womens head-to-toe burqas and wearing military uniforms underneath stormed a court building in eastern Afghanistan, killing five civilians and a police officer, officials said. A spokesman for the governor of Ghazni province, where the attack occurred, said a suicide bomber first struck at the courts entrance, after which three other attackers stormed the building. Authorities said those three militants were killed in the ensuing firefight.

 From news services
Danielle Pletka is senior vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Hillary Clinton kicked the crap out of Donald Trump Thursday. In a speech billed as a major foreign policy address, the former secretary of state took to what looked like the stage of a flag factory to nail her likely opponent again, again and then once more for good measure. Of course, trashing Trump is shooting fish in a barrel, whether on foreign policy or anything else. Hes a walking, talking contradiction, wanting to bomb the hell out of the Islamic State but withdraw from the Middle East; stand up to Vladimir Putin while sucking up to the Russian tyrant; make our allies pay their fair share but do nothing with the fair share hes going to make them kick in to our mutual defenses. And so on.

Heres the problem for Clinton: I stink less is not a clarion call, especially not to voters who frankly arent paying attention to foreign policy. Is there a soul who believes that Trump voters are with him because he suggests Japan and South Korea should have nukes? Or that NATO defense budgets should rise above 2 percent? Yeah, no. Theyre with him because they want to stop losing at everything. If they were measuring his varied insights on U.S. foreign policy imperatives, theyd have voted for Marco Rubio, or Jeb Bush, or someone like that.

Heres another problem for Clinton: She was a completely unremarkable secretary of state who couldnt persuade her own boss to do the things she supposedly believed in, such as arm Syrian rebels or stand up to the Chinese threat in the South China Sea. She racked up the miles, but in the valedictory stories about her tenure at Foggy Bottom, most experts were hard put to name a single major accomplishment. Maybe something nice about women and girls, because, you know, shes a woman, and cares. As Trump would say, sad!

Dont get me wrong. I am a foreign policy voter. I care what is said about the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Islamic State, NATO defense budgets and Crimea and Muslims. Im listening to Trump and have already made my decision: #NeverTrump. But the same is true of Clinton: #NeverHillary. She had her turn and failed to distinguish herself in any way; her indifference about the fate of Libya was appalling. And the Clinton Foundation is grifting on a major, disqualifying scale.

Where does that leave us? Simple: Its not news that Trump is a hot mess on foreign policy, nor news that Clinton is more mature and experienced on that front, though she didnt bother to leaven her speech with any fresh ideas. But to whom is that novel information? Who watched this and said, Wow, I didnt realize any of that, and now Im going with Hill? Im just guessing here, but my shot is  no one.
I was stunned by the May 29 front-page article The man who seduced the 7th Fleet. As a former enlisted man and lifelong admirer of the Navy, I am enraged over the conduct of morally depraved officers who betrayed the nation and the Navy.

More than prosecutors and investigators are needed to wipe out this vice and fraud. The Navy must be cleansed, beginning with the corruption in the 7th Fleet and extending to the Naval Academys failure to deal with sexual assault. Rather than trust the Navy with the cleanup, the commander in chief should give the task to civilians, whose findings will not be tempered by fitness reports and shipmates pressure.

Thomas B. Allen, Bethesda

None of the officers cited genuinely owned up to his despicable behavior. Instead, they claimed that businessman Leonard Glenn Francis met some need and the officers were seduced into corruption. They blamed a failing marriage, low self-esteem or some other nonsense. Until the Navys leadership admits that the officer corps needs more virtue and patriotism, it will only be dressing wounds. That includes the top brass, of course.

John Hillas Cole, Mountain View, Hawaii
Caitlin Flanagan is the author of To Hell With All That and Girl Land. She is a contributing editor at the Atlantic.

In 2003, journalist Chris Hedges published a pocket-size book with a simple title and fathomless moral implications: What Every Person Should Know About War. To begin reading the book  arranged as a series of simply stated questions and their spare, emotionally unweighted answers  was to be implicated by it. Among the questions asked and forthrightly answered: What does it feel like to get shot? Will I be able to withstand torture? What will happen to my body if I die?

Mary Roach  a reporter, humorist and best-selling author of books that bring specialized scientific discovery to a popular audience  has, however unwittingly, produced a work that should sit beside Hedgess on the shelf. Called Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, it is the latest in an oeuvre that includes titles such as Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. It brings the breezy, jokey, boosterish approach that fans have come to expect of her work to a dark new subject: how military scientists try to anticipate, prevent or mitigate the ravages of war  from debilitating injuries to violent death  on its combatants.

The tone is jarring, but the reporting is sound. At Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, she interviews a young man  a 2011 graduate of West Point  whose penis was blown off when he stepped on an IED in Afghanistan. Like other forms of amputation, this kind of wound is increasingly common, as advances in battlefield medicine have made many previously fatal injuries survivable. (This type of injury may also be on the rise because enemy snipers have begun aiming for the crotch, with the intention of delivering a devastating physical and psychic wound.)

In the moments after the explosion, the young officer  who also lost a leg  desperately tried to get off the ground to check on his men; when he learned that they were all safe, he told a medic, If my dick is gone, just leave me here. But they brought him home, and Roach meets him as he is awaiting surgery to reconstruct his urethra. She asks a therapist at the hospital about the divorce rate after this kind of injury, and the woman replies: Divorce rate? How about suicide rate.

At a training facility for future corpsmen, located near Camp Pendleton, Calif., Roach slips and slides on the fake blood that pours out of fake wounds. Trainees desperately try to remember how to treat various types of trauma, while the combat soundtrack from Saving Private Ryan blares from speakers and a sergeant yells: Whos dying, people? Whos most likely to die? At one point, a corpsman confronted with a man whose fresh stump is spewing blood like champagne in the locker room after a big win blurts out to the man, Are you okay? Roach, who takes part in the exercises, undergoes a procedure called a blood sweep, in which a corpsman runs his hands down her back as she is lying on a gurney to make sure she is not bleeding from a wound hes missed. If you dont happen to be wounded, she tells us cheerfully, blood sweeps feel lovely.

Roachs dominant attitude toward what she discovers is enthusiasm  particularly for the macho and often handsome military men she encounters. Shes aflutter at a virile, omnipotent Special Ops man; at a droll and adorable public affairs officer; at a naval officer with buzzed hair and a tattooed wedding band who looks fabulously hydraulic in his wetsuit; even at the glorious pectorals of a servicemans corpse. She wants us to see her as a fun gal gamely poking around the big, exciting war machine and trying not to get in anybodys way. When a Navy SEAL in Iraq tells her she ought also to visit troops in Somalia, she invites the reader to chuckle along with her at the thought: Lets picture it  middle-aged American in her cork-bed comfort sandals and wheelie bag wandering the desert redoubts of the local al-Qaeda Affiliate. Yoo hoo! Im looking for the Navy SEAL safe house?

Its hard to trust a reporter who adores military PR men and who writes a grasping fan letter to a source. Yet her descriptions of trauma injuries, and of the militarys evolving response to battlefield danger and wounds, are compelling and clear-eyed. Midway through this odd book, with its crushes and cork sandals, its gaping horrors and bloodless military euphemisms, you begin to wonder: Is this what 15 years of war have done to us? Are we willing to look at our strange, ruined and ongoing enterprise only if we have a chipper tour guide and enough depth charges of gore to keep us entertained?

The final chapter recounts Roachs visit to the morgue of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, a place she bizarrely finds less depressing than the Chick-fil-A, Wendys, Dover Liquor Warehouse and McDonalds she had to drive past to get to it. Every military person killed in action is autopsied, the bodies arriving in the States with any lifesaving equipment  tourniquets or breathing tubes or IVs  still attached. For this is the service members final duty to the state: offering his or her body for a process called Feedback to the Field. During an international video conference call, 80 people look at photographs of the warriors naked body  black bars appearing across the groin and eyes  to talk about what went wrong and what might be improved upon the next time corpsmen and surgeons confront such an injury. Only then, when the military is fully and completely done with him, is his body wheeled out of the morgue, through the locked doors that lead to the mortuary and his waiting family. They dont look real, says a statistician who has a stack of photographs of the corpses; theyre like dolls.

The chief pathologist is tired of answering reporters questions about the psychic toll of his job. Were doctors, he tells Roach with perfect military logic, and these are our patients.
Judy Dempsey is a nonresident senior associate at Carnegie Europe and a contributing columnist for The Posts Global Opinions.

In my childhood, my mother would drive up once a year to Northern Ireland. The main stretch from Dublin up to the border was a slow two-lane road. Ireland was not yet in the E.U. so it didnt have any access to its generous structural and development funds to modernize its poor infrastructure.

Once the security checks at the border crossing were over, we entered what seemed a foreign world. Everything was new and modern from the fast and wide motorway to Belfast to the big department stores offering so much choice. The prices were also low. Britain, not yet in the E.U. either, was heavily subsidizing its Northern Ireland province that in the late 1960s was about to become engulfed in a long sectarian conflict.

After stocking up with an abundance of British goods, we headed back south. The border police checked that we were bona fide shoppers and not smugglers.

During a recent visit to Ireland, I saw how those heavilyfortified border crossings had disappeared; how one could seamlessly crisscross the island; how fighting between the pro-unification Irish Republican Army and the pro-British Ulster Volunteer Force had ended; how the once poisonous relationship between Ireland and Britain had blossomed beyond all recognition into one of trust, confidence and genuine warmth.

All this was because of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement negotiated by former U.S. senator George Mitchell (D-Maine), then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart, Bertie Ahern. That agreement, nurtured all along by President Bill Clinton, brought to Ireland security, prosperity and stability.

But Irish government officials, economists and security experts all agree that those big gains would be jeopardized if on June 23 Britain votes to leave the E.U. You cant underestimate the impact a Brexit would have on security, on the economy and on stability here, said Ben Tonra, head of University College Dublins School of Politics and International Relations.

Take the security issue.

Since curbing immigration has been a major topic of the Brexit campaign, an exit would mean that border controls would be reintroduced between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Forget the idea of young Poles and Estonians, Hungarians and Romanians, or Irish for that matter, living and working in the republic being able to continue commuting to jobs in Northern Ireland.

Theresa Villiers, Britains secretary for Northern Ireland who has joined the Brexit camp, had the nerve to say that in the event of a Brexit the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland would remain unchanged.

Thats simply not true, said an Irish diplomat, who spoke in an interview on condition of anonymity. Border controls of some sort will be introduced. In fact, in strictly legal E.U. terms, Brexit would mean that the Northern Ireland-Irish border would represent an external border to the E.U. As an E.U. member, Ireland would be required to protect its border.

As for trade, a Brexit would mean ending the E.U.s free flow of capital and goods between Ireland and Britain and between Northern Ireland and the republic. Establishing border controls would also mean reintroducing customs controls  as well as smuggling and criminality. Even though Ireland has benefited enormously from joining the E.U. in 1973 (at the same time as Britain) and has diversified its export markets, in Europe Britain is still its biggest trading partner. Hence the economic fallout from Brexit.

A joint report by Irelands Economic and Social Research Institute and the Department of Finance makes sober reading. A Brexit would reduce bilateral trade flows between Ireland and the UK by 20 per cent or more, it states. Bilateral trade at present amounts to 1 billion euros a week (about $1.1 billion). With the expected reduction in trade, economists reckon the negative impact on gross domestic product could be about 1.5 percent. The knock-on effect on an economy slowly emerging from its own euro crisis is easy to see.

Then theres the stability issue.

Brexit would give pro-Europe Scotland the green light to hold another referendum about its future inside the United Kingdom. It would be the unraveling of Britain, a senior Irish diplomat said on condition of anonymity. Scotland would want its say about its future in Europe.

In Northern Ireland, the unionists are split over Britain remaining in the E.U. while Sinn Fein, the political wing of the provisional Irish Republican Army, opposes Brexit. And not only that. Were Brexit to happen, Sinn Fein leader Martin McGuinness said there would be a democratic imperative to allow people on the island of Ireland to vote on reunification.

If Britain votes to leave the European Union then that could have huge implications for the entire island of Ireland and, given all the predictions, would run counter to the democratic wishes of the Irish people, McGuinness said. Irish and British diplomats are extremely nervous if McGuinness pursued that goal. Brexit will change the landscape profoundly, Tonra said.

Over in Brussels, Britons working in E.U. institutions are becoming nervous, too. Desperate to hold onto their jobs  in almost all cases, permanent employees in the institutions must belong to a member state they are applying for Irish passports. The Irish embassy in Brussels has been inundated with applications. And according to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin, requests for Irish passports jumped by 33 percent between 2014 and 2015 with British applications apparently topping the list. And just like my childhood days, if Brexit happens, they will have to endure border controls on the island when they visit their newly adopted country.
The May 27 Politics & The Nation article Amid fiscal crisis in Okla., a legislative smokescreen? pointed to decisions by Oklahomas legislature and governor that affected Oklahomas financial position. It is 100 percent certain that after the next tornado touches down in Oklahoma, the state will touch us for federal emergency funding.

Oklahoma, which voted against President Obama in 2012, sure expects a lot. We will provide those funds (somewhat grudgingly) because we are the United States of America. Oklahomans should remember the federal governments help when they complain about taxation, Washington bureaucracy and Supreme Court decisions they dont like.

Thomas L. Schwarz, Burke
Sitting on the sun-dappled terrace of the House of Lords, watching the Thames flow, Lord Nigel Lawson explains that the June 23 referendum, which he hopes will withdraw Britain from the European Union, was never supposed to happen. It is, he says, the fulfillment of a promise Prime Minister David Cameron expected to be prevented from keeping.

Going into the 2014 general election, Cameron, heading a coalition government with Liberal Democrats, placated anti-E.U. Conservatives by promising a referendum on E.U. membership. He expected that another close election would leave him again heading a coalition, and that he would be able to say, truthfully, that his pro-E.U. Liberal Democrat partners would block a referendum. But his Conservative Party won a large parliamentary majority, inconveniently liberating Cameron from the constraints of a coalition and leaving him with an awkward promise to keep.

Full of years, 84 of them, and fight, Lawson has spent 42 years on the Thames embankment, as a member of both houses. He is impatient with the proposition that it is progress to transfer to supra-national institutions decisionmaking that belongs in Britains Parliament.

When Britain votes on whether to withdraw from the E.U., it will be deciding for or against the constraints of deepening involvement with a political entity born from cultural despair about Europes past and complacency about a European future of diminishing social dynamism and political democracy. Britain will consciously choose between alternative national destinies that Americans are less consciously choosing between by their smaller choices that cumulatively subordinate them to a vast, opaque and unaccountable administrative state.

Cameron says leaving the E.U. is unnecessary because Britain has rejected membership in the euro-zone currency and is not bound by the E.U.s open-borders policy. Advocates of Brexit reply that if the common currency and open borders, both crucial attributes of the E.U., are defects, why remain?

Cameron says leaving the E.U. would be imprudent for security reasons. Wielding the fallacy of the false alternative, he says those who favor leaving the E.U. favor going it alone and isolationism. They respond that Britain out of the E.U. would remain Europes foremost military power. When Cameron recalls war in the Balkans and genocide on our continent in Srebrenica, Leave advocates note that the E.U. had nothing to do with suppressing this, which fell to NATO and especially the United States, neither of which would be diminished by Britain leaving the E.U.

Cameron invokes the serried rows of white headstones on British graves in military cemeteries on the continent as a silent testament to the price that this country has paid to help restore peace and order in Europe. Historian Andrew Roberts tartly responds that the British war dead fought for British independence and sovereignty, not for European unification.

The Remain camp correctly says that Britain is richer and more rationally governed than when European unification began. The Leave camp, however, correctly responds that this is largely in spite of the E.U.  it is because of decisions made by British governments, particularly Margaret Thatchers, in what is becoming a shrinking sphere of national autonomy.

In 1988, Thatcher said: We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels. Stressing Britains European credentials, she also said our maps still trace the straight lines of the roads the Romans built. But todays Leavers, who carry the torch of Thatcherism, do not favor straight lines drawn by foreigners. They prefer G.K. Chestertons celebration of spontaneous, unplanned cultural particularities:

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,

The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.

In politics, sensibility is prior to and inseparable from philosophy. The referendum will record, among other things, the strength of the revulsion many people here feel about a multiculturalism that celebrates every permutation of identity  except that of nationality. This is a transatlantic revulsion.

What Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an Irish American and Anglophile, called the liberal expectancy is the belief that the rise of reason and science would mean the waning of pre-modern forces such as religion, ethnicity and even nationality, which would be regarded as an anachronistic tribalism. British voters, who may be as weary as many Americans are of constantly being told that they cannot turn back the clock and that historys centralizing ratchet has clicked irreversibly too many times, might soon say otherwise.

Read more from George F. Wills archive or follow him on Facebook.
Stuart Karle is a partner and general counsel of North Base Media, a venture capital firm. He was general counsel of the Wall Street Journal from 2004 to 2008.

Silicon Valley drives the future, but at the moment one of its more prominent members is getting attention for dragging us back to Alabama circa 1960.

Peter Thiel, a brilliant entrepreneur in the overlapping worlds of information and technology, hasnt simply admitted to financing a litigation campaign intended to destroy a widely read news site  Gawker  hes bragged about it. In an interview with the New York Times, Thiel described underwriting lawsuits alleging defamation and invasion of privacy against Gawker as one of my greater philanthropic things that Ive done.

Thiels tactics in fact resemble nothing so much as the legal maneuvers white racists used to threaten the Northern press with ruin if it continued to cover the violent official response to efforts to desegregate the South in the 1950s and 60s.

Peter Thiel, tech billionaire and co-founder of PayPal, spent $10 million dollars helping Hulk Hogan win his case against Gawker Media. (Daron Taylor,Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

On March 29, 1960, the Times published an advertisement describing the unprecedented wave of terror by Southern officials trying to shut down protests by black students. Although the harsh criticism was accurate, the ad contained a number of factual inaccuracies.

Five Alabama elected officials filed libel actions against the Times over the advertisement, demanding a total of $3 million in damages for the harm it supposedly inflicted. This represented a remarkable sum at a time the newspapers own lawyer was told it was barely making a profit.

The Alabama officials sued knowing victory was almost guaranteed. First, they relied on defamation laws that required publishers to prove the literal truth of even minor factual assertions in articles and that presumed damage to reputation without any proof of harm. Second, they sued in state court, counting on judges and jurors invested in maintaining segregation, or at least irritated with the interlopers from the Northern press, to rule for them.

Theirs was not an isolated claim. They were part of a campaign by Southern officials that ultimately sought some $300 million in damages for libel, making coverage of the civil rights movement so expensive that news organizations would have to stop or risk bankruptcy.

In overturning the Alabama courts and ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court established a high bar. It held that public officials could recover damages for false and defamatory statements involving their official duties only if they could prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that the media knowingly lied or acted in reckless disregard of the truth.

The justices intended that high bar, later expanded to include public figures, to eliminate the threat of the kind of campaign attempted by Southern officials using the defamation laws to silence the independent presss coverage of the realities of segregation. As Justice Hugo Black stated in a concurring opinion, This technique for harassing and punishing a free press  now that it has been shown to be possible . . . can be used in other fields where public feelings may make local as well as out-of-state newspapers easy prey for libel verdict seekers.

The justices thereby anticipated Thiel, though not his willingness to spend untold sums  in the sense of both amount and secrecy. With the goal of depriving Gawker of cash to run its business, it doesnt matter whether Gawkers money is spent on damages or legal bills. Either way, the money cant be spent covering the stories that Thiel believes unworthy.

Criticism of Gawker and other media for coverage that is inaccurate or probes too deeply into someones private life is fair  even if reasonable minds could differ on both counts. Yet with Thiel secretly footing the bills, the playing field was tilted. His chosen plaintiffs did not have to spend their own money prosecuting their claims, subsidized to the tune of $10 million.

Meanwhile, Gawker and its owners confronted the threat of being bankrupted by legal bills and ensuing damages. Wrestler Hulk Hogans $140 million verdict is highly unlikely to hold up on appeal, but even so the damage to Gawker is immense.

For Thiel, anonymity was useful. He didnt look like an obsessive hunting Gawker as Ahab hunted his whale. Yet that same anonymity prevented the judge overseeing the case from understanding that the scorched-earth litigation tactics unfolding in the case were advancing Thiels hidden agenda.

The powerful have always done their best to discourage an independent press from scrutinizing their behavior. Centuries ago libeling the king would lead to drawing and quartering; libel the aristocracy, and you were sure to lose.

One may sympathize with Thiel and Hogan when the media either behaves badly or publishes stories that seem unfair. And the business of Silicon Valley is unlikely to produce the human rights abuses in the South exposed by the Northern press.

But a concerted legal campaign by a powerful man to force a publisher to spend all its money on legal fees explicitly because that man wants to drive that publisher out of business deserves as much scorn when done by a tech mogul as when done by racist officials who embodied one of the more tragic aspects of our history.
Donald Trumps highly personal, racially tinged attacks on a federal judge overseeing a pair of lawsuits against him have set off a wave of alarm among legal experts, who worry that the Republican presidential candidates vendetta signals a remarkable disregard for judicial independence.

That attitude, many argue, could carry constitutional implications if Trump becomes president.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is handling two class-action lawsuits against Trump University in San Diego, has emerged as a central target for Trump and his supporters in recent weeks. The enmity only escalated after Curiel ordered the release of embarrassing internal documents detailing predatory marketing practices at the for-profit educational venture; that case is set to go to trial after the November election.

I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. Hes a hater, Trump said at a campaign rally in San Diego, adding that he believed the Indiana-born judge was Mexican.

He also suggested taking action against the judge after the election: They ought to look into Judge Curiel, because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace. Okay? But we will come back in November. Wouldnt that be wild if I am president and come back and do a civil case? Where everybody likes it. Okay. This is called life, folks.

Donald Trump is being sued by former customers of Trump University. Here's everything you need to know about the ill-fated business venture. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

The courtroom proceedings come with high stakes for Trump, whose likely tough general-election fight against Hillary Clinton will leave him open to intense scrutiny of his character, business practices and temperament. Clinton said Wednesday that the Trump University allegations are just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud.

Trumps strikingly personal attacks on Curiel are highly unusual and have prompted questions about how he would react to adverse judicial decisions should he become president. Trumps remarks also stand out because he has a personal financial stake in the case.

Having a presidential candidate embroiled in litigation totally unrelated to the political system . . . that is what is so novel about this. And then you add to this the personal criticism, said Arthur Hellman, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Its personal all the way, and thats what makes this different.

Conflicts between the courts and the political branches are common and, to some degree, expected. The Constitution mandates lifetime tenure for federal judges who serve in good behavior and protects them against recrimination by forbidding that their salaries be diminished.

Judicial appointments are among a presidents most lasting legacies, and in the current presidential campaign, candidates from both parties have gone beyond the comfort level of many legal experts by issuing litmus tests. On the Democratic side, Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) have said overturning the Supreme Courts controversial Citizens United ruling should be a priority, while Republican candidates went after Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. for his votes upholding the Affordable Care Act.

President Obama prompted outrage among conservatives in 2010 when he blasted the Citizens United ruling in his State of the Union address. Republican members of Congress criticized the president for attacking the decision with members of the court seated just feet away from him, while Democrats defended the comments as within the bounds of policy debate.

Trumps attacks on Curiel stand out for their personal nature, for the racial remarks and for the suggestion by a potential president that someone ought to look into the judge.

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.

Charles Gardner Geyh, a professor at Indiana Universitys Maurer School of Law, said he has no problem with presidents or presidential candidates criticizing judges or judicial decisions. But, he said, theres a line between disagreement and sort of throwing the judiciary under the bus that I think is at issue here.

One of Trumps earlier jeremiads came in February, when he told Fox News that Curiel was biased against him because of his controversial immigration comments and proposals, including his promises to build a giant wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

I think it has to do with perhaps the fact that Im very, very strong on the border, Trump said then. Now, he is Hispanic, I believe. He is a very hostile judge to me.

Trump returned to ethnicity at last weeks San Diego rally, where he erroneously suggested Curiel was from Mexico: The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think thats fine. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, okay?

Curiel, who through his office declined to comment, was born in East Chicago, Ind., and is a 1979 graduate of the Indiana University law school. He gained acclaim prosecuting drug traffickers along the Tijuana corridor and was reportedly targeted for assassination by the Felix cartel; he joined the federal bench in 2012 after being nominated by Obama.

Katrina Pierson, a spokeswoman for Trump, has expanded on the accusations of bias, wrongly suggesting Curiel is part of a group organizing protests at Trump rallies around California. Curiel is a member of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association, a professional group that she appeared to confuse with the National Council of La Raza, an advocacy group.

Luis Osuna, the president of the lawyers association, said the group is not an advocacy group and supports candidates on both sides of the aisle. He said Trumps attempts to discredit Curiel should give voters serious pause, not least because his comments reduce Hispanics in the legal profession to their heritage.

Every time there is a comment like this, it is disheartening, Osuna said. It is not, unfortunately, surprising, given the source of the comments. But it displays a complete lack of understanding of the role that we have as attorneys and judges and the role that we have in upholding the Constitution.

Hes definitely using it as a dog whistle to his supporters, he added. Obviously, I dont know what is in his heart. I can only judge based on the way he has acted in the past, but this has been a recurring theme in his campaign.

Trump is not without recourse if he thinks that Curiel has engaged in misconduct. Russell Wheeler, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Trump could file a complaint with the federal court of appeals. He said Trump would have to provide evidence that Curiel was biased in his behavior against the real estate mogul and could then proceed with a disqualification motion. Wheeler said Trump could also ask Curiel to recuse himself from the case because of a lack of impartiality. If Curiel declined, Trump could file an appeal.

But Wheeler added that, based on what he has seen, Curiel has been nothing but fair in this case.

As part of the ongoing class-action lawsuit against Trump University that he is overseeing, Curiel ordered the release of internal documents that showed Trump played a key role in the marketing for the business and how staff members were guided to push customers to purchase expensive follow-ups costing up to $35,000 after taking free introductory courses.

The order came in response to a request by The Washington Post, which argued that Trumps presidential bid made the documents a matter of public interest. In the order, Curiel said that Trump had placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue.

Robert Barnes contributed to this report.
.  President Obama on Wednesday used this manufacturing city, which he visited during the depths of the Great Recession, as the backdrop to defend his economic policies, attack Republican opponents and seize a more prominent role in the contentious campaign to replace him.

His sleeves rolled up and his voice rising, Obama cast his speech as an intervention on behalf of working Americans who were being misled by Republican rhetoric and ideas. Dont think this agenda is going to help you, he said. It is not designed to help you.

He slammed the Republican message as anti-government, anti-immigrant, anti-trade and, lets face it, anti-change.

When Obama first came to Elkhart in 2009, he was trying to sell his economic stimulus package and was working hard to win over skeptical Republicans. He was just 21 days into his presidency and sounded like a local politician, promising a new downtown overpass for Elkhart, money for the local schools and extra cash to help weatherize homes.

Nearly eight years later and nearing the end of his second term, Obama was in full campaign mode during his appearance at a high school here. I came here precisely because this county votes Republican, he said, although the high school gym where he spoke was packed almost entirely with cheering supporters.

President Obama delivered the commencement address for Rutgers University on Sunday, May 15. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

His aim, he said, was to bust this myth of crazy, liberal government spending. Obama noted that the deficit shrank during his presidency. He argued for a major trade deal that he negotiated with a large bloc of Asian Pacific allies, which has been criticized by both the major Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

No matter how many trade wars we say we are going to put in place, that is not going to help middle-class families here, Obama said.

He called for immigration reform and insisted that deporting 11 million immigrants in the country illegally was a fantasy that wouldnt do anything to help the middle class.

He castigated Republicans for criticizing regulations imposed on Wall Street after the economic crash. Have we really forgotten what happened just eight years ago? he said, whipping up the crowd. Why would you do that? Less oversight on Wall Street would only make another crisis more likely.

In an election dominated by anti-establishment anger, he criticized what he called the Republican Partys cult of small government.

The primary story that Republicans have been telling about the economy is not supported by the facts, but they say it anyway, Obama said. I hope you dont mind me being blunt about this.

On issues including trade, taxes, health care, education and the environment, Obama said that Republican policies have hurt working Americans over the past seven years. When Obama briefly mentioned Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, the crowd booed.

No, dont boo him; were voting, Obama said.

He blasted Trumps tax plan, saying that it would explode our deficit by more than $10 trillion and disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.

I am not making this stuff up, he said.

During the last recession, Elkharts unemployment rate peaked at nearly 20 percent, making it among the most battered cities in the country. On his return trip Wednesday, the president touted Elkhart as proof that his economic cure had taken hold. The unemployment rate has fallen to less than 4 percent, high school graduations are up, and mortgage foreclosures have fallen.

Republicans said the gains had come in spite of the presidents efforts. Even before Obama arrived, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) said that Elkhart had succeeded by lowering taxes and cutting regulation, bucking Washington and the White House.

Neither Obama nor Pence spoke of the citys lingering weaknesses. Elkhart has climbed from the depths of the Great Recession, but like many areas of the United States it has not recovered all the ground it lost. In April, the Elkhart metropolitan area employed about 2,500 fewer workers than it did in January of 2008, a 2 percent drop, according to according to Labor Department statistics. In the past year, the citys labor market lost ground, shedding 1,000 jobs from March 2015 to March of this year, driven by a 5 percent drop in manufacturing employment.

On his first trip to Elkhart, Obama warned that endless delay or paralysis in Washington would threaten his recovery plan. As he nears the end of his presidency, he urged voters to end the gridlock at the ballot box.

So thats it, Elkhart, he said. Thats the choice you face . . . If we get cynical and just vote our fears, or dont vote at all, we wont build on the progress weve started.
Hillary Clinton lacerated Donald Trump in a much-anticipated foreign policy speech Thursday, effectively launching her general-election campaign by declaring him temperamentally unfit to lead the most powerful nation in the world.

In an address that signaled clearly how she plans to defeat Trump in November, Clinton did not delve into the details of her own policies but focused instead on how she views his shortcomings. She framed the real estate magnate with contempt and mockery, and she rejected the central tenet of his campaign  that America is no longer great.

Donald Trumps ideas arent just different  they are dangerously incoherent, Clinton said. Theyre not really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.

Though Clinton still faces a series of final primary contests against Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, she all but declared that the nominating contest is behind her by delivering a 35-minute speech litigating Trumps qualifications to be president.

She said Trump, against whom she is tightly matched in the latest national polls, is too cavalier about the history of American leadership and responsibility abroad  and too admiring of dictators. He has no regard, she said, for the countrys strategic alliances across the globe and the role they play keeping Americans safe.

At a speech in San Diego, Hillary Clinton said electing Republican rival Donald Trump would be "a historic mistake." Here are key moments from her speech. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)

Moscow and Beijing are deeply envious of our alliances around the world, because they have nothing to match them, she said. Theyd love for us to elect a president who would jeopardize that source of strength. If Donald gets his way, theyll be celebrating in the Kremlin. We cannot let that happen.

Clinton used the speech to display her easy command of the history and context of American foreign policy and her fluency with the main themes likely to matter to voters this year: terrorism, Russian ambitions, Chinese and North Korean military expansion, Mideast turbulence.

She dismissed Trump statements on subjects such as the NATO alliance and threats from Russia and North Korea. She played Trumps assertions about climate change for laughs.

But mostly, Clinton presented a sort of courtroom closing argument for why Trump should not be the leader of the worlds largest military and caretaker of an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Often, she did so with biting sarcasm.

This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes  because its not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin, she said.

Clinton also sneered at Trumps Twitter habit, correctly predicting that he would use the social-media platform to attack her during her speech.

We all know the tools Donald Trump brings to the table: bragging, mocking, composing nasty tweets, she said. Im willing to bet hes writing a few right now.

1 of 10 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  10 celebrities who say theyll leave the U.S. if Donald Trump is elected president View Photos From Jon Stewart to Cher, some said theyd move to Canada, but some preferred another planet. Caption From Jon Stewart to Cher, some said theyd move to Canada, but some preferred another planet. Jon Stewart After the Emmy Awards in September, Stewart was asked whether hed consider returning to "The Daily Show" if Donald Trump is elected president in 2016. I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet because clearly this planet has gone bonkers," he said. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

As she spoke, Trump was firing off a series of tweets, including this one: Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton! Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesnt even look presidential!

At a Thursday evening rally in San Jose, Trump called Clintons speech pathetic and sad to watch.

It was a political speech  had nothing to do with foreign policy, Trump said.

Clinton invoked Trumps own words as her main weapon to demonstrate his unfitness for the job. Its a likely preview of how she will use what backers think is her best offensive weapon against Trump  his tendency to say and do things that look unpresidential.

One by one, Clinton recited a long list of Trumps statements on foreign policy issues. Her campaign followed up afterward by blasting out more than three dozen distinct Trump quotations that Clinton had alluded to, with the subject line: Trump Literally Said All Those Things.

He has said he doesnt have to listen to our generals and ambassadors, because he has quote a very good brain,  Clinton said. He has said, I know more about the ISIS than the generals  believe me. 

You know what, I dont believe him, she added. Those are the words, my friends, of someone who doesnt understand America or the world, and theyre the words of someone who would lead us in the wrong direction.

Clinton also did something that Trumps Republican opponents had largely failed to do during their brutal primary season: She took on Trumps portrayal of the United States as a country in decline.

It is a theme that Trump staked ownership of early, filing an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office just six days after the 2012 presidential election for rights to the phrase Make America Great Again.

America is great  just like weve always been, Clinton declared. We can be greater still.

Clinton is freer to make that case than Trumps erstwhile Republican rivals, who like Trump were arguing that President Obama had harmed the nation. But Clinton may also have learned from one of Obamas mistakes early in his presidency, when he spoke dismissively of the idea of American exceptionalism.

More than a dozen American flags hung behind Clinton as she spoke before a small audience of invited guests in a ballroom at San Diegos Balboa Park. Before the speech, a recording of the iconic march Stars and Stripes Forever replaced the usual playlist of girl-power anthems such as Katy Perrys Roar that usually precede Clinton events.

Trump had sought to rebut Clinton before she even spoke, spending parts of the previous two days criticizing his likely opponents temperament and legacy as secretary of state.

Shes one of the worst secretaries of state in the history of our country, Trump said Wednesday at a campaign stop in Sacramento. Now she wants to be our president? Look, Ill be honest, she has no natural talent to be president.

Her speech, Trump said, would be full of such lies.

Just ahead of the address Trump tweeted, Crooked Hillary, who I would love to call Lyin Hillary, is getting ready to totally misrepresent my foreign policy positions.

[Hispanic RNC staffers resignation spotlights Trumps toxicity ]

Trump criticized Clintons support for the Iraq War when she was a senator and military intervention in Libya when she was secretary of state, policies he also supported. Her Middle East policies as secretary of state left the region worse off, Trump asserted. He said she was sleeping during the siege of a U.S. diplomatic post and a CIA site in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans in the closing months of her State Department tenure.

Iraq became a main reason for Clintons loss to Obama in 2008. She struggled to defend her support for the American-led invasion at a time when the war was widely considered a quagmire.

Although it has faded as a central campaign issue eight years later, both Trump and Sanders have sought to use her vote as evidence of poor decision-making. Clinton tried to neutralize the issue ahead of this campaign by writing in her State Department memoir that her support had been a mistake she regrets.

Clinton did not mention Sanders in her speech, but it came as she is trying to avoid an embarrassing loss to him in Californias primary on Tuesday. Several polls, including two out Thursday, put Clinton just two points ahead of Sanders in the nations most diverse state. Thats within the margin of error, meaning she is tied here  and has to mount a barnstorming effort in the closing days before the primary.

Not to be ignored, Sanders released a statement co-signing on Clintons critique of Trump but sharply criticizing her for not thinking through the consequences of her support for the Iraq War and for regime change in Libya. We need a foreign policy based on building coalitions and making certain that the brave American men and women in our military do not get bogged down in perpetual warfare in the Middle East, Sanders said.

Although she is widely expected to secure the Democratic nomination the same day, when five other states also hold primaries, a loss in California would highlight a central weakness for Clinton  a lack of enthusiastic support from her partys liberal base and young voters  and potentially hobble her as she enters the general election in earnest.

[What the documentary Weiner tells us about Huma Abedin]

Even before Thursday, Clinton and her allies had stepped up the intensity and tempo of attacks on Trump, on foreign and domestic issues. In New Jersey on Wednesday, Clinton hammered Trump and labeled him a fraud over the legal controversy surrounding his now-defunct Trump University.

He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U., she said.

Her tenure as secretary of state may be a target for Trump, but Clinton also believes it is her shield. As secretary of state, her approval rating hit an all-time high of 66 percent, according to a long-running Gallup poll.

Her campaign trotted out a Web video highlighting a range of endorsements of her tenure at the State Department from military and diplomatic figures, including Obama.

Perhaps no Clinton allys foray into the 2016 presidential arena is longer awaited than that of Obama, who has increasingly tiptoed into presidential politics in recent days. Speaking in Elkhart, Ind., on Wednesday at a town-hall event hosted by PBS, the president excoriated Trump over foreign policy, echoing themes Clinton would expound on in San Diego the next day.

He just says, Im going to negotiate a better deal. Well how? How exactly are you going to negotiate that? Obama said. What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesnt have an answer.

Ari Fleischer, a spokesman and aide in the Republican White House of President George W. Bush, said the general election will pit Clintons steadiness against Trumps more unorthodox positions on foreign policy, especially his opposition to interventionism.

Her strength is her temperament: She is so cautious, so scripted, that she wont scare people in the knee-jerk way that Donald Trump can scare people, he said. Trump, on the other hand, risks knee-jerk scaring people, but hes against so many of the interventions that many of the American people themselves are against  its a real fair fight.

Phillip and Tumulty reported from Washington.
With important decisions on abortion, affirmative action and immigration looming, the Supreme Courts two most consistent liberals spoke out this week  about food.

At a Smithsonian event Wednesday night, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg issued a sharp dissent to a former colleagues habit of bringing yogurt  just plain yogurt  to the justices luncheons. Justice Sonia Sotomayor crossed ideological lines to declare that the leftovers Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. brings from home always look delicious.

As a strange Supreme Court term profoundly altered by the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia grinds to a close this month, it would be tempting to say that such observations pass for news these days at the Marble Palace.

[Reality of divided Supreme Court: Deadlock and search for compromise]

It is dangerous to predict the courts future, of course, but all indications point to a muted finale.

Certainly, it seems different from last years conclusion, when the court in a series of bold if divided rulings upheld the use of lethal injection, saved the Affordable Care Act (again) and found a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry.

The talk this term is not of muscle but flexibility.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the ideologically divided eight are spending more time seeking consensus.

We kind of have to have a commitment as a group, Roberts told a conference of judges and lawyers last week. I think we spend a fair amount of time  maybe a little more than others in the past  talking about things, talking them out. It sometimes brings you a bit closer together.

Undoubtedly true. But in two of the courts major cases this term, the justices did not coalesce; they punted.

The court said it was deadlocked on the question of whether public employees were deprived of their First Amendment protections by being required to contribute to unions. Conservative groups that brought the challenge have asked the justices to reconsider.

[Supreme Court cant reach agreement on union dispute]

And the court sent a slew of lawsuits challenging the Affordable Care Acts contraceptive-coverage requirement back to the lower courts.

In a highly unusual move, the justices asked the objectors and the Obama administration to consider a compromise  and then optimistically concluded that, given more time, consensus was possible. The unsigned opinion, and a concurring opinion by Sotomayor and Ginsburg, took pains to point out that the justices had decided nothing about the law.

This week, the court issued one unanimous ruling  it involved peat mining. The justices decided not to decide whether the death penalty might be unconstitutional. The court added one case to next years docket, which is both understocked and relatively free of controversy.

Legal experts speculate that the court is reluctant to accept cases. It doesnt know whether President Obamas nominee to replace Scalia, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Merrick Garland, will be confirmed, or if oral arguments in the term that begins in October will still be heard by only eight justices.

[Scalias death affecting next term, too?]

Whether the court is seriously hampered or simply experiencing a dose of humility is the question of the day.

As the U.S. Supreme Court enters the last month of its term, the impact of having only eight justices already is clear, Erwin Chemerinsky, law dean at the University of California at Irvine, wrote in the ABA Journal. Some of the most high-profile cases of the year are not being decided, or perhaps even worse, are being resolved on narrow grounds that create more confusion than clarity in the law.

Conservatives say that it is hardly dire if the court has to compromise and decide cases narrowly. And some justices, too, take a broad view. We may divide 4-4 in four or five cases, we may not, liberal Justice Stephen G. Breyer said recently.

At this point in the term, decisions still could be up in the air. Justices assigned to write majority opinions are on deadline to begin circulating them, to see whether they attract the needed support.

The justices have heard 24 cases that still need to be decided before breaking camp at the end of the month.

Abortion, affirmative action and Obamas plan to shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation are on that list. So is the fate of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell, who is contesting his conviction on federal corruption charges.

[Supreme Court justices seem skeptical of McDonnell conviction]

Without Scalia, it is hard to foresee sweeping conservative victories; none of the courts four liberals showed signs of defection when the important cases were argued.

A deadlock in the abortion case would leave in place restrictions that have closed a majority of clinics in Texas but would not set a national precedent. Likewise, a tie in the immigration case would end Obamas attempt to carry out the plan but not that of a future Democratic president.

There is no chance of a deadlock in the affirmative action case. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case examining the long-running saga involving the University of Texass use of race in selecting some members of its freshman class, so seven justices will make the decision.

But a four-member majority might be reluctant to stray far from the particulars of the unique Texas system.

[Eight not a good number for Supreme Court, Ginsburg says]

Ginsburg has been the lone member of the court to complain about the effects of the Scalia vacancy. She told lawyers and judges recently that the courts work was being hampered.

When we meet at the circuit conference next year, she told a group gathered in New York, I anticipate reporting on the decisions of a full bench.
A protester is taken away by security from a Donald Trump rally on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, Calif. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Hispanic Republicans and conservatives are increasingly anguished over whether they can remain involved in this years presidential election as Donald Trump continues to launch attacks on prominent Latinos and makes little effort to win their support.

Many Hispanics active in national GOP politics have been hoping for months that Trump would tone down his broadsides against immigrants and begin delivering a more welcoming, accepting message to minorities.

But amid fresh attacks by Trump on Hispanic figures, there is little evidence that such a change is coming  leading some to abandon the presidential race or the 2016 elections altogether. Just this week, the Hispanic media spokeswoman at the Republican National Committee left her job for a super PAC because she could no longer stomach defending Trump.

If youre a Hispanic holding your breath and hoping for Donald Trump to get better in his outreach to Latinos, youre going to die of asphyxia, said Ana Navarro, a conservative strategist strongly opposed to Trump.

The unhappiness among many Latino GOP members only adds to the Republican Partys broader problems in attracting Hispanics and other minorities, who make up an increasingly large part of the electorate and were crucial to President Obamas two election victories. Their isolation also comes as most of the GOP establishment, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.) on Thursday, has rallied around Trump.

1 of 13 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  How Mexicans are reacting to Trumps rhetoric View Photos Politicians, comedians, artists and developers hit back at Trumps inflammatory speech. Caption Politicians, comedians, artists and developers hit back at Trumps inflammatory speech. Oct. 3, 2015 Mexican comedians put on a play called Los Hijos de Trump, or Sons of Trump." In this play, Trump and his golden-haired carbon copies steal from the blind and bribe the police. The play was adapted from another play, a satire on big spenders, "Brokers." Henry Romero/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

Trump has derided Mexican immigrants as rapists and killers and built his candidacy around vows to build a giant border wall, deport 11 million illegal immigrants and temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country.

In the past week, he has lashed out at Susana Martinez of New Mexico, the nations only female Hispanic governor, and has accused the Indiana-born judge hearing a fraud case against him, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, of being a Mexican who is biased because of Trumps immigration policies. On Tuesday at a news conference in New York, Trump singled out two Hispanic network television reporters for criticism, calling ABCs Tom Llamas a sleaze and CNNs Jim Acosta a real beauty.

[Trumps personal, racially tinged attacks on federal judge alarm legal experts]

Mario Lopez, president of the conservative Hispanic Leadership Fund, said major Latino GOP activists and contributors are in a very difficult situation because of Trumps rhetoric and positions.

Just when someone thinks that they can begin to maybe start thinking about coming on board, Trump goes and attacks that judge for being Mexican, he said. Hes actually an American citizen born in the United States, but the applause line is this guy is Mexican. Hes not giving people a lot of outs.

On Wednesday, Ruth Guerra, the RNCs Hispanic media communications director, stepped down to join the American Action Network, a conservative group that supports GOP congressional candidates. She will be replaced by Helen Aguirre Ferre, a former Univision radio talk-show host and TV analyst who advised former Florida governor Jeb Bushs presidential campaign and has been critical of Trump.

Guerra did not respond to multiple requests for comment. But the dichotomy of being a Republican paid to support a candidate who is attacking Hispanics on a regular basis proved too much for her, according to people familiar with her thinking.

A GOP operative who has worked on Hispanic outreach said that other Latino Republicans are looking to see if the candidate is going to evolve, adding that Guerras decision to go was fair.

Its an honor to work with conservative members of Congress and candidates, because its a cause that we believe in, said the operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution. But if the candidate doesnt reflect some of those principles and values, then waking up in the morning, meeting deadlines, being creative and standing in the gap for the candidate becomes difficult.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who supports Trump, said in a CNN interview Thursday that the candidates criticisms of Martinez was a big mistake. He also warned that Trumps comments about Latinos could cause them to flee the GOP, just as black voters left the party when it nominated Barry Goldwater in 1964.

Daniel Garza, executive director of the Libre Initiative, a group funded by philanthropists Charles and David Koch to promote free-market principles to Latino voters, said he is less concerned with personality or charisma and more concerned with a candidates policy positions. The group will concentrate on Senate races in the fall.

I think the very legitimate question that every Latino has to ask themselves is given how unfiltered he is, given what he has said and the harsh positions hes taken on immigration, are you willing to forsake 80 percent of issue alignment with one candidate because you disagree with 10 or 20 percent of what he says? Garza said.

[Even in victory, Donald Trump cant stop airing his grievances]

A Washington Post-ABC News poll published in May found that 84 percent of Hispanics view Trump unfavorably  despite his claims that Latinos will support his candidacy.

Compared with similar points in previous election cycles, Trump trails previous GOP presidential candidates by wide margins. In the spring of 2012, 50 percent of Hispanics had an unfavorable view of Mitt Romney, the partys presidential nominee, according to polls taken at the time. In 2008, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) was viewed unfavorably by just 44 percent of Hispanics.

Alfonso Aguilar, a Hispanic conservative activist who knows Guerra and Aguirre Ferre, said Wednesday night that it will continue to be a challenge for any Latino Republican to defend Trump.

You can have all the Helens you want, but if the candidate continues with his rhetoric and proposals, youre not going to win Latinos, he said. Theres a problem in terms of tone and policy. Its going to be tough for Helen  I dont know how you do it.

Aguirre Ferre said in a statement issued by the RNC that she is eager to make the case to the Hispanic community why Republican ideas and values are the way forward for our country after eight years of an Obama agenda which has failed all Americans.

But she frequently slammed Trump in the past year on Spanish-language TV programs and on Twitter.

Appearing May 8 on Univisions Al Punto, a Sunday public affairs program hosted by the networks anchor Jorge Ramos, she agreed with other panelists that a segment of the Republican Party will not unite around Trump because they dont consider Trump to be a real conservative. On the same program in April, she said that Trumps attacks on female journalists such as Megyn Kelly of Fox News make women feel uncomfortable.

Last August on Mega TVs Ahora con Oscar Haza, she criticized Trump for his extremely offensive attack on Bushs wife. Trump had retweeted an offensive comment about Columba Bush, who was born in Mexico.

In an email, Aguirre Ferre said nothing about Trump in response to questions about her past criticism, reiterating that she is eager to remind Hispanics that Hillary Clinton offers a third term of the Obama administration and those policies have been a failure. We cant afford another Clinton/Obama presidency.

Three years ago, bruised by Romneys loss to Obama, the RNC commissioned a study to determine how to improve its outreach to minority voters. The 100-page report urged Republicans to support comprehensive immigration reform, to focus less on social issues and to build stronger relationships with minority communities.

Three years later, everything issued in that report has been ignored, said Al Cardenas, a prominent conservative leader and longtime GOP fundraiser from Miami.

Cardenas said he exchanged text messages with Aguirre Ferre about her new job Wednesday.

I wished her well, he said. Youve got to wish a friend well in their new endeavors. This is about as challenging a task as any.

Scott Clement and Emily Guskin contributed to this report.
President Obama on Thursday defended his foreign policy and warned against a strain of isolationism that has recently taken hold in American politics.

During a commencement speech delivered at the U.S. Air Force Academy here, Obama singled out for criticism those who have suggested that the United States is in decline or that its military has grown weaker. Heres a fact: The United States of America remains the most powerful nation on Earth and a force for good, he said.

The president made clear that his concerns about American overreach and his caution when it comes to deploying U.S. ground troops does not signal a hesitation to defend the country. Beginning with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Obama read off a list of terrorist leaders who have been killed on his watch in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia, Libya and Yemen. He concluded with the death of Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, the Taliban leader killed last month in a drone strike in Pakistan.

All gone, he said of those he had ordered killed. The list goes on. Because if you target America, we will find you and we will defend our nation.

Much of his speech described U.S. global obligations and the limits of American military power. The president described the large crowds during his visit last week to Vietnam, with people lining the streets in Hanoi and waving American flags to greet his motorcade. And he spoke of the never-ending demands on American leadership in a world where terrorism, disease and climate change pose real threats.

He criticized Republicans who he said have come to view every treaty as a threat to American sovereignty, and he cautioned against calls from Donald Trump, the likely Republican presidential nominee, to renegotiate or withdraw from trade deals.

We can not turn inward. We cannot give in to isolationism, Obama said. That is a false comfort.

[Obama defends his economic stewardship, blasts Republicans and Trump]

Obama came to office promising to end American involvement in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but as he nears the end of his second term, the United States is still fighting al-Qaeda and the metastasizing Islamic State in countries around the globe.

But gone are the days of large numbers of U.S. troops patrolling villages in Afghanistan and Iraq or trying to rebuild those fractured countries. Today there are fewer than 15,000 American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, down from 180,000 when Obama took office.

The president has ordered his commanders to fight largely from the air, striking Islamic State and al-Qaeda terrorists and militants with drones and attack planes. On the ground, American forces have concentrated on training and advising local forces. In some cases, especially when American lives are threatened, he has ordered commandos to carry out raids.

The strategy has produced mixed results. American military power has helped local Iraqi army forces and Syrian rebels take back ground from Islamic State fighters, but the small contingent of advisers has not been able to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe on the ground or address the political grievances driving the conflict.

Obama described the suffering in Iraq and Syria as heart-rending and gut-wrenching.

As a father, I look at Syrias children and see my own, he said.

But he said that deploying large numbers of U.S. ground troops to establish safe zones or to try to stop the killing would not be effective or in the Unites States interests. He told the Air Force cadets that as military leaders they needed to be both hardheaded about the limits of American power and big-hearted about the suffering in the world.

Our foreign policy has to be strong, he said, but it also has to be smart.
Clouds of black smoke rise after an artillery strike is seen from a rebel-held position called Shakhta on March 31 near Avdiivka, Ukraine. At left, in the distance, a tall smokestack marks the location of a water-filtration plant caught in the crossfire. (Pete Kiehart/For The Washington Post)

Land mines and sniper fire, tank traps and unexploded shells have shut down Highway 20, the main artery into eastern Ukraines separatist stronghold of Donetsk. But despite the upheavals caused by two years of war, ordinary life along the route has struggled on.

As violence surges again, that could change.

One building near the desolate arc of tarmac is a water-filtration plant, staffed by 117 Ukrainian engineers and others. Hundreds of thousands of civilians on both sides of the front line depend on this crucial public utility, a symbol of resilience in an intractable conflict that has cost more than 9,000 lives.

Now, international cease-fire observers warn, renewed fighting between Ukraines army and Russian-backed separatists in the area threatens to destroy the plant, potentially triggering environmental havoc and a humanitarian emergency.

Although the war generates few headlines these days, ongoing hostilities remain deeply troubling to many, from civilians on the ground to leaders in the West. Last week, President Obama urged members of the Group of Seven to resolve the situation in Ukraine, admonishing, Were still seeing too much violence.

A soldier smokes cigarettes in their underground sleeping quarters at a position called Shakhta on March 30 in Avdiivka, Ukraine. (Pete Kiehart/For The Washington Post)

[As focus remains on Syria, Ukraine sees heaviest fighting in months]

In April, the cycle of strikes and counterstrikes flared to the worst levels seen since last summer. A new truce last month to mark the Orthodox Easter provided a respite for front-line communities, but that brief peace unraveled within days. On Sunday, the Ukrainian military said five of its soldiers had died in fighting just north of Donetsk  the second-highest daily death toll this year since the deaths of seven in fighting the previous Tuesday.

Artillery explosions around the government-held city of Avdiivka not only risk wrecking the nearby filtration plant and cutting off water for some 400,000 civilians. A direct hit could also disperse hazardous chemicals, including chlorine, in the already war-blighted area.

It is important that the sides stop firing, especially close to residential areas and vital infrastructure, said Alexander Hug, deputy head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. An accidental release of the plants chemicals, he said, could result in an environmental disaster.

More than a ton of chlorine, which in concentrated forms is highly toxic, arrives daily at the plant. Damage to storage containers could expose up to 20,000 people to serious health problems, according to Voda Donbassa, which operates the facility.

Ukrainian commanders have forbidden their soldiers to return fire from separatists dug in around the plant, recognizing the magnitude of that risk as well as the prospect of a public-relations disaster for Kiev.

The separatists use the water-filtration plant as cover to launch attacks on us, said Vlad Yushkevich, 41, a platoon commander in Ukraines 58th Mechanized Brigade, which is stationed on the hillside opposite the plant. Were banned from firing back. The enemy knows this and uses it to his advantage.

Yushkevichs position, nicknamed Shakhta, or the Mine, overlooks Highway 20, its concrete bunkers and muddy warren of trenches offering a bleak vista of scrubby fields, bombed-out cottages and the first line of Russian-backed separatist fighters, as well as the plant. His men endure spartan conditions and monotonous routines, punctuated by sporadic bouts of combat.

Its a very tough situation right now, he said as he sheltered behind a screen of camouflage webbing. The Russian Federation keeps sending in new humanitarian convoys. And we know what these are carrying  weapons and ammunition.

His claims are supported by Ukrainian intelligence officials, who say that Russia has supplied separatist militants with dozens of artillery systems, more than 300 tanks and armored fighting vehicles and 6,800 tons of ammunition since the start of this year.

Oleksandr Turchynov, who heads Ukraines National Security and Defense Council, said last week that separatists had significantly increased the intensity of shelling. Avdiivkas industrial district, known as the Prom Zone, bears the brunt of the war zones fiercest assaults, occasionally involving raids but generally taking the form of trench warfare.

The static conflict has locked eastern Ukraine into a sustained yet apparently contained cycle of violence.

[As Ukraine enters 2016, peace remains elusive]

More than two years after the war erupted, the battlefield  like the dynamics that govern it  has changed drastically, with a mass offensive now seemingly as remote as constructive political dialogue.

Even as Western leaders feel impelled to court the Kremlins cooperation over the impasse in Syria, Russia feels the pinch of sanctions imposed after its annexation of Crimea and clandestine invasion of Ukraine in 2014. The European Union is expected to renew those sanctions in a matter of weeks.

In rebel-held territory, many senior commanders regarded by Moscow as too ideological or headstrong have been relieved of their posts, often in bloody and suspicious circumstances. And last weeks dramatic prisoner swap involving Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko and two Russian special forces soldiers marked a moment of detente between Moscow and Kiev.

[Russia frees imprisoned Ukrainian pilot]

Yet the warring parties persistently trade blame for cease-fire violations. The latest round of talks among Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France, in April, failed to reach a breakthrough on such issues as the status of separatist-held territory and local elections. And brinkmanship persists in the Baltic, where Russian fighter jets keep buzzing U.S. military aircraft and warships while the United States boosts troop numbers along NATOs eastern flank.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow would respond to U.S. moves in Europe and branded Washingtons missile-shield bases in Poland and Romania a direct threat to his countrys security.

On the ground, meanwhile, eastern Ukraine remains highly volatile. Some days, the line of contact is subjected to heavy fire from antiaircraft guns, mortars and grenade launchers. Other days, hot spots are eerily quiet. The net result is a region that continues to destabilize the post-Cold War order and impede Ukraines further integration with Europe.

A few miles west of the filtration plant and Avdiivkas besieged Prom Zone lies a wood that was once a popular hunting spot. It is now a no-mans land, riddled with land mines and the scene of random, fruitless skirmishes.

To Taras Lypka, 51, a conscript stationed here, no end to the deadly unrest is in sight.

This is not a fighting war, this is a waiting war, he said. Give it a few years. Mind-sets will change, people will change. No one can win this with a military. Better just to hold the line and wait.

Read more

Things are heating up in eastern Ukraine. Here are three reasons why.

Hackers have doxed all the reporters covering east Ukraines war. Twice.

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
A terrorism suspect is brought to the committing magistrate at the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe, Germany, on Thursday. Three Syrians have been arrested over alleged plans to carry out a terrorist attack in Dusseldorf. (Uli Deck/European Pressphoto Agency)

Three Syrian men who entered Germany with a wave of migrants were arrested Thursday on suspicion of planning an Islamic State attack on the city of Dusseldorf. The arrests potentially thwarted a deadly operation that appeared eerily reminiscent of recent assaults on Brussels and Paris.

The suspected plot, German authorities said, involved suicide bombers, firearms and explosives  a lethal combination that has become the hallmark of a new spate of Islamist terrorism in Europe. A fourth Syrian, who prosecutors said had informed French officials about the alleged plot, was being held in France.

The arrests highlighted the significant threat to Europe from Islamic State militants posing as migrants. Officials said all four Syrians entered the continent from the Middle East using the same irregular passages by land and sea  Greece via Turkey and then through the Balkans  used by hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers last year. After the attacks in Brussels and Paris, Islamic State officials have claimed that more sleeper cells were incubating in Europe. Thursdays arrests suggested such threats were not idle.

[Tracing the path of four terrorists sent to Europe by the Islamic State]

The German chief prosecutors office said in a statement that there were no immediate indications that the men had started taking concrete steps to carry out the plot. But the authorities moved in on Thursday  arresting the men in three German states  after details of the alleged plot were provided by the suspect in France, who first approached authorities in Paris in February.

People walk through Dusseldorfs Old Town on Thursday. A German terrorist cell was allegedly planning an attack on the historic town center. (Maja Hitij/European Pressphoto Agency)

The plot, officials said, was supposed to involve two suicide bombers. Other assailants were supposed to kill as many bystanders as possible with guns and other explosive devices, prosecutors said.

Two of the men were suspected of being active members of the Islamic State, while a third was believed to have at least supported the group. Investigators also suspect that one of the two Islamic State adherents had links to the radical Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is known as the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaeda.

[Paris attacks were carried out by three groups linked to Islamic State]

Revelations that the suspects had entered Germany as migrants quickly fueled the debate here over the security threat presented by a massive pool of poorly screened asylum seekers. Hundreds of thousands of would-be refugees entered Germany last year after receiving only cursory vetting in near-bankrupt Greece. Over the past six months, more than three dozen suspected militants impersonating migrants have been arrested or died while planning or carrying out terrorism. They include at least seven directly tied to the attacks in Paris and Brussels.

Although a tenuous deal between the European Union and Turkey has largely blocked new migrants from entering Europe via Greece, more than a million have already arrived. Only a small fraction, officials say, present genuine security threats. But on Thursday, critics took aim at a haphazard migrant policy that was riddled with risk.

Gregor Golland, a Christian Democratic Union member of the North-Rhine Westphalia state parliament, called local leaders naive for insisting that no terrorists were coming to Germany via the Balkan route  a reference to the main land corridor used by irregular migrants last year.

[Brussels terrorist attack exposes security failures]

Until today, we dont know the identities of all refugees living in Germany, Golland told the Rheinische Post. The security authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia must organize an immediate security check of all refugees living in the country.

Others called for calm, warning against fanning a growing strain of anti-refugee sentiment that has led to a surge in attacks by right-wing extremists on asylum centers and migrants.

Of course one has to take this very seriously, Dusseldorf Mayor Thomas Geisel told the local news website Report-D. But the city must not lose its openness to the world  and tolerance.

A series of coordinated terrorist attacks killed 130 people in Paris in November. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the massacre, in which at least eight assailants armed with explosives and automatic weapons gunned down people at random at several locations in the French capital.

The Islamic State also claimed a series of attacks in Belgium in March targeting Brussels Airport and a Metro station. Three suicide bombings killed 32 people and injured more than 300 as authorities closed in on suspects wanted in the Paris attacks.

Germanys chief federal prosecutor identified the three arrested Syrians as 27-year-old Hamza C., 25-year-old Mahood B. and 31-year-old Abd Arahman A.K. It is customary in Germany to withhold the last names of suspects who have been arrested.

[What we know about the Paris attacks]

The men were apprehended in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Baden-Wurttemberg. Their apartments were being searched, officials said.

The Germans acted based on the information provided by a 25-year-old Syrian identified as Saleh A., who turned himself in to Paris police in February. His testimony alerted authorities to a German terrorist cell seeking to orchestrate an attack in the historic town center of Dusseldorf. The targeted area is known here as the longest bar in the world because of its concentration of beer halls and pubs.

Salah A. and Hamza C., authorities said, joined the Islamic State in the spring of 2014. Shortly after, in May, the organizations leadership gave them fresh orders to carry out an attack in Germany. Two attackers would each detonate suicide vests on Dusseldorfs busy central boulevard, Heinrich-Heine-Allee. Afterward, other attackers would kill bystanders using weapons and explosives.

With the approval of the Islamic State leadership, authorities said, Saleh A. and Hamza C. traveled to Turkey in May 2014. From there, they entered Europe separately. They first came in through Greece and then used the Balkan route, traversed by hundreds of thousands of migrants last year, before respectively arriving in Germany in March and July of 2015.

No later than January of this year, authorities believe, Saleh A. and Hamza C. persuaded Mahood B. to take part in the attack. The men were later joined by Abd Arahman A.K., another Syrian who had already traveled to Germany in October 2014, allegedly also on orders of the Islamic States leadership to take part in the attack.

Abd Arahman A.K. had experience building explosive belts and making grenades in Syria in 2013. Authorities believe that he was drafted to build suicide belts for the members of the German cell.

Authorities would not say what prompted Saleh A. to reveal himself to French police. He is still in custody in France, but German authorities are requesting his extradition.

Thursdays arrests, officials said, had no connection with the upcoming European soccer championship in France. Fears have swirled in European security circles that the month-long event may be targeted by extremists.

Stephanie Kirchner in Berlin and William Branigin in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

More European nations are barring their doors to migrants

Were Syrian refugees involved in the Paris attacks? What we know and dont know.

8 stories you should read to really understand the Islamic State

Today's coverage from Post correspondents around the world
This image released by the International Committee for the Red Cross shows the first humanitarian aid convoy in Daraya, Syria, on Wednesday, June 1. (AP/ )

The government siege of a Damascus suburb was broken Wednesday with delivery of medical supplies and a small amount of baby food, after Syria agreed to allow an international aid convoy to enter the area for the first time since 2012.

Arrival of United Nations and Red Cross vehicles in the rebel-held, government-surrounded city of Darayya came just hours into a June 1 deadline, after which the United States and Russia had pledged to organize airdrops for food and medicine to reach starving civilians.

Although U.S. officials said they would continue to prepare for international food delivery by air, in case the access ends, the convoys to Darayya, and to the similarly besieged city of Moadamiya, appear to have averted the latest potential escalation in Syrias years-long civil war.

But they accomplished little to change a situation in which maintaining the status quo now seems the most optimistic outcome in the near term, and perhaps for the remainder of Barack Obamas presidency.

What seemed the chance of a political solution in Syria barely three months ago now appears an ever fainter possibility. At the same time, those within the administration who have long advocated a more robust U.S. commitment to the Syrian opposition have largely given up.

U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic talks with Russia, the main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have intensified, according to several senior U.S. officials who discussed the situation but were not authorized to speak on the record.

But there is little optimism that the Russians are seriously interested in taking the steps required for a political settlement that the United States says will not succeed unless it results in Assad stepping down.

Are we satisfied? No one is satisfied, one U.S. official said. Noting that Secretary of State John F. Kerry held one of his frequent telephone conversations Wednesday with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, the official said, The idea is to continue to push forward. But the reality is that Russia and the Assad regime have not fulfilled the commitments theyve made.

President Obama has consistently rejected U.S. military action in support of the rebels and has limited the amount of U.S. training and weaponry they have received. He has said many times that the separate fight against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq is the top U.S. priority and that no one had shown him that direct U.S. involvement in the Syrian civil war would improve the situation.

Many in the intelligence community, who have been training and arming opposition fighters for several years, have grown increasingly frustrated at the strategy. Some see the stated U.S. belief that Syria will not have peace under Assad, and that the war against the Islamic State cannot be fully prosecuted, as contradicted by tepid U.S. commitment on the ground.

Kerry has long argued for a more aggressive U.S. policy. But even the State Department now sees little point in escalating the conflict with U.S. involvement that would likely lead to even more bloodshed in a war that has killed more than a quarter of a million people, displaced half the Syrian population and evolved into a tangled battlefield of competing groups and agendas.

As far as the administration is concerned, the only currently viable strategy is to try to lower the temperature of the fight with truces and aid deliveries, and keep it there for as long as possible while continuing to press for a political settlement. Both goals require dealing with a government in Moscow that the United States believes has repeatedly lied about its activities in Syria, and has been both unable and unwilling to press its client, the Assad government, to stop its attacks and negotiate a political deal.

Early this year, Kerry gathered the main outside players in the Syria conflict  the United States and its allies and regional partners on one side, Russia and Iran on the other  and forged a new plan. With Lavrov as co-chairman, the international group agreed to press their proxies on the ground to accept a cessation of hostilities, to allow humanitarian access to the many besieged communities in Syria  many surrounded by government troops for years  and to begin U.N.-led political negotiations.

After an auspicious beginning in late February, the truce began to fall apart in April, as government forces resumed bombardment of rebel groups allegedly intertwined with al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra forces in northwest Syria. Opposition groups fought back, leading to more government attacks. The opposition suspended its participation in the political talks, and the international community charged that the government was still not allowing access to besieged civilians in danger of mass starvation.

In recent weeks, Russia has said it would restart its own bombing campaign, something the United States charges it has already resumed.

Administration officials note that at least a partial truce continues in some areas of the country, even as fighting has intensified in the northwest, in Homs and around Damascus. Political talks remain indefinitely suspended, but the opposition has proposed a nationwide truce during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins Sunday. The other side has not responded.

Meanwhile, the administration on Wednesday breathed a sigh of relief that the delivery of at least some aid averted the promised start of airdrops  to be organized by the World Food Program, with assistance from the United States and other members of the international group  that all parties believe would be complicated and dangerous, given the number of players on the ground, particularly the Syrian government, which so far has refused to guarantee safe passage for overflights.

But a lowered temperature in Syria has never been a lasting achievement, and those demanding outside assistance are far from satisfied.

According to activists in Daarya Ive contacted . . . five U.N. trucks were allowed by the regime to enter the town, Mohammed Alaa Ghanem, an adviser to the Washington-based Syrian American Council said Tuesday in an email. Each truck carried just a few boxes containing limited medical supplies. The provisions within these boxes included the following: vaccines; gauze; cotton; wheelchairs; mosquito nets, male and female prophylactics (i.e., condoms and IUDs), and a very small amount of baby milk. Shots of the vaccines were administered to several hundred children.

The entry of U.N. vehicles came amid the Assads regime continued bombing campaign of areas around Daarya where wheat was planted, Ghanem said. He described the amount of aid as farcical and said airdrops should proceed as planned.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that a 36-vehicle convoy that reached government-besieged Moadamiya, which last received assistance in February, did contain food for the residents.

At least one U.S. ally agreed it wasnt enough.

The Assad regime has cynically allowed limited amounts of aid, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement, . . . but it has failed to deliver the widespread humanitarian access called for by the international community. While airdrops are complex, costly and risky, they are now the last resort to relieve human suffering across many besieged areas.

Countries with influence over the Assad regime such as Russia and Iran must now ensure that these air operations can proceed in a safe and secure manner, Hammond said.

Cunningham reported from Istanbul. Hugh Naylor in Beirut and Zakaria Zakaria in Istanbul contributed to this report.
A senior adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Thursday that nobody is starving in Darayya, even as U.N. officials said they hoped the government would allow a food convoy  the first in four years  to reach the besieged Damascus suburb in the next few days.

Darayya is the food basket of Damascus, providing fresh fruit and vegetables for the rest of Syria, said presidential political and media adviser Bouthaina Shaaban. She spoke to reporters in Washington from the Syrian capital via Skype.

Shaaban cautioned journalists and other outsiders not to take things at face value that they are told about Syria. She said that the Syrian people were not very happy with the humanitarian assistance they had received, because they did not like foreign items such as tinned food and macaroni and found outside aid humiliating.

In a recorded speech and a live question-and-answer session, Shaaban praised Russias support for Assad in Syrias long-running civil war and said that what was known in the West as the moderate opposition was made up of terrorists. U.S. regional allies such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey who support them, she said, are also the principal backers of the Islamic State.

[Aid delivered in Syria may be too little, too late]

Some of the reporters present were from media outlets in those countries and opposition-linked organizations. Exchanges with Shaaban verged on shouting matches as she held her ground and accused the international media of posing questions about blocked aid deliveries and government attacks on civilians from a completely distorted perspective.

She said a false narrative [was] circulated all over the world, particularly in Western countries, about events in Syria, and she asked why the United States would not join hands with Russia against the Islamic State.

While Shaaban offered familiar government views, the opportunity to directly question a senior Assad official was a rare one. The Treasury Department in 2011 sanctioned her under an executive order that prohibits financial or other dealings with senior officials of the Syrian government. Asked whether Shaabans Skype appearance violated the sanctions, Treasury issued a statement declining to comment.

William C. McCarren, executive director of the National Press Club, which provided the venue for the event but did not sponsor it, said the club had been contacted by Treasury, which inquired about Shaabans participation but raised no objections.

[The last remaining Pentagon-trained rebel group in Syria is now in jeopardy]

Shaaban, who speaks fluent English, said she was last in the United States in 2005, when she was a government minister. She said that her understanding of the sanctions was only that her U.S. assets would be frozen  she said she didnt have any  but that she had no desire to visit this country.

The event was sponsored by the Global Alliance for Terminating ISIS/Al-Qaeda, a two-year-old Florida-based organization registered as an educational nonprofit group dedicated to fighting terrorism. Ahmad Maki Kubba, an Iraqi American who is the groups president, said he did not endorse the Syrian government but wanted to provide a platform for all views.

Kubba said his own group wanted to break the status quo of U.S. cooperation with regional powers  including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey  that he said were doing business with ISIS. ISIS is an acronym for the Islamic State. He congratulated President Obama on refusing to call the militants Islamic extremists, as Donald Trump and other Republican leaders have demanded, and instead labeling them thugs and thieves and terrorists.

[Ignoring Turkey, U.S. backs Kurds in drive against ISIS in Syria]

U.N. officials managing the humanitarian aid program in Syria held their own news conference Thursday in Geneva. Operating under a months-old agreement forged by Russia and the Obama administration, international organizations have been trying to deliver food and medical supplies to more than a half-million Syrians who have been cut off by the fighting, some of them for years.

Most of the 19 areas the United Nations has designated as in critical need are rebel-held zones surrounded by government forces, which have denied humanitarian access. Last month, Washington, Moscow and other international actors pledged to begin airdrops of supplies to the areas if aid did not get through by June 1.

That resulted in aid convoys reaching several areas on Wednesday, including five vehicles carrying medical supplies and some baby formula  but no food  to Darayya. Senior U.N. adviser Jan Egeland said in Geneva that there had been a misunderstanding about the first supplies to Darayya and that he hoped that a full convoy would reach the city very soon, but it may not happen already tomorrow.

In the meantime, he said, we have added one more besieged area to our list, the city of al-Waer in Homs province. It has 75,000 people and it is possibly the place with the worst nutritional situation of all the besieged areas, which altogether have 592,000 people, Egeland said.

Egeland and Ramzy E. Ramzy, the deputy U.N. special envoy to Syria, said that planning for the promised airdrops and the dangerous helicopter landings required in populated areas had not been completed. But, Egeland said, I think everybody agrees that to go by land with 100 tons in a few trucks is better than a few tons by helicopter.

While he was optimistic that more convoys could be arranged, he said, I have no guarantees of anything, and I was also optimistic before May, which he called a very bad month.

In the May plan, we basically got a quarter of what we asked for approved by the government, Egeland said. So the signal was very bad. Now, the signal is  and we need to get it in writing  that we will get a much better approval package to start with. Darayya, we were turned back the last time with the exact same convoy that entered the city on Wednesday. Darayya is very symbolic and important for both sides.

Shaaban said that airdrops were being discussed with the United Nations, but this is not something of importance to the Syrian government.

Asked about an opposition proposal for a nationwide truce in the civil war during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts Sunday, Shaaban implied a religious reason for the proposal, saying the opposition are all Islamists. The government, she said, wants to fight day and night to win the war.

Shaaban was also asked about Austin Tice, a U.S. citizen and freelance journalist for The Washington Post and other outlets who disappeared in Syria in 2012 and has been rumored to be in government hands. Austin Tice came to the terrorist area and the Syrian government knows nothing about him, she said.

Alice Crites contributed to this report.
With only five days remaining before the crucial June 7 primaries in California and five other US states, there are mounting signs of deep crisis in the campaign of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, whose poll numbers in the most populous US state suggest she may lose to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released Wednesday afternoon found Clinton with a narrow 49-47 percent lead over Sanders among likely Democratic primary voters, within the margin of error. Among all those eligible to vote in the primary, Sanders actually held a one-point lead, 48-47 percent.

Sanders has sliced Clintons earlier lead from 18 points to near-zero over the past few weeks. In the most recent poll, Clinton had a sizable lead among those who had already cast mail ballots, but Sanders is expected to lead by a wide margin among those who actually go to the polls next Tuesday.

Sanders led by a 2-1 margin among voters younger than 45, and by 68-26 percent among independents. Clinton led 57-40 percent among registered Democrats and 63-33 percent among voters 45 and older. Both candidates would swamp Republican nominee Donald Trump in California, with Sanders leading by 34 points, 62-28 percent, and Clinton by 24 points, 55-31 percent.

The Vermont senator has been holding increasingly large rallies up and down the state this week, topped by a huge crowd in Oakland estimated at anywhere from 20,000 to 50,000 people. The Sanders campaign says that he expects to address a total of 250,000 people at such rallies before the voting takes place next Tuesday.

The swelling interest in the campaign of Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who has regularly denounced Wall Street billionaires as the cause of ongoing economic crisis, is expressed in a record influx of new voters, either registering for the first time or re-registering as Democrats or independents so that they can cast a vote in the presidential primary June 7.

The Institute of California reported that some 1.5 million people have registered to vote since January 1, a figure that could grow to nearly 2 million once all jurisdictions report. This is a 218 percent increase compared to the same period in 2012. According to one analyst, Vince Vasquez, who spoke with ABC News, That includes both brand-new voters and those that are re-registering. A large chunk of those voters are millennials, Democratic-leaning, and overall fit the demographic profile of Bernie Sanders supporters.

Hillary Clinton has cancelled scheduled appearances in New Jersey, which also votes on June 7, to fly back to California for a series of campaign events. The first, and most politically revealing, is a hurriedly arranged speech in San Diego Thursday on national security, an issue which has been avoided by both Clinton and Sanders in the primaries, but which Clinton hopes to use to her advantage in the general election. San Diego is a center of several military bases and is critical for US operations in the Pacific and Asia.

An email to the press from the Clinton campaign announcing the speech said that Clinton would make clear the threat that Donald Trump would pose to our national security and to put forth her own vision for keeping America safe at home and leading in the world. The statement denounced Trump as temperamentally unfit to serve as our commander in chief, while declaring that Clinton will make the affirmative case for the exceptional role America has played and must continue to play in the world.

This is nothing less than an appeal to the military-intelligence apparatus, and to a section of the Republican Party closely aligned with it, to close ranks behind the Democratic frontrunnernot just against Trump, her likely general election opponent, but against Sanders as well.

One of the most important audiences for the Clinton address is at the FBI, where officials are poring over documents detailing Clintons use of a private email server to conduct official communications throughout her four years as secretary of state. An FBI task force is to decide later this summer, perhaps before the Democratic National Convention, whether and when to summon Clinton for sworn testimony on how classified information was handled on her server. This could conceivably lead to an indictment, either on mishandling of classified material or for perjury, with incalculable effect on the 2016 campaign.

Besides the candidate herself, Bill Clinton has been dispatched to California as well, dropping his role as a surrogate in lesser states like New Mexico and Montana in favor of a last-ditch effort to prevent a humiliating defeat in the most populous US state, one which Hillary Clinton won in 2008 over Barack Obama.

The mounting signs of an electoral setback in California have led to increased press speculation over the consequences of such a defeat for the Clinton campaign overall. ABC News mulled the issue, What Happens If Hillary Clinton Loses California to Bernie Sanders? The British newspaper The Independent published a column headlined, Hillary Clinton could lose Democratic nomination to Bernie Sanders.

The Wall Street Journal editorial page published an op-ed column by an embittered former Bill Clinton political adviser, Douglas Schoen, under the headline, Clinton Might Not Be the Nominee, which suggested that a landslide loss in California might produce an outside intervention from the Obama White House, installing either Secretary of State John Kerry or Vice President Joe Biden as a substitute for Clinton.

Whatever the outcome on June 7, neither Clinton nor Sanders will have sufficient elected delegates to claim the nomination outright. Clinton currently leads in elected delegates by 1,769 to 1,501, and another 761 will be chosen through June 7. Sanders would not reach the 2,383 required for nomination if he won every single delegate. Clinton would have to win 81 percent, a practical impossibility given rules requiring proportional representation.

The nomination will thus be decided by the votes of the 712 superdelegatesgovernors, members of Congress, members of the Democratic National Committee, former presidentswho have expressed an overwhelming preference for Clinton, but do not actually cast votes until the Democratic National Convention meets July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

Sanders addressed this issue at campaign rallies Tuesday and Wednesday, warning supporters that the media might declare Clinton the winner of the nomination after the polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern Time in New Jersey. Such projections would assume no change of heart by any of the superdelegates who have publicly voiced support for Clinton.

That is factually incorrect. Its just not factually correct, he said. Instead, the end of the primaries would mark a new stage in the campaign, with each candidate competing for the allegiance of superdelegates, particularly those from states where the popular vote had gone one way, while the superdelegates had gone the other. In California, for example, there are 71 superdelegates, nearly all of them, like Governor Jerry Brown and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, siding with Clinton.

Sanders has flatly rejected suggestions by Feinstein and other Clinton supporters that he halt his campaign and accept Clinton as the de facto nominee. A national poll released Wednesday found that 57 percent of Democrats and independents wanted Sanders to stay in the raceeven in a polling sample that favored Clinton over Sanders by 46-42 percent.

Sanders may also be holding out in an effort to have greater influence in the selection of a vice presidential candidate. He is no doubt concerned that if Clinton does not pick someone with sufficient left credentialsperhaps Sanders himselfthen it will be more difficult to convince Sanders supporters to vote for Clinton in the general election and to channel the social anger motivating those backing him into the Democratic Party.

While Clintons support is slipping among Democratic primary voters, there are at least two constituencies where her backing remains rock-solid. Fortune magazine reported Wednesday that the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies favored Clinton over Trump by 58 percent to 42 percent. The heavily Republican group cited Clintons support and Trumps professed opposition to US trade agreements as the key issue.

And an oil industry consultant, speaking with CNBC ahead of Thursdays much-anticipated meeting of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries, said that OPEC favored Clinton, who is known to have advocated a more aggressive US intervention into the Syrian civil war. It is no secret that the Saudis and other Gulf Sunni powers are rooting for Mrs. Clinton, he said.
Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, the head of death squads in Davao City in the Southern Philippines where he has been the long-time mayor, vowed during his campaign to kill and dump over a hundred thousand alleged criminals in Manila Bay within six months of his election. Less than a month before his presidential inauguration, police and vigilantes have already launched a murderous campaign against alleged criminals throughout the country.

Duterte announced on May 31 that he would be paying bounties for every person killed who was alleged to be in the drug trade. He also announced the value which he would assign to every human life taken, promising up to 3 million pesos ($US64,000) for every drug lord, 2 million for those deemed to be in charge of distribution, 1 million for syndicate members, and 50,000 for ordinary drug peddlers.

Duterte further stated that he would begin making payments for those killed prior to taking office, stating that he had enough money left in his campaign funds to pay for 100 persons dead. He explicitly included in his bounty offer a reward for lives of inmates within the prison system who were alleged to be dealing drugs.

Since his election, a wave of executions of alleged criminals carried out both by vigilantes and the police has swept the country.

On May 19, vigilantes executed an alleged drug pusher in Bulacan province on the island of Luzon. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the vigilantes abducted Ramonito Nicolas Mendoza immediately following his court hearing on drug charges and release on bail. Mendozas dead body, riddled with bullets, was later found with his hands and feet hogtied, his head wrapped with packaging tape and a sign on his neck stating Huwag akong tularan. Drug Pusher Ako. (Dont be like me. Im a drug pusher).

On May 25, according to the South China Morning Post, five motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead three alleged petty thieves in Davao city.

Police records show these men were pickpockets and burgled cars, the citys police spokeswoman, Senior Inspector Milgrace Driz, told the newspaper. She then added the well-worn rationale of the citys police for such assassinations, claiming that they were due to gang warfare and insisting that the Davao Death Squads were a myth.

They dont exist, it is only you journalists who say they exist, she said. Duterte himself has repeatedly acknowledged the existence of these death squads, as well as his direct oversight of them.

Three days later, unknown gunmen shot and killed two other suspected drug dealers in the same city. One victim, attacked at an Internet shop on Wednesday, had been out on bail on a drug-related offence.

The police have not been far behind in racking up kills. Two suspected illegal drug traders died in a shootout with police during a sting operation in Binan City, in the province of Laguna on Luzon, in the early morning of May 20.

On May 26, police in Bulacan killed four alleged drug dealers in a gun battle in the town of Norzagaray town. The next day, another four drug suspects were killed after allegedly trading shots with the police in General Santos City on Mindanao Island.

Over the weekend, police shot and fatally wounded Rowen Secretaria and three others in a shootout at Banacon Island, 33 kilometres from Cebu city, the second largest city in the country. The police accused Secretaria of ranking third among the top drug personalities in Cebu City.

The police killings follow the explicit instruction of Dutertes new national head of the police, Superintendant Ronald de la Rosa. Speaking to the press last month, de la Rosa exhorted his men to shoot-to-kill if the criminal fights back or is armed. When asked by reporters what police should do if the criminals did not fight back, de la Rosa responded, Make them fight back. He thus publicly green-lighted extra-judicial killings on the pretext of resisting arrest.

This spate of killings is unfolding as the entire Philippine political establishment is rapidly shifting to the far-right. From city mayors to congress, under the banner of an all-out war against crime, drugs and corruption, the pretence of adhering to democratic rights and due process is being discarded.

In Tanauan city, the newly-elected mayor twice forced suspected drug pushers to parade through the streets in a so-called Walk of Shame with signs on their chests stating Akoy Pusher, Huwag tularan (Im a drug pusher, Dont be like me.). The local police have admitted formal charges have yet to be filed as their investigations have not been completed.

In Cebu City, days after gaining the mayoralty, Tomas Osmena announced a $US1,000 dollar bounty to the police for every suspected drug lord or petty criminal killed or wounded. It can be their extra source of livelihood, Osmena told the Cebu media.

Last week, the mayor-elect awarded the bounty to a police team for killing Teodoro Cabriana, suspected of drug pushing, after he allegedly tried to shoot it out with the police. The previous week, Osmena handed over a bounty to an off-duty policeman for shooting and wounding two suspected robbers alleged to have held up a public utility Jeepney.

Underscoring his murderous intent, the mayor-elect handed out only $US427 dollars, explaining that the suspects were injured and were not shot dead.

In the Philippine congress, with even nominal opposition to Duterte expected to be just 20 congressional representatives out of 300, a repressive legislative agenda of all-out war against crime, drugs and corruption, including the return of the death penalty and the reduction of the age of criminality, will be rapidly advanced under the guise of a national crisis of drug addiction and drug-related crimes.

Even more ominously, Duterte announced plans to add two divisions to the military, recruit 3,000 new police and to organize and arm militias down at the barangay level, the smallest local government unit.

Justice in the Philippines, designed under US colonial rule, has always been a repressive and corrupt affair. There is no trial by jury. The state security forces, in general, and the police in particular, are brutal, corrupt and have a well-earned reputation of torturing suspects and conducting extra-judicial executions.

Moreover, according to Human Rights Watch, between 85 and 90 percent of the more than 94,000 inmates in the penal system are still awaiting or undergoing trial. The Philippines is the Southeast Asian country with the highest number of pre-trial and remand detainees and the second highest in all of Asia.

Dutertes so-called war on drugs is aimed at the working class. The main victims of drug addiction in the Philippines are workers, the poor and the youth, who have also been the main victims of Dutertes death squads in Davao.

The summary executions across the country which Duterte is calling for and rewarding, and which have already commenced, are intended to dramatically increase repression in the face of a mounting social crisis and to prepare to brutally crackdown on any resistance from the working class.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four

May 12 to 14 marks the 90th anniversary of the coup by Jozef Pisudski in Poland with which the Polish bourgeoisie tried to save its rule from the threat of socialist revolution. Today, he is being idealized by large sections of the Polish bourgeoisie and the US imperialist elite.

In large measure, this is bound up with the increasing popularity of his conception of the Intermarium, a pro-imperialist alliance of right-wing nationalist regimes throughout Eastern Europe that was primarily directed against the Soviet Union. The resurgent interest in the Intermarium has been bound up with the increasing drive toward a new world war which, as the ICFI stated in its resolutionSocialism and the Fight Against War,has been accompanied by a revival of geopolitics among the ideologists of imperialism.

This series reviews the history of the Intermarium, the main basis of which emerged in the period leading up to World War I, as a bourgeois nationalist antipode to the United Socialist States of Europe that were proposed by Leon Trotsky.

This is the third in a four-part series.Part 1was posted on May 31 andPart 2on June 1.

Poland and the US encirclement of Russia since 1991

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union by the Stalinist bureaucracy in 1991 and the destruction of the Stalinist states in Eastern Europe, the Polish state again came to play a strategic role in the calculations of imperialist strategy vis-a-vis Russia and in Eastern Europe more generally. Now, the central imperialist power to which the majority of the Polish bourgeoisie oriented itself, whatever political divisions existed over foreign policy, was the United States. Just as in the interwar period against the Soviet Union, Poland has become a central bulwark against Russia in Eastern Europe for world imperialism.

While the restoration of capitalism in the USSR and Eastern Europe opened up vast resources of labor power and raw materials to world imperialism, it has not yet brought them under its full control. Over the past quarter century, the United States has tried systematically to further encircle Russia, militarily and politically. The aim is to install a puppet regime completely obedient to Washington by a forced regime change or, if necessary, war.

As the World Socialist Web Siteexplained in 2004 during the unfolding Orange Revolution in Ukraine:

The first Iraq war in 1991 already undermined to a large extent the influence of Moscow in the Middle East. The same process took place in the Balkans following the war on Serbia in 1999. In 2001, in the context of the Afghanistan invasion, the US established military bases for the first time in former Soviet republics and emerged as a presence in Central Asia. Since then, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and to some extent Azerbaijan have allied themselves to the US. One year ago, they helped lift a rabidly pro-Western regime to power in Georgia. In Europe, most members of the former Warsaw Pact, including the former Baltic Soviet republics, have now joined NATO and the European Union. Should Ukraine now switch to the Western camp, Russia would be largely isolated.

These policies were to a significant extent influenced by the conceptions of the Intermarium. Within the United States, a section of the ruling class has long advocated a revival of the Intermarium. A crucial role has been played by Polish-American policy makers, chief among them Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the most influential figures in the American foreign policy establishment. As he himself stressed in a keynote address opening of the Center of Eastern Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in 2003, his geopolitical thinking owed much to the conceptions of the Promethean League.

According to Brzezinski, the central goal of the Center at the CSIS was to reestablish ties with Poland and make use of Warsaws historic connections with elites throughout Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Brzezinski also maintained a correspondence with Jerzy Giedroyc from the 1960s to the 1990s and financially supported his publication, Kultura. As foreign policy adviser to the Carter administration in the 1970s, Brzezinski was one of the chief architects of the US policy to support nationalist movements in the USSR to foster its disintegration.

The work most strongly reflecting the influence of Promethean ideas is Brzezinskis The Grand Chessboard from 1997. Echoing Pisudskis considerations when invading Ukraine in 1920, Brzezinski wrote:

Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.

Further, Brzezinski formulated his strategic vision for US policy:

In the short run, it is in Americas interest to consolidate and perpetuate the prevailing geopolitical pluralism on the map of Eurasia. That puts a premium on maneuver and manipulation in order to prevent the emergence of a hostile coalition that could eventually seek to challenge Americas primacy, not to mention the remote possibility of any one particular state seeking to do so. By the middle term, the foregoing should gradually yield to a greater emphasis on the emergence of increasingly important but strategically compatible partners who, prompted by American leadership, might help to shape a more cooperative trans-Eurasian security system. Eventually, in the much longer run still, the foregoing could phase into a global core of genuinely shared political responsibility.

While often fighting against significant opposition, Brzezinski has been far from alone with his ideas. According to ex-US secretary of state Robert Gates, Dick Cheney, one of the chief criminals behind the Iraq war, had intended to break up the Soviet Union along ethnic lines in 1991. Gates wrote:

When the Soviet Union was collapsing in late 1991, Dick wanted to see the dismantlement not only of the Soviet Union and the Russian empire but of Russia itself, so it could never again be a threat to the rest of the world.

One scholar wrote in a recent study that just as the Intermarium was never an official policy in Poland, it has never been an official policy in the US. However, sections of the ruling establishment have been supporting it for many years. In addition to Brzezinski, this includes Madeleine Albright, secretary of state in 1997-2001, and Alexander Haig, who was secretary of state under Ronald Reagan and supreme allied commander for Europe, in charge of US and NATO troops in Europe. While the US ruling class has been divided over whether or not to pursue the Promethean project, it has clearly helped shape US foreign policy over the past decades.

As the World Socialist Web Site has explained, the encirclement of Russia is an integral part of the US strategy for world domination, in which the territories that used to be part of the Soviet Union and the deformed workers state play a central role. In the language of geopolitics, they constitute largely what is termed Eurasia, a concept shaped by the British imperial strategist Halford Mackinder in the early 20th century. As Mackinder argued, control of Eurasia was central to control of the world. Within this framework, the states constituting the suggested Intermarium-alliance occupy a strategic role.

For US imperialism, the fate of Eastern Europe and Russia and the strategy of the Intermarium are subordinate to the broader goal of world domination. In order to achieve this, the so-called Eurasian landmass is considered crucial. As Brzezinski put it:

Ever since the continents started interacting politically, some five hundred years ago, Eurasia has been the center of world power.  [I]t is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus also of challenging America.

In Brzezinskis words,

Eurasia is the chessboard on which the struggle for global primacy continues to be played.

Throughout the past quarter of a century, Poland has played a key role in implementing these policies. The US was the key driving force behind the admission of Poland and the Baltic States into NATO. It enthusiastically supported their accession to the European Union (EU), hoping, not without reason, that they would form an important pillar of US foreign policy in Europe, particularly as a counterweight to the EUs dominant imperialist powers, Germany and France. In return, Poland has been the main pillar of NATO military expansion to Russian borders. Warsaw has supported the build-up of the nuclear missile shield that is directed against Russia and has sent troops supporting the US imperialist invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Poland has spent more on its military than all other countries that joined NATO since 1989 combined. Polands drastic militarization was made possible not least of all thanks to the United States. Since 1996, the year before Poland joined NATO, the total US government military sales to the Polish government have been worth some $4.7 billion, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service from March 2016.

Moreover, Poland has been a central hub for the networks associated with the color revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia and for the support of the pro-Western opposition movement in Belarus. All of these movements for democracy are infiltrated not only by various secret services but are also closely intertwined with the local far-right movements, many of which have historic ties to the Promethean project.

Jerzy Giedroyc, who remained politically active throughout the 1990s and died only in 2000, has become one of the greatest influences on Polish foreign policy. In 2005, the Polish Sejm declared 2006 the Year of Jerzy Giedroyc and celebrated his ideas by referring to the recent US-backed Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004, which received substantial support from the Polish government. In its official resolution, the Sejm stated:

The breakthrough achieved in Polish-Ukrainian relations during the Orange Revolution in Kiev and the reactions of Poles to the Ukrainian struggle for the right to self-determination and democratic elections number among the Editors [Giedroycs] real and most resounding victories.

When it was in government for the first time, from 2005 to 2010, the right-wing nationalist Party of Law and Justice (PiS) undertook numerous initiatives to build up military and political networks and cooperate with Ukraine, Georgia, Belarus, and the states of the Visegrad group (Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic). President Lech Kaczynski (PiS), who died in a plane crash in 2010, was well known for his aspirations to revive the Intermarium. In this, he had an ally in the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, who was brought to power by the US-backed color revolution in 2003. To underline their commitment to Prometheanism, on November 22, 2007, both presidents dedicated a statue of Prometheus in Tiflis.

Paul Globe from the Institute of World Politics hailed Warsaws policies in an article, entitled Prometheanism Reborn, writing:

First, Warsaw continues to promote democratic change and a Western rather than Moscow orientation in the other countries around the periphery of Russia. ... Second, it has become the leader of what might for want of a better term be called the Baltic-Nordic caucus within the West, a grouping of countries led by Poland and Estonia who want to ensure that the northeastern portion of Europe is more closely tied to the West.  And third, Poland has become even more important as a center for the study of the peoples and politics of Eurasia, not only by attracting scholars and journalists from east and west as the pre-war Promethean League did but also, again recapitulating the earlier experience, conducting research and issuing publications that are helping to define how each side views the other.
Fierce clashes broke out between armed police and a few hundred demonstrators commemorating the third anniversary of the May 31 Gezi protests this week.

Beginning Monday, hundreds of armed police, as well as riot control vehicles and water cannon, were deployed to Taksim Square to bar people from entering the square. Police fired tear gas and detained more than a dozen activists. In a separate incident, police detained 16 activists at the offices of the citys architects chamber near the Yildiz Palace.

The heavy-handed response to a small demonstration testifies to the extraordinarily tense social relations in Turkey. Since 2013, the authorities, particularly President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time, have used every opportunity to demonise the Gezi protestsand any other protest movement--as an attempted coup orchestrated by Turkeys domestic and foreign enemies, with Washingtons backing.

Thus far, Erdogans government has focused repressive measures on supporters of the opposition Gulenist movement founded by US exile Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

While Gulen is a convenient scapegoat, the AKP governments increasing repression is fundamentally driven by fear of working class opposition to the deeply unpopular domestic and foreign policies implemented by Ankara in response to the 2008 global financial crisis.

Erdogan is seeking to side-line his political rivals, most recently the former president and co-founder of the AKP Abdullah Gul, and his former foreign minister and handpicked prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, whom he has replaced with the loyalist Binali Yildirim.

Erdogan is developing closer relations with the military, which he long viewed as a threat to his rule. Since 2007, the Erdogan government has tried hundreds of current and former military officials on charges of attempting to overthrow the government, when military leaders threatened to intervene if Turkeys secular character was diluted by the Islamist AKP.

Last month, Erdogan invited Turkeys top general to his daughters wedding, evoking a storm of criticism in the opposition press and on social media. In April, a court overturned the convictions of 275 people in the 2008 case, including those of top generals.

The government is to introduce a constitutional amendment to parliament to allow Erdogan to become a party affiliated president, enabling him to resume his leadership of the AKP, which he was obliged to give up on assuming the presidency, a largely ceremonial position, in August 2014. This will enable him to more directly control the AKP and the government. It forms one of a series of changes that Erdogan is determined to force through in order to create a more dictatorial presidential system. Other constitutional amendments are to be introduced that will consolidate his position as an executive president.

This follows the passage of a sweeping anti-terrorism law that enables people who merely express opinions to be investigated or tried on the grounds of aiding terrorism. Erdogan is using the anti-terrorism law to eliminate opposition politicians and journalists, targeting those critical of the armys brutal crackdown on the Kurds, and operations aimed at toppling the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Anti-terror statutes are also being employed for repression against ethnic Kurds, aimed at preventing the establishment of an autonomous Syrian Kurdish entity on Turkeys borders, an objective which Ankara has pursued through backing Islamist forces such as ISIS and the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra.

Erdogans aggressive Syrian policy has already brought Ankara to the brink of war with Russia, after the Turkish military provocatively downed a Russian fighter jet for allegedly straying into Turkish airspace. Moscow has retaliated by cutting its commercial links with Ankara, leading to a dramatic fall in investment, trade and tourism that has reverberated throughout the economy and accelerated the decline of the Turkish lira. So bad is the situation on Turkeys south coast that Antalya has placed large colour brochures in the travel sections of foreign newspapers to bring tourists to its shores.

Last month, the Turkish parliament agreed to the AKPs demand to lift the immunity of a quarter of its deputies, predominantly members of the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), ostensibly for aiding and abetting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The government is waging war at a far greater level of intensity than that of the 1990s war. It has locked down towns, devastated cities, including much of the historic old city of Diyarbakir, capital of the largely Kurdish province, which contains UNESCO world heritage sites, displaced more than 350,000 civilians and killed more than 1,000 people. The entire region, already the poorest in Turkey, home to waves of refugees from Syria and prey to ISIS bombings, faces an economic disaster.

HDP legislators can now be brought before the courts and lose their mandate if convicted. In this way, Erdogan could establish the two-thirds parliamentary majority he requires to legitimise the presidential dictatorship, which is already functioning in practice, constitutionally.

The Turkish press has been brought to heel with the AKP-led drive for dictatorship. The only news media widely available are those that toe the government line. To step outside the boundaries of what the government deems acceptable means imprisonment.

Erdogan, who served a jail term in 1999 for reciting, while mayor of Istanbul, a nationalist and Islamist poem that was deemed guilty of inciting violence and religious or racial hatred, is now imposing similar treatment on those who dare to criticise him.

The Turkish authorities have jailed two leading journalists, Can Dundar and Erdem Gul of the Cumhuriet newspaper, for disclosing state secrets and aiding an armed terrorist group, after they showed pictures of the security forces handing over weapons to ISIS and other Islamist groups. They have raided the weekly news magazine Nokta, opened a case against Hurriyets editor-in-chief Sedat Ergin for insulting the president, and appointed state-trustees to run the Koza Ipek Media Group, Zaman newspaper and Cihan News Agency. Numerous foreign journalists have been deported, usually on the grounds of aiding the PKK.

At the end of 2015, more than 100 journalists remained either imprisoned or on trial, mostly for national security offences, making Turkey the fifth worst jailer of journalists globally in 2015.

Around 2,000 journalists and ordinary citizens have been prosecuted for insulting Erdogan since he became president, the latest being Merve Buyuksarac, a former Miss Turkey, who was given a year-long suspended sentence for reposting a satirical poem insulting the president on social media. Bars Ince, former editor of the leftist daily Birgun, which faces another 40 similar investigations, was given a 21-month prison term for insulting the president.
As Australias role in the US-led preparations for conflict against China escalates, a host of government-connected institutions dedicate substantial resources to geo-political strategising, war preparations and the promotion of militarism. Universities, corporatised by decades of funding cuts and pro-business restructuring, are at the forefront of this campaign.

One of the most significant institutions on Australian campuses is the University of Sydneys United States Studies Centre (USSC). Its specific function is to formulate the strategic conceptions underlying Australian involvement in US-led military interventions and to promote the US-Australia alliance, particularly among young people. Formed in 2006, with the backing of powerful sections of the corporate elite, its founding aim was to overcome the deep-going hostility of broad layers of the population to Australias participation in the criminal US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The origins of the USSC highlight the determination of the corporate and financial elite to counter and suppress widespread anti-war sentiment. At a meeting of the American-Australian Association (AAA) in 2006, media mogul Rupert Murdoch pointed with concern to polling results from the Lowy Institute think-tank, which showed that the majority of the Australian population, some 57 percent, viewed American foreign policy as a potential threat. Murdoch reportedly declared: This is ridiculous, what are you blokes going to do about this?

In May 2006, the Liberal-National government of John Howard announced it would provide $25 million to finance the USSC, if the figure could be matched by funds from other sources. The AAA announced a competition to determine which university would host the centre, with the University of Sydney registering the successful bid.

From the outset, the powerful backers of the institution made clear that its funding was tied to a definite political agenda. In 2007, the same year the USSC was opened, Michael Baume, former Liberal Party politician, and consul-general to New York, told the Murdoch-owned Australian: If the centre [USSC] succumbed to the anti-American prejudice endemic in Australian universities, the AAA would pull the funding.

The significance assigned to the USSC came into sharp focus in 2011. In March, the Labor government of Julia Gillard announced that it would provide the centre with $2 million to establish a research group entitled Alliance 21, which would function from 2011 to 2014.

The group was established less than a year after protected sources of the US embassy within the Labor Party and trade unions removed Kevin Rudd as prime minister. The overnight inner-party coup followed intense hostility from Washington to Rudds calls for the US to make a limited accommodation to Chinas rise. Upon being installed as prime minister, Gillard immediately pledged her unconditional allegiance to the US.

In November 2011, the Gillard government, backed by the Greens, hosted Barack Obama as he announced the US military and strategic pivot or rebalance to Asia, directed against China, from the floor of the Australian parliament. Gillard signed a military agreement with Obama that provided for the establishment of a new US Marine base in Darwin, and other measures to integrate the Australian military into the US war machine.

The purpose of Alliance 21 was two-fold. One was to serve as the centre for discussions among the military, political and intelligence establishment regarding the military buildup in Asia and the preparations for war. The other was to promote the US alliance, as it was stepped-up in line with Washingtons rebalance to Asia.

The sponsors and leading personnel of the USSC and Alliance 21 are intimately tied to the military and corporate elite. Sponsors have included Rupert Murdochs News Limited, US arms conglomerate Northrup Grumman and Dow, the manufacturer of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and a continuing supplier to the US nuclear and chemical warfare industry.

The USSCs current director is former army officer and Afghan war veteran James Brownthe son-in-law of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Its board of advisors includes former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who dispatched Australian forces to the 1991 Gulf War; former Coalition Prime Minister John Howard, who committed Australia to the criminal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq; and former US ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich, who was serving in Canberra during the coup against Rudd.

Many of Alliance 21s publications have advocated policies to prepare for war. A paper by retired US admiral Gary Roughead in October 2012 called for the greater integration of the Australian and US militaries. The interoperability of the two countries defence forces, he wrote, will become increasingly more important in the likely future strategic environment, particularly as China continues to gain power in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2012, Alliance 21 published a paper by Andrew ONeil, a Griffith University academic, warning: Whilst Australia assumes the US would extend its nuclear umbrella in the event that Australia was ever subject to nuclear coercion or attack, this has never been formally confirmed. ONeil called for the Australian government to push for guarantees that the US would support Australia in the event of a nuclear conflict.

Other papers advanced similar militarist arguments, with titles such as US Basing in the Asia-Pacific: of rebalancing, AirSea Battle, Nuclear Deterrence, and our collective response to Chinas rise and Security challenges in the Asia-Pacific Region: A US perspective. AirSea Battle is the Pentagons strategy for war with China, involving a massive air and missile assault on the Chinese mainland, supplemented by a naval blockade.

In October 2014, Alliance 21 presented its final report to the Australian government. Along with calling for a deepening of the US alliance, it warned: Demographic and generational changes in the two countries mean young and immigrant populations are less attached to the alliance in historical, cultural, and emotional terms.

The report declared: Careful attention to the relationship is needed across government, business and social sectors in both countries, with an eye to demonstrating the value of AustraliaUnited States ties and the mutual benefits they bring. To that the end, the report called for the introduction of educational components at schools and institutions of higher learning on the history of shared values and commitments between Australia and the US, as well as the meaning of the alliance today.

The USSC offers a government-approved class on American politics and society for high school students and hosts an annual school debating tournament on the future of America. University students can apply for internship programs, including to the US Congress and Chamber of Commerce, aimed at developing relations between a layer of students and the American foreign policy and corporate elite. The centre also hosts talks involving high-level figures in the US and Australian political and intelligence establishments.

In March, amid mounting demands from the Pentagon that Australia conduct incursions into Chinese-claimed territories in the South China Sea, a USSC report warned that the alliance between the two countries is driven too much by policy elites in both countries... There is low public support in Australia for joining the United States in an Asian contingency.

An Asian contingency is a euphemism for a military clash, or war in Asia. The report also called for the US-Australian alliance to become more enmeshed in the emerging regional web of relationships that the United States is developing against China.

The significance of the USSC is underscored by the anti-democratic decision of University of Sydney authorities to ban a meeting of the Socialist Equality Party, and its youth movement, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), on the weekend of the Anzac Day celebrations last year. The university declared that the meeting, entitled Anzac Day, the glorification of militarism and the drive to world war three would have risked disrupting other pro-war events being carried out on campus.

As the preparations for an Asian contingency intensify, universities are being transformed ever more directly into think-tanks for military preparations and centres of pro-war propaganda. At the same time, decades of funding cuts and the ever-greater reliance of university authorities on corporate financing have eroded any conception of democratic rights on campus. The IYSSE, in conjunction with the SEP, has been alone in mobilising students against the promotion of militarism and attacks on political liberties at universities. In response, university authorities and student unions at campuses across the country have sought to curtail, and in some cases, such as at the University of Melbourne, effectively proscribe the IYSSE.

The SEP is standing candidates in the Australian federal elections to fight for the development of an international anti-war movement of the working class, based on a socialist and internationalist program, to prevent the catastrophe of a nuclear world war. As part of that struggle, we will continue to expose the subordination of universities to militarism, war and the dictates of the corporate elite, and fight for campuses to be genuine centres of scholarship and critical inquiry.

To contact the SEP and get involved, visit our websiteor Facebook page.

The author also recommends:

Further on political censorship at the University of Sydney

[6 May 2015]

Authorised by James Cogan, Shop 6, 212 South Terrace, Bankstown Plaza, Bankstown, NSW 2200.
When Southern-rock/country artist Tim Montana finished watching the 2014 film American Sniper, the story of U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, in a theater struck quiet by the movie's somber ending, he was overcome by the desire to do something to help U.S. service members suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Hear Wynonna's Song for 'American Sniper' Hero Chris Kyle

So Montana, the leader of the band Tim Montana and the Shrednecks, reached out to his contact at Gibson Guitars and pitched a pie-in-the-sky idea. "I called Gibson and said, 'What if we make a Chris Kyle guitar? I don't know how it's going to happen, but. . . ' and they were like, 'OK.'"

The result was a red, white and blue Les Paul adorned with Kyle's infamous Punisher skull logo that Montana, Gibson and the Chris Kyle Memorial Benefit auctioned off to raise money for the Guardian of Heroes Foundation, which helps wounded U.S. soldiers. The instrument sold for $117,500, prompting Montana to try and top it with another guitar this year. With help from the Gibson Foundation, they commissioned a hand-carved custom-made guitar, again decorated with Kyle's insignia, that also includes a spent shell from one of the sniper's missions.

"Last year it was a 10 to $15,000 guitar and this one, being a one-off, it could be worth $50,000, especially with all the war relics in there," says Montana, who worked with Kyle's father to make sure the camouflage design on the guitar's body matched that of Kyle's own fatigues.

Montana, who recently finished a tour with ZZ Top and will be supporting Kid Rock on his summer dates, performed at a benefit for Kyle in Texas last month. Bidding on the guitar, which this year benefits the Spirit of a Hero Foundation, ends Monday, June 6th.

Still, for all his patriotism and support of the U.S. military  his band's Sprinter van is sponsored by and placarded with SEAL-endorsed businesses  Montana doesn't shy away from the fact that some may have a less flattering view of Kyle and his exploits in and after battle.

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"His name may bring up a lot of controversy, but at the end of the day, he saved a lot of American lives by being there," says Montana. "We celebrate that, and we raise money to continue doing good things in his name."

Related
What does Donald Trump read?

Few things are more satisfying than curling up with a good book.

It seems Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is no stranger to this joy.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Wednesday, Trump revealed what he's been reading recently.

"I'm reading that Ed Klein book on Hillary Clinton," Trump said, presumably referring to Klein's latest book, "Unlikeable: The Problem With Hillary." "And I'm reading the book on Richard Nixon ... I'm reading a book that I've read before, it's one of my favorite books, "All Quiet on the Western Front," which is one of the greatest books of all time."

Trump has publicly recommended many books over the years, from books on China -- one of his pet topics -- to books on how to succeed in business (possibly without really trying).

Goodreads compiled a list of books Trump recommends in his books "Trump 101: The Way to Success" and "Think like a Champion: An Informal Education in Business and Life." The Los Angeles Times reports that Trump once listed his favorite 20 books on China off the top of his head.

Here are 10 books from these lists that Donald Trump loves and recommends.

1. 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu

2. 'The Power of Positive Thinking' by Norman Vincent Peale

3. 'Essays and Lectures' by Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. 'The Prince' by Niccolo Machiavelli

5. 'Ideas and Opinions' by Albert Einstein

6. 'The Party' by Richard McGregor

7. 'On China' by Henry Kissinger

8. 'Mao: The Unknown Story' by Jung Chang

9. 'Tide Players' by Jianying Zha

10. 'One Billion Customers' by James McGregor

You can follow Rachel Dicker on Twitter or reach her at rdicker@usnews.com.
Dinner in the sky

Here is what you need to know.

The ECB kept policy on hold. The central bank held its key interest rate at 0.00%, as expected, and said its corporate bond purchases will begin on June 8. During Mario Draghi's press conference, which is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET, traders will be focused on any new economic projections and comments regarding the UK referendum. Thursday's meeting is being held in Vienna. The euro is little changed near 1.1190.

OPEC meets. Leaders from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet in Vienna in an effort to reach an agreement over oil output. Expectations for a deal remain low because of a rift between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudi Arabia has previously said it will freeze production if Iran does as well. "An output ceiling has no benefit to us," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told Reuters ahead of the meeting. West Texas Intermediate crude oil is higher by 0.1% at $49.06 a barrel.

South Korea GDP slows. South Korea's economy expanded by 0.5% quarter-over-quarter, beating the 0.4% gain that economists had forecast. Growth has slowed in two consecutive quarters, however, down from Q3's 1.2% and Q4's 0.7%. On a year-over-year basis, GDP was measured at 2.8%. The South Korean won ended stronger by 0.5% at 1,186.60 per dollar.

Global manufacturing has stalled. The latest JPMorgan-Markit global manufacturing purchasing managers index came in at 50.0 for May, down from 50.1 in April. The reading of 50.0 means global manufacturing neither expanded nor contracted during the month. "Indices for output, new orders and the headline PMI were all at, or barely above, the stagnation mark," said David Hensley, director of global economic coordination at JPMorgan. "The move up in the finished goods inventory index suggests manufacturers are still working to realign stocks with demand."

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Saudi Arabia invests in Uber. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the main investment fund of the kingdom, has invested $3.5 billion in the ride-hailing service. Saudi Arabia's investment comes following the recent announcement of its Saudi Vision 2030 plan, which aims to diversify the kingdom away from its dependence on oil. The investment swells Uber's cash and convertible debt on Uber's balance sheet to more than $11 billion, and it gives the company a $62.5 billion valuation.

McDonald's is considering a move to Chicago. The fast-food giant is reportedly considering a move from its campus in Oakbrook, Illinois, to downtown Chicago, according to Crain's Chicago Business. The location up for consideration is home to Harpo Studios, the former set of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." McDonald's most likely won't move in until 2018, as the Harpo buildings need to be demolished and replaced with a new structure, Crain's says.

Alibaba bought back stock from Softbank. On Tuesday, Softbank said it would sell at least $7.9 billion worth of its Alibaba holdings. On Thursday, Alibaba announced it would spend about $2 billion to buy back 27 million shares at $74 a share, Reuters reports. Once completed, Softbank's sale will trim its Alibaba stake to 28% from 32.2%.

Stock markets around the world trade mixed. Japan's Nikkei (-2.3%) was hit hard overnight, and Britain's FTSE (+0.4%) leads the gains in Europe. S&P 500 futures are down a point at 2,097.00.

Earnings reporting remains slow. Hovnanian and Joy Global will report ahead of the opening bell, while Broadcom will release its quarterly results after markets close.

US economic data flows. ADP Employment Change will be released at 8:15 a.m. ET before initial and continuing claims cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET. Because it's a holiday-shortened week, natural-gas inventories and crude-oil inventories will be announced at 10:30 a.m. ET and 11 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is unchanged at 1.83%.





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HIGHLAND PARK, IL / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / After 100 years of business in greater Chicago, Schwartz's Intimate Apparel in Highland Park will be closing its doors. They will celebrate their history as a Chicago institution with a retirement store closing sale starting June 1st. All merchandise will be on sale and priced to liquidate.

Schwartz's specializes in offering bras for women of all sizes and ages, contemporary swimwear, and healthcare products and services for women experiencing breast cancer. Through the years, Schwartz's has been featured by the Oprah Winfrey Show, Playboy Magazine, Chicago Magazine, and many more local and national publications. Make It Better Magazine has often named Schwartz's the best bra and lingerie store.

The President of Schwartz's Intimate Apparel, Ben Schwartz, announced the closing as a result of his retirement, thanking the many customers for their support over the years. "We thank everyone who made Schwartz's a Chicagoland institution for generations," says Ben Schwartz.

The family business was started in 1916 by Schwartz's grandparents on Chicago's west side. Ben's father and mother, Milton and Florence Schwartz, ran the business before Ben. Along with his wife, Shellie, who ran the Sunset Bay swimwear and resortwear division, and his sister, Syndi Salat, the medical products manager for the Positive Care division, Schwartz's has always been about family working together. Growing up around the store, Schwartz and his siblings were always opening boxes, hanging merchandise, and learning about the family business from a young age.

Schwartz's Positive Care offers healthcare product fitting services in a nonclinical environment, focusing on women who experience breast asymmetry for any reason. Breast cancer survivors feel comfortable with their expert fitters, who helped many regain self-confidence in their appearance. The department also offers compression products for female and male clients. Positive Care is a nationally accredited facility with experts in lymphedema garments.

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Sunset Bay, the swimwear section of the store is equally diverse and personalized. The store offers custom alterations and special order options, said Shellie Schwartz, "There's always that issue that wearing a swimsuit is like wearing your underwear out for the world to see," she said. "I have always been passionate about finding a woman a swimsuit that puts a smile on her face and makes her feel comfortable on the beach."

Schwartz's Retirement Store Closing Sale will began on Wednesday June 1st and continue until all inventory has been liquidated. Schwartz's Intimate Apparel is located in the Crossroads Shopping Center at 161 Skokie Valley Road in Highland Park.

Schwartz's Intimate Apparel

Crossroads Shopping Center

161 Skokie Valley Road

Highland Park, IL 66207

Media Contact:

Ben Schwartz

847-251-1519

ben@schwartzintimate.com

www.schwartzintimate.com

SOURCE: Schwartz's Intimate Apparel
Ashvin Gunasegaran receiving his award from Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Chua as his mother Swares Helen Louisa (in pink) and sister Laavanya look on. (Photo: Erin Kimbrell)



A 12-year-old boy received a Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Public Spiritedness Award on Thursday (2 June) for going to the aid of two female drivers who were involved in an accident.

Commander for the 3rd SCDF Division Lieutenant-Colonel Eric Chua presented Ashvin Gunasegaran with the award at the 3rd SCDF division headquarters in Yishun.



Ashvin was walking home on Tuesday (31 May) with five of his friends when he heard a loud boom. He then realised that two cars had collided at the junction of Yishun Avenue 2 and Yishun Ring Road.



News reports said the Yishun Primary School pupil rushed to check on both drivers, despite warnings from his friends to stay back due to the oncoming traffic.



One of the drivers was a pregnant woman with a deep cut on her arm. Ashvin helped to find her spectacles and stayed with her until the ambulance arrived.

Ashvin said he went to the aid of the drivers because no one was helping them - reports said that people gathered at the scene were busy taking pictures of the accidents.



I was quite scared the accident would be fatal, he said. No one was helping them, so I went to them to ask if they were alright.



His 50-year-old mother Swares Helen Louisa said she was proud of her son and praised him for going out of his way to help others.



Im very happy that he is so thoughtful, she said. Hes only 12. Hes still small, but he can make such a difference.

Lt-Col Chua thanked the boy for his selflessness. You are never too young to lend a helping hand. Im very happy he stepped forward and Im hoping that more people will do the same, he said.


Being named an executor of a will is a serious responsibility, but most people who are selected know nothing about how to perform the role.

An executor's job is to handle the estate of a deceased person, says Sandra Price, a San Francisco-based tax and estate planning partner at Sideman and Bancroft, who specializes in post-death administration.

"When someone comes into my office fresh, not knowing what to do, I usually tell them that all they have to do is identify the assets and value them, pay the debts, and then distribute the assets according to the will. During the period, they need to make sure the assets are protected," she says. "Then I say, my emphasis is that's 'all' they have to do. But the devil is in the details."

[See: 10 Ways You Can Throw Retail Stocks in Your Chart.]

Here are four facts to know about the role of an executor of an estate.

An executor is a fiduciary. "A fiduciary is a fancy word for the person who's liable if they don't do it right," says Mark Accettura, elder law attorney with Accettura and Hurwitz in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and the author of "Blood and Money: Why Families Fight Over Inheritance and What To About It."

That means the person who is named must follow the wishes of what's been written in the will. "If they are going to deviate from that in any way, they have to get court approval," Accettura says.

You may have to get help. In some states, like Texas, an executor must have an attorney except for limited circumstances, says Robert J. McGuire, probate and estate planning attorney at Godwin PC in Dallas.

"You're not really representing yourself as an executor," McGuire says. "You're really representing other heirs most likely, or you also have some duty to creditors."

Wills often go through probate, which means going to court, so an attorney can guide the executor through the process. Price says people who want to research the details of estate law in advance of meeting a lawyer can visit websites like Nolo.com, which has information on various aspects of law. But it's important that executors obtain information that is state-specific since laws governing wills vary.

Story continues

Having an attorney also helps if there is any contention, such as someone who might claim to have a newer version of a will, or argues that the person named executor is incapable of the task.

If the estate is large, the executor may also want to speak to other professionals -- accountants to help with the deceased's final tax return, a real estate broker to sell property, or someone who specializes in collectibles -- to help the process go smoothly, Price says.

All of the professionals are paid from proceeds from the estate.

Secure the estate as soon as possible. That means being proactive with things like changing the locks on a house and gathering the keys to all vehicles.

[See: 13 Money Hacks to Turbocharge Your Investments.]

"If someone is driving the car, it exposes the estate to liability," Accettura says.

This also means informing heirs and creditors quickly, too. For creditors, Accettura says executors need to create a legal notice to creditors, which is published locally. The notice alerts creditors who have loaned money to the deceased person that the creditor has a limited time to make a claim, otherwise it's barred.

McGuire says take time when dealing with creditors.

"You don't want to pay those claims until they have been properly authenticated," he says. "There might be other things that apply like statute of limitations, but otherwise you put the burden of proof on the creditor. You can always negotiate claims with creditors, even after you've determined them to be valid. You want to play hardball with the creditors, because you owe more a duty to the heirs than to creditors."

Communicate with beneficiaries. All three experts say it's important to talk to beneficiaries so they are aware of the process, which can take at least six months or more.

"Heirs want to know when they get distributions. They only get their distributions when an executor has made that determination that the proper debt have been paid," McGuire says.

However, they all say that partial distribution of the estate may satisfy heirs while the estate is being settled. That can include passing out small, tangible items like favorite pieces of furniture or jewelry than do not need to have a separate appraisal.

"The tangible items can be distributed easily and quickly, and a lot of times it's driven by the economy -- if it's an apartment that's rented, you need to vacate the apartment," Price says. "Sometimes there are other factors that are driving the promptness."

Executors who make partial distributions to heirs first need to make sure there's plenty of assets left to pay creditors.

"If executors over-distribute, they may be personally on the hook. Once the assets are distributed, the beneficiaries don't have to give back the assets" if a creditor needs to be paid, Price says.

When distributing assets, executors must not get intimidated by others.

"As a fiduciary, you want to be transparent and communicate with the beneficiaries, but on the other hand, it's not a democratic process. You are in charge," Accettura says. "Other family members, if they become intrusive and you don't push them back somewhat, you lose control of the process, and the next thing you know you have bedlam."

Executors need to document everything they do regarding the will, which also helps in disputes.

[Read: 6 Tips to Invest Like a Venture Capitalist.]

"If you maintain good records, we'll always be able to defend you. If anyone complains, we'll be in a position to defend you, unless you've done the cardinal sin and benefiting yourself over others, because you're a fiduciary," McGuire says. "You don't get the best choice, even if you're an heir. You have to take others' considerations ahead of yours."

Debbie Carlson has more than 20 years experience as a journalist and has had bylines in Barron's, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, and other publications. Follow her on Twitter at @debbiecarlson1.
Being named an executor of a will is a serious responsibility, but most people who are selected know nothing about how to perform the role.

An executor's job is to handle the estate of a deceased person, says Sandra Price, a San Francisco-based tax and estate planning partner at Sideman and Bancroft, who specializes in post-death administration.

"When someone comes into my office fresh, not knowing what to do, I usually tell them that all they have to do is identify the assets and value them, pay the debts, and then distribute the assets according to the will. During the period, they need to make sure the assets are protected," she says. "Then I say, my emphasis is that's 'all' they have to do. But the devil is in the details."

[See: 10 Ways You Can Throw Retail Stocks in Your Chart.]

Here are four facts to know about the role of an executor of an estate.

An executor is a fiduciary. "A fiduciary is a fancy word for the person who's liable if they don't do it right," says Mark Accettura, elder law attorney with Accettura and Hurwitz in Farmington Hills, Michigan, and the author of "Blood and Money: Why Families Fight Over Inheritance and What To About It."

That means the person who is named must follow the wishes of what's been written in the will. "If they are going to deviate from that in any way, they have to get court approval," Accettura says.

You may have to get help. In some states, like Texas, an executor must have an attorney except for limited circumstances, says Robert J. McGuire, probate and estate planning attorney at Godwin PC in Dallas.

"You're not really representing yourself as an executor," McGuire says. "You're really representing other heirs most likely, or you also have some duty to creditors."

Wills often go through probate, which means going to court, so an attorney can guide the executor through the process. Price says people who want to research the details of estate law in advance of meeting a lawyer can visit websites like Nolo.com, which has information on various aspects of law. But it's important that executors obtain information that is state-specific since laws governing wills vary.

Story continues

Having an attorney also helps if there is any contention, such as someone who might claim to have a newer version of a will, or argues that the person named executor is incapable of the task.

If the estate is large, the executor may also want to speak to other professionals -- accountants to help with the deceased's final tax return, a real estate broker to sell property, or someone who specializes in collectibles -- to help the process go smoothly, Price says.

All of the professionals are paid from proceeds from the estate.

Secure the estate as soon as possible. That means being proactive with things like changing the locks on a house and gathering the keys to all vehicles.

[See: 13 Money Hacks to Turbocharge Your Investments.]

"If someone is driving the car, it exposes the estate to liability," Accettura says.

This also means informing heirs and creditors quickly, too. For creditors, Accettura says executors need to create a legal notice to creditors, which is published locally. The notice alerts creditors who have loaned money to the deceased person that the creditor has a limited time to make a claim, otherwise it's barred.

McGuire says take time when dealing with creditors.

"You don't want to pay those claims until they have been properly authenticated," he says. "There might be other things that apply like statute of limitations, but otherwise you put the burden of proof on the creditor. You can always negotiate claims with creditors, even after you've determined them to be valid. You want to play hardball with the creditors, because you owe more a duty to the heirs than to creditors."

Communicate with beneficiaries. All three experts say it's important to talk to beneficiaries so they are aware of the process, which can take at least six months or more.

"Heirs want to know when they get distributions. They only get their distributions when an executor has made that determination that the proper debt have been paid," McGuire says.

However, they all say that partial distribution of the estate may satisfy heirs while the estate is being settled. That can include passing out small, tangible items like favorite pieces of furniture or jewelry than do not need to have a separate appraisal.

"The tangible items can be distributed easily and quickly, and a lot of times it's driven by the economy -- if it's an apartment that's rented, you need to vacate the apartment," Price says. "Sometimes there are other factors that are driving the promptness."

Executors who make partial distributions to heirs first need to make sure there's plenty of assets left to pay creditors.

"If executors over-distribute, they may be personally on the hook. Once the assets are distributed, the beneficiaries don't have to give back the assets" if a creditor needs to be paid, Price says.

When distributing assets, executors must not get intimidated by others.

"As a fiduciary, you want to be transparent and communicate with the beneficiaries, but on the other hand, it's not a democratic process. You are in charge," Accettura says. "Other family members, if they become intrusive and you don't push them back somewhat, you lose control of the process, and the next thing you know you have bedlam."

Executors need to document everything they do regarding the will, which also helps in disputes.

[Read: 6 Tips to Invest Like a Venture Capitalist.]

"If you maintain good records, we'll always be able to defend you. If anyone complains, we'll be in a position to defend you, unless you've done the cardinal sin and benefiting yourself over others, because you're a fiduciary," McGuire says. "You don't get the best choice, even if you're an heir. You have to take others' considerations ahead of yours."





More From US News & World Report


From Cosmopolitan

Thai wildlife officials have begun removing some of the 137 tigers living at a Buddhist temple after reports that the monks who live there had been illegally breeding the animals, the Guardianreports. When police raided the temple, they also found 40 newborn cubs dead in a freezer.

Some of the newborn cubs were found "bloodied and mangled," according to the Guardian. Among the baby tigers, a rare species called a binturong was also found. Binturong look "like something Dr. Seuss might have dreamed up," are smaller than tigers, and are often called "bearcats," according to the San Diego Zoo, though that name is misleading as binturong aren't related to either species.

The New York Times reports this temple, located in Thailand's western province Kanchanaburi, is a popular tourist attraction that had been investigated for illegal breeding and trafficking in the past. That said, the temple had recently made plans to operate as a zoo, but was unable to do so as the monks operating the facility could not secure sufficient resources for the animals.

The Times also reports the monks resisted the police invasion and tried to thwart their efforts for a full half-day to remove the tigers. More than 300 officers remained at the temple overnight Monday to ensure the remaining tigers stayed safe. Experts believe it will take weeks to get all the tigers to safety.

The Wildlife Conservation Office's director Teunjai Noochdumrong told CNN the scene they came upon was "mayhem" and the organization is determining if they will file a lawsuit against the temple: "When our vet team arrived, there were tigers roaming around everywhere," he said, and "it looked like the temple intentionally let these tigers out."

The rescue mission involves more than 2,000 personnel, including veterinarians tending to sedated and sick tigers, WCO volunteers, police, and even some military members.

Follow Tess on Twitter.
From ELLE

Alessandro Michele staged his Gucci Cruise 2017 show today in London, England, and as expected, it was pretty effing amazing. From the crazy location to the unexpected piece of swag show-goers left with, here's what you need to know about the show.

The Location: Westminster Abbey

In the Abbey's cloisters, to be exact. Similar to brands like Louis Vuitton who showed in Brazil, or Chanel who showed in Cuba, Michele's decision turned the show into more of a thing rather than your everyday show.

The Inspiration: Unabashed Anglophile

Michele told the Financial Times of his love of Jane Austen saying she's, "one of the first feminists, because she really understood what happens between a woman and a man." He also dubbed Queen Elizabeth I as being "one of my favorite women" and "a huge inspiration." His love of England manifested itself in a plethora of English-associated things like a Union Jack sweater, punk plaids, chic rain bonnets, and of course, trench coats, that made their way down the runway.

The Front Row: a Mix of It-Girls, It-Rappers, It-Actors, and Will.I.Am

See more from the front row in this star-studded round-up.

The Unexpected Present: a Pillow

The ever-thoughtful Michele placed hand-embroidered cushions on each seat in the Abbey and lucky show-goers got to keep them.

The Accessories: as Good as Ever

If there's one thing Michele has done for the Gucci brand since joining in 2015, it's seriously upping the accessories game. From hats, earrings, and glasses to handbags and multi-strap pumps, I can't wait to get my hands on every single thing in this collection.
For one Massachusetts teen choosing between a two-year or four-year college, cost was the deciding factor.

"I didn't want to be in debt my whole life, so I started to look at community college," says 19-year-old Kiana Estime, who enrolled at Holyoke Community College, which was priced at $3,574 for tuition and fees in state during the 2013-2014 academic year.

Estime had hoped to attend Smith College, but says the school costs too much, at more than $45,000 a year for tuition and fees.

The liberal arts major enrolled in Holyoke Community College last fall and plans to transfer to nearby Smith or the University of Massachusetts--Amherst for her junior year, depending on the financial aid award.

Estime, in the meantime, has managed to keep her debt under $2,000, paying for college with private scholarships, Pell grants and a small loan.

But those are just three ways to pay for community college. Here are some ways to pay for community college other than working part or full time.

[Get the answers tofrequently asked questions about Pell Grants.]

1. Pell grants: Pell grants function like vouchers for students to pay for higher education-related expenses, covering items such as books, transportation or tuition. Awards are based on financial need to students who have not earned a bachelor's degree.

More than two-thirds of Pell grants go to families making less than $50,000, according to Columbia University's Community College Research Center at Teachers College. These awards are also contingent on the student's household size.

"Pell grants will cover a lot of the cost of tuition in most states for community colleges, and that works well if you happen to be in a state that has a large community sector or community college near you," says Joni Finney, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Institute for Research on Higher Education.

A typical community college student eligible for Pell grants receives around $3,200, according to the Association of Community College Trustees, based on the 2012-2013 school year. The current maximum Pell grant is $5,815 for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Story continues

The average annual tuition and fees at a community college for across the nation was around $3,435 in district in 2015-2016, according to the College Board.

Vermont is one of the few states where community college tuition and fees cost more than $6,000 annually, which exceeds the annual maximum Pell grant.

[Discover how low-income students mayattend community college for free.]

2. State aid: Some states, such as Minnesota, Washington and California, offer additional state-based grants to low- and moderate-income community college students.

Minnesota, for example, offers its residents an additional award to full-time students attending two-year or four-year colleges in state. The program's maximum award is around for $6,927 for a student enrolled at an in state community college during the 2015-2016 school year.

Minnesota State Grant and California's Cal Grant are tied to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA. This application is used by many schools to determine financial aid awards.

3. Tuition-free programs: These are often referred to as a promise programs geared toward high school students and either based upon state or local initiatives.

"Most of these programs are direct pipelines from high school to community college," says Jee Hang Lee, vice president for public policy at ACCT. He says there are several promise programs across 37 states.

The Community College of Philadelphia -- one of the schools given money by the Obama administration to fund its promise program -- awards free tuition to graduating high school students who are as Pell-eligible on the FAFSA. In-district tuition and fees at the c ollege in 2013-2014 cost students $4,920 -- so that amount will be waived for incoming students who qualify on the basis of need .

4. Scholarships: Most community college students don't realize that private scholarships, many of which apply to a four-year school, also can apply to students enrolling at a community college.

Estime, for example, pays for more than $1,500 of her tuition through several private scholarships.

[Find scholarships for nontraditional students.]

"I got the Nicholas Boraski scholarship," says Estime, who decided against taking out a student loan this spring because of the award. "Because it's annual , I can rely on that helping me each spring to substitute the amount that would have been a subsidized student loan."

5. Federal direct loans: Around 39 percent of community college students didn't complete the FAFSA, and many of those students would qualify for some form of aid which includes federal student loans, according to the White House .

Federal direct loans have better repayment options and broader financial protections for student borrowers than private loans, experts say.

"We want more students filling out the FAFSA because they might be eligible for an award or aid," says Lee.

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for Community College center.

Farran Powell is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at fpowell@usnews.com.
Here is your first look at the 52 women hoping for the Miss USA tiara this year.

The contestants are strutting their stuff in bikinis and high heels for the swimsuit competition, and getting their hair and makeup applied as they prep for Sunday's big night.

Read: Was Steve Harvey's Miss Universe Mix-Up a Publicity Stunt?

Miss California says she was born for this. "My mom competed In Miss USA in 1989, so I feel like I'm living up to my legacy and it's kind of in my blood," she told Inside Edition.

Miss Alaska said the competition is like a dream. "It's so incredible for me, because I never imagined I would be here," she said.

For the first time, a 52nd contestant was voted into the competition this year via social media.

Read: The Show Will Go On! Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Will Still Air, Just Not on NBC

Their phones are never far from them as they keep an eye on social media and look forward to the pageant.

The competition airs at 7 p.m. EDT on Fox.

Watch: Former Miss USA Reacts to Miss Universe Controversy: 'I Think The Two of Them Were Just So Classy'

Related Articles:
Beirut (AFP) - Six children were among 19 civilians killed Thursday in regime bombing of opposition-held neighbourhoods in Syria's second city of Aleppo, the civil defence said.

Regime air strikes and rocket attacks hit several neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the divided town, a civil defence official said.
For Dana Thompson, who lives in the Washington, D.C. area, finding an online master's program in social work that was flexible enough to supplement her life outside the classroom was key.

The 50-year-old -- who ultimately enrolled in MSW@USC, the online graduate social work program offered through the University of Southern California -- turned to online learning because her husband was active in the military, and they moved often. On top of that, she worked part time while pursuing her degree and has three children.

"I was looking for a program that would give me a variety of times of day for the classes to occur because some programs only have evening classes available," says Thompson, who earned her degree in August 2014. "And I needed to make sure I could flex it within the needs of my family."

[Learn about the challenges of balancing online classes with work.]

Like Thompson, many online learners balance their education with jobs and other responsibilities. Therefore, students should ensure an online degree program will allow them to work around their schedules and integrate online learning into the rest of their lives.

"Flexibility would be probably the primary reason why anyone would even consider an online program," says Christine Shakespeare, assistant vice president for continuing and professional education at Pace University. "And that's because flexibility allows for people to juggle multiple priorities."

As prospective online learners consult school websites and speak with online students, faculty and officials to select a best-fit program, experts say they should ask the following questions.

1. Are classes live, self-paced or both? From a scheduling perspective, experts say, a class that is asynchronous, or self-paced, is generally more flexible than one that's synchronous, requiring students to be in class at a predesignated time on a certain day. Some programs combine both formats.

Story continues

Still, synchronous learning allows for more student-faculty interaction and networking, Shakespeare says. Prospective online students should decide whether greater flexibility outweighs these benefits.



[Discover how to decide between live and self-paced online classes.]

2. What are your options for building a semester's course schedule? Experts suggest that prospective online students understand the different ways they can construct their course schedules each semester.

Prospective online students might ask, for instance, whether there's flexibility in how many classes they must enroll in per semester and the amount of time it takes to complete the entire program, as well as when semesters begin and end and if there are shortened or accelerated options. They might also want to know which courses to take concurrently based on content and rigor.

"It becomes a bit of a complex puzzle for them sometimes because they're not able to devote going to school full time," says Jordi Getman-Eraso, a consortial faculty member at the CUNY School of Professional Studies, which offers online degrees and certificates.

3. At what times of day are student services available? Online students might be located anywhere in the world, so access to services such as tech support, career counseling and librarian assistance at various hours is critical, Shakespeare says. Experts say to check how flexible these hours are for online students.

Mari Moxley, who recently earned her bachelor's degree online through Pennsylvania State University--World Campus, says students should also be aware of the time zone they are in and which time zone their school is in, which can impact accessibility.

"If you're working a full day, and you need to get a hold of tech support or a teacher, what time is their close of business versus what time is your close of business?" Moxley says.

[Ask the right questions when looking at student services in online programs.]

4. Are there in-person test-taking or other requirements? Many online learners pursue online education because they can complete classes wherever they are, experts say. So learning whether there's a clinical or internship component or an in-person exam is crucial to determining how accessible a program is for a specific student.

When it comes to exams, James Andrews, director of external programming at West Texas A&M University, suggests asking whether tests are proctored online or at a testing center, for instance, and what the technical requirements are.

5. Do you have the option to come to campus for resources or particular courses? Students who live near a school might wish to see if they have the flexibility to access certain resources or classes offered on the physical campus, particularly for disciplines that might not be as suited to online education, Shakespeare says.

"Sometimes we've had students who've decided they wanted to come to campus to meet with us, or they want to use the library as a study place during a certain time, or in the rare case, have said, 'I really want to take this dance class,'" Shakespeare says.

6. Will previously earned credits easily transfer? Part of an online program's flexibility, Shakespeare says, is the ability to piece together course credits from past academic and professional experience. Moxley, who gained some course credits through military experience, agrees.

As an adult online learner, "You're going to have a lot of real-world experience, and you might have credits from all different places that a school might be willing to consider," Moxley says.

Trying to fund your online education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for Online Education center.

Jordan Friedman is an online education editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at jfriedman@usnews.com.


(Adds details on the fund, redemptions)

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON, June 1 (Reuters) - Billionaire investor William Ackman's Pershing Square Holdings hedge fund posted losses in May, widening its year-to-date losses to 18.6 percent, an investor in the fund said, in results that reinforce how some of the industry's biggest stars are facing a rough patch.

Pershing Square had a May loss of 0.7 percent, following a gain of 10.2 percent in April that had helped shrink the loss for the first four months to 18 percent, an investor in the fund said. In the first quarter, Pershing Square lost 25.6 percent, one of the industry's worst returns.

Ongoing losses have prompted the firm, whose assets under management are down by about 40 percent from a year ago to $12.3 billion, to tell investors that it expects redemptions for the second quarter to be higher than in recent quarters, two people familiar with the matter said.

This year's losses follow a 20.5 percent drop in 2015, which followed a winning 2014 when Pershing Square ranked as one of the hedge fund industry's best performers with a roughly 40 percent gain.

Ackman's chief troubles this year are the same as last: bets that shares of drug company Valeant will climb and shares of nutrition company Herbalife's will fall. Ackman joined Valeant's board this year and helped pick a new chief executive.

Other funds have also struggled this year. Barry Rosenstein, often among the first to report monthly numbers, on Tuesday told investors that his Jana Partners fund is off 4.7 percent this year after gaining 2.4 percent last month. David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital fell 1.9 percent in May but is up 1.1 percent this year, according to data provided to Reuters by sources.

The depth and prolonged period of Ackman's declines, however, stand out in the industry and have made some investors uneasy, several said. Ackman has been spending time visiting clients in the last months to explain his vision for the fund in greater and more personal detail.

Story continues

With investors generally souring on hedge funds - $14 billion in assets were pulled in the first quarter alone, according to data from Preqin - Pershing Square is one fund that may see more substantial redemptions in the months ahead, investors said.

Pershing Square allows most clients to pull only one-eighth of their money per quarter, which means it would take two full years to exit Pershing Square completely.

Historically, investors have pulled roughly 2.2 percent of assets that can be redeemed. At the start of this year, that number was lower, with investors asking for only about 2 percent back, two people said.

But that number is expected to climb.

To get money out by the end of June, investors had to notify Pershing Square by April 29, though they may still change their minds and withdraw redemption notices, making it unclear how much money will be pulled in the second quarter.

A year ago Pershing Square managed $19.7 billion. The firm's structure includes permanent capital at one of its portfolios plus employee capital and a public bond issue which assure that assets cannot drop to zero.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Tom Brown and Leslie Adler)
A new ad from British clothing brand Jack Wills has been yanked by advertising watchdogs that claim the ad includes "sexualized images and text."

The brand is known to many as the British alternative to Abercrombie and Fitch. "It sells a boating blazer so obnoxious that it must exist only to help identify people who want to be punched," according to the Guardian. "Jack Wills isn't sexy."

Opinions on the quality of the clothing aside, the two brands have one distinct difference: While A&F caters to teens, Jack Wills, according to a press release from the brand, is "targeted at 18- to 24-year-old university students and not at younger teenagers."

Thus the advertisement in question, which arrived to Jack Wills 3 million-plus subscribers in a sealed, opaque envelope, was not intended for the eyes teens or children.

In the ad, male and female models are shown in their underwear drinking, dancing, dancing and on a bed together  relatively tame when comparing it to ads from Calvin Klein or American Apparel.

Source: Jack Wills

The "sexualized" text read: "Pure and comfortable cottons, or flirty delicate laces; whatever your choice, you can be sure it's what's underneath that counts ..."

Another page promoting the brand's loungewear was even tamer, with a group of young adults seen goofing off in bed together, with more flesh covered than not. The more daring sight? One model's bra strap, which lied below her shudder. The horror!

The text on this read "A [favorite] tee and your boxers, or a lounge short and bra; this is loungewear made for the morning after the night before."

This Ad Was Banned for Featuring

The ad received but one complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority  yes, one out of 3 million  and yet this was enough to have the ad yanked.

"The images showed a group of friends enjoying a weekend away, relaxing with each other and enjoying a pajamas party," Jack Wills said in a press release. "The images were not sexualized, provocative and did not imply sexual activity in any way. None of the images featured any nudity and that none of the garments worn by the models was transparent."

Story continues

According to Jack Wills, even if the claims were seen as a double entendre, the company did not see how it could be seen as overly sexual or encouraging underage sexual activity.

Nonetheless, the ban was upheld by the ASA, which said it breached their responsible advertising code. It's not the first time the ASA has clamped down on controversy. As previously reported by Mic, in the past they've and most recently they banned an ad sexualizing a "vulnerable" child (the "child" in question was a 21-year-old model).

If the latest much ado about nothing proves anything, it's that the ASA might need to refine its strategy on what it deems inappropriate.
Afghan forces have improved their performance over the last year, a time when they saw a series of setbacks in their struggle against the Taliban, a United States general said Wednesday.

"We are cautiously optimistic about the coming months because overall we do believe that they have some momentum right now," senior spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan Charles Cleveland said via videoconference from Kabul.

"We do believe that the ANDSF has performed better this year than they were performing last year," he said, using the acronym for the Afghan national troops.

Last year concerns that Afghan forces lacked the ability to resist the Taliban led the United States to postpone indefinite withdrawal of its own troops.

The administration of President Barack Obama is under pressure to reevaluate the number of US soldiers that will stay in Afghanistan in 2017, now fixed at 5,500.

Cleveland said Afghan forces are progressing because they are now in "an offensive mindset" -- sometimes taking their own initiative in attacking the Taliban.

"They are getting better in employing their newer capabilities," including use of US-provided A-29 aircraft, MD-530 helicopters and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tools.

Cleveland added that their special operations capability is "doing exceptionally well."

General John Nicholson, the new top commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, is expected to conclude his assessment of troop needs for 2017 soon.

Cleveland expects him to brief his military chain of command "in the next couple of days."
June 2 (Reuters) - Michigan-based air bag maker Key Safety Systems and new Chinese parent Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp are discussing a potential investment in Takata Corp with the Japanese company's investment banker Lazard, Key Chief Executive Jason Luo said on Thursday.

Luo said he could not provide further details on whether Joyson and Key were interested in acquiring Takata or its air bag and seat belt operations.

Luo said Joyson on Thursday closed its $900 million acquisition of Key.

News of Joyson and Key's interest in Takata was first reported on Thursday by Crain's Detroit Business.

(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit)
(Adds quotes, details)

By Tim Hepher

DUBLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - Airbus expects to announce orders for A350-900 and A350-1000 jets in the coming weeks, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Air Transport Association in Dublin, Chris Buckley, executive vice president for sales, said demand for the biggest twin-engined jets had slowed recently after a run of sales.

The largest A350 model, the 366-seat A350-1000, has been through a lean two years while sales for rival Boeing 777s have also slowed, industry figures show.

"Very few airlines in the past few years have placed a new order for that type of aircraft," Buckley said in an interview, but added: "I think we are extremely confident that we will have some more interesting A350 announcements in the weeks and months to come."

These would involve the A350-900 and A350-1000 versions and Britain's Farnborough Airshow in July could be a target, he said.

Two industry sources said earlier that British airline Virgin Atlantic was near to finalising a deal to buy close to 10 A350-1000 jets, worth $356 million each.

One of the sources said the airline could purchase eight of the jets. It has been negotiating for several months for an aircraft purchase in talks first reported by Bloomberg News.

A spokeswoman for Virgin Atlantic said: "We are currently evaluating our future fleet requirements to ensure that any new aircraft we introduce will provide the best possible outcome for our customers and our business. We have not yet confirmed our decision but we will provide an update as soon as we can."

A spokeswoman for Airbus said: "We do not comment on discussions with our customers."

Boeing has said the A350-1000 has been overtaken by two upgraded models of its 777 family.

Each says it offers the more efficient jet, but Airbus stepped up its marketing rhetoric on Thursday by borrowing a page from Boeing's history in its rival's centenary year, referring to the now-retired 747 Shuttle carrier.

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"An A350-1000 can carry an A320 on its back ... just like the Space Shuttle, and that would equal the weight of a 777-9. So why go for the 777 and carry around all this metal?" Buckley said.

He said Russia's aviation market had bottomed out following the bankruptcy of Transaero, which had reduced capacity and offset a 14 percent drop in traffic.

"It is a natural leveller and the general feeling is that things have been at the bottom and are starting to get going again," Buckley said.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Editing by Conor Humphries and Susan Fenton)
From Town & Country

Before Lin Manuel Miranda took his story to the stage, Alexander Hamilton was the answer to a trivia question, the subject of a few pages of a text book. He had a place on the $10 bill, but no hold on the country's collective memory.

Now, ten months into Hamilton's Broadway run, the appetite for Alexander, Eliza, and entire Hamilton family is only increasing. So, how are the modern-day Hamiltons handling their (somewhat) newfound fame?

"There's never been a better time to be a descendant of Alexander Hamilton," said Doug Hamilton, a fifth-great-grandson of the first Secretary of the Treasury, in a phone interview with Town & Country.

Doug, an IBM salesperson in the Columbus area of Ohio, has seen the musical multiple times, considers Miranda an acquaintance, and was there for the initial Vassar workshop, an event he says was "electrifying."

"It's been pretty spectacular," Doug said of the play's immense popularity. "Not only for saving Hamilton on the $10 bill, but more importantly, for promoting the founding age of our country, and everything the Founding Fathers did."

He is, of course, referring to the movement to feature women on U.S. paper currency. Initially, a woman's portrait was set to replace Hamilton's on the $10, but the success of the musical (and the tribute it pays to Hamilton's historical influence on America's financial systems) undoubtedly influenced Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew to rethink the plan. Now, Harriet Tubman will appear on the $20, ousting Andrew Jackson, and the back of the $10 will feature a series of women's rights activists: Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, and Alice Paul.

"I don't know that we could be more happy about this," Doug said of the decision.

And while some of his other relatives may be uncomfortable in the spotlight (or haven't even heard of the musical, if you can believe it), Doug takes pride in representing his ancestor and "telling his story," to borrow a sentiment from the show. "[Alexander Hamilton] is a great example for my kids and my grandkids. He came to this country with nothing and he worked really hard."

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Doug has followed closely the show's development, and its increasing collection of awards."It just keeps on growing," he said of the show's near constant buzz and vast fandom. "And it's great to see that it's not just a Broadway thing; it's the whole country that is experiencing this story."

"Every time you turn around there's something new going on with it. I know tickets are hard to get, but there's a new book, you can get the music on your phone," he said.

But Doug is most excited about how the musical is being used in the classroom, with both the official curriculum that Hamilton producers are creating , but also through individual teachers who are bringing the soundtrack into their curriculums.

"The reach that it's getting within the school systems is just incredible. It's put a whole new spotlight on this founding age," he said. "It's the start of something. It begs the question, it starts the discussion."

The best time to be a Hamilton, indeed.
Search giant Alphabet Inc. GOOGL has taken another step toward expanding its mobile shopping service.

The company announced on Wednesday, the launch of its on-demand delivery service Google Express in Houston. The service will be expanded to parts of Texas and Oklahoma.

The service will enable customers to sign up for overnight or two-day delivery from several U.S. retailers that Google partners with.

Google Express currently offers overnight, same-day and two-day delivery services across several U.S. cities. It was launched in San Francisco and Silicon Valley in 2013 and later expanded to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C.

Brian Elliott, general manager of Google Express said, "We think of this as being part of our ongoing mission to connect customers with the retailers and brands that they love.

How it Works

Google Express costs its members $95 annually that includes free delivery for $15 minimum order value. There is also a Pay-as-you-go option that costs $4.99 per eligible order. Members can get overnight deliveries from Barnes & Noble, Costco, PetSmart, Whole Foods Market and Walgreens while deliveries from Ulta, Vitamin Shop, Moosejaw, Frys, Guitar Center, LOccitane, Kohls, Treasure Island, Sur La Table, Ace Hardware, buybuy Baby, Roadrunner and Bed Bath & Beyond will take a couple of days.

Leapfrogging Competitors

We see this move as Googles push to wrestle market share from its closest peers such as Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT in the delivery service space.

In 2015, Wal-Mart launched its pick-up grocery service in Oklahoma. The company launched Walmart Pay in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma just weeks ago.

Amazon Prime, launched in Houston in 2015, offers same-day delivery service for an annual charge of $99 with free cloud storage and access to songs, videos and discounts online.

Even startups joined the race with Smackdab targeting the furniture space and Instacart targeting alcohol delivery.

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At present, Google has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock worth considering is Facebook, Inc. FB, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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Jeff Bezos

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos loves Prime Video, and the reason should scare Netflix.

This week at Vox's Code Conference, Bezos outlined why he thinks Prime Video is a good business for Amazon. Having a subscription video section of Amazon Prime makes people more likely to both become a paying Prime member and to renew their Prime subscription when it ends, Bezos said.

In short, subscription video means more Prime users. And Prime users are more valuable customers for Amazon.

"We get to monetize [our subscription video] in a very unusual way," Bezos said. "When we win a Golden Globe, it helps us sell more shoes. And it does that in a very direct way. Because if you look at Prime members, they buy more on Amazon than non-Prime members, and one of the reasons they do that is once they pay their annual fee, they're looking around to see, 'How can I get more value out of the program?' And so they look across more categories  they shop more. A lot of their behaviors change in ways that are very attractive to us as a business. And the customers utilize more of our services."

This fact gives Amazon an advantage over competitors like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO, who are trying to use premium video to make money directly  not by using it to sell more shoes. They are bidding against Amazon for the same shows and chasing the same customers, but Amazon doesn't have to sweat the margins.

"Because we have this unusual way to monetize the premium content, we can charge less for the premium content than we would otherwise have to charge, if we didn't have the flywheel spinning to help sell more shoes," Bezos said.

And Amazon isn't going to take its foot off the gas pedal when it comes to premium video. Bezos said Amazon Studios, the company's original video arm, could be the "fourth pillar" of its entire business (after retail, Prime as a whole, and Amazon Web Services). Analysts at Bernstein estimate that Amazon spent $2 billion on video content for Prime in 2015.

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Bezos, for his part, doesn't believe that Netflix and Amazon are competitors. "I think people are going to subscribe to both," he said (and there is some evidence he is right). But even he acknowledges that the different services compete on the "supply side" by bidding on the same shows and movies.

And even if you believe that there is enough room in the world for Amazon and Netflix, and Hulu, and HBO Now, and Starz, and Showtime, and Seeso, and whichever other streaming service will be announced tomorrow, Bezos' obvious enthusiasm for the side benefits of subscription video cannot be welcome news for his competitors.

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Coastal Compassion has Started Construction on Its Registered Medical Dispensary in Fairhaven, MA

DENVER, CO / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / AmeriCann, Inc. (ACAN), a company that designs, develops and leases sustainable, state-of-the-art medical cannabis cultivation properties, has begun funding a loan as part of a definitive agreement with Coastal Compassion, Inc. in Massachusetts.

Through AmeriCann's Preferred Partner Program, Coastal Compassion will be the first tenant in AmeriCann's proposed Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Center located in Freetown, MA. In addition, AmeriCann is providing consulting support during the construction of Coastal Compassion's approved dispensary in Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

JoAnne Leppanen, Executive Director of Coastal Compassion, stated, "We are excited to start construction on our dispensary and make progress towards providing high quality, affordable medical cannabis to Massachusetts patients."

Coastal Compassion is one of a limited number of non-profit organizations that has received a provisional or final registration to cultivate, process and sell medical cannabis by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

The 10,000 square foot building in Fairhaven will house Coastal Compassion's dispensary, which has been provisionally approved by the State. The Fairhaven facility has a Special Permit and Building Permit from the Town of Fairhaven and architectural approvals from the Department of Public Health. Once complete, the facility will begin servicing patients while AmeriCann completes the development of the Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Center.

The Massachusetts Medical Cannabis Center is approved for nearly 1,000,000 square feet of medical cannabis cultivation and processing in Freetown, Massachusetts. The state-of-the-art, sustainable, greenhouse project will consist of multiple planned phases for tenants in the Massachusetts medical marijuana market. Coastal Compassion finalized agreements to occupy the first phase of the project that consists of an initial 130,000 sq. ft. of cultivation and processing infrastructure. AmeriCann can expand the first phase to approximately 600,000 sq. ft., for Coastal Compassion based on patient demand.

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"AmeriCann and Coastal Compassion share a commitment to delivering patients unsurpassed medicine produced with sustainable practices," stated AmeriCann founder and CFO Ben Barton. "The commencement of this loan towards the completion of Coastal's medical dispensary in Fairhaven is simply the first step in a long-term partnership in serving patients in the Commonwealth."

The Massachusetts Medical Use of Marijuana Program, which was approved by voters in 2012 by a wide margin, continues to be one of the premier regarded markets by industry experts even with the first dispensaries having only recently opened.

A ballot initiative to allow for full marijuana legalization has received the necessary signatures and is expected to be on the November 2016 ballot for Massachusetts voters. "The state (Massachusetts) could become one of the biggest regulated cannabis markets in the country; bigger than Colorado and Washington State," according to Marijuana Business Daily.

About AmeriCann

Americann is a publicly traded company that designs, develops and leases sustainable, state-of-the-art medical cannabis cultivation properties. The Company has over 1,000,000 square feet of facilities in various stages of development. AmeriCann has preferred partners in Colorado, Massachusetts and Delaware. AmeriCann does not cultivate, process or distribute cannabis, but partners with local business to serve marijuana patients in their communities. More information about the Company is available at: www.americann.co.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act") (which Sections were adopted as part of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). Statements preceded by, followed by or that otherwise include the words "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "project," "prospects," "outlook," and similar words or expressions, or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "should," "would," "may," and "could" are generally forward-looking in nature and not historical facts. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any anticipated results, performance or achievements. The Company disclaims any intention to, and undertakes no obligation to, revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, a future event, or otherwise.

Contact Information:

Corporate:

AmeriCann, Inc.

3200 Brighton Blvd. Unit 114

Denver, CO 80216

(303) 862-9000

info@americann.co

www.americann.co

Investors:

Hayden IR

hart@haydenir.com

(917) 658-7878

SOURCE: AmeriCann, Inc.
Evangelical Christian author James Dobson published a violent screed Tuesday that took transphobia in public restrooms to a

Taking aim at the Obama administration's of transgender individuals  President Barack Obama issued a declaration in May calling on states to allow trans people to use public facilities that match their gender identity  Dobson falsely equated trans women with sexual predators and offered a thinly veiled solution to the alleged danger they pose in bathrooms:

M and shoot 'em.

" with any gumption, surely you will defend your wife's privacy and security in restroom facilities," Dobston wrote at WorldNetDaily, which bills itself as having reach of any Christian website on planet Earth."

"If you are a dad, I pray you will protect your little girls from men who walk in unannounced, unzip their pants and urinate in front of them. If this had happened 100 years ago, someone might have been shot. Where is today's manhood? God help us!"

Source: Elaine Thompson/AP

Dobson also accused Obama of acting "like a king" and trying to "change the way males and females relate to each other."

"The president's order made me furious, and then sick to my stomach," Dobson wrote. "Who is it that is warping our children? It is Barack Obama, one of the worst presidents in American history, and it is time we stood up and said so!"

Dobson's rant disguised as journalism  titled "Protect Your Kids From Tyrant Obama"  also outlines numerous scenarios that have little to do Obama's words, or with the countless transgender people across the United States who simply wish to use the restroom in peace.

For instance, Dobson asks readers to imagine men dressed as women, "peering over toilet cubicles" at people doing their business, or grown men unzipping their pants and urinating in front of young girls.

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In framing his argument this way, Dobson ignores a simple truth: Trans women are women, not men in dresses. So even if men were caught committing these crimes, they would in no way be a referendum on what actual trans women are doing.

Source: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

What's more, the myths about trans people Dobson perpetuates have been repeatedly proven false.

Anti-trans advocates have to name any documented examples of transgender people assaulting anyone in public bathrooms  let alone the kind of patterned violence that might call for legislation to prevent it.

But that hasn't stopped states from passing such laws anyway. The subject has been at the center of a national controversy since North Carolina passed HB2, which requires people in the state to use bathrooms that match their gender assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.

Target recently announced customers would be allowed to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity  and anti-trans bigots wasted no time trolling the store's bathrooms while publicly poking fun at trans identity.

At the end of the day, Dobson's piece not only misunderstands what being transgender means, it openly and shamelessly advocates attacking trans women, a community that faces a staggering amount of violence already. Last year proved to be one of the most violent on record for transgender women, who were killed at a rate of one per week in January and February in 2015.
By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Furniture, artwork, jewelry and collectible objects that once graced the Los Angeles home of President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, are headed for the auction block, Christie's said on Thursday.

The landmark sale, a series of live and online auctions scheduled for September, also encompasses decorative pieces of art, books, ephemera, sculpture, drawings and prints from the Reagans' home in the affluent Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Christie's said it expects the sale of some 700 lots to take in more than $2 million. But estimates are based on the items' market value, and the possessions of celebrated figures offered at auction typically have soared to many times their estimates.

Proceeds will benefit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, in line with the Reagans' wishes.

"This prestigious collection offers unprecedented insight into the private lives of President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan," said Brook Hazelton, president of Christies Americas. "Each object offers a 'through-the-keyhole' experience revealing as-yet-untold stories of two of the 20th centurys most celebrated public figures."

Reagan, a former Hollywood actor and California governor, was elected the 40th U.S. president in 1980. He died in 2004. Nancy Reagan died earlier this year at age 94.

The couple presided over a glamorous White House, where bold-faced names from the Reagans' years before the cameras as actors injected a glitzy element into Washington's traditionally staid social scene.

Details on the auction items will be announced in coming weeks. Christie's said the collection includes American, English and Chinese furnishings, many evoking the "Hollywood Regency" style, and many personal objects.

Estimates on individual items range from $1,000 to $50,000.

The auction house said the collection was noteworthy for reflecting the simple and elegant private life the Reagans enjoyed together in Bel Air, where they often entertained.

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Nancy Reagan, whose family and estate trustees are holding the sale, once reflected, "So much of your life is on display that to be alone and relaxed was a luxury we looked forward to."

The sale's proceeds "will ensure that the foundation, and the presidential library it supports, will be equipped to pursue its mission," John Heubusch, the foundation's executive director, said in a statement.

(Editing by Scott Malone)
The excruciating wait for new Avalanches material is over. The Australian electronica outfit has dropped "Frankie Sinatra," their first fresh recording in 16 years.

The enigmatic act's new track had its global premiere at 12am ET on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 show, and debuted Down Under on the Triple J network (the state-funded broadcaster rotated its earlier works throughout Thursday in celebration of "Avalanches Day").

Avalanches Tease First Album in 15 Years With Help From Father John Misty, Danny Brown, Ariel Pink

"Frankie Sinatra" takes the Avalanches into hip-hop territory with guest slots from rapper Danny Brown and MF Doom and there's a blend of retro samples, including a surprise grab from the Sound of Music's "My Favorite Things." And there's a promise of more to come. Just minutes after the premiere, the Avalanches posted a message which confirmed the existence of a new album, and offered an apology for the long wait.

It's been an age since 2000 debut Since I Left You announced the Avalanches as one of the coolest acts on the planet. The cut-and-paste masterwork peaked at No. 8 in the U.K., No. 10 on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums and hit all the right notes with critics, many of whom declared the set the best released by an Australian artist in the noughties (it was the only Aussie album to make the NME's Top 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade list, coming in at No. 45). The group toured in various guises (live and DJ sets) and with various lineups until the mid-2000s.

There've been infrequent hints at a sophomore album, though nothing eventuated. A song did arrive in 2013, a remix of Hunters & Collectors' "Talking to a Stranger" (it was titled "Stalking to a Stranger").

The Avalanches Announce Comeback Shows

Rumor of a return became a reality when the Avalanches announced a string of mid-year live dates and teased a new album with a doco-style trailer, entitled Since They Left Us. Another song, an uplifting number believed to be called "Subways", has been teased in Australia through posters and a hotline number.

"Frankie Sinatra" arrives ahead of the Avalanches' first comeback show, June 3 at Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Dates are also scheduled for June 12 at Field Day in London and there's a July 22 homecoming date at Splendour in the Grass in Byron Bay.
Electronic group the Avalanches have announced their surprise new album and also premiered a new song. The follow-up to their 2000 debut LP, Since I Left You, sophomore album Wildflower will be released on July 8th via Astralwerks and features collaborations with Father John Misty, Danny Brown and others.

The Avalanches Return, Announce Festival Shows

"Sorry we kept you waiting," the group wrote on Twitter. "It's been a wild ride and at times we thought we'd never make it through. What kept us going was the belief in the day-to-day experience of music as a life force - as life energy. How music can change the tone of your day. How the sunlight refracts differently through the atmosphere can make the world look different, changing colors and feelings. What a beautiful thing sound waves can be. It's magic."

The group premiered new single, "Frankie Sinatra" on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 Radio program during his interview with Avalanches' Tony Di Blasi and Robbie Chater, where they discussed collaborating with Danny Brown (whom they described as having "an almost punk rock voice sometimes") and others. The pair said that the album began to take shape "three or four years ago."

As for the time between records, they've worked on several projects, including music with Luke Steele from the Sleep Jackson, music for the King Kong soundtrack and an animated project. "We just kept making music, which we'd always done and probably will always do, but there was so much of it on so many different projects. At a certain point we realized we kinda need to pull an Avalanches record together out of all this stuff we've been making," they told Lowe. Triple J also premiered "Frankie Sinatra."

Sporadic details and rumors about their sophomore record have circulated over the years, but more recent events seemed to solidify that a new LP was forthcoming. In April, the reclusive group announced a handful of 2016 summer festival dates, which ramped up the new album speculation. The Australian act will perform for their first traditional live date since 2007 when they take the stage at Primavera Sound in Barcelona, Spain, next week.

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More evidence that new music was on its way came in the form of a mysterious video that the Avalanches posted last week. The humorous teaser clip entitled "Since They Left Us," a play on their debut release, featured Father John Misty, Danny Brown, Ariel Pink, Royal Trux's Jennifer Herrema and Kirin J. Callinan.

Hear Zane Lowe's Full Interview With the Avalanches

Related
WHITE ROCK, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / AZARGA METALS CORP. ("Azarga" or the "Company") (TSX-V: AZR) announces it has approved plans for the first drilling program at its newly acquired Unkur Copper-Silver Project in the Zabaikalsky province of eastern Russia. Details of the Unkur property were contained in the Company's news release of March 1, 2016, including historic drilling on the Unkur property that outlined a large area of high-grade shallow stratiform sediment hosted copper-silver 20 to 50 meters thick over an area four to six kilometers long.

Azarga's president and CEO Dorian L. (Dusty) Nicol commented, "This first phase of drilling will target copper-silver zones with the objective of verifying historical results to confirm the presence of high grade mineralization."

During the first phase of drilling, the Company aims to drill between eight and ten diamond drill holes totaling approximately 3,000 cumulative linear meters. The program will employ two drill rigs operating from late-July / early-August through the end of November. Assaying will be conducted by SGS Minerals Services in Chita, with results expected in the October to December period.

Objectives of first phase drilling are to:

Verify significant high grade intercepts from historic drilling;

Begin compiling subsurface data that will be the basis for a 43-101 compliant Resource estimate. Initially, this will focus on demonstrating an Inferred Resource as this can be the basis for fast-tracking a Preliminary Economic Assessment (Scoping Study);

Demonstrate copper and silver grades from drill core with expected better recovery than historic drilling;

Assess distribution of silver mineralization both within, and if present, outside of copper mineralization envelope. Historic analyses of drill core were in general only within the copper mineralized envelope;

Gain geologic understanding that will help with resource estimates and planning of future drilling programs;

Demonstrate grade and thicknesses of portions of the Unkur deposit;

Take samples of sufficient unoxidized mineralized material to make several composites for metallurgical testing (subject to budget constraints).

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Five initial holes will be drilled (collar locations marked as AM-001 to AM-005 on the map below) around the location of higher grade copper and silver intercepts observed from historical drilling. Another 11 proposed drill hole locations (collar locations marked as AM-006 to AM-016 on the map below) have been identified to the west and south-west of the initial drilling area. It is anticipated that between three and eight of these will be selected for drilling as part of the first phase program, with the determination on which holes get prioritized being made as information from the first five holes becomes available.

Map of Unkur Copper-Silver Project with proposed drill-collar locations

To view the graphic, please click here.

Source: Azarga Metals Corp., QGIS and Google Earth.

Commencement of drilling will be dependent on receipt of approval from the Forestry Service of Russia for Azarga's plans for subsoil penetration at the site. Such approval has already been applied for and the Company expects to receive positive notification prior to the commencement of drilling according to the timetable set out in this news release.

The Unkur exploration license has recently passed an inspection by Rosprirodnadzor (the Russian Federal Service for the Supervision of the Use of Natural Resources), which oversees compliance with the terms and conditions of mineral exploration licenses. The Company is pleased to report that the Unkur license was found to be in full compliance with regulations and license terms.

Qualified Person

The Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Dorian L. (Dusty) Nicol, B.Sc. Geo, MA Geo, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the exploration information disclosures contained in this Press Release.

About Azarga Metals Corp.

Azarga is a mineral exploration and development company that owns 60% of the Unkur Copper-Silver Project in the Zabaykalsky province in eastern Russia.

AZARGA METALS CORP.

"Dusty Nicol"

Dorian L. (Dusty) Nicol, President and CEO

For further information please contact: Doris Meyer, at +1 604 536-2711 ext 6, or visit www.azargametals.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement:

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Corporation's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan," "expect," "project," "intend," "believe," "anticipate," "estimate," "suggest," "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others: the actual results of current planned exploration activities; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans to continue to be refined; possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or financing; and fluctuations in metal prices. There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Corporation disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

SOURCE: Azarga Metals Corp.
Shooting for this season's The Bachelorette has already wrapped, but Chad Johnson has found a way to keep antagonizing his fellow competitors even after they've all left the mansion.



Domain names for several Bachelorette contestants are rerouting to Johnson's Instagram account, and Johnson, 28, bought the URLs himself, he confirms to PEOPLE. Among the affected contestants are, Robby Hayes, Chase McNary, Derek Peth and Alex Woytkiw. Reality Steve was the first to report the following domain names are redirecting to Johnson's Instagram page:



www.derekpeth.com

www.robbyhayes.com

www.chasemcnary.com

www.alexwoytkiw.com





Johnson says he registered the domain names for two reasons: "That's business, and it's hilarious."









Johnson's tension with the other men has been key storyline so far on this season of The Bachelorette, with ABC dubbing next week's two-part arc "Chad-ageddon" and releasing a trailer that shows him threatening the other men.



"I'm gonna cut everyone here's legs off and arms off" and "I will physically hurt you" are just two of the things Johnson says in the trailer.





The Story Behind the Story: Is JoJo The Bachelorette Headed Down the Aisle?

Bachelorette's Chad Johnson Rerouted Rivals' Domain Names to His Own Instagram Page: 'That's Business, and It's Hilarious'" data-ad-channel="Brightcove" data-ad-subchannel="" data-auto-play="no">



In her exclusive exclusive PEOPLE blog this week, Fletcher addressed some of Johnson's behavior from Monday's episode.



"I had no idea there was this much tension between Chad and the other guys," Fletcher wrote. "I knew there was some tension, of course, but I didn't know there were threats of violence. I don't feel great now seeing this. It's all just so complicated. Chad is a complex guy with complex emotions."



Johnson has addressed concerns over his behavior on the show.



"I'm not violent, but I will stand up for myself, being as I, like everyone else, do not like being harassed and bullied," he wrote on Instagram earlier this week.



The Bachelorette two night event airs Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
London (AFP) - The Bank of England on Thursday unveiled the design of a new 5 (6.5 euros, $7.2) banknote bearing the image of wartime leader Winston Churchill at an event in his family's ancestral home of Blenheim Palace.

The note, to be rolled out from September, is the first to be printed on polymer -- a thin, flexible plastic film that is seen as more durable and secure and is already used in Australia and Canada.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney paid tribute to Churchill's "bulldog spirit" and said currency was "memory for a country and its people".

The banknote carries a famous Churchill quote from a speech to parliament during World War II in 1940 in which he said: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat".

In the background is an image of the Houses of Parliament, its clock tower showing 3:00pm -- the approximate time he pronounced his speech.

Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on November 30, 1874. He died aged 90 on January 24, 1965.

The new note will be 15 percent smaller than the old one, can be wiped clean and is tear-resistant.

Current 5 notes feature prison reformer Elizabeth Fry and the announcement that they would be phased out sparked a public outcry over the lack of female figures on banknotes -- except for Queen Elizabeth II.

Following a protest petition, the Bank of England announced the new 10 note, which will come out from 2017, will feature novelist Jane Austen.

The new 20 will have artist J. M. W. Turner.
WOODSTOCK, England, June 2 (Reuters) - The Bank of England unveiled its first plastic banknote on Thursday, featuring World War Two leader Winston Churchill and giving campaigners in Britain's European Union referendum an opportunity to renew their skirmishes.

The central bank said in 2013 that Churchill would appear on its next five-pound banknote, which will be the first to be made from a very thin plastic. The BoE said the polymer notes will be more durable and harder to forge than paper ones.

"By adopting polymer, we're aligning with international best practice, alongside Australia, New Zealand, and Canada," BoE Governor Mark Carney said.

"As Churchill did, we may have to wait a while for the Americans to join up," he said, alluding to the United States entering the war in 1941, more than two years after Britain.

Carney was speaking as the Bank showed off its final design for the new note at Churchill's birthplace, the 18th-century Blenheim Palace, eight miles north of Oxford.

Inevitably, the appearance of Churchill on the notes was seized upon by campaigners ahead of the June 23 EU referendum.

Veterans for Britain, a group representing former service personnel which wants a so-called Brexit, pressed its claim that the wartime prime minister saw Britain as friendly towards a developing union in Europe after the war, but separate to it.

"It's wonderful that Churchill is on the fiver - it will remind people to put the country's interests first on June 23," Andrew Roberts, a history professor at Kings College London, said in a statement sent to media by the group.

Rival campaigners who want to keep Britain in the EU have also previously invoked Churchill. Prime Minister David Cameron said last month that his predecessor's legacy showed that "isolationism has never served this country well."

A new plastic 10-pound note featuring the author of "Pride and Prejudice", Jane Austen, will appear in 2017 and 19th century artist J.M.W. Turner, most famous for his seascapes, is due to feature on a plastic 20-pound note from 2020.

Churchill replaces 19th-century prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, who has appeared on the five pound note since 2001.

(Reporting by David Milliken; writing by William Schomberg; editing by Stephen Addison)
By Amanda Becker and Doina Chiacu WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's campaign on Wednesday signaled plans for a big assault on Republican Donald Trump, even as she battles to hold off rival Bernie Sanders in California. Clinton, a former secretary of state, is to deliver what her campaign described as a major speech on Thursday in San Diego to underscore what she feels would be the threat posed by Trump to U.S. national security if he is elected president on Nov. 8. Her language to describe Trump has grown more aggressive by the day. On Wednesday, she seized on testimony released in a lawsuit against Trump University, in which some former workers said they believed Trump's for-profit school was fraudulent. "Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning," Clinton told a campaign event in Newark, New Jersey. "This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud." Lawyers for Trump have said most students were satisfied with Trump University, dismissing the former workers' testimony as discredited. Trump, anticipating Clinton's foreign policy attacks on him, tried to raise doubts about her leadership skills at a rally in Sacramento, Calif. "She is a person with absolutely no natural talent," he said. "All you have to do is watch her speak." Repeatedly referring to Clinton as "crooked Hillary," Trump sharply criticized her handling of foreign policy, including the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by Islamic militants on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador. "She went to sleep," Trump added. Clinton's effort to define Trump as unfit to be commander in chief comes as she faces fierce opposition from Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who has insisted on staying in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination despite Clinton's nearly insurmountable lead. California's primary next Tuesday is shaping up to be pivotal in the Democratic contest, with Clinton holding a 13-point advantage over Sanders, 51 percent to 38 percent, according to the Hoover Institution's Golden State Poll in the state. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll gave Clinton a much narrower lead of 49 percent, to 47 percent for Sanders. Clinton, with 2,312 delegates, needs 71 more delegates to reach the required 2,383 for the Democratic nomination. Sanders has 1,545. At stake in the California primary are 548 delegates who are awarded proportional to the vote. Five other states also vote next Tuesday, including New Jersey, which could also turn the tide for Clinton. Despite Clinton's perceived advantage, there are lingering concerns among some Democrats about possible weakness, given the protracted battle with Sanders, a democratic socialist whose calls for free college tuition have energized young voters. Doug Schoen, a Democratic pollster, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that California voters appeared to be leaning toward Sanders in recent days. Sanders has been holding events every day this week in the state. Clinton canceled a New Jersey event planned for Thursday to go to California a day earlier than anticipated and is to stay there until Monday. "The inevitability behind Mrs. Clintons nomination will be in large measure eviscerated if she loses the June 7 California primary to Bernie Sanders," Schoen wrote. "That could well happen." 'CAN'T IGNORE TRUMP' Other Democrats expressed confidence in Clinton's position and her move to assail Trump on foreign policy. "I think she has to," said Democratic strategist Jim Manley. "Leaving aside California, I think they cant just ignore Donald Trump in that they should be spending a majority of time focusing on him instead of Sanders at this point, because based on the math Sanders cant win." Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has faced criticism for a variety of positions on foreign policy, such as his willingness to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his idea that Japan and South Korea might need to develop nuclear arsenals. On the other hand, past Republican presidents and current Democratic President Barack Obama have, like Trump, said NATO nations should pay more for their defense to ease the U.S. burden. Trump, however, has declared NATO obsolete and in need of reconfiguring. A Clinton aide said Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, would say Trump had not outlined a coherent foreign policy doctrine and had proven himself to be temperamentally unfit to serve as president. (Additional reporting by Luciana Lopez in Newark, N.J.; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Steve Holland; Editing by Frances Kerry and Clarence Fernandez)
(Reuters) - German drugs and crop chemicals group Bayer AG (BAYGn.DE), which has made a $62 billion (42.98 billion) bid for U.S. seeds company Monsanto Co (MON.N), has added more banks to its acquisition financing package, according to a person familiar with the matter.

HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) have joined existing Bayer advisers Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.S) in the loan facility, the person said on Thursday after the German newspaper Handelsblatt first reported on the news.

The loan facility totals 60 billion euros (46.37 billion), and can be expanded up to 75 billion euros, the source added.

Bayer made an unsolicited takeover offer for Monsanto in May, aiming to create the world's biggest agricultural supplier. Monsanto turned down the offer as "incomplete and financially inadequate," but said it was open to further talks. The two companies have since sat down to try to negotiate a deal.

The loan facility, with a maturity of up to a year, will have around a 0.5 percent interest rate for the first half, Handesblatt reported.

"As a matter of principle, we do not comment on any market rumours," Bayer spokesman Michael Preuss said on Thursday.

The banks either declined or were not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Alexander Huebner in Frankfurt and Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian and Tom Brown)
June 2 (Reuters) - German drugs and crop chemicals group Bayer AG has secured a loan facility of 60 billion euros ($66.94 billion) to fund its $62 billion offer for U.S. seeds company Monsanto Co, Handelsblatt daily reported on Thursday.

Bayer AG secured the bridge loan on Wednesday from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse, HSBC , Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, the German newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (http://bit.ly/22ABOmI)

Bayer AG made an unsolicited takeover offer for Monsanto in May, aiming to create the world's biggest agricultural supplier and integrate pesticides and seeds markets.

Monsanto turned down the bid as "incomplete and financially inadequate", but said it was open to further negotiations.

"As a matter of principle, we do not comment on any market rumors," Bayer spokesman Michael Preuss said on Thursday. ($1 = 0.8963 euros) (Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru)
Brussels (AFP) - A Belgian court on Thursday ruled that a suspect charged over the November 13 attacks in Paris for helping prime suspect Salah Abdeslam flee after the carnage can be transferred to France for trial, Belga news agency reported.

Hamza Attou was seen on CCTV driving Abdeslam back to Brussels just hours after the Paris assaults, along with Mohamed Amri who is also in custody in Belgium.

The Brussels court said that while Attou could be sent to France, he would have to serve any eventual sentence in Belgium. Lawyers for Attou did not immediately confirm the decision to AFP.

France has requested the extradition of four suspects, including Attou and Amri, charged in Belgium over the Paris carnage.

The third man is named as Ali Oulkadi, who dropped Abdeslam off at a Brussels address the day after the attacks.

The fourth man, Mohamed Bakkali, is thought to have played a logistical role in the jihadist cell, notably renting a BMW seen near three safe houses where the Paris attacks were prepared.

No indication was given by the court when extradition requests for the three others would be treated, Belga said.

All four men were subject to European arrest warrants issued in late April, setting the stage for the extradition procedure.

Belga news agency reported that the warrant for Attou specifies that French authorities want him for the minor charge of aiding a criminal.

In Belgium, Attou and Amri are both charged with the murder of all the victims of the Paris attacks.

Amri, 27, and Attou, 21, were arrested in the notorious Molenbeek district of Brussels the day after the Paris attacks.

Attou has since told investigators that Abdeslam claimed his explosives vest failed to detonate during the coordinated gun and suicide bomb attacks, which killed 130 people.

Oulkadi, 31, was seen driving in Brussels with Abdeslam on November 14. He was a close friend of Abdeslam's brother Brahim, one of the Paris suicide bombers.

Abdeslam, 26, the sole surviving suspect in the Paris attacks, was arrested in Brussels on March 18 after four months on the run as Europe's most wanted man.

He is now in France awaiting trial over his alleged role in the killings and is to be questioned by French investigators for the first time on Friday.

He has told investigators he was in Paris on the night of November 13, and was supposed to blow himself up but changed his mind.
A pair of polls show the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tightening for the June 7 California Democratic presidential primary. Clinton, the likely nominee, holds a razor-thin edge over the insurgent Vermont senator.

According to the latest Field Poll, released Thursday, 45 percent of likely Democratic voters support Clinton, compared to 43 percent for Sanders  a 2-point differential that is well within the surveys margin of error. The same poll found Clinton with a 6-point lead over Sanders in April and an 11-point advantage in January.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Wednesday night also showed Clinton with a 2-point lead over Sanders (49 percent to 47 percent)  again, well within the surveys sampling error. (The RealClearPolitics poll average, which includes the Field Poll, NBC/WSJ and others, gives Clinton a 6-point lead over Sanders in the Golden State.)

Sanders has been barnstorming across California in hopes of winning the primary and, his team argues, momentum to help win over so-called superdelegates who have already vowed to back Clinton. Because pledged delegates are awarded proportionally, a narrow Sanders win in California would do little to help him catch up to Clinton, who also holds a decisive lead in pledged delegates.

Clinton holds a razor-thin edge over Sanders in California. (Photos: Getty Images)

California is the big enchilada, Sanders said Sunday on NBCs Meet The Press. Obviously, if we dont do well in California, it will make our path much, much harder.

He added: Im knocking my brains out to win the Democratic nomination.

While most political observers say thats nearly impossible, a win by Sanders in California would put a symbolic exclamation point on the self-described democratic socialists political revolution  and give him even more leverage in pushing his progressive agenda at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

In recent weeks, Clinton has largely shifted her gaze to November and her would-be opponent, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. But shes changed tactics as the race appears to be tightening in California.

Story continues

She and former President Bill Clinton plan to hold more than 30 campaign events in California over the next five days, including what is being billed as a major foreign policy speech in San Diego on Thursday afternoon.

But even there, Clinton is expected to look past Sanders and focus on denouncing Trumps foreign policy ideas, bluntly declaring the business mogul simply unfit to lead the country in a dangerous world.

She will call Donald Trump out by name and offer a systematic and comprehensive critique of the alarming and bankrupt foreign policy ideas that Donald Trump has put forward, senior Clinton foreign policy aide Jake Sullivan told Yahoo News on Wednesday. She will not be pulling any punches.

Clinton will not, however, make a point-by-point defense of her handling of world affairs as secretary of state or present specific policy ideas, Sullivan said.

Trump, who is also in California, launched a preemptive attack on Clinton at a Wednesday night rally in Sacramento.

Hillary is not a talented person, he said. In fact, shes a person with absolutely no natural talent.

Trump mimicked Sanders criticism of Clinton, saying she is unqualified to be president.

Shes one of the worst secretaries of state in the history of our country, Trump said, mocking Clintons 2008 campaign commercial that touted her ability to take the 3 a.m. phone call.

She ends up with Benghazi. Remember the famous phone call? Trump said. Guess what: She was sleeping. She was sleeping like a baby.
bernie sanders

Bernie Sanders is closing in on Hillary Clinton in California, according to a new poll.

Clinton leads the Vermont senator by just two points among likely Democratic voters  49% to 47%  according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released on Wednesday. The difference falls within the poll's margin of error.

Sanders is depending on a victory in California on June 7 to keep his slim hopes for the Democratic nomination alive. California offers 475 pledged delegates, the biggest haul of any state.

Clinton can secure enough delegates for the nomination next week even without winning California, thanks to the superdelegates who have already pledged to support her.

But a loss in the nation's biggest state could underscore Sanders' case that superdelegates should switch their support to him ahead of the Democratic National Convention in July. He could also use a victory in California to push for more influence on the party's platform.

Like other Democratic primaries, California splits its delegates proportionally, so a close victory by either candidate will do little to change the delegate math.

The poll does bring some good news for Clinton, though: She leads among people who voted early by 58% to 41%.

Earlier this week, Clinton scored a key endorsement from California Gov. Jerry Brown, who said that Clinton was "the only path forward" to defeating the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

NOW WATCH: Watch the Secret Service jump to protect Sanders after 5 protesters rushed the stage





More From Business Insider


Shortly after the polls close in New Jersey around 8 p.m. next Tuesday, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton will surpass the 2,383 delegates she needs to claim the mantle of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Regardless of how Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his advisers spin it, Clinton will have amassed far more than the minimum number of delegates required to be nominated in Philadelphia in July.

Related: Clintons Strategy From Now On: Baiting the Trump Bull

Even so, Sanders, the democratic socialist who repeatedly has defied the odds, insists he will carry his revolutionary campaign to the floor of the convention. There he will try to shape the partys platform and rules to his liking and attempt to persuade hundreds of superdelegates to change their allegiance from Clinton to Sanders.

And if he manages to pull off a narrow victory over Clinton next Tuesday in delegate rich California  the grand prize of the 2016 primary season  then Sanders will be further emboldened as he argues his case that he would be the stronger Democratic candidate to take on Donald Trump in the general election.

Clinton at one time enjoyed a substantial margin of support in the Golden State, and just this week she garnered the endorsement of Californias highly popular governor, Jerry Brown, and a major liberal environmental group, the NRDC Action Fund.

But Sanders has gone all out in the past week or two and has cut deeply into Clintons lead. Now a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released late Wednesday shows the California race a dead heat, with Clinton barely ahead, 49 percent to 47 percent.

Related: Why a Third-Party Run Could Hurt Clinton More Than Trump

Clintons two-point lead is well within the polls margin of error, and suggests that the race is highly volatile and could go either way. Until recently, Real Clear Politics had Clinton leading Sanders in California by an average of 9.7 percentage points, but her advantage has been shrinking.

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California Polls

In the Wall Street Journal/NBC/Marist poll, Clinton continues to lead her Democratic rival nearly two-to-one among likely voters 45 and older, while attracting more than half of self-identified Democrats, women, blacks and whites. She also leads Sanders among those Democrats who have already voted, 58 percent to 41 percent.

But Sanders  who has vowed to break up the big banks on Wall Street, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, provide free college tuition in public schools and create a national health care program for all Americans -- holds a huge lead over first-time primary participants, independents, younger voters, men and Latinos.

While Gov. Brown and other leading Democrats have begun arguing that it is time for the party to begin to pull together behind Clinton in preparation for a bruising and uncertain fall campaign against a formidable GOP nominee, Sanders vowed once again on Wednesday to continue his presidential campaign well beyond next weeks California primary, where 475 delegates will be at stake.

We have absolutely the financial resources that we need to run a very, very strong campaign here in California and in the other states and in D.C. and Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands and throughout the rest of the campaign, Sanders said at a rally.

Related: Sanders Battles Barney Frank as Dems' Family Brawl Rolls On

He delighted in noting that Clinton had to cut short her campaigning in New Jersey to return to California with her husband for more campaigning amid signs that she was running into trouble. I wonder why Secretary Clinton and her husband, Bill, are back in California? Sanders said sarcastically, I thought we had lost and it was all over. But I guess Secretary Clinton is maybe looking at some polling that would suggest otherwise.

While she and her advisers clearly are worried about the possibility of a humiliating defeat in California next week, Clinton is continuing to focus her attacks on Trump. Campaigning Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey, Clinton pounced on Trumps mounting legal and public relations problems connected to his now defunct real estate school, Trump University.

In some of her toughest rhetoric yet, Clinton called the billionaire real estate businessman a fraud who is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U.

Later on Thursday, Clinton will deliver a major foreign policy address in San Diego. She is expected to declare Trump unfit to be commander in chief and offer a scathing assessment of Trumps policies. Those include temporarily barring Muslims from entering this country, building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, arresting and deporting 11 million illegal immigrants, and allowing Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia to acquire nuclear weapons to defend themselves.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Nellie Andreeva



EXCLUSIVE: HBO has given a series order to Barry, its half-hour comedy pilot starring, co-written and directed by Bill Hader in Saturday Night Live alums return to television. The pilot, which stemmed from Haders exclusive development deal with HBO, also marked Haders directorial debut.

Co-written by Hader and Silicon Valley executive producer Alec Berg, Barry centers on an ex-Marine (Hader) who works as a low-rent hitman in the Midwest. Lonely and dissatisfied in his life, he begrudgingly travels to Los Angeles to kill someone and ends up finding an accepting community in a group of eager hopefuls within the LA theater scene.

The series, which co-stars Henry Winkler as Gene Cousineau, an inspiring acting teacher; Stephen Root as Fuches, a man who arranges Barrys hits; Sarah Goldberg as Sally, an aspiring actress who is Barrys entree into LAs theater scene; Anthony Carrigan as Noho Hank, a Chechen gangster; and Glenn Fleshler as Goran Pazar, a Chechen gangster, will shoot in Los Angeles in 2017.

Hader and Berg executive produce.

Barry joins HBO comedy pilot Crashing, from Judd Apatow and Pete Holmes, which also was picked up to series. Coming later this year are new HBO comedy series Divorce, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, and Issa Raes Insecure.

Hader spent eight seasons on SNL where he was one of the most popular cast members of the past decade, creating such memorable characters as New York club scene expert Stefon. He has earned three Emmy nominations for his work on the venerable NBC sketch comedy show, two as a cast member as one for his stint as host. Hader also wrote for SNL as well as for Comedy Centrals South Park, sharing in an animated program Emmy.

Hader, repped by UTA and attorney Fred Toczek, will next be seen in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and voicing a character in Finding Dory. In TV, he co-created and co-stars on IFCs mocumentary series Documentary Now!

Berg is repped by UTA and attorney Ken Richman.

Story continues

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LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / BioSig Technologies, Inc. (BSGM), a medical device company developing the PURE EP System, a proprietary platform designed to improve the clinical outcomes of electrophysiology procedures, today announced that it will be presenting at the 6th annual LD Micro Invitational on June 7 at 2:00 PM PST.

During the presentation Kenneth Londoner, BioSig Executive Chairman will update the investment community on the Company's recent highlights as well as upcoming milestones. To arrange a one-on-one meeting, please contact Brian McLaughlin, VP of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations at bmclaughlin@biosigtech.com or call (917) 370-9817.

The conference will be held at the Luxe Sunset Bel Air Hotel and will feature 195 companies in the small / micro-cap space.

View BioSig's profile here: http://www.ldmicro.com/profile/BSGM

Profiles powered by LD Micro - News Compliments of Accesswire

About BioSig Technologies

BioSig Technologies is a medical device company that is developing a proprietary technology platform designed to improve the $4 billion EP marketplace (1) (biosigtech.com). Led by a proven management team and a veteran, independent Board of Directors, Minneapolis-based BioSig Technologies is preparing to commercialize its PURE EP System.

The PURE EP System is a surface electrocardiogram and intracardiac multichannel signal acquisition and analysis system engineered to assist electrophysiologists in making clinical decisions in real-time by acquiring and displaying high-fidelity cardiac signal recordings and providing clarity of data which may be used to guide the electrophysiologists in identifying ablation targets - areas of tissue to treat that otherwise create a heart rhythm disturbance (arrhythmia).

Analysts forecast the global market for EP devices will grow at a 12.1 percent compound annual growth rate, from $2.5 billion in 2012 to $5.5 billion by 2019(1), making it one of the fastest growing medical device segments. Just in the US, the number of Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) arrhythmia ablations is forecast to grow at 10.5 percent from 2012 to 2017(2).

Story continues

BioSig has partnered with Minnetronix on technology development and is working toward a FDA 510(k) clearance for the PURE EP System. The Company has achieved proof of concept validation and tested its prototype at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Cardiac Arrhythmia Center; and, has performed pre-clinical studies at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Additionally, an Advanced Research Program at Mayo Clinic will launch in June 2016. The Company is also collaborating with other prestigious cardiac arrhythmia centers including Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia Institute, UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

(1) Electrophysiology Devices Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2013 - 2019

(2) HRI 2013 "Global Opportunities in Medical Devices & Diagnostics" report; triangulation of multiple sources; AF includes left atrial tachycardia, left WPW, left atrial flutter.

About LD Micro

LD Micro was founded in 2006 with the sole purpose of being an independent resource in the microcap space. What started out as a newsletter highlighting unique companies has transformed into an event platform hosting several influential conferences annually (Invitational, Summit, and Main Event).

In 2015, LDM launched the first pure microcap index (the LDMi) to exclusively provide intraday information on the entire sector. LD will continue to provide valuable tools for the benefit of everyone in the small and microcap universe.



For those interested in attending, please contact David Scher at david@ldmicro.com or visit www.ldmicro.com for more information.

Contact:

Brian McLaughlin

917-370-9817

bmclaughlin@biosigtech.com



Robert Haag

IRTH Communications

866-976-4784

BSGM@irthcommunications.com

SOURCE: BioSig Technologies via LD Micro
(Yahoo file photo)



Deliberate and serious breaches of the rules under the Parliamentary Elections Act (PEA) happened during the 2016 Bukit Batok By-Election, said a joint statement by the Singapore Police Force and Elections Department (ELD) on Wednesday (1 June).

As part of the investigations, the statement explained, The Police need to examine for evidentiary purposes electronic devices used to publish the online postings. As such, these devices had to be seized.



Last week, police reports were filed against sociopolitical website The Independent Singapore (TISG) and two individuals - activist Teo Soh Lung and blogger Roy Ngerng - for allegedly breaching election advertising regulations on Cooling-Off Day (6 May) and Polling Day (7 May).

Both Teo and Ngerng had their personal electronic devices seized by the police.

On Wednesday, lawyer Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss posted two videos on her Facebook page showing what she said were police officers entering Teos home and confiscating her mobile phone, laptop and desktop computers.

Lawyer Remy Choo Zheng Xi also wrote on his Facebook page that he saw seven or eight police officers seizing Teos equipment, and that she was visibly shaken by the entire spectacle.

Ngerng also wrote on Facebook that he had spent nearly eight hours being interrogated by the police, and that they had taken his mobile phone and asked for his passwords to his phone, laptop, Facebook and blog.

The parties in question had published several online articles and postings that may be tantamount to election advertising on Cooling-Off Day, which is prohibited, said the Elections Department (ELD).

Given the blatant disregard of the PEA in the 2016 Bukit Batok By-Election, the Assistant Returning Officer decided to make police reports so that the Police could investigate, said the statement.

The joint police and ELD statement also said, The rules relating to Cooling-Off Day have been in place since 2011. In the various elections since GE2011 right up to GE2015, there have been some breaches of the Cooling-Off Day rules. The approach that has been taken has been to give warnings in respect of these breaches. In some of the cases, the breaches were found to be unintentional.

Story continues

The Workers Party also expressed concern about the way the investigations were conducted on the alleged violations of Cooling-Off Day regulations.

We understand from the public record that other individuals or entities who were reported for similar violations in the past were not known to have faced the same lengthy interviews, and searches and seizures of personal equipment.

We urge the authorities to ensure that consistency and proportionality are applied to all investigations, as these are key to maintaining confidence in Singapores law enforcement organisations and legal system, wrote the Party in a statement on Wednesday.
(Adds detail on deal Iran)

By Alwyn Scott

NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) - Boeing Co expects to hit its target of $10 billion in operating cash flow this year and to return all free cash flow to shareholders, Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg said on Thursday.

Muilenburg's remarks came after a delay emerged last week with the KC-46 aerial refueling tanker program, which raised worries about additional costs.

The company is not seeing any new technical problems during flight tests of the tanker for the U.S. Air Force, and has not slowed production of the first 18 aircraft, Muilenburg said at an investor conference in New York organized by Sanford C Bernstein.

He did not comment on whether Boeing's earnings would be affected by the tanker delay. The company said last week any potential costs would be accounted for in the second quarter.

But investors are focused on Boeing's ability to generate cash amid spending to increase jetliner production and develop three new products: the tanker, the 737 MAX and the 777X. Boeing also is cutting costs to lift profits on its flagship 787 Dreamliner, which has nearly $30 billion in deferred costs.

Boeing faces tough competition from European rival Airbus and increasing encroachment from Canada's Bombardier Inc, which in April sold up to 125 of its CSeries aircraft to Delta Air Lines, a deal worth $5.6 billion at list prices.

"While it's a competitive environment, it's not one where we have to make bad financial decisions for market share's sake because of the strength of the backlog that we have," Muilenburg said when asked if Boeing was cutting prices to win orders.

Boeing has 5,720 jetliner orders in its backlog.

With aircraft sales slowing, Muilenburg said the prospect of a major order with Iran was moving closer.

After talking with Iranian airlines, he said, "we can see the market demand is real," and covers narrowbody and widebody planes. Airbus' announcement of 118 sales is a good indicator of the potential, Muilenburg added.

"We see market space that's measured in that category," he said. "You can anticipate that that's potentially a 50-50 kind of marketplace for Boeing and Airbus and we're going to battle it out competitively." (Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by David Gregorio and Dan Grebler)
Disguised as a samurai in kimono and topknot, Italian missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti stole ashore on a small Japanese island in 1708, daring to enter a land hostile to his Christian creed.

He was quickly captured by authorities, who saw the alien faith as a threat to national identity, and thrown in a prison for Christians, where torture was routine.

Now, more than 300 years later, researchers using DNA analysis have confirmed that remains unearthed from a Tokyo construction site almost certainly belong to Sidotti -- and say they back up historical accounts of his treatment.

Sidotti helped shaped Japan's view of the Western world with his knowledge after he won over the nation's leading scholar of the day, historians say. But he fell from grace after refusing to give up his faith and his final days and death have been shrouded in mystery.

Christian missionaries made aggressive inroads in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries, gaining adherents among commoners and even powerful warlords.

But fears they were an advance guard for European colonialism spurred a brutal crackdown long before Sidotti arrived.

- Human jigsaw puzzles -

Three sets of bones were unearthed in July 2014 from land that now forms the parking lot of an upscale condominium but was once the site of the prison -- the Kirishitan Yashiki, or Christian Mansion. Its only reminder today is a stone marker commemorating the spot.

National Museum of Nature and Science researchers near Tokyo carefully cleaned the skeletal fragments before piecing them together like human jigsaw puzzles in a painstaking process that took more than six months.

Kenichi Shinoda, the museum's chief of anthropology, analysed DNA from a tooth and concluded that one of them had the same genetic type as present day Italians.

Japan's historical records show that only two missionaries from Italy had been held at the site, Sidotti and Giuseppe Chiara.

The latter was the model for the main character of a Portuguese priest in late Japanese author Shusaku Endo's novel "Silence," which director Martin Scorsese is turning into an upcoming film.

Story continues

As records show that Chiara was cremated after his death at 84, the unearthed remains are almost certain to be of Sidotti, who was 47 when he died in 1714, researchers said.

While detained at the prison, Japanese Christians and foreign missionaries were tormented with demands they renounce the banned religion -- many did so under duress.

- 'Changed Japan' -

While they feared foreign religion, Japanese officials also craved Western knowledge and scientific insights harder to obtain under the official policy of national seclusion from 1639.

As part of his interrogations, Sidotti was questioned by Japan's top Confucian scholar, who developed a deep respect for the Roman Catholic priest for his knowledge of geography, languages and global affairs, experts in this case explained.

The scholar, the renowned Arai Hakuseki, is said to have tried to help Sidotti but the priest was later sent to the dungeon amid allegations he baptised the Japanese couple tending to his daily needs.

The Italian died there, but it is not clear exactly how, researchers said.

Historical accounts, such as those written by Japanese scholar Mamiya Kotonobu about a century later, however mention that Sidotti was accorded a certain respect and treated far better than other prisoners -- even in death.

Researchers say that is backed up by evidence from the remains.

"His body was laid flat in a casket, a luxurious one as far as I can tell by the brackets," Akio Tanigawa, professor of archaeology at Tokyo's Waseda University and lead researcher on the remains, told AFP, referring to coffin pieces discovered with the bones.

"People did not bury human bodies like this," Tanigawa stressed, suggesting Sidotti was likely given a burial "in the Christian way".

He said that in 18th century Tokyo, then known as Edo, people were buried in a sitting up position in a small tub.

The two sets of bones unearthed next to Sidotti's may be those of the Japanese couple, Chosuke and Haru, researchers said, as at least one was placed in a small tub, the then traditional way of burial.

The missionary had a great impact on Japan, Tanigawa stressed, citing books by Arai. An adviser to the rulers of the time, he penned a study of the Western world for which Sidotti is cited as a key source.

Tanigawa explained: "The knowledge shared by Sidotti surely changed Japan's view of the world."
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - Bosnian Serb leaders warned on Thursday they would not accept the results of Bosnia's disputed 2013 census because they were incorrect and their publication would damage Serb interests. The census is seen as a vital tool for economic and social planning. The European Union has urged Bosnia to start publishing data by July 1 if it wants Brussels to consider the membership application it submitted in February. A dispute over ways of defining who lives in the country's two autonomous regions - the Serb-dominated Serb Republic and the Federation shared by Croats and Muslim Bosniaks - has held up publication for two years. The Serbs say many Bosniak and Croat refugees who returned to their homes in the region after the 1992-95 war do not live there all the time. They say about 190,000 Bosniaks and Croats were wrongly listed and they will agree to publication of the census only if those two groups compromise on the issue of who lives where can be found. The national statistics agency decided last month to process census questionnaires in line with EU and other international standards, prompting the Serbs to protest that they had been overruled by Croats and Bosniaks. "Unless we return to compromise as a method of agreement and decision-making, I fear the mechanism for making Bosnia function in general will be brought into question," said Mladen Ivanic, the Serb member of Bosnia's three-man inter-ethnic presidency. Ivanic said he feared the current results would, for example, reduce the number of Serbs allowed to serve in Bosnia's regional and state services and armed forces. "Such results would disturb national balance," added Serb Republic President Milorad Dodik, who held a joint news conference on the issue with Ivanic. Dodik said he would order his regional statistics office to stop cooperating with the national statistics office if it did not change the way it processes census data. The EU has said the data would not be considered valid if it was not published by mid-November. Nobody from the EU delegation in Sarajevo was immediately available to comment. (Reporting by Gordana Katana; Writing by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
A bus driver is being hailed as a hero after surveillance video surfaced of her courageously saving an 80-year-old woman from a vicious attack on a bus in Washington state.

Read: Cops: Former Bus Driver Steals City Bus After Driver Tells Her to Stop Smoking

In the video provided by the Port Angeles Police Department of the Saturday incident, Riley E. White, a 59-year-old man, rose from his seat and suddenly delivered a sharp kick to 80-year old woman sitting across from him.

She told me that she knows suspect White a little bit, Port Angeles Police Corporal David Dombrowski wrote in his incident report.

According to a report 80-year-old Angeline Olsens son later filed, White had allegedly waited outside their home six months ago, and placed his hand on Olsens leg during the visit.

Dombrowski wrote in his report that the womans nephew "was convinced White had wanted to 'have his way with her' and thought White was pursuing her."

When Olsen arrived on the bus earlier that week, she had asked to sit next to White, who was already on the bus when she boarded, but he pointed to a seat across from him, asking her to sit there instead, the incident report stated.

Moments later, surveillance footage captured White suddenly rising out of his seat and kicking Olsen in the face.

He started punching her and slamming her head into the floor, reported Corporal Dombrowski of the Clallam County Sheriff's Office to InsideEdition.com.

After hearing Olsens screams, bus driver Joy Crummett immediately pulled the bus over and attempted to intervene.

However, the alleged attacker turned towards Crummett, and began choking her.

The suspect then reportedly yelled at the driver, "let go or Im going to rip your throat out," authorities told InsideEdition.com.

Crummett distracted the suspect long enough to open the back doors and allow four other passengers to escape and call 911.

Story continues

The bloodied victim was pushed off the bus by the suspect and the driver narrowly escaped just as the doors closed.

Read: Charges Reduced For Man Cops Say Beat Wife's Would-Be-Rapist to Death

Between the suspects alleged attacks on the two women, the quick-thinking driver was able to cut the battery on the bus to prevent the man from driving away, trapping him there until authorities arrived.

The suspects motive behind his bizarre actions is still in question, but according to a police report, White was reported as saying ... I dont know how I got on the bus...

Both female victims have reportedly been released from the hospital after suffering what police call a substantial amount of pain.

Police and community members are praising Crummett for her heroic, life-saving actions that day.

She did a marvelous job. She was exceptional; always placing the safety of her passengers ahead of herself, said the Clallam police department.

Watch: Bus Driver Saves 5-Year-Old Boy's Life After He Began Choking On Penny

Related Articles:
Brasilia (AFP) - Brazil's interim government on Thursday pushed for speeding up the impeachment process against suspended president Dilma Rousseff, who could be forced from office just as Rio starts hosting the Olympic Games.

Rousseff, accused of taking unauthorized loans to patch up the state budget during her 2014 reelection campaign and in early 2015, was suspended for the trial on May 12.

The suspension can run as long as six months, but acting president Michel Temer's team argued for ending far earlier, possibly even before the start of the Rio Olympics on August 5.

"For us, for the Temer government, it would be best if it were as quick as possible, while respecting the rules laid down by the Supreme Court," Temer's chief of staff Eliseu Padilha said.

A decision on the scheduling, which Rousseff's side would prefer to be more drawn out, will be made by the Supreme Court.

Rousseff's lawyer, Jose Eduardo Cardozo, called the impeachment process "a huge farce" and a "coup."

The Senate will try Rousseff and must vote by a two thirds majority to remove her from office.

Temer, who was her vice president, would then stay until scheduled elections in 2018. Anything less and Rousseff would return to power.

The impeachment trial comes on top of a huge corruption scandal centered on state oil company Petrobras.

Two of Temer's ministers implicated in the scheme have been forced to resign in the last few days after secret recordings of them apparently criticizing the probe were released to the media. In one of them, planning minister Romero Juca appeared to be saying that the impeachment could be used to block investigators.

However, the Senate rapporteur for impeachment struck a blow against Rousseff on Thursday, saying that he opposed allowing those recordings to be used by her defense during the trial.

Rousseff, who is blamed by many Brazilians for a deep recession and the political crisis, has rock bottom popularity ratings -- as does Temer.

In the midst of the turmoil, Brazilian deputies approved a big salary increase for civil servants and the military on Thursday.
Sao Paulo (AFP) - Thousands of Brazilian women protested against a "culture of rape" they blamed for the shocking case of a 16-year-old girl allegedly sexually assaulted by more than 30 men.

Protesters flooded central streets in cities including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, carrying signs with slogans such as "We are all bleeding" and "Not the victim's fault."

The largest rally was in Sao Paulo, where more than 5,000 women marched.

Brazilians have been outraged by the gang rape case, which came to light in an online video that showed the bloodied girl naked and seemingly unconscious on a bed, as a man boasts that she has been "impregnated" by more than 30 men.

Three suspects have been arrested -- the last one on Wednesday. Police are hunting three others.

The video was made on May 21 in a Rio de Janeiro favela, one of the poor and often lawless neighborhoods that dot Brazil's largest cities.

The nationwide protests came a day after the Senate passed a bill increasing the penalties for gang rape and criminalizing rape recordings.

But many Brazilian women see little hope in politics.

One slogan at Wednesday's protests was "Fight without fear" -- a play on the name of acting president Michel Temer, whose surname means "fear" in Portuguese.

Temer has come under fire for appointing an all-male cabinet after sidelining suspended president Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first woman president.

The acting president ditched Rousseff -- his former running mate -- as her foes in Congress moved to impeach her for allegedly fudging the government's books. He will serve in her place until a final ruling in her impeachment case.

Temer's secretary for women's policy, Fatima Pelaes, is an Evangelical Christian who said in 2010 she opposed abortion even in cases of rape.

She said in a statement Wednesday that she would nevertheless keep her personal views out of debate on the issue.

Heavily Catholic Brazil allows abortion only in cases of rape, brain damage or danger to the mother's life.
(Adds details, table) By Silvio Cascione BRASILIA, June 2 (Reuters) - Brazil's industrial output edged up unexpectedly in April as dry weather favored a strong start to the cane crushing season for sugar and ethanol producers, official data showed on Thursday.

Industrial production in Brazil rose 0.1 percent in April from March, statistics agency IBGE said, topping expectations for a decline of 0.9 percent in a Reuters poll but slowing from a 1.4 percent rise in March.

Production in April retreated 7.2 percent from a year earlier, compared to a decline of 11.4 percent in the prior month.

It was the second consecutive month of gains for Brazilian industry, which is struggling through one of the country's worst economic crises ever. With output sliding back to 2008 levels, manufacturers have reduced excessive inventories and prepared for a gradual recovery possibly early next year.

A pickup in biofuel production boosted April's industrial output, IBGE said, after sugar mills crushed a record 36.07 million tons of cane in the second half of April, according to private data.

Stronger production by food processors also lifted the indicator, offsetting a decline in the auto industry.

The IBGE data contrasts with a purchasing managers' survey suggesting Brazil's industrial downturn intensified in April and May. The manufacturing PMI index for Brazil fell in May to 41.6, the lowest since 2009.

Data on Wednesday showed Brazil's economy shrank for a fifth straight quarter in early 2016, but the drop was smaller than forecast due to heavier government spending in the months before a vote to impeach President Dilma Rousseff.

(Percent change) m-m y-y Capital goods 1.2 -16.5 Intermediate goods 0.5 -7.5 Consumer goods -0.9 -4.0 Durable consumer goods -4.4 -23.7 Semi-durable and -0.6 1.9 non-durable consumer goods Industrial output 0.1 -7.2 (Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Will Dunham)
As their offense continues to squander scoring chances, the Philadelphia Phillies have fallen back following a surprising start.

Odubel Herrera and Maikel Franco are among those scuffling, though they might be able to find their stroke against the Milwaukee Brewers.

They'll try to resume their success in this series Thursday night when the Phillies look to avoid their seventh straight loss overall and eighth in a row at home to the Brewers in the opener of this four-game set.

Philadelphia's rotation led the way with a 3.72 ERA as the supposed rebuilding club won 24 of its first 41 games. The starters, however, haven't been able to carry the load while the Phillies have averaged just 2.5 runs, batted .223 and struck out 102 times during an ensuing 2-10 stretch.

Tyler Goeddel's seventh-inning homer accounted for the only runs as Philadelphia (26-27) fanned 12 times in Wednesday's 7-2 home loss to Washington that dropped it below .500 for the first time since April 24.

''We know where we need to go. We're not there yet," manager Pete Mackanin said.

Since raising his batting average to a season-high .343 and his on-base percentage to .453 on May 16, Herrera is batting .250 with a .345 OBP. Franco's average has dipped to .247 while in the midst of a 1-for-15 slump, and he has one homer in his last 19 games but remains tied for the team lead with eight.

Now they hope to get back on track and lead a resurgence against a Milwaukee pitching staff they've battered. Herrera's .424 average in nine games against Milwaukee is his highest versus any NL opponent, including 5 for 12 with a homer from April 22-24 when the Phillies took two of three at Miller Park. Franco was 7 for 13 with three homers and eight RBIs in that series.

Chase Anderson (2-6, 5.00 ERA) allowed six runs - three on a Franco home run - over four innings in a 10-6 loss April 23. That was in the midst of a five-game slide, though he has a 2.89 ERA in his last three starts.

Story continues

The right-hander hasn't fared well versus Philadelphia, going 0-2 with a 7.53 ERA in three starts.

Milwaukee is coming off a 3-3 homestand which concluded with a 3-1 win over St. Louis on Wednesday.

"We had some tough losses, so it was good to finish out the series with a win and not get swept," pitcher Zach Davis told MLB's official website.

Ryan Braun went 2 for 4 with an RBI on Wednesday. He's homered in three of his last four versus Philadelphia and is batting .473 with nine long balls in his past 22 at Citizens Bank Park.

Jonathan Lucroy has gone 13 for 28 while the Brewers have averaged 7.6 runs during a seven-game winning streak at Philadelphia.

They'll try to continue that run against Jerad Eickhoff, who allowed a season-high seven runs over 5 1/3 innings in an 8-5 loss at Milwaukee (24-29) on April 24. That was also part of his personal five-game slide.

Eickhoff (2-7, 4.07) surrendered more than three earned runs for only the second time in 10 starts in Saturday's 4-1 loss at Wrigley Field.

Braun went 2 for 3 with a home run off the right-hander in April, while Chris Carter had two doubles and Scooter Gennett homered. Kirk Nieuwenhuis has gone 4 for 6 with three doubles lifetime in the matchup.
Madrid (AFP) - Britons working in Spain will be left in a "terrible situation" if they vote to leave the EU, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned in an interview broadcast Thursday.

"If Britain left Europe, those who would be hurt the most would be British citizens who would not be able to circulate freely, or transfer capital and goods," he told Spanish news agency EFE.

"There are 100,000 Spaniards working in the United Kingdom who would be very badly impacted but there are (also) 400,000 Britons working in Spain who would be left in a terrible situation," he added.

Rajoy's comments come as fresh polls show British voters more in favour of quitting the European Union.

Just over three weeks before the June 23 referendum on pulling out of the EU, a Guardian/ICM poll showed Tuesday the "leave" vote at 52 percent against 48 percent for staying.

"I think it would be very harmful for everyone. If Britain left the European Union it would be very bad for Britain, it would be bad for Spain but also bad for all Europeans," Rajoy said.

"Europe was built on the basis of the free circulation of people, capital and services," he added.

Officially, just over 283,000 Britons are registered as residing in Spain, but many do not bother to sign up and it is estimated 800,000 to a million live in the country -- working or retired.

According to Britain's Migration Observatory, of all UK-born residents living in the EU in 2011, the largest number was in Spain.
After winning the best actress Oscar for Room, Brie Larson has her sights on another marvelous role.

Sources tell Variety Larson is in early talks to play Captain Marvel, one of Marvels most popular female superheroes, in an upcoming standalone film. Its unknown where negotiations stand, but sources have told Variety that Larson is their first choice, and that shes leaning toward playing the part.

Marvel had no comment on the story.

No director is currently on board. Marvel, however, had always planned to have an actress lined up early, with the idea of possibly introducing her in one of its upcoming films before its Captain Marvel movie bows.

Inside Out scribe Meg LeFauve and Nicole Perlman are currently writing the script, which follows Carol Danvers, an air force pilot whose DNA is fused with that of an alien during an accident. The resulting alteration imbues her with the super powers of strength, energy project and flight.

Kevin Feige is producing the pic.

Larson has been choosing both big-budget spectacles, like the upcoming Kong: Skull Island, and prestige films, such as Room and The Glass Castle, which she is currently filming.

She can be seen next in Ben Wheatleys Free Fire opposite Armie Hammer. She is repped by WME and Authentic Talent and Literary Management.

Related stories

X-Men Drama 'Legion' Ordered to Series at FX

'Captain America: Civil War' Hits $940 Million Worldwide

'Marvel's Most Wanted' Not Going Forward at ABC
By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - British department stores group BHS is to be wound down after administrators failed to find a buyer for the 88-year-old chain, threatening over 10,000 jobs and creating huge vacant sites in town centres struggling to cope with changing shopping habits. The failure to find a buyer will likely increase the focus on previous owner, billionaire Philip Green, who sold the chain to a group of little-known investors led by a previous bankrupt called Dominic Chappell for one pound in March 2015. All of BHS's 163 stores will hold closing-down sales over coming weeks and 8,000 staff are likely to be laid off, advisers Duff & Phelps said on Thursday. Another 3,000 workers not directly employed by BHS are also at risk. The chain, which once targeted a similar mid-market customer as bigger rival Mark & Spencer , failed to keep pace with changes including the rise of cheaper, more fashionable stores like Primark (part of AB Foods ) and online competition. "The British high street is changing and in these turbulent times for retailers, BHS has fallen as another victim of the seismic shifts we are seeing," said administrator Philip Duffy after BHS became the latest casualty of a tough market which already this week claimed tailoring chain Austin Reed. Its closure, one of the biggest failures in the UK retail sector since Woolworths in 2008, came after none of the multiple offers for the business were able to complete a deal due to the working capital required to secure the company's future, administrators added. Up to 10 bidders were reported to have been interested in rescuing the stores, including Mike Ashley, owner of Sports Direct , who had said he was in talks before administrators were called in. PENSION DEFICIT Green had paid 200 million pounds ($289 million) for BHS in 2000, and he took about 400 million pounds in dividends in the early years of ownership, according to company accounts. But the business had been loss-making for seven years when it was sold and it has a deficit in its pension fund of more than 500 million pounds. "Sir Philip is saddened and disappointed by the news and had hoped that the business would be sold as a going concern," a spokesman said. The British government said the failure to rescue the business was devastating news for all those that work at BHS. Business Minister Anna Soubry said the government had already announced an accelerated Insolvency Service investigation into the activity of former BHS directors. "Any issues of misconduct will be taken extremely seriously," Soubry said. The pensions regulator is also investigating whether Green's Arcadia Group sought to avoid its responsibilities in the deal, and should be pursued for a contribution to make good BHS's 571 million pound pension deficit. Green is also due to be questioned on June 15 by British legislators on the Work & Pensions and Business Committees. "The staff will want answers about how things went so badly wrong on his watch," the opposition Labour party said in a statement. Chappell is also set to be interviewed by the same joint committee. ($1 = 0.6921 pounds) (Editing by Kate Holton and David Holmes)
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British troops are using Bollywood music as part of their psychological warfare against the Islamic State in Libya, by blasting loud songs from India's large film industry in empty cars.

SEE ALSO: Bollywood fused with EDM: Inside the South Asian-American music movement

The British special forces got the idea from a Pakistani-origin intelligence officer who suggested that Bollywood songs would annoy ISIS, who view the music as un-Islamic. The strategy has been tried out in the Libyan coastal town of Sirte, where the British troops are training Libyan forces to fight ISIS.

Image: SEBASTIAN D'SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images

According to a report in The Mirror, the team left two cars near the border of Sirte, and started blaring Bollywood songs at dawn using a remote control and two speakers.

In another incident, they intercepted ISIS' internal communications and blasted them with Bollywood tunes instead. The experiments have reportedly revealed their hiding places and weaknesses, depending on how much time it took the militants to reach the source of the music and how they complained about the music.

We needed to unnerve militants and at the same time use some sort of passive measure to gauge their force strength in the area we are working and it went well," an unnamed source said.
In line with its endeavors to strengthen its whisky portfolio, Brown-Forman Corporation BF.B concluded its previously announced buyout of The BenRiach Distillery Company Limited, for a price of 281 million.



This acquisition, which was first announced in Apr 2016, has added superior Single Malt Scotch Whisky names, including The GlenDronach, BenRiach and Glenglassaugh, to Brown-Formans kitty. In fact, this buyout has also solidified Brown-Formans position with brand trademarks, a bottling plant, three malt distilleries, and the Scottish headquarters of the acquired company.



The 190-year old GlenDronach is most renowned for its richly sherried whiskies, while BenRiach, which commenced malt whisky production more than a century ago, is popular for making whisky from both non-peated and peated malted barley. Further, Glenglassaugh manufactures coastal Highland malt, thanks to its coastal region presence dating back 141 years.



With this deal, Brown-Forman has therefore made its presence prominent in the Single Malt Scotch Whisky segment yet again. Prior to this, the company held a minor stake in Glenmorangie plc, as part of which it marketed the latters Single Malt brand in Canada, the U.S., Continental Europe and various markets in Asia for a considerable period of time. However, Brown-Forman sold its stake, when Glenmorangie was divested to Moet Hennessy in 2005.



This re-entry in the premium class whisky world is likely to enhance Brown-Formans performance. In fact, the company has been firing on all cylinders to solidify its whisky portfolio, given the persistent strength noted in its sales.



Evidently, Brown-Forman announced the launch of premium whisky  Coopers Craft in Apr 2016, which marked its first new bourbon brand in almost two decades. Bottled at 82.2 proof, Coopers Craft will be found on Brown-Formans racks this summer onward, in certain U.S. regions initially. These include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.



Brown-Forman, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), is a major producer and distributor of premium alcoholic beverages in the world, and commands a strong portfolio of globally recognized brands. The company has been keen on enhancing its growth and value creation prospects over the last decade via active portfolio management strategies that include developing, acquiring and divesting specific brands and categories.



Other Stocks to Consider



Other stocks worth considering in the beverages-alcohol industry include Compania Cervecerias Unidas S.A. CCU and Molson Coors Brewing Company TAP, each with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Constellation Brands Inc. STZ, with a Zacks Rank #2.



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Bud Light gay wedding

The beer brand Bud Light has helped kick off Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month with a new ad depicting a same-sex wedding.

"Gay weddings, they're just like any wedding," actor Seth Rogen says after we see a gay couple cutting a wedding cake.

Rogen, along with Amy Schumer, then runs through wedding cliches like: "cringe-worthy speeches," "the girl who's super ready to settle down," and "cake."

It ends with Rogen declaring: "Bud Light proudly supports everyone's right to marry whoever they want."

The Bud Light spot was promoted by Ellen DeGeneres, who was paid to share the video to her millions of followers on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.

"The Bud Light Party champions inclusivity among modern beer drinkers and bringing people together  for fun over a beer," Alex Lambrecht, vice president of Bud Light at Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement, according to Adweek.

He added: "By featuring Seth and Amy at a same-sex wedding, we're showing how all weddings  regardless of who is getting married  share many similarities and moments to celebrate. We created this spot because equality for all Americans is a concept that unites many Bud Light drinkers."

In January, Lambrecht told Business Insider that the brand was making radical changes to its strategy to reflect the way consumers and society are changing. "If we want to remain as relevant  we have to move with the times," he said.

The marketing strategies behind Bud Light and its older brother Budweiser are moving in very different directions. While the liberal Bud Light toasts diversity, Budweiser is playing on a rise on nationalistic fervor by temporarily renaming itself "America."

Story continues

The Bud Light ad, made by Wieden + Kennedy, is part of the "Bud Light Party" campaign, a parody of election season.

See the full ad below:

Bud Light has also put up two rainbow-lit billboards in New York and Los Angeles:

Bud Light NYC Billboard

NOW WATCH: Doctors now say this type of cancer isnt actually cancer  and the new classification is changing thousands of lives





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Ouagadougou (AFP) - Burkina Faso police have arrested six "foreigners" suspected of being behind jihadist attacks in January that left 30 people dead, the government and police said.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed it was behind an assault on a top hotel and a cafe, both popular with foreigners, which also left 70 people wounded.

"Six individuals of foreign nationalities were arrested on Monday May 30 in Ougadougou," the national police said in a statement sent to AFP.

These people are believed to have "sheltered and aided the perpetrators of the attack in Ougadougou, and worked with the ringleader of the attacks (who is) still being tracked down".

Burkina's Minister of Internal Security, Simon Compaore, told reporters the arrests were made thanks to intelligence shared by other West African security forces.

Security forces have already detained a 38-year-old local man in connection with the attacks on the four-star Hotel Splendid and the nearby Cappuccino cafe.

Until this year, Burkina Faso had largely avoided the attacks and hostage-taking by jihadist groups that have wracked other Sahel countries since 2008.

On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen killed three police officers in northern Burkina Faso near the Malian border -- the second attack on a police station near the frontier in less than a fortnight.

The day after the January attacks, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped in the north of the country where they had lived for more than four decades.

The woman, Jocelyn Elliot, was released in early February, but her 82-year-old husband Kenneth Elliot is still being held.
By Clement Manirabarusha BUJUMBURA (Reuters) - President Pierre Nkurunziza has given armed gangs in Burundi 15 days to surrender to authorities and hand in their weapons or face unspecified action. Nkurunziza was speaking during a visit to Mugamba district, some 65 km southeast of the capital Bujumbura, where many local officials have been killed in recent weeks. Tit-for-tat attacks between Nkurunziza's security forces and his opponents have escalated since April 2015 when he announced a disputed bid for a third term. He won re-election in July. "We give them 15 days to surrender," Nkurunziza said of the armed gangs on Wednesday. "On the 15th (of June) we will put a stop to (the violence). I came to tell you that we wont rest until security is restored." The government conducted a similar arms mop-up in the capital in November. Burundi police said in early May that more than 450 people had been killed in unrest that began a year ago. The United Nations says over 250,000 have fled the country since last April. A new round of peace talks between the government and its opponents aimed at ending the political crisis was launched in the Tanzanian city of Arusha in late May. Previous discussions in Burundi and Uganda over the past year collapsed or stalled. (Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
By Sharon Bernstein

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - The California Assembly on Wednesday passed a package of gun control bills, including a measure to ban so-called bullet buttons which allow quick changes in the magazine of a military-style weapon.

The bills, which lawmakers are pushing the Senate to consider this month, are among several gun control measures that leaders of both houses want to pass in advance of a gun control referendum headed for the November ballot.

The measures include a ban on so-called bullet buttons which supporters say allow gun manufacturers to bypass the state's prohibition on removable ammunition magazines. Weapons owned by the shooters in December's San Bernardino massacre were equipped with bullet buttons.

The bill passed on the same day that the University of California, Los Angeles campus was shut down in the wake of a murder-suicide shooting.

Also passed was a bill to allow employers, co-workers, mental health workers and school employees to ask a judge to ban someone from possessing a gun for up to a year. The state already allows family members to seek such a ban, known as a gun violence restraining order, against relatives whom a judge rules are at high risk of committing violence against themselves or others with a firearm.

A spokesman for the Firearms Policy Coalition was not immediately available for comment.

Last month, the California State Senate passed its own package of bills, which would prohibit possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, require greater scrutiny of ammunition purchasers and seek to better keep guns out of the hands of violent felons.

Led by Senate Democratic leader Kevin de Leon, California senators are rushing to pass the gun control bills in part to defuse a ballot initiative on the same subject backed by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom.

Democrats in the Legislature fear that Newsom's measure, a centerpiece of his campaign so far, along with an initiative to legalize marijuana, will draw Republicans who oppose gun control to the polls, potentially influencing other races.

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De Leon, who has not endorsed Newsom or announced his own plans for 2018, has said he believes that laws passed by the Legislature are more nuanced and easily adjustable than those instead created through a referendum.

Second amendment advocates have steadfastly opposed all of the measures.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Richard Chang)
Los Angeles (AFP) - A gunman who shot dead his former college professor in California before taking his own life also murdered his wife as he worked off a "kill list," authorities and media reports said.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, killed Ashley Hasti in Minnesota and then drove 2,000 miles (3,220-kilometer) to Los Angeles where he shot his former professor William Klug on Wednesday, according to police and local media.

Officials in Hennepin County, in the midwestern state of Minnesota, said Hasti and Sarkar were married on June 14, 2011. It was unclear if the couple were still married at the time of their deaths.

Klug, 39, a father of two who taught mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), was shot in his office on campus before Sarkar turned the gun on himself, police said.

A note in Sarkar's backpack -- in which he asked that someone look after his cat -- led police to his home in Minnesota, where a "kill list" was found, Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck told reporters.

He said Klug was named on the list along with another UCLA professor and the deceased woman, apparently Hasti.

She was found dead of a gunshot wound at her home in the small Minnesota town of Brooklyn Park.

Beck said investigators believe Sarkar killed her earlier in the week before driving to Los Angeles to continue his rampage, armed with two semi-automatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition.

"We believe he went there to kill two faculty of UCLA," Beck said. "He was only able to locate one. The second member was off campus."

He said Sarkar was apparently convinced Klug had stolen his computer code and given it to someone else, and seemed bent on revenge.

"That appears to be his motive," Beck said. "We have discussed this with UCLA (which) says there is no truth to it.

"This was a making of his own imagination."

He said investigators were trying to piece together Sarkar's movements between Minnesota and Los Angeles to "see if there is a trail" and any other victims.

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- Held a grudge -

The murder-suicide prompted a lockdown and a massive security deployment at the university, amid fears of a mass shooting.

The university was shut down for the day but reopened on Thursday and a vigil was planned later in the evening to honor Klug.

Students and staff affected by the shooting were offered counseling.

The Los Angeles Times quote a source who was close to Klug as saying the professor had gone out of his way to help Sarkar finish his dissertation and to graduate, even though his work was subpar.

In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar thanked Klug for his help and support.

But he apparently developed a grudge against his former mentor, and offered scathing criticism of Klug in a now-deleted blog post on March 10.

"William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor," he wrote in the post quoted by several US media.

"He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy..."

Beck said the other professor targeted by Sarkar told investigators he was aware Sarkar held a grudge but did not think "it would rise to the level of homicide."

- 'We've become immune' -

According to his LinkedIn page, Sarkar got his master's degree from Stanford University and also studied aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, where he graduated in 2000.

He apparently worked as a research assistant at the University of Texas in 2003 and then took on a job as a software developer.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday that the deadly shooting at UCLA was a reminder of how endemic gun violence had become in the United States, where readily-available firearms claim around 30,000 lives each year.

"When guns are so easy to get, when that violence continues to play out on our streets, we have to speak up and speak out -- have smart legislation to try to prevent that where we can," he told reporters.

"You can have a Ph.D. or you can be a little kid, you could be black or white, brown or Asian ... and gun violence has just become too acceptable. We've become immune to it."
LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday he had spoken to Labour opposition party leader Jeremy Corbyn about the June 23 referendum on European Union membership. "I've spoken to him about it, we haven't appeared on a platform together, I don't know whether that's going to happen, but we do agree about this," Cameron said at an event in London hosted by Sky News. (Reporting by Andy Bruce and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Montreal (AFP) - Canadian authorities were unable to locate the brother-in-law of deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali when it came time to deport him last month, AFP learned from a judicial source Thursday.

Belhassen Trabelsi and his family flew in a private jet to Montreal in January 2011, following a mass uprising that swept Tunisia and touched off the Arab Spring.

He requested but was denied asylum last year.

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials were scheduled to meet with Trabelsi on May 24 in preparation for his deportation to Tunisia a week later.

But he "disappeared and even his lawyers say he cannot be found," the immigration authorities said in federal court documents obtained by AFP and dated May 26.

"It appears he has disappeared in the wilderness," Borhene El Kamel, the second in charge at the Tunisian embassy in Ottawa, told AFP.

"I hope that the Canadians will locate him as soon as possible and return him to Tunisia to face justice," he said.

Prior to his disappearance, the 53-year-old wealthy businessman had been living in a plush apartment in Montreal.

The Tunisian embassy does not know if he had been monitored by Canadian authorities, said El Kamel, noting that Tunisia "does not have the means to keep an eye on him outside its borders."

"We don't know" if a warrant has been issued for Trabelsi's arrest, he added.

Canadian authorities declined to specifically comment on Trabelsi's case, citing privacy laws.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, Scott Bardsley, said: "The CBSA is very vigilant and works to locate those who do not meet their obligations for removal."

- Trafficking in antiquities -

After the fall of the regime, authorities in Tunis asked Ottawa to detain Trabelsi, accusing him of being the Ben Ali clan's bag man.

Although Trabelsi, his wife and four children had previously been granted permanent residency in Canada, they lost their status because they had not spent an obligatory minimum amount of time in the country.

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The tribunal that rejected his Canadian refugee claim cited a lengthy list of accusations brought by the authorities, including fraud against the Tunisian government, embezzlement and laundering criminal proceeds.

Trabelsi denied the allegations, saying he "amassed his fortune through work and his skills as an entrepreneur."

Although the evidence against him was mostly circumstantial, the board found it compelling enough to deny his refugee claim.

A leaked June 2008 US diplomatic cable concluded that Trabelsi was "the most notorious (Ben Ali) family member and is rumored to have been involved in a wide-range of corrupt schemes from the recent Banque de Tunisie board shakeup to property expropriation and extortion of bribes."

Trabelsi's sister Leila has been married to Ben Ali since 1994.

The diplomatic cable noted that his holdings include an airline, hotels, a radio station, car assembly plants, and more.

At his Canadian refugee hearing, Trabelsi was also accused of "possession and trafficking of archeological treasures," notably ancient statuettes.
By Nia Williams FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta (Reuters) - Thousands of evacuees who fled a massive wildfire that hit Fort McMurray made an emotional return to their homes on Wednesday, facing a massive cleanup and uncertainty over their safety as the devastated Canadian oil city begins to rebuild. More than 90,000 fled the remote northern Alberta city as the fire hit a month ago, engulfing some neighborhoods while sparing others. Premier Rachel Notley told reporters about half of the 15,000 expected to return on Wednesday had done so by noon as a two-week staged re-entry begins. Standing outside one of the few supermarkets open in Fort McMurray, Jessica Kogitowisz, 23, breathed a sigh of relief as she talked about her townhouse, untouched by the disaster. But for her brother-in-law standing next to her, the news was bad: his house charred to the ground. "It's definitely emotional. I'm happy to be back. The town is our home, but their personal home where they go every day is gone," Kogitowisz said of her relative. The blaze, which destroyed about 10 percent of the city's homes, was a blow to a community already reeling from a two-year oil price slump. It shuttered more than a million barrels per day of crude production, though some facilities have resumed operations even as acrid smoke lingered in the air. In some areas south of Fort McMurray, the wildfire is still burning out of control. The blaze now covers about 581,695 hectares (1.43 million acres). Scorched trees lined Highway 63, the only route into the city. An expected crush of traffic failed to materialize as residents slowly made their way back to the devastated area. On one overpass, a huge Canadian flag hung between two fire trucks. Billboards along the road welcomed residents home. Authorities have told those returning to bring two weeks' worth of food, water and prescription medication. Returnees have also been told to scrub walls, and clean all clothing and bedding, upholstery of items that remained in their houses during the evacuation. The area is under a boil-water advisory and the local hospital's capabilities are limited. Some stores, restaurants and gas stations were open on Wednesday. Notley has said conditions will be assessed on a daily basis and the re-entry schedule may be adjusted if the situation changes. "Today is not the end of this story. It is not a return to normal life and it's not yet a celebration. There is a still a lot of work to recover and rebuild. This will be the work of years, not weeks," Notley told reporters on Wednesday. Mark Hebert was relieved to find his house in downtown Fort McMurray in good shape, but his partner was worried about air quality. "We are going to clean some stuff up here and try and cut the grass, grab a few things," the 51-year-old Hebert said. "It's 50-50 whether we stay here tonight." Despite the devastation, residents praised the efforts of firefighters and service workers who kept the situation from being even worse. Regional officials noted that while 10 percent of residents lost their homes, 30 of firefighters who battled the blaze lost their dwellings. (Additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Calgary and Topher Seguin in Fort McMurray; Writing by Alan Crosby; Editing by Sandra Maler)
chewbacca-toilet-paper-5

Lucasfilm/Disney

As weve discussed in the past, there are no fans quite like Star Wars fans. You can always count on them to go all-in on their love for the franchise and incorporate it into any and every facet of their lives. Comb the internet a bit and in no time youll find Star Wars tattoos, weddings, bachelor parties, and everything in between. In fact, the strange places Star Warss influence reaches almost makes custom license plates seem tame. But its not the license plate alone that makes this story. Its what happened afterwards.

A Reddit user posted a picture of a funny coincidence that occurred in a movie theater parking lot two days ago. Their car, donning a license plate reading CHEWBCA, had been joined mid-movie by another with one reading HANSOLO. This alone would have been a cute internet story, and it got a good bit of attention on Reddit.

Screen Shot 2016-06-01 at 11.35.04 PM

Via Reddit

But it really blew up when Peter Mayhew, the actor behind everyones favorite Wookiee, Chewbacca, chimed in and gave the plates his seal of approval. What are the odds ofwait, never tell me the odds. The actor wrote, quoting his pal Han Solo before calling the picture, wonderful. Its always cool to see actors and creators reaching out to fans like this, and Peter Mayhew seems to have gotten a legitimate kick out of this fun little coincidence.

Amidst all of the nerding out over a legitimate screen icon complimenting the license plates, it was also discovered that theres a plate reading MFALCN in the state, prompting suggestions of a team-up of epic proportions. If that happens, who knows? Maybe the man behind everyones favorite scoundrel might have no choice but to notice.

(Via Reddit)
We all knew Chewbacca mom was going places the moment she hopped in her car, threw on a Star Wars face mask and moved millions of viewers watching her record-shattering Facebook Live video  the most viewed on the platform to date  to tears of joy.

And so, like many viral superstars who came and conquered before her, the face behind the mask, Candace Payne, has received a full scholarship to an accredited school for the feat.

Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, is also extending the full scholarship invitation to the school to her entire family, just in case any of them would like to take up classes at the private college. They don't even have to wear the masks.

Scholarships in the wake of an internet phenomena are nothing new: there was "clock boy," Damn Daniel, a homeless piano player, the 9-year-old student snapped doing his homework outside of McDonald's and basically every other child who appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Not everyone, however, was as on board with the school, which costs over $20,000 a year to attend, providing scholarships to an entire family simply for being relatives to the subject of sudden momentary fame, especially when student loan debt is crushing regular Americans trying to go to school.

"I have student loan debt," August Schmidt, a student at the university, told WTVT. "I have two jobs, a family and a kid. But honestly, it's a gift to them they should take."

"Over 90% of our students receive institutional aid," Brian Carroll, Southeastern's executive vice president, told WTVT. "We've had the privilege to increase that aid from $6 million to $25 million this year. If we can help her in any way, we want to do that."
HOUSTON, TX / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / Changing Technologies, Inc. (CHGT) has always prided itself on being on the forefront for new technologies and their use, hence the company name. Now CHGT wants to bring new technology to bear on one of the oldest image display techniques known.

The company is examining potential market opportunities for the production of lithophanes, using its cutting-edge 3D printing capabilities to make dynamic, three-dimensional renderings of photographs and other images. These photos and images could be placed into customized frames or other displays to make unique and memorable keepsakes and gifts.

"Customers will really appreciate being able to bring cherished photos to life by making them into three-dimensional renderings," said CHGT CEO Marco Valenzuela. "While printed photos will eventually degrade and fade over the years, these lithophanes will remain lifelike for decades. We're still conducting some research into starting a lithophane printing line, but we're excited by the possibilities."

The first lithophanes appeared in the 1820s and predate film photography. Made of translucent porcelain, the etched images appear to leap off the surface when backlit by a light source. With today's technology, lithophanes can be quickly made from a variety of lightweight materials.

Thanks to evolving technology and an increasing number of uses and applications, 3D printing continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Analysts are predicting the industry will surpass $20 billion by 2020.

For more information on CHGT, please visit www.changingtechno.com.

For more information on 6th Dimension Technologies, visit http://www.6d3d.com.

About Changing Technologies, Inc.

Changing Technologies, Inc. (CHGT) is an emerging technology company focused on developing innovative concepts to bring to consumers. It recently created a new subsidiary - 6th Dimension Technologies - to pursue additional growth areas and market needs in the booming 3D printing sector. A forward-thinking company working to be at the forefront of the next generation of consumer-based technology, CHGT is positioning itself to leverage global demand for the latest technological advances and services the company offers. Changing Technologies, Inc. is in the cutting-edge technology sphere alongside companies like Voxelijet AG (VJET), Arcam AB (AMAVF), and ExOne Co. (XONE).

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FOLLOW US:

@ChangingTechno

facebook.com/changingtechnologies

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including statements that include the words believes, expects, anticipates or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In addition, description of anyones past success, either financial or strategic, is no guarantee of success. This news release speaks as of the date first set forth above and the Company assumes no responsibility to update the information included herein for events occurring after the date hereof.

Contact:

Changing Technologies, Inc.

Marco Valenzuela, 713-300-3806

President and CEO

marco@6d3d.com

SOURCE: Changing Technologies, Inc.
(OTTAWA, Ontario)  Chinas visiting foreign minister publicly berated a Canadian journalist on Wednesday for asking a question about his countrys human rights record.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said it was irresponsible of a journalist from the web outlet IPolitics to ask about human rights and the jailing of a Canadian, Kevin Garratt, who is charged with espionage.

Wang appeared visibly angry as he delivered the scolding in the lobby of Global Affairs headquarters at a joint news conference with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion.

Your question is full of prejudice and against China.  I dont know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable, Wang said through a translator.

Other people dont know better than the Chinese people about the human rights condition in China and it is the Chinese people who are in the best situation, in the best position to have a say about Chinas human rights situation, he continued.

So I would like to suggest to you that please dont ask questions in such an irresponsible manner. We welcome goodwill suggestions but we reject groundless or unwarranted accusations.

The IPolitics question was agreed to by a number of journalists representing several news organizations at the event. Wang asked the journalist if shed ever been to China.

Do you know that China has lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty? And do you know that China is now the second-largest economy in the world from a very low foundation?  And do you know China has written protection and promotion of human rights into our constitution?

Earlier, in response to the question that offended his counterpart, Dion said he raised Garratts case with Wang and never misses an opportunity to raise human rights and difficult consular cases.

Garratt was indicted by prosecutors in Dandong, a city on the North Korean border where he and his wife ran a popular coffee shop and conducted Christian aid work for North Koreans. He and his wife Julia were arrested in August 2014 by the state security bureau. His wife was later released on bail.

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Dion said he and Wang had honest and frank conversations on human rights and consular affairs. Wang also met Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Wang said he believes Canada and China are headed for a new Golden Age in relations, citing Justins fathers establishment of diplomatic relations with China in 1970 and gains made by former liberal prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.

Wang made no mention of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, whose near-decade in power started on a frosty note when he was accused of snubbing Beijing.

Trudeau made positive strides with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his first round of international travel last fall. The Chinese leader praised the vision of Trudeaus late father, Pierre, for establishing diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic in 1970 during a meeting at the G20 in Turkey.
By Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday there was no religious discrimination in the far-western region of Xinjiang and there would be no interference in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, despite criticism from rights groups. Ramadan, which begins next week, is a sensitive time in Xinjiang, where deadly attacks in recent years blamed by Beijing on Islamist militants have left hundreds dead. Authorities in Xinjiang in the past have stepped up controls on the practice of Islam followed by the Uighur ethnic minority during Ramadan. There has been criticism of people having been banned from worship and that restaurants had been forced to stay open. Muslims worldwide observe Ramadan, during which many abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. "During the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, whether to close or open halal restaurants is completely determined by the owners themselves without interference," a government report on religious freedom in Xinjiang said. "No citizen suffers discrimination or unfair treatment for believing in, or not believing in, any religion," the report said, adding that "religious feelings and needs are fully respected". Those pledges appeared to be at odds with some local policies. Legal and religious officials in Khorgos city, near the border with Kazakhstan, in late May ordered inspections of more than 30 ethnic restaurant operators and had them "guarantee normal business during Ramadan", a statement on the government's website said. An official at the Khorgos government publicity department told Reuters he could not comment. Rights groups and exiles say one of the major problems in Xinjiang is government controls on Uighur culture and Islam, which stoke ethnic tension, such as regulations banning overt signs of religious observance, like veils or beards. Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, the main Uighur exile group, said in an email that the United States had a responsibility to pressure China to respect Uighurs' religious beliefs during bilateral talks in Beijing starting on Monday. China's "lies could not cover up the truth" about its openly restrictive and prohibitive religious policies, he said. Shoket Imin, a member of the ruling Communist Party's standing committee in Xinjiang, told reporters that children below the age of 18 must not go to mosques, a policy critics say is an attempt to weaken religious sentiment. China says it protects freedom of religion, but it allows only state-recognized religious institutions to operate. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Nick Macfie)
* Putzmeister one of the first prominent takeovers by the Chinese

* Deal gave Sany access to western markets, premium brand

* Sany has kept Putzmeister on a long leash

* Language, cultural differences pose biggest hurdle

By Caroline Copley

BERLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - As Beijing moves in to buy up firms from Germany's famed "Mittlestand" of mid-sized manufacturers, politicians are nervous that Chinese owners may take their vaunted technology and move jobs abroad.

But one of the first prominent mid-sized German engineering firms to sell out to the Chinese says such fears are overblown.

When Putzmeister, a 58-year-old maker of pumps for concrete, was bought by its Chinese competitor Sany for 360 million euros($402 million) in 2012, its workers protested outside the factory gates, fearing job losses.

Four years on, however, the company's employment in Germany has held steady and it has promised to maintain it at least until 2020. Sales are up by nearly a third, the brand is still intact and established relationships with suppliers have been left in place.

With the Chinese back for more acquisitions, the four-year-old merger is again drawing attention, this time as an example of how to sell out while safeguarding operations at home.

In headlines from the latest Chinese shopping spree, home appliance maker Midea Group made a $5-billion bid for German robot maker Kuka last month, and Fujian Grand Chip Investment Fund agreed to pay 670 million euros for semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker Aixtron.

German economy minister Sigmar Gabriel signalled politicians' unease this week, saying he would like to see a rival offer for Kuka from a German or European firm.

Putzmeister executives remember similar worries. Before their company went up for sale, sales had only begun recovering from the 2009 global financial crisis.

The suitor, Sany, from China's southwestern Hunan province, had itself overtaken Putzmeister as the global market leader for concrete pumps, mostly by selling cheaper pumps to Chinese customers. It was easy to imagine the Chinese firm following the merger by taking German designs and shedding German jobs.

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But Putzmeister's German Chief Executive Gerald Karch insists that was never the plan.

"The strategy was and is the strict preservation of brand and corporate identities at both firms," he said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Since the takeover, rather than shift production to China, Sany has divided up the market, selling its own pumps in China and the German firm's pumps in the rest of the world. Putzmeister pumps still come with German-engineered parts sourced from its previous suppliers. The German firm acts as the global distribution hub for the combined company.

"There are positive impulses there," said Frank-Christian Raffel, Munich-based partner in boutique advisory firm MelchersRaffel, which specialises in M&A deals between German-speaking and Asian countries. "Evidently it is being well run by the Chinese."

With employment at the company's factories in Germany holding steady, the workers who picketed against the merger four years ago now say they are more fortunate than they might have been had a buyer arrived from elsewhere.

"I think if it were an American company, it would be a lot worse for the workforce," said Joerg Loeffler, head of the works council at Putzmeister.

Nevertheless, although the merger appears to have been mostly a success in terms of sales and employment, the company acknowledges it may still take years to unite two very different corporate cultures and realise all the benefits of linking up.

PLASTER MASTER

Putzmeister, whose name means "plaster master", is an example of how Germany's small and medium-sized manufacturing sector produced "hidden champions" that excel as world leaders in niche markets, a path that turned Germany after World War Two into Europe's powerhouse of export-led manufacturing.

The company's colossal truck-mounted cranes helped build the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and were sent to pump millions of litres of seawater to cool Japan's tsunami-wrecked nuclear reactor in Fukushima in 2011.

But it was hit hard by the financial crisis, when sales plummeted from 1 billion euros to 440 million, allowing Sany to snatch the crown of world leader in 2009.

One aim of the merger was for Putzmeister to help Sany gain a technological edge over rivals by improving quality at its own production sites. To this end, joint projects were set up and engineers exchanged to facilitate the transfer of know-how.

Following the takeover, the companies also expressed a desire for some co-operation in the procurement of parts, and raised the possibility that Sany could supply some of Putzmeister's components.

But while Putzmeister has helped Sany purchase some parts, such as hydraulic components from German supplier Bosch Rexroth, it has kept its purchasing strategy and supply chain unchanged to maintain its reputation as a premium brand.

PR CAMPAIGN

Concerns about a deterioration in quality due to Putzmeister's new owners were allayed by intensive PR work with customers, according to Cora Jungbluth, from the Bertelsmann Stiftung charitable foundation, who carried out a case study on Chinese takeovers of German firms.

Over in China, the firms initially operated a two-brand strategy. However, Putzmeister has since removed its pumps from the Chinese market, saying Sany's products enjoyed a "good reputation" there. Putzmeister said it continues to take advantage of Sany's distribution network to sell its concrete-spraying machines, which Sany doesn't have in its portfolio.

By agreeing last year to guarantee jobs until 2020, Sany also managed to win over Putzmeister's workers. The German firm's global workforce has remained stable at 3,300 and there have been no noticeable changes for those working in its German factories.

Thomas Heck, Head of PwC's China Business Group, said that so far German firms' experience with Chinese investors has shown that the overwhelming majority are less focused on quick financial profits and more on long-term strategic goals.

"They really want to go global and gain a foothold in developed markets and are aware that this might take even a decade," Bertelsmann's Jungbluth added.

Despite Sany's willingness to keep Putzmeister on a long leash, there have still been challenges to overcome, notably in marrying corporate cultures. Few of Sany's Hunan-based employees speak English.

Norbert Scheuch, Putzmeister's chief executive from 2009 who negotiated the merger, left the company a year after the deal. He told Reuters he had frequently become frustrated with his new bosses' hierarchy-driven management style, which he said slowed down decision-making and thwarted his efforts to make acquisitions.

Joint projects were complicated by a Chinese culture that privileged rank over expertise, he told Reuters, contrasting it with an expectation from German managers that their knowledgeable subordinates will speak up.

Unable to make small talk in Chinese, Scheuch said he often felt shut out of decisions. He described himself as the "party pooper" forced to temper Sany's initial over-optimistic expectations for growth in Europe's saturated markets.

Putzmeister says current CEO Karch has built up a good basis of trust with Sany's billionaire founder Liang Wengen, a son of Hunanese peasants who rose to become at one point China's richest man.

But the company acknowledges that more time is needed for the integration to succeed on all levels and in all countries.

There are signs that future Chinese investors are becoming more savvy about foreign takeovers and the need to understand the local culture, says M&A adviser Raffel.

"The Chinese are very willing to learn nowadays. I know investors that have bought German companies and are now holding workshops in China on how the German Mittelstand works." ($1 = 0.8957 euros)
By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States should not decide its policy on the South China Sea based on what its allies think, and should stick to its promises not to take sides in the dispute, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday ahead of Sino-U.S. security talks. China has been angered by what it views as provocative U.S. military patrols close to islands China controls in the South China Sea. The United States says the patrols are to protect freedom of navigation. China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with Washington. Speaking at a forum ahead of next week's high-level meetings with U.S. officials in Beijing, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said his country had every right to protect its sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea. "In fact the United States is not a claimant in the South China Sea dispute, and its said it takes no position on territorial disputes," Zheng said. "So we hope the U.S. can stick to its promises and not choose sides, but can set its position based on the rights and wrongs of the case rather than whether somebody is an ally," he added. "I think if they can do this, and if they can stop provocative acts targeted at China's sovereignty and security interests, then the U.S. can play a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea and promote a lowering of the temperature on this issue." China's top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, will take this up with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at their talks, Zheng added. The South China Sea is also expected to loom large at Asia's biggest security summit starting in Singapore on Friday, attended by a senior Chinese admiral. Last month, Beijing demanded an end to U.S. surveillance near China after two Chinese fighter jets carried out what the Pentagon said was an "unsafe" intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea. Denouncing people in the United States who viewed China as a threat, which he believed was not a mainstream U.S. view, Zheng said the two countries had proved they can cooperate well on joint issues of global concern, like North Korea and Syria. "China's development won't threaten any country," Zheng said. "I hope certain people in the United States set themselves straight and spurn Cold War thinking." (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Michael Perry)
Singapore (AFP) - Asia's largest annual security forum opens Friday in Singapore with territorial disputes in the South China Sea, North Korea's military provocations and Islamist extremism expected to dominate discussions.

The Shangri-La Dialogue, organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is to be attended by at least 20 defence ministers led by Pentagon chief Ashton Carter, said IISS Asia executive director Tim Huxley.

Beijing's claim to nearly the entire South China Sea has angered Southeast Asian neighbours and pitted it against the United States, which has conducted patrols near Chinese-held islands to press for freedom of navigation in the body of water that encompasses key global shipping lanes.

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the area, which is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.

"There is much speculation about Chinas next steps in the South China Sea, particularly in the context of an apparently imminent ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on a Philippine submission that challenges important aspects of Chinas claims and activities there," Huxley wrote in a pre-conference blog.

Tensions in the South China Sea are expected to drive up Asia-Pacific defence spending by nearly 25 percent from 2015 to $533 billion in 2020, security think-tank IHS Jane's wrote in a research note issued Thursday.

"By 2020, the centre of gravity of the global defence spending landscape is expected to have continued its gradual shift away from the developed economies of Western Europe and North America, and towards emerging markets, particularly in Asia," said IHS Jane's director Paul Burton.

- 'Jihadist terrorism' -

Tensions on the Korean peninsula are another concern to be addressed at the Singapore forum.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned North Korea's latest attempted missile launches and urged world governments to ramp up efforts to impose sanctions on Pyongyang.

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Huxley also said there has been renewed concern over "jihadist terrorism", particularly the threat from organisations and individuals in Southeast Asia who have associated themselves with the Islamic State.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a former army chief who seized power two years ago, will open the Singapore conference with an evening keynote address.

The forum also serves as a venue for military officials to meet behind closed doors.

Past editions of the conference have been marked by heated public exchanges between US and Chinese officials.

Zhou Bu, an honorary fellow at China's Academy of Military Science, wrote in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper ahead of the forum that public acrimony between the two powers could lead people to believe that "a showdown between the two giants is inevitable".

Recent editions of the Shangri-La Dialogue have been a "feast for the media" and could mislead people to believe that "a showdown between the two giants is inevitable," Zhou wrote.

But he said the US-China relationship is "also resilient, partly because each side can ill afford the consequence of a conflict or confrontation".

There are over 90 dialogues plus two hotlines between the two governments and two militaries to make sure the relationship stays on track, Zhou said.

He noted that China will take part in a 27-nation US-led naval exercise called the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, billed as the world's largest such drills, off Hawaii and California starting in late June.
Brussels (AFP) - A giant panda on loan to Belgium from China gave birth to a cub in a Belgian zoo on Thursday, a rare event for the endangered species that numbers fewer than 2,000 in the wild.

The mother Hao Hao immediately took the tiny and hairless squealing male cub in her jaws to protect it and clean it, in video footage released by the Pairi Daiza wildlife park outside Brussels.

"Hao Hao's first son is right now in the best of health and weighs 171 grams (six ounces)," the zoo said in a joint statement with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

Announcing the news with "great pleasure," the statement said: "Less than 2,000 pandas can be found in the wild, making every birth a true miracle."

It was the third panda cub born in the world this year and only the third to be born in Europe in the last 20 years. Austria and Spain were the previous venues.

The little panda has yet to be named.

"We are waiting to be sure he is viable and armed for life. The name will be beautiful, and Chinese, but Belgians will be able to pronounce it," the veterinary team said in a statement.

The zoo warned that the mortality rate for baby pandas in their first year is high.

China loaned Hao Hao and her mate Xing Hui to Belgium for 15 years in February 2014 to mark Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the kingdom.

They quickly became a main attraction.

- 'Excellent mother' -

Hao Hao was artificially inseminated twice in February with the sperm of Xing Hui.

The zoo, in Brugelette, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Brussels, said last month that Hao Hao was showing signs she could be pregnant, but had remained cautious over whether she would actually give birth.

"For several weeks, she ate twice the usual amounts of bamboo, then she became increasingly disinterested in food and began to refuse to leave her cave", Hao Hao's minder Tania Stroobant had said.

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"Very recently we also noticed a swelling of her breasts which indicates that she is preparing to breastfeed."

Hao Hao's Belgian and Chinese carers brought her to a so-called "birthing box" after she showed the first signs she was about to give birth on Tuesday.

Contractions began around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) Wednesday, with the cub entering the world at 2:02 am on Thursday.

Hours after Hao Hao grabbed the cub in her jaws, carers managed to extract mother's milk to stimulate production.

They will continue to encourage Hao Hao to nurse her baby, but could give him a bottle if necessary.

"Hao Hao has all the traits that will make her an excellent mother," the zoo said.

There remain about 1,800 freely roaming pandas in the world, with about 400 in captivity, mainly in southwest China.
Authorities have wrapped up an investigation into an incident at the Cincinnati Zoo that ended with the killing of beloved gorilla after a child slipped into its enclosure, a prosecutor said Thursday.

The Cincinnati Police Department has turned over the probe to Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters for his review, according to the prosecutors office.

The department was considering possible criminal charges in its investigation that looked into how a 3-year-old boy managed to crawl through a barrier and fall into the gorillas exhibit, Cincinnati Police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy told TIME. Hardy said the family members of the boy who were with him at the time of the incident were the focus of the probe.

The police department did not disclose how many family members were supervising him at the time of the zoo visit. The boys mother, Michelle Gregg, can be heard panicking in a 911 call authorities released Wednesday. She told a police dispatcher a male gorilla was standing over her son and that the animal took hold of the child.

My son fell in the zoo exhibit at the gorillaat the Cincinnati zoo. My son fell in with the gorilla. There is a male gorilla standing over him, she can be heard saying. Hes dragging my son. I cant watch this. I cant watch.

Its unclear whether the police department recommended that charges be filed against her. A spokeswoman for the boys family said she did not have a comment about the end of the police probe Thursday.

Deters said he would conclude his review by Friday.
PEOPLE confirms that investigators have concluded their probe into the circumstances that preceded a 4-year-old boy's fall into the Cincinnati Zoo's gorilla exhibit, impelling zookeepers to fatally shoot a 17-year-old endangered silverback gorilla.



Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman for Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, tells PEOPLE the investigation into Saturday's incident has been wrapped up, and that the police department's findings have been turned over to Deters for his review.



Wilson claims that at some point today, Deters will sit down to begin his analysis of the department's recommendations, and could issue a determination his before the weekend.



According to the Cincinnati Enquirer and various media reports, authorities are not recommending criminal charges against the boy's mother. However, Rocky Merz, Cincinnati's director of communications, tells PEOPLE no such decision has been made.



"Some media outlets are reporting that no charges have been filed in the Cincinnati Zoo Incident," Merz explains. "This is premature as the investigation is continuing and is still being reviewed by the Hamilton County Prosecutor's office."



Merz adds: "No determination has been made at this time nor has anything been issued or released from the Cincinnati Police Department, the City Manager's Officer, nor the Prosecutor's Office."



 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.



Wilson agrees the media speculation regarding the police department's findings is unfounded.



Cincinnati police launched an investigation into Saturday's incident earlier this week, with a focus on determining whether the boy's mother, 32-year-old Michelle Gregg, should be held responsible for what happened.



Police have released audio from the 911 call Gregg made Saturday afternoon as the massive primate dragged her son through a murky moat.



The boy suffered only minor injuries while the male gorilla was shot to death, sparking outrage nationwide and spurring calls for Gregg's arrest on social media.



In a statement, the Greggs thanked zoo officials for the actions they took "to protect our child. We are also very appreciative for the expressions of concern and support that have been sent to us. Some have offered money to the family, which we do not want and will not accept."



Instead, the family suggests such donations be made to the Cincinnati Zoo in Harambe's name.



Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has revealed it is conducting its own investigation into the safety protocols and day-to-day operations of the zoo.
Rome (AFP) - "Bread and circuses" was the formula that ancient Rome's rulers hoped would keep the restless natives happy.

Two millennia later, residents of the Eternal City just want their buses to turn up on time, holes in the roads filled and garbage collected and dealt with safely.

Virginia Raggi says that is why she put her legal career on hold in a bid to become the Italian capital's first female mayor, as the candidate of the populist Five Star movement.

An elegant brunette, the 37-year-old lawyer has been feted by local media as a dark-eyed beauty.

She is leading opinion polls ahead of Sunday's first round of voting and looks a sure-fire bet to make it into the June 19 run-off.

Her campaign made the most of simmering discontent in the city, over everything from endemic double-parking to chronic levels of absenteeism from public offices.

"Rome has to first and foremost get back to being a normal city," Raggi told AFP in an interview.

"For ordinary Romans it is not that at the moment, it is an extremely difficult place to live and that is not right for the capital of Italy."

Rome has been run since late last year by an official appointed after Ignazio Marino quit as mayor, having been disowned by party allies in the centre-left government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi over an expenses scandal.

- 'Contracts on merit' -

The city is also still dealing with the fallout from Mafia Capitale, a scandal that erupted in late 2014 when dozens of businessmen, politicians and officials were arrested on suspicion of having conspired for years to siphon off city funds through rigged tenders and other scams.

One of the accused now on trial was caught on a wiretap boasting that stealing cash intended to help asylum-seekers was more lucrative than dealing drugs.

Against that backdrop, being mayor looks like a job nobody would want. But Raggi, a Roman born and bred, is chomping at the bit.

"I've never lacked determination," she said, explaining how having a son prompted her to enter politics in her early 30s.

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"I didn't want him growing up in this city the way it is now."

She adds: "How do we fight this system (the infiltration of organised crime)? You have to apply the law, follow what the law says, put systems in place, organise tenders, award contracts on merit.

"Do that, and you destroy the links that have poisoned the administrative and political life of this city."

With breezy confidence, she says she can end the gridlock that is a regular feature of city life.

But there is nothing really new in a manifesto that Marino has slammed as painfully devoid of detail.

- Lightly organised chaos -

Raggi says she will give priority to public transport, make traffic lights smarter and expand priority lanes for buses.

She also wants to relaunch a public bicycle scheme of the kind that has proved successful in London and Paris, optimistically predicting that, this time, the bikes will not all be vandalised.

She bats away a suggestion that Rome is as it is because Romans essentially prefer their own version of lightly organised chaos.

"We have made a personal commitment (to changing the city) and I think there are a lot of our fellow citizens who are also now ready to do the same," she says.

Raggi believes voters are ready to place their trust in a party untainted by the failures of previous administrations of the left or right.

"It is time to send them all home," she says, reprising a campaign slogan designed to press the message that only a new broom can sweep Rome clean.

For her party, the stakes are high. Victory in Rome and a successful Raggi-led administration would give the movement founded by comedian Beppe Grillo a strong launchpad for nationwide elections due by 2018 at the latest.

But Five Star's standing as untainted outsiders has been hit by the problems it has encountered in the small number of municipalities it already heads. The party has, in recent months, disowned three of the 16 mayors elected on its ticket.

Grillo's dominant role is also under scrutiny and Raggi raised eyebrows when she recently admitted she would step down if he asked her to.

She says giving the party oversight of policies and appointments is good practice. "Better to have two or three pairs of eyes than one," she says. "But I will be completely autonomous."
By Andrew MacAskill and Anjuli Davies LONDON (Reuters) - Almost two decades ago, property investor Richard Tice was among a group of financiers engaged in a campaign to stop Britain from joining the euro single currency. Now he is fighting another battle - to bring Britain out of the European Union. Tice says history has vindicated his stance on the euro. London has thrived as Europe's leading financial center despite being outside the single currency. That is good reason, Tice says, to listen to him when he says British business will prosper if Britons vote to leave the European Union this month.Tice's views on Brexit put him in a minority in the financial services industry with most believing this very significant part of the economy - it accounts for about 10 percent of GDP - has the most to lose from a leave vote. He is also at odds with Prime Minister David Cameron, the finance minister George Osborne and Bank of England head Mark Carney, all of whom argue Britain is better off inside the EU. "Let's give due weight to those who said we shouldn't join the euro in the first place, we were right then and we are right now," said Tice, interviewed at a hotel bar near his office in London's wealthy Mayfair district. Tice is joined in his campaign by other business leaders who campaigned against the euro. The 'Brexiteers' include the founders of some of the biggest stockbroking and fund management companies - Stuart Wheeler, owner of spreadbetting firm IG Index, Peter Hargreaves founder of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, asset manager Fundsmith's Terry Smith and Oliver Hemsley of broker Numis. They see parallels with when then Prime Minister Tony Blair, the country's main business lobby group and international companies based in Britain wanted to join the single currency. The same institutions are now against an exit from Europe. Wall Street banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi and JPMorgan have donated six-figure sums to the campaign for the country to stay in the EU and the City of London Corporation, which runs the financial district, also backs remaining. But the supporters of leaving say the warnings that emerged during the debate around the euro are being used again: there will be economic chaos, diminished trade opportunities and a withering in London's role as a premier hub for global business.The campaign to keep Britain in Europe has said leaving would result in recession. The 'Out' campaign says only leaving the EU can slow high levels of migration. SUCCESS IN THE CITY Since Britain rejected replacing the pound, the number of people working in London's financial district has risen by about 20 percent, according to the City of London Corporation. "Not only were they wrong, they were spectacularly wrong on the biggest macro-economic decision that we faced since the Second World War," Tice said. "The track record of these people is really important. It is really woeful, woeful."Alongside Tice on the list of 1,000 members of "Business for Sterling", the cross-party campaign group launched in 1998 to challenge the perception that business supported the euro, was Roger Bootle, founder of research firm Capital Economics. "I remember well all the people who said if we were not in the euro that would be it," Bootle told Reuters at his office in Victoria. "Actually, what happened was it strengthened the City. It killed all the minor financial centers: Amsterdam, Vienna, Milan... We all know the euro business moved to London." The euro zone crisis may have drawn attention to the deficiencies of the single currency, but many economists say for those who joined it has removed the exchange rate risk and given access to an expanded single market. Bootle concedes that some financial services companies may leave London in the event of a 'Brexit', worried that they will be less able to operate across the European Union from a London base. But, he says, staying in the EU carries its own risks in the form of increased taxation and regulation. Bootle argues London should anyway be setting its sights beyond the continent and refocus on faster growing markets in Asia, Africa and the Americas.Nick Herbert, the former chief executive of Business for Sterling, and now a pro-EU Conservative parliamentarian, dismisses the parallels between the campaign against the euro and leaving the EU."The campaign against joining the euro was clear that we should be in the single market, but outside of the euro," he said. "They are now rewriting history because it is the only argument they have." THE CLOSET BREXITEER Those in favor of leaving say europsceptics' employees at large financial companies are being gagged from speaking out. While Hargreaves, for instance, is vociferous about the potential benefits of Brexit, the investment fund firm that he part owns has distanced itself from the debate. Hargreaves Lansdown has said it is "neutral" on the referendum. Helena Morrissey, chief executive of Newton Investment Management, part of BNY Mellon has been outspoken in editorial opinion pieces and public debates, arguing Britain could thrive outside the EU. She has coined a phrase "the closet Brexiteer", referring to what she sees as City workers feeling uncomfortable expressing their own views if they differ from those of their employer. (Editing by Janet McBride)
By Andrew MacAskill and Anjuli Davies LONDON (Reuters) - Almost two decades ago, property investor Richard Tice was among a group of financiers engaged in a campaign to stop Britain from joining the euro single currency. Now he is fighting another battle - to bring Britain out of the European Union. Tice says history has vindicated his stance on the euro. London has thrived as Europe's leading financial centre despite being outside the single currency. That is good reason, Tice says, to listen to him when he says British business will prosper if Britons vote to leave the European Union this month.Tice's views on Brexit put him in a minority in the financial services industry with most believing this very significant part of the economy - it accounts for about 10 percent of GDP - has the most to lose from a leave vote. He is also at odds with Prime Minister David Cameron, the finance minister George Osborne and Bank of England head Mark Carney, all of whom argue Britain is better off inside the EU. "Let's give due weight to those who said we shouldn't join the euro in the first place, we were right then and we are right now," said Tice, interviewed at a hotel bar near his office in London's wealthy Mayfair district. Tice is joined in his campaign by other business leaders who campaigned against the euro. The 'Brexiteers' include the founders of some of the biggest stockbroking and fund management companies - Stuart Wheeler, founder of spreadbetting firm IG Index, Peter Hargreaves founder of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, asset manager Fundsmith's Terry Smith and Oliver Hemsley of broker Numis. They see parallels with when then Prime Minister Tony Blair, the country's main business lobby group and international companies based in Britain wanted to join the single currency. The same institutions are now against an exit from Europe. Wall Street banks Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi and JPMorgan have donated six-figure sums to the campaign for the country to stay in the EU and the City of London Corporation, which runs the financial district, also backs remaining. But the supporters of leaving say the warnings that emerged during the debate around the euro are being used again: there will be economic chaos, diminished trade opportunities and a withering in London's role as a premier hub for global business.The campaign to keep Britain in Europe has said leaving would result in recession. The 'Out' campaign says only leaving the EU can slow high levels of migration. SUCCESS IN THE CITY Since Britain rejected replacing the pound, the number of people working in London's financial district has risen by about 20 percent, according to the City of London Corporation. "Not only were they wrong, they were spectacularly wrong on the biggest macro-economic decision that we faced since the Second World War," Tice said. "The track record of these people is really important. It is really woeful, woeful."Alongside Tice on the list of 1,000 members of "Business for Sterling", the cross-party campaign group launched in 1998 to challenge the perception that business supported the euro, was Roger Bootle, founder of research firm Capital Economics. "I remember well all the people who said if we were not in the euro that would be it," Bootle told Reuters at his office in Victoria. "Actually, what happened was it strengthened the City. It killed all the minor financial centres: Amsterdam, Vienna, Milan... We all know the euro business moved to London." The euro zone crisis may have drawn attention to the deficiencies of the single currency, but many economists say for those who joined it has removed the exchange rate risk and given access to an expanded single market. Bootle concedes that some financial services companies may leave London in the event of a 'Brexit', worried that they will be less able to operate across the European Union from a London base. But, he says, staying in the EU carries its own risks in the form of increased taxation and regulation. Bootle argues London should anyway be setting its sights beyond the continent and refocus on faster growing markets in Asia, Africa and the Americas.Nick Herbert, the former chief executive of Business for Sterling, and now a pro-EU Conservative parliamentarian, dismisses the parallels between the campaign against the euro and leaving the EU."The campaign against joining the euro was clear that we should be in the single market, but outside of the euro," he said. "They are now rewriting history because it is the only argument they have." THE CLOSET BREXITEER Those in favour of leaving say europsceptics' employees at large financial companies are being gagged from speaking out. While Hargreaves, for instance, is vociferous about the potential benefits of Brexit, the investment fund firm that he part owns has distanced itself from the debate. Hargreaves Lansdown has said it is "neutral" on the referendum. Helena Morrissey, chief executive of Newton Investment Management, part of BNY Mellon has been outspoken in editorial opinion pieces and public debates, arguing Britain could thrive outside the EU. She has coined a phrase "the closet Brexiteer", referring to what she sees as City workers feeling uncomfortable expressing their own views if they differ from those of their employer. (This story corrects to show Stuart Wheeler is founder, not owner, of IG Index) (Editing by Janet McBride)
Over the past two weeks, its become increasingly clear that when Hillary Clinton takes on Donald Trump in the general election this fall (insert usual caveat here about the primary not being over) she will focus her fire not on his amorphous here-today, gone-tomorrow set of policy positions, but rather on Trumps public and self-image, which appear to be pretty much one and the same.

The Clinton campaigns reaction to the release of internal documents from the controversial Trump University program is a case in point. Hundreds of pages of material disclosed as part of a class action lawsuit against the now-defunct operation detail high-pressure sales tactics meant to identify potential students with significant liquid assets -- or the ability to go into debt -- and to convince them to hand over their available cash to Trump University in exchange for courses that many former students say offered far less than advertised.

Related: Trump Resort Loses Historic Golf Tournament -- to Mexico

Within hours of the documents going public on Tuesday, Clinton and her supporters had begun hammering Trump as a fraud and a con man.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has cultivated his personal brand over the course of decades, devoting every bit as much time and attention to it as to his signature hairdo. Trump, according to Trump, is a wildly successful businessman, a shrewd dealmaker and a guy who does what he says hes going to do.

While detractors would challenge all those claims, it has largely worked for Trump, who parlayed his supposed business acumen into a hit reality television show and an endless parade of branded products, from department store neckties to bottled water.

The documents released by the court include depositions from former Trump University employees who described their personal disgust at the pressure to push vulnerable people into purchasing products that they couldnt afford.

Related: Trump Adds Another Dictator to His List of Admirers

In a storm of social media posts as well as public appearances, Clinton pounced on the revelations Wednesday, hammering home the idea that Trump is exactly the opposite of what he purports to be.

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The New York Attorney General is suing Donald Trump for fraud, she told a crowd in Newark, New Jersey. His own employees testified ... you cant make this up ... that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hardworking people.

She added, This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud. He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U.

For Clinton, there are two different beneficial things operating here. First, though she doesnt command the media attention that Trump does, in large part by design, she still has a prominent pulpit. And constantly challenging Trumps portrayal of himself on the public stage will serve to further increase his extremely high negatives in public opinion polls. (To be fair, Clintons own negatives are also pretty high -- just not as high as Trumps.)

Related: Trump University Offered Master Classes in Manipulation

The second is more of a psychological game. Trump has shown himself to be incapable of ignoring attacks by his opponents, particularly those that strike at his public image. And his responses are frequently intemperate and ill-considered. Clinton knows this and will continue goading Trump at every opportunity between now and November.

While his angry outbursts when hes challenged likely wont dent his core support, that core support was only enough to earn him the Republican presidential nomination in a fractured field of candidates. Its far from what he needs to win a general election. Clintons strategy is not about cutting into Trumps existing support so much as denying him any more.

What Clinton is counting on is that every time Trump lashes out in reaction to her attacks, hell do so in a way that causes another fraction of the electorate to doubt the wisdom of handing him the keys to the White House. So far, he seems, if not happy to oblige, at least unable to help himself.

Crooked Hillary Clinton is a fraud who has put the public and country at risk by her illegal and very stupid use of e-mails. Many missing!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2016

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Washington (AFP) - Hillary Clinton ventures to California aiming to snatch a Democratic nomination victory next week and dash the White House dreams of rival Bernie Sanders, allowing her to finally turn to her election matchup against Donald Trump.

Clinton has six days to press her case in the nation's most populous state, where she is desperate to secure a symbolic victory and take Sanders' last remaining argument for staying in the presidential race off the table.

Still-popular former president Bill Clinton heads out West on his wife's behalf, launching a five-day campaign swing beginning Thursday that will take him "up and down California," while Hillary holds her own packed schedule of rallies there beginning Thursday, according to her campaign.

But Sanders is mounting a last stand of sorts in the progressive bastion, where he has campaigned relentlessly for several days. He is out to prove on June 7 -- the final "Super Tuesday" of 2016, with six states voting -- that he can beat the nearly impossible odds to become the Democratic Party's standardbearer.

"We have an excellent chance to win California, and it's just possible that we might win it in a significant way," Sanders told a press conference Wednesday in the town of Spreckels.

"And if we win California, and if we win South Dakota, and North Dakota, and Montana, and New Mexico and New Jersey... and the following week do well in Washington, DC, I think we will be marching into the Democratic convention with an enormous amount of momentum."

But the US nominations process is based on winning delegates, and on that score Clinton is leading.

She has amassed 2,313 delegates, according to CNN's tally, just 70 shy of the number needed to clinch the nomination.

Sanders is considerably behind, at 1,545 delegates. But the US senator from Vermont has long argued that Clinton's lead is largely based on her broad advantage with so-called super-delegates, party grandees who can vote for whomever they wish at the national convention.

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Without the huge super-delegate advantage, Clinton's lead is far narrower, something Sanders has repeatedly stressed.

Sanders had a message Wednesday for super-delegates: "Please listen to the voters in your own state," he said.

Several hundred delegates are up for grabs next Tuesday, and Clinton is all but assured of surpassing the threshold.

She is expected to inch right to the cusp of victory after caucuses are held at the weekend in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, where Clinton is favored to win.

- Tightening race -

"I do expect to be the Democratic nominee but I want to finish strong in California," she told ABC Radio, "because we need to just pull together to take on Donald Trump and prevent him from setting our country back."

Clinton is in the paradoxical situation of being on the verge of a historic step -- becoming the first female nominee of a major US political party -- even as she struggles to win support from Americans.

Polls show her unfavorability ratings rivaling Trump's, and her challenge over the next five months will be to unify Democrats, including progressive Sanders supporters, and regain the trust of voters skeptical about Clinton's use of a personal email account while she was secretary of state.

Polls show Clinton ahead in California, but the race is tightening.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll out Wednesday showed Clinton ahead of Sanders 49 percent to 47 percent among California Democratic voters.

"It is our campaign that has the energy and the enthusiasm," Sanders said, noting that more than 200,000 Californians have attended his rallies.

Clinton's crowds are usually smaller, but she has earned the endorsement of California Governor Jerry Brown and most of the state's congressional Democrats.

Clinton is due to deliver a foreign policy speech Thursday in San Diego, where she will present herself as an experienced stateswoman who has dealt with several international crises.

Trump on the other hand, has "disqualified himself completely" from being commander in chief, she said Wednesday in Newark, New Jersey.

"He has attacked our closest allies, he has said let's pull out of NATO, he has praised the dictator of North Korea (and) he's advocated more countries getting nuclear weapons."

Nationally Clinton's lead over Trump has shrunk to just 1.5 percent, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average.
jobless

Initial jobless claims unexpectedly dropped to 267,000.

Economists were expecting claims to tick up slightly to 270,000 from last week's 268,000.

The reading has now been below the threshold of 300,000 for 65 straight weeks  the longest streak since 1973.

The 4-week moving average came in at 276,750, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 278,500.

The report noted no special factors.

NOW WATCH: Heres why your jeans have that tiny front pocket





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By Peter Apps Its the near future, and North Koreas regime is on the brink of collapse. As rumors swirl of palace coups, forces on both sides of the worlds most militarized border are on heightened alert. The U.S. military faces a much bigger problem. Somewhere in the Pacific, a North Korean submarine is believed to be carrying nuclear warheads and the missiles to deliver them. And nobody knows where it is. It sounds like the plot of a Hunt for Red October-style technothriller. But if Pyongyangs technicians continue at their current pace, experts say it is becoming ever more likely. One thing is certain: North Korea is plowing considerable resources into building its nuclear capability. And it is clearly making progress  even if Tuesdays failed missile test shows it still has a long way to go. Japanese officials said what appeared to be a conventional Musudan rocket, which theoretically has the ability to reach Japan and the U.S. territory and military base of Guam, exploded either as or shortly after it left its launcher. North Korea is estimated to have some 20 to 30 of the missiles  first deployed in 2007, but yet to be launched successfully. What North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants, most analysts believe, is simple  a rocket that can fire a nuclear warhead at least to regional targets. His ultimate ambition, however, is to be able to hit U.S. cities on the West Coast, most likely from a submarine that could hide itself at sea. North Korea has been steadily improving its rockets  which can also carry conventional explosives  for decades. It detonated its first nuclear device in 2006 but most experts believe it has yet to build one small enough to be placed on a missile. Having the credible ability to do all of that and get the missiles to sea could take well over a decade, perhaps considerably more. Once it happens, however, it will be a strategic game changer. At worst, U.S. cities on the West Coast would have to deal with the prospect, however remote, that they might be struck by a North Korean atomic weapon. At the very least, a North Korea armed with nuclear submarines would hugely complicate the calculus for any U.S. president handling a crisis on the Korean peninsula itself. That, of course, is exactly the plan. The fact that Pyongyang has conducted so many tests this year, some experts believe, suggests Kim is pushing his scientists harder than ever to deliver working rockets and warheads. North Korea is believed to have tagged the expertise of Russian Cold War-era scientists, and while its capabilities on both fronts lag well behind established nuclear states such as Russia and China, it is already believed to be well ahead of Iran. In April, South Korean and U.S. officials said a North Korean submarine successfully launched a ballistic missile that traveled some 18 miles -- a major step forward. Technical experts say TV footage appeared to show a solid fuel rocket successfully launching from underwater, essentially the same system used by Western forces to achieve the same goal. When she testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in April, the incoming head of the U.S. Northern Command  responsible for defending the mainland United States  delivered a stark warning. "The North Korean threat is real," U.S. Air Force General Lori Robinson  previously head of U.S. air forces in the Pacific  told lawmakers. "For now, it's a medium range but they are trying very hard to be able to hit the homeland." Its impossible to know exactly how much money and expertise the North Koreans are expending. The scale of the effort, however, is seen as large  in many ways, the same level of commitment the United States gave to the Manhattan Project to build the worlds first atomic bomb during World War Two. Pyongyangs reason is clear: building that kind of credible ability to strike is seen as central to the long-term survival of the Kim dynasty and its ruling party. Earlier this month, at the first meeting of its ruling party in 36 years, Kim said North Korea was a responsible nuclear weapons state and would never use its weapons  unless it were threatened. That seemed a clear warning to outside powers, particularly Washington, to steer clear of any attempts to destabilize or attack the regime. Getting a submarine-based deterrent would be a very big deal  and not just because it might allow the North Koreans to move the launch point much closer to the target. Submarines are central to what nuclear weapons states call a second strike capability, the ability to launch missiles even in the aftermath of an overwhelming and perhaps surprise preemptive attack. The United States, Russia, Britain and France all retain what they call a continuous at sea deterrent, at least one submarine offshore at all times ready to fight back even if the homeland and all other military forces are completely taken out. Israel is also believed to have the ability to mount nuclear cruise missiles on its Dolphin-class conventional submarines, while China is now moving quickly towards new ballistic missile submarines for its own at sea deterrent. This technology isnt new  the United States and Russia developed it in the late 1950s based in part on plans originally developed to hit Nazi German U-boats in the dying days of World War Two. There is no good reason it should not eventually work for North Korea, too. If and when it does, Pyongyang is likely to try to keep its submarines very close to its coastsand its home defenses--at first. Still, once the first nuclear-armed submarine exists, Japan and the United States might feel political pressure to destroy it. That would come with considerable risks. The North is known to have huge volumes of conventional artillery based along the South Korean border, much of it in range of Seoul and its 10 million residents. The risk of those weapons inflicting massive casualties is one of the key factors that has deterred multiple U.S. administrations from considering the kind of preemptive strike on Pyongyangs weapons programs that the United States has threatened against Iran. The Korean War  frozen by its 1953 cease-fire but never otherwise resolved  may not be over yet. (Peter Apps is Reuters global affairs columnist, writing about international affairs, globalization, conflict and other issues. He is also founder and executive director of the Project for Study of the 21st Century; PS21; a non-national, non-partisan, non-ideological think tank operating in London, New York and Washington. Before that, he spent 12 years as a reporter for Reuters covering defense, political risk and emerging markets. Since 2016, he has also been an officer in the British Army Reserve. Follow Peter Apps on Twitter.)
The 2016 presidential cycle has not been kind to movement conservatives. Despite having a bounty of options for a potential Republican nominee, the strongest candidates fell out of the race early.

Governors with clear track records of conservative reform, such as Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, never even got close to an electoral contest. Rick Perrys attempt at a comeback suffered a similar fate, in part due to uncertainty over a politicized indictment later dismissed by an appeals court. Jeb Bush had a huge war chest but quickly lost the first battles and withdrew.

Related: Why a Third-Party Run Could Hurt Clinton More Than Trump

The race came down to Donald Trumps populist campaign and two first-term Senators, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, neither of whom could slow down the Trump juggernaut despite attempts late in the cycle to generate some sort of unity behind them.

The rational conclusion from this experience should be recognition among movement conservatives that Republican voters do not place nearly as much value on ideology or policy as once assumed. The collection of conservatives who make up the #NeverTrump movement has instead argued that general-election voters faced with a choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton would yearn for a third option that represents traditional conservative values.

A serious candidate in that mold, they insist, would attract enough voters to disrupt the election and deny either Trump or Clinton an Electoral College win, if not win the White House outright.

Related: Here's Why Establishment Republicans Are Getting Behind Trump

Theoretically speaking, its possible, although one would have to do it without Texas, whose ballot access closed two weeks ago. But what national figure would agree to take on such a campaign, someone whose personality and familiarity could command millions to think outside the two-party box and strike a blow for serious conservatives?

David French!  David French?

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At a time when conservatism faces a crisis of engagement, the French proposal cements the conclusion that the movement has completely lost touch with voters  and, quite possibly, reality.

In the wake of this reveal, plenty of people poked fun at French, as well as at Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol for anointing French as the latest #NeverTrump savior. Thats unfair to both men. French is hardly an unknown in conservative circles, both as a writer at National Review and as someone involved in Republican campaigns. Both men have served the movement with distinction and honor, and French has also done the same in the U.S. military. Most people may not know that.

And  thats precisely the problem. At a time when intellectual movement conservatism faces a crisis of engagement, the French proposal all but cements the conclusion that the movement has completely lost touch with voters  and, quite possibly, reality.

French is a well-known writer and activist within the intellectual core of the conservative movement, but nearly unknown outside of those circles. Those circles had no impact in the primary cycle of the Republican Party, where their influence would presumably reach its apex. Offering French as a man whose force of influence could offer a major recalculation of the general election might seem to some within those circles as an act of conscience and principle.

Related: Trumps 'University' Offered Master Classes in Manipulation

To the rest of America, though, it reeks of denial, and also desperation. Mitt Romney, a former candidate with considerable personal resources and residual voter loyalty from four years ago, favors the idea of an independent conservative candidate  but refuses to accept that mantle himself. The #NeverTrump activists have approached others publicly, such as Senator Ben Sasse and retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, only to be rebuffed.

It reduces conservatism to a stunt, a gimmick, and one that could do more damage than all of the good Kristol and French authentically hope to accomplish.

Gone is the pretense of finding proven political leadership or the resources needed for a serious independent bid. In its place is the urge to find anyone willing to run, even if its impossible to have any impact at all. It reduces conservatism to a stunt, a gimmick, and one that could do more damage than all of the good Kristol and French authentically hope to accomplish.

While the movements leaders have legitimate concerns about what the rise of populism means within the GOP and for this country, Republican voters by and large arent fretting over it. Polls over the past few weeks show GOP voters coalescing behind the nominee at a normal pace  and faster than they did in 1980 behind Reagan. The fight over the soul of the GOP, at least in terms of its presidential nomination, is over for them. And these are the very voters on which the French bid would have to rely for enough support to matter.

Related: Heres a Good Reason to Worry About Trumps Economic Policies

If movement conservatives want to restore their influence, both within and outside of the Republican Party, they need to engage voters in their communities and on the ground. Those activists need to make conservative policies and principles relevant in the lives of voters, not through sound bites about values but through actual solutions to issues in their communities based on those values. That will make conservatism relevant, and its success will give voters a guidepost in national elections.

Some groups on the right, most notably the free-market group Americans for Prosperity, have already begun that kind of granular engagement, but most have not taken that approach. The results speak for themselves in the 2016 Republican primary. Voters didnt have much emotional connection to movement conservatism, but had plenty of emotional connection to populism, borne of frustration from being ignored over the last several years. That is their reality, and their response to it is entirely rational, even if many dislike that choice, and some choose denial even at this late stage over the fact that the choices are set.

Denying reality doesnt make conservatism relevant. It relegates it to fantasy. At the very moment when conservatives need to comprehend how marginalized they have become, even among the voters best positioned for sympathy with their positions, they are instead constructing ever more elaborate ways to engage in that denial.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Ned Parker ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - For at least a decade, Iraqi business mogul Khamis Khanjar has bankrolled Sunni politicians and fighters alike. Now, he wants to use his multi-million dollar fortune to create an autonomous region for Iraq's Sunnis. Khanjar's emergence from backroom deal-maker to would-be Sunni champion is just one sign of Iraq's continued political drift. Efforts by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to reconcile Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ites have mostly foundered, despite increased U.S. engagement in Iraq. Shi'ite parties and militias are often more focused on their own internal power struggles than brokering a political compromise with Sunnis. Sunni tribes tell security officials and politicians they are at the mercy of both Sunni extremist group Islamic State and Shi'ite militias. Dubai-based Khanjar says he offers an alternative: a federation in which Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds could all run their own parts of the country without formally breaking it up. A Sunni federal region would win billions in investments from Gulf Arab states and Turkey, Khanjar and partners in his alliance said. Last week, Khanjar, a native of the embattled Sunni city of Falluja, announced in a televised address that he was forming a delegation to investigate "extrajudicial killing," the "demolishing and looting of property" and other alleged human rights violations by Shi'ite militia there. "The Iraqi government is granting a political cover to militias and consistently denies the systematic violations of human rights" Khanjar said. The government has consistently denied any involvement by state forces in killings or abductions and said it actively works to arrest criminal gangs behind such actions. Over the past year, the six-foot-tall tycoon, flanked by a gaggle of aides and British private security contractors, has made a series of trips to northern Iraq. He limits himself to Kurdistan, because, he says, his life is in danger from Islamic State and Iranian-backed forces in other parts of the country. He is also paying $65,000 a month to a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House officials to promote his cause in the United States. Iraq's ruling Shi'ite leaders deride him as a destabilizing opportunist. Jabbar al-Abadi, a member of parliament from the Prime Minister's Dawa party, described Khanjar's push for Sunni autonomy as "an invitation to tear Iraq apart." Sunni rivals of Khanjar describe him as a self-promoter and accuse him of putting his desire for power above Iraq's stability. Khanjar's advantage is his checkbook, which has helped bankroll political coalitions, finance tribal uprisings and fuel nationwide protests. Sunni and Shi'ite politicians alike have tried to woo him at one time or another, including some who despise him. Former U.S. diplomats say that Khanjar's sizeable fortune and close ties with Gulf States and Turkey allow him to be a secret and enduring force in Iraq's politics. "Khanjar will play any side so as to gain advantage for himself," one former U.S. official said. "Question is: does he really want to influence his country for the best, or is he just protecting and expanding his business networks? Or is it all just a game for a guy who is a billionaire?" That matters because over the past decade, assassinations by Islamic State and Shi'ite militias, and political infighting have severely winnowed the pool of budding Sunni politicians. Ex-U.S. diplomat Ali Khedery, who worked in Baghdad from 2003 to 2010, said "Khanjar is one of the very few Sunni figures with vision, intellect, and money, who is left standing, although he is far from perfect in a country wracked by violence, sectarianism and corruption." Khanjar's history is controversial. Former Sunni guerrillas in Iraq say he helped fund the anti-U.S. insurgency that began soon after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Later, they say, he backed the 2006 pro-American Sunni tribal uprising that helped destroy Islamic State's original incarnation, Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2010, Khanjar says he helped found one of the two main political lists in Iraq's national elections. Three years later, he helped finance nationwide Sunni protests against Baghdad. Ezzat Shabandar, a Shiite politician, who negotiated with Khanjar during the 2010 Iraqi government formation process, described the tycoon as the man the Shi'ite parties had to talk with earlier this decade. "He had power and wealth," Shabandar said, though cautioned that the emergence of Islamic State meant it would be harder for Khanjar to be an unrivaled "strongman" for Sunnis today. Khanjar's net worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. His assets include manufacturing, banking, financial services and commercial and residential real estate across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. Detractors  from former insurgents to Iraqi intelligence officers  say his family built its fortune by setting up front companies for members of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1990s. They accuse Khanjar of seizing his partners' assets for himself after the 2003 invasion, accusations he denies. Asked his worth, Khanjar laughed and answered: "God has been very good to me." PANDORA'S BOX? Earlier this year, Khanjar flew into Iraqi Kurdistan to inspect some of the 14 schools and three clinics he funds for the one million Sunnis who have settled there after being displaced from their homes across Iraq. Dressed elegantly in a dark suit, he was greeted by dozens of Sunni children in matching blue and white uniforms. The children dutifully recited poems praising him as their rescuer from Iraq's sectarian conflict. Khanjar smiled, folded his hands and addressed them. Iraq's Sunnis must fight both Islamic State terrorists and Iraqi government-backed Shi'ite militias, he said. "We are heading towards a borderless, bloody Sunnistan if there is no immediate action by the Iraqi government to address Sunni rights," he told Reuters later. "Once we cross the threshold, no wise men  myself or any other  can close Pandora's box." Khanjar argues that a federal region modeled on Iraq's nearly independent Kurdish territory will grant Sunnis rights and help them to fight Islamic State. The Iraqi constitution allows the country's provinces to create a federal region. Sunni provinces have attempted to do so twice but were rebuffed by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Abadi, who took over two years ago, has endorsed the principle of greater local governance. But he has been reluctant to address the campaign for a broader Sunni region. To push his case, Khanjar has recruited powerful Sunni political allies, including the former governor of Mosul, Atheel al-Nujaifi, and ex-finance minister Rafaa al-Issawi. U.S. officials viewed Issawi as a leading Sunni moderate before former Prime Minister Maliki issued a controversial arrest warrant against him for terrorism in December 2012. But Khanjar and his allies complain that they have been frozen out by the Obama administration. They say U.S. officials do not believe their complaints that the Iraqi government is failing to reconcile with Sunnis or to address abuses carried out by the Shi'ite militia forces. They say the U.S. government has refused to issue visas for Issawi and Nujaifi to travel to the United States after the two visited Washington last spring and criticized the Iraqi government. U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Stuart Jones, denied that there was a deliberate policy to keep the men out but declined to elaborate on why their visas had been refused. Jones said it was against policy to speak about individual visa cases. "The US embassy has no interest in silencing Iraqi voices in Washington DC or anywhere else," Jones said. "Nor do we have that capacity." U.S. officials declined to speak publicly about Khanjar. Seeking to address the impasse with the United States, Khanjar has deployed his wealth in Washington. In September 2015, he hired the Glover Park Group, a lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House and Democrat campaign officials. This winter, he opened an office in Washington. And his current media point man is the former spokesman of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. "We have great relations with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey," Khanjar said, while emphasizing he was an Iraqi patriot. "We want to leverage these relationships." Nujaifi, the former Mosul governor, says he is focused on securing the support of Turkey for the Sunni federal project. The pair are also building their own paramilitary forces to fight Islamic State. Nujaifi says his force now includes 4,000 men from Nineveh province who have been trained by Turkey. Khanjar says he has funded 2,400 men now fighting Islamic State just outside Falluja. He claims to have another 4,000 recruits who are ready for training. Khanjar insists he is trying to save his country for its sake, not his. "Anyone would like to see his country stable and secure," he said. "If it was stable and secure, I would never have thought of going into politics." (Inserts missing words United Arab Emirates in paragraph 36.) (Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Edited by Simon Robinson and David Rohde)
By Ned Parker ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - For at least a decade, Iraqi business mogul Khamis Khanjar has bankrolled Sunni politicians and fighters alike. Now, he wants to use his multi-million dollar fortune to create an autonomous region for Iraq's Sunnis. Khanjar's emergence from backroom deal-maker to would-be Sunni champion is just one sign of Iraq's continued political drift. Efforts by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to reconcile Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ites have mostly foundered, despite increased U.S. engagement in Iraq. Shi'ite parties and militias are often more focused on their own internal power struggles than brokering a political compromise with Sunnis. Sunni tribes tell security officials and politicians they are at the mercy of both Sunni extremist group Islamic State and Shi'ite militias. Dubai-based Khanjar says he offers an alternative: a federation in which Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds could all run their own parts of the country without formally breaking it up. A Sunni federal region would win billions in investments from Gulf Arab states and Turkey, Khanjar and partners in his alliance said. Last week, Khanjar, a native of the embattled Sunni city of Falluja, announced in a televised address that he was forming a delegation to investigate "extrajudicial killing," the "demolishing and looting of property" and other alleged human rights violations by Shi'ite militia there. "The Iraqi government is granting a political cover to militias and consistently denies the systematic violations of human rights" Khanjar said. The government has consistently denied any involvement by state forces in killings or abductions and said it actively works to arrest criminal gangs behind such actions. Over the past year, the six-foot-tall tycoon, flanked by a gaggle of aides and British private security contractors, has made a series of trips to northern Iraq. He limits himself to Kurdistan, because, he says, his life is in danger from Islamic State and Iranian-backed forces in other parts of the country. He is also paying $65,000 a month to a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House officials to promote his cause in the United States. Iraq's ruling Shi'ite leaders deride him as a destabilizing opportunist. Jabbar al-Abadi, a member of parliament from the Prime Minister's Dawa party, described Khanjar's push for Sunni autonomy as "an invitation to tear Iraq apart." Sunni rivals of Khanjar describe him as a self-promoter and accuse him of putting his desire for power above Iraq's stability. Khanjar's advantage is his checkbook, which has helped bankroll political coalitions, finance tribal uprisings and fuel nationwide protests. Sunni and Shi'ite politicians alike have tried to woo him at one time or another, including some who despise him. Former U.S. diplomats say that Khanjar's sizeable fortune and close ties with Gulf States and Turkey allow him to be a secret and enduring force in Iraq's politics. "Khanjar will play any side so as to gain advantage for himself," one former U.S. official said. "Question is: does he really want to influence his country for the best, or is he just protecting and expanding his business networks? Or is it all just a game for a guy who is a billionaire?" That matters because over the past decade, assassinations by Islamic State and Shi'ite militias, and political infighting have severely winnowed the pool of budding Sunni politicians. Ex-U.S. diplomat Ali Khedery, who worked in Baghdad from 2003 to 2010, said "Khanjar is one of the very few Sunni figures with vision, intellect, and money, who is left standing, although he is far from perfect in a country wracked by violence, sectarianism and corruption." Khanjar's history is controversial. Former Sunni guerrillas in Iraq say he helped fund the anti-U.S. insurgency that began soon after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Later, they say, he backed the 2006 pro-American Sunni tribal uprising that helped destroy Islamic State's original incarnation, Al Qaeda in Iraq. In 2010, Khanjar says he helped found one of the two main political lists in Iraq's national elections. Three years later, he helped finance nationwide Sunni protests against Baghdad. Ezzat Shabandar, a Shiite politician, who negotiated with Khanjar during the 2010 Iraqi government formation process, described the tycoon as the man the Shi'ite parties had to talk with earlier this decade. "He had power and wealth," Shabandar said, though cautioned that the emergence of Islamic State meant it would be harder for Khanjar to be an unrivaled "strongman" for Sunnis today. Khanjar's net worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. His assets include manufacturing, banking, financial services and commercial and residential real estate across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa. Detractors  from former insurgents to Iraqi intelligence officers  say his family built its fortune by setting up front companies for members of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1990s. They accuse Khanjar of seizing his partners' assets for himself after the 2003 invasion, accusations he denies. Asked his worth, Khanjar laughed and answered: "God has been very good to me." PANDORA'S BOX? Earlier this year, Khanjar flew into Iraqi Kurdistan to inspect some of the 14 schools and three clinics he funds for the one million Sunnis who have settled there after being displaced from their homes across Iraq. Dressed elegantly in a dark suit, he was greeted by dozens of Sunni children in matching blue and white uniforms. The children dutifully recited poems praising him as their rescuer from Iraq's sectarian conflict. Khanjar smiled, folded his hands and addressed them. Iraq's Sunnis must fight both Islamic State terrorists and Iraqi government-backed Shi'ite militias, he said. "We are heading towards a borderless, bloody Sunnistan if there is no immediate action by the Iraqi government to address Sunni rights," he told Reuters later. "Once we cross the threshold, no wise men  myself or any other  can close Pandora's box." Khanjar argues that a federal region modeled on Iraq's nearly independent Kurdish territory will grant Sunnis rights and help them to fight Islamic State. The Iraqi constitution allows the country's provinces to create a federal region. Sunni provinces have attempted to do so twice but were rebuffed by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Abadi, who took over two years ago, has endorsed the principle of greater local governance. But he has been reluctant to address the campaign for a broader Sunni region. To push his case, Khanjar has recruited powerful Sunni political allies, including the former governor of Mosul, Atheel al-Nujaifi, and ex-finance minister Rafaa al-Issawi. U.S. officials viewed Issawi as a leading Sunni moderate before former Prime Minister Maliki issued a controversial arrest warrant against him for terrorism in December 2012. But Khanjar and his allies complain that they have been frozen out by the Obama administration. They say U.S. officials do not believe their complaints that the Iraqi government is failing to reconcile with Sunnis or to address abuses carried out by the Shi'ite militia forces. They say the U.S. government has refused to issue visas for Issawi and Nujaifi to travel to the United States after the two visited Washington last spring and criticized the Iraqi government. U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Stuart Jones, denied that there was a deliberate policy to keep the men out but declined to elaborate on why their visas had been refused. Jones said it was against policy to speak about individual visa cases. "The US embassy has no interest in silencing Iraqi voices in Washington DC or anywhere else," Jones said. "Nor do we have that capacity." U.S. officials declined to speak publicly about Khanjar. Seeking to address the impasse with the United States, Khanjar has deployed his wealth in Washington. In September 2015, he hired the Glover Park Group, a lobbying firm run by former Clinton White House and Democrat campaign officials. This winter, he opened an office in Washington. And his current media point man is the former spokesman of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. "We have great relations with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Turkey," Khanjar said, while emphasizing he was an Iraqi patriot. "We want to leverage these relationships." Nujaifi, the former Mosul governor, says he is focused on securing the support of Turkey for the Sunni federal project. The pair are also building their own paramilitary forces to fight Islamic State. Nujaifi says his force now includes 4,000 men from Nineveh province who have been trained by Turkey. Khanjar says he has funded 2,400 men now fighting Islamic State just outside Falluja. He claims to have another 4,000 recruits who are ready for training. Khanjar insists he is trying to save his country for its sake, not his. "Anyone would like to see his country stable and secure," he said. "If it was stable and secure, I would never have thought of going into politics." (Additional reporting by Stephen Kalin and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Edited by Simon Robinson and David Rohde)
When long-time sideline reporter Craig Sager announced earlier this spring that his leukemia had returned and that the prognosis was grim, the outpouring of support was immense and inspirational. Even more inspirational is just how actively engaged hes been in both his job and other ventures as he refuses to let his deteriorating health slow him down one bit. On Wednesday, Sager got invited to Wrigley Field in Chicago to throw out the first pitch and sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game to celebrate Conquer Cancer Day. Heres hoping Sager will be around to keep inspiring us for a very long time.

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By Freya Berry

LONDON (Reuters) - Credit Suisse has told its staff to leave work by 7pm on a Friday and not return until at least Saturday lunchtime, unless a big deal is in the works.

Dubbed "Protecting Friday Night", the Swiss bank's initiative is part of a wider drive by investment banks to soften their workaholic image and stop talented staff leaving for jobs in other areas such as technology or private equity.

In an email dated May 23, Credit Suisse told its staff in the EMEA investment banking and capital markets department that they should leave the office by 7pm on a Friday and not return until at least midday on Saturday -- unless a major deal is launching or imminent, bank insiders told Reuters.

Such instructions may seem outlandish to people working in other industries, where leaving work on a Friday and having a drink with friends or a family meal is still the norm.

But for bankers, particularly juniors, who frequently find themselves working into the small hours on Fridays and at weekends, the diktat may bring some relief.

"We have given a great deal of thought into how we can provide some time off for our bankers," said Marisa Drew, co-head of EMEA Investment Banking and Capital Markets Division said, adding that Credit Suisse had sought feedback, in particular from junior staff, on weekends and work-life balance.

"(This allows)...employees to make firm plans with family and friends and ensures that this time will be respected."

Credit Suisse is not alone in trying to improve the lot of its employees, with the focus shifting from pay and bonuses.

Staff at UBS can now take at least two hours of "personal time" a week, as the bank tries to retain staff by offering a better work-life balance, while JPMorgan told its investment bank staff they should take weekends off, unless they were working on a major deal.

"It means you can at least make plans one night of the week," a person at Credit Suisse said of the move.

Credit Suisse has also launched a fast-track program for top-performing investment banking juniors, in an effort to attract and retain employees.

(Editing by Adrian Croft and Alexander Smith)
By Jake Spring

BEIJING (Reuters) - In China's booming sport utility vehicle (SUV) market, many automakers are selling cars without electronic stability control (ESC) as a standard feature, potentially putting lives at risk from rollover accidents.

SUV sales topped 6 million in China last year, a jump of more than 50 percent in an overall market that grew less than 5 percent, as drivers sought more room for their money. As China's economy weakens, price-conscious drivers have shifted from foreign brands to cheaper domestic SUVs.

To make the sale, many automakers and dealers only offer ESC as an extra, more expensive, option.

SUVs have a higher centre of gravity putting them more at risk of rolling over. ESC counteracts that, quickly reorienting a skidding vehicle to stop it from rolling. A study published by Annals of Advances in Automotive Medicine found vehicles with ESC are two-thirds less likely to flip.

There is no legal requirement in China for ESC, and German parts maker Bosch [ROBG.UL] says 43 percent of SUVs do not come equipped with this technology.

Industry experts note that China, the world's biggest autos market, similarly doesn't legally require anti-lock brakes, and other developing markets including India and Mexico do not require air bags.

In 2007, following a series of SUV rollovers, the United States ordered ESC to be compulsory in all passenger vehicles. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) estimated the change saved more than 2,200 lives over a three year period.

"ESC saves lives," said Chris Harrison, head of China R&D at Continental AG (CONG.DE), another German car parts and technology firm.

China's Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, generally responsible for regulating the autos industry, did not respond to faxed questions about whether there are plans to make ESC compulsory.

TOP-10

Among the 10 best-selling SUVs in China last year, seven did not have ESC as a standard feature. Those included cars made by Great Wall Motor , Chongqing Changan Automobile , Anhui Jianghuai Automobile (JAC) and Chery Automobile [CHERY.UL], according to company representatives and officially published specifications.

Story continues

The three foreign models in the top-10 are universally equipped with the safety feature, but some cheaper foreign SUVs also do not have ESC as standard in China.

BYD Co Ltd (1211.HK), Guangzhou Automobile Group (2238.HK) and Geely said some of their models do not have stability control as standard, but it is often available on higher cost packages.

Most of the automakers said their SUVs complied with regulations and reflected consumer demand.

A spokesman for Chery said that with this year's model all its Tiggo SUVs come with ESC. JAC and Guangzhou Auto said sales of SUVs without ESC are very low and were part of a pricing strategy to attract customers. Geely said the majority of its third-generation vehicles have ESC. Great Wall, Changan and BYD declined to comment.

CRASH DATA

It's hard to gauge whether the lack of ESC in so many SUVs sold in China has contributed to more fatalities.

In the United States, detailed information on every fatal road crash is made publicly available, but in China, crash records and data are often considered state secrets. The World Health Organization estimates China's overall traffic fatalities could be four times the official figure.

The Ministry of Public Security records only fatal rollover crashes on highways and does not break those down for sedans and SUVs. Its latest available data logged 630 rollovers and 403 deaths on Chinese highways in 2014.

In one instance in 2012, a Sante Fe SUV made by Hawtai Motor skidded on a highway at 110 kms per hour (68 mph), crashed through the barrier and rolled three times, killing a passenger and injuring two others, according to documents provided by a car industry researcher. The vehicle did not have stability control fitted.

Last year, a Sportage SUV made by South Korea's Kia Motors and not equipped with ESC skidded and flipped over at 60 kph (37 mph) in snowy conditions, killing one occupant.

Both Hawtai and Kia said their cars comply with all legal requirements and some of their SUV models do have ESC. Hawtai acknowledged that cars without ESC are less safe, but even those with the safety feature are "not 100 percent safe" because of road conditions and driver habits.

CALCULATED RISK?

BAIC Motor Corp's (1985.HK) Huansu SUVs, among China's 2015 top-10, did not offer ESC before last November, according to BAIC dealers and specifications on the automaker's website.

BAIC sold 181,100 Huansu SUVs last year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, with a starting price of just 51,800 yuan ($7,873). In November, BAIC launched its Huansu S6, with ESC optional on cheaper packages, but standard on all but one priced above 96,800 yuan.

Buyers appear either unaware of the risks or of the option to pay more for the safety feature.

"You must give up something if you want a car at that price, so I sacrifice ESC," said Xu Zhou, a Huansu S3 driver in China's southern Hunan province. "If a car has ESC, that's great, but if not, you have to be more careful when you drive."

Another Huansu owner told Reuters he didn't know about ESC when he bought the car, and would buy an SUV with stabilisation technology next time.

A spokeswoman for BAIC Huansu said ESC could be offered in the S2 and S3 SUV models at their next redesign as "this option is more and more important."

With China's SUV market now so competitive, automakers may look to emphasise safety features such as ESC as a way to differentiate, said Chen Liming, a Bosch regional president overseeing the China electronic stability programme.

"People are willing to buy safety products," Chen said.

(Reporting by Jake Spring and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Norihiko Shirouzu and Ian Geoghegan)
And here are 8 travel deals you dont want to miss.

Singapore's residential rents are falling at a precipitous rate - and the reason could be a sea-change in the make-up of the city-state's expat workers. The drops in Singapore's residential rents has - mistakenly - being attributed to the government turning off the spigot of foreign workers flowing into the country. In fact, the number of foreign workers continues to rise, with the figure, excluding domestic helpers, up more than 22,000 last year, according to data from the Ministry of Manpower. Read more here.

Frasers Hospitality is poised to achieve its global target of operating 30,000 hotel rooms and serviced residences thanks to the anticipated opening of 48 properties across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2019. Reaching the 30,000 unit growth mark in the next three years not only increases our portfolio by 30 percent, but further anchors the groups presence in dominant cities worldwide, said its CEO Choe Peng Sum. Find out more here.

The Great Singapore Sale 2016 is just around the corner starting on 3 June till 14 August, and if youre constantly on the lookout for cheap travel deals, then this article is absolutely made for you. It pays to have a credit card, and when its used right, youll realise that saving money with a credit card is not that difficult after all. Read more here.











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The James Bond actor has been signed up for a leading role in "Purity," a miniseries based on Jonathan Franzen's latest novel. Could this TV project be a means for the British actor turn the page on his role as 007?

After bagging the rights to the latest Jonathan Franzen novel, "Purity," published in September 2015, Showtime is adapting the book into a 20-part TV series, set to air over two years. The plot revolves around Pip, a young journalist who has never known her father's identity, who meets Andreas, a German who admits to killing a man in the past.

Daniel Craig is due to play Andreas, a charismatic former East German dissident who runs a website similar to WikiLeaks based in Bolivia. The small-screen version of this romance-spiked thriller is to be written and directed by Todd Field ("Little Children," "In the Bedroom"), under the supervision of Jonathan Franzen and producer, Scott Rudin ("Steve Jobs," "The Social Network").

Turning the page on James Bond?

Daniel Craig has made no secret of the fact that he's keen to step away from his role as 007. While promoting "Spectre," back in the fall, the actor made his feelings clear to the media, going as far as to say that he would "rather slash his wrists" than play Bond again.

The last few months have seen heightened speculation over a new actor stepping in for the next Bond film, as moviegoers start to move on from the idea of Daniel Craig returning. Several names have been cited (Tom Hiddleston, Damian Lewis, Idris Elba, etc.), but it's the young actor, Jamie Bell, who famously played "Billy Elliot," who could have caught the eye of producer, Barbara Broccoli.

However, Daniel Craig originally signed up to do five James Bond films, and so technically owes Sony one last outing as the secret agent. It's as yet unclear whether the British actor will honor his contract with a follow-up for "Casino Royale," "Quantum of Solace," "Skyfall" and "Spectre." His role in the Showtime project could also cause scheduling issues, as "Purity" is expected to start filming in 2017, which could coincide with the next Bond flick.
Daniel Radcliffe joined Matt Lauer on Thursdays Today to discuss his two upcoming films: Swiss Army Man and Now You See Me 2.

In Swiss Army Man, due out June 24, Radcliffe plays a dead guy who talks a little and passes gas a lot. Radcliffes flatulence apparently plays a major role in the film. Of playing a dead guy, Radcliffe said that its harder than you think and described the movie as a gross, funny, buddy comedy. He also said that he does a lot more than just lie there.

In Now You See Me 2, due out June 10, Radcliffe is part of an ensemble cast that includes Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo. In the film, he plays a wealthy tech prodigy who threatens to kill the illusionists, otherwise known as the Four Horsemen, if they dont steal a valuable computer chip for him.

Of playing the villain, Radcliffe said: Theres a rich tradition of Brits being bad guys. Ive always wanted to do that. He also said that he is not sure if it is something hell do all the time, but the chance to work with such a great cast was too good to pass up.

WATCH: Daniel Radcliffe gets soaking wet on the Tonight show:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Khail Anonymous, on Twitter.
On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act, which marked the end of a long debate and struggle, at a federal level, over full birthright citizenship for American Indians.

coolidgeIndianAct

The act read that all noncitizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States: Provided that the granting of such citizenship shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of any Indian to tribal or other property.

Link: Read The Act

American Indians had occupied a unique place since the drafting of the Constitution in citizenship matters. Originally, the Constitutions Article I said that Indians not taxed couldnt be counted in the voting population of states (while slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person).

American Indians were also part of the Dred Scott decision in 1857, but in a much different way. Chief Justice Roger Taney argued that American Indians, unlike enslaved blacks, could become citizens, under congressional and legal supervision.

The 14th Amendments ratification in July 1868 made all persons born or naturalized in the United States citizens, with equal protection and due process under the law. But for American Indians, interpretations of the amendment immediately excluded most of them from citizenship.

There was enough confusion after the 14th Amendment was ratified about American Indian citizenship that in 1870, when the Senate Judiciary committee was asked to clarify the issue.

The committee said it was clear, to it, that the 14th amendment to the Constitution has no effect whatever upon the status of the Indian tribes within the limits of the United States, but that straggling Indians were subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

At the time, U.S. Census figures showed that just 8 percent of American Indians were classified as taxed and eligible to become citizens. The estimated American Indian population in the 1870 census was larger the population of five states and 10 territorieswith 92 percent of those American Indians ineligible to be citizens.

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The Dawes Act in 1887 gave American citizenship to all Native Americans who accepted individual land grants under the provisions of statutes and treaties, and it marked another period where the government aggressively sought to allow other parties to acquire American Indian lands.

Another Supreme Court case in 1886 ensured that the federal government has full power and control of all lands inhabited by American Indians. And a separate act eliminated the definition of Indians not taxed for legal purposes.

The issue of American Indian birthright citizenship wouldnt be settled until 1924, when Indian Citizenship Act conferred citizenship on all American Indians. At the time, 125,000 of an estimated population on 300,000 American Indians werent citizens.

The Indian Citizenship Act still didnt offer full protection of voting rights to Indians. As late as 1948, two states (Arizona and New Mexico) had laws that barred many American Indians from voting, and American Indians faced some of the same barriers as blacks, until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, including Jim Crow-like tactics and poll taxes.

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Dead & Co. are the latest musicians to speak out against North Carolina's controversial anti-LGBT law, but the band announced Thursday (June 2) that they will still perform their June 10 show in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Instead of canceling the concert in protest, the group -- made up of Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, along with John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti -- plans to donate $100,000 to the Human Rights Campaign and Equality North Carolina. They will also host organizations fighting discrimination so concertgoers can learn more about the law and its impact.

Demi Lovato, Dave Matthews & Maroon 5 Lead Growing List of Artists Speaking Out on NC Bathroom Bill

Mumford & Sons and Cyndi Lauper also went this route, choosing to keep their North Carolina dates but offering donations and education as well.

Read Dead & Co.'s full statement below:

This March, when North Carolina lawmakers passed HB2 and Governor Pat McCrory signed it into law, we categorically objected to it. We had hoped that by now this abhorrent law would have been repealed. Sadly, it has not.

After much thought, consideration and conversation, we feel the most effective way to move forward is to perform as scheduled in Charlotte, North Carolina on June 10 and to donate $100,000.00 to organizations engaged in this battle for justice - the Human Rights Campaign and Equality North Carolina.

Additionally, we will assemble a "Participation Row" social action area, where we'll host local organizations fighting discrimination and national organizations dedicated to voter registration and protecting the planet. Every fan in attendance will have an opportunity to learn about the true ramifications of the HB2 law, and take meaningful action by registering to vote; to that end we are working on an online community registration site that will assist the HeadCount organization in promoting and simplifying voter registration.

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Dead shows have always been a safe place for all of our audience to come together through music no matter how they appear or self-identify. History shows these values of openness and inclusiveness have served us - and the world around us - well.

We've never been a band that's spoken many words when we're on stage. But we hope that our actions, and the actions of our fans, will ring louder than ever before.

With Love and Respect,

Dead & Company
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber detonated explosives near a mosque in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on Thursday, killing and wounding several people, a monitoring group and state media reported. The explosion took place near the city center as people were leaving prayers, state TV reported, describing it as a terrorist attack. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict using sources on the ground, confirmed the blast took place in a northern area of Latakia. The Observatory said the blast killed at least three people. State media reported at least one dead and several wounded. State-run Ikhbariya news channel showed patches of blood on the ground and rescue workers and security personnel carrying wounded people toward ambulances. Bomb attacks have previously hit Latakia city, which is in President Bashar al-Assad's heartland along the Mediterranean coast. Shells fired by insurgents later on Thursday hit Assad's ancestral town of Qardaha, further inland in Latakia province, killing at least one person, the Observatory said. Last week a series of bombings killed nearly 150 people in Jableh, just south of Latakia, and Tartous, the first such attacks of their kind in those cities. Islamic State claimed last week's attacks, saying they targeted Assad's Alawite minority, and other attacks in the Syrian capital Damascus and western city Homs earlier this year. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
blood-orange-freetown-sound-album-cover

Image via Dev Hynes on Twitter

Not too long ago, Dev Hynes announced that he had a new Blood Orange album on the way. Describing the album, Freetown Sound, as his version of Beastie Boys Pauls Boutique, he said, It kind of plays like a long mixtape. The album, which Dev said is his most relatable thing hes ever done, is now approaching its release, with Dev promising that its coming soon.

Taking to Twitter to remind everyone that hes putting out a new record this year, he shared the cover art for the upcoming album. My 3rd album FREETOWN SOUND coming soon, he explained, sharing the Deana Lawson-shot cover. Dev previously shared a collaboration with Nelly Furtado earlier this year, and also previewed a number of tracks from Freetown Sound during a two huge shows at Apollo Theater in Harlem.

No further details on what to expect from the album just year, but if its anywhere near as good as the series of singles he shared last year, then Freetown Sound is certainly one album to be excited about. Freetown Sound will be Devs first full-length as Blood Orange since 2013s Cupid Deluxe.

Expect to hear more about Freetown Sound soon, and check out the incredible cover for the album above.

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It was a lovely winter morning with a clear sky overhead. At 11:10 a.m., the earth shuddered violently. So reads an officials account of an otherwise unremarkable day in 1944. But what was very remarkable was the source of the shuddering: an explosion so fierce it left a crater 80 feet deep and a quarter mile wide.

The blast of an estimated 3,500 tons of high explosives took out a nearby water reservoir, swallowed a farm and some buildings and killed scores  with seismographs picking up the shock waves as far away as Rome and Casablanca. Just another day of war in Dresden or Cologne? No. To the shock of the Staffordshire countryside, Britain had just endured what the Ministry of Defense tells OZY was the worlds biggest man-made explosion before the nuclear age, and one with almost half the force of the following years atomic bomb in Hiroshima.

It was indescribable. It was hell. An unnamed survivor

Near the village of Hanbury, in the West Midlands, bombs were stored during wartime at Royal Air Force Fauld, a former gypsum mine where it was hoped theyd be safe from German bombing raids. But thousands of tons of highly explosive material being moved around by men in a confined space carried its own risks, as villagers learned the hard way on Nov. 27, 1944. Seventy people were killed, including those buried at the mine and, according to Karen Evans in The Grim Almanac of Staffordshire, workers at a nearby plaster mill who died when a damaged reservoir caused local flooding. It was indescribable, one unnamed survivor told the Telegraph at the time. It was hell. The man next to me was killed, and then the water came.

The dead included military personnel, civilians and Italian prisoners of war. Headlines pointed out that death tolls were fuzzy for weeks, since no one knew precisely how many people were in the area at the time. Civilians in Ruined Area Disappear Without a Trace read one, and the MOD admits that 18 bodies were never recovered. Every home in the village was damaged, and hundreds of farm animals perished.

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A community grieved, but was drowned out by the final throes of war on the European front. The fact that there were no surviving witnesses to the first massive detonation fed speculation of sabotage. Were the Italians on-site looking for revenge? One survivors son even posited that an enemy bombing destroyed the site. But most agreed with the MOD that the blast was caused by an accidental ignition of explosives. Based on circumstantial evidence, says Alan Thomas of the RAFs Air Historical Branch, the most likely cause was the misuse of a brass chisel to remove the fuse from a live returned weapon. This could have generated sparks that ignited the bomb filling  with the initial detonation setting off subsequent blasts in a deadly domino effect.

Personnel at the depot were potentially undertrained, underequipped and undersupervised, Thomas explains. Safety procedures of some sort would have been in place, of course, but they were minimal. This, combined with the likely complacency of handling bomb materials routinely, elevated the risk. On the day of the explosion, Thomas says there were unused weapons that had just been returned to the site  possibly still armed  and left with a unit that wasnt prepared to disarm them, close to other weapons. Exactly what happened that day will forever remain buried, along with the 18 unrecovered bodies.

Bomb materials were subsequently removed from the accessible parts of the site, but many explosives still lay deep underground in the precarious mine  deemed too expensive to remove by the British government. Ground-level operations continued at the site until 1966, and between 1967 and 1973, the U.S. Army used RAF Fauld for ordnance storage. The local council tried to get MOD permission to fill the crater with household waste and turn the giant hole into a refuse dump, but loved ones of victims whose bodies were never recovered objected, and permission was denied. In the late 1970s, the area was fenced off, and nature was left to take its course.

The blast may have constituted a mere fraction of what was being dropped nightly over the cities of Germany, and it paled in comparison to the nuclear devastation of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. But it permanently scarred the Staffordshire countryside and exposed critical fissures in British munitions policy, storage and training  prompting urgently needed changes that came too late for too many.

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Jean Liu, president of Chinese on-demand transportation giant Didi Chuxing, said on Wednesday that the company is currently raising money.

A lot of money. More money, in fact, than the $3.5 billion its American ride-hailing rival Uber raised from Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund in its latest (more than $5 billion) round, announced earlier today.

"After this we'll be one of the best capitalized private companies, she told an audience of technologists at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. Liu appeared onstage with Anthony Tan, CEO of Grab, the top ride-hailing service in Southeast Asia.

Its a remarkable admission for a company that in May raised $1 billion from Apple , the American tech giant long rumored to be working on a vehicle.

"Our industry is in a very early stage, she said. So the more capital that goes into it, the faster it grows." Didi had already raised $5 billion before its current round.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune's technology newsletter.

With Apple clearly in mind, Liu said Didi was searching for the most strategic, value-adding partner. "There's huge room to grow, she said. But you can't just grow yourself. You need a lot of strategic help."

Nonetheless, the company--which in a past life appeared on Fortunes Unicorn List twice, as Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, which later merged--is focused on its expansion. Today, Didi Chuxing serves 14 million rides per day, or five times that of the entire U.S. ride-hailing market, across 400 cities. But thats still only 1% market penetration in highly populous China, Liu said. And only 200 of those cities are profitable because Didi subsidizes some rides in markets where users do not yet understand it.

"If you want to win the market, it's really to win the heart of the user, she said. That's what we're focused on."

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Correction, June 1, 2016: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the size of Ubers Series G fundraising round. It raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund in a round totaling more than $5 billion. We regret the error.

See original article on Fortune.com

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Digital Realty Trust Inc. DLR, the San Francisco, CA-based office real estate investment trust (REIT) has announced the opening of the new Digital Loyang Way date center in Singapore. The inception of the next generation data center reflects the commitment of the REIT to support the Smart Nation initiative of Singapore. Notably, through this initiative, Singapore aims to become a smarter and more energy-efficient nation by developing sustainable data centers to support digital economy in the future.



The Digital Loyang Way data centre, covering an area of 177,000 square feet with the capacity to support IT load of 13.2 megawatts is devised to accommodate wide-ranging customer deployments. Further, the eco-friendly design and practices of the new facility enhances the sustainability bar for Singapore data centers.



The new facility will be linked to the REITs Jurong data centre on the west side of the country via fibre services. Situated on the east side of the country, Digital Loyang Way will provide east-to-west and central-to-east connectivity, thereby improving digital reach in the country.



Digital Realty is engaged in owning, acquiring, repositioning and managing technology-related real estate. Its properties comprise of applications and operations which are essential for the smooth operations of technology tenants.



Digital Realty presently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).



Some better-ranked stocks in the REIT space include Brookfield Canada Office Properties BOXC, W. P. Carey Inc. WPC and Summit Hotel Properties, Inc. INN. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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ProFootball Talk on NBC Sports

Sam Ehlinger officially becomes the starting quarterback of the Colts. If he fails or gets injured, Nick Foles will take over. And if Foles gets injured, the quarterback will be anyone but Matt Ryan. Ryan is done. Hes out. He wont play again, for reasons rooted in his contract. Put simply, once the team decided [more]
Samsung's new flagship location in Manhattan, dubbed Samsung 837, has only been open for slightly more than three months, and the company just announced its first-ever concert series called Live @ 837 at the new location, kicking off with a performance from Diplo that will include an appearance from Gwen Stefani on Thursday night (June 2).

Samsung Launches a New Flagship Store in Manhattan Where Nothing is For Sale

The Diplo show is the first in the free series scheduled to take place each Thursday at Samsung 837's Meatpacking District location. Tegan & Sara, Phantogram and St. Lucia are also on the schedule in the following weeks, with more performances slated to be announced throughout the summer. Fans can register to attend here.

Samsung 837 will also host performances this weekend as part of Governors Ball's After Dark concert series. On Friday night, the venue will have DJ sets from Brendan Falls and Jamie xx; on Saturday night, Mel Debarge will DJ before Haim hits the stage for a DJ set of their own. The flagship location is also where fans can "unlock" live-streamed performances and rewards from artists on the Gov Ball lineup.

The summer concert series is also part of Samsung's "Galaxy of Possibilities" product rollout this summer, which starts with the unveiling of two "fitness wearables" on Thursday: the Gear Fit2 (a fitness band to monitor workouts, among other functionalities) and the Gear IconX (wireless earbuds with a built-in music player that can track heart rate, distance, speed and more). More events and series, including lifestyle-based and food-centric ones, can be found at the Samsung 837 website.
Discovery Communications has inked a deal to acquire a 27.5% stake in Bethia Comunicaciones, the owner of Chiles Mega TV, one of Latin Americas highest-flying broadcast networks.

The operation, expected to close in the next few days, would have a price of $40 million, per Chilean press reports, which would set Megas total value around $145 million.

Chiles most watched TV channel for the last 23 months in a row, Mega has captured 30% of Chilean free-to-air TV advertising investment.

The signing of this deal crowns the work we have been doing the last few years to promote Megas internationalization, Carlos Heller, Bethia Group prexy, said in a statement.

Bethia, a powerful Chilean holding with interests in sectors such as agriculture, transports and wine, acquired Mega in 2012 from Claro Group, at a moment when the network was immersed in one of its deepest crises since its 1990 launch.

From 2013, under CEO Patricio Hernandez, the channel boosted its bet on international fiction, successfully programming in primetime Turkish telenovelas such as One Thousand and One Nights and What is Fatmaguls fault?

Over the same period, Mega advanced in its creation of a TV fiction content factory, with standout results such as 2014s TV series Pituca sin Lucas (Fancy Girl Without Money), which snagged the best audience performance for any drama in Chile in the last decade.

Fiction has now become the pillar of Megas international market plans, channeled through a long-term distribution deal inked in 2015 with NBCUs Telemundo Internacional.

The plan to become a producer of internationally relevant content is maintained and strengthened with this alliance, Heller added.

Discovery is a global company that is constantly evaluating opportunities to expand its presence around the world, particularly in Latin America, where TV consumption continues to grow, said Enrique R. Martinez, prexy and general director of Discovery Networks Latin America, U.S. Hispanic and Canada.

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Chile is an important territory in Latin America, in which we are proud to increase our presence through this opportunity to collaborate with Mega TVs great team, Martinez added.

With its buy into Bethia Comunicaciones shareholding, Discovery becomes the second international TV company currently operating in Chiles free-to-air TV market after Turner Broadcasting System, owner of the Chilevision network since 2010.

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Discovery Networks International and Discovery U.S. are teaming with UK-based production company betty on a six-part series chronicling search and rescue units atop the worlds highest mountain. Everest Rescue will be broadcast later this year on DNIs factual networks across 220 countries, including the U.S. Liz Brach is exec producer for DNI, David Harrison is exec producing for betty.

In 2015, a devastating earthquake in Nepal claimed thousands of lives and triggered an avalanche that killed 22 on Everest. Climbers have since returned to attempt the summit. Still, the fate of even the most experienced climbers and Sherpas rests in the hands of the worlds most elite band of helicopter pilots, along with medical units who respond to an overwhelming amount of emergencies. The Everest Rescue production team was on the ground a year after the earthquake, capturing never-before-seen footage.

Everest continues to fascinate. Discovery itself was on the mountain in 2014, on the single deadliest day in the peaks history after an avalanche struck the Khumbu Icefall above Base Camp. Discovery was preparing to film Everest Jump Live which would have seen climber Joby Ogwyn attempt to make the first wing-suit flight off the summit. That later turned into a documentary about the rescue and recovery efforts.

Also, last year, Baltasar Kormakurs feature Everest, based on the true story of a 1996 hiking expedition that turned tragic, opened the Venice Film Festival and grossed over $200M worldwide.

In other Discovery news, Shark Week is expanding to more than 220 countries and territories this year. For the first time ever, it will launch on the same day on Discovery Channel and Discovery en Espanol in the U.S., as well as in Canada, the UK and Argentina on June 26. The global rollout will continue from July. Depending on their locations, viewers will be able to dive into Shark Week, Shark Weekend, Shark Month or Shark Season.

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Discovery is also partnering with nonprofit org Oceana to draw attention to the plight of sharks and the rising threats they face around the world.

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Paris (AFP) - Novak Djokovic faces young gun Dominic Thiem in the French Open semi-finals Friday while Andy Murray tackles defending champion Stan Wawrinka looking to become the first British man in the final for 79 years.

World number one Djokovic, a three-time runner-up, is still seeking a maiden Roland Garros crown to secure a career Grand Slam.

The 29-year-old top seed, who already holds the Wimbledon, US and Australian Open titles, will start as overwhelming favourite.

He has defeated Thiem in straight sets in their only two career meetings.

Djokovic will be playing in his 30th Grand Slam semi-final and eighth in Paris.

Austrian 13th seed Thiem is into his first at the majors as he finally realises the potential which was spotted during his days when he used to lift tree-trunks to beef up his physique.

"I'm sure he's very motivated to show himself and others that he deserves to be at the top and compete for the biggest titles," said Djokovic.

"He plays with a lot of speed, with a lot of power. I'm sure he's going to give it all in semis. But I have something to fight for, as well."

Thiem is one of a generation of players long-tipped to succeed the likes of Djokovic, Murray, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic won the first of his 11 majors at Australia in 2008 as a 20-year-old. Thiem, 22, has yet to make the breakthrough to a final at the Slams.

But he is one of the in-form players in 2016 with his 41 match wins second only to Djokovic's 42.

He also has a season-best 25 wins on clay, a run which included a victory over Federer in Rome and the title in Nice.

"It's going to be unbelievably tough against Novak," said Thiem.

"He's on a different level than all the other players, but still I'm in good shape and the match starts at 0-0."

Murray also has history on his mind as he aims to be the first British man since Bunny Austin in 1937 to reach the final.

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- Weight of expectations -

The world number two is in the habit of shrugging off the weight of expectations with his 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon triumphs.

"I think at this stage of my career to do things that I have never done before is nice," said three-time semi-finalist Murray who is two matches away from becoming the first British man to win in Paris since Fred Perry in 1935.

Murray's Paris campaign was almost scuppered at the first hurdle when he had to fight back from two sets down to defeat 37-year-old Radek Stepanek.

He then needed another five sets to beat French wildcard Mathias Bourgue, the world 164.

Since then, Murray has been relatively untroubled, seeing off big-servers Ivo Karlovic and John Isner in straight sets before defeating home hope Richard Gasquet from a set down.

He has even seen the torrential rain act in his favour.

Having played his last-16 match against Isner on Sunday, he didn't return to the courts until Wednesday to face Gasquet before enjoying a free Thursday.

In comparison, Djokovic played his last-16 round over two days on Tuesday and Wednesday and beat Tomas Berdych in his delayed quarter-final on Thursday.

Murray won't under-estimate Wawrinka who stunned Djokovic in last year's final.

The 31-year-old Swiss is the oldest semi-finalist in Paris since Jimmy Connors in 1985.

Murray leads their head-to-head 8-7 but Wawrinka has won their last three meetings.

The third seed has also won both their tour claycourt meetings -- in Rome in 2008 and Monte Carlo in 2013.

However, Wawrinka insists that Murray is the favourite, even claiming that the Scot is in a different class despite both men having claimed two Grand Slam titles apiece.

"If you were to compare our two careers he's well ahead of me given all the titles, the finals, number two in the world, and he has so many Masters 1000, as well," said Wawrinka who was also the 2014 Australian Open champion.
By Julien Pretot PARIS (Reuters) - World number one Novak Djokovic will play his French Open semi-final on Friday away from the main show court after organizers were forced to stage four semi-finals on the same day in the rain-ravaged grand slam tournament. Djokovic, looking to win the only major to elude him, will take on Austrian Dominic Thiem on Court Suzanne Lenglen after the completion of the women's last four encounter between Spain's Garbine Muguruza and Samantha Stosur. Djokovic, who will be contesting his 30th major semi-final, is no stranger to playing a last-four showdown away from main stage. In 2007, his Wimbledon semi-final against Rafael Nadal took place on Court One. World number two Andy Murray and defending champion Stan Wawrinka will face each other on the main Court Philippe Chatrier following the match between women's holder Serena Williams and Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens. Tournament director Guy Forget, who has been criticized for allegedly pushing competitors to play in the rain on Tuesday following Monday's complete washout, said organizers wanted to ensure all players were treated equally. After announcing that tickets for the Lenglen matches would cost 20 euros, he said: "Our priority is that we can play the finals on Saturday and Sunday. "There is no ideal solution, you must find compromises. There is a choice to make... Tomorrow the playing conditions will be tough, the goal is to finish tomorrow's matches. "To ensure fairness, we needed to start both men's semi-final at the same time so that both winners can have the same rest time." The women's matches will start at 1100 GMT (7 AM ET) and the men's semi-finals will not start before 1300 GMT (9 AM ET). Women's semi-finals at Roland Garros are usually played on Thursday and the men's on Friday. The last time a French Open final was completed on a Monday was in 2012, when Nadal beat Djokovic. It was the first time since 1973 that the claycourt major's final was played on a Monday. (Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
By Julien Pretot PARIS (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic moved a step closer to a maiden French Open title on Thursday, sweeping aside Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych in straight sets to reach the semi-finals at Roland Garros for the eighth time. The world number one, whose half of the draw got easier after nine-times champion Rafael Nadal pulled out injured last week, will next take on Dominic Thiem after the Austrian tyro downed Belgian David Goffin in four sets. Serbian Djokovic breezed through the opening set, overcame a slight glitch in the second and came back stronger after a brief rain interruption to seal a straightforward 6-3 7-5 6-3 win. He ended the contest on his second match point when Berdych returned into the net. "It's a grand slam quarter-final so it's always a difficult match. It's hard to dictate the play in these conditions, it makes it tough tactically," Djokovic said courtside. "I played my best tennis at the right moment, I'm happy about that. I'm happy to come back here on center court every day." Djokovic's fourth-round match against Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut, in which he lost a set, ended on Wednesday after rain washed out Monday's play and delayed the start of the tie until Tuesday. The 11-times grand slam champion, who will be playing for the third day in a row on Friday when he faces Thiem for a place in the final, was barely bothered by either the conditions or his opponent. Djokovic had won his 10 previous encounters against Berdych and the Czech was never in a position to end the streak on Court Philippe Chatrier. The Serbian won seven games in a row to open a 6-3 3-0 lead before Berdych finally found his range with his booming forehand and broke back hoping to force a tiebreak. The Czech was broken to love, however, in the 12th game as Djokovic took a two-set lead. In a light drizzle, the supervisor sent the players to the dressing room at 3-3 in the third set, much to the annoyance of Berdych, who felt the conditions had not changed since the start of the tie. "One big circus. (We've been playing) two and half sets like that," Berdych said. A few minutes later, they were back on court and Djokovic won the three remaining games. (Reporting by Julien Pretot, editing by John Stonestreet)
donald trump

Donald Trump is preparing for a high-stakes rhetorical battle with President Barack Obama.

During a Wednesday-night rally in California, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee promised that when Obama begins seriously campaigning against Trump, he wouldn't take the criticism lying down.

"This is a president who doesn't have a clue," Trump said.

"He's going to start campaigning," he added. "Well if he campaigns, that means I'm allowed to hit him just like I hit Bill Clinton, I guess."

As he began to broadly criticize Obama for the way he has dealt with US trade partners, the real-estate mogul was interrupted by a protester. Trump didn't linger on the subject, but a virtual back and forth Wednesday served as a preview of that battle throughout the summer and fall.

Despite the occasional jab at Trump, the president has largely stayed out of the fray, partially because of his promise to stay neutral in the Democratic presidential primary. But CNN reported on Thursday that the president would "explode onto the scene" once the Democratic primary concludes.

Trump's comments on Wednesday came as Obama hinted at the tougher rhetoric he would roll out once the general-election season begins.

During a Wednesday speech in Indiana, Obama methodically laid into Trump's proposals. He knocked the presumptive nominee's promise to eliminate the financial-industry regulations in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law as well as Trump's rhetorical broadsides against immigrants living in the US without permission.

"If we turn against each other based on divisions of race or religion, if we fall for a bunch of 'okey-doke,' just because it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative, then we're not going to build on the progress we started," Obama said. "If we get cynical and just vote our fears, or if we don't vote at all, we won't build on the progress that we started."





More From Business Insider


London (AFP) - Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday urged Britons not to "roll a dice" by leaving the EU in his first television grilling of the referendum campaign, three weeks before the tight vote.

Facing an often hostile audience at Sky News, Cameron argued that, while the European Union sometimes "drives me crazy", it would be an act of "economic self-harm" for Britain to vote out on June 23.

With opinion polls finely balanced and some suggesting a recent increase in support for the "Leave" campaign, Cameron, who is leading the case for "Remain", entered the studio under pressure.

"As we go home, as we wake up in the morning, we look at our children and our grandchildren in the eyea let us not roll a dice on their future," he told the audience at the end of the show.

"Britain doesn't succeed when we quit, we succeed when we get stuck in, we work to improve these organisations and we safeguard the prosperity and the security of our great country."

Earlier, he faced repeated heckles from angry audience members including one who told him: "I'm an English literature student, I know waffling when I see it".

The "Remain" camp currently has 51 percent support compared to 49 percent for the "Leave" side, according to an average of the last six opinion polls by the What UK Thinks academic project.

On Tuesday, two ICM polls for the Guardian newspaper put the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union in the lead.

Those findings surprised many commentators because most recent polls have given "Remain" a narrow lead.

There will be eight main television interviews and hustings between now and the vote. Cameron is only appearing in three and will not go head-to-head against the "Leave" camp in any of them.

The Sky News programme saw him face questions from the channel's political editor Faisal Islam which focused on immigration issues, followed by questions from the studio audience.

The same channel will host a similar programme Friday featuring Michael Gove, a Cabinet minister and former close political ally of Cameron, arguing the case for "Leave".

On Tuesday, Cameron and Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party, will answer questions from a studio audience in an ITV programme but will not debate with each other.
Shares of Illinois Tool Works Inc. ITW reached a new 52-week high of $106.75 on Jun 1, before closing the trading session slightly lower at $106.70. The last 52-week high of $106.19 was achieved on Apr 19.

The new apex reflects a year-to-date return of 15.8%. The trading volume for the session was 2.7 million shares. Earnings estimate revisions for 2016 and 2017, along with an expected earnings growth rate of 8.9% for the next five years, indicate the scope for stock price appreciation.



Growth Drivers



Illinois Tool Works impressed investors with better-than-expected results for the trailing four quarters, bringing the average positive surprise to 1.95%. The company recorded a positive earnings surprise of 2.38%, with earnings of $1.29 per share exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.26, for first-quarter 2016. Revenues totaled $3,274 million in the quarter, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3,247 million. The companys share price has gained roughly 2.3% since its first-quarter earnings release on Apr 20.



For 2016, Illinois Tool Works increased its earnings guidance to $5.40$5.60 from the previous expectation of $5.35$5.55 per share. Organic revenue growth is expected to be 13%. Operating margin will likely be over 22.5%, driven by a contribution of at least 100 bps from the companys enterprise initiatives. Also, the company intends to repurchase shares worth $2 billion during the year.



Going forward, Illinois Tool Works organic growth tactics, long-term Enterprise Strategy and sound capital allocation schemes should prove beneficial. Also, the acquisition of EF&C business will boost the companys product offerings under its Automotive OEM segment.



Estimate Revisions



Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Illinois Tool Works grew 1.1% to $5.53 for 2016 and 1.2% to $6.06 for 2017. These estimates represent year-over-year growth of 7.7% for 2016 and 9.6% for 2017. Also, the company has an Earnings ESP of +2.31% for 2017.



With a market capitalization of $38.3 billion, Illinois Tool Works currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some stocks worth considering in the machinery industry include Gorman-Rupp Co. GRC, Kadant Inc. KAI and Luxfer Holdings PLC LXFR. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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The Hague (AFP) - Dutch and US prosecutors said Thursday they had cracked down on a multi-million-euro scam in which hundreds of thousands of victims mailed money to the Netherlands after being told they had won the lottery.

In a simultaneous investigation carried out with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Dutch authorities raided 10 locations across the Netherlands on Wednesday and Thursday, probing six companies believed to be behind the elaborate worldwide con.

Millions of personally-addressed letters are thought to have been sent since 2012 to people in the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Switzerland, claiming the recipients had won the lottery or a brand new car, or had been awarded some cash.

The victims were asked to send between 20 to 45 euros (or $15-$55 in the US) in pre-addressed envelopes to PO boxes in the Netherlands supposedly to cover the cost of dispatching the windfall. Around 300 mailboxes were used in the scam.

"It is assumed that the total fraud amount runs up to the millions," the Dutch fiscal and intelligence division said in a statement.

The DOJ in New York said it believed that American victims alone had mailed some $18 million (16 million euros) annually through the post in the four-year con which targeted the elderly and vulnerable.

US officials have now launched legal proceedings against two of the companies and their Dutch owner Erik Dekker, 54, of Langbroek, southeast of Amsterdam.

The six Dutch companies are suspected of emptying the mailboxes, keeping part of the cash as a fee and then depositing the rest in bank accounts which have now been frozen.

Dutch officials said they had seized about 500,000 euros in cash in the raids, along with watches, artworks and cars, including a Porsche.

US Attorney Robert Capers for the eastern district of New York said the suspects had taken money from thousands of elderly and vulnerable victims in Brooklyn and across the United States.

US authorities and their Dutch partners would "track down and stop the schemes wherever they lead," he added.

A hearing has been scheduled in the case in a Brooklyn court on July 18 as US authorities seek to bar the suspect Dutch companies from using the US postal system, and intercept any mail and return it.
Argos Therapeutics, Inc. ARGS is a biopharmaceutical company that could be an interesting play for investors. That is because, not only does the stock have decent short-term momentum, but it is seeing solid activity on the earnings estimate revision front as well.



These positive earnings estimate revisions suggest that analysts are becoming more optimistic on ARGSs earnings for the coming quarter and year. In fact, consensus estimates have moved sharply higher for both of these time frames over the past four weeks, suggesting that Argos Therapeutics could be a solid choice for investors.



Current Quarter Estimates for ARGS



In the past 30 days, 3 estimates have gone higher for Argos Therapeutics while none has gone lower in the same time period. The trend has been pretty favorable too, with estimates narrowing from a loss of 48 cents a share 30 days ago, to a loss of 40 cents today, a move of 16.7%.



Current Year Estimates for ARGS



Meanwhile, Argos Therapeuticss current year figures are also looking quite promising, with 4 estimates moving higher in the past month, compared to none lower. The consensus estimate trend has also seen a boost for this time frame, narrowing from a loss of $2.12 per share 30 days ago to a loss of $1.64 per share today, an increase of 22.6%.



Bottom Line



The stock has also started to move higher lately, adding 8.4% over the past four weeks, suggesting that investors are starting to take note of this impressive story. So investors may definitely want to consider this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock to profit in the near future.



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While Jay Z famously boasted that you dont want to be the next contestant on the Summer Jam screen, the show itself is a different matter. For over twenty years now, Summer Jam, the Hot 97-hosted concert, has remained one of the most anticipated events in hip-hop, due to both its lineups and iconic moments, like Jay debuting Takeover and airing out Prodigys dance school lessons for all.

As times have changed, Summer Jam has changed along with them, but fans have had some concerns. While the newer Festival Stage serves as a big opportunity for up-and-coming artists, theres always fervor on social media when an artist like Chance The Rapper isnt deemed good enough for the Stadium Stage.

We spoke to Hot 97s Ebro in the Morning crew about all things Summer Jam and touched on the Chance controversy. In short, the Coloring Book rapper just isnt as popular as the other acts. Well, Chance doesnt really have a radio hit at this point, Ebro told us about Chances exclusion from the Stadium Stage. He doesnt have a mainstream hit song. Hes got a lot of brand success. Like, his brand  people know him. I think the music culture, artists really love him and anybody that loves music loves him, but I dont think the general public knows a Chance [The Rapper] hit song.

Rosenberg chimed in and reminded music fans that performing on the Festival Stage isnt exactly like performing at your hole-in-the-wall club. Festival Stage is still a big deal. First of all, the Festival Stage is like 10,000 people. Last year, it was 16,000, Rosenberg revealed. Its huge. Its still among Chances bigger shows. Besides big festivals, this is the biggest show hell do.

Last years security issues served as easy fodder for media to report on violence at the rap show. Add in the recent T.I. concert shooting and the media is eagerly waiting for savagery to pop off. But that wont be the case. Ebro told us music fans without any tickets wont even make it to the parking lot. Summer Jam is a fun time for families to check out some music. If you want to mess that up, youre going to have problems. [MetLife Stadium] is a state-run facility. Aint nobody playing with you. At all.

Peep our full interview where the the gang also explains the process behind creating memorable Summer Jam moments, how the lineups are chosen, and how exactly Summer Jam Tokyo came about. Tickets for the June 5th show are available to purchase here.
DUBLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - EgyptAir's chairman on Thursday denied media reports that the airliner which crashed into the Mediterranean in May had sent a series of technical warnings during flights in the 24 hours before it disappeared from radar screens.

"For me it is not true," Safwat Musallam said on the sidelines of the IATA annual meeting in Dublin when asked about the French media reports.

Musallam said flight MS804 had not experienced any maintenance issues before departure and that the plane, an Airbus A320 was "normal".

"We fully trust the aircraft and the pilot," he said.

The search zone for the crashed EgyptAir jet has been narrowed to 2 km (1.24 miles) from 5 km after a French warship picked up a signal from one of the aircraft's black boxes, an Egyptian source on the investigation committee said on Thursday.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Jason Neely)
By Sara Hemrajani LONDON (Reuters) - Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg brings his self-penned play "The Spoils" to London audiences, making "a nerve-racking" stage debut in Britain which he regards as a theater mecca. The tragicomedy, in which Eisenberg also stars, showed off-Broadway last year and the production has transferred to the West End for a limited season. The 32-year old actor, known for "The Social Network" and more recently "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", plays Ben, a callous wannabe filmmaker, living in a comfortable apartment bought by his father. Staying with him is his friend Kalyan, a hard-working, earnest Nepalese immigrant studying business at New York University, who is played by "The Big Bang Theory" actor Kunal Nayyar. When Ben's former school crush Sarah comes over for dinner with her partner Ted, tensions soon arise in the flat with Kalyan watching as his friend sets off on a path of self-destruction. "What the play does discuss is kind of generational strife. My character is third generation American and I think he feels the kind of laziness of assimilation," Eisenberg told Reuters in an interview. "Kunal's character is a new immigrant from Nepal and struggling to make it in an exclusive world of ... privilege that he is not a part of. The play discusses those themes and how my character, in a way, has lost his meaning because he doesn't have to struggle." Although no stranger to theater -- this is the third play the actor has written -- Eisenberg said he was worried about performing in the British capital. "It is ... nerve-racking. I, very much, am in awe of the theater that's performed in London and actually all around the UK. It's really a kind of a mecca for theater, I would say more so than New York," he said. "The Spoils" runs at Trafalgar Studios till August 13. (Reporting By Sara Hemrajani; Editing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Richard Balmforth)
Brazil-based Embraer SA ERJ announced that it will close its business jet production factory in Harbin, China, citing low demand for private jets in the country due to a lack of government incentives as the primary reason.



The companys shares hit a new 52-week low of $20.56 yesterday, before closing at $20.79, down 0.14% from the closing price of Tuesdays trading session.



With the shutdown of this facility, Embraer ended the joint venture with Chinese partner Aviation Industry Corps subsidiaries  Harbin Aviation Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. and Harbin Hafei Aviation Industry Co., Ltd. For as long as 13 years, the joint venture  Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry Co., Ltd  has manufactured and delivered commercial and executive jets in China. The joint venture made the last delivery of its Legacy 650 aircraft in Mar 2016.



Notably, orders at the Harbin plant started declining as the Chinese governments tax policies made the import of foreign-made aircraft much cheaper than manufacturing them in the country.



Embraer intends to continue serving the Chinese commercial and executive aircraft market. It will also provide support to existing customers as well as for the 166 company-made planes in China. Moreover, it will offer an outstanding array of products and services backed by its Beijing-based team and infrastructure across the country.



The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is reputed to be the world's third-largest commercial aircraft manufacturer after The Boeing Co. BA and Airbus EADSY. The company designs, manufactures and sells aircraft and systems under both the commercial and executive aviation, and defense and security segments.



A Stock to Consider



A better-ranked stock in the aerospace and defense industry is Engility Holdings, Inc. EGL, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).



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As we enter Emmy season  nomination voting runs June 13 to June 27  Yahoo TV will be spotlighting performances, writing, and other contributions that we feel deserve recognition.

It all started with the walk. As Jessica Jones  the eponymous leading lady of the acclaimed Netflix series based on one of Marvels most provocative comics  Krysten Ritter found her way into the role of the reluctant superhero and amateur private eye via the characters world-weary stride. I build my characters with their walk first, the actress tells Yahoo TV. Finding the physicality is key. Also finding the voice: In real life, Im more spazzy and zestful. I wanted Jessica to come from a lower register. Shes carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders and wants to disappear; but she also has to hold her ground.



Related: Jessica Jones: Inside Episode 8 With Creator Melissa Rosenberg and Writer Scott Reynolds



The dichotomy between Jessicas physical strength and emotional turmoil, brought on by her trauma-inducing stint as the mental prisoner of master mind-controller Kilgrave (David Tennant), is explored throughout the shows Peabody-award winning first season. And its front and center in this intense scene between Jessica and Luke Cage (Mike Colter), another super-strong hero for hire who shares an unwitting connection with Ms. Jones. While still under Kilgraves command, Jessica killed Lukes wife, Reva, plunging him into a grief spiral from which hes only tentatively emerged, thanks in part to their sexually charged relationship.

Shes able to keep this particular detail a secret for a time. But in the sixth episode, AKA Youre a Winner!, a shared investigation into a missing persons case leaves Luke seeing red when he learns new information about the New York City bus driver he mistakenly believes is responsible for Revas murder. Boarding the mans bus, Cage seems wholly set on following the eye for an eye school of vengeance when Jessica races onto the scene and finally confesses to her crime. She just has to give it up, Ritter says. She also gives up any instinct for self-preservation, absorbing the brunt of Cages fury without raising one of her own powerful fists. She doesnt know if Luke is going to kill her! [Mike] punches the bus right next to my head, and I tried so hard to just stand there and take it. Because she deserves it  thats how she feels.

Story continues

Related: David Tennant Answers Our Burning Questions  Sort Of



Ritter remembers the entire sequence  filmed on location on a New York City street in the middle of the night  required roughly 20 takes. Living in that dark space for six or seven hours, you get a little exhausted and heart heavy, she says. Sometimes after they call cut, you have to go into the corner and sob for a second because you have to get it out. Actors are so weird  we get off on exploring that emotional cocktail thats on the page.



And Colter gave her the space to cry; the two actors, who were otherwise fast friends while shooting the series, kept their distance from each other as the evening unfolded. We wanted to stay really focused and just bring it. After the scene was over, he gave me a big bear hug, she says. It was like, Okay, were friends again. Lets go to craft services and get some chips.



Jessica Jones is currently streaming on Netflix.
Eva Longoria is still on cloud nine after tying the knot to Jose Baston in Mexico last month, and beamed as she spilled details of the ceremony.

Read: Eva Longoria Ties the Knot For Third Time at Celebrity-Packed Ceremony

The newlywed gushed about the nuptials as she posed on the red carpet at the LA premiere of her new film, Lowriders.

She told Inside Edition her husband "planned so many surprises. Every 20 minutes to 30 minutes was like another surprise  all the way to the fireworks."

She also revealed how her best friend, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, designed her wedding dress in secret.

I went to London several times. Nobody knew. It was so great. We kept it under wraps and then she flew the dress from London herself.

Read: Why Did One CEO Surprise His Employees With Free Weddings?

The couple had their honeymoon in Thailand and Cambodia and returned to Los Angeles just hours before the film's premiere.

Watch: Devon Still's Cancer-Free Daughter, Leah, Dances Up a Storm at His Wedding

Related Articles:
(Reuters) - A professor was identified by authorities on Thursday as one of the men fatally shot in a murder-suicide at the University of California, Los Angeles, that shut down the sprawling campus for two hours a day earlier. William Klug, 39, was one of the men killed in the shooting in the school's engineering building on Wednesday, the Los Angeles coroner's office said. Los Angeles police said on Wednesday the gunman shot himself after fatally wounding another man, but declined to elaborate on the circumstances of the incident. University officials said classes would resume on Thursday and counselors will be available for students, faculty and staff. Our hearts are heavy this evening as our campus family mourns the sudden and tragic deaths of two people on our campus earlier today, said Chancellor Gene Block in a statement. Klug was a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, according to the university's website. The Los Angeles Times reported that Klug was attempting to develop a computer-generated virtual heart. You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug," professor Alan Garfinkel told the newspaper of his colleague. The coroner's office declined to identify the other man involved in the shooting. The incident caused the large campus to be locked down for about two hours as students were told to shelter in place. Engineering student Aaron Feigelman said he received a text message alerting him to an emergency and entered an adjacent building, where he and five others took refuge for 90 minutes. "We tied the bathroom door hinges with belts to keep the door closed because there were no locks. And we just waited. It was really scary," Feigelman said. Some 200 police officers wearing bulletproof vests and helmets responded to several calls of shot fired, converging on the campus with rifles drawn, fearing the shooter might still be active. Police recovered what may turn out to be a suicide note and a gun at the scene, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. UCLA, attended by more than 43,000 students, is in the Westwood section of Los Angeles and is one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system. "I am heartbroken by the sight of SWAT teams running down avenues normally filled with students, and angered by the fear that one person with a firearm can inflict on a community," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. (Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; Additional reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
LONDON (Reuters) - A small number of European Union citizens have mistakenly received notification that they are registered to vote in Britain's EU membership referendum but they will not be allowed to do so, the electoral watchdog said on Thursday. "Out" campaigner and former government minister Iain Duncan Smith wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron and the Electoral Commission earlier raising concerns over reports some EU citizens had been sent polling cards despite not being eligible to vote in the June 23 referendum. With polls showing Britons are evenly split over which way to vote, a narrow win for "In" could result in pro-Brexit campaigners questioning the way the referendum was conducted. "We are aware that a small number of non-eligible EU citizens had mistakenly received poll cards and, in some instances, postal votes for the EU Referendum. We are working to confirm the exact number of electors who have been affected by an issue with elections software," a spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said. "The software provider has resolved the issue which means that if any postal votes have been issued to these electors, they will be cancelled and none of these electors will be shown as eligible on the electoral registers to be used at polling stations." The Electoral Commision said all affected voters would also receive a letter to explain what had happened and to tell them that they would not be able to vote. (Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison)
By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union put more pressure on Poland's eurosceptic government on Wednesday to scrap changes to its supreme court, in a test of the EU's power to impose democratic standards on ex-communist members in the east. The European Commission's decision to issue a formal complaint to Warsaw, a step in the EU's new and untried Rule of Law process, prompted Poland's justice minister to denounce a "one-sided opinion showing a distorted image". The warning was announced by the EU's main negotiator, Frans Timmermans, the deputy head of the European Commission. It comes after months of fruitless diplomacy since Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party won elections in October and imposed changes on the Constitutional Court and the Polish public broadcaster. "Despite our best efforts, until now we have not been able yet to find solutions," Timmermans told reporters. He stressed dialogue would go on and would not speculate on penalties for Poland. It is by far the biggest of the former Soviet satellites that joined the EU a decade ago and a powerful player in the 28-nation bloc, which is bracing for upheaval if Britain votes to leave in a referendum this month. Under a procedure adopted two years ago after a frustrating battle between the EU and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Poland has two weeks to respond to the formal "opinion". If more talks fail, the commission can recommend its own solution and set a deadline to implement it. Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski said Poland was ready for discussion of "anti-crisis scenarios" to ease EU concern that an increase in the number of judges needed for a ruling, a rejection of pending judicial nominees and other government decisions have undermined the court's independence. But, Szymanski said, the government would not agree to measures that would disappoint its supporters in parliament: "(They) must be in line with the parliamentary majority's expectations," he said. "That is the most important thing." European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters in Brussels: "Democracy is more than a parliamentary majority. It's also about civil society." EU DILEMMAS More deadlock could trigger the "nuclear option" of fellow EU states launching a suspension procedure. Warsaw could lose its voting rights in the Union and possibly suffer other penalties, such as a loss of grants and subsidies. However, Orban for one has already said he would veto the unanimity required for that under Article 7 of the EU treaty. And EU leaders are loath to deepen an east-west split created by the refusal of Poland, Hungary and others to take in large numbers of refugees to ease the migration crisis in the bloc. That may leave the EU again assailed by rights activists, who complain that it has failed to uphold aspects of European democratic values, and at the same criticised by increasingly vocal eurosceptic movements for meddling in national affairs. Viviane Reding, a former EU justice commissioner who battled with Orban, approved of her successors' move to enforce the rules. All states had signed treaties whose fundamental values were "indivisible," she said. "When one member state disrespects them, this concerns us all," she told Reuters. EU leaders recognise, however, that the treaties give them few powers over each other unless the decisions are unanimous. As a result, senior officials in Brussels, when pressed on what may happen next in Poland, stress the role of Poles themselves. "The solution is in their hands," said Reding, now a member of the European Parliament. "The solution is in Poland." (Additional reporting by Adrian Krajewski and Wiktor Szary; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Larry King)
Brussels (AFP) - The European Union and the United States on Thursday signed a deal to protect personal data transferred across the Atlantic in a bid to fight crime and terrorism.

The so-called umbrella agreement signed in the Dutch city of Amsterdam follows five years of talks hobbled by European concerns about revelations of large-scale US snooping.

"It will improve cooperation between US and European law enforcement authorities when combatting serious crime and terrorism," Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said at a signing ceremony during the six-month Dutch presidency of the EU.

"It will advance the full respect for fundamental rights whenever personal data is being transferred between us," he said at the ceremony with US Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The European parliament must still give its consent to the agreement which was signed after the United States adopted in February a prerequisite law granting EU citizens the right to judicial redress in the US.

An EU statement said the umbrella agreement covers all personal information shared between EU member states and US law enforcement authorities in a bid to prevent, investigate, detect and prosecute criminal offences, including terrorism.

The deal will not only facilitate law enforcement cooperation but guarantee the legality of data transfers, it added.

Safeguards include setting clear limits on data use and requiring agencies to seek consent before data is transferred, it said.

The talks had been bedevilled by concerns in Europe after intelligence leaker Edward Snowden in 2013 released evidence of a massive network of US spy operations on friend and foe alike, including on EU countries.

Separately in February, the EU and US struck a tentative deal on strengthening a 2001 agreement meant to ensure US companies like Google and Facebook respect EU norms on commercial use of personal data.

But the European Parliament called last month on Brussels to remove "deficiencies" from the deal designed to replaced the earlier "Safe Harbour" agreement which Europe's top court cancelled on the basis of the Snowden revelations.
Brussels (AFP) - The EU on Thursday warned member states against banning "sharing economy" services such as Uber and Airbnb, especially if only to protect existing businesses from competition.

"You cannot put an absolute ban on activity if the reason for this is only protecting a business model," EU industry commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska said at a news briefing in Brussels.

Online success stories like ride-sharing app Uber and Airbnb have caused major disruptions in Europe, with taxi drivers and hotel owners furious at the inroads made by the main actors of the sharing economy.

In response, local governments and national regulators have moved to limit access to the websites, and in some cases, outright banning them.

Uber has filed complaints with the EU against France, Germany and Spain to hit back, arguing that the national or city policies are in violation of European law.

The EU is currently deliberating a response to those complaints as well as another lodged by an individual in Berlin who is unhappy with a local law against websites like Airbnb.

The EU's Bienkowska warned against government overreach as she unveiled the European Commission's recommendations on how the EU's 28 member states should better regulate the sharing economy.

"Absolute bans of an activity should only be a measure of last resort," said the commission's guidelines.

While the advice from the EU executive is non-binding, it does offer an indication on how the commission will respond to the complaints by Uber.

"We invite member states to review their regulation in the light of this guidance and stand ready to support them in this process," Bienkowska said.

In one idea, the EU encouraged regulators to differentiate "between individuals providing services on an occasional basis and providers acting in a professional capacity."

It also recommended that sharing economy actors "fully cooperate" with national tax authorities amid accusations that the services facilitate tax evasion.

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Uber welcomed the commission's proposals.

"The European Commission has made it clear that EU laws protect collaborative economy services against undue restrictions," said Gareth Mead, an Uber spokesman.

"Member States should review regulations that undermine the development of such services," he added.
London (AFP) - ABBA star Bjorn Ulvaeus and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger were among 140 European celebrities who signed a "love letter to the British people" on Thursday, hoping they will stay in the EU.

The letter, also signed by Dutch film director Paul Verhoeven, French former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier and French-American actress Julie Delpy, comes with exactly three weeks to go until the June 23 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

"It is not just treaties that join us to your country but bonds of admiration and affection. All of us hope that you will vote to renew them," said the letter published in the Times Literary Supplement magazine.

French "Highlander" star Christopher Lambert, model and actress Isabella Rossellini and restaurateur Raymond Blanc were also among the signatories.

"It is your decision, and we will all accept it. Nevertheless, if it will help the undecided to make up their minds, we would like to express how very much we value having the United Kingdom in the European Union," the letter said.

Opinion polls estimate that up to a fifth of British voters have yet to make up their minds.

Excluding the undecideds, the "Remain" camp is at 51 percent against 49 percent for "Leave" according to the WhatUKThinks poll of polls average on Thursday.

Meanwhile Prime Minister David Cameron said staying in EU was essential to protect the environment and give Britain a strong voice in global talks on climate change.

He made the claim as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the World Wide Fund for Nature-UK, which have 1.7 million supporters, all came out for the "Remain" campaign.

"EU membership underpins many crucial environmental protections in the UK, while amplifying our voice in the world on vital issues like cutting global emissions," he said.

RSPB chief executive Mike Clarke said: "We have always believed that, because nature transcends national boundaries, it needs cross-border co-operation to protect it".
Paris (AFP) - Europe's trailblazing spacecraft Rosetta has resumed its exploration of a comet hurtling through the Solar System after a "dramatic weekend" in which contact with Earth was lost for nearly 24 hours, mission control said Thursday.

The orbiter's navigation system, which works by tracking the position of stars, likely became confused after mistaking dust particles near the comet surface for faraway heavenly bodies, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

"We lost contact with the spacecraft on Saturday evening for nearly 24 hours," mission manager Patrick Martin said on the agency's Rosetta blog.

In orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta is now some 428 million kilometres (266 million miles) from Earth and 468 million km (291 miles) from the Sun -- somewhere between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter -- travelling at a speed of 17.65 km per second (10.96 m/s).

"Preliminary analysis by our flight dynamics team suggests that the star trackers locked onto a false star," said Martin, as Rosetta descended to within five kilometres (3.1 miles) of the frozen space rock blasting out jets of icy dust.

The spacecraft, perhaps best known as the mothership of surface probe Philae, entered "safe mode" as communication with Earth was severed, and switched off its science instruments, including cameras, radar, and chemical gas analysers.

Ground controllers sent "blind" commands to the orbiter, without knowing at first whether they were received or executed, to realign the star trackers which were subject to a similar dust-related mishap in April 2015.

"It was an extremely dramatic weekend," said spacecraft operations manager Sylvain Lodiot.

Contact was reestablished by Monday and the spacecraft's location pinpointed, which allowed flight manoeuvres to be performed to move it away from the comet, into a 30 km orbit.

"I confirm the spacecraft status is back to normal mode, with instruments back in science operations," Martin told AFP on Thursday.

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- Final resting place -

Rosetta, with Philae riding piggyback, arrived at 67P in August 2014 after a ten-year, 6.5-billion kilometre journey from Earth.

In November that year, it sent down Philae, a 100-kilogramme (220-pound) lab equipped with 10 instruments for comet sniffing and prodding.

After bouncing several times, the robot lab ended in a ditch shadowed from the Sun's battery-replenishing rays. But it managed to run about 60 hours of experiments and send home reams of valuable data before running out of energy and entering standby mode.

As 67P neared the Sun on its elongated orbit, Philae emerged from hibernation in June 2015 and sent a two-minute message to Earth via its mothership.

The lander went permanently silent in July 2015 after eight intermittent communications with Earth.

The 1.3-billion-euro ($1.45-billion) mission was conceived to unravel the secrets of comets, believed to be time capsules from the birth of the Solar System.

It is meant to wind down in September, reuniting Rosetta with Philae on the surface of 67P.

The weekend's events served as "a stark reminder of the dangers associated with flying close to the comet," said the ESA blog.

"The last six weeks of the mission will be far more challenging for flight dynamics than deploying Philae to the surface was in November 2014, and it is always possible that we could get another safe mode when flying close to the comet like this," explained Sylvain.

"However, the very final sequence where Rosetta makes a controlled impact on the surface of the comet should not be affected by such star tracker issues as we plan to take them out of the attitude and orbit control system loop."

The provisional plan for laying Rosetta to rest, said the agency, was to place it on the smaller lobe of the rubber duck-shaped comet -- near Philae's targeted landing site dubbed Agilkia.

This will "most likely" happen on September 30.
Theres a reason brides choose a posse of their closest BFFs to help them celebrate their big day. Sure, they can offer moral support and a glass of champagne when needed, but more importantly theyre there to help with all the silly minutiae, like lacing you into the corset that may or may not be a size too small and lifting up your twenty-foot train so you can finally use the restroom.

But how many of us can say that Posh Spice personally helped dress us with her own two hands on our big day? Eva Longoria can, which is exactly why her friendship with Victoria Beckham continues to be the stuff of legends.

Eva Longoria wedding Victoria Beckham

At the L.A. Film Festivals opening night premiere of her latest film Lowriders, Longoria was still sporting that post-honeymoon glow  and gushing all about her besties beautiful dress. According to the actress, when she asked Beckham for the custom favor, the designer said, Oh my God, thats awesome. [But] I dont do wedding dresses, I do dresses.

Which worked out great, according to Longoria. I didnt want a wedding dress, she said. It wasnt my first rodeo and I just wanted something sweet and simple and elegant  and no better person to do it than Victoria. So, I went to London a couple times for fittings and we went over fabric and styles. She pulled out all these fabrics and every single dress shes ever made. We looked at all the tops, bottoms, zippers, styles, and it was a really fun experience. Im surprised nobody found out because I was always in London. I kept flying to London to do it and I was like, No one knows were here right?

@evalongoria the most beautiful bride.I am honored to have created your wedding dress X Thank you for asking me!!! X We love u! X #friends #VBDoverst #VBHongKong X VB Picture courtesy of @hellomaguk A photo posted by Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) on May 30, 2016 at 8:59am PDT

RELATED VIDEO: I Would Like to Elope, Eva Longoria Spills Exclusive Wedding Details



And Victoria wasnt just super involved in the design process, she was super involved in the nuptials as well. When asked about one moment that really stood out to her, Eva replied, The tequila kind of blurred it all! But it was great. Victoria designed my dress and then I changed in the middle of the night and she changed me. She was just a hands-on designer. She unzipped my dress, took it off, put on the next dress and was like Lets go! She was amazing. She was a true bridesmaid!

Story continues

RELATED PHOTOS: Your Official Guide to All of This Summers Celebrity Weddings (Plus the Pretty Pics!)

@evalongoria #friends x VB Picture courtesy of @hellomaguk A photo posted by Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) on May 30, 2016 at 11:34am PDT

When asked about plans for the future and if starting a family was on the horizon for her and her new husband, Eva insisted, We have a family! Three kids, so were just continuing with our family we have now and waiting. Waiting to see if babies will be a part of the future? Well see, Eva teased.

Back to reality! #WorkWorkWork A photo posted by Eva Longoria Baston (@evalongoria) on Jun 1, 2016 at 3:32pm PDT

But until then the actress is busy entering a new, much more blonde phase for her post-nuptial life, and as she demonstrated in this post on Instagram, just like prepping for a wedding, it takes a village to be that beautiful.

What do you think of Evas wedding dress? Would you want Victoria Beckham to design your gown?

Emily Kirkpatrick, reporting by Reagan Alexander


By Denny Thomas

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong bank Dah Sing Financial Holdings Ltd has agreed to sell its insurance business to China's Thaihot Group Co Ltd for $1.4 billion (0.96 billion pounds), a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters, in the city's most expensive insurance deal ever.

The deal is the latest in a series of insurance M&A launched by Chinese investment firms as they seek to diversify risks out of a slowing economy. Chinese insurers and investment firms are also trying cut exposure to the renminbi on worries the currency may weaken further, eroding the value of their investments.

But the expansion out of their home market is coming at cost. Thaihot, a relative newcomer to the Hong Kong financial circle, is paying nearly three times Dah Sing insurance's 2015 embedded value, said the source, who did not want to be named as the deal has not been made public.

In comparison, Belgian insurer Ageas (AGEAS.BR) last year sold its Hong Kong insurance unit to China-based asset manager JD Capital in a deal that was valued at 1.3 times the embedded value of the business.

Embedded value is the net asset value of an insurer plus the present value of potential future profits from existing life and health insurance contracts.

Thaihot, whose business interests include real estate and financial services such as insurance, did not respond to telephone calls and an emailed request for comment outside regular business hours. The final deal value is nearly 40 percent higher than initially estimated.

If closed, it will add to a series of outbound Chinese acquisitions, which has reached $103 billion this year, against last year's record $113 billion, Thomson Reuters data shows.

Hong Kong is a developed life insurance market, with a life and health insurance premium to GDP ratio of 13.4 percent in 2015, the second-highest in Asia, according to Swiss Re. Still, the market offers strong growth, with premiums forecast to grow 9.2 percent in 2016, making it attractive to new entrants.

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Dah Sing is one of the last remaining family-run banks in Hong Kong and it has network of 70 branches in Hong Kong, Macau and on the mainland. A Dah Sing spokeswoman was not available for comment. The bank said in January it was reviewing strategic alternatives for its life insurance unit.

Thaihot has emerged as a surprise winner for the asset in a hotly contested auction that drew bids from as many as 20 firms, Reuters previously reported. Several global insurers including Canada's Sun Life Insurance Inc (SLF.TO), Chinese property firm Country Garden Holdings Co and China Taiping Insurance Holdings Co Ltd had expressed interest in the sale.

Dah Sing's shares are up about 32 percent since the company announced a strategic review of its insurance business in January this year, strongly outperforming 5.8 percent rise in the broader Hang Seng index (.HSI).

(Reporting by Denny Thomas; additional reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)
Eva Longoria was all smiles on Wednesday at the premiere of her new film, Lowriders, in Los Angeles, less than two weeks after tying the knot with husband Jose Antonio Baston in Valle de Bravo, Mexico.

Longoria spoke with ET's Nischelle Turner before the premiere at the Arclight Hollywood theater, where the newly-married star gushed about her post-wedding bliss, explaining that her radiant glow was the result of both a happy marriage and a honeymoon tan.

Getty Images

WATCH: Eva Longoria Chases Waterfalls on Her Honeymoon

The cute couple tied the knot on May 21 and then took off for an exotic honeymoon that included a stop in Cambodia, where the 41-year-old Telenovela star shared a selfie in front of an ancient temple.

She also shared shared a few bikini-clad Instagram posts from various idyllic locales.

RELATED: Eva Longoria and New Husband Jose Antonio Baston Wear His-and-Her Pajamas on Their Honeymoon

Longoria didn't share many details with her social media followers about where she went on her stunning honeymoon, and she was equally secretive about where she was going to get married in the weeks leading up to her and Baston's big day.

"How did you keep it such a secret?" Turner asked. "You were killing us, posting pictures from everywhere, throwing everyone off."

"We were trying!" Longoria explained. "It was a very small wedding, so it was very close family and friends. It was easy not to have a leak when it's your closest friends."

PHOTOS: Celebs Who Had Secret Weddings

Now the Golden Globe-nominated actress is back in the City of Angles for the premiere of her new film, which opened this year's L.A. Film Fest. The movie takes a look at the lowrider culture in East L.A. and Southern California's Latino communities, and Longoria says there is "no better film to open this festival."

"It is total L.A. It's filmed in L.A., the story is an L.A. story, and it's a beautiful subculture that hasn't really been depicted in film that's such a huge part of L.A.," Longoria shared. Lowriders is set to hit theaters later this year.

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For more on the Desperate Housewives alum's secluded yet star-studded wedding, check out the video below.

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Emma Roberts has a new man in her life!

The actress was spotted in London this week walking arm-in-arm with a handsome gentleman, who ET has learned is Christopher Hines  a friend of Roberts gal pal, fashion designer Brit Elkin. A source confirmed to ET that the cute couple are dating.

Getty Images

PHOTOS: PDA Alert! Celebrity Couples Who Cant Keep Their Hands Off Each Other

The adorable pair were photographed walking around the busy English metropolis chatting, laughing and getting coffee together.

Getty Images

It appears the two spent a couple of days hanging out and getting to know each other while traversing the crowded London streets. The Scream Queens star bundled up against the chilly weather in a black coat and black jeans while Hines rocked a zip-up sweater.

Roberts went solo on Monday night when she attended the Dior Welcome Dinner at the Lady Dior Pub, where the 25-year-old actress looked gorgeous in a low-cut white dress under a black leather jacket

Getty Images

WATCH: Emma Roberts Stuns on Allure Magazine Cover

On Tuesday, the striking star stunned in a curve-hugging black gown at the Christian Dior showcase of its spring/summer 2017 Cruise collection at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, England. Roberts paired the black, leggy ensemble with a silver purse and studded black stilettos.

Getty Images

Roberts was previously romantically involved with her American Horror Story co-star, Evan Peters, but they called off their engagement in June 2015 after two years of dating. The pair were rumored to have reconnected numerous times in the following months.

ET has reached out to Roberts rep for comment on her burgeoning romance with Hines.

WATCH: Emma Roberts Reveals Plan for Her 'American Horror Story Return

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By Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest energy company PTT is examining a proposal to list its retail business and is expected to complete the study in the third quarter of this year, the state-backed company's investor relations official told Reuters on Thursday.

PTT has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co and Phatra Securities to advise on the potential IPO, people familiar with the matter said. The sources declined to be identified as the information was not yet public. Kasikorn Securities, brokerage unit of Kasikornbank, has also been hired as an advisor, a Kasikorn official said.

Last month, PTT invited banks to make pitches and then selected the three to work on the IPO, the people added.

PTT's retail division may be valued between $2 billion and $3 billion, the people said. One of the proposals being considered includes bringing in a strategic partner before the likely IPO in 2017, they added.

A successful listing would rank among Thailand's largest IPOs. BTS Group's $2.13 billion IPO holds the record for Thailand's biggest.

PTT, like other global energy companies hit by slumping oil prices, is trying to find new ways to fund its capital spending needs. PTT plans to invest 297 billion baht ($8 billion) during 2016-2020, of which 50.8 billion baht is earmarked for this year.

It is also catching up with the global trend that has seen a series of oil companies selling their low-margin fuel marketing businesses.

CONVENIENCE STORE MODEL

PTT has 1,458 outlets, representing 40 percent of Thailand's petrol station market. The company has said it plans to invest 20 billion baht over the next five years to expand its gas service station network to 1,600.

The planned IPO would consist of the oil marketing business and PTT-owned Amazon coffee shops at the petrol stations, the official said.

PTT shares extended gains to trade up 2.3 percent after Reuters first reported that the company was studying doing a possible IPO, while the benchmark Thailand index was up 0.7 percent.

Story continues

Unlike in Western markets, where non-fuel businesses - convenience stores, fast food operations, and services such as car washing - can account for more than half of a gas station's profits, the majority of PTT's profits comes from petrol sales.

By spinning off the business and introducing a strategic partner, PTT is hoping it can help boost the share of non-fuel business and improve its overall profit margin.

Such a deal will boost the value of the low-margin marketing business, bolster the group's finances and free up funds for investment in exploration and production.

PTT has previously raised the prospects of a retail IPO, but this is the first time it has hired banks to undertake a detailed study, underscoring the seriousness of its intent.

PTT's IPO plans comes two years after China's oil refiner Sinopec Corp raised $17.5 billion by selling almost 30 percent of its retail arm to 25 Chinese and foreign investors. Sinopec Retail plans to list the business at a later date.

Sinopec's marketing and distribution unit, which includes a wholesale business, has more than 30,000 petrol stations and more than 23,000 convenience stores, as well as oil-product pipelines and storage facilities.

The PTT official declined to comment on hiring of the banks and the timing of the IPO.

JPMorgan declined to comment. Phatra Securities did not offer an immediate comment.

(Reporting by Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong; Additional reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Editing by Martin Howell)
By Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest energy company PTT (PTT.BK) is examining a proposal to list its retail business and is expected to complete the study in the third quarter of this year, the state-backed company's investor relations official told Reuters on Thursday.

PTT has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) and Phatra Securities to advise on the potential IPO, people familiar with the matter said. The sources declined to be identified as the information was not yet public. Kasikorn Securities, brokerage unit of Kasikornbank (KBANK.BK), has also been hired as an advisor, a Kasikorn official said.

Last month, PTT invited banks to make pitches and then selected the three to work on the IPO, the people added.

PTT's retail division may be valued between $2 billion (1.39 billion pounds) and $3 billion (2.08 billion pounds), the people said. One of the proposals being considered includes bringing in a strategic partner before the likely IPO in 2017, they added.

A successful listing would rank among Thailand's largest IPOs. BTS Group's $2.13 billion IPO holds the record for Thailand's biggest.

PTT, like other global energy companies hit by slumping oil prices, is trying to find new ways to fund its capital spending needs. PTT plans to invest 297 billion baht ($8 billion) during 2016-2020, of which 50.8 billion baht is earmarked for this year.

It is also catching up with the global trend that has seen a series of oil companies selling their low-margin fuel marketing businesses.

CONVENIENCE STORE MODEL

PTT has 1,458 outlets, representing 40 percent of Thailand's petrol station market. The company has said it plans to invest 20 billion baht over the next five years to expand its gas service station network to 1,600.

The planned IPO would consist of the oil marketing business and PTT-owned Amazon coffee shops at the petrol stations, the official said.

PTT shares extended gains to trade up 2.3 percent after Reuters first reported that the company was studying doing a possible IPO, while the benchmark Thailand index (.SETI) was up 0.7 percent.

Story continues

Unlike in Western markets, where non-fuel businesses - convenience stores, fast food operations, and services such as car washing - can account for more than half of a gas station's profits, the majority of PTT's profits comes from petrol sales.

By spinning off the business and introducing a strategic partner, PTT is hoping it can help boost the share of non-fuel business and improve its overall profit margin.

Such a deal will boost the value of the low-margin marketing business, bolster the group's finances and free up funds for investment in exploration and production.

PTT has previously raised the prospects of a retail IPO, but this is the first time it has hired banks to undertake a detailed study, underscoring the seriousness of its intent.

PTT's IPO plans comes two years after China's oil refiner Sinopec Corp raised $17.5 billion by selling almost 30 percent of its retail arm to 25 Chinese and foreign investors. Sinopec Retail plans to list the business at a later date.

Sinopec's marketing and distribution unit, which includes a wholesale business, has more than 30,000 petrol stations and more than 23,000 convenience stores, as well as oil-product pipelines and storage facilities.

The PTT official declined to comment on hiring of the banks and the timing of the IPO.

JPMorgan declined to comment. Phatra Securities did not offer an immediate comment.

(Reporting by Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong; Additional reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Editing by Martin Howell)
By Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong HONG KONG/SINGAPORE/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest energy company PTT is examining a proposal to list its retail business and is expected to complete the study in the third quarter of this year, the state-backed company's investor relations official told Reuters on Thursday. PTT has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co and Phatra Securities to advise on the potential IPO, people familiar with the matter said. The sources declined to be identified as the information was not yet public. Kasikorn Securities, brokerage unit of Kasikornbank, has also been hired as an advisor, a Kasikorn official said. Last month, PTT invited banks to make pitches and then selected the three to work on the IPO, the people added. PTT's retail division may be valued between $2 billion and $3 billion, the people said. One of the proposals being considered includes bringing in a strategic partner before the likely IPO in 2017, they added. A successful listing would rank among Thailand's largest IPOs. BTS Group's $2.13 billion IPO holds the record for Thailand's biggest. PTT, like other global energy companies hit by slumping oil prices, is trying to find new ways to fund its capital spending needs. PTT plans to invest 297 billion baht ($8 billion) during 2016-2020, of which 50.8 billion baht is earmarked for this year. It is also catching up with the global trend that has seen a series of oil companies selling their low-margin fuel marketing businesses. CONVENIENCE STORE MODEL PTT has 1,458 outlets, representing 40 percent of Thailand's petrol station market. The company has said it plans to invest 20 billion baht over the next five years to expand its gas service station network to 1,600. The planned IPO would consist of the oil marketing business and PTT-owned Amazon coffee shops at the petrol stations, the official said. PTT shares extended gains to trade up 2.3 percent after Reuters first reported that the company was studying doing a possible IPO, while the benchmark Thailand index was up 0.7 percent. Unlike in Western markets, where non-fuel businesses - convenience stores, fast food operations, and services such as car washing - can account for more than half of a gas station's profits, the majority of PTT's profits comes from petrol sales. By spinning off the business and introducing a strategic partner, PTT is hoping it can help boost the share of non-fuel business and improve its overall profit margin. Such a deal will boost the value of the low-margin marketing business, bolster the group's finances and free up funds for investment in exploration and production. PTT has previously raised the prospects of a retail IPO, but this is the first time it has hired banks to undertake a detailed study, underscoring the seriousness of its intent. PTT's IPO plans comes two years after China's oil refiner Sinopec Corp raised $17.5 billion by selling almost 30 percent of its retail arm to 25 Chinese and foreign investors. Sinopec Retail plans to list the business at a later date. Sinopec's marketing and distribution unit, which includes a wholesale business, has more than 30,000 petrol stations and more than 23,000 convenience stores, as well as oil-product pipelines and storage facilities. The PTT official declined to comment on hiring of the banks and the timing of the IPO. JPMorgan declined to comment. Phatra Securities did not offer an immediate comment. (Reporting by Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong; Additional reporting by Manunphattr Dhanananphorn; Editing by Martin Howell)
In the ongoing war between James Kennedy and Vanderpump Rules castmate Jax Taylor, we have to give Jax a point for at least making it on his flight home from Hawaii.

Kennedy, 24, was booted from a Southwest flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on Monday for being "too drunk," a source tells ET. The SUR busboy-turned-Pump DJ was celebrating Memorial Day with co-star LaLa Kent at Rehab's pool party at the Hard Rock Hotel.

LISTEN: John Legend Croons the 'Vanderpump Rules' Theme Song and It's Everything

"He and LaLa were screaming at each other in the terminal," the source reveals. "It looked like a classic drunken fight between friends...I'm pretty sure it was LaLa telling James to get it together before getting on the plane."

We're told Kent was overheard yelling "I hate you!" at Kennedy, which, knowing DJ James Kennedy, he probably responded to by saying, "You're nothing, you're beneath me, I'm James Kennedy, babe." That last part is just a guess though.

The reality stars were joined by Kennedy's girlfriend, Miss Sonoma County 2016 Raquel Leviss. "Right before they closed the doors, the airline worker said James couldn't get on because he was too drunk," our source explains. "LaLa got on the plane and Raquel stayed back at the airport with James."

WATCH: 'Vanderpump Rules' Star Stassi Schroeder Says Her Relationship With Lisa Vanderpump Will 'Never Be the Same'

Before the incident, Kennedy posted plenty of party pics from Vegas to his Instagram, including a shot with fellow reality TV DJ, DJ Pauly D, and his girlfriend, Aubrey O'Day.

ET has reached out to Kennedy and his rep for comment, so far we have not heard back.

Meanwhile, SUR-vers Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix recently paid a visit to ET and we had them hand out SUR-perlatives to their VPR castmates. Find out what they said in the video below!

Story continues

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The leader of the Philippines' communist insurgency said Thursday he expects to end nearly 30 years in exile by returning from Europe to Manila as early as next month.

While running for office last month, Rodrigo Duterte, now the newly elected president, said Jose Maria Sison, the rebel leader and Communist Party of the Philippines founder, would be welcome to return home to participate in peace talks.

The comments raised hopes of ending the 47-year-old insurgency, one of Asia's longest, which has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives since the 1960s.

"I want to visit (Manila) in July or August to hold serious talks with President Duterte," said Sison, who now styles himself as a consultant for the rebels' negotiating body, the National Democratic Front.

Sison, speaking to Manila reporters at a news conference via Skype, added that Philippine government and rebel emissaries were set to meet in Norway from mid-June to lay the groundwork for formal peace talks.

Sison, now 77, fled to Europe soon after Philippine peace talks failed in 1987 and has stayed abroad since, while the insurgency continued to claim thousands of lives.

Duterte has maintained ties with Sison, his former university professor, while the latter has lived in exile in the Netherlands.

Sison said his homecoming was contingent on the Oslo talks producing a ceasefire, as well as Duterte releasing jailed comrades, which the rebel group said currently numbered 543.

Duterte, 71, whose government will officially begin its term on June 30, has named two allies of the rebel group as prospective members of his cabinet, and pledged to free ailing or ageing communist rebels ahead of formal peace talks.

Sison warned the rebels will continue their attacks against government forces until a ceasefire is struck.

The communists' armed wing, the New People's Army, is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, according to the military.

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However it retains support among the deeply poor in rural areas.

Outgoing President Benigno Aquino revived peace talks soon after taking office in 2010 but shelved them in 2013, accusing the rebels of insincerity in efforts to achieve a political settlement.

The talks broke down after the communists demanded the release of scores of their jailed comrades, which the Aquino government rejected.

Sison said the rebels want "democratic reforms that would lead to national industrialisation and genuine land reform", as well as the removal of US military forces from Philippine territory.

"We are not asking for a switch to socialism," Sison added.
US President Barack Obama asked Congress to ratify contentious UN maritime rules Thursday, hoping to strengthen his hand in a dangerous stand-off with Beijing over the disputed South China Sea.

Addressing the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, Obama said that Congress should approve UN rules designed to peacefully resolve maritime disputes.

Obama's presidency has seen escalating diplomatic and military tensions over Beijing's claim to territory throughout the South China Sea.

The area is a vital shipping channel that is also believed to have significant energy and mineral deposits.

It is also pivotal to China's effort to transform the focus of its navy from coastal defense to a "blue water navy" capable of projecting power across the region.

Chinese military deployments in the South China Sea have spooked neighbors who also claim islands and atolls, and set off a chain of tit-for-tat countermeasures by Washington.

Obama has ordered US navy vessels to sail across the region to affirm freedom of navigation.

The White House believes that Congress's failure to ratify the UN agreement has undercut the US case that disputes must be solved peacefully.

"If we are truly concerned about China's actions in the South China Sea for example, the Senate should help strengthen our case by approving the law of the sea convention," Obama said.

Obama's call comes at a particularly sensitive time, ahead of a landmark international panel ruling on a dispute between the Philippines and China over the Spratly Islands.

Beijing has angrily rejected the panel's jurisdiction and vowed to ignore its ruling.
Three space station astronauts chatted live today (June 1) with Facebook's founder about experiments and fun in space, the things that training can't prepare you for, and the true astronaut ice cream.

The live-streamed video marked the first use of Facebook Live in space, and the discussion among Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Tim Kopra, and British astronaut Tim Peake garnered hundreds of thousands of views as it was happening and 2.6 million views as of press time.

Zuckerberg read off questions asked by Facebook users, throwing in a few of his own as well, delving into how the astronauts spend their time in space. [Amazing Space Photos by British Astronaut Tim Peake]

Besides running experiments that take advantage of the lack of gravity  "physical science experiments that range from combustion to fluid flow to microbiology," Kopra said  the astronauts discussed how their existence itself is an experiment to measure microgravity's effect on the human body. So they're constantly exercising and measuring the changes in their physical attributes, like eyesight.

All three astronauts trained to prepare for those effects and the tasks they'd have to complete on orbit. But some aspects of life in space were impossible to convey through training, said astronaut Tim Peake, who's nearly six months into his first space mission. (Peake is the first British astronaut to stay on the International Space Station.)

"As a rookie astronaut on my first flight, there were so many new experiences," Peake said. "The training is phenomenal, and we have a wonderful training team all around the world, in all our international sites. [But] it's the real experience of launching in a Soyuz rocket, seeing that first orbit of planet Earth going through a sunset, seeing a moonrise, seeing a sunrise  you can't put into words how beautiful a planet is from up here.

Story continues

"And also having the privilege of seeing it change over the nearly six months that we've been up here now already, and seeing the Northern Hemisphere going from winter to summer, seeing thunderstorms at nighttime, the aurora  it's just absolutely incredible," he continued. "It's all of those kinds of elements that the training just can't prepare you for."

The trio also discussed communicating with the other astronauts, using English, Russian or a mix of the two; the internet service in space, which is relatively new and incredibly useful for keeping in touch, albeit much slower than on Earth; and the cool new virtual reality tech they've been testing out in the space station's halls.

The astronauts also delved into what they do for fun. Williams, who is on his third long-duration stay on the station, mentioned he also particularly enjoys viewing the Earth: "All the different seasons and stuff that goes by, the different lighting conditions and weather patterns, and all the geography and geology and the ocean currents, and thunderstorms, seeing lightning ripple across a weather system  that's a lot of fun," he said. "So we spend a lot of time in the window," he said.

Another pastime, often done during meals, is playing around in microgravity. "We all, from time to time, especially around the dinner table, play with our food in unique ways," Williams added. "We all get to be kids again."

The astronauts discussed how food tastes very slightly differentin microgravity, probably because an increase of fluid in the head makes the astronauts feel slightly "stuffed up." They particularly enjoy spicy foods for that reason, Williams said.

And Zuckerberg asked another food-based question, getting the information that really matters: Is astronaut ice cream a real thing?

"We know that the astronaut ice cream that you buy in the gift store, that powdery stuff  yeah, that's not real," Kopra said. "But we've had ice cream on board. When SpaceX came up, they delivered a bunch of ice cream and a freezer, so that's been quite the treat. I think we're down to our last few bars. We're trying to ration it."

The three astronauts won't have much longer to save it, though; Kopra and Peake return to Earth June 18, along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and Jeff Williams will head down in September with cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.

June 24, three new team members will join the orbiting lab: American astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. But they probably shouldn't count on any leftover ice cream.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Tattoos can carry a stigma: Even in 2016, you still have to cover up your ink on a job interview. But it's not employers you'll need to worry about in the future, it's the feds.

The National Institute for Standards and Technology is working with the FBI to create an algorithm that would automatically scan and recognize tattoos in online photos and databases across the internet, according to an investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. And, they've working on the project since 2014.

One of the first iterations of the project was called Tatt-C, a hackathon-type symposium that invited private corporations and academic institutions to build the tools NIST needs to identify and sort tattoos, with some projects attaining over 94% accuracy.

Running their algorithm across a database of over 15,000 FBI prisoners, the Tatt-C participants ran a series of tests that don't just automatically identify people based off of tattoos, but senses what photos have tattoos in them, and group people together based on tattoo similarities and compare tattoos to other symbols in the media.

Tatt-C was hosted by the FBI's Biometric Center for Excellence, which is building a massive database of biometric information, including faces, fingerprints and iris scans.

Source: John MacDougall/Getty Images

Tattoo recognition technology could be a powerful surveillance tool for tracking legitimate criminal affiliations. A four leaf clover could indicate membership in the Aryan Brotherhood, while a five or a three-point crown could symbolize membership in the Latin Kings. But while putting a giant cross on your chest could mean you're a high-ranking member of the Russian mafia, it might also mean you're just a Christian.

The EFF warned in its report that tattoos, which are protected by the First Amendment as a form of free speech, could be used to unfairly group and classify people based on religious and political affiliation and expression. Naturally, the NIST doesn't intend for any of this to be alarming.

Story continues

"The government doesn't have plans to collect everyone who has a tattoo," NIST computer scientist Mai Ngan told Business Insider. "We don't want to judge, just because you have a tattoo doesn't mean you are a criminal."

Source: JOHAN ORDONEZ/Getty Images

The next phase for the NIST is a project called Tatt-E, which will develop programs this summer that will "cluster" people into groups and track tattoos on a single subject over time.

The EFF wrote that the project is so flawed with privacy violations, low standards and sinister surveillance implications, that the only solution is for the government "to suspend the project immediately."
(Adds details from settlement agreement)

By Jonathan Stempel

June 2 (Reuters) - Eight financial services firms have paid the FDIC $190 million to settle claims they misled five U.S. banks into buying risky mortgage securities from the former Countrywide Financial Corp, contributing to the banks' failures.

The FDIC on Thursday said the accord resolves claims against Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Edward D. Jones & Co, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG.

Acting as receiver for the failed banks, the FDIC accused the defendants of violating federal and state securities laws based on alleged misrepresentations in offering documents for 21 Countrywide residential mortgage-backed securities they underwrote between 2005 and 2007.

The defendants denied liability, but settled to avoid the uncertainty, trouble and cost of further litigation, according to the settlement agreement. It was not immediately clear how much each defendant paid.

Settlement funds will be distributed among receiverships for Alabama's Colonial Bank, Texas' Franklin Bank and Guaranty Bank, Nevada's Security Savings Bank, and Illinois' Strategic Capital Bank, which failed in 2008 and 2009.

The FDIC, whose full name is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, often seizes banks on the brink of collapse, and as receiver seeks to maximize recoveries for creditors.

It said it has filed 19 RMBS lawsuits on behalf of eight failed banks, seeking damages for securities law violations.

A total of 322 banks and thrifts in the United States and Puerto Rico failed between 2008 and 2010, encompassing the heart of the recent financial crisis, the FDIC said.

Countrywide was once the largest U.S. mortgage lender, but became a poster child for making high-risk home loans, including subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages, prior to its July 2008 acquisition by Bank of America Corp.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by G Crosse and Meredith Mazzilli)
Film Vault: Dispatch With Speed

In recent editions of Film Vault we've taken a look at the contributions dispatch riders made to British, Canadian and American military efforts in World War I and World War II. This short film gives us an idea of what some of those riders did when they returned to the homefront.

They continued riding. In this case, they took part in Speedway, a flat-track style of motorcycle racing that started in the United States but over the years has garnered more popular attention in the United Kingdom, Australia and some Eastern European countries.

"Ordinary peacetime jobs seem a bit slow," claims the film's chipper narrator. "So they're going in for something where speed and nerve are needed."

Like most British pursuits that took place before the 1990s, this looks like a great way to rack up a long list of broken bones and concussions. Huzzah for the good ol' NHS, eh chaps?

The pudding-bowl helmets don't look as if they'd do a rider much good, and I'll bet those leather suits smelled delightful at the end of a day's racing.

READ MORE: Film Vault: Testing British Army Motorcycles in 1915

1940s Speedway

My favorite part comes at the very end of the film, when a rider crashes and his limp, unconscious body is lifted from the dirt.

"The rider's alright," says the narrator.

I suspect the rider would have disagreed.

Learn more about Chris and the rest of RideApart's excellent staff here: The RideApart Team

Follow RideApart on Facebook and Twitter, along with @RideApart on Instagram.
By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - The remains of 33 Australian soldiers killed during the Vietnam War and buried in Malaysia and Singapore returned to rest in Australia on Thursday, in one of the country's largest single repatriation operations. The soldiers, who were buried overseas under an interment policy that was scrapped in 1966, were flown into a military airfield around 40 kms (24.85 miles) west of Sydney onboard two military transport jets. They were met by around 100 family members, veterans and dignitaries, including Defence Minister Marise Payne and Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, a Vietnam veteran who now represents Australia's head of state, Britain's Queen Elizabeth. A priest, accompanied by a Scottish piper, led the flag-draped coffins in a somber procession from the lowered tail-section of the two C-17 transport planes and into a nearby hanger, where family members held a private ceremony. The Australian government last year announced that it would fund a repatriation program for the fallen soldiers following pressure from families and a public petition that drew more than 40,000 signatures. For family members and veterans in attendance, it was a bittersweet moment more than 50 years in the making. "When I saw the smoke of the nose wheel of the second aircraft I thought, they're at home," Vietnam veteran Lieutenant Colonel Ian Henderson told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "The Army went to great lengths to discover those who had been missing in action, at great lengths to find their bodies a couple of years ago. This is right that this ought to happen and bring them back as they have." More than 60,000 Australians served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972. Over 500 Australians were killed during the deeply unpopular war between the Soviet-backed Communist government of North Vietnam and South Vietnam's U.S.-backed regime, which ceased to exist after the fall of Saigon in 1975. After the private ceremony the coffins were loaded onto 10 hearses, which drove slowly under police escort down roads lined with men and women, some wearing service medals, who had come out to pay their respects. The individual remains will be buried privately by their families. (Editing by Michael Perry)
Florida Governor Rick Scott minced few words in a letter to President Barack Obama Wednesday, suggesting that without federal aid, Florida will experience a "disaster" as the Zika virus progresses through the state.



The White House responded to Scott (who has already visited D.C. in an attempt to mobilize Congress) through spokesman Josh Earnest, who said "we hope that Republicans in Congress will finally get the message" and approve the $1.9 billion Obama has declared necessary to fight the virus.



Florida is facing 162 cases of Zika, including 38 pregnant women. Currently, every case involves an individual infected while traveling outside of the U.S., but officials warn that as hurricane season and the concurrent increase in wet weather approach, increased mosquito activity will mean increased Zika risk.



"There is no doubt that we fall further and further behind fighting the spread of this virus with every day that passes and we are not fully prepared," Scott's letter reads. "... We need federal action now to keep our citizens safe and healthy through what would no doubt be a disaster if this virus becomes mosquito-borne in our state."







Florida health officials also announced Wednesday that a tourist had contacted dengue fever in Key West, which is alarming because the mosquitoes that serve as vectors for dengue can also transmit Zika (among other viruses).



Exactly how much of Florida's coffers have gone to fight the virus remains unclear. "This is a national issue and [Congress] needs to make it a priority," Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz told the Associated Press, though she did say that Florida has spent "some" of its own money on the problem. Scott hasn't specific whether he will continue to dip into state dollars to fight Zika; can ask the state's legislature to approve emergency spending requests but has not yet done so.



Earnest threw in another jab at Congressional stalling in the White House's response to Scott's letter: "It is clear that Republicans outside of Washington recognize that there is more that should be done to support local efforts to fight Zika. And we hope that Republicans in Congress will finally get the message."
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on Wednesday he had formed a political action committee and started raising money to help fight Donald Trump's Republican presidential campaign in key states with large Latino immigrant populations. "I'm focusing all my efforts from now to November on stopping Trump," Villaraigosa said in a conference call with reporters. Calling Trump a racist and misogynist, Villaraigosa said his committee, called Building Bridges, Not Walls, would focus on organizing immigrants to oppose the presumptive Republican nominee in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida in the campaign for the Nov. 8 election. Opened with his own $1,000 contribution, the committee would seek donations to pay for its activities, Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa, a Democrat who was Los Angeles mayor from 2005 to 2013 and also served as speaker of the California Assembly, is perhaps the state's highest-profile Latino leader. He has said he is considering a run for governor in 2018. His anti-Trump campaign is among the first efforts to formally turn concern among immigrants about the billionaire's campaign into political action. Last week, Democrats in San Diego organized an anti-Trump demonstration that drew about 400 people. Trump has made concern over illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. He has accused the Mexican government of sending rapists and criminals across the border, pledged to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and called for a temporary halt to Muslim immigration amid fears that radicalized immigrants will commit terrorist acts. Last week in the border city of San Diego, Trump called a judge hearing a case against one of his businesses "hostile" and "a hater" and said he believed the judge was Mexican. "Both Democrats and Republicans are horrified at the prospect of a Trump presidency," Villaraigosa said. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Peter Cooney)
A Pennsylvania judge has declared that former pro wrestler Jimmy Superfly Snuka is incompetent to stand trial in the 1983 death of his girlfriend.

Read: Former Wrestler Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka Pleads Not Guilty to Murder of Former Girlfriend

Following a four-day hearing, Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach determined Snuka could not face murder and manslaughter charges in the death of Nancy Argentino.

Snuka, 73, told the judge that he was in in 80s and was unaware it was 2016. He also could not name the current president of the United States, and said he was unaware that he was arrested last year.

His defense team argued the wrestling icon was unfit to stand trial because of head trauma he sustained while in the ring.

A psychologist for the defense testified that Snuka suffered from dementia. However, a psychologist hired by the prosecution said Snukas brain showed normal signs of aging and that he may be faking it.

The judge did not believe Snuka was capable of faking the symptoms of dementia; though, he will be re-evaluated in six months.

Snuka was arrested in September 2015 after a 2013 investigation from The Morning Call raised questions about the case. In November, he pleaded not guilty.

At the time of Argentinos death, Snuka was one of wrestlings biggest names and the couple was in Pennsylvania for a wrestling event in which he was participating.

An autopsy determined Argentino died of traumatic brain injuries and suffered more than two dozen cuts and bruises  a possible sign of "mate abuse"  on her head, ear, chin, arms, hands, back, buttocks, legs and feet, according to The Morning Call.

Snuka was the only person of interest in the case but was never charged.

In early 2015, the district attorney announced that the investigation into her death would be reopened after The Morning Call report.

Two years after their daughters mysterious death, the Argentino family won a $500,000 wrongful death case against the wrestler by default, but Snuka never paid because he claimed he was broke and couldn't afford a legal defense.

Story continues

Read: Family of Jimmy Snuka's Deceased Girlfriend: 'Let's See Whose Life is Extinguished Now'

In 2012, Snuka released an autobiography where he maintained his innocence and said that Argentinos death ruined his life.

Snuka was once charged with assaulting her just four months prior to her death in a New York motel. He pleaded guilty to harassment in the case.

In 2015, Argentinos sister, Lorraine Salome, told Inside Edition: I felt that at least someone will be held accountable for this.

Her husband, Richard, tearfully told Inside Edition: "Let's see whose life is extinguished now."

Watch: Johnny Depp Partying in Europe Amid Amber Heard Abuse Claims

Related Articles:
Paris (AFP) - France will accept 400 refugees per month from Greece as part of the EU relocation deal it signed last year, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Thursday.

"This week, as part of the relocation, 97 additional refugees have arrived in France coming from Greece and Italy," Cazeneuve said in a statement, adding that another 253 were due to arrive next week.

The relocation forms part of an EU-wide agreement signed last summer to reduce the pressure on frontline states.

A total of 160,000 refugees were due to be shared around the EU's member states, including 30,000 to France.

But most countries have fallen far short of their obligations under the agreement, with France taking only 500 people since the deal was signed.

Across the EU, barely 2,000 people have been relocated under the scheme, while more than a million arrived as refugees in Europe last year.

Most of the refugees being relocated to France this week are Eritrean, Iraqi and Syrian, and would be housed in welcome centres or "adequate housing" while their asylum claims are processed, Cazeneuve said.

France has struggled to house asylum seekers, with many setting up makeshift camps around the capital in recent months.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said Tuesday she wants to create a camp to provide proper accommodation for refugees and ease the pressure on housing centres.
It appointed Brookfield Multiplex to deliver its DUO project.

Through a joint venture between Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia, Frasers Centrepoint Limited (FCL) sealed the deal with Brookfield Multiplex to deliver FCLs mixed residential, commercial and hotel development DUO in Australia.

According to the firms media release, under the A$290m (roughly $288m) construction contract, DUO is slated for completion in early 2018. To date, more than half of the 5.8 ha Central Park precinct has already been delivered.

Currently, less than 90 apartments remain for sale, priced from $710,000, according to FCL. Launched to the market in November last year, apartments have sold from $650,000 to $2.2m.

DUOs residential component comprises 313 apartments, most of which will be situated in the eastern tower. The adjoining western tower will include a 297-room hotel, ground-floor retail, 5,500 sqm of commercial space, a childcare centre, and the refurbished The Australian Hotel.

Construction will involve a peak workforce of approximately 800 people.

The start of construction of DUOs two towers on Broadway kicks off the fifth stage in the construction program of FCLs A$2 billion master-planned community in Chippendale. FCL further notes that construction will involve a peak workforce of about 800 people.

Located on the corner of Broadway and Abercrombie Streets Chippendale, DUO occupies a prized position facing Broadway.





More From Singapore Business Review


We issued an updated research report on premium multinational firm, FUJIFILM Holdings Corporation FUJIY, on May 31, 2016.



Bullish Factors

Fujifilm expects gradual recovery in the global economy to boost its business in the near future. The company believes that the adverse impact of economic weakness in certain countries like China would be offset by a rise in demand across the U.S., the U.K., Japan and other emerging economies. The company has recently implemented a new VISION 2016 (Apr 1, 2014 to Mar 31, 2017) plan to enhance improved healthcare, documents and functional material business. Moreover, the demand for Fujifilms photo imaging, industrial products, medical systems and electronic material products is steadily improving. Such optimistic aspects, together with the companys strengthening Asia-Oceania business, are expected to boost revenues in the upcoming fiscal year.

Further, we expect Fujifilms strategic inorganic and organic growth programs to strengthen its financial fundamentals in the near term. Based on all these bullish factors the company expects to generate revenues worth 2,550 billion in fiscal 2017. This translates to an improvement of 2.3% year over year.

Headwinds

We believe that this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock would continue to report robust top-line and bottom-line results in the quarters ahead. However, certain industry-specific negativities might hurt Fujifilms commercial prospects. For instance, the company faces stiff competition, which raises market share risks. Also, unfavorable changes in the political, environmental, social and economic aspects of international markets may adversely affect the companys results in the upcoming quarters.



Other Stocks to Consider



Other favorably placed stocks from the industry that warrant a look include ACI Worldwide, Inc. ACIW, ADTRAN, Inc. ADTN and Alpha & Omega Semiconductor, Ltd. AOSL. All the three companies currently hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).



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Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton is set to deliver a major foreign-policy speech in California on Thursday, and the Democratic presidential frontrunner will focus much of it on setting herself apart from her likely rival in the 2016 general election, Donald Trump.

Clinton plans to cast Trump as different from any other nominee in recent history and "fundamentally unfit" for the role of commander in chief.

"Clinton's critique will go beyond specific policies and she'll make clear that the choice in this election goes beyond partisanship: Donald Trump is unlike any presidential nominee we've seen in modern times and he is fundamentally unfit for the job," Jake Sullivan, a senior policy adviser for the Clinton campaign, said in a memo sent to Business Insider.

Clinton will present herself as a levelheaded alternative to the bombastic real-estate mogul who has called for a ban on Muslims entering the US, suggested that South Korea and Japan should be able to obtain their own nuclear weapons, posited that the NATO alliance is "obsolete," and said he would "bomb the s--- out of" the terrorist group ISIS. Those ideas have come under constant scrutiny from both sides of the political aisles.

She'll project a "confidence in America and our capacity to overcome the challenges we face while staying true to our values  a strong contrast to Donald Trump's incessant trash-talking of America," according to Sullivan's memo.

Clinton, who is close to locking up the Democratic nomination over Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has begun preparing for a general-election matchup with Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

Trump's campaign has been built around the slogan "Make America Great Again"  he often tells voters that the US has been taken advantage of by other countries and needs a tough negotiator in the White House to restore America to its former glory. He has built his foreign policy on similar themes, promising an "America first" approach.

Story continues

The Clinton campaign has been trying to tear down the perception of Trump as a tough businessman.

At a Wednesday rally, Clinton trained her fire on the for-profit school Trump University, which is the subject of several lawsuits. She called Trump a "fraud" and said he was "trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U." She's likely to use similar tactics in her foreign-policy speech on Thursday to make the case against Trump as a protector of America's security.

"Clinton will speak extensively about the reasons why Donald Trump is unqualified to be our commander-in-chief," Sullivan said in the memo. "She will rebuke a litany of dangerous policies that Trump has espoused, ranging from nuclear proliferation to endorsing war crimes, from denouncing NATO to banning Muslims."

The Republican Party has tried to get ahead of Clinton's speech and accompanying attacks on Trump's commander-in-chief readiness with a memo headlined, "Hillary Clinton: A Disaster For US National Security." A line at the top of the memo reads, "A Failure As Secretary Of State Who Defends The Weak Obama Administration Foreign Policy Cannot Be Trusted With Our Security."

The memo quotes a series of news articles about Clinton's foreign policy and defines "top takeaways," including Clinton's refusal to "categorize the terrorist threat as 'radical Islam,'" Clinton's support of President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran that "legitimizes and empowers" the "hostile" nation, and Clinton's support for the US military intervention in Libya, which is now "a safe haven for terrorists and has become an ISIS stronghold."

NOW WATCH: 'What magic wand do you have?': Obama calls out Trump





More From Business Insider


Washington (AFP) - USA Today publisher Gannett said Thursday it was reconsidering its $864 million offer for rival newspaper group Tribune Publishing amid a heated war of words between the two media firms.

Gannett, which last month raised its offer for its rival -- owner of the Los Angeles Times and other large dailies -- suggested it may withdraw the bid after a Tribune Publishing shareholder meeting backed the company's plan to remain independent earlier in the day.

Gannett had called on investors to withhold support for Tribune-backed board members after management spurned the offer and criticized Gannett for undervaluing the company.

"Gannett is reviewing whether to proceed with its acquisition offer taking into account the results of the 'withhold' vote," a Gannett statement said.

The statement included comments from Gannett vice president Michael Dickerson, who sought to win over Tribune Publishing shareholders.

"We never intended to engage in a public fight for Tribune," Dickerson told Tribune shareholders.

"Instead we anticipated having constructive discussions with your board. However, rather than engaging with Gannett, the Tribune board has adopted an unproven strategy, implemented various delay tactics and ultimately effected a transaction that significantly diluted Tribune's outstanding shares."

Gannett's offer "would deliver superior and certain value for Tribune's owners at a tumultuous time for the company," he argued.

Gannett's bid aimed to combine the national daily USA Today with its rival's big regional newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun, in addition to the coveted Los Angeles Times daily.

After the bid became public, Tribune Publishing denounced Gannett's "hostile tactics," calling them part of an effort to "steal the company from our shareholders."

Tribune later adopted a "poison pill" share plan to make a takeover more complicated, adding a new investor as it pledged to continue efforts to remain independent and pursue its own path to adapt to the digital era.

Story continues

In a statement after its shareholder meeting, Tribune Publishing announced it was "rebranding" by changing its name to "tronc."

The name, shortened from "tribune online content," according to a statement "captures the essence of the company's mission" to "deliver personalized and interactive experiences to its 60 million monthly users."

Separately, a Tribune Publishing shareholder filed suit accusing the company of breaching its fiduciary responsibility by rejecting the Gannett offer, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The suit by Capital Structures Realty Advisors says the company stacked its board and structured a new investment to fend off the takeover bid against shareholders' interests.

Tribune Publishing group was spun off the larger Tribune Co. in 2014, retaining the group's newspaper holdings.

Gannett also broke up its media conglomerate last year, splitting off its television operations into a new firm called Tegna.
Abidjan (AFP) - Ivory Coast's former first lady Simone Gbagbo said Thursday her husband Laurent Gbagbo would have hit her if she had suggested in 2010 that he should step down to avoid bloodshed.

On the third day of her trial for crimes against humanity in Abidjan, Gbagbo was asked by presiding judge Bouakhi Kouadio why she hadn't asked her husband to cede power when he refused to admit electoral defeat.

"He was the winner," the former first lady told the court.

"He would have slapped me" if I'd tried to persuade him to give up power, she added.

The decision by Laurent Gbagbo not to recognise the victory of his rival Alassane Ouattara triggered a post-election crisis which cost the lives of more than 3,000 people in five months.

The former president is currently on trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague for war crimes linked to the unrest that followed his refusal to step down.

The influential and hated former first lady has often been accused of strongly supporting her husband's bid to cling to power and of links to the death squads of Gbagbo supporters.

On Thursday she also defended the role played by the "Young Patriots" youth militia which her husband used to at times to bolster his strength by organising riots.

"The patriots did useful work in Ivory Coast. Ivorians should say thank you," Gbagbo said, adding that she was "shocked when they are accused of abuses".

Gbagbo, nicknamed the Ivory coast's "Iron Lady", denied ever having seen the Young Patriots carrying arms and confessed ignorance as to how the movement was funded in 2010-02011.

"I attended their rallies... but I was not their financier," she said.

Young Patriots moment leader Charles Ble Goude, is on trial with Laurent Gbagbo in The Hague.

On Wednesday Simone Gbagbo said she suffered a rape attempt when she and her husband were arrested on April 11, 2011.

She also claimed French soldiers deployed in Ivory Coast filmed the attempted rape.

Simone Gbagbo, 66, denies charges of crimes against prisoners of war, crimes against the civilian population and crimes against humanity.

Several human rights groups representing victims have pulled out of the legal proceedings, saying the case against her was flawed and too hastily organised.
(Adds quotes)

BERLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - Germany will demand compensation from Airbus Group for delays in deliveries of its troubled A400M transport plane, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.

The German government also expects Airbus to provide a comprehensive plan on how the company plans to deal with the problems in the A400M programme, the minister added.

"It is good that in this case we have a very solid contract which clearly spells out potential compensation," von der Leyen told reporters at the Berlin air show.

"The manufacturer is responsible for compensation for every day that a further A400M delivery is delayed, including with cash payments. And we will exercise our right to these."

She made no comment on the value of the compensation.

Germany has ordered 53 of the planes from Airbus, but only three planes have been delivered so far due to production delays caused in part by gearbox glitches on the plane's turboprop engines.

Airbus Chief Executive Tom Enders said on Wednesday he could not say if Airbus would meet its original target of delivering 20 or more A400M planes this year.

Von der Leyen said the government was actively exploring options to bridge the gap in transport needs caused by the delays in the troubled military transport programme, but provided no further details.

German government sources said on Tuesday that Berlin is not considering cancelling the troubled A400M programme but is looking at acquiring other transport planes since the A400M cannot land at small airports.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Writing by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Joseph Nasr and Alexandra Hudson)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has broad and strong relations with Turkey despite differences on some issues, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday after lawmakers passed a resolution describing the 1915 massacres of Armenians by Ottoman forces as "genocide". Turkey, which rejects the description, has recalled its ambassador to Germany in response. "There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great," Merkel said at a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. She added that Germany supported dialogue between Turkey and Armenia and sought good relations with Ankara. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers and Noah Barkin)
Berlin (AFP) - German lawmakers are preparing to pass a resolution Thursday that recognises the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, despite stark warnings from Turkey that the vote could hurt ties.

Put forward by the ruling left-right coalition and the opposition Greens, the resolution entitled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916" also carries the contentious word throughout the text.

The vote comes at a particularly awkward time as Germany and the European Union need Turkey to help stem a record influx of migrants even as tensions are rising between both sides over human rights and other issues.

Yerevan has long sought international recognition of the "genocide", but Ankara rejects the use of the term to describe the World War I-era killings and argues that it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died.

Heaping on pressure ahead of the vote, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned: "If (Germany) falls into such a game, that would harm our future ties -- the diplomatic, economic, political, commercial and military ties between the two countries."

"I believe all of these would be reconsidered," he said, adding that he had also telephoned Chancellor Angela Merkel over the text.

Nevertheless, Merkel backs the resolution, her spokeswoman said, even though the German leader would not attend the Bundestag vote Thursday due to other official engagements.

Armenia and Turkey have been at loggerheads over the massacre.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

But modern Turkey, the successor state to the Ottomans, says that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, have recognised the Armenian genocide, but Germany has not.

Story continues

- 'Wrong path?' -

In direct reference to the atrocities against the Armenians, the resolution says: "Their fate exemplifies the mass exterminations, the ethnic cleansing, the expulsions and indeed the genocides that marked the 20th century in such a terrible way."

It also states that the "German Empire bears partial responsibility for the events," a point that German President Joachim Gauck also made last year during commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the killings.

Germany was then allied with the Ottomans, and deployed soldiers who participated in the deportations of Armenians, said Gauck.

The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, as it has special ties with Ankara not least due to its three-million-strong ethnic Turkish population which settled following a massive "guest worker" programme in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the run-up to the vote, Turkish groups organised protests and sent letters to lawmakers to get them to oppose the resolution.

Kurds in Germany launched a counter-campaign, flooding Bundestag lawmakers with emails urging them to withstand Turkish pressure.

Armenia's President Serge Sarkissian also weighed in on the eve of the vote, urging German MPs to stand firm.

"It would not be fair to not call the genocide of Armenians genocide just because that makes the head of state of another country angry," he told Bild daily in an interview.

"I am sure that Bundestag politicians see it this way too and will not be intimidated," he added.

Yet the vote is also controversial within the coalition and political parties.

The German government's top official in charge of integration, Aydan Oezoguz, warned that it is the "wrong path" to take.

"Those who think that such a move would lead automatically to a rehabilitation in Turkey are wrong. Through this vote, that aim would be pushed further away."

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who a year ago rejected Gauck's use of the word "genocide", said Tuesday he hoped the Bundestag resolution would not derail efforts to reconcile Turkey and Armenia.
(Adds Draghi, Rajoy, Rutte, background)

BERLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said they wanted Britain to stay in the European Union on Thursday, three weeks before Britons vote on the country's future in the 28-member bloc.

Merkel said if Britain chose to leave it would not be able to reap benefits from a free trade deal being negotiated between the European Union and the United States, and it would also miss out on the advantages of the EU single market.

"It is naturally the decision of the British people how to vote. I personally wish that Britain will remain a part of the European Union," Merkel said during a news conference after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

"Why do I wish this?... I believe that when we sit together in the European Union, every side, including Britain, can make its argument more efficiently and better, and every result is better than when one does it from outside," she said.

Merkel wants the EU to complete negotiations with the United States this year on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), whose supporters say would deliver more than $100 billion of gains on both sides.

Britain votes on June 23 on whether to stay in the EU, a choice with far-reaching consequences for politics, the economy, defence and diplomacy in Britain and beyond. EU leaders are counting on British Prime Minister David Cameron to carry the day in his campaign to avert a Brexit they fear would have deeply damaging economic and political effects on the bloc.

Speaking in Vienna, Draghi said the ECB remained ready for any outcome from the referendum and hoped Britain stayed in.

"The ECB has a view whereby the UK should remain in the European Union because the European Union will benefit from its permanence, and we believe the UK too will benefit from staying in the European Union," he said after the bank's policy-setting meeting.

Story continues

The ECB, which was meeting in the Austrian capital, has cited Britain's EU membership referendum as one of the key sources of political risk that could undermine the euro zone's financial stability. Britain is outside the euro zone.

But the ECB has given no details about its own preparations for the referendum, and Draghi did not mention any such steps when asked about them in his news conference.

Merkel and Draghi added their voices to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who have both warned of consequences for Britain if it voted to leave.

"I think it would be very bad news, for the UK, for the Netherlands, for Europe as a whole," Rutte told the BBC on Wednesday. "For two reasons. First of all, take the Netherlands and the UK. We are both seafaring nations. Our prosperity, our ability to create jobs, future growth, is built on the free market, is built on open borders," he said.

He added that a vote to leave would spark "an inevitable, unavoidable race to the bottom".

Rajoy told the Spanish news agency EFE on Thursday that Britons could lose their right to live in Spain if they voted to leave the EU, adding that scrapping free movement rights would be "negative for everyone." (Reporting by Madeline Chambers, Noah Barkin and Francesco Canepa; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / Wolf Wiese, CEO of Golden Dawn Minerals Inc., (GOM.V) (3G8A.F) (the "Company" or "Golden Dawn") announces that effective immediately, Mr. Fred Jones has agreed to join the board of directors of Golden Dawn. Mr. Jones has a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy as well as his Masters of Business Administration.

From 1998 to 2006 Mr. Jones was the Vice President of Bear Stearns & Co in San Francisco and London. In 2006 he was the founding Managing Director of Jutland Capital Management in Vancouver, specializing in global fixed income, commodities, and currency research and portfolio management. In 2007 he founded Jutland Group in Hong Kong, where he is consulting Chairman to the company, responsible for overseeing commodity operations, financing and investment management operations.

With other positions held at firms such as Morgan Stanley & Co, Merrill Lynch & Co. and over 20 years' experience working directly in investment, the public markets, fixed income, foreign exchange and commodity portfolio management, the Company is very pleased to have someone of this caliber joining the board.

We welcome Mr. Jones to our team to add his considerable expertise in our industry to coordinate financings and distribution of our equities of our company.

The Company has also granted 400,000 stock options at an exercise price of $0.15 effective today. The options are exercisable for 5 years and will be cancelled 30 days after cessation of acting as director, officer, employee or consultant of the Company.

On behalf of the Board of Directors:

GOLDEN DAWN MINERALS INC.

"Wolf Wiese"

Wolf Wiese

Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

Corporate Communications

604-221-8936

allinfo@goldendawnminerals.com

THIS PRESS RELEASE WAS PREPARED BY MANAGEMENT WHO TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ITS CONTENTS. NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS CERTAIN FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS WHICH INVOLVE KNOWN AND UNKNOWN RISKS, DELAYS, AND UNCERTAINTIES NOT UNDER THE COMPANY'S CONTROL WHICH MAY CAUSE ACTUAL RESULTS, PERFORMANCE OR ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE COMPANY TO BE MATERIALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE RESULTS, PERFORMANCE, OR ACHIEVEMENTS IMPLIED BY THESE FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS. WE SEEK SAFE HARBOR.

SOURCE: Golden Dawn Minerals Inc.
According to Bloomberg, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS has retrenched employees in the investment banking division in London, New York and Hong Kong in the wake of reduced deals and 60% slump in first-quarter profits. Notably, the positions include that of managing directors, executive directors and vice presidents in the mergers and debt and equity capital markets units.



According to the source, the latest job cuts add to the dismissal of 5% of the annual workforce to make way for new recruits. Also, the report mentions that the New York-based banking giants job cuts follow the layoff of over 5% of its fixed-income traders and salespersons this year.



Notably, in March, Goldman updated the job cut list filed with the New York State Department of Labor. According to the amended warn notice, the company disclosed the potential termination of 109 employees, up from 43 reported in February.



Also, the amended filing extended the time period of the concerned layoffs which are scheduled to take place between May 9 and Dec 31. While the filing does not reveal which operations or positions will be affected, it gives the reason for elimination as economic.



On the contrary, the investment-banking unit of Goldman top-ranked as merger advisor in 2015 and was the most profitable among the banks four operating segments. However, to date in 2016, completed mergers globally have inched down over 80%, while equity offerings have declined approximately 65%.



Goldmans move does not come as a surprise as post crisis, investment banks have not been able to boost revenues amid stricter regulations, low rate environment and challenging market scenario. Several other banks that are eliminating employees include Bank of America Corporation BAC, Credit Suisse Group AG CS and Deutsche Bank AG DB.



Goldman carries a Zacks Rank # 3 (Hold).



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Yahoo Finance is tracking the stocks youre following, based on your Yahoo Finance ticker searches.

Apple (AAPL)  Goldman Sachs cut its price target on Apple to $124 from $136. The investment bank also lowered its forecast for iPhone unit sales to 211 million from 212 million for 2016.

Tesla (TSLA)  China Daily is reporting that the Model X will be delivered ahead of schedule in China. The report says Tesla will now deliver the vehicles at the end of this month instead of the first quarter of 2017.

Oracle (ORCL)  The company is in focus on Wall Street after a former senior finance manager says she was terminated for complaining about improper accounting practices. The former executive, Svetlana Blackburn, said she was told to add millions of dollars of accruals for expected business.

Joy Global (JOY)  The mining equipment maker topped earnings estimates but reported a decline in revenue for the 13th quarter in a row. Joy Global posted earnings per share of $0.09 on revenue of $602 million.

Box (BOX)  The cloud storage company reported first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates, but its stock is under pressure after posting disappointing billings figures. Box reported adjusted loss per share of $0.18 on revenue of $90.2 million.

McDonald's (MCD) - Crains Chicago Business is reporting that the fast-food giant is close to striking a deal to move its headquarters to Oprahs old Harpo studio campus in Chicago.
Stocks in the airline space have hit a purple patch in spite of a few adverse factors. The decline in oil prices since mid-2014 has been a major boon for the stocks in this space. Meanwhile, the release of the profit forecast for 2016 by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) unveils a bright picture, again, thanks to cheap oil.

Soft oil prices have resulted in massive savings for carriers, courtesy a sharp reduction in their operating expenses as fuel costs represent a significant chunk of airline costs. Despite the recent rally, oil prices are still hovering around the $50 a barrel mark, a long way off the highs of mid-2014 when the commodity had traded in excess of $100 a barrel. Naturally, this has aided the bottom line of carriers significantly resulting in impressive performances with respect to earnings per share.

Profitability Forecast

At its Annual General Meeting in Dublin, the IATA increased its projection for 2016 global net profit for the industry to $39.4 billion from the earlier $36.3 billion. The comparable 2015 figure was $35.3 billion. In the event of the forecast coming true, 2016 would be the fifth successive year of profit improvement for the airline industry.

The bulk of the global profits ($22.9 billion) is expected to come from the North American region. The other regions, namely, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa are expected to generate post-tax net profit of $7.8 billion, $7.5 billion, $0.1 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively. African carriers are expected to continue their dismal performance in 2016, suffering losses to the tune of $0.5 billion.

Global net profit margin is expected to expand to 5.6% in 2016 from 4.9% a year ago. The top line is however projected to shrink 1.3% to $709 billion with passenger revenues dropping 1.3% to $511 billion and cargo revenues recorded a decline. Cargo demand is expected to grow only 2.1%, below the 2015 growth levels.

Story continues

According to the forecast, 2016 is expected to see air travel growth of 6.2% compared with 7.4% growth witnessed last year. Capacity is projected to increase by 6.8% in 2016 as opposed to the 6.7% increase seen in 2015. According to the forecast, load factor (% of seats filled by passengers) for 2016 is expected to decline 40 basis points to 80% due to capacity expansion outweighing traffic growth. Yield is projected to decline 7% and unit costs are expected to reduce by 7.7%.

The research firm has also predicted that airline companies will earn $10.42 per passenger in 2016. The firm holds that oil prices will continue to fall in 2016 with the average price in the year hovering around $45 per barrel, down 16.5%. Fuel expenses are expected to decline considerably to $127 billion in 2016.

Although it is a fact that most carriers hedge at least some of their fuel costs, the majority of them should still continue to benefit considerably from the plunge in oil prices. Notably, carriers use a combination of calls, swaps and collars at varying WTI crude-equivalent price levels to hedge fuel costs.

IATA Forecast Follows Bullish A4A View

The rosy picture painted by the IATA for North American carriers, which include the likes of United Continental Holdings Inc. UAL, Delta Air Lines DAL, Southwest Airlines Co. LUV, JetBlue Airways Corp. JBLU, American Airlines Group AAL and Alaska Air Group Inc. ALK, comes close on the heels of the forecast provided by Airlines for America (A4A). According to the projection, the three month period between June and August will be the busiest one for U.S. carriers in terms of air travel.

Headwinds Remain

Despite the benefits driven mainly by low oil prices, carriers are not bereft of headwinds. Issues like capacity woes, declining passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM), multiple probes and labor strife continue to hurt stocks in the space. These headwinds resulted in the NYSE ARCA Airline index losing 3.67% so far in 2016.

It is no secret that pricing and capacity worries have plagued airline stocks for quite some time. That capacity woes will continue to hurt carriers in 2016 was revealed by the IATA which expects capacity growth (6.8%) to outpace traffic expansion (6.2%). According to the report, capacity expansion has outpaced traffic growth for carriers in all regions except Latin America which includes the likes of GOL Linhas GOL.

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Christian Louboutin is expanding its beauty range with the launch of a new lipstick, inspired by the shoe designer's love of all things lacquer.

'Loubilaque', which will debut this summer, promises high coverage, high shine, and high drama color in a bold antithesis of the current matte trend sweeping the makeup industry. Its high concentration of pigments is designed to offer a sleek, bold formula that is specially formulated to reflect light, combining intense color and shine, as opposed to the gloss achieved by liquid formulas.

The product will be available in eight different shades ranging from nudes to bright reds, including the brand's signature Rouge Louboutin. Each lip lacquer is infused with a subtle scent.

The lipstick's bottle, which can be worn as a vial around the neck, is designed with thick clear walls carved with a mermaid tail motif. The product is enclosed with a Turret-like crown reminiscent of the ornate aesthetics of Middle-Eastern antiquities and the Art Deco movement, and is topped by a metallic cap.

Louboutin, known for his blood red stilettoes, first broke into the beauty industry in 2014 with a nail polish collection, but cemented his influence on the market last September when he released a lipstick line that riffed on his iconic red shade. Loubilaque will join the brand's existing Velvet Matte, Sheer Voile, and Silky Satin lip color finishes.

The designer has a long history with lacquer, basing his infamous red soles on a nail lacquer and often turning to high-shine patent leather finishes throughout his work.

Loubliaque will be in selected stores and on www.christianlouboutin.com from July 2016, priced at 80.
You know that moment when you start scrolling through your phone looking for photos and apps to delete to free up storage on your phone?

Google thinks it can help make the dreaded routine less of a pain. The company is testing a new feature that suggests which apps you should delete first to free up room on your device, Android Police reports.

If a user attempts to install an app from Google Play and their device doesnt have enough space, this uninstall manager will pop up to suggest apps for removal, organizing them by frequency of use and largest file size.

As mobile game and app quality increases, so do their file sizes. This feature could help Android users manage their downloads to keep the apps most pertinent to their life when storage space is precious.

For now, only a select group of users can see and use the feature as it remains under testing. Google has not announced when the feature will be available to all users, TechCrunch reports.

NOW WATCH: How to see everything Google knows about you





More From Business Insider


whistleblower

There's been a number of negative reports about Google's subsidiary Nest recently, based on leaks from anonymous sources within the company.

Google's not happy about it.

And to stop those leaks, Google has set up an internal website for employees to report whistle-blowers, according to The Information.

The website, which has been in place for a while, uses the internal URL, go/stopleaks, according to The Information.

The report says Google's global-investigations team manager, Brian Katz, recently told Nest employees about the internal whistle-blower website at an all-hands meeting. He encouraged them to air their frustrations with the company by talking to management instead of taking it to the press, according to the report.

The Information article also tells the story of a former Nest employee who was allegedly fired for posting complaints about the company on Facebook. Google has an internal policy that bans employees from sharing confidential information with outsiders, it says.

Nest, the smart-home company Google bought for $3.2 billion, has faced a number of reports recently indicating internal turmoil. The Information published a brutal profile of its CEO Tony Fadell, while Business Insider previously reported on some of the product problems and overall disorganization. Recode also shared some of the funny images mocking Nest and Fadell that were posted on Google's internal network.

Google's representative wasn't immediately available for comment.





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By Davide Scigliuzzo

NEW YORK, June 2 (IFR) - Emerging markets asset manager Gramercy announced on Thursday that it had filed a US$1.6bn arbitration claim against Peru as part of a long-running dispute over defaulted 40-year old bonds.

The Connecticut-based fund accuses the sovereign of indirectly expropriating its investment in the land bonds and other violations under the US-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

"The government has consistently declined to enter into serious discussions on this matter, leading Gramercy to file the arbitration," the fund said in a press release.

Holders of the defaulted bonds, including Gramercy, claim a 2013 Peruvian court ruling on the method of payment short-changed them by several billion dollars and subordinates institutional investors in the payment structure.

(Reporting by Davide Scigliuzzo; Editing by Paul Kilby and Jack Doran)
EDMONTON, AB / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / Grizzly Discoveries Inc. (GZD.V) (OTC Pink: GZDIF) (FSE: G6H) ("Grizzly" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has appointed Mr. Andre Dallaire as an Advisor to the Board of Directors of the Company. Mr. Dallaire is a former Canadian diplomat, having served as consul and assistant trade commissioner for ten years in the US, Turkey, Peru and France. Mr. Dallaire subsequently worked as a financial advisor and consultant to Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain Telecom in Bahrain. Mr. Dallaire currently resides in Panama and has been an active investor in gold and other mineral resources stocks since 2008.

The Company also announces that the Board of Directors has granted stock options ("Options") to directors, officers, and consultants of the Company to acquire up to an aggregate 2,200,000 common shares of the Company ("Shares") under the Company's Stock Option Plan, of which 1,400,000 were granted to insiders of the Company. The Options are exercisable at a price of $0.075 per Share, vest immediately upon issuance, and expire on June 2, 2021 or earlier in accordance with the provisions of the Company's Stock Option Plan.

ABOUT GRIZZLY DISCOVERIES INC.

Grizzly is a diversified Canadian mineral exploration company with its primary listing on the TSX Venture Exchange with 52.4 million shares issued, focused on developing significant Potash assets in Alberta and its precious metals properties in southeastern British Columbia. The Company holds over 235,000 acres of precious-base metal properties in British Columbia; more than 223,430 acres of properties which host diamondiferous kimberlites in the Buffalo Head Hills region of Alberta; and metallic and industrial mineral permits for potash totaling more than 143,000 acres along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.

On behalf of the Board,

Grizzly Discoveries Inc.

Brian Testo

CEO, President

(780) 693-2242

For further information, please visit our website at www.grizzlydiscoveries.com or contact:

Nancy Massicotte, Investor Relations

Story continues

IR PRO COMMUNICATIONS INC.

Tel: 604-507-3377

Toll Free: 1-866-503-3377

Email: ir@grizzlydiscoveries.com

www.irprocommunications.com

or

Ian Lambert

COO, Grizzly Discoveries Inc.

Tel: 416-840-9843

Email: ilambert@grizzlydiscoveries.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Grizzly Discoveries Inc.
By Lacey Ann Johnson

FORT MEADE, Md. (Reuters) - A Guantanamo Bay detainee took the witness stand on Thursday to back up claims by a suspected Sept. 11 plotter who said guards at the U.S. prison used noises and vibrations to torment him.

Yemeni defendant Ramzi bin al Shibh testified in February that electronic devices hidden inside his cell were used to produce tremors and banging noises, disrupting his sleep for years. Prosecutors responded by questioning his mental state.

Shibh told me that hes got a problem ... and I have the same problem that hes got, Guleed Hassan Ahmed, 43, a Somali inmate at the U.S. Navy prison in Cuba, said during the pre-trial hearing.

They have mental torturing in the Camp Seven, said Ahmed, who lives with Bin al Shibh in Camp Seven, the secret part of the prison where former Central Intelligence Agency captives are held.

Bin al Shibh is among five men being tried for conspiring to help hijackers slam airliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. Almost 3,000 people died in the attacks.

Speaking in broken English, Ahmed described vibrations in his cell floor, a constant stinky smell and noises that sounded like someone on the roof ... hitting hammer.

Prosecutor Edward Ryan accused Ahmed of lying and questioned him on his disciplinary record at the prison. He has been held at Guantanamo Bay without charges since 2006.

Do you remember the time you spit out a food tray slot at a guard? asked Ryan.

Yes, I did, replied Ahmed. If you were there in the camp, you would do the same.

Testimony from another detainee, Abu Zubaydah, was postponed because of concerns that he might reveal sensitive information. Zubaydah, a Palestinian, has not been seen publicly since his CIA capture in 2002.

Defense attorneys called Ahmed and Zubaydah to testify in an attempt to prove that prison staff have ignored a 2013 court order to stop harassing Bin al Shibh. Guards have denied the abuse allegations.

Story continues

There are 80 prisoners still at the Cuban base, mostly from Yemen.

Reuters monitored the proceedings over closed-circuit television from a media center at Fort Meade, Maryland outside Washington.

(Editing by Bill Trott and Steve Orlofsky)
LONDON (Reuters) - London's Westminster Abbey has hosted royal weddings as well as burials and memorials for numerous famous British subjects. On Thursday, its cloisters were the setting for a rather different gathering -- a fashion show. Italian luxury label Gucci took fashionistas to the famed venue, where Britain's Prince William married Kate Middleton in 2011, to present its colourful and eclectic 2017 cruise collection. With "Punks, Victoriana and schoolboys" the inspiration for creative director Alessandro Michele, models strutted down the walkways of the cloisters, which date from the 13th to 15th centuries, in bold designs adorned with peacocks and snakes. Dresses sported lace and frills, skirts came in colourful check prints and handbags were decorated with floral embroideries. There was also plenty of ruffles and polka dots. The decision to hold the show in the Abbey did draw criticism from some religious figures. London newspaper The Evening Standard quoted Michele as defending his location choice because "history is what is really cool". The Gucci show in London follows French fashion house Dior's cruise line presentation at the majestic Blenheim Palace outside Oxford, northwest of London, earlier this week. Cruise collections, originally designed for wealthy clients holidaying on yachts or cruises during the winter months, are outfits produced by stylists on top of seasonal lines. (Writing By Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Mosquitoes and ticks are spreading more rapidly than ever, both across the U.S. and around the globe. And with each new season, the list of diseases they carry grows longer.

The reasons for this upward trend are not surprising: rising global temperatures, increasing urbanization, and unprecedented international travel have forced bugs and humans into an ever-closer proximity, and given each new scourge the potential to go global, quickly.

But it can be tough to know exactly which mosquito- and tick-borne diseases to worry about in any given place, at any given time.

Zika got the most attention last year, in part because of its rapid spread in South America and the Carribean, and its association with severe birth defects. But in the continental U.S., West Nile Virus remains the most common mosquito-borne disease by far, outpacing Zika by an order of magnitude:

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 2,000 cases of West Nile in 46 states, compared with only 200 cases of Zika in just Florida and Texas (an additional 80-or-so cases of Zika were spread through sexual or mother-to-fetus transmission).

And Lyme disease, which is spread by ticks, is still more common than any mosquito-borne pathogen. The CDC estimates 300,000 Americans developed Lyme last year. And though the disease itself is still concentrated in the Northeast, the range of its vector (the deer tick) has spread by more than 300 percent in the past three decades.

There are proven ways to protect yourself (and your family) from all of these diseases: Keeping your grass cut low, ridding your yard of standing water, tucking your pants into your socks on long walks, and wearing an effective insect repellent on your exposed skin are all good places to start.

But it also helps to know which diseases are spreading where, and what signs and symptoms to watch out for in your particular neck of the woods. To help you keep track, weve created this interactive map.

Story continues





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Update: June 2, 2016: A spokeswoman for the LAPD has identified the gunman involved in Wednesdays murder-suicide at UCLA as Mainak Sarkar, according to the Associated Press.

The Los Angeles Times identifies Sarkar as a former doctoral student at UCLA who had accused the victim, William Klug, of stealing his computer code. Sardar had apparently lashed out against Klug on social media prior to the shooting, alleging he was untrustworthy and calling him a very sick person. Klug, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, had been Sarkars advisor as he pursued his doctorate.

Update: 3:22 p.m.: The shooting at UCLA's campus that left two dead Wednesday morning was a murder-suicide, police confirmed. LAPD tweeted that while the campus is "safe" and the incident "contained," a search will continue "out of an abundance of caution."

Update: 2:49 p.m.: An LAPD spokesman confirmed that two people have been killed in the Wednesday morning shooting at UCLA, The Associated Press reported on Twitter.

In a statement, the LAPD said that both the victims were male, and that, while a search continues, no additional suspects have been seen so far. UCLA police Chief James Herren added that it was possible that one of the victims had also been the shooter, the AP reported.

A spokeswoman for the university also confirmed that the shooters whereabouts are currently unknown. The campus is still on lockdown, and students are advised to shelter in place.

This story was originally published at 2:07 p.m.

Two people have been shot at UCLA amid reports of an active shooter on the Southern California campus, according to The Associated Press.

A spokeswoman for the college confirmed to the AP that two people had been shot. The victims conditions are currently unknown.

Police responded to a call at the schools engineering building, Boelter Hall, at about 9:55 a.m. local time. Students and faculty are being instructed to take shelter at a secure location, and the campus is on lockdown.

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UCLA has about 43,000 students on campus. Students are posting images and updates about the lockdown on Twitter, including purported warnings about the situation.

This is a developing story, and will be updated as details emerge.

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Gunmen on Thursday kidnapped at least 17 people travelling in civilian vehicles in northern Afghanistan, officials said, in the second group abduction within a week, underscoring the worsening security situation in the country.

The passengers, all minority Hazaras, were pulled out of their vehicles in Sancharak district in Sar-e-Pul province and taken to a remote area controlled by Taliban insurgents, the local governor said.

"They are all innocent civilians with no government connections. We have asked local elders to talk to the Taliban commanders and secure their release," Governor Zaher Wahdat told AFP.

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

The three-million-strong Afghan Hazara community has been persecuted for decades, with thousands killed in the late 1990s by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

There has been a surge in violence against the community, with a series of kidnappings and killings in recent months that have triggered a wave of fury on social media.

The incident occurred two days after the Taliban killed 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and kidnapped dozens of others in northern Kunduz province.

The insurgents said they were targeting Afghan security officials aboard the buses passing through the insurgency-prone district of Aliabad, as the insurgents step up their annual spring offensive after naming a new leader last week.

Hundreds of people chanting "Death to Taliban" protested in Kabul on Thursday against the violence in Kunduz.

"How long will people have to suffer bloodshed?" said protester Sayed Mohammad. "Neither government staff nor civilians are safe to come out of their homes."

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan voiced concern over the growing incidents of attacks against civilian vehicles.

"Taking civilians hostage is indefensible," UNAMA chief Nicholas Haysom said in a statement.

"I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians detained and a halt to this horrible practice."

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The Taliban last week announced Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader, elevating a low-profile religious figure in a swift power transition after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

The drone attack was the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil.

Observers say Akhundzada, who is seen as more of a spiritual figurehead than a military commander, will emulate Mansour in shunning peace talks and intensifying attacks against the Afghan government.
From Esquire

Malick gave him his first big break, and Spielberg is about to introduce him to true Hollywood stardom. Meanwhile, we offered Tye Sheridan a real acting challenge: a shoot in the desert with two great costars, a choice summer wardrobe, and a briefcase full of something everyone wants.

TYE SHERIDAN

Plucked from obscurity at the age of 10, after a casting director visited his public school in Elkhart, Texas (population 1,475), Sheridan made his acting debut in 2011 as Brad Pitt's youngest son in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life. The confident first-timer, big-eyed and lanky, quickly earned the nickname "Torpedo" from Malick himself for his ability to infuse vibrant energy into even the quietest of scenes. Now 19, Sheridan is poised for a breakout year. First up he'll play a young Cyclops in the big-budget X-Men: Apocalypse spectacular, and he'll follow it with a part in a gritty adaptation of Kevin Powers's acclaimed war memoir, The Yellow Birds. Then it's on to his biggest role yet: the lead in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, the highly anticipated adaptation of Ernest Cline's best-selling science-fiction novel. "I can't express my excitement," Sheridan says. "Spielberg's like, The One, you know?" Currently living out of a suitcase, Sheridan calls Austin home, and it's not far from the 80 acres of land where he grew up hunting and fishing instead of watching television. (He claims to have watched only two series ever: Eastbound & Down and The Jinx.) He's more familiar with the classics-but smart enough not to get overly enamored. "I think if you're trying to be the next James Dean or Marlon Brando," he says, "you're already failing."

HAILEY BALDWIN

Baldwin  how do we know that name? Ah, yes. The Baldwins. Nineteen-year-old Hailey is one of them (uncle is Alec, dad is Stephen), and with campaigns for Topshop, Tommy Hilfiger, and H&M, and 5.5 million Instagram followers (to say nothing of friendships with all the preferred Jenners and Hadids), she is also a top model in the making.

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JOHN PEARSON

You think about the 1990's most famous faces and the names just come flooding right back: Naomi, Linda, Cindy  and John? John Pearson, that is. The guy in those iconic Drakkar Noir ads, and the Ralph Lauren and Perry Ellis ads, and George Michael's "Freedom" video. He's been modeling steadily ever since, most recently for Baume & Mercier and Kenneth Cole, and one thing's for sure: The guy's still got it.

LEAD IMAGE On Tye: Two-button jacquard suit ($2,770) and T-shirt ($430) by Gucci; shoes ($1,250) by Ralph Lauren; belt ($70) by Tommy Hilfiger; attache case ($595) by Zero Halliburton. On Hailey: Dress ($3,690), Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane; pumps ($1,350) by Christian Louboutin; earrings ($5,500) by Maxior. On John: Two-button jacket ($2,590) and trousers ($800) by Prada; shirt ($375) and belt ($375) by Ermenegildo Zegna; boots ($250) by Wolverine.

CENTER IMAGE On Tye: Two-button jacket ($1,980) and jeans (price upon request) by Bottega Veneta; boots ($450) by To Boot New York. On John: Double-breasted jacket ($1,475) by Emporio Armani; shirt ($875) by Giorgio Armani; trousers ($550) by Louis Vuitton.On Hailey: Dress ($3,690), Saint Laurent by Hedi Slimane; pumps ($1,350) by Christian Louboutin; earrings ($5,500) by Maxior. Car: Vintage 1957 Porsche Speedster.
ABC broke the hearts of Agent Carter fans last month when it canceled the Marvel drama after just two seasons. Now, less than a month later, star Hayley Atwell is giving loyal viewers hope.

Appearing at a fan convention in Florida recently, the British actress expressed optimism and hope that Peggy Carter's story wasn't over.

"There was talk of season three, which would have delved into her past a little bit more," Atwell said. "The showrunners were talking about a possible twist, I suppose, into something to do with my family."

RELATED: 'Agent Carter' Closes Out Season 2 With Old Friends, a New Love and a Murder Mystery

"They suggested that it would be all to do with my brother," she added, before raising fans' hopes even more with the idea of a Peggy Carter standalone movie.

Would she be open to doing more Agent Carter then? For Atwell, there was only one answer.

"Yeah, 100 percent. Absolutely," she said without hesitation.

"I love Peggy. I love the people working on this project together," Atwell continued. "The fans are incredibly warm and welcoming, and it'd be an absolute privilege and honor to bring her back for fans."

RELATED: Are Your Favorite TV Shows Renewed or Canceled? See the Complete List

Even with Atwell already locked up for a new fall show, ABC's legal drama Conviction, she was adamant that if Agent Carter was indeed saved, she'd do anything to make it work logistically.

"I'd shoot on the weekends. Blue serum. Whatever it takes," she said.

RELATED: Everything You Need to Know for 'Captain America: Civil War'

Back in January, Atwell sat down with ET to talk about Agent Carter and the lasting effect Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, had on Peggy.

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"He will always be a part of her in the sense that he taught her so much about how to conduct herself and to fight with purpose and determination, even if it means sacrificing yourself. That's what she'll take with her," she said.

To watch ET's interview with Atwell, press play on the video below!

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Ryan Gosling has spoken: girls rule, boys drool.

The actor  perhaps in fear his heartthrob title was in jeopardy  admitted to Evening Standard Magazine that he thinks females are the superior sex.

SEE ALSO: Justin Bieber's face tattoo may be a loving Ryan Gosling tribute

"I think women are better than men," Gosling said.

"They are stronger, more evolved. You can tell especially when you have daughters and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately," he added.

The actor has two daughters with girlfriend Eva Mendes  the youngest was born in April. He also explains how a strong female presence growing up (he was raised by his mother and older sister) made him aware of the male gaze.

When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very, very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory  a hunt, he said. Its our time as men to be on the receiving end of the stick."

The Nice Guys actor also said he identifies as 47-49 percent woman, depending on the day.

"I found my way into dance class. My home life now is mostly women. They are better than us. They make me better."

Gosling also vaguely hinted his support for Hillary Clinton saying the U.S. needs a "a woman's touch." (He, unfortunately, is Canadian and can't vote in 2016.)

But somewhere, the creator of the Feminist Ryan Gosling meme is smiling.

Image: feministryangosling/tumblr
ryangosling6

Getty Image

Ryan Goslings young daughters with actress Eva Mendes have allowed the actor to visualize the overall strength many women possess. The former Mouseketeer talked with Evening Standard Magazine about how he thinks women are stronger and more evolved than men.

I think women are better than men. They are stronger, more evolved. You can tell especially when you have daughters and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately.

Gosling and Mendes, who have been together for many years, have a toddler named Esmerelda Amada and in late April secretly had their second daughter who they named Amada Lee. Amada is said to be Mendes grandmothers name and it means beloved in Spanish.

This isnt the first time Gosling has spoken highly of women, The Daily Telegraph asked the actor back in 2015 how he felt about strong female leads in his movies and the Feminist Ryan Gosling project on tumblr.

I grew up with strong women and the amount of them grows exponentially as time goes on, in my world and thats my reality. So, I just tend to gravitate towards stories with strong female characters.

And if youre wondering how the actor feels about all that fuss he causes women and some men (because hes so hot), he told Evening Standard its our time as men to be on the receiving end of the stick, even though it can be a little creepy at times.

Ive always been aware of it. When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very, very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory  a hunt.

(via ES Magazine)
Hillary Clinton hasnt yet decided which Donald Trump shes running against.

A loose cannon who even Republicans dont like? Or a harsh ideologue committed to dangerous ideas on subjects like abortion? A plutocrat who wants to cut taxes on the rich? Or a fraud who doesnt mean what he says?

Members of the Brooklyn-based campaign and its allies have served up some version of each of those arguments against the presumptive Republican nominee. The voices sometimes contradict themselves, but reinforce a growing pile-on. Each makes a clear argument, but taken as a whole, they leave a muddled mess about why, exactly, voters should reject Trump.

Clinton will start to sharpen one line of criticism on Thursday, when she is set to deliver what aides are calling a major foreign policy address in San Diego.

You will hear in her speech a confidence in America and our capacity to overcome the challenges we face while staying true to our valuesa strong contrast to Donald Trumps incessant trash-talking of America, Clinton senior adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters late Wednesday. Shell make clear that the choice in this election goes beyond partisanship. Donald Trump is unlike any presidential nominee weve seen in modern times, and he is fundamentally unfit for the job.

Clinton has previously called Trump unqualified for the Presidency, but aides suggested she would go further when she speaks in the address, criticizing his America First approach to foreign policy as misguided and his attacks on Mexico, China and Muslims as wrong. A second Clinton aide promised she would rebuke the fear, bigotry and misplaced defeatism that Trump has been selling to the American people and make the affirmative case for the exceptional role America has played and must continue to play in order to keep our country safe and our economy growing.

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The former First Lady, New York Senator and Secretary of State has an undeniable leg-up when it comes to experience in this area, but Trumps unconventional candidacy has made it harder to prosecute the case against him.

Trump has offered policy positions that typically are avoided by national candidates from either party. He has said he would ban Muslims from entering the United States for a period, round up and deport immigrants in the country illegally and encourage Japan and South Korea to develop nuclear weapons. He has said hes open to ending or rolling back the United States role in NATO, stated a willingness to speak directly with North Koreas Kim Jong Un and signaled ambivalence toward the British. But hes also at times backed away from his own ideas, calling the Muslim ban merely a suggestion and saying he might make an exception for the new mayor of London, who is Muslim.

Now that the primary is winding down and Clinton is all-but-assured to win the Democratic nomination, she is working to win over Republicans and moderates, leaning increasingly on a foreign policy resume that is likely to attract serious students of how America works around the world. Many Republicans have said Trump would set the United States back decades and inspire waves of anti-American sentiments.

America turning inward not only will make the world more dangerous for others, but also for us, former Defense Secretary Bob Gates told a Washington audience last month. Gates, who led the Pentagon under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, did not mention Trump by name.

In March, 90 GOP foreign policy luminaries signed an open letter opposing Trump. Already, intelligence officials have noted an uptick of anti-American fervor as Trumps profile has risen.

When you run for president of the United States, the entire world is listening and watching, Clinton told CNN last month.

Despite her warnings, Trump runs about even in Clinton in polls when voters are asked who would best handle the United States national security. Trumps bluster grates Washingtons foreign policy Establishment, but it riles up voters in the heartland who believe Trumps slogan (Make America Great Again) is sound doctrine. His brand of nationalism helped him overtake candidates with more serious foreign policy stints on their resumes such as Senate Foreign Policy Relations members Rand Paul and Marco Rubio.

Clinton, who is viewed as too hawkish by some in her party, largely kept foreign policy a secondary issue during her own primary against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley. Instead, Clinton kept her focus on domestic issues that are popular among her partys liberal base. It didnt quiet worries about her instincts, but she is likely to officially win the delegates needed for the nomination next Tuesday, even if she loses Californias primary to Sanders.

Clinton is settling into her role as the partys nominee, and she is still figuring out just how to take on Trump. With few voters paying attention at this point, she has some time to test out different approaches. But the campaign will have to find a broad theme soon enough, or it risks following in the footsteps of Trumps 16 vanquished Republican rivals.
hillary clinton

Hillary Clinton is looking ahead to the general election and training her fire on Donald Trump.

She roasted her likely opponent in a lengthy speech on foreign policy on Thursday, emphasizing her experience and saying that electing Trump to the presidency would be a "historic mistake."

Clinton's speech got rave reviews from foreign-policy and political analysts, as well as from pundits on TV networks after it aired. CNN host Fareed Zakaria called it "the best speech she has ever made."

A Clinton aide told Business Insider that she spent the past 10 days formulating the speech. She spent a cross-country flight on Wednesday honing it with Megan Rooney, one of the campaign's speechwriters, and worked on final edits up until midday on Thursday, right before she gave the speech.

And the address ended up covering a lot of ground. She hit Trump on his proposal to build a wall along the US border with Mexico, criticism of the Iran nuclear deal, comments on US alliances and nuclear proliferation, calls to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the US, and readiness as commander in chief.

"It's very challenging for Hillary to make a good foreign-policy argument against Trump," Ian Bremmer, a geopolitical expert and president of the Eurasia Group, told Business Insider in an email, calling the speech "very solid."

"Most of what he's arguing for is completely implausible (nukes for Japan; a trade war with China); some is unconstitutional (a Muslim ban, sending back immigrants). But he's not in any way being punished for his policy agenda," Bremmer continued.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has suggested that South Korea and Japan might need to obtain nuclear weapons, said that he would restrict imports from China, and threatened to deport millions of immigrants living in the US illegally.

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"He's promising to be everything that the establishment hasn't been  and to be fair, on that limited count, he's certainly delivering," Bremmer said.

Still, Clinton has been slipping in primary polls in California, and Trump continues to see a groundswell of support among Republicans. While Clinton was delivering her speech in California, House Speaker Paul Ryan endorsed Trump for president.

Clinton "has plenty of intellectual points she can score," Bremmer said. "I'm certain the foreign-policy establishment found much to like. Lord knows they detest Trump  and they aren't getting on board the way the Republican leadership is. ... But that isn't going to swing the election."

Whether or not this speech will alone tilt the balance of the November election, it's one of the most comprehensive looks we've gotten yet of what Clinton will bring to her general-election campaign if, as expected, she secures the Democratic nomination for president.

Trump dismissed the speech as a "bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton" as she was giving it.

donald trump

Here are some of the key points she made against Trump in the speech:

On his proposal for a wall along the US border with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants: "We are not a country that cowers behind walls. We lead with purpose, and we prevail." And: "We're lucky to have two friendly neighbors on our land borders. Why would he want to make one of them an enemy?"

On his criticism of the Iran nuclear deal: "Donald Trump doesn't know the first thing about Iran or its nuclear program. Ask him. It'll become clear very quickly." And: "There's no risk of people losing their lives if you blow up a golf-course deal. But it doesn't work like that in world affairs."

On his suggestion that US allies don't contribute enough to their own defense: "Yes, our friends need to contribute their fair share. I made that point long before Donald Trump came onto the scene."

On his statements about Muslims: "Through all his loose talk, there's one constant theme: Demonizing Muslims and playing right into the hands of ISIS."

On his vague plans to combat the terrorist group ISIS: "A Trump presidency would embolden ISIS. We cannot take that risk."

On his readiness as commander in chief: "Imagine Donald Trump sitting in the Situation Room, making life-or-death decisions on behalf of the United States. Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he's angry, but America's entire arsenal. ... Do we want him making those calls  someone thin-skinned and quick to anger, who lashes out at the smallest criticism?"

On his foreign-policy experience: "He says he has foreign-policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia."

But Clinton didn't spend all of her time attacking Trump  she also outlined her own credentials.

She said:

I have some experience with the tough calls and the hard work of statecraft. I wrestled with the Chinese over a climate deal in Copenhagen, brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, negotiated the reduction of nuclear weapons with Russia, twisted arms to bring the world together in global sanctions against Iran, and stood up for the rights of women, religious minorities, and LGBT people around the world.

She also hit back against Trump's "America-first" strategy.

"I believe in strong alliances, clarity in dealing with our rivals, and a rock-solid commitment to the values that have always made America great," Clinton said.

She made the case for American power around the world.

"I believe with all my heart that America is an exceptional country  that we're still, in Lincoln's words, the last, best hope of earth. We are not a country that cowers behind walls. We lead with purpose, and we prevail," she said.

And she warned about what she thinks might happen if the US embraces Trump's more isolationist worldview.

"If America doesn't lead, we leave a vacuum  and that will either cause chaos, or other countries will rush in to fill the void. Then they'll be the ones making the decisions about your lives and jobs and safety  and trust me, the choices they make will not be to our benefit," Clinton said.

Here's how some other experts reacted to the speech on Twitter:

HRC delivered a compelling case that Trump would be a reckless commander in chief. That is her strongest argument  Laura Rozen (@lrozen) June 2, 2016

Perhaps Clinton's best speech thus far - erudite, calm, collected & sure; she has Donald by the balls. https://t.co/sebhZ8InB3  Brooklyn Middleton (@BklynMiddleton) June 2, 2016

You may hate Hillary and love Trump, but Trump looks more than a little nuts these days and HRC looks and sounds presidential.  Stuart Rothenberg (@StuPolitics) June 2, 2016

NOW WATCH: 'Youre a sleaze!': Here are all the insults Trump hurled at the press during a bizarre press conference





More From Business Insider


Hillary Clinton mercilessly mocked Donald Trump Thursday afternoon during a foreign policy address in San Diego, calling the presumptive Republican nominee a "dangerous" and "thin-skinned" candidate who is "temperamentally unfit" to be president.

Clinton's comments against Trump were her most forceful yet, and come as she prepares to clinch the Democratic nomination and officially begin the general election.

Her speech, at times, felt like a roast of the billionaire businessman, whom she called "dangerously incoherent," and whose foreign policy plans are "just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies."

This Clinton speech feels as if it is the aggregation of several dozen lines the Clinton campaign has been dying to unload.

She added that it would be a "historic mistake" to give "someone thin-skinned and quick to anger who lashes out at the smallest criticism" access to the nuclear codes.

"He says he doesn't have to listen to our generals or admirals, our ambassadors and other high officials, because he has 'a very good brain.' He also said, 'I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me,'" Clinton said. "You know what? I don't believe him."

Trump began lashing out at Clinton during her remarks, saying she gave a "[b]ad performance" and didn't "look presidential."

Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton! Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesn't even look presidential!

But Clinton, during her speech, already had a line about Trump's penchant for Twitter rants teed up  undercutting his retort.

"We all know the tools Donald Trump brings to the table: bragging, mocking, composing nasty tweets. I'm willing to bet he's writing a few right now," Clinton said, at almost the exact moment Trump fired off his missive.

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If you missed any portion of this Hillary Clinton speechpic.twitter.com/mzMVQKDOx8 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj-DBaAVAAAUwWR.jpg:large

In one of her most forceful objections to Trump's temperament, Clinton attacked Trump's comments about dictatorial leaders in China, North Korea and Russia, saying "I will leave it to the psychiatrists to explain his affection for tyrants."

"Making Donald Trump commander-in-chief would be an historic mistake," Clinton concluded in her remarks, which got a standing ovation.
Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton pulled no punches in a major foreign-policy speech on Thursday, coming out swinging against her likely general-election rival, Donald Trump.

In the speech, Clinton lobbed Trump-esque insults at the presumptive Republican presidential nominee in an apparent effort to match his headline-grabbing style.

"Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different, they're dangerously incoherent," Clinton said at the beginning of her speech, calling his policy declarations "a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds, and outright lies."

She set out to cast herself as the more qualified candidate, questioning Trump's foreign-policy credentials and saying that electing him would be a "historic mistake."

"He says he has foreign-policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia," Clinton said.

She also hit Trump over his suggestion that South Korea and Japan could be able to obtain nuclear weapons to defend themselves.

"I wonder if he even realizes he's talking about nuclear war," she said.

Clinton also questioned his temperament and mocked his bragging pronouncements about his capabilities.

"It's not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin," she said. "He says he doesn't have to listen to our generals or ambassadors, because he has  quote  'a very good brain.'"

Later, she criticized Trump's favorable statements about strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I will leave it to the psychiatrist to explain his affection for tyrants," Clinton said. "I just wonder how anyone could be so wrong about who America's real friends are."

Here are some of the key points she made in the speech:

On his proposal for a wall along the US border with Mexico to keep out undocumented immigrants: "We are not a country that cowers behind walls. We lead with purpose, and we prevail." And: "We're lucky to have two friendly neighbors on our land borders. Why would he want to make one of them an enemy?"

On his criticism of the Iran nuclear deal: "Donald Trump doesn't know the first thing about Iran or its nuclear program. Ask him. It'll become clear very quickly." And: "There's no risk of people losing their lives if you blow up a golf-course deal. But it doesn't work like that in world affairs."

On his suggestion that US allies don't contribute enough to their own defense: "Yes, our friends need to contribute their fair share. I made that point long before Donald Trump came onto the scene."

On his statements about Muslims: "Through all his loose talk, there's one constant theme: Demonizing Muslims and playing right into the hands of ISIS."

On his vague plans to combat the terrorist group ISIS: "A Trump presidency would embolden ISIS. We cannot take that risk."

On his readiness as commander in chief: "Imagine Donald Trump sitting in the Situation Room, making life-or-death decisions on behalf of the United States. Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he's angry, but America's entire arsenal. ... Do we want him making those calls  someone thin-skinned and quick to anger, who lashes out at the smallest criticism?"

Story continues

Trump was responding to Clinton's speech as it was ongoing. He tweeted:

Crooked Hillary no longer has credibility - too much failure in office. People will not allow another four years of incompetence!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton! Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesn't even look presidential!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

NOW WATCH: 'What magic wand do you have?': Obama calls out Trump





More From Business Insider


A rap collective from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, allegedly took the old adage, "write what you know," to heart when they set down lyrics for a single released this spring about credit card fraud.

The group, Pop Out Boyz, has been indicted in Manhattan on grand larceny charges, "accused of stealing more than $250,000 worth of luxury goods from Barneys and Saks Fifth Avenue over the last year," The New York Times reported. Their song, "For a Scammer," was inspired by experience, argued prosecutors quoted in the article.

"Watch the money do a back flip, early morning up at Saks Fifth," one vocalist raps. "You see it, you want it, you have it."

The song underscores a growing concern in New York City, where identity theft and credit card fraud are on the rise.

"The cards are easier to get now with the development of some of these dark websites," Capt. Christopher Flanagan, the commander of the Financial Crimes Task Force for the New York Police Department, told The Times, "and as one person learns how to commit a fraud, they spread that knowledge to others."

The Pop Out Boyz are accused of using sites like Uniccshop and Rescator to pilfer data from retailers' and other businesses' security breaches, The Times reported. Some of these sites are so sophisticated, they resemble online retailers, with shopping carts, customer service and a checkout process.

There's no surefire way to avoid falling victim to credit card fraud, given the prevalence of data breaches and credit card skimming, so it's important to monitor your financial accounts regularly for unauthorized charges. You should also consider setting up fraud alerts. If something looks awry, be sure to give your issuer a call to dispute any charges and have the card replaced. And, if you ever have reason to believe your personal information has been compromised alongside your plastic, it's a good idea to check your credit scores, which you can get for free on Credit.com. Signs of deeper identity theft include a sudden drop in scores, unfamiliar addresses and mysterious lines of credit.

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You may also look into a credit freeze, which denies potential creditors access to your credit reports, meaning they also can't open a new account. This can be useful when a scammer is trying to open accounts in your name, preventing identity theft before it occurs. You can also read our tips on what to do if you've been a victim of identity theft.



More from Credit.com


This hipster deconstructed coffee has the Internet hilariously freaking out

This hipster deconstructed coffee has the Internet hilariously freaking out

When you order a cup of coffee, you expect . . . well, a mug filled with coffee. Maybe its black coffee, and you put the milk and sugar in yourself. Maybe its a coffee drink that already has it mixed in. But when writer Jamila Rizvi went to a cafe in Melbourne, she received something she didnt expect  deconstructed coffee, or milk, boiled water, and coffee in three separate beakers.

Sorry Melbourne but no. No no no no no, Jamila wrote on Facebook, along with a picture of the three beakers. Hipsterism has gone too far when your coffee comes deconstructed. I just waited almost 20 minutes for an actual cup before realising [sic] it would not be forthcoming. . . Ill just get a chopping board with a bunch of actual coffee beans and an upside down hat on it.

Sorry Melbourne but no. No no no no no. Hipsterism has gone too far when your coffee comes deconstructed. I just... Posted by Jamila Rizvi on Monday, May 30, 2016

The post This hipster deconstructed coffee has the Internet hilariously freaking out appeared first on HelloGiggles.
Written and directed by Daniel Mulloy ("Antonio's Breakfast"), "Home" is a refugee drama starring Jack O'Connell ("Starred Up", "Money Monster") and Holliday Grainger ("Great Expectations", "Cinderella").

Supported by the United Nations Refugee Agency, "Home" will be released on June 20, it has been reported by ScreenDaily. The 20-minute short drama follows a middle-class English family as they set off on "what appears to be a holiday" according to the British Council Film Directory.

"Home" has also been supported by internationally-famous musicians such as Coldplay, Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, who have all donated music to the drama.

Viewers will also be able to use the augmented reality app Blippar to show their support for the cause by scanning their hand to create a hashtag and sign a petition while watching the film. The hashtag will be announced on June 9.
shamhalaev bellator

Bellator MMA

Shahbulat Shamhalaev, the Bellator MMA season seven featherweight tournament champion, was shot in his native Dagestan on Wednesday. According to a report from Russian site Ndelo, he was shot multiple times while at a restaurant. More information from Bloody Elbows Karim Zidan, one of the best sources for Russian MMA news, added:

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Being told Shahbulat Shamhalaev was shot five times in Dagestan yesterday. One bullet in the head. In emergency care now. Details to come.  Karim Zidan (@ZidanSports) June 1, 2016

Shamhalaev was attacked in a local restaurant in Makhachkala. Went to make peace following altercation previous day. Got shot for his effort  Karim Zidan (@ZidanSports) June 1, 2016

According to Ndelo and Zidan, Shamhalaev underwent surgery, resulting in the removal of one kidney. Otherwise, he is apparently in stable condition.

Shamhalaev went into surgery around 4pm (Moscow time). Report is that one kidney has been removed & that he is in stable condition.  Karim Zidan (@ZidanSports) June 1, 2016

On the Ndelo site is a video that appears to show part of the shooting. Thankfully, the angle doesnt show any graphic content.

Most unsettling is the fact that the gunshots dont incite any type of reaction in the restaurant. People arent fleeing in droves, theres no widespread panic. Very bizarre.
Dubai (AFP) - Human Rights Watch on Thursday condemned the decision of Bahrain's appeals court to double the jail term of Shiite opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman as a "travesty of justice".

Cleric Salman, who heads the largest opposition formation in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, had his jail sentence increased on Monday to nine years from the original four.

He had been convicted of inciting violence but the appeals court overturned an earlier acquittal of advocating regime change by force.

The appeals court "increased the sentence despite strong evidence his initial trial was unfair and the fact that two of the charges on which he had been convicted violated his right to freedom of expression", HRW said in a statement.

"Sheikh Salman is the latest casualty of Bahrains war on dissent, but he won't be the last unless Bahrain's allies in London and Washington loudly protest this travesty of justice," said HRW's deputy Middle East director, Joe Stork.

"This level of repression will not create stability for Bahrain, but quite the opposite," he warned.

Salman was originally convicted in July 2015, drawing condemnation from rights groups as well as both the United States and Iran.

The tiny but strategic Gulf state has been shaken by unrest since it crushed a month-long, Shiite-led uprising demanding reforms in 2011.

The Shiite-majority kingdom, connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

Despite the 2011 crackdown, protesters still frequently clash with police in Shiite villages outside the capital Manama.

Salman's Al-Wefaq political association was Bahrain's largest parliamentary bloc until its 18 MPs walked out in February 2011 in protest at the use of violence against demonstrators.
Huanxi Media Group, led by Chairman and powerhouse producer Dong Ping (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Journey To The West, Lost In Hong Kong) is teaming with Wong Kar Wai and Peter Chan, signing them to six-year cooperation deals. Both Wong and Chan become Director Shareholders and members of the Artistic Advisory of the group which

lost in thailand

says it is looking to build a television and film empire. Dong previously sold his ChinaVision to Alibaba for $804M which has since been re-christened Alibaba Pictures. Under the agreements unveiled today in Beijing, Huanxi will have rights to invest in forthcoming film and TV productions of both Wong and Chan. First up is an 18 episode, two-season internet drama series co-directed and produced by Wong. This is the In The Mood For Love filmmakers first time producing and directing for online. Huanxi will take exclusive global distribution and sub-licensing rights to the production for 10 years. With regard to American Dreams In China helmer Chan, Huanxi will have priority rights to invest up to 60% in two-to-four films he directs and produces, and a first-look at new media distribution for six years. The group has also entered similar deals with directors Li Yang (Blind Shaft) and Liu Xingang (Five Star Hotel); sci-fi writer Liu Cixin; and producer/director Ning Hao (Breakup Buddies). Helmer Xu Zheng is also part of a new deal which will include comedy fantasy Mr. Pig and another installment in his Lost series which has included Lost In Thailand and Lost In Hong Kong.

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ITV drama Endeavour has been picked up for a fourth season produced by Mammoth Screen. The prequel to Inspector Morse stars Shaun Evans as the young Morse. Creator Russell Lewis will again write the series. Roger Allam returns as DI Fred Thursday alongside Anton Lesser as Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright, Sean Rigby as PC Jim Strange, James Bradshaw as Doctor Max deBryn, Caroline ONeil as Win Thursday, Dakota Blue Richards as WPC Shirley Trewlove, and Abigail Thaw as Dorothea Frazil. Season 4 picks up as Oxfords finest are picking up the pieces of their lives, both personal and professional. The summer of 1967 is on the turn and at Lovelace College, a team of boffins is about to unveil a thinking machine that will challenge the Soviets, and plunge Endeavour and Thursday into their most perilous, baffling and darkly terrifying case to date. Next year marks the 30th anniversary of Inspector Morse on ITV and Endeavour is expected to tip its trilby at the older series with special guest casting, heritage characters and stories. Colin Dexter, whose first Morse story was published in 1975, continues his association with the drama, acting as a consultant. The most recent episodes had a consolidated average rating of 6.3M viewers and a 22 share.

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Channel 4 has taken a minority stake in Barcroft Holdings, its first investment in a British multi-media company specializing in content creation and digital distribution. This is part of the groups digital innovation strategy. The fund has traditionally invested in UK production companies. Barcroft creates, licences, distributes and publishes news and factual content across its core businesses: Barcroft Media, Barcroft Productions, Barcroft TV and branded content arm Barcroft Plus. Credits include The Outsiders (MTV), Body Bizarre (TLC) and Bear Grylls: Man Vs. Everest (Discovery). Barcroft TVs YouTube channel has over 2M subscribers. Sam Barcroft founded the company in 2003.

Red Planet Pictures & BBC Form Development Pact

Alex Jones and Belinda Campbell have been appointed joint Managing Directors of Red Planet Pictures as the indie moves forward with expansion plans. Founded by Tony Jordan in 2005, credits include Death In Paradise and The Passing Bells. The UK-based company has also named Alex Protherough Head of Production and Newton Velji Head of Development, Factual. Jordan becomes CEO to oversee Red Planets expansion with a focus on working with writers and creating new content. Jones was previously Head of Business and Production at Red Planet while Campbell was Head of Drama. Protherough was with Little Island and also worked at Company Pictures for five years. Velji joins from Crackit Productions (Almost Impossible Gameshow, Sweet 16 UK).

maverick tv

Maverick Television has appointed two senior development executives  Emily Mayer and Natalie Goldberg  in newly created roles within their UK and U.S. teams. Mayer has been named SVP of Development in the U.S. and will oversee all unscripted development. An All3Media company, Mavericks U.S. outpost produces Chrisley Knows Best. Mayer joins from Fishbowl World Media. Goldberg is taking on the role of Head of Development in the UK. She was previously Development Executive at Betty. Mavericks UK series include Channel 4s Embarrassing Bodies; Discoverys Engine Addict; the BBCs Bizarre ER; ITVs Billy Connollys Route 66; and Sky Ones How To Look Good Naked and 10 Years Younger.

Related stories

Bryan Cranston To Appear In 'Electric Dreams: The World Of Philip K. Dick' For Sony, Channel 4

BBC Report Recommends Abolishing BBC Trust And End To Near-Century Of Self-Regulation

Film4 Gets Record Funding Increase, Sets Co-Fi Deal With Fox Searchlight On Martin McDonagh's 'Three Billboards'
Nearly 7 million homes in the U.S. could be at risk from hurricanes in 2016.

As Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy have proved, Mother Nature can be unforgiving in her fury toward anyoneor any home or businessstanding in her way. And with the growing threat of climate change, as evidenced by the increasingly wackier weather seen around the globe, the storms may only get worse.

About 6.8 million homes along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U.S. could get walloped this year by hurricanes resulting in more than $1.5 trillion in reconstruction costs, according to CoreLogics 2016 Storm Surge Report. The report coincides with the start of the storm season this month.

There is about a 70% chance of about 10 to 16 storms hitting American soil this year, with about four to eight of them becoming hurricanes, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Atlantic hurricane season runs through Nov. 30.

The state at highest risk of storm damage is sunny Florida. About 2.7 million homes could be impacted by bad weather, with nearly 343,100 of them in extreme danger, according to the report.

On the coastline, you have to be very concerned come hurricane season and be prepared, says Deerfield Beach, FLbased real estate consultant Jack McCabe. We all have hurricane shutters down here, and houses built over the last 20 years have had to conform to stricter building codes to withstand hurricane damage.

The last huge storm to hit the state was Hurricane Wilma in 2005, which was estimated to tally more than $20 billion in damages.

The city most at risk is, unsurprisingly, Miami, with nearly 780,500 properties that could be impacted if a big one hits, according to the report. And a monster disaster could require a monster budget to rebuild, nearly $144 billion, according to the report.

Its always on our minds, McCabe says of the natural disasters. One can be catastrophic depending on the severity.

The next state over which disaster looms was Louisiana, which is still recovering from the ravages of Hurricane Katrina and related flooding in 2005. Another large disaster could put about 800,000 homes at risk, with nearly 91,400 in extreme danger.

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Texas was the next state on the list, with almost 531,200 properties at risk. It was followed by New Jersey, at more than 468,800, and New York, at more than 458,700. The latter two states are still rebuilding from the damage wrought by Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

There are nearly 3.9 million homes along the Atlantic Coast that could be impacted by storm surges, which could cost $953 billion to rebuild, according to the report. Meanwhile, there are more than 2.9 million homes on the Gulf Coast that could be hit by the potentially deadly storms, totaling about $592 billion in reconstruction costs.

The post Hurricane Alert: Nearly 7 Million Homes Are in Danger appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.





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In 1981, Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, and Jayson Lamb, all living in Mississippi, all too young to watch a PG-13 movie (which didnt even exist yet), saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. Then they saw it again, and again, and again. It blew their little 11-year-old minds, so much so that in 1982, they began to remake the film, shot by shot. This was a time before you could torrent a movie, and download the screenplay, and find out where it was shot on IMDb. The pre-teens were on their own, and it took them seven summers to finish the project. Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation premiered in 1989 in the auditorium of a Coca-Cola plant in Gulfport, MS, minus the airplane scene.

Strompolos, Zala, and Lambs incredible devotion has now been immortalized in Drafthouse Films Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (out in theaters and on VOD on June 17th). The documentary follows the reunited trio as they attempt to film the missing scene, and includes interviews with John Rhys Davies (Sallah!) and Eli Roth, among others. Raiders! is the story of this long-gestating projects culmination, chronicling the friends dedication to their artistic vision-mixed in with some movie magic-to create a personal, epic love letter to a true modern classic. Thats according to Drafthouse Films, which also released a cleverly edited side-by-side trailer of the original and the youngsters remake.

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To find out more about Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, including screening information, head to the documentarys website. As for Strompolos, Zala, and Lamb giving the shot-for-shot treatment to Temple of Doom: it will happen the same day Harrison Ford says something nice about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (So, never.)
By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric and India are in "advanced discussions" for the company to build six nuclear reactors there, the country's ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday, ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit to Washington next week. A deal with Westinghouse would be the first such contract reached under the 2008 U.S.-India civil nuclear accord. "There is a very detailed and advanced negotiation between Westinghouse and India," Ambassador Arun Singh told reporters. "The issues that remain to be worked out are related to cost and financing." Progress on the deal to build six AP-1000 nuclear reactors is one of the key developments anticipated during the June 7-8 visit by Modi to Washington, where he will be hosted by President Barack Obama for a final summit before the U.S. presidential election in November. Modi will address both houses of Congress. The United States and India agreed in 2008 to cooperate in the civil nuclear arena, but there have been no agreements yet to build any plants. Reuters reported Tuesday that Westinghouse and India reached a breakthrough after officials said it will relocate the planned project in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The original site proposed for the multi-billion-dollar project, in Modi's home state of Gujarat, faced local opposition. Another obstacle had been to bring India's liability rules into line with international norms, which require the costs of an accident to be channeled to the operator rather than the maker of a nuclear power station. That issue had been largely resolved to the satisfaction of the U.S. government in January 2015 after the United States and India reached a "breakthrough understanding" on nuclear cooperation. Singh told reporters "to the best of my knowledge" insurance was no longer an issue in the discussions. Westinghouse had hoped to clinch a deal to build six nuclear reactors in India by the end of March, during Modi's last Washington trip to attend a global nuclear summit. U.S. lawmakers ratified the civil nuclear accord three years after it was struck in 2005, as part of an attempt to deepen the strategic relationship with India, but have expressed growing dismay over its failure to yield follow-on deals for U.S.-based reactor makers. (Amends source of background information in paragraph 6.) (Reporting By Valerie Volcovici; Editing by David Gregorio)
A court in India Thursday convicted 24 people accused of participating in the 2002 communal riots in the state of Gujarat. More than a thousand people  a majority of them Muslim  are believed to have been killed over a three-day period.

Eleven of the suspects were indicted on murder charges for the incident known as the Gulbarg Society massacre, in which 69 people (including prominent politician Ehsan Jafri) were murdered inside a residential complex, the Indian Express reported. The remaining 13 were convicted of lesser crimes, while 36 others accused  including a local member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  were acquitted.

The three-day riots were one of the worst instances of Hindu-Muslim violence since Indias independence, and the controversy surrounding them has dogged Indias current Prime Minister Narendra Modi  the chief minister of Gujarat state during the riots  for more than a decade. Modi has been absolved of blame by multiple courts, but many continue to accuse him of not doing enough to stop the incitement of violence against Muslims. The U.S. government in 2005 denied Modi a visa over his alleged role in the riots, but reinstated it just before he became Prime Minister in 2014.

[Indian Express]
(Reuters) - An Indiana man charged with three counts of murder and a slew of other charges for a crime spree last month had referenced "The Purge," a movie about a day where all crimes are legal, court records showed.

Jonathan Cruz, 19, is set to appear in court on Thursday for a hearing on 17 charges, Marion County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Peg McLeish said. In addition to the murder charges he faces several counts of robbery, attempted robbery, and intimidation.

A woman who purchased drugs from Cruz told Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Detective Brian Schemenaur that during the four-day shooting and robbery rampage last month, Cruz told her he had been "purging," according to a probable cause affidavit.

In the 2013 horror-thriller film "The Purge," which stars Ethan Hawke, the U.S. government allows an annual 12-hour period where all crimes, including murder, are legal.

A sequel titled "The Purge: Election Year," the third film in the franchise, is due out in theaters next month.

Cruz was arrested on May 16 on separate charges of criminal confinement, kidnapping, intimidation and battery, the prosecutor's office said. A second man, Steven Clark, was also charged for his role in one of the robberies.

McLeish said Cruz would be assigned an attorney at Thursday's hearing.

The Indianapolis Star newspaper said Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry called the shootings apparently "100 percent random."

If convicted, Cruz could face the death penalty or life in prison, the newspaper said.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, editing by G Crosse)
By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's oil imports from Iran fell 3.5 percent in May from the previous month as Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd cut purchases because of the shutdown of some units at its plant.

Indian refiners took about 379,200 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in May, down 13,700 bpd from the 392,900 bpd imported in April, according to preliminary tanker arrival data from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

May shipments were 3 percent higher than the 368,000 bpd taken in during the same time a year ago, the data showed.

Last month, MRPL shut a 60,000 bpd crude distillation unit, a coker and a diesel hydrotreater, along with some other units because of an acute water shortage in the state of Karnataka where its refinery is located. This caused MRPL's imports of Iranian crude to drop to 58,000 bpd from about 110,200 bpd in April.

While dipping last month, India's oil imports from Iran are expected to surge in the coming months when refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp begin lifting Iranian oil.

The nation's state-owned and private refiners together are expected to buy at least 400,000 bpd in the year that began April 1, a seven-year high, industry sources said early last month.

In the first two months of this fiscal year, Indian refiners shipped in about 386,000 bpd of Iranian oil, a jump of 21.8 percent from a year ago, the data show.

In May, Essar Oil continued to be the biggest Indian importer of Iranian oil, taking about 190,000 bpd. Reliance Industries Ltd resumed imports from Iran after skipping them in April, taking about 100,000 bpd.

Reliance resumed imports from Iran in March after a gap of about six years.

Indian Oil Corp shipped in about 31,000 bpd of Iranian oil last month.

In the first five month of 2016, India's Iranian oil imports have surged about 64.5 percent to 334,100 bpd, the data showed, in comparison with 203,100 bpd in the same period last year.

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
* Indian PM makes major visit late in Obama's term

* Modi, once unwelcome in Washington, to address lawmakers

* Progress on defence, nuclear cooperation sought

* U.S. senators express human rights concerns

By Douglas Busvine and Patricia Zengerle

NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - Two years ago there were questions over whether Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could get a visa to enter the United States. Next week he visits Washington as one of President Barack Obama's closest international partners.

Obama invited Modi for one of the last big visits by a world leader before his term ends in January. Although the trip won't feature a lavish state dinner, the Indian leader will address both houses of Congress, considered a rare honour.

This will be their seventh meeting since Modi became prime minister in May 2014, an impressive tally for a U.S. president and a leader who is not a formal ally, said Ashley Tellis at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"The personal relationship between the president and the prime minister ... is really one of the unanticipated surprises of the past two years," said Tellis, an expert on India.

The developing relationship is seen as an Obama foreign policy success. Washington views India as an important part of its rebalance to Asia and as a counterweight to China.

The two countries are finalising agreements that would make it possible for their militaries to cooperate more closely, and for U.S. defence manufacturers to both sell and make high-tech weaponry in India.

A deal on logistics would govern issues such as how the two countries account for costs of military exercises. Another involves encrypted communications and geospatial data transfer.

A history of colonial rule followed by decades of non-alignment has, however, made New Delhi wary of an embrace by the more powerful United States, which has overtaken Russia as India's top arms supplier.

"It is neither a strategic partnership nor an alliance," said Nitin Gokhale, founder of defence portal Bharat Shakti. "It can be a long-term arrangement, but to call it a strategic partnership would be premature."

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There are frustrations, too, on the U.S. side.

The two countries reached a civil nuclear agreement in 2005, but it has yet to yield any contracts for U.S.-based companies. Only now is Westinghouse, a unit of Japan's Toshiba, approaching the finish line on a deal to build six reactors in India.

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

The visit gives Modi a chance to network with U.S. lawmakers who may feature in a Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton administration but, as it coincides with the California primary, he is not expected to meet either.

Modi is generally popular with U.S. lawmakers, who extended his invitation to address Congress. But they criticise what they see as lingering unfriendliness to U.S. firms and a stifling bureaucracy, and question New Delhi's record on human rights.

"The economic engagement between our two countries should increase and it should be more accessible for U.S. companies," Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a telephone interview.

Obama and Modi are expected to discuss India's desire to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a 48-member club of nuclear trading nations.

India was shut out for decades because of its weapons programme, and the civil nuclear agreement with the United States gave it access to foreign suppliers without giving up its arms.

Obama administration officials have said they backed India's desire to join the group, but the idea faces resistance among some on Capitol Hill, as well as from China, an ally of India's arch-rival Pakistan.

"Existing NSG guidelines were established to guard against nuclear proliferation, and we should not create exceptions for particular countries," Corker said.

There is lingering concern in Washington over Modi's handling of communal riots in 2002 that killed at least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, in Gujarat.

Modi was chief minister of the state at the time and, though a court-ordered inquiry found insufficient evidence to prosecute him, the issue prevented him from getting a U.S. visa for years.

Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised human rights on a visit to New Delhi this week, saying the two largest democracies had "special obligations" to set the highest standards.

Congress' Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission has scheduled a hearing on India for June 7, the day Modi arrives in Washington and the day before his address to the combined House of Representatives and Senate. He leaves the United States on June 8.

Corker promised to asked Modi about India's record on human trafficking, which he brought up recently in an emotional Senate hearing with Obama administration officials.

"The country we believe has 12-14 million slaves, which is close to half the number we believe exists worldwide," Corker said. "It's obviously a very significant issue and when he's here, it's one I certainly plan to raise." (Additional reporting by Valerie Volcovici and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
By Jatindra Dash BHUBANESWAR, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India's eastern Odisha state is the first region in the country to give transgender people social welfare benefits - such as a pension, housing and food grains - usually allocated for only the most impoverished, an official said on Thursday. Niten Chandra, principal secretary of Odisha's Department of Social Security, said the move to give the transgender community the same benefits as those living below the poverty line was aimed at improving their overall social and economic status. "Most transgender people are in a very bad condition because of social exclusion. For example, they very often do not get employment easily," Chandra told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "The government had a consultation with transgender people in April, and they had raised their problems and issues. On that basis, we are now taking many decisions to help them - giving them the Below Poverty Line status is one of them." There are no official figures, but activists say there are hundreds of thousands of transgender people in India, many of whom face ostracism and discrimination, as well as verbal, physical and sexual abuse. A lack of access to education and employment opportunities has meant many male-to-female transgender people - also known as "hijras" - end up forced into sex work or moving around in organised groups, begging or demanding money. In a landmark judgment in April 2014, India's Supreme Court recognised transgender as a legal third gender and called on the government to ensure their equal treatment. The court recognised the community as a marginalised group and directed authorities to implement policies to improve their socio-economic status. Identity documents such as birth certificates, driving licenses and passports must now recognise the third gender, and a certain number of public sector jobs, seats in schools and colleges must be allocated to third-gender applicants. Chandra said Odisha's transgender population was unofficially estimated at 40,000, but added a survey would be conducted soon to get a more accurate figure. Members of the transgender community will be given Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards that will allow them to access benefits under various government welfare programmes. This includes schemes that provide free housing, 100 days of paid work annually, pensions and loans to start up their own businesses. They would also be entitled 5 kg of food grains every month under India's National Food Security Act. Transgender rights groups welcomed Odisha's new policy and called for its effective implementation. "We are thankful to the government. This is a welcome step. At least now the government has started recognising our problems," said Meera Parida, chairperson of All Odisha Third Gender Welfare Trust. "However, we will benefit only when such a decision is implemented properly and does not remain just on pen and paper." (Reporting by Jatindra Dash, writing by Nita Bhalla, editing by Alisa Tang. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
Vienna (AFP) - Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh rejected suggestions OPEC would agree a production cap at a meeting in Vienna, saying his country backed a return to a national quota system.

Tehran, which only recently returned to world oil markets after Western sanctions were lifted, has opposed any attempt to limit output to support weak crude prices.

Iran stayed away from a disastrous meeting in Doha on April 4 between OPEC and other major producers, including Russia, that failed to agree a coordinated output freeze.

Zanganeh said a production cap would be "no benefit" for Iran -- or for the other members of the cartel, which pumps around a third of the world's oil.

"One of our main ideas is to have country quotas, but I don't think we can reach an agreement on this subject at this meeting," the minister said as he arrived in the Austrian capital ahead of the meeting, starting Thursday.

Iran exported just over two million barrels of oil every day last month, and Zanganeh predicted that would soon double as the country is currently producing some 3.8 million barrels a day.

Instead, he said the meeting would focus on choosing a new OPEC secretary general to replace the Libyan Abdalla El-Badri.

Candidates to succeed him include Ali Rodriguez Araque of Venezuela, Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo and Mahendra Siregar of Indonesia, reports said.

"The main item on our agenda at this meeting is choosing the new secretary general for OPEC," Zanganeh said.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Thursday OPEC cannot control anything if it doesn't set individual country production quotas and insisted Tehran deserved a high quota based on historic output.

Zanganeh said a fair quota for Iran should be 14.5 percent of OPEC's overall oil output.

The group is producing 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output levels.

He also said he would support a Nigerian candidate for the job of OPEC secretary-general.

(Reporting by OPEC Newsroom; Editing by Dale Hudson)
* British Airways owner IAG helps propel Dublin as hub

* Dublin now one of top 5 transatlantic hubs in Europe

* Pre-clearance facility key, new runway planned

* Executives say target shifting from UK to EU passengers

By Conor Humphries

DUBLIN, June 2(Reuters) - Decades after long-range airliners ended Ireland's role as the stepping stone to Europe for Americans, who sipped Irish coffees as their propeller-driven planes refuelled, the country is slowly re-establishing itself as a major transatlantic aviation hub.

Last year Dublin for the first time entered the top-five rankings for transatlantic hubs in Europe, data showed, after British Airways owner IAG started to implement plans to use Dublin as an alternative to the continent's top hub at London Heathrow.

With Irish low-cost giant Ryanair considering using its fleet to feed long-haul services, senior airline executives at the first annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association to be held in Dublin since 1962 talked up prospects for further growth.

"It's an absolutely enormous opportunity for Dublin," said Pat Byrne, chief executive of Irish regional airline CityJet, which announced plans to double its fleet to 50 planes. "The last time Ireland has had this significance (for transatlantic travel) was when airplanes had to stop to fuel."

In the 1940s and 50s U.S. presidents and movie stars would stop off near Shannon on the west coast of Ireland before flying on to Europe's great cities, bringing a touch of glamour to one of the most under-developed regions in Western Europe.

Locals claim the Irish Coffee, finished with a dash of whiskey, was invented by a local barman catering for the visiting stars. But the airport went into decades of decline when long-range jets could fly further.

Ireland's resurgence has been fuelled in recent years by strong sterling, a large under-utilised terminal completed just after Ireland's 2008 banking crisis and the only pre-clearance facility for travelling to the United States in an EU capital.

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Transfer traffic has been growing at Dublin by between 25 and 30 percent a year as former flag carrier Aer Lingus has built up its long-haul fleet from seven in 2010 to a target of 20 by 2020, a spokesman said.

Meanwhile all transfer traffic through Dublin airport rose 50 percent to 250,000 passengers in the first four months of the year, the Dublin Airport Authority said.

Heathrow had 230,000 transatlantic seats available weekly at the peak of last summer compared with fifth-placed Dublin with 41,000, according to aviation data and analytics company OAG.

Dublin has focused on the 25 regional UK airports it has direct flights to, but the focus is shifting towards other parts of western Europe, said Dublin Airport Authority chief executive Kevin Toland.

The next stage could be to harness Ryanair, whose second largest base in Europe is Dublin, with 86 destinations.

Long averse to connecting flights due to logistical difficulties, Ryanair has said it will experiment with connections this summer with a view to feeding long haul airlines in the future.

But Ryanair Chief Commercial Officer David O'Brien told Reuters it would need a "stronger compelling economic reason" before it starts regular feeds for rival carriers.

Executives also cited Ireland's pro-business regulator as a plus. The Irish Aviation Authority has been pushing to allow Norwegian Air Shuttle's Irish subsidiary to start flying transatlantic routes, despite heavy resistance from U.S. carriers against it.

Aer Lingus Chief Executive Stephen Kavanagh, who has been spearheading his airline's hub plan since its takeover by IAG last year, said the key to further growth is being opportunistic, poaching passengers from overcrowded hubs in Europe and the United States.

"Poor airports in North America is an opportunity to connect cities on the east coast directly to Dublin," he said. "We have such a small home market, we have to be internationally relevant in everything we do." (Additional reporting by Joachim Dagenborg in Oslo; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
By Maher Nazeh and Phil Stewart SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FALLUJA, Iraq/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents faced major assaults on two fronts in both Iraq and Syria on Wednesday in what could prove to be some of the biggest operations to roll back their caliphate since they proclaimed it in 2014. In Syria, U.S.-backed militia with thousands of Arab and Kurdish fighters were reported to have captured villages near the strategically-important Turkish border after launching a major operation to cut off Islamic State's last access route to the outside world. In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider Abadi ordered his troops to slow an advance at the gates of Falluja, Islamic State's closest redoubt to the capital Baghdad, to limit harm to civilians, two days after the army poured into rural areas on the city's outskirts. Both operations are unfolding with the support of a U.S.-led coalition that has been targeting the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militants, who proclaimed a caliphate to rule over all Muslims from territory in the two neighbouring countries. The Syrian operation includes American special forces operating in advisory roles on the ground. In Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition has provided air support to government forces who are also assisted by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militia. While there is no indication that the two advances were deliberately timed to coincide, they show how a variety of enemies of Islamic State have been mobilising in recent months in what Washington and other world powers hope will be a decisive year of battle to destroy the group's pseudo-state. "LAST FUNNEL" The Syrian operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of preparations, aims to drive Islamic State from the last stretch of the frontier with Turkey it controls. "It's significant in that it's their last remaining funnel" to Europe, a U.S. military official told Reuters. Islamic State has used the border for years to receive material and recruits from the outside world, and, more recently, to send militants back to Europe to carry out attacks. An 80-km stretch of terrain north of the town of Manbij is the only part of the Turkish frontier still accessible to the militants after advances by Kurdish fighters and President Bashar al-Assad's government elsewhere. A small number of U.S. special operations forces will support the push on the ground to capture the "Manbij pocket", acting as advisers some distance back from the front lines, U.S. officials said, discussing the plans on condition of anonymity. "They'll be as close as they need to be for the (Syrian fighters) to complete the operation. But they will not engage in direct combat," the first official said. The operation will also count on air power from the U.S.-led coalition, which pounded Islamic State positions near Manbij with 18 strikes on Tuesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that reports on the conflict there with a network of sources on the ground, said Islamic State had been pushed out of 16 villages near Manbij. U.S.-led air strikes in support of the ground operation had killed 15 civilians including three children near Manbij in the last 24 hours, the Observatory said. The assault is being carried out by an alliance known as the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), which is composed of a powerful Kurdish militia called the YPG, and Arab combatants that have allied themselves with it. The group, set up last year, is the main ground force to receive U.S. backing in Syria, where Washington opposes Assad's government and has had difficulty finding capable allies on the ground in the past. U.S. officials stressed that most of the fighting near Manbij would be carried out by Arabs, an emphasis apparently aimed at Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG to be foes. "After they take Manbij, the agreement is the YPG will not be staying ... So you'll have Syrian Arabs occupying traditional Syrian Arab land," the first U.S. official said. However, the Observatory described much of the fighting so far as carried out by Kurds. The operation is taking place ahead of an eventual push by the U.S.-backed Syrian forces toward Raqqa, Islamic State's de facto Syrian capital, which, alongside Iraq's northern city of Mosul is one of two main objectives to bring down the caliphate. U.S. President Barack Obama has authorised about 300 U.S. special operations forces to operate on the ground inside Syria to help coordinate with local forces. In a reminder of the risks, one U.S. service member was injured north of Raqqa over the weekend, the Pentagon said. A five-year-long, multi-sided civil war in Syria, in which global powers back enemy sides, has made it impossible to coordinate a single campaign against Islamic State there. The U.S.-backed advance comes some weeks after Assad government troops, with Russian and Iranian support, recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from Islamic State. FALLUJA PAUSE In Iraq, where Abadi's Shi'ite-led government enjoys military backing both from the United States and Washington's regional adversary Iran, the decision to pause at the gates of Falluja postpones for now what is expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against Islamic State. "It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn't among our priorities," Abadi told military commanders at the operations room near the front line in footage broadcast on state television. "Thank God, our units are at the outskirts of Falluja and victory is within reach." Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against both the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government and U.S. troops, who fought the biggest battles of their 2003-2011 occupation there. Islamic State fighters, also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, raised their flag in the city in 2014 before sweeping through Iraq's north and west. Abadi first announced plans to assault Falluja 10 days ago. But with 50,000 civilians still believed trapped inside the city, the United Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families in the centre as human shields. After heavy resistance from Islamic State, the troops have not moved over the past 48 hours, keeping positions in Falluja's mainly rural southern suburb of Naimiya, according to a Reuters TV crew reporting from the area. Explosions from shelling and air strikes as well as heavy gunfire could be heard on Wednesday morning in the city that lies 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad. Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the Sunni militants after Mosul. Abadi's initial decision to assault Falluja seems to have gone against the plans of his U.S. allies, who would prefer the government concentrate on Mosul. "You do not need Falluja in order to get Mosul," a spokesman for a U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, said in a phone interview 10 days ago when the government first announced its plans to recapture Falluja. However, Falluja is Islamic State's closest bastion to Baghdad and is believed to be the base from which militants have staged a campaign of suicide bombings in the capital, increasing pressure on Abadi to act to improve security. FLEEING CIVILIANS SCREENED Although most of Falluja's population is believed to have fled during six months of siege, 50,000 people are still thought to be trapped inside with little food. "The city is inaccessible for assistance and market distribution systems remain offline," the United Nations' World Food Programme said. "The only food available does not come from the markets, but from the stocks that some families still have in their homes." The military has been detaining men and boys older than 12 who leave the city, to screen them for Islamic State fighters. "Don't treat us like we are Daesh," said 54-year-old Mahdi Fayyadh, among hundreds of families who escaped the city and were now taking shelter in a school. Fayyadh, who lost a leg to diabetes while under Islamic State's rule due to a lack of medication, said he fled the city with 11 family members after the assault began. Relatives helped him walk on crutches until they reached army lines, when the other men in the group were taken away. "I already lost a leg," Fayyadh said, a battered pair of crutches leaning against his shoulder. "I ask all the good people to not treat us like they (the militants) treated us." U.S. officials caution that territorial gains will not spell the end of Islamic State, which has established itself outside of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, spreading to Libya, Afghanistan and beyond. "It would be premature to say that the gains in Syria, even if theyre sustained, will spell defeat for ISIL, any more than the pummelling of al Qaeda in Pakistan has meant the end of that group, said one of the U.S. officials. (Additional reporting by John Davison in Beirut, Maher Chmaytelli and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
* Field is one of largest offshore discoveries of past decade

* Supreme Court blocked previous agreement with shareholders (Adds comments from energy minister, analyst, share reaction)

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, June 2 (Reuters) - Israel's government on Thursday approved the development of the controversial Leviathan natural gas field that will give Israel a second source of gas supply while potentially turning it into a gas exporter.

Leviathan, one of the largest offshore discoveries of the past decade, was found off Israel's Mediterranean coast in 2010. It has an estimated 622 billion cubic metres (BCM) of gas reserves and is expected to become operational in 2019.

"Connecting the Leviathan reservoir to Israel will strengthen energy security and benefit the local economy," said Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz.

"After years of delays, the vision of Israel as a gas supplier is under way. In these days of a drop in exports and in investments in the economy, the gas from Leviathan will be an important growth engine and vital to industry."

Texas-based Noble Energy, which holds a 40 percent stake in Leviathan, said the field would initially start production at 1.2 billion cubic feet a day and is expandable to 2.1 bcf.

"Leviathan is expected to provide a second source of supply and entry point into Israel's domestic natural gas transport system, while also delivering exports to regional countries," Noble said in a statement.

The site, however, will cost at least $5 billion to develop and it was not yet clear how the project will be financed.

"Strong momentum on the regulatory and marketing fronts represents major steps in advancing the Leviathan project towards final investment decision," said J. Keith Elliot, Noble's senior vice president for the eastern Mediterranean.

Leviathan signed a deal this week to supply up to 473 bcf to a new private power plant, IPM Be'er Tuvia, for 18 years. Noble estimated gross revenue from the deal at $2.5 billion.

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In January Leviathan signed a $1.3 billion gas supply contract with Edeltech, Israel's largest private power producer.

The Leviathan project hit a major obstacle in March when Israel's Supreme Court blocked a previous agreement between the field's shareholders and the Israeli state, the terms of which would have stayed unchanged for 10 years.

It had been opposed by opposition parties and public advocacy groups on grounds that Noble and its partner Delek Group - which also own the adjacent Tamar field - would control too much of Israel's natural gas supply.

Last week Israel's government approved a revised deal with the companies aimed at fast-tracking development of Leviathan, which has been mostly earmarked for exports.

Tamar began production in 2013 and provides Israel with its current natural gas needs.

Tim Rezvan, an energy analyst at Stern Agee CRT, cautioned over a possible new Supreme Court challenge to the gas deal.

"We view today's announcement as an incremental positive step, but remain cognizant of the remaining obstacle," he wrote in a client note.

Noble's shares were 0.7 percent lower in New York, while shares of the Delek Group closed 0.6-0.9 percent higher in Tel Aviv.

(Reporting by Steven Scheer, editing by William Hardy and Adrian Croft)
By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's crackdown on Arab citizens trying to join Islamic State in Syria or Iraq or to set up cells at home have prevented the threat reaching the scale seen in the West, an adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a magazine interview. About 18 percent of Israel's population are Muslim Arabs, many of whom identify with the Palestinian struggle, although they seldom take up arms against the majority Jewish country. However, a rash of defections to Islamic State-held areas of Syria and Iraq and trials of Israeli citizens for identifying with the militant group prompted President Reuven Rivlin to warn in January that "considerable radicalization" was taking root among Israel's Arab minority. Eitan Ben-David, head of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau in Netanyahu's office, told the bi-monthly journal 'Israel Defense'that "more than a few dozen, but not more than 100" Israeli Arabs had joined Islamic State's ranks - and some might return. "These foreign fighters can certainly pose a grave danger internally, so the Shin Bet (security service) and all the state system is doing very good work in foiling this threat, which could be a kind of spreading cancer," Ben-David said. "To our satisfaction, the situation is reasonable. It is not like any European country, nor even America, or places like China or Russia which have had a great number of homegrown ISIS fighters," he said, using an acronym for Islamic State. Israel formally outlawed Islamic State in 2014 and negotiated the repatriation for trial of several Arab citizens who had joined or tried to join the insurgents via Turkey or Jordan. But government policy hardened last year after one Israeli Arab used a paraglider to fly into an Islamic State-controlled part of southern Syria and after another who had served as a volunteer in Israel's army defected to the insurgents. Further raising alarm, two video clips surfaced in October in which Islamic State gunmen vowed in Arabic-accented Hebrew to strike Israel. The group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, echoed the threat in an audiotape released in December. But Ben-David sounded circumspect about that prospect, citing potentially more pressing dangers from Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas or Palestinian militants. In an incident on Thursday, a Palestinian woman tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank and was shot dead, the military said. In the last half year, Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two visiting U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have shot dead at least 196 Palestinians, 134 of whom Israel has said were assailants. Others were killed in clashes and protests. "When it comes to Islamic State, we worry about terrorist attacks against Israeli or Jewish targets, including abroad, but we are not a main target right now," he said. (Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Gareth Jones)
Jerusalem (AFP) - Israel is set to release a prominent Palestinian lawmaker who has been in prison since April 2015, Palestinian and Israeli sources said Thursday.

Khalida Jarrar will be set free at the Jubara checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Friday morning, the Israel Prison Service and Palestinian Prisoners Club told AFP.

Jarrar, a senior member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a well-known political figure, had been sentenced by Israel to 15 months prison for encouraging attacks against Israel and violating a travel ban.

The prison service spokesman said she was being released a month early as part of an "administrative release," which can take place when prisons are filled beyond capacity.

Israel considers the PFLP a terrorist organisation and at the time of her arrest the Israeli army said Jarrar posed "substantial security risks".

Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian parliament which has not met since 2007 after elections a year earlier were won by the Islamist movement Hamas.

After Jarrar's release, six Palestinian lawmakers will remain imprisoned by Israel, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club.
(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) said on Thursday it would acquire Vogue International for $3.3 billion, adding brands such as OGX shampoos and FX hair styling products to its consumer portfolio that includes Neutrogena and Clean & Clear.

Vogue's hair care products have gained popularity, helped by colorful packaging that makes them stand out in drugstore aisles.

The privately held company has focused on increasing its presence in drugstores and is spending more on buying shelf space than on consumer advertising.

Buyout firm Carlyle Group LP (CG.O) acquired a 49 percent stake in the company in 2014.

Vogue's products are sold in the United States and 38 other countries, Johnson & Johnson said in a statement.

The transaction, slated to close in the third quarter, is not expected to affect the company's 2016 sales or earnings forecasts, it said.

Unilever NV (UNc.AS), Henkel & Co KgaA AG (HNKG_p.DE), L'Oreal SA (OREP.PA) and other companies had submitted first-round bids in an auction for Vogue, people familiar with the matter told Reuters in May.

(Reporting by Amrutha Penumudi in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
A picture of Kitty Genovese from The Witness (Five More Minutes Productions)

Calling all true-crime fans: Were here to clue you in to your next obsession. The acclaimed documentary The Witness opens in theaters in June, and it tackles one of the most famous murders in American history: the killing of Kitty Genovese. Yahoo Movies spoke with the driving creative forces behind the film, James Solomon and Bill Genovese, on Facebook Live and you can watch the interview below.

But first, in true True Crime fashion, allow us to set the scene of the crime: In March 1964, New York native Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death on the streets of her Queens neighborhood. What brought the story to national attention, however, were news reports that as many as 38 of her neighbors heard her cries for help or saw the attack and declined to get involved, essentially allowing her murderer, Winston Moseley, to continue his assault.

That detail has captured the public imagination ever since, making the Kitty Genovese case a popular reference point for psychologists, sociologists and criminologists alike. (This particular true crime has found its way into fiction over the ensuing decades; Alan Moores classic graphic novel, Watchmen, even makes reference to Genovese in a memorable issue that revolves around the masked vigilante, Rorschach.)

With The Witness, Solomon specifically set out to go beyond the headlines and investigate Kittys life, as well as her death. To accomplish that, he partnered with an important person from his subjects past whod rarely spoken publicly: Kittys younger brother, Bill. Sixteen years old at the time of the murder, Bill later enlisted in the Marines and served in Vietnam.

He and Solomon first connected in the 1990s when the director was adapting the story into a film for HBO. That project was never realized, but the two stayed in touch and in 2004, they started work on The Witness in the wake of a New York Times article that suggested that certain details of the crime  specifically whether or not there really were 38 witnesses  may not have been accurate. Over the next decade, they tracked down and interviewed Kittys neighbors, her lover and even the son of the man who killed her.

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Related: The Witness Clip: Uncovering the Mysteries of Kitty Genoveses Death

By embarking on The Witness, Bill departed from his familys longstanding policy regarding Kittys death, which was to not to discuss the case. My mother was so devastated by what happened to her daughter, she had a stroke a year after my sisters murder, Genovese tells us. The family circled the wagons together. We were always on the alert to not deal with the press. But the lingering memory of his sister, as well as the new details that emerged about her death, spurred him to spearhead Solomons documentary. It wasnt just [Bills] family that had remained silent, the directors says. The people who were most profoundly impacted all had remained silent for decades. The story behind the story was what drew me to making the film. It was really about Bill and his journey.

Related: New Documentary The Witness Debunks the Myths of the Infamous Kitty Genovese Murder

One of the most important steps on Bills journey  and, arguably, the most remarkable scene in the film  was reaching out to Moseley to explore the possibilities of an interview. Convicted of Kittys murder in June 1964 and initially sentenced to death (later reduced to a life sentence), Moseley spent five decades in prison, making him one of New Yorks longest-serving inmates. (He passed away in March 2016 at the age of 81.) While he ultimately declined to meet with Genovese, Moseleys son, Stephen, did agree to an on-camera interview. In the course of their encounter, the two men discover theyve grown up with different mythologies surrounding the events of that night and work together to find a common truth. Its extraordinary what theyre doing [in that moment], Solomon says. The film is in many respects about false narratives and the narratives you tell yourselves. Watch the video above to hear more from our fascinating conversation. And for more about where you can see the documentary, go here.
By Stanley White and Minami Funakoshi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government approved an economic growth strategy on Thursday that failed to show how it will plug a hole in finances caused by delaying a sales tax increase, raising fears that an already alarmingly high public debt burden will worsen.

The strategy will raise wages for low-income earners and improve access to day care, but many of these policies were flagged earlier this year and economists have said they were not enough to narrow income disparity or address economic pressures building due to Japan's ageing and declining population.

Aggressive structural reforms are essential to pulling Japan out of decades of malaise. But, economists say the flaws in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's piecemeal approach are evident in the lack of progress made after more than three years of "Abenomics", the name given to his mix of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and structural reforms.

Critics say the delay in the tax increase due to weak consumption and the Bank of Japan's failure to slay deflation expectations despite resorting to negative interest rates show policymakers are running out of tools to fix an economy that will face even deeper problems of low growth and high debt as the population ages.

"It has become more difficult to meet our fiscal discipline targets," Economy Minister Nobuteru Ishihara told reporters after the cabinet approved the plan.

"But the prime minister has clearly stated that our polices must change in response to the current situation."

The growth strategy reiterated a pledge to bring the primary budget balance into surplus by fiscal 2020 to rein in public debt, which is already more than double annual economic output, but did not say how the government would bridge the revenue shortfall caused by the tax increase delay.

Abe has said he will announce a "comprehensive and bold" economic package this autumn, raising concerns he will resort to big spending on infrastructure.

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"CREDIT NEGATIVE"

Abe shifted his economic agenda this year to focus more on the redistribution of wealth and improving access to day care, partly to prepare for an upper house election on July 10.

Many economists said this shift reflected how little low-income households had benefited from Abe's earlier attempts to reflate a listless economy.

"The structural reforms that the third arrow of Abenomics promised and which do have potential to sustainably bolster the outlook for growth remain notably absent from the government's plans," Moody's Investors Service said on Thursday, as it warned that Abe's decision to delay a planned sales-tax increase and boost government spending was "credit negative" for Japan.

In December 2014 Moody's downgraded Japan to A1, four notches above the top rating, with a stable outlook.

Abe's growth strategy will raise pay for child care workers, raise the minimum wage and improve access to elderly care, but economists say the reforms do not go far enough to change Japan's two-tier labour market.

While the strategy takes steps to narrow the pay gap between regular and part-time employees, critics say it is still too easy for companies to flout labour laws and suppress pay for part-time workers.Some economists also worry companies could try to lower pay for full-time workers to narrow the pay gap, which would depress overall wage growth.

"There are many granular policies that lack concreteness, though the general direction of these policies isn't wrong," said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance.

"Japan's biggest problem is the ageing and shrinking of its population and the supply-side weakening that follows from it."

The government wants to raise the birth rate to 1.8 per woman from 1.4, which is a step in the right direction but still below 2.1 - the rate needed to prevent a population from shrinking.

(Additional reporting by Linda Sieg in Tokyo and Masayuki Kitano in Singapore; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
From Redbook

When we were first introduced to Jaxon Strong, a child born with half his brain and skull missing, he had just celebrated his 1st birthday-a milestone his parents never thought he'd reach.

Dubbed a "miracle baby," Jaxon stole our hearts last August, with his curious, bright blue eyes and blond ringlets. We followed up with Jaxon when he said "I love you" for the first time and watched him fulfill every child's dream of meeting Santa, but now, as Jaxon's parents prepare for his second birthday, the story of how he's defied the odds has become all the more topical.

Jaxon has microhydranencephaly, which is characterized by severe underdevelopment of the brain. It's a form of microcephaly, a condition that's been prevalent in the press recently due to its possible link to the Zika virus.

Since the World Health Organization declared the spread of the Zika virus an international public health emergency because of its ties to this birth defect, Jaxon has been propelled back into the spotlight.

Although it's unclear if Jaxon's case is related to Zika, Jaxon's dad, Brandon Buell, feels grateful that through his son he's been able to spread awareness of the disability.

"Everyone's freaking out saying microcephaly is a death sentence, and it's not."

"Everyone's freaking out saying microcephaly is a death sentence, and it's not. Even if you had to go through it, your child can survive. Your child can live a good-quality life," he told Redbookmag.com.

Brandon and his wife, Brittany, 27, who he refers to as "his strength" were first told something was wrong with Jaxon during Brittany's 17-week ultrasound.

"They warned us we could lose the pregnancy, give birth to a stillborn child, have all types of complications. They didn't expect him to make it, and if they did, they seriously doubted his quality of life. We were absolutely distraught," Brandon recalls.

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Jaxon's doctors gave the Buells the option to terminate the pregnancy, but the couple had their doubts.

"I remember sitting in the chair next to Brittany, and we were dumfounded. All we could think was, Is this real? Is this a nightmare?"

Brandon asked if Jaxon was in any pain, and if his wife's health would be in jeopardy if she took Jaxon to term.

Doctors assured him that Jaxon wasn't suffering and Brittany would be fine. The worst case, they said, is that Jaxon wouldn't make it. But he did.

On August 27, 2014, Jaxon was born.

"From day one, there was a fight in him that has never stopped. Immediately, he was showing that there was something more that he could offer something more hecould give, and he was going to start by defying our expectations."

"Jaxon is writing his own story. We're just along for the ride."

But Jaxon's doctors didn't exactly agree with Brandon's optimistic outlook. "On day two, I was holding my brand-new child on my chest as the doctor told me that he highly doubted if Jaxon would be able to see or hear. 'He probably would never know if he's hungry, walk, or talk,'" the physician warned.

During the stark prognosis, Brandon heard a loud noise, and as if on cue, Jaxon jumped up into his arms.

"I was snuggling him in the chair, and suddenly Jaxon jumps, and all of us saw it. Jaxon, with his wide eyes, had responded."

The doctor, having no idea how to respond, abruptly walked out of the room without saying a word.

"We never saw him again," Brandon recalls.

That was the first of many times the Buells had to fire physicians.

"We'd ask for help, and they'd say, 'How much do you wanna do?' and, they'd offer this discouraging common refrain: 'He's not going to be here forever.'

They've had to fight to find doctors who, instead of dismissing Jaxon, are "truly fascinated by him," which led the Buells, from Orlando, FL, to a crack team at Boston's Children Hospital that is constantly gleaning new insights from Jaxon's case.

Although Jaxon certainly struggles-he has multiple seizures and acid reflux that causes him to throw up several times a day, and he can't crawl, sit up, or eat fully on his own-Brandon says his boy is "learning every day."

Jaxon recently using a pacifier, which may not seem groundbreaking to most parents, but it's an encouraging sign that he may soon be able to get off his feeding tube.

He even just had his first swim.

And he got to meet Mickey, though he enjoyed napping on the monorail more.

"He's only getting stronger, and his health is improving. He's babbling, he loves to laugh, he loves to snuggle. He has an amazing personality. He'll look into our eyes and start smiling, giggling." He also just started saying "mama" and "dada."

Brandon shares these sweet morsels with us and on Jaxon's community Facebook-which has become a support group-to remind people that regardless of what they're told by doctors, "there's still hope here."

"We don't know what tomorrow might bring. Tomorrow might be his last day, but it doesn't matter because his life has meant so much already."

"Just this morning I was sent a message on Facebook from a young mother who found out at 19 weeks pregnant that her child has anencephaly [a form of microcephaly] and the doctors said she should 'absolutely abort' because the child 'won't make it.'"

Brandon comforted the expecting mother, reminding her that the fact that Jaxon is thriving doesn't have to be the exception.

The onus Brandon feels to help parents in similar situations extends well beyond that young mother.

"We feel a responsibility now that this Facebook page has turned into a community page. Thousands of people are sharing their stories, and that's just as important as my son."

"This shouldn't end with Jaxon. Let's say we have him for 10 years, and he's gone-we're not just going to close up shop. His life has a legacy. He can benefit the next family that would have been clueless before hearing his story."

Brandon's words are not just sweet sentiments. The Buells have started the Jaxon Strong Foundation, a non-profit organization to fund neurological research. Jaxon is, of course, the inspiration for the foundation, but the Buells started it to advocate for all individuals living with disabilities.

"You don't have to believe in a higher power to believe thatthere's something happening here, and that his life can benefit the medical world. Even though it looks bleak, there's hope here."

Regardless of how long Jaxon, who just turned 21 months old, has left, Brandon sees his son as a blessing.

"Just because his life might be short, his purpose is amazing. He's touched more lives than I ever will."

To learn more about Jaxon's story or to donate to the Jaxon Strong Foundation, click here.
The show must go on.



Johnny Depp took the stage with his band the Hollywood Vampires in Denmark on Wednesday, amid domestic violence allegations made by his estranged wife Amber Heard.



The actor looked relaxed as he performed alongside fellow band members Alice Cooper and Joe Perry on the fourth stop on their European tour.



Fans swiftly took to social media, posting numerous snaps of the actor rocking out on stage at the FAngslet venue in Horsens, which once served as a state penitentiary.







"Look where I am," one user wrote alongside a shot of Depp onstage.





Oh look where I am #hollywoodvampires #johnnydepp #concert #tagsforlikes #like4like A photo posted by Clara Buan (@claraabuan) on Jun 1, 2016 at 1:26pm PDT







Johnny Depp Performs in Denmark with Band Amid Amber Heard Abuse Allegations| Couples, Divorced, Movie News, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp





Another fan praised Depp for his impressive guitar playing skills.



"I almost like him more playing guitar then when he's acting," they wrote.





I almost like him more playing guitar then when he is acting #hollywoodvampires #grAnalund #joeperry #alicecooper #johnnydepp A video posted by J.O.H.N.N.Y D.E.P.P (@deppdelicious) on Jun 1, 2016 at 12:46pm PDT







Guitar solo #johnnydepp #alicecooper #joeperry #hollywoodvampires #grAnalund A video posted by J.O.H.N.N.Y D.E.P.P (@deppdelicious) on Jun 1, 2016 at 12:37pm PDT







Johnny Depp Performs in Denmark with Band Amid Amber Heard Abuse Allegations| Couples, Divorced, Movie News, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp





The performance comes as new photos and more shocking details about his marriage to Heard continue to unfold.



Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp on May 27. In the court filing, the actress claims Depp was abusive to her throughout their relationship.



For much more about Depp and Amber's toxic marriage and explosive divorce, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday





Johnny Depp Performs in Denmark with Band Amid Amber Heard Abuse Allegations| Couples, Divorced, Movie News, Amber Heard, Johnny Depp



New photos published in this week's PEOPLE cover story show Heard with facial injuries that allegedly resulted from a December 2015 altercation with Depp that she cited in her court filing.



A rep for Depp has not responded to PEOPLE's requests for comment regarding the photos. The actor's divorce attorney Laura Wasser, however, said in court documents that Heard is "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse."
Johnny Depp will continue touring with his band the Hollywood Vampires  even as his divorce battle with Amber Heard continues to heat up.



The actor, 52, plans to join his bandmates Alice Cooper and Joe Perry on the U.S. leg of their tour.



"The Hollywood Vampires are currently on tour and are scheduled to complete their European tour on June 6th and will begin touring in the U.S. on July 1," the band's rep tells PEOPLE.



The band performed in Denmark on Wednesday and have one more stop in Romania on Monday to complete their European tour before returning stateside.







But before Depp takes the stage in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on July 1, he will face Heard in court on June 17 to address domestic abuse allegations leveled against him by Heard.



Heard, 30, was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp on May 27. In the court filing, the actress claims the actor was abusive to her throughout their four-year relationship and 15-month marriage.





VIDEO: Inside Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's Toxic Marriage





In a response to Heard's claim, Depp's divorce attorney, Laura Wasser, said in court documents that "Amber is attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse."



Along with new photos showing Heard with facial injuries that allegedly resulted from a December 2015 altercation with the actor, a text exchange allegedly between the actress and Depp's assistant purports to show a history of abuse dating back long before their marriage.
Jon Bon Jovi hit the campaign trail in support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday (June 1), first in Newark, NJ and later that evening at a fund-raising event in Boston.

Bon Jovi and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker joined Clinton at a campaign event at Rutgers' Newark campus, where he introduced the former First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State.

Hillary Clinton's 'She's With Us' Spotify Playlist: Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Andra Day and Common

"I just like to refer to her as Mrs. C," Bon Jovi said. "I hope that soon we will be calling her Madame President."

After cheers from the crowd, Clinton said "it doesn't get any better than this [being introduced] by these two gentleman..these two Jersey giants."

At the rally, Clinton took aim at Donald Trump and his Trump University seminars, which she called a "fraudulent scheme."

Trump responded by calling out Clinton as a "fraud" on Twitter.

Crooked Hillary Clinton is a fraud who has put the public and country at risk by her illegal and very stupid use of e-mails. Many missing!

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2016

Bon Jovi was additionally scheduled to appear on the same night at the Westin Boston Waterfront to raise money for the Hillary Victory Fund.

Bon Jovi, a Clinton supporter, also donated $5,400 to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Watch below:
Jon Bon Jovi hit the campaign trail in support of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, first in Newark, N.J., and later that evening at a fund-raising event in Boston.

Bon Jovi and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker joined Clinton at a campaign event at Rutgers' Newark campus, where he introduced the former first lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State.

"I just like to refer to her as Mrs. C," Bon Jovi said. "I hope that soon we will be calling her Madam President."

After cheers from the crowd, Clinton said "it doesn't get any better than this [being introduced] by these two gentlemen ... these two Jersey giants."

At the rally, Clinton took aim at Donald Trump and his Trump University seminars, which she called a "fraudulent scheme."

Trump responded by calling out Clinton as a "fraud" on Twitter.

Crooked Hillary Clinton is a fraud who has put the public and country at risk by her illegal and very stupid use of e-mails. Many missing!

- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 1, 2016

Bon Jovi was additionally scheduled to appear on the same night at the Westin Boston Waterfront to raise money for the Hillary Victory Fund.

Bon Jovi, a Clinton supporter, also donated $5,400 to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Watch below:

This article originally appeared on Billboard.com.
Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. JLL  which shortened its name to JLL  disclosed the acquisition of Procofin Oy, a Finnish professional project development and architectural services company. The move expands the companys footprint in Finland.



Founded in 2006, Procofin has strong expertise in providing consultancy, management and architectural services to the construction sector. The company has a team of 43 expert professionals and aims at delivering high-quality services to the clients. Acquisition of this Finnish company is likely to complement JLLs existing lines of operations in real estate capital markets, valuation work and leasing. Moreover, these two companies have a track record of working together in Finland for the same clients. This acquisition increases the employee strength of JLL in Finland to more than 70 and brings the total headcount in the Nordics to 190.



Chicago-based JLL is a leading full-service real estate firm that provides corporate, financial and investment management services to corporations and other real estate owners, users, and investors worldwide. This acquisition is in line with the strategy of JLL to provide a wider suite of services in countries across Europe and other parts of the world.



JLL currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Investors interested in the real estate industry can consider other stocks like Brookfield Asset Management Inc. BAM, HFF Inc. HF and FirstService Corporation FSV. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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June 2 (Reuters) - Mining equipment maker Joy Global Inc reported a drop in revenue for the 13th straight quarter and lowered its forecast for 2016 as customers cut spending amid a slump in commodity prices.

Coal companies, which account for nearly 60 percent of the company's revenue, have scaled down their mining operations as utilities switch to cheaper and abundantly available natural gas from coal.

That has hurt Joy Global's bookings, which fell 9 percent to $681 million for the second quarter ended April 29.

The company said it now expected 2016 sales at the lower end of its previous outlook of $2.4 billion-$2.6 billion. Adjusted earnings were also pegged at the bottom end of its previously expected range of 10-50 cents per share.

The company reported a loss from continuing operations of $15.3 million, or 16 cents per share, for the latest quarter, compared with a profit of $56 million, or 57 cents per share, a year earlier.

However, Joy Global earned 9 cents per share on an adjusted basis. Analysts on average were expecting the company to break even on a per-share for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Joy Global has cut jobs and lowered production among other measures to try to adapt to slowing demand.

Revenue fell to $602 million from $810.5 million.

Up to Wednesday's close, shares of Joy Global had risen 32.4 percent this year.

(Reporting by Arunima Banerjee and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A judge will appoint a special prosecutor in the trial of a white Chicago police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of a black teenager, a spokeswoman for the officer's lawyer said on Thursday.

Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan said during a hearing that he will appoint a special prosecutor in officer Jason Van Dyke's first-degree murder trial for the 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, Anne Kavanagh, media coordinator for Van Dyke's attorney, Dan Herbert, said in an email.

Herbert said in a statement that the judge's decision to appoint a special prosecutor was expected and does not change how he will defend Van Dyke, 38.

"From the beginning, we have said this was a tragedy not a first-degree murder," Herbert said in the statement. "We believed Jason Van Dyke was overcharged for political reasons. We are hoping the new prosecutor will recognize that it was overcharged as well."

Gaughan's decision comes about a month after Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez removed herself from the case and asked the judge to appoint a special prosecutor to handle the politically sensitive case. Alvarez lost her re-election bid earlier this year after protests over her taking a year to charge Van Dyke.

The shooting came at a time of heightened national debate over police use of deadly force, especially against black men.

The shooting of McDonald was caught on patrol car dashboard camera videos that were released a year after he was killed. The incident sparked demonstrations and led to the firing of the police chief, an ongoing federal investigation of the police department and calls for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign.

Chicago police typically shoot about 50 people a year, in both fatal and non-fatal incidents. More than 74 percent of those shot by Chicago police between 2008 and 2015 were black, while the city's population is about one-third black.

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Police shootings have fallen. In the first three months of this year, there were four police shooting incidents, the lowest number for any quarter since at least 2007.

Chicago recorded its deadliest month in 21 years with 66 slain in May, according to the Chicago Tribune, citing police records. Homicides last month were the highest since 1995 when 75 people were killed, the newspaper reported.

(Reporting by Justin Madden; Editing by Chris Reese and Leslie Adler)
A handwritten love letter from President John F. Kennedy to his alleged mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer has surfaced in an online auction from Boston's RR Auction.



"Why don't you leave suburbia for once  come and see me  either here  or at the Cape next week or in Boston the 19th," Kennedy writes in the four-page letter. "I know it is unwise, irrational, and that you may hate it  on the other hand you may not  and I will love it."



"You say that it is good for me not to get what I want. After all of these years  you should give me a more loving answer than that. Why don't you just say yes," JFK continues.



He signs the note with a simple "J."

Juicy Handwritten Letter from JFK to Former Mistress Surfaces in New Online Auction| Kennedy Assassination, Politics and Current Events, Presidents and First Ladies, John F. Kennedy









The letter, said to be written a month before the president's 1963 assassination, was never sent. It's valued at $30,000.



"There's a playfulness to him in the letter that you don't see in JFK's other correspondence," RR auction spokesperson Bobby Livingston says of the item  believed to be kept by Kennedy's secretary Evelyn Lincoln. "He is always quite reserved in his correspondence."



Mary and her CIA agent husband Cord Meyer were friends of the Kennedys, living by John and wife Jackie in Washington, D.C. But Mary also knew John in high school.



She was found dead in Georgetown on October 1964  a year after Kennedy's letter was written  from a bullet wound to the head. Her murder is still unresolved.





RELATED VIDEO: The Untold Story of JFK's Sister, Rosemary Kennedy, and the Disastrous Lobotomy Ordered by Her Father



The auction house also has a letter kept by Lincoln from another of JFK's rumored mistresses, beauty queen  and suspected Nazi spy  Inga Arvad.



The Washington Times Herald writer first met Kennedy when he was 24, introducing him in a piece she wrote as "a boy with a future."



In her 1943 typed letter to Kennedy  set to go for an estimated $6,000  Arvad asks Kennedy for an interview, saying, "After all you can't turn me down, can you? ... I will, if necessary fly to San Francisco  and all for business ..."

Juicy Handwritten Letter from JFK to Former Mistress Surfaces in New Online Auction| Kennedy Assassination, Politics and Current Events, Presidents and First Ladies, John F. Kennedy





The Danish beauty then gets much more personal: "I don't quite know what to write to you Jack dear, because if I follow my heart  it will be a love letter, and if I don't, it will be stiff as an old poket [sic]. But you know me, I am on pins and needles, because I know you will be home soon. You do know  or don't you  that you are the person in this world I would rather see than anybody  or is that a little too much of an admission?"



Arvad also gets sentimental in the letter, saying she'd recently seen a photo of him and a copy of his 1940 book Why England Slept. "I am sunk when I look at it too long," she writes of the photo. "I promise to read it right off, and not stop till I get through  even if I die doing it," she adds of the book.



Arvad's affair with Kennedy is detailed in Barbara Leaming's new biography, Kick Kennedy, about Kennedy's sister Kathleen, who died in a plane crash at 28.



The two met in 1941, when Arvad was 32 and Kennedy was 28. The two kept their affair secret, as she was married at the time. Kennedy's father Joe eventually "went into overdrive to end the affair," Leaming writes, after Arvad's former connections to Adolf Hitler put her under investigation by the FBI.



Online bidding for both letters  and a slew of other Kennedy memorabilia  begin June 16 and go through June 23. For more information, visit www.rrauction.com.
Katie Findlay (How To Get Away With Murder, The Killing) is set to star in Pulse, an original musical series from New Form Digital for premiere on Verizons Go90 this fall.

Pulse follows a group of American expatriates living in Berlin who find themselves immersed in the citys vibrant, kinetic dance scene. The series tracks one year of the characters lives telling the story as a lush and provocative EDM musical. It centers on Cooper (Findlay), an aspiring musician who goes in search of a missing friend. Cooper travels to Berlin looking for answers about her friends disappearance, but finds herself quickly drawn into the seductive club scene he was involved ina crowd where music is everything and sex and drugs are as vital as water.

Cast also includes Craig Stickland, Calum Worthy, Melissa ONeil and Alexandre Landry, with Meg DeAngelis and Harley Morenstein guest starring.

Filming will take place in Montreal, Canada from May through the end of June. Pulse will be directed by Anna Mastro (Royal Crush, Guidance).

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Actress Katie Findlay (How to Get Away with Murder, The Killing) will star in Pulse, an original short-form musical series from studio New Form Digital slated to debut on Verizons Go90 this fall.

The cast of the show  about a group of young American expats in Berlins electronic-dance music scene  includes Craig Stickland, Calum Worthy, Melissa ONeil and Alexandre Landry, with YouTube star Meg DeAngelis and Harley Morenstein (Epic Meal Time) guest starring. Filming will take place in Montreal, Canada, from May through the end of June.

Pulse is created by Kyle Jarrow, whos been tapped to write the book for The SpongeBob Musical. Performer-composer Duncan Sheik (Deaf Wests musical Spring Awakening) wrote and arranged the score for the digital series and each episode will feature an original song performed by the cast. The series will be directed by Anna Mastro, who has directed AwesomenessTV series Royal Crush and Guidance and films including Walter, starring Milo Ventimiglia and William H. Macy.

The series tracks one year of the characters lives, told as an EDM musical. Pulse centers on Hannah Cooper (Findlay), an aspiring musician who travels to Berlin in search of a missing friend but finds herself drawn into the seductive club scene he was involved in  a crowd where music is everything and sex and drugs are as vital as water.

Pulse is produced by New Form Digital, whose backers include Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Discovery Communications. Each of the 12 episodes will run about 10 minutes.

Pulse is a very special series that required just the right cast to bring it to life, said Melissa Schneider, New Form Digitals senior VP of development and production. Katie is the perfect actor for the role of Cooper and she, along with the ensemble cast, will make Kyle and Duncans vision a reality.

New Form Digital last fall sold six series to Verizon for Go90, a mobile, ad-supported video service aimed at a millennial crowd. Other New Form Digital productions include romantic comedy Single By 30 for YouTube Red, and original series for CWs Seed, Refinery29 and Fullscreen.

Story continues

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YOUNGSVILLE, LA / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / RedHawk Holdings Corp. (IDNG) ("RedHawk" or the "Company") announced today that Mr. Kav Singh Hundle has been appointed to its Board of Directors effective immediately. Mr. Hundle has over 13 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and currently serves as a director of Warwick Healthcare Ltd. ("Warwick"), a United Kingdom based pharmaceutical services company. In his role as a director of Warwick, Mr. Hundle is responsible for all aspects of Warwick's pharmaceutical business, including pharmaceutical exportation, manufacturing and strategic business transactions. Since its inception in 2006, Warwick has acquired nine additional pharmacies and currently operates twelve pharmacies in the United Kingdom.

Since 2015, Mr. Hundle has also served as a director of EcoGen Europe Ltd ("EcoGen") and has been instrumental in developing and implementing EcoGen's business strategy of marketing and distribution of branded generic pharmaceuticals and Zonis in the United Kingdom and other targeted European countries. Mr. Hundle is also President of RedHawk Medical Products UK Ltd ("RedHawk Medical"), a United Kingdom medical device company established for the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of the Disintegrator Insulin Needle Destruction Unit, Woundclot Surgical - Advanced Bleeding Control and the Carotid Artery Digital Non-Contact Thermometer.

In March 2016, RedHawk acquired a 25% interest in EcoGen with an option to increase its ownership position up to 49%. RedHawk Medical is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RedHawk. Additionally, the Company is in advanced discussions to acquire, in conjunction with EcoGen, a United Kingdom based manufacturer of non-narcotic made-to-order or customized medicinal pharmaceutical products.

In 2003, Mr. Hundle received his master's degree in Pharmacy from the Leicester School of Pharmacy and initially worked as a licensed pharmacist with the United Kingdom's National Health Service until 2006. He is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and is a registered member of the General Pharmaceutical Council.



About RedHawk Holdings Corp.

RedHawk Holdings Corp., formerly Independence Energy Corp., is a diversified holding company which, through its subsidiaries, is engaged in sales and distribution of medical devices, sales of branded generic pharmaceutical drugs, commercial real estate investment and leasing, sales of point of entry full-body security systems, and specialized financial services. Through its medical products business unit, the Company sells WoundClot Surgical - Advanced Bleeding Control, the Disintegrator Insulin Needle Destruction Unit, the Carotid Artery Digital Non-Contact Thermometer and Zonis. Its real estate leasing revenues are generated from various commercial properties under long-term lease. Additionally, RedHawk's real estate investment unit holds limited liability company interest in various commercial restoration projects in Hawaii. The Company's financial service revenue is from brokerage services earned in connection with debt placement services. RedHawk Energy holds the exclusive U.S. manufacturing and distribution rights for the Centri Controlled Entry System, a unique, closed cabinet, nominal dose transmission full body x-ray scanner.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are all statements other than statements of historical fact. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "may," "can," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "projects," "targets," "intends," "likely," "will," "should," "to be," "potential" and any similar expressions are intended to identify those assertions as forward-looking statements.

Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties. In evaluating forward-looking statements, you should consider the various factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements including those listed in the "Risk Factors" section of our latest 10-K report. Further, the Company may make changes to its business plans that could or will affect its results. Investors are cautioned that the Company will undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Media Contact:

Julie Calzone

(337) 235-2924

jcalzone@calzone.com

Company Contacts:

Daniel J. Schreiber, CEO

(858) 509-8800

dan@redhawkholdingscorp.com

Thomas J. Concannon, COO

(908) 625-7811

tom.concannon@redhawkholdingscorp.com

G. Darcy Klug, CFO

(337) 269-5933

darcy.klug@redhawkholdingscorp.com

SOURCE: RedHawk Holdings Corp.
king tut

Tutankhamun, the ancient Egyptian boy-king better known as King Tut, was a pretty cool kid.

While most 9-year-olds these days are still trudging through grade school, Tut was beginning his rule of ancient Egypt.

After 10 years of being a pharaoh, Tut died at the ripe age of 19  and then allegedly exploded in his own sarcophagus due to a botched mummification.

And now a new study published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science shows the boy-king may even have wielded a cosmic dagger during his rule.

The knife in question, which scientists believe is made of iron from meteorites, was found in King Tuts tomb nearly a century ago.

The finding solves a longstanding debate among scholars about the origin of the dagger, the University of Pisa said in a press release.

The researchers used X-rays to analyze the chemical signatures of the knife and found that it has high percentages of nickel, as well as traces of cobalt, phosphorous, and other materials that together suggest the knifes origins are extraterrestrial, Gizmodo reports.

The chemical makeup of the dagger points to one meteorite in particular, named Kharga. In 2000, fragments of this meteorite were found on a limestone plateau about 150 miles west of Alexandria.

The iron dagger picture 1

"Kharga turned out to have nickel and cobalt contents which are possibly consistent with the composition of the blade," lead author Daniela Comelli, at the department of Physics of Milan Polytechnic, told Discovery News.

According to the study, this isn't the only case of Egyptian artifacts from this time period (4,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C.) being made from the iron of meteorites.

This new finding suggests that this space iron had a lot of value in ancient Egypt, and looking at the craftsmanship at the blade they were pretty good at working it, the press release said.

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Another interesting item buried in King Tuts tomb is a scarab necklace, which scientists believe is made of the glass produced when a meteorite smacks into the desert and melts the surrounding sand.

The ancient space dagger is currently on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

NOW WATCH: Scientists hope to find hidden tombs by scanning the Egyptian pyramids with cosmic rays





More From Business Insider


I opened my Twitter feed on Tuesday night to find liberals ridiculing Bill Kristol. Nothing unusual there. But this time, they had fresh ammunition: The news that Kristols much-hyped third-party presidential candidate will be little-known National Review contributor David French. By Thursday morning, the mockery had migrated to television. On Morning Joe, the mere mention of Kristols name evoked laughter. Bill needs to take a vacation. Like a long one, declared cohost Mika Brzezinski. Later she added, Hes been wrong. Sorry. Hes been wrong about Trump, and if youre going to get behind someone who can really rival Trump, you need to get behind somebody who can really rival Trump.

No, actually, you dont. In general, Im not a Kristol fan. His foreign-policy views have not changed in the last 15 years, which is dumbfounding given that the views he held 15 years ago have caused such epic misery. By refusing to admit that the Iraq War was a catastrophic error, Kristol and other GOP foreign-policy elites helped create the vacuum that Donald Trump now fills.

But in his search for a third-party alternative to Trump, Kristol doesnt deserve derision. He deserves praise. All around him, GOP commentators, operatives, and politicians are coalescing behind a man who daily screams his unfitness to be president. (Yesterdays highlights: The Donalds threats against the judge overseeing the Trump University case and his unfamiliarity with the term Brexit.) Kristol could have joined the herd, as have allies like Sheldon Adelson and Marco Rubio. Instead, he has hunted for an alternative. Given that most conservatives wont support Hillary Clinton, hes taking tangible steps to prevent the complete collapse of #NeverTrump.

Recommended: A Sanders Supporter Considers Voting for the Republican Nominee

Sure, David French isnt a strong candidate. But in laughing at Kristol, pundits are conflating the success of his initiative with its virtue. Many did the same when Mitt Romney came out against Trump. When it became clear that Romneys denunciations werent influencing voters, commentators mocked the former GOP nominee as impotent, pathetic, and sad. But Romney, like Kristol, was trying to stop a man he rightly considers dangerous to the republic. Thats admirable regardless of the outcome.

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In scorning Kristol and Romney because their anti-Trump efforts arent likely to succeed, the media is surrendering to the logic of Trump himself. For Trump, what matters, above all else, is winning. Thats why he jeered at John McCain for getting captured in North Vietnam. Its why he talks incessantly about the size of his crowds and the strength of his poll numbers. Its why he so often insists that the newspapers that write critical stories about him are losing circulation.

For Trump, being victorious is proof of being right. Journalists should reject that vile ethic, not make it their own.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
The Los Angeles Film Festival opened its 22nd edition Wednesday night at the Cinerama Dome with the world premiere of Lowriders, which attendees agreed was a quintessential Los Angeles movie.

This is the right movie and the right place to open the LA Film Festival, noted star Eva Longoria on the red carpet.

Lowriders focuses on the dynamics of a fractured family in East Los Angeles and centers on the world of customizing classic cars.

Producer Brian Grazer told the audience at the screening that the project germinated for him during his high school days in the late 1960s in the San Fernando Valley. Jason Blum also produced.

I grew up in Chatsworth and I loved the car clubs, Grazer recalled. It was an avenue of brotherhood. The Coasters stuck in my mind.

Indeed, it turns out that The Coasters are front and center in the film. Lowriders director Ricardo de Montreuil, a native of Peru who came to Los Angeles a decade ago, mused that he became fascinated by the East Los Angeles arts scene soon after his arrival.

It began to occur to me that it was being ignored and that there have not been movies about this part of L.A., he mused.

Film Independent, the parent organization for the festival, decided to bring festival screenings to Hollywood and Culver City this year after a six-year run downtown.

We were part of the downtown resurgence, but the festival really belongs in Hollywood and Culver City, said Film Independent President Josh Welsh.

Festival director Stephanie Allain noted that Lowriders is very much a reflection of the desire of the organization to highlight films by and about minorities and women. And the Dome is a place where so many fun movies have played, she added.

Melissa Benoist, best known as Supergirl, plays a love interest and arts aficionado in Lowriders. My favorite part of my role was being bounced up and down in the cars, she noted.

Demian Bichir, Theo Rossi, Tony Revolori and Gabriel Chavarria also star. The post-screening bash took place at Longorias Beso.

Story continues

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It isnt hard to find lots of disturbing news stories about sleazy landlordsyou know, the ones who turn off the heat in the dead of winter and water in the dog days of summer, and havent fixed or painted anything since the Ford presidency. And social media is rife with tenants complaining about such unscrupulous behavior. But what happens when the shoes on the other foot and its the renters who are causing trouble?

A new Facebook page called Disgusting Renters is giving embattled property owners their own space to vent frustrations about unsanitary tenants who leave their rental apartments looking like crime scenes, natural disasters, or special Directors Cut episodes of Hoarders.

The page, which may prompt sensitive readers to don hazmat suits just for viewing purposes, is filled with photographic evidence of the stomach-curdling filth and grime left behind by these odoriferous occupants.

Created in April, the page already has more than 2,400 likes and dozens of vivid posts. Here are a few of the highlights (or is it lowlights?), carefully (and euphemistically) described to not completely gross you out, dear reader:

A photo of a kitchen with a recliner in the middle of it, amid a several-foot-high selection of snack bags, empty soda cans, and even less palatable trash.

A picture, simply titled Wow, showing a former yard taken over by any number of coolers, construction pails, and what appears to be a partly functioning aquarium.

A bare mattress atop a soiled wooden floor with this description: Bird feces all over the floor. The smell is horrendous.

An artfully shot photograph of hundreds of roaches swarming over a bathroom wall and toilet.

OK, well stop right there. Sorry if we went too far with that last one.

The page was created by Milton, FL, landlord Craig Morgan, 47, after the mobile home he and his wife rented out was trashed by his tenants, a couple and their kids.

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It was horrible: bird feces, dog urine, dog feces, he told ABC affiliate Weartv.com. (Were sensing a pattern here.) Trash left all over the floors, front porch.

He told realtor.com the flea-infested home had to be gutted and was sold last month at a $25,000 loss.

Im not doing any more rentals, says Morgan, who owns a barn building business. That sealed it for me and my wife.

He urges other landlords to take precautions to make sure things like that dont happen to them.

This is often easier said than done, especially for regular folks renting out a spare room or an investment home, says Stephen White, CEO of RentPrep, a Buffalo, NYbased company that provides background checks for landlords.

Potential tenants should be screened as carefully as possible before they move in, he recommends (not surprisingly given his line of work). Landlords should also check on the properties at least twice a year to make sure everything is as it should be and the tenants arent, say, rat collectors.

Check the condition of the premises to catch conditions early before its too late, White says. The worst-case scenarios we see are infestations or things that have been let go for way too long. He even describes a testing kit available to ensure that there are no working meth labs on the property.

The longer a problem goes unattended, the more it often costs to fix. And getting rid of horrible tenants can be extremely difficult as the eviction process can be both lengthy and expensive.

In the worst-case scenarios, landlords should consider offering problem tenants cashusually recommended to be about a months rentto get the hell out. And particularly embattled property owners can even add a cash bonus if the renters dont do any further damage, such as flushing concrete down the toilet (true story).

You dont want to reward bad behavior, but at some point you have to stop the damage and try to minimize your losses, White says.

The post How Landlords Are Fighting Back Against the Worlds Filthiest Tenants appeared first on Real Estate News and Advice - realtor.com.





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VIENNA (Reuters) - Libya's Deputy Prime Minister Musa Al-Koni said on Thursday he thought there would by no agreement for an OPEC oil output ceiling.

Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are meeting on Thursday in Vienna.

He also said the country had only one National Oil Company (NOC), led by Mustafa Sanalla.

(Reporting by OPEC reporting team.)
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan brigades aligned with a new U.N.-backed government in Tripoli lost 10 men and had another 40 wounded in fighting close to the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte on Wednesday, a hospital spokesman said. The brigades, mostly composed of fighters from the western city of Misrata, have advanced to the outskirts of Sirte over the past week and say they intend to recapture the city. On Wednesday they had gained ground south of the city, and at a power station west of Sirte, according to statements posted on their social media accounts. They said they had faced four suicide car bombings, two of which had exploded before reaching their targets. Western states are hoping the United Nations-backed government, which arrived in Tripoli in March, can bring together Libya's competing factions to defeat Islamic State. The extremist group established a foothold in Libya amid political chaos and conflict in the North African state, gaining control over Sirte last year. Earlier this week a separate force that guards key oil terminals east of Sirte also advanced towards the city, taking control of two small towns previously controlled by Islamic State. In Sirte itself, a resident told Reuters that a senior cleric had toured the streets on Tuesday urging people to stay in the city and fight. Most of Sirte's population of about 80,000 is thought to have fled, and the government-backed brigades have said they want to give those residents who remain a chance to escape before advancing into residential areas. The brigades had already seen 75 of their fighters killed and more than 350 wounded before the latest casualties. (Reporting by Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Writer-producer Liz Heldens has signed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV. Under the two-year pact, she will join the studios upcoming straight-to-series comedic drama created, executive produced by and starring Seth MacFarlane as executive producer.

For the past two years, Heldens was under an overall deal at Sony TV, focused on development. She previously spent eight years at Universal TV, where she created the 2009 NBC medical drama Mercy and 2013 mystery drama Deception and co-created the networks summer series Camp. She also wrote NBCs Texas megachurch pilot Salvation, which starred Ashley Judd. Before segueing to development, Heldens spent three seasons on Uni TVs critically praised drama Friday Night Lights.

This marks Heldens return to 20th TV, where she started her career, creating her first pilot, 2000 Fox drama Damaged Goods, and working on series Boston Public, North Shore and Pepper Dennis.

Liz began her career at 20th over a decade ago, and we couldnt be happier shes returning under an overall deal, said TCFTV President of Creative Affairs Jonnie Davis. Shes a fantastic, soulful, gifted writer who has the unique dexterity to write both comedy and drama, often in the same scene. Her first assignment will be as an executive producer on Seth MacFarlanes hugely anticipated new live-action series, but we also look forward to having her develop her own projects in the years ahead. For now, though, were just happy to welcome her back to the studio family.

Set 300 years in the future, MacFarlanes hourlong series follows the adventures of the Orville, a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earths interstellar fleet. Facing cosmic challenges from without and within, this motley crew of space explorers will boldly go where no comedic drama has gone before. The series is slated for the 2017-18 television season, with a pilot episode likely filmed in late 2016 and the rest of the episodes in spring 2017.

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Heldens is repped by WME.

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By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and Europe's MBDA hope to complete negotiations with Germany on the MEADS next-generation missile defence system by the end of the year, before next year's German elections, top company officials told Reuters.

Germany announced last year it had chosen the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) over Raytheon Co's (RTN.N) Patriot system, in a $4.5 billion deal, but said the companies would have to meet demanding performance milestones to retain the contract.

Thomas Homberg, managing director of MBDA's German unit, said the company planned to submit its final proposal with Lockheed at the end of July, and still hoped for parliamentary approval by the end of the year.

In an interview at the Berlin air show, Homberg said he hoped for parliamentary approval well before the German election, now scheduled for September 2017, since it was unlikely parliament would act close to the national poll.

Germany funded a quarter of the $4 billion invested by it, the United States and Italy to develop the new system as a successor for the Patriot air defence system fielded in the 1980s. The U.S. military has decided not to buy the system.

Homberg said he was confident Italy could still opt for MEADS or at least some components, and said he could not rule out that the Netherlands could also follow suit, despite a recent decision to modernise its Patriot units.

Homberg said he saw strong support for the programme in the German parliament and from the government, despite Raytheon's continued efforts to wrestle the contract away from MEADS.

"My sense is that Germany is very committed to the programme, he said.

MBDA is a consortium that includes Italy's Leonardo Finmeccanica SpA (LDOF.MI), Airbus Group (AIR.PA) and Britain's BAE Systems Plc (BAES.L).

Rick Edwards, who heads Lockheed's missile and fire control division, said it was infuriating when opponents suggested that MEADS successful demonstration last year was a stunt, or that the programme was not ready for production.

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Weve got a 10-year multi-billion dollar programme which proves that this open architecture (concept) works despite anything to the contrary," he said. "I would expect nothing less (from Raytheon) than fighting all the way down, but theres a lot of money spent on this programme and its pretty darned mature.

Raytheon officials told reporters on Wednesday that they remained in close touch with German officials in case the MEADS consortium was unable to complete negotiations, or meet the milestones set by the government.

Tim Glaeser, vice president of Raytheon's integrated air and missile defence business, said the company remained convinced it could meet Germany's needs "quicker, cheaper and with less risk."

Raytheon officials also said it was possible the decision could slip until 2018, if German lawmakers failed to act before the end of the year or in the first quarter of 2017.

Raytheon is in the running to supply a separate medium- or longer-range radar that Germany wants to integrate with the MEADS system.

Homberg declined to name potential suppliers, but said MBDA was working closely with the German government as it evaluated possible radar systems, and expected a decision would be made before the MEADS contact was finalised.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Sabine Siebold; editing by Adrian Croft)
A Greek holiday home becomes a symbol of a diplomatic powerplay in Alexi Kaye Campbells two-act time-hop, Sunset at the Villa Thalia, at the National Theater. The playwright of transatlantic success The Pride puts two couples  one British, one American  on the island of Skiathos as Greece trips into a military coup, and lets them exploit local uncertainty for personal gain. Despite a magnetic performance from Ben Miles of Wolf Hall (co-starring here with Elizabeth McGovern of Downton Abbey), its too transparent an allegory, and the political insights  meddling Americans, lapdog Brits  are as slimline as they are standard-issue.

Kaye Campbell was one year old when the tanks rolled into Athens, and his family had a house on Skiathos. Its there that, in April 1967, Brits Theo (Sam Crane) and Charlotte (Pippa Nixon), playwright and actress, are lolling about at their lowly holiday rental when in storm the Americans  diplomat Harvey (Miles), a string-pulling CIA man, and his Barbie blonde partner June (McGovern)  on a full-beam charm offensive.

America personified, Harveys a whirlwind with whitened-teeth, perma-tanned, super-smooth and superficially charismatic. A natural born salesman who spouts synonyms to see what sticks, he convinces the Brits to buy the place on the cheap from its Greek owners. Desperate people sell easy and, despite Charlottes pangs of conscience, he wows both Greek owners and British buyers with promises of easy money and future happiness. Miles moves his hands like a stage hypnotist, then smacks a name on the clay shack  Villa Thalia  like a flag in the moon.

Nine years later, after the juntas collapse, the four reunite on a fractious family holiday. Harvey and June, their childlessness a mark of a damn-tomorrow approach, have lost their sheen. June attacks the punch, and Harvey is breathless and disheveled, haunted by his hand in the botched Chilean coup. By the time theyre all dancing to rebetiko music, goofing around to traditional folk songs, Kaye Campbells metaphor has gone into overdrive and the ominous orange glow of Natasha Chivers Aegean sunset rather forces the mood.

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All the way through, symbolism leads and characters follow. Kaye Campbells found a good vehicle for his politics, and he writes with a strong sense of friendship and family dynamics, but theres very little drama on a personal level. A flicker of illicit attraction between Harvey and Charlotte comes to nothing, but that aside, its just a heap of liberal guilt: good people fretting over the consequences of their opportunistic actions abroad.

If Simon Godwins production remains watchable enough, its energized by strong performances. Crane ekes out Theos ineffectual and unimposing side, while as Charlotte, Nixon lets politeness and pragmatism impede on her judgment. Miles is superb as the jaded showman Harvey, his glinting smile concealing a snarl, and McGovern adds a dry humor as his neglected other half. But theres never any doubt that were watching nations, not people, and in nailing America, Kaye Campbell heaps too much blame on one man. Youd think Harvey was working solo, a one-man foreign policy disaster, with the abuse Charlotte gives her guest. Its simplistic and schematic, and ultimately, forgettable as a holiday fling.

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They had all the ingredients of typical political advertisements: red, white and blue color schemes, a presidential-looking candidate, a memorable hashtag (#FeelTheBerk). But the references to border walls and gay rights that appeared on the ads featuring Roger Berkowitz were followed by less presidential fare like opinions on fish tacos and rainbow trout.

If we build a wall on the border, who will eat our delicious fish tacos? Berkowitz asked in one.

I support the gay community. Thats why we serve rainbow trout, he said in another.

My first act in office will be to legalize sea weed, he vowed in a third.

Berkowitz is not a candidate for political office, and the ads were not promoting a real political campaign. He is the President and CEO of Legal Sea Foods, and the ads that ran earlier this year were meant to leverage interest in a historically unpredictable presidential contest to drum up sales for the Boston-based restaurant chain.

Are our ads a little provocative, are they a little edgy? Berkowitz said in an interview. Yes, they are, but the way I look at it, fish is brain food, and smart peoplethe people I want to attractunderstand what it is Im trying to do, and they understand the humor behind it, and they understand its not mean-spirited. But its also meant to elicit a response, and I cant pretend to believe that one size fits all.

Legal Sea Foods is just one of many commercial brands that have elected to dance around controversy this year and engage in an irresistible political conversation. The notoriously divisive electionwhich is only getting more bitter as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump gear up for battle this fallhas captivated the country and opened a window for companies seeking a moment in the zeitgeist.

Hotels.com turned its Captain Obvious character into a candidate who is literally running for president and staying in a lot of different hotels along the way. Did you hear theres a race for president? he asks innocently. Well, Im runningand Ill run against anybody: donkeys, elephants, orangutans, you name it.

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Chrysler released ads featuring Martin Sheen in his West Wing role of President Jed Bartlet and Bill Pullman in character as Independence Day President Thomas Whitmore. Together, they joke about having to swerve right back to the middle ahead of the general election, using the cars handy blind-spot monitoring and collision warning systems to keep you from crashing your campaign.

And actors Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer formed the Bud Light Party in a Super Bowl ad. They say were a nation divided, they say we disagree on everything, Schumer says in the spot. Thats not true. We agree on a lot, Rogen counters, arguing that Bud Light brings America together. Later, Budweiser took things even further, announcing it would temporarily change its name to Americaa rebranding effort for which Trump claimed credit.

These are just spoofs trying to make the contrast that people can agree on some thingsthe really important things, like beerbut they cant agree on candidates and issues, said Shanto Iyengar, a Stanford University political science professor who has studied the relationship between political and commercial advertising. He said product advertising in general can benefit from the revulsion people feel toward campaign advertising because it looks more attractive and engaging by comparisonespecially given the often negative tone of political ads.

These are all themes that are playing out in a very visceral way on our political stage, but [brands] are looking to capture their share of that conversation to be relevant and cool and garner their part of the attention to this cultural phenomenon, said Cary Hatch, CEO of the ad agency MDB Communications. While consumer product ads mimicking political ads is not a new practice, Hatch said the fierce level of competition this election season has inspired more brands than usual to give their ads a political twist.

It doesnt come without peril, but done well, the upside makes them relevant and clever and part of the conversation, Hatch said. Empathy with consumers over the penetrationor some would say pummelingof political messages always makes people feel good about that brand because if youre mocking it, it says you get me, I feel your pain. If you can do it smartly with a smile and say, were suffering along with you, or we get you, thats never a negative.

Berkowitz said he knew some people would be offended by the ad campaign, but his goal was to offer a clever reference to the presidential election while remaining politically ambiguous. He considers it a success, pointing to both positive and negative feedback from people across the political spectrum. The rainbow trout ad sparked criticism from a group that interpreted it as homophobic, and also earned praise from an LGBT publication that wanted to print it, Berkowitz said. In all, Legal Sea Foods received about 300 calls and messages from consumers about the campaignalmost 75% of which were positive in nature, according to New York-based DeVito/Verdi ad agency, which made the commercials. The agency said the ads yielded the best consumer feedback of any Legal Sea Foods campaign.

When the ads ran in Massachusetts ahead of the states March 1 primary, people stopped Berkowitz on the street to ask if he was really making a run for the presidency, he said. The company declined to reveal specific sales figures or how much was spent on the campaign, other than to say there was an increase in sales and foot traffic at Boston-area locations in the weeks after the ads aired.

Some think election-themed ads are too risky in such a polarized political environment, as brands could easily alienate Democrats or Republicans if they depict their product as somehow aligned with a certain party. This is really pretty incendiary stuff, Iyengar said. If I am a brand or I am a product, Im really not going to go near the election. Period.

Macys, NBCUniversal and Serta are among the companies that have wrestled with that controversy, receiving blowback for their business relationships with Trump and for their subsequent decisions to end those partnerships. When Macys decided last year to pull Trumps clothing collection from its stores, it assuaged consumers who had been offended by Trumps comments on immigrants but angered consumers who objected to the stores apparent anti-Trump move. CEO Terry Lundgren said Macys would never carry products by a presidential candidate and explained that it had never before had to deal with that problem. This is a brand-new experience for us, and I hope it will not be something we will have to deal with in the future, he said.

Though this election has posed new challenges, the crossover between commercial and political branding isnt new, said Georgetown professor Adonis Hoffman, who has a background in advertising and communications policy. He described the images of Americana that often appear in ads for trucks as the same as those that appear in presidential campaign adsrolling hills, crowds of smiling people, a Main Street scene.

Every credible candidate has at least one of those in their entire program, and those are kind of throwbacks toif you think about some of the Ford commercials or Dodge commercials, where theyre really appealing to some strong American mainstream values, Hoffman said.

As JetBlue asks passengers to reach across the airplane aisle, Pop-Tarts invites consumers to pop the vote, and the Burger King mascot appears in a debate opposite a Senator, Hoffman predicted the convergence of commercial and political advertising will continue through November. I think whats going to happen is were going to see what amounts to a Coke vs. Pepsi style of advertising, he said, anticipating Trump and Clintons general election messaging. How do those two products differentiate themselves?

DeVito/Verdiwhich has experience in politics, having made the ads for Clintons first Senate runis now working on new Berkowitz-for-President ads that will roll out around the party conventions and general election. Ellis Verdi, the agency president, said he doesnt think the campaign would have worked in a different election cycle. This is that much of a cultural phenomenon, he said. As an advertising agency, I just cant resist it.

Verdi said his goal is to grab consumer attention with an empathetic message: How silly is this campaign in some ways?
Recent polls suggest a photo-finish for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in next weeks California primary, but new fundraising numbers show the former secretary of state is in much better financial shape to pivot toward what promises to be an expensive general election race with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The Democratic frontrunner raised $27 million in the month of May, her campaign said Wednesday. Thats a boost from Aprils $26.4 million haul and leaves her with $42 million in the bank.

Related: Clintons Strategy From Now On: Baiting the Trump Bull

Sanders hasnt reported his May fundraising numbers yet, but his campaign had less than $6 million cash on hand at the end of April. And that was before he started investing almost all of his resources into the California primary, including a $1.5 million television ad buy, according to ABC News.

April marked the first time this year that Clinton outraised Sanders. The shift in fundraising fortunes may have marked an important transition point in which the party faithful finally began to coalesce around Clinton.

This weekend Sanders said he wasnt worried about his resources potentially drying up. We have gotten almost eight million individual campaign contributions, $27 on average, he said during an interview on CBS Face the Nation.

That is what I will do in the general election. And I think, instead of having two million contributors that number will go up by five-fold, Sanders added, boldly suggesting he could take in $270 million for a match-up against Trump.

We will win this campaign when you have eight, 10 million people contributing $25, $30 who are involved in the process who are prepared to take on the big super PACs and the billionaires who will fund Trump's campaign, Sanders said.

Related: Obamas Final Campaign Begins in Earnest with Assault on Trump

To date, Clinton has raised more than $240 million for her White House bid, while Sanders raised almost $213 million through April. The near-parity in fundraising has come as a surprise to many political analysts.

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A win in California would give Sanders fundraising operations a shot in the arm and might provide him with enough cash to made good on his vow to keep campaigning until the Democratic convention this summer.

Sanders trails Clinton by hundreds of delegates and his last-ditch attempt to get superdelegates to switch sides wont be helped if it looks like his financial tank is running dry.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
By Andy Sullivan and Grant Smith CINCINNATI (Reuters) - When Larry Harmon tried to vote on a marijuana initiative in November in his hometown of Kent, Ohio, the 59-year-old software engineer found his name had been struck from the voter rolls. Two hours south in Zanesville, restaurant worker Chris Conrad, 37, was also told he was no longer registered. Both men later found out why: they had not voted often enough. As the Nov. 8 elections loom, officials in Ohio have removed tens of thousands of voters from registration lists because they have not cast a ballot since 2008. All U.S. states periodically cleanse their voter rolls, but only a handful remove voters simply because they dont vote on a regular basis. And nowhere could the practice have a greater potential impact in the state-by-state battle for the White House than Ohio, a swing state that has backed the winner in every presidential election since 1960. Voters of all stripes in Ohio are affected, but the policy appears to be helping Republicans in the state's largest metropolitan areas, according to a Reuters survey of voter lists. In the states three largest counties that include Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, voters have been struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods. That's because residents of relatively affluent Republican-leaning neighborhoods are more likely to vote in both congressional elections and presidential contests, historical turnouts show. Democrats are less likely to vote in mid-term elections and thus are more at risk of falling off the rolls. In the three biggest counties, at least 144,000 voters have been removed, the Reuters analysis found. The statewide total is unclear. Each of the states 88 counties manages its own voter rolls, which generally are not made public. Unlike other voting-rights disputes that have sparked protests and lawsuits, the practice doesn't appear to be driven by one specific party. Both Republican and Democratic officials in Ohio have purged inactive voters over the past 20 years. But neighborhoods that have a high proportion of poor, African-American residents are hit hardest, the Reuters analysis found. "It's absolutely unfair," said Donna Porter-Jones, an organizer at Amos Project, an interfaith group that aims to register 30,000 voters from some of Cincinnatis poorest neighborhoods ahead of November. CLEANING UP THE ROLLS Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, says canceling registrations for voters who missed three straight federal elections helps keep voting rolls current. Since 2011, the state has cleared out more than 2 million records of people who have moved or died, he said. Those who don't vote over a six-year stretch or respond to a postcard mailed to their address have only themselves to blame, he said. "If this is really important thing to you in your life, voting, you probably would have done so within a six-year period," he said in an interview. People who don't respond to the postcard can be removed from voting lists if they sit out the next two federal elections. Many other states only remove voters from the rolls if they have died or moved to a new address. "You shouldn't be struck of your right to vote because you skipped an election," said Kathleen Clyde, a Democratic state representative who has been fighting the practice. Four civil liberties groups sued to end the practice last month, arguing that it violates federal law and unfairly targets low-income and minority voters. Voting-rights advocates say they are concerned that many infrequent voters who helped drive turnout to a record in the 2008 presidential election won't be able to vote in this year's likely matchup between Democrat Hillary Clinton, vying to become the first female president, and Republican Donald Trump, the celebrity billionaire. PARTISAN BATTLES The Ohio lawsuit is one of a number being fought across the country. Photo ID requirements and other efforts to tighten voting laws have spurred fierce partisan battles and protests in recent months. They follow a Supreme Court decision in 2013 that struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act, a signature achievement of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The Ohio dispute, by contrast, centers on a practice that has been in place for decades but is receiving new attention from civil liberties groups and Democrats ahead of November. "We are pleased the courts are reviewing the states actions," said Pratt Wiley, national director of voter expansion at the Democratic Party in Washington. Republican party officials at the local and national level, as well as the Trump campaign, did not respond to requests for comment. But Tom Fitton, the head of Judicial Watch, a conservative group that has pushed Ohio and other states to keep their voting lists up to date, described the lawsuit as a "power play" by civil liberties groups "to ensure that candidates they like are able to steal elections if necessary." Federal law prohibits states from removing voters solely because they haven't voted, but it also requires them to keep voter lists up to date. Ohio residents who are removed from voting lists must re-register at least 30 days before an election. Harmon, the software engineer, backed President Barack Obama in 2008 but has sat out presidential and congressional elections since then. He says he initially thought he had done something wrong to get kicked off the voting rolls. "I felt embarrassed and stupid at the time," said Harmon, who is involved in the Ohio lawsuit. "The more I think about it, the madder I am," he said. "KICKED OFF" In Cleveland's Cuyahoga County, 5 percent of voters in neighborhoods that backed Obama by more than 60 percent in 2012 were purged last year due to inactivity, according to the Reuters analysis of the voter lists. In neighborhoods where Obama got less than 40 percent of the vote, 2.5 percent of registered voters were removed for that reason. In Franklin County, home to the state capital Columbus, 11 percent of voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods have been purged since 2012 due to inactivity. Only 6 percent of voters in Republican-leaning neighborhoods have been purged. The disparity is especially stark in Hamilton County, where affluent Republican suburbs ring Cincinnati, which has one of the highest child-poverty rates in the country. In the heavily African-American neighborhoods near downtown, more than 10 percent of registered voters have been removed due to inactivity since 2012. In suburban Indian Hill, only 4 percent have been purged due to inactivity. Overall, 30,000 voters have been removed due to inactivity since 2012, a larger figure than Obama's margin of victory that year. On a recent rainy afternoon, Amos Project canvasser Marcia Mackey tried to get some of those voters back in the system. Wielding a clipboard and a smile, Mackey asked pedestrians in the Over the Rhine neighborhood north of downtown Cincinnati when they last cast a ballot. If they couldn't remember, she encouraged them to register again. "People don't know they've been purged until they go to the election site and get turned away," Mackey said. "We need to make sure that people have voices." (Grant Smith reported from New York. Editing by Jason Szep and Ross Colvin)
Thursday's Google Doodle is a short, wordless animated tribute to the one of the first female trailblazers in the film industry, Lotte Reiniger. Born 117 years ago June 2, Reiniger's animations were laborious works of art, consisting of hand-cut pieces of card and air  similar to the silhouetted aesthetic depicted in the Google Doodle.

Reiniger is remembered for her jewel-toned avant-garde-styled films, which were inspired by ancient techniques. She called herself a "primitive caveman artist," but her process was painstakingly tedious, with each cut-out needing to be slightly moved and photographed to illustrate any movement.

Source: googledoodles/YouTube

As a child, Reiniger was a fan of short and silent trick films and Chinese shadow puppets, and broke into the industry as more of an experimental artist rather than a film-maker. She got her start at animation when she was working with Paul Wegener and he needed her to design wooden rats to replace the hard-to-control live ones.

In the 1930s, Reiniger fled from the Nazis in Germany to London, and worked with her son's studio called Primrose Productions. She would continue to make films until 1979, and she passed in 1981 when she was 82-years-old.

In her decades-long career, Reiniger produced over 60 films, which were often depictions of fairytales like Cinderella.

Still, her films are remembered as unparalleled in style. "No one else has taken a specific animation technique and made it so utterly her own," Philip Kemp from the British Film Institute wrote. "To date she has no rivals, and for all practical purposes the history of silhouette animation begins and ends with Reiniger."

Watch Reiniger's honorary Google Doodle below:
The Louvre museum in flood-hit Paris said it would close on Friday to evacuate artworks held in its underground reserves as the River Seine began to burst its banks.

The riverside museum -- the most visited in the world, home to everything from the Mona Lisa to priceless Egyptian artefacts, took the radical action after days of torrential rain in the French capital.



The Musee d'Orsay, which faces the Louvre on the opposite bank of the river, closed early on Thursday to put its own "protection plan" into place.



Its galleries hold the world's greatest collection of Impressionist masterpieces, including the finest paintings by Renoir, Manet, Van Gogh and Degas, as well as 24 works by Gauguin.



"The aim is to move works situated in areas vulnerable to flooding to safety by moving them to higher floors," the Louvre said in a statement.



Only hours before, the museum had played down the threat to its vast underground stores which are fitted with anti-flood pumps and sealed waterproof doors.



But as the Seine swelled to more than five metres (16 feet) above its usual levels Thursday, and burst its banks in places, its management decided to close its galleries entirely.



The Musee d'Orsay said a crisis management team had been put in place to organise the moving of its most vulnerable treasures to its upper floors if the Seine rises more than 5.5 metres (18 feet).



By some estimates, the river could rise 6 metres above its usual height Friday.



According to the Musee d'Orsay, both institutions have detailed emergency flooding plans.



These give the Louvre 72 hours and the Musee d'Orsay 96 hours to get works held in their underground reserves to safety.



Both museums have organised drills this year to deal with floods.



In one such exercise in March, the Louvre evacuated the whole of the underground section of its new Islamic art galleries in a day.



The Louvre has plans to move its vast stores from its vulnerable riverside site to a new building near its satellite museum at Lens in northern France in 2019.



The Musee d'Orsay has already moved many of its reserves off-site, and says it has an emergency generator on its roof in case floods cut the electricity supply to the building.
DUBLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - Lufthansa is set for a good year and summer bookings have not disappointed, the chief executive of the airline said on Thursday.

"The summer bookings are not disappointing at all," Carsten Spohr told reporters on the sidelines of the annual IATA meeting in Dublin.

"I think we are looking to a good year as industry and that includes the Lufthansa Group," he added.

Lufthansa had previously said it was seeing signs of customers waiting longer to book due to security concerns in Europe. Spohr said on Thursday late bookings were good because they offered higher yields.

He also said Lufthansa would not take its next two A320neo jets until software and hardware on the Pratt & Whitney engines had been revised.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Sarah Young)
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Lufthansa (LHAG.DE) is set for a good year and summer bookings have not disappointed, the chief executive of the airline said on Thursday.

"The summer bookings are not disappointing at all," Carsten Spohr told reporters on the sidelines of the annual IATA meeting in Dublin.

"I think we are looking to a good year as industry and that includes the Lufthansa Group," he added.

Lufthansa had previously said it was seeing signs of customers waiting longer to book due to security concerns in Europe. Spohr said on Thursday late bookings were good because they offered higher yields.

He also said Lufthansa would not take its next two A320neo jets until software and hardware on the Pratt & Whitney (UTX.N) engines had been revised.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Sarah Young)
Luminex Corp LMNX recently announced the receipt of CE-IVD marking for the ARIES Flu A/B & RSV Assay, which can be used with the companys FDA-approved ARIES system. The recently approved Assay rapidly and accurately detects three key respiratory pathogens: influenza A virus, influenza B virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) from a sample.



The ARIES system is a molecular diagnostics platform designed to deliver increased laboratory efficiency. The systems advanced features like internal bar code scanning, electronic reporting, STAT and Batch testing, together with a simple user interface, are aimed at minimizing operator errors and improving test accuracy.



The system was approved by the FDA last October which paved the way for its launch in the U.S. Following the FDA approval, ARIES received medical device licenses from Health Canada's Therapeutic Products Directorate.



In March, Luminex received CE-IVD marking for the ARIES HSV 1&2 Assay. The latest CE-IVD marking will allow the company to launch the ARIES Flu A/B & RSV Assay in the European markets.



The regulatory milestones expand Luminexs total addressable market. The company expects ARIES to contribute more than $2 million to revenues in 2016, the majority coming from assay sales.



Luminex has submitted its flu A&B/RSV assay to the FDA and expects to get the approval before the commencement of the flu season in 2016/2017.



We believe Luminex has significant growth opportunity from its expanding Assay menu. Moreover, the recently announced takeover of Nanosphere will enable the company to offer automated molecular platforms for both syndromic and targeted molecular diagnostic testing (Verigene and ARIES).



The addition of Nanosphere will contribute revenues in the range of $13--$16 million to this business line, if the deal is completed by Jul 1. Luminex noted that the transaction will be accretive to its adjusted earnings by the end of full-year 2017.



Based on the favorable trends, Luminex raised its full-year 2016 guidance. The company now expects full-year 2016 revenues in the range of $247--$255 million, up from the previous range of $245$255 million. Second-quarter 2016 revenues are expected between $60 million and $62 million.



Zacks Rank and Other Key Picks



Currently, Luminex carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Other favorably ranked stocks in the medical sector are Cryolife CRY, Masimo Corp MASI and Edwards Lifesciences EW. All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).



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Unless you're Native American, any citizen of the United States falls into one of two categories: immigrant or descendant of an immigrant.

A new celebrity-studded campaign from , the nonprofit behind the annual Immigrant Heritage Month in June, shows celebrities like Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong'o and Rosario Dawson discussing their immigrant stories. Nyong'o immigrated to the U.S. from Kenya, while Rosario Dawson is of descendant of immigrants from Puerto Rico and Cuba.

"I think that what's so wonderful about America is that it's a society of immigrants," Nyong'o said in a video accompanying the June 1 launch of Welcome.us's #IAmAnImmigrant campaign.

"[People say,] 'Well my family came over here on the Mayflower,' and I'm like, 'Exactly! Hello, immigrant,'" Rosario Dawson said.

In a statement to Mic, Alida Garcia, a member of Immigrant Heritage Month , said the campaign provides a space for people to speak about the strength and beauty of America's diversity.

"Whether you're a famous celebrity on television or an undocumented immigrant fighting to make your American dream a reality ... your beauty and strength shines through and contributes to our collective American story," Garcia told Mic.

Garcia said the campaign is also intended to raise awareness about the upcoming Supreme Court's decision in US v. Texas  a challenge to the constitutionality of President Obama's Deferred Actions for Parents of Americans program, which allows parents of U.S. citizens to obtain work permits in the United States.

Some people have already begun to participate in the hashtag campaign on Twitter, some using the campaign's "I Am an Immigrant" photo filter, which allows people to put the phrase "I Am an Immigrant" over an uploaded photo and tweet it out to their followers.

Celebrating #IHM2016 by expressing solidarity - join the #IAmAnImmigrant movement! http://bit.ly/1UhfjNB pic.twitter.com/d0ACWZDDGO https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj4NGHSUUAA27hG.jpg:large

IAmAnImmigrant is about celebrating and representing those stories we don't hear about in the midst of politics.pic.twitter.com/ewGETRW0wX https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj47m6EW0AIV3kd.jpg:large

IAmAnImmigrant is about celebrating and representing those stories we don't hear about in the midst of politics.pic.twitter.com/ewGETRW0wX https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj47m6EW0AIV3kd.jpg:large

I am a writer, a dancer, an economist, a home cook, a daughter, a friend and, oh yeah, and also #IAmAnImmigrantpic.twitter.com/FV9GULvW4q https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj5L1rOXEAA3_UM.jpg:large

Italian and Russian decent! June is #ImmigrantHeritageMonth I'm proud to share my heritage #IAmAnImmigrantpic.twitter.com/N2NAGrTVVG https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj8L-k-XEAEkgsx.jpg:large

Now, more than ever, it's important we stay united. I'm proud to be part of #IAmAnImmigrant movement #hcsm #Irelandpic.twitter.com/vzLBRRwD0z https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj9sFP3VEAAeUWB.jpg:large

Now, more than ever, it's important we stay united. I'm extremely proud to be part of the #IAmAnImmigrant movement...!
Amy Cahillane, executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association, speaks last week with David Mundey of the Grateful Hound shop at 114 Main St. in Northampton. DAN LITTLE

Brian Foote, Northamptons director of arts and culture, left, speaks with Amy Cahillane, executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association, last week about cultural events downtown. DAN LITTLE

Amy Cahillane, executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association, speaks last week with David Mundey of the Grateful Hound shop at 114 Main St. in Northampton. DAN LITTLE

Brian Foote, center, Northamptons director of arts and culture, speaks with Amy Cahillane, right, executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association, last week about cultural events downtown. DAN LITTLE

Brian Foote, Northamptons director of arts and culture, speaks with Amy Cahillane, executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association, last week about cultural events downtown. DAN LITTLE

Amy Cahillane, executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association, speaks last week with David Mundey of the Grateful Hound shop at 114 Main St. in Northampton. DAN LITTLE

NORTHAMPTON  If the sky is really falling on downtown business in Northampton, it might hit Amy Cahillane first.

The new executive director of the Downtown Northampton Association has been out this past month walking her beat  but not to worry. She doesnt believe in dire forecasts.

To be sure, when Cahillane heads down Market Street from her shared workspace and turns right onto Main, as she did with a reporter last week, some closed storefronts come into view. But as this new groups first leader, and its only paid staffer, Cahillane sees success now  and good things ahead.

On her patrols downtown, Cahillane admits she gets occasional questions about the former Business Improvement District, some of whose projects the new DNA is picking up. Nearly two years after a judge sidelined the BID, and through the turmoil of community meetings and a task forces efforts, a new era of downtown promotion seems to be underway.

Everybody knows who we are, and that we are something different, said Cahillane.

She is getting us organized and focused, said Alan Wolf, vice chairman of the DNA, which chose Cahillane from among three finalists for a 30-hour-a-week job posted at a $40,000 annual salary.

A 1993 Smith College graduate, Cahillane gave up work as a tax lawyer for a job she defines as getting paid to talk to people about making her adopted city better.

And thats what drove conversations last week, as Cahillane, 44, hit the street, rolling out from her desk at Click Workspace and engaging with a job that asks something different from her every day. I function much better when I have 17 boiling pots, she said. I love that no day is the same.

That might explain why she was willing to give up her law practice. I was waiting for the right thing to come up, she said of her new position.

Downtown message

Up at the Grateful Hound at 114 Main St., Cahillane found David Mundey, the shops sales and marketing manager, thinking about the need to spread the downtown message.

We definitely need to see the day-trippers and people coming to visit, said Mundey, whose store opened in March after six years of operation in Savannah, Georgia. Cahillane stood by listening  hearing again that a retailer wants more downtown marketing.

Maybe the DNA can come up with something that gets people to come when the weathers not great, Mundey said.

Getting more foot traffic into the retail district is a key DNA assignment, Cahillane says. She is working to support events that had been associated with the BID, but tweak them. It will co-sponsor a summer concert series on the courthouse lawn, as well as back continuing projects like the sidewalk sales and Arts Night Out.

While aiding those events, Cahillane says she misses the edge of a city on the rise and hopes to hear from people who care about downtown but are not at the table. That, she said, calls for her and the DNA to incubate new and smaller events downtown that can bring back an edgy and cultural vibe that has fallen off, a little bit.

That goal has been on the mind of the next person she ran into last week, Brian Foote, Northamptons director of arts and culture. Dressed in a green T-shirt on this Thursday (because he was riding a motorcycle, he explained), Foote paused outside the Grateful Hound to compare notes with Cahillane on a few shared projects, including the summer concert series. Foote serves on the DNAs events committee, which had met the day before.

Its been a purgatory for the last two years since the BID was dissolved, Foote said. We were wondering how wed fill that gap.

The summer concerts are designed to keep downtown vibrant. A bigger project taking shape for this fall, Food and Fools, will place artists around the city over three days of events. Foote envisions it as a harvest festival that can win the city notice from outsiders, as the former Taste of Northampton once did.

We have to show that again to this region, Foote said, as he watched people pass on the busy sidewalk and a restaurant supply truck idled noisily nearby.

Beyond business

While the DNA took shape after the BID ended in November 2014, Cahillane believes her constituency is broader than business.

And one of the next people she encounters, down at the corner near Silverscape Designs, believes that as well.

Its my neighborhood association, said Jack Finn, who lives above the A2Z Science & Learning Store on King Street that he formerly co-owned. The downtown should have one, and the people who live downtown should be involved in the DNA.

Unlike the BID, the boundaries of the DNA are not precisely defined. Cahillane sees her territory as Main Street, from Hawley and Market streets on the east side to the gates of Smith College on the west, and about a block on either side. Finn figures that includes his home.

Its good to see you on the street, he tells Cahillane, in your portable office.

Yeah, Cahillane answers. My laptop, my calendar and my cellphone.

Lean and mean isnt just a style for the DNA, its a necessity. Unlike the BID, which was able to assess payments from district property owners, membership in the DNA is voluntary.

The group is seeking to raise $200,000 this year to support its operations. Major support has already come from Smith College and Thornes Marketplace. While the DNA board will help her with fundraising, Cahillane is no stranger to the art of the ask.

She is co-president of the Northampton Education Association and a board member since 2011, where she coordinated fundraising. Cahillane and her husband, Edward, have an 11-year-old son, Max.

Marlene Marrocco, co-chairwoman of the DNA board, said Cahillane has a record of inspiring the people of Northampton to get involved.

For their investment in the DNA, people will see things like the new hanging flower baskets along Main Street and, come years end, a more eye-catching holiday lights display than people were able to assemble last year, in the gap between the two organizations. The 2015 display, she said, trying to be kind, wasnt everything it could be.

Unlike the BIDs leaders, Cahillanes DNA does not have to clean downtown. The citys in-kind contribution to the DNA includes the work of Tom Willard, a Department of Public Works employee now dedicated full time to gussying up downtown.

He treats the downtown like his own front yard, Cahillane said. He seems to know before anyone what needs to be cleaned, what needs to be watered. We couldnt do this without him.

Cahillane acknowledges that the DNA is taking a leap of faith that people  shopkeepers and residents alike  will embrace the new groups work, believing it works to their benefit. She cites the task forces progress in building consensus. Theres a good undercurrent of support throughout downtown.

But thats where faith comes in. We need financial support. Period.

After beautification and events, Cahillane says a third key part of her job is to advocate for the commercial interests of downtown business people. She has been attending any public meeting at which business interests are at play, whether its parking, panhandling or bike and pedestrian safety.

Cahillane isnt promising to solve the big problems, but feels called to be in the room on behalf of businesses.

But often, that room is really the street.

To learn more about the DNA or to contribute, go to: http://www.northamptondna.com/
New York (AFP) - Madonna on Thursday triumphed in a copyright case concerning her song "Vogue," in a victory for artists seeking to use samples.

The lawsuit concerns a brief horn riff that appears five times in the radio version of "Vogue," a dance track that was a major hit for the pop superstar in 1990.

The Salsoul Orchestra funk ensemble first recorded the horns in the early 1980s on the song "Ooh I Love It (Love Break"). The track was produced by Shep Pettibone, who went on to make "Vogue" with Madonna.

VMG Salsoul, the company that holds the copyright to the earlier song, sued Madonna and Pettibone over the horn snippet and said that it deserved compensation.

But the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a 2013 lower court decision that found that the sample was "de minimis," or too trivial to warrant attention.

"We conclude that a reasonable juror could not conclude that an average audience would recognize the appropriation of the horn," Susan Graber, a judge based in Portland, Oregon, wrote for the court.

While changing little for Madonna, the ruling could help future artists using samples as it puts the Ninth Circuit, which covers California, directly at odds with another federal appeals court.

In a 2005 ruling known as the Bridgeport case, the Sixth Circuit which includes the music hub of Nashville ruled against gangsta rappers N.W.A. whose "100 Miles and Runnin'" sampled a brief guitar riff from funk greats Funkadelic.

That decision, which said that even small samples warranted copyright protection, led to a surge in lawsuits of artists seeking compensation.

In Thursday's decision, Graber acknowledged the Bridgeport case but said that the court found the Sixth Circuit's reasoning "unpersuasive."

In a dissent, Judge Barry Silverman said that use of the sample on "Vogue" rather than hiring new musicians or paying for a license amounted to theft.

Story continues

"It is no defense to theft that the thief made off with only a 'de minimis' part of the victim's property," Silverman wrote.

Silverman said the latest decision would cause confusion at a national level more than a decade after the Bridgeport ruling, adding that Congress was the more appropriate venue to change rules.

The latest ruling did offer one sop to the plaintiffs, striking down the lower court's decision to force them to pay the legal fees of Madonna and Pettibone.

Graber said it had not been unreasonable for the plaintiffs to file a lawsuit, even if the court ultimately did not agree.
Brave New Films Robert Greenwald, the documentarian behind such films as the Koch Brothers Exposed and Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price, is now exposing the money behind the National Rifle Association in a new film that lays bare the growing amount of power the lobbying group has been able to wield via politicians over the years. What we do in the film is make clear that the gun companies and manufacturers are profiting, and the 2nd Amendment is serving the greed, Greenwald told Deadline.

Making a Killing: Guns, Greed and the NRA is on its way to becoming one of the most widely distributed documentaries as the filmmakers are relentlessly screening across the country through a grassroots effort that involves the faith community, teachers, medical centers, libraries, homes, community centers, with unions, and elected officials.

By Labor Day, Greenwald says proudly, we will have screened the film in more than 1,000 different venues. They are also negotiating to bring the film out even wider with a yet unnamed distributor.

This comes only one day after a student took a gun to UCLA and killed his professor William Klug (a 39- year-old father of two small children) and himself. There is a bill right now to create a California Firearm Violence Research Center to research firearm-related violence (SB 1006); the bill passed the CA Senate that is now waiting on an Assembly vote. The NRA has opposed any kind of bill involving firearm violence research.

Making a Killing notes that Congress has prevented studies to collect data on how to reduce gun violence and have encouraged a bill to allow concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses nationwide. At the same time, the film exposes the high salaries of the NRA executives, such as executive director Wayne LaPierre (about $900K/year) and how the money from the NRA then funnels to politicians who then vote in favor of what the gun manufacturers want.

Story continues

Bill Benenson

Gun violence is now so common an occurrence that we as a nation are somewhat inured to its horror, said filmmaker Bill Benenson. Put simply, the NRA is an institutional cancer on our way of life and this film is dedicated to making Americans aware of that clear and present danger.

Making a Killings budget was cobbled together with 1/3 from foundations, 1/3 from small donors and 1/3 from private donors such as exec producers Bill and Laurie Benenson who also brought the films Beasts of No Nation from Cary Joji Fukunaga and MAK, Kissing the Ground from Sundance Audience Award winning filmmakers Josh and Rebecca Tickell to the screen. All of Benensons investments speak to the issues about which he and his wife are most passionate about: gun violence, conservation, and exploitation of the disenfranchised.

The film, which has gone grassroots in its marketing by holding screenings among various gun violence prevention groups (such as Colorado Ceasefire in conjunction with the Denver Film Society or in Los Angeles thru the highly effective Women Against Gun Violence), has been offering up the film for free to any group  gun violence prevention or pro-gun group  who would like to show it to their organization or host a screening in their community or home.

robert greenwald

Its a break from the traditional model that Greenwalds Brave New Films has implemented in the past. This time around, the production company is releasing the full-length film all over the country while at the same time using the power of social media by creating original short films and offering about 20 short clips from the film to be shared online. They even created study guides for teachers.

One original short film reveals that school shootings have tripled since 1980 and uses as an example a 12-year-old in Nevada who killed a teacher and a student before taking his own life.

In another original short, they interview a number of doctors in the U.S., now gagged from talking to their patients about gun safety in the home; they cannot, by law, discuss guns but can still talk about putting a fence around swimming pools to prevent drownings. (If doctors talk about guns with their patients and someone reports them, they could lose their medical license).

We want to reach as many people as possible with this film so everyone knows what is actually happening in this country, Greenwald explains. A lot of this, people just arent aware of. The goal is to have the film reach one million people to lift the curtain on how the NRA is profiting for those it represents by marketing fear to a society in order to sell more guns.

Making a Killing was a year and 10 months in the making  about as long as it took to make the expose on Walmart and its labor practices.

making a killing still

Making a Killing

intersperses stories of gun violence victims including that of suicides (which accounts for 2/3rds of deaths in the U.S. every year), domestic violence, accidental shootings, gun trafficking in Chicago, and mass shootings so the audience can understand the varying kind of crimes involving guns and the wide impact on victims, survivors, families and friends. One of the stories they tell is that of Kate Ranta whose estranged husband burst into their home and started shooting her in front of their four-year-old son.

Another one of the families whose story they tell is the family and girlfriend of 18-year-old A.J. Boik, murdered (along with my cousin Micayla and 10 others) in the Aurora Theater shooting during the midnight screening of Warner Bros. The Dark Knight Rises at the Cinemark Century 16 on July 20, 2012. One of those interviewed in the film is A.J. Boiks uncle Dave Hoover who is a police officer (a good guy with a gun) with 30 years of law enforcement experience under his belt.

Robert Greenwald is friending social media to spread his anti-NRA film

Why I participated in this effort is the personal nature and the great loss of A.J. and 11 others in that theater in addition to the aftermath and carnage that is created in our communities daily by gun violence, said Hoover. No other family should have to go through the pain and anguish that weve gone through. Nobody should. To me, it seems irresponsible not be involved because we are all part of the human race. People dont understand that when that bullet leaves a gun, the results after that happening, it just doesnt just end there. They are going to carry both an emotional and financial burden. A gun is a tool but it is designed to take life and it has to be treated with reverence and responsibility  personal responsibility  that you are trained to know how to use it, are prepared to use it and that also means to be financially prepared to use it, and that they are safely stored so a child doesnt get shot in the chest.

We are dying inside. Somethings got to be done. This is happening too much  every day, laments Eva Shiels in the film. Shiels is the sister of Sandy Aponte and aunt of 13-year-old Eddie Zee Holmes who was killed unintentionally when his 13-year-old friend picked up a shotgun which was not locked up by the parents, pointed it and shot his friend in the chest.

Added Benenson: Gun violence is the scourge of our time in America. Today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

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Paperplane Pursuit, Bunkface and Dennis Lau have been chosen to be part of the delegation to the Marche International du Disque et de l'Edition Musicale (MIDEM), the annual event where artistes, technology and brands are connected by music.



The event will be held in Cannes, France from 3 to 6 June 2016.



The three performers were chosen due to their accomplishments and their track record for independently leading their very own music companies;

Paperplane Pursuit  Breaking Records

Bunkface  Bunkface Productions

Dennis Lau  Mosaic Entertainment Group

"It's our first time in Europe, and we hope to meet and network with music companies from the continent who can assist us in penetrating the European market," said the Paperplane Pursuit's vocalist John O as reported by News Straits Times.



"Ultimately, our goal is to penetrate the US market, but we believe in doing things one step at the time, and Europe is a good place to make an international start outside Southeast Asia."



Electric violinist Dennis Lau stated that he will be shooting a music video at Cannes for his new single "Largest Movie" which is a Jay Chou cover.



This will be the fourth consecutive participation by Malaysia at the MIDEM which aims to promote the nation's music industry.
By Justin Madden

(Reuters) - A jury awarded $22 million to an Ohio man who sued the city of East Cleveland and police officers after he was beaten while handcuffed and placed in a storage closet for four days, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

Arnold Black, a 48-year-old black man from Maple Heights, Ohio, sued East Cleveland after he was stopped by police in 2012 for suspected drug activity, handcuffed, and beaten so severely that he suffered memory loss and required brain surgery, according to Black's attorney, Robert DiCello, and Cuyahoga County Court documents.

An attorney for East Cleveland could not be reached for comment, but the Fox TV station in Cleveland reported that city officials plan to appeal the ruling.

The decision in favor of Black came at a time of fierce national debate over the use of excessive force by police against minorities, especially black men.

According to the court documents, the officers thought Black's green Silverado pickup truck was a vehicle used to transport drugs.

Black said one of the officers who detained him, Detective Randy Hicks, had been drinking and repeatedly asked him with slurred speech where drugs were sold in East Cleveland, according to court documents.

Hicks proceeded to punch Black, who was 45 at the time, repeatedly in the head as the officers threatened to put him in jail if he did not tell them were the drugs were.

Black was placed in a storage closet at the police station where he was kept without food or water for four days and forced to relieve himself in a locker.

"My client suffered mercilessly," DiCello said in a telephone interview.

He added, a Cuyahoga County jury reached the decision on the lawsuit on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Justin Madden in Chicago; Editing by Sandra Maler)
By Kim Palmer

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Michael Madison, a East Cleveland man convicted of murdering three women and keeping their bodies wrapped in plastic as trophies, was sentenced on Thursday to death by an Ohio county judge.

Madison's attorney, David Grant, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A jury earlier this month unanimously recommended the death penalty for Madison, 38, after his conviction on May 5 in the murders of Shetisha Sheeley, 28; Angela Deskins, 38, and Shirellda Terry, 18.

In addition to aggravated murder, he was convicted on additional counts, including rape, kidnapping and gross abuse of a corpse, and was ruled a violent sexual predator.

East Cleveland police found the first of the three women in July 2013 after receiving a complaint about foul odors coming from a garage behind Madison's apartment.

The bodies of two more women were discovered nearby the next day. Madison was arrested at his mother's Cleveland home after a two-hour standoff with police.

After Madison was sentenced by Cuyahoga County Judge Nancy McDonnell, Terry's father, Van Terry, ran toward the convict and lunged at him.

"Right now I guess we are supposed to give you forgiveness. You tortured our families. You take my child," Terry said.

Sheriff's deputies quickly subdued Terry and Madison, who appeared unharmed, was taken to a holding cell adjacent to the courtroom.

(Writing by Suzannah Gonzales; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Dan Grebler)
A man from Queens, New York, spent nearly 5 months inside Rikers Island prison without knowing his bail was just a measly $2.

Read: Seven Innocent People Volunteer to Serve 60 Days in Prison to Show Real Life Behind Bars

Aitabdel Salem, 41, was locked up between November 2014 and April 2015.

Last week, he was acquitted of skipping his bail of $25,000 for attacking an NYPD officer who arrested him in November for allegedly stealing a coat from a department store.

Unbeknownst to Salem, prosecutors could not get an indictment against him and he was ordered to be released soon after his arrest. However, he was locked away inside Rikers because he had two $1 bails on his record due to minor offenses which included tampering and mischief charges.

Salem could not be freed without paying them first. According to his current lawyers, he had no idea the minor bail was on his record.

Read: Man Calls 911 to Complain He's 'Too High,' Officers Find Him Surrounded by Junk Food

The Algerian native blames his previous attorney for failing to inform him about the change in his bail status, according to the New York Daily News.

Salem's new lawyers argued to a New York judge that he could not be blamed for something he did not know and was acquitted of bail jumping.

Watch: Diane Sawyer Gets Unprecedented Access to 'Hell' - Rikers Island Prison

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rikers island

A man spent 5 months in jail at Rikers Island, one of the country's most notorious prisons, for a chunk of pocket change.

Aitabdel Salem, a 41-year-old from Queens, was initially jailed on a $25,000 bail for allegedly attacking a police officer who was arresting him on charges of shoplifting on November 21, 2014, reports the New York Daily News.

Prosecutors for the case, however, failed to land an indictment, and a judge ordered Salem's release on November 28, 2014, just one week after his arrest.

Salem, however, still had to pay two $1 bail charges for two unrelated tampering and mischief charges.

The only problem: Salem didn't know just $2 could set him free. He languished in the overcrowded prison until May 2015, when he was finally released, reports The Daily News.

But that wasn't the end of his troubles. Salem failed to show up for an arraignment hearing for those charges on May 13, 2015 and was slapped with a bail-jumping charge. He was jailed, again, but this time on a $30,000 bail.

He remains at Rikers with new legal representation.

Salem and his lawyers argue his former Legal Aid attorney, Stephen Pokart, neglected to tell him about the $2 fee, and therefore, Salem can't be blamed for missing his arraignment.

You cant do what you dont know and if youre a defendant in a criminal case you certainly have a right to rely upon the system what your next court date is, one of Salem's new attorneys, Theodore Goldbergh, argued in court, according to the Daily News.

Pokart, Salem's former lawyer, did not respond to the Daily News' request for comment.

Bail issues have been an ongoing problem at Rikers. Kalief Browder was jailed there on a $3,000 bail after being charged with stealing a backpack at age 16, according to The Marshall Project.

Browder, like a huge portion of America's jail population, couldn't afford bail. He was incarcerated at Rikers for three years  undergoing long stints in solitary confinement and abuse by guards  before he was released when his case was dismissed.

Story continues

Browder committed suicide in June 2015.

NOW WATCH: 'Affluenza' teen loses appeal, will spend nearly 2 years in jail





More From Business Insider


Marilyn Monroe once waited in line to meet Queen Elizabeth II.

Rare footage of the late Hollywood star, who would have turned 90 on Wednesday, recently emerged, revealing a moment when she met the Queen in London's Leicester Square on Oct. 29, 1956. At the time, both regal ladies were just 30 years old.

WATCH: Kate Middleton Reveals Prince George's Adorable Nickname for the Queen

The meeting took place at the 1956 premiere of The Battle of the River Plate, a British war film. Monroe was there to accompany her then-husband, playwright Arthur Miller.

During the royal encounter, Monroe donned a strappy, silk dress with gloves as she shook the Queen's hand, curtseyed and smiled. Her Royal Highness looked equally as glamorous in an off-the-shoulder gown and sparkly Grand Duchess Vladimir tiara.

NEWS: Queen Elizabeth Attends Birthday Horse Show

Getty Images

The Queen took the throne when she was 25 years old, following the death of her father, King George VI. On April 21, she celebrated her 90th birthday, surrounded by her family and furry friends.

In honor of the milestone, famed photographer Annie Leibovitz snapped stunning photos of the monarch at Windsor Castle for Vanity Fair's Summer issue.

WATCH: Queen Elizabeth Covers Vanity Fair's Summer Issue

"The most moving, important thing about this shoot is that these were all her ideas," Leibovitz told the glossy. "She wanted to be photographed with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren; her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh; her daughter, Anne, the Princess Royal; and her corgis."

Watch the video below to hear more.

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CHARLES CITY | A woman authorities say ran through a Charles City restaurant and jumped a fence while fleeing after a traffic stop is being sought by police.

Maggie Moyer, 32, of Garner, is wanted for suspicion of driving while revoked, interference with official acts, not having an ignition interlock device, a seat belt violation, improper registration and not having proof of insurance.

A Charles City officer pulled over Moyer about 2 p.m. Wednesday in the 500 block of Freeman Street. Moyer was allegedly not wearing a seat belt.

Moyer pulled over in the parking lot of Hunan Buffet, jumped out of the car and ran into the restaurant with the officer in pursuit, said Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson.

"An officer pursued her out one of the fire exit doors," he said.

Moyer jumped a fence, ran through some rental units and escaped.

Anyone with information about her whereabouts can call Charles City police at 641-228-3366.

-- Molly Montag
From Cosmopolitan

On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted 116 to 36 in favor of a bill that would protect the rights of transgender people in public spaces.

Among other things, the bill would allow trans individuals the right to use public restrooms and locker rooms based on their choice of gender identity, rather than their birth sex; and the bill would also make discriminating against trans individuals in public spaces illegal.

A slightly different version of the bill was already passed by the Massachusetts Senate earlier this month, and the two versions will need to be reconciled before the bill can be signed into law. However, according to the Boston Globe, Gov. Charlie Baker has already confirmed that he will sign "a transgender public accommodations bill should it reach his desk."

"We've certainly listened to a variety of points of view from many sides and have said, from the beginning, that we don't want people to be discriminated against," he told the Boston Globe. "If the House bill were to pass in its current form, yeah, I would sign it."

While the bill has received backlash from conservative critics, most people have rightly celebrated it as a huge win for LGBTQ rights.

Follow Gina on Twitter.
(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp (MCD.N) is nearing a deal to shift its headquarters to the former Harpo Studios campus in Chicago from Oak Brook, Illinois, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

The world's biggest restaurant chain is in advanced negotiations with Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay to move its headquarters to a building on Randolph Street, Crain's Chicago Business reported, citing people familiar with the deal. (http://bit.ly/25yPCQG)

Sterling Bay bought Oprah Winfrey's former Harpo Studios campus for more than $30 million in 2014.

McDonald's and Sterling Bay did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Lima (AFP) - The father is in jail for crimes against humanity. Uncles and aunts have fled corruption charges. And the daughter? She's tipped to follow in dad's footsteps by becoming president.

The Fujimoris may look like one of Peru's most dysfunctional families, but they are also one of its most powerful.

Although ex-president Alberto Fujimori, 77, is in jail and in frail health, his children are looking to cement a dynasty.

His daughter Keiko, 41, leads the opinion polls as she seeks to become Peru's first female president in a presidential runoff election this coming Sunday.

That is despite -- or because of -- the violence and drama of Alberto Fujimori's time as leader, and in his own family.

Keiko's mother Susana Higuchi divorced him in 1994. She later accused his men of torturing her.

After the divorce, Keiko Fujimori took over as the nation's first lady at the age of 19.

"She has remained among the most popular figures in Peruvian politics since then," Maria Luisa Puig, a Latin America analyst at the Eurasia Group consultancy, wrote in a note last month.

During his 1990-2000 rule, Fujimori boosted the economy and all-but stamped out an armed guerrilla insurgency -- but with methods that landed him in jail.

Convicted of corruption, he is now serving a 25-year sentence after a court in 2009 also found him responsible for massacres of leftist opponents.

The memory of his leadership looms over Peruvians, for better or worse.

"Despite being in jail, he remains very popular in some areas due to his fight against the Shining Path guerrilla, economic recovery and clientelist policies during his administration," Puig wrote.

The soap opera within the Fujimori family matched the drama of that turbulent decade.

Shortly after their divorce, Higuchi ran against Alberto Fujimori in an election in 1995. But he blocked her by passing a law prohibiting presidents' close family members from succeeding them directly in office.

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Keiko Fujimori has rejected her mother's claims as "myths."

Although Higuchi Fujimori has appeared at some of her daughter's recent campaign events, they are not reputed to have warm relations.

- Family business -

Peruvians refer to them affectionately although inaccurately as "the Chinese" -- Keiko is "la China" and her father "El Chino."

The Fujimoris are actually among the thousands of families of Japanese descent in Peru following waves of economic immigration.

Alberto Fujimori's sisters, Juana and Rosa, and his brother Pedro all went on the run from embezzlement charges.

The sisters fled to Japan and Pedro to the United States, where the family says he died three years ago.

Keiko's brother Kenji, the youngest of the ex-president's children, is now a member of Congress after having won more votes than any other deputy in elections in April.

He has made it clear he wants to be president himself one day, too.

The elder of Keiko's two younger brothers, Hiro, recently returned to Peru from a spell in Japan.

He has joined the boards of two companies in which his brother Kenji holds shares.

The last of the Fujimori children, Sachi, has stayed away from politics. She is an architect.

- A real Fujimori? -

Keiko Fujimori would win 46 of the vote on Sunday against 40.6 percent for her opponent, center-right economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a poll published by Ipsos on Sunday indicated.

In the first-round election on April 10, Fujimori took 40 percent of the vote to Kuczynski's 21 percent. Leftist challenger Veronika Mendoza was eliminated, leaving the 19-percent share of the vote she won up for grabs.

Analysts said Keiko Fujimori lost the 2011 presidential election because she alienated many voters by proposing to pardon her father. She has since kept quiet about what she might do about him.

But her victory in April's first-round vote was too narrow for her to win without a runoff, reflecting divisions among Peruvians over Alberto Fujimori's legacy.

"He got rid of terrorism, that's why people like him," said one voter, 27-year-old Lima taxi driver Mario Armando Callupe.

But Callupe said he would vote for Kuczynski because the 77-year-old has more experience than "La China."

"A lot of people confuse her with her father," he said. "But she is not the real Fujimori."
BERLIN (Reuters) - It is far too early to discuss a lifting of sanctions against Russia for its intervention in Ukraine, a top adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday. "I think the discussion about lifting of sanctions has come far too early," foreign policy adviser Christoph Heusgen said at a German Marshall Fund event in Berlin. "We are not anywhere close to having Minsk implemented." Based on the current situation in eastern Ukraine, Heusgen added, it was hard to envision a situation where sanctions were not extended for another half year when they expire in July. (Reporting by Noah Barkin; Editing by Michelle Martin)
Acapulco Mexico violence business cartels

The idyllic Pacific coast town of Acapulco in Mexicos Guerrero state once welcomed Hollywood stars and honeymooners, but the city has suffered a wave of bloody violence in recent years, as cartels and criminal groups battle for control.

Since 2012, Acapulco, which has been called Guerrero's Iraq, has been the most violent city in Mexico, and among the most violent cities in the world, with homicide rates above 100 per 100,000 people each year.

In 2015, Acapulco, home to about 800,000 people, saw 1,170 killings. In the first three months of this year, there were 205 homicides  in March alone, the city had 98 of Guerreros 182 homicides.

These numbers are down from violent peaks reached in 2012  the city had about 100 homicides a month that year  but the intensity of the bloodshed stands out, and appears to be closely linked to the fragmentation of Mexicos criminal organizations.

Violence in the southwest coastal area is the result of the some of the shifting cartel dynamics that we've seen among the major players ... dating back four or five years  when we saw the takedown of the major figures of the Beltran Leyva Organization, David Shirk, professor at the University of San Diego, told Business Insider.

The Beltran Leyva Organization, or BLO, partnered with El Chapo Guzmans Sinaloa cartel and controlled parts of central and southwestern Mexico. In the late 2000s, the BLO started fighting with the Sinaloa cartel and faced increased pressure from the Mexican government.

Acapulco Mexico beach soldiers homicides violence

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The fragmentation effect that followed from that led to the splintering of the remnants of the Beltran Leyva Organization into various regional players, Shirk, the director of USDs Justice in Mexico program, said.

"So it's a lot of those smaller groups along with the Sinaloa cartel that are in conflict in that area," Mike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told Business Insider.

Acapulco Mexico map

The BLO, backed by the powerful and violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel, has tried to reassert control in Acapulco since late last year, clashing with local groups like the Independent Cartel of Acapulco (CIDA), according to The Associated Press.

CIDA is one of three criminal groups operating in the city, and one of eight present in Guerrero, according to government reports seen by El Universal.

The CIDA is believed to be responsible for recent violence that has gained international attention, in particular for multiple attacks on federal police stationed in the heart of Acapulco on April 24.

The attacks were suspected to be retaliation for the capture of a CIDA leader the day before.

The violence has also likely been exacerbated by recent political shifts. Guerreros governor, Hector Astudillo, took office in late October. Instability caused by criminal groups jockeying to make deals or gain influence with the new government has likely added to the bloodshed, Vigil noted. In the first 100 days of Astudillo's term, there reportedly were 734 homicides.

Its a no-win situation for local governments and politicians, Vigil said, as they frequently become targets regardless of their stances toward criminal groups. Why anyone would want to be a politician in Mexico is beyond me, Vigil added.

'For the majority, its hell'

As cartel clashes have intensified, the violence has filtered out of the poor neighborhoods surrounding the city, spilling into tourist areas.

In a trend that has further hurt Acapulcos tourism industry, assassins used Jet Skis to approach targets on the citys beaches. As the violence spreads, beach-goers have started carrying small tote bags with weapons for protection.

Acapulco Mexico beach vendor business

Criminal groups in the city have turned more to localized crimes like kidnapping and extortion to create revenue, but Acapulcos location as Guerrero's coastal outlet indicates why its a prized possession for big cartels like CJNG.

Acapulco is the state of Guerrero, and Guerrero is a major heroin-producing state, and right now heroin is a very lucrative market because we're suffering from an epidemic here in the United States, Vigil told Business Insider.

So there's different groups that are battling out for control of ... heroin production in the state of Guerrero, Vigil added. Astudillo, Guerrero's governor, has even suggested legalizing medicinal-opium cultivation as a way to reduce violence.

In addition to drug production, Guerrero also offers traffickers access to smuggling routes throughout central Mexico and along the Pacific coast. "If you're trying to move product from anywhere  from out of Mexico, into Mexico, or vice versa  these areas are logistically strategic, both for legitimate and illicit businesses," Shirk said.

Mexico police Guerrero Ayotzinapa violence protest

Extortion, and violence related to it, has even made its way to the citys schools. In late 2014, schools were hit with extortion fees for each student and each teacher. In a two-month period at the end of that year, 21 teachers were killed.

In response, the local government stationed soldiers at schools. Students see troops as something they like, something to admire. The girls even start to call them their boyfriends, a teacher told news site Animal Politico late last year. But in reality, in terms of security, nothing has changed.

In that regard, conditions in Acapulco may mirror those in Mexico as a whole, which has seen a rise in homicides over the last year.

"It's the same problem in Guerrero, the same problem in Tamaulipas, in Michoacan," security analyst Alejandro Hope told the AP, referring to states where homicides have jumped.

Acapulco Mexico homicide murder killing

"Suddenly there's an emergency, they send troops to where the problem is and in the short term crime drops. But then there is an emergency somewhere else, and then the troops have to leave, and they have not developed local law-enforcement capacity," Hope added.

In the near term, violence in Acapulco is likely to continue unabated, said Vigil, who has spoken with sources in Mexicos federal-police force.

Acapulco is the synthesis of the national tragedy, Abel Barrera, director of the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, told Macleans last year. For a few, its paradise. For the majority, its hell.

NOW WATCH: Federal agents found one of the longest US-Mexico drug tunnels hidden under a dumpster





More From Business Insider


Many in Hollywood have been anxiously awaiting the publication of Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywoods Creative Artists Agency and now they can also look forward to an on-stage reunion of two super-agents at the center of CAAs rise.

Michael Ovitz and Ron Meyer will appear with author James Andrew Miller at a Sept. 7 discussion of CAA and the making of modern Hollywood, an event that will benefit the Motion Picture and Television Fund.

Portions of the book previously excerpted in Vanity Fair described the agencys tumultuous transition in the mid-90s, when CAA co-founder Meyer left to run Universal Studios and co-founder Ovitz departed for the Walt Disney Co. The book describes how Ovitz negotiated to bring Meyer and other CAA alums with him to run Universal, after the studio was acquired by Seagram Co., to the withdraw of that offer and Meyers subsequent decision to go solo as Universals president.

Publisher HarperCollins bills the book as a tale of boundless ambition, ruthless egomania, ceaseless empire building, greed, and personal betrayals, adding: Here are the real Star Wars  complete with a Death Star [CAAs Century City headquarters]  all told through the voices of those who actually fought in the

arena.

The book is billed as an oral history about the 41-year-old agency, launched in 1975 by five renegade employees of the old William Morris agency. By tales end, CAA becomes an industry leader, reaching beyond movies and television to music, advertising, investment banking, and sports.

Journalist Millers previous books became New York Times bestsellers: Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN and Live from New York:

The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live as Told by Its Stars, Writers, and Guests.

The panel discussion with Ovitz and Meyer will be held at the Writers Guild Theater at 8 pm. Tickets will be available at livetalksla.org at 10a.m. PST on Thursday, June 2.

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Related stories

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UTA Accuses CAA of 'Art of Whining' in Response to Anti-Poaching Lawsuit

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MASON CITY | If you live in Cerro Gordo County, your residential property will be reappraised in the next few weeks and months.

Mason City Assessor Dana Naumann and County Assessor John Boedeker say door-to-door inspections of all residential properties in Mason City and Cerro Gordo County began this week  the first door-to-door inspections in nearly 25 years.

They will include exterior and interior inspections. "It is quite difficult to appraise a property if you cannot get inside it," said Naumann. Also, she said, those collecting information do not want to make assumptions about the interior.

Representatives of Vanguard Appraisals of Cedar Rapids are assisting with the project. They are working in northwest Mason City this week.

"There was nothing to it," said Ray Putney, 1011 N. Fillmore Ave., after Tony Hargrave of Vanguard appraised his house.

"He was inside for five to seven minutes. That was it," said Putney. "I didn't have a problem with it at all."

Hargrave said in his career with Vanguard, he has appraised about 14,000 homes and has met with little resistance from property owners.

He said he looks primarily for structural changes since the last appraisal. "We're just trying to be fair," he said.

Naumann said Iowa law requires property owners to assist with appraisals and the best way to do that is to allow access. Iowa Code 441.19 stipulates that refusal to assist constitutes a simple misdemeanor and subjects the property owner to a possible fine.

"The purpose of the reappraisal program is to equalize property assessments so that each taxpayer is responsible for paying only his or her fair share of the property tax burden," said Naumann. "It is to establish the current market value of each property and to ensure that like properties are equitably assessed."

She said the last time properties were reassessed door to door was in 1992. "So it is time to re-evaluate the assessments to ensure the taxpayer is being treated fairly in comparison with other taxpayers," she said.

Naumann said periodic inspections and reappraisal of properties are necessary because all properties do not increase or decrease in value at the same rate.

"Some properties physically deteriorate faster than others, and in many instances similar buildings located in different areas of the county will differ greatly in value due to economic factors," she said.

The information collected will be used to estimate the fair market value of each property. Information includes type of construction, type of interior finish, physical condition of the property, age of structures and exterior measurements. A complete sales analysis, local construction costs and economic conditions are also considered. No estimate of value will be given at the time of inspection.

The project will take about a year.

Notice of final value estimates will be mailed to each property owner after Jan. 1, 2018. The property owners will have an opportunity to meet informally to discuss their revaluation in the spring of 2018.

The new assessed values will be effective for Jan. 1, 2018, for taxes payable in fiscal 2019-2020.

All law enforcement agencies and the assessors will know the areas where data collectors are working and will have names and license plate numbers of anyone involved in the project. Vanguard employees wear lanyards with their identification on them.

The commercial, industrial and multi-residential reappraisal was done earlier this year at a cost of $225,000.

The residential reappraisal is being done at an estimated cost of $975,000, said Naumann. That breaks down to $10.35 a year (or $51.75 over five years) on a $100,000 home.

Anyone with questions can contact the city assessor at 641-421-3061 or the county assessor at 641-421-3065.
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f103811%2fdraco_malfoy

LONDON  Draco Malfoy may not look any less mean in the new photos of his Harry Potter and the Cursed Child character  but something has certainly changed.

SEE ALSO: Here's your first glimpse of the 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' characters

His hair, mainly. Just look at the badass ponytail-goatee combination he's rocking in the picture below.

Elsewhere  and looking slightly less mean and more nervously bewildered  is Draco's son Scorpius.

"He's wearing the official Hogwarts uniform before you go and get sorted into your house," actor Anthony Boyle told Pottermore. "He's a Malfoy so his clothes should be really expensive but quite constraining to make him feel a bit awkward."

And here are the two of them together. Scorpius definitely looks unhappy about something.

Alex Price, who plays the older Malfoy, told Pottermore: "Jack [Thorne] is such a brilliant writer and he's taken the story into a great place 19 years later, particularly for Draco."

Not long now, folks.
Criminal charges have been filed in Houston, Texas, against a 24-year-old middle school English teacher who allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with one of her 13-year-old students, PEOPLE confirms.

According to prison records, Alexandria Vera was taken into custody Wednesday morning after an arrest warrant had been issued.

A Montgomery County Police spokesman tells PEOPLE investigators believe that Vera was, at one time, pregnant with the eighth grade students child.

Vera, a teacher for the Aldine Independent School District, was the subject of a recently launched investigation into her alleged sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student at Stovall Middle School, a law enforcement official explains.

Detectives claim Vera acknowledged having a sexual relationship with the student, telling them the two began getting intimate last September.

Vera allegedly told investigators shed first met the student during a summer school session. The student tried connecting with Vera via Instagram, which she initially ignored. Then, when he failed to show for classes, Vera allegedly sent a message to the boy, who responded by asking for her phone number.

Police claim that Vera told them the student asked if they could meet up and she agreed. Court records indicate Vera told detectives she drove to the students house to pick him up. Not long after, the two kissed in her car.

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 next day, Vera claims she drove back to the students home. While his parents were at work, Vera and the student allegedly had sex.

Vera allegedly claimed during questioning that the boys parents were aware of the relationship, and were so approving of the union that they let their child spend nights at her house.

Vera told investigators she would drop him off at his home in the morning so he could catch the bus to school, police explain.

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Police say Vera told them that when she met with the boys parents in October, he introduced her as his girlfriend.

In January, after months of sexual encounters, Vera allegedly told police she learned she was pregnant by the boys child. Records indicate she disclosed the pregnancy to the 13-year-olds parents, and that they expressed support and excitement over the impending bundle.

But a month later, the child was aborted not long after representatives from Child Protective Services arrived at her school to question her and the student about their relationship.

A spokesman tells PEOPLE Vera initially denied being involved with the student.

Vera has been charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child. Court records do not include information about her defense lawyer.

RELATED VIDEO:
From Cosmopolitan

A 24-year-old English teacher at Stovall Middle School in Houston, Texas, has been arrested and charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child after allegedly engaging in a sexual relationship with her 13-year-old student. Representatives for the Montgomery County Police believe that at one point, Alexandria Vera was also pregnant with the teenager's child.

According to court documents, the teacher met the student during a summer session at the school in 2015 but only began engaging in a relationship with him in the fall after he was assigned to her class. The pair allegedly first had sex at the boy's parents' house while they were at work, and the student later introduced Vera to his family as his girlfriend. Reportedly, his parents were very accepting of the relationship and even allowed the child to stay over at Vera's home on a regular basis.

Vera claims that she and the student "had sex on almost a daily basis at her home," and that she became pregnant with his child in January 2016. While she says that the student's parents were "very supportive and excited" about the baby, she decided to have an abortion after Child Protective Services showed up at the school to investigate her relationship with the student.

While Vera initially denied having any involvement with the teen, she eventually confessed to the relationship and now claims that the two are in love. She turned herself into police Wednesday and is currently being held at Montgomery County Jail.

Follow Gina on Twitter.
ABUJA (Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group said on Thursday it had blown up two crude pipelines in Nigeria's Bayelsa state in the Delta area. "At about 2:00am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State," the group said on a twitter feed it uses to claim attacks. "This is in line with our promise to all international oil companies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oil production will be zero." (Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
(Adds Niger Delta Avengers statement, paragraphs 6-7)

By Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing

BODO/ABUJA, Nigeria, June 2 (Reuters) - Militants launched new attacks in the Niger Delta on Thursday, vowing to bring Nigeria's struggling oil industry to a total halt, and the president cancelled a long-awaited visit to the region.

The army said militants killed six people on Wednesday when they ambushed a boat belonging to state oil firm NNPC in the Warri area.

Separately, the Niger Delta Avengers group said it had attacked two crude pipelines operated by Italy's ENI.

"At about 2:00 am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State," the group said on Twitter.

"This is in line with our promise to all international oil companies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oil production will be zero."

But the NDA said in a statement late on Thursday that it was not responsible for the boat attack.

"Killing of sleeping soldiers is not our style," the NDA said in an emailed statement.

The Avengers group has claimed responsibility for other recent attacks on Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell facilities. A wave of such attacks have helped drive the country's oil output to a 20-year low.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled at the last minute a visit planned for Thursday to the Delta, source of most of Nigeria's crude.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made the trip in Buhari's place to launch a cleanup programme in an area badly hit by oil spills, vowing to work with community leaders to end militant attacks.

POVERTY AND POLLUTION

No reason has been given for the cancellation of what would have been Buhari's first visit to the region since taking office a year ago. Western allies and local officials have told the former military chief that he needs to address poverty and oil pollution in the Delta to stop unrest.

"We are determined to put right the wrongs of the past, where the people of this land were treated unfairly and the environment unduly polluted and degraded," Osinbajo said in a speech in the town of Bodo in the polluted Ogoniland area.

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"The cleanup of this land will require change on the part of all those who deal with the Niger Delta environment - particularly the oil companies and our communities," he said.

The Avengers have accused Buhari, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, of ignoring the problems of the predominantly Christian Delta.

Achim Steiner, executive director of the U.N. Environment Programme, joined Osinbajo at the ceremony. He said the cleanup "cannot happen overnight" but he hoped the government, oil firms and locals could work together to reduce pollution.

(Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja, Seun Sanni in Lagos, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Writing by Ulf Laessing and Alexis Akwagyiram; Editing by Andrew Roche and Peter Cooney)
By Kathryn Doyle (Reuters Health) - A tailored six-week mindfulness program may lead to small improvements in some physical and psychological symptoms that breast cancer survivors often experience, according to a new study. Although not all patients suffer to a high degree from these distressing symptoms, research shows that due to treatment and long-term effects often patients experience depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, fears of recurrence (FORs) and physical symptoms of pain and fatigue, said lead author Cecile A. Lengacher of the University of South Florida College of Nursing in Tampa. When breast cancer survivors transition off of treatment and experience physical symptoms, they may worry that its a sign of cancer recurrence and be at a higher risk for anxiety and depression, Lengacher told Reuters Health by email. The researchers tested the effects of a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and examined whether any particular types of patient seemed to benefit most from the therapy. MBSR is a program developed decades ago at the University of Massachusetts to help seriously ill patients cope with pain, such as from advanced cancer or AIDS. But in recent years that program has been adapted and offered more widely to people seeking relief from pain and stress of many kinds. For the new study, researchers compared 155 breast cancer survivors who completed a six-week MBSR program with 167 survivors who received usual care. Symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, fear of cancer recurrence, fatigue, pain and quality of life were all measured before the study began, after the six-week program ended and another six weeks later. Women in the mindfulness program attended two-hour sessions conducted by a clinical psychologist once weekly and received training manuals and CDs. They practiced four meditation techniques, including sitting, walking, body scan and Hatha yoga and learned how to apply them in daily life. The researchers kept track of how many sessions each participant attended and how much of the assigned 15 to 45 minutes of at-home practice per day each completed, based on their diaries. For the MBSR group, the largest mindfulness-related improvements happened during the first six weeks and most were maintained at 12 weeks. They experienced a greater reduction in anxiety, fear of recurrence and fatigue compared to those in the control group, although the improvements were small to moderate. There was no meaningful difference for depression scores or pain levels, according to the results in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Mindfulness practice helps patients learn how to self-regulate their emotions by acceptance and non-reacting to internal and external cues and experiences, reducing reactions to emotional and physical triggers, and learning to be in the present, which diminishes the distress of worrying about the past or future, Lengacher said. Also, this trial showed that those patients with the most stress had the highest benefit from this trial, indicating the importance of screening patients for distress, Lengacher said. Survivors of other types of cancer also suffer from varying symptoms depending on type and stage of cancer, she said. MBSR classes, which tend to cost around $200, are widely available at hospitals and privately, as well as through online programs such as the one offered by the University of Massachusetts medical school (here: http://bit.ly/1vjU4kG). A trained teacher delivers the mindfulness program so it would be hard for women to try it on their own, Lengacher noted. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1Y4Ubjt Journal of Clinical Oncology, online May 31, 2016.
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Paper company Mondi Ltd said on Thursday it had signed a deal to buy 90 percent shares in Turkey's Kalenobel for around 90 million euro ($101 million) as part of a plan to grow its packaging business. South African-based Mondi, also listed in London, said it would buy the stake from private equity group ARGUS Capital and one of Kalenobel's founders M. Olcay Hephiz. Mondi did not say how it would pay for the acquisition. Turkish packaging companies have been attracting European strategic players for some time as the market is seen as having more potential with per-capita consumption of packaging at much lower levels compared to developed markets. Instanbul-based Kalenobel makes flexible consumer packaging for ice cream, aseptic cartons and other products. The company exports nearly half of its products mainly to Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Mondi said in a statement. The acquisition is in line with Mondi's strategy to grow its consumer packaging business and expand to high growth markets, Chief executive David Hathorn said. Mondi, which made about a fifth of its 6.8 billion euro revenue from consumer packaging last year, said it expects the transaction to purchase Kalenobel to be completed in the second half of 2016. Mondi, which has operations in more than 30 countries, makes and sells consumer packaging and paper products as part of its Europe and International division's Packaging Paper business. In February, Hathorn told Reuters Mondi could borrow to fund acquisitions after spending 94 million euros on snapping up consumer packaging firms last year. ($1 = 0.8929 euros) (Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by James Macharia)
SANTA FE, N.M. In a room redolent with ancestral and political histories, Michelle Obama recited four generations of her ancestors names as she delivered her second-to-last commencement speech as First Lady to an all Native American high school.

Obama stood on a stage bedecked with drums, rugs, beadwork, embroidery, baskets, and pots as she addressed the graduates of Santa Fe Indian School last Thursday. A Santo Domingo Pueblo girl presented her a gift: a Pendleton blanket that she arranged over the First Ladys shoulders. Tewa dancers from Ohkay Owingeh performed as the graduates entered from two directions and walked in pairs. Many wore ceremonial dress of their pueblos, nations, and tribes.

The students represent a multinational demographic incorporating the 22 tribal nations of New Mexico, including the 19 Pueblos, Navajo Nation, and Jicarilla and Mescalero Apache tribes. The Indigenous Language Institute, which works on language preservation and revitalization, shares the campus.

Michelle Obamas remarks at the Santa Fe Indian School came eight years after President Barack Obamas A More Perfect Union speech on the 2008 campaign trail and two years after the First Couples visit to Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Nation in North Dakota. Before that July 2014 trip, Indian country had waited 15 years for a presidential visit.

Tewa dancers open the ceremony. (Kerri Cottle)

Improving college-and-career readiness among Native youth is the end goal of the Obamas Administrations policies on and funding of Native education. Asserting in 2014 that the status quo of schools in Indian country represented a state of emergency, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell directed the Bureau of Indian Education to transition the elementary and secondary schools that it runs to full tribal management. The Bureau of Indian Education has failed over the decades to make improvementsto remediate crumbling infrastructure, invest in teacher training, implement broadband access, or deliver the behavioral- and mental-health wraparound services that are essential to addressing obstacles to school success. What is notable in the Obama Administrations Native-education initiative in these final years of his presidency is that this administrationand the First Ladyconceive of full cultural self-determination as a winning model.

President Obama described chok[ing] up on hearing in private the stories of six Native youths, which concluded with a boy offering him a song of encouragement in recognition of his difficult job. The Administration subsequently announced the Generation Indigenous (Gen-I) initiative and hosted, last July, the first Tribal Youth gathering at the White House.

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Gen I challenges Native American youth to form tribal youth councils and to partner on coming up with creative solutions to social and economic ills in Indian country, where suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth aged 15 through 24. The Department of Education in March announced a tripling of youth challenge grants to $17.3 million.

The traditions that this school was designed to destroy are now expressed in every square foot of this place. Look at you now.

Compared to 13 percent undergraduate-degree attaining rates in Indian country, 95 percent of the 2016 Santa Fe Indian School graduates will attend college. Eight are Gates Millennium scholarsputting the school in the top five in the nation.

The Santa Fe Indian School has been run by New Mexicos 19 Pueblos since 2001.

Expressing close alignment to her surroundings, Michelle Obama introduced herself by outlining her genealogy. She began with Jim Robinson, her great-great-grandfather who was born and buried in slavery in South Carolina. She compared the legacy of her ancestors in America to the legacy of Native Americans who had planted and harvested resilient seeds before the United States was even an idea. My great-great grandfather was another mans property, my great-grandfather was another mans servant, my grandparents and parents felt the sting of segregation and discrimination, she said. But because  they held fast to their impossible dreams for themselves and their children, today my two daughters wake up each morning in the White House.

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If A More Perfect Union bracketed the Obama presidency at the front with biography-as-object-lesson, Mrs. Obama has now instituted an end bracket of her own.

Fatima Garcia presents Obama with a blanket. (Kerri Cottle)

She sat beside Emanuel Vigil, the valedictorian, who founded the first Gay-Straight Alliance in the schools history. Vigil, who belongs to the Jicarilla Apache tribe, wore long braids, a buckskin tunic, and beaded apronand thanked Lady Gaga for inspiring him.

Chyanne Quintana, the salutatorian from Ohkay Owingeh and Santa Clara Pueblo, commented forcibly that the First Ladys appearance at the ceremony permitted her to see a side of Indian Country rarely promoted by media. We are graduating Native Americans. We are successful Native Americans, she said in her remarks.

At this school, which was established by the U.S. government in 1890 to enforce a ruthless assimilation policy, Michelle Obamas oratory was strikingly direct. The traditions that this school was designed to destroy are now expressed in every square foot of this place, she said. Look at you now, she continued, singling out cultural celebrations that include dances celebrating Pope, the leader of the 1680 pueblo revolt.

If the waning days of the Obama presidency have begun to permit deeper and even more radical speeches by both the President and the First Lady, her talk led me to reflect on the purposes and limitations of biography. One purpose, as manifested in Michelle Obamas speech, is to enthuse graduates with a transcendent tale that illuminates the justice of historys true path. I felt myself well up at her words, and watched many of the dignitaries onstage also wiping their eyes. Yet my reaction segued almost instantly into reflection. My fatheran immigrantrang the high notes of his own virtuous biography to the proverbial rooftops. He would definitely have disagreed with Michelle Obama on key points of her talk. To him, struggles were sources of shame and weakness. Attainments of achievement and wealth were meant to erase the path from old country to new.

Can Michelle Obamas speech offer, as an amendment to her husbands 2008 speech, an alternative to the idea of a union, the one from many?

My father and grandparents hid their biographies, and had a secret to conceal. In 1928, my father, Boris Berkovitch, immigrated to New York from Russia with his parents. My grandmother once handed me a small cache of sepia photographs from a drawer. She had snipped her own silhouette out of her surroundings in each one. She handed the likenesses over to me as if they were paper dolls.

The action symbolized severance.

Recommended: A New Origin Story for Dogs

By the time I became old enough to pair my familys 1928 departure from Moscow with the realities of world history, I began to ask questions. Why had they left? How had they left? A memory of their voices fades into the sound of furious Russian tinged with urgency.

My fathers private redactions held a consistently revising script of self-agency and teleological independence. He carried around a copy of Look Homeward, Angel through George Washington High School in New York City. He delivered smoked fish for Vita Foods. He graduated from night school at New York University and became a U.S. Marine Captain. As a lawyer in private practice, he represented Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. As the New York state deputy superintendent of banks in the 1960s he worked with Mayor John Lindsay. He retired in 1986 as the vice chairman of J.P. Morgan & Co.

My fathers been dead for three years now, In the last several years of his life, he periodically pulled up the curtain over his blacked-out early autobiography by a few centimeters. I muse on what tacit or overt agreements they made on the train trip.To refrain from ever speaking Russian in public? To decline to pass on to future offspring their native tongue? On my father's part, to fail to invite his parents to his speaking events at the pinnacle of his career? Otero Street, he said as I drove him to my first apartment in Santa Fe. That was the judges name who swore me in as a citizen.

On a day many years later, I conducted my own version of Genealogy Roadshow on my computer screen. On February 17, 1933, my grandparents and my fathera week shy of 12 years oldswore citizenship in El Paso, Texas. Earlier that day, my grandfather had delivered a speech on conditions in Russia to the El Paso College of Mines, and the El Paso Herald-Post identified him as a former Soviet spy. I reflect on what game of cloak-and-dagger animated that trip, that week, that day, the three of them taking the train from New York south and west. As I binge-watch The Americans, I worry about Martha staring solemnly out a small plane window as shes forced to expatriate. I think about my grandmother on a chaise lounge in a place with no name.

Related Story

The Subtle Evolution of Native American Education

I think about deracination, hearing Michelle Obama narrate an arc from slavery to the White House before an audience of 3,000 mostly Native Americans.

I have lived in New Mexico for 23 years. This placefor which I feel a zealous passionfeels like a form of chosen diaspora, where I've taken shallow root. To claim diaspora as a person who believes herself to be white is risky business. Its a personal myth as limitedas self-servingas my fathers.

Can Michelle Obamas speech offer, as an amendment to her husbands 2008 speech, an alternative to the idea of a union, the one from many? Can Americans become, in spite of the vainglorious actors on todays political stage, many and one? Can they celebrate that the continent's first peoples await both success and challenges of lives consigned to liminality? That that very liminality makes for stories rarely toldand even more rarely listened to.

When Barack Obama was running for President in 2008, my husband and I canvassed rural neighborhoods within several miles of our unincorporated Santa Fe county address. The task was to ask people to vote early and to set them up with a ballot by mail. On one particular afternoon I knocked on a trailer door and discovered the people inside spoke only Spanish. They told me they had just become citizens. I explained they were eligible to vote. I called my father that afternoon and told him about it.

Whered they come from? he said. Howd they get here?

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
S University professor Dr. Bob Hughes met his colleague at a Starbucks in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood to congratulate her on her new job. The two were only planning on talking shop for a half hour or so, Hughes recalled in an essay republished from his personal blog, on KUOW's Seattle Story Project.

However, what he didn't expect would happen was the two black school administrators would become the victims of a racially and gender-charged assault  and that nearly everyone in the coffee shop would remain silent, save for the manager and one onlooker.

"I heard someone behind me say something that sounded like, 'fucking nigger bitch,'" Dr. Hughes wrote. "As I turned to face him, he said, 'That's right, fucking nigger bitch' again. He walked to the door and walked out ... I realized the liquid I felt on my hand was his spit. He had spit at my colleague, as it turned out, twice."

A college administrator has recounted a disturbing assault that took place in a crowded Starbucks coffee shop.

But perhaps the most disturbing part of the event was not this one man's despicable actions: According to Dr. Hughes, it was the silence which followed the incident by those who watched the attack happen.

Though the entire store was aware of the altercation, "only one patron came up after the incident," Dr. Hughes noted. "Everyone else at the cafe sat silently or went on with their business."

"In a truly post-racial world, that would not be how things work," he concluded.

The assailant was described by Hughes as a white man in his early 20s, "neatly dressed with short-cropped hair with a dark-colored backpack." As the associate professor and associate dean recalled, the man looked just like plenty of other college-educated young people both administrators have worked with in the past.

"But the young man didn't see educated college administrators sitting at the table," Hughes wrote. "He saw two black people and, in his twisted sense of the rules of life, our socio-economic status, educational accomplishments or our age required no respect or deference. In fact, he seemed only to see a woman of color whom he could brazenly assault in an open space with others watching."

Read Dr. Hughes' full essay here.
MotoGP: Espargaro Move to KTM Grows More Likely

By Valentin Khorounzhiy

Yamaha has officially announced that Pol Espargaro will cease to feature among its ranks from 2017 onwards, paving the way for the Spaniard to join KTM.

Espargaro, who had signed a contract with Yamaha back in 2013 during his title run in Moto2, has raced in MotoGP for satellite team Tech 3 Yamaha since 2014. However, a weak sophomore campaign last year meant that Yamaha's Lin Jarvis publicly admitted Espargaro had not even been considered as a candidate to replace Ducati-bound Jorge Lorenzo in the factory team in 2017.

Pol Espargaro

As such, while Espargaro had the option to remain with Tech 3 for another year, he will instead leave the marque, joining forces with KTM for the Austrian manufacturer's premier class venture.

Despite his impending split with Yamaha, Espargaro will still contest the 2016 Suzuka 8 Hours for the manufacturer, having won on his debut in 2015.

Pol Espargaro

Espargaro's replacement at Tech 3, which has already signed Moto2's Jonas Folger to replace its other soon-to-be-former rider Bradley Smith, is to be "announced in due course".

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MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique's grain production fell 4.8 percent to 2.39 million tonnes last year from 2.51 million tonnes the previous year, the minister of agriculture said on Thursday, blaming a severe drought. The drought has hit much of the southern African region including the maize belt in South Africa, the continent's most advanced economy and the top producer of the staple grain. Jose Pacheco, the agriculture minister, did not give a breakdown of the grains affected by the drought. He urged farmers to build irrigation facilities for their crops, the state news agency said. Mozambique faces an imminent sovereign debt default. In South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe, last year's poor rains have been followed by an El Nino-driven drought that has delayed planting and stunted crops. An estimated 31.6 million people across the region are struggling to feed themselves, the Red Cross has said. (Writing by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by James Macharia)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres on Thursday urged Turkey to open its border to some 100,000 displaced Syrians trapped by fighting including a recent Islamic State advance. Fighting near the Turkish border in northern Aleppo province intensified last week when IS launched an attack against rebel groups, advancing toward the town of Azaz in clashes that NGOs said sent thousands of civilians fleeing. The United Nations says tens of thousands are already sheltering near the Turkish frontier having fled fighting earlier this year. "After countless displacements from military offensives, there is no place left for these people to escape to," MSF Middle East operations manager Pablo Marco said in a statement. "The Turkish government and the Turkish people are making an immense effort to help Syrian refugees" with Turkey hosting almost 3 million people already, he said. "But today the people of Azaz can only count on them. We ask Turkey to show this generosity once again and open its border to those trapped in Azaz." Some have fled toward Kurdish-controlled areas further west. The U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said Kurdish authorities had allowed the displaced unimpeded access into the area, after initial reports that they were preventing civilians from entering areas under their control. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Kurdish authorities had blocked entry for one day, in response to rebel shelling of a Kurdish-held area of nearby Aleppo, but were allowing people through again. MSF, which supports dozens of hospitals inside Syria, had to evacuate patients and staff from a hospital in the Azaz area as the fighting got closer. Brussels has promised Turkey aid, accelerated accession talks and visa-free travel into Europe in return for stopping the flow of illegal migrants to the bloc, after more than a million entered the EU from Turkey last year. (Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Beneficiaries of AMP receiving food supplies during the association disbursement exercise last year. (Photo courtesy of AMP)

From organising iftar (breaking of the fast) sessions to distributing Hari Raya cookies and goodies, various Malay Muslim Organisations (MMOs) across the country are preparing to bring joy to the less fortunate during the month of Ramadhan.

The Muslim community in Singapore will be observing Ramadhan from 6 June when they will be fasting from dawn to dusk before celebrating Eid al-Fitr on 6 July. The fasting ritual is one of the five pillars of Islam.

The Muslim Kidney Action Association (MKAC), for example, will be organising a total of five iftar sessions for its 440 beneficiaries. The president of the association, Ameerali Abdeali, told Yahoo Singapore that Ramadhan is typically a busy period for his team of staff and volunteers.

Aside from iftars, our beneficiaries will also be supported with cash and provisions, Ameerali said.



Separately, MKAC has submitted an application to the Tabung Amal Aidilfitri (TAA) Trust Fund to help the poor and needy through donation boxes and a donation hotline during the Ramadhan and Eid season.

The beneficiaries of MKAC are expected to receive a stipend of S$250 each from the TAA Trust Fund, Ameerali added.

Free food for Muslims and non-Muslims

While welfare organisations like MKAC are helping the less fortunate through financial assistance, Free Food For All (FFFA) is doing so through food distribution.

The founder of FFFA, Nizar Mohd Shariff, said that the organisation will be holding a programme called Com+Passion to distribute pre-packed food during the holy month.

The founder of FFFA, Nizar Mohd Shariff (left) said that the organisation is doubling the amount of food distributed this year compared to 2015. He is seen here with local celebrity Suhaimi Yusof. (Photo courtesy of FFFA)

Nizar said that while the food is primarily given to Muslims to break fast, FFFA is also reaching out to the less fortunate from other races so that they can experience the spirit of compassion, one of the main themes of Ramadhan.

Story continues

This year, FFFA aims to distribute up to 1,000 packets of meals from Monday to Friday, double the amount of food distributed last year, said Nizar in an email interview with Yahoo Singapore.

Com+Passion is part of FFFAs continual efforts to reach out to the less fortunate, and offer them some respite from their daily financial burden. In Ramadhan, we aim to encourage the spirit of Com+Passion, said Nizar.

Another organisation FaithHub will also be busy with food distribution this Ramadhan and is also hoping to make a difference to the well-being of students from the less fortunate families. It is planning to distribute pre-packed food to low-income families in the Boon Lay area.



FaithHub is also inviting students from Assumption Pathway Schools who are currently on Financial Assistance Schemes for an iftar session.



Bringing festive cheer to the needy

Meanwhile, the Muslim Trust Fund Association (MTFA) said it will go beyond distributing pre-packed meals prepared in its kitchen to the needy during Ramadhan, and give away household items to them.



A spokesman from MTFAs Welfare Aid Department said, In conjunction with Ramadhan and Eid, the food packages given to each household will contain certain items that are meant to bring additional festive cheer to our recipients.



We are including Hari Raya cookies, ketupat (rice cubes) packets, dates, fruit cordial bottles and drinks in addition to essential household groceries (for our beneficiaries). The food will also be delivered to MTFAs beneficiaries during iftar, the spokesman added.

The Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP), meanwhile, is hoping to put a spring in the step of its young beneficiaries. A total of 217 of children will be given new shoes from Bata along with Hari Raya cookies for their families.

AMP, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, said there has been an increase in the number of beneficiaries over the past two years. Hameet Khanee, a senior manager with AMP, said, Considering that this is our 25th Anniversary, we are extending some of our social services to needy and disadvantaged individuals from other social services agencies.

AMP expects to budget $108,000 the beneficiaries during the holy month, up from an average of $50,000 in previous years, Hameet added.

For the welfare organisations, Ramadhan is the most symbolic time of the year to make a positive difference to the lives of its beneficiaries.

MKACs Ameerali said, We need to work hard and do everything we can to ensure that the urgent needs of our beneficiaries are met and to add cheer to their lives.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is not backing down from Donald Trump.



Schneiderman is pursuing fraud-related charges against Trump University and believes the court case will prove Trump stole millions of dollars  explaining "initial estimates are that [Trump] personally pocketed 5 million"  from the now-defunct program.



In an appearance today on Good Morning America, he told anchor George Stephanopoulos, "We have laws against running an illegal unlicensed university. This never was a university. The fraud started with the name of the organization."



He continued, "It really was a fraud from beginning to end."







Although a campaign ad released Wednesday by Trump showed one-time students endorsing Trump University, which is also facing two lawsuits in California, Schneiderman feels it proves nothing about the validity of the program.



"The fact that they can find a few people to put on TV, it's not a defense in the court of law," Schneiderman said in response to the ad.



Trump denies the allegations and argues that Schneiderman, who sits on the Hillary for New York Leadership Council, is biased.



Even if Trump is elected as president, Schneiderman points out that he would still face the charges in court.



"He doesn't have immunity from civil fraud trials," Schneiderman said.





Donald Trump Has a History of Controversial Remarks Toward Women





Hillary Clinton has also spoken out against Trump University this week.



"He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University," Clinton reportedly said.



"His own employees testified that Trump U  you can't make this up  that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hard-working people."
WATERLOO  U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Kiron, and his primary challenger, state Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, see eye to eye on most policy issues facing the districts 39 counties.

Both are staunch conservatives who strongly support agriculture and free trade.

For King, a seven-term incumbent, that makes Bertrands bid to unseat him seem quixotic. But Bertrand says theres more to representing the Fourth District  which includes Grundy, Butler, Chickasaw and Floyd counties  than policies.

Im not going out there to be a celebrity politician. Youre not going to see me on CNN and MSNBC, and youre not going to see me standing on the border every three months. Thats just not what Im going out there to do, Bertrand said.

As one member of 435, he added, Im going out there as a conservative, to be likeable and to be effective, and I think for the first time in 14 years Im going to give the people of the Fourth District, Republicans of the Fourth District, a choice.

While Bertrand stresses an Iowa first economic agenda, King sees his role as engaging with the world  both on trade and foreign policy.

Weve got a whole world to worry about. This is the United States Congress after all, and if you go there and say, Im only going to do the things that affect my congressional district, then youll wait a long time to get something  unless youre going to name a post office, King said during a recent stop at The Courier.

The primary election will be June 7, and early voting is already underway.

Bertrand said he had supported King, but has seen him grow less effective. He believes it is a trait common to lawmakers who serve longer than 10 years.

King, however, noted just one third of Republicans in the House predate the GOP wave election of 2010.

The institutional memory disappears every time ... somebody goes home early, King said.

King said Bertrands contention is an insult to long-time lawmakers like U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Grassley and his grandson, state Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, both have endorsed King in the primary.

Pat Grassley praises King as someone who says the same thing in the district as he does in Washington, D.C.

But Bertrand sees a difference between King and Iowas senior senator.

The difference between Chuck Grassley and Steve King is Chuck Grassley is relevant, Bertrand said. Chuck Grassley is a chairman of a committee, the Judiciary Committee.

He said King has not ascended to leadership.

King isnt quick to list his accomplishments, saying my mother and my faith taught me about humility. But he said he has been effective defending the renewable fuel standard, promoting Iowa commodities abroad, boosting free trade and working to improve legislation through amendments.

Bertrand points to successes in the Legislature despite serving in the minority throughout his tenure. He noted his support for the gas tax to improve U.S. Highway 20, commercial property tax reduction and eliminating the income tax on veterans benefits.

King said the charge hes ineffective is bunk.

But Bertrand is confident his efforts are getting noticed.

People right now, I think theyre just tired of long-term incumbents, and I think Im just going to give them an option, Bertrand said.
A NASA asteroid-sampling probe has entered the home stretch of its prelaunch preparations.

On May 20, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida after a journey from aerospace company Lockheed Martin's facility near Denver. (Lockheed built the probe for NASA.)

Mission team members are now fueling OSIRIS-REx and testing its software, scientific instruments, solar panels and other critical systems before moving the probe to the pad for an expected Sept. 8 launch, NASA officials said.

"Delivering OSIRIS-REx to the launch site marks an important milestone  one that's been many years in the making," Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, said in a statement.

"The spacecraft has undergone a rigorous environmental test program in Denver, but we still have plenty of work ahead of us," Kuhns added. "Many on our team have temporarily moved to Florida so they can continue final processing and have the spacecraft ready for the Sept. 8 launch date."

After liftoff, OSIRIS-REx  whose name stands for Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer  will embark on a two-year cruise to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

Upon arrival in 2018, the probe will study the 1,650-foot-wide (500 meters) Bennu from orbit for two years. In 2020, OSIRIS-REx will snag a sample weighing at least 2.1 ounces (60 grams), and this sample will come back to Earth in 2023, if all goes according to plan.

Bennu is expected to harbor water and organic molecules that could share a history similar to that of such substances on Earth, NASA officials have said. Bennu is also a potentially hazardous asteroid, so studying the space rock up close could have planetary-defense implications as well, mission team members have said.

OSIRIS-REx will not be the first spacecraft to return asteroid samples to Earth. That distinction belongs to Japan's Hayabusa probe, which sent pieces of the space rock Itokawa home in 2010.

Story continues

OSIRIS-REx arrived at Kennedy Space Center after a flight aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane, which took off from Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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Copyright 2016 SPACE.com, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
A rifle-reveille from the sentinels at four oclock in the morning on June 1, 1843, awoke the camps on the Kaw [River near Westport, Missouri], and the bustle of preparation for the march [to Oregon] began. Fires were lit, breakfast cooked and eaten, the cattle and horses at the outskirts collected, and the oxen yoked.

At seven oclock the bugle sounded the advance, the various divisions filed into the positions which had been assigned to them, and the column, stretching itself to several miles in length, broke away from Westport and the Missouri, and headed for the sunset. ...

Men, women, and children were there, to the number of nearly a thousand, with two hundred wagons drawn by oxen. With them were several thousand horses and cattle, and also household furniture, ploughs, and seeds. It was the kind of army that never retreats. It was a nation in transit.
By Mica Rosenberg BELCOURT, North Dakota (Reuters) - Elvis Norquay, a member of the Chippewa Indian tribe, has lived most of his 58 years on North Dakota's remote Turtle Mountain reservation and says he's never had a problem voting. That was before 2014, when he hitched a ride with a friend to cast a ballot in local and congressional elections and was turned away. Embarrassed, he asked why he couldn't vote. He was told he lacked proper ID under new state requirements. He has no phone, no current driver's license and his tribal ID lacks a street address. When we left, my friend said, 'that's not right, said Norquay, who has lived on disability since 2002 in a rural county near the Canadian border. Norquay is among a growing number of Native Americans embroiled in court battles over changes to voting laws that could influence the outcome of some tight races in the November 2016 presidential and congressional elections. While the Native American population is small nationally, lawsuits involving tribes over voting problems have proliferated since the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, a signature legislative achievement of the 1960s civil rights movement. North Dakota is one of 17 states that have new voting restrictions in place since the last presidential contest, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law. Many of these changes have sparked lawsuits and accusations that black, Hispanic and other minority voters could be disenfranchised. Five federal lawsuits involving Native Americans have been filed since the Supreme Court decision, including three this year alone. Suits in North Dakota, Utah, South Dakota and Arizona claim new voting rules passed in majority Republican states are discriminatory and could reduce voting by tribal members, who tend to back Democrats. A suit in Alaska, for example, claimed the state violated federal rules by failing to translate voting materials for tribal voters. The tribes say changes to voting rules in those states disproportionately affect Native Americans, an allegation the states and counties deny. The Native American vote is not big enough to flip a safe Republican state such as North Dakota into the Democrat column in this years presidential election, but Native Americans are a growing proportion of the population and a majority in some counties where increased voter turnout in recent years has tipped the balance in some congressional races. In many states, the number of Native Americans is growing faster than the population as a whole. Between 2000 and 2010, the Native American population rose by 26.7 percent to 1.1 million, compared to 9.7 percent growth in Americas overall population, census data showed. Recent changes to voting laws, such as North Dakotas new voter ID law, are part of a much broader, deliberate, and concerted effort by Republicans to reduce turnout among particular groups of voters on election day, said Pratt Wiley, head of voter protection issues at the Democratic Party in Washington. Those voters are more vulnerable today than they were before the Supreme Court invalidated a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, he said of Native Americans. Republicans deny that voting law changes passed by Republican-dominated legislatures are discriminatory and say they are intended to reduce fraudulent votes. "These are popular common sense laws to protect elections from fraud, said Lindsay Walters, national spokeswoman at the Republican National Committee. TRIBAL ID CARDS At issue in North Dakota are revisions pushed largely by Republican state legislators in 2013 and 2015 to a 2003 state elections law that eliminated a provision that had allowed people without proper identification such as Norquay to vote if they were recognized by a poll worker or if they signed an affidavit swearing to their identity. Norquay and six other members of his tribe sued the secretary of state in January in U.S. District Court in North Dakota. They said they were refused the right to vote in November 2014 because many old tribal IDs such as Norquays don't list a current residential address. It says some tribal members can't afford a new tribal ID or struggle to obtain proper identification because there are no state offices that provide driver's licenses on the reservations. Richard McCloud, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, said widespread unemployment and poverty among tribal members meant that some struggle to afford the $10 needed to obtain a new tribal card. "Ten dollars is three pounds of hamburger and some macaroni for a family," said McCloud at the tribe's headquarters on the reservation of about 4,274 people a few miles (km) south of the Canadian border. "Maybe it's no big deal if you work, but it's a big deal to people that don't have access to $10," he said. North Dakota's secretary of state, Al Jaeger, the only defendant in the suit, said in an interview that the law is not discriminatory and simplifies the voting process in the only state in the country that does not require voters to register ahead of an election. He said his office has spent heavily on ad campaigns to educate voters about what IDs are accepted. Jaeger's deputy, Jim Silrum, said the ID requirements are not a barrier for the 97 percent of state residents with driver's licenses, an accepted form of ID, so the number of people affected by the changes is miniscule. Those with no driver's license, can get a non-driver state ID allowed at the polls from the motor vehicle department for free. Jaeger and Silrum said they could not respond directly to an assertion in the lawsuit that residents on reservations have to travel long distances to obtain a state ID. LITTLE EVIDENCE OF FRAUD Republican state Representative Jim Kasper from Fargo repeated his party's argument that the changes were aimed at reducing the risk of voter fraud, but Silrum said there was little evidence of such irregularities. In the 2012 presidential election, there were only nine cases of people voting twice, but that was because they used the same ID rather than a lack of proper identification, he said. State Representative Kylie Oversen, a Democrat from Grand Forks, said the changes could alter tight elections in favor of Republicans. She said Republicans pushed for the bill after Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 by less than 3,000 votes. In sparsely populated states such as North Dakota, with just 739,000 people, congressional elections have been decided by just a few thousand votes. Rolette County, surrounding Norquays reservation, is one of two counties in the state where about 75 percent of the population is Native American. Those two counties were the only places in North Dakota that gave President Barack Obama more than 70 percent of the vote in 2012. After the changes in the ID law were implemented in North Dakota, voter turnout in Rolette County dropped by more than 12 percentage points between the 2010 and 2014 mid-term elections, more than any other county in the state, election data from the secretary of state's office shows. What has happened is the Native American vote has become something that can tip elections, said Jean Schroedel, a professor at Claremont Graduate University in California who studies Native American voting. The Native American Rights Fund, a non-profit law firm representing Norquay and other members of his tribe in the lawsuit against the state, plans to file a motion by June 30 requesting that the court invalidate the changes to the ID law ahead of November's election, according to court documents. (Additional reporting by Julia Harte in Washington and Grant Smith in New York, editing by Jason Szep and Ross Colvin; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Jason Szep and Ross Colvin)
BERLIN (Reuters) - The NATO military alliance is not seeking confrontation with Russia by reinforcing its battalions in eastern Europe, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Berlin on Thursday. "We are strengthening our collective defense not to provoke a conflict but to prevent a conflict," Stoltenberg said at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, adding "we are not in a new Cold War". "We do not want confrontation with Russia. On the contrary we strive for a more constructive relationship with Russia." (Reporting by Noah Barkin and Madeline Chambers; Editing by Michael Nienaber)
Nektar Therapeutics NKTR announced that it has signed an agreement to grant Daiichi Sankyo Europe the exclusive rights to market Onzeald (etirinotecan pegol) in Europe (EEA), Switzerland and Turkey.



Onzeald, formerly NKTR-102, is being developed for the treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer who have a history of brain metastases. The company has completed a phase III study  BEACON  in women with locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer, who were previously treated with anthracycline, taxane and Xeloda (capecitabine) therapies.



As per the terms of the agreement, Nektar will receive an upfront payment of $20 million from Daiichi Sankyo. In addition, the company is entitled to receive additional milestone payments worth $60 million, based upon the achievement of European regulatory milestones and sales of Onzeald in Europe. It will also earn double-digit royalties on net sales in Europe. Nektar retains rights to market Onzeald in the U.S. and the rest of the world.



The company intends to submit a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) in the EU this month for a conditional approval of Onzeald for the treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer and brain metastases. We note that last month, the European Medicines Agencys (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) granted accelerated assessment procedure for the planned regulatory filing.



In order to support an MAA filling, Nektar will conduct a confirmatory study on Onzeald. The randomized phase III study will evaluate Onzeald, in comparison with a single-agent chemotherapy of physician's choice (TPC), in patients (n~350) with advanced breast cancer and brain metastases. The primary endpoint of the study is the overall survival. Data from the study will also be used for filing for a New Drug Application (NDA) for Onzeald in the U.S.



It has been found that approximately 1030% of patients with advanced breast cancer are diagnosed with brain metastases.



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By Silke Koltrowitz VEVEY, Switzerland (Reuters) - Nestle is looking at internal and external candidates to lead the world's largest food and drink company and will announce its choice for a new chairman before the end of the year, its current chairman said on Thursday. The election of a new leader next year is an opportunity to shake up the Swiss company just as the global packaged food industry faces a slew of challenges from changing consumer tastes and greater competition. Speaking at the company's headquarters in Vevey on Lake Geneva, Chairman Peter Brabeck told Reuters that Nestle also uses external candidates to benchmark internal ones. "It's a task of the nomination committee not to look only internally, but also externally, because it is also important to be able to compare if our internal candidates are competitive in the current environment," Brabeck said on the sidelines of the festivities for the company's 150th anniversary. He said the board's nomination committee meets at least three times a year to discuss succession planning, and has plans for both emergency and long-term succession. "We obviously always have several candidates for long-term planning," said Brabeck, who recently recovered from cancer and will soon reach the mandatory retirement age of 72. Earlier on Thursday, Swiss newspaper Blick quoted Brabeck as saying current Chief Executive Paul Bulcke was among several candidates to succeed him, and that there was also more than one possible candidate to succeed Bulcke. While the CEO runs the company, the chairman provides strategic guidance. Nestle's last four chiefs, whose collective CEO tenure lasted 40 years, all became chairmen. PROMOTING FROM WITHIN Nestle has a history of promoting internally and some analysts and shareholders expect that to continue. Thomas A. Russo of Gardner Russo & Gardner says Nestle's management bench is deep enough that it can deliver "quite comfortably" a capable new CEO. "There's a wealth of choices and I don't believe that we need an outsider just because Nestle needs to be changed," said Russo, whose firm holds roughly $1 billion worth of Nestle's U.S.-traded shares. "I know Nestle is aware of the kind of drumbeat for transformation." Jon Cox at Kepler Cheuvreux predicts Bulcke as chairman and said frontrunners for CEO include Laurent Freixe, head of Nestle's Americas business, and Wan Ling Martello, former chief financial officer who now runs the Asia, Oceania and Africa unit. Cox previously said Martello, a Chinese American woman, would be seen as something of an outside appointment and would likely signal a bigger shift in strategy, albeit within the company's current business model. "We see the Nestle model as being maintained whoever becomes the next CEO," he said. Nestle sells thousands of goods from baby food to coffee and chocolate, and has been investing lately in higher-margin, higher-growth healthcare businesses as it tries to fend off criticism that its scale stifles agility. It has signed a series of deals with small companies in its bid to create a new kind of business that is midway between food and pharmaceuticals. It is also being put to the test by investment groups 3G Capital and JAB Holding, which have bought up big food and drink businesses and are injecting an intense cost-consciousness into the sector, as industrywide growth slows due to a shift towards healthier and more natural foods. "This is a massive sea change moment for Nestle," said Ali Miremadi, fund manager at THS Partners, a Nestle shareholder. "The company could be losing its crown." (Writing by Martinne Geller in London; Editing by Ruth Pitchford, Alexandra Hudson and Susan Thomas)
niger delta

The Niger Delta Avengers announced that they blew up two Chevron oil wells.

The militant group took credit for the attack in a series of tweets on Wednesday.

Reuters reports that an oil spill was seen in waterways and wetlands near the Chevron sites following the reported attack.

The exact volume spilled is so far unclear.

Some Niger Delta residents have been pushing for foreign energy companies to leave the region. And this attack comes a few days after the NDA's deadline for all foreign oil companies to vacate the Niger Delta.

With the heavy presence of 100 Gunboats, 4 Warships and Jet Bombers NDA blew up Chevron Oil Well RMP 23 and RMP 24 3:44am this Morning.  Niger Delta Avengers (@NDAvengers) June 1, 2016

This is to show the whole world that Nigeria Military is good in harassing innocent Civilians.  Niger Delta Avengers (@NDAvengers) June 1, 2016

RMP 24 and RMP 23 are Chevron Swamp Highest producing Wells. #Boom  Niger Delta Avengers (@NDAvengers) June 1, 2016

The NDA previously targeted a Chevron offshore facility in mid-May and the underwater Forcados export pipeline operated by Shell in late March.

Nigerian oil production has fallen by 46% this year to about 1.1 million barrels a day (as of Monday), down from 2.03 million barrels a day in January. That's such a huge drop that Angola is now the No. 1 producer in Africa, as its production held steady in April at 1.8 million barrels a day.

Notably, Nigerian President Muhammudu Buhari canceled a planned visit to the Niger Delta region at the last minute on Thursday.

Story continues

Nigeria militants

The NDA's rise has roots dating back to the 2000s, when armed militants in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, including members of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, routinely kept hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil off the market. (Interestingly, the NDA's Twitter avatar is actually a photo of a MEND militant from 2008, as the BBC pointed out.)

In 2009, the Nigerian government signed an amnesty agreement, pledging to provide monthly cash payments and vocational training programs to the nearly 30,000 former militants in exchange for cooperation.

The arrangement was a pretty good Band-Aid, but it failed to address the fundamental drivers of instability in the region such as poverty, corruption, and the proliferation of weapons.

Fast forward to today: The new Buhari administration has cracked down on corruption in the region by axing the expensive security contracts and issuing indictments for theft, fraud, and money laundering.

E

ven if the government wanted to pay off the militants today, it doesn't really have the money to do so given that oil prices are still far below their peak and state resources have been redirected to counterinsurgency operations against Boko Haram.

Screen Shot 2016 05 20 at 1.39.39 PM

And so, given that the Nigerian oil production disruptions are at least partially a product of long-run structural issues, analysts think they could continue for some time going forward.

"I think we have to look at what happened in the past and say, well, could they potentially shut in production? ... No company is going to keep their operations going when people show up with AK-47s," Helima Croft, the head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told Business Insider last Tuesday. "You just wait it out. You don't run a risk to your personnel or operations."

"So this one, I think, fasten your seat belts. This one's going to go on."

NOW WATCH: Doctors now say this type of cancer isnt actually cancer  and the new classification is changing thousands of lives





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MASON CITY | Mason City Community Theatre and OneIowa North are producing "The Laramie Project" this summer as a scholarship fundraiser.

The play will run July 29-31 and Aug. 5-7 at the theater. Auditions will be 7 to 9 p.m. June 8 and 9 at First Presbyterian Church (west door) in Mason City.

Matthew Shepard, an openly gay University of Wyoming student, met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, both of Laramie, in a local bar Oct. 6, 1998.

Henderson and McKinney lured Shepard into their truck and proceeded to beat him, rob him, tie him to a fence in a remote area on the outskirts of Laramie and left him there to die. Shepard died five days later, the morning after America's celebration of National Coming Out Day.

The members of the Tectonic Theatre Project began interviewing the people of Laramie about Shepherd on Nov. 14, 1998. Those interviews led to the development of a documentary theater piece, "The Laramie Project," which was first performed on Feb. 19, 2000.

"It is more important than ever to address how we think and talk about subjects such as human sexuality and identity, politics, education, fear, conflict, violence, privileges and rights, and the difference between tolerance and acceptance," director Katy Slaven said.

Slaven also plans to offer a series of workshops while she is in town to direct the play. While touring a play about bullying this spring, Slaven taught workshops all over the country in which participants learned how to use theater as a tool to affect social change.

The themes of "The Laramie Project" inspired her to bring these tools back to her hometown. Proceeds of the workshops will also go to support the Craig W. Hickok Memorial Scholarship.

It's awarded annually to high-achieving LBGTQ students and allies actively involved in promoting equality, inclusion, advocacy and support of the LGBTQ community. Hickock, an activist ally in promoting education on social justice issues, was a passionate supporter of the arts.
By Eromo Egbejule BENUE, Nigeria (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Sarah Adaji's husband retired as a teacher two years ago, he kept himself busy tending to their farm, hoping to provide food for his family and make some money off the produce. Three months ago, Adaji returned to their home in Nigeria's middle belt region to learn that armed herdsmen had stabbed her husband and dragged him through the fields until he died. "The cattle herders came and wiped out my joy," the 44-year-old widow told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, recalling how her husband had relished working on the farm after his retirement. "They wanted to kill every man in my village, and in the area," she said at Ocholonya village in Nigeria's Benue state. Hundreds of people like Adaji's husband are killed each year in violent clashes over land use between semi-nomadic, cattle-herding Fulani people and more settled farming communities. But the violence has surged this year as advancing desertification, overgrazing and lower rainfall drive the mainly Muslim pastoralists toward more fertile land in Nigeria's predominantly Christian south, farmers and activists say. Raids by Fulani herdsmen armed with guns, bows and machetes on communities in Benue and Enugu state since February have destroyed villages, killed hundreds of people and forced tens of thousands to flee, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). The UNHCR said at least 340 people have been killed so far this year, 70 more than the number of deaths inflicted by the Islamist militants Boko Haram in Nigeria in 2016, according to the Council on Foreign Relations' Nigeria Security Tracker. The Nigerian Senate is considering a bill to establish grazing reserves across the country, seeking to reduce violence and ease tensions between the herdsmen and farmers in a nation that is home to the largest equal mix of Christians and Muslims. Yet opponents of the grazing bill say such a move - forcing farmers off their land and giving it to the Fulani - would defy Nigeria's land laws, under which all land belongs to the state. "The bill is a strategy for territorial expansion, it is a disservice to non-Fulanis," said Stephen Obodoekwe of Nigeria's Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD). "The farmers will lose their farms, impunity of the herdsmen will increase, and there will be more violence," he added. FARMING HIT HARD Half of people in Nigeria work in agriculture, which accounts for around a quarter of its gross domestic product (GDP), according to the World Bank and Central Bank of Nigeria. Yet rising violence in recent years has ruined harvests, driven many farmers from their land and prevented them from returning. Conflict has also deterred entrepreneurs and businesses from investing in Nigerian agriculture, farmers and activists say. Conflict between farmers and herdsmen in just four Nigerian states could cost the country at least $14 billion annually in lost potential revenues, according to aid agency Mercy Corps. "Farmers in the targeted communities keep away from farms as a result of attacks ... the herdsmen destroy farmlands and crops, making farming impossible," said Obodoekwe of the CEHRD. There have been at least 370 clashes involving herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria in the last five years, compared to just 20 in the 15 years before that, according to data from the Lagos-based research firm SB Morgen. The prospect of rebuilding farms and spending extra on security is a concern for many farmers, said Emeka Nwachinemere, whose land has been raided twice in the last three years. "Building a small farmhouse, having someone stay at the farm permanently, buying a motorcycle and paying for their food ... that costs a lot of money - around 200,000 naira ($1,000) each year," he said at his farm in Nigeria's southwestern Oyo state. The violence has uprooted more than 100,000 people in Benue and Enugu states, and many are staying with relatives or in makeshift camps, according to the UNHCR. "In my 20 years of working as a humanitarian, I have never seen such levels of destruction," UNHCR representative Angele Dikongue-Atangana said after the attacks in Benue in February. The bursts of violence have displaced 400,000 people in the last five years, and while eight in 10 have since returned, many are still struggling to rebuild their lives, the UNHCR said. TRIPLE THREAT The herder-farmer conflict presents a further challenge for a government faced with the Boko Haram insurgency and recent attacks on oil pipelines by the Niger Delta Avengers militants. Nigeria has made preventing attacks by armed herdsmen a security priority in Africa's most populous country, a spokesman for President Muhammadu Buhari said in April. "The government ... must not let this sore fester like Boko Haram," said a government source on condition of anonymity. The national grazing reserve bill, which was rejected by the previous Senate, is currently being debated in parliament. The proposed law would create a commission with the power to seize land, and after paying compensation to the owner, assign it as a grazing reserve for use by the Fulani herdsmen. Opponents of the bill, including politicians, civil society groups and activists, say such a move would be unconstitutional, as Nigeria's 1978 Land Use Act, which is enshrined in the country's constitution, nationalised all land. The act intended to override customary land rights - where people have traditional rights but no legal recognition or protection of their land - in order to make land more accessible to all citizens, improve tenure security, and boost development. Yet the act made allocating land discretionary, creating opportunities for state corruption, said Leena Koni Hoffman, an associate fellow at the London-based think-tank Chatham House. It also made obtaining land occupancy certificates time-consuming and costly, contributing to the country's large informal land market, found a report on land tenure in Nigeria by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). "Like all state controlled resources, the management of land in Nigeria has been plagued by corruption and poor management," Hoffman told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The idea of grazing areas should be dismissed in favor of creating cattle ranches, to stop the Fulani from roaming and to curb violent clashes, several politicians and activists say. "In a country where ethnic tensions are at an all-time high and where the fear of ethnic dominance is rife, there are other better and more efficient ways to start a deadly war," said Saatah Nubari of the Nigerian Nationalist Youth Movement. "But the passing of the National Grazing Routes and Reserve Bill will be the fastest way." (Additional reporting and; writing by Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Paola Totaro; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
VIENNA (Reuters) - Nigerian oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said on Thursday he saw "open-mindedness" in the OPEC meeting, but did not know what the outcome would be. Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are meeting Thursday morning in Vienna, where Iran and Saudi Arabia were expected to clash over output targets. Kachikwu said Nigeria's oil production had climbed to 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd). Last month, output had fallen to 1.4 million bpd due to a string of militant attacks and an accident on the ExxonMobil platform exporting Qua Iboe, the country's largest crude oil stream. Despite the continued attacks by militants in the restive Niger Delta region, Kachikwu said Nigeria is targeting oil production of 2.2-2.3 million bpd for this year. (Reporting by OPEC reporting team; writing by Libby George; editing by Jason Neely)
Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria's vice-president on Thursday launched a $1 billion oil pollution clean-up programme in the Niger delta, after President Muhammadu Buhari pulled out of visiting the restive region.

Yemi Osinbajo stood in for Buhari, who had been due to attend the ceremony in the Ogoniland area of Rivers state in what would have been his first visit to the delta as president.

The presidency gave no reason for the sudden change in plan but it comes in the wake of an upsurge in militant attacks on key oil infrastructure in the creeks and swamps of the oil-producing south.

Buhari has ordered enhanced security around installations while the military has called the Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks, "economic terrorists".

The attacks have cut production to 1.4 million barrels per day, heaping fresh misery on a crude-dependent economy already crippled by the global slump in oil prices.

Security challenges have long been linked to environmental devastation to farming and fishing blamed on the oil industry, as well as under-development of the delta region.

- Long task -

In August 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said Ogoniland may require the world's biggest-ever clean-up after a succession of oil spills.

Osinbajo pledged the government would reverse the damage: "We are determined the put right the wrongs of the past."

He added: "The restoration that is going to take place here is not just the restoration of your land but the restoration of fishing, your farming and health."

But experts believe the restoration of ecosystems could take up to 25 years to complete.

UNEP's incoming executive director Erik Solheim, said: "The task to clean up Ogoniland will neither be easy nor fast but it needs to be done.

"If we succeed here, it will demonstrate that degraded environments can be restored, sending a signal to many other communities around the world that peaceful cooperation can lead to positive outcomes."

Story continues

- Soil, water contamination -

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell was forced to quit Ogoniland in 1993 because of community unrest led by the activist Ken Saro-Wiwa over pollution and chronic under-development.

Saro-Wiwa was executed in 1995 by Nigeria's then-military regime on what his supporters believe were trumped-up murder charges of four Ogoni chiefs.

Shell was forced to pay compensation to Ogoni farmers and fishermen in the Bodo community who lost their livelihoods because of spills after a landmark court action in Britain in 2015.

The firm has been accused of not doing enough to prevent pollution and clean up spills in the delta, although it has always blamed sabotage.

The managing director of Shell's Nigerian subsidiary, Osagie Okunbor, said at the launch ceremony the company was "committed to cleaning the spills in Ogoniland".

"Shell will work with all stakeholders in the implementation of the UNEP report," published in 2011 and which highlighted severe and widespread soil and ground water contamination, he added.

The report also found drinking water contamination and devastated ecosystems in the delta, such as mangroves, and slammed the industry and government for not doing enough to tackle the problem.

- Not just spills -

Ledum Mitee, a former president of Saro-Wiwa's Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), welcomed the government's commitment to finally implement the UNEP report's recommendations.

But he said it should go further, given the extent of the pollution and the unresolved grievances of locals.

"Clearly the Ogoni struggle is not just about clearing and cleaning the spills. Ken Saro-Wiwa did not die because of a UNEP report, I did not go to jail because of it either," he told AFP.

"There should be conscious measures to address the issue of neglect and marginalisation, under-development and economic exploitation. These are fundamental issues.

"These are core issues that encourage militancy and restiveness in the region. That's why... you see a resurgence of violence in the region."
By Sue Britt ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Two St. Louis police officers will not face charges for the shooting death of a black teenager in August 2015, a Missouri prosecutor said on Thursday. Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said there was not enough evidence to show that the plainclothes officers did not shoot Mansur Ball-Bey, 18, in self-defense, as they contend they did. This is a tragedy in every aspect of the word. Im sorry for the pain that the Ball-Bey family is experiencing right now, Joyce said in a statement. St. Louis and its suburb of Ferguson have drawn protests over police treatment of minorities after a white Ferguson officer fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in 2014. That and other fatal incidents ignited protests around the United States. Ball-Bey was killed as police were trying to execute a search warrant at a home in a crime-ridden neighborhood. Joyce said the two officers and a witness reported that they saw Ball-Bey with a gun as he ran out of the building. Ball-Bey pointed the loaded weapon at one officer and both shot at him, she said. Prosecutors found photos from social media and Ball-Bey's cell phone of what appear to be the same gun in his possession, she said. Jermaine Wooten, the Ball-Bey family's attorney, said: "We're terribly disappointed. It appears her investigation centered more around just rubber-stamping the police." The family has not decided whether to file a civil suit, he said. They maintain that Ball-Bey, a recent high school graduate, was not in the home being searched. The autopsy shows that his spinal cord was severed, but the police explanation would mean he ran another 80 feet (24 meters), Wooten said. Joyce had ordered an independent probe into the shooting at the same time police were investigating it. The officers have not been identified. (Writing by Ian Simpson; Editing by Chris Reese)
Shutterstock

Whatever the West has, North Korea insists it can do it better. North Korea is a place of advanced science, with its own special place in time. They even think they can improve how we share Minions memes and argue over politics, as the country appears to have launched a knockoff of the site they bought off the internet because of course they did. And hours after it launched, a teenager hacked it, because one thing North Korea apparently cant do better than us is proper password security.

Andrew McKean, a Scottish college student, was poking around on the site and noticed there was an admin link. So, goofing around, he clicked on it, and typed in the username admin and the password Password. And just like that, he had taken control of North Koreas social network. No, seriously. He had access to the whole thing; he could ban and suspend users, change the name of the site, and even censor words if he felt like it. By the way, the current name of North Koreas Facebook knockoff is apparently Best Koreas Social Network. We can only hope this presages a name change for North Korea, because calling them Best Korea will make posting about their nuclear threats much more entertaining.

Its widely expected North Koreas social network will be off the internet in fairly short order, or at least limited to North Korea. Hopefully, after they do that, theyll change the password. We recommend 123456, its easy to remember!

(Via Motherboard)
Belfast (AFP) - Northern Ireland is to end its ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men from September 1, Health Minister Michelle O'Neill said on Thursday.

O'Neill announced the lifting of the ban during a visit to The Rainbow Project, a gay and lesbian rights advocacy organisation in Belfast, her party Sinn Fein said.

During the visit O'Neill said that her first priority was patient safety but there was no evidence to support the continuation of the ban.

However, she appealed to men to honour the one-year moratorium on homosexual intercourse before donation which applies in other parts of Britain.

"Not even the most advanced tests are 100 percent reliable, so it is vitally important for every donor to comply with any deferral rules that apply to them," she said.

The blanket ban had been in place across the United Kingdom since 1981 in response to the AIDS crisis but in November 2011 England, Scotland and Wales agreed to permit donation provided the donor had abstained from gay sex for the previous 12 months.

The end of the ban comes just eight days after O'Neill, a member of the centre-left nationalist Sinn Fein party which promised to end the controversial ban in its election manifesto, replaced hardline Democrat Unionist, Jim Wells, as health minister in the local Stormont assembly.

Wells courted controversy earlier this year when he claimed that gay parents were more likely to sexually abuse children.

The previous incumbent Edwin Poots, also a prominent Democratic Unionist, a party that opposes gay rights, had mounted a legal challenge to retain the ban.

The new policy will come into effect from September 1 to give the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service time to effect the change.
The Health Ministry of Northern Ireland will lift a lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men starting in September this year, reports the BBC.

After just eight days in the job as the new Health Minister, Michelle ONeill has decided to lift the blood donation ban, which had been in place since the early days of the AIDS crisis in 1981. The new policy, which allows gay and bisexual men to donate blood after at least a year since their last sexual encounter with another man, will go into effect September 1. At present, the policy imposes a ban for life on any man who has had sex with another man.

The lifetime blood donation ban was policy throughout the UK until 2011, when it was lifted in England, Scotland and Wales. It remained in effect in Northern Ireland.

I took the decision based on the evidence I had in front of me when I looked at the issue, ONeill said. All donated blood is tested for HIV and other pathogens, though tests are not 100% reliable, which is why donors are asked to comply by the one-year deferral period from their last homosexual contact before giving blood.

Politicians praised the move as a win for LGBT rights.

Today is a victory for common sense and for equality, said Mark Durkan, of the Social Democratic and Labour Party.

[BBC]
OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's Civil Aviation Authority has extended its ban on the use of Airbus H225 Super Puma Helicopters in Norway to include search and rescue missions, the agency said in a statement on Thursday. The ban, which also includes an older version of the aircraft, follows the discovery of metal fatigue in the gear box of a Super Puma helicopter that crashed in Norway on April 29, killing all 13 people on board. The Super Pumas, a workhorse of the oil industry, were banned from commercial traffic in Norway and Britain following the accident, but search and rescue missions had still been allowed. The findings were published in a preliminary report by Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN) on Wednesday, in which the board urged the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to take immediate action to ensure the safety of the helicopter's main gearbox. EASA said it was planning to issue another safety directive on Thursday, but did not elaborate. Norwegian oil major Statoil said in a separate statement it would find other ways of operating its emergency services for the Oseberg Field Centre and Statfjord B platforms in the North Sea, as well as at the airport at Sola. "Statoil is currently mobilizing the necessary resources to safeguard preparedness requirements," the company said. The helicopter that crashed in April was working for the Norwegian firm and operated by Canada-based CHC Helicopter. CHC said it welcomed the latest report from the AIBN and that it had suspended all flights with the H225 model as a result, even before the Norwegian ban was announced. Airbus Helicopters declined to comment further as the investigation continues, a spokesman said on Thursday. Investigators have ruled out human error, saying the crash was caused by a technical fault. On Wednesday, the AIBN said it had found metallurgical evidence "strongly consistent with fatigue" in a part of the gearbox, while adding it was focusing simultaneously on several different scenarios for the crash. Previous Super Puma incidents linked to gearbox problems included a 2009 crash off Peterhead, Scotland, in which the rotor also flew off and 16 people died. Airbus Helicopters told operators in a bulletin this week that there were "significant elements" differing from the 2009 crash, according to a copy seen by Reuters. It placed most emphasis on a possible failure of one of the struts holding the rotors to the aircraft, saying that could have been caused by either faulty bolts or missing safety pins. Design and production are the responsibility of Airbus Helicopters; maintenance is handled by CHC. (Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Stine Jacobsen in Oslo, Victoria Bryan in Dublin and Cyril Altmeyer in Paris; Editing by Richard Pullin and Hugh Lawson)
OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian investigators looking into the cause of a fatal North Sea helicopter crash have sent a recommendation to European air safety authorities about a possible safety issue with the model's gearbox, they said on Wednesday. An Airbus H225 Super Puma helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform operated by Statoil went down on April 29, killing all 13 people on board as the main rotor blades separated from the aircraft. The Super Puma, a workhorse of the oil industry, has since been grounded for commercial flights in Norway and Britain. Investigators have ruled out human error, saying the crash was caused by a technical fault. Results of the investigation have potential implications for the Super Puma program following earlier accidents. On Wednesday, the Accident Investigation Board Norway said it had found metallurgical evidence "strongly consistent with fatigue" in a part of the gearbox. It urged the European Aviation Safety Agency, or EASA, to take immediate action to ensure the safety of the helicopter's main gearbox. Early on Thursday, EASA issued an emergency bulletin, however, focusing on a different problem. It said checks on the rest of the Super Puma fleet had revealed problems with struts that fix the rotors, including bolts tightened incorrectly or washers in the wrong position. It ordered all attachments replaced before the next flight. It was not immediately clear whether EASA also planned another bulletin responding to Norway's gearbox findings. Investigators have been focusing simultaneously on several different scenarios for the crash. "We are still investigating and keeping options open," AIBN General Director William Bertheussen told Reuters. Previous Super Puma incidents linked to gearbox problems included a 2009 crash off Peterhead, Scotland, in which the rotor also flew off and 16 people died. Airbus Helicopters told operators in a bulletin this week that there were "significant elements" differing from the 2009 crash, according to a copy seen by Reuters. It placed most emphasis on a possible failure of one of the struts holding the rotors to the aircraft, saying that could have been caused by either faulty bolts or missing safety pins. A company spokesman said that did not rule out any of three areas for investigation cited by AIBN, including the struts or suspension bars and two parts linked to the gearbox - the "epicyclic module" and the main gearbox housing. (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, Cyril Altmeyer in Paris, Victoria Bryan and Tim Hepher in Dublin; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Peter Cooney)
Jacques Cousteau was one of the first people to document our undersea world in the 1950s. Now, six decades later, we still know more about the surface of our moon than we know about our oceans. In a world where everything is overshared, overexposed, and overused, the ocean is our last frontier, where fascinating new discoveries are happening every day.

But with new discoveries come new ways of exploiting these precious jewels of life. The worlds oceans have been pushed to the brink of ecological collapse by a host of powerful forces, from invasive energy development to relentless ship traffic to destructive fishing practices. While the scary headlines keep coming, the good news is that there is hope if we choose to act. It is possible to restore the vitality of our oceans by setting aside special areas that are protected from fishing, pollution, and energy development.

Exploring the oceans runs in the family. During our latest expedition to Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, we witnessed natures ability to renew itself. Bikini Atoll is notorious as the site of nuclear testing by the U.S. Navy in the 1940s. Still, despite suffering nuclear Armageddon, this area was left alone after testing to become a de facto marine reserve; it has made a startling recovery to become some of the most spectacular coral reefs left in the world. Another recent trip saw us visiting the village of Cabo Pulmo in Mexico. A 70-kilometer marine reserve founded andthis is crucialenforced by the local community, it has seen a 600 percent increase in living organisms since its founding in 1995.

RELATED: Ocean Plastic Pollution Could Double in a Decadebut Theres a Solution

Despite these examples, its astonishing how little of the worlds oceans are protected. Nations have a goal of setting aside at least 10 percent of coastal and marine areas by 2020, but only 1.6 percent of the ocean is strongly or fully protected, according to a recent paper published in Science. By contrast, about 15 percent of lands are protected.

Story continues

The U.S. has created four marine national monuments in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean. But there are no fully protected ocean areas off the Atlantic coast. We have the largest expanse of ocean of any country in the world, and thus it is our responsibility as a global leader to step up and protect more of the ocean under our jurisdiction.

President Obama has a historic opportunity to do that. His administration is considering designating the first-ever marine national monument in the Atlantic. This designation would fully and permanently protect the New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts, an extraordinary underwater seascape that supports a dazzling array of ocean wildlife. Just 150 miles east of Cape Cod, along the edge of Americas continental shelf, five massive canyonsdeeper than the Grand Canyonplunge into the depths of the ocean. Beyond that, four extinct underwater volcanoescalled seamountsrise from the abyss, taller than any mountain east of the Rockies.

RELATED: 'Killing Contests' That Target Pregnant Females Threaten to Wipe Out This Graceful Ocean Animal

This marvelous undersea worldwith its steep precipices, swirling currents, and plummeting depthssupports mystical creatures and rare habitats. The canyons and seamounts are alive with vivid cold-water coralsancient fragile beauties in the pitch-black sea, some more than 1,000 years old. In recent years, there have been riveting expeditions to these coral canyons and seamounts. Our deep seas comprise the largest ecosystem on Earth, and yet they remain less explored than the moon. As ocean explorers, we were captivated by scientists discoveries, including a forest of corals the size of tree saplings, new and rare species including a carnivorous sponge, and unique communities of invertebrates that live off chemicals generated in the deep sea.

Closer to shore in the Gulf of Maine, another New England ocean treasure should be permanently protected as a national monument. Cashes Ledge is a steep ridge that rises from the muddy depths to a ledge that comes within 40 feet of the oceans surface. The highest peak in this undersea mountain range, Ammen Rock, supports the largest and deepest cold-water kelp forests in the Atlantic. Cashes Ledges diverse habitat is a refuge for iconic New England fish, helping to conserve and replenish depleted populations, along with tuna, turtles, sharks, whales, and seabirds. Many scientists believe this area represents the best remaining example of an undisturbed Gulf of Maine ecosystemhistorically one of the richest and most diverse in the world.

The New England Coral Canyons and Seamounts, as well as Cashes Ledge, are safe havens for many species. Without permanent protection, however, our ever-expanding human footprint will find its way to them. Industrial fishing, oil exploration and drilling, deep-seabed mining, and climate change and ocean acidification all threaten these special places.

With so little of the worlds oceans left untouched, setting aside New Englands ocean treasures is the right thing to do. President Obama is considering establishing a marine national monument to protect New Englands Coral Canyons and Seamounts from development and exploitation, and he is more likely to act if theres a groundswell of public support. Now is the time to make your voice heard if you want to see the most special areas of our oceans protected.

We urge you to speak out.

Tune in during "Oceans Month," hosted by Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau, every Wednesday on Pivot at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, featuring stories about the hidden treasures in our oceans and the people working hard to protect them.

Sign the Petition: Help Protect New England's Ocean Treasures

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Original article from TakePart
MASON CITY | City Councilmen John Lee and Alex Kuhn said Thursday they will not change their no votes on the Prestage Foods of Iowa development agreement.

Councilman Bill Schickel said he would be open to a more favorable agreement. Kuhn said he still opposes the original agreement and said vast changes would have to be made for him to support any new agreement.

They are the three council members who opposed the agreement in a 3-3 vote that quashed the proposed project on May 3.

Lee said he has studied the issue thoroughly through books, journal articles, university studies, phone calls and interviews with professors and leaders in other cities.

"I have met with people of Mason City in their homes, joined them for coffee, and conversed with them over lunch. I have responded to hundreds of emails and took every phone call possible. Ever since the May 3 vote, I maintained all of these tasks," he said.

"The monetary cost and demand to the citys public services and surrounding areas will be greater than the tax dollars we receive from any proposed development agreement," he said. "This is not to mention the potential cost to the environment and quality of life to our city and region that cannot be adequately predicted."

"We as a city could roll the dice and negotiate a development agreement where we struggle for 10 years, believing in the end we would be better off," he said. "However, I feel a development of this size and scope should only be justified by a clear majority of the people to support it. This is definitely not the case in Mason City.

"As an elected official, it is my duty to do what I believe is best for our city. I do not see how dividing our community is worth it any longer," said Lee.

Kuhn said, "I have been clear on my why I felt we needed a more favorable agreement in terms of wages to better reflect the industry base wage to reduce the potential of high turnover rates, and incentives so the city, county, schools, and other taxing entities would obtain a much greater percentage of the funding to meet the long term needs of infrastructure, programming, social and economic support systems.
President Obama has said that he has run his last campaign, but thats only partly true, as he showed yesterday. While he cant run for the presidency again, he will be campaigning hard, at least one more time, to make sure he is succeeded by a Democrat -- and not by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

In a withering speech in Elkhart, Indiana, on Wednesday, Obama heaped bemused scorn on the policies and proposals being floated by the former reality television star, saying his call to undo the banking regulations put in place following the financial crisis was crazy and expressing amazement at Trumps tax plan. It would explode our deficits by nearly $10 trillion. Im not making this up, he said to laughter. You can look at the math.

Related: Clintons Strategy from Now On -- Baiting the Trump Bull

It was Obama the public speaker at his most effective, letting just enough anger show through to let his audience understand that he was speaking about a topic about which he cares deeply, but not so much that he came across as bitter. Its clear that the American people can expect to see a lot more of that from the president in the five months between now and the general election in November.

And, unlike the 2014 midterm elections, when Democrats tried to run as far as possible from Obama seen as toxic to many voters, the president heads into the final six months of his time in office with approval ratings that are above 50 percent and rising. He is likely to be embraced by a Democratic Party that believes the damage Trumps candidacy does to the Republican brand not only gives them a good chance to retake the Senate but might even put the House of Representatives in play.

Obamas assault on Trump, which he executed without ever actually mentioning the GOP standard-bearers name, was not his first. During his trip to Asia last month, Obama took questions during a G-7 summit in Japan and criticized the moguls penchant for tossing off foreign policy positions -- like completely changing NATO or withdrawing troops from South Korea -- that have thrown U.S. allies into a state of worry and confusion.

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They are rattled by it  and for good reason, Obama said. Because a lot of the proposals he has made display either ignorance of world affairs, or a cavalier attitude, or an interest in getting tweets and headlines.

Related: Trump Resort Loses Historic Golf Tournament -- to Mexico

Wednesdays remarks, however, were not in response to a question -- they were a premeditated attack on the person who could, almost at a stroke, undo many of what Obama considers his key achievements while in office.

The president over the next few months can be expected to crisscross the country stumping for the Democratic presidential nominee, all but certain to be former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. And hell do it armed with statistics showing that unemployment and the federal deficit are both down sharply, while the number of people with health insurance is at record highs.

As he did in Elkhart, he will argue that all three of those things, and more, are endangered by the prospect of a Trump presidency.

If what you care about in this election is your pocketbook, if what youre concerned about is who will look out for the interests of working people and grow the middle class, if thats what youre concerned about, then the debate -- then if thats that youre concerned about -- the economy -- the debate is not even close, he said.

Related: One Place the Trump Train Isnt Stopping -- Paul Ryans Backyard

One path would lead to lower wages. It would eliminate worker protections. It would cut investments in things like education. It would weaken the safety net. It would kick people off health insurance. It would let China write the rules for the global economy. It would let Big Oil weaken rules that protect our air and water. It would let big banks weaken rules that protect families from getting cheated. It would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans to historic lows. Those are the facts.

The one thing that will stand between Obama and Clinton might be his continued advocacy for the Trans Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal that Clinton has come out against -- possible to blunt attacks from her challenger on the left, Bernie Sanders. Obama addressed the TPP on Wednesday, in what seemed to be the most coolly-received section of his remarks, defending it against claims that it will cost jobs.

It will be interesting to see just how much attention Clinton gives the issue when she is finally able to push Sanders out of the way later this summer. There is a current of thought in Washington that expects TPP to come up in a post-election lame-duck session of Congress. If that begins to look like a strong possibility, it may be simpler for Obama and Clinton to avoid discussing TPP to the greatest extent possible in order to downplay their differences on it.

Whether Trump, a strong TPP critic, will let them is another question.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Washington (AFP) - Like many patriotic, flag-pin wearing American politicians before him, President Barack Obama told US military personnel that they are part of "the greatest military in the history of the world."

We asked military historians whether his common refrain is true, and if it matters:

"It matters a great deal to the cadets and officers and their families and the veterans we honored Monday (on Memorial Day). It also matters for future recruitment and for the president's legacy. It's rhetoric, but that does not make it unimportant. No president wants to be thought of as having left the armed forces worse off when they left office."

- Lee Brice, professor of history at Western Illinois University.

"It is probably true that the United States military, by fighting spirit, by organization, by logistical support, by technology, by weapons, is dramatically better than any military it's likely to fight. Maybe the right measure is how much American dominance has forced adaptation by our adversaries. Nobody believes they can beat the American military in the center of the combat spectrum -- it drives the resort to terror tactics, it drives the resort to insurgency."

"But the obvious weak point is not internal to our military, it's our political will to use it. That's the weak point that advisories are going for, to make obsolete our military advantage. Whenever I hear people talk so proudly about the finest military, I feel like it's a danger sign. If you have to say that to yourself, it is, in my judgment, masking an insecurity about your ability to achieve your objectives."

- Kori Schake, research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

"If it's pardonable exaggeration for the president to call the US military the greatest fighting force in history, it is not an exaggeration by much. No one military can excel at everything and historians will debate the relative merits of militaries ranging from the Romans to the Russians. Still, the US military is one of the greatest fighting forces in history, due to its record, its training, its leadership, its technology, its professionalism and its patriotism. It is also one of history's great meritocratic and democratic armies. President Obama has every reason to praise the US military to the skies."

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- Barry Strauss, history department chair at Cornell University.

"There can be no doubt about its power - by comparison with its rivals and indeed its allies - and its technical proficiency would appear to be unrivalled, and on a par with the Roman Army and the Turkish Army -- both very similar in their engineering skills and machine-like efficiency. But the US is not interested in conquest for its own sake - and that is probably the most striking feature of the US armed forces, and one of which Americans should be proud."

- Brian Holden Reid, professor of American history and military institutions at King's College London.

"These comparisons are very difficult across time and space. But I would say the US military in 1944/45 gets the all-time laurels."

- Barry Posen, professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"Advancing technology queers the pitch, making exact comparisons difficult. What is clear is that the US military -- all services -- are operating at an exceedingly professional, superior level. We are aided by big military budgets, of course, but these are choices all powers make, or don't, and, naturally, ours comes at a price in terms of our nation's fiscal condition and ability to respond to future crises.

- Geoffrey Wawro, professor of history and director of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas.
By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's top Supreme Court lawyer is leaving office at the end of June having won a string of major cases including fending off challenges to President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law and legalizing same-sex marriage.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli has served in the Justice Department post since June 2011. He also held two other positions in the Obama administration. Verrilli's deputy, Ian Gershengorn will take over, the Justice Department said in a release announcing Verrilli's departure.

"For five years, Solicitor General Don Verrilli has fought in our nations highest court for a better future, winning landmark cases that moved America forward," Obama said in a statement.

Verrilli twice successfully defended the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, against conservative challenges. In 2012, the court ruled 5-4 to uphold the law against a broad legal attack. Three years later, the justices rejected a second challenge on a 6-3 vote.

"Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable health care," Obama said.

In other major victories, Verrilli urged the justices to strike down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which barred the recognition of same-sex marriages for the purposes of federal benefits. The 5-4 ruling striking down the law in June 2015 helped pave the way for the court's 5-4 landmark 2015 decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide, which Verrilli also advocated for.

In another case, Verrilli successfully persuaded the court in 2012 to strike down provisions of a harsh anti-immigrant law in Arizona on a 5-3 vote.

"Through these and many other cases  and through his thoughtful counsel and principled advocacy  Don has built a legacy of inclusion, expanding opportunities and civil rights for all Americans and moving our country forward," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

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Setbacks included the court's 2013 ruling on a 5-4 vote striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, a law enacted to protect minority voters. He also lost a case 9-0 in which a company challenged Obama's authority to appoint members of the National Labor Relations Board when the Senate was in recess.

The court has yet to rule in several major cases Verrilli argued this year, including a challenge to a restrictive Texas abortion law and his defense of Obama's executive action that would protect more than four million immigrants from deportation.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Mark Hosenball WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some U.S. intelligence officials are concerned that Donald Trump's "shoot from the hip" style could pose national security risks as they prepare to give him a routine pre-election briefing once he is formally anointed as the Republican presidential nominee. Eight senior security officials told Reuters they had concerns over briefing Trump, whose brash, unpredictable campaign style has been a feature of his rise as an insurgent candidate. Despite their worries, the officials said the "Top Secret" briefing to each candidate would not deviate from the usual format to avoid any appearance of bias. Most of the officials asked for anonymity to discuss a domestic political issue. Current and former officials said that the scandal over Hillary Clinton's use of emails also raises concerns about her handling of sensitive information. The likely Democratic nominee is facing an FBI probe into whether security was compromised and laws were broken by her use of a private email server for government business while she was Secretary of State. "The only candidate who has proven incapable of handling sensitive information is Hillary Clinton," said Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "If there is anyone they should be worried about it is Hillary Clinton." But Trump's lack of foreign policy experience, his volatile style, and his little known team of foreign policy advisers make him a unique case, the officials said. "People are very nervous," said one senior U.S. security official. Intelligence and other security and foreign policy officials are also trying to determine "who on (Trump's) team are trustworthy, the official added. "We've never had a situation like this before. Ever." A spokesperson for Trump's campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Other officials downplayed such worries, noting that the traditional briefing, while classified as Top Secret, is mostly a broad overview of national security issues and does not include the most sensitive government secrets about intelligence sources and operations. In the post-Second World War era, confirmed U.S. presidential nominees have traditionally received the briefing from intelligence officials -- including spy agency chiefs -- covering a broad range of national security issues. The nominees are usually briefed shortly after their party nominating conventions, and are allowed to include one or two aides who must undergo security checks. Current and former officials say the nominees are explicitly warned not to share the contents of the briefing, which includes detailed intelligence assessments. After election day, presidents-elect receive the same Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB, that the sitting president gets, complete with material on the intelligence agencies' sources, methods, and covert operations. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters that he shared some of the concerns over how Trump, who has never held public office, might use information from the briefing. "I would be very concerned with Mr. Trump's ability to know what he can and can't discuss" publicly about the contents of an intelligence briefing, said Schiff, who has endorsed Clinton for president. Schiff said one consequence of intelligence agencies' worries about Trump's reputation as a loose cannon could be that briefers circumscribe some of the information they provide to Trump and Hillary Clinton, his prospective Democratic opponent. Trump has tended to make broad-brush statements on foreign issues rather than delve into policy nuances. He drew criticism from some former national security officials last month when, without evidence, he quickly tweeted that the downing of an EgyptAir flight appeared to be a terrorist attack. Clinton is honing in on national security as a key potential weakness for Trump, and is set to deliver a foreign policy speech on Thursday designed to portray the billionaire businessman as unfit for the White House. SAME BRIEFING FOR BOTH? Officials familiar with the views and policy of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's Office, which will give the in-person briefings, say it will do its utmost to avoid any suggestions of political favoritism or bias. Officials say the spy agencies' intend to follow past practice and give identical briefings to both nominees. One former intelligence official said Clinton could have an advantage in the briefing because she would likely ask more probing questions than Trump, a newcomer to foreign policy. The briefings provide an "overview of pressing issues and hot spots around the world," said former CIA officer David Priess, who briefed attorneys general and FBI directors, but not presidents. One U.S. intelligence official said that Trump's style may not be such a risk because the briefings are general in nature and often track publicly available information. "If he reads the papers every day, he won't hear much that will surprise him," the official said. Current and former officials said that covert operations and the intelligence agencies' "sources and methods," which are among the nation's most tightly guarded secrets, are never discussed in the pre-election briefings. (Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Additional reporting By John Walcott; Editing by John Walcott and Stuart Grudgings)
Oil exchange traded funds slipped Thursday after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree on a production ceiling, with Iran planning to pump out more crude.

On Thursday, the United States Oil Fund (USO) , which tracks West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures, dipped 0.3% and the United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO) , which tracks Brent crude oil futures, was flat. USO was also testing its 200-day simple moving average.

Related: 32 Best ETFs to Track Crude Oil

Meanwhile, WTI crude oil futures were trading around $49.2 per barrel while Brent crude oil futures were hovering around $50.1 per barrel.

While some in OPEC tried to set a new collective ceiling in a bid to support prices, the Thursday meeting ended with no new policy or ceiling amid resistance from Iran, Reuters reports.

Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia tried to assuage markets, promising to not flood the markets with oil.

We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we dont shock the market in any way, Saudi Arabias new energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, told Reuters. There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign.

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Saudi Arabia previously said it would join a production freeze deal if Iran agreed to curb output. However, Tehran has maintained that it should be allowed to raise production to previous levels before the introduction of Western sanctions over Irans nuclear program, instead arguing for individual-country production quotas.

Consequently, market observers believe that the failure of a deal reflects political differences that are undermining the organization, notably between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shiite Islamic Republic.

It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market, Gary Ross, founder of PIRA consultancy, told Reuters.

Story continues

Related: Oil ETFs at 7 Month High on Falling U.S. Inventories

Nevertheless, fundamentals are improving in the energy market. For example, U.S., India and other major consumers are seeing increased demand, the Wall Street Journal reports. On the supply side, U.S. shale production has fallen off in response to the collapsed prices, and producers like Nigeria and Canada have experienced disruptions.

For more information on the oil market, visit our oil category .

United States Oil Fund
Oil prices are steady as markets await on OPEC's decision on oil production. The ministers are meeting in Vienna. While no surprises are expected, it will be the first OPEC meeting attended by Saudi Arabia's new Energy Minister. There is less pressure to cut production of oil as prices have doubled since the winter. Uber just raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's investment fund. The Saudi sovereign fund investment values Uber at $68 billion. Uber was only launched 6 years ago and has raised the most of any startup, so far, as it tries to disrupt public transportation. The Obama Administration is expected to announce today the Federal Government's first move to regulate high interest, low dollar 'payday loans', which is currently left to the states. Among the proposals today will be to require lenders to do more to assess a person's ability to pay back the money.
MASON CITY | Lincoln Intermediate School held a routine locker search Tuesday afternoon, according to district officials.

No drugs, weapons or other contraband was found, according to T.J. Jumper, executive director for educator quality and leadership and grade 5-12 programs.

Jumper said the district typically conducts a random locker search about once or twice per year in secondary schools. Parents were notified via letter, he said.

Children were kept in classrooms on yellow alert during the search.
By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE, June 2 (Reuters) - The path to the Olympics is paved with potholes for many athletes but few can claim to have overcome hardship like wrestler Vinod Kumar, who was thrown from a speeding train by a rival's family in India before landing on his feet in Australia. Melbourne-based Kumar will compete for his adopted country in the 66 kg-class of Greco-Roman wrestling at the Rio de Janeiro Games, six years after landing Down Under with a suitcase in hand and a head full of troubled childhood memories. Winning the Olympic ticket was karma, according to Kumar, and a reward for forgiving the people who all but killed him when he was a teenager competing on India's wrestling circuit. "Wrestling is big in India," the 31-year-old Kumar told Reuters in an interview at his Melbourne home. "Fathers all want their sons to win... I forgave them because I believe in karma and I believe in God." Born in a small village near New Delhi and raised in a family of wrestlers, Kumar competed at junior national tournaments across the country from a young age. In 2001, he boarded a long-haul train to an event in southern India with other young wrestlers but never arrived. BROKEN BONES As the night train coursed through coastal forests in Karnataka state, Kumar was handed a spiked soft-drink and immediately felt dizzy after taking a mouthful. He went groggily to the carriage's doorway to get some air and two men, one the father of a rival wrestler, hurled him from the train before it sped into a tunnel. Bones were broken in his arms and legs as his body careened off the tracks to settle by a body of water. "The train was going very fast. Maybe 100-130 kilometres (per hour)," the shaven-headed wrestler said in halting English. "My clothes were all torn, like I was just wearing my underwear." Fifteen years later, Kumar lifts up his shirt and trouser leg to show deep scars along his chest and knee but can now chuckle about the absurdity of what happened. He spent the night conscious and in searing pain, unable to move as mosquitoes bit him and flies buzzed around his wounds. Kumar believes he would have died if he had not been discovered by rail workers in the morning, putting him on another train bound for a hospital that could treat him. "No one knew where I was for 15 days, everybody thought I was dead," he laughed. When returned to his family, police arrested five of the men who were on the carriage. DIRT WRESTLER His family launched legal action as Kumar lay bed-ridden for a year. One of his brothers refused a compensation payment from the boy-wrestler's father. Kumar eventually returned to competition and although he appeared in court "two or three times", the case dragged on for years and he told his family to drop the lawsuit. His forgiveness was not shared by his family, however, and caused a rift so deep that Kumar left home for good. He then spent years roaming the country, competing for cash prizes in towns and villages in conventional freestyle events and in 'pehlwani', India's traditional dirt wrestling. Australia promised a fresh start but it has been tough for Kumar since landing in 2010 with little English and no skills. With no professional wrestling to speak of in Australia, Kumar has worked as a courier and a bouncer at nightclubs to earn money and says he owes friends up to A$15,000 ($10,800). Both parents have died since he left India, his mother of a heart attack only two weeks before his interview with Reuters. "Sometimes I'm feeling very upset, thinking I am here and I have no money, nothing here," said Kumar, sitting on his bed with a clutch of medals hanging by the wall. "I feel it's too hard here and I want to quit... Then I go to the club (to train) and have a better feeling." After earning his ticket to Rio in April at a qualifying tournament in Algeria, Kumar feels the grind has been worth it. Melbourne's prominent Indian community have rallied to his cause and he will head to Brazil hoping to become Australia's first wrestling medallist in more than 60 years. He said the boy-wrestler's father who threw him from the train is dead and that the man's wife had hanged herself. Their son has not succeeded in wrestling. "Now he's nothing and I'm an Olympian," Kumar said. "This is karma." ($1 = A$1.3848) (Editing by John O'Brien)
Charles and Katherine Fritz quit their jobs in 2015. They rented out their two homes, sold their cars and gave their children most of their furniture so they could relocate to the Dominican Republic. The move greatly puzzled and even stunned their family and friends.

[See: 50 Affordable Places to Buy a Retirement Home in 2016.]

"Everyone thought that perhaps my wife Katherine and I were suddenly becoming real adventurous," Charles says. "Some suggested that maybe we were experiencing joint mid-life crises or that we'd simply lost our minds."

Whatever the motivation, the die was cast. In August 2015, Charles and Katherine made the Dominican Republic their home and teaching English their occupation. "Certainly it has not been a perfect transition," Charles says. "But any difficulties have been offset by the Caribbean breezes, the almost constant blue skies and the genuine warmth of the Dominican people."

Charles and Katherine discovered the Dominican Republic as tourists. They took frequent vacations to Punta Cana. At some point they began to think beyond vacation stays and realized they could see themselves enjoying their later years living in this country full time.

Rather than Punta Cana, though, the couple decided that Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's cultural and business center, would be the best place to get the lay of the land and explore different retirement lifestyle options across the country.

From their Santo Domingo base, Charles and Katherine have spent time in Samana, Las Terrenas, Juan Dolio and Cabarete. The island is small enough to make travel anywhere on it convenient, but big enough to stave off the island fever that can be a challenge on smaller Caribbean islands. In addition to its many sandy beach towns, the Dominican Republic also boasts a central inland region of mountains, rivers and waterfalls.

In the States, Charles and Katherine lived in South Carolina, which enjoys a temperate climate with only the occasional thunderstorm, snow only once every few years and a hurricane every decade or so. Still, the weather in the Dominican Republic was one of the biggest appeals for the couple. "No need to watch the weather report," Charles says. "Practically every morning brings blue skies and that glorious Caribbean breeze. It makes it easy to plan outdoor activities or go for a long walk or pleasant jog, and it is nice to be able to have lunch any time of year at one of the many outdoor cafes here in Santo Domingo."

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[See: 10 Ways to Reduce Your Housing Costs in Retirement.]

Another thing that attracted the Fritzes was the convenience factor. They knew from spending years on the island as tourists that getting along here is easy day to day. You find neighborhood corner stores known as colmados on almost every block that stock anything you might need and that even offer delivery services at no extra charge. Should you need one more egg while cooking, experience a sudden craving for chocolate ice cream or have unexpected company and realize you need some rum or a few more beers, all you have to do is pick up the phone and, in a few minutes, your order is at your door. In addition to the colmados, many other stores and many restaurants also deliver, including U.S. chains such as TGI Fridays and KFC.

The couple agree that this move would have been a lot more difficult a couple of decades ago. Their biggest misgiving in pursuing the adventure was leaving behind family and friends in the United States. This worry has been eased with the help of technology now available in most of the world, including in the Dominican Republic.

Charles and Katherine have invested in the Magic Jack service for their phones at a cost of $48 a year. This allows them to have daily conversations with folks back home. They're able to access major U.S. television and cable networks, including HBO, Lifetime, Discovery, the History Channel and CNN through a cable TV and internet service package, and they go to the movies at least once a week to see first-run American productions in English.

The couple has chosen to rent the place where they're living in Santo Domingo. They decided this was the best strategy while they're still in their exploration stage and trying to consider all of the island's retirement lifestyle options. They're paying $660 per month for a big three-bedroom, seventh-floor apartment with marble floors, crown molding and beautiful woodwork, as well as a balcony view of the Caribbean.

"We enjoy the sea breezes from our comfortable Dominican rocking chairs every day," Charles says. These breezes are not only a great pleasure but also allow the couple to use air conditioning only in their bedroom at night for sleeping. This helps to keep their electricity cost down. Their bill is between $40 and $60 a month. The couple has chosen not to invest in a car, as public transportation and taxi services are readily available and affordable in Santo Domingo.

If your dream is a quiet, relaxing Caribbean lifestyle, Santo Domingo is probably not the best option. You might be more interested in this island nation's many beautiful and welcoming beach enclaves. Life in the Dominican Republic's capital city is more like life in New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago. Traffic is heavy, and traffic laws seem to be mere suggestions. The constant sounds of motorbikes, honking horns and street vendors may be too much if you value peace and serenity.

"The ability to ignore loud noise has proven to be an advantage for us," Charles says. "For the first time in my life, I can play my own music at whatever volume I choose without disturbing the neighbors. Hopefully my Dominican neighbors are enjoying my Carolina beach music and the sounds of Memphis, New Orleans and Nashville. No one has complained yet."

[See: 10 Affordable Places to Retire Overseas in 2016.]

Despite some of the difficulties adjusting to a new culture, including not being fluent in Spanish and learning to pay attention to the currency exchange rate, Charles and Katherine believe they have made the right decision leaving the stress of their old lives behind. "Here in the Dominican Republic, life is all about new adventures," Charles says. "We have never been happier."

Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group.
blue angels

A US Blue Angels jet has crashed in Smyrna, Tennessee.

At least one person has been killed in the crash, local station WSMV reports, citing the Rutherford County Emergency Medical Service.

But the status of the pilot and the cause of the crash are not currently known. WKRN reports that helicopters from Vanderbilt University Medical Center were called to the scene.

According to local ABC affiliate WKRN, citing the fire chief of the neighboring town of La Vergne, the crash took place around 3 p.m. local time. The Blue Angels were scheduled to perform in Tennessee this weekend.

The jet crashed soon after takeoff during a practice flight. Following the crash, all other Blue Angels jets have been safely grounded, The Tennessean reports.

The Blue Angels are the US Navy's flight-demonstration team. Aviators in the Blue Angels come from the Navy and the US Marines and fly F/A-18 Hornets.

The crash of a Blue Angel comes on the same day that a US Air Force Thunderbird also crashed after completing a flyover at the Air Force Academy commencement.

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Jasmine Richards, an organizer with Black Lives Matter, was found guilty Wednesday by a Pasadena, California, jury of attempted lynching, a felony under California law. Her attorney says she was tried by a jury on which no black people served.

Richards' conviction stems from an incident Aug. 29 when she led a peace march at a Pasadena park to bring attention to the 2012 police killing of Kendrec McDade. An unrelated altercation involving a black, female patron at a nearby restaurant caught protesters' attention, including Richards'. When police tried to arrest the woman, protesters surrounded her and tried to take her out of police custody.

Police and prosecutors contend that the altercation between Richards and law enforcement morphed into a riot, and that Richards' attempts to keep the woman out of police custody during the melee constituted an attempted lynching. California's anti-lynching law was enacted in 1933 amid a spate of anti-lynching legislation across the country. California's Penal Code 405a defines lynching as "the taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer."

But as Richards' case shows, prosecutors in the state have begun using the law to prosecute protesters.

"It's really disgusting and a deep attack on black people," Nana Gyamfi, Richards' attorney, said about the conviction in a phone interview. "A law that was enacted for the purposes of defending black people against hangings and torture is now being used against black people who are fighting for the lives of black people who are killed by the police."

Richards is the founder of the Black Lives Matter Pasadena chapter, pictured below in an undated photograph:

Jasmine Richards

In the below video, Richards pleads for help in her case, and describes her activism:





Richards is imprisoned at awaiting sentencing, which is scheduled for Tuesday. She faces up to four years in state prison. While she awaits sentencing, black activists across the country have expressed shock and disbelief at law enforcement's use of the law, meant to curb racial violence against blacks, being used against black citizens.

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Richards is the second black female protester to be charged with felony attempted lynching in California in 2016, though she is the first one to be convicted. In April, 20-year-old Maile Hampton was charged in Sacramento with attempted felony lynching when she tried to intervene in the police arrests of activists during a protest near the state Capitol. Those charges were later dropped.

Richards' charges were not. In a statement, Black Lives Matter denounced her conviction. "The perverse nature of this case is stark both because of the law's tragic name but more importantly because police, who have long exercised poor and deadly judgment in cases impacting Black communities, cannot be trusted to make lawful arrests or to guarantee arrestees will make it home alive," the group wrote. "Given that, removing a black person from police custody can be a life-saving action."

Black activists voiced their anger on Twitter:

JasmineRichards is not a terrorist. She has been charged w/ "lynching" as the police continue to vilify protestors. #FreeJasmine

Let me get this straight. A Black woman activist, engaged in the struggle for social justice, was convicted of #lynching? #JasmineRichards

@jasminethaG may be the first Black person to be charged with 'lynching.' http://blacklivesmatter.com/black-lives-matter-organizer-jasmine-abdullah-aka-jasmine-richards-targeted-and-convicted-of-attempted-lynching/ ... #FreeJasminepic.twitter.com/pnK8NlIXdk https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj9ZUCkUUAAWnz8.jpg:large

Protesters are also calling on people to "pack the court" with supporters for Richards' sentencing Tuesday.

freejasmine BLM Pasadena leader convicted. We must fight for our team.pic.twitter.com/Qxk154hxWC https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj8fK68UYAEQONN.jpg:large

"As far as I'm concerned, the only person who's being lunched is Jasmine," Gyamfi said. "For the purposes of punishing her and letting her serve as an example to other [black people] who talk back in Pasadena."

A brutal history: Lynching has a long history in the United States. In the years following the Civil War, black men and women who were accused of crimes (often falsely) were kidnapped from their homes, courthouses or jails by so-called "lynch mobs," crowds of angry whites who rioted in favor of vigilante justice. Some were hanged from trees or lampposts; others were burned alive or mutilated and tortured to death.

For decades after the Civil War, lynching was used as an act of racial terrorism against African-Americans. Between 1877 and 1950, nearly 4,000 people, most of whom were black, were lynched in the United States.

"Lynching and the terror era shaped the geography, politics, economics and social characteristics of being black in America during the 20th century," Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Alabama-based legal clinic Equal Justice Initiative, told the New York Times.

EJI compiled a detailed report on the impact of lynching during the post-Reconstruction era leading up the civil rights movement. "Lynching reinforced a legacy of racial inequality that has never been adequately addressed in America," researchers wrote in the r "The administration of criminal justice especially is tangled with the history of lynching in profound ways that continue to contaminate the integrity and fairness of the justice system."

Source: Library of Congress

Thanks largely to a decadeslong campaign waged by the NAACP, the country's first anti-lynching law was passed in 1922 to help curb the violence. But in more recent decades, law enforcement has used a specific interpretation of the law to crack down on left-wing activists. In detailing Hampton's case last year for the Guardian, Anita Chabria described how the law was used against anti-fur protesters in San Francisco in 1999, Occupy Oakland protesters in 2011 and immigration advocates in 2014.

The Pasadena prosecutor's office did not respond to requests for comment on Richards' case.

Gyamfi argues the conviction was based on a misguided interpretation of the law as it presently stands. "There's not a single [instance] of disturbing the peace by force or violence," she said. "All you have is black bodies and you have black bodies that are challenging the police."
In a year in which an outsider candidate seized the reins of one of the countrys two major political parties, theres one place where folks havent gotten the anti-establishment message: House Speaker Paul Ryans congressional district in Wisconsin.

Related: Clintons Strategy From Now On: Baiting the Trump Bull

Ryan, the GOPs 2012 vice presidential nominee and now the top Republican office-holder in the country, is facing a primary challenge from local businessman Paul Nehlen. Nehlen popped up on the political radar last month when he released a campaign video, dubbed Truth Resurrection, that featured him sleeveless and tattooed, riding around on a motorcycle  and challenging Ryan to an arm-wrestling contest.

On Wednesday, Morning Consult reported that the dark horse candidate had filed almost twice the minimum number of signatures required to get on the ballot for the August 9 primary, gathering 1,800 when only 1,000 were necessary.

Weve done what we needed to do to ensure ballot access. Now, we can devote literally every waking moment to getting our message outputting valuable information in the hands of the voters, Nehlen said in a statement.

Such an outpouring of support, along with the endorsement of 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, suggests that Nehlen, a tea party sympathizer, might be able to whip up enough support to threaten Ryan, who has come under a microscope for withholding his endorsement of Donald Trump.

However, while Trump has bulldozed traditional presidential contenders and repeatedly boasted about bringing new voters into the Republican Party who fervently want to change the ways of Washington and the GOP, its important to note that so far, not a single Republican incumbent has lost his or her primary this year.

Related: Is Paul Ryan Backing Away From a Confrontation With Trump?

And that looks to be the case for Ryan, even though his lack of support for Trump has rankled some within his party.

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A Free Beacon poll released late last week found Ryan stomping Nehlen 83 percent to 7 percent, a 73-point gap. Another local survey found the speaker ahead, 78 percent to 14 percent.

The race appears to be Ryans to lose but there are many milestones between now and primary day, including the Republican National Convention this summer in Cleveland, which the Wisconsin lawmaker is slated to chair.

Should Ryan choose not to endorse Trump, he could come under intense fire from his fellow Republicans. Or, if the convention goes off the rails, there could be similar demonstrations like the one that occurred at a Trump rally in Ryans district in March where the speakers name prompted boos.

How do you like Paul Ryan? You like him? the developer asked as the jeers rained down.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Patek

If you're looking to own a piece of horological history, then it's going to cost you. The latest example of this is a stunning Patek Philippe watch, reference No. 2499, that sold for $2.5 million at an auction in Hong Kong on May 31.

After 30 minutes of frantic bidding, an unknown bidder walked away with the watch to the sound of applause from the crowd.

Called "one of the most sought-after vintage wristwatches of all time" by the auction house Phillips, the timepiece has a stunning design. Only 349 examples of the 2499 were made, starting in 1951 and ending in 1988.

This watch is one of only six known models to be cased in pink gold, which is completely unpolished and unmarred. This particular example was made in 1968 and is the second-oldest of those six.

The dial is a hard enamel, and it's ivory in color because of the watch's age. Phillips calls it "possibly unique" because of its "flat" dial, which is missing the semi-circle indentation to complete the moon-phase complication.

No other watch of this exact model has a dial like this one, and this detail likely had a lot to do with the final auction price.

This particular example hasn't been seen on the auction block in 13 years, when it sold for close to 1 million Swiss francs.

A photo posted by Phillips Watches (@phillipswatches) on May 31, 2016 at 4:17am PDT

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In recent years, a number of major for-profit higher education chains have attracted a great deal of notoriety for scamming students and stranding them with mountains of debt. But for-profit higher education has been around for quite some time  since the birth of the republic in fact  so it might not seem quite fair to condemn the entire sector based on the ill-reputation of a few of the worst offenders.

But a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that poor results at profit-driven schools is far from a case of a few bad apples. It appears to be a problem of rotten orchards.

As the Washington Post reports, the study, which analyzed the employment and earnings of 1.4 million students using data from Department of Education and the IRS, found that students who pursue vocational certificates at for-profit colleges make an average of $900 less a year than they did before their attendance.

By contrast, students who went after the same certifications at community colleges  which are public, and much less expensive  made $1,500 more annually than before their attendance.

Source: Christine Armario/AP

Behind the numbers: Why are students who attended for-profit colleges to acquire new skills and knowledge in fields like nursing and auto repair worse off than they were before they had them? The study isn't able to determine that.

Since the study lines up demographically similar students, the answer is unlikely to be found in the kind of individuals who opt for for-profits instead of community colleges.

Instead, it could possibly have to do with the way employers react to certain kind of credentials from for-profit schools. The negative effects that for-profit students experience "are largely generated by the high proportion of students do not complete their program of study," given that people who do complete their for-profit certification programs do see a modest boost in earnings. In other words, being a for-profit program dropout might be a stain on one's credibility as they pursue new jobs.

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"It could possibly be a negative signal," Stephanie Cellini, a professor at George Washington University and one of the authors of the study, said in an interview.

Students drop out of community colleges at higher rates than for-profit students, but those who do so still experience positive earnings outcomes on average.

There is also the possibility that students of for-profit colleges suffer from unrealistic expectations about the effect of their for-profit program coursework, and end up enduring lower wages as they switch to the sector they thought their education would help them advance within. With so many for-profit programs in disrepute, it's quite likely that employers are unlikely to provide workers with higher wages for them.

While the reason that for-profit school vocational program attendees tend to do so badly is a bit of a mystery, it is crystal clear that they aren't delivering on what they promise their students. And that's not even taking into account the enormous debt they heap on students.

According to the study, 83% of for-profit students in vocational certification programs take out loans, while less than a quarter of community college certificate students do. For-profit students had an average of $5,300 worth of debt. Community college students? $1,300.

For-profit higher education could theoretically consist of sophisticated institutions that provide students with a quality education. But most evidence at the moment suggests that they leave students worse off than when they began, and that any enrichment they offer is for their shareholders.
It's no secret that getting a college education in the U.S. is super expensive, and it's no secret that those who attend elite, yet costly schools brag about it forever.

But for those of us sensible enough to save money and attend community college? The struggle, and stigma, is very real.

As Twitter user Diatonic Dissonance so aptly says: hater's gonna hate. Joke's on them.

Don't let anyone shame you out of pursuing an education within your budget including community colleges and state schools

He's right. Just look at the numbers.

According to the College Board, average tuition for a year at a private college is $31,231. That price is considerably lower for students who attend public colleges.

At a public two-year college, the average yearly cost for "in-district" students is $3,347; at four-year public colleges, it's $9,139 for in-state students and $22,958 for out-of-state students.

#EducationShaming is no joke.

The perceptions that community college can't offer a "real" education are false, Marc Fellenz, a professor at Suffolk County Community College on Long Island, New York, told Mic in October.

"Many think that community college is not 'real' college, that for many of our students it's simply a continuation of the high school experience," Fellenz said.

"The fact is, most community college classes are as rigorous as comparable courses at four-year colleges."
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OPEC refrained from changing its oil output policy on Thursday, meaning the organization failed to agree on a new production ceiling, an OPEC delegate told Reuters.

Two delegates also said Nigerian candidate Mohammed Barkindo was chosen to be OPEC's new secretary-general.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last decided to change output in December 2008, and for oil-price hawks such as Iran, fears are growing that the 56-year-old OPEC is losing its role as a production-setting cartel and turning into a talking shop.

WTI futures sank on the news with oil trading at $48 a barrel, after starting the session around $49.0 a barrel.

Speaking after the meeting, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih told CNBC that the spirit of the meeting was very cooperative and collaborative.

"We are extremely happy, I think the market is in good shape. The market is balancing, trends are all good in terms of supply and demand. prices have recovered somewhat and I believe that they will continue to recover," he said.

Meanwhile, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told CNBC that OPEC members did not discuss a production freeze.

"It seems that the members believe that it should manage the market without discussing about the freeze. Because a freeze, I think is a matter of history," he said.

Investors were closely eyeing the meeting in Vienna with mounting tensions between the 13 members of the producer group  and the differing economic needs of each country.

OPEC ministers arriving at the organization's headquarters in the Austrian capital on Thursday appeared to be at odds over what the bloc's next move should be. While some such as Kuwait and Qatar appeared to lean towards the Saudi Arabian way of thinking - agreeing on the need for an output ceiling - others such as Venezuela and Algeria seemed to agree with Iran, which said an output ceiling must be accompanied by a country-specific quota system.

Other oil ministers, such as Nigeria's, called for open-minded discussion and unity - something that has been in short supply at previous meetings.

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OPEC was not expected to cut or freeze oil production levels at the meeting  ideas that failed to find unanimous support at its last meeting in Doha in April. Hopes of a deal were dashed in April after Iran  an OPEC member that is trying to revive its oil industry after years of economic sanctions  refused outright to consider a freeze.

Abdalla Salem el-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC told CNBC as the meeting got underway on Thursday that for the first time in many months there was a "very positive" atmosphere among the cartel's members, however. He said he was pleased with the way the oil market was recovering - now close to $50 per barrel.

The meeting comes amid tensions between OPEC members. Iran's brake on a Doha deal angered OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia and further damaged relations between the Middle Eastern rivals but there was talk this week that Saudi Arabia could be trying to revive formal output targets, with Iran's oil minister rejecting the idea yet again.

"An output ceiling has no benefit to us," Bijan Zanganeh told reporters in Vienna on Wednesday, reiterating Iran's call for individual country quotas.

Within the OPEC group, poorer producers have also struggled to make wealthier Gulf members, who have been able to weather lower oil prices better, change course. Those differences over OPEC's strategy were evident on Thursday.

United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui told CNBC on Thursday that his country was ready to discuss a production cap "provided that everyone is participating."



"All of those who went to Doha were interested in principle and whether we achieve it or not is subject for discussion when we meet in the closed session."

Aside from Iran's refusal to budge over output, tensions between OPEC members have been growing steadily since November 2014. Then, OPEC decided to keep on pumping oil at record levels despite a drop in global oil prices. OPEC had an official production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day but the target was effectively abandoned in December, allowing members to pump freely and adding to a global glut in oil.

The decision was seen as a strategy, led by Saudi Arabia, to retain market share in the face of rival non-OPEC producers but it has hurt the group's poorer members, the so-called "fragile five" (Venezuela, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria and Iraq) which have pleaded before for an OPEC output cut, to no avail.

Oil prices have since started to recover as non-OPEC supply comes off the market, but whether OPEC can rebuild itself as a united organization in this meeting remains to be seen.



Anas Al-Saleh, Kuwait's acting oil minister, told CNBC Thursday that he believed OPEC's strategy since 2014 had been "working well" and that oil markets were stabilizing. But his counterpart from Venezuela, Euologio del Pino, told CNBC that the group should be able to "adjust to the recovery of production of countries like Iran" and that new ideas should be considered.

"We're also looking at some new ideas - the possibility to have a supply-production range per country," he said, referencing the potential for a quota system as proposed by Iran.

 Reuters contributed to this report.





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Vienna (AFP) - OPEC decided Thursday to keep oil gushing after a moderate recovery in the crude eased the pressure to limit output, with Saudi Arabia saying the cartel is "very satisfied" with the oil market.

A final statement from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after a meeting in Vienna made clear that the 13-nation group had not set a new output target.

It said that since its last meeting in December, "crude oil prices have risen by more than 80 percent, supply and demand is converging and oil and producer stock levels in the OECD have recently shown moderation."

It added: "This is testament to the fact that the market is moving through the balancing process."

This was echoed by kingpin Saudi Arabia's energy minister, newly appointed by the kingdom's dynamic new crown prince, expressing confidence that the recovery in the oil prices would continue.

"Everybody is very satisfied with the market. The market is rebalancing as we speak," said Khaled al-Falih said at the start of the bi-annual gathering.

"Demand is extremely healthy and robust. Non-OPEC supply is declining. Prices will respond to the rebalancing of the market," Falih told reporters.

Traditionally OPEC, which pumps around a third of the world's oil, has cut production to boost falling prices.

But in the most recent drop, tumbling from over $100 in 2014 to close to $25 in January, OPEC -- driven by Riyadh -- has changed tack, keeping oil flowing to maintain market share and squeeze competitors.

It has taken some time -- straining even Saudi Arabia's finances, to say nothing of on-the-brink OPEC member Venezuela -- but the tactic now appears to be working at last.

Non-OPEC output is falling and prices last week briefly rose above $50 for the first time in six months, although they have softened slightly since.

At around 1430 GMT in London, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in July slid 73 cents to $48.28 a barrel.

Story continues

Brent Crude for August delivery dropped 65 cents to $49.07 compared with Wednesday's close.

Animosity between Saudi Arabia and Iran -- bitter regional OPEC rivals engaged in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen -- means that any agreement to cut output is highly unlikely in any case.

Since Iran's 2015 nuclear deal entered into force in January and sanctions were lifted, Tehran has aggressively ramped up output, and is unwilling to stop now.

"A doubling of exports of Iranian oil has had no negative impact on the market and has been absorbed well," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Wednesday.

A group production target of 30 million barrels per day -- in any case flouted, currently around 32 million bpd -- was abandoned at OPEC's last meeting in December.

On Thursday Zanganeh said that setting a collective OPEC ceiling "means nothing" without agreeing production quotas for members.

Other members including Venezuela, Algeria and Iraq indicated openness Thursday to such individual limits, but to no avail.

- 'Don't care about prices' -

Saudi Arabia is undergoing change with the powerful young Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 30, seeking to revamp the country's economy to reduce dependence on oil.

His "2030 Vision" includes a partial floatation of national oil giant Aramco and creating a gargantuan sovereign wealth fund. This week it pumped $3.5 billion into Uber.

This conflict between the Saudis and the Iranians -- soothed by the price recovery -- could return with a vengeance if oil prices dip again, however, for example on the back of a stronger US dollar.

This worries poorer OPEC members, not least Venezuela, racked by severe food shortages and inflation projected to hit 700 percent in 2016.

This is unlikely to sway the Saudis, however.

"We don't care about oil prices -- $30 or $70, they are all the same to us," Prince Salman said in an interview with Bloomberg published in April.

One thing which could perhaps smooth the waters was the appointment on Thursday of Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as new OPEC secretary general.

Outgoing secretary general Abdalla El-Badri of Libya was due to step down in 2012 but has stayed in place because OPEC was unable to agree on a successor.

"We've finally selected the secretary general, which is good. He's highly respected and qualified," Falih said.
GAITHERSBURG, MD / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / OpGen, Inc. (OPGN), a precision medicine company using molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics to combat infectious disease, announced today that Kevin Krenitsky, president, will present at the 6th Annual LD Micro Invitational conference on June 7, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time. The conference is being held from June 7- 9 at the Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Los Angeles.

A webcast of the presentation will be available in the investor relations section of the Company's website, www.opgen.com, and will be archived for 90 days following the presentation.

About OpGen

OpGen, Inc. is developing and deploying precision medicine tools to combat infectious disease in global healthcare settings, helping physicians improve patient outcomes by providing more rapid information about life-threatening infections and decreasing the spread of infections caused by multidrug-resistant microorganisms. OpGen offers a full portfolio of in vitro diagnostic products and clinical laboratory services that employ state-of-the-art molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics. Its QuickFISH products are a suite of FDA-cleared and CE-marked diagnostics used to rapidly detect pathogens in positive blood cultures. Clinical laboratory services utilize the Acuitas products, including the MDRO Gene Test, the Resistome Test, microbial Whole Genome Sequence Analysis and Acuitas Lighthouse bioinformatics system designed to detect, type, track and trend antibiotic resistant organisms in real-time. Learn more at www.opgen.com and follow OpGen on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About LD Micro

LD Micro was founded in 2006 with the sole purpose of being an independent resource in the microcap space. What started out as a newsletter highlighting unique companies has transformed into an event platform hosting several influential conferences annually (Invitational, Summit, and Main Event).

In 2015, LDM launched the first pure microcap index (the LDMi) to exclusively provide intraday information on the entire sector. LD will continue to provide valuable tools for the benefit of everyone in the small and microcap universe. For those interested in attending, please contact David Scher at david@ldmicro.com or visit www.ldmicro.com for more information.

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Contacts:

OpGen

Michael Farmer

Director, Marketing

(240) 813-1284

mfarmer@opgen.com

InvestorRelations@opgen.com



Investor Relations

LHA

Kim Sutton Golodetz

(212) 838-3777

kgolodetz@lhai.com

or

Bruce Voss

(310) 691-7100

bvoss@lhai.com

OpGen media

MacDougall Biomedical Communications

Cammy Duong

781-591-3443

cduong@macbiocom.com





SOURCE: OpGen, Inc. via LD Micro
(Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) was sued on Wednesday by a former senior finance manager who claimed she was terminated in retaliation for complaining about improper accounting practices in Oracle's cloud services business.

Shares of Oracle fell about 2.6 percent to $39.23 in after-hours trading.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the former executive, Svetlana Blackburn, accused upper management of trying to push her to "fit square data into round holes" to make Oracle Cloud Services' results look better.

"We don't agree with the allegations and intend to vigorously defend the matter," Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said.

Blackburn said her bosses instructed her to add millions of dollars of accruals for expected business "with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers," and said executives above her added accruals on their own.

Like many legacy software companies, Oracle faces a dilemma with the move to cloud computing - essentially software in servers in data centers accessible through the internet rather than traditional packaged software. The older type of software still generates massive profits for Oracle.

Last quarter, Oracle's traditional on-premises software sales shrank slightly compared with a year earlier, but still generated $6.35 billion in revenue, 70 percent of total revenue for the quarter. In comparison, cloud revenue was $735 million, or 8 percent of the revenue, but grew by 40 percent.

The Redwood City, California-based company has come under considerable pressure from younger and smaller cloud-first companies such as Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N), whose chief executive delights in mocking Oracle's cloud strategy.

Oracle has invested aggressively in its cloud business over the last few years in a bid to gain market share in the cloud. Safra Catz, Oracle's co-chief executive, said in March that the cloud business was in a "hyper-growth phase."

Blackburn said Oracle terminated her employment on Oct. 15 last year, one month after the alleged wrongdoing began and two months after she received a positive performance review.

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She said Oracle had come to view her as "more of a roadblock than a team player who would blindly generate financial reports using improper bases in order to justify the bottom lines that her superiors demanded to see."

V.J. Chetty, a lawyer for Blackburn, declined additional comment.

Blackburn's lawsuit also accused Oracle of violating the anti-retaliation provisions of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance and Dodd-Frank financial-reform laws. It seeks punitive damages, double back pay and other remedies.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Yasmeen Abutaleb and Sarah McBride in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler)
Tens of thousands of years ago, before the internet, before the Industrial Revolution, before literature and mathematics, bronze and iron, before the advent of agriculture, early humans formed an unlikely partnership with another animalthe grey wolf. The fates of our two species became braided together. The wolves changed in body and temperament. Their skulls, teeth, and paws shrank. Their ears flopped. They gained a docile disposition, becoming both less frightening and less fearful. They learned to read the complex expressions that ripple across human faces. They turned into dogs.

Today, dogs are such familiar parts of our livesour reputed best friends and subject of many a memethat its easy to take them, and what they represent, for granted. Dogs were the first domesticated animals, and their barks heralded the Anthropocene. We raised puppies well before we raised kittens or chickens; before we herded cows, goats, pigs, and sheep; before we planted rice, wheat, barley, and corn; before we remade the world.

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Remove domestication from the human species, and theres probably a couple of million of us on the planet, max, says archaeologist and geneticist Greger Larson. Instead, what do we have? Seven billion people, climate change, travel, innovation and everything. Domestication has influenced the entire earth. And dogs were the first. For most of human history, were not dissimilar to any other wild primate. Were manipulating our environments, but not on a scale bigger than, say, a herd of African elephants. And then, we go into partnership with this group of wolves. They altered our relationship with the natural world.

Larson wants to pin down their origins. He wants to know when, where, and how they were domesticated from wolves. But after decades of dogged effort, he and his fellow scientists are still arguing about the answers. They agree that all dogs, from low-slung corgis to towering mastiffs, are the tame descendants of wild ancestral wolves. But everything else is up for grabs.

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Some say wolves were domesticated around 10,000 years ago, while others say 30,000. Some claim it happened in Europe, others in the Middle East, or East Asia. Some think early human hunter-gatherers actively tamed and bred wolves. Others say wolves domesticated themselves, by scavenging the carcasses left by human hunters, or loitering around campfires, growing tamer with each generation until they became permanent companions.

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Dogs were domesticated so long ago, and have cross-bred so often with wolves and each other, that their genes are like a completely homogenous bowl of soup, Larson tells me, in his office at the University of Oxford. Somebody goes: what ingredients were added, in what proportion and in what order, to make that soup? He shrugs his shoulders. The patterns we see could have been created by 17 different narrative scenarios, and we have no way of discriminating between them.

The only way of doing so is to look into the past. Larson, who is fast-talking, eminently likable, and grounded in both archaeology and genetics, has been gathering fossils and collaborators in an attempt to yank the DNA out of as many dog and wolf fossils as he can. Those sequences will show exactly how the ancient canines relate to each other and to modern pooches. Theyre the fields best hope for getting firm answers to questions that have hounded them for decades.

And already, they have yielded a surprising discovery that could radically reframe the debate around dog domestication, so that the big question is no longer when it happened, or where, but how many times.

* * *

On the eastern edge of Ireland lies Newgrange, a 4,800-year-old monument that predates Stonehenge and the pyramids of Giza. Beneath its large circular mound and within its underground chambers lie many fragments of animal bones. And among those fragments, Dan Bradley from Trinity College Dublin found the petrous bone of a dog.

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Press your finger behind your ear. Thats the petrous. Its a bulbous knob of very dense bone thats exceptionally good at preserving DNA. If you try to pull DNA out of a fossil, most of it will come from contaminating microbes and just a few percent will come from the bones actual owner. But if youve got a petrous bone, that proportion can be as high as 80 percent. And indeed, Bradley found DNA galore within the bone, enough to sequence the full genome of the long-dead dog.

Larson and his colleague Laurent Frantz then compared the Newgrange sequences with those of almost 700 modern dogs, and built a family tree that revealed the relationships between these individuals. To their surprise, that tree had an obvious fork in its trunka deep divide between two doggie dynasties. One includes all the dogs from eastern Eurasia, such as Shar Peis and Tibetan mastiffs. The other includes all the western Eurasian breeds, and the Newgrange dog.

The genomes of the dogs from the western branch suggest that they went through a population bottlenecka dramatic dwindling of numbers. Larson interprets this as evidence of a long migration. He thinks that the two dog lineages began as a single population in the east, before one branch broke off and headed west. This supports the idea that dogs were domesticated somewhere in China.

But theres a critical twist.

The team calculated that the two dog dynasties split from each other between 6,400 and 14,000 years ago. But the oldest dog fossils in both western and eastern Eurasia are older than that. Which means that when those eastern dogs migrated west into Europe, there were already dogs there.

To Larson, these details only make sense if dogs were domesticated twice.

Through gritted teeth, I said: Were fucking doing dogs. And he said: Im in.

Heres the full story, as he sees it. Many thousands of years ago, somewhere in western Eurasia, humans domesticated grey wolves. The same thing happened independently, far away in the east. So, at this time, there were two distinct and geographically separated groups of dogs. Lets call them Ancient Western and Ancient Eastern. Around the Bronze Age, some of the Ancient Eastern dogs migrated westward alongside their human partners, separating from their homebound peers and creating the deep split in Larsons tree. Along their travels, these migrants encountered the indigenous Ancient Western dogs, mated with them (doggy style, presumably), and effectively replaced them.

Todays eastern dogs are the descendants of the Ancient Eastern ones. But todays western dogs (and the Newgrange one) trace most of their ancestry to the Ancient Eastern migrants. Less than 10 percent comes from the Ancient Western dogs, which have since gone extinct.

This is a bold story for Larson to endorse, not least because he himself has come down hard on other papers suggesting that cows, sheep, or other species were domesticated twice. Any claims for more than one need to be substantially backed up by a lot of evidence, he says. Pigs were clearly domesticated in Anatolia and in East Asia. Everything else is once. Well, except maybe dogs.

* * *

Other canine genetics experts think that Larsons barking up the wrong tree. Im somewhat underwhelmed, since its based on a single specimen, says Bob Wayne from the University of California, Los Angeles. He buys that theres a deep genetic division between modern dogs. But, its still possible that dogs were domesticated just once, creating a large, widespread, interbreeding population that only later resolved into two distinct lineages.

In 2013, Waynes team compared the mitochondrial genomes (small rings of DNA that sit outside the main set) of 126 modern dogs and wolves, and 18 fossils. They concluded that dogs were domesticated somewhere in Europe or western Siberia, between 18,800 and 32,100 years ago. And genes aside, the density of fossils from Europe tells us something, says Wayne. There are many things that look like dogs, and nothing quite like that in east Asia.

Peter Savolainen from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm disagrees. By comparing the full genomes of 58 modern wolves and dogs, his team has shown that dogs in southern China are the most genetically diverse in the world. They must have originated there around 33,000 years ago, he says, before a subset of them migrated west 18,000 years later.

Thats essentially the same story that Larson is telling. The key difference is that Savolainen doesnt buy the existence of an independently domesticated group of western dogs. Thats stretching the data very much, he says. Those Ancient Western dogs might have just been wolves, he says. Or perhaps they were an even earlier group of migrants from the east. I think the picture must seem a bit chaotic, he says understatedly. But for me, its pretty clear. It must have happened in southern East Asia. You cant interpret it any other way.

Except, you totally can. Wayne does (Im certainly less dogmatic than Peter, he says). Adam Boyko from Cornell University does, too: after studying the genes of village dogsfree-ranging mutts that live near human settlementshe argued for a single domestication in Central Asia, somewhere near India or Nepal. And clearly, Larson does as well.

Larson adds that his gene-focused peers are ignoring one crucial line of evidencebones. If dogs originated just once, there should be a neat gradient of fossils with the oldest ones at the center of domestication and the youngest ones far away from it. Thats not what we have. Instead, archaeologists have found 15,000-year-old dog fossils in western Europe, 12,500-year-old ones in east Asia, and nothing older than 8,000 years in between.

If were wrong, then how on earth do you explain the archaeological data? says Larson. Did dogs jump from East Asia to Western Europe in a week, and then go all the way back 4,000 years later? No. A dual domestication makes more sense. Mietje Genompre, an archaeologist from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, agrees that the bones support Larsons idea. For me, its very convincing, she says.

But even Larson is hedging his bets. When I ask him how strong his evidence is, he says, Like, put a number on it? If was being bold, Id say its a 7 out of 10. We lack the smoking gun.

Why is this so hard? Of all the problems that scientists struggle with, why has the origin of dogs been such a bitch to solve?

And then, we go into partnership with this group of wolves. They altered our relationship with the natural world.

For starters, the timing is hard to pin down because no one knows exactly how fast dog genomes change. That pacethe mutation rateunderpins a lot of genetic studies. It allows scientists to compare modern dogs and ask: How long ago must these lineages have diverged in order to build up this many differences in their genes? And since individual teams use mutation rate estimates that are wildly different, its no wonder theyve arrived at conflicting answers.

Regardless of the exact date, its clear that over thousands of years, dogs have mated with each other, cross-bred with wolves, travelled over the world, and been deliberately bred by humans. The resulting ebb and flow of genes has turned their history into a muddy, turbid messthe homogeneous soup that Larson envisages.

Wolves provide no clarity. Grey wolves used to live across the entire Northern Hemisphere, so they could have potentially been domesticated anywhere within that vast range (although North America is certainly out). Whats more, genetic studies tell us that no living group of wolves is more closely related to dogs than any other, which means that the wolves that originally gave rise to dogs are now extinct. Sequencing living wolves and dogs will never truly reveal their shrouded past; itd be, as Larson says, like trying to solve a crime when the culprit isnt even on the list of suspects.

The only way to know for sure is to go back in time, he adds.

* * *

The study informally known as the Big Dog Project was born of frustration. Back in 2011, Larson was working hard on the origin of domestic pigs, and became annoyed that scientists studying dogs were getting less rigorous papers in more prestigious journals, simply because their subjects were that much more charismatic and media-friendly. So he called up his longstanding collaborator Keith Dobney. Through gritted teeth, I said: Were fucking doing dogs. And he said: Im in.

Right from the start, the duo realized that studying living dogs would never settle the great domestication debate. The only way to do that was to sequence ancient DNA from fossil dogs and wolves, throughout their range and at different points in history. While other scientists were studying the soup of dog genetics by tasting the finished product, Larson would reach back in time to taste it at every step of its creation, allowing him to definitively reconstruct the entire recipe.

In recent decades, scientists have become increasingly successful at extracting and sequencing strands of DNA from fossils. This ancient DNA has done wonders for our understanding of our own evolution. It showed, for example, how Europe was colonized 40,000 years ago by hunter-gatherers moving up from Africa, then 8,000 years ago by Middle Eastern farmers, and 5,000 years ago by horse-riding herders from the Russian steppes. Everyone in Europe today is a blend of those three populations, says Larson, who hopes to parse the dog genome in the same way, by slicing it into its constituent ingredients.

Larson originally envisaged a small projectjust him and Dobney analyzing a few fossils. But he got more funding, collaborators, and samples than he expected. It just kind of metastasized out of all proportion, he says. He and his colleagues would travel the world, drilling into fossils and carting chips of bone back to Oxford. They went to museums and private collections. (There was a guy up in York who had a ton of stuff in his garage.) They grabbed bones from archaeological sites.

The pieces of bone come back to a facility in Oxford called the Palaeo-BARNthe Palaeogenomics and Bioarchaeology Research Network. When I toured the facility with Larson, we wore white overalls, surgical masks, oversoles, and purple gloves, to keep our DNA (and that of our skin microbes) away from the precious fossil samples. Larson called them spacesuits. I was thinking thrift-store ninja.

In one room, the team shoves pieces of bone into a machine that pounds it with a small ball bearing, turning solid shards into fine powder. They then send the powder through a gauntlet of chemicals and filters to pull out the DNA and get rid of everything else. The result is a tiny drop of liquid that contains the genetic essence of a long-dead dog or wolf. Larsons freezer contains 1,500 such drops, and many more are on the way. Its truly fantastic the kind of data that he has gathered, says Savolainen.

True to his roots in archaeology, Larson isnt ignoring the bones. His team photographed the skulls of some 7,000 prehistoric dogs and wolves at 220 angles each, and rebuilt them in virtual space. They can use a technique called geometric morphometrics to see how different features on the skulls have evolved over time.

The two lines of evidenceDNA and bonesshould either support or refute the double domestication idea. It will also help to clear some confusion over a few peculiar fossils, such as a 36,000 year old skull from Goyet cave in Belgium. Genompre thinks its a primitive dog. It falls outside the variability of wolves: its smaller and the snout is different, she says. Others say its too dissimilar to modern dogs. Wayne has suggested that it represents an aborted attempt at domesticationa line of dogs that didnt contribute to modern populations and is now extinct.

Maybe the Goyet hound was part of Larsons hypothetical Ancient Western group, domesticated shortly after modern humans arrived in Europe. Maybe it represented yet another separate flirtation with domestication. All of these options are on the table, and Larson thinks he has the data to tell them apart. We can start putting numbers on the difference between dogs and wolves, he says. We can say this is what all the wolves at this time period look like; does the Goyet material fall within that realm, or does it look like dogs from later on?

Larson hopes to have the first big answers within six to twelve months. I think itll clearly show that some things cant be right, and will narrow down the number of hypotheses, says Boyko. It may narrow it down to one but Im not holding my breath on that. Wayne is more optimistic. Ancient DNA will provide much more definitive data than we had in the past, he says. [Larson] convinced everyone of that. Hes a great diplomat.

Indeed, beyond accumulating DNA and virtual skulls, Larsons greatest skill is in gathering collaborators. In 2013, he rounded up as many dog researchers as he could and flew them to Aberdeen, so he could get them talking. I wont say there was no tension, he says. You go into a room with someone who has written something that sort of implies you arent doing very good science... there will be tension. But it went away very quickly. And, frankly: alcohol.

Everyone was like: You know what? If Im completely wrong and I have to eat crow on this, I dont give a shit. I just want to know.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Washington (AFP) - The judge in the incendiary case of the police shooting of a black teenager in Chicago said Thursday he plans to appoint a special prosecutor, effectively taking the case out of the city's hands.

Graphic video footage of a police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald sparked street protests last winter in the third largest city in the United States, and led to the removal of its police chief.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city's top prosecutor Anita Alvarez faced criticism for not releasing the video sooner, and for waiting more than a year to file charges against officer Jason Van Dyke.

Alvarez was voted out of office in March over the issue. In May, she withdrew from the first-degree murder case against the officer, saying a special prosecutor should be appointed to avoid delays in the trial as her office changes leadership.

On Thursday, Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan confirmed he would appoint a special prosecutor -- who has yet to be named -- as well as seek for state authorities in Illinois to take over the prosecution.

In the video of the October 2014 shooting, McDonald appears to be walking away from police when he seems to turn slightly and officer Van Dyke fires multiple shots. The teenager was struck 16 times.

Van Dyke was not charged with murder until a judge compelled the city to release the video in November 2015.

A group of Chicago community organizations and McDonald relatives had filed a petition asking the court to remove Alvarez from the case, saying she is "beholden to the police union," according to Sheila Bedi, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center in Chicago.

"(Alvarez) has helped to facilitate the code of silence that so pervades the Chicago Police Department," Bedi said at the time.

Alvarez has defended her actions, saying she conducted a thorough investigation which took time, in tandem with a federal probe.

Protesters have said the shooting of the African-American McDonald by the white police officer, and the subsequent delay in filing charges, were emblematic of racial tensions in the city, and of the strained relationship and lack of trust between residents and police.

The US Justice Department is conducting a federal civil rights probe of the city's police department.
MASON CITY  A Mason City High School seniors custom-painted electric guitar may get the chance to have a permanent home in the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Music Associations Hall of Fame.

As part of an independent study project, Samantha Simmers spent around 20 hours painting a donated electric guitar to enter into its Gretsch Art Program.

Since 2004, the contest has solicited student submissions from around the state using guitars donated from Gretsch Guitars to honor a past state rock n roll inductee.

Two winners will be selected this year, with the students high school art department receiving $150 each for supplies. Those guitars will be put on display. The remainder will be auctioned to benefit the museums education department, said museum Director Sheryl Davis.

For Simmers, when art teacher Lori Pedersen suggested it as an option, it was an exciting challenge.

It kinda sounded too good to be true, she said. You never get a fresh guitar to turn into your own work.

She chose to paint her guitar in honor of 1950s DJ Layton Zbornik Jr.  better known as King Zbornik  who later worked as a Nora Springs teacher.

It was rock n roll, she said. I have no idea how I was supposed to do anything rock n roll.

She ended up drawing inspiration for her vivid tattoo-inspired motif from the Rockin Rollercoaster at DisneyWorld in Florida.

A passionate Disney fan, has a dream of one day becoming a Disney animator, she said.

The tattooed theme of the ride inspired her to use acrylic paint to honor Zbornik  a lion for the king and an eagle head  which she later learned was the former Nora Springs schools mascot.

The contest offers high school students a chance to get involved in their own rock n roll culture history, Davis said.

Winners will be selected during Labor Day weekend when the Hall of Fame inducts its latest class, she said.

In addition to Simmers, student submissions this year were received from Clear Lake, Waukee, Newton, Algona, Worthington, Iowa City and Spirit Lake, she said.

Simmers said she hopes for the best, but is fine if she doesnt win.

I dont know if it will, but Im OK with whatever comes out of it. The face that I was able to do it was the best part, she said.
(Adds state supreme court action on pension law, city's deal for laborers' fund, S&P rating)

CHICAGO, June 2 (Reuters) - Chicago remains vulnerable to bond rating downgrades unless the city makes comprehensive changes to its municipal and laborers' retirement systems, Standard & Poor's said on Thursday.

"The city's credit quality could weaken unless it gains both union and legislative support for any changes to its municipal and laborers' plans, and identifies a solid funding mechanism to address the unfunded liabilities and prevent further destabilization of its budget," the credit rating agency said in a report.

The Illinois Supreme Court in March threw out a 2014 Illinois law aimed at saving the two systems from insolvency by reducing retirement benefits and increasing pension contributions by the city and affected workers.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel last month announced an agreement in principal with unions to increase funding for the laborers' system, the smallest of the city's retirement funds. The municipal fund, the city's largest system, is projected to run out of money within 10 years. New accounting changes and other factors doubled its unfunded liability to $18.6 billion at the end of 2015 from $7.13 billion in 2014.

S&P, which rates Chicago's general obligation bonds BBB-plus with a negative outlook, said any deal for the municipal fund would require an identified revenue source.

The report also noted that Chicago has already raised property taxes to boost funding for its police and fire pension funds. Illinois lawmakers this week overrode Governor Bruce Rauner's veto of a bill spreading out the city's payments to those two funds.

(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Jerusalem (AFP) - A female Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the West Bank Thursday and was shot dead, the army said, the latest in a series of such incidents since October.

The stabbing bid at a military post around Anabta village near the city of Tulkarem came on the eve of an international meeting in Paris on reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"Moments ago an assailant, armed with a knife, attempted to stab a soldier at a military post near the village of Anabta," the army said in a statement.

"Forces responded to the immediate threat by shooting the attacker, resulting in her death."

Palestinian media identified her as Ansar Hussam Harsha, from Qaffin, north of Tulkarem.

Violence since October has killed 206 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.

The violence has steadily declined in recent weeks, though attacks have continued.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media is a main cause of the violence.

- Israel wants direct talks -

On Friday, France will host a meeting of foreign ministers from around 30 countries as well as representatives from the United Nations and European Union as part of an effort to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Negotiations have been at a complete standstill since the collapse of a US-led initiative in April 2014.

The meeting will take place without the Israelis and Palestinians in attendance.

It aims to lay the groundwork for an international peace conference before the end of the year that the Israelis and Palestinians would attend.

The Palestinians strongly support the French initiative, but Israel rejects it, calling instead for direct negotiations.

Story continues

"The way to peace does not go through international conferences that seek to impose agreements, make the Palestinians' demands more extreme and thereby make peace more remote," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech late Wednesday.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said he is ready to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at any time.

The Paris meeting follows the swearing in of hardliner Avigdor Lieberman as Israeli defence minister on Monday, forming what has been called the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

The United States said the new coalition raised "legitimate questions" about the commitment of Netanyahu's government to a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu and Lieberman have sought to allay such concerns, stressing their desire for peace and saying they support a two-state solution to the long-running conflict.

The premier went a step further on Monday, saying an Arab League-endorsed peace initiative dating to 2002 "includes positive elements that can help revive constructive negotiations with the Palestinians".

Some analysts saw Netanyahu's comments as a means of fending off his international critics and perhaps scuttling the French initiative by proposing an alternative.

Others however said that his remarks represented a real opportunity, whatever his motivation.

Palestinian leaders greeted Netanyahu's comments with deep scepticism.

They have focused on a strategy of pursuing their cause through international bodies, saying years of negotiations with Israel have not ended the occupation.
Fallout from the Panama Papers reverberates around the world from Brazilian politicians found to have used New Zealand trusts, to the U.S offices of the law firm at the center of the worlds largest leak being cut back.

Stories are still emerging from the epic database managed and networked with 400 journalists by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). More can be expected as new major media organizations join the those who have been probing the 11.5m document trove for the past year.

The intelligence, technology and effort that went into the project from the small team of the ICIJ was clear in a sparkling presentation to a London conference by Mar Cabra, the Madrid-based ICIJ team member who heads the data journalism operation of the consortium. If you really want to know what it took  apart from trust and leaving your ego at the door  the explanation from Mar gives a sense of the skill that went into the operation. Its highly recommended.

ICIJ Director Gerard Ryle spoke to an intimate gathering in Los Angeles last week put together by LA-based board members of the Center for Public Integrity at private home in Beverly Hills. Interviewed by former CNN White House correspondent Jessica Yellin, Ryle spoke eloquently of the challenge of tying together the network of 370 journalists who kept the secret but also the visceral excitement he felt when friends at Suddeutsche Zeitung told him of the approach from the leader identified only as John Doe who confirmed his long-held suspicions about Mossack Fonseca. Heres an earlier interview Gerard did with Christiane Amanpour (incidentally a member of Public Integritys advisory board) on the leak.

This story is part of Inside Publici. Stories were working on, the impact of our investigations, news about our fundraising efforts, and other issues that shape our work. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

Don't miss another Inside Publici investigation: Sign up for the Center for Public Integrity's Watchdog email.

Herograms

I am a little behind in recognizing strong reporting from staff at the Center for Public Integrity over the past couple of weeks.

Story continues

Ashley Balcerzak, a fellow from American University, gets a a shout-out for her hustle on the recent piece on our site and The Washington Post, after Marylands governor signed a bill into law limiting civil asset forfeiture. Her story on legislative battles over the ability of police to seize and keep peoples belongings around the country had been slated for early June. But when this important news peg developed in Maryland, Ashley quickly pivoted with her story and pushed it out to coincide with the news. That allowed The Post to give its readers a localized story with strong context from other states around the country, one of the key goals of our state politics project.

Federal politics maven and finder-of-amusing-detail Michael Beckel excavated official data to find the three dozen people who have contributed to both Donald Trump and Hillary Clintonreprinted by Daily Beast.

What were reading and thinking about

As a newcomer to the United States I find myself an advocate for the First Amendment and full of the passion of an immigrant or zealot about it. I dont believe the work of the Center or the ICIJ could be conducted anywhere else because of the public interest shield for free speech provided by the First Amendment. So its interesting to read a new book by British historian Timothy Garton-Ash Free Speech 10-principles for a connected world.

Garton-Ash made his reputation with studies on the former East Germany and particularly of the Stasi secret police. His book tries to deal with something I have long felt, that the Internet is almost inherently a First Amendment space because of its creation by the United States and the dominance of U.S-domiciled platforms like Facebook and Google. Im only a third of the way through the book but it is an intriguing and challenging read about when the First Amendment comes up against European or other local laws and mores. Hes built an accompanying site at http://freespeechdebate.com/en/

Executive Editor Gordon Witkin notes a piece on the Poynter site about the future of The New York Times, again.

I welcome feedback on this note, thank you.

Peter Bale

CEO, The Center for Public Integrity

pbale@publicintegrity.org@peterbale

This story is part of Inside Publici. Stories were working on, the impact of our investigations, news about our fundraising efforts, and other issues that shape our work. Click here to read more stories in this topic.

Related stories

Copyright 2016 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
Nicky Hilton's New York City baby shower was a classy affair.

Paris Hilton shared a few snaps from the baby shower she hosted for her younger sister, Nicky Hilton, on Wednesday, which was held at the swanky Towers of the Waldorf Astoria. Donning a gorgeous embroidered, floor-length dress, the 35-year-old heiress posed for a cute picture with her pregnant sister, who chose a delicate lacy white dress for the occasion.

"Makes me so happy to see my sister so happy, beautiful & glowing," Paris Instagrammed. "So excited for her starting her new family. #Blessed."

PHOTOS: Nicky Hilton Turns Tight Dolce & Gabbana Minidress Into Maternity Wear

"Can't wait to meet this little girl! #AuntParis," she also shared, touching Nicky's baby bump.

Clearly, good looks run in the family. Paris and Nicky posed with their mother, Kathy Hilton, at the event. "Beautiful day with my mom & sis. Love my family so much!" Paris gushed.

Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel was also in attendance on Wednesday, and Instagrammed selfies with the Hilton sisters.

And check out Nicky's adorable cake.

"Hosted a beautiful baby shower for my sister @NickyHilton today at the #WaldorfTowers," Paris wrote. "Love her #Porthault cake & seeing all our New York friends together to celebrate the new baby."

Wednesday actually marks Nicky's second baby shower. The 32-year-old heiress also celebrated with her California crew last month at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, including actress Bijou Phillips. Her aunt, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, and Kyle's daughter, Brooke Wiederhorn, were also in attendance.

"All the girl cousins," Wiederhorn captioned a family pic.

PHOTOS: It's a Girl! Nicky Hilton Has Luxurious Baby Shower at Hotel Bel-Air

Nicky and her husband, James Rothschild -- an heir to one of Europe's greatest banking families -- are expecting their first child together, a baby girl, this summer. The couple tied the knot during a lavish ceremony at Kensington Palace in London last July.

Story continues

Watch the video below for a look back at Nicky's incredible Valentino wedding dress.

Related Articles
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Thursday gave in to political pressure to support Donald Trump, writing in an op-ed for his hometown Wisconsin newspaper that he will vote for the presumptive Republican nominee for president this fall.

Its no secret that he and I have our differences. I wont pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, Ill continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement, Ryan wrote in the Gazette, which covers his hometown of Janesville.

Ryan said that he and Trump have talked at great length about his concerns over Trumps candidacy, since Ryan said just under one month ago  the day after Trump essentially clinched the nomination  that he was not ready to support Trump yet.

Ryan wrote that he pressed Trump on his views about abortion and the constitutional restraints on the power of the president but that the main focus of their conversations was the five-point agenda that Ryan is unveiling this month. He has said for months that he wants the Republican Party to be a party that is offering solutions and not just opposing people or ideas its members dont like.

Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve peoples lives. Thats why Ill be voting for him this fall, Ryan wrote.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Ryans comment that he and Trump have more common ground than disagreement is hard to square with the fact that Trump has said little to soften his positions on trade, entitlements and immigration. Those are three core parts of Ryans legislative agenda and are areas in which Trump holds positions antithetical to the House speaker.

But the speaker was under immense pressure from those in his party to get onboard, and has swallowed his personal distaste for Trump to help unify the Republican Party.

A friend and informal adviser to Ryan, Yuval Levin, told Yahoo News last week that while he expected Ryan to end up voting for Trump, he did not think Ryan would ever embrace [Trump] completely.

Story continues

But Levin admitted then that when you say you are going to vote for someone, that is probably an endorsement.

Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck left no room for confusion on Twitter not long after the speakers op-ed went public.
The Trump Train is leaving the station, and, at last, House Speaker Paul Ryan is getting aboard.

The Wisconsin congressman initially resisted throwing his support to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Read more: House Speaker Paul Ryan Is Not Quite Ready to Endorse Donald Trump

But in a column published Thursday by his hometown paper, The Gazette, Ryan took the leap.

"It's no secret that he and I have our differences. I won't pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I'll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement," Ryan wrote.

The 2012 vice presidential nominee carefully couched his promise to vote for Trump in November in an argument about how a Republican president would advance the GOP's blueprint for progress.

I'll be voting for @realDonaldTrump this fall. I'm confident he will help turn the House GOP's agenda into laws.http://www.gazettextra.com/20160602/paul_ryan_says_he_will_vote_for_donald_trump ...

"For me, it's a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I  and my House colleagues have invested so much in through the years. It's not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead," the speaker said. "Donald Trump can help us make it a reality."

Prior to pledging his vote to Trump, Ryan  who met numerous times with the candidate behind closed doors  openly expressed his reservations about the Manhattan mogul's rhetoric and ideology.

Over time, "Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people's lives. That's why I'll be voting for him this fall," he wrote.

Story continues

Ryan's column got in the requisite calls for GOP unity after a bruising primary season, along with an emphasis on the big picture: Stopping Democrat Hillary Clinton from winning her second Oval Office bid.

"A Clinton White House would mean four more years of liberal cronyism and a government more out for itself than the people it serves. Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix," Ryan wrote.

Now the nation will debate and decide whether Ryan's willingness to get with the Trump program will be seen as realpolitik, capitulation or a call to the GOP rank and file to unify against the Democrats.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said that he will vote for Donald Trump, after weeks of withholding support for the presumptive Republican nominee.

Ryan did not explicitly say whether his vote was an endorsement, but wrote that it is Trump, not Hillary Clinton, who could help advance the House agenda.

In a column he wrote for his hometown newspaper on Wisconsin, The Gazette, Ryan wrote, Donald Trump and I have talked at great length about things such as the proper role of the executive and fundamental principles such as the protection of life. The list of potential Supreme Court nominees he released after our first meeting was very encouraging.

He added, But the House policy agenda has been the main focus of our dialogue. Weve talked about the common ground this agenda can represent. Weve discussed how the House can be a driver of policy ideas. Weve talked about how important these reforms are to saving our country. And weve talked about how, by focusing on issues that unite Republicans, we can work together to heal the fissures developed through the primary.

Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve peoples lives. Thats why Ill be voting for him this fall.

Ryan still indicated there were areas of disagreement.

Its no secret that he and I have our differences. I wont pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, Ill continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.

Ryan focused his column on an agenda Republicans in the House plan to unveil this month, what he called a positive, optimistic vision for a more confident America. Trump, he wrote, would be willing to sign their GOP legislation into law.

Ryan had criticized Trump during primary season, and his decision to withhold his support in the weeks after Trump became the presumptive nominee raised the possibility of an enduring split in the party. At Trumps Anaheim rally last week, one of the speakers mentioned Ryans name and it drew some boos.

Story continues

But Trump and Ryan met in Washington last month, and have had conversations since then. Ryan is to serve as the chair of the Republican National Convention next month.

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SiriusXM Suspends Glenn Beck Over Guest's Anti-Donald Trump Comments
CHARLES CITY  A 10-year-old boy reported missing after school Wednesday was found safe Wednesday night after a mass turnout by agencies and citizens in Floyd County.

Charles City police were notified of the boys failure to come home from school about 4 p.m. Officers located the boys last whereabouts as a campground, according to a news release. Police requested assistance from surrounding agencies. He was reported found about 7:47 p.m.

The amazing thing is that we got people from the Iowa State Patrol, Department of Natural Resources, Floyd County Sheriffs Office, Nashua police, Charles City fire, Floyd County Search and Rescue and fire departments from Floyd, Rudd, Colwell, Marble Rock and Rockford along with members of the National Guard, school officials and many more citizens, according to the news release.

The thing we want to say is thank you, it read. It is amazing to know we live where so many people care about someone they don't even know.
Singapore (AFP) - US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Singapore on Thursday ahead of a regional security summit likely to be dominated by China's continued military build up in the South China Sea.

His attendance at this weekend's Shangri-La Dialogue is part of a broader US diplomatic push to build and maintain alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, which America sees as key to its own long-term economic and security interests.

In the year since the last summit, China has stepped up its maritime patrols across the South China Sea and built up a series of military bases on small islands it reclaimed from the ocean.

Carter has spoken forcefully about China's military moves in the South China Sea and last week said Beijing risked building a "Great Wall of self-isolation."

There are no official US-China meetings planned at the Shangri-La meeting, at which Carter gives a keynote speech on Saturday.

China has indicated it may soon declare an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) that would require civilian aircraft to identify themselves to military controllers in the region. Beijing did something similar in the East China Sea two years ago over several small islands contested by Japan.

"We of course would be very concerned about a Chinese declaration of an ADIZ," a US defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The declaration of an ADIZ over disputed territory is provocative," the official added, but noted: "such a declaration would not affect our own military operations."

The US military has conducted several "freedom of navigation" operations in which it sends a ship or plane to pass by a Chinese-claimed island as a way of showing it rejects claims of sovereignty.

Washington has stressed the importance of increased ties to regional partners such as Vietnam and Malaysia as a counterbalance to China's moves.

But incoming Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he would not be fully reliant on the United States, the Philippines' former colonial ruler and most important military ally.

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And in a sign of a possibly warming view of China, Duterte called Xi Jinping "a great president".

Chinese-Philippine ties soured during the six-year term of outgoing President Benigno Aquino, whose government sued China before a United Nations tribunal over its claims to most of the South China Sea.

The Philippines has "a new government there and we look forward to working with them, talking with them about our alliance, about security affairs in the region, and I very much look forward to meeting my new counterpart," Carter told reporters as he flew to Singapore, adding that the US-Philippines alliance was "ironclad."

Carter's Singapore visit is the fifth time he has travelled to the Asia-Pacific region since becoming Pentagon chief in February 2015, calling it "the single most consequential" region for Americas future.
A pregnant woman in remote Greenland faced a scary medical emergency after doctors diagnosed her with appendicitis in the middle of a blizzard, hundreds of miles away from the nearest surgical center, according to a new case report.

The 32-year-old Greenlandic Inuit woman came to the local health center when she was 12 weeks pregnant, after experiencing abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting in September 2015. At first, doctors thought she had a stomach bug, because she had just eaten raw meat, according to the case report, published online May 18 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

But soon, the woman's pain moved to her lower right abdomen, suggesting she had appendicitis, the doctors said. Moreover, she had a fever, an elevated white blood cell count and high levels of a protein called C-reactive protein, which increases during times of inflammation. All of these signs indicated that the woman's body was mounting an immune response, said report co-author Dr. Trine Jensen, an internist in the obstetrics and gynecology department at Herning Hospital in Denmark. [16 Oddest Medical Cases]

To make matters worse, the weather was horrible and the woman was in the wilds of northwest Greenland, in Qaanaaq, about 730 miles (1,173 kilometers) from Ilulissat, the city with the closest regional hospital, said Jensen, who was working at Ilulissat Hospital at the time, and treated the woman.

Appendicitis can lead to a perforated, or burst, appendix, Jensen said. Moreover, appendicitis during pregnancy can lead to preterm birth and even fetal loss, she said.

The doctors wanted to remove the woman's appendix, but there was no way to get her to Ilulissat Hospital for the operation, Jensen said.

"It was pretty far," Jensen told Live Science. "There are no roads, you can't just take a car or an ambulance and drive. You need to take airplanes."

Blizzard treatment

Because surgery wasn't an immediate option, the doctors in Qaanaaq started the woman on antibiotics.

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According to a study published in the June issue of the journal JAMA, antibiotics can be an effective treatment for appendicitis. Of the more than 250 people in the study who received antibiotics for their appendicitis, 70 patients (about 27 percent) went on to need surgery to remove their appendicitis within the next year, the researchers found.

However, the Greenlandic woman's health did not improve after she took the antibiotics. So, once the weather got better, she was flown to Ilulissat Hospital. There, the doctors did an abdominal ultrasound to confirm that she had appendicitis, and 64 hours after the episode started, they removed her appendix.

"She actually woke up and she was singing, 'I can keep my baby,'" Jensen said. "She was so happy."

The woman later had the baby without any compilations, and both are doing well now, the report's other co-author, Dr. Luit Penninga, the head of Ilulissat Hospital, told Jensen.

Even if the antibiotics had helped the woman, it's likely that the doctors would have still removed her appendix, Jensen said. That's because, as the JAMA study found, some people who receive antibiotics for appendicitis still need surgery within a year. With pregnant women, the longer doctors wait to do the surgery, the riskier it is, she said. [5 Key Nutrients Women Need As They Age]

"It's easier to do the surgery while they're early in pregnancy, because when they get bigger and further along, it might be even harder to diagnose the appendicitis," Jensen said. "Because the womb is filling up the entire abdomen, and the appendix can move around."

The report is a good example of how doctors can treat pregnant women with appendicitis who don't have immediate access to surgery, said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not involved in the case report.

"Antibiotics present a reasonable option for treatment," Glatter told Live Science. "If you're in a remote situation, that's a reasonable first choice. But at this time, it's generally recommended to have the appendix out because of the risk to the fetus, as well as the mom."

Original article on Live Science.

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By Mitra Taj LIMA (Reuters) - Less than a decade after Peru imprisoned its former President Alberto Fujimori, voters will decide on Sunday whether to put his 41-year-old daughter back in the presidential palace where she once served as his first lady. Keiko Fujimori has a four percentage point lead over her rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski ahead of the run-off vote, helped by her tough stance on crime and years of campaigning in poor villages in the populist style of her right-wing father. But with pollster Ipsos estimating a fifth of voters tend to remain undecided until election day, Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former investment banker, could stage a late surge. It is Fujimori's second bid to become Peru's first female president. Her critics fear a return to the days when her father ruled the Andean nation by decree, despite her repeated promises to respect the democratic institutions he trampled before his government collapsed in a vast corruption scandal in 2000. Alberto Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, is serving a 25-year sentence for graft and human rights abuses committed during a crackdown on a bloody leftist insurgency. "Voting for Fujimori would be legitimizing the dictatorship," said Eduardo Leon, a 34-year-old restaurant owner who plans to vote for Kuczynski. Fujimori slipped in Datum poll on Thursday, giving her 52.1 percent support in a mock vote compared to Kuczynski's 47.9 percent. The survey, which had a 2.2 percentage point margin of error, overlapped with a large protest against Fujimori on Tuesday. Both candidates are free-market champions who defeated leftist rivals in a crowded April 10 first-round vote as Peru reinforced the recent trend of South American countries turning away from left-wing policies. Fujimori's brand of populist conservatism is rooted in her father's decade-long rule, when leftist guerrillas were crushed and new schools and roads were brought to far-flung towns. That stands in stark contrast with Kuczynski's technocratic style. "As an economist he's used to numbers and can be frigid in that sense," said Kuczynski's running mate Martin Vizcarra, a former governor of a copper-mining region in southern Peru. Kuczynski is one of the few high-profile politicians in the global minerals exporter unburdened by corruption and money laundering allegations. While he is widely viewed as honest and experienced, he is seen as less supportive than Fujimori of the social safety network that millions of poor Peruvians rely on despite nearly two decades of robust economic growth. Fujimori has also eclipsed him with her iron-fist approach to the leading voter concern, crime, by backing a proposal to declare a state of emergency in Lima after a wave of homicides. She also supports the death penalty for rapists of children and has vowed to build prisons high in the Andes to isolate dangerous criminals, a proposal Kuczynski dubbed "cruel." "He feels sorry for them, he's trembling," Fujimori said mockingly at a campaign rally. "My hand will not waver! I'm going to be firm with criminals!" The fierce battle between Fujimori and her opponents has overshadowed Kuczynski, who has shied away from direct attacks even as he courted undecided voters. "Vote for democracy, no blank or spoiled ballots!" Kuczynski said, wagging a finger in a campaign ad. Fujimori says her father, who named her first lady after he divorced her mother, is innocent of the crimes that made him one of the few world leaders to be imprisoned in his own country. But she has promised not to use presidential powers to free him. Her supporters say her background would set the bar higher if she became the second Fujimori to rule Peru. "It's obvious she wants to clear the family name," said Hernando de Soto, a high-profile Peruvian economist who has endorsed her. "She's going to do everything possible to not be authoritarian." (Additional reporting by Teresa Cespedes; Editing by Kieran Murray and Tom Brown)
(Please note: strong language in second and fifth paragraph) MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine media groups denounced President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday for saying journalists were being killed because they were corrupt and "you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch". Duterte's comments about extrajudicial killings, calling bishops "sons of whores" and a joke about a murdered rape victim do not appear to have dented his popularity in the largely Roman Catholic country. But his comments about killing journalists have struck a nerve. About 175 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since 1986, ranking it among the most dangerous places to work in the news business. Duterte addressed reporters on Tuesday in the southern city of Davao, where his loud approval of hundreds of execution-style killings of drug users and criminals over nearly two decades helped propel him to the highest office. "Most of you are clean, but do not ever say all journalists are clean," he said. "Just because you are a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch." "... Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won't be killed if you don't do anything wrong." When a female journalist asked a question, he wolf-whistled at her. Ryan Rosuaro, head of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said media freedom and murder were no joking matters. "It is appalling that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte should justify the murder of journalists in the country by playing the corruption card," he said. Philippine Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said journalists had a fundamental right to protection. "We deplore the proposition that some journalists may have been assaulted or killed in view of their alleged involvement in media corruption," he said in a statement. "It is the duty of government to arrest, prosecute and punish those responsible for violence against members of the media." Romel Regalado Bagares, executive director of the Center for International Law, said Duterte's comments showed "a cynical attitude towards what is a serious concern to the international community" and could perpetuate impunity for the killers. International media monitor the Committee to Protect Journalists joined the condemnation, saying the only way to address the "woefully" high number of unresolved murders was through the courts. "President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte's shocking remarks apparently excusing extrajudicial killings threaten to make the Philippines into a killing field for journalists," it said in a statement. "We strongly urge him to retract his comments and to signal that he intends to protect, not target, the press." The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines also expressed alarm. "Duterte's statement is a chilling reminder that journalists in the Philippines continue to live under threat, decades after (the association) was founded to fight for press freedom at the height of Ferdinand Marcos's dictatorship," it said. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Nick Macfie and Michael Perry)
Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte was on Thursday accused of sexual harassment and disrespecting women after wolf whistling a female journalist on a nationally televised press conference.

Duterte, 71, interrupted a question from television reporter Mariz Umali on Tuesday night about his Cabinet appointees with a light-hearted comment about her trying to get his attention, then wolf whistling and breaking into a short serenade.

Umali continued trying to ask her question as Duterte smiled and some other reporters laughed.

In an interview with her GMA network on Thursday, Umali described his remarks as "improper".

While Umali said she would not ask for an apology and sought not to inflame the controversy, her journalist husband took to Facebook to criticise Duterte.

"Catcalling my wife is wrong in so many levels," husband Raffy Tima wrote.

"Some jokes are funny and should be laughed at but disrespecting women is definitely not one of them."

At the same press conference, Duterte created another controversy by saying there was justification for killing corrupt journalists, and that one "rotten son of a bitch" reporter deserved to have been murdered.

Duterte, an incendiary politician who won last month's elections by a landslide on a pledge to end crime by killing tens of thousands of criminals, has previously been criticised for comments about women.

On the campaign trail he made a joke about wanting to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who had been sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 prison riot in his hometown of Davao.

When his daughter reacted to those comments by revealing she had been raped, Duterte described her in jest as a "drama queen".

Duterte, whose first marriage was annulled and is in a long-term relationship with another woman, has also openly boasted about having mistresses and using Viagra to have sex with them.

- 'Not a sexual thing' -

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Duterte dismissed the criticism at a fresh news conference late Thursday, saying wolf whistling was "not a sexual thing".

"There has to be sexual undertones but if I am just whistling, that kind of (criticism) is intruding into freedom of expression," he added.

Duterte had signed a local women's rights ordinance in 1997 which classified whistling at women as sexual harassment in Davao.

Aida Santos, president of Manila-based women's rights groups WeDpro, said Duterte's wolf whistling was a form of sexual harassment.

"Catcalling treats women as sex objects... some say it's a way of being cute but it's wrong," Santos told AFP.

Duterte and his aides have repeatedly said such controversial comments and actions should not be taken too seriously: that he is a straight-talker and an authentic character who likes to joke and speak the language of the streets.

His spokesman Salvador Panelo said Thursday that women should consider the president-elect's wolf whistling as a compliment and a sign of "fondness".

Supporters also point to his pro-women policies in Davao, which he has ruled as mayor for most of the past two decades.

However Duterte's jokes sent messages to society, according to Elizabeth Angsioco, national chair of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines.

"His words and actions reinforce looking at women as second-class citizens," she told AFP.
Davao (Philippines) (AFP) - Incoming Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte warned journalists on Thursday he would be unable to guarantee their safety, brushing off criticism over his previous comments that murdered corrupt reporters deserved their fate.

Duterte had said Tuesday there was justification for killing journalists who took bribes or engaged in other corrupt activities, touching off fears this could incite more murders of media workers.

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous nations in the world for journalists, with 174 murdered since a chaotic and corruption-plagued democracy replaced the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago.

"I cannot protect all journalists all over the Philippines," Duterte told a late-night news conference Thursday in his southern hometown of Davao.

"It's like soldiering. If you join the army, there is always a chance that when you go out today for a patrol, you get into (a firefight and) you're killed."

Duterte won this month's elections by a landslide largely due to an explosive law-and-order platform in which he pledged to end crime within six months by killing tens of thousands of suspected criminals.

The politician, who generously spices up his talk with expletives, has launched a series of post-election tirades against criminals and repeated his vows to kill them -- particularly drug traffickers, rapists and murderers.

Duterte's threats were backed by his rule in Davao, where he has been accused of running or tolerating death squads that killed more than 1,000 suspects.

On Thursday he rejected criticism by local and foreign news organisations outraged by his seeming rationalisation of the country's many media murders.

"You know guys you think too much of your yourselves," he said.

Duterte said he knew three kinds of journalists.

They include those who tell the truth and "do not accept money", the "mouthpieces" or publicists of vested interests including businessmen and politicians, and "the low-life journalists" who extort money or get paid by criminal gangs.

Story continues

He said his government, which starts its six-year term on June 30, wished to protect those journalists who were true to the ideals of their profession.

However, he said he could not afford to assign security to each and every one of them.

One of the world's deadliest attacks against journalists took place in the Philippines in 2009, when 32 journalists were among 58 people killed by a warlord clan intent on stopping a rival's election challenge.

More than 100 people are on trial for the massacre, including many members of the Ampatuan family accused of orchestrating it.

Duterte has named Salvador Panelo, the former defence lawyer for the Ampatuans, as his presidential spokesman, a nomination criticised by the victims' families and journalism organisations.
Looking past rival Bernie Sanders to the general election, Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton on Thursday will denounce GOP nominee Donald Trumps foreign policy ideas and bluntly declare him simply unfit to lead the country in a dangerous world.

The former secretary of state will lay out in stark terms how the reality TV star is fundamentally unqualified to be commander in chief senior Clinton foreign policy aide Jake Sullivan told Yahoo News by telephone.

She will call Donald Trump out by name and offer a systematic and comprehensive critique of the alarming and bankrupt foreign policy ideas that Donald Trump has put forward, Sullivan said. She will not be pulling any punches.

Clinton will not, however, make a point-by-point defense of her handling of world affairs as secretary of state, or present specific policy ideas, Sullivan said.

The Washington Post first reported plans for what Clintons campaign is billing as a major address. She will speak in San Diego at 11:30 a.m. local time.

Her remarks will come one day after President Obama  his sleeves rolled up and droppin his gs like any campaignin politician  talked up his role in the recovery from the Great Recession of 2008 and declared Republicans unfit stewards of the economy.

Obama urged voters to pick Democrats in November if what you really care about in this election is your pocketbook, if what youre concerned about is who will look out for the interests of working people and [who will] grow the middle class.

The unusual one-two punch on foreign and domestic policy issues most on voters minds suggested an attempt to shift the 2016 race to general election terrain as Clinton hopes to essentially lock up the Democratic nomination next week.

The Obama White House and Clintons campaign are known to plot communications strategy regularly. And the incumbent has made it no secret that he sees his former secretary of state as a better political heir than Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But aides to Obama and Clinton said privately that the two camps had not coordinated the timing of the two events.

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Republicans who say the national recovery has been sluggish and has failed to reach many middle-class Americans have argued that electing Clinton would be tantamount to giving Obama a third term. The presidents chief spokesman seemed to welcome the idea.

If we want to acknowledge the progress that our country has made in the last seven years, then we have to go back and look to examine what policies made this progress possible, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.

Republicans hit back.

Hillary Clinton is running on four more years of Obamanomics, so the president is trying to convince voters his record of weak growth, stagnant wages, and a shrinking middle class is really a success story, Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Short said in a statement.

On Thursday, itll be Clintons turn to take on the GOP and its presumptive nominee.

Democrats have taken a clip-and-save approach until now to Trumps eyebrow-raising remarks on national security, including his suggestions that the United States resume using torture, pull back from what he called the obsolete NATO alliance, encourage key allies like Japan to develop nuclear weapons programs, build a wall between the United States and Mexico, and freeze Muslim immigration to the United States.

Clinton will highlight all of those proposals, Sullivan said, in arguing that a President Trump would leave the United States less safe and frankly less true to ourselves.

The former top U.S. diplomat is not expected to directly rebut some of the tougher criticisms of her foreign policy ideas, including her strong support for the intervention in Libya. Obama himself now admits that Washington should have had a better plan for filling the power vacuum left by the ouster of strongman Moammar Gadhafi, which helped the so-called Islamic State get a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean nation. She has also taken heat for leading the reset in Russian relations, which largely achieved its goals but collapsed once Vladimir Putin returned to power in Moscow. The GOP has accused the administration of failing to contain the chaos unleashed by the Arab Spring movement that has toppled governments in the Middle East and indirectly fed the rise of the Islamic State. And Republicans have assailed her judgment in using a private email server for her official State Department correspondence. The FBI is investigating whether the arrangement imperiled national security.

Clinton has walked a delicate balance in her primary battle with Sanders, emphasizing her foreign policy experience as secretary of state while trying to fend off his criticisms of her 2002 vote to authorize then president George W. Bushs invasion of Iraq. She has rallied essentially the entire foreign policy establishment of the Democratic Party behind her campaign.

Sanders, whose path to the nomination is an exceedingly narrow one, has connected with Democrats who see the economy as rigged to benefit the wealthy, and has also pulled in young voters struggling with crushing student loans.

Apart from citing his own vote against the invasion of Iraq, he has had less to say about foreign policy, and his grasp of the issues has at times has seemed uncertain.

Even so, Clinton herself has sometimes shown surprising weakness on the issue, notably at the November 2015 Democratic debate in Des Moines, Iowa.

Recent public opinion polls have given Clinton the edge on foreign policy. A Washington Post/ABC News poll, conducted in mid-May, showed her leading Trump 47 percent to 44 percent on which candidate would better handle terrorism, and her advantage widened, 55 percent to 36 percent, on which candidate would better handle an international crisis.
CHARLES CITY | A missing 10-year-old boy who was the subject of a massive search was found after he walked up to a Charles City resident's home and asked for a glass of water, police say.

The boy, of Charles City, was reported missing when he did not come home from school on Wednesday afternoon.

He was last seen in a campground in Charles City wearing only a pair of shorts. The child was not wearing shoes or a shirt.

Charles City police reached out to a handful of fire departments, but many other state and local agencies and local residents heard about the effort and volunteered to help.

Approximately 150 volunteers from 14 agencies participated in the search, said Charles City Police Chief Hugh Anderson.

"It was phenomenal," Anderson said.

He said police believe the boy walked from the campground to a nearby walking trail and followed it to the west side of town.

Once there, he knocked on a resident's door and asked for a glass of water.

The resident didn't know the boy or that he was the subject of a massive search, which by then also included two boats searching local waterways and the Iowa State Patrol airplane on the way.

Missing boy reported safe in Floyd County after massive search response CHARLES CITY  A 10-year-old boy reported missing after school Wednesday was found safe Wedn

The resident who found the boy was going to give him a ride home, but Anderson said the person decided to stop at the police department first.

The boy arrived at the police department about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday.

He was unharmed and reunited with his family. Police aren't sure why he wandered off.

"We just appreciate everybody that came out," Anderson said.
From Cosmopolitan

On Saturday, a 17-year-old western lowland gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo was shot and killed after a 3-year-old boy fell into his enclosure. Now, police are investigating the boy's family in order to find out if and how their actions might have contributed to Harambe's death.

According to CNN, the Cincinnati Police's investigation will focus on "the actions of the parents/family that led up to the incident," and not on "the operation or safety of the Cincinnati Zoo."

"After the review, we will determine if charges need to be brought forward," police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy told CNN. "If it is determined charges need to be brought forward, we would then discuss it with the Hamilton County prosecutor's office."

Along with the police investigation, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will both conduct evaluations of the zoo itself, including whether the gorilla enclosure complies with the Animal Welfare Act and whether its safety measures are up to code.

However, since Harambe's death, the focus of most people's outrage seems to be on the boy's family rather than the zoo itself: To date, hundreds of thousands have signed a petition asking that the toddler's family "be held accountable for the lack of supervision and negligence that caused Harambe to lose his life." In response, his mother has issued multiple statements defending herself and her parenting.

The latest released police report claims that the 3-year-old fell 15 feet into the enclosure's moat on Saturday, and Harambe climbed down to him and picked him up, seemingly in an attempt to protect him. After he began to drag the boy through the water, however, the security team was forced to shoot Harambe in order to secure the safety of the child.

At this time, the boy is reportedly doing well and recovering at home.

Follow Gina on Twitter.
Libreville (AFP) - Civil society groups in Gabon are planning to train thousands of observers to help ensure a fair vote at polls this year when President Ali Bongo seeks a second term.

A new "citizen's movement" known as Active Witnesses has been formed by several trade unions and civil society groups to help ensure transparency at the polls where Bongo may face at least three challengers.

Active Witnesses will train "almost 9,000 observers who will deploy to all the polling stations" and take steps to make voters aware of "the electoral stakes", the movement said in a statement.

Ali Bongo was elected for seven years in August 2009 after the death in office of his father Omar Bongo. He will run again for the Gabonese Democratic Party, a deeply entrenched force in the oil-producing nation of some 1.8 million people.

Part of the opposition claims Bongo has no right to stand again on the grounds that he was not born in Gabon, as required by the constitution, but was adopted by Omar Bongo during the Biafra war in Nigeria.

The president's office has denied such assertions.
For about a week each month, young Nepalese women have to play by a different set of rules. They aren't allowed to touch fruit or dairy or flowers or any of their male relatives. They can't look at the sun or at themselves in the mirror, and they're often banned from attending school or even reading books. They live in isolation, separate from the rest of their family, until they finish their periods.

Cultural taboos associated with menstruation are pervasive around the world, and Nepal, where adolescent girls and young women are considered "impure" while they're on their periods, is no exception. Many in western Nepalese communities are traditionally segregated during menstruation, for fear of "contamination" based on superstition.

In 2005, Nepal's supreme court outlawed the practice of sequestering females during menstruation, but that hasn't been enough to stop it from happening, or to improve the conditions under which many teenage girls live every month. According to WaterAid, an organization working to provide clean water around the world, many young Nepalese people say they're forced to wash their menstrual products in cordoned-off areas without access to clean water or are prevented from bathing while they're on their periods, posing threats to their health.

To highlight the way that shame and seclusion interferes in the lives of people who menstruate, WaterAid gave cameras to a group of Nepalese teenagers, allowing the young women to capture the true effect of menstrual stigma in a powerful series of photographs. Explaining the photos in their own words, the girls don't just illustrate how that stigma plays out, but also state plainly how it marginalizes them and limits their opportunities.

"This is my mother and sister in the picture. Here, my mother is feeding my sister with so much of love. ... during my menstruation cycle I am kept separately and have to eat at distance."

"The place featured in the picture is the place where I used to wash myself during my first menstruation. ... When I had my first menstruation, I stayed at other's house, as we were not allowed to stay in our own house."

" house where I stayed during my first menstruation is 15 minutes away from my own house," Bisheshta Bhandari, one of the girls who participated in the project, said in a statement about her photos. "Unlike my friends, though, I do not have many restrictions during menstruation, I was bound to stay out of my home."

The emotional implications of that separation can be catastrophic for young girls just entering adolescence. As Bandana Khadka, another of the young photographers, explained, being forcibly separated from her family and forbidden from touching others makes her feel "unloved."

"We need lots of love and support during our menstruation, but when I am separated and treated like an untouchable I feel no love from my mother and father and I feel only hatred," Khadka said.

"In our society, when girls experience their first menstruation we are not allowed to look into mirrors or comb our hair. And I think that is the wrong belief that we have in our society."

"This is a small irrigation canal in our village. It flows water regularly. In this irrigation canal, people wash their dishes and also wash clothes and menstruation pads. People also throw rubbish in this canal."

But there are also serious concerns about girls' and women's physical safety as a result of segregation and menstrual stigma. Due to poor sanitation and lack of access to menstrual products, many Nepalese females  and people with periods in other parts of the world  face threats to their health and hygiene every month.

"When there are no safe, private toilets in schools, girls often skip school during their period, or drop out of school altogether once they reach adolescence," WaterAid CEO Barbara Frost said in a statement. "With nowhere hygienic to clean sanitary pads or wash, women and girls also risk infection."

"My aunt is preparing to wash clothes. In our society there are beliefs that during menstruation if we wash our clothes outside, it will affect our menstruation health and it will cause bad omen. This is the reason the girls are not allowed to wash their pads openly."

"I don't have much restrictions like my other friends during my menstrual cycle however, while having food in kitchen together, I am served separately and have to eat separately. While my mother and brother sits in the dining table, I have to eat behind them seated on a rug."

"This is the girl's toilet of our school. We are in urgent need of MHM friendly toilet. The one we use doesn't lock properly. If someone is inside, other person has to wait outside pushing the door for her."

Indeed, the need for more spaces to safely clean menstrual products is a recurrent theme in the photos, which capture girls waiting in line for latrines at school or washing pads in local canals. Several of the teen photographers in the WaterAid project said they've started pushing back against restrictions that force them to wash their menstrual products separately, trying to secure safety for themselves and others.

But the girls know it will take more than a series of photos to change their culture; for them, it's about making sure other young people are educated too.

Or, as Sushma Diyali, one of the photographers, put it, "Only if my friends just like me could grow in an environment where are no limitations regarding menstruation and receive more support from the families they can set themselves free and explore greater potential and opportunities around them."
Paris, Kathy, and Nicky Hilton (Photo: Instagram)

Nicky Hiltons baby-to-be is already adored. The pregnant 365 Style author was celebrated  again!  by friends and family for the second time with a baby shower at The Towers at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City on Wednesday, June 1.

PHOTOS: Famous Celebrity Pregnancies: Baby Bump Hall of Fame

Hosted a beautiful baby shower for my sister @NickyHilton today at the #WaldorfTowers. Love her #Porthault cake & seeing all our New York friends together to celebrate the new baby, her sister, Paris Hilton, captioned an Instagram of a pink and white cake on Wednesday.

Hosted a beautiful baby shower for my sister @NickyHilton today at the #WaldorfTowers. Love her #Porthault cake & seeing all our New York friends together to celebrate the new baby.  A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Jun 1, 2016 at 5:47pm PDT

Beautiful day with my mom & sis. Love my family so much! #NickysBabyShower, Paris, 35, added alongside another Instagram shot of herself with her mom, Kathy, and expectant sister.

Cant wait to meet this little girl! #AuntParis  A photo posted by Paris Hilton (@parishilton) on Jun 1, 2016 at 6:28pm PDT

Paris previously broke the news to Us that her sister is expecting a baby girl.



PHOTOS: Famous Celebrity Pregnancies: Baby Bump Hall of Fame

Nicky, 32, who married James Rothschild in a lavish London wedding at Kensington Palace in July 2015, cradled her bump while posing for photos in a chic white lace dress.



An insider tells Us Weekly that the party was held in a suite at the luxe hotel where the two sisters grew up, so it has special meaning. Guests noshed on delicious mini sandwiches and mini desserts, the source adds.



The Hiltons family friend and Real Housewives of New York City star Bethenny Frankel was also in attendance  she used to be Paris and Nickys nanny  as was Bijou Phillips.

Doing something girly @nickyhilton A photo posted by Bethenny Frankel (@bethennyfrankel) on Jun 1, 2016 at 2:29pm PDT

Pregnant Nicky Hilton Turns Designer Gown Into the Ultimate Maternity Style

Nicky previously celebrated her daughter-to-be with a baby shower held in Los Angeles last month. This is the couples first child.



Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics, and more delivered straight to your inbox!
June 2 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

- British manufacturers are putting decisions on hold in the build-up to the European Union referendum, causing activity to slow, according to a closely followed survey. (http://bit.ly/1Y3klTz)

- The chancellor has accused Boris Johnson and Michael Gove of "making up" plans that would damage the economy. (http://bit.ly/1Y3kOVT)

The Guardian

- George Osborne, the chancellor, and ministers from the UK's extensive network of tax havens are among key witnesses that Members of the European Parliament intend to call as part of a major inquiry set to be launched into the Panama Papers. (http://bit.ly/1Y3kFSv)

- Marks and Spencer is to switch off background music in stores in response to feedback from customers and staff. The new music-free policy will be implemented over the next few weeks at 300 clothing and home branches across the UK. (http://bit.ly/1Y3kEOv)

The Telegraph

- The father and son property tycoons who helped Dominic Chappell to fund his doomed acquisition of BHS have been called to appear before the two House of Commons select committees investigating its collapse. (http://bit.ly/1Y3kEhf)

- Ryanair has come under attack for deciding to close its base near Oslo - a move that is expected to result in the loss of 1,000 jobs - after Norway introduced a new tax on air passengers. (http://bit.ly/1Y3kFlx)

Sky News

- A vote to leave the European Union would have "substantial negative consequences" for the UK and the global economy, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says. (http://bit.ly/1Y3keYm)

- Administrators to BHS are racing to finalise a rescue of the high street chain even as recriminations over the company's past financial management deepen as part of a parliamentary probe into the affair. (http://bit.ly/1Y3kSFa)

The Independent

- Deutsche Boerse's proposed acquisition of London Stock Exchange Group may result in about 1,250 job cuts across the companies. (http://ind.pn/1Y3kXJ0) (Compiled by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
June 2 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Fresh warnings are being issued about the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets as a growing chorus urges further action from Ottawa amid a continual rise in housing prices. (http://bit.ly/1r3w0o3)

** A federal spy agency inadvertently shared logs of Canadians' phone calls and internet exchanges with intelligence allies such as the United States for years, a newly disclosed report says. (http://bit.ly/1O6velB)

** Saudi Arabia is arming Yemeni forces led by a controversial military commander accused of using child soldiers, a leading human-rights researcher is warning Parliamentarians. Ottawa must suspend sales of Canadian-made combat vehicles to Riyadh if it fails to obtain guarantees that they won't become embroiled in this, Belkis Wille, of Human Rights Watch told a Senate committee. (http://bit.ly/1O6tMiV)

NATIONAL POST

** Vantage Airport Group Ltd began work Wednesday on a $4 billion makeover of New York's rundown LaGuardia Airport, and said the massive contract will significantly raise its profile in the United States. (http://bit.ly/1sqzzWR)

** The NDP is planning to force debate on a special committee on Canada's electoral system Thursday, proposing a new model that would put the Liberals in a minority position. (http://bit.ly/1ZfA6VW)

** Bombardier Inc announced Wednesday that WestJet Encore has converted its remaining options into firm orders to beef up the Calgary company's fleet of 45 Q400s. Bombardier says the cost of the transaction - nine new planes - is about C$293 million ($223.60 million). (http://bit.ly/1sqze6y) ($1 = 1.3104 Canadian dollars) (Compiled by Shivam Srivastava in Bengaluru)
June 2 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Financial Times. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Headlines

Munich Re to cut 1,800 jobs at Ergo to trim costs by 280m by 2020 (http://bit.ly/1Y3lwCv)

LSE-Deutsche Borse plan 1,250 job cuts in proposed merger (http://bit.ly/1Y3maQo)

Watchdog urged to review P2P protection (http://bit.ly/1Y3lScm)

Saudi wealth fund takes $3.5bn Uber stake (http://bit.ly/1Y3lWcd)

Overview

Munich Re's insurance business Ergo unveiled a deep restructuring on Wednesday in a bid to return to profit, cutting 13 percent of its German workforce and setting out plans to launch a digital insurer and a revamped product line.

London Stock Exchange Group said its planned $30 billion merger with German rival Deutsche Boerse could initially cut 1,250 jobs across the combined group and should eventually lead to 250 million euros ($279.68 million) in extra revenue a year.

Consumers may need tougher protection against "inherently higher" risks from investing in online platforms that offer loans, a senior British lawmaker, Andrew Tyrie, said on Wednesday.

Uber has raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the U.S. ride-hailing service said on Wednesday, gaining a crucial partner in its expansion into the Middle East.

($1 = 0.8939 euros) (Compiled by Shalini Nagarajan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler)
MASON CITY  Mason City police say a pit bull has been quarantined after biting a 19-year-old man twice in 24 hours.

The victim, whom police declined to identify, was transported to Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa. His status and extent of injuries are unknown. Mason City police said in a statement the wounds did appear to need immediate medical attention.

Owner Mariah Mahaney of Mason City told police the 2-year-old dog had bitten her roommate Thursday. She was able to confine the dog before police, animal control and fire medics arrived at the scene.

Mahaney was cited for not having an animal license.

A 2-year-old pit bull will be quarantined by animal control for 10 days at the owners expense, according to Mason City police.

During confinement, it will be determined if the dog is vicious. If its deemed vicious, the dog will be euthanized.

If animal control determines the dog is not dangerous, it can return to its owner. If the owner cannot pay for the confinement, the dog will be adopted out.
(Reuters) - Tests show music superstar Prince, who was found dead in his home in a Minneapolis suburb in late April, died of an overdose of opioid painkillers, the Associated Press reported on Thursday, citing a law enforcement official. A spokesman for the Carver County Sheriffs Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and a spokeswoman at the Midwest Medical Examiners Office said that agency had no new information to release about Princes death. The cause of death has so far remained undetermined since the 57-year-old singer died on April 21. Federal authorities, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, have been involved in an investigation into Princes death. The news follows earlier reports that Prince had the painkiller Percocet in his system when he died. Prescription opioid medication was also found at the scene of Princes death, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation but not authorized to speak publicly. Prince, whose full name was Prince Rogers Nelson, did not leave a will, and his multimillion-dollar estate including royalties from his more than 30 albums is being handled by a court. The songwriters hits included Purple Rain and When Doves Cry. (Reporting by Megan Cassella in Washington and Fiona Ortiz in Chicago; Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Matthew Lewis)
After weeks of speculation, law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday that Prince died of an opioid overdose, according to the Associated Press. In a report released by the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office, the singer died of an accidental Fentanyl overdose.

Inside Prince's Final Days

Leading up to today's announcement, news sites have speculated about Prince's alleged drug use around the time of his death on April 21st. Although the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office said initially that an autopsy on the artist was inconclusive  it wanted to wait until the toxicology report came in  investigators reported in late April that Prince had been in possession of prescription painkillers. The Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Attorney joined the investigation in early May.

StarTribune reported that investigators were also researching what role painkillers played in the emergency hospital visit he made the week before his death. The Associated Press claimed that investigators were looking into whether or not a doctor was aboard the plane at the time. The news service also reported that Prince was unconscious at the time the plane landed, and that first responders administered a shot of Narcan  which offsets suspected opioid overdoses. At the time, news reports said that Prince was either suffering dehydration or fighting the flu.

It was later revealed that he had been struggling with an addiction to pain pills. His friends attempted to get him help from an addiction specialist, Dr. Howard Kornfeld, who runs a treatment center in Mill Valley, California. A lawyer for the doctor's family told The New York Times that he had sent his son, Andrew, to Paisley Park to meet with the artist, but he arrived too late. He was the one who called 911.

Prince was performing dates on his Piano and a Microphone tour in the months leading up to his death. In early April, he canceled a date in Atlanta, reportedly because of the flu, and made up for it with a pair of performances at the city's Fox Theater on April 14th.

Story continues

The artist's lawyer, L. Londell McMillan, told the AP that he had spoken to Prince the Sunday before his death. "He said he was doing perfect," the attorney said. "He said, 'OK, I'll call you soon.'" When the AP asked about substance abuse, McMillan said the artist was "not on any drugs that would be any cause for concern."

Michael Padden  a lawyer for Prince's siblings Lorna and Duane Nelson  said that over a decade ago Prince had "substantial" problems with Percocet and cocaine. "Lorna told me that her brother would die young  before his time and of a heart attack," he told StarTribune of his now deceased client.

Prince leaves behind an estate worth millions and reportedly no will. Lawyers for Prince's six siblings and half-siblings attended a hearing in a court outside of Minneapolis in early May. The artist's sister, Tyka Nelson, and a Carver County judge agreed to appoint Bremer Trust as a temporary special administrator for the estate. Reps for Bremer Trust are still looking for a will. The company has already drilled open Prince's vault of thousands of recordings.

Prince's remains were cremated after the autopsy, and a small group of family, friends and musicians gathered to pay their respects. "We ask for your blessings and prayers of comfort for his family and close friends at this time," a rep said at the time. "An announcement will be made at a future date for a musical celebration."

Related
Jonathan Scott wont have to worry about how hell be remodeling his jail cell.

Scott, who stars on the HGTV series Property Brothers, wont face charges stemming from an April 24 bar fight in Fargo, North Dakota, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Wednesday.

Upon review of the police report and associated evidence, I found there was not sufficient evidence to establish a violation of either simple assault or disorderly conduct  beyond a reasonable doubt, Fargo city attorney Erik Johnson said in a statement.

Also Read: 'Flip or Flop' Co-Host Tarek el Moussa Saved by Fan Who Spotted Cancerous Lump

The Alberta, Canada, native was reportedly put in a headlock by a bouncer at Dempseys Public House during closing time at 2 a.m., who was caught up in an argument with other patrons.

Scott, who stars on Property Brothers with his twin sibling Drew, was in town with his brother to appear at the Eco Chic Design Conference.

The pairs spinoff competition series, Brother vs. Brother, premiered tonight at 9/8 c on HGTV.

Related stories from TheWrap:

'Property Brothers' Renewed for 52 More Episodes by HGTV

11 HGTV Shows That Sent Ratings Through the Roof (Photos)

'Ellen's Design Challenge' Closes With Disqualified Winner, Qualified Ratings Success for HGTV
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / Prophecy Development Corp. ("Prophecy" or the "Company") (TSX: PCY, Frankfurt: 1P2) is pleased to announce that all proposed resolutions were approved at the Company's Annual General Meeting of shareholders held on June 2, 2016 in Vancouver, British Columbia (the "Meeting"). The number of directors was set at five and all director nominees, as listed in the Management Information Circular dated April 18, 2016 (the "Information Circular"), were elected as directors of the Company at the Meeting to serve until the next annual general meeting. According to the proxies received and shares voted in person at the Meeting, the results were as follows:

Director Votes FOR(1)(2) John Lee 97.67% Greg Hall 97.98% Harald Batista 98.13% Masa Igata 98.06%

Notes:

1. There were 18,611,922 non-votes reported by the Scrutineer of the Meeting in respect of the above motion.

2. The percentages reported in this news release are calculated on the votes cast in person and by proxy at the Meeting which total 90,991,518 with respect to the above motion.

Davidson & Company LLP, Chartered Accountants have been appointed as auditors of the Company again, for the ensuing year and the directors have been authorized to fix their remuneration.

An ordinary resolution of the disinterested shareholders of the Company was approved with respect to the issuance of 75,000,000 debt settlement units to John Lee, Executive Chairman, at a price of $0.02 per debt settlement unit as payment for an outstanding cash loan of $1,500,000 owed by the Company to his personal holding company, Linx Partners Ltd., pursuant to a revolving Credit Facility Agreement dated March 12, 2015, as amended.

An ordinary resolution of the disinterested shareholders of the Company was approved with respect to the adoption of a new Share-Based Compensation Plan (the "2016 Share-Based Compensation Plan").

An ordinary resolution of shareholders of the Company was approved with respect to the consolidation of the Company's issued and outstanding Common shares on a 100 to 1 basis. Where the consolidation results in a fractional share, the number of shares will be rounded to the nearest whole Common share (with fractional shares less than 0.5 being rounded down and fractional shares equal to or greater than 0.5 being rounded up). The Common shares are expected to commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on a consolidated basis on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. The new CUSIP number will be 74347D207, and the new ISIN number will be CA74347D2077.

Story continues

No action is required by non-registered shareholders, who hold shares of the Company through an intermediary, to effect consolidation of their beneficially held shares. Registered shareholders of the Company as at April 18, 2016 were sent a Letter of Transmittal with the Meeting materials, and have been requested to deliver their share certificates representing the pre-consolidation shares along with their properly executed Letter of Transmittal to the Company's Transfer Agent, Computershare Investor Services Inc., against delivery of new share certificates representing the post-consolidation shares.

Voting results for all resolutions noted above are reported in the Report on Voting Results as filed under the Company's SEDAR profile on June 2, 2016.

The Company also announces that pursuant to the terms of the 2016 Share-Based Compensation Plan, it has granted in aggregate, 160,000 incentive stock options (on a post-consolidation basis) (the "Options") to various directors, officers, employees and consultants of the Company. The Options are exercisable at a price of $2.00 per Common share for a term of five years expiring on June 2, 2021 and vest at 12.5% per quarter for the first two years following the date of grant.

The Company further announces that it has, or will enter into settlement and release agreements (the "Settlement Agreements") with its directors and an employee to cover debts owing to them as well as advanced pre-payments for services to be rendered in June. Pursuant to the terms of those Settlement Agreements, the Company has agreed, subject to approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange, to issue, in aggregate, 122,821 post-consolidation Common shares at a deemed price of $1.99 per Common share, to those directors and employee through its new 2016 Share-Based Compensation Plan. Such shares issued to Company directors (including John Lee) will be subject to a voluntary 4-month hold period.

Further to the Company's press release dated April 18, 2016, the Company is also pleased to confirm that it paid off and closed out the USD$1,500,000 line of credit facility with the Trade and Development Bank of Mongolia on May 2, 2016.

About Prophecy



Prophecy Development Corp. is a Canadian public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange that is engaged in developing mining and energy projects in Mongolia, Bolivia and Canada. Further information on Prophecy can be found at www.prophecydev.com.

PROPHECY DEVELOPMENT CORP.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"JOHN LEE"

Executive Chairman

For more information about Prophecy, please contact Investor Relations:

+1.604.563.0699

+1.888.513.6286

ir@prophecycoal.com

www.prophecydev.com

SOURCE: Prophecy Development Corp.
From Cosmopolitan

If you've been trying to get your hands on any of Kylie Jenner's lip kits with zero success, you're in luck. The youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner clan announced on her app this morning that she'd be restocking all of her lip kits today at 4 p.m. PST, basically giving everyone enough time in advance to get their hands on some of her magic lip potion.

Here's what her site currently looks like now:

I've never seen so many products "Sold Out" stickers in my life, but Kylie's probably used to it. Especially since her lip kits have been selling out in seconds since day one and have continued to be a cult favorite since - even though a batch of her lip kits were delivered with bad brushes that looked liked they'd been through the ringer. But the beauty mogul bounced back after being called out by major beauty blogger Jeffree Star, sending replacement glosses to everyone and all was right again in the booming world of beauty.

Anyway, back to the good news at hand: Not only is it hump day (I see you, weekend!), but you get yet another chance at getting that lip kit in "King K," or whatever shade it is that's on your wish list.

So, get your credit card trigger finger ready. Good luck!

Get non-boring fashion and beauty news directly in your feed. Follow Facebook.com/CosmoBeauty.

Follow Carly on Twitter and Instagram.
LONDON (Reuters) - Iraqi Deputy Oil Minister Fayadh al-Nema said he expected the oil price to be $55 to $65 per barrel in the second half of this year.

He was speaking to reporters in Vienna on Thursday. International Brent crude oil futures were just under $50 a barrel on Thursday.

Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet on Thursday in Vienna.

(Reporting by OPEC newsroom; editing by Susan Thomas)
By Laila Kearney and Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare U.S. postage stamp known as the "Inverted Jenny" was formally handed over on Thursday to the Pennsylvania research library that owns it, six decades after it was stolen from a display case and feared lost forever.

The valuable 1918 stamp is one of a series featuring a Curtiss JN-4 biplane, nicknamed "Jenny," that were mistakenly printed upside down. The image has made the stamp one of the most recognized among stamp enthusiasts and non-collectors alike.

Officials of the American Philatelic Research Library accepted the stamp from federal law enforcement officials during a ceremony at the World Stamp Show in New York.

"This is a great day for stamp collecting," said Don Sundman, a dealer who helped expedite the stamp's handover to its rightful owner.

The famous stamp was one of four Jennys stolen in 1955 when New York arts patron Ethel McCoy put them on display at a show in Virginia. After her death, she had bequeathed their ownership to the Bellefonte, Pennsylvania research library.

Two of the other stolen Jennys were recovered in the 1970s and 1980s and returned.

Thursday's ceremony comes two days after another Inverted Jenny sold for about $1.18 million auction. But the recently recovered stamp, with a face value of 24 cents, could be worth a mere $200,000 because of its inferior condition, the library said. It was No. 76 on a sheet of the only 100 Jennys ever printed.

The stamp surfaced on April 1 in a consignment put up for sale at the auction firm Spink, the library said. It was then placed under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Kevin O'Neill, the man who consigned the stamp, had inherited it in his native Ireland as part of his grandfather's collection. He received $50,000 in reward money.

Library officials and other authorities said they would keep searching for the fourth stamp, which is still missing.

Story continues

"We are three quarters of the way to recovery," said library president Roger Brody, who said he previously thought the chances of this Inverted Jenny's return were "slim to none."

The library, which specializes in postage-related literature, will likely display the recovered stamp at the World Stamp Show, held at New York's Javits Center through Saturday.

Alfred Orcutt, 72, a retired New York school principal and a lifelong collector, said he was grateful to catch a glimpse of the stamp before it goes back home.

"It's one of the highlights of the history of stamp collecting," Orcutt said.

(Editing by Frank McGurty and Tom Brown)
Matt Moore started the only game the Tampa Bay Rays have won since May 24, and getting deeper into a game allowed him to end the club's six-game losing streak with him on the mound.

The struggling Rays need him again Thursday night as they begin a four-game set in Minnesota, where the Twins have been plenty beatable this season.

Moore (2-3, 5.31 ERA) was far from brilliant in Saturday's 9-5 home win over the New York Yankees, giving up three runs and eight hits with three walks in 6 2/3 innings. It was, however, the first time he'd gone beyond five innings in his last five starts.

"I liked my mindset heading into it," Moore told MLB's official website. "I found out what pitches were coming out good, and I kind of stayed with that as opposed to just forcing them out."

He drew his manager's praises after a four-start span in which the left-hander had gone 0-1 with an 8.53 ERA.

"Moore provided a really good start that obviously we've been missing a little bit," Kevin Cash said. "It was great to see him get through that first inning, which had the makings of getting a little tricky.  It's a little easier to get some runs when you get the support they did."

Moore is 1-0 with a 3.24 ERA in three starts against the Twins, though he hasn't faced them since 2013. Joe Mauer is 2 for 4 against him, but Oswaldo Arcia is 0 for 5 with three strikeouts.

Minnesota was scheduled to give Kyle Gibson his first start since April 22 after dealing with a strained right shoulder, but he was scratched hours before this game because of stiffness in his back.

Phil Hughes (1-7, 5.74) was headed to the bullpen, but he will now face the Rays. The right-hander is 4-6 with a 4.76 ERA in 12 starts against Tampa Bay.

The Twins (15-37) were just swept in Oakland, and returning home for a 10-game homestand is unlikely to provide any refuge. They're 5-18 at Target Field with losses in 11 of their last 13 and four straight series defeats.

The Twins won two of three in both series last season, but the Rays are 16-6 in Minnesota since the start of 2010.

Tampa Bay (22-29) was also swept to start the week in three games in Kansas City and has lost four straight and 10 of 12. Wednesday's 6-3 loss concluded a series in which the Rays' staff posted a 7.50 ERA with a .375 opponent batting average.
New York (AFP) - Art, books, jewelry and furniture owned by Ronald and Nancy Reagan are expected to fetch more than $2 million at auction in New York this September, Christie's said Thursday.

Reagan, who died in 2004, was one of the most revered US presidents, and when his widow Nancy died last March, Hollywood stars and political powerbrokers turned out en masse to attend her funeral in California.

Lots in the sale include American, English and Chinese furnishings from the couple's Los Angeles home, as well as books, memorabilia, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings, Christie's said.

The auction house has valued individual items from $1,000 to $50,000 and expects the sale to fetch more than $2 million across live and online auctions.

The collection "offers unprecedented insight" into the private lives of the couple, said Brook Hazelton, president of Christie's Americas.

"Each object offers a 'through the keyhole' experience revealing as-yet untold stories of two of the 20th century's most celebrated public figures," he said.

Christie's said the catalogue would be released this summer and that all proceeds would go to The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

Nancy Reagan was laid to rest beside her husband at the Reagan presidential library on March 11 after dying of heart failure aged 94 at her home in Los Angeles, 12 years after her husband.

Ronald Reagan served two terms in the White House in the 1980s and oversaw the end of the nuclear stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The Berlin Wall came down in the final months of his presidency and Reagan presided over a period of economic growth in America that made him the darling, still today, of the Republican party establishment.
(Adds ex-girlfriend's attorney saying he might seek new trial)

By Lisa Richwine

June 1 (Reuters) - Sumner Redstone's granddaughter Keryn said on Wednesday she plans to support the independent directors of Viacom Inc to help free the 93-year-old media mogul from the "clutches" of his daughter, Shari.

The independent directors have questioned Sumner Redstone's mental competence, and said they would legally contest any move by his purported representatives to remove them from Viacom's board.

"I will soon be announcing legal steps to join with the Viacom directors in our common cause to liberate my grandfather from Shari's clutches and protect my fellow trust beneficiaries and myself from her machinations," Keryn Redstone said in a statement issued by attorney Pierce O'Donnell, who also represents Sumner Redstone's ex-girlfriend Manuela Herzer.

Herzer had challenged Redstone's mental competence after she was ejected from his mansion last October. She had sought to be reinstated as his designated healthcare agent, but a Los Angeles judge dismissed that case in May.

On Wednesday, O'Donnell said in a statement that he might ask for a new trial. He said a lawsuit filed by Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman included "material new evidence" that was unavailable at the time of the trial.

Dauman's lawsuit challenges his removal from the seven-person trust that would control Sumner Redstone's controlling stake in Viacom and CBS Corp when Redstone dies or is found incompetent.

Keryn Redstone, who supported Herzer's lawsuit, said in her statement that she affectionately called her grandfather "Grumpy." She said the last time she saw him was for 15 minutes on Valentine's Day, and described how she "quietly sobbed" as she held his "cold hand."

"As he sat there lifeless and flanked by his nurses and caretakers, he seemed unaware of his surroundings," Keryn Redstone said.

She added, "I cry myself to sleep every night knowing that I might never see him again."

Story continues

She said she was prevented from seeing him again by her aunt, Shari Redstone, who is vice chair of Viacom's board.

A spokeswoman for Shari Redstone had no comment. She had previously denied allegations that she was manipulating her father. "Shari has made it abundantly clear that she has no desire to manage Viacom nor chair its board," she said in a statement on Tuesday.

Sumner Redstone, in a statement issued last week by his spokesman, said he was considering replacing Viacom's CEO and its board of directors.

Legal experts said Dauman and the directors would face a tough legal battle to prevent their ouster because Redstone's National Amusements Inc (NAI) had the ability to immediately remove Viacom's board at any time under Delaware law.

NAI controls 80 percent of the voting shares in Viacom and CBS Corp.

Shares of Viacom have lost about half their value in the past two years as its cable networks, including MTV and Nickelodeon, suffered from falling ratings because younger viewers were migrating online and to mobile video.

The shares have risen about 14 percent since Redstone removed Dauman from the trust on May 20, a move that some investors saw as the first step in a change in management that could eventually lead to a sale of the media company.

Dauman, in the legal challenge to his removal from the trust, argues that Redstone was being manipulated by his daughter. A trial date for the lawsuit was set for October, but Dauman filed a motion to expedite the trial. A hearing on the expedition was scheduled for June 7.

Sumner Redstone last week asked a Los Angeles court for an order to validate his removal of Dauman, 62, and Abrams from the trust and from the board of NAI.

Redstone is expected to file a motion this week to oppose the expedited trial and ask for the issue to be handled by the Los Angeles court, a source on Redstone's strategy team told Reuters.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Richard Chang)
MASON CITY | Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority, said Thursday Mason City's relationship with the state agency is not hurt by the City Council's rejection of the development agreement with Prestage Foods of Iowa.

"But site selectors follow this. They don't ever want to put anyone through this," she said, referring to the intensity of the scrutiny and eventual defeat of the proposal.

The IEDA was instrumental in connecting Prestage with Mason City officials to start the process which hit a roadblock May 3 when the council voted 3-3 against the development proposal.

Durham was one of several speakers at an informational private meeting arranged by the Chamber of Commerce to offset what Chamber Board President Steve Noto called "the poison of misinformation" about Prestage.

Noticeably absent from the meeting was any representative from Prestage. Chamber officials said a schedule conflict prevented them from attending; Jere Null, chief operating officer for Prestage Farms, was listed as a panelist in the meeting's program.

Efforts to reach Prestage via email and phone message Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful.

Durham, who later in the day was the keynote speaker at the North Iowa Corridor EDC's annual meeting, said the state learned a lesson from the Mason City experience with Prestage.

"In the future, the state won't act until after there are three readings by the City Council," she said.

The council had two votes on aspects of the Prestage plan, approving both. The state approved tax credits for Prestage prior to the 3-3 vote that killed the project.

Chad Schreck, president of the North Iowa Corridor EDC, told the audience of about 80 that the EDC heard from several businesses interested in possibly locating in Mason City and North Iowa because of Prestage.

Prestage would have methane, he said, and at least three companies had expressed interest in capturing the methane and converting it to natural gas.

Other prospects including trucking companies and a cold storage business, all of them linked to the possibility of Prestage locating in Mason City, said Schreck.

He also outlined Cerro Gordo County trends in school enrollment and and total employment, both trending downward since the Great Recession. Additionally, Schreck noted, a sizable portion of the area's work force will retire in the next 10 years.

Retired Mason City School Superintendent Keith Sersland said the district is experiencing a steadily declining enrollment that can be turned around with the help of a large industry coming to the city.

He cautioned people not to be fearful of new students from outside the area pouring into the school system.

"Will an influx of minority students cause heart burn? Yes," he said. "But we have time to embrace it. Prestage has offered to give $140,000 year to the school district (for 10 years).

"Bump it up a little," said Sersland. "Hire three ELL (English language learner) teachers next year. Don't wait."

Sersland said the school district's mission is to educate its students and the district would fulfill that mission.

"With a declining enrollment, the state cannot bail you out. You will pay for it in your taxes," he said.
The battle between dance music's old and new school continues after Cure And The Cause, a Los Angeles nightclub, banned laptops from their DJ booth. The Glendale based club feels technological advancements are detracting from the art of DJing.

EDM's Mainstream vs. The Underground: Time to End the Hate (Op-Ed)

"Learn the tools of the trade already," club owner Kenny Summit wrote in a Facebook post. "Pioneer isn't going anywhere any time soon, they are the industry standardKeep your controller in your crib, don't come to work with training wheels."

In response to the ban, dance artists Richie Hawtin and Seth Troxler weighed in with their opinions, kindling a Twitter debate.

Most ridiculous rule ever!Stifling creativity by limiting an artists own personal approach is a step backwards. https://t.co/ppqSWDzK5O

- Richie Hawtin (@richiehawtin) June 2, 2016

@richiehawtin @Mixmag the hard part is beat matching. Even a lot of guys in our class.If the sync is on your an entertainer, not a dj.

- seth troxler (@sethtroxler) June 2, 2016

Hawtin feels the ban is harmful, creating roadblocks in the artist's ability to creatively approach Djing. In response, Troxler took twitter to shed light on the ban and feels that it will force the new era of DJs to learn the traditional way and preserve dance music's historical roots.
Coral reefs are dying around the world due to rising ocean temperatures caused by global climate change and this year's intense El Nino.

During a recent expedition to Jarvis Island, located about 1,500 miles south of Hawaii, scientists found enormous amounts of coral had been destroyed as a result of bleaching, Mashable reported. The process, which is deadly to the reefs, occurs when ocean temperatures rise for prolonged periods of time, forcing the coral reefs to eject the nutrient-providing algae that gives them their vibrant color.

The reefs "looked more like a coral graveyard," Bernardo Vargas-Angel, a scientist affiliated with the expedition, told the website. He went on to note that " ."

Source: Mic/AP

With its rich coral reefs, Jarvis Island has historically been home to some of the richest and most diverse biomass in the world. Healthy coral life is a critical underpinning for many other forms of life that live around the reef.

Coral bleaching is not limited to the waters surrounding Jarvis Island. Off the coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef  arguably the world's most famous coral formation  has suffered extensive and possibly permanent damage from the same phenomenon. Experts now estimate that up to 35% of the reef's northern and central regions are dead or dying.

"This year is the third time in 18 years that the Great Barrier Reef has experienced mass bleaching due to global warming, and the current event is much more extreme than we've measured before," Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said earlier this year, Vox reported.

It remains unclear if the damage can ever be reversed.
By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - - Most patients lack basic knowledge about the risks of radiation exposure from X-rays and other diagnostic imaging tests used to detect cancer, a recent study suggests. Researchers analyzed survey data from more than 5,400 people who had diagnostic imaging at a comprehensive cancer center to see how much these patients knew about ionizing radiation, a type of energy that is strong enough to penetrate the body and help create images of internal organs. Our concern is that the term radiation may have a negative bias, said lead study author Dr. Joseph Steele of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Essentially, that irrational fear may result in patients not agreeing to something that is in their best interest, Steele added by email. Energy emitted from a source is generally referred to as radiation, whether its heat or light from the sun, microwaves from an oven, X-rays from an X-ray tube, or gamma rays from radioactive elements, according to the World Health Organization. Overall, only about 22 percent of the survey respondents could correctly define ionizing radiation as a type of energy, Steele and colleagues report in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Patients were also confused about what types of tests use ionizing radiation. Only about 35 percent of them correctly said computerized tomography (CT) scans used ionizing radiation, while roughly 29 percent incorrectly stated that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tests used ionizing radiation. Among patients who claimed to have some knowledge of ionizing radiation, about 57 percent knew their abdominal CT used ionizing radiation, while nearly half of MRI recipients incorrectly thought this test used ionizing radiation. Many survey respondents also didnt understand risks from diagnostic doses of radiation. The researchers asked patients several questions about risks associated with CT scans of the abdomen and pelvis, for example. Among patients who thought there were risks from these CT scans, about 24 percent thought they posed a risk of sterility, and around 12 percent thought there was a risk of either acute radiation sickness or passing genetic mutations to their offspring. In reality, CT scans of the abdomen and pelvis dont carry any of these risks, the authors write. One limitation of the study is that it was done at a single cancer center, and knowledge might be different among patients treated elsewhere, the authors note. The survey also had a low response rate of about 11 percent, though this level of participation is typical for online surveys, the authors said. Its possible that at least some of patients lack of knowledge in the study may be due to people simply relying on their doctors to recommended needed tests and failing to ask about potential risks, said Dr. Leonard Berlin, a radiology researcher at Rush University and the University of Illinois in Chicago. Its extremely rare to encounter a patient who asks, Doctor, can the exam harm me in any way? Berlin, who wasnt involved in the study, said by email. Indeed, its rare for them to even ask how much the exam will cost, Berlin added. Repeated exposure to ionizing radiation should also prompt patients to ask questions about the risks, said Dr. Hans-David Hartwig, a researcher at Wolfson Childrens Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, who wasnt involved in the study. Excessive exposure can cause damage to our bodys cells and DNA, Hartwig said by email. We use it for certain diagnostic imaging as it gives clear pictures of problems, aids in correct diagnosis, and is time efficient  i.e. if you have a bleed on your brain you do not want to be in an MRI scanner for 30 minutes. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1TY6b3f Journal of the American College of Radiology, online May 13, 2016. (This story has been refiled to add dropped 'n' in American in 'Source' line at the bottom)
While the most recent target ormor Ronda Rouseys return focused on UFC 205 in New York, it appears that the former UFC champions return has been set back even further.

UFC president Dana White, in an appearance on SportsCenter on Thursday, said that Rousey had minor knee surgery on Wednesday that would delay her expected return even further, possibly until 2017.

I'm hoping we're going to get Ronda back this year, White said. She just had surgery yesterday on her knee. Nothing serious, just get in there and scope it, clean it out a little bit.

She feels great. Her spirits are great. She's been training. So if she fights, I'm hoping she fights in December. If not, she would probably fight at the New Year's show, beginning of the year, or something.

HOT TOPIC > UFC Headliner Valentina Shevchenko Uninjured After Being Caught in Gun Battle

If Rousey doesnt fight until December or later, it will have been more than a year since she last fought. In her most recent bout, she lost the belt to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November. She has made a few major appearances since then, hosting Saturday Night Live, being interviewed on The Ellen Show, etc., but has largely been missing in action in the mixed martial arts world.

Regardless, when she returns, White is still promising an immediate title shot to the woman that drove mixed martial arts to a new level in the mainstream media.

If Miesha Tates still the champion, she will fight Miesha Tate. Whoever has the belt is who Ronda Rousey will fight, White said.

Injuries happen in this sport. Somebody falls out and somebody else slides in. I'm not even saying Holly Holm couldn't be the champion by the time Ronda comes back.

Whoever holds that belt when Ronda's ready (is who shell fight).

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* Russian, Chinese firms hit with EU steel duties

* Two Russian firms allege bullying during EU probe

* EU officials decline to comment

* Russian firms deny dumping steel in EU market

By Philip Blenkinsop and Barbara Lewis

BRUSSELS, June 2 (Reuters) - Two of Russia's largest steelmakers NLMK and Severstal have made formal complaints against two EU officials, alleging bullying during an EU investigation into whether China and Russia exported steel at unfairly low prices.

Tensions between Russia and Brussels have been high since Moscow's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region in March 2014 that led to economic sanctions.

Ties have been further soured by an anti-dumping investigation into cold-rolled flat steel products following complaints from European producers that they face unfair competition from Russian and also Chinese rivals.

The Commission has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on a number of Russian and Chinese companies - including for NLMK at the highest rate of 26.2 percent and Severstal at 25.4 percent. These were enforced even though the investigation is only set to close by August.

A letter from the Brussels office of international law firm Dentons Europe to the European Commission, seen by Reuters and dated May 31, alleges that two Commission officials carried out verification visits to NLMK "in such a way as to amount, cumulatively, to bullying, psychological harassment and perceived intimidation".

The visits were aimed at gathering information for the investigation, the letter said. Such visits are normal practice during EC trade investigations.

The two EU officials at the trade directorate, case handler William De Ruyck and assistant case handler Jean-Michel Bindner, declined to comment when spoken to by Reuters.

A European Commission source said it was aware of the concerns raised by NLMK and held its staff to the highest ethical standards but had no further comment.

Complaints over EU trade investigations are normally about methodology or tariffs imposed rather than allegations such as those made by NLMK and Severstal.

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In an emailed statement sent to Reuters, NLMK said the Commission's investigation into imports of cold-rolled flat steel products was conducted with "flagrant violations of all possible norms and standards, as filed in a separate complaint to the European Commission".

NLMK said the decision to impose the duties was absurd and it denied allegations it was dumping steel, or selling it at below cost price, on the EU market.

NLMK said it employs over 2,000 people in the European Union and continues to invest in developing its EU operations.

Severstal confirmed it had sent a letter of complaint about the behaviour of two EU officials, adding that it had cooperated fully with the investigation and had not engaged in dumping.

Dentons office in Brussels was not immediately available for comment.

(Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow; Editing by Susan Fenton and Alexander Smith)
Between two daughters and girlfriend Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling is easily outnumbered by the ladies in his house, and he likes it that way because women are "better than men" according to the actor.

EXCLUSIVE: Ryan Gosling Beams While Talking About Baby Number Two

Gosling explained his feminist rationale in an interview with the UK's Evening Standard magazine. " I think women are better than men," he said. "They are stronger, more evolved. You can tell especially when you have daughter and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately."

The 35-year-old star has been accustomed to a house full of women long before he became a father. Gosling's mother raised him and his sister on her own after divorcing their father.

News: Ryan Gosling Defends Eva Mendes' Sweatpants Comment

It's safe to say that Gosling's so adorable, even dogs love him.

Could he be more perfect?

Watch Gosling explain bringing "feminine energy" to his new film, The Nice Guys, in the video below.

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Ryan Gosling has long been a favorite with the ladies. But with his latest interview, the feminist heartthrob is about to collect a whole new set of fans.

The Canadian actor told Evening Standard Magazine that he believes women are better than men  a line sure to make hearts around the world sing. They are stronger. More evolved, he said. They are better than us. They make me better.

Gosling, who was raised primarily by his mother and older sister, surrounds himself these days with women: his girlfriend Eva Mendes and his two young daughters. Maybe his female-friendly home life is impacting his identity, because he also shared that he thinks of himself as 49 percent woman. Sometimes 47 percent, it depends on what day you catch me.

And although hes not a U.S. citizen, Gosling still had something to say about the race for the White House: I think it needs a womans touch.

The actor is currently on a press tour for his latest release, The Nice Guys, a buddy-action film co-starring Russell Crowe.
June 2 (Reuters) - Three days before Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders leveled a blistering attack on a restructuring bill moving through the U.S. Congress and offered a radically different approach to fixing the territory's $70 billion debt problem.

Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who is giving front-runner Hillary Clinton a tougher-than-expected challenge for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, will formally introduce his legislation next week, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Unlike a bipartisan House of Representatives bill that would establish a federal oversight board to renegotiate the massive debt with investors, Sanders' bill would create a "Reconstruction Finance Corporation of Puerto Rico" that would protect public pensioners from cutbacks and "concentrate losses among vulture funds," according to a summary.

"It is morally reprehensible that Wall Street vulture funds are demanding that Puerto Rico fire even more teachers, close more schools, cut pensions and slash the minimum wage so that they can reap huge profits off the misery of the people of Puerto Rico," Sanders said in a statement.

The term vulture funds is a derogatory reference to specialized investing in deeply discounted or distressed assets, typically bonds, by buying them up on the cheap in hopes of profiting on the expectation of a credit restructuring

Clinton has backed the House bill.

Last week, a House committee with oversight of Puerto Rico approved a debt restructuring measure that backers hope will be enacted into law before July 1, when the island is faced with making good on $1.9 billion in debt payments.

Sanders' proposal comes as the nominating contests for the presidential election are winding down. Along with Puerto Rico, California and a handful of other states are holding their nominating contests in the coming days.

Sanders' bill sets out to strip the ability of hedge funds to profit off their investments in an attempt to protect pensions ahead of creditors.

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The Reconstruction Finance Corporation would consist of seven members, all full-time residents of Puerto Rico and mainly chosen by the Puerto Rican legislature and governor.

The House bill, by contrast, would give Republicans in the U.S. Congress a say in recommending the majority of the proposed oversight board members.

While the House bill boasts no cost to U.S. taxpayers, Sanders wants $10.8 billion for infrastructure improvements in Puerto Rico. He proposes raising federal reimbursements for the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs for the poor, elderly and disabled.

Sanders also wants elections by Jan. 31, 2018, in Puerto Rico to decide whether it should become a state, an independent country or reform its current status.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan in Washington and Nick Brown in San Juan; Editing by Daniel Bases and Leslie Adler)
Protesters in support of gender equality and against sexual violence marched through Sao Paulo on the evening of Wednesday, June 1. Protesters carried signs that read Ser mulher sem temer (A woman without fear) and Nada justifica estupro (Nothing justifies rape). A similar rally was held in the southern Brazilian city of Maringa that same day.

Protests against Brazils interim president Michel Temer and his governments plans to cut low-income housing projects were also held in Sao Paulo earlier that day. Police used batons and tear gas to disperse Homeless Workers Movement (MTST) activists, according to Globo. Credit: Instagram/isaa_maiaa
By Reem Shamseddine, Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler

VIENNA (Reuters) - OPEC failed to agree a clear oil-output strategy on Thursday as Iran insisted on steeply raising its own production, though Tehran's arch-rival Saudi Arabia promised not to flood the market and sought to mend fences within the organisation.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shi'ite Islamic Republic had blighted several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group fell short of agreeing a formal output target for the first time in years.

Strains were less acute on Thursday, however, as new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih showed Riyadh wanted to be more conciliatory and his Iranian peer Bijan Zanganeh kept his criticism of Riyadh to an unusual minimum.

In a rare compromise, OPEC also decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary-general after years of friction over the issue.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose OPEC set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair the group's waning importance. But Thursday's meeting ended with no new policy or ceiling amid resistance from Iran.

Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt OPEC's largest producer, already pumping near record highs, to raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.

"We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," Falih told reporters.

"There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could accelerate production.

The market has grown increasingly used to OPEC clashes over the past two years as political foes Riyadh and Tehran fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April in the Qatari capital of Doha. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.

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Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.

Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual-country production quotas, effectively abandoned by OPEC years ago.

"Without country quotas, OPEC cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of OPEC's overall production.

OPEC is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates.

"BENIGN DEAL"

At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will.

As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages.

On Thursday, Brent prices were down 1.5 percent at $49 (34 pounds) per barrel after the OPEC meeting but later rallied on data showing a weekly drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles.

That OPEC could not agree on a benign deal is a sign that political differences are undermining the organisation, said Gary Ross, founder of U.S.-based PIRA consultancy.

"It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market," Ross added.

Zanganeh made a few conciliatory remarks, saying he was happy with the meeting and received no signals from other producers that they planned to increase output.

For Amrita Sen of Energy Aspects, who like Ross travelled to Vienna to meet OPEC officials, the meeting sent an encouraging signal about the state of the organisation.

"After the Doha debacle, it actually restores market confidence that Saudi Arabia is committed to OPEC. This is a success compared to three days ago when people had been expecting Falih to walk out of the OPEC room," said Sen.

Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output.

"There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, OPEC might intervene and yet other situations  such as long-term growth of marginal barrels  in which case it should not," Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting.

(Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson)
By Reem Shamseddine, Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler VIENNA (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia promised on Thursday not to flood the oil market with extra barrels even as OPEC failed to agree on output policy, with Iran insisting on the right to raise production steeply. Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shi'ite Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years. Tensions were less acute on Thursday as Saudi Arabia's new energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, showed Riyadh wanted to be more conciliatory and OPEC decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as the group's new secretary-general. Several OPEC sources said Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair OPEC's waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment. But OPEC sources said the organisation had failed to agree on output policy and set a new ceiling. Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt OPEC's largest producer, already pumping near record highs, to raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share. "We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," Falih told reporters. "There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could add more barrels to the market. The market has grown increasingly used to OPEC clashes over the past two years as political foes Riyadh and Tehran fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output. Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze. Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual country production quotas. "Without country quotas, OPEC cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of OPEC's overall production. OPEC is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates. POLITICAL TENSIONS That "OPEC could not agree on a relatively benign deal which would have been constructive for price is a sign that political differences are undermining the organisation", said Gary Ross, founder of U.S.-based PIRA consultancy. "It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market and want higher prices," he added. Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output. "There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, OPEC might intervene and yet other situations  such as long-term growth of marginal barrels  in which case it should not," Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting. At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will. As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages. Until December 2015, OPEC had a ceiling of 30 million bpd - in place since December 2011, although it effectively abandoned individual production quotas years ago. For a Take-a-Look on Reuters stories on OPEC, click on (Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Dale Hudson)
Donald Trump at a rally last Friday in San Diego. (Photo: Chris Carlson/AP)

In the fall of 2011, when I was working on a long magazine piece about the imperiled Republican establishment, I went over to see Bill Kristol. Heres what he said about the grassroots fury in his party:

I get annoyed with all the establishment types here who speak as if theyre supposed to be controlling everything, who sound like theyre annoyed when things happen that they dont expect. Welcome to the world.

And here is what Kristol, founder and editor of the Weekly Standard, said in his most recent editorial about our choices in November:

What is to be done? Resist. Resist the decline of America. Resist an Argentinian future. Resistance can mean a lot of things over the next few years. But in the here and now, resistance means finding a serious and credible independent candidate.

Should I say it, or should you? Oh, hell, its my column.

Welcome to the world, Bill.

Over the holiday weekend, while you were watching video clips of a rampaging gorilla, Kristol was tweeting tantalizing news of his evolving rebellion: There will be an independent candidate  an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.

Which might have struck me as very consequential news, if it hadnt sounded so much like something I once read in a fortune cookie. THERE WILL BE AN IMPRESSIVE CANDIDATE WITH A STRONG TEAM AND A REAL CHANCE. YOUR LUCKY NUMBERS ARE 7, 14 and 83.

So who is this mystery candidate? Well, Kristol is still holding out hope for a Mitt Romney or a Jeb Bush, or even a Joe Lieberman, or really anyone else you might actually have heard of.

But if you believe breathless reports by the intrepid team at Bloomberg Politics  or, you know, if you bother to read halfway through Kristols editorial, where he basically says it himself  the more likely candidate he has in mind is a guy named David French, who is a constitutional lawyer, author and Iraq War veteran.

To assess the threat this poses to the two-party system in America, lets first consider the most obvious reasons that this gambit would not, in fact, have any real chance of success  at least if were talking about winning, which I dont really think we are.

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For one thing, the logistical hurdles to an independent campaign, no matter who lends his name to it, are probably insurmountable at this point, as deadlines for getting on the ballot in each state start to pile up quickly. If Kristols new party (maybe hell call it the French Resistance) were to announce itself in, say, a few weeks time, it would already be assured of missing out on ballot spots in California, North Carolina and Illinois.

There is, of course, a right-leaning alternative who already has access to ballot lines virtually everywhere, and thats Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee. But Republicans consider Johnson something of a kook, partly because as governor of New Mexico he espoused policies like decriminalizing marijuana. Like that could ever go mainstream.

But back to French, who has never run for political office, and who probably cant book himself on cable shows, since he doesnt tweet about the ugliness of other candidates wives and whatnot.

I spoke to French once several years ago, when he was organizing Evangelicals for Mitt. (It was not a large organization.) He struck me as thoughtful and decent. I liked him.

David French (Photo: McLellan Style)

French also wrote a book with his wife, Nancy, however, in which they described the rules they devised together while he was stationed in Iraq; she wasnt allowed to have phone conversations with other men, or to have email exchanges with men about politics or any other subject, or to use the kind of social media where a man might contact her.

So, yeah, you can really see how French is well positioned to peel off that large segment of women voters who dont like Hillary Clinton but who cant stomach Trumps blatant sexism.

(Speaking of Trump, in the past week, hes informed Californians that theres actually no drought in their state, and hes insisted that he hid his donations to veterans groups because he didnt want credit. Its like Trump is working on a reality-show project called How Gullible Can America Be?, and hes determined to find the outer limit.)

But heres what a campaign by French or some other socially conservative, strong-military Republican might actually achieve: It might siphon just enough votes in just enough states to ensure Clinton a victory. And, truth be told, thats probably what Kristol and a lot of other Republican insiders are hoping for at this point.

Thats not because they think Clinton will be a good president, or because they think Trump would raze the monuments and suspend habeas corpus, necessarily. Its because if Trump wins, the Republican establishment in Washington will lose its entire reason for existing.

For more or less 25 years now, governing Republicans like Kristol (who was once chief of staff for Vice President Dan Quayle) have positioned themselves essentially as professional enablers.

For all that time, increasingly furious conservative voters, whipped up by antigovernment rhetoric, have been sending ever more extreme leaders to Washington, where inevitably they meet up against the immovable reality of budgets and bureaucracies.

And the main job of the advisers and lobbyists we loosely refer to as the Republican establishment has been to navigate the divide between these two worlds  to somehow tutor and moderate the elected leaders who arrive in Washington raging against the machine while figuring out how to exploit the grassroots intensity they need for the next election.

The establishments main role has been to make governance look like resistance, and vice versa.

Except that Trump really doesnt seem interested in being tutored or moderated  or not in any way that lasts for longer than the next news cycle. He may not even govern as a conservative.

If Trump somehow wins (and, as Ive written, I dont find this so implausible), the whole professional apparatus of the Republican Party will as likely as not become irrelevant, replaced by the geniuses who ran Trump University and the Taj Mahal. Game over.

I dont doubt for a second that Kristol sees Trump as a genuine threat to the country, self-interest notwithstanding. But I also think hed rather endure four or even eight years of another Clinton than a nominally Republican White House that has only contempt for the governing class, and hes not alone.

Kristol told me in 2011 that the turmoil churning inside his party was simply the price you pay for a certain kind of vitality and vigor.

Truth is, Trump is more vitality and vigor than Republicans in Washington can stomach.




AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The statue in the town square of a Houston suburb depicting two young women posing for a selfie was meant to be a sign of the times. It has unleashed another sign of the times - a heated social media debate. The statue in Sugar Land, just outside of City Hall, was part of an installation of pieces donated to the city. Residents have been quick to weigh in on social media. "Selfie Statue, Seriously? Sugarland what are your officials thinking," one Twitter comment read. Said another: "I hope someone demolishes that disgrace of culture and an eye sore." Others defended the selfie statue. "Lets Be Honest: The #SelfieStatue in #SugarLand, TX is a Perfect Sign of the Times," said one commentator. Added another: "Unpopular Opinion: The Sugar Land, TX, selfie statue everyone is talking about is both art and good art." The statue in question is part of a group donated from a local resident. Others in the group include a statue of a man playing a guitar, and one of an alligator, installed near a pond. Some fans of the selfie statue have posed for selfies in front of it, while others praised the work but slammed the artist for depicting the women using what appears to be an outdated phone. Sugar Land city spokesman Doug Adolph said the selfie statue depicts something seen every day and yet "it has upset some people." "You can't please everyone," he said. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Paris (AFP) - Serena Williams moved to within two matches of winning a record-equalling 22nd Grand Slam title with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win over Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva in the French Open quarter-finals on Thursday.

Her reward is a semi-final matchup on Friday against another unseeded player, Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, who defeated Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-2

It was a peculiar performance from the top seed and defending champion, who looked unrecognisable for the first hour of a match played in cold, damp conditions on the Roland Garros centre court.

Defeat was staring the out-of-sorts American in the face at a set and a break down, but in the nick of time the champion managed to rekindle the fires that fuel her game.

Back-to-back service breaks allowed her to turn the match on its head and avoid what would have been one of the biggest upsets in French Open history.

Because of the poor weather conditions that have beset Roland Garros this week, Williams will play her third match in three days in Friday's semis against Bertens.

A win there would qualify her for Saturday's final and the chance of matching Steffi Graf's modern-era record of 22 Grand Slam titles set in Paris in 1999.

"She played unbelievable and I did not think I was going to win that in the second set, but somehow I did," Williams said.

The match got off to a hesitant start with the players coming off during the third game as light rain started to fall.

They were back again on a sparsely-filled Court Philippe Chatrier 10 minutes later and there were looks of surprise as Putintseva, playing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final, broke serve and then held her own to love to lead 3-1.

Williams though quickly pulled out of her lethargic start to break and level at 3-3.

The 34-year-old American, bidding to become the oldest ever female champion at Roland Garros, tried to apply more pressure on her 21-year-old opponent, but there were too many unforced errors in her game.

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She paid the price for a sloppy 11th game with Putintseva grabbing the chance to pull off a second break and then serving out to love for the set.

Things went from bad to worse for Williams as she dropped serve to love to start the second set, spraying her shots long and wide.

Her case was starting to look forlorn, but some semblence of normality started to return to her game and back-to-back breaks hauled her 4-1 ahead.

Another scrappy service game from the American allowed Putintseva to pull back level at 4-4 and the defending champion had to stave off two break points in the next game.

That boosted Williams and she profited from a double fault from her Russian-born opponent to take the second set 6-4 minutes later.

The top seed finally got her nose in front with a break of serve to lead 2-0 in the decider and from there she used her power and experience to complete a nervy win.

She finished with a total of 43 unforced errors compared to just 16 for her opponent.

- Dutch delight -

Her semi-final opponent, world number 58 Bertens, defeated Bacsinszky to reach the semi-final of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

It was her 12th successive victory having arrived in Paris from Nuremburg where she had won the title as a qualifier.

In an error-hit quarter-final, which featured 11 breaks of serve and played on a half-empty Suzanne Lenglen court, the 24-year-old Bertens is the first Dutchwoman to get to the last four since Marijke Schaar in 1971

"It's unbelievable," said Bertens who started the Nuremburg event at 89 in the world but will now break the top 30 after her run in Paris.

"To be in the semis, it's just crazy. To play Serena it will be a great match. She's the number one in the world.

"I will just go out there and try and have fun and give it my all."
Guadalajara (Mexico) (AFP) - Authorities found on Wednesday seven bodies dispersed outside Guadalajara, Mexico's second biggest city, including one in flames when it was discovered.

The bodies of four men, gagged and with bullet wounds, were found under a bridge in the municipality of Tonala, a suburb of the western city, said local police commander Miguel Magana Orozco.

Another two bullet-riddled men were found in a field in another part of Guadalajara's suburbs.

"We don't know if the events are linked," Magana said, adding that authorities are investigating whether they were related to internal strife within the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.

Officer found the burning body in a deserted area while on patrol in the municipality of El Salto.

The New Generation cartel has become one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Mexico, fighting police and soldiers last year in several clashes that left dozens of suspects and security forces dead.

Elsewhere in Mexico, four people were killed on Tuesday when gunmen opened fire in La Purisima, a village in the central state of Puebla, prosecutors said.

The suspects were alleged members of a gang dedicated to stealing fuel. It was not immediately known whether the shooters fired indiscriminately or targeted specific people.

The shooting took place in an area where rival gangs dispute control of such thefts, which include taps in pipelines.

State-run energy firm Pemex has been hit by thousands of illegal taps in its pipelines in recent years, costing the company $2 billion a year, and 5,200 thefts were reported in Puebla state last year.
Titles including Werner Herzogs Salt And Fire, Bruce Beresfords Mr. Church and Coke and Bull directed by Chinese rocker Cao Baoping are among the highlights of the main competition line up for the Shanghai International Film Festival. The festival runs June 11-19, 2016.

A jury headed by Serbian director Emir Kusturica will decide the winner, who will receive a Golden Goblet (aka Jinjue) Award. Other jurors include Atom Egoyan, Daniele Luchetti, Pema Tseden, Karena Lam, Abderrahmane Sissako, and Yan Geling.

Other competition titles include Ulrich Thomsens In Embryo, Soul on a String by Zhang Yang and The Projects directed by Sakamoto Junji. The animation section includes April and the Extraordinary World and Takahashi Shigeruharus Yokai Watch, while the documentary section includes Swedens The Girl Who Saved My Life.

Beyond the main competition the festival ranges from the sublime to the more commonplace.

Like several other festivals this year, Shanghai is putting on a selection of Shakespeare-related films, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the death of playwright William Shakespeare. Veteran British actor Ian McKellen will be on hand to hold a discussion about his 1995 Richard III.

The multiple other tribute sections are variously dedicated to Woody Allen, Luchino Visconti and Andrei Tarkovsky, restored classics and the films of the late Hong Kong star Leslie Cheung.

A selection of Oscar-winning titles includes: Spotlight, The Big Short, Room, Bridge of Spies, The Danish Girl, Steve Jobs, and Joy.

According to Chinese media, seven James Bond movies and all eight Harry Potter movies will also play. The Jackie Chan Action Movie Week, a collection endorsed by the kung fu star, also returns for its second year.

Main Competition Titles

Coke and Bull dir. Cao Baoping

De Lan dir. Liu Jie

Flowers of Evil dir. Antti Jokinen

Forest, 4 am dir. Jan Jakub Kolski

Hannas Sleeping Dogs dir. Andreas Gruber

Hamog dir. Ralston Jover

Hear the Silence dir. Ed Ehrenberg

In Embryo dir. Ulrich Thomsen

Mr. Church dir. Bruce Beresford

The Projectsdir. Sakamoto Junji

Salt and Fire dir. Werner Herzog

See You in Texas dir. Vito Palmieri

Soul on a String dir. Zhang Yang

Sound and Fury dir. Hooman Seyadi

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Documentary Film Competition Titles

The Girl Who Saved My Life dir. Hogir Hirori

Mr. Gaga dir. Tomer Heymann

Roof of The World dir. Cang Hairuo

We Are X dir. Stephen Kijak

When Two Worlds Collide dir. Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel

Animated Film Competition Titles

April and the Extraordinary World dir. Christian Desmares, Franck Ekinci

Molly Monster dir. Ted Sieger

Pat and Mat dir. Marek Benes

Rock Dog dir. Ash Brannon

Yokai Watch dir. Takahashi Shigeruharu

Related stories

Derek Yee To Head Shanghai Festival Jury

Emir Kusturica to Head Shanghai Festival Jury

Shanghai Festival: Pierre Jolivet's 'Night Watchman' Wins Golden Goblet
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Washington (AFP) - Rookie forward Conor Sheary scored in overtime to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in game two of the Stanley Cup finals on Wednesday.

Sheary's goal gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series against the Sharks, who managed to scored a late equalizer in the third period to send the contest into overtime.

Sidney Crosby started the play on the decisive goal by winning a draw in the Sharks' zone back to defenceman Kris Letang. The puck ended up in the possession of Sheary, who beat San Jose goalie Martin Jones with a quick wrist shot through traffic.

"It just worked out perfectly," Sheary said of the game winner. "I am just trying to play in the moment and the best I can. It is pretty surreal."

The series shifts to California for game three on Saturday where the Sharks are hoping to have better success at home after dropping both games in Pittsburgh.

Jones has been the Sharks best player in the first two games of the series, which is expected to be a close one and could go the distance as both games were decided by late goals.

But the Sharks' defence has also looked nervous at times. This is the first time in their 25 year franchise history they have reached the NHL championship.

"We got to find a way to score some five-on-five goals. We got to find a way to battle through. There is not a lot of room out there," said Sharks coach Peter DeBoer. "You got two teams playing tight hockey and one mistake costs you the game."

Pittsburgh has had the edge in speed so far and their top players -- Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel -- have outplayed the top players for San Jose.

Crosby scored 36 goals and had 85 points during the regular season, and he has 16 points in the playoffs.

Sheary played the first half of the season in the minors. The first year left winger now has four key playoff goals for the Penguins, including a goal in their 3-2 win in game one.

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Phil Kessel also scored for the Penguins, who are 4-2 in overtime in the playoffs.

"We wanted to hit them with our best game," said Pittsburgh defenceman Ben Lovejoy. "In the first half of the year it was tough. We had to learn how to win. We had to band together from the third defensive pairing to the top line centre.

"When we do that we become a very difficult team to play against."

Pittsburgh was controlling the play Wednesday only to have San Jose defenceman Justin Braun tie it 1-1 with just over four minutes left in the third in front of a crowd of 18,600 at the CONSOL Energy Center arena.

The victory came 24 years to the day the Penguins won their second Stanley Cup in as many years in 1992 by sweeping the Chicago Blackhawks.
Afghan plan coming soon. Prepare yourself for the next round of debate over U.S. policy in Afghanistan, as the U.S. commander in Kabul gets ready to present his recommendations on the way forward.

Gen. John Nicholson is wrapping up his 90-day evaluation of the situation in Afghanistan this week, his spokesman Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland told reporters Wednesday, though he said Nicholson does intend to keep it classified, and he does intend to keep it private so he can have those frank discussions with his military leadership. War plans, as weve all seen over the past 15 years, dont remain secret for long once they hit Washington, however.

Nicholsons hotly-anticipated review of the war is expected to recommend keeping more troops in the country than President Barack Obamas plan currently calls for, along with giving U.S. pilots more leeway in striking Taliban and Islamic State targets from the air. There are currently 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, a number expected to drop to 5,500 troops by the end of the year. Unless.

Goes boom. Theres been yet another American airstrike in Somalia, this time targeting Abdullahi Haji Daud, who the Pentagon says was a senior military commander for al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab. Daud served as the mastermind of the groups attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda, the Pentagon said. The strike comes in the wake of other recent U.S. bombing runs against the group, with one in March killing 150 fighters at a training camp.

How much effect do strikes on terrorist leaders have? On the day the strike was announced, al-Shabab launched a brutal coordinated attack using car bombs and gunmen who stormed the Hotel Ambassador in Mogadishu, killing 16 people and wounding scores more 55 more.

U.S. commandos in the fight. And dont forget that last month, a team of U.S. special operators patrolling with Ugandan peacekeepers near Mogadishu called in an airstrike on an al-Shabab position when they came under fire. And that wasnt the first time American troops have been in a scrap in Somalia this year. In March, commandos, acting with Somali forces, killed up to 15 Islamists in another sharp firefight.

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Not a war. The Obama administration doesnt consider Somalia to be a war zone, and troops there are most definitely not in combat, airstrikes and firefights aside.

The big talk. Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton will give a speech in San Diego, Calif. Thursday where shell make clear the threat that Donald Trump would pose to our national security and to put forth her own vision for keeping America safe at home and leading in the world, Clintons campaign said in a statement Wednesday.

Too little, too late? A coalition of Syrian-American organizations blasted the United States, Russia, and the United Nations Wednesday for failing to drop food into besieged areas of Syria following Damascuss refusal to provide unfettered ground access to humanitarian aid organizations, FPs John Hudson reports. Against Wednesdays looming deadline, the Syrian government allowed convoys into two of Syrias 19 besieged areas. But according to initial reports, the aid for the distressed Damascus suburb of Daraya included medical supplies, vaccines and baby milk  but no food. And 17 of Syrias other 19 besieged areas continued to suffer from a lack of access.

Hey there, good morning, and thanks for clicking on through for the summer 2016 edition of SitRep. As always, if you have any thoughts, announcements, tips, or national security-related events to share, please pass them along to SitRep HQ. Best way is to send them to: paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley

North Korea

The U.S. Treasury Department has applied yet another round of sanctions on North Korea, using a section of the USA Patriot Act to label the country a primary money laundering concern. The move would force U.S. companies to take extra measures to make sure that North Korea wasnt using banking facilities in third countries in order to carry out financial transactions. The department says its sanctioning Pyongyang because in part because it uses state-controlled financial institutions and front companies to launder transactions in support of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.

NATO

Norwegian State Secretary for Defense Oystein Bo says NATO needs to step up its game at sea, IHS Janes reports. Bo made the comments at the 2016 Undersea Defense Technology exhibition, saying hed like to see a more frequent peacetime presence of vessels from the Atlantic alliance in the waters off Norways coast. He argued that the maritime environment in northern Europe is a changing strategic environment, as evidenced by the increased interest in Arctic operations by the regions militaries.

Turkey

The Turkish defense ministrys top acquisition official has some left-handed thanks to offer to the U.S. for its restrictions on armed drone exports. Defense News reports that Ismail Demir said hes grateful the U.S. rejected Turkeys bid to purchase armed American drones like the MQ-9 Reaper because it forced us to develop our own systems. Turkey has developed its own armed unmanned aerial vehicle, the Bayraktar, which uses two domestically-produced precision guided munitions. A NATO official told Defense News that tensions between the alliance and Turkey, including a recent spat over a U.S. special operations troops wearing a patch from the Kurdish YPG, are worrying.

Iraq

There are 20,000 children inside Fallujah currently being held captive by the Islamic State, the United Nations Childrens Emergency Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday. The humanitarian group urged Iraqi security forces to be mindful of the many thousands of children stuck inside the city as they prepare for a battle to kick jihadist fighters out. The children of Fallujah, which make up nearly half of the 50,000 civilians living there, are facing tough conditions, including starvation and malnutrition because of a months-long siege of the city and recruitment into the ranks of the Islamic State fighters holding out there.

Libya

Two separate militia groups are fighting their way toward the Islamic States Libyan stronghold of Sirte, in what is looking to be the first major assault on the group since it planted its black flag on the Mediterranean coast last year. The militias are converging on the city from both the east and west in uncoordinated advances that call into question who wields the most power in the war-torn country. U.S. intel agencies estimate there are about 5,000 to 6,000 ISIS fighters in Libya. Since late 2015, small groups of American, British and French special operations forces have quietly deployed across Libya in an attempt to find allies among the countrys various militia groups.

Afghanistan

Dont hold your breath waiting for the Talibans newly-appointed emir to engage in peace talks. The Kabul-based Pentagon spokesman, Brig Gen. Charles Cleveland, ruled out the likelihood that Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada would show up at the negotiating table any time in the short-term. That assessment casts doubt on the Obama administrations ability to reach its goal of achieving a negotiated solution to Americas longest war.

The Army says that the Obama administrations cap on troop levels in Afghanistan is leading to an increase in the use of contractors there, according to an Army document obtained by the Washington Post. The document, submitted to the House Armed Services Committee, says Army combat aviation brigades have deployed without their full maintenance staff, leading to a reliance on private defense contractors to carry out the work. That shift, the service argues, is affecting unit cohesion and stripping troops of critical skills and experience.

Technology

The Federal Aviation Administration is trying out a British-made drone jammer in order to protect airports against rogue hobbyist drones, according to the BBC. The jammer, the Anti-UAV Defense System or AUDS, allows operators to seek out the small airborne bots with an infrared camera and then blast them with radio interference to disrupt their radio control links. AUDS is made by a troika of British defense firms, Blighter Surveillance Systems, Enterprise Control Systems, and Chess Dynamics.

Army

Popular Mechanics takes a look at the Pentagons search for a new sidearm. Buying a new handgun for the Army and Air Force isnt as simple as it sounds. The services kicked off the bidding to replace the Beretta M92 in 2015 and the process is expected to wrap up in a little over a year. The contract has attracted a dozen bidders, which the Pentagon will soon trim down to just three finalists. The lengthy and complicated process for picking a relatively simple weapon has drawn criticism from Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley and Senate Armed Services Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

And finally

The British tabloid the Daily Mirror claims that U.K. special operations troops in Libya are blasting Bollywood tunes through Islamic State fighters radios and communications channels to demoralize or at least generally annoy the jihadist group.

Photo Credit: Xinhua/Yaqoub Azorda via Getty Images
(Adds NHTSA reaction, background on Takata)

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Six automakers said Thursday they are recalling nearly 2.5 million U.S. vehicles with defective Takata air bag inflators, documents posted with government regulators show.

These recalls include 1.9 million SUVs and trucks from General Motors Co, along with the recall of 217,000 vehicles from Volkswagen AG, 200,000 from Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz USA unit, 92,000 from BMW AG, 54,000 from Jaguar Land Rover, a Tata Motors Ltd brand, and 5,100 from Daimler Vans USA.

The new recalls came a day after Ford Motor Co announced a recall of nearly 1.9 million vehicles for Takata inflators.

In total, 15 automakers have recalled nearly 16.4 million vehicles in the United States since last week, stemming from Takata's decision in May to declare another 35 million to 40 million inflators with ammonium nitrate defective by 2019.

Upward of 100 million vehicles worldwide with Takata air bag inflators have been recalled and are linked to 13 deaths and more than 100 injuries. Inflators can explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel into vehicle passenger compartments.

Takata Corp said last month it hired investment bank Lazard Ltd to lead a financial restructuring in an effort to resolve costs stemming from its recall of faulty air bags.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said newer air bag inflators don't pose an immediate risk to safety until subjected to years of exposure to high humidity.

Automakers have acknowledged the inflators were the cause of 11 deaths - 10 in Honda vehicles and one in a Ford pickup - while two more deaths in Malaysia remain under investigation.

GM said its new recall includes some 2007-2011 full-size trucks and SUVs for passenger-side air bag inflators. The largest U.S. automaker is recalling the vehicles even though it doesn't believe what it called unique Takata inflators made for GM vehicles pose a safety risk.

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GM said it has started a third-party environmental study that will simulate long-term temperature effects to continue assessing inflator aging.

GM declined to answer questions about how many vehicles it has on U.S. roads with ammonium nitrate Takata inflators that it may be forced to recall by 2019.

Takata agreed last month to declare all frontal ammonium nitrate frontal inflators without a drying agent.

"The science clearly shows that these inflators become unsafe over time, faster when exposed to humidity and variations of temperature," NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas said Thursday.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said Thursday that NHTSA's recall schedule, announced last month, "can be modified based on additional research. The total number of vehicles and potential schedule for recalls will determined accordingly."

GM also is establishing a part return program to collect and test Takata inflators recovered from GM vehicles.

On Wednesday, a U.S. Senate report said four automakers were continuing to sell some new vehicles with defective Takata air bag inflators that will eventually need to be recalled.

Automakers cited engineering and supply challenges to explain why they are still relying on the faulty airbags.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Adrian Croft and Nick Zieminski)
- By Nate Tobik





I grew up in a suburban area outside of Cleveland, Ohio. There were houses, businesses, and people everywhere. The college I attended and graduated from was Miami University (in Ohio, not Florida). It's located in a very small town in a rural area of Southwestern, Ohio. One of the things I did in college was take epic bike rides through the Ohio countryside. I'd skip classes and ride for hours exploring farms, finding new little towns and just riding to ride. I did all my riding on a mountain bike, which goes to show that when you're young and in shape having the right tool for the job doesn't matter much. On one of my rides I'd pass through a small town named Bath, Indiana. I'm not even sure you could call it a town, it's more of a collection of houses, a grain elevator, a post office and an enormous bank branch for the Bath State Bank.

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Whenever I rode past Bath State Bank I would think "how do they stay in business? Who banks here in the middle of nowhere?" I could never reconcile that a dozen houses and a grain elevator could keep a bank in business, let alone prosper to the level that they did as evidenced by their branch.

Fast forward 16 years and I still wonder the same thing when I pass through small towns with local banks. How can a tiny town with a boarded up business district support two or three local banks?Welcome to the world of small community banking.

There are over 6,000 banks in the US, but the majority of these banks are small. Of the 6,000 US banks only 709 have more than $1b in assets, and 4,808 are under $500m in assets. Even more astonishing 3,189 have less than $200m in assets. We can look even further and find 1,689 banks with less than $100m in assets. Let's walk through the math on how a small bank like this can stay in business using Bath State Bank as an example.

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The bank has $143m in assets. They are earning 4.68% on their earning assets and pay .7% to fund those earning assets. This leaves them with a 3.98% net interest margin, the difference between the two values. From this they pay expenses such as salaries, back office expenses and whatever else is necessary to keep the lights on. Bath State Bank was able to earn $1.4m in 2015, which is a reasonable return. The bank generated a 10% ROE, a respectable return for a bank any size, but especially respectable for a bank that has under $200m in assets.





The question isn't "how can such a tiny bank stay profitable?" but rather "why does such a bank exist?" Who are their customers? Where in the world did that $143m come from if this bank is located in the middle of nowhere? This is especially the case when one considers that the median income for most of these rural counties is less than $30,000 a year. How much is someone making $27,000 a year able to save? And how many families with $5,000 and $10,000 in savings does it take to hit $120m in deposits?





If one were to decide today in 2016 that they wanted to create a network of financial institutions to take deposits and make loans across the country I can guarantee that branch locations, and especially branch locations in small population centers would not be the model used. But in the US we are living with the legacy of our past, and the past is the reason for the present.





From the founding of the US until the 1950s banks weren't allowed to have branches. Each bank had its own building and a small town might have a half dozen competing banks, all in their own buildings, all doing business slightly differently. From the 1950s to the 1980s government agencies slowly deregulated the banking industry and allowed branch banking, interstate banking and finally a regulatory banking free-for-all where anything was kosher until it met its end in the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. The pendulum had swung too far, and now we're quickly swinging the other way towards increased regulation.





Banks, like small town hardware stores started where there was a need for their services. If there was a crossroad with a railroad station then there was probably reason enough to consider starting a bank. This was back when pictures were black and white and men chopped down trees and farmed wearing three piece suits. As the banking industry has consolidated from over 14,000 banks in the mid 1980s to the current 6,000 banks a number of rural and small town branches have closed, but there are still many that remain.





While riding the "L" train in Chicago a few months ago I had a bit of an epiphany. For those who've never been to Chicago the "L" train is an elevated public train system. The system is a few stories up and weaves in and out of the city's downtown close to buildings and above the road. While sitting in the train and roaring past apartment and office windows just a few feet from the track a though occurred to me. This system that moves almost a million people a day couldn't have been built today. No citizen of Chicago would allow a train to pass two feet from their bedroom window every five minutes if it were a newly proposed system. But since this is a system that was built when the common good mattered more than the individual good, or when politicians just didn't care what people thought we have a situation where people gladly pay thousands a month for an apartment right on the main drag where window rattling is a feature. This idea of investment isn't limited to public transit, it's most infrastructure in our country, and a lot of small business investments as well. What was easy to build 50 to 100 years ago is impossible to build now. Or if it were to be built now the project would be measured in decades and cost billions. Many of the rewards we're reaping now are a result of investments earlier generations made. How many small businesses are running and turning a profit with machinery that was built in the 1950s and has been fully depreciated for longer than most of their workers lives?





The same concept is true in banking, and even more true with community banking. Up until recently banking was a relationship business. People would build relationships with a local bank for decades and sometimes their entire lives. My step-father-in-law lived in a small town in rural Ohio and still drives 35m out of his way to bank with the local small town bank. He knows the names of everyone at "his" branch. It's a testament to community banking that relationships can be built this strong. The problem is that many banks put in the hard work to build those relationships decades ago and are now on autopilot and have never re-invested in new relationships. There are a lot of very forward-thinking and progressive community banks that are still engaged in relationship banking. They have established themselves inside valuable niches and are a trusted resource for their area. But there are many more that are aging along with their depositors riding on the coattails of yesterdays investment.





Every once in a while I'll check out an older bank branch, or investigate a small town branch just to see what it's like. I can tell when a bank is aging within minutes of stepping into the branch, sometimes I don't even need to enter. These branches are time capsules for when they were built. Want to know what banking was like in 1978? There is a branch around here I can direct you to, it's perfectly preserved down to the carpet. Feeling nostalgic for the 1980s? There are thousands of branches sporting that luxury dark wood panel look where you can rest your body on a nicely worn period chair or couch. For all the mockery the Post Office receives I've never been in a Post Office location that is as badly out of date as some bank's branches.





For a bank to thrive and grow they constantly need to acquire new depositors and generate new loans. From the day a loan is originated it starts to pay itself down towards zero over a fixed length of time. Banking is a race against the clock. Generate enough loans each month to offset principle repayments and generate additional loans to register growth. The same is true for a bank's deposits. Deposits are usually steadier, but they age with their account holders. Older depositors have more money and on average keep higher deposit balances. But eventually these account holders pass away and their money is distributed to relatives, charity or wherever else. Maximizing deposits is tricky for a bank. They want older depositors with higher balances, but they need a constant flow of newer older depositors to counteract aging and death.





It is fascinating to observe an aging bank. This is typically a bank that's in a shrinking town with a shrinking loan book and deposits that are dying and being passed onto heirs. A common thread with these banks is their management is aging along with the deposit base, but they don't know what to do to fix the situation. The problem is very few executives in their 70s will embrace spending significant amounts of money on iPhone apps or online banking websites. Those things are for kids, not for serious banking like it was done in the 1980s. And speaking of such let me take a slight diversion for a second. If you ever want to reminisce about the good old days I know of no better place than the annual meeting of many community banks. I have found myself caught in conversations with bankers passing around stories from the late 1970s and mid 1980s like they just happened. I'm all for story-telling and great war-stories. But when the only stories are war-stories and the same executives are missing relevant issues of the day it's probably time for them to retire or recalibrate to what's important to the business today. For better or worse the world has changed, and companies need to change with it.





The longer one thinks about this problem of aging banks the bigger the problem becomes. We have thousands of aging community banks in aging areas that don't need these banks anymore. Much of banking can be replaced with a phone. I can deposit a check anywhere my iPhone has coverage. I can transfer money while commuting on the train, or waiting for my food at a restaurant or anywhere. I don't have to be physically present to do any of these activities anymore. A human doesn't need to approve my deposit or withdrawal slip to conduct a transaction. And this technology isn't just limited to customers who live in cities. The US has become so blanketed with wireless and smart phones that anyone anywhere can conduct banking from the palm of their hand.





If a bank doesn't continually re-invest in new relationships then it has lost the only edge it had in business, the local niche. A community bank can be flexible where larger banks cannot, but the bank can only be flexible if they are investing in the up and coming younger generation. The best way to develop a lifelong banking relationship is with a customer when they're younger. Young banking customers are loss-leaders. A teenager with a bank account that rarely has a balance above $138 doesn't generate much in the way of income. But as the teenager grows up, gets a job, starts a family, buys a house, and starts a business they will continue to add banking services and products most likely at the bank they started with, if they're treated well and given an opportunity to grow.





The natural question is what happens to these community banks that are on the edge of retirement? I think eventually what will happen is a larger bank will buy them out, take their deposits and loans, close their branches and move branch banking online. They keep a branch or two in the area that's well lit, updated, and modern.





I want to circle bank and answer my original question "How do small community banks survive?" the answer is "many don't." For bankers, customers and investors I think we're witnessing an interesting time. Since the financial crisis banks have been forced to adapt to a low rate environment. Some have done this very well. But others have decided to blame rates, politics, or the weather for their lack of investing and aging business. We're witnessing what happens when small town banks that refuse to re-invest age themselves out of the market. Many will sell to competitors across the street or across town. And competitors will take what they've learned in the past eight years and turn sleepy deposits into profit engines through IT re-investment, increased cross-selling and other opportunities.





As investors we can profit from being on both sides of the table. By owning aging banks on the cusp of retirement, or by purchasing banks that are buying aging banks. For those that like the cheap flip look for banks trading below book value with elderly executives, shrinking deposits and shrinking loans all while maintaining too much capital. For investors with patience and an eye for quality look for banks that are becoming successful serial acquirers for these retiring banks, buy in and hold on tight.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.



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Smart beta is making its way to fixed income exchange traded funds and IndexIQ is helping speed that movement along. Last month, IndexIQ introduced the IQ Enhanced Core Bond U.S. ETF (AGGE) and the IQ Enhanced Core Plus Bond U.S. ETF (AGGP).

Both new funds are ETFs of ETFs, meaning that their holdings are other ETFs.

Related: Alternative Strategies With ETFs

AGGPs underlying index yields 2.63 percent, according to issuer data. The new ETF charges 0.35 percent a year, or $35 per $10,000 invested.

Emerging market debt has been a strong performer to start 2016, driven in large part by ongoing dovish Federal Reserve policies, improving emerging market fundamentals and a suddenly weakening dollar, said Salvatore Bruno, CIO of IndexIQ, in a statement. For the core plus approach used in AGGP, we felt it was important to have this exposure as one area our index and the fund could access when total return momentum was in the categorys favor.

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The AGGE carries an expense ratio of 34 basis points and yields 2.9 percent at last check. It seeks to outperform the U.S. dollar-denominated, taxable, fixed income universe by using a momentum strategy that is measured by comparing a short-horizon (45-day) moving average of returns to a longer-horizon (90-day) moving average of returns, while taking into account recent volatility of each sector, reports TheStreet.com.

Investors may be attracted to the cheap valuations and wider yield premiums that these bonds offer over safe-haven government bonds after benchmark yields on 10-year Treasuries dipped back toward all-time lows. Moreover, the rebound in energy prices could have reassured investor fears of a potential defaults in the energy space.

Related: Investors Love Fixed Income ETFs

Story continues

AGGE tracks the IQ Enhanced Core Bond U.S. Index. Top holdings in that benchmark include investment-grade and intermediate-term corporate bond ETFs, such as the the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF (LQD) and the Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF (VCIT) .

According to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data, risk premiums on U.S. investment-grade corporate debt have been cut by half a percentage point since mid-February due to rising demand from Asian and European investors. Hans Mikkelsen, head of U.S. investment-grade credit research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, anticipates that by the year-end, premiums could dip to about 1.5 percentage points from current levels of around 1.72 percentage points as European and Asian investors funnel as much as $500 billion into American corporate bonds in 2016, or up 50% year-over-year.

Tom Lydons clients own shares of LQD.
Three glass beakers of steamed milk, coffee and hot water were all it took for writer Jamila Rizvis photo of deconstructed coffee in a Melbourne cafe to go completely viral.



Sorry Melbourne but no. No no no no no. Hipsterism has gone too far when your coffee comes deconstructed, Rizvi wrote in the caption. I wanted a coffee. Not a science experiment. I prefer to drink my beverages out of crockery and not beakers.

Since Tuesday her post has racked up more than 2 million views and 22,000 reactions on Facebook, and social media has exploded with posts ridiculing the apparent hipsterism, from photos of deconstructed wine and whisky, to ideas of how to avenge deconstructed coffee.

But the manager of the Melbourne cafe, Lisa Wearmouth, insists she has not helped the world reach peak hipster. Wermouth told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the concept allowed picky coffee drinkers to choose what they want and make it how they want to.

But after several million views, thousands of Google searches and interview requests, Rizvi urged the internet to wake up and smell the coffee.

To be honest, the whole thing is rather bemusing, she said in her latest Facebook post. And also, a little sad. She elaborates that with Australia in the middle of an election campaign, there are far more serious conversations that need to take place.
john kirby

Video of an eight-minute exchange between a reporter and former State Department spokeswoman at a 2013 briefing on the Iran nuclear deal mysteriously disappeared following the briefing, and it "wasn't a glitch," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

When first questioned in early May about the deleted footage  which showed Fox News reporter James Rosen asking then-State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki whether secret talks had occurred between the US and Iran prior to 2013  press-office director Elizabeth Trudeau said it was a glitch, and that no one had intentionally edited the video.

The back-and-forth was potentially embarrassing for the State Department: Psaki had essentially admitted to Rosen that nuclear talks had taken place as early as 2011.

"There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress," she told Rosen. "This is a good example of that.

Rosen had gone back to look for that exchange in light of a recent New York Times Magazine profile on President Barack Obama's deputy national-security adviser, Ben Rhodes, who claimed that the Iran talks began in earnest in 2013. But he found that that portion had been removed, with a white flash taking its place.

There was a deliberate request [to delete the footage]  this wasnt a technical glitch, State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday. He said he did not know who had made the request, and Psaki  now the White House communications director  denied any involvement.

I had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of any form of editing or cutting my briefing transcript on any subject while at the State Department, Psaki said in a statement. I believe deeply in providing the press as much information on important issues as possible.

jen psaki

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An unedited written transcript of the 2013 press conference has always been publicly available in the State Department's archives, The Washington Post reported.

But the Obama administration has been doing damage control ever since Rhodes, a former speechwriter for Obama and now considered his "foreign-policy guru," gave a surprisingly blunt and honest interview to The New York Times Magazine about how the administration has sought to shape its foreign policy and sell it to the general public.



The interview received widespread attention for Rhodes' willingness to share details about the meticulous foreign-policy narrative he has helped Obama construct  and, most controversially, how he claimed to have created an "echo chamber" of experts and commentators to shape the public's perception of the Iran deal.

ben rhodes

Part of the public-relations push was convincing skeptics that Obama did not begin to negotiate the deal until after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, pushed by the White House as a "moderate," took office in 2013.

Because Rosen's exchange with Psaki suggests that the White House began the talks earlier  and, consequently, negotiated with Iranian hardliners  news that it was intentionally deleted has been perceived as part of the messaging Rhodes described in his interview.

In a statement, Kirby said "this happened three years ago" and that "the recipient of the call doesnt remember anything other than the caller, the individual who called this technician, was passing on a request from someone else within the public affairs bureau."

He noted that while there are no rules prohibiting the State Department from deleting footage from press-briefing videos, he will "make sure we have the right rules in place" to prevent it from happening again in the future.

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In a bid to expand, Dallas-based low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines Co. LUV has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for permission to fly to three more Mexican cities. The carrier intends to operate non-stop flights between Los Angeles and the Mexican destinations  Cancun, San Jose del Cabo/Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta  from Nov 6, 2016, assuming that it gets the approval by Jun 30.

The carrier intends to operate two daily flights to Cancun and San Jose del Cabo. Only one flight connecting Los Angeles and Puerto Vallarta will operate per day. Meanwhile, we appreciate the carriers move to gain approval for these highly popular tourist spots as it will open up significant commercial potential.

Southwest Airlines has in fact requested the DOT for extra-bilateral authority so that it can operate the additional flights even before the liberalized aviation deal between the U.S. and Mexico materializes.

If Southwest Airlines manages to gain the approval for the beach destinations in Mexico, competition on these routes will intensify manifold which may lead to lower ticker fares. Economic analysis firm, Campbell-Hill Aviation Group believes that fares may reduce in excess of 20% from the current levels while traffic is likely to increase by more than 500,000 passengers annually. The firm further predicts annual savings to the tune of $50 million from these routes.

Further, it is to be noted that an approval would mark the first direct connection between Los Angeles and Mexico, as far as Southwest Airlines is concerned. Currently, the carrier serves four Mexican destinations from eight U.S. cities. We are impressed with the carriers route expansion efforts. Meanwhile, capacity (available seat mile) is projected to grow in the band of 5% to 6% in 2016 over 2015 levels.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Southwest Airlines currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the airline space include SkyWest, Inc. SKYW, Air France-KLM SA AFLYY and GOL Linhas GOL.

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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali security forces have brought to an end a bomb and gun attack by militants on a central Mogadishu hotel that killed at least 16 people and wounded 55, authorities said on Thursday. Islamist militant group al Shabaab, affiliated with al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Hotel Ambassador. Two lawmakers were among the dead in the attack which ended with police shooting the assailants. "So far we have confirmed 16 people, mostly civilians, died and 55 others were injured," Major Nur Mohamed, a police officer, told Reuters on Thursday. Another police officer, Major Farah Ali, told Reuters the hotel was now secure after the entire building was cleared of militants. "National security forces are in every floor, the last fighter on the top roof (was) shot," Ali said. A Reuters witness saw the last fighter shot dead, his body falling to the ground from the building's fifth floor. Eight dead people lay in front of the hotel. Al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM in 2011. But it has remained a potent threat in Somalia, launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the Western-backed government. The group has also been behind deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda. Both contribute troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaabs military operations spokesman, told Reuters they had lost three fighters during the hotel attack and killed 30 people. One of the three dead fighters drove the car that rammed the hotel while the others stormed the hotel, al Shabaab said. Death tolls given by al Shabaab are usually much higher than those given by officials. "We killed 30 apostates including MPs and soldiers....the operation was victorious as planned," Abu Musab said, adding they had injured 60 during the assault. Earlier, Reuters witnesses said sporadic gunfire had continued at the hotel early Thursday morning, with Police still combing the building's five floors for militants and to rescue those still trapped. A man on the hotel's top floor was heard by a Reuters witness crying out: "Please rescue me." The building was extensively damaged during the attack and government forces had blocked off all the main roads near the scene. (Reporting by Abdi Sheik; Abdirahman Hussein and Feisal Omar; writing by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by xx)
Sri Lankan Buddhist monks held funeral prayers Thursday for more than 100 villagers buried in a landslide two weeks ago, as rescuers formally ended the search for their bodies.

In a solemn ceremony near the side of the collapsed mountain northeast of Colombo, dozens of saffron-robed monks conducted last rites for the victims of the rain-triggered landslide that destroyed two villages.

"The families of the victims have told us there is no point in digging through tonnes of mud anymore," said Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe who led the search and rescue effort in Kegalle district.

"Since there is no prospect of finding anyone alive, we have stopped the search operation," he told AFP.

More than 46 bodies have been pulled from the landslide which struck on May 17. But rescuers have now stopped looking for another 103 villagers still listed by the Disaster Management Centre as missing and presumed buried in the debris.

Ranasinghe said a small group of troops will remain in Kegalle to help residents salvage any property from the disaster.

And the military will erect 550 tents in the district to house residents who lost homes in the landslide or are living in areas considered at high risk of further landslides.

The landslide was triggered by the heaviest rains in Sri Lanka in nearly 25 years that also caused flooding in Colombo and elsewhere and forced some 600,000 people from their homes.

Sri Lanka has received emergency aid from other countries, including neighbouring India which dispatched two naval ships and an aircraft loaded with supplies.
YouTube

Its been less than two weeks since Cody Rhodes asked for and was granted his release from WWE, but theres still plenty of buzz surrounding his departure. Rhodes is already crossing items off his lengthy and impressive to-do list, as it was announced on Tuesday that he will be wrestling Kurt Angle for the first time ever on August 27.

Still, one Hall of Famer thinks Rhodes may have acted too hastily, particularly with the looming WWE brand split. On his latest podcast, Stone Cold Steve Austin spoke at length about Rhodes decision and offered his two cents on why Rhodes should have considered hanging in there just a bit longer. (Transcript via Wrestling Inc.)

Cody Rhodes decided to ride off into the sunset. He wasnt happy with creative [and] he wasnt happy that he couldnt do what he wanted to do. Austin continued, his value would have been at an all-time high because of the brand split and theyre going to need all hands on deck. And so maybe him leaving wasnt such a good idea, to take himself out of the picture, as he might have had a little bit more leverage or might have been used in a higher regard due to the brand split because theyre going to need all the talent they can muster. I dont see him in Japan. I love the kid. I love Cody. I think hes a real talented guy, but where does he go from here if its going to be in the wrestling world? Austin added, I wish that guy all the luck. Hes a good kid and Ive been friends with the [Rhodes] family forever. Dusty meant so much to my wrestling career and I used to travel the world with Dustin and I got to know Cody a little bit, so I wish the guy all the luck in the world.

Austin may not see Cody in Japan, but Rhodes himself teased on Wednesday he may soon be working for an even more surprising employer: EVOLVE.

This will likely thrill any indie wrestling fans, as EVOLVE currently employs the cream of the crop in current independent talent. But the tease is surprising, considering how closely EVOLVE is working with WWE these days. No less an authority (pun halfway intended) than Triple H has gone on record as referring to EVOLVE as a feeder system for WWE and NXT talent.

The developments with Rhodes will likely get even more interesting as his bookings begin to fill up. Well all be paying very close attention to where he winds up next.
Reheads are a rare breed. Accounting for about 1-2% of the world's population, they're often stereotyped as just being pale, freckled, easily sunburned and lacking eyebrows.

But photographer Thomas Knights, who's a redhead himself, knows better. With his previous photo project, Red Hot, he aimed to celebrate hunky redheaded men, and now, in collaboration with British designer Elliott J. Frieze, Red Hot II aims to celebrate not only redhead beauty and uniqueness, but also diversity.

"I felt that there was a real bias against redheads in particular, that they had very little representation across the film, fashion and media industries," Knights said in an email. "So it would have been a shame for Red Hot to end; and after a period of 3 years I felt that I was unable to do it alone. There was so much that I wanted to add to the project."

Source: Thomas Knights

Source: Thomas Knights

Source: Thomas Knights

Source: Thomas Knights

He ended up meeting Frieze and the two set out to photograph as many redheads as they could for both an exhibition and a coffee table book. Currently seeking funds for the project on Kickstarter, Knights' ultimate vision is not only celebrating the beauty of redheads' often pale skin, but freckles as well, in addition to spotlighting black and mixed race individuals that also have red hair.

In total, Knights has photographed more than 100 people for the book, with roughly 5% of those people being black or mixed race, like and , seen below:

Source: Thomas Knights

Source: Thomas Knights

In addition to photographing models, Knights has also launched a hashtag campaign to help bring in people to photograph for Red Hot II's exhibition in Rotterdam in September. On social media, he's encouraging redheaded people to take pictures of themselves and use the hashtag #IAMREDHOT2 with the link to the Red Hot II Kickstarter page for a chance to be photographed by him in London.

Since part of this project is an effort to help eliminate the stereotyping (and thusly, bullying) of redheads, Knights has partnered up with the Diana Award, which is an anti-bullying initiative that was launched in Princess Diana's honor. Already, the first Red Hot book raised more than 10,000 (or $14,000) for the charity, so Red Hot II could actually do some good, in addition to letting you gaze upon the beauty of a bunch of good-looking redheads.

Story continues

Source: Thomas Knights

Source: Thomas Knights

Source: Thomas Knights

As far as what Knights wants people to think after flipping through his book, or even attending his exhibition: "That life is beautiful."

And after seeing these pictures, it certainly is.
Bella Hadid Lands Elle U.K. Cover [Instagram]

Gigi who? The supermodel's little sister, Bella Hadid, has fully emerged from behind her sibling's shadow, coming into her own with her first Vogue cover (for Vogue Turkey), as well as the cover of American Elle and now, Elle U.K. The 19-year-old nabbed the starring spot on the British glossy's July issue rocking a denim jacket and a cool cat eye. Also this week, Hadid was named the new face of Dior beauty and her feature in Givenchy's spring ad campaign was released. Talk about a hot streak.

A photo posted by Bella Hadid (@bellahadid) on Jun 1, 2016 at 2:23am PDT

Fashion Industry Big Wigs Top Forbes' List of Richest Self-Made Women [Forbes]

It pays to be in the fashion business - in more ways than one. Forbes on Wednesday released its annual list of richest self-made women, and it was filled with plenty of industry names including Gap founder Doris Fisher (No. 3) and Forever21 founder Jin Sook Chang (No. 9). Designers Tory Burch (No. 19), Donna Karan (No. 31) and Vera Wang (No. 34) also made the list, and #Girlboss Sophia Amoruso of Nasty Gal came in at No. 53 - ahead of both Beyonce and Taylor Swift.

Birkin Bag Sells for Record Price at Auction [CNBC]

A crocodile leather Hermes Birkin bag set a new record on Tuesday when it sold for $300,000 at auction. The "matte white Himalaya Niloticus crocodile diamond Birkin 30" was purchased by an anonymous buyer at Christie's Hong Kong for approximately $100K over Christie's original estimate. The Nilo Birkin is apparently one of the most sought-after on the market, as Hermes reportedly only makes two per year.

The Line Opens First Pop-Up in the Hamptons [Pret-a-Reporter Inbox]

The Line, a digital retail experience curated by Vanessa Traina, is launching its first brick-and-mortar pop-up location in the Hamptons for the summer season. The space, which opened over Memorial Day weekend, will feature home goods as well as fashion, including pieces from brands like Acne Studios, Altuzarra and Calvin Klein. Interior design consulting services as well as styling will be available at the store, which also will host special events in addition to a Beach Reads book lending library.
Dhaka (AFP) - Each time he hears of the latest deadly machete attack, Ashraful Islam can't help but think of his father's gruesome murder and fear his fellow Sufi Muslims will never be safe again in Bangladesh.

"The killings are not declining, they're getting worse. And every one reminds me what happened to my father," said the 30-year-old medical student.

"I've no idea why they are doing this but if they aren't stopped then our future is doomed, we'll become another Pakistan."

Islamists have claimed responsibility for around 40 killings in the last three years of foreigners, secular bloggers, gay activists, Hindus and Christians. Many have been slaughtered with machetes.

But no group has suffered as much as Sufis, an offshoot of mainstream Islam whose followers are often denounced as "infidels" for their mystical traditions, including worshipping at shrines.

Fourteen have died since December 2014 in religiously motivated attacks, including Islam's father Khizir Khan.

More than 100,000 Sufis are expected in Dhaka Friday to attend an annual congregation, which this year is both a celebration and an act of defiance.

It comes less than a month after local Sufi leader Mohammad Shahidullah was found hacked to death under a mango tree in the northwestern Rajshahi district.

The deep wounds in his neck echoed Khan's murder last October when he was killed by suspected members of banned Islamist militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Khan had around 2,000 followers, many of whom would turn up at weekly prayers at the family home in Dhaka.

On the night of his killing, he had arranged to meet prospective tenants for a vacant apartment underneath the family's own flat.

But he went downstairs to an ambush by a gang who cornered him in a bathroom and then hacked at his neck until he bled to death.

The killers then burst into the upstairs living-room, tying up Khan's family, who later managed to escape.

Story continues

- Slaughtered in bathroom -

"It was my mother who discovered the body in the bathroom. The head was partially severed.

"It was such a shocking thing. Every now and then my mother still breaks down."

Police soon arrested five suspects who allegedly told investigators it was their "religious duty" to kill Khan.

No-one has yet to be convicted for the killing and there have been few arrests in the other murders.

Most have been claimed by the likes of JMB or international jihadists such as the Islamic State organisation or Al-Qaeda's South Asia wing.

While more than 90 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million population are Muslims, it is an avowedly secular state.

For most of the first four decades after winning the 1971 independence war with Pakistan, Bangladesh had a reputation for religious tolerance and Sufi Muslim services drew tens of millions of worshippers.

But Islamist groups, discredited by their war-time allegiance to Pakistan, grew in strength over the decades.

The largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, became a key ally of the mainstream opposition before being banned by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a move critics say pushed its followers towards extremism.

Mubashar Hasan, an expert on political Islam, said Bangladesh's fate was familiar to other Muslim-majority countries where extremists have tried to impose a very narrow form of religion.

"Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq are facing similar problems," said Hasan from Dhaka's University of Liberal Arts.

He urged Hasina's government to co-opt Islamic scholars to join a campaign "to delegitimise religious justification of violence and terrorism carried out by these extremists".

- Militants 'brainwashed' -

There is a widespread fear that youths struggling to find work in an impoverished country are being radicalised in madrassas, or religious schools.

"These militants tend to be half-educated or illiterate and become brainwashed," said Rezaul Haq Chanpuri, an activist from a prominent Sufi family.

"There is a section of the country which believes these militants and the clerics who preach Salafi-Wahabi Islam represent the rightful path while Sufis are deviants."

A Dhaka-based Sufi, who has more than 100 followers, said he had adapted his services to avoid becoming a target.

"I am now using Koranic verses that are popular among Salafi-Wahabis so they can't brand me a deviant," he said on condition of anonymity.

Self-styled Sufi king Hazrat Dewanbagi, who is hosting Friday's congregation, now deploys heavy security around his inner sanctum -- which once was open to all.

Ashraful Islam admits being scared but won't reject his heritage.

"My father taught me that tolerance is true to the nature of Islam and it is others who have veered off the rightful path," he said.
Damascus (AFP) - A suicide bomb attack near a mosque killed at least two people and wounded another four in the regime stronghold of Latakia in northwestern Syria on Thursday, state media said.

"A terrorist attack hit near the Khulafa al-Rashideen mosque in the Daatur district of Latakia as people emerged from afternoon prayers," state television said.

Official news agency SANA quoted a senior police source as saying two people were killed and four wounded when the attacker blew himself up while riding his motorcycle in the coastal city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor that relies on a wide network of sources on the ground for its information, said three people had been killed in the attack.

Last month bombings claimed by the Islamic State group in the nearby seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus killed at least 170 people.

IS is not known to have a significant presence in Syria's coastal provinces, where its jihadist rival, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, is much more prominent.

But IS, notorious for using deadly sleeper cells to attack its enemies, suggested the creation of a "Wilayat al-Sahel" or Islamic province for the coastal area.

At least 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced from their homes since the war started with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in 2011.
Summer camp was a childhood staple for many baby boomers, one that included days spent swimming in the lake and evenings singing around a campfire. While boomers may think those happy times are in the past, some camps have crafted programs that let older adults relive the experience.

[See: 10 Alternatives to Full-Time Retirement.]

If you want to return to your childhood this summer, here are a few of the camps that can make it happen, along with tips to ensure your experience is memorable.

3 Summer Camps for Seniors

Just as summer camps for kids can specialize, so too can those for adults. They may be focused on the arts, outdoor activities or teaching a particular skill, such as cooking. Some cater exclusively to older, active adults while others welcome seniors to join with younger campers for a week or weekend of fun.

Sacramento Senior Summer Camps. Run by the City of Sacramento in California's Eldorado National Forest, these summer camps come in two flavors. One weekend, Grand Camp, is designed for seniors who want to camp with their grandchildren while a second weekend is focused on the arts.

"It's a low-cost way for people to spend time with grandchildren in a fun setting," says Rosanne Bernardy, superintendent of older adult services for the City of Sacramento, about Grand Camp. The Arts in the Sierras weekend features a wine and cheese social and a variety of art workshops.

Camp Sacramento is a historic site that has been welcoming visitors for 95 years. "It often serves as a place for friends to meet up," Bernardy says. While most campers are in their 50s and 60s, Bernardy says people into their 90s have attended as well.

Camp Chief Ouray. Run by the YMCA of the Rockies, Camp Chief Ouray offers weekends specifically for "kids age 50 and up." Active adults can choose from a variety of daily activities including archery, arts and crafts, dancing, fishing and day hikes in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park. Evenings include theme nights, square dancing and vespers among other things.

Story continues

"It's a pared-down version of traditional camp," says Mike Ohl, executive director of Camp Chief Ouray. Lodging is one difference between the older adult camps and other camp programs offered by the YMCA of the Rockies. Rather than roughing it, senior campers are housed at the Snow Mountain Ranch, which offers more modern amenities.

Like at Camp Sacramento, many senior campers choose to make Camp Chief Ouray an annual getaway. "It's amazing to see the people who come back year after year," Ohl says. He adds that the oldest registered camper is in her early 80s and has been attending camp for 29 years.

Camp Grounded. Unlike other camp options for seniors, Camp Grounded isn't exclusively for older adults. Instead, adults of any age can attend. The catch is no one, in theory, should know who is 40-something and who is 50-something.

"One of our main rules of camp is that we don't share how old we are," says camp director Brady Gill. Campers also must surrender their phones and electronic devices upon entering the camp and cannot discuss their occupation either. The idea is that without distractions and preconceived notions of who other campers are, people can focus simply on having fun.

Camp Grounded has had people as young as 19 and as old as 75 attend weekend camps at locations in North Carolina, California, Texas and New York. "It's a throwback to summer camp in full," Ohl says. However, interspersed with traditional activities like hikes and archery are options like ballroom dancing and tai chi.

[See: 12 Great Things About Retirement.]

Tips to Make Senior Summer Camp a Success

A positive experience at summer camp starts with careful planning. Seniors should speak to their physician first to ensure they are medically able to participate in summer camp activities. Some camps, such as Camp Sacramento and Camp Chief Ouray, are located at high altitudes that may not be appropriate for everyone.

Once cleared for camp, seniors should consider whether they want to spend their time only with older adults or an all-ages group. Camps specifically for those age 50 or older may offer a slower, more comfortable pace, but Ohl says some seniors enjoy the energy of an all-ages environment. Plus, an all-ages camp can allow seniors to attend with adult children or grandchildren.

Beyond that, seniors should prepare for camp just as anyone else would. Follow the packing list provided by the camp, and be ready to rough it at some level. You may be sleeping in cabins without electricity or indoor plumbing.

[See: The 10 Most Visited National Parks.]

While summer camp is not for everyone, camp directors say people who are intrigued by the idea should give it a try. "We rarely have anyone who's disappointed," Bernardy says.





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By Sarah White MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has posted its biggest fall in unemployment ever recorded in May as resorts hired staff ahead of a record influx of tourists, a potential boost for acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in an election re-run in three weeks. Unemployment has been gradually receding in Spain since a recession ended nearly three years ago, but many jobseekers are still struggling to find work, fuelling frustrations among voters. Spain returns to the ballot box on June 26 after an inconclusive December election stripped Rajoy's center-right People's Party (PP) of its absolute majority. Opinions polls show the vote could produce another political stalemate, forcing parties to once again try and form a coalition. The number of Spaniards registering as unemployed last month fell by 3 percent from April, dipping below the 4 million threshold for the first time in six years to 3.89 million, data from the Labour Ministry showed on Thursday. Nearly 120,000 fewer people signed on as jobless, the biggest drop for a month of May on record. Job creation, meanwhile, progressed at a slightly slower pace than a year ago but was still strong, growing by over 1 percent from an already solid April. One in six jobs was in hotels and restaurants. Spain's dysfunctional labor market played a major role in December's political upset, as support for upstart parties advocating stronger workers' rights or an overhaul of job contracts fragmented the vote. According to voters polled so far, the PP will still come in first place but well shy of a parliamentary majority. Surveys showed that a quarter of voters made up their minds in the very last days of December's campaign, meaning the undecided could still be swayed at the last minute. "If the campaign is important, then these (job) numbers are important, especially for the PP as it's the only issue they can campaign on," said Teneo Intelligence analyst Antonio Barroso. Anti-austerity party Podemos ("We Can"), now teaming up with a smaller left-wing force, is expected to place second or third thanks to strong backing from millions of Spaniards who have yet to benefit by the economic recovery. Mass layoffs during a six year downturn left Spain with the second-highest unemployment rate in Europe. Though it has fallen sharply since 2013 it still stands at 21 percent of the workforce, according to a National Statistics Institute (INE) survey. (Editing by Julien Toyer and Raissa Kasolowsky)
Donald Trump sued Deutsche Bank to wipe out $40 million in personal loans he borrowed to build Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, arguing the financial collapse was an unexpected force majeure, or act of God, meaning of course he didnt have to repay the loan.

(OK, try to get outraged. Cant bring yourself to do it? No kidding.)

Theres more. This was soon after Trump said he was hoping for an economic downturn so he could pick up some real estate cheap.

(At what point are we supposed to get outraged by this consistent behavior of his?)

Hillary uses a campaign staffer to make sure only 1 percent of all the money she promised to statewide Democratic parties stays in those states. The rest of her Values funds goes back to her and the national committee that supports her.

(Can you feel the Bern? No?)

Theres more. Hillary actually promised this money would go to the state campaigns.

(Yes, and it all depends on what the meaning of the word go is. Been there, seen that, bought the blue dress.)

Trump allegedly paid the mortgage of a women who has been telling the media how Hillary led the campaign to cover up Bills sexual abuse of her and other women.

(Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby ... whats new?)

Theres more! Roger Stone says Trump helped out with the fundraiser and Trump denies it! Who do you believe?

(All of them. So what?)

Clinton Bestie, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, is being investigated for illegal campaign finances.

(Boring. Happens all the time. The FBI is investigating his pal Hillary, and the State Department now reports that she did break the law with her email server. Show me a Hillary voter who cares.)

These illegal campaign charges link McAuliffe to a wealthy Chinese national.

(Please. The Clintons invented illegal campaign financing by Chinese nationals.)

Trump just got punkd by Kim Jong Un as his envoy said he would never meet with Trump.!

(All Trump said is that he would meet with him ... and that Un is a maniac)

Theres more. This means Trump is unworthy of international relations!

(Trump is probably unworthy of a drivers license. Clintons husband already helped North Korea get nukes and no one can give Iran more nuke capability than Obama did.)

Hillarys team shut down the Nevada State Convention, blocking Sanders supporters from entering the hotel, enacting a bogus rule to ignore the winning convention vote for Bernie, counting only the earlier vote supporting Hillary.

(Hillary raises the money and gives it to the DNC, so she makes the rules.)

Theres more! There was fighting and cursing! State troopers lined up in front of the stage to keep Sanders supporters from rushing the stage and attacking Hillarys supporters in the party leadership!

(Yes, and if the Democratic Party tries that stunt at the national convention in Philly, all hell will break loose. And THAT will be a news story. People getting beaten up in Vegas is not news ... even if its Democrats pounding each other at a state convention.)

Trump said he raised $6 million for veterans and he really only raised $4.5 million. He lied!

(Um ... Not even close to any of either candidates biggest lies. Big whoop.)

Business analyst and investigative writer Charles Ortel, famous for revealing weasel business practices at General Electric, is also taking deep analytical dives into the Clinton Foundation and calling it charity fraud.

(The Clintons are crooked. Her supporters over the age of 40 all know that. So?)

So, this is what a couple weeks worth of news coverage of Trump and Hillary looks like. Aside from partisans defending their candidate, my responses dont seem too far from those of many people I talk to on both sides.

We know theyre both dishonest people, using whatever system and connections they have at the disposal for their own benefit.

So far, its pretty boring.

Are you ready for them to step it up and get really nasty?
Experts say a Pennsylvania woman's recent case of an antibiotic-resistant infection shows the urgency for new antibiotics.

In the case, the E. coli bacteria causing the 49-year-old woman's urinary tract infection were found in lab testing to be resistant to an antibiotic called colistin. Doctors consider colistin a "last resort" drug  it can have serious side effects, such as kidney damage, so it is used only when other antibiotics do not work.

Currently, colistin is mainly used to treat people infected with a type of bacteria called CRE, or carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae. E. coli is one type of enterobacteria, though not all E. coli strains have acquired resistance to carbapenem.

Bacteria that are resistant to multiple antibiotics are the sort of thing that "[keeps] us awake at night," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist and professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine who was not involved in the woman's case.

Although doctors were able to treat the woman's infection with other antibiotics, the discovery of a colistin-resistant bug in the United States has experts on high alert. [6 Superbugs to Watch Out For]

Indeed, ever since colistin-resistant E. coli were discovered in China in November 2015, labs in the U.S. have been on the lookout for similar strains, Schaffner told Live Science. Because of this extra attention, they were able to recognize it immediately in the woman's case, he said.

In addition to the United States, the superbug has been found in Europe, Schaffner said. That means there will be more cases of these bacteria, he said. It's unclear how widespread or how quickly the bug will spread, but Schaffner said he's "very sure that we'll see more instances of this."

This particular superbug will not only spread farther but could also give rise to completely new strains of superbugs, experts say.

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That's because the genetic element that makes the bacteria resistant to colistin is found on a small, circular piece of DNA called a plasmid, Schaffner said. Plasmids are unique because they can be transferred easily from one species of bacteria to another, he said. Because of this, it's clear that this genetic element has the potential to spread to other strains of bacteria, although that hasn't happened yet, he said.

But if the plasmid that makes bacteria resistant to colistin were to spread to a CRE strain of bacteria (that was already resistant to carbapenem), doctors would not be able to use either powerful antibiotic to treat the infection.

The end of the line?

Doctors in Europe and the United States have encountered patients who have infections with bacteria that are resistant to a number of antibiotics and thus have almost no options for treatment, Schaffner said. [7 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

In these cases, doctors may see if any experimental drugs are available or may try using combinations of antibiotics, Schaffner said. By combining drugs, it is sometimes possible to kill the bacteria, he said. Another option is to give a patient a higher-than-recommended dose of the antibiotic, he said.

There will always be mechanisms that allow bacteria to evade or become resistant to an antibiotic, Schaffner said. In other words, as researchers develop new drugs, bacteria will mutate to become resistant to them, and so on.

Therefore, there is a need to keep looking for and creating new antibiotics, Schaffner said.

The search is more difficult than it once was. The antibiotics that were the easiest to discover were found back in the 1940s and 1950s, Schaffner said. "These days, it will take more work" to find new drugs, he said.

But although more research on antibiotics is imperative, the detection of the superbug in the United States is not a cause for panic, experts say.

"I think, for the moment, those in [the fields of] public health and infectious disease will do the worrying for everyone," Schaffner said.

The most important thing that people can do is to not argue with a doctor if he or she tells you that you don't need antibiotics, Schaffner said. Don't insist on them, he said.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Lyle Denniston, the National Constitution Centers constitutional literacy adviser, explains why suggestions that transgender rights are on the fast track to the Supreme Court may be premature.

The facade of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

The facade of the United States Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C.

It is often said, and it is quite true, that getting a case reviewed by the Supreme Court is something like a lottery, perhaps not entirely a matter of chance but certainly something that cant be predicted with confidence. The side that loses a case in a lower court might boldly promise, Im going to take this all the way to the Supreme Court! It is not that simple, or easy.

The Justices over many decades have developed techniques for avoiding controversies, or at least delaying the point of final resolution  even if the issue is a huge one that the public might think the court ought to take on and settle. The court generally prefers to let lower courts try to sort things out first. Its place is actually at the end of the line, and it generally prefers it that way.

It took a string of lower court decisions and something of a false-start appeal in a famous California case, before the Supreme Court was finally ready to decide that the Constitution protects an equal right for gay and lesbian couples to marry. That decision just about a year ago in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges gave a strong new impetus to another civil rights campaign  the effort to promote equality for transgender people.

It is true, as a matter of historic fact, that this is not a new issue for America  there has been an active transgender rights movement for at least a generation, probably longer. It was 14 years ago that the Transgender Law Center started up, to change law and policy as it affects transgender people, and 13 years ago that the National Center for Transgender Equality was founded, pursuing a broad agenda of equal rights.

So, by now, one might say, that movements turn before the Supreme Court might have arrived. Even a casual scanning of each days headlines suggests that, suddenly, transgender rights have gained high new visibility on the national agenda. The federal government and the state of North Carolina are suing each other over the issue, and eleven states have put together a lawsuit to challenge federal policy on transgender rights in the nations school systems. Predictably, talk is beginning about getting the Supreme Court involved.

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Earlier this week, in fact, a federal appeals court judge, declaring that time is of the essence, suggested that one or both sides in a prominent case over transgender rights ought to move on, promptly, to the Supreme Court. Circuit Judge Paul V. Niemeyer put that notion into a separate opinion as his court  the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit  chose not to reconsider a three-judge Circuit panels ruling in a school restroom case from Gloucester County High School in the town of Gloucester Courthouse, Va.

Judge Niemeyer, who dissented from that panel ruling, could have demanded that his colleagues hold a vote on whether to reconsider that decision, but he opted not to make that demand. The momentous nature of the issues, he wrote, deserves an open road to the Supreme Court to seek the courts controlling construction of Title IX for national application. The facts in this particular case, he said, were straightforward, making this a clear test on the basic legal question.

That question involves the scope of Title IX of federal civil rights law, a statute that seeks to ban discrimination on the basis of sex in federally-funded education programs. The legal question is whether that statute uses the word sex to include gender identity, or transgender status (generally understood to mean people who identify with a gender that differs from what it says on their birth certificates). Judge Niemeyer is firmly persuaded that Congress did not mean to give Title IX the sweeping scope that the federal government and some courts have now given to it. But he realizes that his is a lower court, without the capacity to decide the issue once and for all.

He made his suggestion in the case of G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board. G.G. is the name given in court files to a 16-year-old junior at Gloucester County High School who was born a girl but identifies now as a boy; he and his mother sued after he was denied access to the boys restroom at school. He would now be free to ask the Supreme Court to hear his case, mainly because he did not win all that he had sought in the federal appeals court, the Fourth Circuit Court. And the county school board also could file an appeal in the Supreme Court, because its policy has been found to be a violation of Title IX.

Is this case, therefore, a perfect set-up for the Supreme Court? It may not be.

First, the appeals court decision was not a final ruling on G.G.s legal claim; the majority of the court panel ordered the case back to a federal trial judge, to reconsider his ruling flatly rejecting all of G.G.s claims.

Second, the appeals court did not even make up its own mind on what Title IX means; it chose instead to accept the reasoning of the federal Department of Education. The panel majority said it had no choice but to defer to that agencys interpretation.

Both of those factors might well suggest to the Justices that this case is premature as a test of Title IXs meaning. The Supreme Court believes its authority is best exercised when there is a definitely final ruling in a lower court. While the question of deferring to a federal agencys interpretation is a legal issue in its own right (one that, incidentally, is now under some challenge among the Justices), that is not a straightforward test of what sex means in Title IX. (The meaning of the word sex in other federal laws  including the workplace discrimination law, Title VII  is also at stake in the transgender rights controversy.)

Since the Supreme Court would have complete discretion over which case it might wish to take on to decide what sex means in federal civil rights law, it could be more willing to consider that question in a setting other than the highly emotional one of access to restrooms, especially for young people. For those who like Judge Niemeyer believe that Congress did not intend civil rights laws to apply to transgender rights when those are not directly specified, restroom access raises profound questions of personal privacy  much more than, say, equal opportunity in the workplace.

While Judge Niemeyer may yet see the G.G. case move on to the Supreme Court, he and the nation cannot know for sure that this will be the chosen one for actual review.

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Susan Sarandon is positive Hillary Clinton has trouble coming her way in the form of an indictment over her email usage while Secretary of State.

When talking to MSNBC on Thursday about her candidate of choice, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sarandon wondered aloud why no on was talking about the indictment against Clinton. When MSNBC's Chris Jansing interjected there was no indictment against Clinton, Sarandon replied: "No, but there's going to be. There's going to be. I mean, it's inevitable."

Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, maintains she did nothing wrong when she used a private email server for official communications, rather than a State Department server.

Sarandon has been a staunch, outspoken Sanders supporter for some time.

The Oscar-winning actress also has made numerous headlines for her comments about Sanders' supporters in Hollywood being "afraid" to speak out, as well as saying she cannot see herself supporting Clinton should she win the Democratic nomination.

"I feel it would be very hard for me to send that message that I give her permission to use my taxes," Sarandon told Jansing of supporting Clinton.

Both Clinton and Sanders have been stumping in California recently ahead of the state's primary election on Tuesday.

Read More: Susan Sarandon Says Bernie Sanders' Hollywood Backers Are "Afraid" to Be More Vocal
Indianapolis police have alleged that a 19-year-old man accused of three murders was inspired by Universals franchise The Purge.

According to court documents, Johnathan Cruz told a juvenile informant on May 15 that he had been Purging, referring to the premise of the horror film series The Purge. The films are set in a near-future in which the U.S. government designates a 12-hour period where all crimes, including murder, are legal.

KM stated that that Jonathan Cruz told her about shooting and robbing several people, the affidavit from Det. Brian Schemenaur said. Cruz told her he had been Purging. Purging was in reference to the 2013 American action horror film The Purge in which the United States government sanctioned an event in which all crimes to include rape, murder, arson, assault and theft is legal from 7 pm to 7 am the next day.

KM also told Schemenaur that Cruz told her that he had shot a man in the back of the head and neck area two times, had seen him with a black .22 caliber revolver and had seen him with bloody clothing, according to the affidavit. The document also said Cruz had attempted to show her a video on his phone of the shooting, in which she heard gunshots and saw a body fall.

Schemenaur said that the details of KMs account, given at police headquarters, were consistent with the the murders of Billy Boyd and Jay Higginbotham on May 12. Cruz is also accused of the May 15 murder of Joe Ruiz.

The Purge was Blumhouses first production in 2013 under its first-look deal with Universal. The sci-fi thriller, starring Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), became a major success, earning $89 million globally on a $3 million budget.

The second installment, The Purge: Anarchy, took in $108 million worldwide. Jason Blum is producing again along with Sebastien Lemercier and Platinum Dunes partners Michael Bay, Brad Fuller and Andrew Form.

Universal and Blumhouse declined to comment Thursday in response.

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Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said in the probable cause affidavit that the four-day spree is affiliated with criminal gang activity. He said at a news conference Wednesday that the victims appeared to be chosen at random and that no decision about seeking the death penalty would take place for at least 30 days.

After Curry announced the charges against Cruz, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett released a statement: Senseless acts of violence such as those alleged in this case are incomprehensible, but thanks to the swift actions of IMPD detectives, Prosecutor Terry Curry and witnesses willing to come forward, we are one step closer to providing answers for these victims families.

The third iteration of the franchise, The Purge: Election Year, opens July 1 with Elizabeth Mitchell starring as a U.S. Senator running for president on a pledge to end The Purge.

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A 20-year-old Swede was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday for preparing to build a bomb to carry out a suicide attack, a court said. "The man had gathered information on bomb-building from the Internet and downloaded propaganda from IS," the Attunda District Court said. "He is now sentenced to five years in prison for preparing to commit a terrorist crime." The man, named as Aydin Sevigin, was found guilty of buying materials such as a pressure cooker and ball bearings to make a bomb, intending to blow himself up in a suicide attack. The Prosecution Authority believe the man had earlier tried to join the jihadist group Islamic State in Syria, but was twice stopped in Turkey and sent back to Sweden. Sweden has not been hit by a large-scale militant attack, but local media reported in April that authorities received intelligence about a possible attack on the capital by Islamic State militants. In 2010 a suicide bomber died when his bomb belt went off prematurely in central Stockholm. (Reporting by Simon Johnson and Daniel Dickson; Editing by Alistair Scrutton)
A video posted by a local media group on June 1 is described as showing American special forces personnel along with Syrian Democratic Forces fighters preparing for battles against Islamic State in Raqqa and Manbij.

The video shows military tanks with SDF flags, some of the men are seen wearing YPG badges.

Others in the video are clearly westerners, and can be seen in other videos speaking in American accents. Storyful is, however, unable to confirm if the men are US special forces personnel. SDF are widely reported to be supported by US special forces. Reuters said on June 1 that the Manbij offensive was US backed.

The Pentagons press secretary, Peter Cook, on May 26 denied that US special operation forces were positioned on the forward line in Syria. He did not, however, offer a specific measurement of what the forward line was. See Storyful report here. Credit: YouTube/Step News Agency
Beirut (AFP) - Around 20 towns in Syria are currently besieged, mainly by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad's regime but also by rebels and jihadists.

Assad is accused of resorting to sieges to force rebels to lay down their arms in Syria's brutal five-year conflict.

An international humanitarian taskforce for the war-ravaged country agreed Thursday to add rebel-held Al-Waer, near the central city of Homs, to its list of besieged areas.

The addition raised the number of besieged areas to 19, with a total population of 592,700, most of them penned in by regime forces.

- Under siege by the regime -

The regime has mainly besieged towns around the capital Damascus:

- DARAYA: One of the first towns in Syria to erupt in demonstrations against the government in 2011, Daraya also became one of the first to be placed under a strict regime siege in late 2012.

An estimated 8,000 people still live in the rebel-held town, which lies just a 15-minutes drive southwest of Damascus and is even closer to the regime's prized Mazzeh air base, which hosts the feared air force intelligence services and their notorious prison.

A humanitarian aid convoy on Wednesday entered Daraya, the Red Cross said, in the first such delivery since the siege began. But the opposition said only medical supplies were in the delivery and not food.

- MADAYA: more than 40,000 people have been under siege in Madaya for months and the town became infamous in late 2015 after 46 people starved there.

- MOADAMIYEH AL-SHAM: A rebel town southwest of Damascus, Moadamiyeh was listed as a town under siege by the UN in January, after the regime imposed new restrictions which led to new food shortages. On Wednesday, an aid convoy entered the town for the first time since March.

Other rebel-controlled towns are also surrounded in Damascus province, such as Zabadani, along with Douma, Harasta and Zamalka in the region of Eastern Ghouta.

Rastan, one of the last rebel strongholds in Homs, is also under a devastating regime siege.

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- Towns surrounded by rebels -

- FOUA and KAFRAYA: The two Shiite pro-regime towns in northwestern Idlib province are under siege by Islamist rebels.

The rebels are seeking to link the fate of the two towns to those of Zabadani and Madaya, demanding that aid destined for loyalist villages should also go to these two rebel-held towns.

In April, 250 inhabitants of Madaya and Zabadani reached Idlib province, held by rebels. At the same time, some 250 inhabitants of Foua and Kafraya were transferred to Damascus and the province of Latakia, a regime stronghold on the coast. The evacuations went side by side with a delivery of humanitarian aid to these towns.

In early February, government forces, backed by Russian air power, managed to break through the siege imposed for the past three years by Islamist rebels on the Shiite towns of Nubol and Zahraa in the northern province of Aleppo.

- Under siege by the IS -

- DEIR EZZOR: The jihadist Islamic State group has since January 2015 besieged the eastern city of Deir Ezzor where more than 200,000 people live.

The IS controls more than 60 percent of the city, the capital of the province of the same name, most of which is in its hands.

Since early April, the World Food Programme has been carrying out food drops over the city.

The government has also managed to deliver aid to besieged towns that it controls by air drops. Rebels do not have access to aircraft.
Berlin (AFP) - Three Syrian men have been arrested in Germany over an alleged plan to launch a suicide attack there for the Islamic State jihadist group, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

According to the suspects' plan, two attackers were to detonate suicide vests while the others were to kill passersby with guns and explosives in the western city of Duesseldorf, prosecutors said in a statement.

The suspects were identified as 27-year-old Hamza C., 25-year-old Mahood B., and Abd Arahman A. K., 31, who were arrested in the states of Brandenburg near Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wurttemberg.

A fourth Syrian man, Saleh A., 25, had been in custody in France since turning himself in in February, they said, and Germany had now requested his extradition.

"According to current investigations, the four accused were planning to commit an attack in Germany for the foreign terrorist organisation Islamic State," said the prosecutors.

Saleh A. and Hamza C. had joined IS in early 2014 in Syria, where "they were ordered by the group's leadership to carry out an attack in the old town of Duesseldorf".

"Two suicide attackers were to set off their explosives vests at the Heinrich-Heine-Allee, a major street in Duesseldorf," the prosecutors said in the statement.

"After that, other attackers were to kill as many passersby as possible with guns and other explosives."

Saleh A. and Hamza C. had crossed from Syria to Turkey in May 2014. From there they travelled separately in March and July last year via Greece to Germany.

Germany last year saw a major influx of 1.1 million migrants and refugees who mostly travelled overland, the majority via Turkey, Greece and Balkans countries, to seek asylum in Europe's biggest economy.

Abd Arahman A. K. had already arrived in Germany in October 2014 "on the orders of the IS leadership", tasked with manufacturing the suicide vests, said the statement.

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By January this year, Saleh A. and Hamza C. had convinced Mahood B. to join in the attack.

The prosecutors added that there was no evidence "that the accused had already initiated the concrete implementation of their attack plan".

And they said that "today's arrests are not related to the forthcoming European football championship in France".

Since the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, German authorities have repeatedly said they believe Germany faces the threat of jihadist attacks.

Last August, IS threatened Germany and Austria with attacks in an online execution video, urging jihadists to commit attacks against "unbelievers" there.

Since then Germany has seen two knife attacks against police blamed on Islamists, a 15-year-old girl and a 41-year-old Iraqi man.
Thank you, Mason City Chamber of Commerce and North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corp., for inviting back Prestage Farms on June 2. Thank you for completely ignoring the democratic process and taking things into your own hands to try and get your way. Thank you for only inviting those you deemed fit to be in the presence of your information and making others feel like second-class citizens.

I also want to thank you for condoning a company that threw us under the bus trying to give Mason City a terrible reputation when we said no to it by calling us racists. Thank you for causing me to feel even more animosity toward certain people in this town. Thank you for being the reason we are still discussing this, and that one of my neighbors rang my doorbell last week and we proceeded to argue for over an hour. Thank you for pointing out in this town who cares more about money than for the greater good of the community.

If you insist on continuing to try and rip this community apart, do the right thing and get Prestage Farms to pay for a referendum. I have heard it costs around $25,000 to do a referendum in Mason City. I am sure a multi-million-dollar company that wants to be here so badly could afford to do this. Let the people vote.

Ron Prestage said he doesn't want to go where he is not wanted. This would be a goodwill gesture that could start the healing process in this town. If the majority wants them and it is proven in a vote, then so be it. But until then, I will never accept Prestage Farms.

Lori Holthaus, Mason City
Not so long ago, treating hepatitis C was a decidedly bleak affair. And the prospect of curing the potentially life-threatening virus, or infection -- which causes liver disease and inflammation of the organ -- was a longshot. As a result, many patients opted to forgo treatment.

Dr. Mark Sulkowski, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and medical director at the Johns Hopkins Infectious Disease Center for Viral Hepatitis, got involved in the treatment of hepatitis C in the mid-1990s. "At that time, we were giving injections of interferon -- which is one of your body's natural viral fighters; we gave these injections Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a period of up to 48 weeks, or nearly a year," he recalls. "These treatments were universally linked to side effects, including flu-like symptoms, depression, weight loss and other abnormalities of bloodwork -- and the cure rate ... was between 6 and 15 percent -- so a very ineffective treatment."

[See: 7 Innovations in Cancer Therapy.]

Today, thanks to significant medical breakthroughs that include a new generation of medications approved within the last couple years that are highly effective in addressing the most common strains of hepatitis C, the vast majority of patients who undergo treatment can be cured. "They do not involve the older medication interferon," Sulkowski says. "They are oral medications, generally given for a period of 12 weeks, that lead to a cure of chronic hepatitis C in more than 95 percent of people treated." The drugs are also much better tolerated, experts say, with common side effects including fatigue, headache and nausea.

In some cases, health insurance coverage has lagged for new hepatitis C drugs, including the brand names Sovaldi and Harvoni. One recent study found that almost half -- about 46 percent -- of Medicaid patients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland were denied treatment with the pricey new antiviral drugs, which can run $90,000 for a 12-week treatment regimen. World Health Organization research published in PLOS One in May similarly found that the drugs are unaffordable to people in many countries; Solvaldi costs $101,000 in Poland and $64,600 in the U.S. for a 12-week regimen.

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However, Medicare and private insurers tended to cover the vast majority of patients, ensuring the new drugs are accessible for many patients. Even so, many aren't undergoing treatment for another reason: Most of the estimated 3.2 million people living with chronic hepatitis C don't feel ill or know they are infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Though typically asymptomatic, it's doing damage just the same. The virus is literally making billions of copies of itself every day, replicating like crazy, resulting in inflammation of the liver, says Dr. Ira Jacobson, chairman of department of medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel in New York City. "Hepatitis C silently causes progressive scar tissue in your liver, culminating in cirrhosis," he says. Progressive liver damage can lead to liver failure or liver cancer.

Though the virus wasn't discovered until 1989, public health data suggest it was being transmitted decades prior to that time. Baby Boomers are at higher risk for hepatitis C than the general population, with nearly 1 in 20 infected by the virus, Sulkowski notes. The CDC recommends all Americans born between 1945 and 1965 undergo a simple, one-time blood test for hepatitis C. "If that test is positive, although certainly that is not information anyone would want to hear -- that you have hepatitis C -- it does empower that person to make health care choices that can improve their health and perhaps even save their lives," he says.

[See: America's Most Expensive Medicare Drugs.]

Patients with more advanced liver disease and cirrhosis -- or scarring of the liver -- may need to undergo a liver transplant. But given long waits for organs, some die before they're matched with a donor organ. "There have been many transplant programs that donate hepatitis C-positive livers to hepatitis C-positive recipients," Jacobson says. "The principle being that it would be a shame to deprive somebody with hepatitis C of the opportunity for transplant in the era of organ shortages when you may not be changing their outlook, because they already have the infection."

In short, research finds those with hepatitis C who receive hepatitis-C positive livers fare as well as those who receive livers that are negative for the virus. Using hepatitis C-positive livers opens up a pool of organs that increases the chances a patient gets the liver he or she needs, says Dr. Zobair Younossi, chairman of the department of medicine and vice president of research for Inova Health System, based in Falls Church, Virginia. Of course, he adds, these organs are still checked for other issues, such as scarring and fat, which could compromise the organ's quality.

Success has increased the proportion of hepatitis C-positive organs used for transplant to treat patients with hepatitis C, from 3 percent in 1995 to 9 percent in 2013. "Usually these organs were used for patients who didn't have a lot time to wait," Younossi says. "For example, liver cancer patients with hepatitis C tended to get more hepatitis C-positive organs." As with those patients treated with drugs alone, he says the vast majority -- more than 95 percent-- of those with hepatitis C who receive a liver transplant and are treated with medication are cured. "We live in a golden age of hepatitis treatment today," he says.

That makes it all the more important, experts say, that those at risk for hepatitis C, including Baby Boomers, and anyone who received a blood transfusion before July 1992 -- when the blood supply was not screened for hepatitis C -- seek medical attention to determine if they may have the virus. In addition, doctors say it's important not to wait to discuss treatment options. A resurgence of injection narcotic use has also lead to infections in young adults under the age of 30 in the U.S., Sulkowski says. But health providers are quick to point out that any stigma associated with hepatitis C is beside the point, given that the virus can be transmitted in numerous ways -- and that ultimately addressing the issue can improve a person's outcome and quality of life.

[See: 5 Common Preventable Medical Errors.]

"Nowadays, the critical point is that we think of just about every patient with hepatitis C as a potential treatment candidate, who we actively want to treat in the near future, so that we can cure them," Jacobson says.

Michael Schroeder is a health editor at U.S. News. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at mschroeder@usnews.com.
By Ronnie Cohen (Reuters Health) - African-American women who reported regular use of body powder were at greater risk for ovarian cancer compared to their peers who didnt use talc, a new study shows. Regular use of powder was associated with ovarian cancer regardless of where the women used it, the researchers report. Users of genital powder had more than a 40 percent increased risk of cancer, while those who used only non-genital powder had an increased risk of more than 30 percent. African-American women have been targeted for use of body powder, and they use it more commonly, principal investigator Joellen Schildkraut told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. Ive concluded  why use it? Schildkraut, an epidemiologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, had been skeptical of a long-debated connection between genital talc and the deadly gynecologic cancer. But her new study, in concert with other recent research, convinced her to advise women to avoid using talcum powder. I was a cynic until these recent studies came out. As you look across all these studies, I would say, why use it? Its an avoidable risk for ovarian cancer, she said. Schildkrauts team interviewed 584 black women with ovarian cancer and 745 black women without the disease from the southern, eastern and midwestern U.S. Nearly 63 percent of the women with ovarian cancer and nearly 53 percent of the healthy controls dusted themselves with powder, the researchers report in Cancer Epidemiology. Dr. Nicolas Wentzensen, head of clinical epidemiology for the National Cancer Institute, noted that African-American women are underrepresented in many epidemiological studies. He told Reuters Health by email that Schildkrauts research was well-conducted and confirms previous studies describing an increased risk of ovarian cancer from talc use. Wentzensen noted that the current study found stronger associations between talc use and ovarian cancer than previous research. A December paper in the journal Epidemiology, for example, reported a 33 percent higher risk of ovarian cancer in women who said they routinely applied talc to their crotches, sanitary napkins, tampon and underwear. In the past, African-American women have reported significantly higher use of so-called feminine hygiene products, including genital powder. A 2015 case-control study in Los Angeles found that 44 percent of African-American women reported using talcum powder, compared to 30 percent of white women and 29 percent of Hispanic women. In the 1990s, Johnson and Johnson outlined a plan to hike flagging sales of its powder by targeting black and Hispanic women, according to a company memorandum made public in recent lawsuits leading to multimillion-dollar verdicts against the powder manufacturer. Prospective studies, which follow participants over time to see if they develop a disease, are generally considered more reliable than studies that look backward. Two prospective studies have failed to link talc and ovarian cancer. But Schildkraut believes the prospective studies included too few talc users and too few ovarian cancer cases to uncover a relationship. Because African-American women tend to use talc more, Schildkraut believes that studying a sizable group of black women, like she did, makes the study more powerful and might explain the stronger association. Wentzensen said recall bias, particularly following publicity about outsized jury verdicts in talc-ovarian cancer cases, might explain the stronger association in the new study. Schildkraut considered recall bias but said she tends to believe women were more likely to correctly remember their talc usage. An estimated 20,000 American women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer and about 14,500 die from it annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Daniel W. Cramer, who heads the Obstetrics and Gynecology Epidemiology Center at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, first reported a link between genital talc and ovarian cancer in 1982. Since then, hes been calling for warning labels. In a recent editorial in Gynecologic Oncology, cancer genetics expert Dr. Steven Narod of Womens College Research Institute in Toronto wrote, In the interests of public health, I believe we should caution women against using genital talcum powder. Narod, who was not involved in Schildkrauts study, wrote that its disingenuous to state that there is no evidence that talc is associated with ovarian cancer. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1RnMXzp Cancer Epidemiology, online May 12, 2016.
By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania on Wednesday rejected findings by conservationists who said elephants could disappear from a reserve there within six years due to "industrial scale" poaching, saying the WWF analysis was outdated. WWF said Selous Game Reserve, Tanzanias largest protected area, was home to one of the greatest concentrations of African elephants on the continent, but rampant ivory poaching has seen the population reduced by 90 percent in less than 40 years. "Nearly 110,000 elephants once roamed the savannahs, wetlands and forests of Selous, but now only about 15,000 remain in the ecosystem," the conservation group said on Wednesday. "Based on historic trends of elephant poaching, by early 2022 we could see the last of Selous' elephants gunned down by heavily armed and well trained criminal networks that have turned poaching into an industrial scale global threat to conservation," the analysis said. The analysis, carried out for WWF by global development advisers Dalberg, said the loss of elephants at the reserve put the livelihoods of 1.2 million people at risk and hurt Tanzania's economy. The East African country relies heavily on revenue from safari tourism. Tourism is the biggest foreign exchange earner in east Africa's second largest economy. New President John Magufuli has pledged to root out poaching as part of a wider war on corruption. The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Gaudence Milanzi, dismissed the WWF findings. "The report has not taken into account the success of current efforts to curb poaching," Milanzi told Reuters. "There is no industrial scale poaching in the Selous right now, that was something in the past." Poaching has risen across sub-Saharan Africa, where armed gangs have killed elephants for tusks and rhinos for horns that are often shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines. Milanzi said Tanzania's anti-poaching efforts over the past two years had recorded major achievements. "I am sure these projections that elephants could vanish at the Selous by 2022 are based on past events, not the current situation on the ground," he said. "We haven't completely curbed poaching -- we need to step up our efforts. But elephant populations are actually rising and stabilising in some parts of the country, although poaching has not been completely eradicated." Milanzi cited the prosecution of a prominent Chinese businesswoman, Yang Feng Glan, dubbed the "Ivory Queen", as proof of the success of the poaching crackdown. She is accused of running a network that smuggled out tusks from 350 elephants, charges she denies. She is under police custody and facing trial at a court in Tanzania's commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. (Reporting by Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala; Editing by George Obulutsa and Alison Williams)
From Country Living

If you've ever caught an episode of HGTV's Flip or Flop, you've most likely learned a thing or two about which features help sell a house from Christina and Tarek El Moussa. But one of our favorite things about the show is how upfront the couple is about their difficult journey to becoming house flippers. Each episode kicks off by explaining that Christina and Tarek, both former real estate brokers, started flipping houses when the housing market crashed in 2008-they pretty much lost everything and had to work their way back up to be successful again.

By now Christina and Tarek have become pros at navigating Southern California's tricky real estate. We often see them attend fast-paced auctions on the show, at which they strategically battle it out with other investors to buy a house for the best price for returning a profit.

Starcasm recently did some digging to answer one of the most-asked questions about the show: Are these real estate actions real or staged?

During a Q&A with Talk Irvine in 2013, Tarek answered any doubts you may have, claiming that what you see on TV is indeed real. Here was his response:

Real estate auctions where we buy are real. I must have cashiers checks to buy cash (I lost a 20k check once that was a nightmare)!! I started a new business about 8 months ago buying rentals. I have purchased 11 so far with creative financing. I buy them cash than I get a blanket loan (1 loan) against 5 properties at a time at 10 percent interest at 65 percent Ltv. Even with the high rate I cash flow because I only buy really good deals. Have I lost, no I have not although I have been close a few times when I was new to flipping which was very scary. All I do all day everyday is study and buy real estate. I am starting to learn more about construction. The good thing is my construction team is good and honest and one contractor Battres Construction runs all my jobs. It takes a good team to be successful. It took years to put my teams together.

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While critics have questioned the show's finances, from how the couple pays for renovations to their seemly large profits, it appears that Christina and Tarek have done their best to be as transparent as possible. Tarek also revealed that he started this business in 2008 with the help of an investor who now receives half of the profit from each flip. "I didn't start with a lot of money, I proved myself and grew a business based on my business plan and track record," he said. "All the profits you see on show are real but I split that with my partner. They don't show that on the show because it's confusing for the audience to understand."

Read more at Talk Irvine.

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A Facebook post about one of her student's attempted suicide is going viral  attracting more than 185,000 shares and spurring nearly a quarter-million reactions.

Brittni Darras, an English teacher at Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, learned of her student's suicide attempt during a parent-teacher conference, when her mother was explaining her daughter's prolonged absence. The student's life was saved after someone anonymously reported a suspected suicide via the app Safe2Tell; suspicion was aroused after the student in question wrote farewell letters and deleted her social media presence.

Darras, after getting approval from the student's mother, write the student student a loving and encouraging letter.

"Her mom said that her daughter cried, turned to her mom and said, 'How could somebody say such nice things about me?" Darras wrote in her post. "'I didn't think anybody would miss me if I was gone.'"

"It made me realize that I was way too close to losing another student to suicide. I spent the next two months writing cards to every one of my students  over 100 of them  telling each one what is special and unique about them," she added.

This meant taking the time out of her busy teacher's schedule to write cards to all 130 of her students.

Through this initiative, Darras hopes to raise awareness about suicide and how it has become endemic amongst young people.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 34 in the United States.

"We've known intuitively that loneliness hastens death ... Psychobiologists can now show that loneliness sends misleading hormonal signals, rejiggers the molecules on genes that govern behavior and wrenches a slew of other systems out of whack," the New Republic wrote. "They have proved that long-lasting loneliness not only makes you sick; it can kill you. Emotional isolation is ranked as high a risk factor for mortality as smoking."

Given the insidious affects of loneliness on mental and physical health, Darras' outreach to every one of her students could well play a role in mitigating the kind of isolation which can buttress thoughts of suicide.

Her actions set a powerful example for mentors of young people everywhere  be they teachers, parents or friends.
A 17-year-old has been arrested and charged with fatally shooting a 15-year-old girl who was found dead Sunday in a parked car in South Sacramento, California, PEOPLE confirms.



Christopher Simpson appeared in Sacramento Superior Court Wednesday for his arraignment on charges of allegedly murdering 15-year-old Macy Murphy from Sacramento.



Simpson's murder charge is "open-ended" and includes first-degree murder, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.



The Sacramento resident will be tried as an adult and could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of the murder charge, according to court documents filed by the district attorney's office.



Simpson showed little emotion from behind the bars of his courtroom cell as Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Bowman read him the murder charge, the Sacramento Bee reports.



Simpson will remain in custody until his next court hearing on June 22.



At 2:45 p.m. on May 29, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department responded to a 911 call about an unresponsive female sitting inside a parked car on Inisheer Way in South Sacramento, according to police.



Murphy had been shot in the upper body with a 9mm pistol and was pronounced dead at the scene, say authorities.



Neighbors told authorities that the car had been parked on the street since late Saturday, the Sacramento Bee reports.



Macy's grandmother, Debbie Pacli, said Monday that neither she nor Macy's mother knew Simpson and didn't know whether Macy knew him, according to the Bee.



There is no known motive at this time, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.



 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.



At 9 a.m. Monday morning, Sheriff's Homicide detectives arrested Simpson at his home for Macy's murder, police say.



He was booked into Sacramento County Juvenile Hall for murder, say police.



On Tuesdsy, Murphy's friends and family gathered at a park in south Sacramento near where her body had been found to honor the memory of the teen described as smart and artistic, the Bee reports.



Detectives are asking anyone with information relating to this incident to please contact the Sheriff's Department at (916) 874-5115 or Crime Alert at (916) 443-HELP.



Tip information may also be left anonymously at www.sacsheriff.com, by texting 274637 (CRIMES) and entering the keyword 'SSD', or by calling (916) 874-TIPS (8477).
By Sylvia Westall KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaiti security service officers raided farmhouses near the Iraqi border late last summer, slicing through carpets and smashing open concrete floors. Hidden in large plastic containers was a weapons cache, the largest discovered in Kuwait's history. State television showed Kuwait's Interior Minister, a senior ruling family member, solemnly viewing the results of the operation. Kuwait charged 25 of its nationals  all of them Shi'ites  and an Iranian with spying for Iran and Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah. The case has opened up sectarian divisions in Kuwait. While Kuwait's Sunni majority and Shi'ite minority get on better than in neighboring Saudi Arabia, tensions still exist, and relatives of some of the charged men say they are innocent victims of regional politics. It also highlights the delicate position of many of the Gulf's smaller states, which find themselves caught up in a power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran. One Middle Eastern diplomat said Kuwait, a major OPEC oil producer and home to U.S. military bases, was squeezed between the two regional giants, who have jousted in recent months over everything from Iran's nuclear program to oil production. "Kuwait is in a critical situation, a small dot in a very big triangle," he said. "They are killing themselves to be in the middle." Kuwaiti prosecutors said the men intended to carry out "hostile acts" against Kuwait. Members of the "Abdali cell," as local officials dubbed the group for the place the weapons were found, were charged with buying, transporting and storing weapons and explosives. Several were also accused of receiving military training in Lebanon from Hezbollah, according to an investigation by Kuwaiti Homeland Security referred to by prosecutors in a Kuwaiti court. The men denied the charges. In January a Kuwaiti court found 23 of the 26 guilty of various crimes. Two were sentenced to death, including one, the Iranian, in absentia. The others were fined or received jail terms between five years and life. Three were acquitted. The prosecution is appealing the sentences, saying some of the men should have received tougher punishments. The men have all appealed their convictions. The charges, the lawyers say, were based on confessions nearly all of the defendants allege were extracted under torture. Khalid al-Shatti, a defense lawyer for Hassan Hajiya, the Kuwaiti man sentenced to death, said the case was politically motivated. "There is a conflict in the region and those who pay the price of this conflict are the accused." The Interior Ministry declined to comment for this story, referring queries to the judiciary. The judiciary did not respond to requests for comment. The Information Ministry, which deals with general media enquiries, said it was unable to comment on the topic. The government and state security officials have said the weapons show that Tehran was seeking to destabilize Kuwait and other countries in the region by infiltrating and manipulating local Shi'ite communities. In recent months Kuwait has accused Iran of stirring up local politics and ignoring "basic diplomatic norms." Iran has denied any connection with the alleged cell and has said Kuwaiti authorities have not contacted it regarding the Iranian defendant. Last September, the Iranian embassy issued a rare statement expressing "deep dissatisfaction with the association of the name of Iran" with the case. A senior Kuwaiti government official said that while Iran may not be happy with the court decision "they should respect our laws and they should also respect our internal affairs." Historically, relations between Kuwait's Sunnis, who make up between 70 and 85 percent of the country's 1.4 million citizens, and its minority Shi'ite community, have been mostly amicable. Shi'ites hold important positions in business, government and parliament. And last June, Kuwait's ruling emir comforted worshippers and families at the scene of a suicide bombing in a Shi'ite mosque. Claimed by Sunni extremist group Islamic State, the attack killed 27. But the Abdali case, said Abdullah Bishara, a Kuwaiti diplomat and former secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), has opened up splits. "Iranian politics, Hezbollah politics, have played a role in the agitation of differences in Kuwait," he said. "Abdali sharpened differences." The editor of one of Kuwait's main newspapers, who mixes regularly with senior ruling family members, agreed. The Kuwaiti government overdid it, the editor said. The Shi'ites say: This is against us." GUNS, GRENADES AND EXPLOSIVES The weapons cache Kuwait's security forces uncovered included Kalashnikov rifles, submachine guns, grenades, 144 kg of explosives, and 19 tons of ammunition, according to a 186-page court judgment issued in January. "These are all high explosives. To have them in thousands and tens of thousands of kilograms is very significant," Sheikh Thamer al-Sabah, President of Kuwait's National Security Bureau, told Reuters. But lawyer Shatti, whose own nephew was among those charged and jailed, said the weapons were for self defense. Members of Kuwait's Shi'ite community regularly keep weapons at home, he said, in part because of the rise of Sunni militant groups in the region. "It is in their interest to defend themselves, to defend their honor and defend their homeland, to defend the Kuwaiti government and the ruling family, to keep their weapons," Shatti told Reuters at the start of appeals proceedings in March. Hassan Hajiya, the primary defendant in the case, owns the Abdali farmhouses where the weapons were found. The prosecution said he smuggled the weapons by sea from Iran. Hajiya told the appeals court that the weapons were left over from local resistance to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The defense has asked the prosecution to examine the serial numbers of the weapons which they say will prove the weapons are old. Thamer of the National Security Bureau, which assesses domestic security risks, said the number of weapons suggest they were for more than just self defense and that the case fitted a pattern of Iran-linked militant and espionage activity in Kuwait dating back to the 1980s. "This is the Iranian influence again, like with militias in Iraq," he said. TRAUMATIC INJURIES The men's appeals hinge in part on the evidence used in the trial. The defense questions the testimony of two Homeland Security officers and the Interior Ministry investigation because, it says, they were based on confessions extracted under torture and duress. The defense team wants to see CCTV footage of the interrogations and video from cells where the men were held before the trial. It has also asked for the clothes the men were wearing when they were arrested; one lawyer said he saw blood stains on his client's garments. Homeland Security told the court it cannot locate the clothes. The CCTV footage, it said, was erased. A request for medical files for one of the defendants who was twice taken to a military hospital during interrogations was also denied, according to Fawaz al-Kateeb, whose law firm Taher Group is representing three of the defendants and is coordinating the entire defense team. "So no CCTV, no clothes, no medical files. Is it a fair trial? Are these fair proceedings?" Kateeb asked. An August medical report from the Interior Ministry's general department of criminal evidence, referred to in closed court but seen by Reuters, described doctors' examinations carried out on three of the defendants after they were interrogated. The report said the men, Hassan al-Attar, Hassan al-Bathar and Yousef Ghudunfary, all sustained "frictional abrasions" on their wrists as the result of restrictive handcuffs. Attar had bruising on his upper right arm, Bathar on his neck and left arm, and Ghudunfary had abrasions on his elbows and feet, the report said. It also described "traumatic injuries" seemingly due to a "collision with a solid object" but said the cause was not clear. The men were not in severe physical pain and their injuries were expected to heal within 30 days, the report said. The Interior Ministry declined to comment. The Paris-based Arab Commission for Human Rights said medical reports "clearly showed visible injuries of some of the detainees and confirmed that they have been tortured during their detention." The statement, signed by 13 regional rights groups in February, said the legal proceedings "discredit the image of the Kuwaiti judiciary and State of Kuwait." (Additional reporting by Babak Dehghanpisheh in Beirut; Edited by Simon Robinson)
Washington (AFP) - Despite a spate of bloody incidents that made global headlines, the total number of deaths in terrorist attacks fell last year by 14 percent, a US government report said Thursday.

While the Islamic State group remains the major threat and carried out devastating attacks in France, Lebanon and Turkey -- violence and total deaths decreased in Pakistan, Iraq and Nigeria.

According to figures compiled for the US State Department, there were an average of 981 "terrorist attacks" per month worldwide in 2015, killing a total of 28,328 over the year.

This represents 13 percent fewer attacks and 14 percent fewer deaths than in 2014, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

But while the global picture could be seen as encouraging, the figures record huge increases in indiscriminate political violence in Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria and the Philippines.

The START figures were released Thursday as an annex to the State Department's annual strategic assessment -- "Country Reports on Terrorism" -- prepared for the US Congress.

This warned that the "global terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2015, becoming increasingly decentralized and diffuse."

The report also placed some of the blame on nation states, warning that extremists exploit frustrations "where avenues for free and peaceful expression of opinion were blocked."

Where countries, including US allies, have rigged judicial systems and abuses by security forces and corrupt politicians go unchecked, violent non-state actors can win support.

But the single greatest threat remains the Islamic State group and its growing legions of affiliates and supporters in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

The group has begun to lose ground to US-backed forces in its self-declared "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq, and it has begun to struggle to find funds, the report concludes.

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But the IS group has expanded its territory in Libya, and its branch in Egypt's Sinai peninsula has gained strength, attacking local security forces and claiming the bombing of a Russian airliner.

The group has a small toehold in Afghanistan and in 2015 ordered or inspired attacks "by individuals or small groups of self-radicalized individuals in several cities around the world."

The Nigerian-based group Boko Haram pledged loyalty to the Islamic State in 2015, but has since come under increased military pressure from regional government forces.

Meanwhile, the IS group's predecessor as public enemy number one, Al-Qaeda, is seeking to mount a comeback and continues to inspire or order attacks, particularly in Yemen and East Africa.
(Reuters) - A Dallas appeals court upheld Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtons three state indictments for felony fraud on Wednesday, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The newspaper said Paxton, a Republican, likely would appeal the decision to the highest criminal court in Texas.

Paxton was indicted by a grand jury last year on charges of defrauding investors and illegally acting as a securities agent. He faces similar charges in federal court.

Kent Schaffer, a Houston lawyer acting as a special prosecutor in the case, confirmed the Morning News report in an email.

A lawyer for Paxton, Dan Cogdell, said in an email the defense team would weigh in coming days whether to bring the ruling before the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Fifth Court of Appeals ruled that three of the arguments Paxton used to challenge his indictments could not be considered at this point in the process, the Morning News said. A fourth argument was invalid, the court said.

The newspaper said Paxtons first three arguments dealt with whether the judge who empanelled the grand jury that indicted him had done so improperly. The fourth argued that one of the state laws Paxton is accused of violating is unconstitutional and trumped by similar federal law.

Paxton has contended he is being targeted because of his Christian beliefs.

Paxton said last year that Texas county clerks who objected to gay marriage on religious grounds could refuse to license same-sex couples despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring states to allow same-sex marriage.

He could be disbarred for advising state officials to violate a Supreme Court decision.

Paxton faces two security fraud charges related to stock sales and compensation from the Texas technology firm Servergy. He also faces charges he illegally acted as a securities agent for a separate firm.

(Writing by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Diane Craft)
It all started as one man walking around a track in Tacoma, Washington, in 1985. Now it has transformed into the world's largest and most impactful fundraising event to end cancer.

I'm talking about the Relay For Life movement, which unites more than 4 million participants in 6,000 communities across the globe to celebrate people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost and take action to finish the fight once and for all.

We can make a difference right here through our local American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Cerro Gordo County set for 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at the North Iowa Events Center. I would love to see people from every part of our community get involved.

Dollars raised by the American Cancer Society save more lives by funding groundbreaking cancer research, providing free information and critical services for people with cancer, and helping people take steps to reduce their risk for cancer and detect it early, when it's the easiest to treat.

ACS's efforts have contributed to a 22 percent decline in cancer death rates in the U.S. since 1991 and a 50 percent drop in smoking rates.

Now is the time for the people of Cerro Gordo County to make an impact in the fight to end cancer. Join me at our Relay For Life event on Saturday, June 4.

Julie Bauer, committee member, Relay For Life of Cerro Gordo County
Rescuers return from checking on flooded homes in Horseshoe Bend, Texas along the Brazos River on Wednesday. (Yahoo News/Jason Sickles)

HORSESHOE BEND, TEXAS  The Brazos River that snakes around this hamlet near the heart of Texas can be a source of pride and pain.

Most of the time, its really nice out here, resident Lori Grantham said Wednesday.

This week, however, the unincorporated community an hour west of Fort Worth is reminded that it is at the mercy of the river.

Lori Grantham of Horseshoe Bend points to flooded homes where residents are staying put. Some people refuse to leave, she said. (Yahoo News/Jason Sickles)

On Saturday, 10-year-old Hunter Foster slipped into the rain-swollen waterway while fishing with some friends. His body was recovered Tuesday 20 miles downstream.

The river has been getting wider and wider, said Rick Rhodes, who lives a few doors down from the boys family. Thats why it took so long to find him. Weve had new water every day.

Hunter, the youngest of his parents three boys, is one of at least a half-dozen people to die in Texas flooding over the past week. Many of the deaths have occurred along the Brazos River, the eleventh largest U.S. river which winds 840 miles through the center of the Lone Star State.

Slideshow: Swollen river feeds Texas flooding >>>

The historic waterway surged to its highest level in more than a century southwest of Houston on Wednesday. A chance of thunderstorms through Saturday has prompted forecasters to issue flash flood watches for large parts of the state, including Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster Wednesday in 31 flood-affected counties.

With the Brazos already at critical stages, authorities were keeping a close eye on flood stages. One emergency management worker near Dallas-Fort Worth tweeted video of a hay bale being spent down the the river.

The Brazos as high as I have seen it. Its floating 1000lb haybales down river! pic.twitter.com/h8TtTKvrCH  Johnson County EM (@jocotx_em) June 1, 2016

At flood-prone Horseshoe Bend, the river had risen late Wednesday to over 26 feet  more than five feet above flood stage. Forecasters predict the river to crest near 29 feet on Thursday. Major flooding occurs at 27 feet.

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The community sits in a precarious spot between two major lakes that use dams to manage flooding of the reservoirs. And with more rain on the way, officials said they might have to release water from nearby Possum Kingdom Lake into the Brazos.

The next 48 hours is going to be a critical time period, said Don Schauer, a battalion chief with the Parker County fire department.

The Brazos River near Horseshoe Bend is already nearly five feet above the flood stage. With more rain in the forecast, officials fear the river could rise another five feet. (Yahoo News/Jason Sickles)

Dozens of the communitys 600 homes are already partially flooded. Tim and Elizabeth Jenkins woke up Wednesday morning surrounded by water and required rescue by emergency workers, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

This is the worst Ive seen, Elizabeth Jenkins told the newspaper. Our house is on stilts but its within four feet of the front door. Weve lost our car and everything that was outside. Its all been washed away.

John Welch, 51, spent Wednesday loading up valuables. He plans to evacuate before the Brazos River is predicted to crest on Thursday. (Yahoo News/Jason Sickles)

John Welch, 51, spent the day loading valuables onto a truck and trailer. He said he and his wife hope to be out before the river crests. Still, many residents already under water were staying put.

Some people refuse to leave, said Grantham, referring to one neighbor hunkered down on the second floor of his home. Hes got a lot of antiques in his house. Its kind of dangerous, but you cant blame him. You cant trust the thieves.

WEATHER  Check your latest forecast >>>

Authorities werent ordering evacuations, but police did set up a roadblock early Wednesday and were allowing only Horseshoe Bend residents into the community.

The move disrupted plans at the First Baptist Church of Horseshoe Bend, who intended on hosting a countywide candlelight service for Hunter Fosters family. Rick and Coeta Rhodes, volunteers at the church, were still preparing candles Wednesday afternoon for any neighbors who could join despite the ongoing flooding threat. An online fund has been started to help with Hunters funeral costs.

First Baptist Church of Horseshoe Bend planned a candlelight vigil for 10-year-old flood victim Hunter Foster, but said uncertainty about the weather could keep most mourners away. (Yahoo News/Jason Sickles)

Were just praying for comfort, she said. You always feel a loss.

The Rhodes said Hunter announced his Christian faith at a Wednesday night youth service two weeks ago.

He thought he would be baptized on Sunday, Rick Rhodes said.

Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).
By Anya George Tharakan

(Reuters) - U.S. data analytics firm Qlik Technologies Inc (QLIK.O) agreed to sell itself to private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC for about $3 billion, the latest company to bow to pressure from activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp.

Qlik's shares were up 4 percent at $30.13 in midday trading on Thursday, slightly below the offer price of $30.50 per share.

The shares had risen 20 percent through Wednesday's close since Elliott urged a sale in early March. [nL3N16B4OY]

Qlik, which went public in 2010, focuses on creating applications that help businesses analyze and visualize data to help them cut costs.

The company's flagship product, QlikView, allows customers to organize vast amounts of data in the form of reports, charts and infographics.

Brean Capital LLC analyst Yun Kim said the price indicated there was "very little interest" for self-service business intelligence (BI) assets.

"We are somewhat surprised by the low takeout value, which we believe could have some profound impact on valuation of both public and private BI vendors," the analyst wrote on Thursday.

Elliott, which disclosed an 8.8 percent stake in Qlik in March, had said the company was ripe for being taken over by a larger technology peer.

The hedge fund said later that month it increased its stake to about 10.8 percent. Elliott paid $23.50 per share on average, according to 13D Monitor, a research service that tracks 13D filings.

Elliott was not immediately available to comment on whether it supported Thursday's deal.

Qlik joins a growing list of companies such as Compuware Corp, Riverbed Technology Inc, Blue Coat Systems and Informatica that have been bought by private equity firms after Elliott started urging them to sell. Some of these companies were sold to Thoma Bravo.

Reuters had reported on Tuesday that Thoma Bravo was preparing to submit a binding bid for Qlik. [nL1N18S1Y5]

Morgan Stanley is Qlik's financial adviser and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian LLP are its legal advisers.

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Thoma Bravo was advised by Goldman Sachs, while Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel. [nBw25hS8ba]

Qlik said it would retain its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania, after the deal closes in the third quarter.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Sriraj Kalluvila)
Thousands of people are asking coffee giant Starbucks to hashtag dump Trump in a new online petition.

Signed by more than 7,200 people at the time this article was published, the petition is calling for the coffee giant to end its leases at all properties owned by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, The Hill reported. The chain currently has locations within a few Trump properties including Trump Tower in New York City and the Trump Taj Mahal hotel in Atlantic City.

A Starbucks in a Trump-owned property.

Kyle Brooks, the creator of the petition, pointed out how Starbucks' company values don't quite align with Trump's. He wrote on the petition:

"Starbucks is a bold company that values belonging, inclusion and diversity. They have continuously stood beside the LGBT community, African-Americans and other minority communities."

Starbucks' values do fall into the categories Brooks described. Last year, for example, the coffee chain even went so far as to launch a major (albeit somewhat failed) nationwide anti-racism campaign.

Trump, on the other hand, has arguably built his campaign on the foundation of controversial and offensive comments.

"Unfortunately, Starbucks still has a business partner with a man who has called Mexicans rapists, stereotyped the Muslim community as terrorists and disgraces women," Brooks wrote. One petition signee added that she refuses to shop at Starbucks until the company terminates its leases with Trump.

Beyond the petition, Starbucks has had good reason to pull out of Trump-owned buildings. Last December, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee urged his supporters to boycott Starbucks over its red holiday cups.

THE cup.

The "controversial" cups were free of Christmas symbols  a move that upset many who felt the design was disruptive to the spirit of Christmas. "Mr. Trump even implied that he would terminate their leases," Brooks wrote. "Publicly shaming one of your business partners is downright disrespectful."

If the coffee chain does decide to jump from the Trump ship, it wouldn't be the first. Two celebrity chefs  Jose Andres and Geoffrey Zakarian  pulled out of their contracts with the Trump empire (the Trumpire, if you will) after the controversial politician spouted offensive remarks about immigrants.

Mic has reached out to Starbucks for comment and will update this story as appropriate.
(Reuters) - Three soldiers were killed and six are missing after their U.S. Army truck overturned on Thursday while crossing a creek at Fort Hood, Texas, the Army said. The bodies of the three soldiers have been recovered and a search for the six who are missing is ongoing, the Army said in a statement. Three soldiers were rescued from the water and are in stable condition at a hospital, it said. (Reporting by Eric Beech in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh)
"I love that we show the crazy," Veep star Tony Hale told The Hollywood Reporter during the Comedy Actor Emmy Roundtable. Speaking to Julia Louis-Dreyfus' comments on how Trump is no contest to her narcissistic character, President Selina Meyer, Hale said: "I think Trump is completely batsh-t, but I think there's some crazy there, and I think there's some crazy other places. We just happen to highlight that a lot of times."

Hale continued about Veep: "Our show takes you behind the scenes and shows you the crazy. A lot of these politicians, they say perfect sound bites, they do what they do, but behind the scenes they're getting insecure, they're freaking out, they're trying to position themselves to get forward, they're cussing out their assistant, whatever."

Read More: 'Veep' Boss Talks "Cgate," Jonahs Campaign and Catherines Big Reveal

The actor has won two Emmy Awards for supporting actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of Gary Walsh on the HBO show. "I can just speak to the joy that I get from the show," he said. "[Trump's] crazy is out there, but everybody is a work in progress. Everybody's got some crazy."

Hale credited Tim Conway (best known for his work on The Carol Burnett Show) as the person who taught him the most about being funny on-screen: "[Conway] would do kind of the smallest thing and he just kind of trusted these crazy circumstances he was given, so rather than push the comedy he would just kind of sit in it, and sit in the tension, and it was just funny to watch."

He also pointed out his Comedy Actor Roundtable co-star Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) as teaching him about being funny from when they worked together on Arrested Development. Hale said he was "very new to the business with Arrested and Jeffrey scared the crap out of" him, but he praised Tambor for having "a confidence to his style that was incredibly inspiring, because he trusted what he brought to the table. It had a strength to it."

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More roundtables featuring comedy actresses, drama actresses and actors and reality hosts and producers will roll out throughout June in print and online. Tune in to new episodes of Close Up With the Hollywood Reporter starting June 26 on SundanceTV, with the premiere of the Comedy Actors Roundtable on Sunday, July 17. And look for clips at THR.com/roundtables with full episodes on THR.com after broadcast.

Read More: Ouch! Aziz Ansari, Rob Lowe, Keegan-Michael Key Play 'Most Embarrassing Moment' in Comedy Actor Roundtable

See More: Comedy Actor Roundtable: Exclusive Photos of Aziz Ansari, Anthony Anderson, More A-Listers

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VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's conservative Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said on Thursday tough new immigration rules should be activated as soon as possible, in a week that saw immigration policy trigger the ruling coalition's first rift under a new chancellor. Sobotka's People's Party and the far right reacted angrily to remarks on Tuesday by the new chancellor, Social Democrat Christian Kern, about a cap on asylum claims that the government announced in January. Austria began clamping down on immigration this year after it threw open its borders last autumn to migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere. It took in 90,000 asylum seekers last year, more than 1 percent of its population. The cap limits the number of people allowed to apply for asylum at 37,500 this year. On Tuesday Kern put the number of claims so far at 11,000, roughly half the number previously reported. He did not clarify the reason for the discrepancy. Sobotka responded on Wednesday by saying Austria's immigration policy was non-negotiable, and then called a news conference on Thursday at which he said Austria should implement a set of temporary asylum measures approved by lawmakers in April if it wanted to meet the cap. "It should be possible in early September, or before the summer would be even better as far as I am concerned," Sobotka told the news conference. The tougher laws would see potential asylum claims assessed and unsuccessful applicants turned away at the border within an hour. The rules would stay in place for six-month periods but can only be activated if the government demonstrates a threat to public order and interior security. Sobotka said Austria was already half way towards the ceiling for 2016, he said, putting the number of claims at 18,950. "It (the cap) will be reached in the autumn if we do not take counter-measures," he said, adding that the rate of arrivals was expected to accelerate in the coming months. The head of the People's Party in Vienna said on Wednesday that if Kern was trying to soften the cap on asylum claims, he should no longer be chancellor. The centrist coalition must continue until 2018 or face a snap parliamentary election the anti-immigration Freedom Party would likely win. (Reporting by Francois Murphy, Shadia Nasralla and Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
HAMILTON, BERMUDA, June 1, 2016 - DHT Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:DHT) ("DHT") announced the results of its 2016 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (the "Annual Meeting").

The Annual Meeting was held on Wednesday, June 1, 2016. At the Annual Meeting, the shareholders voted to elect Einar Michael Steimler and Joseph H. Pyne as Class II Directors for a term of three years, to approve the 2016 Incentive Compensation Plan and to ratify the selection of Deloitte AS as DHT's independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2016.

About DHT Holdings, Inc.

DHT is an independent crude oil tanker company. Our fleet trades internationally and consists of crude oil tankers in the VLCC, Suezmax and Aframax segments. We operate through our integrated management companies in Oslo, Norway and Singapore. You shall recognize us by our business approach with an experienced organization with focus on first rate operations and customer service, quality ships built at quality shipyards, prudent capital structure with robust cash break even levels to accommodate staying power through the business cycles, a combination of market exposure and fixed income contracts for our fleet and a transparent corporate structure maintaining a high level of integrity and good governance. For further information: www.dhtankers.com.

CONTACT:

Eirik Ube, CFO

Phone: +1 441 299-4912 and +47 412 92 712

E-mail: eu@dhtankers.com
Updated with Gannett response, 12:45 PM: Looks like Tribune Publishing just narrowly avoided a potentially embarrassing vote by unaffiliated shareholders to symbolically support sale talks with Gannett.

Although the official tally from todays annual meeting still isnt out, Gannett figures that 49% of those not tied to the Los Angeles Times publishers management, and its lead investor Michael Ferro, withheld their votes for the director slate.

Gannett asked stock owners to vote withhold for Tribunes directors saying that it would send a clear message that they want the board to talk about the USA Today owners $864 million offer. At $15 a share, its 99.5% more than Tribunes trading price before April 25, when Gannett disclosed its initial bid.

Following todays vote, Gannett says that its reviewing whether to proceed with its acquisition offer.

It says that more than half of Tribunes shares from unaffiliated owners were withheld from Ferro, CEO Justin Dearborn and Director Eddy Hartenstein. About 58% were withheld from nominees David Dibble and Philip Franklin.

Whats more, it says that four of Tribunes largest independent stockholders withheld support from Tribunes director nominees.

But it wasnt the resounding protest that Gannett wanted. Tribunes stock is down 5% to about $11. Gannett is up less than 1%.

Tribune declared victory shortly after the meeting.

We thank Tribune Publishing shareholders for their support as we continue to execute our strategic transformation and reposition the company for long-term growth, Ferro said. We have a tremendous opportunity at Tribune as we move aggressively to implement the changes necessary to succeed in the current environment and todays results demonstrate that the majority of our voting shareholders agree.

Later the company said that Gannetts vote tally is speculative and an effort to mislead and confuse Tribune shareholders. It added that the board is is receptive to signing a customary, mutual nondisclosure agreement and sharing information that would allow Gannett to make a more credible proposal although Gannett has shown no willingness to increase its bid to a compelling price level.

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Tribune says that it can create more value with its plan to build the Los Angeles Times and accelerate the companys digital transformation.

To further protect itself, Tribune adopted a poison pill anti-takeover defense: If someone buys 20% or more of Tribunes stock then the company would give all other investors the right to double their share of its equity.

It also made Patrick Soon-Shiongs Nant Capital the No. 2 investor by issuing new shares and selling him 12.9% of the company shares for $70.5 million  equal to $15 a share.

That deal now is being challenged by a shareholder, Capital Structures Realty Advisors. It asked a Delaware court Wednesday to deem it a violation of Tribunes fiduciary responsibilities to investors.

The complaint alleges that Tribune tried to persuade Oaktree Capital, the No. 2 shareholder with 14% and supporter of a deal with Gannett, to sell its shares to Soon-Shiong. When Oaktree refused, Tribune made its deal directly with Soon-Shiong.

Ferro was searching for a like-minded large stockholder to blunt the substantial momentum building behind Gannetts offer and effort to persuade investors to withhold their votes for directors, the suit says.

The board made the sale in order to entrench itself, and in breach of its duty of loyalty to the company, the plaintiffs add. Capital Strictures wants the court to reverse the stock sale to Soon-Shiong and order Tribune to consider offers from Gannett and possibly others.

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Los Angeles (AFP) - Donald Trump is fond of saying Hispanics love him, but his Republicans face an all-but-impossible task in winning over the fast-growing, Democratic-leaning group that the billionaire has alienated time and again.

In California, whose Republican White House primary takes place June 7, the Grand Old Party is facing a massive challenge in the most populous US state where whites no longer are a majority.

Hispanics are the largest US minority group and a majority of Hispanic Americans are Mexican American; Trump has enraged many by referring to Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers, and pledging to build a wall on the US-Mexico border.

Ronald Reagan's once-Republican-leaning California has become increasingly diverse, Hispanic and Democratic at the ballot box. And no Republican has won presidential polls in the state in over two decades.

"This is the worst nightmare for the national Republican party," said Raul Hinojosa, Associate Professor at the UCLA Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies.

"What has happened to the Republican Party in California is that they have become irrelevant electorally," he said. "They have no expectation of winning a senate or governor's seat for the foreseeable future."

According to a recent Gallup study 77 percent of Latinos have a negative view of Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

- Changing times, changing state -

In California, Hispanics now make up the largest single racial or cultural group and account for 20 percent of the state's four million registered voters.

"The Latino vote more than doubled in the last 20 years," said Hinojosa.

And according to Diana Colin, of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, registered Republicans make up just 16.5 percent of the state's Hispanic voters.

To glance around crowds at Trump speeches in California these days, the billionaire businessman and reality TV star appears to have had success courting whites, Asian, men, women, young people and old... but very few Latinos.

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Among the anti-Trump protesters who regularly picket his rallies, there are a great deal of Hispanics toting signs denouncing the billionaire as "xenophobic" or "racist."

- Sprint to voter registration -

Trump has threatened to deport the country's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants -- which experts say has fueled a surge in voter registration among Hispanics.

According to Political Data, a group that tracks electoral data, two million new voters have registered in California since January 1 -- a 200-percent jump compared to 2012. Half are Democrat, and a quarter are Hispanic.

"There has been a huge Latino turnout," said Colin.

Of course these are not all Democrats, but Republicans are a small minority, Hinojosa noted.

And the hard demographic fact is that Mexican Americans make up more than 60 percent of Hispanics in the United States.

Many of them benefited from a massive amnesty under the Ronald Reagan administration in 1986.

"The vast majority of (the Latino) population is related to an undocumented person -- that share is very high, and the sympathy is very in favor of immigrant rights," Colin stressed.

But there are other voices, too, among America's Latino voters.

In the past, Cuban Americans tended to vote Republican; some immigrants from South American countries have warmed to Trump's tough stance on illegal migration, Hijonosa said.

- Hiding in plain sight? -

Delores Chavez, of the California Republican National Hispanic Assembly, suspects the true number of Latino Trump supporters may be higher -- and that they are simply afraid to go public with their support.

"There's a lot of Trump voters in the closet who are afraid of being chastised if they say they support him," she said.

But there is no denying that Hispanics have become a demographic time bomb for the Republicans.

Aside from their clout in California, Latinos are forecast to make up one third of the US population by 2060, official data shows. That would mean 30 to 40 million Latino voters in the next 15 years, Hinojosa said.

Many states, thanks in part to that trend, are shifting demographically towards voting Democratic -- such as Texas and Florida, Hinojosa said.
Locked in a San Diego jail, an alleged hitman for a powerful Mexican drug cartel told a fellow prisoner that hed gotten the go-ahead from his bosses to have U.S. prosecutor Gonzalo Curiel assassinated. Curiel, already tightly guarded, was put under U.S. marshal protection.

So he probably isnt all that concerned about Donald Trumps unusually personal attacks on his character and competence as a federal judge.

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee is going after Curiel because he is presiding over an ongoing class-action lawsuit about the moguls now-defunct Trump University, which a number of former employees, instructors and students say was a fraud.

The Republican presidential candidate has ramped up his smear campaign at stops in California ahead of its June 7 primary, the largest in the country, repeating his claims that Curiel is biased against him because hes Mexican. On Friday in San Diego, where Curiel now sits on the federal bench, Trump went on an 11-minute tirade about the judge, calling him a hater and noting President Barack Obama appointed him.

The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great, I think thats fine, Trump said. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, okay?

In February, Trump argued in a series of interviews that Curiel is unfair and hostile, because of the wall, and because of everything thats going on with Mexico and all that, and the fact that Im very, very strong on the border.

In fact, Curiel is an American of Mexican descent, born in Indiana. And while its true that he was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California by Obama in 2012, he was confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate without opposition and had begun his career in the U.S. Justice Department under former President George H.W. Bush. Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed him to the California Superior Court in San Diego in 2006.

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Trumps public attacks on Curiel are almost unprecedented, according to legal experts. And the irony is, while Curiel did recently order the release of previously sealed documents in the Trump University case after Politico published a portion and the Washington Post filed a motion challenging the secrecy, he has also sought to reseal some of the records. And it was Curiels decision to set the trial date for November  after the next president of the U.S. is already decided. In addition, some legal experts say Trumps comments could be considered a criminal contempt of court.

Curiel began his career in San Diego, winning accolades as the head of the U.S. Attorneys Offices Narcotics Enforcement Section. His work against drug kingpin Arellano Felix and his Tijuana-based cartel in Baja, California,  once thought to supply up to 40 percent of the cocaine entering the U.S.  put a price on his head, forcing Curiel to live under tight federal security by U.S. marshals.

Many witnesses, informants or Mexican officials working with his task force were tortured or killed, including a Mexican counterpart whose head was crushed by an industrial press in 2000, according to the Los Angeles Times. Curiel wasnt immune to the threat: in 1997, the alleged cartel hitman was taped discussing his murder as Curiel sought extradition of cartel leaders from Mexico.

This was a huge deal to many people, Curiel told ABC Newss Nightline in 2002. I think a lot of people in Mexico had lost confidence in the ability of their government, their institutions to make a difference when it came to this violent and ruthless organization.

When Curiels nomination was up before the Senate, even Republicans praised him for his fight against the cartel.

We thank you for your work and personal sacrifice, now-Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa), told Curiel during his confirmation hearing, referring to the threats.

For his part, Trump kicked off his swift and unexpectedly successful march toward the Republican nomination by calling Mexicans rapists, and saying they are criminals and drug dealers. The wall hes consistently pledged to build on the U.S.-Mexico border grows ever taller, though observers say it would cost billions and do little to slow drug smuggling or already stagnant rates of illegal immigration. In a Sunday speech at the Lincoln Memorial, Trumps call-and-response ploy asking the crowd who would pay for the wall drew chants of Mexico! and applause. Theyre killing us on the border and theyre killing us with trade, he said. But in many respects, the U.S.-Mexico border is as secure as its ever been.

Thats due, in part, to the hard work of officials and judges like Curiel. Trump doesnt seem to know  or to care.

Photo credit: JOSH EDELSON/Getty Images
The #TryBeatingMeLightly photo series is an incredible response to violence against women

The #TryBeatingMeLightly photo series is an incredible response to violence against women

A new photography series called #TryBeatingMeLightly has gone viral around the world for empowering women in Pakistan to speak out against a bill that would legalize abuse.

Last week, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) proposed the Women Protection Bill, which allows for the light beating of a woman if she defies her husband  whether that defiance is in the form of not dressing the way he likes, turning down sex, interacting with strangers, speaking too loudly, or refusing to bathe after her period.

#TryBeatingMeLightly, I'll become the destruction you will never forsee.

Adeeqa Lalwani, Digital Storyteller. pic.twitter.com/jWW9jFARGy  Fahhad Rajper (@FahhadRajper) May 29, 2016

The chairman of the CII said a light beating should be a husbands last resort, according to the Washington Post:

If you want her to mend her ways, you should first advise her.  If she refuses, stop talking to her  stop sharing a bed with her, and if things do not change, get a bit strict. . . [if that doesnt work,] hit her with light things like handkerchief, a hat or a turban, but do not hit her on the face or private parts.

Photographer Fahhad Rajper, who lives in Karachi, Pakistan, wrote on Facebook that he started the initiative to empower women amongst us who work towards individual and collective betterment. Its an opportunity for those to voice their opinions who cant or dont.

Posted on Sunday to Facebook and Twitter, the black-and-white photographs feature 12 Pakistani women, captioned with their defiant responses to the bill. Fahhad called on women around the world to join in the movement and the now hashtag spread all over the world as women shared pictures of themselves in defiance of the misogynistic bill.

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#Trybeatingmelightly and I will make you regret it for the rest of your life. I will rise above all the adversities you... Posted by Ayesha Haleem on Tuesday, May 31, 2016

[The bill] shows the decadent mindset of some elements who are part of the council, Islamabad-based human rights activist Farzana Bari told Washington Post. The proposed bill has nothing to do with Islam and it would just bring a bad name to this country.

Domestic violence shouldnt be a last resort because it shouldnt be a resort at all. We wish this resistance wasnt necessary, and we can only hope the bill doesnt go through, but we are so inspired Fahhad and by the amazing women of Pakistan.

The post The #TryBeatingMeLightly photo series is an incredible response to violence against women appeared first on HelloGiggles.
TUNIS (Reuters) - Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on Thursday called for negotiations among political parties, unions and independents to form a new unity government to help advance economic reforms in an attempt to calm social tensions. Essebsi's call came as Tunisia's current ruling coalition is struggling to create more growth and jobs after a series of militant attacks battered the North African state's tourism industry and economy. "It is time for a change, and for audacity," Essebsi said in a televised interview. "We need a more courageous alternative that can apply the law and fight against unemployment." He said he would meet with the powerful UGTT president to invite him into a new unity government. The UGTT has been one of the main opponents of some of the government's austerity programs and had recently threatened to call strikes. Any negotiations to form a new government will need the current cabinet to resign and a parliament approval. But it would also take time to find consensus among secular, Islamist and left-wing parties and the powerful UGTT. Tunisia has emerged as a political model for democratic change since its 2011 uprising against Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, but economic reforms demanded by its lenders to tackle high unemployment and frustration among its young have lagged behind. (Reporting by Tarek Amara; writing Patrick Markey)
TUNIS, June 2 (Reuters) - Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi on Thursday called for negotiations among political parties, unions and independents to form a new unity government to help advance economic reforms.

Essebsi's call came as Tunisia's current ruling coalition is struggling to create more growth and jobs after a series of militant attacks battered the North African state's tourism industry and economy.

Any negotiations to form a new government will need the current cabinet to resign and a parliament approval. But it would also take time to find consensus among secular, Islamist and left-wing parties and the powerful UGTT unions who have resisted some of the government austerity programmes.

Tunisia has emerged as a political model for democratic change since its 2011 uprising against Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, but economic reforms demanded by its lenders to tackle high unemployment and frustration among its young have lagged behind.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; writing Patrick Markey)
Ankara (AFP) - Turkey on Thursday slammed as "null and void" and a "historic mistake" the German parliament's resolution recognising the World War I killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.

"The German parliament's recognition of 'distorted and groundless' allegations as 'genocide' is a historic mistake," Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus said on his official Twitter account, calling the resolution "null and void."

German lawmakers overwhelmingly adopted the resolution, defying Turkey's warnings that the vote could severely damage bilateral ties.

Kurtulmus said the decision was not beneficial for friendly relations between Turkey and Germany.

"This is an issue that needs to be finalised not by politicians or parliaments but by scientists and historians," he said.

Kurtulmus also warned that: "Of course, as Turkey, we will give an appropriate response to this decision on every level."

Yerevan has long sought international recognition of the term "genocide" for the killings and mass deportations that took place from 1915.

But Ankara rejects the use of the term to describe the World War I-era killings and argues that it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday a U.S.-backed offensive against Islamic State in northern Syria was largely being carried out by Arab rather than Kurdish fighters, in a sign of tacit approval for the operation near Turkey's borders. The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, including the Kurdish YPG militia, thrust into Islamic State-held territory around the city of Manbij this week, backed by U.S.-led air strikes and U.S. special forces on the ground. Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist organization and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's own southeast. It resents U.S. support for the YPG. Ankara, bent on preventing territorial gains by the Kurdish militia near its borders, has previously said it would not tolerate the YPG crossing west of the Euphrates River, into the area where the U.S.-backed operation is now underway. "What we have been told is that the YPG will predominantly act as a logistical force here and the main force will be Arabs," Erdogan told a news conference during a trip to Kenya. "We are monitoring what is being done in this process through our own intelligence network and command chain. We will see," he said, when asked about the YPG's role. Erdogan said that, based on discussions he had held with U.S. President Barack Obama about the offensive, the forces included around 2,500 Syrian Arab fighters and only 450 YPG members. A Turkish military source said on Wednesday that Washington had informed Ankara of the operation but that Turkey would not play a direct role as it was beyond the range of Turkish artillery and Ankara would not back action involving the YPG. Turkey, a member of the NATO military alliance, has been carrying out cross-border shelling of Islamic State positions in Syria in recent months but that action has been further west around the Syrian town of Azaz. Turkey has shot back in response to rocket fire from Islamic State territory which has repeatedly hit the border town of Kilis. Military sources said five IS militants were killed and a weapons depot destroyed in the latest salvo on Wednesday. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Ece Toksabay, Seyhmus Cakan in Diyarbakir; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Gareth Jones)
In a recent episode of Talking Dead, AMCs comparatively tidy aftershow for its bloody hit series The Walking Dead, Greg Raiewski joined two of the shows stars and host Chris Hardwick to handle the shows weekly task: break down the episode that just aired, offer analysis and predictions and have a great time doing it.

High school teacher Raiewski was antsy. His legs bounced up and down, and he seemed inexperienced on-camera, but the audience ate it up. As Hardwick pointed out, hes handsome, with a look that would fit right in as a resident of Alexandria. Raiewski is a Walking Dead fan  the ultimate fan. He won a contest in which viewers submitted short videos for a chance to meet their heroes, sit on the couch and get in on the conversation.

Raiewski sums up why aftershows are cropping up all over television, even scripted shows. Talking Dead exec producer Brandon Monk says the superfan exemplifies what the creators hoped the show would be. Hes symbolic of this moment in television of networks trying to understand their audience, and those fans in turn wanting more from their favorite shows.

Talking Dead launched in 2011, along with The Walking Dead season two premiere. Its success spawned the nets Talking Bad (Breaking Bad), Talking Saul (Better Call Saul) and Talking Preacher (Preacher), all of which aired in a more limited capacity.

MTV launched Wolf Watch (Teen Wolf) in 2014, and this year After the Black (Orphan Black) and After the Thrones (Game of Thrones) added similar formats. And while the trend in naming conventions leaves something to be desired (SEO, branding, sure, whatever), the low-budget phenomenon with high potential for lead-in viewership is worth observing.

When Talking Dead was conceived, Monk says Bravos Watch What Happens Live was its model, having premiered in 2009 featuring host Andy Cohen and a rotating cast of Bravo personalities and other celebrities. The concept of built-in extra programming for reality shows has been a popular one starting with MTV in the mid-2000s, extending all the way to recent additions to ABCs The Bachelor and Top Gear on BBC America. So it only makes sense that scripted shows would ultimately find a way to keep the party going as well.

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Andy Greenwald, a longtime critic and co-host of After the Thrones, says that the rise of the aftershow isnt a shocker. Its not that surprising to me that people are rabid and passionate about the shows that they love, and want to engage with them as much as possible, and talk about them as much as possible. It feels like a logical extension.

BBC America president Sarah Barnett echoes Greenwalds point, a recurring theme among programs that are adding aftershows: their fanbases are hungry for more information. I am consistently overwhelmed not just by the depth, but the level of intensity of the fans, Barnett says.

BBC Americas Orphan Black recently added its aftershow for the fourth season, which premiered in April. The show may not compare to the weekly viewership of Game of Thrones or Walking Dead, but the network seeks to connect with and energize the already enthusiastic fans (called the Clone Club). Orphan Black also posts impressive live-plus-three numbers (averaging a gain of 176% over same day viewership through the first four episodes of this season), which take into account fans who DVR the show to watch later. Barnett calls those ratings for Orphan Black, bonkers high. Its off the scale.

The exec says that adding the aftershow is the product of listening and reacting to what their audience wants. We really want to practice what so many networks preach, she says. This isnt about the live-same-day (audience), this is about the time-shifting. This is about people really caring about our shows. And we understand that our audience is at the forefront of new ways of consuming content. Were fools if we think we can persuade them to watch in a way that we want them to watch. We have to follow and embrace the way they want to watch.

The Walking Dead also has an unusually passionate fanbase. But Monk says aftershow creators still felt pressure to deliver a captivating product. Youre competing with sleep on Sunday nights, Monk says. What are you going to do to make it worth their while so they stay up a little bit longer before they go to work the next day?

For Monk and the shows other exec producers Michael Davies and Jen Kelly Patton, [Talking Dead] had to talk to the fans directly, and it had to keep moving. It had to be an authentic conversation.

One way to keep the audience tuned in was to give them information that they couldnt get anywhere else. We desperately wanted to get as much insider information from the producers and the actors as possible, Monk says, but in the beginning they resorted to notable fans, like comedians Patton Oswalt and Aisha Tyler, in lieu of the cast and creators. And they were just giving their opinions. I think the audience really loved that they could see themselves in those fans.

The model has been mirrored in almost every aftershow  two or more people sitting on a couch, having an engaging conversation. Some shows like Talking Dead include more bonus content and special guests, but others, like After the Thrones, have a very bare-bones approach. Its like hanging out with your best friends, except smarter and funnier.

The rise of quality television has brought with it excellent criticism  the past two Pulitzer prizes for criticism were awarded to television critics  but Greenwald says he and his co-host, Chris Ryan, have never received a note or a comment about being critical either way. I think its a fundamentally different exercise, he says. Chris and I bring critical eyes to everything that we do. But this show is very objectively not an act of criticism. He says the format is more or less ripped straight from the Watch the Thrones podcast the two used to host for the now-defunct Grantland.

Ryan says the show is about taking an energetic and intelligent approach to the series, but not necessarily being a scholar. I am categorically stating that there are people who know more about Game of Thrones than me and Andy. But we provide people with a good place to get that electricity that you feel after the show satisfied.

Greenwald adds that the potential for scholarship in the source material is the reason their show is sustainable. People talk about the need for a second-screen experience, but I dont think two screens is enough for Game of Thrones, he says. Its the rare show that deserves and supports this much chatter.

While there may only be so many shows that can support the format effectively, Barnett says, that shouldnt stop the trend from continuing. Im sure it will morph and probably grow and mushroom and maybe be overdone in some ways, but actually evolve. I think [the aftershow format] has a bright and interesting future.

And Monk agrees, adding that aftershows are a revolutionary way to open up the conversation in a way that other talk show formats cant. Its just a wonderful space to talk about how artful their performances are without having to cram it into the last question on a talk show, he says. You want to have a space where you can talk about your favorite thing, so theres always going to be a place for an aftershow. What it becomes will be very interesting.

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HACKENSACK, N.J., June 01, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brainsway USA Inc., a leader in the treatment of brain disorders, announced first quarter results on Monday that showed the company doubled its revenue for the quarter to $2.5 million and reduced its losses. The company also announced the resignation of president and CEO Guy Ezekiel, MD.



We want to thank Guy for his leadership over the past year. He brought a wealth of expertise and accomplishments in the medical technology industry and was involved in designing our U.S business strategy, said Joseph Perekupka, VP of North American Sales Operations. We respect his decision and wish him all the best moving forward.

The U.S. organization will continue to operate as it has since its U.S. launch in 2014, and the leadership team remains in place focused on executing the growth strategy. Brainsway is positioned extremely well in North America. We are coming off our strongest quarter in the companys history, and we will continue to grow significantly through 2016 and into 2017, continued Perekupka.

About Brainsway

Brainsway Ltd. is a leader in non-invasive treatments for brain disorders utilizing Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (Deep TMS). Our unique patented technology was developed in collaboration with the National Institute of Health (NIH) and is FDA and CE cleared to treat patients with depression who are not currently responding to medication. The treatment has been enthusiastically supported by many academic communities and is widely covered by most insurance payers. For more information, please visit www.brainsway.com.
Sam Champion is blasting American Airlines for what he calls "shameful" behavior.

Read: Passenger Films Agony Over Unbelievably Long TSA 'Line From Hell'

The TV personality says he was on a flight to New York after a Florida vacation Monday when the airline began removing passengers because the plane was allegedly "too heavy" to fly.

He launched into a 30-tweet rant and gave his nearly 300,000 followers a blow-by-blow account of his war with the airline.

One tweet was: Sooo @americanair just "swapped" passengers on a flight they said was too heavy.. And wanted to swap me next... #huh??

Another said: I've seen how ur treating people.

Not looking for special treatment... What Ive witnessed is #shameful, he added.

He told Inside Edition: Everybody's sitting on the plane, fastened up, the doors getting ready to close and now they're calling people off the airplane.

Then I heard my name come up as the next name. I'm thinking, 'wait a minute, Ive been waiting since 2 o'clock in the airport to get on the flight you delayed twice then cancelled. I have a ticket. I have a seat number, why did you choose me, why choose him? Explain to us.

In a statement to Inside Edition, American Airlines says: We were not "swapping" out people at all. This is a small regional jet, and due to weather in the Miami-area, the flight was weight restricted. The aircraft usually holds 50 passengers, but could only hold a maximum of 47 passengers. We had to remove two paying passengers, who will be compensated.

Read: The Ridiculous Ways People Have Tried to Smuggle Stuff Past the TSA

Champion told Inside Edition: That statement that you just read is not true.

He added: They've said that this flight has to remove weight to go into a storm situation for passenger safety. So you remove two passengers, not politely. And now you're putting two passengers on, you're filling those seats. That just made no sense to me.

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Following his rant, other frustrated passengers praised him for his actions.

He told one follower: I just had to speak out.

Watch: Even A Prop From 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' Has to Go Through the TSA Scanner

Related Articles:
(Adds comment from Comcast, defense lawyer)

By Nate Raymond

June 2 (Reuters) - Two men pleaded guilty in New Jersey on Thursday to playing roles in a wide-ranging hacking and spamming scheme that targeted personal information of 60 million people, including Comcast Corp customers, prosecutors said.

Tomasz Chmielarz, 33, pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, to charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity related to computers and e-mail, while Devin McArthur, 27, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Along with a Florida man, Timothy Livingston, 30, they were arrested in December in connection with several alleged computer hacking and illegal spamming schemes that targeted multiple companies and generated illegal profits exceeding $2 million.

Prosecutors said Livingston, who owned a spam company called A Whole Lot of Nothing LLC, hired Chmielarz, of Rutherford, New Jersey, to write computer programs that send spam in a manner that conceals their origin and bypasses spam filters.

Prosecutors said Chmielarz admitted that he and Livingston hacked into email accounts and seized control of corporate mail servers to further their spam campaigns, and created software that exploited vulnerabilities in a several corporate websites.

Livingston, Chmielarz and McArthur, a resident of Ellicott City, Maryland, also worked together to steal databases containing the personal information of millions of Americans for use in spam campaigns, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said McArthur admitted that he also gave Livingston unauthorized access to a remote administration tool on a computer connected to the network of a Pennsylvania-based telecommunications company where he worked.

That enabled Livingston and Chmielarz to steal the personal information of customers of the company for use in spam campaigns, prosecutors said.

The company was not named in court papers, but Comcast confirmed its identity. Jenni Moyer, a Comcast spokeswoman, said the company appreciates the efforts of U.S. authorities "in bringing this scamming scheme to a just resolution."

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Other companies targeted included a New York telecommunications company, a New York technology and consulting company and a Texas credit monitoring firm, the indictment said.

Michael Koribanics, Chmielarz's lawyer, said his client had "accepted responsibility for his actions as evidenced by his guilty plea." A lawyer for McArthur did not respond to a request for comment.

Livingston has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face trial on Oct. 13.

The case is U.S. v. Livingston et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 15-cr-00626.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Dan Grebler)
By Nate Raymond (Reuters) - Two men pleaded guilty in New Jersey on Thursday to playing roles in a wide-ranging hacking and spamming scheme that targeted personal information of 60 million people, including Comcast Corp customers, prosecutors said. Tomasz Chmielarz, 33, pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, to charges of conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity related to computers and e-mail, while Devin McArthur, 27, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Along with a Florida man, Timothy Livingston, 30, they were arrested in December in connection with several alleged computer hacking and illegal spamming schemes that targeted multiple companies and generated illegal profits exceeding $2 million. Prosecutors said Livingston, who owned a spam company called A Whole Lot of Nothing LLC, hired Chmielarz, of Rutherford, New Jersey, to write computer programs that send spam in a manner that conceals their origin and bypasses spam filters. Prosecutors said Chmielarz admitted that he and Livingston hacked into email accounts and seized control of corporate mail servers to further their spam campaigns, and created software that exploited vulnerabilities in a several corporate websites. Livingston, Chmielarz and McArthur, a resident of Ellicott City, Maryland, also worked together to steal databases containing the personal information of millions of Americans for use in spam campaigns, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said McArthur admitted that he also gave Livingston unauthorized access to a remote administration tool on a computer connected to the network of a Pennsylvania-based telecommunications company where he worked. That enabled Livingston and Chmielarz to steal the personal information of customers of the company for use in spam campaigns, prosecutors said. The company was not named in court papers, but Comcast confirmed its identity. Jenni Moyer, a Comcast spokeswoman, said the company appreciates the efforts of U.S. authorities "in bringing this scamming scheme to a just resolution." Other companies targeted included a New York telecommunications company, a New York technology and consulting company and a Texas credit monitoring firm, the indictment said. Michael Koribanics, Chmielarz's lawyer, said his client had "accepted responsibility for his actions as evidenced by his guilty plea." A lawyer for McArthur did not respond to a request for comment. Livingston has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face trial on Oct. 13. The case is U.S. v. Livingston et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 15-cr-00626. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Dan Grebler)
By Junko Fujita

TANGO, Japan (Reuters) - Ride-hailing app Uber has finally cracked Japan - approved to offer its service in Tango, part of Kyotango city on the west coast, with a population of just 5,560 and abandoned by the local taxi firm eight years ago.

Tango is one of Japan's almost 800 designated depopulated communities, and about 40 percent of the population is aged over 65, well above the national average ratio of 27.1 percent.

For public transport, residents have to rely on an on-demand bus operated by a non-profit group, but bookings have to be made by the evening before travel and the bus doesn't go beyond the town.

Uber, valued at over $60 billion, hopes to tap that demographic demand to ferry around the elderly.

"Finally, we were able to make our very first step," said Masami Takahashi, president of Uber Japan Co. "This service can be a solution for Japan's aging society."

The U.S. firm, one of the pioneers in the "sharing economy", has faced resistance and restrictions in some cities as established taxi operators complained of unfair competition.

In Japan, Uber was blocked by authorities from setting up in two cities as Japan bars non-professional drivers from offering taxi services. In Tokyo, Uber operates as a travel agent, connecting users to established taxi company drivers through its ride-hailing app.

Non-professional drivers can only operate where public transport is not readily available - like in Tango, where rice paddies surround a main street dotted with old, wooden houses.

TABLETS, TREKKING

Among the challenges Uber faces in Tango are persuading seniors to use mobile devices and credit cards.

Residents will use tablets, such as iPads, to book Uber rides. Uber is making available 50 tablets - easier for the elderly to read than smartphones - for free for six months to book one of 18 registered cars.

"What a great service," said 84-year-old Miyoshi Azuma, brandishing one of the tablets. "With this, we can call the car by just clicking the button." She did add that locals may need simpler instructions on how to use the tablet and Uber app.

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"I think it will take time to judge whether this service will be a success because people here are sensitive to money," said Takashi Ose, a 79-year-old head of a senior people's club.

Uber charges half the rate of the taxi firm in central Kyotango city.

Takuo Nakanishi, 66, who drives for Kyotango's sole taxi operator Mineyama Taxi, worries that Uber may hurt his business.

"I can't afford to live on just my taxi salary. I can be a driver only because I receive a pension. That's how small demand is here for taxis," he said, adding it is not viable for his company to offer a full taxi service for Tango.

Uber hopes to roll out similar services in other depopulated areas in Japan. It's global UberASSIST platform already caters for seniors and people with disabilities, and it provides transport services for elderly care homes in Florida, for example.

"There are many communities which cannot respond to people's need to go somewhere when they need," said Takahashi. "Uber can be a sustainable business model in such places because we can provide services using existing assets."

One of those assets, 68-year-old Uber driver Yoshihiro Hatanaka, welcomed the flexibility of Uber's service.

"I love trekking, so I'll probably only drive when it's raining," he said.

(Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f104083%2fafrican_elephant

Trading illegal ivory in the U.S. just got a whole lot trickier, thanks to a new federal rule from the Obama administration.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Thursday a new rule under the Endangered Species Act, instituting a near-total ban on the domestic commercial trade of African elephant ivory in an effort to protect the severely endangered animals.

SEE ALSO: Gripping photos capture the beauty and plight of the world's elephants

The regulation restricts all ivory sales to lawfully imported antiques that are at least one century old, and to items like musical instruments and firearms that were made using less than 200 grams  or less than half a pound  of ivory. Under the previous version of the act, ivory could be traded if it had been brought into the U.S. before 1978, when African elephants were first listed as endangered, or if the elephant died of natural causes. Both cases required official documentation.

But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was nearly impossible to distinguish illegal ivory from legal ivory under previous conservation law, limiting the effectiveness of enforcement. The new rule, which was first proposed in 2015 and finalized Thursday, will provide federal agents with clearer guidelines in identifying illegal ivory.

"Today's bold action underscores the United States' leadership and commitment to ending the scourge of elephant poaching and the tragic impact it's having on wild populations," U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, who also serves as co-chair of the President's Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, said in a release.

"We hope other nations will act quickly and decisively to stop the flow of blood ivory by implementing similar regulations, which are crucial to ensuring our grandchildren and their children know these iconic species," Jewell said.

The ban echoes intentions from China and several African nations, which have taken similar steps to battle illegal poaching and trade. Many conservation organizations, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), say that if all nations took similar action, it could dramatically reverse the decline of African elephant populations.

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The WCS  which founded the 96 Elephants campaign, an effort to curb poaching and push for stricter U.S. poaching regulations  applauded the move as a strong statement to poachers around the globe.

"The USA is shutting down the bloody ivory market that is wiping out Africa's elephants, Cristian Samper, president and CEO of WCS, said in a statement. "The USA is boldly saying to ivory poachers, 'You are officially out of business.'"

Image: Lili sams/mashable

Between 2010 and 2012, 100,000 African elephants were illegally killed for their ivory in the continent  an average of 96 elephants per day, or one every 15 minutes.

Currently, theres estimated to be 470,000 African elephants alive worldwide.

The new rule announced Thursday follows restrictions outlined under President Obama's 2013 Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking, in which he named the illegal trade and poaching of wildlife an international crisis, and vowed to reduce the trafficking of poached goods.

The announcement also comes after highly visible displays of activism from conservations groups over the past year. In June 2015, a mass demonstration in Times Square by federal officials and conservationists resulted in the crushing of more than 1 ton of ivory. In April, Kenya burned 105 tons of elephant tusks to protest poaching  the largest demonstration against illicit trade in history.

The World Wildlife Fund announced this week that the population of Tanzania's largest elephant reserve could be wiped out within six years due to poaching. The Selous Game Reserve had a massive population of 110,000 elephants just 40 years ago. Now, it has about 15,000.

"Our actions close a major avenue to wildlife traffickers by removing the cover that legal ivory trade provides to the illegal trade," said Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We still have much to do to save this species, but today is a good day for the African elephant."
By Phil Stewart and John Davison WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S.-backed fighters opened a major new front in Syria's war, launching an offensive to drive Islamic State out of a swathe of northern Syria it uses as a logistics base and appearing to make swift initial battlefield advances. The operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of quiet preparations, aims to choke off the group's access to Syrian land along the Turkish border that the militants have long used to move foreign fighters back and forth to Europe. "It's significant in that it's their last remaining funnel" to Europe, a U.S. military official told Reuters, which was first to report the offensive. A small number of U.S. special operations forces will support the push on the ground to capture the "Manbij pocket" of territory, acting as advisers and staying back from the front lines, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning. "They'll be as close as they need to be for the (Syrian fighters) to complete the operation. But they will not engage in direct combat," the official said. The operation will also count on air power from the U.S.-led coalition, which pounded Islamic State positions near Manbij with 18 strikes on Tuesday, including six militant tactical units, two headquarters facilities and a training base. A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town. It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that Islamic State defenses stationed on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign. ASSAULT Driving Islamic State from its last remaining foothold at the Turkish border has been a top priority of the U.S.-led campaign against the group. The group controls about 80 km (50 miles) of the frontier stretching west from Jarablus. Still, some U.S. military and intelligence officers caution that Islamic State has proved adaptable, willing to change tactics. In Iraq, for example, the Sunni extremist group has countered some territorial and other losses by staging attacks in Baghdad, the seat of the countrys Shiite-led government. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said U.S.-led air strikes in support of the ground operation killed 15 civilians including three children near Manbij in the past 24 hours. The Observatory's reporting is based on an activist network in Syria. It said the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, which is conducting the assault to capture the Manbij pocket, had taken 16 villages and was 15 km (9 miles) from Manbij town itself. The U.S. officials said earlier the operation would be overwhelmingly comprised of Syrian Arabs instead of forces with the Kurdish YPG militia, who will only represent about a fifth or a sixth of the overall force. That is seen as important to NATO member Turkey, which has opposed any further expansion of Syrian Kurdish sway at the frontier. Ankara sees the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, who already control an uninterrupted 400-km (250-mile) stretch of the border, as terrorists and has been enraged by U.S. backing for the militia in its battle with Islamic State in Syria. But the Observatory said the Kurdish YPG militia made up the majority of the fighters taking part in the SDF assault. SDF and YPG officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The U.S. officials told Reuters the YPG would only fight to help clear Islamic State from the area around Manbij. Syrian Arab fighters would be the ones to stabilize and secure it once Islamic State is gone, according to the operational plans. "After they take Manbij, the agreement is the YPG will not be staying. ... So you'll have Syrian Arabs occupying traditional Syrian Arab land," the official said. TURKISH SENSITIVITIES A U.S. official said Turkey supported the operation, but another clarified it was not expected to directly participate militarily. A Turkish military source said Ankara had been informed by Washington about the operation but could not contribute to it because of the involvement of Kurdish YPG militia fighters and because it was beyond the range of artillery stationed in Turkey. Still, Turkey has been shelling Islamic State positions in northern Syria by firing across the border in recent weeks. The operation precedes an eventual push by U.S.-backed Syrian forces toward the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and the prime objective in Syria for U.S. military planners. The U.S. military official said depriving Islamic State of the Manbij pocket would help isolate the militants and further undermine their ability to funnel supplies to Raqqa. U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized about 300 U.S. special operations forces to operate on the ground from secret locations inside Syria to help coordinate with local forces to battle Islamic State. One U.S. service member was injured north of Raqqa over the weekend, the Pentagon said. The YPG has been the most effective ally on the ground for U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State, and last year captured large areas from it in Hasaka province. The United States hopes that success will draw more and more recruits from Arab populations in Syria to battle the militants and reclaim territory from it. U.S. officials caution that territorial gains would not spell the end of Islamic State, which has "metastasized" and established itself outside of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, spreading to Libya, Afghanistan and beyond. "It would be premature to say that the gains in Syria, even if theyre sustained, will spell defeat for ISIL, any more than the pummeling of al-Qaeda in Pakistan has meant the end of that group, said one official, using an acronym for the group. "They arent nations that will surrender," the official added, saying the ideas driving them were far "harder to kill." (Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Tulay Karadeniz in Ankara and John Walcott in Washington; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)
By Rodi Said NEAR THE EUPHRATES RIVER, northern Syria (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Syrian fighters in a major new offensive against Islamic State vowed on Thursday to cut off the last remaining access route to the outside world for the self-proclaimed caliphate, and won vital, if tacit, backing from Turkey. The assault around the Syrian city of Manbij, backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes and a contingent of American special forces, aims to cut off Islamic State's last 80 km stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier by seizing territory in northern Syria west of the Euphrates River. If successful, that would achieve a long-standing aim of Washington and amount to one of the biggest strategic defeats inflicted on Islamic State since it proclaimed its rule over all Muslims from territory in Iraq and Syria two years ago. "We confirm that this campaign will continue until the liberation of the last inch of the land of Manbij and its rural areas," said a statement read out on the banks of the Euphrates by Adnan Abu Amjad, a commander of a group called the Manbij Military Council, allied to the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces. "Oh brave people of Manbij, our forces are coming to liberate you from the shackles of the Daesh terrorist torturers," said the statement, using an acronym for Islamic State also known as ISIS or ISIL. Washington has been leading an international campaign of air strikes against Islamic State for two years in both Syria and Iraq. It has long been in search of reliable allies on the ground in Syria, where it also opposes the government of President Bashar al-Assad in a multi-sided civil war that has ground on for five years. The SDF, set up last year, includes a powerful Syrian Kurdish militia and what Washington says are growing numbers of Arab forces that have been persuaded to join it. It has swept into villages west of the Euphrates since launching its offensive on Tuesday. That advance comes as Iraqi army forces have separately begun an assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, 750 km down the Euphrates at the opposite end of Islamic State's sprawling caliphate. The Iraqi troops held their positions without advancing for a third straight day on Thursday, after pouring into the besieged city's southern outskirts on Monday. A Reuters reporting team in Saqlawiya, a village near Falluja, saw Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighters in control of a complex of well-fortified trenches and tunnels captured from Islamic State. In other separate campaigns, Iraqi Kurds have also been advancing in villages near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and Russian-backed forces of the Syrian government have fought Islamic State in other parts of Syria. The fighting amounts to some of the biggest pushes against the militants by their disparate enemies across a variety of fronts. TURKISH SUPPORT Washington hopes the assault near Manbij will be a turning point in the two-year conflict by choking off Islamic State's last major link to the outside world. The militants have used the frontier for years to receive supplies and manpower, and more recently to send back fighters for attacks in Europe. "We know that there is external plotting from Manbij city... against the homelands of Europe, Turkey, all good friends and allies of ours, and the United States as well," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said. Of the SDF fighters, he said: "This is a capable force. They are doing all the things we can always do with able and motivated local forces to fight ISIL." Washington's ultimate goals are to drive Islamic State from its main bases: Raqqa in eastern Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, to bring about the collapse of its control. Kurdish fighters allied to Washington have already captured much of northeast Syria near the Turkish border, but their advance west of the Euphrates to close off the frontier once and for all was limited by strong opposition from U.S. ally Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG its enemies. However, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan signaled his apparent tacit support for the latest advance on Thursday, saying he had been informed that most of the fighters involved would be Arabs rather than Kurds. Turkish military sources said Turkey had shelled Islamic State positions across the border at Azaz, west of where the advance was taking place, killing five militants. Medical charity Medicins sans Frontieres says 100,000 people are trapped near Azaz and in peril as the battle lines draw near. A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters in Beirut, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town. It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that IS defenses on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign. However, Naser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the SDF general command, told Reuters Islamic State was still putting up a fight: "In general, the progress is at a good pace and performance, keeping in mind that Daesh still has the capability to fight." FALLUJA ASSAULT PAUSED In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the assault on Falluja 11 days ago, veering from the strategy sought by Washington which wants its Iraqi allies to concentrate on Islamic State's de facto Iraqi capital Mosul. Falluja, where U.S. forces fought the biggest battles of their 2003-2011 occupation of Iraq, has long been a bastion for Sunni Muslim insurgents and was the first Iraqi city where Islamic State raised its flag in 2014 before storming through the north and west of the country. It is just an hour's drive from Baghdad, and seizing it would give the government control of the main population centers of the fertile Euphrates valley west of the capital for the first time in more than two years. But the mission in potentially hostile Sunni territory is also fraught with risk. Abadi repeated calls on Thursday for Iraq's fractious politicians to unite behind the army in its advance on Falluja. On Wednesday he announced a pause in the advance to reduce the threat to civilians still trapped in the city. Although most of Falluja's population has fled, the United Nations has expressed deep concern over the fate of tens of thousands of civilians still there, including hundreds of families held by Islamic State fighters as human shields in the city center. U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said 4,380 people had fled Falluja so far during the offensive and it was searching for places for them in camps. It estimates 10,000 families could be displaced during the assault. Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, is trying to hold together a coalition government in the midst of popular protests against an entrenched political class. An operation in Falluja that harms Sunni Muslim civilians could further alienate Sunnis, but he has decided he must act there to protect Baghdad from suicide bombers who have escalated attacks in the capital. (Additional reporting by Tom Perry and John Davison in Beirut, Maher Chmaytelli and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, David Brunnstrom in Singapore, Seyhmus Cakan, Humeyra Pamuk and Ece Toksabay in Turkey, Tom Miles in Geneva and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff, editing by Peter Millership)
By Nick Carey NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rhetoric against free trade from both likely U.S. presidential nominees poses a risk to the economy and consumers who would lose out if international trade is restrained, the chief executive of the largest U.S. railroad said on Thursday. "Global trade is not getting a fair shake in the dialogue," Union Pacific Corp CEO Lance Fritz said during a discussion with Reuters journalists. "We've devolved to a form of populism in the rhetoric and that strikes me as having a lot of negative consequences." Free trade agreements and their impact on U.S. workers have been a major theme in the 2016 campaign for the presidential election on Nov. 8. Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and promised to rip up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, has criticized the partnership deal, which was signed in February but has not yet won congressional approval. Omaha, Nebraska-based Union Pacific has a growing business serving cross-border trade with Mexico, and over the past decade has reported increased shipments of containers full of consumer goods, many of which come from Asia. Fritz said both candidates are arguing that NAFTA is "a bad thing," even though Trump has been more vocal than Clinton in warning about losing jobs to foreign competition and threatening to slap tariffs on imported goods. "That's concerning to me," Fritz said. "That's telling the U.S. public that free trade is a bad idea, and that's patently not in the interest of the U.S. consumer." "We are worried and thinking about what-ifs," Fritz said when asked how his company would deal with a Trump or Clinton administration. "What I'm hoping is we get a little more clarity as we get closer (to the election) and it starts making sense and we can plan around it." Fritz, who has served as Union Pacific CEO since February 2015, also noted that despite low fuel prices, U.S. consumers still have not taken up the slack in the broader economy. "We haven't seen a strong consumer in a little while," he said. Fritz said he did not know when the railroad would meet its target of an operating ratio, a measure of efficiency, of 55 percent. The ratio expresses operating expenses as a percentage of revenue, so the lower the figure the better. "We're going to get there as soon as we can in a reasonable fashion," he said. Union Pacific posted a first-quarter operating ratio of 65.1 percent. U.S. railroads generally have a significantly higher operating ratio than the 58.9 percent reported in the first quarter by Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd and Canadian National Railway Co . Fritz also said Union Pacific would have an anti-collision system mandated by Congress in place by the deadline of 2018. But the company would need the two one-year extensions allowed to "debug" the Positive Train Control (PTC) system, he added. Last year, Congress extended the deadline for the system's implementation beyond 2015, despite opposition from some lawmakers following a fatal Amtrak crash in Pennsylvania in May 2015. (Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Eric Effron and Richard Chang)
By David Brunnstrom SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United States expects to maintain its strong security relationship with the Philippines, including a recent accord on the rotational stationing of U.S. forces, U.S. officials said on Thursday, despite signals from the incoming Philippine president that he will chart a more independent course. U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking en route to a security conference in Singapore at which a case over disputed South China Sea territory brought by the previous Philippine government against China will be a key talking point, said Washington took its treaty alliance with the Philippines very seriously." "Its long standing, it is, we say, ironclad, he told reporters. "They have a new government there and we look forward to working with them, talking with them about our alliance, about security affairs in the region. Asked about an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) he signed in Manila weeks ago giving the United States rotational access to five bases in the Philippines, Carter replied: Our plans for EDCA and implementation are on track; we haven't changed our plans at all. On Tuesday, Philippines President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who is due to take over on June 30, signaled greater independence in dealing with China and broader security issues, when he told reporters future policy would not be dependent on America." "We have this pact with the West, but I want everybody to know that we will be charting a course of our own, Duterte said, when asked if he would push for bilateral talks with China. On Wednesday, Dutertes incoming foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, told Reuters Manila would honor treaties with the United States, including the EDCA, but it should not be a lackey of any nation. COURT RULING The outgoing Philippines government has been one of Washingtons staunchest supporters in its standoff with China over its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea, a vital global trade route. Washington has been supportive of a case Manila has brought in the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague challenging Chinas claims. Carter is expected to urge regional nations attending the annual Shangri-la Dialogue to rally around the U.S. position that the courts ruling, which is expected to go in Manilas favor, must be binding. Another U.S. defense official, who did not want to be identified, said Washington expected to continue its strong alliance with the Philippines, but added: We certainly understand the Philippine desire to chart their own course and everything we do with respect to our alliance ... is designed to allow the Philippines to chart its own course. Asked whether the United States had detected any decrease in desire on the part of the Philippines to take part in joint South China Sea patrols or to commit to more force rotations under the EDCA, the official replied: "Its too early to tell. Well get together with the government when they come in and Im sure we will have very thorough discussions about all of this when the time comes. "The first tranche of forces has rotated out. And we will be discussing with the Philippines possible future (deployments). Duterte has yet to name a defense minister and Carter said he had no meeting planned with the Philippines delegation at the Singapore meeting. Carter also said he did not plan a separate meeting with the Chinese, but looked forward to seeing members of their delegation over the three-day conference from Friday. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Robert Birsel)
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen for killing and maiming children by adding it to an annual blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children's rights during conflict. The coalition was responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries last year, killing 510 and wounding 667, according to Ban's report released on Thursday, which also said the coalition carried out half the attacks on schools and hospitals. The Saudi-led coalition began a military campaign in Yemen in March last year with the aim of preventing Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen's ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh from taking control of the country. "Grave violations against children increased dramatically as a result of the escalating conflict," Ban said in the report. "In Yemen, owing to the very large number of violations attributed to the two parties, the Houthis/Ansar Allah and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition are listed for killing and maiming and attacks on schools and hospitals," he said. The Houthis, Yemen government forces and pro-government militia have been on the U.N. blacklist for at least five years and are considered "persistent perpetrators." Also appearing again on the list is al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The Saudi Arabia mission to the United Nations was not immediately available to comment on the report. The U.N. report blacklists groups that "engage in the recruitment and use of children, sexual violence against children, the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and/or hospitals and attacks or threats of attacks against protected personnel, and the abduction of children." The report cited a deadly U.S. air strike on a hospital run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in Kunduz, Afghanistan, although it said the attack was carried out by "international forces" and did not blacklist the United States. Along with warring parties in Yemen, the United Nations named armed groups in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Iraq, Mali, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Colombia, Nigeria and the Philippines. Government forces in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Myanmar, South Sudan, Sudan, and Syria were named on the blacklist. Ban urged the 193 U.N. member states to ensure engagement in hostilities and responses to threats to peace and security comply with international law. "It is unacceptable that the failure to do so has resulted in numerous violations of children's rights," Ban said. (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Dan Grebler)
Cheyenne, Wyoming , June 01, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MedX Holdings, Inc. (OTC PINK: MEDH) today announces that we have identified three viable options in the Mobile Alabama area for a turnkey warehouse/office space with plans to make a formal offer on one of the three locations by Monday, June 6th. This represents a major accomplishment for us. Once the offer is accepted we can then file for a license to become officially a Licensed Manufacture/Wholesale Distributor in the state of Alabama. Our license will be held under the name MedX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. a Alabama Corporation which will be structured as a wholly-owned subsidiary of MedX Holdings, Inc. Mr. Yelton, our Certified Designated Representative will sit on the Board of Directors for MedX Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Ms. Roberton, CEO commented: Once we are licensed in the state of Alabama, we can legally purchase drugs, repackagle them if we desire and ultimately ship these products to our clients. We have currently identified over 200 pharmacies in the state of Alabama and Kentucky as immediate potential clients.

Moving forward, it is the goal of MEDH to become and remain very transparent with our shareholders. As a result, it is our commitment to put out market updates anytime anything news worthy occurs.

MedX Holdings, Inc. is a publicly trading holding company utilizing a new form of Collaborative Governance. MEDH targets the acquisitions of undervalued, turnaround medical related businesses. In addition, MEDH is newly emerging as dynamic distributor of pharmaceutical products.

For more information about MedX Holdings, Inc., call (877) 225-0243 or visit our web site www.medxholdings.com is located at 1621 Central Avenue, Cheyenne, WY, USA

Safe-Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act), including all statements that are not statements of historical fact regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the company, its directors or its officers with respect to, among other things: (i) the companys financing plans; (ii) trends affecting the companys financial condition or results of operations; (iii) the companys growth strategy and operating strategy; and (iv) the declaration and payment of dividends. The words may, would, will, expect, estimate, anticipate, believe, intend and similar expressions and variations thereof are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the companys ability to control, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors including the risk disclosed in the companys Forms 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC.
The Islamic State has been linked to the deaths of more than 500 civilians in countries including Belgium and the United States in the past six months alone. The months ahead could be even bloodier.

Thats the sobering conclusion of a new review of the Islamic States rise by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It noted that the Islamic State has inspired or carried out the killing of civilians in 11 countries, not counting the groups attacks in its strongholds of Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

The global threat from ISIL remains high and continues to diversify, Ban wrote, using an alternate acronym for the group. Recent international attacks perpetrated by members of ISIL demonstrate that the terrorist group is now moving into a new phase, with the increased risk that well-prepared and centrally directed attacks on international civilian targets may become a more frequent occurrence.

The report follows a year in which the Islamic State steadily lost territory in both Iraq and Syria, where a surge in U.S. and allied airstrikes has destroyed vital oil fields controlled by the group, dramatically curbing its oil revenues.

Oil production in Islamic State-controlled territory has fallen by 30 to 50 percent, forcing the extremists paymasters to cut fighters salaries by as much as half, according to Ban. The report does not put a dollar sign on the Islamic States oil profits. But a previous U.N. report estimated that the militant group generated between $400 million and $500 million in oil revenues last year.

A decision by the Iraqi government to halt the payment of salaries to government employees in Islamic State-controlled territory has, according to one unidentified member state cited in the report, cut the flow of about $2 billion into the region and therefore significantly curbed ISILs opportunity to levy taxes' on the residents of the areas it controls.

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For the first time since the declaration of its so-called caliphate, in June 2014, the ISIL core is under financial pressure, Ban wrote. He cited a report by the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, noting that the Islamic States failure to conquer new lands means its ability to loot and sell fresh resources, assets or antiquities has been diminished.

While Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi still commands an army of up to 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, military setbacks have forced his organization to move beyond its traditional Middle East stronghold in search of more money and new recruits. It has established its largest branches in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Libya, where the group has as many as 5,000 troops and controls the city of Sirte, the birthplace of former Libyan strongman Muammar al-Qaddafi.

The Islamic States gains over the past couple of years in Libya, in particular, have alarmed the United States and its allies, which are weighing whether to commit greater military assistance to Libyas newly established U.N.-backed Government of National Accord to fight the extremist group.

Britain and other governments are pressing for the adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution that would allow the interception of ships on the Mediterranean Sea suspected of smuggling arms to the Islamic State.

Despite its military reversals in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State is not yet strategically and irreversibly weakened, according to Ban. And the groups leaders are seeking to intensify the activities of overseas affiliates as part of its increasingly global military strategy.

In the last six months, the Islamic State has carried out, inspired or claimed responsibility for terrorist strikes against civilian targets in Bangladesh, Belgium, Egypt, France, Germany, Indonesia, Lebanon, Pakistan, Russia, Turkey, and the United States. The Paris attacks of November 2015 and the Brussels attacks of March 2016 demonstrate ISILs ability to mount complex, multi-wave attacks, Ban wrote.

In a separate development on Thursday, the U.S. State Department released its annual report on terrorism, which found that the Islamic State threat is becoming more and more decentralized, with the group spreading its influence into Southeast Asia, Africa, and the North Caucasus region. The report singled out the Islamic State as the greatest terrorist threat around the world  highlighting its formidable force in Iraq and Syria. However, it noted that the Islamic States footprint in Asia and Africa is largely thanks to pre-existing terrorist networks declaring their solidarity with the group rather than the Islamic State creating new affiliates.

The relationship between most of these groups and ISILs leadership remained symbolic in most cases, the State Department report said. Many of these groups are made up of pre-existing terrorist networks with their own local goals and lesser capabilities than ISIL.

Despite the Islamic States growing influence in more parts of the world, U.S. officials have said theyve made progress in stemming the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria, which has swelled the groups ranks. But the United States hasnt always been consistent in quantifying that progress. Air Force Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten, the deputy commander for operations and intelligence for the campaign against the Islamic State, told reporters on April 26 that the number of fighters traveling to Iraq and Syria dropped dramatically in the last year from about 2,000 per month to 200.

But the U.S. military walked back that claim days later, saying the official estimate is higher than Gerstens.

We believe the foreign fighter flow was 2,000 at one point and is now down to a quarter or less of that, U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for the U.S.-led campaign, told Reuters. That would mean a 75 percent decrease from earlier in the year, which is significant, but not as dramatic as the 90 percent decline indicated by Gersten.

Photo credit: THIERRY CHESNOT/Getty Images
(Adds background on Huawei, paragraphs 12-16)

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department has issued a subpoena to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd as part of a probe into the Chinese technology company's transactions in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria, the New York Times reported on Thursday.

Citing a copy of the subpoena sent to the Shenzhen, China-based Huawei, the Times said the department is demanding the company turn over all its information on the export or re-export of U.S. technology to those countries.

The request comes as part of the United States' investigation into whether Huawei broke export controls in its dealings with the five countries, which face U.S. restrictions over their exports amid ongoing disputes such as the war in Syria.

Huawei had not been accused of wrongdoing, and the subpoena is administrative, not criminal, in nature, the Times said.

Huawei declined comment on the subpoena but said it abides by the laws and regulations of the countries it operates in.

"In particular, Huawei has a strict code of conduct, rigorous training, and detailed policies relating to export control compliance and actively cooperates with the relevant government agencies, including the Department of Commerce, regarding Huawei's compliance with export control laws," a company spokesperson said in an email.

A Commerce Department spokesman declined comment.

Huawei is a world leader in producing telecommunications equipment and has six U.S. research centers, though it is a bit player in America's telecoms infrastructure market.

U.S. national security concerns have helped scuttle several attempts by Huawei to expand its presence in the country.

According to the Times, the subpoena was issued after U.S. officials had blocked sales of American technology to another Chinese company ZTE Corp, Huawei's smaller rival.

In March, the U.S. government gave ZTE a three-month reprieve on its tough export restrictions.

The Chinese government's relationship with Huawei, founded by a retired officer in the People's Liberation Army, has long worried U.S. intelligence officials, who at one point warned South Korea and other allies not to buy Huawei routers because they contain secret backdoors installed for espionage purposes.

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One fear has been that the Chinese software in the routers made it more difficult for American, British and other communications intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on messages within and among countries such as Iran and Cuba that use Huawei products.

There are also concerns that China would be able to more easily wire-tap in areas where Huawei switches are used.

Concerns have grown in recent years as Huawei has used price reductions to increase its penetration of the 400G telecom markets in the Middle East, Latin America and elsewhere, a U.S. intelligence official said on Thursday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

The NSA and its British counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, have tried to counter the threat Huawei presents by trying to create their own backdoors into the Chinese company's network and seeking to find vulnerabilities in its software source code, the official said.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Tim Ahmann, Diane Bartz and John Walcott; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Alan Crosby and David Gregorio)
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday declared North Korea a "primary money laundering concern" and moved to further block its ability to use the U.S. and world financial systems to fund its weapons programs. The U.S. Treasury Department called for a prohibition on certain U.S. financial institutions opening or maintaining correspondent accounts, which are established to receive deposits from or make payments on behalf of a foreign institution, with North Korean financial institutions. Crucially, Treasury also prohibited the use of third parties' U.S. correspondent accounts to process transactions for North Korean financial institutions. The announcement came days after the latest failed missile launch by the isolated state. Tensions in the region have been high since January when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and then followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles, in defiance of UN resolutions. Those efforts have all fueled calls in Washington, and abroad, for a clampdown on Pyongyang. U.S. law already generally prohibited U.S. financial institutions from engaging in transactions with North Korean institutions, but Treasury's latest actions would impose additional controls, especially the prohibition on the use of third-country banks' U.S. accounts to process transactions for North Korea. "This is meaningful," said Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is designating the entire country, which means essentially that any entity that is interested in interacting with U.S. financial institutions should no longer have any business with North Korea." "Most, if not all, entities, if faced with the choice of having access to the U.S. financial system or doing business with North Korea, are going to make the obvious choice," Cha added. South Korea's foreign ministry on Thursday welcomed the move, which it said in a statement would boost the effectiveness of existing sanctions on the North and have a broader impact than a 2005 U.S. Treasury measure that targeted a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau. But China, North Korea's most important backer despite Beijing's anger at Pyongyang's nuclear program and support for U.N. sanctions, expressed concern. "We have consistently opposed any county using its domestic law to impose unilateral sanctions on another country," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters. About $24 million of North Korean funds was frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) after the U.S. Treasury accused it of helping to channel earnings from the North's illicit activities, leading to a frantic attempt by Pyongyang to retrieve the money. The North has since developed tactics to skirt financial restrictions by resorting to informal means to transfer money, including the use of bulk cash hand-carried by officials. Adam Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Washington expected other governments and financial authorities to make similar moves to prevent Pyongyang from "abusing" global financial institutions to support its development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles. "The regime is notoriously deceitful in its financial transactions in order to continue its illicit weapons programs and other destabilizing activities," Szubin said in a statement. The Treasury was required to assess North Korea's status as a money laundering jurisdiction under the "North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act," passed nearly unanimously by the U.S. Congress in February. A U.N. Security Council resolution in early March also required member states to sever correspondent banking relationships with North Korean financial institutions within 90 days. (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, and Jack Kim in SEOUL and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by G. Crosse and Jacqueline Wong)
World domination is expensive. As Uber has pushed its ride-sharing business into 460 cities in 69 countries (and counting), the company has developed an insatiable appetite for new capital. Now, in the largest single investment ever made in a private company, Uber says its raised another $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund.

In the past two years alone, Uber has raised $13.8 billion in private rounds, mostly venture capital and private equity but also convertible debt. Most tech companies have gone public long before theyve reached Ubers $62.5 billion valuation, but Uber has stubbornly remained private. In effect, Uber has accomplished a slow-motion IPO without ever approaching the public stock market. Only two tech IPOs have raised more money: Alibaba with $21.7 billion and Facebook with $16 billion.

The investment from Saudi Arabias sovereign fund is the latest and largest part of an investment round that has raised money from Baidu, Chinas search giant, as well as other Chinese investors. It follows news that Didi Chuxing, a rival service that has proven to be a formidable competitor to Uber in China, received a $1 billion investment from Apple, an unusually large sum from a company that rarely makes such deals. Didi also counts Alibaba and Tencent among its shareholders, giving it a stable of powerful allies in its home market.

While some of Ubers new $3.5 billion will likely to go expand its presence in the Middle Eastwhere it is already active in 15 citiesmuch of it could end up financing its expansion into China and India. Ola has emerged as a strong and aggressively expanding contender in Indias nascent ride-sharing market. But its in China where Uber is being forced to expand its presence fast or else lose out to Didi, which already dominates there.

Uber confirmed in February that it is losing $1 billion a year in China. Its also invested at least $1 billion in India since last summer. The company claims its already profitable in the U.S. and Canada, but the aggressive expansion into large, emerging markets where there are already successful incumbentsan underdog scenario it never faced in its home countryis creating a ravenous hunger for capital. Not to mention other initiatives such as UberEats and the fleet of self-driving cars the company is developing.

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All of this puts Uber in an interesting position. On the one hand, its market valuation is that of a large, blue-chip company. At $62.5 billion, the company is worth more than either Ford ($52 billion) or General Motors ($46 billion). On the other hand, unlike a legacy manufacturer, Uber is spending like its a much smaller startup, investing as quickly as possible to gain as much share as it can of a market it pioneered.

Sometimes, as with Amazon and Netflix, this aggressive investment in growth works. Other times, as with Groupon, it doesnt end well. The biggest risk facing Uber in its global expansion is that the investments may not be fruitful going up against established and well-funded competitors like it faces in China and India. The same playbook makes you the market leader in one country can leave you a reckless spendthrift in another.

Uber is a company that has shown time and again it will do whatever it takes to reach its goals, an approach that has brought growth but also landed it in more than its share of controversies. Investors will stomach controversies as long as a company delivers on returns. With each new round, though, Uber ratchets up the expectations surrounding those returns. And Ubers investment rounds are not only growing more numerous, they are growing larger in size.

That leaves Uber in a risky, rinse-and-repeat cycle. To return money to investors, it must grow. To grow, it must invest aggressively. To invest aggressively, it needs more money from investors. For now, investors have faith that Uber will indeed meet its goals. But as a rule, the longer these cycles go on, the more they make investors uncomfortable.
(Adds comments on China and growth markets in paragraphs 10-12)

By Heather Somerville

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1 (Reuters) - Uber has raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the U.S. ride-hailing service said on Wednesday, gaining a crucial partner in its expansion into the Middle East.

The investment from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund was part of Uber's most recent financing round that valued the company at $62.5 billion, Uber said, making it the most highly valued venture capital-backed company in the world.

In a written statement, Uber co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick called the investment a "vote of confidence in our business."

As part of the investment, a managing director at the Saudi fund, Yasir Al Rumayyan, will take a seat on Uber's board, the company said. Other board members include Benchmark Capital general partner Bill Gurley and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington.

Uber said the Saudi's investment puts the company's total balance sheet, including cash and debt, at more than $11 billion.

The funding round is a departure from the startup investing climate, which has seen contraction in recent months as technology companies face greater scrutiny over their valuations. It shows that the some of the most high-profile companies with mass consumer adoption -- among them also Snapchat, which last week disclosed a $1.81 billion funding raise -- can still demand investor dollars, even as other tech firms are downsizing to weather a funding drought.

Uber has committed to investing $250 million in the Middle East and North Africa, where it has grown aggressively and is now operating in nine countries and 15 cities in the region. But, as in other regions including China and India, Uber is competing in the Middle East against local ride-hailing startups such as Careem, which operates in 20 cities across the region.

In the first quarter of the year, Uber had more than 395,000 active riders across the Middle East, a five-fold jump from the first quarter of 2015, and 19,000 active drivers, representing a four-fold increase over the same period.

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Uber says it has operated in Saudi Arabia since early 2014 and about 80 percent of its more than 130,000 riders in that country are women.

Uber will use some of the new funds in growth markets including China, where the company is in fierce competition with market leader Didi Chuxing, which is backed by Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd .

"What we continue to be most focused on though is the growth of our businesses around the world, particularly in developing markets like China," Allen Penn, head of Asia operations at Uber, told a technology conference in Hong Kong.

Uber and Didi Chuxing have both spent heavily to subsidize fares to gain market share, betting on China's Internet-linked transport market becoming the world's biggest. Despite the increased competition, Uber is spending 75 percent to 80 percent less per trip now than last summer, putting the company on a more sustainable path, Penn added.

(Reporting by Heather Somerville; Additional reporting by Elzio Barreto in Hong Kong; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Tom Brown and Simon Cameron-Moore)
Los Angeles police Thursday morning identified the man who opened fire on the UCLA campus on Wednesday, killing a professor before turning the gun on himself.

Mainak Sarkar fatally shot William Scott Klug, a professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, in his office, police said.

The 38-year-old Sarkar was reportedly a former graduate student at the university.

Klug was married and a father.

An exact motive for the shooting remains unclear. However, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck on Thursday said the gunman had a "kill list," which contained names, including an unidentified woman found dead in Minnesota, The Associated Press reported.

A massive police response happened shortly after the shooting, which took place around 10 a.m. on UCLA's Westwood campus in the Engineering 4 building.

Chief Beck told reporters on Wednesday that "evidence" of a suicide note was found at the scene but he would not specify what the note stated.

The campus was on lockdown for hours after the shooting, classes canceled for the rest of the day once police deemed the threat was over.

Classes resumed Thursday. It is unclear if the Engineering 4 building is accessible.

"The campus remains in a state of sorrow," UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh said in a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Monday is the beginning of finals week for UCLA and the school plans to hold finals and commencement as scheduled.

Read More: UCLA Campus Shooting Confirmed as Murder-Suicide, Police Say
O gunfire at an engineering building at the University of California, Los Angeles led to a university-wide lockdown as swarms of law enforcement descended on the campus.

The shooting, believed to be a murder-suicide, has become another example used in the nation-wide conversation on gun violence and overtook m for hours on Wednesday. But what about the recent series of shootings that failed to reach such national attention in Chicago?

At least 62 people in Chicago were shot during Memorial Day weekend, a surge over a short span of time that Mayor Rahm Emanuel called "unacceptable," according to NBC News. Six of those victims died.

Tactical officers investigate UCLA's shooting on Wednesday.

One 18-year-old victim was standing on his porch when he was shot in a drive-by. On Saturday afternoon, two victims walking down the street were shot in a violent robbery. Another 26-year-old victim was driving when she was shot. Many of those involved in the weekend's shootings were gang members, according to NBC.

Police officials have attributed the growing epidemic of gun violence in Chicago to the pressure children face to join gangs, poor gun laws in bordering states and a "broken and overwhelmed" judicial system, police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The holiday weekend's events are just one reflection of rising gun violence the city is struggling to get under control. Last month was the city's deadliest May since 1995, with a death toll reaching 66 and nearly 400 people wounded by guns.

About halfway through 2016, more than 1,500 people have been shot so far in Chicago, according to the Tribune.
English Finnish

F-Secure Corporation, Stock exchange release, 2 June 2016 at 08:00 EEST

Christian Fredrikson, President and CEO of F-Secure Corporation, has resigned to pursue a leadership opportunity outside the Company. The F-Secure Board of Directors has appointed Samu Konttinen as new President and CEO, effective 1 August 2016. Konttinen joined F-Secure in 2005 and has held a wide range of senior management positions in the company, including Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and Executive Vice President of F-Secures Consumer Business. Most recently he served as Executive Vice President Corporate Security Business. Since 2009 he has been a member of the Leadership team.

The Board and I are pleased to announce the appointment of Samu as President and CEO of F-Secure. In his more than a decade with F-Secure he has proven his ability to drive innovation, and ensure a steady strategy execution that delivers growth. Im confident that his winning attitude and relentless focus on execution will further speed up F-Secures transformation to the leading European cyber security company, says Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman of the F-Secure Board of Directors.

Im excited to take the role as President and CEO of F-Secure, says Samu Konttinen. Thousands of companies and millions of people around the world already trust us to defend them against cyber attacks. With our strategy, we are well-positioned for further growth. Im proud we have employed some of the brightest minds in the security industry, and together with them Im looking forward to taking advantage of the new opportunities in the connected world.

Christian Fredrikson became the CEO of F-Secure in January 2012. He has led F-Secure through a critical period of transition, during which the company has refocused on security, divested its personal cloud storage business and acquired a Nordic security consultancy and services company to pave the way to becoming a cyber security leader.

We thank Christian for his dedication and commitment to the company over the past four and a half years, and wish him the best in his future endeavors, says Siilasmaa.



Additional information:

Risto Siilasmaa, Chairman of the Board,

+ 358 9 2520 0700
Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine on Thursday overhauled its long-criticised legal system by adopting Western standards that limit the immunity of judges and establish an anti-corruption court.

The raft of measures aims to bring the former Soviet republic closer to its ambition of applying for EU membership by 2020.

It is also seen as vital to kickstarting an international support programme that could keep Ukraine's floundering economy afloat.

The war-scarred country has been criticised for having a corruption-riddled justice system that has put up roadblocks to foreign investment and benefited engrained political interests tied to a handful of powerful tycoons.

"We are restoring Ukrainians' right for the truth, the right for justice," President Petro Poroshenko told lawmakers shortly before they approved the measures almost unanimously.

"We are doing this for investors whom we need to come to Ukraine, create jobs, pay taxes and ensure our economic development."

One of the more important changes involves the establishment of an independent anti-graft and intellectual property body within the next 12 months.

Another strips court appointees of their full immunity from prosecution and makes them liable for crimes committed outside the courtroom.

The new system also sets up an independent panel for selecting judges based on their professional merits instead of their political or business ties.

Poroshenko said more than 40 percent of Ukraine's current court members would not qualify under the new ethics system.

- 'Judicial independence' -

The Western-backed leader has lost public approval over his perceived failure to erase the legacy of graft he inherited from the Russian-backed administration toppled during a February 2014 pro-EU revolt.

The build-up of public anger culminated in the resignation of prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his replacement with parliament's pro-Western speaker Volodymyr Groysman in April.

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The Poroshenko protege has vowed to pursue economic and political restructuring measures pushed by Ukraine's foreign allies and lenders such as the International Monetary Fund.

Deputy presidential administration chief Oleksiy Filatov said the new legal system -- now enshrined in the constitution -- "will de-politicise and ensure the independence of the judiciary."

His comments were echoed in a joint statement released by the European Commission's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and EU enlargement negotiator Johannes Hahn.

"The adoption in the final reading of constitutional amendments... is a crucial step towards strengthening the judiciary, improving its efficiency, safeguarding its independence and impartiality, and combating corruption," they said.

- 'Regaining public trust' -

Ukraine has been slowly shedding its Soviet legacy since its historic 2014 decision to pull out of Russia's orbit and anchor its future with the West.

Some leaders of that revolution have been disenchanted with the degree to which insiders and vying political clans still dominate government and split up Ukraine's meagre financial resources among themselves.

But Ukraine has retained strong US support and used Germany and France's help to put pressure on Russia and try to end a 25-month pro-Moscow separatist conflict in the east that has claimed more than 9,300 lives.

Washington's Kiev envoy Geoffrey Pyatt called Thursday's vote "a historic day" and a "big step forward on Ukraine's European path".

British Ambassador Judith Gough also hailed the "important progress" made toward judicial transparency.

But Gough cautioned that "effective implementation will be key to regaining public trust".
By Alexei Kalmykov and Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament approved on Thursday judicial reforms that Western backers say are needed to fight corruption, in the first constitutional vote the ruling coalition has pushed through since an overhaul of the government in April. Bribery in the court system is seen as a major obstacle to Ukraine's broader reform effort under a $17.5 billion International Monetary Fund bailout program that political infighting has threatened to derail. The bill, which aims to curb political influence on the appointment of judges and limit their immunity in case of malpractice, was backed by 335 lawmakers, 35 more than the required votes needed for changes to the constitution. The result was welcomed by Ukraine's international backers, including the United States and the European Union, which along with the International Monetary Fund have urged Kiev to step up its fight against corruption. The IMF, which is in negotiations with Ukraine for disbursing more aid worth $1.7 billion, has threatened to suspend such assistance if matters do not improve. "We will return to Ukrainians the right to truth, the right to justice, fight for a fair trial in Ukraine," President Petro Poroshenko told parliament before the vote. "In the last two weeks my desk has been littered with appeals from our partners, EU leaders, the United States and Canada, Australia and Japan, addressing me and you, members of parliament. Don't stop the pace of decisive reforms and implement judicial reform." Senior EU officials Federica Mogherini and Johannes Hahn said they hoped the vote would pave the way for other changes to the constitution, including a law to give greater independence to regions that is required under the 'Minsk' peace deal with pro-Russian separatists. "We hope today's vote will create momentum for the adoption in the final reading of the pending constitutional amendments related to decentralization and other important reforms," they said in a joint statement. The judicial legislation was opposed by some lawmakers, including the servicewoman Nadiya Savchenko, who returned home last week after spending nearly two years in a Russian jail and is viewed by many Ukrainians as a national heroine. In an emotional appeal she asked the parliament to keep its hands off the constitution, "or else the country will blow up like a hand grenade". She did not take part in the vote. The reform is aimed at making judges more professional. It partly limits their immunity from prosecution, which used to be unconditional. From now on they will be appointed by a judicial council rather than parliament, which is intended to shield them from political meddling. "Today we have a historic opportunity to carry out this judicial reform, to break the back of the current corrupt judicial system," the head of the opposition Radical Party Oleh Lyashko said. (Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Matthias Williams and Richard Balmforth)
By Elizabeth Piper LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday he would take Britain into the European Union under the "special status" it now enjoys if it was not already a member, pressing his campaign to remain in the bloc in a live television performance. Fielding questions from a sometimes hostile audience on subjects ranging from immigration to security, Cameron said he often became frustrated with the 28-member bloc. But he stressed that a vote to exit in a June 23 referendum would be a "self-inflicted wound" for Britain's economy. With the vote only three weeks away, both sides are stepping up their campaigns to try to win over undecided voters and break the deadlock in opinion polls which suggest that Britons are almost equally split over which way to vote. "I would never want us to join the euro, but if we were offered British terms, what we have now ... the special status we have now, I would join," Cameron told Sky News television. "Are there things about Europe that frustrate you? Yes, but I am a prime minister who sits round the table with 27 other heads of government and state and sometimes this organization drives me crazy. But do I sit there and think Britain would be better off if we left? ... Absolutely not." Cameron, who is leading the "In" campaign, was keen to stick to what he called the risks to the economy if Britain were to vote to leave, but was pressed on high levels of migration and its impact on public services such as health provision. The "Out" campaign, led by two one-time allies of the prime minister, says Britain cannot control migration while being a member of the European Union, which holds up free movement of people as one of its founding principles. Taken to task over a 2010 promise to keep net migration to the "tens of thousands", Cameron said he stood by his pledge but could not offer up a firm date after net figures last month put net migration at 330,000 in 2015. Of those, a net 184,000 came from the EU. "And yes we do need to do things to control migration like restricting in-work welfare (payments) but it would be madness to try to do that by trashing our economy and pulling out of the single market," Cameron said. "Leaving the single market would be an act of economic self-harm for Britain and we absolutely shouldn't do it." He also sought to allay fears among some in the audience that more migrants could enter Britain if Turkey were to join the bloc, saying "at this rate they'll join in the year 3000". "There is no prospect of Turkey joining the EU in decades. They applied in 1987, they have to complete 35 chapters, one has been completed so far," he said. "Turkey's not going to join the EU anytime soon, every country, every parliament has a veto." (Additional reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Andrew Roche)
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday placed the Saudi-led military coalition supporting Yemen's government on an annual blacklist over the deaths of hundreds of children in airstrikes.

Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels who seized the capital Sanaa in September 2014 were also added to the list of children's rights violators released Thursday, detailing offenses in 14 countries.

"Emerging and escalating crises had a horrific impact on boys and girls," said a statement from the office of the UN envoy for children and armed conflict.

"The situation in Yemen was particularly worrisome with a five-fold increase in the number of children recruited (by armed groups) and six times more children killed and maimed compared to 2014," it said.

The Saudi-led coalition is responsible for 60 percent of the total 785 children who were killed and 1,168 wounded last year in Yemen, said the report.

The coalition launched its air campaign to push back the Huthis in March 2015, but the rebels still control the capital and many parts of the country.

"In Yemen, owing to the very large number of violations attributed to the two parties, the Huthis/Ansar Allah and the Saudi Arabia-led coalition are listed for killing and maiming and attacks on schools and hospitals," the report said.

Of the 762 verified cases of recruitment of child soldiers, 72 percent were attributed to the Huthis, 15 percent to pro-government forces and nine percent to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according to the report.

"In several situations of conflict, aerial operations contributed to creating complex environments in which large numbers of children were killed and maimed," said Leila Zerrougui, the UN envoy for children and armed conflict.

"State-allied armed groups and militia have also increasingly been used to fight in support of government forces, in some cases recruiting and using children," she said.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since the coalition began its campaign and some 80 percent of the population is in dire need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
It's a never ending road.

Two months after Europes agreement with Turkey went into effect, Greece has finally shared the rules for asylum-seekers already in Greece to apply for refugee status. The process, explained in a handout distributed by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) as well as the Greek government, adds a new step to the current system: pre-registration, which allows asylum-seekers to live in Greece until their application has been processed.

Pre-registrations, the pamphlet explains, will take place in designated centers, starting with people living in official camps (Idomeni is the largest). Then, people who live in informal sites, or open camps, will be taken to the pre-registration centers, but only if they are willing to move to an official site, which, as some noted, might take months. Lastly, people who found accommodations in hotels or other residential places, will be allowed to pre-register.

Once asylum-seekers complete pre-registration, they must get an appointment at the Asylum Service office and sit an interview to explain why they need asylum.

Only people who have entered Greece between Jan. 1, 2015 and March 20, 2016 will be allowed to pre-register. They also must hold a police note acknowledging their presence in Greece and be living on the mainland. People on the islands cant apply for asylum this way. Refugees also need cellphone access, as notifications about next steps are communicated via SMS.

Once all of these conditions are satisfied, the path to asylum is long and complicated. This flow chart explains the process:

Of particular note is how difficult it is, according to the Dublin regulation, to be relocated. People who arent joining their family or are not from a specific set of countries (Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic, Eritrea, Burundi, Costa Rica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Bahrain, Maldives), or who entered Greece before September 16, 2015, have to remain in their country of arrival, in this case, Greece.

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According to UNHCR data elaborated by Open Migration, though over 850,000 migrants arrived in Greece by sea in 2015, only 13,210 applied for refugee status in Greece. About 10,000 of those requests were processed, and 41.8% applicants were granted asylum. Last year, nearly half a million refugees applied for asylum in Germany. About half those requests have been processed, with 56.5% accepted.

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Beirut (AFP) - Humanitarian aid drops to besieged areas in Syria are not imminent and need regime approval, the United Nations said on Thursday, despite urgent calls from Britain and France for deliveries to start.

In northern Syria, meanwhile, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance on Thursday pressed its advance towards the town of Manbij held by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

And in the regime's coastal stronghold of Latakia, a suicide bombing killed at least one person and wounded several other near a mosque, state television said.

It follows bombings last month claimed by IS in the nearby cities of Jableh and Tartus that killed at least 170 people.

Humanitarian access in Syria has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed at least 280,000 people and displaced millions.

Last month the United Nations said that if it did not see improvement on aid access to besieged areas by June 1, it would task the UN food agency to carry out air drops.

But a deputy to the UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday: "As long as the World Food Programme has not yet finalised its plans, I don't think there's something imminent."

Ramzi Ezzedine Ramzi stressed air drops were "a very complex venture" which would need approval from Damascus.

De Mistura pointed out last week that it can take six weeks of air drops to deliver the same amount of aid to an area as a single convoy over land.

On Wednesday land deliveries reached two towns besieged by government forces where civilians are facing food shortages.

- 'Too little, too late'-

A local truce allowed a convoy to enter the town of Daraya near Damascus for the first time since late 2012, while another entered the nearby town of Moadamiyeh for the first time since March.

But Syria's opposition said only medical supplies were in the Daraya delivery and British charity Save the Children said it was "shocking and completely unacceptable" that it excluded desperately needed food.

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An estimated 8,000 people live in Daraya, one of the first towns in Syria to erupt in anti-government demonstrations in 2012 and one of the first to be placed under a strict regime siege the same year.

According to the United Nations, a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria -- the majority surrounded by government forces -- and another four million in hard-to-reach areas.

Britain has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting Friday to discuss humanitarian access and to press ahead with air drops.

"It's too little, too late," said Matthew Rycroft, the British ambassador to the UN, referring to Wednesday's deliveries.

French ambassador Francois Delattre, who holds the council presidency this month, blamed the Syrian regime for blocking access to towns and villages under siege.

"France is asking the United Nations and in particular the WFP to begin humanitarian air drops for all the areas in need, beginning with Daraya, Moadamiyeh and Madaya, where the civilian population including children risks dying of hunger," Delattre told a press conference.

Regime-besieged Madaya became infamous in late 2015 after dozens starved in the town.

Staunch regime ally Russia on Wednesday said that the local truce in Daraya would be observed until 00:01 am on Friday (2101 GMT Thursday) to allow aid deliveries.

But Russia's ambassador Vitaly Churkin suggested that plans to air drop humanitarian relief could be put on hold.

"I think we need to continue to pursue with land deliveries," Churkin said.

- Anti-IS offensive -

In north Syria, fighters from a Kurdish-Arab alliance on Thursday were 10 kilometres (six miles) outside the IS-held town of Manbij, a monitor said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance had seized 20 villages outside the town, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The clashes are very violent and IS is putting up fierce resistance," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

The US-backed SDF last week launched an offensive north of the jihadists' Syrian stronghold of Raqa city.

This week the alliance opened a new front towards Manbij, which lies on a key supply route between the IS-held town of Jarabulus on the Turkish border and Raqa.

Syria's main opposition group on Wednesday called on the UN to implement a truce in all of Syria except areas under IS control during the holy month of Ramadan which begins next week.

In the second city of Aleppo, at least five people were killed on Thursday in regime rocket fire on a rebel-held district, the civil defence said.
Director Stephanie Soechtig is sticking up for her documentary Under the Gun after executive producer Katie Couric apologized for a controversial scene in the film.

Couric, who also narrates and appears in the movie, expressed regret Monday for a moment in the film in which she asks members of a gun-rights group called the Virginia Citizens Defense League a question about background checks for felons and suspected terrorists. The group members are shown sitting silently for eight seconds before finally answering. Couric and the movie, which premiered May 14 on Epix, became targets for gun-rights advocates last week after unedited audio revealed that the silence had been added into the documentary  the VCDL members had responded immediately to Courics question. In her statement Monday, Couric said, I regret that those eight seconds were misleading, and claimed that she raised concerns about the edit to Soechtig during the filmmaking process.

Speaking to Variety Wednesday, Soechtig defended the editing decision. She also praised Couric with whom shes worked on two films, calling her incredibly supportive.

Katie Couric said on Monday that the eight-second pause the had been edited into the scene with the VCDL members did not accurately represent their response. Do you agree with that assessment?

The focus on this exchange shouldnt overshadow the fact that the film gave the VCDL a platform to express their views and opinion. Its really important to keep in mind that this is a group that thinks domestic abusers should have guns and that guns should be allowed in schools and bars. If I wanted to make them look bad, I would have focused exclusively on their radical ideology. But I didnt do that. I wanted to allow them an opportunity to explain their beliefs. In hindsight, had I known that the NRA would focus on eight seconds of a two-hour film, I might have done things differently. But I made the creative decision and I stand by it.

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What was your intention with inserting that pause?

You have Katie asking the group this question, Do you think people on the terror watch list should be allowed to own guns? Katies asking the question of the group, but as the filmmaker, I want to ask the question of the audience. So what I was thinking, my editor was thinking was we need to stop for a second, because the film moves along at a really fast clip. So youll see that throughout well stop down after something happens or when we present something. The terror watch list is a real pivotal feature in the film, as is the whole notion of background checks. So this felt like a really crucial time to stop down and allow the audience a moment to let that question sink in.

Is that sort of edit in line with standard practices for documentary filmmaking?

I think it has a different standard than the nightly news has. When youre making a film like this, the goal is to get people to come to theaters to watch your film. You have to provide a thematic experience for them. I dont think we misconstrued any of the facts. I think the VCDL made their position on background checks very clear earlier in the film and throughout the film. So yeah, I do think its pro forma for filmmaking.

Couric said in her statement that she spoke with you about the edit and raised concerns. Did she?

We talked about everything in the film and all edit choices. Im the director of the film and at the end of the day I felt it was necessary to stop down and give people a moment to consider the question.

She mentioned you by name in her statement. Did you feel at all like she was attempting to shift blame for the controversy to you?

Not at all. Any time Katie does an interview and receives a compliment on the film she says, Its all Stephanie. I can take very little credit for this. Stephanie and her team did all of this. That swings both ways, right? In other decisions that I made I need to take responsibility, too, and this was my choice.

Were you surprised to see this moment in the film singled out?

No, if they didnt find this, they would have found something else. Honestly, I think its interesting that theyre focusing on whats not in the film instead of what is in the film, because if they focused on what is in the film, it would threaten their livelihood. This is very textbook gun-lobby intimidation tactics, and I wont be intimidated.

Have you been threatened or harassed since the film premiered?

Ive been harassed up the wazoo. If you check my Twitter feed, the harassment has been fierce. But its what we talk about in the film. These types of intimidation tactics are very common. The survivors in the film, people who lost their babies in Sandy Hook or their daughter in the Aurora theater, they get hate mail all the time. Theyre getting it now saying, Your daughter deserved to die or Youre making this up. You never had a son. There is a small but noisy fringe in this country. Theyve been really loud, and to be honest theyve been really successful in preventing our legislators from passing any meaningful legislation on this issue. So I expected it. What Im getting is really very little compared to what the victims and survivors are getting.

There was a shooting today at UCLA. Do you see the way that people are responding to these events changing?

We talk about this in the beginning of the film. We have this script thats been rolled out  mass shooting, breaking news, a grieving public, everyone asking How does this happen? Why does this keep happening? Then a cute kitten video pops up and we all move on with our lives. My hope with this film is that it makes us stop and actually see things for what they are.

Do you see any political movement on the horizon with this issue?

We do, we see a lot of movement. In the film we cover Washington state where they closed the background-check loophole. Were seeing a lot of ballot initiatives coming up too for this coming election, one in Maine and one in Nevada. This has really become a peoples movement, and ballot initiatives have really become an effective way for people to vote directly. I think thats really encouraging.

Related stories

Katie Couric Apologizes for 'Misleading' Editing on Gun Documentary

Katie Couric Responds to 'Under the Gun' Editing Criticism

Yahoo's False Prophet: How Marissa Mayer Failed to Turn the Company Around
Consumer products giant Unilever Plc UL recently reached an agreement with beverage giant Coca-Cola Co. KO and its largest Latin American bottler Coca-Cola Femsa SAB KOF to sell its AdeS soy-based beverage business for about $575 million, per media sources.

AdeS sells beverages that are a mix of fruit juice and soy. It has a presence in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile and Colombia.

The deal is a win-win for both the parties. For Unilever, it is in line with the companys divestiture strategy to concentrate more on its personal care businesses. It is also attractive for Coca-Cola companies which have been looking to expand the sales of non-soda drinks and boosting its business beyond North America, its biggest market, where sales have been falling due to a consumer shift towards healthier beverages. In fact, with this deal, Coca-Cola will debut into soy-based beverages, thus diversifying further.

After the divestiture is complete, AdeS will be a part of the non-carbonated beverage business that Coca-Cola Femsa shares with Coca-Cola in its franchise territories.

We note that Unilever has been shedding off assets in its battered food business, as the category has been delivering sluggish growth due to a lack of innovation and declining demand. Demand has been weak due to saturated markets in the U.S., the companys major revenue source.

In Jul 2014, Unilever sold its Slim-Fast brand to a middle market private equity firm - Kainos Capital, in accordance with its divestiture strategy. The divestiture included the sale of the Slim-Fast trademark and the global Slim-Fast business portfolio. In May 2014, the company completed the sale of its Ragu and Bertolli pasta sauces brands for $2.15 billion.

Not only this, the company has divested many brands in the past. In Feb 2014, the company sold its meat snacks business to Berlin-based Jack Links Meat Snacks and in January, Unilever sold its Royal pasta brand to RFM Corporation, one of the biggest diversified food and beverage companies in the Philippines.

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In 2013, Unilever sold its Soft & Beautiful, TCB and Pro-Line Comb-Thru brands in the hair care category to an international hair care company  Strength of Nature; sold its Wish-Bone salad dressing business to food company Pinnacle Foods Inc. PF; sold Bertolli and P.F. Chang's frozen meals brands to ConAgra Foods Inc. CAG and its Skippy peanut butter business to Austin, MN-based producer of branded food and meat, Hormel Foods Corp. HRL.

These divestitures show Unilevers commitment to focus on its personal care businesses, which have higher margins and higher growth prospects.

Unilever currently holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

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Sources have reported that UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH is calling it quits in the public exchange business in California, which is one of the key markets. The decision was prompted by continued deterioration in the companys individual exchange business in that market.



This development comes after UnitedHealths recent announcement that it will exit unprofitable markets next year. The company will stop offering individual insurance coverage in most of the 34 states it currently operates in order to stem the losses in this business.



Last year, the company was the first among the health insurers to spell out its troubles related to public exchanges. In order to scale back its activity on the exchanges, UnitedHealth recently withdrew platinum products, increased prices, eliminated marketing and commissions, intensified clinical engagement and medical management with this membership group and reduced its operating cost.



Among the 34 states in which it operates, the company will leave or has already left Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.



Another player, Humana Inc. HUM, is also mulling over dropping individual insurance coverage through exchanges in the states of Alabama, Kansas, Wisconsin and Virginia. The business brought Humana a meager profit in the first quarter and will likely lead to a loss for the full year.



Unlike UnitedHealth and Humana, another insurance major Aetna Inc. AET doesnt plan to drop its exchange business in any of the 15 states it currently operates in. It is also considering expansion into new states in 2017.



Cigna Corp. CI which is offering exchange insurance in seven states is also considering expansion into new states.



Insurers have had a mixed experience with the exchange business since its debut in 2013. But Unitedhealths stint has been discouraging. The Minnesota-based insurer witnessed huge claims from sicker-than-expected customers enrolled on the public exchange. The number of healthy and young individuals who enrolled on these exchanges were far less that customers with old age and pre-existing diseases who lacked coverage earlier. This adverse mix of customer population led to increased claims and losses for the insurer.



Though the exchange business will be a bump in the road to profitability for the insurer this year, its other business segments are performing pretty well. We believe the exit of the exchange business will poise the company well for long-term growth.



UnitedHealth carries a Zacks Rank # 2 (Buy).

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VANCOUVER, Washington, June 02, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CytoDyn Inc. (OTC.QB:CYDY), a biotechnology company focused on the development of new monoclonal antibody therapies for combating human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, announces that Nader Z. Pourhassan, Ph.D., President and CEO, will present at the LD Micro Invitational Conference on June 7, at 8:30 a.m. Pacific Time (11:30 a.m. Eastern Time). The conference is being held at the Luxe Sunset Hotel in Los Angeles.



A live webcast of the LD Micro Conference presentation will be available on the Companys website at www.cytodyn.com or via http://wsw.com/webcast/ldmicro10/cydy. An archived presentation will also be available for 90 days. Web participants are encouraged to go to the web site 15 minutes prior to the start of the webcast to register, download and install any necessary software.

About CytoDyn

CytoDyn is a biotechnology company focused on the clinical development and potential commercialization of humanized monoclonal antibodies for the treatment and prevention of HIV infection. The Company has one of the leading monoclonal antibodies under development for HIV infection, PRO 140, which has finished Phase 2 clinical trials with demonstrated antiviral activity in man and is currently in Phase 3. PRO 140 blocks the HIV co-receptor CCR5 on T cells, which prevents viral entry. Clinical trial results thus far indicate that PRO 140 does not negatively affect the normal immune functions that are mediated by CCR5. Results from seven Phase 1 and Phase 2 human clinical trials have shown that PRO 140 can significantly reduce viral burden in people infected with HIV. A recent Phase 2b clinical trial demonstrated that PRO 140 can prevent viral escape in patients during several weeks of interruption from conventional drug therapy. CytoDyn intends to continue to develop PRO 140 as a therapeutic anti-viral agent in persons infected with HIV and to pursue non-HIV indications where CCR5 and its ligand CCL5 may be involved. For more information on the Company, please visit www.cytodyn.com.

About PRO 140

PRO 140 belongs to a new class of HIV/AIDS therapeutics  viral-entry inhibitors  that are intended to protect healthy cells from viral infection. PRO 140 is a fully humanized IgG4 monoclonal antibody directed against CCR5, a molecular portal that HIV uses to enter T-cells. PRO 140 blocks the predominant HIV (R5) subtype entry into T-cells by masking this required co-receptor, CCR5. Importantly, PRO 140 does not appear to interfere with the normal function of CCR5 in mediating immune responses. PRO 140 does not have agonist activity toward CCR5 but does have antagonist activity to CCL5, which is a central mediator in inflammatory diseases. PRO 140 has been the subject of seven clinical trials, each demonstrating efficacy by significantly reducing or controlling HIV viral load in human test subjects. PRO 140 has been designated a fast track product candidate by the FDA. The PRO 140 antibody appears to be a powerful antiviral agent leading to potentially fewer side effects and less frequent dosing requirements as compared to daily drug therapies currently in use.
PARIS (Reuters) - Delighted Dutch outsider Kiki Bertens reached her first grand slam semi-final on Thursday, keeping a cool head to defeat eighth-seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky with the help of a seven-game winning streak. The win will bring her face to face on Friday with world number one Serena Williams, a match the 58th-ranked player -- who had never previously gone beyond the last 16 of a major -- promised to enjoy. "I am just going to go out there and have fun again and give my all," Bertens said courtside after her 7-5 6-2 victory, calling her march to the semi-final "unbelievable... crazy.". Thursday's first set featured seven breaks and developed into something of an attritional contest, with neither Bertens nor Bacsinszky often chancing their arm at the net or able to dominate the often long groundstroke rallies. Bacsinszky, seeking to reach the Paris semi-final for the second year running, looked to have made the conclusive break in game nine, passing Bertens at the net with a crosscourt forehand on the fourth deuce point. But the Dutchwoman immediately broke back and then broke again for the set after holding her own serve. In all she won seven of 14 break points while her opponent converted just four of 13 and made 40 unforced errors against the Dutchwoman's 31. That three-game sequence -- together with a medical timeout between sets for Bertens to get her left calf strapped -- seemed to unnerve Bacsinszky, who also lost the next four games. The Swiss finally stopped the rot in the fifth game of the second set, winning another epic on the fifth deuce point and, effectively varying her play by adding a dropshot to her armory, also took the next game. But that was as far as the comeback went with Bertens then taking two deuce games and wrapping things up with a backhand winner on her second match point. (Reporting by John Stonestreet)
From Cosmopolitan

The New York Daily News reports UCLA is currently on lockdown after a shooting was reported at one of the campus's engineering buildings.

The campus sent out an alert telling students to get to safety, both via email and Twitter.

Though there's no police confirmation of a shooter or any victims yet, KTLA reports one person was seen being carried out of the building on a stretcher.

This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

Update 6/1, 1:34 p.m.: The LAPD confirmed to multiple sources - including the UCLA newsroom - two people have been shot at UCLA. The shooter is still at large.

Update 6/1, 2:27 p.m.: Police confirmed to the UCLA Newsroom two people were shot dead on campus this morning and the shooter has not yet been located. Police "are now sweeping the [UCLA Engineering IV] building, looking for a shooter," the most recent newsroom update reads.

LAPD spokesman Tony Im told TIME that SWAT teams are on campus helping police and "we're going to [do] this very methodically." A FOX 11 reporter tweeted a suicide note was allegedly found near the victims, but police have yet to confirm that information.

Follow Tess on Twitter.
Washington (AFP) - A plane from the US Air Force's elite Thunderbird team crashed Thursday in Colorado shortly after flying over a ceremony where President Barack Obama spoke, an official said.

The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft and was undergoing a medical examination, according to the Air Force official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Following the accident, Obama met with the pilot at Peterson Air Force Base before heading back to Washington aboard Air Force One.

Obama expressed relief that the pilot was not injured and thanked him for his service to the country, according to reporters who were traveling with the president.

The official said the F-16 Thunderbird crashed "shortly after conducting a flyover in support of the US Air Force Academy graduation commencement ceremony" in Colorado Springs, where Obama addressed the crowd.

Obama used the occasion to defend his approach to the Syrian conflict, warning against allowing the United States to become drawn into a new civil war in the Middle East.

The accident occurred about six miles (nine kilometers) from Peterson Air Force Base.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, the Air Force official said.
Washington (AFP) - US authorities on Thursday announced a near-total ban on the trade of African elephant ivory, finalizing a years-long push to fight the poaching of the threatened animals.

Conservation groups welcomed the move by the United States, the world's second-largest consumer of illegal ivory after China, even though it comes with notable exemptions including for antiques.

The new rule, which takes effect July 6, "substantially limits" imports, exports and sales of ivory across state lines, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said.

"Today's bold action underscores the United States' leadership and commitment to ending the scourge of elephant poaching and the tragic impact it's having on wild populations," Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said.

More than 35,000 elephants are slaughtered each year on the African continent from an approximate population of more than 450,000 in the wild.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) hailed the US move to protect the species as historic.

"The USA is boldly saying to ivory poachers: You are officially out of business," WCS president and chief executive Cristian Samper -- a member of an Obama task force on wildlife trafficking -- said in a statement.

Patrick Bergin, chief executive of the US-based African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), also praised the new rule.

"Strong laws around wildlife crime and strong enforcement of those laws are absolutely critical in deterring traffickers and poachers," he told AFP.

"All countries -- and especially those that are source, transit or destination countries for illegal wildlife products -- have a role to play in tidying their own house."

- Hunter trophies -

But the new restriction comes with a series of exemptions, including for documented antiques which are at least 100 years old and meet several additional requirements.

Other exempt items include certain musical instruments, furniture and firearms that contain less than 200 grams of ivory.

Story continues

Under the new rules, the import of sport-hunted trophies -- parts of an animal brought back to the United States for display -- will be allowed within a limit of two per hunter per year.

People will also be allowed to keep lawfully acquired ivory and are not banned from donating, giving away or receiving ivory as a gift provided "there is no exchange for other goods or services involved," the FWS said.

"Limited exceptions" to the elephant ivory ban will also apply to items that are part of a traveling exhibition or "are part of a household move or inheritance when specific criteria are met" as well as "ivory for law enforcement or genuine scientific purposes."

- 'Blood ivory' -

The new measures help fulfill President Barack Obama's 2013 executive order on combating wildlife trafficking.

Once illegal ivory enters the market, it becomes virtually impossible to distinguish from legal ivory, the FWS said, and demand for elephant ivory "is so great that it grossly outstrips the legal supply and creates a void in the marketplace that ivory traffickers are eager to fill."

The ivory trade is mostly fueled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhino horns are used in traditional medicine and for ornaments.

China has also pledged to ban the ivory trade domestically, and in March widened a ban on ivory imports.

"We hope other nations will act quickly and decisively to stop the flow of blood ivory by implementing similar regulations, which are crucial to ensuring our grandchildren and their children know these iconic species," Jewell said.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has quietly proposed lifting a ban on sex reassignment surgery that has been in place since the early 1990s, in what would be a major shift in its coverage of medical treatment for transgender veterans.

The V.A.s proposed rule would follow in the footsteps of a similar change Medicare made in 2014, and would align the V.A. with the latest research on treatment options for transgender people, which has evolved since the V.A.s ban was instituted more than two decades ago.

At that time some of these surgical procedures were not as well developed as they are now, says Jillian Shipherd, a co-director of the V.A.s LGBT health care program. The science about what the international standards of care are was very different from where we are today.

V.A. officials would not detail when the rule was first formally proposed, other than to say theyve been working on it since 2014. They discussed it for the first time in response to a TIME request, in the wake of a petition last month by two transgender veterans seeking to have the ban lifted.

Though not all transgender people need or desire surgery, many seek such procedures to help cope with gender dysphoria, the official diagnosis for individuals who experience a marked difference between the individuals expressed/experienced gender and the gender others would assign him or her. Organizations such as the American Medical Association have in the last decade released statements saying that research supports the effectiveness and medical necessity of surgery in such cases.

Medicare made the change after that ban had been on the books for 33 years, in response to a lawsuit filed by a transgender woman who is also a veteran. Decades ago, surgical intervention for transgender people was often considered experimental or cosmetic, but the ruling by a Department of Health and Human Services board found that given advances in research and practice, the exclusion is not reasonable anymore.

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The proposed rule that would end the ban at the V.A. is pending and expected to be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget in the coming months. If the language passes muster, the rule will return to the V.A. to continue through the rule-making process, during which time the agency will seek public comment on the matter. A spokesperson says the proposed rule would allow V.A. hospitals to perform sex reassignment surgery or provide it in the community. The review process is expected to take up to 22 months.

V.A. currently provides the whole universe of care for transgender Veterans, except for transition-related surgeries, V.A. spokesperson Ndidi Mojay says in a statement to TIME. However, the rule will remove any barriers to transition-related care (including surgeries) as deemed medically necessary by the Veterans treatment team.

The V.A.s Shipherd says that because the department does not regularly collect data on patients gender identity, officials cant be sure of how many veterans might seek such treatment, though the V.A. released data in 2014 showing that the agency had treated at least 2,500 transgender veterans the previous year.

In 2011, the V.A. released a directive regarding care for transgender veterans that advocates hailed as a landmark decision. Renewed in 2013, it expresses that staff must provide transition-related care without discrimination.

Echoing statements from other Obama Administration officials who have been articulating transgender-inclusive stances in recent months, Shipherd says that the rule proposal is about the respectful treatment of transgender people. We really do respect veterans self-identified gender identity, Shipherd says, and [the Veterans Health Administration] is a safe haven.
DENVER, June 2, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Frontier Airlines has entered into pilot hiring partnerships with both Cheyenne, Wyo.-based Great Lakes Airlines and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Silver Airways as part of the Frontier Career Pilot Program, designed to remove many of the career uncertainties that pilots face as they begin their airline careers by guaranteeing pilots entering the Career Pilot Program a first officer position with Frontier upon completion of defined experience requirements.



Frontier plans to launch the Frontier Career Pilot Program this June. "This program and our partnerships with these highly regarded and respected regional airlines will become an important element of Frontier's overall strategy to fulfill our pilot staffing needs in the future," said Jim Nides, Frontier's vice president-flight operations.



Frontier will work with its new partners by recruiting and interviewing new pilot candidates for this new program.



"Pursuing a professional pilot career is as challenging today as it has ever been," said Silver Airways Vice President of Flight Operations David Lindskoog. "Being able to offer a greater degree of certainty to a new pilot as he or she considers a pilot career is a big deal. This agreement between Silver Airways and Frontier Airlines offers that certainty and provides a great opportunity for our pilots to advance their careers."



"Great Lakes has had a long standing relationship with Frontier as many of our former pilots are now flying there. This agreement will help solidify the pilot recruitment needs for both airlines," said Douglas Voss, CEO of Great Lakes.



Frontier will help its new partners interview and recruit new pilot candidates. Once selected, the pilot needs to remain employed by the regional airline, upgrade to captain and build at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time. Once these and other conditions are met such as dependability metrics and a letter of recommendation from the partner airline, Frontier will guarantee that the pilot will transition to Frontier as a first officer.



"With forecasted retirements, it's no secret that the demand for highly qualified pilots will grow over the next several years," said JP Thibodeau, Frontier's chief pilot. "This new partnership helps address our future pilot staffing needs while providing pilots entering the workforce a certainty for their careers."



Pilots who currently fly for Great Lakes Airlines or Silver Airways also will be eligible and encouraged to participate in the Career Pilot Program. Depending on staffing needs at the regional airlines.



About Frontier Airlines



Frontier Airlines is committed to offering 'Low Fares Done Right' to more than 60 destinations in the United States, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica on more than 270 daily flights. Headquartered in Denver, Frontier's hard-working aviation professionals pride themselves in delivering the company's signature Rocky Mountain hospitality to customers. Frontier Airlines is the proud recipient of the Federal Aviation Administration's 2015 Diamond Award for maintenance excellence and was recently named the industry's most fuel-efficient airline by The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) as a result of superior technology and operational efficiencies.



For more information or to purchase a Frontier flight, visit FlyFrontier.com, where Frontier guarantees the best travel value for Frontier flights. Customers can sign up at FlyFrontier.com/email-alert receive special discounts and promotions only available to Frontier's email subscribers. Special offers are also available by following Frontier on Twitter at Twitter.com/FlyFrontier or by liking Frontier on Facebook at Facebook.com/FlyFrontier.
Veep fans, Jonah Ryan has a very REAL campaign website

Veep fans, Jonah Ryan has a very REAL campaign website

If youre a Veep fan than youre definitely acquainted with Jonah Ryan  you know, the Oval Office scape goat who is the eternal butt of the Meyers teams jokes.

If youre caught up on Veep, you also know that Jonah is right now running for congress in New Hampshire (hes being pushed along by a savvy uncle) and is facing his fair share of (hilarious) political setbacks along the way. For example, the people are finding his shape a little odd. As one voter puts it, His head is too big for his body, but then sometimes his body is too big for his head. The point of all this though, is the Jonah Ryan political machine isnt relegated to the world of HBO, Jonah has a very real, very funny campaign website that we cant stop surfing.

Jonah Ryan

The site is filled with delightful Jonah-isms, like a helpful link to the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers website. Or the Jonah Ryan bio page, which includes delightful tidbits like, I attended the University of New Hampshire, first in Durham and then after a year off, at the Manchester campus and, although I left before completing my degree, I can attest firsthand to the world-class quality of that fine institution.

Theres also an utterly wonderful Jonah Through the Years gallery (which includes a lot of images that would never be on a real politicians website).

Jonah

Perhaps the best part of Jonahs campaign so far has been the ads. A lotta vest wearing, a lotta wandering, and some interactions with children (that the voters totally dont like).

There is so much to marvel at, well let you see for yourselves. For now, well just say thanks to the HBO gods for making this Jonah Ryan run so very, very real.

The post Veep fans, Jonah Ryan has a very REAL campaign website appeared first on HelloGiggles.
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 2, 2016 / Vendetta Mining Corp. (VTT.V) ("Vendetta" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has commenced drilling activities on the Pegmont Lead-Zinc Project located in the Mount Isa region of Queensland, Australia.

Phase 1 drilling will focus on the near surface sulphide mineralization at the Burke Hinge Zone ("BHZ") and on Zone 5 which has demonstrated higher zinc grades, highlights of which can be found in Table 1 below.

The objectives of the program are:

Complete Phase 1 drilling in the BHZ and Zone 5 for a total of 4,600 m in 25 drill holes;

Complete metallurgical flotation test work on the BHZ and Zone 5;

Update the NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate, including for the first time the BHZ and Zone 5 during Q4 2016.

Located on a granted Mining Lease, mineralization at the BHZ outcrops and plunges shallowly to the south west with sulphide mineralization starting 24 m below surface. The BHZ was initially drilled in 1996 with further drilling conducted by Vendetta in the 2014 program resulting in the discovery of a tight anticline structure that has a significant accumulation of lead-zinc mineralization in the fold hinge. The BHZ is currently drilled on a nominal 15-20 m hole spacing on 45 m sections.

Vendetta conducted its initial exploration drilling in Zone 5 in 2014. The program confirmed the presence of a second mineralized horizon and demonstrated that the zinc grade increases in Zone 5 - confirming the Company's geological model for the Pegmont deposit. Zone 5 has a known strike of 500 metres and is located between 110 and 380 m below surface, it is open down-dip and along strike. The Company will also undertake a minor program of shallow reverse circulation ("RC") drilling on regional exploration targets.

Vendetta Retains Former MMG Metallurgist

To oversee the metallurgical program, the Company has retained the services of Geoff Richmond, an accomplished metallurgist with over 45 years of mineral processing experience. Most recently, Mr. Richmond spent 6 years as Principal Metallurgist at MMG Limited and its predecessor companies. He was project metallurgist during the detailed engineering phase at Las Cruces Mine in Spain (now First Quantum) and was Laboratory Manager at one of Australia's leading metallurgical laboratories which is now part of the ALS Metallurgy group in Tasmania, Australia. Prior to these appointments Mr. Richmond spent 14 years working in operations and process improvement at the Hellyer Zinc-Lead-Copper mine, a significant zinc and lead producer at the time.

Story continues

Vendetta's President and CEO, Mr. Williams stated, "we are pleased to add a metallurgist of Mr. Richmond's caliber to our growing team. His experience will allow us to maximize each phase of the metallurgical program."

The Company will be releasing results over the course of the program.

About Pegmont

The Pegmont lead-zinc-silver deposit is located in North West Queensland Mineral Province, 175 km south-east of the major mining center of Mount Isa, and 28 km west of South32's world class Cannington silver-lead-zinc operation and 25 km north of Chinova Resources' Osborne and Kulthor copper-gold operations. It is proximate to infrastructure including roads, rail, and natural gas for power generation.

Pegmont is a multiple lens, stratiform Broken Hill style deposit that outcrops with an overall shallow dip to the south east and is hosted in a magnetite rich banded iron formation within high grade metamorphic rocks. The project consists of three granted mining leases and two exploration permits that cover an area of approximately 3,468 ha.

Highlights of the drill results from Burke Hinge Zone and Zone 5 are presented in Table 1 below and the February 2014 NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate on Zones 1 to 4 in Table 2.

Table 1. Highlights of the Burke Hinge Zone and Zone 5 Sulphide Drilling, which are not included in the February 2014 NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate.

Note: For full details about the above drill results please see the Company's previous news releases on the 15th October 2014, 28th January 2015 and 10th February 2015.

Table 2. February 2014 Pegmont Zone 1 - 4 Mineral Resource Estimate*.

*Reference: "Technical Report Pegmont Property Mineral Resource Estimate" AMC Mining Consultants (Canada) Ltd, effective date of 28 February 2014. The Technical Report is available on SEDAR.

Notes on Table 2:

CIM definitions were used for the Mineral Resources. The cut-off grade applied to the oxide and transition Mineral Resources is 3% Pb + Zn, the sulphide cut-off grade is 5% Pb + Zn. Cut off is based on $0.90 /lb for Pb and Zn, a $0.90 A$:US$ exchange rate, and 90% recovery for both metals. Specific gravity used by oxidation state: 3.2 t/m3 oxide, 3.4 t/m3 transition and 3.9 t/m3 sulphide. Using drilling results to 12 December 2013.

About Vendetta Mining Corp.

Vendetta Mining Corp. is a Canadian junior exploration company engaged in acquiring, exploring, and developing mineral properties with an emphasis on lead and zinc. It is currently focused on advanced stage exploration projects in Australia, the first of which is the recently optioned Pegmont Lead Zinc project. Additional information on the Company can be found at www.vendettaminingcorp.com

Qualified Person

Peter Voulgaris, MAusIMM, MAIG, a Director of Vendetta, is a non-independent qualified person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Voulgaris has reviewed the technical content of this press release, and consents to the information provided in the form and context in which it appears.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

"Michael Williams"



Michael Williams

President & CEO

1.604.484.7855

Forward Looking Information

This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause the actual results of the Company to be materially different from the historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Disclaimer

All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although Vendetta Mining Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include: the completion of the full exploration program for which the use of proceeds is geared toward, the accuracy of exploration results, the accuracy of Mineral Resource Estimates, the anticipated results of future exploration, the forgoing ability to finance further exploration, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and as such, accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Vendetta Mining Corp.
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's opposition called for calm Thursday after electoral authorities cancelled a key meeting on whether they could go ahead with efforts to remove embattled President Nicolas Maduro in a referendum.

Opponents are racing against the clock to hold a recall referendum by the end of the year and ditch the leftist leader, whom they accuse of driving Venezuela into economic and political chaos.

The National Electoral Board (CNE) had been due to deliver its ruling on whether it accepted or rejected an initial petition with 1.8 million signatures endorsing a recall vote.

But just after their meeting with the CNE was due to start, opposition spokesman Jesus Torrealba said the electoral authorities had postponed it indefinitely.

The opposition warns the country faces an explosion of unrest if authorities do not allow a referendum this year.

A grinding economic crisis has made daily life increasingly difficult for Venezuelans, who face hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine, daily power outages, the near-paralysis of government offices and violent crime.

"We call on the Venezuelan people to remain calm," Torrealba told journalists, saying leaders of the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) would hold an emergency meeting on the "unprecedented situation."

In a sign of the tension gripping the country, hundreds of soldiers and police fired tear gas to break up a relatively small protest by dozens of anti-Maduro demonstrators just before the meeting was suspended.

Rallying to cries of "We are hungry" and "This government is going to fall," the protesters defied the heavy security presence, erecting barricades in the streets and trying to reach the presidential palace.

"I'm protesting because we're tired of the lines, of not finding products" at stores and markets, said Francis Marcano, a 21-year-old student who was carrying a stone in his hand, which he said was for protection.

Story continues

A journalists' union said at least 17 reporters covering the protest were assaulted by security forces or robbed by armed thugs.

- Long road -

The opposition accuses electoral authorities of dragging their feet on the referendum in order to protect Maduro.

Maduro's camp in turn accuses the opposition of massive fraud in its petition drive.

Even if the CNE eventually accepts the petition submitted on May 2, Maduro's opponents would face a long and winding road to call a referendum.

And they may not get there by the crucial date of January 10 -- four years into the leftist leader's six-year term -- at which point a successful recall vote would no longer trigger new elections but simply pass power to Maduro's vice president.

For the petition to be accepted, the CNE must recognize at least 200,000 signatures as valid.

Signatories would then have to present themselves in person to confirm their identity with a fingerprint scan.

The opposition would then have to submit a second petition, this time with four million signatures, or 20 percent of the electorate, for the CNE to organize a referendum.

To remove Maduro from office, the pro-recall camp would need more votes than the 7.5 million he won in the 2013 election.

- Waiting game -

That adds up to a lot of ifs, and political analysts say the CNE could easily stall the process until next year, when Maduro's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) could orchestrate the unpopular president's replacement by another party leader.

Polls show nearly seven in 10 Venezuelans want Maduro to go.

But the divided opposition has struggled to rally a substantial protest movement or effectively wield the congressional majority it won last December, which has been hamstrung by a Supreme Court seen as loyal to Maduro.

Venezuela's economy is forecast to contract eight percent this year, with inflation of 700 percent.

Home to the world's largest oil reserves, Venezuela has undergone a spectacular implosion as crude prices have plunged over the past two years, threatening Maduro and the socialist economic model he inherited from late predecessor Hugo Chavez.

Yet Venezuelans have not yet erupted into mass protests, whether because they are too busy waiting in lines, intimidated by security forces or haunted by the violence that killed 43 people during pro- and anti-government demonstrations in 2014.
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuelan soldiers and police fired tear gas to break up a protest against President Nicolas Maduro outside the presidential palace on Thursday, AFP correspondents said.

Hundreds of national guardsmen and police cracked down on the small protest by dozens of demonstrators, as the country awaited a key ruling from the electoral authorities on whether the leftist leader's opponents can go ahead with efforts to call a referendum on removing him from office.

The protest, staged about four blocks from the presidential palace, was relatively tiny.

But the response by security forces reflected the tensions gripping the country as Maduro's opponents blame him for a raging economic crisis marked by severe shortages of food and medicine, daily power cuts and the near-paralysis of government offices.

Rallying to cries of "We are hungry!" and "This government is going to fall!" the protesters defied hundreds of police and soldiers, erecting barricades in the streets and trying to reach the presidential palace.

"I'm protesting because we're tired of the lines, of not finding products" in stores and markets, said Francis Marcano, a 21-year-old student protester who was carrying a stone in his hand.

Maduro supporters heckled the protesters, shouting "The streets must be respected!"

Security forces eventually moved on the protesters, firing tear gas to break them up.

Although Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves, it has descended into economic and political chaos as global crude prices have collapsed over the past two years, threatening Maduro and the socialist economic model he inherited from his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.
The remains of Australian troops killed in the Vietnam War and their families were returned to Sydney Thursday in a formal military ceremony, half a century after being buried in Malaysia and Singapore.

Thirty-three bodies, interred in Malaysia's Terendak Cemetery and Singapore's Kranji War Cemetery, were brought home in flag-drapped coffins on two Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft.

Almost 60,000 Australian military personnel fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, with 521 losing their lives. All remains were returned to Australia, except for 36 in Malaysia and Singapore.

In May last year, then prime minister Tony Abbott offered repatriation to the families, with the bodies of 25 servicemen, including 22 soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, and eight dependents now back to Australia.

The other three soldiers died in the fight against communist insurgents in Malaysia, according to the Army Museum, which oversees Terendak Military Cemetery.

The ceremony at Richmond air force base near Sydney, marking one of the biggest single repatriations of Australian servicemen, was attended by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, Vietnam War veterans and the families of those who died.

"Today's ceremony is an opportunity to commemorate the sacrifice of the men and women who serve in our armed forces and the families who support them," Defence Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.

"For the families of those whose loved ones are returning to them and the veterans and mates who served alongside them, I hope today will bring some solace and closure."

The director of the Office of Australian War Graves, the government agency that organised the repatriation, said it was an emotional time.

"(People will be) extremely happy that the 50 years of waiting has finally come to fruition," Ken Corke told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"But equally for some, the grief is as raw today as it was 50 years ago. And for some of them, they will find it a very difficult day."

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Private memorial services were to follow the military ceremony.

Australian soldiers killed in World Wars I and II and the Korean War were buried near to where they fell but around the time of the Vietnam engagement this policy changed and bodies were usually brought home.

This year also marks half a century since the Battle of Long Tan, which took place in August 1966 and was Australia's costliest day in the Vietnam War, with 18 soldiers killed.
Oslo (AFP) - A thousand years after Viking explorer Leif Erikson set foot on the American continent, centuries before Christopher Columbus, a modern reconstruction of a longship has reached the Canadian coast after a five-week voyage.

Created according to archaeological remains and ancient texts, the Draken Harald Harfagre (Dragon Harald Fairhair), complete with carved wooden dragon head prow and impressive red sail, docked in Newfoundland on Wednesday, the crew said via Facebook.

The 35-metre (115-foot) long, eight-metre wide vessel, the largest Viking ship built in modern times, set sail from Haugesund in southwest Norway on April 26, with a crew of 33 aboard along with some rather un-Viking modern navigational equipment.

Along the way it made an unscheduled stop in Scotland's Shetland Islands as well as well as docking in the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland.

It docked in the port of St Antony, Newfoundland, and from there will sail on to Quebec city before visiting several US ports.

"It has not been easy, we have faced a lot of problems along this voyage but the crew have been in good spirits and worked hard all the way," the ship's Swedish captain Bjorn Ahlander said on the expedition's website.

According to many historians, Icelandic seafarer Leif Erikson, son of Norwegian explorer Erik the Red, reached the American continent in the year 1000, almost five centuries before Italy's Christopher Columbus initiated the European colonisation of the "New World".

In 1960, vestiges of a Viking presence were found in Canada at L'Anse aux Meadows, the northernmost tip of the island of Newfoundland.

The archaeological remains dated from 900-1050 AD.
How often do you get kicked out of somewhere with a celebrity by your side? Vlogger Jacob spent a weekend with Shia LaBeouf recently, as part of the actors #TAKEMEANYWHERE project. He met Shia and company at Provo in Utah and then traveled to the Grand Canyon to have some fun. They then got kicked out of the campsite because they had no reservation, so they resorted to a motel. Check out their antics in this great video. Credit: YouTube/JacobMarshall
EQ9 Reaper drone

The British Ministry of Defense has released a video showing a Royal Air Force Reaper drone obliterating an ISIS truck with a Hellfire missile.

The airstrike was conducted on May 31 outside of Fallujah, Iraq. The Reaper drone conducted surveillance over ISIS militants as they loaded weapons, including a heavy machine gun (HMG), onto the truck before launching the missile and obliterating the vehicle.

The British airstrikes outside of Fallujah come as Iraqi forces are attempting to retake the city from ISIS. ISIS has held the city since 2014 and is heavily embedded. Iraqi progress against the militants in the city has been slow as ISIS is believed to have seeded the area with improvised explosive devices, as well as using civilians in the city as human shields.

The US has also been actively carrying out strikes against ISIS in and around Fallujah. On June 1, the US carried out four strikes against ISIS tactical units, weapons caches, and fighting positions across its zone of control by the city.

You can watch the British airstrike below:

via GIPHY

NOW WATCH: Female soldiers have created a 30-woman unit to fight ISIS in Iraq





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630 to 710 (Q49, V39, IR 7 AWA TBD [5.0]) - Deciding Whether to Retake [ #permalink

Hello,



Today I scored a 710 - (Q49, V39, IR 7, AWA TBD [5.0]) - improving from a 630 - (Q39, V38, IR 7, AWA 4.5). I would greatly appreciate feedback that will help in deciding whether to retake one more time. I think this may also qualify as a minor debrief.



I am pleased with the score, although my last two practice tests were 730 (Q46, V44) and 750 (Q48, V44), suggesting that I underachieved on Verbal, and perhaps got a bit lucky on Quant. I don't know what it was, but Verbal seemed unusually difficult today. Although my verbal score is disappointing, the testing experience this time around was much more pleasant and straight forward. Last time, I had get up early and drive two hours to an unfamiliar area. This time, I got a hotel room and went to the same testing center.



Anyway, I feel like I am capable of a higher score, although I think it might be time to move on to the next step. I am busy like you all, but I have two kids and a third on the way soon, making it tough to devote any more of my family's time to just one part of this big journey. My GMAT studying began in December of 2014, with my first test on December 5th, 2015.



My #1 goal is to get into the full-time MBA program at McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. The average score there is a 694, so I am happy to have exceeded that mark. I feel confident in getting admitted to the program, but really want to have the best chance of earning scholarships and I don't feel as confident there.



The rest of the application process needs to be completed by this fall because I plan to apply to schools during their respective first rounds. I also have another big test to prep for to earn a certification before then.



I am a 27 year old male working in management of accounting and operations for a manufacturing company. I handle all financial negotiations with current and potential clients, approve all production within the factory and issue all bill of materials, manage the accounting department, and manage all R&D of current and new products.



I want to get an MBA to help transition into finance. I want an MBA now because I have progressed in my company to the point that the next step would be vice president (not happening for a long time), but I want to move on to finance. My undergraduate degree is in finance, and during school, I interned at my current company, fell in love with the place, and never left for a career in finance. The company made an offer for me to stay that was very difficult to turn down.



Thank you to those that read this and thank you to those that will offer feedback!



P.S. I used the and the advanced GMAT quant book. I also went through the book and sentence correction book. I recommend the , the advanced GMAT quant book, and book, but not the book. Manhattan's SC book is better, but the book seemed to be much more thorough in content. The study guide for advanced test takers was helpful, although the amount of studying suggested per day was not practical for a person like me. But it did help in auditing myself in terms of the quality and quantity of study, as well as maintaining a good study structure.



Thank you!
The Wendy's Companys WEN Japanese franchisee  Wendy's Japan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Higa Industries Co., Ltd.  announced that it has the inked a definitive agreement with Suntory Holdings Ltd. Per the deal, Wendy's Japan will acquire 136 restaurants owned by First Kitchen Ltd. The deal is expected to close at the end of this month.

In an effort to facilitate the First Kitchen acquisition, The Longreach Group  a private equity firm based in North Asia  has purchased a majority stake in Wendy's Japan.

Wendy's Japan plans to expand its presence in the country by converting the current First Kitchen restaurants into Wendy's First Kitchen restaurants and building new units in the upcoming quarters. Wendy's First Kitchen will offer a revamped menu and refurbished decor, which was being tried out in Tokyo.

The two First Kitchen locations, open since 2015 in the Roppongi and Ueno sections of Tokyo, has witnessed immense demand from consumers, which encouraged Wendys to try to cash in on the popularity of the brand. Wendy's First Kitchen will offer consumers a range of assorted cuisines  delicious hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, as well as pasta and other First Kitchen favorites.

Note that Wendys is focused on international expansion in four primary markets  Japan, India, Brazil and the Middle East  the regions where the company has substantial potential over the next few years. Ther latest acquisition is part of the same strategy.

Wendys carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the same industry include Restaurant Brands International Inc. QSR, Famous Dave's of America Inc. DAVE and Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc. TAST. All these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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Cancer cells

In the past five years, 70 new cancer treatments have been approved for more than 20 types of tumors.

That surge in treatments is coming with a high cost. In 2015, global spending on cancer treatments hit $107 billion  up 11.5% from 2014, according to a report released Thursday by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Those costs are expected to hit $150 billion by 2020.

The $107 billion is based on what the manufacturers of cancer drugs are making when they sell to health-insurance companies, pharmacy benefits managers, and others.

"We've never seen a more fertile period for research and development in oncology," Murray Aitken, the executive director of the IMS Institute, told Business Insider. Along with that, Aitken said, there had been a surge in cancer developers. More than 500 companies are now developing drugs targeting cancer.

Here's how the spending breaks down at the global level. US spending accounts for 46% of total oncology costs, up from 39% in 2011.

Screen Shot 2016 06 01 at 2.10.29 PM

Though the rising cost of cancer medications could be troublesome for those trying to pay for it, Aitken noted that as new medications get approved, for the most part they will be for niche cancer types. So even if it comes in at a high cost, it won't have as much of an impact on the healthcare system as, say, a drug that's used to treat hundreds of thousands of people.

Plus, many of these newer drugs will be replacing older versions. That, combined with generics and biosimilars, means it won't be just a straight shot up as each new drug gets approved.

NOW WATCH: Doctors now say this type of cancer isnt actually cancer  and the new classification is changing thousands of lives





More From Business Insider


In an opinion piece today in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business School dean Nitin Nohria took issue with the core premise of my new book, Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business: that as finance has nearly quadrupled in size as a percentage of the U.S. economy over the last several decades, economic growth has slowed. Nohria argues that Wall Street remains a fundamentally value-creating enterprise. To a large degree, the statistics simply dont back him up.

Since the financial sector began to ascend in the 1980s, the number of financial crises (the biggest destroyer of prosperity after wars and natural disasters) have increased, and overall trend growth has slowed. As I explained in my recent Time cover story, deep academic research shows that the growth in size and power of the financial sector in America has coincided with a decline in many metrics of business health, from research and development spending to the number of new start-ups being created.

But whats most interesting to me about Dean Nohrias argument is that he seems to be saying that Wall Street is good because it lends money to real businesses, unlike the financial system of the India of his youth. Just the opposite is true. Studies have shown that only about 15% of the money sloshing around American financial institutions ends up in business investmentthe rest is invested in existing assets like stocks, bonds and homes, often creating the sort of market bubbles that weve seen explode so dramatically in the last decade. (For more research on this topic, see this seminal study by Schularick, Taylor and Jorda as well as Adair Turners book Between Debt and the Devil.)

If we still had a system that operated in the straightforward way that Dean Nohria describes, it would surely be a boon for the American economy. Sadly, we dont. Thanks to a fundamental business model shift from lending to trading, our financial system today enriches mainly itself, creating only 4 % of all jobs but taking 25% of corporate profits.

As for his point about how its wrong to criticize MBA students for heading to Wall Street rather than industry, its certainly true that you cant blame them. Given the tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt that students today graduate with, many of them are forced to just go where the big bucks are. And as I illustrate above, thats still Wall Street more than any other industry.

Whats interesting in that many academics, including several at Harvard, have criticized the curriculum that teaches financial engineering over the real kind. (See this fascinating book on the topic by Harvard professor Rakesh Khurana.) Many CEOs themselves feel that todays MBA students are taught to think about the balance sheet before anything else, including workers, customers or their own longer term corporate prosperity. As Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said to me, Business schools are still teaching that you should run your company the way people did decades ago: marshal your capital and treat labor like an expendable cost. But the world has completely changed. Were awash in capital, but theres a shortage of skilled labor out there. Business schools are still using the same old teaching models, in a world thats so complex, it cant be modeled.

Whats more, the problem of financialization isnt limited to the U.S. The IMF recently published a paper noting that many emerging market countries are beginning to suffer from the tell-tale signs of too much finance. Countries like India and China may be the next theatres for financialization.

Let me be clear, while bankers themselves take a lot of flack (some unfair, some not) for all of this, the shift that Im describing in my book is really about 40 years of small policy changes that have created the wrong incentives for both financiers and CEOs. Washington is the ultimate arbiter of what happens on Wall Street and thats why its crucial that the next President pay attention to the fact that finance has become a headwind to business, rather than a helpmeet (I offer several possible solutions in the last chapter of my book).

What we need isnt a financial system thats bigger. What we need is a financial system whose primary function is to support real Main Street business. Sadly in the US, and in a growing number of other countries, thats not at all what we have.
Witness the initial moments shared between this giant panda mom and her not-so-giant newborn cub.

Read: Panda Has Some Squeaky Clean Fun in Adorable Bubble Bath Video

Hao Hao the panda, who lives at the Pairi Daiza zoo in Belgium, is celebrating the birth of her unnamed newborn on Thursday, just three months after becoming pregnant by artificial insemination.

The tiny male cub, who fits comfortably in the palm of a zookeeper's hands, looks miniscule compared to his mom, who can be seen in the zoo's footage grooming the pink, furless newborn with her mouth, and cuddling him close to her face.

He also squirms and cries excitedly with his umbilical chord still connected, as Hao Hao attempts to wrangle him in.

Zoo director Tim Bouts even called the newborn a "little pink sausage" in a statement.

Hao Hao's pregnancy was only announced two weeks ago, after the zoo wrote in a press statement that the giant panda's urine samples and behavior suggested she was impregnated by Xing Hui, a 5-year-old panda sent by the Chinese government to accompany Hao Hao.

According to a Facebook post earlier this year, the Pairi Daiza have been trying to mate Hao Hao and Xing Hui since February, but have had little luck because Xing Hui has just begun reaching sexual maturity, even though the pair do show a keen interest in one another.

Thet were sent to the zoo located 30 miles south of Brussels two years ago. To recreate their natural environment, Chinese zookeepers even helped the Belgian zoo recreate a bamboo forrest and an amythyst cave.

Read: Newborn Kitten Survived By Nursing on Pit Bull, Rescued and Recovering Together

The newborn is reportedly the first panda cub to be born outside of China this year.

According to the zoo, "less than 2,000 panda can be found in the wild, making every birth a true miracle.

Watch: Man in Bear Suit Challenges Tian Tian the Snow-Loving Panda

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Here's a reason to stop hitting "ignore" when Sallie Mae calls: On Tuesday, authorities arrested a woman trying to board a plane at Auckland Airport for defaulting on her student loan payments.

A representative for Inland Revenue, New Zealand's government tax agency, told the New Zealand Herald, that police had issued a warrant for her arrest, which had been their "last resort."

The representative explained arrests "would only follow strenuous efforts to contact the borrower to make repayment arrangements  these would typically involve making phone calls, sending correspondence via mail and email to the borrower and attempting to contact them via any third parties such as nominated persons and/or any known employer." The Herald reported New Zealand authorities are monitoring 20 other people for student debt default.

Read more: This Chart Shows You Which Cases Allow for Student Loan Cancellation and Forgiveness

University of California students protesting tuition hikes

In the United States, the government hasn't hesitated to crack down on student loan delinquencies either. In February, federal agents from the United States Marshals Service arrested a man in Houston, Texas, for failing to pay back a $1,500 loan.

"Our federal resources, our U.S. marshals and the federal court system are being used by the private sector," Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) told Fox 26 Houston at the time. "A few years ago Congress allowed the private sector to contract for student loan collections, and so you have these private companies that are doing this."

Class of 2016, you've been warned.
Re: Permutations & Combinations : Help is on the way! [ #permalink

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A former doctoral student who fatally shot a UCLA professor before turning the gun on himself Wednesday had a "kill list" inside his apartment that led them to a woman in Minnesota who had also been shot dead, PEOPLE confirms.



A Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson tells PEOPLE that authorities did a follow-up investigation after Mainak Sarkar, 38, gunned down professor William Klug on campus Wednesday, and discovered " kill list" that included Klug's name, another UCLA professor's name and the name of a woman in Minnesota.



The spokesperson says the woman in Minnesota was found with "multiple gunshot wounds."



Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck spoke to KTLA Thursday and said Sarakar's "kill list" was found in his Minnesota apartment, and included the name of a woman who lived in a nearby Minnesota town.



 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 unidentified victim was found deceased by gunshot wound at the residence, Beck said. He did not state her relationship to Sarkar.



Multiple outlets report that Sarkar targeted Klug because they believe he stole a computer code. In March, Sarkar wrote a now-deleted blog post that accused Klug of being a "very sick person."





Woman on UCLA Gunman's 'Kill List' Found Dead in Minnesota: Police| Crime & Courts, Shootings, True Crime



Sarkar reportedly graduated from UCLA in 2013. Klug declined to tell KTLA the name of the other professor on Sarkar's "kill list," but did confirm that the professor is safe.



He also told the news station that Sarkar drove from Minnesota to the Los Angeles area with two handguns, multiple rounds of ammunition and several magazines in a backpack.





Woman on UCLA Gunman's 'Kill List' Found Dead in Minnesota: Police| Crime & Courts, Shootings, True Crime



He shot Klug with multiple rounds after entering his fourth floor office.



Beck said police are still searching for the car used to make the west coast journey, and are asking for the public's help.



He described the car as a gray 2003 Nissan Sentra, with Minnesota license plate 720KTW.
According to the Associated Press, authorities found University of California, Los Angeles, gunman Mainak Sakar's "kill list." A woman on the list has reportedly been found dead in Minnesota.

BREAKING: LA police chief: Woman on `kill list' in UCLA shooter's home found dead in Minnesota.

Earlier Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department identified the shooter as Sarkar, a former doctoral student who killed professor William S. Klug in what was deemed a murder-suicide for reason of a "student-professor dispute."

In an interview with KTLA, the Los Angeles Times reported, LAPD chief Charlie Beck said Sarkar had left two notes, one of which was a list of names including Klug's, the name of the woman who has been found dead and another UCLA professor, who Beck said the LAPD contacted and "is fine."

According to the Times, the unnamed professor also taught Sarkar when he was a student.

June 2, 2016, 12:25 p.m.: This story has been updated.
There are certain childhood characters thatll have a special place in our hearts. Growing up, these fictional characters indulged our imagination and defined our childhood. Most girls would have  at a certain point of their childhood  hoped to be a princess and live a life of happily ever after.

And well never get too old for these characters. From the adorable Hello Kitty to disney classics like Mickey and friends, theyll stay close to our hearts and make us squeal in delight as they permeate various lifestyle items we never thought would be possible. Recently, a wave of Alice In Wonderland items have been popping all over the world, fuelled by the popularity of the recent Alice Through The Looking Glass movie sequel. The little kids in us are squealing in delight as we bring you some of the items Alice and her friends are making a guest appearance on.

1.OPI

Alice in Wonderland Collabs OPI



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As part of the OPI Brights Collection 2016, this collaboration will see nine limited-edition shades inspired by the colourful and whimsical movie. Just like the new movie, expect hues ranging from fun to mysterious.

Alice in Wonderland Collabs OPI



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Our favourite will have to be Fearlessly Alice, a beautiful shade of cerulean blue that mirrors Alices sweet pinafore.

2.RMK

Alice in Wonderland Collabs RMK



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Japan-based cosmetic brand RMK will be releasing their Alice inspired collection from 15 June and from what weve seen, you can look forward to a Face Colour Correcting palette that comes with a motif of Alice trapped within your compact power. The six-in-one colour palette come together to form a luminescent finish on your face.



Also part of the collection are eight nail polish colours that are fronted by an iconic character from the movie.

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3.Melissa



Alice in Wonderland Collabs melissa baby blue

Alice in Wonderland Collabs nude melissa

Prance around with these sweet looking flats from Melissa shoes Brazil. Their special Alice In Wonderland collection will see characters silhouettes imprinted in the insoles and decorated with motifs like bows or hearts. With delicious pastel hues of blue and pink, the young one in you will be delighted at their adorable shoe collection thats all shades of dainty.

4.Beyond

Alice in Wonderland Collabs Beyond x Alice in Wonderland

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Following their first Alice-themed makeup collection, called Alice in Glow, Beyond has now released a second collection. The new collection, Alice In Blooming, looks as floral and spring-like as the name suggest.

A photo posted by    (@ecom0920) on Mar 11, 2016 at 7:48pm PST

Floral motifs punctuate all their packaging, from the Blooming Snow Cushion for coverage and moisture, to the Two Tone lipsticks, youll be more than ready for your summer adventure.

5.Irregular Choice

Alice in Wonderland Collabs irregular choice 2

Alice in Wonderland Collabs irregular choice 1

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Known for their bold and dramatic designs, it seems only natural that this show brand soon released an Alice In Wonderland collection befitting of all things enchanting and fantastical. Their intricately ornate heels effectively capture a slice of the fictional world and translate them into walking pieces of art, and walking in them is literally like taking a step into the movie.

Embrace the madness of Wonderland in our unique Cheshire flats now available @pinupgirlclothing A photo posted by Irregular Choice (@irregularchoice) on Apr 20, 2016 at 4:16pm PDT

Our favourite will have to be the Cheshire Flats which is the perfect balance of colour and fun.

6. Essentiel-Antwerp

Alice in Wonderland Collabs essential

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Marrying this whimsical character with everyday fashion staple is Belgium clothing brand Essentiel-Antwerp. Their Alice In Wonderland collection promises to be fun and bold, yet suitable for a typical day out. Add a little fun into your wardrobe mix with these cute outfits and accessories.

Perfect occasion to wear this clutch: baptism of baby Alice  #essentielxalice A photo posted by A CUP OF JULIE  Snap:sabsjul (@acupofjulie) on Jan 30, 2016 at 8:39am PST

We also love their Alice inspired accessories, like this Alice Face Motif Application Clutch whose expression is every bit relatable. Shop Essentiel-Antwerp x Alice in Wonderland collection here, and ask travellers to help you bring it back!

7.Urban Decay

When Disney asked us to collaborate with them again on an all-new spectacular adventure, of course we said yes. Here's a quick look at the limited edition Alice Through the Looking Glass collection! #UDinWonderland #UrbanDecay #throughthelookingglass A video posted by Urban Decay Cosmetics (@urbandecaycosmetics) on Apr 18, 2016 at 10:05am PDT

Moving away from the cutesy stuff, Urban Decay turns the antics up a notch and focuses instead on the trippy and mysterious side of things from the movie franchise. The Glass Shadow Palette sees deep jewel-tones inspired by the various characters from the movie. The box also mirrors the drama with a 3D cut-out butterfly unfolding as you open the box. Is your heart fluttering with temptation? You can get your hands on it for yourself here like what one of our users did.

8.Primark

Screen Shot 2016-06-02 at 12.09.26 PM

Alice in Wonderland Collabs Primark

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Affordable fantasy is exactly what you can find at Primark with some of their Alice inspired fashion apparels. Shop a complete head-to-toe look without having to burn a hole in your pocket.

9.b+ab

Alice in Wonderland Collabs a+b-alice



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Street label b+ab elevates high street fashion to the next level with their Alice Through The Looking Glass collection, which will feature motifs and pictures from the movie itself. Check out the full collection on their website.

You can now add a hint of dreamy fantasy into your collection of fashion staples.

10.Disney Store (Japan)

Alice in Wonderland Collabs Disney Store Japan

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No one sells fantasy as well as Disney. The happiest place on the planet is certainly a manufacturer of smiles as well  we cant help but fall in love with this adorable keychain that has Alice topsy-turvy and hanging upside down. From knick-knacks to apparels and fashion accessories, itll be a hard time trying not to buying everything on a whim. See what others are getting from Disney Store here.

Want to lay your hands on some of these Alice In Wonderland inspired items? You dont need to fall down a rabbit hole and scramble for plane tickets to get them. Simply post a request on Airfrov and get travellers who are coming back to Singapore to get them for you!

Request for Alice in Wonderland Collabs

The post Wonderlust  10 Alice In Wonderland Collabs That Youll Fall In Love With appeared first on Airfrov Blog.
The World Health Organization has long been a leader in matters of public health, from its successes against such dreaded diseases as smallpox to its campaign to control tobacco use. So the passage of its new Health and Ageing strategy last week in Geneva at the 69th World Health Assembly follows an admirable tradition.

However, the latest strategy goes beyond a current and easily observable health crisis. It is based on one of the mega-trends of our time  21st century longevity. It reflects the goals of a healthier population and more active ageing through enabling functional ability over time.

Related: It's Time to Add Alzheimers to the List of Global Pandemics

The 194 health ministers in the Geneva Assembly Hall were given an execution plan to take home. They will report back progress the next five years and then gather in 2020 to launch the decade of Healthy Aging: The aim of the strategy is for every country to commit to action on healthy ageing. It calls for the development of age-friendly environments and the alignment of health systems to the needs of older populations. It envisages the development of sustainable and equitable systems of long-term care, and improved measurement, monitoring and research. It emphasizes equity and human rights, including the important role of involving older adults in all decisions that concern them.

The newly minted strategy impressively builds on a year of direct work by the WHOs Aging and Life Course unit, headed by Dr. John Beard and ably supported by Dr. Alana Officer. They issued their report last October, informing the strategy the WHO Director General, Dr. Margaret Chan, just got approved. As Dr. Chan said last fall, The greatest costs to society are not the expenditures made to foster this functional ability, but the benefits that might be missed if we fail to make the appropriate adaptations and investments. The report and the strategy are well supported by the medical, health and scientific leaders in the Gerontologist supplement on healthy aging.

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While its understandable the headline-grabbers of public health will still be emergencies like Ebola or Zika, dont for a second underestimate the importance and impact of what just happened in Geneva. Heres the WHO summary:

commitment to action on Healthy Ageing in every country;

developing age-friendly environments;

aligning health systems to the needs of older populations;

developing sustainable and equitable systems for providing long-term care (home, communities, institutions); and

improving measurement, monitoring and research on healthy aging.

The broader impact is huge, along the following lines:

Culture shift. As with any social or economic revolution, those living through it often miss the really big idea. Drs. Chan and Beard and their team got it exactly right in identifying the subtle shift that must take place to truly appreciate that public health is an essential and defining partner for 21st century society. A global society that will soon have more old than young; a world where over 80 is the fastest growing demographic; a world where planning for 100 years of life is for the first time in history the norm. It is essential to break down the barriers to how we think about and treat our older population, no longer an afterthought to public health needs -- the 60+ population reaching 2 billion by mid-century and comprising 25 percent or more of most nations on the planet changes everything.

How could we not consider in our time an adult immunization campaign parallel to the childhood immunization program we have so brilliantly embedded in every aspect of public health thinking, everywhere? Or dedicate the kind of funds that will be required to better manage today and ultimately cure Alzheimers, the disease of aging? This new strategy will do much for the essential re-imagination and re-shaping of public health in alignment with 21st century longevity.

Related: The American Retirement Crisis in 5 Charts

Longevity and functional ability. Perhaps the greatest contribution of the new strategy will be its shift from defining health as the absence of disease to the metric of functional ability. With 20, 30 and 40 percent of national populations being old, it will not only be nice for as many of us to be healthy and active, it will be essential if we are to contemplate economic growth and prosperity.

This leads to different considerations that, done right, will also substantially reduce the expected cost burdens on health systems. Skin, oral and nutritional health are examples the new strategy contemplates which are today virtually ignored. It simply didnt matter as much when we died younger. But living to 100 with especially deteriorated skin has an impact on mental health, increased infections and wounds and a growing prevalence of melanoma. What if prevention strategies across the life course kept us aging more functionally and actively?

Caring differently. It was fine for public health to arrange long term care for 20th century aging. But in the 21st century, how we care for those in need as we age creates brand new paradigms and possibilities. Aging at home; effective and efficient uses of innovative technology wherever the care is delivered; the type and quality of care aligned with wellness, functional ability, especially in old age  all would represent the sea change the new strategy envisions.

Heres what we need to achieve these changes: Multiple actors and agents will need to align, collaborate and coproduce Healthy Aging  formal tiers of government, individuals in communities and as patients and caregivers, and a wide spectrum of networks, associations, businesses and organizations in diverse sectors.

Bravo, WHO! Now, lets kindly thank and encourage the 194 health leaders to go home and start working with the rest of us for a healthier and more active aging.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
Last week, Azerbaijani investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova was released from prison after a Supreme Court decision to suspend the remainder of her seven-and-a-half year sentence.

Khadija  as she is known to friends and colleagues around the world  was released just two days ahead of her fortieth birthday on Friday, May 27, on which activists in some 40 cities around the world had planned to call for her freedom. The regime undoubtedly hoped that Ismayilovas pre-emptive release would put a damper on international coverage of the protests. Yet some of us her friends  among whom I count myself  concluded that the public still needs to know about her struggle. After all, she may be out of prison, but shes still in Azerbaijan  and she certainly has no plans to give up telling the truth about the regime.

As a result, the scheduled demonstrations, picnics, discussions, and birthday-themed parties (which were organized by the Sport for Rights campaign) still took place. In addition to celebrating Ismayilovas birthday and her freedom, they also called attention to the fact that she still faces a three-and-a-half year suspended sentence, and that there are close to 70 other political prisoners still in Azerbaijani jails. The extent of the demonstrations on her behalf  and the accolades pouring in from governments, politicians, and international organizations  offer eloquent evidence of Ismayilovas prominence. Until her release, she was surely one of the worlds best-known political prisoners. In part, this is a testament to the severity of the ordeals she has faced as an independent reporter in her small Caucasian country.

Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic about the size of Maine, situated between the Caspian and the Black seas, facing Russia in the north and Iran in the south. The country is known for its rampant corruption, its appalling human rights record, and its often-clumsy attempts to buy influence and goodwill abroad. Its president, Ilham Aliyev, has been in power since 2003, having taken over from his father, who occupied the position since the early 90s. Seeking to moderate its terrible reputation, Aliyevs regime spends a fortune in Washington to bolster its image as a partner of the United States  and its efforts sometimes pay off, even as it continues to lock up its critics at home.

Ismayilova is quite possibly the fiercest of these critics, and certainly the best known. Her investigative work over the last six years has exposed the corruption in the highest echelons of Azerbaijans ruling establishment, from its lucrative business deals to the offshore companies and properties owned by the Aliyev family. The recently leaked Panama Papers, described by some as the biggest data leak in history, include some of her earlier exposes of Azerbaijani corruption.

Prior to her arrest, Ismayilova was the host of After Work, a daily radio show on the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a news platform funded by the U.S. Congress. The Azerbaijani government shut down the service shortly after her arrest. She made the show extremely popular, recalls Kenan Aliyev, her former RFE/RL boss (who has no relation to the president). She asked tough questions of both the opposition and of government officials who would come to her show. And when there was no opposing side, she would often take on that responsibility, playing devils advocate. Some of her guests, he says, were so intimidated by her relentless questioning that they refused to appear again.

In one such instance, Ismayilova invited an official from the Ministry of Ecology onto the show to talk about pollution of water reservoirs in one of Azerbaijans regions. The official claimed that the water was absolutely safe to drink, despite reports from local residents that a gold and copper processing plant had polluted it and killed their livestock. Out of nowhere, Ismayilova produced a glass of that very same water and challenged him to drink it. The official drank the water, asking her later if she was satisfied. I am not, she said, because we dont know what this water will do to you.

No one got a free pass from Ismayilova  not representatives of the regime, and not even its critics. In a November 2014 interview with Jamil Hasanli, an opposition leader and former presidential candidate, she demanded that he provide concrete examples of his claims that protesters had been persecuted ahead of the 2015 parliamentary elections  and he could produce only one. She went on to criticize the National Council, which represents a union of opposition parties, for failing to properly document the governments violations.

This is how Ismayilova built her audience: with humor, intelligence, toughness, and an eye for an interesting story. Most of all, her coverage focused on demonstrating how corruption affects the daily lives of her countrymen. She helped people understand their money was being stolen, says Aliyev, her former boss. She never told her listeners to take the streets or have a revolution. She simply said, this is your money being stolen and thats it. Her stories were based on facts, without exaggeration. This might be considered normal journalistic practice in the West, but in Azerbaijan, Ismayilovas tough but professional approach was unique.

Ismayilova knew that calling attention to corruption was a dangerous job. A friend and colleague, Elmar Huysenov, was murdered in front of his home in Baku in 2005. He had been the founder and editor-in-chief of a weekly magazine called Monitor in which he published hard-hitting commentary that angered the authorities. At the time of his murder, the magazine was facing several lawsuits, all launched by government officials. To this day, the perpetrators of the crime remain at large.

In 2011, another journalist, Rafig Tagi, was stabbed seven times while on his way home, dying days later in a Baku hospital. Tagi had contributed to RFE/RL and local outlets as a freelance writer, and he, too, was well known for his criticism of the government. Just like Huseynov, Tagi had received numerous threats to which the authorities were reluctant to respond. The perpetrators of this murder are also still at large.

But Ismayilova kept reporting  even as the space for independent media continued to shrink. After she co-authored a story in 2010 exposing a government privatization scheme that had bypassed a state body charged with ensuring transparent competition, Azerbaijans parliament responded by passing a number of restrictive amendments limiting the rights of journalists to obtain information and granting the ruling family immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed during Aliyevs presidency. Its no wonder that the Committee to Protect Journalists has listed Azerbaijan among the 10 most censored countries in the world.

The same stubbornness that made Ismayilova a tenacious reporter could also make her challenging to work with. Aliyev, her former boss, says that they often disagreed about how best to handle the guests on her show  especially when she interviewed them more aggressively than he had anticipated. Her stubbornness sometimes extended to her dealings with other colleagues. No matter what time of the day it was, Khadija never gave up, says Miranda Patrucic from the Organized Crime Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), who met her several years ago at a conference in Istanbul. She would call at 2 am and ask questions about a specific case she was looking into. She is like a force of nature. You can never say no to her.

Prior to her arrest, Ismayilova had been working on a story about the Azerbaijan International Mineral Resources Operating Company (AIMROC), which had a 70 percent stake several important gold mines. The remaining shares belonged to the government.

In an earlier investigation, Ismayilova had revealed that AIMROC was not just one company but four. Digging deeper last year, she discovered that one of the four companies, Globex, was owned by three companies registered in Panama that belonged to Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva  the daughters of the president. A third owner, Olivier Mestelan, had long had close ties to the Aliyev family, wrote Ismayilova and her colleague. In effect, she had exposed that the presidents family owned a direct and secret stake  protected through offshore shell companies  in a major and controversial firm.

The Aliyev family never responded to any of these revelations, leaving other government officials to explain the whole thing away. Just recently, referring to the Panama Papers, one parliament official said, Who cares what has been revealed about the president? The president has a right to own a house, a mansion and even a castle. The president doesnt have to live off a salary he withdraws from the ATM.

Many suspected that the directness of Ismayilovas challenge to the ruling family made her arrest inevitable  and that day finally came on December 5, 2014. Bizarrely, she was first charged with inciting a man to commit suicide, based on the complaint of a former colleague who later claimed he was under emotional stress and had been pressured by the authorities to press charges. The charges against Ismayilova were eventually expanded to include embezzlement, illegal businesses activity, tax evasion, and abuse of power  the same accusations that the government often makes against prominent activists.

I was actually happy she was arrested, says Elmira Ismayilova, Khadijas mother. Seeing in her daughter in jail, she says, was preferable to hearing that shed met the same fate as her murdered colleagues.

Ismayilova had won enough recognition, both at home and abroad, that a direct physical attack was unlikely. But the government was not above using other abhorrent tactics. In 2012, she received a package that contained pictures, taken in her own home, of her having sex with a boyfriend. It came with a note of warning: Whore, behave yourself, or you will be defamed. Another package with the same images was sent to her brother.

This was a blatant attempt at manipulation. Azerbaijan is still a traditional and patriarchal society, one in which sex before marriage is taboo. Most Azeri women leave their family homes only upon marriage, and living alone, as Ismayilova did, made her vulnerable to defamation that made use of these stereotypes.

Though honor killings are not widespread in Azerbaijan, they are not unknown. Ismayilovas mother remembers going to her son to beg him not to do anything rash  it was clear, she said, that the government had sent him the photographs for a reason. If the regime could not kill Ismayilova directly, it could at least hope that her brother might.

Though it was difficult for her, and caused her great pain, Ismayilova went public with the affair, organizing a press conference in which she spoke in detail about the governments attempt to blackmail her. She wanted to expose, for all the world to see, the dirty tactics practiced by the Aliyev regime.

Ismayilova survived this episode, and more. During her 537 days in a Soviet-built prison, she lived with 20 other women who had been jailed for murder, drug-related offenses, and various petty crimes. 470 prisoners shared ten toilets and had to use washbowls and basins instead of showers. Medical assistance was available only during work hours, leading to two prisoner deaths in the last year. Despite these conditions, Ismayilova managed to get her letters published in international outlets such as The New York Times and The Washington Post by smuggling them out. Following one such instance, she was put in solitary confinement while her cell was searched and all her notes confiscated.

Ismayilovas high profile has enabled her to attract attention that other prisoners cant  so shes used her prominence to draw attention to their plight as well.

In an interview with RFE/RL after her release, Ismayilova reminded her listeners that the government of Azerbaijan operates its prisons according to the revolving door principle, releasing prisoners one day only to arrest more. A youth activist and a photojournalist were detained the very same day Ismayilova was released. Some weeks prior, two youth activists were detained and tortured. For her 40th birthday wish, she exhorted everyone who can to continue helping Azerbaijans remaining political prisoners, whether by sending them books, advocating for their release, or exposing the true colors of the regime. She also asked that former prisoners, whether political or not, be helped readjust to life outside the prison walls. This is especially true for former female convicts, who face a different reality. The stigma against them is mind-boggling, and often its because they cant adjust to a life outside of prison that they end up back in jail.

Ismayilova herself is still not fully free. She is not allowed to leave Baku, and not all of the charges against her have been dropped. But she said she intends to keep working. My work was published even when I was in jail. Now that I am free and have internet, nothing can stop me.

In the photo, Khadija Ismayilova participates in a protest in Baku on Nov. 9, 2014.

Photo credit: Jahangir Yusif
By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA, June 2 (Reuters) - Yemen and its cash-strapped central bank need support from donors and international financial institutions to save the economy from collapse, the top U.N. official in the country said on Thursday.

A fragile ceasefire between the Iran-allied Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government to end the 15-month war has held in some areas in a bid to end the 15-month war that has crippled the economy and halted payment of many salaries, said Jamie McGoldrick, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen.

At least 13.6 million Yemenis require humanitarian assistance, with imports still restricted and many cargo ships unable to offload at ports, he said.

"Restrictions on importation, the banking sector, central bank, the systems that were in place before which were broken anyway are now completely exhausted," McGoldrick told a news briefing in Geneva.

Food, fuel and medicines are in short supply, making prices "exhorbitant" and importers have trouble securing lines of credit to bring in goods, he said.

"The central bank is really struggling because they find it very difficult to get hard cash, to take the rials that are there and turn it into international currency.

"It has been very difficult for the central bank to operate the way it should," McGoldrick said.

Referring to discussions among international financial institutions, he said there was a recognition that the economy and macroeconomic situation could not be be allowed to get any worse.

The United Nations has appealed for $1.8 billion in humanitarian aid for Yemen this year.

"The very sad news is that we've received 17 percent of that funded, this is now into six months of the year. It is a very unfortunate and very unacceptable situation," McGoldrick said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Donald Trump

Donald Trump has pledged to reopen Trump University after he wins the cases surrounding it in court.

"After the litigation is disposed of and the case won, I have instructed my execs to open Trump U(?), so much interest in it! I will be pres," he tweeted on Thursday.

The comments came shortly after New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman slammed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his namesake program of investing courses on "Good Morning America," ABC News reported.

"We have laws against running an illegal, unlicensed university. This never was a university," Schneiderman said before continuing to knock the business.

"The fraud started with the name of the organization," he said. "It really was a fraud from beginning to end."

Schneiderman is pursuing a civil lawsuit, filed in 2013, against Trump University that claims Trump defrauded thousands of students with worthless classes on real estate and investing and lacked the proper licensing.

Hundreds of pages of internal documents were released Tuesday in connection to an ongoing fraud lawsuit against Trump University, which changed its name in 2010 and had shut down by 2011.

The documents include sales and marketing "playbooks" from 2007 through 2010 that have drawn scrutiny for encouraging employees to mislead prospective clients about pricing, among other practices.

In response to the document release, Trump released a three-minute video on Wednesday featuring former Trump University students voicing support for the program.

"The courses that I took were outstanding," Kent Moyer, the founder of World Protection Group, says in the video.

Schneiderman was unmoved by the video.

"The fact that they can find a few people to put on TV  it's not a defense in the court of law," he said.

Trump and his lawyers, however, have continually defended the business, citing stellar student reviews. Some students, however, may have been pressured into writing them, according to The New York Times.

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Trump University

Schneiderman has repeatedly hit back at Trump over the past week. On Tuesday he told Politico:

If you look at the facts of this case, this shows someone who was absolutely shameless in his willingness to lie to people, to say whatever it took to induce them into his phony seminars. It was shameless. It was heartless. It's important information to get out there.

Trump remains enmeshed in multiple lawsuits filed by former students of Trump University and faces the third fraud suit from Schneiderman, which most likely won't go to trial until after the November election.

NOW WATCH: 'Youre a sleaze!': Here are all the insults Trump hurled at the press during a bizarre press conference





More From Business Insider


Profile Evaluation Request - Female Chemical Engineer [ #permalink

Hello,

I am looking for a . White, Female, 28 yrs old, 29 when matriculating



School:

BS Chemical Engineering from a top 10 Engineering school

Clubs: Officer of Alpha Chi Sigma (professional Chemistry fraternity)

Member AICHE (American Institute of Chemical Engineers)

GPA: 3.58

Deans List

Semester honors multiple semesters



Black mark: Disciplinary Probation my senior year for being intoxicated on campus. I am not sure exactly what the charge was and will attempt to contact the University to determine this.



Work Experience:

Company 1 - Top Tier Consumer Products company June 2010 - July 2011

Title: Process Engineer

Involvement in Work Groups:

Led the community service organization

Member of the Women In Business Group

Member of the Young Professionals group - Community service



Company 2 - Number one Chemical Company

Title - Process Engineer Aug 2011 - Dec 2015

Title - Quality Management Coordinator Dec 2015 - Present

Involvement in Work Groups:

Officer for Toastmasters (and founding member)

Vice President of Professional Development for LGBT group (new position)

Member of the community service organization

Member Women in Business



Community Service post-College

Volunteer for a local produce cooperative for the past 2.5 years with more than 60 hours per year

- Retail/product handling experience

- took over the shop table last year



Volunteered for a few months at the Humane Society before I moved for my second job - very small amount of service



GMAT: 760, V44, Q49, AWA-8, IR-6



MBA Goals:

Consulting - initially with a large firm (MBB or Deloitte)

Long term - move to industry to do internal consulting for a major company in Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, or Chemicals



LORs:

I am unable to get one from my current or previous supervisors from Company 2 - in this climate for chemical engineers it is not worth it to let them know that I am considering leaving the company. Also my previous supervisor here is very much anti-MBA.

I have requested one from a mentor who acted as the Engineering Manager on my last project (where I was Lead Process Engineer)

I am also trying to get a previous supervisor from Company 1 (supervised me over 3 years ago)

If I can't get him, I have a mentor from when I first started at Company 2 and a colleague who has been mentoring me in my new position - Any advice here?



Target Schools: Booth, Wharton, Kellogg

Back ups: McCombs, Anderson



Thanks for your help!
Following reports claiming Johnny Depp's alleged alcohol abuse may have been a factor in his split from Amber Heard, ET has dug into our vault to uncover a 23-year-old interview in which the Black Mass star opened up about his history with alcohol.

"I poisoned myself on a regular basis with alcohol and it wasn't a good thing," Depp told ET in 1993. "It wasn't anything anybody else could cure, whether I had a girlfriend at the time or not. It had nothing to do with them. It had all to do with me and my brain and my heart. It was part of growing up I guess."

WATCH: Amber Heard's Texts From 2014 Detail Alleged Assault by Johnny Depp

The following year, Depp went through another growing experience when he was handcuffed by police after an alleged fight with then-girlfriend Kate Moss. The actor reportedly caused nearly $10,000 worth of damage to a room at New York City's The Mark Hotel.

Prior to this, Depp was arrested but not convicted for suspicion of assaulting a security guard in 1989. Then in 1999, Depp was arrested again for a confrontation with paparazzi outside of a London restaurant.

EXCLUSIVE: Johnny Depp 'Punched Wall' During Argument With Amber Heard, Leading to Injury That Halted 'Pirates,' Sources Say

Depp's history of violence has been brought into the spotlight recently after his estranged wife, Amber Heard, was granted a temporary domestic violence restraining order against the 52-year-old actor.

In the 30-year-old actress' court filing, she claims that "there was one severe incident in December 2015 when I truly feared for my life."

WATCH: Newly Released Photos of Amber Heard and Reports From Her Friends Detail Another Alleged 'Violent' Incident With Johnny Depp

Depp's divorce attorney, Laura Wasser, said in court documents that Heard is "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse."

Many of Depp's friends and family members have released statements in his defense, including his 17-year-old daughter, Lily-Rose.

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"My dad is the sweetest most loving person I know," Lily-Rose wrote in an Instagram caption, "he's been nothing but a wonderful father to my little brother and I, and everyone who knows him would say the same."

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Many people are stymied by the Great Firewall, the filigree of censorship and website obstruction that confines Chinas online space. There are factory owners trying desperately to retrieve foreign orders via Gmail. There are students who are blocked from accessing foreign university websites. And theres anyone who hankers after YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the thousands of other overseas websites that are banned in China, including TIME.com.

Now, another influential group is raising its voice in frustration: Chinese scholars. At a scientific conference held late last month in Beijing, domestic researchers protested that the nations Internet restrictions are harming their ability to innovate. One unnamed Chinese academic told the China Science Daily that it is very difficult to achieve world-leading results or to be a frontrunner in global scientific research without any knowledge of [other countries achievements] and without comparison.

Read More: The Other Side of the Great Firewall

Thats a big problem, given that at the same academic conference, Chinas President Xi Jinping set ambitious targets for Chinese innovation. He urged the nations researchers to catapult China into the ranks of the worlds most innovative societies by 2020. By 2049, which will mark a century since the communist Peoples Republic was formed, Xi expects China to transform into the worlds leading science and technology power. Scientists should be allowed to freely explore and test the bold hypotheses they put forward, Xi told conference participants, according to state media. Leading scientists should be given more power and liberty to decide upon the direction of their research, and greater management of research funds and resources.

But how can Chinese researchers fulfill Xis directive, given that the Great Firewall blocks everything from online tools like Google Scholar to groundbreaking papers by international peers? Our nations mind is caged, say Hu Xingdou, an economics professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology. How is it possible for our nation to have prosperous culture and science? If we cant access Google or other resources on the Internet, it is impossible for us to have a good vision and an open mind, let alone innovation. Thats why China has few great minds.

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Read More: The Architect of Chinas Great Firewall Was Himself Blocked by the Firewall

Because China boasts an online ecosystem vibrant with successful tech firms like Alibaba and Tencent, it can be easy to forget that the Great Firewall looms in the shadows. But try connecting with the online world outside Chinas borders and the most sophisticated cyber-censorship network on earth quickly intrudes. Even foreign websites that arent blocked load painfully slowly if they are outfitted with widgets for blocked sites like Facebook or Twitter.

For Chinese academics, these blockages  not to mention calls by the nations Education Minister to avoid peddling in western values on college campuses  can be crippling. I am one of the complainers because its much more difficult now for me to search for international documents, Cassandra Wang, who studies Chinese IT innovation at Zhejiang University in eastern China, told TIME last year. We cannot just be innovative by ourselves. We need to establish a global network. Otherwise, we are locked in and cannot get anything useful from research spilling over borders.

While Wang acknowledges that certain Chinese tech companies have nurtured creativity, she also worries that Chinas Internet restrictions discourage the kind of revolutionary thinking needed to push the nation to the forefront of global innovation. A domestic search engine like Baidu, for instance, is shielded from having to contend with a world-beating company like Google, At some level, competition stimulates innovation, she says. If you simply block the competition, this is not the right way for China to be innovative.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Thursday the purchase of German industrial robot maker Kuka by Chinese home appliance maker Midea Group Co Ltd should not be politicized as it is simply a commercial deal. Kuka is the latest and biggest German industrial technology group to be targeted by a Chinese buyer as the world's second-largest economy makes the transition from a low-cost manufacturer into a high-tech industrial hub. German government sources have said Berlin would examine how critical Kuka's technology is for the digitization of industry, an economic priority for Chancellor Angela Merkel's government. Germany's economy minister Sigmar Gabriel said this week German was trying to coordinate an alternative offer for Kuka. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said while she did not know anything about the deal, in principle the Chinese government supported and encouraged "win-win" cooperation between companies in accordance with market principles. "All countries' governments have a responsibility to provide a good environment and conditions for that kind of win-win, mutually beneficial cooperation," she told a daily news briefing. "Any normal commercial activity should not perhaps be politicized." Despite its concern about losing German technology to China, the ruling coalition of Merkel's conservatives and Gabriel's Social Democrats usually does not like to meddle in takeovers. Merkel is expected to visit Beijing later this month. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Robert Birsel)
By Matt Siegel, Jeremy Wagstaff and Eric Auchard REUTERS - More than 18 months after Apple Pay took the United States by storm, the smartphone giant has made only a small dent in the global payments market, snagged by technical challenges, low consumer take-up and resistance from banks. The service is available in six countries and among a limited range of banks, though in recent weeks Apple has added four banks to its sole Singapore partner American Express; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Australia; and Canada's five big banks. Apple Pay usage totalled $10.9 billion last year, the vast majority of that in the United States. That is less than the annual volume of transactions in Kenya, a mobile payments pioneer, according to research firm Timetric. And its global turnover is a drop in the bucket in China, where Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent dominate the world's biggest mobile payments market - with an estimated $1 trillion worth of mobile transactions last year, according to iResearch data. Anecdotal evidence from Britain, China and Australia suggests Apple Pay is popular with core Apple followers, but the quality of service, and interest in it, varies significantly. To use Apple Pay, consumers tap their iPhone over payment terminals to buy coffee, train tickets and other services. It can be also used at vending machines that accept contactless payments. Apple Pay transactions were a fraction of the $84.5 billion in iPhone sales for the six months to March, which accounted for two-thirds of Apple's total revenue. TECH HITCHES In Australia, where Apple Pay launched a month ago, payment machines supported by one mid-sized bank reported frequent failures. "Bendigo Bank is experiencing some unforeseen technical issues in accepting Apple Pay payments at selected merchant terminals," a spokeswoman for the bank told Reuters, adding that a lack of wider industry engagement in launching the service limited the lead time in testing the new technology. Apple Vice President Jennifer Bailey said such experiences were premature and not representative. "Like any set of major technology changes, it takes time," she said. "We want to move as quickly as possible, we push it as quickly as possible." Facing a slowing smartphone business, Apple has taken on the payments market hoping to add ways to make its devices more appealing, and more revenue streams. Apple takes a cut of up to 15 cents in the United States on every $100 spent. While it has long mastered the supply chain for its mobile devices, the payments ecosystem has proved harder to control, and banks in other countries have reportedly negotiated lower transaction fees, contributing to its slow global roll-out. Apple nearly doubled its R&D spending to more than $8 billion in 2013-15 as it pushed out a wave of new products including Apple Watch and Apple Pay, as well as upgrades to existing hardware devices and new services. RESISTANCE Apple has leveraged its huge U.S. user base to push Pay, but has met resistance in Australia, Britain and Canada where banks are building their own products. "Payments in general is such a complicated system with so many incumbent providers that revolutionary change like this was not going to happen very quickly," said Joshua Gilbert, an analyst at First Annapolis Consulting. The upshot: Apple has rolled out Pay in a dribble, adding countries and partners where it can - Hong Kong is expected to be added next - resulting in an uneven banking landscape with users and retail staff not always sure what will work and how. In Britain, for example, $14 billion was spent via contactless cards last year, according to Windsor Holden, a Juniper Research analyst. That makes it harder to persuade people to take the extra step on their smartphone for the same checkout convenience. "You have over 86 million contactless cards in circulation, you have to persuade Britons to register their cards to the (Apple Pay) service when they can already use them to make a contactless payment," Holden said. In Australia, where more than 60 percent of all card transactions are through contactless cards, reception has also been muted. A spokesman for one large retailer said he had seen "very little uptake of the payment option" in his sector. He didn't want to be named as he was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter. Diego Machuca, 32, banks with Apple Pay-holdout Commonwealth Bank, has an iPhone and is already "largely cashless". He says Apple Pay is appealing, but he wouldn't switch banks just to access that one feature. "Not over that. There's too much work involved just for tap-and-go," he told Reuters. Three months after the China launch, users on online forums complained that using Apple Pay, even at popular fast-food outlets, was not as seamless as local services such as WeChat, Tencent's messaging and mobile commerce phenomenon. Nonetheless, Apple's approach has spurred development in several markets where the mobile payments industry had previously not taken hold - giving it the jump on rivals Google's Android Pay and Samsung Pay. Android Pay only launched in the United States in March and in Britain last month for use on the latest model Android phones. Samsung Pay is available in three markets; China, South Korea and the United States. (Reporting by Matt Siegel in SYDNEY, Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE, Eric Auchard in LONDON and Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union executive threw its weight behind the "sharing economy" on Thursday, saying governments should only ban services such as ride-hailing app Uber [UBER.UL] and Airbnb as a last resort. In new guidelines intended to foster development of the new Internet-based services in Europe, the European Commission said any restrictions on them by EU member states should be proportionate to the public interest at stake, such as public safety or social policy. Although not legally binding, the guidelines are an attempt to set a Europe-wide approach to the fast-growing sector instead of the patchwork response adopted by European cities so far. Some European cities have responded with curbs and bans on companies like Uber and home-sharing site Airbnb which challenge traditional industries such as taxi services and hotels, drawing complaints of unfair competition. "Absolute bans and quantitative restrictions should only be used as a measure of last resort," the Commission said in a statement. The guidelines were welcomed by Airbnb, which called them "a valuable tool to ensure a clear, stable and consistent regulatory environment for sharing economy users across Europe." The Commission said it would use the guidelines to ensure that any national legislation does not violate the EU treaties, a veiled threat to any government seeking to impose overly restrictive measures on the sharing economy. Uber said the guidelines were an encouraging sign. "The European Commission has made it clear that EU laws protect collaborative economy services against undue restrictions, and member states should review regulations that undermine the development of such services," said Gareth Mead, Uber spokesman. The Commission is assessing complaints from Uber against France, Germany and Spain. "Limiting the possibility for new transport operators to use new technologies, such as geo-localisation services, is one clear example of bad practices," said EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc. "Some restrictions could run contrary to EU law and the Commission might have to take action." The Commission also wants to foster European sharing-economy start-ups. Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen said the sector could produce Europe's next unicorn, or start-up company valued at more than $1 billion. "Our role is to encourage a regulatory environment that allows new business models to develop while protecting consumers and ensuring fair taxation and employment conditions," he said. U.S. firms Airbnb, founded in 2008, and Uber, launched a year later, have faced regulatory battles around the world. Taxi drivers have staged high-profile protests against Uber in many European countries. Last year, French prosecutors raided Uber's Paris offices in a showdown over whether the company was violating a law to curtail online taxi services. Airbnb has faced criticism from city officials in Barcelona and Paris, who say it has driven up property rents. In the case of room-renting sites like Airbnb, the Commission said banning short-term lets of apartments "appears difficult to justify" when limits on the maximum number of days apartments can be rented out would be more appropriate. The Commission said sharing economy companies should not be subject to additional sector-specific rules - for example hotel and taxi regulations - unless they own assets and set the final price. However, they should pay taxes like other service providers. (Editing by Barbara Lewis and Adrian Croft)
On June 1, 1916, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm attorney Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme Court, ending an ugly and hard-fought fight over his nomination.

Justice Brandeis made a lasting impact on American constitutional law both before and while he was on the Court from 1916 to 1939. From Brandeis briefs to the right to privacy to a focus on pro bono work, Brandeis shaped the development of both law and the legal profession, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures ever to serve on the nations high court.

Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center and host of We the People, is the author of a new Brandeis biography, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet. In a live event at the Center in Philadelphia, Rosen was joined by two leading Brandeis scholars to discuss his book and the legacy of the great Justice.

Melvin Urofsky is Professor of History and Director of the Doctoral Program in Public Policy & Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Philippa Strum is Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.



Download this episode (right click and save)

Attention, We the People listeners!

Become a Member of the National Constitution Center at the $125 Constitution Framer level or higher by July 31 and you will receive a signed complimentary copy of Jeffrey Rosens new book, Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet. Make your gift today! Please email membership@constitutioncenter.org and let Jeff know how you would like him to sign your complimentary book!

The National Constitution Center is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit, nonpartisan private organization.



This show was engineered by Kevin Kilbourne and edited by David Stotz. It was produced by Nicandro Iannacci. The host of We the People is Jeffrey Rosen.

Get the latest constitutional news, and continue the conversation, on our Facebook page and Twitter feed.

We want to know what you think of the podcast! Email us at editor@constitutioncenter.org.

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Please also subscribe to Live at Americas Town Hall, featuring conversations and debates presented at the Center, across from Independence Hall in beautiful Philadelphia.

We the People is a member of Slates Panoply network. Check out all of our sibling podcasts at iTunes.com/Panoply.

Despite our congressional charter, the National Constitution Center is a private nonprofit; we receive little government support, and we rely on the generosity of people around the country who are inspired by our nonpartisan mission of constitutional debate and education. Please consider becoming a member to support our work, including this podcast. Visit constitutioncenter.org to learn more.

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Podcast: Jeffrey Rosen answers your questions about the Constitution
Samsung wants to help you get off your lazy duff and into fighting shape just in time for beach season with its new $180 Gear Fit2 fitness tracker and $200 Gear IconX earbuds.

I recently spent some time with the Fit2 and IconX, and they might actually inspire me to exercise after work for once.

Gear Fit2

The Gear Fit2, which is the follow-up to 2014s Gear Fit, features a wider 1.5-inch curved Super AMOLED display that you can read vertically, making it easier to see while on your wrist.

The screen itself is absolutely beautiful. In fact, the colors look so clear and bright that I thought I was looking at a fake display when I put on the Fit2.

Samsungs Fit2 is also surprisingly comfortable to wear thanks to its new rubberized bands. Speaking of bands, they now come in two sizes, unlike the single-size Gear Fit.

Samsun's Gear Fit2

Fitness tracking

The Fit2 features a built-in heart rate monitor, accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope and GPS. All of those sensors allow the wearable to automatically detect when youre doing things like running, biking or using the elliptical. For those exercises, the device tracks you automatically without your ever having to push a button.

If youre doing exercises like weight lifting, yoga or pilates, though, youll have enable tracking yourself.

The Fit2 also tracks daily activities like how many steps youve taken, how many floors youve climbed, your resting and active heart rates and how many calories youve burned. And since the Fit2 is a 24-hour fitness tracker, it will track your sleep activity.

When used in conjunction with Samsungs S Health app, the Gear Fit2 gives you information about your workout history and whether youve been meeting your own fitness goals.

If youre the type of person who needs a little extra nudging to work out, the S Health app comes with a social aspect that lets your friends send you workout challenges. Theres also a leaderboard to see who among your friends is getting the most exercise.

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Music sans phone

One of the best features of the Fit2, though, is its ability to act as a standalone music player thanks to its 4GB of onboard storage. That means you can leave your phone at home and still jam out to your favorite tunes at the gym.

Of course, if youre like me and cant do anything without your smartphone at your side, the Fit2 can be used to control your favorite streaming music app like Pandora and Google Play Music. In fact, Samsung and Spotify have teamed up to design an app specifically for the Gear Fit2 from which you can listen to your favorite songs, as well as access your playlists.

With so much tech packed into such a small package, youd expect to the Gear Fit2 to be starved for battery life. But Samsung claims the wearable can get three to four days of usage while using its built-in GPS and five days without.

Gear IconX

In addition to the Gear Fit2, Samsung has also debuted its completely wireless Gear IconX earbuds. But unlike most wireless earbuds that still need a wire that runs between both earpieces, the IconX buds function independently of each other.

Samsung's Gear IconX

Heres how that works: The earbuds sit in your ears and receive Bluetooth signals from your phone. Then, they speak to each other to ensure theyre timed properly and you dont hear any difference in the music. The idea is to eliminate wires that can get caught in your hair or on equipment while working out. The earbuds are also touch sensitive, so you can swipe your fingers or tap them to do things like raise or lower their volume or skip songs.

For those times when you want to run without your smartphone at your side, the Gear IconX also comes with 4GB of onboard storage, which you can use to store thousands of songs.

The IconX can also track your heart rate and running pace thanks to its built-in heart rate monitor and accelerometer. When you want to know how youre doing, the IconX will speak your heart rate and pace.

Hear it all

To ensure your safety while out for a run, the IconX features an ambient sound mode that lets you listen to music while also enhancing the sound around you; that way, you can hear things like cars and sirens more easily.

Samsung says the IconX will get up to 3.6 hours of battery life while listening to music and 3.3 hours while listening to music and using its tracking features. Unfortunately, the earbuds will get just 1.5 hours of use when streaming music from your smartphone.

The Gear Fit2 is available for pre-order June 3 and in stores June 10. The IconX earbuds will be available in the third quarter of 2016.

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
The headquarters of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are seen in Washington, July 6, 2009. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (Reuters)

(Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission named Christopher Hetner senior adviser to the chair as it looks to address rising instances of cyber attacks.

The appointment comes two weeks after SEC Chair Mary Jo White told the Reuters Financial Regulation Summit in Washington D.C. that cyber attacks were the biggest risk facing the financial system, adding that the SEC "can't do enough" in the cyber security sector.

The financial industry has been rattled by a cyber theft from the Bangladesh central bank funneled through SWIFT, a member-owned industry cooperative that handles the bulk of cross-border payment instructions between banks.

Hetner, who currently coordinates cyber-security efforts within the SECs office of compliance inspections and examinations, will help address cyber-security policy and assess market risk across the agency, the regulator said on Thursday. (http://1.usa.gov/22B3Pe6)

Hetner, who joined the SEC from Ernst and Young in 2015, has more than 20 years of experience in information security and technology, the SEC said.

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian)
In the early evenings, Beautique is an upscale Midtown restaurant boasting a James Beard-nominated mixologist, a former Gordon Ramsay pastry chef, and pricy dishes such as "crab flan" and filet mignon. Once the kitchen closes, however, the restaurant turns into what it describes as "one of the hottest nightclubs in New York City," and what others have called a "sex den to the Real Housewives of New York." Actress La Rivers, who's appeared in Spider-Man 3, Law and Order, and Sex and the City, among other credits, was leaving Beautique last June when she says she was brutally assaulted by one of the lounge's managers. She's now filing a lawsuit claiming that "Beautique specifically caters to beautiful women, ensuring that they comprise the bulk of the clientele, to create a 'playpen' atmosphere for rich men."

At a press conference yesterday, attorney Gloria Allred, who's gained recognition for taking on cases regarding women's rights (including multiple women who have sued Bill Cosby for raping them), recounted the events of the night of June 20th, 2015: Rivers's father was in town to celebrate her appearance in Love for Passion, a short film that had appeared in the Manhattan Film Festival just the day before. Together with her father and some friends, Rivers went to see the premiere of the film at the Player's Theater downtown, and then went to a nearby cafe for dinner. At about 12:30 a.m., the group decided to visit Beautique, having heard good things about the lounge, and Rivers, who remained sober the whole time, left at about 2 a.m.

It was at that point that Edward Moffett, then a manager at Beautique, allegedly tried to take the taxi she had just hailed, and attacked Rivers when she pointed out that he was taking her cab, Allred said.

Moffett flew into a "misogynistic rage," in Allred's words, allegedly calling Rivers a "cunt" and a "bitch" before attacking her "with such force that she fell immediately to the ground and was knocked unconscious." According to the criminal complaint against Moffett, he then punched her in the face. When Rivers awoke, she had blood streaming out of her nose, a black eye in formation, and a huge contusion on her forehead. The nice outfit that she'd worn out was drenched in blood.

"I went to Beautique thinking that it was the perfect place to end our fantastic evening, showing my father a nice time at a luxurious and chic place surrounded by the beauty of midtown Manhattan," Rivers said on Wednesday afternoon, visibly upset. "Instead, it turned out to be a living nightmare...I haven't slept one full night since last June. The feeling of danger possibly being nearby hasn't ever left my mind."



Rivers in "Love for Passion," whose premiere she was celebrating the night she was attacked. (via GoFundMe)

The attack gave Rivers a concussion and four broken bones in her nose that required reconstructive surgery. Her lawsuit claims that in addition to causing her trauma, the assault impaired her ability to work, as her work as an actress is dependent on her appearance and presentation.

Moffett was arrested following the alleged attack, and there is a criminal case pending in New York criminal court, in which he's charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment. However, that case is pending, and Allred and Rivers are pursuing civil penalties before the statute of limitations is up. They're seeking unspecified damages, and are demanding a trial by jury.

Rivers is suing both Moffett and Beautique itself, as she says that Beautique was negligent in hiring Moffett, who had a criminal history, according to this suit: he's apparently pleaded guilty to assault, attempted assault, and aggravated harassment in the past.

"There can be no excuse, there can be no justification, legal or otherwise, for what he did," Allred said. "There is no legal, or as far as we're concerned moral, justification for what she suffered."

A person who answered the phone at Beautique Wednesday afternoon said that Moffett is no longer employed by the establishment, but that management will not be commenting. A lawyer for Moffett wasn't immediately available.
By Tom Bergin LONDON (Reuters) - The chief executive of secure messaging system SWIFT said the theft of $81 million from Bangladeshs central bank, by criminals sending fraudulent payment instructions via SWIFT, would force the organization to shrink and review its strategy. Gottfried Leibbrandt told Reuters he would be forced to scale back some of SWIFTs operations to help pay for new security initiatives it plans. But he denied the Belgium-based co-operative should have taken these measures sooner. Hindsight is always a wonderful thing, he said in an interview at SWIFTs London offices. You can always say should they have done it before?, but sometimes it takes these types of events, he added. In February, thieves hacked into Bank Bangladeshs interface with SWIFTs network -- a fund-transfer pipeline that is the backbone of international finance. They sent payment instructions to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, telling it to transfer $951 million from Bank Bangladeshs account to accounts in the Philippines. Most of the transactions were blocked but four went through, amounting to $81 million that remains missing. Industry officials say it was long understood that the biggest weakness in the SWIFT system was users access points to the core network, since not all banks had strict security practices for safeguarding the keys to their SWIFT terminals. However, Leibbrandt, a former management consultant with McKinsey who joined SWIFT in 2005 and has been CEO for four years, said that before February he had been unaware of any attempts to hack into a banks SWIFT terminal. Consequently, he concentrated SWIFTs security activities on its own infrastructure. After the Bangladesh theft, other banks came forward and revealed they had been victims of attacks. SWIFT discovered, by examining inquiries to its customer support department, that other banks had also likely been compromised. The incidents have changed industry perceptions about how trustworthy SWIFT messages really are. Last week, SWIFT unveiled measures to tighten up security throughout the broader system, including adding additional authentication factors to the software it sells users and the possible development of a service that would allow it to spot suspicious payment instructions sent across its network. "NO HOLDS BARRED" Some critics said SWIFT and the banks that own it should have acted earlier. With the evolution of cyber criminality over the last 10 years, why hasnt SWIFT and the community done more? said Leonard Schrank, who was SWIFT chief executive from 1992 to 2007. These are things that could have been done years ago, he added. Leibbrandt rejected such criticism. He said while he was under pressure to make the program a success, he was confident that hacking of clients' SWIFT architecture could be turned into a nuisance rather than a potentially threatening situation. He said the planned measures would require investment. This may mean that SWIFTs user banks may not continue to enjoy falling costs for sending messages. It also means that SWIFT itself would shrink. We need to take a look at what we are doing. We cannot carry on with everything we did before and do this on top, that wouldnt be credible, the CEO said. He said SWIFT would pull back from a few areas but declined to name any candidates. There are no holds barred in solving this problem, so as far as I am concerned, nothing is off the table. Some former SWIFT executives say that wouldnt be a bad thing because the company has become involved in providing too many services. For the past decade, revenue from non-core activities such as consulting and training has risen sharply and in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available, the core messaging service generated less than half of SWIFTs total revenues for the first time. John Doyle, who previously ran SWIFTs North American business, said the unit which sells interfaces with the core network to banks could be spun off. They are going to be looking at things that dont really add value to the core (messaging) service, he said. (Reporting by Tom Bergin; editing by Stuart Grudgings)
San Francisco (AFP) - Uber announced that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has pumped $3.5 billion into the ride-sharing giant, helping fuel its global expansion plans.

Terms of the investment give what was already one of the largest venture-funded startups a valuation, or implied value, of $62.5 billion, according to the company.

The deal comes as Saudi Arabia strives to diversify its economy away from reliance on oil production to include more entrepreneurship, open markets and productivity.

The new funding also helps Uber's global expansion, including in the Middle East and North Africa, which the company see as among its fastest-growing regions.

In addition to the investment, which will boost Uber's cash holdings to more than $11 billion, the head of the Saudi fund, Yasir Al Rumayyan, is joining the Uber board.

"We appreciate the vote of confidence in our business as we continue to expand our global presence," Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick said in a statement.

"Our experience in Saudi Arabia is a great example of how Uber can benefit riders, drivers and cities and we look forward to partnering to support their economic and social reforms."

Rumayyan said in a statement that the fund "is excited to have completed this important strategic investment with Uber, an extraordinary company with an inspiring mission."

He added that the plan fits with the kingdom's Vision 2030, the blueprint for diversifying its economy away from oil.

According to Uber, the company is committed to investing $250 million in the region, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar and Morocco.

In Saudi Arabia, around 80 percent of Uber's riders are women, the company said, explaining that the service can help improve mobility for women, who cannot drive in the country and typically avoid public taxis.

- Egypt tightens reins -

Egypt in March said it will regulate ride-hailing services Uber and Careem after they sparked protests by taxi drivers in Cairo over allegations the smartphone apps bypass regulations.

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Cab drivers contend that not only are they losing clients to Uber and Careem, but the two services use vehicles that are unregistered for ferrying commuters.

Egypt's cabinet said the authorities would take steps to regulate the two ride-hailing services.

Uber and Careem drivers would "have to pay taxes" and their apps would need to establish a "suitable framework for traditional taxi drivers to join them," the cabinet maintained.

San Francisco-based Uber has expanded to hundreds of cities worldwide, despite complaints from established taxi operators and regulators.

- Eyes on oil -

Saudi Arabia's push to diversify away from oil comes amid a significant global oversupply.

OPEC, which pumps about a third of the world's crude, has contributed to the chronic problem, led by kingpin Saudi Arabia.

Some OPEC ministers expressed hope that the oil market would improve in the second half of the year after prices took a beating from abundant supplies as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries prepared to open its biannual meeting Thursday in Vienna.

However most analysts do not expect the 13-nation cartel will announce any measure to reduce output, especially since prices have rebounded nearly 90 percent from February lows.
The logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone over a reserved lane for taxis in a street is seen in this photo illustration taken in Madrid on December 10, 2014. REUTERS/Sergio Perez/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters)

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) - A group representing 5,000 Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] drivers in New York City filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing the ride-share company of depriving drivers of various employment protections by misclassifying them as independent contractors.

The proposed class action lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan by the New York Taxi Workers Alliance on behalf of 10 drivers is the latest to claim Uber drivers should be considered employees entitled to minimum wage, overtime pay and reimbursements for expenses.

Uber spokesman Matthew Wing said in a statement that the lawsuit was "a thinly veiled stunt" and criticized the Taxi Workers Alliance for suing on behalf of Uber drivers and not its other members.

The group said it filed a separate complaint on Thursday with the National Labor Relations Board claiming arbitration agreements Uber drivers signed illegally prohibit them from bringing class action claims.

The Taxi Workers Alliance criticized a recent deal between Uber and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union to create an "independent drivers guild" for the company's New York drivers, highlighting a sharp divide among labor groups grappling with the rise of the "gig economy."

The group's lawsuit said Uber expanded aggressively in New York beginning in 2011 by promising drivers decent wages. Instead, the group said, most of the drivers' pay went toward car payments, maintenance and surcharges from the company.

"Uber, through its practices and broken promises, severely harmed the thousands of drivers they recruited and have contributed greatly to a 'race to the bottom,'" the lawsuit said. It alleges violations of state and federal employment laws.

Taxi trade groups have opposed Uber's rapid expansion and said the company should be required to fingerprint drivers and make cars accessible to people with disabilities, as required of taxi companies.

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In April, Uber agreed to settle a major class action lawsuit that also claimed drivers were actually employees, brought on behalf of 385,000 drivers in California and Massachusetts for up to $100 million.

A federal judge in San Francisco is scheduled to hold a hearing on Thursday on whether to approve the settlement, which has drawn about three dozen objections.

At least eight similar cases are pending in seven states including New York and Texas, and four others have been sent to arbitration, where drivers can bring only individual claims.

The case is New York Taxi Workers Alliance v. Uber Technologies Inc, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, number 1:16-cv-04098.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Chris Reese)
Photos: NBC

I blame Freddy Rodriguez.

Yes, he was my gateway into the wild, insane, inspiring world of The Night Shift. I followed Freddy Rodriguez from Six Feet Under to Ugly Betty to Chaos (remember that show?), and I wasnt about to stop just because he jumped to yet another network for The Night Shift.

As someone who devoured every episode of ABCs loopy medical show Off the Map (remember that show?), naturally I was intrigued about The Night Shift, which follows a group of skilled Army Rangers veterans/doctors who return from Afghanistan to work the night shift in the emergency room of San Antonio Memorial. The question, of course, is how will these unconventional battlefield doctors fit into the structured world of a major hospital while dealing with their inevitable personal demons?

In the first five minutes of the pilot, rogue doctor/bad boy TC Callahan (Merlin alum and resident Irish hottie Eoin Macken) wakes up in the drunk tank with a black eye, hops on his motorcycle, and immediately happens upon a man impaled by a tree branch writhing on the side of the road with a couple of baffled paramedics looking on in horror. Callahan, with his battlefield resourcefulness, saves the day with a couple of tubes, a needle, and a scalpel. And with that, I was hooked.

TC was equally compelling in the ER setting. From his sexy interactions with Dr. Jordan Alexander (Jill Flint), his on-and-off again girlfriend and chief of the night shift; to his combative relationship with Michael Ragosa (Rodriguez), a dogged hospital administrator who becomes a doctors assistant in Season 2 (its complicated, trust us); to the deep ties he forms with fellow veterans Dr. Topher Zia (Ken Leung) and Drew Alister (Brendan Fehr), TC Callahan did not disappoint. He proved to be the kind of psychologically damaged, broody nighttime soap hero I can root for.

Another reason I love the series? Its set in San Antonio, a city that I have to conclude is one of the most dangerous places on earth. In between dealing with bizarre (and I mean, bizarre) late-night ER trauma cases, the emergency staff of San Antonio Memorial inexplicably desert the ER to ride along with paramedics to the scenes of various catastrophes involving things like hunting parties gone awry, nightmare car crashes, gas explosions in urban areas, disorderly rodeos, and snipers wreaking havoc on hapless San Antonians.

Story continues

But what makes The Night Shift work, what has endeared the show to my heart forever, is how well it blends the ridiculous, the schmaltzy, the harrowing, and the poignant. You wouldnt think that a show could move seamlessly from a besieged Texas ER room to the battle zones of Afghanistan without giving its audience whiplash, but The Night Shift manages to do it. It also deals with real issues like PTSD, gays in the military, miscarriages, rare diagnoses, and doctor accountability (many of these touchy themes in the same episode) with a soapy recklessness that is awe-inspiring and compelling.

Though I am deep in mourning over the fact that Freddy Rodriguez will not be returning for Season 3, I am heartened by the fact that everyones favorite Scott Wolf is now a series regular as Dr. Scott Clemens, a recovering alcoholic surgeon who just so happens to be Jordans ex-boyfriend. Soon, after a year of waiting, we will find out what new mischief the staff at San Antonio Memorial will be getting into.

If youre a fan of The Night Shift, you share my compulsion. I am not ashamed of it, as this confession proves. And if you havent seen The Night Shift, youre just a convert waiting to happen. Dont fight it. Just embrace it.

The Night Shift Season 3 premieres tonight at 10 p.m. on NBC.


The Bronx man who killed an intruder who attempted to rape his wife is distraught over what happened. Mamadou Diallo, 61, said yesterday, "Im not a hero. If anyone touches my family, Im fighting for my family and myself, thats it."

Still, Diallo is being cheered by neighbors and strangers for his actions on Monday night. Police say that he fatally beat Earl Nash, 43, with a tire iron after Nash apparently broke into Diallo's home at 1240 Washington Avenue in the Bronx and attacked his wife, Nenegale Diallo.

Nash had shoved his way into the home and, according to Nenegale Diallo, tore off her clothes and exposed himself. She recounted that he said, "I don't want anything. I don't want money. I'm going to rape you," and viciously beat her. At one point, she was able to open a door and tried to scream for help and, at another, she was able to break away to call her husband.

Mamadou Diallo returned to his apartment and found Nash in the hallway. Surveillance video shows Diallo striking Nash with a tire iron. It's believed Diallo's assault on Nash in the building's elevator lasted two minutes. Nash died, after suffering a fractured skull.



(David Torres)

Yesterday, Diallo told the Post, "I didnt mean to kill anyone, he agonized. I feel bad."

Im not happy because I know a man died and I know they put my name with somebody who died, he said solemnly. I do not want to kill that man. The Guinea native added that he feels terrible about using a tire iron to batter Nash, though he believes his actions were justified and didnt warrant criminal charges. I defended my wife because she was a victim, Diallo said. He hit her head, he take the clothes off my wife and try to rape her. I am not thinking [the police] are going to take me because someone came into my house, take my wifes clothes off to rape my wife.

that people have been offering support, including to pick up legal expenses, from around the country.

Diallo was initially charged with manslaughter, but charges were dropped to assault, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon. A defense attorney not involved with the case explained to CBS New York that the fact that Diallo was released without bail "tells me the court, that tells me the prosecution, and that tells me the police are all favoring Mr. Diallo at the present time," adding, "District attorneys, despite what they say they, pay attention to whats in the press and what the public thinks is the right thing to do."

Former Manhattan DA's office prosecutor Robert Wallack offered a reason why Diallo should be prosecuted in the Post, "Condoning vigilantism would lead to the breakdown of the rule of law and risk starting a cycle of violence and lawlessness in which the victims of vigilantism take the law into their own hands to exact payback. The result is anarchy. Does this mean that Mamadou Diallo should be convicted? Not necessarily; that decision will ultimately be left to a judge, or to a jury of his peers. However, his arrest by the police was certainly proper, and the prosecutors decision to charge him for assault was the right one."

Infamous vigilante Bernard Goetz, who shot four black teenagers on a subway in 1984, approved of the killing, referring to Nash's criminal record of 19 arrests, including holding a teen age captive for two days, in an email to the Daily News, "Too bad somebody didn't kill the scumbag 10 years ago. That would have made the world a little better place."


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Before she passed away from multiple gunshot wounds inside her Brooklyn home Tuesday, 16-year-old Shemel Mercurius reportedly told police officers the name of her killer. Police sources told the Post Mercurius died while "blurting out a mans name to cops in her last breath." The tabloid reports that officers are searching for a 24-year-old man believed to be seen on surveillance video entering and leaving the girl's apartment building with an assault rifle.

The footage reportedly shows a man riding the elevator and getting out on the 5th floor of Mercurius's building at 1406 Brooklyn Avenue in East Flatbush, some time before 6 p.m. Tuesday night. Police sources tell the dailies that Mercurius can later be seen shutting the door to the apartment as the man attempts to enter, then later opening it, at which point the man rushes inside, holding an assault rifle. The Wall Street Journal notes that the man can be seen leaving the scene shortly after with a woman, and NYPD sources speaking with NBC described Mercurius's ex-boyfriend as a "person of interest." (A police spokesperson could not confirm these details with Gothamist.)

Mercurius, who moved to Brooklyn four years ago from her native Guyana, had been babysitting her 3-year-old cousin when she was shot multiple times. Officers found her semi-conscious when they arrived at the scene, and rushed her to Kings County Hospital, but she could not be saved. The 3-year-old was not injured in the shooting, according to ABC.

Theyre looking for him. Her boyfriend. Nobody knew that she had this boyfriend. I always told her, Shemel, youre a beautiful girl, dont worry about boys. Focus on your education, Mercurius's grandmother told The Post.

She died before she got to the hospital. But before she died she gave the cops her boyfriends name, she continued. She told them he shot her.

Speaking at a candlelight vigil held Wednesday night near Mercurius's home, Pastor Gilford Monrose asked, "What society do we live in when a 3-year-old boy can, actually they shot the young lady in front of him? And then having to go back in and sleep the same night, he's being re-traumatized over and over again."
The Brooklyn NYPD captain who balked at going to a hospital when two officers were shot has been demoted to lieutenant. The Daily News reports that the department's bosses accused former captain Scott Forster of gross negligence for skipping out on helping the cops injured in a shootout in Bedford-Stuyvesant on February 20th.

The shooting took place at about 3:20 a.m., and paramedics transported the injured officers to Kings County Hospital Center in East Flatbush, part of the precinct where Forster was second-in-command. Forster was supposed to coordinate the arrival of high-ranking officers and family members of the injured cops at the hospital, but the shooting happened 40 minutes before the end of his shift, and when his bosses called telling him to come help, he said it wasn't his problem, according to the New York Post.

Forster was stripped of his gun and badge and transferred to desk duty at the 52nd Precinct in the northern Bronx, according to the Post, a serious schlep for the Staten Islander. The tabloid reported that further investigation showed that Forster never personally signed off on his precinct's command log at the end of the 7 p.m.-4 a.m. shift, and instead had a subordinate do it for him. He reportedly told investigators that he may have left early the night of the shooting because he was sick to his stomach.
Last night while Governor Cuomo cut the ribbon for something called the Cadillac House in Manhattan, representatives from the city came to a windowless church basement in Williamsburg to explain why we need to build Mayor de Blasios $2.5 billion streetcar along the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront.

The visioning session was part of the outreach the city is conducting to generate support for the 16-mile-long Brooklyn Queens Connector and address any questions residents along the route might have.

Wednesdays session was sparsely attended compared to the previous ones in Astoria and Red Hook. Roughly 20 local residents were outnumbered by representatives from the DOT, the Economic Development Corporation, third parties connected to the project, and reporters.

The city is growing, were at 8.5 million people, the largest New York City has ever been. The subways, the buseswe are bursting at the seams, DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg told the crowd in her remarks, which lasted less than two minutes.

We need to continue to upgrade and maintain our existing transportation system, but we need to make some new investments, something the city has not done enough of. I think the streetcar for us is an exciting way to do that.

A recent study commissioned by the city showed that only 13% of potential daily BQX riders would use the route to travel along the waterfront, compared to 16% who have destinations in the two boroughs outside the BQXs route, and 71% who need to get to Manhattan, ostensibly connecting to the new ferry service the mayor is planning.

The city estimates that the streetcar will boast 15.1 million trips annually by 2035, which is roughly the amount of riders who currently take the bus routes on Fordham Road and Utica Avenue.

Later, Trottenberg was asked why buses werent a better and cheaper solution than a streetcar to get people to established transit options.

We need better bus routes too and it's something that this administration and the DOT are spending a lot of time on, Trottenberg said.

It seems like this is a mind-blowing idea to put in a streetcar, but cities all over the world are doing this, rapid fire. This is a big step for us, but when you look at the map of the Brooklyn-Queens waterfront and chart out where the developments are, and the NYCHA properties, and all the things that are happening, I think it's something that's really going to be successful. I think the economics will work.

After a presentation from the EDC, participants spoke to others sitting at their tables about what they wanted the streetcar to accomplish.



The scene at last night's visioning session at First Spanish Presbyterian Church on South 3rd Street (Gothamist)

Adrienne Vega, a Williamsburg resident, said that aside from ensuring that seniors had access to the streetcar, her table wanted it to connect to the Bronx.

You have to take so many trains to get to the Bronx. If we can get the train to extend from the BQX to the Bronx, itd be the best.

This sounded similar to the Triborough RX, another idea that has been kicking around for years to connect Brooklyn and Queens with the Bronx using freight lines and LIRR tracks. A 1996 study estimated the RXs daily ridership at 76,000. The citys projected daily ridership for the BQX in 2020 is 24,500.

We asked Ya-Ting Liu, the executive director of Friends of the Brooklyn Queens Connector, why the group wanted a streetcar along this route. Why not Friends of the MTA Who Are Going To Use Their Power And Influence To Force Albany & The Federal Government To Properly Fund & Efficiently Run The Agency?

People that support the streetcar are also supporting a robust MTA system. Those two concepts are not mutually exclusive, she replied, portraying the BQX as a necessary way for the city to take control over its own transportation destiny for a change and not be beholden or waiting for federal, state, bureaucracy alphabet soup.

I came from the transit advocacy space, she explained. It's been sort of a Groundhog's Day scenarioevery year or every four years, you have the MTA capital plan, which is unfortunately more hole than plan, and then all the advocates have to rally and ask Albany to prioritize transit funding.

The city's going to say, you know what? We're going to solve our own problems, we're going to figure this out ourselves. The mayor has articulated that there's a need for north-south expansion, and they're articulating a vision for adding this new corridor, now they're trying to figure out how to do it.

The city had little interest in a streetcar until the Friends of the BQXspecifically Two Trees, the DUMBO-based waterfront developer behind the Domino Sugar Factory projectconducted their own study. The citys study [PDF] is a study of that study, though a more thorough one is in the works.

This idea doesn't belong to any developer or any one person. This idea has been around for a long time, Liu said, citing a 2014 piece by the Times Michael Kimmelman.

Part of what makes this model really exciting is that it's 100% financed through this tax increment financing model, Liu said, referring to the idea that the rising property values from all the development along the waterfront will fund the streetcar. You don't have that value captured from buses.

At the end of the night, the tables were asked to sum up their discussions.

Ausar Burke, who lives in Williamsburg, said that his group had concerns about displacing residents. They wanted the city to better articulate what the BQX was attempting to do.

What is the clear goal of the project? he asked. Economic development? Or transportation?
A group that represents 5,000 Uber drivers in New York is filing a class-action lawsuit against the rideshare app, arguing that Uber misclassifies its drivers as independent contractors and accordingly has failed to pay its employees overtime when they frequently work 40 hour-plus weeks. This lawsuit comes just as a California judge weighs settlement options in a similar suit, whose settlementwhich could be as much as $100 millionwill mean that Uber and Lyft drivers there remain classified as independent contractors rather than employees.

This latest legal challenge to Uber's business model comes from the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a nonprofit union that represents 19,000 drivers in the city and that has been critical of Uber's formation of a driver guild, which promises benefits but not employee status or collective bargaining power. Bhairavi Desai, the founder of the NYTWA, said in April that the guild arrangement "builds no power for the workers." Several years ago, the group established a fund that would offer healthcare and disability services for its drivers, but a judge deemed the fund unnecessary and suggested that drivers were responsible for their current health problems because they'd previously neglected preventative healthcare.

Now, NYTWA is suing along with 10 Uber drivers, claiming that they have in effect been working for Uber as employees, not contractors, and should thus be entitled to minimum wage, overtime pay, and reimbursement for Uber-related expenses. The group is seeking class-action status for all Uber drivers in the New York area, and Desai has called the lawsuit "Uber's most formidable legal challenge" to date.

"This 'gig' or 'on-demand' economy cannot be viewed uncritically, for behind every customer seeking a fast ride is a worker, often working 60-80 hour weeks, who is denied the basic rights of employees," the suit states. Later, it argues that "after working for Uber continuously for years, laboring for twelve-hour shifts, for six or seven days a week, these workers simply cannot be considered independent contractors performing a 'gig.'"

Uber, meanwhile, is suggesting that this suit from the Taxi Worker's Alliance is hypocritical: in a statement, Uber spokesperson Matthew Wing said that "this is a thinly veiled stunt by a group that claims to represent taxi drivers but is not raising any concern in this suit with [taxi drivers'] longstanding classification as independent contractors."

One of the plaintiffs in the case, Queens resident Bigu Haider, says that he purchased a Lincoln Town Car in 2013 when he began driving for Uber, as he was told by a general manger that it would satisfy the luxury requirement to drive in the Uber Black luxury fleet, where he could earn a higher rate. Haider paid out of pocket for the Town Car, with monthly payments of more than $500. But in 2014, the suit says, Uber changed its rules, deeming Lincoln Town Cars unworthy of the Uber Black service, and Haider is now left making his monthly payments while earning less money driving for UberX.

Then there's Cherno Jallow, a Brooklyn resident who started driving for Uber in July 2014, and purchased a Toyota Venza to drive for UberX. He pays $925 a month for the Venza, the suit states, plus nearly $300 per month for insurance, and typically works more than 60 hours a week to make those payments. Because of his independent contractor status, he doesn't earn any overtime pay from Uber for working significantly more than a 40-hour workweek, and didn't receive any reimbursement on the purchases he made to drive for the company. Following Uber's decision to cut UberX fares by 15% earlier this year, Jallow says that he worked nearly 90 hours in one week, sandwiched in between two 60-hour weeks.

The suit also details the many ways that it says Uber treats its drivers like employees: the company allegedly instructs drivers to keep their hair neat, asks them to tell customers how much they like working for Uber, telling drivers to keep candy, water, and phone chargers in their cars for the benefits of their passengers.

"Although Uber's rules are often described as 'suggestions,' Drivers understand clearly that failure to follow these guidelines results in temporary or permanent termination of their employment with Uber," the suit states.

Because the drivers named as plaintiffs are, for all intents and purposes, employees of the company, the suit argues, they are entitled to damages for unpaid compensation, both in the form of overtime and reimbursements. The lawsuit is also seeking a judge's order stating that Uber drivers are not independent contractors, but rather employees.
Project for Alternative Learning has been more than a good fit for Cody Boster, who graduates from PAL on Friday. Its been a life-changing experience.

The 18-year-old is convinced he wouldnt have graduated if he hadnt transferred from Helena High School to PAL.

At HHS I was failing. I wasnt doing good, Boster said. His grade point average was .87. At PAL, it hasnt been lower than 3.25.

It was actually my father, Boster said of why he transferred to PAL. His father had gone to PAL and talked to Bosters school counselor. They both thought it might be a good idea.

Its been a wonderful idea, agreed Boster.

Its a good fit because the teachers and students make it feel like its a family. Thats basically what it is -- a family.

The teachers will help you and support you every step of the way. Students will too. ... Everyone supports each other. Everyones friendly.

Teachers take time to get to know you. PALs gotten me through all my credits, he said. I havent failed a single class.

It became easier, he said. Because all the work is in class. Attendance is a big thing in the school. If youre not there, youre going to fail.

Since the classes are small, the teachers can help one-on-one, he said.

One of the highlights of his 2 years at PAL was a Jobs for Montana Graduates trip to Missoula, when they toured the UM campus and attended the JMG convention.

It was a wonderful time, said Boster. I enjoyed it.

In the fall, he will be attending University of Montana Western, where hes already been accepted.

Im going to be studying wildlife biology, said Boster. I love the outdoors. I love wildlife and want to help it as much as I can. And Im very interested in working with Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

At PAL, Boster got to job shadow and do an internship with FWP, he said, working with both a game warden and with a fish biologist.

PALs helped me a lot. Its changed my entire attitude. ... Without them, I dont think I would have graduated.

I also met new people through that school that Im so grateful to meet. Its been wonderful.
Mays wet weather didnt stop bikers and walkers in Helena and across Montana from logging some serious mileage in the spirit of both fun and competition.

The annual month-long Montana Commuter Challenge, organized by Bike-Walk Montana, PacificSource Health Plans and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, as well as local organizations, features a host of teams from private businesses and public agencies. While they come from different places in the community, teams come with the shared goal of replacing a traditional drive to work with an active commute.

Teams in local challenges log trips and miles posted online with scores based on the percentage participating, meaning 10 people walking one mile score higher than one person walking 10 miles. At the end of the month, the top teams have local bragging rights but also the benefits that come with biking or walking.

A lot of people in Helena like to exercise and are outdoor minded, and this is another way to get free exercise, said Pam Attardo, captain of Lewis and Clark Countys 17-person team. Youre getting your workout but there are also the environment and economic factors.

Attardo has been a committed bike commuter, with rough weather not hindering a smooth ride to work. While attending law school in Syracuse, New York, one year, she rode her bike through a winter that dropped 106 inches of snow.

This Mays consistent rain showers did not stop her either.

It gets pretty competitive as far as I will ride my bike to meetings even if its raining, because it has to be related to work, Attardo said. I might arrive to a meeting wet, but I got the mileage so theres your competitiveness.

Attardo says she tries to not be too preachy when it comes to commuting and encouraging others, but finds it works for her.

I just feel so much better when its that extra exercise and gets you out of the office, she said. It resets your brain and resets your body.

Appropriately, the Montana Department of Transportation fielded a team of dedicated commuters.

We are Transportation, so to get the word out about biking and walking is important, said team captain Hannah Amestoy.

Transportations 15-person team is not overly competitive. Its more about a healthy lifestyle, and seeing the challenge as a community idea is also important, she said.

Amestoy and another Transportation employee commute along the same bike path. Coming prepared for inclement weather and checking forecasts is a must for prospective bike commuters, she said.

Helena offers pretty good routes to commute by bike, but some crowded intersections are less bike-friendly and paths are the way to go if available. Amestoy says she has had some close calls with cars, but it hasnt fazed her.

St. Peters Hospital fielded the biggest team in Helenas 38-team challenge with 31 commuters. With interest growing and the majority of the team logging miles, the challenge has become a staple of the commuter season for many hospital employees.

Dave Ellis returned in 2016 to captain the team after first captaining a few years ago when only nine or 10 members turned out.

Its good to see folks from across our organization participating, he said. It brings the organization together as a team, and I think thats how we want to present ourselves to the community as well.

Commuting via pedal power offers both a boost to physical and mental health, he added.

I work in an office so its my opportunity to be a little bit active during my work days, Ellis said.

Finding a good bike route through Helena is somewhat about avoiding hazards, he said. Commuters face some infrastructure problems, including sensors at traffic lights that wont pick up a lone biker, and tight streets lined with cars. For the most part, Helena is fantastic for biking and walking, he said.

For new bike commuters, Ellis recommends scouring the streets for a safe route and learning the potential hazards. Seek out used bike sales for reasonable prices and find resources such as the new Queen City Wheel House, located at 3790 West U.S. Highway 12, for tools and expertise. Once the confidence is there, come equipped for the weather, he said.

I really look forward to my ride home even if it takes me less than 15 minutes, Ellis said. Its all the same things you liked when you were a kid, the wind in your hair and the feeling of freedom.
MISSOULA -- What did we want when we set up the National Park Service 100 years ago?

A museum? A playground? A business incentive? A zoo?

When Glacier National Park was wrapped into the new federal system, visitors rolled in by passenger train to begin month-long tours seeing America first. They rode horses to dormitories at Gunsight Lake. They invited bears to pose for pictures. They meandered around the nine chalets at Rising Sun Point on their way to the club room.

Today the Gunsight and Sun Point structures have vanished, but helicopter tours provide glimpses of Pumpelly Glacier that no pack trail ever reached. Lake McDonald Lodges front door faces the water because all the original visitors arrived by boat. Motorists coming in from the Going-to-the-Sun Road come in through the back door.

Youre not allowed to hunt in the national parks, but youre still allowed to fish, because thats one of those guaranteed activities in the organic act of the National Park Service, said Laura Loomis of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). Its been allowed to continue, yet its a removal of the resource in a place where they wont allow you to pick the flowers.

The National Park Services primary missions are to preserve, protect and provide a quality visitor experience. Those goals were crafted at a time when the United States was growing explosively. Hetch Hetchy Valley was carved out of Yosemite National Park and drowned to supply drinking water for San Francisco. Tourists in Yellowstone National Park used the geyser cones to boil the fish they caught, and occasionally to wash laundry.

Today, were debating whether to unplug the Glen Canyon Dam and let the Colorado River run free through Grand Canyon National Park again. A group of clothing designers videoing themselves strolling through Yellowstones Grand Prismatic Spring became an international outrage.

The founders of the National Park Service did anticipate significant increase in visitation over the life of the national park system, former Glacier Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright said. But I dont know how they could have anticipated things would change like they have. People are coming for a million different things. They want to do their weddings and dispose of loved ones ashes. There was a movement awhile ago to allow base jumping. What about those super-fat tires for over-the-snow bikes? Whats acceptable and whats not? Would a zipline in the park be an exciting, modern-day experience? Should we be constructing cell towers to get better connectivity on mountain peaks?

A conundrum

The National Park Service was authorized on August 25, 1916. But the United States was creating national parks long before then. The first, Yellowstone, was dedicated in 1872. Its enacting legislation declared it was to be set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.

Its tiny staff of (often unpaid) superintendents and rangers had no way of protecting Yellowstones thermal features and wildlife from developers and poachers until the U.S. Army arrived in 1886. The Army didnt cede management of the park to the National Park Service until 1918.

Today, about 293 million people visit all the nations 441 national parks every year. Thats just slightly fewer than there are residents of the United States. Glacier Parks Cartwright said that poses a conundrum.

Most people locally are of the mind that its congested with a lot more people on the trails, Cartwright said. But generally on national level, when you get out there and ask the question: Is the park too crowded? The answer is no -- its a lot busier where I live.

That leaves the National Park Service in a quandary over what constitutes a problem and what deserves a response.

Were gauged toward helping people having a good time, so were reluctant to engage them on tough issues, Cartwright said. Were constantly worried about making someone mad. So how do you get to the point where you can resolve these big issues within the service, especially if the public doesnt think its that big of an issue?

For example, about 85 percent of Glaciers visitors come for the windshield experience, of driving through the park, never leaving a paved surface. Increasing traffic on Glaciers Going-to-the-Sun Road and congestion at the Logan Pass Visitor Center parking lot inspired the creation of a shuttle bus service over the Continental Divide.

That relieved some of the parking congestion, but it greatly increased the number of people who could through-hike park trails and return to their own vehicles by using the shuttle. It also stymied Glaciers interpretative ranger staff. Should the long tradition of leading hikes like the six-mile trek to Grinnell Glacier be replaced by posting rangers by parking lot restrooms, where they share stories with far more people?

Centennial and an anniversary

The National Park Service celebrates its centennial this year, but its dealing with a 50-year anniversary too. Thats the legacy of the Mission 66 program then-NPS Director Conrad Wirth launched to add roads, lodges and visitor centers throughout the park system, inviting World War II veterans to See the USA in your Chevrolet.

They spent the equivalent of $10 billion fixing and making park roads, NPCAs Loomis said. But they didnt have any appreciation of the impact of infrastructure. They put roads where it would allow the greatest view of glaciers. Would they do that today? Probably not.

Theyre not getting the money either. NPCA estimates the National Park Service needs $970 million a year to maintain its roads, but has been allocated just a quarter of that amount. Washington, D.C.s Memorial Bridge between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery belongs to the Park Service, and was expected to last 60 years when it was built in 1932. Replacing it alone would cost about $250 million.

Then theres climate change driving wildfires, invasive fish species eating native trout and drone-mounted cameras electronically tethered to bike riders. Tourists let buffalo calves into their cars and looters pillage Civil War battlegrounds. Park visitation doesnt reflect the diversity of the national population -- people of color are noticeably absent from the trails and campgrounds.

Current NPS Director Jon Jarvis has served the agency for 40 of its 100 years. At the World Ranger Congress gathering in Estes Park, Colorado, last week, he noted that Congress has given the agency its largest budget ever for 2016. But he also criticized the agencys ability to explain its mission.

Weve never been good at making the case for our needs, Jarvis told the international audience. Weve been inarticulate, to be blunt about it. But outdoor recreation, in terms of contribution to the nation, is at least double to what the oil and gas industry provides to the nation in terms of jobs. Investment in the work we do generates far more jobs than all the subsidies and things they do for the oil and gas industry.
Bat walks scheduled at WILD

Come and explore the fascinating world of bats at Spring Meadow Lake with Matt Bell on June 3, 10 and 24. As bats emerge to forage, ultrasound equipment will be used so you can hear bat echolocation.

You will also learn: Where bats go in the winter? Where do they go during the day? And what kinds of bats live in Montana? Bring your own flashlight and bug spray.

Montana WILD is located at 2668 Broadwater Ave. Participants must be at least 10 years old and pre-registration is required. For more information or to register, visit Montana WILD or call 444-9944.

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Helena Astronomical Society public viewing

The Helena Astronomical Society will be hosting a public viewing Saturday, June 4, beginning at 9:30 p.m. at the Mount Helena city park parking lot. The focus of this viewing will be "A Tour of the Outer Planets" and will feature Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

Mars rises right around sunset and will be visible all night long. Jupiter is currently rising in the early afternoon and is dropping below the western horizon about 2 a.m.; at dark it will be a fine target in the southwestern sky. Saturn is one day past its opposition, also rising around sunset and visible all night long. This should be the best viewing we will get for Saturn this year.

June evenings can be cool, so bring a warm coat, hat and gloves. Binoculars and spotting scopes are also welcome -- we'll be glad to show you what you can see with your own gear.

If there is any doubt about the weather, please check the website at Helena-astronomical-society.org for the latest weather and event status.

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Thompson Park wildflower walk Saturday

In celebration of National Trails day, join the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest on Saturday, June 4, for a walk in the woods to see and enjoy the beautiful blooming flowers at Thompson Park.

Meet Forest Service employees at the Sagebrush Flats Picnic Area in Thompson Park at 10 a.m. Come dressed for inclement weather and bring a lunch, water, rain gear, sunscreen and a camera. A wildflower field guide and magnifying hand lens is also encouraged, but there may be some to share on the tour.

For more information, contact the Forest Service office in Butte at 406-494-2147.

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Montana owls focus of program

Bring a lawn chair and sit under the evening sky at Montana WILD. Experts from the Montana Wildlife Center will present a program outside about owls, with live owls as part of the program.

The free event is set for 7-8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 8, at the Montana WILD Education Center at 2668 Broadwater Ave. No reservation required. For more information call Montana WILD at 444-9944. Adults must accompany youth. If the weather is poor the program will be moved indoors to the Montana WILD Yannone Auditorium.

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Living with the Montana fox

Join Laurie Wolf, education program manager at Montana WILD, to learn about Montana fox species. The program will focus on fox identification, behavior and how we can share the landscape safely with these fascinating animals. Program is geared for youth 7-plus years-old and adults.

The free event is set for 6-7 p.m. on Thursday, June 9, at the Montana WILD Education Center at 2668 Broadwater Ave. For more information, call 444-9944.

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Carp safari at Canyon Ferry

The Montana Bowhunters Association will host the 14th annual Canyon Ferry Carp Safari on June 11 on Canyon Ferry Lake. Weigh-in and the awards ceremony will be staged at the Hellgate Campground group use area. The competition runs from first light until 5 p.m., with prizes to be awarded for largest fish, smallest fish, and most fish (by count) in youth and adult categories. Hamburgers, chips and beverages will be available after the shoot for registered participants and spectators.

The entry fees are as follows: $40 per two-person team, $20 per adult individual, and $10 per under-15 individual. The meal is included in preregistration fees (due by June 6), and meal tickets for spectators can be purchased for $6. Camping sites are available at the Hellgate North group use area for both Friday and Saturday nights. Email jselkmt@gmail.com if you'd like to reserve a site in the group use area. There are also first-come, first-served campsites in the main campground. The fee per camping site is $12 per night, paid on-site. If you have specific questions, call 406-422-6798 or email jselkmt@gmail.com.

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CDT Montana seeks volunteers

CDT Montana, a program of Montana Wilderness Association, is seeking volunteers for two trail-improvement projects on the Continental Divide near Helena. Both projects take place on Granite Butte near Stemple Pass.

The first project runs from June 17-22, the second from June 24-29. Those who are unable to volunteer for the duration of either of these projects can opt to join for the weekends only.

Volunteer work includes digging trail, removing downed timber, picking out rocks in the trail, brushing back vegetation in the corridor and building erosion control structures, such as water bars and crib walls. The crew will be car camping and enjoying big meals around the campfire. Transportation and all meals, except for dinner on the first night, are provided.

For more information, please contact Shannon Freix at 406-499-2309 or at sfreix@wildmontana.org. You can also visit wildmontana.org/cdt.

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FWP catch and release tips

With general stream fishing season underway, anglers are reminded to practice proper catch and release techniques for released fish.

Anglers can reduce stress on fish by keeping the fish wet while landing and releasing it. The species of fish, water temperature, and angler behavior affect the success of catch-and release fishing. Trout species are most susceptible to angling mortality. Warm water stresses fish more than cold water. How an angler fishes, choice of gear, and how the angler handles the fish affect survival of released fish.

Land the fish quickly and do not play it to exhaustion.

Wet your hands before handling the fish.

Keep the fish in the water as much as possible where it gills can absorb oxygen.

Minimize the time out of water for photos.

Remove the hook gently. Use of artificial lures, single and barbless hooks can make hook removal faster and easier.

Let the fish recover before release. If the fish is hooked deeply or bleeding, you may have to snip the line at the fishs mouth, or consider keeping it if regulations allow.

Consider limiting your catch. Even with catch-and-release, fish are stressed and some will die.

More information can also be found at: keepemwet.org; or montanatu.org/.
As the rhetoric ramps up leading to the election and the next legislative session, so does the finger-pointing at the failure of the past Legislature to pass meaningful infrastructure funding in the final form of Senate Bill 416. After passing the Senate by 473, SB416 failed by one vote of the necessary two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. The bill had the support of 51 of 88 Republicans, 62 Democrats, and Governor Steve Bullock. Yet it failed of final passage. Some people now seek to identify the inclusion of the renovation and expansion of the Montana Historical Society facility -- The Montana Heritage Center -- as the explanation for the defeat of the infrastructure bill. These people describe The Montana Heritage Center as unnecessary, a pet project, and pork. We find that an astonishing claim.

The Montana Historical Society, created in 1865, has faithfully and assiduously collected, preserved, and assured access for Montana citizens to the historic documents, newspapers, photographs, artifacts, and art of Montanas history for more than 150 years. The current home of the Montana Historical Society, the Veterans and Pioneers Memorial Building, stands directly adjacent to the state Capitol. Funded by the 1949 Legislature and opened in 1953, the current structure has long since become dysfunctional for the stewardship and appropriate exhibition of Montanas treasures and for the invaluable research conducted by scholars and citizens alike.

Recognized as The Smithsonian of the West, the Montana Historical Society must severely constrain its service and educational programs to commemorate and celebrate Montanas rich history. The Montana Heritage Center, designed to improve these conditions, has come before every legislative session since 2005, having secured limited bonding authority in that session. However, a small minority of legislators has prevented approval of the necessary changes to preserve and share with all citizens our exciting and important history. In our view, the preservation of the records, artifacts, and art of our past represents a duty and responsibility of the current generation of Montanans to succeeding generations. Referring to this generational obligation as pork demeans all Montanans and their heritage.

The Montana Heritage Center project responds to the imperative to protect, expand, preserve, and share the growing collections assembled by the Montana Historical Society. As an infrastructure project, construction of The Montana Heritage Center will reduce the risk of losing or damaging the irreplaceable history of past generations so that future generations of Montanans can enjoy and learn from this inheritance. The current facility, quite appropriate for its time, has reached the state that a catastrophic failure looms, given the cramped conditions and the rising demands placed on the Society. The Board of Trustees has developed the project to assure that The Montana Heritage Center will again allow all Montanans to celebrate our state, our history, and our distinctive culture and way of life.

We, the members of the Board of Trustees, collectively encourage those who remain uncertain about the inclusion of The Montana Heritage Center in the legislative infrastructure package to visit the current historic but inadequate facility to learn of the work, view the collections, investigate the issues, and see for themselves the shortcomings of an aging building, the preservation of which we have integrated into the project. We invite them to join the many thousands who visit the facility each year. The Montana Historical Society, as The Montana Heritage Center, belongs to all Montanans, not to those of us charged to oversee the Society and the Center. As citizens of this great state, we all have a stake in our common history, regardless of race, ethnicity, recency of arrival, or political philosophy. Without question, our common history and shared culture richly deserve respect and thoughtful consideration, not the derogatory labeling of the past few months.

In the months ahead, we invite all Montana citizens to join us in refuting and rejecting all misleading and inaccurate statements about The Montana Heritage Center and the Montana Historical Society and the impact of their vital work and statewide reach. We, the Society Trustees, function as your servants, the stewards of a celebrated heritage and a wonderful collection of records, artifacts, and art revealing that heritage. We respectfully urge all Montanans to protect our common legacy.

Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees

Bob Brown, President  Whitefish

Thomas Nygard, Vice President - Bozeman

Kent Kleinkopf, Secretary - Missoula

Janene Caywood  Missoula

Jim Court  Billings

George Dennison  Missoula

Cliff Edwards  Billings

Ed Jasmin  Helena

Charles Johnson  Helena

Steve Lozar  Polson

Thomas Minckler  Billings

Jude Sheppard  Chinook

Crystal Wong Shors  Helena

James Utterback - Helena
Attorneys who worked on a yet-unresolved case that has pitted the state against those who think campaign contribution limits here are too low say Montana is on the hook for more than $800,000 in legal fees.

The lawyers representing a group of individuals and political party committees have been battling the state over how much can be given to candidates running office since 2010.

Late Tuesday, attorneys for The Bopp Law Firm, with offices in Bozeman and Indiana, filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Helena saying they and past counsel are owed $819,673.79 for their work on a lawsuit filed by several county-level Republican political parties, political action committees and individuals who believe Montana's cap on how much can be giving to candidates is too low.

On May 17, U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell agreed, striking down the limits as unconstitutional.

Though interim limits are in place while the state waits until the end of this election cycle to appeal Lovell's order, and a partial stay was granted to nix part of the order, the plaintiffs say the May 17 decision means they are "prevailing parties" and entitled to recover reasonable expenses and fees.

The pending appeal, the Bopp firm said in their filing Tuesday, means the estimated fees will rise as the case proceeds.

The defendants in this case, including Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl and Attorney General Tim Fox, oppose the motion to pick up the plaintiff's tab, the filing Tuesday said.

So far the firm has spent $695,759.25 on attorneys fees and $100,542.54 in expenses. Doney Crowley, who also worked on the case, estimates his fees and expenses as $23,372.

The Bopp firm asked for a decision to be made on paying the fees 30 days after the appeal is settled and the case is finalized, which could be months or longer.

The case was first filed in 2010 and has been through a previous cycle of an order striking down campaign contribution limits and a stay to reinstate the limits.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) -- President Obama mostly strayed away from politics in the final commencement address of his presidency, but defended his foreign policy legacy to U.S. Air Force Academy graduates -- saying that America cannot afford to be isolationist.



America cannot shirk the mantle of leadership, Obama said. We cant be isolationists. Its not possible in this globalized interconnected world.



Obama told the cadets the U.S. still maintains the strongest military force in the world, and argued that American leadership should be centered around continued nurturing of international alliances.



In these uncertain times its tempting sometimes to pull back and try to wash our hands of conflicts that seem intractable, let other countries fend for themselves, Obama said. But history teaches us from Pearl Harbor to 9/11 that oceans alone cannot protect us.



Reflecting on his seven years as commander-in-chief, Obama again said he made a mistake in not planning for "a day after" U.S. airstrikes in Libya, and defended his controversial decision not to use U.S. forces to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.



"We should never rush into war," Obama said. "Sending troops into harm's way must always be a last resort."



The commencement address was the third for Obama in 2016, and the 26th and final one of his presidency.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
DECATUR  Millikin University junior Emma Morrison creates large scale paintings of senior citizens in the community. As Studio Art major, her portraits are often painted on canvas 5- by 7-feet tall. Some are taller than I am, she said. It has an impact on the viewer.

Morrison's paintings and the process of creating them has earned her the first Robert Harrison Crowder Endowment Artist-in-Residence award. As the recipient, she receives a paid summer position at the Blue Connection, Millikin's student-run retail art gallery. During June, her paintings will be displayed while she continues to create new works.

Morrison begins her painting process with a photo of a subject and transposes details onto a large canvas. "From this point, I build up the facial structure with layers of acrylic paint, charcoal and graphite to create the history I find, she said. This up close and personal examination introduces the individual in a very intimate setting, allowing my viewer to know the individuals just as well as I do, as real, authentic human beings."

Morrison will be available to discuss her art process at the Blue Connection during the First Friday Walk from 5 to 7:30 p.m. June 3.

Millikin juniors were given the opportunity for the residency by submitting an application, artist statement and work proposal. Morrison's artistic method helped the award panel's decision. They looked at what would go well with the community, said Julie Shields, Millikin University's Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. We want to show how artists can connect with people.

The Robert Harrison Crowder Endowment Artist-in-Residence award was established by Yasumasa Tanano, who created the endowment in memory of his mentor and former employer. Crowder was a Millikin graduate and Bethany native. In 1933, he traveled to Japan to teach art. According to Deb Kirchner, Senior Director of Alumni and Development Communication, Crowder was teaching in Japan when World War II began. He was imprisoned for nearly two years and released in 1943. While he was there he fell in love with Japan, Kirchner said.

After returning to the United States, Crowder built his own art business in Los Angeles, Calif., collecting and selling Japanese art. Elizabeth Taylor, Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan were his clients, Kirchner said.

After Crowder's death in 2010, Tanano began the process of establishing the artist-in-residence endowment to honor his mentor.

As an artist-in-residence, Morrison will direct all aspects of the gallery. She will also use the facility to display and create her work. All decisions are made by her, Shields said. She runs the gallery.

Lyle Salmi has been one of Morrison's instructors since the beginning of her academic career. He saw the young artist put in the time and effort with small scale projects. You could start to see her own voice, he said.

Before applying for the endowment, Salmi suggested his students consider projects that engage the community. People want to see the process, he said. And they can visit Emma while she's working.

The Blue Connection store front allows Morrison the opportunity to meet the people for her paintings. You get a story or excerpt in their life and base a portrait around that, she said.

June art exhibits

ANNE LLOYD GALLERY. The Madden Arts Center gallery will display the International Arts Experience: CUBA. The display will feature Cuban art and artifacts from private collections as well as photos taken in Cuba by two local photographers. Cuban music, dance and food will also be available during the First Friday Walk from 5 to 7:30 p.m. June 3, in the gallery.

BICENTENNIAL ART CENTER. The Paris art center will display the annual Paint Illinois Juried Exhibition until June 10. Beginning June 17, The Art and Artists of Coles County will be exhibited. An open reception will be from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 17.

BLUE CONNECTION. Millikin University's retail art gallery will begin the artist-in-residency with the paintings of Emma Morrison.

DECATUR AIRPORT GALLERY. The works of Jessica Disbrow will be displayed at the Airport Gallery.

FLOURISHES GALLERY AND STUDIOS. The downtown Shelbyville gallery will exhibit a photography show in the main gallery and the Altered Book Show in Studio D. For an appointment, call (217) 827-5690.

GALLERY 510. The watercolor and acrylic paintings of Sharon Zimmerman will be featured at the Gallery 510 during the month. Th gallery will be open during the First Friday Walk from 6 to 7:30 p.m., Friday, June 3. An artist talk will be at 6:30 p.m.

GIERTZ GALLERY. The Parkland College gallery will feature Travels: Works by Chung Chak and Travis Linville from June 13 through Aug. 4. A reception will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 16. An artist lecture will be 11 a.m. Thursday, June 16, and 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 14. For more information, visit www.artgallery.parkland.edu.

LINCOLN ART INSTITUTE. Logan County Arts and the Lincoln Art Institute will showcase the LCA members artwork in the exhibit Get Your Kicks. The show will honor Route 66 and its history. Call (217) 651-8355 for an appointment.

ROCK SPRINGS NATURE CENTER. Rock Springs Nature Center's north wing art gallery will feature photographers Chris and Alan Perry with scenes of flowers, wildlife, and landscapes.

Plants and animals will be part of Kattina Williams' nature photography exhibited in the south gallery of the nature center. Both exhibits will be on display until the end of the June.

TARBLE ARTS CENTER. Eastern Illinois University art gallery will display Cultivating Creativity: Consolidated Communications Traveling Children's Art Exhibit until Sept. 15.

Tours are available by appointment only. To schedule a tour, call (217) 581-2787 or email tarble@eiu.edu.

UPSTAIRS GALLERY. The artwork of Judy Kimmons will be displayed at the Decatur Public Librarys second floor gallery throughout June.
DECATUR  A special prosecutor has decided not to file charges against former Decatur Police Chief Brad Sweeney in allegations of eavesdropping and misconduct.

Matt Goetten, a prosecutor with the Illinois State's Attorney's Appellate Prosecutor's Office, said in a letter that he had reviewed information from Illinois State Police reports and other documentation before making his decision.

Based on that review, I will be declining to file charges at this time, Goetten wrote. If further evidence is received by our agency, relevant to this matter, within the applicable statute of limitation, I may reconsider this decision.

The letter, dated May 27, was filed Wednesday in Macon County Circuit Court.

The state police investigation, initiated days after Sweeney was fired as police chief, reportedly concerned a camera that Sweeney had kept in his office, according to City Manager Tim Gleason's testimony in a deposition taken April 7. The deposition was taken as part of Sweeney's ongoing wrongful termination lawsuit against the city.

First Assistant State's Attorney Nicole Kroncke filed a motion in April to appoint the special prosecutor to follow up on the state police report, saying the Macon County State's Attorney's Office could not handle it because of a conflict of interest.

Kroncke filed a similar motion Tuesday asking for a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of misconduct by Gleason.

The investigations represent another arm in the tangled legal battle between the city and Sweeney.

In his lawsuit, Sweeney alleges that one of the reasons for his termination was that he objected to Gleason's use of a police car and driver to reach the airport for a personal trip in May 2015.

The use of the police car is the subject of Gleason's investigation by the special prosecutor.

Gleason has acknowledged he used the police car immediately after the Greater Decatur Chamber of Commerce State of the City breakfast so that he could catch a flight to California for an event related to his son's Army service. He has said former Mayor Mike McElroy, who died in July, told him to make the arrangements for the car.

Former Decatur Police Chief Mark Barthelemy filed a petition May 17 seeking to have a prosecutor appointed to investigate Gleason.

At the time, Macon County State's Attorney Jay Scott said he had already forwarded all the materials concerning Sweeney and Gleason to the state appellate prosecutor's office. However, the appellate prosecutor's office said later that it was only appointed to handle the Sweeney matter at first, according to court documents.

John Davis, Barthelemy's attorney, said Wednesday that Scott should have requested a prosecutor specifically to investigate Gleason from the beginning.

I'm not judging Gleason. I don't know whether he committed a crime or not, Davis said. The point of the petition was to make sure an independent, objective investigation was conducted to find out, he said.
CLINTON  Exelon Corp. will move forward with plans to close the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants, company officials said Thursday, citing a lack of progress by state lawmakers on a subsidy plan they say is needed to save the two facilities.

"This is an extremely difficult day for the 1,500 employees who operate these plants safely and reliably every day, and the communities that depend on them for support," Exelon President and CEO Chris Crane said in a statement.

Exelon had previously said it would close the Clinton plant on June 1, 2017, and the Quad Cities plant a year later if the General Assembly did not pass the Next Generation Energy Plan this spring. Its main provision would extend to nuclear plants state subsidies given to wind and solar power suppliers for the production of carbon-free electricity.

Exelon said it could not sustain operating losses totaling a combined $800 million at the two plants over the past seven years without the subsidies and some rate structure changes in the plan.

Clinton and DeWitt County officials called the potential closure devastating because the Clinton Power Station pays $15 million in property taxes each year. About 700 people are employed there.

The two plants support about 4,200 direct and indirect jobs and produce more than $1.2 billion in economic activity, according to Exelon estimates.

Exelon officials said they have begun taking necessary steps to shut down the two plants. Those will include notifying the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the shutdowns within the next 30 days, terminating capital investment projects required for long-term operation of the plants and canceling fuel purchases and outage planning.

Exelon left open the slim possibility Thursday the closure decision could be reversed if talks move in a positive direction.

The decision can be reversed but only in narrow circumstances, and week by week, a reversal becomes more and more difficult," said spokesman Brett Nauman. "As we have stated previously, legislation would have to be sufficient from an economic standpoint to warrant continued operation of the plant and in a time frame that would allow a reversal.

Nauman said the company will continue working with stakeholders to reach a viable path forward for these important assets as long as possible while staying on the planned closure timeline."

Crane's email to employees with the news on Thursday, obtained by the Associated Press, included a plea that workers call a listed telephone line and record a message for Gov. Bruce Rauner and lawmakers in favor of the legislation.

The recorded greeting urges callers to tell lawmakers that "if they take action immediately, they may be able to stop the closures at the Clinton and Quad Cities plants and save your job."

While the spring legislative session ended Tuesday, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, said House members will meet every Wednesday through June.

The bill has sparked a heated debate between environmental groups and supporters of nuclear energy, with opponents calling the bill a bailout and those in favor saying nuclear power offers a reliable alternative to coal plants that face tough new federal clear air standards.

Michael Shellenberger, president of Environmental Progress, a California-based group that supports nuclear power, said Thursday, "If Quad and Clinton are closed, Illinois will loose one-quarter of all its clean energy, over 1,500 jobs, and its standing as a clean-energy leader."

"It is not too late to save Quad and Clinton," said Shellenberger, adding that such a move will require moderate environmental groups to "show courage and break from the dogmatically anti-nuclear groups that openly say they want to replace nuclear plants with natural gas."

The Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition, a group of renewable-energy and green companies with its own version of the legislation, said Wednesday that talks with Exelon have been productive but "more progress is necessary to arrive at a final agreement, including on the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard and protecting Illinois consumers."

Experts disagree on whether shutting the plants would raise the price of electricity.

Exelon points to a 2015 state report that found that closing them would pump up regional wholesale energy prices by 47 percent. Dave Lundy, director of the BEST Coalition opposing the plan, said price spikes are unlikely because of the amount of electricity produced in Illinois and the high cost to send it through jammed transmission lines in the Quad Cities.

The coalition claims the Next Generation Energy plan would amount to an average $3-per-month rate hike for ratepayers and a $7.7 billion windfall for Exelon over 10 years. Exelon puts the increase to ratepayers at 25 cents a month in exchange for future power stability.

Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan was unconvinced Thursday.

"Unfortunately, a highly profitable company is choosing to close plants because it hasn't received a blank check to impose unfair and unnecessary rate hikes on Illinois consumers," Madigan said in a statement.
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Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has welcomed todays approval by the German parliament of a resolution calling the mass killing of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.

Armenia welcomes the German Bundestags passage of a motion on the genocide committed against Armenians and other Christian peoples, Nalbandyan said in his remarks.

The Armenian foreign minister also chided Turkey for continuously denying the historical reality of the Armenian Genocide whilst Germany and Austria, allies of the Ottoman Empire at the time, have accepted their portion of responsibility in its implementation.

The international community has been waiting one hundred and one years for Turkey to confront its history, Nalbandians remarks conclude.
A quest of more than four years to identify skeletal remains discovered wedged among Lake Michigan rocks in November 2011  an odyssey that covered several states and involved numerous medical experts and police officials  came to end Thursday.

The Racine County Medical Examiners Office identified the remains as Antonio Guerrero, 31, of Berywn, Ill., who had been reported missing from his suburban Chicago home in the fall of 2011.

The manner of Guerreros death is being listed as undetermined, as the investigation into the cause of death by police and the Medical Examiners Office continues, said Racine Police Lt. Al Days.

A cousin of Guerrero plans to talk about the case Thursday or Friday, officials said.

The identification ends a four-year-plus pursuit that wended from Racine to Madison to Waukesha to Texas, and finally, to Illinois, one that was stalled by several dead ends and blind alleys, and was resolved by the cooperation of several medical experts and police officials.

That probe started Nov. 12, 2011, when a passerby discovered decomposed human remains lodged in rocks near Lake Michigan just east of the Fifth Street boat launch. The skeletal remains had little flesh on them, said Tom Terry, the Racine County Medical Examiner at the time.

We werent really sure what we had, recalled Terry, who retired in 2013 and lives outside Burlington. It looked really strange and we were unsure if was a body. But it was.

The case got more mysterious three weeks later, when a forearm and hand were discovered among the rocks near Carre-Hogle Park, about one mile south of the boat launch. Those parts were later matched to Guerrero, Days said.

The skeletal remains were sent to the Waukesha County Medical Examiners Office, where an autopsy was conducted. An odontology exam also was completed in the event teeth found with the remains could be matched to the dental records of a missing person, Days said.

Terry consulted an independent anthropologist in Madison, who studied the remains in order to determine the gender, approximate age and ethnicity of the deceased, Days said.

This process took nine months to complete and revealed the skeletal remains were that of a male in his early 20s to mid-30s, Days said. Ethnicity could not be determined at the time.

Terry also authorized the case information to be entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS) database, Days said.

We had to rely on a lot of outside agencies to help us, Terry said. They really gave us back some good information.

Forensic and detective collaboration

While forensic identification efforts continued, Racine Police Department investigators reviewed missing-persons reports filed in southeast Wisconsin and compiled a list of unsolved cases that might match that of the man found among in Racine, Days said.

Investigators discovered Guerrero, then 31, had been reported missing in September 2011 from his home in Berwyn, a western suburb of Chicago. The Guerrero family told Racine police that Antonio might have been in Racine in September 2011, when he stopped communicating with family members, Days said.

Investigators obtained Guerreros dental records to compare with the odontology exam performed on the unidentified male, Days said, but the exam provided inconclusive results.

The case remained open for the next 15 months while investigators continued to review reports of missing persons who might match the profile provided by the initial anthropology exam, Days said.

In 2015, Waukesha County Medical Examiner Dr. Lynda Biedrzycki contacted Racine County Medical Examiner Michael Payne, who was appointed in 2013 after Terrys retirement, and told him her office had hired forensic anthropologist Cristina Figueroa Soto as a deputy medical examiner, Days said.

Figueroa Soto wanted to examine the unidentified skeletal remains from Racine County being stored at the Waukesha County morgue, Days said, and Payne immediately consented to the request.

She gave the whole case a fresh set of eyes, Payne said. We were ready to follow any lead.

Testing by the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification Laboratory found a DNA sequence in the unknown skeletal remains that is more commonly found among persons of Hispanic descent, Days said.

After conducting her exam, Figueroa Soto urged Payne to obtain DNA specimens from Guerreros family so further testing could be conducted, Days said.

DNA collected

Last fall, Racine police investigators traveled to Illinois to obtain DNA swabs from Guerreros mother and two of his siblings, Days said. The swabs were sent to the University of North Texas Laboratory for comparison with the DNA extracted from the skeletal remains.

The methodical testing process took almost six months to complete, Days said. The UNT Laboratory confirmed with a high degree of mathematical probability that the unidentified remains were those of the biological child and sibling of the Guerrero family, Days said.

Last week, Racine police investigators and Payne met with the Guerrero family and provided them with the conclusive findings. The family has since made funeral arrangements for Antonio, Days said.

Racine Police and the Medical Examiners Office acknowledged the staff at the Waukesha County Medical Examiners Office for their assistance and guidance in making the identification of Guerrero possible, Days said.

Days also thanked members of the community for their help during the investigation and said police remain interested in any additional information that anyone may have about this investigation. Any witnesses, or citizens with information, are urged to call the Racine Police Department Investigations Unit at 262-635-7756.

Those who wish to remain anonymous may contact Crime Stoppers at 262-636-9330, or text 274637 (CRIMES). Text message should begin with RACS.

Terry, who served as medical examiner for 21 years, said the identification resolved a frustrating case. Payne called Terry on Wednesday to tell him about the identification.

This one nagged at me after I left, Terry said. There were times when I didnt think we would be able to pull all the ends together and determine what happened to him. I dont know if we ever will know exactly what happened. But the family has his remains back and that is a big, big thing.
A ruling Tuesday allowed the placement of a Racine County sex offender in Kenosha County to move forward.

Racine County Circuit Judge Allen Pat Torhorst denied Kenosha Countys request to stay a decision last week allowing Michael L. McGee to live in a home in the Town of Wheatland. Kenosha County had asked Torhorst to put last weeks order on hold while it appealed.

Torhorst said he had to balance the interests of the public and McGee. He believed McGee would be harmed if he halted his order, saying state law allowed McGee to be placed in Wheatland.

McGee, 53, was convicted in November 1987 in Racine County Circuit Court of second-degree sexual assault and burglary. During a Racine burglary, he raped a 26-year-old woman, authorities said.

State officials placed McGee at 32200 Geneva Road (old Highway 50) in the Town of Wheatland after it could not find suitable housing in Racine County, drawing the ire of neighbors and officials in Kenosha County.

McGee had been at the Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center in Mauston before he was released Tuesday morning, said his attorney, Robert Peterson. McGee is one of many who have remained behind bars after they are granted release because officials struggle to find suitable housing.

We think its important that we follow the law, Peterson said after the hearing. To detain people after theyve already completed their sentences, there has to be a way out. Once youve gotten to the point where the release from an institution is appropriate, there has to be some place to go.

McGee, who was declared a sexually violent person, is on supervised release and will be under house arrest for the next year. Residents should know that this is an individual the states been watching every minute of every day for the last 13 years, and they think its appropriate to release him, Peterson said.

Jennifer Kopp, first assistant corporation counsel for Kenosha County, argued the county and residents would suffer irreparable harm if the placement moved forward. She said the county will continue fighting the issue in the Court of Appeals.

The Town of Wheatland house is about 100 feet from a home in which a couple and their 1-year-old boy live. McGee in 1992 was accused of molesting a 10-year-old child relative, but because the case was dismissed, he is not considered a serious child sex offender, officials have said.
Records released as part of a Senate investigation into narcotic over-prescription at the Tomah VA show a veteran contacted Congressman Ron Kind before he died at the facility and that Kind intervened in 2008 over complaints about abusive behavior by the top doctor.

Jason Simcakoski died in August 2014 in the Tomah VAs mental health ward from a toxic cocktail of more than a dozen drugs. He is one of two veterans whose deaths have been linked to allegations of over-prescription practices and abuses of power within the facility.

Phone records released Tuesday by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs show the Marine veteran made dozens of calls to law enforcement agencies and one to Kinds office in the year before his death.

The result of a 16-month investigation, the report pointed to failures of VA officials and the departments watchdog agency to intervene.

The 359-page report revealed that the facility  and its former Chief of Staff Dr. David Houlihan  had a reputation for pushing prescription painkillers for more than a decade before the high levels of opioid use were made public by a nonprofit news organization in 2015.

According to the report, the facilitys former police chief acknowledged its reputation as a big pill box in 2009, and the Drug Enforcement Administration has been investigating possible drug diversion there for more than seven years, although it has yet to result in any charges filed, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Heather Simcakoski testified at a congressional hearing in March 2015 that her late husband had made reports to multiple law enforcement agencies of patients selling prescription medications but nothing came of those calls.

Inspector General records show the 35-year-old vet was treated at the Tomah VA on multiple occasions between 2005 and 2014 for mental health issues including addiction to painkillers.

More than 5,000 pages of source materials released by the Senate committee includes records of incoming and outgoing calls from two of Simcakoskis phones made between July and November 2013, nine months before his death. Among hundreds of calls marked personal and dozens to the Tomah VA pharmacy are 29 calls to law enforcement agencies, including the Tomah VA Police Department, the Tomah city police and the FBI.

The log also shows a seven-minute and 39-second call to Kinds Capitol office on Nov. 8, 2013.

Kind said Tuesday that he had no knowledge of the call but his office will conduct a thorough review of its files.

I cant imagine that if someone, anyone called my office, gave their name and asked for help then a case file would have been started immediately, he said.

Kinds office issued a statement Wednesday saying:

Our office has strict protocol to handle every call in the most appropriate way, so while we dont have a record of his call, our process ensures that when constituents provide their name and contact information, and have concerns, those concerns are addressed. If Jason had called our office to ask for help, we would have immediately opened a casework file and asked him to sign a Privacy Release Form in order to work on his case, as we have with almost 2,000 veterans cases since 2011. If he had provided information, we would have flagged it and sent to the authorities, like we did when we sent the VA Inspector General an anonymous letter we received in 2011. Lastly, if he in any way sounded distressed we would have asked for his contact information and taken immediate action to reach out to the proper authorities.

About a minute after the call to Kinds office, Simcakoski called the FBIs La Crosse field office. The 8-minute and 34-second call was the last of five made to that number, according to the records.

According to the committee report, the FBI denied any contact with Simcakosci, although Johnson played a voicemail Tuesday that was left on Simcakoskis phone by someone identifying himself as an FBI agent returning a call.

The report acknowledges the committee has no information about what was said in any of the calls.

A memo from Houlihan notes that Simcakoski talked to him Nov. 6 about another patient who had sold him $200 worth of pills in the past and was offering oxycodone and a stimulant. That conversation is the subject of a separate OIG investigation that was opened in February 2015, according to the report.

Kind, along with Sen. Ron Johnson and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, expressed outrage when the Tomah allegations surfaced in the media, though all have been criticized for not taking action sooner.

Kinds office received an anonymous complaint in 2011 about over-prescription, which he forwarded to the Inspector Generals office. Johnson and Baldwins offices were also made aware of problems in 2014. Johnsons staff referred the matter to a Senate committee. Baldwins staff sent letters to the Tomah director, the VAs congressional liaison and to the OIG.

In the wake of the scandal, Baldwin fired her casework supervisor who then accused the senator of scapegoating her for the failures of her chief of staff.

Former Sen. Russ Feingold, who is challenging Johnson in the November election, has also been accused of failing to act on a 2009 union memo that was marked as being hand delivered to members of Wisconsins congressional delegation, although the author, Lin Ellinghuysen, told the Senate committee that notation was based on a false assumption.

Ellinghuysen, who is president of the Tomah chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, told the committee union representatives contacted Kind and then Sen. Herb Kohl in 2008  not about narcotics but concerns that Houlihans treatment of the staff was affecting patient care.

She said Houlihan became more respectful after Kind met with the director but soon reverted to abusive behavior.
Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Urban affairs, investigations, consumer help ("SOS") Follow Chris Rickert | Wisconsin State Journal Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today

Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is pointing to data from the University of Wisconsin System showing only six tenured professors have gotten the boot over the last 20 years.

Thats proof, he says, of the job for life guarantee tenure had become before Republicans stripped tenure from state law and made it easier for university administrators to get rid of tenured faculty for reasons such as program elimination.

Maybe. But it says nothing about tenures relationship to educational quality, or whether only the highest-quality faculty got tenure in the first place.

In a way, Vos doesnt need to show that tenure is irrelevant to quality. That seems obvious in a country where there are way more universities awarding tenure than there are top-flight universities.

On the other hand, tenure may have had something to do with the esteem in which UW-Madison is held. Just because tenure hasnt gotten, say, my alma mater, the University of Illinois at Chicago, ranked any better than 129th by U.S. News & World Report, doesnt mean it wasnt instrumental in ranking UW-Madison 41st.

The common argument for why so few tenured faculty are let go is that its hard to get tenure. Anyone capable of doing that probably isnt going to be the office slacker.

David Vanness  a UW-Madison professor and member of the steering committee for the faculty group PROFS  describes a multi-year process for getting tenure that requires annual reviews, recommendations from colleagues and other checks to ensure only the best people are promoted.

Still, data on turnover and tenure do suggest a kind of UW-Lake Wobegon  where (almost all) the professors are above average.

UW-Madison figures from 2000-01 to 2006-07 show that, depending on the field, from 52 percent to as high as 92 percent of faculty hired achieved tenure within nine years.

A System report shows that in fiscal 2015, only 17 of 475 tenure-track faculty left UW-Madison, only two of them because they were non-renewed  fired, essentially.

The university doesnt track what happens to those who leave for reasons other than non-renewal. It could be that they get better jobs elsewhere or because they didnt think theyd get tenure in Madison.

I wouldnt interpret this data as saying a new first-year assistant professor has a 75 percent chance of earning tenure, Vanness cautioned. That figure includes mid-career assistants who come in with much more evidence of performance and some reasonable assurance of being tenurable.

Having a job for life might have been tenures allure for faculty. For citizens, tenure at a public university should be about the freedom to pursue knowledge even if that knowledge upsets the powerful.

You dont need job-for-life tenure guarantees for that, though. You need rules like the ones in System policy and state administrative code saying you cant get fired for exercising academic freedom. A state law would be nice, too.

Otherwise, its only democratic that citizens, through their elected representatives, should have broad powers to shape state universities and their faculties.

If citizens change their minds, they can always elect new representatives. Its not like the old ones have tenure.
A man who allegedly sexually assaulted a woman twice on Tuesday at a South Side apartment building was arrested on Wednesday.

Miguel Flores Lopez, 38, Madison, was tentatively charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, Madison police said.

The alleged assaults happened inside a Lake Point Drive apartment building.

"The victim said the man first assaulted her in a common area of the building, then inside an apartment," said police spokesman Joel DeSpain.

The woman told police she had seen the man in the area but didn't know him.
A man and woman who allegedly used online sites to get customers for their remodeling services were arrested after scamming victims throughout the Madison area for thousands of dollars in jobs never done.

John French, 43, and Angela Venters, 39, were arrested on May 20 at the Fitchburg hotel where they had been staying, the Dane County Sheriff's Office said.

Law enforcement was tipped off to the scammers when a homeowner in the town of Bristol reported losing hundreds of dollars to the couple after contracting to have some tile work done.

"The customers gave John and Angela a 50 percent deposit and were told the work would be started in the next few weeks," said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Elise Schaffer. "When the time came for the work to begin, the contractors, the company website and their ad on Craigslist were nowhere to be found, and the deposit check had been cashed."

The Bristol case was only the beginning. When deputies started looking into it, they discovered other complaints from people in Oregon, Portage, Madison, Greenfield and in Florida, with victims losing between $800 and $3,000.

"They used at least eight different business names, including Creative Custom Tile and Granite, Pro Source Remodeling, Creative Custom Tiles, Artisan Custom Tile and Design, Clear Cut Painting and Remodeling, Fast Onsite Computer Repair, Brush Strokes Painting and Certa Pro Painters," Schaffer said.

The suspects also used other names, with John French sometimes known as John Venters, John Brinkman or John Hoskins, and Angela Venters sometimes known as Angela Brinkman.

When French and Venters were arrested, deputies took electronics, business documents and checks from potential victims from the hotel room.

"Most of their advertising was on Craigslist or Thumbtack," Schaffer said. "They traveled in a gray Dodge Dakota with Texas license plates."

Anyone who had been victimized by the couple is asked to call local police or the Dane County tip line, 608-284-6900.
A former Grant County farmer was indicted by a federal grand jury in Madison on Wednesday for allegedly defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Kelly Wachter, 33, formerly of Bloomington and now living in Lake City, Tenn., was charged with intentionally converting property mortgaged to the USDA Farm Service Agency for his own use.

He allegedly defrauded the USDA out of soybean and corn crops valued at over $107,000.

If convicted, Wachter could face a maximum of five years in federal prison.

In a separate case, an El Salvador national was indicted for illegally re-entering the U.S.

Carlos Orellana-Vasquez, 26, was found in Grant County on May 8 after previously being deported.

If convicted, he could spend up to 10 years in federal prison.
Joint funeral services will be held Saturday for 19-year-old Tuneija Tornai-Jackson and her stepfather, Mike Jackson Sr., who police believe fatally shot her and then himself last week in the family home on Madisons Southeast Side.

A motive for the domestic violence remains unknown, Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said Wednesday.

The investigation is active, he said, though evidence collection from the house in the Twin Oaks neighborhood off Siggelkow Road is largely finished.

Detectives are waiting for analysis of the materials by the state Crime Lab and for results of toxicology tests  which can take weeks  from the Dane County Medical Examiners Office.

Investigators also have more interviews to do with family members and friends, DeSpain said, to try to get a better idea of what could have gone so wrong between father and stepdaughter inside the home at 14 Kanazawa Circle.

But police also dont want to unduly pressure family members as they prepare to bury two of their own.

They are trying to be sensitive to the family and where theyre at emotionally, in terms of trying to glean more information from family members, DeSpain said.

The Rev. David Smith, the chaplain at Foster Funeral & Cremation Service, said joint visitation would take place from 5-7 p.m. Friday at the funeral home at 2109 Luann Lane, with an additional half-hour of visitation at 9 a.m. Saturday at Blackhawk Church. The joint funeral service will be at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the church at 9620 Brader Way on the citys Far West Side.

Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County, said his organization secured free funeral services for the family at Blackhawk, where Johnson knows church leadership well.

The club also will provide free transportation to the funeral service to anyone who needs it from Memorial High School and from La Follette High School, where Tornai-Jackson was a former student.

Survivors include Tornai-Jacksons five brothers and her mother, Susan Tornai, aunts, uncles and cousins.

Police believe there were no witnesses to the shootings. The bodies of Jackson, 39, and Tornai-Jackson were discovered before 6 p.m. May 24 by a middle school age relative, police said.

Barry Irmen, director of operations for the Dane County Medical Examiners Office, confirmed the identities of Jackson Sr. and Tornai-Jackson to the State Journal on Wednesday, following confirmation of the names by Johnson the day after the deaths.

Madison police said the medical examiners office would be responsible for releasing the official cause and manner of death for the two, but Irmen on Wednesday said he would not do that while the police investigation is ongoing.
A heroin user found unconscious in his car on Wednesday led officers on a wild chase near the Vilas Zoo, with the man driving through congested streets and climbing over a fence topped with barbed wire before he was arrested at gunpoint near the zoos polar bear enclosure, Madison police said.

Francis Thompson, 52, of Madison is tentatively charged with multiple crimes, including reckless driving-endangering safety and a second offense operating under the influence, police said.

The incident started around 4:25 p.m. at the corner of South Randall Avenue and Drake Street, when Thompson was found unconscious behind the wheel of his car with a hypodermic needle in his hand. The intersection is near the zoo entrance.

A police detective arrived and the man woke up, said police spokesman Joel DeSpain. The detective asked him to roll down his window, and he did halfway, while also reaching for the cars ignition.

Sensing the driver might want to drive away, the detective ordered him not to start the car, but he started the car anyway.

Fearful for the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists and others, the detective reached in through the window to try to prevent the man from pulling away, DeSpain said. The detectives arm got stuck in the window just as a backup officer arrived.

The detective told the officer to break the window so he could free his arm, and the officer broke the window with his baton, freeing the detectives arm just as Thompson starting driving.

The detective repeatedly yelled for him to stop, but the suspect accelerated, narrowly driving between parked cars and a Madison Fire Department ambulance that just arrived, with three paramedics in the ambulance, DeSpain said.

Thompson ignored the stop sign at Randall and Drake, and the officer started pursuing him, but the pursuit ended when Thompson drove into a zoo employee parking lot at the dead end of Randall Street.

Zoo staff directed the officer to the area where the man was last seen, and the officer spotted him climbing an 8-foot-high fence, with sections topped with barbed wire, DeSpain said.

Once on the other side of the fence, in a restricted area, Thompson went along a path behind the polar bear enclosure.

Employees unlocked a gate to allow the officer to get on the path, DeSpain said. He spotted the man and ordered him to stop but he kept going into heavy foliage.

The foliage finally foiled Thompson, and he was taken into custody at gunpoint, police said.

He had some scrapes during his run, and told the officer he didnt know what was going on, DeSpain said.

Officers found drug paraphernalia along Thompsons path. They also found a folded Wisconsin Department of Corrections appointment reminder in his wallet, the paper containing a substance that later tested positive for heroin, police said.
Wisconsins public colleges and universities could see their funding increase in the next state budget based on how they do in certain performance measures, Gov. Scott Walker said Thursday.

Additional funding for the University of Wisconsin System would reverse a trend that has seen money cut from UW in the last four state budgets, most recently by $250 million in the 2015-17 budget. The performance-based funding would expand on a program in place for the Wisconsin Technical College System since 2013.

If we do anything additional for the University of Wisconsin System  were interested in looking at it  wed probably try and figure out ... some performance-driven components as a possibility going forward, Walker told reporters.

Its not clear what aspects of the institutions performance could determine the funding. Walker did not specify any criteria and his spokesman declined to provide details.

But the governors office pointed to outcomes-based funding for technical colleges that ties a growing percentage of their budgets to how well they perform in categories such as graduates job placement and the number of degrees colleges award in high-demand fields.

I think that makes sense, Walker said. Its certainly what we hear from employers who are looking to fill critical positions.

Walkers comments, made after a luncheon for the United Negro College Fund in Madison, came a day after Wisconsin Public Radio reported he indicated UW and the technical colleges could receive additional support in the budget.

Asked about that report prior to Walkers comments about performance-based funding, UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank, who also attended the UNCF luncheon Thursday, said, Id be delighted to be talking about investment in the university.

System spokesman Alex Hummel said officials are not aware of the specific performance metrics that state officials could seek for higher education funding. But he said UW officials were pleased to hear Walker talk about increasing their funding, and noted the Systems efforts to track student success and administrative efficiency.

Were open to working with the governor and legislature on any new concepts that might come forth, Hummel said. Its encouraging to hear the governor  refer to the UW System as a priority.
Airline passengers looking to avoid long lines can sign up at the Dane County Regional Airport in July for a program that can speed people through check-in points.

Airport officials said an application center for the Transportation Security Administrations TSA Pre-Check program will be set up in the terminal for three weeks, from July 11 to July 29.

We are extremely pleased to offer on-site enrollment for our passengers, said airport director Bradley Livingston. TSA Pre-Check is another opportunity to make travel at our airport easy.

The airport also offered a temporary application center in March.

The center in July will be open Monday through Friday; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2-7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 8 a.m. to noon and 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Friday.

TSA Pre-Check allows passengers to go through a special check-in line where shoes can stay on feet, belts can stay on pants, laptops stay in their cases and three-ounce bottles can stay in carry-on luggage.

The application center will be located near the south escalator in the main terminal concourse, south of the ticket counter area.

Pre-enrollment information is on the TSA website at www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck/apply.

More information about Madisons setup is on the airport website, www.msnairport.com/about/news/events.
In Wisconsin and across the nation, the crisis of college affordability and student loan debt demands solutions. Turning students into modern-day indentured servants is not among them.

Yet in its recent editorial Purdue shows how to tackle student debt, the Wisconsin State Journal editorial board encouraged lawmakers to consider a scheme proposed by former GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels at Purdue University to do just that.

A just implemented, limited eligibility plan there would require qualifying students to sign an income share agreement or ISA with private investors and commit to paying them a portion of their salary for a set term after graduation. In exchange, a student would receive some up-front funding to help pay for their education.

Nationally, more than 43 million student loan borrowers owe a collective debt in excess of $1.3 trillion. Nearly 1 million student loan borrowers have an estimated $19 billion in debt in Wisconsin alone. What would the Purdue plan do for these borrowers who already put in the hard work to get their education and took on the personal responsibility to pay for it? In a word, nothing.

Research by One Wisconsin Institute in our state, and nationally by the Federal Reserve and industry trade groups, finds student debt makes borrowers far more likely to drive used versus new vehicles, rent instead of own a home, defer major purchases and delay savings for retirement or a childs education. The net loss of wealth and economic activity directly attributable to student debt is staggering.

Luckily, common sense plans are available to federal and state legislators to allow student loan borrowers to refinance their loans, just like you can with a mortgage. The costs for such a plan would be the federal government and big banks seeing slightly less of the billions of dollars in profits they reap from the interest they charge on loans. The benefits to graduates and our entire state economy would be significant.

Just as troubling as the student loan debt today is the trend for students yet to come. Our state now ranks third in the nation for percentage of college graduates with student debt, up from 10th prior to Gov. Scott Walker and the Republicans taking complete control of state government. The average Badger borrower leaves school with an average of $29,000 in debt that, when considering interest, can take decades to retire.

Instead of seeing graduates simply swap to whom they pay from big banks and the federal government to private investors, we need to be clear about how we got to where we are today.

In the last five years, state support for the University of Wisconsin System and technical colleges has been slashed by nearly $1 billion. Tuition has been hiked by double digits, costing students hundreds of millions of dollars. And financial aid has been so woefully underfunded that roughly 40,000 eligible students go without any help every year. Profiteering in the student loan industry by big banks and even the federal government costs billions.

This is how we arrived at $19 billion in student debt in Wisconsin. And to reverse the trend we dont need to look to the 18th century for solutions, we need to use common sense and allow those already graduated to refinance their student loans, recommit to supporting higher education and reinvest in our students success.
The Northwestern University College Republicans and the Young America's Foundation co-sponsored an event featuring author John Stossel on Tuesday, May 24, at 8:00 p.m. at the Leverone Auditorium in Evanston, IL. The topic of Stossel's speech, "Freedom and Its Enemies." In keeping with Stossel's professed political affiliation, a sizable number of Libertarian college students were in attendance at the free event.

John Stossel, a graduate of Princeton University, with a B.A. in psychology, joined Fox Business Network (FBN) in 2009. He is the host of "Stossel", a weekly program highlighting current consumer issues with a Libertarian viewpoint. (See here for an overall view of what the Libertarian Party stands for.)

Included in its platform is support for drug legalization, free trade, and free-market health care, plus the elimination of campaign finance, gun control laws, the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security and income taxes. Libertarians also espouse a non-interventionist foreign policy.

(As an aside: As a Libertarian Stossel will now have a candidate to vote for in November, having admitted early on in his address that he disliked both Hillary and Trump. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson won the Libertarian nomination for president at its party's convention Sunday, May 29, 2016. Although Gary Johnson may get a boost in the 2016 race, a new poll out shows that Johnson looks to be drawing more support from Democrat voters than Republican.)

Stossel has received 19 Emmy Awards and has been honored five times for excellence in consumer reporting by the National Press Club. Earlier in his career, Stossel served as consumer editor for "Good Morning America" and as a reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City. His first job in journalism was as a researcher for KGW-TV (NBC) in Portland, Oregon. Stossels economic programs have been adapted into teaching kits by a non-profit organization, "Stossel in the Classroom.

John Stossel Introduced by Northwestern University Republican Club President

Appearing thinner and with a slightly altered speaking voice in the aftermath of his hospitalization and successful treatment for throat cancer in April of this year, Stossel confessed that his academic experience was not all that noteworthy. Stossel used to tell young people they should attend college, but he no longer does, questioning whether Northwestern students were getting something from their steep financial outlays.

In speaking about his own college experience, Stossel told students that those who did the best in college were the ones who didn't know what they wanted to do upon graduation. As a psychology major at Princeton, when Stossel graduated from college he took every job that came his way. Having never taken a journalism course, Stossel's work in a newsroom led him to a TV gig delivering the news. Not only did Stossel look like a 12 year old when delivering the news, he also had a stuttering problem. It took Stossel years to completely conquer his stuttering, but he did in time through professional help.

Stossel's early thinking about how government involvement was necessary for the good of the people grew out of Johnson's War on Poverty , observed while a student at Princeton. Stossel's professors told him the problems didn't need to be solved, but instead to create programs to take care of the problems. The need for government protection was likewise popular concept by the media.

Stossel's Consumer Reports Win Notice

It was Stossel's Consumer reports that brought him media attention and for which he won 19 Emmy awards. The public loved them; they were hits. Stossel recounted one early consumer report in which he advocated the licensing of all TV repair shops. It seemed the right thing to do at the time. Why wouldn't it be a good idea to license all TV repair shops? until Stossel perceived how problems weren't being solved even after licensing. The consumer wasn't being helped. Furthermore, there were the same number of complaints. One thing was certain, it cost a fortune in time and money when filling out the licensing forms, which goes to show that rules cause people to do stupid things. Stossel's explanation of why the economy didn't perk up after the last depression was based on the massive number of laws and regulations which stifled this nation's economic growth.

Stossel visited various countries to find out how difficult it would be to start a new business. In 1999 he went to Hong Kong and in one day, with one form, he got legal permission to open a shop, "Stossel Enterprises", selling ABC trinkets. Contrast this to "Stossel's Lemonade - 50 cents" business enterprise in New York City which never did get off the ground because of all the regulatory requirements that had to be met. Even after 60 days Stossel couldn't get a permit to operate his lemonade stand. He could sell the lemonade to patrons, but they weren't allowed to drink it, and the money had to be returned.

Stossel on Competition and Free Markets

Stossel's world vision of government to make life better, Princeton instilled, was gradually replaced by watching how the markets worked over the years. As an illustration Stossel spoke about the Trabant car made in GDR (German Democrat Republic), for which there was a five-year waiting period. GDR's best car, the Wartburg, couldn't compete with the most mediocre of cars made in America. Good companies will survive. Competition makes things better and cheaper. This is why free markets can also work for medicine. Competition brings prices down and also allow the market to police itself.

OSHA was used by Stossel to show how government laws and regulations often make little difference in the long run. Although work place injuries did drop after OSHA, in reviewing work place injuries before OSCA, it was found that the situation was improving before OSHA. For as this nation became wealthier, she cared more about work place safety. Similarly, free markets handle safety issues better than state controlled entities, which is why in a free society things often get better on their own.

From his initial belief in Johnson's War on Poverty, Stossel came to realize that Johnson's policies created a situation where a woman no longer needed to have a man in the house to be taken care of. As such an underclass of people was created. Things, however, did improve for 7 years before all went south. $22 trillion has been spent so far to reduce poverty, but the results are dismal. Even before the War of Poverty things were getting better on their own.

Blunt Assessment: Expect no Social Security

John Stossel had these blunt remarks to share with Northwestern students. In pegging unsustainable the amount of government spending per person in this nation, Stossel discounted any expectation that students might have of receiving Social Security benefits upon retirement. Students were reminded that when Social Security was first established by FDR most people didn't live until age 65. It was meant for a minority of the American people. There was never a trust fund with a person's name on it. Instead, the money paid in by workers for future Social Security benefits was spent by greedy politicians to cover government expenses. Now the American people further expect Medicare to be there in their senior years, notwithstanding its exorbitant cost to government. Your futures are being robbed through today's out-of-control spending.

Why life in America is pretty good?

Despite a massive debt and spending that continues to increase, especially in the last decade, Stossel recounted answers given him by New Jersey high school students when confronted with this question: "Why is life in America pretty good in contrast to other places on Earth with its seven billion inhabitants?"

Answers shared:

Because we have a democracy.

Because we are a young country.

Because we have natural resources.

Stossel then related how he has traveled to other countries to look at poverty. Keeping in mind the suggested student criteria, Stossel challenged the students as to why India doesn't offers a reasonably good life for its citizens. It is a democracy and it has resources. Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, was then considered: Here is a place without a democracy and having no natural resources, yet Hong Kong went from 3rd world poverty status to a place of great wealth.

For Stossel the answer was obvious. The Rule of Law is necessary, but it was because government left free people alone in Hong Kong, that people could make themselves rich. This is the ingredient of prosperity. Government control takes away opportunities for people to succeed and prosper on their own.

Anger Toward Stossel in Defense of Free Markets over Government Regulations

It was after Stossel make the tie between big government and its drawbacks in creating a prosperous and free society that Stossel's Emmy awards for consumer reporting became a thing of the past. Instead of praise, anger erupted over Stossel's decision to defend free markets over government regulations. John Stossel's third book, "No, they Can't: Why government fails but individuals succeed, published in 2012, explores the virtues of the free market system vs that of big government. Unlike when government is in control, businesses must please customers with their goods or services as a requisite to remaining in business. Such competition fosters better service and lower costs, unheard of when government controls and dictates.

Stossel, musing how up to now he had spoken mostly about economic freedom, went on to explain the importance of individual freedom. How so? When government gets bigger, we get smaller. Before President Johnson's Great Society Program in the 1960's, there were 14,000 mutual aid societies that helped the needy. These societies understood the needs of the people better than the one-size-fits-all government approach which crowds out good voluntary efforts.

Even so, continued Stossel, the ingenuity of the American people and business competition have made life better even for poor Americans, in contrast to a government that can't even count votes correctly! The American people take supermarkets selling a variety of food at good prices for granted. Likewise taken for granted is cash coming out of ATM machines. Our plastic cards are used to make all kinds of purchases, but many individual contributed to the development of this convenience which is widely used. It was the freedom to realize dreams, despite massive increases in government rules and regulations, that has enabled all we take for granted in this nation today to exist. Such individual freedom has resulted in creating a quality of life that other countries could only dream of having experiencing. Even among the poorest of the poor there are flush toilets.

Stossel challenged students by wondering out loud what it was like for them to live in Illinois?, which he called a "model for failure."

Question and Answer Time:

In a question addressing Stossel's views on climate change: Stossel believes that man is causing climate change, but that it would be far better to address the issue when harm to man becomes obvious, rather than spending money now to curtail climate change by building wind turbine and putting up solar panels which depend largely on government subsidies and which require backup power when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow.

Political Correctness Prevail

In a display of political correctness, before introducing John Stossel the president of the Northwestern Republican Club made this disclaimer, that the views of John Stossel were his alone and were not endorsed by Northwestern University. Furthermore, since John Stossel was invited to visit the Northwestern campus, he had the right to be heard and to be respected.

The same night Stossel spoke at Northwestern, a speaker enlisted by DePaul, Milo Yiannopoulos, had been shut down when a group of activists stormed the stage and allegedly threatened to punch Yiannopoulos in the face. Outrageous tactics by DePaul University to shut down conservative speech are not limited to DePaul.

Recent Stossel Commentary, May 25, 2016

Published the day after Stossel spoke at Northwestern University, this commentary, "Private Is Better", dovetails with Stossel's Northwestern address which touted free markets and competition over government control.
In India, the EcoBoost engine is offered on Ford's award winning compact SUV EcoSport, which has been recognised for its strong value proposition.

In Asia Pacific, the multiple-award-winning engine is available in several markets in the Fiesta, EcoSport and Focus.

By India Today Web Desk: Ford's tiny yet powerful 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine has been voted best in class at the International Engine of the Year Awards for the fifth year in a row. Judges praised its combination of drivability, performance, economy, refinement and technology that continues to set the standard.

ALSO READ: Ford recalling 1.9 million vehicles in North America to replace air bags

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In India, the EcoBoost engine is offered on Ford's award winning compact SUV EcoSport, which has been recognised for its strong value proposition. The 1.0 Litre EcoBoost engine is available in the EcoSport Trend + & Titanium + variants in India.

Having been acknowledged and appreciated by customers and critics alike, for perfectly amalgamating performance with economy , responsiveness with smoothness, the small yet powerful 1.0 litre EcoBoost engine delivers an outstanding fuel efficiency of 18.9 kilometres per litre (as per ARAI) and emits 126 kg/km of carbon dioxide, making it one of the most eco-friendly engines in its category. With qualities that make it stand out, EcoBoost also won the 2015 Engine Of The Year award in India.

The frugal three-cylinder EcoBoost engine was named "Best Engine Under 1.0-litre" by a panel of 65 automotive journalists from 31 countries, meaning that it has won in its class every year since its launch.

ALSO READ: Ford India introduces EcoSport Black Edition; prices start at Rs 8.58 lakh

This year it finished ahead of 32 competitor engines, 19 more than it competed against in 2012. Significantly, 2015 also saw an increase in competition from global automotive manufacturers of sub-1.0-litre, turbocharged engines with direct fuel injection.

In 2014, the 1.0-litre EcoBoost became the first engine to be named overall International Engine of the Year for a third time in a row. In 2012 it was also named "Best New Engine."

"The 1.0-litre EcoBoost was a game-changer, and despite others following our lead, it remains the undisputed benchmark in its class five years on," said Trevor Worthington, vice president, Product Development, Ford Asia Pacific. "It represents how we continue to innovate to bring our customers the mileage they need and the power they want in Asia Pacific with more EcoBoost engines across our growing product line-up."

ALSO READ: Ford recalls 48,700 units of EcoSport to fix faulty fuel, brake lines

Available in 72 countries worldwide, the power-dense 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine has challenged drivers' perceptions of the capabilities of smaller engines: A road-legal Formula Ford race car fitted with a high-output version of the engine lapped Germany's famous Nrburgring circuit in 7 minutes 22 seconds, putting it ahead of a host of supercars including the 600+ horsepower Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari Enzo and Pagani Zonda.

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In Asia Pacific, the multiple-award-winning engine is available in several markets in the Fiesta, EcoSport and Focus.

Globally, Ford's range of powerful yet fuel-efficient EcoBoost engines includes 1.5-litre, 1.6?litre, 2.0-litre and 2.3-litre four-cylinder engines, and 2.7-litre and 3.5-litre V6 engines. The last of these powers the all-new Ford GT supercar, which will return to racing in Le Mans later this month.

ALSO READ: Ford to spend Rs 200 crore on brand campaign to compete against Vitara Brezza

In response to growing consumer demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles in Asia Pacific, EcoBoost engines are now available in more than 20 vehicles, a five-fold increase from 2012. Last year, one in four Ford vehicles purchased in Asia Pacific were equipped with EcoBoost engines.

"That it's won the overall award three times and keeps getting the jurors' votes now highlights just how special Ford's 1.0-litre EcoBoost is," said Dean Slavnich, co-chairman of the 18th International Engine of the Year awards held in Stuttgart, Germany, and editor-in-chief of Engine Technology International magazine. "It's a fantastic testament to how down-sizing and greater fuel efficiency needn't mean sacrifice in other areas like power, refinement and drivability, and can even help enhance these elements."



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After an expose by India Today television, the reality behind the Bihar Class 12 toppers, Saurabh (Science) and Ruby (Arts), has been exposed. The board has now asked the toppers to appear for a re-examination in the coming weeks.

By India Today Web Desk: After an expose by India Today television which questioned the Bihar government's education system, the reality behind the Bihar Class 12 toppers, Saurabh Shreshta (Science) and Ruby Ray (Arts), has been exposed. The Bihar School Examination Board has now asked the toppers to appear for a re-examination in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the previous answer sheets of both the toppers will undergo a re-evaluation on June 3.

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Speaking to AajTak, Ruby, the Arts topper, said, "Political Science is a subject that talks about the preparation of food."

Ruby couldn't even pronounce the subject's name 'Political Science' and referred to it as 'Prodigal Science'.

Ruby's score card:

Ruby, who hails from Hajipur in Bihar, topped the Class 12 (Arts) board examination by securing 444 marks (90 per cent), which was declared on May 28. But, the question that is being asked is how could a girl who hardly knows her subject properly top in the board examination?

Saurabh's score

Saurabh, who topped the Science exam, fared no better. When asked a simple question as to which is the most reactive element in the periodic table, Saurabh replied that aluminium was the most reactive element.

Saurabh scored 485 marks out of 500. Interestingly, his neighbours say that Saurabh had failed in the Class XII CBSE exams which he had taken in 2015.

Bihar Board Class 12 Inter-Arts examination: In brief

This year, over 5.5 lakh students appeared for the examination. The results were delayed multiple times over the last one week leading to a lot of confusion among students and fake media reports about the exam result dates.

About Bihar Board:

The board conducts secondary and senior secondary school examinations twice a year. The board also holds departmental examinations such as Diploma in Physical Education, Certificate in Physical Education and Teachers Training Examination.

Read: Exclusive! Six Indian students awarded at International Science and Engineering Fair, US: Meet the Einsteins

Read: Intel India announces new initiatives supporting Digital India

Click here for more education related news.



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Fighting against all odds, Sagar Verma, the son of a sweeper in Nehru World School, Ghaziabad secured CGPA 10 in CBSE Class 10 examination. He was a topper in the school where his mother works as a sweeper.

By India Today Web Desk: Fighting against all odds, Sagar Verma, the son of a sweeper in Nehru World School, Ghaziabad secured CGPA 10 in CBSE Class 10 examination. He was a topper in the school, where his mother works as a sweeper.

Voice of the topper

Everyday Sagar walks 3 kms from his home to Nehru World School as her mother could not afford a cycle "I secured 10 CGPA in Class 10 examination. I want to become the Chief Justice of India," said Sagar.

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'I revise everything taught in school, from Monday to Friday on weekends'. he added.

Voice of Sagar's mother

Indeed, it would have been a proud moment for Sagar's mother, who has worked in the same school for 13 years. "He has fulfilled our dreams," she said.

Director of the Nehru World School, Anubhan Singh says

Anubhan Singh,Director of the Nehru World School says, "We enroll children of our employees who cannot impart education to their children. "

"Students with economically weaker background tend to score better than others," he added.

CBSE Class 10 results: In brief

Over 1.6 lakh students scored CGPA 10 in the CBSE Class 10 examination, the results of which were declared on May 28, at www.cbse.nic.in.

Number of students appeared:

A total of 1,491,293 students had registered for the exam, out of which 88,82,52 were boys and 60,30,41 were girls. Out of the total registered candidates, 14,89,02,1 had appeared for the exam, out of which 88,67,41 were boys and 60,22,80 were girls.

Topping region:

With 99.87 per cent, Thiruvananthapuram region recorded the overall highest pass percentage. The city is followed by Chennai which recorded a pass percentage of 99.69. The Class 12 board results were also announced on May 21 and the region got the highest pass percentage in it as well.

Read: Exclusive! Six Indian students awarded at International Science and Engineering Fair, US: Meet the Einsteins

Read: Intel India announces new initiatives supporting Digital India

Click here for more education related news.

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Rajdeo Ranjan, the Siwan bureau chief of national Hindi daily Hindustan was shot dead on May 13 this year.

By Rohit Kumar Singh: After evading arrest for almost three weeks, the prime accused in the Siwan journalist Rajdev Ranjan's murder case, Laddan Mian surrendered before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court today morning in Bihar's Siwan.

Laddan Mian, however, has denied having any role in Ranjan's murder, saying, "I know nothing about the killing. I had no enmity towards the journalist."



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Meanwhile, the police has already arrested five sharp shooters from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who had fired at Ranjan on May 13.



CONTRACT KILLER

According to police sources, Laddan Mian is believed to be close associate of former RJD MP Shahabuddin. Sources also say that Laddan Mian who came out of jail on April 27 was given contract to eliminate Rajdev Ranjan.

Late journalist Rajdeo Ranjan.

LINKS WITH SHAHABUDDIN



Family members of Rajdeo have already pointed fingers at the involvement of Shahabuddin.

His wife, Asha Devi has on various occasions asserted that the killing of her husband was due to his profession as he was writing news reports against the jailed MP.

Rajdeo Ranjan had also clicked pictures of the meeting between Bihar Minister Abdul Gafoor and Shahabuddin inside Siwan jail in March this year.

Meanwhile, the former RJD MP Shahabuddin has been shifted out of Siwan jail to Bhagalpur jail to ensure that the investigations are not hampered.

MURDER IN LALU'S BACKYARD



Siwan is considered to be the backyard of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. The RJD chief even visited a journalist's home to mourn his killing by criminals on May 11 in Jharkhand.

India ranks 133 among 180 in the World Press Freedom Index of 2016. Nine journalists were killed in the country last year.

Also read:

Exclusive: RJD member linked to Shahabuddin detained in Bihar journalist murder case

Journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder: Shahabuddin shifted to Bhagalpur central jail



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Russian researchers declared that the HIV epidemic is a western 'information war' against the country and the best form of protection is to be in a "heterosexual family where both partners are loyal to each other".

By India Today Web Desk: An HIV/AIDS epidemic was declared in Russia last year. The country's top AIDS expert and head of the Moscow-based Federal Center announced that the epidemic is so severe that nearly 2 billion people will likely be infected by 2020.

Quite obvious that a lot of research was done post this declaration and Kremlin-backed experts at the Russian Institute for Strategic Research (RISR) found out the cause behind the crisis- 'condoms'.

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Yes, the very thing that helps make sexual intercourse safe and prevents the spread of the deadly HIV virus.

The research institute announced the new findings at a special session where it was declared that the HIV epidemic is nothing more than a Western 'information war' against Russia.

Igor Beloborodov, who co-wrote the institute's report blamed it all on the contraceptive industry. He is of the opinion that the industry is only interested in selling their products and is 'encouraging under-aged people to engage in sex'.

He said that the best form of protection is not condoms but to "be in a heterosexual family where both partners are loyal to each other".

Really? Where is science now?

RISR Deputy Director Tatyana Guzenkova said that the Russian fight against HIV/AIDS is based on "conservative ideology and traditional values".

He thinks the western version relies on "neoliberal ideological content, insensitivity towards national sensitivities and over-focus of certain at-risk groups such as drug addicts and LGBT people."

In 2015, 93,000 Russians were diagnosed with HIV and in that very year the government decided to ban condoms.

Sure, the conservative ideology will make sex safe! We are not saying this, the Russian researchers are!

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Amber Heard has provided more pictures making a strong case against Johnny Depp of alleged physical assaults she has been claiming.

By India Today Web Desk: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard divorce is taking an ugly turn with explicit revelations made by the latter.

ALSO READ: Amber Heard demands unbelievable money from Johnny Depp in spousal support

ALSO READ: Johnny Depp, Amber Heard parted ways because of Cara Delevingne?



Amber Heard, 30, and Johnny Depp, 52, married last year in February after a whirlwind affair.

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Now, things are turning nasty as the former lovebirds fight it out in a legal battle.

Amber Heard has provided more pictures making a strong case against Depp of alleged physical assaults she has been claiming. Amber Heard's new photographs have been published in the new edition of People magazine.

#AmberHeard releases new photos of injuries allegedly caused by #JohnnyDepp. "I truly feared for my life." pic.twitter.com/Fl0CsgLFjR Mike Sington (@MikeSington) June 1, 2016

In the images, model-turned-actor can be seen with bruises on her face, swollen lips and cuts. These photographs provide a glimpse of the abused relationship she has been in with Johnny Depp.

According to a report published in E!Online, in the courts documents submitted to the court, Amber Heard has described a December incident, "There also have been several prior incidents of domestic violence with Johnny, in particular there was one severe incident in December 2015 when I truly feared that my life was in danger," she said.

She has even claimed that Depp has "been on a downward spiral for a few months" and he has "battled with substance abuse for quite some time."

Amber filed for divorce from Johnny last week and was granted a temporary restraining order against him after making the claims he assaulted her.

Her lawyers have now alleged the actor suffered "years of abuse" at the hands of the actor.

Samantha F Spector and co-counsel Joseph P Koenig said, "As the result of Amber's decision to decline giving an initial statement to the LAPD, her silence has been used against her by Johnny's team. Amber did not provide a statement to the LAPD in an attempt to protect her privacy and Johnny's career."

Heard initially declined to report to police a May 21 incident between her and Depp that she claimed left her with a bruised eye. "Johnny's team has forced Amber to give a statement to the LAPD to set the record straight as to the true facts...," Heard's lawyers Samantha Spector and Joseph P Koenig said. "Amber has suffered through years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Johnny," they said.

(With inputs from Bang Showbiz)



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A woman got involved in a relationship with her adult nephew. She assisted him in the rape of her 12-year-old daughter in 2011.

By India Today Web Desk: A woman, accused of being involved in a sexual (incestuous) relationship with her 42-year-old nephew, helped him rape her 12-year-old daughter.

The girl was raped for the first time in 2011 and has been a victim of sexual abuse till 2014. The accused cannot be named for legal reasons, but the man pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria yesterday.

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"The 55-year-old woman pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child and an indecent act with a child," reports news.com.au.

The woman's relationship with her nephew began shortly after she, along with her daughter, moved in to one of his houses in Melbourne after she separated from her husband. The nephew was arrested in December 2014. The victim had opened up to her older siblings about the rapes.

Both the accused were out on bail, but the woman has been remanded in custody since March, for she broke her bail conditions and attempted to contact her daughter.

Judge Clare Quin wasn't convinced about a letter the nephew's lawyer, Ashley Halphen, produced before the court to prove he expressed remorse.

The court was adjourned till Friday.



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Hardeep Nijjar, who runs a small plumbing business in British Columbia's Surrey, claims he is being targeted for his work against anti-Sikh violence in Punjab

By India Today Web Desk: A man accused by Indian intelligence agencies of being a pro-Khalistan extremist and running a terror camp in Canada has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for help, calling the allegations against him a "bad Bollywood movie plot".

India has acccused Nijjar of running a training camp in British Columbia to carry out attacks in Punjab. Indian authorities have even asked for his name to be put on the Interpol's wanted list.

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In his letter to Trudeau, Hardeep Nijjar has requested the Canadian government to dispel "fabricated, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated" allegations against him, Canadian website CBC News reported on Wednesday.



Nijjar wrote that India's allegation of him transporting ammunition through paragliding is "absolutely preposterous" and "more like a bad Bollywood movie plot." "I have never believed in, supported or been involved with any violent activity," he wrote.

HARDEEP NIJJAR CLAIMS HE IS BEING TARGETED



Nijjar, who runs a small plumbing business in British Columbia's Surrey, claims he is being targeted for his work against anti-Sikh violence in Punjab, for which he says he has even collected signatures for a complaint to the United Nations.

"Prime Minister Trudeau, my Sikh nationalist activities are peaceful, democratic and protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," he writes in his letter.

Nijjar's lawyer said he is being falsely accused of being a terrorist. "Indian authorities often label Sikh activists as terrorists, who are simply trying to raise awareness in Canada about human rights violations being committed against Sikhs in the Punjab," CBC News quoted Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as saying in a statement.

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By Indrajit Kundu: A district court in Birbhum on Thursday sentenced a former Bangladeshi research scholar from Visva Bharati to life imprisonment on charges of rape. 27-year-old Md Safiqul Islam was found guilty after another student, a minor, studying at the same university levelled charges of rape against him.

In 2014, a class twelve Bangladeshi student from Visva Bharati's Patha Bhavan had claimed that a senior student had raped her inside his apartment at Gururpally near the university campus. Subsequently, Safiqul was arrested following a complaint by the victim's family at the Bolpur police station.

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"The accused was declared guilty under Section 4 of the POSCO Act. He has been given life imprisonment with a fine of ten thousand rupees," informed public prosecutor Samirul Alam.

SAFIQUL WAS BLACKMAILING VICTIM



The victim, who was a minor had also alleged that Safiqul was blackmailing her using their private mobile videos. The girl had arrived in Shantiniketan in 2014 but left for Bangladesh soon after the incident. Visva Bharati had also expelled the accused soon after the complaint was made.

Alam said, though the accused had pleaded for lesser punishment citing poor financial condition of his family, the Judge decided in favour of a life term. "The accused stated that he was a research scholar from a very poor family and doesn't have his mother while his father lay paralysed. So he sought lesser punishment," Alam said. The court has also asked the state government to provide Rs 5 lakh compensation to the victim.

ALSO READ: Murthal rapes: Naked women took shelter in dhaba, say reports



--- ENDS ---
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), as part of their Common Bird Monitoring Programme (CBM), aims to find out the number of Baya Weaver birds in the country. If you're a bird watcher, you can help them. If you're not, you can spread the word.

By Moeena Halim: The bright yellow plume of the Baya Weaver birds was once a common sight across India, but it seems that the population of the gregarious, sparrow-sized birds has been slowly undergoing a population decline, thanks to the increasing loss and modification of grasslands. To get a clearer idea of the problem, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) under their Common Bird Monitoring Programme (CBM), a citizen science initiative, aims to monitor the number of weaver birds currently found across the country. The organisation is inviting the help of bird watchers, ornithologists, NGOs, forest officials and nature lovers to record and report the sightings of the Baya Weavers in their area.

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Indian Baya Weaver. Photo Nandkishor Dudhe

Popularly known for their excellent nest-weaving skills, these birds have been residents of India for a long time. "Being born in rural Maharashtra, Bayas were integral part of our backyard. Sadly when I visit my village now, I hardly see the beautiful nests of bayas," laments Dr Deepak Apte, Director, BNHS. "The declining population of the once common bird is a reflection of insidious damage we are doing to our immediate surroundings. Hence continuous monitoring of such species is imperative to understand and monitor changing environment."

Male Baya Weaver. Photo: Dr Raju Kasambe

India is home to four species of weaver birds or bayas. The Indian Baya Weaver (Ploceus philippinus) is one of the most familiar and common birds in the country. The decline in their population presents an urgent need to pay attention to the loss and degradation of their habitat, along with promoting conservation awareness initiatives focusing on sustainable management of grasslands to maximize available habitat for other grassland birds.

Male Baya Weaver. Photo: Dr Raju Kasambe





In a box: The weavers of India

The four species of weaver birds in India are Baya Weaver (Common Baya or Indian Weaver); Streaked Weaver; Black-breasted Weaver (Black-throated Weaver) and Finn's Weaver (Finn's Baya or Yellow Weaver). This is the only species which has suspended pendulous nests built in colonies, usually above water. It feeds on grains, seeds and insects and has a high-pitched voice. Breeding colonies are very noisy with lot of activity, some males bringing nesting material, while some males weaving thin threads into retort-shaped structures. The Baya has a polygamous breeding system i.e. one male has many females as mates, not necessarily at the same time. During breeding season between April and August, the Baya males acquire a distinctive yellow breeding plumage. All Indian weaver bird species are protected and listed in Schedule IV of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

How to help:



(1) Go bird watching on June 5 and 12, 2016

(2) Record the sightings of Baya Weavers in your chosen location.

(3) Submit your records on www.bnhs.org or email it to ibabnhs@gmail.com

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Three of the smugglers who were assaulted, have refused to lodge any FIRs and police has lodged a case on its own.

By Rohit Parihar : Pratapgarh Police on Thursday arrested seven persons for smuggling 102 calves from Tonk and seized two trucks, while one person and another truck could not apprehended.

Four dead calves were also recovered from the trucks. This angered a mob of cow protection activists which thrashed the smugglers, police said.

One person has been arrested and six other have been booked for assaulting two of the accused and stripping one in a parallel case registered against a mob, Pratapgarh SP Kaluram Rawat told India Today.

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Three of the smugglers who were assaulted, have refused to lodge any FIRs and police has lodged a case on its own.

In Rajasthan, calves and cows can not be transported without necessary permissions and no such document has been provided by the smugglers yet. Pratapgarh police has sought information from Tonk to find out from where and how the animals were loaded.

According to Rawat, the information about three trucks loaded with calves was circulated on Whatsapp among activists on the lookout for such smugglers. The activists had also informed the police. While one truck was apprehended and four were arrested without any trouble, the second truck did not stop at a barrier and its driver tried to scare away the mob by driving close to them.

As police and activists continued their chase, four persons jumped and ran out of the truck. Two of these were caught and thrashed by one section of mob, another - the driver - was nabbed by others and stripped. The fourth one escaped.

The mob snowballed as devotees attending a religious sermon nearby also gathered on hearing about four dead calves. As the atmosphere became communally charged, the three men were immediately taken away to another town for their own safety and provided medical care.

The third truck, whose registration number is with the police, has not been found yet.

"So far, our investigations show that calves were being transported illegally but we are investigating it further. Also, it was an offence to attack the suspect and we expect to arrest six more accused for it and will look for others whose names will come up in their interrogation," Rawat said.

The activists seeking to prevent smuggling of calves have been active in the state, especially in Mewat region, but incidents of severe assaults on smugglers are rare.

Meos in the area, allege harassment in the hands of police, saying they are charged for transporting calves even for the state cattle fair. Police, however, insist that any such transportation should be supported by legal documents.

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In the run up to recent Assam Assembly elections, BJP had promised to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the state completely to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.

By Press Trust of India: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on Thursday ordered complete sealing of Assam's border with Bangladesh by June next year, fulfilling an electoral pledge of BJP within a week of assuming power in Assam to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh issued the order at a high-level meeting attended by top Home Ministry officials in New Delhi.

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During the meeting, the Home Minister directed that the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam should be sealed completely," a Home Ministry official said.

POLL PROMISES KEPT



In the run up to recent Assam Assembly elections, BJP had promised to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the state completely to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said that sealing of the borders with Bangladesh in two years is one of his two top priorities.

The Home Minister also directed that full use of technological solutions be made to secure sensitive areas along the borders.

This will involve networking of equipments like high resolution cameras, radars, unattended ground sensors, optical fibres, infra red sensors, aerostats, hand-held thermal imagers etc. and integration of these with command and control architecture.

The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096 km of which 284 km falls in Assam.

The meeting was told that besides deployment of adequate number of battalions of Border Security Force in Assam, 224 km fence has been constructed for sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam.

However, there are 122 locations (60.7 km) in Assam where physical barrier is not present.

STRENGTHENING BORDER INFRASTRUCTURE



In order to achieve the objective of sealing the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam, it was decided that 100 locations covering 11.9 km will have physical barrier i.e. fence and 22 locations covering 48.8 km. of riverine areas will have non-physical barriers including technological barriers which will be achieved by June, 2017, the official said.

Additional Director General, Border Security Force and Additional Director General (Border) CPWD are already on site visit on Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam to prepare comprehensive plan for sealing the border by June, 2017 by means of physical and non-physical barriers.

Besides the Home Minister, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju reviewed various aspects of the border management in the country.

Secretary (Border Management) in the Home Ministry, Susheel Kumar along with senior officials of briefed the Ministers about the progress of border security infrastructure, programmes of border management and the way forward.

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It was informed that 4,374 km fence, 5,329.6 km border roads, 3,974 km floodlights and 2420 nos Border Out Posts (BOPs) have been constructed along the different international borders for security of the frontiers.

Further, major impediments hampering the development of border infrastructure have been resolved during last two years which will increase the pace of development of border infrastructure in coming years, the official said.

In the meeting it was also outlined that almost all the remaining infrastructure works at the border will be completed in next three years, the official said.

ALSO READ: Indian visa processing made simple for Bangladeshis



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Cash strapped Naidu, appealed to all the residents of the state to take an oath that they would strive for the development of the Andhra Pradesh. They were asked to take the oath whether they were at work, at home or on the streets when the clock strikes eleven.

Chandrababu Naidu today asked the residents of the state to dedicate themselves towards making Andhra Pradesh the best state in the country.

By Amarnath K. Menon : Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu pledged to rebuild the state and asked the citizens to dedicate themselves to the task of becoming the best state in the country by 2029, today while addressing the Nava Nirmana Deeksha' programme at Benz Circle.

Cash strapped Naidu, appealed to all the residents of the state to take an oath that they would strive for the development of the Andhra Pradesh. They were asked to take the oath whether they were at work, at home or on the streets when the clock strikes eleven.

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Significantly, just a day before the week-long programme began, Naidu introduced an insurance scheme named Chandranna Bima Pathakam benefit about 1.50 crore people among the poor in the state.

Here's all you need to know:

Nava Nirmana Deeksha, a week-long programme, is being mounted across the state on the issues that led to the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The event is being organised at places where the people agitated against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh between August 2013 and June 2014. At many places, government officials, school teachers and others raised their right hand to take the oath at 11 a.m. Before the oath, Naidu presented the report card depicting the government's performance over the last two years. On June 3, debates and discussions would be held on the unscientific division and its impact on the state. On June 5, government's achievements in agriculture and its allied sectors and steps to make farming profitable will be discussed. On June 7, the achievements in welfare and development programmes is scheduled for discussion. On the final day, June 8, a rally billed as the 'Maha Sankalpam'(grand purpose)will be held at Ongole to draw greater sympathy and support from the people. Meanwhile, Naidu's political detractors in the Congress have criticized him for observing the Nava Nirmana Deeksha at a time when promises such as grant special category and other incentives for economic growth are yet to be implemented. "He is doing this only to divert the people's attention having failed miserably to persuade the Centre to fulfill the promises made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act," said C. Ramachandraiah, the Congress Leader of the Opposition in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council.

ALSO READ:

Should have moved to Amaravati earlier: Chandrababu Naidu



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China Merchants Group said it plans to construct key infrastructure projects such as specialized marine terminals in countries along the Belt and Road Initiativeincluding Djibouti, Sri Lanka and Belarusduring the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20).

The Chinese conglomerate's Chairman Li Jianhong said on Wednesday the company will build a livestock wharf and liquefied natural gas terminal in the Port of Djibouti.

It is also constructing warehouses in Sri Lanka's Port of Colombo, as well as investing $152 million to build the first phase of a trade and logistics park in Belarus this year.

Under the schedule, the first phase of the trade and logistics park in the China-Belarus Industrial Park, located 25 kilometers from the Belarus capital of Minsk, will be operational by the end of this year.

Li said these moves would help build a comprehensive services platform, dominated by Chinese companies, in countries and regions along the initiative route. He said it could help Chinese businesses save costs on making new deals, in customs clearance, port services and maritime and multimodal transportation.

The trade-and-infrastructure networkproposed by the Chinese government in 2013envisions a Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that covers about 4.4 billion people in more than 60 countries and regions in Asia, Europe and Africa.

CMG will invest $500 million to build the trade and logistics park in the China-Belarus Industrial Park and this year establish a logistics passage from South China to Central Asia and Europe, with cargo trains running from China to Europe.

As a State-owned enterprise based in Hong Kong with its main business in transportation, port management, finance and real estate, CMG's port assets are distributed in 16 countries and regions. They are in more than 30 ports in key locations along the Belt and Road Initiative, such as Nigeria, Togo, France and Turkey.

"We are also aiming to enhance the renminbi's status in international currency settlement through building our first Silk Road hub project in Djibouti this year," said Li. CMG now is the second-largest shareholder of the Port of Djibouti, after it acquired a 23.5-percent stake in 2012.
Former Union Minister of State for Ministry of Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury is being slammed on Twitter after a photo showing her servant standing beside her while she and her family were dining at a restaurant was shared by someone.

By India Today Web Desk: Renuka Chowdhury, Former Union Minister of State for Ministry of Women and Child Development, has been receiving flak from social media after a picture of her dining out with family was shared on Twitter.

In the picture, her entire family is seen sitting but a child's nanny was seen standing next to her. Congress leader has been criticised for her insensitive behaviour and Twitterati have condemned her for 'modern slavery'.

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Here's the tweet that shared the photo

Dear Renuka Chowdary

If you can't feed the little girl minding your child,

please don't bring them to a restaurant! pic.twitter.com/N104ZYtVKN Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) May 31, 2016

Irony is that Renuka Chowdhury was Minister of Women and Child Development.

Lol! Seriously!! pic.twitter.com/IWFdafGqQa Nationalist Monk (@kendentshering) May 31, 2016

Dear Renuka Chowdhury

If you cannot feed your servant with you, don't bring them with you to take care of your child pic.twitter.com/PRAhhIB1UY Bhakt-Tard? (@Shanknaad) May 31, 2016

#RenukaChowdhury was family welfare minister and in home how she treat the maid is know. All these type are disgrace https://t.co/WLbsue6la2 Kush (@kusprasad) May 31, 2016

True face of #CONgress #RenukaChowdhury former 'Minister of Women n Child Dev' treats her Maid as a SLAVE #SHAME pic.twitter.com/VkHDU0muvV Jorebungley (@Jorebungley) May 30, 2016

Modern slavery means stripping dignity. We eat. You don't. We sit.You don't.I'm rich, you manage my brat in public. https://t.co/1ik1FWfFwo Aparna Jain (@Aparna) June 1, 2016

Recently, a similar picture was doing the rounds on social media wherein a family is seen dining and the nanny is made to sit separately. People condemned it as well but what exactly was the situation is not known.

Source: Twitter



Even in Renuka's case we do not know whether Renuka let the girl sit at a later point of time, whether she's old enough not to be considered a child labourer or whether she was fed/not fed.



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"One should not be concerned about what a person eats or drinks and which language he or she uses. I think one should keep away from such controversies," Akhilesh advised.

By Rajat Rai: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday questioned the authenticity of the fresh report which stated that the meat found at the spot, where Dadri resident Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched, was of "cow or its progeny".

"Where was the sample sent, who received it? There was nothing objectionable in his house. Every eye is on this matter. Everyone wants that the victim's family should get justice as murder had taken place. After this incident, there was debate in the world regarding what to eat and speak. I think one should not get involved in such matters," Yadav told reporters in Ambedkar Nagar district.

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KEEP AWAY FROM CONTROVERSIES

"One should not be concerned about what a person eats or drinks and which language he or she uses. I think one should keep away from such controversies," Akhilesh advised.

His remarks came after a report prepared by a forensic lab in Mathura concluded that the meat found was beef. The finding was in contrast to the preliminary report of an inquiry by the Uttar Pradesh veterinary department which said the meat over which Mohammad Akhlaq, 52, was lynched on September 28 last in Dadri was mutton of "goat progeny".

However, BJP MP Adityanath said the report has put UP government, opposition parties at the Centre and a section of media in the dock. "They are mum on this report. The innocent Hindus arrested in the matter should immediately be released and a case of cow slaughter should be registered against Akhlaq's family," he said in Gorakhpur. "I also demand that the state government should withdraw all facilities given to his (Akhlaq's) family," he said.

The report by the Forensic laboratory of the Uttar Pradesh University of Veterinary Services(Animal Husbandry) examined the sample of meat recovered from the spot in Dadri. It was stated that on the basis of chemical analysis the forensic investigation of the sample showed that it belonged to cow or its progeny. The report was sent to the Noida police and submitted to a fast-track court in a sealed cover, an official said.



Also read: Dadri lynching: The meat in victim's house was beef, says forensic report

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Demanding the withdrawal of compensation given by the Uttar Pradesh government to Mohammed Akhlaq's family, kin of the 18 arrested on the charge of lynching, are planning to file a formal complaint with the police.

By Shashank Shekhar: There's an uneasy calm in Bisada village after a fresh forensic report said the meat recovered from the site of Mohammad Akhlaq's murder was beef. When the Mail Today team visited the village, the uneasiness was evident. Everywhere the team went, various sets of eyes followed.

Fifty-two-year-old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by an unruly mob on September 28, 2015, in Dadri over rumours that his family stored and ate beef. Demanding the withdrawal of compensation given by the Uttar Pradesh government to Mohammed Akhlaq's family, kin of the 18 arrested on the charge of lynching, are planning to file a formal complaint with the police.

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UNREST

Since the last September incident, the village has been declared as a hyper-sensitive zone and when the Mail Today team visited the village a huge number of police deployments were seen on ground. Villagers are reluctant to talk to mediapersons and were also seen questioning the credibility of the coverage.

"I don't want to discuss what happened that night. We condemn both slaughter of cow and Akhlaq's murder. But, government's investigation was one sided. Some innocents were even picked up by the cops," said a Muslim barber near the primary school. He added that no violence or discrimination took place after the lynching incident, but stated that relation between the Hindus and Muslims, in the village, is not harmonious as before.

Now, the families of the accused, who are in jail for Akhlaq's murder, claim to be the real victims. "This is not the first time that we are demanding an investigation and action behind cow slaughter. I have written to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the DGP and DM and SSP of the district but no one has responded.

It was only after Mathura's forensic lab report that authenticated that the meat found at Akhlaq's residence was beef, we are demanding action against his family," said Sanjay Rana, a villager whose 22-year-old son, Vishal, has been in jail for the past eight months. Locals said that they trusted the judiciary and would continue fighting constitutionally.

They threatened to take out a mass protest, after seeking support from their community members residing in nearby villages, if the state machinery tries to suppress the matter. "This incident has not only affected our village but has also hurt the sentiments of our community members residing elsewhere. We have received several calls expressing grief and confirming support to our fight to ensure justice for our children," said Rajpal Singh whose, son Arun, was held in the case. "Bisada is a peaceful village, the only family to leave this village was Akhlaq's. But things have changed. Earlier, Hindus used to give us loans and accompany us in religious functions but now they avoid us," said a Muslim labourer.

However, Akhlaq's family maintains that it has not seen the forensic report yet. Terming the report a political conspiracy, Akhlaq's brother, Jaan Mohammad, who works with a private company, said, "No police officer collected the meat sample from our house. The sample was collected from the road."

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Also read: Dadri lynching: The meat in victim's house was beef, says forensic report





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According to the Bar Council of India (BCI), Delhi may have maximum number of fake lawyers practicing in various courts.

There are 55,000 lawyers with valid license in Delhi (Photo for representation only/ PTI)

By Ahmad Azeem: The ongoing lawyers' verification process, which was ordered by the Supreme Court to weed out fake advocates from legal system, has thrown up some shocking details.

According to the Bar Council of India (BCI), Delhi may have maximum number of fake lawyers practicing in various courts.

DELHI - DEN OF FAKE LAWYERS?

BCI's own data reveal that there are 55,000 registered lawyers in Delhi at present. Out of these, more than 20,000 are those who have valid licence but they aren't actively practising.

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BCI chairman Manan K Mishra told India Today that lawyers in Delhi are against the verification process because a large number of them have fake certificates.

RK Wadhwa, former chief of coordination committee of Delhi district courts, described Supreme Court's order regarding verification as a step in the right direction.

"This is a right step. This would help concerned authorities in weeding out lawyers who have nothing do with the legal system, courts of the country. I believe there at least 20,000 such lawyers in Delhi itself," Wadhwa said.

NOOSE TIGHTENS ON FAKE LAWYERS

Following the Supreme Court's directive, the BCI has asked its state units to authenticate the degrees of all registered lawyers. Lawyers would be given a 'practicing lawyer' certificate. According to new guidelines, lawyers having this certificate would only be allowed to practice in courts.

"There are about 20 lakh lawyers in the country. The council, since its establishment in 1961, had never carried out any such verification process for lawyers. We never had any data concerning lawyers in the country. We will have it now. The process will help to eliminate fake lawyers," BCI chief Mishra said.

THE VERIFICATION PROCESS

Implementation of BCI Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules 2015 means it is mandatory for all lawyers to re-register in a new format where they have to submit all their certificates starting Class X board results.

These certificates will then be verified with respective universities and boards.

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Amit Shah has asked party's Maharashtra unit to submit a detailed report over allegations made against Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse.

BJP ally in Maharashtra and at the Centre Shiv Sena has demanded Eknath Khadse's immediate resignation

By India Today Web Desk: There's more trouble in store for Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse as BJP chief Amit Shah has sought report over twin allegations of land grabbing and call records showing the minister interacting with wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim frequently.

KHADSE REFUSES TO RESIGN

Top BJP sources have told India Today that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has asked Eknath Khadse to resign amid the growing controversy but the minister has refused to oblige.

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Dadanvis is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah later today to discuss the issue.

AMIT SHAH ASKS FOR REPORT

According to sources, Amit Shah has asked party's Maharashtra unit to submit a detailed report over allegations made against Khadse.

Party general secretary and Maharashtra incharge Saroj Pande met the Khadse three days back and gave him a chance to defend himself. Insiders told India Today that Pande has already briefed Amit shah on the two controversies surrounding the senior Maharashtra minister.

RSS MIFFED WITH KHADSE CONTROVERSIES

Besides a united Opposition, the RSS has also expressed its displeasure over the controversies and has reportedly sought Khadse's resignation.

But there are some within the BJP who believe that Khadse is merely being targeted as a result of party infighting, sources said.

RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha has also suggested Khadse to step down.

"Eknath Khadse should resign. In politics, you can not have double standards over transparency and honesty," Sinha tweeted.

????? ????? ?? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ??????? ??? ?????????? ?? ???????? ?? ????? ?????? ???? ?? ???? ??? Dr Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) June 1, 2016

KHADSE STUNG BY INDIA TODAY STING

While Khadse has been denying any wrongdoings, a new India Today sting nailed his lies. The sting revealed that Khadse left no stones unturned to intimidate and silence whistleblower Hemant Gawande, who had red-flagged the land grabbing by the minister.

The investigation report showed a Pune Police inspector confirming that Khadse pressurised them to register a case against Gawande.

While inspector Hiraman Shirsaat had then refused to oblige the minister, the Pune Police did in fact register a case against Gawande on January 31 last year finding nothing so far against the whistleblower.

Massive reports are building on Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse. There are two big controversies linked to him.





India Today Impact: Heat on Khadse as Mumbai Police launch fresh probe into Dawood calls

Show proofs against me and I will quit politics: Eknath Khadse

--- ENDS ---

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Among those acquitted are BJP corporator from Asarva, Bipin Patel, who was also the corporator in 2002 when the massacre happened. He had won the election for the fourth consecutive term last year.

Zakia Jafri, wife of Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri who was killed in the mob attack on February 28, 2002. (File Photo/PTI)

By India Today Web Desk: A special SIT court in Ahmedabad today convicted 24 people for the Gulberg Society massacre during the 2002 Gujarat riots, in which 69 people, including Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri, were killed. Quantum of punishment will be pronounced on June 6.

From India Today magazine: In the line of fire



Among those acquitted are BJP corporator from Asarva, Bipin Patel, who was also the corporator in 2002 when the massacre happened. He had won the election for the fourth consecutive term last year.

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From India Today magazine: Sins of Modi

Here are the latest developments:

Special Special Investigation Team (SIT) Court Judge PB Desai delivered the judgment today, eight months after the trial concluded on September last year. While nine of the 66 accused are behind the bars for the last 14 years, others were out on bail. The Gulberg Society was attacked a day after Coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express was torched in Godhra on February 27. A mob attacked residents of the Gulberg Society situated in Chamanpura area of Ahmedabad and burnt down most of the houses. The Supreme Court, which monitored the case, had directed the SIT court to give its verdict by May 31. Last week, the court had turned down pleas moved by two accused - Narayan Tank and Babu Rathod - to conduct narco analysis and brain mapping tests on them to prove their innocence. During the trial, riots victim's lawyer had argued that the massacre was a pre-planned criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused to kill minority community members of the Gulberg Society. The Supreme Court had stayed the trial in major Gujarat cases related to the 2002 riots on petitions filed by the National Human Rights Commission and the Citizens for Justice and Peace, who sought a probe by the CBI and transfer of the cases outside Gujarat. The case was among the nine most crucial cases re-investigated by a Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team headed by RK Raghavan, a former head of CBI in the case. The defence had refuted the conspiracy theory of prosecution and claimed that the mob resorted to violence only after slain Eshan Jafri fired several rounds on them.

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Zakia Jafri has called the verdict in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre case "unfortunate".

By India Today Web Desk: The wife of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, Zakia, has called the verdict in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre case "unfortunate" and said she will move a higher court for justice.

The frail 77-year-old has been pursuing the case since her husband and 68 others were brutally killed on February 28, 2002 in Ahmedabad's sprawling complex with 29 bungalows and 10 apartment buildings.

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HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW:



After 14 long years, a Special Sessions Court in Ahmedabad today convicted 24 people and pronounced 36 others as innocent in the sensational case. "Yes, we will appeal against the verdict in higher courts," Zakia Jafri told ANI after the verdict was pronounced. The 24 convicted includes Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Atul Vaidya. All the persons convicted were on bail. Of the 66 accused, six had died during the trial. The quantum of sentence for those convicted in the case will be delivered on June 6. Among those acquitted is a BJP corporator Bipin Patel, who was on the same post when the massacre happened. Last year, Patel won that election for a fourth straight term. The Gulberg case is Jafri's last legal battle to pin blame on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the deadly riots that shook Gujarat when he was chief minister, and claimed her husband's life. "My case is not just against the foot soldiers. It is against those who allowed the foot soldiers to operate. It is against those who created the situation for the foot soldiers to get provoked and enabled them to operate. It is against Modi," she had told Reuters in an interview last year. Modi has denied any involvement in the 2002 violence. In 2013, a panel appointed by the Supreme Court said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him, the third investigation to come to the same conclusion. The Gulberg Society case is one of the nine cases of the 2002 Gujarat riots probed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team. The incident had taken place a day after S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express was burnt near Godhra train station on February 27, 2002 during which 58 Hindu 'karsevaks' were killed.

ALSO READ | Gulberg Society massacre: 24 found guilty; 36 of 66 accused, including BJP corporator, acquitted

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Delhi University kicked off the online admission process for the under-graduate courses from Wednesday and in the first six hours, the University portal has already registered more than 30,000 applicants out of which 5,600 have paid the fees too.

By Astha Saxena: A group of five IT students from Delhi University gave up lucrative jobs offers and decided to stay and work in the varsity two years ago. Working as interns, these students have designed the much-talked about Admission Management System, which has enabled the varsity to take its entire admission process online this year.

THUMBS UP

Delhi University kicked off the online admission process for the under-graduate courses from Wednesday and in the first six hours, the University portal has already registered more than 30,000 applicants out of which 5,600 have paid the fees too. "From the last two-three years, we have been working with the students to understand their needs. We wanted to break the myth that government institutions cannot achieve professional levels. It's for the first time that Delhi University has gone completely online for admissions to under-graduate (UG) courses," Dr Sanjeev Singh, associate professor at Institute of Informatics & Communication (IIC) told Mail Today.

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Former students of DU's Institute of Informatics & Communication (IIC) are the masterminds behind the digital change. The work on the online admission system for this year began on May 25 and since then, the team has not slept. Receiving an overwhelming response on the first day of the admissions, the team is excited as well as emotional. "It feels great. The response we have received from the students is overwhelming. We had a holistic idea of creating a system like this, which could be seamless and error-free, and most-importantly students' friendly. With such a software, a sense of e-governance can be achieved," Sharad Mishra, one of the interns told Mail Today. The system was used for the admissions to post-graduate (PG) courses and is already a success. As per the latest report, more than 1.29 lakh applicants have submitted their application as a part of the intake process.

Out of the total number of applicants, a total of 1, 02,667 are from general category. "We get an hourly statistics of the applicants and the registration process. The data has been divided into various categoriesmale, female, course popularity, state and district," added Mishra. Even a few hours before going on roll, the interns were arguing over the colour of the button to be used during the online admission process. "It's an ongoing process. We want to improvise every year and this is the right way. We spoke to each and every college and coordinated with them for the application process. The discussions have been going on for very long," Divya Karwan, another intern told Mail Today.

An animated movie has also been made, giving details about filling up the application form online. The movie has been uploaded on YouTube. "Recently, we got a call from a student from Andaman& Nicobar Islands and he wanted to know about the process. Through the system, we will be able to reach out to the remote areas of the country where innovation is required," said Mukesh Rawat, another intern. Other educational institutions are now approaching them for help. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), CBSE, NCERT and Ambedkar University have approached the group to integrate the process in their system.

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Also read: Delhi University Admissions process to begin from today: How to apply





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By PTI: From Shirish B Pradhan

Kathmandu, Jun 1 (PTI) India has gifted 2,000 bicycles to poor dalit girls in Nepal to encourage them to enrol in schools and enhance the literacy rate among them.

Bicycles were given to poor dalit girls studying in different government schools in Nepal, the Indian Embassy said in a statement.

The gifting of bicycles to poor dalit girl students programme was conceived to enhance the literacy rate among girls in Nepal and also to encourage girls from poor and dalit families to enrol in schools.

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The bicycles gifting programme received a total financial assistance of NRs 13.65 million by the Government of India under its Small Development Project scheme, it said.

The literacy rate in various districts of Terai is low and the region requires special attention in the field of basic education, community awareness and women empowerment, the statement said.

The acute problem of girls dropping out of schools has to be tackled by innovative methods and this programme is an effort by the Government of India in this direction, it said.

Apart from this, the Government of India has been extending assistance to various programmes for improvement of education and health services in all districts of Nepal.

India has also gifted 59 ambulances, 7 buses and one eye care van in four districts to cater to the medical and educational needs of the local people.

The India-Nepal Economic programme has an outlay of over NRs 76 billion with more than 529 large and small development projects completed or currently being implemented all across Nepal in cooperation with the Government of Nepal.

These development projects mainly focused in education, health and infrastructure development sectors recognising and responding to local needs to help the Government of Nepal achieving all inclusive socio-economic developments. PTI NSA

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Progress on the deal to build six AP-1000 nuclear reactors is one of the key developments anticipated during the June 7-8 visit by Modi to Washington.

Visitors look at a nuclear power plant station model by American company Westinghouse at the World Nuclear Exhibition 2014, the trade fair event for the global nuclear energy sector, in Le Bourget, near Paris October 14, 2014. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric and India are in "advanced discussions" for the company to build six nuclear reactors there, the country's ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday, ahead of India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit to Washington next week.

A deal with Westinghouse would be the first such contract reached under the 2008 U.S.-India civil nuclear accord.

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"There is a very detailed and advanced negotiation between Westinghouse and India," Ambassador Arun Singh told reporters. "The issues that remain to be worked out are related to cost and financing."

SIX NUCLEAR REACTORS ON THE AGENDA



Progress on the deal to build six AP-1000 nuclear reactors is one of the key developments anticipated during the June 7-8 visit by Modi to Washington, where he will be hosted by President Barack Obama for a final summit before the U.S. presidential election in November. Modi will address both houses of Congress.

The United States and India agreed in 2008 to cooperate in the civil nuclear arena, but there have been no agreements yet to build any plants.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Westinghouse and India reached a breakthrough after the company said it will relocate the planned project in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The original site proposed for the multi-billion-dollar project, in Modi's home state of Gujarat, faced local opposition.

OBSTACLES

Another obstacle had been to bring India's liability rules into line with international norms, which require the costs of an accident to be channeled to the operator rather than the maker of a nuclear power station.

That issue had been largely resolved to the satisfaction of the U.S. government in January 2015 after the United States and India reached a "breakthrough understanding" on nuclear cooperation.

Singh told reporters "to the best of my knowledge" insurance was no longer an issue in the discussions.

Westinghouse had hoped to clinch a deal to build six nuclear reactors in India by the end of March, during Modi's last Washington trip to attend a global nuclear summit.

U.S. lawmakers ratified the civil nuclear accord three years after it was struck in 2005, as part of an attempt to deepen the strategic relationship with India, but have expressed growing dismay over its failure to yield follow-on deals for U.S.-based reactor makers.

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From Anushka Sharma to Shilpa Shetty, the jumpsuit seems to be the new face of power-dressing.

By Hemul Goel: While our favourite Bollywood stars (everyone from Sonakshi Sinha to Deepika Padukone) have been working pantsuits like a charm, it seems like the style is ready to take a toss for something cooler this summer.

Also read: 7 places to scout for budget swimwear this season

Long lines and sharp cuts have popularised power-dressing in Bollywood, however, it seems like celebs are ready to swap the trend for jumpsuits. Enter summer and the idea of being swathed in layers is enough to make you all hot and sweaty. Jumpsuits not only look effortlessly chic, but also keep the power-dressing element intact.

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Anushka Sharma

Here's Anushka Sharma sporting a black number like a bomb. It's the minimalism that makes the look work.

Anushka Sharma is a babe in black. Picture: Yogen Shah

Shilpa Shetty

Also read: Bell Sleeves: The breezy fashion trend your life needs ASAP

And how can we forget Shilpa Shetty's outing in this gold-and-camel Karn Malhotra jumpsuit, finished with a clutch by Isharya that says Maharani (so fitting). While animal print shoes worked well with her attire, we wish she had chosen a closed-toe.

Shilpa Shetty's #GirlBoss avatar. Picture courtesy: Instagram/@officialshilpashetty

Aditi Rao Hydari

If strong lines aren't your thing, a ruffled piece like Aditi Rao Hydari's from Miss Selfridge is all you need to brighten up your day. You can't go wrong with fresh-faced makeup and monotone accessories.



Romantic ruffles. Picture courtesy: Instagram/@sanamratansi

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K Chandrasekhara Rao began the day by paying homage at the Telangana Martyrs Memorial, built as a tribute to those who gave up their lives during the first separate statehood agitation.

By Amarnath K. Menon : Hyderabad is decked up like never before and all ten districts of Telangana are in a celebratory spirit on the occasion of second anniversary of the formation of the state.

RESPECT TO THE MARTYRS



Just as he did two years ago before he was sworn in as chief minister, K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) began the day by paying homage at the Telangana Martyrs Memorial, built as a tribute to those who gave up their lives during the first separate statehood agitation of 1969- 70.

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Next, he laid the foundation for a new Telangana martyrs memorial near the Lumbini Park, skirting the Hussain Sagar in the heart of the city, to respect those who died in the agitation demanding statehood spearheaded by his TRS party since its inception in 2000.

LARGEST TRICOLOR EVER



After satiating the spirits of the statehood campaigners, the Telangana chief minister unfurled the largest ever national tricolor to be hoisted in the country at the Sanjivayya Park, on the northern fringes of Hussain Sagar.

The flag is 108 feet by 72 feet and positioned to be a part of Telangana's heritage. Originally, it was to be both the largest as well as the tallest tricolor flying atop the tallest mast, 303 feet long, to be bigger than the 70 feet by 105 feet flag, fluttering in contiguous Chattisgarh's capital, Raipur, and higher than the one on a 293 feet long mast in Jharkand's Ranchi. The flag in Ranchi was unveiled only in January this year.

To the chagrin of KCR, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Director General of Civil Aviation put paid to his grand plan to have the massive flag flutter on the tallest mast. Now, mandarins of the state's Road and Buildings department tasked for the Rs. 1. 96 crore project are wary of disclosing the actual height of the mast as they failed to accomplish KCR's goal.

ENGINEERING MARVEL



Engineers involved in the work claim that it is 300 feet from the ground to suggest the state has not lost out much in gaining pride of place as the initial plan was for a 303 feet long mast. The authorities have four more flags in store to replace the one fluttering tall and high if it is soiled or damaged. And the plan is to bring it down the 100 tonne pole just once a month for inspection.

Significantly, it only after these three stops, setting out from home, that KCR drove to the Parade Grounds in Secunderabad to review contingents from different police and other state security units march past and declare that he reaffirms his faith in the pledges and promises made by the TRS before it assumed power and his government is focused sharply on achieving the ambitious goal of creating a 'Bangaru Telangana.'

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Also read:

Telangana turns two, PM Modi wishes state progress



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Italian and Egyptian researchers confirm that the iron dagger found in the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun sarcophagus was made with iron from a meteorite.

By India Today Web Desk: King Tut seems to have wielded an uber-cool extraterrestrial weaponry in his afterlife.

This might sound surreal, but recent studies confirm that the dagger buried with Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was made using iron from a meteorite.

The team of researchers from Milan Polytechnic, Pisa University and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo published their study on Tuesday in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

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The discovery of the cosmic dagger

The dagger was originally discovered in 1925, by archaeologist Howard Carter, just three years after the young pharaoh's tomb was unearthed.

Howard Carter found two daggers, one iron and one with blade of gold. The first one was surrounding the right thigh of King Tut's mummy, while the second gold blade was wrapped around his abdomen.

"The dagger has a finely manufactured blade, made of non-rusted, apparently homogeneous metal. Its handle is made of fine gold, is decorated with cloisonn and granulation work, and ends with a pommel of rock crystal. Its gold sheath is decorated with a floral lily motif on one side and with a feathers pattern on the other side, terminating with a jackal's head, " wrote the researchers.



Iron of the sky

Since the discovery of the dagger, scientist were hesitant to study the most treasured artifact from King Tuts tomb, lest it gets damaged. But, with dramatic technological advancement, scientists dived in to study the metallic composition of the mysterious dagger.

Using non-invasive, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, the team of researchers from Italy and Egypt cracked the composition. Results of the X-ray spectrometry revealed concentrations of nickel and cobalt in the dagger that were similar to the proportion in iron meteorite.

The researchers said the finding provided insight into the Egyptian's use of the term "iron of the sky".



Gifts from the heavens

Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron. They revered objects that fell from the sky.

In the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science researchers wrote "most ancient Egyptian iron artifacts, i.e. nine small beads, excavated from a tomb in Gerzeh Egypt and dated about 3200 BCE are made of meteoritic iron, carefully hammered into thin sheets."

"The high manufacturing quality of Tutankhamun's dagger blade is evidence of early successful iron smithing in the 14th C. BCE."

The weapon is now on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

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Work takes her places. But entrepreneur and globetrotter Shahnaz Husain makes sure that she takes out time to explore the destination as well.

A street in the city of London. Picture courtesy: Flickr/Pedro Szekely/Creative Commons

By Mail Today: What is your idea of a perfect holiday?

An expanse of green, or shimmering blue waters, or sitting under the starry expanse of the night sky.

A holiday destination that you keep going back to?

London. It's like a second home.

What do you like to do while on holiday?

I like to explore the city through its local culture and food.

Shahnaz Husain Shahnaz Husain

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What is your favourite shopping destination?

London is my favourite shopping destination. Here one can shop at high-end stores on Oxford Street and Carnaby Street, or go off to Petticoat Lane! Sunday shopping at the Petticoat Lane is an unforgettable experience. From clothes to household goods, knick knacks, one can pick great stuff at a bargain!

A city you recently explored

I recently went for a holiday to Mykonos in Greece, the most popular Greek island. With breathtaking natural beauty, clear blue skies and golden beaches, it is every holidaymaker's dream come true. But it's not only about surf and sun. Mykonos also offers a wonderful nightlife. From beach bars to cosmopolitan clubs, the island gets more glamorous once the sun goes down.

What are your summer holiday plans?

I will be going to the USA, where I will combine business with a vacation!

A destination that is on your bucket list

Morocco. It offers places of panoramic natural beauty . beautiful beaches, mountains, valleys and even a desert.

What's your best travel advise?

Take great care of your travel documents and passport. Avoid carrying cash as far as possible. Travellers Cheques are a good idea and can be replaced in case of loss.

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Now Mamata wants to set up no smoking zones at the state secretariat so that people strictly abide by the rules of the Prohibition of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act.

By Romita Datta: Amma and Nitish Kumar have banned liquor in their state. Now health conscious Mamata Banerjee is taking steps to ensure that the ban on smoking in public places is strictly enforced in the state. Though a central and a state law have been in force since 2008 and 2001 respectively, the state has been casual about executing them on the ground level.

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Mainly because the former chief minister of Left Front government, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was a chain smoker. He would puff away in peace in his ante chamber, even though the security guards along the corridors of Writers' Building would raise an alarm when people smoked cigarettes or bidis.

When such discrimination was pointed out, the authorities decided that the best way would be to look the other way and allow people to smoke their cigarettes.

NO SMOKING ZONES

Now Mamata wants to set up no smoking zones at the state secretariat so that people strictly abide by the rules of the Prohibition of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act. Smoke and fire alarms are being installed at public places, and they will beep and flash red the moment anybody tries to light a cigarette or bidi.

Any place which will see a gathering of 30 people or more will be termed as a public place, and ban on selling of tobacco products and cigarette within 150 meters of any school, college, educational institution will be carried out.

REVENUE

The state earns a good amount of revenue from sale of tobacco products, so there cannot be a blanket ban. But at the same time Mamata cannot put the health of non-smokers at risk. Passive smoking is a serious problem all over the world.

Health freak Mamata, who uses the treadmill and walks on an average 15 kilometers, is planning to set up a gym at the state headquarters to help journalists shed their extra kilos. Realising that journos don't get much opportunity to do leg work, considering the current trend of couch reporting, courtesy social sites, e-mails, she was really concerned over the fitness of some senior scribes. A gym would be a great stress buster apart from helping them to be fit as a fiddle.

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45-year-old Kenneth Alan Amyx, who killed Jennifer Lee Spears, claimed the pair had a suicide pact and his girlfriend "chickened out" of the agreement to "stab one another until they died."

By AP: Police in suburban Dallas say a 45-year-old man was charged with murder after posting a photo on social media showing his girlfriend's lifeless body. The man has claimed the pair had a suicide pact.

The Dallas Morning News reports that court documents show Kenneth Alan Amyx told police he "had to finish ... off" 43-year-old Jennifer Lee Spears after she "chickened out" of an agreement to "stab one another until they died."

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HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED

Amyx stabs girlfriend Jennifer Lee Spears allegedly after a suicide pact goes awry. He takes a photo of himself, bloodied, with Spears' body and posted it on Facebook. In the photos posted on Facebook, Streit-Spears appeared to be dead. Her neck was slashed and she was covered in blood, US papers reported. Appearing alongside her and probably holding the camera is her boyfriend Kenneth Alan Amyx, who was identified by some of Streit-Spears' friends. He, too, was reportedly covered in gore. "Please pray for us," read a message posted with the photos at 9.41 am. "Love you all," said another message a minute later. Police forced their way into a Plano apartment after Spears' sister called them. They found Amyx bleeding from superficial knife wounds and his girlfriend dead. He's being held on $600,000 bond. The photo has now been removed but Facebook has been criticised for reportedly leaving the gruesome image up for 36 hours, despite demands from Streit-Spears' grieving family members.

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The violence erupted when a team of police and administrative officials launched an operation to clear hundreds of acres of government land from the activists of a religious group 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi'.

SHO Santosh Kumar Yadav died during an operation to clear hundreds of acres of government land from the activists of a religious group aAzad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahia

By Siraj Qureshi: A police officer was killed, while several other police and administrative officers were injured when a clash broke out between armed devotees of Baba Jaigurudev and a police team, yesterday in Mathura.

The violence erupted when a team of police and administrative officials launched an operation to clear hundreds of acres of government land from the activists of a religious group 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi'.

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VIOLENT SATYAGRAHIS

While the Station House Officer of Farah police station Santosh Kumar Yadav died on the spot after being shot on head, Superintendent of Police Mukul Dwivedi and District Magistrate Mathura Rajesh Kumar were seriously injured.

A senior police official told India Today that over the two years ago, the devotees of Baba Jai Gurudeo, who call themselves member of 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi', had occupied hundreds of acres of land of Jawahar Bagh in the name of Satyagrah.

The Allahabad High Court, acting on a PIL, had recently ordered the authorities to get the land vacated.

Subsequently, a team of police and administrative officials went to discuss the terms for ending the satyagrah with the leaders of the protesting group, on Wednesday.

FIRE AND COUNTER-FIRE

However, as soon as the team entered Jawahar bagh, the armed mob launched an attack. The police responded by counter fire in which several of the attackers were injured, while few managed to escape.

A large contingent of police has been dispatched from the Zonal police headquarters at Agra and the efforts are being made to capture all the absconding attackers.

The demands of this group includes, cancellation of election of President and Prime Minister of India, replacement of existing currency with 'Azad Hind Fauj' currency, sale of diesel at the rate of 60 litres for one Rupee and petrol at the rate of 40 litres for one Rupee.



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Duterte's comments about extrajudicial killings, calling bishops "sons of whores" and a joke about a murdered rape victim do not appear to have dented his popularity in the largely Roman Catholic country.

By Reuters: Philippine media groups have denounced President-elect Rodrigo Duterte for saying journalists were being killed because they were corrupt and "you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch".

Duterte's comments about extrajudicial killings, calling bishops "sons of whores" and a joke about a murdered rape victim do not appear to have dented his popularity in the largely Roman Catholic country.

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But his comments about killing journalists have struck a nerve. About 175 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since 1986, ranking it among the most dangerous places to work in the news business.

When a female journalist asked a question, he wolf-whistled at her.

Dubbed as The Punisher, Duterte has been accused of running vigilante death squads during his more than two decades as mayor of Davao, a city that he claims to have turned into one of the nation's safest.

A LOOK AT SOME OF HIS CONTROVERSIAL STATEMENTS

"Most of you are clean, but do not ever say all journalists are clean" "Just because you are a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch" "... Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won't be killed if you don't do anything wrong" "If you resist, show violent resistance, my order to police [will be] to shoot to kill. Shoot to kill for organised crime. You heard that? Shoot to kill for every organised crime" "I need the military to pitch. I need military officers who are sharp-shooters and snipers. It's true. If you [the criminals] fight, I will have a sniper shoot you."

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The India Meteorological Department on Thursday said 96 per cent chances are that the rainfall this year would be normal to excess.

By India Today Web Desk: The India Meteorological Department has ruled out the possibility of a deficient monsoon. IMD on Thursday said 96 per cent chances are that the rainfall this year would be normal to excess.

On Tuesday, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh had said India will "definitely" see higher foodgrain output and overall growth in the agriculture sector in case the IMD prediction of a good monsoon "comes true".

The India Meteorological Department has ruled out the possibility of a deficient monsoon

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Here's What IMD Predicts:

North-West India will receive 108 per cent rainfall of the Long Period Average while central India and southern peninsula will receive 113 per cent of LPA. The North-Eastern Region is expected to get 94 per cent of rainfall which is "below normal". Anything less than 90 per cent of the LPA is termed as a "deficient" monsoon and 90-96 per cent of the LPA is rated as "below normal". Monsoon is considered "normal" if the LPA is between 96 and 104 per cent of the LPA. "Above normal" monsoon is between 104-110% of the LPA and anything beyond 110 per cent is considered "excess". Agriculture, which contributes 15 per cent to India's GDP and employs about 60 per cent of the country's population, is heavily dependent on the monsoon as only 40 per cent of the cultivable area is under irrigation. Due to poor monsoon in 2015-16 crop year (July-June), 10 states have declared drought and the Centre has sanctioned about Rs 10,000 crore by way of relief to help the farmers.

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By PTI: Kochi, Jun 1 (PTI) The mortal remains of a young couple from Kerala Shyam Mohan and his wife Anju, who were among 62 killed in the FlyDubai passenger jet crash in March, were brought today to their native place Vegola in Perumbavoor here.

Dubai airliner, FlyDubai Boeing 737, crashed at Russias Rostov-on-Dons airport on March 19 during its attempt to land in adverse weather conditions of strong side wind and rain.

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They were returning to Russia after their holidays in Kerala when the mishap occurred.

Both were working as therapists at an Ayurvedic spa in Russia.

It took long time to identify the bodies of Shyam Mohan and Anju as they had been charred in the air crash.

The remains were identified by means of a DNA test.

Indian authorities had sent blood samples of the relatives of the couple to Russia for DNA examination to identify their bodies.

Relatives, friends and villagers gathered in large numbers in Shyam Mohans residence to pay their tribute.

Their mortal remains were brought via Dubai to Kochi this morning from Moscow and were cremated on the premises of Shyam Mohans residence after performing religious rituals.

Meanwhile, a release quoting FlyDubai said the airline will take all necessary steps to help the victims bereaved families. PTI TGB RC IKA

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Originally, Modi and Shah planned to announce ministerial expansion and party reorganisation last month, but couldn't because of elections in five states.

By Himanshu Mishra: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to announce an expansion of his council of ministers before June 21 in an exercise that may coincide with BJP chief Amit Shah's announcement of his new team of office-bearers, party sources said.

FUTURE PLANS



The prime minister will be on a foreign tour from June 4 to June 9, visiting Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the United States and Mexico. The BJP also has a busy calendar of events, with its National Executive scheduled to meet in Allahabad on June 12 and 13, where it is likely to discuss, among other issues, its organisational expansion plans in states where its presence has been nil or marginal. Originally, Modi and Shah planned to announce ministerial expansion and party reorganisation last month, but couldn't because of elections in five states.

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The idea behind carrying out the two exercises simultaneously is to have a fair representation of leaders in key party and government positions, according to BJP insiders. With elections due in Uttar Pradesh next year, the BJP leadership is considering giving adequate representation to the state in the ministerial council, sources say.

Modi and Shah are also likely to hold consultations with the Sangh before carrying out the changes. On May 20, the prime minister had a discussion with BJP president Shah and finance minister Arun Jaitely on the proposed exercises. Later, it was decided the two tasks be taken up only after the 15-day celebrations of the government's second anniversary got over.

Also read: Modi 'proud' of Raghuram Rajan, Swamy fails to dent RBI governor's image

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Mamadou Diallo thrashed a man who attempted to rape his wife using an iron rod. He was initially charged with manslaughter but now, the charges have been downgraded.

By India Today Web Desk: When Earl Nash, 43, forced herself into Mamadou Diallo's apartment saying "I don't want money, I'm going to rape you" to Diallo's wife Nenegale, he wouldn't have thought he'd be beaten to death by Diallo.

The New York Police Department said Nash is a serial offender and that he has been arrested 14 times since 1997 and has been convicted for peddling drugs and bribery in the past.

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Diallo, a livery driver from Guinea, was not at his apartment when the incident happened. Nash pushed his way inside when Diallo's wife opened the door, thinking her children returned from school. Nash had a tough time fighting Nenegale and her sister who came to help. He also hit Nenegale with a chair.

While Nash was struggling to defend Nenegale's sister, she reached for her phone and dialled her husband's number and ensured she screamed so hard that he knew she's in trouble. When Nash tried to flee the scene, Nenegale went to the hallway and made a lot of noise hoping neighbours to intervene and not let him escape.

It took Diallo 20 minutes to reach his house where he involved in a violent scuffle with Nash, and ended up beating him with an iron rod. Nash died at a nearby hospital. Diallo was initially charged with manslaughter but his charges were downgraded later. He's now being hailed a hero and people are demanding for all charges against him to be dropped.

Speaking about the incident, Diallo told News 12, "I feel bad. I'm fighting for my family and myself. I don't want to be a hero. I don't want to be a killer."

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By PTI: From M Zulqernain

Lahore, Jun 1 (PTI) A Pakistani man, who accused JuD of running a Taliban-style parallel judicial system here, today said he was "kidnapped" by two unidentified men who warned him of severe consequences if he continued pursuing the case against Hafiz Saeeds Sharia court.

"I have filed an application with the Lyton Road police station for registration of FIR against two unidentified men with long beard for kidnapping, intoxicating and threatening me," Khalid Saeed said.

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"Yesterday I was going to the Lahore High Court on a motorcycle when two unidentified men having long beard stopped me near the court and took me to Miani Sahib graveyard and warned me of severe consequences if I continued pursuing the case," he said, adding the men forced him to drink some juice before throwing him at the entrance of the graveyard in a semi-conscious state. Khalid was taken to a hospital where he received medical aid and was later discharged.

"I have filed the application with the police but they have yet to register an FIR against the unidentified men," he said.

Khalid is pursuing a case against Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD), led by Mumbai attack mastermind Saeed, in the Lahore High Court (LHC) for receiving summons written on a letter pad of Darul Qaza Al-Sharia of JuD with a direction to appear before its arbitration court of Sharia.

He also received telephone calls from the Qazi (judge) of the JuD court in threatening tone asking him to appear before him.

The JuDs Sharia Court had summoned Saeed on the complaint of his former partner in a property business.

The LHC disposed off the petition and ordered the home secretary of the Punjab government to summon all concerned and decide the matter "strictly in accordance with law". However, the petitioner filed an intra-court appeal against the decision. The LHC chief justice has constituted a division bench headed by Justice Shahid Waheed to hear the appeal.

The federal and provincial governments had told the court that the petition was not maintainable as the JuD is a "private organisation" and this matter could not be challenged in the court. PTI MZ NSA

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According to Sources, there were serious quality issues with Anti-tank mines stored in CAD Pulgaon. Mines are otherwise considered stable ammunition.

By Manjeet Negi: Investigators are looking into the sabotage angle in the Pulgaon blast in Maharashtra that killed 16 personnel, including two army officers.

According to Sources, there were serious quality issues with Anti-tank mines stored in CAD Pulgaon. Mines are otherwise considered stable ammunition.

Here's all you need to know:

It is also reported that plastic shell of Mines had developed cracks explosive TNT flowed out from the ammunition. Total 130Tonn ammunition gutted down in the incident killing 19 people. A proposal of crack repair through plastic welding was being considered by DGQA. The fire, which broke out around midnight today in one of the sheds at the country's biggest arms depot, spread rapidly. In 2005, a similar massive fire broke out at Pulgaon Central Armament Depot. Spread across 10,000 hectares, the central ammunition depot at Pulgaon is country's biggest ammunition depot.

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ALSO READ:

Massive fire at country's largest arms depot kills 16, sabotage not ruled out

Fire at Army's largest ammunition depot in Pulgaon: Accidental blaze or sinister sabotage?

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A 17-year-old girl believed to have committed suicide was actually murdered by her mother over a shared love interest.

A 17-year-old girl believed to have committed suicide was actually murdered by her mother over a shared love interest, police investigations have revealed in Punjab's Abohar town.

Police arrested Panjpeer resident Manju and her lover Vijay Kumar alias Sonu for the murder of her daughter Diksha and for attempting to hoodwink them into believing it was a suicide, said SP(D) Narender Pal Singh.

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HOW THEY SWAYED THE POLICE

1. On May 24, Manju informed the police that her daughter had committed suicide. When they reached the spot, cops found Diksha hanging from a fan.

2. Manju told cops her daughter killed herself because their relatives refused to give them a share in their property after the father's death.

3. The word 'Vijay' was engraved on Diksha's wrist - possibly by a pointed object - and police even found a suicide note on the spot.

4. Based on Manju's statement, police filed a case against her in-laws and started its investigation.

WHAT THEY FOUND

1. Manju and Vijay met on Facebook in October 2015, while he was in Saudi Arabia. Friendship turned into love, and Vijay returned to India in December.

2. The two started living together from January this year at Manju's home in Abohar. Soon, Vijay developed a relationship with her 17-year-old daughter Diksha too.

3. Diksha remained unaware of Vijay's relationship with her mother, until she saw them in bed one night. This led to confrontation between the mother and daughter since both wanted to marry the guy.

4. To "prove" her love for Vijay, Diksha engraved his name on her wrist with a pointed object. Seeing this, Manju lost her temper and strangled her daughter to death.

5. To cover up the crime and save himself, Vijay wrote a suicide note blaming familial issues for the suicide.



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The sting operation purportedly showed crores of rupees being "offered" to independent lawmakers in Karnataka to vote for Congress or JD-S nominees in the June 11 Rajya Sabha elections for four seats.

By India Today Web Desk: A sting operation aired by India Today Television today showed crores of rupees being "offered" to independent lawmakers in Karnataka to vote for Congress or JD-S nominees in the June 11 Rajya Sabha elections for four seats.

The legislators, mostly from smaller parties, were seen talking about exchange of money in lieu of their support in the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

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The sting concerned two legislators from Janata Dal-Secular, one from the Karnataka Janata Paksha and an Independent.

The sting showed assembly members and their associates talking about money. One of them is shown asking to be paid over Rs 5 crore. In another case, a relative of a lawmaker is shown talking about money with the team that did the sting. Two other members of the assembly were also shown talking about money in their conversations.

THE NUMBER GAME



The Rajya Sabha elections for 57 seats in different states are scheduled for June 11.

In view of its comfortable majority (123) in the 225-member legislative assembly, the Congress has fielded three candidates, including two former central ministers Oscar Fernandes and Jairam Ramesh and Ramamurthy, a former IPS officer, who joined the party over a decade ago.

Though election of Fernandes and Ramesh is certain, Ramamurthy needs 12 more votes in addition to 33 surplus votes of his own party to secure 45 votes, required to win the seat.

Similarly, JD-S, which has 40 members in the assembly, requires five more votes to ensure Farooq's victory.

With five JD-S 'rebel' lawmakers threatening to vote for Ramamurthy in defiance of the party's decree, Farooq's chances appear grim unless he gets the required votes from independents or surplus votes of Congress members.

As the main opposition party, the BJP is sitting pretty, with 44 members and its twin regional allies BSR-C and KJP, assuring it of their five members support for its candidate - Union Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

ALSO READ: Why the next Rajya Sabha will make great TV



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Siddarth also has three other films in his kitty including a Malayalam project named Kamarasambhavam.

By India Today Web Desk: Actor Siddharth, last seen in Tamil comedy Jil Jung Juck, has a busy year ahead with four films in his kitty. He hopes his choice of films will satisfy his fans.

ALSO READ: Dharmadurai teaser - Vijay Sethupathi shines in Seenu Ramasamy's film



One of the four projects is Tamil comedy Saithan Ka Bachha.

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"Siddharth will team up with director Karthik of Kappal fame in Saithan Ka Bachha, which will first go on the floors. He also has a Tamil project with director Sasi, and this film will also feature actor-composer GV Prakash as one of the leads," a source told IANS.

Later this year, he will also be making his Malayalam film debut with Kamarasambhavam.

"The film also features actor Dileep. The project marks Siddharth's Malayalam debut. The principal shooting will commence from next month. Rathish Ambat will helm this film," the source said.

Siddharth's fourth film of the year will be a trilingual project, which will be made in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi.

This project will be officially launched on June 10.



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By India Today Web Desk: Shah Rukh Khan is one doting dad. The superstar has time and again taken to social media to express his feelings for his three children, sons Aryan and AbRam and daughter Suhana. Khan was snapped along with his daughter on a dinner date in Mumbai last night.

PHOTOS: Shah Rukh Khan returns to Mumbai with kids AbRam and Suhana

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PHOTOS: Post graduation, Aryan Khan and Navya Nanda dine out with friends



Suhana and Aryan are both studying abroad, and SRK says he misses them very much. The superstar took six days off from his hectic schedule to spend time with Suhana, who is currently in the country.

"They are studying abroad, I miss them a lot but it gives me an opportunity to take some time off otherwise I am so embroiled in work. I have taken six day off to spend time with Suhana as she is here. The age of 16-18 somehow makes the kids want to stick to the parents even more when they get this five-six days break," Khan said at a recent event.

At the event, Shah Rukh also said how his conversations with Aryan and Suhana have become interesting these days. "It's really nice, it's quality time. It's quite amazing the conversations I have with them. I still treat them like they are two or three year old, but they are adults," the Fan actor added.

While youngest son AbRam is mostly seen accompanying dad Shah Rukh everywhere, it was a pleasant sight for the waiting cameras when Suhana was seen with the superstar. A moment that the lenses did not want to miss.

(Photos: Milind Shelte, India Today)



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Terming the killing of Congolese national Masonda Ketada Oliver in New Delhi last month as "barbaric", Swaraj had said "it was not a case of racial crime."

By India Today Web Desk: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has a recipe for good relations with Africa and its natives residing in India: shake hands and say 'India loves you' when you meet them next.

"I appeal to fellow Indians. Next time you meet an African citizen (sic), pl shake hand and say 'India loves you'. Pl RT," the 64-year-old Union minister tweeted today, days after she denied there is racism in India.

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APPEAL AFTER DENYING RACISM

Terming the killing of Congolese national Masonda Ketada Oliver in New Delhi last month as "barbaric", Swaraj had said "it was not a case of racial crime."

"India is the land of Gandhi and Buddha. We have fought consistently against racial discrimination. Mahatma Gandhi himself championed the cause of fighting against this evil. We can never have a racist mindset," she said.

"As a mother, I can understand the pain of a mother who loses a son on foreign soil. It would be a traumatic experience," Swaraj added.

The killing of the Congolese national and a string of other attacks on Africans staying in New Delhi, and a case of assault in Hyderabad has caused widespread anger among the community.

A group of African students held a protest at Jantar Mantar on Monday. As outrage grew, Swaraj met a delegation of African envoys and students in New Delhi on Tuesday and assured them of security.

GOA CM SAYS NIGERIANS "ANNOYING"

Meanwhile, notwithstanding Centre's damage-control efforts after the row over attack on African nationals, Goa Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Laxmikant Parsekar on Wednesday sparked fresh furore with his remark that people in general are angry with Nigerians because of their "different attitude".

"In general, people are angry with Nigerians and not other foreigners. I feel they (Nigerians) have a different attitude," Parsekar told PTI without elaborating. The BJP leader was responding to a question on recent allegations of rape against a Nigerian national in Goa and racial attacks in Delhi.

"We get people from all other countries, but in general the people of Goa are very much annoyed with their behaviour, attitude, their way of life...because on many occasions I hear complaints against Nigerians," said Parsekar.

Also Read:

Attack on Africans: Racism or media hype?

Delhi is becoming racist: Delhi HC on attacks on Africans



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After 15 months of dating, Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris have called it quits.

By India Today Web Desk: After a whirlwind, 15-month romance, Taylor Swift and her music producer boyfriend, Calvin Harris, have called it quits.

Soon after Us Weekly confirmed the news on June 1--about the two ending things--the fans left no holds barred to express their disappointment.

According to People magazine, there was no specific incident that prompted the break-up. "There was no drama," a source told the magazine. "Things just don't work out sometimes."

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Confirming the news, Calvin took to his Twitter account on Thursday and tweeted, "The only truth here is that a relationship came to an end & what remains is a huge amount of love and respect.(sic)"

The couple recently celebrated their one-year anniversary with a beach vacation in March. A month later, in an interview with Vogue magazine, the Bad Blood singer opened up about her relationship.

"I'm just taking things as they come," she said. "I'm in a magical relationship right now. And of course I want it to be ours, and low-key. This is the one thing that's been mine about my personal life."

Taylor Swift uploaded a picture of a heart shaped gold necklace, Calvin got for her on their first anniversary. Taylor Swift uploaded a picture of a heart shaped gold necklace, Calvin got for her on their first anniversary.

It's been a tough few weeks for Harris, whose real name is Adam Wiles. Last month, he was in a car accident that took the life of one of the passengers. Harris was also briefly hospitalised for minor injuries.

The couple celebrating their one year anniversary.

Previously, Taylor has been linked with Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhall, Joe Jonas and Taylor Lautner, whereas Calvin Harris was in a relationship with Rita Ora before dating Swift.

No official statement confirming the break-up has been released by either Taylor or Calvin yet.

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Security forces have been able to successfully eliminate terror commanders after intelligence sharing with US and Afghanistan along with better multi-agency inputs.

With a change in strategy, the Army is now focusing on eliminating the leadership of Jihadi Tanjeem's active in the Valley.

By Manjeet Negi: The Kashmir Valley may have witnessed numerous terror attacks in the last few months, but the Army has had the last laugh as it has eliminated several hardcore terror commanders recently.

CHANGE IN STRATEGY



With a change in strategy, the security forces are now focusing on eliminating top terrorists in intelligence-based operations. Figures tell the story of army's changed tactic. Since January 2016, 52 terrorists have been neutralised and that includes names like Hizbul Mujahideen commander Ashiq Hussain Bhat and Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Hafiz. Surrender of another Hizbul's most wanted terrorist Tariq Pandit, who was considered close to Hizbul commander Burhan Wani, came as a big catch.

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List accessed by AajTak, clearly shows that how the Army is now focusing on eliminating the leadership of Jihadi Tanjeem's active in the valley. Sources said that out of the 15 top terror commanders who crossed the Line of Control and infiltrated into the Kashmir Valley this year, 10 are already dead.

The first batch of around 12 terrorists was reported to have sneaked into the Valley through Dardpora village located along the LoC on April 12. Six other militants were reported to have infiltrated from Lolab side around April 17. Enhanced focus on technical and human intelligence gathering and coordinated operations are yielding the desired results.

Also, the international intelligence sharing is also helping in tracking the most wanted terrorists. Defence expert Major General (retired) RK Arora pointed out that intelligence sharing with US and Afghanistan along with better multi-agency inputs is helping troops to carry out successful operations.

ARMY PAYS THE PRICE AS WELL



However, the Army has had to pay the price of the success as well. Over a dozen soldiers including officers and JCO's have died during counter-terror operations.

With the summer still setting in, infiltration attempts have seen a steady rise. All efforts are being made to strengthen the counter-insurgency grid, which is a conglomeration of Army, paramilitary and state police.

There were 121 infiltration attempts along the border in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015 of which 33 were successful. However, 46 terrorists were killed by security forces. In 2014, there were 222 infiltration attempts in the state of which 65 were successful. A total of 52 terrorists were killed by the security forces that year.

Also read: Mehbooba Mufti hits out at Jammu and Kashmir separatists

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Sarkar shot dead engineering professor William Klug, 39, in a small office on the campus, police said. The attack appeared to be provoked by Sarkars belief that Klug had stolen computer code from him, according to a March blog post by a person of the same name.

Mainak Sarkar has been identified as a gunman who killed a University of California professor.

By Reuters: Los Angeles police on Thursday identified a graduate engineering student, Mainak Sarkar, as the man who killed a University of California professor in a murder-suicide that prompted a two-hour lockdown of the sprawling urban campus.

Sarkar shot dead engineering professor William Klug, 39, in a small office on the campus, police said. The attack appeared to be provoked by Sarkar's belief that Klug had stolen computer code from him, according to a March blog post by a person of the same name.

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"Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm," Sarkar wrote in the post. "Be careful about whom you trust." The authenticity of the post is yet to be verified. The Los Angeles Times quoted an unnamed university source as saying the claims made in the blog were "untrue" and "absolutely psychotic."

University officials could not be reached immediately for comment on Thursday.

Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Jane Kim on Thursday confirmed that Sarkar was the gunman. The Los Angeles coroner's office confirmed Klug's identity on Wednesday.

University officials said classes would resume on Thursday and counselors will be available for students, faculty and staff.

"Our hearts are heavy this evening as our campus family mourns the sudden and tragic deaths of two people on our campus earlier today," said Chancellor Gene Block in a statement.

'CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT'

Students took to social media to ask the university to reschedule final exams, saying they had been rattled by the shooting and lockdown and needed time to prepare.

Students said on social media on Wednesday that they had hidden behind doors that could not be locked while police searched the campus to make sure there were no other gunmen.

"How the hell am I going to study for finals when this just happened? I can't think straight," Bahjat Alirani, a UCLA bioengineering student said on Twitter.

"Students need time to process today. Hope my colleagues seriously consider postponing finals this week. Let's help everyone heal," Tyrone Howard, a UCLA associate dean and professor of education, said on Twitter.

Reports of shots fired at US schools, or even sightings of a gunman, typically bring heavy police responses and lockdowns because of the nation's history of mass shootings. They include the nine people shot at Umpqua Community College in southwest Oregon last October and the 2007 attack at Virginia Tech where a gunman shot dead 32 people, the deadliest mass shooting in US history.

Klug, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, specialized in biomechanics, including the workings of the human heart, according to UCLA's website.

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"You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug," professor Alan Garfinkel told the Times of his colleague.

Engineering student Aaron Feigelman said he received a text message alerting him to the emergency on Wednesday and entered an adjacent building, where he and five others took refuge for 90 minutes.

"We tied the bathroom door hinges with belts to keep the door closed because there were no locks. And we just waited. It was really scary," Feigelman said.

Police recovered a gun and what may be a suicide note at the scene, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. UCLA, with more than 43,000 students, is one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system.

ALSO READ: Two people shot dead at UCLA, campus on lockdown

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Ben Cardin intends to raise these social and human rights issues with Narendra Modi when he hosts a dinner for the visiting Prime Minister.

By Smita Sharma: In what could raise eyebrows in the Indian foreign policy establishment in South Block, a visiting US senator has come down heavily upon India's track record on corruption, human rights and religious freedom.

CRITICISM



This ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington DC for a bilateral visit next week, where he will also address the joint session of the US Congress on the 8th of June.

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Speaking in Delhi on Role of Good Governance in International Relations, Benjamin Louis "Ben" Cardin, a democratic Senator from Maryland, criticised India for extrajudicial killings. He emphasised that extra judicial killings must not be allowed to continue in the country.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN INDIA



Citing the 2015 United States minorities watchdog report on religious freedom, Cardin said that anti-conversion laws in India are being used to infringe upon people's right to religious freedom. Further adding to India's criticism he said that women in India are very vulnerable and how a nation treats its women, is the barometer of its progress. And human trafficking is a major challenge with India being a tier two country in the global index.

Ben Cardin intends to raise these social and human rights issues with Narendra Modi when he hosts a dinner for the visiting Prime Minister on Capitol Hill. Responding to an India Today TV question the Senator said, "I will include human rights dimension in my conversation" Cardin, ranking member of the US Foreign Relations Committee responsible for fixing accountability in America's global policy,also flagged corruption as a challenge that still haunts India despite the Modi administration's assurances.

Also read: Modi 'proud' of Raghuram Rajan, Swamy fails to dent RBI governor's image

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Uttar Pradesh police ruled out filing a First Investigation Report against the victim's family saying there was no evidence to suggest they were responsible for cow slaughter.

Family members of the accused who were arrested for Mohammad Akhlaq's murder.

By Abhishek Bhalla : Uttar Pradesh Police may not register a case against the family of Mohammed Akhlaq- who was lynched by a mob last year over rumours that he butchered a cow- despite a forensic report saying meat recovered from the spot was beef.

The findings of a Mathura lab have whipped up a fresh political storm over the issue that fuelled a fierce debate on freedom of choice and religious intolerance in India.

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In several Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh, the killing of cows and selling of beef are either restricted or banned as the animal is revered by many Hindus. However, local police said on Wednesday there is no evidence to suggest that Akhlaq's family was responsible for cow slaughter.

NO EVIDENCE AGAINST AKHLAQ'S FAMILY



"People might demand that a case should be registered. But as of now no criminal offence is made out as the beef was not found inside Akhlaq's house," said a senior officer.

"It was dumped in garbage nearby."

The 52-year-old resident of Bisada village in Dadri area on the outskirts of Delhi was beaten to death in September by an angry mob that suspected he had slaughtered a calf and eaten its meat.

While there were reports that the meat which was tested was found in Akhlaq's fridge, investigators are convinced that it was recovered from a garbage dump and do not rule out a "larger conspiracy".

A preliminary inquiry by the state's veterinary department had said it was goat meat.

'FIR WILL BE AGAINST UNKNOWN PEOPLE'



"If at all an FIR is registered it will be against unknown people. It's not known who was involved in the cow slaughter. All aspects need to be looked at," the police officer added.

After the fresh forensic report surfaced this week, relatives of those arrested for allegedly killing Akhlaq have been demanding that an FIR be registered against his family and the compensation given by the state government be withdrawn.

The case has led to a political slugfest with BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh targeting the ruling Samajwadi Party as chief minister Akhilesh Yadav questioned the authenticity of the forensic report.

State director general of Police Javed Ahmed told MAIL TODAY that the matter is in court and people should not jump to any conclusions.

"The meat found is tested as beef but whether it was found in Akhlaq's house has still not been established," he said.

'EVERY EYE ON THIS CASE'



With political parties jumping in and the sensitive subject getting a communal colour, police are keeping a close eye on the developments. With UP headed for crucial assembly polls next year, firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath hit out at the SP for questioning the report, alleging that the ruling party only wants votes and demanding registration of a cow slaughter case against Akhlaq's family.

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The chief minister said nothing objectionable was found at Akhlaq's house. "Every eye is on this matter. Everyone wants that the victim's family should get justice as a murder took place," he said.

Also read: Dadri lynching: The meat in victim's house was beef, says forensic report

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Addressing a packed "Code Conference" in California on Wednesday, Pichai said that "our plan is still to work with hardware partners".

By Indo-Asian News Service: Software giant Google has no plans to do its own smartphone as of now and will continue to work with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on building Nexus devices, Indian-born top executive Sundar Pichai has said.

Addressing a packed "Code Conference" in California on Wednesday, Pichai said that "our plan is still to work with hardware partners".

"Nexus, we are investing more effort into them. You'll see us put more thought into Nexus devices, there are categories beyond phones, we'll be opinionated where we need to be to push the category forward," he added.

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According to a Tech Crunch report, since Google is the origin of Android, if it controls the entire experience (like Apple), the company may be able to optimise what it considers to be the best Android experience.

"For now, however, it seems like the company is content with working with partners like its Nexus programme," it added.

"Android is a very open ecosystem, the answer may not be a global one player answering it every part of the world," Pichai told the gathering.

"You have great examples of regional players in places like India and China which serve the needs of those markets very well," the Google executive noted.

Today, Android has become one of the largest ecosystems in the world thanks to the company's open approach to Android.

"Globally it's a very competitive marketplace. The smartphone industry, the hardware industry, it's a very efficient industry. Even Amazon, they base it on Android too. I look at it and say Android is a large scale, open platform," Pichai said.

Taking on intelligent virtual friends like Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana, Pichai recently announced "Google Assistant" which will help you with daily tasks like booking movie tickets.

Pichai also unveiled "Google Home" - a voice-activated product that brings "Google Assistant" to any room in your house, a new messaging app called "Allo" and video calling feature "Duo" at the "Google I/O," its annual developer conference recently.

Also read: Google announces Allo messaging app, hopes to beat WhatsApp

The "Google Assistant" is conversational - an ongoing two-way dialogue between you and Google that understands your world and helps you get things done.

"Computers are good at certain things but what's changing is we now believe we can start doing the things which are much more intelligent," Pichai said at Code Conference.

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A former executive, Svetlana Blackburn, accused upper management of trying to push her to "fit square data into round holes" to make Oracle Cloud Services' results look better.

By Reuters: Oracle Corp was sued on Wednesday by a former senior finance manager who claimed she was terminated in retaliation for complaining about improper accounting practices in Oracle's cloud services business.

Shares of Oracle fell about 2.6 per cent to $39.23 in after-hours trading.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the former executive, Svetlana Blackburn, accused upper management of trying to push her to "fit square data into round holes" to make Oracle Cloud Services' results look better.

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"We don't agree with the allegations and intend to vigorously defend the matter," Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said.

Blackburn said her bosses instructed her to add millions of dollars of accruals for expected business "with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers," and said executives above her added accruals on their own.

Like many legacy software companies, Oracle faces a dilemma with the move to cloud computing - essentially software in servers in data centers accessible through the internet rather than traditional packaged software. The older type of software still generates massive profits for Oracle.

Last quarter, Oracle's traditional on-premises software sales shrank slightly compared with a year earlier, but still generated $6.35 billion in revenue, 70 per cent of total revenue for the quarter. In comparison, cloud revenue was $735 million, or 8 per cent of the revenue, but grew by 40 per cent.

The Redwood City, California-based company has come under considerable pressure from younger and smaller cloud-first companies such as Salesforce.com Inc, whose chief executive delights in mocking Oracle's cloud strategy.

Oracle has invested aggressively in its cloud business over the last few years in a bid to gain market share in the cloud. Safra Catz, Oracle's co-chief executive, said in March that the cloud business was in a "hyper-growth phase."

Blackburn said Oracle terminated her employment on Oct. 15 last year, one month after the alleged wrongdoing began and two months after she received a positive performance review.

She said Oracle had come to view her as "more of a roadblock than a team player who would blindly generate financial reports using improper bases in order to justify the bottom lines that her superiors demanded to see."

V.J. Chetty, a lawyer for Blackburn, declined additional comment.

Blackburn's lawsuit also accused Oracle of violating the anti-retaliation provisions of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance and Dodd-Frank financial-reform laws. It seeks punitive damages, double back pay and other remedies.



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The Russians were dismayed over the fact that they were being denied the satirical delights offered by these accounts, especially President Putin's.

By Indo-Asian News Service: After facing much criticism for temporarily suspending the parody accounts of famous politicians, including President Vladimir Putin in Russia, micro-blogging website Twitter has reinstated all the accounts, a media report said.

The Russians were dismayed over the fact that they were being denied the satirical delights offered by these accounts, especially President Putin's.

On Tuesday, Twitter suspended parody accounts of President Putin @DarthPutinKGB and other Russian-themed parody accounts, including @SovietSergey -- a lampoon of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and @AmbYakovenkoNot -- which mocks the Russian ambassador to Britain, Alexander Yakovenko, BBC reported.

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@DarthPutinKGB has 50,000-plus followers and its suspension in particular provoked much indignation from Twitter users and also plenty of humour.

Also Read: Delhi earthquake proves Twitter is faster than seismic waves. Again

Well-wishers tweeted their support for the suspended Darth and criticism of Twitter using the hashtag, #NoGulagforDarthPutinKGB.

While, former world chess champion and Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov accused Twitter of "taking lessons on censorship from the Kremlin", the editor of the Moscow Times opinionated: "Among Darth's high-profile supporters were the real Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves."

When contacted by journalists over Darth's suspension, Twitter refused to comment on the case and referred them to its rules on parody accounts.

These state that accounts should "indicate that the user is not affiliated with the account subject by stating a word such as 'parody', 'fake', 'fan', or 'commentary', and be done so in a way that would be understood by the intended audience", the report said.

Meanwhile, Darth's bio on the restored account remains the same as it was before the suspension: "146 percent of Russians didn't elect me. You don't visit Russia, I visit you. I serve tea to those that call this parody. Tweets made topless signed vvp."

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ADM completes corn wet mill acquisition

ADM has completed the acquisition of a Casablanca, Morocco-based corn wet mill that produces glucose and native starch in anticipation of growing demand from Moroccan customers.

ADM has completed the acquisition of a Casablanca, Morocco-based corn wet mill that produces glucose and native starch.

We continue to anticipate growing demand from Moroccan customers in the food, feed, paper and corrugated board industries, and we look forward to working with them to meet their needs, said Chris Cuddy, president of ADMs Corn Processing business unit. We are excited to show customers in Moroccoand throughout the regionthe benefits of working with a global company that not only will be providing great sweetener and starch products at competitive prices, but will also be able to help customers meet a wide variety of needs with an extensive and growing food and feed ingredient portfolio.

The purchase comes after ADM completed the acquisition of several corn processing facilities in Europe last fall.

Between this acquisition and the purchase of our former Eaststarch facilities, we are continuing to strengthen our global position in the sweetener and starch market, and our ability to meet customer needs around the world, Cuddy continued. We are excited about this growth in our business, and look forward to sharing the benefits with our customers and our shareholders alike.
Insurance Back Managing the world's top risk of failing climate-change mitigation and adaptation - on the Property Insurance Forum's agenda in Munich

"The first priority in dealing with the increased destructive potential of the natural catastrophes should be to invest into loss prevention measures like risk adequate planning of new settlements, better flood protection, less vulnerable building structures, early warning systems. Here the insurance industry has built up a lot of knowhow which can support political decision makers," Prof. Dr. Peter HOEPPE, head of the Munich Re division "Geo Risks Research/Corporate Climate Centre" stated for XPRIMM.



"The 2nd priority is appropriate insurance cover of the event's after prevention measures still existing risks. Such covers themselves can give incentives for risk reduction, if they are based on risk adequate premiums. The 3rd and long term priority is the support of climate change mitigation, by reducing the own emissions, providing covers for low emission technologies, and by investments into climate friendly assets," he added.



As natural catastrophes' destructive potential is continuously growing, not only because of the increased intensity and frequency of the weather related extreme events, but also because of the increased "urbanization" and higher value of the corporate properties, the means to address this challenge - including modern digital technologies -, are the main topic of the 2016 edition of IIF - Property Insurance in the Digital Era . The conference will take place in Munich, on June 20 - 21, ci-organized by XPRIMM and NTT Data, Germany and with the official support of GDV - the German Insurance Association.



Prof. Dr. Peter HOEPPE will talk about the role of the insurance industry in the management of the current top risk "Failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation". In his view, the insurance industry has a large potential to support both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation can be supported by custom made insurance policies for investors into clean and climate friendly technologies and thus incentivizing such investments. Insurers on the other hand also can increase their own investments into such climate friendly assets.



Higher insurance penetration against losses caused by weather related disasters itself is part of the adaptation to climate change. Especially support for finding such insurance solutions for developing countries helps them to become more climate change resilient. The expertise of the insurance industry in loss trends, vulnerabilities of different building structures and economic benefits of loss prevention measures can support political entities to get to the right decisions to better adapt their countries, regions and cities to a changing climate.



Attending IIF 2016 - Property Insurance in the Digital Era is free of charge subject to availability. The conference will have a limited number of participants to guarantee an active exchange of opinions and animated discussions. Attendance will be accepted on "first come, first served" basis.



More detail and registration at www.internationalinsuranceforum.com





Author: Daniela GHETU on 02.06.2016





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Philipp Schroler

(Simmons & Simmons)

The view from Philipp's window

.

Landtag of North Rhine-Westfalia

Media Harbor, Dusseldorf

After a busy day in Dusseldorf, its time for an

Altbier... J ohann H Addicks



Eat

involves a huge amount of coordination, support and opposition with lawyers from all over the world. One of the IPKat's key objectives is to bring this global IP community closer together by sharing IP decisions, legislation and practice from across the world with our readers, with the aim that by understanding our unique perspectives on the culture of IP practice we can work together to make IP a success story for innovators, creators, users and the public. With those grand aims, the AmeriKat thought it would be worthwhile to ask the next generation of global IP lawyers to illuminate IP practice in their jurisdiction, as well as to give readers some fun reading over their lunch-al-desko ...For the fourth in the series, we travel 350 almost due east to Dusseldorf, Germany where IP lawyer Philipp Schroler at Simmons & Simmons gets to grips with complex technology, wishes for better German trade secrets law and dreams of experiencing US discovery in New York City.A lot of clouds, as well as the rooftop terrace of our office building (the Ko-Bogen , designed by the Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind). During the summer, the triangular shaped flowerbeds bring a burst of color to my day.As teenager in school, in addition to sports, I was always interested in technical things like computers, mobile phones (and later on smart phones), as well as interior design and architecture. That is probably the reason why I developed a personal interest in the protection of the function and design of products during my law studies. When I got the opportunity to specialize in my studies, I chose information, telecommunication and media law. This specialty discipline was (and still is) offered by the ITM Institute of the University of Munster, which is directed by Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren , one of the leading German academics in the field of media and software law.I usually take the subway or bike to the office, which is located directly in the centre of Dusseldorf. After arriving at the office at around 9 am, I switch on my computer and armed with a bottle of water and a cup of coffee, I start working on our pending matters. At the moment this mainly means drafting of writs for patent law court proceedings. Depending on the case this can be briefs for main proceedings, applications for preliminary injunctions or protective lettersA couple of times a week, there will also be status update conference calls with clients and/or colleagues from our other offices. Our clients have many cross-border patent litigation cases that require a lot of co-ordination. I also spend time debating and brainstorming procedural or substantive issues of a case with a partners. I will usually meet up for lunch with my colleagues or friends from other firms that I know from my time at university and/or legal clerkship. Back at the office, I usually spend some time studying IP law articles and recent case law, before continuing my daily work. Depending on how long I stay in the office, in the evening I try to visit the gym or just head home for dinner with my fiancee. However, in case there is a court hearing, the typical day can of course be completely different.One thing certainly is the so-called bifurcation of infringement and nullity proceedings with regard to patents. This means, that a patent infringement action and a nullity action are heard in separate instances and by different, specialised courts: civil courts have jurisdiction over infringement proceedings (where there are special patent chambers), and nullity actions regarding the German designation of a European patent or national German patent are heard exclusively by the German Federal Patent Court (Bundespatentgericht) as court of first instance. The most important effect of this bifurcated system is that counterclaims of invalidity are not possible in infringement proceedings, as the civil court hearing an infringement action has no competence to decide on the validity of the patent.There is no typical lunch. We are lucky to be able to choose from a variety of restaurants in the direct vicinity of our office that offer daily changing lunch menus, so a typical lunch may include Italian pasta, a Japanese noodle soup or even a hamburger.Clients, in particular large enterprises, seem to be increasingly demanding and can sometimes expect a legal advisor to be on call ready to provide immediate answers to all different kinds of legal problems. Of course one is always keen to fulfill this demand to make a client happy, but I think it is also important to keep in mind that the supply of high quality legal services is a very complex thing - something which does not always lend itself to instantaneous answers. It is often in your clients best interests to give yourself enough time to think everything through, instead of giving an immediate (unprepared) answer in an e-mail written off the cuff. Before the advent of instantaneous e-mail and mobile communication, lawyers generally had a bit more time and space to think think through and develop the best possible solution for the client. A time before smartphones.Many lawyers in larger German commercial law firms consider IP lawyers as lifestyle lawyers, because we often work with well-known trade marks, designs or technical gimmicks. We can also be regarded as mere support lawyers for M&A transactions. However, this view is definitely wrong, as it underestimates the great significance that IP rights have for many companies, in particular for research-based companies.I think that the system of IP protection in German already has a relatively high standard. However, I would welcome a further improvement of the legislation that protects industrial and trade secrets (currently covered by sections 17-19 of the German Act against Unfair Competition (UWG). I think that industrial and trade secrets are essential for many companies, in particular if a company decides not to seek patent protection or if patent protection is not available. However, simple technical possibilities like USB sticks and/or computer viruses seem to make it increasingly easy for infringers to gain access to sensitive data of competing companies. In my opinion, it is therefore important that on the one hand the law must reflect the latest technical developments, so that the legislation contains no legal loopholes, and on the other hand it must provide sufficient sanctioning options to effectively dissuade potential offenders from committing trade secret theft. I think that in particular, the latter should be further tightened in Germany, because at the moment the sentence for the disclosure of trade and industrial secrets according to sec. 17(1) UWG is limited to imprisonment not exceeding three years or a fine. However, in practice most cases, trade secret theft is only enforcedunder civil law.Getting the chance to review and analyse new products (inventions) from all different kinds of technical fields. The technical aspect of my legal work is the most thrilling and challenging.One of the biggest changes for IP practitioners in Germany (and Europe) in 2016/2017 will be the European Unified Patent Court that will hopefully start in Spring 2017. I think a supranational European court and the possibility that lawyers and patent attorneys from different European countries might try cases before the same court will be very challenging for all IP practitioners and probably also create a lot of competition between European (patent) law firms.With regard to patent law, the ability to simply describe complex technical facts to judges. Apart from that, creativity and the ambition to solve challenging problems in a relatively short period of time.At the moment I mostly work with colleagues from the Netherlands and the UK, whereas our clients are located all over the world.Apart from the start of the UPC and the changes implied by such a supranational system, I dont think that there will be any major developments within the next 10 years. There will probably be some novelties in Germany, for example that court documents can finally be filed electronically, but that is something that is probably long overdue.Probably New York City, as I had the chance to spent one month during my studies as an intern at the office of a criminal defence attorney there. I really liked the city and I would love to be involved in a patent infringement action in the US, in particular to see and better understand how discovery proceedings work.Probably Steve Jobs . Although I currently dont use any Apple devices, I was always excited and impressed by the design and the functionality of the Apple devices, for example the probably already forgotten click wheel of the early iPods. I would like to discuss Steve Jobs remarkable career and what kept him motivated during all those years, in particular during the companys crisis at the end of the 1990s.It was an advice for legal writing from my mentor during my legal clerkship: use short sentences and simple language when writing legal documents. Once you are finished, read the text aloud. If possible, one sentence should not include more than two breathing spaces; otherwise there is a high likelihood that readers will not be able to immediately get the meaning of your sentence.See: The media harbour ( Medienhafen ). Do: Take the elevator to the viewing platform of the TV-tower ( Rheinturm ) located next to the Media Harbour to enjoy the sensational view of Dusseldorf from a height of about 166 meters.Drink: Try the different styles of top-fermented German dark beer ( Altbier ) in the various breweries in the Old City ( Altstadt ), where they also serve typical German food like sauerkraut and bratwurst.
Much of the discussion of these operations so far has focused on the implications for possible future clashes between the interests of Western powers and the interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Zinkes comments to Breitbart News elaborated upon that situation with harsh words for the Obama administration regarding a policy that some see as paving the way for a destabilizing Iranian influence in the broader Middle East.

In particular, Zinke was critical of the fact that the US is committing resources and manpower to the fight against the Islamic State, yet is moving toward an end result in which Irans presence is promoted at the expense of safeguarding American interests. Zinke explicitly accused the Obama administration of placating Tehran in this and other matters, and he argued that the US had left a power vacuum in post-occupation Iraq, which Iran rushed to fill.

The Breitbart report also indicates that the current landscape of conflict in Iraq includes approximately 50 Shiite militias, mostly affiliated with Iran. Mainstream estimates for the number of fighters in these groups ranges from 60,000 to 140,000, many of whom have access to tanks and other heavy weaponry. Such militias are part of the supporting infrastructure for Irans regional projects, which often appear to be aimed at the pursuit of hegemonic influence.

This goal is evident in Irans involvement in the fighting in Iraq and especially in Syria, where Tehran has refused to contemplate a negotiated solution that includes the removal of President Bashar al-Assad from power. But these two conflict zones are far from being the only notable spheres of Iranian influence or potential influence. A third regional civil war is raging in Yemen, where Iran has been accused not only of participating on the side of Shiite rebels, but also instigating their offensive in the first place.

Bahrain is yet another outlet for Irans hegemonic ambitions, and in this case those ambitions are expressed not through traditional warfare or influence over the existing government, but through the sponsorship of domestic terrorism by Shiite militant groups. In the past, Bahrain citizens have been arrested for bomb plots and the illicit stockpiling of arms, and they have been linked to the Iranian government or other Iran-backed terror groups.

On Wednesday, Reuters indicated that this is an ongoing situation, when it reported that Bahraini authorities had arrested 18 members of a secret cell advocating for violent revolt against the countrys government and making contacts with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah.

Competition with the Saudis

This situation in Bahrain is not only relevant to the conflict and competition between Iran and the US, which operates its Fifth Naval Fleet out of a base on the small island nation; it is also relevant to the persistent and apparently deepening conflict between Shiite Iran and its main Sunni rival in the region, Saudi Arabia. That is, Bahrain has long been recognized as an arena for competition between Iranian and Saudi influence.

Such regional influence is arguably more crucial than ever to both sides of that divide, since relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been especially strained in recent months. In fact, Riyadh severed diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic in January, after Iranian mobs sacked the Saudi embassy and consulate in response to the execution of a Saudi Shiite dissident cleric.

his breakdown in relations has had consequences for global politics and for the international oil market, which is still struggling to more fully recover from a drop in value to approximately 25 dollars per barrel last year. The conflict manifested itself over the past several weeks in discussions between OPEC and non-OPEC countries over a possible freeze in oil production. Iran refused to participate in any such freeze until such time as it had recovered its pre-sanctions oil output levels, leading the Saudis to cancel the agreement with other nations, thus keeping economic pressure on Iran during its would-be recovery.

On Wednesday, Gulf News reported that Iran had reiterated its refusal to participate in an output freeze. Mahdi Asali, Irans representative to OPEC said as much one day ahead of an OPEC meeting. He added, The issue of output rationing can be discussed after the market stabilizes. But this comes after Iran has already reportedly fulfilled its own criteria for participating in the freeze. That is, Iranian oil officials and many independent analysts have concluded that the country has raised its own output to about four million barrels per day, in line with its figures from before the imposition of large-scale economic sanctions.

Naturally, Saudi economic pressures on the Islamic Republic are aimed at counteracting this situation and preventing the Shiite powerhouse from having additional resources to bring to bear on its regional ambitions and its conflict with traditional enemies. Many critics of Iran, other than the Saudis, have expressed vivid concerns about the potential effects of both sanctions relief and expanded trade for Iranian oil and other commodities. These include concerns about the financing of Irans traditional military capabilities, as well as its alternative methods for extending its influence and competing with the US and its allies.

Real War and Soft War

The security and technology website OODA Loop commented upon one such alternative method in particular on Wednesday. It argued that the relief from US-led economic sanctions could help Iran to greatly improve its cyberespionage and cyberterrorism capabilities, at a time when it has already been devoting a great deal of effort and money to that same project.

The article finds that one billion dollars worth of investments were made in 2011 into the development of the countrys spying capabilities. In 2012, the regime claimed that it had hired some 120,000 new personnel for these same capabilities. Many of those capabilities are offensive in nature, posing a direct threat to the US as indicated by last months acknowledgement of breaches of a US dam and other infrastructure. But other capabilities relate simply to regional intelligence gathering and similar activities, thereby posing a more indirect threat to Western interests.

But in spite of these suggestions that sanctions relief has given a boost to Irans soft war with the US and actual warfare in the Middle East, it remains the case that the Islamic Republic is pushing for the US to better facilitate Western investment in Iranian markets, thereby accelerating its would-be recovery.

The Times of Israel reported on Wednesday that Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had once again commented on the supposed threat posed to international banks by outstanding US sanctions on Iran. A variety of Western businesses have expressed interest in investing in those markets but have also remained wary of the possibility of opening themselves up to sanctions relief or other consequences.

Although the Iranians have repeatedly blamed the US for this situation, various independent analysts have emphasized that it is in Irans power to remove the sanctions threat by changing its own behavior and demonstrating an end to money laundering and the sponsorship of terrorism. But the Islamic Republic has been slow not only in making these sorts of changes but also in taking even more straightforward steps to reengage with global transactions systems.

Although Iran was cleared for participation in the SWIFT system early this year, it was only on Wednesday that Emirates 24/7reported that an Iranian official actually acknowledged that the countrys central bank would be reentering the system. The tension between this inaction and the recurring complaints suggests that the Iranians may be using those complaints simply as part of an effort to gain greater international influence and greater concessions from the West, in line with Zinkes notion that the Obama administration has been prone to placating the Islamic Republic.
The Associated Press described this as an early victory for the moderate conservatives in the new parliament, the membership of which was determined by national elections in February and runoff elections for a handful of outstanding seats last month. However, Larijani had already been confirmed for his previous term as speaker under the previous parliament, the hardline dominance of which was supposedly broken by the most recent elections. Thus, his re-appointment can be just as easily interpreted as a victory for the status quo as for the moderate faction.

In fact, the notion of a noticeably more moderate makeup of the Iranian government has been hotly contested by staunch opponents of the Iranian regime, among them various members of the Republican Party in the United States and the Iranian resistance organization the National Council of Resistance of Iran. Their pessimistic view of Irans near-term political perspectives seem to have been given significant support in May when the Assembly of Experts, for which elections were also held in February, appointed one of the countrys most hardline, anti-Western clerics as head of the supervisory body.

The appointment of Ahmad Jannati suggested that when the Assembly selects a successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, it will likely select a similarly hardline cleric. In a broader sense, Jannatis ascent to the head of a body in which he only narrowly held onto his seat sent the symbolic message that the Iranian system is still firmly in the hands of the hardliners.

This general point was even acknowledged by the AP in the same article that described Larijanis confirmation as a victory for moderates. It pointed out that Irans theocratic system maintains severe restrictions on the ability of government officials to pursue or pass reformist legislation. In particular, the Guardian Council, on which Jannati is also one of 12 members, has the power to review and obstruct any parliamentary legislation if it is determined to be at odds with the Iranian constitution or the Councils fundamentalist interpretation of Islam.

Such facts may lead one to question the entire notion that moderate conservatives have gained any traction in the wake of the national elections. And indeed, that notion has been subject to serious questions and challenges in light of revelations about how the moderation narrative was shaped by the Obama administration and fed to a complicit or inexperienced media.

Various aspects of this so-called media echo chamber have been explored in recent weeks, with one recent topic of focus being the supposed collaboration between the Ploughshares Fund and media outlets like National Public Radio, which received its largess in the midst of the Western debate over the Iran nuclear deal.

On Wednesday, Hot Air quoted extensively from a document written by one NPR executive, which acknowledged that there was an appearance of impropriety in the relationship between the radio news outlet and Ploughshares. Although NPR maintains that this relationship did not rise to the level of creating biased reporting, the executive recommends that similar issue-specific financing be avoided in the future. Hot Air, meanwhile does not accept the claim that there was no real influence, but it focuses its analysis on the fact that NPR has admitted to the existence of a problem that had previously been denied outright.

Naturally, opponents of the nuclear deal feel that this problem runs quite deep. They tend to suggest that it has influenced lasting media narratives about prospects for moderation and has also helped to justify allegedly conciliatory policies that go hand-in-hand with the nuclear deal. An editorial that appeared in US News and World on Wednesday reiterated some such allegations, particularly emphasizing that the Obama administration appears to have made inadequate responses to Iranian human rights abuses and efforts to illicitly expand its military capabilities.

The editorial accuses the administration of being unwilling to take any action that would potential pose a threat to continued acceptance of the nuclear agreement, which technically can be cancelled by either side at any time. This same accusation has been repeated by many of the administrations critics, who argue that it is going too far in trying to facilitate Irans recovery while looking the other way on persistent misbehavior. Last week, for instance, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce told a hearing that Secretary of State John Kerry had been sending the message that investment in Iran is not only permitted but actually encouraged.

Along the same lines, the administration has reportedly encouraged state-level governments to suspend their own sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Such sanctions involve state pension accounts and other government investments that are beyond the reach of the federal government. And in light of the skepticism about the administrations posture toward Iran, a number of governors have specifically pushed back against the presidents urging.

The Houston Chroniclereported, for instance, that Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote a letter this week to his fellow governors throughout the US, urging them to maintain or strengthen the divestment of their funds away from companies that do business with Iran. Such recommendations can be expected to gain greater traction among less conservative states as more evidence accumulates to suggest that the administrations moderation narrative was erroneous or deceptive.

In addition to the latest developments in Iranian politics, there is a steady accumulation of human rights stories to help undermine that narrative. Some of these even have the benefit of being closely linked to US nationals, thus providing another source of motivation for American policymakers who disagree with the presidents position on Iran. For example, Christian Today reported on Wednesday upon the case of Iranian Christian convert Maryam Naghash Zargaram, who is currently on a hunger strike in Tehrans Evin Prison to call attention to her denial of medical treatment and visitation.

Christians are subject to frequent repression in Iran, but Zargarams case may attract unusual attention in the West because she is a friend and former colleague of Pastor Saeed Abedini, the Iranian-American dual national who was imprisoned for three and a half years for practicing his faith, before being released as part of a prisoner exchange coinciding with implementation of the nuclear deal.

The mistreatment of Abedinis associates may give support to the argument that that prisoner swap and other apparent compromises were only matters of political expediency and not indicative of a behavioral change toward moderation.
[June 01, 2016] Technavio Announces Top Three Trends for the Infectious Disease Treatment Market in China Through 2020

Technavio's latest infectious disease treatment market in China report highlights three key emerging trends predicted to impel market growth through 2020. Technavio defines an emerging trend as something that has potential for significant impact on the market and contributes to its growth or decline. There are 3,000-5,000 local drug manufacturers in China, generating sales of USD 5 million-USD 10 million annually, with approximately 70% of their revenue from the sales of drugs to tier 1 hospitals. Local companies develop cost-effective products to gain market shares. Healthcare reforms that aim to decrease the disparity between urban and rural access to healthcare provide huge opportunities for local manufacturers to increase their market presence in the region. "The anticipated approval of drugs is expected to fuel the market. Some drugs that are under review by the SFDA include oral IFN-free regimens such as Sovaldi and Harvoni. Combination therapies under clinical trials include ceftolozane and tazobactam therapy; raltegravir and lamivudine fixed-dose combination; and ritonavir, ombitasvir, and dasabuvir therapy," said Barath Palada, one of Technavio's lead industry analysts for infectious and rare diseases. Technavio's market research study identifies the following three emerging trends expected to propel the infectious disease treatment market in China: Increase in collaborations and M&A

Emergence of IFN-free therapies

Increase in injection drug users Increase in collaborations and M&A The infectious disease treatment market is growing rapidly in terms of collaborative agreements and M&A. The World Bank; and pharmaceutical companies and global health organizations are collaborating to control and altogether eliminate 10 neglected tropical diseases such as dracunculiasis, leprosy, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis, HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), tuberculosis and malaria by the end of 2020. These collaborations are intended to reduc the prevalence of infectious diseases, especially in developing and emerging countries such as China and India. M&As are intended to increase market penetration of the acquirer or enhance the product portfolio of the parent company. Since 2012, this region is witnessing many mergers that aid this cause. In April 2015, China Jo-Jo Drugstores announced that its subsidiary, Hangzhou Jiuzhou Grand Pharmacy Chain signed a new sales incentive agreement with Wyeth Pharmaceutical Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, in China. Industry experts from Technavio anticipate this trend to continue over the next four years.



Emergence of IFN-free therapies At present, hepatitis C treatment relies on the administration of IFN-based therapies in combination with ribavirin. Existing therapies are associated with side-effects such as anemia and leukopenia. Owing to this, researchers and vendors are focusing on developing DAAs with minimal side effects. These therapies are intended to be all-oral regimens. Once approved, they will have a positive effect on the market. For instance, Gilead Sciences is investigating Sovaldi, which received priority review approval for Hepatitis C. Sovaldi has achieved blockbuster status in other regions such as the US and the EU. In February 2014, Gilead Sciences submitted a new drug application (NDA) for the combination therapy of sofosbuvir and ledipasvir to the US FDA. The product is awaiting approval in China from regulatory bodies. The launch of these therapies is expected to significantly increase the sales of hepatitis drugs in China during the forecast period.

Increase in injection drug users Injection drug users purchase drugs in bulk and prepare them for consumption by multiple consumers. Sharing of injection equipment among drug users leads to the transmission of virus from infected drug users to non-infected ones. Misuse of prescription opioids has increased the risk of hepatitis transmission among drug users in China. Thus, increasing drug consumption among adolescents and the youth is increasing the prevalence of hepatitis among this population group, thereby necessitating treatment. Browse related reports: Global Human Vaccine Market 2016-2020

Global Antibody Drug Conjugates Market 2016-2020

Global Immunotherapy Drugs Market 2016-2020

Global Travel Vaccines Market 2015-2019 Purchase any three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact [email protected] with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform. About Technavio Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies. Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users. If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at [email protected]. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601005084/en/

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[June 01, 2016] CloudCodes SSO1 Brings Advance Security Controls for Cloud Applications Through SSO

PUNE, India, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CloudCodes, the cloud security startup, announces the availability of their next generation cloud security product SSO1. It is an advanced version of their existing product gControl. The SaaS based gControl helped to secure Google Apps customers whereas SSO1 provides support for multiple enterprise cloud applications. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160519/370063LOGO SSO1 is a Single Sign On(SSO) solution and supports out of the box integration with Google For Work. SSO1 can be integrated with organisation Active Directory or can act as an Identity Provider(IdP). The solution is designed group up keeping security in mind. The solutions provides the capabilities of IdP such as password management, self-password and multi-factor authentication(MFA). The MFA comes with support for biometric through a smartphone and OTP. Mostly all the advanced smartphones now available with support for fingerprint scan. SSO1 provides out-of-box support of anti-phishing control. The solution nables the administrator to restrict access to the login page based on the country or the IP address. This ensures that only internal users have access to the login page. This allows the administrator to control access to the applications from countries which are known for hacking or phishing attacks. The most important aspect of SSO1 is it out-of-box support for perimeter based security controls. The solution enables the administrator to control the access of the application based on the IP address, Geo Fencing, Time and Browser. This brings a tighter control based on compliance and regulatory requirements.



SSO1 supports integration with multiple cloud based applications. It uses the standard SAML based integration to integrate with the various cloud applications. Currently SSO1 supports integration with Google For Work, SalesForce, Zoho, DropBox and Freshdesk. The roadmap expects to cover most of the popular cloud applications within the next three months. Another important feature is mapping of multiple users to single account of the cloud application. The existing version which has been in the market for the last 3 years has around 259 active customers and around 100,000+ active users. The solution is used across industry verticals including banks, broking firms, manufacturing firm, logistics and so on. This new version will bring more security controls for organization who are adopting to the cloud. One of the key differentiator among its known competitor is the way SSO1 allows to on-board users at the time of roll-out of the solution. This is one of the important aspect as one of the big reason for failure of implementing is the overheads associated with the user on boarding process.

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/cloudcodes-sso1-brings-advance-security-controls-for-cloud-applications-through-sso-300272288.html SOURCE CloudCodes Software Private Limited

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[June 01, 2016] Denali Holding Inc. to Announce Fiscal 2017 Q1 Financial Results June 10, 2016

Denali Holding Inc. ("Denali" or "the Company") today announced it will release its Fiscal 2017 Q1 financial results for the three months ended April 29, 2016 on June 10, 2016. The Company today also reaffirmed its preliminary results for Fiscal 2017 Q1 initially released on May 13, 2016. The release of the Fiscal 2017 Q1 Financial Statements and results was moved to June 10, 2016 to align with financing activities related to the previously announced Dell/EMC transaction. The Company also will conduct a conference call for debt investors on June 10 at 11 a.m. CDT (News - Alert) to provide management's perspective and respond to questions with respect to the results. Call details will be provided at a later date to current and prospective qualified institutional debt investors who have been granted access to Dell (News - Alert) financial information, as well as to all holders of Dell's other debt securities, including Dell's unsecured senior notes. New prospective qualified institutional debt investors and holders of Dell's debt securities who wish to request access to the confidential conference call, or to Dell's financial information before or after the call, can do so at: www.dell.com/investors. On May 13, 2016, the Company released selected preliminary financial results for the three months ended April 29, 2016 in connection with the financing for its previously announced acquisition of EMC (News - Alert) Corporation. Preliminary non-GAAP net revenue and non-GAAP operating income of Denali were approximately $13.3 billion and $0.6 billion, respectively, for the three months ended April 29, 2016. Preliminary Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $0.7 billion for the three months ended April 29, 2016. The selected preliminary financial results presented were inclusive of the results of Dell Services. On March 27, 2016, Dell entered into a definitive agreement with NTT Data International L.L.C. to divest substantially all of Dell Services, including the Dell Services Federal Government business, for cash consideration of approximately $3.1 billion. The Company reaffirms the preliminary results and further adjusted the financial statement presentation in accordance with applicable accounting guidance to reflect the results on a continuing operations basis, which excludes Dell Services. The table below presents results from continuing operations of Denali Holding Inc. for the periods indicated.







Three Months Ended April 29, 2016 May 1, 2015 Change (in millions) Net revenue $ 12,534 $ 12,838 -2 % Operating income $ (161 ) $ (335 ) 52 % Non-GAAP net revenue $ 12,612 $ 12,985 -3 % Non-GAAP operating income $ 565 $ 412 37 % Adjusted EBITDA $ 659 $ 513 28 %

The table below provides a reconciliation of net revenue to non-GAAP net revenue, operating loss to non-GAAP operating income and operating loss to Adjusted EBITDA for the periods indicated. Three Months Ended April 29, 2016 May 1, 2015 (in millions) Net revenue $ 12,534 $ 12,838 Non-GAAP adjustments: Impact of purchase accounting 78 147 Non-GAAP net revenue $ 12,612 $ 12,985 Operating loss $ (161 ) $ (335 ) Non-GAAP adjustments: Impact of purchase accounting 107 180 Amortization of intangibles 527 529 Other corporate expenses 92 38 Non-GAAP operating income $ 565 $ 412 Three Months Ended April 29, 2016 May 1, 2015 (in millions) Operating loss $ (161 ) $ (335 ) Adjustments: Depreciation and amortization 660 663 Other corporate expenses 92 38 Impact of purchase accounting 68 147 Adjusted EBITDA $ 659 $ 513 Non-GAAP net revenue, non-GAAP operating income and Adjusted EBITDA (collectively "non-GAAP financial measures") are not measurements of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Non-GAAP financial measures exclude the impact of purchase accounting related to Dell's going-private transaction, amortization of intangibles, and other corporate expenses. Other corporate expenses primarily consist of stock based compensation expense, severance and facility action costs and acquisition, integration, and divestiture related costs. More information about Denali's use of non-GAAP financial information is provided in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Non-GAAP Financial Measures" for the fiscal year ended January 29, 2016 in Denali's S-4 Registration Statement. The selected financial data included here has been prepared by, and is the responsibility of, Denali's management. The assumptions and estimates underlying the estimated financial data are inherently uncertain and are subject to a wide variety of significant business, economic and competitive risks and uncertainties. See the section entitled "Risk Factors" in Denali's S-4 Registration Statement. About Denali Holding Inc. and Dell Inc. Dell Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Denali Holding Inc., listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com. Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains forward-looking statements, which reflect Denali Holding Inc.'s current expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by such forward-looking words as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "confidence," "may," "plan," "potential," "should," "will" and "would," or similar expressions. Factors or risks that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the results we anticipate include, but are not limited to: (i) the failure to consummate or delay in consummating the proposed transaction with EMC; (ii) the risk that a condition to closing of the proposed transaction may not be satisfied or that required financing for the proposed transaction may not be available or may be delayed; (iii) the risk that a regulatory approval that may be required for the proposed transaction is delayed, is not obtained, or is obtained subject to conditions that are not anticipated; (iv) risk as to the trading price of Class V Common Stock to be issued by Denali Holding Inc. in the proposed transaction relative to the trading price of shares of VMware, Inc. common stock; (v) the effect of the announcement of the proposed transaction on Denali Holding Inc.'s relationships with its customers, operating results and business generally; and (vi) adverse changes in general economic or market conditions. Denali Holding Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law. Additional Information and Where to Find It This communication does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and otherwise in accordance with applicable law. This communication is being made in respect of the proposed business combination transaction between EMC Corporation (News - Alert) and Denali Holding Inc. The proposed transaction will be submitted to the shareholders of EMC Corporation for their consideration. In connection with the issuance of Class V Common Stock of Denali Holding Inc. in the proposed transaction, Denali Holding Inc. has filed with the SEC (News - Alert) a Registration Statement on Form S-4 (File No. 333-208524) that included a preliminary proxy statement/prospectus regarding the proposed transaction and each of Denali Holding Inc. and EMC Corporation plans to file with the SEC other documents regarding the proposed transaction. After the registration statement has been declared effective by the SEC, a definitive proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed to each EMC Corporation shareholder entitled to vote at the special meeting in connection with the proposed transaction. INVESTORS ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE TRANSACTION FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY IF AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. Investors may obtain copies of the proxy statement/prospectus (when available) and all other documents filed with the SEC regarding the proposed transaction, free of charge, at the SEC's website (http://www.sec.gov) or from Denali Holding Inc.'s website (http://www.dell.com/futurereadydell). Participants in the Solicitation Denali Holding Inc. and certain of its directors, officers and employees may participate in the solicitation of proxies from EMC Corporation shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction without additional compensation. Additional information regarding the persons who may, under the rules of the SEC, participate in the solicitation of EMC Corporation shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction and a description of their direct and indirect interest, by security holdings or otherwise, is set forth in the proxy statement/prospectus filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601006942/en/

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[June 02, 2016] French Provider Lasotel Builds Data Center Interconnect Network with Ekinops

French telecom provider and data center operator Lasotel has completed a data center interconnection project using equipment from Ekinops to allow for a smooth upgrade to 100G per second and to 200G in the future. Lasotel, based in the Lyon area, provides integrated telecom solutions, such as fixed telephony installations, connectivity, and hosting, to professional customers. Founded in 2004, its mission is to support its client organizations' telecom projects by developing technically advanced solutions. With more than 12 points of presence in its operational territory, Lasotel's network can offer high-bandwidth services to more than 6,500 companies and organizations. The company was seeking a reliable, competitively-priced, and future-proof solution for its data center in Lyon, so that it could serve a key customer, La Carsat, a French retirement fund and health-at-work organization. Lasotel was looking for an optical networking solution that would allow it to add capacity as needed. It also wanted equipment that would be delivered quickly and that would be easy to install by its own technicians. Lasotel chose Ekinops (News - Alert) for those reasons as well as for the technology advantages of the Ekinops platform. Those advantages include low latency, compatibility with a mix of dual-fiber and single-fiber links and existing passive multiplexers, a flexible and multiprotocol platform, and the ability to span both metro an long distance applications.



"Deployment of the equipment went very smoothly, thanks to the support from Ekinops. Despite a very tight implementation schedule, Ekinops shipped the equipment in record time and provided us with all the required technical information and installation documentation, which allowed us to deliver on time this mission critical infrastructure to our customer," said Sylvain Charron, founder and CEO of Lasotel. "Our team was able to thoroughly prepare for the installation and insure that it was completed quickly and efficiently." The new equipment provides a foundation for future growth in bandwidth but also delivered immediate improvements.

"We are very happy for the opportunity to assist Lasotel with their data center interconnection project," said Jonathan Amir, VP EMEA Sales of Ekinops. "Our DCI solution was designed specifically for such applications, with tremendous capacity in a compact platform and very low power consumption, which is critical for data center efficiency." About Lasotel The operator expands its network infrastructure in areas of strategic activities and is in the telecoms landscape as a proximity operator. For several years, Lasotel has provided local companies alternatives to national operators, while maintaining competitive offers on the market. Visit http://www.lasotel.fr/. About Ekinops Ekinops is a leading supplier of next generation optical transport equipment for telecommunications service providers. The Ekinops 360 addresses Metro, Regional, and Long-Haul applications with a single, highly-integrated platform. Ekinops is a market-leading innovator in 100G transport with a coherent line of products that truly optimizes optical networks and comes in 1RU, 2RU or 7RU chassis. The Ekinops 360 relies on the highly-programmable Ekinops T-Chip (Transport-on-a-Chip) architecture that enables fast, flexible and cost-effective delivery of new services for high-speed, high-capacity transport. Using the Ekinops 360 carrier-grade system, operators can simply increase capacity of their networks - CWDM, DWDM, Ethernet, ESCON, Fibre Channel, SONET/SDH, and uncompressed video (HD-SDI, SD-SDI, ASI). Ekinops is headquartered in Lannion, France, and Ekinops Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary, is incorporated in the USA. For more information, visit www.ekinops.net. Mnemonic code: EKI

Number of shares: 5,796,827 View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601005143/en/

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[June 02, 2016] ManageEngine Announces Support for NoSQL Solutions From Apache, Oracle, SAP at the ManageEngine User Conference 2016

ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, today announced that Applications Manager, its application performance monitoring solution, now supports SAP (News - Alert) HANA, Apache HBase, Oracle NoSQL and Apache Solr. The move enables development and operations teams in enterprises to gain visibility into the performance of those NoSQL technologies as well as the business-critical applications connected to them. Click to tweet this news. ManageEngine (News - Alert) is demonstrating the latest capabilities of Applications Manager at the ManageEngine User Conference 2016, New Jersey, being held June 1-2, 2016, at the Hilton Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J. With the rise of big data, NoSQL technology has emerged as the de facto standard powering today's data-driven applications. NoSQL companies, traditional vendors with NoSQL implementations, and open source NoSQL projects have all been gaining traction to become critical components of application infrastructure in many organizations. However, these technologies can also increase the complexity of the applications they power, making it difficult for IT teams to manage them. "Many of our customers are investing in NoSQL data engines to cost-effectively build their information structure," said Dev Anand, director of product management at ManageEngine. "Our goal is to give them deep visibility into their NoSQL deployments, as well as the connected applications, from a single monitoring console. This makes it easier to manage overall application performance and helps businesses get more out of their NoSQL investments to support their big data initiatives." Proactive Monitoring and Troubleshooting for NoSQL Databases With Applications Manager, IT teams can now proactively monitor the performance of SAP HANA, Apache HBase and Oracle NoSQL databases as well as the Apache Solr search server and thereby ensure the performance of applications based on these technologies. The latest version of Applications Manager monitors the following: SAP HANA - key performance indicators (KPIs) including HANA services, memory and disk usage, schema details, replication and backup, workload, transactions, jobs, caches and alerts.

Apache HBase - KPIs related to HBase Master, Region servers, JVM metrics, memory usage thread details, and exceptions.

Oracle NoSQL - KPIs including memory usage, thread details, admin details, replicated nodes, and storage details.

Apache Solr - key attributes related to cores, cache, query handler, update handler, replication, JVM usage, memory, and thread details. Among its many benefits, the latest monitoring capabilities in Applications Manager help IT personnel: Get proactive notifications on a wide range of error conditions and faults. Detect and resolve performance problems quickly and keep business-critical applications up and running optimally.

Keep tabs on resource consumption to make sure important workloads do not experience resorce crunch. Plan capacity effectively to handle the ever-increasing size and complexity of data-driven applications.

Get more out of NoSQL investments and succeed in big data projects.



Pricing and Availability

Applications Manager 12.8 is available immediately with prices starting at $795 for up to 25 servers or applications. A free, fully functional, 30-day trial version is available at http://www.manageengine.com/products/applications_manager/download.html. Apache Solr support is available as a beta feature in Applications Manager 12.8. Users can sign up for beta testing at http://ow.ly/5tv7300N6ht. For more information about ManageEngine Applications Manager, please visit http://manageengine.com/apm. For more information about ManageEngine, please visit http://www.manageengine.com/; follow the company blog at http://blogs.manageengine.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ManageEngine and on Twitter (News - Alert) @ManageEngine. Related Applications Manager Resources Customer testimonials: http://ow.ly/64PJJ

Online demo: http://ow.ly/7evVt

Support resources: http://ow.ly/64PLc About ManageEngine Applications Manager ManageEngine Applications Manager is application performance monitoring software that helps businesses ensure high availability and performance for their business applications by ensuring servers and applications have high uptime. It comes with out-of-the-box support for 80+ application servers, servers, databases and transactions spanning physical, virtual and cloud infrastructures. For more information, please visit http://www.manageengine.com/apm. About ManageEngine ManageEngine delivers the real-time IT management tools that empower IT teams to meet organizational needs for real-time services and support. Worldwide, established and emerging enterprises - including more than 60 percent of the Fortune 500 - rely on ManageEngine products to ensure the optimal performance of their critical IT infrastructure, including networks, servers, applications, desktops and more. ManageEngine is a division of Zoho Corporation with offices worldwide, including the United States, India, Singapore, Japan and China. For more information, please visit http://www.manageengine.com/; follow the company blog at http://blogs.manageengine.com/, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ManageEngine and on Twitter @ManageEngine. ManageEngine is a trademark of Zoho (News - Alert) Corporation. All other brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Tags: ManageEngine, real-time IT, Zoho, Applications Manager, APM (News - Alert), application performance monitoring, NoSQL, SAP HANA, Apache HBase, Oracle NoSQL, Apache Solr, database management View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005348/en/

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[June 02, 2016] Bloomberg Announces the 2016 Bloomberg Technology Conference, Featuring Marc Andreessen, Yuri Milner, Bill Maris, Julie Larson-Green, Omid Kordestani, Andy Rubin and More Than 30 Technology Leaders

SAN FRANCISCO and NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Bloomberg today announced the Bloomberg Technology Conference, an annual gathering of global business leaders and tech influencers in San Francisco that explores the biggest issues impacting technology. This year's program will take place on Monday, June 13th and Tuesday, June 14th at the St. Regis Hotel and will focus on the advancements that inventors are making around the world and the inventions that are changing technology and society. Among the featured speakers are representatives of companies, institutions, CEOs and inventors who offer a global perspective and are striving to change business and society, such as Marc Andreessen of Andreessen Horowitz, venture capitalist Yuri Milner, Omid Kordestani of Twitter, GV's Bill Maris and Microsoft's Julie Larson-Green. Conference attendees will gain a better understanding of how to develop cultures of invention that will produce game-changing products, services and processes on an international scale. The conference is a centerpiece of Bloomberg's forthcoming global multi-platform technology initiative led by Brad Stone, Senior Executive Editor of Global Technology. Launching in fall 2016, Bloomberg Technology will leverage Bloomberg's unparalleled reach across the Bloomberg terminal, digital, print, television and radio platforms with the goal of becoming the world's most indispensable source of technology news and information. Stone and Emily Chang, anchor of "Bloomberg West," Bloomberg's weekday television show dedicated to technology, are editorial co-chairs of this year's conference. "With this year's Bloomberg Technology Conference we are aiming to cast a spotlight on inventors around the world and the people who help to usher their creations into existence," said Stone. "The conference is also part of our ongoing efforts to significantly expand Bloomberg's technology coverage in Silicon Valley and around the world, in advance of the fall launch of our multi-platform technology properties."

"The sold-out conference features speakers with an international agenda who will look beyond Silicon Valley to explore themes that impact global technology at large," said Stacy Kennedy, Global General Manager of Bloomberg LIVE. "We'll be arming conference delegates with actionable insight into technology trends around the world in a way that only Bloomberg, with its global resources and perspective, can do."

To open the program, Monday's dinner will feature back-to back fireside chats with global technology investor Yuri Milner and Twitter executive chairman Omid Kordestani. Speakers at the main event on Tuesday include Andreessen Horowitz co-founder and general partner Marc Andreessen, GV CEO Bill Maris, Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office Michelle Lee, Uber Chief Product Officer Jeff Holden, Intel EVP and general manager of Intel's Data Center Group Diane Bryant, Samsung president and Chief Strategy Officer Young Sohn, and more. The program will feature many voices from outside Silicon Valleylike Start-up Nation's Inbal Arieli from Israel, China Renaissance CEO Fan Bao, Wantedly founder and CEO Akiko Naka, who is based in Japan, and Firmenich Chief Research Officer Genevieve Berger from Switzerland all of whom will share their perspectives on the opportunities that innovating beyond U.S. borders allow. This multi-platform initiative includes Bloomberg Businessweek's annual global technology issue, available on newsstands on Friday, June 10th, which will venture far outside the well-trodden environs of Silicon Valley to uncover the inventors and inventions that are poised to change the world. Complementing the issue will be a custom feature experience on Bloomberg.com. Additionally, a special sneak preview of an upcoming episode of Bloomberg's new technology and travel digital video and television show, "Hello World" with host Ashlee Vance, will debut at the event. "Bloomberg West" on Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Radio, will broadcast live from the conference, covering the subject of invention throughout the day, simulcasting select sessions and conducting interviews with key speakers. Full list of speakers:







- Shahar Abuhazira, CEO, Roboteam North America - Marc Andreessen, Co-founder & General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz - Inbal Arieli, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships, Start-Up Nation Central - Tom Arseneault, COO, BAE Systems - Fan Bao, CEO, China Renaissance - Genevieve Berger, Chief Research Officer, Firmenich - Roelof Botha, Partner, Sequoia Capital - Diane Bryant, EVP & General Manager, Data Center Group, Intel - William Chappell, Director, Microsystems Technology Office, DARPA - James G.P. Dehlsen, Chairman, Aquantis - Helmy Eltoukhy, Co-founder and CEO, Guardant Health - Jennifer Fonstad, Co-founder, Aspect Ventures - Pat Gelsinger, CEO, Vmware - Jeff Holden, Chief Product Officer, Uber - Drew Houston, Co-founder & CEO, Dropbox - Steve Jurvetson, Partner, DFJ - Omid Kordestani, Executive Chairman, Twitter - Julie Larson-Green, Chief Experience Officer, Office Experience Organization, Microsoft - Tessa Lau, Chief Robot Whisperer, Savioke - Michelle K. Lee, Undersecretary Commerce for Intellectual Property, United States Patent and Trademark Office - John Lepore, SVP, R&D Pipeline, GlaxoSmithKline - Bill Maris, CEO, GV - Will Marshall, Co-founder & CEO, Planet Labs - Yuri Milner, Founder, DST Global - Nathan Myhrvold, Founder & CEO, Intellectual Ventures - Akiko Naka, Founder & CEO, Wantedly - Wendy Roberts, Founder & CEO, Five Elements Robotics - Donald Rosenberg, EVP, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Qualcomm - Andy Rubin, Founder & CEO, Playground - Jay Simons, President, Altassian - Young Sohn, President & Chief Strategy Officer, Samsung Electronics - Stephanie Tilenius, CEO and Co-founder, Vida Health - Melonee Wise, CEO, Fetch

The Bloomberg Technology Conference is sponsored by PowerShares QQQ, Deloitte and Qualcomm. To learn more about the Bloomberg Technology Conference  the speakers, agenda, and partners  and to request an invitation, please visit bloomberglive.com/tech/. About Bloomberg

Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company's strength  delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately  is at the core of the Bloomberg Professional service, which provides real time financial information to more than 325,000 subscribers globally. For more information, visit www.bloomberg.com or request a demo. Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, is an investor in Andreessen Horowitz. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bloomberg-announces-the-2016-bloomberg-technology-conference-featuring-marc-andreessen-yuri-milner-bill-maris-julie-larson-green-omid-kordestani-andy-rubin-and-more-than-30-technology-leaders-300278695.html SOURCE Bloomberg

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[June 02, 2016] ShootATweet.com Turns Gunshots Into Tweets to Congress

LOS ANGELES, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today is Gun Violence Prevention Dayit is also the launch of a new tool for voters to have their voices heard on Capitol HillShootATweet.com. Created by Award-Winning Creative Director Carl Corbitt and developed and produced by Left Field Labs, ShootATweet.com turns news reports collected by the Gun Violence Archive into tweets to members of Congress so constituents can automatically share the news of every gun-related death with their elected officials along with a message prompting them to take action.



"The daily effect of gun violence is always eclipsed by the horrific tragedies of mass-shootings. Yesterday every news network had cameras on UCLA, but even these events never stay top-of-mind for long for most lawmakers. ShootATweet aims to let the daily death toll speak for itself," explains Corbitt. Corbitt began work on ShootATweet late last year after People Magazine published the contact information of every member of Congress following the mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon. Corbitt explains, "The goal was to find a simple way for people to reach out to Congress after every shooting, not just those covered by National media."

While some consider automated Twitter messages SPAM, Corbitt disagrees, "I don't believe a voter's opinion is junk mail. So while the gun lobby spends Millions to be heard by Congress, we're using technology to help ordinary citizens be heard too." Akash Khokha, COO and Partner at Left Field Labs and his team joined the effort at the first of the year. "Our company creates innovative ways for technology to serve humanity. We couldn't think of a better use of our skills than to help voters instantly share news of the gun violence in their communities with their elected officials in Washington," explains Khokha. ShootATweet.com is owned by Shoot A Tweet Inc. a 501(c)(4) organization focused on promoting and facilitating the dialogue between voters and their elected officials about news of gun violence in their area. Left Field Labs is a company founded with the understanding that technology is pushing humanity towards a new era of art, culture, and commerce. We approach our work not only to achieve a business goal, but as a way to bring technology more into harmony with the human experience. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374647-INFO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shootatweetcom-turns-gunshots-into-tweets-to-congress-300278445.html SOURCE ShootATweet

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Premier Laser and Opto-Electronics Event-CLEO:2016-Draws World-Renowned Scientists, Academics and Cutting-Edge Technology & Applications to Silicon Valley

The Optical Society:







About CLEO

With a distinguished history as the industry's leading event on laser science, the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) is the premier international forum for scientific and technical optics, uniting the fields of lasers and opto-electronics by bringing together all aspects of laser technology, from basic research to industry applications. CLEO: Expo showcases the latest products and applications from more than 300 participating companies, providing hands-on demonstrations of the latest market innovations and applications. The Expo also offers valuable on-floor programming, including Market Focus and the Technology Transfer programs.

Managed by The Optical Society (OSA) and sponsored by the American Physical Society's Laser Science Division, IEEE (News - Alert) Photonics Society and OSA, CLEO provides the full range of critical developments in the field, showcasing the most significant milestones from laboratory to marketplace. With an unparalleled breadth and depth of coverage, CLEO connects all of the critical vertical markets in lasers and electro-optics. For more information, visit the event website at cleoconference.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005152/en/
[June 02, 2016] OneTwoTrade Puts Customer Security First

MRIEHEL, Malta, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Customers in the online financial trading industry are justifiably anxious about their personal financial security. In today's world of online hacks, phishing scams, and Trojan horse viruses, everyone should take care of their internet security. Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374828 OneTwoTrade practices information technology and security with the utmost seriousness. The company rightly sees its clients as the center of its business, and takes care to protect them on the technical side of every business transaction. Customer accounts are well protected. The protection starts with advanced SSL (secure socket layer) encryption on all company computers and servers. All customer information is stored on encrypted servers, and hidden behind multi-layer security firewalls, all monitored and analyzed by an IT operations center. This level of protection is designed to protect customers' confidential inormation from hacking, scamming, and phishing attacks. The security precautions taken in the company information technology environment are compatible with ISO/IEC 20000 information technology security standards.



The nature of OneTwoTrade's business necessitates frequent use of various telecommunications technology for customer contact. All telecom contacts  by phone, email, or live chat, operate under restrictive security policies to maintain privacy. Every customer interaction is conducted via high secured connections, which include 2048 bit RSA private key exchanges, a level of protection that meets today's industry standards. All data channels are fully encoded internally, as well from the business to the client, including all routed servers in between. All phone calls are transmitted through self-dedicated point-to-point tunneling, a technology that permits zero break-ins.

OneTwoTrade is considered completely safe by today's industry standards for internet and telecom online security. The company adheres to similar high standards for financial institutions and government facilities regarding online security. The company's data archiving techniques also include a set of Disaster Recovery Plans, for what insurance companies would call an "act of God." With OneTwoTrade, customers can rest assured that their data, and their financial transactions, are safe and secure. It's a company promise to the customer, and one that OneTwoTrade is proud to keep. 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/onetwotrade-puts-customer-security-first-300278983.html SOURCE OneTwoTrade

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After commander calls on his comrades to join him as he marches in the streets in Tel Aviv, soldiers prepare pride t-shirts and rally behind him; \It was a natural thing to come and march with him.\

Dozens of reserve soldiers from the IDFs armored corps (Totchanim) have decided participate in a different kind of march to what they are used to in the military. On Thursday, they will express their solidarity with the gay community in Israel by joining their friend, Lt. Omer Nachmani (Res.)  as he marches in the streets of Tel Aviv during the Gay Pride Parade.

Since he came out of the closet at age 19, Omer Nachmani (26) has sought to strengthen the rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community (LGBT). A few days ago I suggested on WatsApp to my friends in the battalion to come and march with me at the Gay Pride Parade and they rose to the occasion, Nachmani said. There was a big response. Many friends said that they wanted to to come and express their solidarity. They even prepared t-shirts for everyone.

Among those who will be supporting Nachmani is the reservist battalion commander Lt. Col. Eitam Berger (36) who was the first to answer the call. Omer posted a message on WatsApp and suggested that we come and join him. From my point of view, it was a natural thing to come and march with him, Berger explained. I believe that as a battalion commander, I have the ability to influence combat soldiers not only on the battlefield but also when it comes to social values which are very important for us as a society.

Despite the openness which he felt during his military service, Nachmani is convinced that there is still work to be done for the advancement of equal rights and expunging prejudice from society.

This subject is still very much macho-oriented and stuck in its ways. There are still many soldiers who are afraid of expressing their sexual predispositions because they fear that they will be considered less of a man, Nachmani contended.
MATTOON (JG-TC) -- Officers with the Mattoon Police Department made three arrests for driving under the influence during recent stepped-up patrols centered around Memorial Day.

The patrols were part of the statewide Click It or Ticket mobilization organized by the Illinois State Police and Illinois Department of Transportation. The campaign ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week May 16-30, cracking down on seat belt law violators and impaired drivers in an effort to make Illinois roadways safer.

In addition to the three DUI arrests, Mattoon officers also issued six citations for seat belt violations and four citations for uninsured motorists during the campaign.

These numbers are more than statistics, Mattoon police Capt. Ray Hall said in a press release. They offer hard evidence that some people still choose to practice unsafe driving behaviors.

IDOT data shows that between 2010 and 2014, 3,075 people riding in vehicles died in crashes. A total of 1,492 (about 48 percent) of those motorists were properly buckled. That means more than 50 percent of those who died in crashes during this time frame were not properly buckled.

Even though the Click It or Ticket mobilization has ended, officers enforce seat belt laws year round. Illinois law also requires children to be properly restrained at all times while being driven. Child passengers must ride in a car seat or booster seat until age 8, and passengers under 13 years old should ride in the back seat.
Cabela's has found an as-yet unidentified buyer for its credit card operation based in Lincoln, according to a report.

The New York Post, citing three anonymous sources, reported Thursday that the Sidney-based outdoors retailer has an agreement to sell its World's Foremost Bank to an unnamed buyer.

According to the Post, the deal is contingent on the sale of the retail part of the business and would be formalized at the same time such a deal is struck.

The newspaper said the team of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Bass Pro Shops remains the favorite to buy the company, which has a market value of about $3.3 billion.

But it said there also has been interest from KKR & Co., a large private equity firm. According to the Post, final bids for Cabela's are due by the end of June.

What effect a sale of the chain's credit card operation would have on Lincoln is unknown.

About 700 people work at the Cabela's office at 4800 N.W. First St., including more than 500 involved in the credit card operation.

Experts have said a separate sale of the credit card operation could be positive or negative for the Lincoln operation depending on who the buyer is, although one expert said a sale to a financial institution could mean job cuts in Lincoln.

Cabela's said in December it was working with investment bank Guggenheim Securities LLC to explore strategic alternatives including a sale.

The company has been under pressure since late October, when Elliott Management announced it had amassed an 11.1 percent stake in the company. Elliott is an activist hedge fund known for forcing changes at the companies in which it invests.

Cabela's did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday afternoon.
LONDON -- Sitting on the sun-dappled terrace of the House of Lords, watching the Thames flow, Lord Nigel Lawson explains that the June 23 referendum, which he hopes will withdraw Britain from the European Union, was never supposed to happen.

Going into the 2014 general election, Prime Minister David Cameron, heading a coalition government with Liberal Democrats, placated anti-EU Conservatives by promising a referendum on the EU membership. He expected that another close election would leave him again heading a coalition, and that he would be able to say, truthfully, that his pro-EU Liberal Democrat partners would block a referendum. But his Conservative Party won a large parliamentary majority, inconveniently liberating Cameron from the constraints of a coalition and leaving him with an awkward promise to keep.

Full of years, 84 of them, and fight, Lawson has spent 42 years on the Thames embankment, as a member of both houses. He is impatient with the proposition that it is progress to transfer to supra-national institutions decision-making that belongs in Britain's Parliament.

Cameron says leaving the EU is unnecessary because Britain has rejected membership in the eurozone currency and is not bound by the EU's open borders policy. Advocates of "Brexit" reply that if the common currency and open borders, both crucial attributes of the EU, are defects, why remain?

Cameron says leaving the EU would be imprudent for security reasons. Wielding the fallacy of the false alternative, he says those who favor leaving the EU favor "going it alone" and "isolationism." They respond that Britain out of the EU would remain Europe's foremost military power. When Cameron recalls "war in the Balkans and genocide on our continent in Srebrenica," Leave advocates note that the EU had nothing to do with suppressing this, which fell to NATO and especially the United States, neither of which would be diminished by Britain leaving the EU.

Cameron invokes "the serried rows of white headstones" on British graves in military cemeteries on the continent as a "silent testament to the price that this country has paid to help restore peace and order in Europe." Historian Andrew Roberts tartly responds that the British war dead "fought for British independence and sovereignty, not for European unification."

The Remain camp correctly says that Britain is richer and more rationally governed than when European unification began. The Leave camp, however, correctly responds that this is largely in spite of the EU -- it is because of decisions made by British governments, particularly Margaret Thatcher's, in what is becoming a shrinking sphere of national autonomy.

In 1988, Thatcher said: "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them reimposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels." Stressing Britain's European credentials, she also said "our maps still trace the straight lines of the roads the Romans built." But today's Leavers, who carry the torch of Thatcherism, do not favor straight lines drawn by foreigners. They prefer G.K. Chesterton's celebration of spontaneous, unplanned cultural particularities:

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,

The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.

In politics, sensibility is prior to and inseparable from philosophy. The referendum will record, among other things, the strength of the revulsion many people here feel about a multiculturalism that celebrates every permutation of identity -- except that of nationality. This is a trans-Atlantic revulsion.

What Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an Irish-American and Anglophile, called "the liberal expectancy" is the belief that the rise of reason and science would mean the waning of pre-modern forces such as religion, ethnicity and even nationality, which would be regarded as an anachronistic tribalism. British voters, who may be as weary as many Americans are of constantly being told that they cannot "turn back the clock," and that history's centralizing ratchet has clicked irreversibly too many times, might soon say otherwise.
The Super Saver at 27th Street and Pine Lake Road will be a location for Midwest Lemonade Days, a fundraiser for Alex's Lemonade Stand.

On Friday and Saturday, there will be a lemonade stand set up inside the Super Saver with beverages and snacks available. Those who donate will be entered into a drawing for donated items.

Shades the Clown will be on hand from 4-6 p.m. on Friday and 1-4 p.m. on Saturday.

Alexs Lemonade Stand, a national nonprofit that raises money for Pediatric Cancer Research, hopes to bring in $100,000 in weekend events across the Midwest.

Former Husker and current Kansas City Royals player Alex Gordon was Alex's Lemonade Stand volunteer of the year for his support of the foundation founded by Alexandra Alex Scott.

More at alexslemonade.org.
Elizabeth MacLeod Walls grew up at Nebraska Wesleyan University, wandering the halls of Old Main and creeping into the scary basement while her father taught King Lear to English students upstairs.

Those early years in the narrow hallways of Nebraska Wesleyan's oldest building are only part of the relationship MacLeod Walls has had with the university over the last four decades.

As the dean of the schools University College since 2012, she has had the opportunity to influence Wesleyan's growth, particularly in its offerings to adult and graduate students.

When I think of Lincoln, I think of Nebraska Wesleyan, MacLeod Walls said. Its a special place not just for me and my family, but for Lincoln.

Before returning to NWU, MacLeod Walls taught English like her parents, Roger and Anne Cognard, later joining the Bryan College of Health Sciences as the director of institutional effectiveness, dean, interim president and then president.

During her second stint at Nebraska Wesleyan, MacLeod Walls helped create a growing catalog of master's courses in business administration, nursing and education, and offerings for nontraditional students.

MacLeod Walls will take those lessons to William Jewell College, a similarly-sized school in Liberty, Missouri, where she was announced as president in February.

Its in the suburbs of Kansas City she hopes to continue pushing the boundaries of liberal arts education, which she described as transformative.

It helps people to become self-aware as citizens, as critical thinkers, as professionals and in the community, MacLeod Walls said. I think William Jewell is taking that notion and pivoting toward the future, making liberal arts relevant to the contemporary world.

When she arrives with husband, Craig, and sons Alec and John, MacLeod Walls, 42, will also become one of the youngest college presidents in the country.

According to a 2012 study by the American Council on Education, the average age of college presidents in the 1980s was 52. Two decades later, the average age of top college leaders had risen to 61.

Many explanations for the rise in average age of college presidents are cited, including the complexity of higher education, a broadening set of responsibilities -- fundraising, strategic planning, budgeting -- and serving a growing group of constituents.

MacLeod Walls said she believes there is a handoff occurring across higher education, with one generation of administrators retiring to make way for a younger generation of leaders.

I think we are seeing that baton passed, and Im grateful to be part of a larger movement of this generations collegiate leaders, she said.

When she steps onto William Jewells campus in July, MacLeod Walls will spend a month working in concert with David Sallee, the current president, who has been at the helm of the college through a period of significant transformation.

Sallee was president in 2003, as student leaders considered adding sexual orientation to the schools anti-discrimination clause within its Student Bill of Rights.

The Missouri Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee pressured school leaders to intervene in the vote, accusing the college of advancing a homosexual agenda.

Thats when Sallee stood up to the convention, a group the college had had ties with since it opened its doors in 1849, saying it would vigorously defend both the way we do our work and the systems of governance under which we operate.

The convention cut ties with William Jewell in 2003, taking roughly $1 million in annual funding with it, but allowing the college to expand other policies that would not have been allowed under the grip of the religious organization.

He essentially reinvented their brand while staying loyal to the liberal arts education, she said. Ive had the great joy of being able to learn from him since February, and Ill be working with him through July, which says so much about who he is.

Despite losing the funding from the Southern Baptist Convention, MacLeod Walls said Sallee is also a big driver behind Jewellverse, an initiative that gave every student and faculty member an iPad -- an idea that changes how the liberal arts education is delivered.

Beyond supplying the hardware only, they have matched it with innovative pedagogy, allowing faculty to take old teaching practices, turn them on their ear and enhance learning, MacLeod Walls said.

Speaking with teachers who have been a part of the Jewellverse since 2014, MacLeod Walls said she has learned the program challenges faculty as well as students, with one faculty member telling her it challenged her as an educator in a way she hadnt been challenged in a long time.

Its pushing us to think and communicate in new ways, which is what the liberal arts should always do, she added. Liberal arts needs to keep pace with what the culture is demanding and needing in the 21st century.

Leaving Nebraska Wesleyan, where MacLeod Walls spent much of her youth and a large portion of her career, is bittersweet. But she feels that despite the distance and their differences, there are connections between the two institutions.

I feel like this is a natural next step, she said. The whole point is to support students in their journey, and Ive had a wonderful model at Nebraska Wesleyan for supporting students as they have a transformative experience.

Now, I have the chance to take it to another outstanding context.
The family of a Lincoln man with a rare type of cancer is asking the community to help pay for his medical costs.

A fundraiser for Anderson Andy Carter, 69, who has liver, lung and heart cancer, is planned for 4-9 p.m. Sunday at The Garage, 5551 S. 48th St.

There will be live music and a DJ and the family is requesting a $5 donation. The family will also sell baked goods, T-shirts, ribbons and bracelets.

Andy's wife, Kathleen, described him as a loving father, grandfather, great-grandfather and a Vietnam War veteran.

Hes very caring and very loving, she said.

Before he got sick, he most recently had worked in the construction field. He's receiving hospice care.

In addition to raising funds, Kathleen said she wants the event to bring awareness to heart cancer, which she said is rarely caught before an autopsy.

We didnt fall through the ground when we heard he had lung and liver cancer because weve heard of those in our world, but when they said heart, we hadnt heard anything about that on TV or newspapers or anything, she said.

The Carters are also having a garage sale July 15-17, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. People who want to donate items to sell can contact Misty Springer, Andy's daughter, at 402-937-3673.
SYRACUSE -- Doctors have given physicals, fixed broken bones and healed sick neighbors in a squat red-brick building near the Syracuse Country Club for more than six decades.

But not for much longer. The Community Memorial Hospital has outgrown its home and is looking to construct a new $29.55 million building just north of Nebraska 2, near Stutheit Implement Co.

Were really excited about it. It gives the organization the ability to grow well into the future and helps ensure that health care will be available locally for generations to come, Michael Harvey, the hospitals president and CEO, said during an interview in his modest office.

While many rural hospitals across America have hit hard times -- 74 have closed in the United States since 2010 -- business in Syracuse is growing. The number of hospital employees, both full- and part-time, has gone from 78 in 2007 to 120.

Total revenue also is up, from $6.6 million in 2007 to an expected $15.1 million in the fiscal year ending later this month.

Syracuse, population 1,942 in 2010, has grown steadily since 1920, according to U.S. Census data. That coupled with the towns proximity to two metro areas -- south of Omaha and east of Lincoln -- has helped the hospital grow and to attract staff, an area many rural facilities struggle with, Harvey said.

Thats in spite of many constraints, such as an ambulance bay that is too low for modern ambulances to enter, patient bathrooms too small to comply with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, a leaky roof, an emergency room with room for two patients and an undersized operating room.

The way the hospital delivers services also has changed in the past 64 years. Long stays are less frequent, and now 90 percent of its business is from outpatient services such as diagnostic testing, wellness checkups, physical therapy and rehabilitation.

The move, Harvey said, is about efficiency and the ability to grow for the next 20 to 30 years.

The current building, built in 1952, has been added onto multiple times, creating an inefficient layout.

The administration investigated renovating the existing building but found that $8 million to $9 million wouldn't be enough to meet all of the needs. Ceilings would still be too low to accommodate wiring for new technology, workspace would still be cramped, patients would still lack adequate privacy and the building would still be landlocked.

Faced with that reality, the hospitals administration and board of directors began looking at the possibility of a new home.

The new building is still in the design stage, but a needs assessment by architectural and engineering firm Leo A. Daly of Omaha calls for a single-level building with 60,000 to 65,000 square feet of space on about 15 acres. That includes a 45,000-square-foot hospital with an additional 20,000 square feet for the medical clinic and administrative space.

Syracuse Mayor Tomas Ortiz supports the move, but initially had some questions, including what will happen with the old building and whether it would cost city taxpayers. Both concerns have been allayed, he said.

The old building will be put up for sale. If it doesnt sell, itll be demolished.

The hospital plans to fund construction of the new building with $2.55 million of its own money and two low-interest USDA Rural Development loans totaling $27 million that will be repaid with hospital revenue. The breakdown includes a 40-year loan of $25 million and a 2-year-loan of $2 million.
PINE RIDGE, S.D.  The bodies of three men reported missing from the Pine Ridge Reservation in early May were found last week in a wrecked car by volunteer searchers.

The volunteers found them on May 23 after following tire tracks that went beyond a repaired roadside fence.

Oglala Sioux Tribe spokesman Kevin Yellow Bird Steele said the bodies of Juan LaMont, 24, Tevin Tyon, 21, and Tyrell Wilson, 23, were found in a 2006 Buick Lacrosse in a steep ravine near White River.

The men were last seen May 7, and Steele declared an emergency and offered a $50,000 reward. More than 200 volunteers joined tribal and federal personnel to look for the Oglala Lakota men on foot, riding all-terrain vehicles and on horseback and in aircraft and SUVs.

"The search is over and we now have some answers, but I am deeply saddened with the outcome," Steele said in a statement. "The loss of these young lives is distressing and my prayers go out to their family members.

The men told a friend they were going for a ride in the country, according to LaMont's mother, Stepheny. Tribe Emergency Manager Marei Kingi said they might have been heading to a reservation casino.

A fourth man, Alexander Tank Vasquez, of Kyle, South Dakota, has been missing since Oct. 29. A $25,000 reward is offered for information leading to his location or return.
KENOSHA  A former Kenosha Police Department officer and Racine resident who admitted to planting evidence in a 2014 homicide case wont have to serve a day in prison  as long as he abides by the rules of his probation over the next year.

On Wednesday in Kenosha County Circuit Court, Judge Chad Kerkman sentenced Kyle Baars to two years imprisonment  one year in prison, and one year on extended supervision  for the felony offense, but stayed the sentence, placing Baars on probation for one year. Baars must complete 80 hours of community service as a condition of the probation.

Baars, 29, pleaded guilty on March 14 to misconduct in public office after testifying during the homicide trial of Joseph-Jamal Brantley that he planted a .22-caliber bullet and an identification card belonging to Brantleys co-defendant, Markese Tibbs, at an apartment being searched during the investigation into the fatal shooting of Anthony M. Edwards.

During his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, both Baars and his attorney, Mark Richards, intimated that assurances had been made that Baars would not be prosecuted for misconduct as long as he resigned from the Kenosha Police Department; he bemoaned that such promises had not been kept.

To be honest, I feel like I have been penalized further for doing the right thing, Baars said.

Richards said Baars could have not testified in the case but did the right thing, hoping the state would do the right thing.

Obviously it didnt work out that way, Richards said.

No passing the buck

Kerkman took issue with those complaints.

You seem to be blaming others. You seem to be blaming (Kenosha County District Attorney Robert) Zapf; perhaps blaming union leaders, the Police Department, but you are the person who put yourself in that seat right now. District Attorney Zapf did not; you did, Kerkman said, adding that any claim that Zapf had promised Baars he wouldnt be prosecuted was hearsay.

Despite those qualms, Kerkman stated that probation was an appropriate sentence for the crime, noting that Baars came forward on his own and admitted to the evidence planting.

Baars had been facing up to 3 years imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine for the crime. Prosecuting attorney James Martin, who appeared for the Kenosha County District Attorneys Office, did not make a sentencing recommendation. He praised Baars for coming forward, while also noting that the defendants actions could have jeopardized the murder case.

Baars resigned from the police force in January 2015 and was charged on May 11, 2015 in connection with the evidence planting. In addition to the felony misconduct charge, he was also charged with obstructing an officer. That charge was dismissed and read in during his March plea hearing.

Both Tibbs and Brantley are serving prison sentences in connection with Edwards murder.
JANESVILLE  Ending weeks of speculation, House Speaker Paul Ryan finally did Thursday what many expected him to do: endorse Donald Trump.

In a column posted on the website of the Janesville Gazette, Ryans hometown newspaper, Ryan said he feels confident the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would help turn ideas in the House policy agenda into laws to help improve peoples lives.

Thats why Ill be voting for him this fall, wrote Ryan, R-Wis.

He added, Its no secret that he and I have our differences. I wont pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, Ill continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.

Trump can help us

The political world was sent abuzz after Ryan taped a television interview last month in Burlington saying he was just not ready to support Trump  a stunning break by the countrys top elected Republican with his partys presidential nominee.

Ryan, whose district includes Racine County, said in the interview Trump needed to bring all factions of the Republican Party together and prove to conservatives he shared their values and principles.

Ryan later told The Journal Times he wanted to be part of the unifying process and invited Trump to meet with him and other leaders in Washington, D.C., to begin talking to each other to figure out how we unify this party.

Ryan wrote in Thursdays column that he has spoken with Trump at great length about things such as the proper role of the executive and fundamental principles such as the protection of life. The list of potential Supreme Court nominees he released after our first meeting was very encouraging.

He said the House policy agenda, which will be introduced next week, was a main focus of his talks with Trump. Trump has split with Ryan on many issues, including immigration, trade and entitlement reform.

Ryan wrote it was clear that likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wouldnt support the agenda, but that is not the case with Trump.

For me, its a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I  and my House colleagues  have invested so much in through the years. Its not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America, Ryan wrote. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead.

Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.

Not all pleased

Ryans move was met with scorn by some. Many Republicans part of the Never Trump movement held out hope he would withhold an endorsement, and Democrats also panned the news.

Donald Trump is a racist, misogynistic narcissist who has won the Republican presidential nomination by appealing to the most repugnant elements in American politics, said Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now.

The next time Paul Ryan is held out as the intellectual heart of the Republican Party remember he is voting to give Donald Trump the codes to our nations nuclear arsenal.
RACINE  A Mount Pleasant man faces two charges for allegedly passing counterfeit $20 bills at the Speedway gas station in Caledonia last month.

Benjamin A. Baumann, 33, of the 1600 block of Bryn Mawr Ave., appeared in Racine County Circuit Court Thursday to face a felony charge of uttering a forgery and a misdemeanor charge of attempted theft in connection with the incident.

According to the criminal complaint, Baumann attempted to use counterfeit $20 bills at the Speedway, 4960 Douglas Ave., Caledonia, on May 26.

The Speedway employee told Baumann the bills appeared to be fake and was going to call the police, the complaint said. Baumann said he would stick around, but needed to get to work, the complaint said.

Baumann then left the gas station and headed north on Douglas Avenue, the complaint said.

On Wednesday night, Baumann appeared at the Caledonia Police Department to speak to officers about the incident, the complaint said. He told police he found out on Facebook that police wanted to speak with him, the complaint said.

Baumann told police an unknown black male paid him $500  all in $20 bills  for a set of rims in the first week of May, the complaint said. Baumann said he did not know the bills were counterfeit until the Speedway cashier told him, the complaint said.

Bauman also said he had thrown away the rest of the money because he did not want to be caught with the fake bills, the complaint said.

Baumann was in Racine County Jail Thursday, jail records showed. A preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 9, court records showed.

Caledonia police earlier this week asked for the publics help identifying Baumann from images captured from a Speedway surveillance film.

The Caledonia Police Department would like to thank the media and community for their quick action in resolving the identification and apprehension of the suspect, police said in a release Thursday.

Reporter Mark Schaaf contributed to this story.
RACINE  As former U.S. Sen Russ Feingold began speaking Thursday at Wilsons Coffee & Tea, a voice from the back yelled for Feingold to use his campaign voice and speak louder.

Feingold, whos trying to reclaim the Senate seat he lost to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson six years ago, didnt waste any time using the comment to note the overflow crowd and enthusiasm.

When you have a crowd like this five months before the election, it only means one thing: were going to win, he said to the crowd that appeared to number more than 100.

Inside the packed coffee shop, 3306 Washington Ave., Feingold ran through campaign themes, poked Republicans and highlighted stops he has made in all 72 counties.

The visit was part of a statewide tour leading up to the state Democratic Party convention this weekend in Green Bay, where Republicans are already hitting Feingold with a billboard and digital ads calling him a hypocrite.

Feingold is in a tough election battle with Johnson, who unseated Feingold in 2010. The race has been closely watched throughout the country, with Feingold leading in the polls and Democrats hoping to capture the Senate.

A state GOP spokesman accused Feingold of being more concerned about his own career than the state.

Senator Feingolds 18 years in Washington have made him into an absolute hypocrite who will cast aside his promises to Wisconsin in order to further his political career, said Pat Garrett, spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Democrats may try to rewrite history this weekend, but they cannot change the fact that Senator Feingold is fighting for his own political future, not Wisconsin.

Break with Obama

In Racine, Feingold pushed an array of priorities, including reducing student debt, raising the minimum wage, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, taking care of veterans and rebuilding infrastructure.

He also called for faster Internet in rural areas  which has been an issue in some parts of western Racine County  saying everyone deserves online access. And he reiterated his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade deal with 12 Pacific countries.

President Barack Obamas administration proposed the deal, but Feingold said afterward he had no qualms disagreeing with a fellow Democrat.

Ive been very disappointed with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama for having pushed trade deals that ship Wisconsin jobs overseas, he told reporters after the event. I like to vote Democrat, but if its wrong, its wrong.

He also deflected questions on who the Democratic presidential nominee will be despite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton holding a commanding lead with less than a week to go in the primary season.

Feingold has not endorsed Clinton or Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and has declined to say who he voted for in the Wisconsin primary.

Im just very comfortable its going to be one of those two. It makes me smile, Feingold said afterward. Things are going to be very good on our side. The other side cant even mention the name of their candidate. They got bigger problems than we do.
188 street children rescued in a month

A total of 188 street children have been rescued by the government so far.
A long and lacklustre reign

If there was one thing Nepal got during Birendras 18 years as the supreme monarch, it was a number of slogans
Art needs its critics

A three day workshop, Creative Writing & the Arts, organised by Siddhartha Arts Foundations Educational Initiate (SAFEI) and La.Lit is being held at Yalamaya Kendra, Patandhoka.
Bangladesh to gift 10k tonnes of rice

Bangladesh is sending a gift of 10,000 tonnes of rice to Nepal to be deposited in the Saarc Food Bank, an emergency res-erve for use in times of crisis in the South Asian region.
Bollywood comedian Razak Khan dead

Bollywood comedian Razak Khan, known for his quirky roles like Ninja Chacha, Popat and Babu Bisleri, breathed his last here following a heart attack. Celebrities like Anurag Kashyap, Rishi Kapoor and Hansal Mehta mourned his sudden death and remembered him for his lively spirit.
Chitwan, Dhading named focal points for poultry

Local poultry entrepreneurs are thrilled that the budget statement for the next fiscal year has identified Chitwan and Dhading as pocket districts for poultry production, but they are sceptical about the implementation part.
VLADIVOSTOK - China's Belt and Road Initiative can benefit Russia, an economics expert said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Oleg Timofeyev, associate professor with the Department of Economics and Management at the State University of Management, said by implementing the project with China, Moscow will be able to expand its international influence and reduce the effect of sanctions imposed by Western countries.

Russia and China signed a joint declaration on May 8, 2015, integrating the development projects of the Eurasian Economic Union and China's Silk Road Economic Belt.

Timofeyev said China's northeastern provinces are now actively promoting the Maritime Silk Road to gain access to the seaports of the Russian Far East.

To accomplish it, "huge investments are needed to build the road corridor connecting Poltavka in Russia's Primorsky region and Dongning in China's Heilongjiang province, a high-speed railway and highway between Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and the Chinese city of Suifenhe, and the necessary infrastructure at Vladivostok's port," said Timofeyev.

The initiative of the "Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road" was put forward by the Chinese government in 2013 to connect the economies of countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
Civil servants vote to pick official trade union

More than 50,000 civil servants across the country on Wednesday participated in the first ever elections for an official trade union.
India and Nepal in not-very-enlightened spat over Buddhas childhood home

Buddhist history is an ever-more-serious business. China and India, two giants maneuvering for control in South Asia, have identified Buddhism as an instrument of soft power. Nepal, increasingly aligned with Beijing, jealously guards its claim to the Buddhas birth and early life.
India urges its citizens to avoid route via Nepal

The Embassy of India in Kathmandu has issued a travel advisory, urging Indian nationals visiting Kailash-Mansarovar to avoid the route via Nepal.
Indian govt gifts cycles to girl students

The Indian government has gifted 2,000 bicycles to female students from the Dalit community from several government schools in Banke, Siraha, Dhanusha and Sarlahi districts.
Irrational practice

Many women in rural Nepal are forced to live like animals due to rigid cultural and social traditions
Leopard on the loose, panic grips residents in Kuleshwor

A residential house in Kuleshwor height on Wednesday morning was struggling to attend to an uninvited guesta leopard.
Maoist ministers snub cabinet meet

In a clear indication of the relation between the coalition partnersCPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre)turning cold, the latters ministers in the KP Sharma Oli-led government snubbed the Cabinet meeting held on Thursday morning.
NC to play it by ear as Oli, Dahal bicker

As the governing CPN-UML and its key coalition partner CPN (Maoist Centre) continue to spar over a gentlemans agreement on changing the government, the Nepali Congress has once again taken the centre stage, with both in bid to reach out to the main opposition to lead a national unity government.
Nepali, Chinese officials hold talks on protocol

Officials of the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and Chinese embassy in Nepal have held talks on developing protocol on the Transit Transport Agreement (TTA) signed between the two countries during Prime Minister K P Olis visit to the northern neighbour.
Nepali woman found dead in Mahakali River

A Nepali woman was found dead in the Mahakali River near Brahmadev in the district on Thursday.
Nepali worker dies in SKorea

A Nepali migrant worker died in an industrial accident in Busan of South Korea on Wednesday.
Over 230,000 Nepalis living in modern day slavery

More than 230,000 people in Nepal are living in modern day slavery, according to a survey report by Walk Free Foundation, a human rights group.
Pvt schools going above govt ceiling

The top schools in the Kathmandu Valley, including those owned by lawmakers, have been found charging several times higher than the government ceiling in tuition and admission fees.
Sadbhawana removes Sanjay Sah from vice chair post

Sadbhawana Party has removed its senior Vice Chairman Sanjay Sah, who is currently in custody for investigation into his alleged involvement in 2012 Janakpur bomb blast, from the post.
Syria conflict: Calls for air drops of humanitarian aid to besieged towns

The US, UK and France have urged the UN to begin air drops of humanitarian aid to besieged areas in Syria.
Tea producers complain about extra paperwork for exports

Nepali tea producers have complained that their growth prospects have been hurt by new provisions on quality test certification issued by Indias Central Food Laboratory and strict pesticide checks by third countries.
Thailand Tiger Temple to face charges over dead cubs

Wildlife authorities in Thailand have said they will press charges against a Buddhist temple where the bodies of 40 dead tiger cubs were found.
The lessons of history

Kathmandu and New Delhi both could do well to learn from their mistakes in Madhes
Traders concerned about ICP operation

India has started preparations to start operations of Integrated Check Post (ICP) on its side of the Birgunj-Raxaul border, while the infrastructure on the Nepali side is yet to be completed.
Two shot dead in US university campus

Two persons were shot dead on Wednesday morning in the University of California's Los Angeles campus, university officials said quoting a police source.
Victims plaints at CIEDP top 1,500

The Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) has received 1,563 complaints since complaints registration began in mid-April.
Woman accuses hospital in Surkhet of rendering her blind

A 55-year-old woman from Mainatada in Bheriganga Municipality-2, who lost vision of her eye following a cataract surgery, have accused Mainatada Community Hospital of negligence and registered a complaint against the hospital and its doctors at the District Administration Office (DAO).
Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits

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Maybe ... does it really matter?

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Convicted lawyer, Bob Kasango has petitioned the Constitutional Court challenging the appointment of Justice Mike Chibita as the Director of Public Prosecutions, arguing that it compromises the independence of judiciary and separation of powers.

In the May 17th petition, Kasango sued the Attorney General and DPP alleging that the appointment of Chibita as DPP while holding the position of a judge is inconsistent with the constitution to the extent that it causes fusion of the roles of Executive and Judiciary.

Describing himself as an aggrieved person, Kasango alleges that the current DPP is holding office contrary to the principles of separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.

He thus wants court to declare that his prosecution by DPP in purported exercise of powers conferred under Article 120 of the Constitution is unconstitutional and such prosecutions are a nullity.

On Tuesday, Court ordered Kasango to pay Tooro Kingdom Queen mother Best Kemigisa more than Shs3 billion in compensation and a fine of Shs12 million over theft by agent.
High Court Kampala is today expected to rule on an application seeking to determine Makerere Guild leadership case.

The guild presidential candidates Bazil Mwotta 2rd year Education student and Roy Ssembogga a fourth year student of medicine and surgery are in court over who is the rightful students leader.

The petition was lodged by the guild-elect, BazilMwotta seeking annulment of the university tribunals order, to hold fresh elections at the College of Education and External Studies.

Mwottas move followed a ruling by Makereres guild election tribunal, which called for a recount of votes in Cees, on the grounds that some votes, belonging to Ssembogga, had not been counted.

The tribunals ruling came after Mwottas main challenger, Roy Ssembogga, called for the 11th March 2016 Guild election to be annulled, as it was not free and fair, claiming that the poll was marred by ballot stuffing.
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Ive been taking photos and video of the back of my head for around 8 months now. It began post chemo when my hair began to thin. Just the odd sneaky shot to see how things were looking back there. Scrutinized and then deleted for fear of being caught.

The weekend when I began to malt more than a siberian husky co-incided with a volleyball tournament at school. As I sat in the bleachers trying desperately not to run my fingers through my hair I thought about the people sitting behind me. Had they noticed that I was mid moult, that my hair was no longer shoulder length but yet there it was all over my shoulders, literally.

Each morning throughout the following week Id collect clumps and lumps of hair and put it into a bag. It was a process I did completely and entirely on my own. I didnt share it with my children or husband  it was something I knew I had to walk myself through. There would be no elaborate shaving ceremony. No todays the day!

Im a nervous giggler. If the situation gets serious Ill be the one to crack a joke, or get the giggles. I giggled as I walked down the aisle towards G. Ive run from danger in hysterical laughter. The rush of adrenaline that came with were going to be in so much trouble as a teen would have me snorting out loud. Which is possibly why I giggled as the new me appeared in front of the mirror. I looked ridiculous with my patches of random hair. There was nothing empowering, just dread and fear. It was the beginning of being recognised as a person with cancer.

I was no longer one of those people who couldnt imagine what it was like to hear the words.

You have cancer.

With the treatment now over, and an inch of growth, a new conversation has begun.

Ive been stumbling across the explanation. Whether its for my very short hair, my absence at an event, or my lack of fitness. There comes a time when I feel an explanation is needed. That Im hiding something if I dont fess up.

I was diagnosed with cancer last August

I had a little bit of cancer removed last year

I finished some treatments in February

The yoga teacher looked confused. The fellow parent suddenly understood why Id missed the kids concert. The university clerk paused, apologised, and said shed get back to me.

My hair will grow, my scar will fade, friends will forget.

Maybe one day the thought will disappear from the back of my mind, just like the pictures of the back of my head.

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ELKHART  Sounding eager to join the fray of this years campaign, President Barack Obama Wednesday praised the nations economic recovery under his watch while blasting Republican ideas he says will hinder progress.

With rolled-up sleeves, Obama addressed an enthusiastic crowd at Concord High Schools McCuen Gym. It was his second appearance as president in the Hoosier city of 51,000. He spoke at the same venue on Feb. 2, 2009, 13 days after taking office. He was pushing his economic stimulus plan at the height of the Great Recession.

In 2009, unemployment in Elkhart County, called the recreational vehicle capital of the world, climbed to 19.6 percent. Today, the jobless rate there is around 4 percent.

I told you then (in 2009) that I was going to have your back, he said. And we were going to work hard.

Obama emphasized that since then most of Elkharts lost jobs have returned, the housing foreclosure crisis has eased and the graduation rate at Concord High School is 90 percent now compared to only 75 percent seven years ago.

Thats progress, he said. Thats thanks to you for the hard work you put in and for the sacrifices you made for your families  and the way you looked out for each other.

Obama said Elkhart wouldnt have recovered as quickly if we hadnt made a series of smart decisions early in my administration, including helping the auto industry, assisting families to refinance their homes, investing in job training and clean energy.

By almost every economic measure, America is better off than when I first came here, he said, to a standing ovation.

Obama pointed to a series of statistics with pride  the creation of 14 million new jobs in the U.S., cutting foreign oil imports, doubling clean energy production and helping raise health insurance coverage to 90 percent for all Americans.

While admitting that a lot of people are still feeling stressed about their economic future, Obama said the nation needs to address long-term economic problems, including the slow growth of wages, income inequality and the rise of global competition.

Turning to the presidential election, Obama, while not mentioning the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump, said the GOP chose its nominee because of economic anxiety pushed for years by Fox News and conservative talk radio.

Some members of the crowd responded with boos. No, no, we dont boo  we vote, Obama said.

I understand that not everybody votes based on the economy, he said. But if what you really care about in this election is your pocketbook, if what youre concerned about is who will look out for the interests of working people and grow the middle class, then the debate isnt even close.

He said the GOP plan would, among other things, lower wages, eliminate worker protections, cut education, weaken the safety net, kick people off health insurance, let big oil weaken rules that protect our air and water (quality), and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans to historic lows.

Fortunately, theres another path that leads to more jobs. Higher wages. Better benefits. A stronger safety net. A fairer tax code. A bigger voice for workers. Trade on our terms. It will make a real difference for the prospects of working families. It will grow the middle class.

So thats it, Elkhart. Thats the choice you face. The ideas Ive laid out today wont solve every problem, or make everybody financially secure overnight. But theyll point us in the right direction.

After the speech, Obama held a town hall meeting at Lerner Theatre in Elkhart with 100 area residents. It was broadcast later by PBS.

Obama left the South Bend airport on Air Force One at 7:15 p.m., traveling to Colorado Springs. Today, the president will deliver the commencement address to the 2016 graduates of the United States Air Force Academy.
DEAR AMY: How do you tell someone you love that they are ruining your life?

My mother has dealt with mental illness, addiction and depression for most of her life. This came to a climax when I was in high school, resulting in legal trouble, divorce, rehab and losing the people closest to her.

I was very angry at her, but have now grown to realize that she is a victim of an illness and I need to support her.

With that being said, it has gotten to the point (10 years later) where I am basically her parent, therapist, bank, chauffeur, etc. She tells me about how she wants to die, how unhappy she is, and how everything is everyone else's fault, while she sits around with no job (and no intention to get one) and does nothing to improve her lifestyle.

She makes no effort to make herself happy while complaining to me every day how miserable she is. Everyone else in the family has shut her out but I feel too guilty to do something like that, and because I am worried she may actually take her own life.

I suffer from bad bouts of anxiety and panic attacks and honestly struggle to keep myself in a positive frame of mind day-to-day.

I don't know how to tell my mom that all of her constant negativity is really bringing me down and piling on my own mental illnesses. I have tried to express this to her but it does not seem to work. I understand she is dealing with serious issues, but she is taking a toll on my own happiness.  DAC

DEAR DAC: Talking to your mother about her behavior's impact on you would have a limited impact in terms of getting her to change.

If she is depressed and suffering from other mental and emotional challenges, she may not be willing or able to make big changes for your sake.

I hope you will instead concentrate on yourself. You have been a very good and loyal child, but at this point, you have become part of your mother's illness. Because you are functioning for her, she has no incentive to even try to function for herself.

You must seek professional mental health services for yourself. You have a duty to try your very hardest to be healthy, in order to create boundaries with your mother. Taking good care of yourself may necessitate that you keep some distance from her. You should take these important steps guided by a counselor, and also attend Al-anon (or another support group) meetings, where you can learn about creating and maintaining healthy boundaries.

DEAR AMY: A few years ago I was boarding a full airport shuttle bus with my mom, when three men immediately stood up and offered their seat to her. I took note of their courteous behavior and hoped to be like them someday.

Fast-forward a few years and I am a college student at a large university. I often utilize the free busses to get around campus. The bus is often full.

Being a male college-aged student, am I expected to give up my seat to a female peer? If not, what age (or for what situation) do I give up my seat? I have yet to see any other man give up his seat on a campus bus and am afraid the woman would be weirded out (or just say no) if I tried. Your opinion?  Curious

DEAR CURIOUS: You are not expected to give up your seat to a female peer. What you should do is give up your seat to any person (regardless of gender) who is carrying a child, pregnant, who has heavy packages, who struggles with the bus steps or with their balance, or who seems particularly road weary on that day.

You should rise and offer your seat, and the person you are offering it to may thank you and demur. This offer should be received graciously, regardless of the circumstance.

DEAR AMY: "Furious Mom" was upset that her son was a lazy slob. It is wrong to blame the parents. The kid has a serious problem  basically he is a slob. This is not the parents' fault. Stop blaming parents for everything! Kids need to take responsibility.  Roz

DEAR ROZ: In this letter, the parents laid out a very neat path, leading from their parenting style directly to their son's horrible habits. Their refusal to do anything other than complain about their son is lazy parenting.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Transportation remind motorists to be careful of turtles crossing roads over the next several weeks as they move to familiar nesting locations.

Allowing turtles to cross the roads is vital to preserving regional populations.

Many turtles and other species are killed on Minnesota roads each year, especially during the nesting season, said Carol Hall, DNR herpetologist, In fact, roadway mortality is believed to be a major factor in turtle population declines throughout the United States.

In Minnesota, all turtles are mainly aquatic. Overland journeys usually occur in connection with seasonal movements between different wetland habitats, during the annual early summer nesting migration of egg-laden females or when newly hatched youngsters seek the backwaters and ponds for their permanent home. Turtles can travel many miles during a single year, and may even be found far from water.

Citizens can help document road-mortality hotspots by reporting sightings of living and deceased turtles to the Minnesota Turtle Crossing Tally & Count Project, said Chris Smith, MnDOT wildlife ecologist. These data can be used to identify problematic areas and alert transportation departments.

Giving turtles a hand

The following points should be remembered:

Think safety. Simply pulling off the road and turning on hazard lights may alert other drivers to slow down. Be aware of surroundings and traffic. Do not swerve.

Avoid excessive handling. While wanting to inspect turtles closely is understandable, excessive handling can disrupt normal behavior. Prolonged examination of turtles should be limited to only one or two individuals of each species.

Allow unassisted road crossings. When turtles can safely cross roads unaided due to a lack of oncoming traffic, allow them to do so. Observe from a distance and avoid rapid movements, as doing otherwise will often cause turtles to change direction, stop or seek shelter within their shells.

Handle turtles gently. If necessary to pick them up, all turtles except snappers and softshells or leatherbacks should be grasped gently along the shell edge near the mid-point of the body. Be advised that many turtles empty their bladder when lifted off the ground, so be careful not to suddenly drop them.

Maintain direction of travel. Always move turtles in the same direction they were traveling in when encountered. Turtles should always be moved across roadways in as direct a line as possible. It may seem helpful to assist the turtle in its journey by moving them to a nearby body of water, but it is important to remember the phrase, If you care, leave it there.

Document your find. Help document turtle crossing and mortality areas by participating in the Minnesota Turtle Crossing Tally & Count Project.

For more information, go to www.dnr.state.mn.us/reptiles_amphibians/helping-turtles-roads.html.
The city of La Crosse announced a youth summer jobs program Thursday that aims to put kids to work improving public lands and fixing up homes in the citys core neighborhoods.

A partnership between the city and WisCorps, the pilot program will employ 16- to 18-year-olds in crews paired with two adult leaders. Crews will divide their time between work in four neighborhoods, park projects and career skill training.

WisCorps operations director Willie Bittner said the project will expand on work the La Crosse-based nonprofit is already doing. With a mission of developing leadership skills and work ethic through stewardship, WisCorps employs teens and young adults working on conservation projects throughout the Midwest.

The city program will target a younger age group and incorporate more life skills  including CPR, resume writing and interviewing and basic food handling. Particpants will also get to meet with local business leaders.

Were going to give them a lot of stuff so theyre ready for the next job, Bittner said.

Workers will earn $7.25 per hour and receive a free lunch.

Bittner said he had been toying with the concept when Mayor Tim Kabat called to pitch him the same idea.

Kabat said the program is an extension of community policing, code enforcement and other neighborhood revitalization efforts the city has made in its most challenged neighborhoods.

I feel good about the momentum were seeing, Kabat said. But theres also a human element as well.

Employment estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show Wisconsins youth unemployment rate last year was nearly triple the rate for all workers, and while teen unemployment has returned to pre-recession levels, fewer of them are looking for work.

In 2007, Wisconsin had about 181,000 people 16 to 19 in the workforce, a participation rate of 57 percent. Last year the teen workforce was just 159,000, or just over 51 percent.

The city will pay WisCorps $62,500 to administer the program.

Among other things, parks superintendent Jay Odegaard said crews will work on shoreline restoration in Pettibone and West Copeland parks, and improving trails between Myrick and Roellig parks. The workers will also be available to do landscaping, painting and minor exterior repairs on homes in the Powell-Poage-Hamilton, Lower Northside Depot, Washburn and Holy Trinity-Longfellow neighborhoods.

Low-income, elderly and disabled homeowners in the target neighborhoods can apply for help. Homeowners will not have to pay for the work but will be asked to provide materials.

Bittner anticipates hiring 10 to 12 teens to work in two crews with adult leaders. Participants must be La Crosse residents and able to work 40 hours per week between June 20 and July 29. To apply for employment in the program, call 608-799-5183 or visit www.wiscorps.org. Applications can also be made in person at the WisCorps office, 789 Myrick Park Drive.

Kabat said he hopes the crews will grow in years to come. If successful, Bittner would like to bring the concept to other Wisconsin cities.

Were excited that La Crosse is going to be the model starting point, he said.
La Crosse police need the publics help finding two boaters who created a wake on the Black River Monday that caused a fishing boat to capsize before officers and several others helped pull three people from the water.

Water patrol officers Dakota Jelinski and Dale Gerbig witnessed two large boats speeding on the Black River south of the railroad bridge that created a wake that swamped the fishing boat, sending three occupants into the river. Three other boats assisted in the rescue.

One of the victims told police he didnt know how to swim and that he had recently purchased the life jacket he was wearing.

Police remind boaters to carry life jackets and be conscientious of their wake, even in no wake zones.

Anyone with information on the two boats responsible is asked to contact police at 608-785-5962 or on the departments Facebook and Twitter pages. Tips also can be submitted to La Crosse Area Crime Stoppers at 608-784-TIPS, by text to 274637 or on the crime stoppers website.
Whom are you going to believe, Donald Trump or your own lying eyes?

Trump is hoping the answer is Trump.

At an event in Fresno on Friday, the presumptive Republican nominee had the gall to declare that Californias severe four-year drought was a figment of voters imaginations.

Never mind the record-low levels of Sierra snowpack last year, which, through runoff, provide about a third of the water used by the states cities and farms. Never mind that snowpack conditions across California stand at 29 percent of their normal levels. Never mind that the last two years were Californias hottest on record.

Never mind that there were record numbers of acres claimed by wildfires and of tree deaths nationwide last year, in large part because of years of dry conditions out west.

Nope. Trump ignores all these obvious symptoms of severe drought. Instead, he blames the states entire water shortage on an environmental program to save a fish.

Note that Trump was not merely criticizing the governments response to a natural-resource scarcity (as have many on both left and right); he was claiming there was no scarcity to begin with.

Quoth Trump: There is no drought, further explaining that the water shortage is just a manufactured crisis created by a pro-environmentalist conspiracy.

This attack on empiricism is not exactly an unusual stance for the presumptive Republican nominee.

Just a few days earlier, Trump returned to another hobbyhorse of his: a claim that the unemployment data were doctored, too. Anyone who believes the Labor Departments headline unemployment rate of 5 percent is a dummy, Trump declared to the New York Post last week.

His was not the nuanced criticism some economists have made, that the headline unemployment number doesnt tell the whole story because it excludes two groups of workers: those who want jobs but have given up looking and those who want more hours but cant find them. If these additional groups of workers were factored in, they would indeed bump up the jobless rate by several percentage points.

We know this because the Labor Department actually reports those alternative measures of labor underutilization, too.

But Trump declares that even these numbers are fake.

The true unemployment rate, he claims, is quadruple what the government tells us, closer to 20 percent. The evidence, he told the New York Post, is not in any research or formal data collection hes done or seen, but merely the strong attendance at his own rallies.

As part of his war on data, Trump pledged to investigate these government-produced numbers, presumably also for signs that the Labor Department lackeys are cooking the books.

Its easy to mock Trump for denying reality. But in truth, he is hardly a pioneer in the postmodernist political effort to create parallel universes of facts.

For years the right-wing commentariat has deliberately dismantled public trust in major U.S. institutions, including government and the mainstream media. Media narratives are always skewed against conservative causes, they say, as are any standardized tools of policy analysis or fact-checking. (Meanwhile, major media organizations have doubled down on their self-proclaimed roles as impartial arbiters of truth, investing more resources in data-driven analysis and fact-checking operations ahead of this election.)

Conservative pundits have politicized some of the most apolitical subjects possible  math and science  through an array of arithmetically creative tax proposals and bogus attacks on climate change. Republican legislators have repeatedly cut funding for U.S. statistical agencies, upon which both policymakers and private businesses rely for objective information about the world around them.

The noble federal bean counters who tally up local temperatures, or census surveys on employment status, or data on consumer prices, are not political appointees; they are humble scientists, academic researchers and civil servants who serve in administrations of both major political parties. Yet they, too, have been vilified as mustache-twirling accomplices of a power-hungry, secret-Muslim, Kenyan-born Democratic despot.

Given these precedents, is it really so shocking that Trump has conjured up a few inches of imaginary rainfall?

Its certainly in his interest to smear any source of information (including looking out your own window) that isnt Donald J. Trump.

In discrediting any rival and possibly neutral arbiter of truth and accountability  that is, entitling himself to his own facts as well as his own opinions  Trump achieves two important objectives. First, he frees himself up to invent colorful problems, conspiracies and villains that only a President Trump can defeat.

And second, he robs the public of any independent means of assessing whether hes ever actually succeeded.
The typical response when someone saves a small child from harm isnt How dare you?

But the Cincinnati Zoo has been subjected to a torrent of abuse for making the agonizing decision to shoot and kill one of its gorillas, a 17-year-old silverback named Harambe, when a 4-year-old boy fell into its enclosure.

Invariably, the adjective used to describe Harambe is magnificent, and rightly so. Gorillas are physically imposing and highly intelligent, with sophisticated social structures. In a better world, they probably wouldnt be confined for our viewing pleasure, but thats another issue.

The question is what should the Cincinnati Zoo have done when forced to choose between the welfare of a prodigious animal and a small human?

This wasnt a case of a hunter who went out of his way at great expense and trouble to shoot a lion or some other glorious creature for the triumphant photo with the carcass and the trophy on the wall back home. This wasnt a poacher who killed for tawdry profit. This wasnt a fly-by-night roadside attraction abusing the poor creatures in its clutches.

This was a serious, responsible institution confronted with a life-and-death crisis, in real time and not of its devising.

When the little boy somehow crawled through the fencing outside the enclosure and splashed into water with Harambe  and yes, the boys mother should have been paying closer attention  the childs life was potentially in danger. This was self-evident to the shocked and dismayed witnesses, who watched Harambe drag the kid around by the ankle like a proverbial rag doll.

Everything that people lamenting the shooting say about Harambe may be true: He wanted to help. He didnt mean the child any harm. He was merely confused. None of this means he wasnt a danger.

We desperately want to anthropomorphize apes, and make them out to be the gentle giants of our imagination. We want to believe that King Kong was just misunderstood, with a thing for blondes. That Koko the sign-language gorilla really cares about global warming. Gorillas are indeed  putting aside their hair-raisingly brutal sexual politics  largely peaceful and admirable mothers and fathers.

They are still wild beasts. Harambe was a forbiddingly strong 420-pound creature with no experience baby-sitting. He could seriously hurt a child without even trying.

Once that is acknowledged, its clear that the zoo had no good choices. Its critics  including celebrities who are suddenly amateur primatologists  have insisted there must have been a way to create a happy ending for all.

The zoo could have reasoned with Harambe. But zoo officials called the gorillas out of the enclosure when the child fell in; the two females complied, Harambe did not. They could have tranquilized Harambe. But this would have agitated him more, and the tranquilizers would have taken time to work. They could have, as one expert mused to an Australian paper, shot the gorilla in the shoulder. Because theres nothing like a badly wounded gorilla in possession of a child.

G.K. Chesterton wrote of the healthy and unhealthy love of animals, with the latter characterized by its overseriousness. Exhibit A: the change.org petition that has garnered more than 300,000 signatures and is titled Justice for Harambe.

For his part, Chesterton was quite prepared to love a rhinoceros (with reasonable precautions), but couldnt give himself over to what he called animal worship. He believed that wherever there is Animal Worship there is Human Sacrifice. That is, both symbolically and literally, a real truth of historical experience.

In this case, the would-be human sacrifice wasnt an abstraction. He was a 4-year-old boy. The Cincinnati Zoo, to its credit, wasnt willing to discount his welfare, even if the decision was excruciating. It sacrificed the beast to protect the child. In a less sentimental age, the moral calculus would be obvious.
Wisconsins top Republicans, who have failed in recent years to find a solution to the states transportation funding woes, remain divided over how to best repair and build roads.

The fissures surfaced again Thursday, a day after the Wisconsin State Journal reported that Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb said he would propose a spending plan for the 2017-19 budget cycle that offered no major tax or fee increases. Gottlieb acknowledged the move would threaten major road projects in the Madison and Milwaukee areas as well as repairs across the state.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Gov. Scott Walker echoed Gottliebs comments, which were also consistent with his own previous position, while Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the State Journal in a statement that the state needs more transportation revenue.

Walker said he wont increase transportation-related taxes without a corresponding decrease in other taxes  a difficult proposition given the states tight fiscal situation.

Were not going to add a gas tax or a vehicle registration fee increase in this next budget, Walker said. Well try to figure out ways that we can be efficient and effective in providing local assistance to keep our county municipal roads and highways and streets in decent shape.

Gottlieb told the State Journal that not raising revenues will mean more projects are delayed  including possibly the Verona Road project in Madison and the expansion of U.S. Interstate 39/90 south of Madison  and that available funding will focus on the backbone of the states transportation system at the expense of smaller, more rural projects.

Walker said there probably wont be a whole new wave of major projects. He said safety will be the top priority for funding already scheduled projects and maintaining existing roads.

Vos, R-Rochester, pointed to a January 2013 report by the Wisconsin Transportation Finance and Policy Commission, a bipartisan group charged with studying the states transportation funding system, that recommended increasing the states gas tax by 5 cents per gallon, annual registration fees for commercial vehicles by 73 percent and the eight-year drivers license fee by $20 to $54.

The panel also recommended eliminating the sales tax exemption on the trade-in value of a vehicle and adopting a mileage- based registration fee system for passenger vehicles and light trucks.

The bipartisan commission reported that if Wisconsin wants to maintain current service, traffic flow and road condition levels under the existing funding system, the state will be short $15.3 billion over the next decade.

It is unfortunate that the Department of Transportation seems to be ignoring its own comprehensive review that stressed the need for additional revenue, Vos said in a statement. I look forward to working with Governor Walker on a long-term funding solution for our roads in Wisconsin.

Walker also wouldnt rule out or set a limit on another round of borrowing to pay for roads, an option that has irked many Republican lawmakers who have raised concerns about the long-term fiscal impact of incurring increasing debt to pay for transportation. Walker said there isnt a set amount, but that it will probably be similar to what has been sought in the previous budget.

Transportation fund a special case

Wisconsins transportation system mostly is funded by dedicated revenues  primarily from the gas tax and vehicle registration and other fees  federal funding and borrowing.

Former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle used dedicated transportation funds to pay for other state programs a practice outlawed by a recently adopted constitutional amendment  while Walker has used general state tax revenue to help pay for transportation projects.

The current budget authorizes $850 million in transportation borrowing, down from $1.3 billion that Walker requested. Two years ago Gottlieb proposed raising $750 million from higher fees and taxes, but Walker rejected those proposals.

According to the fiscal bureau, 20 percent of every dollar raised by state transportation taxes and fees pays for debt service used to build and repair roads. Thats almost double what it was a decade ago.

Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, co-chairman of the Legislatures budget committee, said Republicans are concerned about the debt-payment-to-revenue ratio going up.

We as conservative Republicans dont believe its more fiscally responsible to borrow than to pay for it even if it means an increase in a tax or a fee, Nygren said. Its more of a mindset that paying as you go is a better position.

Nygren also said its premature to commit to raising revenues or borrowing because the Legislative Audit Bureau is conducting a review of DOTs state highway program. That report is due out in the fall.

Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Saukville, lauded Gottlieb for not proposing a gas tax increase. He said Gottlieb should include other proposals in his budget, such as allowing local projects to swap out federal funds for state funds, so that they can reduce the cost of following federal regulations.

Legislators should not support any increased tax burden on Wisconsin families and businesses before all DOT efficiencies are exhausted, Stroebel said in a statement. Holding the line on transportation taxes ought not to mean more borrowing or delayed projects.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, co-chairwoman of the Joint Finance Committee, didnt respond to requests for comment.
Minnesota farmers will have an additional way of meeting the states new Buffer Law requirements as the result of recent action taken by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR). Under the Buffer Law, farmers may use alternative water quality protection practices that are comparable to buffer protection. The BWSR Board recently passed a resolution affirming that certification in the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program qualifies as an approved alternative water quality protection practice. This means that farmers who become certified through the program will also be compliant with the state buffer law.

The Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program is a partnership between the United States Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Each of these agencies upholds the programs regulatory certainty provision and BWSR, through its network of local soil and water conservation districts, is helping deliver the program to farmers and landowners across the state.

Signed into law in June 2015, Gov. Mark Daytons landmark buffer initiative designated an estimated 110,000 acres of land for water quality buffer strips statewide. The law establishes new perennial vegetation buffers of up to 50 feet along rivers, streams, and ditches that will help filter out phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment. The new law provides flexibility and financial support for landowners to install and maintain buffers, and boost compliance with buffer laws across Minnesota.

To learn more about the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program, go to www.mylandmylegacy.com. For more on Minnesotas Buffer Law, go to http://bwsr.state.mn.us/buffers.
Its too easy but impossible to avoid drawing a connection between the Minnesota Twins and the Minnesota Legislature this spring.

Players on the teams kicked off the preseason with the usual bromides of boundless optimism. Got a lot of talent this year. Some new faces and new blood will really bring some positives, and the veterans are ready to step it up. Last few years were rough, but were really going to surprise people with some big victories.

We indulged the cheer  how can you not be optimistic during a season when the world blooms anew? Still, we knew where this was all headed. The Twins toward historic awfulness. The Legislature toward seemingly historic brokenness.

But instead of the tired blame-game happening across the state this week calling out each side, throwing around the do-nothing tags, talking through how voters should toss so-and-so in November  lets consider first whether the process, not the people, are to blame most.

And lets note that Winona Rep. Gene Pelowski has already offered a pretty good plan to fix it, if only more lawmakers would take heed.

The Legislature left major bills on the table this session, including comprehensive transportation funding, funding much-needed projects across the state including Winona State Universitys Education Village, and a variety of other initiatives and policy changes that died before they got an honest shot.

In large part, thats because of the usual 11th-hour madness that resulted in scrambling to take care of most of the business that was laid out months ago, with lawmakers saying afterward they hesitated to vote on multiple bills because they didnt have a clue what was in them.

Pelowski, a longtime advocate for cleaner, more efficient (and saner) state government operations, has made good inroads in recent years with suggested changes on amendments and other rules, and this year re-started the conversation on lawmakers who introduce way too many bills  more than 4,000 this biennium  that are under-researched, uncared for, and too heavily influenced by outside interests. Its too bad that the lawmaker who quite literally has refined the model for Model Legislature isnt given a more powerful voice in how good government should work.

This session clearly showed that we need to discuss legislative reform, Pelowski told the Daily News. We cannot operate this way.

Were not necessarily bemoaning what came from this years session (weve pretty much given up on tax reciprocity and Sunday liquor sales at this point). Sentences for non-violent drug offenders in some cases will be reduced. The states confusing caucus system is dead, replaced with a primary. There are encouraging things for Greater Minnesota, especially in the form of a change in how farms and businesses are taxed, increased local government aid, rural broadband funding (though still not nearly enough) and other changes.

The bigger concern instead is what the future holds, especially as the trend continues of the Legislature losing bright young minds and turnover prevailing, with fed-up members leaving to return to families, careers and other pursuits. Minnesota has always prided itself on being stronger, smarter, more thoughtful and more innovative than many of its neighbors and in national discussions about common-sense state governance that works, taking big leaps to make necessary investments and choosing compromise over party spats. So its terrifying to think that the Minnesota Legislature could soon come to resemble the United States Congress.

The Star Tribunes Lori Sturdevant, a much more incisive observer of the Legislature than we could ever be, suggested in a recent column that Minnesota gets what it pays for, with part-time lawmakers getting paid part-time wages ($31,140 a year) for what always ends up amounting to a full-time job that includes plenty of travel and plenty of responsibilities that take the states most civic-minded people away from families, careers and other goals.

It may seem like backward thinking  why pay these people more when they cant seem to do anything?  but backward thinking can often be innovative thinking. And there are even more radical ideas, like the unicameral, nonpartisan Legislature (no separate House and Senate, just one body) that seems to work reasonably well for Nebraska, with lawmakers creating voting coalitions around issues and not just on party lines.

Whats the answer? Were not sure. But we do think theres huge value in what Pelowski has been preaching all these years, a truly model Legislature that values patience, transparency and compromise.

Limit the number of bills lawmakers can introduce. Enforce the 24-hour rule, meaning any amendments to a bill must be filed at least 24 hours before the bill reaches the floor for discussion, instead of created on the fly. Set firm final deadlines on when bills can be introduced. Get polished bills in the hands of conference committees with plenty of time to debate and share changes. Its just a start, but it would be a big one.

Weve said it before: The process should matter much more than the product. And, best yet, it wont cost taxpayers a dime. A free program to clean up the Minnesota Legislature? Thats innovation.
The Sherry-Butt House is open for the summer season. It will be open to the public every Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer, plus Independence Day and Labor Day. Guided tours of the house are given from 1 to 5 p.m. Visitors may also tour the grounds. The house is located at 795 N. Main St. in Viroqua.

The house was built in 1870 by Col. Cyrus M. Butt, after his return from the Civil War. He lived there with his wife Margaret and their five children. In 1947, daughter Jane Butt sold the house and furnishings to Orbec and Hilda Sherry. The Sherrys owned the famous cow Jane of Vernon, the queen of the Brown Swiss breed in the U.S. After Orbec Sherrys death in 1988, the house and furnishings were sold to the Vernon County Historical Society.

The Vernon County Museum will switch to its summer hours June 1. Throughout June, July and August, the museum will be open Monday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Note this change to the Saturday hours. We hope that adding morning hours will be beneficial to our visitors.

This Sunday, June 5, the Vernon County Historical Society will hold its annual Walk Among Our Ancestors at the Franklin Lutheran Church Cemetery in Folsom. Everyone is welcome to attend. The walk begins at 4 p.m. Tickets are $5 each.

Costumed actors will portray five of the historical figures buried in the cemetery. The five ancestors are Elias Bolstad, Andrew Fuhr, Arne Hauge, Tollef Simonson and the Rev. Daniel T. Borgen. They will be portrayed by their real-life descendants: Charles Bolstad, Bernard Peterson, Jr., Steve Hoffland, Tom Simonson and John Borgen.

To get to the cemetery from Viroqua, take Hwy. 14 south, turn right onto Hwy. 27, then left onto Co. J. Drive about six miles on Co. J to reach the cemetery, which surrounds Franklin Lutheran Church. If it rains, the event will move inside the church.

The next meeting of the genealogy class will be Thursday, June 16. Note the change from the usual date. The class will be going on a field trip to Madison to visit the Wisconsin Historical Societys library and archives. New students are welcome to join the class on this trip.

The class will carpool to Madison, leaving the museum parking lot at 7:30 a.m. Lunch in Madison will be on your own. The carpool leaves Madison for Viroqua at 4 p.m. To sign up for the trip, please call the museum by June 14.

In Madison, students will be able to work individually on their family histories using the resources at the library and archives. There is no charge to use the resources. Old newspapers from all around Wisconsin and the rest of the country are available on microfilm  the library has the second-largest collection of newspapers in the U.S.

Researchers may also use the librarys computers to search ancestry.com, Fold3 and other subscription genealogy websites. And of special note are the pre-1907 Wisconsin vital records, which researchers may make copies of for 25 cents each.

To prepare for your visit, check out the Wisconsin Historical Societys website at wisconsinhistory.org. Click on Research Your Family History to learn more about the research materials available to you.
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The LA Film Festival opens Wednesday, and runs through June 9 at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood and Culver City, with additional screenings at LACMA, the Theatre at Ace Hotel and Figat7th. Film Independentthe organization behind the festivalhas programmed a diverse array of films, with a planned 56 feature films, 58 short films and 13 short episodic works representing 28 countries.

The festival kicks off tonight at the Cinerama Dome with the world premiere of Ricardo De Montreuils Lowriders, starring Eva Longoria, Demian Bichir, Melissa Benoist, Theo Rossi, Tony Revolori and Gabriel Chavarria. The film focuses on a second-generation East L.A. family, with car culture as a backdrop. The U.S. premiere of Jonas Cuarons Desierto, a suspense-thriller with Gael Garcia Bernal as a Mexican migrant fighting nature and a deranged vigilante for survival along the U.S.-Mexico border, will close out the festival.

Even though the films bookending the festival are open to passholders only, there are a number of other worthwhile films, programs and events happening throughout the festivals run. The LA Muse Section, which highlights quintessentially L.A. stories, is always fun. Were also looking forward to checking out Episodes: Indie Series From The Weba showcase of web series on the big screen.

Among the dozen films in the US Fiction Competition, Amber Tamblyn makes her directorial debut with the drama Paint It Black, as does Grecian Olympic hopeful Alexi Pappas who co-directs and stars in Tracktown. The festivals Buzz section celebrates the L.A. premieres of films that have gotten noticed at other festivals around the world. Writer/director Mike Birbiglias Dont Think Twice, a comedy about a struggling improv group, is screening in the Buzz section, along with Justin Tippings Kicks, a coming-of-age story spurred by a stolen pair of Air Jordans.

Screening in the glamorous Limelight section are David F. Sandbergs Lights Out , which stars Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello and looks scary AF, along with FREE CeCe!, which was directed by Jacqueline Gares and co-written with Laverne Cox (who also produces). The documentary tells the story of CeCe McDonald, a transgender woman who survived a brutal attack, only to be incarcerated for defending her life.

Other happenings at the LA Film Festival:

Special Screening

The world premiere of Susan Bonds and Alex Lieus Zedd True Colors on June 2 at 8 pm at The Theater at Ace Hotel. The film follows EDM artist Zedd as he creates his latest album True Colors. The screening is followed by a Q&A with the musician and directors and a short acoustic performance by Zedd and special guests Kesha, Aloe Blacc and Sydney from Echosmith. Tickets: $25-$65.

Free Screenings

The festival offers a couple of outdoor, free screenings at Figat7th: Ghostbusters (the original) on June 3 and Independence Day on June 4. Theres also a free screening of Shrek on June 4 at the ArcLight Culver City.

Coffee Talks

On Sunday, June 5 at the Culver Hotel, the festival holds its popular Coffee Talks series, where filmmakers, writers and actors discuss their craft with peers. Participating directors include Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash), Tim Miller (Deadpool), Lucy Walker (Waste Land) and Patricia Riggen (Miracles from Heaven, The 33), and screenwriters Fede Alvarez (Dont Breathe, Evil Dead), Phil Johnston (Zootopia, Cedar Rapids) and Phyllis Nagy (Carol, Mrs. Harris). The actors panel includes John Cho (Star Trek Beyond, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), Tony Hale (The Angry Birds Movie, Veep) and Paul Scheer (Opening Night, The League).

Other Talks

There are other conversations and programs that sound just as interesting as the Coffee Talks: Nate Parker's Labor of Love: The Birth of a Nation at ArcLight Culver City on June 2; Ryan Coogler: Crafting the Sounds and Score of Creed and Women Behind the Lens: Spotlight on Cinematographers both on June 4 at the ArcLight Culver City, along with An Evening with...The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story on June 7 at LACMA.



The ArcLight Culver City serves as the festivals new home base, but please check your tickets for other venues. Individual tickets are still available and run $13-$25; passes start at $315-$350.
Investment, help with efforts for cross-Straits unification are urged

Distant relatives Premier Li Keqiang meets with representatives participating in the eighth Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY

Premier Li Keqiang has called on overseas Chinese to invest steadily in China and contribute to cross-Straits unification.

"Overseas Chinese are welcome to invest and start their businesses in the motherland, as China is shifting from reliance on natural resources to human resources and promoting innovative industries," he said.

He made the remarks on Thursday when meeting more than 700 participants from 136 countries and regions.

They were attending the eighth Conference for Friendship of Overseas Chinese Associations, hosted by the State Council's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office. The office has held seven conferences since 2001, extending its gratitude to more than 60 million overseas Chinese worldwide.

Li said the Chinese mainland and Taiwan belong to one country, and he hoped overseas Chinese would continuously support and make their own contributions to national unification.

Addressing the participants at the Great Hall of the People, Li said, "For a long time, overseas Chinese have made great achievements in their own fields and crucial contributions to China's economic and social development, and I hope you will continue to do so."

However, facing international and domestic challenges, China has to cultivate new economies by deepening reforms and promoting innovation to achieve medium- to high-speed growth.

"China is still one of the most attractive destinations for investments, and overseas Chinese are welcome to invest in these new areas," he said.

One of the participants was He Ruyi, director of the China-US Cultural Exchanges Center and an organizer of the welcoming ceremony in Washington for President Xi Jinping when he paid a state visit to the United States in September.

Born in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, He left for Maryland in 1988 and now works for the US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

"Today, we have so many compatriots coming together and received by the premier. It was encouraging to see him, showing the importance the Chinese government attaches to us," He said.
German lawmakers voted Thursday to recognize as genocide the century-old killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

Germany joined about 20 other countries that recognize the killings as genocide.

Historians estimate that the Ottoman Turks killed as many as 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1917. Armenia has long sought international recognition of the event as genocide.

Turkey has confirmed that thousands of Armenians died during World War I. But the Turkish government has denied that the killings represented a campaign of genocide.

The Turkish government ordered Germanys top diplomat go to the foreign ministry in Ankara after the German parliaments vote.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the vote. The resolution adopted by the German parliament will seriously impact relations between Germany and Turkey, he said.

Erdogan spoke to reporters during a visit to Kenya.

Women Seeks to Shake Up Turkish Politics

The Turkish president is seeking to extend his powers. He can reach that goal two ways. He can call and win a special nationwide election. Or a two-thirds majority in parliament can approve the extension. Political observers say either way is dependent on a weakening of Turkeys Nationalist Action Party, or MHP.

Former interior minister Meral Aksener is seeking to lead the party. She also is increasingly seen as the biggest threat to the president and his efforts to change the constitution.

Recently, large crowds gathered to see Aksener during her visit to Turkeys Black Sea area. The area is a center of Turkish nationalism. The MHP once had a strong following there. However, the ruling AKP has taken votes from the MHP in recent elections.

The MHPs support collapsed in general elections last November. The party lost half its seats and won just enough to enter parliament. Many of its supporters voted instead for the AKP. This helped the ruling party gain a large majority.

Aksenser served in the government in the 1990s. Atilla Yesilada says that makes Aksener a possible threat to President Erdogan and the AKP. Yesilada is a Turkey politics expert with Global Source Partners.

The real threat to Erdogan is going to come from the center-right. And Meral Aksener has very strong center-right credentials. She was interior minister. You know, she was there when the army and security forces purged the PKK from Turkey, so she is a very tough woman. And journalists who follow her trail in Anatolia report huge interest; huge convoys are greeting her wherever she goes; I mean, we are talking 400, 450 vehicles.

Disagreement Among MHP's Membership

Aksenser is hoping to replace Devlet Bahceli as the MHPs chief. The current MHP leadership has gone to court to block her from calling an emergency party conference.

Observers say there are reports that Erdogan was responsible for a series of legal delays. Turkeys highest administrative court finally ruled the conference must be held.

Kadri Gursel writes opinion pieces for Turkeys Cumhuriyet newspaper and Al-Monitor website. He says the party meeting could have a far-reaching effect on Turkish politics.

According to surveys, if Aksener replaces Devlet Bahceli in MHP, she will push MHP public support to unprecedented levels, (and) also make it impossible (for) Erdogan to realize his dreams of becoming a constitutional dictator or to have his (two-thirds) parliamentary majority in a snap election anytime soon. That is why Erdogan will prevent Aksener (from) becoming MHP leader for any cost.

Political watchers say an Aksener-led MHP could offer Turkish voters a conservative alternative to the AKP.

Im Caty Weaver.

Dorian Jones reported on this story for VOANews.com. George Grow adapted his story for Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and post on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

impact - n. a powerful influence or effect

purged  v. removed; ousted

journalist  n. a news reporter

convoy  n. a group of vehicles

survey  n. a public opinion study

alternative  n. something that can be chosen instead of something else; a choice


Detroit, Michigan has been the center of Americas automobile industry since the early 20th century.

Detroit, the Motor City as it is known, is home to the Big Three U.S. automakers: General Motors, Chrysler and Ford.

This year, U.S. automakers are expected to sell a record number of vehicles. And Michigan produces more cars and trucks than any other state.

But it is hard to forget 2008. That year, the U.S. government rescued GM and Chrysler from failure. Ford also received help, a government line of credit.

During that period, hundreds of thousands of workers lost their jobs as auto factories and their supply companies shrank or closed.

Now, a new play in New York looks at four auto workers struggling in hard economic times.

Skeleton Crew is the latest play by Detroit native Dominique Morisseau. It is her third play about her hometown.

Skeleton Crew received a special honor at this year's Obie awards. The Obies recognize plays performed at New York area theaters with fewer than 500 seats.

The play takes place at a factory that makes car parts for the Big Three auto makers. But times are difficult. The factory has dismissed a lot of workers. Those who remain are the skeleton crew, the fewest workers required to keep the factory operating.

Morriseau spoke about the play earlier this year to radio station WNYC.

Its exploring a group of workers, a family of workers, who sort of have to deal with the different impacts that this potential closing will have on them."

A hometown tale

The story is all very personal for Morriseau, who was born and raised in Detroit. She said she wanted to learn more about the people that lived through some of the citys crises.

So she went home to talk to people about what it felt like to be in Detroit in 2008, when the auto industry was on the edge of collapse.

For the workers in "Skeleton Crew," it was an earth-shaking moment. Ruben Santiago-Hudson is the plays director. He says Morisseau is able to create her characters with empathy.

"This play is really important, in the sense that you come into the world of blue-collar life. So, to go and see the integrity of these people and also how they feed off each other  theyre so, all different and they all need each other."

Nikiya Mathis plays the part of Shanita in Skeleton Crew. At one point, Shanita is talking to co-worker Faye Davis, played by Lynda Gravatt.

"You gotta make yourself irreplaceable. Thats what Im doing."

"How you figure you irreplaceable? I been from stampin doors to installing shocks to them seven years I spent sewing interiors. Aint nobody in this plant more irreplaceable than Faye Davis is!"

Everyone's replaceable

But, as "Skeleton Crew" goes on, all the workers learn just how replaceable they are. The supervisor could lose his house in the economic downturn. The worker might have to take a lower-paying job, as she prepares to have her first baby. And, shop leader Faye has been making cars her entire life, but now, she lives in one.

Lynda Gravatt says Faye is both strong and defenseless.

"And life has beaten her, and she hasnt quite figured out how to negotiate or how life has beaten her or why it has beaten her. So, she, you know, spends her money going to casinos  which many people do."

In a way, "Skeleton Crew" examines how the financial crisis in Detroit, and in the country, creates personal crises.

Santiago-Hudson says those crises feel and sound real.

"Dominique hears the language of her life, of her community. And she not only hears it, she relays it just the way she heard it."

Shes just trying to let you experience them, he says.

Im Jill Robbins.

Jeff Lunden wrote this report for VOA News. Caty Weaver adapted his report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

The character of Faye is said to be beaten by her life. What do you think that means? Leave your answer in our Comment section, and post on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

skeleton crew  n. the fewest number of workers needed to continue operation at a workplace

impact  n. a powerful or major influence or effect

potential  adj. capable of becoming real; possible

empathy  n. the ability to share someone else's feelings

blue-collar  adj. requiring physical work

integrity  n. the quality of being honest and fair

irreplaceable  adj. too valuable or rare to be replaced; not replaceable

casino  n. a building or room that has games of chance (such as roulette or blackjack) for gambling
Extremists rushed into a vegan restaurant in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Sunday and threw meat at customers.

Witnesses said the ultranationalists angrily entered the Kiwi Cafe, which does not serve meat or fish, reported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. They were described as wearing sausages around their necks and carrying slabs of meat on sticks.

The clash spilled onto the street outside, and neighbors joined in the fight. It was not clear who was fighting who, RFE/RL.com reported. Minor injuries were reported.

On the cafe Facebook page, staff described the attackers as neo-Nazis. Employees were quoted as linking the attackers to the skinhead group called Georgian Power.

That organization denied it was involved on Monday.

The Facebook post said the assailants asked neighbors about the restaurant weeks before the attack. They asked if the restaurant was a place for foreigners or if customers were gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

One witness wrote that the attackers ate grilled meat in front of customers. The post said the attackers also threw meat, sausages and fish. A fight between customers and attackers started after the food was thrown.

Some in Europe have linked the restaurant incident to a new round of culture wars. On one side are young people seeking to draw closer to Western Europe and its lifestyles.

On the other side are neo-Nazis or skinheads, who resist influence from Western culture in the former Soviet bloc country.

Im Bruce Alpert.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported this story. Jim Dresbach adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and post on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

vegan  n. a person who does not eat any food that comes from animals

ultranationalists  n. a group who is very loyal to their country and would commit terrible acts to the countrys citizens

sausages -- n. meats that are ground up and stuffed into a case that looks like a balloon

neo-Nazis  n. a group that believes in the ideas and policies of Hitler's Nazis and sometimes commits violent acts

gay  adj. sexually attracted to someone who is the same sex

lesbian  n. a woman who is sexually attracted to other women

bisexual  adj. sexually attracted to both men and women

transgender  adj. have a sexual identity that is not clearly male or clearly female

skinhead  n. a young white person who belongs to a gang whose members shave their heads and have racist beliefs
This is Whats Trending Today

Americans observed Gun Violence Awareness Day on Thursday.

Mass shootings have become very common in the United States, but the country remains divided over what to do about it.

Some Americans want stronger gun controls. Others say people should be free to carry guns wherever they want to protect themselves.

Three years ago, a group of teenagers from the South Side of Chicago launched a campaign. The group asked their classmates to honor Hadiya Pendleton, a victim of gun violence, by wearing orange shirts.

The color orange represents the value of human life.

The local action has grown into a national movement called Wear Orange. The hashtag #WearOrange can be seen all over Twitter and Facebook.

Many famous American buildings or structures were lit up in orange on Thursday to help spread public recognition of the movement. One such building was the Empire State Building in New York City.

Many famous Americans and organizations expressed support for the movement.

President Barack Obamas official Twitter page urged people to speak out against gun violence.

Director, producer and actor Ron Howard advised people not to just #WearOrange, but also to take action and write to lawmakers about the issue.

The rights group Amnesty International supported the #WearOrange movement by tweeting, Every person, everywhere, has a right to live safe from gun violence.

Victims of gun violence and their families also used social media to show their support for the #WearOrange movement.

Kate Ranta was a victim of gun violence. In her Facebook post, she wrote that she is wearing orange for those who were injured and have to live forever with the physical and emotional scars.

Some people disagree that guns are the problem. One Twitter user wrote that guns are not violent, people are.

Another Twitter user objected to #WearOrange because he believes that it is another way progressives are trying to ban guns from lawful citizens.

The issue of gun safety and gun control continues to be debated across the country.

And thats Whats Trending Today.

Im Mehrnoush Karimian-Ainsworth.

Mehrnoush Karimian-Ainsworth wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

What do you think about gun violence in America? Did you wear orange today, or know why others wore orange today? Please leave us a Comment, and post on our Facebook page, thank you!

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

teenager  n. someone between 13 and 19 years old

scars  n. a mark left on your skin after a wound heals

progressives  n. people who favor new or modern ideas, especially in politics and education
Deuel County Deputy Mike Hutchinson, who continues to recover from four gunshot wounds suffered during a December ambush while serving an arrest warrant, has lost his family health insurance because hes not working at least 30 hours a week.

Hutchinson hopes that officials in the small western Nebraska county can find about $1,500 a month to temporarily continue his group health coverage  under a law known as COBRA  until he can return to work.

I didnt ask to be shot, Hutchinson said Wednesday. I was wounded on the job. ... Im not asking for anything special. Just dont cancel my insurance.

Hutchinsons medical bills and many other expenses related to the Dec. 3, 2015, incident in Big Springs continue to be covered by workers compensation insurance. However, for example, Hutchinson now has no insurance coverage for injuries if he or his wife were hurt in a car crash when driving to Ogallala for a doctors appointment.

Hutchinson said he received a letter last week from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, the Omaha-based insurance company that handles DeuelCountys group health plan, stating that his policy would be terminated May 31 because he was not actively working.

Leslie Preston, finance manager

for the Nebraska Association of County Officials in Lincoln, said many county employees across the state are injured on the job each year. Insurance policies generally dont differentiate between injuries suffered when a county employee falls down stairs or gets shot. If the employee isnt working at least 30 hours a week, he or she isnt eligible for county-provided group health insurance.

In Omaha, thats not the case, said Sgt. John Wells, the president of the Omaha police union.

If an Omaha police officer were in the same situation as Hutchinson, he or she would be able to maintain his or her health insurance, Wells said.

Omaha officers are allowed at least 12 months to recover from such an injury and can get more time, during which they get to keep their health insurance. If they have to be medically retired, they can still keep their health insurance.

The city is self-insured, Wells said, and Coventry administers its health care plan.

Here you have a hero who basically sacrificed his health ... and this is how they are going to treat him? Wells said.

Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning said his deputies can have up to a year to recover from on-the-job injuries, and they would keep their insurance. That time could be extended if he thinks the deputy is getting better.

If I knew from a doctor that that persons ability to come back to duty was sometime in the near future, we would probably extend that time, he said.

Larry Dix, executive director of the county officials association, was in meetings Wednesday and unavailable to comment, Preston said. Blue Cross Blue Shield representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The Deuel County Board plans a general discussion about employee insurance at its Tuesday meeting in the courthouse at Chappell. County Clerk Polly Olson said the issue is scheduled to come up at 10:30 a.m. during a routine office activities report by Sheriff Scott DeCoste.

County Board Chairman Steven Fischer, a Farm Bureau Financial Services insurance agent in Chappell, declined to comment, other than to say, Its a sad situation, but it will get rectified.

Fischer said County Attorney Joel Jay is researching the issue.

Hutchinson said he knows of situations in neighboring Keith and PerkinsCounties in which the county has covered COBRA costs for injured employees by tapping funds from other accounts.

Im not blaming the county commissioners, he said. Theyre good guys; they just dont know what needs to happen and what can happen. There are so many unknowns right now, but I do know that something needs to be changed at the state level for future law enforcement officers and their families. To be injured in the line of duty and then pull their insurance and expect them to pay COBRA prices, theres just no way.

Hutchinsons wife, Karyl, has taken a leave from her job to care for her husband at home.

Mike Hutchinson said an infection set back his recovery after he returned home to Chappell in late February after four surgeries and more than 11 weeks in Colorado hospital facilities. He returned to the hospital in May so doctors could close a surgically created opening in his body for the discharge of body wastes. He expected to be hospitalized three days, but an infection kept him there about 10 days.

The wound is healing, and Hutchinson plans to resume physical therapy treatments Monday in nearby Julesburg, Colorado.

Im off work for at least eight to 10 months yet, he said. I havent been cleared by the medical docs or the mental health therapists. I still have open wounds, and I have to start over with physical therapy. Im back to square one and caught between a rock and a hard place.

World-Herald staff writer Andrew J. Nelson contributed to this report.
Shahid Kapoors upcoming film Udta Punjab, which has run into trouble with the censor board, will see him play the role of a rockstar, Tommy Singh, who is a drug addict.

To play the character was a big challenge for the actor, because of the characters odd combination.

He is a star, so he needs to look good but he is a drug addict so he needs to look destroyed. To play somebody who is good looking with a great body and personality but totally messed up, was tough. To achieve that I had to train without eating. Then I had to get into the physicality of the character. It was a journey which took three months to get there. I ate no food for three months and trained for three hours a day, says Shahid.

He further added, Its a very complex character to portray. Tommy is bizarrely original; very entertaining but very deep at the same time.

The film highlights the issue of drug abuse in the state of Punjab.

So what was more difficult to play  a drug addict or a rock star? It was definitely difficult playing a substance addict because I have never ever had alcohol in my life. I have never tried any drug. I have never had even half a bottle of beer. I was never interested in all these things and I have never supported it. I was one of those boring guys," reveals Shahid.

He further says, I had no idea how it feels to be a drug addict, I don't know their state of mind, I have never felt it and was never exposed. So I always wondered whether I will make a fool of myself or push my boundaries. When the film starts, he is shown chasing the drug, He feels the need to be high all the time because that is what gives him confidence. What happens to people in that space is either they are over confident or they are extremely under confident when they dont have it. They are never normal, they are up or down, either too high or too low. I had to understand all this to play the part.

He continues, though Udta Punjab is a piece of fiction with fictional characters, we have seen many famous pop stars who were addicts and died young. People loved them, they are very cool to look at, they sing, they are awesome at shows, and that is the journey of Tommy  the fall of a star because the musician in him falls prey to addiction and he becomes nothing. I had to express a gamut of emotions, so to some extent I went with my instincts but to a large extent I depended upon my director, Abhishek Chaubey."

Shahid Kapoor will be seen sporting long, streaked hair and 14 carefully selected tattoos on his body.

Playing the role took a toll on his body. The actor says that he would lie down after every shot. I was not eating any food, I was having lot of coffee which gave me energy. I had to be very aggressive because the character is always on a high which was very tiring. After the first 12/13 days shoot for no reason I fell ill. I got three blood tests done, I had no infection. I had fever everyday while I was shooting just because my body was too tired, says Shahid.

However, he refused to comment upon the censorship issue with the movie. It will be wrong on my part to say anything till the time they have taken a decision. But it is very clear that the audience wants to be treated like adults. They are intelligent and know what to watch. We had a song in the past called 'Bhaag D K Bose' which was released on technical grounds. There have been other movies with swear words which have got U/A certificate but I dont want to comment upon those. I feel Udta Punjab should be an adult film because of its mature content. But the audience should have the right to decide what they want to watch, he says.

Shahid has shuffled among many genres in his 13-year-old career and he says that hes happy to do it all. After Haider, Udta Punjab and Rangoon (where he plays a soldier in love with his motherland), I want to do a light, fluffy film where I can just sit and chat with my heroine, and break into a song and dance, he laughs.

In the next few months, Shahid Kapoor will get into another role: that of a real-life father! We wonder how he feels about it.

I will take some time off when the baby comes, I have planned out. I am really excited and looking forward to it. Its a really nice feeling. It will be a new responsibility. My wife, Mira keeps putting these cool apps on baby care on my phone and that is how I get weekly updates, says Shahid excitedly.
Hard taskmaster Mani Ratman has asked actor Aditi Rao Hydari to learn Tamil for her upcoming yet-untitled Tamil romantic-drama.

She may or may not dub her lines, but the director wants her to mouth her lines well.

Mani Ratnam has asked Aditi to learn Tamil before the commencement of the shoot. While its not known whether she will dub her own lines, Ratnam sir is very particular that she learns the language and mouths her lines perfectly, said a source from the films unit.

The principal shooting of the project starts from July or August. Also starring Karthi, who will be seen playing a pilot, the film will have music by AR Rahman.

Rahman has already started working on the tunes. Hes said to have already completed a song, the source said. Ravi Varman will crank the camera on the project, which is expected to hit the screens early 2017.
Just a couple of months before the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be staged in London, the first look of the characters have been revealed.

Furthering the Harry Potter universe, our beloved characters, Ron, Hermoine and Harry are now adults and the sequence of events take place 19 years after Deathly Hallows.

Cursed Child is based around an original new story by JK Rowling, playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany. The play, which is the eighth official story in the Potter saga, receives its world premiere in Londons West End at the Palace Theater on July 30, reveals BBC.

And so, meet your favourite characters, in a different avatar.

Harry Potter (played by Jamie Parker) and Ginny Weasley (played by Poppy Miller)

Harry Potter is now an overworked Ministry of Magic employee and a father of three (which would explain his more realistic look, wrinkles and all). He still has his glasses and scar, though. Some things are never meant to be changed.

Ginny Wesley looks a lot older, and much like a mom of three, than the girl who got duped by Tom Riddle in The Chamber of Secrets. We are also introduced to Albus Potter (played by Sam Clemmett), the Potters' second child. He is seen wearing Hogwarts robes, and it will make you want to squeal out in excitement!

Jamie Parker, while speaking about his experience to Pottermore, says "Theyre just iconic. These are stories that people have lived with for their whole lives, theyve grown up with and now theyre adults re-joining the tale, picking it up where they left off and Im one of them. In a sense you dont need more than the scar and the glasses, you kind of go, 'here it is' and I dont really know how to put it into words, its just immeasurably exciting and I cant wait to show it to people."

Ron Weasley (played by Paul Thornley) and Hermoine Granger (played by Noma Dumezweni)

First things first, let's address the elephant in the room. Colour of skin wasn't a prequisite for JK Rowling while casting for the role of Hermoine Granger, as is evident in what she told Pottermore: "And speaking of Hermione, JK Rowling said: 'I saw Noma workshop the part and when John Tiffany told me he'd cast her, I was overjoyed. She gets Hermione inside out."

All things aside, the spark of being a super geek, that Hermoine, the book character, made so very her own, can be seen in Dumezweni's portrayal of the character.

Ron Weasley, similarly, also has the goofy spark from his character, as well as the orange-ish hair. According to JK Rowling in Pottermore, Ron is still very much the Weasley we remember. She said: Ron in his forties isn't very different from Ron in his teens, except that his feet hurt a bit more. Paul's so funny and brilliant in the role.

And then there's Ron and Hermoine's daughter Rose, who Rowling believes, takes more after her mother than father. "Bossy but deeply lovable," she is described as. Sounds about right!
After Gunday and the controversial AIB roast, bros and co-stars Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh are coming back together on screen.

According to this DNA report, the web series is "a romantic-action-drama that will attempt to showcase the bromance between Ranveer and Arjun apart from some slick action sequences." It will also star a female lead.

While many filmmakers have been trying to get the duo to star in a film together, they have given the nod to this series, to be directed by Y Films creative head, Ashish Patil.

The script, also written by him, is still at a very early stage and dates are yet to be figured out given both the actors have a busy year ahead.

Y Films has done two popular web series so far, Man's World and Bang Baaja Baraat.

We are excited, are you?
Four days after he is believed to have gone missing, there is still no news on the whereabouts of leading Kollywood producer and distributor S Madhan, of Vendhar Movies.

A sensational suicide note, circulated over Whatsapp on Sunday morning, provides the only clue to where Madhan might be. In the five-page, handwritten tell-all, (under his company letterhead) Madhan said that he was seeking Samadhi in Kasi.

Madhans is a typical rags-to-riches story, the kind that abounds in Kollywood.

He started his career as a college admission agent or middleman, working with students to get them admissions into private education institutes under the SRM University umbrella. Madhan initially was very close to the SRM groups chancellor, Dr Pachamuthu (who calls himself Paarivendhar) and also runs a little-known political party  Indiya Jananayaga Katchi (IJK), an ally of the BJP in Tamil Nadu.

At any event organised by Vendhar Movies, Paarivendhar would be present as the chief guest. In the last five years, Vendhar had produced three films  Thillu Mullu, Pulipaarvai, Paayum Puli  and distributed in certain Tamil Nadu territories, at least 25 Tamil films including biggies like Rajinikanths Lingaa and Ajiths Aarambam. Madhan himself played hero as the late LTTE leader Prabhakaran in Pulipaarvai.

The buzz was that Madhan  smitten with the glitz and glamour of Tamil cinema  waded into production and distribution, without understanding the trade. He also had borrowed huge sums from financiers, who lent him money thinking that he was being backed by SRM and Pachamuthu.

Sources close to the SRM management have stated that there are no direct links between Vendhar Movies and the SRM group.

There is also an opinion that the whole samadhi in Kasi suicide letter was merely released to gain public sympathy. As per sources in the know, there are many cheating cases against Madhan, regarding college admissions, and with him losing heavily in film business, the best course of action was to disappear. In the eyes of the law, he is absconding.

An aspiring medical students father filed a complaint with Chennai city police that Madhan is yet to return the Rs 52 lakhs he took, with the promise of securing a college seat.

Madhans personal life too is curious, with reports claiming that he has more than one wife. His wives Sindhu and Sumalatha wre the ones who told the police that he was missing; however, they also asserted his innocence with regard to cheating students under the guise of securing admissions. It is Sindhu and Sumalathas contention that Madhans closeness to Pachamuthu had made some people jealous, and it was this group that was possibly behind his disappearance.

Some of Madhans friends, including producer T Siva, travelled to Varanasi and lauched a search for him, but could not trace him.

Meanwhile SRM group chancellor TR Pachamuthu has filed a complaint with the police saying that he has no connection with Madhan or Vendhar Movies. He also said in his complaint that Madhan had swindled a huge amount of money using his and the SRM groups names. Pachamuthu said the group would cooperate in the legal proceedings against Madhan.

One thing is certain: Madhans disappearance has left a lot of film financiers in Chennai red-faced. The police and a lot of other people are trying down to track the missing producer, believed by Kollywood to be privy to many secrets  and to have stashed away many crores.
New Delhi - Food regulator FSSAI has asked its central licensing authority to issue a show cause notice to Patanjali Ayurved over complaints about misleading advertisement of mustard oil product.

The development has come after edible oil industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) filed complaints with FSSAI and advertising industry watchdog ASCI against Patanjali Ayurved for alleged misleading advertisements for mustard oil and sought action against the yoga guru Ramdev-promoted firm.

FSSAI in an order asked its Central Licensing Authority, Northern Region, to issue a show cause notice to Patanjali Ayurved for "violations of FSS Act 2006, Rules and Regulations made thereunder and submit action taken report thereon to this office at the earliest".

The copy of the order was made public by SEA on Wednesday.

Sources in FSSAI said that the authority has sought a response from Patanjali over the issue.

There was no immediate response to queries sent to Patanjali in this regard.

"Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has also taken serious note of misleading statements made in advertisement of Kacchi Ghani oil and hauls up Patanjali for misleading advertisement," SEA said in a statement.

The advertisement is unnecessarily misleading the consumer and also derogatory and denigrating to the oil industry, SEA had said, adding that the vegetable oil industry was a responsible industry and such unfounded communications negate the image of the industry.

Also, ASCI has rapped Patanjali Ayurved for "false and misleading" claims in its various advertisements.

"The advertisement's claims 'Other than Kacchi Ghani process most of the other edible refined oils and mustard oil are made using neurotoxin Hexagon solvent extraction process.

To make profits at the cost of consumers' health many companies mix cheap palm oil in mustard oil", were not substantiated and the claims were misleading," ACSI said last week.

Patanjali, on the other hand, had insisted that its commercial was based on facts, findings and research. They did not intend to mislead anyone.
Osaka: Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said he was "reasonably hopeful" that the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill would be passed by the Rajya Sabha, Indian parliament's upper house, in the next session, and that all supporting legislations required will be in place by the year-end.

"I intend bringing up the Constitution Amendment Bill for consideration in the Upper House in the very next session of parliament, which starts next month, and I am reasonably hopeful of this being passed," he said, addressing the India Investment Promotion Seminar here, adding that members in the Rajya Sabha are "overwhelmingly in favour of GST."

"Now, on the assumption that the GST will be passed in the monsoon session (starting in July) of parliament, then by the end of the year those draft legislations are ready and the GST Council has to approve it," he said.

"After the constitution amendment is approved, there are three legislations that are required to be passed, two by the central government and one by state assemblies."

The constitution amendment bill needs to be ratified by more than half the states of the Indian republic.

The finance minister explained that the overall GST rate, which would vary for different goods, would be set by a newly constituted GST Council.

"Under the GST Bill, the rate of tax is to be decided by GST Council. The council comprises of states and central government," he said.

"I think in the long run, GST rates will moderate further. At what rate, the GST Council will start it, I don't know."

"There have been recommendations which have been made by expert committees, including the one that Ministry of Finance had set up. I'm sure we will try to keep rates as moderate as possible," he added.

The bill for a pan-India GST to thoroughly overhaul India's indirect tax regime has been passed by the Lok Sabha, Indian parliament's lower house, but is stalled in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) currently lacks a majority.

Jaitley is here on the second leg of his six-day visit to Japan aimed at attracting investments from the country to India.
Shailesh Gandhi, former Central Information Commissioner (CIC), has been an active Right To Information (RTI) activist ever since he left the job in 2012. Gandhi, who claims to have disposed off more than 20,000 applications during his stint as a Central Information Commissioner (between 2008 and 2012), continues with his crusade on a range of topics using the RTI as a weapon.

In an interview with Firstpost, Gandhi spoke on a range of issues he has dealt with including the Mallyagate, the RBI and the recent controversy on PM Modis academic degree.

Excerpts from the interview:

Will bringing private companies into the RTIs ambit be of any help in cases such as the Vijay Mallya-Kingfisher episode?

I dont think it is practical to do that. Implementation is a major challenge. If you do it with the private sector, with a weak judicial system in place, it will be a complete disaster. If each company goes and challenges it in a court, the situation will be untenable. Worldwide, only South Africa has brought private firms under the RTI ambit and, there, the experience has not been good.

You say that Mallya is not the big fish. But, will bringing him to justice serve as a good example to others?

My point is that the amount of attention spent on Mallya is distracting us from the more fundamental problem. To my mind, Mallya constitutes just one percent of the problem, while nobody is talking about the rest. There is so much hype on Mallya. His is a bad example but action against him should be a wake-up call to others, which is not happening. Even if we get him back, the weak Indian judicial system will not be able to do anything to him.

You have criticised Strategic Debt Restructuring and Corporate Debt Restructuring (CDR). But what are the alternatives?

It is a very peculiar story. If you are a small (business), banks will hound you. If you are very large, they will restructure you. My worry is if we continue at this rate (on debt restructuring), public sector banks (PSBs) will soon become like Air India. I am unable to empathize with this kind of restructuring of business. CDR is not transparent. I have not got any answer on my RTI application on it yet. My appeal is pending with the Commission. SDR is funnier. They (banks) will reduce the loan.

In Mallyas case, it is said that about Rs 4,000 crore is the interest component alone. Is interest not a cost? The bank has to pay interest for every rupee that is deposited with it. That is a cost and the whole idea of saying interest must not be considered is wrong. How will the banks survive then? If this goes on, then PSBS will be pushed into bankruptcy.

What about RBIs transparency?

In December-end, Governor Raghuram Rajans message to his employees seemed to reflect what was already stated in my orders (on transparency in RBIs functioning and that of the banking system) as a commissioner as well as the Supreme Court judgement. I had great hopes that a change is coming. Unfortunately, two-three months later, it appears nothing is happening. Now the RBI is saying it is not going to give information as suggested by the SC. The truth is that the apex bank has not gone for a review petition which is legally the right way of doing it. The RBI, instead, is saying that the SC must not release information which I feel is an illegal, unconstitutional and irresponsible behavior by the RBI.

Recently, Arvind Kejriwal invoked the RTI for procuring information regarding PM Modis academic degrees. Was it a breach of privacy?

First of all, the controversy over Prime Minister Modis educational qualification was an issue blown out of proportion. However, I would completely disagree that it is a breach of privacy. Privacy has many times been defined by the Supreme Court as things relating to the house, the body, sexual preferences, medical records and things like that. Under the RTI, a degree can be accessed.

Do you feel that RTI is being misused by political parties to score brownie points?

The number of RTI applications is certainly very large. However, this doesnt dilute the importance of the RTI Act. True, there may be some miscreants who misuse the provision. Its like some people coming to the temple only to steal chappals or pickpocket. But that doesnt diminish the holiness of the temple.

Naresh Agarwal of SP recently made an allegation that the RTI Act was passed under United States pressure. What do you make of such comments?

Naresh Agarwals statement, particularly, was unfortunate. This is an insult to my nation and to the Parliament. I am ashamed none of the other members of the Parliament got up and told him that his statement was an insult to the Parliament.

It shows that anybody in power generally dislikes being transparent and answerable to the people. Three serious attempts have been made to dilute the RTI Act  in 2006, 2009 and in 2013. This political dispensation (NDA) too does not like the RTI. It is unfortunate that Arvind Kejriwals government, to the best of my understanding, is no different from the earlier governments. It is sad, but true.

The RTI Act will complete 11 years this year. What more amendments are needed to strengthen it?

Nil. No amendments are needed. Nothing is perfect in this world. This law is good and it delivers. There may be certain issues but the law works reasonably well. Whenever there are talks of strengthening the RTI, and once it goes through a parliamentary modification, I am convinced that the RTI Act will be diluted.
Oil settled down on Wednesday on technical resistance at around the $50 a barrel mark, with the market retracing most earlier declines after OPEC sources said the group will likely consider a production curb at its forthcoming meeting.

Prices briefly slipped further after settlement when an industry group said its weekly data showed a surprise build in U.S. crude inventories and Iran's oil minister called for OPEC to adopt the radical idea of production quotas for individual member countries instead of for the group as a whole. Later, prices recovered to about where they settled.

Reuters cited four OPEC sources as saying the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was likely to discuss an output ceiling at its meeting in Vienna on Thursday. Three sources said the ceiling needs to be set substantially above 30 million barrels per day and lengthy discussions may be required.

But later, Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh disagreed.

"An output ceiling has no benefit to us," Zanganeh told reporters. Iran has steadfastly maintained that it will not curb its oil exports until they reach pre-sanction levels.

OPEC failed to agree on a group production quota for the first time in years at its December meeting. It also could not agree to an output freeze at an April meeting in Doha, Qatar, after Saudi Arabia insisted Iran join the plan.

Market participants doubted any quotas will be agreed upon at Thursday's meeting.

But during the trading session, the possibility of production quotas returning to OPEC helped crude oil prices bounce off session lows.

U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures settled down 9 cents at $49.01 a barrel, off a session low of $47.75.

Brent futures fell 17 cents to settle at $49.72, after plumbing $48.65 earlier. The session high was $50.

After settlement, industry group American Petroleum Institute reported a surprise build of nearly 2.4 million barrels in U.S. crude stockpiles last week, versus analysts expectations for a 2.5 million-barrel draw. The U.S. government releases official inventory data on Thursday.
The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directed the state transport department not to seize cabs affiliated to Ola and Uber Inc for allegedly plying without license, and also restrained the cab aggregators from demanding surge price from commuters.

"The Karnataka High Court has directed the cab operators not to demand surge price from commuters, and we as the government agency will honor the ruling of the court, asking us not to impound cabs affiliated to Uber and Ola for plying without license," State Transport Commissioner Rame Gowda told PTI here.

Making their submission, counsel for transport department said the cab aggregators, under the provisions of the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules 2016, should hold effective license issued to them.

Gowda, on May 28, had said that the cab aggregators, not having license, should immediately cease plying taxis and warned of impounding the vehicles.

"The companies which have not obtained licences from the concerned authority should stop operations with immediate effect otherwise strict action will be taken against such operators," he said.

The Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules 2016, which was notified in April, said, "No person shall act or permit any other person to act as an aggregator unless he holds an effective licence issued to him under these rules".

The transport department, had in April hit the cab aggregators by increasing the penalty from Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000, for allegedly operating services without obtaining necessary license, inspite of its repeated warnings to them.

The next hearing has been posted to June 20.

However, the US-based Uber has filed a petition in state high court, requesting it drop the new rules that require online taxi aggregators to acquire licenses and end surge pricing, a Business Standard report said.

For the second time, Uber has challenged the rules of local authorities after having taken on the Delhi government for denying it a license to function in the capital region.

Ubers move comes days after the Karnataka commissioner of transport directed taxi aggregators to suspend operations till they secured licences under the new norms.

The progress in Karnatakas licensing move is being watched by other states and may have an impact on the business model of these aggregators, the BS report said.

However, Uber has promised the Karnataka high court that it will not resort to surge pricing, indicating a temporary truce ahead of a legal battle to determine the validity of new regulations governing app-based taxi aggregators, Economic Times reported.

With PTI inputs
The government on Wednesday cleared proposal to set up India Post payments bank with a corpus of Rs 800 crore and has plans to have 650 branches operational by September 2017, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"The Cabinet has cleared proposal of postal payments bank. We have 1.54 lakh post offices of which 1.39 lakh are rural post offices. 650 branches of postal payments bank will be established in the country which will be linked to rural post offices," Prasad said.

Here is how the postal department is preparing to take on the behemoths:

1) India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) will start operations in March 2017 in about 50 districts and cover the entire country by the end of financial year 2018-19, Prasad said. It will offer basic banking, payments of DBT benefits, utility bills, collection of taxes/fees, remittances etc.

2) The bank will be run by Chief Executive Officer, and will be professionally managed with a representation from various other government departments including the Department of Posts, Department of Expenditure, Department of Economic Services etc.

3) Of the Rs 800 crore, Rs 400 crore will be equity and the balance grant.

4) Prasad said that all 'grameen dak sevaks' in rural post offices will be given handheld devices by March 2017. "We are reinforcing it further. I have had discussion with my officers to give iPad and smartphones to postmen in urban post offices," Prasad said.

6) At present, core banking network of post offices is more than that of State Bank of India. SBI has 1,666 core banking branches while 22,137 post offices now have core banking facility.

7) More than 50 national and international banks, insurance companies, money transfer organisations are keen to tie up with IPPB, he said.

8) About 5000 ATMs will be set up for IPPB initially. It will have a focus on rural, semi-urban and offer mobile banking platforms, digital wallets, use emerging technologies such as Unified Payments Interface (UPI), e KYC, AEPS and catalyse the shift from a cash dominant to a less cash economy.

With PTI inputs
It is the second anniversary of statehood for Telangana. The state recently got the nod from none other than Apple CEO Tim Cooks visit to its capital Hyderabad. Cook announced that Apple's upcoming technology development centre, which is expected to be ready by early 2017, would be set up here. The centre in Hyderabad will be Apples first technology centre outside the US.

In December, Google's chief executive Sundar Picchai in his visit to India said the company would set up a new campus in Hyderabad.

Telangana is sitting pretty with these milestones. Business houses and investors Firstpost spoke with highlighted Google and Apple as the highwater mark of the two year-old state's business prospects and said its growth and development was attracting investment from India and abroad.

When Telangana was created in 2014, it had a rocky start with abysmal power supply due to technical snags at two thermal power plants in Vijayawada and Kothagudem. But that has long since improved, says Devendra Surana, Chairman, FICCI Telangana Council. He says that from 30 percent power cuts in 2014, the state is now getting uninterrupted power supply and credits the state government and the central government for it.

Though the big names in industry across the world have visited the State and some have set shop in Telangana, Surana says the state has not attracted marquee investments. We dont have a port and that works against manufacturing industries, he said, adding that the government cannot do much about it as it is a landlocked state.

Telangana was ranked 16th in the World Banks Ease-of-Doing-Business index recently and Andhra Pradesh (Telangana was part of Andhra Pradesh before getting separate statehood) was ranked second. In response to the ranking, Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao (industries minister), popularly known as KTR - son of Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, had identified a few departments such as law, urban development, energy among others for not being readily proactive towards compliance which affected the business environment of the state.

To the dismal World Bank ranking, Surana of FICCI says that he has not witnessed or heard of any difficulty from the business community with regard to ease of doing business in the state. Ease of doing business is not a state subject and the state follows central government's stipulations, points out Srinivas Kollipara, one of the founders and Chief Operating Officer of T-Hub, India's largest incubator of start-ups located at Hyderabad, Telangana. Kollipara said that the state's policies facilitated businesses, both small and large and the creation of the T-Hub is an example of the state's intention to promote start-ups.

Sanjay Enishetty, Managing Director of the Hyderabad-based 50K Ventures, a network of HNIs, accredited investors and mentors, credits the recently inducted ministers KTR, who took charge of the Industries portfolio in April as someone who can `do a lot for the state' and bring in investment from across India and abroad with his `for-business outlook'.

The T-Hub, an initiative between the government and key stakeholders in the start-up ecosystem, is one of the biggest achievements of the state government. By setting up a panel of mentors who are available to the start-ups, the government is helping startups progress, says Enishetty.

As one of the founders and Chief Operating Officer of T-Hub, Srinivas Kollipara claims that there hasn't been `wrong move' from the government that has gone against the development of a business environment. We have done fantastically well. I would say that I am the cheerleader for the government, he says. Kollipara claims may seem quite flattering. When this was pointed out to him, he said that his reason for 'praising' the Telangana government was because it was felt during the creation of the state that it would be biased against Andhra Pradesh and anyone from AP would find it difficult to set up businesses or base in the new state. I am from Andhra Pradesh and have not felt it, points out Srinivas.

The government has hit all the right buttons so far, most businessmen and women opined. When asked about the drawbacks or failings of the government, Surana said his only complaint was that red tapism is proving to be a roadblock in the setting up of more industries and start-ups in the state. What Surana wants the government to do is to release the incentives that it had promised investors such as stamp duty waivers, power subsidy, etc.

Instead of looking outside the state for investment, it would help if the government looked within by bringing the remaining 9 districts in Telangana (there are 10 in all including Hyderabad) at par with the stage of growth of Hyderabad, says Vanitha Datla, Vice Chairperson of the over 50 year-old Elico Ltd, an analytical and instrumentation firm.

"The government should encourage industrial development in these districts. Information Technology may not be the answer to these nine districts like it is in Hyderabad. IT facilities may not reach these districts, too and there may be difficulties to adopting technology," Datla said. She would like the government to actively pursue plans and policies that will lead to business growth and development in the remaining nine districts of Telangana.

Another issue that Datla would like the government to pay attention to is the revival of sick industries. "We understand that some policy on the issue is on the anvil. If existing owners of sick industries cannot revive them, then the government should make it easy for these businesses to change hands," she said.

Hopefully, the Telangana government and KTR will pay attention to these issues and bring the remaining districts at par with Hyderabad.
CINCINNATI The family of a 3-year-old boy who fell into an animal enclosure, prompting the killing of an endangered gorilla, said on Wednesday that it would not sue the Cincinnati Zoo over the incident.

The family, whose name has been withheld by police, said through a spokeswoman, Gail Myers, that the boy was doing well. They had said earlier on social media that he had a concussion and scrapes. They asked well-wishers not to send them financial gifts, but to make any donations to the zoo.

A 17-year-old western lowland silverback gorilla named Harambe was shot and killed by zoo staff on Saturday after the boy fell into its enclosure.

Witnesses have said the boy expressed a desire to get into the enclosure and climbed over a 3-foot (1-meter) barrier, then fell 15 feet (4.6 m) into a moat.

Cincinnati police are investigating whether to bring charges against the child's parents. Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said in a statement that police would confer with his office after they had looked into the matter.

The family declined to comment on the investigation.

Mounting outrage over the killing of Harambe has sparked criticism of the zoo and the child's parents. Online petitions at change.org have more than 676,000 signatures demanding "Justice for Harambe."

The Cincinnati Police Department released on Wednesday recordings of emergency calls made by the child's mother and witnesses.

"My son fell in with the gorillas. There's a male gorilla standing over him. I need someone to contact the zoo, please," the mother told an operator. "He's dragging my son ..."

The animal rights group Stop Animal Exploitation Now said on Tuesday it would file a negligence complaint against the zoo with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The group is seeking the maximum penalty of $10,000.

U.S. zoos are left to decide under federal rules how to make animal exhibits safe.

(Writing and additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Bill Trott, Toni Reinhold)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Patna: The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has put on hold the results of the toppers of Arts and Science streams of class 12 examination and called the first seven rank holders of the two streams for test on Friday following media expose on some of their purported inability to answer basic questions.

"A total of 14 toppers, first seven rank holders each of Arts and Science streams have been called for a written exam as well as interview by a team of experts on 3 June to verify the truth of the results. Their results were also put on hold," BSEB Secretary Harihar Nath Jha said on Friday, adding that the decision was taken last evening.

Those summoned for re-exam includes Arts topper in the state's current plus-two examination Ruby Rai and Science stream topper Saurabh Kumar, he said.

Some news channels had earlier shown the girl who topped the state government's plus two examination in Humanities had purportedly pronouncing 'Political Science' as 'Prodigal Science' and describing it as a subject related to cooking. Similarly, the boy who topped in Science was purportedly unaware of electron and proton.

Both toppers hailed from the Bishun Rai college in Bhagwanpur in Vaishali district. The institution had courted controversy last year as well when the then Education Minister P K Shahi had ordered withholding its results following complaints of large-scale irregularities.

Meanwhile, District Education Officer of Vaishali Satya Narayan Prasad said the BSEB instruction asking the toppers to appear before a team of experts tomorrow in Patna was today served to the Bishun Rai College for compliance.

State Education Minister Ashok Choudhary has already expressed his anger over "lapse" shown by the Board in publication of results.
Rameswaram (TN): On Thursday four Indian fishermen were arrested by Sri Lankan Naval personnel while allegedly fishing near Neduntheevu, a small island near Jaffna in the north of the neighbouring nation.

This is the second instance of arrest of fishermen from Tamil Nadu this week after the detention of seven persons from Rameswaram on Tuesday, on the very first day they put out to sea at the end of 45-day breeding season ban on fishing by trawlers.

The four fishermen from Kottaipattinam in Pudukottai District were arrested on Thursday morning and had been taken to Kangesanthurai Port for interrogation by Sri Lankan officials, Assistant Director of Fisheries Sekar said.

In another mid-sea incident, the fishing nets of 15 boats of fishermen from here were allegedly snapped by Sri Lankan navalmen when they were fishing near katchateevu.

The fishermen from this island, onboard 697 boats, were fishing in the Palk Strait when the Lankan navalmen chased away many found fishing in their territory, local fishermen association President T Sesuraj said.

The association had yesterday condemned the arrest of the seven fishermen and urged Chief Minister Jayalalithaa to seek the Centre's intervention and arrange for talks between the fishermen community of the two countries to resolve the dispute over fishing in "traditional" areas (Katchatheevu).

Jayalalithaa had already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to secure the release of the seven fishermen and boats in the custody of Sri Lanka.
As the Modi government completes two years at the Centre, one of the major criticisms it has drawn is in its handling of NGOs run by international bodies or funded by them in India.

On Wednesday, senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Indira Jaisings NGO, Lawyers Collective (LC) was served a notice suspending its FCRA registration for six months on Monday by the Home Ministry. This means that the association is now barred from receiving any foreign funds.

Jaising launched an attack on the government in a televised interview with NDTV. She termed the move as an intimidating tactic by the government to clamp down on her NGO. She further said that LC has not yet received a formal notice from the Centre, and that it has only been released to the press. She also pointed out that the first time the notice was mentioned in the press was the day Amit Shah had to appear in court in the Sohrabuddin murder case.

Jaising has actively protested against the decision of the court discharging Shah in the case.

The home ministry headed by Rajnath Singh has cracked down on a number of NGOs which have got foreign funding in the past couple of years, but controversy and criticism have marred many of his ministry's decisions.

In 2015, the government cancelled Greenpeace's registration under Foreign Contribution Regulations Act (FCRA) for allegedly working against the country's economic progress.

The decision of the home ministry came five months after it suspended its licence under FCRA for 180 days. It had also frozen its seven bank accounts, alleging that the environmental group was working against the country's economic progress and public interest.

The government had cited alleged violation of norms by the NGO by opening five accounts to use foreign donations without informing the authorities concerned.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the report cites various incidents including protests against nuclear and coal power plants in the country, and also accuses the organisation of receiving foreign funding in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act of 2010 (FCRA).

It is assessed to be posing a potential threat to national economic security growing exponentially in terms of reach, impact, volunteers and media influence, it notes. The efforts are focused on ways to create obstacles in Indias energy plans and to pressure India to use only renewable energy, The Indian Express quotes the IB report as saying.

While suspending its registration under the FCRA, government had also said the NGO under-reported and repeatedly mentioned inaccurate amounts of its foreign contributions.

The government had cited alleged violation of norms by the NGO by opening five accounts to use foreign donations without informing the authorities concerned.

Greenpeace, however, maintained that it did not receive any funding from government bodies or corporates and relied only on individual contributions to fund their campaigns. It termed the government action as an attempt to "silence campaigns".

In April 2015, the government placed the Ford Foundation, an American charitable organisation on a watch list saying it was funding groups which acted against the national interest.

"Among the violations noticed, it was found that the Ford Foundation had been involved in funding non-FCRA registered entities which amounts to serious violation of the FCRA 2010 law," a home ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying.

On 15 April, the Gujarat government sought a probe into the role of activist Teesta Setalvad's NGO alleging that it misused funds received from Ford Foundation to create 'communal disharmony'.

"We learnt that the funds which they received, especially from the (US-based) Ford Foundation, were actually used for disturbing the communal harmony and carrying out anti-national propaganda against India in foreign countries," Gujarat Minister of State for Home Rajnikant Patel told PTI. "We have written a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh seeking probe into the role of Setalvad's NGO (Sabrang Trust) after we found out funds given to the NGO were misused."

"During the investigation of Gulberg Society museum funds embezzlement case, these things came to light," Patel said. The Ford Foundation had given more than $500,000 to Setalvad's NGO, he said.

Setalvad was pursuing legal cases against Modi, accusing him of failing to stop anti-Muslim rioting that killed at least 1,000 people when he was chief minister of Gujarat. Modi denied the charges and was exonerated in a Special Investigation Team (SIT) inquiry in 2012.

A top official at the charity had said the fallout has hit projects that fight child marriage, provide clean water in slums and feed pregnant women.

Around the same time, the government placed the Catholic charity Caritas on a government watch list. The group has been operating in India for more than 50 years and works on health, education and poverty-related issues. A home ministry official told AFP that Caritas had violated India's foreign funding laws by financing groups that were working "against the country".

The government in all cancelled the foreign funding licences of nearly 9,000 charities last year.

The Prime Minister has criticised what he calls "five-star activists" and a government intelligence report in 2014 reportedly said they were working with foreign powers to undermine India's economic growth.

With inputs from agencies.
It was three days of utter madness in Gujarat after the burning of Sabarmati Express at Godhra on 27 February, 2008. The dead in the train incident were mostly Hindus returning from a ceremony at the demolished Babri Masjid site at Ayodhya. A backlash was expected. It was also fairly known who would be in the lead; only the scale of it was perhaps not anticipated. In the communal frenzy that followed more than a 1000 people, including Hindus, were killed. Unofficial sources put it at 2000 or more. But the number is not the central point here; whether there was a conspiracy or not is.

In the Gulbarg Housing Society case, the court on Thursday observed that there was no pre-planned conspiracy. Around 1500 people gathered at the society and started attacking the Muslim residents indiscriminately. Going by what the defence would say, it was a spontaneous act. The mob was only responding in anger to the Godhra incident. This could be the explanation for all other riots cases in those three days in Gujarat. Of course, the courts observation would depend on the evidence placed before it, but is there anything called a spontaneous riot?

This needs to be debated since riots are a serious issue. Participation of a large number of people in the attack on a hate target could be spontaneous act but it still needs some planning and a core group to fan the fire. Just as the Godhra incident could not have happened without a degree of planning  just look at the logistics part in terms of manpower and substances used  the Gujarat riots could not have escalated to such proportions without people actively involved in the planning aspect. The case is the same with the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Most of the people arrested and convicted in such cases are only fringe players responding to certain situations in a state of violent anger, but with no instigation involved the situation itself would not be combustible.

Riots have a motive, revenge is only one of them. Now that the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are approaching, theres talk of efforts at communal polarisation. That riots play an important role in the exercise is well-documented. This has been a recurring theme in India politics, no matter which political party is involved. The motive is often political and matter of wider ideology. The only challenge is to mobilise people and use their sentiment with the right kind of input at the appropriate time. It could be love jihad at some point or consumption of beef at some other.

It requires planning to get the masses sufficiently angry over beef or 'love jihad' and use the anger during times of communal tension. It is no secret that there are outfits which are actively into manipulating public sentiment. Theres conspiracy all the time. This is true of both the Hindus and the Muslims. The point is, unless the source of the trouble is identified and taken head on, riots would continue. When masterminds go scot free and only the programmed foot soldiers get punished, it becomes a travesty of justice.

That is one reason why the Ahmedabad courts verdict today is disappointing. It reduces 69 deaths in Gulbarg Housing Society to a simple case of attack by an angry mob, which never actually the case is. Perhaps this had to do with lack of actionable evidence, but the fact remains that the real actual perpetrators are free and they could be planning their next move already.

Unless we acknowledge that riots dont happen in a vacuum and these are only flash points in a long-drawn process, we will have getting people killed in such incidents.
The draconian Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA) is once again in the news. The NGO  Lawyers Collectives (LC)  license under the FCRA has been suspended for a period of six months for three apparent reasons  discrepancies in the statements on funds received and utilised by LC from foreign sources, rallies of a political hue undertaken by it, and that Indira Jaising, secretary of LC, was a government servant when she received the funds from foreign sources.

Following which there was a violation of Section 3 of the FCRA which expressly prohibits government servants from receiving the funds. Specifically, the MHA notice contends that Jaising, who was also an Additional Solicitor General (ASG) appearing on behalf of the central government in the Supreme Court between 2009 and 2014, could not have lawfully received such funds.

While LC would no doubt have the necessary factual responses to the first and second allegations, this piece focuses on the third allegation relating to Jaisings position  a pure matter of legal interpretation of the FCRA provisions. LCs response doesnt dispute that foreign funds were received between 2009 and 2014 in the time in which Jaising was an ASG. What it does dispute is MHAs interpretation of the FCRA; that this amounts to a violation of Section 3.

On this issue, the MHA has got the law completely wrong. LCs response that an ASG is not a government servant, even though she may be a public servant is entirely justified in law.

The terms public servant and government servant are often used interchangeably in common parlance, but in law they mean very different things. For the purposes of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, a judge of the High Court or Supreme Court is a public servant even though she would definitely not be a government servant. All government servants are necessarily public servants, but all public servants are not necessarily government servants. Would an ASG, a law officer of the central government engaged to argue cases in court and offer legal advice, be a government servant?

What the law says

Section 3 of the FCRA bars eight categories of Indian citizens from accepting foreign contributions. Sub-section (c) bars a Judge, government servant or employee of any corporation or any other body controlled or owned by the government from receiving foreign contributions. The FCRA itself does not define who is a government servant.

Section 2(2) of the FCRA imports definitions of words not defined in the FCRA itself from the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1950, Representation of the People Act, 1951 and the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. None of these laws also contain a definition of the phrase government servant.

So where do we look for the definition of the term government servant?

What the governments own rules say

While no law made by Parliament provides us with a comprehensive definition of a government servant we find a reasonably comprehensive definition of the term in the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules, 1965 (CCA(CCS) Rules) framed by the president, i.e., the central government. These rules have been framed under Article 309 of the Constitution of India which empowers the president to make rules for services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union, and the terms and conditions of service of those in these services and posts. Rule 2(h) of the CCA (CCS) Rules define government servant to mean someone who is a member of an All India Service (like the IAS or IPS) or the holder of a civil post.

A civil post is any post under the Government of India (GoI) which is not in the defence services. As the Supreme Court has clarified, any person who is involved with the GoI in any way is not holding a civil post  it is only those who are in a master-servant relationship with the GoI, i.e., directly employed by the GoI who can be said to be holding a civil post. The central governments own rules, as the apex court has interpreted and clarified them, suggest that a government servant is the one who is an employee of the central government.

A law officer is not an employee of the government

Jaising, on the other hand, was an ASG to the government of India  a law officer so to speak and governed by completely different set of rules, namely the Law Officer (Conditions of Service) Rules, 1987. Unlike an IAS officer or other employee of the government, she was entitled not a salary but to a retainer. It was not a permanent job but a three-year engagement by the central government, terminable at the will of either party with due notice. These rules dont prohibit her from practicing law on behalf of private clients  so long as she takes the governments permission and is not in a conflict of interest situation. Indeed, many eminent law officers including former attorney generals of India have appeared for private parties in the Supreme Court with no apparent conflict of interest.

Attorneys general, advocates general and other law officers are not supposed to be employees of the government. While they undoubtedly appear and act on behalf of the government, they are not beholden to it. They exercise their independent judgment in advising the government on matters of law and are not bound to toe the party line so to speak.

The finest exponent of this would be Indias greatest constitutional scholar, HM Seervai, who served as Maharashtras advocate general for nearly three decades, across governments. He quit only when the government did not take his contrary advice seriously and expected him to fall in line.

It makes sense therefore that the FCRA only prohibits government servants and not all public servants from receiving foreign contributions. A government law officer may legitimately advice a foreign company and be paid for it. She may even appear on behalf of such a company against a third party where the government has no role in the matter. She may even serve on foreign commissions and committees, as the late Goolam Vahanvati did. Nothing in the scope or intent of FCRA is intended to forbid law officers from doing what they are otherwise legitimately permitted to do so under the Rules applicable to them.

The MHAs strained legal interpretation of the clauses of the FCRA in LCs case bears hallmarks of the tax terrorism that the Income Tax department is often accused of when it comes to matters of international tax. The text of the law is not a shapeless lump of dough to be stretched and kneaded into whatever suits the specific needs of the day. Such a short-sighted approach in any area of administration only diminishes the confidence of the citizens and investors in the government. Matters are still at the show cause notice stage and one hopes that better sense prevails in the MHA.
Two days ago, NDTV put out a story saying that the Indian government is probing charges that Robert Vadra bought a 'benami' property in London through arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari.

According to the news channel's website,"Last month, enforcement agencies raided 18 premises owned by Sanjay Bhandari. Two preliminary reports prepared after the raids state that Robert Vadra and his executive assistant sent several emails discussing payments and renovations for a London home (12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square) bought for 19 lakh GBP (Rs. 19 crores) in October 2009 and sold in June 2010.

On Wednesday, Firstpost accessed registration records of the address mentioned by NDTV  12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square, London  through the official website of the government of the UK. According to government records, which anybody can check after going through a simple process, 12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square was not sold even once since 2005. It was bought by Harold and Shirley Sacks in September 2005, and since then, according to government records, it has remained with them.

After the story was published by Firstpost, NDTV's Barkha Dutt tweeted:

Funny @firstpost that you gave clean chit to vadra only to attack reporting of @ndtv @IndianExpress - but your own report has WRONG ADDRESS!  barkha dutt (@BDUTT) June 2, 2016



This mandated a re-check. The address mentioned in the Firstpost report is indeed 12 Ellerton House, 11 Bryanston Square, London. The address mentioned in the NDTV report is 12 Ellerton House, Bryanston Square, London (without the prefix 11 before Bryanston Square).

So the question is this: are these two addresses of two different places or are they one?

To reach a conclusion, consider these facts:

1) There is just one Bryanston Square in all of London.

2) There is just one Ellerton House in all of Bryanston Square of London.

3) There is just one Flat No 12 in Ellerton House, Bryanston Square of London. (There is one 12a too but that has not been linked to Sanjay Bhandari/Vadra by the media).

4) And this flat No 12 is owned by the Sacks since 2005.

Ellerton House is built on plot Nos: 10,11 and 12 on Bryanston Square. So, for the purpose of government records and registry, the address of the flat is 12, Ellerton House, 11 Bryanston Square, London, the prefix 11 indicating the plot number. The old postal code of this area was W1 H 7FF. But this became defunct in 2000 and was replaced by a new set of codes. The code that corresponds to 12, Ellerton House is W1H 2DQ.

There are thousands of flats in London. Vadra may or may not have bought any or many of them. The Firstpost report was neither meant to be a clean chit to Vadra nor a rebuttal of reports and efforts of other media houses. It is to point out that if Indian authorities are looking for Vadra at 12 Ellerton House, Bryanson Square (with or without the 11 prefix), its likely they are knocking on the wrong door.
New Delhi: India on Thursday joined a global ballistic missile non-proliferation regime but made it clear that it will not have any impact on the national security as well as country's missile programmes.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also said that India's bid to enter the Missile Technology Control Regime was "on track" and the process to grant the membership was expected to be completed "soon".

While briefing reporters in Delhi, Swarup said,"India has joined the Hague Code of Conduct (HCoC) against Ballistic Missile Proliferation by notifying the HCoC Central Contact in Vienna through diplomatic channels."

The HCoC is a voluntary, legally non-binding international confidence building and transparency measure that seeks to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles that are capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.

When asked if India's joining HCoC will effectively mean that country has to shelve its Agni missile programme, he said, "Our national security interest will not be impacted in any manner, whatsoever, by joining HCoC."

He also said, "Indias joining the Code signals our readiness to further strengthen global non-proliferation objectives."

Asked about India's bid to become member of nuclear control regimes, Swarup said,"As far as MTCR is concerned, our application is on track and well-received, and we expect that process of India's membership would be completed soon".

He also added that the country was in discussions with other control regimes like Wassenaar Arrangement for the membership.
Bengaluru: Authorities on Thursday arrested Karnataka state police association leader V. Shashidhar for planning to spearhead a strike on 4 June, protesting exploitation, low pay and poor working conditions.

"A case has been registered at Yelahanka New Town police station and Karnataka police association president Shahidhar has been arrested and presented before local court which remanded him to judicial custody till 16 June," said Bengaluru Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh.

Earlier on Tuesday, Karnataka government stringently warned against the planned agitation and invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) for maintaining public order and safety across the state.

Despite the warning, the Karnataka state police association which includes a 60,000 constabulary force has decided to push forward with their en masse leave on Saturday.

Shashisdhar alleged that constables are being forced to work for irregular and long hours, without proper leave mechanism and harassment by senior officers.
At least 17 people were killed and many were injured on Wednesday when lighting during a thunderstorm struck Odisha's coastal districts of Kendrapara, Ganjam, Bhadrak and Bhubaneswar, reported The Indian Express. At least 9 people were injured in the thunderstorm.

According to reports, three people were killed in Panchagan village on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, four were killed in the Hinjili block of Ganjam while one was killed at Peace Pagoda of Dhauligiri.

DNA reported that the total number of lightning related deaths in the state this year is 85. From 5 June, the pre-monsoon rains are likely to start, a regional MeT department was reported saying.

Meanwhile western Odisha is sizzling under intense heatwave conditions. However, the coastal belt is getting some respite following rainfall.

Bhawanipatna in the western region was the hottest place in the state recording a maximum temperature of 44.7 degrees Celsius, while the mercury stood at 43.8 degree Celsius at Hirakud, the meteorological centre said.

The maximum temperature at Titlagarh was 43.5 degree Celsius, followed by 43.4 degrees at Jharsuguda, 43.2 degrees at Malkangiri and 42.9 degrees at Sonepur, it said.

In at least eight places the mercury level remained above 40 degrees Celsius.

With inputs from PTI
Mathura: Superintendent of Police of Mathura along with five other policemen were injured on Thursday as violence erupted during an operation to clear hundreds of acres of government land from the activists of a religious group 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi'.

Police used teargas to deal with the violent satyagrahis in the Jawahar Bagh area where the clashes continued in this district of Uttar Pradesh.

The injured policemen included SP (City) of Mathura and SHO of the local police station, police sources said.

Unconfirmed reports said the SHO had died in the clash but there was no confirmation regarding this.

Over two years back, the activists of splinter group of Baba Jai Gurudeo, claiming themselves to be member of 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi', had occupied hundreds of acres of land of Jawahar Bagh on the pretext of 'Dharna' .

Their demands included like cancellation of election of President and Prime Minister of India, replacement of existing currency with 'Azad Hind Fauj' currency, sale of diesel at the rate of 60 litres for one Rupee and petrol at the rate of 40

litres for one Rupee.

The Allahabad High Court, acting on a PIL, had recently ordered the authorities to get the land vacated.
Senior advocate and former Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Indira Jaisings NGO, Lawyers Collective (LC) was served a notice suspending its FCRA registration for six months on Monday by the Home Minstry. It has barred the association from receiving any foreign funds.

Evidently upset by the move, Jaising attacked the government in a televised interview with NDTV. She termed it an intimidating tactic by the government to clamp down on her NGO. She further said that LC has not yet received a formal notice from the Centre. It has only been released to the press. She also pointed out that the first time the notice was mentioned in the press was the day Amit Shah had to appear in court in the Sohrabuddin murder case.

Jaising has actively protested against the decision of the court discharging Shah in the case.

Alongside her husband Anand Grover (who is also a lawyer), she has represented several people in cases against the government in the past. The recent action against LC can be seen as an act of vindictiveness and a blatant attempt to victimise the organisation, according to Jaising.

Three things that might have worked against Jaising and irked the government are: her public support for activist Teesta Setalvad, her eagerness to help people fighting against government officials and her instinct to protest against injustice.

In an article for Outlook, she wrote support for Teesta is support for access to justice for victims of a pogrom". She accused the government of conspiring against Teesta in a plan to deter her from assisting victims of the Gujarat 2002 riots. She further referred to the failure of the CBI to appeal against the discharge of Amit Shah in three murder cases.

Teesta too has been accused of violating the FCRA by the government and is being represented by Jaising in court.

The 2002 Gujarat riots have always been a sensitive issue and Jaisings support for the victims and Teesta made her extremely unpopular in some circles.

This is however, not the only case when Jaising has acted against the government. She represented Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai, who was stopped at the Delhi airport from going to London and speaking about the violation of forest rights of tribals in the Mahan coal block area of Madhya Pradesh.

Interestingly, months after Jaising and Pillai won the case, Greenpeaces India branch was banned from receiving foreign donations. This move is quite similar to the recent clamp down on LC. The government said that Greenpeace violated rules governing foreign funding, according to The Guardian. Jaising too, has been accused of violating FCRA regulations.

Jaising was also part of the petition urging stay against Yakub Memons hanging in 2015. She advocated against the execution along with Grover.

How she responds to this latest situation remains to be seen.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant an urgent hearing to a plea of former Uttar Pradesh MP Umankant Yadav seeking suspension of his conviction and seven years sentence in a forgery case to enable him to contest the upcoming assembly elections in the state in 2017.

The plea was mentioned before a vacation bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy, which said that there is no urgency in the matter and the petition can be taken up in regular course.

Advocate Dushyant Prashar, appearing for Yadav who has also been three times MLA of Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, said that he has been a former MP and legislator and if his conviction and sentence are not suspended till the pendency of appeals, he may not be able to contest the upcoming polls.

"We are not concerned with whether he is an MLA or MP. All are equal before law. There is no urgency in the matter," the bench said.

Yadav, who is out on bail since 2013, was awarded seven years jail term in 2012 in a forgery case.

In 2006, Yadav had got a plot of land registered in his name at Daulatpur Pilkicha village of Jaunpur district by allegedly misrepresenting before the registering authority.

It was alleged that instead of the real owner, the leader had presented another woman before the authority.

Geeta, the real owner, later moved the court alleging fraud leading to an order of registration of an FIR against Yadav who was then Member of Parliament from Machlishahr constituency in 2006.

Yadav has approached the apex court after the trial court and the Allahabad High Court rejected his plea for suspension of conviction and sentence in the case.

In his plea before the apex court, Yadav said that out of seven years of punishment granted by the trial court, he has already undergone sentence of six years and two months.

"Specific consequence that would follow from non suspension of the sentence would be that the petitioner being a political leader, who had been elected thrice as Member of Legislative Assembly and was also Member of Parliament once and the petitioner is prospective nominee for the upcoming election of Legislative Assembly in the state of UP, would not be allowed to contest the upcoming elections", his plea said.

He sought stay of the operation of the judgement of the trial court and suspension of the sentence and conviction in the case.
Laddan Miyan, the key accused in the Siwan journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case and close aide of former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, before the chief judicial magistrate in Siwan district court on Thursday. Reports suggest that police will soon start interrogating him to ascertain the motive behind the murder. He also claimed that he has no connection with the journalist and has been wrongly framed. The court sent Laddan to 14-day judicial custody.

Bihar: Laddan Miyan, key accused in Journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case & close aide of Shahabuddin, surrenders pic.twitter.com/ro3rcs8uWD  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

#WATCH: Laddan Miyan, key accused in Journalist Rajdeo Ranjan murder case & close aide of Shahabuddin, surrendershttps://t.co/P11KgKyJ7x  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

Siwan journalist murder case: Court sends accused Laddan to 14 day judicial custody  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

The Bihar police had arrested five shooters involved in the murder of the journalist on 25 May.

Ranjan, Siwan bureau chief of Hindi newspaper Hindustan, which is part of HT Media, was shot dead at a busy market near Station Road on 14 May.

The police also recovered arms and motorcycles used by shooters and they believe that it was pre-planned.

The police had also raided Bihar's Siwan jail and searched Shahabuddin's cell after the BJP alleged the role of jailed former RJD MP in the murder of Rajdeo Ranjan.

Shahabuddin, a criminal-turned-politician, locally known as Bahubali, has been lodged in Siwan jail for over a decade. He was shifted twice to Bhagalpur and Gaya jail for brief periods.

Bihar Director General of Police PK Thakur had also said that police have identified the shooters involved in the killing of the journalist.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that if the grieving family insists, then he will recommend a CBI probe.

He told the media: "The killing of the journalist is an attack on me. We have not left any stone unturned. The investigation is being carried out with highest diligence. Those who committed this crime (will get the strictest punishment)."

Journalists across the country termed the murder an "attack on the freedom of expression." Journalists also urged the central and state governments to enact a law to protect them and ensure "adequate compensation" in case of their death or any untoward incident while on duty.

The Lalu-Rabri era is termed as the jungle raj in Bihar. Under the Nitish Kumar government, is it return of the jungle raj?

Firstpost's Sandipan Sharma previously wrote that though its not jungle raj yet, Bihar is on a dangerous crime curve. He wrote: "The murder of Hindustan bureau chief of Siwan, Rajdeo Ranjan is an indication that criminals are striking with impunity. Though police are yet to crack the case, the nature of the crime - police claim it was a planned hit job suggests a dreaded don who is connected to the RJD could be behind the incident."

According to an IndiaSpend report, in 2014, Bihar reported 1,77,595 cognizable crimes, while Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan recorded 2,72,423 and 2,10,418 such crimes, respectively. However, when it comes to the murder rate in Bihar, the number is higher than either MP, Rajasthan, Gujarat or Kerala. Under-reported cases could possibly one of the reasons why the figures for the overall crime rate is less than the other states.
New Delhi: The fate of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, who is in the eye of a storm over allegations of corruption, hangs in balance even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah and said the party will decide "appropriate action".

A top party later said action will be taken against Khadse but it will not happen "on Thursday", indicating that it may come in some time.

After a meeting with Shah, Fadnavis said he has submitted a report to him and they discussed the matter.

"I have submitted a factual report on the matters which have come up recently. We have discussed them as well. The party will direct whatever appropriation has to be taken ahead," he told reporters after the meeting.

He later had a meeting with Modi during which he is believed to have discussed the raging issue over Khadse, who also allegedly received telephone calls from a Dawood Ibrahim aide.

Khadse has been attacked by political rivals and BJP ally Shiv Sena over the alleged impropriety over purchase of a land belonging to the government-owned MIDC in Pune at a throwaway price.

BJP sources said Shah considers allegations against Khadse "serious". Political rivals are also using them to put the party in the dock over its claim of providing "corruption-free" government.

Khadse is in a spot over the purchase of 3-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Bhosari allegedly at a low price of around Rs 3.75 crore from its original owner in the name of his wife and son-in-law. The market value of the land is reportedly Rs 40 crore.

However, the political stature of Khadse, an OBC leader who was a strong contender for the chief minister's post, is also weighing in the mind of the party's leadership before any action could be taken against him.

Khadse has insisted he has done no wrong.
Dhaka: Each time he hears of the latest deadly machete attack, Ashraful Islam can't help but think of his father's gruesome murder and fear his fellow Sufi Muslims will never be safe again in Bangladesh.

"The killings are not declining, they're getting worse. And every one reminds me what happened to my father," said the 30-year-old medical student.

"I've no idea why they are doing this but if they aren't stopped then our future is doomed, we'll become another Pakistan."

Islamists have claimed responsibility for around 40 killings in the last three years of foreigners, secular bloggers, gay activists, Hindus and Christians. Many have been slaughtered with machetes.

But no group has suffered as much as Sufis, an offshoot of mainstream Islam whose followers are often denounced as "infidels" for their mystical traditions, including worshipping at shrines.

Fourteen have died since December 2014 in religiously motivated attacks, including Islam's father Khizir Khan.

More than 100,000 Sufis are expected in Dhaka on Friday to attend an annual congregation, which this year is both a celebration and an act of defiance.

It comes less than a month after local Sufi leader Mohammad Shahidullah was found hacked to death under a mango tree in the northwestern Rajshahi district.

The deep wounds in his neck echoed Khan's murder last October when he was killed by suspected members of banned Islamist militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Khan had around 2,000 followers, many of whom would turn up at weekly prayers at the family home in Dhaka.

On the night of his killing, he had arranged to meet prospective tenants for a vacant apartment underneath the family's own flat.

But he went downstairs to an ambush by a gang who cornered him in a bathroom and then hacked at his neck until he bled to death.

The killers then burst into the upstairs living-room, tying up Khan's family, who later managed to escape.

"It was my mother who discovered the body in the bathroom. The head was partially severed.

"It was such a shocking thing. Every now and then my mother still breaks down."

Police soon arrested five suspects who allegedly told investigators it was their "religious duty" to kill Khan.

No-one has yet to be convicted for the killing and there have been few arrests in the other murders.

Most have been claimed by the likes of JMB or international jihadists such as the Islamic State organisation or Al-Qaeda's South Asia wing.

While more than 90 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million population are Muslims, it is an avowedly secular state.

For most of the first four decades after winning the 1971 independence war with Pakistan, Bangladesh had a reputation for religious tolerance and Sufi Muslim services drew tens of millions of worshippers.
In May, the Simhast Kumbh Mahaparv in Ujjain saw canals being built to divert River Narmada's water to River Kshipra. The government created ghats, from the ground up, to accommodate all the devotees and their urge to cleanse themselves of their sins. But even this humongous feat wasn't the highlight of the festival. That title goes unarguably to an incense stick.

But more of that later.

When it comes to Kumbh, for many of us, our reference points are Bollywood dialogues and the unending images of holy men smoking their way to salvation.

Reality hits you, when you see that Indians had been doing rave parties since before the beginning of time.

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The sheer number of people around, grooving to spirituality wants you to draw comparisons to concerts which you attend in the big cities.

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Amidst this you gauge your inclination towards religion a little.

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Somewhere you realise the bizarre nature of things. The level of dedication one puts into region is spellbinding.

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You then come across the miracle of humanity. (No, Burj Khalifa will probably look up to it)

But this May, the Ujjain Kumbh was home to the world's largest and most expensive incense stick. The stick was 121 feet in length, had a diameter of 3.5 feet, weighed 4000 kgs and cost Rs 2,95,350 to make. It was lit non stop for 45 days.

Watch the story of Kumbh's 121-feet-long agarbatti in episode 3 of Firstpost's documentary web series #ColoursOfKumbh.

Watch the earlier parts of the series here:

Part 1: The colours of Kumbh: Organising the globe's largest festival ain't an easy job

Part 2: The colours of Kumbh: A search for knowledge and salvation
New Delhi: Reacting to former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi's imminent exit from the party, the Congress on Thursday said that migration is a continuous process in politics and there is always an arrival as well as departure lounge here.

A Congress leader described Jogi's departure as "good riddance" for the party.

Jogi earlier hinted at floating a new political party and accused the Congress of being the 'B' team of the Bharatiya Janata Party in his state.

"We have heard that Ajit Jogi is leaving us; he was always a respected member for us. He was in the party for 30-35 years and was made a parliamentarian, a chief minister and a union minister," party spokesperson Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.

"Whenever a Congressman leaves, he always uses the Congress while coining the name of his new party. Mamata Banerjee left and formed the Trinamool Congress, Sharad Pawar left and founded the Nationalist Congress Party. So, the brand name of the Congress always remains," Ramesh added in an apparent dig at former party leaders.

He said Jogi should have talked to the Congress high command if he had any issues within the party.

Reacting to a question if the party will approach Jogi for returning to the Congress fold, Ramesh said: "Migration is a continuous process in politics and there is always a arrival and departure lounge here."

Another senior Congress leader, on the condition of anonymity, said the party observers believe that it will only gain by Jogi's departure.

"He was playing from (Chief Minister) Raman Singh's team. Last time, we lost with a wafer-thin margin because we lost most of the seats in his (Jogi's) stronghold in Chhattisgarh," the Congress leader said.

Recently, his son Amit Jogi was expelled from the Congress over horse-trading charge.

A leaked telephonic conversation had allegedly pointed out that Amit Jogi had fixed a by-election in Chhattisgarh wherein he "sold the seat to the BJP, putting only a demo fight from the Congress side".
New Delhi: The 19 June by-election to the Anantnag Assembly seat, where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is

contesting, is likely to be postponed by a few days as the Jammu and Kashmir government apprehends law and order situation in view of the death anniversary of a religious preacher falling on that day.

In a communication, state Chief Secretary BR Sharma has told the Election Commission that the administration apprehends law and order problems on 19 June when the death anniversary of Qazi Nisar, a religious figure in South Kashmir, will be observed.

Nisar, who was the founding member of the Muslim United Front (MUF) in late 1980's was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in nearby Dialgam village on 19 June 1994.

MUF was an amalgam of various parties including Jamaat-e-Islamia formed to counter National Conference-Congress alliance in 1987 elections.

The Anantnag town observes a complete shut down in memory of Nisar.

The letter from the state government said that the town generally observes a strike and it may be a law and order situation if elections were held on that day, the sources said.

22 June had been given as a choice for holding the by-election.

The state government had earlier also sought postponement of elections in this assembly seat on 16 May by flagging law and order situation.

The seat had fallen vacant after the demise of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on 7 January this year. His daughter and present incumbent Mehbooba Mufti has filed nomination from this seat.

Besides her, eight others including an independent MLA from Langate Sheikh Abdul Rashid have filed their nomination papers for the by-election to this seat.

Opposition National Conference (NC) candidate Iftikhar Hussain Misgar and Rashid filed their nomination papers on Wednesday. Congress has fielded Hilal Ahmad Shah.
Kurukshetra: BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini, who has been in the dock over his alleged anti-Jat rants, on Wednesday hit out at the Prakash Singh Committee report which probed February's mayhem in Haryana and said he would quit politics if it was proved that the violence was a result of his comments.

Addressing media persons at his residence here, the MP from Kurukshetra who had earlier been issued a show cause notice by his party BJP for his alleged anti-Jat rants, said his name in the report has been mentioned wrongly.

"I challenge that if anybody can prove that the violence or agitation by Jats was the result of my statements and comments, I will not only resign as MP but also leave politics," Saini said reacting sharply to his name figuring in the Prakash Singh Committee report for allegedly instigating violence during the Jat quota stir.

Referring to media reports that some ministers of particular community tried to influence Parkash Singh report, Saini said that "report seems to have been written under the influence of these persons".

He said that Parkash Singh should have taken his views also before mentioning his name in the report. To a question, he warned that next time people would not wait for governments action and would themselves tackle the people indulging into any act of violence.

He further said he has not done anything wrong for which he should be afraid of.He alleged that the leaders of the pre-dominant (Jat) community who are facing various criminal charges including sedition "are meeting Chief Minister and Ministers openly but police avoid arresting them."

Saini also said he is not a "ghulam" (slave), but a BJP worker, and he would continue to fight for the poor and downtrodden. He said that if raising voice in favour of downtrodden is wrong then there is no use to remain in politics.
Embattled Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse is now at the receiving end of a fresh political attack, this time from the BJP's oldest ally, the Shiv Sena. The Sena on Thursday officially demanded Khadse's resignation on moral grounds, news reports said.

According to CNN News18, Prime Minister Modi is upset over allegations against the minister. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is scheduled to meet the PM on Thursday in Delhi.

#BREAKING | PM Modi upset with the allegations against Maharashtra Minister Eknath Khadse: Sources #KhadseLandDeal  News18 (@CNNnews18) June 2, 2016 A demand for Khadse's resignation was also made by RSS ideologue Rakesh Sinha.

                    Dr Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) June 1, 2016

Khadse met Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday evening for around 40 minutes and the meeting. The meet saw the minister being questioned on why he was interested in seeking land marked for the MIDC, a Firstpost report quoted a party insider as saying.

BJP chief Amit Shah on Wednesday asked Maharashtra BJP unit to submit a detailed report over allegations against the minister, India Today reported.

Adding to the trouble, a report by India Today has said that Khadse pressurised a Pune Police officer to register a case against whistleblower Hemant Gawande, who exposed an alleged land grabbing scam.

Though Khadse has denied any wrongdoing, opposition has intensified its attacks on the minister.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania on Thursday launched a hunger strike demanding an inquiry into allegations of corruption against Khadse and sought his ouster from the state cabinet.

Damania, who met social activist Anna Hazare earlier this week, to seek his blessings before beginning with the hunger strike, reached Azad Maidan in Mumbai for the fast.

She also demanded that the inquiry be completed within six months and the case be heard by a fast-track court.

"There are so many corruption allegations against Khadse and the government should take action regarding this. I met Anna and showed him all the documents against Khadse. Anna said it is a grave issue and assured me that he will call the chief minister and bring it to his notice. I also sought blessings from him before beginning the fast," Damania said.

"I won't give up my fast till the chief minister gives me a written assurance that the probe against Khadse will be completed in six months," she said.

With inputs from PTI
Srinagar: Opposition National Conference and Congress MLAs staged a walkout from the state Assembly on Thursday to protest against a BJP minister allegedly encroaching upon 95 hectares of state land on the outskirts of Jammu city.

As soon as the House assembled, Congress and NC members were on their feet, demanding dismissal of the minister. Without naming the minister, Congress leader Nawang Rigzin Jora, quoting from a newspaper report, said it has been established by the Revenue Department that the minister had grabbed state land.

Speaker Kavinder Gupta said the Revenue Department will inquire into the matter, but that failed to pacify the agitated members. Jora informed the chair that the media report was based on a report of the Revenue Department.

"The report should be called for from District Administration, Jammu and tabled in the house," he said. Zulfikar Ali, PDP member and CAPD minister, said the matter was subjudice and cannot be debated in the house.

The Speaker then went ahead with the Question Hour. Congress members charged into the Well of the House, shouting slogans against the PDP-BJP government and later staged a walkout. They were joined by National Conference members.
New Delhi: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday met BJP president Amit Shah and submitted a report on the twin charges against state Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse of an illicit land deal and alleged connection with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

"I have submitted a factual report on recent developments to Amit Shahji and also held discussions over the issue. Now, the party will direct us on further steps that need to be taken," Fadanvis told reporters here after the meeting.

Fadanvis is also likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

Sources in the BJP said that the Prime Minister will take a final decision over the matter after consultation with Shah and senior cabinet colleagues.

Khadse, one of the most senior ministers in Maharashtra government, was mired in a fresh controversy this week as a Pune-based businessman accused him, his wife and son-in-law of various irregularities in the purchase of a piece of land.

The BJP's ally Shiv Sena and social worker Anna Hazare have been mounting pressure for Khadse's resignation.

Earlier, Shah had sought detailed report from party's state unit on the charges against Khadse.

Khadse is also facing allegations that mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar had made calls to him from his landline number in Karachi, where he is believed to be living as a fugitive.
New Delhi: The two-day BJP National Executive in Allahabad on 12 and 13 June will virtually kick off the party's campaign for the state assembly polls with "misgovernance" of Samajwadi Party and the central government's "good governance" as its planks besides projecting pro-farmer schemes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also address a rally in the city on 13 June, which will set the tone for the saffron

party's multi-pronged efforts to capture power in the state after 14 years.

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To counter the challenge of BSP, which according to many observers has bounced back following its rout in the Lok Sabha polls, BJP will paint it along with SP, Congress and Ajit Singh-led RLD as "partners" who were "allies" in Delhi during the 10-year UPA rule.

"BSP supported Congress during the recent floor test in Uttarakhand. It supported the UPA government all these years; so did SP. We will talk about it," a party leader said.

In a state where farmers are a key constituency, the national executive meeting will also underscore the Modi government's measures like crop insurance, irrigation and rural road schemes to "empower" the community.

The state government's alleged apathy in executing a host of central government's schemes like village electrification and rural road projects will be highlight as well.

A party leader said the state government had denied farmers benefits of the insurance scheme so far as it had not chosen an agency to undertake the exercise, adding that it will be a talking point.

In contrast, the central government will be projected as a "doer" which has established "new benchmarks of good governance".

Taking off from Modi's speech in Saharanpur on 26 May, when his government completed its two years, the party will

also highlight the Centre's efforts to clear dues of sugarcane farmers.

BJP may also use Allahabad, where lakhs of Hindu devotees arrive annually to take bath in Sangam, to reach out to its core constituency with party state's unit likely to make arrangements for the executive members to visit the holy place to take the holy dip.

Meanwhile, official sources said the much-anticipated rejig in the key party body will have to wait and it may occur later. Shah was earlier expected to reconstitute the executive before the Allahabad meet.
New Delhi: Shiromani Akali Dal leader and Union Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday launched a veiled attack on Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for "failure" to operationalise the Amethi Mega Food Park.

"The mega food park in Amethi was sanctioned in 2010 but till 2014 he (Rahul Gandhi) had not ensured that even a single brick was laid," Badal told reporters here answering a question on absence of food parks in Uttar Pradesh.

She said the "elected Member of Parliament" from Amethi could have done his part and ensured setting up of the park.

The minister defended the decision to cancel the Amethi park but hastened to add that following fresh requests, Uttar Pradesh may soon get a few mega food parks as new proposals have already come in. The state goes for assembly elections next year.

After the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government came to power, the Food Processing Industries Ministry had cancelled the in-principle approval given (by the erstwhile UPA regime) to a mega food park in Amethi on the ground that the promoters failed to acquire the requisite land in the name of the Special Purpose Vehicle in 45 months, even though there was a precondition of a six-month deadline for the same.

The issue of cancellation of Amethi food park had figured prominently in the Lok Sabha last year after Rahul Gandhi had raised it and had flayed the NDA government for cancelling the approval.

Harsimrat Kaur Badal, however, had later alleged that the promoter company during the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime wanted to play "fraud" and tried to run a power plant instead of a food park.

"After going through revenue model of the food park, we found out that more than 62 percent of the expected revenue would come from selling electricity on commercial rates to other units in the food park and only about 18 per cent would be generated for setting up cold storage and food processing," Badal had said last year.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and other newly elected members of the 14th Kerala Assembly took oath as legislators in the House on Thursday.

Protem Speaker S Sharma of CPM administered the oath to the members.

The new members were sworn in as per the alphabetical order of their names and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took oath as the 137th member in the 140-member House.

All his cabinet colleagues, including E P Jayarajan (Industries), T M Thomas Issac (Finance), E Chandrasekharan (Revenue), Mercykutty Amma (Fisheries), also took oath.

Congress members, including former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, and IUML leader and former minister P K Kunhalikutty were among the opposition members who took the oath.

For Chandy, this is the 11th consecutive stint as MLA from his home constituency Puthupally.

Former finance minister and Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani, who won from Pala constituency in Kottayam district, scripted history taking oath as an MLA for the 13th time.

Senior BJP leader and former Union minister O Rajagopal became the first MLA of the saffron party to be sworn in the state Assembly.

BJP State President Kummanom Rajasekharan watched the oath taking ceremony from the VIP gallery of the House.

Earlier, Rajagopal was given a reception by party workers at the Martyrs colum in the city.

The new Speaker of the Assembly would be elected on Friday.

CPM led LDF has 91 members in the House while Congress led Opposition 47. Besides the lone BJP member, the House also has an independent P V George.

The LDF has nominated P Sriramakrishnan, CPM MLA from Ponani, to the post of Speaker and V Sasi of CPI, who won from Chirayinkeezhu, to the post of Deputy Speaker and they are set to be elected given the strength of the ruling front.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday addressed a public rally in Balasore, Odisha. This is his third visit to the state in this year and the fourth one since he came to power in 2014. The Prime Minister will address a series of rallies as part of the NDA government's completion of two years in office.

In his rally, Modi said that the previous UPA government failed to deliver on their promises. "We don't want any state or any region in the country to be devoid of development and change. In the western part of India, there is economic development, why is there no development in states like Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha," he said.

He said that Odisha is a resource rich state despite that poverty has not been uprooted. Citing the example of BJP-led states such as Rajasthan, Haryana, and Gujarat which he said were better developed Modi promised that his government will adopt policies that will focus on the development of eastern India.

Taking a jibe at the UPA government, he said, "Earlier governments thought they ran the nation. And we saw the results of such thoughts."

He said that the policies of his government are "related to everyday problems of the poor in India".

Ye jan sailaab dekh kar pradhan sevak ko oorja milti hai. Hume jan jan ka samarthan hai: PM Modi in Balasore(Odisha) pic.twitter.com/2PMrjMnmM0  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

Talking about the contribution of Balasore  the missile city  in the development of the defence sector in the country, Modi highlighted how India's former President APJ Abdul Kalam had done some of his best work in the city. "Ye Dr Abdul Kalam ji ki karmabhoomi hai (This city has been Dr Kalam's greatest working ground)," he said.

Ye Dr.Abdul Kalam ji ki karmabhoomi hai: PM Modi in Balasore(Odisha) pic.twitter.com/ofnJa0ZEgD  ANI (@ANI_news) June 2, 2016

PM Modi had earlier addressed a farmers' rally at Bargarh on 21 February and inaugurated the oil refinery project of Indian Oil Corporation Limited on 7 February.

Earlier, the Prime Minister dedicated the modernised and expanded units of Rourkela Steel Plant to the nation on 1 April, 2015.

In 2014 Odisha Assembly Elections, BJP won only 10 of the 147 seats. Modi's visits to the eastern state are viewed as his attempt to make BJP's visibility and strength greater in the state. The BJP is hoping for a revival in the state.

With inputs from IANS
Chandigarh: Amid outburst from some of those named in the Prakash Singh Committee report on Jat violence, Haryana minister Anil Vij said it was not a "gospel truth" but an "informative" report and not binding on the government.

"This is a 451-page report and we are studying each paragraph carefully. It is a report, it is not (holy) Gita that whatever Prakash Singh wrote, all of it has to be right or that those officers who have been found on the wrong foot are guilty.

"May be, some officers are very good, their past record may be good. So, we will examine things carefully," he told reporters here when asked to comment on the probe report.

The five-time BJP MLA from Ambala Cantt said the government has taken action wherever it deemed fit.

He also said the Committee report was an "informative report" and not binding on the government.

"The Prakash Singh Committee report for us (the government) is only an informative report, which is that they (Committee) have probed and provided us with information. Even otherwise this report is not complete because the probe panel had three members, and out of three, two have not signed on the report," Vij, who has the reputation of even taking on his own government, said.

Notably, the Prakash Singh Committee report has indicted several top state police and civil officials for failing to control the riots in February this year that left 30 people dead. It identified about 90 officials who indulged in "deliberate negligence" when violence hit the state.

The report has received flak from some of those named by the panel.

In an unusual outburst, Deputy Commissioner of Jhajjar in Haryana Anita Yadav, who has been severely criticised by the Prakash Singh Committee, had yesterday slammed its report, terming it as a "bundle of lies".

BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini, who has been in the dock over his alleged anti-Jat rants, also hit out at the report and said he would quit politics if it was proved that the violence was a result of his comments.
With speculation rife that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi might be elevated to the party top post, there are indications of an internal rebellion in the grand old party. Chhattisgarh Congress leader and former chief minister Ajit Jogi is reportedly unhappy over the Gandhi scion's impending elevation and has decided to form his own party.

In turn, the party has decided to expel him from the party."The Working Committee of the Congress has decided to expel Jogi. His statements against the party are doing harm to the party," Chhattisgarh Congress general secretary Shailesh Nitin Trivedi was quoted by News18 as saying.

According to The Economic Times, recent electoral setbacks have increased the clamour for Rahul Gandhi's elevation. A Chintan Shivir, slated to take place in the near future is being seen as an indication of a generational shift in the party leadership.

In an exclusive to Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, Jogi hit back at the Congress party. Alleging that there is no space for mass leaders in the party, he said that the party is no longer the party of Nehru,Indira and Rajiv Gandhi.

The report added that about 10-12 Congress MLA's in the state are reportedly close to him.

The Congress party has 39 MLAs in the state assembly.

Lamenting the alleged step-motherly treatment of the central high command against his state, he said that forming a new party is the only way to defeat the Raman Singh government. I will take along new people, especially youth, to end this 'loot' of Chhattisgarh, Jogi was quoted by Zee News as saying.

Ajit Jogi was in the news in December 2015, when The Indian Express reported about an audio tape allegedly involving him. In the audio tape, he and his son Amit were allegedly heard seeking bribes to fix a bypoll to the Antagarh assembly seat for the BJP. The Congress candidate had withdrawn from the fray and the BJP retained the seat comfortably.

Ajit Jogi, a former IAS officer, became the state's first chief minister, after it was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000.

His rebellion may be an indication of Congress old guard's attempt to show dissatisfaction to work under Rahul Gandhi, when reports suggest that there could be a generational change in the party.

It remains to be seen whether Ajit Jogi's move will affect the unity of the Congress party in other states.
Islamabad: At least 30 people, including women and children, were killed and scores of others injured in the wake of heavy rainfall and thunderstorm that hit upper parts of Pakistan, it was reported on Thursday.

In Islamabad, 11 people died an 69 others were injured when torrential rains lashed the city, rescue services said, adding that at twin-city Rawalpindi 19 people died and 122 others were injured.

Power supply to several areas in Islamabad was cut off. "The Iesco operation was affected due to the rain and thunderstorm," an IESCO spokesperson said.

According to aviation sources, flight operations were also suspended at the Benazir International Airport.

In addition, Metro bus service was also halted after strong winds broke window panes of several metro stations.

The Inspector General of Islamabad Police said police personnel were put on alert.

Heavy downpour also lashed the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, causing widespread devastation. Rescuers said four people, two of them women, were killed in Nowshehra and Jamrud. A child was reportedly killed in Charsadda.
Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Zoo said Thursday it will re-open its gorilla exhibit next week with a higher, reinforced barrier after a three-year-old boy got into the enclosure, leading to the primate's fatal shooting.

Zoo spokeswoman Michelle Curley said the outer barrier will now be 42 inches high  a half foot taller than before  with solid wood beams on top and at the bottom, plus knotted rope netting at the bottom.

The zoo said there had been no earlier breaches in Gorilla World's 38-year history and that the previous barrier had passed multiple inspections by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits zoos.

"Our exhibit goes above and beyond standard safety requirements, but in light of what happened, we have modified the outer public barrier to make entry even more difficult," zoo director Thane Maynard said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a prosecutor was reviewing the police investigation into the parents of the boy, who fell some 15 feet Saturday into a shallow moat after apparently climbing over the barrier. A special response team shot and killed 17-year-old Harambe after concluding the boy's life was at stake.

Friday is "the earliest" Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters will make a decision on charges, spokesman Triffin Callos said. Legal experts have told The Associated Press that a prosecution in the case seems unlikely.

A Cincinnati police report identifies the boy's mother as Michelle Gregg, 32, who works at preschool near Cincinnati. The child's father isn't named in the report, and it's not clear whether he was at the zoo Saturday.

The boy's family has said he is doing well at home after being treated at a hospital Saturday evening. Police said he had scrapes to on his head and knee.

"The child was alert and talking," the police report stated.

A spokeswoman said the family requests privacy and has no comment on the investigation.

University of Dayton law professor Lori Shaw said child endangering cases are complicated and fact-specific. She said Ohio law requires that the defendant be found "reckless" and to have exposed a child to "substantial risk," or a strong possibility of harm.

Police released 911 tapes on Wednesday highlighting the confusion and panic in the moments when the boy plunged into the gorilla exhibit.

"He's dragging my son! I can't watch this!" a woman says in the 911 call on Saturday. As she pleads for help, she shouts at her son repeatedly: "Be calm!"

A record of police calls shows nine minutes passed between the first emergency call about the boy falling into the enclosure and when the child was safe.

The police report states that witnesses said the gorilla initially appeared to be protecting the child, but after onlookers began screaming, he became "agitated and scared" and began dragging the child.

The boy's family has expressed gratitude to the zoo for protecting his life.
LOS ANGELES A former University of California, Los Angeles, graduate student shot dead a woman at her home in Minnesota before he drove almost 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to his old school, killed a professor then took his own life, police said on Thursday.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, had intended to kill a second professor in addition to killing engineering professor William Klug, 39, at a small office on the campus, prompting a two-hour long lockdown, police said.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters on Thursday that a search of Sarkar's St. Paul, Minnesota, home turned up a "kill list" that included the name of the woman found dead nearby, as well as the name of the other UCLA professor, who was not harmed.

"We believe that Sarkar came to the Los Angeles area very recently, within the last couple of days," Beck told reporters at Los Angeles police headquarters. "He went there to kill two faculty from UCLA. He was only able to find one."

Sarkar had been armed with two 9mm pistols and multiple ammunition clips, Beck said.

Police searched Sarkar's Minnesota home after finding a note at the Los Angeles crime scene asking for someone to check on his cat, Beck said.

"In the search of Sarkar's residence in Minneapolis, a list was located," Beck said. "The list has been described as a kill list, that was the wording that was put on it."

Sarkar, 38, shot dead Klug, then killed himself, authorities said, in an attack that prompted a two-hour lockdown of UCLA's sprawling urban campus.

The attack appeared to be provoked by Sarkar's belief that Klug had stolen computer code from him, according to a March blog post that appears to be written by him.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Amy Tennery in New York; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
TRIPOLI The bodies of at least 25 migrants who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean were found washed up on a beach in western Libya near the city of Zuwara on Thursday, a Red Crescent official said on Thursday.

Hundreds of migrants have died in boat accidents this week amid a surge in departures from the North African coast towards Italy. Many of the boats are believed to have left from the shore around Zuwara and Sabratha in Libya's northwest.

Al-Khamis Al-Bosaifi said aid workers were still recovering the bodies, many of them women, and that the circumstances in which the migrants died were not clear.

A coastguard spokesman in Tripoli said no migrant boats had been intercepted over the past two days, with rougher seas preventing patrols.

So far this year more than 40,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Italy by paying people smugglers for the journey, broadly in line with a steep increase in numbers since 2014.

Smugglers in Libya have exploited political chaos and lawlessness to expand their activities along routes from sub-Saharan Africa, often working with local militias.

The head of the European Union's Mediterranean naval mission recently said that people smuggling was estimated to account for between 30 and 50 percent of the gross domestic product in northwestern Libya.

Migrants pay smugglers hundreds of dollars for a place on boats, often flimsy inflatable craft that either sink or are picked up by international rescue missions.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Beijing: China on Thursday said it will not allow any foreign organisation or individual to interfere in its religious affairs as it defended the crackdown against Islamic militants in Xinjiang province, bordering countries like Pakistan, as a "just act" to safeguard its fundamental interests.

Religious extremists, in the name of religion, spread radical and extremist views and take extremist means to try to establish a theocracy, a Chinese government white paper titled 'Freedom of Religious Belief in Xinjiang' released in Beijing said.

Xinjiang enjoys unprecedented religious freedom, the paper said asserting that the freedom of religious belief in the province "cannot be matched by that in any other historical period."

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, citizens' freedom of religious belief fully respected and believers' normal religious needs effectively met, it said.

In Xinjiang, "the positive role of religious circles in promoting economic development and social stability is well displayed, the government's capability of administrating religious affairs is constantly strengthened, international exchanges in the religious field are being expanded and the proliferation and spread of religious extremism is being effectively contained," it said.

Religious extremism is by nature "anti-human, anti- society, anti-civilisation and anti-religion," it said and defended China's efforts in fighting religious extremism, saying it is a just act to safeguard the fundamental interests of the country and the people.

The paper said the Chinese government resolutely opposes the politicisation of religious matters and any other country's interference in China's internal affairs in the name of religion.

"China...will never allow any foreign organisation or individual to interfere with China's religious affairs," the white paper said.

Xinjiang, which has over 10 million Uyghur Muslims of Turkik origin, is in turmoil for the past few years over Uyghur unrest over the settlements of Hans, the dominant community in China from different provinces settling there.

The province as well as other places in China including Beijing witnessed several terrorist attacks for which Beijing blames the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

Xinjiang shared borders with the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Afganistan, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The reference to any foreign or individual organisation in the white paper comes in the backdrop of reports that the leader of the Pakistan-based Jamat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed has criticised China for the crackdown on Uyghur Islamic militants in Xinjiang.

Saeed said that Chinese leadership was a "challenge to the Islamic way of life" and "hurting" China-Pakistan close relationship and called upon the Pakistan Government to "show some courage and direct China to stay away from hurting Islamic sentiments".

Earlier speaking at a conference on religions in April Chinese President Xi Jinping had asked officials to "resolutely guard against overseas infiltrations" into China in the name of religion and asserted that people of all faiths must adhere to the leadership of atheist ruling Communist Party of China.

The white paper said China holds the principle of independence and self-management in religious undertakings and foreign organisations and individuals must not interfere.

"China's religious undertakings are run by its own religious groups, personnel or citizens" and that the country's religious affairs or organisations are "not subject to any foreign domination", it said.

Foreigners must abide by Chinese laws and regulations when participating in religious activities within Chinese territory and must not interfere in China's religious affairs, state run Xinhua news agency quoted the paper as saying.

"As a provincial-level administrative region of China, Xinjiang sticks to the principle of independence and self-management in terms of its religious affairs," it said.

Affected by international religious extremism, religious extremism has grown and spread in Xinjiang in recent years, it said adding that normal religious activities in Xinjiang are protected by law and religious organisations are responsible for coordinating internal religious affairs and the government should not interfere.

"No Xinjiang citizen has been punished because of his or her rightful religious belief," it said.

The document said those who have violated the legitimate rights and interests of religious organisations, venues for

religious activities or clerical personnel or believers will bear due legal responsibilities, and those who have committed crimes will be held criminally responsible.

"Religious extremism betrays and distorts religious doctrines, deludes and deceives the public, particularly young people," it said.

Facts show that religious extremism has become a real danger that undermines national unity and ethnic solidarity, sabotages religious and social harmony, impairs social stability and peace in Xinjiang, and endangers the life and property of people of all ethnic groups, it said.

Religious extremist forces have designed and carried out a series of severe and violent terrorist attacks in China, injuring or killing religious personnel and believers and other innocent people, it said.

The crackdown on terrorism and extremism is in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, such as the Criminal Law and the Counterterrorism Law and is an important part of the battle of the world community against religious extremism, it said.
Washington: Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton will slam Republican Donald Trump for being too friendly with North Korea and too harsh on European allies during a foreign policy speech in California on Thursday, designed to paint the billionaire businessman as unfit for the White House.

The speech in San Diego comes as the former secretary of state seeks to shift her attention to the 8 November presidential election against likely rival Trump, and away from Bernie Sanders, the US senator from Vermont who is continuing his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination.

Trump has said he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program and has criticized the decades-old NATO alliance with mainly European nations as obsolete and too costly for the United States.

"Its important that people understand this is not just about Republican versus Democrat, that Trump is unlike any presidential candidate we have seen and he is fundamentally unfit to be our commander in chief," Clinton aide Jake Sullivan said in an interview ahead of Clinton's speech.

California, the most populous US state, is among six states that are to hold Democratic nominating contests next Tuesday.

Clinton already has a nearly insurmountable lead over Sanders in the delegate count, but is hoping a decisive win in California can help her clinch the party nomination early and quell concerns about divisions in the party ahead of the general election against Trump.

Clinton has already delivered several speeches on foreign policy and national security. Her address in San Diego will not break new policy ground, but will mainly respond to Trumps recent comments, her campaign said.

Clinton will argue that Trumps statement that he was prepared to talk to Kim Jong Un, made in a Reuters interview last month, has only emboldened him and invited him to be more provocative, Sullivan said.

A column this week in DPRK Today, one of North Koreas state mouthpieces, described Trump as a wise politician and Clinton as thick-headed Hillary."

Donald Trumps statements about North Korea show that he has more interest in making Kim Jong Un like him than backing up our friends and allies in the region, Sullivan said, noting that South Korea has worked with the United States on missile defense.

Trump's remarks on the decades-old NATO alliance of 28 nations will also elicit a response from Clinton, Sullivan said. The New York businessman has said that member nations should pay for their own defense to ease the US burden and that the alliance itself needs reconfiguring.

Sullivan, who worked with Clinton at the US State Department, said burden-sharing is not a novel point within NATO and that Clinton will highlight her record of getting allies to step up and share defense costs.

Clinton, however, would not walk away from the alliance, which coordinates with the United States on counter-terrorism, nuclear proliferation and other issues, Sullivan said.

In addition to California, states holding nominating contests on 7 June are Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.

California Governor Jerry Brown this week endorsed Clinton in the Democratic contest, saying she was the only path forward to stop the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump.
Beijing: As a teenager, Wang Keming felt nothing but contempt for the older peasant his village singled out for collective persecution in 1970. Stirred by Mao Zedong's radical ideology and inured to the rampant violence of China's Cultural Revolution, he beat the man bloody and saw nothing wrong with it.

Decades later, Wang felt something that few of the millions of people who committed abuses have publicly acknowledged: guilt. He expressed remorse to his victim and later he shared his apology in a national journal, in what is believed to have been the first public apology by anyone for personal acts committed during the Cultural Revolution's violent decade.

"I realized that what I did was an individual political act, and I must take responsibility for it," the retired newspaper editor said in an interview at his suburban Beijing home. "Otherwise, my heart would be troubled for the rest of my life."

Since Wang's 2008 public apology, dozens of other participants have accepted responsibility and shown contrition. The vast majority have not, though an entire generation was almost wholly caught up in the events. About one million people were estimated to have died from execution, persecution, extreme humiliation, factional warfare and savage prison conditions  often in the hands of their fellow country people.

The Communist Party, which still rules China with an iron fist, also has yet to apologize five decades after Mao launched the movement to realize his radical communist egalitarian vision.

The party closed the book on the era in 1981 without holding Mao responsible or apologizing to the nation. It instead rendered a verdict that the movement was a "catastrophe" caused by mistaken policies and a handful of self-serving political radicals. A further re-examination of the decade might further threaten its legitimacy to rule; last month's 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution was met mostly with stony official silence.

Advocates of greater openness say that without an honest accounting, wounds will never heal and the movement's unaddressed history will impede China's political development. Xu Youyu, a liberal Chinese intellectual, said that by failing to admit its mistakes, China's leadership set the wrong example.

"Such an attitude has affected the masses, giving individuals an excuse not to apologize, because those with graver mistakes have not said sorry," Xu said.

___

Wang was among millions of city youths sent to the countryside at the height of the Cultural Revolution in 1969. Then 16, he was eager to play his part and prove his fervent loyalty to Mao.

By then, schools had been shut down and urban teenagers were wandering the streets with little to do but pick fights with each other. To prevent further rounds of chaos, Mao sent them to the vast countryside, ostensibly to spread revolution and learn life lessons from the peasantry.

Wang found himself in Yujiagou in northern Shaanxi province, a stark area of loess hills where he was forced to endure back-breaking work plowing fields of buckwheat, millet, wheat and sorghum on the arid slopes.

Wang was not allowed to participate in the revolution in Beijing, partly because his father had been labeled a "capitalist roader," one of Mao's worst class enemies. Now he saw his chance.

"I really wanted to join the revolution. I thought it was a meaningful thing," Wang said. "The collective education instilled in me had sowed hatred in me against enemies."

He never had a second thought about using violence. "Revolution is violence," he said, citing a common saying from the Cultural Revolution years. "I never thought violence was a bad thing."

As an excitable teenager, Wang also preferred joining political meetings called to denounce those designated as society's bad elements over performing strenuous farm work.

"Since I slacked off in farm work, maybe I could make up for it by my zeal in the political movement, to show that at least I was politically reliable," he said.

So, when the village picked peasant Gu Zhiyou to meet its quota of bad elements, Wang enthusiastically joined the farce of shaming the man, whose alleged counter-revolutionary crimes had included quoting an ancient Chinese proverb linking a weather pattern to mass deaths. His critics said Gu was hoping for an invasion by what was then the Soviet Union, whose relationship with China had soured.

At a 14 August, 1970, denouncing session, Wang shouted slogans against Gu. The group took a break, and Gu sat on a grindstone in the shade of a tree, but Wang felt a need to continue hounding the man.

"But every word I heard (from him) was defiant, and I told myself, 'You can't be kind to enemies.' So I suddenly shouted, 'You are still resisting,'" Wang wrote in his public apology. "I stepped forward, raised my right arm and slung it at him. I hit his face with my fist."

Gu was left splayed on the grindstone, his nose and mouth bleeding. "I was a bit taken aback that I beat him to the point of bleeding, but then I told myself, 'He is an enemy, and I can beat him as long as he is an enemy.'"

___

Scholars say that by engineering the Cultural Revolution for mass participation, Mao unleashed destructive powers upturning the prevailing social order, distorting morals and setting free the ugliest side of human nature.

"The Cultural Revolution corrupted people's morals," said Wang Youqin, a University of Chicago lecturer who has documented Cultural Revolution-era killings. "Too many ordinary people were part of it, and they are unwilling to admit wrongs."

The movement began with a document issued 16 May, 1966, by the Communist Party's Politburo, which also purged four top officials. Widespread violence was not immediate, but that August and early September in Beijing alone, Wang has documented 1,772 related deaths of people who were beaten, tortured or took their own lives.

Many of the victims were schoolteachers persecuted by their students organized into Mao's bands of youthful revolutionary Red Guards.

Wang said the killing spree  intensified by Mao's encouragement of Red Guard violence  was one of the worst in Chinese history during peacetime.

"The weapons used to kill were not guns and knives, but the fists, clubs and copper-buckled belts of the Red Guards," Wang wrote in a 2014 article. "The process of killing often took hours or even days. It should be called torture-killing."

___

Cheng Bi, a 93-year-old retired Beijing school administrator, was abused by many students but believes two students  whose names she still remembers  should have apologized for their particularly brutal acts against her during the Cultural Revolution. One is dead, and she does not expect the other to apologize.

She recalled how she was forced to kneel with her arms raised while one of the students beat her wrists repeatedly. The other whipped her 45 times, turning her body purple.

"Anyone could beat me at any time," Cheng said, recalling how her persecutors shaved half her head to shame her in what was spitefully termed the "ying-yang hairstyle."

"They beat me with belts, slapped me in the face, forced me to perform labor and starved me. The students threw away my pain medications so I had to endure the physical pains," Cheng said.

In one incident, students slapped her rice bowl out of her hands three times in a row because they didn't think she deserved to eat, she recalled. "I was so humiliated I wished a big ditch would suddenly appear in front of me so I could fall into it," Cheng said.

But she survived. In her school, one teacher hanged herself after five rounds of savage beatings by students during a single night. Another young staffer was beaten to death by students wielding wooden training guns, belts and lead pipes.

Decades later, Cheng did receive an apology, from an unexpected source. Shen Xiaoke, who as a student once harangued Cheng using the ideological language of the extreme left, sent her a letter in 2010.

"It bothered me that I was so irrational then," he said in a telephone interview from his home in the central province of Hubei.

"I was really surprised," Cheng said. "I didn't think he'd done anything bad to me and wondered why he needed to apologize."

Inspired by Shen, several more students apologized to Cheng for their ignorance, rudeness and callousness during the decade. He's happy that a national newspaper published his letter, though it was printed without his prior knowledge.

"It can serve to represent the classmates who are too ashamed or do not have guts to apologize yet," Shen said.

He noted that it's easier for students with no blood on their hands to say sorry than those who do, Shen said.

He knows of a former classmate who kicked the teacher who later hanged herself. He said the former student has not publicly apologized, but privately has broken down wailing when speaking of the psychological burden.

___

After attacking Gu, Wang Keming remained in Yujiagou for several years and even worked alongside his victim. Gu was kind to him.

Wang said he felt a tinge of sorrow but quickly justified his act on the grounds it was a part of the revolution. "I kept coming up with reasons for my act, but my inner conflicts only grew worse."

In 1978, Wang returned to Beijing. He worked as a laborer, then landed a job at a newspaper. He later devoted himself to studying the dialects and folk cultures of northern Shaanxi.

Wang came to realize the Cultural Revolution was a mistake, and later concluded that he bore personal responsibility.

"When we put collective values ahead of individual values, there can be no place for human rights, and no respect for humanity," Wang said. "Because of people like me, a totalitarian regime gets to be stable."

In 2004, Wang apologized to Gu, who died four years later.

"Hey, it was a political movement," Wang quoted Gu as saying in his public apology. "You were only a kid and didn't know anything."

In January 2008, Wang's apology appeared in a national journal. The article prompted a book project spearheaded by Wang and other Chinese intellectuals to find more people willing to own up to their actions.

More than 30 agreed, including Zhang Hongbing, a Beijing lawyer who had informed on his own mother. She died during the course of her persecution.

"We were the accomplices of the evil," Zhang wrote.

Wang Jiyu admitted that on 5 August, 1967, he clubbed a boy who had hit him with a rock.

"He flew like a tossed bag and tumbled down an embankment. As he slowly crawled back up, I smashed him on the forehead and the blood splashed onto the club," Wang wrote.

He was never legally punished for killing the boy.

"Repentance is not enough, and it may take generations of reflection to understand why there was so much hatred," Wang Jiyu wrote in 2008. "For me, the remorse for the killing has only grown heavier with each year."
Thai wildlife officials have discovered dozens of dead cubs inside a freezer at a controversial "tiger temple" which has been locked in a long-running dispute with authorities and animal rights groups, police said on Wednesday.

Wildlife officials found the tiger cubs during a continuing operation to remove dozens of adult cats from the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in the western province of Kanchanaburi.

"We found 40 tiger cubs today, they were aged about one or two days when they died but we don't quite know yet how long they have been dead," police colonel Bandith Meungsukhum, a local officer, told AFP.

Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy head of Thailand's parks department, said they would file charges against the temple for keeping the carcasses without permission.

"A keeper said he was told to place the carcasses when they died in cold storage," he told AFP.

According to PTI, the site has been closed for public since the raid. Monks at the temple have previously denied trafficking allegations. But police and wildlife officials started an operation on Monday to relocating its 137 tigers, mostly Bengal tigers.

In the first batch, more than 100 tigers will be taken away from Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno, popularly known as the Tiger Temple, said the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

The temple has long proved a hit among mainly foreign visitors who flock there to be photographed  for a fee  next to the scores of exotic feline pets.

Wildlife officials say the whole complex is illegal and have battled the monks for years to try and close it down. The dispute has been complicated by the fact that secular Thai authorities are often reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy.

This week officials were granted a court order to seize the cats and have so far removed around 45 adults.

Animals rights groups and conservationists have accused the temple of complicity in the hugely lucrative black-market wildlife trade, making tens of thousands of dollars by selling off older cats and animal parts for use in Chinese medicine.

Last year one of the temple vets turned whistleblower, handing authorities three microchips he said were inside a trio of tigers who had disappeared. It has never been fully established what happened to those tigers.

'Preserved and frozen'

Wildlife officials have also discovered during previous raids dozens of hornbills, jackals and Asian bears that were being kept at the sanctuary without permits.

The temple has always denied trafficking allegations.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the temple said it was common for cubs to be stillborn or die shortly after birth.

The temple said it used to cremate dead cubs but the policy was changed in 2010.

"Instead of cremation, the deceased cubs were preserved in jars or kept frozen," the statement added, without elaborating on why the policy was changed.

The temple also denied selling cubs, saying such rumours were from people who have "jumped to conclusions".

Photographs from the scene on Wednesday showed the cubs laid out on a blanket alongside the body of a bearcat, some deer horns and nearly two dozen containers.

Thai newspaper Khaosod, which had a reporter at the scene, said the containers had animal parts and intestines inside them.

Edwin Wiek, a Thailand-based conservationist who has campaigned for the temple's closure and whose veterinary staff have accompanied wildlife officials this week in the operation to remove the cats, said the cubs might have been kept to make religious charms.

"The key thing is these tigers are illegal under Thai law," he said.

Moves to confront the monks and confiscate the tigers have been staggered over recent months. There are now believed to be around 100 tigers remaining at the temple.

For years the government has been seemingly powerless to resolve the issue, partly for fear of being seen to confront the clergy and also because officials readily admit they have nowhere else to put such a large number of tigers.

The temple, a popular tourist attraction, has been criticized by animal rights activists because of allegations it is not properly set up to care for the animals and flouted regulations restricting the trade of tigers.

The monks resisted previous efforts to take away the tigers, but relented this week after police obtained a court order.

The temple recently made arrangements to operate as a zoo, but the plan fell through when the government determined that the operators failed to secure sufficient resources.

With inputs from AFP, Associated Press and PTI
LOS ANGELES A former University of California, Los Angeles, graduate student shot dead a woman at her home in Minnesota before he drove almost 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to his alma mater, killed a professor and took his own life, police said on Thursday.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, had intended to kill a second professor in addition to engineering professor William Klug, 39, at a small office on the campus, prompting a two-hour long lockdown, police said.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters on Thursday that a search of Sarkar's St. Paul, Minnesota, home turned up a "kill list" that included the name of the woman found dead nearby, as well as the name of the other UCLA professor, who was not harmed.

"We believe that Sarkar came to the Los Angeles area very recently, within the last couple of days," Beck told reporters at Los Angeles police headquarters. "He went there to kill two faculty from UCLA. He was only able to find one."

Sarkar, 38, had been armed with two 9mm pistols and multiple ammunition clips, Beck said. He killed himself immediately after fatally shooting Klug, Beck said.

Police searched Sarkar's Minnesota home after finding a note at the Los Angeles crime scene asking for someone to check on his cat, Beck said.

"In the search of Sarkar's residence in Minneapolis, a list was located," Beck said. "The list has been described as a kill list, that was the wording that was put on it."

The attack appeared to be provoked by Sarkar's belief that Klug had stolen computer code from him, according to a March blog post that appears to be written by him.

"Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm," the post said. "Be careful about whom you trust."

Reuters was not able to confirm the authenticity of the blog.

"UCLA says there is no truth to this," Beck said of the alleged theft of code. "This was a making of his own imagination."

'HARSH LANGUAGE'

Beck said UCLA faculty members were aware that Sarkar, who had graduated in 2013, harbored anger towards them.

"There was some harsh language but certainly nothing that would be considered homicidal," Beck said, referring to social media postings by Sarkar. His motive for killing the woman was unclear, Beck said.

University officials did not respond to requests for comment on Sarkar's claims on Thursday.

Police in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, located north of Minneapolis, said they discovered the woman's body when they went to check on her. Police did not immediately disclose her identity.

Klug was a married father of two children, UCLA said in a statement on Thursday.

"Our entire UCLA family is mourning the loss of Professor Klug, a respected, dedicated and caring faculty member," Gene Block, the university's chancellor, said in a statement.

Reports of shots fired, or even sightings of possible gunman, have sparked heavy police responses and lockdowns at U.S. schools and other places because of the nation's history of mass shootings.

Last October nine people were shot and killed at Umpqua Community College in southwest Oregon. The 2007 attack at Virginia Tech where a gunman shot dead 32 people was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Classes resumed at UCLA on Thursday, with the university offering counselors for students, faculty and staff.

'CAN'T THINK STRAIGHT'

Students took to social media to ask the UCLA to reschedule final exams, saying they were rattled by the incident.

"How the hell am I going to study for finals when this just happened? I can't think straight," Bahjat Alirani, a UCLA bioengineering student said on Twitter.

"Students need time to process today. Hope my colleagues seriously consider postponing finals this week. Let's help everyone heal," Tyrone Howard, a UCLA associate dean and professor of education, said on Twitter.

UCLA, with more than 43,000 students, is one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Amy Tennery in New York; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: India is willing to discuss human rights issues on the basis of "equality and partnership" with the US ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here next week, but will not accept any kind of 'judgemental pronouncements' in this regard, Indian officials said.

The message has quietly and firmly been conveyed to the US with some of the American Senators raising their voice ahead of Modi's visit next week.

In recent communications with the Obama Administration and also with lawmakers, senior Indian officials have acknowledged that like any society, everything is not perfect in India and there are issues of social justice and human rights within the country.

"Of course, we have problems in India," an official familiar with the conversation said, but at the same time quickly pointed out that there exists an equally strong voice against any such injustices, be it violation of human rights or religious freedom or freedom of expression.

Indian officials, were quick to point out some of the recent developments inside the US itself.

"All societies have problems," officials said, adding that India is willing to have discussion with the US "on the basis of equality and partnership" but is not willing to accept any kind of 'judgemental pronouncement' in this regard from the US.

In New Delhi on Wednesday, key American Senator Ben Cardin had sharply criticised India on alleged human rights violations, extra-judicial killings and religious intolerance, saying these were "national challenges" the country faces.

At a Congressional hearing last month, a senior Obama Administration official had told Senators that India itself has a vibrant civil society who are themselves fighting for these causes.

"India is also an extraordinarily transparent democracy in that the issues that we raise are not only issues that we are raising, but they are grappling with these issues in the context of their own democracy and debate," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal had said in response to a question during a hearing on India organised by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"And that what I believe the administration seeks to do in these engagements is to find the places where our engagement on these issues can have the kind of results and actions, in a constructive way, that we would like to see," Biswal had said indicating that the Obama Administration agrees to the viewpoint of the Modi government that such issues can only be discussed on the basis on equality and partnership, wherein the two countries can learn from their best practices.
New Delhi: In a first, India will give tourist visa and e-tourist visa to foreigners willing to undergo short term course on Yoga in its bid to popularise the ancient spiritual and ascetic practice globally.

Realising the spread and importance of yoga world over, the government has decided to include attending a short term yoga programme in the list of permissible activities under tourist visa.

Besides, the government has decided to include attending a short term yoga programme and short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine in the list of permissible activities under e-tourist visa.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken a decision to include short term yoga programmes in tourist visa and e-tourist visa, an official spokesperson said.

Presently, a tourist visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing and casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit.

All Indian Mission abroad and Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs)/ Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs) in the country have been requested to take action as per the latest decision, the spokesperson said.

TVoA (tourist visa on arrival), enabled by Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), popularly known as e-tourist visa scheme, was launched on 27 November, 2014.

Under the e-tourist visa scheme, an applicant receives an email authorising him or her to travel to India after it is approved and he or she can travel with a print-out of this authorisation.

On arrival, the visitor has to present the authorisation to the immigration authorities who would then stamp the entry into the country.

Till now, the scheme has been extended to 150 countries at 16 Indian airports designated for providing e-tourist visa service.

Since the launch of the scheme, more than around 9 lakh visas have been issued. At present, on an average, 3,500 e-tourist visas are being granted daily to foreign nationals.

In addition, Japanese nationals are given visa-on-arrival facility, a move that is expected to boost inflow of tourists and business visitors.

The visa-on-arrival for Japanese is issued in business, tourist, medical and conference categories. It has a validity of 30 days.
New Delhi: The central government on Thursday set a deadline of one year to completely seal the 223.7-kilometre Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam and hoped the entire exercise will be completed by June 2017.

The sealing of borders including riverine areas and "technological barriers" will have to be completed by June 2017, it was announced at a high-level meeting here attended among others by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

The decision of the government comes close on the heels of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government taking charge in Assam.

In the run up to the polls, the party had pledged to complete sealing of the international border with Bangladesh in order to prevent illegal immigration.

"Additional Director General, Border Security Force and Additional Director General (Border), CPWD are already on site visit on Indo-Bangladesh Border in Assam to prepare comprehensive plan for sealing the border by June, 2017 by means of physical and non-physical barriers," an official spokesman said here.

The 223.7 km Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam should be sealed, the Home Minister said in presence of Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, Secretary, Border Management, Susheel Kumar along with senior officials of the department of Border Management, the spokesman said.

However, sources said there are 122 locations (60.7 kilometre.) where there is no physical barrier.

"In order to achieve the objective of sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border it was decided that 100 locations covering 11.9 km will have physical barrier," the source said.

At the meeting, the Secretary, Border Management, briefed the ministers about the progress of border security infrastructure, programmes of border management and the way forward.

"It was informed that 4,374 kilometre fence, 5,329.6 kilometre border roads, 3,974 kilometre floodlights and 2,420 numbers Border Out Posts (BOPs) have been constructed along the international borders for security of the borders," an official release said.

The government has also claimed that major impediments hampering the development of border infrastructure have been resolved during last two years which will increase the pace of development of border infrastructure in coming years.

"In the meeting it was also outlined that almost all the remaining infrastructure works at the border will be completed in next three years," the release said.

The Home Minister further directed that full use of technological solutions be made to secure sensitive areas along the borders.

This will involve networking of equipments like high resolution cameras, radars, unattended ground sensors, optical fibres, infra red sensors, aerostats, hand-held thermal imagers and integration of these with command and control architecture, the release said.
Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the French efforts to organise a peace summit to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, saying peace is not achieved with international conferences.

Netanyahu made the comments during a ceremony at the Bar-Ilan University Faculty of Medicine in northern Israel's Galilee, Xinhua reported.

"The way to peace does not go through international conferences that seek to impose agreements, make the Palestinians' demands more extreme and thereby make peace more remote," the prime minister said, according to a statement from his office.

He reiterated his position that the only way to achieve peace is through direct talks "without preconditions".

The comments are made prior to a planned meeting of various international foreign ministers on Friday, in order to discuss the French initiative. No Israeli or Palestinian representative will be present in this forum. Another conference is in the works for the upcoming fall.

A week ago, Netanyahu told French Prime Minister Manuel Valls during the latter's visit to Jerusalem to advance the summit, that he will be willing to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in person in Paris or anywhere else, stressing again the preference of direct talks over the planned summit.

French officials announced the initiative, which would seek to restart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, in January, to the ire of Israeli officials, and the support of Palestinian leaders.

On Monday, following the swearing-in of hawkish lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman as defence minister, he and Netanyahu both said they support the two-state solution, with Lieberman lauding a speech recently given by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the need to restart talks with the involvement of Arab states, including Egypt, based on the 2002 Saudi Arabia peace proposal.

The proposal says that in exchange for peace between the two sides, other Arab countries would normalise their ties with Israel.

Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip territories in the 1967 Mideast War. The last round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians took place between July 2013 and April 2014 with the mediation of the US, and ended abruptly without results.

International calls to restart peace talks come amid an ongoing wave of violence which started in October and claimed the lives of 28 Israelis and 204 Palestinians.
TRIPOLI Libyan brigades aligned with a new U.N.-backed government in Tripoli lost 10 men and had another 40 wounded in fighting close to the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte on Wednesday, a hospital spokesman said.

The brigades, mostly composed of fighters from the western city of Misrata, have advanced to the outskirts of Sirte over the past week and say they intend to recapture the city.

On Wednesday they had gained ground south of the city, and at a power station west of Sirte, according to statements posted on their social media accounts. They said they had faced four suicide car bombings, two of which had exploded before reaching their targets.

Western states are hoping the United Nations-backed government, which arrived in Tripoli in March, can bring together Libya's competing factions to defeat Islamic State.

The extremist group established a foothold in Libya amid political chaos and conflict in the North African state, gaining control over Sirte last year.

Earlier this week a separate force that guards key oil terminals east of Sirte also advanced towards the city, taking control of two small towns previously controlled by Islamic State.

In Sirte itself, a resident told Reuters that a senior cleric had toured the streets on Tuesday urging people to stay in the city and fight.

Most of Sirte's population of about 80,000 is thought to have fled, and the government-backed brigades have said they want to give those residents who remain a chance to escape before advancing into residential areas.

The brigades had already seen 75 of their fighters killed and more than 350 wounded before the latest casualties.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami and Ayman al-Warfalli; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Paris: The Louvre museum in flood-hit Paris said it would close on Friday to evacuate artworks held in its underground reserves as the River Seine began to burst its banks.

The riverside museum  the most visited in the world, home to everything from the Mona Lisa to priceless Egyptian artefacts, took the radical action after days of torrential rain in the French capital.

The Musee d'Orsay, which faces the Louvre on the opposite bank of the river, closed early on Thursday to put its own "protection plan" into place. Its galleries hold the world's greatest collection of Impressionist masterpieces, including the finest paintings by Renoir, Manet, Van Gogh and Degas, as well as 24 works by Gauguin.

"The aim is to move works situated in areas vulnerable to flooding to safety by moving them to higher floors," the Louvre said in a statement. Only hours before, the museum had played down the threat to its vast underground stores which are fitted with anti-flood pumps and sealed waterproof doors.

But as the Seine swelled to more than five metres (16 feet) above its usual levels Thursday, and burst its banks in places, its management decided to close its galleries entirely.

The Musee d'Orsay said a crisis management team had been put in place to organise the moving of its most vulnerable treasures to its upper floors if the Seine rises more than 5.5 metres (18 feet). By some estimates, the river could rise 6 metres above its usual height Friday.

According to the Musee d'Orsay, both institutions have detailed emergency flooding plans.

These give the Louvre 72 hours and the Musee d'Orsay 96 hours to get works held in their underground reserves to safety. Both museums have organised drills this year to deal with floods.

In one such exercise in March, the Louvre evacuated the whole of the underground section of its new Islamic art galleries in a day. The Louvre has plans to move its vast stores from its vulnerable riverside site to a new building near its satellite museum at Lens in northern France in 2019. The Musee d'Orsay has already moved many of its reserves off-site, and says it has an emergency generator on its roof in case floods cut the electricity supply to the building.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Afghanistan on Saturday where he will hold talks with President Ashraf Ghani and inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province.

Announcing the visit, External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Vikas Swarup said the meeting between Modi and Ghani will also provide an opportunity to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and how the two countries can cooperate further for promoting peace and stability in that country.

Afghanistan is part of Modi's five-nation trip beginning 4 June which will also cover Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

Asserting that the completion of the dam project represents culmination of years of hard work by about 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions, Swarup said it also highlights India's continued commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development. He said the dam will help irrigate 44,000 hectares of land.

In an oblique reference to Pakistan, the MEA spokesperson said unlike those who contributed to terrorism and instability in Afghanistan, India always stood by Kabul.

Last year, Modi and President Ghani had jointly dedicated to the Afghan nation the new Parliament Building constructed under India-Afghanistan development cooperation.

"India is consistently ranked by Afghan people as a country which has stood by them and is of greatest help to them. At the same time, doing all these projects, we had to face lot of challenges.

"Not just geographical challenges but also security challenges because of the kind of situation you have in

Afghanistan. Repeated attempts were made to disrupt the peace and stabilty of Afghanistan...cross border terrorism, you know from where," said Swarup, without naming Pakistan.

India has invested in excess of USD 2 billion in the last few years in Afghanistan. "Our commitment to Afghanistan remains despite these challenges," he said.

Asked what message will the Prime Minister give during his address at the US Congress, he said it would would be of partnership, mutual respect and accomodating each other's concerns.

He said the Prime Minister would be pressing for deeper ties between the world's largest democracy and the world's oldest democracy.

"When the PM addresses the combined House and Senate, the message he would convey is that the relations between the two largest democracies in the world need to strengthen, need to further diversify so that we are both fully equipped to handle the challenges of 21st century," he said.
Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit next week at the invitation of President Barack Obama is about "consolidation" and "celebration" of bilateral ties, India's envoy to the US has said in Washington.

"The invitation and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters on Wednesday ahead of Modi's visit to the White House next week.

Modi is scheduled to arrive at the Joint Airforce Base, Andrews on 6 June and is expected to spend a little over 50 hours in the American Capital. While his schedule is still being given final shape by officials here, he is likely to lay wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery the afternoon of his arrival.

The Prime Minister is likely to stay at Blair House, the personal guest house of the US President on Pennsylvania Avenue across the White House.

Leaders of the two largest democracies of the world are scheduled to meet at the White House on 7 June, which would include meetings at the delegation level and one-o-meeting, following which the two are likely to address mediapersons.

Thereafter Obama would host lunch for Modi. Later in the evening, Modi would interact with a select group of top American corporate leaders including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and address the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC) as part of his relentless effort to attract foreign direct investment in India.

"Another important dimension of his visit would be his address to the joint session of the Congress (on 8 June)," the Indian Ambassador said.

Modi is expected to spend some four hours at the Hill attending four back to back meetings. He would be received by House Speaker Paul Ryan who decided to invite Modi for his first joint address to the Congress. Ryan would also host a lunch for him. Thereafter Modi would attend a rare reception hosted in his honour by the Senate and House foreign relations committees and the India Caucuses in the House and the Senate.

Some 400 people are likely to attend this reception.

"It is a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship with India. It is also a reflection of the value people attach to this relationship," Singh said.

Describing the visit as consolidation and celebration of relationship, Singh said "consolidating what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into next year" when there would be transition of administration in the US and to celebrate the achievements in the relationship," Singh said.

In a sense the new phase in Indo-US relationship started from 2000 with visit of the then President Bill Clinton to India. This was further consolidated by George Bush and Obama's visit to India twice. Obama has described India-US relationship as the defining partnership of the 21st century, Singh said.

"His articulation of support for our permanent membership to the UN Security Council. US support to India's membership to the multilateral export control regimes. The advances we have made in defence partnership including through the defence trade and technology initiative where among the projects we are now looking at our projects related to aircraft career technology and jet engine technology," Singh said.

"So a lot of progress has been made in the two terms of President Obama. And then to celebrate that, see where we are and then launch it into the new administration. That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit," he said.

The US has repeatedly articulated that India is the net provider of security in that region, Singh said.

"The US sees India as not adversarial but as a very useful partner. So the visit is a reflection of that," he said.

Ahead of the visit, the two countries are likely to sign a series of agreements this week and early next week both in Washington and New Delhi. Some of them related to wildlife trafficking, global entry program.

Intense discussions are currently underway between Westinghouse and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to arrive at some kind of agreement before or during Modi's trip. The discussions are mostly believed to be in the domain of cost and financing.

With defence and security being one of the key issues of discussions, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter would call on him. Secretary of State John Kerry would be away in Beijing attending the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

During his visit, Modi is expected to participate in a ceremony for repatriation of 16 historic stolen items to India.
MANILA The Philippines will not distance itself from its long-time security ally, the United States, but neither will it be a lackey to any foreign power, incoming Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told Reuters on Wednesday.

In his first interview with the foreign media since being appointed by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, the lawyer by training sought to underline the Philippines' independence in dealing with disputes with China over the South China Sea.

"We should not be a lackey of any nation," Yasay said in Manila, the day after Duterte named his cabinet.

Under outgoing President Benigno Aquino, the Philippines moved closer to Washington, in turn straining ties with China.

Yasay said relations with China should improve.

"For as long as it (China) adheres to the rule of law, respects our territorial integrity and sovereignty...we should continue to make sure that our friendship and relationship would be stronger," he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the door was always open to dialogue, which would be helpful for "breaking the deadlock" in China-Philippines relations in recent years.

"If the Philippines sincerely wish to come back to the track of dialogue and negotiations we welcome that," Wang told reporters in the Canadian capital Ottawa.

"We would be happy to see the new government in the Philippines make wise choices."

Duterte, the tough-talking mayor who takes office on June 30, said on Tuesday that the Philippines would not rely on Washington, signalling a potential shift in approach to the South China Sea and broader security issues.

"He was simply articulating the position that, according to the constitution, we are supposed to carry an independent foreign policy," Yasay said of Duterte's remarks.

Yasay added that the president-elect would honour existing treaties with the United States, including the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that allows U.S. troops increased access to local bases.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Duterte on May 17 to congratulate him on his election win.

"That was a very strong indication about our friendship with America not being affected, and will not be affected by his election," Yasay said.

At the same time, Duterte has not ruled out renegotiating agreements in the future if it was deemed necessary.

"When he said he is committed to agreements we have entered into...he does not discount the possibility that in the future, if it is determined that there is a need to further negotiate on these agreements on the basis of pursuing the mutual interest of both countries, we should not hesitate to do so," Yasay said.

The Supreme Court this year upheld the constitutionality of the agreement that lets the United States build warehouses and logistics hubs anywhere in the Philippines.

Washington is also helping its former colony to bolster its defences, providing three Hamilton-class cutters, radar equipment and a research ship that will arrive in July.

The build-up is part of an effort by the Philippines to strengthen its claims in the disputed South China Sea, where China has been constructing artificial islands.

Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines also have overlapping claims in the sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas and a key trade route through which an estimated $5 trillion worth of goods pass each year.

Yasay, who has participated in global trade deals in the past, said Manila would respect whatever decision is handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, where the Philippines is challenging China's position on the disputed waters. It is not clear when a ruling will come.

Duterte has said he was open to joint ventures with China to explore and exploit resources in the South China Sea.

The Philippines was willing to pursue bilateral talks with China to resolve a dispute over the Scarborough Shoal, but would stick to multilateral discussions for the Spratly islands, because there were other claimant states, Yasay said.

(Additonal reporting by David Ljunggren in OTTAWA.; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Lincoln Feast)

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WASHINGTON Paul Ryan, the top elected U.S. Republican, ended a long period of soul-searching and endorsed Donald Trump for president on Thursday, a step toward unifying party loyalists behind the insurgent candidate despite concerns about his candidacy.

Ryan had been a high-profile holdout to supporting Trump for the Nov. 8 presidential election out of concern about the presumptive Republican nominee's bellicose rhetoric and break with party orthodoxy on issues including trade and immigration.

The House of Representatives speaker announced his support in a column for the Janesville Gazette newspaper in his home state of Wisconsin. It surfaced in the middle of a speech by Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in which she launched a far-reaching attack on Trump's foreign policy credentials.

Ryan did not specifically use the word "endorse" in his column, but his spokesman, Brendan Buck, made clear that Ryan's move should be seen as an endorsement.

The speaker had criticized the Republican candidate several times, including Trump's proposal in December to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the United States because of national security concerns.

The 46-year-old Ryan was the only member of the Republican congressional leadership who had not formally embraced Trump.

In a tweet, Trump responded: "So great to have the endorsement and support of Paul Ryan. We will both be working very hard to Make America Great Again!"

Ryan's backing of Trump could give cover to more reluctant Republicans to get behind the billionaire businessman as their best chance to win the White House.

"I think the endorsement is significant because it shows the falling in line of the establishment Republicans from the top," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.

It should also help Trump make the case that he can bring the party together as he girds for a Republican nominating convention in July that many party leaders plan to skip.

It also represents a blow to Republicans who have been trying to organise a third-party bid to give party loyalists who cannot abide Trump someone else to support. The "never Trump" crowd includes 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. Ryan was Romney's vice presidential running mate.

While Ryan's decision could push some Republican leaders off the fence, many holdouts remained, such as two former rivals, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Aides to both said their positions had not changed.

Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid described Ryan's move as "abject surrender," adding: "The GOP is Trump's party now."

'HEAL THE FISSURES'

Ryan met Trump in a high-profile meeting last month and they have since had a number of telephone calls.

"Its no secret that he and I have our differences. I wont pretend otherwise," Ryan wrote. "And when I feel the need to, Ill continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement."

Ryan said he and Trump had spoken many times in recent weeks about how, "by focusing on issues that unite Republicans, we can work together to heal the fissures developed through the primary."

"Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people's lives. Thats why Ill be voting for him this fall," Ryan said.

Announcing he will vote for Trump should make it a bit more comfortable for Ryan to chair the party's nominating convention in Cleveland.

While Ryan's endorsement was significant for Trump, there remain many concerns about him within the party.

Longtime Republican financier Fred Malek drew attention to worries about Trump in a column in the Washington Post on Thursday. He cited Trump's criticism last week of New Mexico's Republican governor, Susana Martinez, considered a rising star in the party with the ability to appeal to Hispanics.

"These attacks on fellow Republicans must stop as we move closer to the general election," Malek wrote.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, who has said he will support Trump, told CNN that Trump's proposed Muslim ban was a bad idea and that his criticism of Martinez was ill-advised.

Ryan said he too still had concerns about Trump's tone.

"It is my hope the campaign improves its tone as we go forward and it's all a campaign we can be proud of," Ryan told the Associated Press.

(Additional reporting by Alana Wise, Emily Stephenson and Richard Cowan; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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As China's clout in the international arena and the significance of Australia-China ties are both on the rise, Australians now look to more information about China in such areas as the Chinese economy, Chinese culture, investment opportunities in China and Australia-China ties.

To meet this demand, China Daily and Fairfax Media were among a dozen Chinese and Australian media outlets that signed bilateral cooperative agreements on Friday in Sydney.

Under the agreement, Fairfax Media's daily newspapersthe Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the Financial Reviewwill publish an English edition of China Daily's China Watch publication once a month. The first edition was published on Friday, drawing favorable responses from Australian readers on both the content and the model of cooperation.

As for the two media outlets, the cooperation will create a win-win situation for them: On the one hand, China Daily will be able to reach a wider readership in Australia. On the other hand, the China Watch publication, which caters to Australian readers' growing interest to learn more about China, will help enrich the Australian newspapers' content and increase their diversity, which, in turn, will make them more appealing to readers.

Yet, for me, the most significant part of the cooperation is the two media outlets' courage and efforts to blaze a new trail in forging a closer working relationship between them.

Obviously, media organizations in China and Australia differ from each other in cultural and political backgrounds, media philosophy, media ownership and even in the role each assumes in their respective society.

These differences used to form a big barrier for media organizations on both sides and impacted hugely on their coverage on each other's country. Australian media, as part of the Western media world, have often harbored a bias against developing countries, China included, and such a bias cannot possibly contribute to better understanding between Western countries and China.

In this context, the new agreements that signal wider and closer cooperation between media outlets in China and Australia can help mitigate the negative effects of their media differences and deepen mutual understanding between the two countries.

Chinese and Australian media may differ in many ways, but they also share increasing common ground, and they both need to present their countries to the world and vice versa, especially as globalization and new media have turned the world into a global village.

Hence, sharing content, launching joint media products and conducting journalist exchanges, as shown in the latest efforts in China-Australia media cooperation, will enable media on both sides to better play their role as a bridge that helps enhance understanding and friendship among the two peoples.

In recent years, people in both countries have viewed each other's country in a more positive way, with a number of opinion polls in Australia showing more Australians now attach greater importance to Australia-China ties. For example, the 2015 Lowy Institute Poll, released in June last year, found that most Australians see China as "more of an economic partner to Australia" than a "military threat".

Given the media's strong role in shaping public opinions, that media outlets in Australia are willing to cover China and Australia-China ties in a more comprehensive and objective manner should only further strengthen this perception.

Such a favorable momentum needs to be maintained as it helps foster a cordial atmosphere for reciprocal interaction between China and Australia, which is in the interests of both countries. Needless to say, media organizations on both sides, such as the ChinaDaily and Fairfax Media, can play an important role in this.

The author is deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily Asia Pacific. jasmine@chinadailyhk.com
Canberra: Improving the quality of water in the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Australia requires around $11,571 billion over the next decade, according to a government study released on Thursday.

These initial figures were part of a study carried out by a group of water quality and economic experts. Due to lack of time, the study numbers were not included in a report on the waters of the Great Barrier Reef published last week, ABC Australia reported.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has allocated an additional fund of some $124 million in the budget for the fiscal year starting 1 July.

The Labour Party, which is seeking to secure a win in the upcoming parliament elections on 2 July, has promised around $254 million to save the Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage Site, which is undergoing the most severe coral bleaching in its history.

The greatest threat to the quality of the waters of the Great Barrier Reef comes from pesticides and sediments, which block sunlight, and excess nutrients such as nitrogen, which make the corals more susceptible to bleaching.

The health of the Great Barrier Reef, which has 400 types of corals, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 varieties of molluscs, began to deteriorate in the 1990s due to the twin impact of the warming of seas and the increase in their acidification due to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returns from the US in June, India is set to officially become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a presently six-member grouping set up to enhance connectivity, combat terror and create an environment for boosting trade by easing barriers. With full-membership status for India and Pakistan, there is a temptation to make the assumption that the SCO as a burgeoning military bloc may one day become a Nato antagonist.

India, which has had observer status for the past 10 years, will technically become the member after completion of certain procedures. The SCO currently counts China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as its members. In Ufa last year, the process to include India and Pakistan as members was also initiated.

Quantity over quality

While an expanded membership will lend greater legitimacy to the organisation, experts and analysts fear the risks and opportunities facing Delhi and Islamabad and how their accession will affect the balance of power within the SCO. Analysts noted that the SCO, which was originally created as a "border security organisation between China, Russia and the five Central Asian Republics", has become more about quantity than quality. Head of the Russia in the Asia-Pacific Region programme of the Carnegie Moscow Center, Alexander Gabuev said that new nations joining the SCO are not doing so because of greater prospects but "for fear of falling behind the powers of continental Eurasia already inside". The fear of falling behind is what prompted India and Pakistan to apply for the membership.

The SCO's power centre keeps shuttling between Russia and China, but more so with China. Russia supported India's entry merely to balance China's clout in the SCO. According to this piece in The Diplomat, SCO nations had their reservation about Pakistan's admission into the organisation because of its terrorist affiliations, its support for terrorist groups and its role in promoting instability in Afghanistan. It wanted Pakistan's policies in this regard to evolve before considering its inclusion. China's reluctance to accept Indias membership without admitting Pakistan at the same time is why it took 10 years for India to clinch full membership.

With the inclusion of India and Pakistan, the China-led SCO will expand its scope. But the implications of both India and Pakistan's accession to the organisation is far greater than just encompassing their respective population.

India-China-Pakistan

Last year in Ufa, after their accession was announced Chinese vice-foreign minister Cheng Guoping had told reporters that "India and Pakistan's admission to the SCO will play an important role in the SCOs development. It will play a constructive role in pushing for the improvement of their bilateral relations." Guoping might be jumping the gun here and being overly optimistic, but the historical strain between India and Pakistan might threaten the organsiation's effectiveness.

India and Pakistan are wary neighbours and they are endlessly battling conflicts. Their admission into the SCO will add another complicated internal dimension to an organisation which is divided when security policy is concerned.

Apart from being a manifestation of China's ambitions for regional leadership and security coordination in the region, the SCO is quite an uneventful forum in Asia. But with India and Pakistan's entry equations might change, especially with the recent conflict between New Delhi and Beijing over the latter vetoing India's demand for a ban on Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar, who is suspected to be one of the main perpetrators of the brazen attack on thePathankot airbase. Apart from this, China's enduring friendship with Pakistan might create friction among other members.

China has enormous clout within the SCO. Originally meant as a border security organisation, which is no longer a priority, the emphasis of SCO has shifted to economic relations, which "China dominates." And although the Central Asian states were part of the Soviet Union a little over 20 years ago and Moscow still retains great influence in a region that remains its strategic backyard, "it has to contend there with the expansion of Chinese power."

It won't be too preposterous to conclude that with India and Pakistan's inclusion in the organisation, the effectiveness of the SCO could be reduced to the levels of Saarc, where member nations (read India and Pakistan) are constantly at loggerheads with each other.

With India and Pakistan, the SCO will surely move towards becoming a more symbolically important "Asian talk-shop", but it is hard to imagine how the inclusion of these two countries will allow the organisation to somehow suddenly become a more dynamic and cooperative forum.

In essence, the SCO is going from being more like-minded to less so, especially with Indias inclusion.
LONDON A small number of European Union citizens have mistakenly received notification that they are registered to vote in Britain's EU membership referendum but they will not be allowed to do so, the electoral watchdog said on Thursday.

"Out" campaigner and former government minister Iain Duncan Smith wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron and the Electoral Commission earlier raising concerns over reports some EU citizens had been sent polling cards despite not being eligible to vote in the June 23 referendum.

With polls showing Britons are evenly split over which way to vote, a narrow win for "In" could result in pro-Brexit campaigners questioning the way the referendum was conducted.

"We are aware that a small number of non-eligible EU citizens had mistakenly received poll cards and, in some instances, postal votes for the EU Referendum. We are working to confirm the exact number of electors who have been affected by an issue with elections software," a spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said.

"The software provider has resolved the issue which means that if any postal votes have been issued to these electors, they will be cancelled and none of these electors will be shown as eligible on the electoral registers to be used at polling stations."

The Electoral Commision said all affected voters would also receive a letter to explain what had happened and to tell them that they would not be able to vote.

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison)

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WASHINGTON Some U.S. intelligence officials are concerned that Donald Trump's "shoot from the hip" style could pose national security risks as they prepare to give him a routine pre-election briefing once he is formally anointed as the Republican presidential nominee.

Eight senior security officials told Reuters they had concerns over briefing Trump, whose brash, unpredictable campaign style has been a feature of his rise as an insurgent candidate. Despite their worries, the officials said the "Top Secret" briefing to each candidate would not deviate from the usual format to avoid any appearance of bias.

Most of the officials asked for anonymity to discuss a domestic political issue.

Current and former officials said that the scandal over Hillary Clinton's use of emails also raises concerns about her handling of sensitive information. The likely Democratic nominee is facing an FBI probe into whether security was compromised and laws were broken by her use of a private email server for government business while she was Secretary of State.

"The only candidate who has proven incapable of handling sensitive information is Hillary Clinton," said Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "If there is anyone they should be worried about it is Hillary Clinton."

But Trump's lack of foreign policy experience, his volatile style, and his little known team of foreign policy advisers make him a unique case, the officials said.

"People are very nervous," said one senior U.S. security official.

Intelligence and other security and foreign policy officials are also trying to determine "who on (Trump's) team are trustworthy, the official added. "We've never had a situation like this before. Ever."

A spokesperson for Trump's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Other officials downplayed such worries, noting that the traditional briefing, while classified as Top Secret, is mostly a broad overview of national security issues and does not include the most sensitive government secrets about intelligence sources and operations.

In the post-Second World War era, confirmed U.S. presidential nominees have traditionally received the briefing from intelligence officials -- including spy agency chiefs -- covering a broad range of national security issues.

The nominees are usually briefed shortly after their party nominating conventions, and are allowed to include one or two aides who must undergo security checks. Current and former officials say the nominees are explicitly warned not to share the contents of the briefing, which includes detailed intelligence assessments.

After election day, presidents-elect receive the same Presidential Daily Brief, or PDB, that the sitting president gets, complete with material on the intelligence agencies' sources, methods, and covert operations.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told Reuters that he shared some of the concerns over how Trump, who has never held public office, might use information from the briefing.

"I would be very concerned with Mr. Trump's ability to know what he can and can't discuss" publicly about the contents of an intelligence briefing, said Schiff, who has endorsed Clinton for president.

Schiff said one consequence of intelligence agencies' worries about Trump's reputation as a loose cannon could be that briefers circumscribe some of the information they provide to Trump and Hillary Clinton, his prospective Democratic opponent.

Trump has tended to make broad-brush statements on foreign issues rather than delve into policy nuances. He drew criticism from some former national security officials last month when, without evidence, he quickly tweeted that the downing of an EgyptAir flight appeared to be a terrorist attack.

Clinton is honing in on national security as a key potential weakness for Trump, and is set to deliver a foreign policy speech on Thursday designed to portray the billionaire businessman as unfit for the White House.

SAME BRIEFING FOR BOTH?

Officials familiar with the views and policy of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's Office, which will give the in-person briefings, say it will do its utmost to avoid any suggestions of political favoritism or bias.

Officials say the spy agencies' intend to follow past practice and give identical briefings to both nominees.

One former intelligence official said Clinton could have an advantage in the briefing because she would likely ask more probing questions than Trump, a newcomer to foreign policy.

The briefings provide an "overview of pressing issues and hot spots around the world," said former CIA officer David Priess, who briefed attorneys general and FBI directors, but not presidents.

One U.S. intelligence official said that Trump's style may not be such a risk because the briefings are general in nature and often track publicly available information.

"If he reads the papers every day, he won't hear much that will surprise him," the official said.

Current and former officials said that covert operations and the intelligence agencies' "sources and methods," which are among the nation's most tightly guarded secrets, are never discussed in the pre-election briefings.

(Reporting By Mark Hosenball; Additional reporting By John Walcott; Editing by John Walcott and Stuart Grudgings)

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Copenhagen: A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced an Islamic State (IS) sympathiser to five years in prison on charges of preparing a terrorist attack.

The Attunda court in northern Stockholm considered that the 20-year-old Swedish convict, under temporary custody since last February, had possessed materials and equipment to make a bomb, and despite getting rid of some of them later, he still posed a threat, EFE News reported.

Also, guidelines to make bombs were found in the convict's house as well as some jihadi propaganda material.

The accused was arrested twice in June 2015 in Turkey while trying to travel to Syria to join the IS ranks.

The prosecution explained that the man's family warned the Swedish authorities that he had adopted extremist ideologies, and was planning to blow himself up to die as a martyr.
PARIS/LONGJUMEAU, France Torrential rain forced thousands of people from their homes south of Paris while the River Seine surged to its highest level for over 30 years in the French capital, shutting down the famed Louvre and Orsay museums and a metro line.

In Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, south of Paris, a man on horseback drowned on Thursday, the prefecture said in a statement. Le Parisien newspaper said the 74-year-old had been trying to cross a flooded field. The horse survived with minor injuries.

He was the second victim of the torrential rains that have caused the Loire and Seine rivers to burst their banks. An 86-year-old woman was found dead in her flooded house in a small town southwest of Paris late on Wednesday.

"Since yesterday it's just been a deluge," said Jerome Coiffier, an inhabitant of Longjumeau, less than 20 km (13 miles) south of Paris, where firemen wading thigh-deep in water rescued inhabitants using inflatable boats.

At least 3,000 out of 13,000 inhabitants were evacuated in Nemours, 75 km (45 miles) south of Paris, as floodwaters crept toward the second story of buildings in the town center.

Prolonged heavy rain also pounded parts of neighbouring Germany and at least five people have died in floods in Bavaria state in the south of the country, officials said.

In Paris, the Seine rose above 5 meters (16 feet), forcing the SNCF rail operator to close the RER C commuter line that runs along the river and is used by tourists to reach the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame Cathedral and Versailles.

The Louvre museum shut down and said it would remain closed on Friday to keep its priceless art safe. The Orsay museum of Impressionist art will also be shut on Friday. Both are located right by the Seine in central Paris.

The Seine could peak at six meters in Paris on Friday, officials said, stressing that this was still well below the level where it would pose danger to residents. The river reached a record high of 8.6 meters in 1910, when thousands of Parisians had to flee flooded low-lying areas of the city.

President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency in the worst affected areas and promised funding to help local authorities deal with flood damage. Unusually heavy rains in June showed the urgency to curb climate change, he said.

In the Loire Valley, Chambord castle, a UNESCO world heritage site, found itself surrounded by water.

The national weather service said the greater Paris region had in May endured its wettest month since 1960.

In the Loiret region, where local officials called on the army to help evacuate motorists trapped on the A10 motorway, the floods were the most severe in a century.

(Additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide, Geert De Clercq and Emmanuel Jarry in Paris; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Richard Lough and Mark Heinrich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
BEIRUT A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian militias will reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town in a major offensive against the group near the Turkish border, a Kurdish source said on Thursday.

The source said Islamic State defences stationed on the west bank of the Euphrates river had collapsed at the start of the campaign by the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance this week, but it was too soon to say how the Manbij battle would go.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media. The SDF includes the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and allied Arab groups.

"The defences on the (river) bank collapsed but we did not yet reach the defences around the town," said the source, noting that the presence of civilians in Manbij could be a complicating factor. "It will not be like open ground ... the nature of the battle and weapons is different."

Asked how long it would take the SDF to reach Manbij, the source said "mere days".

Backed by U.S.-led air strikes, the SDF offensive marks an attempt to drive Islamic State from the last remaining tract of territory it holds at the border with Turkey, a top priority for the U.S.-led campaign against the jihadist group.

"There were civilians in al-Shadadi too but it fell within 48 hours," added the source, referring to a town captured by the SDF from Islamic State in Syria in February.

(Reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by G Crosse and James Dalgleish)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Washington: US President Barack Obama has mocked Donald Trump, saying the "colourful" presumptive Republican Presidential nominee seems to be "doing a good job" mentioning his own name and "advertising" himself.

Responding to a question on why he is not taking Trump's name while criticising his policies, Obama said: "You know, he (Trump) seems to do a good job mentioning his own name. So, I figure I will let him do his advertising for him," he said during a speech in Indiana.

"I think Trump is a more colourful character than some of the other Republican elected officials. But a lot of the story that he's telling is entirely consistent with what folks have been saying about me or the general story they have been telling about the economy for the last seven-and-a-half, the last 10, the last 20, the last 30 years," Obama said during the Town Hall organised by PBS News.

"A lot of times, it's easy for somebody to come up and say, you know what, if we deport all the immigrants and build a wall, or if we cut off trade with China, or if we do X or Y or Z, that there's some simple answer and, suddenly, everything's going to feel secure," he said in response to a question.

Obama questioned the claims being made by Trump on his promise of bringing jobs back to the US.

"Well how exactly are you going to do that? What exactly are you going to do? There's no answer to it," he said.

"He just says, Well, I'm going to negotiate a better deal. Well, what, how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn't have an answer," Obama said.

The US President lashed out at some of the Trump policies. He described Trump's pledge to roll back Wall Street regulations as "crazy".

"My bigger point is to bust this myth of crazy liberal government spending. Government spending is not what is squeezing the middle class," Obama said, adding that it is also a myth that other countries are killing US on trade.

"The truth is, trade has helped our country a lot more than it's hurt us. Exports helped lead us out of the

recession. Companies that export pay workers higher wages than folks who don't export," he said.

"And anybody who says that somehow shutting ourselves off from trade is going to bring jobs back, they're just not telling the truth," he added.

Obama also slammed the anti-immigration rhetoric of Trump.

"It's true that new immigrants sometimes compete for service and construction jobs. But they also start about 30 percent of all new businesses in America," he said.

"Everybody thinks that immigrants come here and then they're getting all this stuff from the government. Immigrants pay a lot more in taxes than they receive in services. The primary story that Republicans have been telling about the economy is not supported by the facts," he added.
Geneva: Yemen's nearly two-month-old ceasefire has improved humanitarian access but civilians are still facing an "immeasurable" crisis, the United Nations said Thursday.

The fragile truce was declared on 11 April, 10 days before Huthi Shiite rebels and the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi began UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait.

"The ceasefire has provided us an opportunity to get to areas we haven't been able to get before," the UN humanitarian chief in the country, Jamie McGoldrick, told AFP.

He said that while no part of Yemen had been besieged, a number of areas have proved extremely hard to reach since the conflict escalated in March last year, when a Saudi-led Arab coalition began air strikes in support of Yemeni forces resisting the Huthis.

McGoldrick said it was difficult to estimate the number of civilians reached with aid since the ceasefire came into force. The UN was trying to assess the needs nationwide during the lull in violence, he added.

Fighting has also continued despite the truce. McGoldrick called Yemen's war "an invisible crisis", voicing regret at the lack of global concern given to the country, for instance compared to Syria.

"The scale of the emergency is tremendous. The scale of the need is massive and the depth of the crisis is immeasurable," he told reporters. Government services and the health system were hardly functioning before the conflict and "the war has all but broken them completely," McGoldrick said.

More than 6,400 people have been killed in Yemen since the coalition began its campaign against the rebels who have controlled the capital Sanaa since September 2014.
It started with a 30-second phone call, and ended after a three hour hard-sell for a $NZ4500 ($4227) vacuum for a New Zealand family.

Mother-of-three Leonie Padgett, from Dunedin, said the sales pitch was "the worst experience", but South Island Clean Air (SICA), which relocated from Auckland to Dunedin earlier this year, stood by its product and sales' technique.

Padgett said three days after she was cold-called by a person wanting to do a "quick" survey, she was contacted by a SICA employee saying she was the daily winner of a prize.
One Liberal said the occasion, attended by the city's business elite, was expected to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the South Australian Senate campaign.

Mr Turnbull was photographed entering the foundation's Adelaide headquarters on Thursday night for what sources described as a private cocktail party event.

They are polar opposites on climate change and gay marriage but that hasn't stopped Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull from rubbing shoulders and raising money at the headquarters of Cory Bernardi's Conservative Leadership Foundation.

"We'll make quite a bit tonight," the source said. Afterwards, sources said the event ran longer than scheduled and raised more than expected, putting the figure in the "several hundreds of thousands" of dollars. Also seen attending the event were South Australian Liberals Anne Ruston, Sean Edwards and Simon Birmingham.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull addresses a fundraiser at the headquarters of senator Cory Bernardi's Conservative Leadership Foundation in June. Credit:Andrew Meares

A picture of the Queen was seen hanging on the wall - Cory Bernardi is a staunch monarchist while Malcolm Turnbull led the failed Republican campaign in the 1999 referendum.

The CLF website notes the venue is the "headquarters of Australia's conservative movement" and can host 150 people in a "cocktail format." There were attempts to replace some of the foundation's signage with Mr Turnbull's paraphernalia but its understood this was swiftly rebuffed.

The CLF's shop boast an array of Cory Bernardi merchandise, including "Hardcore Conservative" T-shirts and the senator's five books. His most recent is The Conservative Revolution, in which Senator Bernardi labelled women who have abortions as "abhorrent and pro-death."
U.S. President Barack Obama, using his last commencement address as president, offered the graduating cadets of the U.S. Air Force Academy life lessons he has learned about national security and foreign policy over the past seven years.

In Colorado Springs, Colorado, Obama on Thursday urged the more than 800 new Air Force officers not to pull back from U.S. engagement and leadership in the world.

"We can't be isolationists. It's not possible in this globalized, interconnected world," he said. "In these uncertain times, it's tempting sometimes to try to pull back and wash our hands from conflicts that seem intractable, let other countries fend of themselves."

While never mentioning the contentious primary election season, Obama's comments were a veiled swipe at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who has called for, among other things, building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and assessing America's commitment to NATO.

"We cannot turn inward," Obama said. "We cannot give in to isolationism. Thats a false comfort."

Diplomacy, treaties

He reminded the graduates that U.S. military force alone can't solve all problems, and stressed the need for diplomacy and treaties.

"Weve got to draw on every tool, all elements of our national power," Obama said. "That is how we won the Cold War -- not just with the strength of our arms, [but] with the power of our ideas, the power of our example."

Treaties, such as the one that established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or those that limit conventional and nuclear weapons, "help keep us safe," Obama said, saying one of the most effective ways for the U.S. to lead in world affairs.

"On just about every issue, the world looks to us to set the agenda," he said. "Here is a fact: The United States of America remains the most powerful nation on Earth and a force for good. ...

"When there is a problem around the world, they do not call Beijing or Moscow. They call us," Obama said.

He also told the academy graduates that the U.S. military "is the most capable fighting force on the planet." His comments were directed at Republican critics who have said the military has been diminished under his leadership.

Despite what he called the most peaceful and prosperous era in history, Obama said there are serious threats facing the U.S.: terrorist networks, the Islamic State group, Russia, disputes in the South China Sea, North Korean nuclear threats and Iran.

'Challenge of your generation'

All these "are testing an international order that we built, where the sovereignty of nations is respected and all nations abide by the same rules," the president said. How to meet these threats while also seizing the incredible opportunities of this moment in history, that is going to be your challenge, the challenge of your generation."

Of the academy's 812 graduates, Air Force officials said 345 are going to train as pilots, and another 60 will train to operate remotely piloted aircraft, such as drones, which have become a central tool of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. It said about a quarter of the class is female.

Earlier this year, Obama delivered commencement addresses at Howard University and Rutgers University.

Earlier in the day Thursday, one of the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbird team planes crashed after flying over the graduation ceremony.

Authorities say the pilot was unharmed after ejecting safely from the plane. Obama later met briefly with the pilot.

The president's commencement address occurred the same day the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, sharply criticized Trump's foreign policy, saying, "He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility."

Trump later claimed that Clinton "made up" his foreign policy.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday to renew sanctions against South Sudans leaders for another year. They include travel bans and asset freezes on persons believed to have impeded the peace and stability of the country.

The Security Councils meeting to renew the resolution on South Sudans sanctions lasted only 20 minutes, but the vote means the sanctions will be extended until the end of May 2017.

Addressing the Council shortly after the vote, David Pressman, the alternate representative of the United States to the United Nations for Special Political Affairs, said the renewal should send a clear message to policy makers and political leaders in Juba.

Todays resolution should remind South Sudans leaders that there is no other path and no other choice but full and expeditious implementation of the peace agreement, he said.

In late April, after South Sudans First Vice President Riek Machar returned to Juba, Donald Booth, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan, testified before the U.S. Congress, saying the administration is prepared to employ any measure, to include sanctions and an arms embargo on the leaders of South Sudan. Pressman echoed those remarks, adding that the situation in South Sudan has been fluid, and that much work lies ahead.

And we will be no less prepared to augment or modify the sanctions regime as the situation on the ground demands and the conduct of the parties necessitate, he said.



Great disappointment

Joseph Moum Majak Ngor Malok, the U.N. representative for South Sudan, reiterated his country's frustration with the resolution, insisting that the government has made progress in implementing the peace agreement, and warning that the sanctions regime could reverse that work.

We note with great disappointment that the resolution adopted today failed to recognize the sovereign right of the government of South Sudan to exercise its national constitution right to govern and manage its affairs, he said.

Russia, one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, voted to adopt the resolution, but Russian representative Peter Iliichev noted his countrys uneasiness about broadening the sanctions regime.

We have expressed our concern that excessive pressure and particularly sanctions pressure could undermine what has been achieved and toughen the positon of the South Sudanese parties, he said.

Pressman said he is particularly concerned about reports from the U.N. Panel of Experts on South Sudan describing how arms continue to make their way into the country.

In light of the Panel of Experts reporting that the parties were continuing to acquire arms, even after they signed the peace agreement, the Security Council today, significantly in this resolution, has asked for a special report from the panel of experts, on arms procurement since the formation of the transitional government of national unity, he said.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch named the SPLAs Lt. Gen. Gabriel Jok Riak and Maj. Gen. Santino Deng Wol, as being partially responsible for spreading the violence in recent months to the western region of South Sudan, which had been relatively calm. Both men have been on the U.N.s sanctions list since July 2015 for breach of the cessation of hostilities agreement and violations of international humanitarian law.

Pressman said the Security Council has asked for a special report from the Panel of Experts on arms procurement since the formation of the transitional government of national unity.
Attackers in Mali killed one Chinese U.N. peacekeeper and injured four in an early morning attack on their base yesterday, Chinas Foreign Ministry said.

Spokeswoman Hua Chunying described the attack as an act of terrorism and a serious crime that cannot be tolerated.

China has called on Malis government and the United Nations to conduct an immediate investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice, Hua said.

More than 2,400 Chinese peacekeepers are currently assigned to U.N. missions in Mali, Liberia and five other African nations.

The attack was the second on U.N. peacekeepers in recent days, with at least five Togolese killed in an attack Sunday by extremists in central Mali.

Islamic extremists have been attacking international peacekeepers and Malian soldiers working to stabilize the north three years after a French-led military campaign ousted jihadists from power.

The U.N. Security Council expressed concern over the security situation in Mali and urged full implementation of an agreement for peace and reconciliation in the West African country.

China in recent years has become a major contributor of troops, police and military experts to U.N. peacekeeping missions, with more than 3,000 currently in the field, according to the United Nations Peacekeeping website. At least 15 have been killed on different missions. AP
The Zhuhai Xiangzhou Peoples Court revealed the city had recorded 209 cases of juvenile delinquency from the beginning of 2014 to May 2016. School violence accounted for roughly 10 percent of cases, with 24 reported incidents, according to mainland media.

The court said most perpetrators of school violence are 15 to 16 years old, and that many are students from occupational colleges, accompanied by non-students. Most of the cases involve armed threats, and normally take place within the school perimeter or nearby campuses.

The judge explained that some of the students committed crimes as part of fights for the leadership of student groups. Others brawled over their girlfriends. Some committed robbery to cover personal expenses. The Zhuhai court admitted that the number of cases of school violence had gradually increased in recent years.

According to a report by Zhejiang University, 87 percent of students surveyed in mainland China last year experienced violence at the hands of fellow students. In May, the Supreme Peoples Court of the Peoples Republic of China said that out of 100 incidents of school violence occurring between 2013 and 2015, 49 percent involved the use of knives and 35 percent resulted in the victims death.
The 7th International Infrastructure Investment and Construction Forum (IIICF), with the theme Innovating Construction-Finance Cooperation and Energizing Infrastructure Development, launched yesterday at The Venetian Macao.

Jointly organized by China International Contractors Association (CHINCA) and the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), the forum aims to serve as a platform for international communication, exchange and collaboration between the construction industry and the finance sector.

This years theme emphasizes the financial efforts involved in international infrastructure development cooperation.

Some 50 deputy ministerial-level officials from various regions, who oversee infrastructure and construction in their respective countries, are attending this years IICF. More than 20 international financial institutions will be at the event, as well as 1,400 delegates from contractors for infrastructure and related services.

The forum features discussions such as matching for the construction industry and finance sector, innovative finance models, risk prevention and control and enterprise related to transformation and upgrading.

The seminars are intended to boost cultural exchange and foster business collaboration between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, as well as promote dialogue on new models of collaboration in infrastructure development, equipment manufacturing, agriculture and other sectors.

IPIM President Jackson Chang said such discussions would improve communication and partnership between Macau and global financial institutions.

Chang added that Macaus stable social environment and solid external financial position make it an ideal city for investment.

The city has a sound financial capacity, with continuous improvement in terms of the level of savings per household, and in terms of Macaus competitiveness in the regional financial system, he said.

The event was moved from Beijing to Macau in 2012. Chang said the forum has improved over the years and has become one of the most important and influential events in Macaus meetings calendar.

The IPIM president assured the audience that Macau would continue to draw on the close ties it holds with Portuguese-speaking countries in order to develop its economic role and promote further cooperation with China.

The organizers have also invited vice minister-level officials in charge of infrastructure for countries such as Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Kenya; as well as executives from international financial institutions such as the World Bank, Export-Import Bank of China and the African Export-Import Bank.

The 7th IIICF ends today. Staff reporter
The latest report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on competitiveness of cities, has placed Macau at ninth, according to a note published this week by the Macau University of Science and Technology.

The release of the Chinese Urban Competitiveness Report marks the 14th anniversary of the publication. The report includes 294 cites, 287 of which are from mainland, five from Taiwan and two corresponding to SARs.

Macau excels in terms of its overall efficiency in competitiveness, ranking first in this category. In other categories, Macau ranks number 36 in livability, 32 in business attraction, and five in sustainable development.

In terms of GDP per capita, the report also shows that Macau is still unsurpassed. However the region sits at 220 place in terms of incremental competitiveness index. This contradiction, explained Liu Cheng Kun, associate professor at MUST, is due to the recent gaming slowdown.

Macaus industry is relatively simple, [] the whole economy is transitioning to a period of deep adjustments, said Liu, according to whom the decline in both livability and business attraction are a consequence of the increasing population in the area, including tourists.

Macaus capability is under pressure. Housing prices dropped slightly but are still high compared to peoples incomes. In addition, SMEs struggle to move forward since the gaming industry plummeted, Liu explained.

In terms of knowledge and information competitiveness, Macau ranks 39 and 17, respectively. Liu stated that revenues resulting from government investment in science, technology and education are low. From a global perspective, cites with relatively high scores in these two previously mentioned categories rank high in overall competitiveness, noted Liu. However, Liu argued that the Chinese central government has been consistently supporting Macau and will keep doing so as usual, which is a major asset for the city.

Hong Kong conceded first place to Shenzhen for the second year in a row. Staff reporter
North Korea has sent an envoy to Beijing to brief Chinese officials on recent political developments amid a downturn in relations between the formerly close Communist neighbors.

Ri Su Yong, chief of the ruling Workers Party of Koreas International Department, held talks this week with his Chinese counterpart Song Tao, the Chinese Communist Partys International Department said on its website.

It said Ri briefed Song about last months Workers Party congress and discussed other unspecified issues of mutual concern. The two also reaffirmed the traditional friendship between the countries and pledged to boost inter-party exchanges in order to shore-up and develop China-North Korean relations and strive to advance regional peace and stability, the department said.

Beijing-Pyongyang ties have cooled significantly under North Koreas young leader Kim Jong Un, largely due to his governments aggressive pursuit of nuclear weapon and missile technology. Kim has yet to visit Beijing since taking power following the 2011 death of his father, Kim Jong Il, who made several trips to China.

Although China remains North Koreas biggest source of diplomatic support and economic help, Beijing this year agreed to impose new sanctions, and observers say trade exchanges between the two have declined dramatically.

While the May party congress was North Koreas biggest political event in decades, experts on North Korean politics said there was less top-level personnel reshuffling at the event than expected, underscoring the stability of Kims powerbase.

Asked about Ris visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no additional information, but that China remained committed to pushing ahead with the denuclearization, peace and stability on the (Korean) Peninsula, and to solving the relevant issues through dialogue and negotiations.

Chinas position on the nuclear issues of the peninsula has not changed, nor has Chinas position on building China-North Korea relations, Hua told reporters at a daily briefing.
Philippine communist rebels said yesterday that long-stalled peace talks could be resumed with the government of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte as early as July, and that they will demand an end to the U.S. military presence in the country.

Rebel negotiator Fidel Agcaoili told a rare news conference in Manila that the demand is non-negotiable. He said government and rebel negotiators are preparing to meet in Europe this month to discuss the resumption of talks, which have been stalled for years.

Duterte, who takes office June 30, has offered two Cabinet posts to allies of the rebels, who in turn have freed kidnapped policemen to encourage the resumption of talks.

We have always stood on the basis of principled self-respect and national sovereignty, Agcaoili said. We cannot allow the presence of U.S. military bases here.

The rebels, he said, would also negotiate an end to two Philippine security pacts with the United States, including the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement, which allowed American forces to return to the Philippines for largescale combat exercises nearly a decade after the closure of sprawling U.S. military bases in the country.

Another pact, the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, grants American forces, warships and fighter jets access to five Philippine military camps.

The accords have helped the U.S. reassert its presence in Asia, which dovetails with Philippine hopes for American help in countering Chinas increasingly assertive claims to areas of the South China Sea also claimed by the Philippines.

Agcaoili said the rebels demands also include a land reform program that would free farmers from decades of poverty and a national industrialization effort that is not dependent on Western governments or multinational corporations.

Duterte said earlier this week that he will chart an independent foreign policy for the Philippines and will not be dependent on the United States, the countrys longtime treaty ally.

In another sign of rapport between Duterte and the rebels, Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison said in a video conference with Manila-based journalists yesterday that he will return to the Philippines soon to meet Duterte, his former political science student at a local university.

Sison, 77, was detained during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos but was freed by then President Corazon Aquino after Marcos 1986 ouster. Sison later went into self-exile with other rebel leaders in the Netherlands.

Duterte, who has described himself as left-leaning, is still unfolding, Agcaoili said.

The fact is, there is ground for guarded optimism, Agcaoili said.

The rebels have been fighting for a Marxist state since 1969 in one of Asias longest-running insurgencies. They have accused successive Philippine administrations of subservience to U.S. interests and failing to ease poverty. Their numbers have dwindled to a few thousand amid battle setbacks, surrenders and factionalism, although they remain the countrys foremost security concern.

Norwegian-brokered peace talks stalled early in outgoing President Benigno Aquino IIIs six-year term because of a dispute over the release of several rebels. Jim Gomez, Manila, AP
The serious fly fisher in Idaho, Im told, shouldnt miss the brown drake hatch on Silver Creek.

And its coming off with vigor. All week, John Huber at the Picabo Angler fly shop has been blogging (Picaboangler.net/sunvalleyflyfishingreport) about the hatch as it moves up the creek in the most condensed fashion Ive ever seen.

Anglers in the right zone report epic fishing, he says, while those half a mile away see very little.

The activity remained centered at Point of Rocks last night. The spinner fall near Picabo Bridge was light and short-lived, Huber wrote Wednesday. Normally when the hatch hits the Willows and Point of Rocks it begins to linger. Expect more action upstream of Point of Rocks the next few nights.

The spinner fall should continue to grow as heat descends on the valley, he predicted.

The condensed nature of the hatch this year means ... more anglers in a small space, Huber wrote, thanking those who enjoy the hatch for its camaraderie.

  

After an early-May water line break at the Sawtooth National Recreation Area headquarters in Ketchum, the Sawtooth National Forest said Tuesday it was still having water troubles at the SNRA office and at the Murdock and North Fork campgrounds.

We are waiting on testing so there is a boil order in place, forest managers wrote. If you are heading to one of these campgrounds please be prepared to take precautions. There are signs posted and when all is good to go those will come down.

  

If youre up for competitive birding, Castle Rocks State Park and the nearby City of Rocks National Reserve are the place to be this weekend.

The two parks will hold their Birding Big Day Blitz from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Teams of two to four birding buddies must register by 4:30 p.m. Friday  then document as many bird species as they can within the City of Rocks bird checklist boundary during the 24-hour blitz.

The winning team will win City of Rocks T-shirts and the 2016 Best Birders of the City award during the evening tally and awards ceremony. All participants will receive a certificate of competition  and, by the way, a 50 percent discount off the selection of birding field guides at the parks visitor center.

For a registration packet and rules, contact Wallace Keck at 208-824-5911 or Wallace_Keck@partner.nps.gov. If youre interested but dont have a team, he can connect you with one.

Not an expert birder? Perfect! Come join a team and learn from the pros, Keck wrote.

If youre not competing, you can still join in on Saturday by attending the noon team check-in and tally and the 7 p.m. tally and awards ceremony  both at the visitor center  and receive a 20 percent discount on birding guides and T-shirts.

  

Anglers wait is over: Lake Walcott State Park installed its new docks at the boat ramp last week.

I reported in April that the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation planned to replace the parks former wooden docks, about 15 years old, with a pair of plastic composite docks that wont deteriorate as quickly in the water and sun.

Last fall, workers removed Lake Walcotts wooden docks for the winter as usual and they came out in pieces. Their replacements are two 60-foot-long poly docks, one on each side of the boat ramp. With gangplanks on the shore side, the 8-foot-wide docks are wheelchair-accessible.
HAILEY  A local guide, publisher and photographer is trying to raise money to print a guidebook on the Boulder-White Clouds.

Matt Leidecker, who owns Idaho River Publications, started to work on Exploring the Boulder-White Clouds  A Comprehensive Guide in summer 2014, as the debate raged over whether to make the mountainous expanse in Blaine and Custer counties a wilderness area or a national monument.

After years of debate, political impasse and a compromise on the wilderness boundaries that got some groups that had opposed the proposal on board, Congress voted last year to protect the Boulder-White Clouds, and President Barack Obama in August signed the bill creating the new White Clouds, Hemingway-Boulder and Jerry Peak wilderness areas.

Leidecker immersed himself in the area in 2014, trying to cover every mile of trail and more off-trail. All in all, he said, he covered 526 miles and more than 127,000 vertical feet on foot and mountain bike over 50 days of research.

Now, he is trying to raise money on Kickstarter through pre-orders of the book and other rewards such as T-shirts, note cards, maps and photographs.

Printing on the waterproof paper adds a significant up-front printing cost, so I try to recoup some of that through pre-sales and by offering other unique rewards through the Kickstarter interface, Leidecker said.

This is the fourth time he has used the crowdfunding platform, and it is Leideckers fifth guidebook; he has already written guides to Sun Valley and the Sawtooths, and river guidebooks to the Middle Fork of the Salmon River and to the Rouge River in southwestern Oregon.

Leidecker said he tries to provide a big-picture perspective on the landscape with his guidebooks, covering every road and trail rather than focusing on a few hikes and offering details such as geological information and mini-guides to common wildflowers.

The Boulder-White Clouds offer more variety than the better-known Sawtooth Mountains to the west, Leidecker said in a news release. You have a core of granite basins and high alpine lakes similar to the Sawtooths. But, there are also several rugged sedimentary canyons that offer opportunities for true wilderness solitude. The rolling volcanic sage-steppe landscape in the Jerry Peak Wilderness was a highlight during my research.
Volunteers  Interlink Volunteer Caregivers provides volunteers to help elderly, disabled and chronically ill people live safely and independently in their homes. Volunteers assist with transportation to health-related appointments and essential errands, light housekeeping chores, friendly visits, yard maintenance and simple home repairs. Carpenters and handymen are also needed. Volunteers are reimbursed for mileage and covered with excess auto liability insurance. Commitment is flexible with no minimum hours required. Information: Edie, 208-733-6333 or ivcofmv@gmail.com.

Drivers  The American Cancer Society is looking for volunteer drivers for its Road to Recovery program in Twin Falls. Volunteers will drive patients to and from medical treatments. Commitment is flexible. Information: Renae Delucia at renae.delucia@cancer.org or 702-891-9023

Volunteers  Idaho Home Health and Hospice needs volunteers who will bring compassion, support and dignity to those facing a serious, life-limiting illness and their families. Volunteers can choose between offering respite to family caregivers or provide support with administrative tasks. Information: Heidi Walker, 208-734-4064 or Heidi.Walker@LHCgroup.com.

Drivers  The Senior Assisted Services (SAS) program at CSIs Office on Aging is looking for volunteer drivers for their transportation department. The volunteers will transport the programs senior clients to doctor appointments, shopping, and personal necessities. Information: Kathy, 208-736-2122..

Volunteers  The Senior Companion Program at the CSI Office on Aging needs volunteers, age 55 and older, to assist homebound seniors by providing friendly visits and transportation as needed. Information: Marisol, 208-736-2122, or toll free, 800-574-8656.

Volunteers  St. Lukes Home Health and Hospice needs volunteers to share compassion and increase the quality of life for patients and their families. The program is designed to offer companionship and socialization to patients, plus respite and support for the caregivers. Information: Marie Sharp, 208-814-7603 or sharpm@slhs.org.

Drivers  The Twin Falls Senior Center delivers meals to homebound seniors in the Twin Falls area Monday through Friday, and the routes take an hour or less to complete. Commitment is based on your availability; pick a day of the week or drive once or twice a month, pick a week to drive, or be a substitute driver. Volunteers must be 18 years of age with their own car, and have proof of liability insurance. Drivers receive 54 cents a mile fuel reimbursement. Information: Sandee Earl, 208-734-5084.
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TWIN FALLS  When students at two Twin Falls elementary schools head back to class in August, theyll have a chance to take on leadership roles.

I.B. Perrine and Lincoln elementary schools plan to adopt The Leader in Me initiative next school year. School employees are training this week.

The model incorporates Stephen Coveys The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Leader in Me isnt a curriculum or program. But it shapes a schools culture and how students talk to and act toward one another.

Its a way of doing business in school, Lincoln Elementary principal Beth Olmstead said.

More than 30 Lincoln Elementary employees are participating in a three-day training, which started Wednesday. I.B. Perrine Elementary employees started training Tuesday and wrap up Thursday.

Harrison Elementary was the only Twin Falls school and among few in Idaho to use The Leader in Me.

Students lead morning announcements, and they apply and interview for leadership roles such as being a crossing guard or friendship leader on the playground.

Children must supply a list of references. They fill their job for two weeks to a month and can reapply.

Lincoln Elementary educators saw how successful The Leader in Me initiative is at Harrison Elementary, Olmstead said.

Lincoln employees studied the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and launched a larger conversation about adopting The Leader in Me.

Its made a real change in a lot of our teachers, Olmstead said, it and helps students realize their full potential.

In February, five school employees went to a symposium in Rocklin, Calif., where they visited schools that have implemented the initiative.

Lincoln Elementary applied for a grant in January and found out in mid-May it would receive funding. Money will be used for employee training and materials for students.

Olmstead invited every school employee at Lincoln, including cafeteria workers and janitors, to attend the event.

About half of her 60-member staff is going through the training. Theyre not getting paid, so theyre volunteering their time.

When students return in August, theyll see a lot of difference in our school, Olmstead said.

Five Lincoln Elementary employees are being trained next week as facilitators. Theyll oversee the schools The Leader in Me initiative.

On Wednesday, presenter John Flokstra with FranklinCovey in Canada, led educators through activities, such as defining outcomes for a few situations in their lives.

Educators are also learning how to model the seven habits for their students.

Teachers shared what they want to see as outcomes in their own life, such as goals for a newborn daughter and for a family vacation.

Get specific about what you want, Flokstra said.

Educators also identified the most important roles and key relationships in their lives, something that theyll help students do in the fall.
TWIN FALLS  Just in time for a major Main Avenue reconstruction, the Urban Renewal Agency has found alternative downtown parking.

At its special meeting Wednesday, the agency board voted 4-1 to spend $500,000 on the commercially zoned land. The property at 229 and 241 Second Ave. N. will serve as a parking lot for the north of downtown, offering up to 70 parking spaces.

We feel there is a need to acquire this property at this time, Chairman Dan Brizee said. Were interested in purchasing this property clean, with the buildings gone.

The parcel is owned by Gene Goold and includes a three-level retail building, the former United Automotive shop and a 670-square-foot house with garage.

Bob Richards, who cast the dissenting vote, said he isnt necessarily against acquiring a parking lot. However, he wanted to wait until the URA had better information on the total cost of its downtown project.

For me, it was just a timing issue, he said. I would have preferred to have waited.

Brad Wills made the motion to move ahead with purchasing the property.

I believe that as an agency that we have sufficient funds that would not put anything in jeopardy at this time, Wills said.

The Magic Valley Bowhunters have rented part of the commercial building for the last five or six years, said Vice President Larry Hayes.

We had no information at all that the building was being sold, Hayes said.

The group offers an indoor archery range with 12 permanent targets, and has about 40 members  most of whom use the range. Hayes said the group had tried to get a lease for the building, but has been renting it month-to-month.

Goold said he has had a sale sign up on the building for several years, and will give the tenants a 30-day notice as required. He also said he doesnt consider the property sold until he sees anything official. Goold built the shop for his business in 1965 and purchased the main building next door at about the same time.

I figured its time for me to take it easy, he said.

The URA has had ongoing discussions about the 25,000 square-foot parcel in closed meetings, and several businesses downtown on Main Avenue have expressed interest in more parking, Brizee said.

The 100 North and West block of Main Street have seen quite a renaissance, he said, referencing projects such as whats been done with the Orpheum Theatre. And theres not a lot of parking.

Public safety is also a concern, he said.

City Manager Travis Rothweiler said parking in the downtown core is a major issue, and will be especially during the upcoming URA project. The nearby parking on that part of Main Avenue has nearly double the average use, he said.

Although the Main Avenue reconstruction will create some additional parking, Rothweiler believed more is needed.

This is the last large piece of property available between the Second Avenues in the downtown area, Brizee said in a statement released by the city.

The parking lot will eventually be surfaced, Richards said.
At a total estimated cost of $1.5 trillion, the F-35 fighter plane is the most expensive weapons system in history. Acquisition costs alone for F-35s totaled more than $8 billion in fiscal 2015, and that's expected to almost double in the years ahead. Unfortunately, the plane doesn't really work yet, despite over a decade of spending, and there are rumbling questions over whether it ever will work. Such are the perils of the military-industrial complex.

What else could we spend $8 billion on that would yield greater benefits for the U.S.? The government could mail some checks to poor people, repair the roads or plow the money into next-generation battery research. All of those would be good uses of the money. But I also thought of a new, highly speculative idea for an $8 billion program that might do the U.S. a world of good.

I suggest we give every young American a trip overseas.

This idea is actually the reverse of Israel's Birthright program, which offers to pay for any Jewish person in the world between the ages of 18 and 26 the chance to visit Israel once. The policy presumably creates connections between Israel and the Jewish diaspora. Greece, Hungary and Armenia have implemented similar programs.

The U.S., however, is in a very different situation from these small nations. Much of the world is clamoring to move to the U.S. The problem is more that Americans don't get outside the country enough. Fewer than half of Americans have passports. Few U.S. students study foreign language, and the number seems to be shrinking. Only 7 percent of Americans report speaking a language other than English that they learned in school.

That insularity may have political and social costs. Americans' lack of understanding of the outside world fuels isolationism, and could lead to ham-handed foreign policy mistakes. It might make the country less likely to support global initiatives like the fight against global warming. It even might fuel xenophobia of the type now being whipped up by presidential candidate Donald Trump.

So I propose a Reverse Birthright program. Every American ages 18 to 26 would get a certain amount of money toward an overseas trip of his or her choice. A reasonable amount would be $2,000 a person, which will pay for a plane flight and 10 days of lodging anywhere in the world. The U.S. government, of course, can use its negotiating leverage to get good prices.

How much would this cost? About 4 million children are born in the U.S. every year. That would make for a maximum average yearly cost of around $8 billion -- about the same as the federal government now spends on the F-35.

These overseas trips would be exciting adventures, for sure, but that's not all they would be. An overseas trip can have a huge impact on a young person -- when I went to Japan for 10 days as a college student, I decided to move there after graduation. Foreign travel can increase people's understanding of other cultures, open them to business and career ideas, and create the sense that the world is a wider, more interesting place than they had ever realized.

America's poorer people, especially, would benefit from experiencing the wider world. Seeing new places can open one's mind to the possibility of moving away from one's hometown. And research has shown that when poor people move out of their neighborhoods, they tend to benefit. In fact, the U.S. population in general is suffering from a decline in geographic mobility, which may be hurting economic dynamism. If that lack of mobility is in any part psychological, overseas trips might help.

Finally, overseas trips would alert young Americans to the important fact that there are different ways to organize a society. Traveling to Japan or Europe and seeing the excellent train systems there might make Americans less fixated on cars as the only way to get around. Observing the factories of China might fuel a renewed interest in manufacturing. Visiting low-crime developed countries might make Americans realize that high rates of violence don't have to be permanent. There is no end to the interesting things one can learn from visiting other countries.

So that's my idea for how to spend $8 billion a year. Older generations of Americans (mostly men) saw the world by going to fight in overseas wars. Maybe it's time for a more peaceful way to give kids the broadening that comes with travel.
Cairo announced a four-day opening of the Rafah border crossing point with the Gaza Strip beginning on Wednesday through Sunday with the exception of Friday.

The decision is seen as a goodwill gesture ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan expected to begin on June 6.

Reports stated that there are around 30,000 people seeking to cross over the border but authorities at Gazas Interior ministry said priority will be given to those seeking medical care, students studying abroad, stranded families and holders of Egyptian or foreign passports. More than a thousand people crossed into Egypt on the first day of the opening.

The Rafah crossing is the only gateway into Gaza not controlled by Israel excluding the smuggling tunnels linking Egypt and Gaza.

Part of Cairos efforts to fight against militant attacks, most of the tunnels have been destroyed by the Egyptian security and the border area was declared a military buffer zone.

Egypt seems to be relaxing the closure of its border with Gaza, as it also opened the crossing point for two days in May, while between October 2014 and October 2015, passage through Rafah was only allowed for a total of 37 days.

There is an estimated 1,9million Gazans living in the strip controlled by Hamas; a group accused by Cairo of not doing enough to help it curb militant attacks on its forces in the Sinai Peninsula. Hamas says more than 15,000 Gazans have applied to leave the coastal enclave but only a few hundred can cross per day.

According to press reports, several ambulances and buses filled with stranded travelers were leaving Gaza and trucks loaded with Egyptian cement, medicine and humanitarian supplies were heading into Gaza from Egypt.
Basma Kodmani, a delegate of the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC) composed of Syrian opposition groups, said Coordinator Riad Hijab of the HNC has addressed a letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for a truce during Ramadan.

We know there should be one, full respect of the truce across the country, nationwide, for the full month of Ramadan, the letter says.

Kodmani thinks that a truce during the fasting month of Ramadan would start creating the right conditions, the right atmosphere, for us to return to (peace talks in) Geneva. This is the intention of the HNC.

Damascus has not reacted to the proposal but the spokeswoman of special envoy Staffan de Mistura confirmed the reception of the letter and its forwarding to the International Syrian Support Group, led by the US and Russia, for discussion.

Ramadan is less than four days away and it is unclear if an announcement will be made before it begins as US State Department spokesman John Kirby said the best thing that can happen for the Syrian people, is an enduring nationwide cessation of hostilities on a longer and larger period.

A possible ceasefire will not stop fighting in the country as the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front will be excluded from it. Kodmani said armed opposition groups are ready to heed to the cessation of hostilities if the regime abides by it.

Previous truces have been marred with numerous violations on both sides, which contributed to the suspension of talks.

Lately, calls have been rising for humanitarian aid to be delivered to civilians via airdrops especially in the cities of Daraya, Moadamiyeh and Madaya where the population is believed to be starving. Access to areas held by both government and rebel forces has been horrendously difficult.

Meanwhile, Kurdish forces backed the US have launched an assault on Manbij, northern Syria close to the Turkish border, controlled by the Islamic State.
Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF,) the oil-rich kingdoms long-term sovereign investment arm, has pumped $3.5 billion into Uber and will henceforth occupy a seat as a member of the Board of Directors.

The amount is the highest solitary amount that the ridesharing application has received and its founder and Chief Executive Travis Kalanick appreciated the multi-billion dollar investment as a vote of confidence that would boost efforts to expand our global presence.

Uber is available in the cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca, Medina and the Eastern Province and it is looking forward to expanding its services to other cities within the Kingdom.

Our experience in Saudi Arabia is a great example of how Uber can benefit riders, drivers and cities and we look forward to partnering to support their economic and social reforms, Kalanick said.

The platform currently serves 9 countries and 15 cities across the Middle East and North Africa.

There are also other ride-sharing platforms in Saudi Arabia such as Careem, a Dubai-based startup backed by Saudi Telecom Company, and Al Tayyar Group.

They are yet to face strong protest from registered taxi drivers but the main challenge could be the strict restrictions implemented in the kingdom.

Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia and male drivers who are not relatives to females cant give them a ride but Uber claimed that 80% of its passengers were currently women. It argues that expanding its services will be beneficial to women especially.

Founded in 2009, Uber has spread into more than 400 major cities around the world and is now valued at $62.5 billion.

The Saudi investment is seen as part of the kingdoms shift away from oil under its Vision 2030 program.
UN special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed called on politicians to refrain from politicizing the discussions for the release of detainees underlining that this issue is humanitarian in the first place and should not be politicized as he yearned for the return of the detainees to their families as early as possible.

In a released statement, he urged those engaged in the talks to remain steadfast before adding political parties should not manipulate the issue of detainees to serve political ends anymore.

The first round of the prisoners exchange between the Houthi Movement and allies and the Yemeni government backed by the Saudi-led coalition was held in Taiz.

Local media reported on Wednesday that the Houthis released 16 members of pro-government forces while the government released 19 in exchange.

It was the first prisoner exchange between the two sides and other swaps are expected to follow before the beginning of Ramadan with the committee of prisoner affairs, established by the ongoing Kuwaiti talks, having held a session for both sides to report on the detainees under their custody.

The two sides have submitted to UN mediators lists of about 7,000 prisoners, including political detainees.

The exchange of prisoners is expected to serve as a goodwill gesture that will boost trust and build confidence between the two warring parties in order to discuss key issues that would help to bring peace to Yemen such as the governments demand for the compliance of the rebels to UN Security Council resolution 2216.

Apart from the fighting between the Houthis and government forces, militants of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda are terrorizing the country with suicide attacks and plots targeting security forces.
Disabling effects of stroke

Consequently, only a small fraction of patients benefit from treatment during the strokes acute phase. The great majority of survivors end up with enduring disabilities. Some lost functionality often returns, but its typically limited. And the prevailing consensus among neurologists is that virtually all recovery thats going to occur comes within the first six months after the stroke.

There are close to 7 million chronic stroke patients in the United States, Steinberg said. If this treatment really works for that huge population, it has great potential.

For the trial, the investigators screened 379 patients and selected 18, whose average age was 61. For most patients, at least a full year had passed since their stroke  well past the time when further recovery might be hoped for. In each case, the stroke had taken place beneath the brains outermost layer, or cortex, and had severely affected motor function.

Some patients couldnt walk, Steinberg said. Others couldnt move their arm.

Into these patients brains the neurosurgeons injected so-called SB623 cells mesenchymal stem cells derived from the bone marrow of two donors and then modified to beneficially alter the cells ability to restore neurologic function.

No immune rejection

Mesenchymal stem cells are the naturally occurring precursors of muscle, fat, bone and tendon tissues. In preclinical studies, though, theyve not been found to cause problems by differentiating into unwanted tissues or forming tumors. Easily harvested from bone marrow, they appear to trigger no strong immune reaction in recipients even when they come from an unrelated donor. In fact, they may actively suppress the immune system. For this trial, unlike the great majority of transplantation procedures, the stem cell recipients received no immunosuppressant drugs.

During the procedure, patients heads were held in fixed positions while a hole was drilled through their skulls to allow for the injection of SB623 cells, accomplished with a syringe, into a number of spots at the periphery of the stroke-damaged area, which varied from patient to patient.

Afterward, patients were monitored via blood tests, clinical evaluations and brain imaging. Interestingly, the implanted stem cells themselves do not appear to survive very long in the brain. Preclinical studies have shown that these cells begin to disappear about one month after the procedure and are gone by two months. Yet, patients showed significant recovery by a number of measures within a months time, and they continued improving for several months afterward, sustaining these improvements at six and 12 months after surgery. Steinberg said its likely that factors secreted by the mesenchymal cells during their early postoperative presence near the stroke site stimulates lasting regeneration or reactivation of nearby nervous tissue.

No relevant blood abnormalities were observed. Some patients experienced transient nausea and vomiting, and 78 percent had temporary headaches related to the transplant procedure.

Motor-function improvements

Substantial improvements were seen in patients scores on several widely accepted metrics of stroke recovery. Perhaps most notably, there was an overall 11.4-point improvement on the motor-function component of the Fugl-Meyer test, which specifically gauges patients movement deficits.

This wasnt just, They couldnt move their thumb, and now they can. Patients who were in wheelchairs are walking now, said Steinberg, who is the Bernard and Ronni Lacroute-William Randolph Hearst Professor in Neurosurgery and Neurosciences.

We know these cells dont survive for more than a month or so in the brain, he added. Yet we see that patients recovery is sustained for greater than one year and, in some cases now, more than two years.

We thought those brain circuits were dead. And weve learned that theyre not.

Importantly, the stroke patients postoperative improvement was independent of their age or their conditions severity at the onset of the trial. Older people tend not to respond to treatment as well, but here we see 70-year-olds recovering substantially, Steinberg said. This could revolutionize our concept of what happens after not only stroke, but traumatic brain injury and even neurodegenerative disorders. The notion was that once the brain is injured, it doesnt recover  youre stuck with it. But if we can figure out how to jump-start these damaged brain circuits, we can change the whole effect.

We thought those brain circuits were dead. And weve learned that theyre not.

A new randomized, double-blinded multicenter phase-2b trial aiming to enroll 156 chronic stroke patients is now actively recruiting patients. Steinberg is the principal investigator of that trial. For more information, please e-mail stemcellstudy@stanford.edu.

The ongoing work is an example of Stanford Medicines focus on precision health, the goal of which is to anticipate and prevent disease in the healthy and precisely diagnose and treat disease in the ill.

Other Stanford co-authors of the study are Neil Schwartz, MD, PhD, clinical associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences and of neurosurgery; and former neurosurgery fellow Jeremiah Johnson, MD, now at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

The SB623 cells were provided by SanBio Inc., a biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California. SanBio also funded and helped in designing the trial, but did not participate in its execution.

Stanfords Department of Neurosurgery also supported the work.
Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday cancelled a visit to the oil-producing Niger Delta, hit by a series of militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines.

The West-African nations Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will instead visit the restive southern region to launch a cleanup program of the Ogoniland, local media reported.

The clean-up estimated to cost about $1 billion would seek to sanitize the creeks, swamps, fishing grounds and mangroves that have been destroyed by oil spills from multinational giant Shell, the countrys oil producer and other private firms.

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA,) which carried out a series of crippling attacks on oil pipelines and facilities in the region, issued a statement ahead of Buharis visit, warning companies based in the region that its going to be bloody this time around.

Buhari vowed that he was ready to engage with leaders in the region, which also saw a sustained period of militancy in the mid-2000s led by armed groups protesting what they saw as the unfair distribution of Nigerias oil wealth.

The Nigerian president said that the recent attacks would not distract his government and that security forces would apprehend the perpetrators and their sponsors and bring them to justice.

Because of the upsurge in attacks, Nigerias oil production decreased by 800,000 bpd to around 1.4 million bpd, dropping the country behind Angola as the continents largest oil producer.
Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Gambian authorities to stop brutal crackdown on freedom of speech that has resulted in the arrest of dozens of people who demanded political changes in the West-African nation.

According to the Rights group, the country should face suspension from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) unless it ends a brutal repression.

Opposition members have been calling for electoral reform and political change in Gambia. Authorities deemed the protests, started on 14 April, illegal as demonstrators failed to obtain permission from the police.

A least 50 people were arrested. Solo Sandeng, secretary of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) died alongside two others while in detention.

Solo Sandeng dedicated many years of his life to politics in Gambia and was previously arrested in 2013 for his political activities.

Gambias elections are just six months away and yet opposition members are arrested and beaten, journalists are muzzled, and civil society muted, said Alioune Tine, Amnesty International regional director for West and Central Africa.

Gambia has a long and brutal history of repression of critical voices, and demonstrators such as Solo Sandeng have paid a high price for peaceful protest, Tine said.

On May 29, President Jammeh told Jeune Afrique magazine that People die in custody or during interrogations, its really common. This time, there is only one dead and they want investigations? No one can tell me what to do in my country.

In power since 1994, President Yahya Jammeh has been accused of undermining an effective opposition in the West African country.
Police in Burkina Faso arrested six foreigners suspected of being behind the jihadist attacks in January that left 30 people dead in the West-African nation, police and government officials said on Wednesday.

According to a press statement released by the police on Wednesday, the suspects arrested on Monday had sheltered the attackers, three of whom were killed during the January 15 raid, and were in contact with the mastermind of the plot.

Burkinas Minister of Internal Security, Simon Compaore, told reporters the arrests were made thanks to intelligence shared by other West African security forces.

On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen killed three police officers in northern Burkina Faso near the Malian border  the second attack on a police station near the frontier in less than a fortnight

According to the police, the assailants launched the attack in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday against Intangom police station in the Sahel region, close to the border with Mali.

In mid-May, two security and defense forces officers were left injured as unknown gunmen attacked a police station at Koutougou, close to borders with Niger and Mali.
Gunmen have stormed a hotel in the center of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Wednesday evening, killing at least 2 MPs and 13 other people.

Al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab quickly claimed responsibility for the attacks  claiming to have killed 20 people.

Police Officer Major Ibrahim Hassan was quoted by Reuters as saying that Lawmakers Mohamud Mohamed and Abdullahi Jamac died in the hotel.

Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaabs military operations spokesman, told Reuters they had lost three fighters during the hotel attack and killed 30 people.

One of the three dead fighters drove the car that rammed the hotel while the others stormed the hotel, al Shabaab said.

The attack happened shortly before the arrival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Mogadishu.

Somali President Hassan Sh. Mohamud and Premier Omar Abdirashid condemned the terrorist attack.

Al-Shabab, which is battling the UN-backed government, was driven from Mogadishu in 2011 but still remains a potent threat and frequently carries out attacks in the city.

The government, with the help of African Union forces, is fighting the al-Qaeda-linked group to regain control of the war-torn country.

Earlier on Wednesday, the government announced it had killed Mohamed Kuno, the al-Shabab militant who led the attack on Garissa University in Kenya in April 2015 that killed 148 people.
This photograph depicts Clostridium difficile colonies after 48hrs growth on a blood agar plate; Magnified 4.8X. C. difficile, an anaerobic gram-positive rod, is the most frequently identified cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). It accounts for approximately 15-25% of all episodes of AAD. Credit: CDC

A new University of Leicester study has confirmed the therapeutic potential of bacteriophage combinations to treat highly infectious bacteria C. difficile infections (CDI) while retaining a healthy gut.

A team led by Martha Clokie, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester's Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, demonstrated that bacteriophage combinations significantly reduce growth of C. difficile cells and proliferation in complex models, whilst retaining healthy gut by preventing destruction of beneficial bacteria caused by traditional antibiotic treatment.

The study, which was funded by AmpliPhi Biosciences, is published in the peer-reviewed publication Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

CDI is responsible for approximately 39% of the cases of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in the Western world. Ten percent of CDI patients die due to lack of effective therapies. The main obstacles to preventing CDI are the existence of diverse C. difficile strains that vary in their response to antibiotics and the impervious nature of the C. difficile spores.

Results from studies carried out by Dr Janet Nale in Professor Clokie's laboratory demonstrated that specific phage combinations caused the complete destruction of C. difficile and prevented the appearance of resistant bacteria, while results of the complex models work showed that oral delivery of optimised phage combinations resulted in reduced C. difficile spread at 36 hours post-infection.

Additionally, the phage combination was able to kill 12 of the 13 C. difficile variants that are most prevalent in the UK, and were effective against the emerging variants that are increasingly causing concern in the UK, the US and more widely. The phage combination also reduced or completely prevented regrowth of C. difficile when compared to treatment with individual phages.

"Our data supports the therapeutic potential of phage combinations to treat C. difficile infections," said Professor Clokie. "In particular, combinations of phages optimised in the laboratory setting were shown to be effective in the treatment of C. difficile in animals. Further refinements to our bacteriophage cocktails can be explored to maximise phage efficacy and to target the most dominant C. difficile variants."

"Lab experiments, like this, allow us to see what effect specific phage combinations have on C. difficile in complex models. To see the effect of specific phage combinations in humans we would run an experimental trial with people."

M. Scott Salka, CEO of AmpliPhi Biosciences, added: "The prevalence of C. difficile, the high costs of infection control and the challenge of finding alternative treatments, all contribute to the significant clinical and financial burden that CDI imposes on healthcare systems. The positive outcomes of these studies validate phage-based therapy as a promising approach that has the potential to address the growing challenge of CDI. We look forward to our continued collaboration with Professor Clokie to develop tailored and customised phage therapies for future clinical trials in humans."

Explore further Prevention better than fecal transplants

More information: Janet Y. Nale et al. Bacteriophage Combinations Significantly Reduce Clostridium difficile Growthand Proliferation, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (2016). Journal information: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Janet Y. Nale et al. Bacteriophage Combinations Significantly Reduce Clostridium difficile Growthand Proliferation,(2016). DOI: 10.1128/AAC.01774-15
UCSF researchers have learned to generate healthy new liver cells (dark green, right side) within the livers of living mice by converting the very cells that drive liver disease (red, left side), thereby reducing liver damage and improving liver function at the same time. Credit: Willenbring lab / UCSF

Advances in stem cell research have made it possible to convert patients' skin cells into heart cells, kidney cells, liver cells and more in the lab dish, giving researchers hope that one day such cells could replace organ transplantation for patients with organ failure. But successfully grafting these cells into patients' failing organs remains a major clinical challenge.

Now a team of researchers led by UC San Francisco scientists has demonstrated in mice that it is possible to generate healthy new liver cells within the organ itself, making engraftment unnecessary. What's more, they did it by converting the very cells that drive liver disease, thereby reducing liver damage and improving liver function at the same time. The technique takes advantage of a viral gene delivery technology that has gone through early validation in patients for liver-directed gene therapies, suggesting it could be readily translated into a therapy for patients with liver disease, said Holger Willenbring, MD, PhD, a professor of surgery at UCSF and senior author of the new study, published June 2, 2016 in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

"Part of why this works is that the liver is a naturally regenerative organ, so it can deal with new cells very well. What we see is that the converted cells are not only functionally integrated in the liver tissue, but also divide and expand, leading to patches of new liver tissue," said Willenbring, who is also associate director of the Liver Center at UCSF and a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research.

More than 600,000 patients in the United States alone suffer from end-stage liver disease, or cirrhosis. The only available cure is liver transplantation, but the shortage of donor livers means only 6,000 patients benefit from this therapy each year in the U.S., and more than 35,000 patients die.

The new approach specifically targets liver fibrosis, the progressive scarring of the liver that is a primary driver of liver disease. Fibrosis develops when liver cells called hepatocytes can't regenerate fast enough to keep up with damage caused by toxins such as alcohol or diseases such as hepatitis C or fatty liver disease. Cells called myofibroblasts fill in gaps left by dying hepatocytes with scar-like fibrotic tissue. It's a bit like patching a flat tire: at first the patches help maintain the liver's structural integrity, but eventually a liver that is more patches than functional tissue starts to fail.

Fibrotic liver disease has a slow fuse, but leads to catastrophic failure: someone who contracts hepatitis C at age 25 may feel just fine for decades, then suddenly at age 50 start experiencing the fatigue, faintness, nausea, bruising, diarrhea and jaundice that indicate the onset of end-stage liver disease. The reason is that the liver can adapt as long as at least 20 percent of it is functional, Willenbring says, but once it dips below that critical threshold, patients are often dead within two years.

"Liver fibrosis is not rare," Willenbring said. "It's actually the end stage of many chronic liver diseases. Obesity, for instance, can lead to fatty liver disease, which is predicted to become the number one cause of liver fibrosis in the next 10 years."

Technique reduces liver damage, increases liver function in mice

Willenbring has dedicated his career to using stem cell biology to generate new hepatocytes (for instance, from a patient's own skin) that could be used in place of transplants to treat liver failure.

Ironically, however, just as he and his lab have come closer to achieving this dream, Willenbring has had to grapple with the realization that this cell therapy approach may fail to reach the majority of patients with liver failure because the tangle of fibrosis itself impairs the successful engraftment of transplanted cells.

So over the past five years, Willenbring and his teamin close collaboration with the laboratory of Dirk Grimm, PhD at Heidelberg University Hospital in Germanyhave embarked on a different approach: converting fibrosis-causing myofibroblasts into healthy new hepatocytes within the liver itself.

Previous research had identified a cocktail of gene-regulating proteins that can convert other cell types into hepatocytes, but the team needed a way to deliver these instructions to myofibroblasts. After several years of work, the team identified a subtype of adeno-associated virus (AAV) that could specifically infect myofibroblasts. The researchers focused on AAV because it has been shown to be safe and effective in early human gene therapy trials, e.g., for therapy of the bleeding disorder hemophilia B.

The team showed in mice with liver disease that viruses packed with the cell fate-changing cocktail indeed infected myofibroblasts and converted them into functional hepatocytes. The number of new cells was relatively small - less than one percent of all hepatocytes in the treated mice - but this was sufficient to reduce fibrosis and improve liver function.

The viral approach was also effective in converting human myofibroblasts in a dish into working hepatocytes, but more work is certainly needed to prepare this approach for use in human patients, the researchers say. In particular, the lab is working to package the treatment into a single virus, reducing potential side effects and streamlining clinical development. The team is also working to make the viruses more specific to myofibroblasts - in the current paper muscle cells and some cells of the immune system were also infected, though without converting them into liver cells or obviously impacting their function.

The new results suggest that in the fibrotic liver this approach could produce a more efficient and stable improvement of liver function than cell transplant approaches, Willenbring said, adding that once the viral packaging is optimized, such a treatment could be done cheaply at a broad range of medical facilities, not just in the specialized research hospitals where stem-cell transplants could be conducted.

Willenbring is the first to acknowledge that the new technique is not a replacement for the current standard of care in liver disease: "A liver transplant is still the best cure," Willenbring said. "This is more of a patch. But if it can boost liver function by just a couple percent, that can hopefully keep patients' liver function over that critical threshold, and that could translate to decades more of life."

Explore further Transplanted liver cells protect against liver failure after massive hepatectomy surgery
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 three-day Shangri-la Dialogue that starts on Friday is set to focus on the South China Sea, and no doubt the United States and some of its allies will grasp the opportunity to play up what it claims China's military expansion in the South China Sea.

However, it's the US that is militarizing the waters and should reflect on the potential risks.

The militarization of the South China Sea as a result of the US' military build-up and its frequent so-called freedom of navigation operations increases the chances of a dangerous collision. The growing risk of a possible collision raises questions about whether the existing international laws can regulate the conduct of relevant parties. If not, should China and US sign an Incident at Sea (INCSEA) Agreement to curtail dangerous encounters.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea classifies the sea into various jurisdictional zones with rights and duties. These serve as a benchmark for deciding on the lawfulness of the conduct of relevant parties. Consequently, the location of an incident at sea plays a key role in judging the lawfulness of any maritime activity.

The US has released a statement that accuses China of conducting "unsafe" interception of a US reconnaissance plane in "international airspace" over the South China Sea. But "international airspace" is a term which cannot be found anywhere in UNCLOS. Based on the US stance as reflected in its public statement and Navy Commander's Operational Handbook, the term "international space" refers to the airspace over the maritime areas beyond territorial waters, which may include airspace over both the exclusive economic zones and the high seas. This is typical of the US, as it sets its own understanding of the international law of the sea above and beyond the shared international understanding.

Notwithstanding the fact that the US is not a party to the Convention and habitually chooses some articles of it that are to its advantage as reflecting customary international law, this US-designed term does lead to serious conflict of understanding of law regarding the legal status of each maritime area and its associated airspace, in particular that of the EEZ and its airspace. While the international community aligned under the Convention takes an EEZ as a particular maritime zone governed by a specific legal regime with balanced rights and obligations between the user and coastal State, the US as a non-party insists that the freedom of navigation and overflights exercised within and beyond EEZs "must be qualitatively and quantitatively the same as the traditional high seas freedoms recognized by international law".

This leads to the possibility of operational confrontation at sea.

Another element that may have a bearing on the regulation of the US' reconnaissance activities is the rules of international law regarding un-alerted air encounters between military aircraft. Many of the relevant international rules originate from the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, to which both China and US are both parties. The 1944 Chicago Convention includes Annex 2, entitled Rules of the Air, which recommends standards and best practice with regard to the interception of civilian aircrafts, but it does not apply to the interception of non-civilian aircraft.

One may also cite the China-US Memorandum of Understanding on Air and Maritime Encounters. Notwithstanding the non-binding force of the MOU, this also raises the question of who would be the judge to decide on the lawfulness of the parties involved in any incident. Either side should not be the judge of itself.

It is crystal-clear that it is the US military aircrafts that fly thousands of miles to the threshold of Chinese EEZs, to the airspace near Russia borders, and to other foreign EEZs, to conduct close-in reconnaissance, which serves as the root cause of the problem. Consequently, the best way to solve the problem is for the US to stop such close-in reconnaissance activities.

The author is a research fellow at the Collaborative Innovation Center of South China Sea Studies, affiliated to Nanjing University.
Dr. Vivek Nerurkar in his laboratory in Kakaako. Credit: University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Hawai'i State Board of Agriculture has voted to approve an application by the University of Hawai'i to import live Zika virus so research into finding a vaccine can get under way in Honolulu.

The birth of two infants on Oahu five months ago, in December 2015, to mothers infected with the Zika virus illustrated how little is understood about Zika, and sparked a sense of urgency among those who want to study and combat the virus. Of the two babies born in Honoluluone born to a woman who was infected in American Samoa and the other to a woman infected in Brazilonly one infant had microcepehalus, a condition that stunts the growth of the head, leaving inadequate room for the brain to fully development causing impairment to the child.

"What causes the virus in the mothers to cripple one baby and not the other?" asked Dr. Vivek Nerurkar, Chair of the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology. "That is one of the mysteries we need to solve."

Nerurkar expressed appreciation to the Board of Agriculture and others who have supported the effort to enable Zika virus research.

"I really thank the Department of Agriculture Board, the Chair, and the community at the University and JABSOM who helped us get through this process, including the important support of State House Health Committee Chair Representative Della Au Belatti and State Representative Richard Creagan, MD," said Nerurkar.

Nerurkar first applied for the state permit to import Zika virus in 2009, after an outbreak of Zika virus in Yap and French Polynesia, both relatively close to Hawai'i.

"Hawaii is an international stop and people and diseases can come here from all over the world," said Nerurkar.

Last March, U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) convened a roundtable discussion at the John A. Burns School of Medicine with leading local, national and international experts to discuss both Dengue and the then emerging threat from the Zika virus, helping to reinvigorate the effort to fight both viruses.

This month, in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Nerurkar and his UH colleagues reported on the 2015 case of microcephaly related to Zika. It was the first academic article about a Zika-related microcephaly case in the United States.

Nerurkar and colleagues have applied for several grants through the National Institutes of Health and other agencies to begin their research in earnest. He expects to obtain the Zika virus sample within the next month or so. The sample will be kept in a highly secure laboratory and researchers will follow strictly enforced methods to ensure its safety as well as their own.

"We have a large department here at the Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, with a lot scientists and physicians who we work with in the community and at the Kapiolani Medical Center," said Nerurkar. "Together we form a very good team and we have in-depth expertise of working with infectious diseases. I think this is a tremendous asset for the State of Hawaii. Our faculty, experts in virology and vaccines, also have a proven track record of collaboration with other institutions on the U.S. mainland. I believe strongly in collaborations and in hoping that these collaborations will lead to new vaccines."

Explore further UN establishes a trust fund to help combat the Zika virus
Surgery to remove the primary tumor in women diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, followed by the standard combination of therapies, adds months to the patients' lives, compared with standard therapy alone, an international clinical trial led by a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) professor revealed.

The results of the phase III randomized, controlled trial will be presented Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago. The study was selected for the society's "Best of ASCO," an effort to condense the research "most relevant and significant to oncology" into a two-day program to increase global access to cutting-edge science.

"Our findings will change the standard of care for women newly diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer," said principal investigator Atilla Soran, M.D., M.P.H., clinical professor of surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and breast surgical oncologist with UPMC CancerCenter. "We've shown that surgery to remove the primary tumoreither through lumpectomy or mastectomyfollowed by standard therapy, is beneficial over no surgery."

Dr. Soran began the trial in 2007, ultimately recruiting a total of 274 women newly diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer from 25 institutions. Half the women received standard therapy, which avoids surgery and consists of a combination of chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and targeted therapy, while the other half first had surgery to remove their primary breast tumor, followed by the standard therapy.

At about 40 months after diagnosis, the women who received the surgery plus standard therapy lived an average of nine months longer than their counterparts who received standard therapy alone. Nearly 42 percent of the women who received surgery lived to five years after diagnosis, compared with less than 25 percent of the women who did not receive surgery.

The trial also showed that surgery in younger women with less aggressive cancers resulted in longer average survival than in women with more aggressive cancers that had spread to the liver or lungs.

"Our thinking is similar to how you might approach a battle against two enemies," said Dr. Soran. "First you quickly dispatch one armythe primary tumorleaving you to concentrate all your efforts on battling the second armyany remaining cancer."

Explore further Delaying radiation therapy for women with very early breast cancer raises recurrence
Georgias NATO dreams

By Messenger Staff

Georgia officially submitted its application to join NATO at the end of the last century. This took place when Georgias President was Eduard Shevardnadze.By then, Georgia had enjoyed independence since 1991; however, this independence was challenged by the Russian Federation which opposed the claims of Georgia to stay and remain completely free from Russian influence. The collapse of the Soviet Union took place against the imperialistic sentiments of the Russian Federation. To prevent it, Russia activated time bombs which were hidden since the early days of the USSR in the 1920s of the last century by comrade Stalin and his wicked team who prepared these time bombs to explode when any of theSoviet republics would take steps towards real independence. So while claiming independence, the Soviet republics received different kinds of conflicts. Georgia suffered most of all. It suffered two conflicts with serious military developments; one in Abkhazia, and another in Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region. In both of them, separatist movements were supported and encouraged by Russia. It introduced arms and mercenaries in those regions, distributed Russian passports granting Russian citizenship to the local population. A couple of years after declaring independence, Georgia had two military conflicts within the country unleashed by Moscow. So the decision to join NATO appeared in Georgia as a means to protect itself from the Kremlin; sheltered by NATO, Georgia could feel more secure and able to develop its economy and achieve welfare. But NATO did not want to irritate Moscow, therefore it put many different preconditions in front of Georgia. Though the country diligently fulfilled the alliance's demands and has contributed to NATO missions all over the world, membership is consistently denied.In April 2008 at the NATO Bucharest summit, Georgia was promised that it would become a NATO member, although it was not specified when this would happen; Tbilisi stood at the open doors of the alliance but it was not allowed in. It was an embarrassing and humiliating position for Georgia. Moreover, when Moscow saw that Georgia was not invited to join NATO but had been assured of eventual membership, it organized a well-prepared provocation and trapped Georgia into a bloody military conflict. As a result, two regions of Georgia separated from the country and declared independence. Their separatist bids were immediately recognized by Moscow. Now Russia occupies 20% of Georgia's territory, which is now full of Russian soldiers and military hardware. Russia knows very well that while there is a dispute over the territory between the countries, they have zero chance to join NATO. Either NATO has to change its charter or Georgia has to accept the loss of its two regions.Now Georgia is in the same position as eight years ago, although its Defence Minister Tina Khidasheli said that Georgia does not want to receive an Membership Action Plan; she claims Georgia deserves full NATO membership outright.Nevertheless, Georgia still bids on its NATO dreams hoping that soon they will come true.
Same obstacles

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze

Georgia celebrates its 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. Georgia has fought for many years to gain freedom from Russia, though Moscow still remains a threat to Georgias security and stability.It was on May 26 1918 when Georgia first gained independence from the Russian Empire; however, it lasted only until 1921, as that year a resurgent Russia  this time flying Communist rather than imperial banners  once again took control of Georgia.Only on April 9 1991, 2 years after the brutal dispersal of a peaceful rally in Tbilisi by Russian troops, Georgia regained its independence.However, there remains a small group of Georgians who regret the collapse of the Soviet Union. The only way they justify their view is that they did not have to worry about income and food.Consequently, if they lived in better economic conditions they would perhaps not recall such an oppressive time with such heartfelt nostalgia.Georgia was a part of a big empire wherein different states were dependent on one another and it became hard for almost all of them to maintain welfare and peace after they were free from the Soviet Union.Georgia experienced hardship and hunger, civil war and darkness during the 1990s; state structures suffered from chronic corruption and the injustice and dominance of criminal bosses.Georgia has made significant strides in its efforts to fully modernize, but much still needs to be done.Georgia has done much to come close to Europe; it has signed the Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area deals with the European Union, and gained a Substantial Package from NATO and opened a Joint Training and Evaluation Centre with the alliance near Tbilisi. Georgian reforms are internationally recognized and praised, but still, Russia remains an obstacle to secure a better future.Russia failed to advance its views of the geopolitical landscape and maintains the same imperialistic intentions; Russias leadership is also alarmed by Georgias efforts to join the EU and NATO.Moscow still occupies 20% of Georgia's territory, changes borders at will, violates international laws and regulations, violates fundamental human rights and kidnaps and kills Georgians.It is a symbolic and very tragic coincidence that on the Day of Independence, in the village of Khurcha took place, the funeral ceremony of 31-year-old Giga Otkhozoria who was shot dead by Russias border-guards several days ago on territory controlled by Georgia.Georgia needs a government that will do its utmost for the country's development. Georgia should continue its progress undaunted; most of our people should care about the country first and his/her own interests afterwards. This way, Georgia will definitely celebrate a complete victory one day and regain its lost territories.
@JeremySWallace

The political forum that was expected to be the first with all five Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate in the same room, will not be after all.

Manatee County land developer Carlos Beruff, who got into the race in February, will not be in Boca Raton tonight when the other four candidates in the race speak at an event organized by a group called America First. in Palm Beach County. Beruff's campaign said he had a "scheduling conflict" and will not be able to make the event.

U.S. Reps. Ron DeSantis and David Jolly, Lt. Gov. Carlos Lopez-Cantera and defense contractor Todd Wilcox are all expected to attend the event at the Boca Raton Marriott.

Lopez-Cantera's campaign manager Brian Swensen said barring a family emergency, Beruff's sudden absence looks fishy.

"Beruffs last minute scheduling conflict on the day of the forum is an affront to voters, the organizers and Floridians who deserve better," Swensen said. "If Mr. Beruff is afraid to answer for his shortcoming as a conservative, how can anyone believe he has what it takes to stand up to the status quo in D.C.
@ByKristenMClark

A conservative political group says U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy should "resign in disgrace immediately" in the wake of recent reports by the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times that highlighted inconsistencies in the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate's resume.

The Better Florida Alliance said Thursday it plans to launch an ad campaign -- both online and through direct mail -- "to inform every single Florida voter about Congressman Murphy's academic fraud and resume padding."

Last week, the Herald/Times reported that Murphy had exaggerated his academic credentials in recent years by saying he had "dual degrees" from the University of Miami, when he actually earned a single bachelor's degree with two majors. (His U.S. Senate campaign called the discrepancy an "inadvertent error.")

The Tampa Bay Times also reported that Murphy's claim to have spent six months in the Gulf of Mexico leading cleanup efforts" after the 2010 BP oil spill contradicts with a timeline Murphy's Senate campaign provided to account for those months.

Most of us earned our high school diplomas, our trade certifications, our college degrees. Some of us work hard and earn a living without any of those things, we dont have to lie about it, we just work hard, Better Florida Alliance spokesman Brian Burgess said in a statement.
via Michael Sallah and @jayhweaver

With Opa-locka on the edge of bankruptcy, Gov. Rick Scott declared a financial emergency for the city on Wednesday, calling for a special oversight board to take over the citys finances and stem the bleeding that has led to crippling debts and cutbacks that have impacted every level of government.

The executive order comes just weeks after Miami-Dade County officials sent letters to the governor warning that the city could be shut down because of gaping budget shortfalls in the millions.

Its finally coming to end, said Steve Shiver, a former city manager who called for the state to step in last year after turning up grave financial problems. This is long, long overdue. Its critical that they find the true financial picture of Opa-locka.

The state will appoint members of the oversight board to monitor the spending of every city department  the second time the city of 16,000 residents has been placed under an emergency since 2002.

More here.
@PatriciaMazzei

For Republicans, the road to the White House runs through Florida  and its sizable Spanish-speaking population. To reach them, the GOP on Wednesday named veteran Miami TV and radio host Helen Aguirre Ferre as its Hispanic communications director.

Aguirre Ferre will be based out of the Republican National Committee's headquarters in Washington, D.C., though she told the Miami Herald she plans to make frequent trips to Florida, the nation's largest swing state, and to Miami-Dade, the state's largest and most Hispanic county.

It's in support of all the Republican candidates, she said of her new position. I just think that this is one of those years. We always say that every election is so important, but this election  everyone agrees  is particularly unique.

Her message to surrogates  Hispanics who reach out to Latino voters on behalf of candidates and the party  will be in part that the lingering effects of the recession have hurt the Hispanic community.

More here.
The liberal advocacy group, Americans United For Change, is out with a new report highlighting the financial ties between Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other Republican attorneys general, and the oil, gas and utilities industries as they fight to block enforcement of the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan.

According to calculations by FollowTheMoney,org, the report says Bondi collected $26,350 from the energy industries in the 2010 and 2014 election cycles. A closer look by the Herald/Times however, shows the figure is much higher - at least $75,000 just for the 2014 cycle. (The figure could potentially be hundreds of thousands more if donations to shadowy pass-through groups were required to be disclosed.)

Bondi joined with 23 other states, including a handful run by Democratic governors, and last year filed a lawsuit against the EPA to block the implementation of a rule by Environmental Protection Agency. The August rule revised the Clean Power Plan to impose the first-ever carbon limits on power plants. It required a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. power plants by 32 percent by 2030, based on 2005 levels, and is aggressively opposed by the oil, gas and utility industries.

Bondi and others argued that the EPA rule lays out an "unrealistic" timeframe to cut carbon emissions by 2030 and would "require the use of costly and unproven technologies." (Here are the goals for Florida, according to the EPA.)

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay on the implementation of the plan in February but the lawsuit continues. Meanwhile, a recent poll by Bloomberg Philanthropies -- run by the former New York mayor who supports the EPA rule -- found that 73 percent of Florida voters support the Clean Power Plan.

Now, Americans for Change claims that the legal officers who were opposing the rule were doing it not to help their constituents, but to advance the agendas of the utility, oil and gas industry.

"Republican attorneys general are doing the bidding of their polluter donor friends rather than working on the people of their state,'' said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans for Change in a media call on Thursday. The group says Republican AGs collectively received $4.7 million from opponents of the Clean Power Plan. "If you ask me, that's pretty damning."

Update June 8: The information provided by Americans United for Change did not list which companies they consider opponents of the Clean Power Plan. A 2015 blog by the National Resources Defense Council indicated that some of the constructive comments to the Environmental Protection Agency about the rule were from power companies such as the parent of Florida Power & Light, NextEra Energy which showed they are "constructively engaged regarding the EPA's Clean Power Plan proposal."

"NextEra "supports the Clean Power Plan as a reasonable and balanced approach to reducing CO2 emissions from the electric generating sector that is consistent with the CAA and EPA's implementing regulations,'' the blog quotes NextEra as saying.

NextEra, which as one of the nation's largest wind and solar energy providers, sees business opportunities in the Clean Power Plan and actually filed a motion to intervene in the case in support of the EPA rule. "NextEra has and will continue to develop significant renewable power generation facilities that will be directly impacted by the outcome of the Final Rule,'' the NextERa motion stated.

"NextEra is deeply concerned about the impact that a negative ruling on the EPA Clean Power Plan could have on the company....If petitioners were to prevail in the case the benefits to NextEra likely to follow from the Clean Power Plan will be reduced or eliminated."

Does that mean NextEra does not support Bondi's attempt to block the rule? The Herald/Times asked NextEra spokesman Rob Gould: Is NextEra opposed to Bondi's opposition to the Clean Power Plan and the timeline for compliance with the emission reductions?

His answer: "We really have nothing to offer."

Some of the organizations NextEra and FPL are large contributors to have been actively working to defeat the Clean Power Plan. In Jan. 2016, the U.S. Chamber's Litigation Center joined other business groups and filed a lawsuit similar to the one filed by the states to stay the Clean Power Plan. The lawsuit came six months after FPL President Eric Silagy was elected a member of the U.S Chamber Board of Directors.

Gould said that the company is committed to expanding renewable energy options. "As the largest generator of wind and solar power in the world, NextEra Energy has long supported efforts to encourage investment in affordable clean energy."

Some of the company's investments, however, have gone to people and organizations who don't agree that the Clean Power Plan is a means to the clean energy goal.

In 2014, FPL was a contributor to Bondi's political committee, Justice for All, giving her $50,000 from Florida Power & Light.
@PatriciaMazzei

When New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker comes to South Florida later this month to rally Florida Democrats ahead of this year's election, there's one Democrat in particular he'll be supporting.

Booker will help raise money for Patrick Murphy's U.S. Senate campaign, according to an invitation to a lunchtime reception at the posh Smith & Wollensky steakhouse on South Beach. Later that same day, Booker will be the featured speaker at the Florida Democratic Party's annual gala in Hollywood.

The invitation from the "Patrick Murphy Victory Fund" requests donations ranging from $500 to $5,400 per person, with a maximum contribution of $15,400.

Murphy, a Jupiter congressman, is running against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando.
via @DavidOvalle305

When the owner of Hialeahs Rancho Okeechobee needed permission to keep the restaurant open late for a special event, he walked into the office of County Commissioner Jose Pepe Diaz.

You have a friend in Rancho Okeechobee, he wrote in a letter, according to Miami-Dade police.

And inside the envelope: $700 cash.

The envelope stuffed with cash led not to political favors but to the arrest of Elezear Gadea, the restaurant owner, who has been charged with offering a bribe, authorities said. He later gave an undercover detective  posing as a commissioners aide  $2,000 in cash to help him, according to police.

Gadea, 47, was arrested early Wednesday and was still jailed in the afternoon. Court records did not list a defense lawyer.

This open and brazen disrespect for our government, for our system, for our elected officials, is really so disheartening, said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. To openly walk into a government office with an envelope with cash is really bold.

More here.
@JeremySWallace

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carlos Beruff likes to go fast when he gets behind the wheel.

And it's cost him his license before, at least temporarily, state driving records show.

Five times over the last six years Beruff, 58, has been ticketed for speeding, including three times when he went at least 23 mph over the posted speed limit. That includes being clocked at 103 miles per hour on Interstate 75, which resulted in a fine of $503 and his license being suspended for 40 days in 2010.

"I had a really nice car. You can drive 103 and it not be dangerous," Beruff said of his Mercedes-Benz S550. "Still, it's wrong. I get it."

Beruff said he was pulled over in Collier County as he and his son  now 18  raced from Bradenton to Miami Beach to meet up with his soon-to-be wife two days before their wedding. Beruff said he was ticketed right before hitting the toll booth to get onto Alligator Alley. The family had dinner reservations at Joe's Stone Crab on Miami Beach and he didn't want to be late and lose the reservation, Beruff said.

Full Story Here
After Karen McAlister Shimoda moved from Missoula to Portland, Oregon, in 2014, she became infatuated with the lush urban canopy, calling it the "dream environment" she had growing up in Southern California.

She went on long walks and hikes, including visits to the 5,000-acre Forest Park, located right within the city.

"I feel so alive walking through the forests. That's when I feel most alive, other than making art," she said.

She signed up for classes on identifying different types of conifer trees, and on her outings took notes and shot photographs with her cellphone as references for her ink drawings, created with the tiny-tipped Micron pens.

After awhile, she began to take fewer pictures and instead concentrate on the memory of the place rather than specific details.

"I was taking photos right and left, and I thought, 'I'm not paying attention to the feeling of being here. I'm pulling my iPhone out of pocket every five seconds. I really tried to steer away from that, to the point now where I don't take it out at all," she said.

"Whatever my memory wanted to hold on to would come out in my work," she said.

Three different bodies of work have emerged from those ventures: detailed black-and-white pen drawings of different tree bark (those were more reference-heavy), cubes with 6-inch abstract-expressionist paintings on each side, and accordion-fold books of drawings.

Shimoda included one more piece in "Field Notes," her solo exhibition opening on Friday at the Missoula Art Museum. It's her original field notes themselves, gathered into a book of drawings and hand-written notes, displayed in what she described as an altar-like fashion.

"I pulled them out of the journal and coated all of them with white acrylic to erase the facts and the actualities so that you just rely on emotional memory," she said.

"Even drawings I really liked, I covered them up. All the facts that I learned are gone," she said  blurred beneath the thin coats of paint.

***

The pen drawings most closely resemble Shimoda's previous work, which included abstracted maps. For instance, her rendering of the bark of a ponderosa pine, the state tree of Montana, could be a drawing of a river delta.

"Each scale is really worlds within itself," she said.

While that drawing was done in a pointillist fashion that she's most familiar with, she also began to explore new kinds of mark-making. The Western red cedar is rendered with flowing vertical lines, and the Western hemlock with small clusters of horizontal rectangles stacked one atop the other. She likes the way it resembles slate or some ancient decaying structure.

MAM curator Brandon Reintjes described the tightly interlocking linework as a "whole symphony of marks."

The cubes are a newer body of work for her, and a less familiar medium: black-and-white acrylic doled out with a palette knife.

Unlike the drawings, they don't have specific references to nature, only her way of "expressing the emotional recollections of what I saw on my walks and hikes." Each is named after a specific area, such as the Bitterroot Branch or the Blue Mountain trails.

Some are ghostly black forms on all-white, that recall the abstract expressionist work she loved when she was younger. Others, such as the Blue Mountain or Wildwood pieces, have marbled but kinetic finishes. Each piece, which will hang on the wall, comprises five individual paintings.

The books, meanwhile, began as long horizontal drawings that she felt would work better as an accordion fold. She has another career as an editor, and loves using books and journals in her art: deconstructing them and repurposing them.

Shimoda, who also loves expressionist landscape and portraiture, hopes people who feel abstract paintings like hers will communicate with viewers, even if they don't feel that they understand them entirely.

She's a fan of modernist poetry, and says she often isn't able to unlock its meanings. Instead, she finds phrases or rhythms that she enjoys.

"I start to pull out things that appeal to me," she said.
As a health inspector, I dont get invited to many potlucks or dinner parties. However, when I do, inevitably the host asks me to rate the cleanliness of their kitchen. They wait for my answer, nervously clutching a bowl of salsa like a life preserver, their eyes a turbulent mix of terror and hope. After I reassure them that their kitchen looks lovely, they smile and in their moment of relief, eat out of the bowl of salsa with their hands, politely licking their fingers before offering it to others. If that wasnt awkward enough, peoples reactions to what I do for a living can take things to a whole new level. Typically, its a healthy mix of questions, storytime, and discussion. Depending on the crowd, I may get How does it feel to be most hated person in town? or Tell me about the grossest thing youve ever seen, which determines whether I will feel like a celebrity or the village pariah for the rest of the evening. And  dont even get me started on how Im the Grinch that ruins Christmas dinner. During these interactions, fun or awkward, nothing amazes me more than the misconceptions out there about what we do in public health and about food safety in our personal lives.

Misconception No. 1: Health inspectors must be the most hated people in town. Lets start here. Sorry to burst the hyperbolic bubble, but negative relationships between inspectors and establishments are few and far between. While not everyone may like what we tell them, the majority of operators are great people who understand that were there to help them. I remember an inspection the first year that I worked at health department that had pages of violations. Instead of calling my supervisor to complain about me, the operator called to say what a great learning experience their inspection had been. And this isnt a unique case. So yeah, its a tough job, and sometimes things get tense, but overall, our inspectors have a relationship with operators built on mutual respect.

Misconception No. 2: The health department is the reason so much food gets thrown away. Actually, very rarely does the health department require someone to toss food and it only happens when it is danger to public health. You may remember when the health department directed a vendor to discard food at the 2014 fair. This rare event happened because food hadnt been refrigerated for days. However, stores tossing food because of best by dates or quick service restaurants tossing food every hour are doing that based on their own quality guidelines, not health codes. For example, sell by and best by dates on products that you buy at the grocery store are for quality, not safety. With the exception of baby formula and some refrigerated products, there are no regulations for discard. On the other hand, some use by dates are for safety such as those on many vacuum sealed, refrigerated products.

Misconception No. 3: See no evil, smell no evilits gotta be safe. Yeah, we just covered the fact that food often gets tossed before it needs to be; however, Ive also found the opposite to be true. People seem to think that if food smells fine and looks fine, its safe to eat. My dad used to do the sniff test with the milk to see if it was still good and Ive even seen restaurant operators take a whiff of something to see if its servable. However, the sniff test tells you nothing. One of the most dangerous pathogens out there, Listeria monocytogenes, doesnt change the way that a food looks or smells, and it grows well on cold, ready-to-eat foodseven when they are kept refrigerated. Things like deli meats, soft cheeses, and leftovers can be a risk for this pathogen if kept too long in the fridge. This particular pathogen is nothing to shrug off. It can be deadly for those with weakened immune systems like kids and people getting on in years, so its definitely one to take seriously. A good way to protect against listeriosis is to use leftovers and ready-to-eat products like cold cuts within four dayseven if theres no slime and they smell fine.

Misconception No. 4: If the bathrooms and floors are clean, the kitchen is clean too. While that may be true in many cases, its not a guarantee. Ive been a part of foodborne illness investigations where the place looks fantastic in the customer areas, but its falling apart in the kitchen. And Ive also seen amazing operations from a food safety angle, but the customer areas were a little worse for the wear. Food safety is more than cleanliness, though cleanliness has a lot to do with it. A good clean facility is a foundation on which other parts of a good operation are built; however, a clean facility doesnt mean that food is being kept hot or cold, getting cooked as needed, or that employees are washing their hands when they are supposed to. The best way to know if your favorite restaurant is doing a good job isnt to look at the bathroom; its to be an educated consumer. Look at our inspection reports. They are all public record and available online. They are part of the public service that we provide to youour community.

Misconception No. 5: I feel miserable. Its gotta be the restaurant where I ate lunch. Very rarely is it the last thing that you ate that made you sick, and its not always a restaurants fault. For starters, some illnesses may take days or even weeks for symptoms to show. Salmonellosis may take three days before its classic symptoms rear their ugly heads. Hepatitis A could take up to six weeks. This means that what made you sick could be a number of things in that window of time  including something that you made at home or ate at a potluck (to which I was not invited). We do unsafe things in our own homes that we dont even realize put us at risk. For example:

Do you take temperatures of chicken, burgers, and other animal products to make sure that they are cooked, or do you rely on color and texture? Color and texture are not reliable ways to tell if something is cooked. Frozen versus fresh meats, fat content, cooking method, and a variety of other things can influence color and texture. Cooking foods to the minimum internal temperature recommended by the USDA is the only sure bet.

Do you let cooked food sit out on the counter for hours? What about leftovers? Do you tightly seal them in a container and put them in your fridge? Letting food sit at room temperature for too long or not properly cooling leftovers is responsible for a large portion of the foodborne illnesses we see each year in the U.S. Keep foods hot or cold, limit the time food sits out to two hours or less, and help leftover foods cool quickly by refrigerating them in shallow containers with the lid vented until completely cool.

Do you wash your hands every time you make food? Between raw meats and ready-to eat items like vegetables? How about before eating? Do you use soap and hot water, or do you just rinse your hands and wipe them on a towel? Think about all of the things that your hands touch over the course of the day and when preparing a meal. Hand washing is one of the most effective health promotion tools. Scrubbing your hands using hot water and soap and cleaning under your fingernails can remove dirt, debris and pathogens that can make you sick. Washing hands at the right times is an easy way to protect your health.

All of this being said, its our job at the City-County Health Department to help everyone live healthy lives. If you have questions about food safety in your own home, have a concern about a food vendor in town, or have the misfortune of getting a foodborne illness, give us a call. We are happy to be a resource to you.

The Missoulian Booming Section features a monthly column by a member of the Missoula City-County Health Department in order to assist Missoula baby boomer residents to be healthy and resilient. Alisha Johnson is a food safety educator and inspector with the Environmental Health Division and can be reached at 258-3341 or at ajohnson@missoulacounty.us
Montana State Parks will host a National Trails Day volunteer event at Milltown State Park on Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m.

More than two miles of trail exist at Milltown State Park. Built in the summer of 2015, a new trail follows the bluff before dropping down to the Clark Fork River floodplain where several trail loops offer hiking opportunities.

Volunteers are invited to participate in light trail maintenance and weed pulling along approximately two miles of trails. Tools and equipment will be provided, so please bring gloves and appropriate footwear. Attendees are asked to meet at the Overlook parking lot by 1 p.m.

For more information, call Michael Kustudia at 542-5533.
When I received a phone call a couple of weeks ago from my buddy Jim Swanson of Polson outlining his plan for a salmon fishing trip in Idaho and then asking me if I would like to join him, I couldnt resist. At the time I was fishing for walleye on Fort Peck and the closeness of the two fishing trips would take a little duty juggling on my part and even more understanding from my girlfriend Berny for me to go.

Well, I was able to get my work responsibilities handled and Berny had no problem with me going if there was a remote possibility of me bringing home some salmon. The plan was to meet Swanson and his buddy, Earl Morgan, who is from Corvallis, in Orofino on Sunday afternoon.

I was excited for this trip because both Swanson and Morgan live for fishing king salmon wherever and whenever they have an opportunity. The spring salmon run on the Clearwater River is an annual event for them and they usually catch their fair share of the salmon that have swum their way up river from the Pacific Ocean.

In years past I have made an attempt to catch these prized salmon. I was successful a couple of years ago when I went on a guided trip with top guide Scott Willumsen from the Guide Shop in Orofino.

Not only do I lack the knowledge to catch salmon on my own while fishing the Clearwater River, but I also dont have the preferred salmon fishing boat, which ideally would be equipped with a jet motor as well as a kicker trolling motor with prop for back trolling. There are other ways to catch salmon other using a boat on the Clearwater, as some anglers have success fishing from the bank with a slip bobber and a jig.

The salmon bite was tough for the first couple of days but we still managed to catch our limit, which is one salmon per day per angler. There were a few things that I learned from Swanson and Morgan that I would like to pass on to you that might help you in catching salmon. There were two different baits that we used behind the jet divers as we back-trolled.

Probably the most popular bait for anglers is salmon eggs. The eggs are held on a barbless hook that is tied in such a way that the fishing line is used as synch to tighten the eggs snug up against the hook. It is important that when your eggs are in the water that they do not turn or spin with the current. They should just drift along so they look natural to the fish. Sometimes this takes several reconfigurations of the eggs so they dont spin. The final step is to squirt a special mix of anise and shrimp oil on the eggs. That kills most of the human scent and adds a smell that the fish crave. Some anglers also use plastic gloves when handling bait to eliminate unwanted scent.

The other bait we used was a silver/green Kwikfish that had tuna wrapped to its underbelly around the up treble hook. They would also poor tuna juice over the tuna from a bumblebee tuna can before putting the Kwikfish in the water. Kwikfish, I was told, are more effective as the water temperature warms to around 50 degrees.

We ended up catching about 50 percent of our fish on each of the baits. The salmon bite was early on most days, around 5 a.m. till 7 a.m., but we did catch salmon later in the morning, too. To view pictures of Swanson and Morgan and some nice salmon log onto montanaoutdoor.com.

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Mark Wards statewide Montana Outdoor Radio Show airs Saturdays from 6 to 8 a.m. in Missoula on KGVO 1290 AM and 101.5 FM. Email Ward at captain@montanaoutdoor.com.
In 1928, No Two Horns is an old Hunkpapa Lakota warrior on the Standing Rock Reservation who has fought in nearly 40 battles, and he gives an interview in Lakota to his nephew, Henry Murphy.

Hes 76 by then, with a face as rugged as the country of southeastern Montana in which he and his people met and destroyed Custer  hell talk about that. Hell talk about stealing horses; losing horses.

I have had two ponies killed by the Crow Indians in battle, and one horse was killed by the white man, he tells his nephew.

But there's nothing more he can say about that blue roan horse the white soldiers shot out from under him on the Greasy Grass, the Little Bighorn; hes already said it all with his hands.

Warrior artist

For No Two Horns  He Nupa Wanica in Lakota  is an artist as well as a warrior. Some of his carvings and his drawings that show his exploits against the Crow and against the whites are in the collection of the State Historical Society of North Dakota. One is a painting of a blue horse being killed by gunfire at what is believed to be the Little Bighorn. No Two Horns depicts himself as being wounded in the left leg in the fight.

The same drawing shows No Two Horns still holding a short rifle close to him along with a knife and a belt of ammunition. North Dakota also has in its collection a .58-caliber Model 1861 U.S. percussion rifled musket that belonged to No Two Horns. Hes known to have taken it from a Crow warrior he killed in 1874 and to have used it two years later against the whites at Little Bighorn. He was a 24-year-old warrior at the time.

On the other side of the Standing Rock Reservation, the South Dakota State Historical Society has in its collection a superb horse carving that some art experts believe to be by No Two Horns  perhaps even a tribute to that same horse killed at Little Bighorn.

An artists rendering of that carving is now the logo of the South Dakota State Historical Society.

Show stealer

That carving just returned in 2015 from an exhibition in Paris, New York and Kansas City called Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky. The curator of that exhibit, Gaylord Torrence of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, said the piece had already won acclaim as one of the finest horse sculptures in the world when it was part of another international exhibit in 1976-1977 called Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art.

The 3-foot-long sculpture shows all four legs of the horse, with an elongated neck and back and the front legs couched close to the body in a bound. It has a real horsehair mane and tail, as well as carefully fashioned leather reins and a bridle. The horse is shown as being riddled with bullets, red paint seeping from the wounds, while red horsehair dangling from the horses mouth also represents blood. The ears slant back in pain or fear.

It has fascinated audiences whenever it has been shown.

New York Times art critic Holland Cotter wrote in March 2015, Streaked with blood-red and stretched out as if strained beyond endurance, it has the pathos of a crucified Christ. In a history of great sculpture, past and present, from the North American continent, it has a place in the highest pantheon.

Such horse effigies were used as dance sticks by the Lakota, according to the South Dakota State Historical Society. Warriors carved horse dance sticks to honor horses killed in battle and to help narrate their own actions in war. Sometimes a warrior would handle the horse stick as though it were a club or straddle it as though riding.

Mystery carver

Torrence believes the stylistic features show the carving to be the work of No Two Horns.

There is no historical proof to say without a doubt that it is No Two Horns work. But there is strong circumstantial evidence.

South Dakota State Historical Society Director Jay Vogt said a Congregationalist missionary named Mary C. Collins collected the horse, probably on the Standing Rock Reservation. She donated it to the historical society in 1920, the year of her death. Collins was highly regarded among the people of the Standing Rock and was a friend to Sitting Bull.

No Two Horns was a cousin to Sitting Bull. He was with him at Little Bighorn and escaped with him afterward to Canada. He was also with Sitting Bull when the Lakota returned to the U.S. and surrendered at Fort Buford in 1881. Its very plausible that Collins would have encountered No Two Horns and his work through her contact with Sitting Bull. Since artists in the reservation period were starting to earn money by selling their work, its entirely possible that No Two Horns sold her the piece.

Dan Brosz, curator of collections for the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society, has a theory that if No Two Horns indeed was the carver, he may have carved the piece in Canada while the events of Little Bighorn were fresh in his mind and he had time on his hands.

That would fit with the date of the work. Torrence believes its from about 1880 or the late 1870s.

Style

Torrence is confident of the carvers identity after seeing some of the No Two Horns carvings from the North Dakota collection and from the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of the American Indian side by side with that earlier work from the South Dakota collection.

My own opinion is, without a doubt, the South Dakota horse is a No Two Horns carving, Torrence said.

He thinks so because of the jawline, the profile of the head, the handling of the nostrils, the configuration of the legs and hooves, the way the ears are handled on the carving, the way the wounds are depicted.

That painting from the North Dakota collection may help explain the carving in the South Dakota collection.

There is a fairly elaborate painting by No Two Horns that shows him and the horse being shot. I think its the Battle of the Little Bighorn. That would place the death of that horse in Montana, Torrence said.

Mark Halvorson, curator for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, said Torrence is right that the drawing is believed to show his war horse being shot at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

One difficulty is that the South Dakota horse is not  at first glance, anyway  a blue roan.

Horse of a different color

But Torrence, one of the foremost experts on Native American art, believes the earlier carving very likely was intended to depict that same blue roan.

If you look at the horse, you can see in all the depressions of the wood and on the face of the horse and in some other areas, significant remnants of blue pigment.

That blue or blue-black paint is especially visible around the head and neck of the animal, Director Jay Vogt of the South Dakota State Historical Society said, and as Torrence noted, in depressions in the wood. Torrence adds that there is a rectangular patch on the head of the animal from the bridle to the nose that was left as lighter, unpainted wood. That corresponds with the way No Two Horns drawing from 1915 depicts the horse killed at Little Bighorn.

That horse had a particular marking. It had a white face with a blue body. You can make out the same configuration on the South Dakota horse. At one time that horse was blue, in my estimation. Its been handled a lot, it has maybe gotten wet. But originally there was blue paint over that horse, Torrence said.

If we assume that horse was made circa 1880, there were a number of pigments available to Native people, Plains people. They did have a Native source for blue. It was a mineral source, as I recall. Blue pigment is one of the more rare pigments, you dont see it all that often. One also has to recognize there were all kinds of trade materials coming into the Plains tribes at that time. Conceivably there could be pigment from American, English, Spanish sources  stuff got traded around. They could also boil down blankets, there was also laundry bluing that came in at a certain point. There was also a trade pigment that came in, I believe in the 1870s. You see it on parfleche. And particularly you see it on Lakota parfleche.

The Lakota people had blue trade pigments as well as mineral sources of blue.

The real issue is not so much the pigment, but rather the binder that would have been used. If that horse was painted, as it would have been, with a water-based paint, with not much binder, it would be very fugitive, Torrence said.

Masterpiece

What has never been in question at all is the quality of the work. Torrence said people are often too quick to use the word masterpiece, but it applies here. But he notes that No Two Horns probably didnt share that same concept.

I dont think that he was trying to do anything to impress anyone with his ability as a carver, Torrence said. I think he was trying to reveal to himself and to others the reality of what he experienced and his feelings for that animal.

Words really are not adequate to express whats going on in the carving of the horse. As near as I can say is that overall, there is something in the elongation and the posture and the twisting of form in that horse that emanates a kind of pathos. You really are witnessing a death, and a heroic death.

That is part of the reason Torrence believes the horse is carved by No Two Horns, who, by his own pictorial account, seems to have been wounded in the same burst of gunfire that killed his horse.

He and that horse had been to war many times. They were companions. And here in the heat of this battle, this horse was shot out from under him, he was wounded, he was thrown to the ground. It was an incredible experience. And I think like any artist  and you see this in the great ledger drawings as well  artists are reliving these moments. This emotion gets transferred to the form itself.

Whats captured in wood is the shattering impact of that moment.

I think that all of that comes out in the carving, Torrence said. This is why you could bring in an expert carver today who has never ridden a horse or been in battle and ask that person to replicate the carving. They could replicate 96 percent of it and it would still be dead as a doornail. It would not have the expressive power of the horse that No Two Horns carved.

If you look at that horse from end to end, theres a twisting to that horse. The head twists to the right, and the rear of the horse is twisted slightly to the left. You have this elongated form lunging through space and twisting at the same time. Its abstracted, very much in the form of the kind of pictorial work thats going on, where there was an elongation in pictures of horses and humans.

Its carved with enormous confidence. The horses mouth is open. Every aspect of that carving is focused on the death and heroism of this animal. Theres also something in the scale of the object, the size of it and the three-dimensionality that is very unusual.

The carvers feeling for the animal survives in the piece.

Love is not too strong a word, Torrence said. These men and their horses were companions in battle. They went to war together. They knew each other intimately. There are narratives of Plains warriors who talk about a horse who pulled them out of danger when they were wounded, the horse took them to safety. If you were going into battle in those days on horseback, you had to rely on the stamina, the bravery, the intelligence, the intuitive powers of the horse you were riding.

What war horses did in plunging into battle is unnatural for horses, Torrence notes, but they did it out of their relationship to men.

Mark Halvorson, curator for the State Historical Society of North Dakota, said the North Dakota collection has three dance staffs or dance sticks carved by No Two Horns in its collection, including another piece called Ta Sunka Kan Opi Wokiksuye, Sacred-Memorial-of-His-Horse-Killed. That devotion to the animal was very real and has its modern counterpart, he suggested.

The only thing I can compare it to is modern-day Iraqi war vets. Ask them about the dogs that they used on the war front for sniffing out bombs. These guys, when their rotations were ending, they would go to great lengths to make sure that dog would get back OK and they would take care of it until the day that it dies, Halvorson said.

Counter arguments

Noted Lakota artist Arthur Amiotte, like Torrence, has gone on record saying that he, too, believes the South Dakota horse is the work of No Two Horns.

Jay Smith, director of the Museum of the South Dakota State Historical Society, said historians still hope for some definitive evidence about the identity of the carver. But he said historians also respect artists and art critics such as Amiotte or Torrence who approach the problem of the carvers identity based on other kinds of knowledge.

I tend to think Gaylord Torrence is probably right in his assumption that it was one of the first horses carved by No Two Horns. If you look very closely at it, you can see that there is that bluing on the body of the horse that makes it capable of being that blue roan that he lost at Little Bighorn. There is a very distinct possibility that it is that moment in time that is captured there, Smith said.

But not everyone thinks so. Halvorson, the curator of the North Dakota collection, said he remains unconvinced that its the work of No Two Horns because of differences compared to the other No Two Horns pieces; but he agrees that the South Dakota carving is one of the great achievements of Plains Indian art.

Its a masterpiece. Its incredible, whether you put an artist to it or not, Halvorson said.

Distinguished scholar George Horse Capture, for one, questioned whether stylistic differences in the lower jaw and hooves could indicate a different carver, not No Two Horns.

Torrence said some critics have noted that the later horses carved by No Two Horns appear to have horseshoes on them and the earlier South Dakota horse does not. But that criticism misses the fact that if No Two Horns carved that early piece in about 1880, as Torrence believes, most Lakota warriors were riding unshod Indian ponies unless they were riding shod horses they had captured.

What theyre failing to recognize is that No Two Horns, who died in 1942, was conceivably carving for 50 years, and also reproducing the same image. And he was an artist. Of course his work would change in detail and style over a period of time. Thats true with any artist. These people who think that somehow No Two Horns standardized the form in 1880 and then just repeated it for the next 40 years, I dont think its realistic at all, Torrence said.

Torrence also believes that critics are mistaken about what they think are horseshoes in the later carvings. He thinks the later carvings simply have a more detailed depiction of what is called the hoof wall. Since No Two Horns later carvings show only one hoof instead of four  a shorthand of a horse, Torrence calls it  Torrence believes No Two Horns is simply investing more time carving the detail of that horse with the knowledge of horse anatomy that a Plains warrior artist would have.

Torrence said people have also counted bullet holes on the South Dakota carving and tried to extrapolate from that whether it was the same animal shown in the later artwork. He thinks that misses the point of what the artist was trying to convey.

The idea was that this horse was struck multiple times with lots of bullets in a fusillade of fire and No Two Horns himself was hit in the leg.

I think theres an intensity, an enormous intensity, in the initial carving that I would say could only come from a man who had lived through that experience. I think when you get into the 20th century, No Two Horns is repeating himself, the intensity lessens  hes creating these for an outside market.

Yet another possibility is that the horse in the South Dakota masterpiece  despite the blue pigment still visible on it  may indeed depict No Two Horns horse killed in battle, but not the horse killed at Little Big Horn. It could be one of the other two horses that No Two Horns said the Crow warriors killed in battle.

Either way, says Brosz, if it is No Two Horns carving, it tells a Montana story.

For example, the Crow were heavily involved on the side of the whites at the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, 1876, just days before the Little Bighorn in whats now Big Horn County, Montana. The Oglala war chief Crazy Horse led the fight against the whites and their Crow allies. The Crow chief, Plenty-coups, told his biographer, Frank Linderman, that he would never forget the dead horses from that conflict  and it was clear that the Lakota and their allies were feeling the loss: The Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe needed horses very badly, and almost every night they came here to steal some of ours, Plenty-coups said of the time after the battle.

Halvorson said interviewers asked No Two Horns for detail about Little Bighorn, but not about other conflicts, so its not known if he was at the Battle of the Rosebud.

Torrence said at least the general location in which No Two Horns lost his war horses is not in dispute.

Southern Montana was contested territory at the time of the 1870s. The Crow were there, but so were the Lakota and the Northern Cheyenne. Inter-tribally, it was a contested area. And of course the Army was in there, too, and the Crow were allied with the Army. No Two Horns definitely had spent time in Montana, no question. He was there at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

And there are those remnants of blue paint on the sculpture.

If Torrence is right about this masterwork of Plains Indian art, it may be No Two Horns first great statement of an experience he will still be carving and painting decades later. He remembered the blue roan the white soldiers killed at the Greasy Grass, how it sank beneath him when the volley hit them, how it bled from its mouth and side. Then, as artists do with time and materials, he gave life to that dying animal for just a while longer  for as long as wood endures.

***

A longer version of this story appeared in the May/June 2016 issue of Montana Magazine. The Lakota horse carving that this story talks about can be seen at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre during museum hours. Some of the artworks and artifacts associated with No Two Horns are on display at the North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum in Bismarck during museum hours.
At this time last year, Abby Puente thought she'd have to drop out.

"Toward the end of my junior year (at Sentinel High School) I started having troubles coming to school, and that kind of happened all through the three years I was there," 17-year-old Puente said. "There was no choice other than to drop out of school at the end of my junior year because I was just not attending school anyway."

Then she found the Willard Alternative High School Program.

"I think it was the best decision I've ever made in my life," she said. "Willard definitely changed everything for me. I feel like without Willard I wouldn't even have made it to graduation. I don't know what I would be doing right now if I hadn't come to Willard."

She liked her teachers at Sentinel, but said "it was just kind of the feeling of not being accepted."

"Its such a big high school and everybodys just trying to fit in," she said. "You feel like youre being judged by everybody. I had a really good group of friends down there and I still do, theyre still my friends. It was just everybody else kind of tough to deal with."

***

Willard has become a second family for Puente.

"When I first came to Willard I was really scared because I didnt know anyone here and it just kind of seemed intimidating to me because its such a small school and everybody knows everyone," she said. "But once I started getting into the grind of things  I started realizing that I shouldnt have been scared in the first place because everybody here is so nice. All the teachers treat you like family. Its like Im at home with my family and then I come to school and Im with family anyway.

"I feel like everybody here has a really good relationship with each other and I think thats what made me excited to come to school and see everybody."

This fall, she'll attend the University of Montana. She's interested in law, marketing and business.

But first she has to get that high school diploma, a piece of paper she said she'll treasure forever.

Puente is the first in her family to graduate high school.

***

Her two older sisters didn't graduate high school. Eventually, though, they got their GEDs. Now, one is an EMT and the other is a medical assistant.

"They struggled a lot as teenagers and that's why they couldn't finish school and couldn't achieve their goals  which they're doing now, which I'm very proud of them for," she said. "Its such a big deal for me because I saw how much my sisters struggled without a high school diploma for such a long time. Its crazy how one piece of paper can get you through so much, so I guess that gave me the motivation to finish school and try my best."

Puente's parents also have been a huge motivation. They immigrated from Mexico two years before Puente was born, and neither finished high school. Puente was born in Las Vegas; her family moved to Missoula six years ago because of her uncles' construction company, Lone Tree Construction. Lone Tree was responsible for building the cabins and tents at Paws Up.

"All their struggles and everything they went through kind of pushes me a little bit harder to try as hard as I can to do so much for them in the future for everything theyve done for me and everything theyve gone through for me," Puente said of her parents. "I really hope that all of my goals go as planned."

She wants other students to find the success she's enjoyed.

"I kind of just want anybody whos having troubles coming to school to get over that funk, because in the end youre not going to have anybody else there for you other than yourself," she said. "Push yourself and motivate yourself to get to school, because its one of the biggest gifts you can give your parents and yourself."
There aren't many places where a Missoula resident can craft a resume, read a daily newspaper, get air for a bike tire and pick up the paperwork for a U.S. Passport.

"This is a one-stop shop for so many in the Missoula community," said attorney Scott Stearns outside of the Missoula Public Library on Wednesday.

Stearns, who chairs the Friends of the Library, was one of the leaders who kicked off a community committee-led effort to help pass a public library bond.

The bond measure will be around $30 million for voters to decide in November. Meanwhile, the library foundation wants to raise an additional $5 million to $8 million to complete the project.

On Wednesday, leaders continued to stress the arguments for a new library, proposed to be built to the east of the existing structure, which was built in 1974. At that time, Missoula leaders said the library would last 30 years. Today, 42 years later, the boiler has repeatedly failed, costing thousands for each repair.

"We spent $10,000 each time and it's still cold in there in winter," said Rita Henkel, chairwoman of the Missoula Public Library Board of Trustees.

The structure cannot have additions to it. The mechanical and electrical systems already are at their maximum capacity, she said. The only option now is to either live with the current library or build something new.

"We cannot renovate or add on," Henkel said.

And almost as if on cue, the "Web on Wheels" bookmobile snaked its way through the parking lot, careful to avoid the lot crammed full of vehicles. A few moments later, a second wave of young children made their way toward the entrance, being unsuccessfully shushed by careful teachers.

***

According to statistics provided at the kickoff, Missoula's library is just one-third the size it should be.

"We're the state's busiest library, serving on average 1,500 people per day and yet on the main floor we have just 38 places for patrons to sit," Henkel said. "For every book we add to our collection, another book must be taken off the shelves."

The group said the largest hurdle will be to educate the community about the initiative.

"The library is more than just books," said Stearns. "Folks may not use it every day, but when they need it, they really need it."

He gave the example of getting the documents for a passport. For others, it's creating and sending a resume. The library serves as a community resource and a center to find information.

Graduating Hellgate High senior Max Firehammer, who is down to his last 48 hours of high school, highlighted a group of fiction writers who gather every week to share work, critique and give feedback.

"This group helped me keep writing because I had to have something to show to them every Friday at 3:30 when we met," Firehammer said.

It was the work he did with the group that ultimately helped create his future. A short story that he developed with the aid of his fellow authors was good enough to get him a scholarship to study writing at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, this fall.

Missoula leaders also called for a new library that will serve the community for the next century, noting the successful new libraries built in Bozeman and Billings recently.

"You can tell something about a community by its library," said Sheila Stearns, former Montana Commissioner of Higher Education who began her career as a librarian at Whittier Elementary in Missoula. "It is one of those essential pillars of a community."

The estimated $30 million bond would mean approximately $2.34 per month on a home valued at $200,000 -- or just a little more than $28 yearly.

The new library would also house three non-profit groups which would rent space -- the University of Montanas SpectrUM Discovery Area, the Childrens Museum Missoula, and Missoula Community Access TV, or MCAT. This would allow the groups to share programs and exhibits for free admission. SpectrUM and the Children's Museum have to charge to pay for rent in their current homes downtown.

Plans for a new building are still being honed, but the "dreams" of the group are for a four-story library of approximately 120,000 square feet. The current library is 42,000 square feet.

If the bond measure and private fundraising are successful, the new library would be constructed while the current one a block to the west at 301 E. Main St. remains open.

"I grew up in this library," said Elke Govertsen, publisher of Mamalode, a mom-oriented magazine, website and event production company. "I learned how to ask questions and I learned how to dream here.

"This library is where I come whenever I have a new dream."

--Reporter Kim Briggeman contributed to this story.
A Florence man will be sentenced in August after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting and raping two underage girls.

Daniel Jay Dodson, 31, entered guilty pleas to his two felony charges on Tuesday before District Court Judge Robert Dusty Deschamps as part of an agreement with prosecutors.

Chief Deputy County Attorney Jason Marks said the plea agreement recommends Deschamps impose a 40-year prison sentence with 20 years suspended when he sentences Dodson on Aug. 23. In addition, the agreement recommends that Dodson not be eligible for parole for at least 10 years.

Dodson was arrested April 9 after a woman called 911 the previous evening, reporting that Dodson, a friend of hers, had been over at her house and followed her 9-year-old daughter downstairs into the childs room.

After he came back upstairs, the girl came back up a short time later. She told her mother what Dodson had done, describing him as forcing her to perform oral sex on him. The girl later told police that Dodson had climbed into her bunk bed before putting his penis into her mouth and penetrating her genitals with his fingers. Dodson, who had left the house, was arrested and charged with sexual intercourse without consent.

At Dodsons first court hearing, Marks said another child had also come forward claiming she had been sexually assaulted by him. Prosecutors later added the second felony charge that Dodson had routinely molested a second child during a six-year period. In that case the girl told an examiner Dodson had forced her to touch his genitals, that he had touched her privates and that he had tried unsuccessfully to have intercourse with her. Police recovered text messages Dodson had sent to his girlfriend describing his sexual encounters with the girl.

Dodson is also on felony probation stemming from a 2010 case in which he drove the wrong way down U.S. Highway 93, hitting another car near Lolo. In April 2011, he sentenced to 10 years with the Department of Corrections with nine-and-a-half years suspended after pleading guilty to felony criminal endangerment.

A petition to revoke the suspended portion of his sentence was filed after Dodsons arrest in April. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his probation. Deschamps said he would decide the penalty for the violation during Dodsons Aug. 23 sentencing hearing.

Dodson remains in jail on $250,000 bail.
In 2012, the people of Montana spoke loud and clear on the issue of illegal immigration when 80 percent of Montana voters passed Legislative Referendum 121, a law to prohibit state taxpayer-funded services from being utilized by illegal aliens.

Since the passage of LR-121, two Montana courts have ruled directly against the law and the will of the people. The most recent blow came from the Montana Supreme Court.

We believe these courts made a bad decision when they ruled against LR-121. It is the job of the courts to determine whether a law is being followed or not. It is not within the courts authority to make laws. That power rests solely with the people, or the elected legislature.

Jeffrey Sherlock, a liberal District Court Judge in Helena, struck down most of LR-121 in 2014. On May 12, the Montana Supreme Court struck down the remaining provision that would have required state workers to report to federal immigration officials the names of job or benefit applicants who are in Montana illegally.

The adversarial court rulings seriously interfere with Montanas ability to protect not only our state finances, but also our state sovereignty against a lawless federal government that is unwilling to enforce immigration law.

The plaintiffs attorney in last month's decision, Shahid Haque-Hausrath, said the people of Montana have no business creating enforcement schemes, and that the law is discriminatory against immigrants.

We, the Republican legislative candidates, soundly reject this misrepresentation of LR-121 and declare that it is wrong to place the interests of people who enter our country and state illegally over the rights and interests of lawful taxpayers, citizens, voters and working families.

According to the Federation For American Immigration Reform, Montana spent nearly $33 million on illegal aliens in 2009, and since then the number of illegal aliens has risen. This is money that is being diverted from communities and law-abiding Montanans in need.

We need to fix roads and bridges, ensure public safety, care for seniors and veterans, fight crime and provide essential services at the state and local level. However, since the court says we cannot even verify the citizenship of applicants for public services, we are open to a flood of financial demands that will continue to take funds away from our citizens and provide incentives for illegal immigration.

These courts have acted in manner adversarial to the law enacted by the people of Montana. We condemn this recent ruling and affirm our support of the law that prohibits illegal aliens from receiving taxpayer funds. We believe it is our duty to put Montana first and stand against judicial activism and federal overreach.
If you follow your local news, you probably read or heard stories about a technical problem causing significant challenges with MTGives Day and the other give local efforts in Montana and across the country. The online platform failure prevented give local sites from being able to process online donations, or at best, process them with huge delays. Theres no denying this led to a significant reduction in the number of donations and funds raised for nonprofit organizations in our state and many others. Montana Community Foundation apologizes for this  plain and simple. While we did not provide the technology and had no control over the events which led to the technical issues with the websites, as an organizer and promoter of the event we feel terrible this happened.

What we dont feel terrible about is the determination and resilience of our fellow Montanans. Despite this website crash, MTGives and the other give local events in the Gallatin Valley, Flathead, Helena, Missoula and Yellowstone saw some extraordinary successes. By pulling together, sharing ideas and information, acting quickly and getting creative, and most of all, showing the strength Montanans have in the face of adversity, the giving day turned into a success few could have imagined.

Columbus, a town with fewer than 2,000 residents whose goal was to raise $1,000 in their first give local effort, raised more than $25,000. Helena, which raised $55,000 last year, raised more than $62,000 this year. And the Bozeman Area Community Foundations Give Big Gallatin Valley give local event? Their goal was to raise $300,000 this year and they managed to shatter that by raising an incredible $420,000. While the final numbers wont be tallied for some time due to the technical issues and alternative methods of donating we all employed, were happy to report Montanans came together and raised approximately $880,000 through MTGives and other give local events across the state. We firmly believe if it werent for the website crash, we would have met and likely exceeded our $1 million goal for the state. These funds go to support nonprofits that are vital to our communities.

If theres a silver lining to the malfunction itself, its that the problem was caused by an overwhelming number of people going online to give to their communities through a charitable donation to a local nonprofit. As Meredith Printz of the Missoula Community Foundation put it, We didnt expect you to break the internet with your generosity, but you did.

Who could have imagined we would still raise more than $880,000 for Montana nonprofits? Who could have imagined communities would raise more than they did last year? Who could have imagined there were nonprofit organizations and communities that would surpass their donation goals? I dont think anyone imagined those things were possible in the thick of a website crash that began at 8 a.m. and continued the entire day, but those things did happen.

How did they happen? Montanans are a remarkable group of people and this is a remarkable place. We find ways to make the best of things and succeed in helping one another. Thats not something any of us have to imagine, thats something we are privileged to see and experience regularly in our great state. So thank you Montana  thank you for your support and generosity. It is a powerful, wonderful thing to behold.
BILLINGS  As Brad Veeder limped through the dark forest bleeding and scared, his one thought was about the graphic bear attack scene he had watched months earlier in the movie The Revenant.

What kept going through my mind is that its following me and its going to pounce, he recalled. It certainly could have finished me off. I was not looking forward to being eaten alive.

In the movie set in the early 1800s, actor Leonardo DiCaprios character is mauled nearly to death by a grizzly bear in a scene that some reviewers called disturbingly lifelike. In contrast, Veeder was the victim of a black bear attack that was not nearly as vicious but was real  real blood, real pain and visceral fear.

Yet the May 10 attack in Great Smoky Mountains National Park seems a world away on this day. The 49-year-old Veder sits on an ottoman in the living room of his parents home. Hes at ease talking about the incident, grinning so often that he feels compelled to note that even before the attack he was a person who smiled easily and often. Now he has even more reason to be happy.

I have so much relief and gratitude to be alive.

Although the former Billings West grads puncture wounds from the bears bite to his calf are now mostly healed, covered only by Band-Aids, he thinks the next time he sleeps outdoors in a tent he will be a bit nervous.

I was shocked, said Jolane Jones, Veeders older sister, about hearing the news from her mother. I think its totally a miracle that he ended up as unscathed as he was after a bear attack.

The trip he had started on April 30 was meant to be a hike along the entire distance of the 2,000-mile Appalachian Trail, a walk from Georgia to Maine. Unfortunately, he only made it about 180 miles.

***

Veeder arrived at the Spence Field Backcountry Shelter at about 11 a.m., exhausted after a lengthy days hike of about 17 miles. But the shelter and even the overflow camping areas were full of hikers. Park trail workers suggested a field about 200 feet farther up the mountain as a good place to pitch his tent.

Another shelter located about 3 miles before Spence Field had been closed because of bear activity, perhaps leading to congestion at Spence Field.

So Veeder pitched his lightweight tent in the field, pumped some water, ate and then hung his food, washed his feet and socks and hung them out to dry, before crawling under his sleeping quilt.

He guesses it was around 10:30 that night when he was awoken by a crushing pain in his left leg, which was resting against the tent fabric as he laid on his right side.

It felt like it was in a hydraulic press, Veeder said. It was a frightening deal.

Immediately upon waking and sitting up, Veeder realized what was happening and yelled at the bear, whose ear must have been fairly close to Veeders mouth at the time.

No bear! Go away!

The bear retreated, leaving Veeder wondering if he was simply having a nightmare.

But then the bear attempted to walk into the tent. Veeder punched the bear as hard as he could, possibly hitting it in the shoulder, which he said felt like a rug with meat behind it. At the same time he continued yelling.

No bear! Back off!

The cloudy night was so dark that Veeder couldnt see the bear, and the bear probably couldnt see Veeder in his thin-walled tent.

Which is fine, he said. I didnt want to see it.

***

Then the bear began attacking the small tents vestibule, an enclosed area near the head of the tent where gear can be stored overnight to keep it dry. Veeder yelled as loud as he could again, thinking that maybe someone at the nearby shelter would hear him.

The bear would back off, then attack again. Veeder said it happened about four times before everything went quiet. Thats when the bear apparently found Veeders socks hanging nearby and gave them a thorough and loud sniffing.

Then the bruin hit the vestibule harder than any of the previous attacks but again backed off.

I sat there holding my leg, Veeder said. Hed been sleeping in long underwear bottoms that were now soaked with blood from the calf down. I waited about 10 minutes and finally realized I have to go. I put on my shoes, coat and grabbed my quilt.

***

Thats when Veeder began limping back toward what he thought was the shelter, hoping that he could get help. But it was so dark that he almost walked into a tree. Not only was he worried about the bear attacking again, but he also feared he might get lost in the thick, dark forest and wander around bleeding and confused.

Luckily, he stepped onto the smooth surface of the trail. As he got closer to where he thought the shelter was located he began yelling that hed been attacked by a bear, been bitten and was bleeding. He cried out for help asking where the shelter was.

Its right over there, a mans voice yelled in irritation, as if it was too obvious to miss.

A female camper heard his pleas and joined him in the shelter. Her tent was only 40 feet away but in the morning had also been shredded by a bear. Another hiker wrapped up his leg. One camper was able to get a cellphone signal and call 911. The trail workers also had a radio on which they called park rangers who appeared in the afternoon on horseback.

While waiting for the rangers to arrive, fellow campers retrieved all of Veeders gear from his campsite.

The bear had chewed everything, even my aluminum tent poles, my smartphone, book, plastic water filter, Veeder said.

***

Three days later park rangers trapped a 400-pound male black bear in the area and euthanized it based on a comparison of its bite and the marks on Veeders phone. Unfortunately, a later DNA test comparing saliva on Veeders shredded gear to the bears revealed it was the wrong animal. Another black bear trapped in the area on May 20 also failed the DNA test but was released alive with a GPS collar. The first bears neck was so big a GPS collar wouldnt fit.

***

Despite the incident, Veeder said he plans to return to the Appalachian Trail, this time hiking from the north to the south. He wont be doing any camping off by himself, though.

Ive slept really well since the attack, he said, with no nightmares or post-traumatic stress. But out on the trail I think it will take me a few nights to settle down.

Although the two puncture wounds in his left calf missed his shin bone and never severed an artery, hes hoping the injuries are big enough to leave marks.

I hope I have a scar, he said and smiled. I want to have something to back my story up.

Its a story that has become a precautionary tale for Veeder, because even though he thought he had done everything right, he was still attacked.

Even if youre really careful and use best practices, you can still get a rogue bear. And if it does happen, you just fight.
SHOPLIFTING

Benjamin OConnor, 21, of Butte was arrested Wednesday on misdemeanor charges of theft and criminal possession of drug paraphernalia after he was seen at Walmart taking clothing, a pair of shoes, and two Bluetooth speakers. Police say he dropped the shoes when he was confronted by an employee and fled north on Paxson Avenue. He was caught nearby and found with a marijuana pipe.
A 21-year-old Butte man on Thursday denied a felony charge of sexual intercourse without consent in connection with alleged sexual advances and inappropriate touching of a 15-year-old girl.

Bryan Kelly Fitzpatrick pleaded not guilty at his arraignment before Butte district court Judge Kurt Krueger.

Prosecutors allege Fitzpatrick began making sexual advances toward the teen in December 2015, asking her if she would consent to sex, according to an affidavit filed May 2. Hes also accused of attempting to show the girl a photo of his private area on his cellphone.

The victim also told police officers that she was later alone in a truck with Fitzpatrick and he pulled her toward him and kissed her. The affidavit states he stopped the vehicle and slid his hand inside her pants.

Fitzpatrick told an investigator the girl kissed him while he was driving, so he pulled over and she scooted toward him. He initially admitted placing his hand in her pants but nothing else, the affidavit states.

During an interview with police in late January, Fitzpatrick corroborated the teens story and said he was aware she was under 16.

Fitzpatrick is being held on $50,000 bond at the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center. A pretrial hearing was slated for June 23.
HELENA  Republican candidate for governor Greg Gianforte again dipped into his own pockets to loan his campaign $50,000 on May 24.

That's according to the last campaign finance report before Tuesday's primary election.

Gianforte raised $37,395 without the loan between May 19-27.

Incumbent Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, raised $62,520 in the same period.

Gianforte had previously loaned his campaign $272,000; the total is now $322,000.

Gianforte reported spending $110,122 between May 19-27, with the biggest chunks of money spent on media airtime, almost $69,000, and a little more than $25,000 on a townhall telecast and a 15,000-piece mail campaign.

Bullock reported spending about $6,000, with $4,500 going to digital and fundraising consultants.

Gianforte's report includes wages for some staffers, while Bullock's does not. Bullock's report also showed he received $3,300 from political action committees, while Gianforte has said he will not accept money from PACs and called on Bullock to do the same. Bullock staffers have pointed out Gianforte, who sold his tech startup RightNow Technologies to Oracle in 2012 for $1.8 billion, has the ability to self-fund his campaign.

On paper, both men face challengers. Republican Terry Nelson reported raising $300 between May 19-27 and had $1,300 cash in the bank. Democrat Bill McChesney reported having no money in the bank, having raised none and spent none, in the same period. Having a primary opponent allows a candidate to raise more money.

Late register

Polling places are open June 7 for those who have not voted absentee. A current ID is required to vote. People can find their polling place or check to see if they are registered online at app.mt.gov/voterinfo/.

People can register to vote at their county election office up to and including on Election Day, except for from noon until 5 p.m. the day before election day.

Push to the primary

Crisscrossing the state is the theme for both candidates for governor in the next week, with Bullock and Gianforte ending their swings in Helena on Monday.

Bullock has announced stops in Bozeman on Friday, Billings and Great Falls on Saturday, Butte on Sunday and Helena on Monday.

Gianforte has a bit more aggressive schedule, with stops in Billings, Livingston, Bozeman on Wednesday, Hamilton and Missoula on Thursday, Polson, Kalispell and Columbia Falls on Friday, Conrad, Valier and Havre on Saturday, Malta and Lewistown on Sunday and Big Sandy, Great Falls and Helena on Monday.

Both are traveling with their running mates, Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney for Bullock and Phillips County Commissioner Lesley Robison for Gianforte.

Gianforte's pretrip press blitz repeated themes common in his campaign so far  Montana's wages and need to grow an economy focused on tech jobs. Earlier this year Gianforte went to 60 communities on what he called a Regulation Roundup tour, but this is his first swing with Robinson.

Bullock will open field offices during the stops on his tour, including one in Missoula and one in Kalispell.
BILLINGS  Last week in Yellowstone National Park a mother black bear and two cubs ambled down a greening hillside along the road to Tower Falls.

Instantly a line of cars and photographers swooped in creating what's known in Yellowstone as a bear jam. Before a ranger could arrive to direct traffic and keep people back, I snapped these photos with a long lens of a woman getting way too close for comfort to the mama bear and cubs. The woman finally stepped back  either after getting her shot or because she was urged to move by a few people in the gathering crowd.

No animal is more dangerous than a mother who feels her offspring may be in danger. The risk the woman took is not only illegal in Yellowstone  tourists are required to stay 100 yards from bears and wolves  but also just plain ignorant.

Common sense seems to flee people's minds incredibly fast when they see an animal, bird, or even a line of cars pulled to the side of the road in Yellowstone National Park.

Already this spring, Yellowstone has been the site of several examples of people behaving badly. One pair of tourists picked up a bison calf and gave it a ride in their car to the ranger station. A woman was filmed trying to pet a bison. One woman was struck by a vehicle and died after trying to cross a road to take photos of a bald eagle. A Canadian film crew illegally walked onto a hot springs feature, filming the entire trip. And the peak park visitor season hasn't even arrived yet.

If last week's bear jam is any indication, no matter how much information park managers publish or broadcast about the illegality of such incidents, folks either aren't getting the message or just don't care about the rules meant to ensure their safety as well as to protect wildlife and the park workers called to the scene of such incidents.

Last week when the woman photographer boldly advanced across the narrow road, I thought for a second that I would witness a bear attack. Luckily the mama bear showed more sense than the woman and moved away from the crowd and up the hill along with her cubs.

Yet the incident makes many regular park visitors and staff wonder: What is going to happen next? Or maybe less politely: How stupid can tourists be? No wonder some park workers refer to visitors as "tourons," a combination of the words "tourist" and "moron." Last summer it was bison gorings and people falling from cliffs that made headlines. This year is anyone's guess.

With a busy tourism season forecast as the Park Service celebrates its 100th birthday, chances are it won't be too long before another Yellowstone visitor behaves badly. Let's hope it's not a fatal mistake.
Matt Vincent said Wednesday that Buttes quality of life has hit new heights during his tenure as chief executive, and he announced in his annual State of the City speech that a new committee will forge closer ties between the county and Montana Tech.

He also promised that any final agreement on addressing mine pollution on the Butte Hill would include public input. Negotiations are still being held in secret per a federal judges order, although Vincent was able to get a commissioner included in the talks recently.

We will continue to emphasize that our citizens and our community will remain involved on our terms, Vincent told about 50 people at a luncheon at the Butte Brewery. We will not settle for a second-class cleanup.

It marked Vincents third such annual address, but this time it came less than a week before the June 7 primary that features five others who also are running for the countys top political post. Vincent, who is seeking a second, four-year term, gave his previous two speeches in 2014 and 2015 in April.

With the election-year timing of this years speech came election-year criticism from some of Vincents primary opponents, including two commissioners  Dave Palmer and Jim Fisher  who attended Vincents speech Wednesday.

His right arm is going to be a little sore from patting himself on the back, Fisher said with a laugh after the speech.

He said some projects Vincent touted  including a $40 million water treatment plant under construction and $34 million in upgrades to Buttes sewer plant  were already in the pipeline before Vincent took office in January 2013.

Fisher said he was damn proud of Butte, but said Vincents address came off as a rosy campaign speech. Many attending the luncheon were county staff, including several department heads and others who have donated to Vincent's campaign.

If he had been doing these things three years ago instead of the last six months, he wouldnt have five people running against him, Fisher said.

Palmer said Vincent, in an ad in The Montana Standard Wednesday, spent a lot of time talking about I and Me, but his speech was more we oriented.

Today he changed his tune a little bit and it sounded good, Palmer said. But he said local government still isnt working as cohesively as it should and he again criticized Vincent for not working closer with commissioners.

I think there are still too many agreements and deals worked out before they are even brought before the council, Palmer said.

The other three running for chief executive this year are Butte architect Mark Reavis, Commissioner Cindy Perdue-Dolan and longtime county laborer Ron Sarge Rowling. Only the top two vote-getters in Tuesdays primary will advance to the general election in November.

Vincents speech reiterated points hes made on the stump, including projects that provided hundreds of construction jobs for investments that would pay off for years. They included the new $25 million NorthWestern Energy Building in Uptown Butte and the two water plants.

Those plants should soon put to bed the long-standing but baseless myth that Buttes water was dirty, he said.

Soon we will have the cleanest drinking water and the cleanest wastewater in the state of Montana, he said.

There were other improvements to Buttes quality of life, Vincent said, including a planned carousel at Stodden Park, a dog park and kids fishing pond at Skyline Park and hopefully a new outdoor pool. Voters will also decide Tuesday whether a proposed pool and lazy river get built. Most of the $8.7 million project and annual maintenance costs would be funded with increased property taxes.

Vincent said numerous businesses in Butte were either stable or growing, ticking off about a dozen of them including Town Pump, Resodyn, REC Silicon, AWARE, Inc., Community Counseling and Correctional Services and Acadia.

He touted a planned $800,000 sewer extension project that will allow Montana Tech to grow and said he plans to establish a Community Campus Planning Committee to strengthen ties between the county and the college.

The panel could work on improvements to the Park Street corridor between Tech and Uptown, a new doctorate program and getting Tech students more involved in Superfund cleanup activities, Vincent said.

Vincent made his speech during a luncheon sponsored by the Butte-Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce and the Butte Local Development Corp.

Reavis, the Butte architect who is running for chief executive, did not attend Vincents speech but said Buttes population growth and economy alone are evident that things arent great.

We are stagnant  absolutely stagnant, he said.

He said Butte should target small businesses and entrepreneurs who have an interest in the city or past ties to move here instead of having outside consultants pitch big revitalization ideas.

We have relied on so many giant ideas that never seem to come to fruition, he said.

Perdue-Dolan also has been critical of Buttes economy under Vincents tenure, saying it has barely grown in recent years.
The Montana Wilderness Association launches its newest chapter, covering Southwest Montana, with a hike and barbecue on Saturday, June 4, which is National Trails Day.

The day will start with hikers meeting at Basin Creek Reservoir, south of Butte, at 10 a.m. for a 4-mile hike up Bear Creek Trail, after which will be a barbecue at the reservoir at 1 p.m. Members will elect chapter officers at that time.

The event is open to members and prospective members of MWA. Currently, MWA has 120 members in the chapter area, which covers Beaverhead, Butte-Silver Bow, and Anaconda-Deer Lodge counties and the southern section of Jefferson County.

For the barbecue, the chapter will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and condiments. Guests are encouraged to bring side dishes or beverages.

"This chapter is anxious to get to work advocating for some of Montana's wildest yet unprotected landscapes in the southwest region of Montana," said Kelly Hurston of Butte, who is running for chapter president.

Some of those areas include the east and west Pioneer Mountains, the Highlands, the Sapphires, the Flints, and the West Big Hole, according to the association.

Also running for the chapter board are Frances Galvin, Anaconda, vice president; Jill Kolb, Butte, chapter representative; and Travis McAdam, Butte, treasurer.

To learn more about MWA or to become a member, visit wildmontana.org.
The EPA Record of Decision for Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit promised the public effective stormwater management, a program that had more tools than a Swiss Army knife. And a promise to meet the states water quality standards. But here we are 10 years later, still faced with a serious stormwater problem for Silver Bow Creek.

Its easy to infer from the Montana Standard article, Report from the consent decree negotiations (December 13, 2015), EPA will waive stream standards. Assuming it will waive the state standards, which is based on suspended and dissolved metals, and replace them with the less stringent federal standard, only dissolved metals  there is still an enormous problem. During storms or snowmelt events, the Creek commonly exceeds the federal copper standard by a factor of more than two. During an August 2013 thunderstorm, the Creek had dissolved copper levels thirteen times the federal acute standard. The Creek is still toxic to fish during storms!

And the greatest insultthe answer to the problem has been staring us in the face all along. Its just been hidden from the public behind a curtain of secrecy.

Stormwater retention basins look and function as pond-wetland systems, are promoted across the U.S. by EPA to improve stormwater quality. Billings has a great example. The Shiloh Conservation Area, consisting of interconnected ponds and wetlands, protects the Yellowstone River from urban runoff. Right here in Butte, the retention basins in Missoula Gulch have proven to remove 96% of copper in suspended sediment and 55% of dissolved copper.

Compare that to the hydrodynamic devices that EPA chose to push on BP/ARCO. They are incapable of removing dissolved copper. It was also apparent from the technical literature that they are ineffective at removing suspended copper. And monitoring has now demonstrated that, at best, they may reduce suspended copper by only 5%. Thats only a whisker away from absolutely ineffective. A roughly $5 million dollar stormwater blunder. So why did EPA force an expensive, ineffective stormwater management tool on BP? And why did BP go along?

Its a mystery to me.

Even more mysteriousEPA has chosen to ignore their own 2011 order (Unilateral Administrative Order, EPA Docket No. CERCLA-08-2011) to build the largest retention basins possible at the base area of Buffalo Gulch. Note that basins is plural.

Even as early as 2008, EPA recognized the severity of the problem. They also recognized the solution. EPAs 2008 Surface Water Characterization Report stated the need for retention basins at the base of Buffalo Gulch and the MSD (Upper Silver Bow Creek) sub-basins. The principle of largest basins possible must be applied, not only to Buffalo Gulch, but also to upper Silver Bow Creek. The Diggings East and Northside Tailings mining waste must be completely removed and the area must be used to build stormwater retention basins to the extent practicable.

And both EPA and DEQ need to be open, honest, and up front with the public about Superfund remedy. Currently, these discussions are cloaked behind a curtain of confidential Consent Decree negotiations.

Dave Williams and I were recently invited to attend the April 26, 2016 Superfund update meeting as technical advisors for the Citizens Technical Environmental Committee. CTEC was invited as a token of open technical discussion with the public. But when we asked for an update on progress made on installing the retention basins at the base of Buffalo Gulch, we were told that action had been deferred, and was now being evaluated as part of the confidential consent decree negotiations. By way of documentation, EPA provided a letter from AR/BP dated November 19, 2012 requesting a delay in designing and building those basins until 2014. EPA did not provide a letter documenting their approval. Having been party to the technical discussions in 2012, I dont remember an EPA approval. But I certainly remember the fights between the state and EPA over ponds.

So who is in charge of protecting the environment here? EPA is the lead agency. Why hasnt it enforced its own orders? Why hasnt it followed up on its own recommendations? Particularly exasperatingwhy has the legal obligation to build extensive ponds been removed from public scrutiny and handled as part of confidential negotiations? Is EPA negotiating with BP for a lesser remedy?

Public beware. Our local government has direct responsibility and liability for stormwater contamination discharging to Silver Bow Creek under both Superfund (CERCLA) and the Clean Water Act. If stormwater contamination from EPAs waste-in-place remedy is not competently and completely addressed under Superfund, the taxpayers and ratepayers in Butte will pick up the long-term liability and cost. Liability that clearly belongs with BP.

The public must demand up-front accountability from EPA. It is too important to the long-term viability of this community to allow these decisions to be made in secret.

Please EPAdo your job! We need a protective remedy in Butte. And come out from behind that curtain.
The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission are two different critters. Our FW&P Department presents wildlife management proposals to five, governor-appointed, F&W commissioners. Commission meeting minutes regarding wolves, 2007 through 2015 are available, 406-444-7826. Get a copy, its interesting history.

At their July 14, 2011, meeting, Gov. Brian Schweitzer appointee Bob Ream moved and Moody seconded, establishing a three wolf quota north of Yellowstone National Park. On July 9, 2015, Bullock appointee Gary Wolfe moved and Stuker seconded reducing their quota to two wolves. Yellowstone Buffer Zone wolf quotas were instituted by F&W Commissioners at final season setting meetings. They were not proposed by the FW&P Department or sent out for comment.

On May 12, 2016, Department biologists proposed a six-wolf quota and a Montana trapping quota of seven fisher. Commissioners rejected the Departments proposal and put out two wolf and zero fisher quotas. Department biologists made no Yellowstone wolf quota proposals before their six wolf quota that was shot down by a Commission majority.

Do wolf advocacy groups and their "green decoys" masquerading as sportsmen try to influence Montana politicians? Could Montana hunters and trappers be "sold down the river" to placate national wolf advocacy outfits who couldnt care less about Montanas hunting heritage? Are environmental activists seeking more federal control over Montana resources, pouring political action cash (PAC money) into our governors reelection campaign? Does wolf predation impact Montanas ungulate populations?

-- Edwin Johnson, Licensed Montana Outfitter, Gardiner
Like it or not, it appears that we have two presidential candidates to choose from. Some say our choice is the lesser of two evils, either Crooked Hillary or Loose Canon Trump. I have a little bit of a different take. I see this presidential contest as a choice between Same Old vs. Something Different.

Same Old means the continuation of a failed administration along with a do-nothing Congress (Democrats and Republicans). Same Old means continuing to increase our national debt, continuing to decimate our military, continuing to allow illegal aliens to pour across our Southern border, a continuation of American businesses building factories abroad, and a continuation of forcing political correctness down our throat. Rather than trying to solve the problems that affect our well-being as a nation, our leaders appear to be more concerned with what bathroom a transgender person should use. They allow protesters to burn the American flag while waving the flag of Mexico. They treat illegal aliens better that they do our military veterans.

The age-old definition of insanity is dong the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. By this definition, we Americans are insane! We keep voting for politicians who continue to do nothing and have no accountability.

Theoretically, Congress works for us, yet they set their own salaries, set up their own generous healthcare system, ensure that they have lucrative retirement benefits etc.! Is it time to try Something Different? Is Trump the answer? We dont know, nor can we guarantee that he can make things better. But he knows how to create a budget, how to create jobs, how to negotiate, and how to make people accountable. He tells it like it is rather than parsing his words to be politically correct.

Think hard before you cast your ballot for president. Decide whether you are choosing between the lesser of two evils or are choosing between Same Old or Something Different." Same Old is destined for failure while choosing Something Different at least gives us a chance at improving the future of our great country.

-- Gary Kump, Butte
Nationally there are 715 superdelegates, 15 percent of all delegate slots at the upcoming nominating convention. Those folks are superdelegates because of their positions within the party. All Democratic Governors, U.S. Senators and Representatives are superdelegates as are all members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Montanas superdelegates are Governor Bullock, Senator Tester and the four Montanans on the DNC.

As our Montana Presidential Preference Primary approaches, national political emotions have been intensified with superdelegates becoming a bone of contention, especially with Bernie Sanders supporters since most superdelegates have pledged support to Hillary Clinton. By the way, none of Montanas six superdelegates has yet to pledge support to either Secretary Clinton or Senator Sanders. Superdelegates who seem to be a problem or concern today were actually created to solve some problems of the past. As is often the case, todays problem was yesterdays solution.

After superdelegates were added following the 1984 election, I was a superdelegate in 1988, 1992 and 1996. There was nothing super about me personally. I was just an experienced party official as a Montana member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), where I served from 1984 to 1996. I added my vote and my experienced judgment to the nominating process to supplement the collective votes and judgements of those who had come through the primary or caucus process for choosing delegates.

In authorizing experienced and credentialed superdelegates, the hope was to add some experienced wisdom to the election year passion that emerges from the grassroots caucus and primary processes. Why it important to add experience to balance passion? Back in the mid-1980s, the evidence was that a passion-only process had produced poor electoral results for the Democratic Party. Lets look at the history.

Over a five election period between 1972 and 1988, George McGovern lost 49 states to Richard Nixon in 1972; Jimmy Carter lost 44 states to Ronald Reagan in 1980; Fritz Mondale lost 49 states to Reagan in 1984; and Michael Dukakis lost 40 states to George Hebert Walker Bush in 1988. The only Democratic win over that period was in 1976 when Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Gerald Ford right after the Watergate scandal. Those terrible results led the Democrats to rethink their delegate selection processes. It was apparent that being locked-in to a passion-driven primary and caucus process alone did not produce winning Democratic nominees.

Over the years the national Democratic Party has regularly modified and adjusted its rules to try to make the presidential nomination process both fair and smart. There have been eight different delegate selection commissions since 1968. After the 1984 election, superdelegates were a major change that was made and they have remained part of the mix since then. That appears to have been helpful as Democrats have won the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, a stark contrast to the previous disastrous results, where the GOP won five of six races and often by gigantic margins.

Is the system perfect? Is the number of superdelegates too high or too low? Should there be any superdelegates at all? Should they declare their candidate support early or should they wait? Should they continue to reflect their own judgement or reflect the results of the states primary or caucus?

There are other important questions. Should caucuses which have small numbers of participants be scrapped for primary elections with large numbers of participants? Should primaries or caucuses be open or closed?

The Democratic Partys delegate selection process has been well-served in the past by a constant adjustment and improvement of the rules by reform commissions. I hope that the upcoming national convention passes a resolution creating another reform commission where the passionate partisans of Hillary and Bernie can gather together with some less passionate but experienced folks like superdelegates to seek answers to the questions before us, including superdelegates. Some of Bernie Sanders approaches might end up as part of the 2020 delegate selection process or they might not. But they deserved to be discussed. And they could and should be addressed by a new Democratic Delegate Selection Reform Commission.

-- Evan Barrett. of Butte, has spent the last 46 years at the top level of Montana economic development, government, politics and education. He is the director of Business and Community Outreach and an instructor at Highlands College of Montana Tech. These are his personal views.
A top county official told commissioners Wednesday night that construction on the Uptown parking garage wont start until the end of July and its final tab could be between $7.2 million to $7.5 million.

Officials had hoped work would begin this month, but Community Development Director Karen Byrnes said civil drawings are not complete nor are development agreements with Park Street properties that will be adjacent to the garage.

Byrnes also reiterated that the garage would not be funded with property tax increases, something county officials are sensitive about noting because the proposed outdoor public pool and lazy river would mean increased property taxes.

Voters will decide this Tuesday whether to approve $7.2 million in tax increases to foot most of the pool construction bill and an additional $350,000 in annual maintenance costs.

It (the parking garage) is not an increase on any individuals taxes at all, Byrnes told commissioners.

The garage would be funded with bonds or a loan that would be repaid with property taxes captured in an Uptown tax-increment financing district (TIF).

New developments that add tax value to such areas are captured and can be reinvested in that area. The new $25 million NorthWestern Energy building Uptown is the cornerstone of a TIF that was redrawn in 2014.

Byrnes recently told the Urban Revitalization Agency board, which oversees the Uptown TIF, that the garage could cost $7.5 million. That would be $500,000 more than initial projections of between $6 million and $7 million that county officials had stuck to for months.

Byrnes told commissioner the higher figure included such things as design and engineering and costs of financing the garage, among other things. It might also include a little more money for construction.

But Byrnes acknowledged she had not previously made public distinctions between hard and soft costs and said a final tab should become known in the coming weeks as drawings and agreements are finalized. As it stands, it would cost between $7.2 million to $7.5 million.

Jim Fisher, one of three commissioners challenging Chief Executive Matt Vincent for his post this year, has been critical of a no-bid process the county used for the first time to select the primary builder of the garage  Sletten Construction of Great Falls.

Byrnes said the process allows designers and builders to collaborate on a project along the way to hold down costs, and it may already have led to savings on the garage.

But Fisher said county officials and others working on the project were missing key players.

There isnt an elected person who is making decisions or driving this bus, he said.

Byrnes said Vincent  who was elected chief executive  was part of the group. Vincent also came to Byrnes defense, saying all commissioners had authorized the county to use a state-sanctioned no-bid process at times.

I have lost my patience with all this political posturing every time this comes up, he said.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  There's a new place for nightlife in the Muscatine area.

Club Ink is located inside the Travelodge Inn and Suites formerly the Canterbury FantaSuites, 2402 Park Ave. Suite 2, Muscatine.

The process to the grand opening began when two of the four partners, Troy Freyermuth and Shawn Shorty Winkel, were approached by fellow partner Chris Lamp about opening a bar at the Park Avenue location. The fourth partner is Josh Osborne.

We had one guy originally come down and talk to the owners of the Travelodge, Winkel said. We knew that there was a bar already down here and he decided to come to us and said hey this is a business opportunity to open down here, what do you guys think? We all got together and said lets do it.

Winkel was excited about the opportunity of being a first time bar owner.

Id never thought Id own a bar, Winkel said. But just having that fun and being able to do that with everybody makes it all better.

Greater Muscatine Chamber of Commerce and Industry director Greg Jenkins was optimistic about the grand opening for a new Muscatine business.

Its always great to see people start a new business and show their entrepreneurial spirit, Jenkins said. Its going to be a good investment of this facility and its going to be a nice place to relax and spend some time on a weekend.

The club features pool tables, dart boards and a dance floor.

Club Ink is also looking to have specialty nights. Winkel said Thursday nights will be ladies night and karaoke, whereas they have ideas for DJ events on Saturday nights and daily specials.

Winkel said the atmosphere of the bar is to be open to everybody.

Whether its people out of the hotels or its people off the street, we want to open it up for everyone, Winkel said.

"(We want people) to dance, drink, or just come down and have fun, Freyermuth said.

Beyond the club, Winkel and Freyermuth are looking to open the I Dont Care Grill within the next three weeks nearby.

Were looking on the 24th to open it, having the permits done and passing the inspections, Winkel said.

Winkel said the name came from when people are indecisive about where they want to eat and so they decided to name the grill I Dont Care.

Freyermuth said that Club Ink and I Dont Care Grill plan to have different food focuses.

This side (the Club Ink side) will be specialty burgers and that side (the I Dont Care Grill) will be steaks and fine-dining, Freyermuth said.

Winkel also hinted there will most likely be a grand opening for the I Dont Care Grill.
MUSCATINE, Iowa After hosting students from Germany in Muscatine last fall, current and former Muscatine High School students said they are looking forward to seeing their friends.

"It will be really good to see the German students again," said Kate Gabriel, who will be a senior this year at MHS.

Milaena Reade, a German teacher at Muscatine High School, will be taking present and past students from MHS on a 16-day trip to Germany. They will be leaving on Sunday and in addition to a tour, will be attending high school with German students at Theodor-Heuss Schule

"We do nine days on the bus tour, we go through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein, and at the end of that I set up an exchange program with a school in Reutlingen," she said.

While all of the students said they are looking forward to the food, they also are excited to see the friends that they have made from Germany.

Jared Weikel, a recent graduate of MHS, said while he has been able to stay in touch with the friends he made, seeing them in person will be a highlight of his trip.

"I've been over there a few times so I know a few people in the town that we're staying in so I'm looking forward to seeing some friends that I haven't seen in a while," he said.

Weikel also said he enjoys experiencing new places.

"I like to be somewhere that's different, and it's really pretty there. I like to walk around the towns because they're so much older so they're built differently," he said.

Jeremy DeVore, a junior at Iowa State, went on the trip once before, and said he is excited to visit some of the same places he saw on the last trip, especially Munich. His favorite memory from the last trip, he said, was their stay in the Swiss Alps.

"The trip to get to the hotel itself was an adventure, it was very storybook, we were in the middle of the clouds and as soon as the sun came up the clouds would dissipate over the mountains it was just gorgeous," he said.

DeVore chose to return to travel with his MHS friends, and said his first trip gave him wanderlust, and reinforced his choice to minor in German in college.

"It'll be a good chance to catch up with old friends, and Milaena has become a friend and mentor and I'm looking forward to traveling with her," he said.

Teachers can learn from the experience as well, and Pam Joslyn, who teaches physics at MHS, said that the last time she went on the trip she was on the lookout for teaching material.

"This time I'm really excited to look at it from the perspective of looking at all the renewable energies and looking for things I can bring back to my physics teacher," Joslyn said.

The Stanley Foundation donated $450 to each student for the trip, which Reade said would be over $3,000.
MUSCATINE, Iowa The Muscatine City Council will vote on the final reading of an ordinance to amend city code regarding automated traffic enforcement at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 2 in the Council Chambers at City Hall.

The first two readings were approved unanimously, and the changes would add a speed category for speed enforcement in school and construction zones.

The code amendment would allow for drivers traveling between six and 10 mph over the speed limit in school and construction zones to face fines.

Drivers currently clocked under 11 mph over the speed limit face no fines.

The council will also consider a resolution authorizing the final payment to Voltmer Inc. and accepting completed work for the airport electrical system project.

In other business the council will consider:

A resolution approving the contract and bond for the Mulberry Avenue Improvement Project. The the contract was awarded to Langman Construction for $1,888,269.94.

A request to approve the extension of an agreement with Lutheran Homes to operate and maintain the liquid sludge storage lagoon, public sanitary sewer, and to apply liquid sludge on agricultural land.

A request to approve a memorandum of understanding for the 2016 Justice Assistance Grant Direct Award in the tentative amount of $19,613 and will be shared with the Muscatine County Drug Task Force as well as the Muscatine County Sheriffs Office. The grant award is used for equipment purchases not included in the current department budget.
COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa  Louisa County authorities are investigating the cause of an accident Wednesday involving a Muscatine County Secondary Roads vehicle.

The accident was reported about 11:40 a.m. Wednesday on Highway 92 near the intersection with Louisa County Road X17.

Michael Beauchamp of Muscatine was driving a Muscatine County Secondary Roads dump truck west on Highway 92 when a pickup, driven by Lloyd Buck, Ainsworth, entered the westbound lane of traffic from a business driveway and into the path of the dump truck, according to the Louisa County Sheriff's Department.

As a result of the collision, a passenger in Bucks vehicle, his wife Yvonne Buck, was air-lifted to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City due to injuries she sustained during the collision. Both Beauchamp and Lloyd Buck were transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, by ambulance as a result of their injuries. No information about their conditions is available at this time.

No citations have been issued as of Thursday afternoon, according to the press release.

The Columbus Junction Ambulance, Columbus Junction Fire Department, and Iowa State Patrol responded to the collision. The investigation into the cause of the collision was conducted by the Louisa County Sheriffs Office.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  "Some of my animals are pets, some of them are wild animals," Muscatine County Conservation Park Officer Dave Bakke told a group of children at a reptile show Thursday afternoon.

Bakke was hosted by the Musser Public library to show and educate children on several animals. Bakke showed the children the three turtles the Muscatine County Conservation Center cares for. There was one painted turtle, Myrtle, a soft shelled turtle, Sheldon and another turtle named Mr. B.

Bakke also showed tadpoles, tree frogs, toads, a bullfrog and a fox snake.

Kids were allowed touch many of the animals, often eliciting squeals of delight or shyness.

According to childrens librarian, Betty Collins, this wasnt the first time the Musser Public Library has had Bakke do an event like this one.

Weve had Dave do something like this for about 20 years, Collins said.

As part of the Summer Reading program the library does, Collins said the motivation behind doing this event is to keep children engaged during the summer, where they arent in the classrooms learning. While the library sponsors other ways of trying to keep children engaged, Collins said this is a strong way of teaching children.

I think the kids learn really well when they are actually with the animals, Collins said. While we love the education that they can get virtually online or in the screen, there really isnt anything like seeing a live animal face to face.

In addition to the 20 years Bakke has been sharing his knowledge of live animals with the children through the Musser Public Library, hes had 10 years of doing this in other locations.

Bakke said the childrens reactions are the reason why he has been doing this for almost 30 years.

I like the animals and being with the animals, but the kids have so much fun, Bakke said. I enjoy sharing the animals with the kids. The littlest frog, when it jumped, and they were just squealing and crawling all over each other to get out of the way. Its something like that where its humorous.

Bakke also said he is glad to be able to pique the kids interest in the animals and to teach them about them.

He said he wont stop teaching children about animals any time soon.

Ive been doing this a long time and I dont really have plans to stop doing it, Bakke said. Its still fun and I still enjoy meeting the kids. As long as Im good and enjoying it, Ill keep doing it.
MUSCATINE, Iowa  Many churches will begin offering vacation bible school programs next week.

Calvary Church, 501 U.S. Highway 61, Muscatine, offers VBX on June 6-8 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. To register, call 563-263-3367.

Sts. Mary & Mathias, 215 W. Eighth St., Muscatine,offers Vacation Bible School on June 6-8 from noon to 4 p.m. To register, call 563-262-1416.

Zion Lutheran Church, 513 Sycamore St., Muscatine, "Cave Quest" vacation bible school, June 6-10 from 9 a.m.-noon. To register, call 563-263-5074. VBS at Zion is held in conjunction with Faith United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church, Trinity Episcopal Church and First Christian Church.

Grace Lutheran Church, 2107 Cedar St., Muscatine, "Egypt-Joseph's Journey from Prison to Power" July 10-14 from 5:30-8 p.m. Pre-registration is required. A small dinner served at 5:30 p.m. with prior registration. Classes are for pre-k to 5th grade and are open to the community. Registration opens June 3. To register, please call Grace Lutheran Church at 563-263-5680.

Wesley United Methodist Church, 400 Iowa Ave., Muscatine. "Deep Sea Discovery," July 11-15 from 9 a.m.-noon. For children entering 4-year-old preschool through 5th grade. For more information, contact Nancy Wall, 563-263-1596.

Mulford Evangelical Free Church, 2400 Hershey Ave., Muscatine. "Character Camp," Aug. 1-5 from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m., Pre-registration is encouraged but not required.
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 []
South Africas Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi plans to target e-cigarettes as part of a move to ensure the tobacco industry is properly regulated in the country.

Motsoaledi said there is a drive to categorise e-cigarettes as any other kind of cigarette, as some e-cigarettes contained nicotine.

Others do not contain nicotine, he said, but it was not his departments job to determine which variants did or did not.

He said e-cigarettes that did not contain nicotine were still harmful, as they introduced youngsters to smoking.

Motsoaledi said health ministers around the world agree that smoking  with traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes  needs to be stopped.

The ministers interview is embedded below.

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Local companies have been slow to adopt new internet protocols that could undermine efforts to secure online transactions and grow the internet, says an industry insider.

While the uptake of IPv6 in South Africa is increasing, it is still not advancing fast enough. Despite the many advantages offered by IPv6, uptake around the world has been relatively slow, Edward Lawrence, Business Development director at Workonline Communications told Fin24.

IPv6, or Internet Protocol version six, uses a longer set of numbers to allow devices to connect to the internet. These numbers offer more security than the previous version and allows for many more devices to connect.

The system was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force in response to the threat of exhausting network addresses with IPv4 as the internet grew rapidly.

Despite the formalisation of IPv6 in 1998, a lack of understanding has contributed to slow implementation.

Internet of Things

Search giant Googles tracker revealed that global adoption is less than 12%. In SA, adoption is estimated at 0.31%.

We have noticed that a number of people do not know about or understand IPv6, which contributes to the issue of slow adoption. However, a number of major Network Service Providers (NSPs) and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in South Africa are adopting the standard, said Lawrence.

As more people buy mobile smart devices that connect to the internet, each device will require an internet address that allows it to connect.

IPv6 can assign up 5 000 times more address space compared to IPv4, resulting in growth of the internet, ideal for the expected development of the Internet of Things.

Without IPv6 there is no future of the internet, as it cant grow. There will come a point where IPv4 runs out in Africa in the same way it has in other regions, and we have a unique opportunity to learn from these regions and even ensure that we are ahead of the curve again, by benefiting from the lessons learnt, said Lawrence.

Workonline Communications is offering training to help companies migrate their networks to the new platform.

To accelerate its deployment in Africa, Workonline Communications is offering 100Mbps of free IPv6 transit to qualifying AfriNIC Local Internet Registry members, Lawrence said.

AfriNIC is the regional internet registry for Africa that administers internet number resources, including IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

Fin24

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Governments slow advance on its digital television set-top box roll out is holding back local hopes for faster, more widely available mobile internet, say experts.

Its been almost a year since South Africa missed an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) deadline on June 17 2015 to switch over to digital broadcasts.

This migration process, when completed, will move public broadcaster the SABC from analogue to digital terrestrial television (DTT) signals and open up digital dividend spectrum for faster mobile internet.

Currently, mobile networks such as Vodacom have to refarm their existing spectrum to deliver faster LTE internet services, a process that limits their ability to widely roll out this service.

Key to spurring on South Africas digital migration process, though, is its subsidised TV set-top box tender, which will provide five million poorer households with access to digital channels.

But the set-top box roll-out has faced years of delays amid broadcasters differences over whether these devices should or shouldnt have a control mechanism for encrypted signals.

And just this week, upon a legal challenge from e.tv, Bloemfonteins Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that governments recent decision not to encrypt these boxes should be struck down.

The court upheld e.tvs complaint that Communications Minister Faith Muthambi had failed to properly consult relevant parties before deciding not to encrypt these boxes.

The North Gauteng High Court heard arguments last year, from the SABC and M-Net, that including encryption on these boxes would add extra costs to the subsidised roll-out.

However, e.tv said an uncrypted signal would mean that non-compliant set-top boxes would receive digital broadcasts while further preventing it from offering high definition broadcasts.

Experts have also argued that unencrypted boxes could result in broadcasts being easily pirated, making it difficult for free-to-air broadcasters to secure rights to high quality content.

Arthur Goldstuck, managing director of technology research firm World Wide Worx, told Fin24 that e.tvs victory could be positive and negative for South Africas digital migration process.

Its both a step forward and a step back, Goldstuck told Fin24.

Its regrettable that it puts digital migration on hold once more, as the specs for the set-top boxes now need to be changed once again to require encryption capability.

However, its also a step forward, as it allows for a more advanced platform to be distributed to all homes, opening up the possibility for new channels to be launched, and therefore greater potential for future migration from free TV to pay TV for those households that move up the income curve, Goldstuck added.

Reverting back to former decisions?

The SCAs decision further means that government may have to fall back on a 2014 decision by former Communications Minister Yunus Carrim to provide a control system on subsidised set-top boxes.

At the time, Carrim said broadcasters were allowed to choose whether they want to use an encrypted signal or not as the subsidised set-top boxes would have a generic control system.

Hopefully were back to the policy that was initially sort of accepted by Cabinet in 2014, the Democratic Alliances shadow minister for telecommunications and postal services, Marian Shinn, told Fin24 by phone.

Muthambi unilaterally amended that, and then the Cabinet was bamboozled into accepting it. So, if we just revert to that policy, we should probably be alright, added Shinn.

Shinn further told Fin24 that the decision to bolt encryption features to subsidised boxes would enable fairer competition among local broadcasters and help them to compete against pay-TV providers like Naspers owned MultiChoice.

Most of them who actually are in the competitive space with broadcasters like Multichoice would actually encrypt their (signals) so that they can get decent quality programming, Shinn told Fin24.

They would be able to procure better quality programming because producers of content would be satisfied that their material would not be pirated, thanks to the encryption.

So, for a quality, competitive environment, the boxes needed to be encrypted, she added.

Mark Rosin, chief operating officer of e.tv, said in a statement on Tuesday that the SCAs decision this week allows the possibility of a strong and stable DTT platform to South African free-to-air television viewers offering the best local and international content.

Pay-TV provider Multichoice had previously sided with the SABC and Minister Muthambi in calling for unencrypted subsidised boxes.

Multichoice spokespeople, at the time of writing, were not ready to comment yet on e.tvs latest court victory.

Weve noted the decision of the Appeal Court and are currently studying the judgment, Multichoices general manager for corporate affairs, Jackie Rakitla, told Fin24 by email.

Process moves forward

Meanwhile, Muthambis office said that her department will continue with its digital migration process despite the SCA decision.

The department kick-started the roll out of set-top boxes to outlying areas in the Northern Cape last year. This year, the department has extended its roll-out to outlying areas in Limpopo.

The SCA did not order the reversal of the digital migration process. What the SCA did is to clarify a technicality which was embedded in the 2015 amended policy, said the department in a statement.

But Shinn has explained that to date government has only managed to distribute encrypted set-top boxes.

Theyre rolling them out to the border areas which receive their signals from satellite transmitters not from the terrestrial transmitters, said Shinn.

So, all those boxes are encrypted anyway because no satellite operator will receive signals that are not encrypted. By and large, the boxes that have gone out are encrypted boxes, Shinn added.

Other challenges that the department faces in rolling out set-top boxes include that government hasnt yet proffered budget for the entire process, said Shinn.

Need for high-speed internet

Nevertheless, South Africa needs to go ahead with its digital migration process to open up frequencies for broadband.

The importance of digital migration ranges from compliance with international standards in order to be good citizens of the world, through to the digital dividend of freeing up valuable spectrum that is ideal for high-speed broadband, Goldstuck told Fin24.

Digital broadcasting is more efficient, provides higher quality, and opens up capacity for far more channels, so its not a question of why, but of why not, Goldstuck added.

Shinn said the digital migration project will help those on SAs border to have access to internet.

The freeing up of the spectrum would actually make more people in remote areas able to connect to the internet, it would bridge the digital divide. Those are the advantages of this, Shinn told Fin24.

So, the longer we delay this, the more people in marginalised areas or underserviced areas are excluded from the information age, Shinn added.

Fin24

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An argument broke out between an Uber and metered taxi driver, resulting in one of them pointing a firearm at the other, near King Shaka International Airport, police said on Thursday.

The two became involved in an argument at a Sasol petrol station, Major Thulani Zwane said.

It is alleged that one driver pointed a firearm at another, but there was no shooting.

A case was yet to be opened. Management at the petrol station declined to comment.

KwaZulu-Natal Metered Taxi Association spokesperson Sizwe Imvubu said they were investigating the matter.

At this stage we are not sure of the circumstances or who did what. Once we get a full report from the local metered taxi chairperson we will comment on the matter.

Other clashes

Tensions between metered taxi and Uber drivers have been simmering since the internet-based ride-sharing app was introduced in South Africa in 2013.

Last year, metered taxi drivers intimidated Uber drivers and passengers outside Gautrain stations in Sandton and Centurion, in Gauteng, and staged illegal protest against Uber over the services alleged unfair competition.

Last month, three metro police officials were injured when metered taxi drivers stoned two Uber cars and two metro police cars in Sandton.

Metered taxi drivers chased and tried to assault Gauteng Transport MEC Ismail Vadi at his office when he announced the start of the process of issuing operating licences to Uber drivers.

News24

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Statistics South Africa has released its annual general household survey, which found that 3.5% of South African households did not have access to either landlines or cellphones in 2015.

It reported that 85.5% of households had access to at least one cellular phone, while 10.9% of households had access to both a landline and a cellular phone.

Only 0.1% of households had only a landline.

Stats SA also found that access to different means of communication differed by province.

Households in historically-rural provinces such as Mpumalanga (94.4%) and Limpopo (94.1%) were reliant on cellphones, which it said were more accessible than landlines.

A combination of both cellphones and landlines in households were most prevalent in more affluent provinces, like the Western Cape (26.2%) and Gauteng (14.1%).

More than half of South African households (53.5%) had at least one member who used the Internet either at home, work, a place of study, or Internet cafes.

65.7% of households in Gauteng and 63.3% in the Western Cape had access to the Internet, while 39.3% of households in Limpopo had access.

Percentage of households who have a functional landline and cellphone in their dwellings by province, 2015

Percentage of households who have a functional landline and cellphone in their dwellings by metropolitan areas, 2015

Percentage of households with access to the Internet at home, or for which at least one member has access to or used the Internet by province, 2015

More on Internet access in South Africa

The province with the highest rate of Internet access

Massive spike in Internet access coming to South Africa

The History of Internet access in South Africa
Yesterday, for the first time in Kenyas history, National Madaraka day celebrations were held outside the capital Nairobi.

President Uhuru has adopted a rotational strategy where different counties will host the national celebrations. Nakuru was the first.

Uhuru further announced that Mashujaa Day celebrations will be held in the county of Machakos later this year.

Here are photos from Nakuru.

































State House Nakuru










(CNN) At least four people at a Bernie Sanders rally in Oakland rushed the stage Monday evening, spurring Secret Service agents to jump onto the raised platform and protect him.

The Democratic presidential candidate was uninjured and continued speaking, but not before several agents hugged him and pushed him away from the microphone. The identities of the individuals, who yelled as they approached the stage, were not immediately known. They were apprehended and led away by Secret Service from the podium at the Frank Ogawa Plaza, where the rally was being held.

After the events of Monday night in Northern California, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said, It was handled professionally by the Secret Service.

The Vermont senator began receiving Secret Service protection in early February during the early part of the presidential primary season, in his challenge to Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Its not the first time in the 2016 campaign season that Secret Service have jumped on stage when commotion broke out around a protectee. In March a protestor jumped a barricade and tried to get on stage at a Donald Trump rally in Vandalia, Ohio, prompting Secret Service to react similarly by hopping on stage to shield the candidate.
A lot of people had a lot to say about Nyota Ndogo when she recently tied the knot to Henning Nielsen. Most of the comments were mostly about her poorly done makeup, while others did not miss the chance to point out that Nyota Ndogo married a sponsor.

Nyota Ndogos long standing archenemy, Colonel Mustafa was among those whose opinion was keenly anticipated. The two have a long history of heated exchanges on social media, and Nyota Ndogos wedding provided a sumptuous opportunity for Mustafa to get one over Nyota Ndogo.

However, the Dodoma Singida hitmaker was uncharacteristically full of praise for the newlyweds. He congratulated them and wished them all the best.

Congratulations on your wedding. You both look great together. May Allah pour all his warmth and care on your lovely life ahead, He said.



Perhaps the two have since buried the hatchet since Mustafa found love and changed his controversial ways, which Nyota Ndogo was adamantly against.
Napa Valley wineries have been spruced up and owners will don their best bib and tucker to welcome hundreds of wine collectors and friends of wine to this weekends 36th annual Auction Napa Valley.

Hosted by Napa Valley Vintners, the American Wine Classic celebrates the world-renowned wines, warm hospitality and vineyard backdrop of the nations leading wine region as it raises funds for area nonprofit organizations focused on health and childrens education.

Under the leadership of Agustin F. Huneeus of Quintessa, this years honorary event chair, Auction Napa Valley 2016 kicks off Thursday evening as dozens of Napa Valley vintners welcome bidders and guests into their wineries, vineyards and cellars for casual parties.

The Napa Valley Barrel Auction takes place Friday at the Robert Mondavi Winery, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Attendees will stroll the grounds enjoying more than 100 current release wines and small bites from dozens of Napa Valleys talented chefs. Inside the winery, guests will be able to sample 100 wines from the much-anticipated 2013, 2014 and 2015 vintages directly from the barrel as they bid on single cases of some of Napa Valleys top wines.

New this year is the Big Board Auction, an additional way for attendees to bid on one-of-a-kind Napa Valley wines, experiences and other custom adventures.

On Friday evening, auction guests will disperse around the valley to enjoy intimate dinners at vintner homes and wineries, prepared by many of Napa Valleys renowned chefs.

Saturday kicks off with another new addition to the charity wine event experience, vintner-hosted alfresco parties, including such outdoor activities as bocce and brunch, yoga in the vineyards and plein air art classes.

The centerpiece of Auction Napa Valley, the live auction, begins at 2:30 Saturday afternoon on the fairway at Meadowood Resort with attendees entering a giant white tent an hour later to bid on three dozen spectacular one-of-a-kind lots. The live auction will be followed by dinner on the lawn prepared by South Americas celebrated chef Francis Mallmann and his Meadowood team. Music during dinner will be provided by well-known flamenco guitarist Ottmar Leibert and dancing will take place under the stars to the most recognized post-revolution Cuban musical group, Los Van Van.

Live auction lots include a private dinner for 14 at Press in St. Helena with renowned wine critic Robert Parker Jr., a VIP experience at next years BottleRock Napa Valley with vintners Valerie and Jeff Gargiulo, a 1941 Ford Woody Wagon filled with Rombauer Vineyards wines, dinners in Napa Valley and Pomerol with celebrated winemaker Michel Rolland, a visit with the Antinori family at Tuscan and Napa Valley wine estates and a yacht trip down the Napa River with Pillar Rocks Ron and Teri Kuhn to San Franciscos McCovey Cove to take in a San Francisco Giants game.

The weekend comes to a close with a farewell brunch on Sunday.

Auction Napa Valley proceeds touch the lives of more than 100,000 clients of Napa Valley nonprofits annually. Since the charity wine auctions inception in 1981, the 525-member trade association has invested more than $150 million from Auction Napa Valley proceeds in the areas of community health and childrens education.
Napa County has wrapped up an agreement with the United States Department of Justice to improve local election outreach to voters who speak only Spanish.

One key provision is for Napa to have bilingual poll workers at all polling places and vote-by-mail assistance centers. Another is for the county to provide bilingual voting materials in combined documents, instead of separate materials in English and Spanish.

All of this is to be achieved by the November election. The county and Department of Justice have worked on the agreement for several weeks and the main details had previously been made public.

The agreement said that this resolution will avoid protracted and costly litigation.

The Department of Justice monitored Napa County during the 2014 elections. On April 7 of this year, the agency said in a letter to the county that it intended to file a complaint against the county under the Voters Right Act.

That led Tuteur, Supervisor Alfredo Pedroza and County Counsel Minh Tran to make to a trip to Washington, D.C. for an April 27 meeting with Department of Justice officials. The trio reported on the results of this meeting at the May 24 Board of Supervisors meeting.

The Registrar of Voters, with the full support of the Board of Supervisors, is committed to continuous improvement in outreach to the Spanish language community for all future elections, Tuteur said in a press release issued Wednesday.

If the county fails to comply with the agreement, the terms can be enforced in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Key to entire episode are the 4,510 Napa County residents of Hispanic origin with limited English proficiency as found by the 2010 Census.
Drums banging and cymbals clanging, a group of River Middle School students  plus a Chinese lion  led a parade in front of their classmates Wednesday morning.

The boisterous procession was part of the schools International Festival, a one-day cultural showcase and food fair.

Wearing a cape, African-themed headdress and holding a spear, all handmade, Taluja Hayes, 14, led the march.

I had never led a parade before now, let alone been in one, she said.

Loved it, Hayes added definitively.

This years festival had a special twist. Instead of exploring other cultures as they are today, the students focused on medieval history of specific countries including Japan, China, West Africa and Meso-America.

Carrying a ceremonial knife and spear, Micah Scott, 12, donned replicas of clothing from a medieval West African warrior. Scott said he wanted to look as authentic as possible, demonstrating his cardboard knife and school-safe spear.

One parade participant, Brenden Talbot, 13, held a large drum that he pounded like a medieval Chinese drummer. He likes drumming because of the feeling you get when you hit the right notes, he said.

At a table nearby, Rileigh Erickson, 12, sat with a small group of students who had made Kladdkaka, a Swedish sticky chocolate cake, for other students to try.

The festival shows cultures from around the world, said Erickson. Those cultures are different, but thats what makes it unique.

Passing through a doorway disguised as a portal into medieval times of the African continent, the middle school students were invited to tour exhibits and displays student groups had worked on together.

Welcome to West Africa, cried out one student at the doorway.

Nearby, another student sat in a West African canoe made of cardboard. Inside was a basket of fruit.

Hes carrying fruit back to his village, explained Jose Alfaro, 14. His group chose to research the Niger River, which, according to Alfaro, is the third largest river in Africa and is 4,200 kilometers, or 2,609 miles, long.

Its important to learn about other cultures because it leads to greater involvement in the world, he said.

Social studies teacher Megan Burton said one of the main themes of the festival was What can we learn from civilizations to help society thrive?

An equally important piece of the event was learning how to work in groups, she said.

One such student group created a large diorama of an ancient West African village.

We were interested in how they lived and settled so we decided to take the idea and go for it, said team member Travis Payan, 14.

Its fun to learn about other countries, said Ava Harrold, 13. Asked if she would like to go back in time to see the village, Harrold said she wouldnt mind visiting, but I probably wouldnt want to live there forever.

Parade leader Hayes modeled a collection of West African headdresses she had made for the festival. Made from fabric scraps, and featuring faux gold coins, tassels, trims and other colorful fibers, she encouraged students to model the head wear.

Being a fashion designer is on my list of things to do when I grow up, she said.

It took about two weeks to make the head toppers, with her dads help, she noted.

He deserves some of the credit, too.
On behalf of the Napa Valley Education Foundation and local schools, thank you to the BottleRock organizers for being generous, community-focused leaders. BottleRock Napa Valley donated two tickets to every school in the Napa Valley Unified School District for fundraising purposes.

We have collectively raised more than $38,000 for our local schools through this generous donation. Each NVUSD High School Student of the Month also was awarded with a pass for their hard work. Thank you for your commitment to public education and the community.
Well, this is a new one. Weve heard of singing on top of your lungs, but a Carrie Underwood fan recently sang so hard that it warranted a trip to the hospital. Safe to say, he was blown away by the Ottawa concert, almost literally.

The fan named Bern wrote, Carrie slayed me so hard last friday my lung collapsed. On my way to the hospital now.

Carrie slayed me so hard last friday my lung collapsed. On my way to the hospital now. ?  B (@liveasong4) May 29, 2016

As any good fan would do, he shared a selfie rocking an Oxygen mask.

@CarrieUnderwood SLAYED me so hard in Ottawa. I sang along to every word and my lung flopped. ? #YOLO #LoveHer pic.twitter.com/WIQVTN669i  B (@liveasong4) June 1, 2016

And like the Queen she is, Carrie caught wind of Berns condition and sent her love out on Twitter, thanking him for risking his life to be there.

What the what?! I hope you're alright! It was great to get to see you! Thanks for risking your life to be there! ? https://t.co/KFV28gbjF0  Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) June 1, 2016

Get well soon, Bern! If there was ever a devoted fan contest, we think youd win!
Visiting Berlin on Wednesday (2 June) NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Germany is at the heart of Europe and of the NATO Alliance. Speaking with the media in a joint press conference with Chancellor Merkel, Mr. Stoltenberg said that Germany makes outstanding contributions to NATO operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

You play a major role in our Baltic Air Policing mission, and you also have a lead role in our new high-readiness joint task force, and Germany was key in establishing our presence in the Aegean Sea coping with the migrant and refugee crisis, he said.

The Secretary General welcomed Germanys decision to boost the size of the Bundeswehr, and to increase defence spending. This is a clear demonstration of Germanys leadership, at a time when we are facing the biggest security challenges in a generation, he said.

Mr. Stoltenberg stressed that NATO is responding to a more dangerous and challenging security environment in many different ways. We are responding by increasing the readiness of our forces. And by enhancing our presence in the eastern part of the Alliance, he said.

Speaking about the NATO Warsaw Summit in July, the Secretary General said that NATO will take steps to enhance is forward presence with several reinforced battalions. And I am grateful to Germany because Germany is ready to be a framework nation, a lead nation, for one of these reinforced battalions, he said.

Mr. Stoltenberg said that what NATO does is defensive, it is proportionate and in line with our international commitments. We are strengthening our collective defence not to provoke a conflict but to prevent a conflict. We do not want confrontation with Russia. On the contrary, we strive for a more constructive relationship with Russia. And we keep channels for political dialogue open. Dialogue is even more important when tensions are high, he stressed.

Speaking about threats emanating from the south, the NATO Secretary General said that to protect Alliance territory NATO must also be ready to project stability beyond its borders. Therefore, we are training Iraqi officers in Jordan. We assist Jordan and Tunisia to strengthen their defence capacity. And we stand ready to help the new government in Libya, if so requested, as part of a broader UN led effort, he said.

Mr. Stoltenberg stressed that one of the most effective weapons in the fight against terrorism is to help local forces defend their own countries and to fight terrorism themselves. He commended Germany for its key role in Afghanistan being a lead nation in the north and said that NATO will stay engaged in Afghanistan and we will restate our commitment to Afghanistan at our Warsaw Summit.

The NATO Secretary General also met in Berlin with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, with Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and with members of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committees of the German parliament. He also addressed a meeting at the Koerber Foundation.
(As delivered)

Thank you so much Chancellor Merkel  dear Angela. Let me start by expressing my condolences on the loss of lives in connection with the flooding and express my sympathy to the families who have lost their loved ones.

It is great to be back here in Berlin and to see you again.

And I appreciate our friendship which as you said we have developed over many years, to when we worked together when I was prime minister. And now in my new capacity as Secretary General of NATO.

I thank you for everything you do for our Alliance.

And Germany is at the heart of Europe and at the heart of our Alliance.

And through NATO, you help preserve the peaceful order of Europe.

And that is important for Germany, it is important for Europe, and its important for the whole Alliance.

You make outstanding contributions to our operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo.

You play a major role in our Baltic Air Policing mission, and you also have a lead role in our new high-readiness joint task force, and Germany was key in establishing our presence in the Aegean Sea coping with the migrant and refugee crisis.

And I very much welcome your decision to boost the size of the Bundeswehr. And also your commitment to increase defence spending.

This is a clear demonstration of Germanys leadership, at a time when we are facing the biggest security challenges in a generation.

A more assertive Russia to the east.

And turmoil and violence in the Middle East and North Africa.

NATO is responding to this more dangerous and more challenging security environment.

We are responding in many different ways. We are responding by increasing the readiness of our forces. And by enhancing our presence in the eastern part of the Alliance.

At the Warsaw Summit, we will take steps to enhance our forward presence.

With several reinforced battalions in the Eastern part of our Alliance.

And I am grateful to Germany because Germany is ready to be a framework nation, a lead nation, for one of these reinforced battalions.

What NATO does is defensive, it is proportionate and in line with our international commitments.

We are strengthening our collective defence not to provoke a conflict but to prevent a conflict. We do not want confrontation with Russia. On the contrary, we strive for a more constructive relationship with Russia.

And we keep channels for political dialogue open. Dialogue is even more important when tensions are high.

To protect our own territory, we must also be ready to project stability beyond our own borders.

Therefore, we are training Iraqi officers in Jordan. We assist Jordan and Tunisia to strengthen their defence capacity. And we stand ready to help the new government in Libya, if so requested, as part of a broader UN led effort.

I welcome very much Germanys leadership in responding to the refugee and migrant crisis.

I recently visited the German flagship of NATOs deployment in the Aegean, and I was very impressed.We have seen a substantial reduction in the numbers of crossings due to the broad international effort which NATO is a part of.

We agreed that NATO can and should do more in responding to the challenges emanating from the south.

We are now discussing what more we can do to enhance our training of Iraqi officers and soldiers.

And we are looking into how we can extend our maritime security activity in the Mediterranean.

Because one of the most effective weapons we have in the fight against terrorism is to help local forces defend their own countries and to fight terrorism themselves.

And that is exactly what we do in Afghanistan where we train, advise and assist national security forces. And I commend Germany for its key role in Afghanistan being a lead nation in the north. NATO will stay engaged in Afghanistan and we will restate our commitment to Afghanistan at our Warsaw Summit.

In dealing with all these challenges, it is important that we step up our cooperation with the EU.

And I know that we are now preparing for a very ambitious agenda at the Warsaw Summit.

And I look forward to work with you approaching the Summit and addressing the many different challenges we face together in the North Atlantic Alliance.

Thank you.

Q: The question is for Chancellor Merkel. You were an ambassador for Stoltenberg to have this job as Secretary General; you call him a close friend. Now some time after hes started this job how would you say hes performing his job? Is he living up to your expectations? Thank you.

ANGELA MERKEL (German Chancellor): [through interpretation] I must say that Im never someone who would rate somebody else or give him some kind of, lets say, grade him as it were but Ive always been a very close collaborator with him when he was Prime Minister. We worked together very well and Im very much, Im very happy that I can work together with him as Secretary General and I think he has a steady hand at the rudder and I think the NATO is very happy to have him as Secretary General.

Q: [Through interpretation] Secretary General, Im over here, Secretary General could you please perhaps characterize yet again the relationship that the alliance has with Russia. That is to say are the NATO member states in a new cold war with Russia? How would you describe the current state of affairs? And addressed to Chancellor Merkel, today the Bundestag took a vote on the Armenia Resolution. I would be interested whether this in 2016 is right to do so? There have been fast reactions from Turkey, what do you think does mean for the future of the German Turkish relationship?

JENS STOLTENBERG (NATO Secretary General): We are not in a new cold war but we are neither in the strategic partnership we tried to develop with Russia after the end of the Cold War. What we see is a more assertive Russia, we dont see any imminent threat against any NATO ally but we see a Russia which over a long period of time has invested heavily in defence capabilities, in modernizing their armed forces and we have seen a Russia which has been willing to use military force to change borders in Europe for the first time since the end of the Second World War with the illegal annexation of Crimea. And therefore NATO has to respond and thats exactly what we are doing and we are responding partly be implementing the biggest reinforcement to our collective defence since the end of the Cold War both with increased readiness and preparedness of our forces. We have tripled the size of the NATO Response Force, being able to deploy and to reinforce if needed on very short notice and were also increasing our presence in the eastern part of the alliance and Germanys playing a key role both when it comes to high readiness and when it comes to enhanced forward presence of NATO troops in the eastern part of the alliance. Our message is that we dont seek confrontation with Russia; we dont want a new arms race. So therefore we are combining the message of collective defence with a very strong message about that we want dialogue, we want to keep the channels for political contact open with Russia and we continue to strive for a more cooperative and constructive relationship with Russia. We dont believe there is a contradiction between defence and dialogue, actually we believe that we have, as long as we have a strong defence, as long as we have credible deterrence then we can also engage in political dialogue with Russia aiming at improving the relationship with our neighbour.

ANGELA MERKEL: [through interpretation] As to the vote that is to be taken in the German Bundestag I would like to underline and to this particularly in the presence of the NATO Secretary General that Turkey and Germany are linked by a number of interests and although we may disagree on certain issues we have a relationship that has a very broad base, a very broad spectrum also where we have common interests starting from defence issues all the way to after all the 3 million citizens who live here in Germany that are of Turkish origin. And I and the whole of my government would like to contribute to a situation where if we look back over history a hundred and one years that we would want to foster dialogue between Turkey and Armenia. We want to do everything possible so that partners may also discuss how we can we come to grips with our common history and we want to nurture the relationship with our Turkish neighbours and also with our, those citizens that are part of our country and that are of Turkish origin. And part of a democratic culture obviously is also that you dont always agree that you sometimes disagree on certain issues.

Q: [Through interpretation] Madam Chancellor, Jenny Hill from the BBC. A short question in English. Leaders have now publicly signalled that if Britain decides to leave the EU theyll be in no hurry to help it renegotiate its relationship, its rights within Europe, for example access to the single market. What in your view are the implications of a Brexit for Britain and for Europe? And if Britain decides to leave what will you do to stop other countries following suit?

ANGELA MERKEL: [through interpretation] Well first of all obviously it is up to the citizens of the United Kingdom themselves how they wish to vote on the upcoming referendum. Ive said repeatedly before that I personally would hope and wish for the United Kingdom to stay part and parcel of the European Union. Why do you I wish for that? Well because we work well together with the European, with the United Kingdom, particularly when we talk about perhaps new rules for the European Union we have to develop those together with the United Kingdom and whenever we negotiate that you can much better have an influence on the debate when you sit at the bargaining table and you can put, give input to those negotiations and the result will then invariably be better when you have that rather than being outside of the room. And there is something else secondly that makes us so strong in the European Union namely the single market. On the single market the cooperation between us and the UK and that goes for all of my predecessors in this office has always been very good and the single market has to be continued to develop. For example in the digital era. In my experience over the past few years you will never get a really good result in negotiations, particularly on very important issues, when youre not in the room and giving input to the discussion as it were. With somebody who comes from outside, I mean weve had a lot of discussions, a lot of debates, a lot of negotiations also with other countries and we will never be able to reach the same good results, the same quality of results and the same quality of a compromise if not each and every one is in on this and if you dont share also the cost of the single market. Now these negotiations are very important for the United Kingdome and for all of us and I think not one individual country on its own is able to bring about good results, it would be not only in our interests but it could also be in the interest of Britain when it can bring its whole political weight to the negotiating table as part and parcel of the European Union and as I see it will be a qualitative step forward for the people in Britain as it will be for us in the European Union. But obviously I dont want to give rise to any misunderstandings, the people in Britain are the ones who have a say here, who are the ones to decide. We think that this is something if they stay with us that would bring British interests much better to bear than any other process.

Q: [Through interpretation] Christina Dunst (sp?) from the German Press Agency. Secretary General what sort of problems do you see for military alliance if you look at the fact that the NATO partners Germany and Turkey have a relationship right now that is fraught with certain problems? And also on the Armenia vote the Turkish President spoke of a real and I think the Prime Minister spoke of a test of confidence. And Madam Chancellor - yesterday the compromise particularly on renewables and electricity generated by renewables, is that a true compromise between you and Mr Seehofer and do you think theres going to be a compromise on the inheritance tax as well?

JENS STOLTENBERG: Turkey is the NATO ally most affected by the turmoil, the violence, the killing in its neighbouring countries, Iraq and Syria and there are close to 3 million refugees in Turkey and they host them and they are in many ways directly affected by the crisis we see in the south, Iraq and Syria. They have also suffered several terrorist attacks and there has been several shellings, attacks coming from Syria against civilians in Turkey. So I think we have to understand that Turkey has been under pressure and that Turkey plays a key role in our joint efforts to fight ISIL because we use air bases, infrastructure in Turkey when the U.S. led coalition and many NATO allies contribute in the efforts to degrade and destroy ISIL both in Iraq and Syria. At the same time NATO is based on some core values, on democracy, on individual liberty, on the rule of law and I attach personally a very strong importance to those values and thats something I very often express and those values are important for the unity and the strength of our alliance. When it comes to Armenia I would like to remind you on the following and that is that Turkey is a NATO ally, Armenia is a valued partner of NATO. Meaning that the vote which has taken place in the German Parliament today is not an issue where NATO is in any way involved. I hope strongly that we can see a normalization of the relationship between Turkey and Armenia as early as possible and I think that it is important that we all support efforts to try to reduce tensions and avoid any kind of escalation of conflicts and problems between nations.

ANGELA MERKEL: [through interpretation] Well you know that in the coalition our goal is to see to it that the issues that are on the agenda are solved together and actually coming to an agreement on the Renewable Energy Act is something that is most important because we have to decide this in the cabinet, we have to bring this before the Bundestag and then it has to be agreed on by the European Union because the current act on renewables will expire by the end of this year and we need clarity for all of those who wish to invest in this particular branch of industry. Yesterday in the Coalition Committee we made a further important step forward as regards for example the question of an integration and support for inclusion and there were going to launch an initiative which sees to it that handicapped people no longer have to ask for alms as it were but it is being respected and rewarded what they have been actually able to do despite their handicaps in their professional life. On inheritance tax it was clear that we would not come to an agreement but these talks are being continued, its a complicated and complex procedure and as, just as on the disparity of wages between men and women and so its an ongoing process and here the coalition partners are in agreement. Thank you.
India fines Google for $113 million

Biden says Russia would make 'serious mistake' if it deploys tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine

Romania plans to intensify talks on Black Sea and military purchases

Karekin II and Aram I refuse to participate in World Armenian Forum

IMF Director: Ukraine's need for external financing could reach $5 billion month

Turkey continues to beat out gas discount from Russia and payment deferral from Gazprom

Alen Simonyan refuses to participate in fifth meeting of Russian-Armenian Lazarev Club

UN Security Council to meet at Russia's request over accusations that Iran is supplying drones to Russia

Leading Wall Street bankers warn of recession in US and Europe

Armenian FM tells Vatican secretary of state about Azerbaijani aggression

Secretary of Armenian Security Council holds telephone conversation with Biden's aide

IEA head: World still needs Russian oil to flow into the market

Norwegian police arrest man on suspicion of spying for Russia

Ambassador-at-Large meets with Personal Representative of OSCE Chairman-in-Office

EU to offer banks to offer mandatory instant payments in euros

Ambassador: Active efforts of Armenian authorities are registering regress in Armenian-Russian relations

Saudi minister: Saudi Arabia and US will overcome unjustified spat

Zatulin: My ban on entering Armenia coincides with trilateral meeting planned in Russia

Rishi Sunak vows to fix 'mistakes' of Liz Truss

MFA comments on information about meeting of special envoys of Armenia and Turkey

Daily Sabah: Armenian, Turkish special representatives next meeting planned in Turkey

The Telegraph: US President Biden mispronounces Rishi Sunak's name

Zelenskyy proposes creating platforms for the 'de-occupation' of Transnistria and Abkhazia

'Armenia' bloc deputy: Nikol Pashinyan and Suren Papikyan are lying

Dollar falls, euro rises

Stanislav Zass discusses with Lavrov situation in CSTO zone of responsibility

New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife are richer than royalty

Klaar: EU actively engaged in Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process at all levels

Nissan reveals updated Juke crossover

FM briefs Sovereign Order of Malta Grand Chancellor on Armenia position on normalizing relations with Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan prepares for peace with Armenia but dramatically increases military budget

North Korea completes preparations for nuclear test

Azerbaijan manipulates facts, creates information pretext to encroach on Lachin corridor

Azerbaijan military aggression against Armenia is discussed at Francophonie Parliamentary Assembly conference (PHOTOS)

Peskov says details of gas hub with Turkey were being worked out

Konstantin Zatulin on ban on his entry into Armenia: I see it as insulting move

Putin's spokesman says building wall on Russian-EU borders is nonsense

Turkey begins its part of work on gas hub agreement with Russia

Kremlin responds to Macron's appeal to Pope to negotiate with Putin

Millliyet: Turkish and Finnish delegations hold talks on NATO membership in Ankara

Zelenskiy: Ukraine receives not 'a single cent' on $17 billion rapid recovery plan

Rishi Sunak takes office as Prime Minister of Great Britain

Indonesian armed woman tries to break into presidential palace

Pashinyan's family newspaper writes that Konstantin Zatulin is forbidden to enter Armenia from now on

President Raisi accuses U.S. of information terrorism, organizing riots in Iran

AraratBank and 4090 Charity Foundation team up for the education of war participants

Ursula von der Leyen: EU to provide Kyiv with 1 billion for urgent restoration of energy supply

World Bank to provide Armenia with EUR 22.6 million of additional credit funds

Macron asks Pope to call Putin to solve Ukraine crisis

PM: Azerbaijan hinders search of Armenian soldiers' bodies in occupied territories

German president assures Ukraine of his full support

Armenia ruling force MP: Major powers have told us You should sign that agreement by the end of the year

WSJ: Saudi Prince Bin Salman mocks Biden in private talks

OSCE needs assessment mission is briefed on situation in Armenias Jermuk after Azerbaijan military aggression (PHOTOS)

Armenias Pashinyan to Kazakhstans Tokayev: Mutually beneficial cooperation corresponds to our countries interests

Driver, 41, dies in hospital 2 days after Armenia car accident

US: Former student opens fire at school

Turkish Finance Minister says he would seek gas discount from Gazprom

US State Dept.: We are interested in seeing stable Caucasus where we work both with Armenia and Azerbaijan

US plans to allocate $25M to project to strengthen Armenia economy

Copper prices decline

Armenia premier: Italy is friendly country, important partner for us

Pashinyan to Xi: We will succeed in qualitatively raising Armenian-Chinese political dialogue to new level

World Bank allocates Ukraine additional $500 million

Zelenskyy: If Moscow says Ukraine is making dirty bomb, then Russia made it

Newspaper: Anti-CSTO consolidation initiative group of Armenia sends petition to parliament speaker

World oil prices going up

Newspaper: Armenia PM forbids political teammates to say anything about Karabakh

Azerbaijan opens fire at Armenia positions

Largest cruise liner in world 'Icon of the Seas' presented

U.S. police officers mistake pet cat for mountain lion

Joe Biden gets another Covid-19 booster shot

US imposes sanctions on Nicaragua's gold mining industry

Kremlin says Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents prepare to meet

Leading Party Sponsor: Conservative Party is not fit to run Britain

'From Old Memory': Drivers can't see road signs on section of North-South highway under construction in Yerevan

Russian MFA: We are sure that attempts of external forces to split Moscow and Yerevan will not succeed

Yair Lapid: Israel is deeply concerned over Russia and Iran's military ties

Another school shooting in U.S.: 3 dead, including shooter

Azerbaijani Armed Forces shell Armenian positions

Kenyan police shoot and kill prominent Pakistani journalist

OSCE representatives visit villages affected by Azerbaijani aggression in Syunik Province

US presidential adviser calls OPEC's decision to cut oil production political move

Lavrov: Russia and Iran gave comprehensive answers about alleged use of Iranian drones

Netanyahu's comeback dominates Israel's elections

Georgian president complains that she was not informed about Aliyev's visit

S&P Global Market Intelligence: Recession in Eurozone looks increasingly inevitable

Benny Gantz tells his Ukrainian colleague that Israel will not supply weapons to Kiev

Greek Armed Forces can effectively respond to any provocation by Turkey

Qatar urges to depoliticize oil and gas

General Staff of Armed Forces head discusses Ukraine with his British colleague

Zelenskyy: Russia wouldn't cooperate militarily with Iran if Israel had not denied air defense systems to Kyiv

Azerbaijan sends note in connection with 'anti-Azerbaijani statements' on Channel One

Goldman Sachs foretells European business worst year since global financial crisis

Artificial intelligence leads political party in Denmark

Aliyev says Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route should be increased

U.S. State Department official expresses support for Armenia's sovereignty

Iranian MFA: IRGC exercises on borders with Azerbaijan are not directed against any neighboring state

Pashinyan: Damage caused to country by corruption must be restored

Rishi Sunak to become UK PM
The EU calls into question the rule of law in Poland and threatens to impose sanctions on the country, Gazeta reported quoting Financial Times.

As it is reported, the European Commission accuses the Polish government of a controversial reform of the national Constitutional Court which is anti-democratic and constitutes a systemic treat to the rule of law in the country.

FT writes that the European Commission issued a formal warning to the Polish authorities on Wednesday. However, they, in turn, do not intend to concede.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo stated that the opinion of the EU has no influence on the decisions to be adopted in Poland. This is a problem of Poland, and they should solve it.

According to the edition if the warnings have no result, the European Commission can impose sanctions against Poland in the form of a penalty or deprivation of a vote under new laws of the EU.

As it is noted, this is the first case in the history of the block when the European Union accuses its member state of undermining democracy. The conflict not only damaged relations between Warsaw and Brussels, but also questioned the EU's right to require legislative changes in sovereign member states.
GLENDALE.  The Armenian National Committee of America  Western Region on Wednesday endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as the Democratic candidate in the California presidential primary to be held on June 7.

The ANCA-WR believes that Sanders is best positioned to advance foreign policies and international humanitarian principles supported by Californias Armenian-American electorate.

The Armenian National Committee of America- Western Region is proud to endorse Bernie Sanders in Californias June 7thDemocratic presidential primary as the only candidate with a proven record of consistent and strong support for issues that advance the Armenian Cause, said ANCA-WR Chairwoman Nora Hovsepian.

As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1991-2007) and U.S. Senate (2008-present), Bernie Sanders has supported Armenian Genocide legislation, Section 907 restrictions on U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan, and efforts to secure Turkeys return of confiscated Armenian and other Christian Churches.

As senator and later a presidential candidate in 2008, Clinton supported Armenian-American concerns, including her pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide. However, as Secretary of State, Clinton reneged on her promises and advanced an agenda through which she called the US recognition of the Armenian Genocide a door that is a very dangerous one to go through saying that it was a matter of historical debate rather than a political decision.

This stood in stark contrast to her pledge as a presidential candidate in 2008 when she unequivocally said: I believe the horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians constitute a clear case of genocide. In her book, Hard Choices Clinton characterized the Genocide issue as an emotionally charged conflict between Turkey and Armenia.

Immediately after assuming office as secretary of state, Clinton zealously shepherded the dangerous Armenia-Turkey protocols that posed a threat to Armenias national security. Her approach to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and her failure to properly condemn Azerbaijans military advances and rhetoric, further complicated the fragile peace process and resulted in loss of military and civilian lives in Artsakh.

In assessing the protocols process, as well as her worldview in the region, it is clear that Clintons motivations were to advance Azerbaijans oil interests over concerns for justice and human rights.

Based upon Bernie Sanders positive legislative record, and in comparison to Hillary Clintons troubling opposition to Armenian-American issues as Secretary of State, it is our view that he would, as President, be more supportive of our communitys foreign policy priorities, explained Hovsepian.
Armenian News-NEWS.am introduces the complete text of the resolution on the Armenian Genocide adopted by the German Bundestag.

"In the memory the Armenians and other Christians Genocide in the Ottoman Empire 101 years ago.

The Bundestag bows to the Armenians and other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire who were forcefully displaced and massacred 101 years ago.

The Bundestag condemns the actions of the Young Turks' Government that resulted in almost a complete extermination of the Armenians who had lived in the Ottoman Empire. Other Christian minorities - Assyrians , Chaldeans  fell victims to the pogroms as well.

Based on the decree of the Young Turks government on April 24 of 1915 there began planned exiles and massacres of more than 1 million Armenians of the Ottoman Constantinople. The 20th century is marked with horrible fate of those people. Their fate is an example of mass deportations, ethnic, expulsions and , of course , a Genocide (Volkermord). At the same time, we realize the distinct features of the Holocaust, for which Germany bears its guilt and responsibility.

The Bundestag recognizes the historical responsibility of Germany [in the Genocide of the Armenians].

The Bundestag honors not only the martyrs who fell victims to the incredibly brutal crime but also those who more than 100 years ago in that difficult situation opposed their government to save the Armenian women, children, and men.

The Bundestag calls on the Federal Government to pay attention to the remembrance ceremony of the victims of the massacres and deportations that took place in 1915.

Thus, the Bundestag calls on the Federal Government

- to continue further public discussions about mass deportations and exterminations of the Armenians in 1915 - 1916 as well as about the responsibility of the German Reich in that horrible event, in the spirit of the debates that took place in the Bundestag on April 24 of 2015 on the occasion of the 100th centennial of the Armenian Genocide;

- to stimulate the Turkish side to face the expulsions and massacre perpetuated during that period and, thereby, lay the foundation for the necessary reconciliation with the Armenian side;

- to continue promoting reconciliation between the Armenians and the Turks , which should take place by reviewing the past, restoring relationships , and apologizing for the historical guilt;

- to continue undertaking scientific , civic, and cultural events in Turkey and Armenia;

- to re-evaluate the historical events , by means of which Armenia and Turkey will make the first step towards reconciliation; to support the settlement of the overdue matured Armenian - Turkish relationships;

- to stimulate the governments of Turkey and Armenia to restore stagnated inter-governmental relations;

-to make efforts in the matter of ratification the Zurich protocols of 2009 by the Turkish and the Armenian governments that envisage to create a commission of scholars to restore diplomatic relations and open borders;

- to stimulate Turkey to continue contributing to the preservation of the Armenian monuments in Turkey and intensify that process;

- to continue supporting research, cultural projects, and initiatives in Germany concerning the events of 1915-1916 as far as the financial means allow.
YEREVAN. - The customs value of one and the same product must be determined identically and without privileges for all the economic entities, Armenian Economy Minister Artsvik Minasyan told journalists at a briefing Thursday.

In his words, in a number of cases the so-called fourth method of value determination (out of the six possible methods), known among the business circles as reference price, is applied.

According to the Minister, the aforementioned method should be applied similarly for identical goods for everyone and there should be no discrimination based on the economic entity and goods.

To the question whether it is possible to publish the lists of reference prices, which the customs service applies for certain goods, Minasyan noted that they are changed not only depending on separate goods, but also during time. It might be difficult to publish such a great number of data. But the methodology of price determination will definitely be published, he assured.

Reference prices should be used in the customs when the invoice is absent or invalid (including when the supplier is unreliable). The businessmen are dissatisfied with the fact that these prices are as a rule higher than the actual market ones, as a result of which the customs clearance of the goods gets more expensive.
YEREVAN. - So far the European Investment Bank has been involved in infrastructure projects in Armenia, now its going to expand into private sector, Mr Heinz Olbers, Director of the Eastern Neighbors and Central Asia Department at the European Investment Bank, told journalists at the conference entitled Assistance to Innovations in Armenia, co-organized by the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, the EIB and the state-run Armenia Development Fund.

So far we have mainly focused on infrastructure projects - transport and energy, for example. And in the future this program will allow us to focus also on private sector, targeting enterprises with good potential, he said.

Armenia has a sound record of good finance management. Right now the country has few challenges, so the bank has come at the right time for support, he added.

New investment facilities will be available through Horizon 2020, a program which Armenia joined on May 19, signing an agreement with the European Commission.

This program allows to access a large pool of finance for Armenian innovators. This does not necessarily mean that money is on demand there, but able and financially viable innovators can get their share of funding, Mr Vache Gabrielyan, Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia, noted.

To remind, he total capacity of Horizon 2020 is 80 bln euro.
The cashpoints will serve the small business thrice cheaper, Deputy Minister of Armenian State Revenue Committee (SRC) Vakhtang Mirumyan told journalists Thursday. This is new generation equipment, he added.

All the economic entities using cashpoints have so far paid 3600 AMD per month for their service. Currently these services will also be provided by Bureau on Introduction of Cashpoints non-profit State Organization.

The service to small business (with less than 115 mln AMD turnover per year) in cities will be thrice cheaper, namely 1 200 AMD. While in the villages it will be four times cheaper, amounting to 900 AMD. The service will be free in border settlements.

The payment will remain 3600 AMD for large economic entities (with turnover exceeding 500 mln AMD per year) with the purpose of subsidizing the tariffs of small economic entities.

Under the acting legislation, the new generation cashpoints (with Internet connection) must replace the old ones starting from 1 January 2017.
Recovered debris of the EgyptAir jet that crashed in the Mediterranean Sea is seen in this image released May 21, 2016 by Egypt's military. [Photo/Agencies]

CAIRO/PARIS -- A French search vessel has picked up signals from one of the black boxes of EgyptAir flightMS804, Egyptian and French investigators said, a potential breakthrough in efforts to uncover why it plummeted into the Mediterranean last month.

Search teams are working against the clock to recover the two flight recorders that will offer vital clues to the fate of the plane that crashed en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19killing all 66 people on board.

Without the black boxes, say investigators and aviation disaster experts, there is not enough information to determine what went wrong or whether the plane was brought down deliberately.

The recorders are designed to emit acoustic signals for 30 days after a crash, giving search teams fewer than three weeks to spot them in waters up to 9,840-feet (3,000 meters) deep, which is on the edge of their range.

The Egyptian investigation committee said on Wednesday that the search was intensifying ahead of the arrival of another vessel, the John Lethbridge, from Mauritius-based company Deep Ocean Search to help retrieve the devices. That ship is expected to arrive within a week, it said.

"Search equipment aboard French naval vessel Laplace ... has detected signals from the seabed of the search area, which likely belong to one of the data boxes," the Egyptian committee said in its statement.

France's aviation accident bureau BEA confirmed that the signal had come from one of the recorders.

The Laplace has equipment from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, which can pick up black box pinger signals over long distances up to 5 km (3 miles) and was contracted by the Egyptian investigators last week.

Egyptian investigators have said that the EgyptAir plane did not show any technical problems before taking off and the pilot made no distress call to air traffic control.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the crash.

The jet transmitted a series of messages in the minutes before it crashed showing a rise in temperature at the co-pilot's window and smoke on board, but investigators say these shed little light on the cause.

There are also conflicting reports of the plane's last moments as it crossed from Greek to Egyptian airspace.

The head of Egypt's air navigation has told Reuters the plane disappeared suddenly from the radar while at a cruising altitude of about 37,000 feet.

That conflicts with the account given on the day of the crash by the Greek defence minister, who said the plane swerved and dropped to 15,000 feet before disappearing from radar.

The air disaster is the latest in a series for Egypt, complicating its efforts to restore tourism, which has suffered since the 2011 uprising ushered in a period of instability.

In March, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked an EgyptAir flight. In late October, a Russian plane carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort crashed in Sinai.

Islamic State said it downed the plane with a bomb. Britain and Russia suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh pending improvements to security.
written by Thomas Kohnstamm Making the Internet of Things everybodys thing There are some 10 billion hardware devices connected to the Internet today. By 2020, this Internet of Things will power over 50 billion connected cars, dog collars, toothbrushes and pretty much anything else you can imagine. But while its now easier than ever for people to use or even create new software, innovative hardware design has remained a distant frontier, accessible only to trained engineers and the most diehard of soldering gun-slinging hobbyists. As connected devices march toward ubiquity, a small vanguard of technologists, like Joachim Horn, founder of London-based startup SAM Labs, is working to democratize their future. Horn contends that it will take creators with a greater range of diverse perspectives to realize the full potential of the Internet of Things. His goal is to put the future of the Internet of Things in more peoples hands  literally. SAM Labs construction kits consist of wireless building blocks that empower budding inventors, from seven-year-olds to seniors, to create just about anything they can imagine. Were making every piece of tech into a plaything, said Horn from the SAM Labs offices in London. Not only are there no wires, but there are no circuit boards or coding. You turn it on and start creating. Were leveling the playing field to empower kids, designers, startups or anyone else who wants to build an Internet of Things device and never thought they could.

In many ways, Horn has been preparing to create SAM Labs for a decade or more. I always saw technology as an amazing enabler to creativity, he said. As a high school student, he built theater stage components that lit up in reaction to audience response. He also taught youth groups how to build basic electronics, such as a rainwater tank that notified homeowners when it was full. At Imperial College in London, Horn found that university-level engineers were narrowly focused on problems of optimization and variables. Only after collaborating with an electronics engineer and a biomedical engineer to design and produce a gaming platform to help children with cerebral palsy did Horns vision start to crystalize. Its not just non-techies who benefit from simplification of engineering processes. Engineers also learn from an infusion of outside perspectives, he said.

Horn created the Imperial College Design Collective to bring together engineers, designers and others from a broad variety of backgrounds. He said, Engineers need to incorporate human-oriented design into every aspect of their work. That helps them to apply their skills across areas and stay creative for their entire careers. After graduation, Horn helped to bring design into the engineering department at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. That design track still exists and has contributed to the creation of technologies used in the ongoing cleanup of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The experience gave momentum to Horns vision and inspired him to try to apply it beyond the university setting. He headed back to rainy London with a bright idea. There, Horn founded SAM Labs (named for his brother Sam), aiming to make electronics simple enough for anyone to be creative with them or use in an educational way. We wanted to remove all entry barriers. London was a natural home base. Horn had many contacts there from the design collective, and calls the city the heart of an amazing mix of hackers, universities, grass-roots technologists, designers, artists  and, of course, its one of the worlds great financial centers. He organized a core team that put their heads together, participated in a few hackathons and, by March of 2014, SAM Labs had their first prototype.

You turn it on and start creating. Were leveling the playing field to empower kids, designers, startups or anyone else who wants to build an Internet of Things device and never thought they could.

The small, sleek blocks contained in each SAM Labs kit communicate with each other via Bluetooth Low Energy. There are a variety of blocks including buttons, lights, sliders, servos, motors, and tilt and temperature sensors. The SAM Labs software is an intuitive app that visually represents the physical blocks on the screen and allows users to drag and drop simple lines to connect them  no programming experience required. Users can find ideas and inspiration from online tutorials and a community page that showcases devices created by others. They can also learn how to connect SAM blocks to third-party apps and the Internet. More experienced users are able to go beyond the simple drag-and-drop commands and write their own JavaScript code to take their inventions to the next level. The blocks can be used to build anything from small robots that teach about AI, to wireless cars that dodge obstacles, to bicycle jackets that signal upcoming turns, Horn said. And its all easily programmed with the SAM app." In a TED Talk, Horn likened the blocks to cooking ingredients  except these building blocks are the fundamental ingredients needed to cook up any Internet of Things device. The kit also has potential as a fun, interactive tool to teach both STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and STEAM (STEM + Art) in the classroom. SAM Labs wireless building blocks are elegant and functional in equal measure. SAM Labs wireless building blocks are elegant and functional in equal measure.

Once they had the prototype, Horn and company started knocking on doors. They visited such universities as the Royal College of Art and received positive feedback. People were validating their idea  but SAM Labs ambitious vision still required scale, business development and tech infrastructure. By chance, Horn walked by an innovation event at Imperial College and met a representative from the Microsoft Accelerator in London. Horn built an immediate rapport with the accelerator team. They described an environment of best-practice sharing among fast-growing startups. It felt like a breath of fresh air, he said. Id been alone with my idea for so long and was excited to hear about a place to go and be amongst other people who were in similar situations. "We want people to express themselves in a creative, almost musical way, said Joachim Horn. SAM Labs applied to the Microsoft Accelerator London in June of 2014. Horn said, I was stressed, because Internet of Things was a new-ish concept. Honestly, I didnt know if theyd go for it or not. They did. Aya Zook, one of the Microsoft Accelerator leads, remembered, We decided SAM Labs would be a compelling addition to our accelerator, as they have a great product, but they are also the whole package of where we feel tech should be going: touching lives, teaching and bringing more people into the conversation. Horn was impressed from day one that the relationship with the accelerator was based on mutual respect and learning together. They got what we were trying to do, where we were coming from and where we wanted to go, he said. They were able to really help us to tailor our message and position ourselves for an external audience. SAM Labs spread the word about their work at a Maker Faire event and through a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign stood out for its clear timeline for product development and delivery. It surpassed the fundraising target in 72 hours and went on to more than double the initial amount, earning over $200,000. Our accelerators use a non-dilution model, where were more interested in becoming a stakeholder, not a shareholder, while the startups build, grow and scale to maturity, said Zook. Were really thinking about their role in the tech world. Were increasingly platform agnostic, and dynamic people like Joachim are the face of the entrepreneurs we want to grow with. Theyre helping us fulfill our vision too. SAM Labs peer group in the accelerator included startups building apps for calendars, parking spaces and product photography. Horn sees being in a cohort of startups as one of the greatest advantages of participating in an accelerator. He still calls on those colleagues all the time, and feels that he can safely discuss ideas and share feedback. In the end, success is a team sport, said Horn. Most innovations occur from teams of like-minded people talking, exchanging ideas and working toward the same vision. Within an accelerator you have that coping mechanism, a peer group that helps everyone to grow.

Success is a team sport.

After the accelerator, SAM Labs was asked to do a collaboration with the London Science Museum. They created a four-piece SAM Science Museum Inventor kit  the startups first retail product. The kit found its way into hundreds of classrooms across the U.K. and drew substantial interest from the U.K. government and press. Soon SAM Labs was selling the kits directly to consumers from their website, Amazon and selected retail outlets including the Science Museum, Selfridges department store and the Conran Shop. SAM Labs kits are now used in schools across Europe. Students, without any prior coding experience, have built their own inventions, from self-driving rovers to wireless alarm systems. Today, the startups 20 employees are based in an office at Londons Lime Wharf. They host special workshops for schools, families, inventors and artists at their offices, sharing the message that anyone with a good idea can make innovations and inventions happen.

Lounging outside of SAM Labs headquarters in Lime Wharf. Lounging outside of SAM Labs headquarters in Lime Wharf.
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Given the ongoing inclement weather in the region, the Indian embassy in Kathmandu on Thursday advised Indian pilgrims undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to avoid the Nepal route. A large number of Indian citizens have been going under own private arrangement for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nepalgunj-Simikot-Hilsa, the embassy advisory said. It has been noticed that a number of them are facing logistical problems in Hilsa and Simikot primarily on account of bad weather, which prevents regular evacuations from Hilsa to Simikot by helicopter and Simikot to Nepalgunj by fixed-wing aircraft, it stated. The advisory also said that the embassy in cooperation with the Nepal government and tour operators was making all possible arrangements for timely evacuation of pilgrims from Hilsa to Simikot and from Simikot to Nepalgunj. However, inclement weather conditions are impeding regular air services, thereby causing difficulties for the stranded passengers at Hilsa and Simikot, the advisory said. Since weather conditions are expected to deteriorate in the weeks to come, Indian citizens are advised to avoid the Nepalgunj-Simikot-Hilsa route. Addressing his weekly media briefing here on Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the first secretary in the Indian embassy in Kathmandu has visited Hilsa and Simikot and coordinated with the Nepalese authorities. More than 400 stranded yatris have already been brought to Surkhet and Nepalgunj, Swarup said. As of now, there are no bottlenecks on this route. The spokesperson said that the Ministry of Tourism has also been requested to advise tour operators in India not to overbook and to correctly brief pilgrims on the facilities available. --IANS ab/vt ( 279 Words) 2016-06-02-20:42:03 (IANS)
Describing India as a major emerging economy that is gaining heightened prominence on the world stage, Australia's High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, said Wednesday that it is pleasing to see the bilateral relationship between New Delhi and Australia in such good shape. "The texture of the bilateral relationship has become much richer than it once was. Some have described it as having reached 'a high watermark'. "Almost half a million, out of a total Australian population of 24 million, are of Indian origin. There are 53,000 Indian students studying in Australia today, our second largest source of overseas students. And 233,000 Indians visited Australia in 2015, making India our eighth largest source of visitors. There is an increasing network of collaborative work and other links between our universities and other institutions. And, commercial ties have developed significantly," Sidhu said. "Trade and investment between Australia and India now spans a wide range of industries, products and services - from mineral and energy commodities, to sophisticated manufactured goods; from large-scale business services and skills training, to niche products in many different sectors. But, on the economic front, I have to say there is also a lot of unfulfilled potential in the relationship too," she added. One comparison that a number of observers have made is that, while Australia's two-way trade with India is at A$18 billion, it is barely more than one-tenth of our two way trade with China, which stands at A$150 billion. And investment, too - in both directions - is well below what it could, and perhaps should, be. Sidhu said leaderships of both countries have given a commitment in 2014 to reinvigorate negotiations on the Australia-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). She said that the opening of the two economies would have to be visualized through three broad themes: First, Explore perspectives on the relationship between trade liberalization and economic development Second, Look at the different types of 'trade architecture' which help both move collaboratively toward trade reform And third, Survey current developments in regional trade agreements and consider where these, as well as bilateral endeavours such as the CECA could take both nations. On the first theme, Sidhu said, "Australia has fared best when we have allocated our productive resources to the things we do best, using part of the income from these to import things we are relatively less efficient at producing." "India, of course, has a much larger population. And there is a view in some quarters that this means India can satisfy its growth requirements through its large domestic market. But I think India would be selling itself well short were it to take this stance. We can look at China, a country of similar dimensions to India, to see an example of the enormous contribution that international trade can make to national economic growth." On the theme of trade as part of the reform agenda, she said, "India is today recognised as an emerging economic giant - now the third largest economy if measured on a purchasing power parity basis. India has reaped substantial benefits from its reforms. GDP growth has risen to an average of around 6.5 per cent since the 1990s. The Indian government continues to press ahead with its program to improve the workings of the economy, including in important areas such as tax reform, bankruptcy legislation and cutting red tape. Australia welcomes these efforts." She, however, said that it is equally important to achieve reform on the trade policy front, because experience shows that reform contributes most powerfully to national growth when it is taken forward comprehensively, across the spectrum of economic policy areas. On the theme of trade agreements and trade liberalization moving together, she said, "With the benefits it offers, trade reform has often been undertaken unilaterally. Both Australia and India have done this at various times. That said, the fact is that trade liberalisation also often occurs through negotiated trade agreements - be they multilateral, regional or bilateral. Over and above the benefits yielded by unilateral trade liberalization, trade agreements can provide a further stimulus to trade through the greater access they provide to trading partners' markets." She added, "Modern trade agreements are not just about getting tariffs down. They are much more than that. They usually cover services and investment as well as goods. They are as much about removing barriers behind the border as at the border. Trade agreements also deliver that most valuable commodity to business - confidence about the operating environment. They provide more certainty about the rules under which business operates. And trade agreements should be comprehensive if the full benefits are to be delivered. They should set an environment that is broad enough for trade and investment between the partners to evolve over time - to grow into new areas, beyond products and services already traded between the partners." However, she said, trade agreements are not about balancing bilateral trade flows between partner countries. In a multi-country world, and one where imports from one source are often the inputs for exports to another destination, it makes no sense to try to 'even up' the exports and imports between individual countries. "The fundamental insight on trade is that both parties can benefit from the one commercial transaction. Trade is not about winning more than the other party. It's about win-win. This is so whatever the relative size of the partners. A bigger economy might have bigger markets, but it will probably also have more consumers, more businesses to benefit from global inputs, and more exporters ready to enter new markets," she said. "Australia, like India, sees the multilateral route as the 'first-best' option to achieve trade liberalization and reform. We believe that maintaining a strong and effective multilateral trading system should remain a core trade policy objective for us all. That said, at the present time, there seems no viable prospect of a big multilateral deal," Sidhu said. "From my perspective, India should have a regional voice commensurate with its size and economic weight. Australia supports India's growing participation in the economic architecture of the region. Our increasing reference to the 'Indo-Pacific', rather than the earlier term of 'Asia-Pacific', reflects this desire to embrace India as a key contributor to building regional cooperation and integration," she said. (ANI)
Tata Steel's UK division today announced the completion of the sale of its Long Products Europe business to Greybull Capital LLP. From today the Long Products Europe business, which in the UK includes the Scunthorpe steelworks, two mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington, a design consultancy in York, and associated distribution facilities, as well as a rail mill in northern France, will trade under the name of British Steel. Executive Chairman of the Long Products Europe business and CEO of Tata Steel UK, Bimlendra Jha, said the company is delighted to have secured a buyer for its business, and hoped that the business would continue to grow under Greybull ownership. "As a responsible seller, Tata Steel is delighted to have secured a buyer for this business and we hope that under Greybull ownership, the business will continue the momentum of the improvement program that has been initiated in the last 12 months," he said. "Employees and trade unions have worked closely with the Long Products Europe management team to improve the business's prospects, putting it in a more competitive position than it has been for many years. It is through their dedication and hard work that we are in this position today in spite of continued challenges in the market," he added. The Long Products Europe business has, in the last one year, implemented a transformation plan including a portfolio restructuring of assets, underpinned by committed support from employees and their trade unions. This has focused the business on higher-value markets supported by a more competitive cost base. All together the business employs 4,800 people - 4,400 in the UK and 400 in France. The sale follows an accelerated process of negotiations between Tata Steel UK and Greybull Capital to achieve this outcome. (ANI)
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, today gave approval for a new broad gauge line of length 51 kilometers between Mau Station of North Eastern Railway and Tarighat Terminal station of East Central Railway. The estimated cost of this project is Rs. 1,765.92 crore and the expected completion cost is Rs. 2,109.07 crore with five percent of escalation per annum. The project is likely to be completed in the next six years during the 12th and 13th Plan period. This project will provide alternative, shorter convenient and create better transport infrastructure to the area separated by river Ganga so as to remove the transport difficulties in the area and boost socio-economic development. The catchment area of project line will serve a passenger requirement and facilitate the people of the area for travelling to different parts of the country. In addition, this new line will provide an alternative route connecting of Northern and East Central railway via NE Railway. This project line has huge potential in enhancing railway traffic and it also gives opportunity to develop this area by providing more efficient transportation system. The new line, which crosses river Ganges at the downstream of existing road bridge for NH 97, is located almost parallel to it and joins the existing BG line from Tarighat to Dildar Nagar. This line will be alternative route for trains passing from Howrah to New Delhi. The construction of this new line will provide a link to Allahabad-Patna double line electrified section. It will also decongest the Allahabad-Mugalsarai-Patna route particularly around Mugalsarai yard. (ANI)
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for all Kharif Crops of 2016-17 seasons. Further, to incentivise cultivation of pulses and oilseeds , in the country, the Government has announced a bonus on these crops, payable over and above the approved MSP. The decision to increase MSPs is based on the recommendations of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) which takes into account the cost of production, overall demand-supply, domestic and international prices, inter-crop price parity, terms of trade between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, the likely effect of the Price Policy on the rest of economy, besides ensuring rational utilization of production resources like land and water, while recommending MSPs. The CACP being the expert body, its recommendations are generally accepted as such. However, to incentivise cultivation of pulses and oilseeds, the Cabinet has decided to give a bonus, over and above the recommendations of the CACP, of Rs.425/- per quintal for kharif pulses, namely Arhar (Tur), Urad and Moong, a bonus of Rs 200/- per quintal for Sesamum and a bonus of Rs 100/- per quintal for other kharif oilseeds namely, Groundnut-in-shell, Sunflowerseed, Soyabean, and Nigerseed. There is an increasing gap between the demand and domestic supply of pulses and oilseeds and reliance on import is increasing. Government has, therefore, announced this bonus on pulses and oilseeds to give a strong price signal to farmers to increase acreage and invest for increase in productivity of these crops. The increase in cultivation of leguminous pulses and oilseeds will also have additional environmental benefits as these crops are less water consuming and help in nitrogen fixation in the soil. The prices would be effective from 1.10.2016. Food Corporation of India (FCI) will be the designated central nodal agency for price support operations for cereals, pulses and oilseeds. Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) will be the central nodal agency for undertaking price support operations for Cotton. Besides increase in Minimum Support Prices (MSP) of Kharif crops, Government has also taken several farmer friendly initiatives over the last one year. (ANI)
The Centre's initiative to get 'Gangajal' delivered at doorsteps by Indian Postal Services may receive a jolt after saints in this holy city on Wednesday passed a "censure motion" condemning the government for using e-commerce platform to sell the holy water. They warned the government to stop commercialisation of Ganjajal, else they would move the Supreme Court (SC). "This is Hindustan. Ganga is our mother and the soul of over 100 crores Indians. Selling mother is not just a sin, but a greatest sin. Ganga is our faith. We condemn the scheme launched by the government. If they don't stop it, we will move to the Supreme Court," Swami Achyutanand Teerth Ji Maharaj told ANI after their proceeding was over. Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "If Gangajal from Haridwar and Rishikesh reaches to villages of the country, it's a good thing. It will benefit the rural areas. We are changing the face of the country through the postal department." As per reports, the plan to provide the holy water has already been implemented by some of the e-commerce websites and for a litre bottle sourced from Gomukh, the place from where the river originates, the e-commerce company charges Rs 299. (ANI)
A top Australian expert and researcher in advanced manufacturing and material sciences is presently in India till June 17 to look at opportunities for collaboration with the country. Australia's High Commissioner to India, Harinder Sidhu, has welcomed the visit, which began on May 30, by Professor Peter Hodgson, Interim Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research, Deakin University. "The visit offers an opportunity for both Australia and India to work together in developing newer and innovative technology for manufacturing. As the Indian government and industry implement Prime Minister Modi's 'Make in India' campaign, the need for a globally competitive manufacturing and research and development sector is greater than ever," she said. Professor Hodgson will deliver lectures on trends in advanced manufacturing and university-industry collaborations at institutions in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. These include the Indian Institute of Technology and the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences, and Anna University. In Bangalore, he will give a plenary address at the International Conference on Advanced Materials and Applications hosted by the Businayana Mukundadas Sreenivasaiah College of Engineering. The conference provides an interdisciplinary forum for young researchers, industry and academics to discuss innovation, trends and challenges. In addition, Professor Hodgson will hold discussions with key industry stakeholders to explore opportunities for university- industry partnership in the sector. He will also participate in the Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN), a Government of India program to deliver lectures on Advanced Steels for the Automotive Industry and other sectors at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Professor Hodgson has made important research contributions. He has over 600 research publications and has presented more than 40 keynote lectures at international conferences related to the physical metallurgy and modelling of steels. The visit is taking place under the Australia India Education Council's (AIEC) Eminent Researcher Lecture Program. The AIEC is a bi-national body co-chaired by the Australian and Indian Education Ministers, for driving the Australia India education, training and research agenda. (ANI)
The 19 deceased Army personnel include- two officers, four Defence Security Corp (DSC) jawans, 13 fire fighters.

The 17 injured Army personnel-two officers, three Army Jawans, four of DSC and eight fire fighters are now stable.

The Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis led-Maharashtra government announced a compensation of five lakh rupees to the next kin of those killed and three lakh rupees to the injured.

Public Health Minister Dipak Sawant has assured that air ambulance will be made available if the need arises to shift the injured to Mumbai for treatment.

Meanwhile, the fire has been completely doused and situation has been brought under control after an overnight operation. But the officials are still monitoring the accident spot.

The blaze started around 2 A.M yesterday.

The fire had spread to a number of sheds where ammunitions, bombs and other explosive were kept.

The central ammunition depot at Pulgaon is India's biggest ammunition depot as stocks, including bombs, grenades, shells, assorted rifles and other explosives from various factories comes here first and is then distributed to various forward areas.

Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar yesterday expressed grief over loss of lives and said that the officers scarified their lives in effort to minimise damage.

"Deeply pained at loss of lives, they sacrificed their lives and managed to contain fire." Parrikar said. (ANI)
"The way MIDC's land worth Rs. 23 crores was bought for just Rs. 3 crores, the black money was used in it and it clearly indicates that there is a case of conflict of interest," NCP leader Nawab Malik told ANI.

"There are serious allegations against Khadse, including his conversation with Dawood Ibrahim (Mumbai underworld fugitive) from Karachi," he added.

Malik said when there are grave allegations against Khadse, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should remove him from his post.

"But the BJP and Chief Minister Fadnavis and several others are trying to defend the Revenue Minister at a time when there are several cases registered against him," he added.

The NCP leader's reactions came after there were media reports that Chief Minister Fadnavis had summoned the Revenue Minister.

A delegation of Congress ministers also met the Maharashtra Governor and demanded the Khadse's resignation over the land deal and his involvement in calls made to gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan.

However, Khadse had denied changing reservation of the MIDC plot at Bhosari, as acquisition process was in progress.

The Aam Aadmi Party had recently demanded Khadse's ouster, alleging that calls were made from Dawood's residence in Karachi to his mobile phone, a charge the minister rubbished as "baseless" saying the phone number was not in use for last one year. (ANI)
A day after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the attack on Congolese national Masunda Kitada Oliver was not racially motivated, Janata Dal (United) on Wednesday said a series of attacks on African natives hinted at an "International Jungle-Raj" in the national capital. "Attacks on African nationals in the national capital tell that there is an international jungle raj in Delhi, while Bihar is witnessing a 'Mangal raj'," JD (U) leader K.C Tyagi told ANI. Hitting out at the Delhi Police for going smooth on the culprits, Tyagi said police are in quandary with regard to taking actions on the perpetrators involved in these attacks. "On the other side the international relations are witnessing a setback due to these incidents," he added. When asked to respond on attack on a cab driver by six Africans after he refused to take on board more than four, Tyagi said he is against any kind of violence. "The government should act on it. We have the relations with Africans since the age of Gandhi and the clouds of uncertainty are looming over these relations due to these violences, Delhi must be saved from the 'International jungle raj'," he added. The remark from the JD-U comes in wake of a meeting between the External Affairs Minister and delegation of African students in Delhi. "The incident is not only unfortunate but painful. Being a mother I can understand the pain of Oliver's parents who lost their son on a foreign soil," she said. Oliver, 23, was allegedly beaten to death by a group of men in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj area, on 20 May. The incident took place around 11.45 pm on Friday when Oliver had a heated argument with a group of three people at Kishangadh locality in Vasant Kunj. Swaraj assured that a thorough probe will be initiated into the case. "We have chalked out a plan as per which, our ministers will visit every metro city and hold discussions with African students. We will initiate awareness and sensitisation in areas with maximum population of African students,so that such incidents don't recur," she added. (ANI)
Speaking at the event, Vice-President Ansari said that India-Morocco bilateral relations have deepened in recent years, which has laid foundation for a diversified and multi-dimensional trade.

"Our bilateral trade stood at US $ 1.26 billion in 2015 with Indian exports forming roughly 25 % of the trade volume. Morocco has emerged as a favored destination for investments by Indian firms. I am informed that Indian companies have cumulatively invested more that US $ 320 million in Morocco, including in our flagship project, the India-Maroc Phosphore SA joint venture," he said.

"The last two decades of economic growth have also strengthened Indians private sector and it is keen to expand its global operations," he added.

The Vice President yesterday also visited Mohammad VI Institute for training of Imams, where he had an interaction with Imams and intellectuals.

India and Morocco on Tuesday concluded five memorandums of understanding (MoUs) covering fields as diverse as water resources, television broadcasting, institutional cooperation and cultural and educational exchanges, further providing venues for enhanced cooperation.

Vice President Ansari arrived in Rabat on Monday on a three-day visit. (ANI)
The Bharatiya Janata Party Legislature Party met yesterday evening in presence of Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal, before the three-day Session of the Assembly.

The BJP and its alliance partners Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland Peoples Front have decided to field BJP legislator Ranjit Kumar Das as the Speaker of the new Assembly.

A former journalist and Field Publicity Officer of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Mr Das represents Sorbhog Assembly seat and he will file nomination papers today for the post and expected to win uncontested.

Prior to that, Pro-tem Speaker Phani Bhusan Choudhury will conduct the oath taking ceremony of newly elected MLAs.

Senior BJP leader Hitendra Nath Goswami was elected as the Chief Whip of the party.

Congress Legislature party also meet yesterday which was attended among others by the former chief minister Tarun Gogoi. (ANI)
The Sanatan Sanstha today alleged that the search conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the residences of its seekers was a pre-planned conspiracy. In a statement here, Sanatan Sanstha Spokesperson Abhay Vartak said, ''AAP leader Ashish Khetan had tweeted that Sanatan Sanstha's seeker was involved in Dr Dabholkar's killing. ''In successive tweets, he claimed that Dr Dabholkar's murder case has been solved and referred to Sanatan Sastha and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti. The tweets came, even before the CBI visited the Sanatan Ashrams or released any official statement. This shows that this is a well-planned conspiracy.''Ashish Khetan has levelled accusations against Sanatan of conducting Bomb blasts in Maharashtra and Goa. But, the honourable courts have found Sanatan Sanstha not guilty. Besides, the Courts have also admonished the investigative agencies for having tried to falsely implicate Sanatan in these cases. ''AAP sheds crocodile tears about not having control over Delhi Police; but the party leaders seem to be getting information even before the BJP-led Central Government. This shows that CBI officers are puppets in the hands of AAP,'' he alleged.Mr Vartak said, ''Mr and Mrs Akolkar from Pune are seekers of Sanatan Sanstha. In their absence, their house was found broken. ''Without their knowledge, their cupboards were broken and things were found scattered all over the place. It was gathered from the people staying in their colony that a police squad from Delhi have done it. Many TV channels also showed the news about the same. ''This indicates that CBI has broken into their home. Earlier, CBI officers personally met the Akolkar couple and took their phone numbers. But, the investigative agency's action of breaking into their home and taking away articles without intimation comes across as suspicious and downright illegal. ''Taking a serious note, Ms Akolkar has lodged a complaint of 'break in and entry' with the Police Commissioner of Pune,'' Mr Vartak added.UNI AKM CJ RJ 1027 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-764695.Xml
The Sri Lankan Naval Personnel today arrested four Indian fishermen and confiscated their mechanized fishing trawler on charges of crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and fishing in their territorial waters. State fisheries department officials said the incarcerated fishermen hailed from Kottaipattinam coastal hamlet in Pudukottai district were arrested when they were fishing on the high seas near Delft Island in the wee hours. They were taken to Kangesanthurai port for interrogation and would be remanded to judicial custody later in the day. This is the second detention of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan maritime forces after the new fishing season began on Monday. On May 30 -- the first day of the new fishing season after the 45-day annual fishing ban, the Sri Lankan Naval forces arrested seven fishermen hailing from Rameswaram and impounded their mechanized fishing boat. The mechanized boat fishermen of Rameswaram have announced a rail roko agitation on June 24, demanding release of arrested fishermen and 89 fishing trawlers from Sri Lankan custody. UNI GSM CS 1056 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0434-764752.Xml
In a colonial orb-weaving spider Cyrtophora citricola, females often eat the males after mating, but it is often the males that choose their mates.Choosing a high quality mate can confer advantages on an animal's offspring. Due to the relatively low abundance of eggs compared to sperm, the choice is often made by females, while males attempt to increase their number of offspring by mating promiscuously. However, this may be different in species that exhibit sexual cannibalism, like the group-living C citricola spider, where males are often eaten after mating and so may be "choosier" due to a single mate choice, according a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Eric Yip from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and colleagues.The authors of the study investigated how sexual cannibalism may promote male choosiness by pairing captured virgin male and female orb-weaving spiders randomly in the laboratory and observing which sex was more selective and which mates were selected.The researchers found that males were choosier than females and were twice as likely to mate with well-fed females, which may be a proxy for fertility. Females ate more than 80 per cent of their mates. The authors suggest that cannibalism by females may therefore act to promote the evolution of mate choice by males."With over 80 per cent of males cannibalized after their first copulation, males need to make their one shot at paternity count," Eric Yip notes. "In a colony, males are likely to encounter multiple receptive females, and we found that males prefer to court and mate with younger, fatter and therefore, potentially more fecund females."UNI YSG CJ RJ 2048 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0435-764601.Xml
Japanese automotive manufacturer Toyota Kirloskar Motor today reported a growth of six per cent in its auto sales and sold a total of 12,200 units in the domestic market in May 2016, compared to the same period last year. The company had sold 11,511 units in the domestic market and exported 1,448 units of Etios series in May 2015 and registered two per cent overall growth in sales in May 2016, when compared to the corresponding period last year, a statement issued by the company, said. The company continues to maintain an upward trend in sales by exporting 990 units of Etios series during the month. The recently introduced Innova Crysta, which was launched in May, received a very good response from the market. Within a month, Innova Crysta has received close to 20,000 booking orders with a waiting period of two-four months across India, the statement added.Toyota Etios and Toyota Liva have also registered six per cent and nine per cent growth, respectively in May 2016, when compared to the same period last year. N Raja, Director and Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, ''We keenly look forward to a favorable decision over the ban on registration of diesel vehicles above 2000cc in NCR that has been affecting the legitimate interests of TKM and its dealers in NCR. ''We, along with a couple of other industry players, are the only ones affected. This has been affecting our sales over the last six months and we are hopeful that the Supreme Court will consider our pleadings and lift the ban,'' he added.UNI RN RJ 1230 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0311-764865.Xml
Three people including a young girl and a woman died while 18 were injured as a speeding truck got uncontrolled and turned turtle last night under Mahewa Ghat area of Kaushambi district of Uttar Pradesh. Police sources said here today that labourers of a kiln of Maheshpur village were going to their native places at Mau and Chitrakoot with their families. The truck got uncontrolled and turned turtle at Manjhanpur-Mahevaghat road. Anju devi (12), Maya Devi (50) and Kalicharan died on the spot in the accident. Other 18 persons including woman and children got injured in this accident. The injured were admitted to hospital from where 6 persons in critical condition were referred to Allahabad.UNI XC-MB ADG 1240 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-764886.Xml
Though the major fire in country's largest ammunition depot claimed 20 lives of Army men including two senior ranked officers but surprisingly, the Fire and Services wing of Indian Army "sans" hi-tech gadgets and not well equipped to fight such disasters across Jammu and Kashmir. According to sources, the Fire Services wing of Indian Army stationed at various locations across the state especially where the ammunition depots are set up are not well equipped to meet major eventualities. ''It is unfortunate that the Fire Services wing of Army do not have sufficient equipments, fire fighting gadgets, enough safety measures and if not taken timely action, tragedy can anytime take place,'' said an official on the condition of anonymity. He said that the personnel deployed at the Fire Services are also not being utilised for the purpose and are being kept busy in other activities. ''Fire tenders must always be kept ready and the boys should be on toes to counter any untoward like incident but shockingly, the water canons are used in maintaining and watering parks, lawns of Army units and meeting the requirements of official/family quarters sometimes facing water scarcity,'' he claimed. He however, said that the men deployed instead of being given training and time to time guidance on fighting the fire incidents, are kept busy elsewhere other than routine tasks. Sources however, said that delivery house pipes, DCP, B-A Kits with oxygen cylinders and chemical foam are the major requirements at the stations, which are mandatory to control/douse the flames but they are not in stock for prompt action. ''Not only the major requirements but basic items like 9 litre extinguishers, mechanical foam, CO2 25 litre cylinders and DCP 9 litres are also not sufficient at various stations close to the ammunition depots,'' sources added. Sources however, said that at the time of devastating fire at ammunition depots, besides controlling the fire, focus is to save the nearby bunkers, structures to prevent it from spreading. At least 20 defence personnel including two army officers were killed and 19 others were injured when a fire raged through India's biggest ammunition depot on May 31 in Wardha district of Maharashtra. Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta yesterday directed the state government to take steps for conducting a safety audit of all army ammunition depots in the state in order to avoid a repeat of the fire incident in Maharashtra's Pulgaon that left 20 dead. Government, keeping in view the incident of fire in an ammunition depot in Maharashtra, should take steps to prevent such an incident by conducting safety audit of ammunition depots in the state, the Speaker said. The issue was raised in the House by National Conference MLA Devender Rana He demanded that the speaker direct the government to approach the army for getting a safety audit of all ammunition depots in the state conducted. In 2007, a fire wrecked an ammunition dump in Khundru village of Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir, exploding artillery shells and mortar rounds, which rained down on surrounding villages. At least 17 people were killed and two dozen injured. In Jammu and Kashmir ammunition depots are located at Akhnoor, Nagrota, Jindrah in Udhampur district, Srinagar and Leh.UNI VBH ADG 1345 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-764972.Xml
Two days after the Idol Wing of the Tamil Nadu police seized 34 ancient idols from a house at Alwarpet in the city, police todayconducted fresh raids and seized more than 100 more idols, valued at several crores. Armed with a court order, a team of officials headed by Idol Wing Inspector General A G Pon Manickavelbroke open two locked rooms in the house and seized 100 more idols today. According to the police, a Tamil film actress was suspected to have links with the smuggling racket. While further investigations were underway in this regard, it has been revealed that the group used to sculpt new idols for smuggling. Meanwhile, the police have also unearthed information about the prime accused and theabsconding house owner Deenadayalan, who was yet to surrender. ''He has been running an art gallery in Teynampet since 1995. In 2002, he had smuggled idols of Lord Ardhanareeswarar and six others to a dealer in Mumbai and from there to the Art of the Past gallery at New York. From there, a few antique idols were sent to art galleries in Australia and New South Wales', police said.UNI GV 1400 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-765086.Xml
Members of the Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA) and Women Lawyers Association would hold a rally here on June six to protest against the amendments made to existing rules under the Advocates Act. The High Court recently issued a notification making amendments to existing rules under the Advocates Act with a view to ensure peaceful conduct of court proceedings and suggesting disciplinary action against erring advocates. A notification issued by the Registrar General of the High Court said the court has powers under14-A of Advocates Act to debar advocates who indulge in acts like attempting to influence a judge or participate in a procession inside the court campus or holds placards inside the court hall, among others. Such advocates would be debarred from appearing before the high court or subordinate courts permanently or for such period as the court may think fit and the Registrar General shall thereupon report it to the Bar Councilof Tamil Nadu, the notification said. A decision to hold protest rally on June sixwas taken by the respective associations at their general body meetings held here last evening. The MHAA also requested the Chief Justice and other judges to withdraw the amendments immediately. Opposing the amendments, the MHAA requested the Chief Justice to call for a dialogue between the bar and the bench and evolve effective mechanisms to identify the key issues hampering the effective functioning of the judiciary and prepare both short and long term plans and programmes to amicably settle all the issues.UNI GV 1455 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-765199.Xml
President of Dheeran Chinnamalai Gounder Peravai, a Kongu-Vellalar caste-outfit, S.Yuvaraj (35), who was suspected to be involved in the sensational murder of a Dalit youth V.Gokulraj, appeared before the Tirunelveli town police station and appended his signature, as per the Madras High Court order, today. The Madras HC Vacation Judge B.Gokuldas on May 26 granted bail to Yuvaraj with a condition that he should stay at Tirunelveli and sign at the town police station twice a day daily until further orders. As per the court order, Yuvaraj who had been lodged in the Vellore Central Prison, came to Tirunelveli town police station and appended his signature, this morning. Police have made tight security arrangements at the police station and also along the entire route through which Yuvaraj came to the police station. Gokulraj, a 21-year-old Dalit engineering student was found murdered on June 24, 2015 at Pallipalayam in Namakkal district after his relationship with an Upper Caste Hindu girl was objected by her family. According to an eye-witness, a few men took Gokulraj stating that Yuvaraj wanted to meet him, a day before his murder. The case was initially registered as a case of suspicious death but following the post-mortem report, it was changed to a murder case. Apprehending arrest in the case, Yuvaraj went into hiding and during the absconding period, he released six audio messages and even gave interviews to Tamil news channels claiming that he had no links with Gokulraj murder case. He blamed certain police officers and politicians for being falsely targeting him. In a sensational twist, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Vishnu Priya, who was the investigating officer in the Gokulraj murder case, committed suicide in her official residence at Tiruchengode in Namakkal district on September 18, 2015. Her family members and friends claimed that she committed suicide owing to pressure from senior police officers in Gokulraj murder case. Following the DSP's suicide, Yuvaraj released an audio conversation between him and Vishnupriya. In the recording, Vishnupriya said that she had been suffering immense pressure from the senior police officers as he (Yuvaraj) was absconding. Finally, Yuvaraj surrendered before the CB-CID police at Namakkal on October 11, 2015. UNI GSM CS 1355 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0434-765057.Xml
Mr. Sudhir Sitapati currently Regional Category Vice President, Refreshments (South Asia & Africa), Unilever, will be inducted into the Management Committee of HUL as Executive Director, Refreshments., company release said.

Ms. Geetu Verma, currently Executive Director (Foods & Refreshments) will continue to look after the Foods business. She will be designated as Executive Director (Foods) and will continue as a member of the Management Committee of HUL.

This change is in alignment with the category structure of Unilever globally. Both the businesses have registered strong growth under Geetu's able leadership and have now reached significant scale. The reorganization into two separate businesses will enable sharper focus and help to fully leverage the growth opportunities in line with HUL's ambitions, releas added.UNI JS SM1731

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0171-765565.Xml
Junior resident doctors of the King George Medical University here continued their strike for the fourth day today, on their issues with re-counselling of UPPGMEE. However, talks were underway between the authorities and the agitating students with near possibility of the strike coming to an end this evening. The strike has also delayed the new academic session by a month in the university. Protesting students are also blaming the authorities for delaying the session slated to start from July 1. Dr S C Tewari, chief medical superintendent of the University told UNI that all the senior residents, non-clinical staff, senior doctors are working overtime to look after the patients. "We have sufficient staff and all others except junior residents are performing their duties. Only junior residents are not working due to their issues,"he said. However, KGMU authorities still claimed that patients are receiving all medical facilities and every other patient admitted here is getting good treatment. Advocate Moti Lal Yadav has filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Lucknow bench of the high court stating that the strike be stopped as patients are dying without getting proper treatment. It is expected that by the end of the day, students may call off their strike. The move came after assurance given by the authorities of the university that their grievance will be considered. UP Governor Ram Naik had also appealed to the students to called off their strike as it was creating problems for the patients.UNI XC-MB AE GC1757 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0196-765463.Xml
Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessed the singing of the India-Iran-Afghanistan trilateral agreement on the ambitious Chabahar project during his visit to Iran, he will be heading for Afghanistan this week where he will jointly inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam earlier known as Salma dam. This inauguration of the dam will be another significant milestone in the joint journey of India and Afghanistan for prosperity and development of the region after the inking of an MoU on the Chabahar project in the south-west of Iran that will open trade routes to land-locked Kabul and Central Asian nations, skipping the only block, which is Pakistan. Dam reservoir, which is 20 km in length and 3 km in width, expected to produce 42 MW of electricity and water for nearly 80,000 hectares of farmland, giving a fillip to agriculture in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister will reach Kabul on Saturday and inaugurate the project with President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani in Herat province in Western province of the city. "The completion of the dam project represents culmination of years of hard work by about 1, 500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions. It also highlights India's continued commitment to Afghanistan reconstruction and development,'' the Ministry of External Affairs said here while formally announcing the Prime Minister's visit. On December 25 last year, the Prime Minister had jointly with Mr Ghani dedicated to the Afghan nation the new Parliament building constructed under India-Afghanistan development cooperation. ''The forthcoming meeting between the Prime Minister and Mr Ghani will also provide an opportunity to discuss situation in Afghanistan and how the two countries can cooperate further for promoting peace and stability in that country,'' the Ministry said.UNI MK/NAZ SW SB 1952 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0091-766026.Xml
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has sought help from nine Indian Ambassadors of different countries, who met him today to project Uttar Pradesh as a 'brand' globally to attract investments in the state. Indian Ambassadors Vinod Kumar (Uzbekistan), Rajesh Kumar (Bulgaria), Ajay Bisaria (Poland), Indra Mani Pandey (Oman), Saurabh Kumar (Iran), Sushil Kumar (Angola), Nagma M Mallik (Brunei) and Subhdarshani Tripathi (Jordan) met Chief Minister at his official residence and held a detailed discussion about possibility of investments from their country. "You are representing India in different countries. Project Uttar Pradesh as a brand so that people across globe show their interest in investing in Uttar Pradesh," Mr Yadav said. As a hard bargainer Mr Yadav said Uttar Pradesh has a high potential of export in agri-products, handicraft, leather products and jewellery. Besides, there is scope of eco-tourism and medical tourism. This will open a new job market for people in the state, he said. "Being the most populous state of India Uttar Pradesh is a big market. Realising the investment potential the state Government has prepared sector wise friendly investment policy. The infrastructure is being improved. New roads are coming up which will shorten the commutation time. Electricity problems are being solved so that domestic and industry sectors could get quality electricity," he said. He talks about metros coming up in different cities, setting up of sugar mills and linking youth with the digital world. "Farmers are being exposed to modern technology so that they can get good produce. A perfume park is coming up in Kannauj. Hi-tech cities are coming up in different parts of the state including Allahabad, Kanpur, Unnao and Lucknow,'' the Chief Minister said. Indian Ambassador Vinod Kumar of Uzbekistan said there is high probability of cotton processing, yarn and tourism while Rajesh Kumar ambassador to Bulgaria said there is possibility of iron processing, IT, agriculture production, and tourism. Ajay Bisaria (Poland) said his embassy will extend all help to state officials. Ms Pandey (Oman) talked about link between India and people from east UP and suggested that literature in Hindi and Bhojpuri should be provided to the embassy so that they can popularise UP's projects among them. Saurabh Kumar (Iran) talked about Shia link between Lucknow and Iran. Brunei offered help in IT and agriculture processing. Earlier, the delegation of ambassadors had met Governor Ram Naik at Raj Bhawan yesterday. These ambassadors are on three-day visit to the state capital to study the scope of investment in the state.UNI MB PY SB 1940 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0298-765949.Xml
Among the accused was Ashutosh Singh, Deputy GM of the Handicrafts and Handloom Export Corporation of India, who was earlier arrested for allegedly conning people by faking as Joint Secretary, MHA.

As per the agency, he alone owns 27 properties at prime locations, including a seven storey building and five shops in Mumbai's one of the most expensive locality, running into crores of rupees.

During investigation, the CBI had found a plot in Noida Sec-50, Noida sec-65, five shops in Andheri, Mumbai, a seven floor building apart from 4 bungalows registered on his and his associates' names.

The agency had carried out a secret and nationwide drive from May 16 to May 31, during which 6 Group A officials, 3 Group B Officials and 5 Group C officials besides two private persons were slapped with DA cases.

Apart from him, Narayan Singh, Senior Manager, BCCL Dhanbad, Chinmoy Goswami, Administrator, NIACL, Murshidabad, Agnelo Fernandes, Passport Officer, Goa, Sanjay Punjab, Deputy Manager, New India Assurance Ltd and Ashok Raj, Superintendent, Central Excise Department, Madurai were other Group A officers, booked by the agency. UNI RG SB 2021

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" Mega Luxury Cruise Vessel "M.V.Ovation of the Seas" called at the Cochin Port for a two-day stop-over in its circuit of Dubai-Muscat-Kochi-Penang-Singapore. The vessel with 4000 passengers and 1649 crew was given a warm and colourful reception at the Cochin Port in ethnic style with Flowers, Sindhoor and Chendamelam, a release said here today. "M.V.Ovation of the Seas", a brand new ship of the Royal Caribbean Lines which was floated out in April this year. It is 348 m long and is in the second largest class of cruise vessel. 90 passengers from Dubai/ Muscat disembarked at Cochin Port and 80 passengers will embark from the Port, it said. A brief plaque exchange ceremony was held to commemorate the inaugural call. Cochin Port Chairman G Senthilvel, Chairman, Port Traffic Manager Dr C Unnikrishnan, Cochin Port, Sethuraman, FRRO (Bureau of Immigration), M.M.Haseeja, Ministry of Shipping, Mohamed Farouk, Asst. Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, Thomas Korah, Joint Director, Kerala Tourism Department and other officials participated. Senior officials from Kerala Tourism and India Tourism were present to help the tourists for the local visits. Officials from the Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Tourism, Government of India had specially come from New Delhi to welcome the cruise vessel as part of the Government of India''s measures to promote Cruise Tourism. It may be noted that a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Cruise Shipping was notified by the Ministry of Tourism during the Maritime India Summit held during April, 2016. The Port had arranged pre-paid taxis and auto rickshaws for the tourists. The state police in large numbers had regulated the safe passage of the tourists to the city, it said. The Port facilitated setting up of 30 stalls displaying and selling ethnic items including exquisite coir carpets, paintings, metal ware and cotton goods from Erode which caught the fancy of the tourists immensely. A special stall was dedicated for selling products by Tribal Welfare Department. The tourists visited various parts of Cochin and about 500 tourists went to Alleppey for the House Boat ride. The vessel is casting off at 1700 hours today, the release added.UNI CGV KVV AK 2027 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-765505.Xml
Mr Reddy, native of Proddatur in Kadapa district, is presently working as Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the Permanent Mission of India, Geneva, an official release said here today.

He is expected to take up his assignment shortly.UNI KNR KVV AK 1956

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Official sources said waves pounded the coast, bringing down at least two houses this morning. The woman Mariya Pushpam was killed when a portion of the house was caved-in after being severely hit by waves.

Senior revenue officials visited the village and assured all help for the affected people.

The affected families have been given temporary accommodation and food, sources added. UNI GSM KVV AK 2006

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Minister for Finance Yanamala Ramakrishnudu claimed that concerted efforts were being made to develop Andhra Pradesh all round and make it as the number one in the country by 2029 and the best state in the world itself having highest living standards by 2050. Participating as the chief guest at the Nava Nirmala Deeksha programme at the Balaji cheruvu center here today, he said the government was going ahead with the sole aim of building up of a society free from poverty developing in all sectors. Pointing out that the undivided Andhra Pradesh was one of the top five states in the country in development but after bifurcation except in GSDP ,it was trailing behind in all the aspects, Ramakrishnudu said Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu was striving hard to develop it all round once again under the vision 2020 document. Despite facing severe financial crunch, he said, the government was able to fulfill its promises to farmers and DWCRA women on loan waiver and spending Rs.6,000 Crores alone on pensions. If the Polavaram project was completed early all the irrigation problems in the state would be solved, he added. Making a scathing attack on the opposition leaders, he said, it was unfortunate that the state was having such irresponsible leaders, who opposes everything including construction of Capital city Amaravati. Deputy Chief Minister China Rajappa called upon the people to extend full support to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu who was making relentless efforts to ensure speedy development of the state tiding over the problems cropped up on account of bifurcation. City MLA Kondababu, MP Thota Narasimham, Collector H Arun Kumar, SP Misala Raviprakash, Municipal commissioner Alim Basha also spoke.UNI XR-DP KVV AK 2010 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-766118.Xml
Had a meeting with J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti ji. We discussed a range of issues pertaining to the state, Rajnath Singh later said in a tweet.

During the meeting that lasted about 20 minutes, Mufti apprised Rajnath Singh of the prevailing situation in the Kashmir Valley and border areas.

The matter of setting up of colonies for displaced Kashmiri Pandits also reportedly cropped up during the discussion.

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2016-06-02-22:26:04 (IANS)
Police here said, Lakhte Jigar (7) and Noore Azar (6) met their watery grave when they were taking bath in the pond. However, local people saved their cousin sister from drowning and rushed her to Gopalganj sadar hospital in an unconscious state.

Doctors are trying to save her life, police added. UNI XC-DH AKM SB AN2237

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The mortal remains of Major K Manoj Kumar who died in the fire mishap at Central Ammunition Depot at Pulgaon in Maharashtra was received with full military honours at Domestic Airport here today.Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Electricity, Brigadier MAJ Fernandez, Station Commander Pangode Military Station, Col Issac Thadathil, SSO, Sparjan Kumar, City Police Commissioner, ADM and other officers from Pangode Military Station were in the airport to receive the body.His wife, Beena, son Vedhanth, and other family members including mother, sister, brothers were also present at the airport. Tributes were paid to the mortal remains of the brave soldier after which the body was taken to the Military Hospital. The mortal remains of the deceased will be kept in his residence from 0800 hrs to 1000 hrs on June 3, to facilitate public homage to the departed soul. The body would be taken to Shanthi Kavadam, Thycaud for cremation at 1030 hrs.UNI DS PY SB 2329 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0298-766358.Xml
The bodies of the duo -- Madan Sunar (30) and Raju Sunar (25) (both cousin brothers and residents of Mharal village) -- were found lying on the open ground in Anand Nagari this morning, police said.

The bodies had multiple stab wounds and their genitals were cut off.

The arrested accused had picked up a quarrel with one of them over a petty dispute and when they attacked him with sharp weapons, the other one went to his rescue and was also attacked and killed, police said.

The police have registered a case under section 302 of Indian Penal Code against the killers, while refusing to reveal the identity of the arrested accused.UNI XR SS SB AN2349

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However, no casualties or injuries have been reported so far.

The fire broke out in the Metro House located near Regal Cinema on the Colaba Causeway, a busy commercial street in south Mumbai.

Dark smoke billowed out of the top floors of Metro House since the fire broke out at around 1600 hrs. Two people were rescued by the police.

The building houses the famous Cafe Mondegar and a McDonald's outlet.

The fire, mostly concentrated in the rear side of the building, has reportedly been contained, but the wind is making it difficult to fight the flames.

More than 12 fire engines are at the spot trying to douse the flames.

Nearby buildings have been evacuated as a precautionary measure, fire officials said.

The Navy has sent four fire engines with specialised fire- fighting equipment, its PRO Captain D K Sharma said.

The Naval Dockyard in Mumbai is about half a kilometre away from the site of the fire.

The Colaba Causeway has been closed to the public. The area has both shops and homes and is close to landmarks like the Gateway of India and Mumbai's Taj Hotel.UNI AAA SS SB 2319

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Indian Ambassadors to Bahrain Alok Kumar Sinha, Colomia Prabhat Kumar, Senegel Rajeev Kumar, Ukraine Manoj Kumar Bharati, Argentia Sanjeev Ranjan and High Commissioner to Namibia Kumar Tuheen called on the Governor at Raj Bhawan.

Mr Kobind said several places of historical and tourist importance like Nalanda, Rajgir, Bhagalpur and Mithilanchal were located in the state and Ambassadors could make significant contributions to develop them as "must-visit" destinations.

Governor also called upon Ambassadors to adopt their native villages or villages of their choice and develop them by making sincere efforts in this regard.

Later in the day, Ambassadors had an extensive interaction with office bearers of Bihar Chamber of Commerce and invitees during which they discussed threadbare proposals for development.UNI DH BM SB NS2306

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Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari has said the challenge for the modern world is to accept diversity as an existential reality and to configure attitudes and methodologies for dealing with it. "In developing such an approach, the traditional virtue of tolerance is desirable but insufficient; our effort, thinking and practices have to look beyond it and seek acceptance of diversity and adopt it as a civic virtue," said Vice President Ansari. "We in India are attempting it, cannot yet say that we have succeeded, but are committed to continue the effort. We invite all right-minded people to join us in this endeavour," he added. The Vice President said that Indian Muslims have lived in India's religiously plural society for over a thousand years and that has impacted on modern India and its existential reality of a plural society on the basis of which a democratic polity and a secular state structure was put in place. He said that the framers of the Indian Constitution had the objective of securing civic, political, economic, social and cultural rights as essential ingredients of citizenship with particular emphasis on rights of religious minorities. Vice President Ansari said the Muslim experience in modern India is that its citizens professing Islamic faith are citizens, consider themselves as such, are beneficiaries of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution, participate fully in the civic processes of the polity and seek correctives for their grievances within the system. "There is no inclination in their ranks to resort to ideologies and practices of violence," he added while delivering a lecture at the Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, today on the topic 'Accommodating Diversity in a Globalising World: The Indian Experience'. He said that in countries having complex societal makeup, accommodation of diversity in political structures and socio-economic policies is not an option but an imperative necessity ignoring which can have unpleasant consequences. The Vice President said that the Indian model was of relevance to our globalizing world because in India, an attempt was being made to look beyond the traditional virtue of tolerance and seek acceptance of diversity and adopt it as a civic virtue. He further said even in distant India, the contribution of Moroccan intellectuals to modern thought and challenges is known and acknowledged. "Names like Abdullah Al-Arui and Abid al-Jabri readily come to mind; so do the contributions of feminist writers like Fatima Mernisi and Fatima Sadiqi. The challenge in each case was that of modernity and the contemporary responses to it," he said. Vice President Ansari said the misfortunes visited on Arab lands since the 19th century was in good measure a result of their proximity to Europe in the age of imperialism. "In current discussions in many places, the terms 'Arab' and 'Islam' are used together or interchangeably. But are the two synonymous? Is Arab thought synonymous with Islamic thought? Is all Arab thought Islamic or visa versa? Above all, can all Islamic thinking be attributed to Arabs?" he added. Vice President Ansari said Islam is a global faith and its adherents are in all parts of the world. "The history of Islam as a faith, and of Muslims as its adherents, is rich and diversified. In different ages and in different regions the Muslim contribution to civilisation has been note worthy," Vice President Ansari said. "In cultural terms, the history of Islam 'is the history of a dialogue between the realm of religious symbols and the world of everyday reality, a history of the interaction between Islamic values and the historical experiences of Muslim people that has shaped the formation of a number of different but interrelated Muslim societies'," he added. Vice President Ansari said India counts amongst its citizens the second largest Muslim population in the world. "It numbers 180 million and accounts for 14.2 percent of the country's total population of 1.3 billion. Furthermore, religious minorities as a whole (Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis or Zoroastrians) constitute 19.4 percent of the population of India," he added. Vice President Ansari said India's interaction with Islam and Muslims began early and bears the imprint of history. "Indian Muslims have lived in India's religiously plural society for over a thousand years, at times as rulers, at others as subjects and now as citizens. They are not homogenous in racial or linguistic terms and bear the impact of local cultural surroundings, in manners and customs, in varying degrees," Vice President Ansari said. "Through extensive trading ties before the advent of Islam, India was a known land to the people of the Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf, and western Asia and was sought after for its prosperity and trading skills and respected for its attainments in different branches of knowledge. Thus Baghdad became the seeker, and dispenser, of Indian numerals and sciences," he added. He said an Indo-Islamic culture developed in India over centuries of intermingling and interaction. Vice President Ansari further said globalization has many facets - economic, political and cultural. "All necessitate the emergence of a set of norms, values and practices that are universally accepted. A sociologist has defined it as 'the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole," Vice President Ansari said. "An obvious implication of this would be assimilation and homogenization. In a world of intrinsically diverse societies at different levels of development, this could only result in denial of their diversity and imposition of uniformity. Such an approach can only result in conflict," he added. The Moroccan University later conferred an honoris causa degree on Vice President Ansari. (ANI)
While the body of Mohan Bahadur Thapa, 52, has been recovered, Police Inspector Anil Ghimire informed that Jit Bahadur Sarki, 58, of Tukucha-8 is still missing, reports the Kathmandu Post.

The rain triggered flood at Punyamata and Chandeshwori River yesterday claimed the life of Ashish Kafle, 9, of Paanchkhaal.

The flood has waterlogged Pulbazar and Naya Tarkari Bazar in Banepa causing damage to shops and normal life in the area.

Though the Araniko Highway was obstructed due to the flood, it began operation after water levels receded. (ANI)
Four suicide bombers were also killed in the process and twelve others, including a woman, injured.

Aminullah Amarkhil, the provincial police chief said that the gunfight ensued, which resulted in the death of all attackers.

"The first attacker wanted to detonate a car bomb near the Appeal Court to open a way for other attackers [but was stopped by security]. Security forces defused the bomb. All other attackers were killed when they attacked security forces," Tolo News quoted him as saying.

He added, "The head of the Appeal Court was also slightly injured in the attack."

So far, no group, including the Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack.(ANI)
Three brothers from Habiganj on Wednesday were found guilty of war crimes and one of them was sentenced to death by International Crimes Tribunal-1 in Bangladesh. The three-member special tribunal handed life terms to the other two. Muhibur Rahman alias Boromian, 65, was awarded death penalty and his younger brother Mujibur Rahman alias Angur Mian, 60, and their cousin Abdur Razzak, 63 were awarded imprisonment until death, reports the Daily Star. The sentence of death and life in jail were given in the first charge that implicated the trio to the killing of two freedom fighters and for raping women, they were given 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. For confinement and torture of unarmed civilian, they were slapped seven years of rigorous jail, while for the arson and looting of the house of Major General (retd) M.A. Rob, the Liberation War's deputy commander-in-chief, they were given 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Chief prosecutor Ghulam Arieff Tipoo present during the verdict expressed satisfaction. However, Defence counsel Masud Rana expressed discontent with the verdict saying that his client did not get justice and that his clients will file appeal with the Supreme Court.(ANI)
Attaullah Khoghyani, a spokesman for the provincial governor said that the blast took place in Khogyani district of the province after a mine, placed in the vehicle of Sarjang, was detonated, killing him, a bodyguard and a civilian, reports Tolo news.

So far, no group including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Meanwhile, in another incident today, Bismillah, police chief of Sholgara district was killed in a mine blast in northern Balkh province.

Three of his bodyguards were injured in the incident.

Sherjan Durani, a spokesman for the provincial police chief said the blast took place when Bismillah was on his way to his office.

However, no further details were provided about the blast.

No group, including the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack so far. (ANI)
The local government officials said the boy was encouraged to target the district police chief of Maiwand or the administrative chief of the district, reports Khamma Press.

Zia Durani, Provincial police spokesman Ahmad confirmed that the boy was arrested by the Afghan Border Police forces before he manage to carry out the attack.

The provincial government media office, in a statement said that the boy is originally a resident of Panjwai district and was encouraged for the attack by the terrorist groups by paying him 20,000 Pakistani Rupees.

The arrest comes as many Afghan children have regularly been recruited by the militant groups including the Taliban and the Haqqani network for the terrorist related activities.

According to reports, Madrasas are described as the main recruitment source as poor families in Pakistan and Afghanistan send their sons to such madrassas for free education and lodging.

In the past, a 17-year-old boy assigned for a suicide mission was arrested by the Afghan intelligence operatives in capital Kabul.

Last month, a 12-year-old child assigned for a suicide mission surrendered himself to the security forces in the eastern Nangarhar province. (ANI)
Afghanistan in Peshawar has been closed for an unspecified time.

An official at the mission confirmed that consulate closed operations on Tuesday after vehicles of their diplomatic staff were stopped at a security checkpoint.

"The vehicles were stopped even though they had diplomatic registration numbers," the Express Tribune quoted the officials as saying adding the mission had stopped working to register protest with the Pakistan government.

According to reports, the Afghan Embassy also confirmed the development. (ANI)
"I've received an invitation from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a couple of days back," the Express Tribune quoted him as saying.

He thanked Premier Nawaz and prayed for his recovery from the recent heart surgery in London.

Stating that cordial relations between Kabul and Islamabad were in the interest of both the neighbours, he praised Pakistan and its people for extending 'tremendous support and hospitality' to millions of Afghan refugees at a very crucial time.

"The Afghans will remember their unprecedented support forever," he added.

Karzai, who was known for his Pakistan-bashing during his elongated presidency also talked about Pakistan's Afghan policy.

"The Pakistani establishment should focus on strengthening friendly relations with the Afghans instead of using pressure tactics. Strategic depth should not be imposed on us - this should be replaced with a policy of friendship," he said.

He asserted that all issues between both nations could easily be resolved politically through mutual understanding and sought to quash the impression that the Afghan government could not take decisions as a sovereign nation. (ANI)
Dr. Palitha Mahipala, Director General of Health Services confirmed that the flood affected areas are free from epidemics, reports Colombo Page.

Mahipala said that as of May 31st, fifty-nine medical teams comprising doctors, nurses and dispensers were working in makeshift camps in the flood affected areas to provide the health care for the displaced people.

He added that a decision has been taken to keep all the Out Patient Departments (OPD) in government hospitals in the severely affected districts of Colombo, Gampaha, and Kegalle open until 8.00 p.m. during the relief period.

Mahipala, however, warned of the high possibility for the rat fever in those flood affected areas.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry's Epidemiology Unit has advised the people to drink boiled or bottled water, eat fully cooked foods and refrain from eating raw vegetables and greens.

The unit also cautioned chances are high for mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue to spread as the flood waters recede.(ANI)
Hinting that he could stay in power as long as he wanted, Nepal Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said that no one could budge his government. Speaking at the Rastriya Prajatantra Party anniversary function in the Capital yesterday, he said that he was in favour of the national consensus. But he claimed that consensus government could not be actualised when he became the Prime Minister as the current opposition Nepali Congress insisted on the active role of the opposition. "We are always in favour of the national consensus. But, we all need to understand that no national consensus was possible without agreement among major three political parties," the Himalayan Times quoted him as saying. Oli expressed his confidence that his Communist Party of Nepal- Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML), would garner majority seats in the federal Parliament from the elections to be held by the end of 2017 and then the course of coalition government would end. Communist Party of Nepal- Maoist Centre Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal speaking at the same function said the nation needed national consensus to deal with the contemporary political problems. "It is important if the national consensus can be forged, if the Constitution can be implemented and if the Madhes issues can be addressed." He also announced that he would be ready to take charge of the government if there was the national consensus. (ANI)
Donald Trump, and described him as 'wise' and presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as 'dull'.

A self-described Chinese North Korean scholar named Han Yong Mook, writing in DPRK Today called Trump 'wise' and a far-sighted presidential candidate.

"The president that U.S. citizens must vote for is not that dull Hillary -- who claimed to adapt the Iranian model to resolve nuclear issues on the Korean Peninsula -- but Trump, who spoke of holding direct conversation with North Korea," CNN quoted his writing as saying.

The article translated by NK Today, an independent news site focused on North Korea, highlighted the New York billionaire's skepticism of American alliances in East Asia.

Trump had earlier mused about withdrawing some or all of the more than 75,000 U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea and Japan.

"Japan is better if it protects itself against this maniac of North Korea," Trump told CNN in March.

"We are better off, frankly, if South Korea is going to start protecting itself ... they have to protect themselves or they have to pay us," he added.

The DPRK Today article said, "Who knew that the slogan 'Yankee Go Home' would come true like this?.. The day when the 'Yankee Go Home' slogan becomes real would be the day of Korean Unification." (ANI)
Announcements on loudspeakers by security guards posted at the Torkham border, warned Afghanistan nationals against travelling to Pakistan without valid documents. The Dawn reported that the announcements were repeatedly made throughout the day in order to apprise the visiting Afghans at the border that the last date for allowing Afghans without legal documents had expired and no one would be given any relaxation from June 1 onwards. The announcements made on loudspeakers said that border guards and immigration staff would check the travel documents and passes of every Afghan national crossing over to Pakistan and warned that those without the specific documents would not be allowed to cross the border. (ANI)
Using a reactor developed by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), Pakistan is set to begin construction within weeks on the third unit at the Karachi nuclear power plant using a reactor developed by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), according to a spokesman for the company. According to Dawn, a report published on the website of China Daily said the K3 plant would be built by using Hualong One, the CNNC's third-generation nuclear reactor design. CNNC spokesman Pan Jianming said it would be the second nuclear power project in Pakistan to be based on the Hualong One technology, after construction started at the K2 plant in August last year. "Hualong One was developed based on very mature technologies and the project is going on very smoothly. It will help ease power shortages in the Karachi region after completion," Pan told a forum in Fuqing, Fujian province, where the Hualong One pilot project is based. The spokesman further said that an understanding had been reached with the Algerian energy authorities for the development of a nuclear research centre. (ANI)
Canada pressed China about a Canadian citizen charged with spying and also raised the need to improve human rights around the world, Foreign Minister Stephane Dion said.Dion, part of the new Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said that while Canada wanted closer trade ties with China, it would not hesitate to speak out on sensitive matters.In January, China indicted Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt on charges of spying and stealing state secrets. He was detained in August 2014 near China's sensitive border with North Korea."The case ... of Mr Garratt has been raised by the prime minister and by myself," Dion told reporters after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi."We never miss an opportunity to raise human rights, but the details should not be revealed publicly for the sake of Mr. Garratt. It's something the two governments will have to work together (on)," he said.Canada wanted to improve human rights globally and therefore had to talk to China, which has a sixth of the world's population, Dion said.A Trudeau spokesman declined to answer when asked about the prime minister's talks with Wang on Garratt.Wang did not mention the Garratt case but said through an interpreter that it was "normal and natural for our two countries to disagree on some issues."He did, however, criticize a female Canadian reporter who had asked about human rights problems in China, accusing her of displaying an unacceptable arrogance.Trudeau wants closer trading ties with China and other fast-developing nations to help boost a sluggish Canadian economy.Wang said he had told Dion that China wanted to speed up the process of starting talks on a free trade deal. Dion stressed the need for closer ties but did not mention free trade.Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources in Ottawa said Trudeau plans to visit China for a week in the run-up to a September. 4-5 Group of 20 Summit in Hangzhou. Details of the trip have not been finalized.The Liberals took power last November after defeating the Conservatives, who had an uneven relationship with China.Wang hailed Trudeau's victory, noting that his father - former Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau - was in office when Canada established diplomatic relations with China in 1970.The Conservatives complained about China's human rights record, accused Chinese hackers of cyber espionage and curbed investment by state-owned enterprises in the energy sector. REUTERS RSD PS RAI0402 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0129-764605.Xml
Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric and India are in "advanced discussions" for the company to build six nuclear reactors there, the country's ambassador to the United States said, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's planned visit to Washington next week.A deal with Westinghouse would be the first such contract reached under the 2008 US-India civil nuclear accord."There is a very detailed and advanced negotiation between Westinghouse and India," Ambassador Arun Singh told reporters yesterday. "The issues that remain to be worked out are related to cost and financing."Progress on the deal to build six AP-1000 nuclear reactors is one of the key developments anticipated during the June 7-8 visit by Modi to Washington, where he will be hosted by President Barack Obama for a final summit before the US presidential election in November. Modi will address both houses of Congress.The United States and India agreed in 2008 to cooperate in the civil nuclear arena, but there have been no agreements yet to build any plants.Reuters reported Tuesday that Westinghouse and India reached a breakthrough after officials said it will relocate the planned project in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The original site proposed for the multi-billion-dollar project, in Modi's home state of Gujarat, faced local opposition.Another obstacle had been to bring India's liability rules into line with international norms, which require the costs of an accident to be channeled to the operator rather than the maker of a nuclear power station.That issue had been largely resolved to the satisfaction of the US government in January 2015 after the United States and India reached a "breakthrough understanding" on nuclear cooperation.Singh told reporters "to the best of my knowledge" insurance was no longer an issue in the discussions.Westinghouse had hoped to clinch a deal to build six nuclear reactors in India by the end of March, during Modi's last Washington trip to attend a global nuclear summit.US lawmakers ratified the civil nuclear accord three years after it was struck in 2005, as part of an attempt to deepen the strategic relationship with India, but have expressed growing dismay over its failure to yield follow-on deals for US-based reactor makers.REUTERS DS RJ 0924 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-764669.Xml
"I am honoured to join you in marking Pakistani Peacekeepers' Day. Since its first deployment to the Congo in 1960, Pakistan has been one of the most consistent and reliable contributors to United Nations peacekeeping," the Foreign Affairs,

Government of Pakistan quoted Ban Ki Moon as saying in a statement.

Speaking at the Pakistani Peacekeepers' Day yesterday, Ban Ki Moon highlighted about the country's peacekeepers.

"Through the decades, Pakistan has deployed more than 150,000 personnel to 41 peacekeeping missions in 23 countries. Today, more than 7,000 uniformed personnel from Pakistan are serving in seven peacekeeping missions, making it our third largest troop- and police-contributor," he said.

The UNSG said that deployment of Pakistani personnel at various places has significantly improved political and security situation in those areas.

"In places like Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia, Pakistani units were instrumental in the much improved political and security situation that the people of these countries enjoy today. Pakistanis have also been actively engaged in New York to enhance peacekeeping performance - starting with our Military Adviser Lieutenant General Maqsood Ahmed," he added.

He also paid tribute Allama Iqbal, the national poet, saying, "The great Pakistani poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal once reminded us that the ultimate aim. is not to see something but to be something."

Thanking Pakistan's contribution to International Peace and Security, he said that United Nations is looking forward for its continuing contribution.(ANI)
The Turkish army killed five Islamic State militants in Syria in cross-border shelling, Turkish military sources said today, hitting positions west of where an offensive on militants was launched by Syrian fighters with US backing.Thousands of Syrian rebels supported by a small US special operations team launched a major offensive on Tuesday to drive Islamic State from the "Manbij pocket" near the Turkish border, which Islamic State has used as a logistics hub.Washington informed Ankara of the Manbij operation, but it was beyond the range of Turkish artillery and Turkey would not back a campaign in which Syrian Kurdish fighters played a role, another Turkish military source said yesterday.Turkish border guards fired artillery at two Islamic State positions near the Syrian town of Azaz yesterday, the Turkish military sources said, west of the US-backed operation and directly south of the Turkish border town of Kilis, which has been repeatedly hit by Islamic State rockets.Turkey objects to the United States' backing of the Kurdish YPG militia against Islamic State in Syria because it considers the group to have deep ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group waging an insurgency in the Turkish southeast.Prime Minister Binali Yildirim yesterday said weapons given to the YPG militia in Syria were making their way to PKK militants in Turkey."The side elements of the terrorist organisation (PKK) in Syria and Iraq are procuring these in the name of the struggle against terrorism and transfer them to the terrorist organisations in Turkey. This is unacceptable," he said.Turkey is trying to stamp out the PKK insurgency after it re-ignited last July when a two-year ceasefire collapsed. The United States and Turkey both list the PKK as a terrorist group.Turkish jets struck PKK camps in northern Iraq early today and destroyed seven rebel targets the Metina area, the military sources also said.The PKK is mainly based in mountainous northern Iraq, and Turkey regularly enters Iraqi airspace to strike their camps and weapon stores, despite objections from Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. REUTERS DS SB1345 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-765027.Xml
Senaratne said that President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a committee to study strategies to reduce the numbers gradually and finally stop sending maids abroad.

"We want to discourage the house maids category in the foreign employment because the social cost is very high," he said, reports Colombo Page.

The island nation's one of the main foreign exchange comes from expatriate workers, mainly house maids and unskilled labourers, that reportedly help earn around seven billion dollars a year for the $82.2 billion economy.

Senaratne added that Human rights abuses and social costs due to rapes, drug addiction and child abuse in many families of house maids, and labour shortage locally, have prompted the government to take such a decision.

According to the latest data from the Foreign Employment Bureau showed, in 2013, around 1,650 Sri Lankan house maids complained of being physically and sexually abused by their employers mainly in the Middle East. (ANI)
EgyptAir's chairman today denied media reports that the airliner which crashed into the Mediterranean in May had sent a series of technical warnings during flights in the 24 hours before it disappeared from radar screens."For me it is not true," Safwat Musallam said on the sidelines of the IATA annual meeting in Dublin when asked about the French media reports.Musallam said flight MS804 had not experienced any maintenance issues before departure and that the plane, an Airbus A320 was "normal"."We fully trust the aircraft and the pilot," he said.The search zone for the crashed EgyptAir jet has been narrowed to 2 km (1.24 miles) from 5 km after a French warship picked up a signal from one of the aircraft's black boxes, an Egyptian source on the investigation committee said today.REUTERS VS SDR AS1554 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-765314.Xml
Iraqs Fallujah offensive against Islamic State has temporary ground to a halt as 50,000 people, including 20,000 children, were feared to be trapped inside the city and running out of supplies. The delay was announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Wednesday as the military fears for the safety of the trapped civilians, who have a limited supply of food, water, and healthcare. In footage broadcast on state television, Abadi told military commanders in the operations room near the frontline: It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasnt among our priorities... Thank God, our units are at the outskirts of Fallujah and victory is within reach. The United Nations has previously reported that IS fighters have been using civilians as human shields. Iraqs troops will remain at the citys edge until further notice, having encountered heavy resistance from Islamic State fighters. Most of the civilians have been evacuated from the Fallujah, but about 50,000 are still believed to be trapped inside with scant supplies of food, water, and medicine. Around 20,000 are thought to be children, according to UNICEF, the UNs childrens right agency. We are concerned over the protection of children in the face of extreme violence, UNICEF Representative in Iraq Peter Hawkins said in a statement. Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting inside Fallujah. Moreover, the World Food Programme (WFP) said the humanitarian crisis inside the city walls is getting worse. The city is inaccessible for assistance and market distribution systems remain offline... The only food available does not come from the markets, but from the stocks that some families still have in their homes. Fallujah saw some of the heaviest fighting during the US-led military intervention of 2003-2011, and in January of 2014, it became first city in Iraq to fall to Islamic State fighters. The extremists declared a caliphate in territories they had seized in Iraq and Syria in late June 2014. Aside from Fallujah, Islamic State controls territory in the countrys north and west, including the countrys second largest city, Mosul. --IANS ahm/dg ( 360 Words) 2016-06-02-17:24:12 (IANS)
Ukraine's parliament approved today judicial reforms that Western backers say are needed to fight corruption, in the first constitutional vote the ruling coalition has pushed through since an overhaul of the government in April.Bribery in the court system is seen as a major obstacle to Ukraine's broader reform effort under a 17.5 billion dollar International Monetary Fund bailout programme that political infighting has threatened to derail.The bill, which aims to curb political influence on the appointment of judges and limit their immunity in case of malpractice, was backed by 335 lawmakers, 35 more than the required votes needed for changes to the constitution.Passing the reform goes some way to meeting the demands of Ukraine's international backers -- the United States, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund -- who have urged Kiev to step up its fight against corruption.The IMF, which is in negotiations with Ukraine for disbursing more aid worth 1.7 billion dollar, has previously threatened to freeze such assistance if matters did not improve."We will return to Ukrainians the right to truth, the right to justice, fight for a fair trial in Ukraine," President Petro Poroshenko told parliament before the vote."In the last two weeks my desk has been littered with appeals from our partners, EU leaders, the United States and Canada, Australia and Japan, addressing me and you, members of parliament. Don't stop the pace of decisive reforms and implement judicial reform."The legislation was opposed by some lawmakers, including the servicewoman Nadiya Savchenko, who returned home last week after spending nearly two years in a Russian jail and is viewed by many Ukrainians as a national heroine.In an emotional appeal she asked the parliament to keep its hands off the constitution, "or else the country will blow up like a hand grenade". She did not take part in the vote.The reform is aimed at making judges more professional. It partly limits their immunity from prosecution, which used to be unconditional. From now on they will be appointed by a judicial council rather than parliament, which is intended to shield them from political meddling."Today we have a historic opportunity to carry out this judicial reform, to break the back of the current corrupt judicial system," the head of the opposition Radical Party Oleh Lyashko said. REUTERS VS SDR BL1732 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-765584.Xml
After a flurry of boat departures that sent hundreds of migrants to their deaths in the Mediterranean, survivors told police they had been kept for weeks on one meal a day in holding houses near the Libyan shore.Then they boarded the rubber or wooden vessels, but only those co-opted to run or drive the boats were given life-jackets, according to accounts given to Italian police.As calmer summer weather begins, European officials who struck a deal with Turkey to block crossings to Greece have been scrambling for ways to shut down flows on the other major sea route into the EU from Libya.They hope a UN-sponsored government that arrived in Tripoli in March will bring stability, and the EU last week agreed to help to train Libya's coastguard.But Libyan officials describe themselves as under-resourced and helpless against powerful smugglers who go about their trade with impunity, adapting swiftly to new conditions.At least 880 migrants and refugees died trying to cross the Mediterranean last week, the UN refugee agency said. The route between North Africa and Italy was "dramatically more dangerous" than the one to Greece, it said, with the chances of perishing estimated at one in 23.The new government faces a complex challenge asserting its authority, while efforts to counter people trafficking were thrown into disarray by the conflict that followed Libya's 2011 uprising, and the coastguard feels abandoned."The only assistance we have been offered so far is promises," said Colonel Abdulassmad Massoud of the coastguard in Tripoli.Italy says arrivals so far in 2016 are down two percent on last year at about 40,000 landings, mostly from countries like Nigeria, Eritrea, Gambia and Somalia. There is little sign of a return of Syrian migrants, tens of thousands of whom were travelling through Libya until they switched to the Turkey-Greece crossing in 2015.Instead, smugglers enriched by those Middle Eastern migrants are again working long-established routes across thousands of kilometres of hostile desert between sub-Saharan Africa and western Libya.UNGUARDED BORDERSAs migrants pass through Libya, they enter a system marked by abuse, corruption and a near-complete vacuum of state authority.Many African migrants remain in the system for months or years, some settling or returning home and some raising money for an onward journey to Europe. A minority turn to crime or end up fighting in Libya's fitful conflict."All the smugglers are connected and they pass the migrants on between each other," said Ibrahim Shawish, the mayor of Murzuq, a desert town about 350 km from Libya's southern border.Traffickers can cross that border freely he said, and convoys of as many as 25 vehicles then head north unhindered. "Sometimes there's a checkpoint at the entrance of a city, but they can always take a different route."There is no policing and little external aid. Germany has pledged 5 million dollar to support communities in Sabha and Gatroun, two key southern areas on migrant routes, but Libyan officials complain that international efforts are too focussed on blocking crossings at sea.Though the EU has warned of hundreds of thousands of displaced people who could cross the Mediterranean, officials and aid workers in Libya say a lack of data makes an accurate estimate impossible.The International Organization for Migration has identified 235,000 migrants in Libya, but says the real number is likely to be between 700,000 and one million.Migrants who are arrested often end up back in the smuggling networks after being released or even deported, officials and aid workers say."It makes no difference because the flow coming in is much greater than the number being deported, and the ones who are sent back to their countries are returning because there is no security on the borders," said Salem Ashwin, a migration official at Tripoli's international cooperation ministry.CHEAP DINGHIESLawless Libya provides fertile ground for the smugglers, who often work with militias that hold real power on the ground.In an unusual backlash, residents in Zuwara, a long-time stronghold for people smuggling about 50 km from the Tunisian border, demanded action against the traffickers after bodies washed up on the beaches last year. Some smugglers were arrested and some fled, according to Zuwara Mayor Hafed Bensassi.But other departure points have opened up, with at least half a dozen between Zuwara and the port city of Misrata, about 300 km to the east. Most of the recent departures appear to have been from around Sabratha, which was in turmoil earlier this year as local brigades fought Islamic State militants."Until we have enough technology to watch the whole coast they'll always find gaps," said Salem, the ministry official.Smugglers offer different prices for different types of boats, which range from seaworthy fishing vessels with radar systems to cheap inflatable dinghies with improvised wooden bases.Even in the Mediterranean, they appear able to skirt round restrictions with relative ease.People trafficking is intertwined with that of drugs and fuel, coastguards say, and new supplies of migrant boats are brought in on smuggling vessels that arrive from Malta and Egypt."Most of the fuel smuggling boats are carrying in migrant smuggling materials in front of the eyes of the Europeans," said Colonel Ayoub Qassem, a coastguard spokesman.Operation Sophia, an EU naval mission that began last year and is authorised to seize and divert vessels suspected of being used for people smuggling, says it has contributed to the apprehension of dozens of suspects and "neutralised" more than 100 vessels.It is now planning to expand to include coastguard training and enforcement of a UN arms embargo, and Britain says it intends to deploy a warship to the southern Mediterranean to help.But without a request from Libya's unity government, those missions are unable to gain entry to Libyan waters. Even if they could, it is unclear where migrants they picked up could be sent, given the risk of mistreatment in Libya.A British parliamentary report published last month found Operation Sophia had so far failed to disrupt smuggling "in any meaningful way"."The arrests made to date have been of low-level targets, while the destruction of vessels has simply caused the smugglers to shift from using wooden boats to rubber dinghies, which are even more unsafe," the report said. REUTERS VS SDR BL1800 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0440-765684.Xml
WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016  The agribusiness sectors of Cuba and the United States could both stand to learn a little from the other country, Cubas agriculture minister said Thursday in Washington.

In an address at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce headquarters, Gustavo Rodriguez detailed the things that his sector hoped to learn from its American counterpart, but also what he thinks Cuban agriculture has to offer the U.S.

Cuba will need to learn fast, he said, because the government there wants to develop 6.2 million hectares of arable land  about 15.3 million acres  to keep up with increased demand brought about by policy changes and a projected uptick in tourism.

Rodriguez, speaking though a translator, spoke particularly highly of Cubas organic agriculture sector and system of agricultural co-ops. While he sees these two areas of the countrys economy as strengths, he also acknowledged both have a long way to go.

Rodriguez said that when Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was in Cuba, one of the things Vilsack noticed was Cubas propensity for organic production. While organic produce could eventually carve out a nice niche for Cuban agriculture, Rodriguez said Cuban producers have grown organic out of necessity, because we didnt have anything else, referring to the inability to access biotechnology.

He said he wants the information exchange with the U.S. to have a focus on technology and equipment, but Cubas organic sector also lacks any system of certification.

(Vilsack) and I are going to exchange how (certification) is done in the U.S., Rodriguez said. Based on how things are going, we need to have one or more methods of certification. But in order to sell it in the open market, it has to be more official.

Cubas farmers, he said, specialize in tropical fruit, particularly mango, guava, pineapple, papaya and avocado. Most producers use a form of the co-op business model in their production, but the ownership structure can vary. Rodriguez described three different kinds of co-ops: one with government ownership of land and private ownership of production; another where the co-op provides loans and other services; and a final method where a group of farmers produce together, such as small parcels of land in Havana, Cubas capital city.

As for what Cuba hopes to receive from the U.S, Rodriguez said there is a great need for credit and equipment. He said the country needs longer term financing options. It is currently illegal for private U.S. lenders to offer credit to Cubans for most overseas purchases. Theres also a well-known need for new agricultural equipment.

A tractor is classified as a tractor, but since it is 40 years old, they call it a tractor but it doesnt work as one, Rodriguez said, describing one example of Cubas aging agriculture machinery fleet.

Cuban producers will also need help with maintenance when newer machinery finally starts arriving, Rodriguez added.

Thursdays visit marked the second trip to the U.S. by a Cuban cabinet member in the last five months after going about 50 years without a similar visit. Rodrigo Malmierca, Cubas minister of foreign investment and trade, made a trip earlier this year.

After leaving Washington, Rodriguez will be paying a visit to Iowa to meet Vilsack and tour some of the states agriculture facilities.

The American business interests that hosted Thursdays event hope the recent incremental changes dealing with travel and trade will eventually lead to bigger changes between the two countries. Perhaps no change could be more impactful than Congress lifting the trade embargo that critics claim is outdated and blocking what could be a mutually beneficial economic relationship.

Like what you see on the Agri-Pulse website? See even more ag, rural policy and energy news when you sign up for a four-week free trial Agri-Pulse subscription.





Five decades of unilateral sanctions have failed to bring reform in Cuba, said Jodi Hanson Bond, a vice president with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the president of the U.S. Cuba Business Council. Congress must reevaluate the reasons the U.S. implemented the sanctions in the first place and the consequences to the Cuban people.

Cargills Van Yeutter closed out the event by noting that a business relationship between Cuba and the U.S. should be a natural arrangement.

The times have now changed, he said. This is good for the United States, this is good for Cuba, this is good for the world. Theres enough problems in the world today, the United States and Cuba relationship certainly doesnt need to be one of those problems.

#30
Ambassador Huseyin Avni Karslioglu was expected to fly back to Turkey on Thursday afternoon, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The Turkish government reacted furiously to the decision of the German parliament to pass the motion, which was almost unanimous, with just one person voting against and another abstaining.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was currently on a state visit to Kenya, has said the German resolution will seriously impact relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the move and said in a speech in the Turkish capital Ankara that a racist Armenian lobby was responsible for the vote decision of the German parliament.

The ruling AK Party in Turkey said the move had seriously damaged relations between the two countries, while Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus was equally scathing, calling the German parliament's resolution a historic mistake.

In the build-up to the ballot, numerous Turkish politicians warned that relations between the two countries would suffer if the motion was passed to recognise the mass killings during the First World War as a genocide.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who missed the vote due to prior engagements, said that Berlins relationship with Ankara was broad and strong.

--IANS ahm/vt

( 253 Words)

2016-06-02-18:32:08 (IANS)
Northern Ireland authorities were on Thursday set to lift a lifetime ban on gay men donating blood. Health Minister Michelle O'Neill was due to make the announcement later on Thursday, BBC reported. A lifetime ban came into force across Britain during the 1980s AIDS crisis, but was lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in November 2011. Northern Ireland retained the permanent ban. --IANS ksk/dg ( 74 Words) 2016-06-02-19:42:05 (IANS)
Philippines President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said today he would not surrender the country's rights over the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, which China seized in 2012."There will never be an instance that we will surrender our right over Scarborough Shoal," Duterte told a news conference after holding talks with China's ambassador Zhang Jianhua."That is not a territorial issue. It is an issue about being obstructed or impeded because of the constructions there and we cannot exercise freely the rights under UNCLOS of the 200-mile economic zone that is exclusive to us."He said he did not discuss the South China Sea dispute with the ambassador because the Philippines was anticipating a decision from a tribunal in The Hague.Manila has brought a case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration against China under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China does not recognise the court's jurisdiction in the dispute.Duterte, a tough-talking mayor who won the presidency last month, said he would pursue multilateral talks to resolve peacefully the sovereignty issues in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands on reefs and atolls.China claims most of the sea area, through which about 5 trillion dollar worth of ship-borne goods passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines also have claims on the region, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas.Duterte made headlines during his election campaign by saying he would ride a jetski to plant a Philippine flag on China's man-made islands. REUTERS AKC NS2223 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-766330.Xml
The state of drilling in TT

The committee chaired by Imbert keenly probed Ministry officials headed by permanent secretary, Selwyn Lashley, to expose shortcomings in the exploration and extraction of natural gas and in the tax-beaks given to incenti vise oil/gas companies.

Imbert bemoaned a steep fall-off in the number of rig-days of drilling of exploration wells. This fell from 5,622 rig days in 2006, to 710 rig days in 2007. For successive years the rig days were 837 (in 2008), 113 (in 2009), 87 (in 2010), 142 (in 2011), 268 (in 2012), 227 (in 2013) and 270 rig days in 2014).

Imbert asked why the country does not have a consistent number of rig days year in and year out.

Lashley in reply blamed the inconsistencies on several factors, firstly a clustering of drilling done by several fi rms in a short space of ti me whenever they jointly import an off shore rig into the country to share.

However Imbert challenged that to say the figures showed companies doing no exploration drilling for many, many years.

Lashley retorted that exploration does not consist only of drilling but also carrying out seismic testing and then interpreting the results.

Independent Senator David Small asked if the Ministry has a target of say 200,000 feet or X number of wells, from which to work backwards to arrange the bid-rounds for various bits of acreage? He asked, Do we have a structured plan for exploration in the country? Lashley replied that the Ministry supports continuous exploration, and that drilling may fall early or late within a six year programme of developing a well.

Saying that the countrys depleting gas reserves must be replaced by new finds, and that for every fi ve exploratory wells drilled maybe only one or two yield any gas, Small asked if any analysis was being done on these figures? Lashley said the country needs to replace about one trillion cubic feet (tcf) per year, yet suggested that the licences held by companies such as BP contained no requirement to drill.

They have acreage and there is no exploration programme in the licence to which they are committed by licence to execute, he revealed. So that is a conversation that has to take place in terms of, you know, what do they have in their inventory, what is the sort of prospectivity and their programme in terms of investment, capital investment, in order to support drilling.

Imbert said that many fields see a rapid decline in production - such as a drop from 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 10,000 bpd in a BHP Biliton field off the East Coast. He declared, Why would you not have a targetted drilling programme on an annual basis, since the only way you could increase production is by drilling? How else can we fi nd oil except by drilling? Minister of Local Government, Franklin Khan, said while new licencees have a duty to meet a minimum amount of exploratory drilling, much of TTs prospective acreage is held by two or three companies that are not so bound.

So your core companies have gone past their minimum work obligations, but they still sit on the prime acreage of the country, said Khan.

As a country and as a Ministry, you have to engage them now to come up with a robust exploration programme because they are on the productive acreage, and we have to do something about that.

The issue here is not giving a new PSC (production sharing contract) with somebody getting a new company to drill two exploration wells, because the chances of finding there is significantly smaller than in the productive acreage under the control of the three companies of which I speak (Repsol, Petro Canada and Canadian Superior). Lashley said the TT branch of any global oil/gas firm must compete with other branches of the firm abroad for capital to invest for exploration and production, and so a State can offer incentives/taxbreaks for fields deemed marginal prospects.

However Small lamented that this country has 200,000 hectares of productive acreage, yet the natural gas industry is stagnant and oil production is in steep decline.

I think some urgent action is required, he urged. Small urged the Ministry take a firmer tone towards companies, who must pointedly be asked their plans for activati ng TTs prospective assets.

And if your plan does not meet our requirements, then let us discuss a way in which we could get some other party in there to get our requirements met. Small hoped that in these talks TT will be very, very focused on delivering results, just as the companies are for their stakeholders.

They are laser focused on it, and when they come in the room they do not want to move unti l they get their stakeholders met. All I am saying is we should adopt a similar strategy. We have a situation where our gas industry is stagnant, our oil sector is also in sharp decline, and we need some of these assets to be performing for us, not on your schedule but rather on our schedule, urged Small.

But I have also been in a room with companies under contract, with fi rm hard commitments to the Government, which have come to the room and said, Listen, we are not able to abide by these current terms, and we would like to have a discussion with you to change these terms. I recall very well, one very large company decided that they were not going to drill a certain amount of wells, and opted to do some programme with Petrotrin and the Ministry accepted that. All I am saying is when these companies have their issues and they want terms changed or adjusted, they come knocking and they come knocking very, very hard and are very clear about what they want. All I am saying is, in your most diplomatic style, that we engage them with similar fervour. Trade Minister, Paula Gopee- Scoon, asked about a shortage in gas-supply to downstream operators.

Lashley replied that potential marginal fields are smaller than usual, with less attractive characteristi cs that would need the use of technologies now under discussion with local universities.

Deputy permanent secretary, Heidi Wong, said this country must set a fiscal regime of tax-breaks for oil/ gas companies that are comparable to rival energy-producing nations, so as to attract investors. If we are to remain in the market, we must be competi tive. She spoke of a balancing act between giving taxbreaks and earning revenues.

Imbert retorted, I understand, but then we reach present-day where they are writing off 100 per cent of the capital investment in the first year and you get zero income, and they are carrying forward their losses and you get zero income next year and the year after that. So do you have a scientific approach to this? Is it a hit and miss approach or is it that there is a particular point in the range of countries that you want to be? Energy analyst, Ivor Superville, spelt out the countrys decline in energy production. Oil production fell from 140,000 barrels per day (BPD) in 2006 to 87,000 bpd in 2015, and to 75,000 bpd today according to Imbert. Likewise the proven gas reserves fell from 12.2 tcf to 11.5 tcf, all against the backdrop of an aging industry infrastructure.

Franklin Khan supported Imberts call, saying, The governing principle of taxation of a wasting asset is that the State must maximize economic rent, because we are not producing oil just to say we are producing oil, because when de oil finish, it finish and when de gas finish, it finish.

In other words, if the State cannot extract economic rent from that asset that God has put here, it makes no sense producing it. That is point one. So there is a limit to where you could bring the incenti isati on. Khan added, Secondly, when you give 100 per cent write off on an exploration well, PPT (Petroleum Profits Tax) is 50 per cent, unemployment levy is fi ve per cent. What you are in fact doing, if the company is not tax liable, is the State is funding 55 per cent of that well once you can write it off on your petroleum profit and your unemployment levy. So understand it, you are actually funding that well half way! Khan also warned against taxbreaks given to new exploration wells drilled in wider fields known to contain oil. But what seems to be happening is that in known acreage, new fi eld extensions and fi ld extensions, if they are categorized as exploration you are shooting yourself in the foot, because in some of those old E&P licences it is difficult to classify a field extension prospect as a new fi eld wildcat, he said. I feel you have to make a further subdivision of your exploration wells to say new field wildcat, granted 100 per cent write-off of exploration costs. But you should have a sliding scale where those that fall in between cannot qualify for 100 per cent write-off . Gopee-Scoon urged TT to heed those countries such as Chile, Germany and Saudi Arabia which put a limit of three to fi ve years on the ti me for which a companys tax losses can be carried forward into successive years. Why is it that we have driven ourselves to this extent where you (oil/gas companies) can just do what you want for as long as possible? Told by Superville that this practice was due to provisions of the Finance Act 1988, Imbert mulled, Is it ti me now to revisit it? Getting a nod from Lashley, Imbert urged him to bring his own recommendations to the next JSC sitting a fortnight later.

Pointe-a-Pierre MP Dr David Lee highlighted a company which incurred no exploration expenditure in 2015 but sti ll got a $103 million tax-break due to an increased capital allowance. Superville denied this was any loss of State revenues, saying it is merely a deferral of payment. Imbert countered that a delay in payment consti tutes a loss in revenues to the Government.

He mulled the benefit of the 100 percent capital allowance as an incentive. It worked, but it worked in one way. They (oil/gas companies) are coming in but we are getting no revenue, so it really hurts the country in terms of the bottom line.

So, we need to look at it again. Chief Technical Officer, Richard Jeremy, in an update about on-shore drilling said the Ministry in 2014 had allocated three land blocks with sum 12 exploration wells committed and due to start by 2017, after some initial geological and geophysical work.

Minister of National Security, Edmund Dillon, noted a backlog of 385 audits of service-providers and contractors. Imbert said only 11 staff members are doing 385 audits, and asked how many persons are actually needed to do so? Wong said two extra persons were being sought, but clarified to Imbert that this was to handle ongoing work, but that the backlog should be done by more persons hired as service-providers.

Imbert hit, I find that the two Ministries that should not be short staff ed is my Ministry and Energy.

What we want to know is how much, what is the extent of your shortage, or your resource constraints, and in which disciplines, and do you have is definite plan? Because I can assure you, I think I can speak for all members of this Committ ee, we will support any increase in staffing at the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries that is required, so we ned to know. One of the things I want to tell you, by the way, I will keep pushing unti l all secrets are revealed. We are not going to allow any secrets in this Committee. Imbert queried a rise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) sales to North America where prices are low and a drop in exports to Asia where prices are high. Jeremy blamed this on committed gas to North America and due to the inclusion of Mexico in the definition of North America.

He added that gas-prices in Asia have fallen, so making LNG exports fetch a better price in nearby South America due to lower freight costs.

Imbert asked if the Government has to just sit back and let Atlantic LNG send its exports wherever they choose, to be told by Jeremy yes.

Replying to Small, Ministry advisor, Frank Look Kin, revealed that the Ministry has no official policy on gas allocati on between the rival demands of Atlanti c LNG and downstream users, even in recent times of gas-supply shortages. He vowed to supply figures.

Imbert asked if there should be a policy, to which Lashley said yes.
A critical need to improve detection rates

The TT Chamber wishes to express its congratulations to the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, and indeed all of the nations security agencies for the swift and efficient action in the detection and apprehension of the alleged culprit of the bomb threat.

At the same time, the number of murders continues to escalate at an alarming rate. Provisional statistics from the TTPS for the period January to April 2016 showed an increase of 21.5 percent over 2015, with the actual figures being 158 murders up to April 2016, compared to 130 for the same period in 2015.

The overall detection rate for serious crimes stood at an unacceptable 5.84 percent at April 2016, reflecting a trend in the wrong direction from previous years. Unfortunately, this lends itself to building confidence among criminal elements, who realise that the probability of being caught and punished is low. The police service has a critical part to play if arrest and successful prosecution is to happen. All too often cases that do make it to the courts have to be dismissed because of poor evidence-gathering or other technical failures.

The TT Chamber is aware of the additional demands being placed upon members of the Police Service. It is an unenviable task which has been given to them, as officers are called upon to put their lives on the line with great regularity. We support all efforts to build strong community relations (such as through the Citizens Security Programme), as doing so will help to ensure that crime is addressed from a preventative level and intelligence gathering capabilities will be enhanced.

One small light on the horizon is the recent announcement that the work of the Police Service Commission has been completed, paving the way for the advertising of the post of Commissioner of Police to begin. We now hope that the entire process leading to an appointment will be speedy and efficient. Once completed, the appointment is expected to go a long way towards instilling a greater degree of confidence in the police, and building of a high performing police team.

The growing brazenness of criminal elements has been a disturbing trend. While criminals seem to be more and more fearless, the brutality of crimes is increasing. Today, there are whole communities being held to ransom by groups who have set themselves up as leaders. If this trend is allowed to escalate unhindered and undetected, Trinidad and Tobago risks sinking into lawlessness that could destroy the very fabric of society.

Urgent action by those charged with the responsibility is an imperative.

Minister of Local Government, Franklin Khan
Tobago designers at Pigeon Point Heritage Park

I always wanted 2TFW to be a Tobago based brand, where Tobagonians can say this is home grown and continues to prosper from the island, said Founder Ashley Christmas. The brand is more about longevity. Having it so someone can see it and take it from year 10 for instance, into wherever its supposed to be, said Christmas.

This year 2TFW did things differently and showcased the first night at Pigeon Point. blink | bmobile partnered with 2TFW to make the fashion experience a memorable one that evening and even provided a flash photography booth for patrons along with other blink | bmobile gifts.

Fashion as an industry in Tobago has been growing and building momentum. At blink | bmobile, we support entrepreneurial activities that contribute to enhancing the social landscape of Tobago in different ways. It is also a way of encouraging different types of industries to grow and benefit the Tobago economy and environment, said Onica Blackman, Enterprise Marketing and Communications Manager.

Under the theme, Beach Silhoutte With A Rose, were some new designers, who Christmas described as young, dynamic, hip, high energy and suitable for the beach vibe and theme.

Showcasing in Trinidad and Tobago for the first time was Kathleen Bailey, KBK Kreations, from St Vincent, with her line, Essence of Bare Skins. Bailey, the daughter of an Haute Couture Designer, specializes in swim suits and cover ups. In describing her collection, Bailey said, swimsuits are fun and funky. Stretch material is easy to work with and not too time consuming. This years collection was all about getting comfortable and swag with your body and bold enough to wear what youre comfortable in and look sexy.

Tobagonian Zobah Samuel showcased her line Land and Sea Creation, a collection using recycled materials. Samuel admitted that although she has been designing about 7 years, she had never entered a fashion show in that way. Samuel shared that she would normally enter smaller shows such as Easter Bonnet pageants where she designed for children. However, after taking the advice of a pageant judge, she decided to contact Christmas, who after seeing her designs, offered her the opportunity to showcase at 2TFW. It took me one week to prepare. I was happy I took the advice and challenged myself, said Samuel.

Avien Thomas of Osanie Designs, is another Tobago based designer, who only started designing bags in September 2015. Thomas who is self- taught, said she got fed up seeing simple, one colour, plain bags on the market and so decided to start making printed womens bags and clutches. Commenting on her 2TFW experience, Thomas said, It was an amazing experience. Something I can take from and make any other event I have better.
Ramdeen: We will challenge SSA law

Ramdeen, at a press conference yesterday, pointed out that Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi failed to provide proper legal arguments supporting his contention that the passage of the Bill did not require a special majority of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

It is now a matter of public record that the strategic services amendment bill has been assented by the President yesterday (Tuesday) and as you know, this bill was passed in Parliament, both in the Lower House and in the Upper House without a special majority.

The assent by His Excellency was one with which the Opposition was not surprised, because having regard to section 80 of the constitution, as well as section 61(2), we were of the view that His Excellency really had no discretion to exercise in this matter.

Before the assent took place, when the government proposed to bring this very draconian piece of legislation as the Opposition has described it...We highlighted to the member of the public the fact that the new definition of serious crime really allows the director of the SSA and unfettered discretion to exercise the very draconian powers that are given to him under the Interception of Communications Act.

We also highlighted the fact it was a very dangerous precedent to set by allowing the SSA with these additional powers that were given by the amendment, to be in the hands of someone who was politically appointed. And we expressed the view and the concern that no regulations were brought with the amendments by the Attorney General so as to safeguard the powers and to curtail and to provide to the citizen some form of protection when this type of legislation was being brought, Ramdeen said.

He added that the Opposition holds firm to the view that this is a very dangerous piece of legislation and one which required a special majority. The UNC, he said, believes there are no Constitutional safeguards in place to protect the public from abuse via the SSA law, on their right to privacy. Ramdeen added that Al Rawi has yet to provide supporting arguments for his stance that a special majority was not needed for the bills passage.

He said the Opposition has sought counsel, both local and overseas, and has been advised that a special majority was needed for passage of the bill. Therefore, whenever the bill is proclaimed, the Opposition will challenge it and we are confident our challenge will be successful. Efforts to reach Stuart Young, Minister in the Office of the Attorney General, for a comment yesterday proved futile.
Human trafficking suspect killed

He has been identified as Shazad Mohammed, 45, of Uriah Butler Highway in Chaguanas.

His friend Rennie Villafana, at whose home police said Mohammed was staying at the time, remains warded in critical condition at San Fernando General Hospital.

Police also identified Mohammed as the main suspect in the May 22 murder of Anand Lucky Mohammed of Caparo who was shot and killed in Stone Road, Piparo. A police report stated that at about 1.30 am yesterday, PCs Ramlochan and Ramcharan of the Brasso Police Station responded to a report of several loud explosions at a house at Nariva Road, Tabaquite.

Upon arrival, officers discovered two persons suffering from gun shot wounds  one was already dead and the other was rushed to the SFGH in critical condition.

Mohammed survived previous shooting attempts on his life, police said. He was known to us as he trades in women from Venezuela and Colombia and other Spanish speaking countries, one police officer said.

He is heavily involved in the trade from down the main and sometimes stayed in Cedros and in Tabaquite. An autopsy was expected to be performed yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre in St James
Lawyers: Free the acquitted 7

Shervon Buffy Peters; Keida Garcia, Marlon Mad Man Marlon Trimmingham; Ronald 22 Armstrong; Antonio Hedges Charles; Anthony Dwayne Gloster, also called Anthony Peters and Jamile WASA Garcia  were among the ten on trial for the businesswomans murder.

She was kidnapped on December 19, 2006.

Devon Blackboy Peters was immediately freed on Tuesday and he was among the eight acquitted by a jury. The two who did not benefit from a not guilty verdict by the jury are Earl Bobo Trimmingham and Lyndon Iron James who will now have to face a fresh trial.

Two other accused men, Allan Scanny Martin and Joel Fraser, were shot dead (last July during a failed prison break) and released following a no-case submission that was upheld by trial judge Malcolm Holdip, respectively.

The failure to free the seven was as a result of an administrative issue as they had been charged with the abduction of Naipaul-Coolman but this was not pursued by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) which opted to have the men indicted on the murder charge.

As the abduction charges are still on the mens record, they were not immediately freed, as it is still registered against them, when a tracing was done by police.

Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart told Newsday yesterday, it was his understanding that the men had outstanding warrants and therefore they could not be released at this time.

One of the lawyers representing the men, Alexia Romero, was yesterday in contact with the Office of the DPP seeking their release.

She indicated she is prepared to file writs of habeas corpus on behalf of the men if discussions with the DPP fail.

Efforts to reach out to the Naipaul family were futile as they refused to comment.

They were reported as saying that this was a sensitive time for the family and were reported to have said, Its in Gods hands. Rennie Coolman, Naipaul-Coolmans husband who testified at the trial and at one point was the focus of attention, could not be reached for comment.
Cedros murder trial continues

ASP Deokaran Palloo said he was the lead investigator in the January 21, 2004 murder of Probation Officer at the Point Fortin Magistrates court, Krysta Lackpatsingh, 23.

Jason Housten, 36, of Cedros, is before Justice Carla Brown Antoine in the San Fernando High Court on trial for the murder. Attorney Rekha Ramjit, cross-examining Palloo, asked if Houstens footprints were taken, having regard to his (Palloo) evidence that blood-stained footprints were discovered in the house. He answered, No. Ramjit asked whether Palloo asked Housten for the slippers he wore, so it could have been sent for forensic testing and again the senior cop said no.

The policeman was asked whether the accused was told to give DNA samples to police, to which Palloo said he did not make this request and could not recall if any other officer asked for same. The trial continues today.
Police: Report all cyber crimes

There have been recent issues as it related to threats being circulated online, we are advising persons to report these reports to the police, he said. He said Social Media are platforms that enable the interactive web by engaging users to participate in, comment on and create content as means of communicating with their social graph, other users and the public.

He explained that it allows interactions to cross one or more platforms through social sharing, email, feeds and involves different levels of engagement by participants who can create, comment or lurk on social media networks.

Hernandez said there are many risk and benefits of social media and enables communication to take place in real time.

He said citizens must be aware and know how to safe guard themselves from online abuse.

Limit your personal information and pictures.

If you would not give this information to strangers in public dont place it online. Children may find it hard to judge strangers they meet in person, and its even harder online. He continued, Its very important that parents are aware of what social sites their children are using and information they are revealing. Make sure parental restrictions are being used.

Use the security controls provided in social media sites. Hernandez emphasised that citizens should not delete the threat messages from their digital devices because it is very difficult for the persons who deal with it to extract data.

Do not disseminate it, information that comes to you we are asking persons not to disseminate the information, do not re-circulate it because in re-circulating it causes mass hysteria, he said. He said all threats are investigated by the police to determine the origin, and whether an offence was committed under the law.
Cedros port upgrade as Venezuelan shoppers pour in

The South American neighbour is in the the grip of a serious economic downturn and resultant social and political unrest caused by the plummet in world prices for oil - which is that countrys chief income earner. There are immediate problems that need to be addressed such as a leaking cesspit and an overflowing soakaway.

By next Wednesday, our technical people will be here to address the issue. The toilet facilities are also insufficient. Within a months time we are hoping to accommodate ten persons at one time in the toilet facilties. We are placing emphasis on public health, Doodnath said.

He was speaking to media personnel at Cedros following a meeting with officials from the Cedros port located on the beachfront at Bonnase Village geared at addressing the major concerns and challenges of the port. Among the officials were representatives from the SRC, Immigration Department, Coast Guard, Customs and Excise and the police officers.

In recent months Cedros, which is a legal port of entry in Trinidad, has seen an influx of Venezuelans.

This is mainly because of the social, economic and political problems being experienced in the neighbouring Spanish-speaking nation.

He estimated that at present about 75 Venezuelans enter the port every two days and when the facility was constructed some 20-plus years ago, it had catered for only about ten percent of that figure.

The chairman noted that 98 percent of the foreigners who legally entered the island return to their homeland. Many Venezuelans enter the island simply to purchase food items and some even spend the night in public spaces as they await transportation (boat) to return to Venezuela. Local businesses are prepared for the influx of Venezuelans. Some Venezuelans are overnighting but that matter is being addressed by the police. Police assure there are no issues relative to the behaviour when Venezuelans pass through here. Councillor for Cap-de-Ville/Cedros, Ramesh Sewnal said the Venezuelans are a boon to the economically depressed area in Cedros. It is a boost to the economy as they are coming ready to spend money.

The Venezuelans behave well and come in legally. Business is booming.

Most of the residents do not have an issue with the arrival of the Venezuelans, Sewnal said. Venezuelan Magdalena Montrose, 66, of Maturin said two locations in her home country, namely the Capital District and bordering state Miranda, are not affected by food shortages.

The mother of two explained that mechanisms put in plce by past president Hugo Chavez for his own people are helping to create the crises her homeland faces.

Chavez did some good things and some bad things. A lot of people who Chavez helped, they just took the money. He tried to help the people but they are making mischief. The own people from his party are mashing up his business.

They are not doing the things right.

(Nicolas) Maduro could give orders, but it takes two hands to clap, she said.
Vector trap for Cedros

Cedros has the highest population of adult mosquitos. It (trap) operates with propane and mimics that of a human being.

It will attract thousands and thousands of adults mosquitoes over that one acre-radius at the Cedros Police Station.

This is something which is new to this country, Doodnath told reporters.

The chairman noted that the vector trap cost an estimated $14,000 and another one will sson be installed in the Cedros community.

The units have a one year guarantee each, he added.

Nigel Alleyne of Juicy Solutions Limited gave a demonstration with the trap which he explained will generate heat and so attract the mosquitoes.

When it generates the heat, it also emits gas in this area. The vacuum inside the machine will suck the mosquitos in and so they enter into the net.

Being trapped inside the machine, they will dehydrate probably between 24 to 48 hours and then died, Alleyne explained. Apart from the issues of vector- born diseases councillor for Cap-de-Ville/ Cedros Ramesh Sewnal called for the resumption of construction of a bridge, which is an access road at Bonnase Village to the port, police station and Coast Guard base.

Construction of the bridge started about 11 months ago, the councillor said, and was supposed to be completed by now. Sewnal charged: That bridge is supposed to drain out the entire village. So when tide comes up, it pushes water into the drains and full them.

If rain falls heavily and tide is high, the village of Cedros will flood.

So we need for work to commence immediately. A shop keeper, who requested anonymity, added that sales have dropped to about 65 percent due to the incomplete bridge. Vehicular traffic has to be diverted and she accused the authorities ( both past and present) of neglecting rural communities.
Nidco is sustainable

Small said information provided in Nidcos submissions to the committee suggested the company did not have sufficient financial resources to take it beyond June. Noting that Nidco has not received fees for services for three consecutive quarters, Small asked, Does it go under? In response, Nidco Deputy Chairman Stephen Gardiner said the company has submitted a proposal to its line ministry (Works and Transport) that would deal with its current financial issues, as well as manpower issues.

Gardiner disclosed there are several projects at Cabinet level and five or six have been approved. He was confident that once these projects actualise, they would help put Nidco back on a proper operational footing financially. He was also confident the company would have sufficient financial resources to take us to the end of this year. Gardiner also said manpower was a major problem at Nidco in the post-2010 period. He explained part of that problem arose from Nidco being advised of projects coming its way, ramping up its manpower and when those projects failed to materialise, the company did not adjust its staff.

Gardiner said Nidco was now in the process of trying to right-size the organisation. He also said Nidco was seeking to improve its revenue by marketing itself to other government ministries. Acting Nidco President Steve Garibsingh said the company has been trying to reduce its operating costs through measures such as reducing the number of company vehicles in operation and either reducing or redirecting excess staff to more profitable areas of its operations.

He added that Nidco has a public procurement policy which we follow rigorously.
Bad deal: Iran said to be blackmailing the Obama administration for greater nuclear concessions

(NationalSecurity.news) In what is likely to trigger further suspicion of President Obamas motives, the White House is engaged in taking additional steps to aid and placate Iran far beyond stated U.S. commitments under the nuclear accord agreed upon last summer, say experts who gave testimony earlier this week on Capitol Hill.

Noting that the administration is getting dangerously close to becoming Irans trade promotion and business development authority, the White House has undertaken efforts to boost Irans overall economy and rebuild its financial sector, which were never required under the agreement, experts who provided testimony told the Washington Free Beacon.

In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, experts said the administration sought to soothe relations with Iran as it threatened to walk away from the deal, thus spurring accusations that Tehran is blackmailing the White House, sources told the news web site.

Since the nuclear deal was implemented, the Obama administration has missed the opportunity to push back against Irans legitimization campaign, according to written testimony submitted to the Senate committee by Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Instead of insisting on an end to Irans continuing malign activities, the administration is now dangerously close to becoming Irans trade promotion and business development authority.

Such actions go beyond what the White House says it committed to under the deal, Dobowitz noted.

The administration has made other concessions to Iran as well since supposedly finalizing the deal, which include looking the other way as Iran continues to test ballistic missiles and providing Tehran access to the U.S. dollar.

The continued concessions have spurred congressional investigations as well as accusations that Congress and the American people were misled intentionally about the agreements details.

The WFB reported further:

The White House has also pursued an aggressive push to force U.S. states to drop sanctions and divestment campaigns targeting Iran. While the nuclear deal requires the administration to encourage such behavior, some have questioned the White House tactics, which have been described as bullying.

The administrations actions to date raise serious questions, Dubowitz said. Will the White House try to force individual states to lift their divestment measures, even as the termination criteria for the legislation have not been met? Congress should pay particular attention to any actions by the federal government that go beyond simply informing states and local authorities about the nuclear deal.

In yet another example of the White House going beyond its commitments, senior administration officials including Secretary of State John Kerry have begun touring Europe to encourage business with Iran.

Omri Ceren, managing director of The Israel Project, which has worked closely with Congress on the Iran issue, told the Free Beacon that the administration will likely make further concessions to Iran.

No one is really surprised that the Iranians are blackmailing the United States for ever-more concessions, Ceren said. That was inevitable.

Whats striking, even to policy analysts who closely track the Iran debate, is how no one on any side is bothering to keep up pretenses, he noted further. The Iranians threatened to walk away from the nuclear deal unless they got more relief, and so Secretary Kerry and his colleagues launched global tours to drum up business for Tehran, even though U.S. law forbids Americans from facilitating overseas transactions for Iran.

More:

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Career politician claims that America, number one in prison population worldwide, has an under-incarceration problem

Republic Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton lashed out against bipartisan efforts for criminal justice reform, claiming the United States has an under-incarceration problem.

For the vast majority of crimes, a perpetrator is never identified or arrested, let alone prosecuted, convicted and jailed, Cotton said at the Hudson Institute.

The Arkansas senator has been a fierce critic of a bill in Congress that would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes. In addition, the bill would give judges more power to impose shorter sentences for low level drug related crimes.

Disrupting communities

Adding to his remarks during a question and answer session, Cotton claimed releasing felons with a reduced sentence would disrupt the communities that they are released into. In addition, he thought making it easier for ex felons to get jobs was dangerous.

Law enforcement is able to arrest or identify a likely perpetrator for only 19% of property crimes and 47% of violent crimes. If anything, we have an under-incarceration problem, Cotton said.

The truth is you cannot decrease the severity and certainty of sentences without increasing crime. Its simply impossible, he added.

Proponents of criminal justice reform purport that the harshness of the sentencing does not have much of an impact on repeat offenders and crimes rates.

When he says we have all of these unsolved crimes, so thats why we should be filling the prisons even more, where is he going to get the resources to prosecute those if were spending so much money putting a nonviolent drug offender in prison for 30 years, Kevin Ring, Vice President of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a non-profit organization, told CNN.

This is a misallocation of resources. No one is trying to make a trade off between safety and security. Were saying we can get more safety if we use our resources efficiently, he added.

Cotton fires back at critics

Cotton claimed advocates of criminal justice reform seem to ignore that crimes rates were significantly higher in the 1980s than they are today, and that the federal prison population is decreasing.

Currently, there are more than 195,000 federal inmates, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In 2014, that number was 214,000, Cotton noted.

I believe the criminal-leniency bill in the Senate is dead in this years Congress. And it should remain so if future versions allow for the release of violent felons from prison, he continued. I will, though, happily work with my colleagues on true criminal-justice reform  to ensure prisons arent anarchic jungles that endanger both inmates and corrections officers, to promote rehabilitation and reintegration for those who seek it, and to stop the over-criminalization of private conduct under federal law. But I will continue to oppose any effort to give leniency to dangerous felons who prey on our communities.

As should come as no surprise, Cottons remarks provoked criticism among his democratic colleagues. However, even members within the republican party, including Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, have criticized the Arkansas senator for his views.

The opponents of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act will stop at nothing to derail an historic bill aimed at safely and sensibly reducing excessive sentences while preserving important law enforcement tools to take down large criminal organizations, Grassley said in a statement to CNN. Its supported by coalitions representing more than 400 organizations, including important law enforcement groups like the Major County Sheriffs Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, which undercuts the oppositions arguments. We continue to make progress with the bill and remain hopeful that it will be considered by the full Senate, he continued.

Sources include:

Politico.com

CNN.com

NYTimes.com

Science.NaturalNews.com

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Nokia back in the phone game!

New Delhi, Thu, 02 Jun 2016 NI Wire

The 1865 founded company, this Finnish multinational has won hearts worldwide! Nokia Corporation is a major contributor to the world phone market! For a long period of time, it had owned the title of the largest vendor of telephones in the world. The company signed a pact with Microsoft in 2011 to use the Windows phone path for all its future devices. The transaction between the two companies, however, is speculated to meet an end by the second half of this year.

With a big league of competitors across, Nokia had disappeared from the telephone market for quite sometime. The Nokia branded phones have held a certain incomparable rapport with the users and supporters; and thus, as a surprise for all of them, the company has announced that it will return to the mobile market. Razmi Hadamus, president of the company was quoted as saying, "Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Nokia brand in an industry where Nokia remains a truly iconic name. Instead of Nokia returning to manufacturing mobile phones itself, HMD plans to produce mobile phones and tablets that can leverage and grow the value of the Nokia brand in global markets. Working with HMD and FIH will let us participate in one of the largest consumer electronics markets in the world while staying true to our licensing business model."

The company had signed an agreement which has rendered HMD global Oy its global license, which will give HMD the power and right to create phones and tablets branded as Nokia for the up coming ten years! This agreement covers branding rights and intellectual property licensing. In return of the sales, Nokia will be getting 'royalty payments' from HMD. The portfolio of the devices will be handled by the Android OS by Google.

Not only this, to make sure that the devices manufactured live upto the standard set by this immense company in the past, Nokia will be a part of the Board of Directors of HMD and will set mandatory brand requirements and performance related provisions." HMD on the contrary is putting its best foot forward for this tie up which might prove to be extremely beneficial for the two companies and is thus planning to invest 500 million USD over the next three years for the project's growth.

Also according to another announcement which was made by FIH Mobile Limited (which is a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industries), the remainder of Microsoft's assets of feature phone business (which incorporates manufacturing, distribution and sales will be inherited by FIH. In light of this, HMD and Nokia have signed an agreement with the above mentioned company to establish a framework for the growth of Nokia based phones.

Arto Nummela, CEO-designate of HMD, was quoted as stating, "We will be completely focused on creating a unified range of Nokia-branded mobile phones and tablets, which we know will resonate with consumers. Branding has become a critical differentiator in mobile phones, which is why our business model is centered on the unique asset of the Nokia brand and our extensive experience in sales and marketing. We will work with world class providers in manufacturing and distribution to move quickly and deliver what customers want."

On the other hand, Vincent Tong, Chairman of FIH, was captured saying, "We are looking forward to fostering a strong and long-term collaboration with HMD global and Nokia. We are impressed by the experience and expertise of the HMD management team and are committed to supporting them with our manufacturing, technology and supply chain capabilities, to capture market opportunities together in the future."
Delhi BJP President launched TRANSFORMING INDIA MODI RATH

New Delhi, Thu, 02 Jun 2016 NI Wire

Delhi BJP President launched TRANSFORMING INDIA MODI RATH to take Modi Govt. Achievements Amongst Masses

New Delhi, 2nd June: Delhi BJP President Shri Satish Upadhyay today launched a SUV specially designed as TRANSFORMING INDIA MODI RATH for taking Modi Government programmes & achievements amongst the masses in the presence of BJP National Secretary Sardar R P Singh & Pradesh Organisational General Secretary Shri Sidharthan.

The idea of this vehicle was conceptualised by Delhi BJP's General Secretary Shri Ashish Sood.

Introducing the vehicle before the media persons Shri Satish Upadhyay said the vehicle is equipped with a large LED Screen & a high quality music & public address system which will help take the audio visual reports of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi government's public welfare programmes & achievements amongst the masses along with the Party National President Shri Amit Shah's message for the people of Delhi.

Shri Upadhyay said the campaign theme is to spread the message "Mera Desh Badal Raha Hai, Desh Ka Parcham Uncha Udd Raha Hai" meaning the nation is changing and the National Flag is flying high.

The first vehicle of its kind to be launched today will be used to campaign in Janakpuri & other parts of West Delhi during next fortnight. Another vehicle will soon be there for East Delhi.
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On Tuesday, nearly 400 pages of internal playbooks/85209976/">Trump University documents were made public, revealing the "playbooks" Trump employees used to guide their sales pitches for seminars and mentorships that could run upward of $35,000.

He recites an example of a couple in NY, who he felt it was not appropriate to sell the program to because they had no money to pay for it.

"No matter how much confidence you have in Trump University, you should not say anything", reads another.

Another tip in the venture's 2010 Playbook requires sales staff to "Be Deliberate". "The metaphor we use for this process is the Roller Coaster of emotions".

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in New York, Tuesday, May 31, 2016. The cache of court documents also includes the 2009 playbook, which was far shorter and less extensive than its followup, but included numerous same guidelines.

Recently released affidavits by former Trump University employees enjoined in a class-action suit against the mogul's real estate school allege fraudulent marketing practices and substandard instruction.

Teachers at the school, who often had no previous real estate experience but "were skilled at high-pressure sales", were instructed to encourage students to "max out your credit card" and open up as many new ones as possible to pay for courses that promised to "teach you better than the best business school" - an empty promise, according to internal employee guidebooks.

Earlier in the year, during the Republican primary debates, the Trump University controversy became an attack line against Trump.

"It was targeted at people that were struggling", Rubio said during a March 1 campaign appearance.

The documents unsealed Tuesday do include testimony from several satisfied customers.

Clinton has hammered Trump for appearing to cheer for the collapse of the housing market and for failing to make good on veterans' donations until he was pressured to follow through. There is, however, a growing pile of irrefutable evidence that Trump is a straight-up grifter, a man so incapable of nourishing healthy businesses that he turned towards the shadier world of running real estate and "seminar" cons.

In statements released this week as part of a federal class action lawsuit, former employees complained of unethical sales techniques, unqualified instructors and widely unsatisfied students. MSNBC's Ari Melber reports.

The playbook also urges Trump's sales teams not to let a lack of money be used as an excuse for turning down Trump University's three-day training.

Trump remains enmeshed in multiple lawsuits filed by former students of Trump University and faces a third fraud suit from Schneiderman, which likely won't go to trial until after the November election.

A for-profit institution, Trump University initially sold virtual lectures and courses on entrepreneurship, real estate, and marketing on CD-ROM for $300 each.

"We teach the technique of using OPM ..." Other People's Money. What most people do is handle the tuition by putting it on their credit cards because it gives them the ability to make very small monthly payments and maintain a low overhead to run their real estate project. "I'm not talking about tens of thousands of dollars, but on the other hand, not a couple of hundred dollars either".

Further, the playbooks advised recruiters to ask about using their savings to "borrow from your own retirement account to finance real estate investments". The GOP presumptive nominee suggested the judge's Mexican heritage could make him biased and may be cause for him to be removed from the case. "Frankly, he should recuse himself because he's given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative", Trump said Friday. "Because what Judge Curiel is doing is a total disgrace". Trump fought tooth and nail to keep those documents from getting released, and now that it's happening, he's hustling as hard as he can to discredit the judge with nakedly racist appeals, as if the fact that judge is Hispanic somehow means you can't trust court documents detailing how Trump U preyed on elderly people and single parents with false promises of financial security in exchange for taking a few expensive courses that are clearly useless.
Illinois' budget standoff will likely stretch into its second year as lawmakers were still unable to come to an agreement in the final hours before the end of the spring legislative session Tuesday.

The governor last year vetoed all but a school funding bill in the Democrats' budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Rauner called the session a "stunning failure".

Illinois's leaders failed to end the state's worst budget impasse on record, deepening the fiscal turmoil in the Land of Lincoln as unpaid bills may swell to $10 billion, schools risk not opening on time, and prisons fall in danger of running out of supplies.

This is an idea that Governor Rauner said he didn't want just last week but today he says he is open to the idea. About 90 percent of state spending has been required by court orders or consent decrees. Speaker Madigan wanted the governor's stopgap proposals to go to budget working groups first.

Vendors, social services providers, state universities, community colleges and others that have received partial or no funding over the previous year are reaching breaking point. A tougher three-fifths majority is needed to pass any bill starting June 1. Rauner noted that Senate President John Cullerton had told him that Democrats were holding out on voting on reforms until after November's general election, so the bill would serve as a stop-gap until serious discussions resume.

"I am disappointed and frustrated with the General Assembly", Rauner said at the time. This year, those funds are tied up in the Democrats' unbalanced budget.

It's also why there likely won't be a deal for next year before lawmakers adjourn their spring session on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. The plan is backed by funds that haven't been appropriated during the current fiscal year, the rainy day fund, special funds, and by allowing the state not to repay about $450 million of interfund borrowing.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, declared that the Republicans' proposals were affordable and passable before the midnight deadline. Under the bill, it will continue to July 1, 2020.

The governor's short-term spending plan would have breathed some relief into the struggling social services programs helping the elderly, the poor and the disabled, which haven't received any state aid in almost a year. He said lots of rank-and-file members on both sides of the aisle are ready to pass a "balanced and sustainable budget" even if legislative leaders have other intentions. Sen. Rauner has not yet decided whether he'll sign the $700 million to float related agencies approved by the legislature two weeks ago.

Without a budget, Illinois, which already has the lowest bond ratings among the 50 states, risks harming its credit standing further. That's the most of all 20 states tracked by Bloomberg.

A frustrated Rauner says the blame on another lack of a state budget rests on the ruling party in the House and Senate as the state heads towards another summer of uncertainty.
Zuckerberg is scheduled to go live from the Facebook headquarters with astronauts now living and working on the International Space Station on June 1, at 9.55 am PT or 10.25 pm IST. During this time, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams slowly fed air into the module while being monitored by mission control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"One of the main things that we do is try to understand the impacts of zero gravity on the human body", said Kopra, the commander of the ISS.

Astronauts will stay inside the module about three to four times annually to study how the BEAM module can stand up to space debris, solar radiation and extreme temperatures while on the job.

"As a rookie astronaut on my first flight, there were so many new experiences", Peake said.

The extendable room is the work of Bigelow Aerospace in Nevada, whose founder, Robert Bigelow, already owns a chain of hotels on Earth. "It's all of those kinds of elements that the training just can't prepare you for".

And now, in another technological breakthrough, the people on Earth connected live to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Facebook will be going where no social media site has gone before: space!

NASA hit a snag while trying to inflate an experimental room at the International Space Station on Thursday and put everything on indefinite hold. Zuckerberg said, adding that the floating microphone reminded him a lot of the experiences created in virtual reality.

Another pastime, often done during meals, is playing around in microgravity. "We all get to be kids again". Most astronauts will say that their taste does change in space, that food is more bland and they prefer spicier foods. But it will be interesting to see what the general public really wants to know about.

The myth-busting space men also chose to reveal the truth about astronaut ice cream, which is not the chalky, dried out substance us landlubbers believe it to be. I think we're down to our last few bars.
Leaves are falling, the air is crisp and deer season is right around the corner. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love this time of year. Becoming involved in hunting a few years ago gave me yet another reason why I look forward to fall.
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French Defense Minister Wednesday revealed that secret air forces are collecting intelligence in Libya but he refused to admit that ground forces have been in action in the North African country.

Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers that French aircrafts have been flying over Libyas air space to collect intelligence.

We have been collecting intelligence in Libya for a while now. We need to know what is going on there, he said.

The French official denied claims that there are French special troops in Libya as Le Monde reported in February. He also indicated that it was out of question for France to send ground troops before adding that France may do so if the Prime Minister-designate Faiez Serraj makes a request.

Sending ground troops is not a solution, Le Drian stressed.

Prime Minister Faiez Serraj must make a request for his own security or request for training.

Libya following death of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 has descended into chaos, with no central government. The Islamic State has taken advantage of the situation to conquer vast swaths of land in the country, mostly in coastal regions where many criminal gangs indulge in illegal migrant trafficking.

Rival groups signed a political accord that hashed out a Government of National Accord (GNA) led by Serraj last December under the aegis of the UN.

Despite strong and vast backing from the international community, the GNA now in place in Tripoli after operating from Tunisia has been struggling to assert its authority challenged by a rival government in the East supported by the countrys sole legitimate parliament, the House of Representatives (HoR.)

Le Drian, in his address to the parliament, also pledged Frances readiness to help stem illegal migrant trafficking.
Moroccan security services have dismantled another terror cell linked to the Islamic extremist group Isis. The six-member cell was active in the northern cities of Tetouan and Martil as well as in Casablanca, the biggest city in the North African Kingdom, an ally of the West.

According to a press release issued Thursday by the Interior ministry, the captured Isis members were planning to recruit local fighters to be sent to terror training camps before returning to carry out attacks against soft targets and strategic sites in Morocco.

Hundreds of Moroccan nationals are believed to have joined terrorist groups in hotbed conflict zones. Morocco is often mentioned by terror groups as one of their targets.

The dismantling of this new terror cell comes after the arrest on May 13 in Tangier of a Chadian terrorist in the pay of Daech nicknamed the cut-throat (Addabbah in Arabic). He was in possession of a genuine arsenal, including weapons and products used in the manufacturing of explosives.

The cut-throat was planning several terrorist acts in Morocco with the support of fighters, mainly Moroccans and Algerians, he was enrolling and training.

Last April, Moroccos Bureau Central dInvestigations Judiciares (BCIJ) announced the arrest of three Isis operatives who were planning to launch terrorist attacks and set up a local Isis branch in Morocco.

Moroccan authorities are waging tireless war against Islamist extremists and fanatics. They have disrupted over 160 terror cells since 2002, and nearly forty over the past three years.

As the international coalition intensified its airstrikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria, the extremist group started moving to North Africa and particularly to Libya where the jihadists have enhanced their influence and presence.

Neighboring Tunisia and Egypt have already suffered numerous deadly attacks by militants of the Islamic State.
The passing away on Tuesday of the long-serving Polisario Leader, Mohamed Abdelaziz, who sat for 40 years at the helm of the Algeria-backed separatist front, is unlikely to end the senseless Sahara standoff because the deceased was not a decision maker in the Sahara issue but a mere underling that executed the orders of his Algerian mentors.

Immediately after the announcement of Abdelazizs death, Algeria decreed an 8-day mourning period in memory of the man who showed an unwavering loyalty to Algeria and who stuck to the letter of the Sahara-related strategy drawn by Algerian rulers.

Meanwhile, Morocco considers the death of Mohamed Abdelaziz a non-event from a political point of view and assures that his death does not impact the Moroccan Sahara issue.

As put by a Moroccan official source, The deceased, like the separatist movement he was heading, was a mere extra and not the real actor in the issue, which was and remains managed from elsewhere, said the source, alluding to Algiers and its rulers.

Many analysts share Moroccos standpoint, as they know that it is Algeria, which pulls the strings of the Polisario. So, as it has maintained Abdelaziz at the head of the separatist front for 40 years in view of his docility, obedience and faithfulness, it will choose a successor cast in the same mold.

Morocco took note of the passing away of Mohamed Abdelaziz. As in any other death, it is regrettable mainly for the family and the relatives, said the same source.

Mohamed Abdelaziz, who died at 69 after he battled lung cancer for years, was born in 1947 in Marrakech, Morocco. His father, a retired soldier of the Moroccan army, still lives in Morocco, in the city of Beni Mellal, 190 km from Marrakech, with the rest of his family members.

Two of Abdelazizs brothers, an attorney and a surgeon, live in Casablanca and Laayoune respectively.

But Mohamed Abdelaziz, in the height of the cold war in the 70s, chose to join the Polisario front that was created, financed and armed by Algerias President Houari Boumedienne and Libyas Colonel Gaddafi.

When he was placed at the head of the separatist Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz closely followed the instructions of the Algerian military intelligence services and run the Tindouf camps with an iron fist, cracking down on all Sahrawi opponents.

He did nothing to improve the living conditions of the populations still living in Tindouf in dire poverty and which are denied freedom of movement and expression. On the contrary, he participated, along his cronies, in the diversion of humanitarian aid destined for the camps populations and could thus afford a luxury life.

He neither did anything to help settle the Sahara issue or to force Algerian rulers to change their position and accept to sit to the negotiation table to find a way out to the standstill that is so costly for all the countries of the region.

Yet, whatever he did against his native country, he ultimately asked to be buried in Moroccan land, probably because he felt, when his end was nearing, nostalgia for his homeland, for his parents and for his siblings.

Will his successor avoid the same mistakes and seize the opportunity for change? He could, if the Polisario was not a proxy army of the Algerian military oligarchy, used to hassle their neighbor, Morocco.
Donald Trump? More like CONald Chump! Photo: Dominick Reuter/AFP/Getty Images

Hillary Clintons first stabs at rebranding the Republican nominee left something to be desired: Dangerous Donald sounded too much like the sexiest guy at tenth-grade detention. Poor Donald made it seem like the worst thing about the authoritarian tycoon is that he might not actually be a billionaire. But on Wednesday, Clinton seemed to find a perfect nickname for her presumptive general election foe: Sociopathic Fraud With a Documented History of Conning Struggling Parents Into Giving Him Their Childrens Meal Money Donald.

Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, Clinton told supporters at a rally in Newark, referring to newly released documents that show Trump University  the tycoons for-profit real-estate school  encouraged prospective students to finance their education via massive credit card debt. The documents also show that several former employees believe that the school was a fraudulent scheme and that the universitys recruiters were explicitly instructed to exploit the desperation of single parents with hungry children.

Oh, just Trump University instructions for conning single parents out of their kids meal money, nbd pic.twitter.com/ynVioDLSHh  Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) May 31, 2016

This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud, Clinton continued. He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump U.

Clinton isnt exactly the first person to recognize the utility of this metaphor. Marco Rubio spent the last days of his campaign shouting Donald Trump is a con man over and over, taking breaks only to insinuate that the mogul has diminutive genitals. But by the time Trumps Republican rivals got around to pointing out that he was a manipulative fraud, the tycoon had already established an unbreakable bond with the GOP base.

For Clinton, the con man attack has much to recommend it: Its simple, undermines the core of Trumps populist appeal, and happens to be obviously true. Imagine how a con man would talk, if he were campaigning for the presidency. Now read this quote from Donald Trumps trip to North Dakota last week:

Politicians have used you and stolen your votes. They have given you nothing. I will give you everything. I will give you what youve been looking for for 50 years. Im the only one.

Theres been some hand-wringing about how Clinton will make criticism stick to Teflon Trump. But as Voxs Matt Yglesias points out, Teflon Trump is a baseless myth. The candidates myriad offenses against civil society and human decency have turned roughly 60 percent of the country against him. The mans vices are not subtle; theyre the foibles of a comic book super-villain. And he appears to be incapable of suppressing those vices for the length of a presidential campaign. You dont need fancy nicknames to take Trump down  just the ability to communicate, in a matter-of-fact way, all the heinous things he cant stop himself from doing. Like, for example, boasting that he gave $1 million to veterans charities but only actually writing the checks four months later  after being shamed into doing so by the national press. And then calling the press dishonest! You cant make this stuff up! More importantly, you dont have to.

Just yesterday we learned the truth about Donald Trumps big talk about helping veterans, Clinton said Wednesday. It turns out it wasnt until the press shamed him that he actually made the donations he had promised. For months, it was all just a publicity stunt.

If telling the truth about Donald Trump, over and over  from here to November  cant prevent him from being elected, its hard to imagine that anything can.
Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker finally expressed support for the bill. Photo: Scott Eisen/2016 Bloomberg Finance LP

While 11 states are suing the Obama administration for issuing guidelines that protect transgender students, Massachusetts just took a step in the opposite direction. Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled House passed a bill on Wednesday that would expand existing protections for transgender individuals within the state, the New York Times reports. The state passed protections for transgender people in education, housing, and employment back in 2011; this current bill extends them to public accommodations.

When Governor Charlie Baker signs the bill  after months of silence, he finally indicated his support  transgender people will be allowed to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity, rather than the gender on their birth certificate.

Massachusettss passage of the bill isnt necessarily groundbreaking; several states across the country already have such protections in place. But, as Sarah Warbelow, the legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, told the Times, The fact that the state is doing it at a moment of heightened awareness around transgender people  is really an important signal to the rest of the country.

Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a similar order for New York City last month, but in other states, the issue is more controversial. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin are all suing the Obama administration for even attempting to protect transgender students (the governments list of guidelines isnt legally binding, although it does suggest that states that dont comply will lose government funds), and Kansass attorney general announced Wednesday that that state will sue the White House as well.

In our federal system of government, not every decision needs to be handed down from Washington, said Kansas attorney general Derek Schmidt in a statement. And this is a matter best left to state or local authorities, including school boards, as it traditionally has been  and as the law requires. Other Kansas lawmakers opposed the measure, but senators voted 30-8 along party lines to condemn the federal decree.

This dizzying series of lawsuits and countersuits is a sign of todays political climate, said Jeffrey Berry, a political-science professor at Tufts University. This reflects the continuing and deepening polarization of the American public, he told the Times. Were redder and bluer than we were, even just five years ago.
Obama on Trump: Dont listen to the tweets. Photo: Scott Olson/2016 Getty Images

Barack Obama isnt technically running for office, but during a speech in Elkhart, Indiana, Wednesday night, he touted the success of his administrations economic policy in a manufacturing town he first visited during the Great Recession. In doing so, he also criticized the economic (and foreign, and immigration) policy of Republican nominee Donald Trump, indirectly attempting to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic presidential nominee.

The primary story that Republicans have been telling about the economy is not supported by the facts, the president said. But they say it anyway. That myth, he said, is one of crazy, liberal government spending, and its not true. Outside of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, Obama said his administration spent less on domestic priorities than Ronald Reagans.

Obama opened his speech by outlining Republicans (a.k.a. Trumps) view of the economy as it stands:

So their basic story is, Americas working class, Americas middle class, has been victimized by a big, loaded federal government run by a bunch of left-wing elitists like me. And the government is taking your hard-earned tax dollars and giving them to freeloaders and welfare cheats, and were strangling business with endless regulations, and this federal government is letting immigrants and foreigners steal whatever jobs Obamacare hasnt killed yet.

The audience laughed, but Obama promised he was serious. The Republican economic agenda is a direct response to that story, he said, and it wont help working-class families. When I hear working families thinking about voting for those plans, I want to have an intervention, he said of Trumps vision. Thats not going to make your lives better. That will help people like him.

Then, Obama dismantled each piece of the Republican vision. First, he noted that the governments deficit had actually shrunk during his and Bill Clintons term, while it grew during George W. Bushs and Ronald Reagans. He called for immigration reform, saying that deporting 11 million immigrants is a fantasy that wouldnt do anything to help the middle class.

Look, in todays economy we cant put up walls around America, he went on. Were not going to deport 11 million people. Were not going to put technology back in the box.

He then admonished Republicans for complaining about Wall Street regulations following the economic crash of his early presidency. Have we really forgotten what happened just eight years ago? he asked. Why would you do that? Less oversight on Wall Street would only make another crisis more likely.

Obama mentioned Trumps name only once, and the audience booed. No, dont boo him; were voting, he said before going on to rip Trumps blowhard style: Dont fall for a bunch of okey-doke just because you know it sounds funny or the tweets are provocative, he warned.

The presidents speech is likely a preview of whats to come if (or when) he hits the campaign trail in support of the Democratic nominee. And, although Hillary Clinton isnt officially the partys nominee, shes all but mathematically ensured the nomination, especially if she performs well in next Tuesdays California primary.

In an interview today, Clintons campaign manager, Robby Mook, told CNN he believes Obama will endorse the nominee very quickly, giving him time while still in office to throw his weight behind the candidate. The president has already done a fantastic job  explaining why Donald Trump is such a threat, Mook said. I think hell be out there campaigning vigorously. After all, No one is better qualified to talk about what it takes to be our commander in chief.
Voters go to the polls for the Ohio primary on March 15, 2016. Photo: John Sommers II/Getty Images

Imagine youre a Cincinnati resident who doesnt vote often. Maybe you have two jobs and are raising three kids  or have bad knees and dont like standing in line. Regardless, the prospect of electing Americas first black president inspired you to turn out in 2008. Now, after sitting out three federal elections, you decide to cast a ballot this fall, just to make sure we dont elect the first orange president.

Unless you remember to check your registration between now and October, you wont be able to cast that ballot.

On Thursday, Reuters reported that Ohio has removed tens of thousands of voters from its rolls for failing to turn out since 2008. Purged voters will need to reregister 30 days before Novembers election in order to participate in the general. Those who dont will be turned away at the polls.

The purge appears to be benefiting the Republican Party in the states largest metropolitan areas  voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods have been struck from the rolls at twice the rate as those in GOP-leaning areas. This discrepancy reflects Republicans greater propensity for voting in midterm elections. In the Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati metropolitan areas, GOP-leaning suburbanites vote more frequently than the disproportionately nonwhite, working-class, left-leaning urban residents. This fact bedeviled Democrats in 2010 and 2014  and now threatens to cost Hillary Clinton the key swing state this fall.

In Hamilton County, which encompasses Cincinnati and its suburbs, more than 10 percent of registered voters in the citys heavily African-American neighborhoods have been removed for inactivity since 2012  in suburban Indian Hill, only 4 percent have suffered that fate. In total, 30,000 voters have been purged from the countys rolls in the past four years, a figure that exceeds Obamas margin of victory there in 2012.

Federal law requires all states to keep their rolls updated, but only a few remove voters simply for failing to exercise the franchise.

Unlike other voting restrictions passed by GOP-controlled states in recent months, Ohios policy is long-standing. According to Reuters, both Republican and Democratic officials have been purging infrequent voters in the state for the past two decades.

But in 2016, Democratic state representatives and left-leaning advocacy groups are calling for the practice to be suspended, while their counterparts across the aisle are defending the policy.

If this is a really important thing to you in your life, voting, you probably would have done so within a six-year period, Ohio secretary of State Jon Husted told the news service.

In other news, the Republican nominees son argued Thursday that all 50 states should adopt a new, Michael Baythemed poll test.

I think in order to vote in this next election, you should have to watch that movie. I was livid, Eric Trump told Fox News on Thursday, referring to 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. She left these guys on a rooftop in the middle of Benghazi getting shot at, having mortars drop on their head because she wouldnt pick up a phone call in the middle of the night.

If a person doesnt understand that Michael Bay movies always represent historical events with complete accuracy, why should they even have the right to vote?
Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images. Justin Sullivan-Getty Images

Most weeks, New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich speaks with contributor Alex Carp about the biggest stories in politics and culture. This week: the Trump outrage train keeps chugging, National Review writer David Frenchs potential third-party candidacy, and what Peter Thiel means for journalism.

Since Donald Trump lashed out at the press over questions about his fundraising for veterans, his week has only gotten worse, with former staffers at his Trump University calling the school a fraud and a total lie. Do either of these criticisms have a chance of swaying Trump supporters?

By any civilized standard, Trump has had about the worst week a presidential candidate could have. He was caught trying to cheat Americas veterans out of the $6 million he had promised them. He nastily assailed the press for daring to question his bogus philanthropy. He not only attacked the legitimacy of the U.S. district judge presiding over the Trump University case, but tried to denigrate him as Mexican. (The judge, Gonzalo Curiel, was born in Indiana.) Then theres Trump U itself: a scam worthy of Bernie Madoff that preyed on victims far more vulnerable than most of Madoffs clients. And the week is not over. Theres still time for more Trump outrage. Maybe hell slap a baby instead of kissing one at a campaign event.

The question remains, however, whether any of it matters to those voters who see Trump as their champion and have stood steadfastly by him even after he previously insulted one of Americas most famous veterans, mocked a disabled member of the press, slimed Mexicans as rapists, and all the rest. We wont know until November, Im afraid, if anything will shake their loyalty.

The more fluid question is whether Hillary Clinton can vanquish him. It was a positive step that she wasted no time in decrying Trump University in unequivocal language (scam  fraud). This is a refreshing change from her default mode with Trump  trying to stay above the fray  which has showed few signs of working. It would also be a good idea for her to make her own peace with the press, which she hates as much as Trump does. She hasnt held a press conference since last December. Last week the Washington Post reported that she had not given the paper a single interview in the 13 months since she announced her candidacy. By contrast, Trump, for all his detestation of the press, will talk to almost anyone; he would give an interview to Highlights for Children if asked. He will keep getting free media because he makes himself available and keeps making news, even if in the ugliest ways imaginable. Its time for Clinton to get in that arena with him. Today Clinton will give a serious speech assailing Trumps so-called foreign policy, but if she keeps speaking and playing by Washingtons established rules, hell once again find a way to drown her out.

Over the weekend, Bill Kristol announced that he was recruiting a third-party candidate with a strong team and a real chance, and its now looking likely to be constitutional lawyer David French. Does French fit the bill?

Id say constitutional lawyer is a bit grandiose for this guy, a National Review blogger whose writings include homophobic screeds (gay people redefine sin as freedom in his formulation) and who is also known for forbidding his wife (a Sarah Palin ghostwriter) to exchange emails with any men while he was serving in Iraq. Despite Kristols claims, French has no team and no chance. Nor is he, as Kristol also promised, impressive  unless you count Kristols past political proteges, Palin and Dan Quayle, as such.

Nonetheless, Mitt Romney immediately tweeted that he took Kristols nominee seriously as an honorable, intelligent and patriotic person. Romney, you may recall, has been vocally #NeverTrump for a while now  the most prominent #NeverTrump Republican by far  and last week gave an interview to The Wall Street Journal congratulating himself for his heroic stand: I wanted my grandkids to see that I simply couldnt ignore what Mr. Trump was saying and doing, which revealed a character and temperament unfit for the leader of the free world.

How self-deluded can Romney be? What his grandkids will see is that he did nothing to stop Trump except blather. He waited until very late (too late) in the Republican primary to take a stand in the first place. Then he refused to endorse a single candidate in the remaining presidential field who might have theoretically rallied the anti-Trump forces in his party. Then he refused to marshal either funds or troops to stage a serious third-party challenge when it was still doable. (State deadlines for getting on the ballot are passing rapidly.) Now he is lending at least 140 characters of credence to a crackpot Kristol scheme that seems about as real as Trump University. Like many of the GOP elites who have railed against Trump but done nothing other than tweet, give speeches, or write op-eds to stop him, Romney will look quite silly in the judgment of history and possibly that of his grandkids. He thinks of himself as Charles de Gaulle, but hes actually Marshal Petain.

The David French candidacy and Romneys lame reaction to it were not the only examples of the impotence of the withered GOP elites this week. Lets not forget Little Marco Rubio. You may recall that Rubio once accurately called Trump a con artist, but now he has capitulated to Trump at the very moment were learning all of the details about the Trump U con. Is Vegas taking bets on how many more weeks it will take Paul Ryan to fold?

Some journalists worry that the lawsuits Peter Thiel is pursuing against Gawker could threaten the way the press works for years to come. Is it time for reporters and publishers to be, in Nicholas Lemanns words, arming themselves for a protracted war?

Journalism is already at war, doing battle daily with the heavy-handed tactics of the Obama administration and the ticking time bomb of economic survival in a day when nearly every news organization worthy of the name is cutting costs and coverage. Thiel adds another and particularly insidious peril. You dont have to like Gawker to believe its a threat to the First Amendment when billionaires deploy their fortunes to destroy any press outlet that they despise. As the lawyer Stuart Karle pointed out in the Washington Post, Thiels tactics resemble nothing so much as the legal maneuvers white racists used to threaten the national press with ruin when it covered militant resistance to desegregation in the South of the 1950s and 1960s. Indeed, the landmark 90 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan that raised the bar for defining libel grew directly out of the Times battle with Alabama racists out to punish the papers civil-rights coverage with costly litigation. And Thiel, unlike his antebellum predecessors, tried to pull off his scheme under the veil of secrecy.

Its not happenstance that Thiel is a California Trump delegate. Trump has the same views and has already pledged to open up libel laws and to sue the press for negative articles with the hope of costing them lots of money. This is surely the tactic that he would use on the Post, to take one example: It was the insistent prodding of that papers reporter David Fahrenthold that finally shamed Trump into writing his promised $1 million check to veterans groups last week. The Post, owned by a billionaire (Jeff Bezos) who actually has the kind of wealth Trump claims to have, could handle the assault. Many, if not most, others cant.

Worse, Thiel is the longest-sitting board member of Facebook after Mark Zuckerberg. Sheryl Sandberg, the companys chief operating officer, has said Thiel will remain on the board  a curious signal to send at a time when Facebook, arguably now the worlds most powerful distributor of news, is rightly being asked for more transparency in how it guarantees freedom of expression in its vast digital realm.
St. Pauls School. Photo: Peter Finger/St. Pauls School

In 2014, St. Pauls School, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire, was shaken by the sexual assault of a then-15-year-old girl. Her accused rapist, the then-18-year-old Owen Labrie, stood trial in 2015. He ultimately wasnt convicted of felony sexual assault, but he was found guilty of misdemeanor sexual-assault charges and was sentenced to one year in jail and a lifetime on the sex-offender registry.





Now the parents of that teenage girl are suing St. Pauls School for fostering, permitting and condoning a tradition of ritualized statutory rape, which students call the Senior Salute. Indeed, during Labries trial, several students described the competition between senior boys to have sex with as many younger female students as possible before graduation.

St. Pauls responded to the lawsuit with a statement, saying: We believe this lawsuit is without merit, and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves. We categorically reject any allegations that St. Pauls School has an unhealthy culture. The safety of our students has been and will continue to be the highest priority for our School.

Steven J. Kelly, the lawyer representing the plaintiff, told The Wall Street Journal, They knew that the children under their care were threatened by this senior salute, by pervasive games of sexual conquest, and they did nothing to stop it.
Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Hillary Clinton hasnt held a press conference in 180 days. That fact hasnt been lost on reporters who cover her, nor has it escaped the notice of her Republican opponent. I am getting great credit for my press conference today, Trump tweeted, referring to the Trump Tower fiasco on Tuesday in which he scolded reporters for doing their jobs. Crooked Hillary should be admonished for not having a press conference in 179 days. Likewise, political reporters have hinted that theyd really, really like Clinton to hold a press conference of her own, if only to counterbalance Trumps.

As The Hill points out, Clinton held a string of press conferences on the campaign trail before December, but those appearances gradually tapered off. One Clinton ally who elected to remain anonymous told The Hill that, were Clinton to hold a press conferences, the media wouldnt treat her fairly: Theres no benefit, the ally said. It will only hurt her. This is a common  and valid  thread among Clinton supporters.

Of course, her lack of availability is frustrating to the journalists tasked with covering her, even as many seem aware of its logic. Those of us who cover the Hillary Clinton campaign would love to have a press conference, even if she insulted us, said Nancy Cordes, a CBS reporter. She hasnt done one for months and months. Shes just not comfortable in that setting.

Cordes specifically mentioned the State Departments report that came out last week that found Clintons use of a private email server violated federal standards. There were lots of us on the campaign trail who were dying to ask her questions about it, and she avoided all of us, Cordes said. She did a couple of quick call-ins to some cable shows, but that was it. Shes just not interested in getting the kinds of tough questions out there on the trail.

Of course, a lack of press conferences doesnt equal a lack of transparency: Shes given more than 300 interviews in 2016, including speeches before and after primaries and caucuses, town halls, and appearances on NBCs The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. But Clinton knows she has a much better chance of controlling the situation if she can field questions during, say, a nationally televised town hall instead of a no-holds-barred press scrum.

She is, in other words, playing to her strengths as much as Trump plays to his with sensational supersize rallies and press conferences on his home turf. Ed Rendell, the former governor of Pennsylvania, told New Yorks Rebecca Traister that Clinton ought to design the presidency around what she does best:

The president gets to select the mode of communicating, he said. The president can go out and make speeches in front of large audiences, or the president can make the speech sitting behind the desk talking to a TV camera. The president can do sit-down interviews. If I were Hillarys chief of staff, Id get her on as many of those interview shows as I could and just get her talking and not reading a speech. Id have her do town meetings all through her presidency. Have you seen her in small town halls? Hillary is not a great large-crowd speaker, but in those contexts, I would rate her as close to spectacular.

Does she owe it to voters to give a press conference at some point soon? Yes. But its probably not a political mistake to give fewer than Trump.

* This item has been substantially edited since its original publication.
Thomas Manning (right) with Mass General nurse Anthony DiGiovine. Photo: Elise Amendola/AP

Penile-cancer survivor Thomas Manning received the countrys first penis transplant in a 15-hour surgery on May 8 and 9, and, yesterday, he was released from Massachusetts General Hospital with no signs of organ rejection.

The 64-year-old had much of his penis amputated in 2012 after doctors discovered an aggressive cancer. Surgeons at Mass General as well as Johns Hopkins are committed to performing transplants as an experiment to see if they should be offered to cancer survivors and accident victims as well as veterans who sustained pelvic injuries. Suicide rates are high among the latter group, who often feel like they have no hope of intimacy and often have to urinate sitting down. (Doctors arent currently considering the surgery for transgender men, but the question will certainly arise if experiments prove successful.)

Manning said he wanted to openly discuss his cancer, amputation, and transplant in an effort to bring penile injuries out of the shadows, but this openness means his progress  he can pee standing up again, but sensation and sexual function will take longer  will be chronicled by the media with varying levels of esteem.

Quality-of-life transplants involving hands, faces, and, now, reproductive organs are a new frontier of medicine. In February, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic transplanted a uterus from a deceased donor to a 26-year-old woman who was born without one. But the recipient, Lindsey McFarland, developed an infection and the organ had to be removed less than two weeks later.

The fact that Manning was released from the hospital is a great sign. He still has dozens of stitches and swelling and hell see doctors twice a week to check for signs of rejection. Heres hoping that he and his new member can resume a normal life after the media circus is over.
the fact that tmz is reporting this is making me think it is a pro-depp story to get people mad at amber for daring to accuse the perfect MEN IN BLUE of lying tbh.

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I think that's exactly what they are doing

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Really? I naively thought that the fact that TMZ is reporting this means that she has even more evidence, they see which way the tide is turning and they are willing to play ball.



You're probably right though. :(

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i think accusing the police of lying is something that will really turn a large percentage of the general public against her more than they were already. i don't think that means that the police didn't lie, i just think the motives for reporting this are not to get people to believe her.

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I think this points to them changing sides but only because she has such an overwhelming amount of evidence and they don't want to erase their "well they're always right!" rep since reporting MJ's death.



People getting her second round of evidence today also probably has something to do with this too.

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I hope you're right

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fingers crossed

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i thought this too but i can also believe this story so idk

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that's one possibility for sure

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Maybe, but the LAPD has a seriously terrible reputation. If this is what's happening I hope it backfires on them spectacularly.

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Yeah, I immediately narrowed my eyes at the source. I don't trust TMZ.

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I hope she keeps this up to give strength to other women in her position. Much how Kesha is with her situation.

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There's also text messages that have been released btwn Amber and someone on Depps team from 2014 after Depp kicked her and was begging for her forgiveness or something.

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what, he kicked her?! deets plz

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Yeah this was in 2014 and she kept those receipts too (she is my hero.) we need a master post of all these posts but basically I think it was btwn her and his assistant and his assistant was saying how Depp didn't remember anything that happened and that when he told him that he kicked her he started to cry, that he's a lost little boy, all this stuff basically confirming Depp has been violent with her. And she started talking about all these other places where he'd hit her: London, the island, etc. and she was basically saying what many DV victims say - she loves him and wants him to get better and she'll go see him, etc. it was very sad. But they're not transcripts that can be manipulated. She has screenshots.

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WTF??? OMG Fuck you Johnny!!!!!

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I just read that article.



The amount of locales she listed where it had happened before...smh

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Those texts are awful. Screw him and his assistant defending him.

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his assistants "BUT AMBER HE CRIED TODAY" is the most pathetic thing i've ever read

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I'm living for these recepits rn

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Imagine looking at those and appalled at Amber for keeping evidence and not Depp for abusing her

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Nothing about this surprises me. LAPD has been trash since the dawn of time.

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this is so fucked up jfc

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This is all leading to her releasing the video :/



What a surprise, though. The LAPD covering for a famous man. I bet the one that left his card with her was punished in some way.

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This is all leading to her releasing the video :/



MTE :(

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I feel like even if she releases the video (I feel like she doesn't want to but it'll probably get leaked somehow) ppl will find a way to say she provoked him like they did with Ray rices partner.

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Definitely. "She only started filming once he started yelling! We don't know what she did to make him that angry!" Or, "His mom just died! He was clearly distraught over that and she didn't comfort him!"

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yep. "we don't know what happened before the camera started rolling!"

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Oh Jesus, there's a video?

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people will claim the video was faked/she provoked him



I hate everyone

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mte, looks like she's going to have to. smfh.

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How would she get a video of him hitting her?? Damn, I feel so bad for her.

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There is a video?!



People will still take his side. I mean, people still side with the police after seeing the Rodney King beating video.

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this is so fucked up b/c amber did everything we say abused women are supposed to do - and she still is getting the most vile shit thrown at her. get evidence, tell the police, document everything, leave him. and it doesn't even matter

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Right? How horrifying to know that apparently if you don't bruise really heavily and *only* have a *small* cut on your face (which, in her case, is her livelihood lbr) you don't REALLY have any proof.

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This is what I said in another thread about Depp having a daughter and the example he is leaving for her if she ever found herself in that situation.

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this entire situation makes me extremely angry. society's hatred of women runs so deep

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Right? Even when you're the "perfect" victim, it's still not enough.

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I know. My heart breaks for her and all victims who've gone through this

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This also goes to show how deeply people idolize celebrities. They don't see him as a regular man, but Johnny Depp, SUPERSTAR! They never had to personally date him, so they can easily dismiss anything someone who did says.



Edited at 2016-06-02 01:50 am (UTC)

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Yep. If he had killed her people would be saying why didn't she leave sooner (even though women are 70 times more likely to be murdered by their abuser on the first few weeks after leaving). If she hadn't collected all this evidence people would be asking why not, instead of calling her calculating. If she didn't have the documented injuries and current injury people would be asking where her wounds and bruises are (instead they gossip over how her bruises change or accuse her of just self harming/having a friend do it). You seriously cannot win.



I'm a child sexual abuse survivor and I wasn't believed. It tore my little heart apart and still kills. I imagine she would be feeling similarly right now. Hopefully the people supporting her irl and online are making a difference. I hope she's not focusing on the doubters.

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It's enraging and frustrating. I hope she stays strong.

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exactly. it's so fucked, even when you do everything a victim is supposed to do people still don't believe you and its like....what the fuck message does that send to other victims??? that no one won't believe you

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I can totally buy this. Jeffrey Toobin's book on o.j. alleged the same thing happened seven of the eight times cups were called because o.j. had beaten Nicole. They came, saw she'd been beaten, did nothing and then lied in their reports. A lot of police departments are terrible handling domestic violence cases.

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I didn't realize until this year how the prosecution really did hammer that point home-how ridiculous it would be for the department to frame him since they spent so damn long covering for him.

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Same. He got such special celebrity treatment! There was one incident she was bleeding and stumbled outside in just her bra and sweatpants, told the cops he'd hit her and they still let him just drive off. I could totally see some fanboy cops covering for Johnny too.

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I will NEVER forget my best friend standing in the emergency room after being raped at her job and the cop walking up to her and saying "is this what you were wearing?"

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yeah i was cracking up at ppl in the last post being like "i doubt johnny has LAPD on his payroll, why would they cover this up?" like have you met the LAPD?

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Amber deserves so much better than all of this.



I don't even need to be told Johnny is paying them off, like even if he isn't I still wouldn't jump to believe the legal systems opinion on domestic violence. We live in a society that loves to believe the abuser over the abused and the law reflects that.

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It's disgusting that she has to talk about all this just to keep from having her name dragged through the mud. As though she's not going through enough right now.

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the fact that she has to 'prove it' and then get called out as 'faking it' is so disgusting



so many idiots demanding evidence and rejecting it once they see it.

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I don't know what more they want from her. They'd keep saying she was lying even if they stood in the room and witnessed what she said happened. Women can't win.

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it's so fucking depressing

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Any idiot will spin whatever evidence they see into their own narrative, unfortunately. Whatever helps them sleep at night

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Which is just another slap in the face to other abuse victims seeing this. Apparently evidence means nothing, anything and everything can be faked. Don't bother proving anything because no one will believe you. Great message to send.

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I never doubt that a lot people go into the police for the power.

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Yep! I never quite trust people who aim for jobs that hold a lot of power over people.

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I thought this was common knowledge. But still, I'm glad at least your dad realizes this

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Also, this pretty much applies to the majority of men. My bf works with mostly men and he's always warning me never to trust any man completely. Thinks the majority of them aren't shit. He hears to much. The way they talk when there are no women around etc.

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The chance of a woman suffering domestic violence in a relationship is way higher if their partner is a police officer too, so it's not surprising

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#Imwithamber I ended up unfriending at least 10 ppl on FB because of their vile VILE opinions about this, I just can't understand why ppl have to be so horrible.

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the good thing is now you know what kind of ppl they are

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I called out my friend for sharing the one article written by Depp's friend saying that Amber was blackmailing him. All these goth girls came to his defense. It's disgusting that a bunch of Depp fangirls are letting their stanning blind them from the reality of domestic violence.

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how dare she accuse the cops!

/sarcasm

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I am proud of her and her team for fighting back.

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Yes Ryan. You have now been promoted from bland to palatable in my book.



Edited at 2016-06-02 01:04 am (UTC)

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roflmao

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Lmao yaaas

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same

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same here

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yas pander to me ryan

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lmao mte

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Lmao

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lmao

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looool

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Seriously

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mte

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lol exactly

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Lol irl

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same

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lmfaoo right

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I'll take it!

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it's a trap lbr

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lmao mte it's working tho

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LOL MTE!

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lmao

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same lmao

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literally my first thought

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lol

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lmao

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lol ikr

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lol

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whisper it in my ear, ryan!

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i think he's so handsome



i know ontd thinks he's bland but he does it for me

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he takes being a charmer to professional levels

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ita, I really like him beyond being an actor

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ia 100%

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OMG YOUR ICON!!!!!!!!!

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I think he's basic but he's clearly very charming which can go a long way, imo.

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Same for me. I get that people find his face weird, but there's something that just does it for me.

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I've found him distasteful since that one film where he has blond hair? But he was super charming in The Nice Guys, so I'm back.

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same

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same

if ontd doesn't want him, i'll gladly take him!

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Agreeeee

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ha, as if ontd is the standard.



Just look who the majority of ontd calls Queen and Kings then you know how relevant they are. But it is fun to take a look from time to time who is "their" next victim, just like Big Brother without cameras.



So please do enjoy Ryan Gosling.

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good job. thank you ryan.

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I think women are better than men. They are stronger. More evolved. You can tell especially when you have daughters and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately.





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this is common sense so he's not getting a pat on the back from me

i do appreciate his last quote tho lol

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comments like this are so obnoxious. i love how you end with appreciating his quote though, as if that part is not common sense.

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lol my comment wasnt that deep but okay

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The last quote is especially timely given Kit Harington's "I'm being discriminated against because I'm pretty" bullshit.

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i need to see this movie

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it's ridiculously good!

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maybe it's because i went to a dine-in theater and drank four margaritas and was drunk halfway through but that movie pissed me off.

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I want to watch this right now.

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I strongly agree with everything in this comment.

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I really want to see this movie, I need to go soon

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I didn't like it. I guess we saw a different movie

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Trying to convince my Dad to go see it with me...

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I was going to see it last weekend, but I saw The Meddler instead. I plan on seeing it this weekend!

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okay, gonna update my notes from "fuck all men" to "fuck all men who are not ryan gosling, until further notice"

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until further notice"

this is very important lol!

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LOL

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lmao i approve.

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lol

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Lmao yaaaaaaas

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lol

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Those droopy eyes <3

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Wise decision.

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hahaha

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lol ia

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lmao mte

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bless lol

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lol seriously

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I guess I appreciate the sentiment?? but this is the weirdest fucking interview



What percent woman are you...fuck off with that, for starters

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yeah it reads very weird, I scrolled back up to see maybe if it was translated back to English from a different language or something

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This next level pandering right now.

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I love that he's a Broad City stan

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he's really living up to that 'hey girl' meme! .

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lmao

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Lol mte

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bless this truth

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ew sis

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yeah, no thanks.

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Looking at that pic only George Lucas surprises me and that's probably cos I know nothing about him.

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Lol same.

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What an upstanding group of gentlemen

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so, mostly assholes then.

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Lmao Johnny and Sean would.

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What a bunch of ugly men. I pity the women who had to sleep with them

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can u imagine having to fuck sean penn? i hope these women had strong stomachs and were paid a fortune.

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Maybe seeing his leather skin was a good reminder of that new balenciaga purse they had their eye on?

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at least they got $$$

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literally the only one that surprises me in that pic is george lucas because i thought he would be too busy jerking off to jar jar and his genius to seek out an escort

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lmao right.

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hasn't he been married a long time?

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I remember an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where a Hollywood psychiatrist told Larry George Lucas liked visiting prostitutes. Looks like that was oddly accurate.

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I bet that show has a bunch of in the know Hollywood shit disguised as jokes which is why Hollywood types love it so much. Like it's probably a well known thing in the industry that he likes prostitutes but to the general public, it seems like a joke.

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That was tea, honey 

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Yesss 30 rock. I remember them alluding to the Bill Cosby allegations and possibly also something about Stephen Sondheim's sex dungeon?

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I thought they had named names years ago? Pretty sure Charlie Sheen was one of the first names I remember associated with her.

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Oop at me I just read the article that Charlie was named.

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I think charlie was just like "Yeah, i went there" without anyone even asking him. He didnt care.

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i remember watching that in my teens lmao

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ugh, men suck.

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'Other unnamed clients include a member of the 1980s Brat Pack, who loved to suck on girls toes, one of Heidis former hookers recalled in an exclusive interview. In fact, hed request that wed arrive with sweaty feet!'



Edited at 2016-06-02 12:07 pm (UTC)

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there isn't enough vomit in the world to express what i'm feeling right now...

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cringe

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You KNOW its Rob Lowe. LMAO.

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Anthony Michael Hall

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This reminds me of Jax Taylor's fetish on Vanderpump Rules.

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is that Dave Gahan in your icon



also having your toes sucked on is hardly the worst thing you could do for money lol

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side eyeing whoever the hell this is. like that's fuggin' gross

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Sheen especially liked 18-year-old girls  and was turned on even more when they dressed up like cheerleaders, an insider disclosed.



Why am I not surprised? Barf...

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well, Denise Richards accused him of watching child porn...so...

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Yikes, I didn't even know about that.

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So do you think there are other madams out there? I just went down memory lane with that Hayden/RDJ/Diane Jenkins post and I'm curious to know if there are more prostitution rings tied to Hollywood.

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omg that post was wild from start to finish. does it still exist???

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I was trying to decipher it yesterday. And now I can't find the post (probably because I'm on my phone). I think it's locked too. Lol.

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I remember that post! Its locked but I think it still exists.

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still afraid to walk home the library ya know...

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I hope the women were well remunerated. Because this is a list of 'Ew!'

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i sure hope so! just imagine having to stand their big egos and touching them .... G R O S S

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http://www.polygon.com/2015/8/3/9089181/indiana-jones-abusive-creep

Lawrence Kasdan: I like it if they already had a relationship at one point. Because then you don't have to build it.



George Lucas: I was thinking that this old guy could have been his mentor. He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.



Kasdan: And he was forty-two.



Lucas: He hasn't seen her in twelve years. Now she's twenty-two. It's a real strange relationship.



Spielberg: She had better be older than twenty-two.



Lucas: He's thirty-five, and he knew her ten years ago when he was twenty-five and she was only twelve.



Lucas: It would be amusing to make her slightly young at the time.



Spielberg: And promiscuous. She came onto him.



Lucas: Fifteen is right on the edge. I know it's an outrageous idea, but it is interesting. Once she's sixteen or seventeen it's not interesting anymore. But if she was fifteen and he was twenty-five and they actually had an affair the last time they met. And she was madly in love with him and he...



Spielberg: She has pictures of him. When I think about George Lucas and Indiana Jones I can't help but think about this... Men in Hollywood are disgustingLawrence Kasdan: I like it if they already had a relationship at one point. Because then you don't have to build it.George Lucas: I was thinking that this old guy could have been his mentor. He could have known this little girl when she was just a kid. Had an affair with her when she was eleven.Kasdan: And he was forty-two.Lucas: He hasn't seen her in twelve years. Now she's twenty-two. It's a real strange relationship.Spielberg: She had better be older than twenty-two.Lucas: He's thirty-five, and he knew her ten years ago when he was twenty-five and she was only twelve.Lucas: It would be amusing to make her slightly young at the time.Spielberg: And promiscuous. She came onto him.Lucas: Fifteen is right on the edge. I know it's an outrageous idea, but it is interesting. Once she's sixteen or seventeen it's not interesting anymore. But if she was fifteen and he was twenty-five and they actually had an affair the last time they met. And she was madly in love with him and he...Spielberg: She has pictures of him.

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omfg wtf

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Burn them all

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what fresh hell is this

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No wonder so many celebrities stick up for Polanski and Allen. I bet they see nothing wrong with what they did.

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D:

are most men secretly pedos? wtf is this

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The script had this gross scene:

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nooooooooooooooo

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jfc

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whhhaaaaaaaaaat

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wut

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oh my god

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what the fuck! eleven!???



jesus fucking gross.

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what the FUCK

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What

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Omg, this is beyond disgusting.



You can't have "an affair" with an 11 year old.

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what the fuck is this? is it real?

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What the hell did I just read??? I feel so distressed rn.

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I think i barfed a little

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Once she's sixteen or seventeen it's not interesting anymore.



What the actual fuck...

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holy shiet i did not know...then again i saw the movie back when i was a kid so that probably flew over my head. it's not one of my fave indy jones flick either.

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imagine a gang bang with all these guys at once hmmmmmmm

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Ugh don't put that image in my head 

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omg no ty

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just imagine all the dandruff left on the sheets afterwards

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omg lmao

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Did not even know this was going to be a thing, but with no Blunt I'm 95% less interested than I would otherwise have been.

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bye emily and denis are the reason that film saw any of my money



+ king deakins



Edited at 2016-06-02 06:25 pm (UTC)

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I'll give benicio some credit too, but IA. Emily and Dennis were basically the backbone of the movie.



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If a movie/show isn't 50% women now, I'm not seeing it.

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at the very least

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pretty much

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i'm going to start doing this tbh. especially after seeing thelma and louise finally.

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Same.



I can't believe that's the minimum standard I have to maintain.



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On the one hand BdT was terrifying and amazing but otoh I want more Emily and no Brolin. I get it though, since she'll probably be busy with Mary Poppins.



I'll wait for more info.





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Apparently I'm behind on my news but OMFG she is Mary?!?! All my dreams are coming true!!

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Bye. Brolin was unnecessary so Idk why they're focusing on him.

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I wanted brolin's character to get shot in the head tbh.

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mte

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It's slow, not boring. If you want an action packed shoot em up then don't bother. It's an excellent crime drama.

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Yes. It's tense af and the soundtrack is aces

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ia with the comment(s) above, it's a great movie. plus, the cinematography is amazing.



Edited at 2016-06-02 06:32 pm (UTC)

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so worth it! i went in not knowing anything, and was blown away!!!

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It's really intense. I didn't find it boring at all.

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What a slap in the face to drop Emily. Benicio's character was excellent, but wtf? Also the Denis is the reason I went to see this. This might be a hard pass for me.

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yes. drop the woman.



too many women



go back to the shakespeare days where women couldn't be in the plays please

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well only if that means that men with only make out and fuck other men on screen!

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Mess

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Um..I thought the whole point of Sicario's success was the fact that Emily's character was treated equally as a male character would have been...





Hollywood can be so mad annoying sometimes...

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Lol no she wasn't. She was super passive in the film and like a deer in headlights.

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No Emily Blunt no cuRR

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I literally only watched this for Emily

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well shit

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than what's the point smh

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I don't agree with her comparisons at all (the black man/white man, gay guy/hetero) since it isn't like society gives a fuck about LGBTQ people or PoC as marginalized groups.



But her point overall is correct. Women in pain and violence against women is used to market movies a lot and it makes me really uncomfortable. To make it a billboard? It's gross.

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False, because the gap criticism was met with a load of backlash, the ONTD post in particular was messy. a majority of the users were showed their antiblack asses and said they ~saw nothing wrong with the gap ad~.



the oppression olympics doesn't need to be played.

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I can see why they chose it. The scene has the two biggest and most visually-drawing characters in the film, which you need for a billboard people are going to drive by and see for only a split second. In fact, the fact that it's so violent and alarming probably aids it. It draws the eye, which is what a billboard is supposed to do. Doesn't make it right, but it does make it effective.

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they could have chosen the scene where apocalypse makes himself huge and picks up charles in his hand, that would be just as visual imo

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Agreeing with all points. Lbr, it's because it's JLaw. It's because she's a sex symbol and her being choked plays into porn fantasies.



I'm allergic against choking scenes in films - I accept that they're there, but I always hate seeing them - but using that image in the trailer and on the billboards is downright ugly. Survivors of domestic violence will see that. Kids will see that. (Won't someone think of the children!!). It's such a casual portrayal of violence and feels deeply inappropriate.

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Yep, this is a nasty piece of promo and without any context doesn't make sense, it's just gratuitous. Honestly they should have blown up the pic of apocalypse staring down a skull or have him surrounded by the horsemen and it would have made more sense without the creepy choking imagery.

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isnt there that scene in Deadpool where he's like I DONT KNOW IF I SHOULD HIT YOU. IS IT SEXIST IF I DO, OR SEXIST IF I DONT?

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for a while these posters were plastered over every subway stop in nyc and it was so fucking gratuitous and tasteless. it really is sexualized in a gross way too, how much bigger he/his costuming is, especially considering she's basically naked. blech

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Well, that is alarming.



Imagine if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero?



Why do they always do this? Besides, it's not like it's out of the realm of possibility for a movie marketing company to do that anyway.

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Black folk stay getting thrown under the bus and since when does anyone at large give a fuck about violence against the LGBTQ crowd?

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mte, Special Agent Mills (RIP)

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Rose does this all the time.

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how would we know the sexual orientation of the people unless they spelled it out, and in this context, why would they do so.



see, when you play O.O, it just doesn't work out 90% of the time.

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I hate that she always does

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Shes done those comparisons before , smh

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I remember the first one being really racist anyway. I haven't seen the ones after that. The director has a thing about making poc and other minorities voiceless villains or throwaway characters who die so the white heroes can live.

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if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero? The outcry would be enormous.



Uhm.

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she always has to play oppression olympics

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I totally get and agree with her overall point, too, but she just had to go there with it smh.

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Yep, it's basically her trademark by now lol

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it's ridiculous. as if people actually give a shit about racism or homophobia. god forbid someone be more than just a white woman, her head might explode

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She needs to not

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She's got a point. I wish she hadn't taken it to a racism/homophobia place -- they're all bad and shouldn't be 'compared' in that sense -- but she's got a point. I get that they're trying to show the stakes of the movie, but as comic-book movies (and movies in general) are so infamously bad about including well-written women at all, it's NAGL.



(I legit thought Mystique might die in that scene, just because Jen's so entirely Over It and doesn't want to do it anymore, oop.)

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The lies do not exist.

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tbh I really don't like that poster

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the fact that people, esp those who were """""woke"""""/sj, loved this just bc they find jlaw to be problematic bothered tf out of me.

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IA, I get why ppl don't her but when the trailer came out and the scene with apocalypse choking mystique was gifed, so many ppl were like "yes kill that homophobic trash!" Like wtf.

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it was so transparent and honestly disturbing to witness.

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Were they really? D: WTF

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if you're a woman whose been problematic then you're exempt from needing sympathy apparently. i'm done w/ most "woke"/sj crowds for this reason, it is needlessly angry, negative and people want to be mad they won't want people do to better they don't want people to improve.

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ew

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But JLaw may be homophobic but her character isn't? Because I mean Mysique's sexuality and gender is fluid right? So how does watching a character like that being choked is at all satisfying for any sjws? What kinda hypocrisy. Plus its not like JLaw is being choked for real and for wanting that, well, that's another level of misogyny.

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Imagine if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero? The outcry would be enormous.



she could have made her point without saying this

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mte

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seriously...the comparisons were unnecessary.

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That billboard is a major fail. It needs to be taken down.

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imo it's not even that it's offensive so much as that it could be genuinely frightening or disturbing to a lot of people. You just don't need to see a violent act on a billboard.



But yeah, don't they have publicity teams who are supposed to be good at this sort of thing?

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The same thought passed through my mind too.



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The geniuses behind this, and I use that term lightly, need to to take a long hard look at the mirror and see how they are contributing to society. Imagine if it were a black man being strangled by a white man, or a gay male being strangled by a hetero?



Ugh.



I don't care for this poster but she's an idiot and has been showing her ass for a long time. She's got that feminism that appeals only to straight white women and I'm not here for her.



Edited at 2016-06-02 08:22 pm (UTC)

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mte, she's thrown so many minorities (racial/gay/trans) under the bus in the name of w/e wave of feminism she's riding, nty

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The rapidly shifting and challenging environment for the energy sector in Latin America offers an unprecedented opportunity for the region to rethink how it can better coordinate its energy sector and look toward building a comprehensive, integrated energy matrix. On July 1, all eyes will be on the leaders of Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru  the founding member states of the Pacific Alliance  to see how the ambitious goal of energy integration can be advanced on the sidelines of the 11th annual Summit.

With 42 observer countries from South Korea to Sweden signed up and twoCosta Rica and Panamapending ascension, the grouping has become a hot commodity. That is partly due to an outstanding record of achievement: the alliance has already integrated four national stock markets, erased a vast range of tariffs, introduced visa-free travel, and organized joint international trade missions.

However, there are still areas for greater cooperation and integration. As argued in our new report Pacific Alliance 2.0, authored by the Atlantic Council and Bertelsmann Foundation, the energy sector remains one of the most promising areas to benefit from increased collaboration among member states. Related: Will OPEC Use This Strategy To Defeat U.S. Shale?

By building a more sustainable common energy strategy and transitioning to an inter-connected energy matrix, the Pacific Alliance has the potential to deliver powerful economic, environmental, and energy security benefits not only to member states, but to Latin America at large.

The needs are fairly clear. Chile, for example, has experienced an almost 200 percent increase in the cost of electricity over the past ten years, and faces frequent power supply risks. Total energy use in Latin America and the Caribbean is projected to expand by more than 80 percent through 2040, accompanying the regions economic growth and its rising middle class.

The energy-rich members of the Alliance have an opportunity to take on new leadership roles as suppliers, while at the same time offsetting risk from the decaying of Venezuelas Petrocaribe presence in Central America and the Caribbean. Most importantly, stronger energy integration will help the Pacific Alliance take on the role as a key supplier to the Asia-Pacific region  a core aspect of the pacts strategic value.

The question then is, what must be done to accomplish such a challenging goal?

1. Harmonize energy projects. Energy projects, from production to generation, should be better coordinated among member states. Policy harmonization is essential to establish clear rules and mechanisms to manage pricing. Subsidies must continue to be eliminated or replaced with price stabilization mechanisms that are not costly for public coffers. A good way for the Pacific Alliance to get started on policy harmonization would be to form an energy council or working group to draw up plans for physical electrical interconnection of grids across borders. Related: The Offshore Oil Business Is Crippled And It May Never Recover

2. Private sector participation. Once a predictable regulatory environment is in order, private sector participation must be coordinated. Public-private partnerships and joint ventures in electricity, gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and oil should be explored and harmonizedLatin America needs roughly $305 billion for electricity generation alone from 2015 to 2025. As the region transitions from its reliance on hydroelectric plants toward non-conventional renewables, investors will require long-term contracts and favorable conditions in order to have competition and efficient prices.

3. Capitalize on Mexico-U.S. gas integration. The Pacific Alliance must also take advantage of the trickledown effect from Mexicos integration with the U.S. gas market. Mexico can export gas not just to Central America but also to the greater Pacific region. This will change the energy landscape in the Pacific, where Colombia also has the potential to be a net exporter. Both Colombia and Mexico can shift from conventional thermal gas-powered generation, to combined cycle generation and other technologies. Furthermore, as the Caribbean shifts away from high-cost, high-carbon fuels toward more natural gas, the Alliance can benefit from its geographical proximity.

4. Clean Energy. The lowest-hanging fruit for the Pacific Alliance is clean energy. Solar, wind, and wave power in Latin America and the Caribbean saw an average growth rate of 34 percent in the past decade, but these sources still represent only 0.9 percent of total regional power generation. The Alliance could benefit enormously from non-conventional renewables, helping them move toward export diversification.

With more than 4,000 miles of separation, there are certainly challenges to overcome for energy integration in the Pacific Alliance, but the rewards are well worth the effort in the long term, and the Alliance has a proven track record of success.

By Maria Fernanda Perez

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Companies extracting oil, gas and coal from U.S. federal lands will see royalties due to the government increase if Hillary Clinton becomes the countrys next president, the candidates campaign said.

The current 12.5-percent rate would be raised to be in line with the 16 percent to almost 19 percent that some states already impose, in a promised move the Clinton campaign described as only fair.

Beyond that, Clinton would also determine new oil leasing on federal lands based on how fast renewable energy is developingpresumably to ensure that renewables outpace oil and gas. In other words, renewables would be given preference on federal lands.

It goes far beyond what President Barack Obama has done. Related: The U.S. Might Soon Lose Its No.1 Position In Petroleum Production

Clinton has discussed similar policy changes in the past, but this is the first time she has provided specific details of the proposal.

Environmental groups had been lobbying the likely Democratic nominee to ban all fossil fuel production on federal land in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump had made increasing oil and natural gas production on federal lands a centerpiece of his energy platform. He claims the move would release $50 trillion worth of untapped energy supplies into global markets and create sizable revenues for the federal government.

Trumps plans also including removing regulatory obstructions in leasing lands for drilling purposes and revoking renewable energy subsidies.

Clintons plan would increase renewable energy production on government lands tenfold over the next decade, which she plans to implement by expediting the permit process for up and coming renewable energy projects. Military bases would also begin using more green energy. Related: BP Oil Cargoes in Limbo at Terminal as Venezuela Cant Pay its Bills

The Natural Resources Defense Council endorsed Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, marking its first political endorsement in a presidential election, according to The Washington Post.

Hillary Clinton is an environmental champion with the passion, experience and savvy to build on President Obamas environmental legacy, the group said in a statement. More than any other candidate running, Hillary Clinton understands the environmental challenges America faces, and her approach to solving them is grounded in the possibility and promise our democracy affords us.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration started a three-year moratorium on new leases for coal production on federal lands. In the meantime, the Department of the Interior will determine whether or not royalty rates will increase in order to make up for the environmental disadvantages of coal production.

By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com

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India has tremendous potential as an economic powerhouse of the future, but it also faces some significant development challenges. Indias population is on track to be the worlds most populated nation by 2022, surpassing even China. Yet India also has a considerably smaller carbon footprint than China because millions of people lack access to modern energy services. If India is ever to realize its economic potential, it desperately needs to build energy infrastructure and find innovative ways of providing energy to its rapidly expanding population.

One unorthodox system for dealing with that problem is being introduced by Manoj Bhargava, the billionaire behind 5 Hour Energy drinks. His solution is bicycles. Bhargava, who was born in Lucknow in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh wants to use bicycles and pedal power as a means to help solve part of Indias electrical problems. The concept is that Indians are sold or given stationary bikes to generate free electricity using a battery attached to the bike. That battery is charged as the rider pedals the bike. Pedaling turns a generator, which in turn produces electricity that can be stored in the battery. The battery can then be removed and used to run appliances through a house. The current design of the bike provides a days worth of energy with only an hour of pedaling. Related: The U.S. Might Soon Lose Its No.1 Position In Petroleum Production

Generator bikes are not uncommon, but the key difference in this case is the stationary bikes battery. Because of that battery, the turbine does not need to be constantly spinning, which in turn means you dont need to be pedaling while cooking food or using a light. Indeed because the battery itself is removable, one obvious efficient solution is that bicycles could be shared across a community much like wells are. People could come and charge their battery then remove it making way for someone else. Indeed its even possible that some people could become professional bicycle riders and be paid by their neighbors to charge batteries for use by others.

The final price of the bikes has not yet been set as the system is still being developed, but the bikes themselves are inexpensive to begin with. With production facilities located in India and Singapore, the bikes are going to be cheap  anywhere from free to as much as $250 with a typical price of perhaps $100.

Bhargavas solution, as strange as it may seem to consumers in the developed world, could actually make a huge difference in India. More than 20 percent of Indias billion plus people live with unreliable or no electricity at all. Across the world roughly 1.3 billion people have no electricity. There is no doubt that a distributed grid solution like a stationary bike has pros and cons. Related: Is OPEC About To Surprise The Oil markets?

On the one hand, stationary bikes are beneficial for people without electricity, and they provide a realistic way to generate power at very little cost even for poor communities, and they are a low-tech way to generate power that should be simple to repair and maintain. On the other hand, individual bikes are not a true cohesive solution to problems of an unreliable grid, nor are they an effective solution for more power intensive needs like operating a business. Finally, from a human effort standpoint, spending one waking hour working just to generate power is a relatively expensive proposition in cost terms.

On the whole then, the bike solution is novel idea in power starved India and it is certainly the kind of innovative thinking that should help to develop that economy over time. While it is only a temporary solution to a long-term problem, it is positive step for a country that is key to global economic growth over the next 20 years.

By Michael McDonald of Oilprice.com

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Iran has been eager to restart the full-scale development of its oil and gas reserves since the lifting of economic sanctions early this year, and its main tool in this endeavor has been the new Iranian Petroleum Contract (IPC).

Now, despite serious opposition from parliament, the government is hoping to attract US$185 billion in foreign investment in oil and gas production and refining, according to deputy oil minister for international affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia.

The figure suggests Iran is really counting on this new contract with foreign companies: when the IPC was first presented to energy businesses last November, the amount of investments oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said he expected to flow into Iran was just $25 billion.

So, whats so special about this new contract that Iran is pinning its hopes on? The old buyback system that the countrys government was using before the sanctions saw the state exercise more or less full control over the development of an oil field. The new IPC will see foreign oil field operators working in joint ventures with local energy companies and they will be paid in cash and crude for their services. Related: Cash Deprived Venezuela Cant Pay For Oil Imports, Leaving Tankers Stranded

For many in Irans predominantly conservative parliament, this effectively means the state will be transferring partial ownership of the oil fields to foreign operators, which, they argue, is a violation of the constitution. Iran is pretty sensitive about oil field ownership, and this opposition eventually led to the cancellation of a conference that was to be held in London in February to unveil the IPC to international oil companies. The conference had already been postponed five times before it was eventually cancelled.

The IPC, according to Iran analyst Reza Yeganehshahib, does not violate the constitution, which stipulates that no foreign party has the right to own any part of the Muslim communitys property. The contract simply changes the way foreign oil companies are paid for their work on Irans fieldsin crude extracted from these same fields, or in money from the sale of the crude. No right of ownership is stipulated in the new contract, and Iranian companies are to take 51 percent in every joint venture agreed under the new contract. Related: Clinton Campaign Pledges to Raise Fed Royalties for Oil Companies

While its true that foreign oil companies will, under the new IPC, be allowed to book oil and gas reserves, booking does not necessarily mean owning, even when the company actually doespartly or whollyown the oil field it exploits. What could be a concern for these foreign companies, however, is that the IPC envisages long-term obligations, which will make it harder for the operators to withdraw from their joint ventures in Iran should the country once again become the target of economic sanctions.

This potential concern seems to be trumped by the upside that Irans oil and gas reserves offer  reserves that could be vital for international oil majors that have struggled to replace barrels that they have produced. Iran has proven oil reserves of 157.53 billion barrels of crude and 34 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, and is eager to ramp up production of both after years of underinvestment. The time will hardly ever be better for international E&Ps to step into Iran, whatever misgivings they might have with regard to the contractual framework they are being offered.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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The much anticipated OPEC meeting in Vienna on June 2 ended pretty much as expected: the group once again failed to put any production targets in place.

Without a ceiling on output, all OPEC members will continue to produce as they see fit, leaving the oil market to sort itself out. The result was largely anticipated, given the lack of agreement at several prior meetings.

However, the meeting in Vienna was not without some news. OPEC members managed to agree on several small bore issues, which could be viewed as a modest success, especially after the apparent hostility on display in Doha in April and the utter failure in December of last year.

For example, OPEC appointed a new secretary-general, Nigerias Mohammed Barkindo, the former head of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. He will take over from Libyas Abdalla El-Badri, who has been in the job for several years on an interim basis because the group could not agree on a new leader. Related: Traders Watch Oil Chokepoints As Geopolitical Risk Soars

Also, OPEC agreed to approve of the reentry of Gabon as a member of the organization. Gabon was once a member of OPEC several decades ago, and now rejoins, bringing its 240,000 of production.

While the meeting in Vienna did not end with any blockbuster news, the members seemed to make some progress on restoring trust and building on some negotiations that could eventually lead to a reinstatement of production targets. Saudi Arabia reportedly was open to a collective production ceiling, but Iran insisted that it would only support individual country quotas, a policy that is too complicated to implement at the last minute in Vienna.

OPEC previously had a collective ceiling at 30 million barrels per day, a limit that didnt stop the group from producing in excess of that level. In December 2015, the group failed to even agree on a target, disposing of any pretense of coordinated action. This time around, Saudi Arabia was rumored to be pushing a collective limit of 32 to 32.5 million barrels per day, an increase from the previous ceiling that would reflect both a larger organization and an increase in its market share. Still, the group could not agree on that collective target. Individual country limits would be much more significant, and while nothing was agreed upon this week, the preliminary discussions behind closed doors could lead to further negotiations in the coming months, which could make the next meeting on November 30 much more interesting.

Another notable development was the presence of Saudi Arabias new energy minister Khalid Al-Falih, who in his first appearance went to lengths to emphasize his countrys desire for market stability. The market is doing quite well by itself and we will be very gentle in our approach so we do not shock the market. Our concern is for the long-term stability of the market, he said. We dont want oil shocks in any way. Related: Is OPEC About To Surprise The Oil markets?

While nothing concrete was agreed to, Saudi Arabias shift in tone was notable. The Saudis appear interested in reviving OPECs relevance. On the other hand, why would OPEC agree to limits now just as the oil markets move closer to balancing? And in November, there could be even less of a justification for production limits as non-OPEC supplies continue to fall. Supply and demand are working and this is the essence of this policy, United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazrouei said on May 31. From the beginning of the year until now, the market has been correcting itself upward. This is the year of correction.

While not every OPEC member is on board with that sentiment, the Gulf States at least are content with unfettered production levels. Judging by the reaction of the oil markets, however, traders are disappointed with the inability of the group to make more tangible progress on coordinated action. WTI fell by 1.71 percent to $48.17 per barrel during early trading on June 2, and Brent was down 1.2 percent.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com
The Venezuelan president has accused the U.S. of trying to usurp his countrys oil riches after the head of the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) suggested a special meeting that could lead to Venezuelas suspension from the group.

Luis Almagro, the Secretary-General of the 35-member OAS, has called for a special meeting to censure Venezuela for jailing critics and blocking the opposition-controlled parliament as the country reels from an economic crisis that is leading to dangerous unrest.

The OAS public lashing of Maduro is likely to lead to more blowback for the opposition-controlled parliament, as Maduro has threatened to charge congressmen with treason.



Related: Traders Watch Oil Chokepoints As Geopolitical Risk Soars

For the opposition, which is holding out for referendum that would recall Maduro, the OAS move is seen as full support of that.

"The empire has decided that it's time to take our resources," Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez told reporters. "We know that what's coming is an intervention ... that's why we are alerting the international community."

Venezuela has the largest reserves of underground oil in the world and provides 10 percent of U.S. imports.



Related: Oil Prices Down As OPEC Fails To Agree Output Ceiling

The crisis in Venezuela will reverberate far and wide, including in the U.S., in both positive and negative ways. On one hand, if Venezuela starts losing significant oil output, it will help rebalance the market and move us beyond US$50 oil.

But the bigger picture, according to Houston Chronicle columnist Chris Tomlinson, is that we need Venezuelas heavy crude.

"For our refineries to operate, we need heavy Venezuelan oil," Tomlinson wrote. "Because of the crisis, they don't have enough money to pay Texas companies to help extract that oil. That's leading to a reduction in their output, and that's worsening the economic crisis there."

By James Burgess of Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The opinions expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the opinions of OnMilwaukee.com, its advertisers or editorial staff.

In case you somehow missed it, a three-year-old boy climbed into a 450-pound gorilla's enclosure. The Cincinnati Zoo's response team then killed the beloved 17-year-old silverback, Harambe, sparking a growing hue and cry  especially on social media, including demands that the child's parents be prosecuted forthwith. As we saw with Cecil the Lion, it turns out that people get most upset when animals die that have names.

Imagine being the mother of that kid who went into the gorilla enclosure in Cincinnati, plucked overnight from obscurity and turned into Mommy Dearest on everyones Facebook pages. Can we all pause  irony here  and remember that shes human?

The boys father is being even more mistreated. TV networks, news sites and petitions are reporting his criminal record and/or questioning whether he should be criminally charged even though he was not at the zoo.



Nearly 100k people sign petition to create a law that would hold parents criminally responsible for Harambe's deathhttps://t.co/lifuc5u9Dm  FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) May 31, 2016

While everyone trashing the parents gains a sense of preening superiority, can we all acknowledge that all parents have, for a few seconds, taken their eyes off their kid? Even if you think the mother (Ill spare naming her) was negligent, theres something really disturbing about the cyber-mobbing that increasingly occurs in our society. If you dont agree, you havent experienced it.

People really (and understandably) freak out when majestic animals meet untimely ends because of human intervention, and they cast about for people to blame  and destroy. Social media amplifies it. Everyone joins the frothing pack in what becomes a web colosseum. And people say humans arent animals.

Im upset too that Harambe, the silverback gorilla in the Cincinnati Zoo, was killed. However, Im not convinced its the mothers fault, I know its not the fathers fault and I think its possibly somewhat the zoos fault. If were going to play this Internet blame game, why not put the focus on the zoo? And not necessarily on the zoo response teams unfortunate decision to kill the gorilla, but rather on the fact that a three-year-old boy was able to get inside the 450-pound gorillas enclosure. He sneaked past railings and fell 15 feet into the gorillas moat. How was this possible?

A primatologist told the media, "The gorilla enclosure should have been surrounded by a secondary barrier between the humans and the animals to prevent exactly this type of incident." Believe it or not, PETA has made the same point.

I can also tell you from experience that people tend to get more upset by animal deaths than human deaths. When I was a reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I once wrote a story about a carriage horse that was put down by the police after being hit by a car Downtown. The story ran with a photo, featuring the cops pointing a gun at the horse, that I didnt see, approve or take. Not a great photo choice by the newspaper, but the people who called in droves were disproportionately vicious. One said I would probably never have children because I "clearly hated animals," while another said I should be fired, for a decision the photo desk made, and that they would do everything in their power to ensure it. I left the newsroom in tears. And that was before social media.

I learned then that people will respond far more emotionally to hurt animals than they will to hurt people because I never received calls when I wrote about homicide.

Theres something good about a society that cares about animals, of course. I sometimes think animals are better than humans; they have far less guile, for starters. The death of Harambe is tragic, and it makes me sick. Theres a natural desire to want to hold someone accountable. "Blame the parent!" becomes the simplistic response.

But the hatred being directed at this mother seems inappropriate and disproportionate. The Internet is impersonal. Even a woman simply with the same name as the boy's mother has been harassed by the cyber-bullies.

As one writer noted about Internet mob justice during the case of the Minnesota dentist who killed Cecil the Lion and started receiving death threats, "One of the reasons we have a justice system is to punish criminals for wrongdoing, both to serve the abstract ideal of justice and to deter future criminal acts ... Mob justice does not accomplish this, and often does the opposite. One of the biggest reasons is that it is applied extremely inconsistently, even randomly." Its worth a full read.

Trial by media  and, worse, trial by cyber-media  doesnt allow the defense a voice, whether its a mother whose kid jumped into a gorillas moat or any other random person caught in the news cycle and torn to bits by the social media horde. Media trials follow no rules of evidence. They are often slanted toward one side, and they become an echo chamber perpetuated by people barely familiar with  or purposely disregarding  the actual facts. When it comes to death threats, it can even be dangerous. Ironically, the Internet is doing to the mother what Harambe didnt do to the boy. Worse, on the Internet, a moment of infamy can never be erased, becoming a lifetime of pain.

The mother, a preschool administrator, now faces a police investigation and calls for her prosecution.

One eyewitness, Deidre Lykins, said she heard the mother call out for her son and "had just been next to him when he disappeared." She thinks the mother was not to blame, saying, "This was an open exhibit! Which means the only thing separating you from the gorillas, is a 15-ish foot drop and a moat and some bushes!"

Another eyewitness told CNN the mother was briefly distracted by other children and "suddenly the boy was in the water." The eyewitness heard the boy joke that he was going in. The mother reportedly then admonished the boy. Dont most parents assume zoo exhibits are impenetrable?

The zoo director defended the barriers security, saying kids that small can "climb over anything." No, the barrier needs to be high enough that they cant. Animal rights activists have filed a complaint against the zoo, arguing the same and pointing out that two polar bears recently got loose.

We all know that kids are fast and curious. Weve all read those stories of kids who manage to wriggle inside those toy machines in arcades. How kids accomplish that is beyond me.

Id join the "bad parent!" social media mobbing if the mother had left the boy completely unattended, like those awful mothers who leave their kids in cars when they go into tanning salons. Im not saying the mother acted perfectly here, either. I am saying the response is disproportionately mean based on known facts.

I wish the zoo had another option short of killing the beautiful creature, who, by some reports, was thrashing the boy around and, by other accounts, held his hand and tried to protect him.

However, I get why the zoo response team decided not to risk the boys death for the apes life. The video is scary, and zookeepers said tranquilizing the animal could have made the gorilla react violently, not to mention the tranquilizers would've taken several minutes to take effect. This point is also lost to most in the instinctual Internet mob.

Meanwhile, do you know the name of a single Cincinnati homicide victim?
The latest

Chef Jamie Nelson takes helm at Milwaukee Art Museum

The Milwaukee Art Museum announced today that it has promoted former sous chef Jamie Nelson to the role of executive chef.
Reprinted from Dispatches From The Edge

On one level, the impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff seems like vintage commedia dell'arte: the Lower House speaker who brought the charges, Eduardo Cunha, had to step down because he has $16 million stashed in secret Swiss and U.S. bank accounts. The man who replaced Cunha, Waldir Maranhao, is implicated in corruption around the huge state-owned oil company, Petroblas. The former vice-president and now president, Michel Temer, has been convicted of election fraud, and has also been caught up in the Petroblas investigation. And the president of the Senate, Renan Calheiros, has also been implicated in the oil company scandal and is dodging tax evasion charges. In fact, over half the legislature is currently under investigation for corruption of some kind.

But there is nothing comedic about what the fall of Rousseff and her Workers Party will mean for the 35 million Brazilians who have been lifted out of poverty over the past decade, and for the 40 million newly minted members of the middle class one-fifth of Brazil's 200 million people.

While it was the current downturn in the world's seventh largest economy that helped light the impeachment fuse, the crisis is rooted in the nature of Brazil's elites, its deeply flawed political institutions, and the not so dead hand of its 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

Given that the charges against Rousseff do not involve personal corruption, or even constitute a crime -- if juggling books before an election were illegal, virtually every politician on the planet would end up in the docket -- it is hard to see the impeachment as anything other than a political coup. Even the conservative Economist, long a critic of Rousseff, writes "in the absence of proof of criminality, impeachment is unwarranted" and "looks like a pretext for ousting an unpopular president."

That suspicion is reinforced by the actions of the new President. Temer represents the center-right Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) that until recently was in alliance with Rousseff's Workers Party. As soon as Rousseff was impeached by the Senate and suspended from office for 180 days, Temer made a sharp turn to the right on the economy, appointing a cabinet of ministers straight out of Brazils' dark years of dictatorship: all white, all male, and with the key portfolios in the hands of Brazil's historic elites. This is in a country where just short of 51 percent of Brazilians describe themselves as black or mixed.

Seven of those ministers have been implicated in the Petroblas scandal.

The President announced a program to "reform" labor laws and pensions, code words for anti-union legislation and pension cuts. His new Finance Minister, Henrique Meirelles, a former central bank head who once headed BankBoston in the U.S., announced that, while programs for the poor "which don't cost the budget that much" would be maintained -- like the highly popular and successful Bolsa Familia that raised tens of millions out of poverty through small cash grants -- other Worker Party initiatives would go under the knife.

The new government is already pushing legislation that would roll back laws protecting the environment and indigenous people, and has appointed ministers with terrible track records in both areas.
Reprinted from Campaign For America's Future

More and more the word is getting out that President Obama, along with the giant multinational corporations and Wall Street, will launch a push in Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during the "lame duck" legislative session following the election.

President Obama should put a stop to this talk right now. It hands Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump a powerful issue to use against -- and embarrass -- Hillary Clinton, should she become the Democratic nominee.

TPP In Lame Duck

The Los Angeles Times has a story, "Obama races to cement the big Pacific Rim trade deal that all his potential successors oppose," that includes this:

"The most optimistic timeline in Congress appears to be for the deal to come to a vote in the lame duck session. Obama predicted recently lawmakers might vote after at least the primary election season had ended."

This story is one of many in various outlets covering administration, business and other sources describing a coming effort to push TPP through Congress after the election. A few examples:

Wall Street Journal, May 24: "Obama Reasserts Hope for TPP Passage This Year":

"'The goal is, I think, to try to complete TPP by the end of this year,' Mr. Obama said. "...The White House hopes Republican leaders will help pass the TPP in a lame-duck session before Mr. Obama leaves office in January."

The Hill, May 6: "President Obama urging Congress to pass TPP":

"The Obama administration is working closely with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to build support for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), arguing that delaying votes on the deal will make it harder to pass the agreement, the president said in a Washington Post op-ed. "Congressional leaders have said that the deal won't likely be considered until the lame-duck session after the November elections."

The Hill, April 25: "Chamber's Donohue: TPP vote likely after the elections":
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Election Crimes Bulletin

Alert! California poll workers have been told to give all independent voters "provisional" ballots if they want to vote in Democratic Party. That's illegal -- and will insure that Sanders voters' ballots end up in the garbage, uncounted.

A special bulletin for California voters. And for the rest of you, how this same trickery -- shifting voters to provisional ballots which are rarely counted -- can steal the White House and Congress for the GOP in November.

Here's the 411. If you're registered as an independent voter in California, you have the right to vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary. Just ask for the ballot. But look out! Reports out of Orange County are that some poll workers have been told to give "No Party Preference" (NPP), independent voters, PROVISIONAL ballots as opposed to regular ballots.

Voter, BEWARE! Do NOT accept a PROVISIONAL BALLOT! They're really "Placebo Ballots" -- they give you the satisfaction of feeling like you've voted, without the inconvenience of anyone actually having to count them!

And for our readers in the other 49 states: You can bet that the GOP will be shunting voters to these placebo provisional ballots in November. In the last election, over two MILLION voters, overwhelmingly voters of color, were shifted to these rarely-counted ballots. That's how you steal elections.

No, I'm not promoting Bernie, nor Ernie, nor anyone. I'm promoting democracy. Let's make sure your vote counts. Read on (or listen in) while Dennis Bernstein and I take you through that ugly sausage factory calling the American voting system."

Transcript

Dennis Bernstein: Greg, welcome back. This week we'll focus on what Greg calls placebo ballots, which are incredibly relevant to the upcoming California primary.

Greg Palast: Glad to be here for the bulletin. But I want to call it the alert, because I want people to wake up, get alert, and find out what's happening in California and nationwide so you don't lose your vote.

DB: You've done a lot of research on the provisional ballot.

Palast: If you don't know what a provisional ballot is, you are probably white. I call them placebo ballots. They were created by George Bush and Karl Rove after they swiped Florida in 2000. The Congressional Black Caucus was very upset that people were not able to vote because they were falsely removed from the voter roles for all kinds of cockamamie reasons. So they said, "If your name is not on the voter roles, you should still be able to vote provisionally. They can check your records and count your vote later so you don't lose your vote." They passed the provisional ballots through the Help America Vote Act. You can imagine, Dennis, what happens when George Bush says he's going to help us vote. People won the right to a provisional ballot, but we didn't win the right to have them counted. They rarely are. That's why I call them placebo ballots. They say you can't vote here, but you can fill out a provisional ballot. You think if you filled out a provisional ballot, sign it and stick it in the envelope, it's counted. It isn't. The chances they'll count it are minimal. It's like voting, but it's not voting.

What does that have to do with California? I am currently reporting from Southern California, and there's an Ashley Beck, who is a poll worker in conservative Orange County. She was being trained with other poll workers, and they were given some very strange information. In the California primary, the independent voters registered as NPP, or no party preference, can vote in the Democratic primary. They can ask for a ballot and they are allowed to vote. The Orange County poll workers were told if NPP voters ask for a Democratic Party ballot to vote for Bernie or Hillary, they are not to be given regular ballots, but provisional ballots. This shook up Ashley:

"I was told that all NPP voters are to be given provisional ballots. I was bothered by that, because I was always told that NPP voters in California can vote for Democrats and their vote would be counted. I was a little worried that he was telling all 18 of us poll workers to give all NPP voters provisional ballots. We all know what happens most of the time with provisional ballots. They are not being counted."
What do America and Papua New Guinea have in common? We are the only countries without guarantee paid maternity leave. Among developed nations, it's worse: The U.S. stands alone in denying that kind of critical support to new parents.



New Parents

(Image by mikecogh) Details DMCA



In over half of the nearly 200 countries that do provide paid leave at last 14 weeks of compensated time off is granted. But in the United States, new parents aren't guaranteed any paid time off. Instead, if they have worked for a certain amount of time at a company with 50 or more employees, they can take 12 unpaid weeks off for the arrival of a new child or for the care of a parent or spouse.

I got a sense of what the consequences are of that situation when I received a Change.org petition from two very different mothers, one from Oklahoma and the other from Brooklyn. They had a shared experience: Both had lost babies in daycare because "neither of us had the luxury of choice. Our respective employers would not grant us any more time for parental leave and we couldn't afford to quit our jobs."

Very few babies die in child care, of course, but the tragedy of these two infant deaths, one of whom suffocated, is significant because one in four American mothers have no choice but to return to work just a couple of weeks after the birth of a child. As the two petitioning mothers wrote, "No parent should have to choose between leaving their baby too soon and making ends meet."

Of the 87 percent of parents in this country who have no access to paid leave through their employers, parents with sick or premature infants in particular should not have to leave their babies in neonatal intensive care units, as one distraught mother reported on Facebook recently.

Various studies have shown that for each additional month that a woman has paid parental leave infant mortality goes down by three percent. That is important to note in a country that has the highest infant mortality rate of any industrialized nation in the world. Further, mother-child bonding is stronger and babies are breastfed more when mothers can stay with their babies longer. There is also less post-partum depression.

Paid parental leave is also good for business. Productivity goes up, along with morale, and there is less workforce turnover.

The vast majority of Americans, whether Republican, Democrat or Independent, now agree that it is important for Congress to consider improving the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993. Most of them realize that parental leave is a necessity, not a perk.

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by Dan Lucas

A Congressional panel recently released a report on Oregons failed $305 million health insurance exchange, Cover Oregon. The Washington Post reported Republicans on the [U.S. House] committee said they are asking the Justice Department and state attorney general to conduct criminal investigations into the actions involving Cover Oregon.

The Washington Post also noted Democrats on the panel blamed the states contractor, California-based Oracle Corporation, for the websites problems. Blaming Oracle was also the strategy of a secretive campaign consultant for former Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who by her own admission knew virtually nothing about health care reform or the reasons Cover Oregon had crashed.

But whos really to blame here?

Regardless of Oracles issues in delivering the Cover Oregon website, the problem for Democrats in blaming Oracle is that its just an attempt to shift blame from Kitzhabers administration.

Who selected Oracle? Who created and signed the contract with Oracle? Who managed and audited Oracle during the development of Cover Oregon?

As I noted back in June 2014, Kitzhaber was the head of the executive branch that was charged with implementing Cover Oregon. The people in charge of the agencies who were building Cover Oregon were appointed by the governor, including [Rocky] King and [Bruce] Goldberg. The chairwoman of the Cover Oregon Board is still Liz Baxter. Kitzhaber nominated Baxter to the Cover Oregon Board back in August 2011. Baxter came up through the organization Kitzhaber founded in 2006, the Archimedes Movement/We Can Do Better  a progressive organization advocating for health care reform.

On the question of who selected Oracle, the answer is the Kitzhaber administration. And they did so knowing there was at least one less expensive vendor, Exeter, who had already developed a system they were able to demonstrate using Oregon data. Instead, then Oregon Health Authority (OHA) CIO Carolyn Lawson chose to go with Oracle and have them build a system from scratch. Lawson reported to Kitzhaber appointee Bruce Goldberg.

In June 2011, the Oregon Legislature approved the creation of an Oregon Health Insurance Exchange, a marketplace where residents can buy government-subsidized health insurance. Carolyn Lawson started as OHA CIO on July 1, 2011, having been hired as someone who was able to deliver IT projects on time and on budget. Cover Oregon was supposed to launch on October 1, 2013.

According to a December 2012 legislative hearing, Lawson was in contact with Exeter sometime late in 2011, but favored Oracle. After many months of frustration, then state Rep. Patrick Sheehan (R-Clackamas) wrote to then Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) in December 2012 on the lack of progress on Cover Oregon.

Sheehan wrote For the past nine months in my Legislative Audits committee I have been frustrated with the lack of progress from the Health Insurance Exchange  asking repeatedly why they insist on trying to build a system from the ground-up rather than leverage existing software that other states are adopting. He also noted It is my understanding that we are spending $6 million a month on consulting services with Oracle to build the system from the ground-up, and that in September 2012 he was contacted by Exeter  a software vendor who designed the [health insurance exchange] in Massachusetts. Sheehan further noted Exeter had demonstrated a live health insurance exchange  using Oregon data  that was almost fully functional (the only element not functional was the communication with a Federal system that is not yet available).

Sheehan called on Kitzhaber to take swift and dramatic action to change the course of [the Cover Oregon] project and to fire Lawson for lying to a Legislative Committee and wasting millions of taxpayer dollars.

Sheehan told Kitzhaber he thought Lawson was choosing Oracle over other vendors like Exeter because she was ultimately in pursuit of a consulting job with Oracle.

Sheehans warning to Kitzhaber was ten months before Cover Oregon was supposed to launch. Kitzhaber did nothing. When KATU later asked Kitzhaber about Sheehans warning, Kitzhaber walked out of the interview  which made national news.

On the question of who managed Oracle during development of Cover Oregon, the Portland Business Journal reported in December 2013 [Carolyn] Lawson nixed plans to hire a technology-savvy contractor to oversee the work of Oracle, and Lawson argued that the state could handle oversight of Oracle on its own. Critics have since noted that Lawson may have been overly close to Oracle, having served as a featured speaker at the companys annual trade show in 2012 and 2013.

The blame for the Cover Oregon failure rests squarely on the shoulders of Gov. John Kitzhaber and his administration. For Democrats to try to blame Oracle is both disingenuous and inaccurate.

To read more from Dan, visit www.dan-lucas.com
Pakistan USA trying to mend fences: Mamnoon Hussain

ISLAMABAD: President Mamnoon Hussain said on Wednesday that Pakistan and the United States were trying to mend fences and repair the damage caused by misgivings.



Talks between the two countries are continuing to end misgivings and explore possibilities of further expanding bilateral cooperation, the president said in his address to the joint sitting of parliament at the start of the fourth parliamentary year.



Although the foreign policy part of the speech was interspersed with tones of optimism, it was not difficult to find out that Pakistans external relations were passing through a crisis wherein ties with the US were on a downward spiral, dialogue with India was on hold, efforts for facilitating the peace dialogue in Afghanistan were going nowhere, and struggle for striking a balance in relationships in the Gulf and the Middle East was continuing.



Mr Hussain did not elaborate which misgivings with the US he was referring to. The bilateral relationship, which has always been on a roller-coaster ride, is once again on a slide because of American concerns about Pakistani missile programme (short-range Nasr and medium-range Shaheen-III ballistic missile) and allegations that Islamabad was not doing enough to remove Haqqani network sanctuaries from its soil.



Due to these apprehensions, US Congress refused to allow funding of the sale of eight F-16s from the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) programme and resultantly Pakistan missed the opportunity to get the new jets. Additionally, cuts were imposed on the reimbursement of the Coalition Support Fund.



Pakistanis on the other hand fear that their longtime ally (US) was more inclined towards its adversary India and was helping it build conventional and nuclear capabilities. US support for Indian candidature for the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which regulates internal nuclear cooperation and trade, is also being negatively viewed in Islamabad.



The relationship, which was already under stress, suffered another setback last month because of the death in a US drone attack of Afghan Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour, whom Pakistan was persuading to join the peace process.



The president avoided mentioning the drone attack, but said recent incidents have hindered the process. He said Pakistan, however, remained hopeful that peace efforts in Afghanistan would succeed.



Pakistan, despite these issues in the relationship with the US, has been acting with, what was described by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi in his comments at a think tank event as restraint.



President Hussain recalled that the two countries had longstanding and historic relations, which were being further deepened through strategic dialogue.



In a carefully phrased reference to relations with Afghanistan, he said efforts were made to work with the new government for removing distrust.



He, however, avoided mentioning the current problems in ties.



The president regretted that India had not reciprocated Pakistans overtures for normalisation of ties. Despite Pakistans continued emphasis on dialogue, condemnation of the Pathankot incident and offer of joint investigation, the foreign secretary-level negotiations are held in abeyance, which is a matter of serious concern for us, he said. The ties, he said, could improve only if Delhi reciprocates Pakistans sincere overtures in the same spirit.



He hailed the governments decision of joining the 35-country alliance led by Saudi Arabia as an important development. This move, he said, reflected Pakistans commitment to maintaining unity for fighting terrorism and extremism.



About Iran, he said, relations received fresh impetus after President Hassan Rouhanis visit to Islamabad. After lifting of sanctions on Iran, a new era of bilateral relations between the two countries has begun and the volume of bilateral trade is proposed to be $5 billion under the Five-Year Strategic Plan. Additional entry points have also been agreed upon to expand trade and economic relations and Pak-Iran gas pipeline will help meet our energy requirements, he said.
Ghana has been ranked the 34th country with the most modern slaves out of 167 countries in the world, with survey results estimating that there are 103,300 people enslaved in the country.



According to the Global Slavery Index Report released on Tuesday, out of the 103,300 enslaved people in Ghana, 85 percent are in forced labour in the fishing and farming industries, retail sales, manual labour and factory work whiles the remaining 15 percent are in forced marriages.



The Report also listed Ghana as number 13 out of 15 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa on its Prevalence Index Rank.



The Report estimated that 45.8 million men, women and children around the world are today trapped in modern slavery; 28% more than previously estimated and they are enslaved through human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage or commercial sexual exploitation.



North Korea is the country with the greatest prevalence of modern slavery, with 4.37% of its population estimated to be enslaved. It is also the country with the weakest government response in terms of actions taken to combat modern slavery. The next highest prevalence of slavery is found in Uzbekistan (3.97%), followed by Cambodia (1.65%).



Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for approximately 13.6% (6,245,800) of the world's total enslaved population. Within the region, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, and the Central African Republic have the highest prevalence of modern slavery (all 1.13%).



The Communications Manager for Challenging Heights, Miss Pomaa Arthur in a statement said that although the report is a reflection that Ghana is making some progress in bringing an end to modern slavery, more needed to be done.



In 2014, the Global Slavery Index ranked Ghana 21st in the world and 8th in Sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 193,100 people enslaved. It is good news that our prevalence rate is dropping but we shouldnt forget that there are still 103,300 trapped in slavery in the country, she said.



Miss Arthur said a better coordination between the Government and NGOs working to bring an end to slavery such as Challenging Heights which has rescued over 1,500 children from the Lake Volta would be very instrumental in tackling the issue of trafficking.



It is estimated that there are 21,000 enslaved on the Lake Volta but the governments responses in all areas of combating slavery such as prevention, protection, prosecution and policy implementation are very slow, she added.



Miss Arthur urged the general public to take the issue of human trafficking and modern slavery seriously and make it their business to join the fight against the menace.





Source: Challenging Heights









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The founder and leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga, finds the woes of the country to be the winner takes all syndrome successive governments practice after winning elections.



According to him, Ghana has not seen any change in terms of development of the citizens and the country at large because Ghanaians are silent, leaving out the development of the country in the hands of a few group of people forming the government.



Speaking on Okay FMs 'Ade Akye Abia' Morning Show about the APC's National Delegates Conference on June 13, 2016 at the Accra International Conference Centre, Hassan Ayariga urged all Ghanaians to join his party which takes pride in an all-inclusive government to bring the real change the country needs.



We are working very hard to make a change; Ghana needs a change but the change is not from NDC to NPP but from the NDC to APC, because APC is putting up an All-Inclusive government to give the platform to everyone, he stated.



Everybody should have the same platform and equal opportunities to serve our country . . . we have seen the changes of NDC and NPP in government and Ghana is still the same, and so the blame is not that President Mahama has failed or NDC or NPP but the issue is there is no all-inclusive government system in place. There is too much executive power given to the President, he chided.



He insisted Ghana has failed because the good people of the country are quiet; thereby asking those silent ones to join APC in order to manage Ghana together than to allow few people to manage the affairs of the country for the rest.



Meanwhile, at the deadline of filing for the Presidential nomination of APC, Hassan Ayariga was the only candidate to file and he explained that many party members picked the Presidential forms but he alone filed his nomination because the people see him as a better candidate for the job due to his ideologies and principles.



Touching on the Ghc95,000 filing fee for the Presidential Candidate, Hassan Ayariga justified that the amount is reasonable for anybody who is prepared to lead APC for the 2016 elections as a lot of money will be needed to run the partys campaign; thus even the amount demanded cannot buy one brand new Pick-Up Vehicle for campaign.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com.gh









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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A member of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Allotey Jacobs was rumoured to have been apprehended for money laundering in the UK. The issue attracted diverse reactions from the two major political parties and Hopeson Adorye, a member of the New Patriotic Party, was identified as the person behind the hoax news.



But Hopeson Adorye, a member of the NPPs Communications team insists that Allotey Jacobs the Central Regional Chairman of the ruling NDC was fleetingly arrested and questioned over a case of money laundering while boarding a flight.



This has charged the Central Regional Branch of the NDC to descend heavily on him and the NPP. They describd the NPP as a party with an insatiable taste for drug business and know no bound when it comes to illicit businesses.



Below Is A Publication Of The:



PRESS CONFERENCE HELD BY THE CENTRAL REGIONAL BRANCH OF THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS (NDC) ON JUNE 2, 2016 AT THE REGIONAL PARTY SECRETARIAT.



We highly commend your swift response and attendance to this all- important Press conference at this rather short notice to address some issues which sought to bring the name of our indefatigable Chairman, Bernard Allotey Jacobs into disrepute.



We wish to unequivocally state that, the news that broke on the 28th May, 2016 to the effect that Chairman Allotey Jacobs was arrested at Heathrow Airport in the UK on the basis of alleged money laundering and cocaine related offences is a pure falsehood peddled by the desperate and drowning NPP by Hopeson Adorye.



INTRODUCTION



The New Patriotic Party (NPP), over the years has gain the notoriety for peddling falsehoods and playing dirty political game. The records of the NPP in drug-related crimes are etched in gold.



The NPP's insatiable taste for drug business know no bound, hence, leading to a frivolous accusation against the Regional Chairman of the NDC, Chairman Bernard Allotey Jacobs as being busted for drug-related offences and money laundering in the UK.



This story emanating from the stables of the NPP was issued by Hopeson Adorye, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's "darling boy" on Sunday, 29th May 2016. This dominated the social media space and mainstream Ghanaian media.



MATTERS ARISING



The British High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Jon Benjamin denied the reports in a series of tweets on Sunday followed by a full statement from the High Commission the next day.



In the said statement, pledging the UK government's policy to remain entirely neutral in Ghanaian domestic politics, it stressed that, they do, however, have the full right to respond to claims made about law enforcement issues in the UK itself, particularly when, as in this case, those claims are wholly wrong.



The statement further buttressed the point that; there was no such arrest.



Mr. Jacobs was not detained, nor was he questioned. There was absolutely no evidence of money laundering or drugs.



The statement further lend credence to the fact that, subsequently, there were persistent further rumours that Mr. Jacobs had at least been escorted off the plane by UK law enforcement.



After exhaustive, multiple enquiries we state unequivocally that the UK law enforcement authorities with jurisdiction at Heathrow Airport all confirm that they did not board the aeroplane to speak to Mr. Jacobs, nor did they do so subsequently within the airport, and they certainly did not escort Mr Jacobs off the flight concerned.



The statement gave the firm assurance among others:



"Our law enforcement authorities keep meticulous records, including of any escorting off aeroplanes  there is no such record in the case of Mr Jacobs, as there was no such event. We understand that Mr Jacobs caught his connecting flight to the US on time and without incident."



This should have ended this malicious fabricated rumuor but rather saw the perpetrator (Hopeson Adorye) defending his claims with former Mayor of Kumasi and Former Member of Parliament under the NPP Kofi Jumah noted for his abrasive politics, coming out to insult the most respected Representative of the British Government in some unprintable words.



It must be put on record that no condemnation came from the NPP which means a tacit endorsement of his uncultured behaviour but rather a statement signed by Nana Akomea, Communications Director, urged members of the NPP to desist from attacking Jon Benjamin by urging communicators, members, as well as sympathisers of the NPP not to get involved in the unsavoury accusations against the British High Commissioner, Jon Benjamin, that he lied and aided corruption by defending the Central Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress; an insult in crafty manner. The statement went on to affirm same rumour with an intellectually dishonest claims. This is a clear indication of how diabolic the NPP can be and how bad their brand has become.



REACTION TO PUBLICATIONS BY PRO-NPP NEWSPAPERS



As an orchestra of a vicious circle of character destroyers, the pro-NPP newspapers led by Daily Guide on Wednesday, 1st June 2016, had a banner headline which sought to question the academic qualifications and competencies of Chairman Bernard Allotey Jacobs leading to his appointment to the Board of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and a member of the delegation to the USA lazily following up from where Nana Akomea left off.



In doing this disgraceful piece, the NPP forgot that in their 8years in power, they had Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey (occupied various Ministerial portfolios) who later became the party's National Chairman, Sheik I.C. Quaye (Greater Accra Regional Minister), Mocta Bamba (Dep. Minister for Presidential Affairs) among others occupying high offices who are "certificateless".



Lest we forget, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo their Flagbearer's Law credentials have for decades been a bone of contention after having a Third Class Honours with Economics from the University of Ghana, Legon. Has he been able to produce his Law Certificates? Yet, he has led the NPP into two major elections with defeat as the third monumental defeat stares him in the face.



Having established this facts, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, these act of questioning the academic credentials of our Regional Chairman brings to fore the NPP's disrespect to the ordinary Ghanaian and affirms their Elitist traits and believe in the ordinary man is nothing but a tool to be used and dumped. This Mentality of Class systems is dangerous for our democracy.



ESTABLISHED MOTIVE



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, the motive behind this unwarranted attacks (though not surprising) is well-established in the fact that the Regional Chairman of the NDC, Chairman Bernard Allotey Jacobs has proven that his understanding of politics is way beyond what they imagined. He has made the NPP redundant in the Region.



The Central Region today, is a no go area for the NPP and this has been achieved by the hardworking members of the NDC from the Grassroots to the top hierarchy of the Regional body led by Chairman Allotey Jacobs.



The NPP is desperate, frustrated and dazed with the kind of development and creation of job opportunities currently ongoing in the Region under Chairman Allotey Jacobs watch. Obviously, the only thing they can do which they know best to do was to engage in smear campaign. That's the NPP for you.



Montesquieu in his 1721 Persian letters which sought to the usage of sarcasm to convey his message, playing on the ridiculousness of society from the point of a visitor in Paris which led him to publish a book titled 'considerations of the causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans' : we want to put on record that, Chairman Allotey Jacobs remains a pillar in NDC's quest to clinch 20 or more parliamentary seats in Central Region and 57% of popular votes cast from Central Region for President John Dramani Mahama in the impending Elections and so no amount of spurious and unintelligent allegations against his persona or party can dissuade him from achieving this feat.



CONCLUSION



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, it's 5months to election. It's sad the NPP has no message to sell, they are struggling to market their Flagbearer who has to travel outside the country after a tour of one or two Regions ostensibly for medical attention.



As much as we understand the desperation and frustration of the NPP, we want to assure them that we are FOCUSED to win Election 2016 through hard work, we are ever-ready to support our Regional Chairman to achieve those set objectives in style.



The NPP must know that doing politics in today's globalized world has changed and they must as well change their modus operandi for Ghanaians are very discerning. In conclusion, we entreat the Good People of Ghana to reject once again the NPP because they have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that with this fixation on drug and money laundering, we can't entrust the destiny of this country into their hands.



Ey3 Zu!!



Long Live The NDC!



Long Live Ghana!!



Thank you.



Kwesi Dawood

Source: Chris Joe Quaicoe/ email: [email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Key recommendations were published in Neuron by a team of leading neuroscientists. Credit: University of Michigan

Call them the Brain Generationthe tens of thousands of college and graduate students working toward degrees in neuroscience, and the high school students who want to join them someday.

They've grown up in a time when exciting new discoveries about the brain come out every day, fueled by a revolution in scientific tools during their short lives. And that has fueled a boom in students choosing to work toward a neuroscience degree.

But even as they study and train, they're worried about their futures - and whether they'll get to use their brains to the fullest in a time of tight research funding.

Top senior neuroscientists are worried too. That's why a team of them has just published a report filled with recommendations about how neuroscience education must change. Only by doing so, they say, will we keep the discoveries coming while preparing these bright young people for many paths - not just the traditional university research career.

Writing in the journal Neuron, they present key insights and recommendations that grew out of a fall 2014 workshop held by the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

"This should be the best of times for both the scientists and the field," they write. "The shared task of all the stakeholdersacademia, government, industry, scientific societies, foundations, and other components of the private andpublic sectorsis to ensure that we do not kill this hope."

Huda Akil, Ph.D., a University of Michigan Medical School neuroscientist who's the paper's corresponding author, looks back on the incredible growth in the field over the past two decades and sees reason for hope, not pessimism, for the new generation. But, she says, it's up to university programs to adapt to the new reality that more than half their graduates will someday work outside academia, and train them appropriately.

"The number of opportunities is huge, within and outside academic institutions," she says. "This is a perfect moment for neuroscience in particular, when the field is blossoming and growing with many ideas, tools, approaches, and intersections with other fields, and huge interest among young people. It's a perfect recipe for success - the question is how to proceed so we don't squash that opportunity."

Akil and her co-authors, who come from industry, government, universities and a private foundation, lay out some key calls to action, including:

incorporating more computational science, statistics and programming into neuroscience training, to help students handle with the massive amounts of data generated by modern tools including brain imaging, genetic sequencing, molecular analysis, bioinformatics and more

promoting skills that can help students communicate with and work in teams with researchers from other fields, from genetics, math, physics and engineering to the social sciences and philosophy, or even other sub-fields of neuroscience

informing students about the range of careers available to them, and the challenges and opportunities involved in each, through courses and internshipswhile still keeping the path to academic research careers strong

developing two types of training programs - one to prepare traditional "neuroscientists" who will focus on making basic discoveries about the brain and its disorders, and one for those who will go into a more "applied" field in industry, nonprofit, policy and other areas - to ensure they get a solid background in neuroscience

improving the representation of women and diverse groups in neuroscience careers, and better support for the personal life trajectories of all students, especially in academia where women are underrepresented on the faculty despite making up the majority of graduate students

finding new ways for universities to fund graduate training in the biosciences, beyond the usual federal grants, and assisting young scientists in finding private funds to offset the declining supply of federal research dollars

creating career path of "staff scientists" in American universities, who can work on the teams of traditional neuroscience professors without having to climb the traditional academic ladder

"We are likely losing promising scientists from the academic career path," the authors write, because of the stagnation in federal research funding, and the perception by younger neuroscientists that the path to academic success and secure funding has become nearly impossible to climb.

They point with hope to efforts made by U.S. federal research funding agencies to provide innovative funding for training. But they say universities and other sectors must also change, at a time when many nations have launched massive neuroscience efforts such as the U.S. Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, China Brain, the Japan Brain/MINDS Project, and the Human Brain Project in Europe.

"We need to be giving out hopeful signals that it's not a horrible risk to get a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and that you can make discoveries about the brain and apply them in many ways," says Akil, a past president of the Society for Neuroscience and co-director of U-M's Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute. She holds the Gardner Quarton Distinguished University Professorship in Neurosciences and is a member of the Medical School's Department of Psychiatry faculty.

Akil especially points to the growing role for neuroscience-trained professionals in the technology sector - not just the traditional biotechnology and pharmaceutical path, but high-tech computing-based companies that want to use new knowledge about behavior in apps and gadgets.

"The more people in society want to understand their own behavior, control their behavior such as eating and exercise, improve their memories and attention, and more, the more we can apply what we're learning in neuroscience about brain function and how it changes with various conditions or natural aging," she says. "We have a lot to figure out going forward, and we needs all hands on deck. Anyone smart enough, passionate enough and willing to be flexible and bring ideas together, we need them to stay with us."

Explore further A vision for revamping neuroscience education

More information: Huda Akil et al, Neuroscience Training for the 21st Century, Neuron (2016). Journal information: Neuron Huda Akil et al, Neuroscience Training for the 21st Century,(2016). DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.05.030
Indrajeet Chaubey, a professor of ecohydrology, tests water quality in Wildcat Creek, a tributary of the Wabash River. Credit: Purdue Agriculture/Tom Campbell

With a little training and simple equipment, members of the public can generate data that provides valuable insights into the health of local streams, a Purdue University study shows.

Twice a year, hundreds of volunteers participate in the Wabash Sampling Blitz, a water-quality monitoring program in central Indiana. Over four hours, they collect water samples from 206 sites within the region of the Great Bend of the Wabash River Watershed and assess the samples for temperature, pH, water cloudiness, levels of nutrient runoff and pathogen concentrations.

The Blitz proffers local watershed managers far more information about the water quality of the Wabash and its tributaries than they could gather on their own. But how valid is the data?

Purdue researchers found that Blitz volunteers proved consistently able to estimate nitrogen concentrations in the water with "moderate to substantial agreement to lab values," said Indrajeet Chaubey, principal author of the study and professor of ecohydrology.

"Volunteers' analysis of nitrogen levels were directionally correct," he said. "When you hone in on exact numbers, the accuracy gets cloudier, but the values are generally true. This suggests that citizen scientists can provide meaningful and highly valuable data for watershed groups."

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 52 percent of assessed streams in the U.S. have degraded water quality. Agricultural operations, in particular, can be sources of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment, which can leach or drain off into waterways.

The majority of the land that drains to the Wabash River is used for row crop agriculture, and the watershed is also home to the urban areas of West Lafayette and Lafayette.

This graphic shows location and land use of the Great Bend of the Wabash River Watershed from the 2001 U.S. Geological Survey Land Cover Dataset. Credit: Muenich et al.

Monitoring water quality can be a complex and costly undertaking, and capturing a glimpse of the entire Wabash watershed was far beyond capability of the staff of the Wabash River Enhancement Corp., a nonprofit agency that leads efforts to improve the river and its tributaries.

In 2009, WREC, partnering with Purdue researchers, created the Wabash Sampling Blitz to recruit, train and deploy community volunteers in a large-scale, simultaneous data collection effort. Volunteers travel to assigned sites in the watershed where they measure water transparency and temperature in stream and collect and assess water samples using field test strips that change color according to nutrient and contaminant concentrations.

"The impetus of the Blitz was the question 'What does water quality for the whole watershed look like?' " said study co-author Ron Turco, professor of soil microbiology. "We'd never seen the entire watershed in a six-hour period. The Blitz accomplishes that goal completely."

The Blitz acts as a screening tool, revealing "hot spots" in the watershed that could need more attention and effort.

While volunteer-analyzed nitrogen values were on par with laboratory-analyzed values, the results for orthophosphates, another group of nutrients, were spottier. Chaubey attributed this to the limits of the field test strips.

"Orthophosphates are generally very low in rivers, and the test strips are made to test for higher concentrations," he said.

The researchers emphasized that the value of community science efforts goes far beyond the data. The Blitz also helps the public understand the link between what happens in the landscape and how it affects local waterways, Chaubey said.

"The Blitz requires a lot of time, effort and coordination, but the returns are tremendous: a snapshot of the entire watershed, increased awareness of water quality issues and the opportunity to bring science to citizens and educate them on what they can do to protect water quality," he said.

More information: Rebecca Logsdon Muenich et al. The Wabash Sampling Blitz: A Study on the Effectiveness of Citizen Science, Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. (2016). Rebecca Logsdon Muenich et al. The Wabash Sampling Blitz: A Study on the Effectiveness of Citizen Science,(2016). DOI: 10.5334/cstp.1
VAR Delivers Solution to Ensure Restauranteur Profit: A Low-Light Setting Case Study (MMF)

Here is how one business owner dealt with low-light bar ambiance and the problems it can bring for cash management.

Low-Light Environment Challenges:

 Cash shrinkage

 Transaction accuracy and speed

 Bright cash drawer spotlights detract from atmosphere

 Poor customer service due to longer transaction times and errors

Pay-Vue Illuminated Cash Drawer Solutions:

 Reduces cash theft opportunities

 Improves transaction accuracy and speed

 Preserves atmosphere  no bright spot lights needed

 Customer transactions are faster and more accurate

Cash shrinkage and transaction errors are daily challenges for most bars and restaurants. Preventing profit loss takes an ongoing focus for business owners like Ken Hoffman of Howard Street Inn, Niles, IL.

Ken had done a lot to limit transaction error loss and theft, working closely with Sergio Torres, his Value Added Reseller (VAR) and owner of point-of-sale solutions provider TEEPOS in Chicago.

Sergio installed a sophisticated security system to protect Kens assets, including his cash. The system included IP cameras. One of the cameras was focused on the cash drawer and the feed was accessible 24/7 from anywhere inside or outside the restaurant. Even with the new system, revenue was still being lost to transaction errors or theft.

This is where Sergio stepped in again to make a positive impact on Kens business. He recommended that Ken install MMF POSs new patent-pending PayVue Illuminated Cash Drawer as part of the bars POS system.

MMF POS research had confirmed a pain point that most bars and restaurants face: identifying and validating currency and coin in fast-paced low-light environments. Lighting is a critical component of bar and restaurant design and ambiance, but low-lighting is often compromised in order to ensure transaction accuracy. Often bright spotlights are added and aimed at cash drawers.

The research found that poor lighting contributes to increased transaction time, errors and customer dissatisfaction when transactions take too long or are incorrect. Poor lighting also makes cash theft easier.

So, how did PayVue work for Ken at the Howard Street Inn? Kens shortages nearly disappeared after PayVue was installed. Better drawer visibility equaled fewer shortages. Customer service improved as transactions became faster and more accurate. PayVues illuminated light fit right in; a smart addition to bar ambiance.

Kens experience confirmed PayVues value in low light environments and the subsequent benefits of improved cash management, improved profit, and customer service. It also confirmed the value of working with TEEPOS, a dedicated and experienced VAR.

The drawers balancing much better now. Closings much faster too, which I really appreciate after a long day. PayVues light makes it easier to see what youre doing.

 Rebecca Ebert, Manager

To learn more about PayVue visit the MMFPOS website



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SARATOGA SPRINGS and CHESTERFIELD, Va.  Robert Joseph Federice, 73, formerly of Saratoga Springs, went into the loving arms of God on Jan. 20, 2016, in Chesterfield, Virginia, after complications from a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.

Bob, the son of the late Francis and Sophie Federice, was born July 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. He attended St. Marys Academy in Glens Falls, where he was an altar boy, and sang in the choir. He was frequently asked to sing solo at Mass, and for many local group affairs, often at The Queensbury Hotel.

After graduation in 1960, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served at Elworth Air Force Base in South Dakota as an administration specialist. Upon his discharge, he returned to upstate New York, married Janice Arff and worked as a chef in various restaurants, most notably at Ecobellis Tam OShanter in Ballston Spa. While working at night, he attended Adirondack Community College during the day, graduating in 1969 with a degree in business. Bob then went to work for the Ter Bush & Powell Insurance Agency for 11 years. During this time, he was recognized on many occasions for his outstanding performance in sales. He then opened his own business, Saratoga Community Insurance Agency, in Saratoga Springs. He was a hardworking man who loved his family, and his goal was to provide his children with more opportunities than he had been afforded.

He was very outgoing and made friends with everyone he encountered through his business or private life, and he would offer his assistance in any way he could. After his retirement in 2006, he was able to follow his real passion for motorcycles, and his Harley Davidson Heritage Softail Classic was his pride and joy. He traveled the East Coast on his Harley from Maine to Florida and Washington, D.C. He thoroughly enjoyed and treasured his Harley family and friends, sharing many adventures with his HOG brethren in several riding clubs locally and in the Richmond, Virginia, area where he relocated to be of assistance to his son. As his health declined, his greatest motivation to get well was to be able to ride one more time.

Bob is survived by his children; Tamara (Dave) Stauffer, of Winter Park, Florida; Thomas (Karen) Federice of Chesterfield, Virginia, and Todd (Amy) Federice of Harrisburg, North Carolina; his sister, Joan Alekna of Westfield, Massachusetts; and his sister, Liz (Ray) Aurelia of South Glens Falls; seven grandchildren; beloved nieces and nephew, great-niece and great-nephews; his former wife, Jan Federice; and his faithful and loving friend and companion, Ruth Nees of Chesterfield, Virginia, who embraced his Harley world and brought undeniable joy and happiness to him.

In addition to his parents, Bob was predeceased by his cherished daughter, Terri, who passed away in 1995, and his nephew, Bruce Alekna.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 4, at St. Michael the Archangel Church by Father Tony Childs.

Prior to Mass, a calling hour will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. at the church.

Following Mass, Bobs remains will be escorted by The Patriot Guard Riders to St. Marys Cemetery in South Glens Falls for burial with military honors.

Bobs family would like to thank Fr. Childs, Sally Scuderi and Dan Nolan for their assistance with the services, and Hospice of Richmond, Virginia, for their compassionate care of Bob during his final days.

Contributions may be made in Bobs memory to the ASPCA in honor of his deep love and affection for all dogs, including his four-legged angel, Tasha, and especially Tanner Aurelia, Willie Nelson and Peaches Nees, who brought him great joy and comfort during the past years.
FORT EDWARD | The Glens Falls National Bank branch on Broadway was robbed late Thursday afternoon by a man who told a teller he had a gun, police said.

The holdup was reported at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

Fort Edward Police Chief Justin Derway said a man gave a teller a note that indicated he had a gun and demanded that money be handed over.

The man fled out the front door with an undisclosed amount of cash, Derway said.

No gun was visible to the teller, but the robber held a sweatshirt in one of his arms as he approached the clerk, Derway said.

"He approached the female teller and handed her a note that said he had a gun, but he didn't display one," the chief said.

More than a dozen officers from numerous agencies converged on the area within minutes, and an extensive ground search that involved search police dogs was ongoing as of 5:50 p.m.

Derway said it was not known whether the man left the area in a vehicle, but a gray sedan was seen around the bank at the time of the robbery.

He was described as a stocky black male wearing black sweatpants, a white T-shirt, a black-and-white baseball cap with a flat brim and carrying a gray sweatshirt.

Police released a picture from a surveillance video and were working to get additional angles that showed a better view of the suspect's face because the hat he wore partially obscured it, the chief said.

He said officers were also reviewing surveillance videos from businesses around the bank to see if they show which way he fled and whether a vehicle was involved, but were unable to come up with any strong leads as of 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

"We're getting a lot of tips called in from the public and we're trying to figure out which direction he went," Derway said.

The bank is located at 159 Broadway, near the intersection with East Street. It was previously robbed in June 2010, and the suspect in that case  a Troy resident  was later arrested, convicted and sent to state prison.

Fort Edward Police, State Police, Hudson Falls Police and Washington County sheriff's officers were investigating.

Anyone with information about the theft or who saw suspicious activity around the bank was asked to call Fort Edward Police at 747-6365.

The bank branch was closed for the rest of Thursday afternoon, with yellow police tape surrounding it after the robbery was reported. It was expected to reopen Friday.

More details will be posted when they become available.
BALLSTON SPA  Three local residents pleaded guilty to felony charges Wednesday in Saratoga County Court in connection with driving while intoxicated or unlicensed driving arrests in Saratoga County.

David J. Lehmann, 46, of West Mountain Road, Queensbury, pleaded guilty to felony DWI in connection with an arrest last Nov. 24 in Malta. He was sentenced to 5 years on probation and fined $2,000.

Richard L. Maas, 52, of Casey Road, Schuylerville, pleaded guilty to felony DWI in connection with an arrest march 8 in Malta. Sentencing is pending.

Leslie A. Arone, 48, of Lake George, pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a felony, in connection with a Dec. 7, 2014 arrest in Wilton. She is to be sentenced July 8.
QUEENSBURY  SUNY Adirondacks proposed 2016-2017 budget, which seeks a 2 percent increase in the contribution from Warren and Washington counties, received a stamp of approval Thursday by committees for both boards of supervisors.

The community college has proposed a $29.28 million operating budget, which is up $9,341 from this years plan. College officials are seeking about $1.93 million from Warren County and $1.43 million from Washington County.

The split is based on the proportion of students coming from each county in fall 2014  57 percent from Warren County and 43 percent from Washington County.

The college gets about 46.5 percent of its revenue from student tuition, 28.7 percent from the state and 11.5 percent from the counties.

Every year the college asks for a 2 percent increase in the contribution. Some years they have gotten it, and some years the county contribution has remained flat. State Education Law requires that the sponsors contribution can be no less than the current year, said Ann Marie Somma, the colleges treasurer and vice president for administrative services.

The average among SUNY Adirondacks peer institutions is to receive about 15.5 percent of their revenue from contributing counties.

Our sponsor share of total operating revenue being significantly below our peers, its really resulted in students carrying more of the burden at SUNY Adirondack than our peer community colleges, said the colleges president, Kristine Duffy.

Other revenue includes 11.1 percent from chargebacks, money paid by counties outside Warren and Washington counties when their students attend SUNY Adirondack. About 50 percent of SUNY Adirondacks students come from outside of Warren and Washington counties, according to college officials.

Somma said the 400-student residence hall has helped the college attract students from outside the area. Also, Saratoga County does not have its own community college, so those students must go elsewhere.

Lake George Supervisor Dennis Dickinson asked if the college anticipated putting up another building.

Duffy said there were no plans at this time for that.

Somma said the current structure was built to make it easily expandable.

Were also mindful of that projected overall decline in enrollment, she said.

Hartford Supervisor Dana Haff asked whether the new NSTEM science building would boost enrollment.

Are we spending a lot of money to stay the same? he said.

Duffy said, as the economy improves, fewer students take classes at community colleges. The college had a spike in enrollment during 2013-2014. Now, that number has declined.

In addition, there are fewer high school age students because of shifting demographics, she said.

The new NSTEM facility, which will house nursing, science technology, engineering and math classes, will allow the college to be more efficient in how it delivers its courses, Duffy said. Its outdated science labs now can accommodate only about 18 students, which would increase to 24 in the new labs.

Hebron Supervisor Brian Campbell said the goal is not for the college to get bigger, but to help prepare students for careers.

We can train them here for the types of jobs that we have here, he said.

The college is not tapping any money from fund balance. Somma said the college is trying to wean itself from use of the fund balance.

You have to have something there. One community college in our system experienced a breach in their information security, which wiped out their fund balance, she said.

The college dipped into its fund balance a few years ago when state revenues were slashed, she added.

The overall spending plan is nearly $30.4 million, when it includes federal and state grants. The full boards of supervisors will take up the issue later this month. Warren County supervisors will meet at 7 p.m. June 15 and Washington County at 10 a.m. June 17.

I do think its a very conservative budget. You ask for things when you need them but you do try to cut expenses when you can, Campbell said.
The proposed motocross track in Fort Ann is an opportunity for residents to discuss what they want Fort Ann to look like in the future.

If you are not familiar with motocross, it is essentially lightweight motorcycles racing on dirt tracks. Youve probably seen professional races on ESPN, where there is a good chance you paused to watch the action.

Motocross racing is compelling motorsports at its best, but it is also loud.

Tracy and Dan Monahan, who live next door to where the proposed track is planned, have organized tonights informational meeting at the Fort Ann firehouse so residents have a chance to learn about the project and their concerns about noise. It is also on the agenda for the June 27 Town Board meeting.

My biggest question is, what this is going to do for the town? Dan Monahan told The Post-Star last week.

That is a valid question and one we would urge town residents to consider in broad strokes.

We understand the Monahans concerns about noise  we doubt many people would want to live next door to a vibrant motocross track  but without zoning laws, there is little the Monahans can do to prevent it. In light of that, they might want to consider what a successful motocross track could do for their community.

But there are larger issues to consider here.

First, there is an ongoing discussion in Washington County about how to draw more tourists and visitors to the region.

A successful motocross track could do exactly that for Fort Ann. It could make Fort Ann a destination for regional races and raise its identity beyond a crossroads between Vermont and the Northway  beyond a place with some significant Revolutionary War roots.

A successful motocross track could draw tourists from Lake George and Saratoga in the summer, and lead to a more vibrant business district.

This could be good economic jolt for Fort Ann and could be a place that could create jobs.

But that means that Fort Ann residents must consider change. The town is a quiet residential area with plenty of farmland left, but that also makes it ripe for business ventures, and they must acknowledge that.

If Fort Ann residents want to have any control about the way the town is shaped in the future, they might want to consider some smart zoning.

After a recent controversy over a Dollar General store, the village of Schuylerville decided to review zoning again and may pass a zoning initiative it previously rejected.

Fort Ann residents might want to put that on the agenda tonight as well.

While there may be little the Monahans can do to stop this motocross track, residents should know that the next business might be a slaughterhouse or rock quarry that affects even more residents and their quality of life.

Smart zoning might be a good insurance policy.
Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether 

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In an interview with Pulse.com.gh, Mr. Amenyah said it was mandatory for the board to pay for a very secured venue for the signing commensurate to the standards of the lending banks.

The COCOBOD signed the - Cocoa Syndicated Loan with some banks in Paris on 17th September, 2015. The money was to be used to purchase 900,000 metric tonnes of cocoa for the 2015/2016 crop season.

However in the approval process of COCOBODs next syndicated loan of $2 billion for the 2016/2017 season in parliament on Wednesday, the minority raised questions about certain expenditure items in the build-up to the signing of last years syndicated loan as well as how the loan itself was spent.

MP for Abuakwah South, Atta Akyea raised grave concerns about the fact that Cocoa Board spent $20,000 on the venue for the signing of the loan.

In defence of the expenditure, Head of Corporate Communications at COCOBOD, Noah Amenyah said the expenditure was extremely necessary to the signing process.

 The place where we are signing the facility must be secured enough for the international banks giving us the loan facility, for ourselves and also for all the diplomats who usually attend the signing.

When asked whether COCOBOD was the one to foot the bill of the venue and not the banks, Noah Amenyah said it was mandatory for COCOBOD to provide the venue.
His rant comes hours after the finance minister made comments that suggested government may tax pensions.

He noted that a lot of the 'harsh' taxes imposed by government will be scrapped should the NPP win this year's elections.

An NPP government will build the most business friendly and most people friendly economy in Africa. This means that job creation will be at the heart of economic policy. A lot of the other taxes we are seeing today will be scrapped. We will reduce the tax burden on our people and businesses so that they can employ more people and introduce a Tax Credit scheme for Companies that employ fresh graduates so that we will increase the employment of fresh graduates, he said while addressing students and lecturer of E.P. College of Education, Amedzofe in the Volta region on Wednesday.

The former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana also mocked government style of taxing, saying anything they think they can impose taxes on, they are imposing taxes on it  even if they think they could impose taxes on the air we breathe today, they would have imposed taxes on it.

The government imposed taxes on condoms, cutlasses, savings; today they are imposing taxes on pensions and allowances.

Bawumia pointed out that the government is resorting to taxes to enable it generate revenue to fill the deep hole their incompetence and corruption had dug. In their desperation to fill the hole they have dug.

According to him, government is failing to realise its tax policy is hurting the economy.
He explained on Accra based Joy FM that the inauguration of the factory coincided with the time it was supposed to undergo maintenance.

The plant will be in the production phase from October  November to May-June then the maintenance cycle will be between May-June until October again when the production starts, he said.

The plant has a maintenance cycle where a lot of things like cleaning up will be done. Maintenance is one of the things we have not been good at in this country and it is not surprising that we have run down all the factories that were built during Nkrumah days, he added.

He offered the explanation in response to a news conference by the minority in parliament who had questioned the viability of the factory.

When it comes on stream again and we would have to produce, whatever is produced is the overhead coast, he said.

He continued: The water in the Pra River has become so polluted at the instance of galamsey operators. Ghana water cannot even treat the water and purge it of mercury. You are going to use this source of water for production in the factory.

Did we go or did we come, he joked.

He alleged that when the president went to inaugurate the factory, four KIA truckloads of sugarcane were brought to the factory site to demonstrate the factory can process it.

Thereafter, that is it. Now the factory is being asked to proceed immediately on leave.
Narrating her story, Vera disclosed to a peace officer who was assigned to investigate the relationship between the English teacher and the now14-year-old boy that her sexual relationship with the student began in September 2015  when he was 13.

Vera described her relationship with her student in court documents provided by the district clerks office in detail and claimed that his parents were aware of their relationship and also supportive.

Vera told the investigating officer, I.J. Gonzales, that she and the student met during a summer school session in 2015.

She described the student as initially rude, but said he later started flirting with her despite her requests to stop, Buzzfeed reports.

The student was assigned to her English class when the school year started and after being absent from school at one point, she contacted him via Instagram to see if he was fine. The student then asked if they could hang out, and Vera agreed.

According to Vera, they drove around and kissed in the car on their first date. The next day, Vera said she went over to his house near the end of September 2015 when his parents werent home and they had sex for the first time.

In October, Vera met the students parents at an open house, then afterward went over to their house and was introduced as his girlfriend. She said the parents were accepting of their relationship, the court documents state, and that she was invited to family events.

Vera said she and the student had sex on almost a daily basis at her home, then she would drive him to his house to catch the bus to school. She also told Gonzales that they are in love.

In January, Vera said she got pregnant, but told Gonzales that the students family was very supportive and excited. However, she had an abortion after Child Protective Services showed up at school to ask Vera about her relationship with the student, the court documents state, Buzzfeed reports.

In January, Vera said she got pregnant, but told Gonzales that the student's family was very supportive and excited. However, she had an abortion after Child Protective Services showed up at school to ask Vera about her relationship with the student, the court documents state.

Vera initially denied the relationship or the pregnancy to CPS, but provided her cell phone for a digital search.

Gonzales analyzed her phone, he said in the documents, and found many messages between Vera and the student which were consistent with what she had disclosed.

The student was also interviewed about the relationship and described having sexual intercourse with Vera.
A letter intercepted by Pulse.com.gh from Defense Industries Department dated May 30 and signed by Brigadier K Adokpa noted that SIS&L has the legal capacity to operate as a financial institution.

To operationlise this, accounts will be opened for all military and MOD [Ministry of Defense] Civilian Employees of the Ghana Armed Forces, the letter noted.

The account forms have therefore been forwarded to all units. Each member of staff should therefore fill the forms accordingly.

The letter also noted that all forms should be completed before the end of June 2016 and submitted to the GHQ (DID) through the units.

Salaries of all personnel will pass through the bank, the letter read.
Briefing Mr. Segbefia on health issues in the region Dr. Sarpong said the region has 26 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies but they have district hospitals in 18 of them.

She also said even though there is a directive that every electoral zone must have a CHPS compound, "out of 875 zones we only have the facility in 573 zones". She was optimistic they will have CHPS compounds in the 302 electoral zones by end of 2016. She mentioned that "the poor nature of roads in the region as well as the vastness makes it quiet difficult for health personnel in the region"

The first health facility was the Koforidua Regional hospital. The Medical Director of the facility Dr. Kwame Boamah said they need equipments that will enhance their work. He mentioned "renal dialysis, MRI machine, endoscopic machines as the very urgent ones needed by the hospital". He also indicated that the minister has assured them "that he will make it one of his topmost agenda to push for those equipments for us"

At the Nankese Health Center the workers there complained of the long distance they need to cover before they get to work. They pleaded with the minister to help build at least two rooms near the hospital for two staff members to stay nearby just in case of emergencies. Similar challenges faced the staff of Akote CHPS compund. The final point of call in the region was the Suhum Government hospital. After touring the facility the minister met with the staff of the hospital who aired their grievances. The minister promised to address their challenges to the best of his power.
The GMA is gravely concerned with the gradual re-introduction of cash and carry system at the various health institutions and facilities in the country.

It is a fact that the health facilities and institutions are resorting to cash and carry because of the prolonged indebtedness of the NHIS to them.

Indeed some facilities have not been paid their claims in the last quarter of 2015, the President of the Association, Dr Ebenezer Ewusi-Emmim said.

Dr Ebenezer Ewusi-Emmim was speaking at a news conference in Bolgatanga, after the end of the third NEC Meeting of the GMA for the year 2016.

According to him, the NHIS must not be allowed to collapse, considering the support it has given to health financing in the country over the years.
According to him, the presentation is to enable the dependents left by the victims of the flood and fire disaster receive some financial support.

..We are hopeful that it will lessen the pressure on the survivors and, to a large extent, their families, the Mayor said.

So far, 71 families have received cash support from government. The Mayor said other dependents will soon get financial support as soon as the Assembly is able to identify bodies that are still at the morgue.

The June 3 flood and fire disaster claimed about 160 lives last year. So far, only 30 per cent of work has been done dredging the Odaw drain and Korle Lagoon, one year after disaster.

But the Mayor assured that his outfit has put in place measures to ensure that such a disaster does not repeat itself.
There is now great laxity in legal preparations on the part of counsel [lawyers] appearing before the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, he said a legal ethic programme for law students in Accra, the Ghanaian Times newspaper quoted him as saying.

Justice Atuguba also noted that some lawyers just come [from] one some legal holiday; they just walk into the court and even forget what their briefs are about. You ask a simple question [and] they dont know where it is.

He said this level of laxity fall short of the required standards, though he admitted some lawyers prepare very well before appearing in court.

He therefore admonished the law students and professional lawyers to embrace ethics of the profession.

Lawyers have in recent times come under fire for ethical violations, including judges.

The Chief Justice Georgina Wood in April called on urged lawyers to build their ethical edge and develop their moral fibre to ensure credibility in their profession.

Make no mistake about this: You can neither thrive nor succeed without morality. Ethics is the instrument through which your knowledge can benefit society, the Chief Justice said during the enrollment and call to the bar of 59 lawyers at the New Court Complex in Accra.

Last year, some 34 judges were also accused of taking bribes in a sweeping expose by ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
The new tax Act 896, 2015, which has sparked major debates with many accusing government of over taxing Ghanaians is an unconventional means to raise more revenue.

Addressing a gathering at the Stanbic Bank-Daily Graphic Executive Breakfast Meeting Seth Terkper was quoted as saying the "new tax law and it implications the finance minister said "ts a thorny one because you are exiting. But remember that as you make your social security contributions, they are exempt from tax even though it is part of your income.\

Perhaps we will have to exempt a certain level of income on the pension so that those who are fortunate enough to make fat pensions they may pay a little tax, Terkper said.

But a statement from the ministry said government does not intend to tax the pensions of Ghanaians.

The statement also said the minster's speech at the Stanbic Bank -Daily graphic breakfast meeting was misconstrued.

It said Terkper only sought to "explain the philosophy of the taxation of pensions adopted generally in literature and in countries that tax pensions."
Addressing a gathering at the Stanbic Bank-Daily Graphic Executive Breakfast Meeting, Seth Terkper was quoted as saying ...remember that as you make your social security contributions, they are exempt from tax even though it is part of your income.

Perhaps we will have to exempt a certain level of income on the pension so that those who are fortunate enough to make fat pensions they may pay a little tax, the Minister added.

But the Deputy General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, Koku Anyidoho said it makes no sense for tax pensions.

According to him, all tax tools need not be deployed at a go but should be done gradually. He believes the comments by the Finance minister will overshadow the positive works by the Mahama-led administration.

The NDC party will not sit down again...We will not sit down again No individual minister will walk us into opposition. No individual minister will walk us into opposition, it will not happen, it cannot happen, he said on an interview on Muntie FM.

Seth Terkper, please watch your language. The NDC does not belong to you, it does not belong to me; it belongs to the grassroots. Seth Terkper do not incur the wrath of the party, Koku Anyidoho added.

Meanwhile, a statement from the finance ministry said government does not intend to tax the pensions of Ghanaians.

The statement also said the minster's speech at the Stanbic Bank -Daily graphic breakfast meeting was misconstrued.
An Accra High Court on Thursday dismissed a suit against the NPP by suspended Second Vice Chairman, Sammy Crabbe, challenging his suspension.

Mr Crabbe was suspended by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party after he failed to appear before a Disciplinary Committee to respond to misconduct charges leveled against him by some members of the party.

Sammy Crabbe months after his suspension dragged the party to court citing a breach of procedure.

In the suit, Mr Crabbe challenged the locus of one of the members of the Disciplinary Committee which took the decision to suspend him.

But Justice Sir Dennis Adjei, who presided over the case ruled that the suit by Mr. Crabbe had no merit.

According to him, the Disciplinary Committee of the NPP has the jurisdiction to hear and punish anyone who breaches the party's rules.

Reacting to the ruling, lawyer for the NPP, Godfred Odame, said the case indeed was unmeritorious.
According to the court, presided over by Justice Sir Dennis Adjei, the suit by Mr. Crabbe was unmeritorious and therefore could not be held on any ground.

The judge opined that the the New Patriotic Party's national disciplinary committee has the jurisdiction to hear and punish anyone who breaches the party's rules.

Sammy Crabbe proceeded to court months after his suspension by the National Executive Council of the party claiming some violation in the rules of the party's constitution.

In the suit the suspended second vice chair is challenging the locus of one of the members of the disciplinary committee which took the decision to suspend him. Another suspended executive of the NPP, Paul Afoko testified as a witness for the plaintiff.

In his testimony Mr. Afoko claimed the inclusion of Madam Gifty Kusi as a member of the disciplinary committee of the NPP was illegal as she was not properly appointed.
This comes on the back of a ruling by an Accra High Court dismissing a suit by Mr Crabbe challenging his suspension.

Mr Crabbe was suspended by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the partyafter he failed to appear before a Disciplinary Committee to respond to misconduct charges leveled against him by some members of the party.

He subsequently dragged the party to court citing a breach of procedure.

In the writ, Mr Crabbe argued the suspension was unconstitutional.

But Justice Sir Dennis Adjei, who presided over the case ruled that the Disciplinary Committee of the NPP has the jurisdiction to hear and punish anyone who breaches the party's rules.

Speaking to Joy News, Prof Mike Oquaye said Mr Crabbe should show remorse before he can be forgiven.

I attended a Catholic School when I was a boy. They used to say that you must regret before you are forgiven If you want to adopt a different attitude, the party knows what to do. But the party will move on. We all know what happens when a person behaves properly and expresses regret. People will even speak for you, he said.

Prof Mike Oquaye asserted that the ruling of the court solidifies that every member of the party is subject to discipline.
Apart from the beautiful Gulf of Guinea and its memorable beaches, citizens and visitors enjoy the fresh, cool inland rivers, lakes, and waterfalls.

In this edition of the Bel-Aqua Proudly Ghanaian series, we will introduce you to one of the relatively unknown waterfalls in the country- Akaa Falls.

Located about 7 kilometres away from Boti and also 2 kilometres from the village of Akyeremateng , Akaa is as seasonal as Boti Falls, which means a trip must be planned right after the raining season where the falls are most vibrant.

Apart from the fact that Akaa Falls is relatively undiscovered by the bigger population, it presents a unique opportunity for peaceful solitude and a serene getaway from the hustle and bustle of city life.

READ MORE:Cheap Travel Destinations Discover 10 places you can go to for a budget vacation

The Akaa Falls remain underdeveloped but it presents all the experiences of a waterfall - Fresh water bathing, swimming at the base of the cliff, and suitable spaces for a picnic or gathering.

There are also close to 250 platforms on the cliff to explore leading to a beautiful forest view.

Akaa, Boti, Asenewaa Falls all add up to make Boti and surrounding villages a tourism hotbed in the Eastern Region, especially for individuals who cherish beautiful vegetation, cool weather and waterfalls in general.
Popular thanks to roles in movies like "Jenifa", Badmus also revealed she didnt always have the support of her family as she chased the bright lights of Nollywood.

According to her, "When I started out, I wasnt fully prepared. What I got after my career kicked off was far from my dreams."

The actress who recently revealed she's in a relationship had this to say, "Those are the things I dont like talking about. Let us just talk about my career. I dont believe in talking about personal issues to the press and social media. They wont make such relationship last."

Her take on celebrities and social media, "Nigerians in the diaspora do not really have loyal fans. My fans are other celebrities fans. We dont have fans that wouldnt move out from you. So, I dont reply them. I am a comic person. I dont reply them. Nothing gets to me. There are some comments that get to me but I dont reply.

I am not about that. They are the same set of people that will praise me tomorrow. It is better to ignore such comments."

Just recently, Mobile telecommunication company, Etisalat, announced its appointment of Nollywood actress, Eniola Badmus as brand ambassador.
The "Star Wars" actor was in Nigeria for a couple of days for his first visit back home and he is clearly enjoying a holiday well spent with family.

The actor paid a visit to Ibadan before moving on to Abeokuta to visit his grandma, family and friends.

Boyega is currently back in London after his much needed break with his family. According to the actor, there was no press time because his grandma didn't want one.

The Nigerian "Star Wars" alum, who has been listed on Forbes' Hollywood 30 under 30 influencer's, has been very forward about his Nigerian roots and just might be ready to integrate himself with his people.

Boyega had been on a steady rise since the beginning of this year and is definitely one actor to look out for, as has been pointed out by his winning of the Rising Star Award at BAFTA 2016.
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Tunics, dresses and more accented with tribal prints is presented in vibrant contrasts with male styles including tops over pants slimfit to fit like a glove, matching shorts set with ladies offerings including dresses with asymmetric details, tunics and more.

Hues like plum, purple, yellow/mustard, teal, white and mixed prints are all featured in the bold and extremely colourful collection.

Dishing on the brand and it's statement styles, GIGI is a t-shirt with unique statement print details. Its both dressy and casual. Initially we were torn between presenting it as gents or ladies wear, and then ended up thinking, why cant it be both? A dress shirt. So we tested the concept for a while and the response was overwhelming Angorkor co-owner of the brand revealed in the release.
The pair were reportedly attending a party where they had too much to drink when they committed the crime.

According to Punch, Quadri, in company of his friend, Orji, had gone to ease himself at a nearby bush. It was at this point that they spotted their victim, who was alone in her room.

25-year-old Orji was reported to have stabbed the woman by the shoulder and took valuable items such as her phones, Ipad, perfumes and other personal effects.

The pair also took turns to rape the woman for thirty minutes before leaving her.

It was the residents of the area that took the woman to the hospital and also reported the case to the police station.

The culprits were caught after selling the victim's phones, Punch reports.

According to a source, After they committed the crime, they fled and thought that was the end of the case. They sold one of the womans phone to someone.

"We were able to track the phone and get that person arrested. The buyer led us to them. They did not deny the crime.

One of the suspects, Quadri, who hails from Abia State explained that they were drunk when they committed the act.

It was around 10pm on Sunday night at Ajah that the incident happened. We went for a festival and became drunk. We later felt we should go to a hotel to have another drink.

On the way, I went to a nearby bush to defecate. After I was done, we saw that the house opposite the bush had no gate or any form of security. We decided to enter the building. We observed that there was a lady in her room alone.

We saw that her kitchen did not have any burglar-proof bar, so we entered through the kitchen. I was outside watching to know if anybody would come, while Orji was inside.
According to Oshomogbe, her husband cannot make decisions on his own without family interference.

My husbands mother and brothers are controlling our home.

If we discuss anything, my husband will first go to his family to consult with them, what they say will be my husbands final decision.

I am just like a maid, my decision is always rejected. In fact, I dont have a say in my matrimonial home,

In addition, the pained woman mentioned that Edmund is also a drunk, who staggers into the gutter after spending his salary at a beer parlour.

My husband always spends his salary with his brothers at a beer parlour and after drinking to stupor, he will be staggering and falling into the gutter.

He urinates and messes up everywhere in our flat whenever he is drunk and most times, he beats me without reason,

Anna Oshomogbe also told the court that her husband failed to return when she informed him that their daughter had a fever.

According to her, Edmund said he was at a beer parlour and could not come home.

When my daughter fainted when she had fever, I called my husband to come home so that we could take her to the hospital, he said that he was in a beer joint and that he could not come.

He does not sleep at home most times as he stays with his brothers or mother.

He always tells me that nothing can separate him and his family.

I pay the house rent and the childrens school fees because my husband refused to pay,

The respondent, Edmund, has been served by the court bailiff on the orders of the court president, Mr Adegboyega Omilola.
Ajogbor, who was incarcerated in July 2004 was among the over 10,000 others who graduated during the institutions 2016 convocation held in Abuja in January.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Ajobor was honoured at a ceremony at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons by the NOUN authorities alongside another inmate, Moshood Folarinmilekan, who was presented with a certificate of exemption from NYSC.

NAN reports that Folarinmilekan has spent 25 years out of a life jail term he was sentenced to at the Kirikiri Maximum Prisons.

He graduated in 2015 alongside other graduating students of NOUN after completing his studies at its facility.

The inmate, awarded a degree in Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, is currently pursuing his Masters Degree at the institution.

Ajogbor speaking on the sideline of the event told NAN that the achievement was a dream comes through for him.

According to him, the prisons, as reformative centres were living up to their mandates, having provided the enabling environment that led to the feat he has attained.

``I want to say that I am short for words in explaining how I feel.

``Indeed, I see myself among heroes, those to move the country forward and make it one of the greatest countries in the world.

``I want to thank the prison officials for their support and encouragement as well as all my sponsors as well as my co-inmates.

``They have all contributed in one way or the other to make this happen, he said.

He,however, pleaded with authorities of the university to speedily address the challenges faced by the inmates in accessing course materials.

Earlier in his speech, the Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Abdallah Adamu, acquiring the degree was a commendable feat, which would serve as a stepping stone to greater heights for the graduands.

``Due to shortage of sponsorship offers for inmates therefore, and to help make the journey of producing a university degree a little less daunting and more achievable, the university over the years has supplied course materials for free and paid 50 per cent of payable fees for inmates.

``The other 50 per cent paid for by philanthropic bodies such as religious and non-governmental organisations as well as well meaning Nigerians.``May I use this opportunity to thank all your sponsors for their generosity and contributions towards your education.

``I am sure that a number of your peers who are also incarcerated will like to register to study one of our programmes but for the fact that they have no means of funding their education to improve their destinies.``It is in this light that I have decided to offer 100 per cent full scholarship to all inmates who are undertaking a NOUN degree programme, he said.

The Vice-Chancellor who was represented by the institutions Director, Learner Support Services, Prof. Nebath Tanglang, noted that already modalities were being worked out to ensure that the process was as seamless asposible.

He assured them that plans were on to upload all their course materials on the I-Learn platform, which wouldsubsequently be downloaded in their computers for easy access.

Also speaking, the Controller of Prisons in charge of Lagos Command, Timothy Tinuoye, said one of the greatestchallenges facing the inmates in the institution was that of inadequate facilitators.

He appealed to both the state and the local governments to assist the facility by sending some of the corp members and even full time teachers to assist the inmates in their quest for knowledge.

``We are in dire need of teachers for these people especially at the secondary school level.

``We all know today that the prison is not just to keep offenders in custody, but rather to reform and get them re-integrated into the society.

``Now, we discover that some of them came here without any form of basic education.

``We feel that giving them education will be one of the best values we can entrench in them in an attempt to change their orientations and perspectives about life and thinking, toward making them better citizens, he said.
The men allegedly stole the phones from two shopkeepers at the Small Kuramo area of Lekki, Lagos.

Sergeant Nicholas Akpene, the persecuting officer said the crime was committed on May 20, 2016, at around 4 AM.

Akpene also said that the men intentionally destroyed a wooden cabin worth N9,000, and five plastic chairs worth N12,000 in the process of the crime.

According to the persecuting officer, the band of thieves stole phones valued at N46,500 and N9,000 cash from Lawal Adeniyi and Agbeyegbe Orighonisan.

They are now expected to stand trial for four-count charge of stealing and malicious damage, which they denied.
According to The Nation, the land grabbers shot uncontrollably into the air, leading to injuries to a man identified as Yinka Olatunji.

Olatunji is reported to be seriously ill at the Ikorodu General Hospital, due to a gun shot wound and a machete blow.

Chief Olasunkanmi Oyebola, the leader of the community stated that the occurrence is a sad one, which had not occurred in the past four years.

Oyebola also talked about how the sad incidence came to be, stating that the land grabbers had police backing.

He said, Before now, for three to four years back, we have never had issues of land grabbers known as Ajagungbales in Imowonla."

"It is a peaceful community. We are under Ijede AREA N Police Command in Ijede. The police station in Imowonla is just an outpost but whenever there is robbery issue, we report to Ijede."

"Anti -robbery D9 from Panti police station are the one that broke into Imowonla on Tuesday morning and came back again in the afternoon."

"They did not report to Ijede police station before they came to attack our people on a false accusation."

They accompanied the land grabbers who must have narrated a false report to them. They shot sporadically and injured a resident."

"Immediately they finished attacking our people and left, I quickly called police station at AREA N at Ijede, we called the emergency unit and also MOPOL. They all came in to see what the hoodlums had done to our people.
According to Punch, Okebule told the girl, who is the daughter of a co-tenant to lick his private part.

The suspect was reported to have invited his victim to his apartment, under the guise of sending her on an errand.

Upon the girls entry into his apartment, Okebule told her to undress herself, and then brought out his private part for the girl to lick, reports says.

Having successfully done this, the man also touched the victim on her private part the next day of their meeting.

Luck ran out on him on this day when as the victim informed her sister of the act, who also reported the matter to their mother.

A statement of the charge against Okebule reads, That you, Lekan Okebule, sometime in May, 2016, at about 10am on Fashola Street, Papa Ashafa, Agege, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did put your private parts in a minors mouth.
Speaking with State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja, Bello described the incident as ``unfortunate.

He said government would punish anyone found to have been involved in the riot.

``The situation in Pandogari was unfortunate.

``What happened was - I think someone posted blasphemous stories about the Prophet - and of course you know the sensitive nature of this kind of religious thing - and one person was killed.

``Later on, we heard that either the police or the army shot a civilian and three or four people lost their lives.

``I have since instituted an investigative panel to investigate what really happened so that we can address the situation.

``At the moment, the deputy governor and my team are there at the moment, the situation is calm now.

``We will await the outcome of the investigative panel so that we guard against a repeat of this kind of thing in future.

``This is unacceptable and anyone involved in this will be severely punished.''

Bello dismissed media reports that his administration was planning to reduce workers salaries by half.

``I read somewhere we are going to reduce salaries, but its not true.

``But we engaged labour and we are still talking to them. We have laid the cards on the table, we are not hiding anything we are very transparent as much as we can but the truth of the matter is that I cannot give what we don't have.

``I wish I had, personally if I had I would have paid from my pocket, but I can't.

The governor called on indigenes of state, particularly civil servants and political appointees to make sacrifices that would help move the state forward.

He said already the state government had cut government house expenditure by 70 per cent and expressed his readiness to make more sacrifices for the good of the state.

``We should all make sacrifices; I'm willing to make sacrifices; all my appointees are willing to make sacrifices.

``We have shown example by cutting down our expenditure; we have cut down the operational expenses of the government house from N150 million a week to between N20 and 25 million a week.

``So, we have cut down government house expenditure by over 70 per cent and I mean these are all sacrifices.

``We have saved some money; we are doing a bit of projects including the federal road.
The House also urged the federal government to review and formulate a more efficient mechanism for the engagement with aggrieved individuals who threaten the nation's security and territorial integrity.

These resolutions by the House was followed by a motion on urgent matter of public importance entitled "call for investigation into the killing of unarmed civilians in south East of Nigeria" sponsored by Chukwuma Onyema.

While noting the increase in extra judicial killings by security agencies in the country, Onyema said the rule of law and respect for rights of citizens are cardinal ingredients for the survival of the country's democracy.

"Nigeria's dismal human rights records are largely predicated on unprovoked widespread and forceful engagements of our security agencies and unarmed civilians.

"Historically the consequences of this high handed engagement and extra judicial killings leaves behind a feeling of alienation, marginalisation and subsequent escalation of confrontational tendencies and resistance to state," he told the House.
The meeting which was chaired by the President General of the JNI, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, was attended by Alhaji Muhammadu Ilyasu Bashar, the Emir of Gwandu, His Highness, Mal. Muhammadu Sanusi, Emir of Kano, His Highness, Alhaji Rilwanu Suleiman Adamu, the Emir of Bauchi, His Highness, Dr Shehu Idris, the Emir of Zazzau, His Highness, Alhaji YahayaAbubakar, the Etsu Nupe, His Highness, Alhaji Muhammad Abali Ibn Muhammad Idrissa, the Emir of Fika, among others.

JNI resolved in the communique that all citizens should be patient with the government at this trying time, as it makes efforts to bring lasting solutions to the economic hardships, social and political challenges facing the nation.

"We call on all and sundry to imbibe the culture of patriotism and cooperation to all leaders, at all levels. All those in the position of leadership should fear Allah (SWT) and be committed to justice, fairness, transparency and accountability in the discharge of their respective responsibilities," JNI said.

The group also called on governments at all levels and other stakeholders to do more in ameliorating the sufferings of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the country.

"The Victim Support Fund (VSF) should be used in ameliorating the sufferings of the IDPs and rebuilding the damaged places," the group said while commending the Federal Government and the Nigerian Armed Forces for the seriousness it has demonstrated and the giant strides so far recorded in fighting the insurgency.
Okogie made the call during a news conference in Lagos, which was organized as part of activities to commemorate his 80th birthday, PM News reports.

I want to commend the president for his commitment to clean the polity. There is also the need for him to be more systematic in the fight so that even after he leaves office the structure in place would make it difficult for corruption to thrive, he said.

There have been complaints by members of the opposing party that the fight has been selective and only targeted at PDP. The President must respond to this proactively by allowing the Economic and Crimes Commission (EFCC) to work independently, based on the facts and figures at their disposal.

It does not matter the party the accused belongs to. Anyone found wanting should be made to face the music. That is the only way the President can prove that he belongs to all and to no one.

No one knows it all; I feel that the present administration needs more technocrats to help in the task of rebuilding Nigeria.The economy in particular needs the inputs of tested experts.

There is no shame in seeking for help in order to formulate policies that would attract the much needed inflow of foreign investors that would shore up our economic fortunes.

The President should borrow a leaf from the past administrations, who injected experienced hands that made all the difference and turned us into the investment port of choice in Africa, he added.
Sagay said, while speaking to Daily Trust on Tuesday, May 31, that the names of the looters should not be the concern of Nigerians for now.

We have those who have admitted they stole some monies and had returned them. For those people, we dont need any court judgment to release their names as, already, they have admitted guilt, he said.
Dogara stated this when he received a delegation from the National Assembly Business Environment Roundtable (NASSBER) in Abuja.

He stressed the need to support SMEs in the country, noting that ``the promises of democracy: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness couldnot be realised if the people were ravaged by poverty and ignorance.''

He said ``we believe that the best way we can engender prosperity in the nation and fulfill the promise of democracy is when we get people to work, especially in the area of business.

``Small and Medium Business Enterprises, small businesses generating wealth, generating employment and so on and so forth.

``I have cause to say that the multinationals dont generate wealth; they rather provide platforms to which citizens' wealth migrate to them.

``In most cases, capital is exported in terms of profits that they make from the nation.

``Small businesses that employ 40 workers; and if you have two million of those businesses employing 40 workers, on the average, you are talking about 80 million jobs; and we can do that in this country.''

Dogara further said that the decision by the House of Representatives to review laws of the federation was to create an environment that would enable businesses to develop.

Earlier, the leader of the delegation, Mrs Sola David-Borha, had told the speaker that members of the group had been providing technical support to NASS in the area of legislation and would continue to do so.
"We advised the Kaduna State Government to make wider consultation with all stakeholders on the proposed amendment to the preaching Law in the State," the communique stated.

"We implore all media houses to be responsible and responsive in Tafsir sessions that are aired by way of censoring tapes capable of destabilizing the society."

"We call on the Ulama to utilize their respective Tafsir sessions at all times, particularly during Ramadan to educate Muslims to be God fearing, to emphasize the fundamental Islamic teaching and to refrain from issues that could divide the Ummah."

"All traders especially those dealing in essential commodities are called upon to abstain from hoarding and inflating prices of food stuffs and other commodities during and after the Ramadan," the communique stated.

Speaking, Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir Ahmad El-Rufa'i, while declaring the meeting open, acknowledged the economic hardships and the insecurity bedevilling the country and assured that the government would continue to contain them.

He briefed the council that the state government is assiduously working on inter faith and peaceful cooperation adding that his government is working tirelessly with neighbouring states in addressing cattle rustling, armed banditry and other social ills.
The anti-graft agency said they had to keep him in their custody, following new charges that came up during investigations.

The EFCC also explained that the new charges are different from the N800m which he allegedly received for the presidential campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The agency said this during a court hearing on Thursday, June 2, 2016, before Justice Olukayode Adeniyi of the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Fani-Kayode had filed a suit claiming the violation of his human rights, and also requested the court to order the EFCC to release him.

Opposing the suit, EFCC counsel - Mr. Salisu Majidadi, told Justice Adeniyi that the Lagos office of the anti-graft agency came up with a new charge against the former minister, adding that he needs to answer to them.

Justice Olukayode Adeniyi adjourned ruling on the case to June 29, 2016, after hearing presentations.

Femi Fani-Kayode, who was also the spokesman of the Goodluck Jonathan presidential campaign, was invited to appear before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, May 9, 2016.
The states are Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Katsina, Taraba, Niger, Adamawa, Jigawa, Sokoto and the FCT.

Premium Times reports that the minister also said 2011 National Agricultural Sample Survey indicated that Nigeria was endowed with an estimated 19.5 million cattle, 72.5 million goats, 41.3 million sheep, 7.1 million pigs and 28,000 camels.

Ogbeh also decried the low level of milk production in the country, saying Saudi Arabia produces 4.7 million litres of milk daily while Nigeria imports about 1.3 billion dollar worth of milk annually to make up deficit.

The way forward in improving our livestock and dairy industry is to intensify efforts on adding value to the industry along the respective livestock value chains.

In line with our goal of attaining self sufficiency in animal protein, this administration has set out to establish ranches to be planted with high quality improved tropical grass and legume species.

We shall provide irrigation for all year commercial fodder production to enhance settlement of pastoralist and ensure cattle, sheep and goat improvement through an expanded breeding programme through artificial insemination.

We shall group dairy farmers in clusters, build their capacity and equip them with milk collection facilities and facilitate single digit loan for them."

undefinedthat will require state governments to provide land for Fulani herdsmen and their cattle.
The elders frowned at the continued destruction of farmlands in the state, by the herdsmen.

They also called on the government to put in place laws that will protect farmers from the wanton destruction of their farms.

The elders condemned the killing of two people during an alleged attack in Oke Ako community, Ekiti state, on May 20, 2016, by people suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

They said the herdsmen should be closely watched so they do not spring up any surprise attacks on residents of the state.

This is following a resolution by the House of Representatives to investigate the alleged killings in Ekiti state.

The lawmakers also ordered the Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, to deploy policemen to Oke Ako community to forestall any reprisal attacks.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was also instructed to distribute relief materials to those affected.

Governor Ayo Fayose also banned the Fulani herdsmen from grazing in Ekiti state.
Punch reports that six men entered the community with speedboats and took away the young lady after beating up her husband.

The Bayelsa state Police Public Relations Officer, Asinim Butswat, confirmed the incident saying "We are aware of the abduction and three suspects have been arrested in connection with the abduction.

I would not like to mention their names because investigation is still ongoing.

Bayelsa state has been the centre of many high profile kidnapping incidents recently.

Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers, abducted 72-year-old Inegite Jonathan, an uncle to former President Goodluck Jonathan, recently.

The was one of the first Governors to pass an anti-kidnapping bill into law.

The law stipulates a death penalty for anyone found guilty of kidnapping in the state.
The incident was said to have occurred between 7pm and 8pm on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, according to Punch.

The militants were said to have attacked the soldiers houseboat after some of the troops had gone on routine patrol.

According to an officer, who confirmed the attack, all the occupants of the houseboat were killed.
The state Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Ade Adesanmi, said this after a meeting with members of the state legislature in Ado-Ekiti.

The NLC chairman, who led other leaders of unions affiliated to the congress, said that no state worker had been paid salaries in the past five months.

Adesanmi alleged that Gov. Ayo Fayose decided to employ the divide and rule tactics rather than dialogue with labour.

"It is disheartening that government is castigating us for demanding for our legitimate right.

"There is hunger in town; there is economic hardship; our members can no longer feed their families.

He, however, said that the NLC was ready to dialogue, if there was commitment on the part of government.

"Labour's doors are open for negotiation; but this ongoing strike continues until government shows some level of commitment."

NAN reports that the Speaker, EKiti State House of Assembly, Mr Kola Oluwawole, has pleaded with labour to go back to work, while discussion continues.

Oluwawole promised to organise a meeting between the government and labour, to find lasting solution to the crisis, so that it does not affect the development of the state.

Some of the legislators, who included Dr Samuel Omotoso, Olatunji Akinyele, Dayo Akinleye, pleaded with labour to show some level of understanding in the current matter.

The lawmakers sympathised with workers over the delay in the payment of their allowances and salaries.

They said that the hardship being experienced should not be seen as deliberate but one caused by the economic situation in the country.
The bill titled: Bill to Regulate Smoking in Public Places and for Connected Purposes was passed into law on Thursday, June 2, 2016.

The lawmakers explained that first time offenders will be fined N15,000 or sentenced to three months in jail, while repeat offenders will get six months in jail or a fine of N50,000.

The law also stipulates a one year jail term and a fine of N100,000 for anyone who smokes in the presence of a child.

The lawmakers also called on owners of businesses across the state to put up No Smoking signs to inform people.

Vanguard reports that the bill was sponsored by Mr Segun Ajanaku and Mr Segun Olaleye, representatives of Ibadan South-West II and Ibadan North II constituencies, respectively.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will instead visit the restive southern region to launch a cleanup programme of the Ogoniland, an area badly hit by oil spills, the source said, without giving a reason for Buhari's cancellation.

Buhari had already skipped a visit to the commercial capital Lagos in the south last month at the last minute. Posters with his picture had been already hung up to welcome the president before his spokesman cited "scheduling" difficulties.

It would have been the first visit of the former military ruler to the Delta since taking office in May last year. Critics have accused Buhari, a Muslim from the north, of ignoring the predominately Christian south.

The southern Delta swamps have been hit by a series of militant attacks on oil and gas pipelines which have brought Nigeria's oil output to a 20-year low.

Hours after the announcement of Buhari's visit to the swamps on Tuesday the Niger Delta Avengers militant group, which has claimed several attacks on Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell facilities, issued a warning to oil firms that their "facilities and personnel will bear the brunt of our fury".

The Avengers have accused Buhari of ignoring local problems.

Buhari said on Sunday the government would hold talks with leaders in Nigeria's main oil-producing region to address their grievances, in a bid to stop a surge in pipeline attacks.

Residents in the swamp areas have for years complained about oil industry pollution and about economic marginalisation by the government.
A new militant group known as the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), just emerged with a threat to launch six missiles on Tuesday, June 7, 2016.

JNDLF said they will unleash mayhem that will surprise the whole world, adding that they are an affiliate of the (NDA).

The new militant group also warned the Nigerian Army to pull out its men from the South-South, and ordered that all military flights around the region should stop.

Daily Post reports that the militants in a statement signed by signed by General Akotebe Darikoro, Commander, General Duties; General Torunnanaowei Latei, Creeks Network Coordinator; General Agbakakuro Owei-Tauro, Pipelines Bleeding Expert; and General Pulokiri Ebiladei of its Intelligence Bureau, said:

We have seen and noted that President Muhammadu Buhari (a.k.a. Pharaoh) is set for the final breakup of the country. Mr. Buhari should also know that we are also prepared and set for his proposal. The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) which is the highest organ of all the freedom fighting body has finally endorsed the followings:

1. After extensive and exhaustive deliberation by all Commanders of various groups in Yenagoa, the heart of the Niger Delta struggle met last night and as part of our mission, we are going to test six (6) of our MISSILES in the region. This is to show the federal government of our readiness of the American prediction.

2. There should be NO any form of helicopter to fly around in the region as we will not guarantee the safety of such object.

3. The people of the Niger Delta region should not be panic in course of test running the 6 MISSILES.

4. We may also decide within the week to shut down the Nigerian satellite orbit, so that there will be no communication in the country if needs arise.

5. Within our three (3) days operations, NO airplane should fly out of the country because it can target such object no matter how small or big it may be.

6. Our Fighter Expert Team shall be positioned in the six (6) Niger Delta states, who are already arrived the region from training through our countrys porous borders with our foreign partners who are going to showcase what they have learnt in the past one year.

7. Our struggle is not for any human blood, but we have been pushed to the wall for justice because our patience is running out on a daily basis as Nigerian uniform men are killing our innocent people continuously.

8. Nigerian military should as a matter of urgency leave peacefully the Ijaw communities they are presently in, the next 48 hours under the guise of searching for the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) or else we should not be blamed of whatever catastrophe that may befall such officers and the likely affected families of the officers should be blamed not the region.

9. We have consulted our war gods (deities) that enough is enough and that the time has come. Since the present Pharaoh of Nigeria, President Buhari is to preside over the disintegration of the country, it is a good omen.

10. Henceforth, any attack on Ijaw communities or person(s) by the military or para-military body in the region, we will not hesitate to order our shoot-at-sight squad of any uniform personnel in the region.

11. We ask all Service Chiefs including Minister of Defence to shamefully resign their positions because Nigeria has no security in whatever form. Bravo to our Foreign Marine Crack Team for their ability to shut down Nigerian obsolete surveillance equipments.

12. For the records, Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) are not in Delta state, we only go there to strike and return back safely to the struggle base, Bayelsa state.

13. We further warn especially, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, Information Commissioner in Bayelsa state not to criticize our activities any longer or else he has a choice of leaving the planet earth anytime he made such statement(s).

14. All oil and gas operations should shut down immediately as our MISSILES testing will affect their equipments.

15. NOTE, we shall commence MISSILES testing on Tuesday 7, June 2016 which coincides with the date of our training abroad. Since the present Pharaoh of Nigeria (Buhari) has failed us in our demands, we promise Nigerians and the entire world that we are going to surprise them.

Eight people have been reported dead following an alleged attack on soldiers by suspected militants.
NDA also said it is not in their character to kill innocent Nigerians in the pursuit of their agenda for the liberation of the region..

They also promised to bring those responsible for the killing of the soldiers to book.

A statement signed by the groups spokesperson, Brig. Gen Mudoch Agbinibo, said:

The Niger Delta Avengers were not involved in the attack of the Military houseboat around Warri, Delta State. Killing of sleeping Soldiers is not our style.

We promise the world that in this Process of liberating our People, not a single blood of Nigeria soldiers will be wasted despite the provocation.

Even the Inhumane Nigeria soldiers are exempted, our war is on Oil installations not to take innocent lives. For the fact we cant give Life, we also dont have the power to take any life.

But we (Avengers) are assuring the Families of the affected soldiers that we will bring the culprits to book.

When its time to face the military in combat let the whole world know that we wont be the ones to throw the first Punch.

This message is going to all groups parading themselves as freedom fighters. You can fight for your people without killing innocent souls NDA have proved. we were able to drop Nigeria Oil production from 2 million Barrels to just 800,000 barrels without killing a soul.

We are warning every group to follow our footsteps. The days of Killing and Kidnapping are over.

A new militant group known as the Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), claiming to be an affiliate of the Niger Delta Avengers, has also emerged.

Eight people were reported killed in Delta State after a group of soldiers were ambushed by militants in the Warri South Local Government Area of the state.
Obasanjo was said to have insulted Idris after the judge made a ruling ordering all past civilian presidents to account for loot recovered from late dictator, Sani Abacha.

Olaniyan made his comments via a statement released on Thursday, June 2, 2016, according to Punch.

The statement reads in part:

If judges have to decide cases on the basis of what politicians or someone else wanted the law or the result to be, the very principle of the independence of the judiciary would be forfeited.

While its within Obasanjos right to disagree with the judgment or even criticise it, calling Justice Idris stupid and ignorant simply for doing his job amounts to inappropriate political criticism as it threatens the judges independence and integrity.

Nigerians do not demand infallibility from their leaders and institutions, but its difficult to accept the proposition that a judge granting Nigerians the right to know what their leaders and government are doing is stupid and ignorant.
Reports say the state government asked the striking workers to return to work, promising to pay salaries when the state gets enough funds.

The workers, during the four hour meeting, refused the governments proposal, saying they prefer to stay away from work.

Striking workers in Ekiti state have also said they will not go back on their resolve to down tools till their salaries are paid.

The chairman of the Joint Negotiating Committee ( JNC) Sunday Adeleye, told Premium Times that the strike will continue.

The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Bosede Daramola, also told the workers not to go back on their decision.
The institutes Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Bala Aliyu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria, Kaduna State that an end had come to the disease, which had been ravaging tomato farms.

According to him, the Director-General of the institute, Prof. Idris Bugaje, has worked extensively to provide a solution to the menace destroying the tomato farm in the country.

"This vaccine has been found to be very effective after undergoing various scientific testing, he said.

The public relations officer said NARICT was partnering with regulatory agencies to certify the vaccine for onward use by farmers in Nigeria and the world at large.

He said all things being equal the vaccine would be launched soon for the good of the nation. Aliyu said it was the responsibility of the Federal Government to ensure this vaccine reached the end-users, farmers. He stressed that the agency had worked hard to find a solution to the dangerous disease.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Tuta absoluta is a species of moth in family Gelechiidae known by the common names tomato leafminer and South American tomato moth.

It is well known as a serious pest of tomato crops in Europe and South America. The Federal Government on Tuesday confirmed that the six states were hit by pest called Tomato Leaf Miner or Tuta absoluta, commonly referred to as Tomato Ebola.
The Youth President, Mr Godwin Ikot, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Ibeno Local Government Area of the state on Thursday.

He said the governor, who spoke through Mr Etekamba Umoren, the State Secretary to the Government instructed the oil giant company to commence the clean up exercise immediately in the area.

ExxonMobil have agreed to clean up the spillage and fixed the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the site of the incident for Friday, June 3,'' he said.

Ikot noted that after the JIV, the oil giant company would negotiate how to clean the oil spill in the affected areas.

We the youths in Ibeno Communities stand with the decision of state government, that ExxonMobil should clean up the entire areas affected by the oil spill, Ikot said.

The Youths President, however, decried that the recent oil spill was massive and has affected people in the oil producing areas of the state.

Mr Ogechukwu Udeagha, Manager, Media and Communications of ExxonMobil, Lagos confirmed the incident.

Udeagha, however, explained that the Monarch drilling rig, owned by Depthwize Nigeria Limited, drilling on behalf of Conoil Producing Limited damaged an MPN pipeline culminating in an oil spill.

I am still trying to get the report from the team that went there.

They were supposed to file a formal report but they havent done that, until we see that report, we cant issue a statement, Udeagha said.
Speaking during a state-wide broadcast on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Wike said that the visit was historic because it was not a political mission.

According to him, the visit is a good omen for the state since it is to kick-start the cleanup of oil exploration-induced pollution on Ogoniland.

``The president is not on a political visit to the state; he is here to kick-start the largest environmental cleanup in our nations history; this makes it historic.

``It is a visit for which Rivers people and indeed the Niger Delta will remain grateful.

The governor used the medium to urge Rivers people to come out massively to accord the president a warm reception.

``We have, therefore, banned the use of motorcycles and tricycles in Gokana and Khana Local Government Areas for the period between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursday.

"I call on Rivers people to be peaceful, law-abiding and demonstrate the traditional Rivers hospitality towards the president and his distinguished entourage throughout the visit.
"Bukas and Joints" is hosted by media personality Olisa Adibua, and features him traveling around Nigeria in search of the most authentic Bukas and Joints.

ALSO READ: undefined

In an upcoming episode, Adibua goes looking for the best local soups, and he looks no further than Surulere.

According to the producers, the show is aimed at capturing the very essence of the universal language of food, kicking off with one of Nigeria's largest cities, Lagos.

ALSO READ: undefined
There was a red carpet at check in counter, a cocktail party at the boarding gate into the plane, and an after party 40,000ft above the sea level.

Set mainly on a beautiful beach resort on the outskirts of Lagos in Nigeria, The CEO is a mystery-thriller surrounding five top executives from across Africa who are despatched on a 1-week leadership retreat by a multinational telecommunications firm, to determine which one to appoint as the firms new CEO. Things go awry when one-by-one the executives are eliminated in sudden death circumstances, and the finger falls on the last two remaining executive as prime suspects.
According to a report by Punch Newspaper, Ogundele said Gov. Amosun was not sincere about creating additional councils.

ALSO READ Ogun PDP backs Makarfi's emergence

Ogundele, an ex-local government chairman and a two-time member of the Ogun State House of Assembly, further accused the governors administration of crippling local government arm of the government as well as its administration.

The PDP stalwart cited under-funding and usurping of functions by the state government as the reasons for the current state of the LCDAs in the state in the past five years.

In a swift reaction, the All Progressive Congress in Ogun State has risen to the defence of the Governor saying the current administration had since inception relied on uncommon financial strategy to make the deliverables of governance possible.

In a statement by the state's APC Publicity Secretary, Sola Lawal, the ruling party claimed that the newly-created LCDAs would succeed, adding that those who would take charge at the councils had been tutored on the way forward.
The statement reads in part:

My advice, therefore, is for the President to appoint a game-changing Chief Economic Adviser. With due respect to the Presidents economic team, we need to utilise innovative solutions with a home-grown economic blueprint which would guarantee short-term results while they are applying theoretical principles which would guarantee the deliverables in the medium and long terms.

Also, this administration has not appreciated the role of irrigation in its agricultural programmes. There is no meaningful programme on food security that can be achieved without the correct type of irrigation.
Mohammed made the comment as an assessment of President Muhammadu Buharis performance in one year of office.

It (one year in office) has been very challenging, very fulfilling, but I must say with all sense of modesty that we have fulfilled our pledges, he told Channels Television.

We campaigned majorly on three issues: insecurity, fighting corruption and revamping the economy, and I can say again with all sense of modesty that we have fought Boko Haram to a standstill; we have launched a campaign against corruption with the change narrative, and we are taking steps to revamp the economy.

Let me take the issue of fighting insecurity. Nigeria was bedeviled with various types of insecurity ranging from cattle rustling to kidnapping for ransom to Boko Haram but clearly the most challenging when we took over was the menace of the Boko Haram.

When we came into office on May 29, 2015, Boko Haram was hoisting its flag in many parts of Nigeria, they had their own system of government, their own caliphate but we have been able to chase them out of those places and even the remaining fortress, which is the Sambisa forest. Today, weve maintained a bombardment in that area and if anybody wants to know what weve achieved in the last 12 months in the fight against Bokoro Haram, then they must look at what it was before and what it is today.

Today all the highways leading to Maiduguri have been re-opened. A month ago, a league match was played in Maiduguri and that is evidence that normal life is returning there. But this didnt come by chance; it came as a result of the dedicated and committed leadership of President Buhari.

Whatever emphasis you put on fighting corruption can never be misplaced because if you see the major problems facing us today, they can all be traced directly to corruption. It is because of corruption that Boko Haram lasted so long. Money meant to fight Boko Haram was shared and that was what led many innocent Nigerians to their untimely graves.

It is because of corruption that Nigerians are relying more on generators than on conventional power because after billions of naira was allegedly pumped into the power sector, what we see is darkness. Before now, we used to celebrate corruption at least if not anything, Nigerians no longer celebrate corruption. Now, again, if you look at the way we have addressed the issue of corruption, it is not to vilify anybody.

We never set out to probe PDP campaign funds. No, it is not our business. It is INEC that has the right to probe the campaign fund of any political party. But we set out to find out why the Boko Haram insurgency lasted for so long. How come our gallant soldiers were running away from a ragtag army?

How come there was so much mutiny within the army? Why were wives of the soldiers protesting that their husbands would not go to the war font? This was what we set out to probe, and then we stumbled on the fact that actually what happened was that when a $2.1 billion contract was given, rather than use the money to buy arms and ammunition, provide for the welfare of soldiers, they were used for political purposes.

The interesting thing about this $2.1 billion is that not one person accused of sharing in this loot has denied it, instead they have given excuses why they took the money. One claimed that he took the money for spiritual purpose, another claimed he used N3.1 billion for publicity, another said he was asked to go and buy a land for maritime university for N13 billion. So far, no one has denied partaking of this money, he added.
Dabo said at the inauguration in Jos that ``when we lost elections, we thought we are going to go extinct, but from the enthusiasm of members, one can see that we are very much on ground.''

He challenged Sango, former Minister of Sports, to focus on reconciling aggrieved members so as to build a strong outfit capable of presenting a strong opposition to the ruling party.

He said ``the expectations are high, but with God on our side, we will achieve our target.

``Whatever will divide the party and create factions will not be allowed.

``We need your support to succeed and we, as an executive council, must be united and give a credible alternative.''

Sango, who described members of the new executives as vibrant, said it was a blend of old and young people with the energy to revive the party.

He welcomed the former state Chairman of the PDP, Prof. Dakum Shown, back to the fold, saying that with his return, a major reconciliation process had begun.

The new chairman said that the party would benefit from the wealth of knowledge of Shown, who was the first speaker of the Plateau House of Assembly, ``and had seen all manners of political seasons.''

The chairman said that the new executives would soon embark on tour of local governments to reconcile aggrieved people at that level.

According to him, the party is infected but it will soon be healed.

Mrs Sarah Ochekpe, former Minister of Water Resources, in her remarks, told PDP members who were ``on holiday'' to return to the fold.

Shown, in his brief address, said he had spoken with those perceived to be aggrieved and had brought their hearts back to PDP.
This was announced by BoT Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, during a meeting with workers at the PDP National Headquarters in Abuja, Punch reports.

You are aware that this place was sealed by the Nigeria Police, the reason was to keep the secretariat very safe. We in the BoT in line with the constitution of our party are going to be in charge of the assets and the liabilities of the PDP generally, Jibrin said.

It is in that respect that the Inspector-General of Police, having considered the importance of our constitution and having considered the importance of the members of staff of the PDP headquarters here, that this place be opened and not only be opened, but is entrusted into the hands of the BoT.

Today, the BoT remains the only legal body now in the whole set up and that is why we are here to play our role. We are here to perform our duty according to the PDP constitution, hoping that our problems will soon be resolved.

We have gone very far to resolve this matter. We are making contacts and consultations and we are not here to blame anybody, but to resolve the problem. The PDP will never die, we are only on sabbatical and once the sabbatical is over, we are going to take over our leadership, we are going back in 2019," he added.
The minister who acknowledged the presence of the Rivers state Governor, Nyesom Wike, also thanked President Buhari for implementing the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report and fulfilling his campaign promise.

Amaechi also said We did everything possible as a sitting government to make the president implement the UNEP report, everything. But the report was not implemented after all.

President Buhari was expected in Rivers state for the flag-off ceremony, undefineddue to assassination threats, according to reports.

Governor Wike had put security measures in place to ensure that the Presidents visit was hitch free.

Some Nigerians expressed their disappointment on social media, over Buharis decision to cancel his visit to Ogoni land.

The Rivers state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) also thanked the President for fulfilling his promise to the Ogoni people.

President Buhari was represented at the flag-off ceremony by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
It has however put the cut-off mark for admission into any of the universities all over the country at 180.

The announcement was made in Abuja by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, during the Combined Policy meeting held in Nigerias capital.

Prof Dibu Ojerinde, the registrar for the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, told reporters that though the cut-off mark has been put at 180, any institution that chooses may increase the mark.

He said, 180 is given and no institution will go below 180 this year, And some universities can go above it, I know Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife will not go below 200 and University of Lagos will not go below 200 and also University of Ibadan.

All these ones stand. But 180 is a bench mark for others.

Ojerinde restated the Minister of Educations announcement about the new cut-off mark by saying for post UTME ,no more writing of post UTME anymore but institutions will screen their candidates.
Most times your hobbies reflect your inner person, features your interests and most times helps you relax.

Have you noticed that the hobbies section of most resumes feature the same interests, for official reasons we believe, most people only use things that makes them look serious. The hobbies mostly used in resumes includes Reading, writing, playing chess, travelling.

Although the most obvious generic hobbies in recent times has been linked with technology, it mostly has to do with surfing the internet and use social apps like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Periscope, Snapchat can now be described as hobbies.

Listed below are the weirdest hobbies in Nigeria

1. Tweeting

We asked someone what he does when he is not working and he said, When I am not working, or sleeping, I am tweeting and following twitter trends.

The micro-blogging platform has served as a hall of hilarious happenings. From twitter gods to the random guy on twitter, everyone gets fired!

So yes, that can stand as a hobby too!

2. Watching porn

In 2014, Nigeria was listed among the top 10 countries that visit pornography websites. This is weird because, in Nigeria, most people never admit to watching porn.

With a statistic like that Remember never to randomly enter peoples room as you can never be too sure of what going on inside.

ALSO READ: 12 things every Nigerian child can relate to

3. Making faces for the gram

Most women are guilty of this, once boredom sets in, the go to place to tell the world you are bored is either Instagram, snapchat or periscope.

It goes like this, Hi Snapchat, so I am home today, and I am so bored, do you like my lip colour?

4. Twerking

When they are not pouting for the gram, they are twerking for the gram. This kind of hobby serves two ways as it also amuses the audience.

In as much as logging in to find someone wiggling her ass on your timeline can be annoying and weird, it is someones favourite hobby.

5. Window shopping

You identify a Nigerian; if he/she enters a clothing or jewellery store try their items, reduce prices to the barest minimum and ends up not buying anything from that store.

This is common among university students, I met a couple of people who told me, they window shop to while away time, so as not to be bored.

6. Attending free events

Most people literally have a calendar of free events happening every weekend, you call go to an art exhibition you find almost the same set of people you met at the fashion fair.

Nigerians are the life of any party. You simply cannot tag a party as free and they would not show up.

7. Stalking people on the internet

The amazing thing about some social media apps is that you can snoop without getting caught. You can check peoples profile without leaving your footprints all over the place.

Everyone is guilty of this; this mostly happens during moments that you would rather be with your phone [probably your best friend] than involve yourself in other activities.

8. Watching series and Telemundo

Recent data shows that Zee World is the most watched station on DSTv. This is weird because some of the series aired on this station are not blockbusters. How people stay glued might forever be a mystery.

Oh well, if it relaxes you, it is an hobby.

9. Taking selfies

Most Nigerian women could be tagged a narcissist. Task yourself take about 10 random women phone, go to the mobile gallery, you will be surprised that the first five photos would be selfies.

Never bet on that!

10. Nigerian jollof rice

This has to be the weirdest of them all, these days just a single jollof rice comment can trigger a tweet war in Africas most populous nation.

No one has survived saying anything negative about the Nigerian jollof rice. Countries like Ghana and Liberia have triggered the Nigerian jollof battle on twitter severally but the Nigerian jollof soldiers are always prepared.

11. Sleeping

Weird as it sounds it can be categorised as a hobby, it is one of the perfect things that can be done when boredom strikes, and it also can serve as a perfect excuse for not texting someone back.

ALSO READ: 24 things you should do before you are 25

Although, the list of how this weird hobby is awesome is long, it takes your mind off struggles and it is the perfect cure for a bad mood.
According to ILO, Mali ratified the convention on Wednesday, thereby reinforcing the global movement for combating forced labour in all its forms, including trafficking in persons.

Through this ratification, ILO said, Mali followed the footsteps of Niger, Norway, the United Kingdom and Mauritania, the first states to make formal commitment to implement the Protocol.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Protocol, adopted in 2014 by a very large majority by the International Labour Conference, complements the Forced Labour Convention of 1930.

According to the ILO, a total of 21 million people are victims of forced labour around the world.

It estimated that the exploitation generated some 150 billion dollars a year in illicit profits.

The organisation said victims were exploited in agriculture, fishing, domestic work, construction, industry, mining and other economic activities.

It added that forced labour could take different forms, from forced sexual exploitation to debt bondage or even trafficking in persons and slavery.

In a reaction to the ratification, Ms Beate Andrees, the Chief of the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch at the ILO, said ``with the ratification of the Protocol by Mali, following Niger and Mauritania, Africa is demonstrating its involvement in efforts to eradicate forced labour on the continent.

``This ratification by Mali sends a strong message to other countries in Africa and elsewhere to also take immediate measures to meet their obligations with regard to the Protocol: to prevent forced labour and protect victims.
Mensah said this on Wednesday in Abuja, at the official opening of the 35th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Symposium of Shelter Afrique, a Pan-African Finance Institution.

Mensah, who is also the outgoing Chairman of the 35th AGM of Shelter Afrique, said that the governments should focus more on dynamism, innovation and solutions rather than problems.

Recalling that Ghana officially joined the Shelter in 2012, he added that some of the financial institutions in Ghana have gained from lines of credit facilities meant for on-lending customers who wanted mortgage finance.

In his speech, Mr James Mugerwa, Managing Director of Shelter Afrique, said the prevalent need for affordable and quality housing in the continent required strong commitment from governments.

Mugerwa stated that UN-Habitat estimated that half of humanity, a total of 3.5 billion people already lived in cities adding that by 2030 almost 60 per cent of the worlds population would be living in urban areas.

According to the report, 95 per cent of urban expansion in the next decades will take place in developing world, most of it in Africa.

``In real terms that means that we will require an additional 532 million units across the continent by 2030,'' he added.

Mensah stated that the UN Habitat estimated that 828 million people lived in slums presently, adding that the number had continued to rise.

In order to bridge housing deficit, he noted that in Nigeria, from 2005 to 2010, the organisation had financed and commissioned projects worth over 50 Million dollars.

He said that some notable projects were the AdivaPlainfields which included the development of 376 units of different types of houses and 251 serviced plots.

``We have also worked closely with the Akwa Ibom State government to deliver the Uyo Housing Project, which is now known as Shelter Afrique Estate.

``We also have a history of bolstering staff housing programs and supporting saving societies. Notably we have worked with the Chevron Employees Cooperative Limited extending a line of credit worth 1.5 million dollars.

``By our estimates, at the end of tenor for all our lines of credit, our financing would have created about 30,000 thousand construction jobs in Nigeria alone.

Mugerwa disclosed the recent signing of a 9.1 million-dollar facility to Afro Asia Shelters International for 300 Units and related infrastructure in Jibi, Niger State.

``We view this as a hallmark project, precisely because the end product will be delivered to members of the Trade Union Congress.

The Managing Director appealed to governments and all concerned agencies to lift the restrictions to land registration and perfection of titles to ease housing development.

He said despite the organisation's challenges, its recent milestones have bolstered the financial architecture of Nigerias housing market at the various levels of primary housing supply, mortgage lending, secondary mortgage markets and lines of credit to financial institutions.
Hejratullah Akbari, Spokesman for Police in the Northern Province of Kunduz, said the bodies of the two civilians were dumped on a road in Chahardara district of Kunduz.

He said that the security forces had launched an operation to rescue the remaining eight hostages.

Hamdullah Danish, Spokesman for the Governor of Kunduz Province, said six buses were stopped by the Taliban in the province's Aliabad district on the highway to Kabul on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the group stopped three buses and found 26 soldiers who were identified by the documents they had.

The group said that it killed six of the soldiers during the incident, and that all those kidnapped were also members of the government armed forces.

Taliban regularly stop vehicles to search for members of the Afghan government, security forces and international organizations.
To help ease tensions, Kenyatta on Tuesday met his political rival, the leader of the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy Raila Odinga, but the rare meeting between the two appeared to have little impact.

Police in Nairobi fired tear gas at people leaving a rally of the Coalition that was fully authorised and had passed without incident, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

The opposition wants Kenya's Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission scrapped, accusing it of bias. The commission's electronic identification system collapsed during the 2013 presidential election that brought Kenyatta to power.

In a speech at a separate event, Kenyatta said the opposition should use legal channels to seek changes to institutions, rather than demonstrations.

"The law is good when it favours you, but when it takes an unfavourable turn, you don't like it. We can't work like that. We must be a nation that follows the rule of law," the president said in a speech at a ceremony in the town of Nakuru to mark Kenya achieving self-governance in 1963.

His deputy William Ruto said the opposition should refrain from further protests, citing a court ruling that had banned them for marching.

"I now wonder if we want to transact the business of Kenya over a tete-a-tete or a cup of tea, or in street engagements, clouded by clouds of teargas," he told the same ceremony.

Speaking at the Nairobi opposition rally, Odinga said there was no such court ruling.

In late April, Kenya's High Court barred the opposition from storming the election commission's offices, but did not forbid them to protest.

Another lawsuit brought by ruling coalition lawmakers to stop Odinga from interfering with the running of the electoral commission is still with the court.

Ruto did not give any more details on the ruling he was referring to.

Odinga also told the rally that the coalition would on Thursday appoint five of its lawmakers who, alongside their counterparts from the ruling Jubilee Alliance coalition, would meet with the electoral body on Friday for talks.
China's Foreign Ministry said four of its peacekeepers were injured and called for an investigation into the attack late on Tuesday on the base in the town of Gao. The country said it has 2,400 peacekeepers stationed in Africa.

Two Malian security guards and an international expert were killed in a later attack carried out with light arms on the U.N. anti-mining operation (UNMAS) in a different neighbourhood of Gao, the U.N. peacekeeping mission (MINUSMA) said.

Mali's government and separatists signed a peace accord last year but it has not stopped periodic violence in northern Mali by Islamist militants who have also staged a series of high profile assaults in Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast.

MINUSMA confirmed the death toll and said three peacekeepers and 10 civilians had been injured in the rocket or mortar attack. Its head, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, called on the government to ensure those responsible were brought to justice.

The double assault occurred just days after five U.N. peacekeepers were killed and one injured in an ambush on a convoy in centre Simon Compaore al Mali.

In a separate incident on Tuesday, attackers killed three police officers at a station seven kilometres (four miles) from the border of Mali and set the building ablaze, Burkina Faso's Interior Minister said after a cabinet meeting.
WWF said Selous Game Reserve, Tanzanias largest protected area, was home to one of the greatest concentrations of African elephants on the continent, but rampant ivory poaching has seen the population reduced by 90 percent in less than 40 years.

"Based on historic trends of elephant poaching, by early 2022 we could see the last of Selous' elephants gunned down by heavily armed and well trained criminal networks that have turned poaching into an industrial scale global threat to conservation," the analysis said.

The analysis, carried out for WWF by global development advisers Dalberg, said the loss of elephants at the reserve put the livelihoods of 1.2 million people at risk and hurt Tanzania's economy.

The East African country relies heavily on revenue from safari tourism. Tourism is the biggest foreign exchange earner in east Africa's second largest economy.

New President John Magufuli has pledged to root out poaching as part of a wider war on corruption.

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Gaudence Milanzi, dismissed the WWF findings.

"The report has not taken into account the success of current efforts to curb poaching," Milanzi told Reuters. "There is no industrial scale poaching in the Selous right now, that was something in the past."

Poaching has risen across sub-Saharan Africa, where armed gangs have killed elephants for tusks and rhinos for horns that are often shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.

Milanzi said Tanzania's anti-poaching efforts over the past two years had recorded major achievements.

"I am sure these projections that elephants could vanish at the Selous by 2022 are based on past events, not the current situation on the ground," he said.

"We haven't completely curbed poaching -- we need to step up our efforts. But elephant populations are actually rising and stabilising in some parts of the country, although poaching has not been completely eradicated."

Milanzi cited the prosecution of a prominent Chinese businesswoman, Yang Feng Glan, dubbed the "Ivory Queen", as proof of the success of the poaching crackdown.
The U.S. Treasury Department called for a prohibition on certain U.S. financial institutions opening or maintaining correspondent accounts, which are established to receive deposits from or make payments on behalf of a foreign institution, with North Korean financial institutions.

The announcement came days after the latest failed missile launch by the isolated state. Tensions in the region have been high since January when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and then followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

Those efforts have all fuelled calls in Washington, and abroad, for a clampdown on Pyongyang.

U.S. law already generally prohibited U.S. financial institutions from engaging in transactions with North Korean institutions, but Treasury's latest actions would impose additional controls, especially the prohibitions on the use of third-country banks' U.S. accounts to process transactions for North Korea.

"This is meaningful," said Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is designating the entire country, which means essentially that any entity that is interested in interacting with U.S. financial institutions should no longer have any business with North Korea."

"Most, if not all, entities, if faced with the choice of having access to the U.S. financial system or doing business with North Korea, are going to make the obvious choice," Cha added.

South Korea's foreign ministry on Thursday welcomed the move, which it said in a statement would boost the effectiveness of existing sanctions on the North and have a broader impact than a 2005 U.S. Treasury measure that targeted a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau.

About $24 million (16.5 million pounds) of North Korean funds was frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) after the U.S. Treasury accused it of helping to channel earnings from the North's illicit activities, leading to a frantic attempt by Pyongyang to retrieve the money.

The North has since developed tactics to skirt financial restrictions by resorting to informal means to transfer money, including the use of bulk cash hand-carried by officials.

Adam Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Washington expected other governments and financial authorities to make similar moves to prevent Pyongyang from "abusing" global financial institutions to support its development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

"The regime is notoriously deceitful in its financial transactions in order to continue its illicit weapons programs and other destabilising activities," Szubin said in a statement.

The Treasury was required to assess North Korea's status as a money laundering jurisdiction under the "North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act," passed nearly unanimously by the U.S. Congress in February.
The brigades, mostly composed of fighters from the western city of Misrata, have advanced to the outskirts of Sirte over the past week and say they intend to recapture the city.

On Wednesday they had gained ground south of the city, and at a power station west of Sirte, according to statements posted on their social media accounts. They said they had faced four suicide car bombings, two of which had exploded before reaching their targets.

The extremist group established a foothold in Libya amid political chaos and conflict in the North African state, gaining control over Sirte last year.

Earlier this week a separate force that guards key oil terminals east of Sirte also advanced towards the city, taking control of two small towns previously controlled by Islamic State.

In Sirte itself, a resident told Reuters that a senior cleric had toured the streets on Tuesday urging people to stay in the city and fight.

Most of Sirte's population of about 80,000 is thought to have fled, and the government-backed brigades have said they want to give those residents who remain a chance to escape before advancing into residential areas.
Akal Takht Jathedar calls for Panthic unity, seeks release of Bandi Sikhs, warns against conversions

We are following the footsteps of Lord Vishwakarma to overhaul entire system in Punjab : says CM
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ALEDO, Ill.  This weekend marks the 25th year of Aledos Rhubarb Festival, and the occasion will be marked with Suzy Bogguss returning to her hometown to perform at the Aledo Central Park Band Shell.

The Nashville recording artist will host a free concert at 8 p.m. Saturday. The 1975 Aledo High School graduate admits she gets a bit more nervous performing in front of familiar faces.

Part of that is because my mind starts spinning with memories, Bogguss said. When youre looking out into an audience of people that you grew up with and that have seen you fall down and skin your knees and do all the stuff that you do while growing up, I cant help but let my mind wander.

Bogguss, who lives in the Nashville area, also performed at the Aledo Rhubarb Festival in 2009.

I think about not seeing this person or that person in a really long time, and it will be great to be back with a hometown crowd, she said.

Bogguss, a former Aledo High School homecoming queen, also will receive her Mercer County High School (Aledo and Westmer consolidated district) Hall of Fame plaque when shes back in town. She was inducted in February but couldnt make it back for the ceremony.

Also as part of the 25th year for the festival, the city has unveiled an 11-foot-tall by 13-foot-wide permanent rhubarb statue at the Illinois 17/94 interchange. The sculpture was designed by Aledo sign maker Mike Clark.

This also will be the final year that Darlene Johnson serves as chair of the event. She founded the festival.
A woman arrested in Chatham County, Georgia, in connection with the shooting death of a Rock Island teen has agreed to waive extradition and return to Illinois to face charges.

Chelsea M. Raker, 21, waived extradition during a hearing Thursday morning, Rock Island County State's Attorney John McGehee said.

He said plans are in the works to bring Raker back to the Quad-Cities "as soon as possible," but he did not know exactly when that will happen.

Sheriff Gerry Bustos declined to say when Raker will be brought back.

Raker is charged in Rock Island County with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of aiding a fugitive to flee.

The U.S. Marshals Service arrested Raker about 3:50 p.m. Saturday in Chatham County on a $1 million warrant.

McGehee has said Raker originally is from Savannah, Georgia.

She and Kire G. Carr, 17, are charged in the shooting death of 15-year-old Jescie J. Armstrong.

Police were dispatched just before 2 p.m. April 27 to the 500 block of 20th Avenue after receiving a report of shots fired inside a home.

Officers found Armstrong with a gunshot wound to the head inside the residence. He later died at Trinity Rock Island.

Prosecutors believe Armstrong was shot while Carr and Raker were committing an armed robbery.

Authorities said Raker then drove Carr from the scene of the shooting and out of the area.

Carr was arrested April 28 in Columbus, Ohio, by the marshals. Marshals said Carr and a female accomplice, later identified as Raker, were involved in a dispute with several others that led to the shooting of Armstrong.

The marshals said Carr was staying in Columbus briefly and had plans to flee to coastal Georgia.

McGehee has said Raker was with Carr in Columbus at some point but was not there when he was arrested.

Carr is charged with four counts of first-degree murder. Although he is charged as an adult, he remains in the Mary Davis Detention Home in Galesburg, Illinois, on a $1 million cash bond.
CHICAGO  Exelon Corporation announced today it will move forward to shut down the Clinton, Ill., and Quad-Cities nuclear plants, given the lack of progress on Illinois energy legislation.

The Clinton Power Station in Clinton, Ill., will close on June 1, 2017, and the Quad-Cities Generating Station in Cordova, Ill., will close on June 1, 2018. The plants have lost a combined $800 million in the past seven years, despite being two of Exelons best-performing plants.

While the Illinois legislative session has not ended, the path forward for consideration of the Next Generation Energy Plan legislation is not clear. As a result, Exelon has begun taking necessary steps to shut down the two nuclear plants.

Rauner also said he's talking with Exelon officials today. "I'm in there fighting hard," he added. "Hopefully we can find a solution."  Jack Cullen (@JS_Cullen) June 2, 2016

During visit to EM Correctional Center, Gov. Bruce Rauner said he's working to protect jobs at Exelon's Clinton and Cordova nuclear plants.  Jack Cullen (@JS_Cullen) June 2, 2016

These include:

 Making permanent shutdown notifications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission within 30 days.

 Terminating capital investment projects required for long-term operation of Clinton and Quad-Cities, which will impact more than 200 workers.

 Immediately taking one-time charges of $150 million to $200 million for 2016, and accelerating approximately $2 billion in depreciation and amortization through the announced shutdown dates.

 Canceling fuel purchases and outage planning, which will impact more than 1,000 outage workers.

Exelon has and will continue to brief the Governors office, legislative leaders, the Illinois Commerce Commission, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Illinois Power Agency, other relevant state agencies, and host community leaders, on developments as it executes the shutdown plan.

This is an extremely difficult day for the 1,500 employees who operate these plants safely and reliably every day, and the communities that depend on them for support, said Chris Crane, Exelon president and CEO.

We have worked for several years to find a sustainable path forward in consultation with federal regulators, market operators, state policymakers, plant community leaders, labor and business leaders, as well as environmental groups and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, legislation was not passed, and now we are forced to retire the plants.

Exelon will continue to work with stakeholders on passing the Next Generation Energy Plan that is critical to the states environment and economy.

Retiring the plants will have a significant economic and environmental impact on the region. The Clinton and Quad-Cities plants support approximately 4,200 direct and indirect jobs and produce more than $1.2 billion in economic activity annually.

A state report found that closing the plants would increase wholesale energy costs for the region by $439 million to $645 million annually. The report also found that keeping the plants open would avoid $10 billion in economic damages associated with higher carbon emissions over 10 years.

Exelon says it recognizes the severe impact the closures will have on the host communities for Clinton and Quad-Cities, and will work with civic leaders to prepare for this transition.

Exelon says it is committed to supporting employees at both plants. Employees will safely operate the facilities until the retirement dates, with staff transitions expected within six months after retirement. Exelon employs nearly 700 workers at Clinton and 800 workers at the Cordova plant.
The controversy over proposed bicycle lanes on Jersey Ridge Road went before the Davenport City Council committee-of-the-whole Wednesday night.

Residents and aldermen seemed split on whether to support the plan to restripe Jersey Ridge between Kimberly Road and Jersey Meadows Drive. The plan would reduce the four-lane road to two lanes, with one in either direction, in addition to a bicycle lane in either direction and a middle turning lane.

Alderman Rick Dunn, 1st Ward, recommended keeping the bicycle lane issue on discussion when it comes up for a vote at next Wednesday's City Council meeting.

About a dozen spoke in opposition, and chief among their concerns was traffic congestion on Jersey Ridge.

Gerry Odean said reducing Jersey Ridge's lanes when traffic gets backed up around 53rd Street is only going to make matters worse for cyclists.

"It's like suicide if you're on a bicycle," Odean said.

Kathy DuBois called the congestion around the intersection "tremendous" and wondered how much greater traffic will be after the new Rhythm City Casino complex opens later this month.

Tom Jacobson, president of the Jersey Farms Homeowners Association, also pointed out the congestion around the intersection.

"Let's find a safer and better way for all concerned," Jacobson said.

The intersection has seen 66 crashes in five years, according to data presented by Brian Schadt, the city's deputy public works director.

A 2014 study by McClure Engineering Co. that Schadt referred to showed an average of 4,000 vehicles a day travel the portion of Jersey Ridge between Veterans Memorial Parkway and 53rd Street.

The clamor from disapproving residents, especially that the project is being "hastily done" when safety concerns are so high, put Klipsch and a few aldermen on the defensive.

At one point, Klipsch addressed the concerns, saying "This is not being taken lightly at all."

Kerry Condon accused aldermen of pushing the issue through without public input, noting that before the first neighborhood meeting, held on April 28 at the Public Works building, the plan had already gone through two council readings and bids were being sought.

"That was before any of us citizens were even notified," Condon said.

Condon also took issue with the wording of Wednesday's meeting agenda, saying "bicycle lanes" did not appear anywhere on it. The agenda states the "restriping" of Jersey Ridge.

Residents in favor of the Jersey Ridge project included Cathy Storm, who said she lives three blocks off a section of the road that has bicycle lanes.

"They work great," she said.

Tom Donahoe, who earned his company, Cobham Mission Systems of Davenport, a spot on the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Businesses list last year, said the Jersey Ridge bicycle lanes would be used for transportation more than recreation.

"It's not for small children on bikes with training wheels," Donahoe said.

Donahoe said the issue of distracted drivers would be a concern to cyclists with or without the designated lanes.

Aldermen Ray Ambrose, 4th Ward, and Mike Matson, 7th Ward, said they share the concerns about traffic, with Ambrose saying that he will not vote for the project.

"We're a council that goes out of its way to bring in neighbor input," Ambrose said. "I think this is a safety hazard. I can't support this. Use a little common sense."

The two at-large aldermen, Jason Gordon and Kyle Gripp, defended the project.

Gordon said restriping Jersey Ridge is "cost neutral," because the street lines will have to be repainted anyway.
UPDATE: Clinton police report that Marissa Neff has been located today and is alive and well.

EARLIER REPORT: Clinton, Iowa, police are asking for help in finding a woman who left her home Saturday.

Police seek information about the whereabouts of Marissa Neff, 19, who is described as being 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing about 170 pounds. She has blond/brown streaked hair.

Neff left her Clinton house about 1:30 p.m. Saturday and has not returned home, according to police, who have not launched a formal missing persons case. Neff is listed on the Quad-Cities Missing Persons Network Facebook page.

Anyone with information about Neffs whereabouts is asked to call Clinton police at 563-243-1458.
Sen. Chuck Grassley's no-holds-barred takedown of the U.S. military's rape culture is a reminder that politicians are complex human beings. Welcome back, Senator. You've been missed.

Last week, Grassley railed against cover-ups that protect rapists within the Armed Forces and systematic reprisals against victims who report the inexcusable violation. He blasted generals who "lied" to the Senate, while downplaying an internal system that punishes victims who speak out. He signed on to desperately needed legislation that would remove sexual assault investigations from internal military purview.

The proposed amendment to National Defense Authorization Act would create an independent judicial system to investigate reported sexual assault.

In short, Grassley stood up for women who, too often, are twice victimized: Once by a peer and again by an institution that favors machismo and public relations over justice. His justifiable anger followed an inspector general's report that detailed an instance where a female officer reported being raped and was greeted by a career-scuttling evaluation by her commanding officer, Brigadier General Charles Viet.

This is a perfect example of why it needs to come out of the chain of command and set up a separate prosecution unit for these rapists," Grassley told reporters last week.

We share his rage.

Five percent of women and 1 percent of men in the Armed Forces -- some 20,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen -- reported a sexual assault in 2013, says a study conducted in 2014 by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's office. Of 329 cases sampled, just 22 percent went to trial and conviction rates were flirting with single digits.

Clearly, justice is of no concern to the generals, and they've proven unworthy of the investigatory oversight the system now permits.

Politically, Grassley's unequivocal support is a significant boost for the long-languishing amendment. Gillibrand, D-New York, has for years pushed the overhaul of the secretive, victim-blaming military justice system. But her minority status and a general unwillingness among congressional Republicans to condemn the military has doomed it to the dust pile.

Blasting civilian bureaucrats at the Veterans Administration is a gimme for members of Congress. Criticizing the military itself is tantamount to heresy in some sects. It takes guts to lambaste a sacred cow.

Now, a member of leadership is carrying the bill. Now, a prominent member of the Senate GOP majority is openly denouncing rampant misogyny in the U.S. military. Now, Gillibrand's amendment has a real shot. Now, justice might be had for men and women in uniform.

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman has, for months, been under constant election-year fire for blocking President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. We've pulled no punches when criticizing Grassley's willingness to join the absurd Republican campaign to delegitimize Barack Obama's presidency.

But Grassley's strident call to action to end the military's systematic patronage and victim blaming highlights why he's been respected for so long in Iowa and Washington alike. The Garland instance aside, Grassley isn't some partisan hack. He's no one-trick pony. He's an independent, introspective leader who is willing to use his power when it's most effective.

That willingness to bring influence to bear just might provide justice for thousands of men and women in uniform who, for too long, were compelled to remain silent.
DES MOINES  Gov. Terry Branstad said Thursday he thinks state lawmakers crafted a difficult but responsible $7.35 billion state budget, to which the governor gave rare, full approval late last week.

Branstad also said his budget vetoes from the previous year, which sparked strong backlash and a call for state lawmakers to override the governor, did not factor into his decision this year to make light use of his veto pen.

In fact, Branstad suggested those 2015 vetoes made clear what kind of budget state legislators were to send him in 2016.

Maybe the message got across that were not going to accept one-time expenditures, Branstad said Thursday at the Iowa Capitol. And thank God we didnt.

Branstad said if he had not vetoed the extra spending in 2015  including $56 million for public school infrastructure projects, $6.3 million for the states three public universities and $8 million to keep open two state mental health institutes  the budget crafted this year would have been even more difficult.

If we hadnt done that last year, we would have been in real trouble, Branstad said Thursday. Last year, I recognized the bird flu situation and the (falling) farm income and made the tough decisions, and I think that made it a little easier this year. The Legislature, themselves, I think came to that realization this year.

Branstad, who approved the proposed budget without vetoing a single dollar, credited legislators for making tough decisions in the budgeting process.

We spent a lot of time, and we carefully reviewed and scrutinized everything, but there were less item vetoes than weve had for some time, Branstad said.

The governor also said he felt comfortable approving all of the new Medicaid oversight measures proposed by legislators, despite saying previously he did not think additional oversight was necessary.

The state on April 1 shifted management of its $5 billion Medicaid program to three private health-care companies. State lawmakers, mostly Democrats, expressed concerns with the move, and after a failed attempt to stop the transition, they insisted on additional oversight.

Branstad said some of the new oversight measures already were agreed to when his administration worked with the federal government to get approval of the Medicaid management transition.

Were going to have, I think, the most transparent and greatest amount of oversight that any state in the whole nation has, Branstad said. "I think thats fine. I just want to make sure that its done in a fair and equitable way."

Branstad once more lamented the Legislatures failure to provide more funding for water quality programs, one of his top priorities coming into the legislative session.

Branstads proposal to share future school infrastructure sales tax revenue with water quality programs never gained traction with legislators. Republican lawmakers proposed moving some money from existing funding streams, a water metering tax and the states gambling-funded infrastructure budget, to water quality programs. That was rejected by Democratic legislators, who failed to offer a plan of their own.

Another option, not considered by legislators this year, is passing a three-eighths of 1 percent sales tax increase to fill a natural resources fund approved by voters in 2010.

I really believe that we need to address (water quality) without raising taxes, Branstad said.
DES MOINES  Former Lt. Gov. Patty Judge of Albia holds a slight lead over Cedar Rapids state Sen. Rob Hogg heading into the final weekend of campaigning before Tuesdays primary voting to decide the Democratic Partys nominee in Iowas 2016 U.S. Senate race, according to a poll released Thursday.

Judge, who also served as a state senator and Iowas agriculture secretary, polled the most support among 1,361 likely Democratic primary voters with 37 percent to Hoggs 31 percent, according to a poll conducted by Burlington radio station KBUR-AM 1490. Trailing the two leaders were former state Sen. Tom Fiegen of Clarence at 6 percent and former state Rep. Bob Krause, a veterans advocate from Fairfield, at 3 percent with 23 percent undecided.

The closeness of the Senate race was somewhat of a surprise to me, said Robin Johnson, a political science professor at Monmouth College who hosts a political segment for the Burlington radio station. He said he expected Judges previous statewide experience would have put her support closer to 50 percent.

According to the poll, Judges lead over Hogg increased to 41 percent versus 32 percent when undecided Iowa voters were asked which candidate they leaned toward in the Democratic Senate contest. The automated phone survey was conducted on behalf of KBUR by Remington Research Group May 31 through June 1 had a margin of error of 3 percent.

The winner of Tuesdays Democratic balloting will face Republican incumbent Sen. Chuck Grassley in Novembers general election.

There is a dearth of any real polling data on the Democratic Senate primary, KBUR News Director Rob Sussman said. The lack of voter interest in this race is leading some to speculate that this could be one of the lowest turnout elections the state has seen in years.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. | A U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs police officer has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of kidnapping and brandishing a gun during a violent crime.

William Arthur Curran pleaded not guilty Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Kelly Rankin in Cheyenne.

Rankin set trial for July 18 before U.S. District Judge Alan B. Johnson in Cheyenne.

The charges stem from what prosecutors allege was a violent confrontation between Curran and his wife at their home on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming in April.

Court records identify Curran as a BIA police officer and a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
SIOUX FALLS | A Pierre man sentenced to life without parole for killing a cab driver two decades ago when he was 14 is set to be re-sentenced because of a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that banned mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles.

A two-day re-sentencing hearing begins Thursday in Fort Pierre for Paul Dean Jensen Jr., who was convicted of murder, kidnapping and other offenses for the 1996 slaying of Michael Hare.

Here are some things to know about the case:

THE KILLING

Prosecutors have said Jensen and Shawn Cameron Springer, who was 16 at the time, hailed Hare's cab to drive them out of town and then robbed him of $36.48 before shooting him to death. Prosecutors said Jensen shot Hare once in the chest, listened to Hare plead for his life on his knees and then shot him two more times in the head.

The South Dakota Supreme Court upheld Jensen's convictions and sentences in 1998, with the justices saying the punishment fit the crime. Springer was sentenced to 261 years in prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping, and a judge in 2013 refused to reduce Springer's sentence.

U.S. SUPREME COURT RULING

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 said life sentences without parole for juveniles cannot be automatic but left open the possibility that judges could still sentence juveniles to life without parole after considering the circumstances of each case.

The 5-4 decision split along ideological lines, with the court's four liberals and swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy joining to order states and the federal government to allow judges and juries to consider a juvenile's age when they hand down sentences for some of the harshest crimes.

JENSEN'S ARGUMENT

Acting as his own lawyer, Jensen filed a 28-page, mostly handwritten motion in July 2013 asking that his sentence be declared illegal so he could be resentenced. He also asked that a lawyer be appointed to represent him in the case. Jensen said that the U.S. Supreme Court and various studies have found that 14-year-olds are immature, impulsive and susceptible to pressure from others, and that they also are more likely than older criminals to be rehabilitated.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley argued that the Supreme Court ruling did not apply retroactively.

RE-SENTENCING GRANTED

Circuit Judge John Brown in December 2013 granted a resentencing hearing for Jensen, saying he felt compelled by the Supreme Court ruling. Jensen's attorney, Jeff Larson, argued that the case involves correcting the sentence, not changing the conviction.

Stanley County State's Attorney Tom P. Maher said Jensen's sentence was lawful in 1996 and remains lawful. Neither could be reached for comment ahead of Thursday's hearing.
Butte County Republican voters have a full slate of candidates to select in the June 7 primary, but different ballots in different parts of the county.

Democrats and Republicans countywide both may cast ballots for presidential candidates.

The list includes GOP delegates to support John Kasich, Ted Kruz and Donald Trump, and Democrats may choose delegates for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

In Newell, the primary election day also will have two school board seats up for election; balloting is at the same polling places as for county and legislative races.

Voters in the eastern part of the county that fall under the state's legislative District 29 do not have a Republican primary. Unopposed to represent the GOP on the November general election ballot are S.D. Senate candidate Gary Cammack and S.D. House candidates Thomas Brunner of Nisland and Larry Rhoden of Union Center.

Cammack would be opposed in November by independent candidate LeRoy Kindler of Newell. With no opposition for the two S.D. House candidates, they are the presumptive winners of the November election.

Newell school district voters may vote for two of four candidates, including LeeAnn Gaer, Julie VanDerBoom, Lisa Wendt and Donald Alexander.

Along with the legislative primary races, there is a three-way competition for the Butte County State's Attorney office on the ballot even though one name on the ballot had called the county auditor's office effectively asking to withdraw.

It is the only race for all Republicans in the county.

At the county commission level, County Commission District 2 Cal Geis is opposed by Polly Odle. The district includes Belle Fourche Ward 4, Precinct 28, Nisland Precinct 18 and Fruitdale Precinct 17.

Butte County Auditor Elaine Jensen said last week responded to questions on the state's attorney race.

Active candidates for the office who appeared at the recent GOP candidate forum are candidates Jon Dill of Summerset and Cassie Wendt of Belle Fourche.

The third name on the ballot, Steve Christensen of Spearfish, had filed a petition for the office. But, Jensen said, Christensen had called her to request his candidacy be removed.

His name remains on the ballot since the request came after deadline to remove it, Jensen said.

Also, Jensen said, a candidate for a county elected office does not need to reside in that county to run for election. If a candidate from outside the county wins election, she said, he or she would be required to establish residence before being sworn into office.

That situation this year affects John Dill's candidacy for state's attorney.

Legislative races in the county are only in District 28.

In Butte County, the District 28B race for S.D. House mostly affects Belle Fourche area voters.

Winner of the Republican S.D. House race, Republicans Sam Marty, from Prairie City, and Karen Wagner from Belle Fourche, would effectively win the November election by default to represent the Northwest part of South Dakota in the state's House of Representatives.

The District 28 S.D. Senate race includes not only the territory in the Northwest area of the state, but also most of Northwest South Dakota from the Missouri to the Wyoming and Montana state lines, and north of U.S. Highway 212 to North Dakota.

Republican District 28 S.D. Senate candidates are Ryan Maher of Isabel and Steven Ritch of Belle Fourche.

Polling places in Butte County include the Belle Fourche Community Hall, Nisland American Legion Hall, Newell City Hall and Moreau River Hall near Castle Rock.
Recipients included Women Escaping a Violent Environment in Custer; the Spearfish Nutrition Site; the Cheisman Center for Democracy for its Kids Voting South Dakota program; Black Hills Works for the Flutter Productions Theater program; Wellspring for the Wellfully Mobile Addition Recovery Program; the Boys and Girls Clubs in Hill City, Hot Springs and Lead/Deadwood; the HOPE Center for work with Rapid Citys homeless population; the YMCA for Custer and Edgemont swim safety programs; Black Hills Mining Museum in Lead; Community Connections  a nonprofit collaborative for the Aging Gracefully Expo; Love Inc. of the Black Hills for the new THRIVE program; the Rapid City Public Library for its Mobile Library; and the Black Hills Community Loan Fund for financial education efforts.
Contract negotiations have fallen apart between Rapid City school district officials and the Rapid City Education Association, the group that represents the districts teachers.

The RCEAs membership has voted to not ratify a proposal forwarded by the district for the 2016-2017 contract. The districts proposal would replace the current salary structure with a new one that favors incoming teachers, raising the base salary by about $8,000 and providing $2,000 raises for five consecutive years.

Under the proposal, a total of $6.5 million would go to teachers for the 2016-2017 school year, according to Katy Urban, the districts public information officer.

RCEA President Sue Podoll said early Wednesday that one of the reasons negotiations stalled is that veteran teachers would not benefit as much from the deal.

During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, School Board President Jim Hansen said returning to the table is not an option after the RCEA outright rejected the districts proposal without presenting a counter offer.

I was shocked that they didnt come back with a counter offer, Hansen said afterward.You always come back with counter offers.

Podoll could not be reached for additional comment by news deadline Wednesday.

With further negotiations stalled, the RCEA can request mediation from the South Dakota Department of Labor, Hansen said.

The new structure proposed by district officials would set the base starting salary for all incoming teachers at $40,000. According to a statement released by Superintendent Tim Mitchell, new teachers would see an annual salary increase of $2,000 each following year for the next five years until a $50,000 salary level is reached.

Those currently at $50,000 will receive a one-time $3,000 pay increase this year. Once a teacher reaches the $50,000 mark in future years, any additional salary increases  either a percentage or a prescribed dollar amount  would be determined during annual contract negotiations. Mitchell said the amount of future increases would rely on how much money the state Legislature provides.

The current base salary for incoming teachers is $32,000, Mitchell said. After working in the district for five years, teachers make about $34,922.

That is not anywhere near the $48,500 average that our taxpayers and legislators expect us to reach, Mitchell said, referring to the target average salary set by lawmakers.

This year the Rapid City school district received $5.2 million from the state, with $4.4 million dedicated to teacher pay. Failure to meet the salary benchmark could mean losing the funding.

Were following the rules so that we dont get punished by the state and have them take away money next year, said Hansen, whose remarks were sometimes met with chuckles and occasional boos from the dozens of teachers attending the press conference.

Mitchell said setting the new base salary at $40,000 is a way to set teachers on an accelerated track to meet the new state salary standard. Hansen also said the substantial raises over the next five years would make Rapid City an attractive location for new teachers looking to get their start.

Another change the district proposal would make is to stretch the annual salary distribution from a 10-month schedule to a 12-month schedule.

The proposed contract causes two problems, according to RCEA President Sue Podoll. First, it tells veteran teachers they arent valued. Second, it does not reward teachers for their varying levels of experience and higher education, as happens under the current system.

While incoming teachers would benefit for the first five years, Podoll worries that without an incentive to pursue and maintain a higher level of personal education, those teachers with master's degrees eventually will quit for jobs at other school districts that compensate them accordingly.

Yes, its great for those new young teachers, but we dont want to lose them once theyve gotten that training and experience, Podoll said.

Hansen and Mitchell disagree with this view, stating that paying incoming teachers a higher salary up front will allow them the financial flexibility to pursue a higher education instead of spending a lot on a master's degree in the hopes of achieving a salary increase.

Veteran teachers, meanwhile, are left uncertain of their position in the new system, which does away with the salary structure they fought to secure in past contract negotiations.

A salary schedule has been in place for as long as Ive been a teacher, Podoll said. To strip it all away in one fell swoop is somewhat unexpected.

The uniform nature of the new salary structure takes away the ability of teachers to pursue higher education goals as a way to control how much they make. Removing that sense of self-determination could be damaging, Podoll said.
DEADWOOD | A homeless, unemployed habitual offender whose criminal record fills 22 pages was sentenced last week to a decade in prison. He avoided serving more time by reaching a plea deal on charges in three western South Dakota counties, according to court records.

Kerri Owen Nacey, 32, was charged in January with third-degree burglary, possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine), attempted second- and third-degree burglary, and simple assault on a law enforcement officer, all of which are felonies.

In a global plea deal presented to the court May 19, involving multiple charges in Lawrence, Meade and Butte counties, Nacey agreed to plead guilty to third-degree burglary and possessing meth in exchange for the other charges being dropped.

On May 26, Fourth Circuit Judge Michelle Palmer-Percy sentenced him to 10 years in prison with three years suspended, and ordered him to pay $649 in attorneys fees. Nacey was immediately turned over to the sheriffs department for transport to the state prison in Sioux Falls.

Records acquired from the South Dakota Unified Judicial System show that since St. Patricks Day 1999, when he pleaded guilty to a charge of being a minor in possession of alcohol, Nacey had been arrested 20 times and had been charged with 60 different crimes.

Nacey, who has been convicted of driving under the influence six times and whose last prison sentence was commuted by Gov. Dennis Daugaard, escaped from Meade County jailers on Feb. 28. He was apprehended four days later in Spearfish.

In March, an examination of court records revealed that charges then pending against Nacey in Meade, Butte and Pennington counties carried maximum penalties of 75 years in jail and $128,000 in fines.

Lawrence County States Attorney John Fitzgerald said Thursday he agreed with the courts sentence.

I am satisfied that this gets him off the street for a while, Fitzgerald said. Perhaps at the penitentiary, he will become enlightened and use his time wisely because if he doesnt, hell just be doing life on the installment plan in prison.
Sentence for ousted opposition-minded Russian mayor to be read on August 1

MOSCOW, June 2 (RAPSI)  The Kirovsky District Court of Yaroslavl will read out the sentence to ousted Yaroslavl Mayor Yevgeny Urlashov, who stands charged with soliciting a bribe, and his alleged accomplices, on August 1, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.

Today the court heard final speeches of Urlashov and his former deputy Dmitry Donskov; they pleaded not guilty again. Urlashovs former assistant Aleksei Lopatin refused to give a final speech, according to a court representative.

The criminal case against Urlashov is one of the biggest bribe cases opened in Russia recently, considering Yaroslavls population (600,000) and the fact that Urlashov, an opposition candidate, defeated the candidate from the ruling party at the 2012 mayoral elections.

The police arrested Urlashov on July 3, 2013.

Investigators believe that Urlashov along with his accomplices extorted bribes estimated at 45 million rubles (about $675,500) from businessmen.

Between December 2012 and July 2013, Urlashov, Donskov, Lopatin and another Urlashovs accomplice Maxim Pokalainen demanded 18 million rubles ($270,200) from a commercial entity director for participation in a municipal project realization, according to investigation.

In December 2014, a court found Pokalainen guilty of attempted bribery amounted to 18 million rubles and sentenced him to five years in prison.

Urlashov, a member of the ruling United Russia party in 2008-2011, was a candidate for the opposition during mayoral elections in 2012. He achieved a landslide victory over a United Russia candidate Yakov Yakushev. A member of billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorovs Civic Platform party, Urlashov planned to run for the Yaroslavl regional parliament in September 2013.

On July 18, 2013, Urlashov was removed from his mayoral post.
Two Ravalli County legislators joined eight other Republicans asking for a special session to fix what they believe to be flawed campaign finance laws.

State representatives Nancy Ballance, R-Hamilton, and Theresa Manzella, R-Hamilton, and the others called for the special session to fix defects and close a loophole in states campaign finance laws.

Both legislators said the action needs to be taken before the general election is held in November.

The move follows a court ruling in May that struck down Montanas existing caps on election spending as unconstitutional.

The states commissioner of political practices followed up on that ruling by setting new caps on spending that the Republicans say are too low compared to surrounding states.

Those recent decisions have made it confusing for current candidates to determine what they can accept from donors, Ballance said.

Rather than clarifying the situation, candidates are now confused on what they can take and cant take, she said.

At the same time, Ballance said there are ways for candidates to get around those spending limits. While the public believes that the current laws eliminate potential for corruption, she said thats not whats happening.

Manzella said she and others were targeted earlier this year by an attack advertisement that said she supported dark money by voting against a bill in the last legislative session focused on that issue.

What they didnt say was the bill that came before us was poorly crafted, Manzella said. It was a vague bill that wasnt going to truly address any of the dark money issues at all.

Manzella said she signed onto the request for the special session because she wants to see attack advertisements like those sent out against her eliminated.

My goal would be to simply get everyone on a level playing field, she said. We didnt do our job to address this dark money. The Legislature didnt do its job in creating a solid piece of legislation to address the dark money and now its coming back to bite us.

Ballance said if the issue is pushed back to the legislative session, it could change the makeup of the next Legislature. She believed the issue could be addressed in a day-long session.

The bigger issue, I think, will be whether or not we can get the number of people required to satisfy the call, she said. We are somewhat divided at this point.

Republican Senator Patrick Connell of Corvallis said he wont sign on for a special session.

Frankly, I think its a waste of taxpayer money, Connell said. One day will cost right at $100,000. Every day after that is something like $45,000.

Connell agrees that there could be improvements made to the states campaign finance laws, but those changes can wait for debate during the regular session.

One important thing to remember is that whatever system is in place right now, it is applied equally to both parties, Connell said. To attempt to fix it in the middle of a campaign season doesnt make sense. The entire situation looks like a campaign stunt.

Im not going to waste taxpayers money on this issue, he said. We are going to be looking at some real budget problems this upcoming session and I dont even know if theres a battle to be fought on this issue. I do know that right in the middle of a political campaign isnt the time to fight that battle.
Kathmandu, Nepal: Nepal Police have arrested two youth for their alleged involvement in piracy of Nepali movie-Dreams. The movie was directed by noted Nepali actor Bhuwan KC.

Metropolitan Police Crime Division has stated that Bidhan Gurung (21) from Bhairahawa-13 of Rupandehi and Chandra Labaju (21) from Tapachal-3 of Bhaktapur have been arrested from the office of Highlights Nepal Pvt Ltd in Kathmandu on Wednesday.

It is said that the duo were arrested on the complaints filed by Highlights Nepal Pvt Ltd, Super Kajal Films Pvt Ltd and the Nepal Film Artists Association.
Kathmandu, Nepal: The CPN Maoist Center has formed a 1099-member Central Committee. Following the internal rivalry over the leadership in the party, the party has on Thursday finalized the central committee going against the earlier decision. The Unity Convention of the party held recently had decided to form a 699-member Central Committee. It is said that the names of about 1000 central committee members have already fixed. The remaining members will be fulfilled as per the party statue making the committee much more inclusive.
FNJ Salyan President Sharma dies at 52 Review Nepal Kathmandu, Nepal June 02 2016

SALYAN: President of Salyan chapter of the Federation of Nepali Journalists FNJ) Shalik Ram Sharma died this morning. Sharma was 52. Sharma died in course of treatment at Kathmandu-based Alka Hospital where he was admitted to on May 29 after suffering from blood cancer, family sources said. Sharma was involved in the journalism sector for last two decades. Meanwhile, the FNJ Salyan chapter called an emergency meeting after the bad news broke and expressed sorrow over the demise of Sharma. The FNJ chapter also decided to hold condolence meeting in the district today and not to attend any formal programmes for next 13 days.RSS
alternet.org - May 31, 2016

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, the famous professor from Columbia University, calls me from rural West Bengal. She is in Birbhum, where Professor Spivak has started seven elementary schools in the rural parts of the district of nearly four million people. Several years ago, Spivak began the Pares Chandra and Sivani Chakravorty Memorial Literacy Project. The purpose of the exercise was to expand the horizons of young people who derived few benefits from the modern state. Each year, Spivak comes to the schools, interacts with the students and the teachers and ensures that her project maintains vitality.

At the south of Birbhum is one of Indiaas most famous universitiesaShantiniketan, founded by Rabrindranath Tagore on estates that he inherited from his opium-trading family. Tagore, who was a famous poet and intellectual, started Patha Bhavana (School of Ideals) in 1901 to ennoble the best of humanity through free discussion in the open air. Years laterain 1930 a when Tagore returned from the Soviet Union, he wrote to his friend the American heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney about Soviet education. The reforms Tagore saw in the Soviet Union did not come from the expenditure of aunlimited wealth,a he wrote, but by aindomitable energy and resourceful intelligence.a It was this that Tagore wanted to harness for the university that became Vishwa-Bharati, the world in India and India in the world.

Spivakas project is more modest, but it is not less ambitious in what it wants for its studentsanot merely literacy, but the freedom to expand the imagination. She wants that indomitable energy and resourceful intelligence to govern her schools.

Concern defines Spivakas comments on the phone. She is worried about the growth of right-wing schools in India. These schools, she says, not only akill the imagination,a but they alsoamost dangerouslyaproduce a agenocidal naturea amongst the vulnerable students. In Birbhum itself, Spivak counts three hundred to five hundred such right-wing schools. In West Bengal, a state of ninety-two million people, there are two thousand seven hundred right-wing schools. Across India, there are fifty-seven thousand such schools. They are not spread out evenly, but are designed to target areas inhabited by adivasis or tribalsathose whose well-being has been neglected by the Indian Republic, and those who the Right has long seen as potential cannon fodder for its armies. Santhals, a tribal community, form a considerable part of Birbhumas rural areas. They are a target of the Right.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which currently rules the Indian state, came to power on the basis of a massive octopus-like network. Part of that network includes its schools, run by Vanvasi Kalyan Kendra (VKK) and Ekal Vidyalaya. Both the VKK and Ekal build schools, hire locals to teach in them, and builds a local committee to run these schools. On the surface, this is just as education should bealocal teachers, local control. But this is a faAade, as false as the websites set up by both these organizations. In reality, as Spivak notes, these schools are controlled by the BJP and they preach the gospel of Hindutvaathe bilious ideology of the ruling party. What is Hindutva? It is a suffocating idea that argues against the complexity of Indian civilization. It makes the claim that non-Hindus are foreigners and that arace pridea amongst Hindus should be developed. Such a curriculum is the opposite of what is taught at Spivakas schools and indeed at the university set up by Tagore. This is surely the suffocation of the imagination.

As Spivak described the schools, I recalled seeing them about twenty years ago in the tribal areas of central India where they are legion. One of the main targets here are the tribals who had converted to Christianity, and whom the Hindutva Right wants to bring home (ghar wapsi) to Hinduism. A similar agenda had been put into motion in Gujarat, the state of Indiaas Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Here, Modias adjutant Swami Aseemanand moved into the Dangs region to convert Christian tribals to Hinduism and to drive a hard anti-Muslim and anti-Christian agenda. He told the tribals that their own deityaVanardevaawas actually the Mahabharataas Hanuman. They drew on their networks of cash and influence to build large Hanuman temples and destroy the older tribal shrines for Vanardeva. In 2006, the Peopleas Union for Civil Liberties pointed out that these organizations atargeted the tribal belts of the country to see that adivasis lose their identity, culture and traditions of worshipping nature by asserting that they are Hindus.a But loss of identity is only the start of the Hindutva Rightas agenda.

Aseemanandas minions vigilantly (and violently) made sure to drive out Vanardeva and to prevent fraternization between the young tribals and Muslims. The violence is a central part of the agenda. Aseemanand would later admit to being part of a terrorist network that bombed trainsahe would tell an Indian newsmagazine that he had taken his orders from the leadership of the Hindutva Right. It was incendiary stuff. He is currently in prison, but his allegations have been put into cold storage. These are the kinds of people who are active in the Hindutva web. The Justice Tewatia Commission on the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat pointed out that aearlier in Gujarat, tribals never got involved in the Hindu-Muslim riots.a This time considerable numbers of tribals participated in the riots, killing Muslims in rural areas.

Spivak is correct to be worried. In Birbhum, the VKK and Ekal schools have gone after the traditions of the Santhals. They argue that the Santhals godaMarang Guru (God of the Mountains a is actually Shiva, and that the Santhals should not see themselves as independent but as part of Hinduism and within the Hindutva fold. Last year, Santhal Christians converted to Hinduism in a public ceremony. Journalist Sohini Chattopadhyay visited a VKK school in Birbhum. She met Mohitosh Gole, the head of the eastern wing of the VKK. He was forthright with his prejudices. aWherever there are Christians, there are anti-national activities,a he told Chattopadhyay. aAnd wherever Muslims are the majority community there are problemsasocial problems.a The schools make astudents aware of these things.a There is an edge to his stories. aA Muslim will come to your house and you feed him, give them a room to stay, and then next day, they marry your daughter.a Such fear-mongering is commonplace. It produces a toxic social environment, one of fear and resentment. There is no expansion of the imagination in this world.

These schools are the infrastructure of the Right. They set up shop, teach their narrow and dangerous ideology, use modest amounts of money to build support through social services and then convert this into political power. In both Gujarat and in central India, the long-term work of the Right has now delivered these regions to them. Older nationalist and leftist parties have fallen by the wayside. When one asks, how did the land of Gandhi (Gujarat) become the laboratory for the Hindutva Right, the answer lies apartlyain this educational infrastructure.

Spivak fears for the future of West Bengal, which had been the bulwark against the Hindutva Right. These tentacles of violence, she says, will eventually undermine the political culture of West Bengal. aIf West Bengal falls to the BJP,a she says, athen the movement in India against democracy will be completely dead.a What is needed, she says, is a movement. aIf West Bengal goes,a Spivak says, aIndia will go.a

Vijay Prashad is professor of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter (AK Press, 2012), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2013) and the forthcoming The Death of a Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016).
The Times of India - June 2, 2016

The security establishment never tires of claiming that human rights activists are partisan, and only blame the state. But when they do expose Maoist crimes, the police is not interested. One wonders if the establishmentas problem is really the Maoists a in whose name the state is spending several thousand crores on militarisation a or rights activists and the idea of democracy they uphold.

A couple of weeks ago four of us, including a colleague from JNU, visited Bastar division. The press release we issued upon our return is unequivocal in blaming both the Maoists and the police for the current vulnerabilities of villagers. However, the police have drummed up a campaign vilifying us, claiming, ridiculously, that we threatened villagers with Maoist retaliation and instigated them against the police. The Bastar collector, Amit Kataria, has added to this by circulating fake complaints on social media, fuelling the ongoing anti-JNU hysteria.

CRPF/ BSF/ ITBP camps are visible every 2-5 km in Bastar. Villagers report that the camps come up overnight, cutting down acres of trees, and taking over land that villagers have been cultivating. No permission is ever taken from the gram sabha. In one village we visited, a young woman had a baby after being raped by a sahayak arakshak (former special police officer), attached to a BSF camp.

No action has been taken against the rapist. In the past too, women have complained about the insecurity generated by police and paramilitary camps, especially when they are located next to schools or girlsa hostels. Womenas groups have exposed three major instances of mass gang rapes and sexual assault by security forces out on combing operations.

Moreover, having a security camp next door is no guarantee of security from the Maoists. A schoolteacher in Dornapal was killed in broad daylight, allegedly by Maoists, in the close vicinity of a CRPF camp and police thana.

Over the past year the police have been holding Jan Jagran Abhiyans (the original name of Salwa Judum), at which they distribute clothes, money and even mobile phones. These are also occasions when they stage mass asurrendersa, many of which involve ordinary villagers. In some cases, villages are persuaded into thinking they will be better off with a police camp nearby.

In Kumakoleng, however, asking for a police camp has had dangerous consequences for villagers. It began when the police discovered some names in a diary kept by a Maoist area commander. In March 2016, 50 persons were forced to asurrendera and are now living in police and CRPF camps working as informers.

On April 15, the police held a Jan Jagran Abhiyan in Kumakoleng, at which some of the villagers asked for a CRPF camp to come up near the village. On April 17, the Maoists beat up villagers, including women, for collaborating with the police. When we visited, two-thirds of the villagers had fled for fear of the Maoists. Not everyone in the village supports the idea of a camp. All this is dangerously like Salwa Judum, which too began life as Jan Jagran Abhiyan. Villages were divided and people displaced in large numbers, with some supporting the police and others the Maoists.

In neighbouring Soutnar panchayat, villagers have been patrolling for the past three months to keep the Maoists away, laughingly describing themselves as athe tangiya (axe) ganga. They told us they too wanted a camp, but the police refused, saying that the Maoists would go away if they patrolled. By promoting village patrols, the police are making people vulnerable in the first place and then leaving them to their own devices against armed Maoists.

In a drought year, the Maoist levy on tendu patta and mahua earnings and their objections to the villagers asking for MGNREGA work are creating deep resentment. On the other hand, people complain that they are not paid for MGNREGA work, for years at a stretch. Average incomes are Rs 1,000-2,500 per household per month, ie starvation levels.

In the current context, people need neither paramilitary camps nor a Maoist parallel government. What they need is a government, which cares about their well-being and is willing to engage in dialogue with all stakeholders to achieve this.
The Secretary General of the Polisario, Mohamed Abdelaziz passed away Tuesday afternoon at the age of 69 of lung cancer, it was officially announced in the Tindouf camps in south-western Algeria.

Mohamed Abdelaziz, a native of the Moroccan city of Marrakech, has been maintained for forty years at the head of the Sahrawi separatist front thanks to the blessing of the Algerian military oligarchy and the Algerian regime.

Abdelaziz is the son of Khelili Rguibi Mohamed Salem, a retired soldier of the Moroccan army, who never left his native Morocco, where he lives with the rest of his family.

The successor to Mohamed Abdelaziz should be designated in forty days. Meanwhile, the President of the pseudo National Council, Khatri Addouh, is assuming the role of acting leader of the front.

The succession war will not take place as suggested by some media, said a Western diplomat accredited in Algiers. The diplomat believes that this issue will be settled in closed sessions in Algiers and not in the Polisario headquarters in Rabouni camp, in Tindouf.

The diplomat said that major decisions concerning the management of the Tindouf camps, the Polisarios foreign policy and its future, were always part of the prerogatives of the Algerian military oligarchy and particularly its intelligence and security department (DRS) in consultation with some hawks of the regime that are openly hostile to normalization with neighboring Morocco.

For the diplomat, connoisseur of the mysteries of the Algerian regime, the Algerian generals would choose Mohamed Lamine Bouhali, former defense minister of the so-called SADR and a former officer of the Algerian army. This choice is explained by the fact that Bouhali has always sided with the fronts radical bloc, favoring the resumption of weapons against Morocco in the dispute over Western Sahara.

In contrast, civilian leaders close to President Bouteflika, who are opposed to an armed confrontation at their countrys borders, would rather opt for Abdelkader Taleb Omar, a native of the Moroccan town of Tan Tan, who has been holding the position of Prime Minister since October 2003.

Taleb Omar has always heeded the guidelines and instructions of the Algerian Presidential palace and would thus provide more guarantees that there would be no change at the level of the Polisario leadership.

The Algerian regime wants to avoid at all costs an armed conflict with Morocco but at the same time it does everything to perpetuate the Sahara conflict to weaken its Moroccan neighbor and to ultimately impose its leadership in the sub-region, a dream dating back to the cold war era.
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 "Correctional Control: Incarceration and supervision by state" | Main | FreedomWorks explains why GOP opposition to federal sentencing reform is "unreasonable" 

June 1, 2016

Are there really now lots more conservatives in lots of states "starting to question the cost and legality of capital punishment"?

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new short Governing article with this full headline: "The Death Penaltys New Skeptics: In states across the country, conservatives are starting to question the cost and legality of capital punishment." Here are excerpts from the article:

Its a government program that is prone to error, marred by long delays and far more expensive than alternative policies. So it may be little wonder that the death penalty keeps attracting new opposition. But its surprising where some of that opposition is coming from. Over the past decade, the death penalty has been abolished in seven states. Most of those are dominated by Democrats. But the most recent is deeply conservative Nebraska, where lawmakers overrode Gov. Pete Ricketts veto of an abolition bill last year. Other red states are revisiting the issue as well. A bill to abolish the death penalty fell short by a single vote in a Kentucky House committee this year, while similar legislation actually passed the Utah Senate before failing in the House. Last year, the Montana House killed an abolition bill on a tie vote. A few months later, a judge there imposed a moratorium on executions, citing the difficulty of obtaining appropriate drugs for lethal injection -- an issue that has put capital punishment on hold in several states. Litigation over delayed or botched executions compounds problems with meting out the penalty. Our death penalty is a joke, Republican state Rep. Clayton Fiscus said during the debate. The average death row inmate can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year more to house than run-of-the-mill criminals. Prisoners who are executed can cost upward of $1 million more than those sentenced to life without possibility of parole. This is a program thats so bad, the left and right can actually agree on it, says Marc Hyden, a former field representative with the National Rifle Association who now works for an advocacy group called Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.... [I]ts indisputable that the growing corps of death penalty skeptics now includes many conservatives. There are enough Republican legislators in Washington state ready to join with Democrats that a repeal measure there could pass, if a key committee chair would allow it to come to a vote. Many of us conservatives dont trust government to launch a health-care program or fill potholes, let alone carry out life and death, Hyden says. Its the quintessential broken big-government program.

I would not dispute that a few prominent GOP elected officials in a few states that have never had a long history of active and effective use of the death penalty may ultimately conclude (as did some in the Nebraska legislature) that it makes more sense to end rather than try to mend a rarely-applied punishment. But I do not believe any of the 17 persons who sought the GOP nomination for Prez this year had ever expressed any reservation about the death penalty either in theory or in practice.

June 1, 2016 at 05:34 PM | Permalink

Comments

Doug:

Yours is a trick question, although you may not even know it.

Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (CCATDP) was started by and is controlled by Equal Justice USA (EJUSA), a well know liberal anti death penalty group.

CCADP and EJUSA just repeat well known, weak anti death penalty claims and put them into a conservative suit. Fact checking destroys their claims, as always, as demonstrated:





1) Few Conservatives Embrace Anti Death Penalty Deceptions

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/few-conservatives-embrace-anti-death.html



"Some conservatives have morphed into anti death penalty advocates, displaying the common tendency of either blindly accepting false anti death penalty claims, with willful ignorance, or knowingly pushing deceptions, as does CCATDP, as detailed."



2) Conservatives Concerned About The Death Penalty: Just another dishonest anti death penalty group

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/concerned-conservatives-about-death.html



"CCATDP is but another anti death penalty group, whose claims are, easily, rebutted and which was founded and funded by a long time, well known liberal anti death penalty group, Equal Justice USA, which is supported by George Soros."



3) DEAD WRONG: (Montana) Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (MCCATDP)

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/08/conservatives-concerned-about-death.html



"Every point from the MCCATDP website (1) is false. It appears that MCCATDP has simply parroted anti death penalty frauds, with no effort at finding out if they were true. Quite irresponsible and common."



4) See Rebuttal to Ron Paul at



Few Conservatives Embrace Anti Death Penalty Deceptions

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/11/few-conservatives-embrace-anti-death.html



"(Paul) has bought into the anti death penalty frauds, without fact checking them, a common liberal problem, now infecting some libertarians and conservatives."



5) Rebuttal to Richard A. Viguerie

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/10/rebuttal-to-richard-vigueries-when.html



"Mr. Viguerie makes a very weak argument for repeal of the death penalty and he duplicates the many errors of those rare conservatives against the death penalty, who seem to embrace anti death penalty deceptions (1)."



Posted by: Dudley Sharp | Jun 2, 2016 3:40:35 AM

Rand Paul has been skeptical in the past:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/05/28/in-iowa-rand-paul-sticks-with-death-penalty-skepticism/

Posted by: Joe | Jun 2, 2016 9:21:46 AM

Post a comment
 FreedomWorks explains why GOP opposition to federal sentencing reform is "unreasonable" | Main | "Rich Defendants Request to Judges: Lock Me Up in a Gilded Cage" 

Lincoln Caplan has authored this New Yorker piece, headlined "Why a Brooklyn Judge Refused to Send a Drug Courier to Prison," to praise US District Judge Block's discussion of the impact and import of collateral consequences in his Nesbeth sentencing opinion (first discussed here). Here are excerpts:

Block asked the U.S. Attorneys office and the Federal Defenders of New York, which represented Nesbeth, to provide him with a list of the collateral consequences that she faces as a convicted felon. The government identified what it described as the handful that are potentially relevant. The loss of a drivers license is the least onerous. She is also ineligible for student grants, loans, or work assistance for two years, and banned for life from receiving food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, though Connecticut could grant her an exemption. She and her family can be denied federally assisted housing for a reasonable time, and she cannot be issued a passport until her probation is finished, which matters to Nesbeth because, as her lawyer told the judge, her father, grandmother, and extended family all reside abroad.

The judge recounted that federal law imposes considerably more than a handful of consequences, nearly 1,200 collateral consequences for convictions generally, and nearly 300 for controlled-substances offenses. Nesbeths counsel, Amanda David, of the Federal Defenders, said federal laws will make it difficult for her client to become an educator because they provide money for background checks of all employees of educational agencies, and a conviction for a drug felony can be used as grounds for denying employment for potential employees who want to be involved in providing care to children under age 18. David also reported that Connecticut automatically bars anyone from getting a teaching certificate for five years after being convicted of a drug felony....

The main conclusion of the judges opinion is that, while the law allowed him to take account of the civil penalties when he sentenced her, there was nothing he could do to protect her from them. He joined criminal-justice experts in encouraging Congress and state legislatures to determine whether the plethora of post-sentence punishments imposed upon felons is truly warranted, and suggested that they do the country more harm than good. He didnt say so, but for many legislatures that would mean carefully assessing these punishments for the first time. As the criminal-justice scholar Jeremy Travis wrote, in 2002, legislatures have often adopted collateral consequences in unaccountable ways: as riders to other, major pieces of legislation, which are given scant attention. They are, Travis said, invisible ingredients in the legislative menu of criminal sanctions.

The judge made clear why the severity of collateral consequencesauthorizing discrimination in education, employment, housing, and many other basic elements of American lifemeans that anyone convicted of a felony is likely to face an arduous future. This predicament has been called modern civil death, social exclusion, and internal exile. Whatever it is called, its vast array of penalties kicks in automatically with a conviction, defying the supposedly bedrock principle of American law that the punishment must fit the crime.


The case of the murder of Keith Green, a 27-year-old Millbrae father of two, just got a new sinister detail. Though a recently updated Facebook page, now unactivated but cached, showed murder suspect Olivier Adella, a.k.a. Olivier Bredenstein with a new baby and blonde wife in recent months, a woman who claims to still be legally married to him says she's been in hiding from him for "several years," and he isn't who he claims to be. He is, indeed, a mixed martial arts fighter, as we noted last week, but she tells ABC 7 that otherwise, he isn't who he says he is. And, she says, "He's a con artist and he is a very violent person."

The woman, who declined to be identified, said she is cooperating with the investigation into Green's death, and that she's been living in fear of Adella ever since she tried to serve him divorce papers and he was unhappy with his potential financial obligations. The woman says that she has been married to him since 2005, and that he threatened to kill her and her entire family.

Also, she says, he had a third alias he used before he met her: Mustafa Traore.

ABC 7 had been looking to Facebook items like a limo company he claimed to own, which they say just led to a PO Box in San Bruno. He said he was from the Ivory Coast and claimed to have served in the French Foreign Legion and had degrees from universities in France, but his alleged wife says, "None of that is true!"

The woman said she reached out to the station after seeing their reports about his arrest, alongside fellow suspects Tiffany Li and Kaveh Bayat.

What we know so far of the story is that Li and Bayat were both arrested on May 21, ten days after the body of Keith Green was discovered in some woods in Healdsburg. He had been reported missing weeks earlier, and until last year, he had been in a relationship with Li, and had two children with her. According to friends, Li and Green had been in an ongoing battle over the dissolution of their relationship after Li had an affair with Bayat, Green's friend, and Green had refused to sign a separation agreement that apparently gave him a lump sum along with monthly cash payments, as well as a Range Rover. Custody of the children may have been part of the ongoing fight.

Green's roommates said they had not seen him since he went to meet Li at the Pancake House in Burlingame on April 29.

Previously: Suspect In Murder Of Millbrae Dad Is A Well Known MMA Fighter
The city of Fremont is on a "city-wide lockdown," reports KRON4, with residents being told to stay inside and a "shelter in place" order having been issued. Police officers from multiple agencies are currently searching for at least one suspect in the shooting of at least one police officer earlier today.

According to ABC 7, a police officer driving a patrol car was struck by a car around 1:30 p.m. today and attempted to make a traffic stop, but the driver then backed into the officer's car. Shots were soon fired and the suspect (or suspects) fled.

It is unconfirmed if the officer was struck by the car and shot, if the officer was able to return fire, or if the officer was only injured by the car, as the Chronicle reports. That officer was transported to the hospital.

Police began searching for the suspects, and KRON 4 reports that officers found the "suspect vehicle" at Washington and Roberts streets. A suspect reportedly opened fire  striking a second officer.

We are working an OIS with shots fired. 2 officers with injuries transported to trauma centers. More details as they are available.  Fremont Police Dept (@FremontPD) June 1, 2016 Fremont Police have shut down the Fremont Blvd/Washington area as they search for suspects in the #OIS #Fremont pic.twitter.com/AkOqRJ11X8  Aliyah Mohammed (@Aliyah_JM) June 1, 2016

Heavy presence of BART Police in Fremont after 2 officers injured. There is a BART Station in this general area. pic.twitter.com/yatiA16Jms  Randee Deason (@2hip4tv) June 1, 2016

Fremont Police tweeted out a series of updates about the case, including that "shots were fired after vehicle backed into officer's car. The officer was injured and suspects fled on foot." Police describe the suspect as a "Hispanic male adult, approx. 6' wearing [SF Giants] shirt/shorts."

3) FPD officers encountered the suspect(s) for a second time on the 1300 block of Roberts Ave at 1:43p.  Fremont Police Dept (@FremontPD) June 1, 2016

4)Multiple shots were fired during second suspect encounter another FPD officer was injured.Both officers have been transported to hospitals  Fremont Police Dept (@FremontPD) June 1, 2016

6)Limited suspect info: One described as Hispanic male adult, approx. 6' wearing @SFGiants shirt/shorts. We cannot confirm is he is injured.  Fremont Police Dept (@FremontPD) June 1, 2016

This post has been updated throughout.

Related: [Update] Student-Involved Shooting Shuts Down Novato High School, 3 Suspects At Large


Monied foodinistas have had the chance to eat food from a heady array of celebrity and inside-food-celebrity chefs over the past eight years during the Restaurant at Meadowood's annual, highly publicized guest chef benefit series known as the 12 Days of Christmas. But this year, as chef Christopher Kostow tells Inside Scoop, the Michelin three-star restaurant is giving itself the year off to regroup and just serve their normal menu during the holiday season of early December  when the restaurant typically goes into hyper-speed dealing with new menus every night.

Kostow seems to suggest this will just be a one-year hiatus, and they're going to use the time to "rethink and refresh the entire series to make it as engaging as possible for the guests, the visiting chefs and the Restaurant's team."

Guest chefs over the years have include New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles luminaries like Nancy Silverton (Mozza), Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo (Animal, Son of a Gun), Jeremy Fox (Rustic Canyon Wine Bar + Kitchen), David Chang (Momofuku, etc.), Grant Achatz (Alinea, Next), Daniel Humm (Eleven Madison Park, Ignacio Mattos (Estela), and Andy Ricker (Pok Pok); as well as international guests like Christian Puglisi (Rel in Copenhagen), Rasmus Kofoed (Geranium in Copenhagen), Kobe Desramaults (In De Wulf in Dranouter, Belgium), and Virgilio Martinez (Central in Lima, Peru).

Most recently, the Meadowood crew has been working on a casual offshoot in downtown St. Helena, in the former Tra Vigne space, called The Charter Oak. It's due to open sometime this year.

Related: The Restaurant at Meadowood To Open Casual Alternative In St. Helena
In a video Mr. Trump might call "not very nice" and "mean, very mean," local hardcore and fetish pornographers Kink.com have literalized the idea of Mr. Trump screwing America, though to what effect, I can't really say. The figure of our nation, represented by a Miss America-type and played by porn star Ella Nova in the new flick Make America Gape Again, is almost too on-the-nose. That's because, as the New York Times detailed in a recent article called "Crossing The Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women In Private," Mr. Trump most certainly used his position as owner of the Miss Universe Organization to objectify and degrade multiple young women. In the Kink.com picture, Trump is portrayed by a series of men wearing his face as a mask, perhaps a commentary on his various personae and positions.

Ive directed a lot of hardcore," Maitresse Madeline Marlowe, the director of the film, an independent film director who shoots Kinks femdom series, said in a release. "But this is this is by far the darkest thing Ive ever done. Indeed, this is like, Black Mirror dark. Making fun of Trump, a candidate and person once widely considered a joke, has proven difficult of late for comedians and media pundits alike. While the reactions to this latest attempt are sure to be mixed, the mere fact that someone would stage this horror show reveals the lengths to which some are willing to go to attack the presidential hopeful. We didnt want to show Trump as a comic figure, we wanted to show him how we see him: as a powerful but frightening force. Thats why we mixed in actual footage of Trump in some of the promos, says Marlowe. Of course, the truly scary thing has been his rise to power. Even a five person gangbang cant compete with that. At least a gangbang is consensual.

You can see NSFW clips at Gape2016.com, and the below clip is SFW (no hanky panky). Still, it's highly disturbing, as this is as much a horror flick as a porn flick.





A sneak peek of "Make America Gape Again" with Ella Nova from BehindKink on Vimeo.

Related:

How Rude! 'Full House' Porn Parody 'Full Holes' Released Ahead Of Netflix Reboot


Last Friday, a group of Sanders supporters calling themselves the Voting Rights Defense Project filed an after-hours request for a preliminary injunction in the California state primary in federal court in San Francisco. They argue that not enough had been done to advertise and inform "no party affiliation" voters that they have a right to a partisan ballot from either the Democratic, American Independent, or Libertarian party  thereby potentially allowing their votes to count in the Democratic primary. A hearing on the request was held Wednesday, and as NBC Bay Area reports, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup rejected the plaintiffs' case saying that not only had the group waited too long to file their request  mail-in voting has been ongoing in California since May 9  but their case was without merit.

A release from the San Francisco City Attorney's Office notes:

[Judge] Alsup described allegations by "plaintiffs' counsel as "hot air" shortly before ruling verbally from the bench, colorfully noting that "there's a not a single decision in the history of the universe" equating plaintiffs' alleged facts with a violation of the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. Alsup added that plaintiffs' made "absolutely no showing of a violation of federal law."

The Sanders supporters brought testimony from poll workers who said that their training did not allow them to suggest Democratic Party ballots to people who arrived with no party preference (NPP), even if the polling station ran out of NPP ballots. The NPP ballots don't show candidates' names, like Bernie's, on them.

In this year's primary, the Democratic Party chose to allow NPP voters as well as registered independents and others to vote for Democratic candidates in the primary if they choose, while the Republicans are not allowing this.

Plaintiffs specifically argued that Alameda and San Francisco officials were failing to inform voters of this right, and thereby potentially disenfranchising them. But registrars from both counties testified that details about such "cross-over voting" have been given both online and via direct mailings, and poll workers were trained on the subject.

As the Associated Press reports, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who was named in the suit, calls it "frivolous."

Previously: SF Ranks 2nd In Highest Per Capita Campaign Contributions To Bernie Sanders
According to the findings of a six-month study by a 19-member San Francisco Civil Grand Jury, our local crime lab needs to be removed from SFPD control and run independently, just as the Medical Examiner's office is run.

"To reduce bias and to encourage scientific management, the Jury recommends that the Crime Lab be separated from the Police Department and function as an independent arm of the criminal justice system," specifies a statement summarizing the report. "Under Police Department management, the Crime Lab has been supervised in the last six years by six different Police Captains who have rarely had scientific training, usually have had short tenure, and have frequently demonstrated poor understanding of the needs of the Lab." In fact, CBS 5 adds, some Captains in charge of the lab lacked college degrees altogether. The report calls for civilian scientist manager to run an independently funded and autonomous lab.

An avalanche of scandals, from theft to incompetence, has damaged the credibility of the crime lab, says Pubic Defender Jeff Adachi according to CBS. Those scandals at the fundamentally incompetent and biased have indeed been worrisome and wearying. Last March, authorities confirmed that "irregularities" might affect hundreds of cases reliant on DNA evidence: A lab technician and her supervisor allegedly submitted actually incomplete evidence as "definitive," filling in gaps in a DNA profile, according to the SFPD.

The lab has vowed since 2010 to increase hiring, but in early 2011 was still woefully understaffed and costly. Perhaps most *scandalous* of the scandals, and really the saddest of them, is the case of Deborah Madden, a longtime lab tech who, finally, in March of 2013, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor cocaine possession, avoiding jail time in federal trails on graver charges of mishandling evidence  yes, taking small amounts of ill-gotten cocaine from the lab back in 2009.

The most disheartening of the labs woes? A backlog of rape kits, many of which have gone untested, as has, for example, the kit from Heather Harlowe, who filed a Federal Lawsuit against San Francisco this January.

The Examiner writes that the report also details a perceived bias at the lab toward prosecutors.

Mayoral spokesperson Christine Falvey tells the Examiner that "The mayor is committed to making sure San Francisco has a modern, state-of-the-art Crime Lab that meets national accreditation standards. He will be reviewing the Civil Grand Jury Report." The police department will relocate its Forensic Services to the Bayview, for example, in a $165 million project that's currently under construction.

SFPD spokesperson Sgt. Michael Andraychak criticized the report for not taking into account the progress made by the Crime Lab during the course of its study. For instance: In August, it earned accreditation from the American Society of Crime Lab Directors. It is important to note that while the Grand Jury was conducting its review, the Department and Crime Lab have made significant strides in improving policies, procedures and practices to align with ASCLD standards,Andraychak said.

Related: SFPD Crime Lab Might Have Put 'Hundreds' Of Cases In Jeopardy Over Faulty DNA Evidence


Last July, 50-year-old Alberto Petrolino was arrested near the Golden Gate Bridge while possibly contemplating committing suicide, and several days later he was found dead in his cell in SF County Jail. He had been arrested by CHP officers, drunk on a bench in a parking lot near the bridge, after his family had called the CHP worried about his safety. Officers arrested him on an outstanding warrant for violating a stay-away order involving a domestic violence claim, because they determined he had contacted the woman involved two weeks earlier. And, instead of taking him to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, after he allegedly repeatedly insisted he was not going to kill himself, he was jailed with the general population and not on suicide watch. After he was later found hanging, apparently by his own hand, in a jail shower, his family now is filing a wrongful death lawsuit against both the CHP and the SF Sheriff's Department, claiming his death should have been prevented.

Attorney Ernie Galvan, who is representing the Petrolino family, says in a release received by SFist, "Jail suicides are a serious problem that needs to addressed," noting that Petrolino's was the eighth suicide to occur in the county jail since 2009.

Hayes Valley residents in the 1990's may have known Petrolino as the chef-owner of Terra Brazilis. He later struggled with alcoholism, and had been repeatedly put through the jail's detox program.

As we learned last year, shortly before his suicide a public defender had requested in court that Petrolino be taken for medical treatment or evaluation, saying she was "struck by how distraught he was."

"I called the jail and told them my brother was suicidal, says Angela Petrolino, Albertos surviving sister. "My mom even went to the jail and spoke with a deputy on the night Alberto was arrested. It is terrible that they dont care about keeping people safe when they know of the risk."

Attorney Jeffrey Bornstein says, "San Francisco has a responsibility to do better," adding, "The family hopes that this action will cause the San Francisco County Jail and the California Highway Patrol to improve existing policies and procedures to care for people who are potentially at risk for harming themselves."

Previously: Man Who Died At SF County Jail Was Picked Up After Suicide Threats, But Wasn't Under Suicide Watch

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.
KIRON, Iowa | The owner of a construction firm that sculpts farm terraces, Steve King entered politics in the 1990s after he didn't get an answer he liked from a state legislator.

After two terms in the Iowa Senate, the Kiron Republican won election in 2002 to the U.S. House seat representing western Iowa. He racked up six more wins, raising his tenure to 14 years, the most among Iowa's four-member House delegation.

Yet King is less than a week away from the first contested primary election as an incumbent.

King, nationally known for his outspoken statements on immigrants and President Barack Obama, has been lambasted by Democrats for years as he coasts to November wins. He now finds himself in the unusual position of fending off barbs of ineffectiveness from his Republican primary challenger, state Sen. Rick Bertrand of Sioux City.

The 67-year-old King has downplayed the challenge, saying he is not worried he could lose the GOP nomination for the 4th district Tuesday. He says Bertrand is running "a dormant campaign."

"... based on polls and 250,000 calls and news stories and activity and lack of activity ... When this is all in, and all said and done, it is going to be viewed as a big waste of time and money," King said of Bertrand's challenge.

King, who grew up in the Denison area, said he's enjoyed moving from his roots in western Iowa to having a national platform to try to move the nation in a more conservative direction.

In April 2007, King spoke on immigration policy at Ellis Island in New York, when a National Parks Service employee gave him a scroll. He was tickled that the tract included the manifest of a ship trip taken by his grandmother, showing the date she had been processed through Ellis Island a century before. King had never known her exact homeland within Germany.

"It said on there, 'from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.' And it hit me, that I represented essentially the sister cities of Schleswig and Holstein in the Iowa Senate and in the United States Congress, the grandson of an immigrant daughter that came over here, that embraced America and sent four of her sons back to fight against the fatherland and my father to the South Pacific for two-and-a-half years to fight the Japanese," King said.

King said that episode reminds him to leverage his clout to aid America's growth in the direction of a Christian, constitutionally geared nation.

"I understand the magnitude of the decisions that we make and I profoundly appreciate the privilege of doing it. And I am not about to let up in my efforts, because it is that important," he said.

Donna Flewelling, of Moville, said she is still deciding whether to support King in Tuesday's primary. Flewelling said King does well in understanding the needs of rural Iowans and connects with working people.

Mark Starman, of Sioux City, said King has made controversial comments about immigrants, but said he likes that the congressman encourages people to become citizens through the full naturalization process.

Larry Shaver, of Sioux City, said he backs King in his battle with Bertrand.

"He stands up for what a lot of people think and they are afraid to say," Shaver said.

King created a political storm in November when he endorsed presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who doesn't support an extension to the federal Renewable Fuel Standard that proponents say helps Iowa's corn-based ethanol industry. That caused Gov. Terry Branstad and other Iowa officials to publicly criticize King's pick, since they feared Cruz's election to the White House would harm an industry vital to the state.

Bertrand entered the 4th District race in March, in part because he said Iowans and particularly those who work in agriculture aren't happy with King.

King countered that powerful interests that included Bruce Rastetter, a major agribusiness and Republican donor, and GOP strategist Nick Ryan were out to find a Republican to oust him in the June primary. King claims Bertrand entered the race only after seven other Republicans passed on the offer.

"(Rastetter and Ryan) believed that I was the instrument that helped Cruz win (the caucuses) in Iowa, which was true. ... They wanted to teach a lesson," King said.

King said the attempt to oust him is misguided, since he has been a renewable energy backer and tried to get Cruz to "shape a policy that helps the (ethanol) industry grow and compete in the open markets."

Moreover, King said he's helped Iowans in many ways. He cited working to overturn the Affordable Care Act and halt other President Barack Obama initiatives. He said House Speaker Paul Ryan recognizes King's strong qualities, and therefore named him to head a House task force on Obama's overreach.

Bertrand questions King's effectiveness for not gaining the House Agriculture Committee chairmanship, despite his years of seniority in the chamber, and repeatedly traveling to the Mexican border for news conferences.

King argues that working on big national topics ultimately impacts the lives of Iowans. He said he pushes for good constituent services, having visited all 382 towns in the 39 counties of the 4th district.
SIOUX CITY | Two teenagers, one a juvenile, have been charged in the stabbing of a man early Wednesday morning, authorities say.

Michael Stewart, 16, and Trevor Peterson, 18, face several charges after they were arrested early Wednesday after police said they stabbed James Goodteacher.

At about 4 a.m., police said Stewart and Peterson and a third unidentified friend went to the 1900 block of Sherman Avenue to assault someone.

When they knocked on the door, Goodteacher answered, but he wasnt the person they were looking for, according to court documents.

A fight took place, and Goodteacher was stabbed seven times and had to be taken to Mercy Medical Center.

After surgery, Goodteacher is listed in good condition.

Stewart is charged with willful injury. His next court date is June 10.

Peterson is charged with attempted murder and is being held in Woodbury County Jail. His next appearance in court is Thursday.
SIOUX CENTER, Iowa | A Sioux City man was arrested for operating while intoxicated Saturday after backing his Toyota Camry into a Sioux Center Police vehicle.

According to a news release from the Sioux County Sheriff's Office, 33-year-old Oscar Ramirez-De La Rosa, of Sioux City, was driving his 1998 Camry west on Ninth Street Southeast when he stopped and turned on his emergency flashers. Sioux Center Police Officer Josh Koedam of Sioux Center noticed the flashers and stopped behind Ramirez-De La Rosa and activated his emergency lights.

Ramirez-De La Rosa then backed his vehicle into the police car, the release said.

Ramirez-De La Rosa was cited by the Sioux County Sheriff's Office for operating a motor vehicle without a driver's license and was arrested for operating while intoxicated.

He was released Sunday on $2,000 bond.
DES MOINES | The four Democrats hoping to run in Iowas U.S. Senate race this year were challenged on agricultural issues during a televised debate Wednesday evening.

Former lieutenant governor and state ag secretary Patty Judge, state legislator Rob Hogg, attorney Tom Fiegen and veterans advocate Bob Krause participated in the second and final scheduled television debate of their primary race Wednesday night in Des Moines.

The winner of Tuesdays primary will face longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley in the general election.

The Democratic candidates fielded pointed questions on agricultural issues early in the 90-minute debate, co-sponsored by KCCI-TV and the Des Moines Register.

Hogg, the only one among the quartet who was not raised on a farm, emphasized his work on rural issues in the Iowa Legislature, where he has served since 2003. Hogg said he has pushed legislation supporting renewable energy, biofuels, conservation programs and rural schools, and that he has brought together competing interests on the issue of water quality.

I dont think voters think youre unqualified to address that issue (without having a personal farming background), Hogg said.

Judge reiterated her belief that a Des Moines water utilitys lawsuit against northern Iowa counties over pollutants in the Des Moines River is not an appropriate solution to the states water quality issues.

We have a serious water quality problem in Iowa. It is at a crisis point and it has to be addressed, Judge said. My belief is a lawsuit is not the answer.

Judge said she supports the passage of a proposed three-eighths of 1 percent sales tax increase to fund conservation projects, although that is a state issue.

Fiegen defended his belief the federal ethanol mandate should be phased out. Fiegen said he believes the requirement that the nations fuel supply include a certain percentage of corn-based ethanol has incentivized farmers to overextend corn production, causing water quality issues.

Farmers are abandoning good management, Fiegen said, adding that he believes ending the ethanol mandate would result in better management and conservation practices.

Judge was asked during the debate about the 2008 collective bargaining bill vetoed by then-Gov. Chet Culver, with whom Judge served as lieutenant governor. The veto also was broached during a previous debate on Iowa Public Television.

In the IPTV debate, Judge pushed back at Hoggs suggestion that the governors office in 2008 declined offers to work with legislators to craft a bill the governor would approve. Judges account of the events was challenged this week by state labor groups.

I regret very much the circumstances surrounding that particular piece of legislation, Judge said during Wednesday nights debate. I wish that we could go back and negotiate a good piece of legislation together, but you know, we cant. We cant go backwards. We can only go forward.

Hogg, a passionate advocate of addressing climate change, was asked how he could work on the issue with the many Republican U.S. Senators who dispute mans role in climate change, or even its existence.

First of all, one of the things we (as Democrats) can do is win elections, Hogg said, adding that previous Republican presidents have supported environmental causes. Republicans have a tradition upon which they could draw if they want to join us.  Lets unite our country and act on this issue.

Fiegen was asked, given his stance against accepting campaign donations from political organizations known as PACs and Super PACs, how he could field a competitive campaign against a well-funded general-election opponent.

Grassley has more than $5 million in his campaign account and any number of political groups likely will devote millions of dollars more to support his re-election. Meantime, Fiegen through the end of March had raised $38,683, according to federal campaign finance records.

If we raise only 20 percent of what Chuck Grassley has, we can run a competitive campaign, Fiegen said, calling his fundraising effort a Bernie Sanders-style campaign that relies on small, individual donors.

Krause has raised even less money, and has relied heavily on grassroots campaigning and a persistent social media presence.

(Social media) is the new driving force of America. Ask (former Republican presidential candidate) Jeb Bush how good those multi-million-dollar ad campaigns work. They dont work, Krause said.

Krause added voters want more direct contact with candidates, and that in this election voters have showed support for non-traditional candidates over experienced politicians.
All things considered, Gov. Pete Ricketts and state business leaders are wise to schedule another trade mission to China.

China is the states fourth-largest trading partner; last year, Nebraska exported almost $500 million worth of goods there, according to the International Trade Administration.

But trouble seems to be brewing on several fronts, and Nebraska agriculture and businesses may need all the help they can get to maintain profitable business ties.

One of the looming threats is the potential election of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. His proposed 45 percent tariff on goods imported from China could start a trade war.

Anyone who has glanced at Trumps record knows that he frequently changes his position on issues, but he has maintained a steady drumbeat of anti-China remarks. Its one of his most consistent themes.

And Trump is not the only problem.

Emblematic of rising tension is Chinas island-building strategy in the South China Sea.

China has added about 3,200 acres to the islands it has been building, according to a Pentagon report released earlier this month.

China will be able to use the artificial islands as persistent civil-military bases to enhance its long-term presence in the South China Seas significantly, the report said.

China is building three, 9,800-foot airstrips on the islands that can accommodate advanced fighter jets, the report said. The Pentagon expects that China will soon add military infrastructure including surveillance equipment.

To prove a point that it has the right to sail in international waters, the U.S. Navy sent a destroyer to cruise past the largest of the man-made islands earlier this month.

Adding to the friction was the decision by the Obama administration to end the embargo on lethal arms sales to Vietnam, which fought a border war with China in 1979. Although China officially welcomed the announcement, newspapers with close ties to the communist party complained that lifting the embargo boded ill for regional peace and stability.

The Nebraska trade delegation will include the states top dignitaries. Among them, Ricketts, state Agriculture Director Greg Ibach, Economic Development Director Courtney Dentlinger and more than 40 other officials and business leaders.

The timing of the trip is auspicious. The six-day mission is slated to depart on Nov. 9.

Thats one day after voters will go to the polls to pick the nations next president, so Nebraska officials will be able to adjust their efforts to boost trade accordingly.

Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star
Tech is one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy with demand for qualified candidates often outpacing the supply. These tech roles offer above average salaries and many tech companies of all sizes are looking to hire highly-skilled talent as quickly as possible.

Indeed, which continues to research small business hiring trends, has dissected what types of tech jobs are being filled at small companies nationwide. The firm compared those roles to those being hired more often at bigger companies.

Types of Small Business Tech Jobs

There is a difference in what types of tech roles small businesses are looking for compared to their larger peers.

Small businesses are looking to hire more product-oriented roles like software and hardware engineers, versus support roles like testers, analysts, and database administrators.

This makes sense to Indeed economic research analyst Daniel Culbertson. This is reflective of a startup looking to build out their product, versus a more established company that is looking to support and maintain their flagship product, he said.

At small businesses, jobs that allow tech-savvy employees and prospects to flex their creative muscles and be more involved in the development of a product  like an app  are in high demand. Thats not exactly the case at bigger businesses.

Per Indeeds data, in addition to software and hardware engineer jobs, small businesses are looking to fill jobs in systems software and application development. As jobs become less creative and more regimented  like in a support specialist role or as an administrator of some kind, they tend to be more in demand by big businesses more than small.

Startups have an inherent advantage when looking to recruit this type of more creative talent.

Engineers typically enjoy building products and making an impact on what is the core of a company, said Culbertson. Sometimes there isnt as much leeway for creativity in the development of the core product at a larger company, which is why startups are appealing to many tech workers.
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
Lynda.com now available free through local libraries



The premier online education site, Lynda.com, is now available free for all Southern Maryland library users with a valid Calvert, Charles or St. Mary's library card.



Lynda.com offers a large variety of video courses in software, creative and business skills, which are taught by industry experts. Library users of Lynda.com will have unlimited access to all Lynda.com courses.



"Lynda.com is just the latest educational tool we are providing to library customers," said Jennifer Falkowski, Information Services Manager for the Southern Maryland Regional Library Association. "By providing this service to our partner libraries, we are able to save their customers money, as well as help meet their need for quality and convenient learning experiences." According to the Lynda.com website, a basic membership would cost $25/month, per person.



All Lynda.com programs can be accessed (with a library card) from any computer or hand-held device.



"Since Lynda.com was recently purchased by LinkedIn, an additional benefit is that completion certificates from Lynda can be automatically posted on a student's LinkedIn site," said Falkowski.



Access to the free library version of Lynda.com is available at smrla.org/Lynda. The entire collection of COSMOS online resources can be found at cosmos.somd.lib.md.us or by link from any of the three county library system websites: Calvert Library (calvertlibrary.info); Charles County Public Library (ccplonline.org); and St. Mary's County Library (stmalib.org).



For more information about the collection of online resources or Lynda.com, talk to a librarian at your local library.



Free Small engine repair resource from your library



Lawn mowers have a tendency to break down during early spring and summerright when they are needed most. It is also a time when most small engine businesses are the busiest, with long wait-times for repairs.



The public libraries in Southern Maryland now offer a solution to those needing help fixing their lawn mowers, weed eaters, boat motors, motorcycles, generators and more. The resolution for many small engine problems could be a free online site that offers step-by-step instructions and tutorials for fixing small engines.



"The Small Engine Repair Reference Center offers assistance in providing routine maintenance (like tune-ups and brake service), as well as extensive repairs (like engine and transmission disassembly)," said Jennifer Falkowski, Information Services Manager for the Southern Maryland Regional Library Association.



"This is a free, user-friendly online service that anyone in Southern Maryland can use," said Falkowski.



The Small Engine Repair Reference Center contains more than 500 full-text reference books with original photos and illustrations, information on more than 25 years of engine models, coverage of more than 90,000 repairs and a full collection of Clymer repair manuals with new and updated content.



"We have a large collection of online resources, most of which are paid for by the regional library," Falkowski said. "This new service is actually part of a collection of services provided by Sailor, a service of Maryland's public libraries and the Maryland State Library Resource Center. We are very grateful for their support in providing our libraries across the state with free, convenient and reliable sources of information."



The Small Engine Repair Reference Center and the entire collection of COSMOS online resources can be found at cosmos.somd.lib.md.us or by link from any of the three county library systems: Calvert Library (calvertlibrary.info); Charles County Public Library (ccplonline.org); and St. Mary's County Library (stmalib.org).



For more information about the collection of online resources, talk to a librarian at your local library.
Martin Hawkins, Jr. was found murdered in La Plata on Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at about 8:30 p.m. Police were in the area when they heard multiple gunshots and subsequently located the body. He was 32 at the time of his death.

LA PLATA, Md.

He was 32 at the time of his death.

(June 1, 2016)The Federal Bureau of Investigation has contributed $10,000 to the reward pot to help solve the 2012 murder of Martin Hawkins, Jr. in La Plata. This brings the total reward offered to $20,000 (it started out as $6,000 in 2012 and was raised to $10,000 in April of 2013).On Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at about 8:30 p.m., officers were patrolling Charles Street in La Plata when they heard the sound of multiple gunshots. Officers canvassed the area and found Mr. Hawkins deceased in the 200 block of Kent Avenue.In July 2012, the sheriff's office said that since the shooting, detectives had conducted extensive neighborhood canvasses and other operations in an effort to seek suspect information. While numerous people had called, investigators still needed more information.In April 2013, police provided another public update, saying that since the shooting, detectives had gone to the neighborhood adjacent to the shooting on multiple occasions in an effort to seek information. They had passed out hundreds of flyers containing important information about the case and detailed information about how to contact investigators or Crime Solvers.At the time, police also stated that detectives had pursued many leads and developed information which has led them to the identity of a possible suspect; however, at that point, detectives said they still needed more information to solidify the case.The sheriff's office and the FBI will perform another canvas of the area where the body was found this Friday, beginning at 5 p.m. in the hopes of learning something new.If you have any information regarding this case, please contact either the sheriff's office or the FBI:Call 301-609-6515; or Text CHARLES + your tip to CRIMES (274637); or visit www.tipsubmit.com to submit a web tip. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may contact Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS.Please contact the Baltimore Office of the FBI at (410) 265-8080, your local FBI office, or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate. You can also submit a tip at: tips.fbi.gov This is the second murder cold case that the Charles County Sheriff's Office has pursued with extreme vigor in recent years. Police made an arrest in late 2010 for the murder of Christopher Mader early Thanksgiving morning, 2004, while driving home from work on Smallwood Drive near St. Stephens Drive.
Volunteers from the NAS Patuxent River CPO Association collecting bags of trash from a stretch of Three Notch Road in Sept. 2015. (U.S. Navy photo by Donna Cipolloni)

PATUXENT RIVER, Md.

(June 2, 2016)Demonstrating their commitment to community service and proving their civic pride, military and civilian volunteers, representing various organizations from across NAS Patuxent River, periodically hit the roadways of St. Mary's County to clean up the mess others leave behind.Working with the Maryland State Highway Commission's Adopt-a-Highway (AAH) program, the groups agree to adopt a particular stretch of Maryland highway and promise to remove all litter and debris at least four times a year.As many as 28 people participate from Naval Health Clinic Patuxent River (NHCPR) and once a month, whoever is available to help, will meet to clear litter from a mile long stretch on St. Andrew's Church Road."We start at the intersection past BJ's and go down past the trash dump," said Hospitalman Conner Fuller, a NHCPR phlebotomist and the group's coordinator. "We'll meet up around 10 a.m. and gather the supplies we need to get to work. Depending on how many people are participating and how we split up, it takes us anywhere from one to two hours and we'll typically collect two to six bags of trash, depending on the time of year."All program participants are given safety training materials in advance and are supplied with brightly colored vests and trash bags. AAH also places road signs recognizing the volunteers' organization at both ends of their adopted roadside.Volunteers from Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 are coordinated by the squadron's First Class Petty Officer Association and are responsible for cleaning up the area of Three Notch Road just outside the installation, between Gates 2 and 3."We wanted to be involved in something that benefits the community while allowing us to build comradery within our association," explained Aviation Maintenance Administrationman 1st Class Robert Cohen, VX-23's contractor oversight for Logs and Records. "We hold an event at least each quarter but will try to do it more often, especially when the weather is nice. We'll split into groupsone at Gate 2 and the other at Gate 3and then we'll walk towards each other until we meet in the middle."The VX-23 group consistently removes about 10 large bags of trash, which are then left by the side of the road for pre-arranged collection by AAH.NAVAIR's Professional Development Council (PDC) volunteers are responsible for the two-mile stretch of roadway between Gates 1 and 2."We do quarterly cleanup," said Emily Carroll, chair of the PDC Volunteering Committee. "PDC's goal is to provide opportunities for our Engineer and Scientist Development Program employees to grow professionally and personally, and get involved in their community."The group from U.S. Naval Test Pilot School is just getting started. They currently number 17 participants, but that number is still growing."We just got the program implemented in April and our first clean-up is scheduled June 7," added Aviation Maintenance Administrationman 1st Class Anna Densmore, Aviation Program Team.Densmore said her group plans to clean up their adopted roadwayon Highway 4, right off of Three Notch Roadonce or twice a month, depending on the weather."At TPS, we truly believe in helping each other out and making it a safer and cleaner environment for our families," she said. "When you contribute and get your name out there, there's a sense of pride and accomplishment. That sense of community is what drives us to do better."Since the AAH program started in 1989, the State Highway Association has partnered with more than 120,000 Marylanders who have cleaned and enhanced over 15,000 miles of roadside."People take cleanliness for granted; you wouldn't believe the things people throw out their windows while driving," said Cohen, adding that we should all be aware of the consequences of our actions. "This is a great program for any group that wants to do something good for the community."To learn more about Adopt-a-Highway visit www.roads.maryland.gov.
A number of thoughts while celebrating the contributions of the men and women who served or serve in our nation's military:



Baltimore City's elections on May 27 offered two striking lessons for politicians and state election officials. Will they learn from them?



Provisional mistakes



Yes, there was a terrible screw-up by city election judges: Over 1,100 provisional ballots were mistakenly counted before the legitimacy of those voters could be checked.



City election board officials have been pilloried for this mess. Fair enough, since it is clear there had not been nearly enough education or training of election judges.



But the state election board is culpable as well.



Converting from an electroniccomputer touch-screen system, where voting errors are few, to an old-fashioned paper-ballot system that is known to produce more errorwas ripe for confusion and mistakes.



Not one city election-day judge had ever worked with the state's new paper-ballot/automated counter system before. Baltimore City had used the old lever mechanical voting machines before jumping directly to the computer touch-screens. The city never held a paper-ballot election in anyone's lifetime.



State elections board has responsibility



State election officials knew this. They also knew the city historically has voting snafus.



Yet state officials failed to take extra steps to help the city election board adapt to a brand-new voting system. Nor did they dispatch personnel to assist with training or offer more supervisory help on Election Day.



Instead, the state board and its staff sat back and watched the easily-predicted train wreck occur.



The main problemconfusion over how to handle those casting provisional ballotscould have been avoided if the state board had used treated paper for provisional ballots that the counting machines automatically rejected.



This and other ideas were scotched by the state board in Annapolis.



City election officials say they have learned the hard way and will make sure this doesn't happen again in November. Perhaps the state elections board will do more, too, and start acting like a cooperative partner instead of a stern superior.



New-age electioneering?



The May 27 city election held a lesson for young politicians as well. Some of them counted heavily on social media popularity to springboard them to victory.



DeRay Mckesson was the most prominent social media star convinced that his heavy Facebook and Twitter presence was all it took to win at the ballot box. Local media made a big deal of his entry into the mayor's race.



He and others forgot that while millennials might run their lives with a constant eye tuned to social media, the vast majority of voters aren't that plugged in. Indeed, Mckesson's campaign turned into an embarrassment.



Despite his national Facebook renown, Mckesson received just 3,445 votesa mere 2.6% of the votes cast.



The message is clear: You have to earn voters' support the old-fashioned way, at least for the next decade or two.



Eye of the storm



Lucky Elijah Cummings. He gets a starring role at the Democratic National Convention.



Now the bad news: He's chairing the convention's Platform Committee, where the hell-hath-no-fury-like-Bernie-Sanders-scorned protests will be heard.



It could get messy, angry and even violent.



Here's one example. Two Sanders delegates on the committee are determined to put Democrats on record condemning Israeli violence toward the Palestinian cause. That could set off a cataclysmic response from Jewish delegates and Clinton supporters.



So congratulations to the Baltimore area's long-serving congressman. But he'd better bring a thick skin and a large gavel with him to Philadelphia in July.



Edwards still in denial



Defeated Congresswoman Donna Edwards, who lost badly to Congressman Chris Van Hollen in the Democratic primary for United States Senate, remains bitter and angry. She's gone public now with her sour grapes and excuses as to why she failed to advance her career.



Edwards thinks there's a "glass ceiling" for black women like herself. That's why Van Hollen won.



Maybe it had something to do with the lousy constituent service Edwards provided for her Washington-area constituents, her grating personality that alienated House colleagues and her failure to sell herself to voters in the Greater Baltimore region.



Maybe her loss had something to do with her meager record in Congress versus Van Hollen's all-star record.



Elections are won on the basis of merit and executing a solid campaign plan, not proportional representation based on race and gender.



Edwards needs to stop blaming others for her deficiencies. She lost because her campaign focused almost exclusively on race and gender rather than persuading Maryland Democrats she was the best candidate.



School board secrecy



Baltimore City's school board decided to hide its business from the public. So it intentionally circumvented its own rules and picked a new school superintendent in total secrecy. The board didn't even feel it necessary to tell the public it had fired the incumbent school chief months earlier.



It was a process more suited to the old Soviet Union than the U.S. of A.



What will the board do next behind closed doors?



All sorts of public officials are wringing their hands and criticizing the school board while proclaiming nothing can be done about this outrageous display of heavy-handed secrecy.



That's not true. There's plenty both the governor and mayor could have done.



Gov. Larry Hogan, Jr., who appoints half the board members, could have picked up his telephone and read the riot act to school board members for acting in such a cavalier and undemocratic manner. He could have hinted that any shadowy repetition would have consequences when it comes to state funds for city schools.



Meanwhile, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake could have picked up her telephone and shouted at school board officials, too. Then she could have demanded an end to secrecy. She could have gotten the near-certain next mayor, Sen. Cathy Pugh, to echo those sentiments and make clear more secret actions would jeopardize budget support from City Hall.



Both Hogan and Rawlings-Blake dropped the ball.



Hogan doesn't spend much time worrying about what happens in Baltimore City anyway; Rawlings-Blake has been missing in action since announcing her plans to retire.



Transparency and openness in government be damned.



Barry Rascovar's blog is www.politicalmaryland.com. He can be reached at brascovar@hotmail.com
Winners of the first Maryland Writers' Association, Charles County Chapter Young Writers' Contest are (left to right) Ellie Karimi, Alicia Brosco, MWA President Edna Troiano, Emily Smith, James Walls and Corrine Hickin.

LA PLATA, Md.

(June 2, 2016)The Maryland Writers' Association, Charles County Chapter, selected five young writers as winners in their new contest for fiction and poetry.Two high school students: Alicia Brosco (9th grade, Westlake High School) ; and Elmira "Ellie" Karimi (10th grade, McDonough High School) won first place in their categories.Brosco's short fiction, "His Daughter," tells the story of a young girl and how she copes with an alcoholic father and a mother who was forced to leave her.Karimi, who said she grew up in a Persian family, said, "Poetry has always been a big part of my life. But I started writing poems, in English when I was 13 years old. I thought it would be nice to be part of this contest, and share some of my poems." Her poem "Dream Land" earned her first place in the poetry category.Three College of Southern Maryland students, all under the age of 24, earned a spot in the contest rankings. Emily Smith won for her poetry, while James Walls and Corrine Hickin tied for first in short fiction.Smith, who is 19 years old and in her second year at CSM, said she uses poetry "as a method to control my madness and it works as a great stress reliever." Her poem "Times Have Changed" earned first in the college poetry category.For 20-year-old English major Hickin, writing brings her the most pleasure. "I've been writing fiction and non-fiction stories for 15 years now, but this is my first time submitting any of my work to be published," she said. "I think telling stories is cathartic and I can't imagine finding this much joy in anything else." Her story, "My Sappy, Cheesy, Super Lame, and Absolutely Perfect Love Story" tied for first in short fiction.Walls, a 21-year-old who graduated with an English degree from CSM in May, said he "grew up reading a variety of literature, ranging from mythology to biography." He said he plans to continue his education at the University of Maryland and in his free time, he said he enjoys listening to and mixing electronic music. His story, "Talking with Pets" tied for first in short fiction.Each of the students had their writing published in CSM's "Connections" literary magazine and won $100 from the MWA, Charles County Chapter.The young writers' contest will open again next March to Charles County residents (9th-12th grade, public and homeschoolers) and College of Southern Maryland students (Charles County residents) aged 18-24. Entries may include poetry (no more than three poems) or fiction/non-fiction (no more than 5,000 words). Submissions should be submitted electronically to mchristian@csmd.edu by March 16, 2017.MWA's diverse membership ranges from professional freelancers and published authors, to writers aspiring to be published and those who write as a creative outlet. Members produce both non-fiction and fiction, including novels, short stories, poetry, plays, scripts, speeches, feature articles and essays. The MWA meets at CSM's La Plata Campus, where professional speakers and writing workshops are held regularly.For more information about membership and the upcoming meeting, contact Edna Troiano, EdnaTroiano@gmail.com, or Michelle Brosco Christian, mchristian@csmd.edu. Also, visit the chapter's site at http://mwacharles.wordpress.com and the MWA state-wide website at http://www.marylandwriters.org.
LEONARDTOWN, Md. (June 2, 2016)A Chaptico man who was injured in a two vehicle crash on Monday has passed away. Bryce Hurry succumbed to his injuries during treatment at Prince George's Hospital on Tuesday.



On Monday, May 30, at approximately 2:22 p.m., deputies were dispatched to a serious motor vehicle collision on Mechanicsville Road in the area of Gander Court. Units arrived on scene to find two vehicles involved in a head-on style collision. Due to the severity of injuries, the Collision Reconstruction Unit was requested.



A preliminary investigation determined a 2013 Hyundai Accent, operated by Kellie Murphy, age 19, of Mechanicsville, was traveling northbound on Mechanicsville Road, when for unknown reasons the vehicle crossed the center line and struck a 2010 Toyota Sienna, operated by Joseph Thomas, age 72, of Mechanicsville. The Hyundai was occupied by two other passengers, Bryce Hurry, age 20, of Chaptico, and Jeffrey Townsend, age 18, of Mechanicsville. The Toyota was occupied by one passenger, Ann Thomas, age 68, of Mechanicsville. At this time, it is believed the primary cause of the collision is interference from a passenger in the Hyundai.



Both operators and all passengers were transported to area hospitals for treatment. Bryce Hurry was initially listed in critical condition.
Russell Rhine, associate professor of economics at St. Mary's College of Maryland.

St. MARY'S CITY, Md.

(June 2, 2016)Russell Rhine, associate professor of economics at St. Mary's College of Maryland, has been selected to work for Congress during the fall semester. He will be a senior economist with the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee, a bipartisan bicameral committee. Rhine will conduct economic analysis and make policy recommendations to legislators in both houses of Congress. He has been approved a leave of absence from the college for this opportunity.When asked how the job aligns with his research interests, Rhine explains, "Much of my research is on the causes of the continual expansion of the Federal government in size and scope. One implication of this expansion is the unsustainable growth of the Federal government debt. The committee chairman, Senator Dan Coats (R-Ind.), is concerned about this issue and wants me to conduct an economic analysis on this and other topics."Rhine hopes that he can offer his expertise "to influence policy making at the highest level of the federal government and perhaps have a significant and lasting positive impact on the country."
The Sheriff's Office selected the Arbitrator body-worn camera made by Panasonic because the in-car and body-worn cameras use the same software and share the same database. (Photo: SMCSO)

(L-R Deputy Patrick Britt, Lt. Christa Morzes-Cook, and CFC Roberto Ramos-Blanco, hold a 'Welcome Home' Re-entry Program backpack. The backpacks are given to homeless inmates leaving the Detention Center, as part of the Re-Entry Program. (Photo: SMCSO)

St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office Canine (K9) Officers Cpl. Todd Fleenor and Cpl. Shawn Cathcart traveled to Montreal, Canada, during the week of May 15-19, 2016, to participate in canine officer training exercises. With their canine explosive-detection partners, "Filly" and "Jasmine", they practiced scanning for suspected explosive devices in the airport terminals, passenger airlines, passenger baggage systems, and surrounding grounds of the Montreal International Airport. The canine teams also responded to a 'live' call for service and assisted in the investigation of suspicious packages in and around the airport terminal.In addition, during Basic Patrol Canine Training, International Police Work Dog Association (I.P.W.D.A.) Master Canine Trainer Corporal Fleenor conducted evaluations of several other canine teams. Patrol Canine duties consist of building searches, tracking, area searches, evidence/article searches, aggression control, and obedience to commands. During the assessments, Cathcart assisted as a decoy for the patrol canines."The timing of this training could not have been more fitting," said Captain Steven Hall, Commander, Special Operations Division. "Based on recent world events, the experience our K9 officers obtained while training in an airport environment will prove to be invaluable. I am proud of the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office K9 Unit, their dedication to duty, and the reputation of excellence they have earned both nationally and internationally."Along with Sheriff Tim Cameron and Captain Steven Hall, Fleenor extended his thanks and gratitude to the members of the Montreal Canadian Airport Canine Unit for their hospitality, especially Head Trainer Yanick Choquette. "This was the experience of a lifetime for Corporal Cathcart and me," Fleenor stated. "The knowledge and expertise we gained in Canada will be applied daily while performing our K9 duties." He added, "Thank you to the Montreal Canada Canine Unit for the invitation to participate in this valuable training and for our continued partnership. Also, thank you to Sheriff Tim Cameron for your continued support of the K9 Unit."In a pilot program, started in early April of this year, the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office officially implemented the use of body-worn cameras. Two deputies from each patrol squad have been outfitted with a body camera, along with every deputy in the Lexington Park COPs Unit. That brings the total number of body-worn cameras to thirteen for the agency. The funding for the cameras was secured mainly through the Department of Justice.The Edward Byrne Memorial Assistance Grant has supplied $17,127 for the cameras and has been endowed for two years. A secondary mountable camera with a unit price of $300, along with $960 for accessories, which include a USB offline device, and charging bay, brings the total expense to $17,680. The balance of $733 is being paid out of the Sheriff's Office's operating expenses."Since 2011, the Sheriff's Office has utilized an in-car video system that has proven to be an effective policing tool, providing invaluable assistance in the prosecution of cases. Further, we have been able to identify driving habits of officers that have benefited from additional training, along with customer service concerns that have been improved," says Captain Edward Willenborg, Criminal Investigations Division Commander. "The implementation of body-worn cameras is the next logical step, and will only enhance our in-car video program," adds Sheriff Cameron.The Sheriff's Office selected the Arbitrator body-worn camera made by Panasonic because the in-car and body-worn cameras use the same software and share the same database. This correlation makes for a smooth transition for deputies and their supervisors. The deputy activates the camera upon response to any incident that is determined to be investigative or enforcement in nature.Senate Bill 486, signed by Governor Larry Hogan, encourages all agencies to initiate a pilot program in Maryland. To assist in the implementation of such programs, the legislation provides a model policy written by the Maryland Police and Corrections Training Commission. The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office adopted that model and adapted it to fit the needs of the agency.Sheriff Cameron says, "In the past when adopting new programs, at times our agency was too fast and at other times we were too slow. I believe we are right on the mark this time. Before implementing the program, we researched and developed our policy and training in conjunction with the law."The body-worn cameras will serve many purposes, with the obvious being the collection of higher quality evidence in the prosecution of criminal cases. Previously, deputies were limited to what they could capture with the in-car video. Now, with the utilization of high definition, wide-lens, in-color body-worn cameras, they will be able to capture foot pursuits and other encounters which were not previously recorded.The body-worn cameras will also increase the agency's ability to improve its service to the community, by using the footage to provide scenario-based training to officers, and to identify other areas which may need improvement, including communication, customer service, and police tactics.Sheriff Cameron noted that while the body-worn cameras serve as a conduit for transparency and openness with the community, he is also aware of the criticisms. "Our goal is to try out the cameras, put them to use and then thoroughly evaluate the technology and hardware, in addition to soliciting feedback from the officers and the community." He added, "We will continue to move forward respectfully."As the program progresses, the Sheriff's Office will provide further information regarding the body-worn camera program, in addition to seeking feedback from the community.On Tuesday, May 10, 2016, the St. Mary's County Department of Aging & Human Services, along with Triad/SALT (Seniors and Law Enforcement Together), held their annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day at the Southern Maryland Higher Education Center in Hollywood, MD.Posting of the colors was presented by the St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office and the Knights of Columbus, followed by the National Anthem, sung by students from the Leonardtown Middle School Chorus. St. Mary's County Sheriff's Chaplin Steve Kooy led the invocation, memorial service, and benediction, asking everyone to "honor those who put their lives on the line every day, and thank them for what they do."Sheriff Cameron presented the opening remarks for the program saying, "They [law enforcement officers] have endured! Despite the danger of their jobs, they continue to serve. The manner in which they perform their jobs is an example for all of us." He added, "We should be proud of them and thankful that each one of them is a person of demonstrated integrity and character, who chose to be a 'guardian of the community.'Each Law Enforcement Officer of the Year received several citations from local and state delegates. The ceremony ended by recognizing the 2016 officers of the year, from agencies in St. Mary's County.On behalf of Sheriff Cameron and the men and women of the Sheriff's Office, congratulations to all of the award recipients: Deputy First Class Rozier L. Steinbach, St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office Correctional Officer First Class Kristie L. Ardire, St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office, Corrections Division Deputy Fire Marshall II Melissa R. Decker, Maryland State Fire Marshal, Southern Regional Office Public Safety Officer Lori Brasko, St. Mary's College of Maryland, Department of Public Safety Trooper First Class Casey M. Ruth, Maryland State PoliceLeonardtown Barrack "T" Patrolman First Class Joseph Figert, Patuxent River Police Department, Public Safety Maryland State Police Civilian Pilot III Claude J. Boushey, Sr., Maryland State PoliceAviation Command Officer First Class Jason Kreider, Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police, Southern RegionArea 4 Petty Officer Second Class Walter R. Urban IV, United States Coast Guard, St. Inigoes Assistant State's Attorney Jaymi Sterling, Office of the State's AttorneyIt can be a struggle for any inmate to re-enter society after being released from jail. To ease the transition, the St. Mary's Detention Center has instituted a number of Re-Entry Programs. As the Re-Entry Coordinator for St. Mary's County, Correctional Officer First Class (CFC) Roberto Ramos-Blancos links inmates to various resources within the community, such as social services programs and housing. Still, for newly-released homeless inmates, the most basic items may seem out of reach.When CFC Ramos-Blancos saw a basic need that hadn't been filled, he introduced the concept of 'Welcome Packs' to St. Mary's County. Upon release from the St. Mary's Detention Center, each homeless inmate is given a backpack full of personal hygiene products and basic protective weather gear. Inspired by the success of a similar program in Prince George's County, Ramos-Blancos wanted to provide the same resources to local inmates."We empower inmates by connecting them with the resources they need to make a smooth transition back into the community. It's a very rewarding experience to see them get their life straight with help from correctional officers," says CFC Ramos-Blancos.Captain Michael R. Merican, Corrections Division Commander, adds, "Re-entry Programs such as 'Welcome Packs' helps inmates to prepare for life outside of jail, by providing them with a head start. These kinds of support services decrease the likelihood that an inmate will become just another recidivism statistic, and ultimately end up back at the detention center."In addition to personal hygiene products, the 'Welcome Packs' contain a pair of socks, a hat and gloves, and a pair of underwear. Extras like an alarm clock, a non-perishable snack, and a pocket calendar have also been supplied to those in need. One unique element of the program: An individual note of encouragement written by Catholic Charity volunteers is carefully placed in each backpack. CFC Ramos-Blanco states that the St. Mary's County Detention Center has given out four backpacks since the program started in January of this year.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Cody Prickett. (U.S. Navy photo)

PATUXENT RIVER, Md.

(June 2, 2016)A 2009 Soledad High School graduate and Soledad, California native is serving "Where the future of naval aviation begins" at Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, located in Patuxent River, Maryland.Petty Officer 3rd Class Cody Prickett is an electronics technician at NAS Patuxent River, responsible for maintaining overall communications equipment for the airfield on NAS Pax River.Located at the mouth of the Patuxent River, the 14,500-acre complex is host to Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) headquarters and Headquarters, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). These two entities provide the full spectrum of acquisition management, research and development capabilities, air and ground test and evaluation, aircraft logistics and maintenance management."What I enjoy most about my job is the camaraderie I share amongst my fellow sailors," said Prickett.NAS Patuxent River is home to the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and the Atlantic Test Range and 50 other tenant commands. The facilities at Patuxent River are utilized by foreign governments, academic institutions and private industry for similar projects and deliver effective and efficient installation management enabling tenants to achieve integrated warfare systems and life cycle sustainment.Prickett said he and other sailors are proud to be serving at a command that readily defends America at at all times."I enjoy having the great opportunity to work with various communication equipment that strengthens my skill set on a daily basis," said Prickett.With more than 800 employees assigned to the host naval air station staff, the civilian and military "Pax Pros" work hard to ensure the continued security, safety and first-class services are provided to all 20,000+ employees working aboard the installation, according to Navy officials."The work our sailors and civilians do every day is extremely important to both the current health and future of Naval Aviation, and it directly impacts the Fleet," said Capt. Scott Starkey, Naval Air Station Patuxent River commanding officer. "From our Naval Security Force that keep us secure, to our Fire and Emergency Services, child care professionals and morale welfare and recreation personnel, and our Air and Port Operations Team, and everything in-between, our PAX TEAM enables our tenants' missions and positively impacts research, development, testing and evaluation. We are extremely proud of our personnel and the important work they do every day."Serving in Navy, Prickett is learning about being more of a leader through handling numerous responsibilities."The Navy has made me more responsible," said Prickett. "It's provided me with financial stability and the morals and values instilled in me from the Navy has made me both a better sailor and man."
WASHINGTON

(June 2, 2016)The U.S. Department of Defense recently announced the following contract awards that pertain to local Navy activities., is being awardedfor modification P00003 to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N00019-15-C-0007) to exercise an option for operation and maintenance services in support of the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance-Demonstrator (BAMS-D) program. In addition, this option provides for logistics support, organization, intermediate, and depot level maintenance, and field services representatives to ensure the BAMS-D aircraft are mission-capable for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions. Work will be performed in Patuxent River, Maryland (70 percent); Rancho Bernardo, California (5 percent); and various forward operating locations (25 percent), is expected to be completed in June 2017. Fiscal 2016 operations and maintenance (Navy) overseas contingency operations funding in the amount of $62,406,998 will be obligated at time of award; all of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The, is the contracting activity.(N00174-16-D-0010); and(N00174-16-D-0011), are being awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contracts for the manufacture, test, acceptance, and shipment of sheetstock propellant. The total value of all task orders issued for both contracts, when combined, shall not exceed. Work will be performed outside the U.S. in both Europe and Africa, and will be determined by individual task order. Fiscal 2016 procurement of ammunitions (Army) funding for first articles in the amounts of $156,461 (N00174-16-D-0010); and $135,649 (N00174-16-D-0011) is being obligated at the time of award and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The contracts were competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with two offers received. The, is the contracting activity., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price contract for six low-rate initial production Lot V RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aircraft systems. This contract provides for the procurement of the air vehicles, ground control stations, launch and recovery equipment, shipboard equipment kits, and systems engineering and program management. Work will be performed in Bingen, Washington (70 percent); and Hood River, Oregon (30 percent), and is expected to be completed in October 2017. Fiscal 2016 aircraft procurement (Marine Corps); and overseas contingency operations aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $71,555,347 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. The, is the contracting activity (N00019-16-C-0054)., is being awarded afirm-fixed-price contract for the procurement of 35 BRU-75A and BRU-76A bomb rack units for the Navy (27); and the government of Australia (8 ship sets) in support of the P-8A full-rate production 2-3 Lot 6-7 aircraft. Work will be performed in Amityville, New Jersey, and is expected to be completed in January 2021. Fiscal 2014, 2015, and 2016 aircraft procurement (Navy); and cooperative engagement funds in the amount of $29,802,574 are being obligated on this award, $856,792 of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.302-1. This contract combines purchases for the Navy ($23,005,206; 77 percent); and the government of Australia ($6,797,368; 23 percent) under a cooperative engagement agreement. The, is the contracting activity (N00019-16-C-0050).---Sabre has been awarded a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) task order as the Prime Contractor under the Seaport-e Multiple Award Contract (MAC) to provide systems and software engineering and technical efforts for the. Under this order, Sabre will provide systems and test engineers, subject matter experts, and support specialists for software systems engineering, software development, test, software acquisition, systems/subsystems integration, avionics/software/air vehicle technology insertion, configuration management, and program performance assessment analysis/planning. The work, valued at more than, has a period of performance of one base year and four option years.President and CEO, Phil Jaurigue stated, "With this contract award, the Navy continues to show its trust in Sabre's ability to provide complex engineering services in support of our nation's security interests. We are honored and privileged to support our men and women who deserve the most effective and safest aircraft and weapons systems as they fight tirelessly to ensure our freedom. We are confident that the team Sabre has assembled will continue to meet the warfighters' needs well into the future. Many thanks to the Sabre staff and our partners who played a crucial role in this award. It was a tremendous team accomplishment."
Pictured (l to r) seated are Mr. Lankford's daughters Betty Norris and Charlene Lankford, Commissioner Mike Hart, Zachary Hart and Lexi Hart. Back row (l to r) Sherrod Sturrock, Acting CMM Director, Solomons VRSFD crew Britton Williams, Devin Edwards, President John Pardoe, Chief Joe Ford, Alison Dickson, Joey Leannarda and Richard Dodds, Curator of Maritime History. (CMM photo courtesy Robert Hall)

Oursler painting "Calvert Approaching."

Historic photo from the Lore Oyster House on Solomons.

This restored canoe is for sale.

Raymond Lankford, a lifelong member of the Solomons Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Department (VRSFD), was determined to see that the Calvert Marine Museum received one of the department's special commemorative throws. It was, he believed, a piece of local history worth keeping. On May 25, he got his wish. Representatives from the Solomons VRSFD, joined by Mr. Lankford's daughters, Betty Norris and Charlene Lankford, Commissioner Mike Hart and his children, presented the throw to Sherrod Sturrock, Acting Director, and Richard Dodds, Curator of Maritime History, for the museum's collection.Raymond Lankford was born in 1926 on Solomons Island and has been an active member in the community for many years. He and his wife Betty have been married for 70 years, raising 10 children, and enjoying dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mr. Lankford is a legend in Solomons Island.A dedicated volunteer in many organizations, Raymond Lankford is well known and respected, especially by members of the Solomons VRSFD. President John Pardoe shared that Lankford was one of the founding fathers and has been an active member for 60 years. He joined the department in 1956 when the Calvert County Volunteer Rescue Squad (as it was called back in the day) was where the Thai Restaurant in Solomons is now located. The building had a single bay with a 1955 Studebaker as the first ambulance. Lankford was president for 12 years and was instrumental in the purchase of the property where Solomons VRSFD is today.In early April, the Solomons VRSFD honored Mr. Lankford for his years of service with a surprise celebration. He and other lifelong volunteers were presented with several gifts, one of which was a commemorative throw depicting the history of the equipment. At Mr. Lankford's suggestion, the Solomons VRSFD graciously donated one of the throws to the Calvert Marine Museum in honor of Mr. Lankford, where it will be added to the historical Solomons collection.Steamboats were once a familiar site on the Chesapeake Bay and provided rural tidewater areas a lifeline to Baltimore, Norfolk, and Washington, D.C. Vanished Steamboats: The Maritime Art of C. Leslie Oursler, beautifully captures the spirit of a bygone age through several art mediums. The exhibit is on display in the museum's Mezzanine Gallery now through the end of December.Vanished Steamboats offers a thoughtful perspective of Oursler's lifeworknot only in paintings, but also in sketches, drawings, ship's models, and ceramics. As a backdrop for the artworks, museum muralist Tim Scheirer created a 36' image of one of Oursler's drawings. The exhibit includes a graphic explanation of how he took a 36" drawing and created a 36' mural, illustrating each step in the process.Clarence Leslie Oursler (1913-1987), a self-taught Maryland artist had a passion for painting ships, seascapes, and waterside scenes of the Chesapeake Bay region. Oursler painted over 180 marine works during his career and the Calvert Marine Museum is fortunate to curate the largest collection of his works dating from 1967 to 1986. The exhibit explores the changes in the artist's painting techniques from his realistic portrayals at the height of his career to a more impressionistic approach to painting in his later years.For generations, steamboats affected the way people traveled, earned a living, and socialized around the bay. Vanished Steamboats depicts the beauty of these vanished icons with selected works from the museum's collection, along with items loaned for the exhibit by steamboat historian and guest curator, Jack Shaum.Jack Shaum, a Baltimore native and veteran reporter who worked in print and broadcast journalism, met Oursler in the 1960's through their shared interest in steamboats. They became good friends and Shaum began collecting the artist's works. His love for steamboats and his journalism career allowed Shaum to profile the artist on several occasions. He was guest curator for CMM's first C. Leslie Oursler exhibit in 1991 and spoke at the private opening of this new exhibit on May 6. Speaking about Oursler's work, Shaum said: "His work deserves to be better known and it's wonderful that the museum has so many of his paintings. This exhibit is a very good cross-section of his work."C. Leslie Oursler's artwork also appears in the collections of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, The Mariners' Museum, the Maryland Historical Society, the Steamship Historical Society of America, and the Steamboat Era Museum, as well as in many privately held collections.The museum will host a lecture series around the Vanished Steamboats exhibit in the fall of 2016. Jack Shaum, guest curator and steamboat historian, will return on Thursday, September 8, to share his stories about the artist and his works. Ralph Eshelman, local historian and former CMM director, will talk about steamboats in Southern Maryland on Thursday, October 6. On Thursday, November 10, Pete Lesher, Curator of Maritime History at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, will talk about steamboats in the Chesapeake.Come learn everything you want to know about oysters! Join us for Lore Oyster House Days on Saturdays, June 25, July 16, and August 20 from 1:00 p.m.4:00 p.m. at the J.C. Lore & Sons oyster house in Solomons. FREE program.Travel back in time to the days when the J.C. Lore & Sons oyster house was a thriving oyster packing house. Meet the skimmer, who tracks how many pints are shucked and what the shuckers should be paid. Tie on an apron, become a shucker and experience the challenges and rewards of a piecework wage earner. Along the way, try your hand at oyster tonging; learn to tie a tow line and coil a rope; measure oysters with a special tool; and follow the path an oyster takes through the packing house from unloading at the dock to the shipping room.The Patuxent Small Craft Guild (PSCG) members were very busy over the winter and completed many projects. One of which was the restoration of this 1925 Kennebec Wood and Canvas Canoe. This beautiful antique boat is selling for $2,500 with all proceeds benefiting the museum activities supported by the Guild. Pictured behind the boat from left to right are PSCG members, Tony Pettit and Brian Forsyth. For more details, please contact George Surgent at 410-586-2700.Back by popular demand, catboats return to Solomons on Father's Day weekend for the annual Patuxent River Shootout. They will arrive mid-afternoon at the Lore Oyster House, Saturday afternoon, on June 18.The Shootout will begin at approximately 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 19 and can be seen from the Solomons boardwalk. After the race, meet the captains and see the boats on display in the Calvert Marine Museum boat basin until 5:00 p.m.The Catboat is a New England traditional sailing craft with a design that dates back to the 1800s, but with origins in England some say. Originating in name and most commonly referred to as the Cape Cod Catboat, it was first used as a fishing boat, and can be found in many design variations. It became the dominant inshore workboat in New England, as well as a boat for both social and racing pleasures. It is most often seen on the East Coast, from the Chesapeake to New England. Typically half as wide as it is long, and best known by its shallow draft, gaff rig and mast forward in the bow of the boat, this boat is ideal for cruising the shallow waters of the Chesapeake Bay. Typical boats are between 14 and 25 feet long, but feel much larger and are easily sailed by one, though when the wind pipes up another hand can be welcome with the typically large/oversized mainsail. A Menger 23 carries 435 square feet of sail.For more information on catboats and catboating events locally, visit the Chesapeake Catboat Association's website at www.chesapeakecatboats.org , contact Steve Flesner at flesner00@comcast.net or call 410-610-8859.
As we take time to enjoy the Memorial Day weekend and the official start of the summer season, two topics are swirling in my head as I sit down to write my article. The first topic is Memorial Day itself, a day to remember and honor all Americans who gave their lives serving this country while in military service. The second topic has to do with the beginning of the summer season, which means vacation time to many. Unfortunately for residents of Wilton Manors neighborhoods, it means living with the problem of vacation rentals and the constant daily and weekly disruptions they create.

As we remember our fallen service personnel, we should not forget the actions taken by our political leaders who have the burden of putting our troops into action. Many of us look at the disastrous decisions by the Bush Administration that lead to the invasion of Iraqi as a complete failure, at a cost of so many lives lost, both for our troops and for the Iraqi people. The then New York State Senator, Hillary Clinton, could have helped turn the tide against the mad march to war but instead choose, in what seemed by many at the time a more popular and politically advantageous choice, to vote for the war authorization. That decision denied Hillary the nomination back in 2008 and proved to be a very bad choice for our nation.

In another war, the war on HIV/AIDS, the LGBT Community remembers all too well how Nancy and Ronnie Reagan ignored the AIDS crisis and turned their backs on old friends like Rock Hudson, with their unofficial policy that HIV/AIDS only affected homosexuals and IV drug users, not good God-fearing Americans. Once again, Hillary Clinton failed to get it right. On news of Nancy Reagans death, Hillary stated that the Reagans started a national conversation on AIDS when nobody wanted to talk about it. I think Larry Kramers statement rings more true, The Reagans murdered more gay people than anyone in the history of the world.

Perhaps the DNC Chair and champion of the South Florida LGBT Community, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, picked a flawed candidate in her rush to nominate and elect the first female President of the United States. Given the current political climate, perhaps Schultz should have looked to Senator Elizabeth Warren instead. However, we are all flawed individuals and must make decisions based on many factors throughout our own lives, some will be good and some will be bad. If the choice for our next President is between Clinton and Trump, I will be first in line to cast my vote for Hillary Clinton, that will be the best decision.

Moving on to summertime and the problem of vacation rentals. In the same week that city emails were ablaze with complaints of a party rental here on the Westside, news out of the city commission meeting was that Jeffrey Hill, owner of numerous vacation rental properties here in Wilton Manors, decided to sue the city once again to prevent the city and residents from protecting their quality of life in our single family residential zoned neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the state restricts local municipalities from banning vacation home rentals, but many cities throughout our region are looking to code enforcement and zoning restrictions to help control the loud noises, resident complaints, parking nightmares and late-night parties. This time, I think Jeffrey is in for a big disappointment.

Pure and simple--if you want to operate a lodging business, please do so in the areas of the city that are zoned for such businesses. Make no mistake, vacation home rentals are businesses operating in areas not zoned for any such activity. There is a distinction between a homeowner wishing to rent their home seasonally for three, four or five monthsand owners looking to rent on a much shorter weekly or daily time frame. These short-term rentals bring a transient element into our neighborhoods and endless headaches for residents who live next to or near one of these properties. Is requiring Jeffrey Hill to pay a licensing fee, just like any other business that operates within the city, asking too much? Owners operate these vacation home rentals to make a profit, at the expense of other tax-paying homeowners who thought they were buying homes in areas zoned for residential use only which prohibit the operation of a business or commercial enterprise.

As the summer begins, we definitely will be hearing more on these two topics swirling around my head this holiday weekend. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out comes the beginning of the fall season.

Enjoy the summer, Wilton Manoritescause all seasons are just better here!
Many full time residents of WilMa recall the recent issues involving Uber, the peer-to-peer transportation provider. The local taxi monopoly, irritated that their government grant had been violated, persuaded the county commission to essentially ban Uber from operating. This provoked a consumer backlash that resulted in Uber's reinstatement, with some restrictions.

What does this have to do with real estate? Well, tourism is a vital component of the South Florida economy. Visitors expect Uber, and the substandard monopoly taxi system here left more people with poor impressions of the Florida experience.

But the gig economy  of which Uber is but one example  is making inroads in real estate also. Real estate can be, under certain circumstances, an attractive investment, and many people own investment properties in WilMa and throughout South Florida. It has become very popular for property owners here to rent their homes and condos on a short-term basis through services such as Airbnb and VRBO.com.

You can understand the appeal of this from the perspective of both owner and visitor. An owner is able to make some money from a property otherwise left empty, and a visitor can get something that approximates the comforts of home as opposed to a sterile hotel environment, have more privacy, and probably save money also. And improvements in technology ease the transaction.

Enter the government. Of course hotel owners are unhappy with the competition. They are required to obtain licenses from the city and state, and also to collect various taxes from guests. Yes short-term landlords are supposed to do the same, but as a friend of mine once said in describing one of his businesses, it's not much of a business but it's a cash business. (What the government doesn't know well consult your accountant.)

Last week the real estate industry publication Real Deal reported on a study (funded by the hotel industry) that claimed Airbnb operators in Miami-Dade had evaded paying $16 million in occupancy taxes in the 2014-15 season. Hoteliers claim this places them at a competitive disadvantage and they want government to do something to level the playing field (i.e., protect their interests as the market shifts to other mechanisms).

Owners of nearby properties who are permanent residents sometimes have issues with these arrangements, as well. It doesn't take more than a couple bad apples to get aggrieved homeowners to make the lives of city commissioners difficult. As a result, many cities are in the process of passing enhanced regulations of these short term rental situations.

How do you balance the rights of an individual property owner with the interests of the community? Shouldn't you be able to do with your own property as you see fit? And what about the tax system? Has technology and life outpaced government revenue collection? Should we be looking at revising how the government funds itself, instead of complicating popular services that the market demands?

James Oaksun, Broward's Real Estate Geek(SM), is a Broker-Associate at RE/MAX Preferred. In addition to having degrees from Dartmouth and Cornell, he is a graduate of the Realtor Institute (GRI).
After multiple episodes of criticism over not covering transgender surgery as part of its employee healthcare plan, city commissioners were praised last week for promoting the rights of transgender families and individuals.

At the city commission meeting on May 24, SAVE [Safeguarding American Values for Everyone] praised commissioners for recognizing its public service announcement  Family Is Everything featuring Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, her husband, Dexter, and her son, Rodrigo. The praise came the same night the city raised the Pride flag permanently for the first time.

Youre the first city to recognize us for this effort, said Tony Lima, executive director of SAVE. On its website, SAVE describes itself as South Floridas leading organization dedicated to protecting people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, against discrimination.

We were born out of the need to fight Anita Bryant, Lima said.

Family is everything. Our son is transgender. We loved him as Amanda and now as Rodrigo . . .

Every transgender person is part of someones family and should be treated with compassion and protected from discrimination, Ros-Lehtinen said in the video. It can be viewed at save.lgbt.

SAVE also endorsed Ros-Lehtinen for re-election because of her stance on LGBT issues, including the repeal of Dont Ask, Dont Tell and her support of marriage equality. According to the Washington Blade, an LGBT newspaper in DC, she was the first GOP member of Congress to back marriage equality.

Lima added that the ad is part of his organizations push to get the Florida Competitive Workforce Act passed. The act has failed to pass numerous times in the state legislature, including earlier this year. If passed, it would add LGBT individuals to the list of groups included in the states anti-discrimination law. Lima said efforts were underway to bring the bill back to the legislature.
COSMOS J100054 NRAO

Astronomers have used new capabilities of the National Science Foundations Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to open a whole new realm of research into how galaxies evolve and interact with their surroundings over cosmic time.

They detected the faint radio emission from atomic hydrogen, the most abundant element in the Universe, in a galaxy nearly 5 billion light-years from Earth.

This almost doubles the distance record for this type of observation, and promises key new insights into how galaxies draw in the gas, process it, and lose it as they evolve, said Ximena Fernandez, of Rutgers University. As we look farther out in distance, were looking farther back in time, so this new capability allows us to gain previously unobtainable information about how galaxies develop, she added.

The scientists detected the radio fingerprint of hydrogen in a galaxy called COSMOS J100054. The discovery came from the first 178 hours of observation in a program called the COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey, or CHILES, led by Jacqueline van Gorkom of Columbia University. The CHILES project eventually will use more than 1,000 hours of VLA observing time. The detection was made possible by the improved capabilities of the VLA provided by a 10-year upgrade project completed in 2012.

The new electronic systems in the upgraded VLA were essential to this work. Without the upgrade, this discovery would have been impossible. This detection is the first of what we believe will be many more to come, making an important contribution to our understanding of how galaxies evolve, said Emmanuel Momjian, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Hydrogen gas is the raw material for making stars. Throughout their lives, galaxies draw in the gas, which eventually is incorporated into stars. In furious bursts of star formation, stellar winds and supernova explosions can blow gas out of the galaxy and rob it of the material needed for further star formation.

In order to understand how these processes develop, astronomers need images of the gas in and near galaxies of different ages. Until now, technical limitations of radio telescopes prevented them from detecting atomic hydrogen emission at the distances needed to see the gas in galaxies distant enough to provide the required lookback time. The CHILES project will achieve this to distances out to about 6 billion light-years.

COSMOS J100054 is in a region of sky extensively studied with multiple telescopes as part of an international project called the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS). Data from that survey allowed the scientists to glean additional information about the galaxy. In addition, Hansung Gim of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, used the Large Millimeter Telescope in Mexico to detect Carbon Monoxide (CO) in the galaxy. The CO detection gave the researchers key information about gas in the galaxy that is composed of molecules, rather than of individual atoms. Molecular gas is considered a necessary precursor to star formation.

The scientists found that COSMOS J100054 is a massive, barred spiral galaxy that may be interacting with a small neighbor galaxy. With an amount of hydrogen nearly 100 billion times the mass of the Sun, the galaxy is forming the equivalent of about 85 suns every year.

This is the first time we have been able to observe both the emission from atomic hydrogen and from carbon monoxide in a galaxy that is beyond our local Universe, Gim said. Now that we have this capability, we soon will be able to start filling in gaps in our knowledge about the properties of galaxies at specific ages. This is an important development, he added.

The research was the work of an international team of astronomers from North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The scientists are reporting their results in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. CHILES is partially supported by a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation.
Houstons David Buehrer is a man of many passions. Coffee industry types know him as a perennial barista competition competitor here in the United States, and one of the only current top competitors out of Texas. But hes also the founder of Greenway Coffee and co-owner of Houstons landmark Blacksmith cafe, hes the culinary curator for TEDxHouston, and he even has a collaboration with shoe company Yuketen. Pretty much anything he is a part of is thoughtful and just plain cool, including the brand new Morningstar Coffee and Donuts, which opened in Houstons Greater Heights neighborhood last month.

Morningstar fuses the holy American breakfast dualitycoffee and donutswith an expansive, impressive brunch menu. Its only a few weeks old, but I think Morningstar might already be one of the best cafes in the American South.

Are you hungry? Do you need coffee? Buehrers words as I walk through the door are sweet poetry, coming off a four-hour drive from Dallas. This order of affairs is a microcosm of the cafe itself; coffee isnt the headliner, but an equal player in a star-studded cast of multi-faceted delectables. After entirely too much food for two people to possibly eat (shout out to Greenways always sartorially correct head roaster John Letoto for pitching in), Im served a batch brew of Greenways La Papaya from Ecuador, and we sit down to talk shop.

Buehrer tells me the build-out of the 1,550-square-foot cafe is a modern take on Shinto/tearoom architecture, one that he worked on for two years with 94-year-old architect and University of Houston professor John Zemanek. The tearoom style is meant to keep the space feeling open while providing more private settings for patrons to socialize. Morningstar is able to achieve this koan-like aesthetic in part by implementing two concrete brick dividing walls on the north and south sides of the building, where most of the seating can be found. The circular windows in the walls allow for customers to see whats on the other side, thus keeping the open feel while still allowing those areas to be partitioned. A few donated pieces of Zemaneks art hang on the walls at Morningstar, framed by the openings in the dividing walls.

The brunch menu features composed Southeast Asian influences from Priscilla Nguyen, the chef-in-residence both here and at Blacksmith. Think dishes like Korean steak and eggs with scallion pancakes, gochujang, and pickled vegetables, or rice porridge with blueberries and pistachios. Theres also the Moneycat Potatoesa gochujang and garlic oil-coated spud Buehrer first tasted four years ago while running the Moneycat Brunch with the dishs originator and recent James Beard winner, Chef Justin Yu of Oxheart.

Nguyens food menu struts a tight groove, from the honey butter fried chicken biscuit (this is still the South, in case you forgot) and the Mediterranean-leaning crispy rice with kibbeh, feta, and a soft egg. Her dishes all somehow flow together seamlessly. This is one of the best brunches Ive had in recent memory, at what is technically a coffee and donuts spot.

And the doughnuts, oh the doughnuts. With the help of Sam Phan, Morningstars Donut Jedi, Buehrer gets up every morning at around 10 p.m. to make the dough for the days pastries. Originally the plan was to rotate in new options weekly, but flavors like the Matcha Frost, the cinnamon and palm sugar doughnut known as The Cop, and the pineapple fritter with salted chili limean homage to Lucas candieshave already become too popular to pull.

Even with all the wonderful culinary goings-on, the beverage program at Morningstar somehow keeps pace. A soon-to-be custom painted three-group Nuova Simonelli Black Eagle and Mythos One ClimaPro grinder do most of the heavy lifting behind the coffee bar, but Morningstar does something a little different for their single-origin espresso. Using a Mahlkonig EK 43 and a modded out single-group La Marzocco Shot Brewer, single origins are pulled at a lower pressure similar to that of a Slayer. And instead of carbonated water, each shot is served with homemade pineapple agua fresca and a small accouterment (on my visit it was a pair of doughnut holes).

For the non-coffee drinker, Morningstar has created an entire matcha-based menu, which Buehrer believes will bridge the gap and bring a whole new customer base into the cafe. Because ceremonial matcha is so concentrated, it mimics the properties of espresso and allows for use in many coffee-like drinks. So now, instead of settling for whatever tea is laying around, non-coffee drinkers have a well-coordinated menu with options created with them in mind, like the Matcha Sua Da, a play on Vietnamese coffee using condensed and evaporated soy milk.

Strip away all the brunch items, the doughnuts, the matcha, and Morningstar is a fantastic coffee shop. But as a wholly American entry into the coffee and space, I think this place is operating at an extremely high level, and should be seen as something of a destination for people wanting more than just coffee from their cafe experiences. Morningstar is an exciting step forward for Buehrer and his team in Houston, and for the wider tide of coffee culture here in Texas and across the American South.

It feels like a singular extension of Buehrer, with a lot of help from a handful of Houstons brightest food and beverage minds. It is a cafe in the truest sense, not just a synonym for coffee shop but an actual meeting place of high-minded coffee and thoughtful fare. Like Houston itself, its a place that defies expectations and should not, under any circumstances, be slept on a hub for whats delicious in America right now.

So youll forgive me when, on my next 250-mile drive over from Dallas, I wont just be thinking about coffee. Ill be craving that crispy rice.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network, and Sprudge.coms staff writer based in Dallas, Texas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
As the coffee industry grows worldwide, waste has become a more pressing issue to deal with. More farmers, roasters, and coffee-shop owners are looking for ways to turn coffee and milk waste into a resource. I traveled to Brighton in East Sussex, England, to meet Douglas McMaster, chef/owner at Silo, to talk about food and coffee waste and sustainability in an urban environment.

McMaster worked as a chef at restaurants like Copenhagens Noma and St. John in London before moving to Melbourne in 2012. There he opened a pop-up cafe called Silo by Joost, a prototype of sorts for Silo in Brighton, where he learned a lot about zero waste and began pushing away from industrial food.

In 2014 McMaster moved back to the UK, settled down in Brighton, and opened the acclaimed Silo, a stripped-back neighborhood restaurant filled with reclaimed furniture and recycled tools. The zero-waste approach at Silos core follows a mantra of reuse, reduce, share, repeat. More than just a nice idea to aspire to, for McMaster this is a lifestyle choice to follow in everyday life. How do you achieve that, though, in a modern restaurant and coffee shop, where packaging and food waste seem to be unavoidable issues?

The idea alone of not having a rubbish bin in a restaurant seems unthinkable, yet Silo makes it possible by using an aerobic compost machine (which they named Bertha) that processes all of the restaurants food and coffee waste, generating up to 60 kilograms of compost every day. The compost is shared with local farmers, used as fertilizer and to grow vegetables such as mushrooms and carrots.

All our produce comes in without a packet. If its not eaten, it goes into the compost machine. Whats born from that is exciting to me, says McMaster.

Products are delivered to Silo in reusable crates, cans, urns, or other containers. Plates are made from recycled plastic, and filter coffee is served in glass jars. The coffee beans, roasted with a Novoroaster 2kg machine at nearby coffee shop Coffee at 33, are collected from the roaster and carried back in a plastic crate.

Another key element in the zero-waste approach is sustainability. Its about creating everything we need from the food in its whole form, cutting out food miles and over-processing whilst preserving nutrients and the integrity of the ingredients in the process, says McMaster. Everything we serve is made, baked, or brewed here at Silo. We mill flour for our sourdough, roll oats for our porridge, make yogurt, churn butter, and prepare all ingredients from scratch. By creating everything on-site from its whole form, we can create real food, and real food tastes better.

The first thing you notice when you enter Silo is a flour mill used every day following a traditional method. A flour mill was also chosen as the logo for Silo, as it best represents the restaurants ethos of creating everything from scratch in a pre-industrial, sustainable way.

The other vital component to McMasters approach is direct trade. [It] is crucial to zero waste, says McMaster. Dealing directly with farms and producers means we avoid the bureaucratic rules and regulations about packaging. These rules encourage middlemen and untraceability [of products].

Every Monday morning McMaster drives for three hours around the English countryside, visiting local farms and collecting around 90 percent of all the produce required for the weekly menus: 300 to 400 kilograms of meat, eggs, fruit, and vegetables. The fish is delivered straight from the ocean every day. The organic, un-homogenized and pasteurized milk used at Silo comes from Downsview Farm in East Sussex and is used to make curd and cheese.

The chocolate mousse dessert I had was made with all cocoa products, including shells and nibs, and served with prunes stewed in espresso, homemade yogurt, homemade pine oil, and chervil. Silo uses chocolate from the Dominican Republic, carried to England on a carbon-emission-free pirate ship by Seaforth Chocolate Company.

The brewery in Silos basement, called Old Tree, creates fermented drinks using foraged and intercepted plants, herbs, vegetables, and fruit. The wine sourced from different raw producers is organic, produced naturally, and unbottled.

McMasters food approach is fascinating, and to see how the restaurant works to tackle real environmental issues is inspiring. Silo is proof that a truly sustainable food business is possible and can work financially.

The next step for the company is to encourage the growth of other waste-free businesses through collaborations with other restaurants. Last month McMaster organized a one-off dinner in collaboration with Longberry magazine structured entirely around coffee waste. The six-course menu featured dishes such as carrots slow-cooked by the natural heat inside the compost, and prunes cooked in espresso with curd made from leftover milk from Silos coffee bar. Also on the menu was James Hoffmanns cascara chocolate, a product that Square Mile Coffee recently presented at the London Coffee Festival as part of a pop-up focused on coffee taste.

Its encouraging to see the coffee industry increasingly developing ideas and projects to tackle the waste issue, becoming more sustainable and green throughout the stages of production and consumption. Silo is already setting a great examplehopefully other coffee shops in the UK and abroad will follow its lead.

Giulia Mule (@mulia) is a Sprudge.com contributor based in London. Read more Giulia Mule on Sprudge.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond announced on Thursday plans to send 70 British troops to Somalia to enhance its security forces ahead of the August elections.

"Britain is increasing its support to the UN peace operations, with around 70 British military personnel deploying to Somalia," Hammond was quoted in a statement as saying.

The UK foreign policy chief came to the East African country on an unannounced visit after a hotel siege in Somali capital Mogadishu ended early Thursday. The attack by al-Qaeda linked al-Shabaab militants killed two members of parliament with dual British citizenship.
The answer will be given by means of an X-ray machine, which is going to be used upon the first edition of "The Scream" from 1893.

"We shall scan the entire painting through sending small beams on the surface of the image. This is how we are going to establish what material Edvard Munch used," Dr. Geert Van der Snickt at the University of Antwerp said.

"The Scream" is one of the most admired images at the National Museum in Oslo. Until now, small particles of the painting have been physically removed for analysis.

"Any additional information may prove very important for future conservation and preservation arrangements," Thierry Ford, curator at the National Museum said, praising the new technology, which spares the necessity of further damage to the canvas.

Earlier, painting conservator Trond Aslaksby colorfully described how the ravages of time have left their mark on the painting that hangs in the National Gallery. According to him, the world-famous painting has suffered damage from dampness and received a couple of powerful slams. In addition, it is full of stains, dust, dirt and small cuts.

"Imagine that you have not washed your curtains for 120 years, and at the beginning they were actually white. How do you think they would have looked like today?" Aslaksby asked rhetorically in an interview with NRK.
Homayounfar has run a project called Not Just a Tourist for 20 years already.

"As an Iranian woman, my travels are direct publicity for Iran. When I say Im Iranian, everybody is surprised. They want to know more about Iran," Homayounfar said.

As of now, the brave globetrotter is planning her trip to the Iranian cities of Abadan and Khorramshahr.
Although Vietnams direct relations with China were deteriorating, Hanoi still looked to Beijing as its model for maintaining control over a centralized, militarily-strong society while applying free market competition to achieve long-term economic growth, Winnie pointed out.

"Vietnam is modeling itself on Chinas example of a capitalist economic system and an authoritarian or centralized political system with which China has been able to transform its economy into one of the greatest in the world. They are looking to transfer technology from the West," he said.

However Vietnam was increasingly alarmed by Chinas growing assertiveness over its sovereignty rights in the South China Sea, known in Vietnam as the East Sea. These concerns rested on a long historic record of mutual suspicion and distrust between Beijing and Hanoi, Winnie recalled.

"The two countries fought a bloody mini-war in 1979 with thousands of casualties on both sides. Since then, Vietnamese-Chinese relations have been bumpy, to say the least," he observed.

Vietnams leaders feared their fisheries and oil and gas resources in the South China Sea were coming under threat, Winnie said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the newspaper, the small DA42 training aircraft, operated by the International Aviation College Nakhon Phanom, crashed in the Muang district after the pilot reported that the planes engine was on fire.

The plane crashed about two kilometers (1.2 miles) from the Nakhon Phanom airport, killing all three people on board.

The cause of the crash is under investigation.
He also noted that this should force the US, Japanese and South Koreans to sit down at the negotiating table. Otherwise a regional conflict could spark, which very possibly could lead to an international conflict.

On Wednesday, the South China Morning Post citing sources close to the Peoples Liberation Army, reported that Beijing is ready to impose an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea in case the US continues its "provocative" actions in the area.

If the US military keeps making provocative moves to challenge Chinas sovereignty in the region, it will give Beijing a good opportunity to declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea, the newspaper quotes one of its sources as saying without revealing his name.

The revelation come ahead of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, a security forum attended by defense officials from various nations, including Admiral Sun Jianguo and US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.

Disputes in the South China Sea are expected to head the agenda of the three-day event, which starts on Friday.
A highly-contested region through which nearly $5 trillion in trade passes annually, the South China Sea is claimed largely by China, but there are overlapping claims by Brunei, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

While Beijing maintains that it has the right to build within its own territory and that its artificial islands will be used primarily for humanitarian purposes, it has, in recent days, suggested that it would establish an air defense identification zone in response to American aggression.

On the Korean peninsula, the Pentagon maintains that its THAAD system is necessary to protect South Korea, given the DPRKs recent nuclear and long-range missile tests.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  One third of the 400 "dead zones" in the worlds oceans that have been depleted of oxygen are in or around the US, Kerry said during a classroom discussion in Silver Spring, Maryland.

"We have 166 dead zones in the United States. The largest dead zone of all is about 5,000 square miles down in the Gulf of Mexico, out where the Mississippi River comes out," Kerry said on Wednesday in remarks published by the US Department of State.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  No qualified majority has been reached among EU member states to renew approval for glyphosate, which expires July 1. Member states would have to withdraw glyphosate-containing plant protection products from their market in the event that the extension would be rejected.

We have now called for the Expert Committee to meet on the 6th of June to discuss the file once again and take the vote on the basis of a limited extension of the current approval, Andriukaitis said in a statement.

Citing EU law, the commissioner offered the EU Agency for Chemical Products (ECHA) to dispel the remaining doubts on the carcinogenic effects of glyphosate and to extend the current approval of glyphosate until it receives ECHAs opinion.
"Until several hours ago, I would not have imagined that something like this could happen in Altenfelden," Mayor Klaus Gattringer told Austria's APA news agency. According to the Red Cross, there were "no indications that people in the village were at all unhappy."

"It was a shock for us," said Stefan Neubauer, Red Cross spokesman, "It was an act of vandalism with which we have not been confronted yet."

Despite the rising popularity of anti-immigration sentiment, violent attacks against immigrant houses in Austria are relatively rare.

Austria took in some 90,000 asylum seekers, over 1 percent of the country's population. Anti-immigrant crimes were reported to be rising last month, with 1,150 cases of "extremist acts" recorded in 2015. The Interior Ministry reported 25 violations targeting asylum homes in 2015, some by arson or attacks using fireworks.

"There can be no tolerance for extremist criminal acts," Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in a statement. "Violence against those seeking protection is not the solution and is a breeding ground for radicalization."

Neubauer stated that the Red Cross will rebuild the house, estimating the damage at around $335,000.

"We will carry out our duty to aid people looking for help and will seek out discussion with the regional authorities to rebuild the center as soon as possible," said Walter Aichinger, the president of the Red Cross.




BELGRADE (Sputnik)  The protests were held in the capital Zagreb and in 13 other cities across Croatia on Wednesday. The demonstration in Zagrebs main square, held under the slogan "Croatia can do better" attracted 40,000 people, RTL TV said.

Protesters argue that the comprehensive curricular reform, which aims to improve Croatias education system, is being blocked by the countrys center-right government.

The reform was initiated by the former center-left government over a year ago.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The process of creating demilitarized zones beginning with disengagement can be started in Ukraine's breakaway Luhansk region, Alexander Hug, the principal deputy chief monitor of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine, told Sputnik.

In early May, the Normandy Quartet, comprising foreign ministers from Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine, resolved to support the disengagement of forces along the line of contact between Ukrainian army forces and eastern Ukrainian pro-independence militias. At the close of the meeting, Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated that this should be carried out with a view to create demilitarized zones concrete boundaries and deadlines.

"The SMM has supported the idea of disengagement and is ready to work with the sides towards itOne could start this process with places with less complex situation, for example, Stanytsia Luhanska and Zolote-Popasna in Luhansk region. Most violence in Luhansk region occurs in these places," Hug said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Movement restrictions and attacks against the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to Ukraine must stop to enable the mission to contribute to sustaining the ceasefire in Ukraine's breakaway eastern regions, Alexander Hug, the mission's principal deputy chief monitor told Sputnik Thursday.

The OSCE has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Minsk deal provisions on settling the conflict between Kiev and the pro-independence militias in the country's east. The Minsk accords include a full ceasefire, a weapons withdrawal from the line of contact, an all-for-all prisoner exchange, constitutional reforms, including a decentralization of power in the country, and granting special status to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"This must stop if the SMM is to be able to help the sides achieve a sustainable ceasefire. We cannot do our job if those threatening SMM monitors go unpunished. Impunity invites even more threats and attacks. The sides must fully honor the commitments undertaken in Minsk, especially to cease fire and withdraw weapons," Hug said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  NATOs military exercises in Lithuania and Poland destabilize the situation in the region and have the goal of continuing the aggravation of tensions along the Russian border, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov said Thursday.

We are convinced that these exercises carry a serious destabilizing component. Their main goal is to continue the aggravation of tensions along the Russian borders, Meshkov told journalists.

Since 2014 the alliance has been building up its military presence in Europe  especially in Eastern European countries neighboring to Russia, using alleged Russian interference in Ukraine threat as a pretext.
Norway's ongoing economic slump has led to a rising unemployment rate, the outlook being particularly disastrous for the country's foreign workers. The grim situation on the work front has spurred many of them to leave the country.

The current reverse migration trend is more pronounced for Polish workers, with some 3,500 Poles opting to return to their home country. Remarkably, the number of disenchanted migrant workers was also large among Swedes and Germans. The overall number of foreign workers who packed in and left Norway is higher than ever recorded, warned SSB.

Norway's construction industry is among those particularly affected by the stampede, since a large proportion of workers in this sector are from abroad.
The controls were first introduced in November 2015 and are now expected to run until at least November. Sweden's southern neighbor Denmark has opted to extend its own controls likewise.

"The EU has recognized Sweden's need for border controls," Interior Minister Anders Ygeman told public service broadcaster SVT.

The number of people seeking asylum in Sweden has reportedly dropped significantly since the border controls and ID checks were introduced. At present, Sweden takes in an average of under 500 asylum seekers a week, as opposed to almost 10,000 a week during the most hectic months of last autumn.
The Polish government has attempted to mitigate this problem by buying apples from farmers and then distributing the fruits at schools and other social institutions. This action, of course, negatively affects the demand for apples on the domestic market.

"We do not expect any financial support from our politicians. The best we could hope for them to open new markets for us," one Polish farmer told Deutschlandfunk, lamenting that the US and Chinas markets still remain closed for them.

The situation has deteriorated to the point where some farmers, while publicly supporting the anti-Russian sanctions, privately confide that they would are seeking to reduce these punitive measures in order to "assuage Putin", Deutschlandfunk concludes.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairman of Russia's Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Andrei Klimov told RIA Novosti that the European Union MPs are less patronizing towards Russia.

"Some of the MPs with whom I talked say that after Russia drew its red lines, and made it clear that we wont budge from there; and after we proved it with our actions in Crimea, in Syria and in several other areas, they stopped patronizing us," he said.

According to Klimov, the members of the European Parliament now treat Russian officials as "representatives of a great country that conducts an independent foreign policy."

"Furthermore, they finally realized  and I heard people talking about it during several meetings  that the EU sanctions imposed against Russia do not produce the expected results," Klimov added.

The senator also remarked that the EU politicians apparently have not yet found a way to put an end to the sanctions without losing face.
KIEV (Sputnik)  The next meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO)-Ukraine Commission with the participation of Defence Ministers will be held on June 15, the press service of Ukrainian Vice-Prime Minister for European integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said Thursday.

Klympush-Tsintsadze discussed the date of the next meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during their meeting in the NATO headquarters earlier in the day.

"The commission discussed the issues of cooperation between our country with the alliance in the context of preparations for the NATO-Ukraine Commission meeting of Defense Ministers on June 15," the press service said.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)The negotiations among the OSCE, Moldova, Transnistria, Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union were last held in June 2014.

"It is therefore an important milestone that the official 5+2 talks on a settlement of the Transdniestria conflict will resume today, after a two-year break," Steinmeier said ahead of the talks.

Steinmeier noted that Germany was focused on developing a "shared notion" for the breakaway territorys status, which he said should not violate Moldovas territorial integrity.
Speaking in Brussels, European Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said that the EC had adopted an opinion criticizing the Polish government over the ill-fated reforms to Poland's Constitutional Court, noting that these reforms posed "a systemic risk to the rule of law."

The ruling, intended to warn Warsaw to address Brussels' concerns to prevent more serious measures, such as stripping Poland of its voting rights in the bloc or introducing other sanctions, doesn't seem to have worked.

"We've not been able to find a solution to the issues at stake," Timmermans indicated. Nevertheless, he added, "we hope [the opinion] will help focus our dialogue with the government of Poland on issues that we believe need to be solved to get out of the conflict surrounding the Constitutional Tribunal."
Some 1.2 million Armenians were slaughtered or starved to death by the Ottomans during and after the first World War. The Turkish empires policy of ethnic violence was recognized by many European countries and by the European Parliament as the Armenian genocide.

Ankara dismisses any accusations of massacre and rejects the term "genocide," saying that Turkish nationals were also victimized.

The Armenian genocide has been officially recognized by 27 countries, including Russia.
STOCKHOLM(Sputnik)  A court in Sollentuna Municipality north of Stockhom, Sweden sentenced on Thursday a 20-year-old local for five years in prison for preparing a terror attack.

The man was detained on February 11 on the charges of purchasing bomb components with an intention to carry out an explosion, the court said in a statement.
By NATO's own earlier admissions, Sweden is not a spy target for AWACS planes, as their radars are turned off. Instead, Sweden is an important shortcut to the strategically important areas, en route from Norway to Poland and back again.

"This means that if we have to respond quickly to an incident, flying through Sweden saves us time. If we see something happening in the Baltic states, then it is faster to fly straight through Sweden instead of flying around," Lieutenant Colonel Ed Spinelli told Swedish public broadcasting network SVT earlier this year.

After flying over Sweden for roughly two years, AWACS planes took part in a joint Swedish-NATO exercise this spring. In March, Sweden participated in Crisis Management Exercise, a major military exercise, which pitted NATO in a fictitious scenario against Moscow in simulated Russian invasion.

Surprisingly, the Swedish government hastily launched a general mobilization of the entire defense force of almost 60,000 men, a decision which greatly pleased NATO's command. Sweden also allowed NATO aircraft and ships to freely use Swedish territory. Remarkably, the details of exercise were never revealed in full until today. According to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, a number of Swedish ministries and competent bodies participated in the exercise, which lasted from March 9 to 16.
One such example is Turkey, where regardless of the decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights they still practice banning access to websites. Over 110,000 websites are currently blocked in Turkey. On the 18th and 27th March 2014, two separate administrative decisions were made to try and block YouTube and Twitter. This according to the report shows that Turkeys amended Law No. 5651 still does not comply with the European Court requirements.

In both cases the European Court decided that banning Twitter and YouTube was a clear violation of someones freedom of expression.

"Social media platforms provided by the internet are indispensable to individuals for expressing, sharing, spreading and communicating information and ideas. It is, therefore, evident that the state and administrative bodies must demonstrate great sensitivity in regulations and practices with regard to social media, since these have become one of the most effective and widespread methods not only for imparting thoughts but also for obtaining information," the Constitutional Court said in a recent report.
KIEV (Sputnik)  Kiev police asked Ukrainian and international media representatives to submit evidence in a criminal case related with the publication of journalists' personal data on the Ukrainian website Mirotvorets , the police headquarters in Kiev said Thursday.

On May 10, various Ukrainian online media outlets leaked names, e-mails and mobile phone numbers of more than 4,000 journalists from various Ukrainian and international media outlets on the Mirotvorets website. The leak contained personal data of representatives of CNN, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, BBC, New York Times, Vice News and Al Jazeera among others, who were accredited in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk peoples republics in eastern Ukraine.

"For the purpose of an objective investigation and urgent response police asked the media representatives whose names and contact details are available on the pages of the aforementioned website, and which are therefore experiencing impediment of their professional activities, to contact the police investigation department in Kiev to testify as witnesses regarding the presented facts," the police said in a statement.
The couple in question arrived in Germany in August 2015, having traveled together along the Balkan migration route through Turkey and across the sea to Greece.

In September child welfare authorities in the town of Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, separated the couple, and sent 15-year-old Alia, as is usually the case with child refugees, to live in a youth institution under the custody of the local child welfare office.

However, her 21-year-old husband Amir contested the decision in Bavaria's Family Court. In a further sign of protest, both husband and wife boycotted German language lessons.

In court, the child welfare authorities argued that Alia is too young to be married, is not in a position to understand the full consequences of getting married, and should be subject to protection under the German constitution. They added that Amir seems older than 21, and Alia seems younger than 15.

The court ruled that German law should take precedence over Sharia law. The judge decided that contact between the couple should be limited and only take place in the presence of third party, which would also prevent the possibility of Alia becoming pregnant.

However, on May 15 the Bavarian High Court overturned the decision, and gave Alia permission to return to her husband. Via the German Embassy in Lebanon, the authorities had found out that the couple had married legally in Syria, and there existed a civil registration of their marriage.

The state High Court could see no signs that Alia was forced into the marriage, and ruled that since the marriage is lawful, the youth welfare office cannot order the girl to be separated from her husband.
"There is a willingness to discuss this issue, and at the same time there is an understanding that the adoption of any decisions without taking into account the position of the representatives of Donbas is not possible," Peskov added.

He also said that the option of a monitoring mission on the line of contact was under consideration.

The OSCE has been tasked with monitoring the implementation of the Minsk deal provisions on settling the conflict between Kiev and the pro-independence militias in the country's east. The Minsk accords include a full ceasefire and weapons withdrawal from the line of contact. The SMM reports on ceasefire violations by both sides.
Theo M van Lint, Professor of Armenian Studies at the University of Oxford, told Sputnik that the position held by the Turkish government didn't hold up:

"It is completely clear that what happened was genocide and [Turkey's position] is just a continuation of a denialist policy. There can be no doubt about it whatsoever, what happened is completely in line with the United Nations definition of genocide, accepted shortly after the second world war by Raphael Lemkin. It is just Turkey  that is to say its government  that doesn't want to come to terms with what happened."

He added: "I'm very glad that Germany has accepted this, because Germany  after the Second World War  did come to terms with its own past, and I think this is long overdue If you never come to terms with your past then it lingers."

Professor van Lint also argued that the Armenian genocide has received very little attention in terms of a mainstream understanding of history in the region, and that western governments  such as Britain and the US  have been unhelpful, saying:

"They are still unfortunately complicit in a denial  I try to put it very carefully, but I think it is very grave  not encouraging Turkey to come to terms with its past, thereby giving Turkey the impression that it can, with impunity, continue with a denialist course."

Last year saw the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide  during which an estimated 1.2 million Armenians were killed  it has now been officially recognised by 27 countries. Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States however, continue not to recognise the events as "genocide".
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Relations between Moscow and Brussels depend on progress in implementation of the Minsk agreements, Polish President Andrzej Duda said Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Duda held consultations with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Warsaw.

"We also discussed EU-Russia relations The case is based on observance of international law and should be considered in this context. Implementation of the Minsk agreements, normalization of situation in Ukraine, restoration of Ukrainian control over its borders have key importance," Duda said, as quoted by TVN broadcaster.
Rasmussen was NATO's Secretary General just when the war in Ukraine broke out and when the Crimean peninsula reunited with Russia in March 2014. Therefore, it was Rasmussen who scolded Moscow most violently in a burst of anti-Russian rhetoric, typical of NATO's campaign of condemnation.

Rasmussem's profile as a stalwart antagonist of Moscow is part of the explanation why he was offered the job in Ukraine, said Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko of the Kiev-based think-tank Penta.

"This is an important signal, because he is a prominent figure. It shows that Ukraine is not alone in its conflict with Russia," Fesenko told the Danish newspaper Berlingske.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday welcomed Germanys efforts to combat the refugee crisis after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"I welcome very much Germanys leadership in responding to refugee and migrant crisis," Stoltenberg told reporters.

According to the NATO chief, the Alliance notes a substantial reduction in a number of crossings into the European Union "due to the broad international effort which NATO is a part of."
BERLIN (Sputnik)  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday she would welcome a NATO-Russia Council meeting ahead of the alliances July summit.

Merkel was speaking at a press conference following talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Berlin. The NATO Summit will take place in Warsaw on July 8-9.

"We said today that it would be preferable to convene another NATO-Russia Council meeting before the Warsaw Summit," Merkel told journalists.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Yerevan and Ankara should study the events of 1915 when 1.2 million Armenians were killed by the Ottoman Empire together and reach a common view on what happened, Ambassador of Finland to the Republic of Armenia Christer Michelsson told Sputnik on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the German parliament voted to pass a resolution recognizing the 1915-1916 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as "genocide."

"It would be very good if this question is analyzed by historians from both countries  Armenia and Turkey, and they would together study these difficult days in the history of their countries, and we think it would be good, desirable if Armenia and Turkey come to a common view on the 1915," Michelsson said.
RIGA (Sputnik)  Latvian Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis and Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Angel Gurria signed an agreement on Latvian accession to the OECD in Paris, the Latvian government's press service said Thursday.

"After the treaty signing and its ratification in the Latvian Parliament, the country will officially become the 35th member of the OECD. The Parliament is expected to take a decision on ratification on June 16," the government announced.

The signing ceremony was attended by Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis. The negotiations on Latvia's accession to the OECD began in 2013, when Dombrovskis served as Latvia's prime minister.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The situation in Ukraine and in Syria, as well as security in the Baltic Sea will be the central topics of the upcoming meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia and Finland next week in Moscow, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

Finnish Minister Timo Soini will visit Moscow on June 6.

"The topics of the meeting will be the situation in Ukraine and in Syria, security developments in the Baltic Sea region, and other topical international questions," the statement read.
Back then too, he noted, "some republics were also clear donors, pulling others along on their coattails. And these disparities in the economic development of certain regions of the EU have manifested themselves. The problem is that a political decision was made by European bureaucrats to incorporate countries into the union which could not meet the criteria for economic and social development of countries like the Netherlands, France or Germany."

"If at first, in the 1960s and 1970s, the European Economic Community," the predecessor to today's EU, "really was a community and association of advanced economies, somewhere at the end of the 90s, with the incorporation of the countries of Eastern Europe, the bloc has increasingly become dominated by politics, rather than economic expediency. In the end, these disparities between political will and economic viability have led to many Europeans' frustration in the EU as a tool which had originally been designed, above all, to strengthen the competitive advantage of the European economy."

Asked to comment on the upcoming Brexit referendum, and whether it might result in a chain reaction of EUexit referendums, Kamkin emphasized that it's not worth exaggerating. "The UK, after all, has always held a semi-isolationist position with regard to European integration. This included the preservation of its national currency and the rejection of the Schengen area. In other words, Britain tried to take maximum advantage of EU membership, while taking up a minimum of obligations."

"Now, [many] Britons feel that the piggy bank of benefits has been exhausted, and that it's time to get off the sinking ship, so to speak. This is the position of Brexit supporters. But it's unlikely that the Brexit itself might influence the collapse of the EU. Rather, it can be assumed that if the migration crisis grows, if an agreement on Transatlantic partnership that is so obviously unfavorable to the European economy is signed, then, influenced by economic lobbies or governments, or by opposition parties, legal initiatives will be floated to withdraw from the EU"
PARIS (Sputnik)  In August 2015, Paris and Moscow formally terminated the 1.2-billion-euro (some $1.3 billion at current exchange rates) deal on the construction and delivery of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers. Shortly after, French President Francois Hollande confirmed that a deal had been reached with Egypt on the delivery of two Mistrals to the Arab country.

"The ceremony of the transfer of the vessel, as planned, was held today in Saint-Nazaire. We can say that the carrier has been officially handed over to Egypt, and it is at [Cairo's] disposal from today," the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, the first Mistral warship handed over to Egypt, named after legendary Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, will leave Saint-Nazaire for Egypt the next week, with the Egyptian seamen on board.
He further explained that for Poland, it is a good foreign policy leverage to solve a number of issues. In addition, it means allocation of additional funds.

Poland insists on the deployment of a NATO base on its territory, which will bring in billions of US dollars per year, he said. And the deployment of a NATO missile defense base, which was recently announced, also brings good money. Money which Warsaw is counting on.

Meanwhile, he added, other NATO European member states are forced to increase their military budgets with the Baltic States topping the list.

In due time, they were joining NATO with the purpose of reducing their military expenses and, under coverage of the Alliance to focus more on economics rather than the development of thier own military forces, Konovalov explained.

However NATO insisted that all its member states should allocate 2 per cent of their budget for military purposes, which they are trying to do, with moans and groans, he added.

Meanwhile, Moscow repeatedly said that the actions of the US and NATO in deploying a missile defense system in Europe pose a certain threat to regional security as well as Russias national security and could undermine the strategic stability in the region.
Danas reported that EU officials believe Croatia and Serbia should resolve their differences via bilateral talks, rather than through Serbia's accession process.

They told the newspaper that Brussels would fast-track Serbia's route to the EU like that of neighboring Montenegro, if it joined Podgorica in endorsing NATO and anti-Russian sanctions.

"Danas' sources give the example of Montenegro, which is quickly progressing through the EU accession process and has a completely different political stance, because Podgorica has distanced itself from Moscow, put in place sanctions against Russia and therefore enabled the doors to the EU and NATO to open quickly," Danas reported.

On Wednesday Serbian political analyst Dragomir Andelkovic told Serbia's news portal Telegraf that the deadlock to Serbia's accession process was actually broken by last week's meeting between Serbian Prime Minister Alexander Vucic and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In his view, by demonstrating Belgrade's close ties with Moscow, Western countries which had been supportive of Croatia's veto backed off.

"The meeting between Vucic and Putin had a great impact on some Western powers, because it showed that Serbia has a geopolitical alternative, that it has the backing of a great power like Russia. That's the reason why some Western powers started putting pressure on Croatia to stop blocking Serbia's negotiations with the EU as soon as possible," Andelkovic said.
BERLIN (Sputnik)  Murder of journalists in Ukraine must be investigated, Gemma Poerzgen, a journalist and board member of Reporters Without Borders Germany, said Thursday.

"Our demand is, of course, to remind that there were murders [of journalists in Ukraine] and that they must be investigated," Poerzgen said in Berlin where she presented her report on the situation with journalists and media in Ukraine called "Facing Reality After the Euromaidan."

She added that there were no more murders of journalists in Ukraine now.
In September 2015, German Chancellor Angela Merkel astonished observers when she decided to open Germany's borders to thousands of migrants, many of whom were waiting in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Consequently, during 2015 a record 1.1 million refugees and migrants entered Germany, and September was a record month in which between 270,000 and 280,000 newcomers arrived in Germany, according to official figures.

On Wednesday the German magazine Bild reported government sources in Berlin and Vienna, who said that Merkel's government made the unexpected decision after Hungary deliberately misinformed them about the number of migrants waiting to enter Germany.
Earlier in the day, Germany joined the ranks of European countries recognizing the 1915-1916 mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Before the vote, proposed by lawmakers from the ruling coalition of Conservatives and Socialists together with the Green party, Ankara said its relations with Germany would deteriorate in case the resolution was passed.

"This resolution was discussed last year, and its adoption had been delayed because of a false diplomacy of the CDU/CSU [the ruling coalition under Chancellor Angela Merkel] and the SPD [Social Democratic Party] towards the Turkish authorities because of Turkey's part in NATO," Dagdelen said.
Morrison, whose new campaign was officially launched Thursday, said the cost in Scotland had been felt across all sectors, but especially among the fishing industry.

"Fishermen in Peterhead in the north east of Scotland lost 14 million [$20 million] in lost mackerel sales in the first four months following the introduction of sanctions. We shot ourselves in the foot by backing sanctions. Its no wonder the whole fishing community are now very strongly in favour of backing the campaign for Leave as you would expect," Morrison, an SNP member for 50 years and former local party chairman, said.

Morrison told Sputnik that the United Kingdom forced Russia to turn toward the East and it had turned its back on the West. The clock of the bilateral relationships has been put back 40 or 50 years because of the doings of unelected and unaccountable European Union, he said.

According to the veteran SNP activist, support for an EU exit among party members is running around 30 percent.

"Polls suggest that about 30 percent of SNP members back a vote to Leave the EU. People I have spoken to within the SNP have mixed views just as views are mixed amongst the wider public," Morrison said.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  UK nationals are set to vote on June 23 in a referendum on the country's EU membership, after Cameron and the leaders of other 27 EU member states agreed in February to grant the United Kingdom a special status within the bloc. The rival campaigns officially started in early April.

Getting out of the single European market would be a "self-inflicted wound for Britain," Cameron said during the Sky Newss In or Out EU referendum program.

He stressed that the single market had a unified set of rules, and if the United Kingdom left the market, the country would lose the ability to shape the rules that determine the single market.
"The EU encourages further, meaningful steps paving the way towards full reconciliation between Turkish and Armenian civil societies. The EU remains committed to the normalization process of relations between Turkey and Armenia and encourages both sides to continue to engage in this process without preconditions," Kocijancic stated.

While recognizing that there continue to be different views among the EU member states on the issue of 1915 events, the European Union is searching for ways to advance and support reconciliation, she added.
KALININGRAD (Sputnik)  The European Union is interested in the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions in case of the Minsk agreements' implementation, EU Ambassador to Russia Vygaudas Usackas said Thursday.

"We want to lift the sanctions entirely, when the Minsk agreements will be fulfilled. But I'd rather not talk about the details here, in Kaliningrad, when we are not talking about sanctions, but about how to maintain and promote the cooperation and those projects, which have a good example," Usackas told journalists.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, Germany joined the ranks of European countries recognizing the 1915-1916 mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Before the vote, proposed by lawmakers from the ruling coalition of Conservatives and Socialists together with the Green Party, Ankara said its relations with Germany would deteriorate in case the resolution was passed.

"The decision of the German parliament is an entirely politicized step, which is a serious blow to the Turkish-German friendship and cooperation. The decision of the Bundestag does not consider the presence of more than 3 million Turks in Germany and the efforts made by these people for Germany's stability and prosperity," Mustafa Yeneroglu said.

He added that the vote also cast a shadow over Turkey's attempts to normalize its relations with Armenia in recent years.
Hundreds of migrants coming ashore on the Greek islands of Samos, Lesbos and Chios find themselves locked up for months at the so-called hotspots, created as part of the EU-Turkey migrant deal. Under the deal, Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants that crossed into Europe through Turkey.

Last month, the Human Rights Watch issued a report saying that inhumane detention conditions in Greek centers processing refugees create a volatile atmosphere that contributes to daily violence.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to Naranjo, Ecuadors government will contribute 63 percent, or $2.253 billion of the $3.344 million needed for the reconstruction. The rest will be provided by the private sector, the official said at a Wednesday press conference, as cited by teleSUR TV.

In April, Ecuador was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed hundreds of people, injuring over 12,000 and causing serious damage along the countrys Pacific coast.

In May, a 6.7 and a 6.8 magnitude earthquakes hit Ecuadors western coast, injuring dozens of people.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The demonstrators, predominantly women, carried signs saying "Women Without Fear," calling for the protection of womens rights and also calling for Brazils Acting President Michel Temer to step down.

In May, a video was posted on the internet, which showed a naked teenage girl seemingly unconscious on a bed as a man says that over 30 men "have gone through it." Last Thursday, Rio police took testimony from the 16-year-old, who said she was drugged and raped by 33 men.

Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the rape case.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Bolivia is eager to acquire peaceful nuclear power despite external opposition, the country's President Evo Morales told Sputnik on Thursday.

"We do have this desire, with peaceful aims. Why not? There are certain large states that argue with countries that want to acquire atomic energy, but they themselves have nuclear weapons. We are not thinking about nuclear weapons, but we not being allowed to develop," Morales said.

In May 2014, Morales revealed that his country was working on the development of its nuclear energy industry with support from Argentina. In October 2015, Bolivia's Energy Minister Luis Alberto Sanchez signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia's Rosatom, which stipulated the creation of a research center and the provision of personnel training, assisting in managing and regulating Bolivia's nuclear power program and consulting on potential nuclear power plant construction. The research center agreement was signed on March 6.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Russia and China are prepared to invest in the Bolivian economy and it demonstrates stability, Bolivian President Evo Morales told Sputnik in an interview.

"Now China and Russia know that we have stability in our economy and they want to invest, while the United States are standing against our brothers, hampering them, asking questions, keeping watch over the investments from China and Russia," Morales said.

The president pointed out that Russia and China never imposed conditions for their investments, as opposed to the United States that offered loans in exchange for privatization of Bolivian companies and natural resources.
The construction of the Olympic objects for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and all the related works in Brazil's Rio will be completed on time, according to Antonio Jose Vallim Guerreiro.

"All the Olympic objects will be finished on time," the ambassador assured, starting the 60-day countdown to the Olympics.

The Olympic Games will take place on the territory of four clusters in Rio, namely Deodoro, Barra da Tijuca, Maracana and Copacabana.

"We hope the flow of tourists, including from the Russian Federation will be large, and they would not restrict their visit by Rio," the diplomat noted.

The 2016 games in Rio will mark the first time that the Olympics and Paralympics take place in South America.

The Olympics in Rio will take place on August 5-21. The Patalympics will be held between September 7 and 18.
In particular, the Bolivian president welcomed Russia's energy giant Gazprom as a partner to participate in gas and oil projects developed by the countrys companies.

"We have many companies working in Bolivia as partners, they were owners before, in the filed of hydrocarbons in particular. But not now. We are partners Gazprom is welcome as a partner of our companies, this is the model we have, and we agree," he said, adding that Bolivia hopes to sign agreements with Gazprom at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in June on the exploration of six gas fields in the country.

President Morales invited Russian companies to participate in Bolivian electrical projects, saying that the country might become a great energy power but needed foreign investments to achieve that.

"If any Russian private or state company wants to invest as a partner of Bolivian companies, [this is] welcome Of course, these large-scale projects we have we cannot develop alone. We understand this. We need the presence of foreign investment. If we tell Russia 'welcome,' then it will have investment in Bolivia guaranteed by the [Bolivian] Constitution," the president said.

He also said Bolivia would increase financing the joint construction of a nuclear center with Russia's Rosatom.

The Bolivian president also noted that the country plans to return to the topic of purchasing Russian helicopters for the fight against drug trafficking.

CRITICISM OF US POLICY

President Morales also criticized the US policy obstructing Russian and Chinese business in Bolivia.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro declared an economic emergency in Venezuela in January. The announcement came two days after Venezuelas oil price dropped to $24 a barrel, the lowest mark in 12 years. Up to 96 percent of Venezuelas budget depends on oil revenues. The measure has since been extended.

The latest high-profile victim of the economic crisis in Venezuela was the countrys independent Coca-Cola bottler FEMSA, which halted production because of a sugar shortage. Last month, Venezuelas largest food and beverage company Polar Group said it was suspending making beer and other malt beverages because of shortages in barley.
DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  More than 30 Red Crescent trucks carrying humanitarian aid in cooperation with the United Nations entered the Syrian town of Moadamyeh, Damascus province, Moadamyeh Mayor Beesam Quarbuj told Sputnik Wednesday.

"Red Crescent trucks delivered aid to Moadamyeh," Quarbuj said, adding that 30 of the trucks were carrying food and the other seven  medical supplies.
TEL AVIV (Sputnik)  Israeli police confirmed the arrest of Bassam Safadi, a correspondent of the Iranian Arabic-language Al-Alam TV channel, an Israeli police spokesperson said on Wednesday.

"He is suspected of spreading information in support of a terrorist organization as well as inciting of violence and terrorism," the spokesperson told RIA Novosti.

Earlier in the day, the Al-Alam news channel said that Israel arrested Safadi, an Israeli citizen of the Arab origin, who lived in the Golan Heights region.
Similar reports were received from other areas in Syria, further jeopardizing the vaccination campaign, the health chiefs noted.

"On 1 June, a UNICEF supported clinic in the city of Aleppo was hit, injuring over 40 people among them a pregnant woman who lost her baby," Alwan and Salama stated.

Since the beginning of 2016, there have been reports of attacks on 17 health care facilities across Syria. Only one third of hospitals currently function in the country, the joint statement noted.

"Attacks on health facilities are increasing in frequency and scale. Such attacks are blatant violations of International Humanitarian Law. Health workers, patients and health facilities must be protected, and civilians allowed unrestricted access to urgently needed health services," the statement maintained.

WHO and UNICEF appealed to all parties involved in the conflict in Syria to end the violence, so that health workers could resume the vaccination campaign in safety, Alwan and Salama added.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The alerts from the Aircraft Communication Addressing and Reporting System (Acars) came each time the plane took off from various airports on May 19, the day of the crash, the newspaper said on Wednesday.

"This type of aircraft is equipped with several optical detectors that are responsible for capturing any smoke clearances and automatically transmit them to the Acars system to which they are connected," an airport source told the newspaper adding that the sensors can be disturbed by moisture or steam air conditioning, but have been recently "significantly improved" to avoid false alarms.
However, Churkin cautioned against depending on aerial delivery of relief aid, saying that "one has to be reasonable in terms of the actual effectiveness of those things."

Last week, the Russian Defense Ministry announced it had used parachute systems to deliver more than 32 tons of food supplied by the United Nations to Deir ez-Zor, a city in eastern Syria.
ERBIL (Iraq) (Sputnik)  Iraqi border guards denied media reports about initiating the construction of military bases with Iran in Kurdistan region of Iraq, the press service of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said Thursday.

"All the reports claiming the Iranian military presence in Iraq are not true. We emphasize that no Iranian troops are present in Iraqi Kurdistan, especially in the areas which we control. The public in Kurdistan should not believe this kind of rumors," the press service quoted a representative of the third border guard brigade, which belongs to the Iraqi Ministry of Internal Affairs, as saying.

Last week, Arabic and Turkish media reported that Tehran had launched construction of the largest missile base in the Syrian Coastal Mountain Range in Iraqi Kurdistan, which reportedly aims to protect the religious borders of Iran.
The Syrian Army along with its allies are preparing for a broad military operation in the direction of Deir ez-Zor (also spelled Deir Ezzor) from the direction of Palmyra. It will begin within the next few days as soon as preparations are complete, an informed source told Sputnik on Wednesday.

In its analysis of the upcoming operation, Russian online newspaper Vzglyad compares it with the operation which liberated the ancient city of Palmyra.

This is not such a long road (from Palmyra to Deir ez-Zor), besides there are mostly light mobile squads of terrorists operating on the ground and the aerial support of Russian combat helicopters will be enough to destroy those, the newspaper says.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)A transitional governing body in Syria may be formed as early as in August, following the work carried out in this direction by Russia and the United States, the leader of the Party for Syrian State Building, told Sputnik.

I think that in August we will already have some transitional power. May be it will fail afterwards, but the desire to form it comes from above, from Russia and the United States, Luai Hussein said.

He added that success of the political process in Syria is in both powers interests. Each of them wants to make a contribution to the victory over terrorism in the region.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Taliban fighters have abducted 17 bus passengers in Afghanistan's northern Sar-e Pol province, local media said Thursday.

"All people who were abducted were non-governmental people and they released the women and children," local government spokesman Zabihullah Amani said, as quoted by the TOLOnews channel.

Police have started a search operation, he added, noting that it has so far been unsuccessful. The incident occurred late on Wednesday.
TEL AVIV (Sputnik)  Israeli military shoot dead a Palestine female, who allegedly tried to attack an Israeli soldier with a knife in the West Bank, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman said Thursday.

"Assailant w/ knife tried to stab #IDF soldier at a post near Tulkarem. Forces responded to threat & shot attacker, resulting in her death," Peter Lerner wrote on his Twitter account.

Assailant w/ knife tried to stab #IDF soldier at a post near Tulkarem. Forces responded to threat & shot attacker, resulting in her death.  Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) June 2, 2016

The woman is said to be dead. No victims are reported from the military's side.
PARIS (Sputnik)  A total of 28 delegations have confirmed their participation in the upcoming international Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Paris on June 3, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said Thursday.

"Tomorrow in Paris, France will greet 28 delegations attending the ministerial meeting, which will be the first stage of the Middle East peace initiative. The meeting will be chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development Jean-Marc Ayrault and will be inaugurated by the president of the Republic [Francois Hollande]," Nadal stated a press briefing.

The conference's participants will assess the situation that involves possible risks for the two states' concept, he added. They plan to discuss the means to implement this concept and the possibility of rapprochement between the Palestinians and the Israelis in order to hold an international conference at the end of 2016.
ANKARA (Sputnik)  Syrian Kurds will play an auxiliary role in the anti-Daesh operation in the city of Manbij by providing logistical support to Arab troops, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday, citing US intelligence.

"As far as I know, the Syrian Democratic Forces comprise some 450 Kurdish self-defense militiamen and 2,500 Arabs We've talked to the American military. They say Kurdish forces will provide logistical support during the operation, while Arabs will play the main role," Erdogan told journalists, as quoted by the NTV broadcaster, during his visit to Kenya.

On Wednesday, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States, launched an offensive to force the Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in many countries worldwide including Russia, out of the Syrian city of Manbij in the north of the country.
Speaking to Russia's Izvestia newspaper, Suleiman suggested that the shift in strategy was demonstrated most recently by the Syrian Democratic Forces' participation in an offensive against the Daesh-controlled city of Manbij in northern Syria. The capture of the city and the surrounding area would completely block off the terrorists' supply route from Turkey, the officer indicated.

At the same time, Suleiman said, "the US position on Daesh has always been two-sided. They say one thing and do another. And in this case it's not about cutting off the terrorists' connection with Turkey, but the expansion of the zone of influence of the Kurds, and then using this to their advantage."

"In essence," the officer warned, "Syria in some sense is seeing a repeat of the situation in which Germany was after the Second World War, when the country was divided into zones of influence. We know, of course, that Russia adheres to the UN Charter and the concept of respect for the sovereignty of other countries. But US policy has, on the contrary, throughout history, testified to constant violations of international law."


BERLIN (Sputnik)The 2,000-year-old city was recaptured in March from Islamic State militants by Syrian troops with air support from Russian jets. The UN culture agency UNESCO sent its first mission to assess the damage in April and is holding an expert meeting in Berlin with Syrian historians.

"Photos Ive seen suggest that the structures collapsed. This means that restoring them might be not that difficult," Prof. Hermann Parzinger, head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (SPK), said.

In Iraq, many ancient clay buildings were reduced to dust by Islamists, while in Syrias Palmyra structures were built of stone blocks and crumbled after they were detonated. They could still be pieced back together, according to the archaeologist.
Selcen said that one of Turkey's tactics in Syria is to isolate the Turkish-Syrian border area from Syrian government forces, from Daesh, and from the (primarily Kurdish) People's Protection Units (YPG).

However, the strategy is fundamentally flawed, and the Turkish government is not in agreement about its merits.

"The rhetoric and actions of the Turkish government regarding Syria and other areas of foreign policy is constantly changing. There isn't one balanced political strategy, that's why Turkey's seriousness, predictability and dependability as a player on the international scene are in doubt."

"Everybody is listening to the announcements, and not the real actions. That has led to the US, which has seen the inconsistency and ineffectiveness of Turkish-supported groups in clearing the border of Daesh fighters, to give the 'green light' to the SDF in the region," he said.

Selcen said that Turkey will be faced with greater threats to national security as Daesh and al-Nusra Front fighters lose their positions in Syria and are forced back towards the Turkish border and the territory from which they receive the logistical support to launch their attacks: these include the Turkish provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep, and Kilis.

"Without establishing connections with the Kurdish community in Syria and Iraq, with the Democratic Union Party and the Kurdish YPG units in Syria, we can't guarantee the security of our border territory."

"However, Turkey is doing the opposite, conducting operations within its borders which only increase tensions with its neighbors."

"If Ankara's foreign policy strategy is not revised in the near future, all the indications are that we will unfortunately have a very nervous summer," Selcen said.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The Daesh jihadist group increased attacks in Syria by 39 percent in 2015, US Department of State said in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism released on Thursday.

"While the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was responsible for 31% fewer terrorist attacks in Iraq, the number of attacks carried out by ISIL in Syria increased by 39%," the report stated.

The State Department noted that the geographic reach of attacks by the Daesh, which has been outlawed in many countries, including Russia, has expanded because several terrorist organizations pledged allegiance to the group.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The Syrian government is cooperating with the United Nations to make humanitarian aid available to all Syrian citizens amid international concerns of food and medicine availability, Syrian presidential advisor Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban said on Thursday.

"About the Syrian government not allowing aid drops, I would like to [say] that these are our people in Syria and we are trying our best with the UN representative here to find the best way to make all medicine, all food within reach of every single citizen in Syria," Shaaban told reporters at the National Press Club via satellite connection.

Western media outlets have alleged that the Syrian government is blocking humanitarian aid from reaching besieged areas in Syria. On Thursday, US and British officials denounced the Syrian government for allegedly allowing only limited amounts of aid into the cities of Darayya and Muadhamiya.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Militant groups affiliated with the Nusra Front group continue their attempts to derail the Syrian cessation of hostilities, the Russian reconciliation center said Thursday.

"Groups of the Nusra Front terrorist organization are not abandoning their attempts to derail the cessation of hostilities. In the past 24 hours, [they] shelled, using makeshift artillery and mortar shells, districts of Aleppo," the center said as quoted by the Russian defense Ministry.

The Nusra Front militant group is banned in Russia.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States is ready to deliver assistance to Iraqi civilians when they come out of the city of Fallujah amid the ongoing offensive by security forces against the Islamic State (IS, or Daesh), US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq Joseph Pennington told Sputnik on Thursday.

"We [the United States] and others in the international community and the NGO community are prepared when civilians come out of Fallujah to provide them with the assistance that they need," Pennington said.

On Wednesday, US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said the United States was deeply concerned about the civilian population that was trapped in Fallujah amid the start of the Iraqi militarys offensive against the Islamic State.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Tel Aviv and Ankara are "very close" to reaching a reconciliation agreement, after almost six years of tensions, Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday.

"This agreement is significant for Israel from a national security perspective, and its economic significance is far reaching and has ramifications in the spheres of tourism and energy, and has the potential of influencing the construction sector as well The agreements between us and the Turks are ready in almost all aspects," Gallant said, as quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  When asked if the United States would support Iranian troops or any other foreign troops in Iraqi Kurdistan or find their presence beneficial, Pennington said that "those decisions are up to the government of Iraq."

Earlier this week, Arabic news channels spread information about alleged participation of high-ranking Iranian military officers in liberation of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, controlled by the Islamic State (IS) terror group, outlawed in Russia.

Pennington also said that the United States encourages the governments of Iraq and Turkey to resolve Ankaras cross-border military incursions.
According to the reconciliation center, the locals have been reporting an "intense movement" of militants in regions north of the city of Aleppo.

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.
In a strong message to Italian firm Leonardo-Finmeccanica, India's Union Minister for Communication and Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that India is unmoved by the firm's threat to withdraw its businesses from India.

"As a spokesperson of the Union Cabinet, I would like to make it clear that our government does not fear and is not moved by any kind of intimidationThe Defense Ministry would respond in the most appropriate manner to prove that this development will not hamper the modernization of the Indian Navy or the country's other security forces."

Prasad said this is in response to Leonardo-Finmeccanica's statement which read, "India is an interesting market for Leonardo-Finmeccanica, and therefore the Company hopes that an agreed and transparent solution is found as soon as possible, in order to shed light on current initiatives and future business opportunities. Should this not be the case, the Company will not refrain from assessing the situation given the limited size of the ongoing business in the country."
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  L-3 Communications, one of the ten largest US defense contractors, will also support the KDC-10 including the Remote Aerial Refueling Operator System for the Netherlands, the Defense Department pointed out.

"L-3 Communications, Vertex Aerospace LLC (L-3) [in] Madison, Mississippi, has been awarded a $1,910,525,014 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for KC/KDC-10 airframe contractor logistics support," the announcement said on Wednesday.

Work will be performed at Travis Air Force Base, California; McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey; Greensboro, North Carolina; and the Netherlands, and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2025, the announcement noted.
At the same time, according to Krasovitsky, in addition to getting a new generation of Yaroslavl-built engines, the Tigr will also receive a number of other improvements, related for the most part to mine and anti-ballistics protection.

"Our equipment is in demand," he said. "In 2015, we closed out the state order on time and without any penalties. Growth in production amounts to between 20 to 25 percent per year, which allows us to expand our capacity and to hire new workers."

The Gaz-2330 Tigr is a family of Russian off-road vehicles, developed in the early 2000s and produced beginning in 2004 at the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, part of the Military Industrial Company. The vehicle is produced in a variety of configurations, and is available for both civilian and military use. The vehicle has also been successfully exported to the countries across the former Soviet Union, China, Mongolia, and several states in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.
The poll also indicates growing support for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (afD) party, a leading alternative to Merkels conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party. A February poll identified the refugee crisis as the chancellors biggest challenge, with 81% of respondents saying that they did not believe that Merkels administration had the migrant situation under control.

The situation for Merkels government looks to worsen in coming months, with the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) announcing plans in May to spend $105 billion (94 billion Euros) on incoming refugees over the next five years, an amount that rivals one year of the countrys military budget.

The new state expenditures come at a time when record numbers of German children are experiencing poverty, with 1.5 million needing assistance from the government, or approximately 14% of the countrys children. Figures from the Federal Employment Agency reflect that every third child living in Berlin is dependent on welfare.
With the once vibrant South American economic powerhouse reeling under a neoliberal agenda, Loud & Clears Brian Becker sat down on Wednesday with Aline C. Piva and Juliana Moraes, of the group Brazilian Expats for Democracy, to discuss what might happen next.

In the two weeks that Temers transition government has held power, it has moved to unravel the countrys social welfare state, eliminating the minister of culture, and has moved to replace regional commitments and the BRICS alliance with renewed deregulated system of trade with the United States. Temer, to many Brazilians is systematically reversing 13 years of policies advanced by the Workers Party.

"Brazilians have taken to the streets," said Piva. "When Michel Temer first assumed control of the government he started a rollback of the social policies that have been in effect for a decade and a half in Brazil. He cut back social programs and he extinguished the minister of culture. In less than one week he rolled back 13 years of social achievement."

The current administration is evidently corrupt, but what about Dilma Rousseff?

"There are no investigations under Dilma Rousseffs name for corruption, and there is nothing that would show that she is a corrupt politician," explained Moraes. "What we are seeing is that the people who are looking to oust her actually have dirty records. The current interim president is supposed to be somebody who is unelectable. He has dirty records, which mean corruption charges against him, so for the next eight years he is not supposed to even be in office."
In its first years, over $200 billion of infrastructure projects have been planned for construction and another $1 trillion in projects are on the horizon, dwarfing US foreign investment by several orders of magnitude.

A proliferation of economic prosperity to purchase political goodwill is not novel, as many compare the Chinese effort to the post-World War II Marshall Plan, an enormous investment effort into Europe ostensibly to prevent the continent from becoming communist and becoming a satellite region in the Soviet Unions sphere of influence.

More recently, China has employed a similar strategy in Africa, leading many of the continents countries to support Beijings positions in the United Nations and, in Afghanistan, to garner Kabuls support for Chinas territorial positions in the South China Sea dispute.

As the US continues to expend resources to maintain its sphere of influence in the West by bankrolling NATO, despite growing economic deficits, regional advances by China leave Washington scrambling.
"These repeated attempted launches are in grave violation of the DPRKs international obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013) and 2270 (2016)," the statement said.

The Security Council regretted that North Korea was diverting resources to try and develop its own ballistic missiles while the countrys 25.5 million people suffered extreme privation.
High tensions remain in Syria despite the ceasefire.

It's important to close the Turkish-Syrian border to stop supplying terrorists with arms, Zakahrova told journalists.

"We were shocked by pictures presented by the media, where Daesh terrorists posed with so-called 'moderate rebels'. You could see a picture of smiling militants posing alongside terrorists who behead prisoners," Maria Zakharova said.

"We call on the international community to unite in fighting terrorism," Zakharova said.

The only way to overcome the crisis in Syria is through peace talks, Zakharova added.

Airstrikes in Idlib

Turkey's leadership has baselessly accused Russia of launching an airstrike on civilian targets in the Syrian province of Idlib. The Russian Aerospace Forces have not conducted any military tasks in that area.

"Let me remind that Russia was one of the initiators of the ceasefire in the region," Zakharova said.

Those who can be blamed for ceasefire violations are terrorists. The peaceful settlement in Syria could be achieved only by eliminating terrorist groups in Syria.

Teen Refugees in Turkey

The human rights of minors residing in Turkish refugee camps have been violated regularly. Some facilities in Turkey use child labor.

"We have the impression that Europe does not pay attention to the fact that teen refugees are being raped in Turkey," Zakharova said.

Turkish Kurds

Turkeys claims that Moscow has allegedly supplied the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group with weapons are "fiction" and have nothing to do with reality, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

"Of course, these claims of Ankara are an example of yet another fiction, this is all nonsense and has nothing in common with reality. Unlike Turkey, Russia does not take part in illegal arms deliveries," Maria Zakharova told a briefing.

Zakharova noted that Moscow had supplied some Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga militias with arms following a corresponding agreement with Baghdad.

Cooperation with the US

Addressing joint projects between the United States and Russia in Syria, Zakharova said that Moscow was ready to cooperate with Washington more actively.

"Of course, it [the cooperation] could be carried out more intensively and more efficiently. We are ready for it. There was not a single time when we refused to coordinate our activity, to provide any information to our American colleagues," Zakharova told journalists.

Russian Foreign Ministry presented official Instagram account:
"Turkey is not going to accept the decision of the German Parliament on the subject, that even historians cannot agree on. We summoned the Turkish ambassador from Germany for consultations," Yildirim told journalists in Ankara.

The Turkish embassy in Berlin however has not confirmed this information yet. At the same time, The German Ambassador to Turkey has also been summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that German genocide resolution will "seriously" affect relations between the two countries.
"In Germany, the petition, promoted by Helga Zepp-LaRouche of the Bueso party is waking up the peace movement which has been dormant so far. Rallies and events against NATO deployments have taken place in Ramstein and elsewhere," he pointed out.

"In France, 700 people signed [the petition] within a few hours. Many Frenchmen are furious that after Sarkozy, Hollande has made France integrate even more with NATO. The petition has also been signed by presidential "left Gaullist" candidate Jacques Cheminade, who stressed in a recent interview with RT that the current situation is "worse" than the Cuban Missile Crisis," the French journalist underscored.

"In Italy the petition promoted by Movisol was signed by former Senator Lidia Menapace, a famous anti-fascist partisan which recently denounced Renzi's violation of the Italian Constitution. Another supporter is Elena Fontana, a former city councilwoman from Chiari (Brescia), now representing center-right parties and PdL (The People of Freedom) of [Silvio] Berlusconi. Signers and promoters of the petition will participate with other actors of the peace movement in a Bologna demonstration organized by Portico della Pace against the NATO nuclear modernization drive," Vereycken told Sputnik.

"In Belgium, Agora Erasmus, a co-sponsor of the petition, has participated in a similar demonstration in Brussels. Several Belgian MPs, who signed a previous petition against the modernization of nuclear weapons on Belgian soil, are expected to sign the new petition," he stressed.

According to Karel Vereycken, a combination of a failing financial system  "as seen in the case of Greece"  with a growing drumbeat for war and a full-scale modernization of US nuclear weapons stationed in Europe clearly shows that the European leaders refuse to learn the lessons of history.

Meanwhile, "NATO is "playing" dangerous war games without realizing this isn't a game," the journalist underscored, referring to Swiss economist Gothard Frick, who wrote in his mid-May article for the Chinese daily Global Times that it is not Russia who is threatening peace today.

The goal of the current initiative is not to have some "other petition" but to spark a broad public outcry against the countdown for war which consciously or not, is putting world peace in grave danger, Vereycken stressed.
Each time the European Union's sanctions against Russia come up for renewal, there's speculation that some countries might break ranks and vote against the trade and financing restrictions, Bloomberg columnist Leonid Bershidsky writes in his article.

So far, he further notes, these hopes have been dashed by the tough stance of the US administration, which views sanctions as a deterrent against further Russian aggression, and by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was outraged by Putin's treatment of Ukraine.

Now, both these obstacles have lessened somewhat, he states.
YEREVAN (Sputnik)  Armenia welcomes the German parliaments decision to adopt a resolution recognizing the Ottoman Empires violence against Armenians during World War I as genocide, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Bundestag passed in a near-unanimous vote the resolution to recognize the 1915 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire authorities as genocide.

"Statement by German President Joachim Gauck in connection with the 100th anniversary of the genocide of the Armenians, combined with the resolution adopted by the Bundestag, is a valuable German contribution not only to the cause of the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal struggle against genocide and crimes against humanity," the Foreign Ministrys press service quoted Nalbandian as saying.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The decision of the German parliament to recognize the 1915-1916 massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide was logical in light of many other European parliaments voting for similar resolutions, Anne Brasseur, a former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), told Sputnik on Thursday.

"Other parliaments have taken the same decision  the European Parliament, French Assemblee Nationale, the Luxembourg parliament, so it was a matter of time that the Germans would take a decision on what happened 100 years ago," Brasseur said.

Past should not be the reason for hatred between the peoples of Armenia and Turkey, they should instead learn from it, according to Anne Brasseur.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gave a speech in Westminster on Thursday reiterating his support for the remain vote in the EU membership upcoming referendum and said that Britain must not close the borders to workers from the European Union, the press release by the Labour Party said.

"Some communities can change dramatically and rapidly and that can be disconcerting for some people. More people living in an area can put real pressure on local services like GPs surgeries, schools and housing. This isnt the fault of migrants. Its a failure of government," Corbyn said as quoted by the press release.
"It's unclear if China has the requisite logistical support necessary to operate BZK-005 drones on a permanent basis from Woody Island. April's imagery showed a single drone sitting out in the open on the airstrip; the BZK-005 could have been on Woody Island for a unique patrol," the journalist suggests.

He stresses that the BZK-005, a long range UAV designed by the Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, does not have the capability to fire missiles and is primarily intended for high altitude, long-range surveillance missions.

First unveiled to the public back in 2006, the drone has a cruising speed of around 170 km/h and can stay aloft for 40 hours. It is also capable of taking ultra-high definition images.

According to Panda, the imagery shows that Beijing is purportedly interested in boosting its intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities in the South China Sea.
BAKU (Sputnik)  The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry called Thursday a German resolution recognizing Armenian genocide by the Ottoman Empire biased and prejudiced.

Earlier in the day, the German parliament adopted the resolution recognizing the World War I-era mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman authorities as genocide.

"We regard this resolution biased and prejudiced. It is unacceptable to falsify history for political aims," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Hikmet Hajiyev said.
"Given these concerns," the journalist continued, "why is Canada pursuing closer ties with China and how does [Canada] plan to use these relationships to improve human rights and security in the region?"

Visibly insulted by the reporter's question, Wang asked the journalist whether she had been to China, and whether she knew that China "has written protection and promotion of human rights in its constitution?"

"Do you know that China lifted more than 600 million people out of poverty?" he asked, adding that China recently became the world's second largest economy.

"Other people don't know better than the Chinese people about the human rights condition in China," Wang stated, adding, "and it is the Chinese people who are in the best situation, in the best position to have a say about China's human rights situation."

"So I would like to suggest to you that please don't ask questions in such an irresponsible manner," he said.

The importance of Wang's visit to Canada, during which Canada seeks to improve relations by pursuing a deregulated-trade deal with the world's highest-populated country, was underscored by the Chinese foreign minister's meeting not only with his Canadian counterpart, but also with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Canadian citizen mentioned by the journalist, Kevin Garratt, was detained in China in 2014 on espionage charges. Garratt ran a Christian-themed coffee shop near the Chinese-North Korean border. China claims Garratt has been formally charged.

Earlier in 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping admitted the country had "room for improvement" on human rights, after being asked a similar question by a British journalist during a London visit.
However, as Mohamedou Ould Slahi has his day in court, his brother was barred from entering the United States. Will Obama's promise to close Guantanamo come to pass before he leaves office next January?

Brazil sees more protests demanding the removal of acting President Michel Temer. As impeached President Dilma Rousseff's supporters take the streets and the new government shows signs of cracking, will the slow motion coup against the Workers Party be brought to a halt? Becker is joined by Aline C. Piva and Juliana Moraes of Brazilian Expats for Democracy.

Another poll shows that Americans consider both the Democratic and Republican primary systems to be deeply unfair, including the system of closed off primaries and super delegates. Is the system completely rigged? Political analysts Kazembe Balagun and Eugene Puryear join Becker to discuss just how undemocratic America's voting system is.
We get caught back up with late developments before next week's big Primary Elections in California (and New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana), as the polls for both the Primary and General elections continue to tighten; some Republicans continue to scramble for a Trump alternative; voters continue to try and oversee their own public elections; and listeners call in with their closing arguments for their favored candidate before next Tuesday's last big primary day of the 2016 Presidential cycle.

While it's "last call" before the California (and New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana) Primary on June 7, and some voters are already facing confusion (and error) in the Golden State with CA's absurdly confusing multi-party primary system. Documentary filmmaker and VideoTheVote.org co-creator John Wellington Ennis joins us to discuss efforts to recruit volunteers to oversee the polls in Los Angeles at SaveOurElections.org to document whatever happens next Tuesday.

Then, we go to the phones to hear from tons of listeners on who they will support next Tuesday (and beyond) and why. Lots of great calls with voices and opinions not usually heard, if ever, on our corporatized mainstream public airwaves!
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Sidra Zaarur lost both of her legs in a terrorist attack in Aleppo. The plane of the Russian Defense Ministry transported the girl and her mother from the Hmeimim air base in Syrias Latakia province to Moscow on Wednesday.

Sidra lost her three-year-old nephew and her older sister in the April 16 attack.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, health specialists in Aleppo did everything possible to save the girls life, but the severe physical and psychological trauma she received after losing her legs in the explosion requires further complex treatment and rehabilitation.
ASTANA, June 2 (Sputnik)  Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation will hold talks with foreign partners expressing interest in its Tornado corvettes Scorpion gun boats during the ongoing KADEX-2016 military hardware exhibition in Kazakhstan, the manufacturer's Vice President Igor Ponomarev said Thursday.

KADEX-2016 is a biannual event and has been held since 2010. The fourth exhibition, taking place on June 2-5 in Astana, is attended by over 300 military equipment producers from around the world showcase aircraft and space technologies, army and navy armaments, air defense systems, IT technologies and robotic systems and military equipment utilizing alternative energy sources. A total of 40 Russian companies are attending the event.

"At KADEX-2016, we expect interest in the missile boat equipped with the Kalibr-NK cruise missile system, built on the basis of the Project 21632 Tornado Buyan-class corvette, as well as the new Project 12300 Scorpion and project 22500 gun boats and project 12701 Alexandrit coastal minesweepers," Ponomarev told RIA Novosti.
Flights drills are aimed for the aircrews to improve the control skills in the event of equipment failure and the maneuvering skills in case of the evasion from an enemy's fighter attack.

On May 20, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian Military is implementing new training methods, taking into account recent combat experience in Syria. Snap drills have already been conducted in Russia's Southern Military District, involving some 40 units performing tasks in conditions approaching those faced during combat which allowed the pilots to gain experience which will help them minimize combat casualties.

Su-34 is the Russian multipurpose fighter-bomber capable of effectively targeting surface, sea and air objects in any geographic area with the use of all aircraft munition types. The equipment installed on the Su-34 allows for the use of weapons against several targets simultaneously.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Russian presidents spokesman criticized on Thursday media reports that suggested Russia was pulling troops to its western border with Belarus.

"The very wording of the question suggesting a buildup on the Belarusian border seems absurd to me. I dont know anything about this. But it would be an exaggeration to speak about a buildup at the Belarusian border," Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a briefing in Moscow.

He advised that journalists inquire with the Russian Defense Ministry about the movement of troops and its purpose.


ASTANA (Sputnik)The Russian Defense Ministry will decide on ordering new Zubr-class and Tsaplya-class Murena hovercraft by early 2017 at the latest, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) Vice President Igor Ponomarev said Thursday.

"The Russian Defense Minister is considering the matter of ordering Murena and Zubr-class air-cushioned landing craft, with the decision on procurement to be taken after clarification with the state armaments program by the end of the year or by the start of next year," Ponomarev told RIA Novosti at the ongoing KADEX-2016 military hardware exhibition in Kazakhstan.

Hovercraft have the ability to move over land or water, avoid obstacles and deploy troops in the far rear of enemy troops.
I owe my life to him [Binns]. I could return home to see my child. What else can I say? Hazra, a local health officer, told a local television channel from Kathmandu.

The incredible story has been widely shared across social media with both climbers and non-climbers alike heaping praises on Hazras endurance and Binnss benevolence.

Incredible. Rescuing two & cutting his dream of reaching the summit. Selfless & incredibly brave man. The mountain isnt going anywhere, I hope he gets another crack at her soon, wrote the well-known mountain-climber Adrian Cunliffe.

Binns himself has expressed mixed feelings, having missing out on his achievement but being able to save a life.

Of course, I felt sad because I could not climb the summit. But I am happy that I have saved a life. I have received messages from many people. It really feels good, Binns told the local media.

Mount Everest has a dark side: it is an open graveyard to many climbers who have perished in their attempt to reach its summit. Because of the peak's perilous conditions and dry climate, the remains of an estimated 200 climbers remain on the mountain, unburied, unrecovered and often mummified. Their corpses are often given grim nicknames such as 'Green Boots' and used by other climbers as waypoints.
Not everybody shows such enthusiasm for pandas. But some do, particularly parents, for educational reasons, and Chinese people. Pandas often represent China as its leaders do not skip visiting the place which accommodates pandas overseas.

Ten minutes before the zoo's opening hour of 10 a.m. on May 29, more than 100, mostly parents with their children and dozens of foreigners, were waiting in queues to meet three-year-old female panda Ai Bao and her four-year-old male partner Le Bao from the Chinese southwestern province of Sichuan.

Among them were Zhang Xinyu, a 27-year-old Chinese native, who teaches her native language at a Chinese language institute in Seoul, and Jason Murray, a 42-year-old traveler from Canada. They said they hadn't seen a panda, which is a national treasure in China and therefore is protected by law.

"As pandas largely live in the wild southwestern bamboo-rich areas of China or downtown zoos in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, we have to be there to see one," said Zhang from the northeastern province of Jilin.

Murray came to the zoo not to miss a "rare chance to see a real panda" during his one-week trip to Korea with his girlfriend.
Trump supporter Tracey Lindsey, of San Francisco, has been organizing safe spaces for the past few months, where supporters of the demagogue can discuss their feelings without being judged. She claims that she has been castigated for having a Trump sticker on her car, and that many supporters are afraid to express positive views of their candidate.

Weve had people, I dont know if I can say this on the radio, say f*ck you,' Lindsey told radio station KALW. They put dog poop in bags, next to the windshield wiper near the bumper sticker.

Many are pointing out the irony of how easily offended people who support Trump are, all the while claiming that the reason they love Trump is his lack of sensitivity when declaiming truths that may cause offense.
For most states, high expungement fees help supplement state funding. Expungement fees account for 90% of Kentuckys general fund, and 55% of Tennessees general fund.

In the case of Louisiana, the mostly self-governing parishes, and lack of a central information sharing system, makes processing applications difficult.

Adrienne Wheeler, executive director of the Justice & Accountability Center of Louisiana, said that many of the states essential institutions arent getting the funds they need, and citizens are shouldering the cost. "We were pretty vocal that this was an impossible cost," she said, adding, "These agencies are not getting the funding that they need to function, so its hard to ask them to bring it down."

But driving up fees doesnt always result in higher revenue. In 2012, Tennessee state legislators passed felony expungement regulations that were projected to bring $7 million dollars annually to the states coffers, but they only been able to raise about $130,000 annually, mostly because applicant cant afford the fees.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the database will not only collect information on convicted criminals, but on "many people who are just applying for a job, volunteer position, naturalization, or military commission, and others who need to undergo a fingerprint or photo background check."

Under the NGI system, the FBI "asks to be exempt from Privacy Act rules," the civil rights coalition argued in their letter. The FBI would no longer have to disclose when an individual is included in a government database, whether the individual's information is accurate, or if that person's profile had been shared with other parts of the US government.

The coalition of advocates denounced the program as "an extraordinarily broad proposal" that will negatively impact sensitive communities, including a disproportionate number of African Americans, Latinos and immigrants.

"If the FBI is allowed to get this exemption, not only will we be unable to monitor and correct this racially biased database, but the FBI would be able to again run illegal spy programs COINTELPRO [that targeted the US civil rights movement in the 1960s]," colorofchange.org activists said in a press release.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE (Sputnik), Joanne Stocker  "[The voice recording] has significant events for the purposes of the governments case-in-chief," Ryan told Judge James Pohl. "It proves hijacking in the first place. It proves intent. It proves the initial murders of the crew in the cockpit  the sounds of which can be heard  and, at the end, it contains the attempts to retake the airliner."

The recording from United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed before reaching its intended target in Washington, DC, is the only one that survived the September 11 attacks.

Ryan stated that the prosecution plans to play the audio at upcoming trials of suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has confirmed that the Wednesday shooting left two people dead and was a likely a homicide and a suicide.

The Los Angeles Times said on Wednesday that while the shooter has not been identified, his victim was identified by several sources as associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering William S. Klung.

Klug was a father of two and was described as an exceptionally kind man by his students, according to the newspaper.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Police have identified the shooter in the murder-suicide at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as Manak Sarkar, local media reported on Thursday.

"The gunman who shot and killed a UCLA professor has been identified as Mainak Sarkar, a former doctoral student, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Moreover, the report indicated the murdered professor, 39-year-old William Klug, accused Sarkar of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE (Sputnik), Joanne Stocker  Detainees housed in Camp 7 at the US military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are subjected to daily mental torture in their cells, Somali-born detainee Guleed Hassan Dourad testified before a military commission at the base on Thursday.

"I experienced noises, smells, and the vibrations [in the cell]Thats what made me come here [to court] to testify that we have mental torture in Camp 7," Guleed said.

US authorities had moved Guleed to Camp 7 in 2006 from another site in the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
But on Wednesday, Kirby admitted that the clip was deliberately deleted, adding that it remains unclear who ordered the deletion. Commenting on the spokesman's remarks, Fox News, always critical of the Iran deal, predictably said that it was "a stunning admission."

For his part, Iranian journalist and commentator Hassan Beheshtipour, a frequent contributor to Iran's Press TV, told Sputnik Persian that there are several important details about this incident which the American press hasn't focused on.

Most importantly, he suggested, "the facts confirming the existence of confidential negotiations between the US and Iran, where Washington secretly promised to accept Tehran's terms on uranium enrichment, had been removed and hidden because the US wants the history of the deal to be written according to their vision and their positions, and not how it was in reality."

Another important element to the story, Beheshtipour noted, was the fact that negotiations began in 2011, under then Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, long before the apogee of US sanctions pressure against Tehran.

In this sense, the journalist noted, "if the American side is trying to hide this fact today, it seems that it is thus trying to say that the Iranians only decided to sit down and negotiate when sanctions had reached their peak. But in fact this is absolutely not the case."
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE (Sputnik), Joanne Stocker  A letter written by Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the alleged planner of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, to US President Barack Obama is propaganda and should not be delivered to the president, prosecutor Ed Ryan told a military court at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on Thursday.

Earlier, Mohammads lawyer David Nevin told Judge James Pohl that his client has the legal right to send the letter, and it should not matter if anyone else thinks it is propaganda.

"[Defense] counsel says we dont have to get into propaganda, but I do label it [the letter] as propaganda," Ryan stated. "This man [Khalid Shaikh Mohammad] does not have a right to write a letter to the president."
The United States has spearheaded NATOs gradual buildup in Poland and the Baltic states, citing "Russian aggression." Upcoming military drills have been criticized by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov.

"We are convinced that these exercises carry a serious destabilizing component," he told reporters on Thursday. "Their main goal is to continue the aggravation of tensions along the Russian borders."

Obamas policy on nuclear weapons is also worrying to Chomsky.

"His trillion-dollar program for modernizing the nuclear weapons system is the opposite of what should be done," he said.

While treaties forbid the United States from expanding its nuclear arsenal, the upgrades include improved targeting systems, as well as adjustable yields, which could, in theory, make the weapons easier to use.
The incident occurred south of Colorado Springs airport, where the president delivered the commencement address for the graduating class at the Air Force Academy.

 Joe Kelley (@talkradiojoe) June 2, 2016

The pilot safely ejected before the plane crashed into a field, according to Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michal Kloeffler-Howard.

President Obama visited with the ejected pilot shortly before boarding Air Force One.
Over 144,000 voters have been purged in the three biggest counties, but it remains unclear how many have been expelled statewide. In a potentially revealing development, an analysis conducted by Reuters found that Democrats are being purged at twice the rate of Republicans in the key swing state.

In New York, over 100,000 voters were purged by the New York City Board of Elections prior to the states April 19 primary. The issue is currently under investigation by the state attorney generals office.

The board has refused to take responsibility for the purge and has consistently blamed voters for the confusion.

A certain amount of this does come down to voter responsibility. You cant impart information on an audience that is not hungry for it, Michael Ryan, the boards executive director, told CBS2. So folks who are going about their lives, and if theyre not paying attention to the process until the last minute and they just go to the poll site without doing any further investigation, theyre doing themselves a disservice and theyre doing a disservice to the other folks who might be inconvenienced because theyre coming to the poll site to vote and the process is being slowed down by people who shouldnt be there in the first place.
"I think what it points to is a gulf between elected officials, nominees and the general public," Balogun said of the new poll conducted by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. "For example, in the last nine Democratic debates, the issue of poverty wasnt mentioned once by any of the candidates. This seems to be a major disconnect between the lives of the voters and what the candidates are talking about."

Puryear agreed, saying that another cause of frustration for American voters is the feeling that their concerns arent taken seriously. "[The political system] appears rigged, when just about everyone can agree theres a problem, but when none of the politicians change it, the only thing left for one to assume is that the system is rigged."
The incident occurred at Smyrna Airport, 20 miles southeast of Nashville. The pilot was killed, though the cause of the crash remains unknown.

Emergency services are on the scene.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  A victory by Trump in the US presidential election in November would play into the hands of the Islamic State terror group, and make them more aggressive, Clinton told a rally in San Diego, California.

"A Trump presidency would embolden ISIS [Islamic State, or Daesh]," Clinton stated on Thursday. "We cannot take that risk."

The speech marked the most sustained criticism Clinton has so far made of Trumps positions on foreign policy.
"I think we have far less litigation of companies of our size," said Alan Garten, general counsel for the Trump Organization, according to USA Today, stating that court cases are part of the "cost of doing business."

But when comparing Trumps litigation history with the five top real-estate executives  Edward DeBartolo, Donald Bren, Stephen Ross, Sam Zell, and Larry Silverstein  the billionaire has been involved in more legal issues than all five combined.

Court documents related to the Trump University case were released on Tuesday and provide a revealing look at many of the illegal practices described by former students.

"Is everything Donald Trump does the BEST?" a Trump University "playbook" instructed its salesman to say to prospective students, according to documents. "He wouldnt put his name on this if it wasnt, right?"

Despite the unflattering coverage of the institution, the billionaire has hinted that he may reopen the defunct university.

 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 2, 2016

There may be many more lawsuits on their way.
Worthington said that Mohamedous case is "significant in that Mahamadou, who had been picked up on behalf of the United States by the Mauritanian authorities and then sent to Jordan, where he was tortured for a while, ended up in Guantanamo where a special torture program was developed specifically for him, with the approval of Donald Rumsfeld." Worthing added that Mohamedou has essentially been judged guilty by association. "He was one of a handful people subjected to a very specific torture program. And it was because the authorities wrongly thought that he was a significant figure in Al Qaeda, when actually, he was a kind of zealot-like character, who had been around various places at various times with significant people in the world of terrorism, but he wasnt actually involved with them."



Worthington stated that Mohamedou has a relative in the al-Qaeda extremist group and met with the 9/11 hijackers in Germany, long before plans for the attack had been hatched. What makes the case so unique, according to Worthington, is that Mohamedou remains in the US prison even though a federal judge ordered his release 6 years ago after the prisoner was granted habeas corpus rights.
"He was divorced and twice her age, so she refused the proposal and left her job when they pursued her time and again eventually they attacked her," Basit said.

Aasia, Sadaqats aunt, told the BBC that, "She was teaching at their school. They sent in the proposal six months ago but the guy was already married and had a daughter. They wanted her to run the school after marrying the son of the owner of the school. Her father refused the proposal and they took revenge by doing this."

Mazhar Iqba, directing the murder investigation, said, "We have arrested at least one of the accused and a hunt is on for the rest." Pakistani police claim Sadaqat gave a statement identifying two of her 5 attackers just before she died of burns covering some 85% of her body.


VIENNA (Sputnik)The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will discuss on Thursday the request it had received from Gabon to rejoin the organization, Qatari Energy and Industry Minister and current OPEC President Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada said.

The organization has also received a request from Gabon for it to rejoin the organization. This will be discussed in our closed session later today, he told reporters.
Widespread doubt has been cast on whether the OPEC meeting will have any impact in swaying the cartel's members towards restricting output over the need to raise prices. Previously, Iran refused to take part in a potential output freeze deal, driving Saudi Arabia to pull out.

The slump in oil prices, which had been driven by a glut in global supplies, has mostly passed, according to Badri.

"The oil market is rallying, the price is increasing, I think that bad times, the bad period has been put behind," he said.

Global oil prices plunged from $115 to less than $30 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2016, hitting their lowest levels since 2003 amid the ongoing glut in global oil supply and causing significant problems for energy companies and oil-producing countries.

Prices have rebounded since January, gaining over 70 percent by May. By mid-May, the Brent crude benchmark approached the price of $50 per barrel. On Thursday, oil prices were largely unresponsive to the OPEC meeting.
VIENNA (Sputnik)  Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Zangeneh said Wednesday that the main goal was to determine the quotas for each country, but he does not look optimistic that such an agreement can be reached.

"I have not heard Iranian proposal. We will hear what they have to offer and come to a consensus," al-Falih said.

OPEC Secretary General Abdalla el-Badri also noted that countries quotas may be examined, saying that "everything is open [for discussions], we could [discuss]."
VIENNA (Sputnik)  The oil market is recovering very well on its own, that is why the decisions and actions of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members will be made carefully, Saudi Arabia's Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih said Thursday.

Later in the day, OPEC ministers will meet in Vienna to discuss a plan to freeze oil production, two months after the previous attempt to freeze output at January levels failed when Saudi Arabia failed to back the deal.

"The market is recovering very well on its own, demand is strong, and supply from countries outside of OPEC is declining. Whichever action we take now will be in view of the fact that the market will cope on its own. We will be careful in making their decisions, so as not to shock the market" the minister told journalists in Vienna ahead of the OPEC summit.


LA PAZ (Sputnik)The United States' policies are obstructing Russian and Chinese business in Bolivia, Bolivian President Evo Morales told Sputnik.

"I am very sorry about the policy of the United States which aims at obstructing new investment by new, developed, industrial countries, such as China and Russia. This is a policy of persecution, which uses available 'tools,' they are also the Bolivians, but have a pro-imperialist, pro-capitalist orientation, they are used to prevent Chinese and Russian investment in Bolivia," Morales said in an interview.
"We have many companies working in Bolivia as partners, they were owners before, in the filed of hydrocarbons in particular. But not now. We are partners Gazprom is welcome as a partner of our companies, this is the model we have, and we agree," Morales said in an interview.

Bolivia is inviting Russian companies to join in electrical projects to supply energy to third countries and guarantees investment security, Evo Morales said.

"If any Russian private or state company wants to invest as a partner of Bolivian companies, [this is] welcome Of course, these large-scale projects we have we cannot develop alone. We understand this. We need the presence of foreign investment. If we tell Russia 'welcome,' then it will have investment in Bolivia guaranteed by the [Bolivian] Constitution," Morales said in an interview.


ANKARA (Sputnik)Earlier in the day, Germany joined the ranks of European countries recognizing the 1915-1916 mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Before the vote, Ankara said its relations with Germany would deteriorate in case the resolution was passed.

"The issue should be addressed not by politicians or parliamentarians, but by scholars and historians. For Turkey, the decision has no legal force. It is not in the spirit of our friendly relations. The adoption of distorted and unfounded allegations about 'genocide' is accepted as a historic mistake [by Turkey]," Kurtulmus said on Twitter.

The Armenian genocide was a series of mass killings ordered by the Ottoman government during and after World War I. Turkey refuses to recognize the massacre as genocide, claiming that Turkish nationals were also victimized. A number of states all around the world, including Russia and major Western powers, have recognized and condemned the crime of genocide against the Armenians.
Taking into account that in recent years NATO is moving actively into the Arctic region, building its military infrastructure there, Russia is forced to respond, he said.

However the expert added that Russias measures are more of the defensive character, they are asymmetric and cost effective in comparison to what is being spent by NATO.

The Arctic is a major source of oil and gas resources and many powers are tempted to obtain a piece of Russias Arctic segment, which is why Russia is building all the necessary infrastructure and equipment for its defense, he said.

Taking into account the specifics of the region  its low temperatures  Russia has developed a new generation of its armored vehicles which can use the armament systems for its Arctic brigades and military camps, which Russia is currently deploying to its archipelagos in the Arctic Ocean.

According to the expert, the experience of the last decade reveals that weakness only provokes more aggression from the US and other NATO member states.

If a country is unable to defend itself, its natural resources, it inevitably becomes a target for the informational, political and economic pressure, he said.
MINSK (Sputnik)  Belarus and the World Bank are set to draft a plan for bilateral projects at the end of 2016, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday.

"At the end of the year we will have to draw up a road map, a program of future cooperation. I believe we do it in the right time," Lukashenko said at a meeting with World Bank Europe and Central Asia Vice President Cyril Muller.

The Belarusian leader stressed that the joint projects between Belarus and the World Bank, notably in road construction, environmental reclaim and forestry, reached some $1 billion and voiced hope for deeper cooperation,


YEREVAN (Sputnik)The Armenian government approved a visa liberalization agreement between Armenia and Iran, local media reported Thursday.

"The agreements signing will boost bilateral tourism, creating favorable conditions for the Armenian and Iranian citizens mutual visits," Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said, as quoted by the Tert outlet, commenting on the government's resolution.

The agreement envisages visa-free entry, transit travel and 90-day period of stay for Armenian and Iranian nationals holding ordinary or diplomatic passports.
Sevim Dagdelen commented on the German parliament Bundestags decision to pass a resolution today labelling the killing of Armenians during and after World War I as genocide. The document said the German Empire, Turkeys key ally at that time, chose to close eyes to this crime.

"We here in Germanymust go still farther. Because the concrete politics have not drawn any conclusions from this," Dagdelen, a Bundestag member from the Left party, said in a statement.
VIENNA (Sputnik)  The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has considered Gabons request for rejoining the cartel and decided to admit the country from July 1, the organization said in a statement Thursday.

"The Conference considered Gabons request to rejoin the Organization, and decided to approve its admission with effect from 1st July 2016," the statement read.

Earlier in the day, the 169th session of the cartel concluded in Vienna.


WASHINGTON (Sputnik)International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy chief David Lipton will travel to Ukraine to take part in a meeting of 13 IMF member states in Kiev, IMF deputy spokesman William Murray said in a briefing on Thursday.

"First Deputy Managing Director David Lipton is traveling later this week to Kiev for a meeting of the Dutch Constituency on Saturday," Murray stated. "They discuss recent economic developments within the constituency."

The spokesperson noted that the Ukrainian economic challenges are likely to come up during the event.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The next meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will be held on November 30, President of the OPEC Conference Mohammed Sada said Thursday.

"The next OPEC meeting is going to be 30th of November," Sada said after an OPEC oil ministers meeting in Vienna.

Earlier in the day, the 169th session of the cartel concluded in Vienna.


MOSCOW (Sputnik)Latvia intends to develop economic cooperation with Iran and hopes to sign air service agreements and deals on double taxation avoidance, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis said Thursday during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"The delegation of numerous Iranian businessmen, representing different industries, which arrived together with the minister and also [showing] interest to the visit of Latvian entrepreneurs proves the desire of the two countries to develop economic and trade cooperation," Vejonis stated.

The Latvian president noted that the specific steps for the active cooperation were necessary.
Trot Insider has learned that longtime Ontario Jockey Club track superintendent Kurt Bernhard Jabelmann, who many referred to as the man with the cigar in his mouth, has passed away at the age of 83.

Jabelmann passed away during the early-morning hours of Wednesday, June 1, 2016 while at Barnswallow Place Care Community in Elmira, Ont.

Jabelmann was born in Grabow, Germany on September 22, 1932. At the age of 18, he travelled to Canada looking for work. He managed to get his first job as a lumberjack in Kapuskasing, Ontario. It was a real experience for him. After a year and a half, he left the lumber camp to go south to Fort Erie for warmer weather. He was hired to work on the Peace Bridge before a Fort Erie Race Track job was offered to him  he took it.

At the race track, Jabelmann soon became the track superintendent for the Ontario Jockey Club. He remained employed with Ontario Jockey Club for his entire working life  roughly four decades. Jabelmann retired at the age of 60 while working at Mohawk Racetrack in Campbellville, Ont. Jabelmann was very well respected at the OJC. The organization and horsemen alike both had a lot of love and respect for him. In addition to his wealth of other duties, Jabelmann oversaw the building of barns on the OJC circuit and was commonly the first and last man working at the track on any given day. Long hours, dedication and thorough work were just some of Jabelmanns trademarks, as were passion, love and appreciation for his job and others.

Jabelmann enjoyed his work immensely, as he enjoyed people, job variety and animals. In turn, animals of all kinds loved Kurt. As a child, Jabelmann slept with the cows and harnessed the horses for the field work. His communication with animals was amazing. After retirement, Kurt started a small dog boarding kennel. Always a giver, he truly served and helped others in need in a true Christian way. Because of this, he will always be remembered for his kindness, cigars and captivating stories. Jabelmann was a proud Canadian and gave back by taking in foster children for many years.

Kurt leaves behind wife Vanessa, son Brian (Alison Read), grandson Travis, niece Annegret Colquhoun, nephews Hans and Ernst Goetze, childhood friends Walter and Erika Wolfrath and will be missed by his many extended family and friends.

Family will receive friends on Monday, June 6, 2016 at the MacKinnon Family Funeral Home, 55 Mill Street East, Acton, ON from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. with a funeral service commencing at 12 p.m. in the Funeral Home Chapel. Interment to follow at Eden Mills Cemetery.

As expressions of sympathy, donations to the Alzheimers Society would be appreciated by the family. Online condolences may be left either on the MacKinnon Family Funeral Home website (by clicking here) or below this notice.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Kurt Jabelmann.
Planned Parenthood Violates Patient Privacy Rights to Sell Fetal Tissue

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016 / Standard Newswire / -- Life Legal applauds the Select Congressional Panel investigating Planned Parenthood for filing a complaint against the abortion giant, citing "serious and systematic violations of the HIPAA privacy rule." The Panel requested a "swift and full investigation by the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services." Complaints were also filed against StemExpress, a broker of fetal specimens, and other abortion providers.Life Legal is representing David Daleiden in three separate lawsuits by StemExpress, the National Abortion Federation, and Planned Parenthood.The Select Congressional Panel was established after David Daleiden published a series of videos exposing Planned Parenthood's role in the trafficking of baby body parts. The Panel uncovered information showing that Planned Parenthood "committed systematic violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ('HIPAA') privacy rule from about 2010 to 2015." Planned Parenthood clinics shared patient health information with StemExpress in order to provide specific types of fetal tissue for resale.Evidence gathered by the Panel showed that Planned Parenthood systematically shared patients' medical charts with StemExpress employees. StemExpress then used the information, including the age of the patient, gestational age of the baby, health of the mother and the baby, to decide which patients to approach and obtain consent to harvest the fetal tissue. StemExpress employees had daily orders from researchers for particular organs at certain gestational ages and access to all the patients' medical charts allowed them to approach only those patients whose wombs contained the desired tissues."In addition to violating federal laws prohibiting the sale of tissue from aborted babies, now we discover that Planned Parenthood has violated federal laws protecting patient privacy," says Alexandra Snyder, Executive Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "Planned Parenthood and its media allies claim that none of the government investigations spurred by our client David Daleiden's work have uncovered any wrongdoing by the abortion giant. This is manifestly untrue, and today's letters from the Select Panel are the latest proof."Life Legal also learned that Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who chairs the Select Panel, sent a letter to the HHS office for Human Research Protections urging a separate investigation into StemExpress for "fraudulently using invalid consent forms." An earlier panel hearing highlighted evidence that Planned Parenthood's consent forms incorrectly stated that fetal tissue had produced cures for a variety of diseases. According to the Panel's evidence, StemExpress also misled its customers to believe it had a valid Institutional Review Board approval, a federal requirement for conducting research involving human subjects.LINKS:About Life Legal Defense FoundationLife Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a nonprofit organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens committed to giving helpless and innocent human beings of any age, and their advocates, a trained and committed voice in the courtrooms of our nation. For more information about the Life Legal Defense Foundation, visit www.lldf.org
Malteser International Americas Issues Hurricane Preparedness Tips for 2016 Season

Contact: Jill Watson, Malteser International Americas, 305-448-5111



MIAMI, June 2, 2016 /Standard Newswire/ -- With experts predicting a more active hurricane season this year, the Miami-based global humanitarian organization Malteser International Americas has released a guide with recommended protocols to follow before, during and after a storm.



"Education and preparation are of paramount importance for those living in hurricane zones," said Ravi Tripptrap, Executive Director of Malteser International Americas. "While the nuances of particular locations and orders from local authorities will help inform what action to take, residents should prepare for all scenarios."



Malteser International Americas hurricane tips include:

EDUCATION: Know and monitor the early warning systems available (on radio, TV, internet, cell phone); Have knowledge of the closest government-designated shelter and of your evacuation routes.



EVACUATION: Ensure your vehicle is fueled-up and your evacuation carry-on emergency kit ready in case you need to leave (keep it light: ID, small valuables, cell-phone, radio, flashlight, spare batteries, maps, whistle, energy food & water, small first-aid kit, essential medicines, prescription glasses, adequate clothing and shoes).



HIBERNATION: Store food, water, medical supplies and other basic commodities before the hurricane (to last up to 3 days); Secure your possession/house against high winds: garden/patio tables & chairs and other outdoor furniture, motorbikes, bicycles, signs, fences, doors, gates, external lights; rain gutters, trim dead branches from nearby trees; If your house has no shutters, plan to tape or board your windows to prevent shattering, secure your doors against high winds.

Additional information on what to do before, during and after a hurricane is available at Malteser International Americas Hurricane Preparedness Tips.



About Us: Malteser International Americas is a global humanitarian organization with a mission of supporting the vulnerable and marginalized so that they may live a healthy life with dignity. Through our recently established U.S. headquarters, Malteser International Americas provides immediate disaster response and preparedness as well as vital healthcare and nutrition to vulnerable people in North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.
01 June 2016

US suspends cluster munitions sales to Saudi Arabia

Civilian harm in Yemen prompts decision

Fatima Ibrahim al-Marzuqi is being carried by her brother because she is not able to walk due to her injuries sustained during a cluster munition attack on Malus village (Yemen).

 2015 Ole Solvang/Human Rights Watch

The United States is suspending transfers of cluster munitions to Saudi Arabia in the wake of civilian harm caused by the weapon in Yemen.



"We applaud this decision," said Megan Burke, Director of the Cluster Munition Coalition. "The United States is rightfully applying its own national law that forbids transfers of cluster munitions to states that might use them against civilian targets or in civilian areas."



The news was revealed on 27 May 2016 by Foreign Policy magazine, and further confirmed by the White House on 31 May 2016.



The decision follows numerous reports released by CMC members, such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, demonstrating the grave humanitarian impact of these weapons being used by the Saudi-led armed coalition in Yemen. On 6 May 2016, the Cluster Munition Coalition called on the US to investigate the consequences of cluster munition use in Yemen and whether the weapons were used in violation of US law.



The CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon produced by Textron is the only cluster munition exported from the US in recent years.



"Whenever and wherever they are used, cluster munitions end up causing disproportionate harm to civilians," said Burke. "The only way to prevent such harm is to renounce cluster munition production, transfers and use altogether, once and for all."



According to Cluster Munition Monitor, 92% of cluster munition casualties recorded worldwide in 2010-2014 were civilians.



The Cluster Munition Coalition urges the United States to make the ban on transfers permanent, to forbid any future production of cluster munitions, and to join the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Cluster Munition Coalition has called on the Saudi-led armed coalition numerous times to stop using cluster munitions and to join the Convention.



Sample media coverage



Exclusive: White House Blocks Transfers of Cluster Bombs to Saudi Arabia, Foreign Policy, 27 May 2016. "Riyadh's air war in Yemen has killed and injured hundreds of civilians. Washington is finally trying to stem the carnage."



The Obama Administration Is Stopping Cluster Bomb Sales to Saudi Arabia, Mother Jones, 31 May 2016. "The controversial weapon is known for indiscriminately killing civilians."



Report says US to stop selling cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, RI Future, 28 May 2016. "In Rhode Island, where Textron is headquartered, peace activists led by the FANG Collective and the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, have targeted Textron with weekly actions."




It's Election season and our editor's mailbox is overflowing. Who do your neighbors support? Read about it here.
Gov. Jay Inslees latest plan to combat global climate change goes a bit easier on the Weyerhaeuser and KapStone pulp and paper mills in Longview.

Released Wednesday by the Department of Ecology, the revised plan would give energy-intensive, trade-dependent companies  such as paper mills, aluminum smelters and cement kilns  more time to comply. In addition, they would have site-specific carbon reduction targets based on national industry averages instead of arbitrary targets.

All companies and agencies will get credit for investments made in the past to become more energy efficience and reduce greenhouse gas emissions  such as KapStones biomass energy plant  though details have not been worked out.

Were pleased that pulp and paper has been appropriately identified as energy-intensive (and) trade-exposed. The question is ... does that adequately address and mitigate the significant cost impact that the program would create? said Chris McCabe, executive director of Northwest Pulp and Paper Association.

The plan also would affect the Cowlitz Countys Headquarters Landfill and Puget Sound Energys Mint Farm Generating Station in Longview. Cardinal Glass Industries in Winlock also would be affected.

Under the new plan, sites emitting more than 100,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases annually must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1.7 percent annually. Each site would have to report compliance every three years.

Instead of reductions, companies could purchase credits from other businesses or from other emission-reducing projects in Washington.

Neither Puget Sound Energy officials nor the pulp and paper mill managers are sure yet how the updated rule will affect their companies. However, Don Olson, solid waste manager for Cowlitz County, is worried the rule may increase garbage rates by increasing operating costs at the landfill.

Landfills, especially new ones, their emission rates continue to grow annually, Olson said.

The county recently invested $1 million to construct a new gas collection system to capture methane from decaying garbage and burn it off to convert it to carbon dioxide, a less potent greenhouse gas than methane. Theoretically, under the new plan, organizations will get credit for previous projects like this. However, Olson said the rule will be like a new tax.

Both the landfill and Puget Sound Energy would enter the program next year, but they wouldnt have to report their reductions until 2020. Compliance is delayed three years for Weyerhaeuser and KapStone.

Complying with Inslees proposal would cost businesses and others from $1.2 billion to $2.8 billion over 20 years, according to the states preliminary economic analysis. But it could offer $14.5 billion in social benefits, such as improved environmental and health conditions, according to a state analysis.

Penalties for noncompliance havent been define yet, but the federal Clean Air Act allows for violators to be fined up to $10,000 a day.

Carbon pollution has reached rampant levels and were committed to capping and reducing it, said Sarah Rees, Ecologys special assistant on climate change policy, said in a press release. Climate change is the most significant environmental issue of our lifetime, and governments need to act now to protect what we have today for future generations.

The public has until July 22 to comment on the new rule either on Ecologys website, through email at aqcomments@ecy.wa.gov or by mail at Sam Wilson, Air Quality, Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504.
tech2 News Staff

Rental rooms aggregator Airbnb has launched a new tool that for once addresses the problems of neighbours who live in the vicinity of Airbnb properties. The tool can be accessed at airbnb.com/neighbors and will allow neighbours who live around Airbnb properties file complaints and even suspend the host from the community.

The same was conveyed through the Airbnb blog that also details how simple it is to alert the company of Airbnb hosts who may be creating a nuisance for the rest of the community. Users can simply head to the link above and then conveniently select the issue (party, noise, disturbance, trash etc.) or even criminal activity via the page and submit the same.

The issue can be filed by any citizen and all they need to do is specify the Airbnb listing via its web address or street address. Post this, Airbnb takes matter into its own hands and will even let hosts and neighbours resolve issues if need be. The company states that it will take every issue seriously, "and ensure that we give hosts and their neighbors the opportunity to resolve concerns themselves, whenever possible. Hosting is a big responsibility and those who repeatedly fail to meet our standards and expectations will be subject to suspension or removal from the Airbnb community."

The leader in worldwide accommodations has served about 80 millions guests via its Airbnb listings in 190 countries.
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Forbes magazine on Wednesday reduced its estimate of the net worth of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder and chief executive of health technology company Theranos Inc, to zero from $4.5 billion last year. Holmes' blood-testing company has been under investigation by several federal and state agencies and was accused in a suit filed last week of endangering customer health through "massive failures" that misrepresented the accuracy and quality of its blood tests, according to court papers.

Forbes said private investors had bought stakes in Theranos that implied a $9 billion valuation but said $800 million is a more realistic figure. "At such a low valuation, Holmes' stake is essentially worth nothing," the business publication said. Theranos spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan responded to the report saying, "As a privately held company, we declined to share confidential financial information with Forbes. As a result, the article was based exclusively on speculation and press reports."

In 2015 Forbes had named Holmes the richest self-made woman in America. Explaining why it reduced its estimate of Holmes' wealth for the same list this year, Forbes said her fortune was based entirely on her 50 percent stake in Theranos, a stake that has suffered in value amid questions over the company's diagnostic capabilities. "According to VC Experts, investors in Theranos own a particular kind of preferred equity, called participating preferred shares, which take precedence to common stock in the event of a liquidation," Forbes said. "Forbes is not aware of any plans to liquidate. If that were to happen, participating preferred investors would get their money back and more before Holmes gets a cent."

Holmes did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Holmes founded Theranos in 2003 and it promised ground-breaking methods that would allow quick results for a wide range of tests with just one drop of blood. Reports in the Wall Street Journal said the testing devices were flawed and had problems with accuracy.

The company has been investigated by federal prosecutors, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, state health departments in Arizona and Pennsylvania, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Reuters
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By Muqbil Ahmar

According to the latest tiger census, the number of big cats in India has increased by more than 30 per cent in the past four years. The study put the number at 2,226, up from 1,706 in 2010 when the last such tiger-counting exercise was undertaken. For decades, tiger numbers had been declining due to several factors including poaching, man-nature conflict, environmental degradation, and dwindling habitat.

For the first time after decades of constant decline, tiger numbers are on the rise. This offers us great hope and shows that we can save species and their habitats when governments, local communities and conservationists work together, said Marco Lambertini, Director General of WWF International.

This remarkable development is evidence of what human perseverance together with real-time intelligence and technology can achieve. It is the victory of modern technologies such as Big Data, Analytics and Internet of Things (IoT). The twenty-first century conservation has capitalised, leveraged and adapted new technology such as wireless Internet, global telecommunication systems, cloud computing, online mapping and smartphones. These technologies have teamed up with existing tools such as geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imagery and animal tracking collars.

Such technologies have also minimised humanwildlife conflicts in rural communities by linking mobile phone connectivity to animal tracking telemetry and remote cameras to allow affordable, high resolution monitoring of species.

Big Data and Analytics combine forces to rescue the big cats

Data captured through satellite images and camera-trap photos and aerial surveillance cameras run into millions, impossible for human beings to analyse. According to one estimate, World Wildlife Fund for Nature staff captured 2.5 million camera-trap photos in 15 protected areas in rainforests around the world. Analysing such data is a humongous and time-consuming task. For quick decisions in critical situations warrant fast analysis of the structured and unstructured data. This is where Big Data Analytics comes into the picture. Big data analytics examines such large data sets to uncover hidden patterns and unknown correlations, leading to interpretation and communication of meaningful conclusions and results. Analytics uses several other forms of unconventional data such as social media content and social network activity reports, emails and survey responses, mobile-phone call detail records and machine data captured by sensors connected to the animals.

For instance, a quick analysis of trap-camera images and geo-spatial imagery could yield fruitful information of the movement of poaching gangs. A forest guard can relay such crucial information to his senior, who can then coordinate his other staff to stop the gang from inflicting damage to the animals and can also arrest them. The tools have self-learning inbuilt into them; they adapt with the situation so that even when poachers change tactics or areas of operation, they are able to analyze from the data their movements and thus aid critically to conservation efforts, particularly the tigers, and the fulcrum of Indias conservation efforts.

Criminals and poachers are always on the prowl, continuously changing their tactics and strategy. Therefore, we need to be ahead of them. This technology has been a great help to our work. It has ensured that we and other conservation staff are ahead of the criminals, who are often difficult to track in the rugged terrains and lush forests. In order to locate them continuous and indefatigable surveillance is required. The forest department needs more such technology and high-tech tools, said a forest official not wanting to be named.

According to TRAFFIC and WWF wildlife trade expert Crawford Allan, the existing efforts must be strengthened on the ground, whereas innovative approaches, including aerial surveillance systems and coordinated intelligence efforts and analytics, must be introduced as it will send a powerful message across the trade chain from source to consumer. The international value of illicit wildlife trading is as much as $10 billion per year, ranking it as one of the principal illegal global activities along with weapons, drugs and human trafficking.

The Analytics tool can also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of conservation efforts and can be used to benchmark efforts and analyze tangible results, removing gaps in knowledge and allowing improved participation and transparency in monitoring the outcome of conservation efforts. The next generation conservation tools and analyses provide insights that improve conservation decisions, policies and practices.

How does it work?

The first step is the collection of raw data, that is, the time-stamped image of an animal that has been identified by a scientist but all data cannot be taken at face value. Sometimes an animal would walk in front of the camera hundreds of times, yielding hundreds of pictures of that one animal. Due to such issues, the raw data is simplified. Every sites data in a given year is divided into time periods (46 days for each period), and through the use of algorithms and statistical models the occupancy of a particular animal is determined. Then the Analytics system recalculates the occupancy of all the species in the whole network overnight. That data is especially useful for park managers. If he detects a problem like species decline at his site, he can then quickly alert someone higher in the department.

For example, a senior official engaged in tiger conservation efforts in the India analyzed the camera-trap data and noticed that the cats were being seen less frequently in places with heavy tourist traffic. He then reported the matter to wildlife authorities who rerouted the itinerary of tourists.

Such analyzed information also produces biodiversity information that is understandable to policymakers as well as people involved in conservation efforts. Consistent data collection by different groups increase the accuracy of results. This Big Data Analytics technology can be extended to other areas of conservation as well, said Brajesh Sachan, Chief Technology Officer, Deskera.

International spotlight on wildlife conservation

There have been widespread concerns across the globe regarding conservation efforts falling flat against the guiles of poachers and other wildlife criminals, with a number of political leaders voicing concerns about them.

On November 8, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an end to illicit wildlife trafficking, terming the menace a major foreign policy and security issue.

Over the past few years wildlife trafficking has become more organized, more lucrative, more widespread, and more dangerous than ever before, Secretary Clinton said. We are increasingly seeing wildlife trafficking has serious implications for the security and prosperity of people around the world.

Her statement comes at a time when there has been an escalation in the poaching crisis around the world and endangered species such as tigers, elephants, and rhinos have been brought to the brink of extinction. Therefore, all technological efforts have to be aimed in one direction: Saving the beautiful animals, and saving the beautiful earth. It is about ensuring that the later generations get to see and relish what we took for granted.

With over 10 years of experience in the field of journalism, the author is a Senior Editor at Deskera, a business software company.
Pranjal Kshirsagar

India is set to become the youngest country in the world by 2020, says data from the United Nations. To tap into the immense potential that holds, the skill sets of the youth need to be polished up to meet the demand that the industry expects. Dr Santanu Paul, through the TalentSprint platform aims to address that and create the means to maximise synergies between Digital India and Skilled India, to put it in context of on-going initiatives by the government. TalentSprint was born out of the need to use technology to create online programs that are accessible by job seekers and exam takers across the country through digital means, including web browsers, mobiles and tablets.

The CEO and MD of TalentSprint, Santanu is no stranger to the world of technology. An alumnus of IIT Madras, he completed a Ph.D from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Santanu worked at Virtusa Corporation as Senior Vice President for Global Delivery Operations, and head of Indian Operations. Prior to that, Santanu worked in Boston as Chief Technology Officer of Viveca and Openpages, both venture-backed technology firms. He began his career in New York as a Research Scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Centre. His technical work spans more than 20 international papers and two United States patents. Speaking to Tech2, Santanu says he sees TalentSprint as a youth career acceleration platform. "The youth of this country aspire for high quality skills and exciting career opportunities. We are acutely aware that higher education is failing them, and this is very unfortunate. We have stepped in as an intermediary platform to help our youth realise their dreams and achieve their aspirations. We are on track to enable one million youth by 2020," he explains.

The TalentSprint team comprises of 150 professionals who come from diverse backgrounds. Their business model is consumer focused and they believe the youth is ready to pay for high quality skills and access to exciting career opportunities. "Our strength has been our ability to create a hybrid model that combines consumer funding with digital delivery," says Santanu.

Santanu believes that the future of large-scale youth career acceleration lies in extreme automation. He shares how they invest enthusiastically in digital self-learning tools such as interactive visual content, learning simulators, micro-learning apps, automated mock tests, and massively distributed live classes. Their target segment is in the age group of 20-25 - who are quite content consuming products digitally via web, mobile, and tablets.

The company aims to expand and strengthen their digital platform to serve one million youth by 2020. They have decided to achieve this ambitious goal by focusing on just three career segments - information technology, banking and financial services, and education. Talking about the funding Santanu said, "We are funded by Nexus Ventures and NSDC. We have raised 30 crores of capital till date and expect to raise additional funds in the future as and when required."

Santanu believes that the appetite for scale, depth in technology, and the proximity to employers sets them apart from similar offerings. "No other training or skill provider is setting as high a bar as we are in terms of quality and quantity," says Santanu. He shares that they plan to widen their reach through digital and social marketing. Their word-of-mouth propaganda also leads to high referrals. Santanu highlights that their reach is expanding to semi-urban and rural areas too. "Not so long ago, 60 percent of our consumers were urban. Now 60 percent are non-urban. This suggests the playing field between urban and non-urban youth will soon be leveled and we will enter a phase of equal opportunity for youth irrespective of location or background," says Santanu signing off on a hopeful note.
US Congress probes New York Fed's handling of Bangladesh Bank heist: Letter

Reuters : A US congressional committee has launched a probe into the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's handling of the cyber theft of $81 million from one of its accounts held by the central bank of Bangladesh, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The letter, addressed to New York Fed President William Dudley and sent Tuesday from the House of Representatives' Science Committee, requests "all documents and communications" connected to the February heist, the bank's oversight of the global financial network SWIFT and the status of any reviews related to the Fed's information technology conducted since the attack occurred. The letter follows similar probes launched last month by Tom Carper, the Senate Homeland Security Committee's top Democrat, and Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat. The latest inquiry comes as policymakers, regulators and financial institutions around the world increase scrutiny into the heist and related attacks on banks in Vietnam and Ecuador, in which hackers sent fraudulent transaction messages across the SWIFT. "In light of the recent cyber attacks on our global financial systems, the Committee believes it is imperative to receive information from the NY Fed about its response, its oversight of SWIFT, the status of the investigation, and any remedial steps taken to address vulnerabilities," states the letter, signed by House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. A New York Fed spokeswoman said it intended to respond to the new request for information. The bank has so far denied responsibility for the Bangladesh Bank intrusion. The letter said it was "deeply troubling" that cyber security experts believe more attacks will be uncovered as banks review their security systems, and that Bangladesh Bank's systems appeared to be the "weak link" in the February attack. SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, last week urged banks to bolster their security, saying it was aware of multiple attacks. Banks around the world rely on SWIFT to issue payment instructions to each other. The committee requested a response from the New York Fed by June 14.
Demolish BGMEA building: SC

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the High Court order that had declared the BGMEA building illegal and asked the government to demolish it within 90 days. A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha, passed the order rejecting an appeal filed by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) authorities. The three other members of the Appellate Division are Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice Mirza Hussain Haider. Lawyer Barrister Rafique-ul Haque and advocate M Kamrul Haque Siddique appeared for BGMEA while Attorney General Mahbube Alam represented the state and advocate Manzil Murshid the Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB). Talking to reporters, Manzill Murshid said there is no legal bar towards demolishing the BGMEA building following the order. On April 3, 2011, an HC bench comprising Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh M Jakir Hossain declared the BGMEA building illegal. However, immediately after the verdict, the Appellate Division stayed the HC verdict for six months on April 5 on an appeal filed by the BGMEA authorities. Later, the Appellate Division extended the stay order several times. That order remained in force in the absence of a full verdict. The High Court in its full verdict, which was released March 19,2013, declared the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) building illegal and asked the government to demolish it within 90 days. The court directed the authorities to use the land for public welfare. Then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on November 28, 1998 laid the foundation stone of the building at Hatirjheel-Begunbari canal beside Karwanbazar in the capital. On October 8, 2006, then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia inaugurated the building. A report was published in a national daily on October 2, 2010 focusing on construction of the building without the permission of the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartipakkha (Rajuk). DHM Monir Uddin, a lawyer of the Supreme Court, produced the report before the court. The next day, October 3, the HC issued a suo moto rule asking to explain reasons as to why the order would not be given to dismantle the BGMEA building. In its full verdict, the court further said Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) had given the land illegally through a written unregistered document to BGMEA in 2001. The HC said the BGMEA has failed to become the owner of the land as the EPB, which gave BGMEA the land violating the government acquisition rule in 1998, became the owner of the land only in 2006 that was earlier acquired for Railway in 1960. -- Dhaka, June 2 (UNB)
Muhith presents Tk 3.41 trillion Bangladesh budget for 2016-17 fiscal year

Finance Minister AMA Muhith unveils budget for 2016-17 fiscal years at the parliament in Dhaka on Thursday, June 2, 2016.

bdnews24.com: The proposed national budget for 2016-17 fiscal year has been placed in Parliament with an outlay of Tk 3.41 trillion. The new budget is 15.5 percent larger than the current FYs initial budget and 29 percent higher than the revised outlay. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith presented the budget on Thursday afternoon  the third one of the incumbent government. The new budget is equivalent to 17.37 percent of Bangladeshs GDP, which is Tk 19.61 trillion. The current FY budget represented 17.2 percent of the GDP. In the new budget, Tk 1.17 trillion has been earmarked for development expenditure, including Tk 1.11 trillion for Annual Development Programme (ADP). Non-development expenditure has been set at Tk 2.16 trillion, 32 percent higher than the current FYs figure. A large portion of the non-development budget will be spent on salary, allowances and pension benefit of government employees. Foreign borrowing will also be repaid from the non-development budget. The finance minister has plans to collect Tk 2.43 trillion, or 71 percent of the budget amount, from the revenue sector. Of the figure, Tk 2.03 trillion will be raised through the National Board of Revenue. The highest amount of Tk 727.64 billion has been projected to be coming from Value Added Tax (VAT)  which is 35 percent higher than the current budget figure. A revenue collection target of Tk 642.62 billion was set from VAT in the initial budget for the current FY, but it was later downsized to Tk 539.13 billion in the revised budget. The minister expects Tk 719.4 billion from income tax and tax on profit, against Tk 649.71 billion in the current FY. Tk 224.5 billion will be raised from import duty, Tk 300.75 billion from supplementary duty, Tk 440 million from export duty, Tk 44.49 billion from excise, and Tk 14.28 billion from other taxes and duties. The initial budget for the 2015-16 FY set Tk 1.76 trillion revenue collection target, but it was cut down to Tk 1.5 trillion. The budget for the current FY was Tk 2.95 trillion and but it was later revised downward to Tk 2.65 trillion. The new budget sees a deficit of Tk 978.53 billion, which represents less than 5 percent of the GDP. This is Muhiths 10th budget -- eighth in a row -- as finance minister. Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury is presiding over the Parliament session, which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended.
Life, Light & Chaos at AFD

Sheikh Arif Bulbon :

A solo photography exhibition titled Life, Light & Chaos by photographer Joy K Roy Chowdhury is being held at La Galerie and Galerie Zoom of the Alliance Francaise de Dhaka (AFD)

in the citys Dhanmondi area now.

Noted cultural personality Aly Zaker attended the programme as the chief guest at the inauguration of the exhibition while Z E Mamun, TV

journalist, Abir Abdullah, photojournalist, European Pressphoto Agency and Moshiur Rahman, Director of Marketing at Hatil, were also attended as the special guests on the occasion. Bruno Plasse, Director of AFD, gave the welcome speech and also presided over the ceremony.

Joy K Roy Chowdhury believes that capturing the true simplicity, emotion, pain, and pleasure of life in his eyes through the lens is his motto, which he feels in turn will inspire the next

generation to explore the positive side of life more intrinsically. Photography, to him, is canvassing

the true colour, pain and joy of life.

Throughout his photographic

journey he tried his best to deliver a unique way of picturing a seemingly-unremarkable image into an epic one. Each trail on the faces of people, each new expression, motion, action and reaction has different stories to tell. Telling those stories by freezing the time into his frames is the goal of this series. The essence of these various emotions truly makes one feel alive. The compilation of such extraordinary moments is the key motive Joy endeavored on for the photographs that are featured in this exhibition. This is his first solo exhibition. Throughout the compilation of the 30 images are being exhibited in the event Roy tries to deliver a unique way of picturing an average incident in to epic phenomena.

Joy K Roy tries to incorporate other event attractions to make this more interesting and fascinating for the

visiting art lovers. As a part of that, a mobile phone art exhibition is also displayed along with his photography one. Joy K Roy Chowdhury is a

passionate photographer and an artist. He comes from Narayanganj and is the Founder Member and President of Narayanganj Photographic Club (NPC).

The exhibition will end on June 6. n
UGC to publish research journal

Prof Emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman is seen at a meeting of Editorial Board of University Grants Commission held at UGC Auditorium on Wednesday.

Campus Report :

University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh has taken an initiative to publish Research Journal for the first time. The decision was taken at a meeting of editorial board held on Wednesday at UGC auditorium.

UGC Chairman Prof Abdul Mannan presided over the meeting. The journal covering three disciplines- Science and Engineering, Humanities and Social Sciences and Economics and Business will be published every year.

Members of the committee highly lauded UGC Chairman for taking the initiative to publish the research journal and drew his attention for maintaining the quality of journal with proper peer reviewing.

UGC Chairman assured the committee of extending necessary cooperation in publication of journal.

Prof Emeritus Dr Anisuzzaman, Dhaka University, Prof Dr Dil Afroza Begum, Member, UGC, Prof Dr Mohit Ul Alam, Vice-Chancellor, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Prof Dr Monaz Ahmed Nur, Vice-Chancellor, Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Prof Dr Mezbah Uddin Ahmed, Vice-Chancellor, Gono Bishwabidyalay, Prof Dr Mostafizur Rahman, Executive Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Prof Dr Shibly Robayetul Islam, Dean, Business Studies, Dhaka Univerity and Prof Dr Arun Kumar Basak, Rajshahi University, among others were present at the meeting.


ASAUB holds IQAC workshop

Campus Report :

Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of ASA University Bangladesh (ASAUB) organized its inception workshop on "Quality Assurance in Higher Education" on Tuesday at ASA Conference Room.

This workshop is a part of the ongoing quality assurance process implemented at ASAUB by its IQAC, under Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) of the government and funded by the World Bank.

Md. Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, Chairman, Board of Trustees, ASAUB was present as the chief guest while Prof Dr Dalem Ch. Barman, Vice Chancellor of ASAUB Chaired the program.

Md. Moniruz Zaman, Assistant Professor of ASAUB and Additional Director, IQAC, ASAUB delivered the welcome address and Prof Dr Iqbal Hossain, Dean-in-Charge, Faculty of Business, ASAUB and Director, IQAC, ASAUB extended the Vote of Thanks for precious presence of all.

Prof Dr Mesbahuddin Ahmed, Head, QAU, HEQEP, University Grant Commission (UGC) of Bagladesh, Prof Dr M. Abul Kashem, QA Specialist, QAU, HEQEP, UGC and Prof Dr Sanjoy Kumar Adhikary, QA Specialist, QAU, HEQEP, UGC were present as special guests in the workshop. In the technical session, they made presentations on various aspects of quality assurance in higher education.

Prof Dr AKM Helal uz Zaman, Treasurer of ASAUB, Deans and Chairmen from different Faculties and Departments, Registrar of ASAUB, teachers from different departments, and officials of ASAUB were present in the workshop.


Participants offering Munajat at a Doa Mahfil marking the 47th death anniversary of legendary journalist Tofazzal Hossain Manik Mia organised by Tanjimul Moslemeen Orphanage on Wednesday.
Urban slums swell with climate migrants

Rafiqul Islam :

Abdul Aziz, 35, arrived in the capital Dhaka in 2006 after losing all his belongings to the mighty Meghna River. Once, he and his family had lived happily in the village of Dokkhin Rajapur in Bhola, a coastal district of Bangladesh. Aziz had a beautiful house and large amount of arable land.

But riverbank erosion snatched away his household and all his belongings. Now he lives with his four-member family, including his 70-year-old mother, in the capital's Malibagh slum.

"Once we had huge arable land as my father and grandfather were landlords. I had grown up with wealth, but now I am destitute," Aziz told IPS.

Fallen on sudden poverty, he roamed door-to-door seeking work, but failed to find a decent job. "I sold nuts on the city streets for five years, and then I started rickshaw pulling. But our lives remain the same. We are still in a bad plight," he said.

Aziz is too poor to rent a decent home, so he and his family have been forced to take shelter in a slum, where the housing is precarious and residents have very little access to amenities like sanitation and clean water.

"My daughter is growing up, but there is no money to enroll her school," Aziz added.

About the harsh erosion of the Meghna River, he said the family of his father-in-law is still living in Bhola, but he fears that they too will be displaced this monsoon season as the erosion worsens.

Like Aziz, people arrive each day in the major cities, including Dhaka and Chittagong, seeking refuge in slums and low-cost housing areas, creating various environmental and social problems.

Bachho Miah, 50, is another victim of riverbank erosion. He and his family also live in Malibagh slum.

"We were displaced many times to riverbank erosion. We had a house in Noakhali. But the house went under river water five years ago. Then we built another house at Dokkhin Rajapur of Bhola. The Meghna also claimed that house," he said.

According to scientists and officials, Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change and rising sea levels. Its impacts are already visible in the recurrent extreme climate events that have contributed to the displacement of millions of people.

Cyclone Sidr, which struck on Nov. 15, 2007, triggering a five-metre tidal surge in the coastal belt of Bangladesh, killed about 3,500 people and displaced two million. In May 2007, another devastating cyclone - Aila - hit the coast, killing 193 people and leaving a million homeless.

Migration and displacement is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. But climate change-induced extreme events like erosion, and cyclone and storm surges have forced a huge number of people to migrate from their homesteads to other places in recent years. The affected people generally migrate to nearby towns and cities, and many never return.

According to a 2013 joint study conducted by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU), Dhaka University and the Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR), University of Sussex, riverbank erosion displaces 50,000 to 200,000 people in Bangladesh each year.

Eminent climate change expert Dr Atiq Rahman predicted that about 20 million people will be displaced in the country, inundating a huge amount of coastal land, if the global sea level rises by one metre.

The fifth assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made a similar prediction, saying that sea levels could rise from 26cm - 98cm by 2100, depending on global emissions levels. If this occurs, Bangladesh will lose 17.5 percent of its total landmass of 147,570 square kilometers, and about 31.5 million people will be displaced.

"The climate-induced migrants will rush to major cities like Dhaka in the coming days, increasing the rate of urban poverty since they will not get work in small townships," urban planner Dr. Md. Maksudur Rahman told IPS.

Dr. Rahman, a professor at Dhaka University, said the influx of internal climate migrants will present a major challenge to the government's plan to build climate-resilient cities.

Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country. Floods also hits the country each year. The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna river basin is one of the most flood-prone areas in the world. Official data shows that the devastating 1998 flood alone caused 1,100 deaths and rendered 30 million people homeless.

Disaster Management Secretary Md Shah Kamal said Bangladesh will see even greater numbers of climate change-induced migrants in the future.

"About 3.5 lakh [350,000] people migrated internally after Aila hit. Many climate victims are going to abroad. So the government is considering the issue seriously. It has planned to rehabilitate them within the areas where they wish to live," he said.

Noting that the Bangladeshi displaced are innocent victims of global climate change, Kamal stressed the need to raise the issue at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul on May 23-24 and to seek compensation.

- IPS


AL hails budget



Dhaka city Awami League on Thursday brought out a procession in the city hailing the budget for the fiscal year 2016-17, terming it a pro-people one.

The procession, led by Dhaka North unit general secretary Sadek Khan and South unit secretary Shahe Alam Murad, started from in front of the Awami League office at Bangabandhu Avenue and ended in front of Khaddar Bazar Market after parading streets of the surrounding areas.

Speaking on the occasion, Shahe Alam Murad said the budget again proves that the government of Sheikh Hasina is agriculture -and education-friendly. He also said the budget would take one step forward the visions-2021 & 2041 declared by Sheikh Hasina. Sadek Khan said hopes and aspirations of the country's common people were reflected in the budget.
Demolish BGMEA building: SC

Staff Reporter :The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the High Court's order on demolishing the BGMEA building situated at Kawran Bazar Hatirjheel project in the city. A four-member bench of Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order rejecting the leave to appeal against the High Court order. The court said, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) building, the headquarters of the organization was constructed violating laws meant to Wetlands Protect Act and ordered its demolition. A bench of High Court comprising Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury and Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain issued the order on April 3 in 2011 to demolish the structure after holding hearing on a suo motu rule over the legality of the building on environment concern. In the verdict, the court also directed the BGMEA to return the money to the buyers of spaces or flats of the building within one year of the refund claim. The court also mentioned that, as the BGMEA had no rights to construct the building at the precise spot and sell any of its space, the deal with the buyers was illegal. The court came up with the decision that the building was hindering the water flow of Begunbari canal and hampering Hatirjheel project, which is a cancer for the project as well as for the Dhaka City. As per the previous order, the BGMEA building will be demolished within 90 days and the land will be used in public interest. "BGMEA, the apex body of garment manufacturers association is an important organization, they should have been more respectful to law," said Advocate Manzil Murshid, an environment worker and president of Human Rights and Peace For Bangladesh (HRPB). According to the allegations, the building did not adhere to the city development law of 1953. The garment factory owners' also violated the building construction law of 1952 as the real estate regulator; Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkho (RAJUK) had not approved the building's design, the allegation added. In the order, the court asked the Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka District and Inspector General of Police to investigate how the building was constructed violating the rules. In its observation, the court said, "Bangladesh Railway was the owner of the land and it was handed over to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) in 2006. The documents, the BGMEA authorities had submitted to the court, claimed that they had purchased the land from EPB in 2001, needs fair investigation." Following a special report published in a national English daily, the High Court issued a rule on October 3, 2010 asking the government to explain as to why the structure should not be pulled down.
Deposition now on June 23

BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia appeared before the special court set up in city\'s Bakshi Bazar for hearing in Zia Trust Graft case on Thursday.

Court Correspondent : The Special Judge's Court-3 of Dhaka on Thursday deferred the deposition of the self-defence statement of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in the Zia Charitable Trust Graft case to June 23. Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the court passed order at about 12 noon following a time petition submitted on behalf of Khaleda Zia. She appeared inthe court at 10:55 am on the occasion of submission of her statement for self-defence in the graft case Under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code.On the occasion, Khaleda Zia's counsels Abdur Razzak Khan, former Attorney General AJ Mohammad Ali and Sanaullah Mia told the court that a plea of their client is yet to be disposed off in the apex court. On May 19, the court warned the BNP Chairperson that it would issue an arrest warrant against Khaleda Zia if she failed to appear before it on June 2 to place her statement. With the reschedule, the court deferred the date for the 5th time. On August 8, 2011, the ACC filed the Zia Charitable Trust Graft case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing four persons, including Khaleda Zia, of raising funds for the trust from unknown sources abusing power.
Tigers carcasses in temple freeze

THAI wildlife authorities found 40 tiger cub carcasses in a freezer in Thailand's infamous Tiger Temple Wednesday, media report said pointing to suspected links with wildlife traffickers' gang in abusing the animals. The Thai government raid in the temple discovered the tiger parts largely used in traditional Chinese medicine. What appears to be quite intriguing is the involvement of the temple in such trafficking, which however defended the recovery of young tiger parts saying that they have always reported death of grown up tiger but not cubs as supposed to be insignificant.

The temple is located at a tourist spot; it hoards tigers as special attraction and also allow shooting for tourists amusement. Trafficking was taking place under cover. Government inspectors have moved out 61 live tigers so far from the temple while as many others are still there. In fact the Thai authorities were trying to bring the country's tiger population under state control over the past decade but always facing resistance from powerful quarters now suspected behind the trafficking. The country is hub for illegal trafficking of wildlife and forest products to China and the West.

This discovery has not only highlighted the plight of tigers, elephants and other exotic birds in Thailand. It has highlighted the precarious condition in many other countries where poachers and smugglers are working under protection of powerful persons defying all restrictions. Corruption and greed for money are organizing the gangs to kill animals and make illegal fortune selling ivory and other body parts in lucrative global markets. Ivory are very expensive and rich people all over the world buy it as a symbol of luxury highlighting their life style at whatever cost.

Not only the Thai authorities are fighting against powerful poachers and smugglers to save the rare species; in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh poachers are also active in killing tigers and smuggling their skins and bones out of the country. The African jungles and forest in Southeast Asia are fertile ground of poaching despite national and international ban to stop killing of tigers, elephants and such other animals as their number is phenomenally declining all over the world. They may face extinction very soon if the killing does not stop.

As we know that poaching and human encroachment are the biggest threat to wildlife and particularly when the global tiger stock now dwindling below one lakh. But they can't be stopped without total commitment of the state to stop it. Tiger convention in Russia has called for drastic measures to save the endangered animal but as it appears they are not safe anywhere. This is a multi-billion dollar trade running under the shelter of powerful quarters. The breaking of the news from Thailand shows this reality once again and it must work as eye opener to all.
BSP cancels Philrem registration

The Philippine Star, Manila :Philrem Service Corp. and two other companies linked to the laundering of $81 million electronically stolen from the Bank of Bangladesh have been stripped of their licenses by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).In a statement, the BSP said the Monetary Board has cancelled the certificates of registration of Philrem, Werquick and Peso Remittance Express Inc. as foreign exchange dealer, money-changer and remittance agent.The companies, the BSP said, committed significant violations of section 451N of the Manual of Regulations for non-bank financial institutions and Circular 706 dated Jan. 5, 2011. The firms were run by Michael Bautista and his wife Salud. The BSP said it would work closely with other relevant government agencies such as the Anti Money Laundering Council (AMLC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) in their investigation of possible criminal and administrative violations under the Anti Money Laundering Act (AMLA) or Republic Act 9160 and its implementing rules and regulations. The bank regulator said it would run after the firms' directors and officers. The Bautista couple attended the hearings conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on the issue. Both were charged by the AMLC for their role in the illegal transfer of $81 million stolen by hackers from the account of the Bangladesh Bank with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last February.Last April 5, the BSP said it would go hard on banks violating the rules on transactions with foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittances companies. The BSP issued Memorandum No. M-2016 -004 reminding banks of sound risk management practices when dealing with foreign exchange dealers, money changers and remittance agents. Sanctions against erring directors, senior management and line officers include written reprimand, suspension or removal from office and disqualification from holding any position in any covered institution by the BSP. The BSP said banks have the ultimate responsibility to conduct appropriate due diligence on any remittance arrangement or relationship to ensure that such would not be used as channel for money laundering or terrorist financing activities. During the last hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee last May 19, BSP deputy governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said the bank regulator had already completed its investigation into banks and personalities involved in the money laundering scandal. "We will submit that to the Monetary Board. There will be recommendations there on what can be done among other things to prevent this kind of situation and also to hold accountable any people who may be responsible," he said.The BSP regulates and monitors the operations of banks as well as non-banks, including foreign exchange dealers and money changers. Hackers tried to steal close to $1 billion from the Bangladesh Bank account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York last February. The US bank was able to stop 30 of the 35 transactions.However, five transactions involving $81 million entered the Philippines through the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. using fictitious accounts and allegedly facilitated by then RCBC Jupiter branch manager Maia Santos-Deguito and customer relations officer Angela Torres. Deguito dragged resigned RCBC president and chief executive officer Lorenzo Tan into the money laundering scandal, saying he gave her instructions to take good care of his friend, casino junket operator Kim Wong.
RAB-2 mobile team arrested six frauds including four Nigerians from different areas as they hoodwinking the people with selling Libyan herbal seeds in city on Thursday.
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.
President Joe Biden has decided to ban Russian oil imports, toughening the toll on Russia's economy in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. The United States generally imports about 100,000 barrels a day from Russia, only about 5% of Russia's crude oil exports, according to Rystad Energy. Last year, roughly 8% of U.S. imports of oil and petroleum products came from Russia. Gas prices have been rising for weeks due to the conflict and in anticipation of potential sanctions on the Russian energy sector. The U.S. national average for a gallon of gasoline soared 45 cents a gallon in the past week and topped $4.06 on Monday, according to auto club AAA. Should the US ban Russian oil imports over Ukraine war?

You voted:
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

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[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.
WEST FRANKFORT  To promote more of a business-friendly climate, West Frankfort officials are considering changes to liquor laws that would broaden sales, Mayor Tom Jordan said this week.

One change has already occurred, awarding a convenience store a pour liquor license that will enable the business to install video gaming machines.

Jordan, who introduced the license award after he was approached by Hucks management, said their intention is not to pour alcohol to customers, much like a bar would.

Rather, their interest is in gaming, which Jordan said has occurred in other Southern Illinois towns. But in order to do that, a pour license was needed under Illinois statutes.

They dont want to be a tavern, Jordan said. Its being done everywhere.

Now using six of eight pour licenses established in the city, Jordan said careful thought went into the decision out of concern of other gaming locations.

Hucks, he said, has been a long-established business that has contributed to the city, including donating drinking water to firefighters on a call and raising money for children.

He also noted that some patrons might want access to gaming outside of a bar environment, and many people do not belong to clubs where gaming is available.

Jordan does not foresee new businesses coming to town outside of restaurants or bars getting a pour license to pave the way to gaming.

I promised I wouldnt do anything intentionally takes that away from them by opening the town to a gaming parlor on every corner, Jordan said of a campaign pledge when he first sought office.

Other businesses have approached city officials to consider allowing them to pour alcohol on Sundays, which is now prohibited  though packaged alcohol can be sold, Jordan said.

He said the issue is expected to be discussed at the Councils June 14 meeting.

My position is if we attract a restaurant that wants to sell on Sundays or even the current restaurants we have and if this is a regulation that is hurting their business, then we need to take a look at it, Jordan said.
According to a recent study conducted by Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation  Illinois Center for Nursing, a shortage of Licensed Practical Nurses may be coming. The survey was completed by nearly 22 percent of all LPNs in Illinois.

Bryan A. Schneider, IDFPR secretary, said the LPN workforce appears to be aging with an insufficient population of younger nurses to replace them. He added that LPNs play a key role in nursing homes, extended care facilities and home care settings.

Ashley Harlow, administrator of The Anchor, a memory care facility of River to River Residential Communities in Marion that specializes in caring for people with Alzheimers disease, and Amanda Garver, marketing director for River to River Residential, see a potential for a shortage of LPNs to care for their residents.

I think it could be problematic for us as Baby Boomers age, Harlow said.

The poll found that one-third of all LPNs plan to retire within the next five years, especially those ages 55 and older. Harlow and Garver say that retirement coincides with a greater need for long-term care for retiring Baby Boomers. Also, many view LPN as a stepping stone to more advanced training as a registered nurse or nurse practitioner.

The Anchor employs 10 nurses: a director of nursing who is an RN; two RNs; and seven LPNs.

Of their seven LPNs, one is going to school to be an RN, another is registering for school and another one or two are looking at RN requirements.

I have at least three CNAs who have tested for LPN boards, with the mentality that its a stepping stone, Harlow said.

She added that CNAs who get out and work tend to see that as a stepping stone to RN because they find out they do not want to work as an LPN. A brochure about the nursing program at Shawnee Community College lists job responsibilities for LPNs as: caring for ill, injured, recovering and disabled patients in hospitals, nursing homes, clinics, private homes and group homes; provide basic patient care and treatments, such as taking temperatures and blood pressures, dressing wounds, treating bedsores and giving enemas; record food and fluid intake and output; and assemble and use equipment, such as catheters, tracheotomy tubes and oxygen suppliers.

Both women say they have no problem finding LPNs to work at The Anchor because it is a whole different aspect of care.

Our staffing ratio is much, much smaller. Each nurse has maximum of 16 residents and has the help of three support staff, Harlow said.

The facility is set up as neighborhoods. Each neighborhood can house 16 residents. Their rooms are miniature apartments, housing one or two residents, and include a front porch with rocking chairs. The rooms are around a common living room, dining room and kitchen. Residents who like to cook may do so with assistance.

Each neighborhood also has a beauty shop, spa and a quiet room. Residents may bring a small pet in some cases, and the facility has service dogs. They have a behavioral analyst on staff who can assess behavior, come up with a treatment plan and train staff to administer the plan.

Chelsea Rentfro and Amaris Davis are two of the facilitys LPNs. Rentfro says this job is far better than working as a CNA in long-term care.

I love being an LPN and having hands-on experience with residents, Rentfro said.

Davis said they also develop a bond with residents.

We are their family when they do not have a family. We are their counselors when they dont have a counselor. We do that by just being their friends, Davis said.

You go home knowing youve made a difference, Rentfro said.
As Barack Obama's presidency takes a backseat to the psychodrama known as the 2016 election, historians, speculators and revisionists are busy writing his presidential epitaph.

Not least of the revisionists is Obama himself. At a recent commencement address at historically black Howard University, Obama noted that his election did not, in fact, create a post-racial society. "I don't know who was propagating that notion. That was not mine," he said.

This remark stopped me for a moment because, well, didn't he? Wasn't he The One we'd been waiting for? Wasn't Obama the quintessential biracial figure that would put racial differences in a lockbox for all time?

This was the narrative, to be sure. But, if not Obama's, then whose?

In retrospect, it was mine, yours, ours. White people, especially in the media, created this narrative because we loved and needed it. Psychologists call it projection. We made Obama into the image of the right sort of fellow. He was, as Shelby Steele wrote in 2008, a "bargainer," who promised white people to "never presume that you are racist if you will not hold my race against me."

Obama wasn't so much the agent of change as he was the embodiment of a post-racial America as whites imagined it.

But Obama's message, beginning with his 2004 address to the Democratic National Convention in Boston, has always suggested that he would be at least a messenger of unity, which sounded an awful lot like post-racial. "There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America," he said.

Most in the media listened to those words and were spellbound. Up in the press section, swaddled in hope and powdered with the pixie dust of change, we were teetering dangerously close to clasping hands and singing "Kumbaya" over post-racial s'mores of milk chocolate and marshmallows. I remember turning to my colleague and saying, "We've just heard the first black president."

Little did I know.

We ran into Obama later that night in the lower lobby of a hotel. He was talking to a solitary fan in an otherwise empty area. We introduced ourselves. Obama was polite, gracious and, yes, flattering in a knowing way. We three parted company and my first impression of the president remains unchanged. He reads people well and gauges precisely what they want to hear. All good politicians do, but some are better at it than others.

That many interpreted Obama's message as post-racial made some kind of sense. The divide between red and blue states may be seen as also splitting along racial lines in some cases.

Eight years after being elected as the first black president of a white-majority nation, Obama is shrugging off any responsibility for having contributed to the post-racial expectation. Is this because, racially, things actually seem worse? But what if they weren't? What if there had been no "Black Lives Matter" movement, no Trayvon Martin, no Freddie Gray, or any of the others who were killed by police in the past few years, or, in Martin's case, by a vigilante?

I'm guessing he'd have grabbed that narrative in a bear hug and given it a great, big, sloppy kiss. His remarks to a graduating class, instead of disavowing that silly post-racial thing, would have celebrated his greatest achievement -- the healing of America.

How lucky are you, class of 2016?! Here you are about to launch your life in a post-racial era, heirs to a heroic legacy and a future of sun-drenched days. When you want the tides to come in, you let me know. Heh, heh, the truth is, I wasn't able to pull that one off. But I did end racial disharmony! Not too bad.

One can dream (and joke).

But all those awful things did happen. And perhaps having a black president gave communities the strength and courage they needed to raise their voices. And maybe hearing a black president speak to the bravery of police officers, the majority of whom act in good faith, was helpful to whites feeling the stigma of racism attach to their own innocence.

Did Obama do enough to make good on his intentions, if not promises? We'll know in a generation or two, perhaps. In the meantime, the real truth is that Obama sized up the electorate and, in the ultimate act of flattery, imitated their projections. Then he gave them precisely what they wanted, not a post-racial world but a pre-post-racial one -- a custom-designed, rainbow-hued, streamlined fantasy of hope and change.
Dateline: Canada

Police in Vancouver were forced to chase down a thieving crow who stole a knife from a crime scene. According to the Vancouver Courier, police shot a 28-year-old man in a McDonalds parking lot on the afternoon of May 24 after he allegedly confronted them with a knife. He was later taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening wounds. Halfway through its article dealing with various police statements and the testimony of witnesses to the shooting, the Vancouver Courier notes, More than 20 officers were at the scene, including one who was forced to chase down a crow that picked up a knife with its claws and flew a short distance before dropping back in the parking lot. The crow, which had a red band attached to its left leg, also tried to make off with a pair of eyeglasses in the lot and steal gear belonging to a television camera operator. A spokesperson for the Vancouver Police told the CBC, The crow was persistent, but the knife was eventually gathered as evidence. Local residents identified the feathered kleptomaniac, who is known in the neighborhood and has become something of an internet sensation since the incident, as Canuck. Canuck has his own Facebook page with more than 13,000 followers. The criminally minded crow made headlines previously for attacking bicyclists and for being spotted riding the citys SkyTrain rapid rail system (probably without paying). Canuck has not been charged with tampering with evidence in this latest brush with the law.

Dateline: South Korea

A South Korean company has come up with a grapefruit-flavored hangover ice cream. The Gyeondyo-Bar, whose name translates as Hang In There, contains oriental raisin tree (hovenia dulcis) juice, a common hangover cure in the country. The convenience store chain that makes the frozen treat says the name expresses the hardships of employees who have to suffer a working day after heavy drinking, as well as to provide comfort to those who have to come to work early after frequent nights of drinking. South Koreans, long considered the heaviest drinkers in Asia, spend some $126 million a year on hangover cures. Pills, beverages, cosmetics and the popular hangover soup are commonly used as morning-after curatives. So far the Gyeondyo-Bar is only available in South Korea.

Dateline: Arizona

A television news reporter in Phoenix was arrested after he confessed to pooping on the front lawn of a man he was filming a story about. Police in Goodyear arrested Jonathan Lowe on the afternoon of Monday, May 23, after he chose to use the front yard of a residence to relieve himself, Goodyear Police Department spokesperson Lisa Kurtis told the Phoenix New Times. An onlooker from across the street called it in to officers. They approached him, he said hed had to relieve himself, and they arrested him. Lowe, who works as a newsman for KPHO in Phoenix was in Goodyeara suburb of Phoenixdoing a story on Patrick Zane Thompson. The 42-year-old Thompson was arrested on Saturday on suspicion of animal cruelty after he allegedly killed his familys dog and placed it in a meat smoker. At the time Thompson told police he had been smoking marijuana and believed God was going to kill him unless he sacrificed a male member of the family. Rather than murder his 6-year-old son, Thompson broke the neck of his dog. Lowe actually managed to file his story for KPHO, but was booked on charges of public urination or defecation, a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,500 or six month in jail. A spokesperson for KPHO TV told reporters Lowe was no longer employed at the station.

Dateline: Arizona

US Customs and Border Protection officers arrested a woman who tried to sneak more than a pound of methamphetamine into the United Sates from Mexico. According to a press release, officers referred the 23-year-old Nogales woman for further inspection after she crossed through the Morley Pedestrian Gate on May 20. A positive alert by a narcotics-detection canine led officers to two large burritos the woman was carrying. Removing the plastic wrap and unrolling the tortillas, officers found slightly more than a pound of meth, worth more than $3,000. The case was turned over to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcements Homeland Security Investigations.
NORWAY  The skies may have been gray, but the spirit was decidedly red, white and blue at the town of Norways 41st annual Memorial Day Ceremony on Monday.

Mayor Ann Johnson in her welcoming remarks noted that Memorial Day is set aside to remember, with gratitude and pride, all of those men and women who served and died for their country.

Following a prayer by the Rev. Wendell Johnson, Coker Fogle, who along with Norway Beautification Committee members Rose Dukes and Toni Hydrick worked to get the new Norway Veterans Memorial built, dedicated the installation that honors the towns military veterans.

This monument has been in the works for about nine years. We are thankful for the men and women who serve in our military, and especially for those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms, Fogle said.

Kathy Berry sang The American Christian, and Jack Hydrick, USAF, (Ret.), led attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Hydrick shared the proper procedure for folding the American flag and the meaning of each of the folds while Jim Wyrosdick, Navy Petty Officer 1st Class (Ret.), and John A. Rivers, USN, (Ret.), demonstrated the technique.

Norway area veterans who gave their lives fighting for America were read aloud by Alma Lois Holiday as follows: Clyde Bair, Vance Barr, Willie Davis, Ernest Devote, Charles Henry Dyches, Harvey Fanning, Ralph Garrick, Duey A. Hutto, Jimmy McCoy Hutto, Robert Elbert Poole, E. Roslyn Rutland, Barco Sanford, J. Monroe Sanford, Julius Sutcliffe, Maynard Williams, Tilman Williams and George Buggs.

Fogle introduced the speaker, Col. Bill Connor, noting that Connor had grown up on military bases in the United States and Europe and that he had graduated from The Citadel in 1990. Following Ranger School, Connor was commissioned as an infantry officer and served with the 24th Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Georgia. He was deployed twice to the Persian Gulf region in the early 1990s prior to being stationed to Hawaii for three years. From 1996-997, Connor served in peacekeeping duties in the Sinai between Egypt and Israel.

Leaving active duty to join the Reserve Command, Connor graduated from the Command and General Staff Officer course and earned his juris doctorate from the University of South Carolina School of Law. He volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan, where he became the joint operations officer for the Southern Region and was responsible for establishing the advisory mission throughout the region for Afghan National Forces during the 2007 Taliban summer offensive.

Following his promotion from major to lieutenant commander, Connor was appointed as senior U.S. military adviser to Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was promoted to the rank of colonel. He and his wife, Dr. Susan Connor, have three children.

In his remarks, Connor expressed gratitude for those who gave their lives in service, quoting John:15-13 (KJV): Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friends.

As you grow older, you look back on your life and began to ask yourself if you have really lived and what have you really done with your life, Connor said. Happiness does not come from money or possessions, but from what you gave to others.

He added, Memorial Day is not a day of sorrow but a day of remembrance of those who gave everything and will be happy in the sight of the Lord.

Connor recalled that while serving with a British detachment, he observed the rites they performed when a soldier was lost, referencing Laurence Binyons poem For the Fallen, which reads in part:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Sgt. Jason Walker, U.S. Army Reserve, placed a wreath at the Veterans Memorial, and Berry sang, God Bless the USA.

The Norway Beautification Committee released red, white and blue balloons, and Taps was played by the Rev. Ben Harr. The program concluded with a prayer by Reuben Jackson.

Following the service, at Norway Beautification Committee provided lights refreshments inside the Old Willow School.
State lawmakers approved a plan Wednesday forgiving $12 million in loans for South Carolina State University.

Officials hope the move will help the university maintain its accreditation.

Its a great day for South Carolina State University in terms of the foundation being placed so that it can move forward, said Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg. Govan is a graduate of S.C. State.

South Carolina loaned the university millions in recent years as its financial difficulties became apparent. S.C. States accrediting agency also placed the school on probation because of its finances.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges will decide later this month whether to maintain S.C. States accreditation or to take it away, which would force the schools closure.

If that were to happen, House Ways and Means Chairman Brian White says the state will be responsible for paying all of the colleges debt.

The Legislature approved freeing S.C. State from $12 million in state loans and set up a 16-year repayment schedule on a separate, $6 million loan.

A resolution approved Wednesday by the House formalizes the terms agreed to last week by a legislative panel negotiating the state budget. The Senate approved the resolution Tuesday.

It forgives $8 million next fiscal year, then $2 million each in the following two years.

Were trying to get this ox out of the ditch, S.C. State Board Chairman Charlie Way said. Way said hes confident that the school will be able to pay off the loan.

Way said the university has made cuts everywhere in an attempt to bring the school back to an even field.

Weve made a lot of cuts, Way said. Weve let people go, weve put people on furloughs. You name it, weve done it.

Way says the university was able to cut $19 million prior to July 1, 2015.

Weve cut as much as we can without affecting the education, Way said. We will not make cuts that will have an effect on the education.

Way says that the new board is very dedicated and has made plenty of progress but there is still a long way to go.

This board has worked as hard as humanly possible, he said.

The budget agreement will now head to Gov. Nikki Haley.

It is my hope that there will not be any objection to whats been done by the House and the Senate, Govan said.

Govan says the university has such a great legacy and great history.

In previous versions of the plan, the House pushed for the university to hire a new president by December of this year. That was later removed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Applebees Manager Harold Goldenberg says hes certain Christopher Nesbit and Gordon Brown were the ones who robbed him.

Although the men who held Goldenberg and three other Applebees employees at gunpoint on Sept. 30, 2014 were wearing masks, Goldenberg testified Wednesday he is certain Nesbit and Brown were behind the masks.

Nesbit and Brown face six charges each: one count of armed robbery, four counts of kidnapping and one count of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Their trial began Wednesday morning at the Orangeburg County Courthouse.

Goldenberg was the first witness called by prosecutors to testify.

He told the jury that he was in the managers office around 1 a.m. on Sept. 30 counting money from the night shift.

Three kitchen employees were also there, prepping the kitchen for the next shift.

At 1 a.m. there was a push on my left-hand side and a gentleman said, Get out of the way. Im taking the money, Goldenberg said.

At first I thought he was kidding, Goldenberg said. Then he knocked me down and pointed this gun at me.

Goldenberg testified that although the gunman had a bandana covering the lower portion of his face, he knew it was Nesbit. He could tell by the build of his body and by his voice.

Under cross-examination by Nesbits attorney, Goldenberg said, I know it was Christopher. I worked with him for two years. I didnt want it to be him.

After Goldenberg handed over a money bag and a cash drawer, the robber headed toward the rear door of the kitchen.

I called out his name, Christopher. I told him he needed to bring the money back, Goldenberg said.

Goldenberg exited his office to check on the three employees in the kitchen.

Thats when he encountered another gunman, he said.

Goldenberg said he knew that gunman too.

Although that gunman was wearing a mask worn like the one in the movie Scream, Goldenberg was able to pull the mask and see the gunmans face.

Goldenberg was certain the gunman was Brown, a former Applebees employee who was terminated about two weeks before.

Goldenberg said he and Brown got into a tussle, and Brown struck him in the head with the butt of the gun.

At some point between the armed robbery in the managers office and the time he got into the tussle, a gun fired a shot.

I thought Id been shot, Goldenberg said.

The bullet went through the wall of a walk-in cooler, but didnt strike anyone.

Both gunmen ended up fleeing the kitchen through the backdoor, witnesses testified.

George Pough Jr. and Gregory Johnson were both cooks at Applebees at the time of the robbery. They also testified. The third employee is on vacation and was excused from testifying.

Pough said, While we were cleaning, someone came behind us with a gun and told us to move toward the back.

The gunman was wearing a mask, he said.

He testified that at first he thought it was Brown wearing the mask because he knew his voice and recognized his skin tone.

Pough said he didnt identify the gunmen to police when he provided a statement to them.

Johnson testified that he saw a masked man with a gun and the gunman used the weapon to motion the employees to get to the back.

In Johnsons statement to police, he didnt provide the identifications of either gunman.

Johnson noted that he remembers Nesbit and Brown being at the bar at some point during the night.

He also saw a black Dodge Charger leaving the area just moments after the robbery took place.

William Mike Melton, a part-time manager at Applebees, was employed as a bartender there when the incident occurred.

Hed taken the money from the bar to Goldenberg at the office and was leaving the rear of the restaurant when he saw Nesbit at the door.

Melton said he knew Nesbit as an Applebees employee and let him in the door.

It was at 1 a.m., he said. Melton said it wasnt unusual for Nesbit to give co-workers a ride home, if they needed one.

Melton testified that he didnt see the robbery take place.

Prosecutors also showed the jury a video clip from surveillance video captured by a nearby hotel just moments before the robbery took place.

State Law Enforcement Division Special Agent Laticia Walker testified that she reviewed the surveillance video. She was an investigator at the Orangeburg Department of Public Safety when the incident took place.

She said when comparing Nesbits identification photo on file at the Department of Motor Vehicles to the man she saw walking to and from a Dodge Charger and then to Applebees in the surveillance video, she was certain she had a match.

Walker said both the photo and video showed that the man had a large cubic zirconium earring in his left ear.

Investigators ended up searching a Kings Road apartment unit where they found Nesbit and two women inside.

After Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office deputies forced their way inside the apartment, they discovered Nesbit sitting on a bed in one of the bedrooms.

They found a silver and black .45-caliber Taurus handgun on top of the bed in another bedroom.

A woman in that bedroom was hiding in a closet.

Law enforcement ended up taking Brown into custody after he drove up at the apartment unit.

ODPS Sgt. Kevin Dukes testified he discovered coins near the dumpster and fence behind Applebees when he returned in the morning.

Dukes testified that upon closer inspection, there was a cash register tray which contained cash and a moneybag which also contained cash.

No fingerprints could be lifted from the tray or the bag and law enforcement agents gave the tray, bag and cash to Applebees management later on Oct. 1, 2014.

SLED Special Agent Chad Smith, a firearms examiner, testified that he inspected the firearm retrieved from the Kings Road apartment unit and the shell casing found at Applebees. He determined that the firearm fired the bullet that produced the shell casing.

Steve Christopher Davis, Nesbits attorney, told jurors in his opening argument that the solicitors version of the robbery wasnt going to add up.

He told me he didnt do it and I believe him, Davis said.

Defense attorney Melissa Gay stated in her opening argument that Brown is a suspect as a result of a forgone conclusion.

Gay said that Brown is a 20-year-old father of two with one more on the way. Hes a junior at South Carolina State University, she said.

There are many things in this case that were not investigated. There are a lot of holes in this case, she told the jury.

She said that Browns fingerprints, DNA and shoeprints are nowhere at the crime scene.

It just makes no sense, she said.

Testimony resumes this morning with the cross-examination of Dukes.

Circuit Judge Maite Murphy is presiding.
You would have to be pretty isolated these days to not be aware of the so-called bathroom issue that centers on transgender individuals, their rights and the obligation of others to accommodate them or find themselves in violation of how President Barack Obama and his administration see the law.

To listen to most liberals and the coverage in the mainstream media, you would think only a hateful narrow-minded bigot would have any hesitation in allowing people to use public facilities based solely on how that person has decided to identify in terms of gender. However, this simplistic viewpoint is encountering strong resistance among real people, especially parents.

As much as anything else, the amount of discussion, strong-armed tactics of the Justice Department and favorable media attention in the direction of transgender Americans just seems to be a bit much to a lot of us. You might conclude the government is finally taking action to remedy a problem that involves huge numbers of people suffering at the hands of an intolerant majority of heterosexuals, mostly those in the white privilege universe. You would be wrong.

For starters, just how many people are in this group? A quick Google search yields a story from the Albany (N.Y.) Times Union (Dec. 5, 2011) that puts the number of transgender people at 700,000. That would be 0.3 percent of Americans. Three-tenths of a single percent. The article goes on to estimate the number of gay, lesbian and bi-sexual Americans to be slightly more than 8 million, or 3.5 percent of the population. In other words, combined, the LGBT population totals less than 4 percent.

A person can be entirely sympathetic to fair treatment, strongly oppose actual discrimination and generally be a fair-minded individual without being compelled to conclude that more than 95 percent of Americans ought to be made to accommodate any and all demands from 0.3 percent of the population.

Recently, the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer editorialized that while it might make women uncomfortable, they needed to get used to the sight of a male using the same public facilities as biological women, if transgender people are to receive fair treatment. Unless I am missing something, we are now being asked to accept instantly something that last year would have constituted illegal indecent exposure.

Recently, a college-age student went to Oregon. He was a white male, under 6 feet in height. He decided to see what students would say in response to his confiding to them that he saw himself as a 6-foot, 2-inch Chinese woman. Surely to the delight of liberals throughout the nation, these students tortured all logic by agreeing to treat him as he self-perceived.

For a large number of people I consider reasonable, all of this becomes a tad absurd. People thinking they are cats does not make them cats, say we. Maybe you are entitled to think of yourself in any way you want. That, however, should not obligate everyone in the world to turn themselves inside out to make sure that you never feel badly.

By the way, just for the record, white males of European descent who are heterosexual actually encounter situations where we get treated like crap. I can vouch for this. Some would call this life.

The incredible amount of attention and discussion given to accommodating transgender Americans really is about more than access to public bathrooms. In a narrow sense, even the particular topic ought to include a conversation on other situations such as a public shower. Do we really want teen-age girls to be told that any male who wants to declare himself transgender has the legal right to be in that same shower as her?

In a broader context, this debate should focus on just how much accommodation is reasonable to expect, much less to demand as a matter of a legal right. When is it that more than nine in 10 Americans will be allowed to say: We dont hate you. We even understand and agree you deserve not to be discriminated against. However, this has become an argument that centers on personal comfort levels. You need to deal with being uncomfortable. It is more fair, more logical and more reasonable than asking all the rest of us to adjust to you.Where possible, we will attempt to reduce this discomfort by providing separate facilities. However, a good deal of the time, you are just going to have to suck it up and deal with things.
Here's my basic problem with Bernie Sanders. To put it bluntly, once a Trotskyite, always a fool. Personal experience of '60s-style left-wing posturing left me allergic to the word "revolution" and the kinds of humorless autodidacts who bandy it about. The Bernie Sanders type, I mean: morally superior, never mistaken and never in doubt.

I'll never forget the time in 1970 that several "radical" colleagues my wife had invited for dinner denounced our record collection as racist. Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Flatt & Scruggs. Never mind that we also owned B.B. King, Lightnin' Hopkins, Beethoven and British rock albums. A taste for country music made us, pardon the expression, politically incorrect.

Also professionally doomed. I needed to resign ASAP before they fired me. I had no interest in either of the academic community's ruling passions: Marxist sentimentalism or real estate.

How Bernie missed becoming an English professor at some picturesque New England college, I cannot understand.

Anyway, here's where I'm going with this. To me, the Clinton campaign's high-minded refusal to expose Sen. Sanders has been a big mistake, needlessly allowing this unelectable crank to pose as a serious candidate far too long -- and enabling Bernie and his impassioned supporters to translate the GOP anti-Hillary playbook into left-wing jargon.

In consequence, Clinton's found herself in a one-sided fight against her own degraded image. Some of it's her own damn fault. Accepting preposterous fees to speak to Wall Street bankers and then keeping the contents secret is no way to run for president.

But realistically, Sanders lost any chance of prevailing after badly losing New York and Pennsylvania. Word has yet to reach him. Meanwhile, it's become common to see Clinton described as "evil," a "war-monger" and worse on social media, while the Sanders campaign whines that it was cheated. The damage to progressive chances in November from this kind of poisonous rhetoric is hard to overstate.

The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky puts it this way: "The guy who's going to end up with about 300 fewer pledged delegates and more than 3 million fewer votes doesn't get to say 'you beat me, but you must adopt my position.' It's preposterous and arrogant, which of course means he will do it."

Has leading the Children's Crusade gone to Sanders' head? No doubt. However, my larger point is that he's always been this guy, and Democrats have been needlessly polite about it.

Perhaps it's McCarthyite to point out, like Slate's Michelle Goldberg, that "in 1980, Sanders served as an elector for the Socialist Workers Party, which was founded on the principles of Leon Trotsky. According to The New York Times, that party called for abolishing the military budget. It also called for 'solidarity' with the revolutionary regimes in Iran, Nicaragua, Grenada, and Cuba; this was in the middle of the Iranian hostage crisis."

Not objectionable because undeniably true. No doubt Sanders has an explanation for such heterodox, albeit politically poisonous views. Fine. So why hasn't he been forced make it?

In 1976, Bernie urged the University of Vermont student paper to "Contrast what the young people in China and Cuba are doing for themselves and for their country as compared to the young people in America ... It's quite obvious why kids are going to turn to drugs to get the hell out of a disgusting system or sit in front of a TV set for 60 hours a week."

He wrote stern letters to the FCC protesting "Gunsmoke" and "I Love Lucy."

Ancient history? Perhaps. But also 30 years after George Orwell's epochal novel "Animal Farm," and just as Chairman Mao's "Cultural Revolution" was winding down after giving millions of Chinese youngsters a swell chance to serve their country in slave labor camps.

As I say, show me an American Trotskyite, and I'll show you a damned fool.

But again, shouldn't Bernie have had to explain it?

Let's pass over Sanders' newspaper columns fantasizing about rape and suggesting that cervical cancer is caused by sexual frustration.

"Basically," writes Slate's William Saletan, "if you were designing the perfect target for Republicans -- a candidate who proudly links socialist economics to hippie culture, libertinism, left-wing foreign policy, new-age nonsense, and contempt for bourgeois values -- you'd create Bernie Sanders."

With so distinguished a record of crackpot opinions, maybe it shouldn't surprise anyone that Bernie has also misjudged the Democratic electorate. Salon's Amanda Marcotte is correct: Sanders didn't lose because establishment Democrats cheated. He lost because his Thomas Frank-influenced theory that strong majorities of white working-class voters would respond enthusiastically to left-wing economic populism turns out to be wrong. The "revolutionary" turnout Bernie kept predicting never materialized.

He swept the white-bread college campuses and the cow states. End of story. The urban proletariat? Not so much. Who can be surprised? Campus radicals have been trashing "establishment" Democrats and fantasizing about a working-class insurrection all Bernie's life.

The revolution remains imaginary.

-----

Arkansas Times columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of "The Hunting of the President" (St. Martin's Press, 2000). You can email Lyons at eugenelyons2@yahoo.com.
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Azerbaijan is a reliable partner for energy diversification and achieving common goals to improve energy security, said Robin Dunnigan, the US Department of State deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy.

She made the remarks June 1 at a meeting with Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev in Baku.

Dunnigan noted that the US will continue to support Azerbaijan.

She also praised the level of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the US in the sphere of energy and Azerbaijan's role in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, in turn, said the work on the Southern Gas Corridor project is being conducted according to the schedule and 70 percent of the work on the Shah Deniz 2 and the South Caucasus Pipeline has already been completed.

He also noted that the Southern Gas Corridor will allow supplying gas to the EU countries not only from Azerbaijan, but also from Central Asia, Egypt, Iraq and Iran.

Currently, the construction of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB Pipeline) stands on the agenda, he added.

Natig Aliyev also said it is expected to construct pipelines from Italy to its northern neighbors, as well as from Albania to the Balkan countries.

The Azerbaijani minister also met with Michael Borrell, Total S.A. senior vice president of exploration & production for Continental Europe and Central Asia.

It was noted during the meeting that Total, together with its partners, is making efforts to start production at Azerbaijan's Absheron field in the coming years.

Currently, a plan is being prepared to develop the Absheron block, which is located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani 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.
/By Azernews/

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijans State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre will stage the opera "La Boheme" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini on June 11, Trend Life reported.

The theater management has invited leading soloist of the National Opera of Ukraine, Honored Artist of Ukraine, laureate of international competitions Olga Nagornaya (Mimi) and leading soloist of the National Academic Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Belarus, Honored Artist of Belarus, and winner of the international vocal competitions Vladimir Gromov (Marseille).

Azerbaijan will be represented by the leading and talented soloists of the Opera and Ballet Theater, People's Artist of Azerbaijan Ali Asgarov (Alcindoro), honored artists Farid Aliyev (Rodolfo), Inara Babayeva (Musetta) and many others.

The performance will be conducted by people's artist of Azerbaijan, Professor Javanshir Jafarov.

The libretto "La Boheme" is based on Henri Murger`s novel, a collection of vignettes portraying young bohemians living in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the 1840s.

The world premiere performance of La Boheme was held in Turin on 1 February 1896. Since then, the play has become part of the standard Italian opera repertory and is one of the most frequently performed operas worldwide.

The storyline is about Marcello and poet Rodolfo, who are trying to keep warm by burning pages from Rodolfo's latest drama. Young philosopher Colline arrives, shivering and penniless, after failing to pawn some books. But it's not all bad - Schaunard, a musician, has just got a job, and turns up armed with wine, food and cigars.
By Sara Sirgany





A French naval vessel has detected underwater signals from one of EgyptAir Flight 804's so-called black boxes, investigators said Wednesday.





Specialized locator equipment on board the French vessel La Place detected signals from the seabed in the Mediterranean Sea , the Egyptian investigative committee said in a statement.





The director of the BEA, France 's air accident investigation agency, later said it had confirmed the signals were from one of the recorders on the plane.





"The signal of a beacon from a flight recorder could be detected. ... The detection of this signal is a first step," BEA Director Remy Jouty said in a statement, according to an agency spokesman.





The Airbus A320, which had 66 people aboard, crashed in the Mediterranean on May 19 on a flight from Paris to Cairo .





Since then, authorities have been searching for wreckage and the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders, which could reveal evidence about what caused the crash.

Authorities hope to locate the data recorders, so a specialized vessel managed by the Deep Ocean Search company can then retrieve them. That vessel is set to join the search team within a week, the investigative committee said.





So far, search teams have found small pieces of debris, victims' remains and personal effects from the plane. They haven't found the aircraft's fuselage.





Analyst: Searchers are nearing wreckage





Detecting the beacon is a sign that searchers are closing in, CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo said.





"That means they're probably within one to three miles (of the black boxes)," she said. "That is the distance that these beacons can broadcast, so they are literally almost on top of them."





And it's likely, Schiavo said, that the recorders will be with the bulk of the wreckage from the plane.





"Hopefully they have finally got the right beacon, the right location, and soon we'll have answers," she said.





Conflicting reports over final moments





This isn't the first time investigators have said they detected a signal from the plane.





Last week a lead investigator in the search said airplane manufacturer Airbus had detected signals from the plane's Emergency Locator Transmitter, a device that can manually or automatically activate at impact and will usually send a distress signal.

Time critical





The signals gave investigators a more specific location to detect pings from the black boxes, state media reported.





Time is of the essence: The batteries powering the flight recorders' locator beacons are certified to emit high-pitched signals for about 30 days after they get wet.

Once they're found, the black boxes will be brought to Egypt , a civil aviation ministry official told CNN. That's standard procedure, the official said, similar to what happened in November with the recorders from Metrojet Flight 9268, which crashed in Egypt 's Sinai Peninsula .





The data recorders have been fixtures on commercial flights around the world for decades.





The flight data recorder gathers 25 hours of technical data from the airplane's sensors, recording several thousand distinct pieces of information. Among the details investigators could uncover: information about the plane's air speed, altitude, engine performance and wing positions.





The cockpit voice recorder captures sounds on the flight deck that can include conversations between pilots, warning alarms from the aircraft and background noise. By listening to the ambient sounds in a cockpit before a crash, experts can determine if a stall took place and the speed at which the plane was traveling.





But black boxes aren't perfect. In several cases -- such as the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 or the crash of American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11, 2001 -- authorities had hoped to find clues in the recorders, only to discover that the data inside had been damaged or the recordings had stopped suddenly.
Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) recently signed a contract with Al Batina International Engineering and Services for warehouse facilities improvement at its premises in Sohar Industrial Port in Oman, said a report.



The multi-million-dollar deal is in keeping with Orpics promise to support and develop Omani small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and as part of its strong commitment to maximise the in-country value (ICV), the Oman Daily Observer report said.



Ibrahim Al Kalbani, Orpics manager of procurement, contracting and inventory (PCI), said that from all the bids received, Al Batina was not just technically qualified but also offered the most competitive commercial bid.


Aecom, a global provider of professional technical and management support services, has been awarded a $52.8 million contract to repair the bottom outlet of the Mosul Dam, Iraq.



As per the firm-fixed-price contract, the architectural and engineering services will be completed by the end of November.



Bids were solicited via the Internet with one received, according to a statement from the US Department of Defense.


The UAE Ministry of Economy has launched a work plan for developing the country's industrial property sector at various levels in co-operation with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (Kipo) and the Korea Institute of Patent Information (Kipi).



The move follows up on the MoU signed by the two countries at the UAE-Korea Joint Economic Committee Meeting held recently in Abu Dhabi.



The work plan forms part of the Ministry of Economys preparations for establishing its International Centre for Registration of Patents as well as the implementation of the recommendations of the UAEs Ministerial Development Council presented in early May 2016.



In line with the plan, a UAE delegation headed by Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz Al Shehhi, the undersecretary of economic affairs, and accompanied by Dr Ali Al-Hosni, the assistant under-secretary for Intellectual Property Affairs, and Khalfan Al Suwaidi, the industrial property director, visited South Korea last month.



The group met Kipo representatives and discussed ways to enhance co-operation in developing ministry procedures related to industrial property and to prepare a programme for the automation of industrial property applications as stipulated in the MoU.



"Automating the industrial property sector is an essential step in fostering innovation and developing domestic industries," remarked Al Shehhi.



The agreement with the Kipo includes dedicating IT experts at the ministry for the automation of the industrial property applications project and providing consultation, training and technical support for the automated system.



The two parties also agreed that the Korean organisations will provide consultations and suggestions on the development of related regulations.



Al Shehhi said the plan was part of the ministrys efforts to further develop national industries and create an environment conducive to innovation as well as the protection of intellectual property rights under which industrial property falls as a main segment.-TradeArabia News Service
Iran plans to draw foreign investment worth around $185 billion to boost oil, gas and petrochemicals industries by 2020, said a senior ministry official.



The implementation of Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) is one of the many strategies Tehran has adopted to attract investments and upgrade the oil industry, Amir Hossein Zamani Nia, deputy oil minister for international affairs, was quoted as saying in an Iran Daily News report, which cited an interview with Tasnim News Agency.



He added that the fresh investment will cover all sectors of the oil industry in a five-year period.



The official further said $85 billion of the investment will go to the industry's upstream sector.



The IPC is to replace Iran's buyback oil deals. Under a buyback deal, the host government agrees to pay the contractor an agreed price for all volumes of hydrocarbons the contractor produces.



However, under the IPC, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) will set up joint ventures for crude oil and gas production with international companies which will be paid with a share of the output.


Binzagr Unilever, the Saudi Arabian unit of Unilever, recently signed an agreement with the Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) to exchange knowledge and expertise on zero waste to landfill techniques, said a report.



The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) between Unilevers managing director Engineer Khalid Fayed and Modons head of operations and investor relations Engineer Khamis Saleh Al Ghamdi, added the Saudi Gazette report.



Modons spokesperson Sami Al Hussaini said that the deal with Binzagr Unilever is of high importance to exchange knowledge and information about waste reduction.



He added that the company is committed to developing industrial cities in line with global best practices, particularly in terms of sustainability and low environmental impact.



Hussaini noted that partners like Binzagr Unilever Limited are an invaluable resource for private sector expertise, added the report.


China's Hebei Iron & Steel Group, its biggest steelmaker by output, accused the US of breaching WTO rules and said US protectionism is damaging the world steel trade, in a statement posted on its website on Thursday.



The US International Trade Commission (ITC) a week ago launched a probe into Chinese steel mills accused by US Steel Corp of stealing its secrets and conspiring to fix prices.



"The protectionist behaviour taken by the US based on purely groundless accusations by US Steel has seriously broken the WTO rules, distorted the normal world steel trade and damaged the essential interests of Chinese steel mills and US steel users," the statement said.



The Chinese steelmaker said it strongly opposed the probe and urged the US to understand the motivation of the complaint, assess the consequences brought by trade protectionism, respect objective facts and be careful when taking measures to cut trade.



Hebei Iron & Steel said it would appeal the probe, without saying to whom, and called on the Chinese government to take measures in line with WTO rules to maintain the legal interests of Chinese steel mills.



US Steel filed its original complaint a month ago, alleging it was a victim of a 2011 computer hacking incident that also prompted US federal cyber-espionage indictments against five Chinese military officials in 2014.



The ITC identified 40 Chinese steelmakers and distribution subsidiaries as respondents in its probe, including Baosteel Group, Hebei Iron and Steel, Wuhan Iron and Steel Co Ltd, Maanshan Iron and Steel Group, Anshan Iron and Steel Group and Jiangsu Shagang Group.



Baosteel, China's second-largest steelmaker and the world's fourth-largest, said in a statement the US was acting in breach of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. It urged the Chinese government to take all necessary measures to ensure the sector receives fair treatment.



The China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) also said the government should take counter-measures against the US to support the steel industry. - Reuters
A suicide car bomber crashed into a gate outside a hotel frequented by lawmakers in the centre of the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday and the attack was followed by gunfire, killing 15 people, police said.



Police said among the dead were two lawmakers. They had previously said at least 10 people were killed. Residents and a Reuters witness said gunfire could be heard in the area around the hotel late into the night.



"Lawmakers Mohamud Mohamed and Abdullahi Jamac died in the hotel. They lived in it," Major Ibrahim Hassan, a police officer, told Reuters. "Many other people including lawmakers were rescued. The operation is about to end now. So far the death toll we have is 15 dead and 20 others wounded."



Militants from al Shabaab, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack on the Hotel Ambassador and said it had killed 20 people in addition to the two lawmakers.



"We targeted the members of the apostate government ... We killed many of them inside and we shall give details later. Our mujahideen are on the top floor of the hotel building," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's military operation spokesman, told Reuters.



Authorities could not immediately verify Al Shabaab's statement.



Hassan had said earlier police suspected Al Shabaab fighters were still present in the hotel. State-run Radio Mogadishu had said government forces were still at the scene rescuing people from the hotel.



Al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union peacekeeping forces in 2011. But it has remained a potent threat in Somalia, launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the Western-backed government.



"I send condolences to the relatives of lawmakers Abdullahi Jamac and Mohamud Mohamed and likewise to the relatives of all those martyred in the barbaric attack," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, said in a statement.



"These barbaric attacks are aimed to frighten citizens so that they do not support governance and peace and that will never happen."



In February, at least nine people were killed when al Shabaab fighters set off a car bomb at the gate of a park near a hotel in the capital. In January, an attack on a beach-front restaurant killed at least 17 people.



Al Shabaab has also been behind deadly attacks in Kenya and Uganda. Both contribute troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia. - Reuters
Torrential rains across France forced thousands of people from their homes and saw stranded motorists rescued by soldiers as flood waters rose, while in Paris a metro line was shut and staff at the Louvre museum were told the venue was likely to close.



An 86-year-old woman was found dead in her flooded house in a small town southwest of Paris late on Wednesday, apparently the first casualty from the heavy rains that caused the Loire and Seine rivers to burst their banks.



President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency in the worst affected areas and promised money to help local authorities deal with the flood damage.



"Since yesterday it's just been a deluge," said Jerome Coiffier, an inhabitant of Longjumeau, less than 20 km south of Paris, where firemen wading thigh-deep in water rescued inhabitants using inflatable boats.



Prime Minister Manuel Valls visited Nemours, 75 km south of Paris, where at least 3,000 out of 13,000 inhabitants were evacuated, as flood water crept towards the second story of buildings in the town centre. He called the situation "tense".



In the French capital, the Seine rose above 5 m (16 feet), forcing the SNCF rail operator to close an underground commuter line that runs along the river and is used by tourists to reach the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame Cathedral.



Meanwhile, Louvre museum chief Jean-Luc Martinez told employees in an internal email seen by Reuters that it was highly likely that the museum would have to shut and would then seek help from volunteers. The Musee d'Orsay said it would close earlier than planned.



In the Loire valley, the Chambord castle, a Unesco heritage site, found itself surrounded by water.



The national weather service said the greater Paris region had in May endured its wettest month since 1960.



In the Loiret region, where local officials called on the army to help evacuate motorists trapped on the A10 motorway, the floods are the most severe in 100 years.



In Paris, the Seine could peak at 5.5 m overnight or on Friday night, the environment ministry said in a statement. The river reached a record high of 8.60 m in 1910. -Reuters
Sadara Chemical Company will deploy an innovative communications system to help its employees in Jubail Industrial City II work more efficiently and safely.



Motorola Solutions will provide the petrochemical complex with a complete communications network across Sadaras expansive 6 sq km complex consisting of 26 integrated manufacturing plants as well as its asso-ciated port facility.



Sadara is the worlds largest chemical complex to be built in a single phase, bringing state-of-the-art tech-nologies to Saudi Arabia. Once complete, the complex will produce over 3 million metric tonnes of high-value, differentiated chemical and plastic products annually. Mission-critical communications are essential for petrochemical operations and provide a vital link to keep staff connected with each other and their control room at all times.



The communications solution due for completion in the second half of 2016, comprises 1,500 units of the latest MTP8500Ex Tetra Atex digital two-way radios and repeaters and Motorola Solutions Dimetra IP Com-pact scalable digital solution to expand the network without disrupting radio users.



In the case of an unexpected technical failure of any one of Sadaras multiple sites, the Dimetra IP Compacts geographical redundancy will fully recover the communications network to ensure continuous and secure business operations. The fully integrated Tetra system is also interoperable with Sadaras legacy Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (IDEN) and telephony systems.



The MTP8500Ex radios are equipped with enhanced transmission and receiver sensitivity, they provide crisp and clear audio to cut through the noisiest workplace environments. They will help enable Sadaras employ-ees to work safely and productively, sending business orders and other important information throughout the plants. With more than 16 hours of battery life, the durable radios are designed for reliable use over long shifts.



Communications equipment used in chemical facilities must adhere to stringent safety standards to protect worker safety. With features including a slimline tactile keypad, exaggerated control knob, large emergency button and textured push-to-talk button, the rugged MTP8500Ex radios are ergonomically designed for workers wearing thick gloves in heavy duty environments, said Paul Mueller, vice president and general manager, Middle East Region, Motorola Solutions. Our radios help employees work efficiently and safely without interfering with their daily activities, Mueller continued.  TradeArabia News Service


Uber has raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the US ride-hailing service said on Wednesday, gaining a crucial partner in its expansion into the Middle East.



The investment from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund was part of Uber's most recent financing round that valued the company at $62.5 billion, Uber said, making it the most highly valued venture capital-backed company in the world.



In a written statement, Uber co-founder and chief executive officer Travis Kalanick called the investment a "vote of confidence in our business."



As part of the investment, a managing director at the Saudi fund, Yasir Al Rumayyan, will take a seat on Uber's board, the company said. Other board members include Benchmark Capital general partner Bill Gurley and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington.



Uber said the Saudi's investment puts the company's total balance sheet, including cash and debt, at more than $11 billion.



The funding round is a departure from the startup investing climate, which has seen contraction in recent months as technology companies face greater scrutiny over their valuations. It shows that the some of the most high-profile companies with mass consumer adoption -- among them also Snapchat, which last week disclosed a $1.81 billion funding raise -- can still demand investor dollars, even as other tech firms are downsizing to weather a funding drought.



Uber has committed to investing $250 million in the Middle East and North Africa, where it has grown aggressively and is now operating in nine countries and 15 cities in the region. But, as in other regions including China and India, Uber is competing in the Middle East against local ride-hailing startups such as Careem, which operates in 20 cities across the region.



In the first quarter of the year, Uber had more than 395,000 active riders across the Middle East, a five-fold jump from the first quarter of 2015, and 19,000 active drivers, representing a four-fold increase over the same period.



Uber says it has operated in Saudi Arabia since early 2014 and about 80 percent of its more than 130,000 riders in that country are women.



Uber will use some of the new funds in growth markets including China, where the company is in fierce competition with market leader Didi Chuxing, which is backed by Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd .



"What we continue to be most focused on though is the growth of our businesses around the world, particularly in developing markets like China," Allen Penn, head of Asia operations at Uber, told a technology conference in Hong Kong.



Uber and Didi Chuxing have both spent heavily to subsidize fares to gain market share, betting on China's Internet-linked transport market becoming the world's biggest. Despite the increased competition, Uber is spending 75 percent to 80 percent less per trip now than last summer, putting the company on a more sustainable path, Penn added. - Reuters
Opec is set for another showdown between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran when it meets today, with Riyadh trying to revive coordinated action and set a formal oil output target but Tehran rejecting the idea.



Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shia Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous Opec meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.



Several Opec sources said Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies would propose to set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair Opec's waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment.



"The Gulf Cooperation Council is looking for coordinated action at the meeting," a senior Opec source said, referring to a group combining Opec's biggest producer Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE.



Any agreement between Riyadh and Tehran would be seen as a big surprise by the market, which in the past two years has grown increasingly used to clashes between the political foes as they fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.



Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-Opec Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.



Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze.



Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.



Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on the more radical idea of individual country production quotas.



"An output ceiling has no benefit to us," Zanganeh told reporters upon arriving in Vienna late on Wednesday and before seeing any fellow Opec ministers.



COUNTRY QUOTAS



New Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih was the first Opec minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have Opec set output.



At its previous meeting in December 2015, Opec failed to set any production policy including a formal output ceiling, effectively allowing its 13 members to pump at will in an already oversupplied market.



As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages.



Those include declining output from US shale producers badly hit by low prices but also forest fires in Canada, militant attacks on pipelines in Opec member Nigeria and declining output in Venezuela, also a member of the group.



Until December 2015, Opec had a ceiling of 30 million barrels per day (bpd) - in place since December 2011, although it effectively abandoned individual production quotas years ago.



Opec currently produces around 32.5 million bpd. Any ceiling below that number would represent an effective cut.



"One of our main ideas (is) to have a country quota. But I don't believe at this meeting we can reach agreement for this," Zanganeh said, adding that Iran was producing 3.8 million bpd and would soon reach pre-sanctions levels of 4 million bpd.



Should Opec fail to agree any policy on Thursday, it would again convince the market that its main members could try to raise supplies further to gain market share despite low prices.



UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed Al-Mazroui said oil markets were still not close to rebalancing due to a severe glut and a further price correction was possible.



The Venezuelan energy minister also warned that supply outages have propped up prices in recent months but a global oil glut might build up again when missing barrels return.



"More than 3 million barrels are out of the market. When those circumstances are removed from the market, what's going to happen?" Eulogio Del Pino told reporters in Vienna. - Reuters
Saudi Arabia promised on Thursday not to shock the oil markets as Opec headed into a heated debate about production policy, with Iran insisting on the right to raise output steeply.



Tensions between the kingdom and Iran have been the highlights of several previous Opec meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.



Several Opec sources said Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies would propose to set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair Opec's waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment.



Failure to reach any deal would revive market fears that Opec's largest producer Saudi Arabia, already pumping near record highs, may raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.



"We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih told reporters ahead of the meeting.



Answering a question on whether Riyadh would propose setting a new collective output ceiling, he said: "We will do that when necessary." He added that he would listen to anything Iran brings to the table.



Any agreement between Riyadh and Tehran would be seen as a big surprise by the market, which in the past two years has grown increasingly used to clashes between the political foes as they fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.



Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-Opec Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.



Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze.



Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.



Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual country production quotas.



"Without country quotas, Opec cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of Opec's overall production.



Opec is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates. - Reuters
UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed Al Mazroui expects the oil price to pick up in the second half of this year, he said on Thursday.



Mazroui told reporters in Vienna the market needs the oil price to appreciate to sustain investment in the sector. Benchmark Brent crude was trading at just under $50 a barrel on Thursday.



Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are meeting in the Austrian capital.



In another developement, Venezuela's oil minister Eulogio del Pino proposed an "oil supply range" for individual Opec countries.



Del Pino added that such a range could substitute for talks on an output ceiling.



Venezuela's crude production stood at around 2.8 million barrels per day last month, he added.

Algerian Energy Minister Salah Khebri said he was optimistic that Opec will return to an oil output ceiling with production quotas for individual member countries.



Angolan Oil Minister Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said he believed there was a possibility that he and his Opec counterparts could reach a decision on a possible ceiling on the group's crude output.



Botelho de Vasconcelos told reporters that an oil price of $60 was not bad, but "$80 would be better."



Several Opec sources said on Wednesday Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies would propose to set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair Opec's waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment.



Meanwhile, Iran pledged that it would boost the oil production to 4.8 million barrels per day within the next five years.



"Iran's oil production capacity will reach 4.8 million bpd in five years," the country's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Thursday in Vienna before a meeting of Opec oil ministers.-Reuters
Saudi Arabia promised on Thursday not to flood the oil market with extra barrels even as Opec failed to agree on output policy, with Iran insisting on the right to raise production steeply.



Tensions between the kingdom and Iran have been the highlights of several previous Opec meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.



Tensions, however, were less acute on Thursday as Saudi Arabia's new energy minister, Khalid Al-Falih, showed Riyadh wanted to be more conciliatory and his Iranian peer Bijan Zanganeh kept his criticism of Riyadh to an unusual minimum.



In a rare compromise, Opec also decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary-general after years of friction over the issue.



Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose Opec set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair the group's waning importance. But Thursday's meeting ended with no new policy or ceiling amid resistance from Iran.



Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt Opec's largest producer, already pumping near record highs, to raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.



"We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," Al-Falih told reporters.



"There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Al-Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could accelerate production.



The market has grown increasingly used to Opec clashes over the past two years as political foes Riyadh and Tehran fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.



Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April in the Qatari capital of Doha. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-Opec Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.



Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.



Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual-country production quotas, effectively abandoned by Opec years ago.



"Without country quotas, Opec cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of Opec's overall production.



Opec is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates.



At its previous meeting in December 2015, Opec effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will.



As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages. On Thursday, Brent prices eased 1.5 percent to $49 per barrel.



That Opec could not agree on a benign deal is a sign that political differences are undermining the organisation, said Gary Ross, founder of US-based PIRA consultancy.



"It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market," Ross added.



Zanganeh made a few conciliatory remarks, saying he was happy with the meeting and received no signals from other producers that they planned to increase output.



For Amrita Sen of Energy Aspects, who like Ross travelled to Vienna to meet Opec officials, the meeting sent an encouraging signal about the state of the organisation.



"After the Doha debacle, it actually restores market confidence that Saudi Arabia is committed to Opec. This is a success compared to three days ago when people had been expecting Falih to walk out of the Opec room," said Sen.



Falih was the first Opec minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have Opec set output.



"There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, Opec might intervene and yet other situations - such as long-term growth of marginal barrels - in which case it should not," Al-Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting. - Reuters
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Egypt's Petra National Trust (PNT) to promote sustainable tourism policies in cultural tourism, develop capacity building and knowledge sharing, and conduct educational actions.



The agreement was signed in Beijing, China, on the occasion of the recent First World Conference on Tourism for Development.



The MoU was signed by UNWTO secretary-general Taleb Rifai and the president of PNTs board, HRH Princess Dana Firas.



The work developed by civil society organisations on the protection of heritage is a fundamental part of the tourism sector, and essential for the design and implementation of sustainable tourism initiatives involving and benefiting local communities. This agreement builds upon this principle, said Rifai during the signing ceremony.



This partnership agreement marks a new milestone for the Petra National Trust and will serve as the framework for joint cooperation between us. PNT will work closely with UNWTO to place preservation of culture and heritage at the centre of tourism development, and to expand PNT's innovative cultural education and awareness programmes to local communities internationally. We thank UNWTO for their support and endorsement and look forward to a most fruitful partnership," said HRH Princess Dana. - TradeArabia News Service
A French Canadian received six months of probation after pleading guilty Thursday to putting a bison calf in his car at Yellowstone National Park because he thought the animal was cold.

Shamash Kassam should pay $500 to the Yellowstone Park Foundation Wildlife Protection Fund, federal magistrate Mark Carman ordered at the Yellowstone Justice Center. Kassam will also serve six months of unsupervised probation, as well as pay a $200 fine.

Park officials cited Kassam on May 17 for disturbing wildlife. According to the citation, Kassam put the bison calf in his car because it was wet and shivering and drove to a ranger station. Yellowstone officials later euthanized the bison calf after the human interaction caused the animal to be rejected by its herd.

Kassam told a park ranger he saw the baby bison in the middle of the road near Buffalo Ranch, according to the citation. He said he did not see any other bison in the vicinity and he waited 20 minutes to see if any adult bison would come back for the calf. Kassam said the animal appeared to be seeking warmth from his cars engine.

Kassam told the park ranger he picked up the calf because otherwise it would have been roadkill, the citation states. When the ranger made contact with Kassam at the Buffalo Ranch, he saw the calf lying in the back of Kassams Toyota Sequoia.

The park ranger told Kassam that park visitors are not permitted to intervene with wildlife and that by removing the calf he was preventing the mother from locating it and possibly altering its ability to survive in the wild.

Kasam stated that he understood what he did was wrong and he would never pick up or disturb any wildlife again, the citation states.

The ranger located a bison herd near where Kassam had picked up the calf and released the calf back into the herd, according to the citation. The ranger then notified National Park Service bison management.

Rangers repeatedly tried to reunite the calf with its herd, according to a statement released by Yellowstone. The efforts failed, and the calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and approaching people and cars along the road.

Human interference can cause mothers to reject their offspring, the park said.

Yellowstone released a statement after receiving criticism for euthanizing the calf. For the calf to leave the park, it would have had to spend months in quarantine to be monitored for brucellosis, a disease that causes bison, elk and cattle to miscarry. No approved quarantine facilities exist, and the park said it doesnt have the capacity to care for a calf thats too young to forage on its own.

Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone, the statement said. Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves. Those animals typically die of starvation or predation.

The park has repeatedly advised visitors of late to respect wildlife and to know and follow safety regulations.

We would like to reiterate that approaching wild animals could drastically affect their well-being, and in this specific case, their survival, said Yellowstone spokeswoman Morgan Warthin.

A woman taking a picture of an elk during a recent Yellowstone visit was charged by the animal when she got too close. The elk knocked her to the ground before backing away.

Visitors should stay at least 100 yards from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards from all other wildlife, the park has said.
When Laurie Nichols was chosen in December as the next president of the University of Wyoming, experts had only recently revealed how dire the states economic situation could be in the coming years.

The energy industrys struggles resulted in legislative cuts for the states only four-year university. Just a few weeks into the job, Nichols has already announced some of her own plans to address the economic crisis, like slashing 70 vacant positions at the college in anticipation of about $50 million in cuts over the next two years.

In a recent interview Nichols spoke about the need to cut purposefully, the value of greater diversity at UW and how strong leadership can bridge the various interests and demands on the school.

But Nichols immediate concern is addressing the budget crisis, she said.

An ongoing program review has earmarked close to 50 programs for potential elimination, to the ire of some department heads.

Administrators are looking at productivity and size, numbers of graduates, value in Wyomings economic future and overall quality.

Nichols said the program review may actually require some backtracking to make sure the cuts being made are the right ones.

For Nichols, an important criterion for determining which programs are eliminated will be their importance to the mission of UW. A land grant university should provide programs that serve the people of the state, and that anticipate the future needs of the state, she said.

I think what you really have to look at is, Where is Wyoming? What are the industries and economies that drive the state right now? What are the work force needs of the state? she said.

Fields like engineering, natural resources and agriculture have obvious importance, she added. But Wyoming is also looking to grow in the business sector, for example, making the College of Business central to the schools future.

With non-academic costs ballooning over the last decade in higher education, Nichols said the review should not be solely focused on the academic side. From support services to management, the president wants administrations to streamline their budgets and make cuts where there are redundancies.

The changing economics of the state will require close partnerships with lawmakers who determine UWs funding.

In response to a question about academic independence in this climate, Nichols said balancing various interests is the hallmark of good leadership.

I think when universities dont have a plan, everybody from the outside tries to plan for the university, she said of the strong opinions Wyomingites have about the state school.

Lawmakers and partners are very responsive to a well-laid and well-executed plan, she added.

Lets put together a plan that we are really proud of, and have everybody be part of forming that plan. Thats the key, she said. But once weve got it, and were ready to go live with it, then we need people to be on board.

As Nichols looks to the future of UW, one of her long-term interests will be a commitment to diversity, which the president believes is not a single issue to address, but a value that needs to be incorporated across the board.

Nichols said she was aware of the importance of her position as the first female leader of UW.

Ideally, Wyomingites will value her skill before her gender, she said. However, she realized that she is a role model for young people, and having women in leadership positions that have traditionally been dominated by men is important, she said.

Addressing diversity is not only a strategy of bringing in faculty and students from around the world. There is diversity to be celebrated in Wyoming, she said.

Nichols former university, South Dakota State, had a program that steered Native American students from high school, to tribal college, to the university. She would like to see something similar develop with Wyomings Native American students on the Wind River Reservation, she said.

Nichols is tentatively scheduled to meet with leaders on the reservation in June. She spent much of May traveling the state, including two stops in Gillette, a town recently hit with significant layoffs.

On June 15, her budget plans will be considered in a special session of the board of trustees.
BILLINGS, Mont.  A Wyoming teenager charged with slaying a couple and wounding their daughter after the family stopped to help him on Montanas Crow Indian Reservation will rely on an insanity defense if the case goes to trial.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters on Thursday ordered a mental examination for Jesus Deniz Mendoza at the request of his attorneys. Mendoza is charged with double murder, attempted murder and other charges in the July shootings of Jason and Tana Shane.

The exam would determine Mendozas mental condition at the time of the killings and if he is fit to stand trial.

Watters ordered that the findings be sealed from the public. Federal officials must conduct the exam over a maximum period of 45 days.

If a trial happens, under federal law Mendoza could be found guilty, not guilty or not guilty only by reason of insanity.

A not guilty by reason of insanity verdict would require Mendozas automatic commitment to a mental institution. He would remain in custody until he could prove that he does not pose a risk to injure someone or cause serious property damage.

Mendoza, of Worland, turned 19 last month. He suffers from an unspecified severe mental disease or defect that may have left him unable to appreciate the nature of his actions, Federal Defender David Merchant said in a Wednesday court filing.

Mendoza has pleaded not guilty to 12 criminal charges, including two counts of first degree murder. Friday is the deadline for him to seek a change in plea prior to trial scheduled for June 13.

Federal prosecutors had asked in February for Mendoza to undergo a mental exam to see if he was fit for trial.

But defense attorneys at the time opposed the move, arguing there were no signs Mendoza was unable to understand the charges against him or to assist in his own defense. Those are two primary standards for determining a criminal defendants competency.

Simply stated, (my) lay opinion of Jesus has changed, Merchant wrote in his notice that Mendoza would rely on an insanity defense.

Authorities say the Shanes and their 26-year-old daughter were shot with a .22 caliber rifle after stopping to help Mendoza along a roadside near Pryor. Mendoza told investigators he was tired of waiting around and shot the family in part because the Shanes daughter laughed at him, FBI agents have said in court filings.

Should Judge Watters determine that Mendoza is unfit for trial, he would be further evaluated to see if he can be rendered competent through drugs or other means.

If yes, he gets treatment and then can stand trial, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Hornbein.

If not, Mendoza likely would be civilly committed at the direction of the Bureau of Prisons, Hornbein said.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch in April decided against seeking the death sentence in the case if Mendoza were found guilty.

Mendoza faces a separate accusation of attempted second-degree murder in Washakie County, Wyoming, where authorities say he shot a man at a campground near the small town of Ten Sleep during a 2013 robbery attempt.
Now your cellphone can help guide you through Yellowstone National Park thanks to a new free app.

The NPS Yellowstone National Park app is available from the Apple App Store. An Android version is still in the works.

Cell service and Wi-Fi are limited in the park, so visitors are encouraged to download the app before they arrive.

The app will provide information about visitor centers, places to stay and eat, shopping and services, self-guided walking tours, and historic places and natural features.

It will also allow users to explore the interactive park map, which includes large font sizes, illustrated trails and services, scenic highlights and multiple zoom levels. By tapping the Locate me button, visitors will always know where they are. Tourists can also learn more about points of interest with text and photographs.

Other options on the app are:

Get up-to-date information about what is happening in Yellowstone, including links to geyser predictions and road construction information.

With the tap of a button, share a digital postcard with friends and family.

Get up-to-date accessibility information for facilities and some trails in the park as well as audio-described sites.

In the past, Yellowstone has been criticized for expanding cellphone coverage inside the park. Many park supporters believe the area should be a place to explore natural wonders, not to be glued to a portable electronic device.

The natural quiet and wilderness character of Yellowstone National Park is something that we are interested in preserving and we certainly sympathize with those who arent interested in seeing cellular coverage inside the park increased, park spokeswoman Charissa Reid said in an email. We are trying to strike a happy medium between making coverage available in developed areas; recognizing that people are dependent on their cellular phones to stay in touch with both work and family while they are traveling in Yellowstone. We do not, however, intend to extend coverage into those areas that are undeveloped and want to help preserve the wilderness character that many hold dear.

Reid also noted that the app is a way to connect to and educate the parks younger visitors, most of which are carrying cellphones.

The app is being released just as visitation is predicted to hit a new all-time high in the nations first national park. Given that possibility, visitors are being asked to plan carefully before they arrive. Lodging and campgrounds fill early.

The NPS Yellowstone National Park app was developed in partnership with the National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park, NPMap, Harpers Ferry Center, Montana State University and Colorado State University. The app was made possible, in part, by a donation from Canon U.S.A. Inc. through the Yellowstone Park Foundation.
Tim Stubson, a Republican seeking Wyomings single seat in the U.S. House, promised Wednesday that if voters send him to Washington, hell work to create a program that would allow state and county governments to control pieces of federal land.

The Casper attorney and third-ranking member of the Wyoming House unveiled a proposal for public land and natural resources during a press conference at Black Hills Bentonites Casper processing plant. As trucks hauling the grayish clay roared around Stubson, he outlined his Winning Back the West plan, which includes working to derail environmental regulations that could stifle coal markets by halting federal money needed to enforce them.

As Ive traveled around the state over the last three months, its become clear that Wyoming is in many ways in an economic crisis, he said.

The state is reeling from unemployment due to a downturn in coal, oil and gas. Production and prices are down, as are revenues to state coffers. Each of the nine Republicans in the 13-candidate race are vying to distinguish themselves as the candidate who can save the states bread and butter industries.

But Stubsons plan was criticized by one of his Democratic opponents. Ryan Greene of Rock Springs, who works in the energy industry, called it more of the same from Wyoming Republican candidates who have occupied Congress for 40 years. Greene said the Republicans havent produced any different results despite using the same rhetoric.

Stubson said he would allow states and counties to nominate Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service lands as charter forests or charter rangelands. The lands would have special management plans to permit mining, drilling, logging, grazing or other development. The special management plans would be outside the scope of the environmental reviews currently required on federal land, which Stubson said take the feds too much time to complete and hurt the overall economy.

We see, for example, through the management of our forests and the pine beetle kill, really the mismanagement of our forests, he said. Charter forests would allow the state to nominate particular lands to manage, to put forward a plan to manage those and its a practical, realistic step toward having more state influence in the management of federal lands.

The management plans would have specifications to preserve public access and the quality of the environment, he said.

What were talking about is local management decisions, not throwing environmental protections out the window, he said. Along the campaign trail you get some pushback on some of these ideas. And I reject the concept that we in Wyoming cant manage our own lands, our own waters, our own air responsibly. We have more at stake in their management than anybody else. So I have faith in the people of Wyoming.

Stubsons plan for coal was in-depth and included increasing international exports and promoting research into technologies that burn coal cleaner.

Stubson also wants to defund environmental programs. He said he would use Congress power of the purse to prevent money from being spent on regulations he believes hurt coal. Wyoming is the top producer of coal for electrical power plants. He would stop money from going to the Clean Power Plan, Regional Haze Rule and other federal regulations that he believes grow government excessively and prevent coal from being affordable and viable, he said.

There certainly are market problems in the coal industry, he said. But there are key issues and simple things that the federal government could do to maintain and protect this valuable resource for generations to come.

Stubson said he doesnt plan to change his approach if a Democrat wins the presidency, even though a president could veto any legislation Stubson helps pass.

To get things through Congress, you have to build coalitions, he said. It may make it more difficult if theres a Democrat in the White House. But the job of Wyomings congressman is the same.

The Star-Tribune sent Greene a copy of Stubsons plan, Winning Back the West.

If Tim didnt have his bio attached to this, it would be virtually impossible to tell where it came from, he said. It looks like everything proposed by Leland (Christensen) and Liz (Cheney). None of this is new.

Greene said he doesnt think Stubson is being realistic about the federal government handing over control of lands, yet still technically owning them. Under such a scenario, the feds would be on the hook to pay to fight a large, expensive wildfire if the state or county cant afford it, he said.

Greene, who said he supports coal but also believes in the threat of global climate change, said that the forces currently hurting coal are not environmental regulations but the market. Natural gas is cheaper and utilities are currently using more gas than coal.

Greenes plan is to develop all the resources in the state to meet market demands.

Were blessed in Wyoming, he said. If the markets buying renewables, we have to sell them renewables. If its buying natural gas, we need to sell them natural gas.
A majority of Wyoming residents support using money from the federal government to expand Medicaid over tapping the rainy day fund, cutting government or raising taxes.

While 41 percent of Wyoming residents supported the budget the Legislature adopted in March, support for the bill would have increased to 52 percent had lawmakers had accepted $268 million in federal money to expand Medicaid, a new survey showed.

The survey is the first scientific review of Wyomingites attitudes about expansion, a key provision under the Affordable Care Act, that extends the number of people on the government health program by 20,000.

Researchers at the University of Wyomings Center for Energy Economics and Public Policy declined to ask yes or no questions about whether people supported expansion. That would have made it too easy for people to answer along partisan lines, said Robert Godby, a researcher with the center.

Instead, participants were queried about the budget as a number of choices confronting the state at a time when revenues from oil, gas and coal are down. For instance, participants were asked whether they supported cuts to education and how important those cuts were to them in comparison to other cuts or policy decisions on Medicaid, taxes or the rainy day fund. Participants were able to see the financial impact of their choices.

The survey was online in early May, taken by 317 people throughout the states 23 counties who were randomly selected but also represented the states demographics, Godby said. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percent.

The researchers showed participants a simplified description of the budget passed by the Legislature in March. That budget included 1 percent cuts to most state agencies and drawing down the states reserves by 5.7 percent.

Bottom line: Less than 50 percent of the state is in favor of what the (Legislature) did, Godby said. If the state had done everything the same as it had done  except had expanded Medicaid, support goes up to 52 percent.

Godby said support for Medicaid expansion likely doesnt reflect overall support for Obamacare in Wyoming, one of the reddest states.

People are saying, Hey, its free money, take it. Because if we dont take it, youll have to take it out of other services we enjoy.

The Wyoming Legislature, which has a Republican supermajority, has rejected expansion each year for the past four years, despite recent pressure from the states Republican governor to allow expansion.

The survey shows that, given the current fiscal reality of the state, lawmakers are out of touch with their constituents, Godby said.

As a representative democracy, you want your legislators to support what a majority of people support. That leads to the question of what do people prefer? he said. ... They would have preferred Medicaid expansion to cutting services or spending more out of the rainy day fund.

Mead asked the Legislature to expand Medicaid during the last two sessions.

During these tougher economic times Im not surprised a majority would support Medicaid expansion, he said in an email sent by his spokesman. I look forward to continuing this discussion with the Legislature.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss, the leading Democrat in the state Senate, believes there is a disconnect between lawmakers and average Wyomigites on expansion. Aside from the libertarian Wyoming Liberty Group, no organization based in Wyoming has opposed expansion in recent years, he said.

Really, thats the only organization that was so against it, he said. I was hopeful when youve got the (Wyoming) Business Alliance, and the chambers of commerce and all these organizations recognizing how important it would be for the economy, that the legislators would go along.

The issue may become more prominent during this campaign season, said Brianna Jones, executive director of the Equality State Policy Center, which organized a coalition of business and health groups to lobby the Legislature for expansion.

She believes the survey, the results of which were released Thursday, will enlighten legislative candidates.

I think when they see this, theyre going to take a much harder look at expansion, as they should, she said. We see a majority of people, when confronted with the choice of expansion, support it.

But Rep. Steve Harshman said most lawmakers, such as himself, are not yet ready to expand. Harshman is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the first group of lawmakers to craft the state budget.

Harshman said the Legislature hesitates to expand Medicaid because the program doesnt provide people an incentive to get raises or promotions. People lose Medicaid benefits if their income exceeds certain limits.

Hes also conconerned about the federal portion of Medicaid spending decreasing, leaving the state on the hook with new costs.

I think were going to keep debating the issue, he said. Were just not there yet. I think theres more to come on the issue.
CHEYENNE  Wyoming should see a strong tourist season this year, but possible budget cuts could throttle a growing state tourist industry in coming years, Diane Shober, executive director of the state Tourism Office, said.

Low fuel prices, the national parks centennial, an effective marketing campaign and interest shown by people inquiring about Wyoming trips indicate another flood of visitors to the Cowboy State this season, Shober said.

While Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks remain the big draws to Wyoming, Shober said she sees greater interest in smaller attractions across the state.

Greybull, to Buffalo, to other places, theyre experiencing really strong reservations in the leisure market, she said.

Last year, Wyoming attracted a record 10.5 million tourists and tourism contributed nearly $3.4 billion to the state economy. The tourism industry has grown into the second-largest contributor of tax revenue to the state.

However, Wyomings main source of tax revenue, the minerals extraction industry, is experiencing a downturn that is forcing deep cuts in state spending.

Gov. Matt Mead has asked each state agency to submit budget cuts of about 8 percent over the next two-year budget period.

Shober said the 8 percent cut represents about $1 million a year from her offices nearly $14 million annual budget.

Shober said her office would likely have to reduce its advertising efforts. Her agency spends about $6 million a year on media advertising Wyoming around the nation. Research shows that for every $1 Wyoming invests in advertising, the state gets $202 in return from tourist spending.

Cutting back on marketing and advertising could result in fewer potential visitors in the future because Wyoming may lose potential tourists to other states that are still advertising their attractions, she said.

Not having as broad a footprint, it erodes your brand in the minds of the consumers, Shober said.

The governor is reviewing the 8 percent cuts proposed by state agencies, according to Seth Waggener, a spokesman for Mead.

This 8 percent number is defined as a starting point and no final decisions have been made, Waggener said.

Mead has said that some agencies may be cut by more than 8 percent and some less.

Shober noted that Mead has been a strong advocate for Wyoming tourism.
PHOENIX  Gov. Doug Ducey is explaining why he signed a new law that allows people with one home, or dozens, to rent them out for weekends no matter what local cities and neighbors think.

The new law, which takes effect Aug. 6, overrules any existing or future city ordinances that limit short-term rentals. Communities will be allowed to regulate only things like noise and parking rules.

Ducey, in a ceremonial bill signing Wednesday engineered by Airbnb, one company that arranges such rentals through its internet app, touted the change as good for visitors seeking alternatives to hotels and resorts, and for homeowners who can make some money.

For thousands of hardworking citizens, opening up their home to out-of-state guests provides the financial breathing room they need to provide for their family or enjoy an extra expense that they otherwise couldnt afford,Ducey said.

The law covers more than those renting out a bedroom, or their home. There is no limit on the number of properties an investor could buy and days a home could be rented out  and all in the same residential area potentially turning an area into a vacation rental zone. Asked whether that could change the character of neighborhoods, Ducey responded, Im not going to answer these hypotheticals.

The markets adjust, he said. Somehow we survive people making entrepreneurial decisions, and innovative apps like this provide convenience and cost-sharing opportunities.

The League of Arizona Cities and Towns agreed not to oppose the measure after it was amended to preserve local health and safety ordinances.

Some at the Capitol did oppose the bill. I didnt move into a neighborhood to have the house next door to me turned into a weekly rental property, said Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, in voting against it earlier this year.

The question of what the neighbors might think did not arise Wednesday: The ceremony was at the secluded home of Ed and Lynn Newhall, Airbnb hosts whose property far off the street  and not near any other homes  has been in their family for three generations. Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato said the location was chosen by Airbnb.

Ducey put the number of Arizonans renting out properties at more than 100, saying 131,000 guests stayed at Airbnb facilities in the state last year.

This isnt Duceys first foray into what he says is expansion of the sharing economy. Last year he signed a measure to lift various regulations from ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft.
Tucsons economy is likely to see increased jobs growth and continued recovery from the recession, but sustained development is tied to educational attainment, economists said.

Overall theres a better forecast for the local area than what weve seen over the last couple of years, said George Hammond, director of the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizonas Eller College of Management.

Speaking at a forecast breakfast at The Westin La Paloma Resort & Spa, Hammond said theres been a big acceleration in the regions job numbers. The Tucson metropolitan statistical area averaged 2.8 percent growth in the first three months of 2016, which would mean 10,400 additional jobs over the year.

Those numbers are impressively better than the 0.8 percent, or 2,900 jobs, posted last year, but Hammond cautioned they are still preliminary and the job growth is expected to be about 1.7 percent for 2016.

Still, jobs are growing at a significantly higher rate than before, and within the next year or two the region should be adding jobs at a faster pace than the national economy, he said.

Job gains have come across industries, with the highest growth being in education and health services, followed by financial activities, and professional and business services. There has also been some growth in the government, manufacturing, and leisure and hospitality sectors.

Driving that increase are two factors, Hammond said: Less fiscal drag from reduced federal spending; and growing residential mobility.

Budget sequestration and continued cutbacks had a serious effect on growth due to the regions dependence on government outlays  in 2013, federal civilian and military activity accounted for 7.8 percent of Tucsons gross domestic product, compared with 3.6 percent nationally. That reduction has mostly leveled off.

The region continues to be an attractive migration destination, as people whose mobility was previously limited by depressed housing prices and low wages begin to move around the country, Hammond said.

But Tucson wages continue to grow slowly, about 2 percent since the Great Recession, mostly due to a lot of people still available to enter the labor market, Hammond said.

Good news is that as we continue to add jobs, we continue to absorb that slack, and were going to start to drive faster wage growth across all workers, he said.

Although the forecast is optimistic, there are still a number of risks that could affect the local economy, Hammond said, including low productivity growth, a spike in oil prices, a global downturn and tighter government spending.

Already, a strong dollar due to worldwide economic slowdowns is cutting into the states tourism and export growth. Last year, exports to Mexico rose by 6.28 percent, Hammond said, but Arizona will be lucky to see any growth at all for 2016.

Educational attainment also continues to be a source of concern for future growth, economists said, as the role of human capital becomes more and more important for a regions economic performance.

Although the cost of doing business  tax rates, capital costs, wages, real state costs, energy costs, health care  still matter, concentrations of talent are increasingly playing a role in attracting industry, said Ross DeVol, chief research officer at the Milken Institute, a California-based nonpartisan think tank.

Data show there is a relationship between educational attainment and per capita GDP, he said at the forecast breakfast, and education increases regional prosperity.

Adding one year to the average years of schooling among workers in a metropolitan area is associated with an increase of GDP per capita of more than 10 percent, and an increase in real wages per worker of more than 8 percent, according to a Milken Institute study.

Its important not to be left behind as competition intensifies between regions inside the United States and worldwide, economists said.

In Arizona, Tucson has the highest educational attainment levels in the state, yet over 20 years, from 1990 to 2010, its rank among metro areas in the country has dropped from 52 to 87. Over the same period, its rank in percent of the workforce with bachelors degrees has dropped from 62 to 90.

Arizona ranks 29th on human capital measures for states, which represents a major impediment to the larger growth potential of the state, DeVol said, especially when it comes to technology.

States with strong track records in education are in a clear advantage in recruiting and launching companies, he said. As global competition increases, the abilities to develop home-grown workers and the next generation of innovators is a significant competitive advantage.
Two job fairs are happening Thursday and Saturday in Tucson, including one targeting veterans:

 Pima County veterans, military members nearing the end of their service, and their spouses, are invited to a career expo from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Thursday, June 2 at Pima Community Colleges 29th Street Coalition Center, 4355 E. Calle Aurora.

More than two dozen employers and educators will be on hand to discuss employment options in Southern Arizona and answer questions. A panel discussion will focus on local needs for veterans in hi-tech industries, healthcare and other professional fields.

The event is sponsored by Pima County One-Stop/Arizona@Work in partnership with Kino Veterans Workforce Center, Pima Community College, Tech Parks Arizona, Airman and Family Readiness Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona Workforce Connection - Cochise, Graham, Greenlee One-Stops and local employers.

- U.S. Rep. Martha McSally will host a job fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at Rincon High School, 421 N. Arcadia Ave.

The fair, which is open to the public, will include representatives from about 50 Southern Arizona employers, including Northrop Grumman, CAID Industries, Raytheon Missile Systems, GEICO, Jim Click Automotive, The University of Arizona, Comcast, Ventana Medical Systems, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, CODAC, and Southwest Gas.
Tucson jazz saxophonist Michael Moynihan will release his debut CD Chronicles this weekend, a project that he proudly says is a totally Tucson record.

All the players on it are from Tucson. The artwork is from Tucson. It was recorded here. Its a very Tucson record, Moynihan said, noting that the only step in the process not done in Tucson was mastering, which was done in Phoenix. I think it turned out great.

The CD, recorded with his quartet  Jack Wood on bass, Matt Mitchell on guitar and Tim Rachbach on drums  comes 10 years after Moynihan, 27, graduated from Catalina Foothills High School. And it caps a circuitous journey that ended where it began: with music.

Moynihan left Tucson soon after he graduated high school and set out on a scholarship-backed journey to Indiana University to major in music. At the end of his third year, he had what he described as a quarter-life crisis, questioning his career choice.

I wasnt sure where I was going, I didnt know what I wanted to do, he recalled.

He came home to Tucson and enrolled in the University of Arizona to study biology.

But the lure of music tugged at him.

It was so weird because I started just playing music on the street again. I couldnt stop playing, he said.

Busking turned into several guest turns with local bands and a regular gig with The Key Ingredients of African Soul, the Tucson African folk (Afro-pop, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean) ensemble that has developed a loyal following since it formed in 2008. Through that group, Moynihan was introduced to Thomas Mapfumo, the influential and popular Zimbabwean vocalist who invited Moynihan on his 2009 European tour.

Moynihan dropped out of the UA and leaped at the chance. I was 21 at the time and very young. I said heck yeah, lets do it, he recalled.

The tour lasted two weeks, and once he came home, Moynihan threw himself back into his music, taking freelance jobs in theater and with bands and spending eight months on a cruise ship before going back out with Mapfumo, to Canada in 2011.

In the years since, hes played in the pit for Broadway musicals including Book of Mormon and Chicago last season. In February, he landed in Frank Sinatra Jr.s band at Desert Diamond Casino.

It was just so great to be playing music with such experienced veterans, Moynihan said of the Sinatra gig. It was one of Sinatra Jr.s final performances before he died of a heart attack in March. He had a lot of guys in his band who played with Frank Sr. in his band. It was great to be involved with that level of musicianship and the high caliber of musicians.

Moynihan, who earned his bachelors degree from the UA in 2014, plays weekly gigs at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort on Friday nights and at Pastiche with the Pete Swan Quintet on Sundays.
Cinema La Placita  June 9

Cinema La Placita moves to its new location at the old Pima County Courthouse on Thursday, June 9. Its first film in the new spot: "To Catch a Thief" with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. cinemalaplacita.com
Adopt a friend

BuddyPit Bull mix

ID No.: 558913.

Age: 2 years.

Qualities:: Buddy is a sweet, shy guy who PACC rescued from the streets as a stray. Weighing in at just 44 pounds, he is a smaller boy who volunteers say is very gentle. He would flourish in a home with another dog to help build his confidence.

Fees: No adoption fee since Buddy has been waiting at PACC since April. His adopters will only pay his standard $16 annual license.

Contact: Pima Animal Care Center, 724-5900. 4000 N. Silverbell Road, noon-7 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
PHOENIX  Attorney General Mark Brnovich hired a special investigator today to determine if Secretary of State Michele Reagan broke any laws in the just-completed special election.

Michael Morrissey, a former federal prosecutor, will review the failure of Reagan's office to ensure that pamphlets describing the issues on the May 17 ballot were delivered to the homes of all registered voters before the early ballots went out.

Reagan does not dispute that at least 200,000 pamphlets were not mailed on time. And each of those was to a home with more than one registered voter, meaning at least 400,000 people may not have had the descriptions before they had to vote.

But she said the blame lies with others, including a contractor and a consultant.

In his appointment of Morrissey, Brnovich wants to know exactly what went wrong and why. And the attorney general wants Morrissey to determine whether any criminal or civil laws were broken.
PHOENIX  Saying theres evidence of illegal retaliation, a federal appeals court gave the go-ahead Wednesday for the Arizona Students Association to sue the Board of Regents to get back money the group says was illegally withheld.

In a unanimous ruling Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said there was enough evidence to support the claim that the regents financially undermined the student group because of its support of a 2012 initiative to raise taxes for education. That initiative was opposed by then-Gov. Jan Brewer, Republican lawmakers and several regents.

It was after the initiative was defeated that the Arizona Board of Regents voted to suspend fee collection for the student association. The board later agreed to collect the fee  but only from students who first agreed to pay it. Finding itself with no funding, the student association filed suit.

Appellate Judge Richard Paez, writing for the court, acknowledged no law required the regents to collect a fee from students to run the Arizona Students Association and support its political activities.

But having done so for 15 years at no cost, ABOR could not deprive ASA of the benefit of its fee collection and remittance services in retaliation for the ASAs exercise of its First Amendment rights, Paez wrote. He said the sudden change by the governmental agency in depriving the association of the benefits of the fee collection is sufficiently valuable to give rise to a retaliation claim.

Wednesdays ruling does not mean money will again start flowing to the student association, however. All it means is the trial judge who initially threw out the case will have to consider it.

But ASA attorney Stephen Montoya said the decision also paves the way to challenge a subsequent vote by the Legislature, also aimed at the student association, to make it illegal for the Board of Regents to use its billing system to collect any fee for any organization not under the boards jurisdiction. He said that could force the state to reinstate the $2-a-semester fee on students, which raised more than $500,000 a year to fund the associations political and other activities.

Regents spokeswoman Sarah Harper said the regents will discuss the ruling with lawyers at their next meeting to decide what action to take.

According to court records, the regents directly funded the association from 1974 through 1988.

That year students voted to impose a one-dollar-per-student fee each semester; it was increased, also by student vote, to $2 in 2008. Under the policy, students who objected could request a refund.

All that changed in 2012 during the debate over Proposition 204, a measure that would have made permanent a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase approved by voters two years earlier. A large portion of that money was earmarked for education, including some for the states universities.

Paez, the appellate judge, said the student association was involved in drafting the initiative, collected more than 20,000 signatures to get the measure on the ballot, campaigned for it and used $120,000 of its student fee income to promote its support.

Brewer, who as governor also sat on the Board of Regents, opposed the measure. Some regents criticized the association for its support.

The initiative ultimately failed.

Just weeks after the election, Paez wrote, the regents called a special meeting specifically to discuss the student fee. At that meeting the board voted to suspend collection of the fee and withhold the income it already had collected for the spring 2013 semester.

Several regents commented that the suspension was political in nature and was undertaken in response to the ASAs Proposition 204 advocacy, Paez wrote.

Several weeks later the board had another special meeting, changing its policy to collect the fee only from students who opted in, turning the opt-out policy on its head. The regents also voted to require the student association to reimburse the universities for the administrative cost of collecting the fees.

The association sued, charging that the regents action violates its constitutional free-speech rights, causing a chilling effect on ASAs political speech and depriving it of its only source of income.

After implementing the opt-in policy, the regents never remitted the fees already paid by students for the spring 2013 semester.

Its several hundred thousand dollars that was never returned, Montoya said. But that is ASAs money and we want it.

The student group now functions without student fees, said Shayna Stevens, the associations executive director. She said it makes some money through grants for things like registering students to vote.

Stevens said that while the association wants the funding restored, it was never about the money. She hopes the case will set a precedent that regents  and lawmakers  cannot use the threat of undermining funds to silence a student group for political reasons.

ASA is not the first student association that something like this has happened to, Stevens said.

When the case goes back to federal court it will take on a new tenor.

Montoya said the original lawsuit focused solely on the regents decision to change how it would collect the fee. But he said the 9th Circuit ruling also allows him to attack the 2013 state law forbidding the regents from collecting the fee at all.

So well just amend our complaint to include a First Amendment retaliation challenge to the new statute, he said.
School may be out for the summer but Tucson-area districts are working to fill 407 vacant teaching jobs.

The Tucson Unified School District makes up nearly half of the open teaching positions, with 186 available, and its officials hope that competitive wages will bring job-seeking educators to a hiring fair Friday, June 3, at Santa Rita High School, 3951 S. Pantano Road, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

While it is unlikely that all of the positions will be filled during the four-hour effort, the district will continue to hire through the summer and into the school year in hopes of reducing the number of classrooms that have to be led by long-term substitute teachers, said TUSDs talent acquisition director, Janet Rico Uhrig.

The fair is open not only to certified teachers, but to anyone who holds a bachelors degree and is interested in going into the teaching profession, she said.

Officials from Pima Community College and Prescott College will be on hand to provide information on the path to becoming a certified teacher. In the meantime, the aspiring educators can teach on a provisional license.

Sunnyside  Tucsons second-largest school district behind TUSD  has 83 teacher vacancies, followed by Amphitheater Public Schools, with 67.

Both districts will be hiring teachers in the coming days.

Amphi will participate in a Career Expo on Monday, June 6, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the University of Phoenixs Southern Arizona campus, 300 S. Craycroft Road, suite 100.

Sunnyside will host a job fair of its own on June 15 from 9 a.m. to noon at the districts headquarters, 2238 E. Ginter Road.

The Vail School District recently hosted a job fair to hire about 30 teaching positions, nine of which were filled on the spot. As of Wednesday, the district had 17 vacancies.

TUSD has hosted three other job fairs this year, the biggest in March, where about 25 people were hired, Rico Uhrig said.

While the sheer number of vacancies in Tucson Unified is large, 186 positions is a fraction of the districts approximately 2,500 teaching positions.

It is also fewer than the 210 vacancies that existed at this time last year, Rico Uhrig said.

Rico Uhrig believes the reduction can be attributed to a few factors, including a change in the letters of intent distributed to teachers.

In the past, letters of intent were somewhat ambiguous in terms of where a teacher would be assigned, but this year they are more clear and provide a level of certainty, which makes teachers more comfortable about signing a contract, Rico Uhrig said.

While attrition data is not yet available, Rico Uhrig is also hoping that fewer teachers left the district this year; last year that number topped 400.

When I first started, I would say that individuals loved working for their schools  and thats still the case  but I feel were moving in a direction where they have district loyalty, she said.

A starting base salary of $35,000 for new teachers  not including performance pay  and a commitment to annual increases over the last three years is also helping teachers feel more valued, she said.
Coronado National Forest officials said crews are dealing with four new wildfires on forest lands in Southern Arizona.

All started on Tuesday, with three being caused by lightning and one is considered human caused, according to a news release from the forest.

The new fires burning are:

Mule Ridge Fire

The human-caused fire is burning in oak grassland north of the Pajarita Wilderness boundary near Ruby, southeast of Arivaca.

It is about 600 acres and zero percent contained.

No structures are threatened but the historic mining settlement of Ruby is about 1 miles northwest of the fire.

There are 110 firefighters assigned to this fire, along with three helicopters, 2 single-engine air tankers and an air-attack fixed-winged airplane.

Portal Peak Fire

The fire is burning near Portal Peak and was caused by lightning.

It is about 300 acres and zero percent contained.

About 45 people are assigned to the fire, including five engines, one water tender and two single-engine air tankers.

The fire is burning in an area already burned during the Horseshoe 2 Fire in 2011.

Jhus Canyon Fire

The fire has burned about 20 acres in the Chiricahua Mountains west of Portal. There are 40 people assigned to the fire. The blaze is burning in brush and grass.

Full containment is expected in 24 hours.

Whitetail Canyon Fire

The wildfire is burning north of Chiricahua National Monument, southeast of Dos Cabezas and is about 95 acres. It was strated by lightning and is zero percent contained.

The fire is being monitored by crews but is showing light fire activity.
Even though special master Ken Feinberg, who was in charge of the first federal Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, distributed $6 billion to the estates of those killed on 9/11  an average of more than $2 million to the nearly 3,000 victims  the House of Representatives passed its new Fairness for 9/11 Families Act to allow additional claims for the deaths inflicted by the terrorists and set aside $2.7 billion for them.
Help India!

In the last of the three-part series, we look at how the National Hydro Power Corporation is using all possible measures to ensure that after the recent debacle of the Nyamjang Chhu projects, two of its biggest projectsTawang 1 and Tawang 2do not get stuck with clearances and how it is looking to get local support for these projects. However, anti-dam activists are unlikely to make it a cakewalk for NHPC.

Read Part One Here

Read Part Two Here

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By Amit Kumar, Twocircles.net

Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh: Mention the name of Tawang to an outsider and the first statement will almost always refer to how beautiful and serene the place is. In the past two decades, the town has increased manifold in size and today boasts of a number of hotels, restaurants along with dozens of local tour operators offering a variety of packages to suit every budgets needs.

A giant statue of Lord Buddha overlooks Tawang

However, as we have seen in part one and part two, these developments have been dwarfed of late by protests against Mega Dams which threaten the districts ecology and the local peoples office. At the centre of these protests have been the Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF) and its general secretary Lama Lobsang Gyatso, and their main target has been the National Hydropower Corporation (NHPC), which plans to build two massive damsTawang 1 and Tawang 2on the Tawangchu river. These two projects, of 600 MW and 800 MW respectivelywill contribute 70% of the 2,200 MW of the scheduled projects in the area now that the Nyamjang Chhu Project has been denied permission by the NGT. No wonder, the central government owned company is going all-out to ensure that these projects are completed on time, so that the benefits of tipping liquid gold reach both the state government and the local residents.

The office of the NHPC, located in the heart of Tawang, is a simple two-storeyed building stacked with hundreds of files in almost all corners. The doors of almost all the rooms have cut-outs stuck on them; telling the visitors about the importance of Hindi in uniting India. Inside, a senior officer greets me with a smile, before pointing out almost immediately that no part of this conversation could go on record. I require permission from the central government before being interviewed, he points out. Off the record, however, he will be happy to share the progress reports and these two projects, and how they plan to convince the locals that the dams are, in his words, The best sign of progress for Tawang.

So many rivers pass through this area. Water is Tawangs best resource. It is like liquid gold and currently it is being wasted. NHPC wants to help the locals earn a steady income through these projects and the state government in increasing revenue, he says.

NHPC

But what about the ecological destruction?

The impact is being vastly exaggerated, he says, before adding, No villages will be submerged. Here, take a look at this, he says, presenting a piece of paper which shows how close, or far, the submerged areas are from the village boundaries. Before I can actually see the paper in detail, however, he takes it back. Plus, remember that the government is paying Rs 65 lakh per hectare to the villagers, he says. That is a lot of money for the people here, he adds. A cumulative impact assessment report of proposed hydel projects in Tawang, prepared by the North Eastern Hill University in 2015 showed that most villages which will come under the impact of Tawang 1 and Tawang 2 have average land holdings of about one acre. So, while there might be enough money for villagers in selling their land, the question remains: how many are willing to sell?

It is important to point out that the NHPC, and the central government, are looking to invest big in the state. Just these two projects-Tawang 1 and Tawang 2-are expected to cost Rs 15,000 crore according to September 2015 prices. However, although the MoUs were signed as early as 2006, the official added that it is unlikely that work would begin anytime soon. More importantly, the projects still need forest and environmental clearance from Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for different kinds of projects. Also, given that these areas come under the sixth schedule areas, they need consent from the gram sabha which is submitted to the Ministry of Environment while applying for forest clearance. Also, in Scheduled areas where ST population live, Forest Rights under FRA have to be settled before diverting any land to any project, and this is where the most important battle will be fought, according to members of the SMRF.

If all clearances come through, we can hope of starting by 2017, said the NHPC official. The scheduled gestation period of Tawang 1 and Tawang 2 stands at 78 months and 84 months respectively, meaning that the projects, if commissioned, will start only after 2023.

The NHPC official added that for Tawang 2, they had received clearance from six out of 13 villages concerned, while for Tawang 1, they had received clearance from two of the 19 villages. However, SMRF said that it was difficult to believe these claims, especially in light of the incident in January, when the monks exposed NHPC of fraudulently getting NOC from two villages for the Tawang 1 project.

The recent win for the SMRF over the Nyamjang Chhu project has given them hope that if they fight well, the upcoming NHPC projects will also not receive clearance from both the central government agencies (NGT) and the local villages. However, NHPC knows this too well: and they are going all-out to counter the claims of SMRF. These projects will produce enormous job opportunities for the locals and so, we will ensure that all Class 3 and Class 4 labour is sourced locally.

Posters in NHPC office reminding the visitors of the importance of Hindi

To explain the benefits of the dams, we will distribute audio-visual CDs in every village, he adds.

The potential job opportunities may well be the biggest offer from the NHPC, because it is unlikely that they will receive positive response over the area that will be submerged along with the loss of thousands of trees, especially when the NHPC official says that to make up for the loss of forest cover, they will plant 10 times more trees.

However, such promises seem hollow, according to SMRF. Tawang I and Tawang 2 projects, if commissioned, will mean that over 1.5 lakh trees will be cut, almost 60% of them will be trees over 90 cms in girth, added Gyatso.

Tawang is not an easy place for trees to grow; between October and March, there is hardly any growth due to the cold and snow. These trees have reached this size because they have been growing for over 40-50 years. Cutting such old trees would mean the death of flora and fauna in this area and only worsen the landslide situation in the district, says Gyatso. And where will the new trees grow? There will be hardly any grazing land left after the dams come up. So let alone growing new trees, it will become difficult to even feed the Yaks in the region, he adds.

In light of the recent shooting on May 2, it will be safe to say that for the first time, the issue has received some sort of national attention. Although NHPC officials we spoke to along with a number of contractors and businessmen in the town say that anti-dam sentiments had nothing to do with the incident and instead blame the differences between Lamas for the death of two people, it is clear that Tawang now faces an uphill task. For NHPC and the central government, the money involved means they will do everything possible to ensure that after lying ten years in a limbo, these projects take off at the earliest. But as the past month has shown, it is unlikely to be a cakewalk.
HUD competition and grant award

On January 21, 2016 the U.S. Department of HUD announced the winners of its $1 Billion National Disaster Resilience Competition. The State of Louisiana and The City of New Orleans combined to receive over $233 Million.

Of the $233 million, $48 million was awarded tothe Isle de Jean Charles Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians to build a 100,000 square-foot Tribal Cultural Center and construct 100 solar powered homes in nearby Schriever. The community center will include a health clinic serving the surrounding area, a food market, and retail stores for locally produced products.

The grant appears to be over $2 million per household as there are only 25 homes on the island that qualify.

Island history

The tribe's ancestorsmoved to Isle de Jean Charles in the 1830s to avoid relocation under of the Indian Removal Act.Since the 1930s, oil and gas dredging for pipeline and offshore access has resulted in approximately 10,000 miles of canals. The canals allow salt water to be pushed into the marsh during storms which kills the sawgrass. Almost 95% of the 22,000 original marshacres are now classified as open water.

Originally the canals were to have been filled. However coastal restoration measures have not been started as congress refuses to allow states to keep most of the offshore tax revenue.The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 was passed by Congress to generate $500 Million per year starting in 2017 for Louisiana coastal restoration by allocating 37.5% of Federal Tax revenue from outer continental shelf leases.

The Act would have also generated funds for all states with offshore oil and gas revenue.

In February 2015, President Obama proposed that plan be scrapped.While there is no federal funds to fill the canals, which isthe true cause of the disappearing land,funds were made availableto create the "First Official Climate Refugees" as more than a dozen media sources and Secretary Kerry have titled the relocation.

Secretary Kerry reports the tribal cultural center grant as 1st climate change refugees

Reporting of the HUD grant quickly morphed. The Weather Network, wrote: Tribe declared 1st Official Climate Refugees in U.S. ByJune 2016, more than 40articles had been written on the HUD grant. Eleven more national publications such as Bloomberg, National Geographic, NPR, the New York Times, and The Weather Channel placed in their titles The 1st Official Climate Refugees despite a quote by Louisiana State Official Patrick Forbes that Federal Officials did not consider the tribe to be refugees.

Second island tribeoverlooked

At the end of Island Road isIsle de Jean CharlesMarina, owned and operated by Theo Chaisson, a Houma Indian.Chaisson owns a dozen camps around the Marina, rented to families who spend the weekend fishing.The Houma Tribe is not part of the grant.

AWE News reportedothers use the marina to maintain their culture with weekend bar-b-ques,Cajun Zydeco music, anddancing.One of the guests claimedIsle de Jean Charlesto be paradise. Most have been in the area for generations, working in oil & gas industry, proud of the schools, and enjoying the iconic marsh waters.They plan to stay and want coastal restoration. They believe the media and politicians have misrepresented the situation as "Rising Seas" and suggest the island be usedtoimplement coastal restoration.

Louisianais also debatingissues such as wildlife trafficking and removing war veteran monuments.
Unibet Poker UK Tour Returns to Brighton

June 02 2016 Matthew Pitt Editor

The Unibet Poker UK Tour returns to the scene where it all began when it heads to the Rendezvous Casino in Brighton between June 3-5, 2016.

Brighton was where the Unibet Poker UK Tour launched, back in February, and it saw 245 entrants in the 220 buy-in Main Event, which helped beat the 40,000 guarantee by 9,000. Chris Lambert won on that occasion, banking 11,000 and a 2,000 Unibet Open package for his victory.

After Brighton came a trip to Nottingham in April where the tour endured a 13,000 overlay. Making the most of the added value was Lukasz Kurcaba, who qualified for the tournament online at Unibet Poker, walked away with 13,5000 and a 2,000 Unibet Open package, which he used in Malta in May where Martin Soukup collected 65,000 and the coveted Unibet Open trophy.

There are two more Unibet Open packages up for grabs during the 40,000 guaranteed Brighton Main Event, one going to the eventual champion, and the other to the online qualifier who lasts the longest.

Play in the Unibet Poker UK Tour Brighton Main Event gets underway at 6:00 p.m. on June 3 and sees players sit down with 25,000 chips, and play to 40-minute blinds. Should they dust off this generous stack during late registration, one re-entry per flight is permitted.

Day 1b, the final starting flight, opens its doors at the earlier time of 3:00 p.m. on June 4, with the final days play commencing at the same time on June 5.

If you cannot make it to the seaside town of Brighton for this event, there are two more Unibet Poker UK Tour stops scheduled before 2016 draws to a close.

In October, the tour heads north of the border to the Alea Casino in Glasgow, before stopping off at Manchester 235 at the beginning of December. Both stops feature the same 40,000 guaranteed Main Event as the Brighton leg.

Qualify for the Unibet Poker UK Tour and Unibet Open Online

As both the Unibet Open and Unibet Poker UK Tour are the brainchild of Unibet Poker, it is possible to qualify for both tours Main Events online. Satellites run around the clock, and if you are a player based in the UK, you will receive a free 4 qualifier ticket for the Unibet Poker UK Tour alongside the usual welcome package, which include a 200 welcome bonus, when you become a Unibet Poker customer.

Download Unibet Poker via PokerNews for the best Unibet Poker bonuses and offers.

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Beijing urges probe in attack on peacekeepers Updated: 2016-06-02 02:28 By Mo Jingxi(China Daily)

Beijing is calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into the attack in Mali on Wednesday that killed one United Nations peacekeeper from China and injured four others, the Foreign Ministry said.

Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that China has sent its deepest condolences and sincere sympathy to the victims and their families, and "China strongly condemns the grave crime, which was aimed at UN peacekeeping personnel."

"We urge the Malian government and the UN to immediately conduct an investigation into the terrorist attack and bring the perpetrators to justice," Hua said.

Al-Qaida's North African branch has claimed responsibility for the attack, the US-based monitoring group SITE said on Wednesday.

"Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb reported that its al-Murabitoun battalion engaged in a clash with 'Crusader occupation forces'," referring to the UN mission in Mali, Agence France-Presse quoted SITE as saying.

Al-Murabitoun, led by one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in sub-Saharan Africa.

Soldiers of a UN peacekeeping mission have been stationed in northern Mali for three years, along with French forces, after separatists joined jihadists to seize the region from the government in Bamako, according to Reuters.

Li Wentao, an expert on Africa studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said Chinese UN peacekeeping forces in Africa have contributed greatly to ensure local peace and stability.

"It is an inevitable trend that China will continue to contribute to UN peacekeeping in the future as a responsible nation," Li said.

However, it is important for permanent members of the UN Security Council to reach consensus and push forward political settlement of the conflicts in Mali and other African countries, he said.
APEC urbanization forum releases Ningbo Initiative Updated: 2016-06-02 18:14 By Shi Xiaofeng(chinadaily.com.cn)

Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commision, delivers the keynote speech on the opening ceremony of the APEC High-level Urbanization Forum 2016 in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, on June 2, 2016. [Photo/China Daily]

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) High-Level Urbanization Forum 2016 opened in the coastal city of Ningbo on Thursday, with the 21 member economies releasing the Ningbo Initiative focusing on urbanization and inclusive growth.

According to the initiative, the high-level officials acknowledge that "urbanization is a necessary path toward modernization as well as a key engine for sustainable economic growth."

The APEC Economic leaders endorsed the APEC Cooperation Initiative for Jointly Establishing an Asia-Pacific Urbanization Partnership at the 2014 Beijing Summit, where Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to host the high-level forum to discuss urbanization cooperation in this region last year.

The 21 member economies gathered in Ningbo for the two-day meeting. They put forward eight proposals - promoting inclusive and dynamic urban growth, improving urban infrastructure, building smart cities, developing green cities, encouraging urban regeneration and retrofit, driving innovative urban development, advocating for good urban governance, and boosting APEC cooperation on sustainable urban development.

"In 2014, the urban population of APEC member economies hit 1.77 billion, 61 percent of the whole population in the region. According to estimates of the World Bank, global urban population is expected to reach 2.38 billion in 2050, 77 percent of the total. Urbanization has been recognized as a frontier for regional cooperation," the initiative noted.

Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission - the country's economic planner, stressed in his keynote speech that APEC member economies are on different stages in terms of urbanization, which offers massive space and potential for cooperation within the organization.

"China is urbanizing rapidly. All APEC member economies are sincerely welcomed to participate in China's new urbanization process, cooperate in the field of urban infrastructure construction, smart and green city building, urban regeneration and retrofit, and innovative urban development, and sharing the benefit."

Juan Carlos Capunay, the Ambassador of Peru Embassy to China said that Peru will host the 2016 APEC Summit in Lima, the capital city. "We are trying to propose some initiatives in Peru, enhance the infrastructure cooperation between the Latin American countries and other Asia-Pacific economies, promote the bilateral trade and culture development, and share the experience on urbanization construction."
Beijing: Probe attack on peacekeepers Updated: 2016-06-03 00:32 By MO JINGXI in Beijing and BIAN JIBU in New York(China Daily USA)

Beijing is calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into the attack in Mali on Wednesday that killed one United Nations peacekeeper from China and injured four others, the Foreign Ministry said.

Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday that China has sent its deepest condolences and sincere sympathy to the victims and their families, and "China strongly condemns the grave crime, which was aimed at UN peacekeeping personnel."

"We urge the Malian government and the UN to immediately conduct an investigation into the terrorist attack and bring the perpetrators to justice," Hua said.

Al-Qaida's North African branch has claimed responsibility for the attack, the US-based monitoring group SITE said on Wednesday.

"Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb reported that its al-Murabitoun battalion engaged in a clash with 'Crusader occupation forces'," referring to the UN mission in Mali, Agence France-Presse reported.

Al-Murabitoun, led by one-eyed Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, has claimed responsibility for several attacks in sub-Saharan Africa.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday "condemned in the strongest terms" the terrorist attack against the camp of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).

The 15-nation UN body said in a statement that members of the Security Council expressed their deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of the victim, as well as to the government of China and to MINUSMA.

The attack took place at about 8:45 pm (local time) on Tuesday when the MINUSMA camp in the Water Tower neighborhood of Gao, North Mali was the target of an attack by mortars or rockets, which also left four other Chinese peacekeepers injured.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was "outraged" by the terrorist attacks and urged the Government of Mali to expeditiously investigate.

Contact the writers at mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn
Scientist thinks beyond rigid lines of his profession Updated: 2016-06-02 17:23 By Chen Mengwei(China Daily)

Does one have to get married to science first to become an established scientist?

At first glance, 55-year-old Gao Fu, with his PhD from Oxford University, seems proof of the idea.

Recognized in 2013 as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which is one of the highest honors for a scientist in China, Gao is the vice-president of Beijing Institute of Life Science in CAS, and deputy director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Gao sees his own path differently.

"I want to marry science, but science does not necessarily want to marry me," Gao jokes about how he meets obstacles in his field.

"Pursuing science is like pursuing a girl you love. You have to do all you can to chase her," Gao, who's also a professor at the Institute of Microbiology in CAS, sometimes tells his students.

"But there is no guarantee she will love you back. If she doesn't, you'd better move on to the next target. She might love you back. Then at least you get something."

Though ordinary people may believe that a scientist's mind is rigid as a rock, Gao loves to tag himself as "flexible".

Gao's resume might suggest that he never draws back from the pursuit of science. But in his long and stellar academic career, Gao thought about quitting many times.

After studying molecular virology at Oxford from 1991 to 1994, he continued his research at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford for the next five years. He moved on to Harvard University as a Wellcome Trust (UK) International Research Fellow to go further with his study from 1999 to 2001.

Gao taught as a lecturer at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine at Oxford University from 2001 until 2004, when he was invited back to China to chair the Institute of Microbiology at CAS.

He brought his family from London to Beijing in 2005; his son had just entered middle school that year.

"While in London, I said to myself, well, if I can't work this out, I'll just find a company and make a new start," says Gao with an edgy smile.

Starting up a company or working for one was always plan B, though he says he thinks of it less often now.

Perhaps because of that spirit, Gao was able to lead his team to make some key findings.

Gao stayed in Sierra Leone for three months in 2014 to study Ebola prevention on the ground.

His lab's research reports have appeared in Cell, Nature, Science and The Lancet among other renowned academic publications.

Gao's strategy is to put the most effort into projects that have not been pursued much. "In such fields, whatever we discover will be the world's first."

With that philosophy, he would suspend routine studies to shift his manpower to deal with emerging challenges - most recently the Zika virus.

Flexible as he is, Gao shows zero tolerance for academic fraud and plagiarism.

"I learned this in childhood. If I, or anyone in my family, dare to lie to my mother, it meant risking our lives, literally - mother would beat us," Gao says.

He attributed his academic integrity in science to the teachings of his mother.

Now the father of a 24-year-old son and a 13-year-old daughter, Gao still enjoys telling stories as the eldest son of his parents, who live in his hometown in Shanxi province.

Gao says his parents are "illiterate but extremely civilized", though like many parents of their generation, they believed in physical punishment.

Gao says he got beaten the least often among his brothers and sisters. "I would run when I sensed that my mother was angry," he recalls.

On Monday, the European Molecular Biology Organization, a professional organization of life scientists founded in 1964, appointed Gao as an associate member, along with seven other scientists from outside Europe.

"By serving the principles of excellence and integrity through their views and actions," EMBO director Maria Leptin says of new members such as Gao, "they make invaluable contributions to science and society."

chenmengwei@chinadaily.com.cn

Gao Fu (left) works on Ebola prevention during his stay in Sierra Leone in 2014. Provided To China Daily

(China Daily USA 06/02/2016 page9)
Beijing, Manila sharing goodwill Updated: 2016-06-01 08:11 By Mo Jingxi(China Daily)

Beijing and Manila are on a goodwill drive as President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte, and key figures from the incoming Manila administration expressed willingness to talk with China.

Duterte assumes office on June 30, and observers said practical action from Manila is required to put China-Philippine relations back on track.

Xi said the friendly, stable and healthy development of China-Philippine relations conforms to the fundamental interests of both countries and their people.

It is the responsibility of both nations' leaders to deepen their mutually beneficial cooperation, he said.

"I hope the two sides can work together to put China-Philippine relations back on the track of healthy development," Xi said.

Ties between Beijing and Manila suffered after the latter claimed sovereignty over China's Huangyan Island in the South China Sea in 2012.

The relationship hit further turbulence in early 2013 after Manila initiated an arbitration case against China at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague over their disputes in the South China Sea.

The court's decision is expected in the coming weeks.

While sitting Philippine President Benigno Aquino III adopted a confrontational policy toward China, the new leadership has shown willingness to hold talks.

Perfecto Yasay Jr., the incoming Philippine foreign secretary, said on Monday that tensions in the South China Sea can only be eased if the Philippines holds talks with China.

"This is necessary. I don't think there is any other way of resolving this except talking to each other," Yasay was quoted by the Manila Times as saying.

Jia Duqiang, Southeast Asian studies researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said there is a chance for ties to get back on track if Manila is willing to take practical action.

"But it will still take time to find out how to take the first concrete step to improve ties," he said.

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/01/2016 page5)
Murder-suicide kills two at UCLA, shuts down campus Updated: 2016-06-02 05:20 (Agencies)

Police officers conduct a search at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus after it was placed on lockdown following reports of a shooter that left 2 people dead in Los Angeles, California June 1, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

LOS ANGELES - A murder-suicide killed two people at the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday, shutting down the campus for two hours as officers in camouflage and tactical gear responded to reports of a shooting.

"A homicide and a suicide occurred," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters near the scene, saying a gun was recovered at the scene.

"It appears to be entirely contained," he said. "There are no suspects outstanding and no continuing threat to UCLA's campus."

Both victims were males, officials said, without offering further details.

The shooting created a stir as police approached the scene fearing the shooter might still be active and university officials ordered the campus locked down.

At least three city blocks leading into the campus were filled with dozens of emergency vehicles. Officers in camouflage uniforms with rifles, bulletproof vests and helmets surrounded the area of the shooting.

An armored car was parked in the middle of one intersection, and helicopters clattered overhead.

Students and other bystanders stood calmly, taking pictures on their cell phones and watching the emergency workers.
UN Security Council slams failed DPRK ballistic missile launches Updated: 2016-06-02 08:57 (Xinhua)

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UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council on Wednesday "strongly condemned" the most recent failed ballistic missile launches of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).



"These repeated attempted launches are in grave violation of the DPRK's international obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions," it said.
China looking forward to trade talks with EEU: MOC Updated: 2016-06-02 09:22 (Xinhua)

BEIJING - China hopes to start trade and investment negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) as early as possible, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Wednesday.

The talks will be significant to the Silk Road Economic Belt and China-EEU ties, which boast huge potential thanks to the two sides' high political mutual trust and solid economic cooperation, the MOC said in an online statement.

The EEU members agreed to initiate the talks at a recent conference in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan.

The economic union was established by Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in 2014 and came into force in 2015.
China, ASEAN to deepen cooperation on industrial capacity Updated: 2016-06-02 19:07 By China Daily(chinadaily.com.cn)

China and ASEAN countries voiced support today to deepen partnership in industrial capacity by integrating mechanisms of economic policy and innovating modes of industrial investment and financing on China-ASEAN Forum on Industrial Capacity Cooperation 2016.

The two-day forum in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, marks the 25 year anniversary of China-ASEAN dialogical relationship establishment. Officials from China and ASEAN countries, members of China Economic and Social Council attended the forum.

Trade between China and ASEAN members has been rising steadily in the past decades, with 2015 bilateral trade volume exceeded $472 billion and bilateral investment reaching $150 billion by the end of 2015.

"Today ASEAN countries are changing very quickly, and will grow by 80 percent in the next 25 years," said Pek Hak Bin, CEO of Cronus Resources Group and director of Energy Market Authority in Singapore. He also cited International Energy Agency that this region requires some $2.5 trillion investment opportunities in energy and infrastructure in the next 20 years.

Du Qinglin vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, encouraged both sides to explore suitable industries to start with, innovate the cooperation mechanism, and strengthen the service system in line with the Belt and Road Initiative.

Speakers also called for innovative investments and financial methods for the ASEAN area. Gao Yingqiu, vice president of Bank of China advocated both sides to set up more funds specially aimed at China-ASEAN economic cooperation, and to attract social capital. Yang Xiuping, Secretary-General of ASEAN-China Center also proposed that two sides improve financial arrangement, so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of enterprises.

The countries still face challenges in such cooperation. As the regions are more intertwined with the global economy, "we didnt control our own destiny," said Pek Hak Bin.

"The unbalanced regional economy in ASEAN is still severe, and some Chinese entrepreneurs lack experiences there."

To deal with the challenges, Yang Xiuping proposed, "legal environment needs to be further improved in ASEAN, and Chinese companies need to learn more on ASEAN market environment. "
Chinese peacekeepers bolster security in Africa Updated: 2016-06-02 23:01 (Xinhua)

NAIROB -- A terrorist attack on a UN camp in Gao, northern Mali on Tuesday killed a Chinese peacekeeper and injured four others.

China has strongly condemned the attack claimed by Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and pledged to continue to support UN peacekeeping operations across the world.

The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is the world body's deadliest active mission. More than 60 of its personnel have died on active service since it was set up in 2013 following a rebellion in the country by ethnic Tuareg fighters alongside armed groups.

China started contributing its peacekeepers to MINUSMA in 2013. Currently, nearly 400 Chinese peacekeepers are based in Gao, carrying out security, engineering and medical work.

MINUSMA has spoken highly of the role Chinese peacekeepers have played in helping maintain peace and stability in the region, where jihadists stage sporadic attacks on UN personnel.

Koen Davidse, deputy special representative of the UN Secretary-General in MINUSMA, told Xinhua late last year that Chinese peacekeepers had done a "perfect job" and built good relations with locals.

"I am impressed by the unique relations between Chinese troops and the population of Gao. They support many schools in Gao by providing medical support, something that is recognized and appreciated by the population," Davidse said.

China has in the past decade been in the front line of supporting UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa, with a total of more than 2,400 Chinese blue helmets currently on duties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan and Mali.

In DR Congo, where rebel groups have been active in its eastern part since late 1990s, Chinese peacekeepers have been on UN peacekeeping duties since 2003.

The Chinese military engineers in DR Congo have been involved in road renovation, bridge construction, landmine detection, transportation and airport maintenance, while the medical personnel have been providing treatment for their UN comrades and local people.

In South Sudan, which has just begun to heal from more than two years of civil war, China sent its first ever peacekeeping infantry battalion to the war-torn country in April 2015.

The 700-strong battalion deployed to the capital Juba is tasked with protection for civilians and UN personnel and facilities, as well as humanitarian work.

The head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, Ellen Loej, told Xinhua late last year: "When we have disturbances or unrest in protection of the civilians site, they (Chinese peacekeepers) have shown very quick reaction that I appreciate very much."

Also in South Sudan, a Chinese engineering company and a medical team, numbering around 300, are serving with the UN mission in the northwestern city of Wau.

In Liberia, where a 1980 coup led to some two decades of political instability, Chinese peacekeepers joined the UN peacekeeping mission there in 2003, and more than 500 Chinese blue helmets are now on duty.

In Sudan's restive Darfur region, a Chinese peacekeeping team is currently part of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur, with their role including construction of makeshift airports, bridges and roads, and civilian protection.

China is the biggest contributor among the five UN Security Council permanent members in terms of the number of blue helmets. It will become the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget 2016-2018, next to the United States.

Globally, since 1990, more than 30,000 Chinese peacekeepers have served with over 20 UN peacekeeping missions. More than ten Chinese peacekeepers have lost their lives on active mission.

In September last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at a UN summit that China will contribute 8,000 troops to a UN peacekeeping standby force.

Xi also pledged that China will provide military aid worth 100 million U.S. dollars to the African Union to support the establishment of the African Standby Force, Africa's peacekeeping troops.
US urged to 'stick to its promise' Updated: 2016-06-03 02:18 By Li Xiaokun and Wang Xu(China Daily)

Washington should not take sides, but look at 'rights, wrongs' in S. China Sea issue, official says

A senior Chinese diplomat urged Washington on Thursday to stick to its promise of not taking sides on the South China Sea issue, ahead of the annual highest-level Sino-US dialogue.

At the Lanting Forum ahead of next week's Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing, Vice-Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang also called for the United States not to make its South China Sea policy decisions based merely on "whether somebody is an ally or not".

"In fact, the United States is not a claimant in the South China Sea dispute, and it has said it takes no position on territorial disputes," Zheng said.

"So we hope the US can stick to its promise and not choose sides, and instead base its stance on the rights and wrongs of the case," he added.

"I think if Washington can do this and stop provocative acts targeting China's sovereignty and security interests, then the US can play a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea" and help defuse the tension on the issue.

State Councilor Yang Jiechi will discuss the South China Sea with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, Zheng added.

Zheng also said that China and the US will hold the sixth Strategic Security Dialogue on Sunday, which will be co-chaired by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui and US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

He said representatives of the two militaries and relevant departments will "have in-depth discussions" on issues including sovereignty, maritime and outer space security and military relations.

The Foreign Ministry announced that the eighth Strategic and Economic Dialogue and the seventh China-US High-Level Consultation on People-to-People Exchange will both be held on Monday and Tuesday.

At the S&ED, State Councilor Yang and Kerry will co-chair the strategic part of the dialogue, while Vice-Premier Wang Yang and US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will co-chair the economic part.

Zheng said the strategic dialogue will cover topics including building up the new type of relations for major nations, managing differences and sensitive issues, and the two countries' interaction in the Asia-Pacific.

A special conference on climate change will be held on the sidelines of the talks.

Qin Yaqing, president of China Foreign Affairs University, said that in the dialogue, China and the US should consider how to convert their differences into areas of cooperation.

"We can even consider whether we can turn the South China Sea into a point of cooperation," she said.

Ruan Zongze, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies, said, "China-US relations have come to a new crossroads," citing the debate on China policy in the US presidential campaign, the unknown fate of the S&ED under the next US administration, and US involvement in the South China Sea.

"That has made this round of S&ED more eye-catching," he said.

Contact the writer at lixiaokun@chinadaily.com.cn
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HA NOI  The country generated more than US$67.7 billion from exports in the first five months of this year, surging 6.6 per cent against the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Of the sum, domestic enterprises contributed over $19.44 billion, up 3.9 per cent year-on-year, while the remainder of more than $48.26 billion came from foreign-funded firms, up 7.7 per cent year-on-year.

Key export products recording a strong increase in export value in the reviewed period included: vegetables and fruit, growing 53.7 per cent to $1 billion; telephones and their components, up 20.6 per cent to $14.4 billion; machines and equipment, with a rise of 16.2 per cent to $3.6 billion; and handbags, hats and umbrellas, up 12.1 per cent to $1.3 billion.

Other products with encouraging export growth were: rice, up 8.4 per cent; electronics, computer and parts, up 5.4 per cent; footwear, up 6 per cent; and seafood, up 5.6 per cent.

But the first five months saw significant reductions in export turnover of some major export items, such as: crude oil, slumping 49.2 per cent to $883 million; steel and iron, down 10.2 per cent to $649 million; and cassava, down 22.7 per cent.

The GSO also reported that from January to May, the value of national imports modestly decreased by 1 per cent year-on-year to above $66.34 billion, with $27.2 billion from domestic enterprises and $39.1 billion from foreign-funded businesses.

That resulted in a trade surplus of $1.36 billion in five months, lower than the $1.46 billion recorded during the same period last year.

The office said China remained Viet Nams largest import market. During the period, Viet Nam paid $19.2 billion for imports from China: five times and six times higher than figures from the EU and the US, respectively.

Viet Nams five-month import value from this neighboring nation also doubled that from ASEAN countries and tripled that from Japan.

Viet Nam has set the twin goals of fetching a total of $178 billion from exports by year-end, up 10 per cent from a year ago, and controlling trade deficit at 5 per cent.

Experts forecast that this will not prove a very difficult target, as export doors will be more open after some of the bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements recently signed by Viet Nam take effect.  VNS
Multidisciplinary conglomerate Vingroup signed co-operation contracts with nearly 250 local firms in 7 industries yesterday under its programme to support and promote domestic production. Photo vingroup.net

HA NOI  Multidisciplinary conglomerate Vingroup signed co-operation contracts with nearly 250 local firms in 7 industries yesterday under its programme to support and promote domestic production.

The firms in the industries of food, cosmetics, stationery and toys, household appliances and fashion and textiles were from 8 cities and provinces in Viet Nam.

Under the contracts, Vingroup and its subsidiaries of Vincommerce, Vincom Retail, VINECO, VinDS would offer a solution package for those firms such as incentive policies to distribute their products in the group and enhancing the firms brand presence in the groups commodities and services. The group also supported those firms in technology, management, quality control, marketing and selling their products in its chains, thus they could improve their efficiency.

Over 140 firms signed the distribution contracts with Vingroup, thus they will be able to sell their goods in the chains of Vinmart supermarkets and Vinmart + convenience stores with preferential terms. Food suppliers, especially as those involved in fresh food such as meat, fish, poultry, vegetables and fruit would be enjoying a zero per cent discount.

According to the local firms, competition in the retail market has become harder after the country joined free trade agreements. As some foreign rivals in Viet Nams retail sectors asked them for high discounts of between 17 and 25 per cent when distributing their products, many have faced the prospect of losses due to these demands.

Vingroups vice chairman Le Khac Hiep also confirmed that the competition was extremely fierce, not only in the retail sector but also in total domestic production, however he considers it a chance for local firms to upgrade their product quality, adding that the program aims to promote domestic production, contributing to safe food sources and also to build national brands with international standards to best serve the local consumers.

Vingroup said the incentive programme was to help suppliers have more funds to reinvest in product quality and improve standards of safety and hygiene. All the firms involved have committed to supplying the market with high-quality products. At the same time, Vingroup also encouraged those suppliers to decrease prices in support of consumers.

Vingroup has invested in 16 laboratories in cities and provinces that have Vinmart supermarkets. The local labs will be able to check and control the hygiene and food safety of the products sold in its system.

In addition, the group also signed co-operation contracts with about 100 firms so that they could strengthen their brand presence in the groups chains such as Vincom Retail, VinDS and VinPro.

Vu Kim Hanh, chairwoman of Viet Nam High-quality Products Association said the support of Vingroup with local firms in the context of fiercer competition in the local retail sector would not only help the firms in distribution but also in management.

Local economist Pham Chi Lan, said as 97 per cent of local firms were of small and medium sizes, a big hand is needed to support and link them together, thus, she said the co-operation has met the expectations of many local firms, adding that an economy can only be sustainable with a well developed local business community. VNS
HCM CITY  Exports of Vietnamese seafood products to South Korea are expected to increase strongly this year thanks to the free trade agreement between the two countries that took effect last December, according to the Korea Fishery Trade Association.

Under the FTA, Korea has committed to clear taxes for 10,000 metric tonnes of Vietnamese shrimp in the first year and 15,000 metric tonnes in the next five years.

Choi Dug-Boo, managing director of the association, said shrimp was the favourite seafood item in South Korea. Tilapia and pangasius are also popular.

Dug-Boo spoke at a press conference held on Tuesday in HCM City to introduce the Busan International Seafood and Fisheries Expo 2016 (BISFE).

Viet Nam earned US$580 million from seafood exports to South Korea last year, with revenue from shrimp accounting for $250 million.

The main seafood items of Viet Nam exported to South Korea are shrimp, octopus, squid, pangasius and other fish.

Korea imported 77,000 metric tonnes of shrimp in 2015, with Viet Nam being the largest supplier of 30,000 metric tonnes.

Dug-Boo has encouraged Vietnamese seafood exporters of shrimp, tilapia, pangasius and other products to take part in BISFE, the largest international seafood trade exhibition in Korea.

The organisers will apply special preferential prices for Vietnamese exporters who register to participate in the show via the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, he said.

We will strive to do our best to introduce potential exporters to Vietnamese exhibitors at BISFE to create conditions for the two sides to develop business connections and come up with a trade agreement right at the fair, he said.

To be held at the BEXCO Exhibition Centre I in Busan from October 27-29, the exhibition will feature 850 booths of 400 exhibitors from 30 countries.

Products on display will include seafood products, fisheries equipment, marine biotechnology and fishing tools.

In addition, business meetings and international conferences on the seafood sector and aquaculture technology workshops will also be held on the sidelines of the show.

Thirteen Vietnamese companies participated in the expo last year.

Viet Nams seafood export to Korea reached $95.48 million in the first two months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 7.4 per cent, according to VASEP. - VNS
HCM CITY  Logistics and supply chain management have significantly improved in recent years thanks to the Governments policies as well as the perception of entrepreneurs, according to the Viet Nam Logistics Business Association (VLA).

The logistics sector has enjoyed annual growth rate of 24 per cent in recent years, o Xuan Quang, VLA deputy chairman said at a conference held in HCM City yesterday to introduce the TILOG-LOGISTIX 2016 exhibition.

Recently, the Government has added several institutions to promote logistics development, more investment in ports, highways and airports as well as electronic customs.

It has implemented drastic cuts in administrative procedures, costs and time to facilitate cross-border trade and establish a national single window procedure toward an ASEAN single window, he said.

Many Vietnamese logistics providers have made investments in human resource, technology and management skills. As a result, their competitiveness has significantly improved compared to five to 10 years ago, he said.

But their preparations for the ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN+6, which includes ASEAN and six countries, South Korea, Japan, China, Australia, New Zealand and India, have been insufficient compared to their Thai counterparts, he said.

Viet Nam will need more sophisticated logistics infrastructure and services, strong global transportation networks and, especially, value-added logistics solutions, he said.

The TILOG  LOGISTIX 2016 will provide good opportunities for Vietnamese logistics providers to update hardware and software logistics services that they lack now, Quang said.

Duangrat Udomsomporn, senior manager portfolio of Reed Tradex Co, Ltd., said the event can increase logistic opportunities for Vietnamese entrepreneurs through business networking and best practices in logistics and supply chain management.

This would result in more competitive international trade and regional development.

Organised by the Department of International Trade Promotion and Reed Tradex from September 21 to 23 in Bangkok, the exhibition will showcase the most diverse range of logistics technology and equipment, she said.

Co-operation opportunities

At the event Vietnamese and Thai experts discussed the strengthening of co-operation between the logistics sectors of Viet Nam and Thailand.

Visarn Chansate, president of the Thai Logistics Provider Federation, said the economic development brought by AEC will increase demand for logistics services in Thailand to the region, especially cross-border trade and transit trade.

Viet Nam is a destination for investors in ASEAN+6, while Thailand is a hub for connectivity. Both countries can be partners to promote the competitiveness of the logistic industry, he said.

Quang said that, when managed effectively, the regional logistics sector would help reduce the cost of transportation of goods throughout the region, create faster and more efficient transport routes, and contribute greatly to the development of the ASEAN economies.

Logistics and transportation collaboration within ASEAN is playing a crucial role, according to Pittinun Samanvorawong, director of Thai Trade Centre and Commercial Consul in HCM City.

She said that collaborations between Thailand and Viet Nam would enhance the effectiveness of the logistics sector. - VNS


The Government has approved a plan to establish a special committee, which will operate like a business, to manage capital at State-owned enterprises (SOEs). While the scheme is scheduled to be discussed before the National Assemly in the third quarter of this year, official data revealed that companies wholly or more-than-half owned by the State have a combined asset value amounting to around VN5 quadrillion, or US$222.2 billion.

Nguyen inh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, talked to local reporters during a recent policy discussion in Ha Noi about the issue.

How can the committee deal with current shortcomings in the management of SOEs, especially in the reorganisation of State utility firms?

The establishment of an agency to perform the right of State ownership follows the conclusion of the 12th National Party Congress, aiming at three targets:

Firstly, the agency will help remove conflicts among State functions, by separating State ownership performance from policy making and market regulation. With every ministry responsible for these functions, there is not a fair, equal and competitive market. This leads to inefficient distribution of resources in the economy.

Secondly, the agency will be an investor, not an administrative agency.

Thirdly, with all State resources coming under the management of a single agency it will be able to comprehensively assess asset values for more effective use of the assets.

A single agency will foster the equitisation of SOEs quicker and better than at present. The reorganisation of SOEs is still slow because every ministry has its own authority.

Establishing this agency meets the demand of integration as well as requirements of domestic economic reforms. SOEs must also be transparent in this process.

Dealing with benefits of privileged groups will be one of the biggest obstacles for building the committee. What do you think?

National interests are second to none.

To build the committee is to rationalise the operational mechanism and the structure of rights and interests in many State agencies. People who are going to lose their roles in performing the right of State ownership may not agree with this move, for various reasons. However, the Party and the Government have issued resolutions to implement this policy. Now it is important for us to take action. The establishment of the committee, based on studies of Singaporean and Chinese models, will be discussed before the National Assembly in the third quarter of this year.

As a matter of course, challenges lie ahead for implementation, but we wont stop because of that. Contributions of relevant parties, experts and the public will be extremely important. Theres nothing we cant overcome for national interests.

Is there any other barrier for the establishment of the committee?

Perhaps theres a matter of thinking. This will be a State agency, but not a State management body. Its structure must like that of a company without administrative tools and ways of management. The assessment of employees and wage and bonus payments for them must follow business rules, not mechanisms for civil servants. Payments will be based on operational outcomes.

Are you concerned about the committee abusing its power?

SOEs have huge assets and sources of capital and the establishment of the committee is likely to help increase efficiency in their use of capital. We see this as necessary to boost economic development from 2016-20. With just 1 per cent improvement in State capital efficiency, we will be able to reach an annual economic growth rate of 8 per cent, compared with the current 6.5 per cent. The State-run sector has potential, but it is poorly utilised.

Anyone who has authority tends to abuse power, so its necessary to establish both internal and external supervision mechanisms. The media and experts can be effective supervisors. The committee must publicise its annual goals and be transparent about what it is going to do to reach them, as well as if its schemes are efficient.  VNS
HA NOI  Lack of legal assistance from foreign countries means the fight against wildlife crime is still very tough.

This is according to Nguyen Duy Giang, head of the Department for Prosecution and Supervision over Criminal Cases, under the Supreme Peoples Procuracy of Viet Nam at press conference held by the United Nations in Viet Nam in response to World Environment Day (June 5).

Giang said wildlife crime was a type of international crime, thus, legal assistance from foreign countries was very important.

We have no agreement on legal assistance between us and other countries to deal with wildlife crime so far, he said. We just have several Memorandums of Understanding but it has shown little effectiveness.

Giang suggested accelerating the signing of legal assistance agreements with other countries to effectively handle wildlife crimes in the future.

He also asked the mass media to disseminate information to the public about Penal Code 2015, set to take effect on July 01, 2016, containing much stronger provisions and penalties for wildlife crime.

Under article No 234, the maximum punishment for an individual committing wildlife offences is 15 years imprisonment and a fine of VN2 billion (US$89,160), for a legal commercial entity its VN15 billion (US$668,700).

Currently, the maximum punishment is seven years in prison and a fine of about VN500 million ($22,300).

"Increasing the punishments and fines aims to deter wildlife crime, and it should be widely disseminated," he said.

Zero tolerance for illegal wildlife trade

Speaking at the conference, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP representative in Viet Nam Pratibha Mehta said the 5th of June every year marks World Environment Day, and the United Nations encourages its members to celebrate the day by raising public awareness on specific environmental challenges.

This year, the World Environment Day is calling for zero tolerance for the illegal wildlife trade, she said.

Though a lot of efforts have been made by the Government of Viet Nam, in 2014, the International Union for Conservation or Nature upgraded the threatened status of the two species of pangolin, which are native to Viet Nam, to critically endangered, she said.

Thus, the United Nations in Viet Nam urged the Government to step up its efforts to combat wildlife crime.

Please join us in calling for zero tolerance for the illegal wildlife trade. We need to stop wildlife trafficking in its tracks, she said.

Statistics showed that the Javan rhino was declared extinct in Viet Nam in 2011, the last one killed for its horn in Cat Tien National Park. In April, 2016, scientists declared there may be only 5 tigers left in the wild in Viet Nam  down from an estimate of 30 in 2011. In the meantime, less than 100 elephants live in the wild in Viet Nam now  the number was nearer 550 in 1980s.  VNS
HA NOI  Luong Van Viet, one of Viet Nams most celebrated sculptors, will introduce his latest works at his solo exhibition Sense, which will open on Sunday at Manzi Art Space.

Unlike any other conventional sculpture show, Sense is designed to not only incorporate Manzis existing architectural features, but also to manipulate its dual functionality. It asks where Manzi  as an art and exhibition space  ends, and Manzi  as a cafe and space for social interactions  begins. Sense acts as an invitation for the audience to come into contact with the work using all of their senses. They can, for example, walk around and through the work, look at them from afar, or come closer and pick them up for a more intimate inspection.

I hope to offer the audience a sense of freedom. The freedom to physically experience the characteristics of the materials: the warmth of wood, the heaviness of stone and the coolness of metal. The freedom to compare and judge the similarities and differences in terms of composition and distance between the works. The freedom to create their own narrative and relationship with art. The freedom to sense what is real, artist Viet said.

Sense is Viets 7th solo exhibition, marking a new chapter in his artistic journey.

The exhibition, which is part of Manzis art programme supported by CDEF of the Danish Embassy, will open at 6.30pm on Sunday. The show will run until July 5 at 14 Phan Huy Ich Street.  VNS
HA NOI  Thousands of children and parents attended the first ever childrens book festival which opened yesterday in Ha Nois Temple of Literature, the countrys first university.

The four-day event, organised by the Ha Noi Peoples Committee to celebrate International Childrens Day, offers young audiences the opportunity to enjoy a variety of interesting books and meet with several talented authors.

The festival, which continues until June 5, aims to foster a fondness for learning in children, inspire a love for reading and teach respect towards parents and teachers.

The children have the opportunity to visit 40 stands displaying a wide variety of books, from history to science. They can also meet with several authors whose books have met with success among children, including Tran ang Khoa, and Ho Thi Hai Au.

Besides taking part in story telling contests, they can also attend a photo exhibition featuring the life and work of President Ho Chi Minh, through books being published by Kim ong publishing house, learn what it was like for children during wartime, and discover the countrys history through various photos on display at the festival.

When he was still alive, President Ho always encouraged citizens to keep up the habit of reading. For him, books are restorative in nature and its precious to be able to read books often.

Books have always played a very important role in our life. I want to call upon everybody, in particular children to spend time reading books every day, at least 10 minutes each day, in order to enlarge their knowledge, develop their skills, broaden their mind, and become a good citizen in the future, said Ngo Van Quy, deputy chairman of the Peoples Committee of Ha Noi, at the opening ceremony of the event.

I hope that with their love of reading, the children can also encourage others to read books, present to the people around them the good books and transmit their reading passion to other people, he added.

He also reminded children to help less fortunate friends by offering them the books that theyve read and liked.

After the opening ceremony, the children could buy discounted books at the book stands. The organising committee put on an air-conditioned room for reading in the Temple of Literature itself.

On this occasion, the organising committee launched a writing contest to look for 32 ambassadors of reading culture, living in Ha Noi. Students in primary and secondary schools in the capital can take part in the contest by writing in Vietnamese or in English on the topic of their favourite books.

Yesterday evening, a new picture book entitled Qua Cho Con (A Gift for Children) which aims to teach moral lessons was launched to the public. Author Nguyen Huy Hoang, 40, says the book delivers 100 lessons through 100 poems to teach children in a gentle and memorable way.

Through the poems, children learn to live well, love their country and family, and practice soft skills, said deputy minister of Culture Vuong Duy Bien.

Tan Viet Book Company, which published this book, leased the copyright of the book for five years at VN550 million (US$25,000).

Previously, to encourage reading habits in local people, several other book festivals have been held in Ha Noi for both children and adults, including the Ha Noi Spring Book Street in February and the Book Festival in April.

Lack of interesting books for children

This first ever childrens book festival in Ha Noi has been highly praised for presenting children new and interesting books, following complaints from parents about the lack of reading material available to their children.

Nguyen Thanh Mai, a bank employee who lives in Hoang Mai District, said that it took her lot of time to find a suitable book for her 7 year-old daughter, even though libraries offer a wide range of well-designed books.

Many publishing houses have attempted to introduce international books to Viet Nam. Besides many books which have good contents and are well-translated, others are not suitable to the traditional culture of Viet Nam. With the pressure of selling more and more books for profit, some publishing houses have been hurrying the publishing of books without proper quality control. -- VNS
On the occasion of Italys National Day today (June 2), Viet Nam News presents an article written by Italys Ambassador to Viet Nam, Cecilia Piccioni.

Today the Italian Republic turns 70.

Seventy years is an important milestone and also very meaningful in Vietnamese culture and a very special anniversary for us Italians all over the world.

The 2th of June, 1946 marked a turning point in the history of my country and in the lives of all Italians. On that day, 25 million Italians voted in a referendum to decide the future of our Nation. On that day, our Republic was born and our democratic foundations were established on the pillars of freedom and democracy.

On that day, Italy started its journey towards development, industrialisation and international integration. It has been an exciting, if not always easy, journey that led Italy, along with five other European partners, to begin the building process of the European Union. As one of the six EU founding members, Italy has contributed to shaping it and its core values: human rights protection, the fight against inequality, economic growth, attentive management of migration flows and sustainable development.

But Italys involvement extends beyond the EU to the whole world. For instance, Italy is currently the 7th largest financial contributor to the UNs budget and the Western nation with the most men and women deployed in peacekeeping missions.

Moreover, the journey that started on the 2nd of June 70 years ago, led to Italy being part of both the G7 and the G20.

Next year Italy will hold the Presidency of the G7. This will serve as the perfect opportunity to address, through a result-oriented approach, key global issues that are at the top of our agenda, such as climate change, environmental protection, cultural diversity preservation and promotion, food safety, nutrition, rule of law, human rights, and security & stability.

In these endeavors Italy relies on the cooperation of strategic partners like Viet Nam, so we are thrilled that Italian-Vietnamese relations have reached such a high level lately.

Two-way trade is approaching the years goal of US$5 billion set by our Prime Ministers in 2014 and will continue to increase thanks to the opportunities the EUVFTA will open up.

On the investment front, although there is still untapped potential we intend to take advantage of, it is important to highlight how well our entrepreneurship profiles complement each other due to the prominence of SMEs.

However, our presence goes beyond our similarity in entrepreneurship. Italy is very involved with new technology, production models, sustainability, partnership with universities, CSR and gender equality in Viet Nam to help further the countrys goal to become an industrialised nation by 2020. Our priorities include focusing on environment, renewable energies and food security (Italy will participate as a guest of honor at the Vietnam Food Expo in November in HCM City).

Our strategic partnership agreement has paved the way to achieving outstanding results in many areas: political, commercial, infrastructural, development cooperation scientific and cultural.

Traditions and culture are key in people-to-people relations. Knowing each other through culture allows us to build bridges and break down walls. Preserving traditions, culture and their diversity is at the core of our agenda and reflects the paramount attention Italy pays to protecting these values and to enhancing dialogue and acceptance.

Viet Nam shares these views and is committed to the preservation and promotion of its unique heritage, making it one of our best partners. In this vein, and on a very personal note, I wish to underscore the remarkable job Viet Nam is doing in the preservation of one of the most iconic UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Son oong Cave.

Recently, thanks to the Vietnamese authorities, I had the opportunity to explore it along with a few other fellow Ambassadors and to appreciate first hand the huge effort Viet Nam is making to strike a difficult balance between the development of an area that still shows some gaps to be filled, while safeguarding Mother Natures extraordinary masterpiece. Viet Nam is proving itself as a responsible global actor that understands Son oongs role as a key World Heritage site and protects it for our future generations.

Italy started on its journey 70 years ago and Viet Nam has been an extraordinary partner. We have been working together for the last 43 years and the extraordinary results of our partnership speak for themselves. Building on these results, our countries could address together the numerous global challenges we are facing through a pragmatic approach achieving the ambitious goals we have set in order to benefit our peoples.  VNS
QUANG NAM  Poor marketing and brand creation, and the lack of a famous brand has seen provincial crafts lagging behind and at a disadvantage in both, domestic and world markets.

These opinion were voiced by local craftsmen and businesses at a conference on the introduction of the Crafted in Quang Nam seal in collaboration with UNESCOs Ha Noi Office and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Hoi An City recently.

The traditional craft industry from 65 villages contributes 30 per cent of the annual provincial industrial production value, but it still faces challenges when approaching regional and world markets.

Nguyen Van Thong, an official from the provincial department of Industry and Trade said only 34 products out of 100 from 12 production units were recognised with the CraftedQuang Nam seal in 2016.

Craft villages create over 100 hand-made products, but only 20 are recognised with industrial ownerships, Thong said.

The province, in co-operation with UNESCO and ILO and local businesses, built up a brand of Quang Nams crafts in a programme to develop the trade, Thong said.

The seal would create an invisible value for the provincial villages crafts and improve income for craftsmen, according to Thong.

Chairman of provincial Crafts Association Nguyen Van Tiep said the seal was an intellectual property of craftsmen in the province.

He said it would help businesses strongly confirm the brand of hand-made products of Quang Nam, while improving the income of local people and quality.

Vo Bay, vice chairman of Quang Nams Co-operative Union, stressed that trademark is still a new concept among craft businesses.

Most businesses have yet to recognise the importance of a brand. They (households) do not care to build their products brand under strict regulations and standards, Bay said.

Nguyen Thi Huyen, a staff from ILO, said Quang Nam was seen as the first location in Viet Nam to build a successful brand for a craft product.

It is a crucial step to promote provincial crafts and make it a success. The seal would help tourists recognise Quang Nams crafts among thousands of products from other locals, Huyen said.

Huyen said tourists wish to take home a souvenir from Hoi An, My Son Sanctuary or Cham Island, but they are always confused with a Quang Nam-made product and those from other locals.

She said tourists do not wish to take home souvenirs that they can buy at trading centres in big cities.

Tran Thi Thu Thuy, from UNESCOs Ha Noi Office, said the seal Crafted in Quang Nam, can be inked together with their own names of Thanh Ha pottery or Kim Bong Carpentry village.

She also warned of strict management and supervision of the Crafted in Quang Nam seal with regard to quality control of the product. It needs close control from the association as businesses could stamp the seal on unqualified handicraft products instead.

Huynh Nguyen An Binh, whose wood sculpture was recognised with a Crafted in Quang Nam seal, said Quang Nams handicrafts still need skilful design, pattern or portable creation in attracting tourists, while promoting images of Hoi An.

Hoang Tuong, who is an owner of an aloeswood processing base in Tien Phuoc District, said his company earns VN2 billion ($88,000) from export of aromatic bracelets, and sculptures to China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan, but it is still small in volume and unstable.

The seal would help us promote Made-in-Quang Nam products with a sealed quality and brand. Customers could distinguish hand-made products from Quang Nam with products from other locals in Viet Nam or another country, Tuong said.

Huyen, from ILO, stressed that the introduction of the seal is only the first step in a long-term plan to build a strong and impressive brand name of Quang Nams handicraft industry.

She said it needs positive co-operation from businesses and flexible management and co-ordination between provincial departments.  VNS
by Hoang Anh

A report on the prevalence of tobacco smoking published by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2015 indicated that 47.1 per cent of Vietnamese adults (aged 15 and above) were smokers.

That number translated to more than 20 million smokers in the country, or nearly one out of five Vietnamese, despite numerous awareness campaigns and measures taken by both society and the Government in recent years to educate the population about the harmful effects of smoking on health.

When asked whether they were aware of the harmful effects of smoking, many smokers said they would continue anyway, even knowing all the bad things it may do to their health.

It would seem that just simply telling people that smoking is bad isnt going to be enough. Its not that they dont know that smoking kills. It just means that it will take a lot more to get people to quit than just telling them that smoking will kill them someday.

Many of my foreign friends who visited Viet Nam said one of the most pleasant surprises about Viet Nam was the price of cigarettes.

Twenty-thousand Viet Nam ong (US$1) for a pack of 20. This is only one-tenth of the price I would have to pay in Europe, one commented. Many of them, of course, were heavy smokers.

Cheap cigarettes are a tempting poison. The low price tag only makes it more difficult for them to quit. As is the case for millions of my countrymen, many openly admitted that they couldnt quit after numerous unsuccessful attempts. It was just too cheap.

While it may have been too late for them, not much is being done to prevent Vietnamese adolescents from picking up a smoking habit.

The country introduced its first legal effort to combat smoking, the Law on Prevention and Control of Tobacco, in September 2012. It stated clearly that the sale of tobacco products to minors was prohibited, and smokers must not smoke in the presence of children, pregnant women, the sick and the elderly.

Not much has changed four years after the introduction of the law.

Kids are still able to buy cigarettes from convenience stores under the pretext that their fathers or older brothers asked them to fetch the cigarettes. One may still easily find smokers happily puffing away in cafes filled with children and pregnant women, even with non-smoking signs displayed. Its just too easy for them to smoke.

A study recently published by Seattles University of Washington indicated that children with parents who smoked are twice as likely to start smoking between the ages of 13 to 21 as compared to their peers with non-smoker parents.

Do as I do and not do as I say is the deciding factor when it comes to starting smoking among children. Parents who want to keep their kids from smoking must first set an example themselves. Children who grew up seeing smokers everywhere will be far more likely to pick up smoking.

Viet Nam has been reporting an increased number of patients diagnosed with cancer every year. Its hard to ignore smoking as a leading cause of a number of deadly cancers. People often get all worked up about pollution and unsafe food cases. Yet it is paradoxical that the same people refuse to quit smoking while knowing, for certain, that it is killing them.

The threat to ones health from smoking is more real than the recent dead fish, which one may or may not have to consume, or Ha Nois bad air, which may or may not have been measured properly. One thing is for certain: smoking kills, and not just the one who smokes, but also people around him or her.

Back in 2014, during a heated debate on whether heavier taxes should be placed on cigarettes, many NA deputies defended the tobacco industry and said that the financial contribution it made to the States budget was significant and that the goal of reducing the number of smokers isnt going to be achieved just by raising the tax.

We should also look beyond that number. Beyond the billions of ong contributions were thousands of lung cancer patients and others with respiratory diseases along with the massive social cost associated with them.

The tobacco industry may have contributed to the States budget in the short term, but in the long term society will have to pay the cost. The dilemma here is to decide whether the Government wants the short-term financial benefits or if it wants to promote a smoke-free society and healthier lifestyle.

Many deputies pointed out that increasing the price isnt going to be enough to make smokers quit. Instead, it may encourage consumers to switch to smuggled cigarettes, which have been flooding the domestic market for years. Not only was it impossible to control the quality of these contraband items, but the State would also lose out on potential tax income due to a reduced market share among domestic manufacturers.

Its certainly not an easy fight to reduce the number of smokers in Viet Nam. In order for the country to realise that goal, measures must be taken by the Government, from cigarette smuggling combat campaigns to awareness and health education programmes. But beyond that, members of society down to each individual must also be held responsible for their own health and that of their family members.  VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasised the settlement of institutional and legal bottlenecks as the main task for the new Government at the Cabinets regular meeting in Ha Noi yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  Completing the building of effective institutions was the first issue under discussion at the Cabinets regular meeting in Ha Noi yesterday.

In his introductory remarks, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasised the settlement of institutional and legal bottlenecks as the main task for the new Government.

The leader blamed red tape in administrative procedures as one of the root causes of the countrys sluggishness in growth, and admitted the failure to create optimal conditions for development.

He stressed the need for Cabinet members to focus on institution building to seek solutions to existing problems, especially during the effectuation of the Law on Enterprises and the Investment Law, while they are mulling over draft laws and ordinances.

Minister and head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung reported that by May 31, the Government had issued only 14 documents guiding the implementation of laws, well shy of the target of 51. Additionally, 91 circulars and 13 joint circulars have yet to be issued as scheduled.

Out of 49 decrees needed for the amended Law on Enterprises and the Investment Law, only 35 were submitted to the Government, he said.

Prime Minister Phuc requested ministries which have been behind in submitting documents to account for their delay.

Without the decrees, it would be hard to bring laws into life, especially in the context that a string of laws will take effect from July 1, the Government leader noted.

Heads of ministries and agencies must take responsibility for the slow completion of legal documents, he said, affirming the Governments resolve to finish the work before July 1.

The Prime Minister underscored the need to ensure the quality and quantity of legal documents, and assigned the Minister of Justice, and the Minister and head of the Government Office to run an inter-sectional working session on this matter.

He also asked ministries to realise Resolution 19 on investment climate improvement and Resolution 35 on business development, to simplify business and investment requirements and scrap licences that are no longer reasonable.

The Cabinets May meeting takes place on June 1-2. VNS
Viet Nams Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence of Cambodia General Tea Banh meet in Phnom Penh yesterday. VNA/VNS Photo

PHNOM PENH Viet Nam and Cambodia have agreed to fully and effectively actualise protocols on defence cooperation in order to enhance mutual understanding and trust, ensure a peaceful and stable environment for their economic development and foil plots to weaken their relations.

To that end, they will conduct regular exchanges of information and delegations in all areas, as consented by Viet Nams Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence of Cambodia General Tea Banh during their talks in Phnom Penh yesterday.

They will also cooperate in protecting land and marine border security and create optimal conditions for border demarcation and marker planting by competent agencies.

In a parallel effort, the two sides will coordinate with each other more closely to prevent cross-border crimes, facilitate border trade and share experience in training.

General Lich affirmed Viet Nams consistent policy of developing friendship and comprehensive cooperation with other countries, especially in traditional friends and neighbours.

The guest said his selection of Cambodia as one of the first countries to visit in his capacity as Defence Minister showed that Viet Nam attached great importance to the friendship and all-round cooperation it has with the nation.

Tea Banh said Lichs visit was significant as it helped accelerate the implementation of bilateral defence agreements and charted orientations and measures for the collaboration, continuing defence links as one of the pillars in relations between the two countries.

During his two-day official friendly visit to Cambodia, the Vietnamese minister was received by President of the National Assembly Samdech Heng Samrin and Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Wednesday.

The Cambodian leaders promised to create the best possible conditions for the bilateral defence links on the basis of agreements reached by the two Governments and defence ministries.

For his part, Lich said the Vietnamese defence ministry would continue the close and effective partnership with its Cambodian counterpart in order to contribute to the two countries relationship. VNS
President Tran ai Quang (R) receives Cuban Ambassador Herminio Lopez Diaz in Ha Noi yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  President Tran ai Quang hosted receptions in Ha Noi yesterday for Cuban Ambassador Herminio Lopez Diaz, and Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Viet Nam Bruno Angelet.

At the meeting with the Cuban diplomat, the President affirmed Viet Nams determination to, together with Cuba, carry out signed agreements for programmes and projects.

He suggested the two countries exchange experience gained during reform processes, helping to develop the Viet Nam-Cuba relationship.

Speaking of the contributions of the ambassador, the State leader said he believed that the diplomat maintained close co-ordination with Vietnamese offices to help bilateral ties grow.

He also backed the diplomats proposal of establishing a Latin American culture centre in Viet Nam.

The Cuban ambassador asserted the embassy staffs determination to tighten the friendship and co-operation between the two countries.

President Tran ai Quang (R) meets with Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Viet Nam Bruno Angelet.  VNA/VNS Photo

When receiving the EU ambassador, Quang welcomed EU member states ratification of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement and asked the EU to quickly finish procedures to make the agreement become effective.

He appreciated the EUs consideration of Viet Nam as a priority partner in its 2014-20 development co-operation policy.

Thanking the EU for its 90,000 euros (around US$100,500) aid for several localities hit by drought and saltwater intrusion, the State leader requested the EU continue its support in helping Viet Nam implement its sustainable development goals and intensify its capacity in climate change adaptation.

Viet Nam appreciated the EUs international role as well as its contributions to maintaining peace and stability, fostering co-operation and development in Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asia, and ensuring aviation and maritime security, safety and freedom on the basis of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Ambassador Angelet stated that the EU Delegation to Viet Nam wanted to contribute more to the development of EU-Viet Nam relations. The delegation is preparing several projects to intensify co-operation with Viet Nam.

The EU plans to focus on fields like energy, audit and finance with the Ministry of Industry and Trade; law enforcement and judicial assistance with the Ministries of Justice and Public Security; and co-operation to ensure aviation and maritime security, safety and freedom on the basis of the UNCLOS.

It also wants to support the Mekong River Commission in water resources management and climate change response, he added.  VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc receives Lao Ministries of Justice Xaysy Santivong in Ha Noi yesterday.  Photo VGP

HA NOI  The Vietnamese Government supports co-operation between the Vietnamese and Lao Ministries of Justice, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

He lauded the sending of Vietnamese experts to help Laos improve its legal and institutional systems, while receiving Lao Minister of Justice Xaysy Santivong in Ha Noi yesterday.

The Government leader underlined the significance of collaboration between the two countries legislative, executive and judicial bodies, particularly co-operation between the two ministries of justice.

He said he hoped the two sides would continue to implement their co-operation agreements to further ties between Viet Nam and Laos.

The Lao minister expressed his wish to receive more assistance from the Vietnamese Government and Ministry of Justice.

Phuc hailed the talks between Vietnamese and Lao justice ministries. He congratulated the Lao Party, Government and people on significant achievements, especially the successful 10th National Congress of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and the elections of deputies to the 8th National Assembly and all-level Peoples Councils for the 2016-20 tenure.

He said he was confident that Laos would realise the Resolution adopted at the 10th National Party Congress and its socio-economic development plan in 2016-20 under the leadership of the LPRP.

Both nations would continue to implement bilateral co-operation agreements in 2016-20 reached by the two governments at the 38th session of the Viet Nam-Laos inter-governmental committee in Vientiane in December 2015, he added.

He confirmed that the Vietnamese Party, State and people would deepen the rapport between the two countries for the sake of their people along with peace, stability, co-operation and development in the region and beyond.  VNS
Sweden will continue to maintain a strong relationship with Viet Nam, which was forged nearly five decades ago. Photo vietnamplus.vn

HA NOI  Sweden will continue to maintain a strong relationship with Viet Nam, which was forged nearly five decades ago.

This was confirmed by the visiting special representative of the Swedish Prime Minister, Pierre Schori, at a seminar here today.

The seminar Legacy of Olof Palme and Sweden-Viet Nam relation was co-held by the Swedish Embassy and the Ho Chi Minh National Academy on Politics.

The seminar was a commemoration programme for late Prime Minister Olof Palme who was tragically assasinated 30 years ago.

Speaking at the seminar, Schori said: Sweden was the first western country to establish diplomatic ties with Viet Nam and will continue to maintain a strong relationship in the future.

Late Prime Minister Olof Palme laid a solid foundation for the unique and special relationship between our two countries, he said.

At the seminiar, speakers remembered the great assistance and contribution of the late Swedish prime minister to Viet Nam.

Not only was he considered a great friend of the Vietnamese people in the fight for independence, but the late prime minnister also supported Viet Nam in the development of the country after the war, including the construction of the National Hospital of Paediatrics, the Uong Bi Hospital and the Bai Bang Paper Mill.

Prof. Dr Le Thanh Hai (centre, left), Director of the National Hospital of Paediatrics and Mr Borje Ljunggren, former Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam unveiled a bust of Olof Palme at the Olof Palme building of the National Hospital of Paediatrics today.  Photo courtesy of Swedish Embassy in Ha Noi

Throughout his life, Olof Palme worked continuously and tirelessly for democracy, peace and human rights around the world.

In her speech, former vice president Nguyen Thi Binh said: Sweden is one of the countries of which I have many good memories and the movement to support Viet Nam was the strongest there.

Swedish support was provided by all -- from the highest leaders of the country to the elderly, the youth, the women and the children -- everybody was supportive of Viet Nam.

He (PM Olof Palme) was joining the demonstration with me. As a person, he was probably the most humane and honest leader I have known.

Meanwhile, former deputy minister Vu Khoan recalled the assistance given by the Swedish government under the rule of PM Palme.

One of the most effective areas of contribution throughout the history of bilateral relations between the two countries is in the health sector.

The co-operation in this field has achieved very good results -- the construction of hospitals, training staff, maternal and child healthcare, as well as providing health services to the most disadvantaged areas to support health policies and fighting pandemic.

The placing of a bust of Olof Palme and the opening of the Kid Playing Room at the National Hospital of Paediatrics also took place in addition to the seminar.

The bust and furnishing of the room were funded by the Olof Palme International Centre, the Olof Palme Memorial Fund, the Swedish Committee for Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia and the Social Democratic Party of Sweden.

At the seminar, speakers also reviewed the contribution of the Swedish governments assistance to Viet Nams economic development and co-operation over the last 47 years.

Olof Palme was Swedish prime minister for two terms -- from 1969 to 1976 and from 1982 until his assassination in 1986.  VNS
HCM CITY  HCM City plans to provide wireless internet (WiFi) free of charge for tourists and local residents, the deputy chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee Tran Vinh Tuyen said on Tuesday.

The city has yet to decide whether to start the service on a pilot basis or to begin installing it city-wide.

Tuyen said a Singaporean company had petitioned to install free WiFi for the city.

Van Thi Bach Tuyet, director of the citys Department of Tourism, said if the city provided free WiFi, it would be good for the tourism sector.

The quality of WiFi must be ensured, particularly the speed, she said.

In Viet Nam, many large cities have provided free WiFi for tourists and local residents.

In 2012, Hoi An City in the central province of Quang Nam became the countrys first city to implement a free WiFi system with 350 wireless base broadcasting stations for the entire city.

Ha Long, Hue and a Nang have also provided free WiFi for tourists and local residents.  VNS
QUANG BINH  A bus bearing Laos license plates exploded and caught fire while en route to Viet Nam today, killing nine Vietnamese and heavily injuring three others, 15km from this central province.

Officials at the provinces Cha Lo Border Gate reported that the blast and ensuing blaze had taken place at around 4a.m., before they arrived at the scene. The injured have been hospitalised in Laos.

Head of the Nghi Loc Districts Police Major Nguyen Trong Tue told zing.vn that the deceased victims were residents of Nghe An Provinces Dien Chau and Nghi Loc districts.

The bus reportedly departed from Laos Khamouane Province, heading to central Nghe An Province in Viet Nam. It was driven by a Khanh on bus operator from Nghe An.

The officials said the blast had come from the rear of the vehicle, where the bus engine was located. Forest timber that had been processed into wooden beams was found on the bus.

The odour of gunpowder was present at the scene, according to the border guard officials, who said an investigation is underway.  VNS
THUA THIEN - HUE  A campaign aiming to collect 1,000 national flags to send to the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago was launched yesterday in Hue.

Hue University of Pedagogy has called for flag donations from its students to mark the universitys 60th anniversary in 2017. Donations of flags from Vietnamese citizens around the country are welcome as well.

A university official told HCM Citys Phap Luat, the Law newspaper that the flags would be transferred to DK1s marine defence platform and several islands on the archipelago, aiming to assert Vietnamese sovereignty in these places.

The transfer is expected to take place in March next year. Experts said the campaign would awaken the spirit of patriotism in the countrys students and youth.  VNS
HA NOI  A proliferation of potholes and the continuing degradation of roads are endangering road users and vehicles in Ha Noi, heightening risks of congestion, accidents and general traffic safety.

Many people living on streets such as Kham Thien, Nguyen Luong Bang, Tay Son, Vong, Nguyen An Ninh and Linh Nam or Giai Phong complain of feeling unsafe on these roads because road users try to avoid potholes and end up causing accidents.

The already high number of traffic accidents is exacerbated by heavy rain, filling up and hiding the numerous potholes.

Travelling on Kham Thien or Nguyen Luong Bang street, the potholes next to uneven manhole covers in the centre of the roads pose a significant risk to drivers who are constantly trying to avoid them.

Nguyen uc Thin, a resident living on Nguyen Luong Bang Street said that most potholes here appeared as a result of construction work and the carelessness of units maintaining the roads.

The road on inh Cong Street stretching to the new urban area of ai Kim Street in Hoang Mai District is also in the same situation.

Traffic users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the quality of the road and the failure to repair it. Some residents have taken matters into their own hands, filling deep holes with rubble to limit the occurrence of accidents.

Nguyen Chi Mai, the owner of a grocery store on inh Cong Street complained that the road was always muddy after rainfall, becoming dusty in warmer weather. The poor conditions lead road users to use masks to avoid the dust.

Tam Trinh and Linh Nam roads have also threatened the traffic travelers.

The high density of daily road use, especially heavy trucks, had contributed to the rapid deterioration of the road, Nguyen Hoang, a resident living on Tam Trinh Road, said.

Residents here have repeatedly reported the situation to the authorities but the maintenance is very slow," Hoang said.

Tam Trinh and Linh Nam roads have been on the citys list of projects to upgrade and enlarge to 40-50 metres for many years, but the improvements remain on paper.

Vu Ngoc Thang, deputy head of the Urban Transport Office under the Ha Noi Transport Department, said there were six units responsible for the regular maintenance of roads in the districts.

Every month, the units inspect and create plans to repair any roads which are reported as being degraded.

He said the office would instruct units to repair degraded road immediately after the residents report. -- VNS
SAO PAULO  Thousands of Brazilian women protested on Wednesday against a "culture of rape" they blamed for the shocking case of a 16-year-old girl allegedly sexually assaulted by more than 30 men.

Protesters flooded central streets in cities including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, carrying signs with slogans such as "We are all bleeding" and "Not the victims fault."

The largest rally was in Sao Paulo, where more than 5,000 women marched.

Brazilians have been outraged by the gang rape case, which came to light in an online video that showed the bloodied girl naked and seemingly unconscious on a bed, as a man boasts that she has been "impregnated" by more than 30 men.

Three suspects have been arrested  the last one on Wednesday. Police are hunting three others.

The video was made on May 21 in a Rio de Janeiro favela, one of the poor and often lawless neighborhoods that dot Brazils largest cities.

The nationwide protests came a day after the Senate passed a bill increasing the penalties for gang rape and criminalizing rape recordings.

But many Brazilian women see little hope in politics.

One slogan at Wednesdays protests was "Fight without fear"  a play on the name of acting president Michel Temer, whose surname means "fear" in Portuguese.

Temer has come under fire for appointing an all-male cabinet after sidelining suspended president Dilma Rousseff, Brazils first woman president.

The acting president ditched Rousseff  his former running mate  as her foes in Congress moved to impeach her for allegedly fudging the governments books. He will serve in her place until a final ruling in her impeachment case.

Temers secretary for womens policy, Fatima Pelaes, is an Evangelical Christian who said in 2010 she opposed abortion even in cases of rape.

She said in a statement Wednesday that she would nevertheless keep her personal views out of debate on the issue.

Heavily Catholic Brazil allows abortion only in cases of rape, brain damage or danger to the mothers life.  AFP
The will take longer to materialize as negotiations will resume after Australia completes its national elections in June, Australian envoy Harinder Sidhu said on Wednesday.

Speaking at discussion session on trade liberalization, the newly appointed high commissioner said Australia was keen to conclude the agreement but refused to give a deadline for its completion. Pointing out that fruitful talks can only be held after a new national government takes charge in Canberra in early June, Sidhu added that the complicated nature of the talks demanded more time.

"Australia would rather have a good outcome which takes time than one which doesn't satisfy aspirations on both sides", she said. The talks for a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) were started in 2011 to boost both trade and investments between the two countries but progress has been slow due to disagreements over lowering tariff duties and access to services sector.

The countries had missed the last deadline - January, 2016 set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australia's then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott in September, 2014.

Australia is pushing for tariff reduction in dairy, fresh fruit, pharmaceuticals, meat and wines. On the other hand, India wants zero duty on auto parts, textiles, and fresh fruit, including mangoes and greater access in the services sector.

Several rounds of negotiations have been completed for liberalizing trade and services regime besides removing non-tariff barriers and encouraging investments.

The latest ninth round of negotiations took place in New Delhi on 21-23 September last year. After visiting India for the sixth time in April earlier this year, Australia's special trade envoy Andrew Robb said the deal may be completed in less than two months.

It had been reported earlier that India wanted to defer the talks keeping an eye on negotiations regarding the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which are also ongoing.

The RCEP agreement involves the ten countries of the ASEAN grouping and six of its free trade partners - China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and Australia. Under the RCEP, India has offered tariff elimination of 42.5 per cent of all traded goods to Australia, while that country has offered zero tariff on 80 per cent of such goods.

India feels it may lose its leveraging power by finalizing a trade deal with Australia ahead of the RCEP deal, which is also languishing after other members complained India wasn't lowering tariffs enough.

Uranium supply from Australia

The high Commissioner also said that supply of Uranium will start from the country soon although ironing out contract issues will take some time. The Australia-India nuclear cooperation agreement permits Australian companies to commence commercial uranium exports to India.
OPEC ministers gathering in Vienna for the group's biannual meeting said the oil market is moving in the right direction as a supply glut dissipates. While Saudi Arabia - the architect of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' current policy - remained silent, ministers from the United Arab Emirates and Nigeria signaled that the strategy of letting low prices eradicate surplus production is working. Some of the world's biggest oil traders said accelerating demand is also helping to rebalance the market. "From the beginning of the year until now, the market has ...
The Gujarat Tec-City Company Limited, known as GIFT city, today entered into an agreement with the Singaporean Arbitration Centre (SIAC) to resolve commercial disputes involving Indian companies.

Under the memorandum of agreement (MoA), SIAC and the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) will collaborate with the Indian companies to resolve international commercial disputes in India's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in .

SIAC will establish a representative office in the IFSC-GIFT, which will be instrumental in promoting SIAC's arbitration services to Indian users.

Indian parties have been consistently ranked among the top five foreign users of SIAC in the last five years, and was the top foreign user of SIAC in 2013 and 2015.

"We are delighted to have SIAC set up a representative office in the GIFT-IFSC. Any successful IFSC requires an efficient dispute resolution mechanism, and in this regard, SIAC is the choice partner for IFSC-GIFT. Singapore is a reputable seat of arbitration. The SIAC Rules are already widely used by Indian companies, as well as international companies investing in India, to resolve their disputes," said Ajay Pandey, Managing Director and Group CEO of .

"Through this collaboration, the Indian and international businesses in the IFSC-GIFT will be able to choose SIAC as their preferred mode of dispute resolution," he said.

Lim Seok Hui, CEO of SIAC and SIMC commented that India has always been an important market for SIAC and this MoA reflects our continuous commitment to maintain and strengthen our relationship with our Indian users. Our partnership with GIFTCL and GIFT SEZ opens new doors for SIAC to promote its services tobusinesses and investors within the IFSC-GIFT.

"By establishing our representative office in the IFSC-GIFT, we aim to contribute to GIFT City'seconomic development," Lim said.
00:33 Major flood warning issued for Snowy River Residents of Orbost are being told to move to higher ground as major flooding near Jarrahmond on the Snowy River threatens to cut off several...

Government recognises energy prices putting extreme pressure on industries 05:14 Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government recognises electricity and gas prices are putting extreme pressure on our local industries and...

Treasurer says there were difficult decisions in federal budget 02:31 Treasurer Jim Chalmers says there were difficult decisions in the federal budget which was delivered on Tuesday evening.

Government has been responsible in the areas where theyve made savings 04:42 The government has been "responsible in the areas where theyve made savings in their newly announced budget, says Australian Chamber of...
CEDAR FALLS  The Cedar Valley Do It Yourself underground music scene is looking to revive the music presence of a historic Cedar Falls venue this Friday.

Before it was destroyed in the floods of 2008, the Island Park Beach House (known popularly in the music scene as The Boathouse) played host to some historic acts. Concert bills included one of punk band Black Flags final shows in 1986 and an early Green Day show in 1990, according to The Secret History of the Cedar Valley.

Mason Wise is an active member in the current CVDIY scene, hosting shows in the basement of his residence dubbed, The Black Hole. He also helped plan CVDIY Fest.

Its a celebration of local music and art, Wise said.

Friday, some 20 bands  from the Cedar Valley and beyond  will grace the venues stage for its first punk show since it officially reopened on May 7. Local artists will display their art as well.

Bands include Cedar Falls-based folk acts Peas and Carrot and Amelia and Melina, as well as Virgina-based punk band Comrades.

Wises punk band, Cedar Falls-based Rabble Rouser, will play as well.

Weve booked a diverse group of acts, Wise said. He said it should be more palatable to the casual listener than an underground basement show.

Admission is $10 for the all-ages event from 1 to 10 p.m. Two alternating stages will keep music playing frequently throughout the day. All proceeds will go to benefit the Iowa Department for the Blind.

Its a great way to celebrate the summer and expose the community to what we (CVDIY) are doing throughout the year, Wise added.

Beach house reservations may be made by calling the Cedar Falls Recreation Center, 273-8636.
WATERLOO  Police detained two youths and recovered a stolen firearm during a Wednesday night traffic stop.

Officers stopped a vehicle for an equipment violation in the area of East Fourth and Ricker street at about 8:10 p.m. Wednesday and found a firearm that had been reported stolen earlier.

Aquarias Tykee Madlock, 16, of 523 Newton St., was taken into custody for carrying weapons and fourth-degree theft, and Daquon Dupree Boldon, 15, of 1621 Carriage Hill Drive, was taken into custody for interference and trafficking stolen weapons.

Boldon had attempted to run during the stop, police said. The trafficking charge stems from a Dec. 21 burglary to a home at 1323 Virginia St. where five firearms were stolen.

Further details weren't available.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo pastor believes the community that prays together, stays together  and that includes the police.

Thats why the Rev. Frantz Whitfield, pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, is hosting a Law Enforcement Sunday event as part of the 11 a.m. service.

The church is at 805 Adams St. The public is invited, as well as officers and Black Hawk County sheriffs deputies. Mayor Quentin Hart and Waterloo Safety Services Director Dan Trelka will attend as well.

Trelka said hes passing the word to get as many officers as possible to participate.

Whitfield said he wants to foster a cooperative relationship between police and the community at large  contrary to tensions in other communities around the country.

Mount Carmel is one of the larger churches in east Waterloo with a substantial African-American congregation.

We just want to bring officers, have them come to church and pray over them, and the people as well as the children and young people, Whitfield said. I just want the community to see that we have a partnership  as a community and as officers.

Theres a lot of press publicity in the news and across the country regarding law enforcement, Whitfield said.

In particular, he cited a Baltimore officers recent acquittal in the controversial 2015 death of an African-American man, Freddie Gray, while in police custody.

Whitfield is striving for a different atmosphere in Waterloo.

We want to show the community does not have to be afraid, Whitfield said. They shouldnt be afraid of law enforcement. We want them to feel comfortable with law enforcement in our city.

And it is important to do that at the outset of summer, when warm weather can spur a rise in crime.

We want to start the summer off on a good note and show the connection between the community and law enforcement, Whitfield said.

Trelka said he appreciates the gesture.

Were glad theyre involved, and its nice we have this relationship with many of our pastors, many of our religious leaders. We all want to come together and make Waterloo a better place, Trelka said.

Last years event occurred as churches and a citizens group, Taking Back Waterloo, held peace marches in response to several incidents of gun violence. One involved a 4-year-old boy hit by a stray bullet when playing in his home on Mulberry Street. The boy was hospitalized and subsequently discharged.
WATERLOO  Black Hawk County leaders are working on a plan to mandate address signs in unincorporated areas.

Members of the county Board of Supervisors got their first look Tuesday at a draft ordinance requiring rural residences and businesses to have uniform house numbers at the roadside to help police, fire and other emergency responders.

County Engineer Cathy Nicholas based the proposal on similar ordinances from other Iowa counties, about half of which require uniform E-911 signs now.

But the supervisors said more discussion was necessary to clear up a series of vexing policy issues before the measure is ready for a vote. The board also wanted to get input from township trustees.

We just want to make sure we give residents ample time to hear about it, said Supervisor Tom Little.

Matters of debate include who should be responsible for paying for the signs, estimated to cost $50 each; who should be responsible for enforcement; possible fines for noncompliance; and whether homes in dense unincorporated residential areas like Washburn or Dewar could get by with numbers on the house instead of a roadside sign.

There are a lot areas with homes in close proximity with just the numbers on the house and not just out on the streets, said Supervisor Frank Magsamen. If this was adopted it would be a significant change for them.

But Sheriff Tony Thompson suggested it would be a slippery slope if the supervisors started making exceptions for Washburn while requiring the roadside signs everywhere else.

The reason for this is for emergency response; this is to benefit you, Thompson said. Even those curmudgeons who are going to hold out and not be happy with it, this is about getting emergency services to you quickly.

Most cities, including Waterloo and Cedar Falls, have fire codes setting standards for house numbers that are purchased and installed by the property owners.

Those regulations dont apply in unincorporated Black Hawk County. But the county E-911 Board in 1993 purchased and installed about 4,200 Fiberglass signs with blue reflective house numbers near rural driveways.

Many of those signs have lost their reflective qualities or were knocked down and not replaced. Nicholas said at least 660 signs were missing or unreadable during a 2009 survey.

Nicholas initially suggested new residences getting an address in the unincorporated areas should get the first sign at no charge, while those replacing the signs would buy them from the county. That would apply to homes on private rural roads which also would need to comply with the ordinance.

But most supervisors said the cost should be borne by the property owners in all cases.

A revised version of the ordinance is expected to be discussed at a future Board of Supervisors work session.
WATERLOO  U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-4th District, and his primary challenger, state Sen. Rick Bertrand, R-Sioux City, see eye to eye on most policy issues facing the districts 39 counties.

Both are staunch conservatives who strongly support agriculture and free trade.

For King, a seven-term incumbent, that makes Bertrands bid to unseat him seem quixotic. But Bertrand says theres more to representing the 4th District  which includes Grundy, Butler, Chickasaw and Floyd counties  than policies.

Im not going out there to be a celebrity politician. Youre not going to see me on CNN and MSNBC, and youre not going to see me standing on the border every three months. Thats just not what Im going out there to do, Bertrand said.

As one member of 435, he added, Im going out there as a conservative, to be likeable and to be effective, and I think for the first time in 14 years Im going to give the people of the 4th District, Republicans of the 4th District, a choice.

While Bertrand stresses an Iowa first economic agenda, King sees his role as engaging with the world  both on trade and foreign policy.

Weve got a whole world to worry about. This is the United States Congress after all, and if you go there and say, Im only going to do the things that affect my congressional district, then youll wait a long time to get something  unless youre going to name a post office, King said during a recent stop at The Courier.

The primary election will be June 7, and early voting is already underway.

Bertrand said he had supported King, but has seen him grow less effective. He believes it is a trait common to lawmakers who serve longer than 10 years.

King, however, noted just one third of Republicans in the House predate the GOP wave election of 2010.

The institutional memory disappears every time ... somebody goes home early, King said.

King said Bertrands contention is an insult to long-time lawmakers like U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Grassley and his grandson, state Rep. Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, both have endorsed King in the primary.

Pat Grassley praises King as someone who says the same thing in the district as he does in Washington, D.C.

But Bertrand sees a difference between King and Iowas senior senator.

The difference between Chuck Grassley and Steve King is Chuck Grassley is relevant, Bertrand said. Chuck Grassley is a chairman of a committee, the Judiciary Committee.

He said King has not ascended to leadership.

King isnt quick to list his accomplishments, saying my mother and my faith taught me about humility. But he said he has been effective defending the renewable fuel standard, promoting Iowa commodities abroad, boosting free trade and working to improve legislation through amendments.

Bertrand points to successes in the Legislature despite serving in the minority throughout his tenure. He noted his support for the gas tax to improve U.S. Highway 20, commercial property tax reduction and eliminating the income tax on veterans benefits.

King said the charge hes ineffective is bunk.

But Bertrand is confident his efforts are getting noticed.

People right now, I think theyre just tired of long-term incumbents, and I think Im just going to give them an option, Bertrand said.
WASHINGTON, D.C.  Veterans from Northeast Iowa marked Memorial Day a bit early this year, reliving their own experiences and thinking about friends and family now gone.

Ninety-six men and women participated in the 15th Honor Flight out of Waterloo on May 24 organized by Sullivan Hartogh Davis American Legion Post 730, flying to and from the nations capital in one day.

Edwin Bud Hanson, 75, of Waterloo was among those considering their long journeys so far. He served from 1961-65 in the Navy and was aboard the USS Princeton, a Marine helicopter carrier.

His father, Leroy E. Hanson of Independence, a sergeant in the Army, was killed Aug. 11, 1950, in Korea, according to government records. Bud Hanson believes his father was the first Buchanan County soldier to die in that conflict.

Bud Hanson was 9 years old.

On the Honor Flight, he noticed what he called a different perspective as he toured the memorials.

It just feels different. Youre with a group of guys that have been through the same thing, Hanson said.

Veteran William Fitzpatrick, 74, of Waterloo shared similar thoughts. He was with the Marines from 1959-63 and spent time in Japan, the Philippines, Laos and Hong Kong.

Fitzpatrick had been a fire team leader, and all of his previous flights were on military aircraft. He still has a few close Marine buddies.

Youre like a family, perhaps closer than a family. You depend on each other, he said. Whether its bad times, good times, youre like brothers.

Fitzpatrick remembers some faces from those days. He was glad to serve when he did.

I didnt have it that bad. I was very lucky, Fitzpatrick said. If I had re-upped it would have been different.

David Susong Jr., also a Marine veteran, was at Fitzpatricks side on the Honor Flight as his guardian. Susong had never been to the Vietnam War Memorial but had a personal reason for visiting.

Bob Deyo Jr., Susongs brother-in-law, was killed in 1967 in Vietnam. Deyo was a member of the Waterloo West High School class of 1965.

Mary Davis , 91, of Waterloo, passed out a few photos. The images look like trading cards, and she keeps them close.

Always, her son, Bob Davis, 51, of Evansdale, said.

The cards show a young man in Marine green. David L. Davis, Marys son, graduated in 1968 and was killed in Vietnam in 1969.

He was only over there a week and two days, Mary said.

Mary Davis wore the Honor Flights royal blue shirt, which ordinarily goes to veterans. She represented all the military people from Black Hawk County who did not return from Vietnam.

Bob Davis expected his mothers second visit to The Wall might prove difficult.

Im sure it will be emotional with all the memories flooding back for her. I cant imagine losing a child, he said.

Veteran Michael Roethler was with David Davis, a friend from Waterloo West High School, on his final night before Davis shipped out overseas. Roethler himself was in boot camp on his way to becoming a Marine when he found out David Davis had been killed.

Roethler had never been to the Vietnam War Memorial but had previously seen a smaller replica that tours the country. He described the so-called traveling wall as an intensely emotional experience.

I broke down and cried, Roethler said.

He also remembers how the Vietnam veterans were received.

They didnt treat the Vietnam vets well when they came back. The climate was different back then, Roethler said.

Gary Kaune, 71, of Waterloo marveled during the Honor Flight about the change he sees in the nations attitude toward Vietnam veterans. He became a drill instructor in the Army and served from 1966-68, mostly at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.

If I holler, Jump!, they better be in the air, Kaune said.

Ive mellowed, he added with a subtle grin.

May 24 at Baltimore Washington International Airport, officials arranged a salute with firefighting equipment. The machines formed arches of spray, dousing the charter jet.

Kaune remembers a different reception for military men and women.

It was a different time. This today is wonderful. Instead of spit, we got water over the airplane, he said.

Its just a reversal of when I went in. There wasnt much appreciation. Now there is, Kaune added.

The number of volunteers and donors required to get each group of veterans off the ground was humbling for Kaune.

Im honored, thats the best way to say it, he said.

Ronald Bowers, 77, of Waterloo grew up in a tough family situation and hard economic times in West Virginia. He fudged on his birth date in order to join the Navy and then served from 1955-59.

I always felt like I wanted to make something of myself, Bowers said.

He spent about 2 1/2 years overseas. Most of his time was on the USS Grand Canyon, a destroyer tender.

Im glad I got to serve my country, very much, he said.

Bowers had been to D.C. previously. Still, the Honor Flight represented something significant.

Ive seen a lot of this before. But it meant a lot more to me to see it with these guys, Bowers said.

A granddaughter, Alyssa Bowers, 23, of Waterloo, apparently sees some of the same qualities. She sent Ronald Bowers a message.

Thank you for serving our country and continuing to help others, Alyssa wrote. You are my hero, Gramps.
For those of us with a certain political bent, this is the most depressing moment of all. The best of the GOP  Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, the intellectually serious reformicons who have called attention to issues of poverty and the need for Republican outreach  are bending their knee to the worst nominee in their partys history. Ryan drags himself slowly. Rubio eventually went with a quick Band-Aid pull. But the largest political choice each man has made this year will be one of the worst mistakes of their careers.

How do I know this? It doesnt require fortune-telling. The same week Rubio offered to speak on Trumps behalf at the Republican convention, the presumptive nominee declared the 1993 suicide of Vince Foster to be very fishy, especially given Fosters intimate knowledge of what was going on with the Clintons. And Trump attacked the Republican governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, for allowing Syrian refugees to be relocated in large numbers to her state. If I was governor, he said, that wouldnt be happening.

This is Trump on his best behavior, trying (once again) to act presidential. A previous column I wrote  examining Trumps penchant for conspiracy thinking on issues from vaccination to the death of Antonin Scalia  appeared on the same day Trump implicated Hillary Clinton in Fosters death. One challenge of detailing Trumps lunacy is the need for hourly updates. His allegation in the Foster case involved the exploitation of a personal tragedy, amounting to the mockery of a familys loss. It revealed a wide streak of cruelty.

The attack on Martinez demonstrated another less-than-desirable leadership quality. Trumps charge against her had nothing to do with refugee policy. During her time as governor, just 10 Syrian refugees have been relocated to New Mexico. Trump was attempting to punish Martinez because she has been noncommittal about endorsing him. In making judgments about people, Trumps primary measure is not ideological or even political. He likes people who support him and disdains people who dont.

And this meanness of spirit is also applied to some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Trumps mention of refugees was a subterfuge, but still a damaging one. To score his political point, Trump chose to heap disdain on a few people  vetted for years before arrival  who seek the protection of America after a terrible ordeal. Can you imagine, say, Ronald Reagan attacking women and children fleeing violence and oppression? They would more likely be used as an inspiring speech illustration. For Trump, the bully, a trickle of refugees is another chance to kick the weak.

Republicans are testing out a theory. What Trump is doing, argues Peter Wehner of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is exactly what Rush Limbaugh and others have been begging Republican presidential candidates to do  to run a brutal, scorched-earth, anything-goes campaign. They now have their man. So, is the nation longing for more invective, more viciousness, more accusations of scandal and conspiracy? A strong plurality of voters in Republican primaries seemed to agree. We will now see how the national electorate responds. As a starting move, Trump has accused Bill Clinton of rape and intimated the Clintons are guilty of murder. It is hard to imagine going lower from here, but Trump will surely manage.

Some Republicans keep expecting Trump to finally remove the mask of misogyny, prejudice and cruelty and act in a more presidential manner. But it is not a mask. It is his true face. Good Republican leaders making the decision to support Trump will end up either humiliated by the association or betrayed and attacked for criticizing the great leader. Trump leaves no other options.

Here is the problem in sum: Republicans have not been given the option of choosing the lesser of two evils. The GOP has selected someone who is unfit to be president, lacking the temperament, stability, judgment and compassion to occupy the office. This is a terrible error, which has probably cost conservatives a majority on the Supreme Court. But the mistake was made by Republican primary voters in choosing Trump  not by those who cant, in good conscience, support him.
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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

Coral Casino: 25% Cash Back on Deposits  Claim Now

Ladbrokes Casino: 35% Cash Back on First 3 Deposits  Claim Now

Paddy Power Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200  Claim Now

William Hill Casino: 100% Match Bonus up to 200  Claim Now

If youre interested in trying out an online casino but arent quite ready to commit to one, why not try out one of the many no deposit casinos weve reviewed? You can test drive various casinos completely risk-free, so you can feel confident about your choice before you make a single penny deposit.
Canl Bahis siteleri sektoru son derece onu ack ve farkl ozelliklere sahip bir sektordur. Elbette bahis secenekleri arasnda yuksek kazanc getiren alan kuskusuz canl bahistir. Peki, canl bahis nedir?

Canl Bahis Nedir?

Canl bahis adndan da anlaslacag gibi devam eden musabakaya bahis yapmaktr. Bu bahis musabaka devam ederken de yaplabilir olmasdr. Basta futbol olmak uzere voleybol, tenis, hentbol, basketbol, buz hokeyi ve masa tenisi gibi spor organizasyonlarna canl bahisler yaplabilmektedir. Canl bahis siteleri bu oyunlarn hepsine yuksek oranlara bahis yapmanza imkan tanr. En fazla tercih edilen futbol canl bahisleri diger alanlara gore daha fazla on plandadr. Siteden siteye degisen sartlar ve uygulama esaslar soz konusu olsa da kurallar sabittir.

Canl bahisi populer klan ve heyecan katan en onemli ozellikle musabakann basladg ana dek bahis yapabilmedir. Canl bahis icerisinde yer alan secenekler kazanma sansnz da dogrudan arttrmaktadr. Ilk korneri kim kullanr, ilk tac, gol, sar kart, krmz kart gibi futbol musabakas icerisinde olabilecek hemen hemen her seye bahis yaplabilmektedir. Normal bahisegore de son derece yuksek oranda olmas avantajl yonlerini ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim dogru secenek ksa surede kazancl ckmanza etki edecektir.

Strateji ve dogru analizle 90 dakika gibi bir surede anaparanzkatlayabilirsiniz. Tabi bunu basarabilmek icin mutlaka musabakaya dair ayrntlar iyi degerlendirmek gerekir. Soz konusu musabakann detaylarn inceleyip, cezal, sakat oyuncu veya performans dusen takm oyunu gibi detaylar bilmek canl bahiste kazanc belirleyen onemli unsurdur. Guvenilir Canl bahis hem heyecanl zaman gecirmeyi hem de musabakalar takip ederken para kazanmay saglamaktadr.

Canl Bahis Nasl Oynanr?

Bahislerinizi guvenilir sitelerden gerceklestirdiginiz zaman herhangi bir sekilde para cekme de sorun yasamazsnz. Guvenilir bahis siteleri tespit edip sonrasnda da uyelik islemlerini tamamlamanz gerekmektedir. Belirlenen uyelik sartlarn yerine getirip hesabnza da paray aktardktan sonra bahis islemlerini sorunsuz yapabilirsiniz. Peki, canl bahis nasl oynanr?

Oncelikle bahis konusunda mutlaka dogru site arastrmas yapmalsnz. Yapacagnz arastrma neticesinde buldugunuz site uzerinden canl bahisislemlerini gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Bunun icin uye olup, hesaba para atp, canl bahis bolumune girmelisiniz. Sonrasnda dahil olmak istediginiz musabakann saatini ogrenip, gerekli analizleri yapmalsnz. Tahminlerinizi belirledikten sonra karsnza ckacak olan bahis sayfasndan istediginiz hamleyi yapmalsnz. Bahis tutarn belirledikten sonra musabaka baslayacaktr.

Canl bahis diger normal bahis esaslarna gore farkllklar icermektedir. Bunlardan en onemlisi musabakann gidisatna gore islem yapabilir olmaktr.Ayrca musabakann 2. Yarsna gore hamle yapp ayr bir bahisin soz konusu olmas da ciddi avantajdr. Dogru hamle ile sizde istediginiz bahisi yapp kazanc elde edebilirsiniz. Nitekim canl olarak yapacagnz bahis icin mac oncesi raporlara gore hareket etmek onemlidir. Cunku takmlarn durumlarn analiz etmek tahmin gucunu arttracaktr. Misal tamnn en iyi oyuncusu sakat ya da kart cezals ise takmn performansnda dusus yasanacaktr. Buna ek olarak takmn deplasman performans ile evinde ki performans ayr olacaktr. Burada da takmn musabakay nerede yaptgna bakmak gerekir. Bu ayrntlar da iyice analiz ettikten sonra bahsinizi yapp kazanmann keyfini yasayabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri

Son derece yuksek getiriye sahip bahis sektoru uzun zamandr faaliyet gostermektedir. Cok ciddi rakamlarn soz konusu oldugu bu sektor zamanla sanal ortamlara donusmustur. Elbette guvenli ve bir o kadar da avantajl olan bu siteler cok yonlu frsatlar sunmaktadrlar. Canl iddaa siteleri gerek yeni uyelere gerekse de hali hazrdaki uyelerine bolca bonus frsatlar vermektedir. Yatracagnz tutara gore belirlenen bonuslar site icerisinde rahat hareket etmenizi de saglayacaktr.

Canl bahis sitelerini kullanmadan once mutlaka guvenli olup olmadgna goz atmalsnz. Zira baz kullanclar guvenli olmayan sitelerden yaptklar islemlerden dolay magdur olmaktadrlar. Nitekim guvenli ve sorunsuz hizmet sunan yurt ds site tercih etmek en dogru secenektir. Sektorde uzun yllar faaliyet gosteren siteleri tercih edebilirsiniz. Bu alanda yer alan yabanc siteler musteri memnuniyetine onem vermektedir. Oncelik site kullanclarn sorunsuz sekilde bahislerini yapabilir olmasn saglamaktr. Bahis sitelerinde amac hem daha fazla kullancya hizmet vermek hem de sektorde emin admlarla ilerlemek onceliklidir. Dogru site tercihi ile sizde canl bahislerinizi sorun yasamadan gerceklestirebilirsiniz. Sizler icin hazrlams oldugumuz canl bahis siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Mobilbahis Tempobet Bets10 Bahigo 1xbahis Betboo Youwin Superbahis

Sralams oldugumuz bu siteler sektorde basarl islere imza atms sitelerdedir. Canl bahis konusunda beklentileri karslayacak olan bu siteler sizlere kolaylk sunmaktadrlar. Bol bonuslu secenekle de sizlere farkl bahis yonlerini sunacaklardr. Sistemsel etki icerisinde her zaman etkin sonuc alabilmek icin surekli olarak faaliyet icerisindedirler.

Canl Bahis Taktikleri

Bahis sektorunun en fazla dikkat edilmesi gereken hususu dogru taktik ve dogru tahmindir. Elbette dogru tahmini yapabilmek icin analizi cok iyi yapmak gerekir. Canl bahis taktikleri arasnda ilk sra analiz gelmektedir. Analiz yapamadgnz zaman basarl tahminlerde bulunmanz pek de mumkun degildir. Cunku bahiste onemli olan konu musabakann analizini cok iyi yaplmas gerektigidir. Canl bahisin ozelliklerini iyi bilmek ve nasl bir hamle yapacagnz bilmek gerekir. Ozellikle riskli maclarda yaplacak degerlendirmeler cok daha onemlidir.

Canl bahis yapacaklarn takip edecegi degerler takmlarn durumlar ile alakal olmaldr. Performans uzerine kurulu bahis sisteminde takm degerlendirmesine iyi bakmak gerekir. Iki takmn son 5 macta nasl bir sonuc ortaya koyduguna bakarak hareket etmek onemlidir. Ayrca hangi takm evinde daha iyi performans sergiliyor diye de ayrca bakmak gerekir.

Analizlerle alakal puan durumlarna da goz atmak cok onemlidir. Puan degerlendirmesinde oncelikle takmlarn ihtiyaclar ile dogru orantl hareket etmek gerekir. Cunku olusturulan performans takmn da durumunu ortaya koymaktadr. Nitekim istenilen sonucu elde edebilmek icin tum ayrntlar bilmek gerekir. Takm ici duzenden tutunda da takmn son durumuna kadar her ayrnt onemlidir. Iki takmn birbirleri arasnda ki sonuclar da incelemek gerekir. Burada dikkat edilecek detaylarn basnda maclarda kac gol oldugu ve gollerin hangi dakikalarda atldgdr. Cekismeli gecen musabakalarda bazen goller ilk yarda daha fazla olurken baz maclarda da ikinci yarda daha cok gol olmustur. Iki takm arasnda ki maclarda gollerin cogunlugu ilk yarda geliyorsa buna gore bahis yapabilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Bonuslar ve Kampanyalar

Bahis yapanlar veya yapmay dusununler sitelerin sunmus olduklar frsatlar merak etmektedirler. Cunku siteler daha fazla kullancya erismek icin her donem kampanyalar duzenleyerek kullanc odakl hamleler yapmaktadrlar. Canl bahis bonuslar ve kampanyalar oldukca populer olup, siteler bu konuda adeta birbirleri ile yarsmaktadrlar. Birbirinden farkl ozelliklere sahip olan kampanyalar size frsatlar sunmaktadr. Daha cok kazanma ihtimalinizi arttran bu bonuslar daha cesur olmanza da dogrudan etki edecektir. Nitekim bonuslar sitelerin cekiciligini ve avantajlarn arttrmaktadr. En cok kazandran canl bahis siteleri bedava bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin http://www.milano2018.com/canli-bahis-siteleri-2022/ linkinden yardm alabilirsiniz.

Hos geldin bonusu ile baslayan ve sonrasnda para yatrdkca bonus veren cok sayda site bulunmaktadr. Canl bahis bonusu veren siteler yeni uyelere sunduklar frsatlar farkl kampanyalarla mevcut uyelerine de sunmaktadrlar. Hali hazrda siteyi kullananlarn da bonus frsatlarndan yararlanmalar icin donemsel kampanyalar olusturmaktadrlar. Boylece baska sitelere gidisler olmayacag gibi site de daha keyifli zaman gecirmek mumkun klnmaktadr. Bu tur eklentiler yapan sitelerde musteri memnuniyeti daha fazladr.

Bahis siteleri ozellik ve uygulama bakmndan farkllklar bunyelerinde bulundurmaktadrlar. Verilen bonuslarn olusturulmas ve kullanclar aktarlmasnda yatrlan para miktarlar belirleyici olmaktadr. 1.000 TL yatran bir kullanc yuzde 20 bonus frsat olan bir kampanyadan 200 TL bonus kazanabilmektedir. Yatracag tutar 10.000 TL oldugunda bu bonustutar 2.000 TL olabilmektedir. Gerceklesen ve uygulanan esaslar tamamen donemsel olarak yaplan kampanyalarla alakaldr. Iyi Canl bahis siteleri bonuslar ve kampanyalar icin sitelerin vermis oldugu oranlar takip edebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Yatrma

Online Canl bahis yapacaklarn merak ettigi konulardan bir digeri de para yatrma islemleridir. Oldukca onemli olan bu konuda hata yapmamak cok onemlidir. Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemi sanlann aksine son derece basittir. Oldukca basit ve uygulama esas dogru etki olusturan bu yapda sizde islemi rahatca tamamlayabilirsiniz. Para yatrma konusunda su yolu izleyebilirsiniz.

Guvendiginiz ve herhangi bir sekilde aklnzda soru isareti kalmayan bahis sitesine uye olmanz gerekmektedir. Uyelik islemini sorunsuz sekilde tamamladktan sonra para yatrma islemine gecebilirsiniz.

Kullanacagnz siteye uye olduktan sonra karsnza kullanc ad ve sifresini gireceginiz yer gelecektir. Buraya giris yaptktan sonra site icerisine islemlere devam edebilirsiniz.

Sitede yer alan para yatrma sekmesine tklayp sonrasnda karsnza gelen sayfay inceleyebilirsiniz. Para yatrma bolumunde yer alan ksma ne kadar para yatracagnz yazp devam tusuna basmalsnz.

Yatrmak istediginiz tutar girip sonrasnda da devam tusuna bastktan sonra karsnza kart bilgilerinizi gireceginiz sayfa gelecektir. Kredi kart kullanarak para gondermek isteyenlerin tercih ettigi bu sayfa tum bilgiler girilip islem onaylanmaldr.

Canl bahis sitelerine para yatrma islemini gerceklestirmek icin hesaba havale secenegini de kullanabilirsiniz. Site icerisinde musteri hizmetleri ile iletisime gecerek banka hesap numaralarn ogrenebilirsiniz. Belirtilen IBAN numarasna istediginiz tutar havale edebilirsiniz. Havale ederken acklama ksmna yazlacak bilgilere dikkat etmelisiniz.

Kredi kart veya banka havalesi ile gerceklesen para yatrma islemi sonucunda site hesabnzdan bakiyenize bakabilirsiniz. Bakiyenize gore dilediginiz sekilde bahislerinizi gerceklestirebilirsiniz.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Para Cekme

Canl bahiste dogru hamleler ve dogru tahminler sonucunda kazandgnz bedeli geri almak isteyebilirsiniz. Kazanclarnz istediginiz banka hesabnza cekebilmek icin uymanz gereken kurallar soz konusudur. Oncelikle bahis sitelerinden para cekebilmeniz icin uye olurken dogru bilgi paylasmnda bulunmanz gerektigidir. Cunku canl bahis sitelerinden para cekme islemi icin kullanc hesab ile talep edilen banka hesap bilgilerinin ortusmesi gerekir. Yani uye olurken verilen bilgi ile banka hesab kime ait ise o bilgiler ayn olmaldr. Bu uygulama sitenin hem kullancsn hem de kendisini guvene alma politikasdr. Ayrca frsatclarn onune gecerek yeni bir uye olusumunun da onune gecmek amac gutmektedir. Uye olan kisi farkl para cekilme talebi verilen hesap farkl oldugunda para cekme islemi gerceklesmeyecektir.

Bahisleriniz sonucunda kazanc elde edebilir ve bu kazancnz da hakknz olarak almak isteyebilirsiniz. Burada son derece basit uygulama soz konusu olurken siteler aras farkl gorunumler soz konusu olabilir. Fakat yine de tum sitelerde uyenin site icerisinde para cekme bolumune girmesi yeterlidir. Burada cekilecek olan tutarn belirlenmesi ve hesap numarasnn girilmesi ile birlikte islem onay gerekecektir. Para cekme taleplerinde sizden gerekli bilgiler istenmekte ve havale islemi istenilen bilgiler esliginde yurutulmektedir. Dogru bilgi paylasmak sorunsuz para cekebilmeniz en onemli kuraldr. Istenilen bilgiler girildikten sonra site sorumlular gerekli kontrolleri yapp herhangi bir sorun yoksa ksa surede hesabnza gerekli paray aktaracaklardr.

Canl Bahis Sitelerinden Para Cekmek Icin Istenen Belgeler

Bahis sitelerine uye olduktan sonra baz kullanclar para cekme taleplerinin karslanmadg konusunda sikayetlerde bulunmuslardr. Bu sikayetlersektorde uzun zamandr bulunan guvenilir bahis siteleri de yer almaktadr. Fakat sikayetlerin dayanaklarna bakldgnda ise islerin tamamen farkl oldugu gorulmektedir. Yasanan bu durum kullanclarn hatal bilgi girmesi ve uyelik bilgileri ile banka bilgilerinin uyusmamas ile dogru orantldr. Birde canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler eksik ya da hatal olarak sunulmus olabilir. Ortaya ckan karsklar neticesinde para cekme talebinde bulunan kisi istedigini alamadg icin sikayetci olmaktadr. Oysa ki istenilen bilgiler dogru ve istenilen evraklar eksiksiz sunulsa para cekme islemi sorunsuz olacak.

Sitelerin para cekme konusunda dikkatli hareket etmesi hilelerin ve illegal faaliyetlerin onune gecmek adnadr. Cunku baz kullanclar farkl bilgiler vererek ikinci hesap acabilmektedirler. Bazen de bilincsizce hatal bilgi girilebilmektedir. Hatal islemlerin cozumu konusunda islem yaptgnz sitenin musteri temsilcileri ile gorusebilirsiniz. Talepleriniz dogrultusunda para cekme islemlerinde ki sorunlar giderilecektir. Canl bahis para cekmek icin istenen belgeler listesi su sekildedir;

Kullanc bilgileri ile banka bilgilerini karslastrmak icin kimlik fotokopisi

Banka hesap bilgileri

Ikametgah ve kisiye ait herhangi bir fatura.

Kacak Iddaa

Turkiyede dogrudan bahis yapmak icin resmi kanallar kullanlabilmektedir. Fakat tercih edilen ve oran olarak cok daha fazla frsatlar sunan kacar iddaasiteleri bulunmaktadr. Bu siteler kanunlara aykr sekilde yaplmakta olup, yasal bir dayanag yoktur. Elbette bu sitelerin kurulus merkezi Turkiye olmayp, ds ulkelerdedir ve faaliyetler belirlenen siteler uzerinden yaplmaktadr. Kacak Iddaa oldukca riskli olup, cok dikkatli olunmas gerekir.

Kacak Bahis

Kanunlar cercevesinde istediginiz gibi bahis yapamayabilirsiniz. Bahis yapabilmek icin ya kanuni olarak sorun olmayan ulke dsnda ki kumarhanelere gitmeniz veya kacak bahis sitelerinden islem yapabilirsiniz. Zira bu durum tehlikeli olsa da cok sayda site guvenli sekilde bu alanda hizmet vermektedir. Kacak bahiste oldukca fazla secenek bulunurken yuksek oranda kazanc sunuyor olmas da ragbeti arttryor.

Illegal Bahis

Bahisin bircok alanda yasak oldugu Turkiyede bu alanda cok sayda yabanc merkezli siteler hizmet vermektedir. Illegal bahis sektorunde faaliyet gosteren siteler guvenli hizmet anlays ile kullanclarna frsatlar sunmaktadr. Yurt ds merkezli bu siteler sorunsuz sekilde hizmetlerini surdururken bulunduklar ulkelerde kanunlara uygun sekildedir. Elbette faaliyet noktasnda bulunduklar ulkelerde sorun teskil etmese de Turkiyede faaliyet gostermeleri kanunin yasaklanmstr.

Yasads Bahis

Gerek olusturulan etkenler gerekse de ortaya konulan riskler yasads bahis de oldukca tehlikelidir. Kanunlarn mudahil olduklar bu alanlar da hem kullanclar hem de populer bahis yaptranlar tum riskleri goze almaktadrlar. Fakat yasaklardan uzak sekilde guvenli hizmet sunan siteler de bulunmaktadr. Takipler neticesinde kapatlan sitelerin muhakkak alternatifleri kurularak yollarna devam etmektedirler.

Canl Iddaa Siteleri Nelerdir?

Dunya genelinde kabul gormus cok sayda guvenli hizmet veren populer bahis siteleri bulunmaktadr. Elbette bu siteler dunyann bircok ulkesinde faaliyet gosterse de Turkiyede yasaktr. Sektorde yer alan cok sayda legal iddaa siteleri bulunmaktadr. Herhangi bir kanunsuzlugun olmadg bu sitelerden hzl ve guvenli islem yaplabilmektedir. Tabi bu sitelerde uygulanan oranlar yasal olmayan sitelere gore daha dusuktur. Illegal sitelerin tercih edilme sebeplerinin en onemli etkeni de olusturulan oranlardr. Peki, Iddaa siteleri nelerdir? Faaliyetleri ve uygulama esaslar nelerdir?

Turkiyede faaliyet gosteren yasal iddaa siteleri listesi su sekildedir;

Iddaa

Bilyoner

Tuttur

Birebin

Oley

Nesine

Misli

Iddaa

2004 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslayan Iddaa Spor toto tarafndan kurulmus olup, ilk etapta bayilik seklinde calsmaya baslamstr. Elbette zamanla gelisen teknolojiye ayak uydurarak internet uzerinde de populer bahis severlerin hizmetine sunulmustur. Kuruldugu donemde devletin resmi kurumu olarak faaliyet gosterirken gelinen yeni donemde ozellestirilmistir.

Bilyoner

Turkiyede faaliyetine 2006 ylnda baslayan Bilyoner ilk ozel yasal bahis sitesi olma ozelligine sahiptir. Guvenilir bahis siteleri Turkiyede bunlardr. Ksa surede populer olan site halen faaliyetlerini sorunsuz sekilde surdurmektedir.

Tuttur

Ksa surede adndan bahsettirmeyi basaran Tuttur 2009 ylnda faaliyetlere baslamstr. Guvenilir bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almstr. Gunumuze dek bircok alanda populer bahis yapanlara frsatlar sunarken avantajlar ile de begeni toplamstr.

Birebin

Kullanc odakl calsmalar surdurse de 2011 ylnda sektore giren Birebindiger sitelere gore daha az ragbet gormektedir. Bahis oynamak ise bu sitede oldukca kolaydr. Elbette farkl yaklasmlara sahip olmasndan dolay ilerleyen sureclerde adndan sklkla bahsettirecek gibi gorunuyor.

Oley

2009 ylnda Dogus yayn gruplarnn istiraki olarak kurulmus olup yasal olarak herhangi bir sorunu olmayan sitelerdendir. Bahis siteleri arasnda hzl cks yapms bir sitedir. Oley yapms oldugu yenilikler ile kullanclarn da dikkatini ksa surede cekmeyi basarmstr.

Nesine

Birbirini takip eden surecte Nesine de yine 2006 ylnda hizmet vermeye baslamstr. Yasal bahis siteleri arasnda yerini almay basaran firma ksa surede sevilen ve ragbet goren bir site olmustur.

Misli

2009 ylnda sektore cok hzl giris yapan Misli cok sayda reklam filmi ile on plana ckmay basarmstr. Internet uzerinden hem yasal hem de sorunsuz hizmet veren bahis sitelerinden bir tanesi olmustur.

Canl Bahis Siteleri Kayt ve Uyelik Islemleri

Her zaman populerligini koruyan ve surekli gelisim gosteren canl bahis gun gectikce daha da gucleniyor. Bahis oynamak icin ise sitelere uye olunmas gerekir. Yuksek getirisi ve begeni toplayan faaliyetleri ile cok sayda site bu alanda faaliyet gostermektedir. Elbette sorunsuz sekilde uye olmanz ve faaliyetler gostermeniz de oldukca kolaydr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri dakikalar icerisinde gerceklestirilecek yapya sahiptir.

Uye olacagnz siteyi belirledikten sonra siteye girmeniz gerekmektedir. Girdiginiz sitenin ana sayfasnda uye ol ya da kayt ol bolumu bulunacaktr. Siteler arasnda degiskenlik gosteren bu alanda temel unsurlar bulunmaktadr. Elbette farkllklar olsa da temelinde benzer bilgiler uye olmak isteyen kisilerden talep edilmektedir.

Uye ol bolumune tkladktan sonra karsnza uyelik bilgi formu ckacaktr. Bu formda sizin kim oldugunuzu ogrenmek ve sitenin guvenligini saglamak adna islemler yaplmaktadr. Uyelik formunda yer alan ad soyad bolumunu eksiksiz ve dogru sekilde doldurmalsnz. Sizden bu formda istenen bilgilerin tamamn girmeniz istenecektir. Istenen bilgiler mutlaka dogru ve eksiksiz sekilde olmaldr. Eksik veya hatal bilgi uyelik islemlerinde sorun teskil edebilir. Yine de yanls bilgi girisine ragmen uyelik islemleri tamamlanabilir. Fakat boyle bir yol izleyenler sonrasnda buyuk skntlarla karslasabilirler. Bu skntlarn basnda da para cekme islemlerinde yasanan sorunlardr.

Uyelik islemleri dikkatli ve ozenle doldurulmas gereken yapdadr. Canl bahis siteleri kayt ve uyelik islemleri gerceklestirilirken verilen bilgiler site yonetimi tarafndan muhafaza edilmektedir. Herhangi bir sekilde 3. Sahslarla paylaslmas gibi bir durum soz konusu degildir. Bu faaliyetleri surduren sitelerin guven unsurlar arasnda bu nokta onceliklidir.

Bahis sitelerine uye olurken hatal bilgi paylasmnda bulunmak size faydadan cok zarar verecektir. Diyelim ki bilgileri hatal girdiniz ve uyelik onayland. Uyelik tamamlandktan sonra siteye para yatrdnz ve kazanc elde ettiniz. Kazancnz sonrasnda hesabnza almak istediginizde karsnza banka bilgileri bolumu gelecektir. Para cekme talebi gerceklestikten sonra site uyelik bilgileri ile banka hesap bilgileri ortusmez ise paranz alamazsnz. Boyle bir durumla karslasmamak adna bu hususa ayrca dikkat etmelisiniz.
Jun 1, 2016 | By Tess

The late Zaha Hadid has been recognized as perhaps one of the greatest female architects of our time, if not one of the greatest architects of our time in general. The Iraqi architects work broke down barriers within architectural design as she consistently created fluid, and fragmentary geometric designs. While Hadid, who passed away on March 31st, 2016, was known best for her innovative building designs, the world renowned architect also created a number of stunning pieces of furniture, and even dabbled with 3D printing technologies.

In celebration of the accomplished architects life and work, a retrospective of Zaha Hadid has been launched at the 15th Architecture Biennale in Venice, which opened May 28th, 2016 and runs until November 27th, 2016. The retrospective, which is set up through a 10 room exhibition at Venices stunning 16th century Palazzo Franchetti, memorializes Hadids life and work through a collection of the architects drawings, paintings, architectural models, and some of her design works themselves, including a stunning 3D printed Chair made in collaboration with Patrik Schumacher, director of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), and 3D printing company Stratasys.

The Chair, which was first printed in 2014 using Stratasys large-scale Objet1000 Multi-material 3D Printer, has been displayed and featured at a number of museums and exhibitions around the world. In fact, the chair itself was designed by Hadid and Schumacher specifically for the purpose of exploring the potentials of multi-color and multi-material additive manufacturing technologies.

The chairs design is also ergonomically innovative, as Hadids architecture firm measured the loading condition of a seated person to create the chairs structure. With 3D design and printing, the architects were also able to optimize the chairs structure by playing with different material densities and depth, making for a both visually appealing and structurally complex design. With Stratasys multi-color 3D printing capabilities as well, ZHAs 3D printed Chair was made in a number of different patterns and colors, each representing in some way the structure and inner design of the chair.

Naomi Kaempfer, Creative Director for Art Fashion Design at Stratasys, said: The Zaha Hadid retrospective in Venice provides an opportunity for us all to pay tribute to the iconic, award-winning architect. Zaha Hadid is undoubtedly the greatest female architect of our time. We are honored to have collaborated with her and her team of extraordinary architects. Together with her partner, Patrick Schumacher, Zaha pioneered a revolution in the world of architecture and design. She defined parametricism and created a unique signature style that engages and inspires creativity around the world.

The retrospective for Zaha Hadid is also looking forwards, to the future of her firm and to the legacy she will undoubtedly leave on the fields of both architecture, interior, and 3D printed design by featuring a number of ongoing projects that the firm is undertaking.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jun 2, 2016 | By Alec

Design competitions are always a fantastic opportunity to find the most innovative concepts around and the Luxexcel Innovative Application Awards, of Dutch optics 3D printing specialists Luxexcel, proved no different. Industrial design student Leroy Huikeshoven was among the competitions winners for his Vasu malaria test, a 3D printed smartphone case which uses microfluidic principles and an app to diagnose malaria in the blood of patients.

Vasu means bright in Hindi, and is more necessary than ever before in India. There, its getting harder and harder to fight off malaria as it is becoming resistant to commonly used drugs, in part due to improper use. Whats more, diagnosis methods are old-fashioned, and can take days to provide results. Some pocket-sized tests are used, but they are unable to signify what parasite species have caused the disease. Due to practical obstacles, little is done to solve these problems, even though some studies suggest that every Rupee invested in malaria control pays economic dividends of nearly 20 Rupees.

The Vasu is supposed to be the answer to all of those problems, and was designed with India in mind. The first prototype has been made to fit on a Huawei Ascend P6 smartphone, and combines microfluidics principles with 3D printing. Cheap to make and easy to use, Huikeshoven revealed that this clever system can quickly quantify the amount of malaria parasites in a patient and immediately facilitate accurate treatment.

So how does it work? The Vasu is capable of diagnosing two forms of malaria parasites in patients (Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum), by examining blood samples collected on an especially 3D printed disposable microchip. By harnessing microfluidics principles, the blood is mixed with an antigen and is held by the chip for analysis. The smartphones flashlight is subsequently guided through the blood through an app, which analyses the photo immediately. The doctor is then informed about the exact drug dosage needed to combat the parasites, with the whole process taking minutes.

This makes it a truly revolutionary product; one that would not have been possible without the crossroads of smartphone technology, microfluidics and 3D printing. Smartphones are commonly found throughout developing countries, and their ever-improving megapixel cameras and high-quality lenses have become excellent diagnostics tools. Indeed, the same principle can be easily applied to other blood-based diseases and smartphones, and could revolutionize medical care in remote locations and developing countries.

While the Vasu reached the spotlights of Luxexcel's Innovative Application Student Award 2015, it was actually developed as part of Huikeshoven's final bachelor project. Although he has no background in medical product design, he explained that he found inspiration in a random paper he stumbled upon. This paper described a concept much like Vasu, but still in laboratory state. I made this concept into a real feasible and viable product, iterating upon the concept in the paper. And this is probably what industrial designer mainly are. They make the last big iteration upon concepts and innovations to get them out in the market, to actuality let society benefit from new discoveries and innovations, he said. And of course, like every industrial designer, he wanted to change the world.

But the Vasus huge potential has already fundamentally changed the students ambitions. Micro- and nanofluidics could be the bridge between us and our machines. I believe our laptops and our browsers are still a very poor portal to the digital world and I believe we can incorporate the digital world way better in or lives, he says in an interview. Vasu is but one example of an emerging market of small and cheap point of care devices. The future of Vasu however is less interesting than the potential of microfluidics. Microfluidics is going to be a huge beneficial technology for society.

But none of this would have been possible without Luxexcels Printoptical Technology, as other 3D printing technologies are unsuitable for microfluidic structures. The company has become renowned for this 3D printed optics technology, which creates highly accurate, smooth and transparent products. Based on wide-format industrial inkjet printing equipment, their custom 3D printing system jets (rather than layers) transparent droplets of a UV-curable polymer. These are then cured by strong UV-lamps which are integrated onto the print head.

The fantastic smoothness and transparency of the results makes it a perfect solution for lenses. For the Vasu, the chip and the lenses were 3D printed in Polymethyl methacrylate. The most significant benefit of using Printoptical Technology is to be able to iterate on prototypes and concepts during the development of microfluidic devices for the medical industry. Medical devices must be absolutely save to operate, therefor intensive testing is needed. Being able to make quick and cheap iterations could made a company a heavy weight within the market, Huikeshoven said of the technology, adding that he believes that Luxexcel could become a significant player in the microfluidic device market.

But Huikeshoven isnt done with the Vasu malaria test yet. In the near future, he will continue to develop it into a commercially viable product, for instance, he plans to cut it loose from its dependence on smartphone technology. More groundbreaking microfluidic 3D printing projects might follow afterwards. I would like to see Luxexcel continue to help develop products that contribute to increasing living standards in many fields, such as healthcare, drug detection, crime investigation and the food industry with microfluidic devices and optics, the ambitious student concludes.

Posted in 3D Printing Application

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Jun 2, 2016 | By Tess

3D printing has been an undeniable boon to the visually impaired community. In recent years, it has helped innovators to realize some truly exceptional ideas, such as 3D printed music notation, 3D printed tactile maps, and 3D printed tactile picture books for visually impaired children. Now, a small company from Windsor, Ontario Canada is hoping to expand the possibilities of 3D printing for the blind by developing a 3D printer specifically designed for printing braille onto 3D objects.

Tactile Vision Graphics, Inc., which was founded some years ago by Rebecca and Emmanuel Blaevoet, produces a number of braille products, currently all paper-based, such as childrens books, maps, and instruction booklets. Seeing the potentials of 3D printing, and understanding the importance of tactility for the visually impaired as Rebecca herself has an impairment, the couple set out to bring braille into the realm of 3D. To get their ambitious project off the ground, the Blaevoets have launched an Indiegogo campaign in an effort to raise $15,000 - the cost of developing a 3D printer capable of accurately printing braille onto three dimensional objects.

Of course, Rebecca and Emmanuel are not undertaking the 3D printer development on their own, as they have teamed up with a local 3D printing and design company, Exemor Inc. to help design and build the 3D printer. The crowdfunding campaign, which runs until the end of the month, was initiated after the Blaevoets searched for a 3D printer capable of accurately printing braille and found that nothing on the market suited their exact needs. While it is possible to insert braille into 3D designs through the placement of dots, Rebecca explains how important it is to be standardized, as the spacing, depth, and size of the dots that represent each letter are crucial.

Emmanel and Rebecca Blaevoet

She explains, Even if you do manage to print braille on something, it doesnt mean its going to be complying with that standard. We have to make sure any 3D printer we get is built to our specific specifications so it fits those standards. Emmanuel adds, Three-dimensions are necessary to grasp the concept of depth for a blind person, but when it comes to our specific needs, theres not a single machine that really it the way we want it to be done.

Rebecca and Emmanuel say that they have been approached a number of times by people with visual impairments asking them to create braille objects on hard and more tactile surfaces than paper showing that there is market for it. Having, say, a hard plastic sign or object embedded with braille could allow visually impaired people to install them outside, attach them to walls, and better understand their environments. As Rebecca explains in their crowdfunding video, the technology could also help people with visual impairments to better understand diagrams, which cannot be properly grasped in two dimensions without sight.

Without tactile and braille information, visually impaired people dont have access to the kind of information that you take for granted, explains Rebecca. You (people who arent visually impaired) can look at the shape of a building and be able to identify exactly what that looks like. For a vision impaired person, you can touch the bricks on the side of the wall if you want to, but unless you have a tactile drawing of that building or a 3D model of that building, you have no context of where it is youre walking into when you go in there. Its a difference between 100 per cent of space recognition and no space recognition.

In terms of rewards for the crowdfunding campaign, Tactile Vision Graphics, Inc. is offering a variety of things. For a pledge of $5 you will receive a pack of 30 tactile stickers, for $15 you will receive a braille greeting card and bookmark, for $50 a set of 100 braille business cards, for $150 Rebecca and Emmanuel will review your companys website to see if it is accessible for the visually impaired, for $250 they will design a 2D tactile floor-plan of your office embedded with braille, and for $3000 the couple will fly you out to Windsor, Ontario for a tandem bike tour. As mentioned, the campaign is running until the end of the month, so if you want to support their cause and help in the development of a Braille 3D printer, check out their page here.

Posted in 3D Printer

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Jun 2, 2016 | By Tess

Stratasys, one of the leading manufacturers of 3D printers and 3D printing systems, has recently announced the retirement of David Reis as CEO. Reis, who operated as CEO of the Israel and Minneapolis based company for seven years, oversaw a period of significant growth for the additive manufacturing company, as well as led the merger of Stratasys and Objet in 2012, which placed his company at the fore of 3D printing technologies.

David Reis will be stepping down as CEO effective as of June 30, 2016, but will continue to sit on the Stratasys board of directors as an Executive Director. In a press release put out by the company earlier today, Elan Jaglom, Stratasys Chairman of the Board said, The board of directors is grateful for Davids seven years of service as CEO to Stratasys and Objet. David has shown strong dedication to our customers and employees, while guiding the company through a period of extraordinary growth. He is also responsible for initiating a critical business transformation designed to support our long-term leadership in the prototyping market while expanding into applications for manufacturing. The board looks forward to working with David in his capacity as Executive Director and to the value he will provide in supporting our long-term strategy."

David Reis

Ilan Levin, a current member of the Board and Executive Committee of Stratasys, will replace Reis as CEO as of July 1st, 2016. Levin, who served as a member of the Objet Board since 2000, took up the position of President and Vice Chairman of Objets Board of Directors until the merger with Stratasys in 2012. Jaglom said of the new leadership, Speaking on behalf of the whole Board, we are confident that Ilan's understanding of the company's business and strategy will enable him to build upon Stratasys' market position, foster a smooth transition and successfully advance the company's strategic vision.

Reis, whose legacy will surely continue on in the companys policies and future projects announced, "It has been a privilege to lead Stratasys and its very talented team during a truly transformative period for our company and industry. The time has come to transition leadership, and I am extremely pleased to have a highly-capable successor who has extensive knowledge of all aspects of Stratasys, including our technologies, markets and strategic roadmap. Ilan is an additive manufacturing pioneer, and has been a key figure in our industry for many years. I am confident in his ability to conduct a seamless transition and lead our company into the future.

Levin for his part is grateful and excited to be stepping into the role of Stratasys CEO. I am honored to be taking on the role as CEO and to continue working with the global Stratasys team to advance our companys goals and values, he said.

Stratasys Ltd., which was founded in 1989, has been a solid and dominant force within the 3D printing industry. With a diverse range of products, educational systems, and markets, it has established itself as one of the most reliable 3D printing solutions companies. Most recently, the company impressed the 3D printing world with the release of its J750 3D printer, a machine capable of high-precision multi-color and multi-material prints.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Jonathan D. Ostry, Prakash Loungani, and Davide Furceri over at the IMF (yes, that IMF):

MILTON Friedman in 1982 hailed Chile as an economic miracle. Nearly a decade earlier, Chile had turned to policies that have since been widely emulated across the globe. Th e neoliberal agendaa label used more by critics than by the architects of the policies rests on two main planks. Th e fi rst is increased competitionachieved through deregulation and the opening up of domestic markets, including fi nancial markets, to foreign competition. Th e second is a smaller role for the state, achieved through privatization and limits on the ability of governments to run fi scal defi cits and accumulate debt.

There has been a strong and widespread global trend toward neoliberalism since the 1980s, according to a composite index that measures the extent to which countries introduced competition in various spheres of economic activity to foster economic growth. As shown in the left panel of Chart 1, Chiles push started a decade or so earlier than 1982, with subsequent policy changes bringing it ever closer to the United States. Other countries have also steadily implemented neoliberal policies (see Chart 1, right panel).

There is much to cheer in the neoliberal agenda. The expansion of global trade has rescued millions from abject poverty. Foreign direct investment has often been a way to transfer technology and know-how to developing economies. Privatization of stateowned enterprises has in many instances led to more efficient provision of services and lowered the fiscal burden on governments.

However, there are aspects of the neoliberal agenda that have not delivered as expected.

More here.
Dominic Green at The New Criterion:

The typical Modiano novel begins with a mystery of origins and identity, and proceeds by passivity and vagueness. Sometimes, the story terminates in a tragedy of life foreshortened. Sometimes the track runs full circle, as though life is a series of improvisations, each designed to keep you where you are. Either way, the force of circumstances determines the outcome.

The premise of a Modiano mystery mimics that of a detective novel, but the execution eschews the vulgarity of a traditional detective plot.Voyages des noces, translated into English as Honeymoon (1995), begins with the narrator, Jean B., in a hotel bar.

A woman had committed suicide in one of the hotel rooms two days before, on the eve of the fifteenth of August. The barman was explaining that they had called an ambulance, but in vain. He had seen the woman in the afternoon. She had come into the bar. She was on her own. After the suicide, the police had questioned him. He hadnt been able to give them many details. A brunette.

Instead of solving the crime like Sam Spade, Jean leaves his wife and child, pretends to fly to Rio, and then holes up in Paris. There, he reimagines the movements of a young refugee couple that he had met twenty years earlier, during the German occupation. The mystery turns out to be existential.

more here.
James Campbell at the Times Literary Supplement:

Writing to Richard Aldington in March 1957, Lawrence Durrell relayed the boast of his friend Henry Miller that, at the age of sixty-five, he could still dance for his grandchildren, without straining anything. Like a doe he says  always prone to self-admiration! . . . Hes a most endearing gentle and babyish character  not at all the cannibal he acts when he writes. Durrell assured Aldington that he would enjoy meeting Miller. Everyone has a picture of him as a sort of ghoul from his work; but a gentler, more honourable, considerate and devoted man it would be impossible to find.

Millers most famous books  Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, Tropic of Capricorn  were banned in Britain and America at the time, remaining so until Grove Press risked prosecution by printing Tropic of Cancer in 1961, to be followed by a John Calder edition in the UK two years later. They were none the less widely read, being available legally in Paris, first in the original editions from the Obelisk Press, the creation of the Mancunian Jack Kahane, then from Obelisks post-war offshoot, Olympia Press (overseen by his son, Maurice Girodias), and were obtainable under the counter in English-speaking countries. Their fugitive status in the 1950s and 60s, together with that of other titles The World of Sex, the Rosy Crucifixion trilogy (Sexus, Nexus andPlexus)  conspired to make Miller the hardiest of that alluring mid-century species, the sexual outlaw, perhaps the last of its kind in Western lands.

more here.
Dorian Stuber in Open Letters Monthly:

For three months in the fall of 1943, the Italian writer Primo Levi joined a small band of partisans based in the Piedmontese Alps. More than thirty years later, Levi described the group in characteristically modest terms: We were cold and hungry, we were the most disarmed partisans in the Piedmont, and probably also the most unprepared. Much of their time was spent wheedling supplies from the locals, who were often suspicious of their aims. The rest was spent looking for ammunition. According to Levi, they had nothing but a tommy gun without bullets and a few pistols.

In his fascinating new book, Primo Levis Resistance: Rebels and Collaborators in Occupied Italy, Sergio Luzzatto explains that, however insignificant Levi and his comrades may have seemed to themselves, they had attracted the attention of officials in the Italian Social Republic. Popularly known as the Republic of Salo, after the town in Lombardy where it was headquartered, the Republic had been formed in September 1943 when the Germans reinstalled the deposed Mussolini as head of a satellite state. Italy was split in two: in the south a government supported by King Victor Emmanuel III worked with the Allies, while in the north fascism persisted.

Salo took its orders from Berlin; Luzzatto focuses on how that obedience played out in a small corner of northern Italy. He does so by showing how the actions of individuals made a difference in a time when so many of the larger political entities were in flux. One of those individuals was the zealous Police Prefect for the region of Aosta, Cesare Carnazzi. Carnazzi was eager to arrest two kinds of people: the partisans who were forming the nascent Italian Resistance and Jews who were to be deported to satisfy the demands of the Republics Nazi allies. In the mountains of Piedmont, those people were often the same.

More here.
Gianpaolo Baiocchi in Boston Review:

Two weeks ago, after recording what was perhaps her last official address and signing a net-neutrality addendum to Brazils landmark 2014 Internet civil rights legislation (the Marco Civil da Internet), Dilma Rousseff was temporarily removed from the office of president of Brazil. For a period of up to six months, the Senate will deliberate on whether to remove her permanently from office or reinstate her to finish her term, depending on if she is found guilty of a crime of responsibility for fiscal inconsistencies in the national budget. Meanwhile Vice-President Michel Temer, acting as interim president, has shuffled the countrys ministerial line-up and declared a series of policy reversals, primarily in an effort to restore national and international confidence in the country as a stable and business-friendly environment.

But despite the celebratory mood conveyed by Brazils corporate media, the countrys future is entirely uncertain. Not only is it far from assured that the Senate will vote at the end of the process to permanently suspend Rousseff, or that the Supreme Court will uphold the impeachment. The bigger uncertainty is whether the interim Temer administration will meet the minimum conditions to govern or be accepted as legitimate by a sufficient percentage of the population. For too many Brazilians at every level of the social ladder, the Rousseff impeachment seems transparently political, seeking to remove an unpopular but democratically elected president on thin, procedural grounds under the banner of fighting corruption. An unelected administration composed of several politicians themselves implicated in corruption is now beginning to carry out policies that the Brazilian public would have a hard time accepting at the ballot box. Internationally, the bizarre spectacle of the impeachment joins other recent power grabs by conservative forces in Latin America, notably in Paraguay and Honduras, which have sought to manipulate public institutions to facilitate elite interests.

More here.
If there's one city that tops most travel wish lists these days, its Mexico Citythe capital of our southern neighbor is undeniably on the lips of every tastemaker for its hot-as-fire food scene, among other things. And when one talks of Mexico City, Gabriela Camara's name is sure to come up.

The chef-owner of the city's most sought-after reservation, Contramar, is also its golden child, with endless charm and talent that has wooed the food world's biggest names (she counts Alice Waters and Tartine's Chad Robertson among her fans).

And so, when Camara moved to San Francisco last fall and decided to open her first stateside restaurant, the buzz was deafening, and the anticipation high. CalaSpanish for cove, signaling the menu's celebration of seafooddebuted in Civic Center in September, and the excitement continued just last week with the opening of back alley lunch spot, Tacos Cala. There are very few things that are more comforting than a fresh taco. With fresh tortillas...are you kidding?" she says, with trademark passion.

Camara has a thing for ingredients, as most chefs do, but coming to the region with fresh eyes has given her a perspective and appreciation not yet so jaded by northern California's ridiculous bounty. Making a restaurant is so easy here," she says. Que? It's expensive, but here you can get things you can't find anywhere else. And all the vegetables, every potato has been cared for as if it's a little creature in danger. In Mexico, we've lost so many crops of native things from our area, like tomatoes and potatoes. Here, I've enjoyed the appreciation of rarity, with vegetables, wheat. I've always made an effort to do things with rare ingredients, but here it's really easy because many chefs are into it, and I think it's wonderful," she says effusively.

(Photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez)

What's better, Camara is as refreshing in her attitude towards ingredients as she is about staffing her restaurant, opting to work with programs like Delancey Street, which helps train individuals with a criminal record, to employ 70 percent of her restaurant. It was a move inspired by GM Emma Rosenbush, who met Camara in Mexico City when she was doing pop-up restaurants and previously worked in Berkeley's Prison Law Office. In a city with a notorious staffing crisis, Camara found few obstacles down this path. There's a huge pool of people eager for jobs. They've served their time. Why wouldn't you give them an opportunity?" she says.

Why not, indeed. Cala's menu also touches on a hot-button topicthat of tipping. Service charges are included in the prices (which at first glance do appear high), a bold move that has surprisingly not been an issue. I think people are really sympathetic or want to support us, which is really wonderful. I knew it was a good thing for the city. I think San Francisco has a really fucked-up social differenceall these people who can afford to live here, and all these people who are from here that can't afford it anymore. They're outcasts in their own home. Socially speakingthe better it will be," she explains, her motivation coming from a place beyond just making a buck. I feel purpose in opening this restaurant and giving people work, and using ingredients that other people don't want to use."

Perhaps an outsider's outlook is just what our food industry needs to tackle its most pressing problems. // calarestaurant.com
When Mark Bittman defected to Berkeley last spring for a lecturing gig, the Bay Area food writing community collectively high-fived. It's not often that we lure New York's own to our fairer coast, and Bittmanprolific author, famed New York Times columnist, and brilliant journalistis one of the biggest catches we could net.

So what was the tug? I don't know, lust for life?" jokes Bittman. I've always wanted to live in the Bay Area...It seemed like a great idea, and it worked out." Three days after his arrival for a stint as a visiting Fellow at the Berkeley Food Institute last spring, during which he produced the YouTube series California Matters, Bittman angled to stick around.

He'll spend next spring teaching Opinion Writingsomething this native New Yorker knows a bit aboutat UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. In the meantime, he's soaking up the Berkeley food vibes, hitting up his neighborhood institutions (This sounds so corny coming from a food writer, but my landmarks are Chez Panisse and Monterey Market"), and palling around with other food luminaries like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, whom he notes without of sniff of jest is, the bomb."

(Photo via markbittman.com)

As of this summer, Bittman also took on another very Bay Area rolethat of entrepreneur, having joined vegan meal kit delivery startup The Purple Carrotas partner, cofounder, and chief innovation officer. Bittman adopted veganism in 2007 after facing health concerns, and subsequently created the VB6" (vegan before 6pm) approach and cookbook, which makes the transition from the Times to techfor him at leastan obvious one. If we can get [plant-based] meals into more handsin the hundreds of thousandsthat's a fantastic achievement. We'll be able to support farmers and other suppliers who are producing the kind of food that more people should be exposed to...On a personal level, it's a new growth effort for me. It's not only producing my recipes for a different audience in a different way, but getting involved with a startup. That's completely new and completely exciting," Bittman says.

Beyond recipe development, he'll develop the company's mission statement and policies, standards for sourcing, as well as guiding philosophy. I'm the moral compass, to some extent," he says. What he's most jazzed about is the opportunity to innovate labor relations, packaging, sourcing, and more issues he had previously only theorized about. I want to put some of the stuff I've been talking about into practice. I think we can source responsibly, support sustainable agriculture, and help a number of suppliers thrive. It's not a unique ideaother companies are doing itbut it's important." And while the company is based in Boston, they've recently expanded to the West Coast, so dishes like orecchiette with broccoli rabe, pine nuts, and currants; red paella with roasted green beans, limas, and almonds; and tofu pad Thai inspired by Kin Khao owner Pim Techamuanvivit can be yours this week. // thepurplecarrot.com
Back in April, 7x7 was stoked to launch our first-ever Friendly Guide to Bay Area Cannabisa collection of the industry's brightest innovators, top quality flowers and products, the best dispensaries, most unique experiences and more, all curated by 7x7 editors and some of our favorite cannabis experts. On May 26th, we gathered the local cannabis industry's finest for a fete inside the chic private Lounge at Harvest to celebrate the guide and California's cannabis movement.





Marty Higgins, founder of Harvestthe Geary Boulevard cannabis boutique that's appealing to a modern clientelewas our host for the evening, opening the doors to his stylish back lounge for the occasion. (Currently, the posh hideout is being used for private events, but will open as a members-only club this summer.) Higgins treated our guests to authentic Richmond District dim sum and the Warriors game on the tube.





Flow Kana , our personal choice for organically grown cannabis flowers fresh from the Emerald Triangle, also sponsored the occasion, with cofounders Flavia Cassani and Michael Steinmetz in the house to offer tastes of their sun-grown buds, which are available by delivery Bay Areawide and in select dispensaries (including Harvest).





Other industry VIPs in attendance included drug policy wonk and 7x7 contributor Amanda Reiman; Auntie Dolores founder Julianna Carella; Jamel Ramiro and Liz Rudner of Moonman's Mistress; Dr. Hanya Barth, founder of Compassionate Health Options; and more.





Cannabis Guide Launch Party at Harvest Previous Next Flow Kana Previous Next Justin Glardon + Elise McRoberts 7x7 CANNABIS GUIDE LAUNCH AT HARVEST Previous Next Gaynell Rogers + Natalie Wages Previous Next Harvest Previous Next Brant Hindman, Thomas Balderramos + Kevin Nafte Previous Next Mallory McCarron, Brooke Carpenter, Travis Mathews, Flavia Cassani + Michael Steinmetz Previous Next Flow Kana Previous Next Previous Next Victor Pinho, Andrew Ingrassia + Jimi Devine Previous Next Gaynell Rogers, Jimi Devine, Suzanne Kowalski + Victor Pinho Cannabis Guide Launch Party at Harvest Previous Next Previous Next Previous Next Previous Next Mallory McCarron, Joe Nangle, Krisha Subramanian + Justin Glardon Previous Next Travis Mathews Previous Next Marty Higgins Previous Next Previous Next Ben Aron, Dottie Lulick + Andrew Ingrassia Previous Next Joe Nangle + Krisha Subramanian Previous Next Michael Steinmetz, Victor Pinho + Lauren Watson Previous Next





Many thanks to our sponsors, Harvest and Flow Kana. Don't forget to check out the Friendly Guide to Bay Area Cannabis!


Rediscover their majestic beauty of Northern California's most dramatic falls.

McWay Falls

If you're heading down to Big Sur, be sure to include a stop at one of California's most iconic waterfalls. The trail to access this 80 foot beach waterfall (officially considered a tidefall") is located in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and is a quick -mile hike from the parking area. The views won't disappoint, so be sure to pack your camera. Learn more.

Inside tip: Look for free, and often less crowded parking along the west side of Highway 1. It's an easy walk down to the trail from there.

Alamere Falls

This amazing 40 foot beach waterfall should be at the top of your list. It features a relatively easy 8.4-mile roundtrip hike that includes sweeping coastal views, forests, and a fun swimming hole along the way, so you can't go wrong. The view from the beach looking up at the falls is surreal. It's hard to believe something so cool exists just a short drive from San Francisco. Learn more.

Inside tip: Make sure you pack some water, a snack, and your camera. There is a short, tricky scramble from the upper falls down to the beach, so take your time and watch your step.

Cataract Falls

If you like the soft sounds of running streams, cascading waterfalls, and being surrounded by a lush forest of redwoods, then this hike is for you. This is an absolutely gorgeous 5-mile roundtrip hike that meanders along Cataract Creek, past a seemingly neverending series of cascading falls, and ends with an amazing view of Alpine Lake. Learn more.

Inside Tip: You can pack a bite and enjoy it at the picnic table at the top of the trail, or head back into Fairfax and stop at Gestalt Haus for beers and sausage.

Big Basin

Considered one of the more adventurous and beautiful day hikes in the Bay Area, the 11-mile Berry Creek Falls Loop actually features three beautiful waterfalls: Berry Creek Falls (70 feet), Silver Falls (60 feet), and Golden Cascade (30 feet). In addition to the falls, you'll trek through beautiful redwoods and along meandering creeks. As you'd expect, it's basically heaven. Learn more.

Inside Tip: For a great post-hike reward, head over to the Davenport Cafe Bar & Grill for a bite, then walk next door for some wine tasting at the Bonny Doon Vineyards Tasting Room.

Russian Gulch

Russian Gulch State Park's beautiful 36 foot waterfall is worthy of a day trip on its own, but we recommend planning an overnight stay (at least) at one of our favorite coastal campgrounds in the Bay Area. Nestled between its waterfall, trails, and rugged beach, this campsite provides easy access to swimming, fishing, diving, hiking, kayaking, and biking. Learn more.

Inside Tip: Be sure to check out the Devil's Punch Bowl, a large collapsed sea cave with churning water. If you have access to a kayak, you can explore some cool sea caves along the coast.
(Above: Step back into the 1950s with a special performance by Beat generation goddess ruth weiss.)



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Stuck on what to read this summer? We have a few suggestions.





Bay Area Book Book Festival

The start of summer means one thing: festival season. And no, we're not talking about Outside Lands. This month, downtown Berkeley will open its streets and businesses for the Second Annual Bay Area Book Festival, one of the largest literary events in the Bay Area. This two-day, free book festival is an all-ages and all-genres type of event, with programs catering to children, teens, and parents. Featuring keynote speakers, panels, interviews, performances, and more, special guests include Sherman Alexie, Carroll Ballard, John Diaz, and Jewelle Gomez. The fest is free to the public, but tickets can be purchased here to ensure you save a seat for one of the featured lectures. Make sure to check out the full festival schedule here. Bookworms, gear your engines. // Saturday, June 4th - Sunday, June 5th: Downtown Berkeley (Berkeley), baybookfest.org









Salvation on Mission Street Book Release Party at Galeria de la Raza

Mexican author and longtime San Francisco resident Cathy Arellano debuts her newest work Salvation on Mission Street, a collection of prose and poetry chronicling her experience watching the gentrification of the Mission District through the eyes of the residents fighting for their homes. In honor of the book's release, Mission District non-profit gallery Galeria de la Raza will be holding a book release party, co-hosted by Korima Press. The special event will feature readings from Mission District residents including Estela de la Cruz, Ingrid Aleja Garcia, Leticia Hernandez-Linares, Andrea Rodriguez, and Lito Sandoval. Come celebrate local literature and get your hands on a work that's sure to go to the top of San Francisco's "must read" list. This event is free and open to the public. // Saturday, June 4th, 4pm: Galeria de la Raza, 2857 24th S (Mission), galeriadelaraza.org





Poetry & Jazz with ruth weiss



June marks the beginning of "The Beat Museum Presents" an exciting new series featuring readings, performances, and speakers. To kick it all off, legendary Berlin-born jazz poet ruth weiss will be at the Beat Museum for a special night of music and poetry. Famous for her involvement with North Beach's Beat scene, weiss will return to her old stomping grounds along with acoustic bassist Doug O'Connor, saxophonist Rent Romus, and percussionist Hal Davis. Not only are amazing performances on the menu, but pizza will be served courtesy of Pizza Napoletan. A cash bar will also be available to visiting patrons. Tickets can be purchased here. // $28, Wednesday, June 15th, 7pm: Monroe, 473 Broadway (North Beach), eventbrite.com









Walter Mosley in Conversation with T. Geronimo Johnson

Legendary mystery novelist Walter Mosley will be making an appearance at Menlo Park's Kepler Books to promote his latest Easy Rawlins novel Charcoal Joe. The latest novel continues where the story Rose Gold left off, following the twisting tales of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins. Recently named a "Grand Master" by the Mystery Writers of America, Walter Mosley will be joining fellow author T. Geronimo Johnson (Hold It 'Til It Hurts) for a night of great conversation and even greater literature. Tickets can be purchased here. // $10-$40, Thursday, June 16th, 7:30pm: Kepler's Books, 1010 El Camino Real (Menlo Park), keplers.com





The Release of The Accidental Archives of the Royal Chicano Air Force

Co-sponsored by the San Francisco Art Institute and University of Texas Press, The Accidental Archives of the Royal Chicano Air Force chronicles the story of a very important art collective which helped shape the Chicano movement. A blend of both real and fictitious events, this book follows the story of La Steff, a world famous archaeologist on a mission to track down the real story of RCAF through the secretive Con Sapos Archaeological Collective. Through her investigation, readers will be able learn about this significant movement in tandem with the protagonist. Author of the work and visiting lecturer Stephanie Sauer will be joined by Cornell professor Ella Mariz Diaz to co-present this special book release party. This event is free and open to the public, so you have no excuse not to purchase your own copy ($40). // Thursday, June 23rd, 7pm: City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue (North Beach), citylights.com
Here are five things to chat about over bottomless mimosas.





Rec & Park to End Paid Lawn Reservations at Dolores Park, Mission Local

News of a lawn-rental pilot program at Dolores Park quickly attracted controversy and political debate on Monday and by Tuesday, Supervisor Scott Wiener announced he had worked out a deal with the Recreation and Parks Department to end the rental of lawn space. Read more.



Construction Crews Discover Young Girl's Casket Underneath San Francisco Home,

CBS Local

A woman was having her childhood home near Rossi Park in San Francisco renovated when contractors stumbled onto a very unusual sight under the garage.

"He said, 'Do you have any idea what this is? We think it's a casket,'" Ericka Karner told KPIX 5 via Skype. Karner is living in Idaho while the work is being done. She told KPIX 5 it's the casket of a little girl believed to have been buried 120 years ago. There are no identifying marks, so they decided to nickname her "Miranda." Officials believe Miranda was left behind when the Odd Fellows cemetery moved away. The Columbarium near Geary and Arguello is all that's left of that burial ground. Read more.





Hillary and Bill Clinton Visit San Francisco, Fremont, Atherton, NBC Bay Area

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to attend fundraisers Tuesday in San Francisco and Fremont, while his wife - Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton - is set to join him Wednesday for a private event in Atherton. Bill Clinton was spotted entering the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco where he'll speak before heading to Fremont for a fundraising lunch. He waved "Hi, everybody," gave a big grin, and walked inside. Read more.





Lyft Now Lets You Schedule Rides 24 Hours in Advance, San Francisco Business Times

Ride hailing startup Lyft has a new feature allowing users to schedule rides up to 24 hours in advance and will begin testing the service in San Francisco first.Read more.





'Tone-Deaf' Ad Insults Those Who Rent, Enrages Some in San Francisco, SFGate

An ad appearing on bus stops and billboards around San Francisco questions the intelligence of those who rent, and some are feeling insulted by its message. The ad from SF-based money-lending company SoFi reads, "10 percent down. Because you're too smart to rent."

The ad speaks to the 63 percent of the SF population who rent and some are saying its message is smug, inconsiderate, and tone-deaf because many renters could never afford to buy a home and it's mean-spirited to call them stupid for being in their situation. Read more.





Peter Thiel, Tech Billionaire, Reveals Secret War With Gawker, NY Times

A billionaire Silicon Valley entrepreneur was outed as being gay by a media organization. His friends suffered at the hands of the same gossip site. Nearly a decade later, the entrepreneur secretly financed a lawsuit to try to put the media company out of business.

That is the back story to a legal case that had already grabbed headlines: The wrestler Hulk Hogan sued Gawker Media for invasion of privacy after it published a sex tape, and a Florida jury recently awarded the wrestler, whose real name is Terry Gene Bollea, $140 million. Read more.
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds, and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. ~ George Best







Annual Watermelon Drop at 21st Amendment Brewery





21st Amendment founders Nico Freccia and Shaun Sullivan will be tossing a watermelon off the roof of their 2nd Street pub this Thursday to kick off summer and celebrate the return of Hell or High Watermelon Wheat beer. Slated for 4pm to 7pm, the party will feature a watermelon beer can chicken cook-out, BBQ sausages, live bluegrass music, and beer poured from freshly carved watermelons. Guests can also partake in watermelon bowling, if they dare. // 563 2nd St. (SoMa), 21st-amendment.com





Boozy Spring Fling at Oakland Museum





Booze, food, and art provide perfect companionship for a night at the Oakland Museum this Thursday, from 7pm to 9pm. For a $20 donation, you can graze among 20 gourmet food makers, imbibe with more than a dozen adult beverage makers, preview the museum's new Altered States exhibit, and participate in artistic endeavors, such as screen printing your own T-shirt. Proceeds benefit the Oakland Museum, and if you check in on Yelp!, you could win a free Public Bike. RSVP online and pay at the door. // 1000 Oak St. (Oakland), museumca.org





Belga's First Birthday Party





A buck goes a long way at Belga's First Birthday party on Monday, May 23. The popular Belgian brasserie is celebrating its first anniversary with an all-day happy hour featuring $1 Bavi Pils beer, $1 house-made sausages, and $1 Belgian-style frites with three homemade dipping sauces. Party favors also include a GIF photo booth machine and a tattoo station. Belva opens at 11am. // 2000 Union St. (Cow Hollow), belgasf.com









Swig N' Swine is slated for Sunday, May 22 (Image via Eat Drink SF)





Swig N' Swine Soiree





If an animal exists that is tastier than a pig, we have yet to meet it. The upcoming Swig N' Swine soiree at SoMa StrEat Park is at the top of our Sunday agenda. We'll be joining a cadre of local culinary and cocktail stars for a celebration of community, camaraderie, charity and all-you-can-eat pork dishes, starting at noon. The 7th annual event also features eight barrels of boozy punch mixed by the Bon Vivants, music by DJ Dojah and The Jazz Mafia, and a Swig n' Swine T-shirt. Tickets are available online for $50-$135 each, and proceeds benefit local charter schools. // 428 11th St. (SoMa), eatdrink-sf.com





Cocktails for Charity at Alamo Drafthouse





It's not often that you find nine of San Francisco's top bartenders behind the same bar, but that's exactly what you'll find at Alamo Drafthouse's Big Rock Candy Mountain fundraiser on Monday, May 23. At 7pm, the popular adult beverage movie theater will screen Emperor of the North, a cult classic film based on depression-era railroad yards, followed by a charity cocktail event hosted by Bear vs. Bull, the bar inside the movie theatre. The one-night-only cocktail menu includes drinks made by bartender royalty such as Nora Furst (Horsefeather), Kevin Dowell (86 Company), California Gold (Berretta), and Matt Gripp (Blackbird). A portion of cocktail sales will go to Coleman Advocates, a local organization empowering low income households to find resources for higher education. Purchase tickets in advance for the movie, or just show up for the drinking portion of the evening. // 2550 Mission St. (Mission), drafthouse.com/sf
(Above: Cafe Eugene hosts a Berryessa Tap Takeover on Wednesday, May 25).



---





Hangovers are God's way of reminding you how awesome last night was.





Berryessa Brewing Tap Takeover at Cafe Eugene



Berryessa Brewingbased in Winters, Californiais taking over Cafe Eugene in Albany tonight, offering three special beer pairings. Try the Session Saison with a melon and cucumber salad, the Common Sense Lager with Penn Cove mussels and fries, or the Mini Separation Anxiety IPA with half Mary's chicken, served with roasted Brussels sprouts, hen of the woods mushrooms and sunchokes. // 1175 Solano Ave. (Albany), cafeeugene.com





Twofer Tuesdays at Bergerac



Thrifty drinkers can double down on drinks for half the price every Tuesday at Bergerac, thanks to the swanky lounge's new Twofer Tuesday offer. Order an Old Fashioned, a Moscow Mule, a well drink, draft beer, or house wine and get a second round of the same at no additional charge. No refunds for hangovers. // 316 11th St. (SoMa), bergeracsf.com





New Spring Cocktails from Rich Table



Rich Table's bar director Tommy Quimby has launched a completely new menu for Spring, using fresh and interesting ingredients from the kitchen. Try The 86, made with vodka, Lillet Blanc, strawberry, coriander, almond and soda, or the Suns 'N Roses, featuring bourbon, dried stone fruit, mint, vanilla, and lemon. We're also fond of the Puddle Jump, as much for its name as its ingredients: white rum, rhubarb, cumin, and lime. // 199 Gough St. (Hayes Valley), richtablesf.com





Pints for Paws at FIVE in Berkeley



Just because your landlord won't let you have a pet is no reason to neglect our furry, four-legged friends. Order a pint of Berkeley-brewed Fieldwork beer at FIVE Restaurant & Bar in Berkeley from now through June 4, and the restaurant will donate a dollar to the Berkeley Humane Society. The more you drink, the more pets you save. // 2086 Allston Way (Berkeley), five-berkeley.com





Anchor Beer Pairing Dinner at Scoma's



Slip into Scoma's Restaurant on Wednesday evening, June 1, for five-courses of educational pairing expressions featuring pier-to-plate cuisine and Anchor beer pairings presented by Bar Manager Matt Talbert. Highlights include the Meyer Lemon Lager paired with dayboat scallops, Orange Splash served with seared duck breast, and Flying Cloud San Francisco Stout paired with mocha pots de creme. Tickets are available online for $100, including tax and gratuity. // 1965 Al Scoma Way, Pier 47 (Fisherman's Wharf), scomas.com
Dutch artist and physicist Theo Jansen will be showcasing his wind-powered creations dubbed Strandbeests (or "beach animals" in Dutch) at the Exploratorium next week.

These giant skeleton-like creatures are made out of PVC tubing and other hardware store materials, and are able to walk on their own it's pretty amazing to behold.







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"They have to survive the storms, the water, the sand," Jansen told ABC7. "There have been many generations of strandbeest. It's an evolution process."





Jansen has been working on perfecting the strandbeests since 1990. Over time, his creations evolved to become more complex and lifelike. Now these creatures are able to self-adapt to seaside environments by sensing their surroundings. In the absence of the wind, strandbeests are still able to accumulate air pressure to move.





Strandbeests will roam the Exploratorium starting Friday, May 27 as part of their first North American tour, Strandbeest: The Dream Machines of Theo Jansen.





Watch 'em go in the video below!





// See the exhibit at the Exploratorium (Pier 15, Bechtel Central gallery) from May 27 to September 5, 2016. Tickets can be purchased in advance, exploratorium.edu





Compilation from Strandbeest on Vimeo
Where to shop 'til you drop this week.

San Francisco Design Week

Nirvana for Bay Area aesthetes and design lovers is almost here. The 10th Annual San Francisco Design Week takes place June 29 and features more than 200 events, talks, happy hours, design tours and panels at various venues in San Francisco, Oakland, Marin and Silicon Valley. This year's theme is "There's Just Something About the Bay." Events are already selling out, so don't procrastinate. Buy your tix now. We're especially psyched about the #WearTechCon: Maker Series on June 8. // 2016.sfdesignweek.com





Nordstrom Pop-Up

Along with the Half-Yearly Sale (uh-oh), here's another reason to head to Nordstrom San Francisco Centre: Pop-In @ Nordstrom de Soleil debuts tomorrow, May 27. The next-level summer shop is stocked with swimwear, sunglasses, suncare, sandals, beach accessories, jewelry, decor, men's and women's clothing, and more. No surprise, all the products have a sunny disposition, and we're fairly certain the rainbow unicorn pool float is going to sell out quickly. Hipsters, consider yourselves warned. // The pop-up runs through June 26 and lives on the third floor. 845 Market St. (Union Square), shop.nordstrom.com





(Courtesy of Abacus Row)







Fest Gems

This weekend's Bottlerock Napa Valley marks the official start of summer festival season. We're celebrating with new jewelry to fest-ify our looks. First up: the Crux Necklace from local up-and-comer Abacus Row. This delicate yet statement-making beauty is made with gold-filled beads on a silk cord. // Find new pieces from the brand at Dish in Hayes Valley (541 Hayes St.) and Hawthorn in Oakland (5854 College Ave.), abacusrow.com





Next: We're obsessed with Dogeared's Playing By Ear collection. There are so many boho-chic earrings; it's hard to pick just one pair. The ear jackets, crawlers, studs and cuffs come in both silver and gold, plus they're super lightweight. Mix and match awayand see ya in Wine Country. // Available at Ambiance stores in the city and online, dogeared.com





Spa Pop-Up at Bay Club

You've heard of do-good shopping? Well thanks to Bay Club San Francisco, here's a chance to engage in do-good spa-ing. On Thursday, June 2, the club hosts an evening of beauty and spa treatments with all proceeds benefitting the UCSF Cancer Center. Your pampering choices include: massages and hand scrubs by Sanctuary Spa, mink eyelash strip extensions by Lash Lab SF, aromatherapy by EO and more. Bites from Tacolicious and spa-inspired drinks are also on the menu. General access tix are $50. // The event with speakers starts at 5:30; treatments 6pm9pm. 150 Greenwich St, (Telegraph Hill), bayclubs.com





(Courtesy of Loews Regency)







Sky-Deck Yoga at Loews Regency

Tree-posing atop Loews Regency San Francisco's 40th-floor Sky deck, anyone? Starting Saturday, June 4, you can make the 9am, 75-minute outdoor yoga class (courtesy of Wheel House studio) a regular thing. Actually, there are two simultaneous classes, giving yoginis a choice of sunny or shady savasana, both with amazing views. Afterward, enjoy complimentary house-made juices. The series runs through October 29. // Class fee is $30. Reserve your spot by calling the hotel spa: 415-276-9769. 222 Sansome St. (FiDi), loewshotels.com/Regency-San-Francisco





Shop Super Street Pop-Up

One of LA's hippest stores is heading north for a day. Shop Super Street (yes, "shop" is part of the name) pops up on Saturday, June 4 on Upper Grant. Owner Lucy Akin's flair for mixing high-end designers with skateboard brands will be on full display. We're all for pairing Stussy tees with Rodarte skirts, natch. // Store hours: 11am 9pm; the party's at 5pm. RSVP lucy@shopsuperstreet.com, 1535 Grant Ave. (North Beach), shopsuperstreet.com
Your guide to the tastiest foodie happenings going down this week. Bon appetit!





LocoL (Finally) Opens

LocoL, Daniel Patterson and Roy Choi's new fast food restaurant with a cause, will open in Oakland on Wednesday. Their mission is to provide healthy, affordable, and delicious food to underserved communities. This will be the second location (the first opened in Watts), and the next location is slated to open later this year in the Tenderloin. // Open daily, 7am-8pm, 2214 Broadway St. (Oakland), welocol.com









Bellota Opens

Bellota is Spanish for acorn, which is what delicious Iberican pigs dine on and also happens to be the new Spanish restaurant from Absinthe Group. Expect classic Spanish tapas, paellas, and meats grilled over a wood-fired hearth, all using California's finest ingredients. // Open Monday-Saturday, 888 Brannan St. (SoMa), bellotasf.com







La Mar Cebiche Class

Peruvian native & La Mar Chef Danny Kou will offer a cebiche crash course on Sunday, May 29 at 11am. The 1.5 hour class will explain the difference between ceviche and cebiche, while demonstrating the preparation of three traditional Peruvian cebiches and Tiraditos. // $95, Sunday May 29, 11am-12:30pm; Pier 1.5 (Embarcadero), Get tickets here.





Ozumo Launches Spring Menu

Ozumo has launched a new spring menu, and it's delicious. Think lightly seared filet mignon with pea shoots, wasabi oranges, and macadamia nuts, or a braised octopus with watermelon radish, seared stonefruit, and grilled endive. Ozumo also has the largest sake collection in America, so you'll be sure to find the perfect pairing. // Open daily, 161 Steuart St. (Embarcadero), ozumosanfrancisco.com





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Journeyman Vegetable Tasting Dinner

The talented Journeymen of Oakland are made up of chefs Chris Wolff and Jonathan Tu, both of whom have clocked in time at Michelin restaurants all over the world, including Rich Table and Bar Tartine. Their new pop-up presents a vegetable-forward tasting menu with innovative vegetarian and vegan delights in the form of potatoe eclairs, creamed chard dumplings, and a watermelon terrine. // $59, Monday June 6, 6:30pm and 8:30pm. 4901 Telegraph Ave. (Oakland), Get tickets here.





La Cocina Row at Carnaval

La Cocina will be at John O'Connell High School schoolyard on May 28-29 to celebrate the 38th Annual Carnaval! Come hungryhandmade tamales, empanadas, pupusas, tacos de guisado, and more of your favorite La Cocina vendors will be on hand to nourish your body and soul. // May 28-29, 10am-5:30pm; John O'Connell Schoolyard: 2355 Folsom St. (Mission), carnavalsanfrancisco.org








Your guide to the tastiest foodie happenings going down this week. Bon appetit!







Slice House Opens in Walnut Creek

Pizza god and twelve-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani has expanded his 'za empire with another Slice House location, this time in Walnut Creek. Born-and-raised in Fremont, the Easy Bay holds a special place in Gemignani's heart. The location will be open seven days a week, including a breakfast menu featuring a stuffed breakfast sandwich made with egg, cheddar, mozzarella cheese, and bacon. Yum. // Open daily: 1500 Mt. Diablo Blvd. (Walnut Creek), slicehousewalnutcreek.com





StarChefs Award Tasting and Awards Ceremony

Restaurant magazine StarChefs will announce its 2016 San Francisco Rising Stars Awards this week, honoring up-and-coming chefs and hospitality professionals with a Tasting and Awards Ceremony at The Julia Morgan Ballroom later this month. Guests will enjoy more than 20 different bites and beverage pairings from the likes of David Barzelay of Lazy Bear, Wal Cantu of Californios, Brandon Rice of Rich Table, and more. // $100,June 21,6:30-9:30pm: 465 California St. (FiDi), Get tickets here.





Smitten Ice Cream Delivered!

Smitten Ice Cream is offering DIY Sunday picnic kits to kick off summer. The kits come with your choice of six pints, as well as with toppings such as brown sugar, caramel, and chocolate crispies. The kits are available via Postmates and DoorDash, and will ensure your Sunday Fundays at Dolores Park are that much more delicious (and you won't have to wait in line for Bi-Rite)! // $60, smittenicecream.com/orderonline





(photo via Souvla)





Souvla on Divisadero Debuts This Weekend

Our taste buds start tingling just thinking about the gorgeous salads, meaty gyros, and divine frozen Greek yogurt (#4 on The Big Eat 2016) served at Souvlaand now there's twice as much goodness to go around. The former Herbivore spot at 531 Divisadero St. will reopen as the second Souvla location this weekend with plentiful indoor and outdoor seating for everyone. // 531 Divisadero St. (Nopa), souvlasf.com





Negroni Week Cometh

For one week every year you can drink as many negronis as you wish and feel extra good about it, knowing a portion of your drink purchase will go to worthy non-profits and charities. Last year, participating restaurants and bars raised over $300,000that's a whole lot of negronis. There are over a hundred participating restaurants and bars in SF, including Whitechapel, ABV, and Lazy Bear, who even has a special negroni tasting menu. // June 6-12, see participating locations here.





Science in the Kitchen (and Why It Matters!)

Does science really matter when it comes to cooking? James-Beard-Award-winning author Kenji Lopez in conversation with Adam Rogers from Wired Magazine and food writer John Birdsall weighs in at the Bay Area Book Festival in Berkeley this weekend. // June 4, 11:45am: Freight & Salvage, 2020 Addison St. (Berkeley), baybookfest.org
If you have to ask if it's too early for beer, you're an amateur and I'm questioning the future of our friendship.  Overheard at The Ramp





Chefs Summertini Gala

This week's "drink for a good cause" event is the CHEFS Summertini Gala, slated for Friday, June 3 at The Village on Market St. Hosted by Episcopal Community Services, the event features bites from more than 30 local restaurants, craft cocktails from Tonic Beverage Catering, live and silent auction packages, a raffle, photobooth, life DJ, and good karma. Tickets are available online ($115 to $250), and proceeds benefit the CHEFS Program (Conquering Homelessness through Employment in Food Service), a seven-month culinary training program for formerly homeless participants that includes classroom instruction, hands-on kitchen training and internships. // 969 Market St. (Tenderloin), ecs-sf.org/events/summertini.html





Celebrate PRIDE with a Harvey Milk Shake

PRIDE month began Wednesday, and we'll be kicking off the high holiday at One Market Restaurant with a Harvey Milk Shake, available through the end of June. Bar Manager Justin Blackwood and Pastry Chef Patti Dellamonica-Bauler whipped it up to celebrate hometown hero Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California. The Harvey Milk Shake is made with vanilla ice cream, Pinnacle Peach Vodka, Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, strawberries, blueberries, and Valrhona White Chocolate Pride Tuile. For every $15 shake you drink, $10 will be donated to AIDS/LifeCycle. Just beware of ice cream headaches. // 1 Market St. (FiDi), onemarket.com





Local Brewing Co. Launches Fresh Cans to Go

Local Brewing Co. is celebrating its first birthday on June 4 by releasing a few special brews and unveiling their canned-by-hand draft beer to go. Purchase a ticket online ($28) and join the party between noon and 8pm to enjoy a flight of four anniversary beers, a 10-ounce pour of your beer of choice, a 16-ounce canned-by-hand Anniversary beer to-go, and a Local-branded 16-ounce can koozie. // 69 Bluxome St. (Mission Bay), localbrewingco.com





SFMOMA Mosaic Beer at Thirsty Bear

Whether or not you spot a random pair of eyeglasses at the newly-expanded SFMOMA, cross the street to Thirsty Bear Organic Brewery afterwards to contemplate their meaning over a few glasses of SFMOMA Mosaic, a special new beer brewed specifically to commemorate what is now the largest modern and contemporary art museum in the US. For every pint you purchase, Thirsty Bear will donate 50 cents to the museum's education programs. // 661 Howard St. (SoMa), thirstybear.com








As recently as two decades ago, Hayes Valley was hardly known as the home to some of San Francisco's best restaurants and boutiques. When the Central Freeway was damaged in the 1989 earthquake and later moved to ground level, however, Hayes Valley became one of the most desirable spots to live in the city. As the neighborhood turned into a weekend destination for window shopping and Bloody Marys, the community has grown right alongside it.

Proxy

What do you get when you add a handful of former shipping containers to two blocks of open lots? Proxy, a rotating roster of food, art, and retail vendors. Check out current Proxy tenants like Biergarten, Juice Shop, Ritual Coffee Roasters, Streets of San Francisco Bike Tours, and Basic Training. 432 Octavia Street

Miette

It's hard to disagree with Miette's self-description as San Francisco's most charming pastry shop." Enter their bright, pastel-colored store along Octavia Street and you'll be overcome with the urge for cakes, pastries, and a vast assortment of candiesand you and your sweet tooth have come to just the right spot. 449 Octavia Street

Reliquary

A finely curated collection of clothing, accessories, jewelry, and folk art, Reliquary seamlessly combines the old (check out their stunning collection of vintage jewelry) with the new, carrying bohemian brands like Ace & Jig, Fog Linen, and Marisa Haskell. 544 Hayes Street

Monsieur Benjamin

Chef Corey Lee, formerly of French Laundry and Benu, has taken the classic Parisian bistro and given it a modern, sleek update at Monsieur Benjamin, the latest addition to Hayes Valley's arsenal of fine dining. 451 Gough Street

Azalea Boutique

Not looking to max out your credit card on some new clothes? Azalea is a good Hayes Valley stop for (slightly more) affordable mens and womenswear. Shop brands like Sam Edelmen, Topman, and Mink Pinknot to mention Comme des Garcons and Helmut Lang if you do feel like splurging. 411 Hayes Street

Photo by Allison Webber Photography, Courtesy of Smuggler's Cove

Smuggler's Cove

What do you get when you cross a speakeasy with a tiki bar? Smuggler's Cove. Celebrate all things rum-based with a drink menu of more than 70 cocktails. Take it to the next level when you join their Rumbustion Society, sample 200 rums (not at once), and become a Master of the Cove. 650 Gough Street

Photo by Kelly Puleio, Courtesy of Two Sisters

Two Sisters Bar & Books

Inspired by bookstores and coffeehouses from Krakow to Brooklyn, Two Sisters Bar & Books combines the best of both worldsa cozy nook to settle down with a good book, a seasonal dish, and a glass of California wine. Join their monthly Books and Booze Club, whereyou guessed itgreat literature meets signature cocktails on the last Wednesday of every month. 579 Hayes Street

Souvla

A classic Greek souvlaki sandwich shop opened by a Greek-American chef who's worked with Thomas Keller? Yes, please. If the spit-roasted meats on warm pita bread served with Greek wine aren't enough for you, take home a whole roasted chicken for only $20. 517 Hayes Street

20th Century Cafe

It took twenty years of baking and cooking experience and many trips to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest for Michelle Polzine to open 20th Century Cafe. In this sunny corner cafe, classic Eastern European meets modern Californian with housemade bagels, potato knishes, and the not-to-be-missed krasinski torte, Russian honey cake. 198 Gough Street

Patricia's Green

Named for Patricia Walkup, a tireless neighborhood activist and longtime resident of Hayes Valley, Patricia's Green is a long, narrow open space dotted with playground equipment and public art. Grab a coffee or a snack nearby and enjoy the sunshine on one of the Green's many benches and tables. Octavia Street between Fell and Hayes

Brass Tacks

Opened just over a year ago, Brass Tacks quickly became the go-to Hayes Valley watering hole for great cocktails in a casual, elegant atmosphere. The Brass Smashmade with Venezuelan rum, cynar, mint, and lemonis a favorite, but chat with the incredibly savvy bartenders to find your new drink of choice. 488A Hayes Street

Blue Bottle Coffee

Tucked away in a back alley, this Hayes Valley kiosk was the first official Blue Bottle cafe opened back in 2005. Today, the Linden Street shop continues to serve their world class espresso drinks, drip coffee, New Orleans iced coffee, and baked treats from the Blue Bottle Oakland kitchen. Enjoy your off-menu Gibraltar on one of the stone benches outside. 315 Linden Street

Rich Table

The potted herbs, cozy neighborhood vibe, and cream-painted wood walls from a Petaluma saw mill evoke all things Northern Californiaas does the fare at Rich Table, the husband-and-wife team Evan and Sarah Rich's ode to California comfort food. Reservations are notoriously tricky to come by, but coming early and sipping on a cocktail at the bar certainly isn't a bad way to wait for a table. 199 Gough Street

(Updated Aug. 5, 2015)
It took 30 years, but Gagosian Galleryhas finally arrived in San Francisco. We got an exclusive peek inside prior to its May 18th opening.





San Francisco joins an elite group of international citiesLondon, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Athens, Hong Kong, New York and Beverly Hillsin becoming the 16th outpost for the gallery founded over three decades ago by Larry Gagosian, the world's most powerful art dealer.





(Gagosian Gallery at 657 Howard Street, San Francisco)

With the massive new SFMOMA reflected in its windows as you enter, the gallery (at 657 Howard Street) is likely to become ground central for the purchase of 6 to 8-figure art works in the Bay Area, just as art connoisseurs from around the world will be visiting the museum directly across the street.





"There's a lot of energy here, and I think the timing is absolutely right, with the reopening of the SFMOMA," says gallery director Anna Gavazzi Asseily, who was previously with Gagosian in London.





While they've had long-term relationships with collectors in the Bay Area, the San Francisco location will enable greater engagement with new collectors. "I think less and less do people have time to travel around," she says. If the buyer can't go to the art, bring the art to the buyer.





(Director Anna Gavazzi Asseily; Robert Therrien's Dutch Door (1996, 2003)Bottom: Roy Lichtenstein's Mobile III (1990)

And such art! After stepping into the sunlit space designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture, located at the ground floor of the Crown Point Press building, you immediately see pieces from some of the most intriguing artists of the past 70 years.





The first exhibit, "Plane.Site," curated by Sam Orlofsky, juxtaposes important three-dimensional pieces with the artists' drawings related to the work. You will see, for instance Pablo Picasso's bronze "Tete de femme," of 1951, next to his "Portrait de Sylvette," drawn with pencil on notebook paper, or Cy Twombly's never before seen "Untitled, Lexington" (2009) made of wood, cardboard, and plastic strings, shown with a composition on handmade paper.





They are planning to run four exhibits a year, as well as art talks and events to reach out to the wider arts community. Here's our exclusive glimpse at the first exhibit.





(Natural light floods into the Gagosian Gallery)

(Two Kellogg's Cornflakes Boxes (1964) by Andy Warhol)

(Alberto Giacometti's "Femme debout" (c. 1961, cast in 1993)

(Tatiana Trouve "Studies" (2012-2015); Helen Frankenthaler "Untitled" (1986)Bottom: Helen Frankenthaler's steel "Heart of London Map" (1972)
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HOUSTON  A Houston-area teacher accused of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy who impregnated her has surrendered at a suburban jail.

Harris County authorities had issued an arrest warrant for 24-year-old Alexandria Vera, an English teacher in the Aldine School District. The boy was an eighth-grader she met last summer.

She appeared Wednesday at the jail in adjacent Montgomery County. Sheriffs spokesman Brady Fitzgerald says Vera posted a $100,000 bond and was released.

Court documents show the boys parents didnt object to their relationship. She told a school district investigator they were very supportive and excited when she disclosed her pregnancy. The probable cause document said she aborted the pregnancy after a child welfare investigator questioned her.

School officials say shes been removed from her job.
BAGHDAD  The U.N. childrens fund on Wednesday issued a stark warning to Iraqi troops and Islamic State militants in the battle for Fallujah to spare the children, the most vulnerable among tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city west of Baghdad.

Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes and mainly Shiite militias launched an operation more than a week ago to recapture Fallujah, which has been held by the extremist group for more than two years.

More than 50,000 people are believed to be trapped inside the Sunni majority city, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad. Government forces have imposed a tight blockade on the city and IS militants are reportedly preventing residents from leaving.

UNICEF estimated the number of the children trapped with their families inside the city at about 20,000, warning that they face a dire humanitarian situation, in addition to the risk of forced recruitment by IS.

The organization called on all parties to protect children inside Fallujah and provide safe passage to those wishing to leave the city.

Iraqi special forces meanwhile continued their push into the city from its southern edge, said Brig. Haider al-Obeidi, who said fierce clashes were underway Wednesday.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi praised the remarkable advance by the troops during a visit to the Fallujah Operation Command and vowed to hoist the Iraqi flag inside Fallujah in the coming few days.

Al-Abadi said IS was using civilians as human shields, and that the government has called on residents to leave through safe corridors or stay inside their homes.

Fallujah was the first large city in Iraq to fall to IS and it is the last major urban area controlled by the extremist group in western Iraq. The Sunni-led militants still control Iraqs second-largest city, Mosul, as well as smaller towns and areas in the west and north.

The fight for Fallujah is expected to be protracted because IS has had more than two years to dig in. Hidden bombs are believed to be strewn throughout the city, and the presence of trapped civilians will limit the use of supporting airstrikes.

The United Nations meanwhile said Wednesday that violence claimed the lives of at least 867 Iraqis in May, an increase from the previous month.

In its monthly report, the U.N. mission to Iraq said at least 468 civilians were among the dead, while the rest were members of the security forces. A total of 1,459 Iraqis were wounded last month, it said.

In April, at least 741 Iraqis were killed and 1,374 wounded. The figures do not include casualties from the western Anbar province, where Iraqi forces are battling IS militants in Fallujah and other areas.

Baghdad was the worst affected in May, with 267 civilians killed and 740 wounded, mainly in a series of bombings targeting security forces and the countrys Shiite majority.

___

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Camp Tariq, near Fallujah, contributed to this report.
Deputy U.S. Marshals and task force officers arrested three suspects in the brutal kidnapping and murder of a woman whose body was recovered near Socorro in 2015, according to a press release sent out by a spokesman.

They also arrested a man in Farmington on second degree murder charges.

Joseph Barreras said Shawna Cannon 38, William P. Alexander 56, and Joshua Taramasco 30, are suspects in the death of Tiffany Boyer. He didnt give any other details on the circumstances surrounding Boyers death or say exactly when or where her body was found.

Boyer, 29, had been reported missing under suspicious circumstances on Aug. 16. She was last seen at the Wal-mart at Academy and Wyoming NE, according to a release sent out by the Albuquerque Police Department last September.

Cannon, Alexander and Taramasco were all arrested in Albuquerque Wednesday, Barreras said. They are each charged with open counts of murder, conspiracy, robbery, kidnapping, and other charges.

Alexander and Cannon are being held in the Metropolitan County Jail. Taramasco did not appear in online jail records Wednesday night.

Marshals also arrested a suspected murderer in Farmington Wednesday, Barreras said.

Mitch Lopez, 21, is suspected of murdering Benjamin Charley in Farmington, NM in 2015, he said. Lopez was arrested on 1200 Block of Schofield Lane in Farmington, NM.
SAN DIEGO  Dear Trump protesters:

There are some things Ive wanted to say to you for several months now, and Ive decided to finally get them off my chest in this open letter.

The timing is right, given the chaos that erupted recently in Albuquerque and San Diego when activists like yourselves displayed opposition to Donald Trumps message, tone, candidacy and tactics by trying to disrupt campaign appearances by the presumptive Republican nominee.

Given how youve conducted yourselves, I have to ask: Are you secretly working for Trump? Seriously, are you trying to be an apprentice? Could it be that youre just putting on a good show, pretending to protest Trump when your actual goal is to ensure that he becomes the 45th president of the United States?

Because thats what youre doing, helping his campaign immeasurably with these unruly outbursts of civil disobedience that are anything but civil.

In Albuquerque, protesters scuffled with police in riot gear, pelting officers and their horses with what authorities say were rocks, bottles filled with urine, and incendiary devices resembling Molotov cocktails. Later, some of them broke glass, destroyed property and even fired gunshots. Six officers were injured, as was one of the police horses. Police have offered a reward, and are searching for suspects.

Many protesters also waved Mexican flags, a deliberately provocative gesture that  when done at political protests on U.S. soil  is always in bad taste. You dont demand respect from one country by showing allegiance to another. How about waving the American flag?

Im sure you would probably claim that the troublemakers were a small minority. Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry has estimated that only about 30 people were responsible for the violence, out of 1,000 protesters.

But I have to ask: What did the peaceful protesters do to prevent the violent ones from contaminating the whole exercise?

A few days later, in San Diego, while several thousand people filed into the San Diego Convention Center to hear Trump speak, another group of about 1,000 protesters clashed in the streets with police and Trump supporters.

Some of the anti-Trump activists acted like thugs. They heckled and insulted those attending the event, calling them racists and bigots. They threw water bottles and other objects. One person managed to set on fire a red Trump cap with its signature motto of Make America Great Again. Of course, there were more Mexican flags.

Protesters remained onsite for a few hours after the Trump rally ended, disturbing the peace and flouting commands by police for them to disperse to the point where authorities declared the protest an unlawful assembly. Police moved in, and arrested at least 35 people.

So, protesters, I understand that your objective was to send a message to Trump, and those who support him, not to mess with you. But instead, in the process, you made a mess of everything.

What makes this all the more frustrating to watch is that, whether or not you believe it, Im on your side. I think Trump is a classless bully whose message is toxic. I think hes given people permission to be racist, intolerant, even violent. I think hed be a disaster as president, even dangerous.

And I think that Trump and his entire campaign apparatus  having spread their cheap brand of demagoguery for months throughout the Midwest, the Northeast and the South  are getting a wake-up call. Its coming now that the candidate is making appearances throughout California, where 39 percent of the states population is Hispanic and where people have dealt with racial demagogues before.

But I also recognize that Trump has gotten this far against long odds by advancing a narrative that America is out of control, that too many people dont respect law and order, that political correctness is stifling debate, that there is often no one more intolerant than those who preach tolerance.

Through your actions, you prove him right, give him votes and make him stronger. Good job.

And you can bet Trump is watching. He knows exactly what to do to get a rise out of you, and you always respond on cue.

After the San Diego protests, Trump tweeted a special message thanking law enforcement officials: Fantastic job on handling the thugs who tried to disrupt our very peaceful and well attended rally. Greatly appreciated!

Dont worry, Trump protesters. Im sure the candidate appreciates you too.

Email: ruben@rubennavarrette.com. Copyright, The Washington Post Writers Group.
Copyright  2016 Albuquerque Journal

An Albuquerque man who listed some 80 dog pedigrees on an online site devoted to dogfighting is one of nine people in four states charged Wednesday as part of a dogfighting ring that often included keeping dogs on chains and in stacked crates, and training them as fearsome fighters, according to a criminal complaint.

Robert Arellano, 62, was arrested Wednesday and made his initial appearance before a federal magistrate judge. He is scheduled for a detention hearing Friday.

Authorities confiscated 14 dogs from his Albuquerque home and at least two other dogs  one named Vida  had been shipped earlier to New Jersey, according to criminal complaints.

The defendants and their associates allegedly participated in dogfighting ventures in which pit bull-type dogs were set up for matches to maul and attack each other and fight  often until one or both dogs died.

Dogfighting is truly an organized criminal activity, as well as a deplorable trade in the suffering of animals. This case marks the beginning of a coordinated effort  to meet organized dog fighting head-on with a strategic, aggressive federal response, said Assistant Attorney General John Cruden of the Department of Justices Environment and Natural Resources Division in a statement.

The ring included participants in New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois and New Mexico, according to Cruden of the Department of Justices Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman for the District of New Jersey.

Under the federal Animal Welfare Act, it is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison to fight dogs or to possess, train, sell, buy, deliver, receive or transport dogs intended for use in dogfighting.

Sixty-six dogs were rescued as part of the bust and will be cared for by a national animal welfare organization.

Stephanie Twining of the Humane Society of the United States said late Wednesday she believed 14 of those dogs were taken from New Mexico and transported to an undisclosed site out of state, where they will be evaluated and offered enrichment and training until they can be adopted.

Arellano maintained a supply of dogs at his home, including the female Vida, from the Pool Hall bloodline of fighting dogs, one of the complaints said. Arellano delivered Vida and another dog by air cargo shipment on Dec. 16, 2014, from Albuquerque to Newark Liberty International Airport, to participate in a fighting event that month in Essex County, N.J.

Vida was found Nov. 19, 2015, during a search of the Vineland, N.J., residence of Anthony Monte Gaines, 35, and Tiffany Burt, 34. The dogs were in stacked shipping crates in the unfinished basement of the home.

Criminal complaints also name Justin Love, 36, Lydell Harris, 30, Mario Atkinson, 40, and Frank Nichols, 39, all of New Jersey; Dajwan Ware, 43, of Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Pedro Cuellar, 46, of Willow Springs, Ill.

The three complaints charge criminal acts related to transporting, delivering, buying, selling, receiving and possessing pit bull-type dogs for dogfighting ventures and conspiring to commit these acts in New Jersey and elsewhere. Arellano is charged with violating the Animal Welfare Act and delivery of a dog for dogfighting purposes.

Law enforcement used wiretaps of Gaines cellphone to learn details of the alleged dogfighting operations.

On Oct. 9, 2015, for instance, Gaines talked to an associate about his dog Doublecross that shredded the dogs face super bad  I aint never seen no (expletive) like that before where he just popped the (expletive) neck.

Ten days later, according to the complaint, Gaines called Arellano, who described a dogfight during which the dog became very sick but still won, dying within 15 minutes of the end of the match.

Officers also monitored a website where dog fighters post their dogs pedigrees to prove lineage.

Officers located about 80 dog pedigrees from Peds Online that identified Arellano as the breeder, the owner or both. Eleven of those contained photographs of dogs, and scarring or injuries were visible in six of those photographs.

A number of the dogs were identified with 2xW, a 5xW, or a CH or GR CH, which refer to the dog having won multiple fights.

Around April, law enforcement officers conducted surveillance including aerial surveillance of Arellanos home. The surveillance showed numerous dog kennels  small chain-link fence enclosures with dogs and dog houses in some of them. The document did not disclose the exact location of the residence.

Among evidence of the dogfighting ventures at properties were scarred dogs and dogs stacked in crates; fighting paraphernalia, such as dog treadmills, flirt poles used to build jaw strength and increase aggression, and animal pelts.

Also found were surgical instruments, syringes and other tools used to mend dogs in lieu of seeking veterinary treatment.
New Mexico State Police arrested a man in connection with a hit-and-run crash that left a motorcyclist dead in Rio Arriba County over the weekend, according to a police spokeswoman.

Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo said State Police arrested Michael T. Archuleta, 55, from Ohkay Owingeh for knowingly leaving the scene of the crash that killed Eloise Armijo, 53.

The crash occurred around 4:30 p.m. at the intersection of N.M. 68 and N.M. 74, Elizabeth Armijo said. She said witnesses described seeing a grey Chevrolet Silverado truck illegally turn in front of the motorcyclist.

The motorcycle was unable to avoid the truck and crashed into the passenger side of the truck, Elizabeth Armijo said. The truck then drove over the motorcycle and continued to drive on State Road 74 toward Chamita, NM without stopping to check on the welfare of Eloise.

Armijo, a former Albuquerque police and Albuquerque Public Schools police officer, was taken to the hospital where she died.

State Police tracked down Archuleta at his home Wednesday morning, Elizabeth Armijo said.

Mr. Archuleta admitted to owning a Chevrolet Silverado but stated he did not know where the vehicle was, although he had not reported it stolen or missing to police, she said. Mr. Archuleta did not wish to give a statement to officers.

He was booked into the Rio Arriba County jail and charged with leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence.

Police are still looking for the 2005 grey or silver Chevrolet Silverado pickup with passenger side damage. Anyone with information about the truck is asked to call the New Mexico State Police Espanola dispatch at (505) 753-2277.
A civil rights attorney hired to negotiate the settlement agreement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice and work as special counsel as the city embarked on a years-long reform effort has been absent at recent court hearings and conference calls in the case, raising questions about his current involvement.

Albuquerque previously awarded attorney Scott Greenwood a no-bid contract worth $750,000 that runs through the end of this month.

But city and court documents show that Greenwood has failed to return calls from the city attorney, and the city auditor has been unable to find any invoices he submitted to the city over the last year or so.

Greenwood also hasnt been present at recent hearings and conference calls between U.S. District Judge Robert Brack and attorneys from the various parties in the case, according to court documents.

And he hasnt appeared before city councilors to discuss the reform effort in months. He occasionally appeared before them when he was first hired.

Greenwood said in an interview Wednesday that he has received far less than was authorized by the City Council for his expenses and work on the reform effort.

He said this year he hasnt been asked by the city to do much work on the reform effort. But conversations hes had with city officials recently have led him to believe hell be more involved in the process going forward.

If you want to know whos been doing the work and why, youll have to take that up with city legal, Greenwood told the Journal. I know theres a desire in part of the people in the city to have us further engaged. Its pretty obvious its not going well.

City Councilor Ken Sanchez said Greenwood, who has advised other cities that have undergone similar court-ordered reforms, should be helping the city write new policies  which has been a sore spot in independent monitor James Gingers evaluations of the polices progress making reforms. Ginger has said the departments policy-writing process is confusing and disjointed.

I think hes probably one of the best in the country to help us through this process, Sanchez said. Weve got the monitor breathing down our throats, and policy development has gone nowhere.

Debra Yoshimura, the director of internal audit for the city, said in a letter to City Attorney Jessica Hernandez last week that she has been unable to obtain any of Greenwoods new invoices since March 2015. She was reviewing the citys costs for Greenwoods work at the request of Sanchez, after there were questions raised about some of the citys payments to him.

Yoshimura said she found Greenwood overcharged the city by $1,606 between April 2014 and July 2014. In March, she said the city finally paid Greenwood for his work from July 2014 through March 2015, but the city has yet to deduct $1,469 in previously identified overcharges.

Yoshimura isnt the only one who has struggled to keep tabs on Greenwood.

Mr. Greenwood has been very difficult to reach in recent months, Hernandez said in a letter responding to Yoshimura. He has not responded to a number of attempts to contact him.

Hernandez said in an interview Tuesday that she has since been able to reach Greenwood and that he will continue to be involved in the case.

Its useful to have him involved going forward. He does bring a valuable perspective, she said.

Greenwood and Tom Streicher, a former police chief, were hired shortly after the DOJ investigated Albuquerque police and found a pattern of excessive force. They helped negotiate the settlement agreement, which outlines a series of reforms.

It wasnt immediately clear Wednesday how much Greenwood has been paid by the city.
Police are investigating a hit and run that left a pedestrian in critical condition Wednesday night, according to a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department.

Officer Daren DeAguero said a vehicle struck the pedestrian on the 200 block of Texas NE, near Wyoming and Central, and fled the area. The pedestrian was taken to the University of New Mexico Hospital where he is in critical condition, he said.

Officers are currently interviewing witnesses to get a description of the vehicle, DeAguero said.

Texas is shut down between Chico and Copper while police investigate.
The skies over Kirtland Air Force Base will be more alive than usual this weekend as the base hosts its 75th Anniversary Air Show, featuring the Air Force Thunderbirds, aerial acrobatic demonstrations and displays of more than two dozen military and civilian aircraft.

Although the Thunderbirds, who last visited Kirtland in October 2011, are the headliners, more than a dozen other aerial acts are slated, ranging from the hilarious antics of crazy Kyle Franklin to fly-overs by vintage and state-of-the-art military planes and helicopters. The Air Forces skydiving team, Wings of Blue, will be on hand, and even a jet-powered dragster will make a 250- mph-plus run down the runway.

UPDATE: Thunderbirds grounded, rest of show to go on

Kirtland, which first began training bomber crews in 1941, turned 75 this year, and the air show is one of the highlights of a yearlong celebration. The base still trains air crews, but has evolved into a national security installation, hosting more than 75 federal and 300-plus associated private-sector agencies. It covers 51,558 acres and employs nearly 21,000 people.

The free shows are the Air Forces way of thanking the Albuquerque community for its years of support, according to base officials.

Unless you have a Defense Department ID or other authorized base-access card, you will have to park at one of several off-base lots and ride a free bus to the air show, according to base officials.

Enter at the Eubank Gate and take the Red Route bus to the air show. Base residents can drive to the Eubank lots for parking to ride Red Route buses, or to the DOE parking lot south of the Fitness Center to ride Blue Route buses to the show.

Buses will run to and from the air show every 10 to 15 minutes throughout the day, with the last buses leaving the base about 4:30 p.m. For security purposes, all bus riders and the items they carry will be checked before boarding buses to the air show. No identification is required, but people are subject to random searches while on base.

Buses begin running at 9 a.m., and base gates open at that time. But youll want to be early  the base is expecting tens of thousands of attendees each day, according to base officials. The air shows begin at 10:30 a.m. and will end at 4:30 p.m. Base entry ends at 3 p.m. each day.

Real-time updates on parking will be available both days at facebook.com/KirtlandAirShow and facebook.com/events/535219823317285.

There will be food, beverage and souvenir vendors along the flight line, but they only accept cash, base officials said. ATMs will be available throughout the area.

Attendees are urged to bring sunscreen, water, umbrellas and folding chairs.
AMSTERDAM  The European Union and United States signed a deal Thursday aimed at protecting personal data shared by law enforcement authorities in the EU and U.S. as they tackle major crime.

Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said the agreement he signed Thursday along with U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and European Commissioner Vera Jourova will improve cooperation between U.S. and European law enforcement authorities when combating serious crime and terrorism.

U.S. President Barack Obama helped clear the way for the deal by signing in February a law that gives EU citizens the same rights to redress as U.S. citizens in privacy breach cases.

The signing ceremony Thursday came during a meeting of EU and U.S. justice and home affairs ministers that focused on ways to tackle the migration crisis and fight organized crime and violent extremism.

The ministers, agreed that the current migration and refugee challenges require global solutions through increased international cooperation and regional action, the EU said in a statement.
Multi-billion dollar defense contractor Lockheed Martin today officially announced that it will bid to retain its management of Sandia National Laboratories.

Lockheed Martin intends to submit a bid for the Sandia National Laboratories Management and Operations contract competition, said Matt Kramer, director of external communications for Lockheed Martins Space Systems division, in an email to the Journal.

Kramer said Lockheed Martin is proud of its 23-year partnership with the Department of Energys National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees work at the nations nuclear weapons labs.

Lockheed Martin has helped Sandia maintain a steadfast focus on its core nuclear deterrence mission, delivering on-time and on-budget performance for five major life extension programs, Kramer said. At the same time, Sandia has advanced its role as a premier research and development institution, leading cutting-edge efforts in cyber security, energy technologies, non-proliferation and advanced computing.

Critics of Lockheed Martin have said the firm should be disqualified based on a 2014 report by the Department of Energys Office of Inspector General that concluded the firm wrongfully used federal funds for lab operations to lobby for the no-bid contract extension it received several years ago.

Sandia Corp. and its parent company, Lockheed Martin, paid the federal government a $4.8 million fine for using tax dollars to lobby Congress and federal agencies for renewal of its then-$2.4 billion Sandia contract with the Department of Energy in violation of federal law.

However, Sandia got an outstanding overall performance rating in its annual federal evaluation released last month, and the lab was awarded a $27.3 million fee, almost the full amount available based on performance.

But in the leadership category, Sandia Corp. was marked down considerably because of the results of a Department of Justice investigation.

The allegations and subsequent settlement damaged the reputation of the Laboratory and the parent company, says the fiscal year 2015 evaluation released today by the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Undeterred, Martin said Lockheed Martin and its subsidiary  Sandia Corp.  are eager to continue its work with the lab.

Lockheed Martin looks forward to the opportunity to continue this successful partnership, and is ready to help NNSA and Sandia address tomorrows critical global security challenges, he said.

The NNSA, which oversees the Albuquerque-based nuclear weapons lab, released its final request for proposals last month and said it will conduct a full and open competition for awarding the contract, which will consist of a four-month transition phase and a five-year base period with options for up to five additional years.

The Department of Energy first announced in 2011 that it planned to open the contract to new bidders but then granted a series of extensions to Lockheed Martin. A new Sandia contract must be in place by April 2017 under the current schedule.

The University of New Mexico is planning to submit a joint bid to run the lab with Battelle, The Boeing Co., the University Texas System and the Texas A&M University System on a bid to manage Sandia National Laboratories.

With headquarters at Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia is one of the Albuquerque areas largest employers, with more than 10,500 people on its current payroll and an annual budget of $2.9 billion. Sandias primary task is research, development and maintenance of U.S. nuclear weapons, but in the past decade its workload has broadened to include a range of other missions, including a growing amount of work for the Department of Defense and U.S. intelligence agencies.
New details emerged Thursday of the argument between two Santa Fe County sheriffs deputies that preceded a 2014 shooting that left one man dead.

Ex-deputy Tai Chan is on trial in 3rd Judicial District Court on charges of first-degree murder after he fatally shot fellow deputy Jeremy Martin in a Las Cruces hotel.

Chan has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys are arguing he shot his coworker in self-defense. Prosecutors argue Chan murdered Martin deliberately.

Chans then-girlfriend, now-wife, Leah Tafoya-Chan gave emotional testimony of being on the phone with Chan during much of the exchange that led to shots being fired inside Hotel Encanto room 711 after midnight on Oct. 28, 2014.

An acquaintance of Chan, Ian Robles, testified to jurors about the argument that ignited tensions between the two men earlier that evening at a local restaurant-pub.

Chan and Martin had stopped in Las Cruces overnight after transporting a prisoner to Arizona earlier that day. Chan called a couple of friends and a cousin to join him and Martin at a local restaurant pub, Dublins.

Robles was there and he was sober.

The two deputies were arguing about a Santa Fe double-homicide case in which two kids were found dead in a car, Robles said. Chan joked to Martin, Its your fault, Robles said. Something about the exchange angered Martin and at one point he walked away from the table.

Robles did not provide details but the double-homicide in question could have been the murder of 13-year-old AnaMarie Ojeda and her 18-year-old boyfriend Venancio Venny Cisneros just two days prior.

Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office spokesman Juan Rios confirmed today that Martin was called to the scene of the execution style slayings. His role was the secure the crime scene and control who came and went, Rios said. Chan, at the time a warrant agent and member of the SWAT team, had no connection to the case, according to Rios.

Ricardo Ricky Martinez, about 21 years-old, was arrested and charged with the killings about three weeks after the shootings after he was tracked to Colorado Springs.

Robles also testified that Martin was repeatedly calling Chan gay, telling him to come out of the closet and betting that he wouldnt talk to a girl.

The argument at Dublins never escalated beyond raised voices, Robles said.

Tafoya-Chan took the stand after Robles. She told the jury she and Chan had been dating for more than a year and she was nine weeks pregnant with his child at the time. Chan called her around midnight, she said.

Tai called and he was rambling, she told the jury. Thats when I started getting scared. He said a lot of things that werent making sense to me.

One of the things he told her: They are framing me for murder.

Tafoya-Chan said she was yelling at him, asking what was happening, what was going on  then the phone disconnected. She started calling him repeatedly. There was a second phone call in which she heard shuffling before the line disconnected.

Then, a third phone call that lasted some 20 minutes.

Tafoya-Chan told jurors she heard someone  not Chan  say Nobodys going to jail. Were not getting arrested. She heard an echo as if Chan was in the bathroom. There was banging on the door. And Chan told her, He punched me in the face and kicked me in the balls.

She told the jury she heard the door open and then fisticuffs or a fight, then Chan yelling strong verbal commands: Sit down, sit down. Then, a pow, like something being hit against a wall. Then, I heard two shots, she said.

Tafoya-Chan told her husbands defense attorney, John Day, that she heard a muffled please no, please no and she believed it was Chan speaking. Later, she told deputy district attorney Davis Ruark that she couldnt be sure whose muffled voice it was.

The trial is ongoing today and is expected to continue tomorrow.

The state rested its case around 11 a.m.

This is a developing story.
Dreamstyle Remodeling of Albuquerque has been selected for Stanford Universitys Latino Entrepreneur Leaders program.

Dreamstyle was one of 80 businesses selected nationally, according to a news release from the company.

To be included, businesses needed to have at least $2 million in annual revenues and a strong growth trajectory. Dreamstyle has annual revenues of $80 million.

The Latino Entrepreneur Leaders program is a collaboration between Stanford University and the Latino Business Action Network, which is striving to double the number of $10 million Latino-owned businesses nationally by 2020.

The highly-immersive 2016 Leaders Program is focused on scaling for excellence.

Dreamstyle, owned by Larry Chavez, employs 390 people in New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Idaho. The company has achieved double digit percentage growth annually for five consecutive years and has locations in seven cities, according to the company.

I am proud to be a Latino business owner and look forward to benefiting from the educational and networking opportunities this program presents, and contributing to the growth of Latino-owned businesses nationally, Chavez said in the release.

The immersive six-week program provides participants with concepts and frameworks, enhanced access to capital, personal mentorship from successful entrepreneurs and investors and a better understanding of the capital resources necessary to grow their businesses.
The Allen Sigmon Group Real Estate Group of Albuquerque has sold a 150,000-square-foot industrial property that it owned in Rio Rancho to a California investor for undisclosed terms.

The property, which is located at 4091 Rockaway Blvd. NW, had been listed by the firm for $8.2 million.

We are rarely sellers; we are typically buy-and-hold guys, said company co-owner Brad Allen of the property, which is 70 percent leased to Aero Mechanical, a firm that refurbishes airplane parts to current FAA standards.

Allen and the late Roger Cox purchased the 10-acre site in 2004 and later made improvements.

The partners in 2006 financed a build-to-suit addition of 50,000 square feet for Source One Spares, a business that distributes refurbished flight control surfaces and airframe components for commercial aircraft operators worldwide. The business has relocated to Arkansas and Allen Sigmon will help the new owner on leasing the excess space. The new owner had invested in another warehouse in Albuquerque, which he sold in December and used the proceeds to purchase the Rockaway property.

Allen said the building basically had no debt on it.

At some point (as an investor) you take those funds and redeploy them elsewhere where the growth potential is higher, he said.

We are actively looking at other opportunities, preferably the purchase of another office-warehouse type of product, he said of the rest of the companys partners, which includes Lance Sigmon, Robert Powell and Jeff Martinez.

The firm is taking a broad approach as investors and developers.

Total Management Systems and Allen Sigmon signed an agreement in April with Aggie Development Inc. to build and run a four-story, 122-room hotel on 2.7 acres of university land next to the Las Cruces Convention Center.

Total Management also worked with partners from the Allen Sigmon last year to finish and open the Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel near the Big-I.
U.S. Sen. Tom Udall addressed questions from Albuquerque business leaders on touching on topics ranging from fracking to federal spending to the struggling New Mexico economy. Udall addressed the monthly luncheon of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce at the Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown Hotel.Following his speech, which focused on his support for the upcoming vote on his co-sponsored bill mandating stricter regulation of chemicals in consumer goods, he took questions from business leaders and community members who wanted to know his stance on the minimum wage, fracking, protections for senior citizens and how the federal government can help New Mexicos economy.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.  Arizona Department of Transportation officials say Interstate 17 in Flagstaff will closed for up to four hours so law enforcement can address hazardous material discovered in a shed near the highway.

They say a rancher discovered about 50 pounds of old dynamite on the east side of Newman Park, north of Munds Park.

The hazardous material cant be safely removed, so it will be destroyed in place.

While no damage is expected to occur to I-17, the highway is being closed as a precaution.

ADOT says I-17 was closed around 2 p.m. Thursday southbound at Kelly Canyon and northbound at State Route 179.
DENVER  For the second consecutive year, Gov. John Hickenlooper has vetoed a bill that would have enacted a statewide ban on red-light traffic cameras.

Hickenlooper said Thursday he agrees with lawmakers that photo enforcement tools should only be used for public safety, not to generate income.

But he said a bill passed by the Legislature this year robbed municipalities of the power to decide whether to use the often-unpopular cameras.

Hickenlooper vetoed similar legislation last year.

___

Red-light camera bill: http://bit.ly/1VA8cVI
LAS CRUCES, N.M.  Authorities have released the names of a Las Cruces couple found dead in their home last month in a murder-suicide.

Las Cruces police said Thursday that detectives believe 83-year-old Theodore Schmitz used a handgun to shoot his 82-year-old wife Viola before turning the weapon on himself.

The bodies were found April 28 after police were asked by a caregiver to conduct a welfare check on a couple.

Officers reported finding the bodies in the homes master bedroom.

Police detectives say they learned the couple both had health issues that required extensive medical attention.

They believe the murder-suicide occurred a few days prior to April 28.
ACAs library of educational tools help members improve their business practices. ACA also holds the most popular industry conferences and offers credentialing for collectors, attorneys, and more. ACAs Training Zone subscription gives agencies access to almost all of our education for one low cost.
(Bloomberg) New Yorks highest court again rejected a bid by former American International Group Inc. Chairman Maurice Hank Greenberg to dismiss the states decade-old fraud suit against him, clearing a path for a trial.

Greenberg, 91, stepped down as chief executive officer of AIG in March 2005 after building it into the worlds largest insurer over four decades. Shortly thereafter, company officials said one of its transactions was improper, restated its earnings by $3.4 billion and paid $1.6 billion to settle claims by regulators.

Greenberg and former AIG Chief Financial Officer Howard Smith were sued the next month by then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer under the states Martin Act, an almost century-old law that gives prosecutors the power to probe investment frauds, Ponzi schemes and other forms of white-collar crime.

Spitzer alleged Greenberg and Smith were responsible for transactions to hide a decline in the companys loss reserves and mischaracterize underwriting losses. Since then, Greenberg has faced off against three successive attorneys general in the case, which was set to go to trial in June 2015 before an appeals court in Manhattan sent the case to the states high court in Albany for review.

The lawsuit will return to New York State Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos in Manhattan.

Greenberg Defense

Greenberg had argued that the Martin Act and another state law didnt allow the attorney general to seek to bar him or Smith from the securities industry, ban them from serving as officers or directors of public companies and ask for repayment of wrongfully obtained profits.

The court in Albany disagreed, saying the relevant laws allow the attorney general to seek a range of remedies including repayment.

The Martin Act contains a broad, residual-relief clause, providing courts with the authority, in any action brought under the act, to grant such other and further relief as may be proper,  the court of appeals said.

State prosecutors dropped their demand for monetary damages after AIG shareholders settled claims against the company for $115 million. But they continued seeking to force Greenberg and Smith to disgorge any performance-based bonuses that may be related to the transactions and to have the two men barred from the securities industry and from serving as corporate directors.

Powerful Allies

Greenberg has been supported by high-powered allies in his fight against the attorney general, including former New York governors George Pataki and the late Mario Cuomo.The case stems from two reinsurance transactions: a deal with Berkshire Hathaway Inc.s General Reinsurance Corp. used to reverse a decline in loss reserves at AIG, and an agreement with CAPCO Reinsurance Co.

Four former Gen Re executives and one from AIG were convicted of accounting fraud charges in 2008 but won reversals in 2011. Federal prosecutors agreed to drop charges in 2012 under deferred prosecution agreements after the former executives admitted aspects of the Gen Re deal were fraudulent.

Meanwhile, Greenberg sued the U.S. government over the 2008 bailout of AIG, claiming the companys equity was wrongfully taken. His Starr International Co. is currently appealing a federal court ruling from last year that found the bailout was illegal while denying him as much as $40 billion in damages.

The case is State of New York v. Greenberg, 401720-2005, New York state Supreme Court (Manhattan).
As the Baby Boomers move into retirement, their $50 trillion in assets will move with them -- and theyll need professional help with the transition, according to Roger Ochs, president and CEO of broker-dealer HD Vest Financial Services.

In his opening address at the companys annual meeting for its financial advisors, Connect2016, being held this week in the Washington, D.C., area, Ochs explained that the 120 million households in the United States hold around $100 trillion in assets, in everything from homes and other real estate to retirement and investment accounts, to small businesses, and more. Boomers own roughly half of that, he noted, and as they transition to their post-work lives, they will need to figure out how to structure it so that it meets their income and spending goals.

Theyre going to transition to retirement over the next 15 to 18 years, Ochs said. Thats the tsunami of assets that will be transitioning, if you will.

As an example, Ochs cited the significant amounts of money that will be moving out of 401(k) accounts and into IRAs as people leave their employers -- $439 billion will make that transfer in 2016 alone.

The Boomers will also face major liquidity events as they downsize to smaller homes or assisted-living facilities, and as those who own businesses determine what to do with them.

Somebodys got to advise people on all that, and at the same time, theres been a net decrease in the number of advisors out there, Ochs said. Thats a tremendous opportunity.

Ready for the tsunami

Its an opportunity that Ochs believes HD Vest and its advisors are poised to make the most of.

Were one of the few who are bringing new advisors on, he said, noting that the company added 520 new advisors in 2015, giving it a record 4,600.

Vest now has $37 billion in assets under management, with about $10 billion of that in advisory assets.

And on one of the major issues currently facing financial planners -- the Department of Labors recently released fiduciary standard -- Ochs is confident that Vest and its advisors will actually benefit from it.

We already follow a fiduciary standard today, he said in an interview with Accounting Today. The DOL standard is way over here compared to the current standard, but our advisors understand fiduciary -- it wont be a huge stretch for them.

Whats more, Vests goals-based approach to planning, which emphasizes a higher level of services aimed at helping clients achieve lifetime success, as opposed to a short-term focus on selling products, will put its advisors ahead when the new DOL rules start benchmarking industry fees based on services provided.

Were in the right spot to be able to comply with the rule, Ochs said.
IMGCAP(1)]Now that the crush of tax season is safely behind us, and many tax professionals have already taken some well-deserved time off, many of them are also now experiencing an uneasy letdown.

Despite their collective sigh of relief at the end of tax season, the lull that afflicts the profession afterwards can be disquieting. Just as too much work can be unnerving, the sudden drop-off in activity can also be unsettling.

For the ambitious tax advisor, however, this temporary hiatus can offer an extraordinary opportunity to build the business and reinvigorate client relationships  even without soliciting new clients or finding new projects to work on.

One of my oldest friends is a veteran tax advisor who diligently makes it her practice to use this post-tax-season period to engage in a detailed analysis of every clients tax return. She compares each return to the prior seasons to see where things changed and where they didnt, and considers what areas could be improved with a little more thoughtfulness.

She then schedules time to sit down with her clients and show them what she has observed as a result of her post-mortem examination, and provide suggestions for future steps. By looking backwards, she is able to help her clients going forward.

This is an approach that could work broadly for all tax professionals. Quite simply, now that your clients tax returns are done, you can take some time for calm reflection and intensive examination to focus on the returns you recently completed. This can yield a treasure trove of insights and suggestions for ways to improve upon your clients tax vulnerabilities, to help them improve upon their financial performance for the year that has already begun, and to improve your own level of service and client engagement.

Where to Begin?

As tax professionals know so well, every line in the tax return tells a story. Each line yields insights into every clients individual financial and personal life.

In a special, invitation-only pre-conference session at Connect16, the annual national meeting for HD Vest Financial Services, held in Washington, D.C. this week, my friend joined a panel of experts among independent tax and financial advisors, together with broker-dealer industry leaders to discuss how tax advisors can approach this process.

Without overwhelming her clients, my friend considered a few major categories as effective conversation starters:

What was different this year? As a point of departure, she would examine what was different in the latest return from the year before. Was there a sudden change in income, or medical expenses? Were the same deductions taken? Then she would delve into questioning why these changes had happened. This was a good way into a conversation regarding the clients finances and it often elucidated topics of great significance that were previously unknown to her.

As a point of departure, she would examine what was different in the latest return from the year before. Was there a sudden change in income, or medical expenses? Were the same deductions taken? Then she would delve into questioning why these changes had happened. This was a good way into a conversation regarding the clients finances and it often elucidated topics of great significance that were previously unknown to her. What efficiencies were achieved? In addition, she would also point out the improvements they had made from the previous year. Were these a result of suggestions they had previously discussed? Were similar, additional types of efficiencies available to capture in the current year, in different areas of the return?

In addition, she would also point out the improvements they had made from the previous year. Were these a result of suggestions they had previously discussed? Were similar, additional types of efficiencies available to capture in the current year, in different areas of the return? What life changes are on the horizon? This would bring the conversation to focus on major upcoming life turning points  education expenses, home renovations, weddings, divorces, etc.  and how to make sure that their tax ramifications were not only taken into account, but optimally planned for.



From Tax Preparer to Tax Planner to Financial Advisor

For my friend, at the very least, asking these questions, and seeing how they could result in an even better outcome in the future, helped cement the advisor-client relationship. But beyond that, they pointed the way to a deeper level of professional relationship. In essence, my friend had taken the first step from being merely a tax preparer to becoming a tax planner, and, essentially, a financial planner and financial advisor to her clients.

Not every tax advisor wishes to become a financial advisor. Some are happy simply to remain tax professionals; others realize that working in closer concert with the clients financial advisor can significantly improve the clients financial performance.

For some tax professionals, however, the step to becoming a financial advisor in addition to being a tax advisor seems a natural progression. No one has as profound a view into the clients holistic financial life as their tax advisor. By adding a new layer of service  supplying investment advice and wealth management capabilities, for instance  the tax advisor can have considerably more impact on their clients overall financial health.

For those who wish to make this transition, the first step is to find the right broker-dealer. Working with the right broker-dealer can provide the necessary training and point the way to the required certifications, followed by obtaining the resources, range of investment products and the practice support that can make a tax advisor, armed with investment expertise and wealth management skills, into a financial planner whose engagement with the client is not once a year but an all-year-round endeavor.

Scott Rawlins is managing director of sales at HD Vest Investment Services, an Irving, Texas-based independent broker-dealer.
Private sector employment grew by 173,000 jobs in May, according to payroll giant ADP, in a sign of slowing job growth.

Small businesses with 49 or fewer employees added 76,000 jobs in May, down from an upwardly revised 101,000 in April, according the ADP National Employment Report. That figure included 38,000 jobs at small businesses with between one and 19 employees, and 38,000 at companies with between 20 and 49 employees.

Midsize businesses with between 50 and 499 employees gained 63,000 jobs in May, up from 39,000 in April.

Employment at large companiesthose with 500 or more employeesincreased by 34,000 in May, up from Aprils 25,000. That total includes 11,000 jobs at companies with between 500 and 999 employees and 24,000 at companies with 1,000 employees or more.

Job creation appears to have slowed as we move further into 2016, said Ahu Yildirmaz, vice president and head of the ADP Research Institute, in a statement. Challenging global conditions affecting hiring at large companies and a tightening labor market for skilled workers are among the factors that may be contributing to the slowdown.

Service-providing employment rose by 175,000 jobs in May, a slight increase over Aprils upwardly revised 173,000. The professional and business services sector, which includes accounting, tax preparation and other services, contributed 43,000 jobs in May, up from Aprils upwardly revised total of 38,000 jobs. The combined trade, transportation and utilities sector grew by 28,000 in May, up slightly from the 24,000 jobs added the previous month. The financial activities sector added 13,000 jobs in May. Franchise jobs increased 19,400 in May.

Goods-producing employment dropped by 1,000 jobs in May after losing a revised 7,000 jobs in April. The construction industry added 13,000 jobs in May, in line with the previous month. Meanwhile, the manufacturing industry lost 3,000 jobs in May after losing 10,000 in April.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moodys Analytics, which compiles the monthly national employment report with ADP, said the job gains appear to be fairly broad-based, with the exception of the manufacturing and energy sectors. However, he acknowledged there seems to be some slowing of job growth in the past two to three months.

I think its premature to conclude that this is going to be a persistent slowdown, he said during a conference call with reporters Thursday. We had been seeing job creation averaging around 200,000 per month year in and year out over the last five years. We do have to expect at some pointif not now, but certainly in the near futurea persistent slowing in job creation, in large part because the economy is now close to full employment. The unemployment rate is 5 percent and the underemployment rate is now 9.7 percent. Theres evidence that wage growth is picking up.

Zandi believes there will be a slowdown in job growth in the not too distant future to around 100,000 a month to be more consistent with the growth in the working age population as more Baby Boomers retire.

He anticipates the official job numbers coming out Friday from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will indicate job growth of around 160,000 for May, in part because of the different ways that ADP and the BLS account for the Verizon workers who recently settled their strike and the fact that the BLS numbers also include public sector employees. Overall, he sees positive signs for the job market and the economy.

It feels to me like the job market is very healthy and strong, said Zandi. Job creation is good. Were seeing a definitive pickup now in wage growth. The growth in open job positons is near a record high. Layoffs are very, very low. Weve seen a pickup in people quitting their jobs. Thats indicative of a healthy market because people dont quit their jobs unless they feel like they can easily find another one. Hiring has picked up. Its really hard to identify any significant blemish in the labor market. The fundamental strength of the U.S labor market is reason for optimism about the broader U.S. economy and really is the key to the global economy because those are jobs that support income growth and are necessary to support consumer spending in the United States that is so key to driving a lot of the growth in the rest of the world through our trade. As long as the U.S. job market hangs firm and tough, the U.S. economy and to some extent the global economy should do well.
Stephen Chipman, the former CEO of Grant Thornton LLP, has become CEO of Radius, a provider of international accounting, finance, banking, tax, HR, legal and compliance support for global companies, based in Boston.

Chipman worked for Grant Thornton for 34 years, rising to the CEO post of GTs U.S. firm in 2010 and then becoming senior vice chairman last year before announcing his retirement last August (see Grant Thornton Senior Vice Chairman Chipman to Retire Early). Born in England, he served three years running Grant Thornton China Management Corporation, GTs Chinese firm, with more than 2,500 people in 17 offices.

Chipman takes over the CEO post at Radius from Chris Stone, who stepped down as CEO when the company relocated its headquarters from the United Kingdom to Boston, but Stone will remain a member of Radiuss board of directors.

Im really excited about it, Chipman told Accounting Today on Thursday. I spent the largest part of my career serving international clients and businesses that are growing and expanding overseas. I spent a big part of my career at Grant Thornton working on expanding Grant Thorntons business overseas. I have a passion for international business and helping businesses expand internationally, so when I learned about Radius, who really are a unique professional services organization that have a turnkey set of solutions to help businesses expand internationally and deal with all of the challenges and issues and potential frustrations to get their businesses up and running in international markets, it was really of interest.

Chipman was also impressed by the foundations of the company. Theyve really recruited and built great technical competency and expertise in international accounting, tax, legal, HR, a whole variety of business issues that companies face when they expand internationally, he said. In combination with that, they have a terrific delivery capability that can produce high-quality financial, accounting, payroll and business reporting that help someone run their businesses. A third element is a terrific software application that allows a CFO or a controller to look across their entire portfolio of international businesses and get all the financial information they need to close the books, to manage the business, as simple as making sure that people are getting paid in overseas locations.

He recounted a meeting Thursday with a venture capital-backed software startup in Boston that recently raised a third round of funding. Theyre rapidly expanding into three or four international locations, said Chipman. The CFO told me that to be able to pick up the phone and call Radius and have a turnkey solution to get all of those operations in place, with people on the ground and all the support and resources necessary to allow him to move into those markets, was of huge value to him. For me personally its a great fit, and the company is very well positioned for tremendous growth as more and more businesses expand internationally.

Radius is a private equity-backed company, which should provide a big contrast to working in a CPA firm. Im really looking forward to being in an entrepreneurial environment, said Chipman. Grant Thornton, actually, as a large professional services firm goes, is pretty entrepreneurial, but the partnership model is a different model. Radius is a private equity-backed business. Were moving very quickly. Were all about speed and response to our clients, and speed and response to our own growth agenda, yet at the same time it has a lot of components that are very familiar to me, not least of which is really creating a unique client experience that differentiates you from the competition. That is a very consistent overlap with my experience in public accounting as well as the focus on people and attracting great talent and building great teams to deliver on that client service experience. Its just doing it at a faster pace and in a more entrepreneurial environment where you have external capital supporting you.

Grant Thornton has been doing some work for Radius, but Chipman said he got to know the company independently from his role at GT.

The former CEO is based in the U.K., and the company made a strategic decision to shift the center of the global business to the United States, where they saw the biggest market opportunity, he explained. As such, they asked the U.K. CEO to relocate here, and he wasnt in a personal position to do that. They looked to recruit a U.S. CEO, and thats how I got on the radar.

Nevertheless, the two businesses do have some existing relationships. Grant Thornton does some work for Radius, said Chipman. They do the internal control audit for the SOC reporting, which is just by coincidence. Curiously, I will be a client now, which is exciting for me. Also, in some of the overseas markets where we help our clients we have some relationships with some Grant Thornton member firms who provide us with some specialist advice in some challenging markets where Radius clients are operating.

However, Chipman sees some important distinctions between Radius and accounting firms like GT. I think its important to know that Radius has a model and is providing a service that really no one is providing, he said. Organizations including some of the public accounting firms do bits of what Radius does, but no one does the turnkey soup to nuts service offering that Radius provides. Were beyond the accounting and tax side. Were helping with human resource issues, getting expatriates on the ground, dealing with contractual issues, really a broad range of business, financial, tax, HR and legal issues that businesses face when they move overseas, so its a much broader scope of services than what you see in a traditional accounting firm model. And of course being outside the scope of the regulatory environment of the profession, its a more innovative environment in some senses because we can really react to our clients needs. Obviously were focused on quality, but we are not restricted by the regulatory environment that the large accounting firms operate under.

Radius provides some outsourcing of back-office functions for its clients. The companys OverseasConnect software allows a CFO to gain visibility into data about a company to help manage the business. Radius also provides advisory and consulting functions for clients, along with analysis and other information.

When a company is getting started, they need a lot of consulting and a lot of advice, said Chipman. They dont even know the questions they need to ask.

Chipman hopes to use his experience in China to expand Radiuss presence in Asia region.

Thats a really important market for us, he said. We have an office in Beijing. I think we have in the range of 30 to 50 people on the ground in China. Its certainly one of the markets we see our U.S. clients at Radius expanding into rapidly. We have a tremendous amount of growth opportunity in helping U.S. businesses expand. That trend is going to continue and accelerate. At the same time theres an interesting trend of Chinese businesses investing in the United States, and we certainly see an opportunity over time to be an expert and a resource for those Asia businesses coming into the United States, which provides an interesting avenue for growth for us beyond just serving U.S. businesses.

Chipman is enthusiastic about the opportunities offered by his new job. Im pretty excited to be here, he said. I was so lucky to have this great career at Grant Thornton and do so many wonderful things, but the consistent thing I enjoyed the most is my passion for working with international businesses and helping them grow. To find an organization like Radius where I can really leverage all of that experience in helping international businesses and do it with an organization that is entirely focused on that, that is really compatible and able to collaborate with the large accounting firms to help their clients as well as a wide variety of businesses that are expanding internationally, I couldnt believe my luck. Im thrilled to be here, and Im really looking forward to the opportunity to drive the growth agenda here, which I think is really tremendous for this organization.
Publicis Groupe has announced today that Laura Desmond, Chief Revenue Officer, Publicis Groupe, will be taking a six-month sabbatical starting July 1, 2016, in order for her to focus her full attention on a significant family health issue. Desmond plans to return to Publicis Groupe on January 1, 2017.

Laura has been dedicated to Publicis Groupe for her entire career, successfully driving transformation, growth and impact for the Groupe and its clients, says Maurice Levy, Chairman & CEO, Publicis Groupe. We fully support her taking this needed time to support her family and look forward to her return at the start of next year.

In the interim, Desmonds responsibilities will be coordinated by Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Strategist, Publicis Groupe. Over the next weeks, Desmond will be working closely with leadership to ensure an orderly transition for this interim period.

People know how committed I am to my profession and career, but family really does come first. Im very grateful to Maurice Levy and Publicis Groupe for being the kind of organization that supports people taking time to deal with challenging times. It's a priority for me to be there for my family for the next six months, and

then rejoining Publicis Groupe at the beginning of next year, says Desmond.

Appointed Chief Revenue Officer in December 2015, Desmond is responsible for developing strategies that catalyze Groupe transformation and business transformation through the alchemy of creativity and technology. In addition, she leads the Groupes Chief Client Officers, simplifying and accelerating the way clients access communications and marketing technology solutions across Publicis Groupe with the concept of Power of One. Prior to her current role, Desmond served as Global CEO of Starcom Mediavest Group, more than doubling its size and nurturing relationships with the worlds biggest marketers including Samsung, Procter & Gamble, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Visa as well as new establishment brands such as Airbnb and Twitter.

Its surprising because its just in December'15 Publicis Groupe had announced the newly created role of 'Chief Revenue Officer' for Laura Desmond. That press release of Publicis Groupe said "The mission will be to simplify the way clients access the range of solutions, without duplication or delay, and to accelerate the Groupes growth and development. Laura Desmond will also be responsible for the Groupes growth".

Some will wonder that now what happens to the mission of simplification and for next six months, who will be responsible to accelerate the Groupes growth and development. Is all going well in Publicis after the restructuring? It's only time that can answer that question. Till then watch the space.
Signature Start Up Masterclass Mumbai session had the restaurateur extraordinaire Riyaaz Amlani share his passion to paycheck journey during a free-spirited chat with the witty host Cyrus Sahukar.



Signature Startup Masterclass is a celebration of the real life success stories and provides a unique platform to passionate individuals who are looking for the right inspiration and guidance by giving them an opportunity to hear their icons share the story of how they managed to successfully convert their passion into paycheck.



During the Masterclass session Riyaaz shared the story how at the age of 16, he started his career as a shoe salesman in Mumbai, a mundane job which was sufficient to earn a decent livelihood, but his ambition was to pursue his passion and do something different in the space of food and beverage. In 2001 he started his own first unique cafe - Mocha, in Churchgate and since then he has never looked back.









The success of Mocha as a modern day coffee shop gave him the confidence to push boundaries and today he is the CEO and MD of the Impressario Group which operates 33-odd restaurants and cafes including some of the most unique and popular contemporary eateries in the country, such as Salt Water Cafe, Social and Smoke House Deli. Riyaaz is the youngest person to receive the 'Best Restaurateur' in India at the Time Out Food Awards.

To quote the celebrity restaurateur, We all have ambitions and dreams but not many are inspired enough to pursue them and that is the reason I am very happy to be a part of Signature Start Up Masterclass as it helps me in encouraging people to follow their passion and make a mark for themselves.



The evening witnessed a remarkable turnout at Antisocial, who were looking for inspiration to turn their passion into paycheck. Following the interactive session, the audience was entertained by a live performance by the bands - Bit of Both and FramebyFrame.


Forever family, never forgotten

A mother watched as her 2-year-old, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy stood in the middle of Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, hugging the gravestone of his father who had died five months prior.



With heavy hearts, the two journeyed from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to meet others who understood their loss.



The scene at the cemetery culminated a full weekend of events dedicated to helping families honor the lives of their fallen service members. Several days prior to the gravesite visit, the families, all wearing buttons with a photo of their deceased loved one, were greeted by the Defense Departments most senior leader at the Pentagon.



Defense Secretary Ash Carter and his wife Stephanie hosted more than 300 family members during family night in the Pentagon as part of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors Good Grief Camp on May 27.



The group of mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, and children each received a coin and personal welcome from Carter before they lined up for a group photo in front of the vast building.



We draw from you and your example, your strength, we draw remembrance, Carter told the crowd. We will never forget this day. We certainly wont forget why you are here. We think of you as forever a part of our family.



Sarah Jones, the toddlers mother, was told by a friend to come to the camp for support.



So I decided to jump in head-first and be around people who understand a little bit more what we are going through, Jones said. So far its been overwhelming but even with that, its been wonderful. I just know wherever I turn, theres going to be somebody there.



Each branch of the military participates in family night in the Pentagon. With the Armys horses, the Navys color guard, the Coast Guards mascot, the Air Forces paper airplanes, the Marines displays and much more, the evenings event offered a variety of opportunities for survivors to connect and share their stories.



Family members were able to don a Coast Guardsmans rescue swimmers gear and try on an Air Force pilots flight suit and helmet, most of it about 10 sizes too big for the younger children. Participants were also able to go for a spin in the gun turret of an Army Humvee.



This is an opportunity to thank the children and the loved ones of a military member who passed and to spend time with them and show them that the contribution they made is so important to us, said Maj. Gen. Martin Whelan, the Air Forces director of future operations and deputy chief of staff for operations.



Although a familys loss will be forever felt, events such as these help them know that they are not alone.



Its important to always remember the sacrifices these families have made, said Lt. Gen. William J. Bender, the Air Forces information dominance chief and chief information officer.



With hearts lighter than when they arrived, but tired from the evenings activities, the mother and son left the Pentagon. Although their loss would forever be felt, they gained friendships that will last a lifetime.
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb.  Three B-52 Stratofortresses are scheduled to deploy June 2 from Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, to RAF Fairford, United Kingdom, to participate in U.S. European Commands Exercises Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 16 and Saber Strike 16, and U.S. Africa Commands Just Hammer.

This deployment marks the third year in a row that strategic bombers have deployed to RAF Fairford and trained with U.S. and allied military forces.

Integrating strategic bombers with multi-national operations in a variety of scenarios enhances the readiness and capability of U.S. and NATO military forces, which is vital to global security, said Adm. Cecil D. Haney, U.S. Strategic Command commander. Ensuring we can operate from strategic forward locations like RAF Fairford is integral to our collective defense capabilities and a more timely and coordinated response during crises.

U.S. Strategic Command routinely deploys bombers to both the U.S. European Command and U.S. Pacific Command areas of responsibility to train and integrate with our allies and partners, while also demonstrating the ability to maintain command and control of the bomber force anywhere in the world. The most recent deployment of B-52s to Europe was in March in support of Exercises Cold Response and Serpentex.

One of nine DoD unified combatant commands, USSTRATCOM has global strategic missions, assigned through the Unified Command Plan, which include strategic deterrence; space operations; cyberspace operations; joint electronic warfare; global strike; missile defense; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; combating weapons of mass destruction; and analysis and targeting.

For more information, contact the USSTRATCOM Public Affairs Office at 402-294-4130 or PA@stratcom.mil or visit www.stratcom.mil.
Father-son duo comes full circle at BMT graduation, retirement

In the Air Force, countless parents have proudly watched their child graduate from basic military training, and countless children have seen their parents retire from service.



On May 27 at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, a father and son did both on the same day, respectively. Col. Hernando J. Ortega, Jr., the Air Education and Training Command Aerospace Medicine Division chief, watched his son, Airman 1st Class Hernando J. Ortega III, graduate from BMT before their family headed downtown for his retirement ceremony at the Alamo that afternoon.



"I think hes got a lot of potential," Ortega Jr. said of his son. "Hell have to step up and take all the opportunities that are given to him to move forward, but I know that hes going to do great things."



Ortega Jr., who joined the Air Force in 1986, served in Germany, South Korea and Houston and worked for NASA as a flight surgeon. Hes also been stationed at the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency and various units at AETC since 2007.



After three years in college, Ortega III decided he wanted to follow a similar career path as his father.



"I wanted to change things up in my life -- I wanted to have a career instead of working odd jobs as a civilian," said Ortega III, wholl be following in his fathers footsteps in the space system operations field. "Id like to someday work for NASA."



When the pair realized that Ortega Jr.s retirement date -- set for his 30-year career marker -- would coincide with Ortega IIIs graduation, the entire family planned to celebrate.



Celebrating Air Force achievements is common for the Ortega family, according to Ortega IIIs mother, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Holly Ortega, who served for 28 years.



"This makes me very proud," Holly said of her son and husband. "This has been a great opportunity for us to celebrate."



Besides Ortega III, the couple has two more children who may soon join the ranks of the armed forces. One of their children recently graduated from Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio with an ROTC scholarship.



"Other people might think a day like this is shocking, but were used to this lifestyle," Holly continued. "For us, this is normal -- its just the closure of a circle in our family history."



That circle was evident as father and son embraced on the parade field after the BMT ceremonies ended. The pair shared a touching first salute as each offered congratulations to the other.



"Its comforting to know that as I retire, my son will be able to stay in the Air Force and carry on my work," Ortega Jr. said.



Ortega III plans not to take this path for granted.



"Its kind of intimidating to be following someone whos been here for 30-plus years," Ortega III said. "But Im up for it."
Thunderbird F-16 crashes after Academy graduation; pilot unhurt

One of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds crash landed June 2 in a field near Colorado Springs, Colorado, following the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement, which was attended by President Barack Obama.



The F-16 Fighting Falcon, the #6 jet in the formation, crashed about 5 nautical miles south of Peterson Air Force Base at approximately 1 p.m., according to a Air Combat Command news release.



The pilot ejected safely and is with medical personnel undergoing evaluation as a precaution, the release said.



My thoughts are with the pilot, their family and friends and all (of the Thunderbirds personnel), Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James wrote in a tweet. Glad to hear pilot is safe.



The Air Force will perform a thorough investigation into the causes of the mishap, and those findings will be released when the investigation is complete.





Video of the Thunderbirds flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy commencement June 2.
Get AfricaFocus Bulletin by e-mail! Format for print or mobile Liberia/Global: Financial Secrecy at Work AfricaFocus Bulletin

Jun 2, 2016 (160602)

(Reposted from sources cited below) Editor's Note "Finance Uncovered, working with an anonymous Liberian journalist, has exposed a little-known offshore business registry that has created tens of thousands of anonymous companies and registered them to a non-existent address in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city. Although these companies are technically a creation of Liberian law, management of the registry is based in the United States and appears to have the support of the US government. ... Our investigation has discovered over half a billion pounds of high-value London property registered to Liberian offshore companies." In the wake of the Panama Papers leak of an extraordinary array of data from one prominent law firm, the revelations continue of the tangled web formed by international networks involved in concealing their assets through financial secrecy. This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a report on one such case, by investigative journalists working as part of the Finance Uncovered network, including the AmaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism in South Africa. This revelation came in the wake of an evolving scandal based on a report from Global Witness, revealing how two British businessmen used scams and bribery to deceive investors, used a London-based registry (the Alternative Investment Market), along with bribery of Liberian government officials, to pitch fake investments. Earlier this week, Liberian judicial authorities indicted Sable Mining Company and Sable's Liberian lawyer Varney Sherman, Speaker of Liberia's House of Representatives. See Global Witness press releases at https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/liberia/ Sorting out the details in cases such as these is complex, while some press reports cite an wider set of claims of corruption involving Liberian officials and large multinational corporations involved in the country. The move by the Liberian government to indict the alleged culprits in the Sable mining case is positive. But there can be more doubt that there is much more to uncover, both in Liberia and in the international networks of those outside the country who are using the country for their own illicit enrichment. For additional recent news on these development from the Liberian and international press, visit http://allafrica.com For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on illicit financial flows and related issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-iff.php For previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on Liberia, visit http://www.africafocus.org/country/liberia.php ++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++ Liberia: America's outpost of financial secrecy Finance Uncovered, 26 May 2016 By George Turner and a Liberian journalist http://www.financeuncovered.org, http://amabhungane.co.za/ - direct URL: http://tinyurl.com/hbw7vq7 [This investigation was supported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, who funded a trip by Finance Uncovered's Investigations Director to Liberia. It forms part of their Wealth of Nations Programme. In Liberia our director worked with a local journalist to try to understand the workings of Liberia's little spoken about corporate registry, a factory for anonymous companies. The name of the Liberian journalist has been withheld to prevent reprisals against his publication. ] After the Panama Papers, attention focused on the UK's role at the heart of a tax haven empire. But the UK isn't the only country which has created a web of offshore secrecy. In our latest investigation published today in South Africa's Daily Maverick in cooperation with AmaBhungane, we probe Liberia - America's offshore outpost in Africa. Finance Uncovered, working with an anonymous Liberian journalist, has exposed a little-known offshore business registry that has created tens of thousands of anonymous companies and registered them to a non-existent address in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city. Although these companies are technically a creation of Liberian law, management of the registry is based in the United States and appears to have the support of the US government. The companies, which can be purchased online, offer near-total anonymity to their clients, allowing them to hide assets without fear of being caught by law enforcement or revenue authorities. Our investigation has discovered over half a billion pounds of highvalue London property registered to Liberian offshore companies. And there have been allegations that revenues from the registry were used to fund arms purchases during Liberia's violent civil war. Liberia's secret companies Non-resident corporations are a particular form of corporate entity offered by the Liberian government to foreigners. They cannot do business in Liberia, and anyone in the world can set up such a corporation online within 24 hours through a corporate service provider. Registered with the ministry of foreign affairs, they have no liability to pay taxes in Liberia, and no obligation to declare who owns them or file annual accounts. They can also issue "bearer shares", a legal instrument banned in most countries because of the ease with which they can be used for tax evasion and money laundering. Bearer shares are unregistered certificates of ownership which can be physically transferred, changing ownership of a company without any record being kept. They are companies in cash form. This means that no one, including tax and law enforcement authorities and the directors of the company itself, can find out who the owners are. It is unclear exactly how many offshore companies Liberia has established. The Liberian government does not publish official figures, and Liberian officials repeatedly stonewalled requests for information, citing "commercial confidentiality". The registry is apparently a sensitive issue for the foreign ministry. The ministry's then-deputy minister for legal affairs, Boakai Kanneh, became visibly enraged when we raised the issue during a brief meeting and ordered us out of his office. Binyah Kesselly, former commissioner of the Liberia Maritime Authority (LMA), which has oversight of the corporate registry, said in answer to e-mailed questions that the number of companies registered is kept confidential because of competition in the maritime industry. The Liberian International Shipping and Corporate Registry (LISCR), a private company that manages the registry on the government's behalf, also cited commercial confidentiality in response to questions. Outside LISCR, the LMA, the ministry of foreign a airs and the president's office, few Liberians seem aware that the offshore companies registry exists. The minister in charge of the Liberian domestic business registry until his death earlier this year, deputy minister of commerce and trade services Cyril Allen, told us in December 2015 he was unaware that Liberia had any other system of registering companies. Some of the tax advisers who use the registry also seemed strangely unwilling to discuss it. Price Waterhouse Coopers is the only member of the "big four" accountancy rms with an office in Liberia, and is listed as a "certified service provider" on the LISCR's website. To qualify for this programme PwC must actively promote the use of Liberian companies. When we contacted them, the company said it would only respond to a letter delivered to its Monrovia office. A letter was delivered, but no reply was forthcoming. Liberia's former auditor-general, John Morlu, slammed what he called secrecy surrounding the registry and the Maritime Programme of which it forms part. He told us in an email: "The Presidency has managed to conceal the corporate registry in the infamous maritime registry with 99% of the Cabinet, 99% of the legislature, and 99% of the Liberian people having no clue what a corporate registry is. "Many Liberians know that the Maritime Programme is lucrative, and since it has always been the prerogative of the presidency no one dares bother to poke into it." However, Finance Uncovered located an OECD report from 2013 on Liberia's tax and transparency laws which states that 55 000 companies are registered in that country. Most are understood to be non-resident corporations. In 2009 the trial of former Liberian president and convicted war criminal Charles Taylor heard that the offshore corporate registry had registered 40 000 companies. Asked for comment, the Liberian government claimed that the maritime programme and the registry are not secret and that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf usually reports on the activities of the registry in her annual State of the Union address. No mention of the registry could be found in the previous twoffstate of the Union addresses. We asked when Sirleaf last updated the Liberian legislature on the programme, her spokesperson, Jerolinmek Matthew Piah did not respond. In search of 80 Broad Street To receive mail, all Liberian non-resident corporations must have an address in Liberia and a registered agent. Under Liberian law the LISCR Trust Company, a private entity with the address of 80 Broad Street, is the exclusive agent for all Liberian non-resident corporations. This means that all such corporations have the same mailing address - 80 Broad Street, Monrovia. Broad Street is the commercial heart of downtown Monrovia. But 80 Broad Street does not exist, and when we visited the area none of the businesses in the street had heard of it. At the ministry of post and telecommunications, no one would say who was assigned to that address. Finally, a DHL agent we interviewed found that mail for 80 Broad Street is diverted to LISCR, on 5th Street in Sinkor, a few kilometres away. At the LISCR offices, we-were told that the managing director, Joseph Keller, was on long-term sick leave in the US and no one had replaced him. Asked whether anyone at LISCR's Monrovia office could explain what happened there, we were told "no". LISCR's Monrovia office appears to be little more than a mail room, receiving correspondence for the thousands of companies registered there, which is scanned into computers and e-mailed to LISCR's US headquarters. The US connection Liberia's offshore registry would not have been possible without US patronage . A LISCR spokesperson said the foundation of the registry "resulted from an initiative of the United States government at the end of World War 2 to set up, in effect, an offshore ship register for the United States." Liberia was chosen because of the "strong historical connections between the US and Liberia". The Liberian shipping registry was founded in 1948 by former US secretary of state Edward Stettinius, who persuaded the Liberian government to contract out its shipping register to a private US company. Today LISCR, the register's current manager, is based in Vienna, Virginia, at the heart of the US military-industrial complex close to Washington DC. It has offices across the world. The fees collected by LISCR are transferred to the Liberian government through a special account at the US Federal Reserve. Liberian law continues to require that LISCR is owned and managed by US nationals. Its owner is Yoram Cohen, whose investment rm YCF Group owns agriculture, shipping and telecommunication companies operating in 18 countries, according to its website. Cohen was also the president of Cellcom, a Liberian cell phone company, before it was sold to Orange earlier this year. LISCR itself is registered in the tax haven and secrecy jurisdiction of Delaware in the US -prompting criticism in 2003 from the United Nations, which said it would have preferred the company to publicly declare its shareholders. LISCR said the UN has never accused it of wrongdoing and that it has always co-operated with Security Council investigations into Liberia. Throughout the history of the registry, LISCR and its predecessor have been staffed by retired US generals and former employees of the US coast guard. In return for hosting this outpost of financial secrecy, the Liberian government gets to keep 67% of the net revenues collected by LISCR on its behalf. Funds raised by the company accounted for 75% of the government's annual revenues during Charles Taylor's rule, according to Taylor's head of maritime a airs, Benoni Urey. During the first Liberian Civil War, revenues from the registry accounted for 90% of government revenue. The receipts are far less significant now, but there are still concerns about where they end up. Under the Taylor administration the Bureau of Maritime Affairs (BMA), a Liberian government agency that oversees the work of LISCR, took 10% of the revenue from the maritime programme for its running costs. This was off the government's balance sheet, and the UN alleged that Urey used the agency to make off-budget arms purchases during the civil war in violation of UN sanctions. In a recent interview, Urey claimed that the money granted to the BMA was used for legitimate running costs. He said his agency was audited four times and on each occasion he was cleared of wrongdoing. According to news reports, an agreement signed earlier this year between LISCR and the Liberian government grants the Liberian Maritime Authority, which has taken over from the BMA, 25% of revenues to meet its running costs. There appears to be little scrutiny of where the money goes, although there is no evidence that it is used for inappropriate expenditure. In 2009, LISCR's contract with the government came up for renewal, and the negotiations led to a political storm known as "Knucklesgate". Willis Knuckles was President Sirleaf's former chief of staff. In 2009, he was chairperson of Cellcom, LISCR's sister company, when emails emerged purporting to show that Knuckles tried to bribe members of the government, including Sirleaf herself, during the negotiations to extend LISCR's contract. An independent commission was set up to investigate the allegations led by Dr Elwood Dunn, a respected academic. The Dunn Commission, whose report can still be found on the Liberian president's website, states that their findings were in part based on interviews with Yoram Cohen and other sta ff at LISCR and Cellcom. The commission's report cleared Sirleaf of corruption but criticised Knuckles for offering a $200 top-up card to the president's brother-in-Law. The commission found evidence of some "unclear payments" by LISCR that should be probed further, including a $600 000 "pre-payment" referred to in an email on a hard drive in Sirleaf's mansion. In its response to Finance Uncovered, LISCR issued a stinging attack on the Dunn Commission, claiming that the commission never contacted the company in the course of its inquiries. LISCR added that the alleged payments from it referenced on the hard drive in the president's mansion never took place and that the company was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing in a letter from the Liberian justice ministry. Liberia blacklisted The offshore registry has prompted a growing number of countries to place Liberia on tax haven blacklists, with potentially farreaching consequences. In June 2015 the European Union released a consolidated list of tax havens drawn from its member states - and Liberia was included by Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. Now, the EU is threatening to create a new list compiled by the European Commission, and may impose sanctions on states that do not meet international tax and transparency Brazil lists Liberia as a "privileged tax regime". Argentina has produced a white list of countries that are not tax havens, and Liberia is one of the few that is not included. Several US states, including Montana and Oregon, have drawn up tax haven lists, and companies in these states doing business in listed countries have greater tax obligations. Again, Liberia features. Asked to comment, Sirleaf's office and LISCR emphasised that the registry complies with international norms and standards on tax and transparency. Said the president's office: "Liberia does not conform to the definition of tax haven and in fact is not considered such by leading OECD countries such as France and the USA." It added, "Over the past years, the government of Liberia has ... taken measures to improve upon the transparency and management of the programme to meet all of the OECD requirements. Liberia is in fact an OECD 'white-listed' jurisdiction." On its website and in its statement to Finance Uncovered, LISCR echoed the claim that Liberia is an OECD "white-listed jurisdiction". However, the OECD ceased to publish a white list in 2009. Responsibility for international coordination of policy in this area has passed to the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes. A spokesperson confirmed that the forum does not publish white lists. The forum, which has 131 members, including Liberia, conducts phased reviews of whether governments meet agreed standards on tax and transparency. Last reviewed in 2012, Liberia has yet to pass phase one. And this is because of lack of access to ownership and accounting information from Liberian non-resident corporations. In response, the government said: "There is no bad stigma attached to this designation, as many other countries have been in the same position. The reason for this is very simple. Liberia has not been able to compete with the larger countries, such as in Europe, as it does not have the infrastructure and manpower in place to assist with the implementation of the rigorous standards required by the OECD." Only eight states - Liberia, Vanuatu, Trinidad and Tobago, Nauru, Lebanon, Micronesia, Guatemala and Kazakhstan - have failed to make it past phase one of the OECD Global Forum. Even tiny well-known tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Mauritius and Panama have moved to phase two. This month Liberia passed new legislation on corporations, after the country was given a deadline by the OECD, which is conducting its latest review. This reiterates companies' obligation to keep internal accounting and ownership records but does not oblige them to file those records with the corporate registry. LISCR emphasised that the provisions are similar to those of many other countries. For the first time the law gives the Liberian authorities power to request documents from the companies themselves. A failure to comply results in a minimum fine of $1 000, while the ne for not keeping records is capped at $5 000. Liberian companies also continue to be allowed to issue bearer shares, which can make attempts to discover the ownership of companies extremely difficult. 'Unimaginable damage' After the European Union published its tax haven blacklist, officials at LISCR's US headquarters started to email campaign groups in Europe to ask for help in lobbying to get Liberia removed from the list. In one e-mail seen by Finance Uncovered, a senior LISCR official writes: "The harm this blacklisting will do to reputation and commercial enterprise is unimaginable." It is a fear echoed by banking representatives in Liberia. In the Liberian Observer, local banks said it was difficult for them to establish correspondent banking relations because of Liberia's reputation as a money-laundering centre. Asked about the effect on a country such as Liberia of being added to a blacklist, Melissa Dejong, a tax policy analyst for the OECD, said they are aware of financial institutions moving out of countries that do not comply with the Global Forum recommendations, and that blacklisting deters investment. "In some cases, jurisdictions may impose rules with respect to jurisdictions that do not meet the Global Forum standards," Dejong said. "For example, a jurisdiction may impose tax consequences on their own taxpayers who engage in transactions with a person in a jurisdiction that does not meet the Global Forum standards, such as higher withholding taxes, increased likelihood of audit, denial of tax benefits, increased information reporting requirements. These create a disincentive to investment." A national resource Kesselly, the former chief executive of the Liberian Maritime Authority, said the characterisation of Liberia as a tax haven is a "misconception". Kesselly said Liberia is not listed as a "highrisk" jurisdiction by the Financial Action Task Force, and that diplomatic correspondence with the EU suggests the country will be taken off the European list of tax havens later this year. Calling the registry "a national resource", he said that every non resident Liberian corporation must have an agent and an address in Liberia where official documents and mail can be served, regardless of whether anything else happens there. In addition, non-resident corporations pay fees to the Liberian government on incorporation and every year thereafter, as well as when they file documents. "The government views these programmes as national resources and is committed to protecting these resources by modernising them to both meet the needs of clients, and maintain compliant ratings from our international peers," Kesselly said. "This synergy ultimately benefits the people of Liberia." However, Morlu, Liberia's former auditor-general, said the small income the registry generates for the government - between $9- million and $15-million in most years - does not justify the tremendous risk. "There are better ways to make money and since Liberia does not have the means, the desire and the political will to create a stronger regulatory and enforcement regime, we are better off not adding to the world's problem of terrorist financing, drug financing and illicit fkow of funds from other poor countries," Morlu said in an email. He would like to see the registry reserved only for legitimate shipping companies. With the OECD report due on its progress in meeting transparency standards, and the EU threatening sanctions against countries on its blacklist, this summer will be a key moment for Liberia. Scrutiny by international institutions is bound to grow in the wake of the Panama Papers. If Liberia is once again found to be lacking, the consequences for this fragile economy, still recovering from Ebola, could be devastating. AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus Bulletin is edited by William Minter. AfricaFocus Bulletin can be reached at africafocus@igc.org. Please write to this address to subscribe or unsubscribe to the bulletin, or to suggest material for inclusion. For more information about reposted material, please contact directly the original source mentioned. For a full archive and other resources, see http://www.africafocus.org
Opposition parties put pressure on BJP and demanded his resignation from state cabinet.



Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse finds himself in deep trouble after opposition parties demanded his resignation for receiving calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahims house and irregularities in the purchase of land. Shiv Sena, Aam Aadmi Party and Congress have upped the ante against BJP and have called for Khadses ouster from cabinet. The Khadse controversy is likely to affect the image of BJP which had adopted a zero tolerance policy against corruption. Even party president Amit Shah had termed the allegations against Khadse as serious matter as he had demanded a report from Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Meanwhile the Shiv Sena sharpened its knives against BJP and demanded the resignation of Khadse. Shiv Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, Eknath Khadse should step down and he must be ready to face an inquiry. He must resign from all posts until his name is cleared from all charges. If charges are proved against Khadse then action must be taken against him. The law must be equal for everyone irrespective of the position held by a person.

Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan said, If Khadse had received calls from Dawood Ibrahims number then it is a serious case concerning with national security. The Home Ministry must issue a clarification in this regard. Khadse must be ousted from the cabinet.

Leader of opposition in state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said, Khadse must resign from his post. The government must immediately sack him and order for a high level probe into this matter. Since there have been irregularities in the land purchase deal hence Khadse must immediately resign from all posts.

Aam Aadmi Party had urged the governor to take action against Eknath Khadse. The party had held protests in Mumbai and other regions of Maharashtra to make citizens aware about the misdoings of Khadse.

Aam Aadmi Party leader, Preeti Sharma Menon said, AAP has time and again appealed to the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to take action against Khadse and to order an independent inquiry. From supporting illegal sand mining, to abetting a suicide of a police officer, to using the Jalgaon police as his private force, to using his PAs indulge in bribe taking, to being in touch with Indias most wanted terrorist, to acquiring government land for personal profit, to intimidating police to register false cases, to overall subverting the system  the charges against Eknath Khadse are grave and demand his immediate removal from office as well as a detailed, and independent inquiry, she added.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania on Thursday launched a hunger strike demanding an inquiry into allegations of corruption against Khadse and sought his ouster from the state cabinet.

She also demanded that the inquiry be completed within six months and the case be heard by a fast-track court.

There are so many corruption allegations against Khadse and the government should take action regarding this. I met Anna and showed him all the documents against Khadse. Anna said it is a grave issue and assured me that he will call the chief minister and bring it to his notice. I also sought blessings from him before beginning the fast, Damania said. Whenever we bring corruption cases to the notice, we are told to go to the court. I have already filed PILs in the court on various issues. But then what is the government doing? It should act on the corruption cases. The court will do its duty. But the government should take action against Khadse, she said.

Khadse nevertheless has refused to resign and said that the party will take a decision in this regard. Fifteen corporators from Jalgaon have come forward to support him.
A major fire broke out today in a five-storeyed building at Colaba in South Mumbai, officials said.



The blaze erupted on one of the top floors in the commercial-cum residential building situated near Regal Cinema around 4 PM, said officials of Disaster Control Department of the BMC.

According to officials, the fire broke out in a six-storey building. The officials added that the building has wooden staircases which can further aggravate the fire.

However, no casualties have been reported as occupants were quickly evacuated, they said.

Fire brigade department has rescued two people, DCP Manoj Sharma, Mumbai Police, told reporters.

Ten fire tenders have been pressed into service and fire-fighting operations are underway. Personnel from nearby police stations have also been rushed to the spot.

The Navy has sent four fire engines with specialized fire-fighting equipment, its PRO Captain DK Sharma said. The Naval dockyard in Mumbai is about half a km away from the site of the fire.

The Colaba Causeway has been closed to the public. The area has both shops and homes and is close to landmarks like the Gateway of India and Mumbais Taj Hotel.

The building houses Cafe Mondegar and McDonalds. The presence of these two restaurants could pose a major risk as they store and use gas cylinders for cooking. Colaba Causeway is a popular shopping location among Mumbaikars.
Dr. Thompson: The higher ups wanted to do certain things and I went along with it. In terms of change of command, I was number four out of five. 

Dr. Thompson: I was just looking atI was like, oh my God, I cannot believe we did what we did. But we did.

The movie gives us Dr. Thompson, a top vaccine researcher, who makes shocking statements about the inner workings of the CDC.

Likewise the movie Vaxxed is waking the American people up to how an agency charged with protecting the health of children, in truth, is dedicated to promoting the interests of the vaccine industry and defending the vaccine schedule at all costs. It reveals more than just disturbing findings on a single MMR study involving African American boysIt describes pervasive malfeasance by government officials who are answerable to no one.

Barry sums up the importance of these revelations: The CDC and the Institute of Medicine went through a charade of investigating the vaccine schedule to see if vaccination had anything to do with the increase in autism. Rather than looking at all vaccines and the schedule as a whole, they purported to investigate ONE vaccine (MMR) and ONE vaccine component (thimerosal). Based on this superficial review, they declared in 2004 that the entire vaccine schedule was safe, and then thwarted additional research into vaccine safety going forward, as stated in the 2004 IOM Vaccine Safety Review. (P. 109)

By Anne Dachel and Lou Conte If you were outraged over the movie  VaxxedFrom Cover Up to Catastrophe , you need to read the full story of the massive corruption at the highest levels of vaccine safety as revealed by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher Dr. William Thompson in the book, Vaccine Whistleblower , by Kevin Barry, Esq.

Dr. Thompson: Literally, everyone else got rid of all their documents, and so the only documents that exist right now from that study are mine.

Dr. Thompson: There are things that I havent even shared with you because I cant prove it, and thats what I struggle with. I dont want to share things with you that I cant prove, that there arent hard records. I am worried that the other four people will collude and say no, thats not true.

Dr. Thompson: Thats what I keep seeing again, and again, and again where these senior people just do completely unethical, vile things and no one holds them accountable. 

Dr. Thompson: The reason you dont see anything else circulating on the study, it was five of us behind closed doors for two years.

Dr. Thompson: Its the lowest point in my career that I went along with that paper.

Vaxxed also includes video of Jim Sears, MD, Doreen Granpeesheh, PhD, Luc Montagnier, MD, former U.S. Congressman Dave Weldon, MD, Stephanie Seneff, PhD, and Rachel Ross, MDall well-respected experts who raise serious concerns over insidious agency practices and call for the removal of vaccine oversight from the CDC.

The book Vaccine Whistleblower exposes an agency entangled in data manipulation and unethical practices. The four recorded conversations between Dr. Brian Hooker and William Thompson as presented in Vaccine Whistleblower, reveal a prominent vaccine researcher who is beset with worry over his past actions. Comments about the professional standards at the CDC show us an agency that cant be trusted; officials routinely fix their research findings in order to always conclude that vaccines dont present any significant risks.

In the first call on May 8, 2014, Thompson said he couldnt see any justification for the use of toxic mercury in the flu shot that is recommended for pregnant women at all stages of pregnancy. This was the exchange between Thompson and Hooker.

Dr. Thompson: Let me tell you my thought on that, okay? So, in the United States the only vaccine [flu shot] it is still in is for pregnant women right? So, my theory on that, is that the drug companies think that if it is in at least that one vaccine then no one could argue that it should be out of the other vaccines outside of the US.

Dr. Hooker: Right.

Dr. Thompson: So I dont know why they still give it to pregnant women, like thats the last person I would give mercury to.

Thompson suggested that Hooker focus on the recognized association between thimerosal and tics as a way to increase concern about the use of mercury in the flu shot.

I think as they teach you at the CDC, you have to stay on message. And the message I think to start getting out and then you wouldnt have the press jumping on you saying, Well vaccines dont cause autism. If you said, Yeah, thats true, but vaccines do cause tics. And then eventually, eventually you could get the message over to oh tics are like five times as common among kids with autism.

It is a marketing thing. You have to figure out how to market this. And it has to come from other voices, it cant just come from you because you. . . They made you the poster boy of, they want to portray you as crazy and you know um and honestly, I think, youve been persistent. You have been right, I will say, most of the time.

As far as testifying about the goings on at the CDC, Thompson acknowledged that he was determined in the future to be truthful.

I just wanted to say, you found what I considered the biggest problem. Heres what I want to be careful of, okay? I want to be careful of not, uh . . . Heres what I want to tell you . . . If I were forced to testify or something like that, Im not gonna lie, but I also dont want to say things to you right now, that arent, that arent in some written form. I want to be very careful about that. I will say if Im forced, if it comes through some legitimate channels, if Im forced to answer questions, Im not going to lie. I basically have stopped lying.

Thompson noted that Dr. Thomas Frieden, the head of the CDC, stays clear of vaccine safety issues and turns things over to Coleen Boyle and Melinda Wharton.

[Frieden] does have clean hands. But I dont know where he stands on all of this. I really dont. I do think this. I do think Frieden, I think he has closed himself off from all of this and avoids this and says this is Coleen Boyle and uh Melinda Whartons problem. Im guessing, I dont know that for sure.

Thompson alluded to questionable practices at the CDC.

Im guessing that, right, that this is just a political hot potato. They made a lot of mistakes and theres a lot of documents that they dont want you to see.

In the second call, May 24, 2014, Thompson openly admitted that he believed thimerosal causes autism.

There is biologic plausibility right now, I really do believe there is, to say that thimerosal causes autism-like symptoms.

Thompson made it clear to Hooker that he could be a valuable source of information about vaccine research.

Right now I am sitting in a very pretty position in terms of providing you a lot of information and let me tell you what is um just became available and I was talking to Marshalyn and my team lead, my immediate supervisor, this week and I was telling them what should be done because it is just outrageous. You will die when you hear this.

We have eight hundred kids with autism that have been given the ADI, well thats autism diagnostic interviews for the parents, right, so, all of them have been give the ADI and the ADOS. So, theyve all been given these instruments, all confirmed cases of autism. Um, we have population controls of similar size and we have disability controls of similar size. Now, this is the study I was brought in to clean up. Diana Schendel left town, left for Denmark, and I was brought in to clean it up. Its a big mess but regardless, there is now data available. Ya know, and there is going to be more data available. Were going to have twelve hundred kids with autism as part of this uh study, um, with all their medical records and all their vaccine records abstracted. So, um, whats amazing, now this is whats going to be shocking to you, it shocked the crap out of me. They have ya know six different sites interviewing data and um they all put in proposals to do studies. So far there is about sixty proposals in, um, for people ready to do studies. Not a single one of them looks at vaccines, not one! [laughing] So, I, well, I ripped into these people this week. And Im like, These vaccine studies have to be done. This is the largest case-control study you could ever do. Theyre all objectively identified as kids with autism. You have the vaccine records. And what I just, and I, after seeing the Posey hearing I was like, What are you . . . I was like, How are you guys going to answer the question when you know they want these environmental studies and want to look at all these risk factors. What are you going to say when you have twelve hundred autism cases and a bunch of controls and you never looked at vaccines and you have all their vaccine records?

Thompson described the morale at the vaccine division of the CDC, and he called for Congress to step in and investigate.

Oh my God! When I heard the Congressmen asking these questions, what are you guys doing? We are sitting on this gold mine. Here is the deal, the CDC is theyre paralyzed. The whole system is paralyzed right now. And the whole branch is paralyzed and its becoming more paralyzed. Theres less and less and less being done as the place is coming to a grinding halt. Really, what we need is for Congress to come in and say give us the data and were going to have an independent contractor do it and bring in the autism advocates and have them intimately involved in the study.

Thompson expressed his concern about how the CDC would react if his relationship with Hooker were exposed.

Heres my fear okay? Lets say you go public with anything okay? Whatever and then it becomes clear that you got information from me. And then people will immediately say, Well, hes mentally ill and why would you believe anything that he says, its just hearsay.

By this time Thompson had his own whistleblower attorney.

I know but when I talked to this whistleblower lawyer, he said, What do you want out of it? and I said, Well I just dont want to lose my job. And I said, Im willing to concede that Ill never do another autism study again if this all becomes public because obviously I cant be trusted to do that.

And I basically was telling this guy I was complicit, and I went along with this, we did not report significant findings. Ya know, Im not proud of that and uh, its probably, its the lowest point in my career that I went along with that paper.

During this call Thompson talked about his personal feelings and perhaps what motivated him to reach out to Hooker in the first place.

When I talk to you [Dr. Hooker], you have a son with autism. I have great shame now when I meet families with kids with autism because I have been part of the problem.

...Heres what I shoulder. I shoulder that the CDC has put the research ten years behind. Because the CDC has not been transparent, weve missed ten years of research because the CDC is so paralyzed right now by anything related to autism. Theyre not doing what they should be doing because theyre afraid to look for things that might be associated. So anyway theres still a lot of shame with that. So when I talk to a person like you who has to live this day in and day out, I say well, so I have to deal with a few months of hell if all this becomes public, um, no big deal. Im not having to deal with a child who is suffering day in and day out. So thats the way I view all this. I am completely ashamed of what I did. So thats that.

Despite the fact that he was one lone individual exposing corruption at the most powerful public health agency in the world, Thompson promised to continue to give Hooker information.

...So I want to be a resource. I want to be valuable to you. I want you to have someone in the system that can give you feedback as these things go through and as long as youre willing uh ya know to let me to sit where I am Ill sit as long as I can tolerate it. And well just keep going.

It was on the third call, June 12, 2014, that Thompson discussed how widespread the malfeasance is at the CDC.

. . . these senior people [at CDC] just do completely unethical, vile things and no one holds them accountable.

Hooker brought up the MMR study that showed a significant autism risk for African American boys and how CDC officials changed the study protocol to make it go away.

Yeah, and we did that. Now with the MMR autism one, the . . . We had an analysis plan that we were supposed to execute, and it was written and, you know, Im going to be sharing these draft analysis plans that we had and you can see whether we did what we said were going to do.

Thompson expected there would be repercussions when officials learned about his conversations with Hooker.

And, you know, Ive tried to share with you as much information as possible. And if you say you spoke to me, I promise you, everyone will paint me out to be the bad guy, and theyll dig up stuff. And Ill become the story about why Ive become the next Brian Hooker and cant be listened to.

Im . . . Nothing I shared with you is classified; nothing I shared with you is privileged information in any way. And if anything, people that have been my supervisors have broken laws. And . . . But Im not going to be the judge of that. So . . .

And the four [UI] coauthors have a lot of support from the rest of the CDC. There is no one that would come to my defensive. The rest of them are all senior-level people, and everyone would rally around them and try and figure a way out. And they would figure a way out. Thats the deal. Thats the, thats what I keep seeing again and again and again, and Ive been involved in the separate situation unrelated to this, where these senior people just do completely unethical, vile things and no one holds them accountable. 

In a stunning statement Thompson made it clear that official vaccine science could not be trusted.

. . . Well, I would say every study that has ever come out on immunization safety, the people above know. . . . If theres a significant finding, they know months in advance of it going into clearance. So, my paper, I put into clearance without them knowing anything about it, and it caught people off guard, and then we went through the process we went through which was a slow, laborious. But I kept pounding away; they kept watering it down. They watered it down. Then we sent it out to the journals. And the journals were just like, What the fuck?

This watering down during clearance confused the reviewers at the journal. Why would the authors of a paper containing a significant finding want to water that finding down during clearance?

Thompson made a concerning reference to the power of corporations over government regulators.

So I just think the current environment in the federal government and you know this because you were in the federal government . . .

. . . is hostile to anyone who says anything negative about any industry. So I dont know what the answer is. I dont know how we get independent studies.

This final recorded phone call between William Thompson and Brian Hooker was on July 28, 2014.

Thompson said that hed sent a hundreds thousands pages of official documents to Congressman Bill Poseys office. He was hopeful that with Poseys help these papers could be publicized and he would be able to talk about them.

It would be so great; it would be so great if you could get them to release everything. Im just telling you that because it would take me off the hook. Then everything would be off of me, because then the records would be public. And then I could discuss them more.

Thompson was still talking about the association between tics and exposure to thimerosal. He made a reference to a paper on thimerosal. These findings were very concerning to the higher ups at the CDC. His supervisors did nothing with the paper for a year.

Alright. Did I tell you the story about this paper?

Okay. This paper was the longest paper in clearance Ive ever had.

It was in clearance for a year, and theres a really interesting story about this. So, Gabe Kuperminc, one of the other authors on the paper . . .

. . . about the association. And then it sat in clearance for a year, and people just hammered away at the paper and watered it down more and more and more. So, you got the manuscript you ended up with, which is the published manuscriptnot the published; you ended up with the final, cleared manuscript with just the most, you know, whitewashed discussion ever.

Where does that leave us?

Dr. Thompson is a top vaccine researcher at the CDC. He is the author and coauthor of all three of the leading CDC studies that supposedly exonerate vaccines as a causative agent of autism. These findings were used in a federal court ruling against 5,000 vaccine injury cases involving autism.

This is government corruption at the highest levels of our regulatory agencies. Not only do health officials refuse to do the most obvious and critical research on vaccines, namely a simple comparison study of the health outcomes of fully vaccinated and never vaccinated children and a study of children who started out healthy but inexplicably lost learned skills and regressed into autism as toddlers, but as revealed here, they manipulate study results to hide the truth about our unsafe, unchecked vaccine schedule. They consciously place every child in this country in harms way. These same officials do nothing to predetermine which children would be susceptible for a vaccine reaction.

The dishonest practices were summed up quite well by the producer of Vaxxed, Del Bigtree, during a recent interview.

Bigtree made statements about the power and influence the pharmaceutical industry has over our health care agencies and elected representatives:

Having been rejected from Tribeca made this a movie much more than just about vaccines, but about censorship, about freedom of speech, rights in America. I think what America has just seen is the power of corporate interests now controlling every part of our life. I think were tired of seeing them control the banking industry against our interest, oil and gas industry. Now we have the pharmaceutical industry, the most powerful lobby now in the world. They are buying our politicians. Theyre trying to make it so their products can be mandated not only for children, but for adults across the country. They want to line us all up and turn us into human ATM machines for the pharmaceutical industry.

Youve seen pressure on someone as powerful and wonderful as Robert Di Niro, a big celebrity has to turn his own statements around. If they can do that to Robert Di Niro, what are they going to do to very citizen in this country? We should be very nervous now that were being censored, were being kicked out of that festival, we got kicked out of the Houston festival, the World Fest in Houston.

People want to know, why would a film be stopped? Why would people want to stop a film from being seen. The pharmaceutical industry is trying to own our bodies, own the bodies of our children. They only care about the bottom dollar, and theyre going to make billions, possibly trillions of dollars off of us. We should be in control of that. 

The media has pointed out that Thompson didnt know he was being recorded during his conversations with Hooker. That is significant. He was openly revealing insider information about the workings of the agency that controls the vaccine schedule in the U.S., in addition, they influence what vaccines are given to children around the world. He sought out Dr. Hooker. He would have no reason to lie.

Nothing can be considered credible from an agency where it is acceptable to fix the findings in the final clearance stage and where top officials watered [results] down more and more and more. The CDC literally has oversight over itself and is answerable to no one. Rather than honestly look at the cumulative effect of a one-size-fits-every-child vaccination schedule and study the numerous vaccine additives, the CDC conducted easily flawed populations studies looking at only one vaccine, the MMR, and one ingredient, thimerosal, and declared all vaccines to be safe for every child in America.

The book Vaccine Whistleblower makes it clear that vaccine science as presented by U.S. health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is as trustworthy as the industry controlled research showing smoking isnt harmful, known as tobacco science.

Vaccine sciencethe tobacco science of Vaccinology  the science of vaccine development

Why was Vaccinologys foray into tobacco science necessary? Why did the CDCs Vaccine Safety Division destroy data, alter research designs and commit research fraud? Why is William Thompson (reportedly) going to re-jigger the data on a 12 year old study that has NOT been retracted (when, obviously, it should) to show that the MMR vaccine had nothing to do with autism anyway?

Because in 2004 the Secretary of Health and Human Services faced billions of dollars in compensation claims from families who brought cases in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP) alleging that MMR vaccine and Thimerosal Containing Vaccines (TCVs) caused their childs autism what became known as the Omnibus Autism Proceedings (OAP).

It wasnt simply the MMR vaccine and TCVs that were on trial in the OAP.

It was Vaccinology itself. If vaccines were shown to cause autism, an entire industry could collapse, the prestige of the medical establishment would be forever damaged and the country would have to deal with the responsibility and the reality that thousands of people were injured in the name of public health.

The whole empire constructed around Vaccinology was under attack and desperate times called desperate actions. And, (damn it!), every times numbers were run on data sets having to do with autism and vaccines, the data screamed that there were associations.

Thompson knew this and tried to get Julie Gerbeding to do something appropriate about it instead of triggering another public relations disaster similar to the secret Simpsonwood conference which sought to conceal the Vaerstratten findings on thimerosal vaccines and autism.

So, once again, a cover-up was necessary and just a few months before the start of the OAP, Thompson says that the esteemed CDC Vaccine Safety staff got together and destroyed data that would have supported the claims of the petitioners.

If this is true, then federal employees destroyed government data and obstructed justice in a federal judicial proceeding.

The damage done to the families in the OAP  and to the worlds children  is incalculable. We can throw around any number of criminal charges here. But the real deal is that if what Thompson told Congressman William Posey the truth, then we are looking at crimes against humanity.

To be clear, the data used in the 2004 Pediatrics paper that Thompson will allegedly re-do, was likely not very good in the sense that the children likely received the MMR AND vaccines with thimerosal. There are so many vaccines given, usually together, that figuring out where the damage is coming from is almost impossible.

The only epidemiological study that would really offer insight into whether vaccines cause autism is a study comparing the health outcomes of children who are vaccinated, partially vaccinated and not vaccinated. THAT study has never been done.

Vaccinology refuses to allow it claiming that such a study is unethical  a convenient rationalization.

At this point, given the statements of William Thompson, a tortured soul (just read some of those statements!) and wannabe whistleblower, would you trust the research produced by the CDC?

What Vaxxed and Trace Amounts and Robert Kennedys Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak and Kevin Barrys CDC Whistleblower and now James Grundvigs Poul Thorsen expose Master Manipulator reveal about CDC corruption is so shocking that no American can reasonably place trust in the science of the CDC and Vaccinology.

No redo of a 12-year old paper based on the work of the CDC can be trusted because the CDC cant be trusted.

Just read what William Thompson said.

Additional reading:

http://www.ageofautism.com/2015/08/new-book-from-skyhorse-publishing-vaccine-whistleblower-exposing-autism-research-fraud-at-the-cdc.html

http://www.ageofautism.com/2015/08/book-review-vaccine-whistleblower-by-keven-barry-esq.html

http://www.ageofautism.com/2016/04/mainstream-medias-concerted-backlash-against-vaxxed-.html

http://www.ageofautism.com/2016/04/dachel-media-update-san-francisco-chronicle-in-a-fog-over-vaxxed.html

http://www.ageofautism.com/2016/04/dachel-media-update-vaxed.html

http://www.ageofautism.com/2016/03/dachel-media-update-vaxxed-axed-tribeca-film-festival-coverage.html
WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016  An EPA draft document assessing the ecological risks of atrazine that was mistakenly posted online a month ago has now been officially released.

The content and conclusions of the 520-page report, which is stuffed with nearly 200 tables and maps, are the same as the earlier version.

Aquatic plant communities are impacted in many areas where atrazine use is heaviest, and there is potential chronic risk to fish, amphibians and aquatic invertebrates in these same locations, while on land, there are risk concerns for mammals, birds, reptiles, plants, and plant communities across the country for many of the atrazine uses.

And at current application rates, the data suggest that the chronic fish level of concern has a high probability of being exceeded across the agricultural use area and that exceedances have been detected in monitoring data across this landscape.

EPA found that from 2006-2010, atrazine applications in five states accounted for 56 percent of all the atrazine applied nationwide: Illinois (17 percent), Iowa (11 percent), Nebraska (10 percent), and Indiana and Kansas (9 percent each). The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that farmers used more than 70 million pounds of atrazine in 2013, the most since 2007.

The National Corn Growers Association and atrazine manufacturer Syngenta criticized the assessment, while the Center for Biological Diversity said it shows the extent of the herbicides harmful effects.

NCGA President Chip Bowling said that EPA based the review on studies their own Science Advisory Panel deemed flawed just 4 years ago. This undermines public confidence in the review process and goes against the mission of using the best available science.

In the assessment, EPA says it responded to the SAP recommendations in an addendum document released in 2013 and also used the feedback in part to guide the amphibian and aquatic plant community portions of this assessment.

Bowling, however, said that more than 7,000 scientific studies have found atrazine to be safe and said its widely used for its reliability and ability to combat the spread of resistant weeds.

It reduces soil erosion, increases crop yields, and improves wildlife habitats, Bowling said. Over the last 50 years, atrazine has passed some of the most rigorous safety testing in the world.

Both Bowling and Syngenta cited a 2012 University of Chicago study that estimates the benefits of atrazine at $59 per acre.

In addition, Were troubled the draft assessment discounted several rigorous, high-quality scientific studies and didnt adhere to EPAs own high standards, said Marian Stypa, head of product development for Syngenta in North America. The draft report erroneously and improperly estimated atrazines levels of concern for birds, fish, mammals and aquatic communities that are not supported by science.

He said that data in the 2012 SAP report demonstrated the level of concern (LOC) for atrazine could be more than six times higher than the conservative number proposed in EPAs preliminary report, and still be protective of aquatic communities. Together with numerous errors in EPAs modeling, the agency drew scientifically unsound conclusions, based on flawed assessments that need to be corrected.

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More reaction came from the Missouri Corn Growers Association and the National Sorghum Producers.

The company, and anyone else with an interest in the matter, will have 60 days to comment once the Federal Register notice announcing the assessment is published.

Among the commenters will surely be the Center for Biological Diversity. In a press release, CBD noted that atrazine is the second-most widely used pesticide in the U.S.  weed-killer glyphosate, commonly marketed by Monsanto as Roundup, is the first  and is already banned in Europe.

Atrazine was found to cause reproductive harm to mammals and birds in real-world scenarios, with EPA levels of concern surpassed nearly 200-fold, according to the new EPA assessment, CBD said. Atrazine is present in water levels much higher than are needed to kill frogs and others amphibians, whose populations are currently in steep decline across the United States.

CBD also pointed to numerous studies the group contends show atrazine causes chemical castration and feminization of male frogs at concentrations lower than the level allowed in drinking water by the EPA.

EPA also issued draft ecological risk assessments for simazine and propazine.

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WASHINGTON, June 2, 2016  Citing an emerging farm lending crisis, eight national farm and financial organizations are urging Congress to increase funding for federally assisted farm operating loans in the fiscal year 2017 agricultural appropriations bill. Lawmakers are expected to debate and vote on that bill later this month.

In a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Appropriations subcommittees, the organizations, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), National Farmer Union, and the American Banking Association  note that in the current climate of low crop and livestock prices, farmer demand for operating loans is especially high, especially for young and beginning farmers.

Right now, demand for such assistance is so strong that the U.S. Department of Agricultures Farm Service Agency (FSA) expects to completely run out of operating loan funds in the next few weeks, the groups say in a release calling attention to the letter. If this happens, farmers applying this year will still be able to have their applications approved by FSA, but they will not actually receive loan funds until Congress acts on the next agricultural spending bill.

The groups are asking Congress to add $16.5 million to the FY 2017 spending bill, which they say is needed to make available an additional $300 million in direct FSA operating loans and $350 million in FSA guarantees of private sector commercial loans. These amounts would allow USDA to cover the estimated shortfall of available loan dollars. The legislation currently includes the USDA-requested program level of $1.46 billion for direct operating loans, and $1.432 billion for guaranteed operating loans.

Also signing the letter were the National Young Farmers Coalition, the Farm Credit Council, Independent Community Bankers of America, National Association of Credit Specialists, and the Opportunity Finance Network. It was addressed to Sens. Jerry Moran of Kansas and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, and to Reps. Robert Aderholt of Alabama and Sam Farr of California, their counterparts in the House.

We hope that the need underscored by the united voices of the farm sector will persuade Congress to find the necessary funds to fill this shortfall and prevent thousands of farmers from losing access to operating loans that are vital to their ability to do business. Ferd Hoefner, policy director for NSAC, said in the groups release.

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The groups describe FSA as both the lender of last resort for farm businesses that cannot secure commercial loans, and the lender of first opportunity for young and beginning farmers. The majority of operating loans made or guaranteed by FSA are typically set-aside for beginning farmers, but the groups note that competition for these loans is growing as more established, commercial farmers  who are facing decreased commodity prices  increasingly need to rely on FSA support.

As you well know, the groups say in their letter, access to annual operating credit is a make-or-break issue for many farmers, especially those just starting out. Access to credit can largely determine whether or not farmers can continue working on their lands, and for beginning farmers it can determine whether or not they decide to pursue a career in agriculture in the first place.

We realize there are many demands to juggle as you put together the final FY 2017 bill. We urge you to take these escalating operating credit needs into account and make the necessary adjustments.

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WASHINGTON, June 1, 2016 - A study by U.K.-based PG Economics finds that farmers around the world who use genetically modified (GM) seeds reaped economic benefits averaging more than $100 per hectare (about 2.5 acres) in 2014 while at the same time improving the environmental sustainability of their operations.

Two-thirds of these benefits derive from higher yields and extra production, with farmers in developing countries seeing the highest gains, said Graham Brookes, director of PG Economics and co-author of the report. The environment is also benefiting as farmers increasingly adopt conservation tillage practices, build their weed management practices around more benign herbicides and replace insecticide use with insect resistant GM crops.

Worldwide economic benefits of GM crops have reached $150 billion, according to the report, GM Crops: Global Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts 1996-2014.

Brian Baenig, executive vice president for food and agriculture for the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), stated the reports findings regarding biotechnologys contributions to the environment are especially significant.

Crop biotechnology has reduced pesticide use by almost 581 million kilograms. In addition, farmers are spending less time on the tractor, burning less fossil fuels which ultimately reduces carbon dioxide emissions, Baenig said in a news release calling attention to the report. Further, the switch to no-till cropping systems by farmers growing herbicide-tolerant crops have enhanced soil quality and have enabled farmers to switch to more benign herbicides to help control weeds.

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"The PG Economics annual global impacts report quantifies the impact of agricultural biotechnology on the environment and on farmer incomes since biotechs commercialization in 1996, Baenig said.

Among the reports key findings:

Between 1996 and 2014, crop biotechnology was responsible for additional global production of 158.4 million metric tons of soybeans and 321.8 million tons of corn. The technology has also contributed an extra 24.7 million tons of cotton lint and 9.2 million tons of canola.

GM technology has had a significant positive impact on farm income derived from a combination of enhanced productivity and efficiency gains. In 2014, the direct global farm income benefit from GM crops was $17.7 billion. This is equivalent to having added 7.2 percent to the value of global production of the four main crops of soybeans, maize, canola and cotton. Since 1996, farm incomes have increased by $150.3 billion, divided almost equally between farmers in developing and developed countries.

The insect resistant (IR) technology used in cotton and corn has consistently delivered yield gains from reduced pest damage. The average yield gains over the 1996-2014 period across all users of this technology has been +13.1 percent for insect resistant corn and +17.3 percent for insect resistant cotton relative to conventional production systems. 2014 was also the second year IR soybeans were grown commercially in South America, where farmers have seen an average of +9.4 percent yield improvements.

The herbicide tolerant (HT) technology used has also contributed to increased production; improving weed control and providing higher yields in some countries and helping farmers in Argentina grow second crop soybeans after wheat in the same growing season.

The highest yield gains were obtained by farmers in developing countries, many of which are resource-poor and farm small plots of land.

Crop biotechnology continues to be a good investment for farmers around the world. The cost farmers paid for accessing crop biotechnology in 2014 ($6.9 billion payable to the seed supply chain) was equal to 28 percent of the total gains ($24.6 billion). Globally, farmers received an average of $3.59 for each dollar invested in GM crop seeds.

GM crops are allowing farmers to grow more without using additional land. If crop biotechnology had not been available to the (18 million) farmers using the technology in 2014, maintaining global production levels at the 2014 levels would have required additional plantings of 7.5 million hectares of soybeans, 8.9 million hectares of corn, 3.7 million of cotton and 0.6 million of canola. This total area requirement is equivalent to 12 percent of the arable land in the U.S., or 33 percent of the arable land in Brazil or 14 percent of the cropping area in China.

Crop biotechnology has contributed to significantly reducing the release of greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural practices. This results from less fuel use and additional soil carbon storage from reduced tillage with GM crops. In 2014, this was equivalent to removing 22.4 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or equal to removing 10 million cars from the road for one year;.

Crop biotechnology has reduced pesticide spraying (1996-2014) by 581 million kg, or 8.2 percent. This is equal to the total amount of pesticide active ingredient applied to crops in China for more than a year. As a result, this has decreased the environmental impact associated with herbicide and insecticide use on the area planted to biotech crops by 18.5 percent.

#30

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May 27, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Ziad al-Zaza, a member of Hamas political bureau and former government deputy prime minister, believes a long and rough road lies ahead to any potential reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. Zaza met with Al-Monitor at his home in northern Gaza City on May 21 to express his opinions on this and other Palestinian and Arab issues, and to discuss the results of recent meetings between the Hamas leadership and Egyptian officials.

Zaza said the March 12-18 meetings in Egypt were positive and could help mend rifts between the country's leaders and Hamas.

"The meetings were serious, responsible and energetic, during which clearly defined and positive discussions took place. Our hope is great that these matters become reality, with the opening of the Palestinian-Egyptian Rafah border crossing to Palestinian individuals and goods. Such a development would be highly regarded by the Palestinian people, as it represents an end to the siege imposed upon them," Zaza said.

The Hamas leadership is considered part of the global Muslim Brotherhood, and there has been tension in the air since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi assumed leadership of the country after the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohammed Morsi in mid-2013. Hamas was political Islams most important supporter of Morsis regime after its ouster.

Zaza, however, claimed that "there is no international Muslim Brotherhood organization" and that the issue never arose during the meetings.

"That is pure fiction, because Islamic thought encompasses all Muslims without exception, even non-Muslims espousing Islamic ideologies. But the issue of our contacts with the Egyptian Brotherhood never came up, for such a topic has no place in politics," he told Al-Monitor. "The Egyptian leadership does not raise such issues because it knows that the Muslim Brotherhood of each country is independent, and that Hamas is an Islamic movement that operates inside Palestine to liberate the land, holy places and the people."

Hamas does not have regular access to the Egyptian political leadership. Zaza said Egypt prefers to deal with Hamas through Egypt's intelligence service.

"Egypt considers its dealings with us primarily security related, but we view the issue as one affecting national security on a political, economic, social, geographic and humanitarian level, in addition to the security aspect that we are extremely keen to maintain," he said.

Al-Monitor asked Zaza about a potential reconciliation between the Palestinian political parties Hamas and Fatah following talks held in Doha at the end of March. Zaza blames Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for setbacks in the rapprochement process.

"The future of Palestinian reconciliation is linked to the position of President Abbas and those around him. He could achieve reconciliation in mere minutes by greenlighting the reformation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, calling for a meeting of the provisional leadership, establishing a national unity government tasked with implementing national reconciliation or reaching a national agreement under which the government fulfills its obligations toward Gaza as it does toward the West Bank," Zaza said, adding, "[Abbas] can also call for the [Palestinian] Legislative Council to convene and give autonomy to the next government. Doing so would result in the state of division ending within minutes, but the future will remain challenging if [Abbas] continues to acquiesce to Israeli security demands granted at the expense of the peoples interests."

Zaza gave examples of what he sees as Abbas bowing to Israeli security demands.

"He explicitly did so when he asked the occupation forces to grant him one week to end the intifada in Jerusalem, which violates all heavenly as well as earthly covenants, for he who stands in the way of an occupied people's yearning for freedom shall always work against their interests and for those of the occupation. Furthermore, he constantly states his keenness to negotiate with [Israel] and refuses to negotiate or engage in dialogue with other Palestinians."

Zaza added that Abbas actually boasts about not allowing the Gaza siege to be lifted, saying, "All these things satisfy Israeli security demands."

Zaza gave his outlook on Gazas political and economic future in light of Hamas de facto rule and the hopelessness Gaza inhabitants feel about solutions being found to the economic and political problems from which they have long suffered.

"Our people  and we  are suffering from the siege imposed upon us by the occupation, with domestic, regional and international complicity. I hold the US administration completely responsible for the state of affairs, because its aim is to suppress whole peoples for the sake of a handful that exploit the bounties and land of those peoples," Zaza said. "The Palestinian people shall not surrender to this fate, as admitted by the occupation leaders, who stated that they are dealing with a resourceful and determined people bent on liberating their land and obtaining their rights. The future shall remain bright for as long as this determination endures."

Zaza pointed to Hamas' record of governance in Gaza beginning in 2006 and lasting until the short-lived "unity government" was formed June 2, 2014.

"When we came to power in 2006, we  by everyones admission  introduced a respectable, sophisticated and unambiguous system of governance, allowing us to do away with chaos and lawlessness in Gaza, which became a security oasis and one of the safest cities in the world when it came to personal, social and political security.

"In addition, under Hamas, the people of Gaza searched for and developed their lost capabilities, achieving self-sufficiency in the cultivation of vegetables, fruits and other foodstuffs. But the blockade continues to steal Gazas financial resources due to the fact that under the inauspicious Paris Protocol, $90 million in monthly tax and customs revenues are appropriated by Israel with a commission deducted from it in return for security coordination in the West Bank." He added that that amount "is enough for Gaza to be independent once the siege is lifted," saying, "In fact I am prepared to promise that with said money, Gaza can resolve its problems and provide foreign countries with social contributions."

Zaza also blamed Abbas for the failure to hold Palestinian legislative elections, which he said Hamas "awaits with bated breath."

"We want to re-establish the legitimacy of the presidency, as well as that of the legislative and national councils," he told Al-Monitor. "But there are reasons why legislative elections are not being held. First, because Abbas wants them to fulfill his vision of keeping the Palestinian National Council and the PLO as they are, a burden upon the Palestinian people. Second, because Abbas formed a Central Elections Commission composed of members from Fatah without the agreement of anyone else, in addition to him forming an all-Fatah Constitutional Court."

The result, he said, is the need for an elections commission that represents all Palestinians, a constitutional court formed by a newly elected president and election laws governing the legislative and national councils, "not to mention the need to prepare an appropriate atmosphere that allows people to freely run in elections and vote."

Recently, Israel and Hamas have exchanged threats concerning Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and Israeli soldiers Hamas has captured. In light of those threats and mutual shelling, Zaza said he doesn't see much hope for even a temporary settlement with Israel.

"As usual, occupation forces are the instigators, with them recently trying to impose a new fait accompli by seizing Gazan land as they have been doing in the West Bank: unchallenged. We shall not allow that to occur in Gaza, and the new equation that they attempted to impose was rejected, with Israel realizing that it will not be allowed to seize even one centimeter of Gaza. Consequently, we expect similar aggressive behavior to take place every couple of months, which shall all be met with the appropriate response."
June 2, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Ever since the overthrow of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on July 3, 2013, the Hamas movement has found itself in Egypt's crosshairs. The Cairo regime embarked on a campaign to destroy the border tunnels. It accused Hamas of supporting terrorist organizations in the Sinai Peninsula and called Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, a terrorist organization. Egypt also tightened its blockade on the Gaza Strip and closed the Rafah crossing. Meanwhile, Egypt's leading role in the Palestinian cause has faded.

However, the Hamas delegation's March 12 visit to Cairo may have brought back some hope that a new page of bilateral relations between the two parties will be opened. In a May 17 statement by its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas welcomed the recent Egyptian statements about reconciliation with the movement and confirmed its readiness to deal with these efforts calling for ending the Palestinian division and opening a new page with Egypt.

Al-Monitor spoke to Abu Zuhri, a native of Rafah and lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology at Gaza's Islamic University since 2000. He is currently an assistant professor in the department and holds a doctorate in Islamic history.

The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor: How does Hamas perceive the relationship with Egypt?

Abu Zuhri: The Hamas movement is keen to develop its relations with Egypt, as this will serve the interests of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Hamas has always been considering the depth of this strategic relationship, since Egypt and its leading role in the protection of the Palestinian cause are very essential, and we are aware of Egypts power and impact on all core issues, especially the issue of Palestinian reconciliation.

Al-Monitor: Is it possible for Hamas to restore relations with Egypt and redevelop them?

Abu Zuhri: The extent to which our relationship with Egypt has deteriorated is clear to everyone given the movements rejection of the military coup, but we shall not look back. We should improve our relations with Egypt because this is a priority for us, and the issue is not subject to speculation. Without the Egyptian role, the Palestinian cause would face a complete standstill. Therefore, we want to develop our relationship with Egypt and deal with the new reality there.

Al-Monitor: Following the fall of Morsi, Hamas faced an unprecedented Egyptian media attack in which it was accused of prejudicing the security of Egypt. What is your response?

Abu Zuhri: From the very beginning, we rushed to condemn the media defamation of Hamas, and we said that accusations of the movement being behind the developments in Sinai were untrue. We called on the Egyptian leadership and the Arab parties to shoulder their responsibilities in this regard because Hamas never targeted Egypt's security and dignity.

Al-Monitor: What does Egypt want of Hamas today? What was the aim of the recent visit to Cairo?

Abu Zuhri: Egypt wants its privacy and security to be respected. It does not want anyone to intervene in its affairs. During the meetings that were recently held, the Egyptian intelligence services offered a comprehensive vision through which public relations can be restored, most notably Hamas noninvolvement in Egyptian affairs and abstinence from supporting terrorist organizations in Sinai. According to this vision, the border between the two sides should be protected and media outlets monitored. For its part, the movement presented its vision, which stipulated the opening of the Rafah crossing and the achievement of reconciliation with Fatah. The parties agreed on the implementation mechanisms. More meetings will be held in this regard.

Al-Monitor: What would the Egyptian rapprochement with Hamas achieve? What are the Egyptian conditions?

Abu Zuhri: We are aware that the continued poor relationship with Egypt leads nowhere.  Therefore, we are seeking rapprochement with [Egypt] by offering goodwill gestures, especially considering that we have nothing to do with what is happening there, and this is what we want to convey to Egypt. We want to provide reassurances that we are interested in the protection of its national security. Therefore, we are aware that rapprochement with Egypt grants stability and security  to the Palestinian people.

Al-Monitor: Egypt believes that Hamas is ideologically and organizationally linked to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. How true is that? How does Hamas perceive this relationship?

Abu Zuhri: Our current perception of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is still the same. It has not changed. After all, the Hamas movement has roots related to the Muslim Brotherhood, but we are an independent Palestinian movement that has no organizational links with Egypts Muslim Brotherhood. We make our decisions independently and we deal realistically with all the issues. There may be decisions with a certain political dimension that the movement might have to pay the price for, but the key to success is not to go back. The key is to rectify the situation and stay in line with the public interest because we are part of this people. Therefore, we are ready to deal with the Egyptian authorities, regardless who they are directed by, in accordance with the comprehensive vision between the two parties.

Al-Monitor: How valid are [Hamas official] Salah Bardawils statements about the foiling of an operation that targeted President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi?

Abu Zuhri: Salah Bardawils statements are entirely accurate, and they affirm that the movement detected a cell supported by [Fatah Central Committee member] Tawfiq Tirawi and the former intelligence chief. The cell was planning to harm Egypt's security, specifically President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Hamas will brief Egyptian officials with the full details of this case.

Al-Monitor: What do Egypt's recent statements about reconciliation mean? With whom and where will this reconciliation take place?

Abu Zuhri: The great Egyptian role in the reconciliation efforts is no secret to anyone, but after July 3, 2013, this role faded, and the recent Egyptian statements have been made in consideration of Egypt's desire to restore its role in the Palestinian cause and achieve reconciliation with Fatah, since Egypt and its territories have always been the sponsor of the Palestinian cause. This is a new twist that we warmly welcome, and we are ready to deal with this role.

Al-Monitor: What is the position of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah on Hamas relationship with Egypt?

Abu Zuhri: We have information confirming President Abbas and Fatahs discomfort with the rapprochement with Egypt. This means that they will seek to foil any Egyptian efforts to end the division, and they will seek to deepen the points of contention in the absence of a real will to end the division. We also see indications that they do not desire reconciliation. The arrests and the security coordination [with Israel] in the West Bank as well as the insecurity and chaos that Abbas and Fatah are planning on spreading in Gaza are the biggest proof of that.

Al-Monitor: How will Gazas relationship with Egypt be in the future?

Abu Zuhri: We look forward to Gazas restoration of relations with Egypt, and we know for a fact that it will be achieved because of the existing data and the persistent connections between us. There is a significant improvement in the relationship, and we hope it will be developed in a way that serves the Palestinian cause. As for the Palestinian reconciliation, it will not be achieved so long as Fatah shows no real will to deal with Gaza.
June 1, 2016

The Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development Center in Cairo launched a project May 15 to enlist men to fight violence against women. According to a study conducted by the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the end of 2013, Egypt is the worst country for womens rights in the Arab world.

Yara Fathi, the center's gender programs director, told Al-Monitor the new campaign will emphasize that men can help stop violence against women, despite the prevailing idea that only women support such a cause. Getting men involved will raise the issues visibility and provide male mentors to speak with other men about the importance of the topic.

Fathi believes integrating men in the fight will achieve success similar to that of the 2012 initiative I spotted harassment. She said that project, which relied on young volunteers, produced tangible results.

The new initiative targets men in local communities, university-age youth, civil society organizations, schools and the media. It addresses all forms of violence against women, starting with harassment, whether in the street or the workplace; domestic violence by a husband, father or brother; rape; forced early marriage and genital mutilation of young girls, especially in rural areas and Upper Egypt. Fathi also hopes to raise awareness about the repercussions of such violence for victims families.

According to a study on domestic violence published Nov. 25 by the Cairo-based Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics:

One out of four Egyptian married women are physically abused by their husbands.

married women are physically abused by their husbands. More than 30% of Egyptian married women have been subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence at the hands of their husbands.

married women have been subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence at the hands of their husbands. Of married women who reached high school or higher levels of education, 25% are subjected to physical, sexual or psychological abuse.

are subjected to physical, sexual or psychological abuse. Of married women who did not complete their primary education, 39.5% are abused by their husbands.

According to the agency, the rate of violence against women in Upper Egypt is much higher than the rate in Lower Egypt, with 32.4% of married women in Upper Egypt subjected to physical, sexual or psychological violence at the hands of their husbands compared with 29.1% in Lower Egypt, 29% in urban provinces and 25.5% in border provinces.

To curb the violence, the National Council for Women has adopted a number of measures that include amending Article 11 of the constitution to make it more equitable. It now reads, The state is committed to protecting women against all forms of violence.

Egypt has nine shelters affiliated with the Ministry of Social Solidarity for abused women. A report published by the New Woman Foundation noted that meeting the criteria to enter such shelters can be difficult and there is no official specialized body that tracks statistics on the situation of Egyptian women and the forms of violence they suffer.

To address the issue of harassment, the National Council for Women formed action groups under the banner of Lets start [working] together against harassment, in cooperation with representatives from the Interior, Justice and Religious Endowments Ministries. It devised a plan to help control street violence and reduce harassment of women and girls. The council created a hotline to report harassment and violence, and a million women in Egypt signed a petition supporting the councils efforts to prevent violence. Meanwhile, in January, the council drafted a law to fight violence, joining a number of other initiatives over the years to combat the dramatic problem of harassment in Egypt.

Fathi noted that this latest project is limited to Cairo and Giza due to the short period of time we have. Organizers plan to run the campaign to recruit men through the end of the year, and once it is successful, to implement it in other provinces.

Nuhad Abu al-Qomsan, the head of the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights, told Al-Monitor that developing a process to help harassed women file complaints in addition to imposing penalties as a deterrent for harassers are among the most important mechanisms available to help control this phenomenon.
June 1, 2016

NAJAF, Iraq  On May 23, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the beginning of military operations to retake the city of Fallujah. Operations have been successful so far, as several parts of the citys outskirts were liberated. Iraqi forces settled at the gates of Fallujah after liberating Saqlawiyah in northern Fallujah on May 28.

Operations to liberate the city are expected to be completed in the coming days. The biggest challenge, however, is to plan the post-liberation phase, which will point at the government's power to take full control over the city and secure it from terrorist organizations in the future. The anti-terrorism forces that were assigned to enter the city began their infiltration from the north and south May 31. They cleansed a few suburbs around the city June 1 and are gradually advancing toward the center.

Fallujah has been one of the areas most resistant to political change in Iraq since the fall of the Baathist regime in 2003. It was a main stronghold of the Baathist Party; a large number of the partys officers hailed from there. Several clashes between jihadi factions and US forces occurred in the city from 2003 to 2008. Based on that, Fallujah is very symbolic for these factions.

It was the first city seized by al-Qaeda in 2004 and the first to be held by the Islamic State (IS) in 2014. IS had taped several video segments in Fallujah showing elderly tribal leaders pledging allegiance to the organization, and showing IS militants killing and crucifying Iraqi soldiers they had detained. Based on this history, it would be no exaggeration to say that Fallujah is Iraq's jihadi capital.

The city is of twofold significance due to its strategic location. It is less than 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Baghdad, and the majority of the inhabitants of the nearby areas in the capital are Sunnis. This has made it a central location from which to disseminate chaos in Baghdad and provide support to the ongoing suicide bombings and car bombs in the capital. In addition, it is near important Shiite cities, such as Karbala and Hillah, allowing Salafi jihadis to provoke Shiites and pose a threat to their holy sites.

Given its location and the aforementioned factors, the Iraqi military command developed a masterful plan to liberate Fallujah quickly and without major losses. After IS suffered attrition due to the almost yearlong siege on the city, various government-backed forces  the army, the Popular Mobilization Units and Sunni tribes  were mobilized. The issue seems perfect from a military point of view. Yet the government has not prepared itself for the post-liberation phase, which is much more important than the liberation itself for some considerations.

The city was liberated in 2007 from extremist organizations, and then it fell into extremist hands again. Based on that, the government needs to prepare an integrated project to guarantee its control over the city and fortify it in the face of extremist organizations through the following procedures.

First, local government forces must be formed to manage the citys security. Parliament was supposed to enact a law governing the National Guard, which allows each province to have its own local forces that are affiliated with the Iraqi security forces. The bill was strongly opposed by Shiite parliamentary blocs that viewed it as a prelude to the partition of Iraq. The government must find an acceptable version of this bill to be agreed upon by parliament. This bill would prevent sectarian sensitivities in Sunni hot areas like Fallujah toward the security forces coming in from the Shiite provinces.

The sit-ins staged continuously since April 2012 against the central government in Sunni provinces such as Fallujah demanded that troops affiliated with the central government leave  calling them the Safavid army or the Maliki forces in reference to former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. As a result of these sensitivities, Hadi al-Amiri, a prominent leader of the Popular Mobilization Units, announced May 24 that those forces will not enter Fallujah and will only provide support to military forces from the outskirts of the city.

Second, the government must draw up a comprehensive and fast reconstruction plan for the city, including rebuilding the destroyed buildings, establishing strategic projects, providing job opportunities for local residents and bringing back the displaced to their cities as soon as possible. Reassuring the residents that their future is with the Iraqi state and that they will not face any acts of revenge is a proven method to rebuild trust between the government and the city residents. The government has failed so far to provide adequate support to the previously liberated areas and complete reconstruction projects.

For instance, Salahuddin province Deputy Gov. Amar Hikmat complained May 29 about international organizations' and the governments failure to fulfill their financial promises to provide support for reconstruction projects in Salahuddin province, most of which was liberated in March 2015.

Third, the Salafi jihadi ideology must be confronted through the support for moderate clerics in the city, such as the head of the Sunni Endowment Department, Sheikh Abdul Latif Al-Hamim, who enjoys relative popularity in Anbar province. It is worth mentioning that Sufism has a historical presence in the city and may be a peaceful alternative for radicalism. On May 30, Abdul Latif al-Hamim met the imams of Fallujah, demanding that they confront the radical ideology of IS and promote moderate Islam.

Even though the liberation of the city will be accomplished quickly, preserving this achievement will not be fast.

Nothing shows that the Iraqi government has taken into consideration the post-liberation phase in Fallujah, even if it has paved the way for such steps. Based on that, the post IS-era is not expected to be easy for the Iraqi government in areas such as Fallujah.
June 1, 2016

Two years after the heated argument in the Israeli book industry over the Law for the Protection of Literature and of Authors in Israel cooled down, Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev has rekindled the controversy. In March, Regev announced that she intended to repeal the law, although it was to remain in effect for a pilot period of three years, until February 2017. On May 30, just eight days after the opening of the Knesset summer session, and through a rather quick procedure, the law was canceled definitively.

Thus, Regev revived yet another cultural confrontation that seems to be taking place between highbrow intellectuals and the public at large, who seek to buy books at a cheap price. However, this presentation of the issue, which is naturally most convenient for Regev, fails to take into consideration the situation in the local book industry prior to the passing of the law.

"I know of no other law enacted with the view of allowing for an evaluation period. This is a temporary provision, and each year a report is submitted to the [Knesset] Education Committee. What's more, an official was specially appointed [to oversee the process]  we have taken every precaution," professor Eugene Kandel, the former chairman of the Israeli National Economic Council, who was involved in the legislative process, told Al-Monitor.

The need for the law emerged against the backdrop of the stiff competition between the two major bookstore chains, Tzomet-Sfarim and Steimatzky, with each seeking to lure customers with cut-rate deals. Thus, for instance, 4-for-100 shekel ($26) deals or a-second-book-for-a-shekel bargains were offered. The law, which came into effect in 2014, banned the sale of books for less than their list price for the first 18 months after publication, except during the Hebrew Book Week, when a discount of up to 20% was allowed. Discounts were to become legal only following that initial period. The price of digital books, which is lower than that of paper books, is also protected under the law.

"The costs of publishing a book are a given," Kandel said. "Writing a book, translating it, proofreading it, designing the book cover  this involves costs that cannot be made up for. In fact the competition was so fierce that it became destructive. Publishers used to get a mere 15 shekels [$4] for each book sold  a sum that had to cover their expenses along the entire production chain." And the authors, in turn, received an absurdly meager fee of 1 shekel [$0.26] per sold book. The publishers had no choice but to accept the conditions dictated by the retail chains that dominated the market, or else their books would have been pushed out of sight.''

Consequently, small publishing houses had no choice but to close shop or merge. "If the law is repealed, we will witness the same crash all over again and in a few years we will have two or three large publishing houses, two bookstore chains, and that's about as diverse as the Israeli literature market is going to get," Kandel warned.

Another significant market failure, which is not accounted for by the law, is the corporate structure of Tzomet-Sfarim, which is held by two of the major publishers, Kinneret Zmora-Bitan and Modan. The latter naturally enjoys better deals, while other publishers interested in marketing their books through the chain are required to accept floor prices. It is commonly agreed that the situation has to be changed. This is a point overlooked by Regev, perhaps because it is an issue not readily understood by the public.

A prompt price reduction would no doubt be widely welcomed. Yet according to Kandel, "Regev wouldnt listen, appointing her own committee to reconsider the law. I appeared before it and tried to convince them that there is no reason to repeal it. The 2015 sales data show that the law has achieved its purpose and that there has been no decline in sales. None of the bleak forecasts predicting the market's collapse have materialized."

Regev managed to put off publication of the committee's conclusions until this week, when it had transpired that while committee members are divided over the extension of the law, none of them supported its revocation before the specified date.

What's more, the data cited by Kandel show that original book prices  before discounts  were significantly lowered, and that while writers may be selling fewer copies, they nevertheless earn more.

"Before the law was enacted, each of my books was selling 40,000 copies, and now only a quarter of copies are sold. But I'm earning much more. The law is discussed from a populist point of view," said popular author Haim Be'er, whose books are issued by Am Oved publishing house. Similarly, many other authors oppose the revocation of the law, but not all.

Yochi Brandes, a popular writer whose books are published by Zmora-Bitan, argues that while she stands to earn more on her future books in case the law remains in force, she fails to promote budding writers, notwithstanding her efforts on their behalf. Given the low book sales, publishers are reluctant to publish books by young or unknown writers, she told Al-Monitor. "Before, publishers could bet on a new writer, as they could count on discount deals to sell the books. These days, they are not even trying. For two years now I haven't been able to help young writers, and they are the future of our literature."

Racheli Edelman, publisher at Schocken Publishing House and chairwoman of the Book Publishers Association of Israel, believes otherwise. "The report released by the official in charge of the law at the Ministry of Economy indicates that in 2015, no less than 1,472 debut books were published  the same as the average recorded in recent years," she told Al-Monitor.

According to Brandes, "A new book is put on display for a few weeks. If it doesn't sell  well, it has had its chance." It seems as if the stores are giving in to a new type of consumerism, selling whatever comes their way  at cheap prices and right away. Those opposing the cancellation of the law note that books are a unique type of a consumer product: It is an enduring asset, a nondegradable product that has no expiry date and can be bought even a year and a half after publication. Those calling for the repeal of the law see the cheap prices and sale volumes as the overriding factors to be considered.

The "People of the Book" (the Jewish nation) for the most part, are unaware of the intricacy, complexity and uniqueness of the publishing industry and cannot really appreciate the potential impact of a decision to annul the law or rather leave it in place. The Knesset determined that the law will be canceled as of Sept. 1. Thus, Regev has once again got mixed up in a rowdy confrontation with Israeli intellectuals and yet again emerged the victor. The intellectuals, for their part, fear that Hebrew literature is liable to pay the price.
June 2, 2016

When Tamara and Alaa got married in 2012, in addition to their wedding in Beit Jala, they held a second ceremony in Jerusalem to ensure that they could register their marriage in the holy city. The couple moved into a small house in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Safa to make sure that they could legally prove their connection to Jerusalem.

The second wedding and the Jerusalem home were necessary to ensure that the Palestinian couple would not lose their residency permits. But this played out differently. Because Alaa is from Beit Jala and Tamara from East Jerusalem, the couple could not always be together in the same place. Alaa came home whenever he managed to obtain a permit, often around Christmas and Easter, while the rest of the year he had to either sneak into Jerusalem or Tamara had to stay at her in-laws.

This complicated arrangement is the result of an Israeli policy aimed at administratively reducing the Arab population of East Jerusalem, by forcing Jerusalemites to constantly have to prove their connection to Jerusalem or else risk losing their right to live in Jerusalem as permanent residents.

After three years, the couple could no longer take it and decided to move to a high-rise apartment building in the north Jerusalem neighborhood of Kufr Aqab. The building is located within the Jerusalem municipal city boundaries, and so Tamara and Alaa can now prove their connection to Jerusalem. Though Alaa now has to travel a long way to get to his workplace in Bethlehem, at least they can live together as a family.

The area of the Jerusalem municipality that is situated beyond the wall is in "no-mans-land." The Israelis who have sovereignty here fail to take their responsibility to provide services to the area and its residents, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) is not allowed to enter the area, leaving it unregulated with garbage often uncollected and water filling the streets. Yet many people want to live here. While living conditions are difficult, this is the only location in Palestine and Israel in which couples such as Tamara and Alaa can live together without the interference of the Israeli authorities.

The popularity of Kufr Aqab and other neighborhoods like it have not gone unnoticed; high-rise buildings are popping up all over the area to address the demand by mostly Palestinian couples affected by the residency restrictions.

Israeli officials admit that they are unable  and unwilling  to provide services to Kufr Aqab because of the high cost of having security forces accompany service contractors. The one issue that has been solved, however, is the garbage collection, after it was outsourced to a local Palestinian company. This problem had been festering for years, but the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli violence has focused attention to these rundown areas.

Israeli officials have reacted to the issue by looking for every possible unilateral solution, entirely refusing to deal with the core problem  the occupation.

Daniel Seidemann, an Israeli attorney specializing in Israeli-Palestinian relations in Jerusalem, told Al-Monitor that Israeli officials on the left and the right have come up with solutions that can't be implemented and that aim at dealing with this occupation-related issue.

[Benjamin] Netanyahus government and [Nir] Barkats municipality are taking punitive measures, increasingly characterized by collective punishment and geared to 'pacify' the Palestinians. The so-called moderates propose to contain them  literally and figuratively  with even more walls and checkpoints. And the purported progressives seek to placate the Palestinians by building schools and sewage pipes, expecting that everything will be OK. None of this speaks the unvarnished truth that the occupation is metastasizing and can no longer be sustained by any of the measures above, he told Al-Monitor.

Former Israeli Minister and Knesset member Haim Ramon addressed the issue in November 2015, calling on the government to turn over many of these neighborhoods to the PA. Shortly after 1967, Israel expanded the city limits of Jerusalem adding many villages and townships. Now that it's clear Israel is unable and unwilling to govern and administer services in this area, giving responsibility of these areas to the Palestinian government is called for.

Head of the Israeli opposition Isaac Herzog wants to further divide Jerusalem by building walls and checkpoints. The Washington Post reported March 7 that Herzog imagines building miles of new concrete barriers and smart fences to separate 28 Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem from Jewish neighborhoods and Jewish settlements in the city.

Jerusalem Major Barkat has also made clear his opinion of the situation. In a leaked audio broadcast on Israels Channel 10, on May 26, he called for revoking residency to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Seidemann told Al-Monitor that Barkats three options are planned in such a way to accomplish the third one. His first option is to take down the wall and replace it with checkpoints to show the world that the city is Israels undivided capital even though he knows this idea will be rejected by the security services, Seidemann said. He said that Barkat's second idea of rerouting the barrier along the municipal lines is not attainable.

He continued, This leads to the third option that is to revoke residency and relinquish the area." Seidemann is certain that all these ideas are next to impossible to implement because they totally ignore the reality on the ground and reflect policies increasingly tinged with racism and systemic human rights violations. Attempts to break the will of the Palestinians and make their life miserable while trying to unilaterally determine the fate of 200,000 Palestinians reflect official policies in which Palestinian lives just dont matter.

Seidemann suggested that all these proposals represent a dangerous delusion to the Israeli public. He said, The most devastating aspect of these plans is that they continue to peddle fantasies to the Israeli public  ones that serve Netanyahu and the ideological right and undermine Israels future. Jewish Jerusalem is bolstered and the Palestinians simply disappear or become domesticated.

When a sewage pipe broke recently, local Palestinians contacted the Joint List of predominately Arab parties. Subsequently, Knesset members Ahmad Tibi and Osama Saadi visited on May 19 Kufr Aqab and the nearby Samir Amis neighborhood and promised to bring immediate help. They contacted the relevant Israeli agencies and within 24 hours the issue was solved, according to a report by the Knesset members.

Palestinians living in these neighborhoods, like Tamara and Alaa, are not following this political discussion but instead are looking for ways to solve the problems impacting their daily lives. In the absence of a real peace process and agreed-upon solutions that aim at ending the Israeli occupation, areas like Jerusalems Kufr Aqab neighborhood will continue to be the source of headaches to the Palestinian Jerusalemites living in it, while the Israeli government is still not sure whether it wants to rule them or not.
June 2, 2016

Many in Israel wonder if the most radical right-wing government will be the one to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a question also discussed in Ramallah, Paris and Washington.

This brings to mind the famous reflection by the Prophet Jeremiah, who lived 2,700 years ago: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" (Jeremiah, 13:23). Sadly, prospects that the current government will evacuate a quarter million Jewish settlers from the West Bank (the rest will be allowed to remain in their homes as part of a land swap with the Palestinians) and renounce its sovereignty over Jerusalem's Temple Mount is akin to the prospects of the leader of the left-wing Meretz Party, Zehava Gal-On, moving to live in a West Bank outpost.

Removing settlers and renouncing sovereignty over Temple Mount are two necessary preconditions, albeit partial ones, for peace based on a two-state solution. Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and new Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman made some interesting and even courageous remarks this week about the Arab Peace Plan and the need for a diplomatic process, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said June 1, people must not be judged by their party affiliation and words, but by their actions for the sake of peace.

Following is a partial list of actions that the Israel government will need to take for peace in the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative. The participants of the June 3 Paris Conference for Peace in the Middle East are advised to keep this list in mind:

Adopt a clear and unambiguous government resolution stating that Israel supports the two-state solution and the principles of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. Until this happens, the government's objection to mention the Arab Peace Initiative as a basis for an arrangement with the Palestinians will remain in force. This objection was part of a May 2003 government resolution of adopting the Quartet's Road Map for Peace, a resolution that contained 14 reservations. Since then, neither the government nor its diplomatic-security Cabinet has held a single discussion about the Arab Peace Initiative or a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians.

Drastically change the policy of determining facts on the ground, especially those that disrupt the two-state solution through massive construction in the West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem. According to data compiled by Peace Now, the organization that closely monitors the settlement enterprise, since the formation of the current government in May 2015, authorities have approved plans to build 2,752 new housing units for Jews all across the West Bank, in contradiction to the recent statement by Housing Minister Yoav Galant during a visit to the United States that government policy is to refrain from building settlements. At the same time, Israeli authorities are pushing ahead with plans for new construction in the heart of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods of Silwan in the Holy Basin and in Sheikh Jarrah.

The ugly face of settlement policy was exposed in the state's response to a Supreme Court petition filed by the Israeli rights group Yesh Din and Palestinian landowners from the village of Anata, whose lands were annexed to the Jewish settlement of Kfar Adumim. Responding to the demand that the annexation order be voided, the state said with cruel irony that "Palestinian residents enjoy the appropriation of their lands for the benefit of the settlements because they are [then] employed in the industrial parks put up [on these lands] by the settlers."

Desist from the accelerated demolition of Palestinian buildings and change the housing permit policy for Palestinian residents of the West Bank's Area C.

According to the rights organization B'Tselem, from Jan. 1 to Feb. 11, 73 homes and 51 additional buildings were demolished, leaving 284 people, among them 161 minors, without a roof over their heads. Among the buildings razed were at least 37 donated by international relief agencies and European states. The pictures of babies left homeless in the stifling heat of the Jordan Valley and the bone-chilling cold of the Hebron Hills serves Hamas propaganda and undermines Abbas' already shaky standing.

Lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip as part of an understanding with the Palestinian Authority.

The severe humanitarian straits in Gaza increase the threat of another round of violence in the region, which, in turn, would derail any attempt to promote a diplomatic arrangement. Israel must avoid handing Hamas a victory in Gaza as part of the reconciliation agreement that seems to be in the works with Turkey. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has made clear his objection to giving Turkey a foothold in Gaza. Ignoring his stance is expected to also damage Israel's ties with Egypt.

Issuing an explicit statement of support by the minister of defense for the military's policy on fighting terror.

This position will roll back Liberman's open backing for Elor Azarya, the soldier who shot dead a wounded terrorist in Hebron. The military's position was expressed by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot when he said that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are not guided by such slogans as "if someone comes to kill you, arise to kill him first," and that he objects to soldiers "unloading an entire clip [of bullets]" at a Palestinian girl wielding scissors. The guidelines set out by Eizenkot stem not only from ethical principles but also from Israel's interest in defending Abbas against the fury of the Palestinian street. Israel's defense agencies are of one mind that there's no other partner on the horizon for a diplomatic arrangement and continued security cooperation with the Israelis.

These five moves are the minimum prerequisites for Israel to rebuild the trust of the Palestinians and the international community in its intention to bring about an end to the occupation, which marks its 49th anniversary on June 5. Bitter experience shows that a diplomatic process without significant moves on the ground is not only doomed to failure  it ends up providing additional ammunition for the right's deadly "no partner on the Palestinian side" argument.

Those who insist on looking for a silver lining to the current political cloud can console themselves with the upcoming appointment of Knesset member Tzahi Hanegbi as minister without portfolio (and without inhibitions) to oversee negotiations with the Palestinians. Throughout his political career, Hanegbi was both a hawk and a dove. He was a member of the radical right that rebelled against the government's decision to evacuate the settlement of Yamit as part of the peace treaty with Egypt, joined the Likud and moved over to the Kadima that withdrew Israeli troops and settlements from Gaza in 2005.

Hanegbi has now zigzagged back to the Likud. In February 2010, as chairman of the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee representing Kadima, he had said that "Abbas' recalcitrance raises doubts." Nevertheless, in August 2011, Hanegbi attended a meeting of left-wing activists with the Palestinians at the University of Pittsburgh, where a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians was discussed, based on the 1967 borders and a division of Jerusalem.

Hard to believe, but maybe, after all, in the Israel of 2016, an Ethiopian can change his skin color and a leopard can transform into a pussycat. Even Prophet Jeremiah couldn't have proposed such a transformation.
June 1, 2016

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip  El-Khodr Shrine, which is also known as the Khodr Monastery and St. Hilarius Monastery, is situated just 200 meters (0.1 mile) south of the Deir al-Balah city center. The director general of antiquities and cultural heritage at the Ministry of Tourism, Jamal Abu Rayda, told Al-Monitor that archaeological studies confirmed that at the bottom of this site is situated the monastery of St. Hilarius, which dates back to the third century and is considered one of the oldest that still exists in Palestine.

The monastery is now being restored by the Iwan Center for Architecture Heritage of the Islamic University and the Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation and turned into a library for the children of the neighborhood.

Since the Islamic conquest and after the Christians abandoned the monastery, it has served as a mosque for Muslims.

The house of Yusuf Ismail overlooks the shrine directly. He told Al-Monitor, "People used to come to the site from all regions of Palestine and offer sacrifices and oblations on its doors in search of livelihood or healing because the shrine is considered sacred. To Muslims, Khodr is the righteous servant of God who accompanied the Prophet Moses in his journey as stated in the Quran."

Ismail said that before the start of the restoration works a woman called Umm Talaat used to live and guard the monastery since in the 1970s. She considered herself to be its guardian, claiming to be an intermediary between the people and Khodr. She used to ask people to pay money that she claimed was intended for the sites servants who only she could see. Ismail insinuated that her claims were false. Umm Talaat, whom Ismail knows in person, left the shrine when she was in her 90s.

He added, The neglect by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities as well as the municipality is the main factor why such beliefs have spread among the people."

The historical narrative, which Al-Monitor learned from the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, relates that the name of the site is attributed to St. George, or Khodr in Arabic, and not to Wali al-Salih al-Khodr mentioned in the Quran, as popularized among the population.

Ismail said he was happy to see the site restored and turned into a childrens library, emphasizing that this does not detract from the sites historical, archaeological and religious stature.

Abu Rayda said the site is located in the center of Deir al-Balah and consists of two floors. It represents a unique case linking Christian heritage to Islamic heritage in one place, as the basement dates back to the Byzantine rule of Palestine (395-636), while the first floor was a prayer place for Muslims and was built at the start of the Islamic conquest of Palestine (638-1918).

Abu Rayda attributed the presence of an Islamic prayer place atop a Christian sanctuary to the decreasing number of Christians in the city who abandoned the sanctuary.

In regard to the sites restoration, which will take three months, Abu Rayda said the announcement to start the restoration took place in mid-March with UNESCO funding of $60,000, under the supervision of the Riwaq Center for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah, the Iwan Center for Architecture Heritage in Gaza and in collaboration with the Nawa Association, which will run the childrens library. The latter signed a five-year lease with the Ministry of Tourism. Following the announcement, reconstruction work started for a few days, before it was halted for a month due to the lack of necessary construction materials.

Abu Rayda said that the ministry's approval to transform the monastery into a children's library is intended to have a positive effect on those living nearby. In the past, neighbors believed that the shrine may have beneficial effects or cause harm; a library will be more beneficial to the community. According to him, the ministry is trying to network with relevant institutions to obtain the necessary materials, because the ministry does not have the building materials and logistical capabilities nor a special budget for restoration projects. He said that the ministry requires the institution to restore the landmark in full before signing a lease contract.

He added, "The restoration materials are expensive because they are not regular building materials; rather, they are natural materials such as clay and natural stones that are especially suited given the historical era of the site. The material is also rare and not available because the Israeli occupation prevents its entry."

The project coordinator at the IWAN Center for Architectural Conservation, Nashwa al-Ramlawi, told Al-Monitor that the choice of the shrine for restoration was based on two criteria: the paucity of archaeological sites in Deir al-Balah, and the historical and religious values of the shrine.

Ramlawi said, "The primary goal of the restoration is to preserve the architectural heritage in the sector, to raise awareness about the importance of the historical, cultural, civilizational and aesthetic value of these archaeological sites, and to train experts in restoration work through practical applications."

She emphasized that the standards used in restoration are internationally recognized standards, indicating that the shrine is architecturally distinguished by prominent arches, domes, Corinthian crowns and marble columns.

Even though the site is built with natural materials like stone, sandy clay and limestone, the construction style of the basement is quite different from that of the upper floor. This is because the two floors were built in different time periods.

Regarding the materials used in the restoration, Ramlawi said that they are natural materials such as "clay, white cement, coal, sand, natural stone and distilled water." Hence, the project was halted last month when the Israeli authorities blocked the entry of construction materials.

She added, "We are facing many difficulties due to lack of specialized competencies in restoration work and the lack of projects that deal with archaeological sites, because most projects in the sector are relief and development projects."

Ramlawi further explained that the structural problems of the archaeological sites in the sector  involving high moisture, salt, cracks and leaks  are leading to structural fracturing and the collapse of part of the building's structure.

The Khodr Monastery in Deir al-Balah is one of two monasteries in the Gaza Strip, the other being St. Hilarion Monastery in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Gaza is also home to two churches, namely the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Zeitoun neighborhood and the Byzantine church located in Jabalia.
Dr. Howard Jacob moved his team to HudsonAlpha

Dr. Howard Jacob at Huntsville's HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. (Eric Schultz / eschultz@al.com)

A Huntsville researcher has been honored as one of the world leaders in the field of genomic medicine. As part of that recognition, Dr. Howard Jacob of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology will share the story of how he "did not wait for change, but drove it" this month at the 2016 BIO International Convention in San Francisco.

Jacob was named a "Future Maker" in a worldwide vote ahead of the convention and will speak at it June 8 on using whole genome sequencing to diagnose rare diseases and potentially for preventive health decisions in the future.

Jacob led a team then at the Medical College of Wisconsin that was the first to identify a genetic mutation responsible for an undiagnosed illness in a child, who was then successfully treated. He brought that team to Alabama and HudsonAlpha in 2015 and established a medical clinic to diagnose childhood diseases by genetic sequencing and analysis.

"There are millions of people living with a rare disease and HudsonAlpha uses genome sequencing to find diagnoses and better treatments for those patients," Jacob said in a statement announcing the honor. "I'm honored that I have the opportunity to showcase how we are changing lives through genomics."

More than 15,000 biotech and pharmaceutical professionals are expected at the convention, including a delegation from Alabama led by Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield.
After Jonathan Dunning left as CEO of Central Alabama Comprehensive Health in Tuskegee in late 2008 he still called the shots at that agency for the poor and homeless for at least two more years, former CACH employees testified Wednesday.

"He was the boss," former CACH executive secretary Claudia Johnson testified at Dunning's fraud trial.

Despite not being officially at the helm, Dunning had ordered several employees fired, derided others including the man he recommended to replace him, and said two board members "asked too many questions," Johnson testified.

Alan Yoe, who took over as CEO of CACH at Dunning's recommendation in 2009, agreed that Dunning remained in charge until 2011. He was asked by a federal prosecutor who called the shots at the agency from 2009 through mid-2011. "Mr. Dunning," he replied.

Dunning, 52, the former nonprofit CEO of both CACH and Birmingham Health Care was indicted in 2014. He faces 112 fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with diverting to his own companies $14 million in federal government funds meant for treating the poor and homeless at BHC and CACH.

BHC and CACH, were among 1,400 federally-funded community health centers nationwide. BHC in January changed its name to Alabama Regional Medical Services.

Federal prosecutors allege Dunning diverted federal grant money for health care services into his own pockets by setting up companies, most of them with the name Synergy in them, to contract with BHC for services and lease agreements on buildings.

Sharon Waltz, a former employee, and Dunning's ex-lover, on Tuesday had testified that Dunning has set up businesses to contract with BHC and CACH "to make a profit off" the groups.

Dunning's trial continues Thursday before U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein, a specially appointed judge on the case.

Citizen complaint

Valerie Holm, senior advisor at the Division of Financial Integrity at the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, testified Wednesday that she launched a review of BHC in late 2010 after a citizen complaint. Several emails had been sent to her supervisor from that person, she said.

The complaints surrounded a question of whether BHC had contracts with a former employee, who she later understood to be Dunning, Holm said.

One of Dunning's attorneys, Bill Athanas, asked for the name of the person who complained. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamarra Matthews-Johnson objected to the name being released. The judge said she would rule later on whether the name should be released.

Holm said she asked BHC for a number of documents related to the years 2008 and 2009 as she began her review. BHC, however, redacted the payment amounts on contracts with Dunning and did not send her any of the check registers that were requested.

Prosecutors also went over BHC's 990 tax forms filled out by non-profit agencies with Holm. The forms have a number of questions the agencies are to answer regarding their operations. One question asks if the organization was a party to a business transaction with a current or former officer, director, or key employee and BHC answered "no."

Holm, under questioning by Athanas, said that while there were redactions and she didn't have the check register, the information wasn't the focus of her review.

Holm said she didn't recall looking into Dunning's purchase of the BHC building in early 2008.

When asked by Athanas why she didn't seek more information, Holm testified that it was her first government job - she was hired a few months before her review began - and she wasn't clear at that time what she was able to request.

Holm said that during her review she was in communications with Terri Mollica, BHC's then Chief Financial Officer. Mollica has pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges involving millions of dollars.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into BHC several months after her review, Holm said.

Dunning control

Prosecutors, through witnesses, painted a picture of Dunning as a man who continued to maintain control over both BHC and CACH, its employees and board members, even after he left his CEO posts and as his companies had contracts to manage the two groups.

Johnson, who worked as the secretary at CACH for 26 years, described Yoe as being "nervous" and "fearful." But she described Dunning as being "forceful" and if an employee didn't do something he wanted they were at risk of losing their job.

Several people did lose their jobs after Dunning had run-ins with them, Johnson said.

One time Dunning asked an employee why she wasn't wearing her identification badge, Johnson said. That employee then asked Dunning why he didn't have a badge, she said.

Dunning asked Yoe to "get rid of her" and Yoe fired her, Johnson said.

At one point when a group that included auditors was going to visit CACH, Dunning ordered the accountant there to come to BHC offices in Birmingham to work "because she might talk too much," Johnson said.

After Dunning came on board at CACH he also brought in a new outside accounting firm, Johnson said. Dunning was friends with someone at the new firm and also had commented that the former firm asked "too many questions," she said.

Dunning also had commented that two CACH board members also asked too many questions, Johnson testified.

And Dunning also had been critical of Yoe, saying one time that Yoe "couldn't get the job done."

Yoe, who had served as Chief Operating Officer at CACH from 2005 to 2009, testified Wednesday that Dunning had invited him to dinner in early 2009 and asked if he was interested in becoming the next CEO.

Dunning had been CEO at both BHC and CACH before he left in November 2008.

Yoe said his initial response to the offer was that he wasn't qualified for the job. He said he had been given a poor annual review as COO.

Dunning, however, told Yoe that he didn't have to worry, Yoe said. Dunning told him that accounting, grant writing, and reports would be taken care of by his staff, he said.

Yoe said as CEO he didn't have the authority to write checks.

Yoe testified that Dunning also told him that his pay as COO would be doubled if he took on the title of CEO of CACH.

The CACH board approved Yoe's hiring and his salary as the new CEO, Yoe said.

By that time CACH had a contract with BHC to manage CACH and BHC had a management consulting contract with Dunning for a transition period for BHC's new CEO Jimmy Lacey.

While Yoe agreed Dunning was in charge, he said Dunning never forced or paid him to sign any of the contracts with Dunning's companies.

During his tenure as CEO anonymous complaints were made about CACH and Dunning wanted to find out who was making allegations, Yoe said.

Yoe said that in April 2011 Dunning asked him one day to go into an office and take the computer off the desk of the medical director and bring it to him. He said that while on his way to bring the computer, he got a message from Dunning to stop and not deliver it.

Johnson also testified that one day she came into work and she and other co-workers found that their computers had been taken. She said she was told that they were to get new computers. "I said my computer is already new, why did I need another," she said.

Yoe said that he sent a letter of resignation on April 1, 2011 to the CACH board after he had heard he might be replaced. He said he had planned to take a job with Dunning.

On May 12, 2011 Yoe received a letter from CACH board chairman Louis Maxwell stating that the board was rejecting his resignation, Yoe said. He said around that time the board had also cancelled its management contract with BHC.

As a result, Yoe testified his job duties changed, with him getting control over grants and check writing.

CACH had to sue BHC to get its records back.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa Atwood and John B, Ward also are prosecuting the case. Attorneys William H. Thomas, Jr., Charles Walton Prueter also represent Dunning.

Al.com reporter Mike Oliver contributed to this report
purse snatching suspect hoover.png

A attempted purse snatcher at the Kohl's parking lot in Hoover was driving a silver mid-2000's Toyota 4Runner with a partial Alabama handicap tag of "6QL." The vehicle possibly has damage on the rear driver-side fender. The incident occurred at around 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 26, 2016. (Hoover police)

Hoover police are asking for help locating a suspect who attempted to snatch a purse from a woman on Thursday, May 26 in the parking lot of Kohl's at Inverness Corners.

The suspect is described as a white female in her mid-40s. She has a slim build, shoulder-length brown and gray hair, according to police. The suspect was also described by the witness as being "rough looking."

The incident occurred in the parking lot at around 3 p.m.

The suspect was driving a silver mid-2000's Toyota 4Runner with a partial Alabama handicap tag of "6QL." The vehicle possibly has damage on the rear driver-side fender.

Anyone who recognizes the vehicle or knows anything about the attempted robbery, is asked to call Hoover Detective Drew Mims at 205-739-7274. Anonymous tips can be made by contacting Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama at 205-254-7777.
Vestavia Hills police are investigating an assault that stemmed from a road rage incident on May 27 and asking for the public's help in locating the suspect.

Police said on the department's Facebook page that the incident happened around 6:45 a.m. that morning in the parking lot of Starbucks in Cahaba Heights.

Police are looking for a suspect that was driving a maroon Chevrolet Avalanche with a ladder rack.

The rack was holding a black ladder and had a squeegee in the cargo area.

Authorities believe that the suspect may work for or own a window cleaning or general cleaning service.

If you have any information about the suspect or recognize the vehicle, call detective Sgt. John Clemons at 205-978-0107.
A watercolor painting of actress Julianne Moore by Huntsville killer Jeffrey Franklin is being offered for sale on a "murder memorabilia" website. (deathmerchant.net)

A "murder memorabilia" website is offering for sale two paintings created by a Huntsville man who brutally murdered his parents in 1998 and critically injured three of his siblings.

The website deathmerchant.net is charging $150 for a watercolor painting of actress Julianne Moore painted by Jeffrey Brendan Franklin of Huntsville who, when he was 17, attacked all but one member of his immediate family with a hatchet, a 2-pound sledgehammer, a rat-tail file and a butcher's knife.

The site is charging $125 for a watercolor painting of Franklin's desk in prison.

"A really unique piece as art done by Jeffrey Franklin isn't really anywhere else on the market," the site reads in its description of the painting.

Eligible this month for his first shot at parole, Franklin is currently being held at Bullock Correctional Facility in Union Springs.

Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton said Thursday that Franklin, when questioned by officials about the paintings, admitted that he'd received a letter more than a year ago by someone interested in his artwork.

"Franklin said he mailed some of his artwork to the person at their request. (He) said he was unaware his artwork was being sold on a public website," Horton said.

Inmates are allowed to sell crafts and artwork under certain DOC guidelines, but the items must be approved beforehand and cannot refer to or depict their crimes, Horton said. Inmates are not allowed access to public websites or permitted to sell their crafts and artwork online.

"ADOC has not approved Franklin to sell crafts or artwork to the public," Horton said.

A second watercolor painting by Huntsville killer Jeffrey Franklin is being offered for sale on a "murder memorabilia" website. (deathmerchant.net)

AL.com has reached out to the administrator of deathmerchant.net, which describes itself as, "Bringing you the best in true crime artifacts and murderabilia." There has been no immediate response and the website states, "If you're associated with the news, I don't do interviews so please do not waste my time or yours."

Besides the artwork by Franklin, the site also has an extensive collection of work allegedly by Bobby Ray Gilbert, who was convicted in 1986 of killing 62-year-old Walton Edison Brewer during a robbery in Dekalb County.

Gilbert also stabbed a fellow inmate to death in 1990. He has been profiled multiple times on the MSNBC show "Lockup," which depicts life in prison.

Franklin, who the memorabilia site describes as an "Alabama Axe Murderer," is now 36 years old. He has served 15 years of a life sentence - with the chance of parole- for the March 10, 1998, bludgeoning deaths of his parents, Gerald and Cynthia Franklin, and the attacks on his siblings.

Alabama law states that a person sentenced to life is eligible for parole after 15 years.

Franklin sought in 2013 to have his parole hearing moved up, citing the three years he'd spent in county jail prior to pleading guilty to the crimes. That request was denied.

It is unclear exactly when Franklin's hearing will be scheduled.

Franklin, then a student at Grissom High School, became a suspect in the case after his parents were found dead and his siblings injured inside the family's home on Camelot Drive in southeast Huntsville. A younger sister and two young brothers suffered critical head injuries, but survived the attack.

Another younger sister was not home at the time of the murders. The gruesome scene was discovered after one of the children was spotted outside, injured and bloody, by a neighbor.

Franklin was taken into custody later that night after a high-speed chase that ended when he crashed into a fence. Police found him shirtless and bloody, with a pitchfork and pentagram etched onto his chest and abdomen.

An investigator testified in a hearing shortly after Franklin's arrest that the teen told police it was an "evil being" with horns sticking out of his head and eyes that committed the crimes.

The teen also told investigators he had been taking prescription drugs such as Ritalin, Prozac and Klonopin and had not slept for two days before the attack. Franklin had been under the care of a psychiatrist before the slayings.
muncey.jpg

Chief Larry Muncey, followed by his attorney Jerry Barclay, exit the federal courthouse after he was found guilty of criminal contempt of court on April, 15. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

The City of Madison spent over $50,000 to defend senior police officers under investigation by a federal judge, but did not pay the legal bills of the junior officer who launched the whole legal tangle.

Madison paid just over $36,000 in legal fees to defend Madison police Chief Larry Muncey, who was eventually found guilty of contempt of court by U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala. The judge fined Muncey $2,500 and he remains on indefinite administrative leave while appealing the unusual conviction.

Meanwhile, Madison city officials have not commented on any of this, despite repeated phone calls, emails and a couple contacts in person. Mayor Troy Trulock has not responded to inquiries from AL.com for several weeks, communicating through a secretary to say the matter was under investigation.

Madison city attorney Kelly Butler provided the amounts paid in legal fees after AL.com filed a records request with the city. Butler said she could not comment further and that the city would not provide access to other requested public information about the officers, including hire dates, salaries and any reprimands or commendations placed in their files.

Council President Tim Holcombe did return messages for comment as to why the city elected to defend the chief but not Officer Eric Parker.

"There's really no explanation for it, other than they wanted (Parker) gone," said Robert Tuten, Parker's attorney, when asked this week. Tuten has said the Police Benevolent Association paid the legal bills for Parker.

The case began on Feb. 6, 2015, with the sidewalk stop of Indian citizen Sureshbahi Patel, who was walking along the road in front of his son's home when a neighbor contacted Madison police about a suspicious man. Officer Parker and a trainee responded. During the confused exchange with Patel, who did not speak English, Parker placed a leg in front of Patel's and slammed him facefirst into the pavement, leaving Patel in need of spinal surgery.

On Feb. 12, with the case drawing international attention, Chief Muncey recommended that Parker be fired. That same day Madison police arrested Parker for misdemeanor assault. Capt. Terrell Cook signed Parker's arrest warrant.

The Justice Department later brought a more serious civil rights charge with a higher burden of proof. During first federal trial in September of 2015 the case ground to a halt, as Judge Haikala called a closed-door inquiry into whether Muncey and Cook had attempted to influence the testimony of the fellow officers who supported Parker.

The details wouldn't come out for half a year. Meanwhile, in December, the Madison city council voted unanimously to pay for legal representation for the senior officers being investigated by the judge.

Madison paid $36,076 to Jerry Barclay to defend Chief Muncey, according to totals provided by the city. That's roughly equivalent to the $36,901 annual salary Madison has been paying Parker to sit at home since Feb. 12, 2015.

Madison also paid $17,300 to attorney Brian White to defend Capt. Cook. And Madison paid $2,338 to defend Sgt. Lamar Anderson during the early phases of the inquiry last year. Sgt. Anderson was soon dropped from the contempt probe.

While the mayor would not comment, Councilman Mike Potter explained why the city in December agreed to pass a resolution to pay legal fees in the contempt case: "We decided to pay those because we were basically protecting the city."

In January of 2016, after two hung juries, Judge Haikala granted a motion to acquit Parker. In February, she made public the proceedings in the closed-door inquiry. This would be the first time the members of the city council would see the full scope of what Muncey was accused of and why he and Cook still needed representation.

Muncey and Cook then faced a day-long hearing before the same judge. Judge Haikala dismissed the contempt charge against Cook but found Muncey guilty. Muncey had sent emails to witnesses asking them to explain their testimony, sent Anderson to the courthouse to observe and had called at least one witness into his office to discuss his testimony.

Muncey told the judge he was obligated to protect the city against lawsuits by making sure his officers understood it was not within policy to use force without proper cause. Several officers who served as witnesses had testified Parker acted within policy when he injured Patel.

Since then, Attorney General Luther Strange dropped the state case against Parker. Alabama didn't even go to court to attempt to prove the misdemeanor, which carries a lower burden of proof than the federal charge.

The end result is that Chief Muncey, who strongly criticized the use of force, is the only one to be found guilty of a crime in relation to the case.

Muncey's appeal is still pending and he remains on indefinite administrative leave. Parker is still on paid leave. Patel is still suing Parker and the City of Madison.

Parker has appealed his dismissal from the police department, although his attorney said it's unclear when he might receive a city hearing.

Councilman Potter said the city has also not yet decided whether to pay the legal fees for Muncey's legal appeal.

"It's up to the mayor to bring that to us with some kind of recommendation," said Potter, but added that Mayor Trulock does not inform the council of his plans and no one knows when such a recommendation might be made or what it would be.

Hanu Karlapalem, a first generation Indian American, announced his candidacy for mayor of Madison in the wake of the Parker case.

When asked about the legal fees, Karlapalem this week emailed: "The tragedy with Chief Muncey is just a drop in an ocean of problems for Troy Trulock. It is not a coincidence that everything is crumbling around him. He is a nice man, but clearly he cannot lead."
TENNESSEE RIVER

The Tennessee River in Decatur, Ala. (File photo)

The West Morgan East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority has advised the approximately 100,000 people served by their water system not to drink tap water until further notice due to potentially hazardous levels of chemical contaminants PFOA and PFOS.

The EPA issued a health advisory May 19 that the chemicals could be harmful to humans at lower concentrations than previously thought, and Thursday morning the water authority board decided to issue the do-not-drink advisory on the recommendation of general manager Don Sims.

The utility provides drinking water for about 100,000 people in Lawrence and Morgan Counties and has about 10,000 direct residential customers.

It also provides water for the West Lawrence Water Cooperative, and used to provide for the V.A.W. Water System, which serves the Vinemont area north of Cullman. V.A.W. switched to a different water supply after the advisory.

"I recommend that all our customers do not drink our water, until we are able to bring the temporary system our engineer is designing online," Sims said at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

That temporary filter is expected to be completed in September at a cost of around $4 million. The plans call for a granular activated carbon system that forces water through six box-car sized filters before sending it on to customers.

The water authority plans to construct a permanent filter that is expected to be complete in 2019. Authorities at the press conference did not speculate on the cost of the permanent filter system, but Sims previously told AL.com it could cost between $30 and $50 million.

Customers, he said, will be provided more information by mail. The authority said it does not have the means to provide bottled water for its customers in the interim.

Until the filter is installed, the water authority recommends that customers not drink tap water or use it to cook. The EPA health advisory does not impact showering or skin contact with the water. Boiling water does not remove these chemical contaminants, nor do most household water filters. Unless the filter specifically says it will remove PFCs or perfluorinated compounds, it likely does not.

According to the EPA health advisory, PFOA and PFOS have been linked to health problems, including cancer, birth defects and developmental problems in children. Pregnant women, women who are breast feeding, and infants who consume formula mixed with tap water are particularly susceptible to these health impacts, and the EPA's new health advisory level was made with those populations in mind.

"I would rather be over-cautious than under-cautious," Sims said. "I'm not a doctor, I'm not a chemist, but when they tell one class of people the water is not safe, I don't want to be the one to say 'you drink it and you don't.'

"So I said nobody drink it."

Water for the West Morgan East Lawrence system comes from the Tennessee River, downstream from the Decatur area, where 3M and other industrial operations manufactured these chemicals or used them to make consumer products such as non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabric, and fire-fighting foam.

The chemicals are widespread through the country, and EPA says traces of the chemical can be found in nearly every person who is tested for it. The compounds do not occur naturally and according to the EPA, drinking water contamination is most common near facilities that manufactured the chemicals themselves or used the chemicals to manufacture or treat other products.

When the initial advisory was released eight water systems in Alabama had combined concentration of PFOA and PFOS greater than the new 70 parts per trillion advisory threshold.

Since then, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management said additional testing has shown that six of those systems were now under that threshold. Only West Morgan East Lawrence and West Lawrence remain on the advisory list.

The water authority filed a lawsuit last year against 3M and other companies over the chemicals found in the river, but representatives at the press conference Thursday said the water authority can't wait for the lawsuit to be resolved to begin installing the filtration systems.

"Quite simply, we call on 3M to fix it," said Carl Cole, a lawyer representing the water authority in the suit. "Voluntarily fix this problem that you've caused, or we intend to have a north Alabama jury fix it for you and require you to do it."

Attorney William Brewer, who represents 3M in the matter, said via email that the company has followed the law and disputed the claims that the substances are harmful.

"3M's activities in connection with these materials were not only fully permitted but entirely appropriate," Brewer said. "In any event, we believe the claims against 3M - and recent actions taken by the water authority - are based upon the mistaken belief that the mere presence of these chemicals equals harm."

3M stopped manufacturing both chemicals more than a decade ago, yet the substances remain in the water at elevated levels. Environmental group Tennessee Riverkeeper filed a notice of intent to sue 3M last year over contamination of the river.

Dr. Carol Ley, 3M vice president and corporate medical director, said the company has not found evidence of negative health impacts among its own workers, who were exposed to the chemicals for long periods of time.

"Although we support the work of the EPA and other regulators, we believe these advisory levels are overly conservative," Ley said in a news release. "We believe that PFOS and PFOA do not present health risks at levels they are typically found in the environment or in human blood."
James Henderson abortion clinic

Rev. James Henderson speaks to the media outside the Alabama Women's Center on Sparkman Drive in Huntsville in May 2016. Henderson supports the new law banning clinics within 2,000 feet of K-8 public schools. The Alabama Women's Center and West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa have sued to challenge the new law, which takes effect Aug. 1. (Paul Gattis/pgattis@al.com)

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The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a legal challenge against a law that could close two of Alabama's five abortion clinics and another that would outlaw a second-trimester abortion procedure.

Last month, the Legislature passed a law prohibiting the state from licensing or renewing the license of an abortion clinic within 2,000 feet of a K-8 public school.

That could force the Alabama Women's Center in Huntsville and the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa to close, according to the lawsuit.

Lawmakers also passed a bill banning what the lawsuit says is "the safest and most common" second-trimester abortion procedure.

The bill refers to the procedure as "dismemberment abortion," but the medical term is "dilation and evacuation," according to the lawsuit, which says it is the only method used for outpatient procedures throughout the second trimester.

Gov. Robert Bentley signed both bills into law and they are slated to take effect Aug. 1.

Plaintiffs in the case, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, are the Alabama Women's Center, the West Alabama Women's Center and the doctors who provide the abortion services at the two clinics.

Their complaint is a supplement to an earlier lawsuit that challenged a regulation that had temporarily closed the West Alabama Women's Center.

The regulation required abortion clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital in the same city as the clinic.

As an alternative, clinics could enter a contract with a covering physician who has admitting privileges.

In its lawsuit, West Alabama Women's Center claimed its doctor could not obtain admitting privileges for reasons unrelated to competency and the clinic could not find a doctor with admitting privileges who was willing to be the covering physician.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of that regulation.

In April, the State Committee of Public Health approved a new rule allowing clinics without admitting privileges or a covering physician to operate under certain new requirements, including staff training and follow-up care.

One provision requires clinics operating under that new rule to provide every woman who receives an abortion a copy of her medical record pertaining to the abortion before leaving the facility.

The legal challenge filed today also challenges the medical records requirement as "an unacceptable threat to patient confidentiality" and as a requirement not imposed on any other healthcare provider.
Navy Blue Angels Crash

This May 19, 2016, photo shows Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss at an air show in Lynchburg, Va. A Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter jet crashed Thursday, June 2, near Nashville, Tenn., killing the pilot just days before a weekend air show performance, officials said. A U.S. official said the pilot was Kuss. (Matt Bell/The Register & Bee via AP)

A U.S. Navy F-A 18 assigned to the Blue Angels crashed outside Nashville today, killing the pilot.

Navy officials said the crash occurred as the plane was in its beginning stages of afternoon practice at the Smyrna, Tennessee airport.

The pilot has been identified as Capt. Jeff Kuss of the U.S. Marine Corps., according to the Associated Press. Kuss was a native of Durango, Colorado. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2006 and joined the Blue Angels in 2014.

"The Navy is deeply saddened by the loss of this service member. We extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the family of the pilot, and those he served with," Navy officials said in a statement.

The crash occurred around 3 p.m. Witnesses at the scene reported seeing a crash following by a giant ball of flames and smoke.

Five other Blue Angel jets that were also practicing were not involved in the incident and landed safely. The Navy said the aerial demonstration team will not participate in the Smyrna air show set for this weekend.

The Navy said the cause of the crash is under investigation.

Video taken at the scene appears to show the crash.

The Blue Angels crash occurred just hours after an Air Force Thunderbird went down after taking part in a flyover at the Air Force Academy in Colorado.

The Air Force Thunderbird F-16 went down south of the Colorado Springs airport near Peterson Air Force Base. Images from the scene show a mostly-intact airplane in a field.

Thunderbird officials said the pilot ejected safely and was recovered and examined by first responders. The pilot was not injured and no one on the ground was hurt, officials added. The pilot of the downed aircraft later met with President Obama.

The cause of the crash is unknown at this time.

The incident occurred just after President Obama addressed the more than 850 Air Force Academy graduates.

According to the Academy, the Thunderbirds performed a 30-minute demonstration above Falcon Stadium on the day of graduation. The aerial performance team had completed two practice runs prior to the graduation-day events.
katie.jpg

Katie Darovitz in Russell County, Alabama (Grant Blankenship for ProPublica)

This story is by Nina Martin of ProPublica -- an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.

Sixteen months after her arrest, Katie Darovitz -- one of at least 500 women prosecuted under Alabama's toughest-in-the-nation chemical endangerment law-- has had her case dismissed.

Darovitz's story, first chronicled by ProPublica last year, was especially wrenching: She has severe epilepsy, and doctors told her that the medications she was using to treat her condition carry a risk of miscarriage and birth defects.

When she got pregnant in 2014, she discovered marijuana could control her seizures and had not been associated with birth defects. But when she gave birth, hospital staffers turned over her positive marijuana screen to a social worker who turned it over to law enforcement officials in Russell County. Two police officers showed up at the house Darovitz shared with her common-law husband and their two-week-old son, handcuffed her, and hauled her off to jail. Though her son, Will, was in good health, Darovitz was charged with a Class C felony--punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Darovitz's mother-in-law, Debi Word, said the dismissal came as a relief. But it was a long, grueling process that required a battery of national advocacy groups, pro-bono lawyers, a GoFundMe campaign, and every penny and moment that Darovitz's family could spare. Among the casualties: Word's marriage and Darovitz's Social Security disability payments--her only source of income. "What we have gone through has been just horrible," Word said.

As ProPublica and AL.com reported last year, Alabama's chemical endangerment law makes it a felony to "knowingly, recklessly, or intentionally" cause a child to be exposed to controlled substances and drug-making chemicals. The statute carries sentences up to 10 years in prison if a child is unharmed and up to 99 years if a child dies.

The 2006 statute was initially aimed at parents who exposed children to dangerous methamphetamine labs, then was reinterpreted by prosecutors and courts to target women who used drugs during pregnancy. That tangled history, combined with a lack of law-enforcement guidelines, have led to wide disparities in how the law is used and troubling instances of overreach and abuse.

The Alabama legislature amended the law this spring to address one of its biggest problems: vague language that allowed women to be prosecuted even when they used controlled substances, such as opiate painkillers or methadone, that were legally prescribed by their doctors. Under the amendment signed by Gov. Robert Bentley last month, such women are now exempt from punishment.

Prosecutors have defended other aspects of the law, saying it's an important tool in dealing with rampant addiction -- and sometimes the only way to force women into treatment. According to the ProPublica/AL.com investigation, the vast majority of chemical endangerment cases are resolved by women agreeing to go into diversion programs or to drug court, although women who fail those programs often go to jail.

Darovitz's case shows the toll such cases can take on families, even if women manage to avoid incarceration. "The power of the state is amazing to see," said Jose Guzman, a lawyer in Columbus, Ga., who negotiated the dismissal. "The state can really wreck your life."

Though Darovitz's case is unusual in some of its details, in other ways it is typical of the cases ProPublica and AL.com examined. Like Darovitz, 20 percent of mothers charged with chemical endangerment used marijuana only; like Darovitiz, about a quarter had no prior criminal record. And like Darovitz, many of the mothers were turned over by hospitals, which sometimes conducted drug tests without mothers' knowledge or consent.

In Russell County, where Darovitz and her family live a few miles from the Georgia border, at least 19 mothers have been charged with chemical endangerment of an unborn child since 2006. It's not unusual for a chemical endangerment defendant in the county to face a $2,500 fine on top of all the other fees.

That's what Word's family was hoping to avoid when Darovitz was arrested. Leery of public defenders who they feared might not put much effort into the case, they originally hired a Birmingham lawyer who charged them a $2,000 retainer. But the case stalled; eventually Word and her family found Guzman through the medical marijuana advocacy group Patients Out of Time.

By then Darovitz, who cannot work, had lost her Medicare and Social Security disability payments for unrelated reasons, Word said. With no health insurance or income, she couldn't afford the $300 monthly bill for her epilepsy medication, so she again controlled her seizures with medical marijuana -- which has complicated the process of getting her benefits reinstated. "Because she used marijuana, they say she was just a drug user," Word said. "To them, it looks like she's being noncompliant."

Katie Darovitz, left, with her son Will Bishop and Will's father Nick Bishop in their home in Seale, AL. Katie was charged with chemically endangering Will after a drug test following his birth came up positive for marijuana for them both. Katie had used marijuana while pregnant because she thought it safer for her unborn son to medicate her epilepsy without prescription drugs. (Grant Blankenship for ProPublica)

The costs piled up, eventually exceeding $6,000, Word said. Just getting Darovitz's medical records from the hospital cost $150 -- and it wasn't until this past spring, after Guzman was hired, that they found a toxicology report stating that the drug tests were unconfirmed and could not be used in court. According to Guzman, there is no record that officials at East Alabama Medical Center, where Darovitz gave birth, or prosecutors ever conducted a second test to confirm the results.

A spokesman for the hospital did not return a phone call or email.

Ultimately, Guzman was able to negotiate a deal with the Russell County District Attorney's office, which agreed to drop the charges if Darovitz signed a letter saying she intended to move to a state, such as Georgia, where medical marijuana is legal and if she agreed not to sue the county. (There is no deadline by which Darovitz would have to move and Gov. Bentley recently signed a bill decriminalizing medical marijuana oil.)

"Negotiating a non suit agreement is common practice," Russell County District Attorney Ken Davis said in an email. "We didn't require the defendant to move anywhere," he added, but he acknowledged, '[T] he fact that she was moving to a state where [she] might get a prescription not available in Alabama was a factor in the decision to dismiss the pending charge."

The dismissal order was filed in April. "We've been living in peace," Word said.
If you ask most people in Alabama what the richest town in the state was, they probably wouldn't have too hard a time with the answer: Mtn. Brook.

The wealthy Jefferson County enclave of about 20,500 people has a poverty rate of 2.6 percent, the 17th lowest figure of all the richest towns in America, according to a recent ranking by 24/7 Wall Street. The median household income in Mtn. Brook is $130,259 as compared to $42,830 for the state as a whole.

Mtn. Brook's average household income puts it in the upper 25th percentile on the list of each state's richest city but it's not the wealthiest in South. That title belongs to Belle Meade, Tennessee, where the median household income is $202,061.

Here's how the richest in the South rank:

Belle Meade, Tennessee - $202,061

Mtn. Brook, Alabama - $130,259

Tega Cay, South Carolina - $114,294

Keystone, Florida - $113,971

Skidaway Island, Georgia - $108,886

Francisville, Kentucky - $105,552

Madison, Mississippi - $99,109

Shenandoah, Louisiana - $91,949

Morrisville, North Carolina - $84,301

Maumelle, Arkansas - $79,182

The richest town in the country, according to the ranking, was Scarsdale, New York, which came in at $241,453.

Welcome to Thursday's Wake Up Call. Let's see what's going on:

What's Trump reading this summer?

What does presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have on his summer reading list?

According to Trump, he's reading Ed Klein's book, "Unlikeable: The Problem with Hillary," a 2015 work on Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton. Trump said he's also reading a book on former president Richard Nixon.

Trump added he's re-reading "All Quiet on the Western Front," a novel about the life of German soldiers in World War I.

Dagger in King Tut's tomb made with iron from meteorite

A dagger found in King Tutankhamun's Egyptian tomb was made with iron from a meteorite, according to a new analysis of its metal compensation.

Two daggers were found in 1925 by archeologist Howard Carter. One was made with iron and one had a blade of gold. The iron blade's metal handle was unique in that it had not rusted. Scientists recently analyzed the blade and found it contained a high nickel content similar to that found in meteorites.

It's not the first outer-space find in Tut's tomb. An unusual yellow gem from Tut's burial necklace is believed to be glass formed when the heat of a meteorite crashed into sand.

Blind Louisiana man sues McDonald's

A blind man in Louisiana has filed suit against McDonald's alleging they discriminate against visually impaired customers by refusing to serve those who walk up to use the drive-through during late-night hours.

Scott Magee's suit filed in the U.S . District Court in Chicago said he was laughed at and turned away from a drive-through window at a New Orleans' McDonald's last August. The company's policy does not allow for pedestrians to be served as a drive-through, even when the inside of the restaurant is closed. Magee said since blind customers can't drive, they are effectively prohibited from patronizing the chain during late-night hours.

Magee is seeking class action status for the suit.

Child demolishes $15k Lego statue

A Lego sculpture valued at some $15,000 was destroyed by a young boy at a show in southern China recently.

The artwork, a statue of a fox named Nick from the Disney film "Zootopia," took three days for to create. The boy - thought to be about 4-5 years old - pushed it over, shattering the pieces.

The show's organizers said they believe the incident was an accident.

Until tomorrow.
California's presidential primary - as well as ones in Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota - is set for Tuesday, June 7.

With Donald Trump already having secured the number of delegates needed for the Republican presidential nomination, all eyes are on the Democrats as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hopes to put away contender Bernie Sanders, a Vermont Senator.

According to the AP tracker, Trump has 1,239 delegates, two more than the number needed to secure the nomination going into the Republican convention this summer. Clinton has 2,312 delegates, 71 short of the number needed for the nomination. Sanders has 1,545 delegates, making it mathematically impossible for him to achieve the 2,383 threshold needed to win the nomination.

That doesn't mean Sanders' is taking a back seat to Clinton, however. The self-described "democratic socialist" has remained on the campaign trail and continues to push Clinton to devote time battling him as opposed to presumptive nominee Trump.

The latest polls show Clinton has her hands full in California, the key state in Tuesday's primary.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll shows Clinton clinging to a narrow two-point lead over Sanders. Clinton was the choice of 49 percent of likely Democratic primary voters as compared to Sanders, who was favored by 47 percent.

There are 548 total Democratic delegates available in California, with Clinton already having 63 of the state's super delegates pledges to support her candidacy. Super delegates are not bound by the outcome of the statewide vote.
6-2 tropical outlook pm 1.jpg

An tropical wave is expected to develop over the weekend in the Gulf and has a 40 percent chance of growing into a tropical depression or storm over the next five days as it moves to the northeast. (National Hurricane Center)

It hasn't even formed yet, but the National Hurricane Center has already pegged the Gulf of Mexico as the breeding ground for what could be a new tropical disturbance.

The hurricane center on Thursday afternoon raised the chances to "medium" -- or 40 percent -- that a developing area of low pressure could organize into a tropical depression or storm over the next five days.

Right now there's nothing to speak of. The hurricane center said the low was expected to form by late this weekend over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula or southern Gulf.

The low then is forecast to track to the north-northeast and possibly collide with Florida sometime next week.

Whether it's a tropical wave, a depression, or storm, it is expected to bring rainy weather to parts of Florida next week:

Here's a look at forecast precipitation over the next seven days. A potential tropical disturbance could bring up to 6 inches of rain to parts of Florida during that time. (Weather Prediction Center)

A storm has to have maximum sustained winds of 39 mph, among other things, to be considered a tropical storm and get a name.

The next name on the Atlantic list is Colin.
North Koreas state TV disclosed on Wednesday, for the first time, video footage showing the launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in April, the latest show of its determination to develop nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them  and at the same time its defiance of the international communitys mounting pressure.

In the video, North Koreas leader Kim Jong-un is seen watching with a big smile as a missile was successfully launched underwater and flew into the sky.

The timing of the release of this more than a month-old video grabs attention in several ways.

First, Kim needed to save face following Tuesdays failed test of a missile  widely believed to be a Musudan intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) with an ability to travel up to 4,000km  meaning it could reach all of Japan and the American territory of Guam, where the US has military bases.

US, not China, militarising the South China Sea: FM

Kim Dae-young, a senior research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, told Al Jazeera this fourth successive failed launch, if it was indeed Musudan, would have been a huge embarrassment for Kim Jong-un when he needed to demonstrate to the international community that Pyongyang would not succumb to international sanctions and would continue to walk its own path.



G7 summit: Global growth an urgent priority

It appears that Pyongyang wanted to stress that the country has various kinds of means to deliver nuclear weapons, Kim added.

Following the fourth nuclear test in January and the long-range rocket launch in February, the UN Security Council  where Pyongyangs traditional ally China is a veto-wielding permanent member  unanimously adopted a resolution in March, considered to be the toughest sanction in history imposed on the defiant country.

Second, the video was released the same day that a North Korean delegation led by its top official Ri Su-yong met Chinese President Xi Jin-ping with a purported objective of explaining to Beijing the results of the ruling partys once-a-generation congress held in early May.

This was the first visit by a high-level North Korean official to Beijing since the January nuclear test that upset Chinas leadership, which needs regional stability for its continued economic growth. The test has subsequently chilled the traditional allies relations.

Surprisingly, however, Ri told Xi that Pyongyangs byungjin policy of simultaneously developing nuclear weapons and its economy remained unchanged, according to North Koreas state media.

President Xi, more surprisingly, called on relevant sides  which means not only Pyongyang but also other players in the region such as Seoul, Tokyo and Washington  to stay calm and exercise restraint, according to Chinas official Xinhua News Agency.

Kim Jong-un: North Korea is a responsible nuclear state

Cheong Seong-chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute based in South Korea, told Al Jazeera: Xis remark is intended to criticise not only Pyongyang but also Seoul and Washington for further heightening tensions by conducting the largest joint military exercises in March, including a manoeuvre aimed at decapitating North Korean leadership.

Another twist to this already complicated story is the South China Sea, where Beijing is engaged in territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

The US and Japan  which warily view Chinas increasing assertiveness in the South and East China Seas  have been mounting pressure on Beijing, as seen in President Barack Obamas recent visit to its former bitter enemy Vietnam to bolster ties, and also in the declaration adopted in the G7 summit held in Japan last week.

China is widely viewed as the only country with substantial clout over North Korea, and analysts here say that Beijing might be thinking it is better to mend fences with Pyongyang and keep it as a strategic card to play in dealing with pressure from Washington and Tokyo over the South China Sea issue.

From Friday, the Shangri-La Dialogue  which brings together defence ministers, military chiefs, and prominent security analysts  will be held in Singapore for three days with both North Korea and the South China Sea high on agenda.

The outcome of the meeting with the North Korean delegation will be taken into account, when China talks to its American counterpart during the Shangri-La Dialogue, Cheong said.
We ask if the former mayor of London is an asset to the Leave campaign or if his association with it could backfire.

Glasgow, UK  He has been left hanging in mid-air while attempting to ride a zip-wire at an event to mark the London 2012 Olympics. He has also fallen chest-deep into a South London river in front of British TV cameras and the press. And he has even been forced to apologise to the entire English city of Liverpool when, as then-editor of The Spectator magazine, he ran an editorial criticising the city-wide grief that followed the death of local man, Ken Bigley, in Iraq in 2004.

Boris Johnson, who was Conservative Party mayor of London from 2008 to May this year, has rarely left the headlines since he first took to the political stage as a Westminster MP in 2001. After the 51-year-old gave up his seat to become London mayor for eight years, he sought and won re-election to Britains House of Commons at last years UK general election as his mayoralty came to a close.

Today, however, the man who has often been vaunted as the ultimate Teflon politician is arguably facing his toughest test as the effective head of the Leave campaign in the UKs June 23 in/out European Union (EU) referendum, with many observers speculating on his apparent ambition to secure the highest political prize in the land  the office of prime minister.

After the date of the referendum was announced, great media hubbub centred on Johnson  or, Boris, as he is more commonly known across Britain  and which side he would back. Seen by many as an effective political campaigner  with more colour and pizazz than his many grey-suited and more politically cautious contemporaries  Johnson delighted the Leave camp when, on February 21, he threw his weight behind the drive to take the UK out of the EU.

He is immensely popular with people  hes an incredible vote-catcher, he won London twice [as mayor] when traditionally it has always been Labour, said Sonia Purnell, the author of Boris Johnsons biography, Just Boris  A Tale of Blond Ambition. People thought of him as an election winner  and I saw some suggestions that he might be able to add 10 percentage points to the Leave campaign.

Purnell told Al Jazeera that Johnsons populist appeal and uncanny ability to cut through class, cut through age and cut through party barriers to reach people was widely seen as a potentially game-changing asset to either campaign. That was certainly the view of Brexit backer Janice Atkinson who initially saw Johnsons commitment to join the Leave cause as a coup  but who has since felt let down by his conduct on the campaign trail.

Hearts and minds  or bananas?

I think in the past few weeks hes just acting the fool  and I dont like it, said Atkinson, who is an independent UK Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in Brussels. Johnson invited ridicule last month when he brought the EUs directives on the sale of bananas into the referendum debate. The messages are not coming out. A great leader  at this point  would have won over the peoples hearts and minds . You need a figurehead leading you out the door  but when youve got to win over the hearts and minds of people, Boris isnt doing it.

Indeed, for a man who has based his reputation on being able to say or do things that if said or done by other British politicians might have ruined their careers, Johnson has recently found himself in hot water. After the US President, Barack Obama, joined forces with Conservative British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in April to call on Britain to vote to remain in the EU, Johnson caused controversy when he lambasted the outgoing American leader in a newspaper article claiming that he had an ancestral dislike for Britain on account of his part-Kenyan heritage. And last month, Johnson came under attack when he claimed that the EU was pursuing a similar aim to that of Hitler in attempting to fashion a single European superstate.

WE ARE THE MAU MAU: Kenyans tortured by the British

Yet, Londons former mayor, who was born in the US and has multinational heritage, has found his true Brexit credentials questioned  with many speculating about his real motives for joining the Leave campaign. In a 2006 documentary, The Dream of Rome, Johnson, who is also an author and popular historian, espoused the case for Turkey to be admitted into the EU and talked up the great moment when the two halves of the Roman Empire are at last reunited in an expanded European Union.

Eye on the prize  of the premiership?

For political commentator Mark Thompson, Johnsons lack of consistency over the EU question has started to become quite painfully obvious.

Its pretty clear from his whole background  his father was an MEP  that hes not really hostile to the EU, said the Liberal blogger.

Purnell, who worked alongside the MP during his stint as a Daily Telegraph journalist in Brussels before his political career, said that Johnson has always had his eyes firmly fixed on securing the British premiership. And the EU referendum has now provided the means to potentially realise that dream.

What was the most likely way for him to become prime minister  to back Remain? Well, there is a Remain prime minister, so theres no job vacancy there, said Purnell. Johnsons long-standing rival Cameron, who said before his second election victory last year that he would not serve a third term as prime minister, has vowed to see his job through regardless of the referendum result, which polls say is too close to call. This is his best and probably his last chance of Downing Street, so hes throwing everything hes got at it, she continued.

But does Johnson need the Leave campaign to triumph in order to push his case for the premiership? Thompson thinks not.

OPINION: Brexit, budget cuts and the future of David Cameron

I dont think he even believes he needs to win in order to use the fact that he was effectively the head of the Leave campaign to leverage the situation and succeed Cameron, he said. Thompson contends that should Leave lose by a whisker, it would still appear to the [many] Conservative Party Euro-sceptics that they would still be within striking distance of leaving the EU if a few things go their way over the next few years.

The fact that Johnson is now the most prominent Conservative associated with the Leave camp means that he is in prime position to take over from Cameron  and of that I am certain, despite his protestations, he added.

Follow Alasdair Soussi on Twitter: @AlasdairSoussi
China may not be democratic, but it is increasingly free.

Over the past 10 years China has built about 20,000km of high-speed rail connections, 20 urban public transport systems, countless roads and highways, and dozens of new airports.

At a glance this looks like a massive infrastructure boom  and it is. But at a second glance it represents an unprecedented expansion in human freedom.

In the movies, the human freedom to move is blocked by police inspectors, border checks, and walls.

In reality this most basic physical freedom is mostly suppressed by the simple lack of roads. It is hard to move across the country if you have to walk.

In China even poor people can afford to travel long distances to seek work, visit family, or just explore with a reasonable level of comfort and air-conditioning. Mundane to most Westerners, such freedom to move would be a godsend to most Africans or South Asians.

Everyday freedoms such as the freedom to travel have expanded dramatically in China since the turn of the millennium.

The freedoms to move, to shop, to eat, to choose ones field of study, and in general to live ones life as one sees fit are all coming to be ingrained in Chinese popular culture.

To realise how momentous this transition is, think back 40 years to 1970s China. Within that living memory, people had to live where the government said, eat whatever food was served in their work unit canteen and study political slogans above all else.

All of those forms of party-state social control are now gone for good. The Communist Party of China may still pull all the levers of economic and political power, but in the social sphere most Chinese people are freer now than their ancestors had ever been.

If not exactly a golden age for freedom, todays China is perhaps a silver age in the making. And thats a big improvement on the iron age of just a few decades ago.

Protest nation

China is not a free country, and Western NGOs such as Freedom House appropriately give China low marks for freedom. Freedom House gave China one of the lowest possible scores on its Freedom in the World index of political rights and second-lowest for civil liberties.

No doubt China has serious problems, but thats a worse rating than Egypt, which is governed by a military dictatorship that systematically imprisons and kills its opponents.

The freedom of personal choice of everyday activities may not equate to gold standard freedoms like the freedom to advocate the overthrow of the government, but they are probably felt and appreciated by vastly larger numbers of people. by

Though China itself may have fitted that description in the years following the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, things are certainly much better today. People in China may not be free to call for a new government, but they are at least able to air their grievances with the current one.

In contrast to Egypt, Russia, Turkey, and other high-security states, unsanctioned public protests are actually quite common in China. The government itself is surprisingly frank about this. It even offers some basic statistics on the size and distribution of demonstrations.

Which is not to say that the government quietly accepts public displays of anger. Its reactions are often harshly repressive, especially when public order is threatened.

But then, even in robustly democratic countries like the United States, unruly protesters are often confronted with forceful policing.

Most protests in China are sparked by one of two causes  labour disputes or land disputes. Labour disputes often pit workers against business owners who have not paid wages or are accused of embezzling workers social security contributions. Land disputes arise when developers harass homeowners to force them to sell cheaply or move out.

In a country where the government has a hand in everything, both land and labour protests can take on anti-government dimensions. By the governments own reckoning, 44 percent of public protests involve complaints about government officials.

OPINION: Chinas five-year plan fantasy

All this suggests that one of the most fulfilling everyday freedoms, the freedom to complain, is coming to be accepted as a basic human right in China.

The government has even started to integrate the freedom to complain into its system of governance. It increasingly uses public protests as a tool for identifying corruption and other problems.

When people complain, higher-ups take notice: A good official is one who has no complaints. It may not be an ideal way to govern, but it does give ordinary people a voice  however small  in an otherwise alienating political system.

No substitute

The freedom to consume, the freedom to move, and the freedom to complain may not substitute for true political freedom, but they are nonetheless important in themselves.

Most people are never going to run for office, but they are going to wear clothes, eat food, live in homes, work at jobs, and, yes, complain online.

OPINION: Is China changing its policy towards Uighur Muslims?

The freedom of personal choice in these kinds of everyday activities may not equate to gold standard freedoms like the freedom to advocate the overthrow of the government, but they are probably felt and appreciated by vastly larger numbers of people.

Even if the quantity of freedom does not make up for a lack of quality, everyday freedoms do have a big effect on the ways people experience their own societies.

One should not sugar-coat the Chinese regime. The fact is that China relentlessly harasses and even imprisons human rights lawyers and others who inconvenience the party and the government.

But at the same time one should applaud the fact that everyday freedoms are increasing every day in China.

From the standpoint of freedom, the past may look dark and the present dim in China, but the future looks promising and, with a little polishing, maybe even bright.

Salvatore Babones is a comparative sociologist at the University of Sydney. He is a specialist in global economic structure.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
Mufti village, near Mosul  Lieutenant-Colonel Omar Mawlud, 51, and his men look at a hole in the ground with bewilderment. Its one of the three entrances to a tunnel dug by the fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Mufti to protect them from air strikes by the United States-led international coalition.

A few metres away, the head of an ISIL suicide bomber, unrecognisably severed, still lies on the ground. He chased one of our men who went to check out the tunnel, says Mawlud, who is an officer in the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Then he blew himself up and injured our fellow Peshmerga too.

Fearing the presence of explosives or suicide bombers, the Peshmerga forces did not want to take the risk of entering and inspecting the whole length of the tunnel and set it on fire.

It felt like I was born again. It was like when you see your mother after a long time. The village and the land is everything to us. by Salah Aziz, a Kakai from Majidiya village

Last March, Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched the Nineveh Liberation Operation which they said was the first episode in a series of battles to recapture the northern Nineveh province. Progress, however, has been slow owing to heavy resistance by ISIL fighters.

The tunnel is one of a few dug by ISIL fighters here to use as a shelter against air strikes or to facilitate movement between houses underground. On Monday Mufti, along with eight other villages, was captured by the Kurdish Peshmerga. The villages, located just some 20km east of the ISIL stronghold of Mosul, fell under ISIL control in August 2014.

Nineveh is a culturally rich province located 400km northwest of Baghdad. The villages in this part of the Nineveh Plain, located east of the province, are home mostly to religious minority groups such as Kakais and Shabaks. The few thousand residents fled when ISIL took over, fearing massacres as had happened previously to members of the Yazidi minority on the western side of Nineveh province.

The Kurdish forces hope this offensive will increase pressure on ISIL in Mosul. A few kilometres south of the once Shabak-populated Mufti lies the village of Majidiya, known by the locals as Kulabor.

Salah Aziz, 46, had his eyes filled with tears when, after nearly two years, he finally got a chance to see the village where he spent almost all his life. It felt like I was born again, said Aziz, a Kakai. It was like when you see your mother after a long time. The village and the land is everything to us.

The Kakai faith, also referred to as Yarsanism, is a syncretistic mystical faith that is believed to have originated in Kurdish-dominated parts of western Iran in the 14th century. Aziz, who now lives in the nearby Khabat area, had just returned from the funeral of four fellow Kakais who were killed when they had gone to inspect their home in the village of Tullaband which had been taken from ISIL on May 30.

The incident illustrates the tremendous challenge that villagers in this area now face: How to get rid of the many bombs and booby traps planted by ISIL in their villages.

As things stand right now, Aziz and other former residents of these villages, who spoke to Al Jazeera, say they have no ambition to go back to their homes in the near future. Many homes are destroyed and there are no public services such as electricity. On top of that, ISIL is just a couple of kilometres away and the area is within the groups firing range.

On the day Al Jazeera visited the area, a couple of mortar rockets landed in the villages where the Peshmerga forces are currently gathered.

Despite the physical damage, ISILs attacks in the Nineveh plains appear to have left a more enduring and profound impact. The groups atrocities and efforts at pitting communities against one another has deepened communal rifts in the Nineveh plains where a diverse range of religious and ethnic groups live.

Aziz says there is no longer any trust between them and a number of the neighbouring villages from where some joined ISIL. I personally dont see much of a future for us or our future generations here, said Aziz.

Amid the vast plains here, Peshmerga Private Ali and colleagues look at the villages far off in the distance where columns of black smoke are arising just as military operations there ended.

The slim fighter, who manned a heavy-calibre machine-gun, has been in the thick of the fight here and is still covered in dust head to toe. He is euphoric about the success and says this is the beginning of the return of life to this area. We will advance beyond the current lines, he said as he points east toward Mosul. Then this area will become safe and people can return to their homes.

Although no accurate figures are available, over the past couple of years many members of religious minorities such as Kakais, Shabaks and Yazidis left the country for destinations in the west.

For many of us, there is nothing left to go back to, said Aziz.
Peaceful protesters and opposition figures beaten and arrested in run-up to elections, alleges report by rights group.

Amnesty International has urged Gambian authorities to release dozens of political prisoners and end a brutal crackdown ahead of presidential elections scheduled to take place in December.





In a report published on Thursday, the human rights group accuses police of beatings and arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters and opposition politicians during demonstrations in April and May.

Gambias elections are just six months away and yet opposition members are arrested and beaten, journalists are muzzled and civil society muted, Alioune Tine, Amnesty International Regional Director for West and Central Africa, said in the report.

According to the UK-based group, at least 51 people are awaiting trial, including Ousainou Darboe, the leader of the United Democratic Party, and several other political figures.

READ MORE: Whats causing the unrest in Gambia?

At least 36 others are being held without charges, Amnesty said.

Gambia has a long and brutal history of repression of critical voices, and demonstrators such as Solo Sandeng have paid a high price for peaceful protest, Tine added, referring to an opposition figure who is believed to have died while in custody.

Other recent cases highlighted in the report include the death in custody in February 2016 of union leader Sheriff Dibba; the arrest in October 2015 and enforced disappearance of Imam Sawaneh after he submitted a petition to the president; and the arrest and trial of independent journalist Alhagie Ceesay in July 2015 for sharing a photo on WhatsApp.

The government of President Yahya Jammeh has regularly been criticised by Britain and other Western governments for human rights abuses.

Repeated requests for comment from the Gambian government went unanswered.

Visibly terrified

Commenting on Amnestys report, Saikou Jammeh, secretary-general of the Gambia Press Union, said it would be absurd for the government to dismiss the findings.

[The report] covers issues we saw happen in the streets and heard [from] eye-witness accounts, he told Al Jazeera. These are issues we are currently taking up with the government.

He said media in Gambia operate under self-censorship and warned of further concerns over potential violations in the run-up to the December elections.

Already, there are laws that muzzle the press freedom and practices that stereotype journalists. Impunity continues to reign over previous cases of violations of press freedom and freedom of expression.

He added anti-government protests have not been stopped, but contained, as people are visibly terrified by the way the state handled Aprils demonstrations.

This is even more complicated now that there are revelations on how horribly those detained, including women, were allegedly mistreated, he said.

And the president is on a country-wide tour, vowing not to relent on the crackdown  but these actions have also evidently hardened some people too.

ECOWAS suspension

Amnestys report comes just two days before a meeting of the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Senegal.

The group called for ECOWAS to consider suspending Gambia from the organisation if it does not improve its human rights record.

Jammeh, who has ruled Gambia since seizing power in 1994, accused foreign-based dissidents of fomenting a coup attempt in December 2014.

Security forces have made arrests but few details have been released.

In May, the UN called on Gambia to release protesters who were arrested in April in the capital, Banjul.

We have received worrying reports that some of them, who are still in detention, have been tortured, said Rupert Colville, spokesperson of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, addressing reporters in Geneva.

There are also reports that their family members have not been allowed to visit them, and some have been denied access to medical care.
Suspended president tells Al Jazeera she will fight to the end charges of manipulating budget during election campaign.

Dilma Rousseff, the suspended Brazilian president accused of manipulating the budget, has told Al Jazeera that she will fight the case against her to the end.

The impeachment process against Rousseff, who has been in office since 2011, has officially started.

We are going to present witnesses. We want them to analyse every minute detail of the charges, Rousseff told Al Jazeera in an interview at the Presidential Residence, where she is allowed to remain during the impeachment process.

Brazils impeachment trial  The Senate has 180 days maximum to conduct hearings, which will be monitored by the chief justice of the Supreme Federal Tribunal  the countrys top court.  If two-thirds of 81 senators then support impeachment, she will be permanently removed from office.  Rousseff will have to step down immediately in case of a yes vote and will be banned from public office for eight years.  The vice president is in charge during her suspension and will complete rest of the presidential tenure until 2018 in case of a yes vote.  If the Senate votes against the impeachment or if no decision is taken within the stipulated 180 days, Rousseffs suspension will end and she will return as president.

I believe that every impeachment must guarantee the right of defence.

In the final vote, we need 28 votes to win. We have 22, so its not something so impossible to achieve  winning six more votes.

Rousseff does not personally face corruption charges, but is accused of breaking budget accounting rules during her 2014 re-election campaign.

Her opponents are eager to wrap up the trial by August 2, before Brazil hosts the Olympic Games.

Rousseffs new-found confidence may not be unwarranted.

Two senators who supported her impeachment have said they are now reconsidering.

This follows revelations involving two of interim President Michel Temers top ministers.

Both Fabiano Silveira, transparency chief, and Romero Juca, the planning minister, were forced to resign after recordings were leaked allegedly showing them conspiring to derail ongoing corruption investigations.

While the political drama unfolds, the latest quarterly GDP report confirms what ordinary Brazilians already know, that their economy is falling deeper into recession.

In the last quarter of 2015, the economy shrunk a massive 5.4 percent compared with the first quarter of last year.

While Rousseff blames her opponents for not letting her govern, many Brazilians say the corruption and instability of their entire political class is driving the worlds seventh largest economy into the ground.
More than 100 bodies are recovered near Zuwarah in latest disaster involving refugees trying to reach Europe, navy says.

The bodies of more than 100 people who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea were found washed up on beaches near the Libyan city of Zuwarah, a Libyan navy spokesman said.

Colonel Ayoub Gassim told The Associated Press on Friday that at least 104 bodies have been pulled out of the waters near the western city, but that the expected death toll is likely to be higher since such boats usually carry up to 125 people.

Most of the victims appeared to be from sub-Saharan Africa, though their bodies were decomposed and it was not clear when they had drowned.

The bodies of two children were among those recovered.

On Tuesday, the UN refugee agency said at least 880 people drowned over the past week following a series of shipwrecks as departures from the North African coast towards Italy surged.

Many of the boats are believed to have left from the shore around Zuwarah and Sabratha in Libyas northwest.

A coastguard spokesman in Tripoli said no boats had been intercepted over the past two days, with rougher seas preventing patrols.

People smugglers in Libya have exploited political chaos and lawlessness to expand their activities along routes from sub-Saharan Africa, often working with local armed groups.

The head of the EUs Mediterranean naval mission recently said that people smuggling was estimated to account for between 30 and 50 percent of the gross domestic product in northwestern Libya.

READ MORE: Refugee deaths intensify call for safe EU passages

Refugees and migrants reportedly pay smugglers hundreds of dollars for a place on boats, often flimsy inflatable craft that either sink or are picked up by international rescue missions.





The new Libyan government faces a complex challenge asserting its authority, while efforts to counter people trafficking were thrown into disarray by the conflict that followed Libyas 2011 uprising, and the coastguard feels abandoned.

The only assistance we have been offered so far is promises, Colonel Abdulssmad Massoud, of the coastguard in Tripoli, told the Reuters news agency.

So far this year more than 40,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Italy by paying people smugglers for the journey, broadly in line with a steep increase in numbers since 2014.
Slow-moving major thunderstorms cause flooding in central Europe where rivers overflow.

Flash floods and overflowing rivers continue to bring misery to parts of Germany and France.

The weather pattern that has been sitting over central Europe for a week has spawned daily storms.

At least 10 people were killed in flooding over the last week in Germany, including four in Baden-Wuerttemberg, to Bavarias west, in flooding that hit Sunday and Monday.

Slow-moving and large thunderclouds have brought hail, violent wind gusts and torrential rain to both plain and mountain.

The most recent areas to be hit were southern Germany and central France.

The German town of Simbach am Inn, in Bavaria and on the Austrian border, suffered badly as water came rushing through the streets.

The torrent carried mud, trees, cars and any other debris picked up en route.

As an example of how much rain actually fell, Ranshofen, just over the border in Austria, recorded 78mm of rain in 24 hours.

This amount of rain rapidly fills and overflows normal water channels, creating flash floods.

Braunsbach in southern Germany is now full of rubble, rocks and destroyed vehicles following a similar downpour, upstream, on Monday.

The water in Triftern, also in Bavaria, rushed through and left behind a flood deep enough to submerge vehicles.

In France, the Seine River through Paris is at flood level, and has burst its banks in places.

About 20km to the south, the river Yvette burst its banks, flooding Longjumeau to knee depth.

In Nemours, further south still, boat rescues were necessary as the River Loing rose well above flood level.

The slow moving nature of these storms, as a result of a stationary and large area of low pressure, means that more flash flooding, river flooding and storm damage are likely.

Germany, France and Austria are at immediate risk but the Alps and southeast Europe should also be on alert.
The German parliament has overwhelmingly voted to label the 1915 killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador to Germany.

Ankara agrees that many Armenians died in ethnic fighting and the deportation process between 1915 and 1917 during World War I, putting its estimate at 300,000 casualties. Armenia says 1.5 million died in the process in what it calls a genocide.

The motion, which was put forward by Chancellor Angela Merkels governing coalition and the opposition Greens, was passed on Thursday with support from all the parties in the German parliament.

OPINION: Remembering the Armenians

But Turkey reacted with fury, recalling its ambassador to Berlin, Huseyin Avni Karslioglu, for consultations over the German parliaments decision, government officials told Turkish media.

Speaking during a visit to Kenya, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the recall was a first step, adding that the Turkish government would consider further action in response to the vote.

This decision will seriously impact Turkish-German relations, he said.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called the German parliaments decision a mistake.

Strategic ties are great

The vote on Thursday came at an awkward time for Merkel as Germany and the European Union rely on Turkey to help stem the flow of refugees into Europe.

Merkel, who did not take part in the vote due to public engagements, spoke later about the close ties between the two countries, saying that Germanys relations with Turkey remain broad and strong.

There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great, Merkel said at a news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

READ MORE: Turkey recalls envoy to Austria as genocide condemned

She added that Germany supported dialogue between Turkey and Armenia and sought good relations with Ankara.

Armenias Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said the German parliaments decision was a valuable contribution to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide.

Moral decision

Huseyin Bagci, a professor of International Relations at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, told Al Jazeera that he expected further fallout between Turkey and Germany following the vote.

The decision of the German parliament is a moral decision, not a political one.

This decision has no binding consequences for Turkey, he said, adding that the Turkish side will show a great reaction to this.

On the centenary of the events, which was commemorated on April 24, 2015, the European Parliament published a non-legislative resolution in which they urged Turkey to recognise the genocide.
New law is part of measures taken in response to 2012 gang rape in New Delhi that triggered global condemnation.

India is fitting panic buttons and other emergency devices on buses across the country, in response to a deadly 2012 gang rape in New Delhi that triggered global condemnation and widespread protests in the country.

The measure, which was passed by parliament to prevent sexual violence, became law on Thursday.

The monitoring devices, which also include close-circuit cameras and vehicle tracking systems, are already installed in new buses. Old buses will be equipped with the devices in phases.

READ MORE: India gang rapist freed despite petition

When a panic button is pressed, an emergency message will be sent to a police control room, where officers can monitor live footage of the bus interior.

A pilot project is already under way in Indias Rajasthan state, where 10 luxury and 10 regular buses have been fitted with the emergency devices.

According to government data obtained by Al Jazeera, there were an estimated 1,676,500 registered public and private buses in India as of 2012.

Last month, the communication ministry issued a different regulation requiring all mobile phones sold in the country from 2017 to include a panic button. From 2018, phones will also have to include GPS navigation systems.

Patriarchal social values

Campaigners said that while the new measures are good in theory, results will depend on the implementation of laws protecting women.

Annie Raja, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, said that instead of addressing the real issue, the new law will only serve to monitor women in the name of protection and safety.

India is a country with patriarchal social values and thinking, Raja told Al Jazeera. So, we dont consider women as equal citizens.

Raja said there are already a number of laws protecting women, but the implementation is not happening.

Watershed moment





In December 2012, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh was gang-raped by several men at the back seat of a bus in the nations capital.

The medical student died of her injuries in a hospital in Singapore two weeks after the assault.

The death of the victim triggered protests across the country, and around the world.

Indian authorities responded to the the incident by fast-tracking tougher laws against sex crimes.

Sehjo Singh, of the anti-poverty group ActionAid India, said the gang-rape incident was a watershed moment in Indian society, with more women now openly talking about sexual harassment and violence.

I think that was the point after which there were attempts by the government to address violence against women, Singh told Al Jazeera

She also stressed that what is needed is follow-up action, not just new laws.

If I press the panic button, what happens after? This is very important, she said.

What the government needs to do is restore the faith of the people. So far, our experience is that new mechanisms and institutions are created, but there is no follow-up.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 32,077 cases of rape  on average more than one per hour  were reported in India in 2015.
Military spokesman says 25-year-old woman had a knife and tried to stab a soldier at a West Bank checkpoint.

Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian woman whom they accused of attempting to stab a soldier at a military checkpoint in the northern occupied West Bank.

Ansar Hussam Harasha, a 25-year-old mother of two, was killed by soldiers in Tulkarem governorate near the Palestinian village of Anabta, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.

An Israeli army spokesperson told Maan that that no Israelis were injured.

Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, posted on Twitter that Harasha had a knife and tried to stab a soldier.

Forces responded to threat and shot the attacker, resulting in her death, he wrote.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed the shooting to Maan.

The Israeli army has been accused of using excessive force in dealing with alleged attacks by Palestinians.

Since October 1, Israeli forces or settlers have killed 200 Palestinians, including unarmed demonstrators, bystanders and attackers.

Meanwhile, Palestinian attackers have killed at least 28 Israelis, mostly in stabbing attacks.

Palestinians are frustrated by Israels 48-year occupation and with peace talks going nowhere.

The latest cycle of violence began with a dispute over access to the site of the al-Aqsa Mosque  sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
Interior ministry investigation under way to determine cause of fire that also left 12 people injured.

Eleven people have died in a fire at a labour accommodation in Qatar, the countrys interior ministry said.

The ministry said the fire on Wednesday night, only reported a day later, also left 12 people injured.

The accommodation facility belonged to a company working on the Salwa Tourism Project, the ministry said on Twitter, adding that an investigation was ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.

The nationalities of the dead were not released. Hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, many of them South Asian, work in the Gulf Arab state.

An online news report said charred bodies were brought to a hospital morgue after the fire in Abu Samra in the south of the country.
Kremlin insider tells Al Jazeera that Moscow is considering sending special forces to fight against Syrian rebel groups.

Moscow  Russian President Vladimir Putin may deploy special operations forces on the ground in Syria, a former official has told Al Jazeera, a move that might be made to ensure a decisive victory.

It has been more than eight months since Russia intervened in the Syrian conflict, and at the time Putin said there were no plans to participate in ground operations  but he also said for now.

Putin is reportedly discussing with military commanders the possibility of deploying combat troops on the battlefield.

This is under discussion, there are plans for this, Andrei Fyodorov, a former deputy minister for foreign affairs, told Al Jazeera.

The reinforcements could be special forces or volunteer soldiers who are willing to fight alongside the Syrian army and its allies.

This is a delicate issue for our military. There are serious doubts that any participation by Russia on the ground would be favourable. [Rather it could] complicate the negotiation process and lead to further disagreements with the US, Fyodorov explained.

But there are those in political and military circles who believe this deployment is needed.

Syria civil war: Russia denies conducting Idlib raids

Russian firepower prevented the collapse of the Syrian government last year. Damascus was struggling to repel rebel advances on several fronts.

The Kremlin wanted to tip the balance in favour of its ally enough to allow it to benefit at the negotiating table.

But the battle lines did not change and peace talks led nowhere. Neither side was willing to compromise nor strong enough to impose a settlement.





From the Russian point of view, [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad should control 70 percent of Syria, and that way you can hold elections and they would be favourable for Assad. That is why the issue of ground operations is becoming more actual, said Fyodorov.

Over recent weeks, Russias role on the Syrian battlefield was noticeably reduced as Moscow wanted to give a chance to political talks.

That message was clear when Russia did not provide close air power to the Syrian government and its allies in their military campaign in Aleppo in early May.

But on May 22, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the first Russian air strikes in Aleppo province since the US-Russian brokered a cessation of hostilities deal in February.

The Russian defence ministry has said it recently intensified strikes against al-Nusra Front in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, and said that the conflict would only escalate after blaming Washingtons refusal to join efforts in the fight against what it called terrorism.

Russias draft constitution: End of Syrias Baath era?

Russia has little choice. It cant allow itself to lose Aleppo. This would deprive it of a trump card. This would enable the other side to regain the initiative and [force Russia] to accept conditions not favourable for Assad, Sergey Strokan, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera.

There are Russian voices within the government and military pushing for the ground operation.

Russias intervention in Syria has been costly  billions of dollars have already been spent, and the country is suffering from an economic crisis.

The Kremlin never wanted a permanent war, and it cant just pull out of a conflict that has brought it back into the international arena.

That is why some analysts suggest a Stalingrad in Syria is what the Syrian government and its allies need  a final battle to decisively end the war. And that would require ground troops.
US-backed coalition aims to cut off town seen as key ISIL supply route from Turkey as air strikes soften up fighters.

Kurdish-led forces have launched an offensive to capture the Syrian town of Manbij, a suspected supply route for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL also known as ISIS) group to smuggle weapons in from Turkey.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed coalition of armed groups led by the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), was mobilising near Manbij in the northern province of Aleppo on Thursday, the AFP news agency reported.

In the past 24 hours, 18 coalition air strikes are reported to have targeted positions held by ISIL, also known as ISIS.





Jennifer Cafarella, a Syria analyst for the Institute for the Study of War in Washington DC, said if anti-ISIL fighters take Manbij and then Jarablus, that would sever ISILs link with Turkey.

Recapturing Manbij and ultimately advancing to Jarablus would disrupt but not eliminate ISISs ability to resupply, she said.

The US-led coalition has long had its eye on the so-called Manbij pocket.

But an offensive on this mainly Arab region has run into opposition from Turkey, a key partner in the alliance.

The US sees the SDF  which is dominated by YPG  as the most effective ground force against ISIL in Syria.

The SDF was founded in Syrias mainly Kurdish northeastern region in October 2015, and is made up of at least 15 armed factions  mostly fighters from the YPG and the Free Syrian Army.

On Wednesday Pentagon officials stressed that the attack on Manbij was being led by the Arab component of the SDF.

Turkey regards the YPG as a branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state.

Last week, footage of US special forces wearing YPG patches on their uniforms angered Turkey.

The US responded by telling these forces to stop wearing the badge, but insisted that US troops would continue to help the Kurdish fighters, saying they were taking on ISIL fighters efficiently.

READ MORE: In Raqqa, support ISIL or die

Over the past 10 days the SDF has also launched an offensive to retake Raqqa, the main ISIL stronghold in Syria.

ISIL has imposed strict rule in Raqqa  home to more than 220,000 people before the Syrian conflict  and committed atrocities against the civilian population since its takeover of the city more than two years ago.

As the fighting continues, the United Nations said it hopes to send aid to 11 besieged areas in Syria in the coming days. But it said more effort is needed to make sure other areas are opened up.

On Wednesday, humanitarian aid reached the rebel-held Syrian town of Daraya and Moadamiyah.

Syrias conflict started with mostly unarmed demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011.

It has since evolved into a full-on civil war that has killed at least 270,000 people, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
After 14 years in US incarceration, Mauritanian detainee has first hearing on Thursday seeking his release.

A Mauritanian man whose best-selling book provided a rare window into US prison life at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and alleged torture tactics that have been shrouded in secrecy is asking a review board to clear him for release after 14 years of being held without charge.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi understands his past mistakes, denounces any forms of violent jihad, and has never taken any hostile action against the United States, according to his lawyers.

The US alleges that Slahi, 45, swore an oath to al-Qaeda and was a recruiter who also helped to facilitate the travel of alleged September 11 attacks planner Ramzi bin al-Shibh, currently in Guantanamo, and two other 9/11 hijackers.

Retired Colonel Morris Davis, a former chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo Bay military commissions  who years ago met Slahi and examined his case closely  told Al Jazeera he could find no grounds on which to charge Slahi with any offence.

Hes spent a long time in confinement for someone [for whom] there is no evidence that he committed a crime, Davis said.



Inside Story  Guantanamo: Will it ever close?

In 2011, with a legal binding executive order, President Barack Obama directed that Guantanamo prisoners who were not charged and not cleared for transfer had their cases reviewed by the Periodic Review Board (PRB) in a years time.

Five years later, however, dozens of men still have not had a chance to plead their cases. On Thursday Slahi, who has not been charged with a crime, finally will.

Slahis journey to Guantanamo

He comes from a family of 12 children. At age 18, Slahi travelled to Germany on a scholarship to study engineering. From Europe in the early 1990s, he navigated his way to Afghanistan, becoming part of the network of al-Qaeda units that were then fighting against the Soviet-backed government  as were the Americans.

But in 1992, he said he cut off his connections with Osama bin Ladens group and returned to Europe, completed his studies, and went to work in Germany and later in Canada, eventually returning home to Mauritania in 2000.

In late September 2001, Slahi was briefly arrested by Mauritanian authorities and questioned by the FBI about the so-called Millennium Plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport.

The Mauritanians declared him innocent. But in November 2001 Slahi was asked to report to the police station in Nouakchott. He did so voluntarily, thinking he would be home by the days end. Slahi was then betrayed. The CIA rendered him to Amman, Jordan, beginning his world tour which later saw his extrajudicial transfer to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and eventually to Guantanamo, where he arrived on August 5, 2002.

Court order for Slahis release

Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence chief, personally approved Slahis special interrogation techniques, because the Mauritanian was considered a high-value detainee.

Slahis best-selling book Guantanamo Diary recounts his interrogations and alleged torture.

Prisoner 760, as he has been identified by his captors, writes of being sleep-deprived, subjected to extreme temperatures, physical and sexual abuse, as well as psychological torture.

In his book, Slahi captured not just the horrors of Guantanamo, but also the humanity.



Inside Story  CIA torture: Who knew what?

He insists at looking at his own captures  the men and women who he interacts with day to day in Guantanamo  as individuals, thinking about their lives and their choices with a certain level of compassion and empathy and understanding, Larry Siems, the editor of Guantanamo Diary, told Al Jazeera.

Shalis narrative combats the systematic dehumanisation of the prison, he added.

In 2010, a federal judge ordered that Slahi be released, ruling associations alone are not enough to make his detention lawful.

The question, upon which the government had the burden of proof, was whether at the time of his capture Slahi was a part of al-Qaida, US District Court Judge James Robertson wrote. On the record before me, I cannot find that he was.

But the US government appealed, leaving Slahi to linger in his cell, while two other prisoners whose petitions Robertson denied went on to be released from Guantanamo.

It is a travesty that six years after he was ordered released Slahis ordeal has continued, Hina Shamsi, one of Slahis lawyers and the director of the ACLUs National Security Project, told Al Jazeera. The PRB is an opportunity finally for [Slahi] to secure his long awaited freedom.

If Slahis released

If freed, Shalis family will support him and eventually he plans to start a small business and write books. Siems, too, has promised to help with Slahis future literary works.

One of Slahis guards in Guantanamo, whom Al Jazeera has identified but is not naming, wrote a letter that was submitted to the review board stating he would like to eventually see [Slahi] again and would be pleased to welcome the prisoner into his home.

Two other Mauritanians have been imprisoned in Guantanamo. They submitted declarations for Slahis review hearing describing positive experiences upon their return home.

The United States, in its unclassified summary of Slahi, has also expressed concerns about Abu Hafs al-Mauritani, a former senior advisor to al-Qaeda who lives in Mauritania, believing he could provide Slahi with an avenue to reengage, should he decide to do so.

Mauritania receives security assistance from the US to support its fight against terrorism.

The Mauritanians have serious security forces and intelligence capabilities and they are completely committed to fighting al-Qaeda-type jihadi violence, said Nasser Weddady, a Mauritanian-American analyst and consultant.

Public opinion in Mauritania is fully in Slahis corner and over the years this has swayed the government, which has said it would welcome Slahi home. It is a political liability for the government for [Slahi] not to come back, Weddady added.

A decision by the review board to either clear Slahi for transfer or recommend that he continue to be detained in Guantanamo should be made public in a months time.

This is a man with a family, he had a past and he has a future, Siems said. [He is] not just a man in an orange jumpsuit.

Follow Jenifer Fenton on Twitter: @jeniferfenton
Scientists say dagger found in ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamuns tomb was made with iron from a meteorite.

New research suggests that a dagger found in ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamuns tomb has extraterrestrial origins.

A team of Italian and Egyptian researchers who analysed the metal composition of the blade said on Thursday the artefact was made with iron from a meteorite.

Archaeologists and historians have been fascinated by Tutankhamuns mummified remains and other artefacts found in his tomb since their discovery in 1925.

For decades, scientists have claimed that the iron dagger, found within the bandages covering the ancient kings body, may have come from meteorites because the existence of smelted iron was rare in ancient Egypt during Tutankhamuns rule.

READ MORE: Scans of King Tuts tomb reveal hidden rooms

But lack of detailed analysis of the artefacts from Tutankhamuns tomb meant that it had been difficult to know for sure what materials were used.

Now, Italian and Egyptian researchers who used X-ray technology to take detailed pictures of Tutankhamuns dagger claim to have proved that the dagger was indeed made of extraterrestrial iron.

In a research paper published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, they said the dagger was made of high amounts of nickel and cobalt, indicating its meteoritic origins.

READ MORE: Pharaoh queens remains identified

The authors also said Egyptians probably knew the iron was coming from the sky and, as a result, they valued the dagger immensely.

We suggest that ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of fine ornamental or ceremonial objects, the article said.

Ancient Egyptians knowledge about the origin of the iron can also be seen in their language, the researchers said.

Iron in the sky

Commenting on the research paper, Joyce Tyldesley, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Manchester, said that ancient Egyptians had a word for iron, which is translated as iron from the sky.

So they are obviously recognising things that are coming to Earth and imagining that these are the gifts of the gods, Tyldesley told Al jazeera.

Whats unusual about the dagger is that Tutankhamun was buried at a time when Egyptians were not using much iron at all, she added.

Even though the dagger was found within Tutankhamuns tomb in Egypt, Tyldesley said it is impossible to be sure that the dagger was made in Egypt.

The suspicion is that it was actually an import, she said.

Egyptologists suspect that maybe this was a dagger sent to Egypt from a neighbouring state during the reign of Tuts grandfather.

It may have been included in his tomb because its a very valuable piece and also because it is a family heirloom that has belonged to his grandfather.

The iron dagger was not the only artefact found with Tutankhamuns mummified remains. Thousands of mysterious artefacts from the tomb are still waiting to be analysed and Egyptologists believe that the tomb is still full of surprises.

We are only now being able to start looking at all the artefacts and trying to make sense of them, said Tyldesley.

This is a story that is going to keep unfolding for many many years.
Report details 269 incidents in the Central African Republic, including witchcraft and torture, since November.

There have been at least 269 verified incidents of human rights violations and abuses in the Central African Republic, including arbitrary killings, sexual violence and allegations of witchcraft, since November 2015, according to a new UN report.

UN chief Ban Ki-moons report to the Security Council on the Central Africa region, released on Wednesday, said the UN documented incidents involving 915 victims including 53 women, 48 boys and 30 girls.

The report on activities of the UN regional office since November 15 did not give a breakdown of the number of killings or cases of sexual and gender-based violence, cruel treatment and arbitrary arrests and detentions.

But it said, without elaborating, that 18 incidents of human rights violations and abuse related to allegations of witchcraft affecting mainly women and children were documented.



The latest report said those responsible for the 269 rights violations and abuses were elements from the anti-Balaka, ex-Seleka, LRA (Lords Resistance Army) and state authorities.

Horrific violence

The CAR was struck by horrific violence after the Muslim-led Seleka rebels toppled Francois Bozize from the presidency in March 2013.

Widespread human rights abuses committed by Seleka led to the formation of the Anti-Balaka Christian and animist militia.

The Anti-Balaka unleashed sectarian fighting that forced hundreds of thousands of Muslim civilians to flee to the north or to neighbouring countries.

CAR has experienced relative peace since November. But sexual abuse by UN and international troops sent to protect civilians remains a serious problem.

Throughout Central Africa, the report said, the human rights situation remains of grave concern, particularly as a result of continuing Boko Haram attacks in Cameroon and Chad, as well as abuses perpetrated by armed elements in the CAR.

The UN secretary-general also reported serious allegations of torture, sexual violence, destruction and appropriation of property, and prolonged pre-trial detention by security forces.

Ban quoted a report by the UN childrens agency, UNICEF, that nearly one out of every five Boko Haram suicide bombers is a child  and almost three-quarters of them are girls.

Boko Haram remains a serious threat for regional peace and security, Ban said.

He renewed an earlier call for a summit of regional leaders to focus on addressing the root causes of the rise of the extremist group, and to tackle this scourge.
UN accuses both the government and rebels of preventing aid delivery to besieged towns.

The United Nations describes the humanitarian situation in Syria as unrelentingly distressing and dire.

The agency says more than 13 million people need some form of aid, but the fighting is making it difficult for assistance to reach civilians.

France and Britain are pushing for airdrops, but the UN says that should be a last resort, and not a susbstitute for land deliveries.

It estimates that more than half a million people are living under siege, but some groups put that figure at more than one million.

The UN has accused both the government and rebels of preventing aid delivery.

With so many actors involved, and different agendas, is there still a political way out of the Syria crisis?

Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:

Mohamad Katoub  Advocacy Manager for the Syrian American Medical Society

Ziad Majed  Assistant Professor of International Politics at the American University of Paris

Michael Horowitz  Lead author of a report on the Russian intervention in Syria
Why does the Western world feed Africa with one hand while taking from it with the other?

The worlds wealthy countries often criticise African nations for corruption  especially that perpetrated by those among the continents government and business leaders who abuse their positions by looting tens of billions of dollars in national assets or the profits from state-owned enterprises that could otherwise be used to relieve the plight of some of the worlds poorest peoples.

Yet the West is culpable too in that it often looks the other way when that same dirty money is channelled into bank accounts in Europe and the US.

International money laundering regulations are supposed to stop the proceeds of corruption being moved around the world in this way, but it seems the developed worlds financial system is far more tempted by the prospect of large cash injections than it should be.

Indeed the West even provides the getaway vehicles for this theft, in the shape of anonymous off-shore companies and investment entities, whose disguised ownership makes it too easy for the corrupt and dishonest to squirrel away stolen funds in bank accounts overseas.

This makes them nigh on impossible for investigators to trace, let alone recover.



It is something that has long bothered Zimbabwean journalist Stanley Kwenda  who cites the troubling case of the Marange diamond fields in the east of his country.

A few years ago rich deposits were discovered there which held out the promise of billions of dollars of revenue that could have filled the public purse and from there have been spent on much needed improvements to roads, schools and hospitals.

The surrounding region is one of the most impoverished in the country, desperate for the development that the profits from mining could bring. But as Kwenda found out from local community leader Malvern Mudiwa, this much anticipated bounty never appeared.

When these diamonds came, they came as a God-given gift. So we thought now we are going to benefit from jobs, infrastructure, we thought maybe our roads were going to improve, so that generations and generations will benefit from this, not one individual. But what is happening, honestly, honestly its a shame!

What is happening is actually something of a mystery because though the mines are clearly in operation and producing billions of dollars worth of gems every year, little if any of it has ever been put into Zimbabwes state coffers.

Local and international non-governmental organisations say they believe this is because the money is actually being used to maintain President Robert Mugabes ruling Zimbabwe African National Union  Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in power.

True or not, it is clear that the countrys finance minister, Tendai Biti, has seen none of it. A representative of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which sits in uneasy coalition with ZANU-PF, he says he has no idea where it is going.

We have got evidence of the quantities that are being mined, the quantities that are being exported but nothing is coming to the fiscus . All I know is that its not coming to the treasury. So that is a self-evident question. It is not coming to us. That means someone is getting it. The person who is getting it is not getting it legally. Therefore, hes a thief, therefore shes a thief.

Sadly, as Stanley Kwenda has realised, it is typical of a problem found all over Africa.

The continent is rich is natural resources that are being exploited for big profits, but the money is rarely used for the benefit of the people. Instead it goes to line the pockets of corrupt officials who then often smuggle it out to be deposited in secret offshore bank accounts in the developed world.

So who facilitates these transactions? And how and why does the developed world make it so easy to launder this dirty cash?

In this revealing investigation for People & Power, Kwenda and the Ghanaian undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, set off to find out. Posing as a corrupt Zimbabwean official and his lawyer, their probe takes them deep into the murky world of corporate service providers  experts in the formation of company structures that allow the corrupt to circumvent lax international money laundering rules.

It just so happens that the pairs enquiries take place in the Seychelles but, as they discover to their horror, they could just as easily be in any one of a number of offshore locations (or even in the major cities of Europe and the US) where anonymous companies can be set up for the express purpose of secretly moving money and keeping its origins hidden from prying eyes.

FILMMAKERS VIEW

By Anas Aremeyaw Anas

Despite the abundance of resources on the continent, success has been very elusive for many Africans. The narrative is one many are too familiar with: corrupt leaders force themselves into political office, then they work to undermine the progress of their people.

That is what leaves many African countries poor  corrupt leadership. It hinders progress.

What has kept this diagnosis of Africa from a cure is not immediately clear. Foreign aid, debt relief and the many notes of economic salvation have been applied. Not much has changed. Dreams fail for many young Africans. The trouble with Africa still looms large.

The need for Africas troubled state has inspired my career as an undercover investigative journalist.

Over the past decade, I have tried to focus on human rights violations, corruption and the many ills that plague society. Through many anti-human trafficking and anti-corruption stories, I have come close to answers.

Exposing bribe-taking police officers, public officials and other corrupt individuals has brought some change. This has been on the ground, yet many of the problems still persist.

This film, How to Rob Africa, takes this further by focusing on what many leaders in high office do that leaves the continent in a bad shape.

Decades into political independence, many African governments remain reliant on foreign aid, yet often as soon as this aid arrives it is spirited away into the personal accounts of the leaders who are supposed to be looking after the interests of their people  and ironically many of those accounts are back in the West.

It is no surprise that many Africans are left asking the developed world: Why do you frown publicly about corruption, yet turn a blind eye to its fruits?

What we sought to do in our investigation was to point in the direction of money laundering as a substantial contributor to Africas corruption  or at least one of the most important enabling factors  and the role played by corporate service providers in setting up structures to allow it to take place.

In the Seychelles, we found how easy it is to rob Africa. We learned about the clever but brazen tricks and scams that can be used (for a fee) to disguise the origins of money and the identities of those who are moving it around.

We do not say that all of Africas woes are the fault of others outside the continent. Nor do we assume that criminality is the only reason why Africa, despite its many natural riches, has been kept in poverty.

But we did come away wondering why the outside world feeds Africa with one hand and takes from it with another. Why cannot the resources for aid be directed into fighting this obvious problem? Is it not about time that something was done to stop those stealing our wealth, and those helping them steal it, from evading responsibility prosecution for their crimes?
The Seventh Annual Taste of Gainesville will host 36 vendors  its highest yet  as it raises money for four charities Sunday.

Scott Costello, the executive director for the event, said it has two main purposes.

First and foremost is to raise awareness and money to help children in the greater Gainesville community, he said. Second is to bring the communitys passion for food to a fun, cost-effective event that anyone can go to and experience the cuisine of Alachua county.

Admission includes unlimited beer, wine, soft drinks and food from vendors such as Mojo Hogtown Bar-B-Que and Swamp Head Brewery, Costello said.

Three local chefs will also prepare a three-course meal, all using the same secret ingredient, during the 2016 Iron Chef Gainesville competition, he said. Three celebrity judges will make the final decision.

In the past six years, Taste of Gainesville has raised $370,000 for local charities that focus on children. Costello said the goal is to raise a record-breaking $100,000 this year.

Sherry Houston, the executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of North Central Florida, said its an honor to work with Taste of Gainesville and the other charities.

The Child Advocacy Center, Alachuas PACE Center for Girls and Tylers Hope for a Dystonia Cure will also benefit from the event.

When we collaborate, we become stronger, she said. So to even be a part of a $100,000 event is humbling.

When:

Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Where:

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Hilton UF Conference Center, located at 1714 SW 34th St.

Price:

$100 in advance and $125 at the door
The American Red Cross will be attending the Alachua County Animal Services Disaster Preparedness event Saturday to teach pet owners natural disaster preparedness.

The event will focus on the upcoming hurricane season.

Families with pets have more responsibilities when finding a safe location during a hurricane, said Kevin Denney, the American Red Cross disaster program specialist.

Its been about 10 years since Floridas last natural disaster, and there are many people new to the Gainesville area, Denney said. Pets are another member of the family.

So it takes a little extra care, he said. Thats what were trying to get across here.

Tiffanie Sanders, who is studying veterinary technology at City College, got her first adopted dog, Elsie, from animal services.

As a native Floridian, Sanders said she is aware of how serious a hurricane can be.

Its important to always have an escape plan, she said. I have two dogs myself, so if an evacuation were to occur, I have a plan of how Im going to get my dogs, my family and myself to a safer location.

She said she believes its important to teach new pet owners how to plan ahead for the safety of their pets during disasters.

Since we are in hurricane season, I think its good to get us ready and to prepare people who dont know how to handle a dog, Sanders said.

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About five years after playing at the Common Grounds, previously located in the current High Dive building, The Legendary JCs will return to Gainesville for a show Saturday.

The band, which plays a mixture of soul and blues, will cover old classics and play original pieces at the Thelma Boltin Center, located at 516 NE Second Ave.

A large dance floor will be open to guests, who can bring their own wine and beer and purchase food at the show, according to a press release.

Eugene Snowden said he helped form the band in 2001 when he decided to collaborate with other Central Florida musicians to create a rhythm and blues-style group. After a month of preparation, the band started playing Wednesday nights at Wills Pub in Orlando. The band has since played for acts such as James Brown, B.B. King and Blues Travelers.

After three months, all of a sudden there were 200 people there, Snowden said. Then the local paper wrote about us and we skyrocketed from there.

While several members have come and gone throughout 15 years of touring, Snowden said he believes the band is still improving the quality of its music and performances.

Out of everything that I do  no matter what I do, no matter what acts I get, what I do on my own  I still feel The Legendary JCs are the strongest representation of what I do as a performer, Snowden said.

The only other remaining member from the original group, 50-year-old trombonist Clay Watson, said attendees should expect a spontaneous and interactive show.

We might be a bunch of old timers, Watson said, but you are going to see as much energy on that stage as you will see out of people half our age.

The show is a part of the Jewel Box Concerts series hosted by the city of Gainesville and Shake Rag Culture Center Inc.

Richard Bassil, a 71-year-old musician and Gainesville resident, said he has attended 25 concerts hosted by the nonprofit center.

After listening to The Legendary JCs recordings, Bassil said he is looking forward to seeing the band live.

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They have honed that genre of music to perfection, he said. They can deliver the goods.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and music will start at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25 for couples and $15 for individuals when pre-purchased. Tickets will be $15 at the door, and no credit cards will be accepted.
UF recently announced a veterinary senior won the national Bayer Excellence in Communication Award, becoming the first UF student to win the award.

Dr. Brittany Martabano won the award in April for her excellent skills in communications and her commendable bedside manner with clients, according to a press release.

Dr. Martabano, who graduated Saturday, said one of her favorite things about veterinary medicine is communication.

Making sure the client is comfortable and completely aware of whats going on with their pet is essential to maintaining client relationships, she said.

Its really important when youre working in veterinary medicine to have a good bedside manner and have clients feel comfortable with you, Dr. Martabano said.

Two judges reviewed a video of Dr. Martabano conversing with a client about their pet, just as she does on a regular basis. Dr. Martabano said she recorded the video at PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support group) clinic, which helps clients with disabilities who may not be able to afford vet care.

Bayer, a German multinational chemical and pharmaceutical company, awarded Martabano $2,500 in scholarship money for winning the college competition, and it awarded another $2,500 for winning at a national level, according to the release.

Each year, Bayer awards a total of $70,000 in scholarships, according to the release.

As a recent graduate, Dr. Martabano said she now plans on moving for a year-long internship at North Carolina State University, where she will work in a small-animal hospital. She then plans to apply for an ophthalmology residency, which is a specialization in eye problems and surgery.

The college has only hosted the competition for three years, said Dr. Amy Stone, a clinical assistant professor for the UF College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Stone served as a college-level judge, deciding who would advance to the national competition.

Its really important when youre working in veterinary medicine to have a good bedside manner and have clients feel comfortable with you.

Judges on the national level then reviewed Dr. Martabanos 20-minute video and submissions from 27 other colleges, Dr. Stone said.

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She said judges typically look for signs of empathy, eye contact and personal connection in the videos.

Brittany just has a way of giving her entire focus and connecting, she said. That is not really something you can teach. Shes perfected it.

Dr. Martabanos communication skills are apparent from the moment she opens the door, according to a press release from Bayer, which hosts the competition every year.

Bayer believes the skill to passionately talk to clients and explain the health issues facing their pets in a caring way is one of the most important skills a veterinarian can master, according to the release.

Shes a remarkable young lady and really wears her empathy on her sleeve, Dr. Stone said.
If you thought of the last few accomplishments of President Barack Obama, what would come to your mind? It would probably be his visits to Cuba this past March and Japan just last week. The bottom line, though, is Obamas past accomplishments have not been here in the U.S.

However, no one can really blame Obama for wanting to avoid the riff-raff currently occupying this years realm of domestic politics. Most presidents at the end of their terms focus on foreign policy, while America chooses its next leader. But the U.S. presidency stands as arguably the most powerful position in the free world, and one of the two choices to succeed Obama could lead this country into a spiraling plummet away from what some call progress and society. Americans need Obama now more than ever.

To the joy of some, and the grief of many, Obama will step down on Jan. 20 to pass the baton to our next president. Hillary Clinton does not move the masses with charisma, nor does she have the reputation Americans want in their leaders. However, compared to the alternative, Clinton is Americas best hope. The problem is, according to the latest Wall Street Journal poll, Clinton only leads Donald Trump by 3 percent. Some skeptics may believe media outlets have skewed polls to make the race seem closer than it actually is  if the election was decidedly over months before November, television shows and newspapers would actually have to cover real news. Nevertheless, the fact these latest polls show such a narrow margin between candidates and could possibly be accurate means the race is too close. The U.S. doesnt want to leave the fate of this country to a 3 percent chance. This is where Obama comes in.

In a time when the approval of most governmental leaders is dwindling, Obamas ratings are higher than ever. Obamas current rating of 51 percent is two points higher than Ronald Reagans presidency at this phase. According to Bloomberg, The surge in Obamas popularity is critically important to the election campaign particularly when youre talking about an official in the Obama administration being the nominee. If Democrats dont want Trump in the White House, they should be pointing to all the accomplishments of the past seven years when looking into the future. If Republicans really want Clinton to lose, they should still be going after Obama, not Clinton. Basically, Obama is being cast into the past too early by both sides of the aisle.

The chapter on Obama is coming to a close. Presidents recalled from history are not remembered because of the policies they enacted in office. No one really remembers the success of George Washingtons economic policies or Abraham Lincolns stance on education. We dont remember these presidents as men; we remember them as symbols. They led the U.S. at one point in time and are remembered for the fact that the country is now better or worse off because of them. Political scientists are already discussing how Obamas legacy will measure in units of presidents before him, but that proves difficult when considering his second term is months from over. Even though Obama will soon no longer be our president, his influence in these next few months will be one of the most defining moments of his legacy. America will need him until his very last day as president, and even after.

Joshua Udvardy is a UF mechanical engineering sophomore. His column appears on Thursdays.
Since the days of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, New Yorkers have fled to the east end of Long Island to get away from oppressive heat and overwhelming crowds of Manhattan. Just in the time I've lived in New York City (12 years this August), I've witnessed the Hamptons explode in popularity, and with the thousands and thousands of people came hundreds and hundreds of high-profile fitness, fashion, and food brands like SoulCycle, Bandier, and Juice Press. But while you can easily grab a green juice spiked with activated charcoal, the one thing you couldn't find was a place to buy beauty products. (Crazy, huh?) Cayli Cavaco Reck, the hilarious, beauty-obsessed woman behind the Instagram account @knockingonforty (and daughter of former Allure creative director Paul Cavaco), has set out to change that. Last weekend, Reck opened her first beauty pop-up store, Knockout Beauty, in Bridgehampton. It will carry some of the best hair, makeup, and skin-care products on the market. We chatted with Reck about her favorite products, how she narrowed down her favorite products, and the best tips she's learned from some of the most famous people in the beauty biz.

How did the idea of starting a beauty shop come about?"There were a few reasons. The first thing was people would direct message me on Instagram. They'd ask me to meet up, respond to a quote I posted, or ask where they could buy a beauty product that I recommended. Then one day I was in Sephora in Columbus Circle talking to another customer, and she asked if I knew about a specific makeup shade. She then whipped out her phone and opened up to my Instagram account and said, 'I had wanted to ask you but I felt really weird.' And that's when it clicked. I'm not famous, so it's not like I'm going to have a personal appearance, but I thought a beauty store would be a great way to bring this community together."

And why the Hamptons?"A lot of people who follow me are local, so it made sense to do something close by. I also felt that there was a need for it in the Hamptons. Bluemercury is opening this summer, and my friend Leilani Bishop is opening up a beauty apothecary that, in her words, carries "crystals and mouthwash." Well, fancy mouthwash. So clearly people think there's a demand for it. Plus, I feel like people are more apt to try something new on vacation. I still wear a perfume I bought in St. Barts many moons ago. It doesn't smell like summer, but when I wear it, it puts me in a summer mood. The Hamptons is also a place I've been going my whole life. The summer I was born, my parents rented a house in Amagansett, and I've had a house in Sag Harbor for a long time."

What do you think spawned your beauty obsession?"I think I cared about my skin a lot when I was younger, and when I was 14, my mom passed away, and I just felt weird asking my dad to take me to get beauty products. I remember going to Macy's Herald Square and going to the Clinique counter, lying that I was 18 years old, and buying the Clinique 3-Step System. I don't think I was old enough to have breakouts yet. I was so young...."
           2005     ..        




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AFTER 5 YEARS, WE'RE STILL LIED TO ABOUT IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Next week is the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And it is likely that sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 4,000th American soldier will die in Iraq. [MORE] Momentum

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A CONVERSATION WITH MY CAT Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- Normally, when the cat starts his evening rant of meowing continuously until he makes his point, I just take it as long as I can, pick him up, and put him in the garage for the night. He doesn't want to go, but the meowing stops and I don't care if he likes it or not. [MORE] Momentum

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THE LAWYER THAT ATE NEW YORK by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- I used to know a guy who, quite literally, didn't get hyperbole. He didn't understand exaggeration. As a result, he missed most jokes that came his way. [MORE] One Woman's World

POLITICS IS NO PARTY by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- Are you having a hard time focusing your eyes? Do you have faint red spots all over your body? Is there a ringing in your ears and do you see wavy lines when you look at your television set? Do your hands shake when you try to hold a cup of coffee? And have you recently been forgetting what day of the week it is - or what year? [MORE] Make My Day

FOR BETTER OR WORSE ... A LOT WORSE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- "Marriage: It's Only Going to Get Worse." [MORE] Constance

YOU CALL THESE RIGHTS? by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- When you express an opinion you hope to persuade others to your point of view. It doesn't always happen but still, opinion writers try. [MORE] Momentum

THE BRIDGE WOMAN by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - Out there in America - yes, still - is a generation of women who were born in the 1940s, raised in the 1950s, and who came to radical consciousness in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am one of them. Hillary Clinton is one of them. [MORE] On Native Ground

OBAMA AND MY GENERATION by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- I originally planned on voting for Dennis Kucinich in the Vermont Primary on March 4. [MORE] The Willies:

WARNING: THIS MEDICATION MAY MURDER YOUR FRIENDS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla. -- You've heard the warnings, haven't you? Stop Prozac and you may take a shotgun, an Uzi or an AK-47 and mow down your family and friends, or even a whole classroom full of your fellow students. You didn't? Well, that warning is not on the bottle, but like countless mass-murder incidents before it, Friday's shootings at Northern Illinois University, as well as the Virginia Tech shootings that killed 32 last year, was probably precipitated by the effect of stopping medications that suppress anger and other powerful emotions but do not relieve the underlying cause. Isn't it time we started warning people - or stopped prescribing these medicines? [MORE] One Woman's World

DON'T KNOCK ON MY DOOR by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- I wish I could feel delight in my poet's mansion being like Grand Central Station all the time, but I can't. And I wish my place was such a place that someone would one day write: "Her door was always open and she always made you feel all fuzzy and warm in her presence. She could make a cup of coffee seem like a banquet." [MORE] Reporting: Panama

PANAMA'S VIOLENT LABOR UNREST INTENSIFIES Mark Scheinbaum PANAMA CITY, Panama, Feb, 15, 2008 -- After just one day of relative calm, wildcat construction strikes by some members of Panama's largest union flared up again Friday morning, four days after a police sniper shot one worker. More than 140 demonstrators have been injured and at least 500 arrested, authorities say. [MORE] Brasch Words

TO STIMULATE ECONOMY, BUY A CHINESE-MADE U.S. FLAG by Walter Brasch BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Walking down Main Street, pushing a grocery cart loaded with clothes, toys, and appliances was Marshbaum. Fastened to the right front corner of the cart was an American flag tied onto a three-foot ruler. [MORE] Make My Day

THE TOOTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TOOTH by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- To commemorate the death of noted shark exploder Roy Scheider, and the "Jaws" movies that resulted in Erik never setting foot in the ocean again, we are reprinting this column from 2003. Shark Experts 0, Sharks 1 [MORE] Momentum

THE WINTER OF MY DISCONTENT by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. - As I write this, it's raining ice. Maybe a half a foot of snow and ice has already landed up here in the woods of Dummerston. Our cars are encased in it, and the door to the house is blocked. The satellite dish that brings in our Internet service quit about 20 minutes ago - frozen solid. [MORE] The Willies

AMERICA TO HILLARY: GET OUT! by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 13, 2008 -- Sen. Hillary Clinton has adopted the Rudy Giuliani strategy, and it's working - for Sen. Barack Obama. It turns out to be the strategy all Democrats are seeking - an exit strategy. But it's not for Iraq. It's for her exit from the race for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination. [MORE] Constance

CONFESSIONS OF A DISAPPOINTED VOTER by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- A week ago at just about this time, I completed an article and was about to submit it as scheduled to The American Reporter. I was feeling rather elated, ready to show up on Super Tuesday morning, firmly touch the X next to Rudy Giuliani's name and get on with my day. He was my choice; he would get my vote. [MORE] Reporting: Florida

SIERRA CLUB SET TO SUSPEND FLA. CHAPTER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 10, 2008 -- The national Sierra Club is set to suspend its Florida chapter after years of divisive infighting, the president of the national club told Florida members in a letter delivered to some this weekend. It is the first time in its 116-year history that such a step has been considered by the club, according to news reports. [MORE] One Woman's World

PLANT A NEW WORLD THIS SPRING by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- For a little while, the men will just have to toss and turn in their fear-free-women beds. For a small space of time Hillary Clinton will just have to trudge on toward the White House without my faint applause in the background. [MORE] On Native Ground

VERMONT AND THE 5 STAGES OF CONSERVATIVE GRIEF by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- First, Vermont tried to convince the nation to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. [MORE] Make My Day

REBEL WITHOUT A TONGUE by Erik Deckers INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Kids' brains work in amazing ways. At times, they can grasp complex concepts and make impressive discoveries. Other times, you have to wonder how we ever survived as a species. [MORE] The Willies

FOR DEMOCRATS, NOW IT'S ABOUT RACE, INCOME AND GENDER by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Feb. 6, 2008 -- It's not a good time to be a Democrat. As the Super Tuesday results demonstrated, the presidential race between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has divided the partly along clear racial, income and gender lines - the very distinctions the party has sought to erase in principle but has emphasized in its pursuit of diversity. [MORE] Momentum

SUPER TUESDAY BLUES by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Super Tuesday has come and gone and I still can't get excited about the upcoming presidential elections. [MORE] The Willies

ON THE BRINK OF HISTORY, YOUR PUSH IS NEEDED by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Feb. 5. 2008 -- I'm expecting a sea change tonight. I believe that for the first time in this nation's history we will once and forever banish racism as the deciding factor in the destiny of African-Americans, and indeed adopt diversity as our path to the future. [MORE] Campaign 2008

AT 88, EVERY VOTE REALLY COUNTS by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 5, 2008 -- Pearl Turner will caucus for Mitt Romney tonight in Denver. [MORE] One Woman's World

STAND BY YOUR WOMAN by Elizabeth T. Andrews CARTERSVILLE, Ga. -- The black vote. The gay vote. The fundamentalist vote. The Hispanic vote. [MORE] An AR Special

SUSPECTS IN BENAZIR ASSASSINATION HAVE TIES TO MUSHARRAF by Ahmar Mustikhan WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When Gordon Brown this past Monday feted coup-leader-turned-President Pervez Musharraf at 10 Downing Street, Britain's new prime minister probably didn't ask the Pakistani dictator a question that is now on many minds: Did you order the murder of Benazir Bhutto? [MORE] Momentum

TO THE VERMONT DELEGATION: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR US LATELY? by Joyce Marcel DUMMERSTON, Vt.  Back when President George W. Bush and Dick Vice President Dick Cheney were building up to their loathsome war in Iraq, very few people were brave enough to call the bullies' bluff. [MORE] On Native Ground

IF BUSH HAS HIS WAY, WE'LL NEVER LEAVE IRAQ by Randolph T. Holhut DUMMERSTON, Vt. - In his final State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush cautioned against accelerating U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq, saying that it would endanger the process that has been made over the past year. [MORE] Campaign 2008

CLASH OF COMMENTS AND PROTESTORS AT CLINTON, OBAMA RALLIES IN DENVER by Ted Manna DENVER, Feb. 1, 2008 -- At least four presidential campaigns of both partiers rolled into in Denver this week ahead of the Feb. 5 "Super Tuesday" primaries in 22 states, but it was the Democratic presidential contenders who drew the big crowds and duked it out Wednesday. If sheer numbers are any indication, Sen. Barack Obama - preceded by a buoyant and beautiful Caroline Kennedy - won the round handily. He is the overwhelming favorite to win the Colorado primary next Tuesday. [MORE] The Willies

WHY THE FLORIDA PRIMARY STINKS by Joe Shea BRADENTON, Fla., Jan. 30, 2008 -- I was with my wife and daughter driving the back way from Miami home to Bradenton when we stopped at a McDonald's in Clewiston, the only big town along the vast shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state's precious freshwater reservoir. The McDonald's had three televisions at a central seating area, each tuned to a different network, and our table was in front of CNN as the very first election results started to pour in around 7:30PM. With them, almost as counterpoint, suddenly came such an overwhelming odor of cow plop that my wife started to throw up as we all ran to the parking lot. [MORE] Passings: Suharto

DEATH OF A KEMUSU THUG by Andreas Harsono JAKARTA - A few minutes after hearing that former president Suharto had died in his hospital bed, Marco, a militia leader in downtown Jakarta, raced to Suhartos house, wearing his jungle camouflage and began guarding the Suhartos residence on Cendana Street. [MORE] Constance

I REMEMBER YOU by Constance Daley ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga.. -- It seems to be more often lately that the sentiment is spoken but it's always been out there: "You never get over the death of your child." This is true. But the heartfelt expressions come from some who cannot fathom the notion of losing a child; their own child is who is in their mind, not another mother's child. [MORE]
On one of his first projects heading up the innovation lab at Eastern Bank, Dan O'Malley got yelled at for making what seemed like a risky move.

But it was all part of a larger plan  one that ultimately would flourish and help the $9.9 billion-asset Boston bank develop and launch new products and services much more quickly than before.

"I know it's kind of audacious and maybe ludicrous when you see a bank that tries to operate faster than a fintech company," O'Malley said at Celent Innovation and Insight Day in New York this spring. But he insists that's exactly what his Eastern Labs unit is doing.

The team in the innovation lab accounts for about 7% of the bank's workforce, and consists of 50% developers and designers, 25% data scientists and 25% bankers. The budget for research and development grows as long as the bank does well, because "we decided to take 1% of the revenue from the bank and invest that into R&D," said O'Malley, who is the chief digital officer.

The initiative can be seen as a potential template for other banks to consider, which is one reason why Eastern won Celent's "Model Bank of the Year" award. In just 14 months, Eastern created, tested and rolled out a small-business lending product with an application process as fast and easy as online rivals.

The formula O'Malley follows is a familiar one by now for those interested in innovation, but remains rare among community banks. With "rapid-cycle experimentation," as he calls it, Eastern runs short test spurts of prototype products lasting no more than several months. The expectation is that there will inevitably be failures  but also many things learned, which can then be applied to future tests. "If we're doing our jobs right, most of our tests are going to fail," O'Malley said.

Eastern did the first test on the new small-business loan in November 2014, targeting roughly 500 existing customers. The application, for loans of $10,000 to $100,000, was designed to be completed entirely on a mobile device. To facilitate credit approval within minutes, "we chose a very loose credit policy to do the test with," O'Malley said. "This was an incredibly controversial decision inside of the bank"  hence the yelling.

But Eastern  which is, by the way, a 197-year-old mutual  did the test anyway. "Unlike just about every other decision in the bank, there isn't a committee that decides how we choose what to work on in the labs," O'Malley said. "There is one guy  he's a bit of jerk about thinking about what he wants to work on  and that's me."

The bank did not build an entirely new loan-origination platform at this stage, but rather adapted an existing platform. "That, maybe, is part of the secret sauce for how we and, frankly, how most fintech startups move quickly," O'Malley said. "Work with the products that you already know. Don't overpay for those learnings. Don't build an enterprise-grade system to figure out the customers didn't want to buy in the first place. Build as little technology as you need to let you run the test."

In the first test, 6.1% of all the businesses the bank reached out to applied for a loan. A second test the following month, with tighter credit standards, got a 6.8% response rate. O'Malley said he had worked on many new products in a former job at Capital One and had never seen such strong results. "So at this point in time, we had some level of confidence that there was something interesting going on here."

The next step was to figure out if the product could be scaled up in a way that would be sustainable and profitable for the bank. So the third test, conducted in April 2015, involved offering the product at 10% of the bank's branches. To facilitate that, Eastern needed an origination system connected to real-time decisioning and capable of handling both digital and branch applications. Building a temporary solution took about four months. "We still didn't want to build too much," O'Malley said. "It could have taken a lot longer."

Response rates increased to 7.1% in that third test. "The reason was that we got the bankers involved," O'Malley said. "The human touch is really, really powerful. And most of our applications in that test and today come in through our bankers ... which is really validating for a community bank that prides itself on its customer relationships."

Branches that were involved in the test had four to five times the small-business loan volume of those that weren't. That was enough to prompt Eastern to move forward with the new product, fully build out the technology, implement the risk processes needed and get regulators on board.

"We delayed doing all the hard work until we knew that we actually had something in front of us," O'Malley said.

Eastern began offering the Express Small-Business Loan to all existing customers in December 2015, and just expanded it to noncustomers in April. The entire mobile application, from start to approval, takes an average of four minutes, with funding less than 30 seconds later.

So much for those who contend that community banks can't be innovative.

O'Malley said Eastern is in talks with five banks that operate outside its footprint to license the loan application technology. "It's exciting to see where it all goes," he said. "We're still in the beginning honestly."
Uber, the ride-sharing app that's arguably one of the best-known brands in the world, is the phishing magnet you would expect it to be.

"We've had a couple of different instances where we've gotten more than a million [phishing attacks] in a single day," said Chris Cravens, head of technology services at Uber.

But it fought back in a way that many banks have been reluctant to fully try, even though Uber and other firms have reported some success in safeguarding their email and computer systems.

Either way the issue is rising high on the list of corporate security concerns, according to federal law enforcement authorities. The FBI's most recent Internet Crime Report identified business email compromise  phishing emails in which the sender impersonates someone at a company to conduct a scam  as the biggest internet fraud threat. The FBI said it received more than 7,800 complaints about these types of scams in 2015, with total reported losses of $246 million.

Moreover, 916 data breaches took place through phishing attacks in 2015, according to the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report.

"Pretty much all sectors, private, public and consumer, are realizing how insecure email is generally," said Ben Knieff, senior research analyst at Aite Group. "It wasn't designed from the ground up with security in mind, so we shouldn't count on email as a reliable source. It's so easy to spoof, so easy to phish."

Not only are companies losing money through phishing, the reputation and legal costs may be escalating. In April the hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology was hit with a class action that claims the company allowed hackers to obtain the financial data of 10,000 employees. In this case, one employee fell for a phishing ruse and forwarded W-2 forms for all current and former employees to cybercriminals. The complaint cites an email in which Seagate's chief financial officer told employees that "this mistake was caused by human error and lack of vigilance, and could have been prevented."

Banks are a major phishing target. "Ninety-one percent of all malware attacks on banks are delivered through phishing," William Nelson, the chief executive of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, said in a recent interview.

Since Uber began using an open-source technological standard called DMARC that banks have been slow to adopt, it has experienced a large drop in phishing attacks.

"When you've got a spoofed email address that's phishing somebody, like the CEO gets an email from ostensibly the CFO with a link in it, all of a sudden you're in trouble," Cravens said. "You can't stop those without DMARC and tools around it like context-based filtering."

Authenticating Emails

DMARC is a protocol for checking the validity of email addresses. One part of it, the Sender Policy Framework, checks public records to make sure an email is coming from a source it should be coming from. Another part, the Domain Keys Identified Mail protocol, lets a signer attach a digital signature to each message that is being sent.

If hackers manage to compromise an internal email server, and thus apparently legitimately send email from the company's email domain directly, DMARC cannot catch that.

"However, if you've got reasonable protections around your perimeter and you're monitoring your infrastructure and you're doing all the other things that are necessary to prevent a gnarly breach, then you're in great shape," Cravens said. "The vast majority of the time phishing emails are coming from spurious email servers outside your perimeter that sit out there and send as someone they're not."

DMARC is not technically difficult to implement, Cravens said, unless there's a lot of sprawl in the IT environment, which of course is the case in a lot of banks, with their abundance of older servers and applications. Silicon Valley startups suffer from "cloud sprawl," with people in business groups operating shadow IT organizations and setting up services such as Salesforce.com customer relationship management, he said.

"The hard part is figuring out where all those outliers are and communicating with those people and coming to an understanding of what's really being used," Cravens said.

Not for Everyone

The top four U.S. banks all use DMARC, but only two  JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup  actually reject messages that cannot be authenticated in DMARC the way Uber does. The other two (Bank of America and Wells Fargo) monitor the unapproved messages. Bank of America and Wells Fargo declined requests for comment.

"The fact that they all have DMARC means they all realize the value of this," said Alex Garcia-Tobar, CEO and co-founder at ValiMail. "The fact that only two out of the four with their infinite resources have actually gotten to reject tells you how complex and how hard it is to fully get there."

But a company's DMARC status does not tell the whole story. It may be only monitoring suspicious messages, but it may at the same time be collecting data and pouring it into an analytic tool. Some banks prefer to verify the email against various data sources and past patterns of good and bad behavior, then decide if it goes to spam or to an inbox.

"The challenge becomes the balance between security and usability," Knieff said. "Say one of your big clients isn't using DMARC and their messages are being shunted off into a different folder that you don't check often, that could be a real hindrance."

These questions are hardest to resolve for small and midsize businesses that lack the resources to research and select email security solutions, Knieff said. They will look to their primary vendors to share the solutions they have chosen.

One thing that holds banks and other companies back from using DMARC is a limitation: the Sender Policy Framework allows only 10 email domains (e.g. citi.com, salesforce.com) to be included on a verification list.

As companies get bigger and start to use more email marketing services and cloud services outside their domains, the list of domains that needs to be cross-checked quickly exceeds 10. "DMARC becomes ineffective at that point as a technology because you can't meet all of the requirements to really make a solid decision," Cravens said.

When it first began using DMARC, Uber also did not have DMARC set to quarantine or reject. But recently it did start quarantining them, with the use of a service provided by ValiMail that takes email authentication requests from a company's email server and checks them against an unlimited list of email domains.

Since turning on ValiMail's service and starting to quarantine and reject suspicious messages, Cravens says the number of phishing emails that get through Uber's filters has dropped precipitously. He declined to share precise numbers.

"At every organization I've worked at, you'd get a phishing email that got through the filters and someone would alert the help desk saying, I think I just got phished," Cravens said. "Then you'd blast out to the whole company, hey, if you get this email, don't open it. You'd do forensics, look at your email logs, figure out who got it, reach out to them, figure out if they clicked on it.  All your security procedures start to kick in so you can identify how bad is the damage and what am I going to do to fix it."

If DMARC has been set up correctly, "all of a sudden, the spurious stuff that's being sent from random servers outside of what you've identified in the known world just doesn't get through," he said. "It stops before it gets to users."

A key reason companies monitor emails with DMARC rather than quarantine or reject them is they do not want to throw away legitimate emails and lose business.

"That's always the risk, but that's the hardest part of the implementation," Cravens said. Companies have to find all the valid email generation sources within their ranks before flipping the switch.

At some companies, information-technology departments traditionally avoid tampering with running systems for fear of causing a big problem, Cravens noted. "It's the hot stove of IT," he said. "If your business depends on email flowing to be able to make money, it's a really scary thing to turn on a technology that's going to start blocking some email."

Another reason some companies don't invest time and energy in email authentication is a lack of excitement around it. "Email is like electricity  you miss it when it's gone, but it's not sexy, it's boring," Garcia-Tobar said. "It gets shunted into the closet. Even though it's a primary vector for crime, it's something people don't want to think about."

A good reason to consider using DMARC is that Microsoft and Google started implementing in February a no-authentication logofor companies that authenticate your email, customers will see a question mark next to the message.

Some compare using DMARC to putting a lock on a front door if you live in a high-crime neighborhood. It is possible that criminals could break a window or drill a hole in the wall to get in that way, but it is also possible they will try to open the door, realize it is locked, and go on to the next house.

"Hackers can see [a company's DMARC status] and say, I can either go after the rabid-watchdog-guarded house or go after the one where the front door is wide open," Garcia-Tobar said. "Why would I not just go to the front door?"


Franklin Savings Bank in Franklin, N.H., has lured an executive from Florida to become its next chief financial officer.

The $426 million-asset bank said in a press release Wednesday that Brian Bozak will be responsible for investment portfolio management, financial reporting and analysis, budgeting, asset and liability management and internal control.

Bozak had recently been the CFO at Flagship Community Bank in Clearwater, Fla. The $105 million-asset Flagship is under pressure from Service Equity Partners, a Dallas private equity fund that shares 7.7% ownership of the bank's stock with another fund, to find a buyer. In March Flagship hired Kenneth Bailey, a former regional CFO with Synovus Financial Corp in Tampa, to succeed Bozak.

Bozak has also held posts in accounting and operations at other Florida institutions, including American Momentum Bank of Tampa, First Community Bank of America in Pinellas Park and Premier Community Bank of Clearwater.

At Franklin, Bozak succeeds Martha Lefebvre, who was named controller as part of a realignment of the bank's finance department, a spokeswoman said.

Bozak "was brought on board as part of some succession planning we were conducting," the spokeswoman added. "When we began our search for a candidate, we were looking for someone with a great deal of experience and skill in accounting as well as a CPA."

For Franklin, Bozak's hiring is the latest in a series of key executive moves. In December the bank tapped its chief operating officer, Ronald Magoon, as its president and eventual successor to CEO Jeffrey Savage. Magoon has been at Franklin since 1988.


Mackinac Financial in Manistique, Mich., has promoted an executive from its bank to become its next chief financial officer.

The $729 million-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that Jesse Deering will succeed Ernie Krueger, who is retiring at the end of July. Deering, who joined Mackinac in 2005, is managing director of retail branch banking and marketing at the company's mBank.

Krueger, who joined Mackinac in 2003, will remain with the company as a consultant.

Deering "has been a colleague for many years and understands the interworking of our company and culture very well," Paul Tobias, Mackinac's chairman and chief executive, said in the release. "We are excited to get him into his new role and working with the rest of the executive team to continue moving the company forward."


Just when Green Dot made it through one firestorm, along comes another.

The nation's leading prepaid card issuer, which spent nearly four months battling a large shareholder that was agitating for a management shake-up, now finds itself in the third week of complaints from customers who have been unable to access their funds.

The consumer furor began just days before a May 23 vote to determine whether Green Dot Chief Executive Steve Streit should keep his seat on the company's board. Streit did win re-election, but he received far fewer votes than two of the candidates put forward by the activist shareholder.

Over the course of the last two weeks, Green Dot has made contradictory statements about the technical problems, which have affected users of a Walmart-branded prepaid card.

On May 18 Green Dot said that the problems were preventing customers from checking their balances online and over the phone, but were not affecting their ability to make purchases or get cash from ATMs. But six days later the company acknowledged on Facebook that some transactions were being erroneously declined.

When asked about that reversal, Green Dot replied Tuesday in an email: "The balance inquiry issue was the only problem we were aware of when the situation first developed. However, once that issue was resolved, it became clear other small segments of customers were experiencing other issues with their cards, including balances that were lower than what they should have been due to various processing-related issues, and other segments were experiencing trouble activating cards that were received in the mail."

Green Dot, of Pasadena, Calif., is in the midst of a transition to a new payment processor, MasterCard Payment Transaction Services, and has attributed the problems to slowdowns at MasterCard.

On Tuesday Green Dot said through a spokesman that "all problems appear to have been resolved." A MasterCard spokesman said Wednesday that systems are operating normally, adding that the company is addressing "any one-off customer issues."

On social media this week, some customers reported that their issues had been resolved, while others continued to lodge complaints as late as Wednesday. The glitches have affected the Walmart MoneyCard, which is issued by Green Dot Bank.

Letitia Brown, a court clerk who lives in Novi, Mich., said in an interview Tuesday that she has been unable to access her most recent paycheck, which was supposed to be deposited directly onto her prepaid card last week. She said that she planned to use that money to put gas in her car.

"I had to borrow money just to get home from work," Brown said. "That's a stupid problem to have."

For Green Dot the problems are the latest twist in a long-running saga over payment processing.

In 2012 the firm announced plans to build an in-house processing solution. But the project was beset by delays and the departure of key personnel. Last year Green Dot announced that MasterCard would be the exclusive card processor for Green Dot Bank.

The recent troubles at Green Dot are reminiscent of last year's fiasco involving the RushCard prepaid card. That situation also involved customers who were unable to access their funds, and it happened as RushCard was transitioning its payment processing to MasterCard.

RushCard, which was founded by the hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, recently agreed to a $20.5 million settlement to resolve thousands of customer claims in a class action. In all, more than 400,000 RushCard customers were affected, according to the company.

Green Dot declined to say how many of its customers have been hurt by its recent problems. The company has been offering some customers a $50 credit, according to reports on social media.

"While we aren't able to publicly state a specific number of customers who were impacted by a specific problem, we do know that the vast majority of our customers were not impacted by any issue and that only a small percentage of customers were impacted by any problem," Green Dot said in its email.

The Federal Reserve Board, which regulates Green Dot's $919 million-asset bank, did not immediately provide information Tuesday about any consumer complaints it has received.


The cry, Reaganism is dead! has been uttered several times during the presidential campaign in 2016. Two such examples will suffice. Eliana Johnson posted such an assessment on nationalreview.com on February 29th. Peter Wehner wrote the lead story which trumpeted that meme in Time on March 10th.

Although each mentioned several indicators of Reaganisms waning influence, Johnson and Wehner agreed that Donald Trumps apparent success in capturing the GOPs presidential nomination this year is the prime example of the Gippers decline and fall. According to Wehner, Trump is the antithesis of so much that Ronald Reagan stood for: intellectual depth and philosophical consistency, respect for ideas and elevated rhetoric, civility and personal grace. (I dont recall those adjectives being associated with Reagan by most in the chattering classes during the 1980s.) Johnson argued that some Republicans are wondering if Trumps popularity indicates Reaganisms three pillars -- social conservatism, fiscal restraint, and a muscular internationalism-- are no longer viable within the GOP, which may also be experiencing a complete ideological crack-up.

Its not especially worrisome if someone on the political Left, or even some (many?) in the GOP establishment -- whove never cottoned to Reagans brand of conservatism--bleat about Reaganisms demise. Those persons have always opposed Reaganism, and have touted any indication that it is declining.

When two conservatives espouse the same claim, however, one has to wonder whats going on.

Lets look at Reaganisms essential features. Then, we need to ascertain which of them has/have, in fact, become political liabilities that need(s) to be jettisoned in order to win elections.

The best way to grasp Reaganisms essential principles is to read the many speeches Ronald Reagan gave during his career, beginning with the Time for Choosing speech he gave on October 27, 1964 in behalf of Barry Goldwaters ill-fated presidential candidacy, and ending with his Farewell address to the nation on January 11, 1989, just days before his departure from the presidency.

One can also glean the essential principles of Reaganism by reading Steven Haywards two-volume The Age of Reagan (2009, 2010), or Paul Kengors four books published between 2005 and 2014, plus his forthcoming book on Reagan and the Cold War.

Students of Reaganism assert that it consisted of three major principles: limited government, a muscular foreign policy, and social conservatism. It is mistaken, however, to assert that Ronald Reagan stressed each equally.

(Kengor identified 11 Principles of a Reagan Conservative [2014], but I shall focus on just the three listed above to save space. Besides, several of Kengors principles can be subsumed under the three stressed here. For example, Faith, Family, and Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life are components of social conservatism, just as Freedom, American Exceptionalism, the Founders Wisdom and Vision, Lower Taxes, Limited Government, and even Belief in the Individual, are encapsulated by the notion of limited government. Peace Through Strength and Anti-communism fall under the rubric of a muscular foreign policy.)

Throughout his political career, and even before -- e.g., during his tenure as president of the Screen Actors Guild -- Reagan was a dedicated anti-communist. As president, the Gipper espoused a muscular foreign policy, particularly following the feckless Jimmy Carter. Although not the only reason Reagan rebuilt the American military and made America great again, the driving force was his militant opposition to the Soviet Union and international communism.

Along with his reputation as an avid anti-communist, Reagan is also noted for his advocacy of limited government (which also entailed supporting reduced government spending). Once a liberal Democrat, Reagan grew increasingly disenchanted with Democrats drift to the Left after World War II. Opposition to big government was a hallmark of Reagans entire political career. Reagan was not anti-government per se, but he believed big government was antithetical to freedom and to the individual.

Reagan articulated his belief in limited government, along with lower taxes and less regulation, in numerous speeches. Perhaps his attachment to limited government was best illustrated in his First Inaugural Address on January 20, 1981. On that occasion, he uttered the famous line, [i]n this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.

The third pillar of Reaganism was social conservatism, which was manifest by his profound belief in God, opposition to cultural progressivism, belief that a strong, enduring two-parent family, consisting of a woman, a man, and children, was essential to civilization, and especially a powerful respect for the right to life.

Reagan did not pursue each pillar with equal intensity, and he did not have the same degree of success in attaining each component of Reaganism.

Reagans greatest accomplishment, which was not finalized until after he had left the presidency, was the collapse of communism in 1989. He facilitated this by patient diplomacy and by a major buildup of American military strength. Reagans commitment to the Strategic Defense Initiative, a.k.a. Star Wars, was a major factor in the Cold Wars end.

Reagan also experienced successes combating big government, especially in simplifying the tax code and lowering federal income tax rates. He also reduced the number of government regulations. Although he could not -- given the Democrats continuing control of the House of Representatives, and eventually the Senate -- significantly reduce governments size, he did slow the rate of its growth.

Perhaps the pillar which saw the least emphasis in Reagans presidency was social conservatism. Reagan was not able, as Robert Borks fate in 1987 illustrated, to transform the Supreme Court sufficiently to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. Reagan also acquiesced in the Simpson-Mazzoli Act in 1986 that naturalized up to three million illegal aliens, without first ensuring border security.

Today, some believe the three pillars of Reaganism are either outdated or untenable. Progressives have so demonized all facets of social conservatism that Republicans are reluctant to campaign on them. Communism is gone, but even though despotism and terrorism are again on the march, the public seems unconcerned by the Obama administrations gutting of the U.S. military. Many Americans give lip service to some conservative principles, such as lower taxes, but appear to want more rather than less government. Bill Clintons 1996 declaration that the age of big government is over was wrong.

Judged by Donald Trumps evidently unstoppable quest for the Republican Partys presidential nomination and by Hillary Clintons all-but-inevitable success in the Democrat Party, Reaganism appears to be in serious disarray. No matter which one wins (or perhaps which loses less) in 2016, Reaganism will be in the political wilderness.

Nevertheless, if Reaganites also subscribe to the Gippers infectious optimism, they may yet make America great again.
No one disputes the fact that the nation is polarized and coming apart. This is so evident especially in light of the 2016 election cycle. Likewise, no reasonable person can deny that we need to return to the order of social bonds that mitigate the effects of extreme individualism, especially the erosion of our national unity.

Yuval Levins fascinating book, The Fractured Republic: Renewing Americas Social Contract in the Age of Individualism does much to address these great problems and offer corresponding solutions. The book is a well-written historical analysis of what has led to the fracturing of the nation. Thankfully, Levin does not resort to instant push-button solutions. Rather he recognizes the need to propose ways to mend and meld these fractures over the long term.

What Levin describes is the battle between two conflicting yet inadequate visions of American society. Simplifying a bit, one is a conservative America that yearns for the security of moral values and social unity. The other is the progressive America that longs for the heady idealism of extreme individualism, income equality and governmental safety nets. Both visions are the two main baby boomer narratives, which also represent a clash of nostalgias where one side longs for the stable 50s and the other for the restless 60s.

Levin, an avowed conservative, outlines the unique historic circumstances that gave rise to these competing visions and their nostalgias. He makes the case that all uniting factors have eroded over the last several decades. Americas broad political consensus has broken down. The mediating institutions of family, community and faith that normally stand between the individual and the State are being hollowed out and worn away. These middle layers are where people see each other face-to-face, offer a middle ground between radical individualism and extreme centralization.

The author suggests that the competing visions are blinded by their nostalgias and eroded by the culture. Neither one has the power to recapture the mainstream. Neither one can afford to follow the present narrative which does not address the present reality. Something different must be done.

The second part is aptly titled the next America in which Levin asks his readers to visualize what the nations future might look like. In the books introduction, the author makes it clear he is not providing a detailed blueprint for America. He is rather groping and grappling toward organic bottom-up remedies that cannot be rigidly planned or imposed. Levins grappling approach is therefore refreshing, original and problematic.

The refreshing part of his remedy can be summed up in one word: subsidiarity. He defines this social concept as putting power, authority, and significance as close to the level of interpersonal community as reasonably possible. That is to say letting each social unit take care of itself while relying on larger institutions, especially government, only when necessary.

Subsidiarity makes sense considering his evaluation of the crisis. For if the problem in America is the loss of bottom-up mediating institutions of family, community, and faith, then the solution is the restoration of that middle layer that fosters social bonds. Levin claims that The mediating institutions do not need to be unleashed -- they need to be revived, reinforced and empowered.

Such a remedy is original in that it does not come from the government -- the preferred agent of change in todays world. Indeed, it is as if government and solution are two words that normally should not appear together. Levin puts the responsibility for solving the present moral crisis where it belongs -- with moral institutions. He desires the next America to be a free society rooted in an understanding of liberty that depends upon our institutions of moral formation and on the kind of person they produce -- the citizen fit for virtuous freedom.

How such a remedy might be implemented is more problematic. Levin proposes that Americans replace the outdated narrative of the Culture War, blinded as it is by nostalgia. However, Levin himself appears a bit blinded by the nostalgia, since he fails to mention the moral values, principles, and ideals that are so much a part of the Culture War. It is not clear how these very important non-nostaglic issues (like abortion, for example) should be handled in his proposal.

Levin believes efforts might be better employed in what he calls subcultural wars. For cultural conservatives, this would entail offering attractive alternatives that embody a vision of the virtuous good life. The center has not held in American life, so we must instead find our centers for ourselves as communities of like-minded citizens, and then build out the American ethic from there.

Levins option makes many assumptions that are not necessarily certain to happen. He assumes that a cultural ceasefire might be arranged that would allow political space for such communities to grow and flourish. The present judicial and regulatory infrastructures may not be so willing to relinquish their stranglehold upon American life, or cease their hostility, that makes so many good life alternatives difficult if not impossible.

It cannot be presupposed that the mere presentation of the good life, however attractive, will guarantee its widespread acceptance since arduous virtue has always struggled to compete with easy vice. Example alone may not be compelling enough to reverse the inebriating freedom of an extreme individualism.

Finally, there is the assumption that strong subcultures will necessarily repair the fractured republic. Without proportionally strong unifying principles, there is the risk that these strong subcultures might just shatter the nation.

The Fractured Republic is an important commentary on the present state of disunity and polarization. Levin has the courage to talk about the politically incorrect principle of subsidiarity. His work frames the debate where it should be framed -- around those institutions of moral formation that really matter.

John Horvat II is a scholar, researcher, educator, international speaker, and author of the book Return to Order, as well as the author of hundreds of published articles. He lives in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania where he is the vice president of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.
As China builds military bases on man-made islands in the South China Sea, the staggering decline in U.S. naval readiness was made clear when a group of Navy captains testified before an unusual joint hearing of the House Armed Services Committees seapower and readiness subcommittees last week. It was made clear that President Ronald Reagans 600-ship Navy is a distant memory as we return to the Jimmy Carter era of ships that cant sail and planes that cant fly for want of spare parts.

This sad state of affairs is accomplishing what the Japanese Imperial Navy could not -- defeat the U.S. Navy and leave the seas increasingly open to hostile adversaries and leaving us increasingly unable to come to the aid of our remaining allies. As the Navy captains testified:

About every three months or so we would get a new schedule for the submarine USS Albany, said Capt. Gregory McRae, deputy commander of Submarine Squadron Six. Today, we are looking at a 43-month overhaul for a maintenance period that was supposed to last 28 months. Cannibalization -- pulling scarce spare parts off one ship or plane to fix another about to deploy -- is now routine, the captains testified. For example, the USS Normandy has served as an organ donor for 13 different mission critical components over the last 45 days, crippling the anti-aircraft cruisers radar. I could not possibly surge right now for an emergency deployment, testified Normandy skipper Capt. Scott Robertson. Naval air forces are in similar straits. Four of the Navys 10 carrier air wings are fully manned and equipped, but those four are the ones either deployed or about to deploy, said Capt. Randy Stearns. Getting one of the other six wings ready to go in an emergency would take six to 12 months, three times as long as when he was a young officer, Stearns said: As of today, we dont have that surge capacity. Carrier Air Wing One will not have the funds or parts to fly at all for four months, Stearns testified. That will save $9 million to $13 million in the short run, but theyll never get those months of training back, said Stearns. In the long term, its going to take me three times the amount and three times the cost to get them back up to speed. Compounding this crisis is the Budget Control Act, Weve never caught up on the maintenance and training cancelled in 2013, said Capt. Stearns. Last years budget deal loosened the BCA caps for fiscal year 2016 but kept them $18 billion tighter for 2017.

While it has been the media-accepted talking point of the Obama administration that sequestration was a bipartisan readiness suicide pact forced on it by the Congress, Investors Business Daily has pointed out that this myth has been demolished by reporter Bob Woodward of Watergate fame:

If President Obama has an enemies list, Bob Woodward is probably at the top of it. After all, it was Woodward who started the unraveling of the presidents sequestration apocalypse mantra by confirming it was the White Houses idea in the first place. When President Obama said the sequester is not something that I proposed, he lied. His then-OMB Director Jack Lew, recently confirmed as Treasury Secretary, and White House Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors pitched the idea to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who pushed it, according to Woodwards book, The Price of Politics. When Woodward called a senior White House official last week to tell him that, in a piece in that weekends Washington Post, he would question President Obamas account of how sequestration came about, he said the Obama aide yelled at me for about a half-hour, ending with the Nixonesque warning, I think you will regret staking out that claim. That official was Gene Sperling, a top economic aide.

Such willful neglect of the U.S. military by our commander-in-chief had geopolitical consequences. An editorial in the Global Times, a newspaper seen as a mouthpiece for hard-line nationalists in Beijing, warns of the consequences of resistance: If the United States bottom line is that China has to halt these activities, then a U.S. China war is inevitable in the South China Sea. As Investors Business Daily has noted:

Beijing has long declared the South China Sea to be its territorial waters and has laid claim to two disputed chains: the Paracel Islands, about 200 miles from the coast of Vietnam, and the Spratly Islands in the southeastern part of the South China Sea. China's territorial ambitions include the Senkakus in the East China Sea, part of what Chinese military doctrine refers to as the "first island chain" that surrounds China.

In the South China Sea, as of February, China had finished construction on no less than six different island reefs from which to project its power in the South China Sea. Included in its military effort is the construction of a 3,000 meters (9,842 feet) long runway on the artificially expanded Fiery Cross Reef as a base for Chinese fighter aircraft. According to Reuters,

China's creation of artificial islands in the South China Sea is happening so fast that Beijing will be able to extend the range of its navy, air force, coastguard and fishing fleets before long, much to the alarm of rival claimants to the contested waters. Reclamation work is well advanced on six reefs in the Spratly archipelago, according to recently published satellite photographs and Philippine officials. In addition, Manila said this month that Chinese dredgers had started reclaiming a seventh.

Naval commanders are worried that our ability to respond to such threats has been severely compromised by an Obama administration more concerned about rising sea levels than rising threats on those seas. The Navy captains Congressional testimony come after the Chinese announcement that it is building its second aircraft carrier to go along with a refurbished Soviet carrier, the Liaonng, commissioned by China in 2012 after extensive refitting of the 25-year-old vessel. As IBD has reported, the Liaoning is only the first step in the building of a blue-water navy capable of competing with our diminishing one, with Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III, chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, warning that the U.S. was losing its Pacific dominance to China:

China's Communist Party-affiliated newspaper, Global Times, gloated over Locklear's warning, noting his remarks in a story beneath the headline "U.S. losing grip on Pacific: PACOM." In the Times story, Jin Canrong, a deputy dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University of China, said the American admiral's comments recognize China as a rising military power. Indeed, it is. China has launched its first stealth drone, known as Sharp Sword, and is developing indigenous aircraft carriers. Its "two-ocean strategy" is based on the goal of building a fleet of five or six carrier battle groups. China's first battle group, led by its first carrier, the Liaoning, recently conducted a monthlong exercise that saw the refurbished Soviet-built flattop and her escorts sail south to the waters near Taiwan. During the exercise, a Chinese warship nearly collided with the guided missile cruiser USS Cowpens, which was shadowing the battle group.

China is preparing for a naval confrontation with the United States. We may lose that confrontation in the South China Sea because the U.S. Navy is scavenging for spare parts.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.
As accusations swirl around Donald Trump for the complaints filed against Trump University, few people know about how Bill Clinton was hired in 2010 to be Chancellor for the Laureate Network, the worlds largest for-profit university network.

Not just Bill Clinton but other Clinton friends from the past were hired to promote the university. Investors in the vast multinational university include Henry Kravis, George Soros, Steve Cohen and Paul Allen. One of the investors in Laureate University, SAC Capital Advisors LP, is a hedge fund that had to pay a $1.2 billion dollar settlement to the US Dept. of Justice to settle allegations of insider trading.

Bill Clinton has personally been paid to make appearances promoting Laureate University in countries such as Malaysia, Peru and Spain. By January 2014 Laureate University had 800,000 students worldwide and its annual revenue was $4 billion, far larger than the revenues of Trump University.

Laureate has taken over struggling colleges by using high-pressure marketing tactics such as turbocharging enrollment using students as telemarketers. Laureate University was investigated by the Rio State Legislatures Investigative Commission on Private Universities in Brazil. Robson Leite, a Rio state legislator who led the probe concluded: They have turned education into a commodity that focuses more on profit than knowledge

Pictures of Bill Clinton line a walkway at Laureates Bilgi University in Istanbul. His photos can also be seen outside the rectors office, along with pictures of Douglas Becker, the founder of Laureate, and Turkeys Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Neither Laureate nor Bill Clinton will disclose how much money Clinton has been paid to promote the for-profit international university setup, which features both classroom and online instruction. (Update from Richard Henry Lee. According to the tax returns released by Hillary Clinton, the couple had $16.5 million in income from Laureate University.)

One student named Larissa Da Silva complains that when she enrolled in IBMR, a Brazilian branch of Laureate, the admissions officer promised her a 30 percent discount on tuition. Two years later the deal evaporated and her monthly tuition cost jumped to 791 reais. She summarized the change of policy by stating I feel completely deceived. Apparently the fine print states that grants and tuition discounts may be temporary, so its her fault for not lawyering up before she enrolled in the Clinton-promoted college.

Laureate has a habit of allowing students with low admissions test scores to enroll. One named Phillipe Linhares, age 24, stated that he was surprised when IBMR in Rio accepted him as a student. I knew I had done horribly on the test, he recalled, But the salespeople called me three times saying Id done great and asking when I would come down to enroll.

Laureate International Universities, unlike Trump University, is still in existence and going strong. And while news media have attacked Trump for his association with Trump University, somehow the connection between Bill Clinton and Laureate University has been ignored. No stories exist online since 2014.

Recently a judge released sealed documents on Trump University, but no one knows where the documents are that show how much money Bill Clinton was paid for his promotion of Laureate, or what other financial connections there may be to the Clinton Foundation. And while the Trump University playbook has been a topic of controversy, no one seems interested in the high pressure sales tactics used by Laureate, the worlds largest for-profit university group. What voters may soon realize is that every time the media attack Donald Trump for something, it turns out that the Clintons were involved first, to a far greater extent. This also proves what Trump has been saying; that the media are very dishonest and focus only on him.
There is a close long-term correlation between low-skill wages and illegal immigration. An influx of low-skilled labor drives down wages at the bottom of the income scale, aggravating the wage gap and social divisions, providing fodder for left wing demonization of the prosperous and successful.

The normal equilibrating capacity of a market economy is short circuited when the influx of low-skill illegal immigrants is nationwide. If American workers could easily escape to another country offering higher wages, then wages in the USA would quickly recover from a surge of immigrant workers, and employers would gain only a short-lived benefit. So, it might not be worth paying off politicians to import cheap labor from poor countries.

The Mariel Boatlift event provides a demonstration of this. Wages were hammered down in a local economy (Miami) by a flood of refugees and then recovered as workers scattered to surrounding areas with higher wages. The whole process took 10 years.

Miami Wages after the Mariel Boatlift

Harvard professor George J. Borjas has been called "Americas leading immigration economist" by BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal. The good professor recently surprised himself and outraged many of his pro-immigration colleagues with a study measuring the dive in wages for low-skill natives in Miami after the Mariel boatlift of 1980.

Private boats brought more than 100,000 Cubans to Miami within 5 months. The data displayed in the graph below shows what happened.

In 1980, Miami low-skilled wages (blue line) were already trending at 94% of those in the rest of the USA. (orange line). Then Miami wages were hammered down by the Mariel boatlift. If that event had not occurred, Miami wages presumably would have followed the gold line (Reference), which is 94% below wages outside of Miami. If so, we get the following wage gap (Gap) between the gold (Reference) and blue (Miami) lines:

Gap = (Miami - Reference) / Reference

The wage gap (Gap, blue line) hits -0.35 in 1986, which means wages dropped 35% below where they would have been if the Mariel event had not happened. Then the Gap closes back up near zero by 1990.

The red line is the output of my Gap predictor, which I described in a previous article. Also, see my notes. The simple Gap predictor assumes an immediate reaction in wages, but in reality the reaction takes several years to occur (6 years in this case). The predictor also assumes almost all the resident low-skilled workers will take a 39% pay cut without moving out of the job market. That is not going to happen for long in an American city like Miami, surrounded by higher-paying job markets.

The Gap predictor works fairly well for the US as a whole because there is no foreign country where a low-skill worker can get enough of a pay raise to make it worth the move. So, the wages stay depressed for about 40 years, until the immigrant workers retire.

It is easy to say that immigrants can upgrade their schooling and training and thus reduce the surplus of low-skill labor. In practice, it is usually very difficult, especially while raising kids. For example, Senator Marco Rubios father spent his career mostly as a hotel bartender. He was also a street vendor, security guard, apartment building manager and crossing guard. Rubios mother worked as a maid and Kmart store clerk.

They stayed in low-skill jobs over their entire working careers. Their children did very well, however. If the children of immigrants do as well as the children of natives, then the depression of low-skill wages goes away unless more low-skill workers are brought into the country.

If the children and grandchildren of a large class of immigrants remain low-skill workers like their parents, then my simple Gap predictor no longer works and we are left with a persistent underclass of people who continue to cause a surplus of low-skill workers and thus continue to depress low-skill wages.

Unfortunately, this is the case for most of the illegal immigrants that are continuing to pour into the country.

Another Permanent Underclass?

If the illegals are allowed to stay, the effects will be dire, according to the findings of Gregory Clark, Professor of Economics at the University of California, Davis. Immigration to the United States  rarely changes ones social status, he concludes after extensive study and many published works. His recent book is about the tendency of descendants within a family to stay in the same social class as their ancestors.

Clark writes,

... the social status of Latinos, even those born in the United States, is persistently low they are often the people who found themselves in such desperate economic circumstances at home that they preferred to live as illegal immigrants in the United States. (Latinos constitute nearly half of the foreign born in the United States, but four in five of illegal migrants.) The effects have been dire: there can be no doubt that immigration is widening social inequality in the United States.

Professor Clark suggests a less disastrous immigration policy:

To avoid having a substantially poorer and less educated Latino underclass for many future generations, [the US] should considering policies to increase the number of highly educated Latino immigrants.

But if current immigration policy is continued, the United States is likely to soon have the unprecedented situation of fostering a semi-permanent underclass. This lack of social mobility from one generation to the next is a result that no government uplift program has been able to erase, according to Clarks study of government efforts in Sweden, the US, and elsewhere.

This means that my simple wage formula will underestimate the negative wage effects of illegal immigration, because the formula assumes that the effect is limited to the 40-year career of immigrants but not their descendants. A society over-loaded with low-skill workers will have lower wages in that category until the surplus disappears, which in this case might be generations away.

I estimate that enforcing the law and deporting all illegals would raise real low-skill wages by about 20% to 40% within 6 years, providing immediate relief to the oppressed low-skill citizens of our country. (See my notes.) Allowing in more high-skill people and few low-skill people would have long-term benefits that would eventually tower over this short-term benefit. A more skilled population would increase the historical trend of economic growth in this country. We might even become the richest per capita country in the world.
In an astonishingly arrogant remark, Ben Rhodes, the spin doctor of the White House, confessed to misleading the American people, media, and nongovernmental organizations about the seven-nation negotiations with Iran in 2015 purportedly to stop Irans nuclear development. He boasted of creating an echo chamber, and using outside groups like Ploughshares to help carry out the Obama administration message. To their disgrace, those groups then said things in public that validated the misleading information that Rhodes and other White House officials had given them to say.

Now we have the newly-published document of the non-profit Ploughshares Fund (PF) whose stated objective, like all non-lunatics, is to help make the world more safe and secure. The Fund states that it does this by funding organizations and people who promote the elimination of nuclear weapons, who are devoted to prevent the emergence of new nuclear states, and to build regional peace. All these activities are worthy, but what the Annual Report 2015 of the Fund did not say or want to know is that it had been manipulated by the Obama administration for propaganda purposes.

Some news organizations, such as the Associated Press, have rules concerning funds they accept and are concerned to uphold journalistic integrity. Ploughshares Fund does not appear to be one of them, as Rhodes implied in his reference to it. Ploughshares indeed faithfully obeyed the spin and the message that he disseminated.

The PF 2015 Report detailed the organizations and groups it funded to carry out the Obama administration message, and reveals their subservience to the message. It is worth looking at a few of them.

Some are surprising but others are not. Not everyone will agree that National Public Radio is always objective in its reporting. Not surprisingly, NPR, which receives a small amount from Congress, has since 2005 received $700,000 from Ploughshares (PF) to cover national security issues. In 2015 for the propaganda campaign concerning Iran, NPR received $100,000 from PF. In this PF is less than forthright. It stated that funding does not influence the editorial content of their coverage in any way, nor would we want it to. The facts speak otherwise. NPR hosted supporters of the deal, including Rep. Adam Schiff of California and Joseph Cirincione, president of PF, who was invited at least twice, but it refused to invite Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, a critic of Irans nuclear program., who had several times requested an appearance on radio.

Some recipients of the grants seem understandable, other seem bizarre. Included among the recipients of funding are the Arms Control Association, which received 4 grants amounting to $282,500, and the Atlantic Council that got $182,000. The National Iranian American Council got five grants amounting to $281,211, perhaps because one member of the PF board, the actor Farshad Farahat, is also a director of the NIAC. One of the more surprising and inexplicable was the National Committee on North Korea that got $50,000.

Academic institutions and think tanks were helped. The Brookings Institution in D.C. got 3 grants amounting to 225,000, and Princeton University received $70,000 to support Seyed Hossein Mousavian, former Iranian ambassador, for his books and activities involved with the negotiated settlement of Irans nuclear program.

The single largest grant went to J Street, the leftist or liberal Jewish political action group, pro-Israel, pro-peace, which got six grants amounting to $576,500. These were awarded to support J Streets media and education campaign to continue diplomatic engagement with Iran, to demonstrate the benefits of the negotiated settlement with Iran, and to mobilize Jewish support for a final deal. J Street in effect accepted the spinning of the White House. Among J Streets activity was on July 23, 2015 a full page ad in the New York Times praising the diplomatic solution and calling on Congress not to sabotage the Iran nuclear agreement.

The Ploughshares Fund prides itself in general that its approach to reducing nuclear weapons and other global security threats is unique and effective. With this in mind, it is not clear why Valerie Plame, the central figure in the political storm in 2003 over the leaking of her alleged identity as a CIA covert officer, is on the board.

In particular, PF claimed that the Iran coalition it created was one of the most effective collaborative efforts in many decades.

The chair of the board Mary Lloyd Estrin, also a director of the General Service Foundation, enthused about the absolutely critical role that civil society and the PF played in tipping the scales in the promotion of a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear weapons threat. She also spoke of the fearless leadership of Obama administration and supporters in Congress. Can one detect in her words a fundamental worldwide conspiracy against the leadership that PF stopped?

The PF and its associates regard the Iran Agreement as a major victory for U.S. national security. To this end, the PF provided a network organizations and individuals in common effort These included pooling ideas, sharing information, deciding strategies, and accepting the misleading statements of the Obama administration.

J Street, usually critical of Israeli policies, sought to disarm criticism of its acceptance of the White House spin by asserting that it worked to advance the deal out of the belief that the important agreement contributed greatly to Israeli security, and that it blocked Irans path to a nuclear weapon for some years.

But that is not necessarily true. It is possible that the path of Iran to nuclear weapons may be limited for a short time with closer international inspection. It is equally possible that the deal may lead to better relations between the U.S. and Iran.

But already the U.S. Government Accountability Office in a report in February 2016 suggests that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) may have problems in monitoring and verifying Irans implementation of the nuclear deal, regarding nuclear materials and activities. Iran in the past has failed to notify the IAEA of some of its activity.

Observers may legitimately differ about Irans adherence to the nuclear agreement, but there can be no disagreement about Irans continuing provocative behavior. Irans missile program is proceeding with full support from its leaders, and its ambition to become the hegemonic power in the Middle East is clear, especially to Saudi Arabia. The PF group, in its obeisance to White House spin, have neglected the reality that Iran is a dangerous power. This is shown by its missile launches and testing of ballistic missiles, its support for the Assad regime in Syria, its support of Hizballah, its involvement in Yemen, and its detention of U.S. sailors.

In the bible, Isaiah 2:4, says they shall beat their swords into ploughshares. Ploughshares Fund by its acceptance of misleading official propaganda and its funding of organizations not usually regarded as advocates of peace in the Middle East nor concerned with the security of Israel has not been helpful in turning Iranian spears into pruning hooks.
The State Department aide who set up and ran Hillary Clinton's private email server has informed attorneys for Judicial Watch that he will exercise his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when he is deposed later this week.

Attorneys for Bryan Pagliano, who has received immunity from federal prosecution and has been talking to the FBI, also want no cameras or recording devices at the deposition.

Pagliano also took the fifth at several congressional committee hearings.

The Hill:

Paglianos lawyers told Judicial Watch more than a week ago that he would not be answering any questions, they claimed in their filing on Wednesday, and asked that it drop its subpoena. The organization refused. In the filing, Paglianos lawyers tried to have a federal judge block Judicial Watch from recording his deposition, given his planned refusal to answer questions. The lawyers said that a written transcription of the proceedings should be enough to satisfy the publics interest. Given the constitutional implications, the absence of any proper purpose for video recording the deposition, and the considerable risk of abuse, the court should preclude Judicial Watch . from creating an audiovisual recording of Mr. Paglianos deposition, they wrote. Videotaped depositions pose a serious danger to deponents invoking the Fifth Amendment, the lawyers added, pointing to past court decisions warning that the video makes a good soundbite. According to the filing, Judicial Watch said it would oppose any such motion. Questions about Paglianos role in Clintons bespoke email arrangement ramped up after he accepted a deal for immunity from the federal government as part of his cooperation with the FBIs ongoing investigation into Clintons setup. Yet very little is known about Pagliano and how he maintained the server at Clintons New York home. The IT expert has previously refused to answer questions on Capitol Hill, invoking his Fifth Amendment rights before the House Select Committee on Benghazi and rejecting requests from leaders of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees to answer their questions. Last month, the State Department said that it had lost the backup archive of Paglianos emails from his time at the department. However, it had been able to cobble together some emails through the accounts of other officials.

We're not supposed to infer anything from a witness who invokes his Fifth Amendment rights, but let's not kid ourselves. The reason Pagliano won't testify is that some of his actions, at the very least, can be construed as being illegal. The immunity he received from the Justice Department is probably limited, which means Pagliano may be vulnerable to charges outside the scope of the FBI investigation.

This is a loss for the public because Judicial Watch would almost certainly have posted Pagliano's testimony immediately, giving us insight into Clinton's email operation. Now it's likely that the only parts of Pagliano's story that will be made public are those that would assist any kind of prosection brought by DoJ.

In his statements to the FBI, Pagliano has probably already contradicted the Clinton narrative about the emails six ways from Sunday. His deposition for Judicial Watch may have exploded that narrative once and for all. Now we may never know the full truth.
It seems that people occasionally ignore those cute little signs of a gun with a slash through it indicating the area is supposedly a gun-free zone and bring in guns. This happens especially when there are no valiant TSA guards with X-ray machines guaranteeing their absence. Yeah, I was surprised, too.

And that's what happened at UCLA on Wednesday. Guns are not allowed on California's school campuses including UCLA's campus by law.

PURPOSE AND SCOPE The California Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1995 and Amendments, codified in California Penal Codes  626.9 & 626.10, prohibit the transportation and possession of firearms and other dangerous weapons on public school properties in California, including property of the University of California. The University of California Office of the President has issued Implementing Guidelines for the Act and Amendments. This Policy incorporates and implements the Act and Amendments, the UC Implementing Guidelines, and applicable State and local codes. This Policy prohibits the transportation and possession of firearms and other dangerous weapons on the grounds of UCLA campus, off-campus buildings owned or operated by the University, areas adjacent to University Property or to activities of or programs conducted by the University, whether on- or off-University Property. This Policy applies to all students, employees, and other members of the University community, to any vendor or contractor providing services on University Property, and to any individual visiting the University or participating in or attending University programs or activities.

And just last September, the California state legislature expanded the no guns in school law.

The anti-gun bill, passed by the Legislature on Sept. 2, would expand criminal liability under the Gun-Free School Zone Act to handgun carry license (CCW) holders and prohibit carry of firearms for self-defense on California school grounds. It would also criminalize the mere possession of ammunition on the grounds of any school or college campus, even for trained gun owners who have a license to carry issued by their police chief or county sheriff. And if Senate Bill 347 becomes law, possession of ammunition on school grounds would also result in a 10-year total gun ban.

But someone ignored the no gun stickers and the state's and the school's sensible legal policy on guns and brought one to school despite the law and was involved in what police are calling a murder-suicide. Yeah, I was surprised, too.

The school's armed police force and the Los Angeles Police Department arrived after receiving calls about gunfire. But now a young professor is dead, as is the shooter.

It seems that the sensible gun laws didn't save the professor and didnt prevent the shooter from bringing a gun to campus for his evil action.

No, I wasn't surprised.
The original series Roots was a phenomenon. With maybe more viewers as a percentage of population than any TV event in history. When it aired some forty years ago, I and everybody I knew had their eyes glued to the screen. The various episodes made for the only water cooler talk the next day. However, this time around, nobody I know seems plugged in, despite it running on seven* cable channels at once.

Im certainly not. Because remember the old joke:

Man has a flat tire in the middle of the night. Under a streetlamp he gets his spare out, jacks his car up, removes the lug nuts from the affected tire and carefully puts them in the hubcap. Then he accidentally kicks the hubcap, and all four nuts roll down a sewer grate. Oh, no! What am I going to do? He clutches his head. Pssst. The man looks up and finds hes in front of a huge brick building with a sign on it saying County Home For Morons. In a darkened upstairs window theres a man in hospital pajamas who tells him, What you should do, buddy, is take one nut off each of the three remaining wheels and use them to get home. Wow, what a great solution, the man replies, but...but how come someone like you can think of that? Well, the figure in the upstairs window answers, affronted, I might be a moron, but Im not an idiot.

Not being idiots, we understand that Roots has been revealed, as Stanley Crouch put it, to be "one of the biggest con jobs in U.S. literary history." That Alex Haley plagiarized what he didnt make up and had somebody else write what he didnt plagiarize. And so millions of others like me who once accepted his shtick as the truth and nothing but the truth are still furious with ourselves for getting sucked into the phony drama. And, it goes without saying, still really upset with its producers.

Feeling cheated as so many of us felt cheated when we never understood the appeal of Steinbecks dreary made up stories but enjoyed and foolishly believed that his Travels With Charley was a real one. The way we were positive JFK had written every word of While England Slept and Profiles in Courage or that Harper Lee had actually authored the book we now know as To Kill A Mockingbird.

One bait-and-switch after another after another, which, at the end of the day, doesnt seem to annoy anyone except the bamboozled reader/audience. Puzzling because as Bill Steigerwald, a former journalist for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, writes in Reason Magazine, [i]f scholars arent concerned about this [sort of stuff], what are they scholaring about?

Who knows? The publishing and TV industries and the scholaring industry may be as bad, as deceptive, as spun, as corrupt as the movie industry, as the MSM, or even as Washington politics.

I dunno what this says about the state of society or about our morals in general. Or how ridiculously credulous I and others like me are. Because there are greats like Forrest McDonald, Shelby Foote, Gwyn Jones, Sonia Orwell (and George himself), along with dozens of others, and, being the chumps we are, we keep expecting everybody to measure up. And so we read or watch something the first time around and believe it. Myself, I even watched the Megalodon documentary and got euchred for an hour. I admit it. But that doesnt mean Im going to watch the recycled Roots.

Because Im not an idiot.

And you cant make me watch.

Even if you put it on seventy cable channels.

*On my Time Warner Cable lineup: AETVHD 29 & 102, LIFEHD 41 & 170, HISTHD 48 & 107, LMNHD 52

Richard F. Miniter is the author of The Things I Want Most, Random House, BDD. See it here. He lives and writes in the colonial-era hamlet of Stone Ridge, New York; blogs here; and can also be reached at miniterhome@gmail.com.
Several radical groups are promising to disrupt the Republican convention in Cleveland next month. And if past is prologue, those demonstrations will almost certainly be violent.

But Democrats are not immune from political turmoil at their convention, either. A group called "Occupy DNC" will join several other protest groups in demonstrating against Hillary Clinton's nomination in Philadelphia.

Daily Caller:

The protesters are united in their support for Bernie Sanders, as well as their opposition to a fraudulent Hillary nomination, according to the groups website. Their leaders have set up a Facebook group  titled Occupy DNC Convention  to organize housing and transportation. Protesters are encouraged to read documents shared within the group. One document is titled Civil Disobedience Training. Another is titled Health and Safety at Militant Actions and includes tips on first-aid and withstanding teargas. One document, titled Why Occupy DNC Convention? explains the protesters mission: we are contesting Hillarys nomination on the grounds of fraud, voter suppression, and corruption. We show them who we want. The groups leaders have set up a PayPal account and are requesting donations to help fund the demonstrations. The protesters say they simply will not accept a Hillary nomination but at the same time are committed to nonviolence. Theyre even prepared to lose the general election if Sanders isnt the nominee: If they nominate her anyway, we show them they did not win for we will not be voting for her in [November]. To date, more than 22,200 protesters have joined the group, which has received a permit to protest from the City of Philadelphia. The city has issued several permits for what look to be massive pro-Sanders protests throughout the convention.

Of course, what would a protest be without Black Lives Matter. An affiliate of the group is planning its own protest, despite not getting a permit to march.

One smaller group of black activists, the Philly Coalition for Real Justice, has planned a resistance march against the Democratic party for allegedly breaking its promises to black voters. Local news coverage describes the group as an affiliate of Black Lives Matter but the activists declined to either confirm or deny that fact. The activists Facebook event says, The Democratic Party has consistently betrayed their promises to the Black community and the 2016 presidential election is not going to be any different. We must capitalize off of this moment with one goal in mind; and that is to resist the capitalist and racist power structures that allow white supremacy and capitalist oppression to flourish, the activists claim. At the DNC, they plan to introduce our own Declaration of Independence and the Peoples Constitution, one that liberates us from the corruption of American politics.

Can't wait to read those documents.

Anarchists, communists, socialists, and the odious apparatus that clings to those groups will make a rather eclectic mix of demonstrators. But the unifying factor is their hatred of Hillary Clinton and all things American.

It should make a for an interesting  and potentially frightening  show.
We don't know what the final word will be on Mrs. Clinton's email scandal. But I agree with Doug Schoen that this story has no happy ending for her:

Mrs. Clinton also faces growing legal problems. The State Department inspector generals recent report on Mrs. Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state made it abundantly clear that she broke rules and has been far from forthright in her public statements. The damning findings buttressed concerns within the party that Mrs. Clinton and her aides may not get through the governments investigation without a finding of culpability somewhere. With Mrs. Clinton reportedly soon to be interviewed by the FBI, suggesting that the investigation is winding up, a definitive ruling by the attorney general could be issued before the July 25 Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Given the inspector generals report, a clean bill of health from the Justice Department is unlikely.

Very unlikely, indeed! Mrs. Clinton broke the rules, and that's about all you can say about this episode.

Incredibly, a new Rasmussen poll indicates that 50% say that Mrs. Clinton should run if indicted.

Are you kidding me, Clintonistas? How unserious can Democrats be? Isn't there more to a president than promising free health care and tuition?

Also, this is not the Clinton U.S. Senate trial of 1999, or one that required 67 votes to convict.

Hillary Clinton's case is about a disregard for national security.

It is clear for any American who has a private and business email: most of us have signed an employment manual that business is business and personal is personal.

Yes, it may not be Hillary Clinton in November! The Clintons have finally been caught!

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
You would think the group of 20 or so climate change scientists who sent a letter to President Obama urging him to prosecute climate skeptics under the RICO statute would have consulted a PR firm before they made asses of themselves to the whole country.

But now, the learned men of science have hired Climate Nexus, a PR firm specializing in spinning global warming news. The letter has been withdrawn - a move the PR firm called a "big mistake" - and a different strategy will be employed.

Washington Times:

In the days after 20 professors fired off a letter urging President Obama to investigate climate skeptics for suspected federal racketeering charges, the climate change movement went into full damage-control mode. Philip Newell, creative media manager of the public relations firm Climate Nexus, described the Sept. 1 letter as a big mistake, advising activists and scientists to downplay the prosecution angle and spin the story away from individuals and toward fossil fuel companies, according to emails obtained Wednesday by The Washington Times. He cited reports on the skeptics website, Climate Audit, saying that although it isnt a site to be worried about, its definitely looking like this issue isnt going to go away, even if you remove the letter, which I hear has been done and I would say is a big mistake. The letter was first posted on the Institute for Global Environment and Security website and then reportedly removed, but was then posted on other websites. Id recommend you keep it up and point to it as a call for investigating (not prosecuting) organizations and companies (not specific scientists) in an oped or simply a statement on the IGES website that clarifies that distinction, Mr. Newell said in a Sept. 29 email. Not everyone has taken that advice. Months later, Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude E. Walker issued subpoenas to ExxonMobil calling for its communications with more than 100 universities, scientists and think tanks, as well as the free market nonprofit Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The goal of the AG's pushing this witch hunt is not to prosecute fossil fuel companies, but to hold the threat of prosecution over their heads to extort tens of billions of dollars from them in a grand settlement a la the tobacco companies. The scientists actually believed the AG's were serious about stringing up individuals and think tanks who make their lives difficult by challenging their findings. But you can't get blood out of a turnip so it's hardly worth the effort of the AG's to go after the small fry.

The PR firm disabused the scientists of the notion that this investigation was about creating an inquisition for climate skeptics. Instead, gangster fashion, the full resources of government will be brought to bear on oil, coal, and natural gas companies to extract climate change tribute - a mutli-billion dollar slush fund that will be used to show favor to supporters and enrich political cronies.
These beautiful wax models of sensuous women lying supine, with their heads tipped back, and lips parted in ecstasy, look like they are from a renaissance painting. One idly toys with her plait of golden hair, while another clutches at a satin cushion. One is crowned with a golden tiara, while another wears a string of pearls around her neck. Yet, each and everyone of them has their abdomen slashed open causing their innards and guts to spill out.

These bizarre beauties called Anatomical Venuses were created by sculptor Clemente Susini in the late eighteenth century, and were conceived as a means to teach human anatomy without the need for dissecting real human bodies which was disgusting and messy. Susinis uncannily lifelike wax models, often adorned with real human hair, were both anatomically accurate and profoundly artistic, drawing praise from both doctors and art historians from all around. During his illustrious career as a medical wax model sculptor spanning several decades, Clemente Susini created and oversaw the production of more than 2,000 models.

Photo credit: unknown

Since their creation in late-18th-Century Florence, these wax women have seduced, intrigued, and instructed. Today, they also confound, troubling the edges of our neat categorical divides: life and death, science and art, body and soul, effigy and pedagogy, spectacle and education, kitsch and art. They are corporeal martyrs, anatomical odalisques, the uncanny incarnate, writes Joanna Ebenstein, the founder of the Morbid Anatomy Museum in New York.

The Venus and her sisters were intended, from their very conception, not only to instruct, but also to delight and elicit the wonder of a popular audience and, beginning with their public debut in the 1790s, they did just that, attracting throngs of both local Tuscans and visitors on the Grand Tour circuit.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Anatomical Venus was how readily available they were to the public, writes AnatomyWarehouse.com. Patrons were fascinated by these models, and even Victorian women were permitted to visit the anatomical museums of the time. While they were admitted separately from gentlemen, women in Victorian England were encouraged to visit the museums and learn anatomy both to better take care of themselves and their families. The practice was, however, somewhat scandalous, with some arguing that anatomy was too indelicate for respectable women.

The original Anatomical Venus was created between 1780 and 1782, and can still be seen at the Museum of Zoology and Natural History, best known as La Specola, in Florence, Italy. Other copies, referred to as Slashed Beauties or Dissected Graces are also displayed in various medical museums around Europe.

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Anna Faherty/Flickr

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: Joanna Ebenstein/Morbid Anatomy Museum

Photo credit: BBC

Photo credit: BBC

Photo credit: Huffington Post

Photo credit: Huffington Post
Virtual reality headsets and systems come in all shapes and sizes, and if youre a Samsung device owner you can pick up the Gear VR at a fairly reasonable price compared to options like the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, and it works with your mobile device. Normally the Samsung Gear VR costs $99, but right now you can actually pick it up for just $72.98 for the model that works with the Galaxy Note 5, saving you about $17 off the original price which may not be a lot, but any savings is better than no savings.

Alongside the Galaxy Note 5, the Gear VR will also work with the Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy S7, and the Galaxy S7 Edge. The Gear VR comes equipped with a back band and a top band to help secure the headset during wear, and it has a window cover to place on the front of the headset so your device is more easily secure in place when its plugged into the headset. Youll also find a touch pad and a few button controls on the right side of the headset. The Gear VR allows access to hundreds of apps and games including Netflix, all of which can be grabbed from the Oculus Store, and you can watch a fairly large collection of 3D and 360-degree content.
Many of the large technology companies are seen as a great place to work. Employees are expected to work hard and contribute to the cause, whatever this is, but are also given perks and benefits, many of which are intangible. Some of the benefits associated with working for a modern technology company include relative freedom  Google, for example, encourages employees to put 20-percent of their time towards other projects in addition to their stated job role. However, all companies do have a series of policies and rules put into place to protect the business, its customers and of course employees. Sometimes, these rules are broken and there may be consequences  and sometimes an employee will challenge these policies and any decision. This is what happened at the end of April 2016 when an unnamed Nest employee was apparently sacked from the business for posting defamatory memes in a private Facebook group.

Around two weeks later on the 17 May, this former Nest product manager lodged a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, against Nest Labs and parent business, Google. This complaint levels several serious allegations against the former employer. The story unfolds that the employee was fired for posting complaints about Nests Chief Executive Officer, Tony Fadell, in a private Facebook group. The employees termination letter explained that he was fired because his posts breached Googles Data Classification Guidelines. Nest, and in particular Tony Fadell, has been criticized recently and a number of memes were leaked to the Re/Code website earlier in the year. It is said that the former employee told a Google security investigator that he did not send information to Re/Code or other reporters, but he had posted a number of memes to Facebook  which is the reason for him being fired. His lawyers believe that firing him because of these postings violates employment law.

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If the case is successful, the National Labor Relations Board could force Nest to both rehire him and pay the salary that he would have earned should he not have been fired. Furthermore the NLRB could also force Google to change its human resources policies for all employees going forward. The ex-employees lawyer wrote a statement that explains how Tony Fadell, the current Nest Chief Executive, is a bad leader and that the working environment within Nest is a total mess. Critically, the statement goes on to explain that employees are being mistreated or fired because they are exercising their protected rights to social sites like Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. Any victory for the ex-employee could cause all technology businesses to take another look at their own Data Classification Guidelines.
Considering that high-speed Internet access, whether or not thats broadband to the home or 4G to a smartphone, is mostly present in the Western World, its no surprise that many Western nations top the list of the worlds largest Internet users. Seemingly out of nowhere however, has come India, which has leapfrogged the United States to become the Worlds second-largest Internet user in the world. The news comes from Mary Meekers annual Internet Trends report, which she delivered during this years Code Conference. This news will no doubt be music to the ears of Google and smartphone manufacturers the world over, as India poses one of the biggest opportunities for tech companies today.

There are now 3 Billion people connected to the Internet all over the world, and China tops the list of the largest Internet users, but India has jumped the United States to become the second largest Internet user in the world with 227 Million connected users contributing to 2 percent of the Worlds usage. India has often been referred to as the next billion by everyone interested in connecting them, including Google, as well as Nokia back in the days of Stephen Elops leadership. Its unlikely however, that any one company will end up controlling Indias mobile space with huge dominance, but surprising brands like Xiaomi out of China have made inroads. Despite the fact that Samsung and homegrown Micromax battle it out constantly for the majority of the market, theres plenty to go round. Making the top spot represents a 40% jump in the amount of connected users in India from the previous years report, while the rest of the World combined only managed to grow a measly 7 percent.

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It shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone that India has managed to become so prolific in terms of Internet usage, but what is surprising is that they managed to get here quite as quickly as they have done. Considering that the majority of these users will be connecting to the Internet for the first time via a smartphone, these new figures represent even more opportunities for the likes of WhatsApp and other firms that have a strong mobile presence.
Lenovo is a well-known tech company, and theyre especially popular in the PC market, their laptops, in particular, are still selling really well. This China-based company, however, also manufactures smartphones, and has several sub-brands under their wing, including Motorola and ZUK. Motorola has recently introduced the Moto G4 and G4 Plus devices, while ZUK released the ZUK Z2 Pro flagship with 6GB of RAM and the ZUK Z2 which comes with 4GB of RAM. This is some really serious firepower for the company, and it seems like Lenovo plans to take an interesting approach to the sales of their products, read on.

The company said recently that Motorola didnt exactly meet their expectations since they purchased the company, and that might be one of the reasons Lenovo is planning to alter their approach to sales. According to Chinese media, Lenovo Mobile Business Group President, Cheng Xudong, said that Lenovo plans to sell their products at cost in order to compete in the Chinese market. This essentially means that Lenovo wont exactly be making any cash from their smartphones (or will at least earn significantly less per device) in order to stay competitive in China, the largest smartphone market in the world. Chinese smartphone market slowed down quite a bit recently, and it is seriously oversaturated at the moment, so this decision is not all that surprising.

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Mr. Xudong also believes that the Motorola and ZUK-branded smartphones can help Lenovo increase their presence in the Chinese market, and Lenovo might even tackle the global market if sales pick up in China. Mr. Xudongs statement basically explains why are the ZUK Z2 and ZUK Z2 Pro so affordable despite the fact they sport such high-end specifications, they managed to outshine Xiaomi, Meizu and Huawei in terms of pricing. The ZUK Z2 is priced at 1,799 Yuan ($273) despite the fact it ships with the Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The ZUK Z2 Pro, on the other hand, comes with the Snapdragon 820 SoC, 6GB of RAM and 64GB / 128GB of internal storage, and the higher-end model is priced at 2,699 Yuan ($416), while the lower-end variant will be even more affordable. It will be interesting to see if this helps Lenovos sales in China.
Even though the modern era of touchscreen smartphones have all but killed off the good old flip phones, Samsung and LG keep releasing the occasional Android-based clamshell smartphone from time to time. Now whether thats because the companies think theres still a large enough market for such devices or because they want to keep experimenting with their smartphone form-factors is anybodys guess, but the one thing that simply has to be said about the two South Korean companies is that they havent been afraid to take risks and go against the flow with the design language and form-factor of their various smartphones.

While the LG G5 happens to be the first smartphone ever from a tier one manufacturer to come with a modular form-factor, Samsung has been even more proactive in challenging the industry status quo with devices like the original Galaxy Note phablet that was released back in 2011 and the Galaxy Note Edge, which came along in 2014. With a history of challenging conventional market dynamics with seemingly quirky devices, Samsung is now believed to be working on its next-generation smart flip phone that will feature a display panel of 3.8-inches. The device was recently imported into India for testing purposes, thereby getting listed on Zauba, which is a website that tabulates import and export data in India. The device comes with model number SM-G1600 and is expected to be an update over the last-generation Galaxy Folder (model: SM-G150), which happens to be a mid-range smartphone that was launched last year by Samsung in select markets.

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While further details regarding this new device is yet to come by at the moment, well probably have a bit more info the closer we get to the event itself. Theres no word whatsoever on if it will ever be launched globally, but some websites are speculating that it might be unveiled in China as early as the middle of next month. While Samsungs previous attempts at recreating the magic of the flip phone era with devices like the Galaxy Golden and Galaxy Folder has seen mixed results, the company is apparently marching forward nonetheless in preparation of its next-gen Galaxy flip-phone, if the latest developments are anything to go by.
Mobile payments have taken off over the past 12 months in a big way, and while Apple Pay might be the service most widely-available right now, Samsung is looking to change all of that with Samsung Pay. The service has of course launched in the firms home country of South Korea as well as North America, but now its finally hitting Europe, starting with Spain. We had thought that, due to Spain being the host nation of Mobile World Congress held every February, that Spain would be first in line and while it has taken a little longer than wed have first imagined, the service is now officially available in the region.

Corporate Vice President of Samsung Spain, Celestino Garcia, commented that Samsung is proud that Spain is the first European market to introduce Samsung Pay and while everything needs to start off small like this, the service is undoubtedly going to grow over time. For our Spanish readers wondering if they can use the new service, Samsungs official announcement details support from both CaixaBank as well as imaginBank right away, with Abanca and Banco Sabadell banks joining later this year. For those that dont bank with any of those names, they can get a card issued by El Corte Ingles to use Samsung Pay wherever its accepted. The Samsung post linked below lists many places that Samsung Pay will be available at, and right now that list includes Cepsa stations, The Good Burger and a wide range of smaller stores as well supermarkets.

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Samsung Pay can support up to 10 different cards and users with a Galaxy S6 or later smartphone  including this years Galaxy S7 line  will be able to use their phone to checkout wherever its supported. Nathalie Oestmann, Director of Samsung Pay Europe praised Spains progressive approach to digital payments and its likely that the Spanish market will be viewed as a sort of testing ground for Samsung Pay in Europe. With Apple Pay already available in the UK, and now Android Pay theres another big market in Europe that Samsung will no doubt be eyeing up next, and were sure many of readers will be looking forward to when Samsung Pay crosses the Atlantic.
Theres a lot about European regulations, or regulatory intentions, that U.S. Internet giants dont like. They hate being described and treated as monopolies, and a mention of paying taxes where they operate  as European countries have long wanted them to do  instantly puts them on the defensive. Yet ask Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube to censor their content, and they will happily oblige. Of all the U.S. rules that have allowed them to get as big as they have become, freedom of speech appears to be least important.

The four U.S. companies have accepted a European Union-dictatedcode of conduct, which obliges them to review the majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech in less than 24 hours and remove or disable access to such content. The reviewing is to be done by civil society organizations and trusted reporters: the EU and its member states are to ensure access to them

Laws limiting free speech have a tendency to change in response to terrorist attacks, electoral upsets, changes in public attitudes. Russians and Turks can attest to how quickly anti-terrorist legislation can turn into a system of censorship and suppression. Europe is not immune to versions of these developments. The U.S. giants willingness to work with governments and advocacy groups to uphold speech limitations makes them unreliable as platforms.
(ANSA) - Rome, June 1 - Carabinieri officer Silvio Mirarchi died Wednesday after being wounded during an anti-drugs op in the countryside near Marsala in Sicily Tuesday. President Sergio Mattarella voiced his firm condemnation of a "brutal ambush that deprives the Carabinieri corps of a brave and exemplary servant of the State". Mattarella sent his condolences to the Carabinieri's high command asking them to pass on his sympathy to Mirarchi's family on behalf of the Italian people.

Premier Matteo Renzi called Carabinieri National Commander Tullio Del Sette to convey the government's sympathies to the corps and to the slain officer's family.

Mirarchi was reportedly undercover on a stakeout with a fellow officer in an area where a man had been shot and wounded while trying to steal plants from a marijuana plantation, and where the body of a Romanian national who had died under suspicious circumstances was discovered shortly after.


Tourism Ministers from the APEC member economies issued a declaration following their just concluded meeting in Lima on connecting Asia-Pacific tourism through travel facilitation.

The declaration reflects the outcomes of the APEC Tourism Ministerial Meeting chaired by Magali Silva Velarde-Alvarez, Perus Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism. It describes joint actions to be taken forward by APEC economies to further enhance economic development through travel and tourism in the APEC region.

Click here to view APEC Tourism Ministers Lima Declaration

The declaration notes that in 2015, travel and tourism accounted for USD 1.2 trillion of the region's GDP, supported 48 million jobs directly and contributed 5.5 per cent of the regions exports, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. It furthermore indicates that every ten per cent increase in tourist arrivals is associated with a 1.2 per cent increase in exports and a 0.8 per cent increase in imports, reflecting APEC Policy Support Unit industry analysis.

The declaration highlights that tourism is fundamental for inclusive growth when making responsible use of the environment, respecting host communities authenticity and equitably distributing socio-economic benefits.

Emphasis is on fostering efficient and secure travel that could greatly help APEC economies achieve their shared target of 800 million international tourists among them by 2025. This would double their current international tourist numbers.

The Declaration we have jointly adopted will guide the continued expansion and competitiveness of tourism in the region so that it offers even greater benefits to our economies, explained Minister Silva, in remarks after the meeting.

Our ultimate goal is to further position tourism as a driver of economic, human, social and cultural growth for our people, she noted, pointing to Perus historic capital city and gastronomic center as an example of the richness that the region offers visitors.

Particular areas of focus include enhancing international and domestic air connectivity, implementing travel facilitating measures, development of labor skills and workforce programs, small business and entrepreneurship development for inclusive tourism growth, and close collaboration with the private sector and academia.

# # #

For additional information, or to arrange possible media interviews with APEC officials, please contact:

David Hendrickson +65 9137 3886 at [email protected]

Michael Chapnick +65 9647 4847 at [email protected]

More on APEC meetings, events, projects and publications can be found on www.apec.org. You can also follow APEC on Twitter and join us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
The two satellites will provide television, internet, telephone and secure communications across the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Lockheed Martin completed the Critical Design Review of the satellite and subsystems, to assess that they meet technical specifications. The team will now move into the production process now the review is complete.

Were already producing important components for the satellites including antenna reflectors, panels and the core structure, and are excited to continue manufacturing these important satellites, said Carl Marchetto, vice president and general manager of Commercial Space, Lockheed Martin.

Arabsat 6A will be located at 30.5 degrees east and Hellas-Sat-4/SaudiGeoSat-1 will be located at 39 degrees east, with both designed for a 15-year service life.
National Archives Presents a Discussion of -Memorials For the Future- on June 8

Press Release 

Washington, DC

Ideas competition finalists to be announced

On Wednesday, June 8, 2016, at 7 p.m., the National Archives presents an expert panel discussing Memorials for the Future: Designing a Memorial for the 21st Century. The program is free and open to the public, reserve your seat online or watch a live stream on the National Archives YouTube channel

The program is presented in partnership with the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service, and the Van Alen Institute.

Memorials for the Future: Designing a Memorial for the 21st Century

Washington, DC, offers a rich commemorative landscape filled with monuments that evoke a sense of national heritage and identity. But how might we develop and experience the next centurys memorials, telling more of Americas stories?

Tonight, an expert panel moderated by Jason Schupbach, director of design programs at the National Endowment for the Arts, discusses these topics and the relationship of commemoration to memory, identity, and place-making in the nations capital. Panelists include Edward T. Linenthal, history professor at the University of Indiana; Brent Leggs, a preservation division senior field officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and artist Janet Echelman.

Before the discussion, David van der Leer, executive director of Van Alen Institute, will announce the three finalist teams for the Memorials for the Future ideas competition.

The program will be held in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum. The National Archives Building is located at Constitution Ave. and 7th Street, NW. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station. Attendees should enter through the Special Events entrance on 7th and Constitution Ave, NW.

# # #

For press information contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.

Connect with the National Archives on:

Twitter: @USNatArchives

Facebook: USNationalArchives

Tumblr: http://usnatarchives.tumblr.com

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June 10 National Archives Screens New Documentary on Vietnam POW Jeremiah Denton

Press Release 

Washington, DC

Post-screening discussion features Jeremiah Dentons son and filmmakers

Friday, June 10, at noon, the National Archives will screen the new documentary, Jeremiah (2016; 60 minutes), followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and Jeremiah Dentons son. The program is free and open to the public, reserve your seat online.

Jeremiah

On July 18, 1965, U.S. Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton took off from the aircraft carrier USS Independence to lead a 28-plane mission over the city of Thanh Hoa in North Vietnam. Dentons plane was hit by antiaircraft fire, and for the next eight years, he was a prisoner of war in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. In the new documentary film Jeremiah, family, friends, and fellow POWs help tell the story of this American hero who led the way for prisoners in Hanoi and returned from Vietnam to become a U.S. Senator from Alabama.

Following the screening, filmmakers Mark Fastoso and Luis Blandon, along with James S. Denton, son of Jeremiah Denton and editor of World Affairs, will discuss the film and answer audience questions.

The program will be held in the William G. McGowan Theater of the National Archives Museum. The National Archives Building is located at Constitution Ave. and 7th Street, NW. Metro accessible on the Yellow and Green lines, Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter station. Attendees should enter through the Special Events entrance on 7th and Constitution Ave, NW.

# # #

For press information contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.

Connect with the National Archives on:

Twitter: @USNatArchives

Facebook: USNationalArchives

Tumblr: http://usnatarchives.tumblr.com

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Le CBD, cette molecule active du cannabis a aujourdhui le vent en poupe. Et cela est en grande partie du au fait quil permet...
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. European Union states held off agreeing to ease travel rules for Georgia on June 1, and Turkey, Ukraine and Kosovo should also expect more delays in visa waiving as the bloc turns more cautious amid immigration fears, EU delegation sources said, reports Reuters.

The EU is already making it easier to suspend visa-free travel before it grants such right to more states, most notably Turkey, whose help it needs to control immigration after some 1.3 million people reached Europe last year.

EU envoys in Brussels discussed a similar deal for Georgia again on Wednesday but there was no decision, with Germany and France among countries opposed, diplomats said.

"We don't want to stop the whole process. We just want to be more cautious," said a diplomat from one EU state that on June 1 opposed granting visa-free travel to Georgia.

They may return to the issue next week, before holding their first discussion on the more controversial case of Ukraine.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. OPEC will stick to its policy of unfettered oil production after members failed to agree on a new output ceiling. Crude extended its decline in London.

The meeting didnt produce a supply accord but did reach consensus on appointing Nigerias candidate as new secretary-general, Sudirman Said, Indonesias energy minister, said in Vienna. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, had previously discussed restoring a production target scrapped in December, according to delegates familiar with the matter, Armenpress reports, citing Bloomberg.

Oil has rallied about 80 percent from the 12-year low reached in January as depressed prices take their toll on supplies. That suggests the Saudi-led decision in 2014 to maintain output amid a global glut is finally paying off, with higher-cost producers cutting back. While Saudi Arabia had shown willingness to mend divisions Thursday with cash-strapped members demanding a new group ceiling, Iran said it would only support individual country quotas that would be difficult to agree in a single meeting.

Iran has rejected any cap on production as it restores output following the removal of sanctions in January. The countrys refusal to participate in a production freeze proposed earlier this year prompted Saudi Arabia to block a deal between OPEC and Russia in April.

Although OPEC regularly ignores its own output targets and there was no suggestion anyone would cut production, even a token gesture could have showed renewed unity and boosted prices. Brent crude dropped 61 cents to $49.11 a barrel at 2:22 p.m. in London.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The international media widely covered the issue of adopting the resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide by German Bundestag. German Parliament Declares Armenian Deaths a Genocide, Angering Turkey  this is the headline of New York Times. The German Parliament overwhelmingly adopted a symbolic but fraught resolution on Thursday declaring the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide, escalating tensions with Turkey at a diplomatically delicate juncture. Germany needs Turkeys help in following through on a deal with the European Union to manage the refugee crisis arising in large part from the Syrian civil war, but at the same time, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been under pressure not to be seen as caving to outside pressure. Her Christian Democratic Union and its coalition partners supported the resolution, Armenpress reports New York Times wrote.

According to BBC, German MPs recognize Armenian Genocide amid Turkish fury. The vote heightened German-Turkish tensions at a time when Turkey's help is needed to stem the flow of migrants. The resolution uses the word "genocide" in the headline and text. It also says Germany - at the time an ally of the Ottomans - bears some guilt for doing nothing to stop the killings, BBC writes. It also touches the issue of German-Turkish relations which were also strained this year by the case of comedian Jan Boehmermann, whose obscene poem about Mr Erdogan prompted a criminal complaint from the Turkish leader.

The Washington Post also emphasizes the refugee factor. The German Parliament recognized the Armenian "genocide" on Thursday, drawing harsh criticism from the Turkish government. Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Germany "for consultations" after the parliamentary vote. The massacres and deportations of 1 million to 1.5 million Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 has been described as a genocide by more than 20 nations, including Germany's neighbor France. Although Germany is neither the first nor the only country to oppose Turkey's assessment on that matter, the decision could have far-reaching consequences. Europe recently negotiated a refugee deal with Turkey that has helped reduce the influx of migrants. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was credited for having been the driving force behind that deal. Hence, damages to Turkish-German relations could come at a political cost for Merkel and much of Europe, The Washington Post writes.

Reuters has also touched upon the resolution writing Germany sparks Turkish outcry with Armenian genocide vote. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Germany on Thursday in protest against a parliament resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a "genocide" at a time when Europe is looking for Ankara's help in the migrant crisis. It also acknowledges that the German Empire, then a military ally of the Ottomans, did nothing to stop the killings. The timing could not be worse for Merkel, who is relying on the success of an EU-Turkey deal she has championed to stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for cash, visa-free travel rights and accelerated talks on EU membership, Reuters writes.

The Independent-, Euronews, Financial Times, Time, Times of Israel, USA Today, and almost all German news agencies have referred to the topic.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Alexander Kudascheff, editor-in-chief of Deutsche Welle, has referred to the adoption of the resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian genocide by the Bundestag. Armenpress reports, citing Deutsche Welle, Kudascheff noted that there's nothing wrong with parliamentarians approving a symbolic motion to label the genocide of the Armenian people a genocide. But he wants to understand why the German parliament did that, and what the reason was.

Understanding that these mass killings were genocide, and accepting that this genocide is part of your history, is something with which the Turks have to come to grips. They have to face up to their past. They're the ones who should have Franz Werfel's poignant novel about the ordeal the Armenian people suffered during World War I, "The 40 Days of Musa Dagh," translated into Turkish. They should make the book mandatory reading in schools, Kudascheff wrote.

He added that the Turks must face their past and the German parliament is not the one that should do it for them. Germany may be something of a role model for others when it comes to facing up to its own past, the author says.

The editor-in-chief of the DW mentions that the German parliamentary resolution is a morally honorable gesture, as was that of the French National Assembly a few years ago.
Last month, the EUYO announced that it would close this summer after EU funding was withdrawn. Weeks of protests followed, and on Tuesday it was revealed that President Jean-Claude Juncker had asked commissioners to find immediate solutions that can be sustainable.'
The advice pack  put together by Index on Censorship and Arts Council England  hopes to create a more cohesive approach to policing across different forces, with an emphasis on avoiding censorship. Its publication follows protests in recent years against performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Barbican Centre, which resulted in the cancellation of both shows.
All the latest Ashbourne news. Ashbourne is an historic market town in Derbyshire. Situated on the southern edge of the Peak District, it is known as the 'Gateway to Dovedale' and the 'Gateway to the Peak District'. Ashbourne is famous for the annual Royal Shrovetide Football Match, which has been played since at least 1667, although its origins may date back centuries earlier. Ashbourne became a Fairtrade town in March 2005. The popular Tissington Trail, which follows the route of the former Ashbourne to Buxton railway, starts on the edge of town. Keep up to date with the latest news from the town by signing up for our newsletter.
by Nirmala Carvalho

The 100th edition of Germanys Catholics Day was held between 25 and 29 May in Leipzig. Some 30,000 people took part in the event, plus 15,000 visitors. Only 4 per cent of the eastern German city is Catholic; 12 per cent is Protestant. The others are non-believers or indifferent. The gathering included well organised prayers, exhibits, discussions, and conferences.

Mumbai (AsiaNews)  Katholikentag (Catholics Day) "was a success. There were adults and children everywhere, no division between lay people and the Church hierarchy. We had music, debates, exhibitions, and prayers. It was a real spiritual feast that attracted Protestants and non-believers who participated with enthusiasm, said Mgr Felix Machado, archbishop of Vasai.

The prelate, who also chairs the Office for Interreligious Dialogue of the Federation of Asian (Catholic) Bishops' Conferences (FABC), spoke to AsiaNews about his visit to Leipzig for this traditional gathering of German Catholics, which marked its 100th edition this year. During his stay, he spoke on interreligious dialogue and mission of the Church".

"Here I felt at home, Archbishop Machado said, because I was one baptised person like anyone else. I felt strengthened and elevated in my faith. It was like feeling the pulse of the Church in Germany, a still very healthy Church, struggling towards perfection."

Catholics Day was actually held between 25 and 29 May, ending in a Eucharistic celebration led by Card Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Monaco and Freising and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Germany (Deutsche Bischofskonferenz, DBK).

This year was the 100th edition of the biannual event, which alternates with the Protestant Kirchentag (Church Day). The first gathering was held in 1848 in Mainz, western Germany.

The Central Committee of German Catholics (Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken, ZdK), a lay body, has organised the event since 1922 following a dispute between the cardinal of Munich and the mayor of Cologne.

The year 1968 was an important year, marked by student protests worldwide, Mgr Machado said. The event took place in Essen and a huge number of students attended. They spoke directly to Church leaders. Since then, diocesan synods became common.

Around 1990, after German unification, "the Catholic Church committed itself more forcefully to ecumenical dialogue and in 2003 there was the first joint Katholikentag and Kirchentag.

Leipzig was chosen because it was the historic bastion of the Protestant Reformation. From here, Martin Luthers schism began. For this reason, the participation of so many faithful is important. Catholics represent 4 per cent of the population here. Protestants are 12 per cent. Some 83 per cent are non-believers or indifferent to religion.

Katholikentag included meetings and debates in every corner of the city, Mgr Machado said, and going from one venue to another was easy because participants had a pass that allowed them to take public transit. Everything was organised efficiently. Each conference had simultaneous translation. One could also choose from a long list of activities."

For the Indian prelate, the meetings "were an opportunity to learn about the Church from within. Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious, lay men and women, everyone worked, laughed, discussed and walked together. It was also impressive to see so many non-Catholics, Protestants or unbelievers, happy to participate. It was enlightening to witness the great love for the Catholic Church in Germany.
by Nirmala Carvalho

Panaji (AsiaNews) - In exchange for the collection of a kilo of dry waste, the gift of a kilo of sugar, this is the latest initiative proposed by John Douglas Coutinho, an environmentalist who lives in Chandor, in Salcete administrative division (in the State of Goa). For years he is has been committed to sustainable development in his city, because "it is the urgent need of our time, the biggest concern for the future of nature and the common good".



Thanks to his tireless activism, with the passing of the years John has earned the praise of the administration of his district. In late April he was awarded a prize by Goa Pollution Control Board. Six years ago, the man founded the NGO Ganv Bhavancho Ekvott (GbE), to clean waste from the district. Speaking to AsiaNews he says: "Todays greatest evil is the lack of interest. We attempt to secure our future through a consumer society, but this way there will be no 'environment or nature' for people to enjoy. "



John channels half of his earnings into protecting the environment and the human person. He donated 300 thousand rupees of personal funds [4 thousand euro, ed] to renovating a center for the care of the children of his village. The structure was unsafe, infested by rats and without toilets. Thus reduced, it housed only two children. He completely restored the structure and now it is a welcoming and safe place for mothers and children (around 16), equipped with electricity and fans.



He then thought of how to keep mothers accompanying children at the center busy and so decided to hire teachers and create tailoring, sewing and embroidery classes. The tailoring course lasts six months, after which they are awarded a certificate of participation, but only if they meet two conditions: Attendance of at least 80% of the classes and passing the final exam.



The activist was also instrumental in renewing and modernizing the Chandor club, for village meetings. The Chandor Club was open for 20 years but was in decay and abandonment. John urged residents to cooperate and collected 7.7 million rupees [over 102 thousand euro], used for the construction of a swimming pool, a gym, a recreation room with a pool table. The money was spent on the creation of a badminton court, a bar and restaurant.



What began with just two employees who were collecting waste door to door with bicycles, today GbE employs 100 people, half of them volunteers. They all work together to solve problems related to the environment, , air pollution, clean water, infrastructure, education and healthcare. They are also active in the social sphere, visiting the elderly, making company for the lonely, teaching citizens not to litter.



John believes that his contribution "should transcend social, economic and religious barriers. At the center of human rights is the belief that everyone should be treated with dignity and as equals. More importantly: we have only one world. We can develop bigger plans in the world, but if we do not care for creation we will not have an environment to enjoy. We are destroying nature, which is a precious gift, and of which we are mere custodians. "
by Pierre Balanian

Human rights, visas, and migrants are becoming a wedge between Ankara and Brussels. Tomorrow the German Parliament is set to vote on the Armenian genocide. At home, Erdogan is tightening his grip on power, going after followers of exiled leader Fethullah Gulen. His goal is to establish a "presidential regime" by eliminating all critical voices.

Istanbul (AsiaNews)  Tensions between Turkey and the European Union are escalating. In Brussels, EU authorities are increasingly irritated and embarrassed by Turkish President Erdogans authoritarian drift at a time when they have to deal with him over the migrant issue.

For weeks, Europe and Turkey have been engaged in tug-of-war. Ankara wants free movement for its citizens in Europe, but has not fulfilled its part of the bargain, pushing the European parliament to delay ratification of the agreement. In return, Erdogan has threatened to tear up the migrant agreement to flood the Greek coast with refugees.

Increasingly, the EU is also concerned by Erdogans tightening grip on the Turkish state, Turkeys human rights violations, and the lifting of parliamentary immunity on some lawmakers who are critical of the president.

Tomorrow, the clash could get uglier, as the German parliament is set to recognise the mass slaughter of Armenians in 1915 as a genocide. So far 20 countries, including Russia and France, have recognised the genocide. The Bundestags decision could create an insurmountable wedge between Berlin and Ankara, as well as between Turkey and Europe.

Despite Europes call on Turkey to "review" its anti-terrorism laws before lifting entry visas on Turkish nationals, Ankara is going in the opposite direction.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pursuing a scorched earth policy to strengthen its absolute power and is using the countrys anti-terrorism laws to go after his opponents rather than use the traditional means of any democracy in the world. The goal is to eliminate political rivals not through the ballot box, but in the courtrooms.

Erdogan s steady march has been inexorable, made of small steps but all leading to the same objective: change the Constitution to become the first head of state in his "presidential system" without any important protester around.

The first step was to reshape the judiciary through the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors by sending "into exile" prominent independent judges, reassigned to smaller courts, often in remote places of Anatolia, without much impact on the country, replaced by trustworthy judges opposed to the exiled billionaire Fethullah Gulen, who had paid for the exiled judges studies.

Since he failed to hide behind a moderate Islamic facade  as if one could ever call the Muslim Brotherhood moderate  to win over Gulens followers and the Kurds in opposition to Turkeys military, Erdogan has turned his back on them and has allied himself with the military. The latter is very sensitive to the anti-terrorism struggle and the "Turkification of all citizens". The military know that terrorism is the "magic word" to unlock the doors to further advancement in their careers.

After succeeding at home and abroad in depicting the fight of the Kurdish people as nothing but terrorism and the PKK as a terrorist organisation, as well as getting the parliamentary immunity of critical lawmakers, especially if they are Kurds, lifted, Erdogan is now preparing to use the same weapon against the Fethullah Gulen movement.

The billionaire, once Erdogans Pygmalion, close to the FBI and the CIA, is now living in exile in Philadelphia, US, but still maintains a strong influence on Turkish communities around the world, especially in Europe and the United States, as well as within Turkey in some key areas.

Turkeys National Security Council (Milli Guvenlik Konseyi, MGK), chaired by Erdogan, has decided to qualify the Gulen movement as "terrorist group on par with the PKK", and sent the request to the Turkish cabinet, as the president said.

Reacting to this, Turkish law professor Izzet Ozgenc and co-author of the countrys 2004 Penal Code, said on his Twitter account that "the existence of a terrorist group cannot be established by the Council of Ministers."

Hizmet, a religious and social movement connected to Turkish Islamic scholar and preacher Fethullah Gulen, has become Erdogan s bete noire following a series of corruption cases in 2003.

Many of the prosecutors involved in the nationwide judicial investigation into corruption had completed their education thanks to scholarships from Gulen. This led Erdogan to believe that Gulen sympathisers in the judiciary and in law enforcement were out to get him.

Erdogans power at home has been shaken by a series of foreign policy reversals, especially in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon and Egypt at a time when he has been working at eliminating all forms of domestic political, military and judicial opposition.

Yet, Turkeys strong influence on the international press has helped hide its horrendous crimes, perpetrated on a daily basis, against Kurdish civilians in a war that has fallen below the radar, whose censured images are reminiscent of what is happening in Syria.

For Erdogan, it is double or nothing, and everything is fair game. The latest move took place at Hagia Sophia a couple of days ago, where the president played the chords of imperial nostalgia, highlighting the Sublime Portes triumph over the West, symbolised by the taking of the basilica of Saint Sophia,

So far, 700 are civilians, ordinary supporters of Gulen, were arrested and detained across the country, and are awaiting trial. Police have raided Hizmet-linked organisations, and journalists close to the movement have been subjected to constant intimidation.

The most extreme case involves journalist Can Dundar, chief editor of the opposition Cumhuriyet (The Republic) newspaper, and Erdem Gul, Cumhuriyet s Ankara bureau chief. Both are set to go on trial after their newspaper published footage showing State Intelligence officials sending weapons to Islamist fighters in Syria.

"The current situation is worse than that of February 28," said Mahmut Tanal, a human rights lawyer and Member of the Turkish parliament for the Republican Peoples Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP).

The date Tanal refers to is 28 February 1997, when the National Security Council forced then Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan to shut down religious schools. At the time, both Erdogan and Gulen were among the victims of these "Kemalist" measures.

Now one can expect that Hizmets name will be added to the secret Red Book, Turkeys concealed constitution, the National Security Policy Document first drafted in 1972 for undercover operations against potential, real or imagined, enemies, like Russia, Armenia, Greece, Syria, Iran and others.

In the book, threats from Islamist groups led the military to make a clean sweep in 1997. So far, events in Turkey continue to evolve in favour of Erdogan.
Alabama Teacher Disciplined Over Math Quiz That Featured Hos, Pimps And Crack Use

Trending News: If You Want To Be A Drug Dealer Or Prostitue, This Math Class Is For You

Why Is This Important?

Because its unbelievable this teacher exists in a universe where this could possibly be OK.

Long Story Short

A teacher in Alabama handed out a math quiz to her eighth grade class that featured questions that were openly racist and relied on drug and sex themes. The teacher has been suspended.

Long Story

How are you at solving math problems?

Dwayne pimps 3 hos [sic]. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwaynes $800 per day crack habit?

How about this one? Tyrone knocked up 4 girls in his gang. There are 20 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage of girls Tyrone knocked up?

The subjects in every other question in a quiz handed out by a middle school teacher in Alabama had names like Pedro, Juan, LaSaunda and Leroy. The questions asked students to solve problems that featured guns, drugs, murder, theft and drug dealing.

Hilarious, right? But after one student took a photo of the quiz and texted it to his mom, the joke ended real fast.

I couldnt believe it, Erica Hall told a local TV station. The teacher told them that it wasnt a joke, and they had to complete it, and turn it in.

The test is one version of the LA Math Test or the City of Los Angeles High School Math Proficiency Exam, a gag thats been circulating online since the early 1990s, perhaps even longer, according to Snopes.com. Several stupid teachers and cops have run into serious trouble for sharing it over the years.

After parents complained, the teacher, identified as Joanne Bolser, was placed on administrative leave.

RELATED: How To Get A Girl's Phone Number Using Math

We regret that this happened so close to the end of the school year, today was the last day of school, a school official told the Mobile NBC affiliate. The vast majority of [our teachers] are doing an outstanding job. So it's unfortunate that this news is overshadowing the work that they're doing every day.

Bolser was set to retire at the end of the month. It is unclear if she is appealing the suspension.

Own The Conversation

Ask The Big Question: Are you really surprised this happened in Alabama?

Disrupt Your Feed: I like a DGAF quitting story as much as the next guy, but this was really overboard.

Drop This Fact: Alabama typically scores fairly low in national education rankings. Last year it ranked 45th in the country, according to an Education Week survey.
Female lawyers who want to return to the profession after an extended career break will be given extra help due to a new partnership. Herbert Smith Freehills has partnered with OnRamp, an organization which identifies experienced female lawyers who wish to return to work and matches them with vacancies within the legal profession.HSF has become the first international law firm to launch the OnRamp Fellowship in Australia and the UK. Sue Gilchrist , the firms regional managing partner for Asia and Australia commented that its also an additional way for the firm to think innovatively about how to identify high quality talent and future female leaders of the firm.OnRamp launched two years ago in the US where it now has 30 participating law firms and has extended into in-house teams.A team from Norton Rose Fulbright hosted a meeting with representatives from the financial technology industry this week, in conjunction with the NSW government.The FinTech delegates from New York and California visited the state, which sees the sector as a priority due to its proven capabilities in financial services and technology, as well as its ongoing role as a gateway to Asia.The gathering of legal, financial services and technology industry specialists was held at Norton Rose Fulbrights offices in Sydney.The corporate practice of DLA Piper in China has been boosted by the addition of two new partners. Qiang Li (LQ) and Stewart Wang have joined as partners in the Shanghai office from O'Melveny & Myers. LQ will also undertake the role of co-managing partner of the mainland China offices, alongside Roy Chan who is currently managing partner for Shanghai.Tadao Horibe has joined Morgan Lewis in Japan as an investment management partner in Tokyo. He is a Japan-qualified Bengoshi lawyer with more than 20 years of legal experience at global and Japanese law firms. His practice focuses on regulatory advice to financial institutions and corporate and business and real estate transactions.
A new head of innovation role will be co-led by Sydney-based Jamie Ng, along with Mike Polson, who is based in Glasgow, both responsible for ensuring the firm is at the forefront of industry change.Having a global management structure and team that helps drive forward greater entrepreneurialism and innovation and decisive delivery on strategy is key, Jenkins said.Jenkins, who took the reins from outgoing London partner James Collis yesterday, has made appointments to the firms three global divisions.Robert Ogilvy Watson in London and Perth-based Geoff Gishubl, who was previously in the role, will now head up the firms corporate division; James Marshall in Sydney will head up the finance division with London-based Helen Burton; and Simon Bromwich will continue in this role as head of the disputes division.The management structure and team we have in place will ensure that we operate as effectively and efficiently as possible at a global level, Jenkins said.It is essential for our future success to have a high performance team, working collaboratively and all focused on the key drivers of the business and fully accountable for the delivery of results.London-based Logan Mair has been appointed head of clients, responsible for the global client and industry strategy.I am confident that the leadership team we have in place will help us achieve that and maximise all opportunities for our people and our clients, Jenkins said.Jenkins will split his time between Sydney, London and travelling between the firms other offices.
Eighty-one per cent of respondents said they either strongly agreed or agreed with the statement: 'In Australia, anyone who encounters a serious legal issue, but cannot afford a lawyer, should be able to rely on legal representation being provided through legal aid.The Law Council of Australia , through the campaign Legal Aid Matters, is looking to draw attention to the lack of funding for legal aid in the lead up to the July election.President Stuart Clark AM said parties need to reassess their priorities in the wake of these new survey results.This election, we need all political parties to support the eight-of-ten Australias who rightly believe that legal aid should be there for them if they need it, he said.Its well known that Australians believe passionately in the right to a Medicare safety net. This data clearly shows that we strongly believe in a legal safety net as well.Currently, only 8% of people qualify for legal aid under the current means test, introduced as a result of funding cuts.Unfortunately, legal aid funding is so scarce that even if youre living below the poverty line, youre unlikely to qualify. People are being forced to represent themselves in court and its destroying lives.The campaign calls for the federal government to inject the $350m into legal aid to end the funding crisis, as recommended in the Productivity Commission report two years ago.The legal profession has made the access to justice case. The Productivity Commission has made the economic case. And now the public has made the popular case, Mr Clark said.Access to justice is a basic human right and it is one that Australians rightly feel entitled to. Legal representation should not be exclusively for those wealthy enough to afford it. We know that due to the cuts, around 10,000 people per year are being forced to front the courts alone.
By Mike Johnstone, Security Researcher, Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering, Edith Cowan University

Flickr/alexljackson, CC BY-NC

In cyberspace we are facing password fatigue, caused by having to recall (seemingly) endless streams of (apparently) unrelated numbers and letters at odd times.

One answer is to make those passwords longer and more incomprehensible. The logic here is that people have an unlimited capacity to remember such things, or perhaps they have an unquenchable desire to write passwords on yellow post-it notes.

Why do we want or need passwords at all? We want to be assured that only the right people (ourselves) have access to the information contained in the systems we use. Witness the after-effects of the Ashley Madison hack.

So many passwords

Privacy is a basic human right and one that many people take seriously. Authenticating to many systems is something most of us do without thinking every day. Unfortunately, those systems often have different rules about what is considered a good or acceptable password.

The need to remember competes with the requirement for security leading people to devise memorable (to them) schemes for passwords that they think are unique and unguessable.

For example, if I have to access 12 systems, I might use the months of the year, coupled with my birth date and rotate combinations around. At face value, this appears a clever scheme because no-one else knows my birth date.

Except of course for several government agencies, health service providers, an insurance company or three, some social media systems (which might have been hacked recently) and anyone else with whom those bodies share information. Of course, then there are my family and friends with whom I like to celebrate my birthday each year.

I could use the dogs name instead. No one is aware of that. Except of course for the local vet, anyone who hears me yelling at the dog down the local street, my legions of Facebook friends and so on.

Coming up with so many different and apparently secure passwords that you can remember can be tricky, despite the many tips and guides, hence the password fatigue.

One potential solution is a single sign-on for many systems (into one, into all)  an idea which is interesting, but also has its own issues.

A different approach

To quote from Led Zeppelins Stairway to Heaven: Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, theres still time to change the road youre on.

One path is systematic, based on the idea that if small passwords are bad, the answer is larger, more complex passwords. For example, Microsoft now says it wants to compile a list of what it calls dumb passwords that will not be allowed on its system.

That dumb passwords are a problem is undeniable, as the online security company SplashData gleefully publishes its annual list of the most common passwords, where password and 123456 are, ahem, quite high in the list. This shows people choose convenience over security when it comes to setting a password (but they still want privacy).

The systematic response is that users are constantly being asked to set more complex passwords with upper, lower case, numbers, symbols etc., to the point we get password fatigue. Asking us to keep changing passwords just encourages minor or incremental changes to the same supposedly unguessable passwords, something even Britains intelligence agency GCHQ recognises is a problem.

This mode of thinking works well for some problems, but the whole idea is rendered moot when anyone can easily download a lists of millions of the most common passwords.

Yes, 123456 can be cracked in a fraction of a second, but a random 15 character password could be cracked in less than a week using relatively inexpensive hardware. It all depends on the time value of information. Your bank account will still be there in seven days (the funds remaining therein are a different matter).

Think again

Do we need to re-think the whole system? The other path is a systemic approach. This uses the concept that components of systems are connected in ways that are not immediately obvious.

An example of a systemic effect, that could not have been predicted directly, is where Cornell Universitys associate professor Garrick Blalock and his colleagues found that driving fatalities in the United States increased significantly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The reason? People chose to travel by car in place of aircraft, the former being much more dangerous.

So what might a systemic solution to password fatigue look like? If longer passwords are not the answer, but we still need to authenticate ourselves, why not dispense with passwords altogether?

When we provide a credential, it is one (or more) of something we know (a password), something we have (a card) or something we are (some physical property of ourselves).

It is this latter idea that is most attractive. A biometric signature  such as your iris, retina, thumbprint or voice print  means not needing to remember anything, not having to bring an access card. You just be yourself and some property of you will identify you. Such a system would be very hard for any cyber criminal to replicate or hack.

At present, biometric solutions are expensive (compared to other technology) and imperfect (they get it wrong more than we would like), but the future would be nicer if you could phone your bank account and be authenticated by your voice print.

You could then simply ask to transfer X dollars to the travel agent for a holiday and book a rental car, all at the same time, without having to remember three separate passwords (or you could just talk to a real person).

Mike Johnstone received funding from the European Union for a recent project on Authentication and Authorisation systems.

Originally published in The Conversation.
Hey guys!



Once you get accepted for a PMV and get married what visa follows the PMV? How much money will the next visa be? If it's going to be expensive I want to make sure we have those funds put away so we don't have to worry about saving for another visa while getting our lives started in Australia!



Thank you!
Hi Skyblue6,



At the end of the day, although finances do carry alot of weight, it is just one of the 4 major categories that you need to satisfy.



Other things such as how you met, how intend to split your duties at home, your emotional dependence on each other and your future plans all carry alot of weight.



A big part of this is how you show immigration the genuineness of your relationship. Each couple, whether married or de facto, has a very different relationship, hence how they answer the 4 major categories will also be different.



So don't feel too stressed that your answer isn't the same as someone else's. If in doubt, please consult a Registered Migration Agent for further advice.
he Honda engineers have made this bikes appearance very sleek, compare to other bikes which are in the market.
The styling of the new model will be strictly based on the Megane IV, just like the Clio 3 facelift was based on its bigger brother at that time. It's a highly controversial move, as the Megane 4 hasn't won any major awards yet. But, all signs point to this being the coolest compact hatch of 2016.The Clio IV facelift will undoubtedly be revealed before the Paris Motor Show, which is this fall. We believe the prototypes are in the advanced stages of development and production will start as early as November and December.We mention that because Renault is notorious for creating a wide spread between the moment of the reveal and that of the launch. Just to give you an example, the Megane is now making its UK debut after being presented in the fall of 2015.Regardless of that, let's focus on the changes. The fine folks at Virtuel Car have grafted the latest styling elements onto the Clio. We've seen these in the spy photo galleries and, a few months ago, in a leak of the headlights. We are confident that this is pretty much what it will look like from the front, but nobody knows what to expect at the other end. Maybe Renault will copy the Megane's extra-wide taillights that connect in the middle.Likewise, we don't know what's happening under the hood. The Clio was the first car to get a downsized 0.9-liter TCe turbo engine, which was a highly controversial decision. We still don't think it's the right unit for the job, especially as achieving the claimed fuel consumption is impossible. But there are several new technologies that could make this and other Clio engines cleaner.The pinnacle will be a mild hybrid version of the 1.5-liter turbodiesel. Of course, we can't expect too much, as the subcompact segment remains an unprofitable one.
Not only did the parking spots have pink paint around them and a drawing o a woman wearing a dress/skirt, but they are about 1.5 times wider than regular ones. The new parking spaces are reportedly present since March, when they were introduced on highway service areas.According to Xinhuanet , a website from China that published images of the new spots, these new spots are a convenience feature, not a sexist measure. Sina Weibo, a popular social media site in China, had many users that did not agree on this, as its users were outraged at the bigotry shown by local authorities.As one of their users said, this measure is sexist because it shows concern based on gender that someone could not park in a regular spot.The bigotry is heightened by the pink paint used to signal the place, as well as the figure that shows a person wearing a skirt or dress of some sort.At this point, some of you are wondering what alternative would the city of Hangzhou have had to this problem, of people with poor parking skills? Easy - make the same kind of parking space in size, but remove a gender designation from it, as well as the pink paint. Instead of the two sexist elements, the authorities could have just labeled the eight parking spaces as newbie drivers, an entirely acceptable term for people who are not as good at parking as they should be to fit their cars into regular spaces.China is not the only country to have implemented female-only parking spots which that with sexist designation and possibly pink paint. The country is joined by South Korean capital Seoul, and some areas in Germany. However, the German parking spots come with a less-sexist approach, as cities oblige companies to have woman-only parking areas by law as 30% of the total number of available spaces.Instead of just making them wider and painting female figures on them with pink, Germany placed female parking spots in well-lit areas, and located them closer to lively streets or buildings, to help prevent potential attacks against women. Moreover, that is not sexist, it is sensible, as this kind of attack happens more often that you would think. So, China, please take note.
Since you are a smart person and value information, you decide to be a little bit paranoid in your purchase process, to avoid falling victim to a scam . As most of you know, the used cars market is full of scammers of all sorts.From the Nigerian scheme, where a fictitious seller has a perfect vehicle at a low price, but lives far away from civilization and asks for money over Western Union or other similar services, to mileage clocking scams are all over the place.It this guide, we are addressing the thorny issue of fake service books for used vehicles. These documents are like poison to your bank account. They look close enough to the real deal, and you might not even make out the difference, and they amplify your trust into a seller that wants to flip a car that has been clocked.In most cases, fake service books often hide a severe case of mileage manipulation, as well as other hidden faults. After all, if the seller wanted to make more money from the flip of the vehicle, why just stop at doctoring the service book and not sell a vehicle that has been repaired in haste to conceal a severe fault.Fake service books work because people tend to trust others, and most humans are not paranoid enough to double-check things like these. From there, all the seller has to do is provide a good story (like they are leaving the country or something) and then praise the vehicle for its level of quality.First of all, you must know how an original service book for a particular brand and car model should look. You will not be able to spot a fake easily or recognize an original if you do not know it.Now, do not get your hopes up on this one, but if you cannot find any proper pictures online, there are still solutions. At this point of the purchase process, you already know which vehicle you are interested in, so you have the option of visiting a dealer from the same carmaker and kindly request to see a service book.The paper used should have a particular kind of grain and print quality. Look for the logo of the brand and how its details are finished. Once you know how an original feels like, you will have an extra shot when a fake one gets in your hands. Search the web for "service book" to see how the $10 replicas look.The seller has kindly provided a VIN for the vehicle you want to buy, and everything else on the car checked out. However, why not get a free and supplementary test? It is easy. Google the VIN, the sellers name, and their phone number. Do not search for all of these together, but separately.If you do not find anything except for the ad, feel free to be suspicious. If the vendor has numerous cars on sale in Google results, check the dates when they were posted, and try to stay away from the car flipper, except if he is an authorized dealer.Ideally, a regular person who is not famous in any field will still have a few results on Google, unless they have changed their phone number. If their name is common in your area, just stick to the VIN and the phone number.In an incredibly lucky scenario, you might find them or their car on a forum. They might ask for recommendations, brag about their new car, or just find the same ad for the car. If they do have a user on the forum, check for their topics and posts, maybe you will find some complaints regarding the vehicle they want to sell. Happy people are not as talkative on forums as those who are dissatisfied with something, so it is worth checking this out.Okay, so the vehicle you have found has a full-service record, and it lists the name of a company. Preferably, it is a specialized dealer for that brand, but an independent service or a company specialized in a particular kind of car will do. Do not just settle for reading the stamps and looking at the dates of maintenance intervals.Google the dealers name and try to find out if it is still in business, and if there are any complaints about them. Call them, be nice, and ask if the vehicle you want to buy was serviced by them. Check to see if the dates on the book match those in their records. If a long time has passed since the last recorded service, the mileage shown might be inaccurate.Some dealers might not disclose this kind of information over the phone so that a visit might be necessary . It will cost you some money, but it is still better than getting scammed with a car that has had its mileage manipulated. You were going to check it at a service unit anyway, right?If the owner of a car was careful enough to keep its maintenance records, it is probable he also has some receipts or bills to go with them. While the service book might be faked, nobody takes the time to print fake receipts or invoices.Plus, if the owner has a controversial service book and no receipts, it might have been doctored. After all, when things are fishy in the documentation, something might be wrong. We must note that honest car owners sometimes happen to misplace receipts, invoices, or even service books altogether, but they must still have some form of a bill from their period of ownership.Some countries, like the USA, have services like CarFax, where you can get service records for a vehicle using the VIN. These services are usually not free, but they are worth the money if you compare the expense with potential repairs that might be required by the used vehicle that you want to purchase.Once you have convinced yourself that the service book is legitimate, take a look at the dates posted on it. Do you see a pattern? Do the letters or signatures have the same style of handwriting? Has the ink faded in the same way on all of the entries, or are the older ones more faded than the latest?Most mileage scammers prefer to have a maximum of three to four service entries. Depending on the service interval of the vehicle and its advertised mileage, the book you are holding should have more or fewer entries.Calculate the differences in distance from one service entry to the next and check the dates. Can you find an accurate annual mileage for the vehicle? Does it match its age? How many miles has the car been driven since its last repair?Last, but not least, trust your gut. Be skeptical, but polite, and talk to the seller . Ask if they recall any issues between the service intervals and any problems with the vehicle over time. Were there any difficulties with the dealer, have they been overpriced on an item or work? Ask if the vehicle has any particular quirks, and inquire about their experience with the car.If the seller does not seem to know much about the car they have owned for several years, or is hesitant, consider walking away. However, if you feel that the person cannot be trusted, either because of the way the speak, answer, or behave, do not do business with them. It is best to be safe than sorry. Beware of overly attentive sellers, as they might have something to hide as well.
Irvine, Calif.-based True Zero is on track to build 19 hydrogen stations in California by early 2017 to support fuel-cell vehicles such as the Toyota Mirai and Honda Clarity Fuel Cell.

The company, which was founded by former General Motors and Hyndai marketing executive Joel Ewanick, told Automotive News. True Zero is the consumer-facing brand owned by FirstElement Fuel.

FirstElement is now operating 13 True Zero station mostly clustered in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas.
A Navy Blue Angels pilot was killed Thursday when his jet crashed inSmyrna, Tennessee.Meanwhile, a USAF Thunderbirds pilot ejected safely from his F-16 after a flyover performance at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. NewsChannel 5 in Nashville identified the Blue Angels pilot asCaptain Jeff Kuss, a member of the team since 2014 and a decorated serviceman. The Navy said all six F-18s were practicing for an upcoming airshow at Smyrnas airport when Kuss jet crashed soon after takeoff about 3 p.m. The other aircraft landed immediately, the station reported. Witnesses in the area captured images of a fireball and black smoke billowing from the ground.

The Thunderbird crashed in an open area near the Air Force academy after the annual graduation ceremony, which was attended by President Barack Obama. The Thunderbirds are saying their pilot, who was flying the No. 6 jet, was unhurt. The mishap occurred around midday Colorado time. The Thunderbirds Web site identifies the No. 6 pilot as Maj. Alex Turner, of Chelmsford, MA. The No. 6 jet is the opposing solo. Turner is an F-16 instructor with more than 270 hours of combat experience in Libya and Iraq.Twitter images show the aircraft lying intact in an open area, reported to be south of the Colorado Springs Airport. Obama, who delivered the commencement address to the Academy graduates, is said to be planning to meet with the pilot. The pilot was taken to hospital for evaluation but early reports said he was seen walking around unhurt after his parachute landing.
In a move welcomed by Armenia but condemned by Turkey, Germanys parliament overwhelmingly passed on Thursday a resolution recognizing the 1915 massacres of some 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

"With one vote against and one abstention, this resolution has been passed by a remarkable majority of the German Bundestag," Norbert Lammert, the speaker of the German lower house of parliament, declared after the vote, according to Reuters.

The resolution was drafted by lawmakers representing the main parliamentary factions, including Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democratic Union (CDU). It says the Armenians' fate exemplified "the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way."

It also acknowledges that the German Empire, then a military ally of the Ottomans, did nothing to stop the killings.

"That we were complicit in this terrible crime does not mean that today we will be complicit in denying it," said Cem Ozdemir, the ethnic Turkish leader of the opposition Green Party and a stronger backer of Armenian genocide recognition.

"Only those who recognize the past can take part in shaping the future," Deutsche Welle quoted Franz Josef Jung, a former German defense minister and a senior CDU lawmaker, as saying. "We want this resolution to revive the process of reconciliation [between Turkey and Armenia]."

Turkeys AK Party responded swiftly to the vote, saying it has "seriously damaged" Turkish-German relations.

Armenia, by contrast, hailed the Bundestag resolution, with Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian praising Germanys valuable contribution to international recognition of the Armenian genocide and global efforts to prevent more crimes against humanity.

In a written statement, Nalbandian also said that the Turkish authorities are continuing to obstinately reject the undeniable fact of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. For 101 years, the international community has been waiting for Turkey to face up to its past, he added.

Although Merkel did not take part in the vote, she did back the genocide resolution in an internal party straw poll earlier this week. She told me this morning that she sides with her parliamentary group, a spokeswoman for the chancellor reportedly said on Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan telephoned Merkel on Tuesday to warn that Germany will seriously damage its diplomatic, economic, trade, political, and military ties with Turkey if it does recognize the Armenian genocide.

The German resolution might also jeopardize the European Unions agreement with Turkey aimed at stemming a massive flow of refugees from the Middle East to Germany and other EU states. Even before the Bundestag vote, the controversial deal hung in the balance due to Turkish demands for visa-free travel to the EU.

German officials hope, however, that the non-binding resolution will not scupper the migrant deal or seriously harm ties between Berlin and Ankara.

"I can't imagine that Turkey, which is currently finding itself isolated in its foreign policies in the face of mounting pressure from IS and the PKK, could afford to sever its ties with Germany - one of its most reliable partners," said Michael Brand, the head of the Bundestag committee on human rights.

"This isn't about embarrassing Turkey but about articulating a historical truth. We cannot apply tact when it comes to the truth," Brand told reporters, according to Deutsche Welle.

Germany is home to an estimated 3.5 million Turks. More a thousand of them demonstrated against the resolution on Saturday in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, reported Reuters.

Successive Turkish governments have claimed that Armenians died in much smaller numbers and as a result of war and turmoil, rather than a premeditated Ottoman government policy. In an April 2015 speech, Erdogan defended the relocation of the Armenian population in Anatolia to southern lands during the First World War.

Erdogan referred to a Syrian desert where hundreds of thousands of Armenians -- mostly women, children and elderly people -- were killed or starved to death. Scores of others died on their way to the Deir ez-Zor camps.

Most Western historians specializing in research of crimes against humanity have dismissed the official Turkish position. The historical record on the Armenian Genocide is unambiguous and documented by overwhelming evidence, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) said in a 2007 statement.

The Armenian genocide has also been recognized by two dozen other nations, including France, Italy, Canada and Russia.
2 June 2016 11:09 (UTC+04:00)

By Gunay Camal

The Vienna meeting of Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, as well as the possible holding of the next meeting on reaching consensus on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a very positive indicator.

Head of the EU Delegation to Baku Malena Mard made the remark while talking to journalists on June 2, further elaborating that the EU welcomes holding of such meetings.

The May 16 meeting between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan in Vienna was their first face-to-face encounter since the April hostilities.

The presidents agreed on following of ceasefire, as well as on a next round of talks, to be held in June at a place to be mutually agreed, with an aim to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement.

Mard further noted that the EU is very pleased that such steps are being taken towards the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs also work actively for holding the next meeting of the presidents, she added.

Azerbaijan and Armenia for over two decades have been locked in conflict, which emerged over Armenian territorial claims. The OSCE Minsk Group, created for the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could not find a way out of the situation so far.

U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta has earlier stated that the OSCE MG co-chairs are working and trying to move forward the negotiation process on the conflict settlement.

"We are looking to build on the progress," he said on June 1, further adding that the co-chairs are trying to continue the negotiation process.

The bloody Nagorno-Karabakh war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, left 700,000 civilians of Nagorno-Karabakh and the regions adjoining it, as well as the regions bordering with Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh without homes.

Moreover, 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from Armenia and became refugees due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing policy after the emergence of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan.

Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
2 June 2016 18:02 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani diaspora will very actively oppose the resolution adopted by Germany's Bundestag (parliament) on recognizing the 1915 events as "Armenian genocide", Nazim Ibrahimov, head of Azerbaijan's State Committee on Work with Diaspora, told reporters June 2.

He noted that Turkey and Azerbaijan have always together fought the recognition of the "Armenian genocide".

When this issue was raised in various countries, Azerbaijan's diaspora organizations have repeatedly prevented the recognition of the "Armenian genocide", said Ibrahimov.

The committee head noted that the Azerbaijani diaspora will actively raise this issue everywhere.

"We consider Turkey's problems as our own problems and will oppose it," he added.

Germany's Bundestag adopted a resolution on recognizing the so-called Armenian genocide June 2. Previously, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that there has never been genocide in Turkey's history.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915. While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
2 June 2016 14:54 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

President Ilham Aliyev has signed several orders on June 1, 2016. The orders envisage the application of laws approved by the parliament during plenary meetings of its spring session.

Taxation for improper use of lands

An order on the application of law on the changes to the Tax code was approved by the parliament [Milli Majlis] on May 6, 2016. In accordance with the changes, tax rate on the use of lands of agricultural designation remains the same at the level of 0.06 manats ($0.04) for one conditional point, the amendment envisages increase of tax in case of improper use of lands, the amount of fee for the violation is 10 manats ($6.70) for 100 square meters. Tax rate for agricultural lands, the improper use of which is not possible due to meliorative or other agro technical reasons also remains the same at the rate of 0.06 manats ($0.04022) for one conditional point.

Possibility of misuse of lands is determined in accordance with the rules and criteria approved by appropriate government agency. In contrast to the revenues from land tax which are forwarded to the budgets of municipalities, taxes for misuse of lands will be directed to the state budget.

Industrial park residents are exempt from taxes

President Ilham Aliyev also signed an order on the application of the law on the introduction of changes to the law on customs tariff and alteration of the law on social insurance. The parliament approved the laws during a plenary meeting on May 6, 2016.

Amendment adopted to the customs tariff law specifies that starting from May 1, 2016 import of goods by the industrial park residents is exempt of customs duties for a term of five years. Amendments to the Social insurance law envision that foreign residents of industrial parks are also exempt from payments for compulsory social insurance starting from May 1, 2016. The equipment and technologies used in industrial parks are also exempt from value added tax.

The decision is expected to give a stimulus for the development of industrial parks in the country. Industrial parks have already been created in Sumgait, in the village of Balakhani and Garadagh in Baku and Mingachevir. Works on the provision of infrastructure in the created industrial parks are currently underway. The country seeks to further boost this sphere and create industrial parks in other cities and provides favorable conditions for other countries to participate in the industrial parks. Neftchali industrial district the construction of which is due to end holds the area of 10 hectares. The total number of industrial parks residents currently is 12 being 7 in Sumgait 4 in Balakhani and in Garadagh.

Tightened control over contract conclusion

An order on the application of changes to the law on banks and insurance activities specifies toughening inspection over the contract making in banks and insurance companies. In accordance with the changes concerning the privileges of bank court, decision on making of a deal to the amount of five or more percent of the volume of bank resources with individuals associated with bank will be made on the ground of independent audit report and shareholders resolution.

Similar amendment is specified for the privileges of supervisory council. Thus, decision making in the cases when the amount of a deal with the individuals associated with the bank is five percent of bank resources (unless the case is in the authority of bank shareholders) is the responsibility of Supervisory Council. From now on, banks are not eligible to deal with individuals acting on behalf of a bank. the similar changes were made to the law on insurance activity.

Currently the number of banks in the country amounts to 37, while the number of insurance agencies is 25.

Child protection from harmful information

An order on the application of the law on the changes to the law on rights of children envisages protection of children from harmful information. In accordance with the changes to Article 15 (The right of a child for the freedom of information) the protection of children from the information which may pose health hazard will be regulated by law.

Having ratified approximately 30 international conventions regarding children's rights Azerbaijan pays great attention to the rights of children. The issue is a top priority in the countrys social policy. The country closely cooperates with a number of international organizations, particularly the UNICEF to tackle problems concerning children's rights.

The list of narcotic and psychoactive drugs expanded

The president also signed an order on the application of law on the changes to the approval of the list of narcotic drugs, psychoactive drugs, the turnover of which is prohibited, restricted or is under control in the territory of the country as well as precursors import, export, transit and manufacturing of which is possible under license. The changes envisage adding several drugs to the lists.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
2 June 2016 17:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Some details of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirims upcoming Baku visit were revealed.

Talking at a press conference about his visit to Azerbaijan, the 27th Prime Minister of Turkey informed the journalists about the issues to be discussed between Ankara and Baku.



He said the two sides will discuss a number of important questions regarding energy sector including Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway.

In addition to energy issues, they will touch issues upon the situation in the South Caucasus and the development of bilateral relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan.

Binali Yildirim was appointed to the post of Prime Minister of Turkey on May 20.

The Baku visit will be the first foreign visit of Yildirim as Prime Minister.

Yildirim earlier announced the names of ministers to accompany him during the visit to Azerbaijan. Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Tugrul Turkesh, Finance Minister Naci Agbal and Forestry and Water Minister Veysel Eroglu will accompany Yildirim during his visit.

Turkey was the first country in the world to recognize Azerbaijan's independence in 1991 and has been a staunch supporter of Azerbaijan in its efforts to consolidate its independence, preserve its territorial integrity, and realize the economic potential that arises from the rich natural resources of the Caspian Sea.

Turkey is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan. Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkey amounted to $388.9 million in January-April 2016, some 303.5 million of which fell in the import of Turkish products, according to the Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.



Turkey mainly exports to Azerbaijan products of iron and steel, as well as a variety of finished products, electronics, furniture, plastic products. A total of 85 percent of imports from Azerbaijan to Turkey accounted for the natural gas share.

In addition to natural gas, Turkey imports from Azerbaijan non-ferrous metals, chemical industry products and plastic products.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
2 June 2016 16:47 (UTC+04:00)

By Gulgiz Dadashova

The energy factor should never be used for other purposes as blackmail, and shouldn't be used to get privileges in other spheres, said President Ilham Aliyev.

The Azerbaijani leader, addressing the 23rd International Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference in Baku on June 2, stated that the energy policy and cooperation in this sphere, the long-term cooperation should be built only on a healthy basis, pointing to this as a key to Azerbaijans successful energy policy.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan's stance on this issue has won s sympathy on a global scale, adding that on the other hand, this stance demonstrates its rightfulness and this shows that only this attitude can bring success.

Two decades ago, Azerbaijan was a newborn country in the state of war, with a collapsed economy and political chaos. Today, it is not only among the worlds fastest growing nations, but also a vibrant democracy and a reliable energy supplier.

This huge transformation in less than a generation was achieved thanks to the huge energy projects and wise policy of the authorities. Azerbaijan, with sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction, is among the widely cited development success stories. Today, the country initiates and realizes large-scale energy, transport and other projects ensuring deeper regional integration and growth.

The president stated that Azerbaijan gained a reputation of a trustful partner hailing the fact that local and foreign investors hugely invest in country and believe in it.

addressing the top energy managers and businessmen, President Aliyev also reminded that implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor, dubbed as the Project of the 21st Century, will allow Azerbaijan to bring both gas from the Shah Deniz field and the Azerbaijani gas to be produced on other fields, to the world market.

This will allow the country to fully implement oil and gas plans, he stressed.

The president went on to say that through directing the oil revenues to transport infrastructure, Azerbaijan got very important transportation hubs, and the East-West Transport Corridor project is currently being implemented.

He expressed confidence that this corridor will be fully commissioned before late 2016, and thus, oil, gas and transport corridors will pass through Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's geographical location, investments made and thought-out policy, joint activity with partners created this reality, which serves both the Azerbaijani state, its people and ensures interests of neighboring countries, and, on a broader scale, strengthens international cooperation, said the president.

Transit countries and producing countries also show great interest, said the president, adding that they surely benefit from these projects. Decades later, the transit countries will get big profits, President Aliyev stressed.

He noted that the consumer countries will have access to additional, alternative sources of gas, which means that all parties only win in this case. The president said that first of all, Azerbaijan had to put up its efforts and did so to form this international cooperation.

Mentioning that Azerbaijan has enough gas resources, the president announced that the proven gas reserves in the country amount to 2.6 trillion cubic meters.

Preparatory work is underway in connection with the development of the Absheron and Umid fields. "I am confident that these projects will be successful as well, and thus, gas production of Azerbaijan will increase even more," he said, adding that deep layers of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field contain large reserves of gas.

President Aliyev also announced that the country does not want to limit its activities with the existing format of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

"We want to widen our activities," the country's president noted, adding that in order to achieve this, there are gas resources and a format of international cooperation has been established.

Over the past decade, Azerbaijan could considerably expand its energy industry enabling the country to be a secure energy supplier to the world. However, the country still enjoys every opportunity to discover additional reserves of gas condensate from its own fields in the Caspian Sea.

While the vast majority of these reserves are associated with the Shah Deniz field, Azerbaijan possesses additional significant gas fields such as Absheron, Umid, Babek and Nakhchivan, of which Absheron field is projected to be commenced in 2021. The cited indicators ensure future development of the gas industry in Azerbaijan for a period exceeding 100 years.

Azerbaijan's natural gas production had grown four times to reach 29 billion cubic metres in the past 10 years. Azerbaijan is able to increase its natural gas production to 40 billion cubic metres per year.

The president noted that the overview of the chronology of the work done shows that in order to achieve its goals, Azerbaijan is moving with a high consistency, in a purposeful and planned manner.

"The success achieved to date, doesn't drop from the sky. It became possible as a result of hard and purposeful work and I reiterate that we managed to achieve this success only within international cooperation," said President Aliyev.

The president said the situation is that the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project is on schedule and currently, it is the main task in the energy sphere.



The Southern Gas Corridor is an economic project, said the president, adding that meanwhile, it is a project of security.

President Aliyev emphasized that currently, the energy security is coming to the fore in the world and everyone understands that it is impossible to talk about the national security of countries without energy security.

The countries which are not rich with energy resources are naturally dependent on other resources, said the president.

Ilham Aliyev went on to add that Azerbaijan always had a goal to use the energy factor for intensifying the cooperation and has never used its potential for other purposes.

"We have had a desire to intensify the cooperation and ensure stability in our neighborhood, so that this stability would make it possible for us to implement the transnational projects, improve the welfare of Azerbaijani people and increase the power of our country," added the president.

Noting that the example of Azerbaijan can be interesting for many countries, President Aliyev said over 25 years, Azerbaijan has proved that it can exist as an independent country, can be a master of its destiny and build normal relations with all countries.

"Most importantly, we have very clear and precise views of the future," he added.

"We have lived under the conditions of highest economic growth over the last ten years. Azerbaijan's economy has grown more than threefold. Naturally, our economy, our people have accustomed to this. Now a new period begins."

"We can and are getting out of any situation with our head held high. Our main task is to ensure that the Azerbaijani people wouldn't suffer from the ongoing crisis in the world," said President Aliyev.

The countrys reliability and important role as energy supplier was also highly appraised by U.S. leader Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who sent letters to the event participants.

Azerbaijan continues to play a critical role in the global supply of energy and is a reliable partner in our shared goal of increasing regional supply diversification, market competition, and energy security. President Obama said in his letter.

Cameron in turn highlighted that the Southern Gas Corridor will play an important role in diversifying the EUs gas market and so strengthening European energy security, and congratulates the Government of Azerbaijan on its role in the development of the Southern Gas Corridor.
2 June 2016 12:14 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Great Britain intends to increase the level of trade turnover with Azerbaijan several times. Currently, more than 400 British companies are active in various fields in the country.

I hope that the number of British companies here will increase, said British Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy Baroness Nicholson, Trend reports.

During the meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, he said that tourism is an area in which he would like to see the development. Tourism is the second most important income-generating area in Britain. I think that the development of our relationship will be reflected in this field, she said.

Baroness Nicholson visited Azerbaijan to participate in the 23rdInternational Caspian Oil & Gas Exhibition and Conference to be held June 1-4. The exhibition and conference will feature 247 companies from 30 countries of the world.

Energy-rich Azerbaijan cooperates with the UK in the exploration and transportation of oil and natural gas from the Azerbaijani part of the Caspian Sea.

BP was one of the main partners of this South Caucasus nation for over 20 years and this cooperation played a major part in the economic formation of young Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan and the UK have benefited from close bilateral partnership and cooperation since 1992. The relations have covered a wide range of issues, from high-level political dialogue to growing trade and investment, as well as strengthening cultural and humanitarian ties.

The UK and Azerbaijan are cooperating in education, trade, tourism, ICT, as well as other infrastructure and transit projects. Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the UK stood at $564 million in 2015, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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2 June 2016 15:35 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

Insurance companies of Azerbaijan will not be able to sell compulsory insurance at discounted price anymore.

The Financial Market Supervisory Body (FMSB) sent a letter of notification on the issue, reported Fins.az on June 1.

FMSB tasked the insurance companies not to make discounts while selling the compulsory insurance. The letter indicated that the commission rates for mediation services which were paid in accordance with both compulsory and voluntary insurance contractors are higher than the figure stated in the compulsory insurance legislation and voluntary insurance rules.

The Supervisory body also notes that the commission for the mediation service on voluntary insurance contracts cannot exceed the rate defined by remuneration voluntary insurance rules.

The insurer can spend 20 percent of insurance premiums on operational fees, as well as, 15 percent on insurance mediation services and can use the given commission on remuneration, in accordance with Article 12.4 of Law on Compulsory Insurance.

In addition, the commission paid for the mediation services on the basis of voluntary insurance contracts cannot be more than the rate set by the rules on voluntary remuneration insurance, the letter said.

FMSB also warns that if drawbacks are detected in connection with the matter, and nothing is done in order to eliminate them, then the measures will be taken against these insurance companies.

If any of above cited drawbacks exists in your stock company, and no measures are taken to resolve the problem, then sanctions will be imposed on your company, the letter noted.

At the present, one of the problems encountered by the insurance market is groundless discounts made by the insurance companies in order to attract the customers. Sometimes, these discounts exceed reasonable limits and impacts negatively on the payments to the insurance company, as well as, the companies payments to its customers.

The recent warning by the FMSB will enhance the discipline in the insurance market of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan established in February a legal public entity -- the Financial Market Supervisory Body - within the framework of ongoing structural reforms to improve the business environment, promote transparency and increase efficiency of public administration.

FMSB aims at licensing, regulating and controlling the securities market, investment funds, and insurance and credit organizations. It is independent from state budget and operates based on the principle of self-financing.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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2 June 2016 15:12 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan is looking to cooperating with Germany in the spheres of pharmaceutics, manufacturing of machinery, building materials, information technologies.

"Further development of non-oil industry in Azerbaijan is a top priority for the government of the country," Samed Bashirli, head of the industry department at the Ministry of Economy, said at the forum on the "Innovative technologies for the improvement of the industry" organized by the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce.

The government supports the sphere by means of different exemptions, creation of industrial parks and districts, he added.

The head of department underlined that Germany is one of the principal partners of Azerbaijan, the volume of trade turnover between the countries in the last year amounted to $2 billion. The major portion of trade turnover figures fall to the share of industrial production. German companies render their support to Azerbaijan by means of allocating credits for the infrastructural projects on easy terms, he said.

Addressing the forum Michael Hoffmann, the representative of the German - Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, and chairman of the management board of Accessbank, said Azerbaijan turns from importer country into producer country. In this regard German companies display interest in cooperation with Azerbaijan. We have great opportunities for cooperation in terms of current economic conditions, he added.

He also spoke about the economic development strategy of Azerbaijan, mentioning that the key role in this sphere is attributed to the diversification of the countrys economy and industry as well as creation of export-oriented economy. Hoffman underlined that the German - Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce will expand its cooperation with Azerbaijan to support further economic development of the country.

In accordance with the information provided by the Azerbaijan State Customs Committee trade turnover between Germany and Azerbaijan in January to April 2016 amounted to $355.25 million, which is 7.04 percent of the total volume of the countrys foreign commerce. As much as $250.87 million falls to a share of export and amounts to 10.24 percent of the total export volume taking the third place among exporters. The import amounts to $104.38 million, with a share of 4.02 percent of the total imports making Germany the ninth in the rank of importers.

Azerbaijan is currently engaged in the minimization of its oil dependence and diversification of its economy, which requires ensuring growth of non-oil sector of economy and increasing the volume of foreign investment in this field. Declines in oil prices have given new stimulus for Azerbaijans long-running quest to diversify its economy and develop non-oil sector.

German development cooperation with Azerbaijan (GIZ) is mainly engaged in developing the private business sector outside the oil and gas industry and assisting the country in establishing favorable economic and legal environment. The corporation supports the diversification of the countrys economy by advising Azerbaijans government on how to improve the regulatory environment, build a needs-oriented training system and strengthen export capacities.

The German - Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of all German companies operating in Azerbaijan and all Azerbaijani companies operating in Germany.

Germany is Azerbaijans fourth most important trading partner, after Russia, Turkey and the United States. German exports to Azerbaijan, the worth of which amounted to $690 million in 2015, consist mainly of motor vehicles, iron and steel goods, machinery and production facilities.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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2 June 2016 16:56 (UTC+04:00)

By Amina Nazarli

Railways of Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan agreed on the further development of the North-South international transport corridor.

The trilateral agreement was signed as part of the international business forum 1520 Strategic Partnership held in Sochi, on June 1-3.

The agreement reflects the provisions on railway tariffs to attract traffic and the further development of the North-South route including the organization of experimental container train Bandar-Abbas-Moscow.

The North-South corridor, from India to Helsinki, with a length of 7,200 kilometers is designed to carry more than 20 million tons per year. It is a multimodal route for transportation of passengers and cargo from Russia's St. Petersburg to the Mumbai port.



It is designed to carry transit cargo from India, Iran and other Persian Gulf countries to the territory of Russia (the Caspian Sea) and further - to Northern and Western Europe.

In March Baku hosted a trilateral meeting of representatives of Russian Railways, Azerbaijani Railways and Islamic Republic of Iran Railways with participation of RZD Logistics, JSC TransContainer and ADY Express.

The sides confirmed the multimodal route India-Iran-Azerbaijan-Russia, which will include transport of containerized cargo on a regular basis.

Currently, the parties are working on a potential cargo database for carrying out test traffic on this route.

The North-South route enjoys several advantages compared to other transport corridors. It is more profitable for each parameter than other alternative routes, such as the Suez Canal-the Mediterranean Sea-Northern Europe and the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan-Russia-Northern Europe routes.

Economists believe that the North-South project is of strategic importance for the region. It can be profitable for all countries, including Russia, which can get an access to the waters of the Persian and Oman Gulfs via this corridor. Also, this route can help Russia with cargo transportation.

They say that cargoes, which come from China, can be directed to the Northern Europe, and the goods from the Western Europe to Iran. So, it actually combines the North-South and East-West corridors.

In this case, Azerbaijan, with its favorable strategic and geographic location on the intersection of major transport projects linking north with south and east with west, will become a hub, a logistics center of transit cargo transportation.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli



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2 June 2016 12:29 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

Nizami Cinema Center hosted a solemn opening ceremony of the third edition of Baku International Tourism Film Festival (BITFF) on June 1, Trend Life reported.

The event organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry will run until June 4. This year, the Organizing Committee has admitted 78 films out of 420 applications.

The opening ceremony featured a video about previous editions of the festival, as well as seminars, meetings, workshops, opening and close ceremonies, organized in the framework of event.

Culture and Tourism Minister Abulfaz Garayev, addressing the event, said that the Baku International Tourism Film Festival has become a tradition. He said that this year applications for participation in the festival were sent by representatives of 71 countries.

The minister reminded that the festival draws the attention of the world to the tourism potential Azerbaijan, as a centre of historical and cultural heritage.

Then, jury of the festival, including Azer Garib, Ayaz Salayev, Yusif Sheykhov, Rauf Pashayev (Azerbaijan), Endre Florian (Hungary) and Inna Demezhko (Russia) were invited to take the stage.

In his speech, Endre Florian said that he was very glad to receive an invitation to become a jury member of the festival. He also expressed gratitude to the organizers of the event.

Later, the guests were presented the films included in the festival's program.

Noteworthy, the festival features several categories, including Country, Region, City, Culture and T radiation, Commercials, Ecotourism and outdoor tourism and TV Reports.

The organizing committee of the Festival and the jury may change the category of the submitted film.

All films produced by Azerbaijani production companies will compete for Grand Prix of the Festival.

BITFF is an annual non-profit cultural event that takes place in Baku, a global center of historical and cultural heritage, with the organization of the Culture and Tourism Ministry of Azerbaijan.

The key objective of the festival is to promote films on various aspects of tourism, to identify the most successful films that promote domestic and international tourism and to promote their authors. The festival also aims to draw attention to the tourism potential of Azerbaijan as one of the international centers of the historical and cultural heritage.

BITFF is the member of the International Committee of Tourism Film Festivals (CIFFT) based in Vienna, Austria.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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2 June 2016 10:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

Not much is expected from the upcoming OPEC meeting that will be held in Vienna, Austria on June 2, said Edward Chow, a senior fellow in the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to Azernews via email on June 1.

Oil producers were fortunate that the failure to reach any meaningful agreement in Doha between OPEC and non-OPEC countries did not lead to a more negative market reaction, due mainly to short-term supply disruptions in a number of countries, noted Chow.

In fact, oil prices have recovered somewhat to just below $50 in anticipation of a better balance between supply and demand in the second half of this year, he said, adding that however, inventories remain very high worldwide. Thus, a big run-up in prices is not expected anytime soon.

According to the expert, OPEC will attempt to show general unity in order to sustain the current more bullish sentiment on oil prices.

During recent years, it became obvious that OPEC has lost its role as oil cartel and cannot regulate oil prices anymore via adjusting quotas.

A true cartel would have tried to limit the steep price increases in recent years as they are against its members' long-term interests, said Chow by stressing that technological advances will eventually make OPEC obsolete.

Commenting on Russias non-participation in the OPECs meeting this time, Chow stated that without any realistic possibility of agreeing to a production freeze or production cut, Russia's meeting with key OPEC countries risks raising and then disappointing market expectations and would have the opposite of intended effect on prices.

The expert further added that with the most abundant and cheapest reserves to produce, $100 oil was never in Saudi Arabia's long term interests as it brings conservation, substitution, and higher-cost alternative supplies.

Therefore, Chow does not expect that Saudi Arabia to deviate from its current course. It can manage very well at today's moderate oil prices, which are still high when compared to the historical average price of oil in real terms of around $35 per barrel.

Due to low oil prices, U.S. shale industry which caused to oil glut in the global market began slowing down during last year as its production cost is high.

The US industry is used to these boom-and-bust cycles in oil and gas, said Chow.

Financially weak companies will go bankrupt and sell their assets to financially stronger companies. This is nothing unusual; the industry restructures itself every couple of decades or so, he said, adding that individual companies, their employees and communities will suffer, but the general economy is helped by access to more affordable energy supplies.

The expert also said that even with its recent decline, U.S. tight oil production is still more than 3 million barrels per day higher than five or six years ago. Whether the industry can sustain its production level and resume growth in production depends on how successful it is in cutting costs and improving operational efficiency.

The duration of low price period also matters, Chow added by emphasizing that the sooner price recovers, as it is doing now, the easier it is for the American shale industry to recover. The longer extremely low prices, say $30 or below, persist, the harder it will be for industry to return to its previous level.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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2 June 2016 10:41 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan is a reliable partner for energy diversification and achieving common goals to improve energy security, said Robin Dunnigan, the U.S. Department of State deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy.

She made the remarks at a meeting with Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev in Baku on June 1.

Dunnigan noted that the U.S. will continue to support Azerbaijan.

She also praised the level of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the US in the sphere of energy and Azerbaijan's role in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, in turn, said the work on the Southern Gas Corridor project is being conducted according to the schedule and 70 percent of the work on the Shah Deniz 2 and the South Caucasus Pipeline has already been completed.

He also noted that the Southern Gas Corridor will allow supplying gas to the EU countries not only from Azerbaijan, but also from Central Asia, Egypt, Iraq and Iran.

Currently, the construction of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB Pipeline) stands on the agenda, he added.

Natig Aliyev also said it is expected to construct pipelines from Italy to its northern neighbors, as well as from Albania to the Balkan countries.

The Azerbaijani minister also met with Michael Borrell, Total S.A. senior vice president of exploration & production for Continental Europe and Central Asia.

It was noted during the meeting that Total, together with its partners, is making efforts to start production at Azerbaijan's Absheron field in the coming years.

Currently, a plan is being prepared to develop the Absheron block, which is located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani 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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2 June 2016 13:58 (UTC+04:00)

By Fatma Babayeva

Azerbaijans state-owned oil company SOCAR plans to attract loan worth 198 million manats ($133.4 million) for the gasification of the Azerbaijani regions.

The statement was made by Suleyman Gasimov, SOCARs vice president on economic issues to mass media on June 2.

Gasimov noted that 472 million manats ($318 million) out of 500 million manats ($337 million) that were previously borrowed from the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) have already been disbursed.

Due to the devaluation of the national currency, SOCAR plans to attract additional 198 million manats ($133.4 million) for the gasification of the regions, he said, adding that SOCAR has already appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers in order to attract the loan under the state guarantee.

Gasimov went on to say that the loan will be allocated either by the CBA or International Bank of Azerbaijan.

In late 2015, SOCAR repaid the first tranche of previously attracted loans, said Gasimov, further stressing that the company will pay back the second tranche of the loans by the end of the current year.

Azerigaz PU of SOCAR is engaged in reception, distribution and sale of natural gas.

In 2015, Azerigaz was mainly involved in implementation of large-scale works on gasification and restoration of gas supply across all districts of the country, said earlier Akbar Hajiyev, General Director of the company to Caspian Energy News.

The gas supply in Sumgayit, Mingachevir, Ganja, Naftalan, Shirvan cities and in Fizuli, Bilasuvar, Balakan, Hajigabul and Absheron districts has been brought to 100 percent as a result of the gasification program.

In order to reduce gas losses, outdated mechanical gas meters in the apartments of people are replaced with new smart card meters to simplify the procedure of prepayment for consumed gas, and old gas regulators are changed into new ones, according to Hajiyev.

In 2015, Azerigas constructed 12,224 km of pipelines of various diameters and overhauled 518.5 km of gas pipelines.

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Fatma Babayeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Fatma_Babayeva

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2 June 2016 17:21 (UTC+04:00)

By Gulgiz Dadashova

A complex gas pipeline infrastructure will be created in Europe and a number of countries will be provided with Azerbaijani gas following the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project, said Natig Aliyev, Azerbaijani energy minister.

The minister made the remark while addressing the Caspian Oil & Gas Conference in Baku on June 2, further adding that the implementation of the project envisages creating the complex infrastructure of gas pipelines in South-East Europe.

"The Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP), through which the Azerbaijani gas will be supplied to Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, is planned to be constructed. The Hungary-Romania Gas Interconnector with a capacity of up to six billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, which will be also connected to the Southern Gas Corridor, is also planned to be built, he explained.

"The Slovak-Hungarian Gas Interconnector with a capacity of five bcm a year has been already built," the minister said, emphasizing that over 30,000 jobs will be created after the implementation of the project.

The minister positively assessed the interest of the Balkan states in the Azerbaijani energy projects. "It is obvious that all Balkan countries are supporting us and are interested in our projects," the minister said.

The Southern Gas Corridor envisages the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani 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 Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets. The Shah Deniz Stage 2 will result in increased exports to Europe once the needed infrastructure is completed.

The country has the capability to provide additional gas export volumes beyond Shah Deniz phase 1 and 2 developments from 2021-2022 onwards, when the Absheron field will come on-stream.

Natig Aliyev, talking to reporters, said that the work to be done on the Southern Gas Corridor project will cost $40 billion.

He noted that in the current environment on the oil market the price of the materials used in the construction of the pipelines decreased. And this naturally means lower spending on the Southern Gas Corridor project.

"Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) was estimated at $11 billion, whilst the funds to be invested in the pipeline construction decreased by $9.3 billion. Re-assessments on the planned expenditures are being carried out on a regular basis. Currently, Shah Deniz-2 and the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion project are estimated at $23.8 billion," Aliyev added.

The minister emphasized that the important thing is that the drop in oil prices didn't affect implementation of the projects.

"All the work goes in accordance with schedule and there are no delays," the minister said. "The work regarding Shah Deniz-2 project has been finished by 71 percent, TANAP by 55 percent and TAP by 10 percent."

Meanwhile, SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev stressed that Azerbaijan is able to increase its natural gas production to 40 billion cubic meters per year.

Abdullayev, addressing the conference, announced that Azerbaijan's natural gas production had grown four times to reach 29 billion cubic metres in the past 10 years

"SOCAR's Azneft Production Union has developed 49 fields so far. The foundation of 9 platforms in order to drill 81 wells will be laid in 2016-2017," he said.

Abdullayev noted that a total of $41 billion was invested in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field blocks. "Five billion barrels of oil is planned to be produced from ACG by 2024. Moreover, by increasing the oil production coefficient, extra four billion barrels of oil will be extracted," he added.

The contract on development of the ACG block of oil and gas fields, called as the Contract of the Century, was signed between SOCAR and foreign partners in 1994. BP is the operator of the development of the ACG block of oil and gas fields.

The oil from the ACG block is exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa pipelines, as well as by railway to the Georgian port of Batumi.

Gordon Birrell, BP's regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, said that two platforms to be installed as part of the Shah Deniz 2 will be ready in 2018.

Birrell added that BP will fulfill its part of work on the Shah Deniz-2 project on time and within the framework of the budget set.

"The work on the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia continues," Birrell said. "We have already drilled nine out of 26 offshore wells, and that will be sufficient for the initial gas production and its further expansion at the field."

"Construction of upper modules of the platforms is being completed and all residential units have been installed on them," he said. "Nearly $700 million has been already spent on the construction work. The upper modules will be ready to be commissioned in 2017."

The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field's reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.

The shareholders in the contract are BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Petronas (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NIOC (10 percent) and TPAO (19 percent).
2 June 2016 10:23 (UTC+04:00)

On his East African tour, Turkey's president again declared that "the world is bigger than five," slamming the veto power of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

"The world cannot be given up to five permanent members' initiative. You cannot take this situation, formed in the midst of World War I conditions, and shove it down humanity's throat," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at Uganda's Makerere University, where he received an honorary doctorate.

Erdogan decried how the Security Council has no African nations among its permanent members.

"Is there a Muslim country [among the permanent members], while there are 1.7 billion Muslim people in the world? No. What kind of justice is this? What kind of law is this?" he added.

The UN Security Council, which has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, has 15 members, including five permanent members with veto power over any resolution: China, France, Britain, the U.S., and Russia.

Permanent members often use their veto to protect their interests or those of their allies, and in the past, Erdogan has criticized the blocking of UN resolutions on Syria by Russia and China.

Erdogan also underlined Turkish ties to Africa.

"We believe that here [Africa] is a continent of opportunities for the happiness, peace and welfare of African nations," Erdogan said.

He added that Africa will be focused on the 21st century.

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2 June 2016 18:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Nigar Abbasova

ARETI International Group of companies is interested in joining projects implemented in different spheres of Turkmenistans economy.

During his meeting with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the ARETI International Group of Companies Igor Makarov mentioned that ARETI is highly interested in the increase of mutually beneficial contracts concerning different spheres of the Turkmen economy. The sides discussed the opportunities realizing new mutually beneficial joint projects.

Main business areas of ARETI are projects in fuel and energy complex, in particular, offshore mining in Turkmenistan (the Caspian Sea), trading, engineering, real-estate development, and investment to the real economy.

The company was also engaged in the implementation of the Central Asia  Center gas pipeline system project which runs from Turkmenistan via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to Russia.

ARETI was created as a result of rebranding of ITERA International Group of Companies which is considered to be Russias large independent oil and gas producer. The company is currently consolidates most of the ITERA projects.

The company launched its operations in Turkmenistan in 2009. ARETI is currently involved in the works on the 21 block of Turkmen offshore area of the Caspian Sea. Being established in 1992, the company is also engaged in natural gas deliveries.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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2 June 2016 17:40 (UTC+04:00)

The resolution of the German parliament (Bundestag) recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide" will negatively affect Germany's relations with Turkey, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan said that first of all, it was decided to recall Turkey's ambassador from Germany for political consultations, TRT Haber news channel reported June 2.

Turkey will take the next step after a thorough acquaintance with the text of the resolution adopted by Bundestag, added Erdogan.

The German parliament adopted June 2 a resolution recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide".

Earlier, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the relations between Berlin and Ankara can worsen if the German Bundestag adopts a resolution recognizing the 1915 events as the "Armenian genocide".

He added that there has never been genocide in the history of Turkey.

Armenia and the Armenian lobby claim that Turkey's predecessor, the Ottoman Empire, committed the so-called genocide against Armenians living in Anatolia in 1915.

While strengthening the propaganda of "genocide" in the world, Armenians achieved its recognition by parliaments of some countries.

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A Brooksville father is accused of peering into the bedroom window of a teenage girl Tuesday night while leaving his 10-year-old son home alone with access to two loaded weapons.



The incident happened in a neighborhood off of Trillum Boulevard, just east of the Suncoast Parkway.

Man accused of peering in the window of an 18-year-old



Deputies say he left his son at home alone with 2 loaded weapons

Chad Rodrigues was arrested on 5 counts of voyeurism, 1 count of child negect

Deputies say Chad Michael Rodrigues, 42, was seen peering into the bedroom window of an 18-year-old girl by a patrol deputy. When Rodrigues was first approached, he apparently concocted a story about searching for a dog he had lost six weeks prior.

When deputies didnt buy that, he admitted he had been looking at the teenage girl, and that it wasnt the first time. He also admitted, on one occasion, to masturbating as he looked.

Following his arrest, deputies discovered Rodrigues had left his 10-year-old son home alone with access to a loaded 12-gauge shotgun and a loaded 9mm pistol.

The child told deputies his father takes walks in the middle of the night all the time, and that he often wakes up to find that no one else is home.

Rodrigues was charged with five counts of voyeurism and one count of child neglect. He has since posted his $10,000 bond.




Parents protested outside the Sarasota County School District Offices Wednesday over the threat that their third grade students may not move on to fourth grade.

Parents opted out of mandatory FSA exam

Say that shouldn't be deciding factor as to whether child moves on to next grade

According to school district, alternatives being offered

The parents tell Bay News 9 they had their children opt out of the mandatory FSA exam. But they said it should not be the deciding factor as to whether or not their child moves on to the next grade.

These are A, B students, said Terri Comerford. And two weeks before the end of school, they get a big red letter around their 4th quarter saying they failed.

Nine-year-old Aiden Chastain is one of those students. His mother, Wendy Chastain, said because of her sons high anxiety, she didnt let him take the end-of-the-year exam.

Still, Chastain said her son deserves to move on to fourth grade.

He works very hard to achieve the grades that hes made, Chastain said. Weve struggled for hours with him in the evenings doing homework to ensure that he completes it and does well on it.



But according to the school district, alternatives are being offered.



Statement from Sarasota County Schools:



According to Florida Department of Education requirements and state statute, Florida Standards Assessment testing is mandatory at all grade levels. In grade three, regardless of whether a student has a reading deficiency or not, the student must pass the grade three FSA English Language Arts assessment, an alternate assessment measure, the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT-10) or receive a good-cause exemption to be promoted to grade four. Good-cause exemptions include the successful completion of the grade three portfolio. A child in grade three in 2015-16 who does not meet one of these requirements will be enrolled again in grade three in August 2016. In Sarasota County, he or she may be able for promotion to grade four after completing the grade three portfolio on or before Nov. 1, 2016.



Our district has sought clarification on these requirements several times. Last week, a Florida DOE official spoke to state school district superintendents on a conference call and supported this information that the Sarasota County School District has been providing to schools and parents.
A Spring Hill doctor has been accused of molesting a 15-year-old girl who worked in his office part-time.

Hernando doctor accused of molesting his 15-year-old office worker

Arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious molestation May 27

Jacques Aristilde is an internal medicine doc in Spring Hill



Dr. Jacques Aristilde reportedly admitted to the crime when confronted by the girls parents, who said the inappropriate touching began May 3 and continued until May 26 when their daughter told them what had happened.

Reports have him apologizing, and pledging not to be so touchy, touchy in the future.

Deputies say the girl believed her encounters with Aristilde had started off jokingly, with him occasionally massaging her shoulders. She had worked in his office since the start of the school year in August.

On one occasion, reports indicate she came in wearing a dress. The teen said Aristilde grabbed her by the waist and extended her dress from her body. Deputies say she also told them that during another encounter Aristilde touched her buttocks with an open hand, but she wasnt sure if it was intentional and decided to keep the incident to herself.

The following day at work, the teen told deputies, she mentioned possibly having tendinitis in her elbow and that Aristilde proceeded to touch and feel the upper part of her arms.

She said the physical contact was unwanted.

Later in the month, the doctor is accused of squeezing her thigh during a conversation they were having about weight loss. A short time later, she said Aristilde approached her again. This time she told deputies he grabbed her buttocks with his hand and squeezed for an extended period of time.

The teen said she was upset, and while she did not report it to her co-workers, she did tell her parents when she went home.

Aristilde was arrested by the HCSO on a charge of lewd and lascivious molestation. His bond was set at $10,000. He has been ordered to wear a GPS monitor.




Three children are responsible for a fire that led to the destruction of nearly $300,000 worth of equipment at Westside Park, according to the Lakeland Fire Department.

3 boys, between 8 and 12, lit pine straw on fire with lighter

No charges filed; no evidence of "willful and malicious" intent found

Investigators tracked down the suspects, three boys between the ages of 8 and 12.

Fire investigators say the fire was started by the boys who gathered pine straw, that is readily available at the park, underneath the playground equipment and lit the pine straw with a lighter.

When the fire burned out of control, investigators say the boys attempted to put the fire out with dirt and urine. When that didnt work, they fled the scene.

Investigators say the events that took place and the equipment damaged do not meet the state of Florida's definition of Arson because there was no evidence of "willful and malicious" intent as defined by the statutes.

There are no plans currently to replace the playground equipment due to budget constraints. One playground area approximately 25 feet from the site of the fire is available for use.
Just as a Tampa Bay area woman comes forward to say she was injured by a Takata air bag, a new report suggests at least four automakers are selling new vehicles with potentially bad air bags in them.

Jennifer Vu was injured by metal shards from air bag in April crash



She appeared at news conference with Sen. Bill Nelson



New report suggests defective air bags being installed in new cars

The Takata air bag recall is enormous with 14 auto manufacturers impacted and nearly 80 million airbag inflators needing to be replaced.

On Wednesday, during a news conference with Sen. Bill Nelson, Tiffany Vu talked to the media about a fender-bender she was in that ended with doctors removing shards of metal from her body at a hospital.

''I have this scar on my arm; I have this one down here where they removed a chunk of metal at the accident site," Vu said, holding up her scarred arm. "I have one across my chest and multiple through here."

Vu's accident happened in April on a routine trip to her gym on U.S. 301. Her car, a 2004 Honda Accord, was equipped with Takata air bags.



A report by a U.S. Senate commerce committee says some 2016 and 2017 vehicle models from Fiat Chrysler, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Volkswagen have a type of inflator that is prone to rupture and presents a potential danger to drivers and passengers. At least 11 deaths worldwide are related to the defect.

Takata inflators can deteriorate over time when exposed to moisture and high temperatures. Takata has agreed to recall original equipment inflators that lack a drying agent in phases by the end of 2018.





Nelson says the automakers should replace the inflators before the cars are sold so they don't eventually have to be recalled. But the cars currently aren't under recall and can be sold legally.

"It is absolutely ridiculous that the American consumer buys a new car only to find out that in two years that it's going to be recalled," said the Democratic senator.

Nelson also said the newer cars with defective air bags may go bad even quicker in Florida because of the heat and humidity. That's why the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has identified Florida as a priority region for Takata recalls.



Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
A boater who went missing near St. Martins Keys in Citrus County Wednesday was rescued after treading water for nearly 20 hours.



Boater William Durden rescued Thursday morning

Durden fell off boat, rescued after 20 hours at sea



Credits Navy training for saving life



William Durden, 61, was spotted at 10:29 a.m. Thursday. The former Navy pilot was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard about 15 nautical miles southeast of Aripeka.

Durden fell overboard while fishing alone in the Homosasssa River. He was not wearing a life jacket.

"I went through different phases, first couple hours, Ill find some way to wave down and get on somebodys boat, then sundown comes and oh well, Im gonna have to plan for nighttime now, he said. "I was just praying that no big shark would come out and decide to have me for dinner."

Durden was treading water more than 20 hours.

"The sun came up and I go, 'its a new day, made it through night, the hairiest part of the whole thing, Im gonna get picked up today. I am gonna get picked up today,'" he said.



The Coast Guard found the fisherman after a two hour search.

"Looked a little bit closer and it had two arms and it was waving at me, my adrenaline spiked, yelled 'mark!' and dropped the flare and turned around and went to go find him again, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Jacob Latour, USCG Drop Master.

Durden was physically fine for the most part, but glad to finally be rescued.

"Four or 5 oclock in the morning, it started getting a little bit chilly, mostly the water temperature wasnt too bad but I started shaking, hypothermic, he said. "I felt fish hitting my legs and stuff."

"Its very rare that we find somebody, a single person in the water, especially after 20 hours with no life jacket, Latour said, and it is very exciting that we found somebody."

Durdens wife told the Coast Guard he had left their summer residence on the Homosassa River at 10:30 a.m. aboard a 22-foot boat and had not returned home.

At 1:10 a.m. Thursday, crew members from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission located the 22-foot boat in the mangroves near St. Martins Keys.

Durden, who is from Reno, Nevada, said his Navy training likely saved his life before the Coast Guard was able to get to him.
The 2016 storm season is underway.

The last major hurricane to hit Florida was Wilma in 2005. That storm caused more than $6 billion in damage and was blamed for 35 deaths in the state.



According to AAA, one-third of Floridians are not prepared for hurricane season.

Bill Holmes with ABC 1-2-Tree said trees often are hazards during storms and that most homes are damaged by trees during these storms.

"This branch fell out of this tree due to a storm just the other day," Holmes said while examining a tree in front of a St. Petersburg home. "And [then] out of nowhere, the limb completely fell down."

Holmes said homeowners should not procrastinate when it comes to trees, making sure they are trimmed heading into storm season.

"The tree looks healthy, it looks like its in good shape, then all of a sudden out of nowhere, a limb just fell due to a lot of the heavy rains," Holmes said during a recent inspection. "There was decaying inside the tree, some co-dominant limbs and basically, it fell down."

Holmes added it often doesn't take a named storm to cause damage.

"It doesnt necessarily have to be a hurricane to do it," Holmes said. "Sometimes, just the rain being saturated on the branch itself causes weight, and it drops.

Most tree service companies offer free estimates to evaluate trees for homeowners.

"By trimming your trees beforehand, getting any dead branches, anything that may cause fallen debris and destruction to your house to your property to your cars, basically just staying on top of your trees."


The Dairy Queen restaurant on Washington Boulevard was robbed at gunppoint Tuesday night, less than an hour after a gunman snatched a woman's purse at the Parkdale Mall parking lot.

Beaumont Police Department officials say two men threatened Dairy Queen employees with a black semi-automatic handgun and stole money from the cash registers.
Newly released drone views of Medina Lake reveal the popular getaway spot for San Antonians has fully rebounded after surviving through summers of drought.

One video, taken early Tuesday morning and shared with mySA.com by Wallys Watersports Owner Mike Crandall, shows water from the replenished lake surging over the spillway early Tuesday morning  a welcomed sight for many area residents.
A 17-year-old woman was arrested last Friday in Hidalgo County for allegedly selling a 15-year-old girl to two men.

Police arrested Briseyda Bivian Flores, 17, Friday and charged her with trafficking a child resulting in sexual abuse or assault and engaging in organized criminal activity, both first-degree felonies, according to Hidalgo County records. The bond for Flores has been set at $2 million.
SAN ANTONIO  A man suspected of engaging in sexual activity with a 13-year-old girl was arrested on Tuesday night following a lengthy investigation that began when the alleged victims mother helped police spring a trap.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Ignacio Guadalupe Requenes-Ibarra, 27, faces a second-degree felony charge of online solicitation of a minor.

The document said that Requenes-Ibarra had maintained contact with the teen through the KIK mobile chat application earlier in 2016.

RELATED: Aldine ISD teacher wanted in connection with sexual abuse of teenage male student

The document said that he used the app to request nude photos of the girl, and to set up meetings for sex.

According to the report, the alleged victim told Requenes-Ibarra that she was 13 during conversations on KIK, and he had picked her up from middle school prior to at least one alleged assault.

The affidavit said the childs mother used her KIK account to set up a meeting at an area hotel on March 2.

RELATED: Police: 17-year-old admits to selling teen girl to 2 men for cash in South Texas

The mother alerted investigators, who staked out the hotel until he arrived.

The document said Requenes-Ibarra texted the mother multiple times during the stakeout, and she relayed everything he told her to police.

Officers conducted a traffic stop at the hotel and identified the Requenes-Ibarra as the suspect.

Authorities later obtained a warrant for his arrest and took him into custody on Tuesday morning.

mdwilson@express-news.net

Twitter: @MDWilsonSA
I needed to make one last stop before driving back to Guadalajara and then flying out of Mexico. Podemos ir a H-E-B en Aguascalientes?

Can we go to the H-E-B in Aguascalientes?

It sounded like a mundane request after a weekend immersed in Day of the Dead celebration, faces painted like calaveras and all. Still my friend Elizabeth, who had briefly lived in Houston, understood the appeal.

Orale! "If they put one of those in Guadalajara, I'd go all the time."

RELATED: Grocery stores in Texas that serve the wealthiest shoppers

Anyone who has spent time in Texas has shopped at the beloved San Antonio-based supermarket. And theres a frivolous joy that comes with spotting a familiar icon in a different place. That made H-E-B the perfect stop because it only exists in two places around the world: Texas and Mexico.

The first store opened south of the border in Monterrey in 1997, and theyve since expanded through the country. The H-E-B in Aguascalientes looked enormous, more like a Walmart superstore (or an H-E-B Plus! perhaps, although Ive never been to one) than a typical H-E-B in Houston. Christmas sales abounded, offering everything from Christmas trees to bed spreads to giant stuffed teddy bears.

The supermarket looks similar except for little twists on the details. Stands offered chicharrones (fried pork skins) and nopales (the edible flesh from a prickly pear cactus). Booths where youd expect to find piles of pistachios or asparagus in Texas instead offered guavas. Weirdly there was still a section for Mexican food." This seemed unnecessary  Mexican food was sold in every aisle.

READ MORE: Consumer Reports identifies cheapest, most expensive supermarkets

U.S. products were pushed on customers as well. A woman gave out free samples of Texas Toast. A huge display for H-E-Bs Creamy Creations ice cream brand appeared behind her. Elizabeth shouted when she found imported Fullers London Porter in the beer and wine section. Of course there also were Shiner Bock six-packs.

I treated the H-E-B like a clueless sightseer at Disney World, snapping photos of every outstanding novelty. Eventually a manager asked me to not take anymore. I dressed as touristy as possible that day, prepared for this moment. I tried to add a southern drawl to my Spanish when I told him, Sorry Im from Texas and I cant believe theres an H-E-B here! Then I slid the phone into my pocket and we headed to the checkout counter with a bottle of porter and a bag full of fresh guavas.

Take a look around an H-E-B in Mexico in the gallery above.
Edgewood, Ky.-based St. Elizabeth Healthcare CEO Garren Colvin said the provider is filing a state hearing with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to fight Cincinnati-based Christ Hospital's plan to build an ambulatory surgery center, according to Cincinnati Business Courier.

Here are seven key points:

1. With nine ASCs already serving North Kentucky residents, Mr. Colvin said there is no need for an additional center and argues it will only "add to the cost of the healthcare system." Mr. Colvin also claims Christ Hospital did not specify which procedures the center would offer in its CON.

2. Christ Hospital plans to build its $24 million ASC in Fort Mitchell, Ky. The 24,000-square foot facility will sit on 2.6 acres and is part of a larger healthcare complex which costs between $40 million and $50 million.

3. This Friday marks the final deadline for parties to request a hearing regarding Christ Hospital's certificate of need. During the hearing, Mr. Colvin anticipates he will testify and believes Christ Hospital CEO Mike Keating may be a witness.

4. For its new center, Christ Hospital projects it will spend $8.6 million on equipment, $11.4 million on construction, $1.3 million on architecture and engineering and $1.5 million on site improvements. The hospital also plans to spend $1.1 million on contingencies.

5. In fiscal year 2020, Christ Hospital projects it will generate $28 million in gross patient revenue, and will bring in almost $36 million the following year. Christ Hospital expects net revenue will surpass $1.1 million in 2020 and almost $1.7 million in 2021. The hospital also anticipates it will create 19 jobs through its ASC.

6. St. Elizabeth, the largest employer in Northern Kentucky, may need to lower its $112 million in uncompensated medical care and community benefits it provides if Christ Hospital opens the ASC. Mr. Colvin said, "From my perspective, someone coming in and trying to take something that's very profitable and not dealing with all the other issues that come with that kind of responsibility is concerning."

7. Vic Dipilla, Christ Hospital's chief business development officer, said marketplace competition would lower healthcare costs while spurring innovation and enhanced clinical outcomes. He went on to say, "Our focus is on the patient, and we are committed to providing healthcare alternatives for our Kentucky patients closer to their home."

More articles on surgery centers:

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Tenet hospitals hold 'Healthy Over Hungry' food drive  4 notes

Saratoga Schenectady Gastroenterology Associates to open nearly $12M ASC: 5 key points
Although more payers are becoming aware of the many benefits ambulatory surgery centers provide, many centers find getting contracts and viable rates to be a challenge.

Susa n Cheek, CPA, CHCC, CASC, administrator of Dallas Endoscopy Center and CEO of BridgeConx software solutions, understands the obstacles many surgery centers face when dealing with payers and lays out key strategies for overcoming common stumbling blocks.

"If you have previously been out-of-network with a payer and you want to be in-network, that is a huge challenge," says Ms. Cheek. "Even if you are in-network, many ASCs are having trouble getting sustainable rates."

Here are five strategies:

1. Stay in contact with your representative. Some contracts will outline how often ASCs can seek rate increases. Many payers are changing a center's representative frequently, posing a challenge for ASCs to strengthen those relationships. Similarly, some payers are forgoing representatives, forcing administrators to call in and speak to someone with whom they're unacquainted; this lack of relationship often will not help increase their rates. Thus, those ASCs with a representative should regularly contact him or her as their contract allows, so they can build upon the human element of the relationship. Consider inviting representatives to your center, so they can understand all ASCs have to offer.

"It is a newer phenomenon where some payers are not assigning representatives so you become just a number," Ms. Cheek says. "It is important to stay in touch with your payers and know who your representative is."

2. Invite representatives to attend state society meetings. As vice president of the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society, Ms. Cheek has firsthand experience with representatives attending meetings and learning the ASC industry's ins-and-outs.

"You get a chance to have more face time with the representative," she says. "They get more of a chance to learn about your surgery center and the quality. You get to build a relationship, and they begin to trust you."

3. Increase your case volume. ASCs with smaller case volumes often have trouble negotiating good rates with payers. Ms. Cheek explains if ASCs can't get a contract with a payer, they will lose that patient to a hospital or another facility that is in-network, as it is less costly for the patient. Dallas Endoscopy Center is a single-specialty ASC with a high volume of cases, which allows the ASC to establish good contracts with payers. The larger the footprint, the more likely an ASC is to obtain better rates.

4. Be on the lookout for insurance companies' credit card payments. ASCs can lose a substantial amount of money when accepting insurance companies' credit card payments because they will process through an ASC's credit card payment system. The center will then have to pay the credit card processing fees, taking away from the ASC's overall reimbursement.

To avoid losing capital, Dallas Endoscopy Center asks payers to reprocess the payment to them when the payer submits credit card payments. In their payer contracts, Dallas Endoscopy Center ensures the insurer can submit payments electronically to the center's bank account and does not have the right to pay the center with a credit card. Ms. Cheek advises ASCs to monitor these payments carefully.

5. Scrutinize your payer contract. Similarly, payers may often put other language in a contract that takes money away from a center. Ms. Cheek explained some payers will put in language stating an ASC cannot collect payments from a patient until after the center receives the explanation of benefits.

"It is important to collect the money upfront," she says. "Collecting upfront and verifying benefits are standard practices. It is harder to collect the money after people have the procedures. If someone eats a loaf of bread, they won't want to pay for it later."

More healthcare news:

The greatest hits of the ASC industry: Joe Zasa on writing the 1st comprehensive ASC development & management book

St. Elizabeth Healthcare to testify against Christ Hospital's $24M ASC: 7 key points

UnitedHealth to leave California ACA exchange; will offer plans in 6 states  5 things to know
An increasing number of sick Americans are traveling thousands of miles to India to obtain life-saving medications at lower prices, according to CNN Money.

Buying discounted prescription drugs from India is not easy. Foreigners must navigate the country's healthcare system, deal with mounds of paperwork and overcome a language barrier. But for many patients, traveling beyond U.S. borders is the only way they can obtain otherwise unaffordable medications.

For example, hepatitis C, which affects more than 130 million around the world, can be deadly if left untreated. Fortunately, Gilead released a cure sofosbuvir  in late 2013, but the 12-week course of treatment is expensive, costing $84,000 in the U.S. Additionally, physicians often prescribe the life-saving drug  produced under the brand names Sovaldi and Harvoni  in combination with other medications, increasing the price further. In India, the drug's generic version can be purchased for just $500, according to the report.

Prescription drugs are generally less expensive in India because, unlike other countries, India does not award patents to drugmakers for minor improvements to existing drugs, forcing developers to prove they have made a significant scientific advancement, according to the report.

"India has been the torchbearer of trying to show countries that there can be innovation and invention in the field, but making sure that unmerited patents don't get granted," said Tahir Amin, co-founder of the Initiative for Medicines, Access, & Knowledge, according to the report.

However, India's rules could soon be on the track to reverse course. In May, the pharmaceutical industry and U.S. government  which have lobbied intensely against India's policies  scored a major victory when Indian regulators approved one of Gilead's patent applications of sofosbuvir. Advocates are appealing the decision, fearing it could set a precedent that would diminish global access to other expensive drugs, according to the report.
Regional General Hospital Williston (Fla.) was purchased in 2014 after going through bankruptcy reorganization. With debt rising and bills past due, the hospital's future is once again uncertain.

Debt from the bankruptcy and indigent care costs have taken a toll on Regional General's finances. Devaiah Pagidipati, MD, who owns the hospital, told WUFT that he has spent $6 million of his own money in the last two years to keep Regional General open.

With its financial troubles, Regional General has failed to pay utility bills. "If the city were to cut off the utilities, that hospital would disappear literally overnight, and once it's gone, it's very doubtful that it would ever come back in any form," Williston City Manager Scott Lippmann told WUFT.

However, Mr. Lippmann said he doesn't want the hospital to close. He told WUFT that the city is working with Regional General to create a payment plan for outstanding utility bills.

Dr. Pagidipati is also committed to keeping the hospital open. "Whatever it takes, I'm going to make this work  I'm determined," he told WUFT. "After putting in this much money, I sincerely don't want this hospital to close."

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NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan has a new CEO and COO, appointed as part of the system's Vision 2020 plan toward financial stability, growth and improving patient experience.

William Hicks is the new CEO, and Michael Rawlings is the new COO.

"William Hicks and Michael Rawlings have been with the organization for many years and represent the level of leadership necessary to take our health system to the next level," said Ram Raju, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals.

Mr. Hicks has more than 30 years of experience as a healthcare executive and has been leading Bellevue as acting CEO since February. He was also previously the hospital's COO.

Mr. Rawlings has more than 20 years of experience in facilities management and healthcare. He joined NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue in 2009 and was previously the senior associate executive director of facilities management.
Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica has offered 1,200 full-time employees early retirement packages in a strategic effort to reduce operational costs, reports Toledo Blade.

ProMedica operates 14 hospitals in Ohio and Michigan and three health insurance plans. It employs more than 17,000 personnel.

Employees were offered buyouts across ProMedica's various facilities, including hospitals, physician's offices, corporate offices and health plan offices, Benet Rupp, ProMedica human resources senior vice president, told Toledo Blade. Physicians employed by ProMedica were not eligible for buyouts.

To be eligible, staff must be aged 55 years and older with at least 10 years of service, but the age and years of service must add up to 80, according to the article.

Employees have 45 days to consider the offer.
Autopsy results released Thursday show Prince Rogers Nelson, the music legend commonly known as Prince, died from fentanyl toxicity.

Prince died April 21 at his estate in Minnesota, and initial investigations cautiously linked opioids to his death. Now, the Midwest Medical Examiner's Office's report shows Prince gave himself the powerful painkiller fentanyl.

Fentanyl is the most potent opioid available for use in medical treatment, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, and it is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin. Ingesting as little as 0.25 milligrams can be deadly, the DEA says.

According to CDC data, rate of death involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased 80 percent in the U.S. between 2013 and 2014.
Bon Secours Richmond (Va.) Health System recently launched Bon Secours Value Network, a self-insured plan for small- and medium-sized businesses in central Virginia, according to The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Under the plan, Bon Secours provides companies with access to providers at 100 Richmond-area locations, including five hospitals.

Although the plan is still in the roll-out phase, Bon Secours has already partnered with an independent physician group and Tuckahoe Orthopadics in Richmond to expand care options for companies participating in the Value Network. Tony Herbert, vice president of managed care at Bon Secours, told the Times-Dispatch that the system plans to expand the network over the next two to three months.

A handful of companies have already joined the Value Network, according to the report.

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After accepting her position as CEO of Martinez, Calif.-based Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in 2009, Anna Roth, RN, had enough on her plate. But she wanted to do more.

"When I walked into the system [as a staff nurse] in 1993, I was struck by the complexities the population was facing," she says. "There was a lack of ability to meet the basic needs people were facing."

Approximately seven years after taking the helm, Ms. Roth has led the medical center through many changes, including EHR implementation and transformations related to the Affordable Care Act. Still, it wasn't enough. "If I'm being very honest, we really have not progressed at all in meeting the social needs of the health system," she says. "As I moved into a leadership position, this was at the forefront for me."

Located in the east San Francisco Bay area, Contra Costa County has a population of approximately 1 million, according to state data from 2014. But the same data shows that while the median household income is $78,187, the per capita income is $38,106. "There's a high percentage of people experiencing everything from poverty all the way to affluence," Ms. Roth says. "It's a geographically and demographically diverse county." As such, the No. 1 need of Contra Costa County residents is food, followed by housing and employment.

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center started talking to Boston-based Health Leads, a social enterprise that works to address patients' basic resource needs as standard parts of care. Together in the summer 2013, Contra Costa and Health Leads co-visioned a partnership built on four pillars: clinical integration, evaluation, innovation and sector leadership.

"We walked into the county system completely committed to addressing social needs and knowing we'd be able to support them," says Alexandra Quinn, Health Leads' principal of strategy and leadership, who heads up the partnership.

By June 2014, the partnership between Contra Costa and Health Leads was off the ground with the opening of a desk at San Pablo, Calif.-based West County Health Center. Undergraduate students from local universities, called advocates, staffed the desk. Approximately 50 advocates continue to do so today. Patients, while waiting, complete a systematic screening process to uncover their basic needs, whether they be hunger or loss of employment. Using the Health Leads Reach resource and case management system, advocates act as part of the care team and assist patients in accessing the right resources to meet these needs. After their visit, the Health Leads advocate follows up to ensure the patient's needs are met.

Since launching the partnership, Health Leads has worked with Contra Costa providers to connect almost 2,000 patients to local resources. Including patients' families, this impacts approximately 5,000 lives. The difference is nearly palpable  at Contra Costa, approximately 70 percent of patients served reported being satisfied with the care they received as the care teams now connect patients with resources for food stamps, subsidized child care or housing or payment plans and discounts for their electricity bills.

The first phase of this partnership focused on using advocates from the local university. But starting in June of this year, CCRMC will begin training additional staff  such as community health workers  to use Health Leads technology to address patients' basic resource needs.

Health Leads has partnered with numerous hospitals and health systems across the nation  including Boston Medical Center, University Hospitals of Cleveland's Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine and Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente  to achieve similar results. Health Leads' approach involves a co-designed partnership surrounding six levers of success, all of which a system should consider in its strategy to address patients' unmet social needs.

1. Patient identification and screening. This aspect involves screenings tailored to each health system's patient population, program scope and overall goals. Using clinically validated and patient-centric questions, the screening process identifies where the partnership will go moving forward. "You need to first identify the target patient population and then design a screen to identify and better understand their resource needs," says Ms. Quinn.

2. Workforce. Because clinicians often don't have the time or capacity to address patients' social needs, Health Leads' approach utilizes community health workers to assist with this work. Using a specific workforce for social needs give physicians and nurses more time to focus on clinical care. As Ms. Quinn notes, "You need to identify a workforce that can be focused on addressing social needs as a distinct part of their job."

3. Workflow. For a system's social needs strategy program to succeed, it should be completely integrated into the clinical workflow process. Health Leads works with each health system to help it understand the potential workflow challenges and how to solve them. For example, Health Leads ensures the system comprehends the significance of following up with patients after their visit. In addition, Health Leads works specifically with care teams to make sure they understand the processes involved in integrating a social needs strategy.

4. Resource directory. Health Leads created its own directory called Health Leads Reach. Through the cloud-based resource directory and case management system, any workforce focused on addressing social needs can find and search thousands of nearby community resources and create a tailored list that will help meet each patient's needs.

"We spend 400 man hours a week updating Reach," says Ms. Quinn. "Because information like phone numbers, addresses and eligibility requirements change for 40 percent of resources each year, keeping the resource directory up-to-date is critical to making successful resource connections and building trust with a patient."

5. Analysis and ROI. Tracking success in every aspect of the program is vital to Health Leads' approach. Through Health Leads Reach, the organization is able co-design reports with partners like Contra Costa to look at a variety of factors, from patient demographics to patient outcomes to the number of patients who accessed certain resources. "This allows us to support our partners to better understanding the effectiveness of their social needs intervention. In addition, we can use the aggregate data for advocacy work, such as identifying the most used resources and major resource gaps in the local landscape," Ms. Quinn says.

6. Leadership and change. Leaders' commitment to addressing patients' social needs is key for these interventions to work. According to Ms. Quinn, before Health Leads partnered with Contra Costa, Ms. Roth and her team focused on addressing social needs nationwide. Since the partnership began, Contra Costa's leadership team has worked side-by-side with Health Leads to design the intervention that best fits the needs of Contra Costa patients and providers. This type of leadership and commitment that has led to Contra Costa's success.



Contra Costa Regional Medical Center's recent triumphs aren't going to stop it from working even more intensely to reach its overall goal: "to make addressing social needs a standard part of healthcare in Contra Costa County," in the words of Ms. Roth. "With Health Leads' support, we're pioneers," she adds. "I have a lot of passion, a lot of hope, but we can't do it alone."

Meeting patients' social needs is becoming a greater priority with CMS' recent Accountable Health Communities model that launched in January. Through the model, CMS awarded 44 agreements worth between $1 million and $4.5 million to organizations  be they hospitals, health systems, government entities or higher education institutes. Agreement recipients "will partner with state Medicaid agencies, clinical delivery sites and community service providers and are responsible for coordinating community efforts to improve linkage between clinical care and community services," according to CMS.

The effort continues as both the government and organizations like Health Leads work to address the disparity between healthcare and meeting patients' social needs. "The reality is people are suffering all around us," Ms. Roth says. "I don't see it as a challenge, but as a mandate for us to develop these new skills. It's time and it's overdue."
Rocky Allen, the surgical technologist accused of swapping needles to obtain an opioid from Swedish Medical Center, has tested positive for HIV.

Blood test results, released by federal prosecutors this week with Mr. Allen's consent, show he carries HIV (subtype B) but is negative for Hepatitis B and C.

In January, a staff member at Englewood, Colo.-basedSwedish Medical Center witnessed Mr. Allen swap out a syringe of fentanyl citrate with another syringe containing a different substance. Mr. Allen later submitted to a urinalysis, which tested positive for fentanyl and marijuana.

Swedish Medical Center asked approximately 3,000 surgical patients potentially affected by Mr. Allen's actions to be tested for HIV, Hepatitis B and C free of charge. About 2,000 of the patients have taken advantage of the free blood testing and so far there has been no evidence of disease transmission, either from Mr. Allen to a patient or from patient to patient.

Mr. Allen was indicted by a federal grand jury in Denver on charges of tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit. If convicted, he faces up to fourteen years in federal prison and up to a $500,000 fine.

Allen is currently out on bond and residing in a halfway house. He worked at Swedish from August 2015 to January 2016. He had been fired from at least four other hospitals before he was hired by Swedish.

More articles on drug diversion:

Several hospitals sued after former employee accused of drug diversion

Seattle hospital cited for deficiencies in case of surgical tech charged with drug theft

Seattle hospital notifies patients of infection risk linked to former surgical tech
United Health Services' Johnson City, N.Y.-based Wilson Medical Center appointed Saeed Bajwa, MD, director of neurosciences, according to EIN News.

Here are six highlights:

1. Dr. Bajwa currently serves as director of neurosurgery at Southern New York NeuroSurgical Group, which joined United Heath Services Medical Group in 2016.

2. In his new role, Dr. Bajwa will help with marketing and improving patient care.

3. He will also develop clinical research and oversee the expansion of the neuro-radiology, pain management, stroke, neuro-intensive care, and endovascular neurology service lines.

4. At Wilson Medical Center, Dr. Bajwa will treat spinal cord injuries, brain injures, seizure disorders and neurological conditions.

5. The Leading Physicians of the World recently honored Dr. Bajwa.

6. Dr. Bajwa earned his medical degree at Nishtar Medical College in Pakistan, and completed his residencies at Combined Military Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Nagorno Karabakh says overnight June 1-2 Azerbaijan fired sniper rifles and AGS-17 grenade launcher at the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact.

The NKR Defense Ministrys announcement reads: Overnight June 1-2 the situation, in general, was calm in the line of contact between Karabakh-Azerbaijani opposing forces.

The Azerbaijani side violated the ceasefire agreement mainly firing various caliber weapons, sniper rifles and AGS-17 grenade launcher (2 shells) at several directions of the contact line.

The Defense Army forces exercised restraint, did not respond to the Azerbaijani provocative actions and continued confidently carrying out their military duties.
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Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons continue to be under pressure, with sales declining at each of the businesses during the last quarter

While sales at the big four supermarkets continue to fall, shoppers are not turning on them entirely, figures show.

Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons continue to be under pressure, with sales declining at each of the businesses during the last quarter.

However, Tesco showed the smallest drop in sales of 1%, in a sign it is stabilising in comparison to historic declines over the past two years, Kantar Worldpanel said.

The market was "essentially flat", posting value growth of just 0.1%, but the figures show consumers are sharing their spending around retailers rather than turning away from the big four.

Kantar Worldpanel director Edward Garner said: "While the big four are struggling to keep their share, what's clear is consumers aren't flocking away from stores - their combined shopper numbers have dropped only 0.2% in the latest 12 weeks."

Regional figures are due out shortly.
Workers at Belfasts Tiger, which has been compared to Ikeas marketplace section

Danish retailer Tiger hopes to open up to six stores and create more than 40 jobs in Northern Ireland by the end of next year.

Gillian Maxwell, director of Tiger Ireland, said the success of its Belfast branch on Castle Lane - its only fixed shop here so far - had prompted the expansion plan.

She added the company would be exploring a possible second location in the city, along with a branch in Londonderry and others in shopping centres and large towns across the province.

The businesswoman - who had no retail experience before joining Tiger - said the Belfast branch had done very well since opening in autumn last year.

"After the performance of the Belfast store, we thought, 'Why wouldn't we open more as we've had such a great start in Belfast and such positive feedback?'"

The business, which will soon be rebranded to become Flying Tiger Copenhagen, in line with its Danish parent company, also plans to open up to 12 new locations in the Republic, which will boost its all-island store estate by 50%.

Ms Maxwell, a former recruitment consultant, said she decided to help bring the Tiger brand to Ireland after falling for its products when she went into one of its London stores for the first time.

Tiger Ireland is now half-owned by Ms Maxwell and her husband Niall Stringer, with the remainder held by the Danish parent company.

Its goods, from toys to cutlery and more, are similar to those found in the marketplace section of Ikea, another Scandinavian retailer.

Ms Maxwell said the Belfast store had worked well despite an earlier disappointment in Newry in 2012, when a pop-up store in the Quays Shopping Centre failed to take hold over Christmas of that year.

She added that bottled water and white candles had been Belfast's top sellers, along with red-ribbon rolls and moustache-topped pens. "What we are offering is a really fun and quirky shop environment selling products that customers didn't know existed," Ms Maxwell added.

"We'll also sell people the things they need, but made in a high-design and quirky way."

Many of the firm's Republic of Ireland stores are on high streets, though it is likely to study setting up in shopping centres here. "The right location for us is anywhere that will have high footfall," Ms Maxwell said.

Shoe shop Ecco - also a Danish business - was a neighbour of Tiger but is now relocating to Victoria Square Shopping Centre.
Ardal OHanlon paints postboxes in Dublin as part of the show

Newry TV production company Big Mountain has won a major deal to make a Channel 4 travel show about Ireland.

Ardal's Ireland will be hosted by Father Ted actor and comedian Ardal O'Hanlon. And to take him around the Emerald Isle, he will rely on an 1840s guidebook written by Mr and Mrs S C Hall - commissioned to tempt English visitors to Ireland.

Filming has already taken place in locations around the Republic. During filming in Dublin, the actor helped repaint postboxes after they were turned red ahead of commemorations for the Easter Rising centenary.

Over the next few weeks, crews will accompany Monaghan-born O'Hanlon around Northern Ireland tourist haunts.

Big Mountain has also made Genealogy Roadshow for US TV - season three is currently being aired - and BBC 2 programme Opry an Iuir, a country music show filmed in Newry.

Jane Kelly, an executive producer at Big Mountain, said the programme was a "substantial commission".

The company uses betweeen 10 and 100 crew members on its programmes..

In 2012 Big Mountain received 80,000 from Invest NI towards a total investment of 480,000 to help its bid to develop programme formats to sell overseas.
Workers at the plant in Lisburn, which has been bought up by Greybull Capital

Tata Steel in Lisburn is set to be rebranded as British Steel after the completion of the sale of the firm's long products division.

Greybull Capital has bought the arm of the business, securing around 70 jobs in Lisburn, as well as thousands of jobs at a huge plant in Scunthorpe.

The Moira Road site was the base of Tata's Ireland-wide distribution network and contained part of the firm's strip products division, which is still for sale.

Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said he hoped to meet the new owners of the plant in the near future.

"I welcome this development and I'm delighted that thousands of British jobs will be safeguarded as a result," he added.

"But it remains to be seen what impact this will have on the Lisburn site, though I am hopeful it will secure the jobs."

Bimlendra Jha, chief executive of Tata Steel UK, said: "As a responsible seller, Tata Steel is delighted to have secured a buyer for this business, and we hope that under Greybull Capital ownership the business will continue the momentum of the improvement programme that has been initiated in the last 12 months.

"Employees and trade unions have worked closely with the long products Europe management team to improve the business's prospects, putting it in a more competitive position than it has been for many years.

"It is through their dedication and hard work that we are in this position today in spite of continued challenges in the market."

The Community union's general secretary, Roy Rickhuss, added: "Community warmly welcomes the opening of this new chapter in the course of the UK steel industry.

"It also demonstrates that there is the chance of a brighter future for steelmaking in the UK, with the right vision and investment.

"British Steel is built on firm foundations with a skilled, experienced and dedicated workforce determined to make a success of the business.

"They have a proud track record of delivering high-quality long products to flagship construction and infrastructure products around the world. The turnaround plan agreed between management and unions is already yielding positive results."

The long products business includes the Scunthorpe steelworks, two mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington, a design consultancy in York and associated distribution facilities - including Lisburn - as well as a rail mill in France. The business employs 4,800 people - 4,400 in the UK.

Tata continues to assess bids to buy the rest of its UK business. British Steel commercial director Peter Hogg said yesterday was a landmark day for the business.
Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard, who are divorcing after 15 months of marriage

Johnny Depp's estranged wife Amber Heard appears to have a bruised eye and cut lip in new pictures she claims were the result of his abuse.

The actress says she "truly feared for her life" during an incident in December 2015, according to her court filing accusing Depp of domestic violence.

Heard, who has filed for divorce after 15 months of marriage, has been granted a temporary restraining order against the Hollywood star.

In her application for the order, she claims Depp was verbally and physically abusive to her for the "entirety" of their four-year-relationship.

Depp has not responded to the photographs - which appear in the new issue of People magazine - or the allegations, but his divorce lawyer Laura Wasser said in court documents that Heard is "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse".

Heard has already claimed that Depp argued with her on April 21 after showing up at the end of her 30th birthday party "inebriated and high", grabbed her by the hair and "violently shoved me to the floor".

She also said he threw a mobile phone at her, "striking my cheek and eye with great force" during an altercation on May 21 - when he "began obsessing about something that was untrue".

Los Angeles police have said they responded to that incident, but found no evidence of a crime.

Heard's lawyers said she did not initially give a statement to police because she was trying to protect her privacy and Depp's reputation career.

The new issue of People will be on American newstands on Friday.
The former Top Gear trio will head to South Africa

Fans in Johannesburg will get the first glimpse of Jeremy Clarkson's new Amazon Prime motoring show The Grand Tour.

The first studio recording for the show, which also stars Richard Hammond and James May, will take place in South Africa in July, the streaming service announced.

The pre-recorded studio segments will be filmed in a large tent in front of a live audience in locations around the world.

Fans can compete to win tickets to the taping, as well as travel and accommodation, by sharing a photo or video of the most unusual place they have pitched a tent in the hopes of giving the stars inspiration of where else to take their tent.

The top 10 entries shared by June 8 with the hashtag #TheGrandTourJoburg will be shortlisted by Amazon before Clarkson, Hammond and May select the final three winners.

Jay Marine, vice president of Amazon Video Europe, said: " We love that Jeremy, Richard and James are touring the studio recordings of The Grand Tour, bringing this Amazon Prime show to fans around the world.

"Given the popularity of Jeremy, Richard and James in South Africa, Johannesburg is a fantastic place to start. We're excited to give fans the opportunity to be part of the first ever live studio audience for The Grand Tour."

Tickets for recordings in other countries will be released through prize draws this summer before the show will launch on Amazon Prime this Autumn.

The show's Facebook page shows the trio have already filmed in Portugal,Germany, Barbados and North Africa.

Former Top Gear presenter Clarkson was suspended and then later fired by the BBC last year after a "fracas" that saw him punch Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon.

His co-presenters Hammond and May quit the show shortly after.

Clarkson was replaced on the show by radio DJ Chris Evans, who was joined by former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc and an extensive cast of co-presenters.

The news series made its debut on Sunday to more than four million viewers and mixed reviews.

May joked on Twitter: "Here we go. Chosen by Richard Hammond, who's run out of biltong."

With one excited South African fan asking if the news was "for real", Hammond suggested a braai - Afrikaans for barbecue.

"Yes, for real. We'll have to have a Bra, a Bray, a, oh you know, a South African barbecue," he wrote.

Clarkson tweeted: "So there we are. First stop on our Grand Tour is Johannesburg. Mid July. Details on how to get tickets follow shortly."
Portraying Gene Hunt in Life On Mars is similar to James Bond stars who will always carry that association, Philip Glenister says

Philip Glenister says playing tough-talking fictional detective Gene Hunt has been "more a help than a hindrance" to his career, but he is not sure it would be "wise" to resurrect the character.

The British actor said portraying the foul-mouthed chief inspector in Life On Mars was similar to James Bond actors who will "always be associated" with the role.

Glenister, 52, starred as DCI Hunt in the BBC One drama which ran from 2006 to 2007, before playing the same character in the follow-up Ashes To Ashes from 2008 to 2010.

Asked whether playing Hunt had been a help or a hindrance to his career, Glenister told the Press Association: "You could say a bit of both. More a help than a hindrance. It gets your name around.

"I think everyone has it at some stage. Whether you're playing James Bond, you'll always be associated with James Bond, or whether you're Doctor Who. It's not a bad tag to have to carry around.

"I've always done other things since I stopped playing him."

Glenister had previously told the Radio Times he was open to making a Life On Mars movie "in some form" after he discussed the idea with his former co-star John Simm.

But he told the Press Association: "I can't really see it happening.

"I was speaking with John about a month ago. We had lunch together and we said if the opportunity came up and someone said, 'Hey, let's do a movie of Life On Mars', then you'd have a look at the script for sure.

"I don't know whether that would be a wise thing to do. It's the agnostic answer. Never say never."

Glenister's latest alter-ego is a hard-bitten West Virginian clergyman in the American television series Outcast, written by The Walking Dead comic book creator Robert Kirkman.

The series follows a troubled young man who, along with the reverend, battles demonic possession.

Speaking at the premiere of the show in a cemetery in Los Angeles, Glenister joked that the success of British actors in the US - including Andrew Lincoln in The Walking Dead - was because they were "cheap".

"The Americans are very embracing of us," Glenister said. "They think we're all highly trained and very well behaved and turn up and learn our lines, and know our lines, and we go to bed on time. It's so not true.

"While we can keep that idea going, hopefully we'll be working. We have Americans coming over as well so it's a nice reciprocal thing.

"TV, particularly in America, is going through a really strong stage. The best writing is definitely coming out of television so everyone wants to be making it."

:: The opening episode of Outcast airs on Fox UK on Tuesday at 10pm.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Head of the Armenian National Committee of Germany A. Aznavuryan says all political factions of the German Bundestag support the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution.

This time should not be the same as in the previous case. This time they all should say that genocide took place. Moreover, they should speak about the criminal role of Germany in the genocide, as well as they should raise the issue of opening the Armenian-Turkish borders. The political forces gave such promises and now we see that they take steps towards that path, he stated.

He said the deterioration of relations with Turkey over the refugee issue created favorable conditions. The public has such a perception that German Government will do everything for Turks over the refugee issue. This phenomenon is so humiliating that people started not to elect that famous parties, which in its turn created concern among the political circles, he said stating that Turkey, whether it wants or not, indirectly contributes to this process.

Aznavuryan said Turkey puts strong pressures in terms of various threatening statements. The Turkish side states the adoption of the resolution will worsen the German-Turkish relations. He informed that the Turkish organizations hold various protests in Germany.

There are many protests, however, we are used to it. People are fed up with the Turkish intervention. So, I think, now it is a very appropriate moment for the resolution. If the resolution will be adopted, it means that Germany will officially recognize the 1915 events as genocide. The adoption of the resolution is very important for Armenia from the psychological point of view. Eventually, it will be confirmed that Turkey is a criminal, he highlighted.

Discussions over the Armenian Genocide draft resolution will be held in the German Bundestag, on June 2 at 11:10 local time. The discussions will be broadcast vie net: www.bundestag.de

In 2005, Germany's parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian massacres, deportations and ethnic cleanings. However, in the Bundestags decision, the term Armenian Genocide was avoided, and instead "massacres of Armenians" was used.

On April 24, before the Bundestag hearings, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that he supports those MPs, who are in favor of calling the mass killings of Armenians Genocide. On April 23, during the ceremony in the Berlin Cathedral dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide, German President Joachim Gauck used the term Genocide in his speech.

In March of 2015, the President of the German Parliament Norbert Lammert said: "what happened in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War in front of the whole world, was genocide. And it was not the last genocide of the 20th century. During the session the leaders of various party fractions also came with their pro-Armenian statements admitting what had happened. However, the discussion of the resolution indefinitely postponed.

The heated discussion of the Armenian Genocide on February 25 at Bundestag did not terminate with voting in 2016.
Michelle O'Neill said the move to lift the lifetime ban on gay men giving blood was evidence of new resolve

The Stormont Executive's move to lift the gay blood ban is proof of the new-look administration's resolve to work together on the main issues facing Northern Ireland, the health minister has said.

Michelle O'Neill was keen to point out her announcement came hours after what she characterised as another positive sign of progress - new DUP Education Minister Peter Weir visiting Irish language-speaking school Colaiste Feirste in Belfast.

"We clearly set out that we are interested in a fresh start," said the Sinn Fein minister.

"I think that today if you take this announcement (on gay blood) and Peter Weir as the new education minister visiting Colaiste Feirste, I think that shows that there is a very clear indication that Sinn Fein and the DUP, as the main government parties, want to work together, want to tackle the main issues head-on and we want to build trust and confidence in those people out in society who have actually elected us to do the job."

Politics has entered a new era in Northern Ireland in the wake of the Assembly election after erstwhile junior executive partners the Ulster Unionists, SDLP and Alliance chose not to re-enter the coalition executive and instead scrutinise the government from the opposition benches.

The move is set to significantly alter the dynamic inside the assembly chamber and around the executive table.

Independent Assembly member Claire Sugden is now the only minister who is not a member of the DUP and Sinn Fein.

The DUP has previously been critical of the level of funding allocated to the Irish language sector.

Mr Weir visited Colaiste Feirste to view progress on a new 15.5 million extension and meet with staff and pupils.

"I welcome the opportunity to be here today to see the positive impact that investment has on our schools estate," he said.

"The new facilities will provide an enhanced educational environment for the pupils and the staff at the school for many years to come.

"In addition to the improved provision for the school, such investment also provides a boost to the local construction industry.

"Meeting pupils and school staff is an enjoyable part of my new role as Education Minister and I am looking forward to future visits to schools across Northern Ireland."
Firefighters at the scene of the blaze on Greyabbeys Main Street

The daughter of a Greyabbey man rescued from his burning home on Tuesday morning has thanked three men for bravely saving her father's life.

Maurice Brown, who is in his 50s, was found unconscious in an upstairs bedroom yesterday morning on the village's Main Street after smoke was seen coming from the roof.

His daughter, Christine Andrews, said she heard that three men had entered the building to pull him to safety.

Among them was Portaferry-based trainee fireman George Toma, who had stopped on his way to work at around 7am after noticing smoke.

Taking a fire extinguisher from his car, Mr Toma entered the heavily smoke-logged building with two others.

After the dramatic rescue, firefighters from Ballywalter Fire Station were soon on the scene to tackle the flames. Mr Brown was given oxygen until ambulance crews arrived to take him to the Ulster Hospital.

Christine said she had been told that Richard Gilmore, a builder in the local area, had also taken part in the rescue, along with another man who is yet to be identified.

"My dad is doing fine now - he's out of hospital," she added. "Someone rang me from the street when they had just got him from the house.

"It was such a good thing to hear. We all just followed him up to the hospital after that.

"They were very brave, the people who came into the house to save him. I'd like to thank them very much.

"It was a very brave act of them to do, and it just shows that there are a lot of good people out there who are willing to help a stranger.

"I'm just thankful that we had a good outcome today and that my father is fine and walked away from hospital."

Lloyd Crawford, southern area commander for the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service (NIFRS) said: "I would like to commend the quick thinking, bravery and decisiveness shown by George this morning.

"His actions potentially saved a life today. He embodies what working for the NIFRS is all about. George has all the attributes we look for in a retained firefighter and will be an asset to the local community.

"I would also like to pay tribute to the actions of the neighbours in supporting George and also to the firefighters who attended the incident."

The blaze is being treated as accidental and assessors are due to visit the property today for an inspection.
There's a familiar pattern to it by now. Jude Collins says something outrageous, because he's Jude Collins. Then, when challenged, he stubbornly refuses to back down. Because he's Jude Collins.

That only makes things worse. But, of course, being Jude Collins, he just keeps on digging, until we remember that, well, it is just Jude Collins and, taking pity, decide to ignore him, the way you do when the man sitting next to you on the bus starts shouting about how the government is putting mind control chemicals in the water supply. Finally, blessed silence returns. Until the next time Jude says something stupid, when we all make the mistake of listening again.

There's always a next time.

Because he's Jude Collins.

The befuddled media commentator's latest flirtation with controversy came when he compared dissident republicans with the Boys' Brigade, on the grounds that members of the Christian youth organisation also walk in formation on certain occasions and call one another "Sergeant" and "Lance Corporal". And, er, that's it.

The Boys' Brigade was less than pleased.

Understandably.

At which point, Jude had two choices - concede that he'd chosen his words unwisely, or go down in flames in line with his divine mission to defend Irish nationalism and republicanism from each and every slight, however justified. Obviously, he chose the latter. He is Jude Collins, after all.

It's possible, at a stretch, to have some sympathy for him. It's one of the perils of being a professional opinionator that you will occasionally go too far and the right to be offensive is an intrinsic part of free speech.

But learning how to respond to criticism is part of the job description, too. That's one skill Jude has never mastered, mainly because he sees everything as a conspiracy against the holy green brotherhood and regards it as his duty, therefore, to defend the indefensible.

Name a children's playground after an IRA hunger striker, only to discover that most people consider that a tad inappropriate? Don't worry, Jude will be along in a moment to say the council has planted trees in memory of the UDR, so what's the difference?

Worried because People Before Profit is taking votes from Sinn Fein? Up pops Jude to have a go at them for not campaigning more strongly against partition, because, if you're Jude Collins, a united Ireland is practically all you ever think about.

He's like some half-baked local superhero. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Whataboutery Man, swooping in to every row with his Little Red Book of Historical Half-Truths.

When Terry Wogan died, he even complained that the late broadcaster hadn't done enough to highlight British misdeeds in Northern Ireland. No, seriously, that's what he said.

This is exactly how the latest row happened. By his own account, Jude was browsing on Twitter when he came across artist Brian John Spencer lamenting a picture of children at a dissident republican parade in Lurgan.

On went the cape and off Jude flew to the fray by tweeting a picture of the Boys' Brigade with the comment: "A bit like this then?"

That's classic Jude Collins. He rarely engages with the substance of an argument - in this case, that children and dissident republicanism is not a healthy mix - and, instead, tosses in some fatuous comparison that misses the point.

Later, he hit Google and came up with some dubious research proving (to his own satisfaction, if nobody else's) that the Boys' Brigade has a quasi-military ethos, while studiously ignoring the most salient difference between it and the dissidents.

Namely, that one of them kills people and the other one doesn't.

So, not "like this" at all, then - and even the "bit" that Jude chose to highlight was by far the least important detail.

Jude Collins may be good for filling a few minutes on Talkback, or The Nolan Show, in a slow news week, but trying to rationalise his increasingly odious remarks is like asking someone with Tourette's Syndrome to explain why they keep blurting out naughty words.

We already know why he does it.

It's because he's Jude Collins.
Alex Price (left) who will play Draco Malfoy and Anthony Boyle who will play Scorpius Malfoy in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play.Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Jamie Parker who will play Harry Potter in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Poppy Miller who will play Ginny Potter in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Cherelle Skeete who will play Rose Granger-Weasley in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Paul Thornley who will play Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Paul Thornley, Noma Dumezweni and Cherelle Skeete who will play Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Rose Granger-Weasley respectively in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play.

Sam Clemmett who will play Albus Potter in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play.Set 19 years after the books ended, Harry is now an "overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic", juggling his career with three children. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Noma Dumezweni who will play Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play.Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Jamie Parker, Sam Clemmett and Poppy Miller who will play Harry Potter, Albus Potter and Ginny Potter respectively in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Alex Price who will play Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

Anthony Boyle who will play Scorpius Malfoy in the Harry Potter And The Cursed Child stage play. Charlie Gray/PA Wire

This is the first photo of a young Northern Irish actor in his new guise as the son of Harry Potters arch-rival Draco Malfoy.

Potter fans anxious to see how Harrys Hogwarts nemesis has grown up have been given their first look at an adult Draco, played by Alex Price.

But his lookalike son Scorpius  played by Anthony Boyle from Poleglass  could steal the show, titled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Author JK Rowling teased on Pottermore that Scorpius will "do nothing to turn girls off the Malfoy men", adding: "I love Draco and Scorpius  they actually look related!"

Price, who will step into the role of the Slytherin wizard, has previously appeared in television dramas Merlin, Penny Dreadful and Doctor Who  with theatre credits including 3 Winters, Birdland and Before the Party.

Belfast-based actor Boyle, who will become first year Hogwarts student Scorpius, is a relative newcomer.

The 22 year-olds theatre credits include Herons at the Lyric Theatre Belfast and East Belfast Boy, which he co-wrote, at Ballymac Friendship Centre, while his television credits include Game of Thrones.

In East Belfast Boy portrayed a young loyalist who talked about his family, school, paramilitaries and girls in the critically acclaimed monologue.

Blonde-haired Scorpius is shown in his school uniform before he is sorted into his Hogwarts house, so the audience will have to wait and see if he follows in his fathers footsteps and becomes a Slytherin student.

Harry Potter And The Cursed Child  a new play by Jack Thorne based on a story by him, Rowling and director John Tiffany  will gets its world premiere in Londons West End in July.

Set 19 years after the books ended, Harry is now an "overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic", juggling his career with three children.

The plot for the play reads: "While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted.

"As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places."

Part One and Part Two open at the Palace Theatre on July 30, with previews taking place from June 7.

Price said: "The world outside has been brilliantly marshalled and been kept away from us by our producers.

"Its only slowly starting to rear its head now and its intimidating, a little scary, but also very exciting because Jack is such a brilliant writer and hes taken the story into a great place 19 years later, particularly for Draco."

He added: "You can just feel the excitement in the building. Weve been in the Palace Theatre for over four weeks now which is where we can do all the things you couldnt do in the rehearsal room. We just cant wait to show it to everyone."

Fans have been asked to arrive an hour before the start time of each performance for security checks, including bag searches.

Information on the plays website advises: "Security checks will be taking place at the Palace Theatre. Please aim to arrive one hour before the start time of each performance in order to ensure that you are seated in good time."
A man jailed for shooting dead his wife's former lover has launched legal action over an alleged denial of education

A man jailed for shooting dead his wife's former lover has launched legal action over an alleged denial of education.

Louis Maguire is challenging the Northern Ireland Prison Service amid claims that he has been excluded from the classroom for 19 months.

The High Court heard yesterday that the dispute includes allegations of being kept out of a ceramics course.

Maguire (50) is serving a minimum 24-year sentence for the murder of David 'Digger' Barnes in Belfast in March 2003.

The attack saw gunmen break into a flat at Brookvale Avenue and shoot 39-year-old Mr Barnes as he lay in bed.

Maguire, formerly of Whinpark Road in Newtownards, Co Down, was said to have carried out the killing while on weekend leave from serving a prison sentence for robbery.

In 2006, he was jailed for the murder and a separate arson attack on the home of a relative of Mr Barnes. He is now seeking to judicially review the Prison Service for allegedly suspending him from educational courses.

Papers lodged by Maguire confirmed he was seeking to quash a decision refusing to let him return to classes unless he signs an "unwarranted" agreement, which claims that in any event the authorities are still refusing readmission to the ceramics class.

Maguire's lawyers contend the restriction breaches his human rights. The situation is understood to relate to an alleged complaint about Maguire's behaviour at HMP Maghaberry.

In court yesterday, barrister Andrew Moriarty said "positive indications" that his client would be allowed to return to classes had not yet been confirmed.

Following exchanges Mr Justice Colton adjourned the case until later this month.

Outside court Maguire's solicitor, Katie McAllister, claimed the refused access stretched back to November 2014.

She said: "It appears the decision was made on an arbitrary basis and without our client being afforded proper due process, which is wholly unacceptable and a concerning abuse of the prison's powers."
Fury has erupted after the Boys' Brigade was likened to paramilitary groups in comments branded "highly dangerous".

The organisation demanded an apology over the remarks on social media which it also slammed as "grossly offensive".

The NI district said it was "deeply saddened" by the "factually inaccurate" remarks of political commentator Jude Collins who refused to withdraw his posting.

The commentator broadly linked the youth group - which involves around 16,000 boys in almost 300 companies - to military-style organisations and said he had been subjected to a "wave of abuse".

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On Twitter on Tuesday he connected the Christian organisation to pictures of children who were involved in a dissident republican event in Lurgan last weekend.

His attack provoked a growing storm as BB bosses said: "(This) is a Christian organisation. It is non-sectarian and non-political.

"It exists to further the Christian faith and to enrich the lives of boys and young men with a wide range of activities.

"To compare a youth organisation that exists for the good of all to a masked paramilitary grouping is both grossly offensive and highly dangerous. Mr Collins should withdraw his remarks and apologise for them."

The BBC rejected unionist demands that it should no longer use Mr Collins in its programmes. The UUP said it was writing to BBC NI director Peter Johnston demanding "to know if the licence payer is sponsoring his diatribe... the BBC needs to offer clarity on their support or otherwise for this unelected spokesperson."

In his Belfast Telegraph column today, the DUP's Nelson McCausland said it was time for the BBC to reconsider their relationship with a commentator "who makes such an odious comparison".

Read More

A BBC statement said: "Jude Collins' views are not a matter for the BBC except where they relate to, or are included within, our output. This isn't the case in this instance."

Mr Collins was also slammed by DUP MLA Christopher Stalford, a member of the BB for 15 years, who said: "To continue to defend these remarks is outrageous. It is a crass comparison which is deeply hurtful."

His comments came on the BBC NI Talkback programme where presenter William Crawley - also a former BB member - told Mr Collins: "You are in a big hole. Stop digging. It's a nonsense. It is deranged."

Nonetheless, it is not the first time the veteran columnist has made the comparison. In his blog in August 2013, he admitted he had compared the "dressing up of children in IRA uniform/regalia with the Boys' Brigade".

Nor is it the first time Collins' comments have caused controversy. Troubles victim Ann Travers, who sister Mary was gunned down by the IRA when it attacked their magistrate father Tom, said Collins had compared the shooting to a bereavement by a "reckless driver".

Mrs Travers said she had been horrified at the "scenario" painted by Mr Collins about her sister's murder.

On the BB controversy, Mr Collins said he regretted if people had misinterpreted his remarks. However, he does not intend to apologise. He said: "I didn't say anything which brought the BB into disrepute.

"It does seem to me that there are overtones of militarism in the Boys' Brigade.

"The nomenclature of the Boys' Brigade is obviously modelled on the military: it's a brigade, there are companies and divisions, they have different ranks, they march, they emphasise discipline and obedience."

On his blog he went on: "The Boy Scouts, an organisation often mentioned in the same breath as the Boys' Brigade, has also carried militaristic overtones."
The widow of a man gunned down by paramilitaries has condemned a dissident republican tourism initiative as "absolutely disgusting".

Joanne McGibbon, whose husband Michael was shot in an alleyway close to the couple's north Belfast home in April, last night challenged the organisers of Uncensored Political Tours to include her family in their tour.

Condemning it as "crazy" and "justifying murder", Joanne (33) said she was horrified to learn of the tours, which are being promoted online and aimed at tourists, local people and youth groups.

She said: "It is crazy; they will actually be promoting dissident republicanism and glorifying it by running these tours.

"It is hard to believe and absolutely disgusting. They can come to my house and interview my family and my children and hear the real story of what dissident republicanism is."

Joanne, a nurse in the Royal Victoria Hospital, fought in vain to save Michael's life when he was shot in Ardoyne.

Michael's children Seana (17), Shea (8), Michaela (6) and Corry-Leigh (4) were left devastated.

Last night a stunned Joanne said: "It is hard to believe that the Government is allowing these tours to happen.

"They are supposed to be trying to catch these people and they are allowing what they do to be promoted to tourists.

"I would happily let them bring their tour to my house and ask my children what it is like to lose their father and I would happily let them know what it is like to lose my husband

"It just doesn't make any sense. It is just crazy."

The tour promises "an unapologetic and unrepentant" republican view of Belfast. The advert reads: "Welcome to Rebel Belfast - for generations the heart of the 'Unfinished Revolution' against the continuing British occupation, imperialism and injustice in Ireland.

"Uncensored Political Tours offer a range of tours facilitated by political activists giving an unapologetic and unrepentant genuine republican analysis of historical events and contemporary political developments within the areas and locations that shaped, define and are most affected by them.

"These tours are intended to give a truthful and factual account of the republican narrative to local people, youth/community organisations and visitors to Ireland."

It is understood that the new business venture will also be promoted to American tourists seeking to trace their ancestral roots here.

DUP MLA William Humphrey said: "I have no doubt that there will be a small minority of people who may buy into this warped and evil logic but the majority of sensible people will have no part whatsoever in this venture.

"Anyone who takes such a 'tour' will hear nothing more than a jaundiced view of politics and one that will also no doubt be historically inaccurate.

"As for the 'unfinished revolution' the people of Northern Ireland - the electorate - show that support for the Union is already strong and is actually growing stronger.

"I've no doubt there will be people in Irish America who may buy into this but they need to understand that a jaundiced view will be all they are getting.

"The people running these tours are not legitimate, they have no electoral support and are also without the support of their community. They are a small minority."

His views were echoed by SDLP MLA Alex Attwood who blasted the operators as "clinging to the past".

"It says everything about these groupings that they say they are 'unrepentant and unapologetic' about the past," he said.

"This is a past that saw civilians bearing the scale of violence and death, hundreds of families bereaved, soldiers and police officers murdered, kangaroo courts, so-called punishment attacks, the destruction of the economy and of jobs and much besides. These groups glorify violence and show contempt for the enormous democratic struggle that created the new politics, new policing and new potential in the future.

"Be it these groups or more mainstream republicans who cling to the past and validate anti-democratic and anti-national armed struggle, they do not represent the people of Ireland."

No one from Sinn Fein wished to comment.

The tour operator did not respond to a request for comment.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The Government of Armenia approved the signing of the agreement on visa-free mutual visits between the citizens of Armenia and Iran.

Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan said the signing of the agreement will develop the bilateral relations between Armenia and Iran, will strengthen the mutually beneficial economic, trade and other ties.

The agreement aims to settle the regime of mutual visits between the Armenian and Iranian citizens. It defines that the citizens of the two states can travel with civilian and diplomatic passports to Armenia and Iran without visa, can leave and stay in Armenia and Iran for a maximum 90 days within 180 days.

The signing of the agreement will boost the development of tourism between the two states and will create favorable conditions for mutual visits of citizens of Armenia and Iran, Kocharyan stated.
Health Minister Michelle O'Neill with John O'Doherty from The Rainbow Project at the organisation's offices in Belfast

A controversial lifetime ban on gay men donating blood in Northern Ireland is to be lifted.

The decision by Stormont Health Minister Michelle O'Neill comes after a long campaign by gay-rights activists in the region and a series of court battles over the contentious prohibition.

A similar ban was ended in England, Scotland and Wales in 2011 and replaced with rules that allowed gay men to give blood 12 months after their last sexual encounter with another man.

The lifetime ban had been retained in Northern Ireland by successive Democratic Unionist health ministers, who cited blood safety concerns.

The announcement comes only eight days after Sinn Fein assumed the health ministry in the wake of May's Assembly election.

While Ms O'Neill made the decision, it was not opposed by her DUP colleagues in the Stormont Executive.

"I think it is a good news story for the Executive to have taken this position," the minister said as she announced the move in Belfast at LGBT health organisation the Rainbow Project.

"I think it is a good news story for the LGBT community. It is a decision I have taken based on medical evidence that was put before me, which clearly shows that this was the right decision to take."

Ms O'Neill said evidence from the rest of the UK showed the risks around blood safety reduced with the introduction of the one-year deferral policy.

The lifetime ban will officially be removed in September.

John O'Doherty, director of the Rainbow Project, described the announcement as "absolutely fantastic".

"We knew when minister O'Neill was appointed she was going to remove the blood ban, we didn't necessarily expect it so soon, but we very much welcome it," he said.

The blood ban was one of a number of LGBT issues that have stirred controversy at Stormont.

The most high profile remaining dispute is over the ongoing ban on same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.

Mr O'Doherty said he hoped progress could be made on that issue and others in the new Assembly term.

"This is a new opportunity with a new executive," he said.

"We are taking nothing as read, we look forward to engaging with all ministers as we have done with the health minister today."

In the most recent court judgement on the gay blood ban, the Court of Appeal decided the decision on whether to lift the ban rested with Stormont, not the UK Health Secretary.

A previous ruling that had found former DUP health minister Edwin Poots had acted with pre-determined bias, based on his Christian beliefs, in retaining the ban was overturned.
Woodvale Park where a World War 1 memorial has been vandalised with spray paint. Picture By: Arthur Allison/ Pacemaker Press

Woodvale Park where a World War 1 memorial has been vandalised with spray paint. Picture By: Arthur Allison/ Pacemaker Press

Woodvale Park where a World War 1 memorial has been vandalised with spray paint. Picture By: Arthur Allison/ Pacemaker Press

Woodvale Park where a World War 1 memorial has been vandalised with spray paint. Picture By: Arthur Allison/ Pacemaker Press

Woodvale Park where a World War 1 memorial has been vandalised with spray paint. Picture By: Arthur Allison/ Pacemaker Press

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed and kicked over, whilst the tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans. Picture: Freddie Parkinson/Press Eye  Thursday 2nd June 2016

Woodvale Park where a World War 1 memorial has been vandalised with spray paint. Picture By: Arthur Allison/ Pacemaker Press

A WW1 memorial has had paint thrown over it and daubed with IRA slogan graffiti in north Belfast.

It is the third time the European Great War Memorial has been attacked in the past weeks. In the most recent attack wreaths were stolen and flowers in the surrounding flower beds were ripped up.

Read more:

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The memorial was sprayed with IRA slogans, the tablet at the nearby Peace Tree daubed with paint and kicked over.

The tree itself was also sprayed with IRA slogans.

Police are currently investigating and anyone with information are asked to contact officers.

North Belfast DUP MLA William Humphrey who is also Honorary Vice President of the City of Belfast Branch of the Army Benevolent Fund condemned the attack.

He said: "Only in the last few days we have been marking the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland, and next month we will commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. There is a growing recognition of the shared sacrifice across during the First World War.

"The attack on this memorial is a hate crime, motivated by nothing short of blind bigotry. The memorial has been subjected to repeated attacks over recent weeks in what is clearly a concerted campaign. Those who attacked the memorial are obviously ignorant of the fact that it is totally inclusive, given that it remembers German soldiers.

"This memorial was put in place through the hard work of the Army Benevolent Fund and I will continue to work with my colleagues in the ABF to ensure the memorial is restored and will continue to stand as a fitting memorial to those who died in the Great War"

'DESPICABLE'

Alliance north Belfast councillor Nuala McAllister called it a "despicable act".

She said: It is utterly appalling anyone could resort to attacking a memorial to men who died serving their country in a world war.

This was simply a despicable act of wanton vandalism and will result in nothing but revulsion across the community. It is vital we each have respect, a respect that was clearly not shown in this attack.

I would urge anyone with information contact the police immediately.

It comes as Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness paid tribute to the thousands of British soldiers killed on the battlefields of the First World War as part of his Somme visit.

Mr McGuinness claimed his trip was about "reaching out the hand of friendship to unionists".

He said it was a "sincere effort to recognise the human suffering and also the importance these events hold for the unionist section of our people".
Two former executives in Anglo Irish Bank have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud following the longest-running criminal trial in the Republic of Ireland's history.

Anglo's former head of Capital Markets, John Bowe, and the bank's former finance director, Willie McAteer, had denied conspiring with former Irish Life and Permanent executives, Denis Casey and Peter Fitzpatrick, and others to mislead depositors, lenders and investors by making Anglo Irish Bank's corporate deposits look larger than they actually were.

Bowe, from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer, of Greenrath, Tipperary town, Co Tipperary; Casey, from Raheny, Dublin; and Fitzpatrick, of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin, all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn circular-transaction scheme.

The prosecution alleged that McAteer authorised a 7.2bn scheme between March 1, 2008 and September 30, 2008 to bolster Anglo's balance sheet and that Bowe was involved in executing it.

The unanimous guilty verdicts against Bowe and McAteer were returned yesterday afternoon after almost 38 hours of jury deliberations over the course of nine days at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court.

The jury will resume deliberations in relation to Mr Casey and Mr Fitzpatrick this morning, the 85th day of the trial.

Conspiracy to defraud is one of a series of inchoate (early stage but not complete) offences. The offence of conspiracy to defraud is not on the statute books and trial judge Martin Nolan will have discretion on what sentence to impose.

Bowe (52) and McAteer (65) were on trial accused of conspiring to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo.

Judge Nolan remanded the two men on continuing bail until Friday after hearing that there was no objection to bail.

There was no reaction from the men when the verdicts were read out at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court.

The verdicts came after the jury had queried whether the verdicts that they had reached on two counts would impinge on the other two counts.

The judge told the jury that to bring in guilty verdicts, the jurors must find at least two people conspired together.

The State's case was that the four men were involved in setting up a circular scheme of billion-euro transactions where Anglo lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back, via their assurance firm Irish Life Assurance, to Anglo.

The scheme was designed so that the deposits came from the assurance company and would be treated as customer deposits, which are considered a better measure of a bank's strength than inter-bank loans.

The 7.2bn deposit was later accounted for in Anglo's preliminary results on December 3, 2008, as part of Anglo's customer deposits figure.

The prosecution alleged that the entire objective of the scheme was to mislead anybody reading Anglo's accounts by artificially inflating the customer deposits number from 44bn to 51bn, a difference of 16pc.

Lawyers for the Anglo accused had argued that their clients believed that the deposits were real deposits and were accounted for correctly on Anglo's balance sheet and so no fraud was carried out.

The prosecution argued that there was no commercial substance to the transactions and that their only purpose was to deceive.

Lawyers defending the former ILP executives argued that their clients had no control over how Anglo would account for the deposits and had no intention to mislead the public.

The guilty bankers

Willie McAteer

Donegal native Willie McAteer was one of the most senior executives at Anglo Irish Bank by the time of the crash, and was a director with a seat at the board.

Originally trained as a chartered accountant he eventually joined Anglo Irish Bank in 1992.

For much of his 15 years with the bank, he helped oversee the period of massive growth which lasted until the crash.

By 2008, Mr McAteer was second-in-command after David Drumm at Anglo Irish Bank, and as finance director he was responsible for managing risk as well as finance at the lender.

John Bowe

Career banker John Bowe joined Anglo Irish Bank in 2001 as head of its debt capital markets unit, part of the bank that borrowed on the markets and dealt with other lenders. He previously worked at a number of other banks.

By 2006 he had been appointed to Anglos senior executive board, putting him just below director level. His job at the bank, of keeping cash at adequate levels, became intense during the crisis, as international firms pulled billions in deposits out of Anglo.

Mr Bowe continued to work with Anglo after it was taken over by the State. He was part of a team that dealt with the restructuring of the Quinn Group loans.

The charge

Bowe and McAteer pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn circular transaction scheme between March 1 and September 30, 2008 in order to bolster Anglos balance sheet.

The States case was that the four men were involved in setting up a circular scheme of billion-euro transactions where Anglo Irish Bank lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back to Anglo via its assurance firm, Irish Life Assurance.

On Wednesday, the jury was told that although all four of the defendants were named on each charge sheet, the jury could find one of them guilty of conspiring with others and acquit three.

Trial judge Martin Nolan said that to bring in guilty verdicts on conspiracy charges, the jurors must find that at least two people conspired together.

The penalty

Conspiracy to defraud is one of a series of inchoate offences, commonly described as a crime of preparing for, or seeking to commit, another crime.

Conspiracy to defraud is a common-law offence, meaning that it is not on the statute books and a court is at large when it comes to sentencing.

Six years ago, the Law Reform Commission, the Governments law reform watchdog, published a report on inchoate offences and recommended the retention of the offence of conspiracy to defraud, which the commission said was sufficiently clear in scope to remain a valuable part of the criminal law.

Irish Independent
A security alert was launched after a threat was made about a British Airways flight from London to New Jersey in the US.

The flight, carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew, arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport at around 1pm after the unspecified threat was received.

Police at the airport later said nothing harmful or suspicious was found after a search of the cabin and cargo area at a remote section of the airport.

A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport's operator, said the plane was released to British Airways.
A Somali policeman patrols at the scene after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu (AP)

Somali security forces have ended an overnight siege by extremist gunmen at a hotel in Mogadishu which killed at least 15 people, including two members of parliament.

The assault started when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated outside the Ambassador Hotel on Wednesday evening and then three militants stormed inside the building, said the African Union Mission in Somalia.

The African Union multinational force is bolstering Somalia's weak government against an insurgency by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

One militant was killed at the entrance of the hotel while two others entered the building and shot at residents, the AU force said in a statement. All the attackers were killed in the siege that ended early on Thursday.

Nine bodies were removed from the hotel after troops killed the last remaining assailants, Captain Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer said.

Six out of 40 people injured in the attack died from their wounds, Ahmed Mohamed, a nurse at Madina hospital in Mogadishu said.

Chairman of the African Union Commission for Somalia, Francisco Madeira, condemned the attack, saying it targeted government ministers, politicians and innocent citizens

The attack came on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which extremists often step up attacks in the volatile East African country.

The hotel assault highlights challenges facing the Somali government and African Union forces that are struggling to secure the seaside capital, which has seen a series of attacks by al-Shabab. An attack on another Mogadishu hotel and public garden in February killed at least nine civilians. A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the capital in April, killing at least five.

The insurgents have been ousted from most of Somalia's cities but continue to carry out bombings and suicide attacks.
British Airways flight carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members, arrived around 1 p.m. Thursday at Newark Liberty International Airport (File photo)

Airport police have received a bomb threat about a flight from London that landed in Newark, New Jersey.

The threat was reportedly made from a pay phone inside a terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport.

The flight, carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members, arrived at around 1pm local time at Newark, said Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police spokesman Joe Pentangelo.

The British Airways aircraft has been moved to a remote section of the airport and is surrounded by police and emergency crews.

Mr Pentangelo said the passengers' checked bags and carry-ons will be rescreened as a precaution.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Armenia informs that the situation remained calm at the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border.

The Ministrys announcement reads: Overnight June 1-2 the situation remained calm across the Armenian-Azerbaijani state border.

The Azerbaijani side fired irregular shots from various caliber weapons at the northeastern direction of the border.

The Armenian Armed forces control the border situation and confidently fulfill their military tasks.
One of Britain's worst paedophiles is facing multiple life sentences for a catalogue of horrific sex crimes against Malaysian children which he bragged about on the "dark web"

One of Britain's worst paedophiles is facing multiple life sentences for a catalogue of horrific sex crimes against Malaysian children which he bragged about on the "dark web".

Freelance photographer Richard Huckle (30) from Kent admitted an unprecedented number of offences against children aged between six months and 12 from 2006 to 2014.

Twenty-three children from mainly poor Christian communities in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur were identified in 91 charges, although it is believed Huckle abused up to 200 young victims.

Huckle took in the families of his victims by posing as a respectable English teacher doing good works abroad. Details of the abuse can only now be reported because investigators needed time to make sure the victims were safe from other sexual predators.
The Polish government has dismissed a critical assessment of its first months in office from the European Union, arguing that the criticisms are unauthorised and non-binding.

A day after the European Commission criticised some of the conservative government's recent moves, which have paralysed the country's Constitutional Tribunal and triggered domestic opposition against the ruling Law and Justice party, foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski poured scorn on the assessment.

"What right the Commission has to judge anything?" Mr Waszczykowski said on state radio hours before meeting with EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini.

"It is not binding for us. We treat this document that has arrived as an opinion, as a suggestion."

Mr Waszczykowski's words are in step with much of the rhetoric of the conservative government's approach to the EU since it came to power six months ago. It has been at odds with much of the thrust of EU policy over that time, including on issues related to constitutional matters and migrants.

The EU's main criticism centred on steps taken by the governing party, which also controls the presidency, to gain control over the constitutional court, which has the power to block legislation pushed by the government.

Poland has been insisting on more independence for EU member nations on issues like legislation and refugee policy, while demanding more EU solidarity on military and energy security in the face of the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine. It has defied EU plans to assign migrant quotas to specific countries, citing security concerns.

The government, which bases its popularity on social benefits and national Catholic traditions, insists the rapid changes it has made to Poland's constitutional court, its state media and its police powers are Poland's own business and should not concern EU leaders. It says it draws authority form voters in Poland, not from officials in Brussels.

The powerful party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, recently accused EU leaders of having "no respect" for Poland's sovereignty or for Poles themselves.

He says the "rule of law" procedure the EU is now applying to Poland due to the conflict around the Constitutional Tribunal is not rooted in the EU treaties - and has warned that if Poland faces any EU sanctions, it will not hesitate to take the case to the European Justice Tribunal.

The rhetoric comes in sharp contrast to the unity that Poland had with Brussels and Berlin under eight years of its previous liberal government whose head, Donald Tusk, is now the European Council president.

The EU's main criticism of Poland centres on steps taken by the governing party to gain control over the Constitutional Tribunal, the country's highest court, which has the power to block legislation pushed by the government.

Ms Mogherini was in Warsaw to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and Mr Waszczykowski, for talks on EU policy, including toward Russia and on the Nato summit in Warsaw next month.

After her talks with Mr Duda, Ms Mogherini was diplomatic. She said Poland is a "very strong member" of the EU family with strong convictions about its membership and its contributions to the EU's development were appreciated.
Representatives of the Christian Church of Armenia attend a meeting of the German Federal Parliament in Berlin (AP)

The German parliament has voted to label the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide, prompting Turkey to recall its ambassador to Germany.

The motion, which was put forward by Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition of right and left and the opposition Greens, passed with support from all the parties in parliament. In a show of hands, there was one abstention and one vote against.

The vote heightened tensions between Germany and Turkey at a time when Ankara is playing a key role in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said "this decision will seriously impact Turkish-German relations".

Speaking during a visit to Kenya, Mr Erdogan said recalling the ambassador for consultations was a "first step" and that the Turkish government would consider further steps to be taken in response to the vote.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called the German decision an "historic error". Yildirim said that Turkish people take pride in in their past and that "there is no event in our past that would cause us to bow down our heads in embarrassment".

Armenia's foreign minister welcomed the vote.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of the First World War, an event viewed by many scholars as the 20th century's first genocide.

Turkey denies that the killings that started in 1915 were genocide and contends the dead were victims of civil war and unrest. Ankara also insists the death toll has been inflated.

Mrs Merkel was not present for Thursday's vote, with officials citing scheduling reasons. Her foreign minister, who like Mrs Merkel backed the motion, was on a trip to Latin America.

Opening Thursday's debate, parliament speaker Norbert Lammert acknowledged that addressing historical events can be painful.

"But we have also seen that an honest and self-critical appraisal of the past does not endanger relations with other countries," he said. "In fact, it is a precondition for understanding, reconciliation and cooperation."

He said Turkey's current government is not responsible for what happened 100 years ago, "but it shares responsibility for what happens with it in the future".
The silence from Amnesty International has been deafening, and its a pity commentator Jude Collins chose to compare display with Boys Brigade, says Nelson McCausland.

Last Saturday members of Republican Sinn Fein organised special events in Belfast and Lurgan. At midday a group of masked men wearing paramilitary uniforms formed up on the footpath outside a dental surgery in west Belfast which had once been the home of James Connolly. A wreath was laid, a lone piper played and speeches were given. Republican Sinn Fein is often linked to the Continuity IRA and so, presumably, the masked and uniformed men were members of that organisation.

From there they moved on to Milltown Cemetery, also in west Belfast, where the masked men marched up to the republican plot. Then, later in the afternoon, members of Republican Sinn Fein and their masked paramilitary associates assembled in the Kilwilkie estate in Lurgan for a parade and the unveiling of an illegal memorial to Irish republican terrorists.

The parade, which was led by the Martyrs of Erin republican flute band from Bellaghy, had not been notified to the PSNI and the Parades Commission, and so was illegal. This was an illegal march to an illegal memorial.

One of the most shocking aspects of the whole affair was that one of the people who was wearing a mask and was dressed in paramilitary uniform was just a boy, apparently 10 years of age. What sort of parent sends his or her child out, dressed as a republican terrorist, to take part in such an event?

Child Soldiers International is a UK-based non-governmental organisation that seeks to end the exploitation of children in warfare and one of its founder members was Amnesty International.

I would, therefore, have expected Patrick Corrigan, the Northern Ireland programme director of Amnesty International, to be prompt and forthright in demanding action to end such an abuse of children. However, at the time of writing we have heard nothing from him.

So much for those who have been silent on the issue. But what about someone who would have been better remaining silent? I refer to the commentator Jude Collins (below).

A local journalist had tweeted a photograph of the masked marchers and commented shocking images of children at masked march in Lurgan. Collins then responded with a photograph of a Boys Brigade parade and the words a bit like this then? Indeed, not content to leave it there, he posted about it on his personal blog.

This intervention by Collins drew fierce criticism, but is not really surprising as it is not the first time that he has attempted to make this comparison.

Several years ago in his blog (August 24, 2013) he admitted that he had compared the dressing up of children in IRA uniform/regalia with the Boys Brigade. Collins is a repeat offender.

He is also a regular guest on a number of BBC programmes, particularly on Radio Ulster, but surely it is time for the BBC to reconsider their relationship with a commentator who makes such an odious comparison?

Of course, todays dissident Irish republicans are often simply repeating what has already been done by mainstream Irish republicans.

Teenage members of Na Fianna Eireann, the junior wing of the Provisional IRA, were active during the Troubles, and the ONeill Allsopp republican flute band, based in north Belfast, commemorates one member, Robert Allsopp, who was just 15 when he was killed in what appeared to be an accidental shooting.

Indeed, as recently as 2011 small children were dressed up in paramilitary garb and photographed with weapons, which were claimed to be replicas, at a Sinn Fein-organised event in the Ti Chulainn Centre at Mullaghbawn in south Armagh.

Its time for those who advocate for the rights of children to stand up and speak out against abuses such as that perpetrated in Belfast and Lurgan and, indeed, Mullaghbawn.

Sometimes silence is golden. But sometimes it is simply wrong.
The funeral of Michael McGibbon who was shot in the Elmfield Street area of Ardoyne, close to the home he shared with his wife Joanne

Not content with continuing to wage a campaign of violence that is anathema to all right-thinking people in Northern Ireland, dissident republicans are now planning to dance on the graves of their victims by organising "an unapologetic and unrepentant" terror tour of republican sites in west Belfast glorifying the horrors of the past.

Not only is this aimed at gullible and unknowing visitors, but is also trying to tempt local people and youth groups to become involved in what will be an unreconstructed and totally unrepresentative analysis of republican activity during the darkest days of the Troubles from which we have recently, and painstakingly, emerged.

It is essentially a visit to the past into which the dissidents are so desperately trying to drag this community.

These are the people who, as pictures from last weekend revealed, are not above dressing up a child in paramilitary uniform during an illegal parade in Lurgan, which was also watched by a young girl in her First Communion dress.

Commentator Jude Collins' comparison of the child in the camouflage outfit to members of the Christian Boys' Brigade organisation was contemptible. The dissidents are attempting to poison the minds of all who will listen to their vitriolic rants against a supposed "enemy" - British imperialism - that no one on this island any longer recognises.

Joanne McGibbon, whose husband Michael was left to bleed to death in an Ardoyne alleyway after being shot in the legs by dissidents in April, is right to label the proposed tour as "disgusting". She knows the reality of what dissident republicanism stands for, and it is certainly a long way from the green-tinted rhetoric the so-called tour guides will be spouting to anyone senseless enough to engage with them.

The truth about dissident republicans is not to be found on some gable wall, but in the tear-stained faces of Michael McGibbon's bereft widow and his four children as they struggle to come to terms with the loss of their husband and father.

The truth will also be found in the homes of other victims of the dissidents like prison officer Adrian Ismay, or Constables Ronan Kerr and Stephen Carroll, or the two soldiers shot dead at Massereene near Antrim, or the relatives of the 29 people killed in Omagh.

But we won't hear that truth from the dissidents.
Enda Kenny, while encouraging the Irish community in Britain to vote to remain in the EU, is quoted in today's media as follows: "Ireland and the north would be most adversely affected".

Does the Taoiseach not realise that the Republic of Ireland alone does not comprise Ireland? As a northerner living in the Republic, I feel affronted that Mr Kenny classifies me as having come from another country, especially in this year of 1916 commemoration.

If he continues in this vein, he'll soon be talking about "Londonderry" and "mainland Britain".

Political leaders should take care to refer to the 26-county portion of this island as the "Republic of Ireland". Also, the 2014/15 edition of the Eircom telephone directory has a headline which reads: "Direct Dialling Codes Within Ireland and Northern Ireland". What a shame that we are still tipping our forelocks.

Is it any wonder northern nationalists feel abandoned by Dublin?

SHEILA WARD

Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan
Technology experts believe the Irish government could run into difficulty if it attempts to legislate to allow gardai access to the likes of WhatsApp, imessages and Facebook

The use of messaging services, such as WhatsApp and Facebook, by gangland criminals is to be targeted under new measures being drawn up by the Republic of Ireland's Department of Justice.

Tanaiste and Irish Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald has instructed her officials to modernise the law surrounding covert surveillance as part of the government's response to the gangland crisis.

Garda sources say criminals are increasingly using the likes of WhatsApp, imessages and Facebook to communicate.

The current law is seen as being out of date and does not cover the array of messaging services now available.

Ms Fitzgerald has asked her officials to finalise proposals which will be brought to Cabinet in the coming weeks.

"We have to recognise that those involved in organised crime and terrorism can use very sophisticated technology and this should not make them immune to monitoring by An Garda Siochana, especially when lives are at stake," a spokesman said.

"What we are simply talking about is modernising the regime that has applied here for a long time now in relation to phones and post to ensure that it reflects the developments in technology," he added.

However, technology experts believe the Irish government could run into difficulty if it attempts to legislate to allow gardai to access these types of messages.

Irish Independent
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The discussions over the resolution of the Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916 kicked off in the German Bundestag.

The discussions will be followed by the voting, reports Armenpress.

The resolution was prepared and presented by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/ Christian Social Union (CSU), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Alliance '90/The Greens party.

Deputy Government Spokesperson Christiane Wirtz earlier said Chancellor Merkel is in favor of the resolution and had voted in favor during the probation voting.

Wirtz also said due to scheduling difficulties Merkel will be unable to attend the voting.

Head of the SDP Parliamentary faction Christine Lambrecht said she doesnt expect MPs of her party to vote against.

The Turkish community of Germany is spreading Genocide denial and pressure on German lawmakers, ahead of the Armenian Genocide bill debates in the Bundestag.

Moreover, Turkish President and the Prime Minister issued statements threatening Germany to worsen relations with it in case of adoption of the resolution.

Earlier, Turks living in Germany send threatening messages to Bundestag MPs insulting them and threatening that the same will happen to them as it was with Hrant Dink.

In 2005, Germany's parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian massacres, deportations and ethnic cleanings. However, in the Bundestags decision, the term Armenian Genocide was avoided, and instead "massacres of Armenians" was used.

On April 24, before the Bundestag hearings, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that he supports those MPs, who are in favor of calling the mass killings of Armenians Genocide. On April 23, during the ceremony in the Berlin Cathedral dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide, German President Joachim Gauck used the term Genocide in his speech.

In March of 2015, the President of the German Parliament Norbert Lammert said: "what happened in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War in front of the whole world, was genocide. And it was not the last genocide of the 20th century. During the session the leaders of various party fractions also came with their pro-Armenian statements admitting what had happened. However, the discussion of the resolution indefinitely postponed.

The heated discussion of the Armenian Genocide on February 25 at Bundestag did not terminate with voting in 2016.
In Anti-Trump THUGS, not Protesters, in New Mexico, I alluded to my friend and colleague whose private remarks to me via a private message provoked me to write my essay. In the interest of collegiality and fairness, I post here his response to me. Because he wishes to remain anonymous, I will refer to him only as Professor Chris.

Dr. Jack Kerwick recently wrote a response to a question I posed to him regarding Trumps recent New Mexico rally.

Referencing protests outside of Donald Trumps rally in Albuquerque, Kerwick calls those involved anti-Trump thugs. Although no person was arrested at this eventand while it goes without saying that violence for its own sake against any person is inexcusableI would argue that these protests dont exist in a vacuum: they are, at least in part, a reaction, a raw, pained, fearful reaction to Trumps remarks.

Trumps comments on immigrants, particularly Mexican immigrants, are indeed controversial insofar as theyve disrupted the status quo.

Kerwick mentions how the displays of outrageous, indeed, the criminal, conduct of Mexicans assaulting police, destroying property, violating Americans right to peacefully assemble, and self-identifying as illegals serve to vindicate Trumps judgment concerning the prohibitive cost of illegal immigration from Mexico.

This seems unfair: Would we believe that such actions would occur without them first being provoked? Kerwick answers this question in the affirmative.

Does anyone really think, Kerwick asks, that if not for Trump, those igniting fires, hurling obscenities, flashing the middle finger, destroying property, and clashing with police would be volunteering to help the sick or going to work? But this loaded question assumes what needs to be shown.

Of course, illegals must be dealt with, but while Kerwick cites craven and greedy politicians as the reason such immigrants havent been deported, a more plausible explanation is that a gaping hole would be left in the economy were such a wholesale move ever attempted. While it is doubtless that cowardice and greed are present within the political class, these factors alone cant account for the readiness to establish pathways to citizenship for illegals.

As for Trumps wall, Kerwick asks, why should any American regard the proposal of a wall as any more controversial than the proposal for one to lock ones doors at night? He suggests those who are anti-wall are for the erasure of a border between Mexico and the US.

Erasure is an interesting word for its focus on both removal and residue: an erasure is what remains after forcible purity. Apparently a wall is the only manifestation of such a process; those on one side legally must have erased that which would tie them to the other side.

Kerwicks italicizing of American suggests that hes advocating a bandwagon appeal, an ethos of America that demands its otherness as part of its branding. Yet others, without reserve, would cite America for its plurality, its acceptance of otherness. If people who contribute to America now are not breaking any laws save for the border they crossed to get here (chiefly to escape whatever toxic reality does exist over there), why are we casting them aside?

To deny that Trumps words havent invited paranoia and fear from a pained populace in search of a scapegoat seems more than intellectually dishonest.

Kerwick cites 9/11 as the chief cause of Trumps suggestion of consideration of a temporary ban on all Muslim immigrants, mentioning Louis Farrakhans support of the plan. However, as A. Idris Palmer has argued, Farrakhan is not a genuine Muslim but, rather, a heterodox, eccentric Batini who for over 55 years has masqueraded as a Muslim.

Thus, any attempt to align the views of Farrakhan with that of the American Muslim population is doomed to failure.

Kerwick maintains that my use of controversial is a rhetorical ploy reserved only for the views of ones opponents. I am an opponent of Trumps. Still, even political outsiders with the most bemused, clinical interest could describe as controversial Trumps words within the contexts under discussion, for they need only observe the protests that seem to follow him wherever he holds a rally. After all, not unlike the Trump supporter in North Carolina who was videoed sucker punching an unsuspecting protestor, they dont exist in a vacuum.

Yet Kerwick suggests that I am misinformed for my use of this term, controversial, and that my disagreement with Trump is unreasonable. Using an example of the moon landing of 1969, Kerwick underscores that, even if theres disagreement between folks who insist [it] never happened and [] the rest of us, the event in question is not controversial.

Such an analogy fails for several reasons. Chiefly, the Apollo moon landing was a singular occurrence in time, an action televised for all to see. There was no rhetoric involved (save for Armstrongs indelible quotation).

Secondly, there were no direct references to any groups of people that would stroke either their ire or that of other groups of people. Indeed, there was most certainly nothing controversial about Armstrongs walk because nothing about it divided people who witnessed it: it was a uniting force.

Does Trumps rhetoric serve that purpose?

Kerwick contends that those who dont share the viewpoints of those from different political parties, religious denominations, ideologies and so forth view them as controversial. But I would never deny that Sanders and Clinton are just as worthy of critique where they deserve to be critiqued. The difference, though, between them and Trump is that the most sensible of the latters positions gets lost in the style in which he delivers it. And there are times, in policy alone, where hes eminently disagreeable.

Kerwick fundamentally misreads me when he says that I assume that mob violence against innocents is an understandable, if unjustified, reply to rhetoric. Trump seems to suffer under the delusion that he can speak provocatively without being provocative. The acknowledgment that people are, in fact, reacting to his rhetoric is a far cry from excusing or justifying these reactions.

Kerwick hypothesizes that, were white Southerners with Confederate flags [to visit] destruction down upon the heads of attendees at an Obama, Black Lives Matter, or even a Nikki Haley rally, I would have never sought a connection between the protests of the former and the rhetoric of the latter.

Aside from the obvious fact that, if the KKK or white Southerners never existed, we would more than likely never have Black Lives Matterand might have had a black president 50 years earlier than we ended up having oneI dont know how else to reply to such a faulty comparison.

My position is that this election has exposed a searing pain, and anger felt from all sides. Its time to pour water on incendiary words that have already intoxicated far too many vulnerable minds.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Political scientist Alexander Iskandaryan says the resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide is likely to be adopted by the German Bundestag on June 2. However, he said he is not 100% sure.

I see possibility of the resolution to be adopted, however, I cannot surely say this. I agree with the positive assessments that Germany will definitely adopt the resolution, Armenpress reports, he stated.

He said to speak about this issue in more detail, first of all it is important to be aware of the German internal policy, the stance of the political figures and the further developments in order to understand whether the German Bundestag will condemn the Armenian Genocide or not. Thats why I will refrain from making additional comments and predictions. I only see that the resolution is likely to be adopted, however, I am not totally sure, Iskandaryan concluded.

The discussions over the resolution of the Armenian Genocide kicked off in the German Bundestag. The resolution is entitled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

The heated discussion of the Armenian Genocide on February 25 at Bundestag did not terminate with voting in 2016.

In 2005, Germany's parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Armenian massacres, deportations and ethnic cleanings. However, in the Bundestags decision, the term Armenian Genocide was avoided, and instead "massacres of Armenians" was used.

On April 24, before the Bundestag hearings, Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced that he supports those MPs, who are in favor of calling the mass killings of Armenians Genocide. On April 23, during the ceremony in the Berlin Cathedral dedicated to the memory of the Armenian Genocide, German President Joachim Gauck used the term Genocide in his speech.

In March of 2015, the President of the German Parliament Norbert Lammert said: "what happened in the Ottoman Empire during the First World War in front of the whole world, was genocide. And it was not the last genocide of the 20th century. During the session the leaders of various party fractions also came with their pro-Armenian statements admitting what had happened. However, the discussion of the resolution indefinitely postponed.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. During the Armenian Genocide resolution debates, President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert announced the need for courage and facing the dark pages of the past.

Facing the past can be painful for us, however in the same time it can be an honest and self-critical approach towards our own past. It is important in the context of building relations with other states, which needs courage, for achieving mutual understanding and reconciliation, Lammert said.

The discussions on the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution kicked off in the Bundestag.

The resolution is entitled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

Discussions will be followed by a voting.
Whenever he spots police 12-year-old Kanu hides behind the soiled curtains of a dimly lit tea shop in downtown Guwahati, the capital of northeast Indias Assam state.

My employer has given me clear instructions to disappear whenever I see a policeman approaching the tea shop, Kanu, a runaway from Nepal who crossed into India about three years ago.

Kanu, who declined to reveal his last name or any information about his parents, said he was aware that child labor was a crime in India, but added that he had no option but to work.

If I dont work, how will I eat? I dont have parents to support me. I dont have any money to go to school. I need to work to survive, said Kanu, adding that his owner paid him a meager daily sum of about 40 rupees (60 cents) per day, along with bare minimum food for the hours he worked.

Kanu is among millions of people who are working in slave-like conditions or slavery in India, the worlds most populous democracy.

According to the Global Slavery Index Report 2016, which was released on Tuesday, India ranks as the worst and neighboring Bangladesh as the fourth worst among 167 countries where slavery is prevalent.

The findings of the survey, conducted by the Australia-based anti-slavery group Walk Free Foundation, indicate that about 1.4 percent of Indias population of 1.25 billion  about 18.35 million people  live under conditions of modern-day slavery. India is followed by China (3.39 million), Pakistan (2.13 million), Bangladesh (1.53 million) and Uzbekistan (1.23 million).

Northeast India: A major transit point

Andrew Forrest of the Walk Free Foundation said his group did not face any major resistance while conducting the survey in India.

It was the Indian government who in 2013 encouraged our attempt to introduce country-by-country independent measurement through the Global Slavery Index as the first but most critical step to managing it out of existence, Forrest said in an interview with Economic Times.

We are standing on [the] edge of extinction of slavery. India is crucial to the whole effort toward removing slavery.

Indias close proximity to Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal makes the country  particularly northeastern states such as Assam  an international hub for human traffickers, experts said.

Trends of trafficking have changed drastically. Northeast India has now become a major transit point. Children from Bangladesh and Nepal are trafficked through border points of Kakarbhitta, situated on the Indo-Nepal border, using Siliguri (West Bengal) as the source point to the mineral-rich states across India for mining, said Hasina Kharbhih, founder of the Meghalaya-based NGO Impulse.

Kharbhih has been credited with creating a comprehensive tracking system that brings together state governments, security agencies, legal groups and the media to combat cross-border trafficking of children.

To attract increased funding from foreign sources, some Indian charitable institutions collect dozens of children from areas affected by extreme poverty or natural calamities by persuading their parents that their wards will be given education and shelter, Kharbhih said.

But on several occasions we have found that these children were taken to other states and left to fend for themselves, she said.

The picture in Bangladesh

Walk Free defines modern-day slavery as the enslavement of people through human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage and other circumstances.

But in Bangladesh, the head of an NGO that supports workers and was established 21 years ago by the countrys trade unions, said that many of his compatriots were questioning the Australian NGOs definition of the word slavery.

Many people may debate about [it], but the reality is that a huge number of Bangladeshis  both at home and abroad  have been working in hazardous situations for long hours with meager financial return, Sultan Uddin Khan, director of the Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies, told BenarNews.

Why are they risking their lives at home and abroad? This is because we cannot ensure a safe workplace and a decent wage for them, Khan added. We have to start a discussion to eliminate this slavery-like situation. What the government must first do is ensure a safe working atmosphere, U.N.-stipulated working hours and fair wages for the workers.

Meanwhile, at least one Bangladeshi official questioned the reports accuracy.

I do not agree with their findings. I do not accept their very notion of slavery, Aminul Islam, a joint secretary at the Ministry of Labor and Employment, told BenarNews.

However, Matt Friedman, chief executive of Hong Kong based anti-slavery organization Mekong Club, described Walk Frees estimated number of people in slavery in Bangladesh as plausible.

Wherever there is poverty, there are people who will exploit others, he told BenarNews.

In Bangladesh, modern-day slavery happens both within the country and across borders. Each year, migrants from Bangladesh willingly travel to the Middle East and other parts of Asia with the hope of earning money that can be sent back to their family. Some of these migrants arrive in the country only to find themselves in a forced labor conditions.

Friedman listed steps that government agencies could take to address the problem.

These include reviewing fee structures offered by recruitment agencies to ensure that they are fair and non-exploitative; providing more training to migrants leaving Bangladesh to help them understand their rights; establishing better systems and procedures to allow law enforcement officials to address forced labor situations; and emphasizing proactive efforts to search for victims within sex venues, brick kilns, fishing and agriculture sites, Friedman said.

Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka contributed to this report.
Singaporean Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno is pictured at the Sharia Court in Kuantan, in Malaysias Pahang state, where she was fined 5,000 ringgit ($U.S. 1,412) and sentenced to six strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to consuming alcohol at a local nightclub, July 20, 2009.

A move to strengthen the Sharia court system in Malaysia is a political ploy to win votes for the ruling coalition and divert attention from pressing issues, critics say.

Others worry that the move, if implemented, could erode human rights in the country or undermine national unity.

The Barisan Nasional coalition is using this to distract public attention away from a financial scandal over state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which has mired Prime Minister Najib Razak in corruption allegations, or other issues that have dominated domestic headlines, said the head of a prominent civil society group.

Suddenly, the public and oppositions attention is swerved to the proposed bill and we suddenly stop discussing about alleged mismanagement at 1MDB and other misconduct in the government, Sevan Doraisamy, executive director of Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram), told BenarNews.

As a result, Sevan said, Malaysians are now debating whether a proposed amendment to the Sharia Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act of 1965 marks a first step toward introducing the Islamic penal code known as Hudud. It sets punishments that include amputation of the hand for theft and stoning for illicit sexual relations.

The existing law gives Malaysias states power to set up sharia courts with jurisdiction over Muslim family law, Muslim property law and other matters that are not covered by the countrys criminal code. The proposed amendment would authorize sharia judges to impose punishments of up to 100 strokes of the cane for illicit sex and up to 80 strokes for consumption of alcohol, according to a group of NGOs.

This issue should not be labeled as an issue of Islam versus non-Muslims or hudud law issue, but should be seen as an initiative to improve the [Sharia] Court as a judicial system that is recognized by the constitution, local newspaper Utusan Malaysia quoted Yusri Mohamed, president of the Islamic Dawah Foundation Malaysia and a supporter of the bill, as saying this week.

A gimmick

The debate was spurred by a Barisan Nasional cabinet ministers move last week to fast-track the proposed amendment for parliamentary debate, which is being pushed by the faith-based Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS).

According to Chong Eng, a politician with the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), the move is a gimmick by Barisan to win support for upcoming by-elections. These will be held to fill two parliamentary seats on the states of Selangor and Perak, which were vacated when the incumbents were killed in a helicopter crash in Sarawak last month.

I suspect that PAS has struck some kind of cooperation with BN to go into the battle, knowing well they are battling with the Pakatan Harapan opposition block in the by-elections, Chong told BenarNews.

DAP and PAS were partners in an opposition coalition but the bloc broke up last year when they feuded over efforts by the Islamic party to implement hudud in the northern state of Kelantan.

A threat to the nations fabric?

Although the bills supporters say that the punishments outlined by it would apply only to Muslims, other critics nevertheless warn that it could fuel tensions among Malaysias different racial groups, divide the country, and impinge on human rights.

In an interview with the Star Online, a former chief of national police on Thursday suggested that PAS was using the bill to amend the Sharia law as part of a long-term push for implementing hudud nationwide.

This is not a good sign. It can jeopardize our national integration. I feel the government should be firm and stress that hudud cannot be implemented in this country because it contravenes the Federal Constitution, former Inspector General of Police Rahim Noor told the newspaper.

This is a big deal and a question of criminal justice. It has an impact on our spirit of togetherness because all citizens should be treated equally under the law, he added.

Elsewhere, the Malaysian feminist group Joint Action Group for Gender Quality (JAG), issued a statement calling on the government to be transparent in legislating the proposed amendment.

We are specifically concerned that the amendments may lead to a significant degradation of human rights, JAG said. We are of the opinion that [Sharia] laws have been applied in a discriminatory fashion, often victimizing the minority sects of our society.
Four suspected rebels and a Thai paramilitary died Wednesday in a gun battle in the mountains of Narathiwat province, a day after two paramilitaries died in a roadside attack elsewhere in Thailands restive Deep South.

The four insurgents who were killed in the shootout in Ban Aigis mountains of Narathiwat were suspected of having taken part in the seizure by rebels of a hospital in the province, Thai security officials said.

The killings over the course of the two days brought to 44 the number of people who have died since Feb. 10 in a surge of violence linked to a long-running separatist insurgency in Thailands southern border region.

Wednesdays gun battle erupted as Maj. Gen. Ekkarat Changkaew, commander of the Narathiwat Task Force, was leading about 50 members of a Deep South regiment in hunting down suspected rebels, officials said.

The paramilitary who was killed was identified as Anusak Amrod, and two of the dead insurgents were identified as Lugman Latehbuering and Bueraheng Arwaema.

Three or four other militants were injured, but they escaped, officials said.

Lugman and Bueraheng were subjects of arrest warrants from a Narathiwat court for their alleged roles in the seizure of the hospital in Cho-irong district on March 13.

On Tuesday night, two paramilitaries died after being struck by a roadside bomb and then shot in Chalerm, a sub-district in Narathawits Ra-ngae district, said Lt. Col. Manot Plodkhanngern, an officer assigned to the local police station.

Military officials found a motorbike along the road, and later discovered the bodies of paramilitaries Sirawut Nuanwong and Chakpong Chaipat, whose weapons had been taken.

No one has claimed responsibility for Tuesdays incident.

Incident in Cho-irong

The gun battle marked the latest effort by military officials in the Deep South to track down those responsible for the takeover of the hospital in Cho-irong.

Such operations have occurred following the collection of forensic evidence taken from Cho-irong hospital and through information from witnesses and suspects, so officials could assess the situation before this invasion today, said Col. Yuthanam Petchmuang, a spokesman for the military.

On March 13, a group of 14 rebels briefly seized the hospital while mounting an attack on a nearby military installation.

The takeover occurred amid a series of attacks launched by rebels on the 56th anniversary of the founding of Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the largest and most powerful insurgent group waging a separatist war in Thailands predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region.

The flurry of rebel attacks took place despite efforts by Thailands military-controlled government to persuade the rebel groups to resume formal peace talks.

Since the long-running insurgency flared up again in 2004, more than 6,500 people have been killed and about 12,000 injured in violence associated with the conflict.
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YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The German Bundestag adopted the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution, which is entitled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

Only one MP voted against the adoption, and one abstained.

Speakers were unanimously stressing the need of facing the past, also for contributing the reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey.

The Bundestag voiced the crime of the Ottoman Turkey, and stressed this step is neither an accusation nor a claim, but a tribute to the memory of the victims.

Facing the past can be painful for us, however in the same time it can be an honest and self-critical approach towards our own past. It is important in the context of building relations with other states, which needs courage, for achieving mutual understanding and reconciliation, Bundestag President N. Lammert said.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Shavarsh Kocharyan says the meeting between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan is possible in the context of the establishment of ceasefire regime and trust mechanisms.

Kocharyan stated that the Vienna meeting put the path for an important process which includes the following: As long as the ceasefire regime, trust mechanisms are not yet established, it is hard and almost impossible to expect any progress, Kocharyan said, reports Armenpress.

OSCE Personal Representative of the Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk has already made several proposals over the increase of the number and capabilities of his team. Kocharyan said it is important, but it is not enough, there are also other measures on which negotiations should be run.

The OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair James Warlick (USA) announced that he has great expectations from the Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting in June.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. During the Armenian Genocide resolution debates, Bundestag CDU MP Albert Weiler said with the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution by the Bundestag, Germany calls the Turkish side to do the first step on the way of reconciliation and recognition.

I am deeply concerned over what has happened with Armenians and other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire. We have a historical responsibility to name the atrocities of the Young Turks as Genocide, Weiler said. He stated that the Armenian Genocide resolution is the joint initiative of all Bundestag factions and no one doubts this historical reality.

The Genocide recognition and acceptance, as well as its honest and open reflection is and will remain a challenge for Turkey. So far the Turkish government has not taken a stance over this injustice which happened with Armenians. With this initiative we want to open the way for accepting our guilty since the reconciliation is impossible without it. The Genocide recognition gives a way for preventing the future genocides and we should pay a tribute to the millions of survivors of the Genocide victims. This suffering cannot be forgotten. We understand in the 21st century that it is a matter of our common European past, it relates to all of us, but we want to move forward, we want Armenians and Turks to experience what we, Germans, want, we want for Turks to receive from Armenians what we have received, forgiveness, MP stated.

It is welcoming that today in Turkey there are people who want to recognize what happened with Armenians and reconcile with them. We want to support with our bill those brave and courageous men and woman. We will together work to reach the point that the Turkish government will give a new meaning to what had happened in the Ottoman Empire for the benefit of Armenians and Turks, Weiler concluded his speech.


For Immediate Release, June 2, 2016 Contact: Sarah Uhlemann, (206) 327-2344, suhlemann@biologicaldiversity.org Obama Administration Announces New Restrictions on Ivory Sales to Save Elephants WASHINGTON President Obama announced new regulations today that restrict the trade of ivory across state lines and expand limits on ivory exports. The regulations are part of an ongoing effort to crackdown on wildlife trade through President Obamas National Strategy on Wildlife Trafficking. African savannah elephant courtesy Flickr/Bernard Dupont. This photo is available for media use. Elephants across Africa are being wiped out at a dizzying pace to feed the illegal market for ivory products, and the United States has one of the largest markets for ivory in the world. Prohibiting interstate ivory trade is a much-needed step to shrink domestic markets. While the new rules substantially restrain sales, the regulation provides limited exceptions, including for pre-existing products that contain 200 grams or less of ivory. Were excited the Obama administration has taken this important step to reduce the domestic trade in ivory, said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. The United States has one of the largest markets for ivory in the world and reducing demand here will go a long way toward saving elephants in Africa. The new rules come on the heels of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services announcement in March that reclassification of African elephants as endangered instead of threatened may be warranted under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and that it will consider recognizing two separate species of African elephant: forest and savannah, in response to a Center petition. Fewer than 100,000 forest elephants and 400,000 savannah elephants remain. Genetic studies indicate the two split into distinct species at least 2 million years ago, about the same time Asian elephants diverged from mammoths. An endangered listing would provide additional restrictions on the import and export of ivory products, and elevate the status of the elephants for funding conservation efforts. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, June 2, 2016 Contact: Collette Adkins, (651) 955-3821, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org Midwest Moose Move Toward Endangered Species Act Protection Climate Change Driving Alarming Declines in Moose Across

Minnesota, North Dakota, Michigan Including Nearly 60 Percent Drop in Minnesota MINNEAPOLIS In response to a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity and Honor the Earth, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced that a subspecies of moose found in the Midwest may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. Due to climate change, habitat degradation, disease and other factors, the moose population is in sharp decline, including a nearly 60 percent decrease in Minnesota in just 10 years. Photo by Ryan Hagerty, USFWS. This photo is available for media use. The Endangered Species Act is the best tool we have to prevent extinction of our moose, said Collette Adkins, a biologist and attorney who works in the Centers Minneapolis office. Im saddened that moose are in such big trouble that they need the Acts protection but relieved that help is likely on the way for these iconic symbols of the North Woods. Todays finding pertains to the United States population of the moose subspecies (Alces alces andersoni) found only in the Midwest. Specifically, the agency found that Endangered Species Act protection may be necessary for moose in northeastern and northwestern Minnesota, northeastern North Dakota, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Isle Royale and a small, recently established population in Wisconsin. Moose declines are particularly severe in Minnesota, with only an estimated 4,000 moose surviving there today. Scientists have warned that the animals will be nearly extirpated from Minnesota within five years if the trend is not reversed; they are already almost gone from northwestern Minnesota. Moose are built to live in cold environments with thick insulating fur to survive freezing temperatures and long legs and wide feet to move easily through deep snow. Rising temperatures and decreasing snowfall put moose at increased risk of overheating, which leads to malnutrition and lowers their immune systems, while ticks and other pathogens thrive in a warming climate. Climate change, habitat destruction by mining industries, disease and other threats are driving moose to the brink, said Adkins. Like so many Minnesotans, I love the North Woods because of wildlife like moose, wolves and loons. The Endangered Species Act is saving the wolf and it can save the moose too. Protection under the Endangered Species Act for the moose would highlight the harm caused by failing to address emissions of greenhouse gases, bring additional federal dollars for research on the plight of the moose and provide additional habitat protections that are needed to help moose weather our warming world. With todays finding, the Fish and Wildlife Service launches a full status review of moose in the Midwest to determine whether they will be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The public has 60 days to comment on the agencys finding. Background

Moose are the largest members of the deer family with massive heads, long noses, short tails, humped shoulders and large ears. Male moose can be nearly 40 percent larger than females and possess impressive sets of antlers  the largest of any living member of the deer family  that can weigh more than 75 pounds. Unlike most deer species, moose are solitary, coming together only during rut and before migrating. Moose are generalist browsers that feed on leaves, stems, buds, grasses, forbs, lichens, mosses, mushrooms and even the bark on trees, although this is usually a sign of malnutrition. In response to the dramatic declines, Minnesota cancelled its moose hunt in 2013, and North Dakota reduced the number of hunting tags. Michigan and Wisconsin have never allowed moose hunting. Last year Gov. Mark Dayton halted all radio collaring of the animals in Minnesota, citing the number of moose killed after scientists handled them. Moose are listed as a species of special concern in Michigan and Minnesota, but this status does not afford any protections to the animals or their habitat. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.


For Immediate Release, June 2, 2016 Contacts: Natalia Lima, Animal Legal Defense Fund, nlima@aldf.org, (201) 679-7088

Camilla Fox, Project Coyote, cfox@projectcoyote.org, (415) 690-0338

Collette Adkins, Center for Biological Diversity, cadkins@biologicaldiversity.org, (651) 955-3821

Kimiko Martinez, Natural Resources Defense Council, kmartinez@nrdc.org, (310) 434-2344

Amey Owen, Animal Welfare Institute, amey@awionline.org, (202) 446-2128

Lynn Cullens, Mountain Lion Foundation, lcullens@mountainlion.org, (916) 606-1610 Lawsuit Challenges Monterey County's Contract With Federal Wildlife-killing Program Wildlife Services' Indiscriminate Trapping Endangers Family Pets SALINAS, Calif. Animal protection and conservation organizations filed a lawsuit today challenging Monterey Countys contract renewal with the U.S. Department of Agricultures Wildlife Services  a notorious federal wildlife-killing program that has killed more than 3,000 coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and other animals in the county in the past six years. Bobcat photo  Robin Silver, Center for Biological Diversity. This photo is available for media use. Nationwide, Wildlife Services killed more than 2.7 million animals in 2014 (the last year for which data is available). The agencys use of poison and traps has also injured people and killed more than 1,100 dogs since 2000. Todays lawsuit notes that Monterey Countys renewal of the contract violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because the county failed to analyze the environmental impacts of its agreement and wrongfully claimed an exemption from CEQA. Also, the county held no public hearings about a CEQA exemption claim, and has not disclosed the details of its agreement with Wildlife Services. A Monterey County resident joined with Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Project Coyote and the Mountain Lion Foundation to file todays lawsuit. Monterey Countys previous contract authorized Wildlife Services to kill hundreds of coyotes, as well as bobcats, mountain lions and other animals every year without fully assessing the ecological damage or considering alternatives. Over the past six years, Wildlife Services has killed 3,563 animals in Monterey County using traps, snares and firearms. From June 2014 to June 2015 alone, Wildlife Services killed 105 coyotes, three mountain lions and two bobcats. Peer-reviewed research shows that such reckless slaughter of animals  particularly predators  results in broad ecological destruction and loss of biodiversity. The programs controversial and indiscriminate killing methods have come under increased scrutiny from scientists, the public and government officials. In addition, the program has been responsible for the deaths of many threatened and endangered species, as well as family pets. Building on our recent success in requiring Mendocino County to comply with CEQA before hiring Wildlife Services, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and our allies will continue to push for compliance and wildlife protection in Monterey County, said Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. California deserves more from their elected officials. Wildlife Services lethal predator control program is ecologically destructive, ethically indefensible and economically unjustifiable, said Camilla Fox, founder and executive director of Project Coyote. We hope that this action propels Monterey County to explore non-lethal options to reduce conflicts with native wildlife as other counties like Marin have done and we stand poised to help in this direction. Californians should be aware that their tax dollars are funding this harmful wildlife-killing program, said Collette Adkins, an attorney and biologist at the Center for Biological Diversity. We hope our lawsuit spurs Monterey County to realize that people value wildlife and this business-as-usual killing is no longer acceptable. The Animal Legal Defense Fund was founded in 1979 to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To accomplish this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm; provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are punished for their crimes; supports tough animal protection legislation and fights harmful legislation; and provides resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. For more information, please visit aldf.org . The Animal Welfare Institute is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people. AWI engages policymakers, scientists, industry, and the public to achieve better treatment of animals everywherein the laboratory, on the farm, in commerce, at home, and in the wild. For more information, visit awionline.org. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places: biologicaldiversity.org. Project Coyote, a national non-profit organization headquartered in Northern California, is a North American coalition of wildlife educators, scientists, ranchers, and community leaders promoting coexistence between people and wildlife, and compassionate conservation through education, science, and advocacy. For more information, visit ProjectCoyote.org. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC. For 30 years, the Mountain Lion Foundation has worked with member volunteers and activists to further wildlife policies that seek to protect mountain lions, people and domestic animals without resorting to lethal measures. For more information, visit mountainlion.org.


A mating pair of melanic peppered moths Researchers from the University of Liverpool have identified and dated the genetic mutation that gave rise to the black form of the peppered moth, which spread rapidly during Britain's industrial revolution.

The new findings solve a crucial missing piece of the puzzle in this iconic textbook example of evolution by natural selection.

The typical form of the peppered moth has light-coloured wings.

However, during the industrial revolution the dark form displaced the lighter form by blending in with the sooty bark on urban trees and avoiding predation.

In a new paper published in Nature, scientists have discovered that a 'jumping gene' mutation was responsible for this dark variant. Using statistical modelling, this mutation has been independently dated to around 1819, which is consistent with the historical record.

Jumping genes, more formally known as transposable elements (TEs), are mobile segments of DNA that can change their position within a genome and alter the expression of other genes. Using fine-scale linkage and association mapping combined with next-generation DNA sequencing, the team established that a large transposable element, inserted within the moth's cortex gene, was responsible for the colour change.

Dr Ilik Saccheri, from the University's Institute of Integrative Biology, who led the research, said: "This discovery fills a fundamental gap in the peppered moth story. The fact that this famous mutant is caused by a transposable element will hopefully attract more interest in the impact of mobile DNA on fitness and the generation of novel phenotypes."

The first documented sighting of a black peppered moth is from Manchester in northern England, in 1848. However, it could have existed undetected in the moth population at very low frequency for many years earlier.

To independently estimate when the mutation happened, the team used a simulation-based statistical 'time machine' to infer the number of generations needed to arrive at the observed pattern of variation in the DNA sequence flanking the transposable element.

Dr Pascal Campagne, who worked on the study, said: "Our best estimate of 1819 shows that the mutation event occurred during the industrial revolution and that it took around 30 years for it to become common enough to be noticed."

Co-author Dr Arjen van't Hof added: "These findings provide an opportunity to further develop peppered moth industrial melanism as a tool for teaching evolutionary biology and the genetic basis of adaptation."

A parallel paper in the same journal by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Sheffield reveals that the same cortex gene also enables tropical butterflies to mimic each other's bright and colourful patterning.

Dr Saccheri commented: "This is highly unexpected, both because the butterfly and moth polymorphisms appear very different to the eye, and the species are separated by over 100 million years. What this suggests is that the cortex gene is central to generating pattern diversity across the Lepidoptera, and more generally that adaptive evolution often relies on a conserved toolkit of developmental switches."

The study 'The Industrial melanism mutation in British peppered moths is a transposable element' was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and is published in the June 2, 2016 issue of Nature.

Source: University of Liverpool
Kantar Media, GeoPoll and Cuende have announced the first Pan-African Out of Home measurement product. The global leaders in audience research will be using satellite imagery and mobile survey data to measure OOH reach in Africa.

Kantar Media World Measurement Summit in Cape Town

GeoPoll, Kantar Media, and Cuende launched Pan-African OOH, the first data product to regularly measure consumption of Out of Home mediums across Africa, yesterday, 1 June 2016.

The Kantar Media World Audiences Summit is currently taking place in Cape Town, South Africa, to discuss the latest trends in audience measurement, as well as Kantars latest research and innovation in this critical media field.

Through a cutting-edge combination of satellite imagery and mobile survey data, Pan-African OOH measures traffic patterns and reach of billboards, urban furniture, and other OOH media, and allowing brands, agencies, and media owners to accurately gauge the reach and effectiveness of their OOH advertisements.

This new joint product uses a consistent methodology to bring robust Out of Home measurement data to 15 countries. The first set of Pan-African OOH data will be available at the beginning of Q3 2016 for Kenya and will expand to: Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mozambique, Cameroon, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Angola, Ivory Coast, DRC, Malawi and Rwanda.

Fills a critical gap

Out of Home data in Africa has been an unknown quantity throughout Africa due to the difficulty and costs associated with data collection

Part of Kantar GeoPoll Media Measurement, the largest provider of overnight media ratings for TV, radio, and print in Africa, Pan-African OOH fills a critical gap in one of the largest segments of advertising research in Africa by supplying the first-ever comprehensive dataset on OOH advertising in the continent.

Together, GeoPoll, a provider of media research in Africa; Kantar Media, experts in worldwide audience research; with Cuende, the global leader in OOH measurement - have combined their methodologies to produce a consistent, reliable source of OOH data that is easily scalable to the entire African continent. The product uses Cuendes satellite imagery and GeoPoll mobile survey data to create a comprehensive dataset that demonstrates traffic patterns, reach and frequency of specific OOH media, and audience profiles.

GeoPoll CEO James Eberhard explains: Out of Home data in Africa has been an unknown quantity throughout Africa due to the difficulty and costs associated with data collection. As mobile phone penetration has expanded and satellite imagery has become more readily available, it has become possible to create a reliable, multi-modal OOH measurement solution for the first time.

New measurement currency

We are excited to bring together the global leaders in the space to bring a new currency in OOH measurement to the African Market. Media owners and advertisers can use this tool to assess advertising campaigns and create media plans based on actual data, bringing unprecedented clarity to the Out of Home sector.

Features of the product include:

Reach and GRP data for billboards and other OOH advertisements in major metropolitan areas throughout Africa.

Information on trip habits of different demographic groups on weekends and weekdays.

Popular transport methods (foot, car, taxi, bus) broken down by demographics.

Data integrated into OOH planning software Telmar so agencies and brands can easily calculate the ROI of different OOH advertisements.

Interested customers can get more information and pre-order the product from GeoPolls website.
The best understood function of vitamin D is the role it plays in conjunction with calcium and phosphorus in building strong bones. However, a growing body of research suggests that vitamin D holds an integral part in the proper function of the immune system.

Recent collaborative research by academics from the University of Cape Town, University of Stellenbosch and University of Pennsylvania, has shown that the supplementation of vitamin D slows down the progression of Aids in HIV-positive patients. Research also suggests that Africans are more likely than other groups of people to suffer from vitamin D deficiency.

According to Morgan Chetty, associate professor of Durban University of Technology, this research has important implications for healthcare policy makers and clinicians in Southern Africa. The region is the worst affected in the world and widely considered the 'epicentre' of the global HIV epidemic. Based on this research, vitamin D supplementation could potentially be a relatively cost-effective way in helping to prolong the lives of HIV-positive individuals.

Not really a vitamin

Chetty explains that vitamin D isnt really a vitamin. Unlike true vitamins, those micro nutrients that our bodies cannot produce, vitamin D is created when our skin is exposed to solar ultraviolet B rays.

Vitamin D regulates the expression of specific endogenous antimicrobial peptides in immune cells of the body. This action leads to the important part vitamin D plays in modulating the immune response to various infectious disease, says Chetty.

While the metabolic status of the so-called vitamin is well documented under normal conditions, research by academics from the University of Cape Town, published in the journal Cellular Immunology & Immuno-therapeutics, suggest that viral infections such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus infections (HBV) appears to hinder this natural process.

Simple cost-effective intervention

Despite the team of researchers being unable to explain how viral infections interfere with the normal metabolism of vitamin D, supplementation appears to boost white blood cell count and slow down HIV progression in infected individuals. Providing this essential nutrient to patients may be a simple, cost-effective intervention to slow down the onset of AIDS, as well as prevent a wide range of autoimmune diseases, infections and malignancies, says Chetty.

Reduces bodys inflammatory response

Vitamin D deficiency has been reported to be a risk factor for a number of communicable as well as non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and diabetes. Clinical trials in South Africa have shown that adding vitamin D supplements to the antibiotic treatment regimens for TB patients reduces inflammation in the lungs. Left untreated, inflammation of this tissue is the leading cause of death in TB patients.

Chetty explains that without compromising the efficacy of the antibiotics, high doses of vitamin D are seen to reduce the bodys inflammatory response. "This observation has led biomedical researchers to postulate the possible benefits of using vitamin D supplement in conjunction with other forms of antimicrobial therapy for pneumonia, sepsis and other lung infections. Currently, medical scientists are even investigating whether vitamin D can enhance the bodys ability to kill drug-resistant TB.

Africans have greater risk of deficiency

He adds that seasonal decline in UVB radiation, low nutritional vitamin D intake and possible genetic variation puts Africans at greater risk of deficiency. While melanin protects the dermis from radiation, it also competes with a special form of cholesterol for UVB, reducing the amount of light available to produce vitamin D.

Except in the case of albinism, all people contain certain concentrations of melanocytes in the dermis of their skin. Skin pigmentation regulates the penetration of UV radiation. However, a high concentration of melanin in the African skin prevents the body from making sufficient vitamin D resulting in a deficiency, particularly in winter, says Chetty.

People with darker skin tones also have an environment predisposition to vitamin D deficiency. In addition, Africa has the highest burden of TB in the world. TB, especially drug-resistant TB, continues to be a massive public health concern, he points out.

In a country with such a high burden of TB and HIV, a simple vitamin D supplement could be an extremely effective and a cost effective weapon to include in the arsenal against illness, concludes Chetty.
The manufacturing sector in SA has come back down to earth, having failed to sustain the surge in April beyond a single month.

From a surprisingly robust 54.9 points in April, the Barclays purchasing managers index (PMI) dropped to 51.9 index points in May  a level the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) said was probably more indicative of actual conditions in the sector.

"The pullback in key manufacturing PMIs in May does not surprise us and paints a more accurate picture of the  tentative state of the domestic manufacturing sector," agreed BNP Paribas Securities economist Jeffrey Schultz.

Despite the drop, the headline PMI managed to remain above the neutral 50-point mark for a third straight month.

This brings it more or less in line with PMIs in the eurozone, a key market for the countrys manufactured exports.

All but one of the major subcomponents of the PMI declined in May from April, according to the BER, which compiles the index. Of these, the new sales orders index experienced the biggest decline (-6.6 index points).

It still remained above 50, however, as did the business activity index, although it dropped to 52.9 in May, from 56.4 in April.

"While some respondents indicated an improvement in export demand, local demand remained under pressure," the BER noted.

Investec economist Kamilla Kaplan expects manufactured exports to be restrained by the persistence of soft international trade flows given the lack of exuberance evident in global PMIs.

SAs employment index fell back below 50 points, to a level of just 48 in May.

"This is more in keeping with the dire labour market conditions currently being felt in the sector, given the loss of 100 000 manufacturing jobs in the first quarter," said Schultz.

But the future is not totally bleak. Purchasing managers remain relatively upbeat about the state of business conditions in six months time.

Although the index measuring expectations declined slightly, it still remained at a healthy 54.1 index points.

The BER also noted that the new sales orders index remained slightly higher than the inventories index in May.

This means that the PMI leading indicator stayed just above one, which suggests that output could tick up in the coming months.

In contrast, economists see little scope for any meaningful improvement in manufacturing conditions any time soon, given the weakness in global and domestic demand conditions, depressed business confidence and the soft domestic jobs market.

Moreover, manufacturers are facing renewed cost pressures. After slipping to a four-month low of 77.7 points in April, the price index rose to 80.1 in May.

This was probably driven by renewed rand weakness as well as a rise in international oil prices towards $50 a barrel last month, the BER said.

The upshot was the hefty fuel price increases, effective from Wednesday, which will continue to keep manufacturers input costs under pressure.
Gaming and leisure giant Sun International looks set to place a bet in the Brazilian casino market, and is also watching developments in Mexico closely.

Speaking on Wednesday after the finalisation of the merger of Sun Internationals Latin American casino interests into gaming group Dreams, CEO Graeme Stephens said the company had for a number of years been looking to position itself in the Brazilian market  which is now open to gambling.

But Stephens cautioned that Dreams, in which Sun International holds a 55% stake, would be bidding for casino licences in that country against some of the biggest casino operators in the world.

"We cant promise well secure the biggest, best and most obvious casino sites in Brazil. But, we certainly have our finger on the pulse in that country," he said.

Stephens said Mexico was on Dreams longer-term radar.

"Its mostly an informal gaming market. We have our eye on it, and if things change, we will act. Its a good economy, and we believe an opportunity will come in time."

The Dreams portfolio boasts six casinos in Chile (Iquique, Temuco, Valdivia, Puerto Varas, Coyhaique, and Punta Arenas) and four in Peru (all in the capital city, Lima).

Suns portfolio comprises Monticello Casino in Chile, Ocean Club Casino in Panama and Sun Nao Casino in Colombia.

Stephens reckoned the size and scale of new-look Dreams  now the largest casino operator in Latin America  would give it the profile, critical mass, and balance sheet to expand to the rest of the continent, make meaningful acquisitions, and take on larger projects.

Stephens stressed, though, that Sun International would, for now, focus on its South African operations and Latin America, rather than seeking other opportunities globally.

"We do have irons in various fires across the world. If one turns red hot, we will act. But for now, we have enough on our plate in SA and Latin America."

Asked whether Sun International could increase its stake in Dreams, Stephens said the company held pre-emptive rights over another 20% stake held by a private equity firm.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Hundreds of Armenians gathered in front of the German Bundestag waiting for the lawmakers decision on the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

Upon hearing the news that the Bundestag has adopted the resolution, the Armenians started celebrating by dancing.

The joy was shared by Kurds, who also gathered and proclaimed: Long Live the brotherhood of peoples in Turkish.
The environmental change sweeping our world is happening at a rate far faster than previously imagined, concluded the Global Environmental Outlook (GEO-6) study carried out by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) this year.

The move towards the provision of renewable energy through the South African renewable energy independent power producer procurement programme (REIPPP) has been lauded as a positive reaction to the worst impacts of climate change.

De Aar solar farm Source: Phelan Energy Group

"Renewable energy in general, and solar power specifically, allows for a reduction in the reliance on fossil fuels - while also providing a far superior option in terms of protecting the environment. The production of solar energy has minimal CO  emissions, little water usage, is inexhaustible, and it is safe," says Paschal Phelan, chairman of Solar Capital,

A technology,not a fuel

Phelan explains that global electricity produced by solar power has doubled seven times over since 2000. Part of the reason for this is that solar is not a fuel, but a technology. Owing to economies of scale and increasing efficiency, prices of solar technology and supply continue to fall, as does the price of batteries for energy storage. As a result, the need for fossil fuels is falling internationally. It is only developing countries like South Africa that are still adding coal to the energy mix, more as a result of a rapid demand for further energy supply.

He adds that not only is solar energy readily and freely available, but the cost of solar technology has come down substantially in the last few years. Internationally, the price has reduced as a result of technological innovation, the manufacturing learning rate, economies of scale and further competition.

Phelan also points out that solar farms are commercially viable facilities funded by local banks and foreign direct investment and, unlike Eskom, do not need government funding and guarantees. It needs to be a priority in South Africa that we continue the investment in this source of abundantly free, green, sustainable energy.

Increased pressure to reverse climate change

Investing in solar power makes sense. It is the way the world is moving and South Africa is fast becoming a leading force in renewable energy programmes, he says.

Solar power not only needs to be a priority locally in South Africa, but also the world. With increased pressures to reverse the effects of climate change, it is imperative the we focus our efforts on developing and improving renewable energy sources, concludes Phelan.

As the lead member of one of the preferred bidders in the REIPPP, Solar Capital was given the opportunity to develop the largest solar farm in the Africa, the Middle East and the southern hemisphere which was launched in De Aar, Northern Cape in March 2016.
The Self-defence Schools Programme has equipped over 140,000 school girls with self-defence skills in the last 13 years. Sponsored by Shoprite, the programme seeks to raise awareness among learners on how to protect themselves, teaching young girls how to stay safe at home, at school and at play.

Through the practice of age appropriate self-defence techniques, girls learn how to recognise threats, verbalise them and act upon them, says Sanette Smit, well known karateka and self-defence practitioner.

Smit and Margaret Neethling, programme coordinator, host the programme at schools across the Western Cape and it is their passion for child safety that has ensured that girls are capable of protecting themselves.

Child Protection Week

In 2015, 53,617 sexual offence cases were reported, according to South African Police Services. This Child Protection Week (29 May - 5 June), the Self-defence Schools Programme will be focusing on raising awareness of rape and other forms of abuse amongst girls.

The programme dedicated the entire month of May to empowering girls in the communities of Idas Valley and Cloetesville in Stellenbosch, with the practical tools of self-defence.

During the first quarter of 2016, the programme trained almost 3000 girls in Macassar, Vredehoek, Khayelitsha, Maitland, Heideveld and Pniel in the Western Cape. The programme had a tremendous impact on our girls and we had two cases come to light because of it. Without the training, the cases could have escalated and we would not have been able to act accordingly to prevent them, says Dawn Petersen, school manager at Blomvlei Primary School.

Neethling invites more schools to take part in this programme to act together in ending abuse against children especially during Child Protection Week.

For more information, email az.oc.ecnefedfles@teragram.
Two of SA's top policy priorities - food security and job creation - seldom cross paths. Indeed, it is a strange irony that job creation is almost exclusively associated with trade and heavy industry, while agriculture is seen only through the prism of land claims and high food prices.

While industrial policy is expanding and seeking new beneficiaries, one needs to ask why similar support for the agriculture sector is not pursued with equal vigour. It is a perceived mental block that policy makers in SA need to overcome because the sector could otherwise create far more jobs than it does already. In short, our farmers have been hung out to dry.

The latest unemployment statistics showed that apart from community services (government), agriculture was the only sector to show jobs growth. Even if you dismiss this as seasonal, the long-term trend clearly shows the stability of agriculture compared to manufacturing. Since March 2008, agriculture jobs have made up about 5% of total employment. By comparison, the share of manufacturing jobs fell from 14% to 10% of total employment, and employment in the industry itself contracted 22% to 1.6-million, whereas agriculture grew 4.5% during the same period.

Fundamental contributors to prosperity

President Jacob Zuma has repeatedly stated that landlessness is the cause of poverty within the context of agricultural land claims. This statement rings true to some extent but ignores a second fundamental contributor to prosperity: capital. While the focus on land redistribution is a good idea in principle, it is often poorly executed precisely because of a lack of support for emerging farmers.

In our dealings with farmers ranging across size and sophistication, it is clear that emerging farmers have very little capital to invest. This is, of course, an acute problem with awarded land claims, with entire communities often unable to grow crops simply because there is no plant or machinery to work with. It is a bit like being given a car with an empty petrol tank. This problem is replicated with black farmers who buy farms on the open market. The bulk of their funds are tied up in purchasing the actual property, so there is very little left to invest and grow their business.

While supporting the economic agenda of black industrialists as a worthwhile pursuit, surely there are far more small and emerging black farmers who could grow more quickly, create more jobs and transform a broader cross-section of society with only a fraction of the funds made available to heavy industry?

Greater support needed for farmers

The mental block between job creation and agriculture has impeded creative and practical ways to support the sector. The focus on agricultural property ownership is archaic; after all, it should not be about the modes of production, but the success of production itself. Private financing is not realistic as any credit provider would look to your track record before releasing funds. Banks are loathe to finance plant and machinery, even for established farms.

We firmly believe there are simple, yet highly effective ways for government to support our farmers. The Land Bank should ideally expand its scope of practice to support startup farmers. There is vast potential for joint ventures between existing white commercial farmers and black commercial farmers and these could be supported by the Land Bank.

This is not to mention the large-scale support government could provide by supporting the creation of listed agricultural businesses and farmers could co-own with black shareholders. Farmers operate under immense pressure and many are increasingly being forced to use other channels through which to sell their goods, including trading in the informal sector. This creates its own problems, as any health and safety oversight disappears, putting consumers at risk. Furthermore, the informal or illicit trade has proven links with organised crime syndicates.

Fostering a culture of illicit trade

We should be incredibly wary of fostering a culture of illicit trade as the final (and, in some cases, only) resort for emerging farmers. Even relatively mundane products such as poultry sold through informal avenues, where there is no regulatory oversight, creates a broader market for illicit goods, breeds disrespect for the law and puts consumers - and society as a whole - at risk. If it becomes normal to buy everyday consumer items from traders who evade taxes or disregard health and safety codes, it becomes only natural to also buy otherwise regulated medicines, diamonds, cigarettes, alcohol and music through illicit channels too.

Our fundamental proposal is for government to consider small and emerging farmers in a holistic way. While the Department of Agriculture may lead on land redistribution, it is necessary to speak with the Treasury about supporting financing through other means than only the Land Bank. The South African Revenue Service, while far from perfect in client servicing, especially in rural areas, has done exemplary work to bring many informal small businesses into the fold, thereby protecting SA's formal economy. Surely it, therefore, makes sense to ensure the same is done with small farmers, and that policy makers focus on making it as easy as possible for them to operate legitimately?

When a government department considers new consumer or health and safety regulations, it should think about the effect on small and emerging farmers just as it would consider the effect on small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Much ground has been covered to sensitise policy makers to the realities of SMEs and how the growing regulatory burden is often felt disproportionately by such groups. The natural step, therefore, must be to ensure that any new regulation affecting small farmers is subject to a thorough regulatory impact assessment, so as to ensure unintended consequences - job losses, higher compliance costs, reduced tax revenues or growth in the informal economy - are mitigated.

Consider the push to further regulate sugar and tobacco. These crops provide good margins, and can be traded fairly easily across borders. A sizeable share of Zimbabwe's re-emerging agriculture is thanks to small tobacco farmers. And, of course, the problem of the illegal trade is even more pronounced with tobacco.

Diversification strategies

Land ownership is a topic that receives lots of attention from political parties, but it is important to remember that agriculture, or rather a successful farm, is far more than just the property. It is about enabling a farmer to prosper and cultivate a livelihood without fear of being weighed down by ill-thought-through regulation.

Agriculture is a mainstay of economic diversification strategies in many African countries. For SA, with our struggling mining sector and energy insecurity threatening manufacturing, we need to ensure we continue to provide opportunities for economic independence to black individuals. It makes sense that we start with our farmers.

Van der Rheede is deputy executive director at AgriSA

Source: Business Day
A joint venture, led by General Electric, the Mara Group and Atlas Merchant Capital, seeks to invest in infrastructure equity projects in selected countries throughout Africa.

With the African population set to rise to 1.5bn by 20251, the continents economic growth potential is significant. According to the Africa 2030 report, the overall sense is one of progress and optimism and that changes are sustainable, making Africa an attractive socio-economic focus in the coming years. Africa presents high growth prospects in power generation, transport, oil and gas, and other infrastructure areas including mining. The joint venture will focus on this broad set of segments by facilitating access to capital, thus offering the ability to execute and fully finance both advanced and early development stage projects.

Hurdles in Africa

The hurdles to address are rapid urbanisation, and a growing middle class devoid of infrastructure. More than 50% of our African nations including Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania and the DRC, dont have access to electricity2 and an infrastructure investment of $360bn in power production, power transmission, water storage, modern railways, port capacity and modern highways will be required until 20403. Furthermore, Africa needs to spend $90bn a year for the next decade in order to upgrade and maintain its existing infrastructure alone4.

Jay Ireland, president and CEO GE Africa, comments: This joint venture unifies three businesses with a strong commitment and expertise in infrastructure in Africa. The joint venture is our response to an integrated infrastructure approach in Africa. We are proud to partner with the expertise and talent of Atlas Merchant Capital and Mara Group, who have an extensive footprint in Africa, to address the necessities of the African continent. We have been significantly involved in social enterprises to date and will seek to further enhance and promote social and community development in the region to complement their expertise, knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit.

Intra-African trade

Ashish J Thakkar, founder, Mara Group, adds: Africa is a continent of 54 countries, but there is very low connectivity between them. Intra-African trade, a key driver for economic growth, represents only a fraction of Africas total trade over the past decade and this is largely due to a growing shortfall in infrastructure development. Through our joint venture with GE and Atlas Merchant Capital, we hope to tackle the funding deficit by creating a platform that has the power to truly change the lives of those living on the continent.

Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina, president, African Development Bank, said: We are delighted to see this partnership between three world-class players who, together, can have a real impact on infrastructure development in Africa.

"We all know painfully well the imperative to fill Africas annual $50bn infrastructure funding gap. Partnerships like these are a crucial part of the development agenda as we seek to promote social and economic development and fight poverty in Africa."

The joint venture will act as a leading shareholder alongside sponsors of infrastructure projects and will use its relationships with lending banks and connectivity to power Africa and related institutions to meet the debt component of its funding.

(1) United Nations World Population Prospects 2015

(2) Africa Energy Outlook 2014

(3) Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA)

(4) Africas Attractiveness Survey (EY)
Data from emerging world economies suggests that entrepreneurial activity increases job security and contributes positively towards Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report notes that in South Africa such activity remains considerably low and, although it has increased marginally over the last 10 years, in 2014 it dropped by 34% (from 10.6% to 7%).

The report further states that there has been an increase in womens entrepreneurship primarily due to government support, but that the perception of opportunities to start a business, and confidence in ones own abilities to do so, remains alarmingly low compared to other sub-Saharan African countries.

This could be attributed to common belief that creativity, ingenuity and passion are innate personal qualities, which are the hallmarks of a successful entrepreneur. However, another school of thought argues that entrepreneurs are made and not merely just born. They are made through dedication, hard work, sheer will power and more importantly through education where they can acquire the correct skills needed to become successful entrepreneurs.

Students success

Two inspiring stories of BA Graphic Design 3rd year students at the Design School of Southern Africa (DSSA), a brand of the Independent Institute of Education (The IIE), also affirm this belief.

Sabelo Sibisi operates the brand, STRU, which is in the business of selling trendy street conscious apparel targeted at the youth. Although the business is still in its infant stages, Sibisi says that he is encouraged by the fact that customers love and support the label and that it gives him a sense of accomplishment seeing people wear the brand. His time at DSSA has enabled him to nurture his vision, giving him the necessary knowledge and skills needed in order to work towards his goal of a sustainable design for the STRU brand, which he hopes to successfully promote and position on social media, using his new way of innovative thinking encouraged by DSSA.

Also seeing a gap in the market, Tayla Kohler took a hobby and turned it into a sustainable enterprise by custom-making tapers and ear gauges. She then expanded into making interesting necklaces, which are more acceptable, as not everyone wants to stretch their ear lobes, and now she caters to both markets. Kohler says DSSA opened her up to the defining truth of her business. We all just want to be individuals in a world that is becoming ever generic.

DSSA national marketing manager, Nicky Stanley says that the school balances natural creative potential with vocational preparedness through academic excellence and industry experience. These students are a testament to our inspirational, adaptable and innovative learning environment that gives students the best chance of success, challenging and empowering them to become enterprising.

South Africa faces a number of economic challenges that can only be met if it has innovative, well-educated, and entrepreneurial citizens who, whatever their walk of life, have the spirit and inquisitiveness to think in new ways, and the courage to meet and adapt to the challenges facing them. A dynamic economy, which is innovative and able to create the jobs that are needed, will require a greater number of young people who are willing and able to become entrepreneurs, schools and tertiary institutions should play greater roles in shaping these young peoples attitudes and skills towards becoming captains of industry.
While all property purchases have their merits, they are not all equal. In order for a buyer to make the most out of their property purchase, they need to make the right buying decisions from the start to ensure they give themselves the best possible opportunity at a good return on their investment.

Although recognising and purchasing a home at a fair market value is a good start, it is not the only thing that will guarantee long-term appreciation on the buyers investment. Buyers will need to apply certain principles and guidelines for property acquisition that would improve their potential for investment growth in the future. Sound property buying fundamentals never go out of fashion. These include key aspects such as the propertys location, the value per square metre and the potential rental yield - these will always be the key criteria on which a savvy investor makes a decision.

Elements for buyers to consider when entering the property market:

Research and ask questions

Before anything else buyers need to determine why they are purchasing the property. Ask yourself whether the property is purely to live in or whether it is an investment property, as this will completely change the approach and how the property will be viewed. If the property will be for the purchaser to live in, the motives and influencing factors on the decision making process are more emotionally driven. The elements that will be important are the features and amenities that appeal to the buyer personally. In the instance where the property is bought for investment purposes, it is more important to research the demographic of tenants in the area and what would appeal to them.

A buyer will be able to get a wealth of information online about an area, estate or complex. That said, it is always best to go to the area and check it out personally. Drive around, walk the streets and speak to some of the residents currently living there. This will provide a good idea of what the area is like, the facilities and amenities on offer and the demographic of people the area would most appeal to. A real estate agent who specialises in the area will also be able to provide a comparative market analysis detailing the selling prices of homes there over the last six months.

Subtle variances can make a big impact

Although two properties can be located in the same region, they could differ in price based on the suburb they are in or even which side of the road they are on. Subtle variances in a homes location can make a big difference to its potential for appreciation. For this reason it is best to purchase the worst house in the best location, then the best house in the worst location  the home can be changed, the location cannot. A propertys selling price is linked to the demand in that area in which it is situated, so homes within sought-after areas will generally increase in value faster than homes in less appealing areas.

Buyers who purchase an investment property with the intention of renting it out, need to consider that certain things appeal to some people and not others, so discovering their target market is essential. Investment buyers should also look at how much rental stock is available in an area before purchasing a buy-to-let property. The rental market sector is driven by demand, and an investment could fall flat if there is an oversupply of properties available for rent in the area.

Have a plan in place

Property buyers and investors need to have a plan. Investors need to have a clear idea of what they want their portfolio to look like in the long term, and buyers need to know if the home they purchase will meet their needs in five to ten years time. Having a plan and setting goals will assist buyer and investors to remain focused and will give them something to work towards. Buyers should never limit their thinking to what they can afford right now, but rather what will be possible for them in the future.

Get rid of debt

A key element to any property transaction is access to finance and affordability. While there are certain buyers who are able to purchase properties with cash, the large majority of the population rely on bond finance from a bank. To improve their chances of bond approval and to increase their affordability ratio, buyers should try to reduce their debt levels where possible and keep their credit rating as high as possible. Having a deposit is also a must for those looking to purchase property. A deposit will increase a buyers chances of bond approval and reduce their monthly repayment.

More than bricks and mortar

While the potential to make a profit on a property purchase is often a driving factor in property buying decisions, it should not be the only factor that is considered. A property is more than just a pile of bricks and mortar - it is a home and place where people live. The basic principle of purchasing a property is that if you wouldnt want to live in it, its not likely many others would either. The property needs to appeal to the buyer and they have to want to own it.

A property that offers excellent returns over time is not just about luck and timing, it is much more than that. The most important aspect is to take time and research as much as possible. It is never a good idea to buy a property on a whim without carefully weighing up each option.
Airbnb has highlighted new data about the impacts of the growing Airbnb community in South Africa. The data reveals that the typical South African Airbnb host who occasionally shares space in their home boosts their yearly income by more than R28,000.

In 2015 there were 7,500 active hosts in South Africa and almost half were freelancers, entrepreneurs, or self-employed, which is the same number that say welcoming guests helps them afford to stay in their home. 66% of hosts share space in their primary residence.

MARIA LUISA LOPEZ ESTIVILL via 123RF - Houses along Knysna channel

The way people travel is changing, too, driven by a new experience led economy where people place greater value on experiences over ownership. More than 130,000 guests have stayed in a listing on Airbnb in South Africa in the last year alone, enjoying authentic and local travel experiences through their hosts personal hospitality and insider knowledge. This number represents a 250% increase in travellers on Airbnb compared to 2014. And hosts and guests on Airbnb are older than one might think with the average host being 44 years old and guests being 37 on average.

Airbnb empowers regular South Africans to use their homes as economic assets

 In South Africa in 2015, there were 7,500 active hosts sharing their home. In the last year, the typical host earned an extra R28,000 by sharing his home

 The average host is 44 years old and 36 percent are over 50

Airbnb increases consumer choice and helps grow and diversify travel across South Africa

 134,000 guests used Airbnb to visit South Africa in the past year

 99,000 South African residents used Airbnb for their travels

 The average host rating by guests is 4.7 out of 5

Airbnb hosts in Cape Town are providing guests with an authentic and affordable travel experience and boosting local economies

 66 percent of hosts share space in their primary residence

 Airbnb guests stay an average of six nights

 More than 40 percent of guest spending takes place in the neighbourhood where they stay

 58 percent of Airbnb guests visited local businesses based on host recommendations

 50 percent of guests who saved money on Airbnb spent it on food, shopping, and other amenities

Spreading the benefits

Nicola DElia, general manager for Africa and the Middle East at Airbnb highlights how Airbnb helps to spread benefits to new communities and local businesses: Airbnb is good news for everyone, providing an economic boost for thousands of South Africans, helping them make ends meet and support their families by hosting on Airbnb. 27% of visitors to Cape Town for example - Airbnbs largest market in South Africa - tell us that they wouldnt have come at all or stayed as long if it hadnt been for Airbnb. Half of those guests spend more money in local shops and restaurants, often following their hosts recommendations. Even if its just for a night, staying with local hosts will allow visitors to really live there.

Tim Harris, CEO at Wesgro, the tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape, agrees: Cape Town and the Western Cape is a world-class tourism destination. Thanks to Airbnb, more travelers can enjoy the natural beauty our country has to offer in an authentic way. Its great to see that outside Cape Town, Knysna is the second most popular town with the Airbnb community. This shows how Airbnb hosts are helping to drive visitors across the province, allowing them to experience more of the Western Cape with their local hosts."
The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has made Africa the target of its key global investment region due to the continent's long-term economic growth rates, which are forecast to be amongst the fastest in the world. Currently, the group operates 1,370 hotels in more than 110 countries.

Wolfgang Neumann

The announcement of three new hotel openings in South Africa, with two in Cape Town, will create 1,500 new jobs in the next 12 months. An additional 3,000 jobs will be created across the African continent in the next 36 months.

Wolfgang Neumann, president and chief executive officer of the Rezidor Hotel Group, said that the jobs announcement is a direct result of 32 new hotel openings across Africa. This will bring the total in Africa to 66.

We see Africa as the continent of opportunity. Radisson Blu is the hotel brand with the largest number of rooms under development in Africa said Marc Descrozaille, area vice president, Africa and Indian Ocean. Our vision is to make Radisson Blu the leading upper upscale hotel brand in Africa he added.

South Africa remains a top priority for the development team. This has been underpinned by the opening of the area support office in Cape Town, which will assist South Africa and the entire region with the expansion programme. Africa is an opportunity and we have been very busy. In the last 24 months, we have signed a new hotel deal in Africa every 37 days. And its not just about signing up hotels. We are delivering our pipeline, and in the last 24 months, we have opened a hotel in Africa every 60 days. added Carlson Rezidors senior vice president for business development, Andrew McLachlan.

Group initiatives

As one of the most ethical companies worldwide (according to the Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practice), Carlson Rezidor has a responsible business programme. A third of the workforce in the Park Inn by Radisson Newlands, Cape Town, are deaf or hard of hearing. The Group is looking at expanding the model further.

Other initiatives include group-wide energy and water saving initiatives and area-specific offers such as the Youth Career Initiative in Africa, opening up training and job opportunities to underprivileged young talent as well as African in Leadership, developing talent from within our hotels.
SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft is out to use Windows software to do for altered reality what it did for personal computers: make them commonplace. The US technology giant on Wednesday announced that Windows software already powering a wide range of devices including HoloLens augmented reality headgear is being opened to partners interested in building devices for 'mixed reality' experiences.

Devices built on the Windows platform will be interoperable, meaning that someone wearing HTC Vive virtual reality gear would be able to virtually visit and collaborate with someone using HoloLens virtual reality goggles, Microsoft executives told AFP. The list of partners already working with Microsoft included HTC, Lenovo, Asus, and HP.

Microsoft said it built HoloLens to showcase the potential for the technology, which is based on the same Windows operating system that powers computers, smartphones, Xbox consoles and more. Sharing the Windows platform will mean that augmented or virtual reality gear from various manufacturers will be able to work with one another, the same way Windows computers do.

"We are bringing the software that lights up HoloLens to the entire ecosystem of mixed reality devices - and inviting partners to join us in this platform," Microsoft spokesman Greg Sullivan told AFP.

While virtual reality devices such as those from Facebook-owned Oculus and Sony's PlayStation unit immerse users in fantasy worlds, HoloLens 'augments' reality by overlaying holograms on the real world in view. HoloLens lets users interact with virtual objects using hand gestures.

Microsoft would not disclose details regarding how it will make money from the move. But it is expected to pursue the kinds of licensing deals it negotiates with companies that make Windows-powered computers. Creating a common platform for a wide range of companies to create and market mixed reality gear promises to bring down prices for altered reality gear while enriching variety in the marketplace.

Microsoft in March began its first shipments of its HoloLens to application developers, staking its place in what is expected to be an emerging computing platform. At a recent Microsoft Build developers' conference, the company showed some of the possibilities for HoloLens - such as giving users a view of Mars that up to now could only be seen by space vehicles, and an inside view of the brain by medical specialists aiming to deal with a cerebral tumor.

Aiming to encourage new applications for the device, Microsoft noted that developers can create 'new mixed reality' with holograms to enable users to see and experience things in new ways. The holographic capabilities in the Microsoft gear can open doors for developers to augment tasks from complex surgery to motorcycle design, according to the company.

Marketers predict virtual headsets will soon top wish lists for kids and young adults from Silicon Valley to Hong Kong. But some analysts say virtual reality will be eclipsed by augmented reality within a few years.

Source: AFP
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Turkish PM Binali Yildirim announced regarding the Bundestags adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution: We do not hesitate to take necessary steps, not even a second after seeing the resolution text comprehensively.

Ankara launched a barrage of threats at Germany after the Bundestag adopted the resolution on the Armenian Genocide.

Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Numan Kurtulmus described the vote in the Bundestag as null and void from a Turkish perspective.

He said the Bundestags decision is a historic mistake.

Earlier the German Parliament adopted the "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916" resolution, which clearly recognizes the Armenian Genocide.

This has sparked outrage in Turkey, with the Turkish Ambassador to Germany being recalled.
On Thursday, 2 June 2016, Biz Takeouts Marketing and Media Radio show host Warren Harding ( @bizwazza ) looked at the upcoming Marketing Mix, Shopper Path to Purchase 2016 event happening on 20 and 21 July at the Sunnyside Park Hotel in Johannesburg.

The Shopper Path to Purchase event is all about how digital marketing has joined the proven mix of merchandising and above the line media by facilitating interaction with target shoppers and added dimension of the loyalty clubs. So the professional retailer and brand marketer has to continuously evolve the communication mix. Click here to read the program and check out the credentials of the speakers.

We were joined by one of the event speakers, Dana Buys, CEO of CloudOne.mobi, a leading expert in boosting business performance with technology, including digital in-store signage.

We chatted to Dana about:

 Who and what CloubOne.mobi exactly is.  We discuss the benefits of cloud storage and management of POS and digital signage.

 We look at the opportunities available for cloud services in the retail environment.  Dana also takes us through the latest trends in digital signage, POS and cloud services in retail and we look at the what the future holds for CloudOne.mobi.

This is the 9th annual Shopper Path to Purchase conference.

Check out CloudOne.mobi here.

Check out Shopper Path to Purchase 2016 here.

Get all the information by listening to this weeks podcast.

Episode 176: The Marketing Mix Shopper path to purchase 2016 event speaker CloudOne.mobi.







Date: 2 June 2016 Length: 17:48min File size: 16.7MB Host: Warren Harding



The news roundup from Bizcommunity:

If you are interested in getting interviewed on Biz Takeouts, or want to suggest a show topic, email Warren Harding (@bizwazza) on moc.ytinummoczib@stuoekatzib.

Bizcommunity.com's Biz Takeouts Marketing & Media Show takes South Africa's biggest online marketing, media and ad industry platform to the airwaves and gives relevant, useful and interesting insights into all aspects of marketing in SA, Africa and beyond. Each week, the show features the movers and the shakers of the industry, current media trends, upcoming events and brand activities.

For more:
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi was dealt another legal blow yesterday when the Supreme Court of Appeal set aside her decision not to encrypt state-supplied set-top boxes.

Faith Muthambi

Encryption is widely used by pay-TV channels to ensure that only those who have paid will receive their broadcasts.

Although encryption is not necessary for the reception of free-to-air broadcasts, e.tv said its ability to encrypt future broadcasts was "essential to its business plans". Without it, audiences would end up with a second-rate viewing experience and be unable to access premium shows.

E.tv challenged the minister's amendment of the digital broadcasting migration policy published in March last year which said the government-supplied boxes should not have encryption capabilities.

SA, along with the rest of the African continent, is migrating from analogue TV broadcasting to digital, a move that will result in more TV channels.

The boxes will be used to receive the digital signal. While the government has already begun the distribution of some of its free five million set-top boxes to indigent households, the process is more than a year behind schedule.

E.tv had previously argued that the amendment effectively barred it from ever being able to encrypt its broadcasts because the cost of doing this at a later stage was prohibitive.

This is the second high-profile case the minister has lost in seven months after Western Cape High Court Judge Denis Davis declared her appointment of SABC boss Hlaudi Motsoeneng "unlawful and irrational".

The ruling was scathing of Muthambi as it found that her failure to consult with the industry rendered the process of enacting the amendment irrational. The court also found that the minister was not empowered to issue such a binding direction, and she acted beyond her legal authority.

"Minister Muthambi's failure to consult, based upon her misunderstanding of what the 2015 amendment signified, was taken in a procedurally unfair manner and was irrational," the ruling stated.

The judge also ruled that by precluding the subsidised set-top boxes from having encryption capability the minister has made it impossible for e.tv and other broadcasters to broadcast encrypted signals to TV viewers who have subsidised boxes.

Muthambi's spokesman Mish Molakeng said the minister would "study the judgment and decide on how to proceed". He said the court had not ordered the reversal of the policy or interdicted the implementation of the project.

E.tv hopes the clarity provided by the ruling will aid in providing a proper approach to the implementation of digital migration. Mark Rosin, chief operating officer of e.tv, said the company was committed to the digital terrestrial TV (DTT) platform "but want it to happen in an inclusive and organised manner".

The ruling allowed the possibility of a "strong and stable DTT platform for free-to-air television viewers, offering the best local and international content".

Source: Business Day
Growthpoint Properties, the largest South African-based property fund, will not rush into other emerging markets, but instead bide its time and continue to grow its existing investments in Australia.

CEO Norbert Sasse said on Tuesday, 31 May, in an update to investors in respect of the company's June 2016 financial year that his team had scoured Europe and Australia recently.

"We have looked throughout Europe including countries such as Romania, Poland and the UK and we continue to do so.

"We have not found anything suitable yet. I find Australia is currently very attractive, and there may be more opportunities there," he said.

Growthpoint already has significant exposure to Australia through its subsidiary, Growthpoint Australia.

Sasse said Growthpoint Australia was on track to achieve strong earnings and distribution growth. In contrast, the South African market remained difficult, according to Sasse.

"There are many headwinds in the domestic market. I believe that we are managing them well, however, I admit it is tough here," he said.

"Business confidence is low and, most notably, the retail market has come under new pressure. Consumers have become weaker, and there is too much new stock coming on to the market. SA is currently overshopped," he said.

Growthpoint's existing shopping centres were facing competition from new malls, he said.

Often customers would leave existing malls to experience the new ones as soon they opened, as they were attracted by hype and opening specials, which immediately reduced turnover. These customers could then return to their regular centres later on.

Sasse said that, nevertheless, middle-income and upper- income shoppers at its centres were resilient. Cape Town retail was also performing well, especially at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, of which Growthpoint owns 50%.

Asked if Growthpoint would rather take over a South African fund that already had offshore exposure, instead of buying assets abroad directly, Sasse said this was not one of the fund's current main strategies.

"We will look at all opportunities that come our way, but we aren't setting out to take over funds that own assets overseas and may be inwardly listed in SA," he said.

Many South African funds have bought properties or created joint ventures with property companies in eastern and central Europe in the past couple of years.

The cost of funding has been lower there than in SA, and yields have been more attractive, with deals being earnings-accretive immediately. This has boosted distribution payouts.

Source: Business Day
Media24 announced that Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief of City Press, will step down at the end of July 2016 having been at the newspaper since 2009.

Image via Wonder Women

My seven years with the company have been a joy and a life highlight, said Haffajee. I move on to writing again in fast, fresh and data-driven journalism.

Haffajee revealed she will be joining Bloomberg in Johannesburg as a writer in September. Prior to this she will moderate at the Aspen Institute's action forum in July and work on her next book proposal.

Haffajees resignation was a huge loss to City Press and Media24, said Media24 CEO Esmare Weideman. She is an extraordinary editor  brave, bold, fair, connected and in touch with her market. She was a fantastic brand ambassador for her newspaper and for Media24 as a company. We are very sad to see her go.

Ferial indicated a few months ago already that she felt her work at City Press was done and that she wanted to go learn and do something new. We can only hope she will return at some stage, Weideman added.

Haffajee has been an editor for the past 12 years. Before joining Media24 as the editor of City Press, she edited the Mail and Guardian. In 2014 she was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists. She is a former chairperson of the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF).

A successor will be announced in due course.
The Internet Society will call for the adoption of policies and frameworks that expand access and create greater demand for the internet during the 4th annual Africa Internet Summit (AIS), currently taking place in Gaborone, Botswana, 29 May - 10 June, 2016.

Image by 123RF

Urging policymakers to grasp the opportunity offered by the expansion and growth of the internet across the continent, the Internet Society will advocate for greater collaboration by all internet decision-makers in creating an accessible, trusted internet that benefits all Africans.

The African Internet Summit brings together the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) business and technical community to discuss current internet issues and challenges.

Among the challenges that the Internet Society will address is the need for a policy framework to further internet development throughout the region.

Rapid urbanisation, increased consumer spending power and international investments have fueled economic development in Africa over the past decade, resulting in some of the highest GDP growth rates in the world. Africa has also achieved major strides in Internet access with close to a third of the population connected.

Africa sits at a tipping point for internet expansion and the continent is poised to help drive growth of the global internet. But to make the opportunities for social and economic gains a reality, it is paramount that the right policies are in place, explains Dawit Bekele, Africa regional bureau director for the Internet Society.

Policymakers have a critical role to play in creating an environment that enables investment in internet infrastructure and ensures that the internet is used to address Africas development challenges, he added.

Digital trailblazers

In addition to urging policymakers to act, the Internet Society will shine a light on digital trailblazers during a Connected Women in Africa panel session on June 6th. The session explores how to get more women involved in developing and using internet technology across Africa, as well as highlighting women who are already bringing about significant change through their work with the Internet.

Kathy Brown, president and CEO of the Internet Society will lead a panel discussion that features women voices including Agang K. Ditlhogo, co-founder of The Clicking Generation, a start-up that offers computing and technology curriculum to under-privileged children in rural areas in Botswana.

Also on the panel is Dorcas Muthoni, an inductee of the Internet Hall of Fame and a computer scientist from Kenya who founded a software company that is now a leading e-Government and Business Software Services firm in East Africa.

Increased connectivity brings with it a new generation of digital entrepreneurs. We want to encourage and inspire others by highlighting women who have overcome barriers and paved the way forward for the internet in Africa, said Kathy Brown, president and CEO of the Internet Society.

The Internet Society, is the trusted independent source for internet information and thought leadership from around the world. It is also the organisational home for the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It promotes open dialogue on Internet policy, technology, and future development among users, companies, governments, and other organisations.
The Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), have teamed up to address food security and nutrition needs for countries in the IOC sub-region and the Islands of Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe.

According to the IOC executive director, Jean-Claude de lEstrac, speaking at a workshop on the matter this past week, food security and nutrition are priority areas for achieving the sustainable development goals.

Improved nutrition is both an input and an outcome for socio-economic development of IOC and Island countries. For every dollar invested in improving nutrition, there could be as much as 16 to 32 dollars in terms of economic returns.

This workshop has brought together participants from relevant sectors of SIDs in Africa namely Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, Reunion, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe. Delegates include nutrition specialists, government technicians and researchers in the fields of public health, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, education, food and nutrition surveillance, trade, food safety, environment, planning, sustainable management, finance, food industry, rural development, agro-business and communication.

With the developmental variations of the member countries of OIC, the region faces both under-nutrition and overweight/obesity contributing to overall burden of disease including rising levels of non-communicable diseases. Improving nutrition through multi-sectoral approaches therefore remains of top priority.

The IOC and FAO have jointly embarked on mutual collaboration to develop the capacities of SIDs to evaluate and monitor nutrition situations, analyse options, and implement nutrition sensitive agricultural policies and programmes that impact positively on nutrition, said Patrice Talla Takoukam, FAO representative for Madagascar/Comoros/Mauritius and Seychelles and FAO-IOC liaison coordinator.

Ending malnutrition

The Indian Island Ocean Commission and partners with support of FAO have developed the Regional Food Security and Nutrition Strategy (PRESAN) to sustainably improve the quality and availability of food in the sub-region.

The third pillar of the strategy focusing on nutrition seeks to diversify the food systems, fortify food staples with micronutrients and embark on effective nutrition education and sensitisation for nutritionally sound behaviour while establishing appropriate legislative and regulatory frameworks for an enabling environment for improving optimal nutrition outcomes and curb generational cycle of poverty and malnutrition and advance socio-economic development.

Island countries of Africa have the potential to end all forms of malnutrition if policies on food security and nutrition could be translated into effective result based implementation frameworks with multi-sectoral accountability mechanisms to monitor impact and sufficient resource allocation to drive implementation, said Mohamed Ag Bendech, FAO senior expert on nutrition.

Under this framework each country is being assisted to develop independent nutrition policies with multi-sectoral implementation frameworks, he added.

Building partnerships

Under the CAADP Nutrition Initiative and the framework of the Regional Food and Nutrition Security Strategy, this workshop is poised to strengthen inter-country experiences sharing and country networks of development professionals and experts in island countries and contribute to the achievement of mainstreaming Nutrition into agriculture and development policies and programmes as part of the follow up on ICN 2 framework for action while supporting island countries to achieve their nutrition targets of the Malabo declaration by 2025 and nutrition commitments of the SDGs by 2030.

The FAO Regional Conference for Africa (Abidjan, 4 - 8 April 2016) recommended the need to monitor the implementation of ICN-2 outcomes by supporting Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the formulation of their nutrition policies. The outcome document of Rio+20, The Future We Want (United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development), also acknowledged that SIDS need particular attention in efforts towards sustainable development.
The Agility Africa 2016 Photo Competition has been launched in an effort to inspire and showcase images that illustrate the breathtaking pace of change across modern Africa.

Image by 123RF

The annual contest, now in its second year, is the first pan-Africa photography competition to focus on Africas rapid modernisation. It is open to professional and amateur photographers alike.

The competition seeks to highlight the progress and development on a continent of contrasts, documenting an Africa booming with youthful consumers, new technology, urbanising populations and promising economic prospects.

Africas modern spirit and rapid evolution are obvious to those of us doing business there every day, says Geoffrey White, CEO of Agility Africa. Its important for the rest of the world to recognise the drive, ambition and creativity powering development across the continent. The Africa 2016 Photo Competition is one way we can bring attention to it.

The competition will take place from 1 June - 1 September 2016. Agility will award a US$2,000 cash prize to the winner of each of three categories: cities, industry and technology. A further US$2,000 grand cash prize will go to the photographer who shoots the overall winning image, deemed to best illustrate development and growth across Africa; giving photographers a chance to win up to $4,000.

...Africas modern spirit and rapid evolution are obvious to those of us doing business there every day...

The winning photographs will be shown on a CNBC Africa telecast and published in Forbes Africa and be featured in Agility social media, promotions and advertising.

The competition will be judged by an independent panel consisting of Sneha Shah, managing director, Thomson Reuters Africa; Bronwyn Nielsen, executive director of the Africa Business News Group and editor-in-chief of CNBC Africa; and Salim Amin, photographer, filmmaker and chairman of Africa 24 Media and Camerapix.

The Africa 2015 Photo Competition drew 700 entries submitted by photographers in 33 countries. Winning entries were dramatic images that captured the capital city of Luanda, Angola; wheat fields in Kenya; and a child holding a smart phone in Uganda.

Across our Africa business, were seeing the impact infrastructure improvements and technology are making in African life, White says. The contest is an engaging way for us to try to reflect the modernisation we see, from sustainable farming to manufacturing to energy production. Our hope is that perceptions of Africa will become more balanced, and people elsewhere will come to see Africa as an increasingly significant contributor to the world economy.

Agility is investing in Africa and is committed to building new logistics capacity and infrastructure to support the development of global and SME businesses across the continent. The companys strategy also includes a strong social and environmental program, focused on education, training and health.
The latest Burson-Marsteller Twiplomacy study has revealed that Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta @UKenyatta has become Sub-Saharan Africa's most followed leader with 1.4 million followers, closely followed by Rwanda's @PaulKagame, ahead of South Africa's presidential administration @PresidencyZA with 673,000 followers.

World leaders on Twitter

The Burson-Marsteller study finds that governments use Twitter most, but have larger audiences on Facebook. Over the past five years, Twitter has become the ultimate channel for digital diplomacy for world leaders and governments.

It is the prime social network used by heads of state and government in 173 countries, representing 90% of all United Nations (UN) member states, according to Burson-Marstellers Twiplomacy study, an annual global survey of world leaders on social media. Facebook is the second-most used social platform by world leaders, with 169 governments having set up official pages.

YouTube ranks third among social sharing platforms, used by 78% of all UN member states, ahead of Instagram which is used by 70%. While Twitter communication is mainly text-based, including visuals, Instagram is picture-driven with minimal text and more behind-the-scenes pictures. Governments with larger social media teams also have been exploring more visual communications with Vine and Snapchat, both of which target a younger audience of Millennials. Governments that do not have full broadcasting capabilities, mainly in Latin America, are embracing Periscope and Facebook Live to broadcast their press conferences.

Figures for African leaders showed the most engaging leaders on social media on the continent.

Most conversational world leaders 2016 (with five African leaders in the top six spots), measured by the percentage of @replies they gave to followers:

@PaulKagame, Rwanda president, 81% replies.

@Mapori_Matata, DR Congo prime minister, 77% replies

@DonaldTusk, EU Council president, 59% replies.

@LMushikiwabo, Rwanda foreign minister, 55% replies

@HannaTetteh, Ghana foreign minister, 55% replies

Most followed sub-Saharan African Leaders 2016:

@UKenyatta, Kenya president 1.444,730m

@PaulKagame, Rwanda president 1.402,258m

@PresidencyZA, South Africa presidency 678,249

@MBuhari, Nigeria president 531,563

@SAPresident, South Africa president 403,673

@StateHouseKenya, Kenya presidency 321,895

@NGRPresident, Nigeria president 245,051

@AMB_A_Mohammed, Kenya foreign minister 239,632

@JDMahama, Ghana president 217,470

Best connected sub-Saharan African Leaders 2016, measured by number of mutual peer connections:

@PresidenceMali, Mali presidency

@RwandaMFA, Rwanda foreign ministry

@MfaEthiopia, Ethiopian diplomacy

@SeychellesMFA, Seychelles foreign ministry

@HannaTetteh, Ghana foreign minister

@UgandaMFA, Uganda foreign ministry

@DrTedros, Ethiopia foreign minister

@AM_A_Mohammed, Kenya foreign minister

@AbdoulayeDiop8, Mali foreign minister

@RwandaGov, Rwanda government

All platforms studied

The 2016 edition of Twiplomacy, which previously focused solely on Twitter, has been expanded to examine the use of other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and more niche digital diplomacy platforms such as Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google+,Periscope and Vine. The Twiplomacy website includes live rankings and the first ever social media atlas for each country studied.

Our Twiplomacy study shows people in positions of power are increasingly tapping social media platforms to connect with the audiences most important to them, said Don Baer, worldwide chair and CEO, Burson-Marsteller. As engagement becomes one of the critical measures of social media influence, our Twiplomacy study shows which political communicators are most successful on which social platforms and what we can learn from them.

This final installment of Twiplomacy 2016 provides lessons for communicators on creating successful social media accounts and driving online engagement. Based on combining data from the different profiles with an in-depth analyses of the content, the most notable findings include the importance of being visual and creative, tailoring content to the specific platform, projecting a human face and timeliness.

The world leaders using social media with the most success are: US President Barack Obama and his White House team; Mauricio Macri, Argentinian President; and Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minster; among others.

Integrated approach

This cross-platform study shows that world leaders are increasingly taking an integrated approach across several social media channels, an indication of where more and more business leaders are likely to move as well, said Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa and global chief strategy officer.

We are seeing that world leaders are allowing people to meet the personality behind the official title  and that today, much more than words, creative or personal images get messages across most powerfully, a tactic that corporate leaders can use just as effectively.

The latest installment of the 2016 Twiplomacy study analysed 793 Twitter accounts of heads of states and governments in 173 countries with a combined total audience of 324 million followers.

The Barack Obama Twitter account following alone, numbers 74 million; well ahead of Pope Francis in second position with 28 million; and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in third with 19 million followers.

However, Burson-Marstellers Twitter study revealed that a massive following does not always translate into influence. The official presidential @POTUS Twitter account, set up in May 2015, has become the seventh most followed account with 7.6 million followers, and it is by far the most effective account considering it averages 12,350 retweets per tweet. In comparison, the tweets sent by the @BarackObama account, which has 10 times as many followers as @POTUS, are only retweeted on average 1,572 times.

Diplomatic connections

Foreign ministries tend to use Twitter to establish mutual relations. In May 2015, the U.S. State Department used Twitter to re-establish ties with its Cuban counterpart, months before the official re-establishment of diplomatic relations. The State Department also tried to connect with Irans President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, but has unfollowed both men who had not reciprocated.

The EU External Action Service is the best connected foreign office, mutually connected to 122 peers; Russias Foreign Ministry is in second position, maintaining mutual Twitter relations with 111 other world leaders; and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry is in third place with 100 mutual connections.

The most followed non-government account is the United Nations Twitter account @UN, which is followed by 296 of the 793 world leaders' Twitter accounts; The New York Times (@NYTimes) is the most followed news organization; and @UNICEF is the second most followed international organisation. The @Twiplomacy Twitter account is the fourth-most followed non-governmental account by world leaders, with a following of 162 heads of state and government, ahead of The Economist, the BBC, Reuters and CNN, respectively.

More than 5,000 embassies and ambassadors are now active on Twitter; it has become the voice of diplomatic missions in New York, Washington, London and Brussels.

The complete collection of social media studies can be found on bm.com and twiplomacy.com.
Nedbank has been awarded the African Retail Bank of the year award at the 2016 Retail Banking Global Conference and Awards, held in London recently.

Nedbank emerged the winner among Ecobank, Standard Bank and Guaranty Trust who were shortlisted in the African Retail Bank of the year category. The award was bestowed in recognition of Nedbanks growing stature among retail banks in South Africa and across the continent. The bank was also shortlisted in the Best Use of Data Analytics category, affirming its strategic intent to lead in innovation.

Group managing executive, Nedbank Retail and Business Bankin,g Ciko Thomas, said: "We are humbled by this recognition and would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Retail Banking Global Awards which continue to play an important role in showcasing banking excellence in Africa and globally. We are immensely proud to be recognised in this manner as these accolades demonstrate progress in our client centered approach and vision to become the most admired bank in Africa by all stakeholders including our clients."

The Retail Banking Global Awards, an initiative by Retail Banker International (RBI), bring together high-street banks, retailers, new market entrants, financial professionals and industry disruptors in an active discussion of the key issues facing the industry. The awards are a culmination of the Retail Banking Conference which showcases informative and inspiring keynote sessions as well as informal conversations among industry thought leaders.

Thomas notes that Nedbanks greater focus on client centricity has seen the bank grow its investment in technological advancements and the development of staff who bring the banks vision and brand promise to life through their daily interactions with new and existing clients.
We connect brands with the mass market where it matters most-close to home.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of Armenia Artem Asatryan says the Armenian Government conducts steps towards the solution of social issues and the provision of stable incomes for the families of soldiers killed during the April 4-day war.

He said family needs were assessed and there are already proposals on including nearly a dozen of families in the respective projects.

It will solve the issue of providing stable employment in connection with the works of the small enterprises and agriculture. The Ministry of Economy also made a proposal which has been discussed. Currently the discussions are underway to make this issue comparable and complete, Armenpress reports, the Minister stated.

He stated the Government now solves all short-term issues within the given program. At the same time, it is planned to form a complete mechanism in order to make the sources of stable incomes clear and constant.
The Bing Ads UK Travel Insights Report reveals that search volume for the term sharing economy rose 70% YoY, more than searches for hotels, cottages, or accommodation. Pioneers of the travel sharing economy are Uber and AirBnB and the practice of renting out ones assets, even its space on the couch to rest a weary head or a ride in the car, is becoming more widely accepted.

However, its not just among the young and digitally-savvy generations that the sharing economy is becoming popular. Bings report shows that travelers over the age of 50 are also latching on to the concept. Among travelers age 50-64, sharing economy searches grew a whopping 203% while among those age 65 and over the rise was 176%.

Other findings from the Bing report include:

 Monday and Tuesday are peak days for travel searches;

 Women dominate holiday planning in all respects except car hire;

 38% of all UK travel searches in 2015 were made on a mobile device.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Armenias accession to Horizon 2020 heralds a new era of cooperation between Armenia and the European Investment Bank and Fund, Armenpress reports in a briefing with reporters the head of the European Investment Banks Directorate for Operations in the Neighboring countries Heinz Olbers told.

If up till now we were focused on financing infrastructural projects, such as transport or energy, this project will give a real opportunity to focus on the private sector as well, SMEs and large business. The project will be particularly focused on innovative companies, where we see Armenias great potential and we will be glad to cooperate, Olbers said.

He added that they are in Armenia to get better acquainted with the companies operating in Armenia.

Armenia signed a document on May 19, 2016 with the European Commission by which it accessed to Horizon 2020.

Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly 80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020)  in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

By coupling research and innovation, Horizon 2020 is helping to achieve this with its emphasis on excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges. The goal is to ensure Europe produces world-class science, removes barriers to innovation and makes it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Armenians, attending the Bundestag discussions, expressed gratitude with posters for the adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution, reports Armenpress.

They also raised the Armenian flag in the Bundestag.

Upon hearing the news that the Bundestag has adopted the resolution, the Armenians started celebrating by dancing.

The joy was shared by Kurds, who also gathered and proclaimed: Long Live the brotherhood of peoples in Turkish.

The German Bundestag adopted the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution, which is entitled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

Only one MP voted against the adoption, and one abstained.

Speakers were unanimously stressing the need of facing the past, also for contributing the reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey.

The Bundestag voiced the crime of the Ottoman Turkey, and stressed this step is neither an accusation nor a claim, but a tribute to the memory of the victims.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia send a thank you letter to the President of Federal Republic of Germany Joachim Gauck, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert on the occasion of the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of Armenian Presidents Office, President Sragsyan expressed deep gratitude to them and all the political and social forces that confidently approved that resolution. President Sargsyan expressed confidence that the resolution will be important in terms of recognizing other genocides and preventing future ones.

The adoption of the resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide was a really historical move. It was historical not only for Armenia and the Armenian people, or Germany and the German people, but for the entire civilized world. This symbolizes the supremacy of democracy and universal values and underscores the consistent role of Germany in preserving those values. This was an address to the whole world that the crimes against humanity committed even 100 years ago are not only not forgotten but are condemned by a righteous assessment, reads the Presidents letter.
YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Chief of Police of the Republic of Armenia, Lieutenant General Vladimir Gasparyan met with Mr. Richard Mills, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Armenia and officials accompanying him on June 2, Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Police.

Greeting the guest, Vladimir Gasparyan highlighted the importance of the well-established cooperation between the Armenian Police and the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, in particular within the context of the American experts significant assistance in the consistent process of implementation of police reforms and modernization of the police system.

Richard Mills introduced Mr. Ady Holloway, Senior adviser at the U.S. Embassy's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section and expressed his satisfaction that through him the U.S. Embassy in Armenia can work directly with the Police Chief and the Police leadership.

We are proud, - the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary said, - to collaborate with You and share experience related to various legal approaches.

Touching upon the positive shifts made in the activity of the Armenian Police, Richard Mills noted that enjoying public confidence and protecting public security are those challenges law enforcers face all over the world, and the provision thereof is a prerequisite for a strong and stable society.

Richard Mills underscored that the police forces and leadership have so far been successfully facing these challenges ensuring, inter alia, positive shifts in eliminating human trafficking, managing assemblies and fight against drug abuse.

During the meeting held in a friendly and constructive atmosphere the two sides also discussed a number of other issues of mutual interest.
The United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) held a meeting on 1 June in Chiang Mai, Thailand and decided to meet with the government peace team. Most member organisations of the UNFC did not sign the NCA.

UNFC General Secretary Khu Oo Reh told reporters that they had already sent their reply to the government by informing them that their Delegation for Political Negotiation (DPN) would meet with the government peace team.

Khun Oo Reh said, Our position adopted at the [UNFC] meeting is to send our DPN to negotiate with the government as each delegate in the DPN represents their mother organisation. At the same time, some UNFC leaders who are not included in the DPN will meet with the government peace team along with the DPN.

The invitation letter sent by the government does not refer to particular organisations but only mentions leaders of ethnic armed organisations and was addressed to UNFC General Secretary Khu Oo Reh. The invitation letter requested him to invite all non-signatories of the NCA on their behalf for that informal meeting, Khu Oo Reh said.
RCSS/SSA spokesman Col. Sai La told Mizzima that RCSS/SSA Chairman Lt. Gen. Yawd Serk and UNFC Chairman Gen. NBan La met for an hour.

Infighting between ethnic nationalities is not good. So we asked them [UNFC] to find a peaceful solution to end this fighting. The UNFC Chairman accepted our demand and his attitude is the same as our Chairman, he said.

Col. Sai La told Mizzima, They (UNFC) told us that they would help as much as they can.

RCSS/SSA proposed a meeting with the TNLA in April in Chiang Mai to negotiate an end to the conflict. The TNLA said that they would send their reply by the end of April but no reply was received and fresh fighting erupted again on 1 May.

Apparently, the two sides could not agree on the venue of the meeting with the RCSS/SSA preferring Chiang Mai, and the TNLA preferring a place on the Sino-Myanmar border.

Recently, the two armies fought fiercely in Mengmo in northern Shan State on 31 May and fighting was reportedly still raging on 1 June.
Mi Ni Ni Aung from Kawdon Village, one of the activists who will put up the posters, said that even though local residents had demanded that MCL abandon their plan to use coal-power for the cement factory the company had ignored them and continued with the plan. So, the residents are planning to get MCLs attention by putting up vinyl posters.

She said: The local residents submitted a letter of objection but they [MCL] ignored it and are continuing [with their plan]. It seems like they are neglecting us, the local residents, so we have decided to put up the vinyl [posters] so that they can be seen by the public.

The posters will be put up in 20 areas from Tayanar Village to Kwam Ngan and Katonsi villages in Kyaikmaraw Township. Leaflets outlining the problems caused by coal-fired power stations will also be distributed to villagers.

Until now MCL has been following its original plan and it has started to carry out tests at the factory using coal power.

Mi Ni Ni Aung said: The factory has started burning coal for over 20 days now. They burn coals between 9pm to 10 pm every three or four days. We can see smoke being released from the factory.

The Mon State Hluttaw (parliament) Deputy Speaker Dr Aung Naing Oo previously said that the Mon State Hluttaw would reinvestigate MCLs plans to use coal as the factorys power source after a petition protesting against the factory signed by 4,000 residents was submitted on 25 April.

Before leaving office president Thein Seins administration also granted June Cement Industry Ltd permission to build a cement factory in the Pyar Taung area, which the company is now building.

Translated by Thida Linn

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
The special convention which is expected to be held some time in July is being convened by Burmas State Counsellor and National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi. This will be a follow-up to a meeting convened by her father in 1947 that was attended by representatives from the Shan, Chin and Kachin communities.

The agreement reached at Panglong in 1947, stipulated a significant level of autonomy for Burma's ethnic groups in exchange for their decision to support Aung San's bid for independence from Britain. Aung San, was assassinated just months after the agreement was reached, his successor U Nu, did little to implement the agreement before he was overthrown by General Ne Win in 1962. The subsequent military regimes that ruled Burma also disregarded the commitments made by General Aung San at Panglong.

The 1 June seminar, which focused on national reconciliation, the peace process, democracy and federalism, was organised by the Committee for Shan State Unity (CSSU), an organisation comprising of Shan parties and armed organisations with Khun Tun Oo, the leader of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), as their chairperson.

Sai Lek, a spokesperson for the SNLD and one of the meeting's organizers, said that the meeting was being convened in order to prepare for discussing the issue of equal rights for Shan States people at the national conference.

He said: The main goal is to build unity among all ethnicities in Shan State. This is a first for Burma to hold this political conference after 70 years. It is very important for ethnic nationalities equal rights, autonomy, as well as constitutional amendments.

In order for us to get a chance for constitutional amendments at the political conference we (ethnic nationalities) have to discuss and support the matter.

The two-day meeting, which began today, was attended by nineteen political parties and eight civil society organizations from Shan State. In addition to the SNLD, representatives of the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) also attended as did members of the NLD and the military backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

On 29 May, representatives from nineteen political parties in Shan State held a meeting in Yangon and formed a committee called the League for Shan State Ethnic Political Party (LSSEPP).

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
Burma Army offensives against the Shan State Progressive Party/ Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) have forced over 1,000 people to flee from Hsipaw Township to take shelter in monasteries over the past month. Many of the internally displaced people (IDPs) claim that after they left their homes livestock was stolen or killed. They also allege that other personal items and food was robbed from their homes.

Sai Sam, one of the IDPs said: Its only been a while since we arrived at the monastery. When we went back [to the village] to check out the situation, our homes were robbed. The cattle have been killed for food. Farm equipment has been taken and what cant be taken has been destroyed like tractors, motorcycles, and bicycles. Grocery stores have been destroyed. The Burma Army is active around the village.

Four monasteries in Hsipaw town have been providing shelter to IDPs who are still unable to return home due to the ongoing tensions in the area. Myohaung Monastery has 304 IDPs, Bodaw Monastery has 286 IDPs, Shwekyin Monastery has 179 IDPs and Saniyarma Monastery has 96 internally displaced monks.

The IDPs are from Namma Mauktaung Village Group and other nearby villages.

Another IDP, Sai Pay Ti said: Now, its time to enrol the students in school. My eldest child is attending school in Lashio. Another one is in Mauktaung. This year, we faced the war and our home have been robbed. Our belongings have been stolen. I dont have money to send my two sons to school.

Sai Lone, a farmer taking refuge at the Myohaung Monastery in Hsipaw said: I want to request them to stop the battles. Now is the time for farmers to start farming. If the battles continue, we cant work. The lives of the public are [being] destroyed. We get arrested and killed. Please stop the battles. We want to go home.

The Shan State Progressive Party/Shan State Army (SSPP/SSA) signed a union-level and a state-level ceasefire with the government in 2012. The group did not however sign the National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) with government in November 2015. An estimated 100 clashes have taken place between the SSPP/SSA and the Burma Army since government forces launched their offensive against the group.

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
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YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian people are thankful to the German parliament for adopting the resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide, as well as for taking some responsibility for that. Armenpress reports numerous Armenians gathered in front of the German Embassy to express gratitude.

Member of the youth organization of the Republican Party of Armenia Arusyak Poghosyan told Armenpress that the adoption of the resolution was not only a political but also a huge humanitarian action. That crime was committed against the entire humanity. Only a tough condemnation can prevent such crimes in the future. Naturally, it rather difficult for Germany to take such decisions considering the geopolitical situation. We so that Turkish reaction came without a delay and it was rather aggressive, Arusyak Poghosyan said, adding that it is their duty to express gratitude to a country that displayed a real political will.

The participants of the event, shouting Thank you, Germany, conveyed their gratitude to the German Bundestag and people for recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
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YEREVAN, JUNE 2, ARMENPRESS. Sooner or later or international political leaderships must recognize the Armenian Genocide, if they do not want new genocides to happen, Vice President of Republic of Armenia National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov told the journalists after the RPA Executive Body meeting, commenting on the adoption of the resolution recognizing and condemning the Armenian Genocide by the German Bundestag. The adoption of the resolution by the Bundestag opens new doors for recognitions and closes doors before denialism. Unfortunately, the Turkish leadership is not ready to face its own history, Armenpress reports Sharmazanov saying.

Sharmazanov added that he held a phone conversation with the Bundestag Vice President Bulmahn. I highly appreciated the position of the German MPs and once again stated that here the key issue is that a country that was an ally for Turkey during the World War I, recognized the Armenian Genocide, Eduard Sharmazanov said.

To the remark that Armenian-Turkish relations will deteriorate further, Sharmazanov mentioned that it was Turkey who cancelled the Armenian-Turkish protocols. Turkey brought forward preconditions; therefore, Turkey must take steps for reconciliation, Sharmazanov said, adding that Turkey does vice de versa by recalling its Ambassador from Germany.

The German Bundestag adopted on June 2 the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution, which is entitled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

Only one MP voted against the adoption, and one abstained.

Speakers were unanimously stressing the need of facing the past, also for contributing the reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey.
A rumble of thunder rolled through the thick clouds and the accompanying lightning illuminated the distant sky giving me a short glimpse of distant silhouetted hills crouching like a wounded animal.

The wind howled through the tree tops and torrents of rain pelted down pitilessly on the waterlogged grass airstrip.

IT WAS freezing cold and I struggled for warmth under my thin blue jacket, swinging the long tail of the neck warmer one more time around my neck as I stepped under the rusty corrugated roof of the run down police station at Bewani deep inside West Sepik Province.

The hills were the backdrop to a vast flat area of jungle-covered land that stretched from Bewani to Skotiau across Bewan River and into the thick forests of Irian Jaya.

Somewhere in there two Indonesian lumber workers were held hostages by armed men suspected to be a faction of the West Papuan freedom movement, Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM).

The overcast had closed in swallowing up the last of the light and painting the surroundings a misty grey. As I stared towards the open sky in the west, a faint red light flickered in the foggy downpour and the shape of PNG Defence Force Bell 212 chopper descended slowly from the overcast as it circled to land.

The powerful wind screamed against the roaring blades and the rain continued its assault as the pilots skilfully perched the craft lightly on the water-bound strip.

From the shadows of an open building, five fully-armed soldiers with drenched gear moved towards the chopper, their boots sinking into the soggy mud.

They clambered on board and the chopper clawed its way up, cutting through the fog and disappearing west heading towards the border.

Its flickering red navigation light disappeared into the downpour as the last sortie was inserted into the jungles of Skotiau along the Bewan River late that September afternoon.

Its mission: to track down the armed rebels and rescue the two Indonesian lumber workers. Negotiation for their release had failed two days before.

The downpour continued into the night casting a heavy fog over the jungle but this did not impede the Special Operation Task Forces (SOTF) pursuit of the rebels stronghold in the Skotiau area.

The operation, directed by Ian Jinga, Director General of the Office of Security Assessment and Coordination, came after prime minister ONeill, on very short notice, ordered the PNGDF to deploy a special task force for the rescue mission.

The SOTF was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Opa, commanding officer of the 2nd Regiment, PIR, based in Wewak and resulted in the rescue of the two hostages, Sudirman, 18, and Badar, 30, who broke down in tears as they were handed over to Indonesian consul at the PNGDF operations base

Two of the suspected kidnappers were taken into custody during the operation and handed over to police.

It was after five oclock the next day as the last rays of the setting sun sparkled off the white beaches of the Wutung coastline that we hit the road to the border at Batas to hand over the hostages to the Indonesian army and their families.
Between 2003 and 2011 the Department of Lands issued seventy-seven Special Purpose Business and Agriculture Leases covering more than 5.2 million hectares.

Despite the government promoting its new bill as a move to clean up the administration of land and tackle corruption it will actually have the opposite effect, legitimising and compounding previous illegal acts and depriving a very large number of customary landowners of justice.

THE Papua New Guinea government is seeking to use changes to the Land Act to retrospectively endorse a huge illegal land grab covering about 12% of the whole country.

In 2013, a government initiated Commission of Inquiry found these leases were illegal and recommended they be cancelled and the land returned to its customary owners.

But rather than follow the Commission recommendation and declare the leases void, the Department of Lands has drafted legislation that will endorse the illegal SABL leases and allow them to remain in effect for their full 99-year terms.

The government and Department of Lands are promoting the new bill as a move to clean up the administration of land and tackle endemic corruption.

But, while one section of the amendment bill will remove the SABL concept and prevent any new leases being issued in the future, the government is remaining very quiet about its attempt to retrospectively give its stamp of approval to the existing illegal leases.

The idea of an SABL leases was originally created as a legal mechanism to allow small agriculture plantations on customary land, but the SABLs issued from 2003 far exceeded in size what could ever be used for genuine agriculture purposes.

Worse still, most landowners were never consulted over the loss of their land and did not give their consent, despite their rights supposedly being protected in the Constitution.

A Commission of Inquiry was set up in 2011 in response to the widespread outcry from indigenous landowners, scientists and civil society at the theft of customary land.

The Commission of Inquiry uncovered a catalogue of abuses in the process of developing the SABL leases, including a complete failure to obtain the consent of customary landowners or protect their interests in the terms of the contracts.

The Commission also uncovered fraud, political interference and a total failure to follow proper processes. It was alleged many of the leases had been issued to facilitate large-scale logging operations, not genuine agriculture projects. The Commission recommended almost all the leases be cancelled and the land returned to its customary owners.

The SABL leases have also been condemned by the international community. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has twice written please explain letters to the PNG government over the human rights impacts of the leases on rural communities.

There has been similar concern expressed by the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the Rights of Indigenous People, the Right to Food, the Right to Safe drinking Water and the Human Rights Council Working Group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises.

Although the PNG government has not even acknowledged the concerns raised by any of these international groups and has not replied to any of their correspondence, since 2013 the prime minister, Peter ONeill, has made repeated public promises that the government will implement the Commission recommendations, cancel the leases and return the land to its customary owners.

While ONeill has claimed the implementation of those promises have been blocked by the bureaucracy, it now appears his government is instead set on a very different path.

If approved by Parliament the proposed amendments to the Land Act will give a seal of approval to the illegal land grab and cement the unlawful alienation of customary land.

With the government controlling over 100 of 111 seats in the national Parliament, Parliament's endorsement seems inevitable.
A bill named for a Syracuse woman who was killed in a boating accident 10 years ago has been sent to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's desk for his review.

The state Assembly and Senate passed "Tiffany Heitkamp's Law," a measure sponsored by state Sen. John DeFrancisco that would strengthen drunken boating laws.

The legislation would require judges to consider previous driving while intoxicated convictions in boating while intoxicated cases.

Under existing state law, there is no link for BWI and DWI offenses.

"When someone has a history of operating a vehicle or vessel while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, that record should be taken into account when the individual is sentenced," DeFrancisco, R-Syracuse, said. "Repeat offenders should be held accountable for their history of dangerous actions to help deter further tragedies."

DeFrancisco's bill is named for Tiffany Heitkamp, who died in a boating accident in 2006. The operator of the boat, Keir Weimer, was drunk at the time of the incident and had two drunken driving convictions on his record. But the judge wasn't able to consider the previous DWI offenses in Weimer's case.

While Weimer was considered a first-time BWI offender, he was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in 2007 and sentenced to two to six years in prison.

He was released in May 2011.

DeFrancisco tried to usher the bill through the state Legislature over the past 10 years. It was approved by the state Senate several times, but didn't get a vote in the Assembly.

On Thursday, the Senate passed Tiffany Heitkamp's Law by a vote of 59-0. The Assembly approved the bill Wednesday by a 141-0 vote.




CHENNAI (PTI): Group Captain Amar Ahuja has assumed charge as the Command of Air Force Station at suburban Avadi.



Ahuja, who was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in December 1984, succeeds Air Commodore P Ramesh.



A ceremonial parade was held on the occasion of handing over ceremony on May 31, a Defence release said.



Prior to taking up the new role, Ahuja had served various responsibilities including Command and Staff appointments at the IAF headquarters, it added.




A part of South China Sea. Internet imagery

BEIJING (PTI): China is set to declare an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the disputed South China Sea to counter US military's "provocative moves" in the strategic waterways, according to a media report.



"If the US military keeps making provocative moves to challenge China's sovereignty in the region, it will give Beijing a good opportunity to declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea," Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted sources in the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as saying.



The timing of declaration of the ADIZ would depend on security conditions in the region, particularly the US' military presence and diplomatic ties with neighbouring countries, it quoted another Chinese official as saying.



The development comes two years after China announced an ADIZ in the East China Sea. ADIZ requires all incoming aircraft, including civilian planes, to register with Chinese authority to fly in the air routes.



The report came ahead of next week's US-China annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing on June 6 and 7 in which US Secretary of State John Kerry would take part.



Officially China maintains that it is "the right of a sovereign state" to designate an ADIZ in its waters.



"Regarding when to declare such a zone, it will depend on whether China is facing security threats from the air, and what the level of the air safety threat is," the report quoted an official statement as saying.



China, which has built airfields and placed weapons systems on the man-made islands in the Sea, claims almost all of the South China Sea. Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have rival claims.



The rival claimants have been fretting over what they see as China's expansionism as it rushes to exert sovereignty over the vital waterway, a major global shipping route believed to have large oil and gas reserves and through which about US$ 5 trillion in trade passes each year.



The US has been wading into the dispute, pressing its naval ships and aircraft to assert the "freedom of navigation" in the disputed region. Its moves in recent months have led to angry protests from China.



US military defend its manoeuvers in the region and say they will continue to exercise freedom of navigation. In the past seven months, US warships have sailed three times close to one of the artificial islands and challenge the claims.



In response, China has deployed fighter jets and ships to track and warn off US ships.






NEW DELHI (PTI): Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is traveling to Singapore on Thursday to take part in the crucial Shangri-La Dialogue, an inter-governmental security forum, on the sidelines of which he will also hold talks with his French counterpart, with both countries looking at closing the deal for 36 Rafale fighter jets soon.



It is expected that Parrikar will strongly put forward India's viewpoint on Asia's complex security challenges, how to manage military competition in the region and make defence policy in uncertain times.



The Shangri-La Dialogue hosted annually by independent think-tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, is being held from June 3-5.



It is attended by defence ministers and military chiefs of 28 Asia-Pacific countries besides those of other countries.



One of the critical meetings Parrikar will have there is with French Defence Minister Jean Yves Le Drian.



The issues pertaining to Rafale jets deal such as consensus on actions to be taken in case of a material breach, stringent liability clause and guarantee by the French side are likely to be discussed when the two leaders meet.



Parrikar had last week said the government is looking at concluding the much-hyped Rafale deal next month, more than a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the purchase of 36 fighter jets during his visit to France.



The deal was announced by Modi in April last year when he had said that the jets would be purchased in a government-to-government contract.



Soon after the announcement, the Defence Ministry scrapped a separate process that was on to purchase 126 Rafale fighter jets built by French defence giant Dassault Aviation.



It is expected that the deal would work out be about Euro 7.8 billion including the missiles and other support system.


Steve Williams used his first television ad of the 24th Congressional District race to focus on the issue that's at the top of his platform.

Jobs.

Williams, D-Baldwinsville, released the 30-second commercial Thursday. More information about the ad buy wasn't immediately available, but the spot will air on Syracuse-area television stations.

In the ad titled "Straight Talk," Williams mentions his stint in the U.S. Navy  he was a JAG Corps officer  and outlines his jobs plan, which includes eliminating bad trade agreements and lowering energy costs for businesses.

He also wants to bring community colleges and companies together in order to fill open skilled positions.

"Like all Americans, I'm tired of politicians making big promises without a plan to follow through," Williams said in a statement. "That's why my first ad doesn't just tell you that I'll create jobs, but how I'm going to do it. This district has been bleeding jobs for decades, and we need a congressperson with a real plan to bring jobs to central New York."

Williams unveiled the ad 26 days before the Democratic primary, which will be held on Tuesday, June 28.

He is vying for the Democratic nomination against two other candidates  Colleen Deacon, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's former central New York regional director, and Eric Kingson, a Syracuse University professor and Social Security expert.

Deacon, D-Syracuse, has already rolled out two TV ads during the primary campaign. Her most recent commercial, which includes a pledge to protect Social Security if elected to Congress, was released Wednesday.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face U.S. Rep. John Katko in the general election.

Democrats consider Katko, R-Camillus, one of the most vulnerable House Republicans in the country. Political prognosticators have rated the race a toss up.
Brandeis neuroscientist Eve Marder '69 awarded prestigious Kavli Prize

The biennial prize for scientific innovation cites Marders research in mechanisms of modulation of nervous system function

Photo/Mike Lovett Eve Marder

Eve Marder '69, the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Neuroscience at Brandeis, has been awarded the renowned Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for her groundbreaking research on the nervous system.

The Kavli Prize is one of the most prestigious in scientific research, said Brandeis Interim President Lisa Lynch. To have it awarded to Eve Marder, who is not only a pioneering neuroscientist at Brandeis but also an alumna, is a tremendous honor for the university. On behalf of Brandeis, I congratulate Professor Marder along with this years other Kavli Prize laureates.

Marders research on small neural circuits found in lobsters and crabs has revolutionized our understanding of the fundamental nature of neuronal circuit operation, including how neuromodulators control behavioral outputs and how the stability of circuits is maintained over time. She shares the Kavli Prize in neuroscience this year with two other internationally acclaimed scientists: Michael Merzenich from the University of California, San Francisco and Carla Shatz from Stanford University.

With the other two Kavli Prize laureates, Marder defined the mechanisms by which brains remain stable while allowing for change during development and learning, Marders citation reads.

Marder began studying the stomatogastric nervous system of the West Coast spiny lobster as a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego in the early 1970s. Today, she oversees her own lab at Brandeis, where she conducts her innovative research with the participation of post-docs, graduate students and undergraduates.

The prizewinners were announced by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in a ceremony Wednesday evening in Oslo  Thursday morning on the east coast. The Kavli Prizes are awarded biennially in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.

The Kavli Prize is a partnership between the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the US-based Kavli Foundation and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Each laureate receives a gold medal and scroll, and each field splits $1 million. The Crown Prince of Norway will formally present the prizes in a ceremony Sept. 6.
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OTTAWA  The Competition Bureau has settled a misleading advertising case against the Avis and Budget rental car companies but came away with much less than originally sought when its allegations were announced early last year.

The companies have agreed to pay $3.25 million in administrative penalties and costs, rather than the $30 million that the bureau originally sought, and establish internal education and monitoring programs that run for 10 years, the bureau announced Thursday.

The figure includes a $3 million administrative penalty and $250,000 for costs incurred by the competition commissioner during the investigation.

Avis and Budget have also agreed to implement a program that ensures senior managers and other personnel comply with provisions of the Competition Act that prevent deceptive marketing claims. They have also agreed to notify the bureau if they become aware of any future breach of the act for the next 10 years.

But the settlement doesnt contain any admission of wrongdoing by the companies or include compensation to former and current customers  two of the bureaus early goals.

Avis Canada and Budget Canada issued a joint email response later Thursday in which they said they dont believe or admit that their pricing and marketing practices misled their customers.

Nonetheless, in order to avoid the cost and disruption to the business that the continuation of litigation would entail, the companies have agreed to pay C$3.25 million to the Canadian government to resolve the case and to adopt a competition law compliance program, they said.

Competition commissioner John Pecman said in a statement that hes confident that the case will deter false and misleading advertising.

The Ottawa-based federal agency had accused the two related companies in a March 2015 filing of misleading consumers by advertising prices that excluded unavoidable expenses, such as taxes, surcharges and fees.

The companies said in their response that pricing rental cars by advertising a base rate and then adding recovery fees has been used by most major car rental companies in Canada for at least the past 15 years.

Avis Canada and Budget Canada have communicated to the commissioner that they expect that other car rental companies operating in Canada will have to play by the same rules, they added.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the Competition Bureau originally sought $10 million in total penalties.
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TORONTO  Frenchs Food Company says all the ketchup it sells in Canada will be bottled in this country by early next year.

All the tomatoes in Frenchs ketchup sold in Canada already come from local farmers, but the company says some of it is bottled in Ohio.

Frenchs says it has partnered with Select Food Products Ltd. in Toronto to build a new manufacturing facility that will be fully operational early next year.

French's Ketchup is seen in this handout photo. French's Food Company says all the ketchup it sells in Canada will now be bottled in this country. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-French's- MANDATORY CREDIT

The company says it has also expanded its partnership with Highbury Canco, which sources and packages the tomatoes and tomato paste used in Frenchs Canadian ketchup at its Leamington, Ont., plant.

A spokeswoman for Frenchs initially said the two would work together to develop and manufacture two new flavoured ketchups to be launched early next year, but later she said the company has not yet confirmed what the products will be.

Frenchs ketchup soared in popularity earlier this year after a mans Facebook post lauded the U.S.-based company for its commitment to buy tomatoes from Canadian farmers while its competitor, Heinz, closed its Leamington plant, costing the community about 750 jobs.

Frenchs says it will also look to source other materials, like packaging and labels, from Canadian manufacturers.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said all the companys ketchup would be bottled in Canada starting now.
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CALGARY  A junior oil and gas company in Calgary is blaming an order aimed at protecting a rare Prairie bird for its insolvency.

LGX Oil + Gas (TSX:LGX) says its daily operations and drilling plans were significantly disrupted when an emergency order under the federal Species At Risk Act took effect in February 2014 to protect the greater sage-grouse.

The companys Manyberries oilfields in Alberta were subject to that order.

In this May 9, 2008 file photo, male sage grouses fight for the attention of female southwest of Rawlins, Wyo. A junior oil and gas company in Calgary is blaming an order aimed at protecting a rare Prairie bird for its insolvency. LGX Oil + Gas (TSX:LGX) says its daily operations and drilling plans were significantly disrupted when an emergency order under the federal Species At Risk Act took effect in February 2014 that protects the greater sage-grouse. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jerret Raffety/Rawlins Daily Times via AP

In its order, Environment Canada restricts noise on 1,700 square kilometres of provincial and federal lands in southern Alberta and Saskatchewan during April and May  the spring mating season for the grouse  and places limits on the construction of roads and fences.

In December, LGX announced it had filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking $60 million in compensation over the order.

A spokeswoman with Environment and Climate Change Canada said Thursday the statement of claim had been received but the government has not yet filed a statement of defence.

LGX said in a news release Wednesday the order made its property impossible to sell. It also said it is unable to satisfy a lenders demand to repay $31 million in debt by June 10.

The company said the lender plans to have a receiver appointed next week who will manage day-to-day affairs while formulating a plan to satisfy its creditors.

Nature Canada estimates on its website there are fewer than 150 adult greater sage-grouse remaining in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan.

Greater sage-grouse are the largest grouse in North America. Males can weigh up to two kilograms, females about one kilogram. The plump, chicken-like birds are brownish-grey with white patterning.

Follow @HealingSlowly on Twitter.
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CALGARY  The National Energy Board is giving Imperial Oil until the end of 2022 to start building the long-delayed Mackenzie Gas Project, a pipeline that would ship natural gas from the Northwest Territories to northern Alberta.

The board originally approved the project in December 2010 and the federal cabinet of then-prime minister Stephen Harper sanctioned it the next year.

But one of the conditions was that construction had to start by the end of 2015.

Last year, Imperial Oil (TSX:IMO) asked the board for a seven-year extension on that deadline because low gas prices had forced the companies behind the project to delay development.

The NEB said it recognizes that the project isnt currently economic and would give the projects backers more time to allow for markets to recover.

In granting approval of the extension Thursday, the board said that the project doesnt require new public proceedings and is still in the public interest.

The decision now goes to the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for final approval.

A spokesman for Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr said cabinet would make a decision before the end of September when the current project certificate expires.

The natural gas market has been transformed since proponents first filed for regulatory approval more than a decade ago, with shale formations in Canada and the United States providing a closer, cheaper and more abundant source of natural gas.

Premier Bob McLeod of the Northwest Territories has been a supporter of the project, saying it would bring prosperity to the North, but some groups have opposed it on environmental grounds.

Ben McDonald of advocacy group Alternatives North, who opposed granting the extension in public submissions, said views on the environment have changed since the project was first approved.

It just seems very risky for us to believe that what was in the public interest five years ago is still going to be in the public interest seven years from now, especially in the context of the changing world view on climate change, said McDonald.

The proposed pipeline would run 1,200 kilometres from gas fields near the coast of the Beaufort Sea to the northern Alberta boundary, where it would link up with existing gas pipelines.

In late 2013 Imperial estimated the cost of the pipeline at $16.1 billion, while the network of pipes and facilities needed to feed into the main pipeline would add another $5 billion to the price tag.

Imperials partners in the project include ConocoPhillips Canada, Shell Canada Ltd., ExxonMobil Canada and the Aboriginal Pipeline Group.

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OTTAWA  Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to sit down with the chief of Attawapiskat First Nation on June 13  a meeting that comes amid continued calls for increased mental health services to address an indigenous suicide epidemic.

The Prime Ministers Office said Thursday he is looking forward to speaking with the chief and working together to find solutions for the challenges facing the people of the embattled Ontario reserve.

On the same day, Trudeau will also meet a special delegation of northern Ontario First Nations youth, including youth from Attawapiskat.

The meetings follow a spate of youth suicide attempts on the reserve that garnered international media attention.

Charlie Angus, the MP for the area and the NDPs indigenous affairs critic, says concrete federal investments are desperately needed, including a significant increase to the existing number of mental wellness teams available to First Nations across the country.

At a Commons committee this week, Health Department official Tom Wong admitted the existing 10 teams fall far short of what is needed.

As I said before, 10 teams is not sufficient and so we would like to actually increase it, Wong said during his testimony.

If we look at 80 teams, we would be looking at $40 million to $50 million.

The ongoing problems plaguing northern Ontario reserves also prompted Health Minister Jane Philpott to visit both Attawapiskat and Kashechewan First Nation on Thursday to examine conditions on the ground.

Angus accompanied the minister and indigenous leaders for the trip.

In an interview prior to flying to the communities, Angus said it is both unacceptable and unethical that bureaucrats continue to deny health-care services needed on reserve.

In April, Dr. Michael Kirlew, a doctor based in Sioux Lookout, Ont., addressed this issue before a parliamentary committee and delivered an emotional testimony of why drastic change must be taken in order to save lives.

The more time that we wait, the more children will die, he said.

There are still unnecessary barriers for physicians trying to deliver care on reserves, Kirlew added.

Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation said Thursday the federal government and Ontario governments have been developing a framework to work together to address ongoing issues.

At the end of May, the province unveiled the largest investment in indigenous health care in its history, earmarking more than $220 million over the next three years.

The announcement also included permanent funding of $104.5 million annually after the initial three years to deal with the unequal access to health care.

I am hopeful we are making headway, Fiddler said in a phone interview with The Canadian Press.

As an immediate first step, Fiddler said, the government should look to barriers such as travel restrictions, which prevent doctors from accompanying patients for compassionate reasons.

We are working on that right now to ensure those types of barriers are removed, Fiddler said.

In a statement late Thursday, Philpott said the visit allowed her to connect with indigenous leaders, community members, local health providers and youth.

I am inspired by their passion and by the ideas that have been discussed  and look forward to continued conversations, especially with youth, as we work towards improved health and wellness in these communities, she said.

The government is committed to meaningful investments in First Nations and Inuit communities, Philpott added.

with files from Keith Leslie

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QUEBEC  A report by Quebecs health and welfare commissioner says the province has the worst emergency room wait times in the western world.

The report, released Thursday, says 35 per cent of patients in the province must wait five hours or more for care, compared to 15 per cent in Ontario, five per cent in the United States and Germany and two per cent in Switzerland.

Health commissioner Robert Salois described the provinces emergency rooms as chronically overcrowded and accused authorities of lacking the leadership and will to tackle the problem.

Robert Salois, Quebec health commissary, unveils a report on hospital emergencies, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

The report found that 1.5 million emergency room visits surpassed the Health Departments maximum wait time in 2015-2016, amounting to 13 million extra hours spent waiting for care.

In Quebec, 10 per cent of emergency-room patients leave the hospital without having seen a doctor. In certain hospitals, the figure rises to more than 30 per cent.

Salois said the government should study the 20 or so Quebec hospitals with good results and implement their practices across the province.

In the report, Salois claims overcrowding in emergency rooms has become a chronic, socially unacceptable problem that has gone on far too long.

Its nine recommendations include an increased role for nurses. Others would adjust the number of doctors based on patient volume in emergency rooms and ensure family clinics are open on evenings and weekends.

Quebec Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said the report was nothing new and the solutions were the same as his own. He said many of the recommendations were already about to be implemented.
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Martha Brooks considers herself many things  cultural anthropologist of 17-year-olds being one of them.

But the author of primarily young adult fiction never expected to add widowed to her list of descriptors.

The process of accepting the death of her husband and learning how to love and marry again is the subject of her 2015 memoir, Letters to Brian: A Year of Remembrance and Living.

Bruce Bumstead / Brandon Sun Manitoba author Martha Brooks read from her latest book, Letters for Brian, a memoir of letters written to her late husband following his death from a brain cancer during an afternoon with the author at the Brandon Regional Library on Tuesday.

Brookss mourning-turned-writing process was also the topic of her reading and book signing at the Brandon Public Library earlier this week.

In this culture, theres an expectation that youll get on with it and suck it up, get over it, said the Winnipeg-based author, who was raised in Ninette.

Its normal to feel sad when you love somebody and they die. Why would you want to take away the pain of the process and stunt your growth as a human being in the process?

When Brian passed away from a year-long battle with cancer, Brooks began to write daily letters to her late husband.

Upon realizing the letters could help others accept their own loss, Brooks decided to pursue a grant opportunity and turn the personal musings into a book.

The author believes that North American society struggles to honour the grieving process, instead stifling it.

But for Brooks, allowing herself to properly mourn the loss of Brian resulted in returning to an emotional state in which she could love and marry again.

I broke open more and more, and because of that my heart healed, and its different now. I will always grieve him, but Ive opened myself up to joy because I grieved him.

Letters to Brian was released in April 2015 and received the 2016 Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for non-fiction.

This is the 12th book Brooks has published.

 aantoneshyn@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @AAntoneshyn
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Grand was the word used by organizers to describe the gathering of approximately 1,200 students at Ecole New Era School on Wednesday.

The noon powwow featured four aboriginal drum groups and more than 50 dancers who were either a student or related to a student of one of the nine schools in attendance.

It was the first year all of the division schools with an aboriginal liaison program pooled their efforts to host a single event.

Bruce Bumstead / Brandon Sun Dancers and dignitaries enter into the powwow circle during yesterday's Building Student Success with Aboriginal Parents' Year End Powwow held at New Era School.

(There were) a couple of phone calls  several phone calls, I would say  about how to do this, laughed Shawna Mozdzen, an administrative assistant at George Fitton School.

Previously, she had worked on the Building Student Success with Aboriginal Parents program for five years and was only stepping down when they began to plan the 2016 event.

She didnt mind offering advice as it was nice to see (new workers) take initiative.

The powwow was the second of three events on Wednesday. Nearly 700 students had gathered in the schools gym that morning, and New Era welcomed the public to participate in its evening celebration.

According to Mozdzen, BSSAPs efforts to connect families with schools prove that it is a comfortable place, a safe place, for (students) to be.

Bruce Bumstead / Brandon Sun Dancers and dignitaries enter into the powwow circle during yesterday's Building Student Success with Aboriginal Parents' Year End Powwow held at New Era School.

Among the audience members were parents and relatives who came to watch their family perform. Teryl Smoke and her mother kept their eyes out for Smokes sons, who are 11 and 12 years old, during the grand entry.

My kids are not into sports, theyd rather dance. And Im happy with that, Smoke said.

Students at Betty Gibson School, the young boys have travelled as far as Swan Lake to participate in powwows.

Their mother is proud to see them taking an interest in their aboriginal culture  something that BSSAP has made an opportunity in the education system.

 aantoneshyn@brandonsun.com

Bruce Bumstead / Brandon Sun Dancers and dignitaries enter into the powwow circle during yesterday's Building Student Success with Aboriginal Parents' Year End Powwow held at New Era School.

 Twitter: @AAntoneshyn
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This article was published 02/06/2016 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HAMILTON  Friends and family members teared up in a Hamilton courtroom Thursday when a prosecutor told the jury that Tim Bosmas death was a long-planned murder and that the two accused killed an innocent man and burned his body for the thrill of it.

When you retire to consider your verdict, dont forget about Tim, who is not here to tell you what has happened, Crown prosecutor Tony Leitch said in his closing arguments.

Bosmas widow, Sharlene, held her head low and cried quietly as Leitch led the jury through a mountain of evidence from the trial, which began more than four months ago.

Tim Bosma is seen in an undated handout photo. The prosecution in the Tim Bosma murder trial says the jury doesn't have to decide who pulled the trigger because both of the accused planned to kill the Hamilton man and cover up the crime.THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Hamilton Police, Facebook

Only three people know what happened on May 6, 2013, when Bosma vanished after taking two men for a test drive in his truck  and one of them is dead, Leitch said.

Dellen Millard and Mark Smich killed the Hamilton father as part of an elaborate plan to steal a Dodge pickup truck, kill its owner and destroy all the evidence by incinerating the body, he said.

It doesnt matter who pulled the trigger, Leitch said, because both of the accused planned to kill Bosma and cover up the crime.

You may never be able to decide who did what inside the truck where Tim Bosma was shot, Leitch said. Here is the issue: are you satisfied they were in it together and were knowingly involved in a planned murder?

Leitch also said the jury shouldnt worry about why the pair did it.

Sometimes people commit crimes and we just dont know why, Leitch said. So long as they planned to murder Tim Bosma and the other one helped to carry out the plan, they are both guilty in the eyes of the law.

Millard, 30, of Toronto, and Smich, 28, of Oakville, Ont., have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Bosmas death.

Leitch said Millard was the ringleader, the mastermind, and Smich was his right-hand man.

Millard bought the gun  a Walther PPK  that was used to kill Bosma in February 2012, Leitch said as he showed the jury photos of both accused handling the weapon and texting about it. The gun has never been found, and Smich previously testified that he buried it in a forest in Oakville, Ont., but couldnt remember the exact location.

They were also both involved in plans for the incinerator, which Millard purchased for $23,000, Leitch said, calling it one the final pieces of the puzzle for the co-accused.

There was no evidence the incinerator was ever used for anything besides burning a human body, Leitch told the jury.

The pair continued to hunt for a Dodge Ram 3500 pickup truck  Millard wanted it to haul a large trailer with a Jeep inside that they would use to compete in the Baja off-road race in Mexico that May.

A motive to kill, a plan to eliminate, a diesel truck their trophy, Leitch said.

They didnt worry about showing their faces to their target, Leitch said, because it didnt matter.

Dead men dont do photo lineups, Leitch said.

Smich has testified that it was Millard who shot and killed Bosma and burned his body in the incinerator. Millards lawyer, however, says it was Smich who accidentally shot Bosma in the truck during a botched robbery.

Leitch said both versions are ridiculous and both planned the killing and extensive coverup for a long time.

They killed, stole and burned together, Leitch said.

Pay attention to the facts. One, they murdered him for his truck, in his truck. Two, they burned and disposed of every piece of evidence they could. They accomplished their mission to kill and burn an innocent man.
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COMOX VALLEY, B.C.  Mounties on Vancouver Island say a father who is alleged to have abducted his four children and fled to the Middle East has contacted investigators and assured them the kids are safe.

Comox Valley RCMP said Saren Azer recently reached out to police and answered many of the investigators questions. Discussions are ongoing as to how RCMP will confirm the kids safety, said Cpl. Janelle Shoihet.

Shoihet said the investigation is very active and ongoing, but she was unable to provide additional details.

Saren Azer is shown in Calgary on Friday, June 21, 2002. Mounties in Vancouver Island say a father who is alleged to have abducted his four children and fled to the Middle East has contacted investigators and assured them the kids are safe. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

This investigation remains a priority for the Comox Valley RCMP and we are hopeful that this dialogue will continue, and ultimately lead to a successful resolution, she said in an email.

A Canadawide warrant was issued for the well-known doctor of Iranian descent last August after he failed to return to Canada with the two girls and two boys, who range in age from four to 11.

Alison Azer believes her ex-husband is in Iran and contends his background with political groups that support the Kurdish independence movement means he and her children are not safe in the country. His past affiliation with the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran could be considered treason, she said.

I think that its a positive step that hes reached out to authorities, she said. He is an international fugitive, and hes in a country where the signs are that increasingly they are not very happy to have him there because of his political history.

She said shes waiting to see how his conversations with the RCMP unfold and she has promised all along to do what she can to ease his re-entry to Canada.

That does not take away from the fact that what hes done, in addition to being utterly cruel, both to me and my family here, and also to our children, is an illegal act. There have to be consequences for that.

But the safest place for him is actually back in Canada, not in Iran, where he could be picked up at any point.

The Canadian warrant for Saren Azers arrest alleges he abducted his children in contravention of a custody order. Comox Valley RCMP have said they are working with provincial and federal Mounties and have communicated extensively with international law enforcement partners.

Alison Azer, who has been fighting tirelessly for her kids return, said she met last month with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair in Ottawa.

(Trudeau) confirmed that he would now take direct involvement in my kids and the safe resolution. The files on his desk, she said.

Im grateful, first of all. But I can think of a lot of other reasons why I wouldve liked to have met the prime minister, other than being across from him so that he could see the pain in my eyes that Ive been separated from my children, and theyve been separated from me.

The mother said her youngest son, Meitan, turned four on Wednesday. She said the day felt like the longest shes had in months, as she waited with a faint hope that her phone would ring.

I just held out hope that Saren would have some mercy, and allow the children to talk with me, she said, her voice shaking. I guess I shouldve known better.

 By Laura Kane in Vancouver
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A Canadian man who made international headlines for putting a shivering bison calf into his SUV at Yellowstone National Park was ordered on Thursday to refrain from picking up any other bison as part of his probation.

As part of a guilty plea to a wildlife disturbance citation, Shamash Kassam was also fined a total of $235 and ordered to donate $500 to the parks wildlife protection fund.

Documents from Wyoming district court show Kassam, of Brossard, Que., appeared via telephone for a hearing at which he pleaded guilty to the offence, after which the calf had to be put down.

Special conditions under his six months probation include that he shall not pick up any more bison and must pay the fines and make the donation by Oct. 31, 2016.

The court has determined that the defendant does not have the ability to pay interest or penalties, the documents show.

On May 9, a patrolling officer, responding to a tip, found Kassam and his son near an area known as Buffalo Ranch.

Kassam told him they had spotted a wet and shivering baby bison in the middle of the road near a river. They waited for 20 minutes to see if any other bison would come back for the young animal, the officer said they told him.

After 20 minutes they still could not see any bison anywhere in the vicinity, the bison calf would not leave their vehicle, appearing to be seeking warmth from the engine, the officer said in his criminal citation.

Kassam stated he decided to pick up the bison calf or it would have been road kill, and drive to the Buffalo Ranch and call law enforcement.

The officer said the calf was in the trunk of the Toyota Sequoia.

He said he explained how the mother might not be able to find the youngster and Kassam apologized and said he had no intention to cause any harm.

Wildlife officers tried to release the calf back to a nearby herd but the reunification effort failed and the animal had to be euthanized because, according to the park, it was causing a dangerous situation by continually approaching people and cars along the roadway.

Park regulations require visitors stay at least 23 metres from all wildlife  including bison, elk and deer  and at least 91 metres from bears and wolves.
AUBURN  An accused rapist who allegedly fled New York state to escape police denied having sex with an underage girl in Cayuga County criminal court Thursday.

Joseph Kowal, of 5555 West Lake Road in Fleming, is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old girl who, according to Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann, had a child as a result of the relationship in 2013.

Budelmann said the 28-year-old left the county when he learned police were investigating the case in 2014. More than a year later, Kowal was extradited back to New York and charged with two counts of third-degree rape and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. He was released from jail after his grandfather posted $25,000 cash bail.

Kowal pleaded not guilty to all counts Thursday. While Judge Thomas Leone continued him out on bail, he highlighted some conditions the defendant will have to follow to remain out of jail.

Get your GED, and don't drag your feet with it, Leone said, ordering Kowal to continue his studies at BOCES. I would highly suggest you get a job as well.

Kowal faces a maximum of eight years in prison if convicted. He will be back in court Aug. 11.

Also in court:

 A local sex offender will spend the next one to three years in prison for failing to report a change of address.

Frederick Springer, of 1 Near Place, Auburn, has an extensive history of sexual abuse dating back to the 1990s, Budelmann said, including a second-degree sodomy conviction from 2002.

According to the district attorney, the 38-year-old was recently sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for violating the terms of lifetime probation supervision.

Springer pleaded guilty to failure to report a change of address Thursday in exchange for one to three years in state prison. Leone will sentence Springer June 16.

 A second felony offender in Auburn will spend the next 2 1/2 to five years under parole supervision for using another person's checkbook.

Corey O'Connor, of 108 South St., pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery in March. His attorney, David Elkovitch, said O'Connor, 30, knew the victim in the case and took her checkbook to support an addiction.

"There's no question Mr. O'Connor is addicted," Elkovitch said. "If he doesn't get help soon, I'm afraid he won't be here much longer."

In addition to parole supervision, Leone ordered O'Connor to pay more than $800 in restitution.
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This article was published 02/06/2016 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MIDDLETON, N.S.  After 87-year-old Dorothy Stultz died following a shove from another resident in her nursing home, her daughter says she expected the Nova Scotia Health Department would try to learn from the tragedy.

More than four years later, Debbie Stultz-Giffin says she was upset to learn no provincial inquiry ever occurred, even though she says the push contributed to her mothers death on March 1, 2012.

Its shocking that the information never left the facility and got to the higher ups where it could have been more closely looked at, she said during an interview.

Debbie Stultz-Giffin is seen in Kingston, N.S. on Tuesday, May 31, 2016. Stultz-Giffin's mother died in March 2012 after being pushed by another resident in a nursing home. The incident was never made public and no inquiry was held. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Stultz suffered a fractured hip in the incident, and the loss of mobility over several weeks led to a fatal blood clot.

The case at Mountain Lea Lodge in Bridgetown was one of five since 2008 that were never publicly reported, despite the medical examiner ruling the deaths were the result of violence  with autopsies describing pushes or shoves leading to falls. There were a total of eight deaths, three of which were made public through Halifax police news releases.

The chief executive of the facility says staff have been receiving training in recognizing and de-escalating aggression, but for Stultz-Giffin the case raises questions about staffing levels and safety awareness.

Its also one case among a steady flow of long-term care deaths across Canada that coroners define as homicides, though police usually find no legal culpability. In Ontario, the chief coroners office documented 13 homicides in the provinces long-term care homes in 2013-14.

Experts like Dr. Gloria Gutman, the founder of Simon Fraser Universitys gerontology research centre, says the wave of dementia-induced aggression is colliding with a trend towards older and more frail residents. In addition, facilities are asked to use minimum levels of chemical and chair restraints out of respect for the residents.

Gutman says that means provinces need to carefully study cases where things go wrong.

At the minimum there should be an incident report that is filed, she said in an interview.

In Dorothy Stultzs case  and in two other of the Nova Scotia deaths  no inquiry was carried out under the Protection of Persons in Care legislation, according to the Health Department.

Bob Lafferty, the departments director of investigations, says he first became aware of the Mountain Lea Lodge death when he read The Canadian Press report that documented the deaths.

We were never informed of that incident at Mountain Lea. Once we did get informed of it through this process (the article) weve been in touch with the facilityabout their duty and responsibility to report those incidents to us, he said in an interview.

Looking over photos of her mother, Stultz-Giffin says breaking the silence on the issue is a crucial first step.

I think my mother would be quite saddened that her death wasnt more openly discussed, that it wasnt looked at  under a microscope, said Stultz-Giffin, adding that Dorothy Stultz was a community-minded woman who herself cared for the elderly before Alzheimers caused her physical decline.

The daughter says that small details from the days and moments before the push can provide insights.

For example, Stultz-Giffin said her mother loved to sit on a particular couch in the common area, and be held by another resident who was a former nurse.

She says she believes when that couch was removed, due to urine soaking through its covers, it prompted her mother to try to sit next to a male resident who reacted violently.

Theres a huge lesson to be learned from what happens when you disturb an environment that a person with Alzheimers comes to expect, she said.

She says she also has questions about staffing levels on the secure dementia unit that afternoon and what risk assessment was done on the resident who pushed Dorothy.

Joyce dEntremont, the chief executive of the non-profit Mountain Lea Lodge since last May, says she cant discuss the case, adding that she and the Health Department are following up with a review.

We take every measure to keep our residents safe.  We talk to the families. We have an inter-professional, inter-disciplinary care plan meeting shortly after all new residents come into the facility so we know if there have been prior acts of aggression, she said.

She says if the home feels it cannot manage a resident it can consult with a challenging behaviour co-ordinator from the Health Department and if necessary can move a resident.

The administrator also said the home is now diligent in reporting cases.

The Health Department says Protection of Persons in Care investigations were carried out in four of the other seven deaths. In one case a critical incident report was filed, and in two others there was no report filed.

Health Minister Leo Glavine says he finds it upsetting to hear that no inquiry was carried out in the Stultz case, and says his department will still carry out some form of review, which will include recommendations.

He also said the province is considering how to ensure the coroners findings on deaths are viewed and taken into account by the Health Department in the future.

The minister also said he doesnt think a $3.1-million budget cut to long-term care will increase the risks of further safety incidents.

There is a requirement of nursing time per patient and continuing care assistants per patient and none of that is impacted by this, he said.

But Stultz-Giffin says she hopes her mothers death will help prompt a deeper look at staffing levels and programming to help reduce behavioural problems.

They are our most vulnerable population and we should do everything in our power to protect those people, she said.
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WINNIPEG - A microbiologist says his team found fecal bacteria in drinking water in a Manitoba First Nation.

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OTTAWA  More young people than ever before are getting work this summer through a federal jobs program, more than the government itself planned for this year.

The federal government says it has approved more than 7,000 additional jobs for the Canada Summer Jobs program on top of the 70,000 planned for 2016.

Among the hires are a number of newly arrived Syrian refugees, aboriginals, and youth with disabilities, although the exact breakdown of those figures is not immediately available.

The government had pledged in the budget to add $339 million over three years to the summer jobs program to double the number of placements each year for students working at not-for-profit organizations, public sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees.

Applications from small businesses to hire summer students through the government program was up almost one-third from last year.

In all, there will be 13,373 students working at small businesses this summer, a four-fold increase from last year.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released the figures Thursday at the Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario, which plans to hire 20 students to help with its research wing.

The funding is part of a larger government push to create jobs for young people, who face an unemployment rate of about 13.1 per cent based on Statistics Canada data.

The Liberals vowed during the election campaign to create 40,000 new jobs a year for youth and waive employment insurance premiums for 12 months for any employer who gives a full-time job to anyone between the ages of 18 and 24.

The Liberals didnt follow through on the EI pledge in their first budget.

Instead, they said they would create a youth advisory council that would report to Trudeau and set up an expert panel on youth employment that would provide a report by December to Trudeau and Labour Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk.
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OTTAWA  The New Democrats are trying to get the Liberals to change the makeup of the committee that will study changes to the way Canadians vote.

The NDP is planning to introduce an opposition day motion Thursday that would call on the government to give up its majority of seats on the electoral reform committee that will examine alternatives to the first-past-the-post electoral system currently in place.

The opposition has been accusing the Liberals of stacking the deck in their partys favour by giving themselves a majority of the seats with voting rights on the all-party committee.

They have said they suspect the Liberals want to ensure the committee ends up proposing a ranked ballot system that would shore up their electoral chances.

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef refutes this argument.

The only outcome that we have arrived at to this point is bringing together parliamentarians in this place to review the options available to us, Monsef said Wednesday during question period.

NDP MP Nathan Cullen said he is optimistic the Liberals will back the motion following a debate in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Theres a lot of interest and enthusiasm for what weve proposed, Cullen told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday.

My sense in talking through some of the back channels (is) that theres opportunity here, Cullen said.

The current makeup of the committee would have six Liberals, three Conservatives and one New Democrat, with a Bloc MP and the Green Partys Elizabeth May on the committee but without a vote.

The NDP is proposing the committee be made up of five Liberals, three Conservatives, two New Democrats, a Bloc MP, and May, with everyone getting a vote.

The motion, which would be binding if passed, would also mean the committee would begin meeting within 10 days.

The NDP met with Monsef on Wednesday night to discuss the motion.

I think Canadians will welcome enough conversation about the process to start the process, but to actually begin the conversation around electoral reform, Cullen said.
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This article was published 02/06/2016 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON  Canada cant reach growth projections for the energy industry as well as meet its greenhouse gas commitments without damaging the rest of the economy, a study suggests.

David Hughes, former research director at the Geological Survey of Canada, says other industries will have to reduce emissions by huge margins if Canada tries to expand oilsands and LNG exports while living up to the climate change promises it made in Paris.

If you factor in the expansion thats planned in oil and gas production, its pretty difficult to see how you can cut the rest of the economys emissions by 55 per cent without destroying the economy in the process, he said.

Hughes, who did the study for the University of Victoria, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the University of Albertas Parkland Institute, also questions whether Canada needs new pipelines to move oilsands products to coastal terminals to get the best price for them.

An industry spokesman said Hughes relied on out-of-date information and didnt account for innovation.

Hughes combined National Energy Board growth projections with the Alberta governments cap on oilsands emissions and British Columbias plans for up to five new liquefied natural gas terminals to determine how much greenhouse gas the sector would release.

He compared that with targets Canada agreed to at the Paris climate summit last December. The government promised a 30 per cent reduction from 2005 levels by 2030.

Hughes found that the energy industrys share of Canadas total emissions would double to 52 from 26 per cent. That means other parts of the economy would have to pick up the slack.

More than three-quarters of electrical generation is already emissions-free. Switching Canadas stock of cars, trucks, homes and offices to low-carbon alternatives is expensive and would take decades.

Extra emissions cuts from manufacturing or agriculture would have its own economic impacts.

Barring an economic collapse, therefore, Canada will have to reconsider its planned oil and gas production growth and demand real emissions reductions from the oil and gas sector in order to have any hope of meeting its  commitment, Hughes writes.

Alex Ferguson, a vice-president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said technological change in the oilsands is likely to prove Hughess assumptions wrong.

Youre going to see something in the next three, four, five years or so in terms of proving some of that out, he said. We, collectively, need to make a conscious bet that technology is going to help us in this challenge.

Hughes also argues against the need for new pipelines.

He assumed oilsands production will be limited by Albertas 100-megatonne emissions cap and compared that with industry figures on pipeline and rail capacity. He found current infrastructure meets needs with a 15 per cent cushion.

As well, the difference between the world oil price and what Alberta gets has been shrinking and was barely a dollar a barrel on Wednesday.

The reason for (the price differential) has been eliminated, so its unlikely that differential will resume.

Ferguson disputed both statements.

Upcoming estimates of oil production will clearly show new pipelines are needed, he said.

What youll see from us soon is more up-to-date information and data that would certainly tell us we need more pipeline capacity.

As well, he said, a pipeline to the coast would allow Canada to take advantage of markets specifically looking for heavier crude.

The International Energy Agency says the world will still need 67 million barrels of oil a day by 2040.

Why wouldnt we want Canada to have a reasonable share of that demand? Ferguson asked.

Hughes agreed oil will be in the energy mix for a long time. The point, he said, is that Canada faces tough choices and serious challenges.

Industry will probably say there will be a silver-bullet solution. I think its unlikely and we better do the math with the figures we have and put that long-term plan together.

 Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960
A Cayuga Nation lawsuit against the village of Union Springs that had been dismissed as a result of the tribe's internal leadership dispute is back on.

In a ruling issued Thursday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision that had tossed the 2014 case brought on behalf of the Cayugas by Clint Halftown. The lawsuit was seeking a federal court ruling barring the village from enforcing its local laws that prohibited gambling operations such as the one the tribe has been running in Union Springs.

The village had successfully argued before U.S. District Court Judge David Hurd that the court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case because Halftown and a group of other plaintiffs aligned with him lacked Cayuga Indian Nation of New York authority to bring the lawsuit.

For several years, Halftown and a separate group of Cayuga Nation members have been locked in a leadership battle. The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs had decided in 2015 that a 2006 leadership council consisting of members of both groups was in charge of the tribe, with Halftown as the federal representative.

With support from the anti-Halftown group, which also opposes gambling, the village had argued that the BIA decision barred Halftown from filing a lawsuit because the leadership council did not OK the case.

The appeals court ruling, however, said the BIA case did the opposite because it did recognize Halftown as a federal representative. Thursday's ruling also stated that the tribe must have a way to defend its legal rights in courts.

"The Cayuga Nation is grateful for this ruling which preserves the right of our federally-recognized leadership to protect the rights of our citizens and ourselves via the court system, Halftown said in a press release Thursday.

Chad Hayden, attorney for Union Springs, was still reviewing the court's decision Thursday, but said he was disappointed.

"We'll be reviewing our options and decide what our next course of action should be," Hayden said.

The appeals court stated that its decision is limited to the issue of whether the court had standing to hear the case. Thursday's ruling sends the case back to Hurd so it can be decided on its merits.

Mayor of Union Springs Bud Shattuck said while he is only one voice on the town board, he thinks sitting down with Halftown and having one-on-one discussions may help resolve some of the tax and gambling issues without spending more money on litigation.

"For me, it doesn't matter who is the representative," Shattuck said. "In the village, gaming is illegal. On the other hand, he's our neighbor, and he owns property here and does business here, and we'd like to get along with him. I believe reaching out is the best way to do it."
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ST. JOHNS, N.L.  Just six months after a landslide victory in Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier Dwight Balls credibility has been hammered over his role in a $1.4 million severance package paid out to the former head of the provinces largest Crown corporation, say political observers.

The Liberal premiers rough ride in the legislature continued Thursday, as the opposition grilled him over when he knew that the removal of former Nalcor CEO Ed Martin would lead to the costly payout.

Why didnt you pick up the phone and ask questions about the contract obligations? Why didnt you talk to the chair of the board to find out what was happening? asked Tory Leader Paul Davis.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball fields a question at a meeting of the Council of Atlantic Premiers in Annapolis Royal, N.S. on Monday, May 16, 2016.Wednesday. Just six months after a landslide victory in Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier Dwight Ball's credibility has been hammered over his role in a $1.4 million severance package paid out to the former head of the province's largest Crown corporation, say political observers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Were you not being honest with the people of the province or were you being incompetent?

When Ball announced Martins departure on April 20, he called the departure a resignation and has since repeatedly claimed that he didnt learn of details of Martins severance package until weeks later.

But subsequent contradictions from Martin have undermined that narrative, says Kelly Blidook, a political science professor at Memorial University in St. Johns.

It all cuts to whether you can trust this guy, he said during an interview.

It (the severance) is a small amount of money, but its at a time when theyre cutting a million dollars that will close half the libraries in the province.

NDP and Tory calls for Balls resignation come on the heels of a wildly unpopular budget that the opposition parties say flagrantly violated election promises not to raise sales taxes or cut public sector jobs.

The uproar over the severance deal also came during a week when an 18 cent per litre gas tax hike had drivers fuming at service stations.

Shachi Kurl, executive director of the Angus Reid Institute, said its May poll in the province showed one of the sharpest drops in approval ratings of a premier shes ever seen.

In February, Balls debut approval rating was 60 per cent, the second-highest of any premier in the country. Results from her firms latest online poll, with 263 respondents in Newfoundland and Labrador, suggested Balls job approval rating had plummeted to 17 per cent.

Its unprecedented. We see premiers take tumbles the longer theyre on the job  Whats unusual in this case is to see the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador go from almost first to worst in a very, very short period of time, she said in an interview.

She says the best the Liberals can take from the descent is that Ball who swept away 12 years of Tory rule with his landslide last November  has a number of years to reverse his lack of popularity.

Ball defended himself in question period by reminding voters the previous board of Nalcor was appointed by Tories, and the cost overruns and delays with the $7.7-billion Muskrat Falls hydroelectricity project are a legacy hes inherited after the Liberals spent 12 years in the political wilderness.

Patting the severance deal with his hand, Ball told the legislature he didnt realize until after announcing Martins resignation that the severance package had been triggered by a board of directors who then resigned.

This settlement agreement was never approved, never discussed. The first I saw of this agreement was on May 5, said the premier.

But Blidook says the political damage is done and he wouldnt be surprised if Ball, who told the legislature he has no intention of resigning, starts to face quiet party pressure to exit later this year.

The political scientist argues that Balls election promises not to raise the HST or slice public jobs were unnecessary and are returning to haunt him.

They made a big point of these  Its easy to go back now and say Very clear promise, very clear broken.  They didnt need to do this and it points to problems with Balls leadership, he said.

However, Alex Marland, the author of Brand Command: Canadian Politics and Democracy in the Age of Message Control, says the latest plunge in popularity follows four years of turmoil and is related to deeper problems in the provinces political culture.

What happens is pledges are made during election campaigns that do not involve the tough medicine that inevitably follows, said the St. Johns-based political scientist.

I do think that the Ball government has made a mess of things, as the Tories did before them, but in my opinion what is missing from public discourse is Newfoundlanders themselves taking some responsibility for government spending beyond its means. The expression voters get the governments that they deserve keeps running through my mind.

 By Michael Tutton in Halifax

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Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 02/06/2016 (2336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If you want to test a mans character, give him power.

 Abraham Lincoln

In March of this year, the Liberal government said Canada is not at war with Islamic militants. But as we have recently been informed, the Trudeau government is in the midst of preparing for continuing a court case and conflict with some of Canadas veterans. (Local Vet Dismayed By Latest Govt Move, May 30 edition of The Brandon Sun).

The injured Afghan veterans filed a class-action lawsuit arguing that the New Veterans Charter violated their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Liberal veterans affairs critic Frank Valeriote, at that time, agreed, and said the Conservative government should stop fighting the former soldiers and instead change the veterans charter.

This case is really the hallmark of this governments hypocrisy between what they say and what they do towards veterans, said Valeriote. They say they care for veterans and then they fight them all the way in court.

So now with a Liberal government in power, it is obvious to me that hypocrisy continues to domineer the issue.

To date, there has been almost $700,000 spent fighting Afghan veterans in court, and a continuation will predictably exceed $1 million of taxpayers dollars.

I have come to the conclusion that transparency and accountability is missing!

It is not a new disease and every once in a while makes the news items. It is usually attracted to and affects those who use situations to their best interests and fortunes  persons in high office, politicians and others are most apt to become infected as their integrity gene is missing.

There is no known cure for this ailment. The remedy in most cases is to maintain a vigorous weeding program to ensure contamination does not spread and affect others.

JOHN FEFCHAK, a veteran

Virden
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's regional economic development council initiative started in 2011, and in the first year, the central New York area, including Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Onondaga and Oswego counties divvied up $104 million in financing for various projects.

Under a new Cuomo initiative this year, municipalities within the central New York region are battling for millions of dollars in state funding designed to revitalize struggling downtowns. As such, Auburn is in the running for a $10 million prize.

But as much as we would like to see Auburn get the money, we don't believe that having regions and cities competing against one another is the best approach to economic development.

We can appreciate that forcing leaders on the local level to come up with smart and focused investment plans means that the state money they might win will be spent wisely. But this winner-take-all approach means that more cities than not will be left out in the cold.

Auburn has big plans for the money: A riverside market, a performing arts theater, an events park, a Harriet Tubman welcome center, and work to refurbish the Schine Theater.

But if Auburn gets $10 million to spend on its downtown, then what about Cortand and Oswego? Auburn isn't the only city in the region that could use a $10 million boost. Or a $1 million boost, for that matter.

Raising the quality of cities and regions in the state is a laudable goal. One big payoff down the road could be convincing national or international businesses to set up shop in New York. But the state might be better off if the economic development wealth were spread out a bit more evenly.
The health minister has moved to re-assure cystic fibrosis patients that they may still get access to a new drug - Orkambi.

While the drug has been ruled as too expensive, fresh negotiations with the manufacturer on price are to take place.

Yesterday the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics ruled that the 158,000 per year per patient for Orkambi was too expensive.

The clinical director of the organisation says the manufacturer got the price wrong.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin says this drug is a life-changer: It is a condition that is very particular to Ireland, and the genetic makeup of Irish people.

Its a condition that we should be at the forefront of in terms of breaking new ground, new technology, new innovation.

Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald was critical of the attitude of some drug companies: It is very important, indeed critical that drug companies do not hold countries to ransom in terms of pricing.

Health Minister Simon Harris moved to re-assure CF patients the drug may yet be available to them:

This process is far from finished, there is significant work to do to negotiate on price, I want that negotiation to continue as a priority, I have conveyed my view on that to the HSE today.

He also confirmed that patients on a trial of the drug will continue to receive it, while the negotiations are ongoing.
Gardai are investigating a bomb threat at HSE offices, situated on the grounds of the former St Joseph's Psychiatric Hospital, Limerick city writes David Raleigh.

A caller telephoned the offices Thursday morning, informing staff there would be "an explosion at 11am", said Bernard Gloster, HSE Mid West Area Manager.

Mr Gloster said, both the HSE and the gardai were "100% satisfied" that the threat was not linked to bomb scares made over a week ago at various locations in Ireland and England.

Reports of a bomb scare at St Joseph's hospital on Mulgrave Street this morning are a 'hoax', according to the HSE @Limerick_Leader  Anne Sheridan (@annesheridan1) June 2, 2016

On May 24th last, a series of automated bomb threats were received at garda stations and schools in Limerick, Dublin, Cork, Carlow, and Waterford.

A separate "copycat" incident occurred in Limerick on May 25, when a female contacted Henry Street Garda Station informing officers there was "a bomb in a bank" on O'Connell Street.

All of the incidents were hoax alerts.

Bernard Gloster said the HSE understood this morning's hoax call was made by a user of the HSE services in Limerick.

"We have had discussions with the Gardai and we are satisfied, based on all of the information we have received, that this is not linked to the very unfortunate trend of hoax calls that visited Limerick in recent times," Mr Gloster said.

The bomb threat was made "in one of the offices linked to a (HSE) call centre that there would be a threat of an explosion at 11am in that building," Mr Gloster added.

The HSE spokesman said Gardai were "given control of the site" and that nothing sinister was found after a search was carried out.

"We evacuated staff out of the building but we were able to restore normal operations at 11.15am," he said.

Mr Gloster said he believed the bomb threat was "very specific to the health services".

He described the incident as "very very unsettling" for staff working in the office.

"It was very disruptive, particularly so in a hospital because the staff have very important and very critical roles."

"It was disruptive for people who couldn't contact our staff on the phones while they were out of the building," Mr Gloster added.

He said Gardai we following "a definite line of enquiry".

Following last week's hoax alerts, Limerick Garda Superintendent Derek Smart, Henry Street, warned such calls to the Gardai resulted in "crucial resources" been "wasted".

"It also puts people working in these buildings under severe stress and strain when they're told there's a bomb," he said.

"We're treating it very seriously...we will do everything in our power to catch whoever is behind these calls," Supt Smart added.
Northern Ireland's controversial lifetime ban on gay men donating blood is to end.

Stormont Health Minister Michelle O'Neill will announce the move on a visit to an LGBT advocacy organisation in Belfast later.

A similar ban was lifted in England, Scotland and Wales in 2011 and replaced with rules that allowed gay men to give blood 12 months after their last sexual encounter with another man.

The lifetime ban had been retained in Northern Ireland by successive Democratic Unionist health ministers.

Sinn Fein's Mrs O'Neill took over the health portfolio last week in the wake of the Assembly election and the decision on the blood ban is the first major announcement of her tenure.

It is understood the change will not be opposed by her DUP colleagues in the powersharing administration.

The one-year deferral system operated in the rest of the UK is now set to become law in Northern Ireland.
Over the last few days the entire country has been blanketed with beautiful sunshine and thankfully, today is no different it seems.

If you are lucky enough not to be working, today might be the day to hit the road to the beach.
Spanish police are investigating an alleged sexual assault carried out on an Irish teenager who was attacked in Tenerife, writes Noel Baker, senior reporter.

The incident is said to have taken place close to the Playa de las Americas area on the Spanish holiday island in the early hours of May 26.

Tenerife newspaper El Dia reported this week that the victim may have been aged just 13.

According to the report, officers from the National Police Commissioner in the southern part of the island are investigating the attack, which is alleged to have occurred on a beach close to the busy las Veronicas area in Arona.

The report said the girl was a young Irish tourist who had been walking in the area with her brother.

However, she seems to have become separated from him when the assailant, described as being of European appearance and also possibly a tourist, took her to a pebble beach next to a pedestrian street called Francisco Andrade Fumero, shortly after 2am.

After the attack the girl raised the alarm and was attended to by medical staff in a local hospital.

A report of a sexual assault, also described in the local media as a rape, was then made by the victim some hours later to the office of the Commissariat of National Police for the south of island.

A separate unit within the local police has been carrying out an investigation but the local press reported concerns there that the perpetrator may have already left the holiday island.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday it was aware of reports of the incident but would not be providing any comment.

This story first appeared in the Read More: Irish Examiner.
A woman who posed as a UN diplomat and took nearly 9,000 from a Japanese woman in Dublin airport has been given a suspended three-year sentence.

Agata Pracz (39) from Swords, Co Dublin pleaded guilty to dishonestly inducing Yumi Takekoshi to hand over 8,990 on July 15, 2014 by promising her access to a container filled with cash.

Garda Enda Ledwith previously told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that Ms Takekoshi, a 58-year-old Tokyo woman, was contacted through social media site, LinkedIn, by a woman purporting to a be a two-star US general based in Dublin Airport.

The 'general' told Ms Takekoshi a container filled with currency to the value of $10.5 million (6.8 million) was at a bonded warehouse in Dublin and that she would give Ms Takekoshi access to it for the sum of 8990.

As a result, Ms Takekoshi booked a flight and flew into Dublin airport on July 15, 2014 where she met a woman who claimed to be a UN diplomat named Sandra Daly.

That woman was actually the accused, Gda Ledwith said.

Pracz took Ms Takekoshi to a bar in Dublin airport and took the money from her, before promising to call her with details of the container full of cash, the court heard.

However, Ms Takekoshi became suspicious after the meeting and took a taxi to the Japanese embassy, which contacted the gardai.

Pracz, a Polish national, was arrested on the M1 motorway some days after this incident after gardai recognised her car from Dublin airport CCTV footage.

She claimed she met a man named 'James' of Nigerian or Ghanaian background in a pub who organised the deal with Ms Takekoshi and she was just the cash collector, Gda Ledwith said.

She said she got involved in the scam after she got into financial difficulties.

When gardai searched Pracz's home, they recovered just over 4000 and a laptop, Gda Ledwith said. He said Pracz said she had tried to get in touch with James but couldn't so she spent the other half of the money on paying off her debts.

Garda experts were unable to hack into the laptop, which was heavily encrypted and Pracz told gardai she couldn't remember the password.

The court heard Pracz has lived in Ireland since 2006 and has no previous convictions in the country. She has three convictions for fraud-related offences in Poland.

She would be low level in relation to these charges, Gda Ledwith said, adding Pracz had made no admissions in relation to any internet interactions between herself and Ms Takekoshi.

However, Judge Patrick McCartan said he had reservations about Pracz's version of events. He said he found it difficult to believe Pracz had met a man she didn't know in a pub and agreed to get involved in the scam.

Sentencing Pracz today, he said he had difficulty accepting the case in its entirety.

All of the evidence suggests she is a different person than what was presented to me on the evidence, he said. The judge said he believed Pracz was the recipient of 100 per cent of the money.

But I have to accept the evidence as it's presented, the judge said, noting Pracz had fully repaid the money taken from Ms Takekoshi.

Handing down the suspended sentence, Judge McCartan said he hoped he wouldn't meet Pracz again.

If she does drift back into her old practises in which she is well versed, well, I'll be waiting here for you and you won't get a second chance, he told her.
House Speaker Paul Ryan still has differences with Donald Trump, but he is endorsing the Republican presidential candidate to help unify the party.

The Wisconsin Republican said The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that his goal is to "make sure we are unified before the fall (autumn)".

Mr Ryan had previously refused to endorse Mr Trump in an extraordinary break between the two high-profile Republicans.

He had expressed concern about Mr Trump's tone on the campaign trail and some of his policies.

Mr Ryan said: "It is my hope the campaign improves its tone as we go forward and it's all a campaign we can be proud of."

Mr Ryan said Mr Trump did not offer any deals in exchange for his endorsement.

He said he e simply needed to reach the right "comfort level" to endorse the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. And he determined that Mr Trump would do more to enact conservative policies than likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Mr Ryan said: "This isn't a deal."

He said he decided to endorse Mr Trump early in the week after a series of three or four private conversations and ongoing communication between their staff.

He added: "I just wanted to have a good comfort level that these principles and policies were something we would be able to work with him on. And it took some time just to have those conversations."
Auburn Fire Department: May 22-28, 2016

 Fires: 1 (outside fire)

 Motor vehicle accidents: 4 (3 with injuries, 1 bicycle struck by a car)

 EMS: 85 (8 cardiac, 23 trauma, 2 unconscious person, 4 overdose)

 Hazardous conditions: 6

 False Alarms: 6

 Investigations: 6

 Haz mat: 7 (1 assist to the Cayuga County Sheriffs Office to make a substance identification)

 Service calls: 6

 Fire safety consults with businesses: 3

 Fire inspections: 50

 Occupancy load postings: 2

 Vacant building inspections: 84

 In total, personnel took part in 219 hours of documented training this week. Some topics included apparatus driving, high-rise procedures, water rescue and professional development.

 The fire chief attended the annual Fire Med Conference conducted by the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

 May 22  Twenty-seven personnel took part in monthly hazardous materials team training.

 May 23  Engine Company 3 administered epinephrine to an allergic reaction patient via syringe, this is the first known administration in the central New York region since new procedures have been allowed.

 May 25  Hazardous materials technicians utilized some of our advanced material sampling and identification equipment to help the Cayuga County Sheriffs Office identify some unknown substances related to their work.

 Several staff members assisted in providing firefighting and EMS training throughout New York state this week.
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YOUNG (AP)  State wildlife officials say a black bear that clawed a camper in north-central Arizona has been trapped and euthanized.

Arizona Game and Fish Department officials say the young male bear was caught in a culvert trap Wednesday night.

They say the bear was identified by a unique hind paw pad that matched tracks found at the campsite.

Officials say there were unsecured food sources and garbage in the area and a field necropsy revealed garbage in the bear's stomach contents.

They say the bear was investigating an undeveloped camp early Wednesday and pawed a man in a sleeping bag near Cherry Creek in Young.

Bear spray was used and the animal retreated.

The man in his 20s was treated at a hospital and released. His name hasn't been released.

Thursday 10:30 a.m.: Bear claws man at campsite southeast of Payson

State wildlife authorities say a man was injured by a bear Thursday morning while camping on Cherry Creek in the Tonto National Forest near Young southeast of Payson.

According to information from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the man reported he was pawed through his sleeping bag as the bear was investigating his campsite. Bear spray was used and the animal retreated.

The man was treated at a local hospital and released. Based on the injuries and description, officers believe the bear was small and possibly young.

The camp area is used by the Anasazi Foundation as part of its program. After the incident, other campers and Anasazi members advised Game and Fish officers that several bears had been seen in the campground area over the Memorial Day weekend. At least three different bears were identified by the campers as coming into camp and raiding food sources, and not fully retreating when bear spray was used.

Campers did not notify officials of the bear activity, vacate the area or remove the food sources after the sightings.

Game and Fish officers will set traps to attempt to capture the bears. The department also will work with the Tonto National Forest on possible area closures.

If the offending bears are captured, they will be lethally removed because of their behavior near humans and the public safety threat it poses.

The department asks that any nuisance bear activity be immediately reported to Game and Fish or local officials and recommends that all campers take precautions, including securing all potential food sources. Campsite food sources can include uncleaned BBQs, used plates, discarded wrappers, food stores and pet food. Bears have a very keen sense of smell  approximately seven times better than a bloodhound and 100 times better than a human.

If you encounter a bear, officers advise trying to scare the bear away by making yourself look as large as possible, making loud noises and throwing objects toward it. Do not run. In the rare event of a black bear attack, fight back aggressively and use bear spray.

Arizona has had one fatal bear attack, which occurred in Pinetop in 2011. However, there are numerous reports each year of bears in close proximity to humans that could lead to serious injury or even death.

For more information or questions on living with bears and keeping wildlife wild, visit the departments website at www.azgfd.gov/urbanwildlife.
A national contest to award $2 million in historic preservation funds concludes July 5, and the iconic Desert View Watchtower at Grand Canyon National Park is one of the 20 competing projects.

The contest is being conducted by Partners in Preservation, a community-based partnership between American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. National parks that receive the most votes will be eligible to receive up to $250,000 of the total funding.

The awards will be determined from the online vote, which runs through July 5. National Geographic will host the campaign at VoteYourPark.org and the public will be able to vote for up to five parks each day during the contest. To vote for the Grand Canyon, visit votegrandcanyon.com.
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Ax attack

Flagstaff police arrested a young Phoenix man on suspicion of shoplifting, assault and attacking an off-duty officers truck with an ax.

According to the police report, security guards at the Walmart located at 2601 E. Huntington Drive saw two men leave the store with shopping carts full of items without paying at about 1 p.m. Monday. When a guard confronted one of the suspects, he kicked the guard in the torso.

The guard said he saw the suspect tossing the stolen merchandise to homeless people as he pushed the cart down East Lucky Lane.

An off-duty FPD officer who noticed the suspected shoplifting began following the suspect in his truck. A witness saw the suspect pull an ax out of the cart and threaten to kill the bystander and his wife, who was in the passenger seat. The suspect used the ax to break a window on the truck and damage the hood. The driver then sped away. No one in the vehicle was injured.

An on-duty officer saw the suspect run into the Outback Steakhouse, located at 2600 E. Lucky Lane, with the ax still in his hand. Police located the suspect and the ax in the restaurant bathroom.

Martin Fierroz, 18, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, misdemeanor assault, felony criminal damage, disorderly conduct, making threats and shoplifting. He was booked into the Coconino County Detention Facility. Officers also removed him from the FBI's National Crime Information Center database, which had him listed as a runaway juvenile.

Police are still looking for the other shoplifting suspect, who was wearing a yellow or green construction vest with blue jeans.

City and county residents who want to report a crime but wish 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). Rewards of up to $2,000 are given for information that leads to an arrest.
Almost $10 million will be spent on duplicating Aikman Drive in Belconnen to help cope with increased traffic expected from the new University of Canberra Public Hospital.

The ACT government announced on Thursday that the duplication of Aikman Drive, between Ginninderra Drive and Emu Bank, will be funded in next week's budget.

Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris has announced a new multi-million dollar nurse walk-in centre for Gungahlin. Credit:Jamila Toderas

The upgrades are aimed at improving traffic flow into the town centre and easing access to the under-construction University of Canberra campus hospital, due for completion in 2018.

Transport Minister Meegan Fitzharris said the work would begin by the end of the year and is likely to be completed before the hospital's opening.
The legal status of Airbnb listings has been challenged in the Supreme Court of Victoria, with a landlord arguing her apartment was illegally sublet through the site.

The landmark case comes as federal and state governments grapple with how to regulate the so-called sharing economy.

US-based websites like Airbnb and Couchsurfing cause headaches by 'clogging lifts, creating noise and damaging fittings'. Credit:Andrew Harrer

Catherine Swan is seeking to evict tenants Barbara Uecker and Michael Greaves after she discovered they were advertising her Fitzroy Street, St Kilda apartment on the home-sharing website.

She is seeking to overturn a decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal that found in favour of the tenants, ruling that an Airbnb stay was a "licence to occupy" not a "lease" under the law.
The man shot and killed by police in Flagstaff last week was wielding a stolen gun.

That is the latest news from the Flagstaff Police Department on the officer-involved shooting death of Verl Bedonie, 25, May 23. According to information from Flagstaff police, Bedonie is suspected of stealing a vehicle and a 9 millimeter handgun from a family for whom he was working in Kaibeto on the Navajo Nation on the morning of the shooting.

Investigators identified the stolen weapon as the same firearm Bedonie had in his right hand when FPD and Northern Arizona University Police Department officers located him inside the empty High Country Conference Center on the NAU campus at about 7:50 a.m. the day of the shooting.

Police body camera footage showed him pointing the gun at officers twice during the ensuing pursuit into the Plaza Vieja neighborhood. Officers responded by firing at him both times, striking and killing him the second time.

Investigators located the stolen vehicle in the High Country Conference Center parking garage May 24.

FPD clarified Wednesday that Bedonie was from Kaibeto, not Tuba City, as was previously reported. Investigators learned he had multiple contacts with tribal law enforcement on the Navajo Nation. Flagstaff police also said that at the time of his death, Bedonie had an arrest warrant for failing to appear in court.

Before the armed confrontation that ended in his death, Bedonies only encounter with Flagstaff police was an October 2012 drunken driving arrest. Arizona Supreme Court records show he had a 2013 arrest in Pima County for driving with a suspended license. He also received a traffic citation from the Department of Public Safety for walking along Interstate 17 near Mountainaire May 12.

According to the Flagstaff police report, a witness reported a suspicious person holding what looked like a BB gun entering the High Country Conference Center, located in the 200 block of West Butler Avenue, the morning of May 23. Flagstaff and NAU police found Bedonie in one of the conference rooms with a real gun in his hand. He left out a side door but officers caught up to him in the Drury Inn parking lot.

The officers shouted for Bedonie to drop the gun. Instead, he pulled the weapon back out of his pocket and pointed it at the officers just a few feet away from civilian bystanders. Bedonie did not fire but two police officers did. They broke the window of an unoccupied vehicle but missed the suspect, who walked across South Milton Road with the gun still in his hand.

NAUPD and FPD officers chased him through Plaza Vieja, where they believe he fired one round in an alley between South Florence Street and South Park Street.

Police said Bedonie then attempted to carjack a victim near the intersection of South Park Street and West Phoenix Avenue. The driver told police Bedonie pointed the gun at him and demanded to be taken to Phoenix. An undercover FPD officer rammed the car to stop Bedonie, who exited the vehicle.

Bedonie then pointed the gun at officers a second time. According to information from FPD, he got off one shot before an FPD officer and an NAUPD officer fatally shot him. He was declared dead at the scene.
South32 chief executive Graham Kerr has ruled out bidding for bargain basement thermal coal assets and admitted that commodity prices fell much further than the company expected.

While the BHP Billiton spin-off is one of few miners around the world with more cash than debt, Mr Kerr told the Melbourne Mining Club that the mining sector "has a poor track record deploying capital" and South32 would be cautious about making deals to bolster its growth.

South32 CEO Graham Kerr won't rush into deals. Credit:Dominic K Lorrimer

"Are we open to external opportunities? Of course we are. So what commodities are we interested in?" Mr Kerr said.

"Naturally, there are some that are more attractive than others. For example, in thermal coal, due to lower demand and oversupply, we wouldn't be keen on acquiring anything new."
Patties Foods, the maker of Four'n Twenty pies and Nanna's frozen desserts could be the subject of a pie fight, with its chairman saying he would not be surprised if another party competes with Pacific Equity Partners.

Patties announced on Thursday it had entered into a scheme implementation deed with PEP which proposes the private equity firm acquires all of Patties at $1.65 a share, plus a sweetener of up to 10 a share from franking credits.

Patties, maker of Four'n Twenty pies, has backed the $230 million takeover. Credit:Angela Wylie

The Victorian company's chairman Mark Smith said the board of directors unanimously recommended shareholders vote in favour of the unsolicited offer, which values the company at $230 millon.

"We have, as a board, spent a considerable amount of effort and energy to negotiate this deal  and we've concluded it is an attractive bid and as such we want to put it to shareholders," he said.
At first I thought the type of door hung on my 2014-built house must have been installed by mistake.

This is what happened to me at my house in the southern suburbs of Perth in May. Thieves kicked through the door, ripping it clean in half.

Heather McNeill was shocked to find out how easily her door was kicked in.

You think you're secure in your home until someone kicks in your front door and you realise it's hollow and filled with cardboard.

Every police officer, insurance assessor and builder who visited my house in the days that followed all said the same thing, "this is an internal door, it shouldn't be here".

But I soon learnt it wasn't a mistake. My builder, Summit Homes Group, assured me it was the external door I had signed for in my building contract and that it met industry requirements.

A quick call to the WA Building Commission and I found out there actually were no requirements around the type of external doors builders must use in residential homes  and it seemed new home builders were beginning to take advantage of it.

I thought to myself, 'what is the point of having a double bolt and lock on my front door if it's made of cardboard?'

M&B Building Products, which supplied my door, is one of the largest door suppliers to WA's building industry.
In that interview he also indicated that he'd prefer to keep conservative voices within the "broad church" of the Liberal Party. And on the face of it, Bernardi's a powerful voice in the right-faction of the SA Liberal Party. He was plonked into the SA senate seat after the resignation of Robert Hill in 2006 and was in the #1 position on the SA senate ballot in 2007 and again in 2013, absolutely guaranteeing he'd keep that plum gig. So it's notable that Cozza's been plonked at number two on the SA senate ballot, which is a demotion from his normal position at the top (although it's worth pointing out that this is a double dissolution and therefore anything higher than fifth is incredibly safe. There's no way in hell Bernardi won't safely win his seat, just to be clear). But it's a symbolic gesture since #1 is Simon Birmingham, education minister and someone the government wants to protect, and it suggests that Cory's power in the conservative side of the SA Liberals is not absolute. After all, the SA Liberal Party could have put Birmingham at #2 and known he was definitely going to win the necessary quota. Yet they did not. Hmmm.

You abetter, you abetter, you Abetz! Compare and contrast Bernardi's situation with that of a man of similarly clear-eyed respect for reason, science and good-natured understanding of the wonderful variety of human experience: Tasmanian Liberal senator Eric Abetz. Ezza was dumped from the ministry by Malcolm Turnbull when he became leader, but is still number one on the Tasmanian ballot in recognition of the influence he wields at a state level. Conversely Turnbull supporter and current tourism minister Richard Colbeck has been shoved down to the risky fifth position on the ballot, which has been interpreted as punishment for his failure to support Abbott. So one might muse that perhaps Cory's shining star is dimming within the party.

The candle that burns twice as bright After all, he has always remained a staunch supporter of Tony Abbott, but even that didn't stop Tone admonishing him after Cory's unfortunate but public speculation on what terrible consequences he imagined might follow same-sex marriage being recognised. Cory resigned as Abbott's parliamentary secretary in September 2012 after declaring in parliament that "There are even some creepy people out there [who] say it is OK to have consensual sexual relations between humans and animals In the future will we say, 'These two creatures love each other and maybe they should be able to be joined in a union'? I think that these things are the next step," (He doubled down on this outburst in 2013 when he insisted that "Bestiality, of course it was an extreme example, but once again it's linked to the radical agenda of the Greens Party." Which isn't a policy position they've mentioned, to be fair - possibly because it exists entirely in Cory's head.) His relationship with current PM Turnbull is similarly less than entirely convivial, having crossed the floor twice to vote against the party since Malc took over the reins.

Finders, Keepers Also, as the most recent parliament has amply shown us, senators don't have to give their seats back to the party if they resign. They're perfectly able to get a party to win the seat for them, and then turn around and say "cheers for the nice safe six year job, but I've decided to go in a different direction. Thanks for the campaign funding - buh-bye now!" Sure, the DLP tried (and failed) to sue John Madigan for quitting the party but holding onto the seat, and Clive Palmer talked up his legal challenges to Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazarus when they quit Palmer United but seemingly failed to even recover what he spent on their campaigns. Indeed, this is why Nick Xenophon should be very, very careful about selecting his running mates. Minor parties have a habit of shedding members once they get a taste of sweet, sweet (balance of) power. So, to summarise:

To recap: Cozza's not going to get out of the backbench under Turnbull, and is likely to be considered too volatile even if a conservative warrior takes over after the inevitable next Liberal leadership spill (V from the S says inside three months if Turnbull loses the election; inside 18 if he wins). But  what if he's an independent senator, no longer beholden to the Liberal leadership? Then he'd be a voice that needed to be taken seriously. And that would be especially true if he was able to lure away another nice safe conservative figure - like, say, the aforementioned Abetz - to form an Australian Conservatives senate bloc to counter the likely centrist influence of Nick Xenophon. Especially if Labor ended up squeaking over the line in July. This is all speculation, of course. But if V from the S was a column that bet money on things, it'd be that Abetz has had some quiet conversations recently regarding what ministry he might like to hold upon his post-election return to the frontbench. After all, looks like the Tourism portfolio might be up for grabs fairly soon!
PHOENIX -- Gov. Doug Ducey is defending a new law he signed that allows people with one home -- or dozens -- to rent them out for weekends no matter what local cities and the neighbors think.

The new law that takes effect Aug. 6 overrules any existing or future city ordinance that limits short-term rentals. The only thing communities could regulate are things like noise and parking rules.

Ducey, in a ceremonial bill signing Wednesday engineered by Airbnb, one company that arranges such rentals through its internet application, touted it as good not only for those seeking alternatives to hotels and resorts but also for the homeowners who can make some money.

"For thousands of hardworking citizens, opening up their home to out-of-state guests provides the financial breathing room they need to provide for their family or enjoy an extra expense that they otherwise couldn't afford,'' the governor said.

The law, however, covers more than those renting out a bedroom, or even their whole home. There is no limit on the number of properties an investor could buy and days a home could be rented out -- and all in the same residential area -- potentially turning the whole area into a vacation rental zone. But the governor brushed aside questions of whether that could change the character of neighborhoods.

"I'm not going to answer these hypotheticals,'' Ducey said.

"And the markets adjust,'' he continued. "Somehow we survive people making entrepreneurial decisions and innovative aps like this, provide convenience and cost-sharing opportunities.''

The League of Arizona Cities and Towns agreed not to oppose the measure after it was amended to preserve local health and safety ordinances. But that still wasn't enough to convince everyone at the Capitol that allowing anyone to open up one or more homes to vacation rentals was in the best interests of others already living in an area.

"I didn't move into a neighborhood to have the house next door to me turned into a weekly rental property,'' said Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, in voting against the measure earlier this year.

But the question of what the neighbors might think did not arise Wednesday: The ceremony was at the secluded home of Ed and Lynn Newhall, whose property far off the street -- and not near any other homes -- has been in the family for three generations. Gubernatorial press aide Daniel Scarpinato said the location was chosen by Airbnb.

The measure was pushed through the legislature by Sen. . Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria.

"My priority goal was to protect individual rights and property rights,'' she said.

But Lesko dismissed concerns that some of her constituents will be surprised when they find weekend rentals in their residential neighborhoods. And she rejected the idea that speculators could change the character of neighborhoods by buying up multiple properties for weekend.

"It possibly could occur,'' Lesko said. "If something like that happened and there is noise or parking issues then the city is given the authority to step in against bad actors.''

Anyway, she said, that is more likely to be the exception.

"In most of these situations they're good people that rent homes,'' Lesko said.

"The just want to stay someplace and have the Arizona experience,'' she said. "They're not causing any problems. They're just sleeping there, they're just eating there, and they're good neighbors.''

Ducey also insisted that the new law will actually expand the Arizona economy, rejecting the idea that all it will mean is people who already are coming to Arizona will stay in a home rather than a hotel.

"I would say we're supplementing it rather than displacing,'' the governor said. "I would say we are adding rather than disrupting.''

Ducey put the number of Arizonans renting out properties at more than 100, saying 131,000 guests stayed at Airbnb facilities in the state last year.

This isn't Ducey's first foray into what he says is expansion of the "sharing economy.''

Last year he signed a measure to lift various regulations from ridesharing services like Uber and Lyft. And Ducey said Arizonans should look for more bills of this type.

"I'm not here to block new ideas and good ideas,'' he said. "I'm here to make it easier for entrepreneurs and business owners and would-be entrepreneurs to get into business.''

-30-

On Twitter: @azcapmedia
Anthony Albanese was ready for most of the knotty questions thrown at him as he pitched for votes outside Summer Hill railway station on a brisk Thursday morning: asylum seekers, housing affordability, the local challenge from the Greens, the live export trade, even China and Tibet.

But the one that momentarily threw the veteran campaigner came from two young teens he encountered at a Lewisham coffee shop.

"I'm wondering if you would consider yourself a feminist?" asked 16-year-old Luc Velez, who'd skipped school that morning with 15-year-old Oscar Chaffey, to front the candidate. What the lads got in reply  somewhat unexpectedly  was a quick social history lesson from the early 1970s.
"ISLAM MUST CHANGE", screamed the Herald Sun headline, and Muslim refugee Aladdin Sisalem - no stranger to conflict with News Corp Australia - took action.

On Thursday, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal held a special hearing to consider Mr Sisalem's charge that the Herald Sun, and by extension the Herald and Weekly Times, had breached Victoria's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act by publishing the story.

Aladdin Sisalem says the Herald Sun's front page story incited hatred of Muslims and Islam itself. Credit:Simon Schluter

Mr Sisalem was previously known as the "forgotten man", after he spent 10 months as the only detainee on Manus Island in 2003 and 2004, with only a cat called Honey and guards and staff for company, as John Howard's Pacific Solution withered.
A Brisbane company and a father and son duo from Byron Bay have taken out the 2016 Good Design Award of The Year, beating out the likes of Google and Tesla.

Design and manufacturing company Evolve Group was commissioned by Byron bay father-son duo Stuart and Cedar Anderson in April last year to help turn their idea for a beekeeping invention into an award-winning success, after the inventors had raised $US12 million in pre-sales on crowd-funding website Indiegogo.

Flow Hive, the brainchild of the Andersons, was a honey harvesting system that tapped into a hive and extracted honey, making it easier for the beekeeper without causing stress to the bees.

Stuart Anderson and his son developed their product over 10 years and made many prototypes, some of which were made offshore, however Mr Anderson said working with a local manufacturer meant they could be on the shop floor during the manufacturing and design process.
Testing will reveal whether a crocodile trapped near where a 46-year-old photographer was attacked is responsible for her presumed death.

The animal, estimated to be 2.5 to 2.7 metres long, was captured in one of three crocodile traps laid out by government environment officers on a remote beach in the Daintree National Park over the past two days.

Department of Environment and Heritage Protection officers didn't believe the reptile was the one that attacked Cindy Waldron on Sunday night as she walked in waist-deep water with close friend and fellow New Zealand national Leeann Mitchell.

Ms Waldron's family flew to Cairns on Tuesday night before making the two-and-a-half-hour trip to Thornton Beach, where the pair had been holidaying to celebrate the end of Ms Mitchell's cancer treatment.
Police are investigating the death of an elderly patient at a Brisbane hospital.

The 81-year-old man was admitted to the Prince Charles Hospital in the city's north on April 29 and was involved in an incident the next day.

Police are investigating the death of an 81-year-old man at Prince Charles Hospital following a scuffle with a security guard. Credit:Steve Holland

It is understood the man became agitated and a security guard was forced to restrain him, at which point they both fell heavily to the ground.

It is also understood tests the following day showed the patient had a fractured skull.
A man and a woman are on the run after a bizarre ram raid on a supermarket in Brisbane's south that saw a security guard hit with a load of shopping trolleys.

About 8.50pm, the guard locked the doors on a woman trying to steal food at the Woodridge Foodworks on Ewing Road and called the police.

Police said a man waiting outside in a dark-coloured car saw the woman locked inside and drove the car through the glass front doors.

Glass shattered and the woman was able to escape through the busted doors and jump in the car, fleeing the scene before police arrived.
Racist internet memes mocking AFL great Adam Goodes have been voluntarily removed from a popular Facebook page, but those responsible maintain they were "just for fun".

The AFL had earlier demanded that Facebook take down the posts, which on Wednesday night appeared on a page followed by about 200,000 people.

Adam Goodes calls out racism.

The page's administrators told Fairfax Media they had deleted the images themselves.

"I deleted because our page was getting a lot of reports and the best way was to delete them!" an administrator said.
PHOENIX -- Arizona voters will have some decisions to make Aug. 30.

That's the day of the statewide primary. And while the candidates running will all have party affiliations, the independents who make up more than a third of all registered voters are free to pick up and vote the ballot of any party.

There are only two statewide races this year.

Incumbent John McCain is trying for a sixth six-year term in the U.S. Senate. If he can hold off several Republican challengers he goes up against Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, currently a member of the House of Representatives.

Three seats are up for grabs at the Arizona Corporation Commission.

Incumbent Republican Bob Burns wants another four-year term. And Andy Tobin, appointed by Gov. Doug Ducey in January to replace Susan Bitter Smith, is hoping for a full term of his own.

But three other Republicans also have eyes on the seats, including state Rep. Rick Gray, former state Sen. Al Melvin and former Chandler Mayor Boyd Dunn.

Bill Mundell, who formerly served as a commissioner as a Republican, is back now as a Democrat, running on a ticket with former state lawmaker Tom Chabin.

All nine congressional seats are up for grabs, as are the 30 seats in the state Senate and 60 in the state House.

But a few races are all but decided absent an independent qualifying for the general election ballot or a write-in candidate.

For example, current Rep. Karen Fann, R-Prescott, is the lone candidate from any party for state senate in her legislative district. Ditto for incumbent Democratic senators Olivia Cajero Bedford and Steve Farley of Tucson, Lisa Otondo of Yuma, Katie Hobbs of Phoenix and Lupe Contreras of Avondale.

Republicans Debbie Lesko of Peoria, Bob Worsley of Mesa and John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills also find themselves with a free ride.

And at least one state House race also failed to gather more than two candidates, the number of representatives in each district.

One interesting note is that Republican Clair Van Steenwyk, a resident of Sun City West, has filed to run both for the U.S. Senate and for the U.S. House of Representatives for the seat currently held by Trent Franks.

Matt Roberts, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said Arizona law clearly prohibits anyone from being a candidate for more than one state office.

"But it isn't clear whether it prohibits federal candidates from doing so,'' Robert said. He said the decision was made to allow Van Steenwyk to file both sets of nominating papers and allow anyone who wants to challenge that to take it to court.

The deadline to file nominating papers was 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Europe needs to take an Australian approach to stemming the flow of migrant boats, including embracing boat turnbacks, a prominent Conservative politician says, after two vessels recently arrived in the English Channel.

The Conservative Party's Daniel Hannan, who is a British member of the European Parliament, or an MEP, told Fairfax Media Mr Abbott's policy needed to be replicated in the northern hemisphere.

Tory MP Daniel Hannan at a pro-Brexit event in London this week.

"I think Australia handled that issue with amazing success, there hasn't been a single death by drowning since the boats started being turned back," Mr Hannan said.

"And we need to break the link between getting onto a rickety boat and being allowed to stay in the country destination, it really is that simple."
Airport police isolated a flight from London that landed in New Jersey after receiving an unspecified threat. It was later cleared after a canine unit conducted a sweep of the aircraft.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police spokesman Joe Pentangelo says the flight, which is carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members, arrived around 1pm Thursday at Newark Liberty International Airport.

The plane at at Newark Liberty International Airport. Credit:Twitter

The British Airways aircraft has been moved to a remote section of the airport and is surrounded by police and emergency crews.

Pentangelo says the passengers' checked bags and carry-ons will be re-screened as a precaution.
Latest News CBA-owned stockbroker acknowledges court decision relating to systemic compliance failures A total remediation of $6.5 million has been paid to affected customers

Interest rate rises weaken home borrowing power 20% fall in just six months, says broker

A national alliance of community housing and welfare groups is campaigning the government to abolish unfair negative gearing and put housing affordability at the centre of this federal election.The alliance  made up of Homelessness Australia (HA), National Shelter, the Community Housing Industry Association (CHIA) and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS)  has created a petition calling for tax reforms that put ordinary people ahead of the interests of investors.Australia is in the midst of a housing crisis and current tax policy has fuelled Australian housing prices to record and unaffordable levels, ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said.Tax settings that encourage speculative investment and inflate house prices  like negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount  must be addressed in a new national strategy to address housing affordability.She said these unfair tax concessions cost the federal budget more than $7 billion every year with over half of these tax breaks going to investors in the top 10% of income earners.The petition is arguing that the savings from binning negative gearing could be redirected to improve affordability, including a tax rebate for new affordable housing, and significantly increased investment in public and community housing.ACOSS stands with the community in insisting that governments do all that they can to ensure everyone pays their fair share of tax to enable us to fund our services properly into the future and to help end the housing crisis that is pushing people into financial hardship, Dr Goldie said.
Latest News CBA-owned stockbroker acknowledges court decision relating to systemic compliance failures A total remediation of $6.5 million has been paid to affected customers

Interest rate rises weaken home borrowing power 20% fall in just six months, says broker

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is overhauling its mortgage operations to ensure security and transparency when dealing with mortgage brokers in a bid to stop mortgage fraud.According to a report by the Australian Financial Review, the new system will allow CBA to detect suspected fraud or irregularities through an individual assessment of each application by the case officer. The new system will also be able to tell whether mortgage brokers have been duped into processing fraudulent applications or were complicit.The CBAs move comes after other banks also took steps in enhancing scrutiny on applications, especially those coming from foreign buyers. ANZ recently found out forged and falsified information in their home loan applications from foreign buyers. Westpac Adelaide Bank , and Bendigo also increased their security when it comes to accepting applications from foreign buyers. However, the scale of mortgage fraud is yet to be known.It is too soon to assess the extent of the frauds, but the suspicion is that it is more widespread than just a few bad apples, said Digital Finance Analytics principal Martin North. We need to know, were the documents to do with falsifying an otherwise kosher loan, or was it a more structured money laundering scam, perhaps in collusion with real estate agents and brokers? We just do not know.
SAN TAN VALLEY -- The Arizona drought is affecting businesses and homeowners, who are urged to take measures to save water.

The water level for Lake Mead is a key indicator of how much the drought has affected Arizona, according to officials for Central Arizona Project. The lake last week was at its lowest level since Hoover Dam was built in 1936, according to Chuck Cullom, who oversees the Colorado River program for the CAP.

Lake Mead helps supply water to millions of people in Arizona and is a major recreation area.

If we are doing nothing, the lake will continue to fall lower and lower. Eventually there will be insufficient water, Cullom said.

Business leaders and homeowners are being asked to do their part to curb water use.

If we were opening during the summer, the water bill will be probably double, to around 50 to 55 percent of our costs, Van Poucke said. We save probably 25 percent to 30 percent of our expenses.

Arizona residents also can save water in simple and inexpensive ways, water experts said.

The most water usage in your house is your toilet. Toilets can use up to six gallons per flush, said Carol Ward-Morris, assistant director of the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association.

She suggested residents to change their old toilets to those that have a WaterSense label.

Those toilets are going to use only 1.28 gallons of water, Morris said.

Residents who dont replace toilets should look for leaks, she said.

Leaking flappers lose up to 200 gallons of water a day. Simply fixing the flapper can save you water and money, Morris said.

Its small steps that we can all take to help and ensure we have supplies that we need for the future, Morris said.
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City Hall has unveiled new plans for two housing high-rises it wants to build in Brooklyn Bridge Park  and park honchos intend to vote on the revised blueprints next week, despite losing state support for the project last month.

The revamped proposal for the properties at Pier 6 calls for slightly smaller towers with fewer units  especially fewer below-market units  and nixes a planned pre-kindergarten space.

Here are the full details of the updated plans  which the parks board of directors will vote on at a public meeting on Tuesday.

 The taller of the two towers, previously 29 stories containing 192 units, will now be 28 stories with 126 units. They will all be condominiums.

 The shorter tower will remain roughly the same height at 14 or 15 stories, but will have with 40 market-rate units instead of the planned 30, and 100 below-market-rate units instead of 117. These will all be rentals.

 A planned pre-K space in the smaller tower is gone. The city is in talks to find a different location for it nearby, according to a spokesman.

 Half of the so-called affordable units will be earmarked for households earning around $134,640 a year  for a family of three  a quarter to those making $106,080, and the remaining quarter for those earning $65,250.

The city was supposed to seek Albanys approval for the Pier 6 towers under the terms of a 2014 lawsuit settlement with local activists, but state officials pulled their support last month, claiming they wanted more time to probe donations the developer had made to Mayor DeBlasio prior to scoring the gig.

Before things went pear-shaped, the city had been hammering out a different plan with state officials that would have included even shorter building, fewer units, but more below-market rentals than originally planned, according to a New York Times report.

But now the city claims it has done its duty simply by seeking the states okay, and is vowing to go it alone with the latest proposal.

If the majority of the Brooklyn Bridge Park boards 17 members  whose ranks include Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen, who supports the development, and Councilman Steve Levin (DBoerum Hill), who does not  vote in favor of the new plan, the city will then consider that authorization for the builder to begin work, according to a spokesman.

But that may not be the only hurdle  local activists said last month that they will sue to stop the towers if the state doesnt step in.

Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation Board of Directors public meeting at New York University Dibner Pfizer Auditorium (5 Metrotech Center, between Lawrence and Bridge streets Downtown). June 7 at 9 am.
latest news

October 3, 2022

Dee Gambit

Hundreds  if not thousands  of new and returning TV shows and movies are released every month  your options of what to watch are endless. Variety, they say is ...
The Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) has teamed up with mobile-app developers, Crosby Associates, to introduce the BMF Employee Engage App. Downloaded onto a smartphone or tablet, the App brings a company's information to the employees fingertips.

It has been designed for organisations with a scattered workforce, making it suitable for multi-site builders' merchants or building materials suppliers, or those with teams working off-site.

The App can be customized to suit the requirements of individual companies, with modular elements designed to streamline communications, motivate teams, create a winning culture and retain staff.

By making essential HR information visible at all times, including the companys Employee Handbook, Policy & Procedures and the employees Contract, the App reduces the time HR staff spend on dealing with basic enquiries.

It can also be configured to push notifications through to each user, so important information is instantly available.

The App enables rapid two-way communication between an organisation and its employees. Many companies struggle to get regular staff feedback, but the Apps survey tool makes it simple to respond on any given subject. With the App on their mobile device, employees can quickly complete topic surveys when it suits them, for example on the train travelling to work, or while watching TV. The App can even be configured with a moodboard function for employees to give feedback on how they are feeling at any time of the day.

Other functions, such as the Employee of the Month, are designed encourage and thank people for a job well done. Staff members can also interact with each other via the App.

John Porter, managing director of Crosby Associates, said: The Employee Engage App provides a new way of thinking and working for many HR functions. The app can be customised to include the modules that suit the needs of different organisations, and the look and feel can also reflect the company brand. It is also simple to update and include new features and content at a later date.

Richard Ellithorne, BMF membership services director, said: We are extremely excited to offer a fresh approach to employee communications. Most of us use apps everyday for different functions at home so why not use one at work? Particularly one that makes it so simple to interact with directly with everyone in your business.

For more information, contact James.Spillane@bmf.org.uk.
New Adjacent Fest to take on Bamboozle next May in Atlantic City

music
"... the (National Park) Service ... shall promote and regulate the use of ... national parks, monuments and reservations  (whose0 purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner ... as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."

 The Organic Act, August 25, 1916

This is a year to celebrate America's National Parks and their rangers. August 25 will mark the 100th birthday of the National Park Service, created by Woodrow Wilson's signing of the Organic Act. Although 35 parks and monuments (including Yellowstone, the oldest) predate 1916, they were staffed by Forest Service or War Department personnel prior to the Organic Act.

What? Neither the first National Park nor the NPS was Teddy Roosevelts legacy? No. But TR did establish five national parks, 18 national monuments, four national game refuges, 51 bird sanctuaries,= and more than 150 national forests during his presidency.

Flagstaff is fortunate to have three monuments  Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki  in close proximity. Additional monuments and parks lie within two hours driving time, including Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Montezuma Castle/Well, Tuzigoot, Navajo and Agua Fria. Let's run through some of the early history of our three Flagstaff Area National Monuments.

WALNUT CANYON

Walnut Canyon became Flagstaffs first national monument in 1915. But even before Wilson made it a monument, the San Francisco Forest Reserve (today's Coconino National Forest) provided protection for the canyon as early as 1903.

Civil War veteran James Pierce was hired to protect the canyon's antiquities. With his wife Mattie, Pierce lived at the Cliffs Ranger Station. You can see this historic cabin and learn more of the history of Walnut Canyon on guided Ranger Cabin walks every Sunday or on self-guided tours each Thursday (call Walnut Canyon at (928) 526-3367 to reserve space). Custodianship of Walnut Canyon was transferred to the Park Service in 1934.

WUPATKI

Wupatki National Monument was established in 1924 during the Coolidge administration. For the first decade, J.C. Clarkee, a self-taught archaeologist, and MNA's Harold Colton  who had both lobbied for Wupatki's preservation  accepted the position of (absentee) custodian, for the nominal salary of $1 per diem. In 1934, Jimmie Brewer was appointed the first live-in ranger at Wupatki. He and wife Sallie converted part of Wupatki pueblo to be their living quarters for the next two years.

Sallie Brewer was one of many rangers' wives in Arizona and elsewhere who were equally qualified as their husbands (both Brewers had archaeology degrees), worked just as many hours of service, but who were not paid. Instead the NPS awarded these women the title "Honorary Custodian Without Pay".

Eventually in March of 1943, Sallie took and passed the ranger exam, and became Arizona's first female NPS ranger at Casa Grande National Monument. We will have more to say about Sallie Brewer and her successor Honorary Custodian at Wupaki, Courtney Jones (the author of Letters From Wupatki), in subsequent Ask a Ranger columns.

SUNSET CRATER

In 1928, a film company announced plans to make a movie version of Zane Grey's novel "Avalanche." And they proposed to detonate TNT on the flank of Sunset Crater to produce the requisite avalanche for the movie's climactic scene. Instead, the only avalanche they produced was one of immediate protests from Flagstaff and across the nation, leading to the designation of Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument by Herbert Hoover in 1930.

Today our country boasts 411 national treasures that await your visit, including 59 national parks, 121 national monuments, 50 national historical parks, 25 national military/battlefield parks, 19 national preserves, 14 national seashores/lakeshores, 18 national recreation areas, 15 national rivers/wild and scenic rivers, 30 national memorials, and numerous national parkways, national historic and scenic trails, and national cemeteries. Twenty-four of these NPS units are in Arizona (see americansouthwest.net).

Come celebrate the 100th birthday of the NPS this year with us, and as you travel, see what new wonders you can discover in every state you visit.
THE GENE

An Intimate History

Siddharth Mukherjee

Penguin

593 pages; Rs 699



The essential you, the essential me and the essential chimpanzee are near-identical genetically. Any two humans share 99.9 per cent of DNA. A human being and a chimpanzee share 98.9 per cent. Those tiny genetic differences create distinct individuals (and make the chimp a member of a different species).
The relationship between telecom operators and the sector regulator has hit a new low. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), lobby group of GSM service providers, has accused the regulator of carrying out its recent test drive for call drops only in problematic areas.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had done a test drive in parts of Delhi and its suburbs, which showed most telcos didnt meet the benchmark quality on call drops. The acceptable standard is two per cent and most telcos showed a much higher call drop rate in Trais test drive. COAI has punched holes in Trais test drive and alleged the tests were done in the known problematic areas, where operators face issues in obtaining cell sites.

Rajan Mathews, director-general of COAI, told this newspaper: Trai is continuously trying to beat us up and that creates noise, which is not helpful at all. To take a minority area and say it is symptomatic of the entire service area, is misleading.



It is common knowledge the industry has been facing difficulties in getting cell sites in many parts of the national capital region (NCR). While the area of Delhi-NCR is 46,208 sq km, these results are limited to a route covering 600 sq km. Hence, the quality of service (QoS) results from the test are not strictly comparable with the standard QoS for dropped calls, regularly published by Trai for the entire service area, claims Mathews.

Also, COAI says the results should not be confused with the standard QoS mandated by Trai and computed for the whole licensed service area, or LSA (all cell sites in the LSA).

The industry body says for a fair and accurate picture, the issue of Quality of Service and call drops has to be seen in a holistic manner for the entire LSA and not just in select pockets. COAI claims the operators are in compliance with the benchmark set by Trai of less than two per cent, as in the previously published QoS results of September 2015.

The Trai report showed a majority of the call drops happening in the four areas of central Delhi, Dwarka & IGI Airport, Gurgaon & Manesar and Noida & Mayur Vihar. The airport region has large areas of military property; only recently has the ministry of communications opened defence land for setting up of telecom infrastructure. COAI also points to the city's civic body sealing over 400 towers in recent months.

In Noida-Mayur Vihar, the industry says, at least 250 towers were shut by the municipal authoritiesin 2015. The story is the same in Gurgaon-Manesar. More, in the NCR, there have been concerns raised about location of towers. The Trai report itself acknowledges that a majority of the call drop instances are in these problematic locations.

The lobby group has also contested the measurement practices used by the outsourced agency/vendor (Phistream Consulting) in conducting the test drive, which vary from those adopted by the operators. Members say they said so to Trai and these remain unresolved.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court struck down the Trais order levying a penalty of Re 1 for every call drop. A Bench of judges Kurian Joseph and R F Nariman said: We have held the impugned regulation to be ultra vires, arbitrary, unreasonable and non-transparent. The regulator came out with its Drive Test results after the court order, which it carried out in select problematic pockets of Delhi.

According to Mathews, resolution of the call drop problem in the known difficult areas will not happen through the imposition of penalties but by a partnership between the industry, DoT, urban ministry and local governments, among others, to facilitate and hasten the approvals of required cell sites.
For Dr Reddys Laboratories, the desire to become an innovation-led pharmaceutical company is not something new: when it out-licensed two anti-diabetes molecules to Novo Nordisk way back in the 1990s, it became the first company to do so.
Indias leading hospital chains want the government to reduce visa fees, set up dedicated immigration counters and offer tax sops to encourage medical tourism.



The tourism ministry has already proposed e-visas that will make it easy for foreign patients to visit India and boost medical tourism On Thursday, the home ministry announced that foreigners visiting India for short-term yoga programmes and short duration medical treatment under the Indian system of medicine will be able to apply for an e-tourist visa.



The tourism ministry has also set up the National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board to focus on issues related to visa, marketing and promotion, and accreditation of hospitals from all branches, including ayurvedic and unani. But the industry feels the government could do a lot more.



According to Ficcis 2015 white paper on medical tourism, about 270,000 foreign nationals came to India for medical treatment in 2014, registering a growth of over 17 per cent from the previous year. Yet foreign patients account for less than 3 per cent of the total foreign tourist arrivals into the country. Foreigners visiting India for medical treatment are issued a medical visa that is separate from a tourist visa and has a higher fee.



Creation of health care infrastructure to attract more overseas patients can be augmented with progressive fiscal measures. Framing guidelines for promoting medical value travel (MVT) through embassies, service tax exemption for 10 years on MVT procedures, providing 100 per cent tax exemption on revenue generated through MVT could augur well for the industry, said K Hari Prasad, president  hospitals division, Apollo Hospitals.



The proposal of the government to issue e-visas for medical tourists is forward looking. Visa extensions if required for prolonged treatment must be equally trouble free if recommended by bonafide doctors and hospitals, said Sunil Kapur, head sales, Fortis Healthcare.



Fortis earns about 10 per cent of its revenue from international patients. We treat around 25,000 international patients at our hospitals in Kochi and Kozhikode a year. The international patients mostly come from Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Kenya and Maldives. Their number is growing at a rate of 25 per cent every year and contributes to almost 18 per cent of total revenues, said Alisha Moopen, executive director & CEO (hospitals & clinics), Aster DM Healthcare



Currently, for patients travelling from the Gulf, there are no issues of visa delays. However, from African countries such as Nigeria, the waiting time is huge  ranging from four weeks to a few months. The medical visa is almost double the price of the tourist visa, and documentation is much complicated. India is losing in this sector to countries like Thailand where the visa process is much simpler, she added.


has slashed fares by 20% in a five day discount offer. The offer comes a day after state oil hiked aviation turbine fuel (ATF) price by 9.2%. It follows similar such offers introduced by other carriers in the last fortnight.

said the five day offer will allow flyers to avail of substantial savings of up to 20% on base fares (excluding taxes and government fees) in economy and business class and will be valid for bookings till next Monday and for travel between June 25 and September 30. Under the offer, a Mumbai-Goa ticket will be available upwards of Rs 1107 and a ticket to Bengaluru and Hyderabad will be available upwards of Rs 819 and Rs 1360 onwards ( excluding fees and taxes).

The period from June to September is traditionally lean for travel as schools and colleges reopen. Hence, carriers are providing discounts to keep loads high. During June-September 2015, domestic carriers reported load factor of 80%, compared with 75% in the previous year. Also, airlines have added aircraft and increased flights.
On-demand auto-rickshaw aggregator plans to raise around $30 million in the Series-C round in three to six months. The company plans to fuel global expansion plans as it seeks to mark its presence in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia.
Indias largest luxury carmaker Benz will wait till July before ramping up supply of petrol variants of its vehicles.

Among the luxury carmakers, was most affected from the ban on diesel vehicles with an engine capacity of 2,000cc and above in the national capital region (NCR).

We are looking at ramping up diesel as a percentage of our total volume. We will take a decision in this regard after July. By then, we hope to get clarity on the 2,000cc diesel ban, said Roland Folger, managing director and chief executive officer, Benz India.

In July, the Supreme Court would hear a petition of carmakers seeking lifting of the ban. As of now, one of every five Mercs sold in the country is powered by petrol engine. The companys NCR sales have declined ever since the diesel ban was imposed. The company has diverted petrol models from other markets in the country to NCR.

Folger said the company is losing opportunity every passing month and a decision on the petrol strategy needs to be taken soon. Executing such a move will take four-six months since the component supply chain will need to be ramped up accordingly.

With diesel becoming less attractive, more and more buyers are looking at petrol variants, he said.

The company said it would not shift to less powerful engines just to bypass the 2,000cc diesel engine ban. There is no measurable difference in emission level of a 2,000cc and a 1,990cc vehicle, Folger added.

He said the recent action from the National Green Tribunal in Kerala against diesel vehicles of 2,000cc bothered him. The NGT ban on sales of diesel vehicles in Kerala was stayed by the high court.

Folger said keeping away 12,000-14,000 new diesel vehicles from roads will not make a difference to pollution scenario.

Mercedes on Thursday launched its GLC range of SUV in India. It comes in both petrol and diesel variants. Interestingly, Merc has priced both the variants at an identical price. While the diesel variant would cost Rs 50.70 lakh, the petrol one would come for Rs 50.90 lakh (ex-showroom, Pune). Folger said identical pricing was done to give customers a real choice, without influencing the performance and cost of purchase. The company hopes to get an insight into customers buying preferences through this.
ICRA expects primary domestic producers to enjoy better profitability in the near term mainly because of improved prices in the current year along with support of Minimum Import Price (MIP) imposed by the government since February.

In a report released today, the ratings agency said, post the operationalisation of MIP, domestic hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices have witnessed a sharp increase of about 25% from their lows reached in February 2016. Moreover, there could be additional gains due to increase in sales volumes, as imports are likely to reduce in the current year.

Although MIP is scheduled to expire in August, buoyant international prices at present, along with extension of safeguard duty (SGD) up to March 2018 will continue to lend support to producers.

"While the prospect of international prices declining again cannot be ruled out, given the still adverse demand-supply equation in the world, the final outcome of anti-dumping investigations initiated by the 'Directorate General of Anti-Dumping & Allied Duties' would be a key determinant of longer term price trends in the domestic market," the release quoted Jayanta Roy, senior vice-president and co-head, corporate sector ratings, as saying.

Although India's steel consumption growth improved to 4.6% during FY16 from 3.1% in FY15, driven by automobile and road construction sectors, a sustained recovery in other steel intensive sectors like capital goods and infrastructure is still not in sight, said ICRA.

Domestic finished steel production, on the other hand, de-grew by 1.9% during FY16, as a substantial chunk of the incremental domestic demand was captured by the burgeoning steel imports. Despite a slowdown post September 2015, India's steel imports still managed to register over 25% annual growth in FY16. Moreover, due to weak international steel prices, domestic manufacturers were reluctant to push exports, which consequently contracted by over 27% during FY16.

On the raw materials front, India's iron ore production in FY16 reached 155 million tonne (mt), registering an annual growth rate of 23%. As per a recent ICRA report on the steel industry, a bulk of the incremental production has come from Odisha, where a number of mines resumed production.

ICRA estimates India's iron ore production in the current year to be in the range of 170-175 mt.

"Given the substantial iron ore inventory levels at mine-heads, and the fact that India's iron ore production is slated to increase further in the current year, domestic iron ore prices are unlikely to recover meaningfully in the near term, thereby benefiting steel mills," Roy was quoted as saying.

Based on prevailing prices, ICRA estimates operating margins of the domestic steel (collection of seven large steel players, accounting for over 40% of the current domestic capacity) to improve by around 6 percentage points as compared to the estimated levels prevailing in February 2016. The extent of improvement in coverage indicators of the industry, which witnessed a severe weakening in recent years with interest coverage ratio falling to 0.5 time in Q3FY16 from 2.4 time in Q3FY15, would however be limited. This is because overall debt levels of domestic steel are unlikely to reduce significantly in the near term. Consequently, the financial health of domestic steel players is likely to remain a concern in the near term.
The demerged undertaking, together with the existing EPC team of RIL, will create a focused EPC undertaking to cater to the needs of the group
Tech Mahindra, India's sixth largest IT services player, today announced that it has been selected by Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) of the State of Nevada to be the prime system integrator for the System Modernization or SysMod project  a transformational initiative to modernise the DMV operations.

The total contract value including infrastructure and services is $75 million over a five-year period.

Department of Motor Vehicles Director Terri L Albertson said: "This is not just a technology upgrade. We are creating a motor vehicle agency that will be second to none in delivering fast and efficient service to the public. It is also a great example of innovation and responsive state government under Governor Brian Sandoval's Nevada Strategic Planning Framework for the next five years."



Tech Mahindras solution MOVES will form the basis of the transformational journey. The solution will be migrated to the Oracle technology stack and will provide customer service experience across multiple channels. The proposed digital solution will provide for better customer service, reduce transaction processing time, and increase speed-to-market offered NV DMV products and services.

We will be implementing the solution in a phased manner leveraging Agile methodology and a very modern IT architecture," said Arvind Malhotra, Cluster head of Strategic Accounts.
A substantial portion of the $3.5 billion raised by taxi aggregator from Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia would be spent to fund its race against Ola in India.

Indias taxi aggregator market is estimated between $1 billion to $1.2 billion (about Rs 6,600 crore to Rs 7,900 crore) in terms of annualised gross booking value (GBV), according to a February report by RedSeer Management Consulting, a research and advisory firm that tracks online businesses in India.

Ola, the early mover that mirrored Ubers model in India, has 60-65 per cent share, while Uber, a late entrant, has captured a market share 35-40 per cent according to the report.

Now, it is trying to get a greater share of the pie.

This investment is part of global fund and we are incredibly excited to use this capital is globally strategic markets such as India. Having grown exponentially over the past two years, we are bullish on the Indian market and this investment will support the remarkable growth of in India, said.

Uber, which entered India in April 2013 by introducing luxury cars to woo users, is aggressive in offering cheap rides to consumers and compensating drivers with incentives across 22 cities in the country. The company is also wooing the central government, while taking on local governments in Delhi and Karnataka, legally, against policies that restrict their operations.

It has committed investments of $1.5 billion (Rs 10,050 crore) in India. Ola has raised $1.3 billion (Rs 8,700 crore) so far to expand its market.

Analysis of data between January 1 and April 17 this year reveals that Ola is twice as large as Uber, according to report by Truecaller.

The data shows that 102 million calls were made between Ola and its users, against 39 million calls for Uber.

The latest round of fund raising by Uber would it the required ammunition to expand market share in India. This would put pressure on Ola, backed by Softbank and Tiger Global, to raise fresh funds to match the push of its global rival. An Ola spokesperson declined comment.

To be fair, SoftBank, the common investors in Ola, Chinese app-hailing platform Didi Kuaidi, Lyft, the distant second player in the US after Uber, GrabTaxi, the Southeast Asian taxi-hailing app, has stitched a global alliance and built them as a common enemy against Uber in these markets.

These players share resources, data and best practices while enabling users to book on each other's platform in their respective geographies. Last month, Didi got $one billion investment from Apple.

India is one of the largest markets for global technology firms as the country does not have policies to shield local players from intense competition unlike China.
In its quest to build a global empire, has turned to the West Asia for its biggest infusion of cash from a single investor.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has "always been supportive" of any direct dialogue between India and Pakistan, according to his spokesperson.

Ban's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric was asked at his daily briefing here yesterday if the UN Secretary-General can, in the remaining months of his tenure, persuade India to have talks with Pakistan over Kashmir.

"I think, throughout his tenure, the Secretary-General has always been supportive of any direct dialogue between Pakistan and India," he said.

Ban, whose tenure as UN Secretary-General ends this year, has in the past offered his good offices to help resolve the conflict between both nations but has also maintained that India and Pakistan should resolve their differences bilaterally through dialogue.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will soon approach the United Kingdom for extradition of former Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Modi.



Last month, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had requested the MEA to take up with the British authorities the issue of extraditing Modi to India. Following the communication from ED the MEA's legal team examined the matter.



"Keeping in mind the sensitivity of the case, Enforcement Directorate has been requested to intimate their concurrence on the options and suggestions made by the MEA and to advise us how to proceed further in the matter. Now, we are awaiting comments of the Enforcement Directorate," Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said.

He said MEA's legal experts have vetted the extradition request and it would be sent to British authorities after getting ED's response. Modi is currently facing money laundering charges.



A couple of months back a special court in Mumbai had issued an order allowing the ED to begin extradition proceedings against Modi. ED claims Modi is staying in the UK. The businessman has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
With the heat turning on Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, Congress on Thursday questioned the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion on 'zero tolerance' for corruption and wondered whether the same is maintained only by persecution of opposition while protecting flip-flops by the BJP leaders.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asserted that Khadse, who has been caught in one dispute after another, was being protected by his party as he was still scot-free despite having several cases against him with concrete proof.

"An ethical hacker has provided the information and the matter is now sub-judice that there were telephone conservations between dreaded terrorist Dawood and Khadse's cell phone. Why is an explanation not being given and only clean chits? Why the matter is not being investigated thoroughly? Why is he not being dismissed?" Surjewala asked.

Stating that Khadse's personal assistant was recently caught on the allegation of demanding a bribe of Rs. 30 crores, he added that the BJP had yet again failed to take action.

"And Khadse is now accused, not by the Congress, but by Maharashtra Industries Minister Suresh also who said that industrial land belonging to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) was illegally purchased for Rs. 3.21 crores, when it was for Rs. 40 crores," Surjewala told ANI.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has reportedly been summoned to the capital today by the BJP top brass to discuss further course in the matter.

Trouble mounted another notch for Khadse today as the BJP said that a decision would soon be taken regarding his fate in the party.

"The way the matter has been brought to light in the media, some facts can be highlighted. With new facts out, is under a cloud of suspicion and the party is sure to take a decision soon," former Mumbai police commissioner and now BJP leader Satyapal Singh told ANI.

However, Khadse has so far rubbished all the charges levelled against him.
In a fresh twist in the lynching case, the meat sample said to be beef by a report prepared by a forensic lab in Mathura might not have come from the vicitm Mohammad Akhlaq's house, reported the Economic Times on Thursday.

The latest report's findings contradict the preliminary report by the Uttar Pradesh Veterinary department, which had said that the meat over which Akhlaq, 52, was lynched on September 28, 2015, was mutton.

Akhlaq was beaten to death by a mob in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, 56 kilometres away from the capital, over alleged rumours that his family had eaten beef.

Adding to the controversy surrounding the incident, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has questioned the authenticity of the latest forensic report.

Five questions the new report throws up:

1) Where was the meat found?

According to the Economic Times, a copy of the seizure memo prepared by the UP Police on the day of the incident shows that the sample sent for tests was taken from meat found by sub-inspector Tej Pal Singh from a "tri-junction near a transformer" in the village. According to the financial daily, the memo says that the sample was collected in presence of independent witnesses on the night of September 28, 2015. However, citing the memo, the report says that the meat was not seized from Akhlaq's refrigerator or his residence.

UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has made the issue murkier after he questioned the authenticity of the latest forensic report which stated that the meat found was of "cow or its progeny".

Yadav raised doubts about the forensic procedure and the origins of the samples being referred to in the new report.

"Where was the sample sent, who received it? There was nothing objectionable in his house. Every eye is on this matter. Everyone wants that the victim's family should get justice as murder had taken place. After this incident, there was debate in the world regarding what to eat and speak. I think one should not get involved in such matters," Yadav said.

2) Cow or goat?

Immediately after the brutal incident, Akhlaq's daughter Sajida had said that they only had mutton (goat meat) in their fridge.

Speaking to an English daily, Sajida had said, Every time there was a feast in this house, Hindu residents of the village would attend such functions. Even on Bakr-Id, we had guests. But suddenly they started doubting us. There was some mutton in the fridge which was taken away yesterday. They thought it was beef. The police have taken it for examination. If the results prove that it was not beef, will they bring back my dead father?

In December last year, the report submitted by the chief veterinary officer of Uttar Pradesh had said that the meat found in Akhlaq's house was mutton and not beef.

The report said, "Prima facie it seems that meat found in lynching victim's house belongs to goat progeny."

However, the preliminary report had also said that the samples had been taken for final diagnosis, and had been sent to the forensic laboratory in Mathura.

3) Are Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Yogi Adityanath's demands legitimate?

In light of the new report, Adityanath has demanded that a case of cow slaughter should be registered against Akhlaq's family and that those arrested in relation to the lynching be released.

"They are mum on this report. The innocent Hindus arrested in the matter should me immediately released and a case of cow slaughter should be registered against Akhlaq's family," he said in Gorakhpur.

The police seems to disagree. According to reports, concerned police officials had said that the meat was sent for testing only to establish the motive for Akhlaq's killing.

The legally-unsound move of using this report to justify murder aside, according to the cow slaughter laws operational in the state, possession of beef is not a punishable offence and the recent report does not establish who slaughtered the animal from which the meat was obtained.

4) What happened to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's (ABVP's) claims?

According to reports, ABVP was set to come up with the claim at its annual state-level convention to be held in Sitapur, from November 1 to 3 last year, that the lynching was the result of a personal dispute, with one of Mohammad Akhlaq's two sons having a 'love affair with a Hindu girl', and that politicians had wrongly projected it as a fallout of 'beef consumption'.

Nothing seems to have emerged from these claims and the ABVP has been mum on this angle.

5) Do the upcoming Assembly elections have anything to do with the report or the subsequent reactions to it?

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, scheduled to be held in 2017, will be hotly contested; with the BJP looking to put up a good showing in the country's most populous state ahead of the 2019 General Elections.

Given the allegations made against the party, of employing communal politics to attract votes, people might wonder if Dadri, and the recent report, will become political tools for the party.

It would not be the first time that the party ratchets up the issue of beef consumption as an electoral strategy.

A day before Bihar voted in the fifth and final phase of the Assembly elections held last year, the BJP gave a prominent advertisement in newspapers featuring a woman hugging a cow, attacking Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on his silence over statements made by his allies on beef.

"Stop vote bank politics and explain whether you endorse these statements," the ad had said, before listing three comments made by Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and others. In each of the statements, the word beef had been highlighted in red.
India Meteorological Department (IMD), in an announcement on Thursday, retained its earlier above normal forecast for this years southwest monsoon, at 106 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA).

Heavy rain is expected over northwest, central and south peninsular India. If accurate, this might be the heaviest rainfall since 1994. And, importantly, also distributed well.

In June, the southwest might remain below normal, mainly due to a delayed start. It should, feels IMD, pick up pace from July and reach a peak by September. The rains are expected to hit Kerala in the next four to five days.

IMD said rain in July and August is expected to be 107 per cent of the LPA and 104 per cent of the LPA, respectively. The forecast is with an error range of plus/minus nine per cent.

It is difficult to say whether such heavy showers in north India could lead to floods, as the quantum of rain in this part of the country is lower than other regions, IMDs Director-General, L S Rathore, told reporters.

In central India, comprising Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, also the main belt for oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton growing, the southwest is expected to be 113 per cent of the LPA. In southern India, above normal at 113 per cent of the LPA.

The rains in the east and northeastern parts are expected to remain slightly weak at 94 per cent of the LPA but then, the overall amount here is higher than elsewhere. The region comprises the main paddy growing states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, West Bengal and Odisha. This forecast is with an error range of plus/minus eight per cent.

Rathore said they had some discussion with the ministry of agriculture about the advisories needed for farmers. Further discussion would be held, now that the regional predictions have come.

The main reason for the better than expected southwest monsoon is fading away of the El Nino weather effect (which hits rain in this part of the globe), and emergence of the opposite La Nina condition, during the second half of the four-month season that starts from June.

Recent changes in the atmospheric conditions over the Pacific reflect the weakening of El Nino conditions and 50 per cent chance of La Nina conditions developing during the monsoon, said D S Pai, director of long-range forecasting in IMD. The latter effect might cause the monsoon to extend beyond its normal withdrawal date of end-September.

In the past 24 La Nina years from 1901 to 2015, rainfall in 16 was above normal.
Licence of NGO run by noted lawyer Indira Jaising--'Lawyers' Collective'--was today suspended by the Modi government for a period of six months for the alleged violation of FCRA. The NGO was accused of using funds for rallies and dharna with political "hue and colour", a charge denied by the association which termed it as an act of "vindictiveness".

The Home Ministry, while suspending the licence under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), asked the NGO to submit its reply within 30 days for violation of various provisions of the Act after which its registration may even be cancelled.

Denying all the charges in a statement, the NGO condemned the government action and said it was only to "victimise the organisation" and its office bearers and Anand Grover.

"This is nothing but a gross misuse of the FCRA Act which is being used to suppress any form of dissent. It is far too well known that both Grover and Jaising have represented several persons in their professional capacity as lawyers in several cases against the government and the functionaries including the President of the BJP party Amit Shah protesting his discharge in the Sorabudin murder case. The Lawyers Collective intends to challenge the order as unconstitutional and required to be set aside," it said and termed it as "a malafide act and an act of vindictiveness on the part of the Government".

"No money was spent on rallies or dharnas having any political hue or colour. FCRA, 2010 was not applicable for expenses incurred in 2009, while in 2011 and 2014, it was spent from domestic/United Nations funding, which is exempt from FCRA," it said.

In the notice sent by Union Home Ministry, it said the 'Lawyers' Collective' has allegedly received foreign funds between 2006-07 and 2013-14 and it alleged discrepancies were found in the filing of annual returns of the NGO where Jaising, who had served as the Additional Solicitor General in UPA government, was functioning as Secretary.

The 5-page notice alleged that Jaising while functioning as Additional Solicitor General from July 2009 to May 5, 2014 received renumeration of Rs 96.60 lakh, which is admitted by the Association in its reply dated March 30, 2016 by stating that the remuneration of Rs 81.41 lakh was paid by the NGO, persuant to the permission of the Central government for 59 months (July 2009-May 2014).

The Home Ministry said, "it is really surprising how a senior law officer, such as an ASG can simultaneously and for such a long period be on the rolls of a private entity, being paid (out of foreign contribution) for undisclosed purposes in gross violation of rules applicable to law officers of Union of India."



Besides, how did the Association agree to such an arrangement (without even any resolution to that effect) and why she herself should have agreed for such an arrangement (without obtaining appropriate clearances required under the provisions of FCRA, 2010 and other relevent authorities).

This is not only violation of provisions of FCRA, but also raises several other pertinent questions, the notice said.

The Ministry while rejecting the reply of the NGO said that the records made available by it were examined in detail and "it was found that the same were not satisfactory" and it did not provide adequate explanation vis-a-vis the violations found and pointed out".

The notice sent to the NGO said that during the course of adjudication whereby defence, explanations, documents were submitted by the NGO, "we have arrived at a prima facie conclusion" that the Association was in violation of various provisions of FCRA.

The NGO said the action was being done because of the cases that Lawyers Collective ('LC') and its Trustees, and Anand Grover, are involved in, including but are not limited to Sanjiv Bhatt, Yakub Memon and Priya Pillai.

"The aim is to destroy the credibility of LC by leaking it to the media, before even serving it on LC. LC till today has not received the order purportedly issued on 31st May, 2016, though it is available to the press," it said.

The MHA notice claimed that on inspection of the NGO's accounts, it was noticed that Rs 13.03 lakh out of foreign contribution "have been spent on travel, boarding lodging etc., used for advocacy including advocacy with MPs or media, to organise rallies or dharnas, draft legislation meetings" even though as per the foreign contribution return filed, there was no such mention.

However, in its reply, the NGO has argued that the dharna etc., took place in 2009 when the FCRA, 2010 was not in force.

"It may be mentioned here that the Association organised such rallies or dharnas not only in 2009 but also in 2011 and 2014. Moreover, organising such rallies or dharnas with political hue and colour by utilising foreign contribution was also not allowed under FCRA 1976, which was in force in 2009," the ministry said.
Seeking people's cooperation to make India poverty-free, Prime Minister on Thursday said BJP is synonymous with development which is talking place in all the party-ruled states even as he sought a political change in Odisha.

"We have heard 'garibi hatao' slogan for 40-50 years. The intention of those who gave it might not have been bad but poverty, unemployment and diseases increased as the path chosen for it by them was wrong path," he said.

Addressing a public meeting here on completion of two years of his government, Modi said from the day one he had made up his mind to prepare schemes that would help eradicate poverty.

"In my first speech in Parliament, I had stated that my government is dedicated to the welfare of the poor. My aim is to ensure sustainable development of all states," he said.

Describing himself as the 'pradhan sevak' of the country, Modi said he had come down to Balasore and Odisha to explain what his government has done for the poor.

"We are accountable to the people," the Prime Minister said while asking the gathering whether Naveen Patnaik had ever given an account to the people.

Modi said, "When people are convinced about a government's sincerity, only then it is possible for the government to move forward. I want people-government partnership to fight poverty and, therefore my government is trying to empower the people. There should be an integrated way of development so that all the states move forward in an even manner."



Holding that all BJP-ruled states were developing in a faster manner, he said Odisha has lagged behind as his party is yet to be in power the state while asking the people to work fora change.

"You can look at the condition of states where BJP is yet to get a foothold," he said, apparently taking a dig at the Naveen Patnaik government.

Modi said, "The time has come one has to think why western part of our country is more developed than the eastern.

"Odisha is a state where natural resources are plenty but it's people are neglected and the state is lacking development."



Noting that development created all-round happiness, the Prime Minister said to attain that goal the states and the Centre must have good understanding.

"Our government is giving importance to infrastructure development like in rail, road, education sectors. The schemes should involve the people or else they will remain only on paper," he said.

Elaborating on schemes initiated for the poor by the central government, the Prime Minister said these steps have brought confidence among the people as well as given them socio-economic well-being.

He said 'Janani Surakshya Yojana' and other schemes have been helpful for such people.

Modi criticised gender discrimination prevalent in the society and said the central government has vowed to eliminate such discrimination by initiating 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojna'.

He said immunisation programme like 'Indradhanush Yojna', various informal education schemes like 'Anganwadi' meant for the five to six-year-old, mid-day meal, 'Sukanya Sambrudhi', toilets for school children and others have yielded results.

"We have to empower the poorer sections to conquer poverty," he said, adding the NDA government is working in that direction.

He said his government has been successful in taking power to 7,000 of the targeted 18,000 unelectrified villages in 300 days. Remaining work will be done within 1000 days as targeted, he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit next week at the invitation of President Barack Obama is about "consolidation" and "celebration" of bilateral ties, India's envoy to the US has said here.

"The invitation and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters yesterday ahead of Modi's visit to the White House next week.

Modi is scheduled to arrive at the Joint Airforce Base, Andrews, on June 6 and is expected to spend a little over 50 hours in the American Capital. While his schedule is still being given final shape by officials here, he is likely to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery the afternoon of his arrival.

The prime minister is likely to stay at Blair House, the personal guest house of the US President on Pennsylvania Avenue across the White House.

Leaders of the two largest democracies of the world are scheduled to meet at the White House on June 7, which would include meetings at the delegation level and one-on-one meeting, following which the two are likely to address mediapersons.

Thereafter, Obama would host lunch for Modi. Later in the evening, Modi would interact with a select group of top American corporate leaders, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and address the annual gala of the US India Business Council as part of his relentless effort to attract foreign direct investment in India.

"Another important dimension of his visit would be his address to the joint session of the Congress (on June 8)," the Indian Ambassador said.

Modi is expected to spend some four hours at the Hill attending four back-to-back meetings. He would be received by House Speaker Paul Ryan who decided to invite Modi for his first joint address to the Congress. Ryan would also host a lunch for him. Thereafter, Modi would attend a rare reception hosted in his honour by the Senate and House foreign relations committees and the India Caucuses in the House and the Senate.

Some 400 people are likely to attend this reception.

"It is a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship with India. It is also a reflection of the value people attach to this relationship," Singh said.

In a sense the new phase in Indo-US relationship started from 2000 with the visit of the then President Bill Clinton to India. This was further consolidated by George Bush and Obama's visit to India twice. Obama has described India-US relationship as the defining partnership of the 21st century, Singh said.

"His articulation of support for our permanent membership to the UN Security Council. US support to India's membership to the multilateral export control regimes. The advances we have made in defence partnership, including through the defence trade and technology initiative, where among the projects we are now looking at are projects related to aircraft carrier technology and jet engine technology," Singh said while describing the growth in ties.

"So a lot of progress has been made in the two terms of President Obama. And then to celebrate that, see where we are and then launch it into the new administration. That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit," he added.

The US has repeatedly articulated that India is the net provider of security in that region, Singh said.

"The US sees India as not adversarial but as a very useful partner. So the visit is a reflection of that," he said.

Ahead of the visit, the two countries are likely to sign a series of agreements this week and early next week both in Washington and New Delhi. Some of them related to wildlife trafficking, global entry program.

Intense discussions are currently underway between Westinghouse and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to arrive at some kind of agreement before or during Modi's trip. The discussions are mostly believed to be in the domain of cost and financing.

With defence and security being one of the key issues of discussions, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter would call on him. Secretary of State John Kerry would be away in Beijing attending the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

During his visit, Modi is expected to participate in a ceremony for repatriation of 16 historic stolen items to India.
Hinting at rollout of next year, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday a constitution amendment bill on the new indirect tax regime will be brought to Rajya Sabha in the next session and all supporting legislations required will be in place by the year end.

"I intend bringing up the Constitution Amendment Bill for consideration in the Upper House in the very next session of Parliament which starts next month and I am reasonably hopeful of this being passed," he said here.

Speaking at an 'India: Investment Promotion Seminar' organised by CII and DIPP, Jaitley said the numbers in Rajya Sabha are "overwhelmingly in favour of GST".

The Bill -- which creates a single national sales tax to replace several state and central levies -- has already been approved by the Lok Sabha or Lower House of Parliament and is pending in the Upper House where the government doesn't have a majority.

"After the Constitution Amendment is approved, there are three legislations that are required to be passed, two by the central government and one by state assemblies.

"Now, on the assumption that the will be passed in (the ensuing) monsoon session of Parliament, then by the end of the year those draft legislations are ready and GST council has to approve it," he said.

After Parliament approves the constitutional amendment to allow GST, the measure needs to be ratified by more than half of states. Then Parliament must pass another bill to implement the Goods and Services Tax.

The overall rate, which would vary for different goods, would be set by a newly formed GST Council.

Jaitley, who arrived here yesterday on the second leg of his six-day investor wooing tour of Japan, said the IT backbone required for enforcement of GST has made significant headway.

"Under the GST Bill, the rate of tax is to be decided by GST Council. The Council comprises of State and Central government," he said.

GST, he said, will help in checking tax evasion.

"I think in the long run, GST rates will moderate further. At what rate, the GST Council will start it, I don't know... There have been recommendations which have been made by expert committees including the one that ministry of finance had set up. I'm sure we will try to keep rates as moderate as possible," he said.

Yesterday, Jaitley had said he hoped the main opposition Congress will come on board to help in the passage of the India's biggest indirect tax reform bill since the Independence.

The main opposition party wants the GST rate capped at 18 per cent, the proposed 1 per cent additional levy on inter- state trade be removed and an independent dispute resolution mechanism for states.
Of the 835 coal blocks surveyed, the environment ministrys Forest Survey of India (FSI) has found that mining would have to be partly restricted in 417 to safeguard the rivers. The coal ministry has objected to this and asked that the partial ban of mining should be limited to only 49 coal blocks.
India has joined the Hague Code of Conduct (HCoC) against proliferation, the government said on Thursday. A is a missile with a high, arching trajectory, which is initially powered and guided but falls under gravity on to its target.
Enthused over encouraging GDP numbers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government will push ahead with its reform agenda to retain the fastest growing large economy tag and help India move towards becoming "a more developed economy".

"For India to realise its full potential for the next few decades, India certainly needs to pursue its programme for economic growth more vigorously and it's only then by maintaining higher level of growth that we can attract best response as far as poverty alleviation is concerned," he said delivering a lecture at Osaka University here.

Notwithstanding an unsupportive global environment, India clocked a GDP growth of 7.9% in the January-March quarter and 7.6% for the entire 2015-16 fiscal on account of the government's pro-growth policies, he said.

Jaitley further said, "India will maintain this paramount position of fastest growing economy in the world. And if we do that, we can present ourselves as a society which evolves from an emerging economy and moves towards a more developed economy."

"And we have a pipeline of reforms still left over the next few years to be implemented and notwithstanding global slowdown and two years of bad monsoon, we have reached a situation where we still have the highest growth rate in the world," he said.

On future outlook, Jaitley said that he wasn't sure if the world growth would be supportive, but monsoon rainfall in India this year promises to be better and that itself will push growth.

"Our reform process, I am confident, is going to continue. It has helped us in restoring the credibility of the economy... and both domestic and international investors feel much more confident about investing in India. That has helped us," he said.

Jaitley, who arrived here on the second-leg of his six-day investor-wooing trip to Japan, said that he has seen enthusiasm during his visit and various pension and sovereign funds as well as investors were "very seriously looking at India as a possible destination".

"We offer them much better returns and hopefully a combination of these factors are increasing domestic demand," he said.
Vice President today arrived in Tunisia from Morocco on the second leg of his two- nation trip during which he will hold talks with the country's top leadership on a range of issues of mutual interest.

Ansari, accompanied by his wife Salma, was received at the airport by Prime Minister Habib Essidi.

Later today, Ansari will hold one-on-one talks with Essidi which will be followed by delegation-level talks on a wide range of issues of mutual interest.

The Vice President will then visit Zaitouna Mosque, Bardo Museum and the House of Representatives.

Zaitouna Mosque is the oldest one in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, and covers an area of 5,000 square metres. It has 160 authentic columns brought originally from the ruins of the old city ofCarthage.

Ansari will meet President Beji Caid Essebsi tomorrow and deliver a keynote address at Dar Al Dhiyafa.

Earlier in Morocco's imperial city and a popular tourist destination Marrakech, Ansari was seen off by Governor M Mohamed Moufakir at the end of his three-day visit to the country during which India finalised five MoUs for improving bilateral cooperation in different areas.

In Rabat, Ansari met Moroccan Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane and others including the Speakers of the two houses.

The Vice President and the Prime Minister also launched the India-Morocco Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
To boost the production of pulses and oilseeds, the Centre on Wednesday announced massive increases in the minimum support prices (MSP) of kharif pulses and oilseeds, but kept it nominal for paddy.

However, the previous experience with MSP hikes in pulses and oilseeds have shown that in the absence of a permanent purchase mechanism and with market rates ruling 72 per cent above the prevailing MSPs, the increases have limited impact on farmers to shift acreage.

Also, in areas where paddy is grown, pulses and oilseeds are not preferred, which also stops any large-scale transition. But, with the Centre deciding to purchase pulses regularly to build a buffer, this might change in the coming years.

The MSP of paddy, biggest foodgrain grown during the kharif season, was increased by a nominal 4.3 per cent for the common varieties, while it was increased 4.1 per cent for Grade A varieties.

Among oilseeds, the MSP of groundnut was increased by Rs 190 a quintal to Rs 4,220 a quintal, while that of soyabean (yellow) was raised by Rs 175 a quintal to Rs 2,775.

The support price of sunflower seed was increased by Rs 150 to Rs 3,950 a quintal, while that of niger seed was raised by Rs 175 to Rs 3,650 a quintal. The MSP of sesame seed was raised by Rs 300 to Rs 5,000 a quintal. The MSP of long staple cotton will now be Rs 4,160 a quintal, around Rs 60 more than the current rate.

The Food Corporation of India will be the designated central nodal agency for price support operations for cereals, pulses and oilseeds. The Cotton Corporation of India will be the central nodal agency for undertaking price support operations for cotton, an official statement released after the Cabinet meeting said.

Talking to Business Standard, Sudhir Panwar, member of Uttar Pradesh Planning Commission and president of Kisan Jagriti Manch, said: To me, these hefty increases in MSP of pulses and oilseeds only have a nominal value and will not have much overall impact on farmers; in crops where MSP is predominant like paddy, there has been a nominal increase, while in crops where it is not prevalent like pulses and oilseeds, the government has announced big increases.



In a related development, the Union Cabinet also approved two proposals for Tamil Nadu just days before Chief Minister and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader J Jayalalithaas proposed visit to Delhi.

These include allocation of extra foodgrains to the state and approval of extension of the Phase-I of the Chennai Metro Rail project, a long-standing demand. According to sources, these measures are meant to keep her happy so that she does not actively obstruct the goods and services tax (GST) constitutional amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha in the monsoon session.

Out of 18 MPs from Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha, 16 are opposing GST. The Centre badly needs Tamil Nadus cooperation to pass the Bill. The opposition to GST is being mounted both by the AIADMK and its rival, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

If Delhi can give some sort of assurance to AIADMK, which has 12 MPs in the Upper House, it will have succeeded in neutralising a part of the opposition.

(With inputs from Aditi Phadnis)
Public sector (PSBs), which are starved for equity capital, are refusing to tap the markets to raise funds, despite having all the necessary approvals in place. State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of India, United Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Union Bank and IDBI Bank have had the permissions for more than a year or more but they have refrained from raising capital via the qualified institutional placement (QIP) route.Arun Tiwari, chairman and managing director of Union Bank, points out that even though they have the approvals to raise Rs 1,386 crore via QIP, they havent done it as yet because they do not need the funds now. The credit growth in the system has been low and the areas that we are growing in dont require as much capital. Therefore, the need for capital-raising hasnt come yet, he said.The credit growth in the banking system has been in the range of 8.5-11 per cent for almost two financial years now.

And the PSBs, excluding SBI, seem to be the worst affected. According to Reserve Bank of India data, during the January-March quarter, bank credit of PSBs  excluding SBI and its associates  grew by a mere 1.4 per cent, compared with 7.8 per cent in the corresponding period in FY15. Another reason, experts point out, which is stopping the lenders from approaching the market is the stress on the balance sheet, which may deter potential investors. In fact in the last one year, the quantum of bad loans on the book of PSBs has close to doubled, with the tally of bad loans for the listed PSBs (including SBI & associates) at Rs 5.81 lakh crore at the end of March 2016, compared with about Rs 3 lakh crore at the end of March 2015. Bankers also admit that all this combined with the volatility in the market has also deterred them from entering the capital markets. B S Rama Rao, executive director, Vijaya Bank, explained that the present share value of the bank is at a discount to its book value and therefore it may not be lucrative to raise capital now. It will make sense to tap the market when the price improves. The bank may look at raising equity capital from market at the end of the financial year, he said.

Also, recently with the banking regulator allowing to include certain items such as property value, foreign exchange for calculation of its Tier-I capital, lenders may find them on a slightly stronger footing as far as capital base is concerned.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday directed to chalk out security policies, separate from the lenders IT policy, immediately in view of the rising cybercrimes at . In its security framework for banks, the central bank said the number, frequency and impact of cyberattacks have increased manifold in the recent past at and other financial institutions, underlining the urgent need to put in place a robust security/resilience framework at banks and to ensure adequate cyber-security preparedness among banks on a continuous basis. The circular comes a week after RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra said at an event that the central bank would get strict with cyber security flaws at banks and was considering to limit a customers liability in case of cyber fraud. The framework, posted on RBIs website, warned that banks must improve the current defences in addressing cyber risks as entry barriers are getting lowered, while motivation and resourcefulness of cyber threats continue to rise. Hence, banks should immediately put in place an adaptive incident response, management and recovery framework to deal with adverse incidents, if and when they occur. RBI said the cyber strategy of banks should be distinct from the broader IT and security policy of the lender and testing for vulnerabilities should be carried out at regular intervals as cyberattacks can occur at any time and in a manner that may not have been anticipated. Recent incidents have highlighted the need to thoroughly review network security in every bank, the framework said. In no case, personal information of customers should be divulged, even as the data reside with a third party the bank has employed. Banks, as owners of such data, should take appropriate steps in preserving the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the same, irrespective of whether the data is stored/in transit within themselves or with customers or with the third party vendors; the confidentiality of such custodial information should not be compromised at any situation, the central bank warned. Banks are expected to be well-prepared to face emerging cyber threats such as zero-day attacks, remote access threats, and targeted attacks. The lenders should also be well aware of how to fight regular threats as denial of service, distributed denial of services (DDoS), ransomware/crypto ware, destructive malware, business email frauds including spam, email phishing, spear phishing, whaling, vishing frauds, drive-by downloads, browser gateway fraud, ghost administrator exploits, identity frauds, memory update frauds, password related frauds, etc.

The banks also must share the data with the central bank and report promptly about any cyber crime they face, it said.
Mega Luxury Cruise Vessel M.V.Ovation of the Seas" called at the Cochin Port for a 2-day stop-over in its circuit of Dubai-Muscat-Kochi-Penang-Singapore. The vessel with 4000 passengers and 1649 crew was given a warm and colourful reception at the Cochin Port in ethnic style with flowers, sindhoor and chendamelam. .

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M.V.Ovation of the Seas" is a brand new ship of the Royal Caribbean Lines which was floated out in April this year. It is 348 m long and is in the 2nd largest class of cruise vessel. 90 passengers from Dubai/ Muscat disembarked at Cochin Port and 80 passengers will embark from the Port. .

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A brief plaque exchange ceremony was held to commemorate the inaugural call. Shri G.Senthilvel, Chairman, Cochin Port, Dr. C.Unnikrishnan Nair, Traffic Manager, Cochin Port, Shri Sethuraman, IPS, FRRO (Bureau of Immigration), Shri M.M.Haseeja, Ministry of Shipping, Shri Mohamed Farouk, Asst. Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, Shri Thomas Korah, Joint Director, Kerala Tourism Department and other officials participated. Senior officials from Kerala Tourism and India Tourism were present to help the tourists for the local visits. Officials from the Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of Tourism, Government of India had specially come from New Delhi to welcome the cruise vessel as part of the Government of Indias measures to promote Cruise Tourism. It may be noted that a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Cruise Shipping was notified by the Ministry of Tourism during the Maritime India Summit held during April, 2016. The Port had arranged pre-paid taxis and auto rickshaws for the tourists. The state police in large numbers regulated the safe passage of the tourists to the city. .

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The Port facilitated setting up of 30 stalls displaying and selling ethnic items including exquisite coir carpets, paintings, metal ware and cotton goods from Erode which caught the fancy of the tourists immensely. A special stall was dedicated for selling products by Tribal Welfare Department. The tourists visited various parts of Cochin and about 500 tourists went to Alleppey for the House Boat ride. The vessel is casting off at 5 pm today. .

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First Meeting of Governing Council of National Skill Development Mission held under Chairmanship of Honble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi .

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The first meeting of the Governing Council of the National Skill Development Mission (NSDM) was held under the Chairmanship of Honble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi on 2 June 2016. .

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In his remarks at the meeting, the Prime Minister stressed on the need for proper skill mapping and identification of the future requirements for skills, so that school-children and parents are well aware of the emerging trends in the job market. Further, he said a similar exercise should also be done to map the skilled manpower requirements at the global level, so that India can meet the global requirement of skilled workforce. .

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The Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of imbibing safety norms and soft skills as integral parts of skill development. .

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The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers of Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir; Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Smt Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister of Human Resource Development; Shri Kalraj Mishra, Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communication and Information Technology. Senior bureaucrats, and corporate leaders, including, Shri Cyrus P. Mistry, Chairman, Tata Group; Shri Sachin Bansal, Founder and CEO Flipkart and Shri Manish Sabharwal, Chairman and Founder, Team Lease Services also participated in the Governing Council meeting. .

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Some of the major decisions taken at the meeting included the following: .

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? Skill training to be scaled up to cover at least 1.5 crore people during 2016-2017. .

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? The Central Board for Skills Certification to be set up by September 2016 to infuse quality into Indias skill development ecosystem..

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? Unutilized infrastructure in existing engineering colleges to be leveraged for skill training courses. .

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? Profit making Public Sector Units (PSUs) will be mandated to scale up apprenticeships, upto 10% of total manpower, over the course of this year. Private corporations are also expected to follow suit. .

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? 500 Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras, which will provide skill training free of cost to be opened this year, to impart training to Indias aspiring youth. .

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? 50 Overseas Employment Skill Training Centres to be opened this year, in migratory pockets of the country. .

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? 500 Rozgar Utsavs will be held across Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Central Training Institutes, PMKVY training centres, toolrooms etc., to make skill training aspirational amongst youth. .

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? A national skills competition, known as India Skills will be launched during 2016-2017, to recognize the skills of Indias youth. This will be an annual event. .

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? This year, a national level Convocation will be held for candidates who successfully complete ITI courses, to recognize their success. .

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? Over the next one year, the capacity of ITIs to be further enhanced from 18.5 lakhs to 25 lakhs and over 5000 new ITIs will be created. .

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? Traditional skills will be recognized, nurtured and promoted through informal apprenticeships, under various programmes. .

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Background.

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65% of Indians are under the age of 35. By 2025, almost 1 in 5 of the worlds working age population (18.3%) will be Indian. In order to leverage Indias demographic dividend and prioritise skill development, a dedicated new Ministry for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) was set up, for the very first time, by the newly elected NDA government in November 2014 to steer and coordinate skill development efforts. Skill India is anchored within this new Ministry. .

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MSDE inherited a highly fragmented ecosystem. 21 Central Government Ministries and departments were implementing over 50 skill training programmes, operating in silos. Conflicting norms between schemes, poor monitoring mechanisms, varying assessment and certification systems and the absence of a coherent vision of success, limited the effectiveness of these initiatives.

While there were previous attempts to consolidate this ecosystem through centralised organisations such as the National Skill Development Coordination Board or the Prime Ministers National Council of Skill Development, 2008 - the fact that multiple bodies existed under different organisations and the lack of focus on execution, made these institutions ineffective. .

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MSDE has made great strides in a relatively short span of time. Within just six months, key organizations in the skill training and entrepreneurship ecosystem were brought under the Ministry. In just 8 months, MSDE created a National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, which articulated an overarching vision to boost the skills development and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India and designed the Indias first National Skill Development Mission to coordinate and scale up skill training efforts. Both these policy initiatives were formally launched by the Honble Prime Minister on 15 July 2015. .

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The Mission seeks to converge, coordinate, implement and monitor skilling activities on a pan-India basis. It brings key the stakeholders under the Central Government and the States together under one umbrella Mission with a three-tier structure, consisting of: the Governing Council for policy role, Steering Committee for coordination role and Mission Directorate (along with an Executive Committee) for execution. The Governing Council of the Mission is headed by the Honble Prime Minister of India, and is guided by his vision of a Skilled India. .

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Skill India has led to transformational change in Indias vocational training ecosystem. Over the last one year, over 1.04 crore youth have been trained under the Mission. This figure is 36.8% higher than the previous years recorded data. In the current arrangement, 60% of the trainings are directly under MSDE while 40% are across other Central Ministries. MSDEs Flagship Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which was launched on July 15, 2015 by the Honble Prime Minister, has trained more than 20 lakh people, of which 40 per cent are women candidates, being trained in their choice of skills. .

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Speed, Scale, Standards and Sustainability are the four core principles of the NSDM. The first Governing Council Meeting was aimed to review the progress undertaken under the Mission on each of these core principles and sought to discuss a concrete agenda for rapidly scaling up skill training efforts, while maintaining high standards. .

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Honble Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal along with Honble MoS Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti held an interactive session with media and highlighted various initiatives of the Government. Honble Minister said that one of the major achievements in regard to transforming Food Economy through Food Processing has been creation of huge 32 Lakh MT Capacity worth Rs.9000 crores within two years which shall reduce wastage by 10% per annum i.e. Rs.9200 crores every year. .

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India has started moving toward Zero Tolerance of Food Wastages. Emphasizing the need to adopt Zero Tolerance on food wastages by all departments connected to food, Smt. Badal said that initiatives of MoFPI have now started bearing fruits and her target is to bring down the food wastages to zero level. To do that she highlighted the way she piloted the 100% FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) into Multi Brand Retail of Swadeshi Food produced and manufactured in India as one of the major steps along with the creation of huge capacity by way of 37 Mega Food Parks and 134 Cold Chain projects. Further, Honble Minister also announced that Ministry shall be announcing 100 Cold Chain Projects and a SAMPADA scheme focusing on seamless agri cluster development in the current year that shall take food processing industries to the next level. .

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Government has sanctioned 37 Mega Food Parks out of which 8 have been operationalized (6 in 2 years of NDA tenure vs 2 in 10 years of UPA tenure). Out of 134 Cold Chain Projects sanctioned 81 have been completed (44 in 2 years of NDA tenure vs. 37 during UPA tenure). Through Cold Chains alone, we have added a capacity of 1.28 Lakh Metric ton of Cold Storages/CA/MA, 53.05 MT per hour of Individual Quick Freeze (IQF), 19 lakh litres per day of Milk Processing and 240 Reefer vans, said the Honble Minister. .

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Food Processing is an employment intensive sector and to facilitate investments, a single window facilitation cell has been created to handhold overseas and domestic investors in food processing sector. .

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A Food Map identifying surplus and deficit areas of various agricultural and horticulture produce in the country has been made and is available on website of the ministry. .

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A Special Fund of Rs.2000 crores has been set up in NABARD to make available affordable credit to agro processing units in the designated food parks. .

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Honble Minister also announced that the Ministry shall be launching a Mobile App to provide ONE STOP information to farmers/ entrepreneurs to provide necessary skill set to them for setting up food processing units. .

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Briefing about tax incentives Honble Minister said that in last two years, Excise Duty on machinery for processing has been reduced from 10% to 6%. Pre-cold Storage services like pre-conditioning, pre-cooling, ripening, waxing, retail packing, labeling of fruits and vegetables have been exempted from Services Tax. Loans to food & agro-based processing units and Cold Chains have been classified under agriculture activities for Priority Sector Lending subject to aggregate sanctioned limit of Rs.100 crore per borrower. .

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Ministry has launched an ONLINE SYSTEM to file claims under flagship schemes like Mega Food Park and Cold Chains to remove human interface and improve transparency. Ministry has also simplified procedures by reducing requirement of documents/affidavits and created Grievance Redressal Mechanism so that promoters are given opportunity of Personal Hearing. .

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Since September 2015, 24084 persons have been trained in food processing sector under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana. .

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The Honble Minister pointed out that her next target is to create small and medium enterprises in food processing sector all over the country, and to give it a big push she has launched a new scheme SAMPADA to focus on seamless development of Agri Processing clusters close to the surplus production areas. All these initiatives of the Ministry of Food Processing shall contribute in a big way in doubling farmers income and reducing food wastages. .

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MJPS/nb .

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At least 42 civilians including five children were killed by Russian and US-led coalition air strikes in northern on Thursday.

Regime air strikes killed 15 civilians in Idlib province, while Russian and regime air strikes killed at least 11 civilians in neighbouring Aleppo province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Seven of those died in regime raids on a bus on the Castello road, a key supply route for the rebels out of the divided provincial capital of Aleppo city, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Air strikes by the US-led coalition killed a further six civilians in Aleppo's Manbij town and 10 in Raqa city in the province of the same name, both held by the Islamic State jihadist group, he said.

The coalition fighting IS said it had conducted 18 air strikes near Manbij, which is located some 30 kilometres west of the Euphrates river.

Last week, a US-backed Kurdish and Arab alliance launched an assault on IS north of their de facto capital Raqa, seizing dozens of villages in the north of the Raqa province.

At least 280,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the war started with the brutal repression of anti-government protests in 2011.
The war of words between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump today intensified as the Democratic presidential frontrunner accused the Republican presumptive presidential nominee of "scamming" the American people after he got embroiled in a fresh 'Trump University' controversy.

"He (Trump) is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University. It's important that we recognise what he has done, because that's usually a pretty good indicator of what he will do," Clinton said at an election rally in New Jersey.

"Today, we're learning about another scam: the so-called Trump University. The New York Attorney General is suing Donald Trump for fraud," she alleged.

"And his own employees testified - I want you to hear this - his own employees testified that Trump University - you can't make this up - that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hardworking people," she said.

"Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud," Clinton said.

In documents released this week from one of the three pending lawsuits against Trump University, former employees have described the now-defunct business as a "fraudulent scheme" and "total lie" that "preyed upon the elderly and uneducated".

In its sales efforts, the varsity relied on high pressure tactics and intimidation to drum up customers, encouraging them to take out new credit cards or drain their retirement accounts to pay for Trump University.

Clinton and Trump are expected to clash in the November general elections. The Democratic presidential primary is scheduled for June 7 and Clinton is pitted against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, unleashing a new round of attack against Clinton, Trump said the 68-year-old former Secretary of State has "no natural talent" to be the US president.

"She has no natural talents to be president. This is not a president," the 69-year-old business tycoon told his supporters at an election rally in Sacramento in California.

"A lot of people think I look extremely presidential. This (Clinton) is not presidential material," Trump said.

Referring to the email scandal of the former Secretary of State, Trump said she should not be allowed to run.

"Honestly, she should not be allowed to run. It's a disgrace to the laws of our country.

"I'll tell you what. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing. It's going to be another four years of disaster," he said, adding voters would probably be "better off" with Bernie Sanders as their president.

"But that's not going to happen," he said.
Newly unsealed court documents in a case against White House hopeful Donald Trump's "university" reveal allegations from ex-employees that the now-defunct business preyed on the uneducated and misled consumers with aggressive marketing that amounted to fraud.

The most damning revelations came from former staffers of the profit-driven operation that launched in 2004 and closed in 2010, triggering lawsuits that may well see the presumptive Republican presidential nominee dragged into court.

"While Trump University claimed it wanted to help consumers make money in real estate, in fact Trump University was only interested in selling every person the most expensive seminars they possibly could," former Trump University staffer Ronald Schnackenberg wrote in a statement unsealed yesterday.

The business offered several courses in entrepreneurship, under the famous Trump brand.

But Schnackenberg, the operation's former head of sales, described how he quit in 2007 after coming to believe that "Trump University was engaging in misleading, fraudulent, and dishonest conduct," echoing the arguments laid out by plaintiffs who are former "students" who claim they were scammed.

Another former employee, Jason Nicholas, acknowledged in testimony that the seminars were taught by "unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's 'right-hand men.'"



Nicholas said those staff "were teaching methods that were unethical, and they had had little to no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals."



"It was a facade, a total lie," he testified.

The court also unsealed internal company manuals, called "playbooks," detailing marketing and sales techniques for steering prospective students to the most expensive courses and programs, which ran as high as $35,000 for supposedly revealing Trump's wealth-generating secrets.

"Let them know that you've found an answer to their problems and a way for them to change their lifestyle," read the playbook, which went so far as to suggest the best chair arrangements and specify the ideal room temperature for luring prospective customers.

"Retention starts here," the manual added. "Be sure to congratulate the buyer, shake hands, and make eye contact," it explained, telling the marketers that they are "not doing any favor by letting someone use lack of money as an excuse" not to sign up.
When a US guided missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese-claimed island in the disputed South China Sea last month, it set off a volley of protests from Beijing. "The US is challenging and provoking the new maritime order by wielding its military power," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. China's defense ministry said it would bolster its capabilities in the area as needed. The resumption of US "freedom of navigation operations" in the South China Sea - with three since October after a three-year hiatus - reflects the global focus on a ...
Iraqi forces stalled at the fringes of Fallujah, slowed in their advance on Wednesday by concerns over the fate of trapped civilians and resistance from the Islamic State group.

Fighting also raged hundreds of kilometres further up the Euphrates Valley in Syria, as US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters opened a new front against the jihadists in the strategic Manbij pocket on the Turkish border.

After a week of shaping operations aimed at sealing the siege of Fallujah, which lies just 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, elite forces launched a new, more aggressive phase on Monday morning.

But they have so far been unable to reach the city centre and battle IS fighters in the streets of one of their historical strongholds.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said concern for the estimated 50,000 civilians the United Nations has said IS was using as human shields was slowing progress.

"It would've been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn't one of the foundations of our plan," he told commanders in comments broadcast by state television.

Iraq's parliament speaker, Salim al-Juburi, held talks with officials from Anbar province, where Fallujah is located, as well as commanders and tribal leaders on the humanitarian issue.

He discussed "ways of rescuing the families being held hostage and opening safe corridors for them," his office said in a statement.

Inside Fallujah, trapped residents were under increasing pressure from worsening shortages and nervous IS fighters preparing for a desperate holdout.

No aid has reached Fallujah since September last year and residents have been living on dates, dirty water from the Euphrates and animal feed.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said another 300 families managed to flee areas around Fallujah in the past 24 hours, bringing to about 5,000 the number of people who escaped since the start of the operation.
As Britian prepares for a referendum on whether or not to stay in the European Union (EU), Tata Motors-owned (JLR) will be hoping the vote is to stay, not leave.

For, departure from the EU could mean the end of free trade agreements (FTAs). These majorly benefit the automotive industry, and JLR is the biggest vehicle maker in Britain. The country's former home minister, Alan Johnson, recently said there could be a 14 per cent tariff on car makers to export to the EU within two years of an exit.

In the past quarter, Europe, excluding Britian, accounted for 27 per cent of worldwide JLR sales or nearly 41,000 units. Their retail sales on the continent rose 55 per cent in the quarter, making it the biggest growth market for the two brands.

Ralf Speth, chief executive of JLR, said: I hope the discussion is opening up from a one-dimensional one, the economy, to bigger questions about society, politics and movements, military issues and, last but not the least, peace. I have the opportunity to live in peace in my generation and I hope my children can also live in peace in the future. Therefore it would great for the UK (if they) can vote reasonably and Id say stay in the Union. Then, there is nothing to change.



JLR has hedged its expansion plans well, with plants already operational in China and India. More are due to come up in Brazil and Slovakia; a contract manufacturing agreement is in place for building vehicles in Austria.

These new plants are or will be vehicle assemblies, sourcing parts, including engine and transmission, from the mother plants in Britain. JLR is readying the launch of several models in the coming years and an exit from the EU could mean it slips into a disadvantageous position against German rivals such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz, with the onset of new tariffs.
Saudi Arabia expressed confidence today that oil prices will keep recovering, cementing expectations that a divided will decide to keep crude gushing at its meeting in Vienna.

"Everybody is very satisfied with the market. The market is rebalancing as we speak," said Khaled al-Falih, newly appointed by the kingdom's powerful and dynamic new crown prince.

"Demand is extremely healthy and robust. Non- supply is declining. Prices will respond to the rebalancing of the market," Falih told reporters.

Traditionally the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps around a third of the world's oil, has cut production to boost falling prices.

But in the most recent drop, which has seen oil tumble from over $100 in 2014 to close to $25 in January, - driven by kingpin Saudi Arabia - has changed tack.

Experts say the group has kept the oil flowing in order to squeeze competitors - particularly US shale oil producers - and retain market share.

It has taken some time - straining even Saudi Arabia's finances, to say nothing of on-the-brink OPEC member Venezuela - but the tactic now appears to be working.

Non-OPEC output is falling sharply and prices last week briefly rose above $50 for the first time in six months, although they have softened slightly since.

In early Asian trading on Thursday, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down slightly at $48.90, while Brent Crude - the other main contract - was up five cents at $49.77.

Animosity between Saudi Arabia and Iran - bitter regional OPEC rivals engaged in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen - means that any agreement to cut output is highly unlikely in any case.

Since Iran's 2015 nuclear deal entered into force in January and sanctions were lifted, Tehran has aggressively ramped up output, and is unwilling to stop now.

"A doubling of exports of Iranian oil has had no negative impact on the market and has been absorbed well," Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Wednesday.

Arriving in Vienna later, Zanganeh said a production cap for OPEC would be of "no benefit" to Tehran.

Iran stayed away from a disastrous meeting in Doha on April 17 between OPEC and non-OPEC members including Russia that failed to agree a possible coordinated output freeze.
welcomed today the US decision to label North Korea a "global money laundering concern" -- a move that will further isolate Pyongyang from the global financial system.

The measure will prevent both direct and indirect North Korean financial activities within the US banking network, ensuring that any third-party deals involving significant sums of US dollars or other currencies cannot transit the United States.

"The government highly appreciates the action which reflects the firm US commitment to strongly pursuing its own separate sanctions" against North Korea, South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Washington led the drive for a UN Security Council resolution that imposed the harshest sanctions to date on North Korea following its fourth nuclear test in January.

As well as unprecedented inspections of all cargo to and from North Korea, the resolution called on UN members to terminate banking relations with Pyongyang.

Last week, the European Union also tightened sanctions on Pyongyang, blocking any trade finance activity and banning certain trade and investment with the country.

The foreign ministry statement said would "continue to step up sanctions and pressure against the North" to force it towards a path of denuclearisation.

The UN Security Council yesterday strongly condemned a recent series of attempted ballistic missile launches by North Korea and urged world governments to ramp up efforts to implement the recent sanctions resolution.
are likely to open the session on a flat note on the back of mixed Asian cues. Participants will keenly watch out for the European Central Bank (ECB) and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meet scheduled today.

Meanwhile, rupee movement will be closely monitored after it hit 1-week low of 67.46 against the US dollar on reports stating that Raghuram Rajan doesnt want second term.

GLOBAL MARKET

Asian equities are trading in a mixed manner with Chinas Shanghai Composite trading 0.1% higher Hong Kongs Hang Seng trading with modest losses.

Meanwhile, Japans Nikkei has taken a hit and has slumped over 2% on the back of a strengthening Yen.

US closed in the positive territory supported by better-than-expected manufacturing data. On the flip side, European ended in the red on caution ahead of the European Central Bank's meeting scheduled later today.

CORPORATE NEWS

Indian automobile manufacturer Mahindra's South African subsidiary has launched a new compact utility vehicle here with the company trying to reach out to the youth with its latest offering and capture a bigger share in the country.

Tata Motors reported a 1% growth in sales at 40,071 units in May compared with 39,496 in the same month last year.

Tata Steel UK has completed the sale of its 4.5-million-tonne of long products division to Greybull Capital.

Reliance Industries has invested $16 million (about Rs 107 crore) in US-based tech start-up NetraDyne.

TVS Motor Company's total two wheeler sales increased by 13% to 238,320 units in May 2016 from 210,843 units recorded in May 2015. Domestic two wheeler sales grew by 17.9% increasing from 175,533 units in May 2015 to 206,886 units in May 2016.

Zee Learn informed the exchanges that it has decided to put on hold the proposed merger of Tree House & Accessories with itself.

Country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp reported a 2.32% increase in sales at 5,83,117 units in May.

Several lenders, including SBI, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank and Canara Bank revised their marginal cost of funds-based lending rates (MCLR) for June by up to 0.15% for one-year tenor.
Mentioned below is the Intra-day trading strategy on Reliance Capital from Geojit BNP Paribas for today:



RELIANCE CAPITAL



LTP : Rs 402.6



Action : SELL below Rs 400



Targets : Rs 394 / Rs 385



Stop-loss : Rs 413



Comment : The momentum indicators are coming off the overbought region indicating profit booking. MACD is about to cross the signal line. Volume has moved above 10 day average.

Disclaimer: This report has been prepared by Limited (GBNPP), here in after referred to as GBNPP. GBNPP, a publicly listed company, is engaged in services of retail broking, credit, portfolio management and marketing investment products including mutual funds, life and general insurance and properties. Each recipient of this report should make such investigation as it deems necessary to arrive at an independent evaluation of an investment in the securities of companies referred to in this report (including the merits and risks involved). This document is not for public distribution and has been furnished to you solely for your information and must not be reproduced or redistributed to any other person. Persons into whose possession this document may come are required to observe these restrictions. Opinion expressed herein is our current opinion as of the date appearing on this report only. While we endeavor to update on a reasonable basis the information discussed in this material, there may be regulatory, compliance, or other reasons that prevent us from doing so. Prospective investors and others are cautioned that any forward-looking statements are not predictions and may be subject to change without notice.
was trading higher by 2% at Rs 297 on the BSE after the company reported 11% year on year increase in total sales at 243,783 units in May 2016 against sale of 220,079 units in May 2015.

Total two-wheeler sales during the month grew 13% to 238,320 units as against 210,843 units in the same month a year ago, said in a regulatory filing.

Exports in May were down 18% at 35,545 units as against 43,595 units in the corresponding month last year.

TVS Motor said it feels the restricted availability of forex is affecting Indian exports to Africa including that of the company.

At 09:26 AM, the stock was up 1.9% at Rs 294 on the BSE compared to a marginal 0.06% decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined 502,381 equity shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE so far.
The Bollywood film fraternity has expressed condolences on the sad demise of veteran actor Razak Khan, who passed away on Wednesday afternoon following a cardiac arrest.

Expressing his condolences, veteran actor Rishi Kapoor tweeted , "R I P. Razak Khan,a colleague of many a film. Condolences to all concerned!"

Actor Dino Morea wrote, "Very saddened to hear of the sudden passing of Razak Khan,my heartfelt condolences to his family.A thorough gentleman & genuinely funny."

Manoj Bajpayee paid tribute to the late actor, writing, "razzak bhai was a good man.may God bless his soul and give strength to the http://family.RIP RAZZAK BHAI."

Director Anurag Kashyap tweeted: "Vikas Mohan yesterday ,Razzak Khan today .. We are losing a lot of good people. Hope the families find strength in these times."

"Funny man Razak Khan has also passed away. May his soul rest in peace..." reads Arshad Warsi's tweet.

Comedian Kapil Sharma tweeted, "A very nice person n talented actor .May ur soul rest in peace razak bhai"

Raveena Tandon tweeted: "Sad news about #RazzakKhan ..I did a couple of films with him.. A gentle soul. Carved a niche with his tapori style."

Others celebrities who expressed their condolences were actor Kunal Kemmu, Comedian Rajpal Yada, Filmmaker Hansal Mehta and Tusshar Kapoor.

Yesterday, the actor was rushed to the Holy Family hospital in Bandra, but the doctors declared him brought dead.

His son Asad Khan will be arriving today from Croatia.

The funeral will be held today at Narialwadi Kabaristan, Byculla, after 4 p.m.

The actor was known for playing comic roles in the films like 'Hello Brother', 'Hungama' and 'Hera Pheri', among others.
Irish director John Carney has revealed that he regrets questioning Keira Knightley's skill as a "film actor."

The 'Fist 2 Fist' director recently took to his social media account to pen an apology to the 31-year-old actress and said he is ashamed that he could say such things, adding "in trying to pick holes in my own work, I ended up blaming someone else," reports E!online.

Branding his comments to be "arrogant" and "dispectful," Carney continued that "Keira was nothing but professional and dedicated during the film."

The post follows some "petty, mean and hurtful" comments Carney made about the acting skills of the 'Pride & Prejudice' star during an interview.

While Knightley has remained silent on the issue, Carney has received a lot of backlash for criticizing the actress.

Knightley and Carney had worked together in 'Begin Again'.
General Manager of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) H.K. Jaggi on Thursday said that the Broad Gauge (BG) rail service will be inaugurated by the second or third week of this month from Agartala.

He was speaking to media at the state secretariat after meeting Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and Transport Minister Manik Dey before finalizing the date of the inauguration of the BG service.

The NFR GM had arrived here to review the preparation for flagging off BG train service from Agartala and inspection of the Agartala-Udaipur line said that due to heavy rain followed by landslip there has been damage of the rail line in the Silchar-Lumding sector and which is delaying the inauguration.

On the Agartala-Akhaura (Indo-Bangla) railway project, Jaggi said the Ministry Of Development Of North Eastern Region has already released the first installment of Rs 150 crore out of the total Rs 580 crores and by this month NFR is likely to get the fund and after which land acquisition work in the India part shall start.

He informed that out of the total 15 km international rail project the 5 km India part of the project will cost around Rs 580 crores which will be totally borne by NEC while the remaining 10 km in Bangladesh will cost Rs 360 crores to be funded by the India External Affairs Ministry.

Jaggi further added he had requester the Tripura government to expedite the process of land acquisition for timely completion of the project.

The Agartala-Akhaura railway project was finalised in January 2010 when Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met her then Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh during her visit to New Delhi.

Later Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the Rs.940-crore railway project with Hasina during his visit to Dhaka in June 2014.

The Agartala-Akhaura railway project is also in the consideration of the Trans-Asia Railway network connecting the South Asian nations with Europe through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

The NITI Aayog had decided put in place the vital railway project between India and Bangladesh by December 2017

The 1,650-km distance between Agartala and Kolkata would be reduced to only 550 km once the new rail track is linked through Bangladesh.

The Indian government had announced it will bear the entire cost of the 15-km railway project. Of the 15 km, 5 km fall in the Indian territory and the remaining in Bangladesh.
Looks like 'abhi toh party shuru hui hai' for Gauri Khan and her son Aryan Khan.

The 45-year-old film producer and interior designer took to her Instagram handle to share an adorable picture of her shopping with Aryan at Selfridges in London, along with a caption that read ""Shopping#for#my#18#year#old ... Super#fun#day#selfridges."

While Mrs. Khan looked her graceful best, the teenager who just celebrated his graduation ceremony with the family in London appeared to be nothing less than a star in the making.

Though SRK is back in Mumbai, the mom and son duo seems to be having a barrel of fun.
Dubbing the verdict in the 2002 Gulbarg society communal riots case as incomplete, former Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaising on Thursday backed the stand of the victims and said it is still to be answered as to who conspired the infamous event which claimed several innocent lives.

Jaising told ANI, "To the extent that there is conviction it is welcome. I cannot say anything about the acquittals because I have not seen the evidence. But the tragedy is that there has been no judgment on the issue of conspiracy. And, therefore, I think the victims are right in saying that they did not get complete justice and that they will continue to fight."

"No one has answered the questions that who takes the responsibility for the complete breakdown of law and order in the state of Gujarat in 2002. And I think the Commissioners of Police who were in office at that time have a lot to answer for," she added.

Meanwhile, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia Jafri expressed her disappointment with the acquittal of 36 people in connection with this case and said that her fight would continue.

Zakia said the accused should have been punished as only then they would have understood the severity of their crime.

Recalling the horrific incident, she told ANI in Surat that the accused should have been given some strict punishment.

"I'm not asking for capital punishment, but at least there should be some strict action against them. If they stay ten-twenty years away from their family and children, they will understand the pain of separation," she added.

A special SIT court in, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, earlier in the day convicted 24 of the 66 accused in the 2002 post-Godhra Gulberg society riots case, which left 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri dead.

Special Court Judge P.B. Desai also acquitted 36 others, including sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel, and also dropped the conspiracy charge against all accused.

The court said there is no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case, while dropping Section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Out of the 66 accused, six had died during the trial. Of the 24 convicted today, 11 have been charged with murder, while 13 others have been convicted for lesser offences.

The 24 convicted includes VHP leader Atul Vaidya. The quantum of punishment for those convicted in the case will be delivered on June 6.
Expressing disappointment with the acquittal of 36 people in connection the 2002 post-Godhra riots case of Gulbarg Society, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia Jafri on Thursday said that her fight would continue.

Zakia said the accused should have been punished as only then they would have understood the severity of their crime.

Recalling the horrific incident, she told ANI the accused should have been given some strict punishment.

"I'm not asking for capital punishment, but at least there should be some strict action against them. If they stay ten-twenty years away from their family and children, they will understand the pain of separation," she added.

Meanwhile, former IPS officer turned lawyer Y.P. Singh lauded the Gujarat Police while calling the verdict to be satisfactory and a reasonable step in the right direction.

"It is in given circumstance that in mob violence cases, it is not easy to get convictions. Mumbai riots were much more serious, but they were unable to get such type of conviction. But in Gujarat's society case if this has happened, certainly this is a very good achievement on behalf of the Gujarat Police," Singh told ANI.

"Such investigations are conducted amidst a lot of adverse circumstances and these things happen at the spur of the moment and with the passage of time the witnesses do not support the prosecution case," he said.

"Not withstanding such negative factors if Gujarat Police has done the investigation and based upon the SIT investigation if the conviction has been achieved, I think this is certainly a reasonable step in the right direction," he added.

A special SIT court in, Gujarat, Ahmedabad, earlier in the day convicted 24 of the 66 accused in the 2002 post-Godhra Gulberg society riots case, which left 69 people including former Congress MP Eshan Jafri dead.

Special Court Judge P.B. Desai also acquitted 36 others, including sitting BJP corporator Bipin Patel, and also dropped the conspiracy charge against all accused.

The court said there is no evidence of criminal conspiracy in the case, while dropping Section 120 B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Out of the 66 accused, six had died during the trial. Of the 24 convicted today, 11 have been charged with murder, while 13 others have been convicted for lesser offences.

The 24 convicted includes VHP leader Atul Vaidya. The quantum of punishment for those convicted in the case will be delivered on June 6.
If the recent buzz is to be believed then the 'Night Manager' director Susanne Bier might helm the next James Bond movie.

Reportedly, it is being said the 56-year-old Danish film director is among the film-makers being considered for the next 007.

However, if she gets confirmed as 007 director then the upcoming James Bond movie will not only mark her reunion with Tom Hiddleston, but will also be the first time that a woman will direct a Bond film, Independent reports.

Other names considered for the next James Bond movie ring include Jamie Bell, Emilia Clark and Gillian Anderson.
An arrangement between the authorized agencies of the Government of India and the United States of America (USA) was signed for exchange of terrorist screening information in Delhi, on Thursday.

The arrangement was signed by the Union Home Secretary of India, Rajiv Mehrishi and Richard Verma, Ambassador of the United States of America to India.

As per this arrangement, both sides shall provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations.

The arrangement would enhance the counter terrorism cooperation between India and USA.
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announced joining of Sudarshan Shetty for the Rolls-Royce Art Programme, which includes enigmatic sculptural installations that reflect on urban contemporary life.

Sudarshan Shetty, who is one of the most renowned Indian artists of his generation and is acclaimed for his artistic practice, will take the form of a two-channel film, anchored by two sculptures.

The commission will be based on an Indian folk tale and is slated to be presented in Mumbai on November 5th 2016, alongside his existing 'Flying Bus' public art project at the Maker Maxity.

The new commission will take inspiration from a popular South Indian folk tale that is an allegory for artistic expression and the importance of creativity. Two structures will represent the home and public space featured in the story, whilst the film will depict the tale of a husband and wife, at a moment when the wife envisions a story and a song from her breath whilst sleeping.

The sculptures will represent key moments in the tale and will be rigorously handcrafted reflecting the art of craftsmanship. Shown across two screens, the film will convey a sense of unfolding time whilst exploring the narrative as it comes into the world through language and music.

"Sudarshan Shetty has been recognized as one of the most innovative artists in India for his generation. I am delighted to welcome Sudarshan to the Rolls-Royce Art Programme; he is an artist whose work reflects our own striving for perfection. India is an important part of Rolls-Royce's heritage and it gives us great pleasure that Sudarshan will weave Rolls-Royce into the thriving Indian arts scene," said Chief Executive Officer Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Torsten Muller-Otvos.

"Rolls-Royce is, for me, a model of craftsmanship and technological advancement. It is a matter of privilege and also a challenge to create a new commission for Rolls-Royce and to be able to try to match its high standards. Through this new commission, I am seeking to find a meeting point between the innovation of Rolls-Royce and my own imagination as an artist," said Sudarshan Shetty who visited the home of Rolls-Royce in West Sussex, UK.

Sudarshan Shetty joins Emirati artist Mohammed Kazem as a member of the Rolls-Royce Art Programme for 2016.
and United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd. on Thursday submitted their evidences before the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), which is seeking to recover un-serviced debts of over Rs. 9,000 crores, in connection with the hearing of the applications filed by public sector lender State Bank of India (SBI) presently leading 17 secured creditors against liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

The court has granted other defendants, who have not filed their evidences, time till Friday to submit their response. The matter will now be heard on a daily basis.

The tribunal had on May 17 directed the JP Morgan Bank not to disburse the $40 million amount deposited by British liquor giant Diageo in favour of Mallya.

The DRT had also directed the bank to provide statement of transaction since February 25, 2016, till date. It also directed the bank to attach the shares held by Mallya in the companies.

The court passed an ex-party order while hearing the petition that was filed by consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India seeking the same.

Diageo had on May 12 submitted the settlement agreement to the DRT.

The DRT in early March barred Mallya from accessing the $75 million (Rs. 515 crore) exit payment from Diageo till the loan default case with the SBI is settled.

The DRT, allowing an SBI plea, restrained Diageo from disbursing the money.

The SBI had sought the DRT's intervention in seeking the lenders' first right on the $75-million payout from Diageo to Mallya as part of the deal earlier in February.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said that a decision would soon be taken regarding the fate of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse in the party. The development happens as he face charges of using black money in the land deal of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC).

"The way the matter has been brought to light in the media, some facts can be highlighted. With new facts out, Eknath Khadse is under a cloud of suspicion and the party is sure to take a decision soon," former Mumbai police commissioner and now BJP leader Satyapal Singh told ANI.

However, he asserted that Khadse, a prominent leader, should introspect his deeds soon.

According to reports, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been summoned to the national capital by party chief Amit Shah to discuss the matter.

A delegation of the Congress leaders on Wednesday met the Maharashtra Governor, Vidyasagar Rao and demanded Khadse's resignation over the land deal and his alleged involvement in calls made to gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan.

However, Khadse had earlier denied changing reservation of the MIDC plot at Bhosari, as acquisition process was in progress.
Noted lawyer Indira Jaising's Lawyers Collective on Thursday condemned the Union Home Ministry's order of suspending the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) registration for six months, saying it was a blatant attempt on the centre's part to victimise the organisation and its office bearers.

Issuing a statement, the organisation said it was nothing but a gross misuse of the which is being used to suppress any form of dissent.

"It is far too well known that both Anand Grover and Indira Jaising have represented several persons in their professional capacity as lawyers in several cases against the government and the functionaries including the BJP president Amit Shah protesting his discharge in the Sorabudin murder case. The Lawyers Collective intends to challenge the order as unconstitutional and required to be set aside," the statement said.

"The order/show cause notice is a malafide act and an act of vindictiveness on the part of the government. This is being done because of the cases that Lawyers Collective (LC) and its trustees, Indira Jaising and Anand Grover, are involved in, including but are not limited to Sanjiv Bhatt, Yakub Memon and Priya Pillai. The aim is to destroy the credibility of LC by leaking it to the media, before even serving it on LC. LC till Thursday has not received the order purportedly issued on May 31, though it is available to the press," it added.

The 'Lawyers' Collective'stated that all the foreign contribution (FC) received were spent for the purposes received and accounted for.

"The allegation against Jaising was based on the footing that she was a government servant, who was prohibited from receiving FC under the . However, she was a public servant and not a government servant, on whom there was no bar to receive FC. In any event, FC was received only by LC and Jaising was only paid remuneration for her services rendered to LC, on whom there is no prohibition. This aspect has not even been looked at by the authorities," the statement said.

The organisation has claimed that it had entered into legitimate contracts with foreigners to provide services in India and abroad.

"Expenses were incurred for that reason. There is no violation of at all.The receipt of FC in FC-utilisation account and, opening of certain bank accounts, transfer of FC from FC-utilization to another utilisation account and from local accounts to FC-utilisation has been explained in detail in the Association reply dated to the Inspection Report but not considered," the statement said.

"No money was spent on rallies or dharnas having any political hue or colour. FCRA, 2010 was not applicable for expenses incurred in 2009, while in 2011 and 2014, it was spent from domestic/United Nations funding, which is exempt from FCRA," it added.

The notice, which was on Wednesday issued by the Home Ministry, said it has "prima facie" concluded that the NGO violated various provisions of the FCRA. It also said the records made available by the NGO "were not satisfactory and did not provide adequate explanation vis-a-vis the violations found and pointed out".

The notice also said it was "really surprising how a senior law officer such as an ASG can simultaneously and for such a long period be on the rolls of a private entity, being paid (out of foreign contribution) for undisclosed purposes in gross violation of rules."

Indira Jaising's organisation has allegedly received foreign funding between 2006 and 2007 and 2013 and 2014.

The Home Ministry alleges it found discrepancy in the filing of annual returns by the NGO where Jaising, who served as Additional Solicitor General in the UPA government, was functioning as secretary. It has asked the NGO to submit its reply within 30 days.
As many as eight fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the fire that broke out in the Metro House building in Mumbai's Colaba on Thursday.

Deputy Commissioner, Mumbai Police, Manoj Sharma said the fire brigade department had so far rescued two people.

"The whole building is on fire. We don't know what exactly happened. I wasn't inside. I came back from market and saw this. I have my goods inside," said a resident of the building.

Meanwhile, attempt is being made by the firemen to put out the flames.
Congress Party (NCP) general secretary Tariq Anwar on Thursday said the allegations against Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadese is a litmus test for the ruling BJP at the Centre as the nation will eventually come to know whether the party stands by the promises made to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The entire matter is now out in public domain. There was a big scam. It is time for action on part of the BJP as the nation is closely watching whether they initiate action against the corrupt and guilty minister," he said while laying firm emphasis on Prime Minister Modi's call for a corrupt-free nation.

The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) is contemplating action against Khadse with reports indicating that Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been summoned to the capital by party chief Amit Shah to discuss the matter. Shah has already discussed the matter with Prime Minister Modi.

A delegation of Congress leaders yesterday met Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao and demanded Khadse's resignation over the land deal and his alleged involvement in calls made to gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan.

However, Khadse so far rubbished all the charges levelled against him.
United Nations Secretary General (UNSG) Ban Ki Moon has said that Pakistan is one of the most consistent and reliable contributors to UN peacekeeping.

"I am honoured to join you in marking Pakistani Peacekeepers' Day. Since its first deployment to the Congo in 1960, Pakistan has been one of the most consistent and reliable contributors to United Nations peacekeeping," the Foreign Affairs,

Government of Pakistan quoted Ban Ki Moon as saying in a statement.

Speaking at the Pakistani Peacekeepers' Day yesterday, Ban Ki Moon highlighted about the country's peacekeepers.

"Through the decades, Pakistan has deployed more than 150,000 personnel to 41 peacekeeping missions in 23 countries. Today, more than 7,000 uniformed personnel from Pakistan are serving in seven peacekeeping missions, making it our third largest troop- and police-contributor," he said.

The UNSG said that deployment of Pakistani personnel at various places has significantly improved political and security situation in those areas.

"In places like Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia, Pakistani units were instrumental in the much improved political and security situation that the people of these countries enjoy today. Pakistanis have also been actively engaged in New York to enhance peacekeeping performance - starting with our Military Adviser Lieutenant General Maqsood Ahmed," he added.

He also paid tribute Allama Iqbal, the national poet, saying, "The great Pakistani poet-philosopher Allama Iqbal once reminded us that the ultimate aim. is not to see something but to be something."

Thanking Pakistan's contribution to International Peace and Security, he said that United Nations is looking forward for its continuing contribution.
The set of Indian filmmaker Hasnain Hyderabadwala's upcoming Pakistani-directorial venture 'Shor Sharaba' recently turned "noisy" when the Punjab (Pakistan) police barged into the premises and allegedly misbehaved with the crew members and damaged the equipment.

The area police officials even ordered Hyderabadwala and Indian choreographer Reshma Khan to halt the shooting immediately, reports the Express Tribune.

The shooting, which was taking place at a farmhouse, few kilometres away from Wagah border in Lahore, was interrupted by the cops citing "noise pollution" as the reason; but the cast and crew had a different story to tell.

According to producer Sohail Khan, "This incident has disheartened our Indian team members in particular."

The Punjab police officials, as told by Khan, created a huge hue and cry on the location and slapped the cast members.

"This act did not only hurt us physically but has also left a bad impression for foreign investors. After such interventions, no one will want to visit our country for film-making," he added.

Actress Meera, known for her Indian flicks like 'Kasak' and 'Nazar,' was shooting for a song when the police arrived.

According to 39-year-old actress, such incidents never happen when Pakistani artists perform in India or other countries.

"All around the world, police are not allowed to enter the shooting premises without permission. We should act like civilised people and treat foreign artists like guests," she added.

However, keeping his will power alive, the producer has decided to continue with the shooting.

The only question that is constantly pitching his mind is, "wonder why the Indian cast was targeted right now when they have been around for a month.
President arrived in Shimla on a five-day visit to Himachal Pradesh on Thursday.

He reached by a special helicopter of the Indian Air Force at Kalayani Helipad in Chharabra area, about 10 kilometers from Shimla.

Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh welcomed the President.

State Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Anil Sharma was attached as minister in waiting with the President.

Senior officers from the military, police and administration were also present at helipad.

From helipad, President Mukherjee directly drove to his official residence in Shimla, the Retreat, where he would stay till June 6.

During the five-day tour, the President will address the Golden Jubilee Convocation of Indira Gandhi Medical College.

The Governor will host a cultural programme and banquet in honour of the President.

President Mukherjee will host a reception for senior dignitaries of the state, ministers, officials and journalists.

The Retreat is part of the Presidents Estate and is located in a picturesque surrounding, thousand feet higher than the Shimla Ridge Top.

Originally constructed in 1850, it was taken over by the then Viceroy in 1895.
President Pranab Mukherjee will visit the Retreat in Mashobra near Shimla from today.

During the five-day tour, the President will address the Golden Jubilee Convocation of Indira Gandhi Medical College.

Governor of Himachal Pradesh Acharya Devvrat will host a cultural programme and banquet in honour of the President.

President Mukherjee will host a reception for senior dignitaries of the state, Ministers, officials and journalists.

The Retreat is part of the Presidents Estate and is located in a picturesque surrounding, thousand feet higher than the Shimla Ridge Top.

Originally constructed in 1850, it was taken over by the then Viceroy in 1895.
The Rajasthan government has decided to terminate the services of over 500 who are on strike since the last three days and also decided to post 1150 newly selected medical officers in the hospitals attached to medical colleges.

Health services have been badly affected in government hospitals due to strike of since the last three days, although the health department has made alternate arrangements to ensure that medical services do not get affected.

The department has also sought help of private hospitals and medical universities. All the District Collectors have been asked to appoint doctors through walk in interviews.

are on strike opposing the Medical Council of India directive to send their answer scripts for outside evaluation.
On the 28th death anniversary of the legendary actor Raj Kapoor, his son Rishi Kapoor paid an emotional tribute to him, saying "proud to be his son."

The 63-year-old actor took to his Twitter handle to share a painting for the "greatest showman of Indian cinema," and wrote alongside, "Raj Kapoor. My Father. 1924-1988.Adieu,28 years back!Achieved what most yearn in a life time.So proud to be his son!"

The 'Kapoor and Sons' actor also changed the name of his Twitter handle to ".....rahenge sada!" inspired from the lyrics of a famous Raj Kapoor song "Jeena Taha Marna Raha" from the 1970-classic 'Mera Naam Joker.'

Raj, regarded as one of the greatest and most influential film personalities in the history of Indian cinema, was the winner of several accolades, including three National Film Awards and 11 Filmfare Awards in India.

The Filmfare 'Lifetime Achievement Award' was later named after Raj Kapoor.

Known as Clark Globe of Indian film industry, the 'Anari' actor was a two-time nominee for the Palme d'Or grand prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his 1951 film 'Awaara' and 1954 film 'Boot Polish.'

His performance in 'Awaara' was ranked as one of the top ten greatest performances of all time by Time magazine.
The Shiv Sena on Thursday voiced its support for abolishing the system, saying this tradition illustrates how tough is the battle of justice for Muslim women in the country.

"The All India Muslim Personal Law Board and other related organisations refused to make any changes in the 'triple talaq' tradition last year. The tradition illustrates how tough is the battle of justice for Muslim women in our country," the Shiv Sena said in an editorial in the party mouthpiece, Saamana.

The editorial also slammed the secular people, who have voiced their opinion on ill-traditions in Hinduism but are maintaining a silence on this issue.

"The secular people, who used to advocate their opinion on other issues, are maintaining a stoic silence on the issue of . They talk of ill-traditions in Hinduism, but are maintaining a silence on the ill-traditions in Islam," the editorial added.

The Shiv Sena said this movement is getting a new lease of life after the 1980's Shah Bano case.

"Women like Shamina Yasmin from Guwahati and Shamima Farooqui along with Saira Banu (who challenged the in the Supreme Court) are still fighting this battle," the editorial said.

The Shiv Sena further said the fight of the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA) is getting a pan India support and will eventually act as a ray of hope for the Muslim women.

"There would be several attempts to suppress these voices and a comprehensive effort at every level is needed to make this movement a success or else the Muslim women won't be able to see a morning rise when triple talaq is abolished," the editorial stated.

The reaction from the Shiv Sena comes after over 50,000 Muslim women signed a petition to abolish the triple talaq system of divorce, which has come under fire lately by women's groups for its widespread misuse.

The BMMA has sought the Commission for Women's support to abolish the practice of 'triple talaq' while dubbing it as an un-Quranic practice.

A case is being heard in the Supreme Court in which petitioner Shayara Bano has challenged the constitutionality of Section 2 of the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act, 1937, in so far as it seeks to recognise and validate polygamy, triple talaq and nikah halala.
At least 17 bus passengers were abducted by the Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's northern Sar-e-Pul province on Thursday, said local officials.

The incident took place in Dehmurda village of Balkhab district of the province last night after Taliban insurgents stopped the bus they were travelling in.

Zabihullah Amani , a spokesman for the provincial governor, said all the victims were men.

"All people who were abducted were non-governmental people and they (Taliban) released the women and children," Tolo News quoted him as saying.

He added that though the police have started search operations, no news of the whereabouts of the hostages is known yet.

The move comes just two days after Taliban insurgents abducted more than 200 bus passengers in northern Kunduz province.

Most of them were released, but at least eight are still being held hostage.
According to new WHO figures, 16 of the world's 30 most polluted cities are in India. Further, levels are growing of ultra-fine particles of less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5s), which can penetrate deep into the lungs and can cause serious health problems for people who live in India's cities.

Additionally, Blueair underlined how the Centre for Science and (CSE) has calculated that air pollution, responsible for 10,000 to 30,000 deaths annually in Delhi alone, is the fifth leading cause of death in the country.

Constant eruption of man-caused fires is making the situation worst. This includes the major Bhalswa dumpsite fire in Delhi and the Deonar dumpsite fire in Mumbai, which has seriously endangered air quality in both cities. Additionally, the entire northern part of India is still suffering from recent forest fires in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

"Air pollution increases the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and severe respiratory diseases. For a city-dweller, it is difficult to battle against outdoor air pollution, but it is possible to create safer indoor air zones simply by installing air purifiers, at home and in the workplace, so that people can at least breathe clean air and feel healthy," said Bengt Rittri, Blueair founder and CEO.

Encouragingly, Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world, has banned large diesel cars from entering the city center. In addition, the Delhi government is taking small steps such as implementing odd-even car rule in the capital city to fight air pollution. But, says Blueair, to achieve a major transition, we need to take hard decisions. Here are a few words of advice from Blueair.

(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.)
Bank of Maharashtra rose 1.62% to Rs 28.30 at 12:36 IST on BSE after the bank decided to raise funds through various modes.

Bank of Maharashtra said that the bank has decided to raise capital through follow-on public offer (FPO)/ rights issue/ qualified institutional placement (QIP) etc., upto Rs 1000 crore, subject to the necessary approvals. The announcement was mad during market hours today, 2 June 2016.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 45.39 points, or 0.17%, to 26,668.54

On BSE, so far 20,403 shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 19,220 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 28.95 and a low of Rs 27.70 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 42 on 21 July 2015. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 26.75 on 12 February 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 1 June 2016, falling 6.39% compared with 4.32% gains in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 4.3% as against Sensex's 12.34% gains.

The mid-cap bank has an equity capital of Rs 1168.33 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Bank of Maharashtra reported net loss of Rs 119.84 crore in Q4 March 2016 compared with net profit of Rs 112.72 crore in Q4 March 2015. Total income fell 0.9% to Rs 3566.68 in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

The Government of India (GoI) held 81.61% stake in Bank of Maharashtra (as per the shareholding pattern as on 31 March 2016).

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Coal India rose 2.91% to Rs 305.55 at 11:21 IST on BSE after the company announced production and sales data on provisional basis for May 2016.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 35.23 points or 0.13% at 26,678.70

On BSE, so far 3.18 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 5.64 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit high of Rs 307 and low of Rs 297 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 447.25 on 5 August 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 272.05 on 12 April 2016. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 1 June 2016, rising 3.41% compared with 4.32% gains in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, falling 6.55% as against Sensex's 12.34% gains.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 6316.36 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

Coal India and its subsidiaries and its subsidiaries on provisional basis achieved 95% of targeted production at 42.58 million tonnes in May 2016. Coal India and its subsidiaries on provisional basis achieved 89% of targeted offtake at 45.53 million tonnes in May 2016.

Coal India's consolidated net profit rose 0.2% to Rs 4247.93 crore on 0.7% decline in total income to Rs 22904.36 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

Coal India is an organized state-owned coal mining corporate. The Government of India held 79.65% stake in Coal India (as per the shareholding pattern as on 31 March 2016).

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Jyothy Laboratories gained 4.04% to Rs 291.05 at 13:15 IST on BSE after reports of German consumer goods major Henkel AG's likely investment in the company.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 32.41 points or 0.12% at 26,681.52.

More than usual volumes were witnessed on the counter. On BSE, so far 1.69 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against average daily volume of 24,565 shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 323.80 and a low of Rs 290 so far during the day. The stock hit a record high of Rs 342 on 11 August 2015. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 239.55 on 3 June 2015. The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 1 June 2016, falling 8.16% compared with 4.32% gains in the Sensex. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, gaining 6.17% as against Sensex's 12.34% gains.

The mid-cap company has equity capital of Rs 18.11 crore. Face value per share is Re 1.

Speculation about the German major Henkel AG's interest in the company has been growing in the past few months, report added. Henkel had the option to pick up to 26% stake in Jyothy five years after the latter acquired Henkel's Indian subsidiary in May 2011.

Henkel is said to be contemplating picking up the stake in Jyothy at Rs 500-600 a share, either through a fresh issue of shares or via a preferential allotment. A 25% shareholding by the German major will trigger a mandatory open-offer clause. This implies Henkel will have to offer to pick up an additional 26% report added.

Ullas Kamath, joint managing director and chief financial officer of Jyothy, reportedly quoted by media as saying that indications were positive that Henkel would put in a bid, though nothing had been finalised. The option is open for Henkel to come and talk with the company. The option for them to invest in the company will close in March 2017, he added. Kamath reportedly said business plans might have to be altered if Henkel came on board, since it might decide to introduce some of its products into the country.

Jyothy Laboratories' consolidated net profit rose 31.6% to Rs 35.61 crore on 12.4% growth in net sales to Rs 445.21 crore in Q4 March 2016 over Q4 March 2015.

Jyothy Laboratories manufactures and distributes brands across product categories as diverse as fabric care, household insecticides, utensil cleaners, fragrances, personal care, besides marketing tea and coffee brands.

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Ministry of Tourism has formulated an Action Plan for Incredible India Bed & Breakfast /Home Stay Scheme. The salient features of the Action Plan are as follows:-

1. As Home Stay / Bed & Breakfast is the need of the hour, it was decided to revisit the scheme guidelines and update it based on present and future requirements.

2. To ensure expansion of Home Stay Scheme in State where it is already prevalent and introduction where it is not there.

3. Move towards ease of doing business through rationalization of taxes, simplification of procedures etc.

4.

Launch an aggressive marketing strategy to enlist more B&B Establishments.

5. Involve online travel agents in promoting this scheme and bring it on the fast-track.

6. Groups were constituted to study various aspects of this scheme and submit recommendations in a time bound manner.

The Ministry of Tourism organised a Workshop on Incredible India Bed & Breakfast /Home Stay Scheme here on 30th May 2016. It was chaired by Shri Vinod Zutshi, Secretary, M/o Tourism and attended by officials from various State Governments, representatives from Hospitality and Travel Trade Industry, CEOs of online travel agents and officials of the Ministry of Tourism.

This workshop was conducted with the prime objective of meeting shortage of rooms in accommodation sector - specially the budget category. As construction of hotels has a long gestation period, it was felt that the desired additional hotel capacity can be supplemented substantially by giving impetus to the Incredible India Bed & Breakfast Scheme of the Ministry of Tourism as well as similar schemes run by the State Governments and Online Travel Agents.

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The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken a decision to include short term yoga programmes in Tourist Visa and e-Tourist Visa.

Realizing the spread and importance of yoga world over, the Government has decided to include attending a short term yoga programme in the list of permissible activities under Tourist Visa. Besides, the Government has decided to include attending a short term yoga programme and short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine in the list of permissible activities under e-Tourist Visa.

Presently, a Tourist Visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing and casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit.

All Indian Mission abroad and Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs)/ Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs) in the country have been requested to take action as per above amendments.

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Sales decline 70.25% to Rs 0.47 crore

Net profit of Tarai Foods declined 99.42% to Rs 0.06 crore in the quarter ended March 2016 as against Rs 10.33 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2015. Sales declined 70.25% to Rs 0.47 crore in the quarter ended March 2016 as against Rs 1.58 crore during the previous quarter ended March 2015.

For the full year,net loss reported to Rs 0.10 crore in the year ended March 2016 as against net profit of Rs 10.12 crore during the previous year ended March 2015. Sales declined 6.67% to Rs 1.96 crore in the year ended March 2016 as against Rs 2.10 crore during the previous year ended March 2015. ParticularsQuarter EndedYear EndedMar. 2016Mar. 2015% Var.Mar. 2016Mar. 2015% Var.Sales0.471.58 -70 1.962.10 -7 OPM %21.28-8.23 -2.55-10.95 - PBDT0.10-0.13 LP 0.05-0.23 LP PBT0.06-0.51 LP -0.10-0.72 86 NP0.0610.33 -99 -0.1010.12 PL

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Tata Motors announced that its total commercial and passenger vehicles sales rose 1% to 40,071 units in May 2016 over May 2015. The company's domestic sales of Tata commercial and passenger vehicles rose 2% to 35,643 units in May 2016 over May 2015. Exports declined 5% to 4,428 units in May 2016 over May 2015. The company announced the monthly sales volume data after market hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

Hero MotoCorp reported 2.32% rise in total two-wheelers sales to 5.83 lakh units in May 2016 over May 2015. Market demand was expectedly subdued in May 2016, due to the heavy retail offlake that happened in April on account of the marriage season and regional festivals in different parts of the country during that month, the company said in a statement. However, a good monsoon after two consecutive years of sub-normal rains could lead to a change in sentiments in the rural markets, which may lead to a positive turn-around in the industry in the second half of this fiscal, it added. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

In the month of May, Hero MotoCorp forayed into the world of motorcycle rally racing, through a strategic alliance with Speedbrain GmbH, the German off-road racing specialist. The newly formed 'Hero MotoSports Team Rally' made its debut at the Merzouga Rally, a Dakar series race that recently concluded in Morocco.

Reliance Industries (RIL) announced at the fag end of the trading session yesterday, 1 June 2016, that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings, is investing $16 million in compulsorily convertible preferred shares of a technology start-up viz. NetraDyne Inc., USA. The US-based entity is involved in high-end technology driven product development of deep learning solutions and vision based analytics targeted at industries such as fleet management, automotive, security and surveillance. The entity is currently in advanced stages of product development. It is yet to commence commercial operations, RIL said in a statement. NetraDyne Inc's line of business has potential synergies with telecom and digital business initiatives of RIL apart from commercialization benefits in India, RIL added.

RIL further said that 50% of the investment in NetraDyne has been done on 31 May 2016. The balance 50% investment is likely to be completed by 31 March 2017. Upon conversion of the investment, Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings will get about 15 million equity shares at $1.0613 per share. This translates to 40% equity stake.

Bharti Airtel said that Airtel Payments Bank announced the appointment of Shashi Arora as the CEO & Managing Director of the company, subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He will replace Manish Khera, CEO, who has decided to pursue his entrepreneurial journey, Bharti Airtel said.

On 11 April 2016, Airtel Payments Bank received a payments bank license from RBI. The company plans to start rolling out its banking network in Q2 September 2016.

Coal India and its subsidiaries on provisional basis achieved 95% of targeted production at 42.58 million tonnes in May 2016. Coal India and its subsidiaries on provisional basis achieved 89% of targeted offtake at 45.53 million tonnes in May 2016. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

Axis Bank said it has signed tripartite share subscription agreement and shareholders agreement with A.Treds and Mjunction services. A.Treds is a subsidiary company of AXIS Bank. Mjunction services is a joint venture between Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India.

As per the agreement, Axis Bank purchased 1.65 crore shares of A.Treds for Rs 16.50 crore and Mjunction purchased 82.50 lakh shares of A.Treds for Rs 8.25 crore. Consequently, Axis Bank holds 67% stake and Mjunction holds 33% stake in A.Treds.

A.Treds is licensed by the Reserve Bank of India to engage in the business of trade receivables discounting systems (TReDS). The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

Separately, Axis Bank announced after market hours yesterday, 1 June 2016 that it has allotted senior fixed rate green bonds aggregating to $500 million under the MTN programme through its Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) branch. The notes will be listed at the Singapore Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange. The notes have been priced at 160 basis points over the 5-year US Treasury Note, at a price of 99.479% to yield 2.988%. The notes will be denominated in US dollars, and will bear fixed interest of 2.875% per annum, with interest payable semi-annually in arrears.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) announced revision to its lending rates based on marginal cost of funds to be effective from 1 June 2016. PNB's Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) for overnight loans will be 9.15%, for one month will be 9.20% and for three months will be 9.30%. The MCLR on 6-month loans will be 9.35% and for one-year loans the rate would be 9.40%, the bank said. MCLR for three-year loans would be at 9.55% and loans with five-year maturity would carry an MCLR of 9.70%, the bank said. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

All rupee loans sanctioned and credit limits renewed with effect from 1 April 2016 are priced with reference to the Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate (MCLR) which is the internal benchmark of the concerned bank. Actual lending rates are determined by adding the components of spread to the MCLR.

TVS Motor Company's total sales rose 11% to 2.43 lakh units in May 2016 over May 2015. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

South Indian Bank said that its board of directors has decided to augment the capital by issue of Basel III compliant Tier I/II Bonds to be considered for capital fund purpose for a total face value not exceeding Rs 500 crore in one or more tranches, on such terms and conditions as it may deem fit, subject to the approval of Reserve Bank of India, shareholders and other regulatory authorities, if any. The mode, price and time of the issue will be intimated in due coursem the bank said. The announcement was made after trading hours yesterday, 1 June 2016.

Punj Lloyd announced after trading hours yesterday, 1 June 2016, that the High Court of Justice, Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court, UK has ordered the company and its subsidiary, Punj Lloyd Upstream (PLUL), to pay $26173659.16 (plus summary assessment costs amounting to 75000 pounds), to International Finance Corporation, towards their claims. The company said it is considering various legal options and shall take appropriate steps in respect of such order.

Kajaria Ceramics said that its board of directors will meet on 16 June 2016 to consider stock split. The company proposes to split face value of each share from Rs 2 to Re 1.

Gammon India announced after trading hours yesterday, 1 June 2016, that it has received a "Notice of Conversion" from DBS Bank (one of the joint lenders) for conversion of part of outstanding debt into equity shares under the Strategic Debt Restructuring Package of the company. Pursuant to this notice, DBS Bank has decided to convert part of its outstanding debt and interest aggregating to Rs 4.90 crore into 41.24 lakh equity shares of the company of face value of Rs 2 each at Rs 11.89 per equity share. Post this conversion the total shareholding of the CDR Lenders and DBS Bank will be 63.07% of the total equity capital of the company.

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India's membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will likely be an important topic in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's talks with US Preisdent Barack Obama next week, according to Arvind Panagariya, the vice chairman of the Niti Aayog.

"One concrete thing I would hope would be on the agenda is India's entry into APEC, during the Modi-Obama summit," he told a roundtable at the Asia Society Policy Institute here Wednesday.

Panagariya, who advocated an outward orientation as a development strategy for India, emphasised the need to join trade agreements. " is a stepping stone on the way to other trade agreements. by itself is not going to get the country very far and it had to get into other arrangements," he added.

"If India is going to sustain a growth rate of 8-10% over a period of 20-25 years, it cannot be done without actually capturing some of the world markets through trade arrangements," he said. He further adds, "The strategy of free trade agreements becomes quite important part of the whole strategy that if you have free market within a large region, India would have the right to sell duty free into that market."

Founded in 1989 at Australia's initiative, the 21-member stretches from Australia to Peru and includes the US, Russia, China and Japan representing 2.8 billion people, almost 57% of the world's gross domestic product and about 47% of global trade. It had a moratorium on new members for a decade which has now been lifted and India is actively lobbying to join it.

Modi was committed to joining the APEC and had sought Japanese Prime Minister Shnizo Abe's help when he visited India, Panagariya said.

Asked about India joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade pact pushed by the Obama administration, Panagariya said candidly, "India is below the standards that are required in the TPP."

he informed, "A lot of the things that India would need to do to be a member of the TPP, remains to be done on issues of intellectual property, labour, standards, government procurement. These are integral parts of the TPP."

The TPP agreement was signed by 12 Pacific-rim countries in February and does not include China.

While seeking to join trade agreements, India also needs to act internally on issues like trade facilitation so that goods can move in and out of the country without bureaucratic delays, he said.

One of the problems for India in trade is the lack of large companies and that 73% of the workforce is employed by firms with 20 or fewer persons, he said. The smaller units are less productive and limited in competing on the global markets, he said.

As bigger companies proliferate, they will define the ecosystem and ensure that small and medium enterprises in their region would also become highly productive, he said.

"The big players have to compete with the best of the world markets. They will have to be constantly on their toes. They will see, the small and medium firms that are around them will do the same," he stated.
In a first, an international team of scientists has detected a faint signal emitted by hydrogen gas in a galaxy more than five billion light years away -- almost double the previous record.

Using the Very Large Array radio telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US, the team observed radio emission from hydrogen in a distant galaxy and found that it would have contained billions of young, massive stars surrounded by clouds of hydrogen gas.

As the most abundant element in the universe and the raw fuel for creating stars, hydrogen is used by radio astronomers to detect and understand the makeup of other galaxies.

However, until now, radio telescopes have only been able to detect the emission signature of hydrogen from relatively nearby galaxies.

"Due to the upgrade of the Very Large Array, this is the first time we've been able to directly measure atomic hydrogen in a galaxy this far from Earth," said lead author, Dr Ximena Fernandez from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

"These signals would have begun their journey before our planet even existed, and after five billion years of travelling through space without hitting anything, they've fallen into the telescope and allowed us to see this distant galaxy for the very first time," he added.

The success for the team comes after the first 178 hours of observing time with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope for a new survey of the sky called the 'COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey' or CHILES.

Once completed, the CHILES survey will have collected data from more than 1,000 hours of observing time.

In a new approach, members of the team including Dr Attila Popping from International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and the ARC Centre of All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) in Australia are working with Amazon Web Services to process and move the large volumes of data via the "cloud".

"For this project, we took tens of terabytes of data from the Very Large Array and then processed it using Amazon's cloud-based servers to create an enormous image cube, ready for our team to analyse and explore," Dr Popping added.

Professor Andreas Wicenec, head of the Data Intensive Astronomy team at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the limiting factor for radio astronomers used to be the size of the telescope and the hardware behind it.

"It's fast becoming more about the data and how you move, store and analyse vast volumes of information," he said in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

--IANS

na/vm
Laddan Mian, suspected to be the main conspirator in the killing of journalist Rajdeo Ranjan in Bihar's Siwan district, surrendered on Thursday, police said.

Laddan Mian is also considered close to jailed former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Mohammad Shahabuddin.

"He has surrendered before the chief judicial magistrate in Siwan district court," a district police officer said.

Soon after he surrendered, the court remanded him to judicial custody, police said.

However, Laddan Mian has denied his involvement in Rajdeo's killing.

"I have nothing to do with Rajdeo's killing. I was wrongly framed in the case by police," he told the media before being sent to jail.

According to police, Laddan Mian was wanted in the connection with killing of Rajdeo following five shooters arrested by police last month revealed that it was he who had contracted them to kill the journalist.

Rajdeo Ranjan, the Siwan bureau chief of Hindi newspaper Hindustan, which is part of HT Media, was shot dead at a busy market near Station Road on May 14.

Police in Siwan said that the killing was part of a pre-planned conspiracy.

The Bihar government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has already recommended a CBI probe into the journalist's killing.

--IANS

ik/pgh/

vm
The CBI on Thursday questioned Virender Singh Tawde, a doctor and member of rightwing Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, in its ongoing investigation into the murder of Maharashtra anti-superstition activist and rationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers quizzed Tawde in Mumbai a day after his house in Mumbai's Panvel was searched.

The agency had recovered some material during its earlier searches in connection with the murder case which brought the needle of suspicion on Tawde and Goa blast accused Sarang Akolkar, against whom Red Corner Notice was issued by Interpol in 2012 on request of NIA.

National Investigating Agency (NIA) has been probing the case since after the Goa blast where two people were killed in a bomb explosion on Diwali-eve on October 16, 2009 in the coastal state's commercial capital Margao.

Akolkar's residence in Pune was also searched on Wednesday by the agency which claimed to have recovered several SIM cards, cell phones and data from computer.

CBI officials said that the two came under the scanner after the agency found some "cyber forensic evidence" about their alleged role in the murder case of Dabholkar.

Akolkar, 34, is the key suspect in the murder of Dabholkar, 68, who was gunned down on August 20, 2013, by two unidentified motor-cycle borne assailants near his house when he was out on a morning walk.

Akolkar is believed to be linked to the Sanatan Sanstha, a Hindu right wing organisation whose headquarters are located in Ponda, Goa.

Nearly three years after the brazen daylight murder in full public view, the investigators have yet to ascertain the exact motives behind Dabholkar's murder or identify and zero in on the killers, though some right-wing groups and activists are under a scanner.

Dabholkar's campaign of several decades finally bore fruit when Maharashtra became the first state in the country to enact a full-fledged law against black magic and other superstitious practices, albeit after his death.

The CBI took over the case from Maharashtra Police and filed an FIR on May 9, 2014 on the orders of Bombay High Court which directed the agency considering a PIL filed by former journalist Ketan Tirodkar.

--IANS

rak/vd
A former State Department IT specialist who was involved in setting up and maintaining Hillary Clinton's private email server has planned to invoke the Fifth Amendment at a deposition next week, refusing to answer any questions.

The move comes even after the staffer, Bryan Pagliano, accepted an immunity deal with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) earlier this year and began cooperating with their investigation into the server, CNN reported.

Pagliano was then subpoenaed by the conservative legal watchdog group Judicial Watch to testify as part of an ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit they filed against the State Department. He is one of at least seven witnesses the group is interviewing over the coming weeks in that case.

In a court filing submitted on Wednesday, Pagliano's attorneys said their client is now "caught up in a lawsuit with an undisputed political agenda" and asked that the deposition, scheduled to take place on June 6, not be recorded.

His attorneys added, "Pagliano will invoke his right under the Fifth Amendment and decline to testify at the deposition noticed for June 6, 2016."

"Asserting the Fifth Amendment in a civil procedure like this has its implications," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told CNN.

"We're going to have to grapple with as best we can."

Pagliano, who was hired by the State Department after a stint as IT director for Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, was paid separately by the Clintons to perform work on the server, located at their home in Chappaqua, New York.

He also pled the Fifth last year to avoid answering questions from the House Select Committee on Benghazi -- a congressional panel set up to investigate a 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

--IANS

ksk/vm
Thai authorities recovered two tiger skins on Thursday from inside a truck as it tried to leave a controversial temple, which used the big cats to attract tourists.

Besides the skins, members from the National Parks Conservation Department investigating the temple since Monday, also found hundreds of amulets allegedly containing tiger remains such as bones and teeth.

On Wednesday, officials had recovered 40 dead tiger cubs, just one to two days old, from a freezer, EFE news reported.

The cubs were not recorded in the register for wild animals the temple has to maintain by law and that means the protection department will press charges for illegal possession, besides other possible offences.

On Monday, Thai authorities began the rescue of 137 tigers from the Pha Luang Ta Bua Yanasampann temple, also known as the "Tiger Temple" in Kanchanaburi province.

The temple was an attraction for tourists, who could stroll around and take pictures with the tigers, who appeared sedated, and one of the reasons why animal rights groups have criticised the park for years.

Meanwhile, the temple management refused to cooperate with the authorities, which means the removal and relocation process of the tigers could last several days, although 40 of them have been rescued till Tuesday, according to local daily Khao Sod.

Containers with intestines and other body parts were also recovered from among animal remains, which, if found to be recent, would further support the accusations of wildlife activists.

Some animal rights organisations have claimed the tigers appear sedated when interacting with tourists and have accused the temple of being a facade to cover illegal animal trafficking.

However, the temple management has consistently denied allegations of mistreatment and trafficking of the animals.

The tigers, including some that are not native to Thailand, will be taken to wildlife shelters around the country.

The temple has been closed to the public since the raid.

--IANS

ksk/vm
The German parliament, despite a barrage of pressure from the Turkish government, on Thursday approved a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a "genocide". Turkey was equally scathing, calling the resolution a "historic mistake".

The Germany parliamentary vote was almost unanimous, with just one MP voting against and another abstaining. The resolution was largely expected and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, she had to skip the vote due to prior commitments.

Gregor Gysi, a politician from the Left Party who was critical of Turkey's treatment of the Kurds who were doing "an excellent job" in fighting Islamic State, said that "Germany was a historical accessory" and has a duty to recognise the mass killings of Armenians in the First World War.

"We need to call this what it was -- a genocide," he told the German parliament. "The Bunderstag should not allow itself to be blackmailed by Turkey's threats."

The news was greeted with delight by dozens of Armenian supporters who had gathered outside the parliament building carrying banners commemorating the genocide.

According to the Christian Democratic Union's Albert Weiler, Germany had a "historical duty" to recognise the mass killings of Armenians.

"Without this admission, there cannot be forgiveness and reconciliation. Suffering does not know temporary boundaries. Genocide will never remain in the past. By recognising the genocide, it will force the Turkish government to take a brave step and look into its own history," he said.

Representatives from the Turkish and Armenian embassies were present in the German parliament when the vote took place.

The ruling AK Party in Turkey responded to the slur by saying that the decision taken by the German parliament has seriously damaged relations between the two countries.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus called the resolution a "historic mistake".

Turkey has also recalled its ambassador to Germany after the symbolic resolution was passed.

In one last bid on Thursday to try and sway German opinion, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said it would be "irrational" for the German parliament to approve such a resolution, while it would test the friendship between the two countries.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already warned that relations between Ankara and Berlin would suffer if Germany was to recognise the mass killings of Armenians as a genocide.

Ankara launched a high-profile campaign of intimidation in the build-up to the vote, which even included the Turkish community sending out thousands of emails to German MPs. However, some emails crossed a line, intimidating politicians and threatening the lives of journalists.

Sections of the German media were worried about what impact the decision by parliament to recognise the genocide could have on the migrant deal between Turkey and the EU, which has been championed by Merkel.

The bloc says the agreement is necessary to stem the tide of migrants heading towards Europe. Some 1.1 million refugees settled in Germany last year. In return, Ankara will receive billions of euro from the EU, while its citizens would also be given visa-free travel to the Schengen zone, which encompasses most of Europe, even though Turkey is not a member of the EU.

The parliamentary vote was originally scheduled to take place a year ago to mark the centenary of the genocide, but due to concerns over the fallout with Turkey, Merkel's allies postponed the move.

The mass killings began on April 24, 1915, when 250 Armenian intellectuals were detained by Ottoman authorities and later executed in their capital, Constantinople, present-day Istanbul.

Most of the Ottoman Empire's Armenians were subsequently displaced, deported or placed in concentration camps, ostensibly for rebelling against the Ottomans and siding with Russia during World War I. This affected up to 1.5 million Armenians.

Turkey -- the successor of the Ottoman Empire -- concedes that many Armenians were mistreated at the time, but maintains that the number of victims has been grossly exaggerated and that there was no "genocide".

--IANS

ahm/vt
Germany's parliament on Thursday approved a resolution declaring that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War was a "genocide".

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, as well as Pope Francis, have recognised the 1915 killings where over 1.5 million Armenians were killed as genocide, BBC reported.

Chancellor Angela Merkel was not in the Bundestag (parliament) for the vote.

Her Christian Democrats (CDU), their coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens all supported the resolution, and the vote in favour was overwhelming.

Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandyan hailed the resolution and said it was a "valuable contribution" to the "international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide".

However, Turkey has slammed the move, and has warned that it could hurt ties.

The country has denied that there was a systematic campaign to slaughter Christian Armenians as an ethnic group during the First World War. It also pointed out that many Turkish civilians also died in the turmoil during the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim responded by saying he would withdraw his ambassador to Germany "for consultations".

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus called the move a "historic mistake".

Before the approval, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan phoned Merkel, warning that ties would suffer "if (Germany) falls into such a game".

It has rejected the term genocide.

--IANS

ksk/dg
The German parliament, ignoring pressure from the Turkish government, on Thursday approved a symbolic resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Christian Armenians during World War I by Ottoman Turkish forces a "genocide". Turkey reacted furiously, terming the resolution a "historic mistake" and recalled its envoy to Germany in protest.

The Germany parliamentary vote was almost unanimous, with just one MP voting against and another abstaining. The resolution was largely expected and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, she had to skip the vote due to prior commitments.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara will take retaliatory measures.

Turkish Ambassador Huseyin Avni Karslioglu was to fly back to Turkey on Thursday, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Turkey also decided to summon Germany's charge d'affaires to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara.

Turkey's new Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the German vote and said that a "racist Armenian lobby" was responsible for the decision.

The ruling AK Party in Turkey responded to the "genocide" slur by saying the move had seriously damaged relations between the two countries, while Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus was equally scathing, calling the resolution a "historic mistake".

In Istanbul, armed riot police were deployed outside the German consulate, near Taksim square, to guard against likely protests.

German Chancellor Merkel, in an effort to assuage the ruffled diplomatic ties, said that Berlin's relationship with Ankara was broad and strong.

"There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great," Merkel said.

Turkey accepts the fact that many Armenians died in the fighting in 1915, during the First World War. However, it disputes that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted an act of genocide by Turkish Ottoman forces.

Gregor Gysi, a politician from the German Left Party who was critical of Turkey's treatment of the Kurds, said that "Germany was a historical accessory" and has a duty to recognise the mass killings of Armenians in the First World War.

"We need to call this what it was -- a genocide," he told the German Parliament. "The Bundestag should not allow itself to be blackmailed by Turkey's threats."

The news of the parliamentary resolution was greeted with delight by dozens of Armenian supporters who had gathered outside the Bundestag building carrying banners commemorating the genocide.

According to the ruling Christian Democratic Union's Albert Weiler, Germany had a "historical duty" to recognise the mass killings of Armenians.

"Without this admission, there cannot be forgiveness and reconciliation. Suffering does not know temporary boundaries. Genocide will never remain in the past. By recognising the genocide, it will force the Turkish government to take a brave step and look into its own history," he said.

Representatives from the Turkish and Armenian embassies were present in the German parliament when the vote took place.

Turkey had made a strong bid on Thursday to try and sway German opinion. Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim had said it would be "irrational" for the German Parliament to approve such a resolution and would "test" the friendship between the two countries.

Ankara launched a high-profile campaign of intimidation in the build-up to the vote, which even included the Turkish community sending out thousands of emails to German MPs. However, some emails crossed the line, intimidating politicians and threatening the lives of journalists.

Sections of the German media were worried about what impact the decision by the parliament could have on the migrant deal between Turkey and the EU, which has been championed by Merkel.

The parliamentary vote was originally scheduled to take place a year ago to mark the centenary of the genocide, but due to concerns over the fallout with Turkey, Merkel's allies postponed the move.

The mass killings began on April 24, 1915, when 250 Armenian intellectuals were detained by Ottoman authorities and later executed in their capital, Constantinople, present-day Istanbul.

Most of the Ottoman Empire's Armenians were subsequently displaced, deported or placed in concentration camps, ostensibly for rebelling against the Ottomans and for siding with Russia during World War I. This affected up to 1.5 million Armenians.

Turkey -- the successor of the Ottoman Empire -- concedes that many Armenians were mistreated at the time, but maintains that the number of victims has been grossly exaggerated and that there was no "genocide".

--IANS

ahm/rn
Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton raised over $40 million in overall contributions in May, an increase of more than $5 million from her April fundraising figures, campaign officials said.

Of that sum, $27 million went to her campaign (Hillary for America), while the remaining $13.5 million went to the Democratic National Committee and states parties, Politico reported.

According to the campaign, Hillary for America now has $42 million as the former secretary of state enters the final stretch of the primary season -- June 7 will be the last big day, with voting in California, New Jersey, New Mexico, Montana, South and North Dakota.

"Thanks to the continued support of more than 1.3 million people across the country, we have the resources we need to run a winning general election campaign and build on the smart investments we made during the primary," Campaign Manager Robby Mook said on Wednesday.

"Hillary Clinton remains focused on ensuring that she and Democrats up and down the ballot are able to mobilize millions of voters and win in November," he said.

In April, Clinton's campaign directly received $25.1 million, compared with $26.9 million raised by Sanders, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Her campaign also raised an additional $9.5 million for various Democratic Party committees.

--IANS

ksk/vm
Over 100 idols/sculptures were seized from a house in the Tamil Nadu capital on Thursday, police said.

Armed with court order to break open two rooms in a house located in posh locality here, police carried out their search for a second time.

Two days back, police had seized 34 idols/sculptures from that house and took three security persons into custody.

The owner of the house Deenadayalan, who also ran an art gallery here, is absconding, police said, adding the investigations are continuing.

--IANS

vj/vd
Punitive action against lawyer Indira Jaising's NGO Lawyers Collective shows the "intolerant" attitude of the government towards those championing people's causes, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Thursday.

"Indira Jaising, a senior advocate, is being targeted for fearlessly taking up people's cause. Intolerance of Modi Sarkar," Digvijaya Singh posted on Twitter.

"Advocates would you please show some spine and stand up for her? You never know you may be the next!," he said in another tweet.

The home ministry on Tuesday suspended for six months the registration under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) of Lawyers Collective for alleged violations of foreign funding norms.

A former additional solicitor general, Jaising is the founder-secretary and her husband Anand Grover is the president of the Lawyers Collective.

Reacting to the government's decision, Jaising posted on Twitter on Wednesday, "Condemn the beaten attack by government disguised as alleged violations of FCRA, days after I spoke at Rana Ayub book release."

She was referring to 'Gujarat Files: The Anatomy of A Cover Up,' a book on 2002 Gujarat riots, written by journalist Rana Ayyub.

--IANS

aks/vm
The glitzy Indian Premier League (IPL) in its ninth edition recorded a 22 percent growth in its last week on Sony Max, Sony Six and Sony ESPN, a company release said on Thursday.

Also there were 357 million viewers who witnessed the tournament, establishing it as the biggest television event in India.

"(A total of) 357 million viewers watched the IPL, establishing it as the biggest television event in India today," said the release.

The highest-rated match in the 2016 edition of the IPL was the May 24 Qualifier I clash between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Lions which saw a cumulative viewership of over 100 million.

--IANS

dd/sam/dg
Actor Johnny Depp's friends have reportedly shared their concern for the star amid his ongoing legal drama with estranged wife Amber Heard, urging him to go in for rehab.

The 52-year-old, who is reportedly set to be quizzed by police over claims that he physically assaulted his estranged wife, was recently photographed partying with a mystery brunette until the wee hours of the morning.

Now his friends are reportedly worried for the star, who believe that rehab would help him to "clear" his head, reports mirror.co.uk.

According to The Sun newspaper, they have asked him to pull out of his band Hollywood Vampires' European tour.

"Johnny's team are really worried. He has hit the bottle to cope with it all. He is being closely watched by his security guys. They constantly check to make sure he is okay," a source said.

"His management, sister, head of security and even his former partner Vanessa Paradis have joined together to support him."

The "Pirates of the Caribbean" star's band is due to play in Romania on Monday before starting their US tour next month.

Depp has been ordered to stay away from Heard after she claimed he hit her in the face with a cellphone, pulled her hair, struck her and screamed at her during a fight.

Last week, Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp until June 17.

--IANS

ank/rb/dg
Given the ongoing inclement weather in the region, the Indian embassy in Kathmandu on Thursday advised Indian pilgrims undertaking the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra to avoid the Nepal route.

"A large number of Indian citizens have been going under own private arrangement for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via Nepalgunj-Simikot-Hilsa," the embassy advisory said.

"It has been noticed that a number of them are facing logistical problems in Hilsa and Simikot primarily on account of bad weather, which prevents regular evacuations from Hilsa to Simikot by helicopter and Simikot to Nepalgunj by fixed-wing aircraft," it stated.

The advisory also said that the embassy in cooperation with the Nepal government and tour operators was making all possible arrangements for timely evacuation of pilgrims from Hilsa to Simikot and from Simikot to Nepalgunj.

"However, inclement weather conditions are impeding regular air services, thereby causing difficulties for the stranded passengers at Hilsa and Simikot," the advisory said.

"Since weather conditions are expected to deteriorate in the weeks to come, Indian citizens are advised to avoid the Nepalgunj-Simikot-Hilsa route."

Addressing his weekly media briefing here on Thursday, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the first secretary in the Indian embassy in Kathmandu has visited Hilsa and Simikot and coordinated with the Nepalese authorities.

"More than 400 stranded yatris have already been brought to Surkhet and Nepalgunj," Swarup said.

"As of now, there are no bottlenecks on this route."

The spokesperson said that the Ministry of Tourism has also been requested to advise tour operators in India not to overbook and to correctly brief pilgrims on the facilities available.

--IANS

ab/vt
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday met Bhartaiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah in the face of a looming Jat agitation in the state.

Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan and party general secretary and Haryana in-charge Anil Jain were also part of the the meeting. Balyan is a Jat leader from western Uttar Pradesh and has been roped in to negotiate with community leaders in Haryana.

Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Khattar said that the government was talking with Jat leadership and that law and order would "not be allowed be disturbed".

With the Punjab and Haryana High Court putting brakes on the state government's move to provide reservation to Jats, the community leadership has threatened to re-launch the agitation from June 5.

At least 30 people were killed and 320 injured and property worth hundreds of crores of rupees was destroyed during the violent agitation by Jats earlier this year.

The state government then passed a law to provide reservation for Jats and five other communities under a newly carved Backward Classes 'C' category. However, acting on a public interest litigation, the high court stayed the legislation.

--IANS

mak/vd
The 'lotus' finally bloomed on the floor of the Kerala assembly when 86-year-old veteran BJP leader O. Rajagopal took oath as a legislator on Thursday.

The first session of the 14th Kerala assembly opened on Thursday, and the day was devoted to the swearing-in of members. The two-day session ends on Friday, which has been kept for the election of the speaker.

In the May 16 assembly poll, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Democratic Front swept the polls winning 91 seats, with the rival Congress-led United Democratic Front ending up with 47.

CPI-M leader Pinarayi Vijayan, 72, was sworn in along with 18 cabinet ministers on May 25.

The LDF and UDF had time and again claimed in their poll campaign that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not win a single seat in the polls.

On Thursday morning, Rajagopal was the cynosure of all eyes when along with party workers he paid tribute at the statues of Vivekananda, Ayyankali, Martyrs Column and made a quick tour of his Nemom assembly constituency.

Rajagopal took his seat next to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the front row.

Watching him take the oath was his state party president Kummanem Rajasekheran and other senior leaders of the party.

"I will work as a responsible and constructive opposition legislator in the floor of the assembly," said Rajagopal.

The 139 legislators of the assembly were sworn in by pro-tem Speaker and senior CPI-M legislator S. Sarma.

The legislators were sworn in according to the alphabetical order.

The ruling LDF has named two-time legislator P. Sreeramakrishnan as its candidate for Speaker, while the opposition UDF has decided to field young legislator V.P. Sajeendran as their candidate.

Though the victory of Sreeramakrishnan is a foregone conclusion, all eyes are on the stand to be taken by Rajagopal and seven-time legislator P.C. George, who in the past was with the LDF and UDF but this time won the polls as an independent candidate.

The new house has 83 legislators, who were members in the 13th Kerala Assembly, while 44 are new faces. Thirteen lawmakers are returning after a gap. There are eight women in the treasury benches, while there are none in the opposition benches.

--IANS

sg/rn/vm
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's fourth visit to the US next week is seen here as consolidating and celebrating the India-US relationship that has undergone a transformation since 2000 under three presidents.

An important dimension of Modi's June 6-8 visit at the invitation of President Barack Obama will be his address to a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8 - eleven years after Washington revoked his visa under a religious freedom law passed by that very body.

Modi, the fifth Indian Prime Minister to address the US Congress starting with Rajiv Gandhi, will also get another rare honour - a lunch hosted by the Republican Speaker Paul Ryan and a reception by the Republican chairs and top Democrats on the House and Senate Foreign Relations panels.

"Many people have articulated that the invitation and the visit are really a part of consolidating and celebrating the India-US relationship," said Arun Singh, Indian ambassador to the US.

The visit will consolidate "what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into the next year when there will be transition of the administration in the US and also elections to the US Congress".

It will also celebrate the achievements in the relationship "because in a sense the new phase in India-US relationship was started from 2000 when President (Bill) Clinton went to India," he noted.

Then President George W. Bush transformed it with the landmark Civil Nuclear Deal and Barack Obama with his two visits to India - including the one as chief guest at India's Republic Day - saying the India-US relationship will be a "defining partnership of the 21st century".

Singh also noted Obama's articulation of support for India's membership of the UN Security Council, US support for India's membership of multilateral export control regimes and advances made in India-US defence partnership.

These include through the US-India Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) where among others things the two sides are looking at cooperation in projects related to aircraft carrier technology and jet engine technology.

Celebrating a lot of progress made in the two Obama terms, the visit will in a sense launch into the next administration, he said. "That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit."

The unique reception on the Capitol Hill is also seen "as a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship", Singh said. "It's also a reflection of the value that people attach to this relationship."

"Clearly people feel that India-US relationship has matured significantly," he said citing the growth in the partnership in trade and economy, defence and technology among others.

Modi who lands in Washington on June 6 after a visit to Switzerland, will meet Obama on June 7 to review the progress made in key areas of defence, security and energy over a working lunch at the White House.

He will also have an interaction with top corporate leaders and address the annual meeting of the US India Business Council (USIBC) comprised of over 300 top American and Indian companies seeking stronger trade and commercial ties with India.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

--IANS

ak/rn/vm
In yet another example of India's developmental aid to Afghanistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday jointly with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani inaugurate a dam reconstructed with India's assistance.

"Prime Minister will visit Afghanistan on Saturday, June 4, where he will jointly inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, with President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani in Herat province in western Afghanistan," external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in his weekly media briefing here on Thursday.

"The completion of the dam project represents culmination of years of hard work by about 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions," Swarup said.

"It also highlights India's continued commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development."

Originally constructed in 1976 on the Hari river basin, the Salma Dam suffered extensive damage during the civil war in Afghanistan.

On December 25 last year, Modi and Ghani jointly inaugurated a new building of the Afghan parliament in Kabul built with India's aid.

Last month, India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement for the development of the Chabahar port in Iran for transport and transit corridor.

During his meeting with Ghani on Saturday, Modi will also take stock of the situation in Afghanistan.

"The forthcoming meeting between the prime minister and President Ghani will also provide an opportunity to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and how the two countries can cooperate further for promoting peace and stability in that country," Swarup.

Modi will stop over in Herat for the dam inauguration on his way to Doha, Qatar, on the first day of his five-nation tour that will also take him to Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

Modi was last in Afghanistan in December when he inaugurated the Afghan parliament built with India's aid.

--IANS

ab/rn/vt
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to give an appointment to an all-party delegation from Manipur who want to raise the issue of three anti-migrant bills pending with the central government, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh said on Thursday.

The three bills passed by the state assembly on August 31, 2015 are yet to be given assent in view of the strong objections by the tribals who maintain that these are "anti-tribal". The legislations' supporters say that there is nothing in them which are against any indigenous peoples.

"If there is anything against any community, the bills could be amended," said the chief minister.

Asked about the inordinate delay in getting the appointment, which had been sought a long time ago, Ibobi Singh said: "The Prime Minister has to face many issues and problems for the whole country and not Manipur alone. It is possible that for the time being he has no time. Besides he will be going on a foreign tour. The delegates shall camp in Delhi and will meet with the Prime Minister and the Home Minister whenever appointments are given."

The team was scheduled to leave Imphal on May 16 but the leaders perhaps decided to wait for the appointments, as the bills' supporters have warned that if the team returns empty-handed, they will have to face the wrath of the people.

The chief minister further said: "During the North Eastern Council meeting at Shillong, I had conveyed to Modi the plan of the political parties to call on him." However he did not divulge what reply the Prime Minister had given.

There is a strong campaign against the bills by the tribals, who are refusing to claim the bodies of nine activists, killed during agitations in Churachandpur district.

Though there have been various forms of agitations in support of the bills, indications are that the central government will not court trouble by giving assent readily.

Meanwhile, normal life in Manipur Valley has been thrown out of gear with agitations demanding enactment of the bills.

--IANS

il/vd
Pakistan authorities on Thursday acknowledged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's wishes for his counterpart Nawaz Sharif's recovery after open heart surgery in a London hospital.

"PM Narendra Modi sent flowers to PM Nawaz Sharif along with message 'All good wishes to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his speedy recovery'," Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted.

The surgery took place on Tuesday and according to the premier's family, he is fast recovering.

Sharif called Modi from London on Monday night ahead of the heart surgery.

--IANS

ksk/vm
Actor Pankaj Tripathi says he has helped actress Alia Bhatt to learn the Bihari accent for her role in the forthcoming crime thriller film "Udta Punjab".

Directed by Abhishek Chaubey, the film, which also stars Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh, features Alia as a migrant Bihari labourer.

"Abhishek Chaubey is a good friend of mine. He asked me to help Alia prepare for her role of a Bihari girl. I taught her the language. As Alia has lived in an urban surrounding, it was a bit challenging for her to speak with a Bihari accent," Pankaj, best known for his roles in films like "Gangs of Wasseypur", "Omkara" and "Singham Returns", told IANS.

"Though it was a difficult job, Alia was a very hard working student. She used to practice speaking Bihari at home. She is a very dedicated and hard working actress. It took around one month to prepare her for her role.

"I'm sure when the film will release, people will get to see a totally different avatar of Alia and will love it," Pankaj added.

Will we get to see Pankaj in the film?

Pankaj, who can currently be seen in "Nil Battey Sannata", said: "No, I haven't played any role in 'Udta Punjab', but I must say that Abhishek is a prolific director."

"Udta Punjab" is slated to release on June 17.

--IANS

sas/rb/dg
Philippines' president-elect Rodrigo Duterte will not apologise for his controversial remarks justifying the killing of corrupt journalists, his spokesperson said on Thursday.

Salvador Panelo, Duterte's spokesperson, told Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN, the question of apology arises when something wrong has been done and added the president-elect's remarks were misinterpreted.

Duterte, who will take office on June 30, triggered a wave of criticism after his remarks in a press conference on Tuesday that many of the journalists, who had been killed in the country in recent years, had been murdered because they were corrupt.

"Just because you're a journalist you are not exempted from assassination," Duterte told reporters in the southern Davao city.

On Wednesday, non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) urged the Philippine to boycott the Duterte administration's news conferences until the leader issues a public apology and also asked the to press lawsuits against him, EFE news reported.

"We urge organisations that represent the to not overlook comments of this kind and to bring lawsuits," said Benjamin Ismail, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk.

"Not only are these statements unworthy of a president but they could also be regarded as violations of the law on defamation or even the law on inciting hatred and violence," he added.

Duterte has also been criticised by other Philippine media organisations, family members of the murdered journalists and the outgoing government, as well as prominent politicians and lawyers.

The National Union of Journalist in the Philippines (NJUP) said it was "appalling" that Duterte should "justify the murder of journalists in the country by playing the corruption card".

Murders of Filipino journalists who criticise local politicians or investigate corruption are frequent in the country.

Seven journalists were killed in the Philippines in 2015, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

In its latest report, the IFJ said the Philippines had the second largest number of journalists murdered since 1990, surpassed only by Iraq.

--IANS

ksk
On Bollywood legend Raj Kapoor's 28th death anniversary on Thursday, his son and veteran actor Rishi Kapoor became nostalgic and paid a tribute.

The 63-year-old actor paid his tribute on Twitter. Rishi also shared a portrait of his father and captioned: "Raj Kapoor. My Father. 1924-1988. Adieu, 28 years back! Achieved what most yearn in a lifetime. So proud to be his son!"

Rishi also changed his Twitter name to "...Rahenge sada", lyrics of a famous Raj Kapoor song "Jeena yaha marna yaha" from 1970's iconic film "Mera Naam Joker".

Raj Kapoor died on June 2, 1988 at the age of 63. Often called "the greatest showman of Indian cinema", he was a noted Indian film actor, producer and director of Hindi films.

The legendary actor, whose big break came with the lead role in "Neel Kamal" opposite actress Madhubala in her first role as a leading lady, has starred in some iconic films like "Awaara", "Shree 420", "Jis Desh Men Ganga Behti Hai" and "Anhonee" among many others.

--IANS

dc/rb/vm
Improving the quality of water in the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Australia requires around $11,571 billion over the next decade, according to a government study released on Thursday.

These initial figures were part of a study carried out by a group of water quality and economic experts. Due to lack of time, the study numbers were not included in a report on the waters of the Great Barrier Reef published last week, ABC Australia reported.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has allocated an additional fund of some $124 million in the budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The Labour Party, which is seeking to secure a win in the upcoming parliament elections on July 2, has promised around $254 million to save the Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage Site, which is undergoing the most severe coral bleaching in its history.

The greatest threat to the quality of the waters of the Great Barrier Reef comes from pesticides and sediments, which block sunlight, and excess nutrients such as nitrogen, which make the corals more susceptible to bleaching.

The health of the Great Barrier Reef, which has 400 types of corals, 1,500 species of fish and 4,000 varieties of molluscs, began to deteriorate in the 1990s due to the twin impact of the warming of seas and the increase in their acidification due to more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

--IANS

ksk/vt
South Korea on Thursday welcomed a decision by the US to include North Korea in the list of countries which are primarily responsible for money laundering, a move aimed at strengthening sanctions against Pyongyang.

The decision, which seeks to isolate Pyongyang further from the international financial system "reflects the US's firm commitment to faithfully carry out the UN Security Council's 2270 resolution and also pursue its own strong sanctions to induce denuclearisation and tangible change", said the South Korean foreign ministry in a statement.

The South Korean government hoped the measure will block North Korea's access to the US financial system, EFE news reported.

The inclusion of North Korea in the list of money laundering countries, announced by the US Treasury Department on Wednesday, means a prohibition of indirect links between financial institutions of both countries.

The South Korean ministry also emphasised its commitment to work alongside Washington to continue pressurising North Korea, through sanctions, to change its stance and give up its nuclear weapons programme.

--IANS

ksk/dg
Karnataka Chief Minister on Thursday invited seven senior Indian diplomats to be ambassadors of the state to promote it at various international fora.

"You are the ambassadors and high commissioners of India. While you proudly represent our great country at various fora, I call upon you also to be the ambassadors of Karnataka. Help us promote our state, even as you promote our nation," said Siddaramiah in a meeting.

The chief minister met J.S. Mukul, Ambassador to Netherlands; Nandini Singla, Ambassador-designate to Portugal; Ruchi Ganashyam, High Commissioner to Africa and Kingdom of Lesotho; Radhika L. Lokesh, Ambassador to Ireland; Vikram K. Doraiswamy, Ambassador to Korea; and Gaurav Shrestha, High Commissioner to Mozambique.

Siddaramiah also invited the senior diplomats to the next Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, scheduled in January 2017 at Bengaluru Palace in the city.

Highlighting that the state government is pursuing the vision of 'Shared growth and prosperity', he said Karnataka has always welcomed better and long lasting relationships with other states and nations.

Further elaborating, Siddaramiah said: "We have focused on three key elements: Create large scale employment by promoting industrial growth, moving industry to all parts of the state including the most backward regions of the state and focus on improving on the socio-economic health of all the residents."

According to Siddaramaiah, Karnataka is third among Indian states in attracting FDI while its GDP grew at seven per cent to reach $120 billion in 2015.

"The state's degree of openness to export is 48% against a national average of 24%. Karnataka's share in all India exports stands at 13% and it accounts for 40% of all software exports from the country," he said.

Showcasing several other favourable indicators, informed the diplomats about the excellent opportunity Karnataka offers to various industries, nations and expatriates.
A Swedish court on Thursday sentenced an Islamic State (IS) sympathiser to five years in prison on charges of preparing a terrorist attack.

The Attunda court in northern Stockholm considered that the 20-year-old Swedish convict, under temporary custody since last February, had possessed materials and equipment to make a bomb, and despite getting rid of some of them later, he still posed a threat, EFE news reported.

Also, guidelines to make bombs were found in the convict's house as well as some jihadi propaganda material.

The accused was arrested twice in June 2015 in Turkey while trying to travel to Syria to join the IS ranks.

The prosecution explained that the man's family warned the Swedish authorities that he had adopted extremist ideologies, and was planning to blow himself up to die as a martyr.

--IANS

ksk/vt
Three Indian tourists carrying valid documents were illegally detained by the Italian police and were later freed only after intervention by the Indian embassy in Rome, a senior government official said on Thursday.

"Our mission in Rome has reported that they received a distress call on May 30 from one Miss Apoorva, who informed that her brother Akshit Goel along with two of his friends -- all Indian nationals -- had been illegally detained by the Italian police in the town of Antimilia in north Italy," external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said at his weekly media briefing here.

"All the three Indian nationals were visiting Italy for tourism purposes and were carrying valid passports with valid Schengen visas," he said.

Following this, Swarup said, the embassy assured the family of all possible help and contacted the Italian police authorities in Antimilia and the country's interior ministry in Rome.

"The embassy was also able to establish contact with Akshit. He told our mission that he and his friends had been detained by the Italian police in the Antimilia railway station during a checking for illegal immigrants," the spokesperson said.

"Later, they were flown along with other detainees to Bari, a town almost 1,000 km away in the south of Italy," he said.

"Our embassy immediately contacted the police authorities of Antimilia and Bari as well as the ministry of interior affairs in Rome and apprised them of the problem."

Swarup said that after checking, it was found that the Italian authorities had made a mistake and they promised to release the three Indians.

"Finally, at around 9.30 p.m. on May 30, they were released from police custody," he said.

"The embassy coordinated with the authorities to ensure proper arrangements and safe transportation of the Indian nationals from Bari to premises of the Indian embassy in Rome."

Stating that the three reached the Indian mission on May 31 around 9 a.m., the spokesperson said that all three Indian nationals were lodged at the Indian embassy premises and provided adequate care.

"The embassy made arrangements for their onward journey to Nice in France on the same day where they are enrolled for an internship programme at a French university," Swarup said.

"Their families were informed of their safe release and the embassy assured them of all necessary assistance in getting them back safely to the university in France," he said, adding that the three reached the university on June 1.

Swarup also said that India "strongly raised the issue" with the Italian authorities and was in touch with them to ensure adequate steps were taken so that such unfortunate incidents involving Indian nationals did not recur in the future.

--IANS

ab/vt
Following is the timeline of the case, in which a special court on Thursday convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 others in the 2002 massacre of 69 people, including Congress MP Ehsan Jafri.

February 2002: During the Gujarat riots a Hindu mob attacked the Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad in which 69 people were killed. Among the deceased was former parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri.

November 2007: The Gujarat High Court dismissed a petition of Zakia Jafri, wife of Ehsan Jafri, seeking the court's directive to the police to register a complaint against the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others for their alleged involvement in the .

March 2008: The Supreme Court directed the Gujarat government to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) for a further probe into 14 Godhra and post -Godhra communal riot cases. The SIT was asked to investigate the incidents that occurred in Godhra, Sardarpura, Gulbarg Society, Ode, Naroda Gaon, Naroda Patiya, Deepla Darwaza and the one in which three British nationals of Indian origin were killed.

August 2010: The Supreme Court permitted the SIT to conduct further probe on the complaint by Zakia Jafri that Chief Minister Narendra Modi and 62 others orchestrated the 2002 riots in Gujarat.

March 2010: The trial was put on hold because of the resignation of the special prosecutor and his assistant. Both had alleged bias on the part of the trial judge and also accused the SIT of not properly coordinating their efforts with them.

March 2011: Gujarat Deputy Inspector-General of Police Sanjiv Bhatt, who is claimed to have spilled the beans on Modi's alleged controversial orders to the police on the eve of the 2002 communal riots, appeared before the Supreme Court-appointed SIT.

Family member wave to the case convicts as they are taken away in van, after the verdict on the case by a special SIT court in Ahmedabad

February 2012: The SIT in a "summary closure report" - says there was no "prosecutable evidence" against Narendra Modi, who was among 62 persons named in an omnibus complaint filed by Zakia Jafri and the Citizens for Justice and Peace.

March 2012: The Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court rejects Zakia Jafri's plea to making public the SIT report.

December 2013: Ahmedabad Metropolitan Court rejects the petition of Zakia Jafri against the closure report of the SIT giving a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister.

December 2013: Reacting to an Ahmedabad trial court verdict, R.K. Raghavan, head of the SIT appointed by the Supreme Court to go into Gujarat riots, says SIT's stand has been vindicated.

November 2014: The trial in the Gulbarg Society case, resumed following the Supreme Court's directions to conclude it in three months.

November 2014: The Supreme Court asks the Sessions Court to complete the trial in the Gulbarg case, one of the nine cases connected to the 2002 post-Godhra riots, in three months.

August 6, 2015: Supreme Court grants three-month extension to Ahmedabad court to complete trial proceedings in the case.

June 2, 2016: A Special court convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 others.
The Turkish prime minister on Thursday announced that Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Germany after the German parliament passed a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a "genocide".

Ambassador Huseyin Avni Karslioglu was expected to fly back to Turkey on Thursday afternoon, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The Turkish government reacted furiously to the decision of the German parliament to pass the motion, which was almost unanimous, with just one person voting against and another abstaining.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was currently on a state visit to Kenya, has said the German resolution will seriously impact relations between the two countries.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim condemned the move and said in a speech in the Turkish capital Ankara that a "racist Armenian lobby" was responsible for the vote decision of the German parliament.

The ruling AK Party in Turkey said the move had seriously damaged relations between the two countries, while Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus was equally scathing, calling the German parliament's resolution a "historic mistake".

In the build-up to the ballot, numerous Turkish politicians warned that relations between the two countries would suffer if the motion was passed to recognise the mass killings during the First World War as a genocide.

However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who missed the vote due to prior engagements, said that Berlin's relationship with Ankara was broad and strong.

--IANS

ahm/vt
Zakia Jafri, the widow of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, on Thursday said she was not satisfied with the verdict in the Gulberg Society massacre case and that many of the people acquitted by the special court were involved in the 2002 rioting.

Jafri said she will approach the Gujarat High Court.

"We will fight the case till our last breath," Jafri said talking to reporters in Ahmedabad.

"We along with Teesta Setalvad and a renowned lawyer from Delhi will continue to fight this case," said Jafri when asked about the options left with her.

Jafri also said the Congress as a party never interfered in the case and they have been at a receiving end of the political vendetta.

Earlier in the day, a special court here acquitted 36 of the 66 accused in the 2002 Gulberg Society massacre, which left 69 people killed, including Ehsan Jafri.

The court convicted 24 of the accused, among them a VHP leader.

--IANS

vin/rn/vt
The reported proposal to shift many government offices from the heart of New Delhi to a completely new complex some four kilometres away defies logic. It would seem that the prime minister does not want government offices distributed on both sides of Rajpath (the central vista in the colonial heart of Lutyens' Delhi), and thinks they should all be in one composite complex. It is not clear what the advantage would be of such a change, since newer government offices are in any case located all over the city, not just along Rajpath or a short distance from it; and still newer offices will doubtless need to get built as the government continues to expand.
A press briefing organised by the agriculture ministry to celebrate two years of the National Democratic Alliance government has become a talking point because of the absence of the ministers deputies. While one of the was engaged in assisting a candidate assigned by the Bharatiya Janata Party to file his Rajya Sabha nomination, not much is known about the whereabouts of the other minister. This elicited several queries from the people present at the event.
Amid speculation that would soon be elevated to the position of Congress president, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said such a development was welcome as it would only strengthen the Bharatiya Janata Partys resolve for a Congress-<I>mukt </I>Bharat. Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani seemed to agree with that view.  being elevated as Congress president means <I>achhe din </I>for us (BJP), she said. The Congress dismissed the possibility of Gandhis elevation while his mother and party chief Sonia Gandhi remained tight-lipped on the issue.
State Congress leadership has accused Governor Balramji Dass Tandon of "violating Constitutional norms" by making statements which are "against the post he is holding", and complained to President Pranab Mukherjee.

The Opposition party has shot off a letter to the President alleging Tandon is making statements which are against traditions and decorum attached to the post.

In the letter, written by Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel, the party has requested Mukherjee to take appropriate action against Tandon.

Baghel said a Congress delegation had recently met the governor to draw his attention to the violation of the rights of SC/STs and OBCs in the state due to some people taking quota benefits by submitting fake caste certificates.

The delegation had submitted a memorandum to the governor and demanded action against such people, he said.

A government statement later quoted the governor as saying the delegation that the issue is an "internal" matter of Congress and it should be tackled by the party at its own level, the letter alleged.

Baghel said the issue raised by the Congress was administrative in nature and related to the state government.

The Congress leader also drew attention to an interview Tandon gave to a Hindi newspaper, where he was quoted as saying that the job of the Opposition is to level allegations.

The governor is acting like a "spokesperson" for the government and giving statements which are in "violation of constitutional norms and propriety attached to his office", the letter said.

The main Opposition party had earlier accused the governor of indulging in .
When controversy-hit Eknath Khadse, senior minister in Maharashtra with charge of the revenue portfolio, left a cabinet meeting on Monday before it got over, in a private car, the general conclusion was that he was on the way out.

That impression has been strengthened as top government sources say they're unable to make contact with him. Amit Shah, national head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reportedly asked state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to resolve the Khadse issue "at the earliest". The BJPs partner in the government, the Shiv Sena, has already asked that he resign. And, former Aam Aadmi Party figure Anjali Damania began a hunger strike on Thursday for an inquiry into allegations of corruption against Khadse, also seeking his ouster from the ministry.

Khadse has also been a thorn in the side of Fadnavis, as he'd felt he should have been CM of the state. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi weighed in on the side of Fadnavis.

Khadse is currently in two major controversies, one involving a land deal and the other about his cell phone number appearing in the call records of India's most wanted gangster, Dawood Ibrahim.

"With the new facts, he is under a cloud. I am sure the party will take a decision soon," said Satyapal Singh of the BJP to news agency ANI.

In April, Khadse's wife, Mandakini, and son-in-law Girish Chaudhari bought a large lot of land on the outskirts of Pune for a little under Rs 4 crore. The land is worth at least Rs 30 crore by market value and had been acquired in the 1970s by a state company, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), which has the rights to lease but not sell the land, and to companies, not individuals.

Khadse has told his party his relatives bought the land, not he, and the earlier acquisition was never completed, which allowed its purchase from the original owner, Abbas Ukani, a 94-year-old who lives in Kolkata, and who says he was never given compensation by the government for the takeover, which means he retains all rights to it.

Khadse also notes his relatives paid stamp duty or tax on the market value and not the discounted rate of the property.

The 'whistle-blower' in the land deal is Hemant Gawande, a builder in Pune. "The laws have been violated because MIDC doesn't even know this land was purchased by a top politician and his family. MIDC told me this land is ours and no one can sell this. If it gets sold and we find out about it, we will lodge an FIR (police case) against the purchasers," he said on Thursday.

He warned that if the state corporation does not follow with action, he will go to court.

The other charge is of having been in touch with Dawood Ibrahim, according to Manish Bhangale, 27, a Gujarat-based computer hacker who has approached the Bombay High Court for protection. Bhangale has also pleaded that the state government be directed to ensure Khadse is constrained from interfering into the probe. The petition is likely to come up on Monday.

In his petition, Bhangale says he had hacked into the authentication process of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd, in April. He claimed the intention was to help the Indian government detect and nab anti-national elements such as Dawood. The call records accessed by Bhangale apparently show a conversation between Khadse and Ibrahim of at least five minutes. The telephone number called in Karachi is registered in the name of Mehjabeen Sheikh, wife of Dawood.

I have staked my career, my family and my own life for the sake of national security by penetrating into the Pakistan telecom system, only to be thrown to the wolves. The threats to life, apathy by police and indifference by Indian intelligence agencies have cornered me to such an extent that I am forced to repent my deed committed in the national interest, his petition claims.
Rahul Gandhi is taking most important decisions: he decided Tarun Gogoi must be the face of the Congress in Assam; he conceded a truce with Punjab Congress leader Amrinder Singh after doing battle with him for months. He was the one who dispatched Kamal Nath to meet rebels in Arunachal Pradesh led by Kalikho Pul who later toppled the government with the BJPs help and installed themselves in power. He was the one instrumental in appointing Prashant Kishor of IPaC to whom the Uttar Pradesh operations of the Congress have been outsourced.

So, for all practical intent and purposes, he is the one taking all the organizational decisions. So how much more authority is enough authority?

Then why the buzz about his 'elevation?

Heres a hypothesis.

The Congress is clear that Priyanka Gandhi is needed in UP. As an aside, the BJP also seems to think shes jumping into the fray  hence the timing  just before the UP elections where she is supposed to make a debut  of reports about Robert Vadra owning houses in London.

But if she is brought into active politics and Rahul stays where he is, it will mean a demotion of sorts for him  the message could be that he has failed so she has been brought in as a replacement.

One way of preventing this impression from gaining ground is to elevate him, bring her in and let the mother retire.

There is no way of crosschecking or verifying this. But if that happens, it will be a generational shift. And thats when the real fun and games will start  a clash of power centres that will surpass even Sonia Gandhi-PV Narasimha Rao; and Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh.

Lets wait.
Amid outburst from some of those named in the Prakash Singh Committee report on Jat violence, Haryana minister Anil Vij today said it was not a "gospel truth" but an "informative" report and not binding on the government.

"This is a 451-page report and we are studying each paragraph carefully. It is a report, it is not (holy) Gita that whatever Prakash Singh wrote, all of it has to be right or that those officers who have been found on the wrong foot are guilty," the minister said.

"May be, some officers are very good, their past record may be good. So, we will examine things carefully," he told reporters here when asked to comment on the probe report.

The five-time BJP MLA from Ambala Cantt said that the government has taken action wherever it deemed fit.

He also said that the Committee report was an "informative report" and not binding on the government.

"The Prakash Singh Committee report for us (the government) is only an informative report, which is that they (Committee) have probed and provided us with information. Even otherwise this report is not complete because the probe panel had three members, and out of three, two have not signed on the report," Vij, who has the reputation of even taking on his own government, said.

Notably, the Prakash Singh Committee report has indicted several top state police and civil officials for failing to control the riots in February this year that left 30 people dead. It identified about 90 officials who indulged in "deliberate negligence" when violence hit the state.

The report has received flak from some of those named by the panel.

In an unusual outburst, Deputy Commissioner of Jhajjar in Haryana Anita Yadav, who has been severely criticised by the Prakash Singh Committee, had yesterday slammed its report, terming it as a "bundle of lies".

BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini, who has been in the dock over his alleged anti-Jat rants, also hit out at the report and said that he would quit if it was proved that the violence was a result of his comments.
Three Indian Ambassadors to different countries today met Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here and invited the entrepreneurs of the state to set up ventures in these countries.

The Ambassador to Slovak Republic, Param Jit Mann, Ambassador-designate to Republic of Armenia, Yogeshwar Sangwan, and Ambassador to Republic of Mali, Ajay Kumar Sharma, met Khattar, an official release said.

Khattar assured cooperation of his government to the three countries and directed senior officers of the state government to remain in touch with the three ambassadors.

The diplomats appreciated the development made by Haryana and were all praise for the auto hub of Gurgaon, textiles units of Panipat and the food processing industry of the state, the release said.
Nine Income Tax department officials, who were trekking from Manali to Kangara's Bara Bhangal, had to discontinue their journey after three of them sustained injures, an official said today.

The officials, posted in Delhi, were trekking when three of them sustained injuries while crossing Thumbsar Pass and could not continue their journey, Deputy Commissioner of Kangra Ritesh Chouhan said.

The officials managed to reach a village in Bara Bhangal from where they will be airlifted and brought to Palampur, he said.

A helicopter, which was sent to airlift the trekkers today, failed to land due to bad weather. A fresh attempt shall be made tomorrow, the deputy commissioner said.
Three members of a gang, involved in several cases of murder and robberies, have been arrested from Najafgarh area in south west Delhi, police said today.

The arrested members of the Neetu Dabodia gang, identified as Rohit Sharma, Sandip Chahal and Shahid Ali were caught by a team of Crime Branch near Anaj Mandi of Jhaorda in Najafgarh on May 31, said Ravindra Yadav Joint Commissioner (Crime Branch) of Police.

Shahid Ali wanted in a murder case in Dwarka carries a cash reward of Rs 15,000 on his head.

Along with his associates Anil Puri and Sonu Peter, he had allegedly shot dead a banquet hall manager Rajesh Saini, 42, over a monetary dispute and dumped his dead body near a drain in Sector 8 Dwarka in 2014, he said.

Rohit Sharma and Sandeep Chahal had shot dead a government college lecturer Narender in Gannaur(Haryana) while trying to rob him, on February 8 this year, the officer said.

Rohit was also found involved in a murder case in Sonepat, in which he along with his associates Deepak Baiyanpuria and Joginder had shot dead Baiyanpuria's uncle Naresh in 2010.

The trio were also involved in several road robberies which are being verified, the officer added.
Around 600 suspected members of banned militant organisations, including Tahreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and Islamic State, have been arrestedin the last one year for publishing and distributing "hate" literature in the Punjab province.

According to Punjab Counter Terrorism Department of Punjab police, around 600"hate mongers" involved in publishing and distributing materials regarding projection of proscribed organisations, convicted terrorists and against particular sects have been arrested under the National Action Plan (NAP) in the last year.

Police recovered 32 banned books, 21 CDs, 213 magazines and 1,258 pamphlets of banned militant organisations from the suspects.

The suspects have been arrested and bookedunder the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Police have submitted charge sheet against 450 suspects in a court while over 100 have been convicted for up to five years.

The punishment for such offence in Pakistan is imprisonment which may extend to five years.
The fate of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, who is in the eye of a storm over allegations of corruption, hangs in balance even as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah and said the party will decide "appropriate action".

A top party later said action will be taken against Khadse but it will not happen "today", indicating that it may come in some time.

After a meeting with Shah, Fadnavis said he has submitted a report to him and they discussed the matter.

"I have submitted a factual report on the matters which have come up recently. We have discussed them as well. The party will direct whatever appropriation has to be taken ahead," he told reporters after the meeting.

He later had a meeting with Modi during which he is believed to have discussed the raging issue over Khadse, who also allegedly received telephone calls from a Dawood Ibrahim aide.

Khadse has been attacked by political rivals and BJP ally Shiv Sena over the alleged impropriety over purchase of a land belonging to the government-owned MIDC in Pune at a throwaway price.

BJP sources said Shah considers allegations against Khadse "serious". Political rivals are also using them to put the party in the dock over its claim of providing "corruption- free" government.

Khadse is in a spot over the purchase of 3-acre Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Bhosari allegedly at a low price of around Rs 3.75 crore from its original owner in the name of his wife and son-in-law. The market value of the land is reportedly Rs 40 crore.

However, the political stature of Khadse, an OBC leader who was a strong contender for the chief minister's post, is also weighing in the mind of the party's leadership before any action could be taken against him.

Khadse has insisted he has done no wrong.

(Reopens DEL 78)



Speaking to reporters in his hometown of Jalgaon, Khadse said he would abide by the party's directives.

"I will follow my party's instructions and will abide by its decisions," he told channels.

He, however, added: "The party leadership will not arrive at any decision in my case unless it is convinced (about the facts).

"I have worked for the party for the last 40 years to build it in the state. This cannot be negated suddenly. I have documents about my transactions...(those transactions) have no discrepancy," he said.

He would continue to tour to study the drought situation in the state along with the Central team delegated for the purpose, said the senior minister, who skipped a state cabinet meeting the day before yesterday in the midst of allegations and left for Jalgaon.
An Afghan official today said that an explosion at a market place in the western Laghman province has killed two civilians and wounded 16.

Sarhadi Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the blast took place in the Alisha district in the morning hours today, when the market was packed with shoppers.

In northern Sari Pul province, the governor's spokesman Zabiullah Amani said 17 people have been kidnapped by insurgents in Balkhab district. He said negotiations are underway for their release.

Elsewhere, Gen Mohammad Aaman Mammorzai said two Afghan men and a woman working for an international aid organisation were shot dead in the Shekh Ali district of northwestern Parwan province yesterday.

Mammorzai, who is the provincial police chief, said three people have been arrested.
Raising a banner of revolt, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister (CM) today threatened to form a new party and attacked his parent party Indian National Congress as the B-team of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) there, drawing sharp reaction from the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

Jogi's rebellion from Congress came almost six months after the party expelled his son Amit Jogi over alleged fixing of a 2014 Antagarh assembly bypoll to ensure ruling BJP's win in Chattisgarh.

The AICC had then also contemplated taking action againt but no decision was taken after that.

Jogi's move to quit Congress and float a new party to challenge the Raman Singh government is also being linked to the speculation about an expected elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the party President but he denied the suggestion saying, that has nothing to do with it.

"Around 15,000 persons are talking to me personally or on phone. I am under tremendous pressure from my well-wishers, supporters and friends that if Chattisgarh has to be made free from Raman Singh, then I will have to take this big step. Otherwise, Raman Singh will win the state for fourth time as there is no hope from Congress, which is playing as B-Team of Raman Singh," Jogi said.

His remarks are significant coming in wake of media speculation that he will break away from Congress and announce formation of a new party on June 6 in Marwahi.

Jogi said that his workers are pressurising him to get rid of this government. "That is why on the 6th, I will go to Marwahi, which is my birth place. That day I have also called 5,000 of my core supporters from all over the state. I will ask them," Jogi said.

To a question about whether he talked to the leadership in this regard, Jogi informed," Enough of talks have taken place in last three years, now there is compulsion."

Reacting sharply, Jogi's old rival AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh recalled his role in the Antagarh assembly bypoll and referred to the audio tape regarding fixing of the election by Jogi.

"The manner in which Jogi has sold off the Congress candidate Manturam Pawar to the BJP is for all of you to see. It is beneficial for Congress if such persons leave the party, who are engaged in trading the declared candidate of Congress for some crores of rupees," Singh said.

On January 6, cracking the whip over the issue of alleged fixing of Antagarh by-poll, the AICC had expelled Amit Jogi for six years and sought a report from the state unit on the entire matter.

The next day, Chhattisgarh unit of Congress had submitted a report to the AICC demanding sacking of .

The action had come days after some audio tapes emerged suggesting financial inducements behind the party's candidate withdrawing from an assembly by-election in the state last year.

The purported conversations among key political players of that time also hinted at the role of Ajit Jogi and Amit.

The PCC had asked for an explanation from Amit Jogi after this. In his communique, Amit had then denied the allegations.
A team of High Commissioners and Ambassadors representing various countries who are on a familiarisation visit to Tamil Nadu, today called on the state Governor K Rosaiah here.

Kenya High Commissioner to India Suchitra Durai, Lebanon Ambassador Anita Nayar, Malaysian High Commissioner T S Tirumurti, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, France Ambassador Dr Mohan Kumar called on Rosaiah, according to a Raj Bhavan release.

Prime Minister (Narendra Modi's) initiative to establish a State division headed by a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism to coordinate with States and Union Territories will promote export and tourism and attract more investments in India, the envoys said during the interaction with Rosaiah.

"Focus of the countries for investments in India especially in Tamil Nadu was on education exchange programme and in promotion of tourism," they said.

Rosaiah said the Global Investors Meet organised by the state government last year was an "effort to build the attractive growth prospects and the government's commitment to make the state as the most preferred investment destination".

"Tamil Nadu has made rapid strides in the pursuit of economic development. State is an information technology and knowledge hub with broad-based manufacturing sector," he said.

On the occasion, the Governor presented the book 'Raj Bhavans of Tamil Nadu' to the Ambassadors and High Commissioners, it said.
The June 19 by-election to the Anantnag Assembly seat, where Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is contesting, is likely to be postponed by a few days as the Jammu and Kashmir government apprehends law and order situation in view of the death anniversary of a religious preacher falling on that day.

In a communication, state Chief Secretary B R Sharma has told the Election Commission that the administration apprehends law and order problems on June 19 when the death anniversary of Qazi Nisar, a religious figure in South Kashmir, will be observed.

Nisar, who was the founding member of the Muslim United Front (MUF) in late 19080's was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in nearby Dialgam village on June 19, 1994.

MUF was an amalgam of various parties including Jamaat-e -Islamia formed to counter National Conference-Congress alliance in 1987 elections.

The Anantnag town observes a complete shut down in memory of Nisar.

The letter from the state government said that the town generally observes a strike and it may be a law and order situation if elections were held on that day, the sources said.

June 22 had been given as a choice for holding the by- election.

The state government had earlier also sought postponement of elections in this assembly seat on May 16 by flagging law and order situation.

The seat had fallen vacant after the demise of former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on January 7 this year. His daughter and present incumbent Mehbooba Mufti has filed nomination from this seat.

Besides her, eight others including an independent MLA from Langate Sheikh Abdul Rashid have filed their nomination papers for the by-election to this seat.

Opposition National Conference (NC) candidate Iftikhar Hussain Misgar and Rashid filed their nomination papers yesterday. Congress has fielded Hilal Ahmad Shah.
A policeman was today killed and five others, including a senior officer, were injured in violence during an anti-encroachment drive in Mathura district, a top official said here.

The incident occurred when the policemen were trying to remove encroachment upon a land in Mathura on the directions of the Allahabad High Court, IG (Law and Order) H R Sharma told PTI.

"Santosh Kumar, SHO, Sarah police station was killed in firing by the encroacher, whereas SP (City) Mukul Dwivedi also sustained bullet injury and he critical," he said.

Sharma said around 3000 encroacher pelted stones and later opened fire at the police team as they reached the spot.

In retaliation, the police had to fire after using batons and tear gas at them, he said.

Four more policemen were injured in the clash with two sustaining bullet injuries, adding, the operation is still on.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expressed grief over the incident and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the deceased policeman.

He directed the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) to rush to the spot and bring the situation under control.

He also directed that additional police reinforcement be rushed to the area and the guilty be arrested.

Over two years ago, activists of splinter group of Baba Jai Gurudeo, claiming themselves to be member of 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi', had occupied hundreds of acres of land of Jawahar Bagh on the pretext of 'dharna'.

Their demands included cancellation of election of President and Prime Minister of India, replacement of existing currency with 'Azad Hind Fauj' currency, sale of diesel at the rate of 60 litres for one rupee and petrol at the rate of 40 litres for one rupee.

The high court, acting on a PIL, had recently directed the authorities to vacate the land.
The violence in Mathura during an encroachment drive claimed the lives of 14 people and injured over 40 people.

Superintendent of Police (City) Mukul Dwivedi succumbed to a bullet injury late last evening. Along with him, a Station House Officer (SHO) was also killed in clashes. Twelve other encroachers died in the violence that took place, said Daljeet Singh Chaudhary, ADG, Law and Order.

The violence occurred in Jawahar Bag when the policemen were trying to remove encroachment upon a land in Mathura by activists, believed to be of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi, on the directions of the Allahabad High Court.

"Santosh Kumar, SHO, Farah police station was killed in firing by the encroachers," IG (Law and Order) H R Sharma told PTI. SP (City) Mukul Dwivedi succumbed to bullet injury later, reports say.

District Divisional Commissioner, Agra, Pradeep Bhatnagar said a civilian was also killed.

Sharma said around 3,000 encroachers pelted stones and later opened fire at the police team as they reached the spot.

In retaliation, the police had to fire after using batons and tear gas at them, he said.

CMO Mathura Vivek Mishra said at least four dozen people including, two dozen police personnel were injured in the clashes.

Search operations were on in Jawahar Bag though activists of Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi were dispossessed by the joint operation of civil police, PAC and RAF.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav expressed grief over the incident and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the deceased policeman.

He directed the Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) to rush to the spot and bring the situation under control. He also directed that additional police reinforcement be rushed to the area and the guilty be arrested.

Country-made guns, rifles, pistols & cartridges recovered from spot, search op underway: ADG (Law & Order) #Mathura pic.twitter.com/kpEmEIPZGr  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 3, 2016

Ram Vraksha Yadav, leader of the activists and the security officer of the group Chandan Gaur managed to flee along with thousands of their supporters, DM Rajesh Kumar said.

The activists were offensive from the beginning and used not only hand grenades but also started firing with automatic weapons after taking position at tree tops, he said.

The area was filled with smoke due to blast of hand grenades and LPG cylinders following which several huts caught fire which was finally doused by fire tenders, the DM said.

Over two years ago, activists of splinter group of Baba Jai Gurudeo, claiming themselves to be member of 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi', had occupied hundreds of acres of land of Jawahar Bagh on the pretext of 'dharna'.

Their demands included cancellation of election of President and Prime Minister of India, replacement of existing currency with 'Azad Hind Fauj' currency, sale of diesel at the rate of 60 litres for one rupee and petrol at the rate of 40 litres for one rupee.

The high court, acting on a PIL, had recently directed the authorities to vacate the land.
Action star Arnold Schwarzenegger had a nerve-racking experience on his trip to South Africa, when he got chased by an elephant.

The 68-year-old former California governor shared a video of his close encounter the animal blocking the road in front of his group's vehicle, and then walking around the car and chasing it as it drove away.

"I couldn't have written this safari encounter better if it was a movie," Schwarzenegger captioned the video.

In the short clip, the driver shuts off the engine to avoid startling the behemoth, but when he turns the car back on the elephant bellows and backs away.

"Is he backing up because of the engine?" one passenger asks.

"No, he's going to charge us," Schwarzenegger replies.

Even after the horrifying experience, the "Terminator" star praised the stunning creature for its beauty and might.

"I'm absolutely in awe of these beautiful, strong animals, even though some of us had to change our pants after this. We need to stop killing them - take a photo, not a shot. Would you rather be able to experience these creatures or a hunk of ivory? I thought so," he wrote.
Delhi Police today held several sensitisation meetings here with local residents and African nationals in different parts of the city, in continuation of its bid to ease the sense of insecurity among the people of African-origin.

The African nationals residing in areas in north-west Delhi today participated in a meeting organised by DCP Vijay Singh.

"The meeting was held to reassure them of prompt redressal of their grievances and to apprise them of various steps taken by the police for ensuring their safety and security," Singh said.

The meetings have been prompted in the wake of a sting of assaults on Afrcans in some parts of the country including Delhi.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had instructed Delhi Police to ensure safety and security of African people living in the national capital.

The African persons have also been requested by cops to contact the local police whenever they feel uncomfortable or apprehensive. In case of emergency they have been requested to call 100 or 8750871111, a dedicated helpline for them, he said.

Patrolling in areas where they reside has been intensified and local communities of resident welfare association, market welfare associations, are also being sensitised in this regard, he said.

President of AINCA, an association of African people in the city, Nelson Arenja participating in the meeting appreciated steps to strengthen bonds with local communities.

North Delhi police will host a sensitisation meet at Civil Lines area, especially for African persons and locals residing together in certain localities, close to the Delhi University campus.

"This session is being organised to strengthen bonhomie with African nationals living in Delhi and to sensitise the members of residents welfare associations about issues pertaining to them," DCP (North) Madhur Verma said.

A senior Delhi Police officer said that such programmes were planned to be held across the city including in east and west Delhi.

Earlier, such sensitisation meets were conducted by Delhi Police in areas like Chhatarpur, Mehrauli, Malviya Nagar and Hauz Rani in south Delhi.
The External Affairs Ministry today claimed it has been successful in "defusing" the apprehensions of the African community in the wake of string of attacks on African nationals.

"We have, I think, been successful in defusing the issue that was building up," he said, listing steps to address concerns of African community while replying to a question on the issue.

He also referred to the "heart warming" and "positive" statement issued by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after meeting a group of African envoys and students on Tuesday, besides the sensitisation campaign carried out by her MoS V K Singh in Chattarpur in South Delhi.

"I appeal to fellow Indians. Next time you meet an African citizen, pl shake hand and say 'India loves you'," Swaraj tweeted.

The MEA Spokesperson said Singh will visit Bengaluru, Goa and cities where there is concentration of African nationals, to carry out the sensitisation campaign.

He said African envoys will be involved in identifying cities where African community has sizable presence.

Swaraj on Tuesday had announced a slew of steps including a country-wide sensitisation campaign after a meeting with African envoys and students.
The Bank of England today unveiled the design of a new USD 5 (6.5 euros, USD 7.2) banknote bearing the image of wartime leader Winston Churchill at an event in his family's ancestral home of Blenheim Palace.

The note, to be rolled out from September, is the first to be printed on polymer -- a thin, flexible plastic film that is seen as more durable and secure and is already used in Australia and Canada.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney paid tribute to Churchill's "bulldog spirit" and said currency was "memory for a country and its people".

The banknote carries a famous Churchill quote from a speech to parliament during World War II in 1940 in which he said: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat".

In the background is an image of the Houses of Parliament, its clock tower showing 3 PM -- the approximate time he pronounced his speech.

Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire on November 30, 1874. He died aged 90 on January 24, 1965.

The new note will be 15 per cent smaller than the old one, can be wiped clean and is tear-resistant.

Current USD 5 notes feature prison reformer Elizabeth Fry and the announcement that they would be phased out sparked a public outcry over the lack of female figures on banknotes -- except for Queen Elizabeth II.

Following a protest petition, the Bank of England announced the new USD 10 note, which will come out from 2017, will feature novelist Jane Austen.
It is time to acknowledge the "uncomfortable" truth that the Islamic State is linked with Islam as the terror group is "not preaching Judaism", the BBC's head of religion and ethics has said.

Professor Aaqil Ahmed, the first Muslim to hold the role at the British corporation, said in a speech at Huddersfield University it was wrong to suggest that the terrorist group "has nothing to do with Islam".

"I hear so many people say ISIS has nothing to do with Islam -- of course it has. They are not preaching Judaism. It might be wrong but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine," Ahmed said last week.

The academic wasfielding questions about the BBC's approach to Muslim issues at the event curated by Lapido, the centre for religious literacy in journalism.

"They (Islamic State) are Muslims. That is a fact and we have to get our head around some very uncomfortable things. That is where the difficulty comes in for many journalists, because the vast majority of Muslims won't agree with them," he said.

The BBC had come under fire from British Prime Minister David Cameron for using the term "Islamic State" rather than 'Daesh' in reference to the terrorist group.

The Prime Minister in January had said, "I think Muslim families around the country would have held their heads in despair this morning when once again you just called it 'Islamic State'. You didn't even say 'so-called Islamic State'. It's so important."



The BBC has since resorted to the phrase 'so-called Islamic State' when referring to ISIS.
The Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch (BBSM), a movement favouring mother tongue as a medium of instruction in Goa, is now seeking to emerge as a political alternative against the Congress and ruling BJP in the state, a party official said.

"We are working on a political alternative and the announcement about it would be made on October 2 this year. The alternative may be in the form of a political party that will contest all the 40 constituencies during upcoming 2017 Goa Assembly polls or support the political outfit which pledges for the cause of mother tongue as Medium of Instruction," BBSM co-ordinator Subhash Velingkar, who also the Goa RSS chief told PTI in an interview.

BBSM has been demanding withdrawal of grants given to English medium schools besides announcement of mother tongue as MOI in Goa.

The outfit which claimed to be an 'apolitical' platform has been holding several public meetings. They had supported BJP during 2012 Goa polls.

"They are taking us for granted but that is their grave mistake. Whether it is Congress or BJP, for us, ideology is most important," he said.

"Since both these parties do not represent our sentiments, BBSM has decided to project itself as the third political alternative. When we will go all out against the BJP, our action would be similar to that of any political platform rivalling it.

"Pre-2012 polls, our fight against erstwhile Congress led government was only based on MOI, but later we widened the scope making it Congress-hatao campaign. Similar steps would be taken against BJP," he said.

In order to build pressure on the Laxmikant Parsekar-led government, BBSM has decided to boycott government functions as a mark of protest.

Velingkar said the state government will act only when they will realise that their prospects to get elected again in the election are dwindling.

Also, BBSM has decided to hold token hunger strike on June 18, which is commemorated as Goa Revolution Day.

"We will not boycott the function as it is an event of



the freedom fighters," he said.

Stating that RSS' ideology is parallel to the stand of BBSM on MOI issue, Velingkar said the Sangh volunteers are bound by the resolutions adopted by RSS during its national executive meeting.

"These resolutions are so much important that various embassies keep a tab on them. RSS resolution in March 2015 has specifically said that primary education across the country should be in mother tongue," he said.

Those states ruled by "like-minded parties" should implement it and where there are no like-minded governments, we have to create conducive situations to enforce it. It is not just RSS ideology, what we have been following is an universal ideology, he said.

Talking about BBSM's tiff with former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Velingkar said the way he treated the issue in last two years, it amounted to cheating.

"Parrikar promised us that he will withdraw grants given by Congress government to English medium schools at the right time but he cheated on it. Parrikar told us that grants to English medium schools is a temporary phase and final solution would be worked out. We had asked for an appointment with Parrikar and Chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar but both of them did not have time for us," he added.
Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today came out in defence of his besieged aide Appa Rao for his alleged contacts with arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari, saying that he has "confidence" in him and that the charges can be verified.

Rao is at the centre of a controversy involving Bhandari, who is being probed for allegedly buying a benami house for Robert Vadra in London.

"If anyone has clandestine deal with me, I want to know how they had it. It is my job to see that there is nothing clandestine going on, it is simply that. As long as I have confidence in him (Rao), he is there because he is my appointee," Raju told channels.

"What is the allegation against him? That he has spoken so many times. That(allegation) is verifiable. And it will be verified...My personal staff, I am responsible for them, I choose them. If my personal staff has done something, it is my personal responsibility. I am supposed to be there, they are accountable to me. I am very clear on that," Raju said.

"If you have an allegation, please give it. If you say a person has talked over phone, that is verifiable... We are for zero corruption. If you have a corruption charge, please tell us. I am not going to encourage corruption much less in my personal staff".

"You don't hang a fellow before you talk to him. Let us also be reasonable,"he said.

According to investigation agencies, Bhandari was constantly in touch with Rao, who is Raju's Officer on Special Duty (OSD), and allegedly made some 355 calls to him, a charge denied by Rao who insisted that the relationship was only "professional".

"First of all so many calls would not have been there, I tell you. It was a professional relationship..He (Bhandari) came to meet the minister 3-4 times, in the last one-and-a-half years. ..It was only a professional relation.

"We got an acquaintance for the first time at the Bangalore Air show. He (Bhandari) had invited the minister to see his stall. Minister went and saw it. I don't have any personal relationship," Rao said.

Meanwhile, Raju today called off a scheduled press conference to announce consumer-centric initiatives taken by his ministry which said more internal discussions were needed on them.
Faced with worst ever drought, the district in has desilted historical wells and tanks for the first time in the last five decades with minimum investment and created an extra water storage of over 10 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) while setting an example for other 250-odd drought-hit districts in India.

With desilting work to continue till arrival of monsoon next week, the district administration plans to add another 10 tmc storage space in tanks and wells, taking the total extra storage capacity to 20 tmc.

The good work being done in the district prompted the state government to announce last month a 'Kere Sanjivini' scheme to clean and dredge tanks and wells in all drought-hit districts in the state but funds have not yet reached them.

The 'Bidar model' is unique in the sense that the district administration started work in March itself and spent about Rs 2.5 crore to remove 26 lakh cubic metre of silt, which otherwise would have cost not less than Rs 100 crore.

"I have seen one of the worst droughts here. We took several steps to address water crisis. We initiated timely desilting work in many water bodies. All these efforts will go a long way in drought-proofing the district, which is the only sustainable way," Deputy Commissioner Anurag Tewari told PTI.

Stating that the public participation helped the district administration reduce the cost of desilting work in a big way, he said that farmers volunteered when "we asked them to take the unearthed nutrient-rich soil for free to their farm fields".

The government rate for desilting one cubic metre of soil was Rs 60, while the district administration spent less than Rs 11, especially to cover expenses of excavator, diesel and driver, said District Tank Desilting panel head Balhim Kamle.

So far, the district has completed desilting in 200 open wells out of 1,000, 100 tanks out of 120 in five taluks, 20 temple tanks out of 400 and the work is being carried to add another 10 tmc extra storage before arrival of monsoon rains, he said.

The water from these desilted open wells has been tested and is being supplied through tankers for drinking water purpose.

A major intervention in water conservation was that the district initiated, for the fist time in the last many years, the desilting of ancient underground water tunnels called 'Karez' system that originated in Iran, Tewari said.

The Bidar Karez, built in the 15th century, is more than 3 kilometres long with 21 air vents. There are 12 water network lines in the district and desilting of each line is estimated to cost Rs 2 crore. Desilting work has begun in one line already.

"This is the biggest intervention undertaken to restore ancient water bodies. The lines are more hazardous and it might take more time to clear them. The state government has given Rs 8 crore for this purpose," the deputy commissioner said.

All these efforts coupled with reforestation program of planting one crore trees in the district and promotion of rainwater and micro-irrigation, "should help us save from drought in the next ten years", Tewari said.

The district reported about 125 farmer suicide cases in the last two drought years that affected the agriculture sector, livelihood of farmers and created drinking water crisis.

During the field visit to a desilted Deshmukh tank, which is spread over 15 acres in Aurad taluk, 40-year old Shanur Bhegum, who was fetching water from the tank, said: "This tank had remained dry for last 30-35 years. The rejuvenation of this tank has helped us a lot as we are able carry water for cleaning and other purpose. We are using water supplied through tankers for drinking."

The district officials said that about Rs 1.5 lakh was spent for desilting up to 12 feet of the Deshmukh tank and to create additional water storage of 6 crore litre.

"The work was completed in a fortnight. There will not be water problem in Aurad taluk in next 5-7 years even if there is drought," Tank Desilting Committee head Kamle said.

Initially, two excavators were involved in the work but farmers started volunteering when they were asked to carry unearthed soil from the tank for free. The desilted soil is fertile for farming purpose and rare to find, he said.

Unlike neighbouring states Maharashtra and Telangana, the district administration did not focus on digging new open wells, instead it rejuvenated historical wells which were constructed way back in the 12th century.

In Basavakalyana taluk, which is 80 kilometres away from Bidar, all 12 historical wells have been cleaned and in some wells soil has been desilted up to a depth of 40 feet.

The taluk faced severe drinking water crisis in March due to drying up of 'Chulkinaala tank' for the first time this year due to drought. But the district administration desilted 2 lakh cubic metre of water here and this will recharge open wells, borewells and groundwater in this taluk.

Having realised the benefits of desilted soil, 50-year old farmer Gundappa is one among many farmers in the district who spent money on his own for transportation of the black soil to his fields.

"I have 5 acres of land. I have topped black soil in 1.5 acres and preparing the field for sowing kharif crops, specially tur, jowar and soyabean. The soil is so rich in nutrients that I need not spend much on fertilisers," he said.

Gundappa hopes to reap good harvest this time on forecast of better rains after repeated crop failure due to drought.

Black-topped fields are making an appearance in most parts of the district as farmers have already spread desilted soil in over 50,000 acres out of total farm land of 9.14 lakh acres in the district.

Drought-hit farmers are now pinning hopes on black rich soil and good monsoon to reap record harvest this year even as the government has announced a substantial hike in the minimum support price of kharif crops.

The water conservation work will not stop with the arrival of monsoon rains, said the deputy commissioner who plans to promote next rain water harvesting and boost tourism sector to give alternative jobs to drought-hit farmers, for which a Rs 274 crore proposal has been submitted to the Centre.
BJP may take a decision on declaring its chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls at its national executive meeting to be held here next week, party's national vice-president Om Prakash Mathur said today.

"A decision may be taken at the national executive meeting on June 12-13 as to whether or not the party will be going to the UP assembly polls with a chief ministerial candidate.

"Initially the plan was to fight the elections on the plank of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, the option of declaring a CM candidate has also been kept open," Mathur told reporters.

Mathur, who is also in-charge of party affairs in UP, said "BJP is keen to repeat in 2017 its handsome performance during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when we contested 78 out of 80 seats in the state and won 71. Assembly polls in UP will obviously be the main focus of the two-day meeting though other issues concerning the party will also be discussed".

He, however, declined to comment when asked about names of leaders that might be doing round for the party's chief ministerial candidate.

The BJP national vice-president was here to take stock of preparations for the national executive meeting, which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah, party Chief Ministers and others.
Joining the chorus for Maharashtra Revenue minister Eknath Khadse's ouster over allegations of wrongdoings, Shiv Sena today reminded ally BJP of its promise of a corruption-free rule and demanded Chief Minster Devendra Fadnavis to clarify his stand on the issue.

The BJP, however, retorted saying the Sena should stop interfering in its internal affairs and that the party leadership was capable of taking a call on the issue.

"Eknath Khadse is a senior leader of the BJP and at a time when allegations are being leveled against him, he is the only one answering everybody. The Chief Minister is not speaking on the issue at all," Sena MP Sanjay Raut told reporters here.

"The CM should immediately speak on the issue. The BJP, before coming to power, had promised of corruption-free governance and today serious allegations are being leveled against its leader. There seems to be inconsistency in the promises made by the BJP," he said.

Raut said if Khadse has not done anything wrong, the CM should come forward and say so.

"The BJP should maintain moral standards. We will take a stand on the issue once the CM speaks on the demand for Khadse's resignation," he said.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, however, said that party president Raosaheb Danve has already backed Khadse over the issue.

"The Sena should stop advising the BJP and stop interfering in our internal matters. We have already taken a clear stand on Khadse and the BJP leadership is capable enough to take the necessary decision over the issue," he said.

Khadse has found himself embroiled in a series of controversies over allegations of impropriety in purchase of a Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Pune and alleged calls from fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim's residence to his mobile.

It is also alleged that when he was a minister in Shiv Sena-BJP government in late 1990s, he had conceived the Tapi Irrigation Development Corporation and got awarded contracts to his relatives and supporters.

Also, a plot purchased by Khadse's wife in April 2012 was not mentioned in Khadse's election affidavit in 2014, and the user (the stipulated purpose for which the land is to be used) was changed arbitrarily from educational purpose to residential.

Meanwhile, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan demanded that Khadse be immediately sacked and a case registered against him.

Former AAP leader Anjali Damania has launched a hunger strike demanding an inquiry into the allegations of corruption against Khadse and has sought his ouster from the state cabinet.
The BJP's Hazaribagh unit today described some anti-development elements agitating in Hazaribagh's Barkagaon area as pretence and said it will not help the people.

Meeting Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on the direction of Yashwant Sinha over the issue, the party's Hazaribagh unit president Tunu Bhagat issued a press statement saying the Centre and the Jharkhand governments were committed for the development of farmers.

"Gram Uday and Bharat Uday are our pledge... The first agriculture Budget by the Raghubar Das Government shows concern for the farmers," Bhagat said alleging the opposition was trying to spread confusion as it was unable to digest development programmes, but would not succeed.

Referring to the displacement issue at Barkagaon, Bhagat said the party would establish direct contact with the people through a campaign and ensure genuine compensation to the farmers and development would accelerate.

On his meeting with the Chief Minister, Bhagat said Das assured the delegation that the government was with every village, the poor and the farmers and would not allow injustice to the farmers.
Britain and France urged the United Nations to begin humanitarian air drops to Syria's besieged areas including a rebel-held town near Damascus after the first aid convoy there in years contained no food.

In northern Syria, a US-supported Kurdish-Arab alliance today pressed its advance towards the town of Manbij held by the Islamic State jihadist group.

A US-led coalition is backing offensives against the extremists in Syria and neighbouring Iraq where forces have surrounded the IS-held city of Fallujah.

Humanitarian access in Syria has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed at least 280,000 people and displaced millions.

Last month the United Nations said if it did not see improvement on aid access to besieged areas by June 1, it would task the World Food Programme to carry out air drops.

Calls from London and Paris for aerial aid came despite supply deliveries yesterday to two towns besieged by government forces where civilians are facing food shortages.

A local truce allowed a convoy to enter the town of Daraya near Damascus for the first time since late 2012, while another entered the nearby town of Moadamiyeh for the first time since March.

But Syria's opposition said only medical supplies were in the Daraya delivery and British charity Save the Children said it was "shocking and completely unacceptable" that it excluded desperately needed food.

According to the United Nations, a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria - the majority surrounded by government forces - and another four million live in hard-to-reach areas.

Britain has called for an emergency Security Council meeting tomorrow to discuss humanitarian access and to press ahead with air drops.

"It's too little, too late," said British envoy Matthew Rycroft, referring to yesterday's land deliveries.

French ambassador Francois Delattre, who holds the council presidency this month, blamed the Syrian regime for blocking access to towns and villages under siege.

"France is asking the United Nations and in particular the WFP to begin humanitarian air drops for all the areas in need, beginning with Daraya, Moadamiyeh and Madaya, where the civilian population including children risks dying of hunger," Delattre told a press conference.

Madaya became infamous in late 2015 after dozens starved in the town, which is besieged by pro-government forces.

It however remains unclear whether the Syrian government will give its approval for air drops.
The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) has put on hold the results of the toppers of Arts and Science streams of class X11 examination and called the first seven rank holders of the two streams for test tomorrow following media expose on some of their purported inability to answer basic questions.

"A total of 14 toppers, first seven rank holders each of Arts and Science streams have been called for a written exam as well as interview by a team of experts on June 3 to verify the truth of the results. Their results were also put on hold," BSEB Secretary Harihar Nath Jha said today, adding that the decision was taken last evening.

Those summoned for re-exam includes Arts topper in the state's current plus-two examination Ruby Rai and Science stream topper Saurabh Kumar, he said.

Some channels had earlier shown the girl who topped the state government's plus two examination in Humanities had purportedly pronouncing 'Political Science' as 'Prodigal Science' and describing it as a subject related to cooking. Similarly, the boy who topped in Science was purportedly unaware of electron and proton.

Both toppers hailed from the Bishun Rai college in Bhagwanpur in Vaishali district. The institution had courted controversy last year as well when the then Education Minister P K Shahi had ordered withholding its results following complaints of large-scale irregularities.

Meanwhile, District Education Officer of Vaishali Satya Narayan Prasad said the BSEB instruction asking the toppers to appear before a team of experts tomorrow in Patna was today served to the Bishun Rai College for compliance.

State Education Minister Ashok Choudhary has already expressed his anger over "lapse" shown by the Board in publication of results.
Border Security Force (BSF) troops in South Bengal Frontier today seized silver granules weighing about 9.7 kg with a market value of about Rs 4,02,200.

According to a BSF statement, the seizure was made during a special operation in the border area of Halderpara outpost under Krishnaganj Police Station in Nadia district.

"The miscreants fled when challenged by the BSF troops and left behind nine plastic packets containing the precious metal," the release said.

The seized items have been handed over to customs authorities at Banpur in Nadia district for further legal action, said R P S Jaswal, BSF DIG of South Bengal Frontier, it said.

With this, the BSF South Bengal Frontier has seized 51.045 kg of silver valued at Rs 14,99,989 during the current year, the release added.
State-run firm BSNL today announced partnership with Hitachi Payment Services for facilitating round-the-clock phone bill payment through ATM.

"Some customers often miss to pay bill because of fix timing of BSNL counters. With these ATMs in place, customers will be able to pay their bill during any time of the day," BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said while inaugurating the ATM facility in Pune.

Under the partnership, Hitachi's ATMs will be installed in all major customer service centers of BSNL. BSNL will provide free space in its premises to Hitachi to install and maintain ATMs.

BSNL customers will be able to pay their bills through these ATMs.
A city-based builder, from whom former Bollywood actor Mamta Kulkarni had bought flats, has denied any link with her husband Vicky Goswami, a drug racket prime accused, or with drug syndicate.

Shabbir Patel, who faced allegations of links with drug mafia, has written a letter to Thane Police Commissioner Parambir Singh rejecting the charge.

"I have no links with anyone by the name of Vicky Goswami. The assertion made is absolutely false and unfounded and it is an irresponsible statement made with wanton disregard that is both bad in facts and in law," Patel, of Oscar Builders, stated in his letter.

Admitting he had sold flats to Mamta in 1994, the realtor said she was then not married.

"Four flats were purchased by Mamta Kulkarni and her mother through cheques and there are agreements," he said.

In the letter, Patel's legal advisors said their client has no criminal antecedents and he was no more active in realty business.

"He has not carried out development of any property for more than past 18 years in Mumbai. In fact, our client is a 64-year-old senior citizen who is leading a retired life. He has no criminal antecedents as well," the legal advisors said.

They said Patel has a long running dispute with his son, Shadaab, who "habitually files false and frivolous cases" against him to extort money.

Patel stated if the police still need to conduct an investigation into the purchase of the flats, Shadaab's relationship with Mamta and Vicky should be investigated.

Goswami, whose name figured in the recent drug seizure in Thane, has junked allegations of him being a druglord. He is said to be currently based in Kenya.
Over the past 30 years, the systems and institutions of Jammu and Kashmir have not worked the way they were meant to and the PDP-BJP government is building new systems and create avenues of employment, Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu said here today.

Replying to the debate on Budget in the Assembly, he acknowledged that the systems of governance cannot change overnight but said the government is modifying institutional structures to restore efficiency and transparency.

He said proposals made in the Budget for 2016-17 will overhaul the systems of governance and restore accountability of institutions in the state.

The rate of J&K's growth has been projected from nearly 13 percent last fiscal to about 14 percent in the Annual Budget 2016-17, the Finance Minister said.

"The policy adopted by the government will focus on building new systems and creating avenues of employment. Over the past 30 years all the systems and our institutions have not worked the way they were meant to do so," Drabu said.

Citing the example of Jammu Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation, the Finance Minister said the Public Sector Undertaking used to sub-contract the award of distribution of ration to third parties, resulting in delays, revenue loss and corruption.

"My work will be to build systems. We will restore the institutions of governance. We want J&K to be a state where systems function independently without anyone's personal interests, because none of us have any personal interests," he said.

Drabu said the District Development Board meetings were held ahead of the Budget Session for the first time in the history of Jammu and Kashmir and the systems of governance and democracy are being strengthened under the leadership of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

"For the first time, we have made it mandatory that unless the MLAs sign the proposals of DDB meetings, it will not be cleared. It is not a one-sided affair. The MLAs must realize what they say in this House, they are accountable to people, because what they say can have grave ramifications on the state," he said.

"Streamlining systems doesn't require budgetary allocation. It requires political will and efficiency in the systems," Drabu said.

He said the new procurement policy for Roads and Buildings Department and CAPD Department proposed in the Budget will bring transparency in our institutions.

No budget will carry any meaning unless there is transparency and accountability of the systems, he said.
Burkina Faso police have arrested six "foreigners" suspected of being behind jihadist attacks in January that left 30 people dead, the government and police has said.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed it was behind an assault on a top hotel and a cafe, both popular with foreigners, which also left 70 people wounded.

"Six individuals of foreign nationalities were arrested on Monday May 30 in Ougadougou," the national police said in a statement.

These people are believed to have "sheltered and aided the perpetrators of the attack in Ougadougou, and worked with the ringleader of the attacks (who is) still being tracked down".

Burkina's Minister of Internal Security, Simon Compaore, told reporters the arrests were made thanks to intelligence shared by other West African security forces.

Security forces have already detained a 38-year-old local man in connection with the attacks on the four-star Hotel Splendid and the nearby Cappuccino cafe.

Until this year, Burkina Faso had largely avoided the attacks and hostage-taking by jihadist groups that have wracked other Sahel countries since 2008.

Yesterday, unidentified gunmen killed three police officers in northern Burkina Faso near the Malian border -- the second attack on a police station near the frontier in less than a fortnight.

The day after the January attacks, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped in the north of the country where they had lived for more than four decades.

The woman, Jocelyn Elliot, was released in early February, but her 82-year-old husband Kenneth Elliot is still being held.
The mortal remains of two Army officers and jawans, who were killed in the fire at the Central Ammunition Depot (CAD) in Pulgaon, were flown to their native places this morning.

The mortal remains were brought to the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport here from Pulgaon. While three of them were sent to Delhi, one was sent to Mumbai, Defence PRO Wing Commander Sameer Gangakhedkar.

The remains of Lt Col R S Pawar will be sent to Haridwar via Delhi and that of Naik Ran Singh to Rewari in Haryana.

The remains of Sepoy Satya Prakash from Defence Security Corps (DSC) will be taken to Kanpur, it added.

The coffin of Major K Manoj was sent to Thiruvananthuram for Allapujha via Mumbai, the release said.

A massive fire had broken out at one of Asia's biggest ammunition depot in Maharashtra's Pulgaon that houses the largest stockpile of weapons in the country, in which 19 people were killed.
Bihar's Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav today charged the Centre of neglecting the construction of national highways in Bihar.

"Bihar has been completely ignored by the Centre vis-a-vis construction of roads, which is evident from the target set by the NH wing of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping ministry for 2016-17," Yadav said.

Yadav, who holds the road construction department, said the NH wing has set a target of constructing 4,243 km of roads in Maharashtra against Bihar's target of 212 km of roads, which was just two per cent of the total target of 11,500 km set for the entire nation in 2016-17.

He said the ministry has also "neglected" Bihar on account of widening of NHs, and out of 7,000 kms of NH roads set as target for widening across the country, Maharashtra has been awarded the work for 1,346 km while Bihar has been awarded 184 kms in 2016-17.

The deputy chief minister said the three bridges mentioned in the special package annunced by the Prime Minister has not made any significant progress except inviting tenders for preparation of DPRs for these bridges.

As per the special package, the three bridges included a four-lane bridge parallel to the existing Mahatma Gandhi Setu in Patna on river Ganga, an bridges on Kosi and Sone rivers.

Similarly, work on 1,800 kms of state highway roads, which have been upgraded to NH has not made any progress too except inviting tender for the preparation of DPR, he alleged.

He said the Railways have "not initiated" work for construction of ROBs despite the state government giving in writing that it would give 50 per cent as its share for construction of 26 ROBs sanctioned in the past six months, besides 27 ROBs which were pending for the past five years.

Yadav said he has written several letters to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and also met him in May in this regard.

The deputy chief minister said he had suggested that Bihar government and Railways should sign an MoU on the lines of those signed between the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Railways.
The BJP-led NDA government today ordered complete sealing of Assam's border with Bangladesh by June next year, fulfilling an electoral pledge of BJP within a week of assuming power in Assam to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh issued the order at a high-level meeting attended by top Home Ministry officials here.

During the meeting, the Home Minister directed that the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam should be sealed completely," a Home Ministry official said.

In the run up to recent Assam Assembly elections, BJP had promised to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the state completely to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said that sealing of the borders with Bangladesh in two years is one of his two top priorities.

The Home Minister also directed that full use of technological solutions be made to secure sensitive areas along the borders.

This will involve networking of equipments like high resolution cameras, radars, unattended ground sensors, optical fibres, infra red sensors, aerostats, hand-held thermal imagers etc. And integration of these with command and control architecture.

The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096 km of which 284 km falls in Assam.

The meeting was told that besides deployment of adequate number of battalions of Border Security Force in Assam, 224 km fence has been constructed for sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam.

However, there are 122 locations (60.7 km) in Assam where physical barrier is not present.

In order to achieve the objective of sealing the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam, it was decided that 100 locations covering 11.9 km will have physical barrier i.E. fence and 22 locations covering 48.8 km. Of riverine areas will have non-physical barriers including technological barriers which will be achieved by June, 2017, the official said.

Additional Director General, Border Security Force and



Additional Director General (Border) CPWD are already on site visit on Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam to prepare comprehensive plan for sealing the border by June, 2017 by means of physical and non-physical barriers.

Besides the Home Minister, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju reviewed various aspects of the border management in the country.

Secretary (Border Management) in the Home Ministry, Susheel Kumar along with senior officials of briefed the Ministers about the progress of border security infrastructure, programmes of border management and the way forward.

It was informed that 4,374 km fence, 5,329.6 km border roads, 3,974 km floodlights and 2420 nos Border Out Posts (BOPs) have been constructed along the different international borders for security of the frontiers.

Further, major impediments hampering the development of border infrastructure have been resolved during last two years which will increase the pace of development of border infrastructure in coming years, the official said.

In the meeting it was also outlined that almost all the remaining infrastructure works at the border will be completed in next three years, the official said.
A giant panda on loan to Belgium from China has given birth to a cub, a rare event for the endangered species, the Pairi Daiza zoo said today.

The zoo and the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda "have the great pleasure to announce the birth of a panda cub", Pairi Daiza said in a statement.

"Less than 2,000 pandas can be found in the wild, making every birth a true miracle", it said.

"Over the past twenty years, only two European countries (Austria and Spain) were able, with China's help, to successfully reproduce pandas.

"Belgium will thus be the third European country to have ever had the pleasure of welcoming a panda cub."



The mother, Hao Hao, and her mate Xing Hui were loaned to Belgium for 15 years in February 2014, on the occasion of a state visit to the kingdom by China's President Xi Jinping.

She was artificially inseminated twice in February with the sperm of Xing Hui.

The zoo, in Brugelette, about 50 kilometres west of Brussels, said last month that Hao Hao was showing signs she could be pregnant, but had remained cautious over whether she would actually give birth.

"For several weeks, she ate twice the usual amounts of bamboo, then she became increasingly disinterested in food and began to refuse to leave her cave", Hao Hao's minder Tania Stroobant had said.

"Very recently we also noticed a swelling of her breasts which indicates that she is preparing to breastfeed."



There remain about 1,800 freely roaming pandas in the world, with about 400 in captivity, mainly in southwest China.
In a rare disorder, a 17-year-old Chinese girl has been found with four kidneys after she went to the hospital for recurring back pain.

Xiaolin was healthy all her childhood but visited hospital for treatment after having lower back pain regularly.

An ultrasound she underwent showed her with four kidneys, leaving people shocked, state-run People's Daily reported.

A doctor related to the case explained that it was a disease called renal duplex monstrosity.

"The mortality rate for this is one in 1,500 people, which means most of the people would not even realise they have this problem throughout their entire life," the doctor said.

The additional kidneys are not much of use as they usually attach themselves to the regular functioning ones and thus they cannot be easily removed, the report said.

"Consequently, functionally speaking, extra kidneys cannot be removed and used to help others in need," said the doctor.

Doctors eventually performed a ureteral replantation surgery and removed Xiaolin's extra kidneys after which she is recovering well from the operation, it said.
A number of crude bombs exploded at Lokpur in Birbhum district early today but there was no casualty.

A senior police officer said several bombs went off in a courtyard of a construction at around 2 am triggering panic in the village.

However, no body was recovered from the site nor was anyone found to be injured.

The area, a political turf of supremacy between the ruling Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) had also some abandoned coal mines and was near the Jharkhand border.

A section of locals said the bombs could have been stockpiled for blasting the mines and went off by accident.
Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Anjali Damania today launched a hunger strike demanding an enquiry into allegations of corruption against Maharashtra Revenue Minister and sought his ouster from the state Cabinet.

Damania, who met social activist Anna Hazare yesterday, to seek his blessings before beginning with the hunger strike, reached Azad Maidan for the fast here.

She also demanded that the enquiry be completed within six months and the case be heard by a fast-track court.

"There are so many corruption allegations against Khadse and the government should take action regarding this. I met Anna and showed him all the documents against Khadse. Anna said it is a grave issue and assured me that he will call the chief minister and bring it to his notice. I also sought blessings from him before beginning the fast," Damania said.

"I won't give up my fast till the chief minister gives me a written assurance that the probe against Khadse will be completed in six months," she said.

The activist had alleged that Khadse's son-in-law had been flouting norms while modifying his car Limousine without seeking proper permission from the Regional Transport Office.

There were also allegations that Khadse had received calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's residence, she said.

Damania claimed that she wanted to hold the hunger strike near Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' official bungalow but was denied permission by the police.

The former AAP leader said this time she wanted the government to take action against the minister and withdraw all the departmental responsibilities from him.

"Whenever we bring corruption cases to the notice, we are told to go to the court. I have already filed PILs in the court on various issues. But then what is the government doing? It should act on the corruption cases. The court will do its duty. But the government should take action against Khadse," she said.

Asked what action she expects to be taken against Khadse, Damania said the government should conduct an enquiry.

"The government should conduct an enquiry into all the allegations against Khadse within six months. It has to be time-bound else it will never reach any conclusion. Also, the cases should be heard by the fast track court," she said.

Meanwhile, AAP today announced its activists will hold protests against Khadse at five places in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region this evening, including Dadar and Parel.

An AAP delegation will meet Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan here this evening to request immediate dismissal of Khadse and an independent probe on all charges, party's spokesperson Preeti Sharma Menon, who will lead the delegation, said.
Congress' Delhi unit will launch a campaign to collect one million signatures against the hike in petrol and diesel prices.

Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over rise in petrol and diesel prices, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president Ajay Maken said the campaign will be conducted on June 6-8.

Petrol price has been hiked by a steep Rs 4.47 a litre and diesel by Rs 6.46 per litre in the last five weeks, taking retail rates to their highest level in one year. The latest increase came on May 31 night when oil companies hiked petrol price by Rs 2.58 per litre and diesel by Rs 2.26 a litre.

"The Modi government has inflicted another blow on the people of the country in this soaring heat with a steep hike in prices of petrol and diesel," Maken said.

He also trained guns on Kejriwal for increasing VAT and excise duty on petroleum products twice in the past 15 months.

Terming the hike as "Modi + Kejriwal Tax", he said the common people were being deceived by the state and central governments by this "unjustified" increase.

"Modi and Kejriwal should immediately withdraw the excise duty and VAT on petrol and diesel so that the prices of petrol and diesel may go down providing respite to people," he said.

Attacking Kejriwal, he said "he used to make tall talks like there was no need to hike taxes in Delhi, but in his 15-month rule, Kejriwal hiked VAT on petrol and diesel twice to put a heavy burden on the people."



He said the signatures of people opposing the hike will be submitted to Modi or Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Kejriwal.
Delhi government has sought explanation from 132 health officials, including doctors and nurses, at Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital and Maharishi Valimki Hospital after they were found absent from their duty.

The move came a fews days after Health Minister Satyender Jain made surprise visits at these two hospitals and found that most of staff were not available during their duty.

Following this, government has sought explanation from them in this regard.

"The Health Department has issued memo to 88 health officials including doctors and nurses at Maharishi Valmiki Hospital while at Aruna Asif Ali Hospital, 44 employees have also been issued the same.

"The department has sought their explanation for their absence from duty," said a senior government official.

The official also said that the Health Minister has intensified his surprise visits at government hospitals in last few days and he will continue to do the same.

The AAP government has introduced several administrative reforms in health sectors including removal of doctors from non-clinical works, digitisation of prescriptions issued by the doctors at hospitals and others.
A Delhi Police constable today allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his barrack at Lahori Gate area in north Delhi.

Net Ram Yadav, 42, posted with the south zone PCR of Delhi Police, was found hanging in his barrack. His body was sent for post mortem to Aruna Asaf Ali hospital and investigation has been taken up to ascertain the cause of his extreme step, said a senior police officer.

No suicide note was found which could throw light on the reason behind the suicide, he said.

The incident came to light when a PCR call was received at 6.11 pm. The PCR personnel who reached the barrack number 5 at Peeli Kothi, Lahori Gate, found Yadav hanging from the ceiling fan of the barrack room with a cable.

Yadav was a native of Alwar district in Rajasthan.

Yesterday, a constable Kailash, 29, had committed suicide by shooting himself dead in a police booth at Roshanara Road in north Delhi.

Earlier, on May 24, a constable Anatho, 25, of Nagaland Armed Police deployed at Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial had committed suicide by shooting himself from his service rifle in the barrack inside the memorial premises.
He may be riding high on critical acclaim of "Sarbjit" but actor Randeep Hooda says he does not have producers queuing up outside his home.

This year, Randeep was seen in "Laal Rang" and "Sarbjit" and is currently awaiting the release of two more films, "Do Lafzon Ki Kahani" and "Sultan".

"I don't have a line of producers standing outside my doors with bags of money. I don't think anybody has but you can create a perception that you do," the actor told reporters here.

"But I choose the best from what I get and once I choose to do it, that's when I make it mine. Four releases in four months is very tiring, I have to face you (media) guys every month...," he added.

He was speaking at the trailer launch of "Do Lafzon Ki Kahani" directed by Deepak Tijori.

Randeep feels it is good that the four films have come out almost back-to-back as this will show his versatility as an actor to the audience.

"These four films coming back-to-back would probably be able to highlight a general perception about the kind of roles that I have been attempting."



The actor made his film debut in 2001 with "Monsoon Wedding" and then bagged his second film, "D" after fours years.

The 39-year-old actor, however, said it was not a "struggle" for him in those years as he was working with filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.

"It was not a struggle. I was employed by Ram Gopal Varma in his factory, I used to earn 35 thousand rupees a month not to do any film because he was going to launch me in 'D'."



When asked if he is following the footsteps of actor Akshay Kumar, who is known for multiple film releases in a year, the actor said he looks upto the "Baby" star for his transformation.

"Akshay Kumar gets 400 times more money than I do... But he is one actor who has really evolved with every film. He is the most evolving actor. From his action image to comedy, and now he is doing both," Randeep said.

"He is choosing very content-full films. I am glad you're comparing me with him. Even if you did by the number of releases. I look upto him. He is an actor who is always looking for growth," the "Kick" actor said.

"Do Lafzon Ki Kahani" also stars Kajal Agrawal and is scheduled to release on June 10.
Putting to rest anxiety of those who do not have access to internet and computers and claim that cyber cafes charge them a big amount for the purpose, a few Delhi University colleges have decided to open their computer labs for admission seekers.

The university for the first time has made the entire process online for admission to over 60,000 undergraduate seats. The process began yesterday and over 39000 applications were received on Day 1 itself.

However, while the queries about the technicalities of the online process seem to be burdening the varsity officials, students wings of various political parties have been accusing DU of taking the decision without considering those who come from poor background and have limited access to computers and internet.

"Various colleges such as Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Janki college, IP college for women, etc are providing access to their computer labs for admission seekers. Also, the students need to be worried about the process being technical. Open day sessions are being conducted for the same purpose," a senior university official said.

The university has also uploaded an animated video on YouTube detailing the filling up of application forms and further process.

The online registration will continue till June 19 and the first cut-off list will be announced on June 27.
The boycott of undergraduate exams evaluation by Delhi University teachers in protest against the new UGC criteria to ascertain their academic performance, entered its tenth day today and will continue till June 7.

The teachers had initially called for a four-day boycott beginning May 24, which was further extended till today but it was decided in a General Body meeting of Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) to continue with the boycott till June 7.

The representatives of DUTA will meet UGC officials for consultations over the issue on June 6 while the remaining teachers will stage a protest outside the commission's office.

The teachers are protesting against amendments to UGC regulations that, they argue, will lead to job-cuts to the tune of 50 per cent and drastically increase pupil-teacher ratio in higher education.

The new gazette notification has increased the workload for assistant professors from 16 hours of "direct teaching" per week (including tutorials) to 18 hours, plus another six of tutorials, bringing the total up to 24 hours. Similarly the work hours of associate professors have been increased from 14 to 22.

While the HRD Ministry had last week defended the new UGC criteria for Academic Performance Indicators for college and university teachers, saying it provides "more flexibility" even as it ruled out any possibility of reduction in number of teaching jobs, it has instructed the UGC to review the same.

The University Grants Commission has decided to organise a consultation with stakeholders including representatives from teachers associations across the country over the issue on June 6.
CPI(M) MLA M Y Tarigami demanded an enquiry into illegal constructions at various tourist spots of Kashmir after former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah raised the issue in the state Assembly today.

"An inquiry should be ordered on the encroachments and violation of building permissions at tourist spots. It is a matter of serious concern raised by Omar Abdullah. He is the former chief minister of the state," Tarigami said during the Question Hour.

Omar was speaking on promotion of Tosamaidan as a tourist destination, which was vacated by the army in 2014 after 50 years of use as artillery firing range.

The former chief minister, who represents Beerwah constituency, asked the government about its plans to protect Tosamaidan as violations of building laws were rampant in other tourist places like Gulmarg and Pahalgam.

"We have seen 40 rooms being constructed when the permission was only granted for only 10 rooms (in Gulmarg and Pahalgam)," he said.

Omar also raised concern over the incomplete demining process of Tosamaidan, two years after army vacated it, saying by conducting tourism festival at the picturesque spot, government was endangering the lives of the people.

"The Chief Minister has expressed concern over the demining process. Why did you hold the tourism festival then? You are endangering lives of the people there," he said.

Omar also asked the government about its plans for improving the road connectivity to Tosamaidan area.

"The Chief Minister went by a helicopter to Tosamaidan which takes only few minutes. For taking tourists to the place, you need to have roads," Omar said.

Replying to the question, Education Minister Naeem Akhtar said the government "will not allow Tosamaidan to be turned into a concrete jungle".

"It will be developed as a biosphere and promoted for ecotourism. No concrete constructions will be allowed but Kothas will be refurbished with facilities for those tourists who want to stay there," he said.

He said an amount of Rs 73 crore has been earmarked in the Prime Minister's Development Plan for the state for developing Yusmarg-Doodhpathri-Tosamaidan circuit.

On the demining of the meadows, the minister said Army has informed the government that 65 sq km of Tosamaidan had been demined and the area was safe for any civilian activity.
The EU today warned member states against banning "sharing economy" services such as Uber and Airbnb, especially if only to protect existing businesses from competition.

"You cannot put an absolute ban on activity if the reason for this is only protecting a business model," EU industry commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska said at a briefing in Brussels.

Online success stories like ride-sharing app Uber and Airbnb have caused major disruptions in Europe, with taxi drivers and hotel owners furious at the inroads made by the main actors of the sharing economy.

In response, local governments and national regulators have moved to limit access to the websites, and in some cases, outright banning them.

Uber has filed complaints with the EU against France, Germany and Spain to hit back, arguing that the national or city policies are in violation of European law.

The EU is currently deliberating a response to those complaints as well as another lodged by an individual in Berlin who is unhappy with a local law against websites like Airbnb.

The EU's Bienkowska warned against government overreach as she unveiled the European Commission's recommendations on how the EU's 28 member states should better regulate the sharing economy.

"Absolute bans of an activity should only be a measure of last resort," said the commission's guidelines.

While the advice from the EU executive is non-binding, it does offer an indication on how the commission will respond to the complaints by Uber.

"We invite member states to review their regulation in the light of this guidance and stand ready to support them in this process," Bienkowska said.

In one idea, the EU encouraged regulators to differentiate "between individuals providing services on an occasional basis and providers acting in a professional capacity."



It also recommended that sharing economy actors "fully cooperate" with national tax authorities amid accusations that the services facilitate tax evasion.

Uber welcomed the commission's proposals.

"The European Commission has made it clear that EU laws protect collaborative economy services against undue restrictions," said Gareth Mead, an Uber spokesman.

"Member States should review regulations that undermine the development of such services," he added.
A fire broke out in the first floor of a building at Parliament Street in the heart of the national capital this evening but there was no report of any casualty.

The fire at Jeevan Tara building's first floor was reported at 4.40 pm and immediately five fire tenders were rushed there to contain it, said a Delhi Fire Service official.

The firefighters contained the fire at around 5.40 pm, in an hour long operation, he said.

No casualty was reported in the fire, he added.

Police said that the cause of fire was under investigation although short circuit was believed to be responsible for it.
Terming the hike in Minimum Support Price (MSP) of paddy as "too inadequate" to bail out farmers from agrarian crisis, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today requested the Centre to constitute an expert group to make agriculture a remunerative preposition.

The expert group must suggest ways and means to ensure that farming was made a profitable venture, he said, and called for implementation of recommendations made by renowned farm economist M S Swaminathan.

Badal, while interacting with reporters on sidelines of a Sangat Darshan programme at Rajasansi here, asked people to exercise restraint and observe the anniversary of operation Blue Star on June 6 peacefully.

He added the Punjab government was committed to maintain peace, communal harmony and brotherhood in the state.

He said the government was keeping a strict vigil over the situation and every effort would be made to maintain law and order in the state.

"No one will be allowed to disturb the hard earned peace in the state at any cost," he added.

To a query, Badal said the state police was already probing the attack on Sikh preacher Sant Ranjit Sikh Dhadriawala for which an SIT has been constituted and rejected need for investigation by any other agency.

Exhorting people to be prepared for "struggle to save water" during his address in village Padheri, Shahura and Bacchiwind, he alleged that the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were inimical to the interests of Punjab and were hell bent upon depriving the state from its water.

Training guns on both Congress and AAP, Badal said while Congress had signed various water agreements to deprive the state of its waters, AAP was trying its level best to ensure that these agreements were implemented at the earliest.

AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal hails from Haryana so he was naturally inclined towards safeguarding the interests of his state, Badal claimed.

He alleged that Kejriwal has no affection with Punjab or its people and his sole intention was to wrest political power in the state to benefit Haryana.

He claimed that the AAP government has submitted an



affidavit on the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal (SYL) issue in Delhi which states that the "Punjab government's stand on this issue would disintegrate the country".

Badal said Punjabis could never forgive Congress for its "sins against Punjab" and slammed it for "irrelevantly" meddling in the social, political, economic and religious affairs of the state.

He alleged that the previous Congress governments at the Centre had deliberately denied the state of Punjabi speaking areas, its capital Chandigarh and even its legitimate share in river waters.

"How can any true Punjabi forget and forgive Operation Blue Star and the killing of innocents in 1984 anti-Sikh carnage," said Badal.
Four CPI(M) workers were arrested today in connection with the death of a 38-year-old BJP activist, who had suffered serious injuries during post poll violence here, police said.

The BJP worker Pramod had suffered head injuries after he was hit with a brick allegedly by CPI(M) workers following a clash during a victory rally by CPI(M) workers at Idavilangu on May 19, the day Kerala assembly poll results were declared.

BJP had alleged that CPI(M) workers, who had taken part in the rally, had attacked Pramod, who succumbed to injuries at a private hospital here on May 20.

The four arrested are Siyad, Tutu, Madhu and Mithun, police said.
A polka dance will be led by the River Boys Polka Band at Homestead National Monument of America during Homestead Days on Saturday, June 18, 4-6 p.m. The band will perform again Sunday, June 19, 4-5 p.m.

The River Boys Polka Band features the music of Volga German communities and the Dutch Hop dance, according to a press release from Homestead. The name comes from the Volga River in Russia.

This band comes from the eastern Colorado and western Nebraska region. They will teach a dance and play the music. The Dutch Hop music and dance was a social dance tradition closely tied to wedding and anniversary celebrations and week get-togethers in the Volga German communities. It was important in both Russia and later in the Great Plains states of the U.S.

Visitors are in for lively fun music and should come ready to dance," said Homestead Superintendent Mark Engler. "Weve even extended the hours of the park for this dance. This is great fun for all ages.
France faced more torrential rain today after a week of storms that have killed nine people across northern Europe, submerging streets, closing schools and leaving people stranded on rooftops.

Eight people have perished in Germany and six days of torrential rain in France have caused the Seine and other rivers to burst their banks, forcing the evacuation of thousands of people in riverside towns, south of Paris and in the Loire Valley.

The body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house in Souppes-sur-Loing in central France, where some towns have been hit by the worst flooding in more than 100 years.

In the small town of Montargis, the water had risen so high that only the tops of cars could still be seen, peeking above the surface along the high street.

Rescue workers have responded to around 10,000 calls and evacuated more than 5,000 people since the deluge began at the weekend.

"The situation remains tense and difficult in several areas. We still have many concerns," Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls said, as he visited a crisis control centre in the flooded town of Nemours, south of Paris.

In southern Germany, dangerously swollen rivers have caused loss of life and severely damaged towns in Bavaria.

Rescue workers found the bodies of three people in a house in Simbach-am-Inn on Wednesday and police warned that several other people were missing.

The force of the water upended cars and washed away parts of the streets, with a thick layer of mud left throughout the town by the subsiding water. Huge piles of wood and rubbish deposited by the torrent were visible next to badly damaged homes and offices.

A woman's body was also discovered caught on a tree trunk in the neighbouring town of Julbach, police said.

On Bavaria's southeastern border with Austria, some residents scrambled on to rooftops to escape the waters on Tuesday.

"The came so quickly that people had to escape to the roofs of their houses," a spokesman for the Lower Bavaria police said.

The deaths raised the toll in Germany to eight after four people were killed earlier this week in the southern Baden-Wuerttemberg region.
France has called on the United Nations (UN) to begin air drops of humanitarian aid to besieged areas in despite convoy deliveries of assistance to two towns.

The appeal comes ahead of a Security Council meeting tomorrow called to discuss access for humanitarian aid to the besieged areas.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre, who holds the council presidency this month, said yesterday that access to the towns and villages under siege remained blocked and blamed the Syrian regime.

"France is asking the United Nations and in particular the WFP (World Food Programme) to begin humanitarian air drops for all the areas in need, beginning with Daraya, Moadamiyeh and Madaya, where the civilian population, including children, risk dying of hunger," Delattre told a press conference.

An aid convoy earlier yesterday entered the town of Daraya for the first time since 2012 and a second delivery reached Moadamiyeh for the first time since March.

Both towns are besieged by Syrian forces.

The 20-nation Support Group (ISSG) had set June 1 as a deadline for the Damascus regime and all sides to open up access to areas subjected to starvation sieges.

The ISSG asked the WFP to begin preparations for air drops, although it remains unclear whether the Syrian government will give its approval for the planes carrying aid.

According to the UN, a total of 592,000 people live under siege in  the majority besieged by regime forces  and another four million live in hard-to-reach areas.

Peace talks to end Syria's five-year war stalled in April after the opposition walked out over escalating fighting on the ground and lack of humanitarian aid.
A neighbour, who is awaiting trial on charges that he provided powerful rifles to a Pakistani couple who carried out the San Bernardino massacre last year, had ties to a bunch of jihadists arrested in 2012, US prosecutors said in new court documents.

Eerique Marquez Jr., who is awaiting trial on charges that he helped the shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, was tied to jihadists planning to move from California to Afghanistan to fight with Al Qaeda, the prosecutors said in new court documents yesterday.

Marquez, 24, is accused of providing the .223-caliber DPMS model AR-15 and the Smith & Wesson M&P15 assault-style rifles weapons used in the December 2 attack that killed 14 people, the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11.

Until this week, officials had not suggested that Marquez had known ties to other extremists, the Los Angles Times reported.

In the court documents, prosecutors say Marquez had connections to "California jihadists" who were arrested in 2012 when they tried to go to Afghanistan to fight with Al Qaeda.

The documents did not provide details about what ties Marquez had or name the "California jihadists." That year however, four men, Ralph Deleon, Sohiel Omar Kabir, Miguel Santana and Arafin Gojali, were arrested on suspicion of plotting to travel overseas to Afghanistan, join Al Qaeda and kill Americans, the report said.

Prosecutors have alleged that Marquez planned earlier attacks prior to December 2 with one of the San Bernardino shooters, Syed Rizwan Farook, a Pakistani-American. Those efforts were abandoned.

Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, a Pakistani national, carried out the December 2 San Bernardino attack. Prosecutors have said Marquez did not play a role in carrying out that attack but alleged he did provide the shooters with guns.

But in a court filing connected to Farook's case, prosecutors wrote that Marquez had "ties to a group of jihadists."



Authorities provided no other details of the ties and would not comment, and Marquez's attorney declined to comment on Wednesday, the report said.

However, the FBI contradicted prosecutors' description of Marquez's ties to the jihadists in a statement on Wednesday.

"The FBI thoroughly investigated the alleged connections between Enrique Marquez and the four individuals arrested for the 2012 terror plot and concluded there were no direct ties to any of the four," the statement said.

The detail about Marquez was included in a court filing seeking to stop two life insurance payments worth USD 275,000 from being paid out to Farook's family.

After the attacks, Marquez was indicted on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, lying about rifle purchases, marriage fraud and lying on a visa application. He has pleaded not guilty and is expected to go to trial next year.
Students' association members of Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) today expressed displeasure over the newly constituted academic council here which passed key academic changes like choice-based credit system, electives, new syllabus and new vision statement.

Students' ire comes months after their long agitation against the appointment of television actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as institue's new chairman in June last year.

Students had boycotted classes for a long time and went on strike to oppose the appointment, demanding his ouster.

"We are not disagreeing with each and everything, but our primary concerns are against choice-based credit system and electives, which they are going to be implemented in the new syllabus," president of FTII students' association Nachimuthu Harishankar told reporters today.

He was one of the two students who had attended the academic council meeting held yesterday.

"We feel that the whole exercise of bringing these changes is to quantify the education system and it will turn students into more of competition rather than concentrating on holistic learning," told reporters here today.

He said new changes which academic council is trying to bring in are not in tandem with the culture and tradition of the institute as it will "destroy the creative atmosphere of the institute".

The council meeting was headed by its chairperson B P Singh and attended by members including former vice chancellor of Mumbai University Rajan Welukar, former director, IIM- Bangalore, Pankaj Chandra, actor Anand Mahendru, and FTII alumnus actor Satish Shah.

Nachimuthu said that a new vision document for FTII was proposed in which council members are planning to turn the institute in University of Film, Television and Allied Arts and through this new model.

The institute is going to start small courses, which is an "attempt to corporatisation of education", he alleged.

He alleged that while drafting the new syllabus, the institute denied particpation of domain experts and students, who were part of syllabus review committee before last year's stir.

"It was only yesterday, we came to know about the new



vision document. However, by rule, the administration was supposed to share the document with student members at least 7 days prior to the meeting, but it was not done," he said.

Council members have also passed statutes in which hostel admission will be denied to students, another Association member, Yashwasi Mishra said.

"In the statutes, the academic council has proposed that once a student completes his course time, he or she should not be allowed to stay in the hostel. But the fact is, due to non-availability of infrastructure, a lot of students can not complete their projects in this case, it is unfair to ask student to vacate the hostel as not having infrastructure, is not his fault," Mishra told
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today warned that the German parliament's recognition of World War I killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide would "seriously affect" ties.

"The resolution adopted by the German parliament will seriously affect relations between Germany and Turkey," Erdogan said in Nairobi after talks with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He confirmed Ankara has recalled its ambassador to Germany, Huseyin Avni Karslioglu, for consultations.

Germany's charge d'affaires in the capital has also been summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry later in the day, a spokesperson for German embassy in Ankara told AFP.

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus also slammed as "null and void" and a "historic mistake" the German parliament's resolution.

"The German parliament's recognition of 'distorted and groundless' allegations as 'genocide' is a historic mistake," Kurtulmus, who is also government spokesman, said on his official Twitter account.

German lawmakers overwhelmingly adopted the resolution, defying Turkey's warnings that the vote could severely damage bilateral ties.

Kurtulmus said the decision was not beneficial for friendly relations between Turkey and Germany.

"This is an issue that needs to be finalised not by politicians or parliaments but by scientists and historians," he said.

Kurtulmus also warned that: "Of course, as Turkey, we will give an appropriate response to this decision on every level.

"Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu blasted the "irresponsible" move by German parliamentarians and accused Germany of seeking to distract from its own dark history of the Third Reich.

"The way to cover up dark pages in their own history is not to blacken other countries' history through irresponsible and groundless parliament resolutions," he wrote on Twitter.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who hours before the vote warned Berlin that the move would "test" the friendship with Germany, called the resolution "erroneous."



Imperial Germany was a key ally of the Ottoman Empire in its last decades and both fought against the Allied powers in World War I.
German lawmakers passed a resolution today recognising the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, drawing a furious rebuke from Turkey which called it a "historic mistake".

Only one MP voted against and another abstained, as parliament approved overwhelmingly by a show of hands the resolution titled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

In the public gallery of the Bundestag, people held up banners saying "thank you" as the parliamentary speaker announced the result of the vote to applause.

Armenia Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian praised the decision as "Germany's valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides, crimes against humanity."



But Turkey swiftly condemned the resolution.

"The German parliament's recognition of 'distorted and groundless' allegations as 'genocide' is a historic mistake," Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus said on Twitter, calling the resolution "null and void."



Ahead of the vote, Ankara had warned that the vote was a "test of friendship".

The resolution, put forward by the ruling left-right coalition and the opposition Greens, carries the contentious word throughout and also puts partial blame on the German Empire, then allied with the Ottomans and which failed to prevent the atrocities.

The "genocide" recognition comes at a particularly awkward time as Germany and the European Union are relying on Turkey to help stem a record influx of migrants even as tensions are rising between both sides over human rights and other issues.

Yerevan has long sought international recognition of the "genocide", but Ankara rejects the term to describe the killings more than a century ago and argues that it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died.

Acknowledging Turkey's fury over the Bundestag move, political leaders argued however that a clear recognition of historical facts was a key step to healing old wounds.

"We are not looking to put Turkey in the dock. Instead, this is about making clear that taking responsibility for the past is indispensible for reconciliation," said Franz Josef Jung, speaking for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

Turkish leaders heaped on the pressure ahead of the vote, with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim saying earlier today that it would "amount to a real test of the friendship" between the two nations.
Wadia group-promoted budget carrier GoAir today became eligible for international operations with the induction of its 20th aircraft in the fleet with the arrival of its first Airbus A320 neo plane at the Indira Gandhi international Airport here this morning.

GoAir has also became the second operator to have this latest fuel-efficient aircraft from the European aviation major, Airbus.

"GoAir is delighted to welcome A320neo (new engine option) into its fleet. With the induction of the first of our 72 NEO aircraft on order, we have reached a fleet strength of 20 aircraft," GoAir Chief Executive Officer Wolfgang Prock-Schauer said in a statement.

The airline in a gesture towards conserving water in the face of the drought in certain parts of the country, decided not to accept the customary water canon salute to the new aircraft on its arrival.

Globally, when an airline starts its operations to a particular airport or flies a new aircraft, a water canon welcome is given from two fire tenders when the plane lands at the destination airport.

With this expansion GoAir will be able to strengthen its domestic network and will also be available to fly on international routes, he said.

The existing regulation requires an Indian carrier to have a minimum five years of domestic flying experience and a fleet of at least 20 planes to fly overseas.

GoAir, which commands 8.5 per cent market share in domestic traffic, plans to induct as many as eight A320neo planes in the fleet by March next year, a senior GoAir official had said early this week.

The Mumbai-based airline had, in June 2011, placed order for 72 new A320 neo aircraft, valued at about Rs 32,400 crore on list price, with the European aviation major Airbus.

The A320neo incorporates a host of innovations, including latest generation engines and large Sharklet wing-tip devices, the statement said adding these allow for 15 percent in fuel savings from day one and 20 per cent by 2020.

This is equivalent to a reduction of 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per aircraft per year, it added.

According to the statement, GoAir is also the first airline to use this aircraft in Spaceflex configuration with 186 seats enabling better service and availability during peak seasons, without compromising on the comfort of the traveller.

The fleet enhancement is also expected to boost GoAir's plans to get listed on the bourses in the current fiscal.
Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar today described a Gujarat court verdict in Gulberg Housing Society case as a "stain" on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, considering that he was the Chief Minister in Gujarat when the killings took place.

In a statement, the former President of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) also deplored "communal approach" by "Hindu Chauvinists" who were resisting shifting of displaced Muslim families to a locality following demolition of their homes.

According to a report in a national daily, residents of Kapurai -a neighbourhood in Vadodara where about 300 displaced families, mostly Muslims, are supposed to be relocated following the demolition of their homes in Suleiman Chawl -have written to the Vadodara Municipal Corporation protesting against the move.

The letter states that allowing Muslims to move into the locality will "hamper the peace-loving nature here" as their "daily activity involves assaulting and abusing", the report said.
Ahead of the proposed Jat agitation on June 5, Gurgaon district administration and police officers today held a meeting with representatives of various Jat organisations and appealed them to maintain peace and harmony in the district.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy Commissioner T L Satyaprakash said that by blocking roads or railway tracks, no community can get sympathy from general public, on the contrary, the public gets irritated and they do not form good opinion about the community.

He appealed the people from Jat community to not get swayed by rumours and to inform the district administration and Gurgaon police if any issue of agitation surfaces.

The Jat representatives assured that peace of Gurgaon would not be disturbed and maintainance of peace would be ensured.

Recollecting the Jat agitation during February in which Gurgaon remained unscathed, Satyaprakash said this time also the Gurgaon administration expects cooperation from all sections of society particularly the Jat community for maintaining peace and harmony.

Meanwhile, Gurgaon police will keep surveillance on social media sites and Whastapp to check the spread of rumours and also take action against such anti-social elements.

"The DGP of Haryana has directed all the district police of Haryana including Gurgaon to take action on such culprits. The residents and Jat unions should not take any rumour messages on Whatsapp andsocial media sites seriously and inform to nearby police station if messages were found," said Gurgaon Police Commissioner Navdeep Singh Dahiya.

Satyaprakash said that if the representatives of Jat community do want to demonstration and protest, the district administration is ready to demarcate places where they can do so as organizing peaceful demonstration is permitted in a democracy.

For this, they need to inform the administration in advance and take prior permission, so that necessary advisory can be issued to the general public to avoid inconvenience.

He reminded that National Security Act has already been implemented in the state and no community or group should resort to such activities, persuading the administration and police to use force.

DCP (Headquarter and west) Balwan Singh Rana said that no agitators would be allowed to stage protest near the railway lines or national highways.

However, the Jat Sangharsh Samiti, has decided to postponed its agitation tillJuly 21 and wait for the decision of the court.
The heir apparent to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, is urging followers of ISIS to launch deadly attacks on civilians during the Muslim holiday season known as Ramadan, which lasts an entire month.Adnani boasted that the so-called "lone wolf attacks" in the United States and European nations were considered "dearer to [ISIS commanders] than the biggest combat action" in both Iraq and Syria, according to the Homeland Security News Wire on Monday.Probably one of the most troubling aspects of this latest counter-terrorism report is the claim that in the face of sustained attacks by the U.S. backed rebels, Russia, and other military forces, ISIS found it necessary to move its chemical weapons labs to densely populated residential areas in Mosul, a trick perfected by Hamas in the Gaza Strip in its battle against the Israelis.The HSNW report also mentions that ISIS is testing homemade chlorine and mustard gas on its prisoners held in different facilities throughout the city of Mosul and the surrounding areas. While the mainstream news media in the United States barely covers the subject, ISIS has been working on chemical weapons for quite a while, relying on the expertise of scientists who served Iraq's late dictator, Saddam Hussein, and they are also recruiting Europeans with chemical degrees from leading European universities.The Iraqi government-controlled media reports that residents of al-Mohandseen - at one time a prosperous area thanks to the wealthy Christians who live in Muslim neighborhood - during the last few weeks were evicted from several mansion-sized houses in the neighborhood, and that large unmarked trucks have been parked outside. More recently, according to reports, residents observed dozens of dead dogs and rabbits in nearby rubbish containers.Meanwhile ISIS fighters detonated several IEDs (improvised explosive devices) that killed more than 140 victims in Syria's Jableh and Tartous, in the Assad regime's Alawite-controlled coastal heartland. Western intelligence services now estimate that more than a quarter of all Alawite men of fighting age had been killed. Islamists regard the Alawites as heretics.U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, following his trip to the Middle East shared his observations with an audience at George Washington University: "A worldwide terrorist exodus is underway, and we are woefully unprepared to deal with it," he said."We are not winning this war. Violent extremists are not on the run, as the president says. They are on the march," he said. McCaul worked as an attorney and a federal prosecutor before entering politics. He was the Chief of Counterterrorism and National Security for Texas's branch of the US Attorney's office also worked under the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section.
Congress today described as "half justice" the conviction of 24 of the 66 accused in the Gulberg society massacre case by an Ahmedabad special court.

"It is half justice - not full justice. I say half justice because the main accused - a BJP corporator - has been let free. Why he is being let free remains to be studied, analysed.

"In all such cases, our experience has been that the masterminds somehow manage to get themselves free...And the foot soldiers, the people who take orders, are found guilty," party spokesman Jairam Ramesh told reporters here.

The people who "masterminded" the massacre, who planned the massacre, should also be brought to book. "That is the only way this matter can be put to rest," he said.

Earlier in the day, Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said the case was long-pending and has finally seen the light of the day.

"We haven't read the verdict completely. I do hope final justice is done to the victims. Accusations have been made and cross accusations have been made. Finally we believe that justice has been done," Vadakkan said.

More than 14 years after the ghastly Gulberg massacre that killed 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, 24 people were convicted by the special court which acquitted 36 others and dropped conspiracy charges against all the accused in one of the worst riots post-Godhra violence in Gujarat.
Human Rights Watch today condemned the decision of Bahrain's appeals court to double the jail term of Shiite opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman as a "travesty of justice".

Cleric Salman, who heads the largest opposition formation in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, had his jail sentence increased on Monday to nine years from the original four.

He had been convicted of inciting violence but the appeals court overturned an earlier acquittal of advocating regime change by force.

The appeals court "increased the sentence despite strong evidence his initial trial was unfair and the fact that two of the charges on which he had been convicted violated his right to freedom of expression", HRW said in a statement.

"Sheikh Salman is the latest casualty of Bahrain's war on dissent, but he won't be the last unless Bahrain's allies in London and Washington loudly protest this travesty of justice," said HRW's deputy Middle East director, Joe Stork.

"This level of repression will not create stability for Bahrain, but quite the opposite," he warned.

Salman was originally convicted in July 2015, drawing condemnation from rights groups as well as both the United States and Iran.

The tiny but strategic Gulf state has been shaken by unrest since it crushed a month-long, Shiite-led uprising demanding reforms in 2011.

The Shiite-majority kingdom, connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

Despite the 2011 crackdown, protesters still frequently clash with police in Shiite villages outside the capital Manama.

Salman's Al-Wefaq political association was Bahrain's largest parliamentary bloc until its 18 MPs walked out in February 2011 in protest at the use of violence against demonstrators.
India is expecting USD 56 billion worth of investments over the next four years in the electronics sector to meet its increasing demand, an official has said here.

"We must have an electronics output of USD 400 billion a year by 2020 tomeet domestic demand and generate exports worth USD 80 billion," Director in the Department of Electronics and IT Ministry S K Marwaha said.

India has allowed 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the electronics sector with a 25 per cent subsidy, he said yesterday during 'India Connect' business forum organised at the ongoing CommunicAsia2016 exhibition being held from May 31 to June 3 in Singapore.

Marwaha underlined the need to increase electronics sector output by USD 300 billion over the next four years, given the strong hi-tech products demand, which will also be coming from the development and retrofitting of 98 Smart Cities across the country. Current electronics demand in India is USD 100 billion.

To date, India has received USD 16 billion of new investments for the electronics sector, according to Marwaha who expects the industry to be USD 100 billion-strong along with USD 28 billion of existing investments and the new USD 52 billion required input.

Marketing campaigns are being held across the world to attract more and more investments in the sector, which also holds the potential of USD 80 billion worth of exports, Marwaha said.

The target is to match imports and exports and even make India a net exporter of electronics goods by shipping out more to the global markets, he said after addressing the forum, which was supported by the Singapore Business Federation.

India is represented by 54 companies in the mega exhibition covering broadcast, communications and related enterprises, organised by the Singapore Exhibition Services.
Being a democratic country, India has a responsibility to ensure that human rights of its people are not violated, a key US Senator, who has been vocal about alleged human rights here, said today.

On the issues of alleged human rights violations, religious intolerance and extra-judicial killings in India, Senator Ben Cardin said if Mahatma Gandhi were alive, he would be "pleased with the progress made by the country, but not satisfied".

He said he would continue to stress on areas in which his country and India can "improve".

"When you are a democratic country, you have to lead. We have certain responsibilities and as you see today, people who are not able to fully benefit from all the opportunities, we have a responsibility to do more and make sure they can," he told reporters when asked about the US repeatedly suggesting India on "doing more" on human rights issues.

Cardin, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the remarks during his visit to Gandhi Smriti here.

When questioned whether he was satisfied with measures taken by the Indian government with regard to protecting human rights, Cardin reiterated he is "encouraged" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement of having "zero tolerance" for violation of one's rights.

The Senator also welcomed the Indian government's proposed anti-human trafficking law and made a strong pitch for its uniform enforcement across the country.

"But as I said earlier, we would like to see not only law is passed, but we would like to see the maintaining of funding and enforcement uniformly around the country. So, it's too early to judge, but I know that the Prime Minister has made the right commitments," he said.

On his remarks that he will take up the issues of alleged human rights violation, religion intolerance and extra-judicial killings in India with Modi when the latter visits US next week, Cardin said he will "continue to stress" on areas where Washington and New Delhi "can improve".

"If Gandhi was with us today, he must be very pleased with the progress seen in India, but he would not be satisfied. (If) Dr Martin Luther King was in the US, he would be proud of the progress we have made in our country, but he would not be satisfied. So, I am going to continue to stress (on) areas where I think my country and India, two great democracies, can improve," he added.

Cardin said the US is looking forward to Modi's visit to his country.

He showered praises on Mahatma Gandhi, describing him as "very inspirational and incredible individual" who had much influence on the development and social progress in the US.

"He inspired many of us including President John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Junior...So, this was particularly important moment for me to be here," he said.

Cardin was yesterday sharply critical of India on alleged human rights violations, extra-judicial killings and religious intolerance, and said these were "national challenges" that the country faces.
India's entry into the (APEC) grouping will likely be one of the "concrete" topics on the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his talks with US President Barack Obama next week, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya has said.

"One concrete thing I hope would be on the agenda is India entering into Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)," Panagariya said during a discussion yesterday at the Asia Society Policy Institute when asked what is on India's economic agenda as Modi visits the White House and as Obama's presidency is in its final months.

Panagariya had noted during the discussion that trade agreements like with APEC will be a "stepping stone" but APEC by itself "is not going to get you very far" and greater market access requires getting into other agreements. He however added that Prime Minister Modi himself committed to India entry's into APEC and during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit had sought Tokyo's support for New Delhi's entry into the trading bloc.

He said India has been "slower" than other countries in entering free trade agreements, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya said India will need to capture some of the world markets if it has to sustain an eight to 10 per cent growth rate over the next 20-25 years.

"On the Free Trade areas, India has been certainly slower than other countries," Panagariya said at the discussion on the two years of the Modi government responding to whether a trade-led growth is a priority for the government.

He said the broader question is whether "outward orientation" is part of the government's strategy of development, adding that his push is in that direction.

APEC has grown to become a dynamic engine of economic growth and one of the most important regional forums in the Asia-Pacific. Its 21 member economies are home to around 2.8 billion people and represent approximately 57 per cent of world GDP and 49 per cent of world trade in 2014.

As a result of APEC's work, growth has soared in the region, with real GDP doubling from just USD 16 trillion in 1989 to USD 31 trillion in 2013.
Seeking to inject fresh momentum in bilateral ties, Vice President Hamid Ansari today met Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid and discussed a range of issues of mutual and regional interests.

Two agreements - one on traditional handicraft promotion and other on IT and Digital economy - were signed after Ansari and Essid held one-on-one talks which was followed by the delegation-level talks between the two sides.

India will train 350 Tunisian students in next five years and the two sides will promote each other's traditional handicraft as per the agreements.

Earlier, Ansari, accompanied by his wife Salma, arrived today in Tunisia from Morocco on the final leg of his two- nation trip. He was received at the airport by Essid.

The Vice President will also visit Zaitouna Mosque, Bardo Museum and the House of Representatives.

Zaitouna Mosque is the oldest one in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, and covers an area of 5,000 square metres. It has 160 authentic columns brought originally from the ruins of the old city ofCarthage.

Ansari will meet President Beji Caid Essebsi tomorrow and deliver a keynote address at Dar Al Dhiyafa.
In an effort to increase mutual cooperation, India and Tunisia today signed two MoUs on promotion of handicrafts and IT and communication and digital economy as Vice President Hamid Ansari met Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid and discussed a range of issues of mutual and regional interests.

The two sides also discussed the issue of spreading tide of extremism and terrorism which is a threat we both face, Vice President Hamid Ansari said while making the joint press statement with Tunisia Prime Minister Habib Essid.

"Successfully dealing with such threats requires strong cooperation among like-minded partners," he said.

Ansari said, "We have discussed the issues related to combating this challenge and decided to enhance our cooperation in the field of counter terrorism".

Two MoUs - one on traditional handicraft promotion and other on IT and Digital economy - were signed after Ansari and Essid held one-on-one talks which were followed by the delegation-level talks between the two sides.

At the joint press briefing by Ansari and Essid, Tunisia announced signing of two agreements while the Vice President used the term MoU.

India will also train 350 Tunisian students in next five years, Ansari said adding "We will be happy to receive 350 Tunisian students for training in our institutions in different streams as our guests over the next five years".

"We have also signed two memorandum of understanding for collaboration in IT and promotional of traditional handicrafts," he said.

The two sides will promote each other's traditional handicraft and increase mutual cooperation in the IT and related sectors, including digital economy.

Ansari said that their discussion on bilateral relations focussed on ongoing economic partnership and on incorporating newer areas of collaboration in information technology and education.

The Vice President said, "I had substantial discussions covering the entire gamut of our bilateral relations as well as on global issues of mutual concern with Prime Minister Essid".

"I conveyed to him the felicitations of the people of India and through him to the people of Tunisia on the successful transformation of Tunisia into a vibrant multi-party democracy and conveyed our good wishes for its continued success," he said.

Ansari said appreciated Tunisia's support for India's candidature to the UN Security Council.

"We highly appreciate Tunisia's support for India's candidature to the expanded United Nations Security Council," he added.

Speaking at the joint press briefing, Essid said, "Our



relations are very strong, our views are similar".

"We have relations with India in various fields including auto-sector, agriculture and other fields," Essid said.

He said, "We also appreciate India's progress in the IT sector and we will have cooperation with India in this sector".

He said that the meeting of the India-Tunisia Joint Committee will be held later this year.

"The visit of the Vice President comes before the meeting of the Joint Committee. The current meetings have paved the ways for identifying keys areas of cooperation and improve further on our relations with India," he said.

He said that one of the important issues of today was tourism.

"We will work out a mechanism at the Joint Committee meeting for promoting tourism," Tunisian Prime Minister said.

The Vice President also visited Zaitouna Mosque, Bardo Museum and the House of Representatives.

Zaitouna Mosque is the oldest one in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, and covers an area of 5,000 square metres.

It has 160 authentic columns brought originally from the ruins of the old city of Carthage.

Ansari will meet Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi tomorrow and deliver a keynote address at Dar Al Dhiyafa.

Earlier, Ansari, accompanied by his wife Salma, arrived in Tunisia from Morocco on the final leg of his two-nation trip. He was received at the airport by Essid.
India and the US today signed a key pact for exchange of intelligence on terror on a real time basis that include biographic information of known and suspected terrorists.

An arrangement between the authorised Indian governmental agencies and the government of the United States of America for exchange of terrorist screening information was signed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma.

As per this pact, India and the US will provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations, an official spokesperson said.

The agreement would enhance the counter terrorism cooperation between India and the US.

With signing of the key pact, India has formally entered into the US Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6 (HSPD-6), which will enable it to access 'unclassified biographic information of known and suspected terrorists' maintained by the US on a reciprocal basis.

The HSPD-6 is a model text agreement for exchange of terrorist screening information between Terrorist Screening Centre (TSC) of the US and an Indian agency.

There have been several rounds of discussions between the interlocutors of the two countries in the past one year and both sides have narrowed down their differences on several key issues with the aim of signing the pact.

The US has already finalised such agreements with 30 countries.

TSC is a multi agency organisation administered by FBI which consolidates several terrorist watch lists maintained by different US government agencies into single terrorist database on terror suspects.

The database includes the name of the terror suspect, nationality, date of birth, photos, finger prints (if any) and passport number.

Officials said, initially some Indian security agencies had expressed their reservations saying the arrangement primarily protects US interests.

However, later, the security agencies came to the conclusion that there was no disadvantage in entering into the proposed pact with TSC. The Intelligence Bureau will be the nodal agency and designated as the Indian party to the agreement.

It was agreed that while signing the pact, it must be ensured that privacy issues are taken care of, officials said.
A select group of Indian ambassadors today met Himachal Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh here and discussed potential investment opportunities in various sectors in the state.

High Commissioner of India to United Kingdom, Navtej Singh Sarna, Indian Ambassadors to Czech Republic and Niger, Krishan Kumar and R S Malhotra and India's Ambassador to Syria, Manmohan Singh Bhanot met the chief minister.

"Potential investment opportunities in sectors like Industries, Tourism, Power, Health, Food Processing and Infrastructure were stressed upon during the meeting," an official spokesperson said, adding air and rail connectivity were also discussed.

The chief minister said our aim is to promote industrial development and the state government was offering sops and incentives to entrepreneurs for it.

Discussions were also held to open small Food Processing Units.

"The objective of the meeting was to familiarize us with the potential of the region and attract potential investors from other countries to invest in India," Navtej Singh Sarna said.

Senior government officers from Planning, Agriculture and Horticulture, Forest, PWD, Education, Revenue, Urban Development and Chief Secretary V C Pharka were also present in the meeting.

The delegation will interact with local farmers and representatives of Tourism department at Chail tomorrow during their field visit.
Greater industrial cooperation can help reduce distrust between Indians and Chinese, directly benefit their growth and usher in a new climax of globalisation, a state-run Chinese daily said today.

"Industrial cooperation can help reduce distrust between Indians and Chinese. The future direction of the Sino-Indian relationship depends on whether the nations' economic activities can alleviate their long-standing concerns," an article in the state-run Global Times said.

It said the industrial cooperation can directly benefit the growth of both countries, weaken nationalist sentiments embedded in both societies, and offer new perspectives on each other's rise.

"China and India should be encouraged to look at the big picture rather than a disputed patch of land. China and India's industrial cooperation will usher in a new climax of globalisation," the article said.

It said Apple CEO Tim Cook and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou recently made trips to India, reportedly announcing plans to relocate their factories from China to India.

"Foxconn plans to build 10 to 12 factories in India by 2020. What's more, many Chinese enterprises are showing interest in investing in India," it said.

"There are two countries that have the highest potential to replace China's position in the global value chain - Vietnam and India. Their labor costs are lower, and they have already begun taking low- and middle-end manufacturing from China," it said.

"The rise of 'Make in India' will probably bring China and India into more fierce competition in some industries, but it will also create more space for mutual development," the article said.

It said the key to maintaining the upward trajectory of their economic ties is to reduce direct rivalry and find more industrial connections. Such joint efforts in different industries will produce unprecedented benefits and reinforce the value chain of shared interests, it added.

"Many Indians fear China's growing presence. Such a sentiment arises from years of estrangement despite being neighbours. Conservatism emerges in fear of competition. When competitiveness of 'Make in India' is lower than 'Made in China', the railways will ignite concerns among Indians about China-made products," it said.

"Such concern is one of the major barriers that obstructs India from introducing more foreign investments into local manufacturing and hinders the revenue streamlining process," it said.

"Surpassing China is no longer a long shot for the Indians. When the growth of the Indian economy speeds up, and manufacturing becomes more competitive, the Indians will be more open-minded toward China," it said.

"As the Chinese steel, construction, machinery, textile and electronics industries are eager to enter the Indian market, and India's IT, pharmacy and chemical industries are waiting to tap into the Chinese market, there is a great need for a platform where industries, capital and technologies can connect," it added.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at the U.S. State Department's following what it claims was an extensive probe has released to federal lawmakers and other interested parties a "highly critical analysis" of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's communications security practices while she headed the department. The report, which was released on Wednesday, alleges that she failed to seek legal approval for her use of a private email server and her hiring of a private Internet company to maintain the server. The report also states that upper-echelon State Department staff would never have given their blessing due to the obvious "security risks in doing so, while Mrs. Clinton refused to cooperate with her own department's OIG.Inspector General Steve Linick, in a supposed non-partisan review - Linick is a Democrat - reports that presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton's use of private email for government business was "not an appropriate method" of operation.Her practices failed to comply with departmental policies and procedures that are aimed at ensuring that federal record laws are followed. The report also points to classified information - intelligence - not being properly protected.The report says,The Clinton campaign when answering questions about the email scandal, which is an offshoot of the Benghazi scandal, often claim that Republican heads of the State Department, especially Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, did the same as Clinton and suffered no condemnation.said former political strategist and prosecuting attorney Michael Baker.Baker noted.While Mrs. Clinton has told Americans that she and her staff fully cooperated with Inspector General Steve Linick's probe of her private, non-secured Internet server, Linick's report indicates that Clinton and several of her staff members during her tenure - Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin and others - declined to be interviewed by the Inspector General's investigators.The report found that a top Clinton aide was warned in 2010 that the system may not properly preserve records but dismissed those worries, indicating that the system passed legal muster. But the inspector general said there is no evidence of a review by any State Department attorney. However, Clinton mouthpiece David Kendall did possess a "thumb drive" that supposedly contained classified information, but Kendall is a known Clinton minion going back to the days of MonicaGate.In a report dated July 23, 2013 , the IG stops short of saying that the State Department avoids taking steps to address IT security. The report maintains, however, that its Office of Information Assurance's lack of leadership creates confusion among department personnel on IT security requirements and guidance they must follow.Harold Geisel, deputy inspector general, writes in the 35-page report.Clinton left the State Department on Feb. 1, 2013, but she was never held responsible for the deficiencies and failures such as the Battle of Benghazi.But the OIG report reveals that officials from the Under Secretary for Management and the Office of the Legal Adviser found no proof of any written approval or that a review was conducted by other State Department staff of the Clinton private server.
The Islamic State terror group remained the greatest threat globally in 2015, maintaining a formidable force in Iraq and Syria, including a large number of foreign terrorist fighters, a US report said today.

IS' capacity and territorial control in Iraq and Syria reached a high point in spring 2015, but began to erode over the second half of 2015, the State Department said in its annual Country Reports on Terrorism 2015.

"IS did not have a significant battlefield victory in Iraq and Syria after May. At the end of 2015, 40 per cent of the territory IS controlled at the beginning of the year had been liberated," it said in its annual Congress-mandated report.

In Syria, local forces expelled ISIL fighters from several key cities along the routes connecting the two IS strongholds of Raqqa and Mosul, and reclaimed about 11 per cent of the territory IS once controlled.

These losses demonstrated the power of coordinated government action to mobilize against and confront terrorism, it said.

Despite this, IS "remained the greatest threat globally, maintaining a formidable force in Iraq and Syria, including a large number of foreign terrorist fighters," it said.

Noting that IS' loss of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2015 diminished its availability of fund, the State Department said the terrorist organization relied heavily on extortion and the levying of "taxes" on local populations under its control, as well as a range of other sources, such as oil smuggling, kidnapping for ransom, looting, antiquities theft and smuggling, foreign donations, and human trafficking.

Coalition airstrikes targeted IS' energy infrastructure - modular refineries, petroleum storage tanks, and crude oil collection points - as well as bulk cash storage sites.

"These airstrikes have significantly degraded IS' ability to generate revenue. The United States led the international effort, including through the UN, to confront IS' oil smuggling and its antiquities dealing, delivering additional blows to its financial infrastructure," it said.

Along with IS, al-Qaeda and both groups' branches increased their focus on staging mass-casualty attacks including attacks on international hotel chains in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Tunisia; other popular public locations; and the bombing of a Russian passenger plane, it added.

While IS lost significant territory in Iraq and Syria during the second half of 2015, the group made gains in Libya amid the instability there.

And in January, IS publicly announced the establishment of an affiliate, known as ISIL-Khorasan (ISIL-K), in Afghanistan and Pakistan, it said.

"At year's end, the group had focused the majority of its attacks against Afghan government and civilian targets, although the group has also claimed a small number of attacks in Pakistan's settled areas.

"ISIL-K gained a small foothold in southern Nangarhar province in Afghanistan, but was significantly challenged by the Afghan government, Coalition Forces, and the Taliban, and had little support among the region's population," the State Department said.
ISIS made a whopping USD 2.4 billion in 2015 despite losing territory by simply adjusting its business from oil to taxes and is still the richest terror group on the planet, according to a report.

The new report, by the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism on the finances of the Islamic State, said that despite the constant airstrikes on its oil infrastructure, ISIS still has an over USD 2 billion empire and it is making up lost revenue by squeezing about 8 million people under its control through raising of taxes.

The authors of the report, terrorism experts Jean-Charles Brisard and Damien Martinez, conclude that "ISIS's military defeat is not imminent...As things stand, ISIS economic collapse remains some way off in the mid-term."



The report says ISIS made USD 2.4 billion in 2015. That is a USD 500 million drop from the center's revenue estimate the previous year, but ISIS remains the richest terrorist organisation on the planet.

The Islamic State's extortion of the people living inside its territory in Iraq and Syria has skyrocketed from USD 360 million in 2014 to USD 800 million in 2015, according to researchers.

The theoretical value of assets under ISIS control (oil reserves, gas reserves, minerals, cash assets) was estimated at USD 2,260 billion by the end of 2015, up by 11 per cent compared to late 2014, the report released yesterday said.

"It's really an adaptive organisation. What strikes me is the fact that they're clearly behaving as managers, not simple looters. They really have budget requirements, and they're compensating," Brisard told CNN Money.

The report is a sobering take on what has been an image of ISIS as a terrorist organisation in disarray. In recent months, ISIS has cut fighter salaries in half and a nonstop bombing campaign has cut its oil production.

It has also lost 40 per cent of its territory, according to the US military, but ISIS still has about 8 million people under its control.

Brisard and Martinez were quoted as saying that ISIS has simply adjusted its business from oil to taxes. As oil fell from 38 per cent to 25 per cent of its revenue stream last year, ISIS cranked up its extortion racket.

In 2015, taxes went from supplying 12 per cent of yearly ISIS revenue to 33 per cent.

Those taxes include a 10 per cent income tax, up to 15 per cent business tax, road tolls, 5 per cent fees for bank cash withdrawals and up to 35 per cent taxes on pharmaceutical drugs.

There are also fees for leaving the territory, even temporarily. And there's a special tax on non Muslims called jizyah.

However, the US Treasury Department said the coalition's effort to disrupt the Islamic State's economy is working.

"We are seeing progress... Since late-2015, ISIL's production of oil has declined by about 30 per cent. Their ability to generate revenue has been reduced by at least that much," the Treasury was quoted as saying.
The head of Israel's foreign ministry said today that France's bid to revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks was doomed to failure, like a 1916 colonial effort to carve up the Middle East.

"This effort utterly failed then and will completely fail today," Dore Gold told journalists on the eve of an international meeting in Paris, referring to the Sykes-Picot agreement to draw up the region's borders.

"The only way to get a stable regional arrangement that will allow us to create real peace in the Middle East is if the parties of the region come to understandings between them," Gold said.

"We believe the Arab states would give backing to direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," the foreign ministry's director general added.

"Therefore we prefer a Middle Eastern process and not a process that somebody is trying to create in Paris."



British diplomat Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot of France drew the borders of a new Middle East in May 1916 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

"It was at the apex of the era of colonialism in our area," Gold said. "Their effort failed as we see today in the deserts of Iraq and Syria."



Israel has rejected any French-led multilateral effort and insists instead on direct talks with the Palestinians.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians will be represented in Paris at Friday's talks, which aim to lay the ground for a fully-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year.
Jammu and Kashmir government is working towards providing a model hospital in every constituency of the state which would be equipped with all the modern diagnostic and health care facilities, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said here today.

"We have taken up two hospitals - one at Dooru in Anantnag district of Kashmir and the other at Basholi in Kathua district of Jammu - on pilot basis and will soon broaden the ambit of the scheme by providing a model hospital with similar facilities in every constituency," she said in the Legislative Council. The state has 87 constituencies in all.

She said each such hospital would also have the much-needed gynaecological facilities for the women.

Mehbooba said the government would approach the corporate houses within and outside the state for taking up the hospitals under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Besides, the legislators will also be requested to provide the necessary funds from their Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for procuring various facilities, she said.

The Chief Minister said the step would go a long way in ensuring that the health infrastructure gets the requisite augmentation in diagnostics as well as the health care services to be given to the people, besides reducing the load on the district hospitals.

This is similar to the initiative of model schools undertaken by Education Minister Naeem Akhtar.

There is a need to rationalize the availability of doctors in various hospitals of the state, she said.

"A start has been made and I hope we can take it further," Mehbooba said.
Jammu and Kashmir government has asked the Centre to revise the existing rates of compensation and extra-gratia paid to various categories, including militancy-related cases, in the state.

The comprehensive proposal submitted to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) seeks revision of the existing rates of compensation or ex-gratia being paid in J&K to various categories including loss of life on borders and also for the inclusion of some new categories in the proposed scheme under SRE (Security Related Expenditure), the government told the Legislative Council.

As per the existing norms, an amount of Rs one lakh is paid on account of death in militancy related cases and in the case of cross border firing shelling, an amount of Rs one lakh is being paid in case of death, Rs 75,000 in case of permanent disability and Rs 5000 in case of injury, it said.

50 per cent of loss assessed of the immobile property due to cross border firing or shelling is also paid subject to the ceiling of Rs one lakh and in case of militancy related incidents, 50 per cent loss assessed of the immovable property subject to a ceiling of Rs five lakh, it said.

It added that appointment is being provided to one of the next of kin of the persons killed in such incidents or alternatively compensation of Rs four lakh is provided in lieu of the government job.

An amount of Rs 27 lakh has been paid to the next of kin of the persons killed in cross-border firing in Jammu Division from 2012 to 2015 and an amount of Rs one lakh has been paid to the next of kin of one person killed due to cross border firing in Baramulla district of Kashmir Valley during 2014, the government informed.

For safety and security of border population, under a pilot project of the Union Home Ministry, construction of 60 community type bunkers at the rate of Rs five lakh per bunker in the border blocks of District Jammu is in the progress, the written reply said.

It also said the Centre has released an amount of Rs 15.50 crore for the farmers whose land falls within the border fencing in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and out of which an amount of Rs 4.27 crore has been disbursed so far to concerned land owners.

An amount of Rs 74.34 crore, out of which Rs 63.38 crore pertain to land under border fencing and Rs 10. 96 crore to Border Out Posts (BOPs), is required for Jammu Division.

This amount is yet to be released by the central government, it said.
Kerala government has proposed to bring in restrictions on parading elephants in temples and other festivities, Minister for Forest and Animal Husbandry K Raju said here today.

"The government is of the view that certain restrictions on parading elephants during festivities is necessary," Raju told reporters here while stating that general guidelines with conditions would be formulated for allowing elephants to take part in festivals and other functions after discussions.

He said the government would ensure that the owners of all the captive jumbos have the required licence.

On the government's priority to protect and preserve forest areas in the state, Raju said encroachment would not be allowed and another major initiative would be to complete the solar fencing works in the fringe areas to check man-animal conflicts.

"Necessary funds for erecting solar fencing would be earmarked in the LDF government budget to be presented in the house," he added.

Government also has an ambitious plan to produce anti-rabies vaccine at the Biological Institute and Rabies Vaccine at nearby Palode, he said.

"The government's aim is to start anti-rabies vaccine within next three years", he said.

On milk production in the state, the minister said steps also would be taken to see to it that Kerala becomes self-sufficient in milk production.
The US is looking forward to a "very robust" and "comprehensive" discussion with Prime Minister when he visits the country next week, the State Department has said, noting that ties with India remain "vital".

"We look forward to having a very robust, comprehensive discussion with the Prime Minister when he comes next week," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at his daily news conference.

Modi is scheduled to arrive in Washington on June 6 on a three-day visit.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House on June 7 and address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8.

"I won't get ahead of the prime minister's agenda while he's here, and we obviously look forward to the visit. The US-India relationship is very important, vital, particularly there in the region," he said in response to a question.

"In terms of whether they're bilateral or multilateral discussions on issues like counter-terrorism, I mean, obviously we support other countries speaking amongst themselves, whether it's in a multilateral or a bilateral fashion about what is a very shared threat not just in the region but globally," Kirby said.
A 75-year-old man from Chennai was arrested for allegedly stealing Rs 50,000 cash from a donation box at a church in Old Goa Heritage Monument complex near here, police said today.

John Louids was apprehended yesterday by the Old Goa Police after 'Basilica of Bom Jesus Church' authorities found him stealing the cash from a donation box, a police official said.

The Basilica is a home for relics of St Francis Xavier, whose body is kept for exposition once in ten years.

Fr Savio Barretto, the parish priest at the church, lodged a complaint yesterday.

As per the complaint, the accused was caught on CCTV while stealing the cash and after that the church authorities informed the police.

A case under relevant sections of IPC has been registered in this regard and investigations are underway, the officer added.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and discussed with him various issues concerning the state.

During 20 minute meeting here, Mehbooba briefed the Home Minister on the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the Valley and border areas.

The issue of setting up colonies for displaced Kashmiri Pandits was said to have figured in the meeting, official sources said.

Sources said at least three sites have been identified by the Jammu and Kashmir government for setting up colonies for displaced Kashmiri Pandits and it has been conveyed to the Union Home Ministry for assessment sometime back.

Rehabilitation of those affected during the devastating floods in September 2014 and re-development of damaged infrastructure projects were also discussed by Mehbooba and Singh, sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here next week is about "consolidation" and "celebration" of Indo-US ties and to take it forward into the new administration, India's envoy to the US has said.

"The invitation (by US President Barack Obama) and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters yesterday ahead of Modi's visit to the White House next week.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to arrive at the Joint Airforce Base, Andrews on June 6 and is expected to spend a little over 50 hours in the American capital.

While his schedule is still being given the final shape by officials here, he is likely to lay wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery the afternoon of his arrival.

He is likely to stay at Blair House, the personal guest house of the US President on Pennsylvania Avenue across the White House.

Leaders of the two largest democracies of the world are scheduled to meet at the White House on June 7, which would include meetings at the delegation level and one-o-meeting, following which the two are likely to address mediapersons.

Thereafter Obama would host lunch for Modi. Later in the evening, Modi would interact with a select group of top American corporate leaders including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and address the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC) as part of his relentless effort to attract foreign direct investment in India.

"Another important dimension of his visit would be his address to the joint session of the Congress (on June 8)," the Indian Ambassador said.

Modi is expected to spend some four hours at the Hill attending four back to back meetings. He would be received by House Speaker Paul Ryan who decided to invite Modi for his first joint address to the Congress. Ryan would also host a lunch for him. Thereafter Modi would attend a reception hosted in his honour by the Senate and House foreign relations committees and the India Caucuses in the House and the Senate.

Some 400 people are likely to attend this reception.

"It is a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship with India. It is also a reflection of the value people attach to this relationship," Singh said.

Describing the visit as consolidation and celebration of relationship, Singh said "consolidating what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into next year" when there would be transition of administration in the US and to celebrate the achievements in the relationship," Singh said.

"...A lot of progress has been made in the two terms of President Obama. And then to celebrate that, see where we are and then launch it into the new administration. That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit," he said.

Obama will demit office on January 20 next year after completing two consecutive terms as the US President.
In light of continued developments, primarily since 2008, there exists in these United States a Legal System which operates on a proved Two Tiered approach to justice rendered, which primarily benefits Democratic Elites and Woke Ideological Virtue Signalers, representing their co-dependent wards, to the expressed exclusion of normal hardworking American citizens: What is your suggestion in remedying this widespread injustice and, if not corrected, its existential outcome for our Constitutional Republic?

Complete overhaul the Department of Justice and their enforcers - the FBI - to reflect a far more honest justice system to keep patriots remaining calm.

Disband the FBI, and request that congress investigate all unethical and non patriotic practices to partially right the wrongs of a distrusted and politically weaponized "Department of Justice."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Afghanistan on Saturday where he will hold talks with President Ashraf Ghani and inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province.

Announcing the visit, External Affairs Ministry Spokesman Vikas Swarup said the meeting between Modi and Ghani will also provide an opportunity to discuss the current situation in Afghanistan and how the two countries can cooperate further for promoting peace and stability in that country.

Afghanistan is part of Modi's five-nation trip beginning June 4 which will also cover Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico.

Asserting that the completion of the dam project represents culmination of years of hard work by about 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals in very difficult conditions, Swarup said it also highlights India's continued commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development. He said the dam will help irrigate 44,000 hectares of land.

In an oblique reference to Pakistan, the MEA spokesperson said unlike those who contributed to terrorism and instability in Afghanistan, India always stood by Kabul.

Last year, Modi and President Ghani had jointly dedicated to the Afghan nation the new Parliament Building constructed under India-Afghanistan development cooperation.

"India is consistently ranked by Afghan people as a country which has stood by them and is of greatest help to them. At the same time, doing all these projects, we had to face lot of challenges.

"Not just geographical challenges but also security challenges because of the kind of situation you have in Afghanistan. Repeated attempts were made to disrupt the peace and stabilty of Afghanistan...Cross border terrorism, you know from where," said Swarup, without naming Pakistan.

India has invested in excess of USD 2 billion in the last few years in Afghanistan. "Our commitment to Afghanistan remains despite these challenges," he said.

Asked what message will the Prime Minister give during his address at the US Congress, he said it would would be of partnership, mutual respect and accomodating each other's concerns.

He said the Prime Minister would be pressing for deeper ties between the world's largest democracy and the world's oldest democracy.

"When the PM addresses the combined House and Senate, the message he would convey is that the relations between the two largest democracies in the world need to strengthen, need to further diversify so that we are both fully equipped to handle the challenges of 21st century," he said.
In a major goof-up, a university in Morocco welcoming Vice President Hamid Ansari for a talk showed a map of undivided India, with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan as part of its territory.

A display put up at Mohammed V University here for Ansari's scheduled lecture yesterday showed the error, which was noticed by a member of the Indian delegation accompanying Ansari before his arrival following which the map was immediately removed.

Ansari later visited the University to give a lecture on 'Accommodating Diversity in a Globalising World: The Indian Experience'.

The wrong map was displayed on the screen for a very short duration and was corrected immediately. The goof-up was attributed to an error by the students who were managing the display system.

Ansari's trip here is the first high-level visit to the African country after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went there in 1999. He will now head to Tunisia for a two-day visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Habib Essid.
Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today met Gunther Adler, the State Secretary in Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and discussed the German government's assistance in development of three Indian cities as smart cities.

Germany had agreed to associate itself with development of Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore as smart cities through technical and financial assistance.

Adler, accompanied by a delegation of about 15 officials and CEOs of German firms, met Naidu at India House in Berlin.

"Both (sides) discussed the German Government's assistance to the three smart cities identified by them - Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore," an official release said.

Naidu, who is currently in Berlin to attend a conference on smart city, also visited the historical Reichstag building of the German Parliament.

He met Vice President of German Parliament Ulla Schmidt and Chairman of Indo-German Parliamentary Group Ralph Brinkhaus, MPs and others.
Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa is set to visit India next week during which he will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and meet top officials.

Thapa will fly to New Delhi on June 10, Foreign Ministry sources here said.

During his four-day visit, Thapa, who is also Nepal's Foreign Minister, is expected to meet Swaraj and top officials.

Thapa's visit comes at the invitation of South Asian University which is organising its convocation on June 11 in New Delhi.

This will be Thapa's fourth visit to India since he assumed office in October last year.

Around 450 students will be receiving their degrees at the convocation.
The Centre has appointed 115 lawyers as their counsel in all the courts in Tamil Nadu.

They would replace the counsel appointed by the previous UPA government.

Additional Solicitor General of India G Rajagopalan today made available the list of central government Standing Counsel and Additional Central Government Standing Counsel to appear before various courts in Tamil Nadu.

While Chennai, which has been classified as urban district, has got the maximum of 14 Standing Counsel, other districts got at least two each.

Already, there are more than 60 senior central government standing counsel and central government standing counsel representing the Centre before the principal bench of the High Court here and its Madurai bench.

Besides, there are two Assistant Solicitors General, one each in Chennai and Madurai, to appear in important cases.
In a globalised economy, it is not possible to stop trading goods and services with other nations, President Barack Obama said today in an apparent dig at presumptive Republican presidential nominee .

"As we navigate this complex world, America cannot shirk the mantle of leadership. We can't be isolationists. It's not possible in this globalised, interconnected world," Obama said in his commencement address to the Air Force Academy.

"In these uncertain times, it's tempting, sometimes, to pull back, to try to wash our hands of conflicts that seem intractable, let other countries fend for themselves. But history teaches us, from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, that oceans alone cannot protect us. Hateful ideologies can spark terror, from Boston to San Bernardino," he added.

"In a global economy, it's not possible to stop trading goods and services with other countries. Weak public health systems on the other side of the world allow diseases to develop that end up reaching our shores. So, we cannot turn inward; we cannot give into isolationism," he said.

"That's a false comfort. Allowing problems to fester over there makes us less secure here. So, as Americans, we have to keep leading and working with others to build the security and prosperity and justice we want in the world.

By the way, one of the most effective ways to lead and work with others is through treaties that advance our interests," he said.

Obama said lately, there has been a mindset in Congress that just about any treaty is somehow a violation of American sovereignty, and so the Senate almost never approves treaties any more.

"So, if we're truly concerned about China's actions in the South China Sea, for example, the Senate should help strengthen our case by approving the Law of the Sea Convention, as our military leaders have urged," Obama said.

He said as powerful as US military is, Americans have to remember that many of the threats to their security cannot be solved by military force alone.

"We've got to draw on every tool, all elements of our national power. When we invest in the development that promotes education and opportunity around the globe, it can make conflicts and military interventions less likely later," he said.

Even as the US is well-positioned to lead the world, it is facing a major threat from terrorist groups.

"We face serious threats. Terrorist networks slaughter the innocent and plot attacks against our nation," he said. "Civil wars, like in Iraq, tear countries apart and create humanitarian catastrophes and havens for terrorists.

Russian aggression against Ukraine. Disputes in the South China Sea. These are testing an order that we built, where the sovereignty of nations is respected and all nations abide by the same rules," Obama said.

"Nuclear weapons, as in South Korea and the specter of nuclear terrorism still threatens us all," he added.
There has been 'no visible blow back' from Pakistan after a US drone strike killed Taliban chief last month, a top Pentagon official based in Afghanistan has said but admitted "some tension" in ties.

Asked if there has been a "visible blow back" from Pakistan after Mansour's killing, Army Brigadier General Charles H Cleveland, deputy chief of staff for communications, Resolute Support Mission, Afghanistan, said, "In this case, we haven't yet."



"And we certainly hope not," Cleveland told Pentagon reporters during a video conference from Kabul.

"That is part of the effort that General (John) Nicholson (Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan) takes in terms of engaging his counterparts. But at this point, we have not really seen any military-to-military issues," he said.

Cleveland was responding to questions on the sharp reaction from Pakistan after a US drone strike killed Mansour in Balochistan on May 21.

Pakistan Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif has described US drone strikes in Pakistani territory as "regrettable". Senior Pakistani leadership has said that the US air strike "violated its sovereignty".

At the same time, Cleveland said there is "some tension".

"Clearly, there is still some tension and there is some back-and-forth. What we're trying to focus, though, is sustaining and maintaining the military-to-military relationship that we've already got established. And that really starts with General Nicholson and goes down a couple of different levels," he said.

"So by and large, what we're trying to focus on is ensuring that we maintain a good, positive, healthy military- to-military relationship with the Pakistani military," Cleveland said.
There is no possibility of a "deficient" monsoon this year and 96 per cent chances are that the rainfall would be "normal to excess", India Meteorological Department (IMD) said today, that would bring some cheer to the farmers.

The country as a whole is expected to receive good rainfall this year, barring northeastern India, which is likely to witness "below normal" rainfall.

July and August are expected to receive 107 per cent and 104 per cent of rainfall of the Long Period Average (LPA).

Releasing the second Long Range Forecast, IMD Director General Laxman Singh Rathore said there is not much difference between the initial forecast by the agency and the monsoon season (from June to September) will receive 106 per cent of rainfall of the Long Period Average, which is "above normal".

"There are zero per cent chances of the country receiving deficient rainfall while the possibility of normal to excess rainfall is 96 per cent," Rathore said.

Terming the rainfall in Kerala as a "pre-monsoon showers", Rathore said southwest monsoon is expected to hit the state in the next 4-5 days.

Rathore said once the monsoon hits Kerala, its progress will be quick, especially in eastern and central India. Several parts of the country are facing intense heat.

This monsoon season, North-West India, comprising major food-producing states like Haryana and Punjab which have witnessed deficient precipitation in the last two years, will receive 108 per cent rainfall of the LPA.

Central India and southern peninsula will receive 113 per cent of LPA while the northeastern region is expected to get 94 per cent of rainfall which is "below normal".

Anything less than 90 per cent of the LPA is termed as a "deficient" monsoon and 90-96 per cent is rated as "below normal". Monsoon is considered "normal" if the LPA is between 96 and 104 per cent of the LPA.

"Above normal" monsoon is between 104-110 per cent of the LPA and anything beyond 110 per cent is considered "excess".

Agriculture, which contributes 15 per cent to India's GDP and employs about 60 per cent of the country's population, is heavily dependent on the monsoon as only 40 per cent of the cultivable area is under irrigation.

Several parts of the country are reeling under intense



drought-like conditions, especially Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra and Bundelkhand, which is spread over Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Due to poor monsoon in 2015-16 crop year (July-June), 10 states have declared drought and the Centre has sanctioned about Rs 10,000 crore by way of relief to help the farmers.

Skymet, a private weather forecasting agency, has said it "appears" that monsoon has hit the Kerala coast. However, Rathore refused to comment on it.

"The rains in Kerela can be termed as pre-monsoon showers. Conditions are favourable for further progress of the monsoon in next 4-5 days," Rathore said.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Indian- American Democrat in fray for election to the US House of Representatives, has won a crucial endorsement from President Barack Obama, who said being "the son of immigrants" he understands challenges facing America's working families.

"As the son of immigrants who worked their way into the middle-class, Raja understands both the challenges facing America's working families and the opportunities their work makes possible," Obama said in the endorsement released by Krishnamoorthi's campaign today.

"I know he'll fight hard in Congress to create more good jobs, empower more Americans to start businesses, and help working families afford to put their children through college," Obama said.

Krishnamoorthi, 42, had served Obama as issues director in the President's successful US Senate campaign in 2004.

Krishnamoorthi is in the fray for this year's open-seat race in the 8th Congressional District of Illinois that includes west and northwest Chicago suburbs.

He won the primary in March in the contest to replace Rep Tammy Duckworth in Congress. His win brightened the chance of yet another person of Indian-origin to be elected to the US House of Representatives in the November general elections.

Krishnamoorthi said he was "honoured and humbled" to have the support of Obama in his race for Congress.

"It only seems like yesterday that the two of us ate dinner in my childhood home in Peoria before the beginning of his historic rise to the US Senate and the White House.

"A few gray hairs later, that dinner table conversation continues as we are focused on standing up for the middle class and working to make sure that we come together as a country instead of casting stones and insults at our fellow Americans," he said.

Born in New Delhi, Krishnamoorthi, an attorney and entrepreneur, polled 57 per cent of the votes in the eighth Congressional District of Illinois as against his two other rivals State Senator Mike Noland (29 per cent) and Deb Bullwinkel (13 per cent) in the primaries.

The district has a sizeable Indian-American population.

Krishnamoorthi grew up in Peoria and later served as a founding prosecutor in Illinois Attorney-General Lisa Madigan's anti-corruption unit and as Deputy Treasurer of Illinois. He currently serves as president of Sivananthan Labs and Episolar, Inc, small businesses that sell products in the national security and renewable energy industries.

He is a co-founder of InSPIRE, a non-profit organisation that provides training to Illinois students and veterans in solar technology.

Krishnamoorthi has so far won endorsements from Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi,former Senior Advisor to the President, David Axelrod as well as from The Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times.
President Barack Obama will host Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House for an official visit and State Dinner on August 2 to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, his press secretary has said.

"The two leaders will celebrate the bilateral relationship between Singapore and the United States that has served as an anchor for the rebalance to Asia," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement yesterday.

Marking the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations, the two leaders will highlight the enduring principles that have inspired the "tremendous growth in US-Singapore cooperation, which has attracted more than 3,500 companies to establish a presence in Singapore, forged strong security ties between our militaries, and led to increased exchanges of college students", he said.

"As partners in the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, the Counter-ISIL coalition, and the Paris Climate agreement, the two leaders will discuss how our relationship can continue to address challenges and advance a rules-based order for the Asia-Pacific," Earnest said.

Beginning with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November 2009, Obama has so far hosted 11 State Dinners, the last one being with Nordic countries early this month.
Tom Campbell

One of the more frequent excuses given for not voting is, "my vote won't really matter." It isn't true, of course, but in this strange 2016 election cycle there are several reasons why each vote will indeed count in Tuesday's congressional and judicial Primary Elections.Political analysts are predicting that voter turnout for the June 7th Primary will be less than ten percent of qualified voters; some speculate as few as five percent going to the polls. The smaller the number of votes, the more each vote counts.Your vote will have additional weight because, unlike previous primary elections, there will be no runoff elections. This is a winner-take-all affair in which the candidate from each party receiving one more vote than his or her opponent will qualify to run in the November 8th General Elections.This June vote was necessitated because North Carolina's Congressional districts were declared unconstitutional due to racial gerrymandering. Our legislature was required to redraw the districts. The new maps have yet to be formally approved, but barring a court decision before Tuesday the primaries will be held.The newly redrawn districts have generated some really fascinating contests. The Republican primary in District 2 pits two incumbent Congressmen against each other, with a third candidate likely to play the spoiler and tilt the outcome. The reconstituted 12th District features six Democrats, including an incumbent Congresswoman and three current or former legislators. The newly drawn 13th District needs a scorecard to identify all the players. Five Democrats and sixteen Republicans, including three current or former legislators, are contending. With expected low voter turnout and no runoff the winners in each party may not even receive double-digit percentages. Even if yours is not one of the headliners each congressional primary is important.If the congressional races don't motivate you to go to the polls the Supreme Court primary should. Our legislature passed a law allowing Supreme Court Justices to stand for a "retention" election, an up or down vote to allow Justices another eight year term, but a three-judge Superior Court panel overturned this law, saying it violated North Carolina's Constitution. A subsequent tie vote from the current Supreme Court allowed that decision to stand.Court elections and our appellate courts are supposedly nonpartisan, but this is clearly not the case. Pre-election campaigning makes it clear who the Republican, Democrat and Unaffiliated candidates are. The top two vote getters will face off in November. That election will be significant in determining the partisan makeup and likely the decisions of our highest court. Court decisions increasingly affect public policy and this election is important.Several recent polls suggest that races for U.S. Senate, Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and State Treasurer, among others, are currently a virtual tossup and while Tuesday's outcomes won't directly impact their eventual outcomes they will perhaps give us a clearer read on the mood of the electorate. For instance, will mainstream Republicans show up in larger numbers than more conservative voters? Who among Democrats will turn out? Will minorities be sufficiently motivated to vote? Polls are one thing; votes are unquestionably the final word.Every election is important. Tuesday's vote is singularly important because your individual vote could count more than ever in determining outcomes.
The Delhi unit of BJP today launched a 'Transforming India Modi Rath' to publicise the programmes and schemes of the Narendra Modi government that completed two years at the Centre last month.

Delhi BJP president Satish Upadhyay launched the Modi Rath which is an SUV specially designed for the purpose.

Upadhyay said the vehicle is equipped to take the audio visual reports of the NDA government's public welfare programmes and achievements among the masses.

It is fitted with a large LED screen and high quality sound system. The message of BJP national president Amit Shah will also be a part of the audio-visual presentations.

The idea for the special vehicle was floated by the state BJP general secretary Ashish Sood.

While the first Modi Rath will go around areas in West Delhi, the party is also planning to launch another such vehicle to cover the areas in east Delhi, said party spokesman Praveen Kapoor.
The time travell romance of Clair and Jamie Fraser will continue its adventure as Starz has announced two more seasons of historical fantasy "Outlander".

The show is based on Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series and revolves around a 20th-century British nurse Claire Randall, who accidently travels to 18th-century Scotland.

She ends up falling in love with Highland warrior James Fraser.

"Outlander" is currently midway through its second season. The third and fourth season of the show will be based on 'Voyager' as well 'Drums of Autumn' of Gabaldon's book series, reported E! Online.

"Outlander is like nothing seen before on television. From its depiction of a truly powerful female lead character, to the devastating decimation of the Highlander way of life, to what is a rarely seen genuine and timeless love story, it is a show that not only transports the viewer, but inspires the passion and admiration of its fans," Chris Albrecht, CEO of Starz, said in a statement.
Pakistan today alleged that India was involved in creating instability through "subversive and terrorist activities" in Karachi and Balochistan province.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said at a briefing that the international community had already been informed about the alleged Indian involvement.

"The apprehension of a serving officer of Indian intelligence agency RAW has vindicated Pakistan's longstanding position that Indian intelligence agencies are involved in subversive and terrorist activities in Pakistan especially Balochistan and Karachi," he said.

"Our security agencies are fully aware of all threats and are actively working to counter them, wherever required. You are aware that we have briefed the international community. As the investigations are in progress, we would apprise the world community accordingly," he added.

Zakaria also said that the all necessary actions have been taken based on "Kulbushan Yadav's confession and I am aware that many arrests have been taken place".

He said that the phenomenon of terrorism has affected Pakistan more than any other country in the world.

"We have deeper concern over foreign hands behind perpetration of terrorist attacks and terrorist financing in Pakistan," he said.

He said Pakistan was ready for dialogue with India to resolve all outstanding issues including Jammu and Kashmir. He said in addition to other issues, the dialogue would include the discussion on terrorism.

To a question about what was discussed when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi before his operation, he said it was an exchange of telephone calls, which related to Sharif's health.

"This was hardly the occasion to discuss other issues though I am not privy to the exact details of the conversation," he said.
India today lambasted Pakistan for "needlessly internationalising" the Kashmir issue, asserting it was not the main cause of tension between the two countries and that externally sponsored terrorism was the central issue.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also said Pakistan needs to end its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and stop interfering in India's internal matters.

"We completely reject the insinuations by the vested interests against India which has rightful sovereignty over the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir. We also stress that there are no global dimensions of the Kashmir issue except in the minds of those who seek to needlessly internationalise a bilateral matter.

"Pakistan needs to vacate its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and address the suffering caused to millions in those parts," he said.

He was asked to comment on a conference in Islamabad organised to discuss global dimension of Kashmir issue.

When asked about Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain's comments yesterday that India was "running away" from talks, Swarup said, "The main cause for lack of peace and continued instability in our region is externally sponsored terrorism and Pakistan's repeated interference in internal affairs of India."



Hussain had said despite Pakistan's offer of joint-probe in the Pathankot terror attack, India was avoiding the talks. He had also raked up the Kashmir issue, calling it an "unfinished agenda of partition" and the main cause of regional tension.

Asked about Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan's comments that his country has the capability to hit New Delhi in five minutes, the MEA spokesperson did not give a direct reply, saying the Pakistani envoy in India has already said that only "foolish" people make such remarks.

Replying to a question on China occupying parts of Kashmir, the MEA spokesperson said it is part of talks on boundary issue between the two countries.

Asked about China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Swarup said India has asked both the countries to cease activities there.

(Reopens DEL 41)



Swarup was also asked if the meeting of SAARC officials which is currently underway in Kathmandu has paved the way for the SAARC Summit, to which he said one cannot arrive at such a conclusion.

"India is committed to the ideals and objectives of SAARC. Our objection was to the holding of the SAARC Summit in Islamabad at a time when one particular country is opposed to regional connectivity initiatives, is promoting cross-border terrorism and is interfering in domestic affairs of other countries.

"Not only India, other SAARC countries also joined in saying that this time was not conducive to host the Summit in Islamabad," Swarup said.

A majority of SAARC countries including India had pulled out of the 19th SAARC summit, scheduled to be held in Islamabad last November, maintaining that the atmosphere was conducive for holding of the summit in view of continuous cross-border terrorism by Pakistan.
Terrorist safe havens not only continue to exist in the tribal areas of Pakistan, but also militants are able to openly raise funds from heavily populated areas, the US today said alleging that Islamabad is not taking action against terror groups like Haqqani network and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

As a result, Pakistan-based terrorist groups continue to conduct terrorist attacks inside India and Afghanistan, the State Department said in its annual 'Country Reports on Terrorism - 2015', which is mandated by Congress.

"In 2015, an assortment of terrorist groups, to include the Haqqani Network, attempted to hide in or operate from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, a mountainous region along Pakistan's northwest border with Afghanistan," the State Department said.

It said some UN-designated terrorist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) affiliates Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, were able to raise funds and hold rallies in .

LeT and JuD leader, Hafiz Saeed, who is also a UN-designated terrorist, was able to make frequent public appearances in support of the organisation's objectives, which were covered by the Pakistani media, for much of the year.

"In September, the Electronic Media Regulatory Agency prohibited media coverage of LeT and affiliated groups, although the groups continued to recruit and operate around the country. Despite JuD and FiF's proscription under UN sanctions regimes, the Pakistani government affirmed in December that neither organisation was banned in Pakistan," the State Department said.

India, the State Department said continued to experience terrorist attacks, including operations launched by Maoist insurgents and transnational groups based in .

Indian authorities continued to blame Pakistan for cross-border attacks in Jammu and Kashmir.

In July, India experienced a terrorist attack in Gurdaspur, Punjab; the first in Punjab state since the 1990s, the report said.

Over the course of 2015, the Indian government sought to deepen counter terrorism cooperation with the US.

President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued to prioritise counter terrorism cooperation during Obama's visit to India in January and Modi's visit to Washington in September.

The Indian government closely monitored the domestic threat from IS and other terrorist organisations, it said.

The State Department said Pakistan is slow in taking action against 2008 Mumbai attack perpetrators.
Pakistani authorities have recovered the domicile certificate of slain Taliban chief Mullah Mansour which was illegally made under a fake name, officials said today.

The recovery of the domicile certificate comes after Mansour was found possessing not only Pakistan's computerised national identity card (CNIC) but also a valid passport with him that left Pakistani authorities red-faced.

He had a fake name -- Wali Muhmmad -- on the documents.

The domicile certificate, also known as certificate of residence in a district, was issued in 1999 under the same fake name of Wali Muhammad, according to a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official.

The certificate, which allows the bearer to get state jobs and other government facilities, showed him that Wali Mohammad belonged to local Kakar tribe of Pushtun and is a permanent resident of Qila Abdullah district of Balochistan.

The document is signed by the then deputy commissioner of the district, Hafiz Mohammad Tahir, who was already facing probe for showing laxity while issuing the identity card.

He is now being investigated by the FIA.

Pakistan has arrested at least four officials who had signed or approved issuance of identity card and passport for Mansour.

The probe was launched after he was killed in a US drone attack on May 21 in Noshki area of Balochistan.
The Pakistan government today thanked world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had sent special goodwill messages to Premier Nawaz Sharif as he underwent open-heart surgery in London.

Sharif was operated on Tuesday on advice by doctors that he needed surgery to remove heart-related complications.

Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said that the prime minister is recovering after undergoing surgical procedure for heart.

He said a large number of world leaders have conveyed their messages and showed special gestures for the prime minister's successful heart surgery and speedy recovery.

"The Government of Pakistan expresses its gratitude to them," he said.

"My best wishes to PM Nawaz Sharif Sahab for his open heart surgery on Tuesday. And for his speedy recovery & good health," Modi had tweeted.

Separately, Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli also wished early recovery and good health for Sharif.

Mark Lyall Grant, British National Security Adviser, also conveyed his best wishes for Sharif.

Earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron in his message said "I am sorry to hear that you have been unwell and undergoing treatment in London".

"Please accept my best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to good health from your operation, and I look forward to our next meeting," said Cameron.
Floods in Germany and France have killed at least 10 people and forced thousands from their homes, officials said as Paris' Louvre museum announced it would move treasures out of reach of the swollen Seine.

The world's most visited museum said it would shut its doors today to evacuate artworks from its basement storage, as the nearby river began to burst its banks following days of torrential rain.

Several towns in southern Germany have been devastated by flooding that has also seen rescuers in central France rowing lifeboats down streets turned into muddy rivers.

Forecasters in both countries warned of more downpours over the next 24 hours.

In France, a man on horseback died after he was swept away in a swollen river in Evry-Gregy-sur-Yerre, southeast of Paris, the local prefecture said.

The 74-year-old's body was recovered from the water by firefighters. The horse made its own way back to safety, police said.

There were also chaotic scenes in the German town of Simbach am Inn, where the force of the water swept away the entire stock of a sawmill, leaving huge stacks of splintered wood blocking roads.

On one street, a car could be seen parked vertically against the wall of a house, pushed there by the floodwaters. Many other vehicles lay flipped over on roads blanketed by mud.

Five people have been killed in the Simbach area, including three women from the same family -- a mother, grandmother and daughter -- who had been trapped in their house. Two other elderly people were also found dead in their homes.

"The (rise in) water was so quick that practically no residents had the time to run away," police spokesman Armin Angloher said.

The deaths bring the toll from the floods in Germany to nine, including four killed earlier this week in the southern region of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Three others are missing, a police spokesman in Bavaria state said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her thoughts were with the families "who have been plunged into this devastation".

Some towns in central France have been hit by their worst floods in over a century, with more than 5,000 people evacuated since the weekend and around 19,000 homes without power.

In Paris, officials were erecting emergency flood barriers along the Seine. The riverbanks are home to both the Louvre and the Orsay museum, which was also preparing for the worst.

The Orsay, a converted railway station which hosts the world's greatest Impressionist collection, closed early yesterday and was to move its most vulnerable works to upper floors if the Seine rises more than 5.5 metres.
NIA tonight said it was awaiting a response from Pakistan on Letters Rogatory seeking information and interrogation of Jaish-e-Mohammed terror group chief Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Abdul Rauf in connection with the Pathankot air base strike even as it probed the role of other "state actors" in the attack.

NIA Director General Sharad Kumar said that the role of the Jaish chief and his brother, besides two other handlers, has been established and all the evidence have been shared with Pakistan.

"We are still awaiting a response from them," Kumar said, adding two Letters Rogatories and several reminders to Islamabad remain unanswered.

Asked whether NIA has given a clean chit to Pakistani agencies, including ISI, in the matter, Kumar said "the case is still under investigations. We have not given any clean chit to anyone. We are examining the role of other players which include state actors" who might have been involved in the conspiracy behind the attack.

He, however, did not elaborate on the "state actors".

He denied media reports that quoted him as saying that a clean chit has been given to Pakistani agencies in the Pathankot attack case.

Four terrorists were killed when they carried out a suicide attack on the strategic Indian Air Force base in Pathankot during the intervening night of January one and two. Seven security personnel were also killed during the 80-hour-long gunbattle.
Congress today raked up the issue of Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) to accuse Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan of making attempts to "palm off" the KG gas block of the state government's undertaking to ONGC to "protect" Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

GSPC is in controversy in the wake of it running up debts to the tune of Rs 20,000 crore during the decade when Modi was the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Pradhan has virtually turned into an investment banker to force a "merger" between ONGC and GSPC's KG block and is making "outrageous claims" to justify such a course of action, Party spokesman Jairam Ramesh told reporters.

"Pradhan is desperate to protect his Pradhan Mantri. He wants to palm off GSPC's KG block to another PSU--ONGC," he said.

Insisting that it was time to call the "bluff" of GSPC and its patron Narendra Modi, he said the CAG report was tabled on the last day of the previous Gujarat assembly session.

"It has not even been discussed yet. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when GSPC had got the KG block.

"The CAG has clearly pointed out malfeasance of Rs 20,000 crore. This is not even a presumptive loss but an actual one," he said, demanding an independent inquiry by a former Supreme Court judge to look into the allegations of the CAG.

"Until then, there should be no transfer of these assets to another PSU in an attempt to wash away past sins," Ramesh said.
A PhD scholar of Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, Md. Safikul Islam, was today sentenced to life imprisonment for raping and blackmailing a minor girl student of Visva Bhrati Higher Secondary School.

The sentence was pronounced by Additional District and Session Judge, Birbhum, Mahananda Das.

The case was tried in a special court assigned to hear cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

Syed Samidul Alam, government lawyer, said that the girl from Dhaka in Bangladesh, a student of class XII, was taken to the rented house of the PhD scholar, who hailed from Bangladesh's Sirajganj district and was the local guardian of the girl, at Gurupalli locality in Santiniketan on August 5, 2014 and raped.

Islam then recorded some photographs of her in various compromising positions with his mobile phone and blackmailed her not to make the crime public, otherwise the photographs would be circulated.

For consecutive four months, the man sexually abused the girl in his rented house. Eventually, she gathered courage to lodge a complaint with the Santiniketan police station on December 5, 2014.

Safikul was slapped with charges under Section 4 of POCSO Act.

In addition to life in jail, Safikul was ordered to pay a fine of Rs 10,000, Alam said.

West Bengal government has been ordered by the court to pay the girl Rs five lakh as compensation.
Firing a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today accused them of creating "hurdles" for the Delhi government.

The attack came after Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of Delhi government launched a probe into an app-based premium bus service on a complaint of BJP legislator and Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta, who alleged the AAP government wanted to launch the scheme to benefit a Gurgaon-based private bus aggregator.

The scheme was red-flagged by the Lt Governor on the ground that his approval was not taken before its launch.

"LG n Modi Govt aggressively start creating hurdles in Del Govt, almost in every file. Modiji bhi LG Ke Kandhe Par Rakh Kar Bandhukh Chalate hain," Kejriwal said in a tweet.

The premium bus service was scheduled to be launched yesterday with registration of buses under the scheme through which people can book their seats on the lines of app-based cab aggregators in the national capital.

A senior Delhi government official alleged that a conspiracy is being "hatched" to delay the scheme under which people would be able to book their seats in buses through their smartphones on the lines of app-based taxi services in the national capital.

Only air-conditioned buses would ply under the scheme according to which one bus aggregator will have to run at lease 50 vehicles to get a licence from Delhi government's Transport Department.

(REOPENS DES23)



Referring to the NIA chief's reported remarks that there was no evidence of Pakistan government or its agency's complicity in the Pathankot attack, Kejriwal hit out at Modi accusing him of "kneeling" before Pakistan.

"No other PM in the history of independent India knelt before Pak like this," he wrote in a tweet.
BJP MP from Maharashtra Poonam Mahajan travelled by a special train to Bhopal from Bina district to ensure that she does not miss her flight to Mumbai, two days back.

Media reports suggested that the leader was given VIP treatment as there is no provision of running special train for MPs as per rules of the railways.

General Manager of Western-Central Railway (WCR), which covers Bina under its Bhopal division, however, refuted the charge, saying no such treatment was meted out to Poonam, daughter of former union minister late Pramod Mahajan.

"No VIP treatment against the (rule) book was meted out to Poonam Mahajan," WCR General Manager Ramesh Chandra told PTI over phone today.

According to media reports, Mumbai North Central constituency MP came in a special train to Sukhi Sewania station on the outskirt of Bhopal from Bina on Tuesday in just 90 minutes for which many trains were made to halt to give way to it. She had left Bina around 7 PM.

However, according to railway rules no special train can be run for MPs, the reports said.

"In fact the special train from Bhopal was sent for Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha to Sagar district as per the protocol day before yesterday (May 31)," Chandra said.

Sinha had gone to Sagar to attend a function where Poonam was also present.

From there, Sinha and Poonam came to nearby Bina by a special train where the minister inaugurated a Railway Over Bridge (ROB), he said.

After the function, Sinha, according to his scheduled plan was to return to Bhopal by the special train from where he had to catch a flight to Delhi. But as the function got delayed, Sinha changed his plan at the last moment and boarded a train from Bina for Delhi, the GM said.

"As the special train was to return to Bhopal, Poonam boarded it. Nothing should be read into it. It was a coincidence," he said.

Along with Poonam, Chief Security Commissioner of WCR too boarded the special train to Bhopal, Chandra said.

According to sources, Poonam was to catch a flight from Bhopal airport around 9 PM on May 31 night.
BJP MP from Maharashtra Poonam Mahajan travelled by a special train to Bhopal from Bina district of Madhya Padesh two days back, raising questions of propriety but railways denied that any VIP treatment was meted out to her, saying it was sent for Union Minister Manoj Sinha.

"In fact the special train from Bhopal was sent for Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha to Sagar district as per protocol on May 31," Western-Central Railway (WCR) General Manager Ramesh Chandra said.

Sinha had gone to Sagar to attend a function where Poonam was also present. From there, Sinha and Poonam came to nearby Bina by a special train where the minister inaugurated a Railway Over Bridge (ROB), he said.

After the function, Sinha, as per his scheduled plan, was to return to Bhopal by the special train from where he had to catch a flight to Delhi. But as the function got delayed, Sinha changed his plan at the last moment and boarded a train from Bina for Delhi, the GM said.

"As the special train was to return to Bhopal, Poonam boarded it. Nothing should be read into it. It was a coincidence," he said.

According to railway rules, no special train can be run for MPs.

Chandra refuted the charge of any VIP treatment being meted out to Poonam, daughter of former Union Minister late Pramod Mahajan.

"No VIP treatment against the (rule) book was meted out to Poonam Mahajan," he said.

Seizing on the issue, MP Congress chief spokesman K K



Mishra said since Poonam was accorded VIP treatment against rules, action should be taken against the officials responsible.

By allowing the MP in a special train, the WCR authorities have violated the rules of Railways which do not permit such treatment to parliament members, he said.

"It should be probed whether Poonam bought a ticket to travel in the train or not...If she travelled without a valid ticket, she should be prosecuted," he added.

"Every MP has to buy a ticket for boarding a train," he said.

This incident shows that the NDA government is extending favours to its MPs while hiking the rail fare in every budget and burdening the common man, the Congress leader said.

(REOPENS BES 22)



Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh



Chaudhary Munawwar Saleem demanded that an inquiry be conducted into the matter.

He said the treatment accorded to Mahajan was "totally unlawful".

"An inquiry should be conducted into it and officers concerned who flouted rules should be punished," Saleem said.

He said that the Maharashtra MP too might be aware that what she has done was totally wrong and unlawful.

"If the people in power start breaking rules what will happen to rule of the law in the country," he asked.
After batting for change of guard in Congress, Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh today called for the entry of Priyanka Gandhi into active politics saying she is a "sharp young woman" and should handle party affairs.

"I have always said Priyanka should enter active politics. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka will both complement each other. They can decide what roles to play," he said after emerging from the meeting with Rahul Gandhi on Punjab polls.

Amarinder has batted for a change of guard in Congress, saying Sonia Gandhi can hand over the charge to Rahul if she is feeling tired after having worked as party chief since 1998.

He had yesterday said that time is right for Rahul Gandhi to take over from his mother as Congress President and favoured Priyanka's entry into active politics.

"Sonia Gandhi is a brilliant leader. I have said that she has been working (as Congress President) for the last 20 years. If she feels that time has come to give it to a new generation, then she should pass it on and we will fully support Rahul (to take over)," he said while replying to a question whether time has come for Congress Vice-President to take over from Sonia Gandhi.

Speculation is rife of a possible elevation of Rahul in the party amid demands by several party leaders for a shake-up and "surgery" in Congress in the wake of party's drubbings in recent assembly elections.

Amarinder is leading the Congress campaign ahead of crucial 2017 Punjab assembly polls, where the opposition party is eyeing to wrest power from the SAD-BJP combine.
Railways today joined hands with Haryana seeking speedy execution of viable rail projects in the state in a joint venture model.

"We can execute projects at a faster pace with state's cooperation. Unless we get that, people's aspirations will not be fulfilled," Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said here at a ceremony for signing an MoU with the Haryana government.

It was signed between them for constitution of a joint venture entity for development of rail infrastructure in the state.

Haryana becomes the seventh state to have signed an MoU with the Railways to execute such projects in a joint venture mode.

Earlier Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra, Telangana and Kerala had signed such agreements with the Railways.

The MoU envisages formation of the joint venture having 51 per cent stake of the state government and 49 per cent of the railways. The JV company shall be fully owned by the government. It will primarily identify projects and possible financing avenues in addition to those from the state and the Centre.

After finances for a project have been set up, project specific SPVs (special purpose vehicles) shall be formed. These SPVs can have other stake holders from industries, Central PSUs and state PSUs.

Describing the arrangement as "cooperative federalism". Prabhu said "the state will become the joint partner with 51 per cent stake in the project. It will be done not only on cost sharing basis but also on ownership basis."



Harayana Chief Minister M L Khattar described it as an "important occasion" and said "now all viable rail projects will be executed in joint venture model with the Railways in the state."



Khattar further said "the new system will speed up the project implementation in the state."



Highlighting the importance of forming joint venture with state governments, Prabhu said, "There will be a dedicated officer for each state for effective coordination with the state."



According to railways, the MoU is expected to speed up execution of proposed rail factory in Haryana.
India is willing to discuss human rights issues on the basis of "equality and partnership" with the US ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit here next week, but will not accept any kind of 'judgemental pronouncements' in this regard, Indian officials said.

The message has quietly and firmly been conveyed to the US with some of the American Senators raising their voice ahead of Modi's visit next week.

In recent communications with the Obama Administration and also with lawmakers, senior Indian officials have acknowledged that like any society, everything is not perfect in India and there are issues of social justice and human rights within the country.

"Of course, we have problems in India," an official familiar with the conversation said, but at the same time quickly pointed out that there exists an equally strong voice against any such injustices, be it violation of human rights or religious freedom or freedom of expression.

Indian officials, were quick to point out some of the recent developments inside the US itself.

"All societies have problems," officials said, adding that India is willing to have discussion with the US "on the basis of equality and partnership" but is not willing to accept any kind of 'judgemental pronouncement' in this regard from the US.

In New Delhi yesterday, key American Senator Ben Cardin had sharply criticised India on alleged human rights violations, extra-judicial killings and religious intolerance, saying these were "national challenges" the country faces.

At a Congressional hearing last month, a senior Obama Administration official had told Senators that India itself has a vibrant civil society who are themselves fighting for these causes.

"India is also an extraordinarily transparent democracy in that the issues that we raise are not only issues that we are raising, but they are grappling with these issues in the context of their own democracy and debate," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal had said in response to a question during a hearing on India organised by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"And that what I believe the administration seeks to do in these engagements is to find the places where our engagement on these issues can have the kind of results and actions, in a constructive way, that we would like to see," Biswal had said indicating that the Obama Administration agrees to the viewpoint of the Modi government that such issues can only be discussed on the basis on equality and partnership, wherein the two countries can learn from their best practices.
Rishi Kapoor today paid tribute to his father, legendary Bollywood actor-filmmaker Raj Kapoor on his 28th death anniversary, saying he is proud to be his son.

Raj Kapoor died on June 2, 1988 at the age of 63.

"Raj Kapoor. My Father. 1924-1988. Adieu, 28 years back! Achieved what most yearn in a life time. So proud to be his son!" Rishi wrote on Twitter.

The 63-year-old actor also changed his Twitter handle to "rahenge sada" which is the lyrics of a famous Raj Kapoor song "Jeena Yaha Marna Yaha" from the film "Mera Naam Joker".

Raj Kapoor, known as the "Showman of Hindi cinema", has starred in films including "Awara", "Shree 420", "Boot Polish", "Sangam" among others.
The Supreme Court today refused to grant an urgent hearing to a plea of former Uttar Pradesh MP Umankant Yadav seeking suspension of his conviction and seven years sentence in a forgery case to enable him to contest the upcoming assembly elections in the state in 2017.

The plea was mentioned before a vacation bench comprising Justices P C Ghose and Amitava Roy, which said that there is no urgency in the matter and the petition can be taken up in regular course.

Advocate Dushyant Prashar, appearing for Yadav who has also been three times MLA of Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP) from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, said that he has been a former MP and legislator and if his conviction and sentence are not suspended till the pendency of appeals, he may not be able to contest the upcoming polls.

"We are not concerned with whether he is an MLA or MP. All are equal before law. There is no urgency in the matter," the bench said.

Yadav, who is out on bail since 2013, was awarded seven years jail term in 2012 in a forgery case.

In 2006, Yadav had got a plot of land registered in his name at Daulatpur Pilkicha village of Jaunpur district by allegedly misrepresenting before the registering authority.

It was alleged that instead of the real owner, the leader had presented another woman before the authority.

Geeta, the real owner, later moved the court alleging fraud leading to an order of registration of an FIR against Yadav who was then Member of Parliament from Machlishahr constituency in 2006.

Yadav has approached the apex court after the trial court and the Allahabad High Court rejected his plea for suspension of conviction and sentence in the case.

In his plea before the apex court, Yadav said that out of seven years of punishment granted by the trial court, he has already undergone sentence of six years and two months.

"Specific consequence that would follow from non suspension of the sentence would be that the petitioner being a political leader, who had been elected thrice as Member of Legislative Assembly and was also Member of Parliament once and the petitioner is prospective nominee for the upcoming election of Legislative Assembly in the state of UP, would not be allowed to contest the upcoming elections", his plea said.

He sought stay of the operation of the judgement of the trial court and suspension of the sentence and conviction in the case.


President Barack Obama and Chuck Canterbury, National President, Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) walk through a police honor guard cordon during the National Peace Officers Memorial Service, an annual ceremony honoring law enforcement who were killed in the line of duty in the previous year, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. May 15, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

- Luis Luna, Liberty Alliance.The nation's largest police union is currently launching a campaign called " Our True Heroes ." The campaign will feature a website especially suitable for journalists to read positive stories of police officers instead of the hostile press releases of politicians seeking reelection on the backs of police and military professionals.During National Law Enforcement Week - May 15-21, 2016 - National Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury had some choice words for President Barack Obama on what it means to be a police officer. During his administration, Obama and his minions were accused repeatedly of taking cheap shots against cops that may have increased the number of officers killed or wounded.Canterbury told Daily Caller that police officers's trust of politicians and their own management are at its lowest level in decades. He echoed the fears of law enforcement officers of all ranks: that they'll become a scapegoat if something goes awry.For example, the five-time reelected FOP chief said Obama blames police officers and emphasizes de-escalation due to a lack of understanding of what it's like to be a cop.Canterbury told The Daily Caller.For years, the Left - including Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and others - has smeared law enforcement officers as racists by claiming that black and other minority crime suspects are more likely to be shot by police. To hear them tell it, police cruise around looking for minority kids to gun down for sport, according to a well-known black sheriff who has been angry with the treatment of law enforcement by the likes of leftist.Milwaukee County (Wisconsin) Sheriff David Clarke reminds whomever is willing to listen that presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton is a racist trying to use blacks to glide her into the White House. The main thrust of her black-vote getting is her vilifying police officers, especially white cops.But now science has shown this leftist narrative to be a lie. A study was conducted at Washington State University using active duty police and highly realistic simulators that mimic dangerous scenarios officers encounter in the line of duty. The result? Police are significantly less likely to mistakenly shoot minority suspects, and took significantly longer to fire at armed black suspects than armed white suspects.said Sheriff Clarke.But the results of this study suggest that many officers' judgment in critical moments is affected by concerns of political correctness. In a life or death situation, law enforcement officers shouldn't have to second-guess themselves because of worries about how their actions will be judged after the fact by liberals looking to further a "cops are racists" narrative.This past Sunday was the 25th annual Law Enforcement Memorial Day, honoring officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The results of this study show another way cops are more at risk because of liberal anti-cop smears
Tamil Nadu Human Rights Commission has directed the state Home Secretary to pay a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to a man from Tuticorin district who was brutally assaulted by police in 2011.

T Chelladurai of Tuticorn district had sustained injuries after he was taken to Kovilpatti East Police Station in Tuticorin district, in connection with a case, and assaulted by Inspector Selvam and Sub-inspector Dharmaraj on August 15, 2011.

The Commission, who held both the police officials guilty for treating the complainant in an "inhumane" manner, directed the State Home Secretary to deduct the compensation amount of Rs 50,000 each from the salary and allowances of the officials.

Besides, it ordered departmental discplinary action against them for violating human rights.

The Commission member Jayanthi further directed the Health Secretary to initiate disciplinary action against Kovilpatti government doctor Sri Venkatesh for tampering the medical records and colluding with the police officials.

The injuries suffered by Chelladuai in the assault had been recorded by another doctor Kaleeswari, while Venkatesan had manipulated the records.

There was a contradiction in the deposition given by Kaleeswari and Sri Venkatesan with regard to the injuries sustained by the complainant on his face, the Commission observed.

The complaint of Chlladurai was consistent with his affidavit and examination in the commission.

Whereas, they differed in the case of inspector and the sub inspector, the Commission said.

According to the complaint, Chelladurai was stabbed by his neighbour over a quarrel on Aug 14, 2011. Subsequently, he lodged a complaint against three persons including Mani, Shanthi, and Murugan.

Police arrested Mani and took no further action.

Besides, they demanded Rs 5,000 as bribe from his father.

As Chelladurai refused to pay it, the officials took him to the police station on August 15 and beat him and his father.
A 47-year-old Sikh gas station owner was shot dead in the US city of Newark and the victim's family is suspecting a hate crime.

Davinder Singh was shot at the gas station yesterday, a report in NBC New York said.

Singh, of Iselin, was found unresponsive at the gas station and taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Singh's son, Jatinder Singh, said that he thought his father, who had moved to the US from India 25 years ago may have been targeted because he was Sikh and wore a turban.

There wasno struggle, no confrontation, Jatinder said.

"I don't know what else it could be other than a hate crime," he said.

Jatinder said that his father was "the best man I ever knew" and that the family had worried about him working in Newark.

He said the his father had been robbed before but had always fought back.

But on Monday afternoon, he didn't even have a chance.

"My dad came out to get some fresh air and the male came up to my dad, pointed a gun and shot him point-blank," he said in the report.

Detectives from the Essex County Prosecutor's Major Crimes Task Force are investigating the shooting.

They didn't comment as to whether the case is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the report.
Superintendent of Police of Mathura along with five other policemen were injured today as violence erupted during an operation to clear hundreds of acres of government land from the activists of a religious group 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi'.

Police used teargas to deal with the violent satyagrahis in the Jawahar Bagh area where the clashes continued in this district of Uttar Pradesh.

The injured policemen included SP (City) of Mathura and SHO of the local police station, police sources said.

Unconfirmed reports said the SHO had died in the clash but there was no confirmation regarding this.

Over two years back, the activists of splinter group of Baba Jai Gurudeo, claiming themselves to be member of 'Azad Bharat Vidhik Vaicharik Kranti Satyagrahi', had occupied hundreds of acres of land of Jawahar Bagh on the pretext of 'Dharna'.

Their demands includedlike cancellation ofelection of President and Prime Minister of India, replacement of existing currency with 'Azad Hind Fauj' currency, sale of diesel at the rate of 60 litres for one Rupee and petrol at the rate of 40 litres for one Rupee.

The Allahabad High Court, acting on a PIL, had recently orderedthe authorities to get the land vacated.
Sri Lanka today called off search operations to locate over 100 persons missing following the recent landslides and Buddhist monks performed religious rites to pay the last repect to those who died in the disaster.

Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe, who oversaw the search- and-rescue operation, said the operation has been called off after relatives of the missing persons gave up hope.

"We called off the search operations following requests made by people and relatives as they felt there is no point in further searching for the missing people," Ranasinghe said.

Massive landslides struck Sri Lanka on May 17 following heaviest rains in more than 25 years, causing damage worth USD 2 billion. In the worst-hit central district of Kegalle more than 100 people had been listed as missing.

Over 60 bodies was recovered at the landslide site buried in deep mud.

The Disaster Management Centre said the missing persons in Kegalle were presumed dead. Last week, it had said the search would continue but there was no hope of finding anyone alive.

The search had been halted since Monday.

Today, after the search was called off, Buddhist religious rites were performed on site to pay the last respect to those who died. It was attended by relatives of the missing persons.

President Maithripala Sirisena, who attended a meeting in the Kegalla administrative secretariat on Tuesday, has ordered several relief measures, including the construction of homes for the victims by the government.

According to the DMC, nearly 3,40,000 people have been displaced across the country after days of rains, and floods.

Sri Lanka has received emergency aid from other countries, including India which dispatched two naval ships and an aircraft loaded with supplies.
Pune-based device vendor Swipe Technologies aims to reach USD 100 million in revenues over the next two years as it expands its product portfolio.

The Kalaari Capital-funded company, which today launched its new handset 'Elite Plus' priced at Rs 6,999, had clocked close to USD 45 million in revenues last fiscal.

"We continuously seek feedback from the mobile phone users on their desired features and incorporate them in our new offerings. This has helped us become a popular brand among the youth... In the next two years, we are looking at revenues of USD 100 million," Swipe Technologies founder and CEO Shripal Gandhi told PTI.

He added that online sales account for over 50 per cent of its volumes. Swipe has previously launched three devices under 'Elite', its online-only brand.

Gandhi said the company expects to sell about 2 lakh units of 4G-enabled Elite Plus in the next four months.

Elite Plus features a 5-inch display, Qualcomm Snapdragon octacore processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory (expandable upto 64GB), 13 MP rear and 8MP front camera and 3,050 mAh battery.
A collection of unpublished short poems written by Rabindranath Tagore while giving autographs is being published for the first time in form of a book.

Compiled and edited by curator and poet Nilanjan Banerjee, the gems were so far lying hidden in the archives of Rabindra Bhavana in Tagore's abode at Santiniketan.

The book 'Knockings at my heart' has around 81 such autograph-poems which will soon be released by Roli Books.

"These are very short poems or couplets. He was influenced by the precision, depth, power and intensity of Japanese haiku style of poetry," Banerjee told PTI.

After getting the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for his book of poems 'Gitanjali', 'Gurudev' had become a celebrity in Asia and Europe and was often requested by fans to compose short poems while signing autographs.

The book says Tagore soon perfected the craft and took it seriously which is evident in the painstaking modification of many of these poems years after they had been written.

The polymath had composed numerous such short poems during his visits to China and Japan between 1916 and 1929.

At Rabindra Bhavana, part of the Visva Bharati university campus, multiple versions of Rabindranath's autograph-poems can be found either in the poet's own handwriting or in typed scripts or printed forms.

The file 'MSF Autograph Poems' contains several sets of typed poems.

Another file 'MS 460' includes eight poems by the Nobel laureate in his own handwriting in an address book.

The collection of autograph-poems vary in theme. Some



speak of friendship, unity and togetherness, while others harp on God, eternity etc.

"Children run out of the temple and play in the dust.God watches their games and forgets the priest," reads one such poem.

"They were written as and when whatever thoughts came to his mind on variety of subjects," Banerjee, who studied at Reitaku University of Japan, said.

While many of these autograph-poems were written in Bengali with English translations, he wrote a few others directly in English without any Bengali translation.

These sporadic short verses that remain undated, were possibly written in response to specific public demands and not so much out of any urge to express himself in English, says the book.

During the lifetime of the poet, three books of his short poems were published - 'Stray Birds' (1916), 'Lekhan' (1926) and 'Fireflies' (1928).

He used to modify his literary works at frequent intervals, producing several versions of the same creative piece in the process, says the book.

"Rabindranath was never ambitious to be known as an 'English' poet in any sense of the term. Neither did he continue to translate his own works simultaneously and constantly with his original creations in Bengali," it says.

Tagore's writings in English were largely composed during his foreign travels or while corresponding with friends around the world.

Very few of his poems were written originally in English like the well-known 'The Child' in 1931, which he translated into Bengali as 'Sisu Tirtha'.
Tajikistan today jailed 13 leading members of a banned moderate Islamist opposition party for up to life, officials said.

The ex-Soviet Central Asian country handed life sentences to two leading figures in the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) while 11 others received up to 28 years, officials in Dushanbe told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tajikistan has not yet released an official statement on the outcome of the closed trial at the supreme court.

Savrinisso Dzhurabekova, wife of one of the jailed men, confirmed to AFP that "two have been sentenced to life" including her husband Makhmadali Khait, the deputy head of the party.

The convicts' ages range from 41 to 70.

Khait is known for "his vocal support for human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion," Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said last month.

The high-profile trial of the formal opposition to Tajikistan's strongman President Emomali Rakhmon has prompted the United States, the European Union and the United Nations to issue statements of concern.

In April, the US State Department labelled Tajikistan a "country of particular concern" over the growing crackdown on Islam in the majority-Muslim country.

The men who were arrested in October last year and went on trial in February, were accused of attempting to seize power by force and "terrorism" over deadly clashes last September.

More than 50 people were killed in nearly two weeks of clashes between security forces and followers of a renegade deputy defence minister.

Afterwards, Tajikistan banned the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan as an "extremist terrorist organisation," although the party has denied any involvement in the violence.

The party was widely viewed as moderate and was legally registered until the ban. It was seen as one of the few potential sources of genuine opposition to President Rakhmon's two-decade rule.

Critics have called the high-profile trial part of attempts by the government to eradicate Islam from public life.
The same brain circuits that are activated by eating chocolate and winning money are triggered when teenagers see a large number of 'likes' on their photos or those of peers on social networking sites, a new study has found.

Researchers from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) told 32 teenagers, aged 13-18 years that they were participating in a small social network similar to the popular photo-sharing app, Instagram.

In an experiment, researchers showed them 148 photographs on a computer screen for 12 minutes, including 40 photos that each teenager submitted, and analysed their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Each photo also displayed the number of likes it had supposedly received from other teenage participants. In reality, the number of likes was assigned by the researchers.

"When the teens saw their own photos with a large number of likes, we saw activity across a wide variety of regions in the brain," said Lauren Sherman from UCLA.

A region that was especially active is a part of the striatum called the nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brain's reward circuitry, she said.

This reward circuitry is thought to be particularly sensitive during adolescence.

When the teenagers saw their photos with a large number of likes, researchers also observed activation in regions that are known as the social brain and regions linked to visual attention.

In deciding whether to click that they liked a photo, the teenagers were highly influenced by the number of likes the photo had, researchers said.

"We showed the exact same photo with a lot of likes to half of the teens and to the other half with just a few likes. When they saw a photo with more likes, they were significantly more likely to like it themselves," said Sherman.

Teens react differently to information when they believe it has been endorsed by many or few of their peers, even if these peers are strangers, researchers said.

"In the study, this was a group of virtual strangers to them, and yet they were still responding to peer influence; their willingness to conform manifested itself both at the brain level and in what they chose to like," said Mirella Dapretto from UCLA.

"We should expect the effect would be magnified in real life, when teens are looking at likes by people who are important to them," said Dapretto.

The teenagers in the study viewed "neutral" photos - which included pictures of food and of friends - and "risky" photos - including of cigarettes, alcohol and teenagers wearing provocative clothing.

"For all three types of photographs - neutral, risky and even their own - the teens were more likely to click like if more people had liked them than if fewer people liked them," said Patricia Greenfield from UCLA.

The findings were published in the journal Psychological Science.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao today hoisted the National Flag tied to a 291-ft tall mast on the occasion of state's second formation day.

The flag was hoisted at the Sanjivayya Park here overlooking the picturesque Hussain Sagar lake in the heart of the city.

The unfurling of the flag is part of the elaborate celebrations undertaken by the state government on the occasion of the state formation day.

Telangana came into existence on this day in 2014 as per the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act. The Act was passed, amid unprecedented scenes, in parliament following a decades-old struggle for separate state.

All the government offices, including state secretariat



and Legislative Assembly, and public spaces were illuminated and colourfully decorated as part of the celebrations.

The state government allocated special funds to celebrate the occasion in all the districts of the state.

Rao paid tributes to 'Telangana martyrs' (those sacrificed their lives for separate state) and also laid foundation stone for a Telangana Martyr's memorial in the morning.

Later, he participated in the main official function to celebrate the formation at the Parade Ground here. He unfurled the National Flag and inspected the parade.

Speaking on the occasion, Rao said new districts in the state will come into existence from the Dasara festival this year. The government has undertaken a study for the purpose.

There are 10 districts at present in the state.

Rao, who spoke at length on the various welfare and development schemes being implemented, said the government undertook re-designing of irrigation projects for deriving optimum benefits.

The work on Palamuru lift irrigation scheme and Kaleswaram projects have begun. The projects would mostly be completed by 2022, he said.

Though the state is receiving cooperation from Maharashtra and Karnataka in building irrigation projects, the Andhra Pradesh government is creating hurdles, he alleged.

Under the 'Mission Bhagiratha' project of providing piped drinking water to every household, 6100 villages would get water by this year-end, he said.

He said 90 per cent of villages would get purified water by the end of next year.

Rao also talked about welfare schemes like enhanced



social security pensions, providing fine quality rice to students of social security hostels, among others.

The industrial policy of TS-iPASS, giving licences in 15 days through a single window, helped in attracting an investment of Rs 24,698 crores, he said.

Noting that top IT companies like Infosys, Wipro are expanding their activities in Hyderabad, he said Apple has started its technology mapping and development centre in the city recently.
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and a subsidiary of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) on Thursday signed a pact to work together in empowering farmers by providing them information about efficient use of natural resources to help them increase their productivity.

" and IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL) on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work together with the objective to empower farmers and people living in rural India with pertinent and high quality information and services through affordable communication network in a sustainable manner," a statement said.

has the expertise in developing knowledge based sustainable solutions in the field of agriculture and rural electrification to mitigate impact of climate change and promoting efficient use of natural resources.

IKSL has extensive experience in broadcasting informal messages to rural communities, this is the first time that the organisation will venture into enlightening rural households as part of its mandate.

The partnership will include creating awareness about benefits of clean lighting and cooking solutions, providing information on energy solutions and community level solutions that improve energy conditions in schools, public health centres.

"The partnership will provide bio-based products such as pesticides and fertilizers and awareness about efficient use of natural resources to farmers in order to support increased productivity with increased sustainability.

"This will enhance the livelihoods and the quality of life of over one billion Indians who depend on agriculture," Ajay Mathur, director general, TERI said.

The partnership will also include training and capacity building for energy entrepreneurs and technicians at a village level for providing clean energy, promotion of integrated pest and nutrient management of various crops, promotion of bio-pesticide and bio-fertilizer amongst others.

"We are relying on the technology developed by TERI to provide the kind of support that will empower the farmer and disseminate that research knowledge through our platforms," said Sandeep Malhotra, CEO, IKSL.
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RALEIGH, N.C. Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer will be available for media interviews Thursday following a hearing in federal court in the lawsuit of a Christian student group against North Carolina State University. ADF attorneys represent the student group, Grace Christian Life, in a challenge to the university's policy that requires a permit for nearly any kind of student speech or communication anywhere on campus.ADF-allied attorney Edmund LaCour of Bancroft PLLC, who is serving as co-counsel in the lawsuit, will argue before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in favor of a preliminary injunction that would prohibit the university from enforcing its policy while the lawsuit moves forward in court.said Langhofer.The university only selectively enforces its permit policy and did so against Grace Christian Life, a registered student organization, when officials told members of the group that they needed a permit to speak with other students in the student union.In September 2015, NC State officials informed students with the group that, without a permit, they must stop approaching other students in the Talley Student Union to engage in religious discussions with them or invite them to attend Grace Christian Life events.The group obtained a permit to set up a table in the student union in January and were told at the time the permit was issued that they could speak with other students from behind the table or anywhere in the room; however, when they left the table on the permitted date, a member of the Student Involvement Office approached them and told them they must stay behind the table.As the lawsuit explains, the university has not placed the same restriction on other groups. In fact, Grace Christian Life members observed and documented numerous other groups freely speaking with other students and handing out literature either without a permit or outside of the area reserved by their table permit-sometimes in full view of the same officials that stopped Grace Christian Life from doing the same.The university regulates student oral, written, and graphic speech through University Regulation 07.25.12, a policy that requires a permit for any form of commercial or non-commercial speech, which the policy broadly defines as "any distribution of leaflets, brochures, or other written material, or oral speech to a passersby (sic)...." The policy specifies that any person "wishing to conduct any form of solicitation on University premises must have the written permission of the Student Involvement [Office] in advance." Depending on the location of the proposed activity, the speaker may also have to obtain the permission of the administrator responsible for the facility or location where the activity is to be held.
Despite a spate of bloody incidents that made global headlines, the total number of deaths in terrorist attacks fell last year by 14 percent, a US government report said today.

While the Islamic State group remains the major threat and carried out devastating attacks in France, Lebanon and Turkey -- violence and total deaths decreased in Pakistan, Iraq and Nigeria.

According to figures compiled for the US State Department, there were an average of 981 "terrorist attacks" per month worldwide in 2015, killing a total of 28,328 over the year.

This represents 13 percent fewer attacks and 14 percent fewer deaths than in 2014, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

But while the global picture could be seen as encouraging, the figures record huge increases in indiscriminate political violence in Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria and the Philippines.

The START figures were released today as an annex to the State Department's annual strategic assessment -- "Country Reports on Terrorism" -- prepared for the US Congress.

This warned that the "global terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2015, becoming increasingly decentralized and diffuse."



The report also placed some of the blame on nation states, warning that extremists exploit frustrations "where avenues for free and peaceful expression of opinion were blocked."



Where countries, including US allies, have rigged judicial systems and abuses by security forces and corrupt politicians go unchecked, violent non-state actors can win support.

But the single greatest threat remains the Islamic State group and its growing legions of affiliates and supporters in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

The group has begun to lose ground to US-backed forces in its self-declared "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq, and it has begun to struggle to find funds, the report concludes.

But the IS group has expanded its territory in Libya, and its branch in Egypt's Sinai peninsula has gained strength, attacking local security forces and claiming the bombing of a Russian airliner.

The group has a small toehold in Afghanistan and in 2015 ordered or inspired attacks "by individuals or small groups of self-radicalized individuals in several cities around the world.
Three IIT students were detained by Italian police in North Italy's Ventimiglia town on Monday during checking for illegal immigrants but were released hours later following the intervention of the Indian mission in Rome.

Akshit Goyal and Deepak Bhatt, from IIT Delhi and Uday Kusupati from IIT Bombay were visiting Italy as tourists and carrying valid passports with Schengen visas.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said Italian authorities have admitted it was a "mistake" on their part to detain the three as their documents were in order. He said Indian Mission has taken up the issue with the Italian authorities strongly.

After they were detained at Ventimiglia railway station, the three IITians were flown along with other detainees to Bari, a town almost a 1000 km away in south of Italy.

Swarup said the Indian Mission in Rome, after coming to know of the incident from a relative of Akshit, swung into action and contacted Italy's Ministry of Interior Affairs and police authorities in Ventimiglia. After around 10 hours, the three students were released.

The students were first brought to Indian Embassy in Rome on May 31 and then the mission made arrangements for their onward journey to Nice in France the same day where they are enrolled for an internship programme at a university, Swarup said.

"The embassy has strongly raised the issues with the Italian authorities and is in touch with them to ensure that adequate steps are taken to ensure that such unfortunate incidents involving Indian nationals do not recur," he said.
Noted actor Tom Alter has resigned from his post as head of the acting department in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII).

Alter emailed his resignation, citing preoccupation with other commitments that preventetd him from devoting time to the assignment, director Bhupendra Kainthola told PTI on Thursday.

He, however, said that resignation of the eminent actor had not been accepted by the management so far.

"I am trying to persuade him to withdraw his resignation," Kainthola added.

According to sources in the premiere institute which has witnessed unrest on the campus on various issues during the last one year, a strained relationship with the students also contributed to Alter's decision to resign.
The External Affairs Ministry today said it was making all efforts to bring back from Jessore in Bangladesh a 12-year-old Indian boy who went missing from Delhi in 2010.

A senior official in the Indian High Commission in Dhaka had travelled to Jessore in southwestern Bangladesh last month to meet Sonu on the directive of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Sonu is currently staying in a child rehabilitation centre in Jessore.

"An officer from Indian embassy in Dhaka was sent to Jessore to that child rehabilitation centre where Sonu is kept. Sonu is in good health. He was in good spirits. Now basically we have to find what is the best way and the quickest way of getting him back," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

There is a legal issue involving Sonu and Swarup said "we have to deal with the judicial set up in Bangladesh in order to get him back."



At the same time, he said government in close coordination with the Bangladeshi authorities to find out what is the best way to get Sonu back.

Sonu had reportedly gone missing from Delhi in 2010 and a man from Jessore recently contacted his family here and gave details about the whereabouts of the boy.

The details of how the boy had gone missing are not yet known.

Replying to a question on whether India will be given membership of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Swarup said it was "on track".

"India's membership of SCO is fully on track as the decision was taken during the last summit. We have to now complete the necessary procedural formalities," he said.

The SCO, in its annual meet in Ufa in Russia last year had decided to include India as a full member.

India has an Observer status in the grouping for the past 10 years. It is likely to become full member of SCO at its upcoming annual summit in Tashkent from June 23-24.
Turkey today recalled its envoy to Germany and threatened consequences, in a furious reaction over the Bundestag's decision to adopt a resolution recognising the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.

Only one MP voted against and another abstained, as the German parliament approved overwhelmingly by a show of hands the resolution titled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916".

In the public gallery of the Bundestag, onlookers including members of the Armenian community held up banners saying "thank you" as the parliamentary speaker announced the result of the vote to applause.

Armenia Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian praised the decision as "Germany's valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides, crimes against humanity."



But Turkey swiftly condemned the resolution, and recalled its ambassador to Germany for consultations. Ankara also summoned the German charge d'affaires to the Turkish foreign ministry.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned "the resolution adopted by the German parliament will seriously affect relations between Germany and Turkey."



Erdogan's condemnation came after Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus called the Bundestag recognition a "historic mistake" and dismissed it as "null and void".

The resolution, put forward by the ruling left-right coalition and the opposition Greens, carries the contentious word throughout and also puts partial blame on the German Empire, then allied with the Ottomans and which failed to prevent the atrocities.

The "genocide" recognition comes at a particularly awkward time as Germany and the European Union are relying on Turkey to help stem a record influx of migrants even as tensions are rising between both sides over human rights and other issues.

Yerevan has long sought international recognition of the "genocide", but Ankara rejects using the term to describe the killings more than a century ago and argues that it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested two persons from a hotel here after seizing 50 kgs of Ephedrine worth Rs 5 crore from their possession.

Based on specific intelligence, officers of DRI (Hyderabad Zonal Unit) yesterday conducted searches in a hotel at Auto Nagar and recovered the substance packed in two cartons. The substance, in the form of white crystalline powder, tested positive for Ephedrine by the field drug test kit, Additional Director General M K Singh said in a release today.

A total quantity of 50 kgs of Ephedrine, worth Rs 5 crore in international market, has been recovered and seized under NDPS Act, he said.

"Two persons, in whose possession the substance was found, were apprehended and questioned. The duo informed that the substance was given to them by one person near the hotel and was to be taken to Chennai by them. Both of them were arrested and remanded to judicial custody," Singh said.

Further investigation in the case is in progress.
Thane rural police today



arrested five persons following brutal murders of two Nepali nationals at Mharal village in the district.

Madan Sunar (30) and Raju Sunar (25), who were cousins, were killed last night, police said.

Additional Superintendent of Police Prashant Kadam said their bodies were found on an open ground in Anand Nagari area this morning.

They had multiple stab wounds and their private organs had been cut off, he said.

The deceased worked as security guards.

Initial investigation revealed that they had got into spat with some people last night.

Police subsequently arrested five persons, but did not disclose their names.
The gunman who killed a UCLA professor was on Thursday identified as his former doctoral student Indian-American Mainak Sarkar, who had accused him of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, a media report said.

Sarkar, an alumni of the IIT-Kharagpur, shot and killed professor William Klug in a small office in University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) before killing himself on Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources.

The shooting prompted a complete lockdown of the campus and deployment of hundreds of police officers as well as federal agents.

All university classes were cancelled yesterday. The lockdown was lifted shortly after noon. Some 43,000 students are enrolled at the UCLA campus, according to its website.

Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and had been the target of Sarkars anger on social media for months, the paper said.

He accused the professor of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, it said.

William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy, Sarkar wrote on March 10. He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust, he wrote.

In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar had expressed gratitude to Klug for his help and support, the paper said. Thank you for being my mentor, he wrote.

Before enrolling at UCLA, Sarkar earned a masters degree at Stanford University, according to his LinkedIn page.

In 2000, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a degree in Aerospace Engineering.

He also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer.

After UCLA, Sarkar worked remotely as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company, Endurica LLC where he worked until August 2014.
Congress led UDF in Kerala today flayed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the changed stance on Mullaperiyar dam, over which Kerala and Tamil Nadu are at loggerheads, and said the goverment should rectify it.

"The new stand adopted by the Left government would only be used as a weapon against Kerala by Tamil Nadu, which is now demanding raising the water level to 152 feet," Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala told reporters here. Normally when a new government comes to power, for six months important decisions were not taken and is regarded as a "honeymoon period", he said.

However, this government has within a few days of coming to power, has taken a stand totally contrary to what had been adopted by the state so far on the issue and this was "protestable", he said.

Vijayan had during his first visit to Delhi recently after taking charge as Chief Minister had told reporters that the vexed dam row between the two neighbouring states could be resolved through talks.

"It is no use whipping up passions. The Mullaperiyar issue cannot be resolved by kicking up unnecessary controversies. Our effort should be to find a solution through talks with Tamil Nadu, he had said.

He had also stated that the Supreme Court appointed supervisory committee had found that there was no basis for Kerala's anxieties about the safety of the dam.

He had also asked what the state would do with the existing dam once a new one was constructed.

"All these years Kerala had taken a stand that the dam was dilapidated and posed danger to lives and property of the people in five districts in the catchment area around the dam and hence a new dam was the only solution", Chennithala said.

Kerala was prepared to give necessary water required for Tamil Nadu. "Kerala's safety and water for Tamil Nadu" was the stand of UDF and other parties on the matter, he said.

The assembly had also over the years passed four resolutions on the matter. When Vijayan was the CPI(M) state secretary, in the all party meetings it had taken this stand. However, within hours of the new government taking office, how has the dam strengthened?, Chennithala asked.

He said people of the state wanted to know if the Kerala government had held talks with its counterpart in Tamil Nadu.

The water level in the dam had been raised from 136 feet to 142 and now Tamil Nadu government wants to raise it to 152 feet.Vijayan's stand would only help Tamil Nadu. "We want the people of the two states to live peacefully and amicably", he said.
The National Green Tribunal has taken exception to indiscriminate dumping of soil in rivers Chenab and Tawi for construction of road on the Udhampur to Banihal stretch of the national highway and restrained authorities from throwing any debris in the water bodies.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar issued notices to Environment Ministry, Ministry of Roads Transport and Highways, Jammu and Kashmir government, Hindustan Construction Company Ltd, Gammon India Ltd, state pollution control board, District Magistrates of Ramban and Udhampur and others while seeking their reply within two weeks.

"In the meanwhile, we restrain all the respondents from throwing any debris/ muck resulting from the construction of the road from Udhampur to Banihal in any of the rivers directly or indirectly including, Tawi and Chenab," the bench said.

The NGT passed the order while hearing a plea filed by Ramban resident Amaresh Singh against rampant dumping of soil in Chenab and Tawi rivers without taking prior environment clearance.

The matter is now listed for next hearing on August 5.

"Direct the respondent authorities to keep the rivers free from any pollution and contamination and further keep forests free from any intrusion which harms their integrity," the plea said.

The plea, filed through advocate Swarn Kishore Singh, said the work on four-laning of Udhampur-Banihal stretch of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is being executed in a careless manner and the loose soil is being dumped directly into the river.

"When the work of construction of the widening of the national highway was delegated to Gammon by Ministry of Roads by virtue of a contract, Gammon was supposed to execute it themselves. But the respondent has further delegated this crucial work to some local contractors who are recklessly putting the rivers, forests and environment at ransom," the plea alleged.
A 46-year-old undertrial lodged in Kota central jail in a case of fraud and cheating died today in a hospital during treatment, police said.

Rajendra Sharma, a resident of Mansarovar colony in Bundi, was undergoing treatment for liver-related ailment since May 29, Yogesh Kumar Teji, deputy jailor at Kota Central Jail, said.

Sharma was lodged in the jail on April 29 and booked under section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 120 (B) (punishment for criminal conspiracy), Teji said.

He was admitted to the hospital after he complained of sickness, Teji said, adding, Additional chief judicial magistrate of Kota would conduct a probe into the matter.
A six-year-old boy in the US, aspiring to be a police officer, nearly landed his father in trouble by dialling 911 to report to cops that his dad had jumped a red light.

Robert Richardson, from Quincy, Massachusetts, dialled 911 to get in touch with the police after his father, Michael Richardson, ran a red light while the two were out running errands.

Michael said that after stopping at a light, he proceeded to take a right turn on red.

As he rolled through the intersection, Robert belted out that his dad had broken the law.

"I told him to stop, but he didn't listen," Robert was quoted as saying by the Boston Globe.

At the time time of the incident on Saturday, Michael tried to explain to his son that it was fine to take a right turn at a red under certain circumstances but Robert, who wants to be a police officer when he grows up, was not convinced.

Robert warned his father that as soon as they returned home, he was going to notify the police.

Michael laughed and brushed off the comment but Robert was not bluffing.

As Michael, his wife, Joleen, and their 18-month-old daughter enjoyed the sunny weather, Robert headed with determination to the house to call 911.

The dispatcher asked Robert what his emergency is.

"My daddy went past a red light," he replied.

The dispatcher asked him what happened next to which Robert said, "We had to go to the car wash and then he went past the red light."



At that point in the call, the dispatcher asked Robert to get his father. Robert's father got on the line and quickly realised what the call is about.

"Oh no, I apologise," he said with a laugh, before telling the dispatcher there is no emergency.

Karen Barkas, a detective with Quincy police, told the daily that no ticket was issued to the father.
Trinamool Congress-led government in Bengal is planning to provide special 'Roza' food packets at a subsidised rate from ration shops across the state during the fasting month of Ramzan.

"In all the ration shops across the state, Roza food packets will be provided from June 5- July 6. It will be given twice in the one-month period. The food packets will have each and every ingredient - sugar, flour, chick peas and others food items and will cost lesser than in the open market," state Food Supplies Minister Jyotipriyo Mullick told PTI.

According to food supplies department sources, this is being done to help minorities in the state who go on fast during the Ramzan month.

(Reopens CES17)



Mullick said the government had set a rice procurement target of 45 lakh tonnes during this season, of which 35 lakh tonnes have already been procured.

This, he said, is the highest ever procurement.

Earlier, he said, the state's warehousing capacity was 48,000 tonnes which has now been increased to 5,91,000 tonnes.

Construction is on to increase the capacity by another 1.8 lakh tonnes, the minister said, adding the target is 12 lakh tonnes.

Officials said out of the 171 Krishi Bazars in the state, 60 have warehousing capacity and work is on to provide the others with it.
Global airlines' body International Air Traffic Association (IATA) today asked the government as to why the aviation sector was being taxed "punitively" like that of alcohol or tobacco industry, saying such fees were weakening its ability to be a force for good.

Noting that there were "nearly 2,000 government-imposed aviation taxes and charges" in its data base--of which 230 were statutory taxes imposed on tickets, IATA said "the number seems to grow with each government budget cycle, most increases are incremental, but they add up."



"It is not unusual for the net impact of government taxes and charges to reach 20 per cent or more of the cost of travel-nearly four times the airlines' average net margin. Airlines are a force for good creating jobs and spreading wealth. Why then are we taxed as punitively as the 'sins' of alcohol and tobacco?" asked IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler.

Addressing the IATA annual meet in Dublin, Tyler said, "Many governments are simply not doing the maths" and creating an environment for the aviation sector to function as any other industry, generate jobs and enhance connectivity.

Tyler maintained that reduction or abolition of most taxes would lead to "a net positive benefit for government finances, national economies and individuals", an IATA release said.

Referring to heightened regulations in the aviation sector, Tyler said, however, "not all regulations have the same galvanising clarity of focus. Passenger rights rules, for example, often seem more intent on penalising airlines than helping passengers enjoy the benefits of efficient travel."



Stressing that the regulations must stand up to rigorous cost benefits, Tyler said "as a force for good, we need smarter regulation, clearly defined rules easily implemented to solve real issues while respecting global standards. Regulation must stand up to rigorous cost-benefit analysis," Tyler said.

He also referred to aviation safety and security issues and mentioned recent incidents including those involving aircraft of EgyptAir, Malaysian Airlines and others, saying "we face real threats. Government and industry must be nimble, share information, use global standards and keep a risk-based mindset when developing counter-measures.
US President Barack Obama has mocked Donald Trump, saying the "colourful" presumptive Republican presidential nominee seems to be "doing a good job" mentioning his own name and "advertising" himself.

Responding to a question on why he is not taking Trump's name while criticising his policies, Obama said, "You know, he (Trump) seems to do a good job mentioning his own name."



"So, I figure I will let him do his advertising for him," he said yesterday amid laughter during a speech in Indiana.

"I think Trump is a more colourful character than some of the other Republican elected officials. But a lot of the story that he's telling is entirely consistent with what folks have been saying about me or the general story they have been telling about the economy for the last seven-and-a-half, the last 10, the last 20, the last 30 years," Obama said during the Town Hall organised by PBS News.

"A lot of times, it's easy for somebody to come up and say, you know what, if we deport all the immigrants and build a wall, or if we cut off trade with China, or if we do X or Y or Z, that there's some simple answer and, suddenly, everything's going to feel secure," he said in response to a question.

Obama questioned the claims being made by Trump on his promise of bringing jobs back to the US.

"Well how exactly are you going to do that? What exactly are you going to do? There's no answer to it," he said.

"He just says, Well, I'm going to negotiate a better deal. Well, what, how exactly are you going to negotiate that? What magic wand do you have? And usually the answer is, he doesn't have an answer," Obama said.

The US President lashed out at some of the Trump policies. He described Trump's pledge to roll back Wall Street regulations as "crazy".

"My bigger point is to bust this myth of crazy liberal government spending. Government spending is not what is squeezing the middle class," Obama said, adding that it is also a myth that other countries are killing US on trade.

"The truth is, trade has helped our country a lot more than it's hurt us. Exports helped lead us out of the recession. Companies that export pay workers higher wages than folks who don't export," he said.

"And anybody who says that somehow shutting ourselves off from trade is going to bring jobs back, they're just not telling the truth," he added.

Obama also slammed the anti-immigration rhetoric of Trump.

"It's true that new immigrants sometimes compete for service and construction jobs. But they also start about 30% of all new businesses in America," he said.

"Everybody thinks that immigrants come here and then they're getting all this stuff from the government. Immigrants pay a lot more in taxes than they receive in services. The primary story that Republicans have been telling about the economy is not supported by the facts," he added.
Private sector is likely to raise $1 billion from overseas investors in the current financial year as it has recently got government approval for increasing foreign investment to 74%.

"We have now headroom of about 32% with the approval. There is no immediate need for raising capital but depending on market conditions, we can raise during the current financial year," Managing Director Rana Kapoor told PTI.

The bank already has an enabling approval from its board of directors to raise an additional $1 billion of equity capital and it will be done in single tranche, he added.

The increase in limit will provide the bank with significant enhanced flexibility in global capital raising, said Kapoor who has been recently felicitated by the London Business School for his contribution to entrepreneurship and innovation.

The award recognised that Kapoor was a pioneer in employing 'Knowledge' as a key differentiator in the financial services sector.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Yes Bank's proposal last month to increase foreign investment limit in the bank to 74%, entailing FDI inflows of $1 billion (Rs 6,885 crore).

It got the approval to raise the limit without any sub- limits for investment by way of issue of non-equity shares and/or other permissible instruments to eligible non-resident investors.

The mode of instruments includes qualified institutions placement (QIP) of equity shares and/or issue of ADRs/GDRs and/or QFIs/FPIs under the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) by acquisition of permissible securities on stock exchange.

The bank claimed that it has become the first bank in India to receive such an approval for a fully fungible composite foreign investment limit of 74%.

The hike in overseas shareholding was notified by the Cabinet in 2015 in order to remove sub-ceilings for multiple investor categories of FII, FDI and FPI.
Six automakers on Thursday said that they are recalling nearly 2.5 million United States (US) vehicles with defective Takata air bag inflators, documents posted with government regulators show.

These recalls include 1.9 million SUVs and trucks from General Motors Co, along with the recall of 217,000 vehicles from Volkswagen AG, 200,000 from Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz US unit, 92,000 from BMW AG, 54,000 from Jaguar Land Rover  a Tata Motors Ltd brand, and 5,100 from Daimler Vans USA.

In total, 15 automakers have recalled nearly 16.4 million vehicles in the US since last week stemming from Takata's decision in May to declare another 35-40 million inflators with ammonium nitrate defective, by 2019.

Upward of 100 million vehicles worldwide with Takata air bag inflators have been recalled and are linked to 13 deaths and more than 100 injuries because inflators can explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel into vehicle passenger compartments.

Automakers have acknowledged the inflators were the cause of 11 deaths  10 in Honda and one in a Ford  while two more deaths in Malaysia remain under investigation.

GM said its new recall includes some 2007-2011 full-size trucks and SUVs for passenger side air bag inflators. The largest US automaker is recalling the vehicles even though it doesn't believe, Takata inflators made for GM vehicles pose a safety risk.

GM said it has started a third-party environmental study that will simulate long-term temperature effects to continue assessing inflator aging.

GM declined to answer questions about how many vehicles it has on US roads with ammonium nitrate Takata inflators that it may be forced to recall by 2019.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said Thursday that the US-National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) recall schedule, announced last month, can be modified based on additional research. The total number of vehicles and potential schedule for recalls will determined accordingly.

GM also is establishing a part return program to collect and test Takata inflators recovered from GM vehicles.

On Wednesday, a US Senate report said four automakers were continuing to sell some new vehicles with defective Takata air bag inflators that will eventually need to be recalled.

The US-NHTSA said those air bag inflators don't pose an immediate risk to safety until subject to years of exposure to high humidity.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has approached the government for powers to penalise telcos for call drops as most of them have failed to meet the quality benchmark.

Trai Secretary Sudhir Gupta on Wednesday said, "as the Supreme Court in its judgment has observed that Trai does not have the power to impose such (call drop) penalty on telecom operators, we will write to DoT today for amendment in the Trai Act to give us more power."

According to the latest test drive conducted by Trai in Delhi from May 3 -6 the results of which were released on Wednesday, state-run telecom operators MTNL failed on all network based quality of service parameters. Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Aircel and Idea need to further improve the "call drop rate performance, the report states.

The CDMA operators and MTNL need to improve across all parameters, in order to offer acceptable levels of service, Trai said. The regulator also found that Aircel was using Radio Link Time Out more than the other companies to mask call drops.

Trai will also in the next 15 days publish the result of test drives conducted in 12 other cities. Telecom operators, on their part have claimed that they have improved the network by installing additional mobile towers TRAI has also launched a mobile app for filing pesky calls and SMS complaints.

"The application is available on Android and will be soon launched for Apple iOS as well. It will make it easier to file of complaints and also help us in monitoring action taken by telecom operators on complaints," Trai Member Anil Kaushal said.

The Supreme Court had recently quashed a Trai rule which mandated telecom operators to pay consumers a compensation of Re 1 for each call drop with an upper limit of Rs 3 per day. The telecom operators had moved the apex court challenging a Delhi high court order upholding the TRAI's notification asking them to compensate consumers. The mobile service providers had blamed the lack of spectrum and shutting down of a large number of towers over health concerns for the growing problem of call drops. Telcos have also been demanding a uniform policy across states to set up towers.

The government on its part has been maintaining that telcos are not investing enough on infrastructure to improve the quality of voice services and concentrating more on data services to increase profits. The problem had become so serious last year that even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed concern over the issue.

This had prompted the Department of Telecommunications to hold a meeting with the promoters of the telecom companies to find a way out. At present, disputes between consumers and telecom operators are not taken up by consumer courts as a Supreme Court judgement of 2009 had barred seeking any such relief under the Consumer Protection Act on the ground that a special remedy is provided under the Indian Telegraph Act. The National Telecom Policy envisages legislative measures to bring disputes between telecom consumers and service providers within the jurisdiction of consumer forums established under the Consumer Protection Act. However, it is yet to be executed by the government.


Independent News & Media (INM) has issued a positive trading statement in advance of its AGM today. In the four months to the end of April, INM saw continued strong growth in digital advertising.



Total revenue grew strongly, primarily driven by the distribution business, Newspread.

INM continued to see strong growth in digital advertising revenue. However, acceleration in the decline of print advertising meant that total advertising revenue declined year-to-date.

Print advertising continues to be extremely volatile as the declining trend in circulation revenue has remained broadly unchanged. INM continues to outperform the market both in terms of advertising and circulation and to grow its market share.



According to Davy Stockbrokers, "In terms of outlook, INM anticipates that profit before tax in 2016 will be within market expectations. With 60m cash on the balance sheet and trading on a 2017 EV/EBITDA of 2.2x, we continue to believe that INM is undervalued."

Source: www.businessworld.ie

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A court challenge under way claims Utah's "Agriculture Operation Interference" law violates the First Amendment right to free speech. Photo courtesy of the EPA.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  Utahs law banning secret filming of agricultural facilities is unconstitutional and should be struck down just as Idahos measure was last year, argue animal welfare activists in a new court filing.

The so-called Ag-gag law, passed in 2012, has a chilling effect on groups trying to expose unsafe and illegal practices at slaughterhouses and factory farms, said attorneys for a group of plaintiffs that include the Animal Legal Defense Team and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Utah state officials defend the law in their own filing, saying it doesnt violate any constitutional protections and still allows for filming from public places and for whistleblowers to report abuses. The state argues that it promotes workplace safety by barring unskilled undercover operatives from slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants.

These illegal acts cannot be justified by the plaintiffs bare desire to get a story they want to tell, wrote Kyle Kaiser of the Utah attorney generals office.

The dueling court filings come 10 months after a federal judge ruled that Idahos similar law was unconstitutional, giving animal rights activists across the country hope that the decision will pave the way to overturn similar laws in other states.

U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill found that the Idaho law violated the First Amendment, writing in the August 2015 ruling that audio and visual can vindicate a whistleblower who otherwise might not be believed.

Utahs law was passed amid a wave of such laws being considered around the country. Eight other states have passed some sort of law against such surreptitious filming.

No ruling is expected anytime soon in Utahs case, which was filed nearly three years ago.

One of the plaintiffs, Amy Meyer, was arrested under the misdemeanor statute for filming a front-end loader dumping a sick cow outside a Draper slaughterhouse in 2013. Charges against her were dropped because she recorded the scene from a public street.

Society needs people like Meyer because relying on slaughterhouses and meatpacking plant employees turning whistleblowers isnt reliable, said PETA attorney Matthew Strugar writing the brief on behalf of the plaintiffs. Many of these workers are undocumented or otherwise disenfranchised and are not aware of whistleblower protections, he wrote.

Strugar argues that the measure was motivated by animosity, saying Utahs legislative history oozes with disdain for animal protection groups.

The state said legislators arent concerned with the animal welfare groups, but rather people who go onto private property and risking the safety and security of operations underway.

There is no broad-reaching right to enter private property illegally or under false pretenses, even if the interloper has (in his mind) a noble pursuit of doing so, wrote Kaisel for the state.

Media groups have also joined the lawsuit, saying the law violates the First Amendment. The plaintiffs say they have three journalism experts who can testify that undercover investigations are part of the countrys rich and celebrated journalistic history.

Much valuable journalism has emerged from investigations that employed subterfuge to expose wrong, Strugar writes.
A few weeks before the April 2-5 fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia, a border crisis occurred between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on March 18-26. Some observers connected these two events as links in the same chain. Indeed, both cases revolve around so-called frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space; where one of the conflicting sides is a CSTO member and the other is not; and where speculations proliferate of a hidden Russian hand in both the instigation and mediation of the clashes. The two conflicts can be seen as a by-product of the same process  the continuing divergence of the former single Soviet space.

BACKGROUND: This year, all former Soviet republics celebrate the quarter-century anniversary of their independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Most of the newly independent states faced their independence with territorial or other disputes with neighboring states or with internal social and political defects. Several of these disputes have periodically seen renewed escalation throughout these 25 years. One of the most essential conflicts  between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh  has remained largely frozen since 1994, remaining in a status-quo of no war, no peace.

Only weeks before the most recent crisis in the Caucasus, a border crisis occurred between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as Uzbekistan deployed troops to the Chalasart border area on March 18. This and many similar existing border disputes between Central Asian states sporadically escalate into standoffs, often rather unintentionally. Yet no Central Asian government has stated the intention to take control of the disputed lands by force.

In the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, both sides appeal to history and historical documents, attempting to validate their assertions about Karabakh. In Central Asia, the sides usually refrain from waving historical documents, probably because the documents rarely confirm the validity of territorial claims but, on the contrary, common rights to certain lands, installations and infrastructure in the border areas.

In the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict, mutual antagonism originates from so-far unaccomplished sovereignty; whereas in Central Asia tension originates from unaccomplished regional integration. The former case is marked by inter-ethnic division, where two ethnically different peoples cannot find the formula for separation by completing their sovereignty. The latter has a dimension of resource distribution, but also lacks a formula for reunifying peoples of the same ethnic origin by completing regional integration.

Representatives of Azerbaijan frequently argue that their country is tired of the no war, no peace situation and is eager to return Nagorno-Karabakh once and forever, even at the expense of an interstate war. In Central Asia, neither Uzbekistan nor Kyrgyzstan demonstrate such eagerness. Therefore, the situation in the Caucasus appears closer to war than peace; and in Central Asia closer to peace than war. But these frozen conflicts have at least one common dimension: geopolitics and great power influence.

IMPLICATIONS: When these and similar events occur in the Caucasus and Central Asia, rumors and speculations about Moscows hidden hand unavoidably come to the fore. In any case, a degree of Russian influence  implicit or explicit  in the pre- or post-conflict period cannot be denied, because these events take place in Russias immediate neighborhood. For Moscow, such influence is a matter of great power geopolitics. Yet for the countries directly engaged in these conflicts it is a matter of micro-geopolitics  a consequence of their unaccomplished sovereignty. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that the overall geopolitical transformation of the post-Soviet space remains incomplete.

Irrespective of Moscows direct role in the recent escalation in the Caucasus, two evident actions on Russias part attract attention  the arms sales to Azerbaijan and the new articulation of Azerbaijans role as a key country in the North-South corridor from Saint-Petersburg through Azerbaijan and Iran to the Indian port in Mumbai. Russian officials justified the arms sales by referring to business interests, whereas the sales could have been suspended if the ceasefire was really meant to last. Regarding the articulation of a strategic partnership between Moscow and Baku, this puts into question Moscows relationship with Yerevan within the CSTO and EEU. This is a perilous time to manipulate with geopolitical projects in the region if, again, peace enforcement is really intended.

In Central Asia, irrespective of Moscows direct role in the recent border incident between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyzstans hope for CSTO protection against Uzbekistan stands in contrast to Uzbekistans and Russias bilateral strategic partnership and alliance relationship established in 2004 and 2005 by two respective treaties. Moreover, erstwhile attempts by Moscow to mediate tensions and conflicts in the Central Asian region have proven ineffective; and Tashkents official position, sealed in its foreign policy doctrine, is that there should be no mediation by any great power in resolving regional problems.

Although the result was escalation in the Caucasus and de-escalation in Central Asia, both peace and war in these cases are essentially ad-hoc outcomes. Neither temporary peace sporadically interrupted by escalating hostilities, nor low-intensity conflict interrupted by a mediated ceasefire, nor a war-like situation with an uncertain perspective, can eliminate the existential forces generating inter-state enmity and confrontation. Furthermore, retreat from the current principled official positions and self-confident references to the controversial historical past regarding the substance of conflict would perhaps mean losing face for those spearheading the process, along with possible public indignation.

In these circumstances, post-Soviet conflicts related to the possession of certain territory all contain an embedded micro-geopolitical dimension. The sides engaged in territorial disputes think of the lands in question not just as a matter of national pride and historical justice but also as means for power projection and geopolitical enterprise. From this perspective, any form of external interference by great or regional powers under the banner of peacemaking will add more geopolitics and perpetuate the conflict potential.

A number of international attempts, including by the OSCE Minsk Group, have so far been unable to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis. But one important mechanism remains unfulfilled  direct and regular bilateral talks institutionalized at the highest official level between Azerbaijan and Armenia, without great power mediation. It would be expedient to adopt on this level something along the lines of a Pact on Peace and the Status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Central Asians already have a similar pact in the Treaty on Eternal Friendship signed in 1997, which not only fixed the status-quo in the region but also confirmed that these states have no territorial claims on each other and will resolve any problems by means of mutual consultations as brother countries.

CONCLUSIONS: The antagonism between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh and border disputes between Central Asian countries are in need of similar innovative approaches to conflict resolution. Indeed, the conflicts implicate each other because they are located in the formerly common Soviet area and are by-products of that areas disintegration. Two main assertions can be made in this regard.

First, the principle of territorial integrity versus national self-determination should perhaps be revised, at least in specific cases where two states claim a certain territory as exclusively their ancestral lands or in border disputes between two states engaged in regional integration, with equal rights to certain lands. If territorial integrity and national self-determination are seen as divergent absolutes, they will be of little help in finding solutions acceptable to both conflicting sides.

Second, peaceful coexistence between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the Caucasus and Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Central Asia was not only possible during the Soviet period; it was a firmly established fact because it concerned coexistence between peoples rather than polities. The previous atmosphere of coexistence among a single Soviet people is now poisoned by the revival of archaic nationalism, which obscures forces of peace and induces forces of war.

These two assertions, however, bring us back to the 1920s when the Soviet power conducted national delimitation in Central Asia and the Caucasus in an adventurous and arbitrary fashion, leaving the seeds of potential resentment among local elites and populations. Therefore, at the very foundation of current approaches to the conflicts concerned, two opposite principles can be applied: to renounce Soviet-made borders or to confirm those borders. The Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict escalates on the principle of renouncing Soviet-made borders; whereas the Central Asian border issue usually de-escalates due to the official confirmation of Soviet-made administrative borders as inter-state borders. In both cases, however, micro-geopolitics drops new seeds of ad-hoc disturbances in the future.

AUTHORS BIO: Dr. Farkhod Tolipov holds a PhD in Political Science and is Director of the Education and Research Institution Bilim Karvoni in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Image Attribution: www.eurasianet.org, accessed on May 31, 2016
Abandoning El Dorado: The Spanish youth who leave Berlin

Published on June 2, 2016

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Berlin has taken the title of Europe's coolest city, helped along by its status as the capital of Germany  the country with the lowest youth unemployment rate in the European Union. That's why in recent years many young Spaniards have been packing their suitcases to head to Berlin to find work  although not all of them have had the same luck.

It's raining when I come out of the metro at Frankfurter Allee, the sunshine and balmy temperatures that greeted us when we arrived in Berlin didn't last long. When I meet Diego Ruiz del Arbol in a cafe close to the co-working space he uses as an office, he tells me this is classic April weather. He should know, the 36-year-old Spaniard has been living in the German capital for nine years.

As he sips his coffee, he tells me that Berlin is by no means an easy city. In addition to the linguistic challenges, there are problems finding accommodation and, in worst-case scenarios, finding employment. In fact, among the many young Spaniards heading to cities across Europe  including Berlin  there are those who eventually decide that they want to return to Spain. With them in mind, Diego and his business partners Sebastien Sanz and Raul Gil created the online platform Volvemos.

Volvemos is a job search engine for expats looking to return to Spain. Through the platform, companies seeking candidates with foreign language skills or international experience can post their job offers  perfect for the legion of Spanish emigrants registered with the site. In its short, two-month existence over 4,100 people have signed up. "Two people an hour," says Diego  and 16% of them live in Germany.

Half a million young Spaniards abroad

Faced with a youth unemployment rate above 46% (the second highest in the EU after Greece), over 525,000 Spaniards between the ages of 18 and 35 packed their bags in order to up and leave their country between 2008 and 2014, according to Spains National Statistical Institute (INE). However, these figures are likely to be off the mark, as they don't take into account people who didn't request to be removed from the Spanish municipal register, a move allowing them to keep their health coverage.

I ask Diego about the profile of emigrants who register on Volvemos. "In the beginning we realised that professions affected by the crisis  architects, journalists, graphic designers or nurses  were over represented," he explains. "But with time it has become more evenly distributed and we have all kinds of profiles."

He explains how, through Volvemos, he hopes to provide Spanish emigrants with the "necessary tools" to find a job and return to Spain. But the platform also seeks to "make visible the fact that the so-called 'best educated generation in history', who felt obliged to leave their country, are now in fact wishing to return."

Why Berlin?

According to the INE, the number of young Spaniards living in Germany has increased by approximately 35% since 2009. To date, there are roughly 140,000. A lot of them choose Berlin. For Europeans, Berlin has become the epicentre of cool. Diego describes a city of artists, urban culture and nightlife. This isn't difficult to confirm: I only have to walk a stone's throw from my hostel to find several pop-ups, temporary art galleries and cafes jam-packed with MacBooks and chai lattes.

But Berlin also has something else in its favour: it's the capital of Europe's leading economic power. Germany's youth unemployment rate is just 7%, the lowest in the Union. Although, as Diego explains, the reality of the capital is rather different: "A lot of people come here without doing any prior research; the unemployment figures in Berlin are actually comparable to those in Spain."

Marta (27) has been living in the German capital for 10 months after deciding to try her luck abroad following a year of unemployment in Spain. She chose Berlin because "it was cheaper than other European capitals, such as London"  I can't help but agree having paid just 5 euros for my coffee and cake.

It didn't take long for Marta to realise that she wasn't going to find a job related to her studies  in Business Administration and Management  due to the language barrier. Yet she hasn't been able to find a job in another sector either. "What makes it worse is that I dont feel useful," she laments. "Discovering Volvemos gave me some encouragement, because I saw that there were companies that value exactly the kind of experience I have been getting abroad."

Lilian (36) is more sceptical. She believes that the platform is "too similar to other job search engines and doesn't offer any guarantees." She moved to Berlin after losing her job as a journalist in Spain, and currently has a minijob with a cleaning company. These small time jobs form part of German unemployment benefit, and are notoriously underpaid. "Germany is not what they made us believe it to be," says Lilian. She is not the first Spanish woman that I've heard talk like this about Berlin.

She is highly critical of the current situation: "The minijobs are incredibly precarious and only serve to massage unemployment figures." I ask her if she considers returning to Spain. She replies without hesitation: "Yes, of course."

Reversing the brain drain

If there's one thing that all the Spaniards I meet in the German capital can agree on, it's that Spain is letting its educated talent escape. In many cases, this is due to the fact that young people don't feel like they are valued. This is true for Mireia (22), who opted to apply for an international scholarship to work in a laboratory  which she is combining with a doctorate  because "in Spain I did not have the same opportunities".

When I ask what needs to happen before more young people like herself consider returning to their country, she responds firmly: "A change in mentality, to begin with. The Government has to stop being selfish in that regard."

Diego agrees and makes a further point about Spanish companies: "We're finding that they don't want to pay what a service like Volvemos is worth, and that's becoming a problem for us. Above all, it will be a problem for those emigrants who are thinking about returning."

Diego backs an ambitious plan to reverse this brain drain that involves Spanish public administrations as well as companies. "What we can do without their support is clearly insufficient given the magnitude of the problem," he argues, warning, "You have to stimulate debate, because expats are not going to return for just any old price."

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This feature report is a part of our EUtoo 'on the ground' project in Berlin, seeking to give a voice to disenchanted youth. It is funded by the European Commission.

Story by Naiara Reig Pellicer

Translated from Jovenes espanoles en Berlin: El Dorado fallido
Natalia Contreras/Caller-Times Russell Garcia (from left), Rachael Garcia and their daughter Julissa Briseno stand in front of the newly named Bahn Bay Blasters water slide. Rachael Garcia entered a Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi contest to name the water slide and her entry was chosen.

By Natalia Contreras of the Caller-Times

Rachael Garcia's family has been to Schlitterbahn Water Parks in South Padre Island and New Braunfels.

She said it's almost a family tradition to get together every summer and hit up the beach and the water parks.

Starting Saturday, when Garcia and her family, of Refugio, visit Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi, they'll proudly walk up to the water slide she helped name.

Garcia, her husband Russell Garcia and their daughter, Julissa Briseno along with Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi officials Wednesday revealed Bahn Bay Blasters as the new name for the water slide formerly known as the Master Blasters #1 and #2.

Garcia said about a month ago she was on Facebook and saw Schlitterbahn's contest to name the water slide.

"I usually don't do any kind of contests like that," Garcia said. "The name just came to me and I posted it on a comment."

After hundreds of entries, Garcia's was chosen because the name includes the water park, Corpus Christi and the slide, Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi spokeswoman Amy Gazin said.

"We wanted the community to have a sense of ownership with the park," Gazin said. "We had such wonderful responses but the Garcias' encompassed everything we wanted to have."

Gazin said other contest name entries included Kraken Carnage, Leviathan Run, Texas Schlip n' Slide, the Texas Turbo, the Megalodon and Hammerhead.

Russell Garcia said he is proud and excited to visit the park with the rest of his family and show them the water slide.

"We plan on coming over here a lot," Garcia said. "We always spend summers together and do everything together as a family. This is something else we can all share."

Gazin said the family was rewarded with a 2016 Family Five Pack Season Passes valued at about $745.

Information: www.schlitterbahn.com/corpus-christi or 361-589-4219
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By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

Del Mar College has chosen its next provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Beth Lewis will assume the new role on Aug. 1, according to a college news release. She brings more than 28 years of higher education instruction and administrative experience to the position.

Lewis served as president of College of the Mainland in Texas City for three years. Before that, she was the founding vice president of academic affairs at Northeast Lakeview College in San Antonio and dean of off-campus programs and of academic affairs at Blinn College in Brenham, the news release states.

She's a University of Texas at Austin graduate and earned her Master of Arts degree in English and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Sam Houston State University. She is a certified mediator in workplace conflict, crisis leadership in higher education from Harvard University and for Incident Command Systems from the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA, among others.

"Beth Lewis brings a breadth of academic expertise and quality leadership to this top instructional and campus operations position at the College," DMC President Mark Escamilla said in the news release. "Her ability to understand community college classroom needs and lead innovative ventures will be an asset to the vision and momentum of the College's Executive Team."

Twitter: @CallerBetty
BEATRIZ ALVARADO/CALLER-TIMES HELP received a grant to install a 10th Window on the World computer in Corpus Christi ISD. Veterans Memorial High School is being gifted computers with interactive software and videos of work site visits by youth. The content is meant to guide students through choosing a career path.

SHARE BEATRIZ ALVARADO/CALLER-TIMES Ridge Hammons, HELP executive director, holds up a six year-old picture of the first check presentation for the first Windows on the World computers at Carroll High School. The nonprofit was given a fourth check by Grande Communications to install Windows on the World computers at a 10th Corpus Christi ISD campus during a Wednesday event.

By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

It took a phone call to Nova Scotia for a pair of high school students to learn about frog sweat.

Ridge Hammons, then high school principal, said the two used his office phone to call an expert in the eastern Canada Maritime province.

Hammons shared the story during a Wednesday check presentation to the nonprofit he now leads. He said because of the phone call, the students' project  on frog sweat  won them first place in an international science fair.

"It's all about communication and about making contact with people," Hammons said.

Hammons Education Leadership Programs Inc. was awarded $3,500 to help students in the Corpus Christi Independent School District make more of those connections. The only difference is the funds will be used to continue a program for which connections result in career-making decisions and exposure to the local workforce. Windows on the World computers are equipped with interactive software that can be used to educate students about careers public safety or the medical field, for example. The funds, granted by Grande Communications, will be used to install such computers at a 10th district campus  Veterans Memorial High School.

The computers are equipped with videos of youth visiting work sites, including Corpus Christi ISD students. The schools gifted the computers also become hubs for HELP's Careers of the Future clubs. Club members attend career-oriented presentations and visit work sites.

Veterans Memorial Principal Kimberley D. James said the donation is timely.

"We know we will put it to good use," James said. "It dovetails very nicely with House Bill 5  the requirement for students to identify a career pathway (in high school). We're very excited and appreciative of this opportunity."

Grande has provided financial backing for Windows on the World computers and career clubs at three other schools, Veterans Memorial is the company's fourth benefactor. HELP is a nonprofit that facilitates the work site visits for at-risk and disabled youth to inform them about career choices. The nonprofit dedicates resources to creating incentives to keep youth from dropping out of school and to live productive lives.

Ideally, all district campuses will have access to the computers, said district superintendent Roland Hernandez.

"This is an important time for our students ... they are trying to determine what they want to do (for a living)," Hernandez said. "You can't ever fall short of getting the information out to our students, so this is another good day for our them."

Twitter: @CallerBetty

HOW TO HELP

Interested in speaking at a schools or have students visit your job site? Contact HELP at www.helphelp.us and 361-815-6122.
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Amanda Terry director of rehabilitation for the Texas Sealife Center and Kay Adam, president of Rockport-Fulton Wings Rescue Center release two pelicans back into the wild Thursday at Rockport Beach Park.

SHARE COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Rockport-Fulton Wings Rescue Center release two pelicans back into the wild Thursday at the Rockport Beach Park after being rehabilitated. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Rockport-Fulton Wings Rescue Center release two pelicans back into the wild Thursday at the Rockport Beach Park after being rehabilitated.

By Courtney Sacco, Courtney Sacco@caller.com Twitter: @Caller_Courtney

A pelican that bit off more than it could chew was released Thursday after being rehabilitated.

The brown pelican was rescued after a hardhead catfish became lodged in the bird's pouch. The fish, which has stiff spines on its side and back, was surgically removed.

The bird was the older of two pelicans released Thursday and the first rehabilitated by the Rockport-Fulton Wings Rescue Center, which was founded in April.

During their stay at the Texas Sealife Center, the two brown pelicans became buddies, so Wings decided to release them together.
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Jack Gerald Larkins is accused of raping, beating and kidnapping a woman. He is on trial in the Texas 347th District Court.

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By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

A rape and kidnap case of a 62-year-old Bishop woman is with jurors.

The jury in the trial against Jack Gerald Larkins began deliberating Wednesday afternoon. A woman Larkins did housework for accused him of a brutal rape and beating in March 2014.

Jurors have six charges to consider: aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, robbery, and two counts of aggravated kidnapping. Each one also includes a lesser charge the jurors can consider.

The jury deliberated about an hour and a half before asking to watch Larkins' police-taped interview a second time. After playing the nearly hourlong video in the courtroom, 347th District Judge Missy Medary released the jury until Thursday morning.

The case heavily comes down to the woman's testimony versus Larkins' account at the police station.

The woman testified she was raped and beaten after Larkins demanded she write him a check for $3,200 and she said she didn't have that much money. She said he forced her to shower twice and then threatened to force her to go with him to Mexico. She testified last week she persuaded Larkins to return to her home.

At the Kingsville police station, Larkins said he didn't know why the woman would accuse him and denied having sex with her.

DNA evidence was a near match but couldn't be 100 percent definitive, experts testified. Cellphone records show towers pinged in Bishop and Kingsville that would coincide with the woman's account that afterward he drove them toward Mexico, then changed directions and took her back to her Bishop home.

Prosecutor Michelle Putnam also pointed to the unfixed crack in the garage that Larkins was supposed to repair and a pair of gray handled scissors in his pickup she said came from the woman's home. The woman testified he threatened to stab her with the scissors if she didn't do as he instructed.

Defense lawyer Robert Flynn argued the woman's injuries weren't as severe as they would be for what she described and that the state didn't give the jury enough evidence for them to convict.

"She's telling you she's being smothered and she's trying to survive ... and there is no physical evidence of that and if that happened there would be," Flynn said. "You've got to take the emotions out of it and look at it logically."

Putnam also urged the jury to consider Larkins' behavior when Kingsville and Bishop police went to his Kingsville home to execute a warrant days later. Larkins ran from officers through the neighborhood and hopped over residents' fences until he was caught and arrested.

If convicted, Larkins could be sentenced to life in prison. He was out of the Texas prison system on parole for a burglary at the time. In 1981, Larkins was convicted of a murder in San Diego, according to the indictment in Nueces County.

Twitter: @CallerKMT
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Jack Gerald Larkins is accused of raping, beating and kidnapping a woman. He is on trial in the Texas 347th District Court.

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By Krista M. Torralva of the Caller-Times

Jack Gerald Larkins says he isn't the same man who killed a person when he was a juvenile. Or the man who decades ago broke into a woman's home, crawled into her bed and beat her.

Larkins, 51, said he isn't the man his criminal record portrays. A jury rejected those ideas Thursday when they sentenced him to 80 years in prison.

Earlier Thursday, jurors convicted Larkins of five counts related to the rape and kidnap of a 62-year-old Bishop woman. He previously had refused prosecutors' offer of a 30-year prison sentence.

"Until I heard the testimony that has been before the court ... I didn't know how horrible this type of case was," 347th District Judge Missy Medary said before deputies led Larkins out of the courtroom. "To me, it is very frightening."

Larkins was on parole for burglary when in March 2014 he took a job fixing a woman's house that she was preparing to sell. After doing work in the garage, Larkins told the woman he got a splinter and asked for tweezers and a magnifying glass. The woman gave him the items and that's when she said he attacked her and demanded she write him a check for $3,200. When she refused, he forced her into her bedroom and raped her.

The woman testified Larkins forced her to shower twice and then threatened to harm her and her family to force her to go with him to Mexico. She said they got to Kingsville before she was able to she persuade Larkins to turn around and take her home.

"I'm very relieved soon this man is going to be off the streets," the woman said after a jury convicted him.

Larkins, who chose not to testify in his defense, told the Caller-Times after the trial that he wished he told his side of the story but didn't because he knew it would open the door for prosecutors to talk about his history. He said the woman made up the story after he rejected her advances on him. His skin cells were found in her bedding and on her left breast and a pair of gray-handled scissors from her kitchen that she said he used to threaten her were found in his pickup.

Larkins said he changed in prison after becoming a Christian. He said he was on his way to kill two homosexual men in his prison dorm, where he was serving time for a 1990 burglary, when a sergeant told him his request to be moved to another dorm was getting approved. In his new dorm, he said he studied the Bible. He also said he was baptized in Houston after his release on parole after serving about 20 years of a 60-year sentence.

In the punishment phase, prosecutors showed evidence that Larkins was convicted of murder in California when he was a juvenile, a burglary in Bee County and another burglary in Nueces County.

"He has four victims already. Don't let him victimize another person," Prosecutor Michelle Putman said to jurors before they deliberated.

The jury convicted him of misdemeanor assault, two counts of aggravated sexual assault, misdemeanor theft and aggravated kidnapping. For the two aggravated sexual assaults, Larkins was sentenced to 80 years each. For the aggravated kidnapping the jury sentenced him to 50 years. Those three prison sentences will run concurrently. His parole for the burglary will be revoked and he will have to serve the remainder of that sentence separate from the sentences for the rape.
When is hurricane season? Here's what you need to know in South Texas
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Corpus Christi has a storied tradition as a military town, going all the way back to the mustering of the army that defeated Mexico in the mid-19th century. Many if not most of its current population of veterans are Hispanic, which gives them two deeply personal reasons not to tolerate presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump because he has disparaged Hispanics and prisoners of war.

Being targets of Trump's persecutions is a bond we as news media are proud to share with veterans. This week Trump all but declared war on the news media for its fact-finding efforts on veterans' behalf.

In January, Trump used veterans as a pawn by staging a fundraiser for them as an alternative to attending a debate he wanted to dodge like he did service in the Vietnam War. But at least there would be something in it for the veterans, presumably  the money raised by the event.

Afterward, Trump claimed that the event raised $6 million including a $1 million donation from himself. Here and there, at campaign events, he'd present a representative of a veterans group an outsized check  by "outsized" we mean the physical size of the symbolic document, not the amount of the check. But this staged sprinkling of donations tapered off.

At some point the news media was bound to circle back and make sure Trump made good on his promises to veterans. We're just talking about a simple fact check, nothing innovative or unusual and not in any way slanted because it was about Trump. Not bothering to do it would have been an unfair slant in his favor, or just plain laziness.

The fact-checking began recently, having allowed Trump a more than reasonable period to distribute the money. It was only a week ago that The Washington Post reported that Trump hadn't made his million-dollar donation. It also was evident as of a week ago that less than $6 million had been disbursed.

At a news conference Tuesday, Trump disclosed that the fundraiser brought in $5.6 million, showed a copy of a million-dollar check from himself  and spent 40 minutes attacking the news media for having squeezed this information from him. He attacked the media as an institution, and he disparaged specific individuals, calling one a "sleaze" and another, sarcastically, "a real beauty."

He claimed that the delay in giving away the money was because the veterans groups needed to be vetted  because, you know, some of them can't be trusted. Thus, he besmirched veterans further.

Trump was insulted that he would be questioned, as if to do so were rude. What happened was that the initial facts added up to more questions, which were met with unsatisfactory, obfuscatory answers  which usually invites more aggressive questioning. Welcome to America, greatest nation on Earth, Mr. Trump.

The timing of Trump's disbursements and million-dollar check makes clear that, were it not for the hard questioning, the money wouldn't have been distributed by now  if ever. The news media is honored and privileged to have been so villainous as to have made this happen.

If the media is to be faulted, it's for the overly tolerant treatment of Trump. They have too graciously pursued lines of questioning such as whether he would "pivot" somehow from the horrible things he has said about immigrants, POWs, women, etc. If he were so inclined  which apparently he isn't  he shouldn't be allowed to pivot. The news media should not allow those terrible things he has said to cease to define him. Nor should reporters or their bosses put up with being penned up at his events.

Trump has a right to say what he wants to say. We've heard it. Basically he says he is against what made America great. Veterans kept it great, fighting and bleeding to protect the right for the news media to do what it does  question authority and demand answers. It was a founding principle of this nation, which, like principles in general, run afoul of Trump.
COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Governor Greg Abbott answers questions from reporters before his book signing at Half Price Books on Friday.

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Texans have long defended this great nation; their stories of heroism can never be forgotten.

Communities like Corpus Christi understand the sacrifices made by our military and their families. That's why I am asking for your help finding the missing photos of six Texas heroes.

America is the brightest beacon of freedom the world has ever known because of the men and women who serve. In times of war and in times of peace, our mighty military stands ever ready.

On Memorial Day, we paused to remember all who gave the last full measure of devotion. We are each entrusted with their legacy of faith in this great nation.

And every day in the Texas Capitol, we honor the bravest of the brave  Texas heroes awarded the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest award for valor in action, by the President on behalf of Congress and the people of the United States.

The "Above and Beyond: Medal of Honor in Texas" exhibit in the Texas Capitol has been viewed by thousands of visitors since it was unveiled in 2014.

Among the 91 Medal of Honor recipients from Texas memorialized on that display are names and faces that should be familiar to every Texan  like Audie Murphy, Roy P. Benavidez and Clarence Sasser.

But six of our Medal of Honor recipients have no photo to help tell their stories.

They are missing for dates of action between 1870 and 1900. These men were either born in or entered military service in Texas.

Today, I invite you to join the search for the missing photos at www.medium.com/@GovAbbott.

We also welcome further biographical details on the six men from the families, veterans' groups and others devoted to preserving our military's history.

Well-known faces among our revered Medal of Honor recipients with a Coastal Bend connection include Korean War honoree U.S. Army Master Sgt. Mike C. Pena. Vietnam War honorees from the area include U.S. Army Sgt. Santiago J. Erevia, U.S. Marine 2nd Lt. Terrence Collinson Graves and U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Jose Rodela.

I invite you to learn more about all of these Texas heroes and their selfless dedication to liberty and the cause of freedom around the world by visiting the "Above and Beyond: Medal of Honor in Texas" exhibit on the ground floor of the Texas Capitol in Austin.

And I ask for your help in finding the missing six photos.

The gallant actions of our Medal of Honor recipients should never be forgotten.
Columnist Dave McNeely

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton watched in New Orleans on May 24, as Scott Keller, the state's solicitor general, argued that Texas' Voter ID law isn't an illegal hindrance to would-be voters.

A federal Texas district judge, and a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, have previously ruled that the Texas law does discriminate, violating Section 2 of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Keller argued before the full 15 members of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals  an en banc hearing Paxton had requested.

The court is considered one of the nation's most conservative appellate courts: 10 of its 15 members were appointed by Republican presidents.

"The point of this law is to make sure that voter fraud isn't occurring," Keller told The Texas Tribune outside the courthouse. "It's not to suppress voter turnout."

The two lower courts ruled it has a "discriminatory effect" on minorities, the elderly and lower-income people.

Paxton released a statement from New Orleans, saying the ID law is needed.

"Safeguarding the integrity of our elections process is essential to preserving our democracy, and our common-sense law provides simple protections to ensure our elections accurately reflect the will of the voters of Texas," Paxton said.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, the lead plaintiff in the Texas suit, said the new Congressional Voting Rights Caucus will be working to strike down laws in Texas and other states that require showing a photo ID to vote.

The Texas voter ID law is "the clearest manifestation of modern day suppression tactics," Veasey said at the launching of the caucus. "They must be done away with immediately so that everyone can have full access to the ballot box."

Texas requires one of seven types of picture identification be presented to vote: a Texas driver's license, a free Texas election identification card, a Texas personal identification card, a Texas concealed handgun license, a U.S. military identification card, a U.S. passport, or a U.S. Citizenship certificate.

The Texas photo ID law is the strictest in the nation. Other states with voter ID laws allow more types of identification to be used.

Texans can get a free election ID card, but have to show a birth certificate to do so. A state university ID card won't work.

The law  Senate Bill 14  was passed in 2011. Despite the two courts having called it discriminatory, it has remained in force since 2013, while the U.S. Supreme Court considers cases from Texas and other states.

The high court has set a deadline of July 20 for the full Fifth Circuit to make its decision. The final decision could come in time to affect the Nov. 8 general election.

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Transgender Turmoil ... Paxton's busy week included a press conference back in Austin on May 25, announcing a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's declaration that public schools must allow transgender students to use bathrooms of the sex with which they identify.

Failure to do so could risk federal spending to the state, administration officials said.

Paxton said 10 other states are joining Texas in the challenge, filed in federal district court in Wichita Falls: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

With Paxton at the press conference was David Thweatt, superintendent of schools for the Harrold Independent School District, in rural Wilbarger County in North Texas, on whose behalf the suit was filed.

Thweatt said his 100-student district's school board passed the policy on May 23, that students must use bathrooms or locker rooms of the sex on their birth certificates.

"Our local schools," Paxton said, "are now in the crosshairs of the Obama administration, which maintains it will punish those schools who do not comply with its orders.

"These schools are facing the potential loss of school funding for simply following common sense policies that protect their students," Paxton said.

The administration's declaration is "just the latest example of the current administration's attempts to accomplish by executive fiat what they couldn't accomplish through the democratic process in Congress," Paxton said.

Thweatt said his district receives about $117,000 a year in federal funds.

He was asked how many of the 100 students, ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade, were transgender.

"None that we know of, right now," Thweatt said.

The next day, the Texas Tribune reported that Paxton's office had asked Thweatt's school district to pass the bathroom rules, as grounds for filing a suit.

The Tribune also learned that the Wichita Falls school district's board was asked by Paxton's office several days earlier to pass rules defying the administration's order.

But the board and its superintendent declined, believing they already comply with the federal order.

Contact McNeely at davemcneely111@gmail.com or 512-458-2963.
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Bill Kennedy, Portland

Hillary will win if paid family leave proposed

Found! At last! A difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump! And it's a difference that can determine Hillary's electoral win for the presidency.

A tax imposed on American businesses will be that difference. "Another tax?", you say. Yep  one that must be enacted, and will be enacted, within the next three years with Hillary in the White House.

I write of and solidly support, a proposed "Family Leave Program" which means emergency PAID leave for up to 12 weeks for Americans who need to care for newborn or adopted children, or Americans who need to care for a spouse, child or parent who is seriously ill.

Hillary's all for it (Sanders too) and Trump hasn't offered a clear opinion. He won't either, unless it's an unequivocal "No!" Either answer (or non-answer) means Hillary moves into the White House.

Republicans will swallow a lot of Trump's liberal opinions and beliefs (in his heart he's really a Democrat) but not one of them will agree to another tax. For this plan to work a pretty good-sized tax will be necessary.

He'll have to take a stand on it, of course. He'll be opposed to it, of course. He'll lose Middle America, including millions of erstwhile GOP votes. The latter won't LIKE their Hillary vote, but such a tax is being patriotic, caring, faithful, responsible and superbly sensible.

The Hillary Vote will be embraced if she maintains a belief in the family leave tax. Perhaps making support of such humanitarian beliefs isn't everything Hillary needs to be elected. But it's enough to give her the big political edge in the quest for the presidency. (An auxiliary benefit for Democrats will be secured if President Obama pushes for the family leave tax just before leaving office.)
Bilingual Grammar School, Molyko, Buea, was busy with Economics Paper One in the morning of May 30, 2016.

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The 2016 General Certificate of Education, GCE, has kicked off in the South West Region without major hitches reported. The Registrar of the Cameroon GCE Board, Humphrey Ekema Monono, had last weekend issued a stern warning against any attempts at fraud. Cameroon Tribune visited some accommodation centres in Buea and Kumba, respectively headquarters of Fako and Meme Divisions.



According to the Principal of Bilingual Grammar School, Molyko in Buea, Lois Ebenye Ikome, who is head of the centre, some students were confused when they arrived in the morning because they did not understand the arrangement of the different classes allocated for the examinations. The Principal said the innovation this year is the manner the centre name has been joined with the candidates number. Last year, the information was separated by slashes. She said that the answer booklets have also changed.



One of the invigilators, Agbor Chantal Dengwa Mbuagbo, told the press that with the presence of security officers, the students wrote the first paper in serenity. She said in her class, which was the largest, there was a candidate who came 15 minutes late, while one external candidate was absent. In Government Technical High School Buea, the Principal, Mafany Paul Mbessa, said the Technical GCE started a week ago and at the moment, they were almost done writing the Probatoire Technique and Brevet Technique. He said they started with the Baccalaureat and today, May 31, 2016, candidates will begin the CAP Industrial and CAP Commercial until June 6, 2016.



According to the Divisional Delegate for Secondary Education for Meme, Akwo John Eyoh, who was on the field visiting the examination centres, everything started hitch-free in the division. Though some few absences were recorded, the number of candidates present was about 98 per cent of those who registered. He underscored that the officials supervising the examinations were present in the centres. Akwo John Eyoh added that all centres were manned by police men or gendarmes.



Some 182,416 candidates all over the country are writing the various Cameroon GCE Board examinations, up from 1680,000 in 2015. Over 138,000 candidates are sitting the GCE Ordinary Level, while about 46,000 candidates are writing Advanced Level examinations. The examinations will take about a month to complete in more than 900 accommodation centres, with 20 GCE Ordinary Level and 20 GCE Advanced Level subjects on offer.

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After suspension of works following launch in July 2015, heavy-duty engines have started roaring again in a clean-up exercise that continued on May 28, 2016.

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Certain portions of the Mvog-Mbi and Mvog-Atangana-Mballa neighbourhoods in Yaounde were unrecognizable on May 28, 2016, with roadside fences destroyed and walls of several houses gaping open after a demolition exercise by the Yaounde City Councils bulldozers since Monday May 23, 2016. Yellow trucks and bulldozers belonging to the executing enterprise, Arab Contractors Ltd, could be seen roaring up and down the scraped and widened road, indicating that the much-awaited rehabilitation works provided for under President Paul Biyas Three-year Emergency Investment Plan, had been re-launched almost a year after the first engines had started and left the area.



We had to wait for owners of roadside houses to be compensated and their structures demolished before starting work effectively. If the next four months go by without rainfall, we will complete and deliver the roads, one of the supervising staff of Arab Contractors Ltd, Antoine Gabriel Essengue Essengue, explained to Cameroon Tribune. He said his men were pursuing the clean-up phase, clearing the debris left after the demolishing phase.



Meanwhile, workers in some of the affected roadside companies and residences could be seen recuperating materials from the debris of their destroyed gates or houses. Burst water pipes were appealing to nearby residents who crowded affected portions with their buckets to get free pipe-borne water. Traffic was heavily congested as the work area was sealed-off from cars going to the neighbourhoods famous market. However, motorists were happy in their majority, hoping that works would this time around be completed and not abandoned as had been the case in 2015.



Launched in July 2015 with a 12-month deadline, the rehabilitation of the Mvog Mbi-Mvog Atangana Mballa road and its alleys, leading to the Regional Transport Office and towards Olezoa, were undertaken by Arab Contractors at a cost of FCFA 7.3 billion.

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| BY Lynchy |

Campaign Brief, Photoplay + Nylon

End of Judging Cocktails

Thursday June 23 from 5pm

Campaign Brief, Photoplay and Nylon will be hosting a special end of judging cocktail party on Thursday June 23rd from 5pm. Come and join the celebrations and soak in the sun, sea and company of your fellow delegates from Australia and NZ.

If you havent already done so Contact Lynchy now or text him on +61412960753 to grab your invite.

***

LBB & Friends are back on the beach for Cannes 2016  and LBB member agencies + production companies from Australia and NZ* are invited

Every year Little Black Book hosts one of the most fun, relaxed, and productive events at the Cannes Lions  the LBB & Friends Beach, opposite the Miramar on La Croisette. And youre invited to hang out there from Tuesday thru to Saturday if you work for a LBB member agency or production company in Australia or New Zealand*.

For some of you it has become your annual home and sanctuary for the week, the physical embodiment of LBBonline. A real community, getting together to share ideas and forge new partnerships. This is its seventh year, and each time it has been bigger and better, with an amazing line-up of co-hosts who make it a diverse and interactive experience for everyone. From Tuesday to Saturday of Cannes week there is a daily free happy hour, as well as massages, musical guests, and goodie bags stuffed with treats from all of your hosts. But mostly it is a lovely free space in which to unwind, take a meeting, or just enjoy the sun on a lounger.

*LBB member agencies in Australasia

BMF, BWM Dentsu, Cheil, Clemenger BBDO, Colenso BBDO, Core, Cummins & Partners, DDB, Disciple, Core, GPY&R, The Hallway, Havas, Host, Innocean, J Walter Thompson, KWP!, Leo Burnett, Marcel, Matterhorn, M&C Saatchi, McCann, The Monkeys, Ogilvy, Reborn, Saatchi & Saatchi, Special Group, 303 Mullen Lowe, Sugar & Partners, Whybin\TBWA, VCCP, WiTH Collective, The Works and Y&R New Zealand.

*LBB member production companies in Australasia

Airbag, Alt.VFX, Cirkus, Curious, Cutting Edge, Engine, Exit Films, Film Construction, Filmgraphics, Finch, Flying Fish, Goodoil, Heckler, The Jacky Winter Group, Jungle, Mighty Nice, Moth Projects, Motionlab, Noise International, The Otto Empire, Passion Pictures, Photoplay, Plaza Films, Rapid Films, Red Engine, Revolver, Robbers Dog, Song Zu, The Sweet Shop, Tazer, Uncanny Valley and XYZ Studios.
| BY Martin Trevaskis |

Campaign Brief can reveal Andy Greenaway is to join Dentsu Singapore as executive creative director reporting to Ted Lim, chief creative officer, Dentsu Network / Asia.

Greenaway left his Singapore-based regional executive creative director role at Sapient Nitro Asia Pacific around four weeks ago.

Greenaway told Campaign Brief earlier this week that he was very much looking forward to being the creative leader of a single agency again, given that his past two positions, at Sapient Nitro and Saatchi & Saatchi, have been regional creative director duties.

Greenaways move comes a few days after news of the departure of Sapient Nitro Singapore ECD Bruce Matchett, who has joined Banjo Sydney as partner and ECD.

Greenaways exit from Sapient Nitro is not unexpected, given that he has been a long-time critic of the Publicis Network culture. Publicis Groupe acquired the global Sapient Nitro network in February 2015 for $3.7 billion.
| BY Ricki Green |

In the local advertising industry, Dentsu has been a relatively inconspicuous, even unknown, agency brand until fairly recently. Since the 2014 acquisition of Aegis Media, the global giant Dentsu has been making its presence felt in Australia and New Zealand.

As a group of some 20 agencies under the Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) banner, the company has upwards of 1,600 employees in Australia and New Zealand. The business works with a range of high profile clients who collectively spend approximately 23% of the advertising market in Australia with around $2.4 billion of media billings annually, according to RECMA.

Its flagship agency brands include media agencies Carat, Vizeum and Dentsu Mitchell, digital experience agencies Isobar and Soap, performance marketing businesses iProspect and Columbus, along with specialists in a raft of marketing capabilities including data (D2D), out-of-home advertising (Posterscope), Sport Marketing and Activations business (MKTG) plus PR specialists within BWM Dentsu.

Until last year, traditional creative advertising was excluded from these capabilities within DAN.

However, all that changed with the two key acquisitions of creative agencies BWM in Australia and Barnes, Catmur & Friends in New Zealand. These agencies comprise in excess of 230 people across three cities, creating a formidable presence.

This expansion by DAN into the creative realm is not surprising given the history of Dentsu globally. Founded in Japan in 1901, Dentsu originated as a creative advertising agency before evolving to incorporate media buying. It has dominance in the Japanese industry controlling around 30% of advertising spend and is not only the number one creative advertising agency, it is 80% larger than the number two player based on revenue. Dentsu is a highly creative, innovative and awarded creative business.

Until Dentsu purchased Aegis Media in Australia and New Zealand in 2014, the agency groups presence locally was significantly smaller. The media arm had a small offering in Sydney, primarily providing media buying services for global clients, and with ownership of retail advertising agency Oddfellows. This all changed last year and with the Groups roots in creative advertising, adding creative expertise locally is a natural progression for DAN as its looks to offer a complete suite of marketing capabilities.

DAN ANZ CEO Simon Ryan, who was appointed to the role in February after leading media agency Carat nationally since 2010, says that with a creative agency footprint now well established for the group, integration and growth is a major focus.

Says Ryan: Its been fantastic for our staff to have agencies and people within our group with such strong creative credentials.

The value that the big idea and creative brings to our group is enormous. We then bring it together with technology, data innovation with programmatic, to deliver what our clients need to reach their audiences in the digital economy.

BWM Dentsu, as it is now known, was acquired in February 2015, when BWM along with its PR agencies became part of the global DAN group. Prior to acquisition, BWM was one of the largest independent creative agencies in Australia with a wealth of experience, having been around for 18 years. With DAN acquiring a 51% stake, the agency became the flagship creative agency brand of DAN in Australia and accordingly has had to adapt to being part of a global giant.

In April, we co-located fellow agency Oddfellows Dentsu officially with BWM Dentsu bringing together the retail and brand credentials of each agency. In the same month, we also announced that DANs PR services would come together to become a formidable offering in the creative PR space.

Paul Williams is group CEO of BWM Dentsu and a member of DAN ANZs newly appointed executive leadership team, charged with driving the creative agenda across the group. Fellow founding partner of BWM Dentsu, Rob Belgiovane, has also extended his role joining DANs APAC Creative Council to help drive the creative mission of the group regionally. This is in addition to remaining as executive creative director of BWM Dentsu.

At the time of the acquisition last year, Williams said: This partnership allows us the best of both worlds. We continue to manage our business with a strong sense of independence, while leveraging the enormous skills and assets across Dentsu Aegis Network.

18 months on, has the partnership evolved as hed expected and hoped?

Says Williams: We have seen some key benefits flowing through for staff, clients and our business as a result of the acquisition. We obviously believed there was a strong strategic fit between our two organisations, and we had to bring not only our staff but our clients along on the journey with us and ensure everyone bought into what we were trying to achieve and saw benefit from it.

From a client perspective, there have been some really good opportunities weve been able to bring to the table for clients leveraging the resources of DAN that we wouldnt have been able to do as an independent. On the flip side, we can add enormous value for clients of other DAN agencies who are looking for the capabilities that BWM Dentsu can offer.

With our staff, the opportunity is there to work alongside people with different skills and experiences, and to be in an environment where they can continuously learn about different facets of marketing and communications. Theres keen interest in opportunities to move around within the group globally and leverage those cultural benefits. We are continuing to integrate and make sure our staff can leverage all these opportunities and that will continue to evolve.

A great working example of what we can deliver for clients is the unified DAN offering, a bespoke structure comprising BWM Dentsu, Oddfellows Dentsu and Soap to deliver fully integrated work across every channel, but still offering the simplicity of a single point of contact for the client.

This simplicity is critical to clients and is supported by the entire DAN community so clients arent presented with key brands and individuals fighting for revenue but rather a simple, holistic and contemporary creative agency model that can answer all marketing requirements.

Says Belgiovane: Dentsu are very serious about driving creative excellence across the region and its great to be part of that ambition.

Dentsu was named Advertising Agency of the Year at ADFest in April and the network has been highly awarded at Cannes, winning 21 awards in 2015 alone, so they are very serious about driving creative excellence across the region.

In New Zealand, the recently acquired BC&F Dentsu (as it is now known) spearheads DANs creative offer. Founded in 1996, the award winning and highly regarded full-service creative agency boasts 30 staff in Auckland and is currently recognised as New Zealands most effective independent agency and is ranked number one in Asia Pacific, according to the Effies index.

Although the agency always puts effectiveness for their clients ahead of chasing glory, BC&FD consistently ranks in the top echelon of creative rankings.

Says Paul Catmur (above, far left with Luke Farmer, Daniel Barnes and Rob Harvey), managing partner and executive creative director: Since I joined Daniel in 2008 weve always been more interested in using creativity to drive effectiveness rather than showing off to our mates.

Our joining together with DAN was a natural fit as we were the missing creative resource for them, while they have complementary skills to add to ours. As anticipated, were already seeing benefits to both sets of clients. Having previously worked in Australia I also know a number of the BWM guys and we are looking forward to building cooperation through those relationships.

With plans to relocate all DAN businesses including the creative agencies in all cities in the mid-long term, Simon Ryan believes vast new opportunities will continue to emerge in the years ahead for the group.

Says Ryan: 

In both our recent creative agency acquisitions, the agency founders remain in their roles within the agency and theyve been able to keep their individual cultures whilst integrating within DAN. Were continually evolving how we all work together across capabilities and across agencies and Im excited to be working with each of the businesses to bolster our clients offerings as a group.

We will continue to grow our offering in the creative space and that will include more acquisitions all aligned to our local and global strategic priorities. The benefits of bringing more creative minds and skillsets to our group extend across our clients and certainly our staff, who embrace the opportunity to learn across different marketing skillsets and be able to bring together the people within DAN to deliver results for our clients.
| BY Ricki Green |

Rumble Creative & Medias Ugly Xmas Rashie captured the nations imagination in 2015 and created a new revenue stream for Cancer Council Queensland.

In 2016 its back and bigger than ever, with a soon-to-be-released design, an expanded range and a greatly increased production run. Cancer Council Australia will run it as front page of its million+ catalogue distribution, it will be available online, in Cancer Council stores and at selected Surf Clubs, including the iconic Manly SLSC.

Last years launch of the limited edition Ugly Xmas Rashie created huge PR, selling out in 48 hours. Thousands have registered to be the first to know about the 2016 release, set for July 1.

Says James Burchill, creative partner, Rumble: As Australias answer to the northern hemispheres Ugly Xmas Sweater tradition, the Ugly Xmas Rashie had huge impact. It appealed to our unique sense of humour and actually made sun safety an Australian fashion statement.

The work was recognised at Adfest with Lotus Roots Innova (for work that embodies local cultural values), as well as Promo Lotus and Effective Lotus.

Burchill remains tight-lipped on the 2016 design, which will again be manufactured by Australian performance swimwear company, KOZII. He will give away that it features another iconic Australian animal.
| BY Ricki Green |

The Global Awards 2016 competition is now open for entries. Entry deadline is Sunday, July 31.

For 22 years, the international Global Awards has honored the Worlds Best Healthcare & Wellness Advertising and has served as a touchstone for celebrating creative achievement in healthcare and wellness communications beyond the barriers of language and culture.

The Global Awards executive jury and grand jury of industry experts represents the top creative minds in the field of healthcare & wellness advertising. Jury members are recruited from more than 20 countries on six continents. The Global Awards jury selection process ensures that each entry is judged by renowned international talent with global knowledge and perspective from the industry.

Annually, in addition to the Grand Jurys online judging sessions, the Global Awards organizes live judging sessions around the globe to review digital based works and collateral materials that support a campaign and which cannot be judged online. These global live sessions are hosted at prominent international healthcare communication agencies and allow jurors to examine in detail multi-paged works including: sales kits, direct mail, brochures, point of purchase displays, and annual reports.

The 2016 Global Award winners will be announced on November 17, 2016 and will be showcased at awards ceremonies in New York City and Sydney, Australia.

The 2015 Global Awards grand jury and executive jury honored winners from entries from 18 countries awarding one Grand Global Award, 38 Global Awards, and 112 finalist certificates. McCann Health was awarded the coveted title of Healthcare Agency Network of the Year for the fourth year running, Langland UK was awarded the title of 2015 Global Healthcare Agency of the Year Award, and Downtown Partners Chicago earned the 2015 Grand Global Award for The Luck Plan for client Get Covered Illinois  Illinois Health Insurance Marketplace.

The Global Awards announced the Young Globals Student Competition & Internship award winners for 2015: Samantha Cable Phone Zone Australia; Rajath Ramamurthy and Theresa Wlokka A Sleeve to Remember Miami Ad School, USA; and Brian Hodes, Pilar McQuirter, Antonio Perez, and Sarah VonderHaar Eat Smart Columbia College Chicago, USA.

Says Michael Demetriades, executive director of the Global Awards: The goal of the Young Global Awards is to drive awareness of the great work happening in healthcare and wellness advertising, ultimately driving more talented young people into the industry.

The Young Globals, the only college/portfolio school competition for healthcare advertising that offers students the opportunity to submit creative work and be recognized with a prestigious Global Award and introduces students to the rewards of working in the healthcare and wellness advertising industry, announced three winning teams in 2015. The 2015 Young Globals award-winning teams will be honored at this years Global Awards ceremony

Entry fees for the 2016 Global Awards are: $395 USD for a single entry; $640 USD for Campaign in Single Media; $740 USD for a Campaign in Mixed Media; and $40 USD for Young Globals student entry. Enter now and pay before June 30th and save 10% with the discount code: GPR2016. The final deadline for entries is July 31, 2016.

The 2016 Global Awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, November 17th at New York Academy of Sciences in New York City.
| BY Ricki Green |

The Glue Society today unveils its fellowship programme for 2016/17 giving four young creative people the chance to work at the collective for 12 months. Applications close at 5pm on Friday June 30.

As well as receiving a salary, the successful candidates will receive training across every discipline of creativity from the Glue Society team  covering everything from communication art to project direction.

The fellowships cover the following creative categories:

 Digital Creativity & Design

 Copywriting & Art Direction

 Film & Editorial Craft

Applicants, who must have less than 2 years working experience, should apply by sending a short CV, attaching 3 creative projects (whether personal or commercial) and write an email of no more than 100 words outlining what they hope to achieve in the 12 month programme  to fellowship@gluesociety.com.

Says Jonathan Kneebone, co-founder of The Glue Society: We have always sought to encourage creative talent  whether through our support of AWARD or D&AD education programmes.
Inflation is causing more users to use buy now, pay later loans but delinquencies are rising
Was there a serial killer in rural Iowa?

An Iowa woman claims her father murdered dozens of women and buried them on their property. It's Tuesday's news.
Food

By: Cook Britain

With layers of airy sponge and sweet buttercream balanced by decadent coffee and walnut flavours, this cake is simply divine.

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Destination weddings are quickly becoming a popular option for couples on a budget or for those who dont want to plan a big wedding. Its an appealing choice for brides and grooms who simply want to feel the sand between their toes and the stress of planning a big event slip away.

However, attending a destination wedding can leave guests with some big questions and some even bigger decisions. We asked Karen Gill, a wedding specialist with plan-a-destination-wedding.com , to offer advice for guests who are attending a destination wedding.

Pay attention

wedding website. Details on attire, themes and special requests will most likely be provided in one or both of these places. Gill says guests should be aware of any details concerning the wedding that have been provided to them ahead of time. These details may appear on the invitation or, in keeping with a growing trend, on a. Details on attire, themes and special requests will most likely be provided in one or both of these places.

You get some guests who just go with the flow, show up and dont pay attention, says Gill. They need to really be aware of details that are provided to them.

Guests who want to find out more about the location can do Internet research, but according to Gill, the information they find isnt always going to be trustworthy. Gill says guests shouldnt hesitate to contact the couples wedding specialist to ask for advice or information because he or she can provide you with the most accurate response.

Dress to impress

several clothing options, says Gill, such as something casual for a beach ceremony and something more formal in case there are indoor events. Dressing to impress might not mean what you think it does at a destination wedding. If, for some reason, attire is not specified, guests should pack, says Gill, such as something casual for a beach ceremony and something more formal in case there are indoor events.

Youre probably safe leaving the tuxedos and gowns at home, though. With destination weddings, they generally tend to be more relaxed than your at-home wedding, says Gill. Generally, men can forgo a tie and women  even those among the bridal party  can skip the stockings.

Dont sweat the small stuff

Things like transportation and gifts should be handled ahead of time, says Gill. Generally, if the wedding is not on a resort, the couple should take care of transportation to and from the wedding site.

boxed gifts to the couple before leaving, because taking gifts with you could result in damages and expensive shipping bills. Theres also the couple to think about: Theyre taking a lot of extra things with them and they would be incurring the expense of bringing it all home, she says. Also, a lot of brides and grooms insist they wont accept a gift because their gift is having people attend the wedding. She also suggests that it would be wise to give anyto the couple before leaving, because taking gifts with you could result in damages and expensive shipping bills. Theres also the couple to think about: Theyre taking a lot of extra things with them and they would be incurring the expense of bringing it all home, she says. Also, a lot of brides and grooms insist they wont accept a gift because their gift is having people attend the wedding.

If guests prefer to bring gifts with them, monetary gifts are the way to go, according to Gill. An emerging trend for couples with jet-set lifestyles is honeymoon registries where you can buy the couple a gift certificate at a travel agency. Its the gift of future travel and couples love it, says Gill. Obviously, if theyre doing a destination wedding they like to travel, so its very fitting to the couples lifestyle.

Celebrate and relax

opportunity for a vacation. Since youre getting away from your daily life, you might as well make the best of your experience. Yes, attending the wedding is part of the deal, but you will have a lot of time to do other things on your own. You can do as little or as much as you want, says Gill. Its a beautiful thing.

As a bonus, guests should look at attending a destination wedding as an. Since youre getting away from your daily life, you might as well make the best of your experience. Yes, attending the wedding is part of the deal, but you will have a lot of time to do other things on your own. You can do as little or as much as you want, says Gill. Its a beautiful thing.
Thursday, June 2, 2016 at 9:08AM

Minecraft, whose sales just topped 100 million is not going to go the same path as some XBox games with in game advertising or sly nods to product or brand placements within environments. Mojang, maker of Minecraft and subsidiary of Microsot, said in a blog post, that advertisers or brands will not be allowed to build or promote their products in the Minecraft environement but users can continue to build whatever they want provided it isn't aimed at promotion.

Minecraft is purchased by user license and enables access to the services and various servers where users can build and create environments. Microsoft, who purcahsed Minecrat in 2014 for $2.5 billion, used to allow advertising in XBox 360 games as billboards could show brands, upcoming movies or even, famous politicians. Since Mincecraft is a paid product and one that caters to younger users (and will soon be launched in China), there's really no place for ad placements or the furthering brand objectives.
He said the royal commission had conducted hearings on the ACT branch of his union in July, September and October in 2015, including hearing evidence from him. But no questions had ever been directed to him about Ms Burch's meeting with the chief police officer nor the subsequent telephone conversation with Ms Hawthorne. Neither the meeting nor the telephone conversation were the subject of any findings by the royal commission.
"All the children at Ainslie School know her name and Molly cannot wait to get out of the car when we arrive at school. She sees school as an awesome adventure. We had a lot of doubters at the beginning, but this has become a success story," Ms Cottell said.
Mr Moss has been tasked with assessing the "adequacy of the management, care, and custody" of the detainee, the overall effectiveness of induction and risk assessment at the jail, the separation of vulnerable detainees, the adequacy of information sharing, and the accessibility of health and other support services.
On penalty rates, for example, the website states that Labor only "somewhat agrees" with the proposition that "People who work on a Sunday should get paid more than people who work on a Saturday" whereas the Greens are said to "strongly agree" with the statement.
"The truth of the matter is that this government is saying on thing before an election, they're already flagging they're going to do something else after the election and if you can't trust them on superannuation, what can we trust them on in any aspect of their economic plan to keep their promises?"
The minister and the main public service union, the CPSU, have been locked in a bitter dispute since March over the issue, with public service departments following instructions, sometimes against their will, to reject the union's proposals for specified domestic violence leave in enterprise agreements.
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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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You are our people. You Care. We Care2.
Corporate houses discuss Graduate Employability framework at FABS

Mumbai - Indian corporate firms need to have a more informed approach while hiring the right talent amongst India's graduate population as it will continue to remain a major challenge in the coming years as per Dr. Pearl John, Consulting Director at CEB in a group discussion amongst several corporate firms held at Fazlani Altius Business School in Mumbai.

Among several corporate CXOs including HR Heads of Deutsche Bank, Essar Services India Private Limited and D Mart who attended this discussion, majority of them indicated that retaining graduates has become increasingly difficult as they crave for too much variety at the start of their careers which ultimately leads to restlessness and in turn majority of them quit within a year of joining.

Dr. Pearl John, Consulting Director at CEB further added "Considering close to more than 8 million students in India will graduate in 2016, it presents a great opportunity for Indian companies to engage and mentor graduates in the right manner to have better employee ROI in the coming years.

In today's economically volatile environment, it is important for CXOs to achieve the right balance in terms of managing a large volume of applicants and managing their generational expectations by using the right hiring metrics while hiring young graduates"

As per the, nearly 25% of graduates do not intend to stay in their jobs for longer than a year out of which eventually, only 10% of the graduates survive in the first job and have the potential to become an effective leader.

Mr. Ashfaq Ul Ahad, CEO and Member of the Board at Fazlani Altius Business School commented "In today's dynamic corporate environment, it is imperative for the youth to understand and have clarity in terms of their corporate roles and expectations. As more and more students graduate from varying backgrounds across colleges in India, the need of the hour while employing campus recruiting is to ensure that the selection process attracts the right candidate. Our sole objective at Fazlani Altius Business School has been to engage and train our students with a relevant industry-academia partnership to ensure they are skill ready to succeed in the corporate world today. Through such regular corporate interactions, we strive to continue to address relevant corporate issues to bridge the current employability gap that exists in the country today."

About Fazlani Altius Business School

Fazlani Altius Business School (FABS) is an academic institution with a revolutionary blend of corporate interface. FABS has been envisaged, developed and nurtured with the sole vision of being the link of the corporate / academia world and aspiring graduates.
Defective front passenger airbag inflators prompted Ford Motor Company to add almost 2 million vehicles in their latest safety campaign.



Affected by the latest Takata action are 2007-2010 Ford Edge, 2006-2011 Fusion, 2005-2011 Mustang, 2007-2011 Ranger, 2007-2010 Lincoln MKX and 2006-2011 MKZ, Zephyr and Mercury Milan, assembled in North America.

They number a total of 1,896,443 units in the United States and federalized territories, 1,304 in Canada and just one in Mexico that will have to be taken back to the dealers, who will replace the front passenger airbag inflator free of charge. The recall doesnt include the front airbag inflators on the drivers side and Ford are not aware of any injuries in their vehicles, related to this condition.

Cars/crossovers equipped with the defective parts have been known to send metal fragments throughout the cabin in case of an accident, due to prolonged exposure to high humidity and temperatures, as they lack a desiccant to absorb moisture. Over the years, shrapnel coming from ruptured airbags claimed at least 13 lives globally and more than 100 people have been injured.

PHOTO GALLERY
Its always nice to remind ourselves of Hondas popular roadster, especially when the car in question is a low-mileage stock example.



The Honda S2000 is still a much sought-after model thanks to its timeless design, great handling and of course, that screaming, motorcycle-like VTEC engine.

This is why the Japanese roadster holds its value so well on the used market, especially later low-mileage AP2 models offered from 2004 through 2009. US-bound AP2s were powered by a 2.2-litre engine that makes 237hp at 7,800rpm and 162lb ft of torque at 6,800rpm instead of the higher-revving 2.0-litre unit of the original built between 1999 and 2003.

Its the perfect recipe for a roadster: power goes to the right axle, theres a naturally aspirated engine up front that loves to rev and which is connected to one of the best manual gearboxes ever made, and has a properly tuned and 50:50 balanced chassis to offer lots of smiles to its driver.

Matt Farah drives a very nice example, with only 44,000 miles, in the rare Bermuda Blue option. Watch the video linked below and then pray to Honda for a successor.

VIDEO
Photo: Contributed

The Osoyoos Lake Water Quality Society has been given a boost, after reporting last week that it might have to dissolve.

President Birgit Arnstein said she was delighted to report that several members from the community stepped forward to join the new board of directors for the next year.

"Several board members stepped down at our May 27 annual general meeting. We want to thank Liza Jensen, Brian Faltinson and Verla Anderson for their hard work on behalf of OLWQS," she said. "We fully appreciate their time and effort to make our organization stronger and more visible.

"In addition to myself, current board members, Stu Wells, Earle Atterton and Denis Potter have agreed to remain for another term.

She added that five new people will be joining the board.

My first impressions are that these new additions have the background, experience and energy needed to help take OLWQS to the next level," she said

Moving forward, the society will have a number of educational and community initiatives, such as protecting Osoyoos Lake from invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels that are going to require a lot of energy and commitment on the part of the board.

They will hold their first board meeting in the next week to meet each other, discuss responsibilities and develop a plan of action for the society for the next term.

The Osoyoos Lake Water Quality Society was founded in 1991 by community members to promote public awareness of the lake, covering issues such as invasive species, conservation, pollution and lake management.

It is a non-profit organization run entirely by volunteers.
Photo: Contributed

More help is on the way for the beleaguered residents of the Fort McMurray area.

The Salvation Army is sending its disaster service team from Kelowna.

With residents set to return, two teams have been sent from B.C. to assist those residents, including the Central Okanagan Emergency Disaster Service Team.

The four-member team left this morning. They will be stationed at a welcome centre being set up to assist residents returning to Fort McMurray.

About half of the 80,000 people forced to flee Fort McMurray May 3 are expected to arrive back home this week.

Since the beginning of the Fort Mac fires, The Salvation Army Community Response Units and Emergency Disaster Services teams from around Canada have been on the front lines supporting and feeding first responders.

Here in the Okanagan, many evacuees are waiting until they can return with others choosing to make the Okanagan home. The Salvation Army team at the Community Life Centre have been working with those who have come for help.

In the last few weeks we have been seeing more families and individuals from the Fort Mac area. Right now they are mainly in need of food and clothing support, with some hoping to relocate. says Sonia Withers, community ministries co-ordinator.

The community has been wonderful with reaching out to find out how they can help. Right now, financial aid to support the EDS support work, and to help with the cost of helping the evacuees coming here is the best way."
Photo: Marshall Rasmussen

Watching a loved one die of a debilitating disease and feeling helpless is crippling in itself, which is why a Kelowna man decided that feeling helpless doesnt mean losing hope.

Brian Rasmussens father died 10 years ago after battling Parkinsons for many years and soon after his brother Blair was diagnosed at age 44.

Blair continues his life with the illness, showing grace, insight, and humour, said Brian of his brother.

Now Brian and his son Spencer, two men faced with a disease that targets their family, understand while there is no cure, extended research has allowed for Parkinsons patients to live enriched lives.

They aim to raise money for the crucial work of Parkinsons research by kayaking 700 kilometres over five weeks from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island to Ketchikan, Alaska.

The father son duo will portage through the Inside Passage, navigating the 100-plus islands and countless islets.

While Brians other son Marshall says the journey will be gruelling, the feat is nothing compared to what those touched by Parkinsons experience.

It will be hard to do. They will have to pack almost all of their food for the trip as there arent many towns to stop at along the way, explained Marshall.

Brian is an avid kayaker in the Okanagan, but son Spencer who lives in Vancouver is not; however, Marshall believes Spencers outdoor experience will get them far.

Marshall may not be going on the voyage with his family, but he is helping the cause. As a member of the Craig Thomson Quintet, Marshall has arranged a benefit concert for the Parkinsons Society.

His jazz group will be joined by the Bjorn Kriel trio at Streaming Cafe on Friday, June 3, where the two will feature sets of original material.

This is something they believe in and support, said Marshall.

The fundraising event takes place at 7 p.m. and the cost is $10, or by donation at the door.
UPDATE: 3:15 p.m.

The pilot is sharing his account of the Tuesday night plane crash.

Brent Miskuski says a malfunction of the onboard fuel computer gave him a misreading on the fuel level, causing the plane to run out of fuel.

We were getting indications we had at least another hour-and-a-half of fuel, false indications, explains Miskuski. We had a double-engine failure, simultaneously, at 8,500 feet.

As darkness was setting in, Miskuski said he had no other option than to try to land the plane immediately.

We had to do a nosedive onto a field, says Miskuski.

After surveying it, we flew under the power lines, took out the bottom wire, had to quickly pull up to clear an irrigation pipe, and then we used up 1,800 feet of grass, went through a fence and then navigated down the aisle of a Christmas-tree farm, taking out approximately 300 trees.

Miskuski says the plane survived the crash very well, considering how they were forced to land, remaining mostly intact.

The aircraft is relatively in good shape, but given the cost of repairs it is a total loss.

He says he was confident he would land the plane safely.

I've got 25 years of flying experience and did a lot of bush flying that attributed to my ability to make a quick decision, says Miskuski.

I chose to scare the hell out of the passengers to put it into the dive, because that way I knew I could make the field. I made the dive, levelled out and then made the field. It was terrifying for the passengers, but we were ensured a good landing. I was confident we would make a smooth landing, but I literally had five seconds to make a decision.

The plane will now be dismantled and taken out by truck.

FortisBC is working to restore service to one customer in Rock Creek.

ORIGINAL

The spirit of Christmas and a talented pilot are being praised after a group of Kelowna residents survived a terrifying plane crash Tuesday night.

The twin-engine plane was flying from Lake Havasu, Ariz., on the way back to Kelowna when the engines cut out just before Big White.

Going from 13,000 feet to crashing into trees in 15 seconds ... in the dark, recounts crash survivor Kelly Mulzet.

The crash itself was horrific, except we didn't die, that is all I can say.

He says the group of six, including the pilot, had taken off from Lake Havasu, landed and fuelled up in Boise, Idaho, and were almost home when both engines cut out.

The pilot acted quickly and was able to guide the plane into a field between Beaverdell and Rock Creek that was fortunately home to a Christmas tree farm.

We were so lucky, says Mulzet. Both engines quit as we were just coming to the crest of Big White. Thank God we didn't go over the crest. We went back down into the grass and the only thing that saved our lives was that a lady had planted a Christmas tree farm.

He says the plane hit the ground hard, heading back into the air, before sliding through the tree farm at more than 200 mph.

We took out 1,000 Christmas trees, says Mulzet, still in disbelief. All the Christmas trees were two to three years old, just six feet tall thank god, that is what saved our lives, I am telling ya.

He says as the plane began to crash down, they all thought they were going to die.

The girls were screaming, we saw the props quit and it was dark. I didn't have a shadow of a doubt that that was it, explains Mulzet.

We got so lucky. The lady told us that where we landed is the only place in that area with Christmas trees and we landed right there. If it had been any other trees at bigger size, even one tree of bigger size, we would be dead.

Mulzet says they are incredibly fortunate they had a bush pilot with decades of experiences at the helm who made decisions in that moment that saved their lives.

He knew exactly what to do, says Mulzet.

Once the group was out of the plane and had caught their breath, they followed the sounds of barking dogs to find a local woman's house. The resident took them in and helped them call for help.

They crashed at about 9:25 p.m. Tuesday night and eventually made it home to Kelowna, all in one piece, at 3 a.m. Wednesday morning.

It is just unbelievable, says Mulzet. The craziest thing to happen in my life.

While crashing, the plane reportedly struck some wires and a pole, knocking out service to the surrounding area. Castanet is waiting to hear back from FortisBC regarding the service disruption.

Castanet has calls into the pilot and the Transportation Safety Board and will update this story as more information becomes available.
Buy a coffee and you could be responsible for putting a smile on a childs face this summer.

On June 1, 100 per cent of the proceeds from coffee sales at Tim Hortons will go to help sending kids from low-income families to camp.

Participating restaurants are encouraging coffee lovers to stop in and donate as a way to contribute to children building essential life skills.

The Tim Horton Childrens Foundation was established in 1974. Since 1975, more than 108,000 children have attended a Foundation camp at no cost to them or their families.

There are six camps located across the country and one in the U.S. that each offer unique experiences for young people.

The goal of the camps are to allow kids to set positive personal achievements through activities like boating, horseback riding, whitewater rafting and working on farms.

Camp Day is Tim Hortons largest fundraising initiative for the foundation. Each year more than 13,000 kids are sent on a camping adventure thanks to funds raised on CampDay. Customers are encouraged to use the hashtag #campday when buying a coffee at Tim Hortons.
Photo: Google Street View

Guests at the Howard Johnson Kelowna did not get a good sleep after they were all evacuated shortly after midnight.

Ministry of Transportation crews working on the six-laning project of Highway 97 past Highway 33, struck a gas line at about 10:30 p.m. and alerted FortisBC crews.

Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure guests' safety, power to the hotel was temporarily shut off and 12 guests were relocated to the nearby Quality Inn hotel, says Kate Mukasa with the ministry.

Power was restored to the hotel and Howard Johnson staff were allowed to return to the property this morning, but FortisBC is still working on restoring gas service.

We are aware of the damaged gas line, says Erika Schade, communications with FortisBC. We want to thank everyone for their patience. As always public and employee safety is our top priority and we are working to undertake repairs.

Schade says they received notification about the damage to the natural gas line late Tuesday night and arrived on scene shortly after.

We are still looking into the cause of the gas-line damage, says Schade.

We certainly encourage everyone, including contractors, to call before they dig to obtain information and know the location of varied gas lines.

Schade could not say whether the ministry had made the proper calls or not, but did say 99 per cent of all gas line hits are avoidable and less than one per cent of line breaks are due to incorrect mapping information.

There is a lot of construction taking place in Kelowna, which is why we do work very closely with the contractor community and have seen a nearly 50 per cent reduction since 2007 in overall damage to gas lines, adds Schade.

The ministry says their contractors always work closely with FortisBC and the proper calls were made, but sometimes mistakes are made.

Our crews work very closely with FortisBC and they take every precaution, but unfortunately some accidents do happen, says Mukasa.

Here are the three easy steps for safe digging:
Photo: Contributed

Is there anything worse than carefully packing a few bottles of wine in a suitcase for your flight back home, only to find one, or more, broke during the trip?

Pacific Coastal Airlines has a solution.

The small airline, which flies in and out of Kelowna non-stop to Victoria and Cranbrook, with stops to other destinations in the province, has developed the 'portable wine box.'

The box, introduced Tuesday, can hold up to six bottles of wine. They will be offered to customers flying into the Okanagan who may wish to visit a few wineries and bring some local wines back home.

The concept was the brainchild of Jenelle Hynes, business development & customer service manager with the airline.

Hynes had pitched the idea to several airlines while working in her previous job as communications director at the Kelowna International Airport.

She thought it would be a great way to allow consumers to bring local wines home, especially during the spring and fall wine festivals.

While it wasn't logistically possible for some airlines, it was a perfect fit for Pacific Coastal Airlines.

The boxes have a convenient carrying handle and are branded with the Pacific Coastal Airlines logo along with the three participating partner wineries  the Vibrant Vine, House of Rose, and The View.

The box comes with discount coupons from the participating wineries.

Passengers flying out of YLW on Pacific Coast Airlines can also request a container if they are taking wine with them on their trip.

I am really excited to launch these wine boxes, says Hynes.

It provides an easy solution for customers coming up for wine tours while showing our support of the local wine industry.

The containers will be made available to airline customers throughout the year.

Hynes said the box has already come in handy for one flyer who requested two of the boxes Tuesday. She left Wednesday morning with two full boxes of wine.
Photo: Getty Images

UPDATE: June 6, 12:15 p.m.

The CRA confirms the jail sentence handed out to Michael Bradley Matvieshen was one day for each of the five counts, to be served concurrently.

ORIGINAL

A Kelowna resident was recently slapped with a big fine by the Canadian Revenue Agency for failing to file tax returns.

Michael Bradley Matvieshen was fined $12,500 on May 26 after he was found guilty of failing to comply with an order to file corporate tax returns for various years.

According to the CRA, Matvieshen failed to file taxes for the companies Mill Creek Developments Ltd., Kelowna Office Surplus Ltd. and Marshall Business Center Inc.

The offences range from 2007 to 2013.

When taxpayers are convicted of failing to file tax returns, in addition to any fines imposed by the courts, they must still file the returns and pay the full amount of taxes owing, plus interest owed, as well as any civil penalties that may be assessed by the CRA, said Colette Turgeon, communications officer for the Canada Revenue Agency.

Thomas Kent, a lawyer representing Matvieshen, says the companies his client was the director of suffered during the 2008 financial crisis, and three of them were related to the Marshall feedlot development that went into foreclosure.

While the CRA claimed Matvieshen was sentenced to five days in jail, Kent says his client spent no time in prison, but was simply processed at the courthouse and released after the trial.

Kent says Matvieshen was ordered to file returns for one company by November 2016, and pay his fines by May 2016.
Photo: The Canadian Press

French media say that thousands have been evacuated as floods continue to threaten homes and businesses across the Paris region.

French authorities say that areas along the Loing River, a tributary of the Seine, had seen waters rise to levels unseen since 1910, when a massive flood swamped the French capital.

Media reported of evacuations in the town of Nemours, about 80 kilometres south of Paris. The iTele broadcaster said 400 firefighters and police were at work there removing people from flood-hit homes.

France's meteorological service said Thursday that severe flood watches are in effect in two Paris-area departments: Loiret and Seine-et-Marne. Eight more departments, including three on the German, border, face flood warnings as well.
Photo: CTV

A young woman who endured a nearly 30-minute assault by a fellow transit passenger on Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain is being praised for helping to nab the suspect.

Transit Police spokeswoman Anne Drennan says the assault, on May 23, began at Surrey Central SkyTrain station and continued until both the woman and her attacker left the train in downtown Vancouver.

In a release, Drennan says the victim was already on the nearly empty train when the suspect sat beside her, placing his hand on her bare thigh.

The woman tried to move and push his arm but Drennan says the victim was too afraid to do anything else.

When both left the train in Vancouver, the woman followed the man, watched him board a bus and then reported the attack to Transit Police, who arrested the suspect a short time later.

Drennan says a 60-year-old Surrey man who is known to police will appear in a Vancouver court in August and she says the immediate report and excellent description provided by the victim were instrumental in the arrest.
Photo: CTV

An RCMP member is recovering after suffering minor injuries when his cruiser was hit from behind during a traffic stop.

Sgt. Annie Linteau said two vehicles had been stopped for allegedly street racing on Highway 1 between North Road and Gaglardi Way in Burnaby shortly before midnight Wednesday.

While the member was sitting in his vehicle with its emergency lights activated, a cruiser was hit from behind by a third vehicle.

The driver of that vehicle fled on foot and was eventually arrested.

The RCMP member was treated in hospital for minor injuries and released.

"Although police officers conduct traffic stops every day, there are no routine traffic stops," said Linteau.

"During every traffic stop, police officers run the risk of being seriously injured or killed. Police officers understand this risk and continue to conduct speed enforcement along this corridor to ensure the safety of the public."

In addition to continuing their investigation of this crash, police are also continuing their investigation of the alleged street racing incident. Those drivers have been identified and charges may be considered at a later time.
Photo: Okanagan College

From accountants to welders, thousands of Okanagan College graduates will be heading out into the world this month.

As one Okanagan College business student will note when she addresses her graduating class Saturday, it was often the most challenging moments of her studies that best prepared her for the future.

Jessica Lenz is completing a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Honours Degree specializing in accounting. For the past year, she has been a student researcher with the Scotiabank Centre for Non-profit Excellence located at the Kelowna campus.

She recently presented her findings at the The Canadian Council for Small Business & Entrepreneurship national conference in Guelph, Ont.

It was so beneficial to have real-world opportunities to engage with and learn from business leaders in our community, said Lenz, who now plans to pursue her CPA certification. It was very challenging, but also very fulfilling as a student to be a part of research that has application to peoples businesses and livelihoods locally, and has the potential to bring about positive change.

Lenz is among the more than 1,450 students who will be recognized at the colleges convocation ceremonies this weekend.

She will also take the stage to give the student address and will be presented with the Silver Governor Generals Academic Medal and Bachelor of Business Administration Medal, as the graduate with the highest graduating grade average in an Okanagan College baccalaureate program and the BBA program this year.

Receiving the Silver Governor Generals medal was one of the goals I have pushed myself toward for a long time, said Lenz. Its an incredible feeling to realize a goal like this. I cant wait to be at the ceremony with all my fellow graduates who share the same pride of accomplishment.

The college will recognize the achievements of nearly 1,000 trades students at its commencement ceremony on the evening of Friday, June 3.

The following day, 481 credentials will be conferred to students in academic and vocational programs and include 129 bachelors degrees, 55 associate degrees, 270 diplomas and 27 certificates.

The ceremony on June 4 in Kelowna starts at 10:30 a.m. and will see students from arts, science, engineering technologies, computer science and health and social development programs receive their credentials.

Local forest hydrologist, Dr. Rita Winkler, and Mission Hills Anthony von Mandl, will address the morning graduating class as Honorary Fellows of Okanagan College.

At the afternoon ceremony starting at 1:30 p.m., Okanagan College will confer degrees, diplomas and certificates to graduates of the Okanagan College School of Business.

It is in this ceremony that Lenz will share some wisdom gained during her time as a business student, followed by a local business veteran who shares her feelings on the subject of perseverance.

After being recognized as Honorary Fellow on Saturday afternoon, Kelowna entrepreneur Bill Redmond will address the next wave of business leaders who will follow in his footsteps.

One of his key messages will be learn how to overcome adversity, and even embrace it.

Distilling a careers worth of lessons into a few short minutes isnt an easy task but Redmond says the lesson that has been most valuable was one that he learned early.

The difficult things and the challenging things are what you remember, he said. Overcoming adversity, even embracing it and seeking it out, is really what sets people apart. It is actually quite easy to be a great leader when things are going well, but when things take a turn, thats when you grow the most.

Redmond spent a year at Okanagan College as its first Entrepreneur-in-Residence in 2007. During that time he worked out of an office in the School of Business a few days a month, meeting with students, joining lectures and working with colleagues in the department.

I was very impressed with the business students at Okanagan College, he said. Working with them made me remember the pure joy of learning about business. Its a wonderful institution and a great privilege to address the graduating class.

This weekends ceremonies represent three of the Colleges six annual convocation ceremonies. The first convocation ceremony of the year was held in January, and 310 credentials were awarded to students.

Two additional ceremonies will be held later in June. A ceremony in Vernon will be held on Monday, June 27. The final summer convocation in Kelowna will take place on Wednesday, June 29 and will confer approximately 380 diplomas and certificates. Former Okanagan College professor Rick Gee will be honored as the 2016 Distinguished Service Award recipient at that ceremony.

More than 2,100 students will have graduated from Okanagan College in 2016 before the end of the month.

The convocation can be watched live online.
Photo: Contributed

RCMP are once again making a plea to the public to help find a missing woman.

Sandra McLaughlan was last seen on May 19, leaving her residence on Nickel Road. Police now have a photo that shows the clothing McLaughlan was wearing on the day of her disappearance.

While foul play is not suspected, police are very concerned for McLaughlans health and well-being and friends and family report that it is out of character for her to be out of contact for this long.

She was last seen wearing:

beige pants

red shirt

glasses

Description of Sandra McLaughlan:

Caucasian female

60 years

5 feet 9 inches tall

161 pounds

blonde hair

hazel eyes

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Sandra McLaughlan is urged to contact their local police.
Discussion

Rabies is a nearly universally fatal zoonotic disease caused by infection with viruses of the genus Lyssavirus and characterized by acute progressive encephalitis (2). Rabies virus is usually transmitted by an animal bite, and is preventable if exposed persons receive appropriate PEP, which includes thorough wound cleansing, human rabies immunoglobulin, and 4 doses of inactivated rabies vaccine on days 0, 3, 7, and 14 (3).

Human rabies presents a diagnostic challenge because of its rare occurrence in the United States and varied clinical presentations; symptoms can be difficult to distinguish from Guillain-Barre syndrome (2). Although the patient had prominent dysphagia, a symptom that is rare in other etiologies of encephalitis (4), diagnosis was complicated by her preexisting dementia and acute urinary tract infection, both of which might have explained some of her symptoms. In this case, the history of bat exposure was critical in leading clinicians to consider a diagnosis of rabies; however, because a history of animal bite cannot be documented in the majority of rabies cases in the United States (5), clinicians should consider a diagnosis of rabies infection in any patient with acute unexplained encephalitis (6).

The prolonged hospitalization of the patient described in this report raised concerns about possible exposures among health care providers. PEP is only indicated for health care providers who have mucous membrane or open skin contact with saliva, tears, or nervous tissue (1). Consistent adherence to standard precautions among providers could have reduced the need for PEP (1,6,7). The Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee recommends standard precautions for all hospitalized patients, including situations in which a transmissible infectious disease is not initially suspected (7).

The patient described in this report likely acquired rabies through the reported bat exposure in the home. During recent decades, most domestically acquired human rabies cases have been associated with bat exposures, either by history of bat contact or infection with bat-associated rabies virus variants (6,8); however, in the majority of these cases, no bite was reported (5,8). Because bat bites can cause limited injury and therefore can be difficult to detect (9), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends that any person with direct bat contact or who might be unaware of bat contact (e.g., awakening with a bat in the room) undergo evaluation for rabies virus exposure (1).

In this case, the patient and her husband, her primary caregiver, were unaware of the risk for rabies in the absence of a visible bite wound, did not seek medical evaluation, and did not receive PEP. The reported multiple past telephone calls by the patients family to local authorities regarding bats represent missed opportunities to provide rabies education. Similar missed opportunities were reported in a previous human rabies case in the United States (10). These cases indicate the need to not only increase public awareness of rabies transmission risk from bat exposure, but also the need to educate public agencies outside of the public health domain to ensure that they can provide accurate information and proper referrals.
Cigarette smoking is a substantial public health problem in this subpopulation. Culturally specific adaptations of strategies that have produced U.S. population-wide declines are needed. These could include engaging traditional healers and respected elders, fostering respect for traditional ceremonial use of tobacco as a reason for not smoking recreationally, and addressing tobacco addiction in the context of social determinants of health specific to American Indians.

Smoking prevalence among American Indians in the Upper Midwest is the highest among all American Indians, and considerably higher than the smoking prevalence of the general population. Little is known about nonceremonial tobacco use among urban American Indians, and surveillance estimates are limited by small sample size, culturally inappropriate data collection methods, lack of attention to ceremonial tobacco use, and exclusion of American Indians who indicate more than one race.

In 2013, it was estimated that the prevalence of cigarette smoking among American Indians was 36.5%, the highest of all racial/ethnic groups in the continental United States (1). Among American Indians, considerable cultural and geographic variation in cigarette smoking exists. Smoking prevalence among American Indians is lowest in the Southwest and highest in the Upper Midwest/Northern Plains (2). Little information is available about tobacco use among urban American Indians, who might not have ever lived on a reservation or be enrolled in or affiliated with a tribe. In Minnesota, a significant proportion of American Indians reside in urban areas. Among Minnesotas residents who identify as American Indian alone or in combination with another race, 30% live in Hennepin County and Ramsey County, which encompass Minneapolis and St. Paul, respectively (collectively known as the Twin Cities). The predominant tribes (Ojibwe [Chippewa] and Dakota/Lakota/Nakota [Sioux]) traditionally have used locally grown tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), red willow, and other plants for religious ceremonies, although nonceremonial tobacco is often substituted for traditional plants. To assess prevalence of cigarette smoking among this population, it is important to distinguish ceremonial tobacco use (smoked or used in other ways) from nonceremonial tobacco use. To obtain estimates of cigarette smoking prevalence among American Indians in Hennepin and Ramsey counties, the American Indian Adult Tobacco Survey was administered to 964 American Indian residents in 2011, using respondent-driven sampling. Among all participants, 59% were current smokers, 19% were former smokers, and 22% had never smoked. Approximately 40% of employed participants reported that someone smoked in their workplace area during the preceding week. High prevalences of cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke exposure among urban American Indians in Minnesota underscores the need for a comprehensive and culturally appropriate approach to reducing nonceremonial tobacco use.

Because no lists of eligible respondents existed, the study sample was generated using respondent-driven sampling (3). Using this sampling scheme, identified respondents referred persons they knew, who in turn referred persons they knew. A mathematical model weighted the sample to compensate for the fact that it was collected in a nonrandom way. Each participant, beginning with the initial five respondents (called seeds) chosen by investigators, was given three coupons with unique identification numbers to give to other eligible participants. This process continued through 12 rounds of recruitment to produce a sufficient sample for prevalence estimates with a reasonable margin of error. Eligible participants were aged 18 years, self-identified as American Indian (alone or in combination with other races), and resided in Hennepin or Ramsey counties. Only one respondent per household was eligible. Data were collected in community settings through face-to-face interviews by American Indian interviewers who received training in interviewing and human subject protection. Participants received a $15 gift card for participating in the survey and a $10 gift card for each of their participating coupon recipients. This study was approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Fond du Lac Reservation IRB, and the Indian Health Service IRB.

The survey was conducted during MarchMay, 2011, and was based on the American Indian Adult Tobacco Survey (4). It included questions about spiritual, ceremonial, nonceremonial, and smokeless tobacco use, including information on initiation and quitting; secondhand smoke exposure; attitudes and knowledge about nonceremonial tobacco, including harms and social acceptability; and participant demographics, including age, sex, education level, and household income. To determine cigarette-smoking status, participants were asked the following question: Not including ceremonial or sacred usein your entire life have you smoked at least 100 cigarettes? Respondents who answered yes were asked, Do you usually now smoke cigarettes every day, some days, or not at all? Current smokers were defined as participants who had ever smoked at least 100 cigarettes and at the time of the survey smoked every day or some days. Former smokers were defined as persons who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes and at the time of the survey did not smoke at all, and never smokers were defined as participants who had not smoked 100 cigarettes in their lifetimes. Smokers were asked about willingness to use various smoking cessation aids or methods, including nicotine replacement therapy, buproprion or varenicline products, various quit smoking modalities, and traditional tribal practices. Participants were asked if, during the previous week, anyone had smoked tobacco around them in their house, in a car, where they work, or somewhere else, other than for ceremonial or sacred purposes. Raw data were adjusted for network size using weights generated by the RDS Analysis Tool.* Data were further weighted by gender, age, and county of residence distribution of American Indians (alone or in combination with other races) from the U.S. Census. Data were compared with data from the 2010 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey (5).

The target sample size was 1,000 participants, based on estimates of detectable differences in smoking rates by demographic categories. The survey was administered to 964 persons, and yielded 940 usable responses. The unweighted sample closely matched the age distribution for American Indians from the 2010 U.S. Census, but women and Hennepin County residents were overrepresented. Most respondents (87%) were enrolled in a tribe (65% Ojibwe, 20% Dakota/Lakota, 2% other). Sixty-four percent of participants were female; 18% were aged 1824 years, 45% were aged 2544 years, 32% were aged 4564 years, and 5% were aged 65 years.

The estimated prevalences of current smoking, former smoking, and never smoking in this population were 59.3%, 18.5%, and 22.1%, respectively (Table 1). The estimated current smoking prevalence among women (55.8%) was lower than among men (63.7%); estimated prevalence of current smoking was highest among persons aged 2544 years (72.4%) and lowest among persons aged 65 years (28.8%). The estimated prevalence of never having smoked was highest among persons aged 1824 years (41.6%). No association of smoking status with educational level was evident. The largest percentage of smokers in this sample (39.4%) smoked 5 cigarettes on days they smoked, but 70.5% reported that they had smoked at least 20 days during the previous month. Regular filtered cigarettes (48.3%) and menthol cigarettes (42.1%) were predominantly reported to be the type of cigarette usually smoked (Table 2).

Among persons who had ever smoked, 23.8% reported that they had quit smoking. Two thirds (67.6%) of current smokers indicated that they wanted to quit, and approximately half (57.2%) had tried quitting during the previous year. When asked about willingness to use various smoking cessation aids or methods, a large proportion (42.9%) said they would use nicotine replacement therapies. However, other medications like varenicline (a prescription nicotine agonist) or buproprion (a prescription antidepressant medication used as a smoking cessation aid) were less acceptable (16.6%). A relatively small percentage (14.7%) of current smokers were open to telephone support such as quit lines; individual or group support for cessation was more acceptable (36.9% and 25.4% respectively). One third of participants (33.4%) knew of a stop-smoking program, most often located in a local American Indian health clinic.

Survey participants reported a higher prevalence of secondhand smoke exposure in homes (41.5%), cars (64.3%), workplaces (40.8%), and other places (69.8%) than did residents of Minnesota as a whole in the 2010 Minnesota Adult Tobacco Survey (Figure) (5). Most (97%) employed respondents reported working in a location other than a reservation.
Understanding factors contributing to public confidence in the health care system can help develop education and health promotion campaigns. Public confidence in the health care system to deliver basic services provides a foundation on which to build a restored and improved post-Ebola health system in Sierra Leone.

A majority of participants in a knowledge, attitudes, and practices survey conducted after approximately 15 months of an Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone expressed at least some confidence in the health care systems ability to treat patients suspected to have Ebola, and >90% reported confidence that the health care system could also provide non-Ebola services, including immunizations, antenatal care, and maternity care. Respondents from areas with active Ebola transmission had higher confidence in the health care system, as did respondents with higher education levels. Respondents ranked Ebola and malaria as the most important health issues for Sierra Leone.

Public mistrust and fear based on misconceptions regarding health care system facilities and providers increased during the Ebola virus disease (Ebola) epidemic in Sierra Leone, and health care system usage rates declined sharply. Sierra Leones Ebola recovery and global health security strengthening efforts require willingness of citizens to seek care and place trust in that care.

Ensuring confidence in the health care system has been a challenge to Ebola virus disease (Ebola) response and recovery efforts in Sierra Leone (1). A national multistage cluster-sampled household survey to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to Sierra Leones health care system was conducted in July 2015. Among 3,564 respondents, 93% were confident that a health care facility could treat suspected Ebola cases, and approximately 90% had confidence in the health systems ability to provide non-Ebola services, including immunizations, antenatal care, and maternity care. Respondents in districts with ongoing Ebola transmission (active districts) and respondents with higher educational levels reported more confidence in the health care system than did respondents in nonactive districts and respondents with less education. Active districts were the focus of the Ebola response; these districts implemented intensified social mobilization and communication efforts, and established district response centers, Ebola-specific health care facilities, and ambulances. Greater infrastructure and response capacity might have resulted in higher confidence in the health care system in these areas. Respondents ranked Ebola and malaria as the countrys most important health issues. Health system recovery efforts in Sierra Leone can build on existing public confidence in the health system.

The 20142015 Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone exposed many of the public health challenges these countries face, particularly the need for and lack of a strong health infrastructure (2). Ebola control efforts were hampered by lack of understanding about Ebola transmission, mistrust and fear of health facilities and providers (3), delays in seeking care, or refusal to seek care (4). Sierra Leones Ebola recovery and health security strengthening efforts depend upon willingness of a population to seek care and trust in that care. An assessment of public attitudes can help develop interventions to address these barriers and build public trust in the health care system. To better understand health careseeking practices and perceptions of the health care system in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation and CDC partnered with FOCUS 1000, a Sierra Leone-based nongovernmental organization,* and other stakeholders to conduct the KAP survey in July 2015.

The national cross-sectional household survey used multistaged cluster sampling, with probability of selection of primary sampling units (clusters) proportional to their size. Ninety-one clusters were sampled, and 20 households were selected from each cluster using systematic random sampling. Because of their influential role in household decisions and practices, heads of households were prioritized for interviewing. Anticipating that a majority of the household heads would be older men, interviewers randomly selected a second survey participant from each household (either a woman of any age or any other person aged 1524 years). To ensure reliable district-level estimates, active districts (areas in which a confirmed Ebola case had been reported during the preceding 42 days) were oversampled. A weighting factor was applied to each record to adjust for selection probability at the district level.

Trained data collectors used an open source application for digital data collection (OpenDataKit) installed on WiFi/4G-enabled tablet computers. The survey included open-ended questions about participants expectations regarding a health care facilitys treatment of suspected Ebola cases. Participants free responses were coded into predetermined response categories. Participants were also asked to rate their confidence regarding Ebola care, non-Ebola illness care, immunization services, and antenatal and maternity care using a 3-point Likert scale with 0 representing not at all confident and 2 representing very confident. Confidence in the health care system was quantified by summarizing frequency, mean score, and standard deviation. Two questions asked about health careseeking behaviors (willingness to take an ambulance if feeling ill today [yes/no] and willingness to take an ambulance if feeling ill after the outbreak is declared to be over [yes/no]). Participants rated how important it was for their health care system to treat and prevent certain diseases, using a 5-point Likert scale, with 1 representing not important at all and 5 representing very important.

Data were stored on a secure web hosting server and imported into SPSS version 22 for analysis. Results were stratified by demographics, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) testing was used to examine group differences. Mean scores and standard deviations for importance were calculated for each health issue. Because participants ratings on importance of treating and preventing each health issue were all >3 on a 5-point Likert scale, the responses resulted in a negative skewed distribution; the data were normalized before conducting parametric statistical analysis. Repeated measure ANOVA was conducted to examine the differences in ratings for each health issue. Least significant difference posthoc analysis was conducted to examine the pairwise differences and rank importance levels.

Among the 3,640 persons approached by data collectors, 3,564 (98%) participants from 1,782 households consented to take part in the survey (two participants per household). The final survey included 1,774 (49.8%) males and 1,790 (50.2%) females; the participants average age was 35 years (standard deviation = 15).

Overall, the majority of participants had positive responses about their expectations of a health care facilitys treatment of suspected Ebola cases: 69.8% believed that patients suspected of having Ebola would receive care, and 56.0% believed that the health care facility could definitely cure a patients Ebola (Table 1). The proportion of participants who reported they would ride in an ambulance today if they felt ill (63.3%) was similar to the proportion who said they would do so once the Ebola outbreak was declared over (65.8%) (Table 1).

The majority of the participants were either very confident or somewhat confident about the health care systems ability to treat Ebola, to treat non-Ebola diseases, to provide children with immunizations safely, and to provide antenatal and maternity care (Table 2). Respondents who resided in active districts expressed more confidence in the health care system than did respondents in nonactive districts. Respondents who had secondary or higher education also reported more confidence about Ebola treatment and child immunization (Table 2) than did respondents with primary school or lower education.

A repeated measure ANOVA identified significant differences among ranking the importance of health issues in Sierra Leone, (p<0.000). A follow-up pairwise comparison indicated the rank of importance as follows: Ebola (mean Likert score = 4.40), malaria (3.92), diarrheal disease (3.74), tuberculosis (3.45), and pneumonia (3.43).
Trends in Early Childhood Obesity in a Large Urban School District in the Southwestern United States, 20072014

Andrea Cantarero, MS, MPH, RD; Orrin Myers, PhD; Thomas Scharmen, MPH; Peter Kinyua, PhD; Elizabeth Yakes Jimenez, PhD, RD

Suggested citation for this article: Cantarero A, Myers O, Scharmen T, Kinyua P, Jimenez EY. Trends in Early Childhood Obesity in a Large Urban School District in the Southwestern United States, 20072014. Prev Chronic Dis 2016;13:150594. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.150594external icon.

PEER REVIEWED

Abstract

Introduction

Although recent studies indicate that rates of childhood obesity and severe obesity may be declining, few studies have reported prevalence trends in early childhood or differences in trends across sociodemographic groups. The primary aim of this study was to report trends in prevalence of early childhood obesity and severe obesity 2007 through 2014 in a diverse, metropolitan school district in the southwestern United States and determine whether these trends vary by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability status.

Methods

We analyzed height, weight and demographic data from 43,113 kindergarteners enrolled in a large, urban school district in the southwestern United States for 7 school years. Adjusted odds of obesity and severe obesity were calculated to assess changes in prevalence for non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and American Indian students; free or reduced-price lunch participants and nonparticipants; and students with and without disabilities. To test for differences in obesity trends, interaction terms were added to the logistic regressions between school year and sex, race/ethnicity, free or reduced-price lunch participation, and disability status.

Results

The adjusted prevalence of both obesity (from 13.1% in 20072008 to 12.0% in 201320014) and severe obesity (from 2.4% in 20072008 to 1.2% in 20132014) declined overall. We found no significant interactions between the adjusted prevalence of obesity over time and any of the sociodemographic subgroups. Obesity prevalence declined more among American Indian students than among Hispanic or non-Hispanic white students.

Conclusion

In this district, from 2007 through 2014, severe obesity decreased and obesity did not increase, overall and across all sociodemographic subpopulations for kindergarten students.

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Introduction

Childhood obesity is a major public health concern in the United States and is the focus of many policy and programmatic interventions. Timely and demographically representative monitoring of obesity prevalence is essential to effectively address childhood obesity locally and nationally (1,2). Few obesity surveillance systems exist for children aged 5 to 11 years, who are too young to participate in the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System and too old to be eligible for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). To track and address childhood obesity at state and local levels, school-based surveillance programs have become more common (2). However, few communities have published their data on obesity prevalence among elementary school children (1).

National evidence indicates that the childhood obesity epidemic has finally plateaued, with significant declines in obesity prevalence in recent years for children aged 2 to 5 years (3) and low-income children aged 2 to 4 years (4). However, neither of these studies had sufficient sample size to investigate trends in the American Indian population, nor did they make direct comparisons by sociodemographic characteristics such as socioeconomic status (SES) or disability status. Emerging evidence indicates that children with some disabilities are also at increased risk of obesity (58). Disparities in childhood obesity by race/ethnicity and SES are well-documented (3,912) and widening (1316). Severe obesity has emerged as a distinct class of pediatric obesity that should be a priority for public health surveillance (17,18), and it differs significantly by both race/ethnicity (1922) and SES (20).

The primary aim of this study was to report trends in prevalence of childhood obesity and severe obesity 2007 through 2014 from an ethnically diverse, metropolitan school district in the southwestern United States. The secondary aim was to determine whether these trends vary by race/ethnicity, SES, and disability status.

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Methods

This retrospective cohort study was conducted using secondary, de-identified data collected from 2007 through 2014 in a metropolitan school district in the southwestern United States that serves more than 90,000 students. The school district research review board and the University of New Mexico Human Research Protections Office reviewed and approved the study protocol before the de-identified data set was shared.

School nurses collected data on the heights and weights of all kindergarten students annually from 2007 through 2014 as part of a district-wide obesity surveillance project. Height was measured to the nearest 1/8 inch using wall-mounted stadiometers, and weight was measured to the nearest 1/4 pound using calibrated beam balance scales. Measurement dates were recorded. All school nurses in the district received training on measuring student heights and weights as well as on balance beam calibration during a series of workshops from 2007 through 2009. A district resource nurse was responsible for training all new school nurses on the measurement protocol and was responsible for continuous quality assurance of measurements collected by nurses through 2010. Since then, annual height and weight measurement training has been offered to the districts school nurses by the state department of health as part of a broader statewide obesity surveillance project.

Student identification numbers were used by school district staff to link anthropometric data to other student information: sex, birth date, race/ethnicity, school enrollment, free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL) status (as a proxy for SES), and disability status. Disability included any of the following special education designations: intellectual disability, hearing impairment, speech or language impairment, visual impairment, emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairment, learning disability, deaf-blindness, autism, traumatic brain injury, developmental delay, other health impairment, and multiple disabilities. Data on student race/ethnicity were collected on the basis of parent report during enrollment. Students enrolled in multiple schools in a single year were assigned to a single school of enrollment on the basis of greatest proportion of attendance. Student identification numbers were removed and a study identification number was randomly assigned to each student before the district released the data to the research team.

Birth dates and examination dates were used to calculate age, which was combined with data for height, weight, and sex to compute body mass index (BMI) percentiles and to identify biologically implausible values (BIVs) using Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) codes provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (23). Children were assigned to a weight status category of underweight (BMI <5th percentile), normal weight (BMI 5th percentile and <85th percentile), overweight (BMI 85th percentile and <95th percentile) or obese (95th percentile) based on CDC growth chart criteria (18). Severe obesity was defined as a BMI that is either greater than 35 or 120% of the 95th percentile, whichever is lower, based on guidance from the American Heart Association (17).

Only the first biologically plausible measurement for each student was used in the analytic data set. On the basis of these criteria, 43,113 measures were included in the analysis (Figure 1); 561 BIVs and 784 repeated measurements (primarily from kindergarten students who were held back a grade) were excluded from analysis. For the purpose of analyzing obesity prevalence trends over time, each student was included in one of the following racial/ethnic groups: non-Hispanic white, American Indian (any ethnicity), or Hispanic (any nonAmerican Indian race). Because of small sample sizes, data for the following non-Hispanic races were excluded from analysis: black or African American, Asian American, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

Figure 1. Measurements of kindergarten students and final analytic sample, Urban School District in the Southwestern United States, 20072014. [A text description of this figure is also available.]

Data analysis was completed using SAS Version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc). Generalized estimating equation models were used to calculate unadjusted and adjusted odds of obesity and severe obesity to appropriately control for the clustering of children from 94 different public elementary schools. The prevalence and unadjusted bivariate odds of obesity and severe obesity were calculated for age (<6 and 6), sex (male/female), race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white, Hispanic [any nonAmerican Indian race] American Indian [any ethnicity]), FRPL participation (no/yes), disability (no/yes), school year (20072014, at one-year intervals), and examination date (January through December, at 2-month intervals). Adjusted odds ratios were calculated using multivariable models adjusting for child age (as a continuous variable), sex, race/ethnicity, FRPL participation, disability, and exam date. School years were analyzed as categorical, for comparisons against the baseline school year, and as continuous variables, to test for a linear trend over the entire study period. To test for differences in obesity trends by sociodemographic groups, interaction terms were added to the logistic regressions between school year and sex, race/ethnicity, FRPL participation, and disability status. Wald 2 tests were used to calculate 95% confidence intervals. Significance was determined at P < .05.

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Results

Approximately 80% of all kindergarten students enrolled in the district from 2007 through 2014 met our inclusion criteria. Overall, the demographics of the measured sample were similar to the enrolled population in the school district ( Table 1). Most of the included students were at a normal weight, 5 years old, Hispanic, enrolled in FRPL, and measured during the fall. The overall prevalence of obesity was 12.1% throughout the study period.

On the basis of bivariate analyses ( Table 2), male sex, Hispanic ethnicity, American Indian race, and FRPL enrollment were all positively associated with obesity. Age, Hispanic ethnicity, American Indian race, and FRPL enrollment were significantly associated with severe obesity. Compared with non-Hispanic white students, American Indian students had the highest odds of being both obese and severely obese, followed by Hispanic students. No clear pattern was evident for a relationship between examination date and obesity or severe obesity, and no significant trends were found in the prevalence of unadjusted obesity (P = .68) or unadjusted severe obesity (P = .18) during this period.

In the final adjusted models ( Table 3), Hispanic ethnicity, American Indian race, and FRPL enrollment remained significantly and positively associated with both obesity and severe obesity (P <.001). Older age was a significant risk factor for severe obesity (P < .001) but not obesity (P = .12), and male sex was a significant risk factor for obesity (P < .001) but not severe obesity (P = .88). Students measured during November and December had a slightly increased odds of obesity compared with students measured in January and February (P = .04).

The adjusted prevalence of both obesity (from 13.1% in 20072008 to 12.0% in 20132014) and severe obesity (from 2.4% in 20072008 to 1.2% in 20132014) declined overall during the study period. However, only the increase in obesity in 20092010 (P = .04) and decrease in severe obesity in 20132014 (P < .001) were significant compared with the baseline year of 20072008. The linear trend for this period indicated a significant decrease in severe obesity (P = .03), but not for obesity (P = .14).

No significant interactions were found between the adjusted prevalence of obesity over time and any of the sociodemographic subgroups. However, obesity prevalence declined in American Indian students from a high of 22.7% in 20072008 to 17.0% in 20132014, a 25.1% decrease. In contrast, the prevalence of obesity declined in non-Hispanic white students by 13.5% between 20072008 and 20132014 (8.1% to 7.0%), while the prevalence declined among Hispanic students by only 5.3% during the same period (13.1% to 12.4%) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Adjusted annual prevalence of obesity, by race/ethnicity and school year, in a sample of kindergarten students in an Urban School District in the Southwestern United States, 20072014. Data adjusted for sex, free- or reduced-price lunch status, disability status, measurement date, and clustering by school. [A tabular description of this figure is also available.]

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Discussion

Obesity did not increase and severe obesity decreased from 2007 through 2014 among kindergarteners in this racially/ethnically diverse metropolitan school district in the southwestern United States. This trend was similar for both sexes, all racial/ethnic groups, FRPL participants and nonparticipants, and students with and without disabilities. American Indian and Hispanic students had a higher prevalence of obesity and severe obesity than did non-Hispanic white students during the study period, despite the greatest declines in obesity prevalence being evident among American Indian students.

These findings are consistent with those of other national and regional reports, indicating that the childhood obesity epidemic has finally plateaued (3,4,2022,2427) and even decreased in certain populations (3,4,20,22,24,25,27). Four of these studies reported on obesity in kindergarteners (20,2426), 2 reported on American Indian students (24,26), and only one reported on severe obesity in kindergarteners (20). The overall prevalence of obesity in our sample of kindergarteners, 12.1%, was similar to the finding of a surveillance report of kindergarteners in New Mexico, 11.6% in 2014 (24), which was somewhat lower than the prevalence for kindergarteners in public schools in Arkansas (15.9% in 20132014) (26) and much lower than the prevalence for kindergarteners in public schools in New York City (18.2% in 20102011) (20,25). Severe obesity was also more common in New York City (3.7% in 20102011) (20) than in our sample (2.4% in 20072014). Regional variation in childhood obesity in the United States is well documented and may be the result of cultural differences in nutrition and physical activity habits or differences in the home, early child education (28), school and community policies, and environments related to nutrition and physical activity (4).

To our knowledge, only one school-based surveillance project tested for trends in obesity in kindergarteners (20,25). New York City public schools reported significant declines in both obesity and severe obesity between 20062007 and 20102011 in kindergarteners (20). Day et al reported a 14.0% decrease in obesity and 9.9% decrease in severe obesity, compared with 8.4% and 50.0% in our sample of kindergarteners, respectively. The overall decline in obesity in our sample was not significant, which may have been the result of reduced power in our sample, given the small number of kindergarteners (approximately 43,000) compared with the New York City sample (approximately 669,000). Among the broader student population (kindergarten through 8th grade), significant declines in obesity and severe obesity were reported among both sexes and all racial/ethnic groups, as well as among FRPL participants and non-participants (20). However, Day et al noted that declines in obesity and severe obesity were greatest among the lowest risk populations (ie, non-Hispanic white and nonFRPL-participating students). In contrast, our findings show that American Indian students experienced greater relative and absolute declines in obesity (24.9% and 5.7%, respectively) than either Hispanic (5.3% and 0.7%) or non-Hispanic white students (13.5% and 1.1%), although these differences were not significant. Additionally, FRPL participation was not associated with a difference in obesity trends in our population. There are several reasons why our findings may differ from those in New York City, including regional differences in the experience of racial/ethnic minorities in the Southwest and differences in effectiveness of and access to community-wide and district-wide obesity prevention and treatment efforts.

Although it is impossible to determine the cause of these observed trends from the data available, several recent public health changes may be affecting early childhood obesity incidence and prevalence. At the federal level, WIC implemented multiple changes designed to make food packages healthier for participating women and children starting in late 2007, and the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 made many obesity prevention reforms to school environments, including improving the nutrition standards for school breakfasts and lunches. Given the large proportion of low-income students in our study population, changes in WIC food packages and school breakfast and lunch may have contributed to our findings (4). National and regional increases in breastfeeding rates have also been cited as potential contributors (4).

A major strength of this study was the large and representative sample (80% participation) of kindergarten students from a diverse metropolitan school district for 7 continuous years. Another strength was the linkage of BMI data with school district enrollment information, including FRPL status, disability status, and parent reported child race/ethnicity.

Several limitations to this study should be considered. Although previous research indicates that height and weight measurements collected by school nurses are reliable (29), lack of rigorous protocols, such as repeated height measures, introduces a potential for measurement error and could reduce BMI accuracy. Another limitation was the use of FRPL status as a proxy for SES, because this measure does not directly reflect parental income, education level, or family wealth (30). The true number of kindergarteners with disabilities was likely higher, because many children are not identified by the school district as having a disability until they are older. Because of this potential misclassification error, the associations between obesity and disability status are likely underestimated. In addition, including all disabilities in one category is not as useful as is an analysis that includes disability categories that are associated with obesity risk. Because this was a public school-based surveillance project, the data set excluded children who are exclusively home-schooled or who attend private schools, whose risk of obesity may differ with that of children who attend public school. This data set was also regionally specific and analyzed a population that had more Hispanic, American Indian, and low-income children than the rest of the nation, which may limit the generalizability of the results. However, the overall finding that obesity and severe obesity prevalence are no longer increasing in this age group is supported by other regional and national studies, lending confidence to our conclusions.

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Acknowledgments

Andrea Cantarero received a Graduate Excellence Assistantship from the Office of the Provost at the University of New Mexico (UNM) to support his time on this project from 20122013. We express our gratitude to the many school district nurses who collected the data used in this analysis, and School Health Advisory Council members for their efforts in prioritizing, organizing, and creating this obesity surveillance system. We also recognize the school districts Office of Student Information Services, Office of Reporting, and Research Review Board for their project efforts and support. We thank the New Mexico Department of Health and New Mexico Community Data Collaborative for their role in curating, cleaning, and assuring the quality of the data set. Finally, we are grateful to Kristine Tollestrup and Victoria Sanchez from the UNM Public Health Program, and Deborah Cohen and Peter Pribis from the UNM Nutrition Program, for their comments on the study design and manuscript.

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Author Information

Corresponding Author: Andrea Cantarero, MS, MPH, RD, Prevention Research Center, University of New Mexico, 2703 Frontier NE  RIB 120, MSC 11 6145, Albuquerque, NM 87131. Telephone: 505-272-4462. Email: arcantarero@unm.edu.

Author Affiliations: Orrin Myers, Elizabeth Yakes Jimenez, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Thomas Scharmen, New Mexico Department of Health, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Peter Kinyua, Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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References

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Tables

Table 1. Demographic Characteristicsa of Kindergarteners in the Study Sample (n = 43,113) and the Metropolitan Southwestern United States School District (N = 54,399), 20072014

Characteristic Study Sample School District No. (%) Weight classb Underweight 1,557 (3.6) NA Normal weight 30,128 (69.9) NA Overweight 6,218 (14.4) NA Obese 4,157 (12.1) NA Severely obese 1,053 (2.4) NA Age, y =4 257 (0.6) 275 (0.6) 5 32,539 (75.5) 34,739 (74.2) =6 10,317 (23.9) 11,783 (25.2) Sex Male 21,726 (50.4) 28,505 (50.8) Female 21,387 (49.6) 27,281 (49.2) Race/ethnicity Hispanic (any nonAmerican Indian race) 29,980 (69.5) 35,929 (69.7) Non-Hispanic white 10,474 (24.3) 12,272 (23.8) American Indian (any ethnicity) 2,659 (6.2) 3,360 (6.5) Free or reduced-price lunch participant Yes 23,040 (67.0) 36,001 (66.7) No 14,165 (33.0) 17,998 (33.3) Disabilityc Yes 2,595 (6.0) 3,824 (6.6) No 40,518 (94.0) 51,963 (93.4) School year 20072008 5,507 (12.8) 8,000 (14.3) 20082009 5,883 (13.7) 7,853 (14.1) 20092010 6,190 (14.4) 7,801 (14.0) 20102011 6,534 (15.2) 7,923 (14.2) 20112012 6,254 (14.5) 7,931 (14.2) 20122013 6,554 (15.2) 8,280 (14.8) 20132014 6,191 (14.4) 7,999 (14.3) Examination date JanuaryFebruary 5,892 (13.7) NA MarchApril 2,907 (6.7) NA MayJune 691 (1.6) NA JulyAugust 2,855 (6.6) NA SeptemberOctober 15,933 (37.0) NA NovemberDecember 14,835 (34.4) NA

Table 2. Bivariate Relationships Between Student Characteristics and Odds of Obesity and Severe Obesity in a Kindergarten Sample (n = 43,113) From a Metropolitan School District in the Southwestern United States, 20072014

Characteristic Obesitya Severe Obesitya Prevalence,

n (%) OR (95% CI) P

Valueb Prevalence,

n (%) OR (95% CI) P

Valueb Age, y <6 3,910 (11.9) 1 [Reference] .10 730 (2.2) 1 [Reference] <.001 =6 1,300 (12.6) 1.06 (0.991.14) 323 (3.1) 1.42 (1.251.63) Sex Female 2,442 (11.4) 1 [Reference] <.001 520 (2.4) 1 [Reference] .82 Male 2,768 (12.7) 1.14 (1.071.21) 533 (2.5) 1.01 (0.901.14) Race/ethnicity Non-Hispanic white 702 (6.7) 1 [Reference] <.001 115 (1.1) 1 [Reference] <.001 Hispanic (any nonAmerican Indian race) 3,986 (13.3) 1.79 (1.661.94) <.001 820 (2.7) 2.19 (1.822.64) <.001 American Indian (any ethnicity) 522 (19.6) 2.96 (2.583.39) <.001 118 (4.4) 3.65 (2.684.97) <.001 Free or reduced-price lunch participant No 1,227 (8.7) 1 [Reference] <.001 211 (1.5) 1 [Reference] <.001 Yes 3,961 (13.8) 1.40 (1.251.55) 837 (2.9) 1.73 (1.432.08) Disabilityc No 4,867 (12.0) 1 [Reference] .07 984 (2.4) 1 [Reference] .46 Yes 343 (13.2) 1.12 (1.001.27) 69 (2.7) 1.10 (0.861.41) School year 20072008 655 (11.9) 1 [Reference] .34 136 (2.5) 1 [Reference] .02 20082009 691 (11.8) 0.96 (0.861.07) .47 130 (2.2) 0.88 (0.711.10) .26 20092010 822 (13.3) 1.09 (0.971.24) .15 174 (2.8) 1.12 (0.901.38) .31 20102011 789 (12.1) 0.99 (0.881.10) .81 171 (2.6) 1.04 (0.811.33) .75 20112012 719 (11.5) 0.95 (0.831.08) .42 156 (2.5) 1.00 (0.801.26) 1.00 20122013 793 (12.1) 0.99 (0.851.16) .94 173 (2.6) 1.05 (0.811.37) .71 20132014 741 (12.0) 0.99 (0.871.13) .88 113 (1.8) 0.73 (0.560.93) .01 Examination date JanuaryFebruary 723 (12.3) 1 [Reference] .14 155 (2.6) 1 [Reference] .73 MarchApril 394 (13.6) 1.16 (1.031.31) .02 86 (3.0) 1.15 (0.861.54) .34 MayJune 79 (11.4) 1.10 (0.871.39) .44 20 (2.9) 1.25 (0.801.95) .32 JulyAugust 361 (12.6) 0.98 (0.831.17) .83 69 (2.4) 0.86 (0.601.22) .39 SeptemberOctober 1,822 (11.4) 1.04 (0.941.15) .47 366 (2.3) 0.94 (0.751.19) .62 NovemberDecember 1,831 (12.3) 1.11 (1.001.24) .05 357 (2.4) 0.96 (0.791.16) .66

Table 3. Multivariate Relationships Between Student Characteristics and Odds of Obesity and Severe Obesity in a Kindergarten Sample (n = 43,113) From a Metropolitan School District in the Southwestern United States, 20072014

Characteristic Obesitya Severe Obesitya AOR (95% CI) P Valueb AOR (95% CI) P Valueb Age, y 1.08 (0.981.19) .12 1.81 (1.482.21) <.001 Sex Female 1 [Reference] <.001 1 [Reference] .88 Male 1.14 (1.071.21) 1.01 (0.891.14) Race/ethnicity Non-Hispanic white 1 [Reference] <.001 1 [Reference] <.001 Hispanic (any nonAmerican Indian race) 1.73 (1.601.88) <.001 2.05 (1.672.51) <.001 American Indian (any ethnicity) 2.83 (2.473.23) <.001 3.32 (2.384.62) <.001 Free or reduced-price lunch participant No 1 [Reference] <.001 1 [Reference] <.001 Yes 1.26 (1.141.40) 1.51 (1.251.83) Disabilityc No 1 [Reference] .24 1 [Reference] .84 Yes 1.08 (0.951.22) 1.03 (0.791.33) School year 20072008 1 [Reference] .21 1 [Reference] .006 20082009 .97 (0.901.05) .52 0.91 (0.781.06) .20 20092010 1.09 (1.011.18) .04 1.13 (0.981.31) .10 20102011 0.99 (0.921.07) .79 1.07 (0.911.26) .40 20112012 0.94 (0.871.02) .13 1.02 (0.891.17) .82 20122013 0.98 (0.891.08) .67 1.07 (0.891.27) .48 20132014 0.97 (0.891.05) .40 0.73 (0.610.88) <.001 Examination date JanuaryFebruary 1 [Reference] .33 1 [Reference] .72 MarchApril 1.12 (0.991.26) .07 1.00 (0.751.32) .98 MayJune 1.02 (0.801.30) .87 1.04 (0.661.64) .87 JulyAugust 1.01 (0.841.21) .93 1.15 (0.831.61) .41 SeptemberOctober 1.07 (0.961.20) .24 1.19 (0.941.50) .15 NovemberDecember 1.12 (1.011.25) .04 1.10 (0.911.33) .32

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Community Interagency Connections for Immigrant Worker Health Interventions, King County, Washington State, 20122013

Jenny Hsin-Chin Tsai, PhD, ARNP, PMHCNS-BC; Miruna Petrescu-Prahova, PhD

Suggested citation for this article: Tsai JH, Petrescu-Prahova M. Community Interagency Connections for Immigrant Worker Health Interventions, King County, Washington State, 20122013. Prev Chronic Dis 2016;13:160013. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.160013external icon.

PEER REVIEWED

Abstract

Introduction

Cross-sector community partnerships are a potentially powerful strategy to address population health problems, including health disparities. US immigrants  commonly employed in low-wage jobs that pose high risks to their health  experience such disparities because of hazardous exposures in the workplace. Hazardous exposures contribute to chronic health problems and complicate disease management. Moreover, prevention strategies such as worksite wellness programs are not effective for low-wage immigrant groups. The purpose of this article was to describe an innovative application of social network analysis to characterize interagency connections and knowledge needed to design and deliver a comprehensive community-based chronic disease prevention program for immigrant workers.

Methods

Using iterative sample expansion, we identified 42 agencies representing diverse community sectors (service agencies, faith-based organizations, unions, nonprofits, government agencies) pertinent to the health of Chinese immigrant workers. To capture data on shared information, resources, and services as well as organizational characteristics, we jointly interviewed 2 representatives from each agency. We used social network analysis to describe interagency network structure and the positions of agencies within the networks.

Results

Agency interconnections were established primarily for information sharing. In the overall interagency network, a few service-oriented agencies held central or gatekeeper positions. Strong interconnectedness occurred predominately across service, public, and nonprofit sectors. The Chinese and Pan-Asian service sectors showed the strongest interconnectedness.

Conclusion

Network analysis yields critical understanding of community structural links and assets needed to inform decisions about actual and potential community collaborations. Alternative intervention strategies may be needed to address health disparities among immigrant workers.

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Introduction

Health concerns in the United States are focused on disparities in access to health care and health outcomes. Of particular concern are occupational health disparities associated with race/ethnicity and immigrant status (1). Immigrant racial/ethnic minority populations, compared with their native-born counterparts, have a disproportionate share of worksite hazard exposures and associated health problems (2). Many workplace hazard exposures contribute to chronic health problems, such as musculoskeletal disorders, mental disorders, and cancer (3), and complicate the management of existing chronic illnesses (4,5). Worksite prevention and wellness programs  promoted by the US Affordable Care Act (6)  are not effective for immigrant workers employed in low-wage jobs (7,8). This deficiency is linked to the lack of effective methods to engage individuals in this vulnerable, hard-to-reach population.

A promising approach to advance prevention efforts for immigrant worker health is cross-sector community collaboration that involves both cultural and linguistic community resources (912). This approach focuses on community agency networks to strengthen community infrastructure and capacity and provides a cost-effective and sustainable strategy to improve population health (13,14). Effectively engaging interagency networks for health promotion and prevention, however, requires comprehensive understanding of the structural linkages among community resources. Extant research provides little guidance for strategically identifying and engaging immigrant community institutions for promoting worker health and reducing occupational health disparities.

The purpose of this article was to describe an innovative application of social network analysis to identify interagency connections needed to design and deliver comprehensive community-based chronic disease prevention programs for Chinese immigrant workers.

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Methods

This study, conducted from 2012 to 2013, used a cross-sectional, descriptive design to characterize community interagency networks that support Chinese immigrant worker health. Institutional review board approval was obtained from our affiliated university before recruitment. Participating agencies were located or had an office in King County  the county with the highest Chinese population density (3.8%) in Washington State (15). Agencies corresponded to diverse community sectors: Chinese service agencies, Chinese faith-based organizations (FBOs) (churches and temples), Pan-Asian service agencies, labor unions, pan-ethnic nonprofit agencies, and public (government) agencies. Historically, Chinese service and faith-based organizations have provided formal and informal support to Chinese immigrants (16,17). In comparison, other agencies and organizations have typically served a diverse range of clientele, including Chinese immigrants. In this study, identified agencies served Chinese immigrants or had a service mission and scope relevant to worker health (eg, job training, advocacy, occupational health training). The initial sampling roster included 40 agencies drawn from available community directories. An expanded roster (18,19) was subsequently generated by asking interviewees to nominate other community agencies important to Chinese immigrant worker health. Nominated agencies identified by at least 2 respondent agencies were included in the expanded roster. The use of at least 2 separate nominations facilitated inclusion of relevant network agencies not on the initial roster and exclusion of those not part of the network (19). The final roster of 42 agencies included 5 Chinese service agencies, 11 Chinese FBOs, 6 Pan-Asian service agencies, 3 unions, 12 pan-ethnic nonprofits, and 5 public agencies.

Prospective interviewees were identified by agency administrative contact followed by interview invitations extended to appropriate agency personnel. First, we contacted agency directors to obtain their agreement to participate. After receiving a letter of agreement from each agency, we worked with each director to identify an administrator and a service staff member meeting study criteria, which included being 1) proficient in English or Chinese, 2) in an agency position for at least 12 months to ensure familiarity, and 3) knowledgeable about the range of agency activities. We anticipated that administrators would have more knowledge than would service staff of administrative linkages such as joint programs and service contracts, and that service staff would be more aware than would administrative staff of service delivery linkages, such as referrals (20). When directors recommended 2 or more prospective interviewees, either administrative workers or staff, we randomized the order for contact. To assure human subjects protection and data validity, agency directors were informed that prospective interviewees decisions to participate or not participate would be kept confidential.

Data collection involved joint interviews with 2 staff members from each agency. Trained bilingual (English and Chinese) research interviewers administered structured interviews to collect data on organization characteristics (eg, mission, size, bilingual capacity, programs, populations served) and organizational network relationships (20,21). Network questions assessed 6 types of cross-agency relationships: information sharing, resource sharing, referrals, joint programs, joint political actions, and service contracts. Interviewees identified their agencys links (0 = no link, 1 = linked) with all other agencies listed with respect to the 6 types of relationships. Information and resource sharing were considered directed relationships because agencies were asked to report only about sending information (or resources) to other agencies (eg, Does your agency/organization share information relevant to Chinese immigrant worker health, employment-related and other assistance, or advocacy at least once a month with the agency/organization listed during the past 12 months?). Questions about the other 4 types of relationships (referrals, joint programs, joint political actions, and service contracts) were undirected. That is, they inquired about mutual agency interactions (eg, Does your agency/organization send or receive Chinese immigrants for worker health-related issues at least once a month to or from the agency listed during the past 12 months?). Using responses about the 6 relationship types, we generated 6 interagency networks and calculated network properties (Table 1). Density, centralization, and link strength are network-level properties describing network structures; centrality is a node-level (agency level) property characterizing each agencys positions in a given network (22,23). The interview was pilot tested with 1 Chinese FBO and 1 community-based organization (CBO), which were not on the sample roster, and we found that minor wording refinement was needed.

We used descriptive statistics to evaluate organizational characteristics and social network analysis methods to depict the patterns of relationships among agencies and the roles agencies played in community interagency networks. Using UCINET 6 (24), we computed density, centralization, and centrality and created network sociograms for each relationship. High density scores (range, 01) indicate a high proportion of possible links present in the network, which suggests a cohesive network (Table 1). High degree centralization scores (range, 01) indicate a centralized network dominated by a small number of agencies, whereas high betweenness centralization suggests a network with a small number of agencies acting as gatekeepers or bridges that may control network information and resource flow. A high degree centrality score means that an agency has many direct links with other agencies on the roster; a high betweenness centrality score indicates an agencys potential to serve as a network gatekeeper or bridge connecting pairs of agencies.

For undirected relationships, we analyzed the data in 2 ways: using confirmed and unconfirmed links. Confirmed links (both agencies in a pair reported the link) offered a more dependable indicator of actual interactions. Unconfirmed links (only 1 agency in a pair reported the link) provided information useful to understand agencies impression of their involvement with other agencies. The discrepancies between confirmed and unconfirmed networks provided information on potential network connections for future community infrastructural building (25).

For cross-sector network relationships (eg, between the Chinese FBO sector and the public agency sector), we examined the strength of links (or multiplexity) between sectors and developed sociograms. We first created an aggregate directed network comprising the information and resource sharing networks and an aggregate undirected network comprising the remaining 4 networks. Within these 2 aggregate networks, link strength was equal to the number of overall links between the 2 agencies. For instance, if agencies A and B were involved in both referrals and joint programs, the link value in the aggregate undirected network was 2; if agencies A and B were also involved in service contracts, the link value was 3. A high value means a high level of involvement between agencies through different relationships. Because the sample size differed among sectors, we also calculated density (ie, proportion of possible links observed in the network) as the average cross-sector link strength for each aggregate network.

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Results

Thirty-six of the 42 agencies on the final roster participated, yielding an agency acceptance rate of 86%. Twenty-eight respondent agencies had 250 or fewer paid staff members; 6 agencies had no paid staff. All agencies were supported by multiple funding sources; individual or community donation was the most commonly used mechanism to sustain operation (n = 30, 83%). Twenty-three agencies had staff members dedicated to working with immigrants who used their services during the past 12 months.

Overall interagency network structures and agency positions

Table 2 describes descriptive results of the 2 directed networks and Table 3 describes results of the 4 undirected interagency networks. Density analysis revealed that agencies were more likely to share information than resources (Table 2). For an ad hoc analysis we computed network reciprocity, a measure relevant to directed networks only, to evaluate the degree to which the proportion of links among agencies were reciprocated or mutual. The reciprocity scores reflecting mutual exchanges among agencies were similar: 43% of the links show mutual sharing of information and 41% show sharing resources. Centralization scores revealed that information sharing was concentrated on a small number of agencies more than resources sharing.

For networks based on undirected relationships (Table 3), density scores showed that agencies were approximately 2 to 3 times as likely to be involved in making or receiving referrals as in joint programs, joint political actions, or service contracts. This pattern was also evident in the centralization results (Table 3), where the network based on referrals was the most centralized. As would be expected, calculating scores based only on confirmed links led to lower density and centralization scores across the undirected networks compared with results obtained when only unconfirmed links were used. Nonetheless, when scores were based only on confirmed links, the referrals network remained the most dense and centralized structure among the 4 undirected networks.

Centrality analysis (Tables 2 and 3) showed that a few agencies held central or gatekeeper positions in the networks and had the highest levels of interaction with other agencies. Across all networks, one Pan-Asian agency (PAN 05) dominated the central and gatekeeper positions; this pattern held across networks except for service contracts network, where one nonprofit (NON 03) dominated. Other agencies among the top 5 across all networks included one Chinese service agency (SER 04), one nonprofit (NON 05), and 2 public agencies (PUB 03, PUB 04). One Chinese FBO had a high betweenness centrality score in the unconfirmed joint programs network; unions did not occupy central or gatekeeper positions in any of the unconfirmed networks. The confirmed networks showed a similar pattern in numbers of agencies with high centrality scores but with minor changes in the top 5 agencies.

Cross-sector interagency network structures

Cross-sector density scores  0.50 indicate that at least half of the possible links among the agencies in paired sectors were observed in the network. Multiplexity analysis of the aggregate directed network (Figure 1) revealed high density levels for information and resource sharing between the Chinese service agency sector and the Pan-Asian agency sector (Chinese to Pan-Asian service = 0.63; Pan-Asian to Chinese service = 0.60); between the public agency sector and Chinese service sector (public to Chinese service = 0.56; Chinese to public service = 0.32); between the public agency sector and the Pan-Asian agency sector (public to Pan-Asian service = 0.67; Pan-Asian to public service = 0.70); and between the public agency sector and nonprofit sector (public to nonprofit = 0.50; nonprofit to public = 0.33). For aggregate undirected networks (Figure 2), high levels of interactions across referrals, joint programs, joint political actions, and service contracts occurred between the Pan-Asian agency sector and the Chinese service sector (unconfirmed = 0.87, confirmed = 0.40), public agency sector (unconfirmed = 0.77, confirmed = 0.23), and nonprofit sector (unconfirmed = 0.71, confirmed = 0.31). Chinese FBO and union sectors had relatively few cross-sector relationships: FBOs did not interact with unions or public agencies, and unions did not interact with Chinese service agencies.

Figure 1. The aggregate directed network comprising the information and resource sharing networks. Colored circles (or nodes) correspond to agency sectors. Circle size is proportional to the number of agencies in each sector; line width is proportional to the density of links between sectors. Arrow heads indicate the direction of the interaction. Abbreviations: FBO, faith-based organization; NON, nonprofit; PAN, Pan-Asian agency; PUB, public agency; SER, Chinese service agency; UNI, union. [A tabular version of this figure is also available.]

Figure 2. The aggregate undirected network comprising the referrals, joint programs, joint political actions, and service contracts networks. Colored circles (or nodes) correspond to agency sectors. Circle size is proportional to the number of agencies in each sector; line width is proportional to the density of links between sectors. Abbreviations: FBO, faith-based organization; NON, nonprofit; PAN, Pan-Asian agency; PUB, public agency; SER, Chinese service agency; UNI, union. [A tabular version of this figure is also available.]

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Discussion

Examining 6 types of relationships revealed that interagency interactions existed primarily through sharing of information. A few public agencies, service agencies, and nonprofits were the main senders of information. Similarly, a few agencies accounted for the most interactions with other agencies, which flagged their prominent positions and roles in serving Chinese immigrants in the area. At the sector level, strong interconnectedness occurred across service agency, public agency, and nonprofit sectors; the Chinese and Pan-Asian service agency sectors showed the strongest interconnectedness. Despite the functions of Chinese FBOs for Chinese immigrants lives and the functions of unions for worker health and job-related issues, these 2 sectors had few interactions with other community sectors.

Our study findings are relevant to community-based approaches for immigrant worker health, including work- and nonwork-related health problems. Interagency networks are effective mechanisms for intervention delivery to reach a broader range of community groups, for program maintenance and optimal use of resources, and for capacity building to promote healthy populations and communities (13,21,26). For many nonoccupational health problems in marginalized populations, community-based collaborative approaches are being used to address individual- and system-level health issues (11,27). Occupational health researchers, on the other hand, have collaborated with unions, CBOs, and occasionally, other community partners (eg, Spanish-language radio station, churches) to engage worker populations that are otherwise difficult to reach (9,28). Rarely, however, do such efforts start with understanding how existing interagency networks in the target communities benefit from existing networks and infrastructures and optimize the diffusion of innovation, efficiency of program delivery, and resources use. We found that private and public agencies interact with one another in multiple forms (information, resources, referrals, programs, political actions, and contracts) to support immigrant workers health and employment-related needs. Consistent with network research on coalitions (25), network cohesion is influenced by the reasons for interconnections. Information sharing is the most common reason for collaboration, partly because it requires few agency resources. Importantly, information sharing is a step toward closer working relationships for related resource sharing, making or receiving referrals, providing joint programs, and building community capacity (25). Our research provides a knowledge base for expanding community collaboration beyond information sharing, to include more intensive activities such as jointly offering programs and collaborating on political actions for community-based interventions.

The findings identify links within the community structure that can support immigrant worker health. Interconnectedness was greater among service-oriented sectors than connections between and among Chinese FBOs or unions. This might be due to the similarity of these agencies functions and focuses, reflecting a homophilous tendency or institutional preference to collaborate with similar institutions, reported in other network studies (29). We also examined unconfirmed and confirmed networks because differences in their structures revealed agency connections, sometimes unrecognized, that could be developed to strengthen community relationships (25). Existing and stable interconnectedness among service-oriented sectors is an untapped community asset.

Finally, partnering with co-ethnic agencies or groups is vital to establish credibility, to build trust, and to serve as a point of entry to an immigrant community to address immigrant workers experience with occupational health disparities (11). Our study findings suggest that co-ethnic service agencies such as Chinese and Pan-Asian service agencies are well-positioned to serve as strategic partners needed to implement prevention efforts. Chinese FBOs, however, showed weak connections. Chin and colleagues (16) suggest that the organizations understanding of its roles in the community influences an FBOs decisions to become involved in public health initiatives. FBOs that are more progressive in their view of social justice are more likely to collaborate on social or stigmatized issues such as workers rights and human immunodeficiency syndrome/AIDS programs (16). More research is needed to understand how to engage a broad range of FBOs in promoting immigrant worker health.

The analysis relied primarily on self-reported data; however, we used several mechanisms to minimize potential biases. We jointly interviewed one administrator and one staff person from each agency (20,30) and encouraged interviewees to consult with other agency personnel if clarification was needed. We examined both unconfirmed and confirmed links (30) and found consistent patterns, though with lower scores, as expected, for confirmed links.

Using a novel methodological approach, this research provides insights into community networks and their assets needed to forward cross-sector collaboration directed toward immigrant worker health. Evidence of strong vs weak interconnectedness and central and gatekeeper agencies is useful to determine stable interagency relationships within the community. This information could be used to strengthen the health promotion infrastructure, to diffuse innovative interventions, and to identify agencies that could effectively serve as partners to achieve program goals (21). One implication for intervention is to partner strategically with agencies in central or gatekeeper positions, specifically in the information sharing network. These key partners can help disseminate educational materials about worker health to immigrant clients, which will diffuse information through interagency connections. Another intervention strategy would be to increase programmatic-related linkages among the service-oriented sectors. Research replication with similar community sectors and other ethnic communities will deepen our understanding of actual and potential FBO and union connections with private and public service agency sectors. Such knowledge is needed to formulate strategies for strengthening network connections with FBOs, unions, or both, to address immigrant worker health.

Community agency networks are assets for improving population health. To our knowledge, this is the first occupational health study examining interagency networks across community sectors pertinent to immigrant worker health. Social network analysis is an analytical approach that can be valuable in evaluating both network structural change (25) in community partnerships and capacity development in response to community-based interventions designed to improve immigrant worker health.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), R21 OH009955. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIOSH.

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Author Information

Corresponding Author: Jenny H. Tsai, PhD, ARNP, PMHCNS-BC, University of Washington School of Nursing, Department of Psychosocial and Community Health, Box 357263, Seattle, WA 98195-7263. Telephone: 206-543-6079. Email: jennyt@u.washington.edu.

Author Affiliations: Miruna Petrescu-Prahova, University of Washington, School of Public Health, Seattle, Washington.

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References

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Tables

Table 1. Definitions and Measures for Network-Level and Node-Level Properties, Community Interagency Connections for Immigrant Worker Health Interventions, King County, Washington State, 20122013

Network Properties Definition Measures Network-level properties Density Proportion of possible links present in network  Count links; divide by number of possible links

 Values range from 0 (no links) to 1 (all entities linked with one another) Degree centralization Extent to which network is dominated by one or a few high-degree agencies (those with the greatest number of links)  Calculate from degree-centrality scores

 Values range from 0 (a decentralized network; all agencies had the same number of links) to 1 (a completely centralized network with one central agency) Betweenness centralization Extent to which network is dominated by one or a few high-betweenness agencies  Calculate from betweenness-centrality scores

 Values range from 0 (all agencies were directly connected to other agencies) to 1 (links were between one agency and all other agencies) Link strength (multiplexity) Extent to which network agencies are linked through one or multiple pathways  Sum total responses to all survey questions on relationships

 Values range from 0 (not linked) to 6 (linked for all 6 types of relationships) Node-level properties Degree centrality Extent to which an agency is connected to other network agencies  Sum direct links to any one agency in the network Betweenness centrality Extent to which an agency is in a gatekeeper position, bridging pairs of agencies and controlling information exchange or resource flows by virtue of location within the network paths  Count number of paths from one agency (A) to the other agency (B) that pass through a 3rd agency, divided by number of paths from Agency A to Agency B

Table 2. Network Analyses of Directed Networksa: Information and Resource Sharing (N = 42), Community Interagency Connections for Immigrant Worker Health Interventions, King County, Washington State, 20122013

Relationship Density Centralization (range 01) Centrality Outdegreeb Indegreec Betweenness Degreed Betweennessd Information sharing 0.16 0.76 0.26 0.17 PAN 05

PUB 01

SER 04

PUB 03

NON 03 PAN 05

NON 05

SER 01

SER 04

PUB 03 Resource sharing 0.10 0.52 0.20 0.11 PAN 05

NON 06

PUB 03

NON 05

NON 03 PAN 05

PUB 03

SER 04

NON 05

NON 03

Table 3. Undirected Networksa: Referrals, Joint Programs, Joint Political Actions, and Service Contracts of 42 Agencies, Community Interagency Connections for Immigrant Worker Health Interventions, King County, Washington State, 20122013

Relationships Density Centralization Centrality Degree Betweenness Degreeb Betweennessb Unconfirmedc Referrals 0.15 0.58 0.37 PAN 05

SER 04

NON 05

PUB 03

SER 01 PAN 05

SER 04

NON 02

NON 05

PAN 04 Joint programs 0.09 0.42 0.30 PAN 05

NON 05

NON 10

PUB 03

PUB 04 PAN 05

NON 05

FBO-C 03

PUB 04

NON 10 Joint political actions 0.06 0.32 0.16 PAN 05

NON 05

NON 09

PAN 04

SER 04 PAN 05

PAN 04

NON 09

NON 05

SER 04 Service contracts 0.06 0.30 0.11 NON 03

PAN 05

PUB 03

NON 05

NON 01 NON 03

PAN 05

NON 05

PUB 04

PBU 03 Confirmedd Referrals 0.04 0.26 0.06 PAN 05

SER 01

NON 09

SER 04

NON 08 PAN 05

SER 01

PAN 06

NON 09

SER 04 Joint programs 0.02 0.14 0.04 PAN 05

NON 05

NON 09

FBO-C 02

NON 01 PAN 05

SER 04

NON 01

NON 05

NON 08 Joint political actionse 0.01 0.17 0.03 NON 05

PAN 05

NON 09

NON 08

UNI 03 NON 05

PAN 05

SER 04



 Service contracts 0.02 0.16 0.05 PAN 05

NON 03

NON 08

NON 05

PUB 04 PAN 05

NON 03

NON 08

NON 05

PUB 04

Top
Cemex Dominicana to buy 11.5MW of wind power

02 June 2016

The power company EGE Haina will sell wind energy to Cemex Dominicana, for its cement plant located in San Pedro (east), as a unregulated user of the National Interconnected Electric System (SENI).



The agreement allows Cemex to replace electricity generated from fossil fuels, with energy from renewable sources for its San Pedro plant, thereby lowering its CO 2 emissions.



The 11.5MW (average) of clean energy contracted from EGE Haina will be added to the 1.5MW which Cemex itself produces with its 5040 solar panels.



The agreement signed by EGE Haina general manager, Marcelo Aicardi, and Cemex Dominicana president, Carlos Emilio Gonzalez, who stressed that strategic alliance reaffirms his companys commitment to preserving the environment, a principle he affirms guides Cemexs operations.



"Cemex, adhering to its strategy to reduce carbon emissions, continues to increase the use of renewable energy. Through this agreement we take a momentous step, contracting all the energy required by our plant in San Pedro de Macoris from renewable sources," Mr Gonzalez said.

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The Chattanooga Salvation Army will celebrate the 79th Annual National Donut Day on Friday by delivering donuts to local fire, police, city officials and armed forces units as a way to say thank you for their service. In addition, Entenmanns will host a National Donut Day sweepstakes, and Krispy Kreme will give each customer a free donut and collect donations for The Salvation Army.

National Donut Day was established in 1938 to honor Donut Lassies, female Salvation Army volunteers who prepared donuts for servicemen during WWI. By frying these donuts for soldiers on the front lines, these volunteers were able to remind the soldiers of home. These women made history by introducing this little known confection to the United States when the servicemen returned from war. The donut has become synonymous with The Salvation Armys social services and continues to be a comfort food served by The Salvation Army to those in need during times of disaster, said officials.

To celebrate National Donut Day, The Chattanooga Salvation Army volunteers will deliver donuts donated by Tasty Donuts and Entenmanns to local heroes, who serve the community and nation everyday  men and women from the Armed Forces and the local police and fire departments.

Customers can enjoy a free donut from Krispy Kreme or Tasty Donuts and make a donation in the counter top Red Kettles. All proceeds benefit The Salvation Army.

As a part of the festivities, Entenmanns is offering a National Donut Day Sweepstakes with prizes including one year of free Entenmanns donuts and Party Pack Prizes that include four $7 Entenmanns Coupons, an Entenmanns National Donut Day T-Shirt and more. The Sweepstakes link is on the Entenmanns Facebook page. For every entry in the sweepstakes, $1 will be donated to The Salvation Army, up to $35,000. All entries must be received by 11:59 pm ET on July 2.

"We are grateful for loyal partners like Tasty Donuts, Krispy Kreme and Entenmanns who have proven to be exceptional in their efforts to join us in Doing the Most Good," said Major Algerome Newsome, Area Commander for The Salvation Army of Greater Chattanooga. "We look forward to making the 2016 National Donut Day memorable."

For more information or to donate please visit csarmy.org or contact Kimberly George at http://csarmy.org/756-1023.
As is tradition, Governor Bill Haslam declared June to be "Homeownership Month" at the request of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency. Part of THDA's mission is to make homeownership affordable to a wider range of Tennesseans through responsible financing options and the availability of down payment assistance.

Construction of new single-family homes in the Volunteer State is rising faster here than in the rest of the South and the nation. Statewide, construction was up 17 percent in the first quarter compared to a year ago, versus eight-percent growth in the region and 12 percent nationally.

"Every time you see a home under construction, that's an investment being made in the local community," said Ralph M. Perrey, executive director of THDA. "Dollars and jobs are being brought to town. Residential construction is both a gauge of economic growth and one of its most important drivers."

In addition, foreclosure rates in Tennessee are at their lowest level since the year 2000. The percentage of mortgages past due in Tennessee is also at a 16-year low.

"Homeownership has traditionally been one of the best tools to build up a family's wealth and financial security," said Mr. Perrey. "Plus, research has shown that homeowners are more involved in their communities, they put down deeper roots, and their children do better in school."

For the first time, the housing price index in Tennessee exceeds the pre-recession values in 2007. Over the past year, house prices have risen slightly faster in Tennessee than the national average, up 5.8 percent compared to 5.4 percent.

Governor Haslam's "Homeownership Month" proclamation is available online at http://tnsos.net/publications/proclamations/files/1006.pdf.



Housing market economic data is compiled from Middle Tennessee State University's Tennessee Housing Market Report for the First Quarter of 2016. The complete report can be found in the Research & Planning section of THDA.org.
Here is the weekly road construction report for Hamilton County:

U.S. 27 (I-124) widening from I-24/U.S. 27 interchange to north of the Olgiati Bridge over the Tennessee River, including widening the Olgiati Bridge: Work on this project continues. The speed limit on U.S. 27 in the construction zone has been lowered to 45 MPH. The contractor may have temporary lane closures on U.S. 27 between 7 p.m.-6 a.m. As the project progresses, there may be short term temporary lane closures for the safety of the traveling public on city streets within the project area. Flaggers will assist with these closures and they will be properly signed in accordance with the Federal Highway Administrations Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. During Phase 1 of the U.S. 27 project, the contractor will be working on the northbound side of U.S. 27 on the bridges. Work will consist of demolishing and reconstructing the outside sections of the bridges along U.S. 27 North. Also on U.S. 27 South, they will be constructing a large retaining wall between the Olgiati Bridge and 6th Street. At least one lane will remain open in each direction on U.S. 27. THP will assist with traffic control on the project as necessary. Estimated project completion date is July 2019. For more info, visit the project website http://www.tn.gov/tdot/topic/US27-reconstruction-chattanooga. [Dement Construction Co., LLC/JM/CNP230]

SR 317 (Apison Pike) the grading, drainage and paving on from Old Lee Highway (LM 5.58) to SR-321 (Ooltewah-Ringgold Road) (LM 7.84): Work on this project continues. During this report period, the contractor will be working on storm drains, conduits and grade work. The contractor may have short term lane closures to perform various operations on an as-needed basis. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed. Estimated project completion date is May 2017. [Wright Brothers Const. Co. /Pruett/CNN279]

SR-320 (East Brainerd Road) grading, drainage, installation of signals, construction of seven retaining walls and paving from east of Graysville Road to east of Bel-Air Road: Work on this project continues. The contractor will have intermittent lane closures during this report period between 9 a.m.-2 p.m. This work may affect either direction of East Brainerd Road or side streets from Graysville Road to Hamlett Drive as the contractor installs road crossings and borings. The contractor may have short-term lane closures to perform various operations on an as-needed basis. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed. Estimated project completion is June 2017. [Mountain State Contractors, LLC /Pruett/CNN383]

Shepherd Road over SR-153 construction of a rolled steel girder bridge from West Shepherd Rd. to Shaw Avenue in Chattanooga, including grading, drainage and paving: Work on this project continues. The bridge has returned to two lanes of traffic. During this report period, the contractor will continue retaining wall and widening work on the Airport Connector Road west of the Shepherd Road Bridge. This work will require that the shoulder and right travel lane heading to the airport on Shepherd Road be closed. This change should only affect those turning right at the top of the ramp from SR-153 South, as they will not have a designated lane to the airport during this work. In the coming week or weeks we may need to close the right shoulder and lane of eastbound Airport Connector Rd. (leaving the airport and going toward SR-153). Traffic should not be impacted other than flagging to let trucks enter and exit the work zone. We will have signs and a message board alerting motorists to the change in traffic pattern. The through lane from the bridge will remain unobstructed except for the occasional flagging for equipment to move in and out. During the project, there may be intermittent nighttime lane closures as necessary in both directions on SR-153 between 8 p.m.-6 a.m. THP will assist with traffic control as necessary on the project. Estimated project completion is October. [Jones Brothers Contractors, Inc./Micka/CNP105]

SR-317 (Bonny Oaks Drive) improvement of the intersection with Volkswagen Drive (LM 3.85) serving Volkswagen Group of America, including grading, drainage and paving: Work on this project continues. During this report period, the contractor will have intermittent lane closures on Bonny Oaks Drive at Volkswagen Drive to various operations between 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on as-needed basis. Flaggers will assist with traffic control as needed. Estimated project completion date is June. [Talley Construction Company, Inc. /Pruett/CNN304]

The tunnel cleaning of the McCallie Tunnel on U.S. 11 (US 64, SR-2), the Stringers Ridge Tunnel on U.S. 127 (SR-8), and the Bachman Tubes on U.S. 41 (U.S. 76, SR-8): The nighttime cleaning operation of McCallie Tunnels, Stringers Ridge Tunnel, and Bachman Tubes occurs normally on Wednesday and Thursday nights during the week with the 3rd Tuesday of the month. There will be no tunnel cleaning this week. Work hours are between 8 p.m.-6 a.m. Tunnels will be closed during cleaning, and detours will be marked accordingly as each tunnel is cleaned. Contract completion date is June. [Diamond Specialized, Inc./Micka/CNP212]






When laser light interacts with a nanoneedle (yellow), electromagnetic near-fields are formed at its surface. A second laser pulse (purple) emits an electron (green) from the needle, permitting to characterize the near-fields.

Physicists of the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munich in collaboration with scientists from the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg have observed a light-matter phenomenon in nano-optics, which lasts only attoseconds.

The interaction between light and matter is of key importance in nature, the most prominent example being photosynthesis. Light-matter interactions have also been used extensively in technology, and will continue to be important in electronics of the future. A technology that could transfer and save data encoded on light waves would be 100.000-times faster than current systems. A light-matter interaction which could pave the way to such light-driven electronics has been investigated by scientists from the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat (LMU) and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ), in collaboration with colleagues from the Chair for Laser Physics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg. The researchers sent intense laser pulses onto a tiny nanowire made of gold. The ultrashort laser pulses excited vibrations of the freely moving electrons in the metal. This resulted in electromagnetic near-fields at the surface of the wire. The near-fields oscillated with a shift of a few hundred attoseconds with respect to the exciting laser field (one attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second). This shift was measured using attosecond light pulses which the scientists subsequently sent onto the nanowire.

When light illuminates metals, it can result in curious things in the microcosm at the surface. The electromagnetic field of the light excites vibrations of the electrons in the metal. This interaction causes the formation of near-fields  electromagnetic fields localized close to the surface of the metal.

How near-fields behave under the influence of light has now been investigated by an international team of physicists at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in close collaboration with scientists of the Chair for Laser Physics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg.

The researchers sent strong infrared laser pulses onto a gold nanowire. These laser pulses are so short that they are composed of only a few oscillations of the light field. When the light illuminated the nanowire it excited collective vibrations of the conducting electrons surrounding the gold atoms. Through these electron motions, near-fields were created at the surface of the wire.

The physicists wanted to study the timing of the near-fields with respect to the light fields. To do this they sent a second light pulse with an extremely short duration of just a couple of hundred attoseconds onto the nanostructure shortly after the first light pulse. The second flash released individual electrons from the nanowire. When these electrons reached the surface, they were accelerated by the near-fields and detected. Analysis of the electrons showed that the near-fields were oscillating with a time shift of about 250 attoseconds with respect to the incident light, and that they were leading in their vibrations. In other words: the near-field vibrations reached their maximum amplitude 250 attoseconds earlier than the vibrations of the light field.

Fields and surface waves at nanostructures are of central importance for the development of lightwave-electronics. With the demonstrated technique they can now be sharply resolved., explained Prof. Matthias Kling, the leader of the team carrying out the experiments in Munich.

The experiments pave the way towards more complex studies of light-matter interaction in metals that are of interest in nano-optics and the light-driven electronics of the future. Such electronics would work at the frequencies of light. Light oscillates a million billion times per second, i.e. with petahertz frequencies  about 100.000 times faster than electronics available at the moment. The ultimate limit of data processing could be reached.
Jeffery Beckham Jr., founder of Black Box Creative, from left, Jimmy Odom, founder of WeDeliver, and Black In Tech founder Thomas Stovall, far right, talk during a break-out group case discussion at the Chicago Urban League's event on Angel Investing. (Kristen Norman / Blue Sky)

Jeffery Beckham Jr. has had a good streak of investments in businesses and community projects.

His Black Box Creative digital design service touts celebrity clients and he's working to set up a new Bronzeville business development center.

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Now he's looking to invest in other startups.

"I run across a lot of great ideas and have been asked to invest in some quite a few times, but I didn't have an idea of the proper way to evaluate companies and structure the deal," he said.

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Beckham was among about 40 people who took part in a daylong investor education program for aspiring African-American venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, held by the Angel Resource Institute.

The Chicago Urban League hosted the event, which was led by angel investor Bob Okabe, co-founder of the Prairie Angels and managing director of RPX Group.

It's an attempt to fix a big imbalance  data show that African-Americans are seriously underrepresented in the investment community. Less than 1 percent of venture capital-backed internet companies were founded by African-Americans, according to a 2010 report by CB Insights.

The Urban League workshop fit into the organization's mission to aid in development of black-owned businesses, said Cate Costa, the organization's director of entrepreneurship.

Its goal is to raise the percentage of black and Latino angel investors and venture capitalists; they each represent about 4 percent.

The hope is that the increase would mean more money for minority-owned startups. Black and Latino investors are more likely to come across new ideas in their communities and invest in them than the white males who dominate investment, Costa said.

About 80 percent of angel investments happen within a two-hour drive of an investor's home, Okabe said, citing the National Venture Capital Association.

Angel investors last year funded about 70,000 companies with about $25 billion, according to the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire. That's compared with the $50 billion venture capitalists injected into about 3,000 companies, Okabe said, citing the National Venture Capital Association.

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Angels generally have an affection for entrepreneurs, and typically invest because they want to make money, have fun and give back to the community, he said.

That's true of many people who have approached the Urban League, Costa said  they've fielded requests for a while from people wanting to learn how to invest in startups.

"We've had people who are high net-worth individuals who've said, 'I'd like to invest, but I don't know what I'm doing, so I'll stick to real estate where I'm more comfortable.' And, of course, entertainers are always asking us."

So much of investing is about relationships, she said.

"You're more likely to invest in people you like and are comfortable with and are more like you," Costa said. "That's not about being black."

That makes sense, said Pritzker Group Venture Capital associate Ablorde Ashigbi. He's booked to lead a similar event for minority investors planned for June 7 at 1871  the Black in Tech investor series panel.

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"A broader set of investors would be more willing to stand behind a broader set of entrepreneurs," he said. "A lot of opportunities come to us through people that we know, including those outside of our day-to-day business lives whose judgment we trust."

Having diverse investors helps investment communities connect with different types of entrepreneurs, Ashigbi said.

"When you see someone across the table who looks like you, there's probably a little bit more rapport between the people on the different sides," he said.

Sharon McDade, a founder of the Hyde Park Angels, said she hopes programs like the Urban League's will spur new investment.

"We want people to go out there and be a part of the thriving ecosystem." McDade said. "We can't sit on the sidelines."

Too many investors, McDade said, are passing up opportunities close to home that could help create jobs locally, she said.

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"People sometimes invest in big firms. They don't even know these people," she said. "But there might be a woman sitting in the pew behind you and she's got this great idea and she knows the product and the competition. Help get her in Wal-Mart."

Cheryl V. Jackson is a freelance writer.

Twitter @cherylvjackson
Gold Medal flour has been linked to at least three E. coli cases in Chicagoland. (James F. Quinn / Chicago Tribune)

The Chicago area has three reported cases of E. coli infection linked to a massive nationwide recall of General Mills flour, public health officials said Thursday.

The illnesses occurred in Chicago, suburban Cook County and McHenry County, according to Melaney Arnold, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health. A fourth Illinois case was reported in Brown County, in western Illinois.

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General Mills recalled several varieties of Gold Medal flour Tuesday after an investigation led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified 38 cases of E. coli infections in 20 states connected with the products. The cases were traced back to flour produced in November at the General Mills facility in Kansas City, Mo.

People began getting sick in December, according to the CDC. Ten people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

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Symptoms of E. coli infection include diarrhea and abdominal cramps about three to four days after ingestion.

The recalled flour includes several sizes and varieties of Gold Medal, Gold Medal Wondra and Signature Kitchens flour. The flour was sold at Jewel, Safeway, Albertsons and other stores, according to General Mills. The specific products being recalled are listed at www.generalmills.com/flour.

The CDC-led investigation showed that three-fourths of the people infected with E. coli reported using flour the week before they became ill. About 40 percent said they tasted raw homemade dough or batter. The CDC advises consumers to throw out any recalled flour, avoid eating raw dough and wash thoroughly after working with dough.

In a statement Tuesday, General Mills said it was issuing the voluntary recall out of an "abundance of caution," and that to date, "E. coli has not been found in any General Mills flour products or in the flour manufacturing facility." The company also stressed that consumers should use safe handling practices when working with flour.

"As a leading provider of flour for 150 years, we felt it was important to not only recall the product and replace it for consumers if there was any doubt, but also to take this opportunity to remind our consumers how to safely handle flour," Liz Nordlie, president of General Mills' baking division, said in a statement.

The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

rchannick@tribpub.com

Twitter @RobertChannick
How far will a business go for a Facebook like?

Tenants in a Salt Lake City apartment building found a notice taped to their doors last week instructing them to "like" their apartment complex on Facebook. The posting, a contract addenda, threatened tenants with a breach of contract if they didn't "like" the apartment complex, City Park Apartments, within a five-day period. Tenants, many of whom had already signed leases with the building, took to local news outlet KSL-TV as well as the apartment building's Facebook page to complain about the policy.

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"I don't want to be forced to be someone's friend and be threatened to break my lease because of that," tenant Jason Ring told KSL. "It's outrageous as far as I'm concerned. It's a violation of my privacy." The addenda also gave the apartment building permission to post photos of tenants and visitors on the company's Facebook.

Zachary Myers, a local lawyer specializing in tenants rights, told KSL that he wasn't sure that forcing tenants to sign the addenda was entirely legal. He cited discrimination against elderly people or disabled people who might not be able to access Facebook.

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City Park Apartments has since withdrawn the addenda. A legal representative posted a statement earlier this week on the apartment complex's Facebook page apologizing for incident, saying that the original intent was to make sure photos taken during a community pool party could be legally posted on the company's Facebook page. They have since shut down their Facebook page, which was flooded with bad comments and a 1.1 star rating since news broke of the required likes.

The quest for Facebook likes, considered by some as an organic popularity metric of a business or brand, has driven some companies to go to absurd lengths for an approval click. A Dutch fashion brand called Stussy attempted a racy campaign in 2012 called "Strip for Likes" in which a model would strip off a new layer of Stussy clothing - the photo would be posted online, of course - each time the company's Facebook page hit a new "like" milestone. The company expected controversy for the campaign, though it wasn't able to generate more than a couple hundred more likes to its page.

Then there was Pepsi's "Like Machine," in which the soda giant built a vending machine that only accepts Facebook likes, not cash. The machine, set up in Antwerp, Belgium, on the night of a Beyonce concert, dispensed a free can of soda for every like generated by a user, who could either use the vending machine's touch screen option or log in and like the company on their own phone.

In 2011, a tiny Swiss village, Obermutten, with a population of 78 people, decided to drum up tourism buzz by posting a video on Facebook promising to print out the profile picture of every person who liked their town's page and post it on the town bulletin board. The campaign went viral, soon drumming up thousands of likes, and the town bulletin board adorned with printed out photos quickly filled up. The town, honoring their promise, took to the sides of local buildings, and residents all pitched in to help and post the signs. The campaign successfully garnered close to 10,000 additional likes on their page, and 10,000 printed out profile pictures to match.

But for all these efforts, how much is a Facebook like actually worth? Depends on whom you ask, with different research and marketing groups valuing the button click anywhere from 21 cents to $136.38. One group, Forrester Research, believes that a Facebook like is worth absolutely nothing.
McDonald's will move its headquarters from Oak Brook to the former Harpo Studios site on the Near West Side as soon as 2018, a source confirmed to the Tribune. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune)

McDonald's is close to finalizing a deal to relocate its longtime headquarters to Chicago's Near West Side, a move that could take place as soon as 2018, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.

The world's largest burger chain plans to keep part of Oprah Winfrey's old four-building Harpo Studio complex and build additional space as well, the source said.

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New details about the move came Thursday even as McDonald's remained silent and officials in Oak Brook, the current site of the fast food giant's corporate headquarters, wrung their hands over the loss of their premier corporate resident. McDonald's employs more than 2,000 people in the village.

"If it's true, it would be a sad day for Oak Brook," Village President Gopal Lalmalani said. "I would be disappointed. We have had a very strong partnership with McDonald's."

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Rumors that McDonald's may relocate some or all of its corporate workforce to Chicago have swirled for months, and CEO Steve Easterbrook didn't rule out a possible move at the company's shareholder meeting last week. Easterbrook said a move downtown would make it easier to recruit younger city dwellers.

"If you want a world-class team, you've got to provide a world-class environment," he said.

McDonald's offered no details this week on a possible move. Spokeswoman Becca Hary said in an email Wednesday that "we're not going to speculate and when we have information to share it will be with our employees first." She declined to provide further information Thursday.

Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., 27th, who represents the area that includes Harpo, said he was approached by Sterling Bay, which bought the facility for $30.5 million in 2014. "They have a prominent tenant coming to the property," Burnett said.

Harpo ended production at the site last year.

Burnett said that the infusion of thousands of McDonald's employees would be an economic boost for Chicago's Near West Side.

"I'm sure they need to have parties, meetings, all those kinds of things. And it would be a good opportunity to try to get McDonald's to support other things in the community, the schools, programs, whatever the case may be. If they were to come, who knows, I may look into opening a franchise."

News of McDonald's move surprised officials in Oak Brook, who said they plan to reach out to the company.

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Lalmalani, the village president, said it's too early to tell how Oak Brook would be affected by the departure of McDonald's, which is not only a major employer but a corporate sponsor in the community. McDonald's has donated $100,000 to the village each of the past several years, including 2016, for the July 3 Taste of Oak Brook.

"Everybody looks at McDonald's as the premier corporate presence here," he said.

In addition to administrative offices, the McDonald's test kitchen and its Hamburger University, a training center, are in the village. Bob Kallien, Oak Brook's community development director, said McDonald's owns about 150 acres on five sites.

"We don't know what their end plan is," Kallien said. "If they are leaving, there needs to be a discussion here about moving forward."

Crain's Chicago Business first reported that McDonald's was near a deal on the Harpo Studio site.

Chicago Tribune's Corilyn Shropshire and Greg Trotter and Pioneer Press' Chuck Fieldman contributed.

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sbomkamp@tribpub.com

Twitter @SamWillTravel
San Francisco  In another effort to brand itself as a good neighbor in the face of controversy swirling around the home-sharing industry, Airbnb is making it easier for people to report problem properties in their community.

A new online tool launched Tuesday allows anyone who thinks their neighbor is an Airbnb host to report annoyances such as loud parties or parking disputes. The Airbnb team promises to review each complaint and take action where appropriate, including suspending or removing hosts who repeatedly fail to meet Airbnb standards.

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"The overwhelming majority of Airbnb guests are respectful travelers, so complaints and issues are incredibly rare," the company wrote in a blog post Tuesday, "but we always want to do everything we can to help our community members be good neighbors in the places our hosts call home."

Follow Steve Johnson on a tour through the River North apartment that houses a re-created Van Gogh bedroom. The apartment is available to rent on Airbnb. (Steve Johnson / Chicago Tribune) (Chicago Tribune)

Neighbors who submit a complaint can choose whether they want Airbnb to disclose their name and contact information to the offending host. The home-sharing company says it will give the two parties a chance to work out the problem themselves whenever possible.

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Airbnb previously had operated a phone hotline people could use to report problems in their community, but the company on Tuesday couldn't provide the number of complaints it has received.

The global launch of the new complaint tool comes as Airbnb and competitors such as VRBO and HomeAway struggle with controversy over how they should be regulated, as well as accusations that home-sharing platforms are exacerbating the affordable housing crisis in San Francisco.

Charley Gross, government and community affairs manager for the nonprofit San Francisco Apartment Association, said his organization frequently gets calls from members "being driven crazy" by noisy Airbnb guests nearby.

"It has absolutely been an issue, especially in multiunit apartment buildings in San Francisco," he said.

Gross said noise and other disturbances are symptoms of a larger problem -- a proliferation of unregulated Airbnb properties. A new law that went into effect last year requires San Francisco Airbnb hosts to register their properties with the city, and prohibits hosts from renting their entire residence for more than 90 nights a year. But a city report released in April found that close to 80 percent of Airbnb landlords had not registered their properties. The city also estimated 285 homes were rented in excess of the 90-night cap.

Airbnb's new complaint feature does not include a specific area where neighbors can report properties that don't comply with local law. But such complaints presumably could be filed under the "general concerns with my neighbor hosting" category.

Even so, Gross wasn't overly impressed with the tool.

"I would call it window dressing, to be honest with you," he said. "I think it's nice. I think it's a minuscule step in the right direction."

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Alex Nigg, who rents his home in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood when he travels, welcomed the complaint feature as an asset to the entire Airbnb community.

"I think it's a really helpful tool," he said, "because a few bad actors can screw it up for all of us."

Nigg's frequent hosting inspired him to found Properly, a startup that connects Airbnb hosts with home cleaning services. He said he hopes his neighbors would be quick to report loud parties or other problems at his house.

"As a host," he said, "I'm obviously the most interested party in making sure no such thing happens at my place."

Tribune News Service | East Bay Times
The Salvation Army Norridge Citadel would like to acknowledge the efforts of the letter carriers of Harwood Heights and Norridge, and the communities, for their generous donations of canned food to our food pantry. Your generosity has not gone unnoticed!

The letter carriers' annual Stamp Out Hunger was a huge success and will benefit the guests of our food pantry who do not have the resources to provide those items for their families.

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We appreciate the faith you have in The Salvation Army's mission. Please know that we will always strive to be worthy of it.

Pamela Church-Pryor

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Community ministries director

Salvation Army Norridge Citadel
Watch the official trailer for "How to Let Go of the World and Love All Things that Climate Can't Change." (YouTube/Josh Fox)

Josh Fox's "GasLand" (2010) was a startling act of DIY filmmaking: Faced with the prospect of leasing his Pennsylvania property for natural-gas exploration, the director-star set out to explore the environmental consequences of hydrofracking and uncovered alarming results. That personal quest  which netted Fox a special jury prize at Sundance that year and, later, an Oscar nomination  seems to have bloomed into a larger activist mission for the director, a trajectory that led to diminishing returns in "GasLand Part II" (2013) and now the uneven "How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change," an environmental documentary that consists of roughly one-third doom-and-gloom to two-thirds wide-eyed optimism, and that is more potent in individual scenes than it is as a sprawling whole.

"How to Change" opens with Fox dancing to the Beatles to celebrate a victory over the gas industry in the Delaware River Basin. But his joy soon turns to frustration when he discovers that a tree he nurtured in boyhood is being ravaged by parasitic insects, a result, he explains, of changes to the climate. He visits Hurricane Sandy-devastated parts of New York, including a home immersed in sewage and sand, and a boardwalk that, he says in voiceover, had turned "into a cubist abstraction of what a boardwalk should be." If these scenes don't register with the impact of the flammable tap water in "GasLand," the interviews with community activists call to mind "Roger & Me"-era Michael Moore  the work a filmmaker devoted to exploring hot-button issues with a folksy, personal touch. More than Moore, Fox is attuned to some of the complexities of the issues he raises.

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Fox visits with environmentalists like Bill McKibben, who proposes naming hurricanes after after oil and gas companies instead of women, and Michael E. Mann, who suggests that temperatures are already on an irreversible course to rise to catastrophic levels. With one statistic after another, the movie paints a picture of the inevitable flooding of coastal cities and an ensuing struggle for homes and food. "I don't know about you," Fox says at one point, "but I'm about ready to watch a few cat videos right now."

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After admitting, about 40 minutes in, that he is resigned to pure hopelessness, Fox suddenly shifts tactics, seeking out ground-level activists around the world who have come up with local solutions to climate problems. "I needed to find the people who'd found this place, this place of despair, and gotten back up," he narrates. How these solutions might be implemented, and on what scale, are questions the movie, despite a rambling two-hour-plus running time, never quite addresses.

Fox visits an oil spill in the Amazonian rain forest and sends up a drone camera to illustrate deforestation. He finds impoverished communities in Ecuador and Zambia that make use of solar power. He joins Pacific Islanders in a canoe-flotilla protest against a coal tanker, leading to a confrontation with authorities that nearly results in the waterlogging of Fox's camera. The most compelling of these globe-trotting episodes, or at least the one that comes closest to the citizen-activist flavor of "GasLand," is the visit Fox pays to China, where he explores the health effects of chronic smog. (He calls Beijing a city of 20 million where no one opens a window.) Flagged as a journalist, he is also trailed by authorities, and  to avoid the confiscation of his footage  hides digital cards in his banjo.

Conceptually scattered, the movie seems to settle more for a change of attitude than for practical recommendations. After spending its first third suggesting that it's almost impossible to get environmental incentives to align with political and economic ones, the movie takes heart in communities that have found small-scale solutions  as if those would prevent the immersion of New York and San Francisco that Fox has worked so hard to foreshadow.

"How To Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can't Change"  2.5 stars

No MPAA rating

Running time: 2:05

Opens: Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St., www.siskelfilmcenter.org

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Whatever the style, whatever the degree of advocacy they favor, documentary filmmakers make a thousand or more editorial decisions affecting the look, flow, sound and rhythm of their finished work.

Let's consider the reminder of the moment  a moment that has lasted far longer than the eight wordless seconds at issue in the new documentary "Under the Gun."

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Now widely available online, director Stephanie Soechtig's film was destined for controversy from the beginning, and a vote of no-confidence from many in the Second Amendment firearm activist community.

Executive-produced and narrated by Katie Couric, "Under the Gun" argues for universal background checks for those seeking to bear arms. According to the film's figures, 90 percent of U.S. citizens as well as 74 percent of National Rifle Association members approve of these background checks.

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Director Soechtig captures a variety of American landscapes and voices, among them survivors of the Sandy Hook massacre, as well as people here in Illinois for whom fatal shootings have become part of the very fabric of so many neighborhoods. Late in the film, a street protester cries out: "I cannot afford to lose another child on the streets of Chicago." Whatever side of the issue you're on, after the Memorial Day weekend of violence we've endured, "Under the Gun" speaks to issues that aren't going away.

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Here's the controversy regarding those eight seconds. Early in "Under the Gun" Couric is talking with members of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League. She asks them: "If there are no background checks for gun purchasers, how do you prevent felons or terrorists from purchasing a gun?" A shot of one man, thinking, unable to come up with an answer, cuts to a shot of a second man, also apparently stumped and quiet. This cuts to a third shot of a third man, also silently considering Couric's question.

This isn't how it actually happened. In reality the answers came quickly enough, though not necessarily cogently. In the editing phase, however, director Soechtig made what she calls "a cinematic decision" to create a moment for the viewer to reflect on the question.

Couric stands by the film, except for those eight seconds. After audio recorded during Couric's interview with the Virginia gun owners made it onto various websites, charges of lefty fraudulence filled the air, and the airwaves. Couric then issued a statement that now dominates the documentary's website, underthegunmovie.com.

After seeing an early version, Couric wrote, "I questioned (Soechtig) and the editor about the pause and was told that a 'beat' was added for, as she described it, 'dramatic effect,' to give the audience a moment to consider the question. When VCDL members recently pointed out that they had in fact immediately answered this question, I went back and reviewed it and agree that those eight seconds do not accurately represent their response  I regret that those eight seconds were misleading and that I did not raise my initial concerns more vigorously."

Earlier this week Soechtig told Howard Kurtz of Fox News that she "never intended to make anyone look bad and I apologize if anyone felt that way." On Wednesday she augmented those comments. "The facts in the film," she told me, "are air-tight and I challenge anyone to watch the film and say otherwise." The focus on the pause, she said, amounts to "textbook gun lobby fear tactics."

Here's the problem with that pause as I see it. (For the record: I share the film's point of view on the proliferation of firearms in this country, and the need, at the very least, for universal background checks.) Those eight wordless seconds feel phony, ginned-up, contrived. The overeager dramatic scoring by composer Brian Tyler ("Thor 2," "Avengers: Age of Ultron") adds the opposite of truth, or even truthiness. The editing beats, as set by director Soechtig and her editor, Brian David Lazarte, are, in a word, corny  they fill the pause with suspense that feels off, somehow, even if you didn't know there was a matter of how the conversation went.

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The problem with that pause: It undermines all the good and urgent and cogent aspects of "Under the Gun." For eight seconds, the movie becomes a docudrama, not a documentary. Soechtig made what I'd call an honest misjudgment. It has been more than enough for anyone who doesn't agree with the film's arguments and evidence to discredit it in whole.

Oak Park-based filmmaker Steve James, whose extensive documentary credits include "Hoop Dreams," "The Interrupters" and "Life Itself," has been faced over the decades with countless editorial decisions, large and small, in the post-production phase. Streamlining a nonfiction narrative's chronology without lying; deciding which on-air interview is crucial and which ones can be cut; determining the correct and effective flow of a sequence, getting to its essence: These are the challenges every time.

Documentarians, James emailed me Thursday, "are trying to construct a story that captures the truth as we saw it. And that always involves manipulation to varying degrees. I've changed the order of events in my films, even the order of events within a single scene, if it allows for greater clarity, or understanding, or makes the scene play stronger. And yes, I've inserted pauses that weren't there, usually at the end of a scene to allow the audience a moment to absorb what has happened before the film moves on ... or sometimes simply for the rhythm of the cutting because maybe a person went immediately on to speak about something else and we need to get out of the scene."

James said he understood Soechtig's impulse to "let the audience think about Katie Couric's question. But the choice to manufacture an eight-second pause appears to have misrepresented not just the facts of what happened, but the truth of it, too. And listening to the audio of what actually transpired strikes me as more revealing than what is in the film. One person at the table lamely tries to defend the rights for anyone to have a gun, while the others use solipsistic arguments to speak about how existing laws are sufficient, which clearly they are not. Had the film played the moment more truthfully, we would have learned more about how these people really feel, and we would be spared watching the grandstanding going on Fox News (among other outlets and websites) that inflates one mistake into a condemnation of the entire film."

Soechtig told me Wednesday: "Had I known those eight seconds out of a two-hour film would give the NRA something to fixate on, maybe I would've done something different. But I made a decision, and I stand by it."

Movies on the radio: Live from Madison, Wis., Michael joins Michael Feldman 10 a.m. Saturday on "Whad'ya Know?" The show concludes its 31-year run June 25; go to notmuch.com for details.

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Also: Join Michael 7:20 a.m. every Thursday for the movie segment on The Drive, 97.1 FM.

mjphillips@tribpub.com

Twitter @phillipstribune

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
Ethan Slater plays SpongeBob, during the rehearsal for the new Broadway musical "The SpongeBob Musical. (Carolyn Cole / Tribune Newspapers)

What does one do when offered a starring role in "The Untitled Tina Landau Project" during their second year of college?

Say yes and dive right in, if you're Ethan Slater.

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"I applied for an apprenticeship program for which you had to audition, and they asked me to come in for their mainstage show, which was 'Romeo and Juliet,' " the red-headed, 24-year-old Slater says on a recent afternoon lunch break at Protein Bar. "The casting director for that called me a couple weeks after and said, 'Hey, we're working on this project called "The Untitled Tina Landau Project." We'd love for you to come in and audition.' He was like, 'I know it sounds vague, but I'm gonna send you an email with the information and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.' "

An understatement, perhaps.

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It was four years ago, almost to the week, Slater recounts, when he received that email, signaling that the untitled project would be "The SpongeBob Musical," which begins its run Tuesday at the Oriental Theatre. He was, serendipitously, sitting on a beanbag chair in a friend's dorm room, holding a SpongeBob SquarePants plush toy and staring ahead at a poster adorned with goofy SpongeBob faces.

Having grown up without cable TV, Slater would head to friends' houses after school to watch "SpongeBob SquarePants" on Nickelodeon. Now, the Vassar grad, class of 2014, will play to Chicago audiences in a production that eventually aims to bring Bikini Bottom to Broadway.

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"I definitely feel young and new, but that comes from being surrounded by people who I can see the talent and skill and experience exuding out of," he says.

Slater has been the project's only starring Sponge since the first workshops. "There was no script," recalls Slater. "There was no music yet. It was just physicality and Tina being awesome.

"She would say something along the lines of, 'Everyone split up into groups of four and figure out how to make one person's arms stretch across the room. You have five minutes. Go.' The designers brought in hundreds of pool noodles and cardboard boxes and things that you would find in Bikini Bottom. And we played with them."

That's not to say it was all play and no work for Slater, who took five dance classes a week for 12 weeks leading up to rehearsal and trained with a contortionist. In the show he tumbles, climbs upside down, runs, jumps and does the splits.

The day before we meet, Slater was on stage at an afternoon rehearsal nailing a crow pose and popping up into a forearm-stand.

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"One of the things I've found about SpongeBob's movement style is that, in addition to being animated and sort of stretching and squeezing, he's really based on the classic silent comedians, physical comedians. So I've been able to go back and watch Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy  and if you look at SpongeBob and Patrick, there's Abbott and Costello."

To become one with the sponge, Slater also watched just about every episode of the cartoon.

"I'd like to think I'm optimistic and imaginative," he says when asked if he has anything in common with SpongeBob. "I'm a little porous."

Even his "frame is a little boxy," he says, with a giggle. But that doesn't mean Slater is going to jump out on stage looking like a giant, yellow, crater-filled rectangle: "You're gonna see a person, who, as soon as you see him, you're gonna realize is SpongeBob. That's the hope. I'm gonna be wearing a sweater vest and shorts  can't say much more than that.

"Tina has been adamant about the idea of grounding these characters and finding their human emotional core and making sure they're not two-dimensional cartoons. They're really three-dimensional, fully-fledged characters as humans."

But the voice! Will SpongeBob sound like SpongeBob?! Will that nasally, grating, sheep-bleat  but seriously lovable  voice be the one singing songs penned by Sara Bareilles and the Plain White Ts?

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"Yes  asterisk," says Slater. He says he spent a good deal of time working on the voice and making it recognizable, but also his own. "(Voice of SpongeBob) Tom Kenny is so iconic. His voice is so iconic and awesome. But then it's got to have that emotional core."

And Slater does sound like the iconic pineapple-dweller at rehearsal, belting out a power ballad by Panic! at the Disco in which he refuses to be labeled as "a simple sponge." He does not sound like a simple SpongeBob imitator as he sings the powerhouse pop number with an impressive set of musical theater pipes. As Slater puts it, it's his voice, but SpongeBob  but his  but SpongeBob.

"SpongeBob really leans in to the genre. Tina talks about the show being a cross between a party and a rock concert, with a real story weaved in," Slater says. "So when the Cyndi Lauper song comes on I get to rock out, and when the John Legend song comes on it's really soulful and it's a real moment. So the style changes."

The laugh, however, is exact. The resemblance is uncanny.

"I've worked really hard on that," Slater says. "But it also comes from a place of genuine happiness."

Throughout the conversation, he is quick to refer to the team supporting him.

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"We're constantly doing bits in dressing rooms and onstage," he says. "It's great. It's a perfect storm of childlike imaginative energy and true professionalism."

It seems like Slater is having the best day ever.

"I'm having a blast," he says, getting ready to head back to another day of tech rehearsals with a big grin and bright eyes.

mgreene@tribpub.com

Twitter: @MorGreene

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
After he served his slow-cooked, honey-glazed garlic chicken at the Chicago casting call for "MasterChef," the next stop for CTA computer systems administrator Corey Rice was a spot in the top 40 of the Fox cooking competition.

The West Englewood native, RPM Steak server Diana Bilow, Ukrainian Village nutritionist Caitlin Meade and Park Forest nail technician/caterer Takeila Peebles are vying to win "MasterChef," set to premiere its seventh season Wednesday at 7 p.m. The prize is $250,000 and a cookbook deal.

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In the two-part premiere, half of the 40 home cooks survive head-to-head battles to advance in the competition. The contestants are judged by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi, founder of Milk Bar in New York. Chicago chef Graham Elliot left the show after last season.

The Chicago casting call in September marked the second time Rice auditioned for the show. He said he wasn't going to try out after getting cut from a previous season, but a chance encounter with Steve Harvey, who films his NBC talk show at the WMAQ-Ch. 5 studios, inspired him to give the competition another shot.

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"When you see a door close, you don't ever want to give up," said Rice, 35.

Bilow, who grew up in Plainfield and lives on the North Side, made a "nacho napoleon" from homemade tortilla chips and braised chicken thighs at the Chicago casting call for her spot in the top 40.

"Everyone was pretty excited I did something out of the box," said Bilow, 23.

Bilow and the 39 other contestants traveled to Los Angeles for a chance to advance to the top 20. Bilow said it was "nerve-wracking" to learn that one-on-one battles determined her fate, but said she was excited to serve Ramsay.

Bilow, who said she learned to cook from her family and has worked at restaurants for last decade, hopes to parlay her experience on the show into a career as a personal chef.

"I'm a little burnt out on the restaurant industry," Bilow said.

Meade already has her own business, nutrition company Cate's Kitchen Fit, which promotes healthy eating through meal plans, cooking classes and grocery store tours. A "MasterChef" fan, Meade said her time in an apron dates back to age 5.

"The first memory I have cooking was making crepes with my dad in the kitchen," said Meade, who grew up in Rogers Park.

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For the "MasterChef" casting call, she made lamb sausage jambalaya with honey jalapeno cornbread, which was a hit.

"Going into it, you're just so scared," said Meade, 25. "It was the first good sign of auditions."

Peebles, 38, made a waffle BLT chicken sandwich for her initial audition. She said a friend submitted her information to "MasterChef" and she didn't expect to get far in the casting process.

Peebles, who owns the catering company Easy Livin Cafe, learned her kitchen skills from her stepmother, who told her the best way to get a man is by cooking. She said she was nervous and excited going into her top 40 battle, a taco competition.

"A lot more people should try out ... This was the best thing I could have ever done in my entire life," Peebles said.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 126 Woody introduces the gang to a homemade spork toy with self-esteem issues in "Toy Story 4." Read the review. (Pixar / AP)
Evanston cops are continuing to deal with an uptick in burglaries while crimes in other categories are down, police announced recently.

At a May 26 town meeting, Deputy Police Chief Aretha Barnes reported that crimes  homicide, aggravated assault, robbery, arson  are down 26 percent.

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The city is experiencing, though, an increase in burglaries  residential and car burglaries, also more recently with the nicer weather, bike thefts, Barnes said.

The increase continued over Memorial Day weekend, with four car burglaries and two residential burglaries. The weekend also saw two more auto thefts.

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Auto thefts can be connected to car burglaries if thieves find valet keys while rummaging through an open car, police say.

Overall, residents have reported close to 20 car burglaries in recent weeks, according to police. In almost all the cases, the vehicles were unlocked, police said.

Barnes urged residents "to please lock your doors  your car doors, your residential doors, your windows, and please report suspicious activity."

On crime overall, Barnes reported last week that from May 2015 to May 2016, police have recovered 57 guns.

Police have enhanced their gun buyback program to a 24-7 operation, she said. So citizens can turn in weapons any time and receive a reward for returning those weapons. She said police are investigating those weapons after they are turned in.

"We want to find out who is arrested, who purchased it, what the ownership history is, was the gun involved in other crimes, was it stolen," she said.

The department is also working with the Illinois State Police on recovered and federal agencies on gun crime, Barnes said.

bseidenberg@pioneerlocal.com

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The Chicago Teachers Union on Thursday blamed the mayor, governor and school district for an impasse over state education funding, while also suggesting that teachers would do their part by accepting a contract without annual pay hikes.

The CTU again called on Chicago to help fund schools with an array of local tax increases as a way of pushing the General Assembly toward passing an education package. The city tax hikes were quickly rejected by Mayor Rahm Emanuel after the union first suggested them last month.

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The union's comments came at a news conference one day after Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool said the district wouldn't open its doors this fall if state government fails to approve an education budget.

"One of the things we're most concerned about is that we have, clearly, a failure on the part of leadership," CTU President Karen Lewis said.

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"We really feel that it's not right to just blame Springfield," Lewis said. "The blame is in City Hall on the fifth floor, not asking and not being consistent or coherent or having a real plan for funding."

Both the state and city need to pony up to rescue a financially ailing CPS, Lewis said. As for the union, Lewis suggested members could accept a "flat contract."

"We still want our steps and lanes," said Lewis, referring to incremental pay hikes awarded to teachers based on education and experience. "And we could live, maybe, without a 2 or 3 percent raise. How about that?"

But CTU officials repeated their threat to strike if the district ends its long-standing practice of picking up the bulk of teacher pension contributions. The union earlier this year rejected a CPS contract offer that would have phased out the pension pickup while providing an 8.75 percent base salary increase over four years.

The district proposal also contained some layoff protections for union members, which union Vice President Jesse Sharkey said CPS has since pulled from the table. The district has threatened massive cuts to school budgets this coming year absent state intervention.

"If the cuts in school-based budgeting go through, even if they're a fraction of what's been threatened, there are going to be a lot of situations at a local school level where people are going to have to figure out how to make a smaller number of staff work," Sharkey said.

"We'd like to see the mayor commit that that won't happen, but if it does wind up happening, I'm sure there's going to be a lot of conversations happening at a school-by-school level to make the schools work," he said.

The district and the union were set to meet Thursday for contract negotiations, though the CTU said uncertainty over the state education budget has limited progress toward a new contract.

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"We have to reset the clock again," Lewis said. "Every single time that they don't do what they need to do, we're back to resetting. And that's part of the problem."

The General Assembly adjourned Tuesday without making progress on education funding. Plans from the Democrat-controlled House and Senate were described by Gov. Bruce Rauner as competing versions of a CPS bailout.

A House school funding plan backed by Speaker Michael Madigan is part of a budget proposal that's billions of dollars short of needed funding. A measure backed by Senate President John Cullerton is a stand-alone proposal aimed at keeping elementary and high schools open.

Rauner said he's open to approving a stopgap plan to keep schools open and social services operating. In a letter sent Thursday, the governor's education secretary, Beth Purvis, urged Claypool to back a Republican plan to maintain CPS' current level of state funding.

"If your answer is no, then you need to be honest and tell the people of Illinois that you are holding up school funding for the entire state so that Chicago will receive hundreds of millions more than it did last year  despite declining enrollment in Chicago Public Schools and a state in deep fiscal crisis," Purvis wrote.

Claypool on Thursday dismissed Rauner's proposal, saying "the governor is simply doubling down on a failed and broken educational funding system.

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"If the governor's serious about making education a priority, he needs to work with the General Assembly to pass true funding reform," said Claypool, who said he can back either of the proposals from the House and Senate.

Sharkey said he thinks the state will have to agree on some kind of education funding plan, whether it is part of a larger budget compromise or a stopgap measure. But he agreed with Claypool's assessment that no deal means "school very well might not open in September."

Because CPS anticipates receiving a large influx of property tax revenue this summer  money Claypool has said he'll use to finance a short-term line of credit to avert insolvency  Sharkey said "it's possible you could rig something up to open schools for a few months.

"I don't think they would have a plan for a 12-month budget," he said. "But if what we're waiting for is the results of an election to see what happens in January, then anything is possible.  Certainly they would have the cash to open the doors in the fall, and operate for a while. Then some of the other things would need to fall into place."

The union also repeated its demand for a revenue package that includes higher fuel taxes, a shift to schools of borrowing proposed for the troubled Lucas Museum project, a tax on ride-share services and a bump to the city's hotel tax. The union said doing that would provide incentive for state lawmakers to act.

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Claypool said the city supports restoring a property tax levy devoted to teacher pensions but said state government was the most important component of any solution to the district's money problems.

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"We need a solution, and it has to come primarily from Springfield or our classrooms are truly at risk," Claypool said. "Clearly, our backs are against the wall."

The union plans a June 22 rally to call attention to its tax hike proposal.

"You have to do both. It's not an 'either, or.' It's a 'yes, and,'" Lewis said. "I think the problem is we're so used to dealing with binaries that we don't understand that there are much more nuanced ways of looking at these issues."

"And there are other ways to deal with this," Lewis said earlier of the district's financial picture. "Cut the school day, cut the school year. Stop making it so hard to do our work."

jjperez@tribpub.com

Twitter @perezjr
Adnolyot Gardner, 16, was last seen near 10700 S. Normal Ave. on May 21, according to a missing person alert issued Wednesday, June 2, 2016. (Chicago police photo)

Chicago police are asking for the public's help finding a teenage girl who's been missing for more than a week from the Roseland neighborhood for more than a week.

Adnolyot Gardner, 16, Was last seen near 10700 S. Normal Ave. on May 21, according to a missing person alert issued Wednesday. Police did not release any details of why she might have disappeared.

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Gardner is described as a black girl with a light complexion, standing about 5-foot-8 and weighing about 125 pounds. She has brown hair and hazel eyes, and has a tattoo of a half-rose on her right shoulder, police said.

Anyone with information about Gardner is asked to call Area South detectives at 312-747-8274, or call 911.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner have shared business deals, political donors, vacations and pricey bottles of wine. Now, they're sharing little more than insults.

As the state careens on without a budget and Chicago Public Schools teeters on the verge of insolvency, two of the most powerful politicians in Illinois went after each other Thursday.

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Emanuel wasn't even in town, but he greeted Rauner with a morning comparison to divisive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, suggesting both of the wealthy businessmen-turned-politicians use a "playbook of demonizing one group of people for his political advantage."

Hours later, Rauner responded in kind, comparing Emanuel to one of his top political foils, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who is known for her cutting political nicknames.

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"I don't know where all these goofy personal attacks come from," Rauner said as he concluded a two-day tour of Illinois to press Democrats for a stopgap budget and school funding bill. "I'm starting to think Rahm is taking his speaking lessons from Karen or something. This is not helpful. We've got to focus on the facts and what's constructive."

The mayor and governor have traded barbs before, but Emanuel has noticeably turned up his rhetoric several notches. The precipitating event: Rauner's veto a week ago of a city police and fire pension bill the mayor had long sought.

The mayor slammed Rauner for shaking down Chicago taxpayers instead of shaking up Springfield, as the governor's campaign slogan promised. Moments later, Emanuel appeared at an antiviolence event and teed off on the governor in front of the cameras without even being prompted by a question.

"I think you have an example of why things are not working in Springfield, because nobody can make heads or tails of the decisions he's making," said Emanuel, who during another anti-Rauner rant went so far as to bring Rauner's wife, Illinois first lady Diana Rauner, into the fray, noting her early childhood education group joined a lawsuit against the administration.

Lawmakers overrode Rauner's veto on Memorial Day. Still, sources close to the mayor's administration said that after months of holding back on his onetime friend, the pension veto was the last straw. Emanuel believed he had worked hard  and already asked Chicago homeowners to pony up with a major property tax increase last year  to place the city's police and fire pensions on the road to sustainability. Rauner's move would have forced taxpayers to cough up even more.

"When he knew the veto was coming on Friday, the gloves were off," one source said of Emanuel.

Another source said the war of words isn't just political theater, and that the onetime friendship between the two top elected officials has dissipated. Emanuel, the source said, became increasingly frustrated with Rauner's unwillingness to give on key facets of his agenda to pass a budget and address education funding.

"The mayor is genuinely perplexed and disappointed with the governor," the source said. "The feeling is that Chicago is being used as a prop for the governor's personal agenda."

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They meet

It wasn't always this way. Consider this unusual meeting scenario, as told by Rauner.

At a January breakfast with Realtors, Rauner recalled that he scheduled a late 1990s meeting with a young Emanuel as a favor to Erskine Bowles, former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. Bowles had asked Rauner to give Emanuel advice, but the young politico had the chutzpah to ask to be Rauner's partner at GTCR Golder Rauner.

Emanuel told Rauner he wanted to make money now, and the future governor said he explained to the business novice that's not how private equity works, and he'd be better suited for investment banking, which Emanuel refused to accept. The governor said he showed Emanuel to the door, told him not to let it hit him on the way out and he stormed off.

Two months later, Rauner explained, Emanuel called to say he had gone into investment banking with Wasserstein Perella and wanted to put together deals for him.

"Best investment banker I ever worked with. Relentless. Smart. Networking. He brought us two of the best deals we ever did. To say thank you, I brought him three great deals for his firm," Rauner said of Emanuel, as recorded by WBEZ-FM 91.5. "Good relationship. And we kicked the stuffing out of each other almost every day. And we fight. We argue ... I respect him. He respects me."

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During Emanuel's brief investment banking stint that made him a millionaire, he brokered a deal in which Rauner's firm invested in an alarm company. GTCR under Rauner bought SecurityLink for $479 million from SBC and flipped it to another buyer six months later for $1 billion.

In 2010, the Rauners and Emanuels vacationed together out West, where the governor owns thousands of acres of ranchland and homes. The couples went to a Montana resort restaurant, where the soon-to-be mayor carried a bottle of wine with a Napa Valley Reserve label. Rauner has said he belongs to the exclusive wine club, where members reportedly pay as much as $140,000 to join.

Public life pressures

As their paths crossed in public life, resentments built on both sides. Emanuel, who has long looked for help from Springfield on school funding, pensions and a city casino, has been frustrated as he watches issue after issue get sucked into the black hole of the impasse. Rauner has called on Emanuel numerous times to help him get his economic agenda passed.

With the Capitol logjam centered on Rauner and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, Emanuel was viewed as the Democrat most likely to be able to talk to Rauner. Senate President John Cullerton attempted to play a similar role with the speaker, whom he once served under in House leadership. But it's all been to little avail as Rauner and Madigan dig in, content to see who voters blame for the Statehouse dysfunction in this fall's House and Senate contests.

The mayor, known as a pragmatic, deal-cutting politician who doesn't let the perfect get in the way of the good enough, does not speak the same political language as Rauner, who is more ideologically driven, especially on issues of government regulation of business.

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Rauner, a charter schools advocate, is a longtime critic of the Chicago Teachers Union. In a 2012 speech, Rauner decried the CTU for protecting "weak teachers" and said "that's where there's a conflict of interest between the good teachers and the union bosses." Rauner pushed Emanuel to take a hard line against the union during negotiations that led to the 2012 strike and wasn't happy with how things ended up.

To be sure, they've needled each other before. In October, Emanuel had chided Rauner about his failure to pass a state budget, suggesting the governor "stop name-calling and just do your job."

Rauner then summoned reporters to a Chicago butcher shop, where he suggested the mayor was overly "sensitive" and bought some tuna steak, and said he planned to send a "dead fish" to City Hall. That was a reference to the infamous dead fish Emanuel once sent to a pollster he was unhappy with while working on 1988 congressional campaigns.

Trump factor

But Emanuel's Thursday broadside about Trump invited a comparison Rauner has been trying to avoid. Both are my-way-or-the-highway businessmen campaigning on a message that their private-sector experience can help turn around the economy and remake government.

Not that Rauner hasn't sometimes invited them himself. Nearly two years ago, candidate Rauner unveiled a proposed state financial plan and reporters asked how he would put into place proposed government spending cuts that had been rejected for years. "I've been successful at everything I've ever done," Rauner said in a bit of Trumpian hyperbole.

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Rauner, who hasn't formally endorsed Trump and won't attend the Republican National Convention, has said he was "horrified" by the rhetoric in the GOP presidential campaign. But Rauner never singled out Trump, and has rarely even spoken his name publicly. Risking Trump's wrath could prove unwise  a single insulting tweet or throwaway attack line in a speech would reverberate throughout Illinois and could weaken Rauner in his long political battle against Democrats.

Emanuel's comparison effectively becomes the Democratic rejoinder to the Republican governor's attempt to establish Madigan's lengthy tenure and control over Democrats as a GOP campaign theme. Put simply, the fall legislative races are likely to find Republicans castigating "Madigan's Democrats" and Democrats railing against "Trump-Rauner Republicans."

The Trump linkage already has been applied to Republican incumbents by Democratic challengers in federal Senate and House races throughout the country, including Democratic Rep. Tammy Duckworth's bid against first-term GOP Sen. Mark Kirk in Illinois.

Emanuel's Trump comparison came a day after Rauner played up a theme of regionalism in trying to isolate Chicago Democrats from Downstate members of their party as he tries to win portions of his economic agenda and perhaps strike a broader budget deal.

Emanuel has been trying mightily in recent weeks to broaden his push for changes to the state school funding formula and Chicago Public Schools pension help. The mayor has argued repeatedly that the current formula hurts not just Chicago, but many school districts throughout the state that have high numbers of low-income students.

To Downstate audiences, Rauner likened a failed school funding plan pushed by Senate Democrats to "a billion-dollar Chicago bailout."

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"We've got to get the folks here in Champaign County and in Sangamon County and throughout the state to stand up and vote for their districts, not for Speaker (Michael) Madigan and (Senate President) John Cullerton and the Chicago political machine that they are loyal to," Rauner said Wednesday.

Emanuel, who was in Washington, D.C., for meetings, responded Thursday with a news release in which he returned to his recent theme of criticizing Rauner's leadership bona fides.

"Instead of uniting the governor was dividing. Instead of leading he was playing politics, pitting parents and students in one part of the state against parents and students in another," Emanuel said in his Thursday statement. "Right now schools across Illinois need a leader, and instead Bruce Rauner is following the Donald Trump playbook of demonizing one group of people for his political advantage."

At the end of his two-day tour of the state in Itasca, Rauner compared Emanuel to Lewis, the CTU president. And the governor said he cares "very much" about the city, noting that he's "a property owner and a big taxpayer in Chicago."

Saying he didn't want to "brag" about his financial success, Rauner also noted that he's given "tens of millions of dollars to Chicago Public Schools to try to make them better."

The mayor is not without his own Trump ties. The New York businessman contributed $50,000 to Emanuel's first mayoral campaign. And this week, Trump told The Hollywood Reporter that Ari Emanuel, the super-agent and mayoral brother, had offered to take charge of a film celebrating the candidate that would air at the Republican National Convention.

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Ari Emanuel's William Morris Endeavor once represented Trump, but a spokesman said Wednesday that the agency has "no plans" to work on the convention.

Friends or foes, the stakes remain high for the mayor and the governor.

Last year, Emanuel was not shy about noting his friendship with Rauner.

"I know Bruce's strengths and weaknesses in the same way that Bruce knows my strengths and weaknesses. As a mayor and as a governor, we have responsibilities, but it's not personal," Emanuel said in a May 2015 interview with the Chicago Tribune. "The basis of a friendship allows us to look past questioning each other's motivation so you can get to the heart of the matter quicker. There's a lot more trust, and that's essential."

But in an interview last month, Emanuel was asked twice if he still considered himself friends with Rauner.

The mayor wouldn't say.

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Chicago Tribune's John Byrne contributed.

bruthhart@tribpub.com

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Theresa Tillman, left, listens to Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D- Baton Rouge, as she speaks at an anti-violence rally on the steps on the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge, La., on May 26, 2016. Tillman's daughter, Lashuntae Benton, was one of two Southern University students killed in a shootout at an off-campus party in April. (Michael Kunzelman / AP)

BATON ROUGE, La.  A Baton Rouge man was arrested Thursday on murder charges in the deaths of two Southern University students who were killed in a shootout at an off-campus party in April.

Brandon Christopher Henderson, 25, was jailed on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of illegal use of a weapon, Baton Rouge police said in a statement.

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Police don't believe his bullets struck either woman, but Henderson told investigators that he fired the initial shots in the exchange of gunfire that killed the 19-year-old students, Lashuntae Benton and Annette January, police said.

Henderson was wounded in the April 10 shootout. Another suspect  22-year-old Ernest Bernard Felton, of Miami  was arrested within hours of the shooting on a charge of attempted second-degree murder in Henderson's shooting.

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Police have described Benton and January as "innocent bystanders" caught in the crossfire.

A police report dated Thursday said investigators don't believe Henderson fired the shots that killed the two students.

Marks on the bullets recovered from the women's bodies didn't match the type of handgun that Henderson "conceded" firing, according to the report. Marks on a bullet taken from Henderson's body indicate he was shot by the same type of weapon that fired the bullets that killed the women, the report adds.

Felton, a former Southern football player, hasn't been charged in the women's deaths. Police said in Thursday's statement that the case remains under investigation with "additional pending arrests."

Benton, a sophomore from Lake Charles, Louisiana, was a student athletic trainer at the Baton Rouge college. January, a freshman from Gary, Indiana, was on Southern's track and field team.

Benton's mother, Theresa Tillman, said police called her early Thursday to inform her of Henderson's arrest. A week ago, Tillman led a rally at the Louisiana Capitol to call for an end to the silence that appeared to be hindering the police investigation.

"This is the beginning of justice," Tillman said in a telephone interview. "Now I have to see it through. It's not through for me until he is sentenced."

An initial police report on the shooting said people had gathered at a party outside an apartment complex near LSU's campus when Henderson pulled up in a car. The initial report said a witness told police that Felton had initiated the shooting by firing at the sedan driven by Henderson.

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However, the new police report says Henderson told investigators on Thursday that he "fired the first shots that initiated the shooting exchange." Earlier, Henderson told police that he only began firing shots into the air from the driver's side window of his car after he was shot.

Henderson also told police that the deadly encounter followed an earlier fight between his brother and a group of people at the apartment complex, the new report said.

Henderson was hospitalized for several days after the shooting.

Felton, who remained in Baton Rouge's jail as of last Thursday, was a member of Southern's 2012 football team but never played in a game and didn't return to the team after the season, a school official said.

More than a dozen friends and relatives of Benton rallied on the Capitol steps last week, wearing T-shirts saying, "Let's Stop Black on Black Violence" and holding signs bearing photos of Benton. At the time, Tillman said she believed many people at the party weren't "speaking up" and telling police what they saw.

"I've always been satisfied with the police," she said Thursday. "They have always done their job."

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Associated Press
The latest study supposedly linking cellphone radiation to cancer was meant to serve the public good. But its effect on the public has been bad. The $25 million government-funded experiment produced confusion and scary headlines, but little in the way of useful information  beyond perhaps an indication of where the science publicity machine is broken.

This wasn't necessarily a case of bad science. The researchers, from the National Toxicology Program, subjected one group of rats to high doses of radiation of a frequency similar to that emitted by cell phones. Following accepted protocol, they compared the radiation-exposed rats to a control group. The pathologists looking for cancer didn't know which animals came from which group.

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But last week, the scientists released partial, unpublished results in a rush, suggesting some public health urgency. They claimed to have identified a link between the radiation and a type of brain cancer called a glioma as well as a non-malignant growth called a schwannoma. Adding fuel to their health scare, they offered up sound bites such as "breakthrough" and "game changer."

Only after the first round of scary headlines did critics get a chance to explain why the result was statistically weak, riddled with unanswered questions and somewhat implausible.

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It's not clear why scientists are carrying out these studies in the first place. There's no compelling theoretical or empirical reason to suspect that cellphone use has anything to do with cancer. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, said investigations of possible links are done because people are interested in the question. That interest, he said goes back to 1990, when Republican political strategist Lee Atwater was diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor at the age of 39. He was dead the next year.

At the time, Brawley said, some people noted that Atwater had been an early adopter of cellphones, though the reality is that brain cancer occasionally strikes all kinds of people with no apparent risk factors. Adding to the shock over Atwater's fate was confusion about the term "radiation," which scientists use to describe everything from radio waves to what comes out of a light bulb to the deadly emanations from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. X-rays and gamma rays do cause cancer by damaging DNA, and ultraviolet light can damage DNA in skin, but lower-energy radiation such as microwaves and radio waves would have to cause cancer some other way.

Brawley said dozens of studies have been done to test the safety of cellphones. The bulk of evidence to date suggests they are safe to use except for their role in car, bike and pedestrian accidents. Despite the explosion of cellphone use over the last decades, the overall rate of brain cancer has remained flat, he said.

There's some disagreement over whether it's even physically or biologically possible for cellphone radiation to cause cancer. Chris Adami, a professor of physics and microbiology at Michigan State University, said it's remotely possible that cellphone radiation could have some biological effect by heating fat and protein molecules, just as a microwave oven uses low-frequency waves to cook food. But there's no known mechanism by which heating would lead to cancer in rats or people, he said, so the researchers should have set a very high bar of evidence before they announced a threat to public health.

Rats tend to get cancer without any help from scientists, he said, so if cellphone radiation caused these types of cancer, what they'd expect to see is the normal number of cases in the control group and an excess in the one subject to the radiation.

Instead, they got no cases of either cancer in the controls and the normal number of gliomas and schwannomas in the exposed group. The researchers couldn't explain this nor could they explain the curious fact that the control mice died younger than the exposed ones. "If there is an effect you don't understand, then you don't understand the whole system," Adami said.

The study was done by toxicologists. Had it been done by cancer researchers, they would have looked for signs that the radiation was having some relevant biological influence. If there's any effect, it would be on material that surrounds the DNA and influences which genes are activated. There are ways to detect such so-called epigenetic changes, Adami said, but the authors of this study didn't appear to employ them.

He said pressure to produce sexy or scary results can motivate scientists to hype marginal findings. He also blames the media for the tendency to assume that every second counts in disseminating health news even when it's of dubious accuracy.

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Brawley, of the American Cancer Society, was the one who introduced the term "game changer" to the description of the study. He said that if the claims are backed up, it would be the first time that this kind of low-energy radiation was shown to have any effect on cancer. However, he said, that's a big if, and even in that case it would not necessarily mean that cellphones cause cancer in people.

He suggested that people who are worried can use an earpiece. "But I'm talking to you on a cellphone," he said. "And it's pressed against my ear."

Bloomberg View

Faye Flam writes about science, mathematics and medicine. She is author of "The Score: How the Quest for Sex has Shaped the Modern Man."
A strain of the E. coli bacteria that is resistant even to colistin, the antibiotic of last resort, was discovered in a Pennsylvania woman, the first documented U.S. case. (Janice Carr / Centers for Disease Control and)

"In too many cases antibiotics have stopped working. That means people are dying of simple infections or conditions like TB (tuberculosis), tetanus, sepsis, infections that should not mean a death sentence. If we do nothing about this, there will be a cumulative hit to the world economy of $100 trillion and it is potentially the end of modern medicine as we know it."

 British Prime Minister David Cameron, May 27, 2016

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"The end of modern medicine as we know it" is a scary phrase coming from a respected world leader. We hope Cameron is exaggerating for effect, but we also hope his sense of urgency to develop powerful new antibiotics is, well, infectious. Developing more potent antibiotics is vital to vanquish a fast-encroaching army of superbugs, bacteria that have become resistant to current antibiotics.

Recent bad news: The superbugs have invaded America. Researchers discovered a 49-year-old Pennsylvania woman infected by a superbug, a "nightmare bacteria" resistant even to colistin, the antibiotic of last resort. That's the first time this super-resistant strain has appeared in the U.S., although it has occurred sporadically in livestock and people in Europe, China and elsewhere.

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How dangerous could this resistance be? Very. "It basically shows us that the end of the road isn't very far away for antibiotics  that we may be in a situation where we have patients in our intensive-care units, or patients getting urinary tract infections for which we do not have antibiotics," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden warns.

Most Americans don't remember a time before antibiotics. You wouldn't want to live in that world again. Without effective antibiotics, women die in childbirth from sepsis. People who get a scrape or insect bite can develop fatal infections. Sore throats can bring rheumatic fever and heart failure. Surgeries pose greater threats of uncontrolled infection; chemotherapy and transplants grow riskier.

The Obama administration says superbugs pose a national security threat. Left unchecked, superbugs could kill more people than cancer worldwide by 2050, a British task force has warned.

Last March, the White House issued a "national action plan" to combat superbugs. But Washington can't do this alone. What's needed now is an aggressive worldwide response to develop new antibiotics and eradicate indiscriminate use of the current crop. That effort must include major antibiotic users and producers such as India and China.

One key: Discouraging doctors and hospitals from dispensing antibiotics without strong cause. Doctors can't cave to patients who demand antibiotics even if they likely won't help. As many as one-third of U.S. prescriptions for antibiotics are inappropriate, a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates.

A potential battleground: U.S. farmers and ranchers often use antibiotics not to cure diseases but to promote faster growth of livestock. The European Union has banned such use, and the White House plan to combat superbugs sets a five-year goal to "eliminate medically important antibiotics for growth in food-producing animals." Food retailers such as McDonald's also are moving in this direction. "I don't care how fat your chicken is, if the result is you breed (superbugs) and people die as a result," Laurie Garrett of the Council on Foreign Relations tells us.

Another idea: Create incentives for drug companies to develop potent next-generation antibiotics. That British task force recommends rewards of up to $1.5 billion. Such incentives could pay huge dividends. Encouraging companies makes sense not only because hurry-up research would be especially expensive and the likelihood of success highly uncertain. Any new drugs will be used sparingly so that patients don't develop resistance. That will cut potential sales but increase health worldwide.

Sounds like a great project for a major charitable foundation looking to save lives worldwide and, in the bargain, build a legacy as superbug slayers.

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Trespassers squatting in an East Side commercial building accidentally set it on fire Tuesday night, according to Aurora fire officials.

Aurora firefighters responded to the fire at 10:10 p.m. Tuesday in the 1400 block of East New York Street after a bystander called 911, according to fire officials. When firefighters got to the address, they found heavy smoke showing from the roof of the single-story commercial building. They traced the fire to the basement, and 21 firefighters put it out in just less than an hour.

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Trespassers who were using the building as a place to sleep unintentionally started the fire, according to Aurora Fire Department investigators.

The building appeared vacant when firefighters arrived and a complete search of the building revealed no trapped victims, according to fire officials.

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One firefighter was treated and released for a minor eye injury incurred fighting the fire.

The first floor of the building was already partially collapsed, but that was unrelated to the fire, according to officials.

Because the building was already in such poor condition, officials could not immediately provide an estimated dollar loss to the structure and contents.

The building has been turned over to the city's Property Standards Division, according to officials.

State records show the parcel containing the structure has changed ownership several times since 2007.

Aurora police have not made any arrests in connection with the fire, but are investigating the incident, said police spokesman Dan Ferrelli.

hleone@tribpub.com
In a videotaped interview of Shante Thomas in 2011, the Chicago woman, then 19, told an evolving story about what she was doing the night a pregnant Alsip teen was killed, during which time a police investigator said she changed her story "three or four times."

"I did not touch her," Cook County jurors heard Thomas say in the recorded interview, moments before she backtracked and admitted to touching 18-year-old Rosemary Newman in what she claimed was an attempt to stop a fight between the pregnant woman and the father of Newman's child, Deandre Minkens.

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The trial continued Thursday for Minkens, 25, and Thomas, 24, who are accused of strangling Newman on April 23, 2011, and killing her unborn child. Prosecutors allege that Thomas and Minkens, her boyfriend, hatched a plan to kill the woman because the pregnancy was causing problems in their relationship as the due date approached.

Newman was about nine months pregnant when Thomas hid in the trunk of a car driven by Minkens, who had picked up the pregnant woman in order to take her to Applebee's in Crestwood.

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In the recorded interview, Thomas said she emerged from the back of the car when Minkens played a song titled "I Hate You," her cue to wrap a cellphone charger cord around Newman's neck.

Newman's lifeless body was found by a man walking his dogs the following day, Easter Sunday. Authorities allege that Minkens and Thomas dumped Newman, stripped of her pants, facedown in the mud at a forest preserve near Calumet City after strangling, beating and stabbing her.

Thomas initially told investigators Minkens had dropped her off at a house in South Holland before he went to the restaurant with Newman, and that Thomas did not know what Minkens had done, according to the video recording.

Division Chief Randy Palmer of the Oak Lawn Police Department told jurors Thursday that investigators at the time didn't suspect Thomas was involved in Newman's death, and that he was "quite shocked" when she admitted to hiding behind a pile of clothes inside Minken's car.

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"Each time I confront her with it, she goes a little further," Palmer said, describing to jurors the interrogation method he used in the video as a member of the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.

Thomas tells Palmer early on in the video she did nothing in the car as Minkens and Newman argued and fought, with Minkens eventually strangling her. Thomas later claims she watched Minkens hold Newman at knifepoint before choking her unconscious, and that she had attempted to stop him.

"I tried to help her, but I scared her," she said in the recorded interview. Thomas also claimed in the interview that Minkens pulled the knife on her, saying, "He threatened me, too."

Minutes later, Thomas admits in the interview to being inside the car to attack Newman.

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"I didn't choke her with my hands," Thomas quietly told Palmer.

The trial continues Friday morning. It is expected to last through next week.

Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
The mother of a third-grader at Sykuta Elementary in Country Club Hills who claims a library aide assaulted her son filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday.

Kyndra Byrd is suing the Country Club Hills School District 160 Board of Education, as well as Principal Martha Jones and the library aide, both individually and in their official capacities. The complaint filed in the Northern District of Illinois court says the boy's civil and Fourth Amendment rights were violated after he was "maliciously battered, humiliated and traumatized in front of his classmates and other students" by the aide.

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The aide declined comment Wednesday. Attempts to reach Jones for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.

The suit said the library incident came after a series of bullying incidents directed at the third-grader, including a school nurse report that the boy was struck in the face, something Byrd said she addressed several times with school and district officials since the beginning of the year. When the library aide told the boy to sit with his alleged tormentors on April 5, the boy refused, asking to call his mother, Byrd said. The aide then used "corporal punishment" and "excessive physical force" to "physically bump (the boy) with her stomach while saying 'squad up' in a highly threatening, intimidating and offensive manner," according to the complaint.

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The complaint accuses the aide of grabbing the boy's wrist "with immense pressure" and forcibly "dragging (the boy) across the library," striking his hip on the table. It added that the aide then "pulled out a chair and then spun and maliciously slammed 45-pound (boy) down into the chair."

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Afterward, the aide allegedly asked the class, "Who doesn't want to be (the boy's) friend?," which Byrd said further humiliated the boy.

According to the complaint, the boy reported the incident to Jones, who sent him back to class. After another teacher sent the boy to the nurse, he called his mother from there, and she eventually took the boy to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with "a bruised, swollen and sprained wrist, and an acute strain of his arm," according to the complaint. The follow up visit to his pediatrician found "internal and external bruising."

"Photographs capture (the boy's) swollen and severely bruised wrist," the complaint said.

The boy, and his twin brother, now attend a private school, Byrd said. She withdrew her sons after school officials allegedly questioned the boy without his mother or attorney present.

Since then, the boy has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, has been prescribed medication for a sleep disorder and also sees a psychologist and a licensed professional counselor weekly, according to the complaint. Byrd is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney's fees, according to the complaint, which does not specify dollar amounts.

Attempts to reach Board of Education President Tamara Young were unsuccessful. Superintendent Sandra Thomas, through her executive assistant, Tiffany Taylor, declined to comment Wednesday, saying the complaint had not yet been received.

Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter with the Daily Southtown.
Saint Xavier University is closing the satellite campus it opened less than a year ago in Gilbert, Ariz.

University spokesperson Karla Thomas said at least 25 students in the Phoenix suburb will be affected by the closure, which is scheduled for the end of fall semester.

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"We are trying to work with them for a smooth transition," Thomas said. "They are going to continue their education with us. They are going to continue online."

Thomas blamed Illinois' ongoing budget stalemate for the abrupt closure of the campus that Gilbert officials reportedly took out $37 million in revenue bonds to design and construct.

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Though SXU is a private institution, Thomas said, "We're not completely dependent on state money, but we do have about 1,600 students that rely on it."

Because of that and because the Arizona site was "a startup, with escalating costs of doing business," university officials made the decision to close it, she said.

"We're making sure we're giving the best education to the students that we do have. We just didn't want to continue in Gilbert with so much uncertainty in Illinois," Thomas said.

"We're also working with the town of Gilbert to make sure everything is smooth for all of the students," she said.

Gilbert students were expected to meet with university officials this week.

Though the brick-and-mortar end of the operation is closing, Thomas said, students currently enrolled will be able to continue their studies online.

"We were trying to do something, to branch out, to offer a Catholic university education to students in Gilbert. We thought it would be a great opportunity, but we didn't foresee all of the challenges we'd face in Illinois as well," Thomas said.

This budget impasse, she added, has had far-reaching effects. "We really don't even know what's going to happen with the 2017 budget, and we're still asking about 2016's budget," she said.

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Asked if there is any chance the stalemate might impact the Chicago campus or its Orland Park satellite, Thomas said, "That's why we made the decision to close (Gilbert), so that it doesn't impact the Chicago campus. We're trying to make sure we're not impacting the Chicago campus in any way."

Gilbert Mayor John Lewis, who in February cited the campus as evidence of "advancements in commercial development, higher education and recreation" in his "state of the town" address, issued the following statement Wednesday: "The Town of Gilbert is of course disappointed with Saint Xavier University's decision with respect to its campus in Downtown Gilbert. After discussions and negotiations beginning in 2011, the town and the university entered into a development agreement and 15-year lease in 2015. Saint Xavier's expressed intentions will be considered by the town and the town will continue to focus its efforts on bringing expanded higher education opportunities to Gilbert."

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Also in February, SXU's school of nursing program was approved by the Arizona State Board of Nursing, according to news reports.

Gilbert officials took out revenue bonds totaling $37 million to design and construct the campus. A 15-year lease agreement says the university is on the hook for $250,000 in damages as well as any rent due if the contract is unfulfilled.

U.S. News and World Report ranked the university's online graduate nursing program No. 1 nationally in 2014.

Saint Xavier's agreement with Gilbert required that nursing, business and education degrees be offered at the new campus.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Twitter @dvickroy
Union protest deserved better coverage

It's truly amazing that every time Bruce Rauner's name is mentioned, it ends up front-page news. But, when thousands of union workers marched to the State Capitol on May 18 to protest his anti-union "Turnaround Agenda" the Southtown coverage ends up on Page 4 with just a 2-by-4-inch photo.

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The Southland is home to thousands of united middle-class union workers who need to be heard. It seems that this news publication has changed since the Tribune Corporation purchased it, and it seems to be leaning to the right.

Richard Podraza, Tinley Park

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The loss of a life  be it a boy's or a gorilla's  is a shame

I remember it vividly: I was standing in the Dinosaur Pit at the Chicago Children's Museum, watching my 2-year-old dig for bones with his buddies. I turned away for a minute to pick up my few-months-old baby, who was screaming in his stroller (per usual), and attempted to situate him. When I looked back, my 2-year-old was gone from the spot where he sat just a minute before. My friends and I immediately combed the room and didn't see him anywhere. That frantic moment scared me to my core.

We found him (thank God) just outside the room, where he had wandered off to play with the life-sized bowling game we had passed when we came in. I grabbed him and sobbed, cradling him and reprimanding him while simultaneously condemning myself for being a terrible mother as my heart pounded out of my skin. How could I let him out of my sight? What kind of horrible mother was I? How grateful I was to have found him, safe and sound, oblivious to all around him except for that big, shiny ball and the excitement of his impending turn.

It was about a three-minute time span. My mind goes there occasionally. My heart still hasn't quite recovered from that feeling, those moments, that day, almost a decade ago.

I've watched the video of Harambe the gorilla and saw how he dragged the little boy like a rag doll. My heart froze as I imagined what must have run through that sweet boy's mind, his parents' minds, those bystanders' minds. Observing a young child in the hands of a 450-pound gorilla and being utterly helpless is something I can't wrap my head around. Would I jump in after my child? Would I scream bloody murder? What about that beautiful creature, who didn't ask for this, didn't want this, and likely did the only thing he knew how to do when faced with the chaotic scene of the human beings standing around him?

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It's a complicated and messy world, and when we try to do our best to keep our children safe and animals safe and our world safe, we mess up. This is a tragedy on many levels  but whose fault is it? And more important, why do we feel the desire to blame?

Outrage is a loaded word and a feeling that emerges often, and rightly so. I feel it every day I open the paper and see one more life taken by gun violence, one more child harmed by a pedophile, one more family destroyed by drugs. My feelings about a boy and a gorilla don't negate my concern and sadness and outrage for all other victims of crime and pain and harm  human or animals alike. Why can't we feel for both?

This story sits with me. No matter which way I go with it, what it comes down to is this: A life is lost, another life is harmed and many others are altered forever. Whether it's animal and boy or man and man, the losses are what hit the greatest. How will we address the fallout? I believe that's what inherently speaks the most to who we are as a human race.

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May we continue to learn from this  and each other.

Lauren Bell, Chicago

What's on your mind?

The Daily Southtown welcomes letters to the editor. Email them to letters@southtownstar.com and include your name, address and phone number. Only your name and the town you reside in will appear with the letter. Please keep a letter to no more than about 200 words. The Southtown is not responsible for the accuracy of the opinions expressed in letters to the editor.
Right now in this political ring, I would think that concentrating on our school systems staying open would be first on the contestants' stage. In this perfect world we live in, who doesn't have some personal issues we would like to attack. Let's try to make our children and grandchildren first on the agenda. They are our future.

So now the State leaders cannot even agree to fund the schools? Sort of gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling about Illinois, doesn't it? Thanks once again, Rauner and Madigan.

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There was a recent two-page, three-column article about Lincoln Way District 210's plans to welcome relocated students. The principals from North, West and East were all mentioned. Each discussed plans that were made, and events that have already taken place. Not one word from the Central principal. How sad that the only mention of Mokena students transferring to Central was one sentence. These students have definitely been overlooked in this entire process. How welcoming is that?

Mokena

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In response to Guy from Oak Lawn: Dogs leave brown spots on green grass when fed people food, table scraps, etc. If they're fed only dog food, no spots.

If you take the results of the last four presidential elections, two won by former President George W. Bush and two won by President Barack Obama, and plug in the solidly red states vs. the solidly blue states, you're left with five toss-up states: Colorado, Florida, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia. That means Democrats already have 242 electoral votes and Republicans only have 205. Here's the daunting task you righties have to face if you want to achieve 270 electoral votes. You must win at least four of the remaining five states, and three of them have to be Florida, Ohio and Virginia; while we lefties only need Florida with 29 electoral votes and it's game over. Good luck with that.

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Wes, Orland Park

When they first opened casinos in Joliet, they told you what the odds on the machines were. When they sell Lotto tickets, they tell you the odds. But how about these machines at all these restaurants, taverns and everything? What are the odds at these machines? There's no information what your odds of winning are. They should make it public instead of people walking in blind. Why don't you let people know what the odds are? Please take that into consideration. Years ago, you published the odds on penny, nickel, dime and other machines. But now you've got all these machines all over the place and nobody telling what the odds are on them. Wow. It's amazing. I wonder why.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Republican candidate Donald Trump should come down out of his tower and get with the people, stop flying around in that big aircraft and making money at dinners. For a minute, I thought she was talking about herself and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Oh, that's right. He was the president. She was the first lady. They didn't do that. They went around the country, and they went ahead and they flew from this place to that place for their vacations in this big, huge aircraft decked out to the gills. But she's telling Donald Trump not to turn around and use his aircraft? She has a private plane, but then that's Hillary.

John, Bridgeport

You keep bashing Christians. Where are the atheist hospitals, the atheist colleges and the atheist social welfare organizations like Catholic Charities? You don't see any. Where are the Hindu, the Buddhist or the Hebrew hospitals? Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago closed when Hebrew people moved out of the neighborhood, but where are these others? Christians take care of whoever is in the neighborhood: black, yellow, green, whatever color. They come in and Christians take care of them. Nuns take care of them. Atheists, Hebrews, Buddhists, etc.  none of them are taking care of anybody. They take care of themselves only. You people should get real. Go out in the real world. Find out what it's like out there.

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Speak Out allows readers to comment on the issues of the day. Email Speak Out at speakout@southtownstar.com or call 312-222-2427. Please limit comments to 30 seconds or about 120 words and give your first name and your hometown.
By Emerging Strategy

Enormous breakthroughs in advanced robotics are making a new industrial revolution a fast-approaching reality. Advanced robotics is introducing a new generation of machines capable of executing dexterous and delicate tasks: recognizing, computing and acting on information, and even collaborating and learning from humans. These advancements offer reduced labor costs and increased efficiency, generating new competition for the traditional bastions of low cost manufacturing.

As technology continues to progress, manufacturers in industries historically reticent to the use of industrial machines are increasingly adopting advanced robotics and altering their production methods in kind. However, the present-day practical use of advanced robotics varies by industry, and the high costs and technical obstacles involved in remodeling manufacturing processes can be prohibitive. Nevertheless, the question ultimately isnt whether or not manufacturers should adopt advanced robotics, but when.

Technological Advancements and the Learnability of Robots

Robotics has been used in manufacturing processes and assembly lines for decades, particularly in the automotive industry. While technological advancements, such as image processing to identify the orientation and features of objects, have increased the utility and efficacy of these robotics, they have generally functioned as stationary and predictable machines performing repetitive and monotonous tasks. Recent progress in advanced robotics, however, is fundamentally reshaping the way in which products are created and factories operate.

Robots are increasingly being designed to perform a wide variety of jobs. While traditional robots are typically fixed assets with a single distinct role, advanced robots have the flexibility to execute multiple functions and even learn new ones. With additional sensory proficiency to recognize variability in objects and the environment, and the dexterity to handle items of various shapes and sizes, robots are more and more flexible and mobile. New tasks that robots are now more capable of performing include picking and packaging, testing and inspecting products, and assembling miniscule devices incorporating innumerable components, such as microchips.

As they are connected to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)  a subject that Emerging Strategy is set to release a whitepaper on in June  robotics can learn from humans and other machines to continually add to their capabilities and enable decision-making. A physical demonstration by a human can teach a robot how to perform a simple task, which it then repeats at high speed and shares with other robots. Data accumulated through performance and experience and programmable artificial intelligence hone precision and allow for the application of logic. Human feedback ensures quality control and improves robots aptitude to make independent decisions. The flexibility and learnability of robots allow them to become independent assistants and collaborators with humans, rather than machines working mostly separately from other human workers.

The new functions introduced by advanced robotics do not simply provide manufacturers with tools to produce goods faster and more efficiently, but will eventually alter the very composition of factories and the way they produce goods. Technological changes are influencing spending habits, as consumers increasingly expect customization and input into the products they purchase with a rapid turnaround. For example, a shopper might design their own shoe of a certain brand on that companys website, which would automatically be transmitted to robots on the production line, and then quickly shipped to the customer. The ability of robots to compute information and their flexibility to create variations of a single product allow for the manufacturing of individualized goods at comparable speeds to traditional repetitive mass production.

RELATED: Business Advisory Services from Dezan Shira & Associates

Falling Costs of Advanced Robotic Provides for New Sectors of Investment

The greater flexibility and intelligence of advanced robotics sets the stage for their proliferation across industries where they have traditionally been seldom used. According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, transportation equipment, electronics, machinery, and electrical equipment, appliances, and components will represent three quarters of all robotic installations over the next decade. However, robotics will also increasingly be deployed in food and beverage, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, and metals, among other industries.

The diffusion of advanced robotics into new sectors is not only due to growing capabilities, but also their newfound affordability. The price of a single unit once cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars, whereas several types are now available for below US$50,000. These prices are expected to drop another 20 percent over the next decade, while their performance is poised to increase by five percent annually.

Lower prices also benefit small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), who are often shut out from extensive adoption of robotics due to prohibitive costs. While SMEs with lower operating budgets would often be hesitant to commit to an expensive robot that performs a single task, there is less risk investing in advanced robotics capable of learning and executing multiple jobs. These features further benefit SMEs in particular, as their operations are often characterized by alternating products and producing small batches.

Despite these advantages, larger companies continue to dominate the purchasing of advanced robotics. Although prices have sharply decreased, many are still wary of the costs involved, which also include substantial installation, software, and maintenance fees  sometimes tripling the base unit price.

The Possibility of Advanced Robotics Replacing Traditional Human Labor

The potential for advanced robotics to replace unskilled human labor is a hotly debated issue. As robots become faster, more precise, and more intelligent, they will eventually become a more effective and lower cost alternative to human labor in many industries. By 2025, approximately 25 percent of all manufacturing tasks are expected to be done by robots, up from 10 percent in 2015. Oxford University estimates that 47 percent of American workers hold jobs that could eventually be replaced by computerized technology.

The Cambridge Industries Group in Shanghai, for example, boldly aims to replace 2,000 out of its 3,000 workers with machines in the short term, with the goal to eventually become nearly completely automated. Such operations are termed dark factories, as robots can produce goods 24/7 with the lights off, drastically limiting direct human involvement in manufacturing. While these transformations will create demand for high-skilled workers such as engineers, computer scientists, and data analysts, it is unlikely that a significant portion of existing low-skilled labor will be able to transition to these positions.

This technology is a threat to manufacturing powerhouses such as China, where increasing wages and transportation costs lessen the attractiveness of offshore manufacturing in the wake of advanced robotics. Many speculate about the reshoring of production away from low-cost countries to smaller localized factories close to a companys end market, as robots cost the same regardless of location.

Several countries are aiming to capitalize on the potential for recalibration of comparative manufacturing advantages, while others are lagging behind. China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. account for approximately 80 percent of all industrial advanced robotics purchases, while much of Western Europe lags behind. Forward-looking policies  such as Germanys ambitious Industry 4.0 campaign  labor law flexibility, and access to capital are key determinants of a countrys embrace of advanced robotics.

It is not a surprise to see that most countries adopting advanced robotics are highly developed post-industrial economies characterized by greater capital and expensive human labor. China, and to a lesser extent Thailand, stand out as less developed countries that are investing in advanced robotics to transition from their traditional reliance on cheap labor. The International Federation of Robotics predicts that China will be responsible for over a third of global industrial robot installations by 2018. However, due to the countrys incredible size, the number of robots per worker will still be significantly lower than in many developed economies. While China and Thailand are making efforts to adopt advanced technology, many other developing countries whose economies rely on cheap labor are at risk of exposure if developed economies are increasingly reshoring production through advanced robotics.

Adopting Advanced Robotics Presents Many Challenges to Investors

The efforts of companies such as the Cambridge Industries Group to aggressively replace human labor with advanced robotics demonstrates the belief that advanced robotics already offer a tangible ROI and can outperform humans in certain tasks. Mass adoption of advanced robotics, however, is a long term process that is sure to involve unexpected hurdles and technical challenges as companies fundamentally restructure their manufacturing processes. For example, Foxconn CEO Terry Gou stated in 2011 that he wanted a million robots in the companys factories by 2014, but fell well short of that goal with only a few tens of thousands installed by that time.

Progress in advanced robotics presents the potential to revolutionize manufacturing from a model reliant primarily on cheap labor to a more efficient and productive alternative centered on intelligent and programmable machines. The speed of innovation presents many challenges to investors, however. Investing too early might make investors lose out on vastly higher quality robotics and introduce technical headaches, while investing too late might leave them behind their competitors. As such, it is essential for investors to monitor the state of adoption within their industry and to create a long term transition plan. For work that is highly dexterous, unpredictable, and requires critical thinking, human labor remains a stronger option and should continue to be for many years. Although advanced robotics are not currently ideally suited to every industry, technological advancements are fundamentally disrupting longstanding methods of manufacturing and have the potential to transform the global economy.

About Emerging Strategy Emerging Strategy is the leading provider of customized market intelligence in the education industry. Their work in this industry focuses on bringing cutting-edge content, technologies, language learning, skill training and assessments in front of institutional and retail customers. For more information on Emerging Strategy and our services, please contact us at info@emerging-strategy.com. 

China Investment Roadmap: the Automotive Parts Industry

This issue of China Briefing presents a roadmap for investing in Chinas automotive industry. We begin by providing an overview of the industry, and then take a comprehensive look at key foreign investment considerations, including investment restrictions, tax incentives and manufacturing requirements. Finally, we discuss foreign investment opportunities in a part of the industry that receives substantial government support: new energy vehicles.

Adapting Your China WFOE to Service Chinas Consumers

In this issue of China Briefing Magazine, we look at the challenges posed to manufacturers amidst Chinas rising labor costs and stricter environmental regulations. Manufacturing WFOEs in China should adapt by expanding their business scope to include distribution and determine suitable supply chain solutions. In this regard, we will take a look at the opportunities in Chinas domestic consumer market and forecast the sectors that are set to boom in the coming years.

An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2015

Doing Business in China 2015 is designed to introduce the fundamentals of investing in China. Compiled by the professionals at Dezan Shira & Associates, this comprehensive guide is ideal not only for businesses looking to enter the Chinese market, but also for companies that already have a presence here and want to keep up-to-date with the most recent and relevant policy changes.
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German car producer Audi AG reported a year-on-year sales increase on Wednesday of four percent in the first quarter.

The company said it had delivered 455,754 automobiles of its brand to customers worldwide over the period.

According to the report, a total revenue of 14.5 billion euros (US$16.18 billion) was generated in the first three months of 2016, one percent lower than the same period last year.

Audi stated the decline of its revenue was primarily due to disadvantageous exchange rate effects and intense competition in some markets.

In addition, the operating profit amounted to 1.2 billion euros. The operating return on sales was 8.3 percent, the Ingolstadt-based company said.

"Besides exchange rate movements and special items, operating profit also reflects our high advance expenditure," said Axel Strotbek, a member of the board of management for finance and Internet technology.

"Nonetheless, our operating return on sales is within our strategic target corridor of eight to ten percent," he stressed.
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China's Ministry of Education (MOE) on Wednesday told departments and schools to check their stocks of inflammable and explosive chemicals.

Education departments will check research institutions, teaching laboratories, storehouses and other sites with hazardous chemicals.

Oil and gas pipelines, electric grid and other areas will also be checked, the MOE said, adding that risks found should be rectified and emergence plans made. Safety facilities, personal protective equipment and other safety facilities should be put in place and fully operational.

The MOE told local departments and schools to carry out fire control checks on a regular basis, as well as a fire control education and drill.
The Chinese government will cut red tape in science and research funding by removing unnecessary administrative barriers for universities and research institutions so as to better stimulate the enthusiasm of academics.

Arrangements of the upcoming improvement were decided during the State Council's executive meeting on Wednesday, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

"The best universities made their achievements with the enduring endeavors and enthusiasm of their research fellows and teachers, not by regulating rigidly," Li said. "Thus, it is important to harness the potential of researchers and teachers."

On Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed a conference organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the national congress of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST), stressing the importance of scientific research.

"Currently, the state needs the strategic support of science and technology more urgently than any other time in the past," Xi said.

Also speaking at the conference, Premier Li stressed that "scientific innovation needs to be boosted through institutional reform."

The premier has reiterated the idea that outdated administrative barriers to scientific research should be removed to boost potential and achieve innovation, as well as improve total factor productivity.

In his recent instruction to the CAST's innovation campaign, released on Tuesday, Li called for efforts to boost passion and vision in science and technology and better translate progress in that area into social and economic development.

"We need to acknowledge scientific researchers' contributions and learn from some developed countries that perform well in this regard. Raising financial rewards for researchers is a sign of acknowledgment," Li said while speaking to scientists and researchers at the Monday conference.

The upcoming measures mean that research funds will be granted under fewer administrative procedures and a more flexible way of using research funds is encouraged. The amended regulation calls for a professional finance system so that researchers can focus on research and will not be distracted by procedures.

Universities and research institutions will also be given more freedom in purchasing equipment for research purposes.

Proportional limits on service fees (or financial rewards) for researchers will be completely removed. Financial rewards for researchers were raised from the previous no more than 5 percent to no more than 20 percent of direct expenses after deduction of equipment procurement cost under the amended regulation.

Also, all participants in research projects, including graduate students and visiting scholars, will be eligible to get paid.

Complicated requirements regarding travel reimbursement, such as invoices, during traveling and attending conferences have long been a headache for researchers. A number of rigid rules exist in this regard, creating problems for researchers in carrying out field work and inviting research fellows for academic conferences.

Under the new regulation, reimbursement for business trips and holding academic conferences will be more convenient. Universities will be allowed to create their own regulations regarding reimbursement for traveling expenses, ensuring that researchers won't be burdened by invoice procedures while carrying out field research and attending conferences.

During the Wednesday meeting, Li urged the departments and ministries concerned to revise improper regulations based on the discussions at the meeting, and to ensure that policies from the State Council are fully implemented on the ground. He stressed that this is to make sure that the amended regulation and policy will truly bring benefits and convenience to researchers.

The premier has frequently pointed out such problems while visiting research institutions and universities. During his visit to Tsinghua University in April, he asked how research funds are used while talking with Shi Yigong, dean of the School of Life Sciences at Tsinghua who spent years doing research in the United States.

Li pointed out there is still a gap between China and leading nations of higher education, and that China's rules are too rigid for granting research funds, making China less attractive to first-class talent.

Heads of several universities in Beijing and government departments concerned attending Wednesday's meeting were delighted at the new regulation, saying it will help solve long-existing problems that have burdened universities, and will help generate greater enthusiasm for researchers and increase efficiency.

The State Council and ministries in charge will continue to monitor the implementation of the new policy.

China has 81 million science and technology workers. They are known as the "backbone" of the country's innovation-driven development strategy.
Police rushed to evacuate more than 10,000 people in a southwestern city in China after a 15-year-old boy made a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, Chengdu Business Daily reported.

More than 10,000 people are evacuated in Shifang City of Southwest China's Sichuan Province after a 15-year-old boy makes a bomb threat. (Photo/Chengdu Business Daily)

The out-of-school teenager lived with his father, who was separated from his mother, in Shifang City of Southwest China's Sichuan Province. Due to a lack of parental guidance, the boy was often idle and had run away several times.

At about 8.30pm on May 28, he called local police and said there would be bomb blasts in two hours at the city's Zhuxi Park, where many residents walk in the evening.

About 140 police officers and several police cars were quickly mobilized to evacuate residents and nearby merchants. A thorough search found no explosives.

Police later caught the boy, who said he made the call because he was bored and hadn't thought through the consequences.

The juvenile would face administrative punishment, local media reported.
The State Council decided on Wednesday, which was International Children's Day, to introduce new measures to better protect vulnerable children in China.

The children of migrant workers in Hujia village, Jiangxi province, receive gifts in advance of Children's Day, which falls on June 1. [Photo/China Daily]

The decision was made during a State Council executive meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang.

"Children living in extremely difficult circumstances need special care and protection," Li emphasized at the meeting. "The government should work to build a safety net to better protect them."

Li was referring to children who endure harsh living conditions because of poverty, health problems or lack of parental custody or who have been abducted. Major problems that these children face include severe poverty and a lack of medical treatment and education.

A document circulated at the meeting introduced specific requirements for central ministries and local governments to provide comprehensive assistance to these children.

Such efforts will include providing financial aid and special medical care coverage.

Local governments are urged to fully implement compulsory education and guarantee that children's guardians fulfill their custodial responsibilities.

"Protecting children in difficult conditions is an important part of our efforts to build a moderately prosperous society, as well as a social safety net that leaves no one unprotected," Li said.

He also said the government needs to fulfill its duty to protect children in difficulty, and must further improve and revise legislation and policies in this regard.

Increasing subsidies and providing better protection for vulnerable children were put forth by the premier in the Government Work Report he delivered in March last year. During Wednesday's meeting, he also called for social efforts to create a good environment that offers more protection and care for such children.

The new document, an update of a version released in 2014, also calls for nongovernmental efforts in conjunction with governments' work to protect children.

The meeting also decided that a free, 12-year education through high school will be provided to children with disabilities from poor families. The country now offers a free, nine-year compulsory education, for elementary and middle school, for all children.

According to the Children's Welfare Institute at Beijing Normal University, the nation has at least 570,000 vulnerable children, 91 percent of whom are without parental custody because their mother left them to remarry after their father died.

Since 2013, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has carried out a pilot program in 50 counties and county-level cities, such as Kunshan in Jiangsu province, with the aim of establishing a universal welfare system for children.

"The measures indicated China has made progress in children's care, as the welfare has expanded from basic needs of food and accommodations to educational services, which may help these children in looking for a job when they grow up," said Tao Chuanjin, a researcher at the China Philanthropy Research Institute.

The meeting also decided to improve the process by which governments buy services from social organizations to provide these children with such care as psychological counseling.

How to improve services is the key, because of a lack of professionals and specialized institutes offering assistance, said Guan Xinping, a professor of child research at Nankai University.
The China Internet Information Center, a state news website publishing news and information in 10 languages, signed an agreement yesterday with China Zheshang Bank, in a bid to push forward financial innovation with safe and diversified services.

The China Internet Information Center, a state news website publishing news and information in 10 languages, signed an agreement yesterday with China Zheshang Bank, in a bid to push forward financial innovation with safe and diversified services.[Photo/China.com.cn]

China Zheshang Bank saw double-digit growth last year, as revenues reached 25.13 billion yuan (US$3.82 billion), soaring by 44.45 percent year on year. Meanwhile, net profits hit 7 billion yuan, registering a year-on-year growth of 38.37 percent.

Liu Xiaochun, president of China Zheshang Bank, said, the tie-up with CIIC opens a window for the bank to get touch with the flow of information from the external world and gives full play to the internet-plus-finance model which will hopefully generate high values by providing financial products which are safer, more stable and convenient to a wider audience in the international community.

He also promised that the bank will use the strategic cooperation as a precious opportunity to share financial innovation ideas prompted by new economic concepts.

Wang Xiaohui, editor-in-chief of the CIIC, said that the CIIC has always been committed to disseminating Chinese cultures, philosophies and viewpoints, and helping domestic businesses expand by spreading their corporate culture and concepts.

As commercial banking businesses constitute a pillar of the financial sector, China Zheshang Bank, which has expanded their business from financing start-ups and private-owned enterprises to the international market, has drawn considerable attention from its peers, Wang said.

"The supreme advantage of the China Zheshang Bank is its reliance on core products, and we believe that the future of the bank is promising. We are willing to make use of our resources to present the bank to a global audience so that its influence can be expanded among the social and international communities," said Wang.
A single mother caught shoplifting for her sick child has received public donations of more than 300,000 yuan ($45,600 U.S dollars), after her arresting officer posted her story online recognizing her as not just a woman breaking the law but a woman in need.

The mother and daughter could only afford to squeeze themselves into a two- square-meter room. [Photo: Modern Express]

According to newspaper Modern Express, Liu Jinjia, a divorced mother, was on May 31 caught shoplifting a drumstick and a children's book at a supermarket in Nanjing of east China's Jiangsu province- apparently as Children's Day gifts for her ill daughter.

She has two daughters, both of whom suffer from renal disease. Liu brought one of her daughters, who is 7 years old and suffers from severe symptoms, from their home in east China's Shandong province to Nanjing for treatment on May 25. But as a worker at a recovery station she could only manage to earn less than 50 yuan ($7.6 U.S dollars) a day. Most of her money is spent on her daughter's treatment, which costs more than 100 yuan ($15 U.S dollars) a day. The mother and daughter could only afford a two-square-meter room to sleep in at night.

Liu said her daughter wished to receive a drumstick as a Children's Day gift. The book, the Three-Character Classic, is a textbook required for her daughter's class that she had not been able to afford.

She only planned to buy some grain for her daughter, but she could not resist the desire to give her child a happy Children's Day, Liu said.

Touched by Liu's story, a policeman posted details of her situation on his Wechat account, a Chinese mobile messaging app, asking for donations and help.

The story was picked up by local news portal Modern Express, who reposted Liu's story on China's twitter-like Weibo account, and even set up a donation channel for the family.

The post quickly went viral and was forwarded by many Chinese celebrities such as actress Yao Chen, gathering donations of over 300,000 yuan ($45,600 U.S dollars) in less than three hours.

The incident has also sparked debate on social media, focusing on the rights and wrongs behind the "most tragic Children's Day gift".

"I don't support illegalities, but I do feel very sorry for them," said @Yisuoyanyuheiheihei.

"The mother was wrong, and received her due punishment; but it's also justifiable to donate money to her. They shouldn't be paradoxical," said @Xiaotuzibuaixiao.

Some also looked deeper into the case and reflected upon the flaws in China's welfare system that failed to offer the sick and impoverished sufficient subsidies.

"The case reminds me of a story: in 1935, Mayor LaGuardia of New York City levied a 10-dollar fine on a woman who had stolen a loaf of bread for her starving family, but then he fined everyone in the courtroom fifty cents, for 'living in a city where a person has to steal bread in order to eat'," remarked @Lanbanmeiwen.

"When a man commits a crime for money, it is the man who is guilty; when a man commits a crime for food, it is the society that is guilty; when a man commits a crime for his dignity, it is every one of us that is guilty," @Zaizaimiguang.
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China on Wednesday condemned the terrorist attack in Mali in which a Chinese peacekeeper was killed and four others were injured. China has asked the Mali government and the UN to investigate the incident immediately.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying answers questions at a press conference in Beijing on June 1, 2016.

According to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was attacked early Wednesday morning.

"We extend our deepest condolences to the victims and express our heartfelt sympathy to the wounded and the families of the victims," Hua said.

The Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council are taking the incident very seriously, Hua said, noting that emergency response and follow-up measures had been launched immediately.

The attack targeted UN peacekeepers, making it a terrible, intolerable crime, Hua said.

Hua reiterated that the Chinese government firmly supports peace and stability in Africa.

At present, more than 2,400 Chinese peacekeepers are operating in seven African task areas including Mali, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Hua said.

China will continue to participate in international peacekeeping operations and contribute to peace and security in Africa, Hua said.

The Defense Ministry also condemned the attack.

"The Chinese military is shocked by this terrorist attack," Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said in a statement.

The Chinese military has set emergency response procedures in motion and China will take all necessary measures to save the injured, and protect the lives and security of all Chinese personnel, Wu said.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China will continue to support UN peacekeeping operations, resolutely oppose terrorism in all forms and safeguard world peace, Wu added.
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The Kremlin expects an apology and compensation from Turkey for a Su-24 aircraft which was downed in November last year, as a first step to restore bilateral ties, a spokesman said Wednesday.

"I don't think I'm in a position to recommend anything to a president of another country, which would be incorrect, but I feel it necessary to remind of the repeated declarations of the president of our country on this issue," Tass news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

He recalled that shortly after the downing of the Russian Su-24 jet by the Turkish air force, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow expected an apology, an explanation of the incident, compensation for the downed aircraft and payment to the family of the killed pilot.

The Kremlin regretted the fact that Ankara still had not taken any necessary steps to resolve the current crisis in bilateral relations, Peskov said.

Putin said last week during a visit to Greece that Moscow was ready to restore relations with Turkey but expected some "concrete steps" from Ankara.

In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday he wanted Ankara to improve ties with Moscow, but was not sure what first step it was expected to take.

Erdogan also called the Su-24 incident a "pilot error" not worth sacrificing relations between the two countries.

Relations between Russia and Turkey have soured after Turkish forces shot down a Russian Su-24 jet near the Turkish-Syrian border on Nov. 24, 2015 for alleged airspace violation, which the Russian side denied and saw as a hostile act.

Putin then described the attack as a "stab in the back from accomplices of terrorism" and ordered imposing a broad range of economic sanctions against Turkey.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Wednesday to keep East Jerusalem under Israeli control "for eternity," only two days before a Middle East peace summit in Paris.

"Jerusalem is the nation's heart, our undivided capital," Netanyahu told the Knesset, or parliament, during a special session ahead of "Jerusalem Day" on June 2.

He added that Jewish ties to the city extend back to King David's time, the Jewish king who ruled the city between 1010 and 970 BC.

Each year, Israel marks the "merging" of the eastern and western parts of the city during "Jerusalem Day," an event which includes a flag parade who march from the western to the eastern part of the city in Palestinian neighborhoods.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Later, it annexed East Jerusalem, claiming it as part of its "undivided capital," in a move which the international community never acknowledged.

The remarks came ahead of the Parisian June 3 convention of foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in preparation for a peace conference in autumn.

Israel fears that the conference which aims to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, would impose strong international pressure on it in order to reach a territorial agreement with Palestinians.
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Pakistan introduced a new mechanism on Wednesday that requires Afghans to carry valid travel documents for crossing the border.

Pakistani officials said they have put in place the new border management system to check illegal cross-border movement as militants also take advantage of the loose control.

Spokesman for the Pakistani embassy in Kabul Akhtar Munir told Xinhua that nearly 20,000 people cross the Torkham border daily, a large majority of them without passports and visa because of relation for the locals on both sides of the border.

Some Pakistani experts suggest that people living 5 miles (approximately 8 km) on both sides could cross the border without any documents under an agreement.

Residents at Torkham said hundreds of people and vehicles were stuck at the busy border crossing due to the new system as majority people living close to the border do not keep passports and had long been crossing the border without documents.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share an around 2,600-km border and mostly porous.

Pakistani security guards at the border made announcements over the loudspeakers, warning Afghans against travelling to Pakistan without valid documents, witnesses said.

Afghanistan was seeking delay in enforcement of strict condition in view of the upcoming the holy Muslim month of fasting. However Pakistani started implementation of the new system.

Pakistani officials said the system will be later extended to other border crossings, depending on availability of funds.

Pakistan temporarily closed Torkham border last month after Kabul raised objections at the fencing of the border at some points to stop the movement of the militants. The border was later opened at the order of the country's army chief.
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The Swedish government has announced it will extend the country's temporary external border controls until November 11.

The border controls were introduced in November 2015 as Sweden experienced an unprecedented inflow of asylum seekers. Sweden's center-left government then said the controls would be assessed on a monthly basis.

However, on Wednesday Sweden's minister for home affairs, Anders Ygeman, told Swedish Television that the European Union has acknowledged the necessity of Sweden's border controls and that is why it can be extended for another six months.

The Swedish government will report to the European Commission every other month with updates on how the border controls are working.

The controls means anyone crossing the border into Sweden can be asked to show a valid ID and can be denied entry if they do not hold a valid visa or permit to enter the country.

The border controls will remain in the same locations in southern and western Sweden as well as at the Oresund bridge that connects Sweden and Denmark, which has also extended its ID controls along the German border until November 12.

Previously, Swedish police have complained over a lack of resources to handle the inflow of asylum seekers and Ygeman said the government will make a decision in the fall regarding potentially injecting more funds into the police force.
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The European Commission on Wednesday set out its vision on how European standard settings should evolve in the light of technological developments, political priorities and global trends.

Its communication presented a vision for a single and coherent European Union (EU) standardization policy which features higher on the political agenda and where the priorities are regularly discussed with the European Parliament and EU member states.

The Commission also announced next steps on the Joint Initiative on Standardization (JIS), which aims to reinforce the partnership between the European institutions and the standardization community. The JIS would be formally launched by all partners on June 13 in Amsterdam under the Dutch presidency of Council of the EU.

The proposal for a 2017 work program for European standardization also identified the services and ICT sectors as priority areas for future standard-setting, given their cross-cutting role in the economy.

"Often seen as merely technical issue, standards are important economic drivers," emphasized the Commission.

"Largely voluntary and industry-driven, European standards need to keep pace with the changing economy, the increasing importance of services, and the digital revolution," added the Commission.
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The Africa Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has opened a new military training facility for the soldiers as part of efforts to stabilize the Horn of Africa nation.

Francisco Madeira, the Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (SRCC) for Somalia, said the facility will be used to train the Somali National Army (SNA) on urban warfare in Mogadishu.

"The facility, whose construction began in December last year, consists of a collection of buildings that mimic an urban or a built-up fighting area," Madeira said in a statement released by AMISOM in Mogadishu on Wednesday.

Madeira who toured the training centre said he was impressed by the ongoing progress of construction works, aimed at expanding the centre.

He said training of Somali military personnel is a key part of AMISOM's mandate and is essential in helping achieve the exit strategy for African Union troops.

The AU envoy also hailed the European Union and United Nations for supporting military training programmes in Jazeera.

"Without trained Somali soldiers and officers, we will have a lot of difficulties to leave you without an army that will be capable of securing the Government, the administration, the population and the infrastructure," Madeiera said.

"So, that puts a dilemma on us. You need to train well and train quickly and be motivated to continue the work that we have been able to do," he added.

AMISOM Acting Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Mohammedesha Zeyinu, said fighting in built-up areas is peculiar and requires specialised training.

"Such kind of training facility is very important to train and build our soldiers physically, mentally, and psychologically in order to enable them to overcome different manmade and natural obstacles that they may find in built-up areas," Zeyinu said.

The officials say Al-Shabaab militants have been going for soft targets in urban areas and both AMISOM and the Somali government have vowed to work together to defeat to the asymmetrical warfare adopted by Al- Shabaab.
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At least three senior Al-Shabaab militants including most wanted insurgent leader are believed to have been killed in southern Somalia by Somalia security forces on Tuesday night, officials said on Wednesday.

Abdirashid Hassan Abdinur, Minister of security for Jubbaland State said the three were killed during a security operation in Bulo-Gadud location, some 30 km north of the coast town of Kismayo, the administrative capital of Jubbaland state in Somalia.

Abdinur said Mohamed Mohamud Ali alias Dulyadayn, most wanted Al-Shabaab leader was among the militants killed in a special operation in lower Jubba region.

"This was successful operation conducted by Somali National Army's Commandos and Jubbaland forces at Bulo-Gadud location. Mohamed Mohamud Ali known as Dulyadayn was among three militants targeted, he was behind terrorist attacks inside Somalia and neighboring Kenya, the two others are Farhan and Mo'alim Isaak," Abdinur said.

The Somali government has placed a bounty on Dulyadayn's head and urged the public to volunteer information that could lead to his arrest.

Some reports say the special forces using fighter jets conducted operations in Farwamo and Bulo-Gadud villages, and engaged in a fierce gunfire with Al-Shabaab militants.

Al-Shabaab pulled out its fighters from hideouts in the area, following the foreign forces attack.

Al-Shabaab militants did not comment on the latest military victory against them in southern Somalia. Kismayo is 500 km south of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Somali National Army's Commandos division "Danab" backed by foreign troops have carried out successful operations in Middle Shabelle region several times earlier, but this is the first one of its kind in lower Jubba region.
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The Nigerian troops will intensify offensive in Sambisa Forest, the stronghold of Boko Haram, to rid it of militants from the Islamist group.

Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin on Wednesday said the Operation Crack Down recently launched into Sambisa Forest was yielding positive results, including the rescue of two Chibok girls.

The two are the first group of Chibok groups to be rescued since their abduction by Boko Haram militants some two years ago.

More than 200 girls were taken from their secondary school in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok in April 2014. In all, 217 girls remain missing.

Olonisakin said the operation was continuing in the forest, believed to be the last stronghold of Boko Haram.

He said the Boko Haram militants had been "decimated" and that it had become increasingly difficult for them to carry out attacks in the country.

The troops say many Boko Haram militants have surrendered to them during their offensive.

Boko Haram has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in northeastern Nigeria, since it launched its campaign of violence in 2009.

The Nigerian army has in the past year retaken most territory previously under Boko Haram control.
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Yemeni warring parties on Wednesday exchanged 35 prisoners in the country's southern embattled city of Taiz through a mediation led by the International Committee of the Red Cross, a spokesman of the Taiz's pro-government resistance forces said.

"We exchanged today (Wednesday) 19 prisoners from Shiite Houthi militia and their allied forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in return for 16 prisoners of our Taiz resistance forces," spokesman Abdulrahman Saleh told Xinhua.

"The prisoner exchange was done after a five-month-long mediation coordinated by the International Committee of the Red Cross," he said.

Like other major cities, most of Taiz's districts are still under control of Houthi and Saleh forces.

The Iran-allied Shiite Houthi group and forces loyal to Saleh advanced from their far north stronghold of Saada province and stormed the capital Sanaa and other cities in September 2014, dissolved the Saudi-backed government and expelled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on allegations of combating "corruption."

Saudi-led coalition air forces intervened since March 2015, vowing to return Hadi to power and Sanaa. So far, Hadi and his government were still in exile in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The civil war has escalated since then, leaving more than 6,000 killed so far in ground battles and airstrikes, half of them are civilians.

The ongoing conflict also has forcibly displaced more than 2.4 million people in Yemen.

The warring parties now have been in talks in Kuwait since April under the auspices of the United Nations to end the war.

Last week, the delegates of both sides in Kuwait agreed to a major prisoner exchange to be carried out before the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.

The move was considered as a show of goodwill to end about 14-month war and ease the prolonged humanitarian crisis.

The sides have submitted lists of about 7,000 prisoner requests, which include political detainees, to UN mediators.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a press conference last week that the International Committee of the Red Cross had met with the delegations to show its possible role in facilitate a release process.

The fragile ceasefire has been largely held since it went into effect on April 10 to pave a smooth road for the ongoing talks in Kuwait.

The government also demand the opposition delegates to comply with the UN Security Council Resolution 2216 that orders them to withdraw from the capital and disarm.
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The Nigerian Navy has arrested seven people on suspicion of criminal activities in the oil-rich coastal Delta state.

Rear Admiral Muhammed Garba, a flag officer, on Wednesday said the suspects were caught in the last one week in and near Batan community.

Seven boats and 490 metric tons of illegally refined diesel were found during the arrest, Garba told reports at the Warri Naval Base.

He said five suspects were being interrogated over alleged involvement in a recent bombing at installations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

He said another suspect was allegedly involved in killing two soldiers on May 10 in Batan community, while the last suspect was accused of extortion.

The suspects will be handed over to relevant authorities after the preliminary probes by the navy.
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An estimated 70 civilians have been killed or injured by hostilities across Libya in May, including seven children killed, and another five injured, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday.

"The majority of deaths and injuries were caused by shelling, including mortars, artillery and other indirect weapons," Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here, citing a casualty report for May by the UN Support Mission in Libya. "Most casualties occurred in Benghazi."

In Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, a coalition led by the Libyan army is fighting on two fronts, against the forces of so-called Islamic State and Islamist militias.

For the past year and half, Benghazi, where the Libyan crisis started in 2011, has been the scene of endless fighting which has left hundreds dead and many thousands homeless.

The North African country Libya has witnessed a drastic escalation of violence after the 2011 turmoil which toppled former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The Islamist militants and pro-secular militia have been vying for cities and towns for months, causing a security havoc in the country.
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The UN Security Council on Wednesday "strongly condemned" the most recent failed ballistic missile launches of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on May 31 and April 27-28.

"These repeated attempted launches are in grave violation of the DPRK's international obligations under United Nations Security Council resolutions," the 15-nation UN council said in a statement.

"The members of the Security Council deplore all DPRK ballistic missile activities, including these multiple failed launches, noting that such activities contribute to the DPRK's development of nuclear weapons delivery systems and increase tension," it said.

"The members of the Security Council further regretted that the DPRK is diverting resources to the pursuit of ballistic missiles while DPRK citizens have great unmet needs," the statement said.

The Security Council has adopted five resolutions -- resolutions 1718 (2006), 1874 (2009), 2087 (2013), 2094 (2013) and 2270 (2016) -- to curb the DPRK's nuclear and missile programs.

The latest one adopted in March imposes the most severe sanctions yet on the country, including an export ban and asset freeze.

"The members of the Security Council expressed serious concern that the DPRK conducted this series of further ballistic missile launches after the April 15 and April 23 launches, in flagrant disregard of the repeated statements of the Security Council," the statement said.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea shall refrain from further actions," it said.

The council members called on all member states to redouble their efforts to implement fully the measures imposed on the DPRK by the Security Council, particularly the comprehensive measures contained in resolution 2270 (2016), it said.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated the importance of maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in North-East Asia at large," the statement said.

"They expressed their commitment to a peaceful, diplomatic and political solution to the situation and welcomed efforts by council members as well as other States to facilitate a peaceful and comprehensive solution through dialogue," it said.

The Six-Party Talks which involve the DPRK, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the United States have been stalled since late 2008.

The members of the Security Council agreed that the Security Council would continue to closely monitor the situation and take further significant measures in line with the Security Council's previously expressed determination, it added.
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At least 15 people were killed when airstrikes targeted a town in the northwestern province of Idlib on Wednesday, a monitor group reported.

Airstrikes by unidentified aircrafts targeted the town of Sieger in the countryside of Idlib, leaving two women and two children among those killed, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The death toll could likely rise as 25 people are suffering critical wounds.

Idlib, much of which controlled by an array of jihadi groups, has been under intensified airstrikes over the past couple of days.

The rebels accused Russia of being behind the first airstrike that killed 23 people on Tuesday, a claim later denied by Russia.

Reports said the airstrikes could be a prelude to a wide-scale military offensive in Idlib between the Syrian army and the rebels there.
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The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday took further steps to restrict the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from the global financial system.

In a statement, the Treasury Department announced that the DPRK is a "primary money laundering concern" and recommended a measure to prohibit "covered U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts with North Korea (DPRK's) financial institutions."

Current U.S. law already generally prohibits U.S. financial institutions from engaging in both direct and indirect transactions with DPRK's financial institutions, according to the statement.

The proposed measure, if finalized, would require U.S. financial institutions to implement "additional due diligence measures" in order to prevent DPRK's banking institutions from gaining improper indirect access to U.S. correspondent accounts.

The measure would also prohibit the use of third-country banks' U.S. correspondent accounts to process transactions for DPRK's financial institutions.

"The United States, the UN Security Council, and our partners worldwide remain clear-eyed about the significant threat that North Korea (DPRK) poses to the global financial system," said Adam Szubin, Acting Under Secretary of Treasury. "Today's action is a further step toward severing banking relationships with North Korea (DPRK)."

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on March 2, which in part requires UN Member States to sever correspondent banking relationships with DPRK's financial institutions within 90 days of the adoption of the resolution.

Szubin called on other governments and financial authorities to do likewise pursuant to the UN Security Council Resolution.

"It is essential that we all take action to prevent the regime from abusing financial institutions around the world -- through their own accounts or other means," he said.
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The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said Wednesday that 867 Iraqis were killed and 1,459 others wounded in terrorism, violence and armed conflicts in May across Iraq.

Security forces arrive at the site of a car bomb attack at a popular outdoor market in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City district, in eastern area of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on May 11, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The figures included 468 civilians killed and 1,041 others wounded, while 399 security members were killed and 418 others wounded, UNAMI said in a statement.

UNAMI figures excluded the casualties in Iraq's western province of Anbar as it was extremely difficult to verify the casualties in the province where fierce clashes are underway as the security forces have carried out major offensive to free the city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of Baghdad, and surrounding areas from the Islamic State (IS) militants.

The statement said the UN envoy to Iraq and the UNAMI chief Jan Kubis lamented the continuing loss of lives among terrorist attacks and armed clashes, urging the government of Iraq to take necessary and more effective measures to protect civilians.

"Iraqi civilians have become the target of terrorist suicide bombers and car bombs. Residential neighborhoods have sustained heavy damage. Armed clashes have spared no one. I urge the Government to make every effort to prevent the occurrence of such outrages," Kubis said.

He also reiterated his call on the concerning parties in Anbar province, particularly in battlefield in Fallujah, to "protect the civilians and to preserve Fallujah's infrastructure in accordance with the relevant principles of international human rights and humanitarian law."

"Innocent civilians should not pay the price for the crimes of Daesh (IS group)," he said.

A month ago, the casualties registered 741 people killed and 1,374 others injured in terrorist attacks and violence across the country.

On May 23, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the offensive to capture Fallujah.

Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for the Joint Military Command, said that intelligence reports indicate that about 400 to 600 militants are in Fallujah, many of them foreigners. He said about 50,000 to 70,000 civilians are expected to remain in Fallujah.

Government troops and allied militias have currently been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns in Anbar from IS militants, who attempted to advance towards Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province.

Iraq is currently witnessing a wave of violence since the IS controlled parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.
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The UN Security Council on Wednesday "condemned in the strongest terms" a terrorist attack on Tuesday against the camp of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) in Gao, North Mali, during which one Chinese peacekeeper was killed.

"The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of the victim, as well as to the government of the People's Republic of China and to MINUSMA," the 15-nation UN body said in a statement issued to the press here. "They paid tribute to the peacekeepers who risk their lives."

"The members of the Security Council called on the Government of Mali to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice," the statement said. "They underlined that attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law."

The attack took place at approximately 20:45 pm (local time) on Tuesday when the MINUSMA camp in the Water Tower neighborhood of Gao was the target of an attack by mortars or rockets, which also left four other Chinese peacekeepers injured.

Also on Wednesday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "is outraged by the terrorist attacks carried out yesterday in Gao, Mali, against the United Nations."

"The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security," the council statement said. "The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice."

"They stressed that those responsible for these killings should be held accountable, and urged all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with all relevant authorities in this regard," said the statement.

"The members of the Security Council reiterated that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed," the statement said. "They reaffirmed the need for all States to combat by all means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and other obligations under international law, including international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law, threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts."

The members of the Security Council reiterated their full support for MINUSMA and the French forces that support it, the statement said, adding that they reiterated their strong support for the special representative of the secretary-general for Mali, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, and for MINUSMA to assist the Malian authorities and the Malian people in their efforts to bring lasting peace and stability to their country, including through MINUSMA's support to the implementation of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali.

"The members of the Security Council expressed their concern about the security situation in Mali," the statement said. "They noted that the full implementation of the Agreement and the intensification of efforts to overcome asymmetric threats can contribute to improving the security situation across Mali. They further stressed the importance that MINUSMA has the necessary capacities to fully fulfil its current mandate."

The latest deadly terrorist attack on UN peacekeepers in Mali was the second with a couple of days, in which five UN peacekeepers from Togo were killed.

MINUSMA was established by the UN Security Council on April 25, 2013. Under the relevant Security Council resolution, the UN mission is mandated to support the political process in the West African country and carry out a number of security-related stabilization tasks, with a focus on major population centers and lines of communication and protecting civilians.

Since a military coup struck Mali in March 2012, its northern region has served as a stronghold of the rebels.

Mali is now in the process of restoring democracy with the help of the United Nations and African regional bodies, including the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Despite initial security improvements in 2013, the situation in northern Mali has deteriorated since the beginning of 2014. An increase in incidents involving improvised explosive devices, mostly targeting Malian and international security forces, has impeded the return to normalcy and resumption of economic and development activities.
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The UN children fund (UNICEF) on Wednesday warned that at least 20,000 Iraqi children remain trapped in the city of Fallujah where Iraqi security forces are fighting to drive out the Islamic State (IS) militants from the city.

"UNICEF estimates that at least 20,000 children remain trapped in the city. According to reports, food and medicine are running out and clean water is in short supply," the organization said in a statement.

Since the breakout of clashes between the security forces and IS militants around the city, which located some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, very few families managed to flee the city while larger number of families left their homes in the surrounding towns and villages, the statement said.

"Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting, strict procedures for security screening and separation from their families," the statement added.

"UNICEF calls on all parties to protect children inside Fallujah, provide safe passage to those wishing to leave the city and grant safe and secure environments to displaced civilians," it said.

The statement came as the Iraqi forces and allied paramilitary Shiite and Sunni units, known as Hashd Shaabi, continued their battles around the IS-held town of Saqlawiyah in northwest of Fallujah, in an attempt to free the town from IS militants.

The battles around Fallujah continued as the troops faced fierce resistance from the extremist militants inside the city.

Moreover, the troops' advance is expected to be slow as the security forces have orders to spare the lives of tens of thousands of civilians trapped inside Fallujah, in addition to hundreds of hidden bombs are believed to be planted by the militants to hamper the advance of the troops.

Earlier, Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for the Joint Military Command, said that intelligence reports indicate that about 400 to 600 militants are in Fallujah, many of them foreigners. He said about 50,000 to 70,000 civilians are expected to remain in Fallujah.

Also on Wednesday, United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement that a total of 867 Iraqis were killed and 1,459 others wounded in acts of terrorism, violence and armed conflicts in May across Iraq, urging the Iraqi government to take every effort to protect civilians.

UN envoy to Iraq and the UNAMI chief Jan Kubis also called concerning parties in Anbar province, particularly in battlefield in Fallujah, to take every effort to "protect the lives of civilians and to preserve Fallujah's infrastructure in accordance with the relevant principles of international human rights and humanitarian law," according to the statement.

"Innocent civilians should not pay the price for the crimes of Daesh (IS group)," the statement quoted Kubis as saying.

On May 23, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of the offensive to claim Fallujah.

Government troops and allied militias have currently been fighting for months to reclaim key cities and towns in Anbar from IS militants, who attempted to advance towards Baghdad after seizing most of Anbar province.

Iraq is currently witnessing a wave of violence since the Islamic State controlled parts of Iraq's northern and western regions in June 2014.
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China and Azerbaijan have pledged to explore potentials of cooperation in areas including energy and production capacity in the hope of further promoting bilateral ties.

The pledge came as Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli met respectively with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Artur Rasizade on Tuesday and Wednesday.

During his meeting with Aliyev on Tuesday, Zhang spoke highly of the sound development of bilateral relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties 24 years ago.

"China is willing to work with Azerbaijan to consolidate traditional friendship, dig potentials of cooperation so as to further advance bilateral ties," Zhang told Aliyev.

Aliyev paid a state visit to China last December, during which he and Chinese President Xi Jinping mapped out a comprehensive and strategic blueprint for the development of future bilateral ties, reaching broad consensus, said Zhang.

The two presidents also signed a series of agreements including a memorandum of understanding over the Silk Road Economic Belt, a Chinese initiative.

Zhang encouraged the two countries to implement the agreement and explore cooperation in production capacity, equipment manufacturing, transport, logistics, oil and gas, renewable resources, metallurgy and telecommunications.

Echoing Zhang's remarks, Aliyev said the agreements signed during his visit to Beijing have laid a sound foundation for future development of relationship with China.

He said Azerbaijan views its ties with China as a foreign policy priority, adding that his country is ready to give full play to the geographic location so as to actively participate in the construction of the Silk Road Economic Belt.

The president said the two countries have great potential in energy, transport, agricultural products trade, high-technology and tourism, adding that Azerbaijan would like to see more Chinese investment.

On the political front, Zhang said China attaches great importance to the ties with Azerbaijan. He called on both sides to enhance mutual trust and support, maintain high-level visits and promote exchanges of personnel in different ministries and areas and at different levels.

He encouraged the two countries to enhance cooperation between political parties, exchange views on governance, the regional situation as well as major international issues and expand region-to-region and cultural cooperation in order to cement the public opinion basis for the friendship.

Aliyev appreciated China's important role in regional and international issues, expressing the will to beef up cooperation with China in international organizations.

During his talks with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Rasizade on Wednesday, Zhang said Azerbaijan is a major country along the ancient Silk Road.

China is willing to work with Azerbaijan to promote more fruitful results out of the Silk Road Economic Belt, said Zhang.

He called on both sides to synergize strategies, optimize trade structure, deepen cooperation on production capacity and enrich the cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

For his part, Rasizade said Azerbaijan is glad to see the remarkable achievements China has scored, and thanked China for all the assistance and help it has provided since the Transcaucasian country got independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991.

He said Azerbaijan is ready to maintain the good momentum of the development of bilateral ties so as to promote cooperation to a new level.

After the talks, Zhang and Rasizade witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents.
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Two civilians were killed and 16 others wounded in an explosion in Afghanistan's eastern province of Laghman on Thursday, spokesman for provincial government said.

"An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was detonated in Alishing district bazaar at around midday. The blast caused two civilians killed and 16 others wounded," spokesman Sarhadi Zwak told Xinhua.

The injured were shifted to district hospital. One woman and a child were among the wounded and most of the injured were in stable condition, according to Zwak.

The target of the blast remained unknown and no group has claimed responsibility for the incident yet.

Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since early April when the militant group launched its annual rebel offensive in different areas of the country.

The Taliban urged civilians to stay away from official gatherings. Military convoys and centers were regarded as the legitimate targets by militants besides warning people not to support the government.

About 600 civilians were killed and more than 1,340 others wounded in conflict-related violence and Taliban-led attacks in first quarter of the year, according to UN mission in the country.

The UNAMA has attributed 60 percent of the casualties to the Taliban and other insurgent groups, 19 percent were attributed to security forces while the rest 21 percent of civilian casualties were unattributed or caused by explosive remnants of war.
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Quite a number of Western press stories on the South China Sea issue have been both inaccurate and unhelpful, said a Canadian scholar on politics on Wednesday.

"You will almost always see in Western press stories on the South China Sea the statement that China claimed almost the entire South China Sea, this is factually incorrect," said David Welch, professor of political science at Canada's University of Waterloo.

"The Chinese has never officially said that," he said at the 30th Asia-Pacific Roundtable.

Furthermore, on the media coverage, readers almost always see reference to "China's aggressive behavior or China's aggressive land reclamation in the South China Sea."

"The Chinese could be doing what China is doing in the South China Sea for a variety of reasons; only some could count as aggressive, there are defensive reasons," said Welch.

"Labeling China's behavior as aggressive... in effect contributes to the demonization of China," he said.

Welch also took aim at claims in Western reports that freedom of navigation operations in the sea and over the air "routinely prompt Chinese threats and warnings."

"If you pay close attention, you will notice there are never threats or warnings. China never says go away or we will do this, China never locks weapons radar on international FONOPs (freedom of navigation operations) by jets," he said.

"I said this because if we read the international press you will get the impression that China is hostile, and it's not obviously true," he told the forum.

On the sidelines of the Roundtable, Welch criticized the Western media for the low-quality reporting on the South China Sea and proposed the Chinese media do constructive reporting as a counter-measure.

He said press crossfire is unhelpful in solving the problem but will only aggravate the situation.

He said the tribunal arbitration underway in The Hague regarding the South China Sea issue will only deep tensions. He suggested the Philippines and China show signs of goodwill and resolve the issue through dialogue as soon as possible.
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Four men from Syria planned to launch a terrorist attack in Germany on behalf of the Islamic State(IS). Three of them were arrested on Thursday, German media Spiegel Online reported.

According to the report, the suspected terrorists attempted to attack the old town in the western German city of Dusseldorf. The fourth man is now being held in custody in France.

The IS plans to carry out terrorist operations against targets in Germany after the attacks in Paris and Brussels, according to the report.

According to German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, about 4,500 to 5,000 radicalised Europeans have moved to Syria and Iraq and became fighters.

"Around 810 people are from Germany," the minister was quoted as saying, adding if these people return to Germany, the danger is "obvious".

He called for European and international cooperation on the exchange of data on terrorists.
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Reported in Chinese by Qiao Nong. Translated by Carolyn Song. Written in English by Rachel Ritchie.



Updated at 9:32 a.m. on May 20, 2016.



(Guiyang, GuizhouMay 17, 2016) The lawyers for an incarcerated house church pastor in Guiyang, the largest city in Chinas inland Guizhou province, expressed their belief that their client was tortured in prison. This revelation comes on the heels of the announcement that the pastors case has been transferred to the court for trial and that a small group from pastors church was evicted.

Yang Hua, the pastor of the recently persecuted Huoshi Church, was first administratively detained on Dec. 9, 2015, then criminally detained for illegally holding state secrets, and arrested for divulging state secrets on Jan. 22.

One of Yangs lawyers, Chen Jiangang, told China Aid that when he and his co-counsel, Zhao Yonglin, visited the pastor on April 22, they saw the prison official threaten Yang. Chen said they suspect that Yang has been subjected to inhumane treatment during his detention and reported that Yang was in low spirits. The lawyers are currently attempting to determine to what extent Yang has been mistreated.

The person from the Procuratorate office who is in charge of this case had coerced Pastor Yang Hua [to confess to his crimes], Chen said on April 24 after meeting with Yang. Now, Yang Hua is somewhat afraid. Since Yang Hua has not made any oral confessions, he has not done anything criminal. He neither understands the affairs of other people nor will speak irresponsibly about them. When the time for the decision came, the authorities extended his detention another three months.

Yang Hua preaches to a crowd on Jan. 8, 2011.

(Photo: China Aid)

Weve gotten the files.  He has been persecuted and made notes, Chen said following the lawyers May visit.

Yangs wife, Wang Hongwu, told China Aid that Yangs lawyers also visited the pastor at the detention center on May 11. Wang said that shortly after, it was announced that her husbands case had been transferred to the Nanming District Court in Guiyang after three months of review and that no trial date had been announced.

Authorities also summoned Yangs wife in April. The Nanming District Procuratorate summoned me to make a report. They asked some questions about my family situation and my activities dating from my time in elementary school to now, Wang said. Then, they raised questions about Yang Hua, asking me if I have seen the national secrets he posted on WeChat. They had a document clearly marked with the word secrets  I said I dont know anything about this matter. They mainly asked about these things. Besides that, they also asked if I ever let someone else use my cell phone.



Additionally, China Aid learned that a small group from Huoshi Church was forced to relocate last week after the landlord renting apartment space to them evicted the group.

Congregations are still held as small group gatherings. At least seven to eight people would attend, although not a large number of attendees, Wang said after one such group was forced to move. Many people joined different groups at different locations. Even so, the Jinyang group had to change locations several times because the police pressured the landlords, forcing them to revoke the lease.

Since July 2015, four individualsincluding two non-Christians who helped the churchhave been arrested on varying charges. Authorities later banned the church from meeting and froze the churchs bank account, which contained 640,000 Yuan (U.S. $98,100). A fine of 20 Yuan (U.S. $3) per day per square foot was imposed on the church on Nov. 22, resulting in a total daily fine of 12,960 Yuan (U.S. $1,980) for the 648 square meter (6,975 square foot) space. Three church meeting places have been sealed, believers have been followed or surveilled, and some Christians have been interrogated and warned not to rejoin small worship groups.

Wang said that after Yangs arrest, the burden of raising the family fell on her. Just myself and two childrenGods grace is sufficient for us to live. God is gracious. God is watching over us.

China Aid reports on human rights violations such as the incarceration of Yang Hua and the persecution of Huoshi Church in order to expose abuses committed by the Chinese government and promote rule of law and religious freedom in China.

China Aid Contacts

Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director

Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.chinaaid.org
Pedestrians walk past a shop of Japanese mobile communication giant Softbank in Tokyo. [Photo/Agencies]

$7.9b transaction marks Japanese firm's first sale of shares in e-commerce giant since 2000

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp has announced its plan to sell $7.9 billion worth of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in an aim to generate proceeds to cut debt.

SoftBank, which is Alibaba's largest shareholder, has established a new trust with an intention of selling $5 billion in Alibaba's American depositary receipts to qualified institutional buyers, the Japanese company said in a statement.

SoftBank will also sell $2 billion in shares back to Alibaba, $400 million to members of the Alibaba Partnership of senior executives, and $500 million to a major sovereign wealth fund, which has yet to be identified.

The transaction marks SoftBank's first sales of Alibaba shares since it invested in the Chinese e-commerce firm in 2000. With the sales, SoftBank will see its stake in Alibaba reduce from 32.2 percent to 28 percent, but it is still Alibaba's largest shareholder.

Investors have been worried about finances at SoftBank since it bet $20 billion on acquiring a majority stake in the United States wireless carrier Sprint Corp in 2013. The investment is SoftBank's largest ever but the company has been burning cash due to fierce competition to secure subscribers.

Previous media reports also said SoftBank was considering selling its stake in Finnish smartphone game maker Supercell to lower its debt.

Michelle Ma, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said SoftBank is demonstrating its ability to unlock value from its investment, which may boost investors' confidence.

Some analysts said the timing of the SoftBank stock sale was not auspicious given that Alibaba unnerved investors last week when it reported that the US Securities and Exchange Commission was investigating its accounting practices.

But Ma from Bloomberg Intelligence described Alibaba as SoftBank's "most valuable asset". "It will still hold 28 percent of Alibaba after the sale, indicating that SoftBank continues to believe in the Chinese e-commerce giant," Ma wrote in a report.

The two companies said they would maintain a strategic partnership. Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank, will remain a board director of Alibaba, and Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma will remain a board director of SoftBank.

"Under the leadership of Masayoshi Son, SoftBank has been a highly valued, long-time partner of Alibaba for more than 16 years, and we look forward to continuing our strong partnership together," said Jack Ma.

"As SoftBank looks to strengthen its own balance sheet, Alibaba determined that it was the best use of our capital to reinvest in our own business through an efficient buyback of a large number of shares in our own company that is accretive to our stockholders," Ma said in a statement on Wednesday.

Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this story.
A signboard of MasterCard is pictured at a store in Shanghai, June 1, 2015. [Photo/IC]

MasterCard Inc and Rural Credit Cooperatives in Zhejiang province have jointly launched the Fengshou Card, the first rural credit card issued by provincial cooperatives in China, in a move they said further advances financial innovation and inclusive financial services in the countryside.

The State Council in January promised to make banking and lending services more inclusive, meaning making them more accessible to ordinary people, especially in remote areas.

The first Fengshou card, or literally Harvest Card, was issued in Yiwu in the province.

Yiwu is a hub of small commodities trading of more than 12,000 permanent foreign residents from all over the world, and more than 30,000 Chinese traders who frequently travel internationally and who need process payments services, according to a report in the Yiwu Daily.

Providing inclusive financial services has been one of the MasterCard's business focuses in the China market, the company said.

The payments and technology companies plan to introduce more diversified solutions to cardholders in various segments, said MasterCard. These will enable cardholders in rural areas and rural small and medium-sized enterprises to complete payments and transactions in a convenient, safe and rapid manner, said MasterCard's China head Chang Qing.

Cardholders in China are increasingly traveling following the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative, and going global for business expansion, he said.

MasterCard sees great potential in the Chinese market and is deploying a lot of resources in the Chinese mainland, Chang said.

"Inclusive financial services offer great potential for market players, and there are many gaps to be filled between cardholders' needs and the current offerings of services providers. MasterCard has been working with the RCCs of several provinces, and more products will be launched to popularize credit card services, giving more rural cardholders smooth payments and transaction experiences when they travel abroad," he added.

Credit cards issued by the RCCs may help their segment to improve their financial services and fulfill currently unmet cardholder demands, said a circular from the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Analysts said payment services providers who can enhance their credit card services for rural cardholders will gain a competitive edge in the future, as this part of the market has a great potential for growth.

"Credit card services are actually underrepresented in rural areas in terms of quality, quantity and developed services compared to that in urban areas," said a payment market research report from Beijing-based Bosi Data Research Center.

According to data from the People's Bank of China, the central bank, about 457 million debit cards were issued in 2015 to some 930 million rural residents, while only 27.5 million credit cards were issued in the same year.

Credit cards have been used in China for more than 30 years with a history of significant development. In the next few years, said analysts, more change is to come. Digitalization, mobile payments and more innovation will help accelerate the advance of the sector, and more inclusive and tailored-made services will be provided to cardholders, bringing them an evolving payment system, said Dong Zheng, credit card expert and editor-in-chief at 51credit.com.
BEIJING - China hopes to start trade and investment negotiations with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) as early as possible, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Wednesday.

The talks will be significant to the Silk Road Economic Belt and China-EEU ties, which boast huge potential thanks to the two sides' high political mutual trust and solid economic cooperation, the MOC said in an online statement.

The EEU members agreed to initiate the talks at a recent conference in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan.

The economic union was established by Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia in 2014 and came into force in 2015.
DUBAI - Chinese consumers have become an important factor in Dubai's retail sales with the "Belt and Road" Initiative creating more trade flows, said the head of a Dubai-based retail giant on Wednesday.

The initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, is aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes.

Alain Bajjani, the Chief Executive Officer of Majid Al Futtaim, regional retail and hospitality giant, said the initiative would bring chances for Dubai as a traditional connected hub for trade and tourism in the region.

With 450,000 Chinese tourists visiting Dubai in 2015, inbound traffic from China increased by 29 percent year-on-year, topping the leader board, according to the official Dubai's tourism authority.

"That is why we implemented a China outreach program," said Bajjani, "we do active marketing in China with tour operators to lure more visitors in."

Bajjani spoke to Xinhua on the occasion of the company's announcement earlier in the day to invest 30 billion dirham ($8.17 billion) in its home market within the next 10 years.

He added that the company is also expanding in Central Asia which shows its commitment to the New Silk Road. "Any economic integration that actually promotes and facilitates inflows of people and goods is beneficial to companies like ours," he said.
He Pan teaches Qipao-making to younger alumni, June 1, 2016. [Photo/IC]

He Pan, in her twenties, created her own Qipaoor cheongsamstudio after a long affection for the traditional Chinese dress.

Twelve years ago, as a student who liked drawing in Nanchong, Southwest China's Sichuan province, she often went to a tailor's shop to follow the owner and watched as she stitched.

He Pan grew a strong interest in Qipao. And, as time passed by, she developed a clearer dream: to be a costume designer.

She studied at the Urban Vocational College of Sichuan, in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. But there she found few opportunities to explore Qipao in classes.

Instead, she decided to learn the skills herself, studying from old masters and even paying frequent visits to the faraway Shanghai, which is renowned for Qipao-making.
A bank clerk shows a social security card at a branch of China Construction Bank (CCB) in Haian county, Nantong city, East China's Jiangsu province, 30 October 2014.[Photo/IC]

Fifteen provincial-level regions have unveiled their programs to cut social security, the 21st Century Business Herald reports on Thursday.

The website said that so far Shanxi, Jiangxi, Henan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Tianjin, Shannxi, Hubei, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Anhui, Beijing, Shanghai and Shandong, have made their social security cuts public.

Among them, except for Shannxi and Qinghai, the remaining 13 regions announced they were lowering contribution rates that enterprises must pay for pension insurance for the first time, while the other 13 regions, excluding Shanghai and Shandong, said that the cut will be conducted step by step and will last for two years.

According to a routine government meeting on April 13, the required contribution rates of pension insurance, unemployment insurance and housing provident funds will be lowered in a two-year period starting May 1.

Under the policy, enterprises that contribute more than 20 percent of the pension insurance payment can reduce the rate to 20 percent, while those in provinces that see sufficient funds can lower the rate to 19 percent.

The newspaper said a total of 21 provincial-level regions meet the requirements. Over the past month, 11 regions, including Shanxi, Jiangxi, Henan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Tianjin, Hubei, Anhui, Beijing, Guangxi and Xinjiang, announced they were lowering the rate that enterprises must pay for pension insurance to 19 percent in a two-year period starting May 1.

Guangxi saw the biggest drop in lowering the percentage of pension insurance. According to the document, the required contribution rates for enterprises in Guangxi's 29 key industrial parks will be cut from 20 percent to 14 percent, while for enterprises in 84 industrial parks, the rate will be reduced from 20 percent to 16 percent.

The new policy's biggest effect is to relieve the burden on businesses. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security estimated it will save businesses 38.6 billion yuan a year, if the measures are put in place.
A newly completed residential building in Baoan, Shenzhen, Guangdong province, May 29, 2016 [Photo/IC]

An over-heated property market in some cities is making it hard to reduce the number of unsold homes, thus, different regulations should be applied to different cities on local levels, said industry experts on Wednesday.

According to statistics by China Index Academy, the average price of housing price in 100 Chinese cities grew 10.34 percent year-on-year, 1.7 percent growth from that of last month, the 10th consecutive month for the double hikes, reported Shanghai Securities News.

The top ten cities with the highest price increase in May are all second-tier cities. The average increase was close to three percent, which cities, such as Xiamen and Hefei witnessed a hike close to six percent.

Riding the trend, the property price of second-tier cities this year is expected to reach 30 to 40 percent.

Chen Sheng, head of China Real Estate Data Academy, said that the fast increase of housing and land prices in some second-tier cities are more or less influenced by the housing price of first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.

"It is unsettling that the housing and land prices hiked so much in three months when it's supposed to reach those levels in three years, " Chen said.

"The loosened monetary policy makes it easy for developers and property buyers to take loans which supported the market's turnaround."

Wang Yulin, former vice-director of Policy Research Center of Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that local governments should restrain the trend in time.

"There's a lot to learn from the purchase restriction measures Beijing adopted in dealing with its Tongzhou District's property market, " Wang said.
BEIJING - Italy is ready and eager to get involved in and make contributions to the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, Italian ambassador to China said on Wednesday.

"Italy is best placed to get involved in the project, which is perceived as a source of new opportunities in terms of investment, trade and ultimately growth," Ettore Francesco Segui told Xinhua.

Italy has a potential pivotal role to play in the initiative as its geographical position enables the country to act as a natural gateway to Europe for Chinese products, he noted.

The Mediterranean, with Italy at its center, sits at the end-point of the Maritime Silk Road, presenting the two sides with great opportunities to boost all-round cooperation and strengthen bilateral ties.

The initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, was first brought up by President Xi Jinping in September 2013, with the aim of building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes.

The vision, once realized, will directly benefit 4.4 billion people, or 63 percent of the global population, and deal with an economic aggregate of $21 trillion, around 30 percent of the global volume.

With the implementation of the initiative, Italian-Chinese relations will gain new momentum of development, Segui said.

The ambassador also said the two countries celebrated the 45th anniversary of their diplomatic relations last year, which represented an opportunity to reflect upon future plans to strengthen their bilateral ties.

The Italian government will continue to make efforts to upgrade its strategic partnership with China with more in-depth cooperation in fields such as sustainable urbanization, technology, agriculture and environment protection.
Customers experience Lenovo Group's latest smartphone ZUK Z2, which it unveiled on Tuesday. The newly released smartphone has a 5-inch screen and is equipped with a Snapdragon 820 processor by Qualcomm Inc. [Photo provided to China Daily]

ZUK, one of Lenovo Group's smartphone brands founded last year, issued a 5-inch Z2 in Beijing on Tuesday.

"Lenovo plans big moves in the smartphone sector this year, " said Senior Vice-President Chen Xudong, who last year was named head of Lenovo's China mobile business group to revive its faltering smartphone business..

The Z2 is the second launch of ZUK this year, followed the ZUK Z2 Pro model in April. "We are going to unveil another new product at Lenovo's TechWorld on June 9 in San Francisco, the United States," Chen added.

Declining sales of smartphones and personal computers resulted in the first loss of the Chinese technology giant in six years.

According to its annual fiscal report released on Thursday, the Hong Kong-listed technology company registered a net loss of $128 million for the fiscal year that ended in March. Only one year earlier, Lenovo reported a profit of $829 million.

"Based on our strengths in technology innovation, Lenovo plans to expand our smartphone business from the sectors of the product, brand and channel this year ," said Chen.

The flagship, small-screen ZUK Z2 is equipped with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor. Priced at 1,799 yuan ($273), it will be available on June 7.
The shadow of an attendee sits on a podium wall during a Lenovo Group Ltd news conference in Hong Kong, China, May 26, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Shares of Lenovo Group Ltd fell by more than 3 percent on Thursday morning after Google Inc was reported to be seeking to raise between $218 million (151.34 million pounds) and $221 million by selling shares in the world's largest personal computer maker.

According to a report by Reuters, Google is looking for buyers of its 371 million Lenovo shares at a price range of HK$4.56 to HK$4.62 per share.

Last week, Lenovo reported its first loss in six years, with financial performances weighed down by restructuring cost as well as declining sales of PCs and smartphones.

The Hong Kong-listed technology company registered a net loss of $128 million for the fiscal year ending in March. Only one year earlier, Lenovo reported a profit of $829 million.

Lenovo and Google did not immediately reply to China Daily's requests for comment.
Chinese businesses will invest in hi-tech Israeli start-up companies under a new agreement signed in Beijing.

Two Israeli enterprises signed agreements on equity investments with their Chinese counterparts and a fund on Thursday at a Sino-Israeli salon on innovation and entrepreneurship.

The China-Israel Innovation and Development Fund aims to invest in the early stage of Israeli hi-tech businesses, support them to cooperate with Chinese companies and settle in the Beijing Zhongguancun Software Park, and promote the development of China's hi-tech sector.

The fund was established in 2014 by Beijing Zhongguancun Software Park Development Co Ltd and Israel's Shirat Enterprises Co Ltd.

Matan Vilnai, Ambassador of Israel to China, said the embassy would continue to fully support the cooperation between companies from both countries. He said there was great potential for cooperation on innovation.

The salon, which is hosted by Zhongguancun and Shirat, also houses an exhibition on hi-tech innovation, featuring dozens of pictures depicting the main messages behind technological entrepreneurship that characterizes Israeli entrepreneurs.

Liu Kefeng, president of the Zhongguancun Software Park, said both the Chinese and Israeli companies should give full play to their respective advantages, assist each other, and thus enjoy better cooperative development.
Photo taken on April 14, 2016 shows a Uber car-hailing station in Longyang Avenue, Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei province.[Photo/IC]

US tech company Uber, who provides on-demand transportation services through its mobile application, received $3.5b in fresh round from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, said the Middle East investor on Thursday in a statement.

Liu Zhen, senior vice president of Uber China, told China Daily that currently the G-round fundraising of the company has reached $6 billion.

"The $3.5 billion raised from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund announced on Thursday will support the global business expansion of Uber, including the Chinese market," said Liu.

According to Uber, the company's valuation reached $62.5 billion before it started G-round fundraising. After the Middle East kingdom's investment fund, both the valuation and the single round fundraising of the company have become one of the largest-ever investments into a privately held start-up.

According to the New York Times, the royal family of Saudi Arabia is barely seen participating in venture capital investing deals, though some of them, such as Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has invested in Lyft, a competitor of Uber in the US market.

For a taxi-hailing app that covers 460 cities in more than 69 countries, the competition between Uber and local enterprises have always been and will continue, as the company expands to achieve new territories.

Last September, Uber confirmed to raise a further $1.2 billion in funding, led by Chinese technology company Baidu Inc.

In China, Uber is spending millions in a subsidy war with Didi Chuxing, one of the major local competitors backed by Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd. The latter just secured $1 billion in funding from Apple Inc last month.
Mitsubishi Materials Corp, one of dozens of Japanese companies that used Chinese forced labor during World War II, reached a settlement covering thousands of victims on Wednesday that includes compensation and an apology.

The deal was signed in Beijing with three former workers representing the company's more than 3,000 Chinese victims of forced labor, Mitsubishi Materials said in a statement.

The victims were among about 40,000 Chinese brought to Japan in the early 1940s as forced laborers to make up for a domestic labor shortage. Many died due to violence and malnutrition amid harsh treatment by the Japanese.

Under the settlement, Mitsubishi Materials will pay 100,000 yuan ($15,000) to each of the Chinese victims and their families. The victims were forced to work at 10 coal mines operated by Mitsubishi Mining Corp, which was Mitsubishi Materials' name at that time.

"Forced labor was a severe crime during the Japanese invasion and colonial rule", Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Wednesday. "We hope Japan will face history, be responsible and settle the issue properly in a serious manner."

Mitsubishi Materials said it would try to locate all of the victims. If all come forward, the company's payments would total 370 million yuan.

At the signing ceremony in Beijing, the company "expressed its sincere apologies regarding its historical responsibility to the former laborers, and the apologies were accepted by the three former laborers", Mitsubishi's statement said.

However, Kang Jian, a Beijing lawyer for the alliance of groups representing forced laborers, described the agreement as "insincere and failing to recognize (the company's) abuse of enslaved Chinese", even though it used the word "apology".

China Daily - AP
A Mini Mouse umbrella can't shorten the wait time of at least 30 minutes for shoppers at Disney's theme park in Shanghai after the park's soft opening in May. GAO ERQIANG/CHINA DAILY

Huge crowds at the highly anticipated Shanghai Disneyland, which is forecast to draw 10 million visitors annually, may discourage Shanghai residents from visiting Disney's first theme park on the Chinese mainland, a poll showed.

Roughly two in three Shanghai residents shook their heads when asked whether they will visit Disneyland this year, according to the poll conducted by the Shanghai Bureau of Statistics in April and published on Friday. Avoiding big crowds is the main reason.

Among those who said they will visit Disneyland this year, more than 37 percent said they will take one or two workdays off to visit the resort to avoid huge lines, according to the survey that polled 1,800 residents older than 16.

Tourists have shown great passion for Disneyland, which is the third in Asia following one in Tokyo and another in Hong Kong.

Visitors take photos during a parade at the Shanghai Disneyland park. [Photo/Xinhua]

All tickets for the first two weeks after its official opening on June 16 are sold out, and on average more than 40,000 people visited the theme park during the trial run that began on May 7, Wang Kai, vice-president of the Shanghai Disney Resort's public affairs, told a media briefing on May 19.

Lu Yun, who stayed overnight in the resort over the past weekend, said the trip was worth it in terms of the amusement, setting and dreamlike atmosphere, but the experience was more or less impaired by the large crowds and she was sure she won't go again this year.

She also mentioned potential safety hazards.

"Numerous people waited at the entrance of that part of the theme park and set off like they were competing in a running contest when staff let us in. It seemed that a stampede could happen easily and some people even ran with their children," she said.

Zhou Hong, who paid a visit with her mother and husband last week, also said they felt discouraged from paying another visit.

"The lines will undoubtedly be longer after the theme park is officially open. Although there are some destinations that I unfortunately couldn't try this time, either because they were not in service during the trial or the long lines. I'm sure I will put off my next trip to Disneyland to next year or even sometime later," said Zhou, a media worker.

But still, the Disneyland experience on the whole was perfect, she said.
As Beijing marked the first anniversary of China's toughest anti-smoking measures, experts called for stronger regulations to safeguard the population. Wang Xiaodong reports.

LI MIN/CHINA DAILY

The World Health Organization and leading health experts in China are calling for the country to follow the global trend and promote plain packaging and graphic warnings on cigarette packs to reduce tobacco use.

The organization's call for all countries to prepare for plain, or standardized, packaging of tobacco products came as Beijing marked the first anniversary of an anti-smoking law, which came into force on June 1 last year, and World No Tobacco Day, which fell on May 31.

"Plain packaging is an evidence-based measure that can save lives and protect public health," said Bernhard Schwartlander, the organization's representative in China. "Plain packaging makes tobacco products less attractive, stops tobacco companies using the pack as a marketing tool, and increases the effectiveness of health warnings.

"WHO recommends plain packaging as part of a comprehensive approach to tobacco control: it works best alongside other tobacco-control measures, including comprehensive anti-smoking laws, bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, raising tobacco taxes and large, graphic health warnings," he said.

Wu Yiqun, vice-director of the ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development, an NGO in Beijing that is committed to tobacco control, said: "China lags behind many other countries in promoting plain packaging and graphic warnings.

"Most major countries require graphic warnings to be printed on tobacco packs, but there is no sign that similar measures will be adopted in China anytime soon. We cannot wait. We must take action right now."

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco products, and has the world's largest population of smokersmore than 300 million people. Tobacco-related illnesses cause more than 1 million deaths every year in the country, and more than 700 million people are exposed to second-hand smoke, which poses a health risk, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Time away from school, popular in the West, gets ferocious resistance from Asian parents

Liao Xiaohan (center), hangs up laundry on the rooftop of a hospice in Kolkata, India, with other volunteers during her gap year in 2015. The hospice was established by Mother Teresa in the 1950s. Provided to CHINA DAILY

Taking a gap year between secondary school and university is a practice that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. In time, it was embraced by young people from many Western countries and has attracted the attention of young Chinese in recent years.

However, a deep-rooted aversion to delaying career progression means the gap year has yet to catch on in Chinese society, observers said.

In the eyes of Deng Xiquan, a researcher with China Youth and Children Center, gap years are a phenomenon that only works after a nation's societal and economic development has reached a certain level.

Young people in China are becoming increasingly familiar with the practice, and some pioneers among them have proved the benefits of taking time off with their own gap year experiences.

High-profile proponents include US President Barack Obama's eldest daughter Malia, who has postponed her enrollment at Harvard University until the autumn of 2017, according to a news release from the White House.

The 18-year-old's decision is not a rare one for high school graduates in the US. According to a report in The Atlantic, Harvard actively encourages the practice, and around 80 to 110 undergraduates choosing to postpone enrollment each year.

Apart from Harvard, some other well-known universities in the US such as Northwestern, Princeton and Tufts also support the practice or favor applicants with gap-year experience, according to the report.

However, in China, high school graduates delaying enrollment to have a year off remains scarcely heard of.

Huang Huanhuan, a self-employed English tutor and translator in Wuhan, Hubei province, didn't take his gap year until 2012, when he was 27 years old, after he had accumulated enough savings and experienced a "career crisis" at work.

Now 31, Huang said many young people in the US see gap years as a kind of "coming-of-age ceremony".

But in China, various factors such as the country's education system, the economic capability of young Chinese and their connection with their families prevents them from taking a year off at a younger age, he said.

"Take economic capability as an example. It's not that difficult for young people in developed countries to earn enough money for a year off by having part-time jobs like serving tables, while in China it's almost impossible," said Huang.

Under such circumstances, young people have no choice but to turn to their parents for help. However, parents can be one of the biggest barriers to their children's gap year dreams, according to Gu Zhengzheng, director of the public promotion department of the Gap Year Foundation, a program administered by the China Youth Development Foundation.

Almost no parents in China would agree to their child's request to suspend their studies, Gu said, as suspension is culturally "intolerable".

This is tied to a strongly held belief in China that even a short break from study can have a knock-on effect on graduation, job-hunting and any future career path.

"In fact, we all need a pause to figure out who we are, what we want to do and what talent we have," Gu said.

But despite many people viewing information on the foundation's website, a disappointingly small number take action and apply, Gu said.

Deng, from the China Youth and Children Center, said the low takeup was understandable as there are too many barriers preventing young people from taking a year off. Apart from financial pressures and parents' disapproval, it is also not easy to suspend studies at many Chinese universities, he said.
A commonly used and widely recognized definition of the "gap year" is that it's the year many young people - usually recent high school or university graduates - take off before continuing their studies at college or graduate school, or starting their working lives.

During the gap year, participants take part in a wide range of activities that frequently include specific courses, internships, independent travel or volunteer work.

Many people who have taken a gap year later talk about learning more about themselves, their interests and talents during that time. They often say the experience helped them after their return to integrate and become more socially engaged.

In 2015, the China Gap Year program was launched with support from the China Youth Development Foundation. Its goal is to help more young people realize their gap year dreams. Eight young people received funding in 2015 for their gap year activities.

Although it is difficult to pin down the first use of the term "gap year", the practice of taking a sabbatical year between stages of education is commonly believed to have originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, when people from the baby-boom generation headed to places like India for independent travel.

The concept has since spread to many countries and is now especially popular in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States.

Many companies, institutes and organizations exist solely to generate income from the activity or to conduct research into it or offer services.

In recent years, the idea of a gap year has resonated with young Chinese people.

In 2009, the book The Delayed Gap Year caught the imagination of many young Chinese people and inspired a lot of them to take the break. The book tells the story of the author, Sun Dongchun, and how he resigned from his job and took a year off in Southeast Asia.

Later, in 2009, the website freegapper.com was set up to share information and ideas about taking a gap year. The site was created by members of douban.com, a social networking website that is popular among young Chinese.
You Chang says she learned important lessons during her time off. In Taiwan (above), she shared a photo album of her experience. Provided To China Daily

You Chang, 28, shares her experience of setting off on a year's break and returning a better person.

I quit my job and started my yearlong independent traveling experience in July 2014. Before that, I had been close to burning out after having worked for a year at a website in Beijing, where I was an event planning specialist.

I was the kind of person who could not say no in the office and, for that reason, I had taken on way too much work. It got so that the workload was driving me crazy and I decided I needed to put everything on hold.

After I quit my job, I started traveling. Back then, I didn't think of it as a gap year - the term and the concept were unknown to me. But now, when I look back and think about it, I realize I was actually having a gap-year experience, and it was one I benefitted from greatly.

During that special year, I traveled to Guangxi, Yunnan and Taiwan in China and to Bali in Indonesia and to the United States.

While in Bali, I had my dream wedding, which was one of the most important and happy moments of my life.

I had long dreamed about having a nontraditional wedding that would be different from the weddings most people have in China. Such special days take a lot of time and preparation to become a reality and I would never have had such an experience if it was not for my gap year.

In addition, I learned to slow down and enjoy life during that year.

I had been a backpacker ever since I was at college, but before that year traveling had been all about rushing to visit one scenic site after another, and those earlier experiences had left me tired and bored.

Initially, I had continued at that same fast pace during my gap year, but I gradually changed without really noticing it happening.

Finally, when I arrived in the US, which was my last destination, I rented a room, cooked for myself and wandered around the cities, living life just like a local.

One day, while I was sitting on a bench in a park in Boston, looking at a beautiful lake, the cute ducks and adorable kids, time just seemed to stop and I felt at peace. At that very moment, I understood what real life was about - it was what I had been longing for.

After a whole year off, I returned to work in July 2015 for the company I had left a year earlier. It was the same employer and the same work but I was different. I had figured out what was important to me and what was not. I had learned how to say no. And how to manage my time wisely. And I was happier than I had ever been before.

I would not say such a transformation is only possible with the help of a gap year, but for me, that year certainly did make a difference.

You Chang spoke with China Daily reporter Zhao Xinying.
Experts say solution is for PLA to open more airspace for commercial operations

Chinese airlines' on-time performance remained poor last year, a recent government report said, despite repeated pledges by civil aviation authorities to solve the problem.

Only about 68 percent of the 3.37 million flights by domestic carriers in 2015 were on time, meaning nearly one-third of Chinese flights were late last year, according to the 2015 Annual Report on Civil Aviation Industry Development released by the Civil Aviation Administration this week.

The late flights had an average delay of 21 minutes - 2 minutes more than in 2014, the report said.

The biggest drag on flights was air traffic control measures, which accounted for 30.7 percent of flight delays last year, followed by bad weather, which caused 29.5 percent of postponements, it said.

Airlines were responsible for 19.1 percent of the delays, and the remaining 20.7 percent were for "other reasons". The administration didn't elaborate on those.

The on-time rate for Chinese airlines in 2014 was also about 68 percent, but carriers themselves were the biggest contributor to delays that year, followed by air traffic control measures and bad weather.

The Civil Aviation Administration has been struggling with flight delays, which is a significant cause of passenger dissatisfaction with Chinese airlines. Lengthy delays have been reported as being behind several serious conflicts between passengers and airport or airline workers.

Airports and carriers that have poor on-time performance can face punishment including the reduction of operations or suspension of charter services.

In one remedial move, the administration opened several one-way air routes to allow commercial aircraft to travel to and return from a destination in separate lanes, instead of strict two-way routing using the same flight path, which requires pilots to adjust altitude to avoid collisions.

The measure is designed to help boost efficiency in the use of airspace and reduce congestion in the air.

However, observers have said that while the move does mitigate delays to some extent, its not enough to resolve the problem.

"The ultimate solution is to open more airspace to civil aviation," said Zeng Tao, an aviation industry observer in Beijing. "Other efforts made by air traffic management bureaus, airlines and airports have proved to have limited effects."

China's airspace is tightly controlled by the People's Liberation Army Air Force, and the current airspace designated for commercial flights is far from enough to meet the rising demand from Chinese carriers, he said.

Lyu Biao, an aviation industry analyst in Tianjin, said that unless the government and military release more airspace it will be virtually impossible to uproot the punctuality issue because there will just be more flights added over existing routes to satisfy passengers' travel needs.
With international schools in China long considered to be a privilege mainly for expatriate children, a new institute in Beijing expects to offer natives an equal opportunity to get a Western style education through a hybrid approach.

Months before its official opening in the fall, Yew Wah International Education Schools Beijing has already reached its admission targets for kindergarten and primary students. Secondary levels are planned for coming years.

The integration of Western and Chinese educational approaches, which starts with a team of two principals - one foreign, one native - appeals to China's ambitious parents nowadays, said Monica Meng Xiuli, the Chinese co-principal at YWIES Beijing.

"Our school is equipped for Chinese students with international vision," she said. "We offer bilingual and multicultural study pathways for children who plan to pursue international education."

Richard Woods, the school's Western co-principal, added that the educational philosophy from overseas only works on condition that it understands and fuses with the local system.

"The most important thing is that we support the children in their own language. If they are going to become international people, then they have to know where they come from and what it means to be Chinese in the 21 Century," said Woods, who has worked in the education sector in six different countries.

Based on China's National Curriculum, which is mandatory in ordinary public schools across China, the school has developed its own diverse teaching style, including hands-on approaches from the active Western approach through presentations, debates and field trips.

"Chinese are quite strong in classroom teaching, which is more teacher-centered," said Meng, who has 25 years teaching and managing experience in public and international schools in Beijing. "We also brought in research and teamwork sessions from the international style, which we should incorporate in a Chinese way."

Core subjects in the national curriculum, such as Chinese language and math, will also be taught diligently to ensure that students can face the academic rigor, Meng said.

Woods put it this way: "What we are doing is using the Chinese system in order to ensure that our children learn effectively."

Located in Yizhuang, southeast of Beijing's downtown business district, the new school, whose 119,000-square-meter campus is nearing completion, will be able to handle about 3,000 students.
A teenager from Sichuan province in Southwest China was detained by police in the United Arab Emirates for illegally entering the country with the intention of becoming a beggar.

The youth, identified only as Xu, 16, from Bazhong, jumped fences at an airport in Shanghai on Thursday and sneaked into the cargo hold of an Airbus A380 passenger plane.

He hid there until it landed in Dubai more than nine hours later. He was quickly arrested by police, according to Mian Jinlong, a Chinese interpreter working in Dubai.

"It was the first time somebody of such a young age had managed to illegally enter the United Arab Emirates by hiding in the cargo hold of a plane," Mian, who acted as a translator for Xu in speaking with the police, was quoted as saying by Chengdu Economic Daily.

Xu reportedly told the police that a viral post on social media app WeChat had motivated him to go to Dubai. The post claimed that a beggar there could rake in up to 470,000 yuan ($71,400) a month, or 16,000 yuan a day.

It prompted some netizens to joke that they would resign from their jobs and go to Dubai to become beggars.

After discovering Xu, the airport police contacted the Chinese consulate in Dubai, which offered assistance.

Staff at the consulate are now exploring whether the Emirates has a law for the protection of minors, according to Ma Xuliang, acting consul general.

He said Chinese nationals should not be taken in by rumors about begging in Dubai, as the practice is illegal and anyone doing it will be punished.

Xu, who is being held at the Dubai airport, could be punished for endangering aviation safety and trespassing.

He is in a stable condition but looks haggard, Mian told the newspaper on Tuesday.
A man smokes as he stands in front of an anti-smoking poster in Beijing. [ZHU XINGXIN/CHINA DAILY]

Beijing's smoking ban, which came into effect on June 1 last year and made it illegal to smoke indoors in public places, has curbed smoking in the capital and won widespread public support, according to a survey published on May 27 by the Chinese Association of Tobacco Control.

The results of the survey will provide vital information for lawmakers as the country mulls extending the ban to implement China's first-ever nationwide anti-smoking legislation. The proposed law was drafted by the National Health and Family Planning Commission, which solicited opinions from several government departments, said Mao Qun'an, a spokesman for the commission.

However, insiders said the draft offers too much leeway because it would allow smoking areas to be established in public places, such as restaurants, bars and coffee or tea shops.

Cui Xiaobo, deputy director of the Beijing Tobacco Control Association, said: "That's like setting aside a peeing area in a swimming pool."

The Beijing ban, the strictest in the country's history, prohibits smoking indoors at public places and at outdoor venues, such as schools and children's hospitals.

"It would be a major setback for national smoking control if the law came out that way, because it would set a negative example for stricter regional anti-smoking legislation," Cui said.

Mao said smoking areas in public places cannot protect people from the effects of second-hand smoke: "They also make enforcement of the anti-smoking regulations even harder and more complicated."

Nationwide, many obstacles remain to the full implementation of smoking bans, he said, citing poor public awareness of the health risks posed by both active and passive smoking, and a lack of respect for rules.

Moreover, China's tobacco industry is a State monopoly and the government relies heavily on the revenues generated, which means vested interests may attempt to block or delay measures to control tobacco use, he added.

"The success of Beijing's anti-smoking legislation has demonstrated that it can be done, though," he added.

The survey at 450 public places in the Chinese capital found that the situation has improved markedly since the ban came into force.

The biggest improvements were seen in bars and restaurants, while hospitals were recognized as the best enforcers of the ban, the survey said. Smoking was reported in only 14 percent of the bars visited, compared with 90 percent before the ban came into effect.

Xu Guihua, a researcher at the Chinese Association of Tobacco Control, said the benefits have been recognized by the public, including many smokers. Among the 600 Beijing residents surveyed, 87 percent were aware of the regulations, and more than 93 percent supported the smoking ban, citing improved conditions at public venues.

Angela Pratt, head of the Tobacco Free Initiative at the World Health Organization's China office, said Beijing has demonstrated a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places can be implemented, and people are in favor of a national crackdown.

"The improvements noted are good for Beijing's international image as a smoke-free city," she added.
An overdue medical bill from the 1960s was recently paid. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

On Children's Day, the Shanghai Children's Hospital received a special festival gift  a payment of 6,600 yuan ($1,002) for an overdue medical bill dating back to the 1960s.

Younger brother Zheng Bin was just two years old when he was admitted to the hospital for a hernia, thepaper.cn reports.

The treatment cost 220 yuan and grain couple worth 2.5 kilograms of food. But the boy's family was so poor, the bill wasn't paid before he was discharged..

For decades, a medical bill reminder was kept somewhere in the family home. The brothers never knew it existed.

That was not until they sifted through their late mother's belongings recently when they stumbled across the reminder note, thus deciding to pay the overdue bill.

While the hospital said they would accept only the original sum, the brothers insisted on repaying the debt plus interest  as much as 30 times the original cost. Besides, they donated 2,000 yuan each to help sick children in the hospital.
BEIJING - The Ministry of Education has urged local authorities to prepare for the upcoming national college entrance examination, known as the "gaokao" next week.

Emergency measures should be rolled out to deal with earthquakes, torrential rain, floods and disease outbreaks that could occur during the exams, the ministry said Thursday.

Meanwhile, education authorities have taken anti-cheating measures. A national campaign has been launched to crack down on the sale of wireless devices for cheating, unauthorized gaokao-related content online and substitute exam sitters.

Other measures ordered by the ministry include traffic control and noise abatement around examination venues to create a peaceful environment for students.

A total of 9.42 million Chinese students sat for the 2015 national college entrance exam, according to statistics from the ministry.
Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commision, delivers the keynote speech on the opening ceremony of the APEC High-level Urbanization Forum 2016 in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, on June 2, 2016. [Photo/China Daily]

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) High-Level Urbanization Forum 2016 opened in the coastal city of Ningbo on Thursday, with the 21 member economies releasing the Ningbo Initiative focusing on urbanization and inclusive growth.

According to the initiative, the high-level officials acknowledge that "urbanization is a necessary path toward modernization as well as a key engine for sustainable economic growth."

The APEC Economic leaders endorsed the APEC Cooperation Initiative for Jointly Establishing an Asia-Pacific Urbanization Partnership at the 2014 Beijing Summit, and last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to host the high-level forum to discuss urbanization cooperation.

The 21 member economies gathered in Ningbo for the two-day meeting. They put forward eight proposals - promoting inclusive and dynamic urban growth, improving urban infrastructure, building smart cities, developing green cities, encouraging urban regeneration and retrofit, driving innovative urban development, advocating for good urban governance, and boosting APEC cooperation on sustainable urban development.

"In 2014, the urban population of APEC member economies hit 1.77 billion, 61 percent of the whole population in the region. According to estimates of the World Bank, global urban population is expected to reach 2.38 billion in 2050, 77 percent of the total. Urbanization has been recognized as a frontier for regional cooperation," the initiative noted.

Xu Shaoshi, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission - the country's economic planner, stressed in his keynote speech that APEC member economies are on different stages in terms of urbanization, which offers massive space and potential for cooperation within the organization.

"China is urbanizing rapidly. All APEC member economies are sincerely welcomed to participate in China's new urbanization process, cooperate in the field of urban infrastructure construction, smart and green city building, urban regeneration and retrofit, and innovative urban development, and sharing the benefit."

Juan Carlos Capunay, the Ambassador of Peru Embassy to China said that Peru will host the 2016 APEC Summit in Lima, the capital city. "We are trying to propose some initiatives in Peru, enhance the infrastructure cooperation between the Latin American countries and other Asia-Pacific economies, promote the bilateral trade and culture development, and share the experience on urbanization construction."
Volunteers from both China and the US celebrated Children's Day with the orphans in the Shepherd's Field Children's Village, a foster home in Tianjin, on Wednesday. [Photo by Yan Dongjie/Chinadaily.com.cn]

Volunteers from both China and the US celebrated Children's Day with the orphans in the Shepherd's Field Children's Village, a foster home in Tianjin, on Wednesday.

"The Shepherd's Field Children's Village cares for more than 4,000 orphaned children, provides more than 3,000 surgeries and medical procedures, and has helped more than 900 children find forever families of their own since its founding in 1999," said founder Timothy Baker.

Every weekend, volunteers from Tianjin and Beijing, and sometimes even overseas, come help take care of the children.

More than 60 orphans are currently living in the children's village. They all had fun in a gala party and water-playing event with volunteers and staff on Children's Day.
Giant panda Hao Hao holds her new cub in her mouth at Belgium's Pairi Daiza zoo.Provided to China Daily

It's still too risky to downgrade giant pandas from endangered to vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, said an expert from a major breeding center for the species in Sichuan province.

The IUCN completed an appraisal of the number of pandas and their habitats a year ago. A well-informed source recently told the South China Morning Post that the organization is considering downgrading the giant panda's status.

The IUCN would only say that an appraisal is underway and the results have not been released yet.

Zhang Hemin, chief of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda in Wenchuan county, Sichuan, said such a downgrading would be detrimental to panda conservation.

Pandas survive solely along the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in six mountain ranges, five of which are in Sichuan. Their habitat, which totals about 23,050 square kilometers, is very vulnerable, since Sichuan is prone to earthquakes.

"In the Wenchuan earthquake in 2008, 6 percent of the panda habitat in Sichuan was lost," said Zhang, a panda expert who has been devoted to panda research and conservation for 33 years.

The number of giant pandas in the wild and in captivity has increased over the past decade.
The Wuzhen Theater Festival, co-founded by Huang Lei, has turned the small town into a carnival of performing arts since its launch in 2013. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In 2003, Chinese actor and director Huang Lei arrived in Wuzhen, a small town about an hour's drive from Shanghai, to direct and star in a TV series called Lost Time.

The series was a hit and enabled the lesser-known locale to become a popular tourist destination.

Later Huang opened a bar there, also called Lost Time.

Simultaneously, the idea of creating a theater festival for Wuzhen came to his mind. Huang shared his idea with his friends Stan Lai, one of Taiwan's leading theater directors, and Meng Jinghui, a pioneering theater director based in Beijing.

With the help of Chen Xianghong, president of the Wuzhen Tourism Co Ltdthe company that runs the town's mainstay businessa grand theater was built at a cost of 400 million yuan ($62 million).

Old houses and warehouses were renovated and turned into performance venues that combine modern and traditional decor.

Their brainchild, the Wuzhen Theater Festival, was launched in 2013. Aiming to display international theatrical works and offer young talent a platform from which to start their careers, the festival has so far presented 43 international plays and attracted more than 85,000 people.

The festival will be held from Oct 13 to 22 this year, the three co-founders said at a media conference in Shanghai on May 25.

Themed "Gaze Beyond", this year's festival will continue to showcase theater at 12 indoor venues and six outdoor stages.

The festival will also include a daily carnival that will see hundreds of artists performing in the streets.
A Bible excerpt is included in a Chinese language textbook for seventh-graders in Beijing. [File photo]

A Bible excerpt, included in a Chinese language textbook for seventh-graders in Beijing, is meant to expand students' horizon on western culture, a staff from the textbook regulator said.

"God created the Universe," a translated version of a Bible excerpt in Genesis, has been included in the Chinese language textbook for seventh-graders in the country's capital city, reported Beijing Youth Daily.

The textbook, which has sparked controversy since the news came out recently, was actually published 10 years ago and included other content from ancient Chinese myths and legends.

"The inclusion of a Bible story in this edition of the Chinese textbook is to help expand the students' horizon," explained a staff member from the Beijing Educations Scientific Research Institute, the regulator of textbooks used in the city.

Related:

Revised textbook turns to Chinese traditional culture
(investinshenyang.gov.cn)

Updated: 2016-05-31

The 12th Shenyang Faku International Ceramics Expo&Fair, Shenyang, May 23, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

"Contract signed for the operation of a 30,000-sq-m Faku ceramics storehouse in Dubai, symbolizing that Faku ceramics have entered the Middle East market of 1.46 billion people," announced the person in charge of the county's ceramics industry at the 2016 China Ceramics Products Export Forum Faku Summit on May 24.

The forum was sponsored by the China Ceramics Industrial Association and the Shenyang Municipal People's Government. And at the summit, enterprise participants analyzed China's ceramics export business, its global strategy and the target countries' markets.

Enterprises in Faku county of Shenyang city have hastened to "go global" this year. In January, Faku ceramics received a first export order to the Middle East of 60 million yuan ($9.14 million). In March, 20 containers of interior wall tiles were sold to South Korea. In May, Faku enterprises also signed long-term cooperation protocols with an EKT Group in Ethiopia, the African country with the fastest economic growth. The two sides will co-establish a Sino-Ethiopia Trade Group, anticipating annual directional ceramics product exports of no less than 60 million yuan.

It is predicted that the export of Faku ceramics will reach 50 million yuan this year, and the total export value of the next five years is expected to exceed $1 billion.
US secretary of State John Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz have reportedly invested in 12 Chinese companies, including the 5100 Water Resources Co Ltd in Tibet. Beijing News commented on Wednesday:

The investments should not be over-interpreted, as Kerry is not a direct beneficiary of the investments, which were made by trusts of his wife's family, and his wife exercises no control over the investment decisions made by the independent trustees, according to a US State Department spokesperson.

In fact, similar trade and investment exchanges between China and the United States will become more frequent, as they now serve as an essential link in the bilateral ties, thanks to the rise of China in recent years. China replaced Canada as the US' largest trade partner last year, despite their increasing geopolitical frictions in the South China Sea.

Unlike basic commodities, direct investments indicate a deeper integration of the two markets that can lift the Beijing-Washington bond to new heights. In Kerry's case, the investments in Tibet's water conservancy should be welcomed as long as they are in line with the relevant laws of both countries.

Therefore, the US Secretary of State should be left alone.

On the other hand, the free flow of capital is gradually changing how countries interact with each other. In other words, with an increasing number of Chinese investments on their way to overseas markets, the economic cooperation between Beijing and Washington will continue regardless of their clashes in the international geopolitical arena.
Chinese examinees walk towards an exam site to attend the 2015 China National Civil Service Examination in Nanjing city, East China's Jiangsu province, Nov 30, 2014. [Photo/IC]

The ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently announced that China had 7.16 million civil servants at the end of 2015. That number looks small compared to the huge population, but China has many other State-sponsored employees that are not civil servants but who are still paid for by taxpayers, says Beijing News:

There have long been claims that there are too many State employees in China, which place a heavy economic burden on taxpayers. The ministry has done a good deed by publishing the number of civil servants, which shows they account for a not-so-high percentage of the whole population.

However, the "civil servants" here mean those enlisted in government departments. There are many government-sponsored staff in China who are not considered civil servants but are still paid using taxpayers' money.

Therefore the question remains unanswered: Do State employees constitute a heavy economic burden to taxpayers?

There is no national data, but studies conclude there are far more State-sponsored staff members than civil servants. Of course, that is not necessarily a bad thing. In some Western countries taxpayers have to support a huge number of State employees, too, but they are happy to do so because these public employees provide a good public service.

That's a lesson for China. When people ask: "Do we have too many government officials?" They mean: "Are these officials truly necessary?" When we pay a high percentage of our income to support State employees, we expect them to do work well and provide the services needed, instead of sitting idle every day or even grabbing money with their power in hand.

In order to make government truly efficient, it is necessary to allow the people more power in the annual budget-making process, so that they can decide not to pay if they think the service they get does not match the tax they pay.
CAI MENG/CHINA DAILY

US politicians invariably bemoan trade as the enemy of the middle class, the major source of pressure on jobs and wages. The current presidential campaign is no exception: Republicans and Democrats alike have taken aim at both China and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, holding them up as the scourge of beleaguered US workers. While this explanation may be politically expedient, the truth lies elsewhere.

When it comes to trade, as I recently argued, the United States has made its own bed. The culprit is a large saving deficit, the country has been living beyond its means for decades and drawing freely on surplus saving from abroad to fund the greatest consumption binge in history. Politicians, of course, don't want to blame voters for their profligacy; it is much easier to point the finger at others.

The saving critique merits further analysis. The data show that countries with saving deficits tend to run trade deficits, while those with saving surpluses tend to run trade surpluses. The US is the most obvious example, with a net national saving rate of 2.6 percent in late 2015less than half the 6.3 percent average in the final three decades of the twentieth centuryand trade deficits with 101 countries.

The pattern also holds true elsewhere. The United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, and Portugalall of which have large trade deficitssave much less than other developed countries. Conversely, high savers like Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and Switzerland all run trade surpluses.

Saving imbalances can also lead to destabilizing international capital flows, asset bubbles, and financial crises. That was the case in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008/2009, when global saving imbalances, as measured by the disparities between countries with current-account deficits and surpluses, hit a modern record. The asset and credit bubbles fueled by those imbalances brought the world to the brink of an abyss not seen since the 1930s.

Here, too, there is considerable finger pointing. Deficit countries tend to blame the yield-seeking "saving glut" that sloshes around in world financial markets. As former US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke put it, if only countries like China had spent more, the bubbles that nearly broke the US would not have formed in the first place. Others have been quick to point out that the US' supposed growth miracle probably could not have happened without the capital provided by surplus countries.

The prudent approach would be to strike a better balance between saving and spending. That is particularly important for the US and China, which together account for a disproportionate share of the world's saving disparities. Simply put, the US needs to save more and consume less, while China needs to save less and consume more. To succeed, both countries will have to overcome entrenched mindsets.

On this front, China has been leading the way, with a strategy of consumer-led rebalancing that it introduced five years ago. The results so far have been mixed, as inadequate funding of a social safety net continues to temper the support to household incomes provided by services-driven job creation and urbanization-led increases in real wages. But China has lately shown a commitment to addressing this shortcoming. Its recently enacted 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) aims to dampen fear-driven precautionary saving through interest-rate liberalization, the introduction of deposit insurance, the loosening of the hukou residential permit system (which would improve benefit portability), and relaxation of the one-child family planning policy.
Non-European Union member Switzerland inspired its European neighbors on June 1st by announcing the completion of a 57-km-long rail tunnel, the longest one in the world to date, underneath the Swiss Alps after 17 years of assiduous drilling.

Very similar to the Channel Tunnel linking Great Britain and mainland Europe, and thus Asia, mountainous landlocked Switzerland is expected to gain tremendous benefits from the multi-billion euro Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will be used by freight and passenger trains to travel to and from Italy later this year.

Leading European political figures such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Francois Hollande, preoccupied by the continuing headaches of terrorism, refugee influx and economic stagnation, took time out to celebrate the engineering miracle with Swiss leaders that day.

In the EU, transforming such time-consuming engineering work from grand vision idea into reality is not easy, with various constraints ranging from complicated environmental impact assessments, conflicting interests of different political parties to the overall inefficiency of the approval process.

Two examples can illustrate the problem.

In Germany, the local authority of the city of Stutgartt decided to invest about six billion euros in 2010 to revive its main train station area into a business hub, but then it failed when more than half the local population voted against it in a referendum.

In Belgium, a businessman planned to convert a building he purchased in the downtown Brussels area into a hotel but it will take him about two years to complete the decoration work alone.

Such hurdles have nipped in the bud many such business opportunities in the EU, though it desperately needs investments to rekindle various economies and create jobs.

It is up to the European Union to take institutional action to make changes to allow the challenges to be faced squarely. In this sense, the completion of this Swiss project has offered well-timed food for thought, and highlighted the relationship between China and EU into the context.

China and the EU have been in negotiations to set up a joint fund in order to invest in each other's mega-projects. Most importantly, EU member countries are eager to launch big projects to boost the region's economy.

For decades, China has accumulated tremendous engineering expertise since constructing the Three-Gorges Hydropower Plant, long pipelines to transport oil and natural gas from the western parts of China to the east and south, as well as and hundreds of thousands of kilometers of railways and highways. China has the capacity to produce the necessary machinery.

And China has surplus capital.

For example, the Czech Republic, another landlocked country in Europe, has a strong intention to cooperate with China, which could help this central European country connect with the rest of Europe by digging cannels and building an aviation hub.

Coincidentally, Switzerland recently became an observer to the 16+1 framework between the Central and East Europe and China, under which both sides have already started infrastructural cooperation.

By making good use of its experiences gathered in the tunnel project, Switzerland could join China to provide timely and valuable input to help realize fast development in the sixteen countries in East and Central Europe.

Moreover, such cooperation would be useful in improving the infrastructures in West Europe.

The United Kingdom is already discussing with China high-speed railway and nuclear power station projects.

Such cooperation may need a final signal from European Union headquarters. Apart from speeding up approval procedure, it is necessary for the European Union to rethink what mega-projects in Eurasia continent are necessary and how to link them with regional economic recovery and integration.

Additionally, both China and European Union should be aware of such a bigger picture when considering future infrastructure and engineering projects, when they talk about setting up joint fund aimed at improving connectivity.

In that context, the admiration of the Swiss project's success by Europe's main leaders is meaningful.

To contact the author: fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
The UK has decided to increase the number of visa application centers in China from 12 to 15 in response to an anticipated record demand this year.[Photo by Wang Jing/Asianewsphoto]

The UK has decided to increase the number of visa application centers in China from 12 to 15 in response to an anticipated record demand this year. The new centers will be established in Changsha, Kunming and Xi'an, all of which will start receiving applicants this month, with Xi'an beginning the service on June 10.

The UK's plan to expand the visa application network was announced by Prime Minister David Cameron during the State Visit of President Xi to the UK last October.

The three new centers aim to improve the visa service's geographical presence and make it accessible to as many Chinese citizens as possible.

The launch dates and locations of the three newly opened centers are:

10 June: Xi'an - Room 1103, Building A, Mole Collection Centers, Cross Road of Keji 6th Road and Fenghui South Road, High-tech zone, Xi'an city, Shaanxi province.

15 June: Kunming - 1502B, Building 5, Xindulongcheng, No 1079 Beijing Road, Kunming city,Yunnan province.

1 July: Changsha - No 1-3 Conference Room, 2/F, White Swan Hotel, No 258, Xiangfu Zhong Road, Tianxin district, Changsha city, Hunan province.
WASHINGTON - The US Treasury Department on Wednesday took further steps to restrict the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from the global financial system.

In a statement, the Treasury Department announced that the DPRK is a "primary money laundering concern" and recommended a measure to prohibit "covered US financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts with North Korea (DPRK's) financial institutions".

Current US law already generally prohibits US financial institutions from engaging in both direct and indirect transactions with DPRK's financial institutions, according to the statement.

The proposed measure, if finalized, would require US financial institutions to implement "additional due diligence measures" in order to prevent DPRK's banking institutions from gaining improper indirect access to US correspondent accounts.

The measure would also prohibit the use of third-country banks' US correspondent accounts to process transactions for DPRK's financial institutions.

"The United States, the UN Security Council, and our partners worldwide remain clear-eyed about the significant threat that North Korea (DPRK) poses to the global financial system," said Adam Szubin, Acting Under Secretary of Treasury. "Today's action is a further step toward severing banking relationships with North Korea (DPRK)".

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on March 2, which in part requires UN Member States to sever correspondent banking relationships with DPRK's financial institutions within 90 days of the adoption of the resolution.

Szubin called on other governments and financial authorities to do likewise pursuant to the UN Security Council Resolution.

"It is essential that we all take action to prevent the regime from abusing financial institutions around the world -- through their own accounts or other means," he said.
Liechtenstein's Prime Minister Adrian Hasler addresses guests during the opening ceremony of the NEAT Gotthard Base Tunnel, the world's longest and deepest rail tunnel, in Pollegio, Switzerland June 1, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

Switzerland opened the world's longest and deepest rail tunnel through the heart of the Alps on Wednesday in an engineering marvel hailed as a symbol of European unity at a time of increasing fragmentation.

The 57.1-km (35.5 mile)-long Gotthard Base Tunnel, 17 years under construction, is part of a 23 billion Swiss franc ($23 billion) infrastructure project to speed passengers and cargo by rail under the mountain chain dividing Europe's north and south.

Typically Swiss, the Gotthard tunnel that federal transport office director Peter Fueglistaler called "a masterpiece of timing, cost and policy" came in on schedule and on budget.
China and the United States will discuss maritime security and relations between their militaries at a bilateral strategic security dialogue on Sunday, an official with the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. It will take place a day ahead of the eighth round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue to be held in Beijing.

Speaking at a warming-up forum for the dialogue, Vice-Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said the security dialogue will be co-chaired by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui and US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and military representatives from both nations will attend the dialogue.
State Councilor Yang Jiechi and US Secretary of State John Kerry will discuss the South China Sea during the eighth round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue to be held on Monday in Beijing, an official with the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The two sides will work to push forward a proper settlement of the issue, Vice-Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang told reporters at a warming-up forum for the dialogue.

Regarding the South China Sea, Zheng said, the US, which in fact is not a claimant country, has already promised that it would take no position in the disputes.

"We hope the US could keep its promise and take no side," Zheng said, noting that Washington should determine its position based on the actual rights and wrongs, instead of the position of its allies.

If Washington could stop provocative activity against China's sovereignty and security interests, it will certainly play a constructive role in keeping peace and stability in the region, and cool the issue, he added.

The vice-foreign minister reaffirmed China's stance on the South China Sea, saying that China has the right to safeguard its own territory and legitimate maritime interests, as the South China Sea islands have been Chinese territory since ancient times.

He noted that China will be committed to keeping peace and stability in the South China Sea and manage disputes via dialogue.

China will insist on peacefully resolving the issue through negotiations and consultations, and realizing win-win results through cooperation, he said.
NAIROB -- A terrorist attack on a UN camp in Gao, northern Mali on Tuesday killed a Chinese peacekeeper and injured four others.

China has strongly condemned the attack claimed by Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and pledged to continue to support UN peacekeeping operations across the world.

The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is the world body's deadliest active mission. More than 60 of its personnel have died on active service since it was set up in 2013 following a rebellion in the country by ethnic Tuareg fighters alongside armed groups.

China started contributing its peacekeepers to MINUSMA in 2013. Currently, nearly 400 Chinese peacekeepers are based in Gao, carrying out security, engineering and medical work.

MINUSMA has spoken highly of the role Chinese peacekeepers have played in helping maintain peace and stability in the region, where jihadists stage sporadic attacks on UN personnel.

Koen Davidse, deputy special representative of the UN Secretary-General in MINUSMA, told Xinhua late last year that Chinese peacekeepers had done a "perfect job" and built good relations with locals.

"I am impressed by the unique relations between Chinese troops and the population of Gao. They support many schools in Gao by providing medical support, something that is recognized and appreciated by the population," Davidse said.

China has in the past decade been in the front line of supporting UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa, with a total of more than 2,400 Chinese blue helmets currently on duties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan and Mali.

In DR Congo, where rebel groups have been active in its eastern part since late 1990s, Chinese peacekeepers have been on UN peacekeeping duties since 2003.

The Chinese military engineers in DR Congo have been involved in road renovation, bridge construction, landmine detection, transportation and airport maintenance, while the medical personnel have been providing treatment for their UN comrades and local people.

In South Sudan, which has just begun to heal from more than two years of civil war, China sent its first ever peacekeeping infantry battalion to the war-torn country in April 2015.

The 700-strong battalion deployed to the capital Juba is tasked with protection for civilians and UN personnel and facilities, as well as humanitarian work.

The head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, Ellen Loej, told Xinhua late last year: "When we have disturbances or unrest in protection of the civilians site, they (Chinese peacekeepers) have shown very quick reaction that I appreciate very much."

Also in South Sudan, a Chinese engineering company and a medical team, numbering around 300, are serving with the UN mission in the northwestern city of Wau.

In Liberia, where a 1980 coup led to some two decades of political instability, Chinese peacekeepers joined the UN peacekeeping mission there in 2003, and more than 500 Chinese blue helmets are now on duty.

In Sudan's restive Darfur region, a Chinese peacekeeping team is currently part of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur, with their role including construction of makeshift airports, bridges and roads, and civilian protection.

China is the biggest contributor among the five UN Security Council permanent members in terms of the number of blue helmets. It will become the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget 2016-2018, next to the United States.

Globally, since 1990, more than 30,000 Chinese peacekeepers have served with over 20 UN peacekeeping missions. More than ten Chinese peacekeepers have lost their lives on active mission.

In September last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced at a UN summit that China will contribute 8,000 troops to a UN peacekeeping standby force.

Xi also pledged that China will provide military aid worth 100 million U.S. dollars to the African Union to support the establishment of the African Standby Force, Africa's peacekeeping troops.
VILNIUS -- Lithuanian Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius and visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jing on Thursday agreed to deepen their cooperation under various mechanisms.

Butkevicius stressed Lithuania adhered to the One-China Policy and respected China's core interests and major concerns.

He expressed Lithuania's hope to be the gateway for Chinese enterprises and investments to enter Europe and make new contributions to the development of the "16+1" cooperation and China-Europe relations.

Yang said the two countries had been in close contact since last year and had progressed in their cooperation in various fields.

He pointed out the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year should serve as an opportunity to promote China's "Belt and Road" initiative to match Lithuania's strategy of development, thus further expanding ties in the fields of trade and transportation, among others.

He stressed the two sides should make full use of the China-Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) cooperation framework, and promote the continuous rapid development of bilateral relations and the "16+1" cooperation.
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(Photo : Getty Images/ChinaFotoPress) Alibaba is expected to invest about $5 to $10 million in Toggle.

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Alibaba is betting big on Artificial Intelligence by investing in Israeli search startup firm Twiggle. The investment will help the Chinese e-commerce giant to boost its position in the sector.



Through this investment, Alibaba will get access to Twiggle's search technology which can help the company to refine the features of its online shopping service.



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Alibaba has not issued any statement about the terms and conditions of the investment. However, the Chinese company is expected to invest between $5 to $10 million in the startup. Twiggle is currently on a fund-raising drive to establish offices in the US and boost its engineering team in Israel.



Alibaba previously made a minor investment in another Israeli firm engaged in the field of QR coding.



Amir Konigsberg, co-founder and CEO of Twiggle said, "With nine million different sellers, Taobao is one of the biggest and most challenging sites out there." Taobao is owned by Alibaba. Twiggle CEO further stated, "What our system is able to do is adapt itself to specific retailer data and structuring pattern."



Alibaba stocks more than a billion products on its various marketplace websites such as Taobao and TMall. Twiggle's search technology may help the company to transform the way customers search for products on Alibaba websites. There is growing demand for efficient searching tools on e-commerce websites as this helps improve the shopping experience of customers.



Twiggle was founded three ago back by ex-employees of Google.



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(Photo : Jason Lee - Pool /Getty Images) China's President Xi Jinping (R) and Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe attend a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People May 30, 2016 in Beijing, China.

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The future of China's economic transition and industrial upgrading lies in science and technology.



This, as China's top officials led by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang led an event featuring three top-level science conferences attended by 4,000 scientists and science officials, according to China Daily.



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At the full-packed conference held on Monday, the high ranking Chinese officials committed to make science and technology a major priority of the Central government.



In his remarks, Xi underscored the central government's commitment to transform China into a leader in the areas of science and technology by the middle of the century, or by the time the nation celebrates the 100th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China.



The president noted the crucial role of science and technology in the country's development, describing them as a bedrock that "the country relies on for its power, enterprises rely on for victories, and people rely on for a better life."



He added: "Great scientific and technological capacity is a must for China to be strong and for people's lives to improve," calling for new ideas, designs and strategies in science and technology.



For his part, Premier Li revealed that China's overall investment in research and development input will continue to increase and will account for at least 2.5 percent of its GDP in 2020, from the current 2.1 percent.



In the meantime, Zhu Baoliang, a specialist in economic forecasting with the National Information Center, pointed out that China cannot continue to rely on human input for growth in light of the current demographic challenges facing the country.



These issues include the country's rapidly aging society and a looming labor shortage.



Over the 30 years, about 30 percent of China's economic growth has been achieved innovations, he noted.



By contrast, developed countries have achieved 70 percent of their growth through innovations.



To accelerate China's thrust to make science and technology among nation's main growth driver, Zhu called for more policy reforms, particularly those which will provide incentives for the vast talent needed in research and innovation.







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Tagschina, China Science and Technology, President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Kequiang
(Photo : Getty Images) Surge price scourge

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Saudi Arabia is injecting $3.5 billion to Uber, keeping its valuation unchanged at $62 billion.



The significant cash infusion gives Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund a seat in the global transportation company's board of directors.



Considered by Fortune as "one of the largest funding rounds by a tech company in recent history," the investment comes at a time when "funding for new tech companies has been slowing in recent months" while regarding over-valuation among tech startup firms rig many investors, LA Times reports. The San Francisco-based firm, however, succeeded in raising billions of dollars with its ambitious global expansion as its main goal.



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Uber's operations now extend to nine Middle Eastern countries, making it one of its fastest-growing markets.



Saudi Arabia now joins the force of several investors who already poured in over $14 billion since the company was founded in 2009. Uber now boasts of cash stash amounting to $11 billion and ready credit to bank roll its expansion.



Yasir Al Rumayyan, the Saudi fund's managing director, is slated to join such high profile directors like Arianna Huffington and David Plouffe on company's board.



Huffington became a board member last April while Plouffe, who unsuccessfully ran against President Obama in 2008, joined the board last year.



Uber's politically-savvy directors are expected to keep the company sailing despite Uber's fight tough fight against governments and taxi drivers that consider company either as a threat to public safety or their businesses.



On-demand ride services is getting more and more popular. In fact, Uber's regional competitors also obtained significant investments this year. Take the case of China-based Didi Chuxing, which got $1 billion from Apple while General Motors placed half a billion dollars into San Francisco's Lyft.



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(Photo : Christopher Furlong | Getty Images) An usher walks through the European Parliament on May 12, 2016 in Strasbourg, France.

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A new rule against hate speech has been implemented by the European Union in agreement with some of the largest online corporations including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Microsoft.



According to the rule, tech companies will remove all illegal hate speeches from their platforms within 24 hours and respond to it, according to USA Today.



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The European Commission worked quickly to address the issue of hate speeches online after the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris, according to Techcrunch.



IT corporations have promoted freedom of speech. But it appears they are taking a different stand now as some companies have begun deleting hate speeches and accounts associated with them. Up to 125,000, ISIS accounts on Twitter were deleted for promoting hate speech in 2015. Facebook and the German government began a partnership against hate speech in September of 2015. In December, Google and Twitter joined the partnership.



EU Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Vera Jourova stated that "The recent terror attacks have reminded us of the urgent need to address illegal online hate speech."



She also added that "social media is, unfortunately, one of the tools that terrorist groups use to radicalize young people and racist use to spread violence and hatred."



The participating companies have elected teams to differentiate positive and negative contents on their platforms.



Karen White, Twitter's Head of Public Policy for Europe, stated that "Hateful conduct has no place on Twitter, and we will continue to tackle this issue head on alongside our partners in industry and civil society."



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TagsEU, Facebook, hatespeech, Microsoft, IT companies, Twitter, Microsoft news, twittter
(Photo : YouTube Screenshot) A province in China is offering women-only wide parking spaces.

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China's Hangzhou Province now offers extra-wide parking spaces exclusively for women, state-run newspaper Qianjiang Evening News reported on Monday.



"The bigger parking spaces are for women drivers whose driving skills are not superb," Pan Tietong, manager of the service area, told the newspaper. "It's a human measure."



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The spaces are outlined in pink and are said to be 50 percent wider than the usual spots. The extra-wide parking spaces for women were created after authorities reportedly observed several women struggling to park in reverse.



Tietong told Shanghai Daily that women requested for such large spots. However, he noted that if female drivers are confident enough, then they could always opt not to park in the reserved slots. He also said that the spaces exclusive for women only accommodate about 15 users each day.



Meanwhile, netizens on Sino Weibo have reacted over the plans for the exclusive parking space for women



"This is sexism under the name of showing concern - whether one can park well depends on driving skills, not gender," one user posted, according to LA Times. "They should be called newbie drivers' spaces instead," another user suggested.



However, in a study conducted, more than half of the respondents believe Hangzhou is doing the right thing.



Hangzhou's female-only parking slots are not the first in the world. In 2014, South Korea allocated some 5,000 extra-wide parking spaces to female drivers. Some parts of Germany are also mandated to reserve up to 30 percent of parking slots to women, according to the Washington Post.



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(Photo : Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Samsung) A general view of the atmosphere is seen at the new Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and Galaxy Note5 at Launch Event on August 18, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

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There are rumors that the next Samsung's flagship phone will be the Galaxy Note 7, and not the Galaxy Note 6. In fact, there are speculations that the new device in the works will come in two versions; standard and edge.



Galaxy Note 7 Edge



According to cnBeta, India's import and export data site, Zauba, first reported on the new information about the Galaxy Note 7. The new device has a codename SM-N935 metal mask.



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There are some rumors that the codename SM-N935 might be for a "lite" version of the Galaxy Note 7, according to GSMArena.



Galaxy Note 7 Specs and Features



The Galaxy Note 7 is expected to have a 5.8-inch Quad HD display with 1440 x 2560 resolution screen. It is likely to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 823 SoC with 6GB of RAM with 64GB storage, TechnoBuffalo reported.



The next generation phablet could have a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera just like the Galaxy S7, but with some enhancements. Samsung may also equip the Galaxy Note 7 to support a Gear VR device.



The Galaxy Note 7 is expected to be released in August.







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TagsGalaxy Note 6, Galaxy Note 7, Samsung, Galaxy Note 7 Edge, Galaxy S7 Edge
(Photo : Getty Images) Newly-elected Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has praised Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him a 'great president.'

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Philippines' President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has described Chinese President Xi Jinping as a 'great president' as he thanked the Chinese leader for the congratulatory message the latter sent to him.



Political observers said Xi's congratulatory message to Duterte was another hint that the icy relations between the two nations is beginning to warm and that bilateral ties would soon be restored.



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In a news conference on Wednesday, Duterte complimented Xi and described him as a 'great president' in response to questions from the media regarding Xi's congratulatory message to the Philippines new leader.



The tough-talking former mayor of Davao City, who has been criticized for lacking foreign policy experience, heaped praise on the Chinese leader even though he seemed unsure of Xi's official Chinese title.



"I was honored, receiving a congratulatory message from a great president, uh prime minister," Duterte said.



Standard diplomatic tradition



According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Xi wrote a letter to Duterte following the latter's victory in the Philippines national elections. This is a standard diplomatic tradition for heads of states.



China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, said Beijing hopes that ties between the two sides would normalize and that bilateral relations would get back on track under the Duterte administration.



Sino-Philippine ties have grown sour under the six-year term of President Benigno Aquino after Manila sued China over its territorial claims in the South China Sea three years ago.



The case was filed before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), an international arbitration court in the Hague, Netherlands. The court is expected to hand down the ruling this month.



Ruling



Beijing has said that it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the tribunal and refused to participate in the proceedings.



China remains defiant that it will not honor the ruling of the court whichever way it goes. However, the international community continues to urge Beijing to respect the decision of the arbitration court.



The ruling is expected to be acted on by incoming president Duterte. Duterte has said that he is willing to hold multilateral talks with South China Sea claimants countries and some Western third-party nations to resolve the maritime territorial dispute.



Duerte said that if the multilateral talks fail, he would be willing to negotiate directly with China to resolve the festering issue.



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TagsChinese President Xi jinping, Philippine President-Elect Rodrigo Duterte, Permanent Court of Arbitration, china
(Photo : Getty Images/Laurent Hamels) A teenager has been sentenced to prison in Kansas for murdering her sister.

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A 16-year-old girl has been sentenced to almost 16 years of in prison on Tuesday for brutally stabbing her 13-year-old sister. The fatal incident happened in their Kansas home in August, 2014.



According to the Salina Journal, presiding Judge Patrick Thompson described Galazia Niehaus' death as "one of the most brutal murders" his court has seen.



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Sierra Niehaus was sentenced in Saline County, Kansas after pleading no contest to charges of second-degree murder, felony theft, and two counts of interference with law enforcement. Prosecutors accused Niehaus, who was only 14 years old at that time, of stabbing her younger sister in their home on August 2014.



According to CBS News, Niehaus told police in her first statement that three men were involved in the incident. However, she recanted her statement and maintained that she cannot remember the events that occurred that night.



According to People, after the murder, the teen used her parents' van to run to a friend's house. Niehaus friend testified last year that she looked scared and wore a shirt that seemed wet at the time of the incident.



Alecia Mendez, a cousin of Sierra and Galazia, has expressed her feelings of disbelief over the incident.



"She would have never hurt a fly," Mendez said. "There's no way I think she would ever do this. This is the worst thing that's ever happened to us."



The judge gave Niehaus a 15-year, 10-month maximum sentence of imprisonment as part of a plea deal, even though her parents begged the court to give their daughter mercy.



"Because of the enormity of the crime and the aggressiveness and violence of the homicide, the court must consider that you're a danger to the community," Judge Thompson told Niehaus.



In a statement, Niehaus told the court that she misses her sister "very much" and she wishes there was a way to bring her back.



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Tagssierra niehaus, galazia niehaus, Kansas
(Photo : Elijah Nouvelage) Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

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A North Korean publication, DPRK Today, has endorsed Donald Trump's bid to win the Republican nomination for the upcoming US 2016 presidential elections. The state-owned newspaper described Trump as a 'wise' and a 'far-sighted presidential candidate.



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DPRK Today, which is known to be one of the nation's mouthpieces, also praised Trump for his position on several key issues. Among them is the fact that Trump has stated that he is unwilling to be involved in a war between North and South Korea as well as his openness to have talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.



The paper further mentions how Trump's suggestion to pull American troops away from the South Korean border is one of the ways peace could be restored in the region.



For years, North Korea has called for the withdrawal of US troops from the Korean border as the first step to ensuring peace is achieved.



The publication described Trump's likely Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton as "thick-headed Hillary" for her calls for economic sanctions tp be imposed on North Korea. Clinton proposed that the US uses the same policy it used against Iran to pressue North Korea to give up its nuclear program.



Currently, the DPRK is under heavy sanctions imposed by the United Nations over its nuclear tests. Pyongyang is not currently in talks with South Korea or the United States. The North Korean government insists that multilateral discussions are not helpful.



North Korea, nonetheless, continues to iterate its intention to resolve the dispute with South Korea through dialogue.



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TagsNorth Korea, donald trump, Kim Jong Un, 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton
(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Bundestag passes a resolution recognising the Armenian Genocide

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Germany's parliament has approved a symbolic resolution recognizing the 1915 massacre of Armenians during the First World War by the Ottoman Empire as a 'genocide.' The Turkish government has strongly condemned the resolution which is like to strain its relations with Germany.



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The vote was near-unanimous, with all but one member of parliament (MP) voting against the resolution and another choosing to abstain. German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported the decsion but was unable to be at the Parliament to vote due to her other commitments.



Turkey has refused to acknowledge human rights abuses committed during the Ottoman Empire's assault on Armenia in 1915.



The Turkish government expressed it disapproval of the resolution. According to Ankara, the passing of the resolution risks harming diplomatic ties between both countries. Turkey has since withdrawn its ambassador in Berlin.



Armenians, on the other hand, have voiced appreciation for the German resolution.



"Germany's valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides [and] crimes against humanity," Armenia's Foreign Minister, Edward Nalbandian said.



"There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great," Merkel said.



This resolution comes at an awkward time when Germany and the EU continue to rely on Turkey's assistance to deal with the refugee crisis. Recently, Ankara and the EU struck a deal regarding the migrant crisis. Turkey would get billions of Euros in exchange for its assistance in dealing with the movement of illegal migrants through its borders.



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Scientologists launch massive studio to spread cult message globally through movies, TV, radio 02 June, 2016 by Gregory Tomlin , |

LOS ANGELES (Christian Examiner)  Scientologists have grown weary of negative portrayals of their religion  from the documentary Going Clear to a new book written by leader David Miscavige's own father  so the cult and its leaders have revamped the church's media strategy.

In a news release May 31, the church's leaders announced it had "totally reinvented and restored" its motion picture and television studio platforms so they could focus on "delivering the message of help  unadulterated and pure  everywhere."

"Yes, Scientology is in the newsthat's certainly proof that the religion is so interesting. But now Scientology Media Productions IS the media," the statement reads.

Scientology's revamped media production arm is housed in a five-acre complex near the famed intersection of Sunset and Hollywood boulevards. The site is complete with sound stages, creative studios, visual effects production areas, audio and digital film editing suites, as well as space for dubbing the messages in other languages, the statement said.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO.

Miscavige, whose tyrannical style of leadership was recently exposed by his father, told more than 10,000 followers at the grand opening of the church's new media studio or "global media center" that the studio will focus on telling the Scientology story.

The studio, he said, will serve as "our uncorrupted communication line to the billions," Miscavige said, according to the news release. "Because as the saying goes, if you don't write your own story, someone else will. So, yes, we're now going to be writing our story like no other religion in history. And it's all going to happen right here from Scientology Media Productions (SMP)."

SMP will provide broadcast programing, as well as online content and digital magazines.

"So, you ask what this day is all about," Miscavige said. "It's a history L. Ron Hubbard himself laid into Scientology  to share what wisdom we possess, to help others to help themselves. And, what goes with the territory: to ignore the catcalls from those who claim that Man cannot be understood, cannot be helped. But, we know different. We know Man can be helped. And even more than that, we know how to do it."

Consider all we have to offer by way of real answers, actual Truth and unconditional Help. At which point, the question becomes: How do we bring those answers to everyone, in every language of Earth?

(NOTE: Traditional Christians reference God with the capitalized personal pronoun "He," or with the name "God." Scientologists in the news release referred to "Man," capitalized, as the creature to be understood, rather than the Creator).

Miscavige described how Scientologists will use the time young adults spend on the phone daily (searching topics on social media) to explore the deeper challenges of life through Scientology.

"SMP will harness the power of every social media outlet imaginable to provide those answers," Miscavige told the crowd at the opening of the studio.

"So for the 95 percent of the world's population that listens to the radio every day, and the average viewer who spends some 40 hours glued to a TV every week, the obvious answer was: our own radio station, our own TV channel, and our own broadcasting facilities."

But the content on the channel may not exclusively reference Scientology. According to Miscavige, information about "all faiths" may appear on the channel. That presumably would include the Scientologists' take on Christianity.

Several city leaders praised the opening of the media center, including Kevin James, a former mayoral candidate who now leads the Los Angeles City Film and Television Office. He called the Scientology studio a "city partner."

"With this new studio that we're celebrating today, I'd say we're taking our partnership to a whole new level," James said. His association with the project may mean work is steered in the direction of the new facility.

The remodeled studio, once home to Los Angeles's KCET Television, was also the same studio where movies like Kidnapped and Invasion of the Body Snatchers were either filmed or produced. The news release also claimed it was the same studio that invited science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to write scripts for the movie serial, The Secret of Treasure Island.

Hubbard later crafted a story of alien worlds, immortal humans, and spirits (thetans) inhabiting physical bodies. It also included the idea of reincarnation. Together the ideas produce a religion more akin to the ancient Christian heresy of Gnosticism and pagan Zoroastrianism than anything else. Hubbard called it Scientology  a combination of religion and science fiction.

Miscavige, together with the near-messianic figure of actor Tom Cruise, believe Scientology is truth. Cruise frequently stumps for the church on worldwide tours and attends the openings of new churches, like the one in Spain in 2004.

"Consider all we have to offer by way of real answers, actual Truth and unconditional Help. At which point, the question becomes: How do we bring those answers to everyone, in every language of Earth?" Miscavige asked. For the leader, broadcasting the message of Scientology to everyone on its own terms is the answer.

The Church of Scientology announced its plans to renovate the aging facility last year and has reportedly put $50 million into the project. Cruise, among other Hollywood stars, are planning to use the facility to make future films  some of which will tout the teachings of Scientology.

Sinar Parman, an Indonesian who was inside the church for about 30 years as a chef to L. Ron Hubbard and David Miscavige (and, on occasion, Cruise), said in 2015 that the new facility is Scientology's version of a news network or a 24-hour programming outlet.

"CNN covers anything and everything; it's their version of CNN, but who wants to watch that stuff?" Parman, who left the cult in 2001, asked.

The new studio complex is located just 12 miles from Cruise's home in West Hollywood, and will, Scientology leaders hope, eventually rival Paramount and Universal in size. Previous media productions were developed at the church's "Gold Base" in the California desert, 60 miles from Los Angeles.

That location is also the site described by Miscavige's father, where those who transgress the will of the cult leader spend time in "the hole" as punishment.
Last Saturday, a four-year-old boy climbed the wall of the Cincinnati Zoos gorilla exhibit and tumbled into the moat. After Harambe, the zoos 17-year-old gorilla, dragged the boy through the water multiple times, a zookeeper shot and killed the animal. Over the weekend, the story provoked national speculation, fury, and sadness over parenting, zoos, and dead animals.

While zoo officials were right to kill Harambe to protect the toddler, the Bible is clear that animals have value, says Karen Swallow Prior, an English professor at Liberty University, and a member of the Faith Advisory Council of the Humane Society of the United States.

Lets go back to Genesis and the Bible. Very clearly there is something that we as human beings share with animals, in terms of having animation, having a moving spirit, said Prior. We are made in Gods image, animals are not, but we still have the breath of life in us. God himself indicates in the Genesis account that there is a special relationship between humans and animals because God gives Adam the job of naming animals.

Prior joined Morgan and Katelyn on Quick to Listen this week to talk about the history of zoos, if we should apply human emotions to animals, and whether animals go to heaven.

(6:50) What are the objects of the publics love in this story?

(14:50) For many, this story pits animals against humans. Is that a false choice? Why do we prioritize the childs life over the gorillas?

(21:20) What do zoos assume about the way the world should be?

Prior has frequently written for CT about animals

1
I had the privilege or reading a pre-release version of "God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church." Here are 20 quotes from the book, which you should pick up.
Robertson McQuilkin, who stepped down from the presidency of Columbia Bible College and Seminary (now Columbia International University) in 1990 to care fulltime for his ailing wife, Muriel, has died. He was 88.

McQuilkin, whose father was Columbias first president, met Muriel when they were both students there. During their 55-year marriage, they raised 6 children and served for 12 years as missionaries in Japan. Both eventually worked at ColumbiaMuriel taught and McQuilkin became the president in 1968.

Under his leadership, Columbias enrollment doubled and two radio stations were founded, the school noted in its tribute to McQuilkin.

Their love story went national when Muriel developed Alzheimers disease and was eventually terrified to be without McQuilkin. Some of his friends advised him to put her into an institution. But he chose instead to leave Columbia eight years short of retirement in order to care for her.

McQuilkin explained his decision to CT:

When the time came, the decision was firm. It took no great calculation. It was a matter of integrity. Had I not promised, 42 years before, "in sickness and in health . . . till death do us part"? This was no grim duty to which I stoically resigned, however. It was only fair. She had, after all, cared for me for almost four decades with marvelous devotion; now it was my turn. And such a partner she was! If I took care of her for 40 years, I would never be out of her debt.

His resignation speech to Columbia has been heard by tens of thousands of people around the world, the school stated.

The disease did not seem painful for her, McQuilkin said, but it was a slow dying for me to watch the vibrant, creative, articulate person I knew and loved gradually dimming out.

McQuilkin later wrote for CT about how he found joy after lifes blowsmy dearest slipping from me, my eldest son snatched away in a tragic accident, my life's work abandoned at its peak.

Muriel passed away in 2003. I dont see how I could have any more grief, McQuilkin told CT then.

He continued to speak and write, in addition to serving as president emeritus of Columbia. He authored 19 books, including A Promise Kept, about the struggles he had and lessons he learned in caring for Muriel. In 2005, he married nursing professor Deborah Jones.

In 2010, McQuilkin received the Lifetime Service Award from Missio Nexus.

The next year, after Pat Robertson said it was okay to divorce a spouse with Alzheimers, CT blogger Ed Stetzer said McQuilkins example was better.

Not only was Robertson McQuilkin like Jesus in keeping his word to Muriel; he was like Jesus in his love for her, Stetzer wrote. Others can refute unwise statements like those of Pat Robertson, but this is how Christ's love for the church is our modelhe laid down his life. So should we. When it comes to marriage and Alzheimers, listen to Robertson McQuilken and not Pat Robertson.

McQuilkin wrote for CT about caring for his wife, as well as the best way to do missions and how to break the cycle of missions dependency.
BGEA/Orthodox religious liberty summit postponed after fallout from Pope and Patriarch meeting

A planned joint conference on religious liberty between the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been postponed until at least next year, according to Christian Today sources.

The BGEA still has the announcement of the conference on its website in a post dated March 29. It did not respond to requests for comment.

The conference was designed to bring together around 1,000 Christian leaders from more than 150 countries for a World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians. It was to take place from October 28-30, in Moscow, addressed the "unprecedented" mass persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Africa and other regions of the world. The joint press release said the BGEA and ROC "believe these evil deeds cannot be ignored by the Christian community".

However, it was unofficially announced earlier this month by the former president of the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists, Yuri Sipko, that the summit had been postponed or cancelled. Christian Today understands it will be held in 2017.

Sipko attributed the move to pressure on the ROC following the meeting of Patriarch Kirill with Pope Francis in Havana, widely applauded internationally but seen by many Orthodox Christians as a betrayal. The forthcoming Pan Orthodox Council in Crete from June 16-26, aimed at bring together all of the Orthodox Churches, may be an additional pressure point for the ROC as it cannot be seen as too accommodating to the West.

The BGEA is seen as an important partner by the ROC, which shares its highly conservative moral agenda. It ran a Russian-American Forum of Christian Leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, in November 2014 at which Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the ROC's Department for External Affairs, was the featured guest.

The ROC has been asked to comment.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church pulls out of Pan-Orthodox Council

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has effectively withdrawn from the Pan-Orthodox Council due to happen later this month, according to sofiaglobe.com.

The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church said that the council should be postponed until "thematic and organisational changes" were made, listing six objections to the draft documents that have been prepared for the meeting.

It says that unless the objections are met, they are "determined not to participate". Just weeks before the council, being held, between June 16-26, it is highly unlikely that the substantial changes will be made.

The Pan-Orthodox Council, the first of its kind in around 1,000 years, is a meeting of all the world's autocephalous (independent) Orthodox churches. Preparations for it began in 1961 and it is being convened to address issues within Orthodox Christianity that have appeared since the beginning of the 20th century, including both ethical and territorial issues.

The Bulgarian synod said it had held "extensive discussions" over the council and concluded that it had six objections that necessitated its postponement.

The objections included a vague reference to the absence of important issues "that have contemporary relevance and require timely Pan-Orthodox Council resolution", but did not specify what these topics were.

It also objecting to the seating arrangements for the primates of Orthodox Churches during the council, as it "violates the principle of equality of the primates of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches".

The Bulgarian Church also objected to the "large and unjustified" expense of attending the council.

The preparatory documents for the council are the result of long negotiations from leaders from across the Orthodox Churches.
Canada: L'Arche founder criticises assisted dying bill, speaks of 'fundamental sickness in our society'

Jean Vanier, the Canadian theologian who founded L'Arche, a collection of Christian communities serving people with learning disabilities, has raised concerns about the pending Canadian assisted dying bill, warning that it lacks necessary safeguards.

"There should be a right for somebody who really wants to die," Vanier said, yet the bill that made its official debut in the Senate on Wednesday, lacks "certain safeguards" to protect vulnerable people.

"People could go through periods of just fatigue, depression, loneliness," he said. "So we mustn't go too quick to just say "there's a legal right". They also have a legal right to be walked with, accompanied, and helped."

Speaking to Canada's CBC radio, Vanier questioned the society from which the bill has emerged, as well as the bill itself.

"There's a fundamental sickness in our society," he said, identifying it as 'independence'.

"The 'something' in society that's going wrong when we [are] thinking all the time that people have to be perfectly independent, perfectly strong, where in reality, my God, we need each other."

Vanier did not deny that we are independent, rather that "we're also all interdependent", and that this might be discovered by moving "from the I to the we".

"We are all fragile, we all need help, and yet at the same time we all have strengths," he said.

Vanier began living in community with intellectually disabled people in 1964 before founding L'Arche, which now comprises 147 communities across five continents.

"People come to us maybe who are quite violent, who are in depression, but then they discover something. They discover that they're loved," he said.

"Lawmakers should also realise that the human being, we're born in weakness, and we die in weakness. And that we're all vulnerable. And that we all always need help. A society needs to encourage opening up our hearts to those who are weaker and more fragile."

When asked whether he would consider choosing to end his own life, he said he wouldn't, but admitted that he had never lived in intense pain.

"My own situation is that I lived in community, I'm with people, I know I'm loved, and I love people. I've comforted quite a lot of people in their deathbeds. And I can say here in L'Arche, we have become quite frequently friends of death. That can sound strange," he said.

"But when people die here, we have a big celebration, and we talk about them. We have photos of them. And we laugh and we cry, you know, because even on their deathbeds, we can hold their hands, look into their eyes, and say, 'I love you'."

The draft legislation, introduced by Justin Trudeau's Liberal government in April, would allow people with incurable illnesses or disabilities to end their lives with a medical professional's help, but stopped short of extending the right to minors and the mentally ill.

The Supreme Court of Canada overturned a ban on medical-assisted suicide last year and gave the new government until June 6 to come up with a law, adding Canada to the handful of Western countries that allow the practice.
Catholic campaigners for women's ordination gain private meeting with Vatican official

A Roman Catholic organisation advocating for women's ordination has been given permission to hold an official demonstration in Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome.

Two representatives from Womens' Ordination Worldwide (WOW) met with an official from the Vatican Secretariat of State discussing women's ordination, according to the Tablet.

WOW has been in Rome between June 1-3 during the Vatican's Jubilee for Priests and is holding a conference, reception and exhibition for women in priestly ministry.

The organisation challenges the official Catholic Church position that holds priesthood is a role solely to be exercised by men. It calls for the Catholic hierarchy to "courageously open the door to dialogue on women's ordination".

While Pope Francis has been lauded as progressive in many respects, his treatment of women is his 'blind spot', Miriam Duignan, a leader of WOW, has previously told Christian Today.

Despite the official ruling of the Church, women have been ordained, and subsequently excommunicated.

In the meeting with the two WOW representatives, the Vatican official agreed to pass on a petition to the Pope calling for the excommunications to be lifted.

According to the women he listened to "our heartfelt plea for women priests in our Church".

The Pope has previously said the topic of ordination of women is a closed door.

"I readily acknowledge that many women share pastoral responsibilities with priests, helping to guide people, families and groups and offering new contributions to theological reflection," the Pope wrote in in his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium.

"The pain of this closed door is felt deeply around the world and perpetuates discrimination and injustices against women and girls in society," WOW said in a statement.

"This meeting in Rome is crucial in offering support to Pope Francis in the changes he is working towards in the Church. If the RC Church is to remain relevant in any way, opening up all areas of the Church to women of all nationalities is at the centre of this change."
Christian paedophile Richard Huckle: why the whole Church must respond

It's a devastating story. British paedophile Richard Huckle is facing life imprisonment for a hideous catalogue of sexual abuse, his victims all children and young people.

For years he's been allowed to commit atrocious crimes in Malaysia (and very possibly elsewhere, including the UK), and has even documented them in thousands of pictures and videos online in the so-called 'Dark Web'. And the final, horrifying twist for those of us affiliated to the church: Huckle is reported to be a "practising Christian".

Worse still, it's allegedly Huckle's Christianity that has created his opportunities for access to and abuse of children. He groomed children while performing voluntary work in Kuala Lumpur with a church-based charity. When in the UK, he was an active member and Sunday school teacher at a church in Kent.

The news is both deeply upsetting and extremely challenging for Christians. And while our instinctive reaction might be to try to cut Huckle loose as a man who was cynically using the Church as a cover story, we simply can't be sure that's true. It's very possible that Huckle was both a vile offender and a true believer at the same time. There's every chance that he really is one of us; utterly disgraced, but still part of the family. We can't simply wash our hands of him, his beliefs, or his actions.

His case presents a number of questions. Why did no one in the organisation he volunteered for pick up on his behaviour? And what needs to change to prevent someone using the Christian faith as a cover for the abuse of children  an issue we perhaps told ourselves was confined to only certain parts of the Church, and has now been fixed elsewhere thanks to the DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checking system?

The Church is the biggest provider of youth and children's work in the UK, and improving safeguarding has been arguably one of its biggest concerns over the last decade. The Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) works with churches every day to help them follow best practice and establish systems to prevent people like Richard Huckle ever coming into contact with vulnerable children. Yet these systems can never be foolproof. If someone doesn't have any kind of record of sexual offences, their background checks will show up as clear. At that point, it's up to leaders to assess their suitability for the role for which they've applied.

The challenge then isn't to improve the background checking procedure, but rather to question the way churches and organisations naturally tend to rely on them as the key indicator of someone's suitability for a role with children and young people. When someone applies for such a position, whether as a staff member of volunteer, leaders must personally assess them, asking God for guidance, and seeking second opinions from others if they have any concerns. I'm not suggesting we start a witchhunt, or turn volunteering for Sunday school into an intense trial of someone's character, but we can't simply wave people through on the basis of a clear DBS check. It might just be that they haven't been caught yet.

There's also a major challenge for charities that send volunteers into countries such as Malaysia where the policing of foreign child sex abusers is known to be slack. Instead of sending the hope of Christ into the lives of children and young people, they could unwittingly be sending the very work of the devil. They too must address their interviewing, screening and monitoring procedures; again, while Huckle is very possibly a sociopath (and therefore extremely adept at lying), the fact that his abuse went unnoticed when it was happening at such scale should be a grave concern to all involved in putting him there.

Huckle himself rightly now faces a lifetime in jail, but even so, that's not the end of our association with him. As his story is reported in the coming days, those words "Christian","Church"and "Sunday school teacher" will doubtless come up time and again, scratching against each of us as they do. And as this happens, we'll all get a small taste of what it must be like to live as a peaceful practising Muslim in an age when the media reports daily on 'Islamic terror'.

Yet we can't simply say he isn't one of us: he very possibly is. The Bible tells us that "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God", and while Huckle's crimes are repellent and evil, in one sense he's no different to any of the rest of us who manage to duplicitously hold a relationship with God in one hand, and a continued commitment to our particular brand of sin in the other. Huckle's depth or choice of sin doesn't alter the fact that he could have a relationship with God, albeit hugely strained and dysfunctional. And perhaps most shockingly of all, it doesn't mean that God loves him any less. The scandalous truth of Grace is that he isn't beyond redemption, even considering the gravity of what he's done. However hard we find it to do so, we should pray for him.

That said, Huckle's behaviour is utterly abhorrent, and it's hard for the moment to see past the anger that his crimes stir up in us. More than that, it should present a challenge to every single church and organisation that works with children and young people. If any good can come out of this terrible story, it will be that every one of us takes steps to ensure that it is never repeated.

Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. You can follow him on Twitter: @martinsaunders
Church of England: crisis in clergy numbers, but some hope too

Today's release of the latest figures on ministry deployment in the Church of England provides both a warning and encouragement for church leaders. Although there is a looming crisis in numbers of stipendiary (salaried) clergy, there are signs that the Church is slowly turning the employment corner.

The report brings to the fore the impending large number of stipended clergy (those who draw an income from the church, usually running a parish) about to retire. More than 25 per cent of current vicars will be drawing their pension in the next decade and there aren't enough new priests coming through at the start of their Church "career" to make up the numbers. The situation is even more stark in some areas. Canterbury and Truro Dioceses will see a staggering 40 per cent of their clergy retire within 10 years and there are significant numbers currently in their 50s coming up behind these soon-to-be OAPs looking to draw their own pension shortly afterwards. In some dioceses there appears to be little evidence that this impending employment crisis is being addressed.

At the other end of the age scale there is some positive improvement. For the first time in decades there are more men and women in their 20s and 30s coming through the Church of England training institutions than there are in their 50s. In particular there is a positive explosion of those in their 30s who are being ordained, but this is not yet enough to counter the large exit of priests at the other end of the career lifecycle. One interesting feature in the data is that there are enough women coming through the system to replace those leaving, even though large numbers who were ordained when the Church of England lifted the ban on women priests in the 1990s are now moving into retirement. The ratio of male to female clergy seems to have stabilised over the past five years though senior appointments are increasing their female representation in line with this ratio.

The large number of older clergy causing the demographic time bomb was caused by an emphasis in the 70s and 80s and into the 90s on having clergy with plenty of "life experience". The result was that younger men were turned away from ordination and never came back. It has taken almost a generation to even begin to correct that trend but now with initiatives like Call Waiting is positively boosting young vocations.

Another area of challenge is the recruitment of ethnic minority clergy. Despite their best efforts the Church of England has failed to attract many non white men and women over the past decade and the proportion of priests who are BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) has barely shifted in that time. Again, the Church of England has responded and only last month advertised for a full time post specifically encouraging vocations from minority ethnic groups.

The ministry statistics pick up on the increasing tendency of pre-retirement age clergy to not be in full time paid ministry. Almost a third of all clergy who aren't yet drawing their pension are in a similar situation to me  earning a salary in secular employment and offering the Church as much of their time as possible. In some dioceses the Church is increasingly reliant on such ministry but far too often such "self supporting ministers" don't receive the same kind of support or recognition as full time clergy. This is an "employee" relations issue that the Church of England needs to deal with urgently as its ministry in many parishes is contingent upon those who don't need the Church to pay their bills.

There are now real issues with some dioceses already being unable to fill vacant posts despite having the money to pay for them. The absence of long term planning has led in part to a preponderance of clergy in the South and a large number of vacancies in the North. There is no central "dating agency" of clergy and vacancies that attempts to link up those looking for jobs with parishes seeking new vicars. This situation will only get worse into the 2020s despite much needed initiatives from the HQ of the Church of England like "Renewal and Reform" which is attempting to streamline some of the bureaucracy and red tape that gets in the way of real ministry in the Church.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. This month we will have the next round of ordinations and they promise to be near record numbers. When you read the stories of those being ordained to the diaconate or priesthood you realise that God is still very much at work in England, calling his people and equipping them for ministry. Initiatives like Thy Kingdom Come demonstrate that the Church of England takes its role of evangelising and pastoring the nation incredibly seriously. Although there are still issues to be faced, the central authorities in the Church are recognising the problems to be tackled, being realistic about failures in the past and doing their best to shape the Church for the future. We might yet have some parishes that struggle to employ a vicar, but increasingly we have men, woman and children in the pews who take their faith seriously and live it out in ways not imagined a generation ago. God has not finished with the Church of England yet.

Rev Peter Ould is a priest in Canterbury Diocese and works in the financial sector.
Defenders of Christian values clash with LGBT liberals in Brazil's gay pride parade

This year's 20th gay pride parade in Brazil's biggest city saw a clash of worldviews between the LGBT liberals and those who defend Christian values in politics, according to CBN News.

More than 2 million people trooped to the streets of Sao Paulo on Sunday to defend the rights of transgender people to choose their gender identities "which may or may not correspond to their gender birth."

This was reportedly approved earlier by suspended President Dilma Rousseff through a decree despite opposition from the evangelicals in Brazil's House.

"The tone of the LGBT parade this year shows that the liberal movements, especially those of Marxist nature, chose as its main enemies those who defend Christian values in politics," reports Jarbas Aragao, Brazil correspondent for CBN News' Mundo Christiano programme.

He notes that this year's gay pride parade "reflected the current divide" in Brazilian society. The country's LGBT status is said to be similar to the so-called "culture wars" in the United States.

According to Aragao, one activist, transgender Viviany Beleboni, 27, directly challenged the Evangelicals by using a costume that represents the evangelical front in Congress with the word "regression" written on it, a reference to the fact that religious congressmen have managed to stall pro-LGBT legislation for years.

"My protest this year is against the fundamentalists that try to bar our laws," Beleboni said. "I will talk about religion as often as needed."

Speaking for the Evangelical Parliamentary Front (EPF), Congressman Sostenes Cavalcante meanwhile told the Christian website Gospel Prime that they have no clash with the LGBT population.

"We defend what we believe. However, we understand that this kind of provocation is just a recognition that the Front has done its job fighting for family and Christian values," he said.

The costume demonstrates "religious intolerance" by LGBT activists in Brazil, added Congressman and EPF member Ezequiel Teixeira.

Dr. Andrew Chesnut, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, explained to The Washington Post recently that comparisons between culture clashes in Brazil and the United States are "valid" because many evangelicals in Brazil see their country in much the same way as the evangelicals view the United States.

The Latin America expert likewise noted that many Brazilians outside of the major cities are "fairly conservative on moral issues and identify with the evangelical agenda."

In 2015, more or less 2 million people also attended the gay pride parade. The city's 19th parade called for an end to violence and lobbied for equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community.

The parade took place just three days after the "March for Jesus," which organisers at the Reborn in Christ Church describe as "the largest Christian event in the world," according to CBN News.

Back in 1996, the event's first edition drew only 2,000 people. Today, it is the city's second-largest tourist event, trailing only the Formula One Grand Prix, news reports say.
Disfiguring disease caused by bites of sand flies spreading in conflict-ridden areas in Middle East

As if the medical emergency brought by the Zika virus is not yet enough for the public to worry about, a new disease is sweeping across the Middle East, and experts say the terror group Islamic State (ISIS) is largely to blame for it.

The continuing conflict in Middle Eastern countries is not only causing thousands of deaths and widespread destruction of properties. It is also fuelling the spread of the disfiguring tropical disease called cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Based on a recent report published in the scientific journal PLOS, hundreds of thousands of people living in refugee camps or trapped in conflict zones are already infected with leishmaniasis, which causes very unpleasant open sores and disfiguring skin lesions.

Peter Hotez, dean of the U.S. National School of Tropical Medicine, U.S. science envoy to the Middle East, and lead author of the PLOS research, said the disease must be contained immediately to prevent an epidemic.

He explained that millions of displaced Syrians may carry the disease to neighbouring countries as well as nations like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Leishmaniasis is transmitted exclusively through bites from sand flies.

"We're seeing lots of diseases, including leishmaniasis in these conflict zones and we need to ring-fence them, by providing access to essential medicines for cutaneous leishmaniasis sufferers living in conflict zones, or risk another situation like Ebola out of the conflict zones in West Africa in 2014," Hotez was quoted by The Independent as saying.

Dr. Waleed Al-Salem, consultant at Saudi Ministry of Health and formerly of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, meanwhile explained that the destruction brought by the war has created an ideal breeding ground for the sand flies that carry the disgusting disease.

"Many areas in Syria and temporary refugee settlements are pre-disposed to cases due to factors such as rubbish accumulation, bad sanitation and poor housing. This coupled with abundant sand fly populations and wanting medical facilities has created an environment for the disease to thrive," Al-Salem also told The Independent.

Worse, since the ISIS tends to destroy structures including hospitals, locals could not have the disease treated.

Al-Salem nevertheless assured that the disease in unlikely to affect European nations that have been accepting refugees.

"Countries where sand flies are not common and where living standards and medical facilities are far more proficient are not in danger of cutaneous leishmaniasis," he explained.
EU reaches agreement with tech giants to combat hate speech, terror propaganda across Europe

Tech giants Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube have joined forces and committed to efficiently combat hateful online content and terrorist propaganda as part of a new "code of conduct'' formulated and announced Tuesday by the European Union (EU).

The EU rules require the world's biggest social media firms to review the majority of hateful online content and to remove them within 24 hours when necessary. The rules also require them to identify and promote "independent counter narratives'' to hate speech and propaganda published online, reports the Christian News.

The move of the European Commission was prompted by the growing concern that terror organisations like the Islamic State (ISIS) have been utilising the sites to relay messages and instigate hatred against certain individuals or groups.

Vera Jourova, the EU commissioner responsible for justice, consumers and gender equality, said the code of conduct, which will be regularly reviewed in terms of its scope and its impact, "will ensure that public incitement to violence and to hatred has no place online."

"The Internet is a place for free speech, not hate speech," she said.

Under the agreement, the firms committed with the EU's executive arm to come up with internal procedures and staff training to guarantee that illegal contents are assessed and, where necessary, removed within 24 hours.

They have also agreed to strengthen their partnerships with civil society organisations who often flag content that promotes incitement to violence and hateful conduct. The European Commission and the firms have likewise agreed to support civil society organisations to deliver "anti-hate campaigns.''

For its part, Twitter assured to tackle the issue "head-on'' along with partners in industry and civil society. The site has been at the centre of much of the hate speech that's spread online over the past few years, reports say.

"We remain committed to letting the Tweets flow," said Twitter's European head of public policy Karen White. "However, there is a clear distinction between freedom of expression and conduct that incites violence and hate."

Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management, encouraged the company's 1.6 million users to use the site's built-in reporting tools should they find content they consider unacceptable.

"Our teams around the world review these reports around the clock and take swift action," she said.
Nigeria: Christian women and children flee deadly attack by Muslim Fulani herdsmen

Children, men and women fled for the lives after their largely Christian community in the Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna was attacked by suspected Muslim Fulani herdsmen.

Two people were murdered and all the churches and some houses in Ninte burned to the ground in the attack which took place early in the morning, according to World Watch Monitor.

The fleeing Christians were taken in by church leaders in nearby Kafanchan where the local Catholic bishop, Joseph Bagobiri, said a few days ago that more than 1.3 million Christians have now fled their homes in northern Nigeria to escape Islamist violence.

Bishop Bagobiri told Fides that in the past decade about 11,500 Christians have been killed and 13,000 churches damaged or abandoned in the northern states of Borno, Kano, and Yobe. The attacks are mainly by the Fulani herdsmen, although some are by Boko Haram.

The Bishop has called for a global fund to help rehabilitate of victims and restore to them their land and property.

The latest atrocity came on Christian farmers who were returning to the land to work it for food and has brought fears of shortages later in the year.

World Watch Monitor said: "Such attacks have features long familiar to Nigerians: ethnic Fulani cattle herders, largely Muslim, moving in on farmers, largely Christian. The long-running land conflict is frequently framed in economic terms, but it also has distinctive religious contours."

Pulse reported that the latest killings came after a Fulani man was seen grazing his cattle on agricultural farm land. He was chased off by local youth. Soon after, the Fulani retaliated with a raid on the entire village.
Nottinghamshire Christian bookshop denies anti-Catholicism

A Christian bookshop has denied reports that a woman was not served because she was a Roman Catholic.

The woman, Muriel Swan, was attempting to purchase a gift for her grandson's first communion.

A spokeswoman for the Mustard Seed bookshop in Gedling, Nottinghamshire admitted the shop did not stock Holy Communion cards for first communion but this was because it is a Protestant bookshop, not because it is anti-Catholic.

Swan told the Nottingham Post that she was offended when she was told by staff at the shop that they do not stock Catholic literature and goods. "We asked the lady in the shop if she had anything for first communion and the reaction we received left us reeling," she said.

The spokeswoman for the Mustard Seed told Christian Today: "The truth is in Jesus Christ." She declined to comment further.

The Mustard Seed, which has been running for more than 30 years, was taken over by Chris Stala in 1996.

She told the Nottingham Post: "We are Protestant  not Catholic.The bottom line is that if you want Catholic things go to a Catholic shop.

"The complaint is ridiculous and it's just logical you won't get Catholic things here.If you want Catholic goods you go to a Catholic store.

"We are not anti-Catholic in any way. I am a Christian and she is too but we are part of different sects. You would not get Jehovah's Witnesses coming here either.

"We don't advertise as a Protestant shop but people who come here just know."
Campaigners target British Muslims as decisive group in referendum

Millions of British Muslims will be urged to register to vote in the EU referendum by their imams on Friday in a move that could be decisive for the Remain campaign.

The British Muslim Forum (BMF) has supported the #TurnUp campaign to register young voters and asked hundreds of imams to include a message about the EU in their sermons at Friday prayers.

Polls have indicated Muslims are disproportionately in favour of Remain, unlike the majority of Christians. Sikhs are the only religious group more pro-EU than Muslims, according to a poll by Populus in February.

On top of that half of Britain's 2.7 million Muslims are under 25, an age group overwhelmingly in favour of the EU.

Young people are twice as likely not to be registered to vote as the rest of the population and their turnout is seen as a key factor in an increasingly close poll.

"This is a once in a generation opportunity for people to directly decide the future of the country," said Qari Asim, chief imam of Leeds Makkah Masjid.

"There's no doubt the repercussions of this historic vote will be felt for many years so let the result of EU referendum be down to choice, and not the by-product of apathy. I urge all British Muslims to register to vote by 7 June.

"It's vital that voices of British Muslims are heard in this EU referendum. As British Muslims, we must play our part inthis referendum debate, vote on 23 June and shape the future of our country together."

The #TurnUp campaign is run by the anti-racist group HOPE not hate and youth charity Bite the Ballot. It has been supported by Eddie Izzard and the CBI, both of whom have openly supported Remain.

The campaign will also promote up to 50 'democracy cafes' at Starbucks outlets nationwide to help young people debate issues around the referendum. It aims to register 500,000 young people to vote before the deadline on June 7.

HOPE not hate's deputy director, Jemma Levene, said: "It's crucial to register to vote by the 7 June deadline, and then take time to find out about the key issues, before turning out to vote. We want every part of British society to have their voices heard on 23 June and we want to know we've helped give a voice to all, not just a few."

Unsure whether you are registered? To make sure, you can register to vote here.
The art of choosing: 5 keys to making better decisions

Leadership has been defined as the art of making great decisions. Indeed it could be argued that the measure of a well-lived life is the quality of the decisions we make. We are not talking about the outcomes of our decisions, over which we actually have little control. Character is demonstrated more clearly by how we make our decisions, rather than by their results. With this in mind let me offer you five ways to start making better decisions.

1. Get more options on the table

Dr Therese Huston is a psychologist who specialises in decision-making. She argues that often when we try and make a decision we think we have two options in front of us when in fact we only have one. She gives the example of a company trying to tackle a parking problem at the office:

DECISION: Shall we build a car park OR shall we not build a car park?

Huston argues that trying to get a minimum of three real options on the table means that higher quality decisions are made. So in the example above a better starting point for the decision could be:

DECISION: Shall we build a carpark OR shall we give employees a free bus pass OR shall we encourage people to work more from home?

The Bible offers similar advice: Proverbs 15:22 says, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." I notice that sometimes when we seek counsel from others we limit the outcome by asking: "Shall I do this or not?" A better way of deploying the wisdom of our friends and mentors could be to ask them to help us generate more options to consider. When seeking wisdom from our friends we could ask "How would you solve this problem...?" For example:

DECISION: Should I allow my 15 year old to play 18 rated Xbox games OR not?

It may be better to phrase the question:

DECISION: How can I encourage my teenager to make good decisions about gaming?

Seeking the counsel of a number of people we consider wise but from different contexts may help to give a wider range of solutions. Our problem when trying to make a decision is that we are unaware of how narrow our view of the problem is. Huston gives the example of trying to get more creative about what you eat for breakfast. If you are standing in the cereal aisle of the supermarket, you might try out a new cereal, perhaps mixing cornflakes with rice crispies. But if you are in a farmers market, you might get inspired to try eggs with avocados, or bacon with maple syrup, or a vegetable smoothie. So getting a wider perspective can be helpful and another person can help us to achieve that. Another parent at church may well give you a yes/no recommendation to the first question. But ask around at work and church and among your child's peers and you may be surprised that a whole range of surprising options open up: "If your child is into gaming, then I could really use his help at my youth group on a Friday night"; " Did you know there are parental controls that limit certain downloads?" "I get my son to turn the volume off so he doesn't hear the swearing."

2. Clarify your priorities

Decision-making is often complicated because we are trying to reconcile different demands and various priorities:

DECISION: Should I apply for a new job?

Factors affecting the decision may be the following:

Is the disruption going to compromise my ability to care and provide for my family?

Is changing jobs going to take me away from my church ministries?

Is changing jobs going to damage the witness I have had to my colleagues?

Will the extra income from the new job allow me to be more generous?

Will the change in travel time affect my availability to friends?

You can see the number of competing priorities that a decision of this nature can have. But the decision-making becomes easier the clearer we are on what our life priorities are. If family and friends are our priorities, then the outcome of the decision may be different than if finances, or ministry opportunities, or leisure activities are prioritised. As Christians we are told to prioritise seeking first "his kingdom and his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). So our first question must be: which job option is better for building God's kingdom and becoming more like Christ?

3. Get some distance

Most of us find it difficult to make decisions under pressure.

DECISION: Should I buy this state-of-the-art laptop on a limited special offer for the next 24 hours?

Time pressure can be particularly challenging for making good decisions. If I buy the laptop today without checking my bank account, then I may regret it tomorrow. But if I go home and think about it and decide I should buy it, tomorrow it could be way more expensive. It is common wisdom to try and sleep on a decision, but sometimes the delay makes the decision for us. We should also recognise that we have a proclivity to put off hard choices by procrastination. For example:

DECISION: Should I tell my father that he is beginning to repeat himself?

How can we strike the right balance between a snap decision and a slow decision?

The Bible says: "He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him" (Proverbs 18.15). Especially with more serious decisions in our lives, it does seem to be wise to try and carve out more time and space to get counsel and consider and weigh the consequences of our various options. But it may also be wise to learn the discipline of giving ourselves a timeframe or time limit to work through our decision-making. Getting this distance will prevent impulsive decisions. Buying the laptop may require you to take half an hour to phone a friend, or the bank. Suggesting to your father that he is tested for dementia may need a few days to find someone who has been on that journey before you and can point you to some helpful resources your father could access.

4. Look after yourself

Huston points to a recent study of parole boards in Israel. They are less likely to grant prisoners parole when their members needed food. Apparently hungry board members are less likely to show mercy than well-fed ones. It's easy to be critical of the injustice of this, but we have probably all made decisions based on when we last ate. It's common knowledge that we spend more money at the supermarket when we shop just before we are due a meal than when we shop just after. So perhaps we should consider taking snacks into the next meeting we attend where someone's future hangs in the balance. Self-care can feel self-indulgent and self-centred, but sometimes neglecting ourselves can make us less able to demonstrate the character of God and others may suffer as a result.

DECISION: Should I splash out on a foreign holiday with my family this year?

Of course you could donate the money, pay off a loan, or save up for your children's education instead, and I am sure your counsellors will have different views on this. I meet many Christians who don't even think twice about buying treats for themselves. Perhaps they need to be challenged on their generosity. I also meet many Christians who feel guilty about these sorts of luxuries. It's interesting that the Prophet Elijah, after the exhausting ordeal of dealing with the prophets of Baal, ends up in a very difficult emotional place. God feeds him and encourages him to rest to prepare him for the next stage in his life. Perhaps a holiday will refresh you to be even more effective for God.

5. Practise good decision-making

The better the decisions you make on small things, the better the decisions you make on big things. That is why helping our children to make good decisions from a young age is really important parental training. As proverbs reminds us: "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it" (Proverbs 22:6).

DECISION: Should I allow my child to attend a birthday party on a Sunday morning?

Many parents stress out over these invitations or impose their own views and decisions. At the end of the day it makes little difference for a child to miss a Sunday service every now and again. Perhaps a better way forward would be to ask the child to decide: is church a priority for you? How do you feel about telling your friends you go to church? Is this friendship worth making sacrifices for? how will the child feel if you miss their party?

As we said in the introduction, it is the process of decision-making that displays character more than the end result. Godly decision-making is a virtue which we need to practise. We all have plenty of opportunities to this on a daily basis. We make many decisions automatically  choosing to go to the gym on a Tuesday evening, deciding to finish that bottle of wine in the fridge, finding ourselves staying up late watching Netflix. But take time to think through those decisions today, and you will be better prepared when you have to decide something really significant.

Rev Dr Krish Kandiah is President of the London School of Theology and founder and director of Home for Good.
#TryBeatingMeLightly: Pakistani women fight back against Council of Islamic Ideology

Pakistani women have reacted angrily online to a proposed law to allow husbands to "lightly beat" their wives.

The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) advises the Pakistani government and has suggested a law to help men keep their wives in line.

"If you want her to mend her ways, you should first advise her. ...If she refuses, stop talking to her...stop sharing a bed with her, and if things do not change, get a bit strict," CII chairman Muhammad Kahn Sherani told the Express-Tribune newpaper.

"A bit strict" was clarified by the group: "A husband should be allowed to lightly beat his wife if she defies his commands and refuses to dress up as per his desires; turns down demand for intercourse without any religious excuse; or does not take bath after intercourse or menstrual periods."

Women across Pakistan have reacted furiously to this suggestion, framed in a bill entitled the Women Protection Bill.

Photographer Fahhad Rajper created a portrait series of women who described what they would do if someone beat them lightly.

The album posted on Facebook started a trend across Pakistan and around the world based around the tag, #TryBeatingMeLightly.

Some mocked the law.

#TryBeatingMeLightly a couple eggs, a pinch of salt and pepper, a bit of red chilli, and fry it.

Real men beat eggs not women.  Amna Abbas (@AmnaAbbas) May 31, 2016

But many others were more aggressive in their backlash.

#TryBeatingMeLightly and you'll not be left with your hands to beat me ever again.   (@GarbarfiedBae) May 30, 2016

#TryBeatingMeLightly and i will show you what actually beating is....  Beenish (@bbillawala) May 30, 2016

#TryBeatingMeLightly and watch yourself reduce to just a little man.  Humaima Malick (@HumaimaMalick) May 30, 2016

Some conservative Muslims criticised the trend and said it was un-Islamic but generally people supported the campaign as a stand against the CII.

It was not only social media that reacted strongly to the suggestion. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said it was "difficult to comprehend why anyone in his right mind would think that any further encouragement or justification is needed to invite violence upon women in Pakistan".

The group estimates that 70 per cent of Pakistani women have suffered domestic violence. A statement read: "As much as the HRCP wanted not to dignify with any comment the ridiculous CII recommendations regarding 'light beating' of women, the commission thinks it is imperative that every right-respecting person must condemn such counsel unreservedly. The irony of calling the measures 'women protection' should not be lost on anyone."

It added: "We hope and expect that...the draft bill will be condemned unreservedly by all segments of society."
Unwanted: The Syrian refugees in Serbia wondering what they've done wrong

When somebody tells you, "If we had wanted war we would have stayed in Syria," it really makes you think.

I've done a lot of thinking since returning from Serbia a few weeks ago.

Until March this year, thousands of refugees were crossing into Serbia every day on long, often treacherous journeys towards sanctuary, in search of safer lives than those they had left behind.

Over time, countries throughout the West Balkans effectively closed their borders. The implementation of a deal struck in March between the European Union and Turkey has more or less stopped the flow of refugees crossing the Aegean Sea into Greece and north into the rest of Europe.

In Greece, some 50,000 refugees are stranded. They find themselves unable to travel onwards and, understandably, determined not to go back to countries ravaged by conflict. Much has been written about the plight of refugees in Greece, but far less about those who now find themselves stranded in Serbia.

 "If we had wanted war we would have stayed in Syria"  -

The scene at the reception centre in Presevo on the Serbia-Macedonia border was not what I was expecting. At that time, just 66 refugees were staying at the centre. Rows of immaculate bunk beds ready to accommodate those arriving lay empty. Our ACT Alliance partner, Philanthropy, part of the Serbian Orthodox Church, continues to respond to an ever-changing situation, providing essential practical support such as sleeping bags, food and toiletries.

The challenge for them is the unpredictability of the need for their help. At any time the number of arrivals could change and they could, with little warning, find themselves coping with a huge increase in arrivals of desperate, exhausted people.

Just last week we learnt that arrivals in Serbia are once again increasing, to 500 people per day. At their wits' end, with borders still mostly shut and with no political solution in sight, refugees are increasingly turning to traffickers to help them cross borders illegally. Staff at Philanthropy tell us that the people they now see arriving are in a poor physical state, exhausted by treacherous and physically demanding journeys, often in need of medical assistance. Many are children.

Hearing this news back in London, I'm once again reminded of those words spoken to me by a young Syrian man. He talked about how unwelcome and unwanted he feels in Europe. He sensed a level of hostility towards him, and his fellow refugees, which he couldn't understand. He had crossed the Aegean Sea overnight to reach Greece. But having arrived, he has found no welcome. His words spoke of his bewilderment at feeling unwanted, and they made me feel deeply ashamed.

How can we in Europe defend that perceived hostility towards people who have been forced to leave behind everything of their lives?

I've since tried to imagine how bad things must be to get into an overcrowded, possibly unseaworthy, boat. To head out into the pitch blackness of the night, towards an uncertain future, knowing that many hundreds of people who have gone before you have died while attempting to make the same journey.

How can we, in Europe and specifically in the UK, look away and say that we do not want people like that young Syrian, and so very many others?

The UK is the world's fifth biggest economy; the EU has more than 500 million citizens. It is not beyond our ability to accept and positively welcome fellow human beings who have been forced to leave behind the very things that matter so much to us  homes, families, friends, jobs, security, and identity.

The problem is political will, or rather our lack of it. In the UK, as in so many other European countries, we could do much more than we are, but our politicians insist and even rely on seeing refugees as a problem to be kept at a distance  not on our shores. The lack of compassion is staggering.

The UK, with other European countries, has a responsibility to take a fair and proportionate number of refugees, including those who have already reached Europe. We should be providing safe and legal means for refugees to get this far, because there but for the grace of God go any of us.

Jenny Brown works for Christian Aid, which is currently operating in Greece and Serbia through ACT Alliance. Its partners are providing essential humanitarian support, as well as legal protection services to unaccompanied children in Greece. Christian Aid is calling on the UK government to take a fair and proportionate share of refugees and to provide safe and legal routes for refugees to travel to and through Europe.
Westboro Baptist, the KKK, Kim Davis: How do you judge who's a genuine Christian?

The Kentucky county clerk who spent time in jail for refusing to issue marriage licences to same-sex couples became an icon for conservative evangelical Christians in the US. But can we accurately call her a Christian? Kim Davis proclaims Jesus as her Lord but does not believe in the Trinity. So does that count?

How do you prove you are a Christian? Is it by what you believe? Or is it by what you do? Or is it neither and you are a Christian just if you say you are a Christian?

Who is in and who is out has always been a fundamental question for religious groups. The early Church frequently changed the parameters as "orthodoxy" was gradually decided over the first four hundred years. Athanasius of Alexandria was exiled several times as a heretic for his opposition to Arius in the fourth century. Eventually however orthodoxy shifted and it was Arius who was declared a heretic and Athanasius heralded as a foundational Church father.

The question of who was and was not a Christian was raised again at the Reformation. For all his early attempts at holding the Church together, Martin Luther ended up labelling the Pope an antichrist and a heretic  in his view the Pope no longer counted as a Christian.

And the question is live again today, especially within Islam. Who counts as a Muslim? Is ISIS Islamic? David Cameron has repeatedly said he thinks ISIS is a "perversion of a great religion" and "no reflection of the true nature of Islam". But on Wednesday the BBC's head of religion reignited the debate when he said although it was "uncomfortable", ISIS preached an "ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine". "They are Muslims," said Aaqil Ahmed.

It is not just Islam that faces such complex issues today. The question of where to draw the line between who is in and who is out is one for Christians as well. What about the Ku Klux Klan (KKK)? Are they Christians? Or the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in central Africa? Or Westboro Baptist Church? All these groups claim to be Christian. So is that enough to make them Christian or is there some objective test which proves they are not?

It was a question fundamental to the campaign by Richard Dawkins and the British Humanist Association (BHA) to encourage people to tick the "no religion" box on their census. Dawkins wanted more specific questions on doctrine to identify whether people were really religious.

"If you really, really want to know whether people are religious in the true sense  the sense that everybody understands about religion  ask a specific question: 'Do you believe Muhammad rode on a winged horse?' something like that," he told the BBC.

In response Paul Bickley from the think-tank Theos said it was wrong to judge how devout someone was and say if they didn't practise their faith then they were out. "You can't say, 'If you don't practise, you're really a humanist, please tick the 'No religion' box'. I think that's to go too far," said Bickley.

These two views broadly encapsulate the two approaches to this question.

The first is to say you are only a Christian if you adhere to certain doctrines. There might be some obvious characteristics that mark out Christian belief such as the Trinity, that Jesus is God, that he died for our sins and was resurrected. But some would argue even these core tenets are questionable. It was not that long ago that a third of Anglican clergy were reported to not believe in the resurrection. When you get on to more fringe beliefs the questions are even more subjective. Do you have to believe the Bible is the word of God to be a Christian? Many would say so, but in what sense do you have to believe it? Do you have to believe in the virgin birth to be a Christian? Does Catholics' veneration of Mary make Protestant and Catholic irreconcilably different religions?

If you define Christianity by certain beliefs it is clear there will be many different interpretations of what it means to be a Christian.

But the second option is hardly less subjective. The other approach is to say it is not for others to define who is in and who is out. If you self-identify as Christian then fair enough, you are a Christian. This is similar to the view of a state religion such as the Church of England where the basic principle is everyone is in unless they say they are out. By contrast a more sect-like approach would be to say everyone is out unless they say they are in.

On one level the question fundamentally does not matter. If someone claims to adhere to a religion, that religion has a level of responsibility for them. ISIS claims to be Islamic. Therefore Muslims have a responsibility to denounce or refute it.

Similarly with Kim Davis, on a public level it is irrelevant that she does not believe in the Trinity. She professes Christianity and therefore Christians have a responsibility to respond. The same principle applies for the LRA and the KKK.

But here is the crux. Christians expect to be listened to when they deny that the LRA or the KKK reflect Christ's intentions. So in the same way we must be prepared to listen to Muslims when they deny that ISIS reflects the Qur'an's intentions. Of course Christians can debate how close ISIS' behaviour is to how Muhammad's in a similar way to how they should expect questions on whether the LRA reflect biblical principles. But if Christians expect to be listened to in their defence they must also listen to Islam's defence.

All religions have distasteful people and groups who operate in their name. We should give each the room to defend the true principles of their belief against unwanted perversions.

Follow Harry Farley on Twitter @HarryFarls.
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Mandatory evacuations were ordered Thursday night for parts of Brazoria County as the Houston area prepared for a new wave of storms expected to bring several more inches of rain to the waterlogged region.

Meanwhile, a flash flood warning is in effect in Harris, Chambers and Liberty counties until 10:45 p.m.

Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta ordered the evacuation of 300 to 400 families from an area near the swollen Brazos River. The evacuation covers the area near FM 1462 west of Oyster Creek and east of the Brazos River, emergency management spokeswoman Sharon Trower said.

A number of families in the area said Wednesday that they intended to wait out the flood in their homes and had stockpiled provisions. "It's a mandatory evacuation, but we are not going to force anybody to leave," Trower said.

She said about 51 families were registered at the county emergency shelter in Angleton.

The Brazos River was expected to crest at about 4 p.m. Friday at 52.8 feet, Trower said. The river was at 52.1 feet as of 5:45 p.m. Thursday.

The order came after a powerful storm system hammered Harris and Montgomery counties late Wednesday night and Thursday morning, dumping rain on areas such as Kingwood and Spring that are already reeling from the recent Memorial Day weekend floods.

The storm system then moved to the east, giving residents a brief break, before more rain fell Thursday afternoon. Forecasters said residents should expect widespread rain on Friday, possibly exacerbating flooding throughout Southeast Texas.

The storms also had deadly consequences in central Texas. The Associated Press reported that three soldiers died and six were missing after an Army truck was washed from a low-water crossing and overturned in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood. The Army reported that the accident happened about 11:30 a.m.

No storm-related deaths were reported in the Houston area as of early Thursday evening.

The storm system that came in Thursday moved off to the east much faster than expected.

"Even though we are seeing a break, it's important to know that we still have a very juicy atmosphere," said Melissa Huffman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Houston/Galveston office.

The forecast still calls for most of the region to see 2 to 3 inches of rain thanks to a large, slow-moving upper level low pressure system moving into Southeast Texas sometime Friday, with some areas possibly experiencing up to 8 inches or more.

While most of the Houston area will see periods of heavy rain on Friday and Saturday, the forecast for Sunday calls for isolated thunderstorms before the area begins to dry out. Typically, the region slips into a drier, hotter patter starting the last two weeks of June.

Meanwhile, area residents on Thursday were feeling the effects of the latest storms.

Floodwaters lapped against the side of a Kingwood-area apartment complex, a short distance from a road that was totally submerged. In Spring, the Mercer Botanic Gardens was again underwater, just a week after it had reopened following a massive clean-up and replanting effort to repair damage from April flooding. Dozens of roads were closed, including the frontage roads along Interstate 45 at North Shepherd Drive. High water prompted TxDOT to shut down Texas 6 from Interstate 10 to Pine Forest.

READ MORE: Dog rescued from the floods is looking for a new home

For residents of the Kingwood area northeast of downtown Houston, it was deja vu all over again. Marina Drive west of Forest Cove was totally underwater Thursday morning, and residents of the River View apartments had more of a view than they would have liked, with 2 to 3 feet of water on the first level.

Piles of ruined furniture stood outside Brian and Rachel Edwards' townhome on Marina Drive. A black Mitsubishi Eclipse sat in their driveway, ruined by last weekend's flood. So was a white pickup across the way. Trash bags and broken appliances like dryers and lamps lay in front of homes.

Taking advantage of a break in the rain Thursday, Brian and Rachel Edwards washed down coolers and boxes that they were preparing to move back inside their garage, in anticipation of more flooding.

"We'll probably boat out of here like we did last time," said Brian Edwards, 36.

They were waiting for auto insurance money and any government aid they could get, though such assistance hadn't yet been announced for last weekend's floods.

Kingwood area underwater again

Jane Hamm stood on her balcony and watched the creeping flood waters of the San Jacinto. They had already swallowed her fire pit, and a bench out back, and now the water flowed through her garage and out front.

After the April 17 rainstorms and subsequent flooding, Hamm had cleaned her garage out thoroughly, placing all items more than 6 feet off the ground. While in Colorado this past weekend for a niece's graduation, she got a text saying the water was reaching 7 feet, and out floated water skis, coolers, chairs and other belongings.

"My son's high chair, I found it half a mile down the street," Hamm said.

Hamm has lived here for two years, but said these most recent weather events are unusual.

"Everybody is like 'You need to move'" she said.

She isn't making any snap decisions, saying the riverfront community is beautiful most of the year.

"I'm going to have to wait and see what happens," she said.

In the Cypress area, the scene of extensive flooding in April, Thursday's morning storm sent a collective shiver. Neighborhoods near Cypress and Little Cypress creeks were inundated by the so-called Tax Day Flood, and even as homeowners were in the midst of repairs, they were slammed once more last weekend.

"Every time it rains a drop, I start to cry," said Tina Hearn, a resident of the Stable Gate subdivision on Telge Road. "It's fear. I don't know what's going to happen next. You're not comfortable anymore. You can't be -- ever again."

Hearn had watched the contracting team make steady progress in replacing floors, drywall, cabinets and all her home's damaged elements, only to have much of it undone by last week's storm, which brought another few inches of water onto the first floor. Hearing the crack of thunder on Thursday, she wondered about her decision to move to northwest Harris County from Baytown several years ago.

"We moved here to be out of the path of hurricanes," she said. "We love our neighborhood. I am blessed to have such kind neighbors. But at night I lie in bed with all these fears going through my head, all the things that could happen, that probably will happen. I don't think there is a solution."

Even before the most recent storm, Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday had declared a state of disaster in 31 counties, including Brazoria, Fort Bend, Grimes, Liberty and Montgomery.

Moderate rain began falling long before dawn Thursday in the Interstate 45 corridor along a line from Conroe to League City

The flooding -- and the threat of more of it -- prompted Lamar Consolidated Independent School District to cancel classes for the third straight day at Austin, Frost and Jackson elementary schools as well as at Wertheimer Middle, Briscoe Junior High and Foster High schools.

STAY INFORMED: Get up-to-date weather on the Chron.com weather page

In Brazoria and Fort Bend counties, all eyes were on the Brazos, which reached a record 54.7 feet in Richmond on Wednesday - nearly 10 feet above flood stage and more than 4 feet higher than the flood of record in 1994.

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, County Judge Robert Hebert called the impact of the flooding on individual lives a "terrible tragedy."

While for many in the county living in levy-protected areas, the storms made for a "non-event," Hebert said, for others it had meant losing much of what they'd built over a lifetime.

"This is a tremendous disaster and we should never lose sight of that." he said. "They're suffering... And they're hurting."

More than 550 people had been rescued, the majority of whom were people in knee- or waist-deep water who could walk out of their homes, said Stephen Bjune, a liaison for Texas Task Force 1, which was helping to conduct the evacuations.

The rescues -- which had made use of boats, high-profile military vehicles and, in Simonton, a helicopter -- had focused in the last few days on the neighborhoods of River's Edge and Rio Vista, Bjune said.

Shelters continued to operate in Richmond and in Waller County's nearby city of Brookshire. A second shelter was expected to be opened that afternoon in Richmond.

The hardest-hit roads were along the Brazos River in Fort Bend and Brazoria counties, though Thursday-morning rains flooded some streets in northwest Harris County around Spring.

According to Houston TranStar, the region had 45 high water locations as of 9:45 a.m., most significantly along farm-to-market roads at the Brazos.

"They are really impacting a lot of folks," said Danny Perez, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation in Houston. "It's not a freeway, and sometimes people only look at if (Interstate) 45 is closed or (U.S.) 59 is closed. But down there, along the farm-to-markets, that is a major thoroughfare for them."

Closed farm-to-market roads included FM 359, FM 723, FM 2920 and FM 1489. Texas 36 at U.S. 90 Alternate was also closed.

"That water has got to move south, so what's impacting Fort Bend is going to move into Brazoria County," he said.

Though flooded roads were most severe in Fort Bend County where the Brazos River was engorged, heavy rains pooled frontage roads along key routes north and northwest of Houston.

At I-45 and Rayford/Sadust, the southbound frontage road was flooded, as were a number of southbound lanes of the freeway at the Hardy Toll Road.

Access to U.S. 59 at the San Jacinto River and at FM 1314 in Porter, north of Kingwood, was limited by flooding around the freeway. Frontage roads along the Grand Parkway and the Imperial Promenade exit east of I-45 were also affected by high waters. Northbound Loop 610 at Clinton, east of the central business district, was also stymied by high water.

For more information on current conditions, Perez said motorists should check TranStar in the Houston area, and drivetexas.org for statewide conditions.

In Fort Bend, the Brazos River in the county seat of Richmond was believed to have reached its peak height just below 54.8 feet Tuesday. It continued to hover at that level Wednesday morning, leaving people stranded with rescues ongoing.

"The river seems to be holding steady," said Beth Wolf, of the Fort Bend County Judge's office, who has been working with the emergency management office. "Nobody is 100 percent sure that it's going to stay, but it is holding high right now."

Among the dozens of people at the Red Cross shelter in Richmond's First Baptist church was 75-year-old Rudy Lopez Jr. He recalled how within hours water had come rushing into the neighborhood where he lived with one of his daughters.

Lopez, who wore a t-shirt, black track pants and a Korean Veteran cap commemorating his Army service, explained how he trusts in God to take care of him, and offered Bible versus to prove it.

Already, Lopez had experienced a lot: the knee injury from war, the work accident that left a scar on his head and the strokes he'd suffered recently. He called the flood a "blessing in disguise." A volunteer he met at the shelter was helping him to get the disability check he'd had trouble figuring out how to secure before. And the disaster brought people together.

"All the neighborhood is here," he said.

Victor Orozco, who gave his age as around 40, said he left his trailer in River's Edge Monday with his five dogs and what clothes he could manage. At first, Orozco, who works in construction, slept in his car. He came to the shelter to sleep Wednesday night and said, without anywhere else to go, he'd probably stay Thursday night too. He added that he wasn't sure what else to do.

"I lost everything," he said, "everything inside."

For the pastor of the church housing the shelter, John Lockhart, experiences of those like Orozco called to mind a verse of the Lord's Prayer: give us this day our daily bread. "That's how we're going to get through this," Lockhart said -- meaning day by day and with the help of God. "Because it's not one day. It's a lot of days."

For a full list of high-water spots, go to TranStar.

Staff writers Dug Begley, Emily Foxhall, Dale Lezon, Molly Glentzer, Harvey Rice, Mike Tolson and Matthew Tresaugue contributed to this report.
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Murder is a crime, of course, but if you're ever in need of hiding a body, having your best friend and the love of your life by your side is probably the best plan. That's what Texas couple Shi Jarmillo and Patrick Reetz figure, at least.

"What is the most trustworthy thing to do with your significant other?" Jarmillo said. "To have to hide a body together. You kind of get tired of seeing the same old pictures on Facebook and we didn't want to be stereotypical."

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So to break the engagement-photo-shoot mold, the pair, who met on OkCupid in 2014, partnered with friend and photographer Asha Poyzer to make the murderous scene come to life - I mean death.

The Texas couple trekked through Austin's Zilker Park with a "dead body" (a life-size doll named Jorge), fake blood and sharp knives to celebrate their engagement. They woke early the morning of the photo shoot to get the best lighting and staged it when many Austinites were out running. Somehow, they escaped the attention of the police.

"The fake blood we used was really sticky and uncomfortable," Jarmillo said. "We found a small water fountain to clean each other off. I'm surprised no one called the cops."

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The couple's proposal was a bit more traditional. On a romantic vacation to Costa Rica, after eating a romantic dinner overlooking the ocean, the couple went on a walk and Reetz got down on one knee to pop the question.

"It's stereotypical for me to say this, considering our choice on engagement photos," Jaramillo said. "But we are meant for each other."

Their murderous plot will continue into the theme of their wedding with red, black and white as their colors and "anatomy parts on a mountain of red roses" as centerpieces.

THE PERFECT SETTING: Best wedding venues around Texas

Their wedding date is Sept. 11, which was strategically chosen because it is cheaper for traveling family and wedding-venue bookings. Also, they wanted to take back the negative connotation of the date and turn it into a beautiful, positive day.

"If you can't trust your significant other to hide a body with you," Jaramillo concluded. "Then you probably shouldn't get married."
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Schools out. Time for you (and perhaps your family too) to get away. We scoured the travel site Kayak to see the consistently cheapest destinations you can fly to from Houston this summer.

The results come from an unscientific experiment, where we looked at trips around the U.S. and in nearby countries during a week in the middle of July and another week in late August. The routes that frequently showed flights under $200 during those periods are featured in the gallery above.

Three cities in particular  New Orleans, Atlanta and Denver  had round trip airfare for less than $150 throughout most of the summer. Some flight to New Orleans, which is also a five hour drive from Houston, cost less than 100 bucks.

READ MORE: The best and worst airports in the world

There are some caveats of course that come with these savings. Youll probably have to fly in the middle of the week to get the cheapest deal. And yes, youll still pay a premium if youre trying to take off on or around the Fourth of July. In addition, the best deals often are offered by no-frills budget airlines.

Youll need to take Frontier to get to Denver or Las Vegas. For many other destinations, you must board the dreaded dreaded Spirit Airlines, considered by many to be the worst U.S.-based airline (Ive flown it at least a dozen times and have never had a problem; just pack light and be aware of all their fees and how to avoid them).

On the other hand, almost all of these low-priced flights also are nonstop.

Start planning your vacation now. Figure out the economical destination you want to visit in the gallery above.

For more exclusive travel tips, including where to find Gulf Coast vacation rentals and San Antonio treasures, visit our subscription only page, HoustonChronicle.com/explore.
A former Drug Enforcement Administration agent based in McAllen pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal charge of accessing child pornography.

James Patrick Burke, 39, who now lives in Massachusetts, told U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett in Houston that he wanted to forgo his right to a jury trial, even though a growing number of defendants are challenging the evidence gathered through an FBI sting that operated through a so-called "dark website."

One local defendant, a Pearland physician who worked as a pediatric oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center, asked a judge Wednesday to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea in the Operation Pacifier case.

Burke, who served nearly 20 years in the military, told the judge he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. He remains free on bond pending his sentencing, which the judge agreed to postpone until Oct. 20 so he can qualify for military retirement benefits.

Burke admitted downloading and viewing child pornography on the internet, but said he would use forensic wiping software to delete the images, according to a written statement from U.S. Attorney Ken Magidson.

The federal agent and the physician were arrested as part of a nationwide sting dubbed Operation Pacifier, in which agents seized control of a server for a dark website called Playpen. Visitors to the site were able to download and share child pornography.

Federal agents kept the site running at an FBI facility in Virginia for about two weeks while they traced back links to people who visited the site.

Dark websites such as Playpen operated on Tor, or The Onion Router, a software that encrypts identifying information for visitors and the hosts.

A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that federal agents did not have authority to go beyond Virginia in tracing users to the site. The ruling has let to defendants in seven states questioning the evidence gathered in those cases.
AUSTIN -- In a move that promises to ramp up the debate over school finance in Texas, House Speaker Joe Straus on Thursday instructed two committees to study key aspects of the still-c0ntroversial funding system.

Straus directed the House Appropriations and Public Education committees to study how the upcoming loss of one category of funding in 2017 -- the Additional State Aid for Tax Relief -- will affect local districts across Texas and how the current use of property taxes to fund schools affects quality.

The move is expected to become the first salvo in an intense political debate over school finance in the next legislative session that begins in January 2017. Straus asked both committees to make recommendations on the issues by then.

"We can improve educational quality while also making our school finance system more efficient," Straus said in a statement. "Ignoring some of the problems in our current system will only make them worse. School finance reform never comes quickly or easily, which is why this work needs to continue sooner rather than later."

Straus' move comes after a recent decision by the Texas Supreme Court determining that the state's education finance system, while constitutional, is "undeniably imperfect, with immense room for improvement."

Straus earlier had called for the Public Education Committee to study educational costs and school districts' facility needs. Senate committees are looking at some of the same funding and tax issues.

The loss in September 2017 of the so-called ASATR funds, intended to offset the effects of tax cuts approved by the Legislature in 2006, is expected to reduce funding to many school districts. State law calls for that money to go away in 2017 unless the Legislature acts.

ASATR funding currently provides an estimated $350 million to the state's public education system.

Straus' second study directive asks for recommendations on "ways to reverse the increasing reliance on recapture payments to fund public education statewide."

Straus said that as property values have increased, more school districts have become subject to recapture, meaning that some of their local property tax dollars are sent back to the state and distributed to school districts with less property wealth.

Officials have said the Houston Independent School District faces the prospect of sending a recapture payment of $175 million to the state in 2017. Since 2006, the number of school districts paying recapture has increased from 142 to 238.

"It's important that we keep local tax dollars in local districts as much as possible, while still ensuring that all students have access to quality public schools," Speaker Straus said.
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The Texas Supreme Court will decide whether a Beaumont construction company can sue the South East Texas Regional Planning Commission for money it says it is still owed for rebuilding homes after Hurricane Ike.

Byrdson Services, one of several contractors hired by the commission after the 2008 storm, seeks to settle a two-year dispute about payment of a portion of $3.5 million it says the planning commission made in profit.

The state's highest civil court will decide whether the commission was in breach of its contract, an accusation the commission claims it is immune from because of the local government code.

Attorneys for the planning commission also reject Byrdson's claim that it earned a $3.5 million profit, saying all the government funds were intended to be used on rebuilding efforts.

Byrdson Services was responsible for delegating work to subcontractors on five of about 700 Texas Gulf Coast homes damaged in the hurricane.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funded construction projects through a block grant program, which brought $60 million to the South East Texas Planning Commission for rebuilding efforts in Jefferson, Orange and Hardin counties.

Byrdson's attorneys say the commission refused to pay the contractor after the work was finished and filed suit.

In April 2014, a Jefferson County district court judge denied the commission's governmental immunity claim.

In January 2015, Beaumont's Ninth Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's ruling. The appeals court also denied Byrdson's request for a rehearing.

Last Friday, however, the Texas Supreme Court announced plans to review the case.

A date for oral arguments has not been set.

Instead of paying Byrdson a portion of the remaining $3.5 million from the block grant, the commission redistributed the money for other projects and services, according to the contractor's brief to the Supreme Court.

Byrdson alleges the commission withheld evidence of its profit during initial discovery exchanges, before the Ninth Court of Appeals decision. Information provided by the state auditor's office through an open records request showed the commission made a $3.5 million profit from the home rebuilding program, the brief states.

The money used to rehabilitate damaged homes came from a limited public fund, the commission argued in a response filed last September.

The commission "was merely a conduit of the federal funds, disbursed by (the commission) on behalf of the State of Texas," the Sept. 2 brief states.

Any excess of remaining project funds would have been transferred by the Texas General Land Office, potentially for the commission's other programs, according to the brief.

"Byrdson's argument at (the commission) received a $3.5 million profit by administering the program is merely an improper, last-ditch attempt to conjure a direct benefit where none exists," the brief stated.

BScott@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/BrandonKScott
-- THIRD TIMES THE CHARM FOR PAXTON?  An appeals court upheld criminal securities fraud charges against Texas' attorney general Wednesday, and whether the Republican stands trial may now be decided by the same justices who recently threw out an indictment against former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, writes the APs Paul Weber.

Ken Paxton has now twice lost in his efforts to have allegations that he defrauded wealthy investors dismissed. His attorneys responded to the latest defeat from the Dallas-based 5th Court of Appeals with disappointment and did not immediately commit to pursuing a third and final appeal.

-- Ethics Commission retools definition of trips for fact-finding, by the Express-News David Rauf. The Texas Ethics Commission voted Wednesday to make it slightly more difficult for lobbyists and lawmakers to take advantage of an exemption in state law that allows special interests to fund educational trips.  The commission's final product is a far stretch from a proposal floated earlier this year by the panel's former chairman. That proposal, some argued, would have all but eliminated the ability of lobbyists to pay for fact-finding trips.

-- YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK: Texas took a dramatic step toward ending a controversial form of de facto severance pay for state workers on Wednesday when Gov. Greg Abbott ordered all agencies under his control to stop keeping ex-employees on the payroll, several other elected officials promised to do the same and lawmakers sped up their push for a legislative ban on the practice, writes the Chrons Brian Rosenthal.

Glenn Hegar, George P. Bush and Ken Paxton, whose agencies are not under the governor's control, said they would follow Abbott's directive. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and the Texas Railroad Commission declined to take such a pledge.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who runs the Senate, said he agrees with Abbott's directive and looks forward to addressing the issue. House Speaker Joe Straus asked a committee to study the possibility before the Legislature convenes in January, while Senate budget writer Jane Nelson said she already was researching the issue.

-- Per PBS NewsHour: President Obama on Title IX guidance letter to schools: Im not the one whos making a big issue of it. Watch his full response HERE.

>> TO WATCH: Travis County judge blocks immigration center child care license, Houston Chronicle

CAPITOL DAYBOOK

HOUSE

9 a.m.  Defense & Veterans Affairs (El Paso)

10 a.m.  Mental Health, Select (E2.016)

SENATE  no meetings scheduled

SPEED READ

Residents wait warily, and wearily, for new round of storms, Houston Chronicle

Brazos River hits century high, Reuters

House will work to close loopholes in state action on teacher-student relationships, Quorum Report

Hispanic official to leave RNC in sign of disaffection with Donald Trump, The New York Times

Cancer doctor seeks to withdraw guilty plea in child porn case, Houston Chronicle

Starr resigns as Baylor chancellor in wake of scandal, Houston Chronicle

Tomlinson: Uber is in the sub-prime auto business, Houston Chronicle

Blue Cross Blue Shield seeks 60% rates hikes in 2017, Houston Chronicle

Despite souring office market, janitors union secures raises in new contract, Houston Chronicle

Mayor Turner questions media coverage of police chief search, Houston Chronicle

City seeking grants for flood recovery, Houston Chronicle

Childrens asylum approvals vary by region, Associated Press

U.S. death rate rises first time in a decade, Houston Chronicle

Texas manudfacturing dips sharply, while the service sector shows sign of strain, Houston Chronicle

Myth-busting Obama tries to debunk GOP on the economy, Associated Press

Officers swarm UCLA in massive response to murder-suicide, Associated Press

RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE

-- Less than a week before California voters head to the polls on Tuesday, the Democratic race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is effectively tied in the state, according to the results of the latest Field Poll released Thursday, as reported by local media outlets, including the Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle, per Politicos Nick Gass.

-- Trumps personal, racially tinged attacks on federal judge alarm legal experts, by WashPosts Jose DelReal and Katie Zezima. Trumps strikingly personal attacks on Curiel are highly unusual and have prompted questions about how he would react to adverse judicial decisions should he become president. Trumps remarks also stand out because he has a personal financial stake in the case.

>> Trump University: Sales strategy foreshadowed campaign, Associated Press

>> Clinton, Sanders look to mobilize complacent Calif. voters, Associated Press

-- TODAY:  Hillary Clinton plans to deliver a scorching assessment of Donald J. Trump s foreign policy prescriptions on Thursday, casting her likely Republican rival as a threat to decades of bipartisan tenets of American diplomacy and declaring him unfit for the presidency. Mrs. Clintons campaign aides said the speech, which she will deliver in San Diego, would be the start of a persistent assault to portray a potential Trump presidency as a dangerous proposition that would weaken American alliances and embolden enemies, writes the NTYs Amy Chozick.
Administrators at public universities across the country have granted unique campus privileges and funneled millions of dollarsin part, from mandatory student feesto the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), a network of liberal lobbying organizations. At the City University of New York (CUNY), where I teach, off-campus lobbyists from New Yorks PIRG chapter enjoy special rights, including the chance to compete for student-activity fees and an exemption from fiscal oversight. The result: NYPIRG raises more money than all other campus student groups and surreptitiously diverts those funds to its statewide lobbying operations. Compounding the problem, CUNY administrators exhibit blatant bias to promote the groups interests.

Though CUNY has much to be proud of in recent years (see The CUNY Revival), the university has abetted NYPIRGs accumulation of unrivaled power on its campuses. Other student groups stand little chance in political fights against its well-funded professional lobbyists. NYPIRGs annual budget dwarfs that of ordinary student groups and is double that of CUNYs student senate. With its unmatched resources, NYPIRG has succeeded in making dissent on campus against its positions practically nonexistent. During funding referenda, virtually every campus leader and club president signs statements supporting the group. Even the editors of campus newspapersin violation of journalistic ethicssign full-page ads (which NYPIRG purchases) in their own papers. At my CUNY campus (Brooklyn), students are permitted to claim a refund of their NYPIRG fee ($5 in each of four sessions), but almost none does.

Courts have twice ruled that CUNYs cancellations of referenda on reducing NYPIRG funding were illegal. Two similar incidents were settled out of court. In all four cases, students acted as their own attorneys, demonstrating that CUNYs violations were so flagrant that amateurs could beat the universitys lawyers. Even debating NYPIRGs funding was too much for officials at one CUNY campus (New York City College of Technology). They banned a discussion of the issue during a debate among candidates for student government, turned off the microphones when one attendee raised the topic, and canceled the forum altogether when the audience wouldnt let the subject drop.

CUNYs extraordinary efforts on NYPIRGs behalf include whitewashing its misdeeds. When 58 CUNY scientists accused NYPIRG of committing research misconduct, the university appointed a founding member of NYPIRGnow a CUNY vice chancellorto look into the matter. Predictably, CUNY declined to investigate further, falsely claiming that the research in question had not taken place on campus. The university continued to allow NYPIRG to teach college-credit courses, in which studentsas a NYPIRG syllabus makes explicitget high grades for work on NYPIRG events and projects.

While such authoritarian tactics may be restricted to CUNYs campuses, exempting student PIRGs from fiscal oversight is typical on campuses in the 16 states that grant campus access to these organizations. Student-government leaders at the University of Montana decried the groups avoidance of financial monitoring in 2010. Even the Supreme Court noticed: in a student-fee case decided in 2000, the justices noted that the University of Wisconsins PIRG was funded differently from other student groups and that it was not clear how the group spent its money.

What do the PIRGs want on campus? Their primary goal may be to use their freedom from political restraints and fiscal oversight to divert student money to the groups off-campus operations. At CUNY, evidence gathered during litigation proves that NYPIRG diverts at least half the $1 million it collects annually to subsidize operating costs at its main officesa diversion obscured by the fact that NYPIRG keeps no written records and acknowledges that no one outside the group can verify how the money gets spent. Similarly, a student-government leader at the State University of New York at Stony Brook discovered that NYPIRG used only $342 of $54,000 in fee money on campus in 1994. And columnist Mark Hemingway observed that PIRGs off-the-books financial operations made it impossible to demonstrate that any of the money it raised stayed on the Oregon State campus in the 1990s. Student-fee money has not only been diverted off campus but also out of state: New Jersey PIRG shifted about 58 percent of the $578,210 it raised from Rutgers students in the 201011 academic year to out-of-state lobbying groups.

Taking on the PIRGs has proved difficult because the groups have powerful allies among the media, politicians, and college administrators. The situation in New York serves as a prime example. On his last day as attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, now New Yorks governor, awarded NYPIRG a $10 million grant for a national ad campaign to promote the groups higher-education activities, calling the groupdespite its research misconducta trusted source of information. The states current attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, twice served as a counsel for NYPIRGs Straphangers Campaign. NYPIRG can also count on the New York Times, which often cites its research and has featured quotes or references to the group roughly once a week over the last 15 years. And in Massachusetts, the states House speaker used parliamentary tricks to block a bill requiring public colleges to notify students on their tuition bills that the PIRG fee was voluntary.

Though the political obstacles are formidable, the solution to the PIRG problem is relatively simple: universities should subject PIRGs to the same regulations that govern other student groups, and the PIRGs use of student fees should be subjected to a comprehensive audit. In its current form, the PIRGuniversity alliance allows the lobbying group to convert millions of dollars of student fees each year to its own unregulated political expenditure fund. It has essentially robbed students of their rightsand their moneyfor decades. The harm done, both off- and on-campus, deserves much more attention than it has received.

Photo by NYPIRG/Facebook
Women in Online Work  program pentru femeile care isi doresc sa munceasca in companii internationale, de la biroul de acasa
The number of motorists pulled over by Connecticut State Police through the use of license plate scanners has skyrocketed in the past few years.

The high-tech cameras mounted on some cruisers can scan as many as 1,800 license plates a minute and instantly run them through databases.

Troopers stopped 383 drivers in 2013 from June to December, the first months the cameras were in use, according to data obtained by The Associated Press. Stops based on the scanners hit nearly 1,600 in 2014, then ballooned to nearly 6,800 last year. Troopers have stopped nearly 2,400 drivers so far this year after getting hits from the readers.

State police now have the cameras, officially known as license plate readers, or LPRs, mounted on 20 of the 400 cruisers assigned to patrol. The devices receive information about wanted people, missing people, stolen vehicles, unregistered vehicles and other violations from Department of Motor Vehicles and police databases, and they instantly alert troopers.

Not only do LPRs allow troopers to monitor a higher volume of traffic for vehicles involved in incidents as serious as Amber Alerts, stolen cars and wanted persons, it allows them to do so in a safer and more efficient manner, said Col. Alaric Fox, the state police commander.

Like many other departments, however, state police do not fully track the outcomes of the traffic stops initiated by license plate readers.

State police records show only 35 arrests in 2014, 43 arrests last year and 25 arrests so far this year based on the readers. Officials say the real arrest numbers are probably much higher because troopers apparently dont always check boxes on reports indicating whether readers prompted traffic stops. There are no details on what the arrests were for, except for a few cases noted in police news releases.

On May 14, a troopers license plate reader identified a car stolen from Colorado being driven on Interstate 84 in Danbury. The trooper arrested the driver for motor vehicle theft and drug possession. In January, a troopers license plate reader detected a stolen car on Route 39 near the Danbury-New Fairfield line. Two men were arrested after leading the trooper on a chase and colliding with a parked car.

Police departments across the country are using the scanners, including many municipal departments in Connecticut. Civil liberities advocates say they have privacy concerns and are calling for government regulations, because the information could be used to track peoples movements, it could be sold to private companies, and data retention policies vary widely from department to department.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut says state police have a model policy with short data retention period  90 days, with an exception for license plates linked to crimes.

Theres a place for it, but theres not a need to keep this data for an extended period, said David McGuire, the state ACLUs legislative and policy director.

McGuire said he believes most drivers in the state have had their license plates scanned by state and local police. After a 2012 public records request, he said he found his name four times in a database kept by 10 departments in the Hartford area. The database included more than 3 million license plate scans.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Ex-Oklahoma Insurance Exec to Head Lousiana Citizens Insurance

A former Oklahoma insurance executive has been chosen to head the Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the states property insurer of last resort.

Richard Newberry has been named the new chief executive officer. The Advocate reports state Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says Newberrys first day on the job will be Tuesday. Thats also the start of hurricane season.

Donelon says Newberry has 23 years of experience in the industry, most of that time at the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. He was executive vice president and general manager of the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance.

Chubb Appoints Leaders for Its North America Regional Claims Organization

Chubb announced that Mary Beth Pittinger will lead the Regional Claims organization for Chubbs North America Insurance division.

In her new role, Pittinger, a senior vice president, will oversee Chubb North Americas seven regional claims executives and 24 claims business consultants. Her team is responsible for aligning the claims organization with the business plans and objectives of the divisions regional executive officers and regional chief operating officers and managing the companys claims relationships with local agents, brokers and customers. Based in Warren, N.J., she will report to Jeffrey J. Miller, executive vice president, who along with Douglas Poetszch, executive vice president, is in charge of Chubbs North America claims operations.

Pittinger has more than 25 years of insurance industry experience. Prior to ACE Limiteds acquisition of The Chubb Corporation in January 2016, she served as senior vice president and worldwide claims business consultant manager for Chubb. In addition to leading a team of claims business consultants, who provided specialized claims account management services to middle market and risk management customers, agents and brokers, she oversaw Chubbs claims third-party administrator relationships.

Brian Brown, who will report to Pittinger, has been appointed senior vice president, North America claim client executive manager. He will continue to provide executive client services to Chubbs North America Major Accounts division. He also will now lead a team of 24 claims business consultants, a dedicated group that provides claims account management services to the customers of Chubbs North America Commercial Insurance and Major Accounts divisions. He will be based in Philadelphia.

Brown has more than 25 years of industry experience, including various claims management roles. Prior to ACEs acquisition of Chubb, he served as claims client executive for ACE.

Erie Insurance Names NeCastro President and CEO-Designate

The Board of Directors of Erie Indemnity Company, the managing company for Erie Insurance, named Timothy G. NeCastro its president and CEO-designate effective June 1. He will succeed current president & CEO Terrence W. Cavanaugh, who joined Erie Insurance in 2008 and previously announced his retirement for later this year.

NeCastro joined Erie Insurance in 1996 as manager of internal auditing and was promoted to senior vice president and controller in 1997. In 2008, he broadened his experience, taking on the role of senior vice president of product and policy services, overseeing customer service, personal & commercial product development and processing areas.

Since 2010, he has held the position of senior vice president and regional officer of ERIEs west region. This encompasses the sales and agency responsibilities in the western half of ERIEs 12- state footprint.

Prior to joining Erie Insurance, NeCastro held positions as the director of finance at Plastek Group and as a senior manager at Ernst & Young.

A native of Erie, he is a Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) and holds licenses in property & casualty and life insurance. He is married to Lisa NeCastro, director of ERIEs Commercial Lines Services.
During my first decade of practicing law in Texas, I enjoyed a good professional relationship with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In those days, Abbott, who is my age and earned his law degree one year after me, was a young defense attorney with the Houston law firm of Butler Binion, and was opposite me in many a subrogation case. He was a great track and field athlete during college and enjoyed running. He might also be the unluckiest man on earth. On July 14, 1984, while running along a sidewalk in the upscale Houston suburb of River Oaks, a 75-foot Post Oak tree fell on him, crushing his lower spine and instantly rendering him a paraplegic. He has been in a wheelchair ever since.

Abbott sued the homeowner (prominent divorce attorney, Roy Moore) whose tree fell on him, along with a tree service company (Davey Tree Expert Company). Moore testified that he was surprised to learn that the big tree had rotted from the inside. Abbotts lawyer, Don Riddle, alleged that Moore and the tree company were negligent for failing to warn people about the dangerous tree or to take action to prevent it from falling. Basal decay in a Post Oak tree cannot be corrected by fertilization, but that is what Davey had recommended. According to news reports from 2002, Abbott won a confidential settlement of more than $10 million. Ironically, Abbott sat on the Texas Supreme Court during the years that the Court implemented significant tort reform measures in Texas.

I never forgot Abbotts experience, and today, our clients send us at least one or two of these types of insurance claims (property and bodily injury) weekly to evaluate for subrogation potential. Damage resulting from falling limbs or trees remains one of the most overlooked areas of third-party liability and subrogation. They are also the most poorly investigated. Whether the owner of a tree that has fallen is a private citizen or a municipality, subrogation professionals must be aware of available tort remedies and be prepared to properly and promptly investigate and dispatch the appropriate expert to document the condition of a fallen tree before the critical evidence reaches the chipper.

Private Owner

While the law of premises liability varies from state-to-state, the law generally is that in order to hold a property owner liable for damage caused by falling limbs or trees located on an owners property, the owner must have actual or constructive notice of the risk. This can be actual notice (e.g., they are advised by local tree company to cut it down or portions of the tree have already fallen) or constructive notice (dangerous condition is obvious and existed for such a length of time that the owner should have known). In finding negligence, courts and juries will look at a variety of factors including the amount of time the condition existed, the size of the premises, the type of condition and when a reasonable person would have discovered the condition. It would be prudent for landowners to conduct periodic inspections of trees located on their property to ensure the safety of others and surrounding property. While the early common law was generally that owners were not liable for physical harm caused to persons not on their property, even if the conditions may be highly dangerous or inconvenient to neighbors, things have evolved. Today, most owners have a duty to exercise reasonable care regarding natural conditions on their land which lies adjacent to a highway or waterway.

Public/Government Owner

Trees on public property also rot. State and local government enjoy sovereign immunity, except when waived by state law. For many municipalities, there is a duty to make periodic visual inspections of trees on public property. The inspections should be done by qualified people (e.g., certified tree inspectors). They usually have a duty to remove obvious dangers and do preventive maintenance, and may be held liable for foreseeable harm that could have been prevented. While the laws governing governmental liability for falling trees also varies, some states (e.g., Illinois) provide that a municipality does not enjoy absolute immunity from liability, but is liable only for willful and wanton conduct. This burden can be met by showing that the municipality was informed about a dangerous condition and knew that other persons had previously been damaged because of the dangerous condition.

In other jurisdictions, such as Minnesota, only conduct of a policy-making (discretionary) nature is entitled to immunity. A citys policy to trim trees along high-traffic roads before trimming trees on low-traffic roads is an example of an action that gives the city immunity. In determining where or how to trim trees along roadways, the city has to make choices based on its budget and other factors. At the same time, a city employee who negligently trims or an inspector who doesnt recognize an obviously-rotten tree that poses a hazard, may subject the municipality to liability.

Investigating Tree Damage Subrogation

Unsafe trees often give little indication of decay or instability. Rot tends to grow from the inside out, and trees can easily become unstable long before there are any visible indications of trouble. In investigating these losses, we must focus on showing that the defendant should have discovered the trees condition and the extent of the defendants duty to inspect trees for rot and other signs of interior decay. This includes both objective evidence such as warnings from neighbors or tree services, as well as more subjective evidence such as the obvious nature of the trees deterioration. Photographs of the tree should be taken and portions of it preserved for later review and use at trial.

Engage the services of an inexpensive arborist and ask him or her to document the trees condition. Warn the property owner immediately after the loss not to dispose of or move the evidence until an investigation can be conducted. Engage subrogation counsel to advise you on the burden of proof you face in the particular jurisdiction you are dealing with.

Last fall, the top of a London Plane tree fell on to a group of chess players in New Yorks Bryant Park, injuring five people, including one child, and leading to a host of subrogation opportunities. The same day, a tree fell in Charleston, South Carolina, destroying a section of a home. These are not rare or unusual instances.

When a tree falls in the woods, it does make a loud sound. When it falls in populated areas, it can be heard throughout the claims department and should be aggressively pursued for any and all subrogation potential.
Organizations experiencing data breaches are judged by their employees as lacking a learning culture and failing to put the customer at the center of business activity, according to a new analysis from global advisory, broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson.

To more closely examine the extent of cyberrisk inherent in employee behavior, Willis Towers Watson analyzed employee survey results, capturing employee opinions from over 450,000 employees corresponding to a period during which significant data breaches were identified within their firms. These results were then benchmarked against global high-performance companies and global information technology (IT) staff, drawing on its database of employee opinion survey data.

The results, published in a client alert titled Inside Threat: Why Employee Behavior and Opinions Impact Cyber-Risk, provide a snapshot of employee opinions within firms that have experienced cyber breaches and suggest a fundamental emphasis on workforce culture may be the first line of defense against cyber risk.

Key findings

As expected, there were significant gaps in favorable opinion scores between employees in data breach groups and each benchmark.

Compared to the high-performance group, employees at data breach companies report significantly lower scores in three areas of workforce culture:

Training

Company image

Customer focus

Compared to the IT employee group, IT workers in data breach companies have less favorable views of training and score especially low on perceived training of new employees. The analysis points to new staff as a blind spot and potential serious source of cyber risk if not effectively trained in processes and procedures.

Compared to the IT employee group, pay for performance emerges as a challenge. The findings indicate that frontline IT staff in data breach companies perceive a misalignment between their efforts and associated rewards, potentially undermining efforts to identify and manage cyber risk.

Compared against both benchmarks, employees in data breach companies indicated a widespread lack of customer focus. This finding is significant from a risk management perspective, as it could set the stage for poor decision making and undermine the vigilance needed to counteract attempts to steal online customer information.

These data are significant because they offer an inside view of workforce culture and for the first time reveal the vulnerabilities within companies experiencing cyber-breaches based on the ultimate insiders  their employees, said Patrick Kulesa, global research director, Willis Towers Watsons Research and Innovation Center.

There is broad awareness of the human element as a risk factor in data security breaches. However, to more effectively manage cyber risk, organizations need to better understand how the various elements of their workforce culture shape their employees behavior and, ultimately, either reduce or drive their exposure to cyber risk, said Adeola Adele, employment practices liability product and cyber-thought-leader of Willis Towers Watsons FINEX North America practice.

To respond to the range of cyber risks stemming from inside threats, Willis Towers Watson experts suggest a series of prevention priorities for organizations, including:

Focus on an enterprise-wide approach to setting cyber strategy, with collaboration across corporate functions including IT, HR, Legal, Operations and Finance.

Invest in making the workforce cyber-smart through comprehensive training and a combination of rewards and disincentives to encourage a culture supportive of cybersecurity.

Consider technology one of several lines of defense. While technological defenses are critical, they are not a sufficient response on their own.

After risk management strategies are employed, companies can insure for cyber threats they cannot mitigate.

Source: Willis Towers Watson
In the last few years, hail damage lawsuits have crowded Texas courts. Using the same model employed in the Lone Star state, hail damage litigation is beginning to impact other states where large hail events have occurred, including Colorado, Oklahoma and Minnesota.

Colorado, in particular, has seen a significant uptick in insurance claims and suits relating to hail damage. One reason is that Colorado, like Texas, has favorable consumer protection laws. In fact, Colorado allows contractors to file bad faith lawsuits against insurance companies resulting from disputes on a claim, according to Steven Badger, a Dallas-based partner with Zelle LLP.

Thats similar to the situation giving rise to all the lawsuits in Florida, he explained.

Florida recognizes a formal assignment of benefits that allows insureds to assign claim benefits to the contractor. In Colorado, the contractor is considered a party with an actual remedy under the bad faith statute when the carrier doesnt fully pay for the alleged roof repairs, Badger said.

In addition, Colorado is seeing increasing use of the appraisal process, with increasing abuses during the process by certain public adjusters. professional appraisers and attorneys, Badger said.

Interestingly, we are seeing a significant influx of individuals from Florida getting involved in Colorado claims and appraisals, Badger said. For whatever reason, most of the disputed claims and appraisals that we are working on for our clients in Colorado involve individuals from Florida.

This may be due to minimal hurricane activity in Florida in recent years, as well as the fact that Texas already has a ripe market of appraisers, public adjusters and policyholder attorneys, he said; whereas Colorado does not.

Its a market where they can come in from Florida and set up shop, he said.

Badgers firm has taken an aggressive and vocal stance on behalf of the insurance industry in not only defending hail litigation, but also in responding to improper conduct by those involved in the claims and litigation process. Recently, Badger filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of a group of homeowners against a North Texas roofing contractor alleged to be involved in improper claims handling conduct.

Several of Badgers articles on the subject have been published by Claims Journal.

In one article, he offered several possible solutions to the problem in Texas. He said these same solutions can be applied in other states as well.

One idea that would be applicable anywhere is to mandate the use of Class 4 hail rated roofing products in areas of severe hail exposure. There are products out there that are more hail resistant and would not fail in small hail events, Badger said.

In fact, Underwriters Laboratories recently submitted a proposal to the International Building Code drafters, proposing a revision to the codes that would require hail rated products in areas of severe hail exposure, he explained. That proposal was voted down as a result of overwhelming opposition from roofing contractor and roofing manufacturer trade groups.

Another solution is stronger enforcement in the various states of what I call the no negotiate statutes that prohibit contractors from involving themselves in the insurance claims process, Badger said. Most states already have statutes or insurance regulations in place that prohibit such conduct, but unfortunately the conduct remains rampant.

Contractors routinely act on behalf of building owners in negotiating insurance claims. Laws in place prohibiting such conduct should be enforced.

If the barrage of hail damage lawsuits continues, there is the possibility that insurers will exclude these type of claims, Badger said.

Its something thats already happening, he said. In Hidalgo County, where there were over 10,000 lawsuits filed after the 2012 hailstorms, at least two major insurers have completely pulled out of the market. We will continue to see this market response wherever hail lawsuits are proliferating.

Badger said he wouldnt be surprised to see a Texas Hailstorm Insurance Association created, much like the windstorm insurance association.

Will it happen? It could. But Id sure like to see another solution to this crisis, and that can be achieved by restoring some balance and fairness to claims and litigation process, he said.

If we could address the problems without changing any laws or having to restrict coverage, that would be ideal, Badger stated.

Badger said that he doesnt see that happening in this current climate.

One positive trend in the right direction is that courts are beginning to take notice, he said.

There are federal judges writing opinions clearly indicating that they understand whats happening in these lawsuits and they dont like it, he explained. To bring an end to this problem without legislative action or policy form changes will require assistance from the courts, from the Texas Department of Insurance, from the State Bar of Texas and from local criminal authorities.

As a result of the articles Badger has written on the subject and his recent class action lawsuit filing, he has had numerous communications with investigators from the Texas Department of Insurance, the State Bar of Texas and a couple of local district attorneys.

They are paying attention to the complaints being filed and are beginning to take action against illegal conduct, said Badger.

Badger recommended that insurers facing an onslaught of hail damage lawsuits seeking damages that are clearly not covered should stand by their policy forms and applicable law.

They need to break the model where a public adjuster or lawyer knows that if they can get someone to sign a contract allowing them to file a lawsuit, all they have to do is file the suit and the insurance carrier will pay something regardless of merit. That model has to come to an end, explained Badger. Also, the carriers need to spend the time to root out the illegal conduct going on in some of these claims and report that bad conduct to the authorities.

These days, Badger has a team of coverage attorneys spending their days defending hail damage lawsuits.

Thats allowing me to spend all of my time in focusing on addressing the fraudulent and illegal conduct we are seeing, he said. This includes the class action we just filed against a roofing contractor for the unauthorized practice of public adjusting, reporting building owners to the authorities for fabricating replacement cost invoices and working with reputable lawyers who are bringing lawsuits against other lawyers for illegal case running.

While it may all seem negative, Badger said he is encouraged by the calls of support he has received from reputable contractors who are tired of dealing with fellow contractors that illegally waive deductibles; from experienced public adjusters tired of new entrants into their industry who have no desire to actually adjust and settle a claim, but just want to get their matters into the hands of a lawyer; and from real policyholder attorneys who are ashamed to see what is happening within their ranks.

Everyone knows there is a problem in Texas and that the problem is spreading to other states, Badger said. We just havent agreed yet on the solution to the problem.
Martin Senn, the Zurich Insurance Group AG chief executive officer who stepped down in a December reshuffle, has committed suicide, the company said in a statement on Monday. He was 59.

The family informed Zurich Insurance that Senn had taken his own life on Friday, according to the statement. We are profoundly shocked by the news of the sudden death, the company said.

Senn was found in his holiday house in Klosters, a Swiss ski resort, Blick newspaper reported. The cantonal police of Grisons wouldnt confirm the death but said officers had been deployed on Friday in connection with Senn.

Huge Loss

This is a huge loss; Martin Senn was an amazing person, said Martin Naville, CEO of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, where Senn had served as president. Human beings are hard to understand but we have to accept his decision.

Senn in December acknowledged setbacks in the months before his departure after higher-than-expected claims at the general-insurance unit forced the company to abandon a takeover bid for RSA Insurance Group Plc. The company later announced an overhaul of the general-insurance business.

During Senns five years as CEO, Zurich Insurance rose about 19 percent and paid out record dividends of 17 Swiss francs a share. In his biggest acquisition, he bought a 51 percent stake in Banco Santander SAs insurance division for $1.67 billion in 2011. Two years later, Chief Financial Officer Pierre Wauthier committed suicide and Josef Ackermann quit.

Conservative Approach

Senns conservative approach helped Zurich Insurance perform well during the financial crisis, when he was the chief investment officer, said Andreas Schaefer, an analyst at Bankhaus Lampe. Zurichs asset side never caused any problems and the company did well compared with its peers, he said. Schaefer has a hold rating on the stock.

Mario Greco, the former CEO of Italys Assicurazioni Generali SpA, assumed Senns role in March. UBS Group AG CEO Sergio Ermotti was set to take over as president of the chamber of commerce in June.

Senn started at Zurich in 2006 as CIO and became CEO in 2010. He joined from Switzerlands biggest life insurer, Swiss Life Holding AG, and held several positions at Credit Suisse Group AG.

When he was 26, Senn became treasurer of the Hong Kong branch of Schweizerischer Bankverein, today known as UBS Group AG.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear an appeal by State Farm contesting a jury finding that the insurance company defrauded the federal government when assessing damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

The court will review a 2015 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the verdict in a suit brought under the federal False Claims Act, which lets people sue over allegations that the government has been defrauded.

The court will consider a lawsuit brought by sisters Cori and Kerri Rigsby, former claims adjusters who worked with State Farm after the hurricane. People win a portion of the damages if such a False Claims Act suit is successful.

The jury found that the U.S. government had been defrauded of $250,000 over a house that had sustained Katrina-related damage in Biloxi, Mississippi.

The Rigsbys said the damage was caused by wind, which would be covered by the owners policy with State Farm. But State Farm concluded that the damage was flood-related, which was covered by the federal governments flood insurance program.

The court said State Farm would have to pay $758,000 in damages. The Rigsbys were awarded $227,000 under the False Claims Act.

State Farm argued in part that the lawsuit should have been thrown out because the Rigsbys former lawyer, Dickie Scruggs, had distributed information about the lawsuit to members of the media. False Claims Act lawsuits are required to be filed under seal and remain private for 60 days.

In 2008, Scruggs was convicted of conspiring to bribe a judge in a different case. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

The court will hear oral arguments and issue a ruling in the case during its next term, which begins in October and ends in June 2017.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)
AKRON, Ohio -- A 38-year-old Akron man is facing aggravated arson and domestic violence charges after he set his family's home on fire, and kicked his stepfather in the face and threw rocks at his mother as they tried to escape the blaze, police said.

James Noesler, of Shaker Drive also set fire to his stepfather's two vehicles, according to police reports. Police said he is also known as "James Noesner."

Noesler was indicted May 31 on four counts each of arson and domestic violence, and two counts each of aggravated arson and resisting arrest, Summit County court records show. He remains in the Summit County Jail.

There is no record of Noesler appearing in court and no hearing is scheduled, a court clerk said Thursday morning.

Noesler was diagnosed with schizophrenia and has a history of drug abuse that includes using bath salts, Akron police Lt. Rick Edwards said.

Noesler told police he set the house on fire because it was old and someone tortured his cat to death, according to reports. Police never found a cat.

Noesler's mother, 58-year-old Kathleen Sullivan, told police she was awakened by her husband Richard Sullivan, 57, screaming that the house was on fire. The fire started sometime after 1 a.m. May 30 in the 100 block of Shaker Drive.

When the couple ran out of the house, Noesler threw rocks at his mother. Noesler kicked his stepfather, who was recovering from a broken leg, knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the face, police said.

Kathleen Sullivan ran to a neighbor's house for help. She and the neighbor were able to get Noesler off Richard Sullivan, and run across the street.

Noesler then asked for the keys to the vehicles. When the couple refused, Noesler broke out the windows, poured gasoline inside and lit a Ford Ranger and Chevy Cruz on fire, police said.

The basement of the home and both vehicles were on fire when police and firefighters arrived about 1:30 a.m.

Damage estimates total $50,000, according to an Akron fire report.

Officers arrested Noesler after a short foot chase.

Paramedics treated Kathleen and Richard Sullivan at the scene.

Kathleen Sullivan reported Noesler missing about 11:50 p.m. May 26, four days before the fire. She told police her son had left home around 10 a.m. that morning with his cat and she was worried about him. Noesler returned home at 9 a.m. May 27.

Noesler was arrested in May 2012 after he punched an emergency medical technician in the face, Edwards said.

Kathleen Sullivan was trying to take him to the hospital because he was on bath salts and was paranoid, police said. When they arrived at the hospital, Noesler tried to run and Sullivan called out to hospital staff for help. That's when he punched an EMT, according to police reports.

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A veteran Akron police officer may be disciplined after he forgot an inmate inside a van for nearly two hours.

(cleveland.com file photo)

AKRON, Ohio -- A veteran Akron police officer might face discipline after he forgot an inmate inside a transport van for nearly two hours.

The incident happened last Thursday when the officer was transporting five inmates back to Oriana House addiction treatment center and the Summit County Jail following court hearings, Akron police Lt. Rick Edwards said.

The 24-year veteran officer dropped off two inmates at Oriana House and two inmates at Summit County Jail, and returned to the Akron police station. Edwards refused to identify the officer in question.

The jail called after corrections officers noticed the Akron officer left paperwork for three inmates, but only dropped off two.

Akron police officers found the inmate, 21-year-old Stacy L. Carritz, of Akron asleep on a bench in the back of the van. The van was parked in an area underneath the Akron Police Department. She was in the van from 1 p.m. until the jail called at 2:53 p.m., Edwards said.

All officers will inspect their vehicles after they have transported a prisoner, the departments transportation policy states. Read the entire policy below.

The officer, who works court security, has no prior infractions on his record, Edwards said.

Akron police supervisors are investigating whether the officer violated any policies or procedures. Possible disciplinary actions include verbal and written warnings, loss of vacation or sick time, and suspension.

Edwards did not know how long the internal investigation will last.

A 1-foot by 1-foot window separates the driver's cab from the back of the transport van. There are three separate holding compartments in the back, Edwards said. Carritz was in a compartment by herself.

Carritz is awaiting trial on drug charges, court records show. She has not filed a complaint about the incident, Edwards said Thursday.

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Rolling in the dough with eMastersi Frickacciois gets a visit from Cooking Channel twosome

Startup business growth rates are up in Greater Cleveland, and the state of Ohio ranks No. 1 for growth in middle market firms, according to two economic reports. Cleveland skyline view from the rooftop of United Bank Building located at Lorain Ave. and West 25th St.

( Thomas Ondrey)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Startup business growth rates are up in Greater Cleveland, and the state of Ohio ranks No. 1 for growth in middle market firms, according to two economic reports just released.

Cleveland jumped in the metropolitan rankings to 19, up from the 26th spot last year, according to the Kauffman Index of Growth in Entrepreneurship. This year, Washington; Austin, Texas; San Jose, California; and Nashville were in the top five. Columbus ranks No. 4.

The report includes trends in each state and it's based on three composite indicators for business revenue and job growth: rate of startup growth, share of scaleups and high-growth company density.

For Cleveland, the rate of startup growth jumped to 71.69 percent in 2016, up from 39.51 percent last year.

The rate of startup growth looks at the average growth trajectory by measuring employment at new firms from launch through their fifth year.

"We're focusing on growth and there's a couple of things we know. New firms create most net new jobs in the economy," said Arnobio Morelix, senior research analyst at Kauffman, and report co-author.

"That's the reason we care so much about startups and growth. They innovate, create jobs, and they create wealth."

Start-up growth rates are up for both Cleveland and Columbus, according to the Kauffman Index of Growth in Entrepreneurship.

The top five industries have remained the same since 2012. They are IT Services; advertising and marketing; business products and services; health; and software.

Kauffman's analysts report that the top five sectors have performed well every year, despite the ups and downs of business cycles. Health, is the one industry that has consistently experienced increases almost every year--even during the recession.

Middle-market firms vs. growth in entrepreneurship

And while the Kauffman report focuses on how smaller companies are growing and achieving, another report released this week focuses on middle-market firms.

Ohio ranks first out of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., for growth in number of middle-market firms from 2011-2016, according to the latest Middle Market Power Index for American Express and Dun & Bradstreet.

Ohio has an estimated 7,233 middle-market companies ($10 million-$1 billion in annual revenues), which make up 1.24 percent of all firms in the state, according to the report.

The newest report finds that the middle market is an increasingly important sector in the economy because it accounts for more than half (53 percent) of total job growth nationally since 2011.

And, while middle-market firms make up less than 1 percent of all U.S. businesses (0.96 percent), they contribute one in four dollars (26 percent) and employ one in four workers (27 percent) in the private sector.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - A group charged with monitoring the city of Cleveland's progress in implementing a federal consent decree governing police use of force accused the police department in a report released Thursday of failing to improve its system of holding officers accountable, more than six months into the reform effort.

And in perhaps the most strident language contained in the document, the monitoring team casts suspicion upon how the department's Office of Professional Standards went about purging 122 citizen complaints from a 2014 backlog within the past few weeks.

At question is the convoluted process of investigating officers accused of misconduct. The system consists of the Bureau of Integrity Control, the Office of Professional Standards and the Police Review Board.

If you've been following coverage of the police reform effort and have found yourself confused over what these offices do, here's your primer:

Traditionally, which office reviews a complaint has depended on the complaint's source.

According to the department's current policy, complaints that arose internally were to be handled by the Bureau of Integrity Control, and eventually the police chief or safety director would make a final determination on potential discipline. The bureau houses two divisions - Internal Affairs, responsible for conducting criminal investigations of officers, and the Inspections Unit, which handles lower level violations of police policy.

Accusations of misconduct leveled by residents or others outside the police department were to be investigated by the Office of Professional Standards. And the results of those investigations were to be forwarded to the Police Review Board - a group of civilians responsible for reviewing the case and making recommendations on potential discipline to the chief.

The 18-month federal investigation that gave rise to the consent decree found the Office of Professional Standards to be drowning in a backlog of cases with many of the problems persisting that were identified during a 2004 Department of Justice investigation.

And not much has changed in the past six months, according to the monitoring team's report.

"Although the Monitoring Team is still crunching some of the data recently provided to it by the OPS and the City ... a staggering number of OPS cases are incomplete - including, as of May 4, 2016, 202 cases from calendar year 2014 and 225 cases from calendar year 2015, according to OPS' own data. This is unacceptable and irresponsible by any measure. The state of OPS is dire."

But it gets worse. The report goes on to say that the Office of Professional Standards and the Police Review Board took steps last month to eradicate the backlog. In that short time, they reported reviewing and disposing of 122 of the 202 pending cases from 2014.

"It is unclear to the Monitoring Team precisely how OPS and PRB managed to complete 122 cases in just a few weeks," the report states. "The Parties and Monitoring Team will consequently need to explore how those cases were adjudicated, whether the investigations were in fact complete, and whether the decisions to end and adjudicate outstanding cases were made according to a codified, fair, and rigorous procedure."

The report goes on to say that the monitoring team only began receiving up-to-date statistics on the Office of Professional Standards' work in mid-April - though initial requests were made in October.

The office also was required to revise its operations manual by February. But the resulting 14-page draft, was "deficient in every regard," the report states.

The draft policy "lacked rigor, contained inaccurate information, failed to address numerous Consent Decree requirements, and omitted a host of material details," the report states. "It was especially bewildering to the Monitoring Team that the draft did not directly import clearly-stated requirements of the Decree."

The team was most troubled by the manual's failure to lay out requirements related to fairness, thoroughness, objectivity or timeliness or to provide basic information about how the Police Review Board operates and makes decisions.

The court granted the Office of Professional Standards an extension until May 5 to properly complete its new manual. But the report says that it became clear that the monitoring team must first take a deeper dive into the office's operations to root out the dysfunction. To that end, a sub-group of the monitoring team has been detailed to the task.

Meanwhile, the city has committed additional officers to help alleviate the backlog.

The report gives a nod to the office's complaints that resources for investigations are scarce. But it goes on to say that a lack of resources alone cannot account for the office's extensive problems.

For instance, although an electronic case-tracking system was implemented last year, the report notes that many of the office's investigators are not taking advantage of it and continue to perform much of their work on paper.

As for Internal Affairs -- under the consent decree, the office is supposed to handle non-criminal internal allegations of officer misconduct. Minor infractions, such as violations of the uniform policy or tardiness, can be handled by first-line supervisors.

But the monitoring team said in its report that in conversations with officers, it's clear that some confusion exists over the full scope of cases that the office can address.

"Similarly, members of the Monitoring Team have received different answers at different times to inquiries about how, if a patrol officer believed that a colleague engaged in possible misconduct, and precisely where that officer should refer the misconduct complaint and precisely what internal entity would be responsible for investigating," the report states. "CPD's existing policies are redundant with respect to many material details of its internal accountability system - but silent as to many more."

The unit soon will be headed up by a civilian. The report states that a job description has been finalized and the city has begun the process of filling that position. Once that person is chosen, the department will revamp its internal affairs policy manual to align with the consent decree.
Cleveland police tape 3

The Cleveland Police Monitoring Team overseeing years-long police reforms issued a 70-page report Thursday that praised the department's progress in the first year of transforming how its officers use force.

(File photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The team charged with overseeing federally mandated reforms of Cleveland's police department issued a 70-page report praising the department's progress in transforming how its officers use force, even as the department missed several deadlines outlined in the agreement.

Cleveland police have made "tremendous progress" toward revamping its use-of-force policy and remains on-track to have the new procedures in effect by Jan. 1, the Cleveland Police Monitoring Team wrote in its first report released Thursday.

The report details the department's progress in the first six months of planning reforms to a host of training and policies, including how officers deal with people in a mental health crisis and how officers conduct investigatory stops.

Use of Force Policy

As part of the consent decree agreement with the Justice Department signed last May, the city agreed to have a draft of the department's new use-of-force policy done by April to allow for "rigorous" input from the public.

The department was also scheduled to draft a revamped training curriculum based on the new use of force policy in June.

But the Monitor's Team, led by Matthew Barge, wrote in the first report that neither draft is finished, and likely will not be available for discussion by the public until after the Republican National Convention in July.

The delay is understandable, the monitor's team says, in part because Barge's team was not appointed until October, and because the RNC has taken up a tremendous amount of the police department's resources in recent months.

"Given the centrality of the use of force policy to the Consent Decree, and many of its other reforms, the Parties and Monitoring Team agree that the public's substantive, informed participation in reform is too important to short-circuit or to attempt when other significant law enforcement imperatives are consuming the Division and the community's focus," the report says.

The monitor's team hopes to have a policy available for public comment in late July or early August. The federal judge overseeing the consent decree will have to sign off on the new policy in late August or early September, according to the report.

The new policy will require officers to be much more thorough in describing why the level of force that they used was appropriate. The Justice Department found that, in the past, Cleveland police officers often relied on vague, boilerplate language and cliches to explain why their use of force escalated, and supervisors often conducted lackluster internal investigations into allegations of excessive force.

The old policy gave officers a broad menu of options to justify which of five levels of force they applied. The lowest levels include tactics as physical as tripping; the highest encompass deadly force. In between are responses such as punching, kicking and "takedowns," as well as the use of Tasers, pepper spray and batons.

When the new policy is in place, every officer who sees another officer use force will have to file a report describing what happened.

The new policy will also break use of force into three different categories.

The lowest level, Level One, includes maneuvers that are not likely to cause injury, such as joint manipulation, pressure point compliance. These will be investigated by the officer's supervisor, and usually will include reviewing the officer's written report of what happened.

Level Two force is force that causes injury or should be expected to cause an injury that is not a use of lethal force, such as punching or hitting someone with a police baton, leg sweeps or momentary shocks with a stun gun. These investigations will be a more rigorous. The officer's supervisor will go to the scene, interview witnesses, look for video or forensic evidence and determine if the force was legal.

The highest level of force, Level Three, is deadly force or that which results in serious injury, hospitalization or loss of consciousness. This includes all police shootings, neck restraints and K-9 bites. It also includes stun gun use if the officer shocks the suspect three or more times, or once for longer than 15 seconds.

That level would be investigated by a revamped Force Investigation Team or, if the force results in a death, an independent law enforcement agency. Police have reached an agreement with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department to undertake these investigations.

The new policy will also create a force review board, made up of police officers and command staff, who will review the investigations into the most serious uses of force. It will also review Level Two incidents at random, as a "quality control mechanism" of the department's entire process for documenting and reviewing use-of-force incidents, the report says.

Crisis Intervention

Another pillar of the Justice Department's investigation found that Cleveland police officers too often used force against people experiencing a mental health crisis, partly due to a lack of training in dealing with mental illness and de-escalation tactics.

Much of the groundwork in addressing this issue has been done, as the department partnered with the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Service Board of Cuyahoga County to create the Mental Health Response Advisory Committee to draft a work plan to train officers in responding to those with mental illness.

That work plan, approved last month, included several steps that are already under way.

Though the consent decree requires each new recruit to receive 16 hours of crisis intervention training, the department announced last year that it hoped to give every new police recruit 40 hours of training, a goal that the monitor's team said would make it stand out as one of the most highly trained departments in the country when it comes to dealing with the mentally ill.

The first academy class to receive the full training graduated in October 2015.

The agreement also says that every officer will have to undergo eight hours of in-service training each year.

While the monitor's team praised the appointment of Capt. James Purcell to serve as the department's mental health response coordinator, the report pointed out that a member of the police department needs to be appointed to the Mental Health Response Advisory Committee.

Search and Seizure

The monitor's team notes that efforts to reform the department's search and seizure procedures aren't scheduled to begin until 2017.

Still, the department's policy and officer conduct during stop remains a critical issue for many residents.

The monitor's team has "heard from numerous individuals from across the city that negative views of interactions with CPD stem not necessarily from what happens but, instead, from how officers treat or interact with residents during those encounters," the report says.

Under the consent decree, officers will be completely barred from considering factors including race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation when determining whether to stop and search a person.

Rather, officers will have to fill out a form detailing exactly what led them to make an investigatory stop, search or seizure. They will not be able to use statements that are "canned or conclusory."

And if a person ends up being arrested on no other charge than resisting arrest or obstructing official business, that officer has call a supervisor, who can go to the scene and investigate the circumstances that led to the stop.

The fact that the department is not addressing search and seizure issues until the second-year of the agreement should not "be construed as minimizing the importance," the monitor's team wrote.

"Reserving key portions of 2017 and 2018 to fundamentally addressing these issues through changes in policy and officer training allows reform in this area to happen within a broader context of actively implementing community-based performance metrics and a comprehensive community policing model," the report says.
East Cleveland police car.png

A jury awarded a $22 million verdict from the East Cleveland Police Department to a man who was locked in a closet for four days with no food, water or restroom.

(File photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A jury awarded a Maple Heights man $22 million this week for a 2012 traffic stop during which he was punched by an East Cleveland police officer and locked in a storage closet for four days without food, water or access to a toilet.

Arnold Black spent four days alone inside the East Cleveland Police Headquarters, according to a lawsuit decided this week in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, while his family was unable to reach him.

East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said Thursday that the city already filed an appeal of the $22 million verdict.

One of the police officers named in the suit, Det. Randy Hicks, testified on behalf of Black after the city filed a lawsuit against him. The detective corroborated the allegations against himself and the department, according to Attorney Rob DiCello.

East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts did not appear at trial.

With East Cleveland teetering on financial default, DiCello said his client is in uncharted legal territory regarding the $22 million verdict, but believes he will be able to collect at least part of the $10 million in compensatory damages the jury awarded.

"We do believe we have an excellent claim for the $10 million," DiCello said. Of the other $12 million in punitive damages, $11 million was found against Spotts himself, DiCello said.

"The importance of this verdicts is not in the money we collect, it's in the message, the powerful message that the jury sent, that this kind of conduct will not be tolerated in Cuyahoga County," DiCello said.

After leaving his mother's house after dinner on April 28, 2012, Black was driving home through East Cleveland when he was tailed by Det. Randy Hicks who was driving an unmarked car, according to testimony.

The two exchanged glances and another officer, Jonathan O'Leary, pulled up behind him. O'Leary ordered Black out of the truck, handcuffed him and sat him on the hood.

Hicks tore apart the inside of Black's green truck, including the door panels, searching for narcotics.

Hicks asked Black why he was driving through his city, then punched Black in the temple as O'Leary stood by, at one point reaching in to prop Black up as Hicks continued to deliver punches to his face.

The two policemen took Black back to the East Cleveland Police Headquarters and locked him in a storage closet with no food or water. Black said he urinated and defecated in lockers during his stay.

On his second day in the closet, an officer allowed Black to use his cellphone to call his girlfriend.

But when the girlfriend came to the police department and asked to see him, she was told he was "under investigation" and "you can't see people that are under investigation."

It was not until the following week that Black was taken to the Cuyahoga County Jail.

One month later prosecutors dismissed drug charges that East Cleveland police filed against Black in Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.

When asked to produce evidence from the traffic stop in the discovery phase of the trial, the city of East Cleveland told a judge overseeing Black's civil suit that they did not have dash cam video or police reports from the incident, DiCello said.

In lieu of a mugshot, which would have shown Black's bloodied face, the police department fabricated an arrest report using the picture on his drivers license, according to DiCello.

The city of East Cleveland told WJW television that the officers named in the suit no longer work at the department.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Nearly three years after three rotting corpses were found behind his East Cleveland apartment, serial killer Michael Madison was sentenced Thursday to death row.

Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Nancy R. McDonnell sentenced the 38-year-old, her first ever death sentence in over 20 years on the bench.

A jury found him guilty last month of murdering 18-year-old Shirrellda Terry, 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley and 38-year-old Angela Deskins in a series of strangulation between October 2012 and July 2013.

Madison's trial began nearly two months ago after years of delays after Madison was required to undergo several psychological examinations.

It is likely that Madison will remain in jail for years if not decades. The killer has already signaled to the judge that he will appeal the sentence to the Ohio Supreme Court.

The jury recommended that Madison be sentenced to death, unpersuaded by mitigating factors that included a torturous childhood where he was beaten repeatedly by his mother's boyfriends and eventually cast out of both high school and his home.

Madison met the three women in separate incidents and lured them back to his apartment at the corner of Hayden and Shaw avenues.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty described Madison as a trophy keeper, inspired by prior East Cleveland killer Anthony Sowell.

Madison stored the bodies in garbage bags, one in his garage, another in bushes outside and a third in the basement of a nearby vacant home. He could see all three bodies from the second floor balcony of his apartment.

Regardless of McDonnell's decision, Madison would never have set foot a free man again. As a convicted sex offender, Madison's murder convictions left the judge with only two options, death or life without possibility of parole.

This story has been updated. A previous version incorrectly stated that Madison was 35 years old. He was 35 at the time of his murders, he is now 38.
Los Angeles consulting firm to monitor Cleveland's progress under consent decree

Matthew Barge, right, the federal monitor the Cleveland Police consent decree, appears at a Thursday, October 1, 2015 news conference. Barge's firm is tracking the city's progress to curb excessive use of force by police officers under a settlement with the U. S. Justice Department.

(Marvin Fong / The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Planning for the Republican National Convention has led to delays in developing key components of the court-mandated plan to overhaul the Cleveland police department, according to the federal monitor overseeing the ongoing reforms.

Matthew Barge, the lead federal monitor, wrote in a 68-page progress report released Thursday that planning for the GOP convention "appropriately" is drawing the attention of not only the police department, but also members of the Cleveland civic community.

But despite the delays, Barge said the goal is for a new use-of-force plan for Cleveland police to still be in place -- meaning written, and officers trained in its use -- before the first of next year.

"This is an ambitious goal, but it is possible -- especially because of the focus that CPD will continue to be investing on preparations for the Republican National Convention in July 2016 -- that operational realities or other pragmatic considerations might require adjustments to the timeframe," Barge wrote. "However, the City and CPD's ongoing commitment to this aggressive timetable serves as evidence of a commitment to addressing the Consent Decree's requirements with an appropriate sense of urgency."

The report is the first mandated written update released since Cleveland hired Barge's nonprofit Police Assessment Resource Center in October to oversee the reforms. Cleveland was awarded the GOP convention in July 2014, about six months before the U.S. Department of Justice issued a report finding that the city's police regularly used excessive force against its citizens. This led to the consent decree, which averts a lawsuit from the federal government as long as its provisions are carried out.

Barge recommended pushing back the timeline for three parts of consent decree -- the seeking of community input to develop the new use-of-force policy, an analysis of Cleveland police's technology and equipment shortcomings by the monitoring team and the development of a written plan to increase diversity in hiring practices -- until after the GOP convention ends on July 21.

"Given the centrality of the use of force policy to the Consent Decree, and many of its other reforms, the parties and monitoring team agree that the public's substantive, informed participation in reform is too important to short-circuit or attempt when other significant law enforcement imperatives are consuming [police] and the community's focus," Barge wrote.

Barge does not criticize Cleveland police for not keeping up with previously established timelines, describing the circumstances surrounding the GOP convention as "substantially evolving" since the monitoring plan was developed in January. It also refers to the "state of the political contest" bringing additional outside attention on Cleveland's preparations for the GOP convention.

Both are likely references to the political volatility surrounding the convention and emergence of GOP nominee Donald Trump, who has drawn a large number of supporters and detractors to his political rallies.

Barge also wrote that his team plans to observe the GOP convention for situations that involve the use of force by police or other components of the consent decree, although he noted they will not comment on pending investigations or "independently evaluate claims of officer misconduct in real time."

The GOP convention, scheduled for July 18-21, is expected to attract upwards of 50,000 people to downtown Cleveland. Police also are preparing for the presence of a substantial number of protesters, which includes purchasing riot-control gear and clearing space in local jails in the event of mass arrests.

The city has received a $50 million federal grant to help cover the costs of security.
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James Todt, a former official at the Cleveland Housing Network, and two contractors were charged federally Thursday in a scheme involving cash bribes, kickbacks and faulty lead abatement practices at several homes, according to court records.

(File photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A former official from a Cleveland-based housing nonprofit and two contractors face federal criminal charges in a scheme involving cash bribes, kickbacks and faulty lead abatement practices at several homes, prosecutors say.

James Todt, 49, of Brecksville; Lizandro Orellana, 56, of Cleveland; Chris Peterson, 42, of Macedonia, and Modern Construction Group LLC, were each charged by criminal information Thursday in U.S. District Court.

Todt worked for nine years at the Cleveland Housing Network, an umbrella nonprofit made up of 15 community development corporation spread across the city. There he supervised contractors and project managers and awarded contracts for work on various projects, according to the information.

He left the organization in 2014.

Orellana owns Modern Construction Group, and Peterson owns Top Notch Construction.

Todt solicited more than $30,000 in bribes and home renovation work from Orellana and Peterson between 2009 and 2014, the information says. In exchange, he steered Cleveland Housing Network contracts to their companies.

Orellana performed home improvements for Todt, and Peterson paid him up to $10,000. In exchange, Todt steered contracts their way, the information says.

Todd also gave Orellana the housing network's internal cost projections for projects, which Orellana and Modern Construction used to bid on contracts, court documents say.

Orellana also paid someone in November 2012 to do $3,650 in electrical work at Todt's Brecksville home, the information says.

The next October, Orellana sent six Modern employees to build a deck on Todt's home, and told the employees to install seven windows, according to the information. The work that was valued at $8,736.

Peterson repaired the roof of a home in Seven Hills owned by one of Todt's relatives in 2012, and repaired a rental property owned by Todt in Brecksville, according to the information.

Todt also submitted false invoices and deposited two checks totaling $15,280 into his personal account, according to the information.

Orellana is also charged in connection with faulty lead abatement work performed at several of the housing network's properties between 2010 and 2012.

Orellana told his employees to gut the homes containing lead paint and remove items and components covered in lead paint without following abatement procedures to save time, the information says. Those employees were not licensed to perform that sort of work, according to the information.

Todt, Orellana and Peterson are each charged with conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds.

Todt is also charged with theft concerning programs receiving federal funds.

Orellana and Modern Construction are each violation of authorized state lead-based paint program requirements.

If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- East Cleveland serial killer Michael Madison smirked as the father of his final victim took the podium in a Cleveland courtroom to read a statement about his daughter's life and her gruesome death.

Judge Nancy R. McDonnell sentenced the convicted killer of three to death Thursday for the rape and murders of 18-year-old Shirellda Terry, 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley and 38-year-old Angela Deskins.

Thursday's hearing was their first chance for friends and family members who sat through the two-month trial to address the man convicted of killing those women.

"Right now, I guess we're supposed to, in our hearts forgive this clown, who has touched our families, taken my child," Shirellda Terry's father Van Terry said.

He then turned toward Madison, just as the killer sprouted a grin.

Van Terry bolted from the podium and lunged across the hardwood table where Madison was seated. He grabbed at Madison's face as his momentum carried him back into the packed courtroom gallery.

"He was upset. He's telling you that he lost his baby, that's a slice of his heaven, and (Madison) is sitting over there smiling," Van Terry's sister Sonya Richardson said after the hearing. "It's like, enough."

A court officer tackles Van Terry, father of one of three victims of Ohio serial killer Michael Madison, left. Terry was giving testimony about the loss of his daughter when he turned, paused and lunged toward Madison, who was grinning.

A spokesman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor said the office will review the incident and decide whether to charge Van Terry with a crime.

Madison's sentence was a moment of closure for the families and friends of his victims who watched and listened to the vivid details of Madison's mutilation of the three young women whose bodies were found decomposing in trash bags around his apartment complex.

For nearly two months they watched as photos of the womens' mangled and mutilated bodies flashed onscreen before a jury of 12. They listened as police detectives and forensics experts described how they were choked, beaten and in at least one case raped.

The judge considered some mitigating factors that Madison's defense attorneys, led by David Grant, raised at trial. Madison was abused throughout most of his childhood, he came from a home where "no one here would allow their child to spend a single night," Grant said.

Experts in corrections testified that Madison could be safely held in the state's prison system for the rest of his life. It was the only other sentence that McDonnell could have granted.

The judge was not persuaded.

"I believe there is some value in capital punishment, this is one of those cases."

Outside the courtroom following the trial, Marie Padgette, mother of Angela Deskins, expressed outright gratitude at McGinty's side.

Belinda Minor, Shirellda Terry's mother, forgave Madison from the courtroom podium, but did not express any reservation about his death sentence.

"If you get injection, you take the easy way out," Shetisha's Sheeley's sister Samara wrote in a letter to the court. "It's a lose-lose situation here, and it makes me think selfishly. Thinking that your family will get to see you behind bars, makes me want to see you die."

This story has been updated to include a revised version of Van Terry's remarks.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The sentencing of serial killer Michael Madison went into recess Thursday after the father of one of his three victims lunged across a table and tried to grab Madison.

Panic alarms were triggered throughout the Cuyahoga County Justice Center after Van Terry, father of Shirellda Terry, turned from the podium where he was speaking, leapt across the table and grappled at Madison's face.

Minutes earlier, Madison was given a death sentence by Common Pleas Judge Nancy R. McDonnell for killing three women.

Van Terry was removed from the courtroom along with another man caught in the struggle near the back of the packed courtroom. Other family members and spectators wept at the scene as Cuyahoga County sheriff's deputies flooded into the courtroom.

Terry's sister, Sonya Richardson, later explained the emotional outburst.

Shirellda Terry, 18, was the last victim Madison claimed before he was arrested on July 19, 2013.

This story is developing and will be updated. Video will be added shortly.
EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The East Cleveland man charged in a shooting that injured a 6-year-old girl and a 28-year-old man acted in self-defense because he felt threatened by the younger man, his wife said.

Roosevelt Chandler, 67, is charged with two counts of felonious assault and one count of discharging a firearm at or into a habitation in the May 26 incident on North Taylor Road near Euclid Avenue.

East Cleveland Municipal Court Judge William Dawson set his bond at $300,000 during his appearance Thursday in court. Chandler waived his right to a preliminary hearing and his case has been bound over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Chandler regrets that the girl was injured during the incident, his wife Vanessa Chandler said after the hearing.

But Vanessa Chandler feels the other man might have attacked her husband if he did not shoot.

"It would've turned physical," she said outside the courtroom.

The girl and the 28-year-old man suffered non-life-threatening injuries and have since been released from area hospitals.

The man could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Vanessa Chandler said she was inside her house that night when she heard children playing beside her window. She asked the children to play elsewhere.

The other man took offense and approached the window, she said. He ripped the screen off the window and threatened her, she said.

Roosevelt Chandler went outside to confront the man. That led to the shooting, Vanessa Chandler said.

Detectives have not released any additional information on the incident. An East Cleveland police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If you wish to discuss or comment on this story, please visit our crime and courts comments section.
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Road closures for "Fast 8" from June 2-5.

(City of Cleveland)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The second unit film crew on "Fast 8" will shut down more streets before wrapping up shooting in downtown Cleveland.

The city announced additional road closures as filming continues today through Sunday and then resuming Wednesday June 8 before wrapping up on June 10.

St. Clair between West 3rd and West Mall Dr. is closed through Sunday, with intermittent closures on St. Clair all the way to E. 12th.

"Fast 8" closures from June 8-10.

From June 8-9, Ontario will be closed on Ontario between Public Square and Quicken Loans Arena. Prospect will be closed between W. 2nd and E. 4th. There will be intermittent closures in that area as well on W. 2nd, E. 4th, High Street and E. 2nd.

On June 10, Prospect will remain closed between Huron and Bolivar with occasional closures on those streets as well. Shooting dates are subject to change depending on the weather.

"Fast 8" road closures for June 9-11.

"Previously unplanned road closures are being requested daily by the film crew with as little as 15 minute's notice to RTA," the transit authority tweeted.

The "Fast 8" crew has staged high-speed chases, explosions and cars falling out of a garage during its three-week Cleveland shoot as the city doubles as New York City in the film. The movie, starring Vin Diesel, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Charlize Theron, pulls into theaters on April 14, 2017.

See the full list of road closings below. (Open PDF on a mobile device)
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The cast of Mercury Theater Co.'s 'Beauty and the Beast' will perform the musical weekends from June 10-25 at Notre Dame College in South Euclid.

(Jeff Piorkowski/special to cleveland.com)

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- You may have seen the musical "Beauty and the Beast" performed at a high school near you, but it will soon come to the stage in a very different way as performed by the actors who make up Mercury Theatre Company.

In order to make it as fresh a viewing experience as possible, Mercury is pulling out the creative stops.

"This is our first time doing it, so we wanted to be creative," said Mercury Theatre Managing Director and actor Brian Marshall. "(Artistic Director) Pierre(-Jacques Brault) likes to be creative and do things differently, and I think that helps us all grow as artists."

Featuring the same songs (including the hit title song and "Be Our Guest") and plot as the 1991 Disney animated film "Beauty and the Beast," and with a few tunes added, Mercury Theatre's production will include actors working puppets onstage, puppets that were made by the maker of puppets used at Disney World.

"The actors have to be puppeteers while they're acting, and singing, and dancing in some cases," Marshall said.

As Brault began rehearsing the cast of 32, the set hadn't yet arrived from Virginia Beach, Va. When it does arrive, it promises to be special.

The beast's castle, in which the musical's action takes place, will extend from the stage into what had been a portion of the audience seating area. The first row of seats at Notre Dame College's Regina Auditorium have been removed to allow for the castle, and for a more intimate audience experience.

Another unique twist has made it so that certain audience members can't possibly be any closer to the performers.

"We're going to have on-stage seating," Marshall said. "Forty-two people selected by lottery will be seated on stage."

A seated section is being built into the on-stage portion of the castle.

The actors will perform the familiar story of Belle and the Beast/prince, Gaston, and the enchanted objects. It is a story that Rachel Smith, 22, a graduate assistant at Notre Dame College, has loved all her life.

"It was my favorite when I was growing up," Smith said, who plays the lead role of Belle. "When I would act out, my mother would put (the movie) on for me. I just wanted to be Belle."

Smith recently made Belle the first part she ever auditioned for, and it was a part she got amidst the professional and amateur performers who make up Mercury casts.

"It was time to let my voice out," said the language arts and math major. "Playing Belle is a dream come true."

Said Marshall of Smith, "She's full of wonder and curiosity and everything that a princess should be. She's a natural, and she's beautiful."

Playing the part of the Beast is Craig Juricka, a veteran of past Mercury productions who will be leaving the area in the fall to pursue his graduate degree at Boston Conservatory. He is seeking to become a voice teacher.

"This is a very creative production," Juricka said. "Not your traditional 'Beauty and the Beast.' While (actors are) operating a puppet, you have to be over animated to put over that character. It is making us grow."

Others in the cast include Cleveland's Mason Stewart as Gaston; Eddie Carney, who has served many Mercury productions as musical director, as Le Fou; and Marshall as the candlestick, Lumiere.

"Beauty and the Beast" marks the opening of the fifth summer season for Mercury at Notre Dame College, and 18th for Mercury, overall.

"Beauty and the Beast" will be presented June 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 24 and 25 at Notre Dame College's Regina Auditorium, 1857 S. Green Road in South Euclid. It will be followed this summer by productions of "Finian's Rainbow" and "The Little Mermaid."

Tickets for "Beauty and the Beast" cost $20 for adults, and $16 for seniors, students and children. There are no added handling charges. Tickets are available at the door, by calling 216-771-5862, or online at mercurytheatrecompany.org.
With college bills looming, it's time for parents of recent and soon-to-be high school grads to start thinking about how they'll pay up. It's no small amount to anticipate. For the 2015-16 academic year, the net price to attend a private nonprofit institution  that's the cost of tuition, fees and room and board, less any scholarships and tax breaks earned  averaged $26,000, according to The College Board. At public four-year colleges, in-state students paid an average net price of $14,120 during that same year, while the bill for in-district students attending a public two-year college averaged $7,230.

Many families don't have much put aside: The average college savings balance is just $10,040, according to a 2015 report from lender Sallie Mae. So they expect to cover the cost using multiple sources, including those savings as well as their current income, loans and gifts from family. But experts say figuring out which resources to tap into (and in what order and proportion) is no easy feat. "You're juggling these multiple parameters," said Mark Kantrowitz, vice president of strategy for Cappex.com, a college and scholarship search site.

A wrong move could negatively impact financial aid in future years, result in missed opportunities for tax breaks or generate a bigger-than-necessary loan tab, he said. Your family's best bet is to plan out a payment strategy that covers all four years  or longer, if you have two or more kids with some overlap in college attendance, said certified financial planner Carina Diamond, the managing director of SS&G Wealth Management in Akron, Ohio. "You need to pace yourself," she said. Here's what to keep in mind:



Tax breaks

If you meet the income limits and other qualifications to claim one of the credits or deductions for college expenses paid, plan for that early on, especially for those first and last tax years where you might only have one semester of expenses. The IRS doesn't let taxpayers double-dip on breaks. Tuition paid with a tax-advantaged 529 fund or tax-free scholarship, for example, can't also count as tuition paid toward that tax credit, said Kantrowitz. So to get the full $2,500 value of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, someone would need to plan to cover $4,000 in tuition using income, loans and other eligible sources.

"Carve out that first," he said. Depending on where you live, you might also be able to snag a tax break for contributing to a 529 college savings plan, even if you immediately withdraw those funds to pay for college bills. But check the details: Nearly a dozen states only allow a deduction for contributions exceeding withdrawals, Kantrowitz said.

Current income

Consider how much you can comfortably afford to put toward tuition payments each month without compromising other goals such as retirement, said certified financial planner Erin Durkin, director of client planning for EP Wealth Advisors in Torrance, California. Families who were already shelling out for private school or socking away 529 college savings contributions may find the shift easier; others may need to explore budget cuts. Ask the college about a payment plan to help break up the bill into more manageable monthly installments. The setup fee is typically less than $100, and the balance won't accrue interest, Kantrowitz explained. "I would recommend that ahead of other borrowing options," Kantrowitz said.

College savings

From a financial aid perspective, it can be in your best interest to spend down college savings sooner rather than later, said Diamond. Depending on your income and other elements like the number of kids in college, fewer assets may increase aid eligibility. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid expects families to use up to 20 percent of assets owned by the student toward college costs, including custodial accounts like a UGMA (Uniform Gifts to Minors Act) or UTMA (Uniform Transfers to Minors Act). There's a 5.64 percent contribution rate for parent-owned assets, which include 529 plans. The formula counts those as a parent asset even if they are in the student's name.



If a grandparent or other relative owns the 529, however, it's better to wait and use those funds in your student's final year, Durkin said. That gives the funds more time to grow and also avoids a substantial financial aid hit: The FAFSA treats distributions from a grandparent's 529 account as untaxed income to the student on future aid filings, cutting aid by up to 50 percent. But college savings are another area where it can pay to think long term. If your student is receiving a decent amount of grant money, for example, it may make sense to preserve some of the family's 529 account money for grad school, said Diamond. Or to benefit a younger sibling who may face higher costs. "What are the needs of the other kids?" she said.

Loans

Obviously, the less debt incurred, the better, but it can be a mistake to spend down college savings first to delay borrowing to a student's last college years. "You have to look at loans over the four years," said Diamond, and factor in any overlapping years where you'll have two or more kids in college at the same time. The aim: Even out federal borrowing to avoid you or your student needing to take on more expensive debt. "Federal student loans are cheaper and better than any private student loans," Kantrowitz said.
Uber rival Didi Chuxing is building a war chest. The company   is currently raising another round of funding that is even bigger than Uber's latest $3.5 billion round, said Didi Chuxing president Jean Liu. "On the Uber news  I have to say  our industry is actually very early stage, so the more capital that goes into it, the faster it grows, so it benefits every one of us." Liu revealed the news on stage at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. on Wednesday, right after . (Recode executive editor Kara Swisher said she probed Uber on the interesting timing of their announcement, which reportedly was purely coincidental.)



Didi has already raised $5 billion, and the company just broke another record  it completed 14 million daily rides. "There is huge room to grow, but you can't just grow yourself, you need a lot of strategic help," she said. What's most important right now is winning users, she said. "Fundraising can go on forever but at the end of the day you still need to figure out, if you want to win the market, it's really to win the heart of the user," she said. "That is what we are focused on."



Liu shared the stage along with Anthony Tan, CEO of Grab, another rideshare company. Both executives agreed that  beyond just raising cash  they looked for strategic partnerships. For Didi that has meant partnering with Apple and Tencent to drive penetration in China particularly. For Grab  which has raised $700 million to date  that meant partnering with the China Investment Corporation and Softbank . Tan said the secret to success in the markets it is aimed at, including Southeast Asia, is providing locally relevant services. The cookie cutter model just won't work in certain countries, said Tan. "Taking away the capital side, what is really important is this whole user experience," he said. "It's being locally relevant, city by city." For complete coverage of the Code Conference, visit Recode.
With only a month left until the end of the quarter, there are tell-tale signs that China is set to log a subdued April-June performance. But it's not mainland data that economists are looking at; the tea leaves lie instead in the teapots of Beijing's Asian neighbors.

Amid the high amount of skepticism surrounding the accuracy of Chinese data, a look at recent economic indicators of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, some of China's biggest trading partners in the region, could be more fruitful, noted Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist at Capital Economics.

"South Korean exports, in particular, are a good proxy for how China is performing given the high amount of intermediate goods that Seoul exports to Beijing," Evans-Pritchard said.

China buys around one-fourth of South Korea's exports and data on Wednesday revealed South Korea's total May exports contracted 6 percent on-year, marking nearly one year of straight declines and a major miss on the 1.6 percent expansion Reuters had anticipated. Exports to the world's second-largest economy meanwhile fell 9.1 percent on year, down for the 11th consecutive month.

This indicates Chinese import demand is weakening on the back of tepid appetite from mainland consumers and enterprises, Evans-Pritchard said.
Toyota Motor , Fiat Chrysler Automobiles , Volkswagen and Mitsubishi Motors are still selling new vehicles with defective air bags that will eventually need to be recalled, according to a report by a U.S. lawmaker overseeing the agency handling the largest-ever auto safety recall. Automakers confirmed they are continuing to sell some vehicles with ammonium-nitrate inflators without a chemical drying agent, and cited engineering and supply challenges to explain why they are still relying on the faulty airbags. The vehicles are legal to sell but must be recalled by 2018. Legal experts said that based on previous cases, it was unclear if there could be additional legal liability for selling vehicles subject to future recalls, though if anything goes wrong with those vehicles, they could be subject to product-liability lawsuits. The automakers and Takata have been hit with class-action lawsuits from owners, and Takata is the subject of a Justice Department criminal investigation.

The report by the top Democrat on the committee that oversees the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the latest to raise concerns about the massive recall of close to 70 million U.S. air bag inflators and nearly 100 million worldwide. "This may be the first time in history where multiple automakers are selling brand new cars with a known, and potentially deadly, defect," said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book. Takata inflators can explode with excessive force and spray metal shrapnel. They are suspected in 13 deaths worldwide and more than 100 injuries. There are no deaths or injuries reported in Takata inflators with a drying agent, NHTSA said. It was not clear precisely how many new cars are being sold with defective inflators. The affected vehicles include the 2016-2017 Mitsubishi i-MiEV, 2016 Volkswagen CC, 2016 Audi TT and 2017 Audi R8. NHTSA said there have been no ruptures in any vehicles built since 2008, suggesting the vehicles won't be prone to danger for six years or more. "There just aren't enough non-defective replacement airbags to go around," said Rich Newsome, an Orlando lawyer representing people who have sued Takata. "It's kind of like the ticking time bomb, and everyone's betting the bomb won't go off for six years."

According to NHTSA, the vehicles don't become vulnerable to exploding airbags without long-term exposure to high humidity. In the short-term, the agency says, they are safe to drive - and much safer than the older models. NHTSA said it needs to prioritize replacing the oldest inflators in high-humidity areas. NHTSA has taken control of the massive recall from individual automakers, using its legal authority to do so for the first time. "What's troubling here is that consumers are buying new cars not realizing they're going to be recalled," U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and the report's author, said in a statement. "These cars shouldn't be sold until they're fixed." NHTSA did not directly respond to Nelson, but said it agrees more should be done to speed up recall completions. There is no required public disclosure by automakers or car dealers that vehicles include parts that will need to be recalled. Takata inflators do not pose unreasonable risk when installed in a new vehicle or for several years afterward, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind said last month. That gives automakers the legal footing to continue to sell the vehicles. Takata spokesman Jared Levy said in a statement the company is "workingaggressively" and has produced more than 15 million replacement kits. Ford Motor announced Wednesday it is expanding its Takata air bag recalls by nearly 1.9 million vehicles - and more recalls are expected Thursday.

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Trump has been a frequent critic of immigrants  especially those who come to the country without documentation. Erecting a wall along the Mexican border is a centerpiece of his immigration policy. He also has, shall we say, a challenging history with regard to women. The billionaire's views have made him unpopular in many corners of Silicon Valley, where one study found that immigrants have been behind more than half of the current crop of U.S.-based startups valued at $1 billion or more.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took the unusual step of knocking Trump's immigration policies from the stage of the F8 developer conference. Krzanich's support of Trump could be seen as detracting from Intel's position at the forefront of the movement for increasing diversity in the tech industry. Last year, the company committed $300 million to boost diversity in tech using a range of techniques including efforts to increase mentorship within its company as well as to get more girls and people of color interested in tech at a younger age.


Investors can't rely on conventional wisdom these days and should do their own work, Evercore's founder and executive chairman, Roger Altman, said Wednesday.



"The ability to rely on what I'll call the conventional wisdom or conventional forecasts has fallen to unprecedentedly low levels," Altman said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell."

"Do your own work because your ability to rely on third-party forecasts, however well-intentioned the people are doing them, however smart, has diminished."

There are a number of reasons why broad forecasting has been more often wrong that right, he said, including the financialization of all markets.
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk may think Apple could be a serious competitor when it introduces a car, but at least one analyst doesn't think that's necessarily the right move for the tech giant.



"Clearly they have the pockets. Clearly the opportunity is there. My big worry is do they actually have the experience to enter that market," Oppenheimer analyst Andrew Uerkwitz said in an interview with CNBC's "Power Lunch" on Thursday.

Uerkwitz, who currently has a "hold" rating on Apple , said he would view the company's entrance into the auto industry "very negatively."

Musk's comments on Apple came during Wednesday's Code Conference in Rancho Palo Verdes, California.

"I think they'll probably make a good car and probably be successful. The car industry is very big  it's not as though there's one company to the exclusion of others," said Musk, who believes Apple could have its vehicle out by 2020.

Uerkwitz agrees the market is big enough for multiple competitors and thinks a company like Apple would validate what Tesla has been doing  applying a technology mindset to an industrial sector.

However, while getting even just 1 percent penetration in the overall auto market would bring a lot of revenue, there's more to it than that, he said.

"There's supply chain issues, I think you've got to get scale and so forth. It's very capital intensive. I wouldn't expect a positive [return on investment] for many, many years."
In the midst of the media's never-ending horse race coverage of the Democratic Primary, delivered by pundits who rarely leave the comfy confines of cable news green rooms to actually speak with the voters they pontificate about, a long-brewing simmer of struggle erupted.

It started with Democratic voters in 2008; so disheartened and angered by eight years of war, recklessness, and social-Darwinism-masked-as-economic-policy, they delivered Barack Obama the White House on the belief he'd usher in a new era of capital Progressivism.



Disenchanted with Obama and 30 years of trickle-down economics and corporate America's purchase of Washington, D.C., Occupy Wall Street spread in the heart of the corruption only to ultimately fizzle.



And then there was Bernie Sanders.
Traders in the 10-year bond options pit at the Chicago Board of Trade signal orders.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.802 percent, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond also dipped to 2.576 percent. Two-year yields dropped to 0.883 percent.

U.S. government debt prices rose on Thursday as investors digested the release of ADP payroll data and a report saying OPEC decided to keep its production policy unchanged.

Job growth continued to cool in May, with private companies adding 173,000 new positions, according to a report Thursday from ADP and Moody's Analytics.

The closely watched private payrolls count was right around Wall Street expectations, with economists surveyed by Reuters anticipating growth of 175,000. The number also was a bit higher than April, which posted an upwardly revised 166,000 new jobs. The ADP/Moody's count has averaged 188,000 in 2016.

On the oil front, OPEC refrained from changing its oil output policy on Thursday, meaning the organization failed to agree on a new production ceiling, an OPEC delegate told Reuters.



Crude prices fell soon after the report, but reversed course, with Brent last trading 1 percent higher at $50.19 a barrel and WTI crude up 0.6 percent at $49.28.

Meanwhile, the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged, as expected. The bank added that it will start buying corporate bonds on June 8.

Many of the March measures, like the corporate debt buys and the cheap loans, called targeted longer-term refinancing operations, have yet to be implemented however, suggesting that the ECB will want to wait, perhaps until the autumn, to gauge how its past measures are taking effect.

ECB President Mario Draghi said in a news conference that inflation rates are likely to remain very low or negative in coming months, Dow Jones reported. He added that inflation should pick up in the second half of 2016.

The ECB raised its 2016 inflation forecast to 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent seen in March and kept its longer-term forecasts steady, with expectations of a 1.6 percent inflation rate in 2018, still short of its target of almost 2 percent.

CNBC's Jeff Cox and Reuters contributed to this report.
Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday that if Britain were not already a member of the European Union, he would apply to join today on the country's present terms, but he would never adopt the euro currency.

"I would never want us to join the euro...(but) if we were offered British terms, what we have now, with my renegotiation, the special status we have now, I would join (the EU)," Cameron said, answering questions from the public at a Sky News event.
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China's quest for internet domination has taken an unusual detour: Exotic domain names. Chinese entities have hovered up half of all domain names with new popular generic top-level domains (gTLD) extensions such as .online, .luxury and .xyz, according to Christian Voss, chief marketing officer at domain trading marketplace Sedo. Websites ending with popular gTLDs, such as .com, have historically seen strong demand. For global businesses, not having a .com extension reflected poorly on their brand image, Voss said. But in recent years, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) shook things up by approving many new extensions. ICANN estimated more than 1,300 new extensions could become available in the next few years.

While these extensions are being introduced gradually, rights to some of the popular ones have already fetched large sums of money from companies that sell domain names to the public, also known as registrars. For example, the rights to offer the .shop extension - mostly to e-commerce players around the world - was snapped up by GMO Registry in Japan for about $42 million. Data collected by Sedo showed that currently 54 percent of all domain names with the new gTLD extensions are owned by the Chinese. As a result of the technology boom in China, due in part from the runaway success of the likes of Alibaba and Tencent , the number of domains purchased from within China rose 400 percent between 2013 and 2015. "China is a market for everybody now," Voss told CNBC at the sidelines of RISE 2016, a technology conference in Hong Kong, adding websites such as 8888.com, for example, was suddenly becoming more valuable. The number 8 is considered to be lucky in Chinese culture.


If Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton were to lose next week's California primary by a wide margin, there could be room for Vice President Joe Biden to make a bid for the nomination, said Walter Isaacson, former CNN chief and TIME magazine editor.

Under that scenario, Biden would have a 20 percent chance, Isaacson told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday, saying he also could see as an outside possibility 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who succeeded Clinton as President Barack Obama's secretary of state.

Biden, after much consideration, decided in October not to run for the White House again. The vice president, along with Clinton, ran for the nomination in 2008. They both lost out to Obama, who later chose Biden as his running mate.

"If Hillary Clinton loses California in a serious way, it shows she's not connecting with the tenor of the times, especially people's frustration and anger," said Isaacson.

Clinton holds a 6-point lead in California over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, her remaining challenger, according to the RealClear Politics polling average.
Many investors are also already discounting Clinton as a one-term president, potentially with good reason. Her victory would ensure 12 years straight of Democratic rule and  if current polling holds  she would start her tenure with a high unfavorable rating, which is historically unprecedented and could very well deprive her of the traditional honeymoon phase of any early presidency. But just because investors don't expect a second term for Clinton doesn't mean she shares their outlook. Like every first-term president, her overriding objective upon entering office will be to become a two-term president.

This won't be easy. After a bruising primary with Bernie Sanders, Clinton will need to prove herself to her party's progressive wing. The last thing she will want to face during her re-election campaign in four years is another primary challenger attempting to outflank her to the left. To this end, she will need to avoid moving to the right of President Obama, particularly on domestic issues. In many cases, she even will need to move left of Obama to demonstrate her progressive bona fides.

This has several important consequences for investors. First, Clinton will not give a nod-and-wink to Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement in the lame duck session of Congress immediately after the election, as many on Wall Street hope she will. Instead, she will continue to embrace the protectionist approach to trade that has worked so well for Sanders and Trump with disaffected, blue-collar voters.


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In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he expects Apple to have a car available to the public by 2020  and there's only one company whose use of artificial intelligence potentially worries him. Musk's comments came during the Code Conference in Rancho Palo Verdes, California.

Even though he thinks Apple started late on building a car, "Ithink they'll make a good car, and will be successful," he said. In contrast, Google , a pioneer in developing autonomous vehicles, worries him less as a competitive threat. "Google's done a great job, but they're not a car company," he said.



Musk also elucidated comments he's made in the past about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. "Not all AI futures are benign," he said. In particular, the main danger is that highly evolved technology is exclusively used by a small handful of people to the detriment of humanity as a whole.

When asked if any company today runs the risk of using AI in this manner, Musk paused. "I won't name names but there's only one." There's a lot more coverage of the Code Conference at Recode.
Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos don't agree on everything, but they both believe in making space travel easier.

"Jeff and I both believe the future is to be a spacefaring civilization," Musk said at the Code Conference Wednesday night, a day after Bezos took the stage in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has built a multi-billion dollar company already sending private aircraft to space on contracts with NASA. Lately, the company has made headlines for landing rockets on a floating drone barge.

Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com , also has an aerospace company called Blue Origin. He said Tuesday at Code that we need to start building parts of the economy in space to "save Earth."
OPEC, which failed this week to reach an accord to stabilize oil prices, is a dysfunctional organization that has outlived its usefulness, analysts declared this week.

In its meeting Thursday in Vienna, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to agree on a new production ceiling and therefore did not change its oil output policy. The cartel has been pumping oil at record levels despite the drop in global crude prices that began in 2014.



"OPEC is finished. OPEC is over," Oppenheimer senior energy analyst Fadel Gheit said Thursday in an interview with CNBC's "Power Lunch."



"Shale production has completely changed the way we look at energy and it's not going to change. The fact of the matter is that OPEC and Saudi Arabia are no longer the swing producers they were only two years ago."

The OPEC meeting was the second high-profile policy failure in nearly as many months. In April, a summit in Doha between some of the largest oil producing economies also failed to reach a deal on setting output. The news reverberated through world markets, and left oil watchers looking for clarity provided by the OPEC meetingwhich also ultimately disappointed.

The meeting's outcome "reinforces the fact that control of the market has been handed to the market itself," said Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS and a top energy expert.

Although prices have rallied in recent months, they remain well below the $100 level crude had enjoyed before the rout.

Now, "the market will dictate where oil prices will be," said Gheit. He thinks the "new normal" for crude will be $60-$65 per barrel. He predicts that will happen in the next six to 12 months.

Those who think it will get to $80, $90 or $100 are barrel are "delusional," he added.
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OPEC refrained from changing its oil output policy on Thursday, meaning the organization failed to agree on a new production ceiling, an OPEC delegate told Reuters. Two delegates also said Nigerian candidate Mohammed Barkindo was chosen to be OPEC's new secretary-general. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last decided to change output in December 2008, and for oil-price hawks such as Iran, fears are growing that the 56-year-old OPEC is losing its role as a production-setting cartel and turning into a talking shop. WTI futures sank on the news with oil trading at $48 a barrel, after starting the session around $49.0 a barrel. Speaking after the meeting, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, Khalid Al-Falih told CNBC that the spirit of the meeting was very cooperative and collaborative. "We are extremely happy, I think the market is in good shape. The market is balancing, trends are all good in terms of supply and demand. prices have recovered somewhat and I believe that they will continue to recover," he said. Meanwhile, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told CNBC that OPEC members did not discuss a production freeze. "It seems that the members believe that it should manage the market without discussing about the freeze. Because a freeze, I think is a matter of history," he said.

OPEC showdown

A worker checks the valve of an oil pipe at Nahr Bin Umar oil field, north of Basra, Iraq. Essam Al-Sudani | Reuters

Investors were closely eyeing the meeting in Vienna with mounting tensions between the 13 members of the producer group  and the differing economic needs of each country. OPEC ministers arriving at the organization's headquarters in the Austrian capital on Thursday appeared to be at odds over what the bloc's next move should be. While some such as Kuwait and Qatar appeared to lean towards the Saudi Arabian way of thinking - agreeing on the need for an output ceiling - others such as Venezuela and Algeria seemed to agree with Iran, which said an output ceiling must be accompanied by a country-specific quota system. Other oil ministers, such as Nigeria's, called for open-minded discussion and unity - something that has been in short supply at previous meetings. OPEC was not expected to cut or freeze oil production levels at the meeting  ideas that failed to find unanimous support at its last meeting in Doha in April. Hopes of a deal were dashed in April after Iran  an OPEC member that is trying to revive its oil industry after years of economic sanctions  refused outright to consider a freeze. Abdalla Salem el-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC told CNBC as the meeting got underway on Thursday that for the first time in many months there was a "very positive" atmosphere among the cartel's members, however. He said he was pleased with the way the oil market was recovering - now close to $50 per barrel.

Once bitten, twice shy

The meeting comes amid tensions between OPEC members. Iran's brake on a Doha deal angered OPEC's de facto leader Saudi Arabia and further damaged relations between the Middle Eastern rivals but there was talk this week that Saudi Arabia could be trying to revive formal output targets, with Iran's oil minister rejecting the idea yet again. "An output ceiling has no benefit to us," Bijan Zanganeh told reporters in Vienna on Wednesday, reiterating Iran's call for individual country quotas. Within the OPEC group, poorer producers have also struggled to make wealthier Gulf members, who have been able to weather lower oil prices better, change course. Those differences over OPEC's strategy were evident on Thursday. United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui told CNBC on Thursday that his country was ready to discuss a production cap "provided that everyone is participating."

"All of those who went to Doha were interested in principle and whether we achieve it or not is subject for discussion when we meet in the closed session." Aside from Iran's refusal to budge over output, tensions between OPEC members have been growing steadily since November 2014. Then, OPEC decided to keep on pumping oil at record levels despite a drop in global oil prices. OPEC had an official production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day but the target was effectively abandoned in December, allowing members to pump freely and adding to a global glut in oil.
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Spending on cancer medicines totaled $107 billion worldwide in 2015 and is projected to exceed $150 billion by 2020, reflecting adoption of newer, pricier therapies, according to a report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Price hikes on older medicines as well as increasing numbers of patients receiving treatment, and for longer durations, are also driving up spending, IMS reported Thursday. The total increase for 2015 was 11.5 percent from the previous year, on a constant dollar basis.

The price of drugs has dominated national conversation amid the U.S. presidential election and weighed on pharmaceutical stocks. It's been a major theme at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting the past several years, as researchers discuss what they call a newer side effect of many cancer medicines: financial toxicity. This year's conference kicks off Friday in Chicago.

"Not surprisingly, payers are seeking assurance of the value that results from their expenditure on these drugs," the IMS report's authors, Murray Aitken and Michael Kleinrock, wrote in their summary. "This tension can be expected to intensify over the next five years as a strong pipeline of clinically distinctive therapies reaches a growing number of patients around the world."





A patient receives an injection of chemotherapy during a treatment Michael G. Seamans | Portland Press Herald | Getty Images

Drugmakers are increasingly providing concessions, such as discounts and rebates, that limit how much they recognize of drug price increases. The report found that while invoice price growth in the U.S. totaled 6.4 percent last year, net price growth was just 4.8 percent. They're also providing more assistance to patients directly, in the form of coupons and other programs. Some type of this assistance was used for more than a quarter of retail prescriptions for cancer drugs filled by patients covered by commercial insurance in the U.S. last year, up from 5 percent in 2011. The average amount of assistance: $750 per prescription.





That number reflects the large out-of-pocket costs that fall to cancer patients in the U.S.: an average of $7,000 for the year for patients taking drugs by injection or infusion with commercial insurance, or $3,000 for patients taking oral medicines. Access to new medicines is a problem worldwide, the report found. Forty-nine new cancer drugs were introduced between 2010 and 2014, but only six countries had access to more than half of them. Access was worst in Vietnam, with just one of the 49 available, and South Africa, with just five. It was best in the U.S., with 41 available, and Germany, with 38.

The U.S. is seeing shortened regulatory timelines for new medicines. The median time from patent filing to approval for cancer drugs that entered the market last year was 9.5 years, down from 10.25 years in 2013, the report found. IMS suggested programs like the Food and Drug Administration's Breakthrough Therapy Designation, aimed to speed important drugs to market, are likely spurring the change.




U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Thursday as Wall Street amid the release of ADP payroll data, OPEC's meeting in Vienna, as well as comments from European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi.

Draghi said inflation rates are likely to remain very low or negative in coming months, Dow Jones reported. He added that inflation should pick up in the second half of 2016.



The ECB raised its 2016 inflation forecast to 0.2 percent from 0.1 percent seen in March and kept its longer-term forecasts steady, with expectations of a 1.6 percent inflation rate in 2018, still short of its target of almost 2 percent, Reuters said.

The U.S. dollar index held lower after briefly attempting gains. The euro was last near $1.12 and the yen near 108.8 yen against the dollar.

U.S. crude oil futures held about 1 percent lower to trade near $48.50 a barrel as of 9:02 a.m. ET. OPEC agreed to no change in policy and no output ceiling, according to Reuters, citing a delegate.

The private sector ADP payroll report was 173,000 in May, a touch below Reuters expectations for 175,000 jobs. The April report was revised up to 166,000 from 156,000.

Treasury yields held lower, with the 2-year yield near 0.88 percent and the 10-year yield around 1.83 percent as of 8:40 a.m. ET.

The ADP report is not widely seen as a reliable indicator for the government's jobs report, expected Friday, but last month it reported just 156,000 jobs. Two days later, April nonfarm payrolls came in at just 160,000, 40,000 shy of expectations.



162,000 nonfarm payrolls are expected in the government report Friday.


Jack Welch said Thursday that if asked, he wouldn't serve as Donald Trump's Treasury secretary.

"That's the last thing I'm going to be," the longtime Republican and former GE chief told CNBC's "Squawk Box," in reaction to Trump recently floating Welch's name as a possibility.



If the presumptive GOP nominee were to win the White House and offer Treasury, Welch said he would turn down a Cabinet position for the third time in his life. Welch said he was offered jobs by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Welch said he'll vote for Trump if he gets the Republican nomination.

"I don't know exactly what I get with the Republican candidate," he said. "[But] I know I got a better shot at jobs, less regulation [with Trump]. He talks about more security. He talks about stronger military. He put out a list of 11 Supreme Court candidates."
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The people of Switzerland will go to the polls this weekend to vote in a potentially historic referendum to provide everyone in the country with a no-strings-attached monthly payment of 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,524).

This is regardless of whether they're currently in employment or not. CNBC gives you the full lowdown on why the vote is so important.

The big idea

The basic premise of the referendum is to amend the country's constitution so that the Swiss Confederation would "provide an unconditional basic income."

The proposed figure for the unconditional basic income is expected to be around 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,524) per month. If the Swiss people vote in favor, the federal government says it would pay every Swiss resident this amount, "regardless of their income and assets." The majority of Swiss people currently enjoy a high standard of living. According to the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development's Better Life Index, 80 percent of people between 15 and 64 are employed, above the OECD average of 66 percent, while life expectancy is a healthy 83 years old. Average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita is $35,952 per year, the OECD says.

Switzerland has a system whereby referendums can be called if more than 100,000 eligible voters sign a petition calling for change.

"Under the Swiss constitution, a group of citizens who collect the required number of signatures can put an issue to the vote  this is the so-called 'people's initiative'," Paolo Dardanelli, senior lecturer in comparative politics and acting director of the Center for Federal Studies at the University of Kent, told CNBC via email. Dardanelli went on to explain that this weekend's vote had sprung from "the growing debate on rising inequality in society and polarization between rich and poor." While the electorate has a tendency to be conservative when it comes to economic matters, inequality caused concern "in a society in which cohesion and consensus are highly valued," he added. The popular initiative regarding unconditional basic income was proposed in October 2013.

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

Basic Income Switzerland (BIS), a campaign group set up specifically to support the initiative, says basic income should "be considered as one of the human rights." Among other things, BIS states that wages in the private sector would become "liberated from securing the livelihood of the employee," meaning that while salaries may be high or low, people's livelihoods would become "inviolable" as a result of them receiving a basic income as a right. The economic security of a basic income would offer people choice in the jobs they apply for, the group adds. Their rights as workers would also be strengthened, because "the threat of taking away a person's livelihood can no longer be used as a means to force employees to work under bad conditions," it noted. Supporters of the initiative have been running a visual and vocal campaign. In May, they broke the world record for the largest poster. Measuring more than 8,115 meters squared, the poster was displayed in Geneva and bore the question "What would you do if your income were taken care of?," in large, golden letters.

Better to be jobless?

Switzerland's Federal Council and Parliament oppose the initiative, however, stating that an unconditional basic income would hit both the economy and the Swiss social security system by making it more attractive to stay out of work.

"This would exacerbate the existing labor and skills shortage in Switzerland," the government states on its website. "Furthermore, considerable cutbacks or tax rises would be necessary to finance this basic income, which could not replace today's social security system entirely," it adds. For Vincenzo Scarpetta, policy analyst at Open Europe, the desire for a basic income is not unique to Switzerland. "It's true that the specific issue of a basic income has come up in several European countries, in my own, in Italy, because there are certain parties  the Five Star Movement, or Podemos in Spain  that were actually initially at least campaigning on the need to guarantee basic income to everyone," he told CNBC earlier this week. "It's interesting that this kind of referendum is coming from Switzerland and not, for example, from the French Socialist Party," Scarpetta added. The vote has surprised many who traditionally see Switzerland as a conservative nation, and such a policy seemingly jars with the right-wing populist political party that currently holds a large slice of power within the government.

The big question
ONEIDA  Oneida Healthcare and Cooperstownbased Bassett Healthcare Network are pursuing a partnership agreement to coordinate health-care services and seek cost reductions.

The pact will emphasize population health management and expanded access to primary care, according to a joint news release from the health-care organizations issued June 1.

The partnership agreement would allow Oneida Healthcare to remain an independent organization governed by its current board.

Oneida Healthcare could revisit the deal in two to three years and decide if it wants to continue, revise the arrangement to reflect changes in the health-care environment, or terminate the partnership, according to the release.

The organizations contend that their partnership would exchange best practices that reduce costs and provide better outcomes for patients.

The collaboration would also allow Oneida Healthcare to participate in the Bassett accountable-care organization (ACO), also known as Bassett Accountable Care Partners, LLC, a Medicare shared-savings arrangement.

Accountable-care organizations are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health-care providers, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients, according to the website of the Baltimore, Marylandbased Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

When an ACO succeeds both in delivering high-quality care and spending health care dollars more wisely, it will share in the savings it achieves for the Medicare program, the CMS website says.

Oneida Healthcare can also participate in Bassetts accountable care and quality arrangement with Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, along with Bassett-branded insurance options offered through Excellus on NY State of Health, the states health-insurance marketplace.

Bassett earlier this year opened a new primary-care center in Oneida that provides preventive primary care, along with laboratory, X-ray, and orthopedic services.

Since opening the facility, Bassett said it has been working to partner with an area health-care provider in support of its population-health strategies.

Leader comments

Oneida Healthcares board of trustees has been considering the benefits of formalizing a partnership with a larger health system for the past three years, Gene Morreale, president and CEO of Oneida Healthcare, said in the joint release.

The organization chose Bassett, citing its depth of experience in primary-care delivery and its early success in population-health management and accountable care.

The partnership Oneida Healthcare and Bassett are embarking on will help both systems address the needs of patients in the changing health-care environment, while also responding to new reimbursement models that focus on managing the populations health more cost-effectively and reducing the fragmentation in patient care, said Morreale.

More than ever, the delivery of health care requires a network of coordinated services, built upon a strong foundation of primary and preventive care, Dr. Vance Brown, president and CEO of Bassett Healthcare Network, said.

Our collective goal is to improve the populations quality of life through good preventive care, care coordination and a strong emphasis on care management and the management of chronic diseases, he said.

About the organizations

Oneida Healthcare serves 24 communities in Madison County and western Oneida County with a population of about 80,000, according to the release.

Operated by Oneida Health Systems, Inc., the organization includes a 101-bed acute-care hospital, a 160-bed extended-care and short-term rehab facility, four primary-care offices, two womens health offices, a maternal-health clinic, four outreach laboratory-draw stations, a physical-therapy center, two imaging centers, a sleep lab, and an after-hours care center.

Bassett Healthcare Network includes six hospitals, more than two dozen community-based health centers, 20 school-based health centers, and two skilled-nursing facilities. It covers a 5,600-square-mile region in upstate New York.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Howard Zemsky, president and CEO of Empire State Development, announces job expansions at Syracusebased companies Terakeet and TCG/Ascension. Terakeet plans to create 200 jobs and TCG/Ascension will add 42 positions to expand office and warehouse operations. Zemsky spoke at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown, joining Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his visit to the former Hotel Syracuse. (Eric Reinhardt / BJNN)

SYRACUSE, N.Y.  Two Syracusebased companies plan to create 242 jobs, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced during a stop in the city today.

Terakeet, a software development, marketing and brand-strategy company, is investing $2.4 million, creating about 200 jobs, and retaining 150 existing positions.

And, TCG/Ascension Gaming, an online-gaming marketplace, will invest $255,000 to expand its office and warehousing operations, creating 42 new jobs, and retaining 69 existing positions.

TCG is known online as TCGplayer.com, which is a trademark of the Syracusebased Ascension Gaming Network, according to the website.

Both companies are receiving financial help from New York State for their expansions.

Funding from the URI as well as our Excelsior job program tax credits are enabling and facilitating these investments, Howard Zemsky, president and CEO of Empire State Development, said at the jobs announcement during a visit to the Marriott Syracuse Downtown (the former Hotel Syracuse) on Thursday.

URI is short for Upstate Revitalization Initiative, Cuomos 2015 Upstate economic-development contest. The Central New York regional economic-development council (REDC) captured one of the $500 million grand prizes in that contest back in December.

Terakeet jobs

Terakeet will add 200 jobs at its downtown Syracuse headquarters. These new positions focus on digital marketing, account management, sales, data analysis, web analytics, and software engineering, Cuomos office said.

The firm will use $600,000 from the URI contest funding, $4.3 million in performance-based Excelsior jobs program tax credits through Empire State Development, and $2.4 million in private investment, according to a news release from Cuomos office.

We are extremely lucky to have the support of New York State as we embark on our next wave of growth. We are proud to be adding jobs in Syracuse, our home town, and are comfortable that these incentives require us to meet aggressive objectives before we benefit from them, Mac Cummings, CEO of Terakeet, said in the release.

TCG expansion

TCG/Ascension Gaming operates an online marketplace for buyers and sellers of collectible trading cards and has invested about $255,000 to expand and equip its office and warehousing operations in downtown Syracuse.

The move supports the companys efforts to enter the international marketplace, particularly Canada, England, and Australia.

As a result of this expansion, the company is adding 42 new jobs including web developers, U/I developers, customer-service representatives, and fulfillments specialists.

TCG/Ascension is using $50,000 in funding through the URI contest funding and $300,000 in performance-based Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits.

Additionally, the Global NY initiative is supporting the companys international expansion.

Cuomo established Global NY to offer one stop shopping to both foreign businesses looking to invest in New York and to local businesses who want to export globally.

This investment by the governor and the Central New York REDC has made it possible for TCGplayer.com to develop new technologies, create high-paying jobs and attract new talent to the region. Im excited to say that weve added the pledged 42 employees in only six months, Chedy Hampson, a founder and CEO of TCGplayer.com, said in the release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
A gold decadrachm of Syracuse, Sicily, was issued hastily by two joint rulers in ancient Greece as Catharginians besieged the town. With no time for new dies, they erased a previous ruler's name from old dies to issue the new coinage.

The intentional removal of a rulers name from a coin die almost always reflects a change in political circumstances.

A highlight in Spinks June 21 auction of the Squires Collection of Ancient Greek Coinage documents the turbulent history of Syracusan politics.

The very rare gold 60-litrae or decadrachm coin of Syracuse is expected to realize between $4,000 and $5,000 in the auction in London where the 67-lot collection from across ancient Greek history will be offered.

During the violent power struggles and turbulence in Sicily following Maenons assassination of Agathokles, the people of Syracuse appointed Hiketas their general and protector. For nine years he ruled as tyrant, but in 278 B.C. at the River Terias, he suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians.

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Thoinon (also spelled Thoenon), one of his officers, expelled the now weakened Hiketas, ushering in conflict with another would-be ruler named Sosistratos.

The tyrant Sosistratos, of Akragas, attacked Thoinon, and the city teetered on civil war, according to Spinks auction catalog.

Under seige from the Carthaginians, the two Greek competitors soon agreed to a truce, and sought assistance from Pyrrhos in fighting the Carthaginians. After landing his army in Sicily, Pyrrhos lifted the siege. However, to prevent further strife in Syracuse, he had Thoinon executed and forced Sosistratos to flee.

While awaiting the arrival of Pyrrhos, Thoinon and Sosistratos were still in need of coinage and likely had no time to produce new coin dies. Instead, they continued to use earlier dies, but only after erasing the name of Hiketas (appearing as E?I IKETA) from the reverse dies' exergue.

The example in the Spink auction struck from an altered die weighs 4.22 grams, slightly less than a Jefferson 5-cent coin.

The coin shows a grainwreathed head of Kore-Persephone facing left, wearing a pendant earring and pearl necklace. The reverse features Nike in a biga (two-horse chariot) galloping right.

The example in the auction exhibits some evidence of reverse die rust but is in Good Very Fine condition, according to the firm.

It previously sold at auction during Classical Numismatic Groups June 24, 1998, sale, when it realized $1,430 including the 10 percent buyers fee.

For more information about the Spink auction, visit the firms website.
Types of obituaries

The Missourian publishes two types of obituaries  family obituaries and life stories.

A family obituary is the version submitted by a funeral home or family. Please see the submission form for details on cost and deadlines. Family obituaries

A life story is a closer look at a person's life and involves a reporter contacting family and friends. Life stories are based on newsworthiness and consent of the family. Life stories.
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
How a community saved the Wooldridge Baptist Church from wildfire

The wildfire in Wooldridge burned about two dozen buildings. Remarkably, no one died, and the church remains.
This five-bedroom house at 4989 Newhaven in East Memphis will be among 22 new houses in the Mid-South Parade of Homes June 10-26. (By Thomas Bailey/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

Eight years after the Great Recession mothballed it, the Mid-South Parade of Homes returns this month.

The West Tennessee Home Builders Association will revive the tradition June 10-26 by showcasing 22 new, model homes spread across the Memphis area.

The times and dates are available at midsouthparade.com.

The event is designed to display the newest trends in home design, technology, products and decoration.

Mid-South residents have a lot to look forward to at this premier event, said Don Glays, association executive director, in a statement released by the organization. With 22 homes to tour, there is something for every taste, every lifestyle and every budget."

Houses included in the tour range from starter homes to estate homes with list prices from $188,000 to $765,000.

The builders include Magnolia Homes, Chamberlain & McCreery, Grant & Co., Dave Moore Companies, Kemmons Wilson Co., Oaklawn Homes, LH Homes, White Oak Construction, Creekside Homes, D & D Custom Homes, Goodwin Homes and Napier Homes.

Tickets to view the homes are free and available at Siano Appliance Distributors and Regions Bank locations. Tickets also will be used in drawings for prizes.
James Gray

By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

Bus passenger James Gray was rushed to Regional Medical Center after a security guard assaulted him.

Gray was unconscious when he arrived at the hospital May 6, 2014, according to court documents. He entered a coma and died months later in August at age 69.

On Thursday, a hearing on 51-year-old Adicus Mitchell's request for a suspended sentence for assaulting Gray was delayed until July 14, when Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee said the case will be brought to a conclusion.

Attorney Dewun Settle, who represents Mitchell, declined to comment on the case in advance of the sentencing.

Mitchell was working for Pro-Tech Security, which the Memphis Area Transit Authority contracted for security at the William Hudson Transit Center where Gray was assaulted. Ambassador Worldwide Protection Agency guards later took over at the terminal located on North Main.

On the day of the assault, a witness, Shretha Woodley, said she heard the security guard tell Gray to "get off the bus," and "when the victim did not get off the bus in a timely manner, (the guard) pushed (Gray) in the chest real hard off the bus causing him to fall on the concrete face first," according to an affidavit.

Attorneys for Gray's estate said in a lawsuit that Gray had a disagreement about the bus fare, and the bus driver called for security.

Mitchell "boarded the bus and immediately began to abusively confront Mr. Gray without provocation," wrote attorneys Henry E. Reaves, III and Donnie Allen Snow. "The unprovoked confrontation escalated when (Mitchell) began yelling at Mr. Gray ... After a few minutes, (Mitchell) escalated the unprovoked confrontation further by violently pushing Mr. Gray through the door of the bus ..."

Gray suffered "catastrophic injuries," including a traumatic brain injury and broken bones, the attorneys wrote.

Lawyers for Mitchell and the security company in court records denied that account of events.

Mitchell responded to a request from the driver about an "unruly" passenger," who was apparently intoxicated, wrote attorney William S. Walton for Pro-Tech.

Gray "was disruptive and did not comply with the request of the security officer to leave the bus," Walton wrote.

Gray had struggled with alcohol abuse and mental illness that resulted in outbursts, friends told the Commercial Appeal after his death. Peter Gathje, a founder of Manna House, which provides hospitality to the homeless at 1268 Jefferson, said Gray was a guest there for years. Gray went by Semaj, or James spelled backwards.

Susan Yates, 60, a volunteer at Manna House, described Gray as an opinionated man who was argumentative when he was not taking medication.

"When he had a community that cared for him, he was a gentle person," she said Thursday.

On Thursday morning at Manna House, 53-year-old Edward Oliver asked about the guard's charge.

"What did he get, first-degree murder?" he asked.

Mitchell pleaded guilty in March to aggravated assault involving the serious injury of Gray.

The felony carries a sentence of three to six years in prison with release eligibility after serving 30 percent of the time. He is also eligible for probation or diversion.

A charge of aggravated assault resulting in Gray's death was dismissed. If convicted of that charge, Mitchell would not have been eligible for diversion. That charge would have carried a sentence of three to six years in prison at 75 percent and a possibility of earning a 15 percent reduction through credits, programs and behavior.

"That's a slap on the wrist isn't it?" Oliver said.

Nathaniel Anderson, 60, a guest at Manna House, said the guard exacerbated the situation with Gray by putting his hands on him, and that people who work with the public should show restraint.

"He shouldn't have done it," Anderson said.

Greg Houston, 59, a military veteran who knew Gray, said Gray was outspoken and proud.

"He spoke out about injustice," Houston said. "How folks are being treated and how things could be better for the homeless community. A lot of people did not like him because he spoke the truth."

After the assault, Houston heard about a security guard pushing a homeless man.

When he found out the victim was Gray, he said "I knew why."

"Because he was speaking back."
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By Greg Stanley of the Naples Daily News

Georgia Hiller has filed her intent to resign from the Collier County commission, freeing her up to run for county clerk. The resignation is irrevocable. Whether or not Hiller wins the clerk seat, her last day on the commission will be November 21.

The move puts Hiller's District 2 seat in play for the August primaries and the November general election. Candidates have until June 24 to qualify to be on the ballot to fill the remainder of Hiller's term, which expires in 2018.

Hiller has been expected to submit her resignation for several months, since announcing her plans to run for clerk. Under state law, elected officials are required to resign to seek another post.

The county commission, Collier's most powerful governing body, is essentially up for grabs this election season. Hiller is one of three sitting commissioners who will leave the board in November, along with Tom Henning and Tim Nance. Four of the five seats are now up for grabs, with incumbent Donna Fiala facing re-election.
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By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  Facing a re-election battle against a well-financed opponent, U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee's Fourth District significantly ramped up his spending on taxpayer-funded communications with constituents during the first three months of 2016, newly released records show.

DesJarlais' congressional office spent nearly $67,000 reaching out to constituents through online ads, surveys and other mass communications, according to House expenditure reports made public last week.

DesJarlais serves a winding district stretching from some of Nashville's southeastern suburbs south to the Alabama line before wrapping outside Chattanooga and twisting through cities like Dayton and Cleveland.

The three-term congressman spent more on such materials than any other House Republican and all but two House Democrats. The amount also was more than quadruple what the other eight Tennesseans in the House spent combined.

The only House members who outspent DesJarlais were Pedro Pierluisi, a Democrat representing Puerto Rico, and Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat who lost his re-election battle in April and is on trial for federal corruption charges. Pierluisi spent $164,000 and Fattah spent $129,000.

DesJarlais' office says the jump in his spending wasn't motivated by political considerations, but by a need to hear what his constituents are thinking.

"The congressman spends a lot of money communicating with his constituents  that's something we will never apologize for," said DesJarlais' spokesman, Robert Jameson. "We have a large district, and it's hard to be everywhere, so he relies on communications with constituents to take the pulse of the district on key issues."

But a spokesman for DesJarlais' most serious Republican challenger, Murfreesboro attorney Grant Starrett, accused the congressman of using taxpayer dollars to boost his campaign.

"Scott DesJarlais is clearly spending Tennesseans' hard-earned tax dollars to fund his re-election campaign, plain and simple," Starrett spokesman Tommy Schultz said. "No other Tennessee member, Republican or Democrat, is spending taxpayer dollars like DesJarlais is."

DesJarlais, whose past two re-election campaigns have been complicated by details of his personal life, is lagging far behind Starrett in campaign cash as the Aug. 4 primary approaches. DesJarlais' campaign had just $346,000 in the bank at the end of March while Starrett had $909,000, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission records.

DesJarlais' aides insist the congressman isn't using taxpayer money to help his campaign, which would be illegal. All his mass mailings and communications were approved by a bipartisan commission that vets such materials in advance, Jameson said.

DesJarlais' congressional office budgets roughly the same amount for constituent communications every year, regardless of whether there's an election, said the congressman's chief of staff, Richard Vaughn.

What's different in an election year, Vaughn said, is the office spends much of the money early in the year because of federal restrictions on when the funds can be used and because of where Tennessee's primary falls on the calendar.

Federal law bars members of Congress from sending out most mass communications to constituents at least 90 days before any election in which the member's name will appear on the ballot.

Because Tennessee's primary is in August, the blackout period begins in May. By the time the primary is over, the blackout period for the general election is already in effect.

That means DesJarlais is barred for roughly six months from sending out most mass mailings or communications to constituents. To compensate, the congressman spends a good portion of his constituent-communications budget in the first half of an election year, Vaughn said.

In the first quarter of 2015, which was not an election year, DesJarlais spent just $5,600 on mass communications with constituents, House records show. In the first three months of 2013, also a non-election year, the congressman spent just $7,400.

But in 2014, when DesJarlais faced probably his most serious election challenge, the congressman's office spent $10,200 on mass communications in the first quarter and $18,300 in the second quarter. It also spent $25,000 in the third quarter, which would have fallen within the blackout period.

Jameson said the third-quarter spending was for communications about the congressional art competition, internships and service academy nominations  none of which promote the congressman and which are allowed during the blackout.

Jameson also noted that the congressman's office has returned tens of thousands of unused tax dollars to the federal Treasury every year DesJarlais has been in office. As of last year, the amount returned totaled more than $717,000.

"Yes, we spend a lot of money on communications," Jameson said, "but we balance that by cutting in other areas, so we are continuing to give money back to the Treasury."
Steve Jones/The Commercial Appeal files Insituform workers recondition a 90-inch sewer pipe on June 1, 1992, at the T.E. Maxson South Treatment Plant. The $414,000 restoration job took less than two weeks and was needed because hydrogen sulfide gas from sewage had eaten away at the 12-year-old concrete pipeline.

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June 2

25 years ago: 1991

Memphis health insurers are at war with about 50 urologists over the cost of using a new kidney-stone-crushing device the doctors own, leaving some patients responsible for large bills despite their insurance. Groups that pay for health care say they are being charged exorbitant rates to use the machine, a mobile unit that began operating in early May at Eastwood Medical Center. The new machine is less expensive to operate than its predecessor, they contend, yet charges have gone up. The conflict between insurers and doctors involves a $2 million mobile lithotripter. It is the latest model of a machine that uses shock waves to break up kidney stones without surgery and usually without a hospital stay.

50 years ago: 1966

Commissioner Pete Sisson said yesterday the four-million-dollar Wellington Street widening project from E.H. Crump Boulevard to North Parkway should be open to traffic by Aug. 31. That portion of the route from Madison to North Parkway has been named Danny Thomas Boulevard. From Madison south to Crump Boulevard, it will continue to be known as Wellington.

75 years ago: 1941

LONDON  Britain has abandoned Crete to the Germans and their Italian helpers, ending 22 days of the war's most frightful slaughter. Some of the soldiers said: "Even the battlefields of Dunkirk and Greece were nothing compared to this."

100 years ago: 1916

WASHINGTON  The nomination of Louis D. Brandeis of Boston to the Supreme Court to succeed the late Joseph Lamar was confirmed by the Senate yesterday 47 to 22. The vote ended one of the most bitter contests ever waged against a presidential nominee. Mr. Brandeis will be the first Jew to occupy a seat on the court.

125 years ago: 1891

Longfellow's "Masque of Pandora" by the pupils of Mrs. Margaret Wilshire, of the Clara Conway Institute, was rendered in a most pleasing manner last night at the Lyceum Theater. Miss Minnie Rollyns Howard was a perfect Pandora.
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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

Tom Allen has run for Collierville mayor four times since 1995 and lost. On Thursday, Allen, now a Collierville alderman, said he plans to run again, challenging Mayor Stan Joyner, who has beaten Allen in two out of his four unsuccessful mayoral campaigns.

Allen said when it comes to politics, he's not a quitter. "See, I don't give up ... It's just like going into war. If you quit every time you lost one battle, we never would win a war."

Persistence has paid off before for Allen, an 80-year-old former fertilizer salesman. He finally beat an incumbent alderman in 2006 after losing three races for local office  twice as mayor and once as an alderman. He's since been re-elected twice to the alderman's seat but lost mayoral contests in 2008 and 2012.

"I think everybody should have competition," Allen said of his latest attempt. "I just don't like the way they're spending money up there. ... We got a lot of people here in this town that's on a fixed income and not able to pay more taxes. And you know and I know, in the next two or three years, they'll probably be wanting to raise taxes again." The town boosted property taxes last year to pay for a big new high school. Allen was one of the elected officials who voted yes. He said he's for the new school, but not future tax hikes.

Both Allen and Joyner have picked up a petitions to run, but neither has returned a petition with the required 25 signatures from eligible voters, according to a spreadsheet posted online by the Shelby County Election Commission. The candidates have until noon August 18 to turn in the paperwork.

For his part, Joyner, 66, said he's faced opposition every time he's run for mayor. "We're geared up to run a hard campaign just like we have in the past," the mayor said.

Joyner, an insurance agent, was first elected alderman in 1999 and ran for the open mayor's seat in 2008 against Allen and Brannon Howse. Joyner received about 58 percent of the vote compared to about 25 percent for Howse and about 17 percent for Allen.

As an incumbent in 2012, Joyner defeated Allen again, capturing 73 percent of the vote.

Allen expressed specific concern about two items in this year's proposed budget: a grant to the Collierville chamber to launch a new effort connecting the needs of businesses with training in schools, and a proposal to hire a new person to promote tourism. The two items make up a small fraction of the proposed $55.7 million budget. Joyner responded to the criticism. "We all as a board want to avoid any future tax increases. But the two small things he mentioned on that have been supported by the rest of the board."

The mayor said most people in the community tell him they're satisfied with the town's leadership. Joyner said he's campaigned on three areas of strategic focus: stewardship, safety and service. He more recently added another, schools.

"I will continue to concentrate on those areas of strategic focus and keep the town moving in the direction that we're headed."

Collierville's five aldermen are elected on a staggered cycle and only two positions are on the ballot this year. In Position 3, incumbent John Worley has picked up a petition.

The Election Commission website said school board chairman Mark Hansen had picked up a petition to potentially run against Worley, but Hansen said Thursday he's actually running for re-election to school board and his name was listed in the alderman's race by mistake. "I fully support John Worley," he wrote in a cellphone text message.

In Position 5, incumbent John E. Stamps picked up a petition, as has potential challenger William Arnold.

None of the candidates for alderman has returned a completed petition, according to the Election Commission website.

Elections in Collierville and several other suburbs take place November 8, the same day as the federal election. Early voting starts October 19. If necessary, a Collierville runoff election will take place December 13.
SHARE Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant

By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal

Mississippi is setting the stage for a likely showdown weeks from now between local court clerks and same-sex couples seeking a marriage license unless a federal court intervenes, a new legal brief contends.

Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for the Campaign for Southern Equality, says in the brief filed Wednesday with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi that when Mississippi's "Religious Freedom" law takes effect July 1, "it is highly likely that some clerks will unlawfully refuse to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples."

"Indeed, it has been reported that it was Circuit Clerks who specifically lobbied for the statutory 'right' to refuse to comply with this Court's injunction in the first place," the brief states.

Campaign for Southern Equality is asking the court to reopen the group's earlier lawsuit that contested Mississippi's ban on same-sex marriage. The case was closed after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last summer legalizing same-sex marriage everywhere, but Campaign for Southern Equality wants the case reopened and amended to provide protections against HB 1523  the so-called "Religious Freedom" law that allows private businesses and government officials to decline services if doing so violates their religious views.

The case is one of two pending legal challenges to the new law's July 1 implementation. The American Civil Liberties Union also filed suit to stop it.

Wednesday's filing was in response to the state's contention that the Campaign for Southern Equality case doesn't need to be reopened because adequate protections are already in place.

But, Kaplan argues the state is erecting barriers that again relegate same-sex couples to second-class citizens in violation of the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges decision last summer.

"The state of Mississippi cannot be permitted to constantly erect new legal barriers ... to chip away at the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian Mississippians that have already been recognized by the federal courts," the brief says, adding that "gay and lesbian Mississippians have already had their 'day in court' -- and they won."

DeSoto County Circuit Clerk Dale Kelly Thompson has said she will abide by the law even though she personally opposes same-sex marriage. She said she wouldn't ask her deputy clerks to issue licenses that she was not willing to issue herself, noting that her name would appear on it anyway since she's the circuit clerk.

The legal debate comes as Gov. Phil Bryant publicly defends the "Religious Freedom" law, couching it in religious terms that critics believe is setting the stage for another confrontation reminiscent of Kim Davis, the Kentucky court clerk who refused to abide by the Supreme Court ruling.

Bryant, speaking last week to the conservative Family Research Council in Washington, said the "secular, progressive world" was angered by his signing of HB 1523. He said he wouldn't bend on it.

"If we are going to stand, now is the time and this is the place," Bryant told the audience in a video available online.

Kaplan noted Bryant's remarks in her Wednesday brief as a sign that the governor would willingly ignore the law.

"Indeed," Kaplan said in a footnote, "rather than express a 'willingness to meet constitutional requirements,' Governor Bryant recently stated in a public address that the 'secular progressive' opponents of HB 1523 'don't know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.'"

Plaintiffs in the two lawsuits are hoping for court action before July 1.
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By Clay Bailey of The Commercial Appeal

As others have noted, Trader Joes isnt coming to Germantown as early as expected, so well take look at the delay. Then well venture outside the countys second loop (Tenn. 385) into Fayette County for a take on the transgender bathroom issue.

Finally, election season is opening in the suburbs and some potentially interesting races are emerging.

GERMANTOWN

LONGER WAIT FOR JOE: That announcement from Trader Joes late Wednesday afternoon delaying their opening in Germantown probably came as a relief to some folks. After all, the company blamed construction issue on moving the opening on Exeter from this fall to the first half of next year.

We will see if the delay is based simply on construction and not some questions about whether Joe will move into the old Kroger site north of Poplar.

As Jane Roberts reported, the company announced the delay quelling suspicions about the lack of work at the vacant store. Some observers (well, including me) wondered why there seemed to be little or no activity after Trader Joes announced in September it would open in Germantown.

About three months ago, the company applied for a construction permit. Everything seemed to be ready to move forward on the company opening in Germantown.

Then, little, if anything was done at the site.

The lack of work led Roberts to contact Trader Joes about the matter. They told her of the delay.

Alderman Forrest Owens, speaking for many, expressed concerns about the lack of work.

Id be lying if I said I hadnt, he told Roberts. Anytime you dont see activity, and it continues for a number of days, you begin to wonder what is going on. You hope for the best. Weve seen it not just in Germantown but all over the nation, stuff falls through. We hope that is not the case.

Im not sure exactly what construction delays involve. Trader Joes folks didnt expound on any details about the situation.

The common refrain when any project associated with government is not on time is there were weather issues. I would imagine, that wouldnt apply to something indoors.

I suppose we should just wait to see if this is just a minor setback. But Im always a little leery when things get knocked off schedule.

Especially when there seems to be little recent activity to keep the project anywhere near on schedule.

OUTSIDE THE 385 LOOP

FAYETTE COUNTY: We step way outside the inner loop and even the outer loop into our neighboring county to the east. It seems the Fayette County Commission doesnt like President Barack Obamas directive regarding the transgender bathroom issue. Commissioner Reggie Howard presented a resolution opposing the idea.

That shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone. But it did lead to an email exchange between LGBT leaders in Nashville and a Fayette County citizen.

In a May 24 email, Chris Sanders of Tennessee Equality Project, questioned the commissions actions in considering the Howard resolution  the timing, the lack of notice, the inability of the public to react to the resolution.

This amounts to government secrecy, Sanders wrote in an email on the afternoon of May 24. He later added: The resolution supports discrimination against transgender students when the County Commisison should support and represent all residents.

I will say that a check of the commissions May 24 agenda that is still on the county website doesnt mention anything about the resolution.

Resident Homer Bunker responded to Sanders with the following stance:

I disagree with everything in your email including your veiled threat to sue the county. There are two kinds of people on this planet, and they are male and female The remainder, who wish to deny either sex, have a problem which I sincerely hope they will find an answer for through Him who has all answers for all who seek to find.

Bunker confirmed the email was from him.

By the way, citizen Homer Bunker is also Fayette County COMMISSIONER Homer Bunker.

Bunker emphasized he never identified himself as a county commissioner in his response or implied he was speaking for the commission. Only responding as a citizen.

The signature on that is important, Bunker said. I signed that as a private individual, and there was no commissioner (signature). No mention of Fayette County commission, or that I was a commissioner.

He made a similar point to James Grady, editor of Out and About, an LGBT newspaper in Nashville.

In fact, you have distorted everything Ive said in my congenial response to you, Bunker wrote to Grady in an email Bunker provided. And where I come from we call that a lie.

Its always difficult to classify comments as coming from a "private citizen" when the same person serves as an elected public official. Kind of hard to separate the two personas. Bunker also is a former Shelby County School Board member and the father of Lakeland Mayor Wyatt Bunker.

So, there are a lot of people who know the Bunker name as an elected official.

SHORT TRIP

SEVERAL SUBURBS: Things are starting to take shape in several suburbs with municipal elections in November. Many of the incumbents (along with some challengers) have pulled their petitions. A few have already qualified.

Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown and Millington each have several races for alderman and school board seats.

Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner and Millington Mayor Terry Jones face re-election, and both have sitting aldermen as potential challengers Alderman Mike Caruthers has pulled a petition in Millington and Tom Allen has shown an interest in challenging Joyner.

There are two Bartlett judicial offices on the Aug. 4 ballot, and incumbent Division 2 Municipal Judge Dan Brown is unopposed. Tim Francavilla, the sitting Division 1 judge, appointed after the death of Freeman Marr, faces the challenge of Henry Miller.
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By Frida Ghitis

It wasn't long ago when the question of what to do about Iran's nuclear program topped the foreign policy agenda in Washington and other world capitals. The matter receded after the nuclear agreement went into effect in January, but inescapable signs are emerging that Iran will return to the agenda under the next president.

When world powers agreed on a plan to push back Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon by a decade, the most optimistic among the deal's cheerleaders, including President Barack Obama, expressed cautious hope that during that period Iran would change for the better. Just before the agreement, Obama said, "It is possible that if we sign this nuclear deal, we strengthen the hand of those moderate forces inside of Iran."

Recent developments, however, suggest that the hoped-for moderation is not in the cards, at least not any time soon.

Among many reasons for concern, the most discouraging of all occurred a few days ago when the country's Assembly of Experts chose its new speaker, selecting Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the most hard-line among the hard-liners to lead the organization that will choose the country's next supreme leader. This is not just a blow to moderates and reformers. It all but ensures the country will remain in the hands of hard-liners for years to come.

In Iran's theocratic democracy, the group of Islamic clerics is supposed to oversee the Supreme Leader, the man who, in fact, rules the country, commanding the military, choosing the top judges and keeping his hand on all the levers of control. While many, particularly in the West, incorrectly view the president as the country's top leader, it is the Supreme Leader who wields overwhelming power and it is the Assembly of Experts who chooses him.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei's health condition is unclear. He has already received treatment for prostate cancer. There is a real chance that he will be replaced during the two-year term of Jannati's speakership.

Jannati's views are well known, and they are alarming, dating back many years. In 1989 he led an international campaign urging Muslims to support the fatwa calling for the assassination of the novelist Salman Rushdie after he wrote a book that angered the then-Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini. In 2003, Jannati extolled Iraqis to kill U.S. troops by becoming suicide bombers. And when pro-democracy activists protested the rigged election that returned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the presidency, he said opposition activists should be executed. That same year he proposed someone should shoot then-Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Signs that Iran is moderating are hard to find. A glimmer of light seemed to cut through during March parliamentary elections, when men who only by Iranian standards could be called moderate made some gains. But even that election had Jannati's fingerprints smeared over it. Jannati chaired the Guardian Council, which disqualified the vast majority of genuine moderates and reformist candidates.

Last week, in a meeting with the council a few days after Jannati's election, Khamanei boasted of how the world "accepted Iran's nuclear industry after they saw Iran's might," according to Iranian media. Earlier, nuclear program head Ala Akbar Salehi announced Iran is making progress developing "civilian nuclear energy." Clearly, nuclear work continues.

Iran is also pushing forward aggressively with its ballistic missile program. It already possesses missiles capable of reaching any country in the Middle East, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, and it delights in taunting about its intentions.

During a test launch in March, Iranians etched a message on a missile. It read, "Israel must be wiped off the Earth." On May 19, a senior adviser to the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps, Ahmad Karimpour, proclaimed that Iran has the ability to "raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes," if the Supreme Leader orders it.

If moderation is hard to find in foreign policy, it is also elusive for Iranian citizens. Police in Tehran have deployed 7,000 undercover officers to enforce the government-imposed dress code. The code may seem a trivial matter, but it is a profound intrusion into the daily life of all women. And authorities have been cracking down on other "transgressions," recently flogging dozens of students for attending a graduation party that included men and women.

No, Iran does not appear to be moderating. By all indications, the country is about to take its place near the top of the foreign policy agenda for the next president.

Frida Ghitis is a special contributor to the Miami Herald. Contact her at fghitis@gmail.com.
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By Victor Davis Hanson

When standing today at Hadrian's Wall on the border between Scotland and northern England, everything appears indistinguishably affluent and serene on both sides.

It was not nearly as calm some 1,900 years ago. In A.D. 122, the exasperated Roman emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of an 80-mile, 20-foot-high wall to protect Roman civilization in Britain from the Scottish tribes to the north.

We moderns often laugh at walls and fortified boundaries, dismissing them as hopelessly retrograde, ineffective or unnecessary. Yet they still seem to fulfill their mission on the Israeli border, the 38th parallel in Korea and the Saudi-Iraqi boundary, separating disparate states.

On the Roman side of Hadrian's Wall there were codes of law, habeas corpus, aqueducts and the literature of Cicero, Virgil and Tacitus  and on the opposite side a violent, less sophisticated tribalism.

Hadrian assumed that there was a paradox about walls innate to the human condition. Scottish tribes hated Roman colonial interlopers and wanted them off the island of Britain. But for some reason the Scots did not welcome the wall that also stopped the Romans from entering Scotland.

The exasperated Romans had built the barrier to stop the Scots from entering Roman Britain, whether to raid, trade, emigrate or fight.

Today, the European Union has few problems with members that do not enforce their interior borders. But European nations are desperate to keep the continent from being overwhelmed by migrants from North Africa and the Middle East. Like the Romans, some individual EU nations are building fences and walls to keep out thousands of non-European migrants, both for economic and national security reasons.

Many Middle Easterners want to relocate to Europe for its material and civilizational advantages over their homes in Algeria, Iraq, Libya, Morocco or Syria. Yet many new arrivals are highly critical of Western popular culture, permissiveness and religion  to the extent of not wanting to assimilate into the very culture into which they rushed.

Apparently, like their ancient counterparts, modern migrants on the poorer or less stable side of a border are ambiguous about what they want. They seek out the security and bounty of mostly Western systems  whether European or American  but not necessarily to surrender their own cultural identities and values.

In the case of Hadrian, by A.D. 122 he apparently felt that Rome's resources were taxed and finite. The empire could neither expand nor allow tribes to enter Roman territory. So his solution was to wall off Britain from Scotland and thereby keep out tribes that sometimes wanted in but did not wish to become full-fledged Romans.

The same paradoxes characterize recent, sometimes-violent demonstrations at Trump rallies, the controversy over the potential construction of a fence on the Mexican border 25 times longer than Hadrian's Wall, and the general furor over immigration policies.

Mexico is often critical of the United States and yet encourages millions of its own people to emigrate to a supposedly unattractive America. Some protesters in turn wave the flag of the country that they do not wish to return to more often than the flag of the country they are terrified of being deported from. Signs at rallies trash the United States but praise Mexico  in much the same manner that Scots did not like Roman Britain but were even less pleased with the idea of a fortified border walling them off from the Romans.

What are the answers to these human contradictions?

Rome worked when foreigners crossed through its borders to become Romans. It failed when newcomers fled into the empire and adhered to their own cultures, which were at odds with the Roman ones they had ostensibly chosen.

There were no walls between provinces of the Roman Empire  just as there are no walls between the individual states of America  because common language, values and laws made them all similar. But fortifications gradually arose all over the outer ring of the Roman world, once Rome could no longer afford to homogenize societies antithetical to their own.

If Mexico and other Latin American countries were to adopt many of the protocols of the United States, their standard of living would be as indistinguishable from America's as modern Scotland is from today's Britain.

Or if immigrants from Latin America were to integrate and assimilate as rapidly as possible, there would be less of a need to contemplate walls.

Historically, as Hadrian knew, walls are needed only when neighboring societies are opposites  and when large numbers of migrants cross borders without necessarily wishing to become part of what they are fleeing to.

These are harsh and ancient lessons about human nature, but they are largely true and timeless.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Contact him at author@victorhanson.com.
Recently, The New York Times ran a long article, "Why Windows 10 Upgrades Go Wrong, and How to Avoid It," that featured questionable claims and large omissions. This is my attempt to set the record straight.

I was lucky enough to get feedback on the article from Woody Leonhard, who writes about Windows for InfoWorld, and Leo Notenboom who, for years, has been answering questions about Windows on his askleo.com site. Both are experts on the subject and live on the front lines when it comes to battling Windows. Unlike the expert in The Times' article, Notenboom and Leonhard have public presences online, allowing you to judge their expertise for yourself. I trust them.

No doubt many others would have weighed in too, had they been given the chance. For whatever reason, The Times did not allow reader comments.

TO UPGRADE or NOT TO UPGRADE

The article starts out detailing the problems a few people had after upgrading to Windows 10 and then dives into debugging the process. The issue of whether or not to upgrade a Windows 7/8.1 machine is given a single sentence

... the consensus among information technology professionals is that upgrading to Windows 10 is a wise idea because the system is faster, well built and more secure.

I completely disagree. There is no consensus that upgrading a perfectly working Windows 7/8.1 machine to Windows 10 is a wise idea.

Here in Computerworld, for example, when Windows 10 was released, Preston Gralla took both sides, calling it an operating system you can love, while also providing "9 reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10 -- yet." Woody too, wrote both "10 reasons you should upgrade to Windows 10" and "10 reasons you shouldn't upgrade to Windows 10".

In his "Should I Upgrade to Windows 10?" article Notenboom wrote:

Should you upgrade? Like so many things, it depends ... If youre running Windows 8 or Windows 7, and youre happy doing so, I still dont see a need to rush into Windows 10. This really is a case of if it aint broke, lets not fix it ... While Windows 10 does bring improvements, theres nothing Ive seen that would really push me to recommend updating an otherwise working Windows 7 or 8 system that youre happy with.

Back when Windows 10 was initially released, I wrote that the time to upgrade was when you wanted or needed to run software that was only available on Windows 10. Like Notenboom, I don't think Cortana or the Edge browser rise to that level.

The Times article warned that upgrading to Windows 10 will only be free for the next couple months. In response, Notenboom writes that:

Capturing the free" upgrade runs the risk of costing you much more in time and energy should something go wrong. Instead, just plan on Windows 10 being pre-installed on your next machine, whenever that might be.

This is an excellent point, and one that has been true for ages: The best way for non-techies to get a new version of Windows is to buy a new computer. Sure, us nerds can upgrade, we know the things in the rest of this article, but non-techies are far less prepared for the problems that might arise.

There never could have been a consensus that upgrading to Windows 10 was the way to go because everyone has different needs and priorities, so many of which were not mentioned in The Times article.

For example, even if the upgrade works perfectly, the user interface of Windows 10 is different than that of Windows 7 and 8. For many people, this alone is a reason not to upgrade.

Techies love change, its a chance to tinker with something new. Many others, who couldn't care less about computers, but are forced to use them, want no part of a different interface. Getting up to speed on the way things work now was difficult enough.

One of the biggest omissions in the article accounts for much of the resistance to Windows 10: telemetry, a.k.a. spying. While some don't mind the idea of Microsoft tracking how they use Windows, many do.

And, just like ads are the cost of viewing this page for free, so too, ads are part of the reason Windows 10 is free. There are ads on the Start menu and the lock screen and more are on the way.

Another upgrade consideration that the article only alludes to is that some software may not work on Windows 10. And, the upgrade process removes some features present in the older versions of Windows.

You also lose a bit of control when upgrading to version 10.

The older versions of Windows allowed total control over the installation of bug fixes. Version 10 removes this control (except for corporate editions), making it a poor choice for anyone using Windows for something they consider important. There are many circumstances where a computer owner would rather live with known bugs than be interrupted, or, take a chance on new software breaking something.

Another fallout from the mistaken impression that all techies think "upgrading to Windows 10 is a wise idea" is the failure to mention two utilities that block the installation of Windows 10 -- GWX Control Panel and Never10 from Steve Gibson. Both programs are free and highly recommended. Never10 is the new kid on the block having just been released a couple months ago. Yet, it has been downloaded over 738,000 times.

That the article calls Windows 10 "more secure" bothers me no end. For one thing, this is standard boilerplate language that Microsoft uses every time they release a new version of Windows.

And, while a new version of Windows may be more secure than previous editions, this re-directs attention from the bigger picture: Windows is the least secure operating system in wide use. All the other major choices: OS X, Linux, iOS, Android and Chrome OS are more secure than Windows.

In part this stems from the popularity of Windows, but it is also due to the system doing a poor job both of defending itself and isolating applications. And, non-Microsoft software just adds to the problem. Many anti-virus programs have been found to contain vulnerabilities and Duo Security just reported security issues in the software that hardware manufactures pre-install to update their own drivers and applications. They looked at Acer, Dell, Lenovo, HP and Asus and found bugs with all of their software.

A few days ago, Martin Brinkmann of gHacks wrote about Windows 10 Limited Periodic Scanning, a feature that lets you run two antivirus programs. More secure? Really?

COMPATIBILITY

The Times article does point out that the basic issue of whether your computer and peripheral devices are compatible with Windows 10 is a crap shoot.

Writing recently about the way that Microsoft tricks people into upgrading, Susan Bradley wrote

... if you could assure me that EVERY application would still work, all printers, all devices, everything worked 100% with Windows 10 ... I should be ... glad this is happening ... But heres the thing, people have old stuff. People cant always afford to buy a new printer at the drop of a hat or buy new software every time theres an major release that causes it to no longer work.

Leo Notenboom said by email that he "hears from too many who believed the compatibility test and ended up regretting it."

The issue of printers not working with Windows 10 came up twice in the article, and it bears repeating. Notenboom wrote that "The biggest issue I hear about from people who successfully upgrade to Windows 10 is peripherals like printers and scanners that no longer work, and for which there is no plan for updated drivers to make them work."

Before considering an upgrade, the onus is the owner of a Windows 7 or 8 computer to check that their printer will still function. Specifically, this means going to the website of the printer manufacturer, finding the Support section, entering the printer model number and reading carefully. The price of the free upgrade may be a new printer.

Owners of an all-in-one device need to verify that it will not only print, but also scan and fax after Windows 10 is installed.

BACKUP FIRST

Nothing in the article got me angrier than this: "Before starting an installation, back up all of your data". Taken at face value, the advice is correct, but it is also woefully incomplete. Any competent techie would advise making an image backup, either in addition to, or instead of, simply backing up data files.

An image backup backs up everything which makes it King of the Hill in backup land. The term "image" comes from "picture"; an image backup is like taking a picture or snapshot of the entire hard drive.

Get infected with a virus, malware or ransomware? Restore the system to the last image backup. Hard drive dies? Buy a new one and restore to the last image backup. Something goes wrong upgrading to Windows 10? Restore an image backup from just before the upgrade. For whatever reason, image backups are the Rodney Dangerfield of computing, they get no respect.

Sure, Microsoft has a system to fall back from Windows 10 to the prior version of Windows, but trusting it would be a rookie mistake. Frankly, you should not take advice from anyone who does not recommend an image backup before an operating system upgrade.

Woody recommended image backups back in February, writing that "Before you change any operating system its a good idea to make a full system backup." Commenting on the Times article he added that "your first task should be a full disk backup before you upgrade. That way, if you don't like your new Win10, you can move back to Win7 without having to rely on Microsoft's rollback mechanism"

Leo Notenboom, also commenting on the New York Times story wrote that

The call to Back Up Your Data doesnt come close to being enough. When an upgrade fails part way through, as has happened to some, you may be left with an unbootable machine. The most reliable way to ensure that you can recover from this, or any type of failure, is to begin the process with a complete system image backup.

Yet another Windows expert, Paul Thurrott, suggests making both an image backup and a separate data backup.

Writing for The Guardian, about preparing for a Windows 10 upgrade, Jack Schofield wrote "I use a backup program to copy the whole hard drive. This is the quickest way to recover from a hard drive failure or similar catastrophe."

There are many image backup programs to chose from. Leo Notenboom likes Macrium Reflect. Woody Leonhard notes that while many recommend Acronis True Image, "Windows 7 and 8.1 have good system image programs as well". Steve Gibson likes Drive Snapshot. Jack Schofield also suggested EaseUS To Do Backup Free and CloneZilla. I use Shadow Protect.

Finally, when making image backups, the Defensive Computing approach is to backup all the partitions, not just the one with Windows in it.

BEFORE STARTING TO UPGRADE

There are many things we can do to increase the chances of a Windows 10 upgrade succeeding. None of these were mentioned in the article.

Jack Schofield, of The Guardian, suggests un-installing anti-virus software, writing that "AV programs have hooks deep into the operating system, and AV companies therefore tend to create new versions of their software for new versions of Windows. It makes sense to uninstall the old version for Windows 8 and install the new one for Windows 10."

He also suggests running Windows Update "to make sure you have installed all the essential patches for your current operating system. Windows 10 will install updates before it installs itself, but its simpler if it doesnt have to." Simpler is better.

Another simplification Schofield suggests is removing old logs, error reports and browser caches, either with Windows built-in Disk Cleanup tool or Piriforms free CCleaner. And, he suggests unplugging peripherals before upgrading to "stop Windows 10 from spending ages trying to find up-to-date drivers: it can do that later, when you plug them back in."

I would also suggest running the Windows Check Disk utility; we don't want to perform thousands of file operations unless the underlying file system is in perfect shape. If it finds any issues, run it again to insure that the problems were fixed. You may also want to check Device Manager to insure there are no problem devices before upgrading.

After the upgrade, Windows 10 needs to be activated, a process that can fail either initially or at a later time. To prepare for this, you should make a note of the Windows product key before upgrading. Knowing the key should also allow you to do a clean install of Windows 10 should the need arise.

The product key may be on a sticker, stored in the in the BIOS/UEFI or in the Windows registry. Lowell Heddings has a good article on tracking it down.

My final suggestion is to reboot the system just before upgrading. It's best to start off clean.

INSTALL PROCESS

As for the actual process of installing Windows 10, the article says "Microsoft designed the Windows 10 upgrade to be seamless  a push of a button and you get going." It is not that simple. There are at least four ways to upgrade.

This was a lesson I learned the hard way. After reading other equally non-informative articles about upgrading to Windows 10, I tried to upgrade a Windows 7 machine only to have the upgrade fail with an "unknown error". No harm, no foul - Windows 7 continued to work fine.

A few months later, I tried again, only to suffer another "unknown error" while upgrading. Some research turned up the fact that you can also download a utility from Microsoft to run the upgrade, something very few articles mention. For whatever reason, this worked for me.
Intel has doubled down on servers as it looks to shed its reliance on PCs, but the chip maker's ARM competitors are ready to challenge it.

New server and appliance chips based on the ARM architecture were announced at Computex in Taipei this week. ARM-based chips dominate smartphone and tablets, but the new chips from Cavium and Marvell show the processors are maturing quickly for use in servers.

ARM servers are seen as a power-efficient alternative to Intel's x86-based systems, with companies looking to cut electric bills in data centers. ARM server chips have been around for years but have failed to register an impact because of hardware and software problems.

But ARM server chips are becoming more competitive with support for DDR4 memory and the latest I/O and networking technologies.

Intel had a 99.2 percent market share in server chips in 2015, according to IDC. Despite struggling for years, ARM server chip makers are holding on to create alternatives for Intel's Xeon chips, while hoping the market for their products becomes viable.

In a research note issued Tuesday, IDC said ARM server chip makers will start gaining traction next year. AMD, which sells x86 and ARM server chips, is predicting ARM to have a 20 percent market share by 2020.

At Computex, Cavium announced the ThunderX2, which is a second-generation server chip based on its homegrown design. It delivers roughly double the performance of its predecessor, ThunderX, which was introduced more than two years ago.

A two-socket server with ThunderX2 could have up to 108 CPU cores and 3TB of memory. A ThunderX2 CPU has a maximum clock speed of 3.0GHz and new I/O technology, and it supports the latest DDR4 memory, all of which combine to boost server speed. Cavium estimates the ThunderX2 internal interconnect is 2.5 times faster than ThunderX.

The ThunderX2 is targeted at networking, Cavium's bread-and-butter business, and rack servers. ARM servers are being widely considered for use in cloud deployments, and this chip could be used in hyperscale environments, where servers are continuously added to meet growing data center needs.

Cavium didn't respond to request about when the chip will be available for servers, but vendor Gigabyte said it will ship ThunderX2 server products.

Marvell's new Armada 7000 and 8000 family of ARM-based chips don't provide the high levels of performance delivered by Cavium's ThunderX2, but they are aimed at smaller home office deployments. The chips are mainly targeted toward storage and networking appliances but could also be used in entry-level servers.

The Armada chips are based on the ARM Cortex-A72 chip design, which is also used in smartphones. The new design has more oomph than typical Cortex-A72 smartphone chips, with support for virtualization, DDR4 memory, error correction, Gigabit ethernet, and many storage and I/O protocols.

The chips are available in dual- and quad-core configurations, with clock speeds up to 2.0GHz. Marvell did not respond to comment on shipment dates.

Other ARM-based server chip makers include Qualcomm, AppliedMicro, and Broadcom.
The worldwide server market saw a year-on-year revenue slump of 3.6 percent in the first quarter to US$12.4 billion, after a winning streak of seven quarters of growth, IDC said Wednesday.

The slowdown in the market, which also witnessed shipments of servers drop by 3 percent year-on-year to 2.2 million units, is largely put down to an end in the enterprise refresh cycle and what is described as a pause in investments in hyperscale server deployments.

Those investments are expected to be back in the second half of this year with a pick up in expenditure on servers for existing data centers and the roll out of new ones.

The slowdown in the server market in the first quarter has not affected key players uniformly. Hewlett Packard Enterprise retained its top position, with revenue of $3.3 billion and a 26.7 percent share of market revenue, after a year on-year growth of 3.5 percent. Dell and IBM retained their number two and three spots respectively, but with year-on-year decline in revenue.

While Dells revenue dropped 1.8 percent to nearly $2.3 billion for a 18.3 percent market share, IBM saw its revenue drop by a whopping 33 percent year-on-year to $1.1 billion as it had a triple-digit growth for its z Systems mainframes in the year-ago quarter, after a spike from a system upgrade. Lenovo and Cisco tied for the fourth and fifth position.

Volume system revenue increased 1.8 percent in the quarter to $9.8 billion while revenue from midrange systems increased 8.3 percent in the quarter to $1.1 billion. Demand for high-end systems had a year-over-year revenue decline of 33.4 percent to $1.4 billion, mainly on account of the surge in demand for IBM mainframes last year, IDC said.

The Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, had the highest year-on-year revenue growth of 10.2 percent in the quarter. China was a strong contributor to that performance with 14.9 percent year-on-year revenue growth to $1.9 billion. The only other region that saw positive server revenue growth in the quarter was Western Europe at 1.7 percent, IDC said.

Intel dominates the server processor market with a 99.2 percent share of server chips in 2015. But ARM server chips will starting gaining traction next year, according to a research note from IDC this week.
A senior finance manager in Oracles cloud business has complained to a federal court that she was terminated from her job because she refused to go along with accounting principles she considered unlawful.

In a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Svetlana Blackburn says her superiors instructed her to add millions of dollars in accruals to financial reports, with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers, an act that Plaintiff warned was improper and suspect accounting. The former employee is said to have warned her supervisor she would blow the whistle if ordered to continue in the same manner.

Blackburn alleges that upper management was trying to fit "square data into round holes" in a bid to boost the financial reports of the cloud services business, which would be "paraded" before company leaders and investors.

A certified public accountant, Blackburn received a positive performance review in August 2015, but in the following month her supervisors charted a course that veered from legal, ethical and company standards. Her employment was terminated within weeks, on Oct. 15, after she continued to resist and warn of the accounting improprieties, according to the complaint.

We don't agree with the allegations and intend to vigorously defend the matter, said Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger in an email.

Blackburn alleges in her complaint that executives above her went ahead and added accruals on their own, despite her objections. She was told by a supervisor that her statements were irritating after she warned about the dangers of a lack of billings, and the history of bad accruals that never resulted in billings. As a result, she came to be viewed as "more of a roadblock than a team player who would blindly generate financial reports using improper bases in order to justify the bottom lines that her superiors demanded to see," according to her complaint.

Blackburn accuses Oracle of unlawful retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which is legislation that aims to prevent corporate accounting fraud and errors. She said her actions were protected under the Act because she resisted and reported conduct that she believed was against the law.

The former employee also claims to be protected under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which protects employees from discrimination after they make disclosures under Sarbanes-Oxley. Blackburn is suing Oracle for punitive damages and a ruling preventing the company from retaliating against other similar objectors, among other measures.
Ransomware authors are not the only cybercriminals who use extortion tactics to make money from users and companies. Data thieves are also increasingly resorting to intimidation.

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received many reports from users whose data was stolen in various high-profile breaches and then received emails threatening to publicly disclose their personal information, including phone numbers, home addresses and credit card information.

The ransom amount asked by the extortionists ranged from 2 to 5 bitcoins or approximately $250 to $1,200, IC3 said in an advisory Wednesday.

In some cases, the attackers claim to have sensitive information about users' lives stolen from their online accounts and threaten to send it to their friends, employers and family.

If you would like to prevent me from sharing this information with your friends and family members (and perhaps even your employers too) then you need to send the specified bitcoin payment to the following address, one email shared by the IC3 reads. If you think this amount is too high, consider how expensive a divorce lawyer is. If you are already divorced then I suggest you think about how this information may impact any ongoing court proceedings. If you are no longer in a committed relationship then think about how this information may affect your social standing amongst family and friends.

It's not clear if the attackers actually have the information that they claim to have, but the extortion emails are typically sent shortly after high-profile data breaches. It's not hard to imagine that some users of compromised adult dating services would be willing to pay in order to avoid being associated with those sites.

"The FBI does not condone the payment of extortion demands as the funds will facilitate continued criminal activity, including potential organized crime activity and associated violent crimes," IC3 said.

In a separate report last week, security researchers from IBM warned that companies are also the target of extortion attempts by hackers who exploit vulnerabilities in their systems and steal data.

The attackers try to pass themselves as ethical bug hunters, even though the victim companies don't have bug bounty programs, and ask significant amounts of money to disclose the vulnerabilities that they exploited to obtain the data.

"While the attacker doesnt explicitly threaten to release the data or attack the organization again, it leaves a lot of questions for the victims," the IBM researchers said.

In addition to ransomware, other forms of online extortion observed over the past year include asking for money under the threat of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or stealing nude pictures, typically from women, and then asking them for more under the threat of making those pictures public -- an attack known as sextortion.
When giant automaker Ford says the future of its business is not about vehicle ownership but miles travelled, you know change is coming, and that change is amply described in Mary Meekers 2016 Internet Trends report.

Mobile everywhere

Sure, reports this morning are dominated by over-simplified analysis of the analysts smartphone predictions (they miss that iPhones dont matter anymore), but those are just a fragment of over 200-pages of information-packed slides. Ive been through them, theres a story in each one, but here are a few ideas about the future of the car:

Lifestyle habits are changing. Not only is GDP in free fall across the planet, but the new Millennials are digital natives who want a better work/life balance. They are early adopters and chat on WhatsApp, rather than using the phone. They are happy to share, they embrace new technologies and are entering their peak earnings decade. They also understand the need for greener solutions, are more willing to car share, and less interested in learning to drive. 46 percent of them expect car technology to do everything a smartphone can, the report explains.

Voice is key. The drive to achieving 99% accuracy from voice control is incredibly important (why else do you think others in the industry fear Apples acquisition of VocalIQ?) Where we are now we have around 90-95% accuracy, but the move to 99% will make a huge difference in use. Natural language processing combined with server-based data analysis will open a ton of opportunities in an increasingly connected age.

Where do we use our voices to control things? Well, according to the report, we mainly use voice in transit (19%), in the car (36%) and at home (43%). The main reason we use voice is because were doing something else with our hands. (And we dont use voice at work).

The Mac you have everywhere. Apple, Ford, Google and others are already building sophisticated in-car solutions like CarPlay, but thats just paddling in the ocean. Why? The car is becoming a computer. Think about it  already when you pull your iPhone out your pocket the least likely thing youll do with it is make a call. Thats a change in use. Cars are changing too: as more intelligence is pumped inside them its possible the last thing youll be thinking about doing in them is driving anywhere.

You might sit in them to create video.

Oh.

The future workplace

Cars may become office space. The report doesnt claim this, so I will: Office real estate prices could collapse as millions of connected workers choose to work from their car, engaging in video conferencing using their increasingly powerful and regularly updated UC communications tools. Why not? The views will be better, office politics lesser and when it comes to comfort, car seats are way more comfortable than most office chairs. Autonomy, mobility, connectivity  these are the forces that define the new digital enterprise. Road speed will become less important than processor speed. Perhaps the new Mac Pro will be a car? Perhaps it doesnt matter, as Meekers report (p.135) suggests China and India may be the key markets in which the future of the car is defined (are you really surprised?).

Proliferation of the hub

I mentioned the shortsighted focus on smartphone market weakness and forecasts of iPhone sales decline earlier. One of the reasons this is shortsighted is because the mobile market is transforming. It isnt just about iPhones and iPads, but also about wearables, televisions, coffee pots and vehicles. Anything thats connected becomes part of the paradigm.

Within this, each platform informs the other  one great example of this being the Apple Watch app that controls a Tesla. Think about it: In future you will summon your Apple Car using your Watch. Ride sharing services like Didi and Uber hint that you may not even need to own the car, just ask for an autonomous vehicle to come pick you up; Services like iCloud suggest youll be able to access everything you can on your home or office computer using any other available device, so long as your biometric Apple Watch ID says you are who you say you are.

Why else do you see Touch ID on future Macs?

Apple has a lot to offer here, and thats why Teslas Elon Musk sees Cupertino, not Google, as the big competitor in the space, though he warns scaling vehicle manufacture may be a problem (which is why Apples reportedly working with Magna).

Whats important is that the car will be connected, not just to you as the passenger, but to smart city infrastructure, road transit systems, and the vehicles surrounding it. Cars will even park themselves for you. This is the proliferation of the hub.

OK, Ive vastly exceeded my word count today, but do take a look at Meekers report, it will definitely provide food for thought across a range of topics  and yes, I agree that these suggestions will inform the future of every connected car, not just Apples.

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Xiaomi's cross-licensing and patent-transfer deal with Microsoft announced earlier this week prompted a flurry of renewed interest in how soon the Chinese smartphone maker will sell its devices directly in the U.S.

Several analysts interviewed this week said they believe a U.S. arrival won't happen for more than a year, perhaps even two years, and will certainly pose big marketing challenges for Xiaomi.

One of the biggest issues will be how to effectively build Xiaomi's brand with its latest premium smartphones like the Mi 5 to attract average Americans who barely know the company, much less how to pronounce the company's name.

Xiaomi means "little rice" in Mandarin Chinese and is pronounced "SHAO-mee," but there are several variations. Former Googler Hugo Barra, now global vice president at Xiaomi, offered a pronunciation lesson on stage last year, explaining that it sounds like the two words starting the phrase "show me the money, but it sounds more like 'shower.'"

Martyn Williams Hugo Barra, vice president of international at Xiaomi, shows off the Mi 5 smartphone at a Barcelona news conference on Feb. 24, 2016.

So far, Xiaomi has operated primarily in its home base of China, as well as in India and parts of South America, relying heavily on Internet sales. Coming to the U.S. will likely require Xioami to negotiate deals with U.S. carriers for in-store sales in order to be successful, analysts said. Some Xiaomi wearables are already sold on Amazon in the U.S., including the Mi Band, a fitness monitor that sells for $21.

The deal with Xiaomi that Microsoft announced on Tuesday has two parts. Microsoft transferred patents, reported by The Wall Street Journal to be 1,500 out of Microsoft's total of more than 60,000 patents, to Xiaomi for an undisclosed sum. Also, a cross-licensing agreement will allow Xiaomi to ship Microsoft Office and Skype on Xiaomi's Android smartphones and tablets.

Beginning in September, Xiaomi's Mi 5, Mi Max, Mi 4, Redmi Note 3 and Redmi 3 will come pre-installed with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Skype apps. But the specific apps may vary depending on the device, market location and mobile operator.

The cross-licensing agreement between Microsoft and Xiaomi is similar to those that Microsoft struck last year with Samsung and Dell. But because the Microsoft apps can run on Android devices from other manufacturers, analysts said the Microsoft capability won't be a key differentiator for Xiaomi sales.

Barra has recently said in interviews that the U.S. market is "on the radar" for Xiaomi, but not in 2016. Analysts have been parsing his comments carefully, but most aren't optimistic about the company's prospects in the U.S., partly because of the stiff competition offered by Apple and Samsung, as well as by Chinese companies already in the U.S., like ZTE and TCL.

"Xiaomi's had an eye on coming to the U.S. and Western Europe where there's a seemingly untapped potential for smartphone growth," said Jack Narcotta, an analyst at TBR, in an interview. "It's a big hill they have in front of them with the U.S. in particular. The marketing question is a really big challenge for them."

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, agreed. "American consumers need unique marketing directly tailored to them that knocks them off their pattern of buying Apple, Samsung and LG," he said. "Most Americans have never heard of Xiaomi and the company would need to invest in some serious brand-building to move the needle. It's not impossible to do this, just difficult and expensive."

In the U.S. market, Xiaomi faces Apple and Samsung for premium smartphones with prices above $600 (without carrier subsidy). But Xiaomi has offered its smartphones in other countries for $200 to $300 (without subsidy), putting it more in direct competition with phones from ZTE and Huawei, analysts said.

Generally, Xiaomi phones have premium features and styling, but have sold at lower prices partly because the company has circumvented the more expensive wireless carrier sales channel, analysts said.

In China and other markets, Xiaomi has relied heavily on online sales, but has also successfully paired its products with the ability to purchase apps and services for features like chat or multimedia that are harder to obtain than in the U.S., partly because Google services, among others, are blocked by the government in China, TBR's Narcotta noted.

"The Xiaomi business model works only in China where Google is blocked by the Chinese, but as soon as that advantage goes away in other countries, what do you have with a Xiaomi phone that isn't that different from a Samsung phone, but a little cheaper?" Narcotta said.

"The U.S. carriers, I'm sure, want an alternative to Samsung and Apple devices, but it doesn't serve Xiaomi's needs to get de-prioritized on the brand side like a ZTE or a Kyocera," Moorhead added.

"In the U.S., people are much more comfortable going into a shop to buy a phone," added Tuong Nguyen, a Gartner analyst. Also, other Chinese companies are pushing to break into the U.S. market due to the recent slowdown of smartphone sales in China.

Two years ago, Xiaomi was the top smartphone seller in China, with 20% year-over-year growth, but now its revenues there are flat, Narcotta noted. The company was founded in 2010, but by 2014 had shipped 17 million smartphones, representing 211% year-over-year growth, according to IDC.

Xiaomi was the fifth-largest smartphone seller in 2015 globally and was third largest in the third quarter of 2014, according to IDC.

In the first quarter of 2016, Xiaomi fell to sixth globally -- behind Samsung in first place, followed in order by Apple, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, according to IDC.

In the U.S. alone, Gartner said Apple remained the top seller of smartphones in the first quarter of 2016, with a 36.4% market share, followed by Samsung (26.7%), LG (13.9%) and then ZTE (6.6%) and TCL (4.6%) -- both based in China.

The patent and cross-licensing deal with Microsoft helps Xiaomi in the sense that it helps prevent intellectual property-related lawsuits, said both Moorhead and Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates.

Gold sees better prospects for Xiaomi in the U.S. than do some other analysts.

"Xiaomi has lots of cash and wants to be a disrupter in the market and we should expect them to do things like they did in China where they were very successful, although the smartphone market is becoming saturated," Gold said.

"If Xiaomi follows a similar path in the U.S. by selling pretty capable phones at low prices, it could capture a significant share of the market, especially in the lower tiers of smartphones. Competitors like Samsung, HTC, LG and even Apple could be affected."
Garvan Walshe is a former National and International Security Policy Adviser to the Conservative Party.



Trump nominated. A far-right president in Austria narrowly avoided. Radical governments in much of Eastern Europe. Eight years after the financial crisis, were in the middle of a political bank run.

When you dont trust the bank, it seems rational to take your money out: it gives you more control, but when everyone does the same the bank collapses. When you dont trust political institutions, you vote for someone who promises to overturn them, and endanger the system that guarantees our prosperity and security.

What prosperity? What security? asked the angry voters of Camberley opposed to Remain last weekend. They see a system that works for urban elites, the highly educated, the immigrants, but not for them. But their anger is only on the surface about the EU. Had I instead spent the bank holiday weekend in Styria or Lille, or Bialystok or West Bend, Iowa, the answer would have been much the same.

Trump blames Mexicans and Washington; Austrias Hofer blames middle eastern refugees; Marine Le Pen blames Anglo-Saxon capitalism; Brexiteers blame French Eurosclerosis. They cant all be right, so what is going on?

Its hard for us political obsessives to understand how opaque and confusing modern political systems can seem. Put yourself in the position of someone whos never cared about politics, and now finds their life upturned by political decisions they cant fathom.

Its a bit like when youre sitting in front of your computer, which has suddenly started behaving very strangely, and youre terrified that if you press the wrong button, all your emails will be deleted. In the middle of your panic a brightly coloured window pops up.

You might have a virus!!!

Do you click on the window? You dont  you ask someone in authority, like your teenage grandson. But what if hes wrong? Didnt he wipe your sisters computer by accident, and you had to pay someone almost as much as the cost of the machine to get it restored?

Modern capitalism has undermined confidence in authority at the lower end of the market. In theory, its made lots of things cheaper, but only if you accept the loss of control: you can get a cheaper gas bill, if you sign up to a long-term contract and pay by direct debit; or a less expensive phone contract  if its 24 months long. White goods are sold cheaply: but with expensive warranties. When you can afford to replace a broken washing machine, you dont need the insurance; but when you cant, that expensive insurance is essential. The ultimate sources of financial authority gave us PPI scams.

Its worse in the labour market. The US and Britain dont have anything as divisive as Frances two-tier employment system that cossets well-protected insiders at the expense of outsiders stuck with insecure temporary contracts. But at the lower, unskilled, end, where workers bargaining power is weak, the insecurity mounts up. Its maybe the flip side of a dynamic economy where companies are allowed to grow and fail, but its no way to live while raising a family or caring for elderly parents. And for men once in industrial work, who used to have jobs that guaranteed a good wage and wives who did the caring, the shock has been especially severe. In the United States at least, the life expectancy of white working class men has even started to fall.

This isnt poverty in the material sense: but a life of high stress, in which you keep yourself afloat through constant struggle that only barely seems worth it. Of course many of us thrive in this kind of system: but were young, educated to take advantage of the opportunities our societies afford, we dont have dependents and were mostly not seriously ill.

Populists are doing well because they promise to restore security. They should be ashamed because the poor with slender means and few assets will be hit hardest by the dislocation they promise. The Polish governments crusade against foreign banks wont help Poles of modest means own homes or start businesses. Marine Le Pen wont help French industrial workers. Trumps plan to build a wall with Mexico wont improve conditions for a 60-something former factory worker in Oklahoma. And a populist Brexit wont help those men and women in Camberley, because Brexiteers shock therapy hopes to boost the British economy by making it even less regulated and more friendly to creative destruction than it already is.

A real bank run stops when peoples deposits are made secure. This political bank run wont end until we work out how to make working peoples economic lives secure again. Todays populists would only accelerate it.
On Sunday, Paul asked what had become of Angela Merkel. Why had the Prime Ministers ally apparently abandoned him in his hour of need? While various others had rallied to Camerons side to make the case against a Leave vote, why was the pre-eminent European leader silent?

Subsequently, I phoned the German embassy in London to ask this very question, and was told that at the moment we dont have any plans for a Merkel intervention, though a thread of hope was left dangling by the observation that these things can change.

Well, change they have. The BBC reports that Merkel has today said:

Obviously, it is up to the citizens of the UK themselves how they wish to vote on the upcoming referendum. Ive said repeatedly before that I personally would hope and wish for the UK to stay part and parcel of the EU.

Downing Street will no doubt be delighted that she has spoken out.

The BBC is mystified at her change of tack:

Fascinating thing about Merkels intervention is a few weeks ago German sources were saying privately that she wasnt minded to say anything  Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) 2 June 2016

We can only assume that ConservativeHomes campaign is responsible.
When the Prime Ministers EU deal was confirmed, it received a monstering for being a pale imitation of the already limited demands with which he had begun the process. Much of the criticism didnt come from anti-EU MPs, the two Leave campaigns (which were at the time still vying for designation) or even from UKIP  instead, the source of Downing Streets trouble was Fleet Street. So painful was the experience that the Government and the pro-EU campaign have barely mentioned the renegotiation since, preferring to talk more vaguely of a reformed EU (even though what is on offer is no such thing).

Now that purdah is in place, limiting the capacity of the Government to use the civil service and other public resources to issue press releases in favour of the EU, the natural Euroscepticism of the centre-right press is reasserting itself. Of the big four newspapers on the right, one  the Daily Express  is a long-standing supporter of Leave. Another  the Daily Mail  declared for Brexit in December.

Which way might the other two  The Sun and the Daily Telegraph  fall? The former has flirted repeatedly with Leave, but is yet to take the plunge  and is generally assumed to be waiting on a decision from on high. The latter is a major unknown. On the one hand, the Telegraph has a long history of Euroscepticism, its readership is synonymous with a Eurosceptic strand of Toryish politics and it plays host to Boris Johnsons column. On the other hand, it has always borne some suspicion of the more over-enthusiastic Brexiteers, and its proprietors are rumoured to be opposed to a Leave vote.

One issue which could seal the deal for both is immigration. Notably, The Sun and the Telegraph have joined the Express and the Mail in recent days in focusing heavily on the resumption of the EUs migration crisis, the Governments continued failure to fulfil its tens of thousands pledge and the new trend of boats smuggling illegal migrants across the English Channel.

Todays Sun Says editorial declares that voters simply want the politicians they elect to be able to control immigration numbers. Its not rocket science. Meanwhile, the Telegraph has gone further, committing itself to a full-blown campaign on border security. This tack leads the paper to act as a regular outlet for Vote Leave messages which chime with its declared aim  today splashing with Michael Goves essay about the way the EU puts Britain at risk.

The deeper both papers get into the issue, the closer they come to making a clear Leave argument, and the harder it becomes for them to later backpedal. It would still be just about possible for the Telegraph to end up declaring for Remain, but its increasingly hard to imagine the rhetorical contortions required to do so while still claiming to stand up for secure borders.
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Dreams Of Control: Israel, Global Censorship, And The Internet

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

02 June, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Under the cover of darkness, there is no limit to the expansion of Big Brother.

Ilan Gilon, Meretz Party (Israel), Times of Israel, Feb 4, 2016

While Israels central justification for its often reactionary policies is couched in hyper-exceptionalist rhetoric, nourished by the ashes of Holocaust remembrance, current interest in censoring the Internet is far from exceptional.

Like a machine of justification against its critics and its enemies, Israel enlists various projects under the banner of the remarkable and precious, when it is simply accomplishing what other states have done before or since: the banal and ordinary. All states want to limit expression, control criticism and marginalise the sceptics. Some do it more savagely, and roughly, than others.

Israels military censor, Col. Ariella Ben Avraham, who is part of the IDFs Directorate of Military Intelligence, gave a good example of this in February by insisting that social media activists and bloggers submit material relevant to security matters for approval prior to posting. The move also revealed an increasing interest to police the digital realm, previously considered an anarchic jungle incapable of effective policing.

Up to 32 Israeli bloggers and social media activists were informed about the directive, one of the first being Yossi Gurvitz, a left-wing activist running the Friends of George Facebook page. In rather unceremonious fashion, he was informed via Ben Avrahams private Facebook account that he was obligated to run future submissions by her office. To his credit, he promises to defy the order.

Internal censorship is but one aspect of this policy. Israel Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has dipped into the discourse of censorship to convince others that limiting various social media platforms on a global scale is the way to go. In January, he revealed the inner ambition of Israels security establishment to internationalise the censorship effort.

To achieve that goal, Erdan speaks of an international coalition that would make limiting criticism of Israel its primary objective. The central aim is hardly imaginative: making such providers as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook face up to responsibility as to what they host on their sites.

The Erdan plan suggests that various countries would form a loose coalition that would keep an eye on content and where it is being posted, and members of the coalition would work to demand that the platforms remove the content that was posted in any of their countries at the request of members. The simple idea behind this collusion is extra-territorial cooperation, effectively circumventing the global nature of such platforms.

As for the scurrilous subject matter itself, the issues are universal fare for states keen to control matters that supposedly stimulate the darker side of human nature. (Read: contrary to state interests.) Erdans office gives the example of material from a Palestinian (of course) disclosing the best locations on the body to inflict fatal stab wounds.

This begs that grand question about how far such an effort goes: control the more sordidly violent sides of the Old Testament because it encourages various unsavoury practices? Limit suggestive literature being discussed in the whirl of social media, buzzing away with malicious promise? The mind is an untidy place filled with remarkable things, and not all of them necessarily make it to actual perpetration. This is a point that continues to elude the mighty warriors of the security state.

Another justification is being thrown in: they, the social media giants, rake in the proceeds, and should therefore man the barricades. We are planning to put a stop to this irresponsibility, claimed Erdans office, and we are going to do it as part of an international coalition that has had enough of this behaviour as well.

Other governments have also done their bit to limit the internet and content available to their citizens. Most famously, Beijing runs its own Great Firewall of China, overseen by the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), while the State Council Information Office and the Chinese Communist Partys Propaganda Department examine content.

In recent times, countries of a supposedly democratic character have taken to the blinds and endeavoured to do what Erdan dreams about. Dangerous thoughts are seen as the reason for dangerous actions. To that end, the country that gave Europe the Enlightenment has been busy forging its own vision of global internet censorship, using a mixture of security and privacy concerns.

The latter has proven to have potentially pernicious consequences, framed largely as an effort to protect the privacy of the French citizen. From that vantage point, a vision of global control has been built on a premise forged in European law: the right to be forgotten. The Court of Justice of the European ruling of May 13, 2014 (Google Spain v Agencia Espanola de Proteccion de Datos, Mario Costeja Gonzalez) has supplied the subject matter for the latest enlargement of censorship powers.

The French response has been intrusively enthusiastic, with the privacy regulator, CNIL, fining Google 100,000 Euros in March for not applying the right to be forgotten across the global network. In the chilling words of the regulator, For people residing in France to effectively exercise their right to be delisted, it must be applied to the entire processing operation. Erdan may well be irritated he did not come up with that one.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com












What We Can Learn From Leaked Terrorist Torture Videos

By Mickey Z.

02 June, 2016

World News Trust

Trigger warning: graphic descriptions of extreme terrorist torture techniques.

Being a writer who covers radical issues occasionally has its perks.

For example, I recently became the recipient of three secret torture videos (complete with captions and descriptions). The anonymous senders said they trusted Id make good use of them. So, with this important mission in mind, please allow me to introduce a horrifying but illuminating glimpse into the terrorist mindset.

The first footage showed a bruised and battered captive stripped naked and being kept in a small cage, a cage too small to allow the person to either stand or lie flat at full extension. The victim was wearing some kind of collar which was connected to cage itself by a long chain leash of sorts.

We next see a terrorist enter the room, open the cage, and disconnect the chain. He uses the chain leash to lead the captive out on all-fours. Interestingly, the victim makes no effort to resist but perhaps the caption explains why: Pacification through terror.

The last few minutes of the video involves the hate-fueled torturer pushing the captive into a prone position, face-up, and then straddling them -- knees pinning the victims arms to the filthy floor. At this point, the sadist begins to pummel the captives face and upper body with punches in what looks like a MMA match without a referee. The sound of clenched fists hitting flesh is nauseating.

Video #2 begins with the victim already naked, on all-fours, and seemingly under the influence of some kind of sedative or narcotic. Three torturers are in the room.

One roughly holds the captives head in position so they can see whats happening. A second terrorist inserts a clear plastic tube into the victims anus. At the other end of the tube is a large plastic funnel. The third abuser holds a pail filled with water.

Swimming in the water are live silvery fishes about six inches long and maybe 1.5 inches in diameter. He lifts the pail up and pours several of the fishes into the funnel. Gravity forces the fish to swim through the clear tube and into the victims anus.

The clip ends with a shot of the captives expressionless face, eyes rolling back in their head. Caption: It should be more compliant after this treatment.

Finally, we see another naked victim being held in an intricate restraint on a tall table. Their spread legs are held in place with knees bent up towards their chest, arms cuffed to the table at the wrists, and head held in place by a thick iron collar thats also attached to the table.

Judging from the open cuts, bruises, welts, and scars, the victim has been subjected to a brutal beating. A terrorist stands close by, holding a small jar bearing the label Fire Sauce. He uses a medium-sized paintbrush to stir the sauce, bringing the gooey brush close to the victims nose. The victim recoils. This substance is obviously quite potent.

The laughing sadist then uses the brush to slowly and meticulously paint the hot sauce onto the victims shaved genitals. The result: harrowing shrieks and howls of agony -- made even more unforgettable by the words used to describe the terror tactics: Cannot move, cannot scream, cannot rest, cannot escape. Can only endure.

I turned off the last video and wondered: What kind of hate must one feel to perform such torture and to film it? Who are these savages and who is funding them? ISIS? CIA? Mossad? Al Qaeda? Did this cruelty take place at Gitmo or perhaps a secret prison in North Korea?

But just then, a second e-mail arrived to reveal the origin of all three videos of sadistic abuse. And what a relief to learn it was a false alarm! The source was a popular social media website.

It wasnt terrorism. It wasnt torture. It wasnt even illegal! It was just mainstream, easily accessible porn.

(And thankfully, the individuals I called victims were just women.)

Mickey Z. can be found here.










Veterans For Peace Calls for Nuclear Disarmament in Our Lifetime

By Veterans For Peace

02 June, 2016

Veteransforpeace.org

President Obamas visit to Hiroshima has been the subject of much commentary and debate. Peace activists, scientists and even the New York Times called on Obama to use the occasion to announce meaningful steps toward worldwide nuclear disarmament, as he famously promised before receiving his premature Nobel Peace Prize.

At Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Barack Obama delivered the kind of eloquent speech he is known for  some say his most eloquent yet. He called for an end to nuclear weapons. He said that the nuclear powers must have the courage to escape the logic of fear, and pursue a world without them. Incisively, Obama addedWe must change our mindset about war itself.

President Obama announced no new steps, however, to achieve nuclear disarmament. Disappointingly, he stated,We may not realize this goal in my lifetime.

Certainly not if Obama hands the next administration his initiative to modernize the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal. That is a 30-year program estimated to cost One Trillion Dollars, or $1,000,000,000,000,000. Smaller, more precise and usable nukes would be in the mix.

There are other bad signs. Standing next to Obama at Hiroshima was Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is shredding Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, the pacifist clause that bars Japan from sending troops abroad or engaging in war. The alarmingly militaristic Abe has even hinted that Japan itself should become a nuclear power.

The Obama administration is encouraging Japan to have a more aggressive military posture, as part of a U.S. backed regional response to Chinas assertion of primacy in the South China Sea. That is also the context for Obamas announcement that he is lifting the U.S. embargo of weapons sales to Vietnam. The U.S. normalizes relations by selling weapons of war.

The so-called Asia Pivot, which would see 60% of U.S. military forces stationed in the Pacific, is only one current assertion of U.S. global hegemony. The U.S. is involved in multiple wars in the Middle East, it continues its longest war in Afghanistan, and it is pushing NATO, including Germany, to station significant military forces on Russias borders.

The U.S. nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed 200,000 civilians, were inexcusable and morally reprehensible, especially since, according to many U.S. military leaders, they were absolutely unnecessary, as the Japanese were already defeated and were looking for a way to surrender.

Veterans For Peace Apologizes to Japanese People and the World

U.S. presidents may never apologize for what our country did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But we do. Veterans For Peace expresses our deepest condolences to all those who were killed and maimed, and to their families. We apologize to the Hibakusha, the survivors of the nuclear bombings, and we thank them for their courageous, continuing witness.

We apologize to all the Japanese people and to all the people of the world. This hugely atrocious crime against humanity should never have happened. As military veterans who have come to see the tragic futility of war, we promise that we will continue working for peace and disarmament. We want to see nuclear disarmament in our lifetime.

It is a miracle that that there have been no nuclear wars since the U.S. bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We now know that the world has been close to nuclear annihilation on several occasions. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty calls on the nuclear powers (nine nations and growing), to negotiate in good faith to reduce and eventually eliminate all nuclear weapons. Nothing of the sort is taking place.

The aggressive U.S. military posture, including its development of new nuclear weapons, has prompted China and Russia to respond in kind. China will soon be launching nuclear-armed submarines to cruise the Pacific Ocean. Russia, threatened by the placement of defensive U.S. missile systems near its borders, is upgrading its nuclear capacities, and is touting new submarine-fired nuclear-armed cruise missiles. U.S. and Russian missiles remain on a hair-trigger alert. The U.S. reserves the right to a first strike.

Is Nuclear War Inevitable?

India and Pakistan continue to test nuclear weapons and to fight over the territory of Kashmir, constantly risking the possibility of a greater war in which nuclear weapons might be used.

North Korea, threatened by the presence of nuclear weapons on U.S. Navy ships, and by the refusal of the U.S. to negotiate an end to the Korean War, brandishes its own nuclear weapons.

Israel has as many as 200 nuclear weapons with which they intend to maintain their dominance in the Middle East.

The possession of nuclear weapons earned the former colonial powers Britain and France their seats at the UN Security Council.

Iran does not have nuclear weapons, was not even close to acquiring them, and they claim they do not want them. But one could certainly understand if they and other countries who feel threatened by nuclear powers might want to acquire the ultimate deterrent. If Saddam Hussein had actually had nuclear weapons, the U.S. would not have invaded Iraq.

There is a very real possibility that nuclear weapons could fall into the hands of terrorist organizations, or just be inherited by governments that are more militarist than the last.

In short, the danger of nuclear war, or even multiple nuclear wars, has never been greater. Given the current trajectory, nuclear war actually appears inevitable.

Nuclear disarmament will likely occur only when the powers that be, beginning with the United States, are pressured by millions of peace-loving people into abandoning militarism and adopting a peaceful, cooperative foreign policy. President Obama is right when he says that we must rethink war itself.

Veterans For Peace is committed to opposing U.S. wars, both overt and covert. Our Mission Statement also calls on us to expose the true costs of war, to heal the wounds of war, and to push for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. We want to abolish war once and for all.

The Golden Rule Sails for a Nuclear-Free World

Last year Veterans For Peace (VFP) dramatically stepped up our efforts to educate people about the dangers of nuclear weapons when we relaunched the historic antinuclear sailboat, the Golden Rule. The 34-foot peace boat was the star of the VFP Convention in San Diego last August, and stopped in ports along the California coast for unique public events. Now theGolden Ruleis beginning a 4-1/2 month voyage (June  October) throughout the waterways of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The Golden Rule will be sailing for a nuclear-free world and a peaceful, sustainable future.

We will make common cause with many people in the Pacific Northwest who are concerned about the devastation of climate change, and are organizing against dangerous coal, oil and natural gas infrastructure in their port towns. We will remind them that the risk of nuclear war is also a threat to the very existence of human civilization.

Veterans For Peace will encourage climate justice activists to work also for peace and nuclear disarmament. The peace movement, in turn, will grow as it embraces the movement for climate justice. We will build a profound international movement and work hopefully together for a peaceful, sustainable future for all.

Veterans For Peace is an international organization made up of military veterans, military family members, and allies. We accept veteran members from all branches of service. We are dedicated to building a culture of peace, exposing the true costs of war, and healing the wounds of war. Our networks are made up of over 120 chapters across the United States and abroad.








Harassment And Intimidation Of Rights Delgation In Bastar:

Sitaram Yechury's Letter To Chattisgarh CM



By Sitaram Yechury

02 May, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Shri Raman Singh

Chief Minister

Government of Chattisgarh

Raipur

Dear Sir,

I wish to draw your attention to a serious matter and seek your

intervention.

A delegation comprising of Sanjay Parate, Secretary, Chattisgarh State

Committee and member of the Central Committee of the CPI(M), Vineet Tiwari,

a CPI member belonging to Joshi-Adhikari Institute, New Delhi, Archana

Prasad, Prof. JNU and member of All India Democratic Women's Association and

Nandini Sundar, Prof. DU visited Bastar division from 12th 16th May 2016. I

need not to remind you that we as a registered and recognized national

political party have both constitutional and legal right to visit any part

of the country which includes the state of Chattisgarh to interact with the

people in order to understand their problems and also to organise them to

raise their demands. This delegation visited Nama Kamakoleng and some other

villages where people are living through the conflict between the state and

Maoists. People complained of harassment both by Police and Maoists and told

about their problems and miseries.

However, the local police later on produced a fake complaint in the name of

villagers claiming that the delegation instigated the villagers and asked

them to support the Maoists. So much so that the district collector of

Bastar Mr. Amit Kataria posted the so-called complaint of villagers on his

Facebook page without verification. What worries me more than this

irresponsible behaviour of Bastar DC is that the police organised rallies

with Samajik Ekta type vigilantes in front of Darbha Thana demanding that an

FIR be registered against the delegation members. The police have also been

cross questioning all those who interacted with the delegation members

including the driver of the hired vehicle in order to intimidate them. This

amounts to curbing and suppressing opposition political parties and their

legitimate political activities by falsely alleging and labeling them as

being supportive of the Maoists. Such falsehood cannot be accepted in a

democracy like ours.

I am aware of the fact that such intimidating tactics are also being used by

Bastar police and administration against journalists, researchers, lawyers

and others to prevent them from visiting Bastar and reporting about

violation of human and constitutional rights of the people.

The CPI(M) has been working and contesting elections in Chattisgarh for

quite a long time. This kind of harassment never occurred. Intimidating

political opponents will not help to solve the Maoist problem. What needs to

be done is the political isolation of Maoists for which the full play of

democracy is an essential pre-requisite.

Therefore all political parties must be allowed to conduct their legitimate

political activities in the Bastar region without any fear and journalists

must be allowed to report truthfully the ground realities.

Can I hope that you will instruct the Bastar police and administration not

to harass and falsely implicate activists of opposition parties, journalists

and others.

Yours sincerely

Sd/-

(Sitaram Yechury)

General Secretary



Copy to: Shri Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister, New Delhi












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By Len Wells of the Courier and Press

UCI Acquisition Holdings, the parent company of Airtex Products in Fairfield, Illinois and Champion Laboratories in Albion, Illinois has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The filing was recorded Wednesday in federal court in Delaware. The company is owned by Auckland, New Zealand billionaire Graeme Richard Hart. Hart's Rank Group purchased the company in 2011 for $980 million.

According to court documents, the filing affects Airtex Products in Fairfield, Champion Laboratories in Albion and West Salem and ASC Industries in Canton, Ohio. Airtex is a major manufacturer of fuel pumps. Champion Labs manufactures a wide assortment of automotive filters. ASC Industries manufactures automotive water pumps. Company documents reveal UCI lost more than $500 million last year on sales of $784 million.

Corporate wide, UCI has approximately 1,800 employees. Bankruptcy documents reveal the company has reported assets of $435 million with liabilities of more than $715 million.

UCI's general counsel Keith Zar said he does not expect the filing to have an impact on the day-to-day operations of the affected firms. UCI has asked the bankruptcy court for authorization to keep paying wages, salaries and benefits and to continue all customer programs during the bankruptcy proceedings.

Champion Laboratories remains the largest employer in Edwards County. At one time, Airtex Products was the largest employer in Wayne County with more than 1,000 workers. In May 2015, UCI announced plans to move the bulk of its production jobs from Fairfield to plants in Mexico and China.

Current employment has since dwindled to less than 75 workers.
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INDIANAPOLIS  Mitch McConnell said it pretty plainly.

Appearing on the MSNBC program "Morning Joe," McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who is the U.S. Senate majority leader, said he supported Donald Trump as the GOP's presidential nominee because The Donald had received "the most votes."

That's hardly a ringing endorsement, but that's pretty much the way the Republican establishment has accepted the inevitability of Trump  with all the enthusiasm one normally reserves for a root canal or a colonoscopy.

McConnell's analysis became much more intriguing, though, when he was asked about how Trump's candidacy might affect McConnell's world, the U.S. Senate.

McConnell offered up his standard terrapin-like shrug and smile combination and said he didn't think Trump's run would make much difference to Republican Senate candidates across the country. Senate races, McConnell said, were large enough to be their own thing  and the party's candidates could chart winning courses independent of Trump.

Translation: Republican Senate candidates have McConnell's permission  even his encouragement  to run as far away from the GOP's presidential nominee as they need to or can.

That's probably good advice, but it will be hard to follow.

The implications of McConnell's counsel to Republican Senate candidates is likely to have interesting implications in many states. That includes Indiana, where U.S. Rep. Todd Young, R-Indiana, is locked in what appears to be a tough race against former U.S. Rep. Baron Hill, D-Indiana, for the seat left open by the retirement of U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, R-Indiana.

Young is a thoughtful, low-key guy. If he had his way, he probably would prefer to run as the second coming of Mitch Daniels, a can-do problem-solver with a profound, almost religious, faith in market forces as the instruments of great change.

This is not the right year, though, for Young to have his way.

He's just emerged from a bruising primary fight with U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Indiana. Stutzman is a tea party favorite and a social conservative darling. His supporters viewed Young's occasional attempts to introduce elements of reality and practicality into the political dialogue the way crusaders in the Middle Ages regarded having infidels occupy the Holy Land.

Young will have to find ways to bring those folks around. It won't be easy.

He'll also be running alongside Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who has yet to find a divisive social issue he doesn't want to embrace. Pence is fighting for his political life in this campaign  and doing his best to suck all the oxygen out of the room in the process.

Somehow, Young will have to find some space in the political atmosphere where the air is clear of Pence's heavy breathing.

And then there's Trump, whose whole approach to campaigning is to say and do outrageous things on a regular basis so that he dominates  no, overwhelms  the attention of the media and the electorate through news cycle after news cycle.

Trump also changes policy positions with the promiscuity of a bee pollinating flowers, so distancing oneself from him won't be effortless, either. The Trump position Young opposes today may evolve, as The Donald continues his chameleon act, into the Trump position Young is forced to endorse tomorrow.

Good luck cutting through all that noise.

In a normal election year, Young probably would win this race in a walk. Indiana is a conservative state. What's more, he's already defeated Baron Hill once, when they ran against each other for the Southern Indiana congressional seat Hill held and Young won. There likely isn't much Hill can throw at him that Young and his team haven't seen before.

But this isn't a normal election year.

Young's party  the Republican Party  isn't doing him or other Senate and congressional candidates many favors this time around.

Young and others probably will try to follow Mitch McConnell's and distance themselves from Donald Trump and his philosophic and emotional volatility.

They'll try to run as far away from him as they can.

The question is whether they'll be able to hide.

John Krull is director of Franklin College's Pulliam School of Journalism, host of "No Limits" WFYI 90.1 Indianapolis and publisher of TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
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By Len Wells of the Courier and Press

Prosecutors in Richland County, Illinois have dismissed a felony perjury indictment against an Illinois State Police detective.

A Richland County Grand Jury indicted Rick White of Fairfield, Illinois in January, alleging he gave a false statement during a deposition in a civil case.

The complaint against White was filed by retired Illinois State Police detective and former Olney Mayor Kelly Henby. Henby was working as a private investigator looking into allegations against his former co-worker, retired Illinois State Police detective and former Wayne County Sheriff Jim Hinkle of Fairfield. Hinkle was being investigated by White for sexual misconduct. Hinkle was never charged in the case.

Eventually, White investigated Henby for working as a private investigator without a license. He was eventually charged with the offense in Coles County, Illinois  a charge that was later dropped after the Illinois Department of Professional Regulations fined Henby $1,000. The Springfield-based private investigations firm he worked for was fined $3,000.

Richland County State's Attorney Brad Vaughan dismissed the criminal indictment Wednesday after White's attorney filed a motion to dismiss it in May.

Attached to the motion to dismiss the indictment was a letter from previous Richland County State's Attorney David Hyde to Kelly Henby, stating "I believe that a jury would not find beyond a reasonable doubt that (White) committed perjury. Therefore, the state declines to prosecute."

Hyde later stepped down from the state's attorney's position and was replaced by Brad Vaughan who, just days before the statute of limitations ran out on prosecuting the case, called a grand jury and secured an indictment of White.
DENNY SIMMONS / COURIER & PRESS Deaconess Health System

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By John Martin of the Courier and Press

Deaconess Health System confirmed it filed about 20,000 lawsuits over a five-year period related to unpaid medical bills and recently changed its financial policies because of questions from investigative reporting entities.

The reports by ProPublica and NPR detailed litigation by nonprofit hospitals against low-income debtors, some of which involved seizing patients' wages. Although the crux of the reporting focused on a St. Joseph, Missouri, hospital that filed thousands of cases, it also discovered that many other tax-exempt hospitals across the country rely on such litigation, specifically mentioning Evansville-based Deaconess.

A Wednesday article reported that Deaconess filed 20,000 suits between 2010 and 2015  more than the Missouri hospital did  and that Deaconess "reconsidered its financial assistance policies after questions from ProPublica last week and said it would be making changes."

A prepared response from Deaconess stated that two practices were changed "to help more patients receive the financial assistance they need."

Those changes:

Financial assistance will be offered through the life of a patient's account. Previously, financial assistance stopped once the account moved into the legal system, but now, patients may receive assistance from the time they enter the health system through the end of the collection process.

Full financial assistance now is provided up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, with a sliding scale for financial assistance up to 350 percent. That represents an increase of 100 percent for full assistance and 50 percent for the sliding scale assistance. It is in addition to an existing two-year, interest-free payment plan and charity care that forgives medical bills that are so significant the patient never would be able to pay in full.

Beverly Myers of Evansville said an emergency room visit at Deaconess three years ago netted her about a $4,000 bill, and after an initial talk with Deaconess, it didn't take long before she started hearing from debt collectors.

"I called and said let's set up a payment plan, and they said sure we can do that," said Myers, a 65-year-old retired nurse. "I got a bill and paid about $200. Then the next call was from a collection agency."

Myers said she's heard similar stories from others whose debt was turned over to a collection agency after minimal consultation with the hospital.

"Why would you put that kind of agony on somebody who's already had a problem," she said.

The prepared response from Deaconess says it has 21 financial counselors who interact with patients to determine financial need, and they work in locations throughout the health system. As part of that process, about 8,500 Deaconess patients obtained coverage through Medicaid, Disability and Exchange programs in the past year, according to the company.

During the 2014-15 fiscal year, Deaconess officials say the company expended nearly $11 million for subsidized health services, including those that serve low-income individuals.

Deaconess officials also said that lawsuits the company files are in its own name, rather than those of debt-collection agencies, a fact that perhaps invited greater outside scrutiny.

"There's no way to know the quantity of others unless you know the names of collection agencies representing them," said Ashley Johnson, a Deaconess spokeswoman.

The Courier & Press reached out to the other major local nonprofit health-care provider, St. Mary's Health, for information about its financial assistance programs for low-income patients. St. Mary's on Thursday said it was unable to address the frequency of its litigation for patient debt or the manner in which it files such litigation.

St. Mary's awards charity to individuals up to 400 percent of the federal poverty limit. All noninsured patients are offered a charity application, and all statements have an application for charity care on the back.

According to St. Mary's, patient responsibility accounts are placed in the billing cycle. After the third statement, accounts are assessed for financial assistance eligibility. If they qualify, financial assistance is applied. If the account does not qualify it is sent to collections.

Those that are later determined to qualify for charity and are pulled back and awarded the charity they were able to receive, according to St. Mary's.
SHARE Indiana Gov. Mike Pence

By Chelsea Schneider And Tony Cook, USA TODAY NETWORK The Indianapolis Star

Two years after passing up millions of dollars in federal preschool funding, Gov. Mike Pence says he is now interested in the money.

In a letter today to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Pence expressed interest in expanding the state's $10-million-a-year preschool pilot program with the help of the federal grant program.

"Because of the success of our first-ever, state-funded pre-K pilot program, I am committed to opening doors of opportunity to serve even more disadvantaged children in our state," Pence said in an emailed statement about the letter. "Since the On My Way Pre-K pilot program has come online, we've served 2,300 kids in the five pilot project counties. I am committed to growing this program using state and available federal resources."

The news is likely to be welcomed by child advocacy groups and education officials, who sharply criticized Pence's last-minute decision in 2014 not to pursue $80 million from the federal Preschool Development Grants program. At that time, he cited concerns about "federal intrusion."

In his letter today, the governor said he was keeping a promise to lawmakers when he turned down that money.

"By not expanding the pilot program prematurely, I kept a promise I made to key legislative leaders in order to gain their support for my prekindergarten program," he wrote. "I promised we would not expand the program until we saw evidence that it was working."

The pilot program began in 2015 and demand has far outstripped the available spots. In Marion County, for example, state and city funding met just 30 percent of the demand. Turned away were more than 3,000 of the county's youngest and lowest-income residents.

A legislative study that tracks participating students in the state program through third grade won't be completed for several years.

In his letter to Burwell, Pence cited "many significant milestones...including the completion of infrastructure design and implementation, successful family and community outreach efforts, and eligible prekindergarten provider capacity building."

The letter comes as the Republican governor seeks re-election in a hotly contested race. Polls show that a number of education controversies during Pence's first term have taken their toll. When asked which candidate would do the best job improving education, Pence got only 32 percent, compared to 42 percent for his Democratic challenger John Gregg, according to one recent poll.

"While we are glad that Mike Pence is finally coming to terms with his colossal mistake of turning away $80 million of our own tax dollars to fund pre-school programs, it is clear this is an election year stunt," said Jeff Harris, a spokesman for Gregg's campaign. "When John Gregg is governor, he will to do more than write a letter. He will have an actionable plan to fully fund pre-kindergarten across the state and he will get it done."

Pence pushed hard for the pre-K pilot program, even testifying before lawmakers. He has also sought to increase charter school funding, expand access to private school vouchers, and drop the use of Common Core educational standards. More recently, he led an effort to remove state superintendent Glenda Ritz, a Democrat, as the chairwoman of the state board of education and has supported an ongoing effort to replace the state's problem-plagued ISTEP student assessment test.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, called Pence's decision to reach out to federal officials "a great development." He said expanding the preschool pilot program would likely be a priority in the 2017 legislative session.

"We're walking in progressive steps and its my hope we might be able to double the size of the program," he said.

Ritz, whose department spent hours preparing the 2014 federal grant application, called Pence's letter "political showboating."

"Because of Governor Pence's inaction, Indiana is years behind in implementing pre-K throughout our state," she said. "Our children deserve better."
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By Nancy De Gennaro and Stacey Barchenger, The Tennessean / USA TODAY Network

SMYRNA  A U.S. official says the pilot killed in a Blue Angels jet crash today was identified as Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, according to the Associated Press.

The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, according to the Associated Press.

The pilot of the F/A-18 jet was taking off to start a practice flight when the crash occurred at 3:01 p.m., according to the Naval Air Forces. The crash was about two miles from the runway.

"The Navy is deeply saddened by the loss of this service member," a statement from the Naval Air Forces reads. "We extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the family of the pilot, and those he served with."

RELATED: Tributes pour in for Capt. Jeff Kuss

The other five Blue Angels aircraft landed minutes later. No other injuries were reported.

The military flight demonstration unit was in Smyrna for the Great Tennessee Airshow on Saturday and Sunday. The Blue Angels will not participate in the show, the Naval Air Forces said after the crash.

According to the Blue Angels' website, Kuss flew plane number six. He was from Durango, Colo., and graduated Fort Lewis College in 2006. He joined the Blue Angels in September 2014 and had flown more than 1,400 hours, about 150 hours more than is required to join the elite flying team.

A fireball and thick black plume of smoke from the crash could be seen just beyond the runway at Smyrna Airport and from Interstate 24 in the minutes after the crash.

Helicopters circled the area and first responders cordoned off nearby areas. Bright yellow police tape kept residents of the nearby Fairway Meadows Apartment complex, at 93 Weakley Lane, at a safe distance.

Jennifer Elliott was in her yard watching the Blue Angels practice. She went inside just before the crash and said she felt the explosion at their house, which is about a mile from the Smyrna airport.

It sounded like car crashed into my house, she said. Everything shook.

Minutes later, she said she could hear sirens and the other Blue Angels team were circling over the smoke.

Rebecca Durand was in her car with her son Jordan when they saw the jet go down. Durand said she saw the nose of the jet come straight down. She thought it was a stunt.

"Instead, I just saw this big orange explosion," she said.

"Just like in the movies," Jordan Durand said.

The crash occurred the same day as another military performance plane, a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird, crashed near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado after a flyover during a graduation ceremony.

The six jets of the Blue Angels roared over downtown Nashville earlier Thursday.

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry said she was "shocked and saddened" to learn of the fatal crash.

"The Blue Angels have served to inspire and instill national pride in men, women, and children throughout our country," Barry said in a statement. "I have ordered the Metro Courthouse and Korean Veterans Memorial Bridge to be lit yellow and blue tomorrow night in honor of the life and service of this brave pilot.

The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly 66 demonstrations at 34 locations throughout the nation this year, which is the team's 70th anniversary year.

The pilots routinely invite guests to fly with them: Veterans, reporters and celebrities. Country musician Hunter Hayes was scheduled to take flight with the team Thursday and was scheduled to be in Smyrna for a briefing at 2:45 p.m. A spokeswoman for the songwriter said Hayes' team was "working closely with the Blue Angels' PR team on this matter."

The mission of the Blue Angels unit is to showcase the pride and professionalism of the United States Navy and Marine Corps through flight demonstrations and community outreach.

Media reports indicate the last fatal crash involving the Blue Angels was a 2007 crash in South Carolina. The pilot flew too low and tried to make a turn while traveling too fast, leading to the fatal crash, according to The Virginian Pilot.

At the time, The Associated Press reported the crash was the 26th fatality in Blue Angels history.

In order to fly Blue Angels jet, Navy and Marine pilots must have aircraft carrier qualifications and a minimum of 1,250 tactical jet-flight hours, according the teams website. Pilots typically serve two years before returning to their units.

Since 1946, the Blue Angels have performed for more than 484 million fans,according to the teams website.
SHARE Johnathan Cruz, 19

By Michael Anthony Adams, IndyStar / USA TODAY Network

Johnathan Cruz talked about leaving town after he'd started his "purge," according to court documents.

The 19-year-old had already killed twice, court documents said, and he told one of his girlfriends he needed to leave Indianapolis "asap."

But another man died before Cruz finally would be arrested, ending a four-day crime spree modeled after the plot of the horror film series "The Purge," in which the United States government designates a 12-hour period where all crimes, including murder, are legal.

Cruz now faces three murder charges in connection with the shooting deaths of Billy Boyd and Jay Higginbotham on May 12, and Jose Ruiz on May 15. He also faces a slew of other felony charges connected to the alleged crimes, including robbery, intimidation and more. Prosecutors are also pursuing a criminal gang enhancement.

His initial hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. on June 2 in Criminal Court 3.

The teen's victims "appeared to be 100 percent random," said Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry during a press conference Wednesday.

After Curry announced charges against Cruz, Mayor Joe Hogsett released a statement: "Senseless acts of violence such as those alleged in this case are incomprehensible, but thanks to the swift actions of IMPD detectives, Prosecutor Terry Curry and witnesses willing to come forward, we are one step closer to providing answers for these victims families.

A probable cause affidavit describes the disturbing details of the four-day spree  one that, detectives believe, is affiliated with criminal gang activity.

Cruz's violent "purge," as he described it to witnesses, according to court documents, started in the early morning hours of May 12. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers found a man, later identified as Boyd, lying dead on the sidewalk in the 3900 block of North College Avenue. He'd been shot twice in the head, and Cruz is suspected of pulling the trigger.

Hours later, in the 900 block of North Denny Street, police found another man, later identified as Higginbotham, also lying dead on the sidewalk. He'd been shot multiple times, court documents said, as he tried to run away from Cruz.

That morning, Cruz's mother sent him a text message to ask what he was doing. He responded by sending her a screenshot of a news article about the killings of Boyd and Higgenbotham.

"Delete those after u read it," Cruz told her.

"Do u know they can still pull up deleted history," his mother responded, presumably referring to police.

"Yep Ima get a new phone soon say mine was stolen," Cruz said.

On May 14, Cruz and another man, 18-year-old Steven Clark, are then accused of robbing a man at gunpoint near the intersection of East 10th Street and North Linwood Avenue. Cruz and Clark stole the man's money and cellphones, according to court documents, before pistol-whipping him and running away.

Clark also has been charged with armed robbery in connection with the incident.

Later that same day, documents said, Cruz met a teen girl he'd been selling drugs to at an east-side Wendy's. After an argument, the girl tried to leave the restaurant. Cruz grabbed her, pulled a gun from his pocket and told her he'd kill her if she left him. A manager at the Wendy's confronted them in the parking lot and was able to take Cruz's attention off the girl long enough for her to escape to her car.

When interviewed by detectives about the incident, the teenage girl told investigators that Cruz followed her after she left, documents said. She ended up going back to Cruz's friend's apartment, where Cruz tried showing her a video of him gunning down Higginbotham.

The following morning, near the intersection of East Washington Street and North Linwood Avenue, IMPD officers found Ruiz shot dead in the driver seat of a Pontiac car.

Ruiz would be Cruz's final victim, documents said, before he was arrested May 16 on charges stemming from the incident at Wendy's two days prior.

During the investigation, homicide detectives found dozens of photos and videos that show Cruz flashing cash, throwing gang signs and waving and firing pistols.

Even while locked up in the Marion County Jail, court documents said, Cruz called to ask a friend to control his Facebook page.

"Change my profile picture to me and my kid," Cruz told her, referring to a baby girl that can be found on his Facebook page. "Make everything where people can post on my page."

The Facebook page also includes a video from May 14, the day of the alleged robbery, where Cruz and another man display wads of cash before Cruz says, "Get yo money."

Several other videos show Cruz pointing a black revolver at the camera  similar to the one detectives say was used in the slayings.

And in one video, filmed in the dark, several gunshots ring out as two people laugh.
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SolarWinds Buys LogicNow To Create MSP Solutions Powerhouse

Michael Novinson

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SolarWinds has purchased IT services management firm LogicNow and will combine it with remote management and monitoring (RMM) competitor SolarWinds N-Able to boost capabilities and scale.

The Austin, Texas-based IT infrastructure management vendor said its acquisition of Dundee, Scotland-based LogicNow will provide it with the strongest and most complete portfolio of automation, security, network management and service management capabilities for MSPs. The combination of SolarWinds N-Able and LogicNow will be branded SolarWinds MSP, employ 750 and serve some 20,000 MSPs.

Financial terms of the deal, announced Wednesday, were not disclosed. After the deal, SolarWinds MSP has 20 offices in 11 countries, managing more than 5 million endpoints and 1 million mailboxes.

[Related: Private Equity Behemoths To Buy SolarWinds for $4.5B, Sending Stock Skyrocketing]

"The acquisition of LogicNow reflects our continued journey to becoming the IT management vendor of choice for all IT professionals regardless of organization size, complexity and where their infrastructure resides," Christoph Pfister, SolarWindss executive vice president of products, said in a statement. "SolarWinds is focused on delivering IT management solutions to manage today's hybrid IT infrastructure."

SolarWinds MSP will be led by former LogicNow CEO Walter Scott, with JP Jauvin, general manager of Ottawa, Ontario-based SolarWinds N-Able, reporting into Scott. Scott will report into SolarWinds CEO Kevin Thompson.

"SolarWinds MSP  will offer MSPs a complete set of IT service management solutions via the cloud and on premises delivery models," Thompson said in a statement. "SolarWinds MSP gives them everything they need to acquire and retain profitable clients, deliver outstanding levels of service and maximize their internal efficiency through standardization of their toolsets and the use of automation."

The acquisition of LogicNow was backed by a consortium of investors led by New York-based private equity giant Insight Venture Partners. Private equity goliaths Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo said in October that they had plans to purchase publicly traded SolarWinds for $4.5 billion to up its investment around cloud, hybrid and MSP environments.

SolarWinds MSP's combined powers span a broad range, according to the company, from RMM and remote control to security, backup and disaster recovery to help desk and analytics.

Choice Technologies is interested in network performance monitoring, net flow and traffic diagnostic tools beyond what LogicNow offers today, said Steve Rutkowitz, president of the Hunt Valley, Md.-based LogicNow customer. Rutkowitz said his company will particularly benefit from the network management tools SolarWinds and SolarWinds N-Able currently offer.

"I think it's exciting news," Rutkowitz told CRN. "They'll complement each other, and drive a bigger pool of products into a larger base of MSPs."

Rutkowitz said LogicNow struggles to service customers with more than 100 users, and could benefit from more centralized dashboards and economies of scale.

"With cloud, we all need to move upstream in terms of number of users," Rutkowitz said.

The deal will also likely keep one LogicNow customer from shopping for a different IT service management vendor.

"I feel lately that we've expanded beyond the typical size of their clients," said the partner executive, who didnt wish to be identified. "We've probably outgrown them."

But given SolarWinds N-Able's focus on enterprise and midmarket customers, the partner exec is willing to reconsider, especially if the acquisition results in stronger virtualization and cloud services offerings.

"I'm excited to see what this acquisition will bring to LogicNow," the partner exec said. "I think this will pull the technology in the right direction."

ITworks previously used both SolarWinds N-Able and LogicNow, but ended up switching to AVG Managed Workplace because of subpar interface, automation and mobile compatibility offerings from both N-Able and LogicNow, said Steven Taylor, founder and CEO of the Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio-based MSP.

Taylor said early reactions to the deal among his peer group were negative. He therefore thinks the deal will result in some existing LogicNow and N-Able customers switching over to RMM competitors such as AVG.

"The overall consensus that I see online of IT business owners is that nobody's happy with this, especially those that are invested in LogicNow and its product," Taylor said. "But I don't feel that any of the RMM tools are perfect."
Security News

Optiv Security Expands Into New England With Adaptive Communications Acquisition

Sarah Kuranda

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In its third acquisition of the year, Optiv Security has completed the purchase of Portsmouth, N.H.-based Adaptive Communications.

Terms of the deal, revealed Thursday, were not disclosed.

While the company's other two acquisitions focused on adding technical capabilities for identity and access management and third-party risk assessment, the acquisition of Adaptive Communications is a geographical play to expand Optiv's consulting reach further in the New England market, according to Chris Scanlan, senior vice president of worldwide sales.

[Related: Optiv Security Acquires Third-Party Risk Application Company Evantix]

When Accuvant and FishNet Security merged into Optiv last year, the Northeast market was a gap in the combined companies' geographic reach, Scanlan said. He said it was a priority for Optiv, based in Denver, to establish a presence in that region, given the number of Fortune 500 companies based there.

With 18 years of business in the region and at No. 268 on the CRN 2015 Solution Provider 500 list, Adaptive Communications has strong, established customer relationships in the Northeast market, and little overlap with current Optiv customers, Scanlan said.

"This is a great opportunity for us to fast-track our interest in this area," Scanlan said. "To get into some of those intimate service offerings [in the region], you have to have trust with the customers. We just fast-tracked that ability with the stroke of a pen with this acquisition."

Scanlan also highlighted cultural synergies with Adaptive as a key reason Optiv chose to acquire the solution provider over other players in the region.

For Adaptive, President and Owner Steve Thorpe said, joining the Optiv team means a vastly expanded set of solutions and services to offer its current customer base. He said Adaptive had been looking for an opportunity like this to accelerate its growth for about a year. Optiv made the most sense, he said, from a capabilities and culture perspective.

"A big part of Adaptive's success over the years has been the relationships we've had with our customers and the feedback for our most strategic technologies and services," Thorpe said. "We know when we go back with the offerings from Optiv we can now provide, they will see a tremendous value in that and they will be very warmly received."

All 60 Adaptive employees will be joining Optiv as part of the acquisition, including Thorpe, who will serve as area vice president for the Atlantic coast region. Facilities will remain the same, but the company's back-office systems and sales methodologies will be folded into Optiv, Scanlan said. The company will be rebranded as Optiv Security.

"This is very much about growth," Scanlan said. "This is a growth play for us and not consolidation by any stretch.  We are looking to maximize on what Steve has done for the last 18 years and be a huge force multiplier, and with the enormity of Optiv behind his sellers, we feel that we can make a huge impact in a short amount of time with the customer base."

Scanlan said acquisition will continue to be a strategy for Optiv going forward, both with an eye to expanding its geography and to technology capabilities. Scanlan said there are two other geographies in particular that Optiv is looking to expand into, but didn't specify what those regions were.

"Both types of acquisitions will continue," Scanlan said.
There are multiple reasons for the relatively rapid burnout of Chief Information Security Officers (CISO).

They include a combination of pressure and the unrealistic expectation that the CISO should not just lower the risk of major breaches, but prevent them altogether.

The modern CISO is also expected to have skills that go well beyond being a technology geek  to understand and speak the language of business, and be a strategic participant in business decisions.

[ ALSO ON CSO: Top 10 ways to retain IT security talent ]

The new CISO is more the CIRO (chief information risk officer) tasked with managing risk to data and technology, said Dawn-Marie Hutchinson, executive director in the Office of the CISO at Optiv.

Five years ago, the role was buried many layers down in the organization, if it existed at all, she said. Today, the CISO is a business leader.

Diedre Diamond, founder and CEO of CyberSN, speaking at the recent SOURCE Boston conference, offered three other reasons: Lack of understanding of the role, lack of advancement potential and unhappiness with leadership or company culture.

She cited research that shows the average CISO remains in a given position for only 17 months.

To all of that, add to the list what some are calling vendor overload  more than a thousand companies pitching security tools and solutions. That is far too many for any CISO to evaluate properly and still do the rest of the job.

There are still some compelling factors that make the CISO title attractive.

The money is good  the median salary according to some surveys is around $194,000, but it can top $270,000.

Unemployment in the field hovers around zero, since the demand for talent has overwhelmed the supply.

And over the past decade, the CISO role has taken on greater importance and influence.

But what Feris Rifai, cofounder and CEO of Bay Dynamics calls, a gold rush in security during the last three years, has made the task of evaluating security tools overwhelming.

During the last three years, there was a gold rush in security. So now there is an imbalance between the number of security vendors and the number of CISOs.

Feris Rifai, cofounder and CEO, Bay Dynamics

Investors poured money into the industry and as a result, more vendors surfaced. So now there is an imbalance between the number of security vendors and the number of CISOs, Rifai said.

He noted a 2015 report by CB Insights that found, over the past five years, $7.3 billion had been invested into a whopping 1,208 private cybersecurity startups.

David Zilberman, managing director at Comcast Ventures, a venture capital firm, acknowledges the role investment has played.

I speak to CISOs all the time regarding doing their day job vs. vendor evaluation. They just dont have the bandwidth to do it.

David Zilberman, managing director, Comcast Ventures

The need for cybersecurity is bigger than before, he said, so there are a lot of companies trying to build a better mousetrap. And venture capital firms are fueling it by funding these companies.

Andrew Hay, CISO at DataGravity, said cloud architecture may also be a factor, specifically SaaS (software as a service) delivery models, lowering the barrier to entry, leading to an exponential increase in security startups that are all, promising to solve the same problems, or invent a new problem to solve.

Whatever the reasons, Zilberman said there is now, a sea of vendors with similar products. At one point, Gartner was tracking 23 endpoint protection vendors. I speak to CISOs all the time regarding doing their day job vs. vendor evaluation. They just dont have the bandwidth to do it.

If your product or solution can solve an actual problem, and not just a marketing-derived problem, the hype fog can be cleared away from the product pretty easily.

Andrew Hay, CISO, DataGravity

The imbalance is exacerbated even more by some CISOs deciding to, move on and try to sell their own products, Zilberman said. Theyve joined the vendor ecosystem.

It is not just that there are hundreds of products on the market. It is also that CISOs are solicited as testers for minimum viable products  the first, rudimentary version of a tool that needs feedback from early users so developers can refine it, eliminate bugs and add features before pitching it to the mass market.

[ MORE ON CSO: Why you need a CSO/CISO ]

That label, does not mean its a bad product, Rifai said, noting that Techopedia defines it as, a development technique in which a new product or website is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product's initial users.

That model has worked, he said, but, due to the sheer volume of security vendors today, CISOs have less time to be a vendors guinea pig.

In an ideal world, Hay said, the CISO, would have a technical staff to evaluate the tools, which would allow him to focus on the strategic vision of the security program  policies, procedures, guidelines and standards that must be defined, maintained and measured, he said.

The CISO would then be brought in when a purchase decision needs to be made, to validate that the products in question align with the organizations security goals, he said.

Of course, the ideal is not always reality. So experts generally agree that the overwhelmed CISO should focus not on what vendors are selling, but on what the organization needs.

Dan Waddell, managing director, North America region and director of U.S. Government Affairs for ISC2, said CISOs should understand the environment of their organizations, and then when presented with a product pitch, ask all stakeholders to be present to provide input  not just the security team, but personnel from procurement/acquisition, finance, enterprise architects, etc.

(At a product pitch,) ask all stakeholders to be present to provide input  not just the security team, but personnel from procurement/acquisition, finance, enterprise architects, etc.

Dan Waddell, managing director, North America region and director of U.S. Government Affairs, ISC2

The various perspectives will ensure that the solution aligns with the organizations policy, governance and staffing goals, he said.

Irfan Saif, a partner in Deloitte Advisory Cyber Risk Services, said the need to understand the organizations needs and business requirements is paramount, and the failure to do that can lead to the use, or overuse, of, overlapping or redundant tools that arent integrated or arent working in unison towards mitigating and managing key risks to the organization.

That, he said, can distract from the more important task of truly understanding the risks and threats and designing the right solutions, which may include one or more technologies working in tandem.

Hutchinson agreed. Focus on what your business needs, not what tools are available, she said, adding that it is also important to make sure security measures enable the business, and dont restrict what workers need to do.

As a friend of mine says, the purpose of a door is to control the flow of people to and from the house. If I put 50 locks on the door, it is most definitely secure but it no longer functions well as a door, she said.

And when it comes to cutting through the hype, Hay said sharing information with colleagues can help. If your product or solution can solve an actual problem, and not just a marketing-derived problem, the hype fog can be cleared away from the product pretty easily, he said.

When your product or service is built on hype and not value, the industry that it aims to serve will quickly pick it apart and surface its actual value.

Zilberman agreed. Especially smaller organizations, he said, can look for tools that have had success in the industry. They can evaluate it through referenceable customers. You dont want to be the guinea pig.

Saif agreed, adding that CISOs arent the only ones dealing with a marketing blitz.

The challenge of separating fact from fiction and not being lured by slick marketing is not a challenge unique to CISOs, he said.

Zilberman said he thinks the market is sorting itself out somewhat based on Gartners so-called hype cycle, in which an emerging technology reaches a peak of inflated expectation, then slides into a trough of disillusionment and then moves back into a more sustainable growth curve called the slope of enlightenment.

The security industry is very much following that curve, he said. We were at the front end 12 months ago with huge amounts of capital pouring into it. Now, some companies are not growing as fast as expected, so were more in the trough of disillusionment.

But bad guys are not going away, he said. I think there will be a slight correction, and in the not-too-distant future, the market will rebound.
A brief report issued by Flashpoint this morning examines a recent Ransomware campaign, which so far has generated a serious amount of profit considering it takes little effort to operate. It's an interesting read, albeit a short one.

Tracking a campaign operating out of Russia since December 2015, Flashpoint says that the typical head of a Ransomware operation stands to earn about $90,000 a year, or about $7,500 per month.

In this role, the manager is responsible for recruiting distributors and malware development, which if their code skills are up to snuff, might require just a few hours a week as far as effort goes.

"Ransomware is clearly paying for Russian cybercriminals. As Ransomware as a Service campaigns become more wide-spread and accessible to even low-level cybercriminals, such attacks may result in difficult situations for individuals and corporations not yet ready to deal with these new waves of attacks," said Flashpoint's Vitali Kremez in a statement.

As most security professionals know, starting a Ransomware operation isn't all that complicated. The campaign manager will recruit Ransomware distributors, and pay them on commission for each victim that pays a ransom. Once a distributor is located and signed-up with a manager, they're on their own to find victims.

But again, this doesn't require much energy, as a distributor can purchase botnet installs from other criminals, develop their own botnet, use Phishing or social media lures, compromise websites, etc.

For this, they stand to earn about $600 a month. A typical campaign manager will run with about 10-15 distributors.

In the campaign followed by Flashpoint, the commission was 40-percent, which isn't bad considering the malware is custom-made. Unfortunately, Flashpoint didn't identify the Ransomware family, or list any additional information related to it (a bit of a let down considering they're an intelligence firm).

The Ransomware in this campaign doesn't use a C&C server, making it harder to track and shutdown. For the victim, this means the ransom payment / decryption process isn't automated.

The victim will need to email the campaign manager in order to arrange payment and receive a key to unlock their files. All the payments are properly laundered, with a base ransom of $300 USD, and an average of 30 payments a month.

Unlike other Ransomware attacks, on at least one occasion, the manager in this campaign demanded additional payments after the first one was paid. Demanding a second payment is bad for business and is generally frowned upon by other Ransomware producers and distributors.

In their view, if a victim knows the files will be released upon payment with no additional strings attached, they're more likely to pay. Demand additional payments, or refuse to unlock the files, people will stop paying. If that happens, the turnkey Ransomware industry comes to a halt.

There have been several Ransomware attacks this year in the medical industry, including MedStar Health, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, the Chino Valley Medical Center, the Desert Valley Hospital, and Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Kentucky. But while healthcare is a popular target, Ransomware distributors will target organizations of any size, operating in any vertical.

In April, Salted Hash reported that incident response teams from Stroz Friedberg addressed 3 to 4 Ransomware incidents per week in the first quarter of 2016. The ransom demands in some of those cases went as high as $50,000 USD.

Dealing with Ransomware isn't an impossible task, but when organizations lack the basics, such as properly maintained backups, recovery becomes a bit painful. For those needing a reminder, Salted Hash published a Blue Team's reference guide on Ransomware in March.

In related news, researchers at Proofpoint this week discovered that CryptXXX v3.100 was recently released.

The Ransomware variant defeats (once again) the previously released decryption tools from Kaspersky. This new version targets shared resources via SMB, and includes a new payment portal.

It's a safe bet Kaspersky will release an updated decryption tool shortly.
Go west, young man (or woman)?

Sorry, Horace Greeley, not this year. New college graduates can take advantage of much better opportunities in the East and Midwest, according to a report released Thursday by Trulia and LinkedIn.

Using LinkedIn data on jobs and its own research into housing markets, Trulia determined the 10 best cities for graduates to move to after receiving their sheepskin. The factors included entry-level job availability, rental affordability and the share of recent graduates in 40 of the largest metropolitan areas across the country.

San Francisco enjoys the highest median starting salary for grads in the nation at $48,000, but its astronomical rents and relatively lower proportional amount of available entry-level jobs banished it to the cellar. It was rated 10th weakest for graduate opportunity.

In fact, if you've recently worn a mortar board on your head, you'll probably want to stay as far away from California as possible. The bottom 10 is well-represented with Golden State metro areas:

10. San Francisco

9. San Diego

8. Riverside-San Bernardino

7. Oakland

6. San Jose

5. Sacramento

4. Portland, Ore.

3. Orange County

2. Los Angeles

1. Miami

While some of these cities offer high wages, the lack of affordable housing and entry-level jobs may make them less attractive in terms of quality of life than those ranked in the top-10, which can be seen in the above gallery.

Trulia's methodology follows:

"Our Graduate Opportunity Index ranks metropolitan areas based on three criteria: (1) the LinkedIn New Grad Job Score, which rates metros based on the share of job openings suitable for recent college grads, (2) Trulia's New Grad Affordability Score, which is the share of rental units designated as affordable (less than 30% of monthly income) to the median income college graduate between the ages of 22 and 30, and (3) the share of total population that is between the ages of 22 and 30 with a college degree, as per 2014 American Community Survey data We combine these to create a weighted average of each metro's ranking in each category. The weighting scheme is as follows: LinkedIn New Grad Job Score (33%), Trulia's New Grad Affordability Score (33%), and share of total population that is between the ages of 22 and 30 with a college degree (33%). The index ranges from 0  100, with 100 being the best scoring and 0 being the worst.
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BRIDGEPORT  A program that introduces Bridgeport middle school students to art and art history has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The grant to the Housatonic Museum of Art for its Peer Docent Program is part of more than $82 million in NEA funds for local art projects and partnerships, museum spokeswoman Laura Roberts said Thursday.

The grant will allow HMA museum educators to train 90 students to be docents, who will (then) guide 600 classmates on tours of downtown Bridgeport Roberts said in a press release.

Through the program students develop visual, analytical and critical thinking skills that will assist them across academic disciplines and throughout their lifetimes, she wrote.

The HMA Peer Docent Program is in its fifteenth year of introducing Bridgeport students to art and architecture in their region.

We are thankful to receive this award as we continue to expand students understanding of the art that surrounds them, said Robbin Zella, the art museums executive director.

For the past three years, the programs focus has been local architecture with field trips to architectural marvels in New Canaan and New York City, Zella said. For this coming year, weve partnered with the Westport Library, where its award-winning Maker Space will allow students to participate in classes, sketching their own architectural designs and making them come to life with 3-D printing.

Architect Thom Mayne, originally from Waterbury, will be a guest artist with the HMA program in the coming year, working with students at the Hall School here.

The arts are all around us, enhancing our lives in ways both subtle and obvious, expected and unexpected, said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. Supporting projects like the one from the Housatonic Museum of Art offers more opportunities to engage in the arts every day.

The HMA Peer Docent Program is a nine-week arts enrichment program that includes six in-school training sessions, two field trips to the HMA Museum, on the campus of Housatonic Community College, and a third field trip to another historically significant architectural site.
BRIDGEPORT - A Fairfield man, who triggered a lockdown at the University of New Haven three years ago when he brought guns onto the campus, pleaded guilty Thursday to trespassing on Fairfield school property.

William Dong, 25, of Stratfield Road, pleaded guilty to trespass before Superior Court Judge William Holden and was ordered to pay a $50 fine.

It was a fair disposition, Dongs lawyer, Jack Cohane, said later.

On Dec. 3, 2013, Dong was found at the UNH campus with two loaded handguns in his pockets, 270 rounds of ammunition and a Bushmaster assault rifle left in his car nearby the university. The assault rifle is banned in Connecticut - the same type of weapon used by Adam Lanza in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown - and was apparently acquired by Dong out of state.

Dong subsequently pleaded guilty to gun charges and was sentenced in Milford Superior Court to two years in prison followed by five years probation a condition of the probation was that he undergo psychiatric treatment and stay away from schools.

On Dec. 7, 2015, an assistant principal of Fairfield Woods Middle School called that Dong was seen riding a Segway down the access driveway between the middle school and Jennings School. He told police he did not realize the access road was school property.

In addition to trespassing, Dong was also charged with violating his probation in the gun case. He recently pleaded guilty in Milford Superior Court to violating that probation and was allowed to continue with his probation.
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STAMFORD  Abstract sculptures began popping up downtown Wednesday morning, part of this summers Art in Public Places exhibition.

Dubbed Downtown Expressions, this years event features 42 sculptures by 16 artists from across the country.

Harry McDaniel, a 56-year-old artist from Asheville, North Carolina, has two pieces featured in the exhibition, coming full-circle back to Stamford after beginning his career with a contest at the Stamford Train Station in 1983.

I did not end up winning, but that was a pivotal moment for me as a sculptor, said McDaniel, who was beginning his career out of New Haven at the time. In the weeks I spent preparing proposals for the competition, I realized, I think this is really what I want to do.

McDaniel moved to North Carolina in 1989, but said coming back to participate in an exhibition in Connecticut means a lot to him.

Im reconnecting with a place that was once very important to me, he said.

His steel and aluminum abstract sculpture titled Intrusion was situated outside the Ferguson Library Wednesday morning.

McDaniel said he has traveled with Intrusion quite a bit since it was finished in 2009. It has been featured in three states now, including Connecticut.

Rather than drawing from the local talent pool, Eileen Heckerling, curator of the Downtown Expressions exhibit, said it was important to reach far and wide for artists.

Its just more interesting to have a broad diversity in our pieces, Heckerling said. Everybody has different likes and dislikes, and in many cases people wont see everything in the exhibit. My goal is for everyone to see at least one sculpture they like.

Lynne Colatrella, vice president of the Downtown Special Services District, said Art in Public Places is aimed at broadening the citys cultural offerings.

Art creates a sense of place, she said. It dresses up the streets and engages the community in a dialogue.

Planning

Setting up the outdoor sculpture exhibition is no easy task.

The DSSD and the citys traffic division are installing the pieces through Friday, with the help of two fork-lifts, a loader truck and a crane.

Each of the sculptures are hoisted from the holding area on Washington Boulevard and transported via an open-air truck to its designated location.

Colatrella said locations are picked out by the pieces sponsors before they arrive, which can cause some problems on installation day.

One particularly large piece this year  Petit Glace by Jon Krawczky  was slated for the entryway of the Summer House apartment building on Summer Street, but a height issue stalled the installation process.

The artwork, which includes a base and center pole, stands at almost 12 feet, six inches. For now, it sits on Summer Street near the building entrance, where it could remain or be swapped with another piece later in the week.

The issue with that particular piece is the center pole, which makes the piece kinetic; it can move, Colatrella said. If we tried to tilt it in through the entry way, it could snap.

Colatrella said it will take a mix of creative problem solving and compromise to complete the installation process by Friday.

The DSSD will host an opening reception for the exhibit on June 14 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Palace Theatre. Sponsors and members of the public are invited to take walking tours throughout the evening to view the sculptures.
As a digitally active business in 2016, you cant afford to lose your data. Whether at the hands of a natural disaster, human error, or cyber attack, data loss is costly and extremely risky. Thats why you need a backup and disaster recovery solution.

As a small business owner, youve probably asked yourself this simple question at least once: What is BDR? Well, the most basic definition is a combination of data backup and disaster recovery solutions that are designed to work together to ensure uptime, diminish data loss, and maximize productivity in the midst of an attack, natural disaster, or other compromising situation. In other words, BDR solutions keep businesses safe when trouble strikes.

Related: 5 Steps for Managing Disaster Recovery for Your Business

According to research by Security Week, the total volume of data loss at the enterprise level has increased more than 400 percent over the past couple of years and the trend doesnt appear to be slowing down any time soon. With the rise of big data, cloud computing, and BYOD policies in the workplace, its becoming increasingly challenging for businesses to protect their private data.

IT Web suggests that the total cost of data breaches will be more than $2.1 trillion by 2019. This is in part due to the fact that small businesses dont always take security seriously. They wrongly assume that its the big corporations that face the highest risks. Unfortunately, this is a false assumption.

A Verizon report says that small data breaches -- those with fewer than 100 files lost -- cost between $18,120 and $35,730. Unless these are expenses that you can easily sustain, its time to implement a BDR plan.

Related: Don't Wait for a Disaster to Interrupt Business. Prepare Now

Five reasons why SBOs need a BDR plan.

When small businesses dont have a BDR solution/plan in place, its typically because theyre unclear about the true value of BDR.

Lets review some of the top benefits to give you an idea of why these solutions are so important to the health of your small business.

1. Protects against effects of natural disasters. Whether its a flood, earthquake, hurricane, blizzard, or other extreme natural disaster, there are plenty of uncontrollable circumstances that can cause your business to experience downtime. And, according to the National Archives and Records Administration, more than 90 percent of companies that experience at least seven days of data center downtime go out of business within a year. Let that sink in. While a BDR plan wont prevent a natural disaster from occurring, it will protect your data and ensure that downtime doesnt compromise your company.

2. Lessens impact of cyber attacks. As more and more data is moved online, cyber criminals are increasing their efforts and focusing on businesses that they believe are unprotected. In most cases, this means small businesses that appear vulnerable. Once again, a BDR plan can limit the impact of an attack and can prevent your business from losing valuable data.

3. Keeps client data safe. Do you store a lot of confidential client or customer data? If so, you cant afford to lose this data or let it slip into the wrong hands. A BDR plan ensures that all of this information is properly stored and controlled. As a result, you dont have to worry about damaging your brand reputation, should an unforeseeable incident arise.

4. People make mistakes. While natural disasters and cyber attacks are discussed more than anything else, the reality is that your own employees are sometimes responsible for the biggest data losses. Mistakes happen and a single poor choice can end up compromising data. Thats why its so important for businesses not only to train employees properly, but also invest in backup solutions.

5. Systems fail. Finally, we all know that hardware, machines, and other systems fail. Regardless of how much you spend on your technology, no solution is perfect. Even systems that come with 99.9 percent uptime guarantees will falter every once in a while. As such, businesses must invest in robust BDR plans that account for all of these risks.

What to look for in a BDR solution.

Once you determine that your business needs a BDR plan in place, how do you find the right solution? While every business is different, start by analyzing the following:

Hardware compatibility. Depending on the hardware that your business uses, you may need a BDR solution thats specifically tailored to your current setup. Keep this in mind as you compare options.

Depending on the hardware that your business uses, you may need a BDR solution thats specifically tailored to your current setup. Keep this in mind as you compare options. Scalable pricing. As your business grows over time, youre going to collect and store more data. A flexible pricing model will allow you cost-effectively to scale according to your demands.

As your business grows over time, youre going to collect and store more data. A flexible pricing model will allow you cost-effectively to scale according to your demands. Around-the-clock support. You never know when disaster will strike. Make sure that your BDR vendor has 24/7/365 technical support available.

You never know when disaster will strike. Make sure that your BDR vendor has 24/7/365 technical support available. Strong reputation. Finally, its important to consider the BDR solutions reputation. How long has it been on the market? What do customers say? The answers to these questions will tell you a lot.

If you can find a BDR solution that meets these four criteria, then youve probably found the right solution for your business.

Related: The 4 Basics for Preventing Tech Calamities No Business Can Afford

Protect your business.

Nobody wants to assume that something bad is going to happen to their business  and hopefully youll never be exposed to any of the risks highlighted in this article  but the harsh reality is that youll likely face one of these issues at some point in the future.

Theres no way to prevent a cyber attack, natural disaster, technical malfunction or uncontrollable human error, but you can protect your business from costly data loss by investing in a solution that aids in data backup and disaster recovery. Frankly, its unwise to wait any longer.

Related:



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BROOKFIELD  A woman who was sentenced to prison for illegally enrolling her daughters friend in the town high school is seeking to overturn her conviction.

Madeline Griffin, 44, was sentenced this spring to 10 years in prison, suspended after five years, for forging custody documents so a Bridgeport girl who was living in her home could attend Brookfield High. Authorities said the fraud cost the district nearly $47,000 in unpaid out-of-district tuition.

But the womans new lawyer, Josephine Miller, has vowed to fight the conviction, arguing her client should not have been charged in the first place. Griffin was arrested in March 2014, five months after a new state law took effect decriminalizing placement of students in schools outside their home district.

She was making sure the kid went to school somewhere, rather than living in her house and just hanging out, Miller said. Thats no longer a crime.

Court records show Miller forged juvenile court documents to gain custody of the Bridgeport teen and enroll her in the school. The woman told the district the student was her niece, but the girls biological mother said the only tie between the two was their daughters were dating, according to an arrest warrant.

The biological mother, who lives with her husband in Bridgeport, told authorities in October 2013 that she had been in contact with her daughter mostly by telephone for the previous year and did know she had been living in Brookfield. The girl would sometimes come home on weekends, stay for a little while and leave when her parents went to work, court records show.

Miller said jailing someone for trying to ensure children get educated is draconian.

Its very upsetting to me that she was given a sentence of 10 years, with five to serve, all over an issue of her having enrolled a child in school, Miller said.

Brookfield school officials told authorities the girls education cost about $23,000 for each of the two years she was a student at the high school. Per-pupil spending in the district is $13,700, but the cost can be higher when including special education services officials.

The relevant law, signed by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy in 2013, decriminalized the practice of placing a child in an out-of-district school  known as boundary-hopping.

Passage of the law followed two prominent cases that sparked outrage across the country.

In 2011, a homeless woman, Tanya McDowell, was charged with first-degree larceny for sending her child to a public elementary school in Norwalk despite living in Bridgeport. She was sentenced to five years in jail.

Years earlier, a woman was charged with larceny after it was discovered she and her grandchildren, who were attending Stratford public schools, actually lived in Milford.

Griffin has the support of the Connecticut Parents Union, one of the key advocates for the 2013 bill.

She shouldn't have been charged with stealing public education, absolutely not, said Gwen Samuel, founder of the union.

Samuel added her organization would play an active role in the case.

We believe the lawyers, the judge and the prosecutor should have done their homework, she said. Whatever people may think about the issue, the law is the law.

Miller said her client did not know when she pleaded no contest to the felony charge that she faced a possible 10-year sentence. Griffin was convicted of first-degree larceny and second-degree forgery.

Part of the reason was that, although she appeared to be lucid, she has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and shes on lots of meds, Miller said.

Griffins previous public defender and the states attorney who prosecuted the case did not return calls seeking comment Wednesday.

Even if Griffins conviction is overturned, she will still spend several years in prison. Five days before her sentencing in state Superior Court in Danbury, Griffin was sentenced to 12 years in prison for setting her mothers Stratford home on fire in May 2013 so they could share the insurance money. A jury found her guilty of first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit first-degree arson and insurance fraud.

A month after the 2013 fire, Griffin was arrested in Brookfield and charged with interfering with police after officers said she fought with them. Later that year, police said she called 911 and, using a false name, claimed she had been assaulted by her sister, who was a witness against her in the arson case. Griffin was charged with falsely reporting an incident.

Samuel said the case is unique because its not clear why the teen wasnt living with her parents.

Theres more to this story than the world knows, she said. I cant imagine not knowing where my child is for a whole year.

A hearing on a motion to vacate the convictions against Griffin is scheduled for Friday in state Superior Court in Danbury.

noliveira@newstimes.com, 203-731-3411, @olivnelson
Cuba and Belgium ratify willingness to expand bilateral ties

Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Kingdom of Belgium, confirmed yesterday in Havana the strong and sincere friendship existing between his country and Cuba, and the possibility of extending cooperation to benefit both peoples.

At a press conference, the Belgian foreign minister said that relations between the European nation and Cuba have been excellent, and that his visit to the island gives new impetus to mutual cooperation.

He commented that during his stay in the Caribbean nation he met with Bruno Rodriguez, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, with whom he assessed the participation of Belgian companies in the Mariel Special Development Zone.

He also underlined his meeting with Ricardo Cabrisas, Vice-president of the Council of Ministers, stressing that both signed two agreements for debt restructuring, which will favor conditions for investments in Cuba.
What happened in Cuba after restoring relations with the US?

Hollywood movie star Robert de Niro visited Havana on May 26 and dined at the famed restaurant La Guarida.



Two months earlier, Cubans enjoyed The Rolling Stones concert, first rock concert in life for many.



The show in March just helped warm up the milieu, right before Barack Obama paid the first ever United States presidential visit to Havana in more than 80 years.



The two countries restored their diplomatic ties in July 2015 after 5 decades of detachment.





Related News
Candidates come out swinging in only debate of Florida governor's race

Gov. Ron DeSantis and his opponent, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, met in their first and only debate October 24 at the Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce.
As yet another cargo of suspected illegal migrants is stopped in the south east, the Mail has a question: for every boat and lorryload intercepted, how many more slip through undetected?

Heaven knows, net legal migration is high enough, with the Office for National Statistics putting it at 333,000 in 2015.

Of these, 184,000 came from the EU alone, adding a population the equivalent of Colchesters in a single year.

Fourteen suspected illegal immigrants and three children were found in a lorry in Kent on Tuesday (pictured)

Indeed, as a former Oxford professor of demography spelled out in Saturdays Mail, even if these figures told the whole story, white English-speakers will become a minority in Britain by the 2060s.

Yet with dozens of Albanians and Africans caught in West Sussex and Kent over the past ten days alone  and many more waiting in France to try to cross  we can only guess how illegal migration is accelerating the demographic upheaval.

What is certain is that if nothing is done to curb the numbers, Britain will cease to be recognisably British even sooner than officially recorded trends suggest.

Yet to Remain campaigners and the multinational bodies that support them, migration and national identity are mere side-issues in the referendum, paling to insignificance beside the great god of Gross Domestic Product (which tells us almost nothing about living standards).

As Remains strategist Ryan Coetzee tweeted: No policy on immigration is the right policy if it crashes the economy.

Meanwhile, the OECD stoked up the scaremongering, warning that by 2020 Brexit could cut the UKs GDP growth by 3 per cent and the EUs by 1 per cent.

Leave aside that the think-tanks record of crystal ball-gazing is eccentric to say the least, (remember how it said Britain would suffer outside the catastrophic euro?). Forget, too, that the OECD gets hefty financial backing from Brussels.

The truth is that nobody can foretell the economic consequences of Brexit with certainty  though this paper believes the gains could be considerable.

Lying in wait: The camp perilously perched on a cliff edge overlooks the ferry port of Dieppe, northern France

What we can surely predict is that mass migration will put increasingly intolerable pressure on jobs, housing, schools, healthcare and other public services.

We also know the only way to begin controlling it, and so keep Britain British, is to regain control of our borders.

This cannot be brushed off as a side-issue. It is absolutely central to the question voters will answer on June 23.

Bring them to justice

As a rule, this paper believes Britain devotes too much time to delving into events of the distant past.

But the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings were so horrific that coroner Louise Hunt deserves praise for reopening the inquest.

One caveat: these hearings must not be side-tracked by attacks on police failings. Nor should they dwell on the wrongful imprisonment of the Birmingham Six, for which the bombings risk being chiefly remembered.

Instead, they should refocus on the cold-blooded evil of the murderers never brought to justice. The dead and injured and their loved ones deserve no less.

Migration madness

In a Home Office farce to make the blood boil, two utterly decent, hard-working families from kith-and-kin countries, Canada and Australia, who have contributed hugely to their Scottish Highland communities, are ordered out of the UK on a technicality.

Meanwhile in overcrowded London, a drug-dealing, Albanian double-murderer is granted legal aid to avoid extradition.
When I heard that a coroner had agreed to re-open the inquest into the deaths of 21 people murdered in the two Birmingham pub bombings more than 40 years ago, I am ashamed to say that my spirits momentarily dropped.

A mean little voice in my mind wondered why we were raking over an almost forgotten case after so many years have passed. Moreover, the IRA  who were undoubtedly responsible for the bombings  enjoy a virtual amnesty. What purpose would be served by putting them under the spotlight?

That I could entertain such ignoble thoughts even for a moment only shows how far our view of the world has been corrupted. The so-called Northern Irish peace process has seen the release from prison of hundreds of terrorists, while countless others have been given an amnesty. Isnt this just another example of the flexible moral values of the Blair government?

Julie Hambleton, sister of Birmingham pub bombings victim Maxine Hambleton, cried tears of joy surrounded by supporters today as a coroner ordered inquests into the deaths of those killed in the 1974 bombings

Of course it is absolutely right that the inquest into the deaths of 21 innocent people should be re-opened. We owe it to them, and to their relatives who have campaigned for so many years, for the law to take its natural course.

In fact, my great worry is that the inquest will concentrate on the undeniable incompetence and possible corruption of the police who investigated the two atrocities that took place in Birmingham on the evening of November 21, 1974. The evil IRA killers, who for so long have avoided justice, would appear to be peripheral to the process.

In announcing the new inquest yesterday, the coroner, Louise Hunt, voiced serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police and they failed to take the necessary steps to protect life. The police, it seems, not the IRA, will be in the dock.

No doubt they were at fault. For one thing, within 48 hours they had wrongly arrested six men who were duly charged, tried and imprisoned until released by the Court of Appeal in 1991. And it may also be that the police did not take due account of warnings at the time.

Coroner Louise Hunt, pictured, revealed she had received 'sensitive material' that officers had advanced knowledge of the bombings - enough to order new inquests

That said, it would be a travesty of justice if the inquest turned into a Hillsborough-type examination of the failings of the police while sparing the terrorists who were responsible for what was then the worst ever attack on the British mainland.

For we learnt yesterday on BBC radio in an amazing intervention that although the leader of the IRA killers, Mick Murray, is dead, others are walking free, and living in and around Dublin despite murdering 21 people and injuring 182 others.

This brazen revelation came from Kieran Conway, the IRAs former director of intelligence, who told Radio 4 listeners that he knows who the killers are. Indeed, their names have been public knowledge for some years. Conway also shamelessly admitted he had planted bombs in his time. Believe it or not, this gloating monster is now a Dublin lawyer.

While expressing sham remorse for the bombings, he sought to exonerate himself and his fellow butchers. I dont view IRA volunteers as murderers, he creepily opined. I view them as people who participated in a just war.

That a self-confessed terrorist can talk in such a way on the Today programme, and leave the studio (in Dublin) a free man to carry on his business, shows how far we have fallen, and the moral abyss into which we have sunk. What was particularly painful was that confronting him on the programme was Julie Hambleton, sister of a Birmingham bomb victim.

This brave lady pointed out that if Conway and his gruesome cronies had any courage they would go to the local police station and put up their hands and say, I did it and Im proud I did it and Im coming to admit what Ive done.  They dont because they are gutless  Julie Hambletons word  killers.

According to Conway, there is no prospect of any of them being extradited to face justice in Britain. If he is right, the authorities in the Irish Republic (whose prime minister, Enda Kenny, has been urging 500,000 Irish people in this country to vote Remain in the forthcoming referendum) should be ashamed of themselves. As should the British Government for being so pusillanimous.

How did we get to the point of not pursuing the murderers of our own people? It is true that after the release of the wrongly imprisoned Birmingham Six in 1991, West Midlands Police did take up the case again. But in 1994 they effectively dropped it.

Then came the Good Friday Agreement, which led to the early release from prison of more than 400 IRA and Loyalist terrorists. Among them was Patrick Magee, who had killed five people in the 1984 Brighton bomb intended to despatch Margaret Thatcher and the entire British Cabinet. Magee walked free in 1999 after serving just 13 years of a recommended 35-year minimum sentence.

The Mulberry Bush pub in Birmingham which was wrecked by a bomb in 1974, along with The Tavern. In total, 21 people were killed in the attacks

All this was hard enough to stomach, though arguably just about defensible in the cause of peace. What stuck irrevocably in my craw, however, was the revelation a couple of years ago that Tony Blair had earlier done a dirty secret deal  which, being Blair, he did not mention to the wider world  granting amnesty to IRA fugitives.

Some 95 of these  linked to almost 300 murders  were given immunity from prosecution. Among them was John Downey, suspected of being behind the 1982 Hyde Park bombing in London in which four soldiers died, who could not be put on trial because he had been granted that amnesty.

Meanwhile, the British Government lavished nearly 200 million on the lengthy Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday, when 13 protesters were shot dead by British Army paratroopers in 1972. This resulted in a heartfelt apology by David Cameron in the House of Commons in 2010.

Its still not clear whether individual British soldiers will be prosecuted for what they did on Bloody Sunday. Evidently there was a deeply regrettable loss of control. But it is surely incredible that legal action against trigger-happy paratroopers unwisely deployed by senior officers should be contemplated while terrorists guilty of terrible pre-meditated crimes go scot-free.

Our leaders have made a dreadful pact with the Devil in which the natural expectation of justice on the part of victims families has been bartered in return for sordid deals with wholly uncontrite terrorists.

A coroner has revealed today that she has received 'significant' evidence that police had prior knowledge of the Birmingham pub bombings. Pictured are fire officers searching through debris after the blasts in 1974

Another example is Omagh, a town in Northern Ireland where 31 people died in a terrorist outrage in 1998. Despite many investigations, the perpetrators have not been tried and convicted, though it is alleged that the authorities are aware of their identities.

I cant say that the West Midlands Police have been instructed by the Government not to prosecute the people responsible for the Birmingham bombs, but it seems outrageous that their names and whereabouts should be known, and nothing whatsoever is done about it.

Britain and the Republic of Ireland are supposed now to be bosom friends. Is it friendly for the Irish government to harbour known terrorists who should have charges to answer in  for the time being, at least  a fellow EU member state?

Its good that the inquest into the deaths of the victims of the Birmingham bombings should be re-opened. It is what the relatives wanted. All of them must hope that it will lead to the killers being held to account.
Having a Hollywood actor as a boyfriend certainly has its perks, like the chance to launch a fledgling fashion label at an international awards ceremony.

Earlier this year, Californian-born Sami Miro, 28, not only found fame but also her own company called Sami Miro Vintage while dating Zac Efron.

Now newly single, the entrepreneur has gained A-Lister fans such as Selena Gomez - who personally bought the whole of her first collection on pre-order.

Californian-born Sami Miro, 28, set up fashion company Sami Miro Vintage while dating Zac Efron. She designed matching outfits for herself and Zac to wear to the MTV Awards in April

Though Sami had experience assisting on Harpers Bazaar fashion shoots with stylist Nicole Deutsch, and a few turns in front on the camera for ASOS and Missguided, it was partly thanks to ex-Zac and his stylist Jenny Ricker that Sami made the leap into design.

Zac obviously had a huge influence on me and he helped me as we worked together a lot in styling his personal wardrobe, she said.

It was for the recent MTV Movie Awards in April, when her celebrity boyfriend asked her to sort out his red carpet look, that she found a home for her creative energy.

Sami explained: Zac asked me to style him for the MTV Movie Awards and while pulling pieces from different showrooms and thinking about different looks he should wear I got really inspired.

She has gained A-List fans in the likes of Selena Gomez who bought her entire first collection on pre-order

The 23-year-old actress is pictured wearing one of the bodysuit pieces in the collection

'I started drawing ideas down on a piece of paper liked the bomber jacket he ended up wearing that was made out of vintage denim patches.

When I drew that out I realised that this was what Sami Miro Vintage was. The whole process was enlightening for me and I started coming up with other product concepts.

Talking about the matching bodysuit she wore alongside Efron on the red carpet, she said: I came up with it because it is an item I wear on the regular but the issue I have with them is that they dont look good when you wear a bra but I have no choice as otherwise my nipples show. So I decided to put a huge patch over the boob area.

Styling Zac and myself was really nerve racking and exciting. I felt honoured that my friend and boyfriend believed in me so much that he wanted to support me in this capacity and represent Sami Miro Vintage for the first time at an awards show

Sami said Zac has had 'a huge influence' on her, adding that they worked together to style his wardrobe

Using old denim and cut up Levis jeans Sami expanded the collection to include back-to-front trousers, T-shirts and chokers too.

From my first drawing of that jacket, to the manufacturing of the samples, to shooting the lookbook, to building the website and the launch it was all done in about a week-and-a-half. It was a really insane week but its just how I work once Im inspired.

As soon as it was previewed online the collection sold out on pre-order and only now weeks later has Sami got enough stock to start selling again through her website.

Originally from San Francisco, the brunette beauty grew up in a small close-knit family of just her dad and brother. Being surrounded by boys and wearing hand-me-downs to school really informed her aesthetic.

Using vintage denim and cut up Levis jeans, Sami expanded the collection to include back-to-front trousers, T-shirts and chokers

Sami first got into thrifting while a teenager, Ever since I was in high school I have worn vintage. I went to private school and I wanted to keep up with the cool kids but because my dad would never give me the money for the relevant brands I ended up wearing vintage, which was super affordable.

I realised quickly that vintage was so much better than new pieces because of its wear and tear from decades of use and washing. Each vintage piece is extra special.

It is about the story it tells from where you find it to wondering who wore it before and where. It has made me look at fashion in a different way, which is why I dont dress like a typical Californian girl.

One look at Samis Instagram and youll realise her keenness for style, but she actually never grew up dreaming of working in fashion.

Sami said she liked wearing bodysuits but found they didn't look great with bras underneath. Her bodysuits feature a denim patch across the chest

She gained a Bachelors degree from Santa Clara University in marketing and undertook a further graduate program in global entrepreneurship before making the leap into a creative field.

Remarkably, the whole project took just a week-and-a-half to complete, from when she first drew a design for Zac's denim jacket

I did a little bit of modeling at first to see how that worked and what it was like to be in front of the camera. It was fun, I learned lot from it but it was scary to have all these people watching.

Then I got into styling, but coming from San Francisco I didnt even know that was a job. I didnt know that having a crazy collection of vintage was something that I could take advantage of or having that an eye for style could be a profession.

It was friends like Selena Gomezs personal assistant Theresa Marie who persuaded her to take the next step.

Other than having an awards ceremony as the debut catwalk for her first piece, dating a celebrity had other perks. Notably, to Sami it increased her social media profile.

Sami (bottom right) is pictured with Selena Gomez and friends at a nightclub in Las Vegas earlier this month

On how she gained 140K Instagram followers she explained, It is obvious that I got a lot of awareness because of who I was dating.

It has had an impact on the type of opportunities Ive been given.

'You wont be finding any waist trainer photos or tea brand pictures on my Instagram, I like to keep it very authentic, I want people to connect with the real Sami even though it is kind of funny and sad looking back and counting all the money I could have got from potential sponsored posts that Ive rejected.
In late May, Alix Needham, from Sydney, shared a painting on Imgur that her husband had painted for her.

The raw painting showed Mrs Needham half-naked and brushing her teeth in the bathroom with her husband, James Needham, sitting on the toilet next to her.

'I ask my husband if he realises he has never actually painted us both in the same painting... So he paints this masterpiece!' she wrote.

Married life? Sydney artist James Needham's painting of he and his wife in the bathroom has been shared close to one million times on social media, with many saying it perfectly depicts married life

Viral: Alix Needham, from Sydney, shared the painting on Imgur that Mr Needham had painted for her, revealing that it came about after she realised they had never appeared in a painting together

The painting has since been viewed over 859,000 times on social media. with thousands saying the picture perfectly highlights the realities of married life.

Mr Needham, 33, who has been working as a professional artist since he moved to Sydney from England in 2010, is overwhelmed by all of the attention his work has received.

'If you've seen my website or social media you'll see that I've drawn and painted Alix hundreds of times over the years and also painted myself many times,' Mr Needham told Daily Mail Australia.

Amazed: 'I've been getting a huge amount of love for this picture(behind the whippet) today thanks to the craziness of the internet,' Mr Needham wrote on Instagram after realising all of the attention he had received

Taking it on: 'She mentioned that we'd never actually been in a painting together and with our 6th wedding anniversary approaching I felt it was time to paint some kind of grand ode to love,' Mr Needham said

'She mentioned that we'd never actually been in a painting together and with our sixth wedding anniversary approaching I felt it was time to paint some kind of grand ode to love.

'So after considering all the overly romantic, idealised visions of love depicted throughout history I decided to create an image closer to the reality of a modern relationship.'

Mr Needham, who is selling prints of the work on his website, said he tried to 'portray the intimacy and love' they have 'whilst keeping an element of humour in the picture.'

Something different: 'So after considering all the overly romantic, idealised visions of love depicted throughout history I decided to create an image closer to the reality of a modern relationship,' he said

Clever: 'So many self portraits are indulgent and artists tend to make themselves overly heroic, so I've tried to steer well clear of that by painting myself in such a vulnerable situation,' he said

'So many self portraits are indulgent and artists tend to make themselves overly heroic, so I've tried to steer well clear of that by painting myself in such a vulnerable situation,' he said.

'I've been slightly overwhelmed by the reaction I've received. It seems to have resonated with so many people, what I thought was our own strange reality is apparently quite normal.

'The reaction has been mainly positive and I've received so many messages from people who have found something to relate to in the picture which is ultimately what being an artist is all about.'

Proud: 'The reaction has been mainly positive and I've received so many messages from people who have found something to relate to in the picture which is ultimately what being an artist is all about,' he said

Mr Needham said he has also enjoyed watching the debates unfold on social media.

'It also seems to have sparked a great deal of discussion online regarding bathroom hygiene, electrical appliances near water and the removal of pants to use the toilet, which can't be bad thing,' he said.

Mrs Needham was also overwhelmed by the response and said she and Mr Needham planned to frame it and hang it in their living room.
A Dutch schoolgirl fooled Irish fans of the popstar Ariana Grande into thinking she was the real deal as part of an elaborate prank by a doppelganger website.

Joelle, 15, from the Netherlands was flown to Dublin by the website TwinStrangers.com after she joined to find her double and was matched to the world famous pop star.

Although she was extremely nervous the brave youngster pulled it off and  in chaotic scenes - convinced Dubliners that Ariana Grande had arrived in their city.

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Joelle, 15, from the Netherlands was flown to Dublin by the website TwinStrangers.com to see if she could pass for the pop star Ariana Grande

Media and fans gathered outside Dublin's Shelbourne hotel after the site leaked a picture of 'Ariana' arriving at Dublin airport on social media

The teenager is from a quiet small town in the south of the Netherlands where for years friends had been commenting on her resemblance to pop star Ariana Grande.

Joelle wasn't convinced, but when she signed up to the famous doppelganger site some of the team on the site also saw the likeness, and offered to fly Joelle to Dublin City to see if she could pass herself off as the Latina pop princess.

The prospect of travelling to a strange city and trying to impersonate such a world famous star was daunting for the fifteen year old, but she agreed to take on the challenge.

'I was nervous, but excited,' she said. 'It was a chance to do something really different and I had to say yes.'

Joelle had never even been on a plane before, and - as she was too young to travel on her own - her older sister Carmen agreed to bring her to the Irish capital.

When they arrived, Twinstrangers set Joelle up in a luxury hotel where she had her make-up done and clothes styled, before getting into her limo along with two burly bodyguards.

It was only then that the teenager realised what she had taken on.

The real Ariana posing for a selfie in a pair of her trademark cat ears

Joelle uploaded this photo to the doppelganger website and convinced the team she was a dead ringer for Ariana Grande

'I began to get really nervous. What was I doing? It was crazy,' she said.

The site had already leaked a photo on social media showing 'Ariana' coming through Dublin airport.

So when Joelle pulled up outside the famous Shelbourne Hotel the paparazzi and fans were already waiting.

Part of the prank involved photographing Joelle going through the airport and leaking the picture on social media, claiming it was Ariana

As Joelle travelled through the city, the news spread and more and more people were waiting for selfies and autographs and just to see her

Fans of the singer were convinced they were meeting the real deal

With lights flashing and fans shouting Joelle got her first taste of life as a pop star.

As Joelle travelled through the city, the news spread and more and more people were waiting for selfies and autographs and just to see her.

Afterwards Joelle was delighted she had done it.

Niamh, left, with her first 'twin stranger' Karen Branigan (right). The pair were photographed together and the shoot went viral with people shocked at how similar the unrelated duo look

'It was an amazing day and I'm so glad I took the chance,' she said. 'It's good to do things that scare you.'

THE TWIN STRANGERS PROJECT After finding her three twin strangers, Niamh is helping others meet their lookalikes with her project, set up with her friends Harry and Terence, by adding photos to their website. Facial recognition is then used to try and find a match. 'There is a huge human curiosity element to it,' she said. 'Can you imagine how surreal it would be to meet someone who looked exactly like you?' The project had originally been a Facebook page but is now a website in its own right to respond to the worldwide demand. Niamh said: 'Our Facebook page (which now has over 360,000 followers) simply couldn't cope with the demand, so we decided to set up the site so that people could search for and connect with their own lookalikes from all over the world. 'We now have over three quarters of a million users on the site and Twin Strangers are connecting through it every day. It's been an amazing journey so far and we don't really know where it's going to end!' Niamh said it is 'surreal' to meet women who look just like her and she plans to continue searching till she find seven lookalikes. She said: 'I started this journey following the theory that we all have seven doppelgangers. To get a step closer to making that theory fact is wonderful thing, but it's not all about that: 'I've discovered three amazing women who I never knew existed and I've had the chance to see whether our lives differ or align. Finding out if they're similar or dissimilar to me as a person is what's fascinating.' She said she intends to stay friends with Irene, Luisa and Karen and hopes to find more of her lookalikes so she can welcome them into their 'Niamh family'. Of her quest, she said: 'Since my search I have found three so I do think its definitely possible to find seven if one is committed enough to a search. It would be the most amazing thing, not to mention creepy, freaky, crazy to find all seven!' Advertisement

Twin Strangers was set up by Dublin woman Niamh Geaney, who launched the project with her friends to see if she could find her closest lookalike within 28 days.

She was amazed to discover three women who look exactly like her, and remains on a mission to find another four.

After first meeting lookalike Karen Branigan - and staging a photoshoot that went viral - Niamh was determined to track down her six remaining doppelgangers.

Just weeks later, the 26-year-old student and TV presenter found her second lookalike, Luisa Guizzardi - but a little bit further away from home in Italy.

Then, amazingly she found her third doppelganger, Irene Adams, who also hails from Ireland.

Now Niamh is helping others meet their lookalikes with her project, set up with her friends Harry and Terence, by adding photos to their website. Facial recognition is then used to try and find a match.

'There is a huge human curiosity element to it,' she said. 'Can you imagine how surreal it would be to meet someone who looked exactly like you?'

The project had originally been a Facebook page but is now a website in its own right to respond to the worldwide demand.

Niamh said: 'Our Facebook page (which now has over 360,000 followers) simply couldn't cope with the demand, so we decided to set up the site so that people could search for and connect with their own lookalikes from all over the world.

'We now have over three quarters of a million users on the site and Twin Strangers are connecting through it every day. It's been an amazing journey so far and we don't really know where it's going to end!'

Niamh said it is 'surreal' to meet women who look just like her and she plans to continue searching till she find seven lookalikes.

She said: 'I started this journey following the theory that we all have seven doppelgangers. To get a step closer to making that theory fact is wonderful thing, but it's not all about that:

'I've discovered three amazing women who I never knew existed and I've had the chance to see whether our lives differ or align.

'Finding out if they're similar or dissimilar to me as a person is what's fascinating.'

Maddy, 23, (left) from Tacoma, Washington State, found Amber, 22, (right) from Perth, Western Australia, within just a week of signing up to Twin Strangers, a website which helps people to find their closest lookalikes

She said she intends to stay friends with Irene, Luisa and Karen and hopes to find more of her lookalikes so she can welcome them into their 'Niamh family'.

Of her quest, she said: 'Since my search I have found three so I do think its definitely possible to find seven if one is committed enough to a search.
While working as a nurse in a neonatal unit involves lots of cuddling, bright colours and celebration, few speak about the true nature of the role.

Brittany Denise, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse from Ohio, recently shared a heartbreaking picture of herself holding a newborn baby boy who had passed away moments earlier.

'Most everyone knows I am a nurse! A NICU Nurse. Many people think this means feeding and rocking babies, which occasionally I get the privilege to do... But my job entails so much more,' Brittany wrote on Facebook.

'It was such a blessing to be there with him': Brittany Denise, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse from Ohio, recently shared a heartbreaking picture of herself holding a newborn baby boy who had passed away

'I take care of babies born months too early to live without modern medicinePlaced on ventilators with central lines and life saving medications. I assess them, care for them, draw labs, start IVs, and give medications.

'I teach a new dad how to change his fragile babys diaper for the first time.I place this baby on their moms chest (often with many tubes and wires attached) after she has not yet been able to hold them for days, sometimes weeks.'

Brittany detailed the more intimate side of her role - from comforting mothers who are watching their babies go through 'pokes, prods and procedures' to celebrating milestones with parents.

'I witness miracles': Brittany detailed the more intimate side of her role - from comforting mothers who are watching their babies go through 'pokes, prods and procedures' to celebrating milestones with parents

Inside the NICU: Brittany said she had helped make molds and keepsakes for families and shared memories with families who had made the NICU their home

'I witness miracles. I get to see little lives come back and beat insurmountable odds. But sometimes I dont,' Brittany wrote.

I hand those sweet little lives to their parents as they take their last breaths when science and medicine is no longer enough. Brittany Denise

'I help to resuscitate babies when their hearts stop and little bodies simply cant take any more. I beat myself up trying to think what we could have done better or different when all medical options have been exhausted.

'I hand those sweet little lives to their parents as they take their last breaths when science and medicine is no longer enough. I give them medication to make them comfortable in their last moments here on earth.'

Brittany said she had helped make molds and keepsakes for families and shared memories with families who had made the NICU their home.

'I hug their family members as they walk away from their babys room for the last time, hoping my words brought them some comfort,' she wrote.

'I know his other NICU nurses in the background feel the same way': Brittany said she had shared the photo of herself holding the baby boy as his mother wanted to share her son's journey and the 'fighter' he was

'I sometimes cry in the car on my way home, in the shower, or as I try to fall asleep before going into work to take care of other little lives. I lean on my coworkers. Those other NICU nurses Im so blessed to work besides. I look to them for knowledge, wisdom, and support.

'Yes, my "job" is a NICU Nurse. But it proves time and time again to be so much more.'

I sometimes cry in the car on my way home, in the shower, or as I try to fall asleep before going into work to take care of other little lives. Brittany Denise

Brittany said she had shared the photo of herself holding the baby boy as his mother wanted to share her son's journey and the 'fighter' he was.

'This picture was taken after he left us here on earth and it was such a blessing to be there with him in these moments,' Brittany wrote.

'I know his other NICU nurses in the background feel the same way!'
To celebrate International Children's Day, a number of Chinese adults have taken to social media to share snaps from their childhood.

And while many have opted for the traditional throwback snap, others have taken it a step further and hilariously recreated their favourite childhood photographs as grown-ups.

One man, Hu Jiayan, wrapped himself in a blanket for the occasion to recreate a snap taken from when he was just three-months-old.

Realistic throwback: Hu Jiayan, wrapped himself in a blanket to recreate a snap taken from when he was just three-months-old to celebrate International Children's Day

Times have changed: Zhu Hong, now 32 and in the military, also recreated a snap of her four-year-old self holding a bunch of flowers

All grown up: The resemblance is clear in 24-year-old Liu Jianan's photo, where she is seen posing with her hands on her hips as a six-year-old and again now, working as a bullet train stewardess

The dedicated 24-year-old also managed to find a similar carpet to lay on before sharing the amusing snap on social media.

Zhu Hong, now 32 and in the military, also recreated a snap of her four-year-old self holding a bunch of flowers.

The resemblance is clear in 24-year-old Liu Jianan's photo, where she is seen posing with her hands on her hips as a six-year-old and again now, working as a bullet train stewardess at Nanchang Railway Administration.

Proud: One man shared a photo of himself posing in military clothing as a three-year-old before standing proudly as a Liaoning Border Defense Corps police officer

Still as close as ever: Twin sisters Zhang Qun and Zhang Kun shared an adorable snap of themselves posing in matching outfits with ice cream cones as five-year-olds before recreating it as 28-year-olds

One man showed how his childhood service dreams became a reality and shared a photo of himself posing in military clothing as a three-year-old before standing proudly as a Liaoning Border Defense Corps police officer as an adult.

In a particularly accurate comparison, 29-year-old Yu Ning recreated a photo taken a photo of herself at the Qian Tomb in Shanxi 24 years on.

Siblings and friends also took part in the trend, with one man recreating a group photo with his childhood friends on a staircase.

Nostalgic: In a particularly accurate comparison, 29-year-old Yu Ning recreated a photo taken a photo of herself at the Qian Tomb in Shanxi 24 years on

BFFs: Siblings and friends also took part in the trend, with one man recreating a group photo with his childhood friends on a staircase

Twin sisters Zhang Qun and Zhang Kun shared an adorable snap of themselves posing in matching outfits with ice cream cones as five-year-olds before recreating it as 28-year-olds in matching overalls.

Other photos included a grown man riding a tricycle, brothers and sisters holidaying and adults rocking almost the exact same haircuts as they did as children.

One man also shared touching photos of he and his dad - both from when he was a toddler and now.
was hidden in a hedge by the side of the road

A six-year-old boy has gotten more than her bargained for after finding crystal meth in his Kinder Surprise.

The youngster was playing by the side of the road with his eight-year-old brother in Drumachose, an area of Belfast in Ireland, when he opened the yellow shell from inside the chocolate.

But rather than find a toy, the boy pulled out a small bag of white powder, the Daily Star reported.

Surprise! A six-year-old boy has found a small bag of crystal meth inside a Kinder Surprise

Found hidden: The boys found the Kinder Suprise hidden in a hedge by the road in Drumachose, an area of Belfast in Ireland

Luckily the boy handed the bag, which contained crystal methamphetamine, over to his father who then passed it on to police.

The boy's uncle told Limavady DUP councillor Alan Robinson the boys had found the Kinder Surprise hidden in a hedge by the road.

Police are looking in to the incident, with Inspector Colin Shaw saying it was concerning the illicit drug had been left where a child could find it.

Handing it in: The boy (not pictured) handed the bag over to his father who passed it on to police

Commended: 'In this instance the children are to be commended for passing the contents to their parents,' Mr Robinson said

'This small quantity of drugs will be disposed of by police,' Insp Shaw told the Telegraph.

Mr Robinson told the Daily Star it was lucky the children handed the bag over to their father and did not swallow it.

'As a father of a child, I know how enticing Kinder eggs and their contents are to children.
They're the symptoms that should not be ignored.

From persistent heartburn to fatigue, Melbourne's Dr Tony Bartone has revealed the warning signs that could indicate you have cancer.

Dr Bartone, who is vice president of the Australian Medical Association, said a symptom that was both persistent and out of the ordinary should be addressed by a GP.

Know the signs: Vice president of the Australian Medical Association Dr Tony Bartone has shared ten cancer symptoms that people commonly ignore

'The take home message is if it's new and not explainable, and you have a family history of cancer, you should always follow through [with a checkup],' he said.

'Depending on the symptom in question, if it's more than a couple of weeks it should be checked out.

'People with a family history of cancer should always err on the side of caution, and smokers should always be very diligent about checking out unexplained symptoms.

'Life's too precious to play lucky dip about a symptom.'

Feeling the heat: A fever that persists beyond two to three days could indicate cancer of the immune system

FEVER

While an elevated temperature is often associated with the body fighting off an infection, on the rare occasion it could indicate a cancer of the immune system.

'Not even the smaller minority of fevers are due to cancer,' Dr Bartone said.

'But if it's persisting beyond two to three days, it's worth seeing a doctor.'

PAIN SWALLOWING

More than a sore throat: While it's not the first symptom people notice, pain swallowing could indicate oesophageal or throat cancer

If you're finding it painful to swallow, it could be a sign of oesophageal or throat cancer.

Though Dr Bartone was quick to point out this is rarely the first symptom people would notice.

'In my experience, it's a really uncommon first sign,' Dr Bartone said.

'Usually by the time that's happening, it's already fairly advanced.'

WEIGHT LOSS

Know your body: Unexplained weight loss is one symptom that needs to be investigated by your GP

If you find the numbers are going down on the scale without any explanation, it could be a sign something more is wrong.

'Unexplained weight loss always needs to be investigated and investigated thoroughly,' Dr Bartone said.

'If you've had weight loss, a cough and are a smoker, it's pretty likely we'd be looking at something in your lungs in particular.'

CHANGES IN BOWEL HABITS

Change in habits: A change in your regular bowel habits could indicate rectal or bowel cancer

If you find there has been a change in your regular bowel habits for no good reason, Dr Bartone recommended a visit to your GP.

'It could indicate a rectal or bowel cancer,' he said.

'Large bowel cancer is very, very common. If you look across both groups of people, both male and female, it ranks top three in both.'

CHANGE IN SKIN COLOUR

Freckles and moles: 'Any change in colour, size, shape or surface area is grounds to have it examined,' Dr Bartone said

While it might seem obvious, any change to a freckle or mole could be a sign of cancer.

'It could be melanoma or other forms of malignant skin cancers,' Dr Bartone said.

'Any change in colour, size, shape or surface area is grounds to have it examined.'

HEARTBURN

Common symptom: If you have persistent heartburn, it could be a sign that you have oesophageal cancer

Persistent heartburn could be a sign of oesophageal cancer, thought Dr Bartone said it not the first thing doctors would assume.

'If someone of any age came to me with heartburn, the first thing I would think of is not oesophageal cancer,' Dr Bartone said.

He said doctors would look in to the patient's medical history and trial some medication, before proceeding with a gastroscopy.

'It's so common, you tend to just treat it empirically unless there is something to give us a hint, like family history, weight loss or smoking,' he said.

A LUMP IN THE BREAST OR TESTICLE

Look for lumps: An abnormal lump, be it in the breast or testicle, should be examined by the doctor

Dr Bartone said an abnormal lump, whether it be testicular or in the breast, should be discussed with a doctor.

'It's worth asking the question of your doctor to basically have a quick exam and take in associated history,' he said.

Women should also look out for a change in the shape of their nipples.

FATIGUE

Feeling fatigued: If you are tired beyond a couple of weeks, it's time to book a checkup with your GP

Dr Bartone said fatigue could indicate a number of different diagnoses, and cancer was somewhere on that list.

'Depending on who you are, your age and other associated factors, risk factors and family history, cancer goes closer to the top than the bottom,' he said.

He said you should visit a GP if your fatigue was persistent and lasted beyond a couple of weeks.

CHANGE IN FINGERNAILS

Changing in shape, buckling or thickening: 'Fingernails are a sign in particular of lung cancer,' Dr Bartone said

If you notice a change in your fingernails, it would be a sign to go visit your GP.

'Fingernails are a sign in particular of lung cancer,' Dr Bartone said.

'Changing shape, buckling, thickening or breaking of the nails tends to be an issue.'

BLOOD IN YOUR URINE

See your doctor: You should seek medical advice if there is blood in your urine

If there is blood in your urine, Dr Bartone said you should seek medical advice.

'As much as some men might try rationally explain it, that's not a common symptom and it really should be followed up,' he said.
Exactly one year on since the roller coaster crash at Alton Towers, three of the victims have opened up about how the devastating event destroyed their lives.

Former dancer Vicky Balch, 20, who had her right leg amputated after the crash, Leah Washington, 18, who had her left leg amputated and Leah's boyfriend, Joe Pugh, 19, who shattered both knees in the tragedy, have described the horrifying impact of last year's disaster on their lives.

Speaking to Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on ITV's This Morning, Leah, from Barnsley, told how her injury has changed her life, saying: 'I am not able to just get out of bed in the morning.'

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Former dancer Vicky Balch, 20, (left) who had her right leg amputated after the crash, Leah Washington, 18 (centre), who had her left leg amputated and Leah's boyfriend Joe Pugh (right), who shattered both knees in the tragedy, described how their lives have been irrevocably changed since the disaster last year

Exactly one year on since the devastating roller coaster crash at Alton Towers, three of the victims have opened up about how the devastating event shattered their lives. PIctured left to right: Vicky, Leah and Joe

Instead she described how she now has to attach a false limb before even going to the bathroom.

'It took ages to get my independence back,' she said. 'I'm getting it back, but it's taken a year and we're still not fully there.

Talking about her own year of recovery, Vicky, who admitted she 'wanted to die' after the crash and was forced to have her leg amputated in a series of gruelling operations, said: 'It's indescribable how hard it is. You can't really compare it to anything.

'No one really understands it if they haven't been through it. You have to take every day as it comes.'

Describing the events on June 2nd last year, in which the This Morning guests were just three of the five people to be seriously injured, Vicky said: 'While we were going round, we got stuck and I saw the cart in front of us and it felt like everything went into slow motion.

'After the initial pain I passed out because of the pain but I wasn't unconscious for very long because we were still swaying when I came round.'

Talking about her own year of recovery, Vicky, who was forced to have her leg amputated in a series of gruelling operations, said: 'It's indescribable how hard it is. You can't really compare it to anything'

Leah Washington said the injury had changed her life, saying: 'I cannot just get out of bed in the morning'

She remembered: 'I was pouring with blood the entire time I was up there.

'I thought I'd never going to be able to walk again, I'm never going to be able to do anything again. I wanted to die because I was in so much pain.'

All of the survivors have visited the Staffordshire-based theme park as part of their ongoing therapy treatment to cope with the devastating injuries.

Describing how it felt to revisit the scene of the disaster, Leah said: I just cried straight away, as soon as we pulled in I started crying. It brought it all back.

But Vicky said she felt less emotional: I got upset straight away and then I sat on a rock and stared at it. I didn't feel any emotion. I wasn't angry and upset any more.

Looking to the future, Vicky also had a positive message: I've met so many amazing people - friends for life - and had so many opportunities, like Ive recently been ice climbing.

'I want to be able to live a normal life,' she said. 'I will not forget about it but I want to move on.

Eammon Holmes played tribute to the people from the emergency services who scaled the roller coaster to go to their rescue.

Describing her feelings about the ride reopening on the anniversary of the crash, Leah admitted: We didn't want it to reopen.

But her boyfriend Jo added: 'We don't feel bad to Alton Towers because of how good theyve been. Although if I was there I'd feel an eerie atmosphere around it today.'

Vicky Balch, 20, visited the 18million Smiler ride at Staffordshire-based theme park Alton Towers with her mother as part of her ongoing therapy to deal with the rollercoaster crash in which she lost her right leg

Leah Washington, pictured arriving at court in March with her boyfriend Joe Pugh, said: 'It took ages to get my independence back,' she said. 'I'm getting it back, but it's taken a year and we're still not fully there'

Vicky is now able to walk largely unaided thanks to a new motorised bionic leg, made by German company Otto Bock.

The prosthetic has allowed her to start exercising again and attempt to return to the life which was shattered by the crash.

Talking about her recovery and learning to walk again, she said previously: 'It's not easy some days, I have really bad days but obviously everyone around me and even people I don't know support me so much.

'I don't want to let anyone down. I think I'm scared of letting people down more than anything.'

Alton Towers amusement park's Smiler roller coaster, showing an injured passenger (centre right) after four people were seriously injured in a collision between two carriages in the crash last year

The Smiler ride at Alton Towers Resort in Staffordshire, as the theme park has reopened the roller coaste

Miss Balch returned to the park as part of her ongoing treatment and was seen arriving at the park in a black car, driven by her mother, before making her way across the car park  with her new 70,000 prosthetic limb

Miss Balch arrived at the Staffordshire-based theme park in a black vehicle, driven by her mother Karen

Leah nearly died twice in the wreckage of the rollercoaster while rescuers battled to treat her catastrophic injuries.

She lost nearly a quarter of her blood while trapped on the ride and had to have emergency blood transfusions as she was taken to hospital.

Meanwhile, her boyfriend Joe also had to be taken to hospital to be treated for severe leg injuries after the metal safety bar on the ride shattered both of his knees on impact.

Vicky's friend Daniel Thorpe and Chandaben Chauhan from Wednesbury, West Midlands, were also seriously injured.

Rescuers had to build a special platform to reach the stricken ride-goers in a rescue mission last more than four-and-a-half hours.

Following the visit, believed to be to the site of the horror crash, she was helped back into the family's vehicle

Five people were seriously injured in the horror crash on the 18million Smiler ride at Alton Towers which left Miss Balch and Miss Washington, both needing to have a leg amputated. Pictured: The aftermath of the crash

Vicky now has a hydraulic artificial leg and is able to walk short distances unaided but still has physiotherapy twice a week and does exercises to improve her balance.

She said she respects that thrillseekers will want to go back on the ride but admitted she will find it difficult to watch.

'I personally would never go near it again, but that's obviously because this has happened,' she said.

'I went on it for a reason, I suppose because I wanted the fun aspect of it.

'If people want to go on it, it's the same reason I wanted to in the beginning. So it's personal choice really.'

Ms Balch (pictured before the rollercoaster crash) now has a hydraulic artificial leg and is able to walk short distances unaided but still has physiotherapy twice a week and does exercises to improve her balance

Alton Tower bosses previously said in a statement that they had sought to 'learn every possible lesson' from last June's crash before deciding to recommence operation of the 18million ride.

The park's internal investigation found the accident was the result of human error after safety systems on the ride were manually overridden.

The theme park says it has made technical improvements as well as changes to training and has informed the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about the reopening.

Gill Riley, Marketing Director at Alton Towers, said: 'We do understand how the injured and their families are feeling and we have been in conversation with the families on an ongoing basis.

'However, as we stated last year, our own investigations did show the ride itself was not at fault and the ride has been independently certified as safe to operate.'
The contests are from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, while Alexandra Miller, 26, of

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Fifty-two of the most beautiful women in the country will compete for the title of Miss USA this weekend, but on Wednesday night, the contestants vied to win America's hearts during the preliminary pageant.

Miss USA 2015 Olivia Jordan hosted this week's swimsuit and evening gown competition alongside pageant choreographer Stephani Kammer and Nashville-based pageant aficionado Nick Teplitz at the at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

All 52 contestants strutted down the runway in their gowns and bikinis in the hopes of being becoming one of the 15 finalists who will be highlighted on Sunday's telecast, which is being hosted by Terrence Jenkins and Julianne Hough.

Strutting their stuff: Abby Floyd, 19, of Arkansas and Sibahn Doxey, 23, of Montana were just two of the 52 contestants who competed in the Miss USA preliminary swimsuit and evening gown competition on Wednesday evening

Showing off: Miss Kentucky, 20-year-old Kyle Hornback, Miss Michigan, 26-year-old Susie Leica, and Miss Massachusetts, 21-year-old Whitney Sharpe, all opted for bikinis for the competition, which was held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada

Great minds: Peyton Brown, 22, of Alabama and Leah Lawson, 22, of South Carolina wore the same cleavage-enhancing suit but in different patterns

Model Ashley Graham will also be co-hosting the event backstage, while the Backstreet Boys and Chris Young are slated to perform.

During the preliminary pageant, which was live streamed on Facebook, YouTube, and the Miss USA site, Olivia looked stunning in a showstopping a hot pink strapless gown featuring a thigh-high slit and an embellished crystal belt around her waist.

As for the contestants, the ladies opted for a variety of styles when it came to choosing the gowns they hoped would launch them straight into the top 15.

Miss Oklahoma, 24-year-old Taylor Gorton, wore a jaw-dropping velvet gown with a plunging neckline, while Miss California, 20-year-old Nadia Mejia looked breezy and elegant in a peach, chiffon gown.

Ready for summer: Daniella Rodriguez, 19, of Texas and Kate Redeker, 19, of Wisconsin modeled patterned bikinis of their choosing

Get it girl: Chelsea Hardin, 24, of Hawaii, Victoria Wiggins, 26, of Kansas, and Alissa Morrison, 24, of Iowa were all smiles as they strut their stuff in front of the enthusiastic audience

Personal style: Miss South Dakota, 21-year-old Madison McKeown showed off her trim figure in white, while Miss California, 20-year-old Nadia Mejia, opted for a playful pattern

White was a popular choice at last night's competition, and Miss Hawaii, 24-year-old Chelsea Hardin, wowed in a white floral gown featuring strategically placed see-through cutouts.

Many of the contestants also opted for vibrant shades of red including, 22-year-old Naomie Germain of New Mexico, 23-year-old Devin Gant of North Carolina, and 26-year-old Desi Williams of Virginia.

During the swimsuit competition, bikinis were the swimwear of choice, although the women modeled a variety of different styles during the live stream.

Miss Alabama, 22-year-old Peyton Brown, chose a playful pink and and orange pattered bikini with cutouts, while 19-year-old Abby Floyd of Arkansas modeled a white knit suit that hugged her figure.

And Miss North Carolina was one of the women who stayed on trend with a fringe top and string bottoms.

Modern looks: Miss North Carolina, 23-year-old Devin Gant, and Miss New Mexico, 22-year-old Naomie Germain, stayed on trend with fringe and colorful patterns

Lucky girl: Oklahoma City native Alexandra Miller was named the winner of the #FindingMiss52 contest last week, and the 26-year-old was all smiles when she joined the other contestants on stage on Wednesday evening as she prepared to compete for the crown

Wine lovers: Taylor Gorton, 24, of Oklahoma and Jessica Strohm, 25, of New Hampshire both chose velvet dresses with plunging necklines for the preliminary evening gown competition on Wednesday evening

In April, the Miss Universe Organization launched a nation wide search for a woman to join Miss USA's 51 contestants from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, giving the lucky lady a once in a lifetime chance to be crowned the winner.

Oklahoma City native Alexandra Miller was named the winner of the #FindingMiss52 contest last week, and the 26-year-old was all smiles when she joined the other contestants on stage on Wednesday evening.

Alexandra, who has been first runner-up twice at the Miss Oklahoma USA competition, told the organization that those moments 'allowed her to become comfortable with the woman she is today'.

The Miss Universe Organization, which was previously owned by Donald Trump, is also allowing fans to vote for one of the 52 contestants to help her make it into the top 15.

In the details: Miss Arkansas, Miss Hawaii, and Texas were just a few of the 52 contestants who chose white dresses for the competition

Little Miss Sunshine: Miss Kentucky and Miss California stood out in bright shades of yellow and orange, respectively

One of a kind: Miss South Dakota stood out in a white caped gown featuring a blue ombre pattern at the bottom. Meanwhile, Deshauna Barber, 26, of District of Columbia wowed in a gold dress featuring an ethereal bustle

Fans have the option of voting for their favorite contestant on the Miss U app, the Miss USA website, or on Twitter using the hashtag Miss USA along with a contestant specific hashtag before the Saturday deadline.

Unsurprisingly, thousands of people have already flocked to Twitter following the preliminary swimsuit and evening gown competitions to gush about their favorites.

'So elegant & so poised! Nothing beats a beautiful girl, humble with a HUGE heart!!! Let's go #TEXAS! #MissUSA [sic],' Veronica Seca wrote about 19-year-old Daniella Rodriguez.

And Leticia Serna added: '#MissUSA #Texas @RealMissTXUSA slay slay slay [sic].'

Jennifer Sipple tweeted that is voting for Miss Ohio, 26-year-old Megan Wise, and Teresa Alvarez lent her support to Miss Virginia.

The preliminary competition will continue on Thursday night during the interview portion, which will not be made public.

Scarlet letter: Miss New Mexico, Miss North Carolina, and Miss Virginia, 26-year-old Desi Williams, chose red gowns for their time in the spotlight

Evening attire: Maaliyah Papillion, 21, of Louisiana wore a stunning black halter gown featuring a see-through bottom, while Haley Sowers, 22, of Mississippi looked pretty in pink sequins
As the biggest Hollywood star of the age there were few people in the world, if any, Marilyn Monroe would wait in a receiving line to meet.

However, rare footage that shows the Hollywood star lined up to greet the young Queen Elizabeth at a London film premiere in 1956 has emerged.

The glamorous star, famed for her voluptuous figure, chose a gown that showcased her curves to the max for the royal encounter.

She showed off a generous portion of her renowned cleavage as she dipped into a curtsey and greeted the Queen with a handshake.

Both women were wearing gloves, however that's where the resemblance between their outfits ended.

The Queen was rather more demurely dressed in a gown that showed off a hint of shoulder, and wore the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara and Delhi Durbar Necklace.

Marilyn Monroe's encounter with the monarch occured at the London for the premiere of her then husband Arthur Miller's film The Battle of the River Plate on 29 October 1956.

The actress waited in line at the cinema in London's Leicester square to greet the young monarch, who has ascended the throne four years earlier after the death of her father George VI.

Both women were 30 years old at the time of the meeting and Marilyn would have also celebrated her 90th birthday this year

Footage showing the moment that glamorous young Queen Elizabeth met the biggest Hollywood star of the day, Marilyn Monroe, in 1956 has emerged.

Both women were 30 years old at the time of the meeting and Marilyn would have also celebrated her 90th birthday this year.

It was the only time the two iconic women had the chance to meet each other.

Marilyn, whose real name was Norma Jeane Baker was found dead following a barbiturate overdose at her LA mansion in August 1962.

But had she survived, she too would have turned 90 this year.

Her birthday fell yesterday, while the Queen celebrated the milestone on 21 April.

For the glittering occasion, the Queen wore the Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara and Delhi Durbar Necklace

Marilyn was 30 years old at the time of the meeting and would also have celebrated her 90th birthday around the same time as the Queen

It was the only time the two iconic women had the chance to meet each other

Marilyn had travelled to London with her then husband Arthur Miller four months after their wedding to film The Prince and the Showgirl.

The couple touched down in London with 27 pieces of luggage and had to pay $1,500 (1,039) in excess baggage fees - the equivalent of more than 12,000 in today's money.
She never looks anything but immaculate and today, Queen Letizia was no exception.

But the Spanish monarch also showed off another style skill - the ability to walk with ease in a pair of four inch stilettos.

The mother-of-two and her husband King Felipe VI met top Spanish doctors and scientists at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid today.

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Queen Letizia strode into Zarzuela Palace in a pair of four-inch black patent leather Magrit heels today

The Spanish monarch looked stylish in a black long-sleeved top and white skirt with black vertical stripes

Letizia, 43, wore a black long sleeved top over a white knee-length skirt with black stripes.

Her hair was pulled into an elegant ponytail which showed off a pair of statement stud earrings.

And despite wearing the vertiginous Magrit patent leather 'Mila' heels, which cost $246 (170) she strode with confidence into the room.

She completed her look with smokey eye makeup and her favourite berry lip gloss.

It followed a busy day yesterday when she and Felipe travelled to north west Spain to present a prize at the National Culture Awards.

But the hard-working royals returned to the capital for another day of business in Madrid.

The King and Queen of Spain pose for official portraits with Spanish doctors and scientists

King Felipe VI adopted his usual photo posture with his arms straight down by his side

The former King Juan Carlos I and his wife Sofia live in Zarzuela Palace, which was built in the 17th century.

Letizia, Felipe and their two daughters Leonor and Sofia live in another residence in the castle's grounds.

The monarch's attendance at the cultural celebration yesterday also followed a diplomatic meeting in which King Felipe VI and Letizia of Spain did their bit for Spanish-Dutch relations by welcoming Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands to the Prado.

The Spanish royals played host to Beatrix to mark the opening of a new exhibition on Dutch artist Bosch at the capital's famous art museum.

The pair talked to their guests as they prepared to take the official portrait with the country's top scientists

The king and queen shook hands and greeted their guests at the Zarzuela Palace on Thursday afternoon

Letizia and her husband cut a glamorous sight on the steps of the Prado, appearing to coordinate their outfits by opting for navy suits with lively blue patterns.

Letizia led the way in a formal but glamorous navy faux crocodile skin jacket and fitted pencil skirt in the same fabric. She sported a pattered blue and cream top and finished the look with a navy clutch bag and a towering pair of blue heels.

The media gathered as the couple met the Princess, who was returning to the Spanish capital no longer Queen of Holland after abdicating in April 2013, close to the museum's entrance.

Felipe and Princess Beatrix have worked together on bringing the work of famous Dutch artist Jheronimus Bosch to the Prado and looked happy to be once again in each other's company.

The Queen's make-up was perfectly applied as usual and included her favourite berry lip gloss

Letizia wore her hair in an elegant low ponytail with a loop at its base, rather than a hair tie

The exhibition commemorates the fifth anniversary of the death of 'El Bosco', as he's known in Spain, who's widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the Renaissance.

It's been a glamorous couple of weeks for Letizia, who last week paid a visit to Penelope Cruz, who has been filming a new comedy-drama, La Reina De Espana, in the city.

The 43-year-old monarch appeared on great terms with Penelope as the actress showed her around the Madrid set earlier this month, appearing deep in conversation as they discussed the shoot.

The royal visit was a fantastic way to boost morale on set and was thoroughly enjoyed by all, according to HOLA! magazine.

Penelope's co-star Jorge Sanz is believed to have arranged the visit as he is on friendly terms with the Queen.
Smoking causes changes to a person's genetic code, according to a comprehensive new lung cancer study

Smokers experience one mutation to their DNA for every 15 cigarettes they smoke, according to a study that mapped out the genetic blueprint of a lung cancer patient.

British researchers led the massive international project, which identified 23,000 mutations that bore the expected signs of damage caused by chemicals in tobacco smoke.

All cancers are caused by mistakes in the genetic code - mutations in DNA that can be triggered by environmental agents.

The scientists hope the results will help them understand the causes of cancer and to develop new treatments.

Theyfound the genetic defects ranged from single-letter changes in theperson's code to deletions or re-arrangements of hundreds of thousandsof letters.

No single mutation stood out as being the primarycause of the disease. Instead most were 'passenger' mutations thatappeared to influence the development of cancer only in combination.

Study leader Dr Peter Campbell, from the Wellcome Trust SangerInstitute in Cambridgeshire said: 'The knowledge we extract over thenext few years will have major implications for treatment.

'By identifying all the cancer genes we will be able to develop new drugs that target the specific mutated genes and work out which patients will benefit from these novel treatments.'

Dr Andy Futreal, also from the Wellcome Trust, said: 'Cancers occur when control of cell behaviour is lost - cells grow how, when and where they shouldn't.

'Mutations in DNA caused by, for example, cigarette smoke are passed on to every subsequent generation of daughter cells, a permanent record of the damage done.

'Like an archaeologist, we can begin to reconstruct the history of the cancer clone - revealing a record of past exposure and accumulated damage in the genome.'

A person's risk of lung cancer is known to fall to around normal some 15 years after quitting smoking.

Scientists suspect that lung cells containing harmful mutations are replaced by new cells that are clear of defects.

The researchers carried out the sequencing 60 times for lung cancer in order to produce accurate results. They also mapped the blueprint for melanoma (a dangerous form of skin cancer).

Professor Mike Stratton, joint head of the Cancer Genome Project said: 'These are the two main cancers in the developed world for which we know the primary exposure.

'For lung cancer, it is cigarette smoke and for malignant melanoma it is exposure to sunlight. With these genome sequences, we have been able to explore deep into the past of each tumour, uncovering with remarkable clarity the imprints of these environmental mutagens on DNA, which occurred years before the tumour became apparent.

'We can also see the desperate attempts of our genome to defend itself against the damage wreaked by the chemicals in cigarette smoke or the damage from ultraviolet radiation. Our cells fight back furiously to repair the damage, but frequently lose that fight.'

Sir Mark Walport, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: 'We want to drive healthcare through better understanding of the biology of disease.

'This is the first glimpse of the future of cancer medicine, not only in the laboratory, but eventually in the clinic. The findings from today will feed into knowledge, methods and practice in patient care.'

The team's results have been published in two papers today in the journal Nature.
An eight-year-old boy has had every bone in his face broken by surgeons to help him breathe properly after he was born with a rare genetic disorder.

George Ward has undergone 30 operations to Crouzon syndrome - which causes the plates of a baby's skull to lock in position too early, before the brain has had chance to grow.

It means his face developed abnormally, making it was dangerous for him to sleep without the aid of a breathing machine.

But now the youngster is adjusting to sleeping unaided for the first time since he was six months old after surgeons broke then reset 14 bones.

He had to wear a special 10,000 facial frame for four months which his mother Carleen Leyland, 47, adjusted twice a day.

George Ward has Crouzon syndrome - which caused the bones in his skull to fuse together prematurely (left). He has had more than 30 operations to help his development and spent four months wearing the metal frame

The operation was a success, helping stop his hearing and sight problems as well as changing his appearance.

George, of Leigh, Greater Manchester, was diagnosed with the syndrome as a baby.

The condition, which affects on in about 15 million babies, means there is no space for the brain to grow further.

Although brain development is normal, lack of space causes pressure to build up and often leads to problems including the optic nerves becoming damaged and the tubes behind the nose being constricted.

The throat is squeezed causing reflux and ear infections are also common.

'After his last operation, George had a frame fitted for four months to try to make his concaved face come out more,' said Ms Leyland.

'Now that the frame is off he can sleep through the night without a breathing machine.

'It's amazing what they have been able to do for George. I just love watching him sleeping now. It is so overwhelming.

'He also looks better now but for us it is more about the health benefits. He has hearing and sight issues, which are a bit better after the operation.

'Hopefully, with him being able to hear better, it will help his speech as well.'

George, pictured here with sister Alex, is now recovering after his latest major surgery to help his facial development. It also helped his hearing and sight problems

George spent four months with the metal frame on his face, which his mother had to adjust twice a day to help his bones set in the correct place. He has now recovered (right) and is able to breathe at night on his own

George's family including father Mark Ward, brother Josh, 20, and his sister Alex, 13, are now wanting to fundraise for Alder Hey Children's Hospital, where he has received most of his treatment.

Ms Leyland signed up to do a Tough Mudder challenge in September, designed by the British special forces to challenge the toughest of the tough.

She said: 'Being in Alder Hey you never feel that far away from other brave children, and it is crazy to think how most of us take the NHS for granted until we need it.

'I am raising money with the hope of helping more children like George. The more you raise the more equipment there will be and the more research will be done to help.

'People in Leigh have always been so kind and supportive.

'I just hope they will be so again and sponsor my Tough Mudder challenge to help other children in need like George.'

Read more about the family's fundraising at justgiving.com/Teamgeorgesmiles
Obese patients who undergo weight-loss surgery are less likely to die in the following five years, a new study has revealed

Obese patients who undergo weight-loss surgery are less likely to die in the following five years, a new study has revealed.

Being obese or overweight increases a person's risk of death from numerous diseases, including heart attack, stroke and a number of cancers.

Scientific evidence has shown surgery can prevent obesity-related mortality and morbidity.

However, there is a lack of population-based prospective studies examining overall mortality in patients who undergo gastric bypass.

Researchers led by Dr Christina Persson, from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, set out to assess the overall mortality in obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery, compared with their peers who did not have the operation.

Their study of almost 49,000 obese patients shows those who do not go under the knife are more likely to die.

Researchers used the Swedish Patient registry - a person-based register of all hospitalisations and hospital-based outpatients' visits in Sweden.

They created a cohort including all patients with a principal diagnosis of obesity - meaning this was the main cause of their hospital visit - in Sweden from 2000 to 2011.

The study population included 48,693 patients aged 18 to 74 years old.

Of those, 22,581 patients underwent bariatric surgery - 92.8 per cent of whom had a gastric bypass.

The remaining 26,112 obese patients did not have surgery.

Researchers discovered the mortality rate was higher in the non-surgical group (4.21 per cent) compared to the surgical group (1.1 per cent) - or the equivalent of 7.7 versus 2.1 deaths per 1,000 people each year.

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The average time to follow up for the surgical group was 5.4 years, and 5.5 years for those who did not have surgery.

Overall mortality decreased by 57 per cent in the surgery group, compared to the non-surgical group.

This 57 per cent reduction was the same when adjusting for age alone or age and previous co-morbidity and other factors, including sex, coronary heart disease, valvular disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, heart failure, stroke and atrial fibrillation.

Overall mortality decreased by 57 per cent in the surgery group, compared to the non-surgical group

The most common cause of death in the non-surgical group was cardiovascular disease, followed by cancer.

In the surgical obese patients, the most common cause of death was external causes of mortality (such as accidents and suicide), followed by cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Although accidents and suicide were the main causes of death in the surgical group, the incidence of death from these causes was still lower than in the non-surgical group.

The authors conclude: 'This population-based cohort observational study indicates that the overall all-cause mortality is considerably lower among obese individuals who undergo bariatric surgery compared to non-surgical obese individuals, and the differences lies mainly in cardiovascular disease and cancer.'
Two years ago, a group of five IT students from Delhi University gave up lucrative jobs offers and decided to stay and work in the varsity.

Working as interns, these students have designed the much-talked-about Admission Management System, which has enabled the varsity to take its entire admissions process online this year.

Delhi University kicked off the online admissions process for under-graduate courses on Wednesday June 1. In the first six hours the University portal registered more than 30,000 applicants, of whom 5,600 have paid the fees too.

Sarad Mishra, Anil Singh, Mukesh Rawat, Nites Malik and Diya Kawar have set up the admissions website for Delhi University.

From the last two-three years, we have been working with the students to understand their needs. We wanted to break the myth that government institutions cannot achieve professional levels. Its for the first time that Delhi University has gone completely online for admissions to under-graduate (UG) courses, Dr Sanjeev Singh, associate professor at Institute of Informatics & Communication (IIC) told Mail Today.

Former students of DUs Institute of Informatics & Communication (IIC) are the masterminds behind the digital change. The work on the online admissions system began on May 25, and since then the team has not slept.

Receiving an overwhelming response on the first day of the admissions, the team is excited as well as emotional.

It feels great. The response we have received from the students is overwhelming. We had a holistic idea of creating a system like this, which could be seamless and error-free, and most-importantly students friendly. With such a software, a sense of e-governance can be achieved, Sharad Mishra, one of the interns told Mail Today.

Senior students assist would-be undergarduates with the online forms

Students attend a programme on the admissions process for undergarduate courses with their parents

The system was used for the admissions to post-graduate (PG) courses and is already a success.

As per the latest report, more than 1.29 lakh applicants have submitted their application as a part of the intake process. Out of the total number of applicants, 1, 02,667 are from the general category.

We get an hourly statistics of the applicants and the registration process. The data has been divided into various categoriesmale, female, course popularity, state and district, added Mishra.

Even a few hours before going live, the interns were arguing over the colour of the button to be used during the online admission process.

Its an ongoing process. We want to improvise every year and this is the right way. We spoke to each and every college and coordinated with them for the application process. The discussions have been going on for very long, Divya Karwan, another intern told Mail Today.

An animated movie has also been made, giving details about filling up the application form online. The movie has been uploaded on YouTube.

Recently, we got a call from a student from Andaman& Nicobar Islands and he wanted to know about the process. Through the system, we will be able to reach out to the remote areas of the country where innovation is required, said Mukesh Rawat, another intern.
BJP president Amit Shah prompted speculation that a Cabinet reshuffle is imminent

The much-expected reshuffle of the Union Cabinet and the BJPs organisational set-up seem to have been delayed.

Sources indicated that the shake-up is not likely to be held before the BJPs national executive meeting in Allahabad on June 12-13.

BJP president Amit Shah had recently set off speculations by confirming that a Cabinet reshuffle was on the cards, but without giving a time-frame.

The national executive will conclude with an address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

RS polls won't be a cake-walk

The Rajya Sabha elections are not going to be a cake-walk for a number of candidates.

Congress nominee Kapil Sibal will be on tenterhooks with the BJP backing surprise independent candidate Preeti Mahapatra in Uttar Pradesh, while media baron Subhash Chandra will face competition from noted lawyer RK Anand in Haryana.

The elections in Uttarkahand are also expected to go down to the wire.

Protest against AKs room rent

The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that has a firm grip over the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU), would hold a protest against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the implementation of room rent control Act and having more buses, hostels and colleges.

The protest is timed when the admission process is underway as it is expected to impress the new students.

Jha takes secretary command

Prabhas Kumar Jha has taken over as secretary in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs after Afzal Amanullah retired on Monday.

Jha, an IAS officer of the 1982 Batch from Uttar Pradesh cadre, has served in different senior positions at the centre.

His last assignment was as Special Secretary and Financial Advisor in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Earlier, he also served as Joint Secretary (Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances).

His skills will be put to test ahead of the monsoon session of parliament in July.

Farewell a month too late

Senior IPS officer Deepak Mishra, who was transferred from Delhi Police to CRPF, had to wait for a month to get a farewell.

Soon after his transfer order, he went abroad to visit relatives. Just after Mishra returned last week, Delhi Police planned a goodbye for him.
A new forensic report claims meat recovered from murder victim Mohammed Akhlaq's home was beef - but UP Police say it was taken from a garbage dump

Uttar Pradesh Police may not register a case against the family of Mohammed Akhlaq - who was lynched by a mob last year over rumours that he butchered a cow - despite a forensic report saying that meat recovered from the spot was beef.

The findings of a Mathura lab have whipped up a fresh political storm over the issue, which fuelled a fierce debate on freedom of choice and religious intolerance in India.

In several Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh, the killing of cows and selling of beef are either restricted or banned as the animal is revered by many Hindus.

However, local police said on Wednesday there is no evidence to suggest that Akhlaqs family was responsible for cow slaughter.

People might demand that a case should be registered. But as of now no criminal offence is made out as the beef was not found inside Akhlaqs house, said a senior officer.

It was dumped in garbage nearby.

The 52-year-old resident of Bisada village in Dadri area on the outskirts of Delhi was beaten to death in September by an angry mob that suspected he had slaughtered a calf and eaten its meat.

While there were reports that the meat which was tested was found in Akhlaqs fridge, investigators are convinced that it was recovered from a garbage dump and do not rule out a larger conspiracy".

A preliminary enquiry by the states veterinary department had said it was goat meat.

If at all an FIR is registered it will be against unknown people. Its not known who was involved in the cow slaughter. All aspects need to be looked at, the police officer added.

After the fresh forensic report surfaced this week, relatives of those arrested for allegedly killing Akhlaq have been demanding that an FIR be registered against his family and the compensation given by the state government be withdrawn.

Relatives of the Dadri men who were arrested for Mohammad Akhlaq's murder

The case has led to a political slugfest with BJP leaders from Uttar Pradesh targeting the ruling Samajwadi Party as chief minister Akhilesh Yadav questioned the authenticity of the forensic report.

State director general of Police Javed Ahmed told Mail Today that the matter is in court and people should not jump to any conclusions.

The meat found is tested as beef but whether it was found in Akhlaqs house has still not been established, he said.

With political parties jumping in and the sensitive subject getting a communal colour, police are keeping a close eye on the developments.

With UP headed for crucial assembly polls next year, firebrand BJP MP Yogi Adityanath hit out at the SP for questioning the report, alleging that the ruling party only wants votes and demanding registration of a cow-slaughter case against Akhlaq's family.

The chief minister said nothing objectionable was found at Akhlaq's house.

Every eye is on this matter. Everyone wants that the victims family should get justice as a murder took place, he said.

Since the Dadri lynching incident, the village has been a hyper-sensitive zone with round-the-clock police patrolling

Akhilesh questions forensic report

By Rajat Rai in Lucknow

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav believes there was "nothing objectionable" in Mohammad Akhlaq's home

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday questioned the authenticity of the fresh report, which stated that the meat found at the spot where Dadri resident Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched was of cow or its progeny.

Where was the sample sent, who received it? There was nothing objectionable in his house. Every eye is on this matter. Everyone wants that the victims family should get justice as murder had taken place. After this incident, there was debate in the world regarding what to eat and speak. I think one should not get involved in such matters, Yadav told reporters in Ambedkar Nagar district.

One should not be concerned about what a person eats or drinks and which language he or she uses. I think one should keep away from such controversies, Akhilesh advised.

His remarks came after a report prepared by a forensic lab in Mathura concluded that the meat found was beef.

The finding was in contrast to the preliminary report of an inquiry by the Uttar Pradesh veterinary department which said the meat over which Mohammad Akhlaq, 52, was lynched on September 28 last in Dadri was mutton or goat progeny.

However, BJP MP Adityanath said the report has put the UP government, opposition parties at the Centre, and a section of media in the dock.

They are mum on this report. The innocent Hindus arrested in the matter should immediately be released and a case of cow slaughter should be registered against Akhlaqs family, he said in Gorakhpur.

I also demand that the state government should withdraw all facilities given to his (Akhlaqs) family, he said.

The report by the Forensic laboratory of the Uttar Pradesh University of Veterinary Services (Animal Husbandry) examined the sample of meat recovered from the spot in Dadri.

It was stated that on the basis of chemical analysis the forensic investigation of the sample showed that it belonged to cow or its progeny.

The report was sent to the Noida police and submitted to a fast-track court in a sealed cover, an official said.

(With agency inputs)

Victim's family should lose government perks, locals claim

By Shashank Shekhar in Bisada

There's an uneasy calm in Bisada village after a fresh forensic report said the meat recovered from the site of Mohammad Akhlaqs murder was beef.

When the Mail Today team visited the village, the uneasiness was evident. Everywhere the team went, various sets of eyes followed.

Fifty-two-year-old Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched by an unruly mob on September 28, 2015, in Dadri over rumours that his family stored and ate beef.

Locals in Bisada village admit that relations between Hindus and Muslims are not as harmonious as they were before the infamous lynching

Demanding the withdrawal of compensation given by the Uttar Pradesh government to Mohammed Akhlaqs family, the families of the 18 arrested on the charge of lynching are planning to file a formal complaint with the police.

Since the last September incident, the village has been declared as a hyper-sensitive zone and when the Mail Today team visited the village a huge number of police deployments were seen on the ground.

Villagers are reluctant to talk to mediapersons and were also seen questioning the credibility of the coverage.

I dont want to discuss what happened that night. We condemn both slaughter of cow and Akhlaqs murder. But, governments investigation was one-sided. Some innocents were even picked up by the cops, said a Muslim barber near the primary school.

He added that no violence or discrimination took place after the lynching incident, but stated that relations between the Hindus and Muslims in the village are not harmonious as before.

Now, the families of the accused, who are in jail for Akhlaqs murder, claim to be the real victims.

This is not the first time that we are demanding an investigation and action behind cow slaughter. I have written to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the DGP and DM and SSP of the district - but no one has responded.

"It was only after Mathuras forensic lab report that authenticated that the meat found at Akhlaqs residence was beef, we are demanding action against his family, said Sanjay Rana, a villager whose 22-year-old son, Vishal, has been in jail for the past eight months.

Locals said that they trusted the judiciary and would continue fighting constitutionally. They threatened to take out a mass protest, after seeking support from their community members residing in nearby villages, if the state machinery tries to suppress the matter.

Rajpal Singh, whose son Arun was held in the case, said: "This incident has not only affected our village but has also hurt the sentiments of our community members residing elsewhere. We have received several calls expressing grief and confirming support to our fight to ensure justice for our children.

Bisada is a peaceful village, the only family to leave this village was Akhlaqs. But things have changed. Earlier, Hindus used to give us loans and accompany us in religious functions but now they avoid us, said a Muslim labourer.

However, Akhlaqs family maintains that it has not seen the forensic report yet.
Seven years ago, I discovered Diya, the Indian restaurant at The Leela Ambience Hotel, Gurgaon, and have been a fan of it ever since.

It came up about the same time as Indian Accent and Varq, celebrity chef Hemant Oberoi's brainchild at The Taj Mahal Hotel on Mansingh Road, and the three together unspooled a new era in Indian food.

It was the start of style combining with substance, spurred by international critics who, influenced by nouvelle cuisine, railed against Indian chefs for ignoring presentation techniques and laying out what they regarded as sludge on the table.

One of the dishes on offer at the Diya at the Leela Ambience Hotel - a venue which helped spawn a new era of modern Indian cuisine

Feelings of nationalism aside, you have to admit that Indian curries, while loaded with aromatic appeal, aren't exactly a treat for the eye.

Even the closest we have come traditionally to plating food - a thali - doesn't make one dish stand out from the other. It is next to impossible, for instance, to distinguish a mutton dish from a chicken preparation, or one dal from the other.

But thanks to the nouvelle cuisine movement, the central ingredient of each dish has become the king of the plate. And each side dish finds an independent place in this universe - the thali has been appropriated, and prettified, by nouvelle cuisine's champions and their successors.

The chef behind this culinary story, Kunal Kapoor, became a celebrity not as a result of Diya but because of the forgettable MasterChef India

The turnaround started with the first generation of Indian chefs - Vineet Bhatia, Atul Kochhar, Sriram Aylur and Vikas Singh - who went to the UK to carve out their own paths to success.

Hemant Oberoi, who has spent a lifetime with the Taj Group of hotels, could have followed them, but he chose instead to stay back and explore new frontiers.

He created Varq and the restaurant made his signature dishes - Varqui crab and scallop (peppered crab and scallop millefeuille arranged in wafer-thin filo pastry sheets) and murgh khatta pyaaz served in a nest of shallow-fried lachchha potatoes. Both were instant hits.

At Indian Accent around the same time, Manish Mehrotra - just back from London after spending years dishing out Oriental cuisine - gave birth to his own genre of 'inventive Indian' cuisine, most memorably represented by the foie gras galauti served with a hot and sweet strawberry-red chilli relish.

Diya's new chef, Harish Tiwari, is adding a new dose of creativity to the restaurant's menu to continue its reputation for flying the flag for modern Indian food

Diya, somehow, did not get the kind of media blitz that accompanied the birth of Varq and Indian Accent, although its brand of modern Indian cuisine was no less dramatically different.

And like its contemporaries, the restaurant did not confuse the palate of diners - without meddling with the flavours of the originals, it presented Indian dishes in the nouvelle style.

Ironically, the chef behind this culinary story, Kunal Kapoor, became a celebrity not as a result of Diya, but because of the forgettable MasterChef India.

In the intervening years, Zorawar Kalra, in his characteristic flamboyant style, dazzlingly reinvented his father Jiggs Kalra's legacy at the Masala Library, which is opening shortly at Janpath in New Delhi after acquiring an enviable fan following in Mumbai, and he was instantly acclaimed as the new gust of fresh air in Indian cuisine.

Sommelier-turned-chef Rahul Dua's Cafe Lota at the National Crafts Museum, Pragati Maidan, and New York- based restaurateur Saurabh Anand's Masala House at Sunder Nagar are more recent additions to the modern Indian bandwagon, but they have added heft to the movement with the quality of their products.

And how has Diya fared in all these years? It has a new chef, Harish Tiwari, and - to my joy - I found out that he's adding a new dose of creativity to the restaurant's menu. I could feel his passion for innovation from the moment I had his paneer Peshawari tikka wheel.

An Indian chef who can make a memorable dal and give a personality to humble vegetables wins my instant respect. It's time we counted Diya as a flag-bearer of modern Indian cuisine.

Britain's food industry gets behind fight to stay in EU

Opinion polls may be showing that 52 per cent of Britons favour Brexit, but the food and beverage industry is solidly behind the idea of staying in.

The sentiment found expression at the Brighton and Hove Food and Drink Festival, where a group of high profile industry leaders put up a spirited show of support for the Remain campaign.

Among them were Tamara Roberts, CEO of Ridgeview - the Sussex-based producer of sparkling wines that will now officially be served at 10 Downing Street - and the event's directors, Nick Mosley and Andrew Kay, according to the local newspaper, The Argus.

For the industry, staying on means a continued supply of immigrant labour from across Europe.

Go to any restaurant in London and you'll be most likely greeted by a non-native speaker of English.

More importantly, the EU gives the unique food and drinks of Britain the kind of denominational protection that, say, Champagne or Parmesan cheese enjoys.

As Catherine Bearder, Liberal Democratic Member of European Parliament, pointed out at the food festival, the EU offers protection from "cheap imitations" of Cornish pasties, Cumberland sausages, Stilton cheese and, soon, Sussex wines.

"The status that the EU confers protects the identity of our traditional products and helps us sell more of them across Europe," Berder said.

The sling travels to Istanbul

In the absence of any record of the original formula, it's hard to find two similar recipes of the Singapore Sling, the iconic drink invented at the Raffles in Singapore by a Hainanese barman named Ngiam Tong Boon in 1915.

The one that has gained currency, ever since The New York Times published it in 1982, mentions seven ingredients to be poured into a shaker containing four ice cubes.

They are one ounce of gin, three-quarters of an ounce of cherry brandy, 'a few drops' each of Cointreau and Benedictine, juice of half a medium-sized lemon, two ounces of fresh pineapple juice, and a drop or two of bitters.

One of the 300 bespoke bottles of Raffles 2015, made for the hotel chain by London distillery Sipsmith

With the Raffles flag now flying on luxury hotels around the globe, the Singapore Sling had to get reinvented by bartenders with itchy fingers.

I tasted one such reinvention, the Bosphorus Sling, at the Raffles Istanbul, where pomegranate juice replaces pineapple and the Cointreau is hibiscus infused.

The drink is just what you'd seek out on a sweltering summer day - although Istanbul rarely has one - and it's back in vogue because gin is now oh-so cool, but that's just one-half of the story.

The bespoke gin that goes into a Singapore Sling - or its cousins - anywhere in the world today is produced in Bavarian copper stills exclusively for the Raffles by a company named Sipsmith.

Operating out of London, Sipsmith was co-founded seven years ago by Sam Galsworthy, a descendant of Sir Stamford Raffles, the imperialist who created Singapore and was gifted eternity by the hotel that carries his name.

The Raffles, incidentally, was where its long-time resident, W. Somerset Maugham, penned his classic, Of Human Bondage.

It was during a visit to Singapore that Galsworthy was inspired to produce a gin exclusively for the Raffles.

There couldn't be a better year to roll it out than 2015, the centenary of the Sling and golden jubilee of Singapore's Independence.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington DC next week, visiting US senator Ben Cardin has come down hard on India's track record on corruption, human rights and religious freedom.

Speaking in Delhi on the Role of Good Governance in International Relations, Benjamin Louis "Ben" Cardin, a democratic Senator from Maryland, criticised India for the number of extrajudicial killings that have taken place.

Cardin emphasised that extra judicial killings must not be allowed to continue in the country.

US senator Ben Cardin (left) has come down hard on India's track record on corruption, human rights and religious freedom

Citing the 2015 United States minorities watchdog report on religious freedom, Cardin said that anti-conversion laws in India are being used to infringe upon people's right to religious freedom.

Further adding to the criticism, he said that women in India are very vulnerable and that how a nation treats its women is the barometer of its progress.

The senator cited human trafficking as another major challenge.

Speaking in Delhi, Benjamin Louis Cardin criticised the number of extrajudicial killings in India

Ben Cardin intends to raise these social and human rights issues with Narendra Modi when he hosts a dinner for the visiting Prime Minister on Capitol Hill.

Responding to an India Today TV question, the Senator said: "I will include a human rights dimension in my conversation."

Cardin, a member of the US Foreign Relations Committee responsible for fixing accountability in America's global policy, also flagged corruption as a challenge that still haunts India despite the Modi administrations assurances.
After a month of terror attacks in the Kashmir valley, the security forces are now focusing on eliminating the top-ranking terrorists in intelligence-based operations.

The figures tell the story of the Army's change in tactics.

Since January 2016, 52 terrorists have been neutralised including Hizbul Mujahideen commander Ashiq Hussain Bhat, and Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Abu Hafiz.

The Army is now focusing on eliminating the leadership of Jihadi Tanjeem active in the valley (file pic)

The surrender of another of Hizbul's most-wanted terrorists, Tariq Pandit, who is considered close to Hizbul commander Burhan Wani, also came as a big catch.

The list accessed by Aaj Tak clearly shows that the Army is now focusing on eliminating the leadership of Jihadi tanzeem active in the valley.

Sources said that out of the 15 top terror commanders who crossed the Line of Control and infiltrated the Kashmir Valley this year, 10 are already dead.

The first batch of around 12 terrorists was reported to have sneaked into the Valley through Dardpora village located along the LoC on April 12.

Six other militants were reported to have infiltrated from the Lolab side around April 17.

Enhanced focus on technical and human intelligence gathering and coordinated operations is yielding the desired results.

Also, international intelligence-sharing is helping in tracking down the most wanted terrorists.

Defence expert Major General (retired) RK Arora pointed out that intelligence-sharing with the US and Afghanistan, along with better multi-agency inputs, is helping troops carry out successful operations.

The Line of Control: There were 121 infiltration attempts along the border in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015, of which 33 were successful (file pic)

However, the Army has also suffered losses. Over a dozen soldiers including officers and JCO's have died during counter-terror operations.

With summer on its way, infiltration attempts have seen a steady rise.

All efforts are being made to strengthen the counter-insurgency grid, which is a conglomeration of Army, para-military and state police.

There were 121 infiltration attempts along the border in Jammu and Kashmir in 2015, of which 33 were successful. However, 46 terrorists were killed by security forces.
At a time when beef and cow-related issues are hogging the limelight, theres a deafening silence concerning the plight of cattle in Bundelkhand.

Social activist Yogendra Yadav, from the NGO Swaraj Abhiyan, has claimed that approximately three lakh cattle have died in the drought-hit region in the month of May alone.

Yogendra Yadav alleged: The BJPs love for the cow is only restricted to newspapers and TV studios. Even as the partys national leadership debates the cow being rashtra mata and beef sale, at least three lakh cattle have died in drought-scorched Bundelkhand in May itself.

NGO activist Yogendra Yadav claims that 10,000 cows are dying each day in drought-hit Bundelkhand

"Carcasses are littered across the 13 districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Yadav said, speaking in New Delhi on Wednesday.

He added that the unbearable stench" pervades the region, and is likely to cause widespread illnesses.

UP BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan, however, blamed the state government for the crisis, saying:

It (SP government) is responsible for the barbaadi (destruction) of Bundelkhand. You can understand the state governments stubborn from the fact that we (Centre) offered it a water train, but it refused.

"Their zila (district) level officers and Commissioners are all giving a different account of severity of drought there. Corruption there is wreaking havoc on the grassroots-level administration.

At the Central level, all MPs of Bundelkhand have pledged their MPLAD money to its welfare in these drought times, he added.

As per the NGOs estimate, while there are 11,065 villages in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, all villages reported on average between 10 and 100 cattle deaths in May which added to around three lakh deaths in the month.

We heard widespread reports of fodder shortage everywhere. The Fodder Bank scheme is on paper only. Nobody knows where they are. Or else, relatives of politicians or those families who have no cattle at all, have availed money under it, alleged Yadav.

Yogendra Yadav accused the BJP of leveraging cows for political means and restricting their love for cows to newspapers and TV studios

On May 13, the Supreme Court had rebuked both the Centre as well as state governments for trying to evade responsibility of the drought condition.

A bench comprising Justices MB Lokur and NV Ramana said: You cannot hide behind the smokescreen of a lack of funds.

It also castigated the state governments for adopting an ostrich-like attitude towards disasters.

The apex court also passed directions on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MNREGS) and the Mid-Day Meal scheme for respite to victims.

After two successive years of below-average monsoon rainfall, large swathes of the country are in the grip of a drought.

Bundelkhand has struggled with below-average monsoon rainfall

The 2015 southwest monsoon, which irrigates over half of the countrys crop area, was 14 per cent short of normal last year, after a 12 per cent deficit in 2014.

So far, 266 districts in 11 states have been declared drought-hit, the government told Parliament in April. A total of 330 million people in 10 states are affected, it had earlier informed the Supreme Court.
Going: HSBC's prickly chief executive Stuart Gulliver

HSBCs prickly chief executive Stuart Gulliver is the European banking chief who investors would most like to be rid of, according to a poll.

They wont have to wait long. Grammar school-educated Gulliver, 57, who has overseen a string of scandals at the bank during his five-year watch, is expected to depart at the end of next year.

Wholl replace him? Lloyds boss, pompadoured Portuguese charmer Antonio Horta-Osorio, 52, is said to fancy his chances almost as much as he admires himself.

Sources tell me HSBCs avuncular chairman Douglas Flint is lobbying for an internal appointment.

Ryanairs in-yer-face boss Michael OLeary has made the company behind his private taxi service unlimited, meaning the public cant now peek at its annual accounts.

He took out a taxi licence in 2003 so that he could use Dublins bus lanes when making his 100-mile round trip to Ryanairs offices from his Mullingar home.

Ideas man OLoudmouth, 55, is often heard ranting about Dublins chronic traffic. His latest novel solution was to have cyclists taken out and shot.

Gaudily dressed Phones4U billionaire John Caudwell  he has a weakness for spangly blazers and outre waistcoats  has taken a hefty bath on his string of Turkish gyms, Pure Jatomi Fitness.

The company, in which hes the majority shareholder, folded this week, leaving staff unpaid and pre-paid customers without a refund.

Says a spokesman for father-of-five Caudwell, 63: John is very sorry for the loss of jobs, but it was a decision made by the board. Unfortunately it was just running up an everlasting treadmill of losses.

Congenial oil tycoon Algy Cluff, 76, has been touting his enjoyable memoirs Get On With It.

But he doesnt elaborate as to why hes known as Algy  his real name is John.

A school friend from Stowe tells me they named him after the character Algernon Moncrieff from The Importance of Being Earnest.

Cluffs Anguillan wife Blondel calls him Algy Club, since he retains membership of no fewer than nine establishments.

The London Stock Exchange has doled out an extraordinary 1.7million on public relations during its proposed 21billion merger with Deutsche Boerse.
Hyperbole: Carsten Kengeter, chief executive elect of a merged LSE and Deutsche Boerse

Carsten Kengeter, chief executive-elect of a merged London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse  in an attempt to raise the spirits  has declared June 1 a momentous day.

It may well be, as the meteorological start of summer and for the advisers collecting fat fees, but there is nothing else about the proposed LSE-DB deal worthy of such hyperbole.

If anything, the two prospectuses  one in English and one in German and both worked in euros rather than pounds  raise serious questions as to why the protagonists of this alliance are bothering at all.

The cost savings are wafer thin for such a large and high risk transaction. The promised new streams of income so disappointing and tendentious that shareholders in both exchanges might well consider it pointless.

The main board of the interwoven exchange is a motley collection of executives and non-executives drawn from both the LSE and DB.

It is likely to be a recipe for compromise rather than for clear-headed, strong leadership. Revenue growth at stolid old Deutsche Boerse is pedestrian when set against the sprint at the LSE.

Moreover, many of the vital regulatory issues are still largely unaddressed. A look at the underlying numbers shows that this is far from being a match made in heaven.

The cost savings, if they can be achieved given Germanys less flexible labour markets, will be 350million after three years.

Meanwhile, the cast of advisers which includes all the usual suspects  Goldman Sachs and Barclays on the UK side and Bank of America and Deutsche Bank on the German side  will share a delicious 235million in fees.

One trusts that the lawyers, who alone will carry off 68.4million in fees, and investment bankers will do a better job of due diligence than those on both sides in the sale of BHS to three-times bankrupt Dominic Chappell.

As for the revenue gains from the deal they are meagre, at just 192.5million after five years. For those who like percentages that is just 0.92 per cent of the value of the merger.

At the LSE income growth is being delivered in double-digit figures, a tribute to departing chief executive Xavier Rolet who is planning to cash in his large wodge of shares and options.

At Deutsche Boerse it was a more modest 8 per cent over the last quarter and a slug-like 4 per cent on an underlying basis  all distinctly unimpressive.

The prospectus and documents also skim over politics and regulation. There is a promise by both sides to press ahead irrespective of the Brexit referendum on June 23.

But some of those involved think that there is 50-50 chance at best of the deal going ahead should the British people decide Leave and it is absurd to think otherwise.

Frankfurt financiers and Hesse politicians already are kicking off at the fact that the intention is to locate the top company in the City. Imagine the times that opposition will be multiplied by if Leave wins.

It wont just be Germany up in arms but France, anxious for its shot of rivalling London as a financial centre, will be shouting from the rooftops.

Finally, there is regulation. The European Commission, which is admirably robust on cross-border takeovers (look at its recent block on a merger between mobile operators Three and O2), will not allow this deal through on the nod. Rival Paris-based Euronext, among others, is bound to raise enormous objections.

There is also prudential regulation to consider. Kengeter acknowledged in his conference call that Deutsche Boerse is having to raise an extra 38.5million of capital to boost the safety of its Eurex clearing house.

The LSE says its clearing house LCH Clearnet is well enough capitalised. The truth is, however, that an enormous amount of derivatives risk is being moved from the balance sheets of the banks to official clearers such as LCH Clearnet as part of the post-crisis order. And the scale of future capital requirement for exchanges is far from settled.

There is absolutely nothing in the full documentation, now sent to investors, to convince anyone that this merger is a good deal on financial, political or regulatory grounds. It ought to have been dead on arrival and it is only money-grabbing advisers and self-aggrandising executives keeping it alive.

Sipping the pain

The closure of 120 Austin Reed stores with the loss of 1,000 jobs was bad enough for such an esteemed clothing chain.

It follows other distinguished clothing names into the history books or online.

Jaeger continues to struggle which is among the reasons we should all be cheerleading for Burberry which, precious Christopher Bailey notwithstanding, remains a national luxury champion.

At the no-frills end of the High Street all indications are that potential buyers for BHS and a saviour for its 11,000 staff and 160 sizeable stores are retreating into the distance.
BANKER BLOODBATH Dozens of senior HSBC investment bankers could lose their jobs in the latest round of cuts to hit the industry.

HSBC began telling its London-based investment banking and global markets team about the cutbacks last week and a further round will take place this week.

Chief executive Stuart Gulliver has pledged to cut as many as 25,000 jobs to slash costs by 3.5billion. About 8,000 UK positions will go.

COKE SALE Dove soap and Knorr soup maker Unilever has sold its soy-based drinks business to Coca-Cola Co and its largest bottler, Coca-Cola Femsa, in a 400million deal.

Unilevers South American-based AdeS is known for its soy milk and fruit juice mixed drinks and will become part of Coca-Colas non-fizzy drink business which includes vitaminwater, Powerade and Minute Maid.

Unilevers shares rose 1 per cent, or 31.5p, to 3177.5p.

DEAL ROW Top city dealmaker Glenn Cooper has redoubled his efforts to buy a small Isle of Man-based property trust.

Cooper, an industry veteran who led the stock market float of Manchester United, is in a stand-off with Industrial Multi Property Trust after it turned down an 81.6million takeover bid.

Bosses rejected the approach from his firm James Stocks and Co, which only became public after it was reported in the Mail, but Cooper said the offer is generous.

HOUSING BOOM Builder Telford Homes posted a 28 per cent rise in annual profits to 32.2million amid booming demand for new homes.

The company said profits are expected to reach 50million by 2019. It raised its dividend by 27.9 per cent to 14.2p a share but the stock fell 1.4 per cent, or 5.3p, to 366p.

INVESTMENT BINGE Annual profits at property firm LondonMetric plunged 48 per cent to 82.7million after an investment binge.

The company ploughed cash into warehousing and distribution centres that it hopes will be more in demand than stores as the internet lures consumers from the High Street.

The annual dividend was hiked 0.25p to 7.25p per share. Shares fell 4 per cent, or 6.5p, to 158p.

DIVIDEND BOOST Custom electronics business Acal has raised its dividend and more than doubled its profits. Pre-tax profits rose 119 per cent to 9.4million in the year to March 31.

Acal announced a dividend of 8.05p, up 6 per cent on a year ago. Shares fell 2.3 per cent, or 6p, to 259p.
Lawyers, bankers and spin doctors are set to rake in up to 235million from a German takeover of the London Stock Exchange.

The fees bonanza was revealed as plans were set out for Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse to seize control of the 215-year-old LSE.

The pair  who say the deal is a merger of equals  said the 21billion deal would go ahead regardless of whether or not Britain remained in the European Union.

And it was announced they would seek to make 350million of annual savings through cuts, involving slashing 1,250 jobs.

Consultants: The fees bonanza was revealed as plans were set out for Frankfurt-based Deutsche Boerse to seize control of the 215-year-old LSE

But a determination to save cash does not appear to have extended to the fees for advisers, detailed in the small print.

In fact, the costs these dealmakers expect to suck out of the two firms are equal to more than eight months savings under the tighter regime.

Deutsches consultants will rake in 98.5million, with 46.2million for financial advisers alone. Another 30.9million is to be pocketed by its lawyers, 4million by its accountants and 2.8million by public relations people.

LSE is expecting to hand over 135.6million. Bankers will take up to 85.6million, lawyers 37.5million and accountants 3.2million.

And LSE is paying City spinners 1.7million to promote the deal in the press in the face of opposition over the plans to let one of Britains most revered financial institutions fall into foreign hands.

Those set to benefit from the fees bonanza include HSBC, which was named in the Panama Papers tax scandal. The bank and its affiliates had set up more than 2,300 shell companies for clients using law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Others listed in the deal documents include Goldman Sachs, the banking giant renowned for its ruthless focus on profit and lavish pay for high-flying staff.

Barclays, UBS and Deutsche Bank are also named. All three have been hit with multi-million-pound fines by regulators.

Politicians last night blasted the deal, accusing those involved of selling Britains national interest.

Influential Tory MP Sir Bill Cash said: I think its very sad and tragic that this wholly unnecessary capitulation took place.

When the cuts are made it is believed they will be split between the two companies.

The deal will now be decided on by LSE shareholders at a crunch vote on July 4. Deutsche shareholders will have their say later the same month.

Despite vocal opposition it looks increasingly likely that investors will vote it through.

Activist hedge fund boss Christopher Hohn, who helped block an earlier Deutsche takeover of the LSE through his Childrens Investment Fund, does not oppose it this time round.

Some MPs have called on Business Secretary Sajid Javid to block the deal but Chancellor George Osborne is in favour, effectively ruling this out.

The last hope of opponents could now be regulators, as EU and British watchdogs need to wave it through. French finance minister Michel Sapin wants the European Commission to intervene.

His words are likely to have been embarrassing for Xavier Rolet, the LSEs French boss, who is said to harbour political ambitions.

Rolet will step down from the merged company if the deal goes ahead, with Deutsche boss Carsten Kengeter taking charge.
The final design of the new 5 banknote featuring Sir Winston Churchill has been unveiled and will officially enter circulation on 13 September.

In a break from the current paper notes it will be printed on plastic - rather than cotton paper - and features the image of Sir Winston Churchill.

Revealed at Blenheim Palace, the Bank of England believes that the thin and flexible plastic banknotes will be cleaner and harder to counterfeit than the old ones.

Old school: The new fiver features Winston Churchill and was unveiled at Blenheim Palace this afternoon

Features Churchill's declaration 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat'

But it has warned shoppers to check how much money they over when using the polymer notes, however, as they have a tendency to stick together.

The use of thin, see-through polymer is a first for the Bank of England, which invested 70million into the project.

Plastic notes have been in use in Scotland as well as other countries including Australia and Canada. They have also been used in Northern Ireland.

Bank Governor Mark Carney said: 'Our banknotes are repositories of the United Kingdom's collective memory and like Churchill, our new polymer notes will stand the test of time.'

Being a thoroughly modern banknote, the Bank has even got the soon-to-arrive 5 its own website at www.thenewfiver.co.uk and the note is trending on twitter with the hashtag #thenewfiver

The Bank has had to release advice to businesses about dealing with the new polymer notes, which are 15 per cent smaller than the current notes.

WHY PLASTIC NOTES? The Bank claims new plastic notes are: -Resistant to dirt and moisture so stay cleaner for longer than paper banknotes -More secure so will provide enhanced counterfeit resilience -More durable so will increase the quality of banknotes in circulation

Brendan Doyle, of CMS Payments Intelligence, said: 'Retailers and banks are going to have to invest over 200m to change ATMs, self-service checkouts and other equipment.'

There are more than 329 million 5 notes in circulation, so it will take a year for the Churchill note to fully replace the current one.

The new material will be a lot more durable than the current paper notes, which can be tainted by dirt and destroyed in the washing machine.

The polymer notes can be wiped clean of liquid and will be very difficult to tear, meaning they can survive a 90C cycle.

Stopping fraudsters is another potential positive as the Bank predicts the now notes will be difficult to copy successfully.

The new plastic 5 note will be issued on September 13, when about 44million of the notes will come into circulation

The polymer notes can be wiped clean of liquid and will be very difficult to tear, meaning they can survive a 90C cycle

The current 5 note features prison reformer Elizabeth Fry and the announcement by the Bank of England in 2013 that she would be replaced with the former prime minister caused an outcry, as it could have meant that, apart from the Queen, there would be no female faces on the UK's notes.

Thousands signed a petition in protest. It was subsequently announced that novelist Jane Austen would be the face of the new 10 note from 2017.

Like the new fiver, the new 10 and 20 notes will also be printed on polymer.

In April, the Bank announced that artist JMW Turner will appear on the next 20 banknote, due to be issued by 2020.

Smile: The new five pound note will be printed on the thin and flexible plastic polymer and will be around 15 per cent smaller than the paper ones currently in circulation

Novelist Jane Austen was picked to feature on the polymer ten pound notes, which will enter circulation next summer

English Romanticist landscape painter Joseph Mallord William Turner will be the face of the new twenty pound note set to be distributed in 2020

Today there are more than 30 countries who print their currency onto the thin and flexible plastic.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, Victoria Cleland, the chief cashier of the Bank of England, said the notes had been popular among members of the public, who dubbed them 'cool'.

She added that while the notes are capable of withstanding a cycle in the washing machine, she doesn't encourage people to try as it will inevitably begin to weaken it.
More than 150 travellers with horses and caravans took over the steps of a crown court in protest today as a gang were jailed for kidnapping two men and keeping them as slaves.

Holding up placards and banners, the protesters were demanding the release of release of Patrick Joseph Connors, 59, his son Patrick Dean Connors, 39, nephew William Connors, 36 and son-in-law Lee Carbis, 34.

The gang was convicted of kidnapping Michael Hughes, 46, and another man, 'Mr K', and forcing them to perform forced or compulsory labour last week, and were today jailed for a total of 27 years when they appeared at Cardiff Crown Court.

More than 150 travellers with horses and caravans took over the steps of a crown court in protest today as a gang were jailed for kidnapping two men and keeping them as slaves

The protesters were demanding the release of release of Patrick Joseph Connors, 59, (left) his son Patrick Dean Connors, 39, (right) and two other men

Patrick Joseph Connors's nephew William Connors, 36, and son-in-law Lee Carbis, 34

But the protesters - who plastered 'not guilty' posters up around Cardiff and wore specially-made t-shirts, compared treatment of the family to that of Nelson Mandela.

They sang and chanted, while children rode on horses and in carts, and protest songs blared from a speaker system set up on the steps.

Patrick Joseph Connors' sister Eileen Cassidy, 53, said: 'This is not just for travelling people but for everyone that needs justice.

The protesters - who plastered 'not guilty' posters up around Cardiff and wore specially-made t-shirts, compared treatment of the family to that of Nelson Mandela

They sang and chanted, while children led around horses and in carts, and protest songs blared from a speaker system set up on the steps

Despite the protests, the gang was jailed for a total of 27 years when they appeared at Cardiff Crown Court

'Like Nelson Mandela was done wrong. They saw him right in the end. God rest his soul, it was a bit late but he still got justice in the end as well.

'We'll never give up. Our lawyers are in shock, they cannot believe this has happened.

'We want to appeal but most of all we want an acquittal. At the end of the day that is what I think should happen to my brother, nephews and nephew-in-law.'

The trial, which took place at Cardiff Crown Court, was told Patrick Joseph Connors headed the violent family who forced the two homeless men to live and work in 'atrocious conditions' for up to 26 years, paying them as little as 10 a day.

The demonstrators said they wanted the men, who were convicted last week, to be aquitted

Protesters on the steps of Cardiff Crown Court today as they demanded the men be freed

Connors - along with sons Patrick Dean Connors and William Connors - made the men sleep in sheds and caravans without heating or running water.

A court heard the two victims were put to work as labourers for tarmacking and general building - and threatened with violence if they tried to escape.

Victim Mr Hughes was allegedly just 19 when he was taken in by the Connors gang before being made their slave - and was only freed after 26 years a slave.

He was kept along with the other man who can only be identified as 41-year-old 'Mr K'.

Many of the demonstrators wore t-shirts with the men's faces on them, and held up banners and placards

The protesters on the steps of Cardiff Crown Court today as the men were jailed

The pair managed to escape the Connors' gang once each - but were quickly hunted down and beaten as punishment at the family property in Cardiff, South Wales.

Patrick Joseph Connors, Patrick Dean Connors and William Connors, all of Rumney, Cardiff, were all found guilty of forcing Michael Hughes and 'Mr K' to undergo forced labour.

Both Patrick Dean Connors and Carbis, from Trowbridge, Cardiff, were found guilty of one charge of kidnap, but Carbis was cleared of the forced labour charges.

Patrick Joseph Connors was also found guilty of eight charges of actual bodily harm and four of conspiracy to kidnap. He was jailed for 14 years.

Patrick D Connors was sentenced to 6 and a half years, William Connors jailed for 4 years and Carbis for 2 and a half years.

Demonstrators ride past the court building in a horse and cart, waving a placard
be in 'deep s***' if caught

Hartman told the court the pair believed they'

Oliver Curtis, the investment banker husband of PR maven Roxy Jacenko, has been found guilty of conspiring to commit insider trading.

The jury delivered its verdict on Thursday following a tense three week trial where his former best friend and schoolmate John Hartman was pitted against him.

Mr Curtis, 30, a father-of-two, could face up to five years imprisonment and/or a $220,000 fine over the charge.

Ms Jacenko left the courtroom in tears - separately to her partner - after the panel announced its decision.

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GUILTY: Oliver Curtis, the husband of Sydney PR queen Roxy Jacenko, has been found guilty of one charge of conspiracy to commit insider trading. He appears upset after the verdict Thursday

DEVASTATION: Sweaty Betty PR founder Roxy Jacenko appeared tearful as she and her mother Doreen left the historic St James Road court on Thursday afternoon

Ms Jacenko left the court in tears after the twelve member jury of eight men and four women found her husband guilty of an insider trading charge

Ms Jacenko has watched each day of the NSW Supreme Court trial from the public gallery, keenly keeping across the proceedings in front of Justice Lucy McCallum

The public relations queen (left) and Mr Curtis (right) left the court separately, walking in separate directions

Ms Jacenko waited for a Range Rover to pick her up on the side of Elizabeth St, Sydney, following the hearing

Dressed in black Ms Jacenko is pictured leaving the courtroom dressed in black, ducking into a waiting vehicle

Mr Curtis had vigorously denied the charge, pleading not guilty. But following two days of deliberations, the eight men and four women of the jury disavowed Mr Curtis's plea.

Over the course of the trial, the court heard Mr Curtis traded using inside information from Mr Hartman on 45 occasions between May 2007 and June 2008.

The jury heard the pair made about $1.4 million from the trades and used the money on a lavish holiday to Whistler and Las Vegas, a $20,000 Ducati motorcycle and a $60,000 Mini Cooper.

MEDIA SWARM: Ms Jacenko, an assistant and her mother, Doreen, braved a media scrum as they trudged towards a waiting car

She appeared tearful as she left the court as cameras captured the moment

THE STAR WITNESS: John Hartman, the former best friend of Mr Curtis, avoided eye contact with his former friend when he testified against him over three days of the trial. He travelled from Perth to testify against him

In emails shown to the court, Mr Curtis even suggested the pair would charter a helicopter to fly them around Canada because they would be 'too hungover to drive'.

They rented a $3000-a-week pad together in Bondi allegedly using the profits of the insider trading scheme, the court heard.

Mr Hartman steadfastly refused to make eye contact with Mr Curtis throughout the trial despite the pair sitting just metres from one another. Mr Curtis kept a close eye on his former friend.

'We will all be very hung over and not enjoy a 2 hour drive': Emails were shown to the jury about a holiday Mr Curtis and Mr Hartman organised. The court heard it was funded by an insider trading scheme

We have to settle for commercial flights': Another excerpt from emails tendered in court during the trial and obtained by Daily Mail Australia

The pair grew up together in the suburb of Mosman on Sydney's north shore.

Mr Curtis is the son of wealthy minerals businessman Nick Curtis and Mr Hartman the son of celebrity obstetrician Keith Hartman.

They both attended the prestigious Saint Ignatius' Riverview College and entered jobs in the finance sector after school.

Mr Hartman told the court he shared inside information from his job as an equities analyst at Orion Asset Management with Mr Curtis.

He told the court the scheme began when Mr Curtis bought him a Blackberry from an Optus store in the Sydney CBD.

Mr Hartman said in his witness testimony he then would send Mr Curtis trading information with encrypted Blackberry PIN messages.

The couple arrived at court on Thursday walking hands but left separately following the proceedings

Mr Curtis appeared tense arriving at the court on Thursday afternoon

Ms Jacenko arrived at court with Mr Curtis in designer outfits throughout the three-week trial (left, right, centre)

The court heard Mr Curtis then used the information to buy or sell financial instruments known as CFDs (contracts for difference), which track the price of shares on the stock market.

Mr Hartman told the jury it was a 'crazy time' and the pair were 'swept up in this fake world'.

At one point he recalled meeting up with Mr Curtis at a CBD bar popular with stockbrokers where the pair agreed: 'We'd both be in a lot of s*** if it came out.

'It wouldn't just be one of us who would be in trouble'.

Mr Hartman served 15 months imprisonment over insider trading charges, the jury heard during the trial.

He agreed to testify against Mr Curtis and received a discounted sentence for assisting authorities.

Mr Curtis's silk, Murugan Thangaraj SC, said in his opening address the trial would hinge on whether Mr Hartman could be trusted.

'There's no dispute the trading took place,' Mr Thangaraj told the jury at the time. 'The issue is Mr Hartman's evidence.

'Is he reliable? Can we trust him?'

Ms Jacenko is pictured with the couple's daughter Pixie, four, on the front row of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week earlier this year

The jury's decision on Thursday was welcomed by financial regulator ASIC, which has pursued Mr Curtis over several years.

Spokesman Chris Savundra told reporters outside court the decision reinforced their commitment to pursue misconduct 'no matter how long they may take or how vigorously they are defended'.

Mr Curtis has two little children with Ms Jacenko: daughter Pixie, aged four, and son Hunter, who is about one.
He pleaded not guilty and was released on bail; his mental fitness will be re-evaluated in six months

Snuka was charged last year in death of Argentino, 23, whose body was found in their hotel room in 1983

The 73-year-old took the stand last month and often seemed confused as he was questioned by the judge

A judge ruled on Wednesday that Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka is mentally incompetent to stand trial in death of Nancy Argentino

A judge ruled Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka (pictured in 2015) is mentally incompetent to stand trial in the death of his girlfriend more than three decades ago

Pro wrestling star Jimmy 'Superfly' Snuka is mentally incompetent to stand trial in the death of his girlfriend more than three decades ago, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

Lehigh County Judge Kelly Banach ruled from the bench after a four-day hearing on whether Snuka should face trial on murder and manslaughter charges.

Snuka, 73, took the stand last month and often seemed confused as he was questioned by the judge.

'I don't believe he's faking it,' Banach said on Wednesday.

Snuka, a native of Fiji who lives in Waterford Township, New Jersey, was charged last year in the death of 23-year-old Nancy Argentino, whose body was found in their Whitehall Township hotel room.

He pleaded not guilty and was released on bail. His mental fitness will be re-evaluated in six months.

The defense argued that Snuka suffers from dementia, partly due to the head trauma he suffered over a long career in the ring.

A prosecution expert said Snuka's brain shows normal signs of aging and suggested he might be feigning symptoms.

Questioned by the judge last month, the high-flying wrestler did not know his age or the year, could not remember the name of his lawyer or identify the current U.S. president or any presidential candidates, and seemed befuddled about the reason he was in court.

The judge said on Wednesday she does not think that Snuka is 'smart enough' to fake illness, characterizing the wrestler as 'vacant' and 'leadable.'

Snuka, a native of Fiji who lives in Waterford Township, New Jersey, was charged last year in the death of 23-year-old Nancy Argentino, whose body was found in their Whitehall Township hotel room in (couple, left)

The defense argued that Snuka suffers from dementia, partly due to the head trauma he suffered over a long career in the ring

'Unfortunately justice suffers when it's delayed,' Banach said. 'Justice suffers after 30 years because everything decays.'

Snuka had been at a World Wrestling Federation taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds in May 1983, and told police shortly after Argentino's death that he had returned to their Whitehall Township hotel room to find her unresponsive in bed.

She was pronounced dead at a hospital several hours later.

Snuka (left in 2013) had been at a World Wrestling Federation taping at the Allentown Fairgrounds in May 1983, and told police shortly after Argentino's (right) death that he had returned to their Whitehall Township hotel room to find her unresponsive in bed

An autopsy determined she died of traumatic brain injuries and had more than three dozen cuts and bruises, and it concluded her injuries were consistent with being hit with a stationary object.

But the probe went cold, and Snuka continued his high-profile pro wrestling career.

Prosecutors reopened the investigation after a 2013 report in The Morning Call newspaper raised questions about the case. He was charged in September.
A man who received the nation's first penis transplant calls the operation a success and is going home.

Thomas Manning left Massachusetts General Hospital on Wednesday, three weeks after the grueling 15-hour surgery. The 64-year-old traveled with his mother and a family friend back to his home in Halifax, where he looked forward to a spaghetti dinner and a night in his own bed.

'We're going to go home, just take it easy, have a nice, relaxing night,' Manning said as he prepared to leave his hospital room. 'It's almost all over. The worst of it is all done.'

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Thomas Manning gives a thumbs-up with nurse Anthony DiGiovine. Manning is the first man in the United States to undergo a penis transplant

Manning sheds tears while speaking of his surgical ordeal as he prepares to be discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital on Wednesday

The 64-year-old traveled with his mother and a family friend back to his home in Halifax, where he looked forward to a spaghetti dinner and a night in his own bed

After two follow-up surgeries, Manning said, he can urinate normally and he's back to walking around. Sexual function is still months away, though, and reproduction won't be possible because he did not receive new testes.

Manning, whose penis was amputated after he was diagnosed with penile cancer in 2012, never married and has no children.

When he described looking under the bandages for the first time, he became emotional. He still has dozens of stitches, and the swelling has yet to subside.

'It took me a few days to look at it, so confidence comes and goes,' he said, blinking away tears. 'It's one of those things that, if you look at it, it doesn't look too good.'

Manning gathers his belongings in his hospital room with his mother, Florence, as he prepares to be discharged

Manning chats with nurses, Caroline Pinnette, middle, and Ashley DiPaolo on Wednesday

Dr. Dicken Ko (left) is director of Massachusetts General Hospital's urology program and co-led the surgical transplant team. Manning is seen right in his room at the hospital last month

But Manning is optimistic that he'll make a full recovery in the coming months and that his body will accept the transplant. Through it all, Manning said he hasn't felt any pain from the surgery.

'I got the A-Team here,' he said. 'They've been taking care of me like you can't imagine. I'm recovering no matter what they do to me.'

Manning is the third man in the world to receive a new penis, following transplants in South Africa in 2014 and China in 2005.

The procedure could benefit cancer survivors, accident victims and wounded soldiers. By sharing his story, Manning said he wants to give others hope in the operation.

Soon after his amputation, Manning started asking his doctor about the possibility of a transplant. When he was chosen and arrived at the hospital in May, it still felt as though he was just a local guy getting treated at the local hospital, he said. Only last week, lying in his hospital bed, it had finally sunk in that he was the first in the U.S. to get the procedure.

'I didn't think too much of it, and then it hit me that I was the only one,' he said, his voice faltering. 'That's when it hit me.'

Manning, whose penis was amputated after he was diagnosed with penile cancer in 2012, never married and has no children

Manning is the third man in the world to receive a new penis, following transplants in South Africa in 2014 and China in 2005
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Camille Grammers ex-boyfriend Dimitri Charalambopoulos said his ex 'continuously craved' attention as he accused her of leaking confidential court documents involving her medical history and abuse allegations against former husband Kelsey Grammer.

In court documents filed last week, Charalambopoulos said that the allegations that he leaked the documents are false and claimed that Grammer is an attention seeker who released them in an attempt to publicly attack her ex-husband.

Grammer claimed last month that Charalambopoulos leaked her medical records in violation of a court order that was part of an ongoing legal battle between the former couple.

The records included information about the medications her doctor prescribed her, medical diagnoses made and details about her mental healh.

Charalambopoulos blasted his ex-girlfriend in the court papers, saying that the allegations that he or his legal team released the deposition are absurd and if he wanted to leak the documents he would have secretly done it using other means.

Dimitri Charalambopoulos has claimed in court papers that allegations he leaked confidential documents are false and claimed ex Camille Grammer released them to attack her ex-husband Kelsey Grammer

The records that were released featured Camille Grammar's medical information and an account of the alleged abuse she claimed to have suffered at the hands of ex-husband Kelsey

He asserted that his legal team was in possession of hundreds of pages of confidential documents for nearly a year before anything was leaked.

He claimed in the court filing that CamilleGrammer had a motive to leak the documents so that she would be able to release negative information about her ex-husband to the press without being blamed since it was Charalambopoulos legal team that filed the documents with the federal court system.

He claims she also benefits from the leak because she will once again be in the headlines and that evidence shows that this is something she has 'continuously craved.'

The RHOBH star asked in May that Charalambopoulos be sanctioned $25,000 to remedy for her medical records being made public and to teach her ex a lesson to prevent any further information from being released.

She also asked for $3,750 in attorney fees for having to even take this issue before the court and asking the judge to shut down Charalambopoulos request to compel more discovery to him in the legal battle.

Grammers motion to have him sanctioned, Charalambopoulos said, is an attempt by her to capitalize on an inadvertent mistake in filing a motion.

Charalambopoulos said he had no motive to release the filing and is now demanding her motion for sanctions be shut down by the federal court judge.

Grammer said last month that a judge signed off on a protective order that sealed the deposition of her personal doctor so it would be hidden from the public.

She later claimed the deposition was made public by Charalambopoulos, saying he did not follow the order he had originally agreed to - something Charalambopoulos has denied.

The former girlfriend and boyfriend slapped each other with dueling lawsuits last year after the reality star accused her ex-boyfriend of domestic violence in a Texas hotel room in 2013.

Charalambopoulos filed a lawsuit accusing Grammer of defamation, claiming she made up the incident and said he never beat her.

He said that he was never charged by police due to lack of evidence and claimed that Camille faked the incident because she believed he was cheating on her.

The former couple have been in an ongoing legal battle since last year, after Grammer accused Charalambopoulos of domestic violence in a Texas hotel room in 2013

Grammer provided a series of photos as her evidence of the alleged assault to the court showing a bruised face and arms. Charalambopoulos filed a lawsuit accusing Grammer of defamation, claiming she made up the incident and said he never beat her

Grammer said she did not make up the incident and pointed to statements she made to Texas police.

She demanded his claims be thrown out and then counter-sued Charalambopoulos for assault and battery.

The case is still pending, and Grammer and Charalambopoulos are battling it out in court during discovery.

According to documents filed in the case, Grammers personal doctor, Dr Bethany Tucker, was recently deposed by Charalambopouloss lawyers.

She was questioned on everything from her divorce with Kelsey Grammer - including an incident where he allegedly hit her - to the stress from Real Housewives and her diagnosing the reality star with PTSD following the alleged assault with her ex-boyfriend.

According to the deposition, Tucker has been treating Grammer as a patient since 2005, when she was still married to Kelsey Grammer.

Following the divorce, the doctor treated Grammer for anxiety, stress and the inability to sleep or eat well.

The divorce took such a toll on her that she was prescribed Klonopin and other medications for her irritable bowel syndrome - something she has spoken publically about in the past.

During the deposition, a llawyer briefly touches on an incident where Kelsey Grammer allegedly grabbed her arm and injured her shoulder. The doctor said they spoke about the incident but it took place before she starting seeing her.

According to the medical records released in court documents filed in the case, Grammers personal doctor, Dr Bethany Tucker, was recently deposed by Charalambopouloss lawyers. Tucker has been treating Grammer as a patient since 2005, when she was still married to Kelsey Grammer (pictured)

Charalambopouloss lawyers questioned Tucker about Grammers developments since the alleged assault involving their client.

The doctor said that Grammer feared for her safety - something she did not experience after her divorce - and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after the incident.

She began taking a medicine called Effexor, but it was later changed due to it being too strong and is now taking Lexapro.

Lawyers also asked Tucker about an incident in which Grammer threw two of Charalambopouloss laptops off of her balcony in an attempt to destroy them. She said she was aware of at least one similar incident.

She said that Grammer was consistent with her story about Charalambopouloss alleged assault and showed signs of someone who had experienced trauma.

After the documents involving her medical records were released, Grammer demanded sanctions to compensate her for the damage she has suffered as a result of the actions of her ex and his legal team.

Any claim that the filing was inadvertent rings hollow, she said in the complaint.

Grammer and Charalambopoulos' cases are ongoing. In March, Grammer won a small victory when a judge ordered her ex to pay more than $119,000 to her lawyers along with more than $2,300 for other expenses incurred by Grammer in successfully defending against some of his claims.
A 29-year-old man has been charged after he was accused of secretly filming a child and other residents inside a bathroom at an apartment over six months with a mobile phone.

Police arrested the man at his Parramatta workplace, in Sydney's west, about 7pm on Wednesday.

He was found with a mobile phone and police found a number of recordings of a 31-year-old woman and a child on it.

A 29-year-old man has been charged after he was accused of secretly filming residents, including a child, inside a bathroom at an apartment on Allen Street in Harris Park (pictured is a Google street view)

It is also alleged the man secretly filmed a man and a woman, both 31, as well as other residents.

Police said the recordings dated back to December last year and showed people using a bathroom at an apartment on Allen Street in Harris Park, also in Sydney's west.

The man was taken to Parramatta Police Station after his arrest.

He was charged with two counts of filming a person in a private act without consent and possession of child abuse material.

The man was granted bail strict conditional bail to appear before Parramatta Local Court on June 7.
Accused 'burglar killer' Ben Batterham has been seen for the first time since he resumed normal life with his family after being released from prison on bail.

The 33-year-old visited a gym in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Wednesday morning before going shopping with his partner Monique and their baby daughter.

It is the first time he has been seen since he was released on bail from Cessnock Correctional Facility in NSW on May 10 after six weeks behind bars for the killing of burglar Ricky Slater.

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Accused 'burglar killer' Ben Batterham has been seen for the first time in Newcastle, north of Sydney, on Wednesday since being released from prison on bail on May 10

He was charged with Slater's murder after the 34-year-old broke into Batterham's house in Newcastle in the early hours of Easter Saturday and a fight ensued.

Slater died on March 26 after being chased down the street and allegedly held in a chokehold by Batterham who, his barrister claims, caught him standing in the hallway of his home holding his partner's handbag at about 3am.

At the time of his death Slater - who was a convicted rapist and ice addict - was allegedly carrying drugs, knives and $570 in cash.

Batterham kept a low profile on Wednesday as he was spotted wearing sunglasses and a hat.

He later spent two hours at the gym before visiting hardware store Bunnings with his partner and daughter.

The couple appeared to be shopping for their new home, which is in a secret location while he is out on bail. They later went clothes shopping for their baby daughter and had a coffee.

The 33-year-old visited a gym and went shopping for household items at Bunnings hardware store

It is the first time Batterham has been seen since he was released on bail from Cessnock Correctional Facility in NSW on May 10 after six weeks behind bars for killing burglar Ricky Slater

Batterham was pictured shopping with his partner Monique and their baby daughter on Wednesday. The couple appeared to be shopping for their new home, which is in a secret location while he is out on bail

Battherham, an apprentice chef, has not yet returned to his third-year position at The Newcastle Club but has been offered employment there until his trial.

HOW THE INCIDENT UNFOLDED March 26: Ricky Slater allegedly broke into Ben Batterham's home at about 3am and stole a handbag from the nursery of Batterham's daughter. Police facts reveal Slater was allegedly armed with knives and had drugs in his possession. Batterham, who was celebrating birthday drinks with his friend Paul O'Keeffe, allegedly chased Slater from the house and down several streets. Police allege Batterham then tackled Slater on the ground, held him and punched him in the head. Slater was taken to hospital where his life support was switched off the following day. Batterham's charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm was upgraded to murder. May 9: Batterham was granted bail at Newcastle Local Court. May 10: He walked free from Cessnock prison on Tuesday afternoon. Advertisement

Daily Mail Australia understands the club, a prestigious members-only establishment, also paid his wages for the six weeks he was behind bars.

A source said staff and members 'all support' the man.

Batterham's arrest in March sparked outrage among supporters who argued he was merely protecting his family and home.

Granting bail last month at Newcastle Local Court, Magistrate Robert Stone said his reaction to chase Slater down the street may be 'explained' given the circumstances.

Police facts obtained by Daily Mail Australia earlier this year appear to show he was bruised and marked when photographed by officers immediately after the incident.

Batterham's barrister, prominent Sydney defence lawyer Winston Terracini, said in court he had been bitten by Slater as they scuffled on the street outside his home. He underwent an HIV test afterwards, it was revealed.

Batterham, who was celebrating birthday drinks with his friend Paul O'Keeffe, allegedly chased Slater from the house and down several streets.

Police allege Batterham then tackled Slater on the ground, held him and punched him in the head.

Batterham kept a low profile on Wednesday as he arrived at a gym wearing sunglasses and a hat

Batterham spent two hours at the gym on Wednesday before going shopping with his family at Bunnings

The couple appeared to be shopping at Bunnings for their new home, which is in a secret location while he is out on bail. They later went clothes shopping for their baby daughter and had a coffee

Battherham, an apprentice chef, has not yet returned to his third-year position at The Newcastle Club but has been offered employment there until his trial

Batterham was released on bail from Cessnock Correctional Facility in NSW on May 10 after six weeks behind bars for the killing of burglar Ricky Slater. He is pictured here immediately following his release

Slater was taken to hospital where his life support was switched off the following day and Batterham's charge of assault causing grievous bodily harm was upgraded to murder.

His parents, Bruce and Diane Batterham, have apparently been forced to flee their house in fear for their lives following the incident.

NSW police could not confirm any report of threats directed to the couple whose house is next door to their son's. They are also living in a secure location.

Neighbours of Batterham's parents said they had seldom returned to their home since the incident but that the family had their full support.

Trish O'Dowd, who has lived in the area for 65 years, said the 'whole community' was behind him. Another elderly resident who declined to be named said the family 'needed help and were getting it'.

All of the lights at both houses were turned off and their gates locked on Wednesday.

Home intruder Ricky Slater (pictured) died after being chased down the street and allegedly held in a chokehold by Batterham

Police facts obtained by Daily Mail Australia earlier this year appear to show he was bruised and marked when photographed by officers immediately after the incident

Batterham's barrister, prominent Sydney defence lawyer Winston Terracini, said in court he had been bitten by Slater as they scuffled on the street outside his home. He underwent an HIV test afterwards, it was revealed

Batterham, who was celebrating birthday drinks with his friend, allegedly chased Slater from the house (pictured) and down several streets. Police allege Batterham then tackled Slater on the ground

Slater's mother, Beryl Dickson (pictured), condemned the court's decision to grant Batterham bail. She cried out at in court as Batterham was bail, shouting: 'Look what you've done'

Slater died after he was taken to hospital where his life support was switched off the following day

Slater's mother, Beryl Dickson, earlier condemned the court's decision to grant Batterham bail.

She cried out at Magistrate Stone as he granted Batterham bail via video link, shouting: 'Look what you've done.'

Leaving Cessnock Correctional Facility last month, Batterham said he was looking forward to returning to his family.

Batterham will return to Newcastle Local Court in July.
Owen Labrie appearing in court earlier this year. He was convicted of sexual assault charges while at St Paul's School in New Hampshire

The parents of a girl who claims she was raped by an older student in a sexual conquest game at an elite New Hampshire prep school are to sue the institution.

The complaint was filed yesterday against St Paul's School after the parents claimed it failed 'in its most basic obligation to protect the children entrusted to its care'.

They also add that the school failed to take action against the predatory behavior of Owen Labrie, who the 15-year-old freshman girl said raped her.

Labrie, of Tunbrudge, Vermont, was last year convicted of misdemeanor sex assault charges and a felony charge of using a computer to lure an underage student for sex, but was cleared of rape.

He was sentenced to a year in jail but is out on bail pending appeal.

In the complaint filed by the girl's parents, their attorney Steven Kelly alleges that St Paul's School 'fostered and condoned a tradition known as Senior Salute, in which upperclassmen kept score of how many younger students they had sex with.

Kelly said school officials knew about the Senior Salute adding: 'They knew about games of conquests, a lot of these crazy things that were going on. They did nothing to stop it.'

The lawsuit, which alleges negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, also accuses the school of failing to support the girl.

It describes how she was 'shunned, ignored and outright mocked' by the school community. It seeks unspecified damages.

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Kelly said the girl's parents want reforms at the Concord school to ensure the abuse doesn't happen to other students.

But St Paul's, a private, Episcopal coed school for students in grades nine through 12, denied the parents' allegations.

In a statement, the school said: 'We believe this lawsuit is without merit, and we plan to vigorously defend ourselves.

Labrie, who's 20 years old, was 18 when he was arrested in 2014 days after graduating from St Paul's

'We categorically reject any allegations that St. Paul's School has an unhealthy culture. The safety of our students has been and will continue to be the highest priority for our school.'

Labrie, who's 20 years old, was 18 when he was arrested in 2014 days after graduating from St Paul's.

During his trial, he testified that he and the girl had consensual sexual contact, but he denied having sexual intercourse with her.

He acknowledged he had boasted to the contrary to friends, in profane emails and social media posts that were shared with the jury.

The complaint was filed yesterday against St Paul's School, pictured, after the parents claimed it failed 'in its most basic obligation to protect the children entrusted to its care

The encounter between Labrie and the girl took place in a nearly deserted building whose roof had a panoramic view of the school's 2,000-acre campus.

After a brief time on the roof, the girl testified, Labrie led her to a dark mechanical room, they consensually kissed and touched each other and he raped her.
She believes Natasha may be with her boyfriend, who is not father of baby

The 19-year-old said her sister will be an 'amazing mother' despite her age

Sister Anna hit back at critics who slammed the teen for being pregnant

14-year-old is 37 weeks pregnant with boy and due to give birth in 3 weeks

The sister of the 14-year-old who vanished from her Melbourne home has hit back at critics who have slammed the teenager for being heavily pregnant.

Natasha Boko was last seen in Heidelberg West around 4am on Monday and is believed to be with her boyfriend - who is not the father of her baby boy - seeking 'space' after marking her late father's birthday on Sunday.

Her sister Anna Boko, 19, said she has seen 'judgmental' comments from strangers on social media and believes the criticism might be deterring Natasha from returning home.

'I don't like the way people are judging Natasha for being a young mum because I know she has the potential to be an amazing mother to her little one,' Ms Boko told Daily Mail Australia.

The sister of 14-year-old Natasha Boko (pictured) who vanished from her Melbourne home has hit back at critics who have slammed the teenager for being heavily pregnant

Natasha Boko was last seen in Heidelberg West around 4am on Monday and is believed to be with her boyfriend

Ms Boko, a young mother herself, said she has many friends who had children in their teens and 'do a lot better than some mums that are 30'.

'I would like to tell them all to learn to conduct themselves as mature adults and not like children, I'm a young mother myself and I am a wonderful mother,' Ms Boko said.

'Her age should never determined how good of a mum she will be, I have many young mum friends and all of us love our children very much and do everything to keep them safe.

'The judgmental comments could actual affect Natasha if shes reading them so people need to focus on sharing the story or providing information'.

Natasha's other sister Nikita penned a post to her Facebook page on Thursday, urging her youngest sibling to come home.

'Tash no one is blaming you for any of this, everything you are going through now isn't your fault, there's lots of people out there wanting to make sure you're okay including myself and Anna,' she wrote.

'The whole family have had their ups and downs but Tash we all believe that you could be a great mother, even at the age of fourteen.

'Just please come home, it's your birthday soon then you're having a little bubba and we would all love to meet him'.

Anna Boko believes her younger sister is with her boyfriend and has had no response after attempts to contact him since her disappearance.

According to her sister, Natasha is 37 weeks pregnant and due to give birth on June 25. The teenager will also celebrate her 15th birthday in two weeks.

Natasha's other sister Nikita penned a post to her Facebook page on Thursday, urging her youngest sibling to come home

Natasha's (pictured) sister Anna, 19, said she has seen 'judgmental' comments from strangers on social media and believes the criticism might be deterring Natasha from returning home

Anna Boko believes Natasha (pictured in 2013) is with her boyfriend and has had no response after attempts to contact him since her disappearance

According to her sister, Natasha is 37 weeks pregnant and due to give birth on June 25. The teenager will also celebrate her 15th birthday in two weeks

'Myself and my other little sister are really concerned,' Ms Boko told Daily Mail Australia.

'There has been no ultrasound done for a while to even know that her baby is okay'.

The teenager fell pregnant last year to another 14-year-old.

Her father passed away 11 years ago and according to Ms Boko, the sisters are not in contact with their mother.

Ms Boko, who also fell pregnant at 17, said despite her age, her sister will be an 'amazing mother to her little one' and hopes the pair return home soon.

The 14-year-old was last seen in Heidelberg West wearing a black jumper, black leggings and Nike shoes.

She is described as being 150cm tall, of medium build with brown eyes, fair hair and a fair complexion.

Victoria Police report that the pregnant teenager regularly travelled to Melbourne's CBD.

Anyone who sees Natasha is urged to contact the Fawkner Police Station on 9355 6000.

Police released an image of Natasha and revealed she was last seen in Heidelberg West on Monday wearing a black jumped and Nike shoes

Family and friends raised their concerns on social media over the welfare of the young mother-to-be
Australians would be able to live and work in the UK more easily if Britain exits the Eurozone and adopts the Australian points-based system of immigration for European citizens.

Australians are currently deported from the UK if they earn below 35,000 ($70,000) a year, as part of the UK government's attempt to curb migrant numbers, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Under the Australian system, applicants are required to meet a certain criteria of points relating to age, education, English competency and occupation, among others.

Australians would be able to live and work in the UK more easily if Britain exits the Eurozone and adopts the Australian points-based system of immigration for European citizens

The proposed change in the UK would mean that many citizens from EU countries such as Romania and Bulgaria would no longer be automatically allowed to live and work in the country.

Vote Leave campaigners, former London Mayor Boris Johnson and Cabinet Minster Michael Gove, said if they won the June 23 referendum, they planned to introduce the system by the next general election, due in 2020.

'Those seeking entry for work or study should be admitted on the basis of their skills without discrimination on the ground of nationality,' Vote Leave said.

'We could then create fairness between EU citizens and others, including those from Commonwealth countries.'

Australians commonly work in the UK as nurses and teachers, earning a median wage of 23.019 ($46,000) which means under the new rules they would be kicked out of the country.

Australia's High Commissioner to London, former foreign minister Alexander Downer, recently criticised what he described as 'entrenched government policy.'

The Tory Member of the European Parliament representing Britain, Daniel Hannan, said forcing Australians out of the UK because of the surge in EU migrants was immoral.

Australians (left) are currently being deported from the UK (right) if they earn below 35,000 ($70,000) per year, as part of the UK government's attempt to curb migrant numbers

'People with Australian passports are kicked out at the expiry of two years, or less now if they don't earn enough money in order to free up unlimited space for people who may have no connection to this country whatsoever,' Mr Hannan said after a public rally in Hammersmith, London.

He also said it was no way to treat a country that had come to Britain's aid in the first and second world wars.

UKIP's only member for Parliament Douglas Carswell told Fairfax Media the open-door policy for Europeans was a 'crazy system' and 'blind discrimination' against non-Europeans.

The proposed change in the UK would mean that many citizens from EU countries such as Romania and Bulgaria would no longer be automatically allowed to live and work in the country

Under the Brexit plans, migrants coming from the EU to work or study would be assessed on the basis of their skills and admitted only if Britain had identified a shortage in a particular industry, reported The Australian.

The new arrivals would also be required to speak a good level of English.

Migration Watch UK previously dismissed the Australian system as 'thoroughly unsuitable for the UK', saying it covers only 15 per cent of migration into that country.

'A mechanical, points-based test that reduces, even eliminates, human discretion cannot cope with the complexities of immigration to the UK,' they said in December 2014.

According to a report from Reuters, two polls on Tuesday showed voters have moved toward backing Brexit after official figures last week put net migration in 2015 at the second highest level on record.
A man has been found guilty of drugging and raping two Korean women and attempting to rape a third after meeting them on a language exchange website.

Brisbane man Ashraf Kamal Makary, 42, pleaded not guilty last month to three counts of rape and three counts of administering a stupefying drug with intent to commit an indictable offence.

But a jury on Wednesday morning convicted him of all charges except one count of rape, instead finding him guilty of attempted rape.

At least five other women said they had been drugged or raped but decided not to press charges, Courier Mail reports.

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Brisbane man Ashraf Kamal Makary (pictured), 42, has been convicted of drugging and raping two Korean women and attempting to rape a third

Makary posted advertisements on a website called SunBrisbane, which is used to organise cultural and language exchanges, using a host of fake names including 'Chuck' and 'Andrew'.

The 42-year-old from Murarrie in east Brisbane was a service station console operator.

He took two of the women to Mount Coot-tha and another to New Farm where he offered them drinks and snacks, after which they would become dizzy and suffer from memory loss.

One woman could only recall 'snapshots' of the April 2011 meeting and woke up lying in a bed with the man she knew as Andrew moving in to kiss her.

The court was told he then pulled her legs towards him, at which point she said: 'I don't like it, I want to go home'.

Another woman suffered vomiting after returning home feeling 'heavy', he said.

Urine and blood tests from some of the women had shown traces of drugs known as central nervous system depressants.

Urine and blood tests from some of the women had shown traces of drugs known as central nervous system depressants (Makary with one of the victims pictured in CCTV)

Makary pleaded not guilty last month to three counts of rape and three counts of administering a stupefying drug with intent to commit an indictable offence

But a jury on Wednesday morning convicted him of all charges except one count of rape, instead finding him guilty of attempted rape

In his opening address at Brisbane District Court, crown prosecutor David Finch told the jury his three alleged victims were all young Korean women working and travelling in Australia with a view to improving their English skills.

'You will perhaps see an underlying pattern or unity emerge (of) striking similarities,' Mr Finch told the jury.

The three women in the case had been attacked over a three day period in 2011, the court heard in the trial.

The jury had deliberated for three hours after the four-week trial.

Makary is expected to be sentenced on Friday.

He would offer the women drinks and snacks and the victims then suffered memory loss

Makary posted advertisements on a website to organise language exchanges using a host of fake names (one of the victims points to an image of Makary and calls him 'Chuck')

At least five other women reportedly said they had been drugged or raped but decided not to press charges

He drove (car pictured) two of the women to Mount Coot-tha and another to New Farm where he offered them drinks and snacks, after which they would become dizzy and suffer from memory loss

The three women in the case had been attacked over a three day period in 2011, the court heard in the trial
Bryan Pagliano, Hillary Clinton's IT aide who pleaded the Fifth Amendment to prevent testifying before the House Select Committee on Benghazi, is pulling the move again.

He's refusing to speak under oath in conjunction with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.

Pagliano's lawyers said today in a court filing that there was no need to make video or audio of his testimony available to the public because he wouldn't be answering any of the questions posed to him by conservative group Judicial Watch's lawyers, according to Politico.

The group has been trying to get access to Clinton's emails during her tenure as secretary of state and a number of top aides are slated to testify.

'Pagliano will invoke his right under the Fifth Amendment and decline to testify at the deposition,' Pagliano's lawyers Mark MacDougall and Connor Mullin wrote.

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Bryan Pagliano won't be answering questions posed to him by lawyers for Judicial Watch, a right-of-center group suing for access to Hillary Clinton's emails during her tenure as secretary of state

Bryan Pagliano (right) has used the Fifth Amendment before to get out of testifying about setting up Hillary Clinton's (middle) secret email server. He wouldn't speak to the House Benghazi committee

'Given the constitutional implications, the absence of any proper purpose for video recording the deposition, and the considerable risk of abuse, the Court should preclude Judicial Watch, Inc. ... from creating an audiovisual recording of Mr. Pagliano's deposition.

Pagliano, according to Politico, did speak with FBI investigators in yet another probe about Clinton's email use.

The news comes one day after a transcript from a deposition with Clinton's former chief of staff Cheryl Mills was released as part of the ongoing litigation.

Mills had already been successful in getting video of her deposition sealed.

The former chief of staff said she had discussed Clinton's secret email server with Pagliano, who set the system up, but couldn't talk about it because she was now Clinton's lawyer.

Mills' attorney Beth Wilkinson shut lines of questioning down from Judicial Watch's lawyer Ramona Cotca arguing that something the former chief of staff learned after the fact as an attorney is not in the legal case's scope.

In her testimony, Mills talked about serving in the Clinton White House and then leaving Washington, D.C. for New York to work for the Oxygen Network and then New York University.

She later worked for Clinton when the New York senator was running for the White House in 2008.

Mills recalls thinking she'd return to NYU when Clinton, the incoming secretary of state, asked her to serve as chief of staff, something the former White House lawyer said she couldn't refuse.

Hillary Clinton's former chief of staff Cheryl Mills later became the former secretary of state's attorney, meaning that much of what Mills learned while representing Clinton is privileged

At State, Mills was both chief of staff and also a counsel to Clinton, but a policy wonk, not the secretary of state's legal representation.

It wasn't until after the State Department, that Clinton made Mills her lawyer.

And according to her testimony, that's when she found out about her boss' secret server.

Mills was asked about her familiarity with Bryan Pagliano, a former Clinton IT aide who has immunity in an ongoing investigation into Clinton's emails by the FBI, which is separate from the Judicial Watch civil case.

'I know I spoke with Mr. Pagliano about the setup of the server during the period in which I was representing Secretary Clinton, which would have been two thousand  which would have been post her departure from the State Department,' Mills offered in her testimony.

'At least that's my best recollection,' Mills added.

Cotca asked if that would have been post-February of 2013, when Clinton handed the reins over to the current Secretary of State John Kerry.

'Yes,' Mills replied.

'Was he working for the Clintons at the time that you spoke to him about the about the setup of the server?' the Judicial Watch attorney continued.

Hillary Clinton - shown giving a press conference in March 2015 about the email scandal - is having her top aides deposed as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit started by conservative group Judicial Watch

Lawyers for Judicial Watch want to know information about the setup of Hillary Clinton's secret email server, which Cheryl Mill's attorney argued on Friday is privileged because Mills later became Clinton's lawyer

At that point, Wilkinson  wife of former 'Meet the Press' host David Gregory stepped in with an 'objection.'

Mills testified that she didn't have a 'technological background' and thus wouldn't have had conversations about the server 'until the time period where I was representing Secretary Clinton.'

That, Mills lawyer argued, meant that the information was privileged.

'I'm representing Ms. Mills, as we know, and she represents Hillary Clinton as her personal lawyer,' Wilkinson argued. 'And you are now asking about work she has done for Hillary Clinton as her lawyer.'

'And it is beyond the scope of permissible discovery, and so I am instructing her not to answer,' Wilkinson said.

And with that, Mills didn't answer the question.

The Daily Caller counted 15 separate lines of questioning that Wilkinson batted down.

Mills also pointed to the highly controversial Benghazi attack, on Sept. 11, 2012, as a reason for why some of the public records requests were a mess.

The aide, according to the Washington Times, said there was 'a lot going on.'

'The secretary was not only transitioning, there had been a  we had lost our first ambassador in quite some time, and we were stepping through the sets of issues associated with that,' Mills said.

'And she, too, had fallen ill, and there  and there had been a period of time where we were obviously navigating a whole set of issues in that space,' Mills continued.
Bryan Whitman, a civilian leader in the Defense Department's public affairs office, who has been charged with three counts of theft for stealing license plates and leaving a threatening note

A Pentagon official has been arrested after he allegedly stole a neighbor's nanny's car license plates in a dispute over parking.

Bryan Whitman, a civilian leader in the Defense Department's public affairs office, was charged with three counts of theft for stealing the plates and leaving a threatening note.

The charges came to light yesterday, stunning Pentagon officials and raising questions of an additional Defense Department investigation.

The dispute began in early April when Whitman allegedly put a note on a car belonging to the nanny, which was parked in his neighborhood in Capitol Hill, Washington.

According to a police report, the note, pinned to her white Lexus, said: 'I know you are misusing this visitor pass to park here daily.

'If you do not stop I will report it, have your car towed and the resident who provided this to you will have his privileges taken away.'

Two days later, both of her license plates were taken. The family she works for replaced the plates and two days later the rear license plate was taken.

The family then mounted a camera outside that covered the street and sidewalk, and on April 21, the rear plate was taken again, but this time they had it on video.

According to the police report, officers reviewed the video  which showed a man moving around the nanny's car and crouched down at the rear of the vehicle  and then went to Whitman's house in late April with a warrant.

The report said that, when asked about the license plates, Whitman went to his car and retrieved them and turned them over to the police.

Whitman was charged on May 5, and on Tuesday he reached a deferred prosecution agreement with the court for the restitution and community service.

Terry Owens, a spokesman for the District Department of Transportation, said it's legal for nannies or babysitters to use visitor parking passes at any time.

Gordon Trowbridge, the Pentagon's deputy press secretary, said Whitman was still in his job but he did not provide any other details because it is a personnel matter.

He said he could not confirm whether there is any other Defense Department investigation into the matter, but said he is not aware of any probe by the Inspector General.

The dispute began in early April when Whitman allegedly put a note on a car belonging to the nanny, which was parked in his neighborhood in Capitol Hill, Washington, pictured

Whitman has a security clearance, and under Defense Department regulations, he is required to notify officials if he is arrested. He did not respond to a request for comment.

He has worked in the Pentagons press office for over 30 years as one of its top spokesmen during the Iraq War.

In an agreement reached with the Superior Court in Washington, D.C., the charges against him will be dropped if he pays $1,000 in restitution, does 32 hours of community service at a food bank, stays away from the neighbors and the nanny and doesn't get into trouble for 10 months.
A tough points-based immigration system could allow Britain to slash migrant numbers and generate billions for pensions, a major study says today.

The independent report suggests an Australian-style scheme championed by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove could cut net immigration to under 100,000 a year without hitting the public finances.

The conclusion from influential experts appears to torpedo claims by David Cameron and George Osborne that leaving the EU would put the pensions of millions 'at risk'.

A tough points-based immigration system could allow Britain to slash migrant numbers and generate billions for pensions, a major study says today

It came as:

Mr Gove said leaving the EU would 'liberate' the Prime Minister to finally meet his pledge to cut net immigration from its present level of 333,000 a year to below 100,000.

Mr Johnson accused the Prime Minister of not believing in Britain, suggesting that pro- Brussels campaigners 'don't believe in this country, they don't believe in our ability to stand on our own two feet'.

Mr Cameron prepared for the first major TV 'debate' of the campaign in which he will answer questions from a studio audience.

Employment Minister Priti Patel hinted at the creation of an alternative government agenda by Brexit campaigners, saying: 'We are campaigning to take back control of our country and our government.'

Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox prepared to warn today that unchecked immigration will lead to Britain's countryside being concreted over for new housing.

Today's report on pensions came from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research on behalf of the independent Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Researchers analysed three scenarios for cutting immigration if Britain left the EU, including one in which the net figure is cut to below 100,000.

They found that simply capping numbers at this level would create a 7.7billion-a-year black hole in the pension system by 2057.

But the study found that the situation would be reversed if the Government imposed an Australian-style system in which only high-skilled migrants on high wages are let in. Then, the pensions system would enjoy a 5.5billion surplus by 2057.

The independent report suggests an Australian-style scheme championed by Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel could cut net immigration to under 100,000 a year without hitting the public finances

Report co-author Angus Armstrong said: 'If you could have fewer migrants but those you let in are more qualified and better paid then that offsets any impact on the state pension system.'

IFA chief executive Derek Cribb said: 'Our research shows that if the Government were to reduce immigration by around 150,000, there could be implications for the pension system.

'However, these could be mitigated or reversed if the Government introduced a skills-based immigration policy.'

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign, welcomed the study. He said: 'Voting to leave and introducing a controlled immigration system would be better for pensioners. What's not to like?'

Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday dismissed support for the points system, insisting Australia receives more migrants per head than Britain does

Yesterday Mr Cameron dismissed support for the points system, saying: 'Australia has more immigration per head than we do in the UK, so I think it is the wrong approach.'

Home secretary Theresa May also warned there 'is no silver bullet' to reducing immigration which need instead 'a concerted effort across a range of fronts'.

But, while campaigning in Lancashire, Mr Gove insisted: 'We cannot control our borders in the European Union.'

Meanwhile Mr Johnson denied there was a plot to oust Mr Cameron. 'We are not forming an alternative government, we are presenting alternatives to the government,' he said.

Today Dr Fox will warn that mass immigration 'year after year' if Britain stays in the EU would threaten the dream of home ownership for the young and increase pressure on schools and GP services.

He will also warn that green spaces would be under a major threat from the need to build hundreds of thousands of homes for migrants.
Grieving families of the 21 killed in the Birmingham pub bombings yesterday demanded their IRA killers be brought to justice at last.

As a coroner dramatically reopened inquests into the 1974 atrocity  and said police may have missed two chances to prevent it  victims relatives called for an end to the 42-year injustice.

Four IRA men have been named as the real perpetrators of the bombings  yet were seemingly allowed to go unpunished.

They were Michael Murray, who allegedly made the bombs and telephoned in a warning and quartermaster Seamus McLoughlin, who planned the operation. The two others were a former British soldier who took delivery of the bombs and a senior IRA organiser who planted them.

Murray and McLoughlin have since died, with McLoughlin given full paramilitary-style honours at his funeral. The other two men may still be alive in their seventies and walking free. They cannot be named online for legal reasons.

A fifth man, who has never been named for security reasons, was also said to have been involved in planting a bomb.

The Mulberry Bush pub in Birmingham which was wrecked by a bomb in 1974, along with The Tavern. In total, 21 people were killed in the attacks

A coroner has revealed today that she has received 'significant' evidence that police had prior knowledge of the Birmingham pub bombings. Pictured are fire officers searching through debris after the blasts in 1974

Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was killed in the atrocity, yesterday said her repeated calls for police to pursue the IRA men had gone unheeded. She added: They have all lived full lives without any form of retribution for the most heinous of crimes, and that is unforgivable.

In a day of dramatic developments:

 Senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull Louise Hunt agreed to reopen inquests into the deaths of the 21 victims, saying significant new information revealed police may have missed opportunities to thwart the bombings  which also injured 222;

 New evidence included a warning before the attacks that Birmingham would be hit next week;

 Ex-IRA intelligence chief Kieran Conway provoked fury when he said the bombers were relatively blameless and never likely to be convicted.

The attack on two pubs in Birmingham city centre  the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town  was the most serious terrorist atrocity on English soil at that time.

Six men  dubbed the Birmingham Six  were given life sentences for the killings but maintained they were forced into signing confessions by police beatings. Their convictions were overturned after they had spent 16 years behind bars.

AN ATROCITY AND 42 YEARS OF HEARTBREAK Thursday, November 21, 1974: Bombings in two Birmingham pubs leave 21 dead and 222 injured. They are said to be revenge for the death of IRA member James McDade, who blew himself up trying to plant explosives in Coventry. Hours later, five men are arrested in Heysham, Lancashire, and a sixth is arrested in Birmingham. November 24: Patrick Hill, Hugh Callaghan, John Walker, Richard McIlkenny, Gerard Hunter and Billy Power are charged with murder. June/August 1975: Trial at Lancaster Crown Court. The Six are sentenced to life imprisonment. October 1985: TVs World In Action questions forensic tests. A book is then published claiming three unnamed men were behind the bombings. January 1987: The home secretary refers case to the Court of Appeal. The appeal is later dismissed. A 1990 TV drama then names four real bombers. March 14, 1991: The Six are freed by the Court of Appeal after 16 years in prison. October 1993: Perjury case against three former West Midlands police involved in the charging of the Birmingham Six is dismissed. June 1, 2016: Senior coroner for Birmingham rules to resume the inquests. The original hearings were not continued after jailing of The Six. Advertisement

Meanwhile, 1990 Granada documentary Who Bombed Birmingham? named four IRA men it said were responsible for the killings  the same four identified today.

The IRA never formally admitted to the bombings, although Mr Conway said senior figures acknowledged their men were responsible. He said some were still alive and living in Dublin  and refused to condemn them as killers.

He told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Appalling and all as the bombs were, the volunteers that carried them out were relatively blameless. They carried out the instructions of their commanders.

Mr Conway said their only fault was that they were not able to call in their planned bomb warnings because they had not checked phone boxes were working, and said the IRA viewed the resulting civilian deaths as an accident.

He said there would never be convictions for the bombings, unless the men responsible handed themselves in and confessed, adding: And that aint going to happen. His comments drew a furious response from Miss Hambleton, 53, who said: Im sure the British public would be horrified to know the police arent interested in finding the perpetrators of this cold-blooded murder.

If we dont fight for truth, justice and accountability then what we are basically allowing is for any future terrorist group to come to any of our great cities and kill with impunity.

Paul Thrupp, whose father Trevor was killed, said: Im hopeful now that the police will finally leave no stone unturned to help bring the real bombers to justice. Lawyers for West Midlands Police had argued there was simply no evidential basis for reopening the inquests. The original hearings were not continued after the Birmingham Six were jailed.

But Miss Hunt said there was a wealth of evidence never before heard in public, including concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to police.

She said that almost a fortnight before the bombings, police received a report that two people linked to the IRA had warned Birmingham would be hit next week. And on the day of the attacks, a witness said he overheard a group of Irish men in a pub discussing a bomb plot. He went to a nearby police training centre but the coroner said delays meant the suspects had gone when he took officers back to the pub.

The new inquests are expected to consider secret files held on the case by the Home Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence. West Midlands Police has faced claims it knew the identities of two of the bomb conspirators  the two who cannot be named  since they were named by an informant in 1975.

Devastation: The shattered interior of the Mulberry Bush, after the Birmingham pub bombings

A victim of the Birmingham pub bombings clings to the inside of an ambulance outside the Mulberry Bush - while firemen sift through the remains of the pub, The Tavern in the Town

Murray stood trial alongside the Birmingham Six, although he did not face murder charges. Murray  described as stone-faced in court because he refused to acknowledge anyone or enter a plea  was charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and given a 12-year sentence.

After the Granada programme was aired, West Midlands Polices then chief constable Geoffrey Dear said the four were very likely to have been involved. He said they were extensively investigated, but added: There was no firm evidence against them, no matter how hard we tried.

Now Lord Dear, a crossbench peer, he stood by his previous comments.

He said last night: I think that what I said then probably still holds good  that the Birmingham Six were not necessarily the only ones. There were others... the Birmingham Six would not have been the masterminds, even if they had been guilty.

[Reopening the inquests] is good news for the families... but I think it will be extraordinarily difficult to get a conviction 40-odd years on.

On claims the police missed warnings, he said: I do know there were dozens, if not hundreds of calls, to the police around that time because there had been a lot of IRA activity and Im guessing it got lost in the undergrowth.

THE BOMBMAKER Michael Murray Squire Murray  who died in 1999  told police he was a member of the IRA and was tried alongside the Birmingham Six, but did not face a murder charge. He was convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions and given a 12-year sentence. Murray joined the IRA in the 1950s and lived in Birmingham in the 1970s, working as a factory labourer. He was named as one of the real bombers on TV in 1990. Bombs were made in his rented garage and Murray was meant to give a 30-minute warning using the codename Double X but the call boxes he planned to use were broken and it was delayed by 20 minutes. Advertisement

THE QUARTERMASTER Seamus Mcloughlin Known as Belfast Jimmy, former IRA quartermaster Seamus McLoughlin took over the Birmingham IRA after its leader Michael Coughlan was arrested in 1974. Allegedly one of the masterminds of the bombings, he died in 2014. On the day of the blasts he was on an Aer Lingus flight from Birmingham to Dublin with the remains of James McDade, the IRA man who had blown himself up with a bomb in Coventry. After his death, McLoughlins body was taken from Dublin to North Belfast and given paramilitary-style honours with masked men firing shots over his coffin. Advertisement

THE EX-SQUADDIE Anonymous 1 Brought up in a Protestant family in Ulster, He joined the British Army. He later claimed he infiltrated the IRA after leaving the army so he could pass information to police. He was given jail sentences for possessing explosives and for the murder of a Republican and given life. Advertisement
Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles claims that 'xenophobia is a part of the Australian spirit' as he railed against opposition to his government's leasing of Darwin's port to a Chinese company.

'I think there is a high degree of xenophobia, but I think that is part of the Australian spirit,' Mr Giles told Lateline.

The Landbridge group from the Shandong Province in China last year won the right to operate the Darwin Port on a 99-year lease worth $506 million.

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Northern Territory chief Adam Giles claims 'xenophobia is part of Australian spirit'

The Landbridge group from the Shandong Province in China last year won the right to operate the Darwin Port on a 99-year lease worth $506 million

'We all stand up for what we believe in. We are parochially proud as a nation and whenever new people come in we are always sceptical,' Mr Giles said on the ABC program.

A US Embassy survey of Territorians found that almost 90 per cent thought the proposal posed 'some risk' to the region.

Mr Giles said there had been no official approach from US officials or military analysts to suggest providing the port to the Landbridge group from China group posed a security problem.

However, the Chief Minister also added that he had no issue with the American-led survey.

'It's probably an opportunity for the US to see how they are positioned particularly from their presence of marines who are rotating through the Northern Territory,' he said.

'We went to market, we found a good partner, and we're very happy with the position we have taken.'

'Xenophobia is part of the Australian spirit' claims Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles (pictured far left) as he defends selling off Darwin's port to the Chinese

Mr Giles believes opposition to the NT Government's controversial decision to lease the Darwin port to Chinese company Landbridge is xenophobic

Mr Giles also refuted claims he was 'backing away' from his Aboriginal heritage for reasons of political expediency.

'Yes, I have got Indigenous heritage but I compete in politics just like every other person,' he told presenter Tony Jones.

'If I am successful in the next election, I am successful as Adam Giles, not as a black Adam Giles.'
Each morning before dawn reveals the beauty of the Scottish Highlands where they live, Jason and Christy Zielsdorf observe certain routines.

While Christy heads to the kitchen to knead the bread with which they make the tasty sandwiches they sell in their village shop and cafe, Jason prepares the mornings lessons for their five home-educated children.

Lately another ritual has been added before they open up the store to welcome the first hiker or angler heading to the banks of the river Spey. It is to see if any unfamiliar cars have pulled up outside.

They might be the official-looking vehicles used by immigration staff or, perhaps, a police car or two.

Each morning before dawn reveals the beauty of the Scottish Highlands where they live, Jason and Christy Zielsdorf observe certain routines. Above, the family in the rural cafe they have invested in

Despite having invested more than 200,000 in a business which they have turned into the thriving hub of community life in Laggan, they are face deportation to Canada any day now

For after eight happy and hard-working years in Scotland where they have put down roots, the Zielsdorfs and their children are being thrown out of the country.

Any day now  despite having invested more than 200,000 in a business which they have turned into the thriving hub of community life in Laggan, the beautiful village where the BBC series Monarch of the Glen was set, their lives are poised to be turned upside down. You might wonder what terrible offence they must have committed to have the full force of the law come down on them.

Their crime? They could only afford to employ one full-time member of staff in their cafe, rather than two  a pernickety detail, you might think, but to the Home Office, it is all the justification they need.

So in February the Zielsdorfs were given their marching orders and told they had four months to prove they were not in breach of criteria for a business visa  or sell up and return to their native Canada.

Time is running out. Indeed, by tomorrow Mr Zielsdorf has to submit what Home Office staff casually describe as his exit plan  in other words, proof he has purchased (one-way) air tickets.

He cannot. All his money is tied up in the business, which he cannot sell. In the meantime, he has had his driving licence cancelled and has been warned that his bank accounts may be frozen.

After an 11th-hour appeal, Australians Gregg and Kathryn Brain have been given a 60-day visa extension after arguing that their son Lachlans Gaelic education would suffer

Not far away from where the Zielsdorfs future well-being hangs by the flimsiest of threads, another hard-working family living in the Highlands have narrowly escaped being deported  for now.

After an 11th-hour appeal, Gregg and Kathryn Brain have been given a 60-day visa extension after arguing that their son Lachlans Gaelic education would suffer.

But the couples gratitude is tempered by the fact that they are homeless and unemployed because immigration officials have refused them permission to work.

This means their chances of meeting the visa requirement of a 2,000 maintenance fund untouched in a bank for 90 days are virtually nil.

Nicola Sturgeon took up the cause of the Brain family

Its Kafka-esque, says Mr Brain, who decided to sell up and leave family and friends in Australia after being enticed by an advertising campaign by the Scottish government to bring fresh blood to rural areas crippled by population decline.

Like the Zielsdorfs, they have never received so much as a penny in welfare payments.

We thought we were the gold-standard for immigrants, he says. Now, because we cannot work we are existing on whats left of our funds  which will inevitably run out. And that means we wont meet the maintenance requirements.

He and his wifes passports, meanwhile, have been confiscated and will be returned only when they nominate a port of departure.

So far, so crazy. Five hundred miles south of the Highlands, in Westminster Magistrates Court, a one-legged Albanian double murderer has been granted legal aid to fight extradition from Britain, even though his wife says he confessed to the killings to her.

Saliman Barci  who now claims he is innocent  is using human rights law to avoid being deported to his homeland, where he has already been convicted of killing two men.

Although he posed as a Kosovan refugee to gain British citizenship, he was allowed to live rent-free in a 560-a-month, four-bedroom housing association home and enjoyed nearly 2,000 a month in benefits  all this while making a small fortune from selling cocaine in London.

What a contrast with the way the Zielsdorfs and the Brains are being treated. They are not Albanian criminals, of course.

Rather, they are kith and kin  Canadians and Australians respectively, citizens of the Commonwealth who not only share a common language and a common heritage with the British but, in the Queen, a common head of state. Brethren who have fought wars at our side, dying for the sake of our defence.

Jason Zielsdorf says: Murderers, rapists, thieves and terrorists can keep their driving licences but someone like me, whose intentions are entirely honourable to build something for my family, cannot.

The Brain family have been granted a reprieve but they are unlikely to be able to stay as the visa requirement of a 2,000 maintenance fund untouched in a bank for 90 days are virtually nil because they cannot work

Something, somewhere in Britains immigration policy is terribly wrong. While Barci and other murderous thugs are handed endless sums in legal aid to mount costly Home Office appeals, the Zielsdorfs and the Brains are not.

It is not just Saliman Barci. The cases come as it emerges that Kent has become a new gateway for people-traffickers smuggling migrants across the Channel  potentially opening up more legal challenges to our overstretched courts.

Already, five of the 18 Albanians picked up and brought ashore in Dymchurch when their boat began to sink have applied for asylum.

Then there is the case of Al Qaeda terrorist Baghdad Meziane. He was convicted in a British court of raising money for the terrorist organisation and sentenced to 11 years in prison. At his trial, the judge recommended that after serving his sentence he should be deported. Yet, after being released from prison five years early, he went back to life in his adopted home town of Leicester rather than being put on the first plane to Algiers. He argued, successfully, that deportation would infringe his human rights.

The list goes on. Earlier this year, an Iraqi-born serial child sex offender won the right to stay in Scotland despite having assaulted three 14-year-old girls in a swimming pool.

Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith served him with a deportation order, but he launched a taxpayer-funded appeal and  guess what  the Home Office allowed him to stay because the crimes against him were not sufficiently serious to throw him out.

This is the same Home Office that has so relentlessly pursued the Zielsdorf and Brain families, whose only wish was to do their part in performing a service for us  answering a government call to help the depopulated Highlands.

Saliman Barci (pictured above)  who now claims he is innocent  is using human rights law to avoid being deported to his homeland, where he has already been convicted of killing two men

Both families came to the UK from distant parts of Britains global family. Both were encouraged to do so and both settled in a part of the country where new blood was vitally needed.

For Jason Zielsdorf, the decision to uproot his family from Calgary in Canada to rural Inverness-shire was about reconnecting with his cultural heritage and his Scottish family roots.

To Canadians, Scotland has always had the stronger pull than England, he says.

His ancestors left these shores after the last Highland clearances in the early 19th century.

He had a place studying the theological interpretation of scripture at St Andrews University, where Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge were students.

After graduating, he and Christy decided to stay. In Laggan, 40 miles from Fort William, they thought they had found their idyll. The village shop had recently closed. They took it on and decided to make it their lifes work.

The only shop for 30 miles, it serves a scattered population of 300. It had been vacant for 18 months and there was a need to invest in the shop to help sustain the community, Jason says.

To the general store they added a cafe to serve tourists as well as locals. Besides Christys bread, there is homemade soup and freshly made ice cream. In time they turned the upstairs of the shop into a guest room for travellers to stay.

Although he posed as a Kosovan refugee to gain British citizenship, Barci was allowed to live rent-free in a 560-a-month, four-bedroom housing association home and enjoyed nearly 2,000 a month in benefits

All this was done on the entrepreneurs visa they had applied for.

Soon they were putting down other roots. Their youngest son Kiernach, five, was born there, 15-year-old Lochlan was in the local shinty team, Christy was giving piano lessons and the couple began running the village newsletter.

Over the past two years they have invested everything in their adopted home, including spending 200,000 on buying their business and carrying out renovations.

But with the work on the shop taking longer than expected, the couple failed to meet all the criteria required for their visa.

We did our best, but we couldnt make enough to employ two people. The only way of going forward with our case was to beg asylum under human rights law, but that would cost us 40,000 and ten years. We cant do it.

After briefly employing a string of 300-an-hour lawyers, they simply cannot afford to fight on. They did not qualify for legal aid. A petition signed by many of their customers and letters from other parts of the country were ignored, Jason says, because they were submitted on the wrong form. He says: The Home Office may be right legally, but morally they are wrong.

So the family are reconciled to leaving. It will cost me 9,000 for a container from Pickfords to remove our belongings, says Jason, who is sleeping on the floor after selling his bed ahead of the departure.

Until we can sell we dont have the money. If I mothball this place it will lose 25 per cent of its value.

H e adds: My future  my childrens future  is all in this business. When I go I wont be allowed back into the country for 12 months. The longer I overstay, the longer it will be before I am allowed back. How can I sell my business from thousands of miles away?

NOW RESCUED ALBANIANS CLAIM ASYLUM BY IAN DRURY HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT Five Albanians rescued from the sinking dinghy off the Kent coast had by last night claimed asylum  even though their country is not at war. The refugees were among 18 of their countrymen saved from the stricken vessel off Dymchurch at the weekend. The remaining 13 have not sought sanctuary and are being processed ahead of being deported. Those who applied for asylum were taken to an intake centre in Kent for checks. But in a move that will anger those who argue Britain has lost control of its borders, they will be released while the Home Office considers their asylum application. Despite not fleeing war or humanitarian disaster, Albanians have in the past claimed that they fear minority persecution, for instance for being Kosovar, or insist they are gay and would be in danger of homophobic reprisals at home. Between 2008 and 2014, there were 4,653 asylum applications from Albanians. Of these, 1,449  or 31 per cent  were granted asylum. In Britain, refugees are placed in asylum accommodation and can receive payments as soon as a claim is lodged. Each person receives 36.95 for essentials such as food, clothing and toiletries. Asylum seekers are also entitled to free NHS care, housing and education for any children. They are expected to abide by strict reporting conditions. But significant numbers fall off the authorities radar, disappear into the black economy to work illegally and never get sent home even if their application for asylum fails. An analysis by think-tank MigrationWatch found up to 70 per cent of Albanians who claim asylum in Britain never returned home. Even if the 13 who have not claimed asylum are sent back to Albania, evidence from the northern European coast uncovered by the Mail suggests many who are removed will try to get to Britain again.

If they physically remove me, it will be ten years before I can come back. We are shattered and beleaguered.

As for the Brain family, they first came to the UK in 2001, spending their tenth wedding anniversary motoring around Scotland. Another trip in 2005 cemented their love of the Highlands, the birthplace of their great-grandparents.

But it was the promise of a post-study work visa that convinced them to take the plunge. A 40 million homecoming PR campaign by the Scottish government reinforced their decision. They swapped Brisbane for Dingwall in Ross-shire and, like the Zielsdorfs, embraced local culture.

Lachlan took Gaelic lessons and Mrs Brain studied Scottish history and archaeology at the University of the Islands & Highlands. Mr Brain worked as a legal receptionist. But less than a year into their move, the immigration rules changed and the post-work study scheme was cancelled.

We were encouraged to come over here by a Home Office programme, he says. That deal was changed after we had sold our house and everything we owned in Australia and moved across the world to settle here.

Weve done our part, we have become members of the community. The Home Office has not lived up to its end of the bargain.

I accept the UK is entitled to set its own immigration policy, but having offered a pathway to us, to rip it up is a betrayal of natural justice. We have been offered jobs but we cannot work. We are marooned.

Jason Zielsdorf has one last hope. I am thinking of appealing to the Queen. As Canadians, we are her subjects, too.
Valerie Curran, Professor of Psychopharmacology at University College London, advised taking a smaller dose of the pill because it is stronger

An academic has triggered anger by suggesting children should be taught from an early age that it is best to take the drug ecstasy in small doses.

Those who insist on trying the Class A substance should also split their pills into quarters to ensure they do not get too strong a dose, the researcher advised.

Valerie Curran, Professor of Psychopharmacology at University College London, said it was concerning that a new report has highlighted how the number of users of ecstasy has increased  while at the same time the drug has got much stronger.

But she said pupils should also be given advice on how to minimise harm from taking it.

Anti-drug campaigners criticised Professor Curran as a fool who was condoning drug use.

The party drug has surged in popularity in the UK, with usage up by 50 per cent since 2012 among those aged 15 to 34, according to the 2016 European Drug Report.

As well as becoming more popular, ecstasy pills are now up to four times stronger than in the 1990s. The average dose of the pill  which users report creates a feeling of euphoria  has risen from 80-100mg to 125mg on average, while some super pills pack a much stronger punch  200-340mg in a tablet.

The report said about 3.5 per cent of young Brits had taken it, the second highest in Europe after the Netherlands.

Professor Curran, who said she was more concerned with strong cannabis than ecstasy, said it was no good telling young people to just say no to drugs. She said: That just doesnt work. Its completely failed. Anybody working in the field would agree.

To ensure safety, she said users should limit their dose by taking smaller amounts. She said on BBC Radio 4s Today: If you are getting 200mg of ecstasy in pills, then what people should be doing is, if you desperately want to take the drug, cut the drug into quarters.

On trend again: Sales of MDMA, also known as ecstasy, is increasing across Europe according to an annual report by the EU drugs agency published this week

Take one of the quarters and wait two hours and see what happens. Because it doesnt come with an information sheet that shows how much is in there.

Professor Curran said the advice on how to take drugs should even go to children from an early age.

She said youngsters are not given a proper balance of information because they are told not to take drugs but then see their parents knock back large amounts of alcohol  which causes more health problems in this country. Asked if she thought teachers should advise pupils on how to take ecstasy, she said: I would like to see that happen in schools, from an early age.

Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, can cause panic attacks and anxiety, paranoia or psychosis, as well as liver and kidney poisoning. Between 1996 and 2014 there were 670 deaths in which ecstasy or MDMA was recorded on the death certificate  with 50 in 2014 alone, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Anti-drugs campaigner Mary Brett, of Cannabis Skunk Sense, said she thought that Professor Currans comments were very irresponsible.

She is a fool. She was talking about giving young children tips on how to do drugs safely, she said. MDMA is illegal. She is condoning an illegal activity. If you give harm reduction advice to kids it acts as a green light.
Two burglars who celebrated a robbery by filming themselves spraying stolen champagne have been jailed after police found the damning video evidence.

Jacob Collaire, 21, and Kareem Nasser, 19, made off with valuables totalling almost 20,000 after carrying out early morning raids on two homes a few days before Christmas last year.

The criminals targeted an address in Vibart Road, Stechford, Birmingham, on December 23 and stole eight bottles of champagne, including a 2004 Taittinger and a rare 1973 Bollinger.

Jacob Collaire (pictured) admitted two counts of burglary at Birmingham Crown Court and was jailed for five years

West Midlands Police examined a mobile phone belonging to Collaire and found a video of him toasting Christmas with the stolen champagne

The pair also knocked a man out and locked him in his flat in Ladywood on December 19 before stealing 2,000-worth of belongings, including his Ford Fiesta, reported the Birmingham Mail.

Detectives caught up with the pair 10 days later after traffic police spotted Nasser behind the wheel of the stolen vehicle bearing false number plates.

The car was driven the wrong way down a dual carriageway and without its headlights on as Nasser hit speeds of 60mph in a bid to get away.

Police were forced to abandon the chase but were able to track Nasser down to a carpark with a helicopter.

Police found a picture of Collaire posing in a Gucci watch stolen from the Vibart Road address

West Midlands Police later examined a mobile phone belonging to Collaire and found a video of him toasting Christmas with the stolen champagne.

They also found a picture of him posing in a Gucci watch, which had been stolen from the Vibart Road address.

Police searched Nasser's home and discovered an art gallery receipt made out to Vibart Road and a letter detailing the sale of the property dating back to the 1960s.

Both men admitted two counts of burglary at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.

Nasser, of Stirling Road, Edgbaston, was handed five years and two months behind bars and banned from the roads for four years and two months.

Collaire, of no fixed address, was jailed for five years.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Nigel Box, said: 'The files on Collaire's phone were damning.

'He is shown posing with the bottles just minutes after the burglary and then opening them during a Christmas party.

'He refused to answer any questions during interview and Nasser initially denied being involved at all.

'However, we secured compelling evidence against the pair and they were left with little choice but to admit their guilt.'
Barely a quarter of British voters think mass immigration from the EU has been good for Britain, a new poll reveals today.

The ICM survey uncovers widespread public dissatisfaction with the level of immigration from the EU and the impact it has had on Britain's public services over the last decade.

Almost half of voters (49 per cent) say the scale of immigration has been bad for the UK, with just 26 per cent saying it has benefited this country.

Some 58 per cent say they would be unhappy for immigration to continue on the current scale, with just 16 per cent content to see unlimited migration from the EU continue.

The ICM survey uncovers widespread public dissatisfaction with the level of immigration from the EU and the impact it has had on Britain's public services over the last decade. Almost half of voters (49 per cent) say the scale of immigration has been bad for the UK, with just 26 per cent saying it has benefited this country

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said the poll results showed that those arguing for a continued open door immigration policy were 'showing a contempt for working families who struggle to pay the bills, to get the children into an overcrowded school or wait for a doctor's appointment'.

He added: 'When I was in Government the Prime Minister wanted to impose limits on free movement of people from the EU, but sadly he failed. He now needs to set out how he plans to limit pressures on our NHS, schools and the housing crisis we face.

'If we vote to stay in, this will get worse when Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey join the EU. British taxpayers are paying them 2 billion to join the EU despite not supporting this policy. How can he justify ignoring the wishes of the people?'

ICM surveyed more than 2,000 people online for today's poll, which was commissioned by the Vote Leave campaign.

The findings reveal that many voters have deep-rooted concerns about the impact of mass migration on public services.

Despite the preponderance of migrant workers in the NHS, just 19 per cent of people think EU immigration over the last decade has been good for the health service, with 55 per cent saying it has been bad.

Only 11 per cent of voters said EU migration had been good for Britain's schools, with 58 per cent believing the impact had been damaging.

Even on jobs and wages, where David Cameron and George Osborne have focused their arguments for staying in the EU, just 30 per cent of voters believe immigration has been a net positive, with 36 per cent saying it has been harmful on balance

Even on jobs and wages, where David Cameron and George Osborne have focused their arguments for staying in the EU, just 30 per cent of voters believe immigration has been a net positive, with 36 per cent saying it has been harmful on balance.

On the issue of national security, where the Prime Minister has warned Brexit could spark a new war in Europe, only 11 per cent of people said EU migration had been helpful, with 54 per cent saying it has been unhelpful.

On housing, an incredible 67 per cent of people said the scale of EU immigration had been bad for Britain, with just seven per cent saying it had been good, despite the reliance of parts of the construction sector on migrant labour.

Pro-Brexit Cabinet minister Chris Grayling yesterday warned that remaining in the EU would make it harder for young people to get a foot on the housing ladder or access affordable rents.
John and Sally Bercow. Sally, 46, has spoken openly of how she dislikes the Palace of Westminster

Back on happy terms with his erratic wife Sally - after her toe-curlingly public affair with his cousin - John Bercows renewed marital bliss may have come at a price.

Sally, 46, has spoken openly of how she dislikes the Palace of Westminster, where she lives with her husband, 53, and their three children. And now colleagues claim their reunion means that Bercow may be planning to step down from his post as Speaker of the House of Commons.

A member of staff at his grace-and-favour home, Speakers House, tells me Bercow (pictured with Sally earlier this year) is ready to quit.

The employee claims diminutive Bercow is so bored, he could chair the Commons in his sleep.

The MP is said to alleviate the tedium by playing bizarre games with his staff.

Every day at the main planning meeting, there is an informal competition in which Mr Speaker is asked to guess the name of the Government minister who will respond to the short adjournment debate held at the end of each day.

If Bercow guesses correctly enough days in a row, he wins a coconut. And if he does even better, his lackeys give him a goldfish. It is pretty bonkers, says one staffer. It is like the last days of George III round here.

A spokesman denies that Bercow is bored and planning to step down.

But when he became Speaker in 2009, he let it be known that he would serve only nine years.

Known as Mr Squeaker by his detractors, Bercow has been a notoriously unpopular figure, becoming regarded as partisan in his handling of debates and radiating self-satisfaction.

He has, however, started wearing his wedding ring again and has calmed down a great deal in recent weeks.

It would seem that all has been forgiven after Sallys affair with lawyer Alan Bercow while John was away campaigning in his Buckingham constituency ahead of last years General Election.

She admitted to being very naughty, telling me: I do feel awful, and I was very bad, but none of us is perfect. He has forgiven me and were working hard on our marriage.

Like many other MPs, Bercow suspects that another election might come sooner rather than later. If he went before any election, it would increase the chances of being succeeded by his friend Charles Walker, chair of the Commons Procedure Committee.

Claws out! Eagle swoops on tribal male politicians

Men organise in peer groups, explains Eagle

When Jeremy Corbyn conducted his first reshuffle, the Labour leader was criticised for choosing his fellow loonie Leftie John McDonnell as Shadow Chancellor over Angela Eagle.

Men organise in peer groups, explains Eagle at the How The Light Gets In festival in Hay-on-Wye. I wont say gangs, because that would be wrong. Maybe tribes. They manoeuvre like mad, in my experience, and they trade favours.

This is a completely alien way of doing things for most women, who just get on, do the job and hope someone will recognise it.

Eagle learned this the hard way when she voted for Margaret Beckett for deputy leader, rather than John Prescott, who had helped her in her career.

He didnt speak to me for three years. I didnt even realise that this unwritten contract existed.

Marr's art of recovery

Having bravely fought back from the stroke that left him struggling to walk, Andrew Marr is determined to show hes still an obsessive painter.

The BBC presenter is among 100 artists, including Gerald Scarfe and Sir Antony Gormley, to have submitted a painting for a blind auction in aid of Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Charity.

Marr had to give up landscapes following his stroke and now sticks to abstract oils.

He tells me: As I really dont have the use of my left arm, and my left leg is wonky, its very, very hard to paint outside. You have to carry everything, so I had to give that up, which was very sad.
A controversial child protection scheme was condemned last night after it emerged it had failed at least six youngsters.

Murdered two-year-old Liam Fee was part of a pilot project in Scotland to appoint a state guardian for every child  dubbed the McStasi.

Officially called the Named Person Scheme, it is designed to prevent gaps in the child protection system and ensure continuity of care.

Murdered two-year-old Liam Fee was part of a pilot project in Scotland to appoint a state guardian for every child  dubbed the McStasi. The toddler was tortured and killed by his mother and her civil partner (pictured)

The SNP, which is behind the idea, claims it will help prevent abuse.

But Liam and five other children have died in the space of two years, despite having a Named Person to protect them. These include three-year-old Mikaeel Kular, who was beaten to death by his mother in 2014.

The death of Liam  who was tortured and killed by his mother and her civil partner  has fuelled a growing row over the scheme.

Critics said it will undermine parental authority and branded it an unacceptable intrusion into family life.

Tory Adam Tomkins, who represents Glasgow in the Scottish parliament, said: The horrific ill-treatment of Liam Fee ... is a reminder that no child protection law can guarantee to keep children out of harms way, and that includes the Named Person Scheme.

The death of Liam has fuelled a growing row over the scheme, designed to prevent gaps in the child protection system and ensure continuity of care

A spokesman for the campaign group No To Named Persons said: Hard questions must now be asked about whether there were missed opportunities to save Liam, and to what extent the Named Person scheme was to blame.

The question now has to be asked: rather than being part of the solution, was the Named Person Scheme part of the problem?

A Named Person is an official appointed by the state who is responsible for monitoring a childs development. They are supposedly a single point of contact for any welfare concerns.

In Liams case, this was a health worker. But he still perished at the hands of his mother Rachel Fee, 31, and her civil partner Nyomi, 29, who are due to be sentenced in July.

Liams injuries included a ruptured heart and a broken leg and arm  all inflicted by the couple after the youngster fell off the radar of social services, despite concerns being raised about him at least four times.

The social worker involved in his case was signed off sick, and no one was appointed to take over from her and monitor the family.

Last night Rona Mackay, SNP MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, said it was deeply distasteful for any campaign group to politicise the tragic murder of a young child.

She added: The only people responsible for the death of Liam Fee are those convicted of his murder  attempting to use this death to score political points is insensitive and disrespectful.

The Named Person Scheme is set to be rolled out across Scotland from August.

But some local authorities, including Fife where Liams family lived, are already trialling it.
Queensland Police begin digging near roadway after the new evidence

his father, a taxi driver, may have killed her

A woman who disappeared 30 years ago as she waited for help after her car ran out of petrol may have been murdered by a taxi driver.

Sharron Phillips was 20 years old when she vanished from Wacol, in Brisbane's southwest, in May 1986 after she called her boyfriend to pick her up.

Police began searching for remains near a creek in Carole Park on Tuesday after a tip-off, and now a man has come forward with specific information about her disappearance.

It is understood a man told police his father, a taxi driver, may be responsible for the 20-year-old's death, The Courier Mail reported.

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Sharron Phillips was 20 years old when she went missing on May 8, 1986. A man has come forward and said his father, a taxi driver, may have killed her. Police began digging a section off a roadway at Carole Park in Queensland on Tuesday as they explore new evidence

Queensland Homicide detectives along with forensic officers commenced excavation of land at Carole Park in Ipswich following information provided to police regarding the suspected murder of Sharron Phillips in 1986

Police said that some of the new information provided by the man was able to be verified.

The young shop assistant was last seen at about 11pm at a telephone box near the Wacol Railway Station after her car apparently ran out of fuel on nearby Ipswich Road.

She has not been seen since and is presumed dead.

Police began excavating a section of the roadway at Cobalt Street in the Ipswich suburb of Carole Park, about 19km south-west of Brisbane, on Tuesday morning after a tip-off from a 'credible witness'.

'We're looking for Sharron's remains  the information is specific that she has been buried out here,' Acting Detective Superintendent Damien Hansen of the Homicide Group told reporters at the scene.

'The area that we are interested in is the drains that go under the roadway here.'

Some 100 cubic metres of soil will be removed from drains during the search, which is expected to last about a week.

Detective Superintendent Damien Hansen said the tip-off was credible.

'The aspects of what they say have been verified in a lot of detail from previous investigations,' he said at the site on Tuesday.

'We had not spoken to this person previously ... the person has come forward because of their conscience.'

More than 100 cubic metres of soil will be moved after a witness came forward with new information which has police confident of a breakthrough in the 30 year murder mystery

Queensland Police hope new information from a witness will lead them the remains of missing woman Sharron Phillips, after she disappeared from the south-west Brisbane suburb of Wacol in 1986

The cold case took a shock twist earlier this month when three of her siblings called for police to investigate their father's alibi.

Ms Phillips' father Bob, who died last year, claimed he was in NSW picking up a truck on the night - an alibi that has since been questioned by his other children.

Ms Phillips' sister Donna Anderson says for at least five years she has been trying to convince authorities to listen to her doubts.

'We all know that Dad was not honest, I'm sorry,' she told the ABC.

'We all know that Dad was violent and sadly I think there's an even darker side to him.'

Ms Anderson wants a new inquiry into the matter and for authorities to also search land near her parent's home at Riverview.

Acting Det Supt Hansen said police need lawful grounds for the investigation to progress and cannot act on someone's 'gut feeling'.

Detectives and forensic teams converged on a creek in the Ipswich suburb of Carole Park on Tuesday

Homicide detectives with assistance from forensic officers and local police organised the excavation of land following information provided to them regarding the suspected murder of Sharron Phillips in 1986

Ms Phillips, then 20, disappeared on May 8, 1986 and detectives believe she was murdered. A new witness has come forward telling public her remains are buried in the area around Cobalt Street

A large-scale excavation has begun at the site: An inquest was held two years after Sharron Phillips' disappearance - several suspects have been brought in but nobody charged

Retired detective Bob Dallow, who investigated the case, has handed over the diaries of Mr Phillips' wife Dawn, who died in 2010, to police.

The diaries were reportedly included, unknowingly, in a pile of old books given to him by Mr Phillips and contained phrases such as 'I'm sick of telling lies' and 'keep your mouth shut'.

A $250,000 reward remains on offer for anyone who provides information leading to an arrest and conviction.

'We have confirmed previously that any new evidence or information provided to us that could further our investigation would be followed up and investigated accordingly,' added Supt Hansen.

An inquest was held two years after her disappearance - several people have been questioned over the cold case but no charges have ever been laid.

Police said a 'credible witness' came forward with information about the remains of murdered shop assistant Sharron Phillips in 1986. The informant claims her body was dumped in drains off Cobalt Street in the Ipswich suburb of Carole Park

Queensland Police have begun excavating a road after new evidence into the murder of Sharron Phillips




Pat Glass, the shadow Europe minister, made her controversial comments just weeks after describing a member of the public as a 'horrible racist'

A senior member of Labour's 'in' campaign urged activists not to bother trying to canvass 'older white men'  because they are the 'problem'.

Pat Glass, the shadow Europe minister, made her controversial comments just weeks after describing a member of the public as a 'horrible racist'.

She performed her latest gaffe while appearing alongside John McDonnell at a Labour In For Britain event in Wolverhampton on Monday night.

The Express and Star newspaper said she had been responding to a voter's question on how to engage people to back the Remain campaign

The MP for North West Durham said women and young people were 'key' to a Remain victory and added: 'Go and speak to your mother, your grandmother. Don't speak to your grandfather, we know the problem are older white men.'

Mr McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, then responded: 'Can I speak up for a couple of older white men? I'll let Jeremy know.'

A Labour spokesman from the party's West Midlands region said: 'It was a light-hearted comment and it was received in that way by the audience. Labour are clearly fighting for every single vote and are of course encouraging everyone to vote to remain on 23 June.'

Only days earlier, Ms Glass was forced to apologise for branding a voter a 'horrible racist' while campaigning in Sawley, Derbyshire.

According to BBC Radio Derby, the member of the public had referred to a Polish family living in the town as 'scroungers'.

Ms Glass told the station: 'The very first person I come to was a horrible racist. I'm never coming back to wherever this is.'

The MP for North West Durham said women and young people were 'key' to a Remain victory. Mr McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, then responded: 'Can I speak up for a couple of older white men? I'll let Jeremy (Corbyn, pictured with Ms Glass) know'

Following criticism of her remarks, the MP said: 'The comments I made were inappropriate and I regret them. Concerns about immigration are entirely valid and it's important that politicians engage with them.

'I apologise to the people living in Sawley for any offence I have caused.'

Today Jeremy Corbyn will make a speech warning of the need to stay in the EU to defend workers' rights.
Surfing legend Layne Beachley has opened up about her battle with mental illness, admitting there were times she would wake up 'thinking of different ways to kill' herself.

The 43-year-old, who began surfing at Sydney's northern beaches, said when she was starting out she would often have water splashed in her face by male surfers who told her to leave because she was 'a girl'.

After a six-month stint of waking up with suicidal thoughts, Beachley finally decided to open up about her struggle to a close friend, just before her seventh world title in 2006.

'Everyone would have perceived my life to be fantastic  I had it all. I was dating a rock star, I was living in my dream home, I was travelling the world,' she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Surfing legend Layne Beachley (pictured winning her seventh world title in Hawaii, 2006) has opened up about her battle with mental illness, admitting there were times she would wake up 'thinking of different ways to kill' herself

The 43-year-old, who began surfing at Sydney's northern beaches said when starting out she often had water splashed in her face by male surfers who told her to leave because she was 'a girl'

But internally Beachley was struggling with debilitating mental illness and refused to confide in close friends and family as she feared she would become a 'burden'.

The seven-time world champion, who is married to INXS guitarist Kirk Pengilly, now realises hiding her mental illness made her suffering far worse.

'When you're in a state of pain and suffering and restless the worst thing you can do is ostracise yourself,' she said.

Close friend and former Ironman champion Guy Leach admitted he was 'worried' about Beachley after she appeared to have lost her motivation and optimism.

After the conversation, the surfer said she was finally willing to bring her struggles to her 'own attention'.

Internally Beachley was struggling with debilitating mental illness and refused to confide in close friends and family as she feared she would become a 'burden'.

The seven-time world champion, who is married to INXS guitarist Kirk Pengilly (pictured), now realises hiding her mental illness made her suffering far worse.

After seeking the relevant support, she went on to win her seventh world title.

Close friend and former Ironman champion Guy Leach admitted he was 'worried' about Beachley (pictured with husband Kirk Pengilly) after she appeared to have lost her motivation and optimism

After seeking the relevant support, she went on to win her seventh world title in 2006.

Although surfing at a young age sparked some insecurities, she credits the sport as saving her life 'many a time'.

For every one of the guys who was saying "you're a girl, get out of the water"  I refer to them as my dream thieves  there was one saying 'you're a great surfer and I believe in you,' she told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Beachley has voiced her support for non-for-profit for 'surfers, survivors and sufferers,' One Wave Is All It Takes.

The charity is run by a surf community and Beachley uploaded a picture to her Instagram page on Wednesday after attending a lunch with the group.

'You guys rocks! Loved hearing your story and sharing mine with you and your supporters,' she wrote.

Beachley has voiced her support for non-for-profit for 'surfers, survivors and sufferers,' One Wave Is All It Takes (pictured at a charity lunch)

Although surfing at a young age sparked some insecurities, she credits the sport as saving her life 'many a time'
Connor - described as Kanye West's stylist, consultant, and muse - was victim shaming; he said she was 'full of lies and

Alyssa, 18, tells Daily Mail Online she was attacked by 23-year-old fashion stylist for Kanye West at party in West Hollywood

An 18-year-old girl has become the latest to accuse Ian Connor, Kanye West's fashion consultant, of rape.

The teenager has told Daily Mail Online she was dragged into a room, before being pinned to a mattress and raped despite repeatedly telling the 23-year-old to stop.

The woman, who Daily Mail Online is calling Alyssa to protect her anonymity spoke out after two women went public with rape accusations against Connor, who is a business associate of West.

Khadiata Diallo, of New York, said she was a 16-year-old virgin when she was raped by Connor, while Malika Anderson, 23, said she was raped and given gonorrhea by him while she was a student at Emory University, Atlanta.

Both women waived their right to anonymity to give their accounts to Daily Mail Online.

Connor has declined to comment on the rape allegations, including Alyssa's account - but he did use his Twitter account to abuse Anderson, calling her a 'walking trash can emoji'.

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Victim number three: 'Alyssa', 18, is a newly-graduated high school student who has told Daily Mail Online Connor raped her when she met him in Los Angeles as she looked at college options

Gone West: Connor has boasted of his connection to Kanye. He has been described as a consultant and employee of the rapper. West's representatives declined to comment on the serial rape allegations

At his side: Ian Connor was on stage at Kanye West's Yeezy Season 3 launch in February in New York. Since then he has been present at Yeezy pop-up shops

Speaking out: Malika Anderson (left) and Khaditia Diallo (right) waived their right to anonymity to tell Daily Mail Online on Wednessday their accounts of being 'raped' by Ian Connor. They are now joined by 'Alyssa'

He later deleted the post, but did not delete another post which he captioned 'Malika Anderson' and in which he retweeted a post by one of his followers which read: 'If a N***a f**k me and he start acting different Ima just say he raped me cuz he's not the n***a he was before'

Connor's use of social media has been at the heart of the three allegations of rape made to Daily Mail Online.

The latest comes from an 18-year-old from Denver, Colorado, who does not want to be identified partly because she has not told her family what happened - and partly because she fears a backlash on social media.

Alyssa claims the 23-year-old fashion guru attacked her at a party hosted by rapper Fredo Santana, 25, at his Hollywood home.

Alyssa was first approached by the designer on social media.

She says the first contact came in January 2014, when she was just 16, with the 'relationship' swiftly moving offline into text messages and FaceTime chats.

'He told me to FaceTime him so I did the next day,' she told Daily Mail Online.

'He asked me when I first heard about him, where I lived and how I should move to New York and this and that.

'He told me about how he was in the UK with [A$AP] Rocky, signing to the A$AP Mob. That's all I really remember.'

The A$AP Mob is a group of rappers from New York which Connor has been closely associated with and who act as his manager.

She added: 'My friends and I thought it was funny but it was cool too because he's a big deal within the fashion industry.

'Artistically, he has a lot of influence and he worked with all the people that we loved. He himself did work that we loved, so it was like, "it's Ian Connor".'

The pair continued to text and message each other and almost met at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, that year but were unable to find a time when they could both meet up.

However, Alyssa says she made clear from the start that the relationship was to be entirely platonic because she had a boyfriend.

Connor, meanwhile, told her that 'I'm not interested in you for sex', leaving her reassured that his intentions towards her were friendly and nothing more.

According to Alyssa, the two continued to speak off and on for almost a year, culminating in Connor saying he would visit her in Denver  a plan thwarted after he twice said he had missed his flight.

'FIRST HE RAPED ME. NOW CONNOR IS VICTIM-SHAMING ME ON TWITTER' Furious: Malika Anderson was abused on Twitter by Connor after telling Daily Mail Online he One of the women who went public to Daily Mail Online to allege she was raped by Connor has spoken of her horror at his online response. Malika Anderson was the subject of abusive tweets by Connor after the Wednesday publication of her account of being raped and left with gonorrhea by him. One of them, in which he described her as being filled with lies and gonorrhea and advised other people to 'Stay Away', was pinned to the top of his account. Describing the series of 17 tweets, some of which have since been deleted, as 'victim shaming', Anderson said Connors apparent anger is a sign that the fashion maven is 'scared'. 'It didnt affect me badly because at the end of the day, I told the truth and hes just angry that its affecting him now,' she told Daily Mail Online. 'He thought he could just go around messing up everybodys life for so long and he was just going to be able to walk away from it. 'Hes just mad about it basically. If he wasnt guilty, he wouldnt be so mad about it. Hes tweeted a whole lot of things and harassed me, disrespected me and called me out in my name to make it seem like theres something wrong with me.' She also pointed out that she did not, as Connor claimed on Twitter, have a boyfriend at the time of the alleged assault, and said that in any case, 'the guy I was messing with' did not have an STD. 'He [Connor] is at the point where I could sue him for defamation because he is lying,' Anderson told Daily Mail Online. He says I burned [cheated on] my boyfriend and thats why he left me. I didnt burn anybody. He [Connor] gave me an STD  I didnt sleep with anybody after that. 'Obviously, if I wanted to, I could reach out to the guy I was messing with at the time and ask him for his medical records because I know he didnt have anything.' She added: 'He [Connor] was definitely trying to shame me. It was victim shaming because I was a victim and he was trying to shame me. 'It feels more like harassment because hes been posting pictures of me and stuff like that.' Asked what she would like to see happen to Connor in the wake of his social media outburst, she said: 'I just want to see him go to jail. 'I just want everybody to know the truth and for him to go to jail  thats what I want.' Advertisement

However, the two finally met on October 30 2015, after Alyssa traveled to Los Angeles, where Connor is based, to look at colleges.

She sent a tweet asking if anyone knew of any parties that night - and the celebrity stylist responded.

'He hit me up saying, "I want to see you",' she explained. 'So I was like, OK  it just was an issue of "where are you, how am I going to find you?"

'I made it clear that we need to be around people. I said, "you bring your people and I'll bring my friend with me".

'He was like, "no, you know I don't do crowds". I said "no, I'm going to bring my friend with me or I'm not coming". I was sure I didn't want anything to happen.'

In the event, Connor and three of his friends - one of whom Alyssa believes was Connor's close friend John Ross, an aspiring rapper - arrived to collect the two girls.

On the way to the party, which was at Santana's Hollywood home, Alyssa says they discussed music but adds that Connor kept 'messing with my face and touching my nose, which I thought was weird'.

When they arrived, the group went to the kitchen, along with Santana himself, before Connor approached Alyssa to ask her to come outside for a cigarette with him.

Inner circle: Ian Connor (circled) is a stylist for Kylie Jenner (center) as well as a close friend and fashion adviser to Kanye (second from left) and has met other members of the family as a result

Yeezy: Ian Connor (far right) modeled in the Kanye West collection in February and that month was described as his 'creative consultant'

'There was this long hallway and there were lots of doors to bedrooms but at the end, there was a door to get outside and that's where I thought we were going,' she says of the minutes leading up to the alleged assault.

'We were walking down the hallway but at the end, he opens this door and pulls me into this bedroom. The light was off and he just said that when he lived here, this was his bedroom.

'Then he locked the door. He pulled me into the bathroom and he shut the door and locked it and then he started kissing me.

'I was pushing him off and saying "no Ian, I don't want this". He was saying, "why not?" He kept touching me and I kept telling him no, I don't want this.'

KANYE AND CONNOR: FRIEND, BUSINESS PARTNER AND 'MUSE' Previously employed by rapper Wiz Khalifa and New York hip hop collective, the A$AP Mob, Ian Connor is now a close friend and business associate of Kanye West. West, who was described by Connor on Instagram as 'the person who taught me how to be a man', has returned the compliment  tweeting about 'being in the lab with Ian Connor' and about 'having an idea to run past @soulajan [Connor]' on social media. Connor, who is described as being Wests 'creative consultant' as well as stylist to Kylie Jenner, appeared on the catwalk during the rappers Yeezy 3 presentation at New York Fashion Week in February. In an interview given to Billboard magazine that month, Connor talked about how he and West are 'innovators' and said: 'At the end of the day, we're making s*** cooler, were making it better and we're making it more open-minded instead of just the standard runway look if that makes sense.' Asked to describe his role in Wests team, he said: 'Im his creative consultant so I [advise] on the clothing and [give] my ideas as far as "this is right, this is wrong, this is cool, we should bring in this person, we should not f**k with this person."' In a profile on Vogue.com published in February, he was described as 'being something of a muse and certainly the Yeezy poster boy' who has made an indelible impression on the rappers style. More recently, Connor hinted at being handed the reins at West's Premium Pastelle fashion line  instagramming a photo of the brands logo along with a caption that read 'Coming Soon'. Video of the rapper in the studio were also posted on Connor's Instagram feed on Tuesday  this time accompanied by a caption calling it 'the best 9-5 ever' - suggesting the 23-year-old filmed it Another major rapper has already distanced himself from the alleged serial rapist. Connor appeared in a photoshoot for promotional material for Drake's OVO fashion line and boasted on Instagram that he was styling and curating its summer 'look book'. However sources close to Drake's company said it was not true and that he had simply appeared in the material. Advertisement

Connor appeared to believe sex was his due thanks to his status as a celebrity stylist and because of the length of time the pair had been talking.

'He was like, "I'm not even saying you owe it to me because I'm Ian Connor but it's because I've been f**king with you for a long time",' she said.

'I was like, "I don't care, I don't want it". I kept making excuses and saying no. Then he just pulled my pants down. The top I was wearing, he didn't take that off. But he pulled my pants down.

'I tried to pull them back up but he pulled them down again. He kept trying to kiss me and I was pushing him off.

'I was yelling at him. I had my phone and I tried to call my friend but he took my phone from me. I was not cooperating so he unlocked the bathroom door and pulled me back into the bedroom.

'He threw me on the bed. It was just a mattress on the floor. He threw me on the mattress and grabbed hold of my hair.

'He pushed my head down and then he had his other arm around my body. That's when he started to rape me. I was screaming and crying.'

But despite her cries for help, Alyssa said Connor would not stop. She believes no one came to help because her yells were drowned out by the loud music playing in the house.

Eventually, she said, she stopped fighting Connor and, 'totally drained', gave up.

Afterwards, she said, Connor put his clothes back on and sauntered out of the room, while she was left in floods of tears and alone.

'After he was done I got up to go get my clothes and I was just crying. I looked distraught. I looked really messed up.

'I looked in the mirror but then I just couldn't look in the mirror so I put my clothes back on. I was putting my clothes on but I couldn't fix myself up. I just couldn't look at myself.'

Alyssa says she then went to find her friend and the two immediately ordered an Uber taxi home but had to leave the house through the kitchen, where Connor was seated on the counter.

Along with Ross, another close friend of Connor's, up-and-coming rapper Playboi Carti, had arrived.

'They were all staring at us because I clearly looked messed up,' she says. 'Fredo [Santana] asked if I was OK and I think he asked us where we were from, if we were Ethiopian or something.

'Then, he was like, you guys are very beautiful. One of his friends followed us to the door to get my friend's number. Then we left. It was probably around 3.30 in the morning or something like that.'

When Alyssa got home, she says she took a very long shower 'because I wanted to get all the dirt off me and because he ejaculated in me'.

Nonetheless, she refused to tell her friend exactly what had happened but did tell her cousins when they picked her up at Denver airport the following morning.

'I cried the whole plane ride and I was crying the whole morning  I couldn't handle what happened,' she says.

'One of my cousins was like, "please don't tell me Ian raped you". She just knew so I ended up telling them.

'But telling other people has been really hard for me because I knew I was going to get s**t for it.'

Alyssa, who recently graduated high school, says she still hasn't told her parents for fear of upsetting them and is reluctant to go to the police for the same reason.

However, she says she is speaking now in the hopes that no other woman will endure what she did at the hands of Connor.

'I think he's sick and he needs help,' she says. 'I think he believes his own lies. I want to call everybody a good person, so I want to say he's a good person but I don't know if he wasn't raised correctly or taught right and wrong.

'Maybe he's just sick. But he needs help more than anything else. He's just sick and he believes his own lies. He has so much power to make everybody else believe his lies too.'
A crocodile trapped as part of the investigation into the death of Cindy Waldron, 46, will be examined - as it is revealed her family don't want to see the animal that may have killed her harmed.

The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection trapped an estuarine crocodile estimated between 2.5 and 2.7 metres, although it is believed the reptile was not the one involved in the incident.

Ms Waldron's sister and father arrived in Cairns on Wednesday to say goodbye to their beloved family member, who was dragged under the water by a crocodile at Thornton Beach, in Queensland's Daintree National Park.

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Police will examine a crocodile trapped as part of an investigation into Impulsive New South Wales photographer, Cindy Waldron (pictured), 46, who was dragged under the water by a crocodile on May 29

Crocodile victim Cindy Waldron's sister Anna-Lee Annett (pictured) said that the incident gave her 'nightmares' but does not support a recent appeal to cull the reptiles since her sister's death

Authorities continue a search for Ms Waldron remains after she ventured into the water with friend Leeann Mitchell on May 29.

The missing crocodile attack victim's sister, Anna-Lee Annett said picturing the incident was giving her nightmares but that she found comfort in the response seen in Queensland.

She said: 'It's pretty overwhelming to know that so many people care and have given up their time to help with the search. She's worth it.'

Since the death of her sister, three crocodile traps have been set up in the area to make sure the incident does not happen again.

Ms Waldron (left), 46, had been swimming with her friend, Leeann Mitchell (right) when Ms Mitchell had felt something brush past her leg in the water. The pair had been celebrating the end of Ms Mitchells chemotherapy and travelled to the tropics for a holiday

Ms Annett has said that although she and her family are 'heartbroken' they do not support the recent appeal to cull the reptiles.

The state government is set to allocate an extra $5.8million over three years in next week's budget for crocodile management.

Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles said: 'We don't know with enough scientific accuracy if crocodile numbers are increasing or decreasing in some river systems and in light of a suspected crocodile attack in the Daintree we need to know.

Survey work will be carried out in rivers and estuaries at night, when tidal conditions increase the chance of spotting crocs.

Emergency services pictured at the scene on Thornton Beach following the attack on May 29 are still in search of the remains of Ms Waldron as family joined the search part on June 1

Queensland's governmentis set to allocate an extra $5.8million over three years in next week's budget for crocodile management. A crocodile suspected of carrying out the attack is pictured near the Beach six months ago

Dr Miles said: 'This will be the most comprehensive crocodile population survey ever in Queensland and data will be compared to figures going back as far as 1979.

'There are serious public safety concerns associated with croc country, and we need to explore ways to live side-by-side with these animals and protect crocodile populations in the wild,' he added.

Federal MP Bob Katter has called for croc-shooting safaris to cull the growing population, but other experts have warned there is no solid evidence of a problem.

Family members made an emotional visit to the beach after their flight to Cairns to say goodbye and expressed gratitude for the massive search effort.

Ms Waldron (right) pictured with Leann Mitchell (left) whose cousin, Alan Frost, said she was unhurt in the incident but was treated for shock. Ms Mitchell spoke to Ms Waldron's sister after she left hospital and Ms Annett said the two had been best friends but what they did was 'silly'

Thornton Beach in far North Queensland's Daintree region is known for having a high concentration of crocodiles but Ms Waldron's father Pat said his daughter often 'did crazy things'

Mr Waldron said: 'We need to be here and cry on the beach.'

RECENT CROCODILE ATTACKS IN QUEENSLAND * May 29, 2016 A 46-year-old woman is snatched and dragged under water during a late-night swim with a friend at Thornton Beach in the Daintree National Park. Her friend tried in vain to save her. * March, 2016 Cooktown sailor Graham Clark fended off a crocodile with a piece of wood after it latched onto the side of his boat at the town's harbour. The 70-year-old was woken by barking fox-terrier Laddie. * December 2, 2015 Snorkelling off the coast of Lizard Island at night, Noosa man Mick Curwen was bitten on the arm by a 2.5m crocodile. He managed to shock the reptile by shining his torch in its eyes before frantically swimming to shore. * April 13, 2015 An elderly golfer was attacked at a Port Douglas course owned by Clive Palmer. The 70-year-old man disturbed a crocodile in a waterway at the 11th hole of the Palmer Sea Reef Golf Course and suffered puncture wounds. * March 9, 2011 A fisherman suffered a broken leg after being struck by a four-metre croc at Weipa in the Gulf of Carpentaria. The 28-year-old clung to mangroves before another fisherman was able to fight it off. * February 5, 2011 A north Queensland man was swimming at a popular watering hole near Weipa with his two daughters when a crocodile latched onto his arm. He punched it several times in the head before it let go. * February 8, 2009 Five-year-old Jeremy Doble was taken on the banks of the Daintree River in Cairns. He was playing with his older brother when he followed the family's dog into the water. * September 30, 2008 Vietnam veteran Arthur Booker, 62, was killed while checking a crab pot on the Endeavour River near Cooktown. Two weeks later remains were found in the stomach of a 4.3m crocodile. Advertisement

He said that his daughter would often do 'crazy' things and that it was a 'horrible way to end'.

'She didn't deserve that,' he added.

Described as impulsive and fun-loving, it is believed that Ms Waldron would have known the risks of her later-night beach adventure.

In the hours leading up to her disappearance the 46-year-old New South Wales photographer posted to Facebook: 'I'm on the beach, it's a lovely place, I'm having a ball.'

Ms Waldron had been with her childhood friend from New Zealand Ms Mitchell, and the pair were walking arm-in-arm in knee-deep water along the beach shortly after dinner.

Ms Mitchell claimed that she had felt something brush past her leg at the time of the attack.

'They'd only been in the water for no more than a minute (before the attack),' Senior Constable Russell Parker said, according to The Australian.

Ms Mitchell's cousin, Alan Frost, told the New Zealand Herald she was unhurt in the incident after the pair waded into the water that was known to have a high population of crocodiles.

Despite Ms Mitchell's desperate efforts to free her friend from the predator's clutches, Ms Waldron was dragged away as she screamed, 'a croc's got me, a croc's got me', 9News reported.

Ms Mitchell was taken to Mossman Hospital following the attack, suffering from shock and minor grazes.

Ms Mitchell, who had reportedly travelled to the tropics to celebrate the end of her cancer treatment with Ms Waldron, has since left hospital and spoken to Ms Annett.

Ms Annett said: '(It was the) most difficult conversation of my entire life, but I needed to have that conversation.

'They were best friends and they hadn't seen each other for a while.

'They did something silly.'

Ms Waldron's suspected death makes the second fatality involving a crocodile in a fortnight.

On May 17, Noel Ramage, 72, drowned after a crocodile reportedly overturned the boat he and his mate were in while crabbing near Gunn Point, about 40km northeast of Darwin.

The Victorian man was trapped under the capsized tinnie and drowned while his 72-year-old friend hurled spanners and spark plugs at the croc in a desperate bid to keep it at bay.

The friend was trapped in muddy mangroves for three hours before he was rescued.

There are crocodile warning signs on the side of the Daintree River near where the attack took place

Environment Minister Dr Steven Miles said that there are no accurate numbers for crocodiles in the region and survey work will be carried out in rivers and estuaries at night, when tidal conditions increase the chance of spotting crocs
A leading think-tank partly funded by the EU was accused of bias last night after it warned Brexit would lead to a 'large negative shock' for Britain's economy.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development slashed its forecasts for the UK as it said fears that Britain might leave the EU have already 'undermined' growth.

The body, which also receives funding from the British Government, said the UK's economic growth would be 3 per cent lower than it would be if it remains in the EU  the equivalent of 2,200 less per household.

A leading think-tank partly funded by the EU is accused of bias after it warned Brexit would lead to a 'large negative shock' for Britain's economy. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development slashed its forecasts for the UK as it said fears that Britain might leave the EU have already 'undermined' growth

But Brexit campaigners last night pointed to European Commission figures showing that the OECD has received more than 23million from the EU since 2007.

A Vote Leave source said the OECD is 'not an impartial organisation'.

Former British Chambers of Commerce chief John Longworth condemned the report as 'partisan'.

Mr Longworth, now chairman of Vote Leave's business council, said: 'The most important finding in today's report is the acknowledgment that the UK economy will continue to grow after we vote to leave the EU. But this is a flawed report that makes assumptions which have been roundly dismissed by senior economists.

'Instead of listening to partisan advisory bodies, let's look at what businesses are actually telling us, which is that the costly red tape and regulations emanating from Brussels are constraining their ability to innovate and create jobs.'

Chancellor George Osborne welcomed the report, saying it underlined the 'grim economic consequences of leaving the EU'.

Chancellor George Osborne welcomed the report, saying it underlined the 'grim economic consequences of leaving the EU'

'The highly respected, independent OECD has significantly downgraded Britain's growth because of uncertainty about the outcome of the referendum, and they are clear that is just a taste of worse to come if Britain leaves the EU,' he said.

However, an Ipsos-Mori poll yesterday revealed that nearly two-thirds of voters (58 per cent) believe Brexit would make no difference to their standard of living.

Just 22 per cent think it would hit them in the pocket, while 11 per cent said it would make them better off. A majority (56 per cent) said they expected direct investment from the EU into the UK to fall, and 46 per cent said they expected British exports to the EU to drop.

The OECD insisted last night that its report was 'evidence-based' and not influenced by the funding it has received from Brussels, saying: 'The OECD exists to provide independent, objective policy advice.'

The organisation, which has previously suggested Britain should join the euro, also expects growth to remain sluggish in the world economy.

'Eight years after the financial crisis, the recovery remains disappointingly weak,' it said.

It added: 'The forthcoming UK referendum on EU membership has already raised uncertainty, and an exit would depress growth in Europe and elsewhere substantially.'

The OECD said referendum uncertainty 'has led to a significant slowdown in economic activity' in the UK.

'Business investment has contracted as businesses have put their spending decisions on hold and hiring intentions have weakened,' it added.
An airport security guard allegedly carried out war crimes against the Isaaq clan during the Somalian civil war.

Yusuf Abdi Ali is a security guard at Dulles International Airport in Virginia - and previously was a Barre regime military commander, CNN reported.

A producer from the TV channel asked Ali what his name was at the airport.

During the conversation, the producer said: 'Yusuf Ali?' and the guard was filmed saying: 'Yeah.'

Yusuf Abdi Ali is a security guard at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, - and previously was a Barre regime military commander, it's been reported

Ali and his wife live together in Alexandria, Virginia. He has said: 'To tell you the truth, all is false. Baseless'

The producer then asked Ali: 'Where are you originally from?' The guard responded: 'Somalia.'

A civil lawsuit against Ali accuses him of torturing and trying to kill the suit's plaintiff, CNN reported.

Ali is also accused in the suit of having carried out 'war crimes,' but a circuit court ruled those claims are unable to go ahead, its report said.

Center for Justice and Accountability attorney Kathy Roberts told CNN: 'He arrested people, stole their stuff, burned villages, executed masses of people.

'At one point he had a school come out to view an execution.'

A CNN producer asked Ali what his name was at the airport. During the conversation, the producer said: 'Yusuf Ali?' and the guard was filmed saying: 'Yeah'

Ali's attorney Joseph Peter Drennan spoke to the channel, saying: 'Those are just allegations.

'If he is indeed a war criminal, take him to The Hague. Or if he is a war criminal, take it up with the immigration authorities.

'Don't sue him in an American court... My client deserves to live in the U.S. just as any other legal permanent resident.

A security company called Master Security told CNN it did not know about the pending litigation and that Ali had successfully gone through a background check.

Ali is now on administrative leave with his airport access revoked while Master Security looks into the matter, the report said.
Labour MP Naz Shah faced questions last night over her election expenses

Labour MP Naz Shah faced questions last night over her election expenses.

Documents appeared to show that the hotel bills of a Labour peer who came north to campaign with the Bradford West MP were declared as national expenditure  when at least part of the cost should have been cited as local expenses.

Lord Kennedy, a former councillor in London, stayed at the Bradford Holiday Inn Express for 37 days during the election campaign  at a cost of 1,949.53.

But the hotel appeared in national spending and not local spending  even though Miss Shah has confirmed that the peer had campaigned specifically for her.

A member of the public is understood to have referred the case to West Yorkshire Police.

Labour has previously claimed it was cleaner than the Conservative Party  which is facing a series of election expenses probes  because it did not pay for volunteers hotel rooms.

Last night a Conservative source said: This is breath-taking hypocrisy from Labour.

Their claim not to have put any volunteers up in hotels has been shown to be false  it appears that theyve been playing fast and loose with the truth in order to score political points.

Two months ago, Miss Shah was forced to make a wholehearted apology in the Commons after being accused of anti-Semitism for Facebook posts that appeared to suggest Israelis should be deported to the US.

Each candidate has to stick to strict rules meaning the cannot spend more than a certain amount  around 13,000  on their own local campaign.

Election regulations also state that costs designed to help specifically with a local MPs election battle must be declared locally  rather than as part of national expenditure.

But it has emerged that Miss Shah received the help of Labour peer Lord Kennedy, who campaigned with her during the run-up to the 2015 election.

His hotel bills were declared as a national expenditure, according to Labours national return  the national party paid 1,949.53 for him to stay at the Bradford Holiday Inn Express for 37 days, starting on 1 April.

Miss Shahs local spending return confirms that Lord Kennedys hotel bills were not declared as part of the local spend  they dont appear under staff costs or accommodation costs.

Former Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe confirmed to the Telegraph & Argus newspaper that Lord Kennedy had been brought in specifically to help her in her 2015 fight against George Galloway, the Respect MP who formerly held the seat.

He told the paper: The party brought in Roy Kennedy and Baroness Thornton to help Naz Shah.

In her maiden speech to the Commons, Miss Shah acknowledged the work he had done.

She told MPs: My presence here is a testament to many people  my family, friends and local volunteers who were immensely supportive, and a close group of people who supported me throughout my campaign.

Documents appeared to show that the hotel bills of a Labour peer who came north to campaign with the Bradford West MP were declared as national expenditure  when at least part of the cost should have been cited as local expenses

Lord Kennedy (right), a former councillor in London, stayed at the Bradford Holiday Inn Express for 37 days during the election campaign  at a cost of 1,949.53

These include my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr Mahmood), Ben Gallagher, Jo Miller, the noble Baron, Lord Roy Kennedy, the noble Baroness Glenys Thornton and the many shadow Cabinet Ministers who came to visit and support me.

A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said: Any allegations regarding the spending returns submitted by candidates at the general election are for the relevant local police force to respond t

Our guidance explains that candidates need to make an honest assessment as to whether an item was for their election or whether it was for promoting the national party.

If an item is used in a constituency and only promotes the national party and national policies then that should count as national party spend. If an item promotes both the local candidate and national policies, then a portion of the cost of it should be allocated towards the candidates spending limit and a portion towards the partys national spending limit.
He won the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and ruled until death in 1509

Henry VII splashed out the equivalent of 3million on clothes because he felt so insecure on the throne, according to an expert on Tudor history.

Tracy Borman said the first Tudor king was a very big spender, despite the modern perception he was a miser.

Miss Borman, curator at Historic Royal Palaces, said that after defeating Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, Henry went on a spending spree.

King Henry VII, who was the king of England and overlord of Ireland in the 15th century

'He probably spent more than any other Tudor,' she said of the father of Henry VIII. 'In the first two years of his reign he spent [the equivalent of] 3million on his dress.'

She said it was 'fascinating' to see that the Lancastrian spent the money when he feared the rise of a Yorkist challenger to the throne, adding: 'He was seen as an illegitimate usurper and [when challenged] he says 'I will buy a new wardrobe. I am going to be invaded and I have nothing to wear.'

Miss Borman, whose book The Private Lives Of The Tudors is partly based on historical accounts of courtiers, said that despite his dour reputation Henry VII had a lighter side.

'He loved to gamble,' she told the Hay Literary Festival, adding that in 1492 he had been obliged to raid the royal coffers for 20,000 to pay off a debt. And the king 'would have given Henry VIII a run for his money with women,' she said.

Miss Borman added that while some thought the current Royal Family complain about intrusions into their private lives, the Tudor kings had dozens of courtiers listening outside their bedroom doors.

'Sex lives are the least private,' she said. 'Subjects saw them as a matter of justifiable public interest. It is all about the birth of heirs.'

She said that when Henry VII married Elizabeth of York there was a bedding ceremony with about 30 courtiers in attendance. After the couple had been put into their 'linen shifts' the staff retreated and 'hung about outside the door to listen'.

After Henry VII's first son Arthur died, the second born, Henry VIII, assumed the throne in 1509.
He's also charged with a firearms offence for purchasing the guns used by Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik, in the December attack in San Bernardino

They say he plotted with Farook in 2011 to massacre college students and motorists on a gridlocked freeway but backed out after jihadists' arrests

The friend who bought the assault weapons used in the San Bernardino terrorist attack also had ties other aspiring jihadists, federal prosecutors say.

Enrique Marquez Jr. is accused of having links with a group of California militants who were arrested in 2012 as they tried to fly to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida.

It is the first time that the 24-year-old, who allegedly supplied the rifles used to kill 14 people in the December massacre, has been linked to other terrorist groups.

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Enrique Marquez Jr. (pictured) is accused of having links with a group of California militants who were arrested in 2012 as they tried to fly to Afghanistan to join al-Qaida

Accused: Enrique Marquez, 24, allegedly purchased assault-style weapons for the San Bernardino shooters and is now accused of having ties with other terrorist groups

The allegations were made in a lawsuit, filed by the government on Tuesday, which is aimed at seizing a life insurance payout to Farook's mother.

'Marquez had ties to a group of jihadists ('California jihadists') who were arrested in 2012 when they attempted to travel to Afghanistan to join' al Qaeda, the suit said.

The California jihadists may be a reference to four men from the area who were arrested that same year and convicted of plotting to join the Taliban or al Qaeda to kill American troops.

Three of the four were apprehended as they headed to Mexico to catch a flight to the Middle East to rendezvous with the fourth man in Afghanistan.

Marquez is due to go on trial next month to face charges of supplying guns used in the San Bernardino massacre on December 2.

Prosecutors say he bought the assault weapons for his childhood friend Syed Rizwan Farook and Farook's wife, Tashfeen Malik three years ago, which they then used to murder 14 people before dying in a gunfight with police.

Marquez is also accused of plotting an earlier attack with Farook back in 2011 or 2012 at a California college.

Marquez is also charged with a federal firearms charge for purchasing the guns used by Syed Rizwan Farook (left) and Farook's wife, Tashfeen Malik, (right) in the December 2 attacks in which they killed 14 people before dying in a gunfight with police

Tashfeen Malik, left, and her husband, Syed Farook, (pictured at O'Hare International Airport in 2014) massacred 14 people in the shooting

The 24-year-old punk rock fan, who converted to Islam in 2007, plotted to use pipe bombs and explosives with Farook on a gridlocked Los Angeles highway and at Riverside Community College in 2011 in a bid to create mass casualties.

The former security guard, who told the FBI he was radicalized by hate preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, allegedly made the explosives for another attack in 2012 and even went to a firing range to practice.

But Marquez, who pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, backed out of the plot after the four Californians were arrested on terrorism charges in late 2012, the FBI said in court documents.

IEDs found in the home shared by Farook and Malik after the attack in San Bernardino were filled with the 'smokeless powder' Marquez purchased in 2012, federal prosecutors said.

Officials also claimed Marquez legally bought two AR-15s three years ago for Farook as a favor because the US-born health inspector was worried that he would not pass a background check had he tried to buy the weapons himself.

The pair, who met in 2004, allegedly agreed Marquez should buy the high-powered weapons 'because he was Caucasian, while Farook looked Middle Eastern'.

According to the criminal complaint, Farook started showing and teaching Marquez about radical Islamic ideology, which included anger towards Muslims in the U.S. military, after 2007.

They also discussed the extremists views of the now-deceased imam al-Awlaki.

Marquez Jr., pictured in a courtroom file sketch in December, is due to go on trial for supplying firearms for the terrorist plot

Police have previously said that Farook and his wife and fellow shooter Tashfeen Malik purchased the two handguns

The couple were found to be in possession of four guns, 12 pipe bombs and 4,500 rounds of ammunition - all of which could have been purchased legally for around $5,000, according to CNN estimates

In 2010, Marquez listened to 'The Hereafter' - a series of lectures by al-Awlaki - and later on in the year began looking into the ideas of Imran Hosein, an Islamic author and philosopher.

In August the following year, Farook allegedly told Marquez he wanted to join Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

They then began planning attacks in Southern California, the criminal complaint states.

The pair allegedly started buying firearms, ammunition and other tactical gear. In late 2011 and early 2012, Marquez purchased firearms twice from local sporting goods stores.

During FBI interviews, Marqeuz identified himself as the buyer of the two rifles but said he bought the rifles for Farook.

Marquez told agents they discussed attacking the library or cafeteria area of the college, which they were both enrolled at, because they wanted to 'maximize casualties'.

They then wanted to escape without detection so they could go on to start another attack on the SR-91.

The pair would have allegedly targeted the road during 'rush hour' on a section that had a small number of exits.

However, Marquez, insists he knew nothing of Farook and his wife's deadly plans for the San Bernardino attack.

The Walmart security guard, who had checked himself into a Los Angeles-area psychiatric hospital shortly after the December shootings, also admitted he tried to distance himself from Farook because of the arrest of other terror suspects.

FBI agents searched the Tomlinson Avenue home of Marquez in Riverside, California. He is suspected of purchasing the guns used in the San Bernardino shooting rampage

Marquez is also accused of being part of a sham marriage. In 2014, he married Russian citizen Mariya Chernykh, one of Farook's relatives.

She arrived in the United States on a J-1 exchange visa (for visitors) on on July 2, 2009. It expired in September but by marrying Marquez she was on the way to obtaining permanent resident status.

FBI agents discovered Marquez was receiving $200 every month for the marriage while she lived in Ontario, California with her boyfriend and father of their daughter.

Marquez and Chernykh had an interview with customs and immigration officials scheduled for the day after the San Bernardino attacks.

However they were declared a 'no-show' and as a result Chernykh's visa was revoked.

THREE CHARGES MARQUEZ IS FACING Conspiring with Farook to provide material support to terrorism in 2011 and 2012.

Making a false statement in connection with the acquisition of firearms

Immigration fraud - in connection with his sham marriage

Last month, his wife, Farook's brother, Syed Raheel Farook, and the brother's wife, Tatiana were all arrested. Tatiana is the sister-in-law of Farook.

Marquez, like his friend Farook, described as 'quiet' and 'very shy' by Lorena Agurre who lives across the street from the home that he shares with his parents and two brothers.

'He's very shy but he would wave to me,' she said. 'He would smile but I would have to initiate conversation. He didn't make small talk.'

He and Farook became a familiar sight on Tomlinson Avenue and, according to Agurre, bonded over their mutual love of cars.

'He [Marquez] didn't socialize much with the kids nearby. The only person I ever saw him with was Syed but I never spoke to them when they were together.

'Syed was obsessive about cars,' she continued. 'He would be there tinkering with cars all the time and sometimes Enrique would be with him.'

Another neighbor told NBC that the two had been friends since childhood but had grown distant in recent months.

Marquez, who has no previous criminal record, was also described as a 'nerd' and a 'weirdo' by others who knew him, while locals spoken of him as someone who liked to keep himself to himself.
Dubbed 'Postcard Bandit' after he sent police postcards while on the run

He was released from jail in Brisbane in April for string of bank robberies

A serial bank robber dubbed the 'Postcard Bandit' is set to face court over a prison escape 27 years ago.

Brenden Abbott, 53, is expected to appear at Perth Magistrates Court via video link from jail on Thursday, charged with a 1989 jailbreak from Fremantle prison.

It will be his second appearance in a Perth court following his extradition from Queensland last month.

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Brenden Abbott, 53, pictured, is expected to appear at Perth Magistrates Court via video link from jail on Thursday, charged with a 1989 jailbreak from Fremantle prison

Abbott was dubbed the 'Postcard Bandit' amid claims he taunted police by sending them postcards while on the run after his Fremantle prison escape

Abbott was released from jail in Brisbane in April, having served 18 years of a 25-year sentence for a string of robberies and another brazen escape from a Queensland prison in 1997.

He had fought extradition, with his lawyers arguing it was an abuse of process, but a Brisbane judge rejected the bid.

WA Attorney-General Michael Mischin has showed no sympathy for Abbott, describing him as a 'fugitive of justice'.

Abbott was dubbed the 'Postcard Bandit' amid claims he taunted police by sending them postcards while on the run after his Fremantle prison escape.

He allegedly escaped from the jail in 1989 by dressing up as a guard, sneaking out of his cell and then climbing to freedom through the roof.

Abbott spent five and a half years on the run, donning disguises, making fake IDs and committing bank robberies to keep himself afloat. It is estimated he stole up to $6 million.

Abbott escaped from Fremantle jail in 1989 by dressing up as a guard, sneaking out of his cell and then climbing to freedom through the roof

In 1997 Abbott broke out of jail for a second time by cutting through his cell bars with wire smuggled in by an accomplice

He was finally captured in Queensland in 1995 and sent back to prison in Brisbane.

Two years later, he broke out for a second time by cutting through his cell bars with wire smuggled in by an accomplice.

Abbott and his accomplice Brendan Berichon, 19, evaded authorities for another eight months, before Abbott was finally re-captured at a laundromat in Darwin in 1998.

He was sentenced to 25 years at the SuperMax at Woodford Prison, 80km north of Brisbane, where he was subjected to surveillance checks every 15 minutes.

His lawyer tried to argue in Brisbane's Supreme Court his extradition would be an 'abuse of process'.

Family members were in court to support Abbott during his first appearance.

His lawyer, Shash Nigam, has described the case as a 'complex matter'.
A 4.2 metre great white shark has been trapped and killed after it was caught on baited drum lines near where surfer Ben Gerring was mauled at Falcon Beach, south of Perth.

Western Australia's Department of Fisheries set baited drum lines at 7am on Wednesday (WST) at the site of the attack to trap the shark as part of its controversial serious threat policy.

The department revealed on Thursday that the shark was caught on Wedensday afternoon and died on the drum line. It was then towed out to sea and dumped after samples and measurements were taken.

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A 4.2 metre great white shark has reportedly been caught on drum lines near to where West Australian surfer Ben Gerring was attacked on Tuesday

Ben Gerring, 29, is fighting for his life in hospital after a shark tore part of his leg off while he was surfing at a beach south of Perth only hours after reports of a great white shark lurking nearby

Mr Gerring, 29, is in Royal Perth Hospital fighting for his life and has lost a leg after the attack on Tuesday afternoon.

He was pulled from the water at a popular surf break of Gearies near Falcon after a shark attacked him from behind just before 4pm.

Mr Gerring's family have thanked everyone involved in his rescue and treatment at Royal Perth Hospital in what was a difficult time.

Mr Gerring's fiancee Jasmine Boyer flew down from a WA mine.

'The bravery and efforts of his rescuers and the care provided by the doctors and nurses has been amazing,' the family said in a statement.

'We would also like to thank family and friends for their messages of love and support, they are greatly appreciated.'

Western Australia's Department of Fisheries set baited drum lines at 7am on Wednesday at the attack site

WA Fisheries has revealed the shark died on the drum line and was then towed out to sea and dumped

The use of traps to catch sharks is controversial and was widely criticised on Wednesday

Shocked and distressed fellow surfers and friends, including those who pulled him out of the water, gathered on Wednesday morning at the closed beach.

Mr Gerring was described as a keen big wave surfer who had paddled out further and screamed for help before being dragged under the water.

His friend, Mandurah Boardriders Club president Brian Williams, was preparing to go for a surf when he noticed a commotion with about 15 surfers rushing back to shore and 'all hell broke loose' as a couple of men came out with Mr Gerring propped up on a board.

Mr Gerring was given CPR for around 20 minutes on the sand and his severed leg was wrapped in a towel before two ambulances arrived and he was transported to hospital with life threatening injuries

Mr Gerring was pale and had lost a lot of blood by the time he was pulled on to shore by local surfers

'They jumped to work straight away, it was pretty horrific to see someone you know in that predicament,' he told ABC radio.

'There are images there that are going to be pretty hard to get out of your mind for a while ... I've spoken to a lot of the guys that are struggling at the moment with the scenes they saw.'

Mr Williams described the efforts of those who had bravely rescued Mr Gerring as heroic.

Friends and surfers have rallied online, including Tarsh Wright Webster who posted: 'Praying very hard for you Ben. You are in the very best care at RPH (Royal Perth Hospital). Also to the people who rescued him, you are heroes. Well done.'

Fisheries Department regional manager Tony Cappelluti said the drum lines were set on Wednesday morning as per the WA government's serious threat policy.

The use of traps is controversial and was widely criticised on Wednesday, including by WA Greens MP Lynn MacLaren, University of Sydney lecturer Christopher Neff and Mr Williams, who said killing individual sharks did not make the ocean safer.

Mr Cappelluti defended Fisheries' warning systems.

A rescue helicopter was on standby but the man was loaded into an ambulance and rushed to Peel Health Campus with life threatening injuries
A mother-of-three is 'ropeable' after a salesman stayed at her home for three hours in the evening in the hopes of selling a $4500 vacuum to a family living week-to-week.

Leonie Padgett, from Dunedin in New Zealand, was cold-called to do a 'quick' survey, and was called three days later by a South Island Clean Air (SICA) who said she was their daily prize winner.

A salesman later delivered the glass platter with a NZ$6 pricetag from a discount store still on it, and stayed at the Caversham for three hours until 10.45pm on Monday.

It appeared to Ms Padgett the cheap prize was merely a Trojan horse into their home in an attempt to sell a vacuum, The Monarch.

Mother-of-three Leonie Padgett (pictured), from Dunedin in New Zealand, was cold-called to do a survey and then offered a prize. A salesman then showed up at her door with a NZ$6 platter which still had the pricetag on it, before staying a further three hours in the hopes of selling a NZ$4500 vacuum cleaner

'Taking a 30sec phone survey was the biggest mistake of my life,' Ms Padgett wrote on Facebook

She said he had brought in three big bags 'of god knows what' and asked them to turn their television off, 'where he can place this machine so we can see the work it does'.

The demonstration of The Monarch involved stripping their sheets to vacuum the mattress before dumping the suctioned dust on their floor, Stuff reported.

Eventually, the salesman named Jake said the vacuum would cost them NZ$4500 (AU$4227).

When Ms Padgett said their family of five with one income lives paycheck to paycheck and could not afford it, the salesman offered them the sale with a NZ$500 deposit and weekly instalments to pay the remaining.

Ms Padgett had been cold-called to complete a survey. Three days later she was told she'd won the company's 'daily prize', a glass platter

'I actually was near in tears when he wouldn't leave after me asking twice,' she wrote on Facebook.

He eventually left about 10.45pm 'unhappy he didn't get a sale'  but not before using their sink to wash the vacuum, drinking a glass of water and using their bathroom.

In a Facebook rant on Tuesday, Ms Padgett said she was already in her pyjamas and dressing gown when the man showed up on Monday evening.

'I was and still am ropeable,' she wrote.

She said she was concerned for others who could get 'sucked in' by the sales tactic.

'Taking a 30sec phone survey was the biggest mistake of my life.'

SICA defended their sale tactic and products '100 per cent' to Stuff.

Company director Keri Neame said they cold-called residents from the phone book and asked them to complete a survey. If they were receptive they would contact them again before showing them the product in person.

Hours later, a salesman arrived at her door in Dunedin bearing the gift - which still had its NZ$6 pricetag on it from a discount store - and a $4500 vacuum to sell

He said they have a 'no-pressure policy'. Customers have seven days to return the product.

Consumer NZ warned against the company in March this year after Dunedin woman Petrina Virtue had a salesman stay at her home for six hours until she made a NZ$3,750 purchase on her credit card.

She cancelled the purchase the following day.

Consumer adviser Maggie Edwards told Daily Mail Australia said door-to-door vacuum sellers are a cause of regular complaints.

'People are too quick to say: "Why did they let them in?"' Ms Edwards said.

She said it was great some people were assertive enough to ask the saleperson to leave immediately.

'Not everybody has that ability, and that's what they [the companies] count on,' Ms Edwards said.

'It is the most vulnerable who will be probably at most risk.'

Ms Edwards said anyone who has trouble with an uninvited direct sales in New Zealand can report the company to the Commerce Commission, the equivalent of the ACCC, by email or by phoning 0800 943 600.

There is more information about the right to cancel purchases here.
A shirtless man carrying a huge stake charged into a Coles Express petrol station on Tuesday night in Melbourne.

Video of the event shows the man brandishing the wooden stake, chasing after another man and brawling with him in full view of bystanders and staff in Brunswick in Melbourne's North.

Footage also shows the two men squaring up inside the Brunswick petrol station with kung-fu style poses and throwing wild kicks and punches at each other, baiting each other on.

The man pulled a a large wooden stake off the back of a real estate sign, charging into the petrol station

The two men squared off with kung fu style poses and proceeded to buffet each other with kicks and punches

The fight then spills out onto Lygon street, with the shirtless man pulling down the real estate board, yanking off a stake and chasing down his opponent.

The man continues his attack, this time swinging at parts of the inside of the petrol station with the stake.

He proceeds to hit displays in the shop with angry, sudden swipes.

The fight took place in full sight of staff and bystanders, and spilled out onto the street

The two men baited each other into the fight, which also spilled out onto LygonStreet in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick

Witnesses believe that the fighting men were drunk or affected by alcohol

The fight escalated when the shirtless man pulled the stake off the back of a real estate sign and police charged him with the use of a weapon

The event escalated when the shirtless man took chase with the large stake, running into the petrol station

Witnesses who saw the frightening scene, believe that drugs and alcohol caused the men's behaviour.

Police later arrested and locked up the 31-year-old man for being drunk in a public place.

He is expected to be charged with causing criminal damage, carrying a dangerous weapon and riotous behaviour.

The two men brawled outside the petrol station, witnesses believe they were under the influence of drugs and alcohol
The husband of an assistant attorney general who has crusaded against child sex trafficking in Georgia has been shot dead.

Shahriar Zolfaghari, 36, had been shot twice in the chest when he was found slumped in the front seat of his car in Atlanta early on Wednesday morning.

The Lyft driver - who is married to Georgia assistant attorney general Camila Wright - died in hospital, and police in charge of the homicide investigation say his death is a 'mystery'.

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Tragic: Shahriar Zolfaghari, the husband of Georgia assistant attorney general Camila Wright (pictured together with their baby daughter), has been shot dead

Crime scene: Zolfaghari, 36, had been shot twice in the chest when he was found slumped in the front seat of his car in Atlanta early on Wednesday morning

Mrs Wright was made Georgia's prosecutor for human trafficking in 2014 and was believed to be the first person to take up such a role in the U.S..

Before that was in charge of Fulton County's human trafficking unit, where she helped jail 19 people, including two for life.

According to 11 Alive, a witness told police that he pulled up behind Mr Zolfaghari's vehicle at a red light next to a church at around 1am on Wednesday, but got out to see what was the matter when he did not pull away after the light changed to green.

Video Courtesy 11 Alive WXIA

They told investigators that the motorist had been shot and that there was blood inside the car.

Two shell casings were found at the scene, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

'It looks like someone must have either been in the vehicle with him or shot him at close range,' police Major Adam Lee III said.

'It's a mystery as to why someone would harm him,' he added.

Love: The father-of-one had been married to Mrs Wright since 2014 and have a young daughter together

Police have subpoenaed Lyft for Mr Zolfaghari's records to see if he was on a ride - and if so, who ordered it - when he was shot.

The father-of-one had been married to Mrs Wright since 2014 and have a young daughter together.

A heartbreaking Facebook post by Mrs Wright's sister, Everett Wright, said: 'My perfect brother, in love my sister found you. In love you leave us.

'You were the gentlest, kindest, most innocent person I knew honestly. You adored your wife and daughter in a way that cannot even be described by these words.

'I cannot fathom the thoughts that run through the minds of people that choose to take people like you away from the incredible life you had here. Our hearts our broken. Please all you who read this shower the heavens with prayers for my sister, her daughter, and my family.

'I love you, we all love you and always will cherish you. You are gone too soon. Rest in heaven's peace and may the thought of you bring peace to us all.'

A spokesman for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said: 'We at the Attorney Generals office are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Camilas husband. Our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.'
Malcolm Turnbull patted a rat while campaigning in Sydney on Monday

There's now a rat in the Labor ranks after Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek was caught out by a prank from the comedy crew The Chaser on Thursday.

Ms Plibersek fell foul of the skit involving a pet rodent when a woman approached her and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten during a campaign visit to the Sydney Fish Markets.

'Can you hold my rat while I take a phone call?' the mystery woman asked.

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A rat in Labor ranks: Deputy Leader Tanya Plibersek (left) has a new yet-to-be-named pet rodent after a prank by the political satirist group The Chaser at the Sydney Fish Markets on Thursday

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten smiles for the cameras as his deputy Tanya Plibersek cuddles the pet rat left with her by an unidentified woman on Thursday

The Chaser's Chas Licciardello looks on as the group's rat skit is played out with the Labor leaders on Thursday at the Sydney Fish Markets

Ms Plibersek obliged and was happy to cuddle the rodent, before it dawned on her the woman would not be returning to collect her furry friend.

'She just disappeared,' she told reporters.

As Chas Licciardello from The Chaser group watched on, Ms Plibersek took it in her stride, vowing to hold a Twitter competition to find the pet a name.

She's promised to use #electionrat as the hashtag.

Mr Shorten seemed amused and stroked the rat with an index finger.

Officially, the fish markets ban animals from being on the premises.

It was the second hiccup in the Opposition Leader's morning in Sydney, after the team arrived to find a group of workers had mounted a sign saying 'vote Libs'.

Mr Shorten and Ms Plibersek were campaigning at the Sydney Fish Markets on Thursday ahead of the July 2 federal election when they were caught up in a skit organised by The Chaser

Earlier this week, Malcolm Turnbull also had a close encounter of the rodent kind when he was urged to pat a rat named Splinter during a street walk in western Sydney.

The PM stopped to stroke the pet rat as he walked through the Westfield Penrith shopping centre.

Mr Turnbull was campaigning on Monday when he was approached by local man Shane Mundt, who is known as 'rat man', and keeps a pet rat in his hooded jumper.

The Prime Minister initially appeared hesitant when the rat was presented to him by Mr Mundt.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured right) stopped to stroke a per rat as he walked through a shopping centre in western Sydney on Monday

No joke: Mr Turnbull was campaigning in western Sydney on Monday when he was approached at Westfield Penrith by local man Shane Mundt (pictured) and his pet rodent Splinter

'Come on, give him a pat,' the Mr Mundt said, to which Mr Turnbull replied: 'Oh, you've got a little rat.'

'Come on, give him a pat,' the Mr Mundt said, to which Mr Turnbull replied: 'Oh, you've got a little rat.'

'His name's Splinter,' Mr Mundt said.

The Prime Minister obliged and patted the rat with his index finger, remarking: 'He's being very quiet'.

Mr Mundt appeared overjoyed and went on to explain that Splinter was a two-and-a-half-year-old rat that slept with his cat and dog.

'He's the reason I don't get pests in my home, he eats them all,' Mr Mundt said.

The Prime Minister's campaign was also targeted this week by the political satirists, The Chaser.

Mr Turnbull was walking out of McCarthy Catholic College in Emu Plains, in Sydney's outer western suburbs, when Licciardello approached him and yelled: 'I trust you'.

He folded his arms across his chest and fell backwards on the ground in front of the Prime Minister, in a so-called 'trust fall, but the comedian crashed to the ground as nobody caught him.
Thousands of drivers work part-time for Lyft to make a little bit of extra money on the side, but not many of them are congressmen earning a $174,000 salary.

So it's no wonder eyebrows were raised when Democrat Elijah Cummings' Honda - complete with Congressional plates - was spotted picking up cab fares around Washington, DC.

The black car carrying a sticker for the car service app was spotted by eagle-eyed Lyft user Dustin Andres, who asked: 'So, which member of Congress drives Lyft in DC?'

The vehicle was carrying plates for Maryland's 7th Congressional District - which Cummings represents - as well as the pink Lyft logo.

However, it has since emerged that his daughter was the mystery taxi driver.

When questioned about the car, Cummings told the Washington Post that his daughter, Adia, was working part-time for Lyft to help pay her for college.

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'In an effort to earn some extra money to pay her expenses at school, she signed up for a part-time position with one of the ride-sharing companies,' the congressman said.

'They, in turn, gave her a sticker to apply to the windshield of the car,' he added.

The plates allow drivers to park cars in designated areas near certain buildings in Washington, DC, including the Capitol.

Representative Elijah Cummings' daughter Adia (pictured together at her graduation) used his car with Congressional plates while working for Lyft

Cummings says he has asked Adia to remove the plates but said she could continue to use the car, which he owns and is not taxpayer-funded.

Adia is looking for a job after graduating from Howard University in May.

'My daughter has now graduated from Howard and I could not be more proud of her,' Cummings told CNN.

'I have told her she can continue to use my car while she pursues full-time employment,' he added.
Our beautiful and loving mom passed away on Memorial Day 2016. We were so blessed to have had her in our lives until her 91st year.

Born Doris Jean Steffen on April 6, 1925, the oldest child of William and Martha Steffen, she grew up in Hastings, Neb. She worked as a Bell telephone operator in Omaha, Neb. She met her husband, Glen E. Sykes, during a strike at the telephone company. They married in June 1947, after a six-week courtship. Glen passed away after 63 years of marriage in September 2010.

Mom loved her two children, Jeff (Debbie) Sykes, and Leslie (Donell) Small, and enjoyed every part of our lives. We talked to her daily and learned from her reliable advice. She was a best friend to both of us.

She also especially cherished her four grandchildren, Jennifer (Mike) Corbett, Daren (Erin) Small, Kristina Sykes and Alyssa Small, and later three great-grandsons, Caleb, Kanon and Brody Corbett.

Jean is survived by her family as noted above, her brother, Don Steffin in Colorado and her sister Sharon (Bud) Lang in Nebraska, and nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, William and Martha Steffen; a sister, Billie Watson; and her husband, Glen E. Sykes.

Mom always took time to listen to us, to share our laughter, tears, hopes and dreams. We will forever cherish our memories of her love and support.

We would like to thank Dr. Neil Sorenson and his nurse Cindy; Stacey, Cassandra, Amy, Diana, and Nicole at RiverStone Hospice for their help and support; also the staff at Morningstar Senior Living, and friends Heidi, Kathy and Sue for their loving care.

Memorials may be made to Meals on Wheels, where Mom was a coordinator at one time, or to Christikon Lutheran Bible Camp, 1108 24th St. W., Billings, MT 59102.

Remembrances and condolences may be shared with the family at smithfuneralchapels.com.
Two young lawyers of Middle Eastern heritage say they were left 'humiliated' after a staffer allegedly tried to kick them out of a conference because: 'You look different'.

Solicitors Hisham Karnib, 23, and Muhammad Tehseldar, 27, were attending a legal conference at a Dockside Group venue in Sydney on Wednesday morning.

The pair say they watched the day's keynote speech and ducked into the lobby later that morning looking for a coffee machine.

They then claim they were then approached by a venue staffer who demanded they show their ID and name tags.

When one of the lawyers asked why, the staffer allegedly said: 'You look different. You don't look like you belong here'.

Solicitors Hisham Karnib, 23, (left) and Muhammad Tehseldar (right), 27, were attending a legal conference on Wednesday when the alleged incident occurred

High profile criminal lawyer Adam Houda (centre) said he is acting on the solicitors' behalf

'Were not showing you anything and were not leaving. You dont have a right to see our ID,' Mr Tehseldar replied.

'Why ask two out of the 500 people for ID?'

In a recount written up immediately following the incident, Mr Karnib recalled the pair insisted they were solicitors who had paid to be at the conference.

The staff member called security guards - who surrounded them - and tried to get them kicked out, the pair alleged.

Conference witnesses soon intervened, assuring them that the men had registered to attend the conference.

The lawyers believe they were singled out because of their race, although the venue staffer apparently told them he targeted them because Mr Karnib was wearing a puffy jacket.

'What other justification is there?' Mr Karnib told Daily Mail Australia. '(The staffer saw) two young guys with a dark complexion and thought what are these guys doing.

He believes that 'The jacket (explanation) just doesn't stand.'

Mr Tehseldar told Daily Mail Australia he thought it was 'disgusting' way to be treated.

He said several other members of Sydney's legal community were present at the time and was concerned about what they may have thought about the incident.

The staffer later apologised, saying he has 'random people walk into the venue and needed to exercise those measures', according to Mr Karnib's account.

In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, a spokesman for the venue said the staffer had 'spotted two men who did not appear to be dressed in the same manner as other delegates' at the conference.

Mr Houda (pictured) is a prominent lawyer who often acts on behalf of A-list personalities

The spokesman said the venue 'attracts a lot of casual visitors who are walking around... and they often venture inadvertently into functions.

'Once the (staffer) established the two gentlemen were indeed delegates at the conference he offered them his sincere apologies and pointed out they were only singled out because of their attire.

'(The staffer) also explained that security was a top priority at the conference and (the staffer's) interest in them was based on their dress and for no other reason.

The spokesman said the company 'apologises for any distress to the delegates - who continued to attend the conversation - caused by the (staffer) who is a valued member of the team'.

Lawyer Adam Houda, who is acting on the solicitors' behalf, said the pair were left 'shattered' and will not attend the rest of the conference.

He does not want the conference to return to the venue.

'(The staffer's) outrageous conduct was undoubtedly based on my clients appearances,' Mr Houda claimed.
Forster was placed on desk duty at the 52nd Precinct in northwest Bronx

He reportedly admitted to that he never signed precinct command log for the shift and instead asked a desk officer to sign it for him

NYPD accused him of 'gross negligence' after he left work early instead of going to hospital where two cops were being treated following shooting

A New York Police Department captain was demoted after it was revealed that he failed to go to a Brooklyn hospital following the shooting of two officers.

Captain Scott Forster was demoted Wednesday from captain to lieutenant after he didn't go to Kings County Hospital where two cops were being treated following a shoot out with a gang member, according to the New York Post.

Forster instead left work 40 minutes early on February 20 around the time the officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw were shot by Frederick Jamal Funes.

Captain Scott Forster (pictured) was demoted Wednesday from captain to lieutenant after he failed to go to Kings County Hospital where two cops were being treated following a shoot out with a gang member in February

Forster instead left work 40 minutes early on February 20 around the time the officers William Reddin and Andrew Yurkiw were shot by a gang member. Pictured is one of the officers being transported to the hospital

Funes, 34, shot the officers with a .357 Magnum after smashing his Nissan Maxima into an NYPD patrol car blocking his way on Lexington Avenue, a one-way street, police told the New York Daily News.

Funes had been driving in the wrong direction.

Their injuries were nonfatal but the NYPD accused Forster of 'gross negligence' for not rushing to the hospital after the shootings.

After the shootings, Forster was expected to coordinate the arrival of the officers and arrange rooms for their families as well as other duties, the Post reported.

Police sources told the newspaper that Forster ignored a series of calls and messages from his bosses afterward and at one point claimed it was his problem.

The incident prompted an NYPD investigation into Forster's work practices to see if similar incidents occurred while he was supposed to be on duty, according to the Post.

Forster was transferred from the 71st Precinct to the 52nd Precinct in the northwest Bronx, where he will be placed on desk duty.

The 31-year-old reportedly admitted to his superiors that he never signed the precinct command log for the 7pm- 4am shift and instead asked a desk officer to sign it for him, which is a violation of the department's policies, sources told the Post.

He also admitted he 'may have left the 71st Precinct prior to the end of his tour' because he was sick to his stomach.

Forster attends New York Law School on a fully paid NYPD scholarship.
A controversial raw milk product will now appear on the shelves after a company invented a way to 'cold press' it to make it safe to drink.

Selling raw milk for human consumption is illegal in Australia as it contains micro-organisms that can cause serious illnesses. However, WA Today reports that a Sydney company has found a way around it.

Made by Cow will now make and sell 'cold-pressed raw milk' as an alternative to the conventional heat pasteurised kind, after it was given approval by the NSW Food Authority.

Made by Cow founder Saxon Joye (pictured) says that 'cold-pressed raw milk' will soon be on the market

HOW COLD PRESSING MAKES RAW MILK SAFE Milk is bottled straight from the cow within hours and then put under intense water pressure.

This compresses both the bottle and milk inside for several minutes.

The process eliminates any harmful bacteria or pathogens.

It makes it safe to drink, while being gentler on milk's natural nutrients that are lost during conventional heat pasteurisation.

The milk is being sold at $4.99 per 750mL unit ($6.65 per litre) from Harris Farm and About Life stores.

'Good herd management, hygienic milking techniques and the cold pressure method have meant we can put 100 per cent safe, raw milk onto supermarket shelves,' said company founder Saxon Joye.

'The bottles of milk are placed under enormous water pressure, squashed in about 15 per cent, to remove the harmful micro-organisms.'

The NSW Food Authority - who has worked with Made By Cow for more than a year on product safety - does not recognise it as raw milk as it has gone through 'high pressure processing' to get rid of pathogens.

As the milk is still raw it retains the nutrients that usually would be affected by heat.

'Any claims that may be perceived as promoting raw milk consumption would be investigated as the NSW government has taken a very firm stance against the sale of unpasteurised milk for human consumption,' the Food Authority's spokeswoman said.

It will be an alternative to the conventional heat pasteurised milk on sale

Bottles of raw milk are packed into baskets before being sent through a cold-press machine

It's claimed that the process makes the milk safe to drink, while being gentler on milk's natural nutrients that are lost during conventional heat pasteurisation.

However top infectious disease physician and microbiologist Professor Peter Collignon told WA Today said he was still to be convinced that the cold pressure method was efficient and more research on the process may be needed.

'I do worry this is a marketing exercise for raw milk but without the science to show the process is anywhere near as good as pasteurisation,' he said.

'The [data and research] that shows [cold-pressure is just as good as pasteurisation] needs to be robust and available for all to see, including the public, and needs independent verification.'

The NSW Food Authority - who has worked with Made By Cow for more than a year on product safety

In December 2014 one child died and another four fell seriously ill after drinking dangerous raw milk sold in health stores as 'cosmetic milk' for bathing in.

Although unpasteurised cow's milk has been banned in Australia for more than 70 years manufacturers can sell it as a cosmetic product rather than food.

A three-year-old, from Mornington Peninsula - south-east of Melbourne, allegedly died after drinking Mountain View Organic Bath Milk, the Herald Sun reports.

In April farming couple Mark and Helen Tyler from South Australia were fined more than $17,000 for selling raw milk through a scheme where their customers bought shares in a cow.
A hospital surgery technician accused of stealing painkiller syringes is HIV positive and authorities urged patients who may have come into contact with him to get tested, federal prosecutors in Colorado announced Wednesday.

Authorities haven't previously described the health status of Rocky Allen, who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he took a syringe of painkillers and replaced it with one containing another substance at Swedish Medical Center in suburban Denver.

Prosecutors previously only referred to him as having an undisclosed 'blood-borne pathogen' during a court hearing in February.

Allen had tested negative for Hepatitis B and C, the statement from the US Attorney's Office also said.

Hospital surgery technician, Rocky Allen (pictured), 28, who is accused of stealing painkiller syringes is HIV positive and authorities urged patients who may have been infected by him to be tested, federal prosecutors in Colorado announced Wednesday

Allen (pictured) has pleaded not guilty to charges that he took a syringe of painkillers and replaced it with one containing another substance. The fear is that he may have replaced the needles intended for patients with syringes he previously used, making it possible for patients to be infected

The fear is that Allen may have replaced the needles intended for patients with syringes he previously used, making it possible for patients to be infected.

However, Allen's public defender, Timothy O'Hara, has said that while evidence showed Allen may have switched syringes, there was no reason to believe he was re-using them.

Public health officials have said the risk of exposure to blood-borne pathogens is low, and there have been no reported cases of patients becoming infected because of Allen.

Authorities say someone saw Allen take a syringe filled with painkillers from an operating room at Swedish Medical Center on January 22.

He allegedly removed a syringe containing Fentanyl Citrate from a workspace and replaced it with a similar syringe at the beginning of a surgery, according to CBS Denver.

Allen was given a urinalysis and tested positive for fentanyl.

The hospital fired him, and three weeks later federal prosecutors charged him with tampering with a consumer product and obtaining a controlled substance by deceit.

Prosecutors have said he has a history of moving from hospital to hospital and lying about his past to steal drugs.

Court records say that before Allen moved to Colorado, he had been fired from at least three hospitals in Arizona, California and Washington. Patients who were treated there have also been advised to be tested.

Prosecutors say he lied about his previous drug problems when he applied for the job at Swedish.

Court records say that Allen (pictured) had been fired from at least three hospitals in Arizona, California and Washington. Patients who were treated there have also been advised to be tested

Allen also had drug problems when he served in the Navy, according to military records. The Navy said he was court-martialed in 2011 for stealing pain medication.

Swedish officials attempted to notify about 3,000 patients who underwent surgery in the hospital's main operating room during Allen's employment, from August last year until January this year.

In a statement, Dr Larry Wolk, chief medical officer and executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said complete test results were not obtained for about 1,000 patients.

While the department said no evidence of transmission was found in those for whom testing was completed, it could not confirm that no diseases were passed on because testing was incomplete.

The US Attorney's office and Wolk urged potentially affected patients who have not been tested to do so, noting that Swedish continues to offer them free testing.

Allen's lawyer said he suffers from PTSD after serving as a Navy medical worker in Afghanistan, where he started using drugs.

Wolk added Wednesday that the health department's Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division finalized a report of its investigation in April and found 'deficient practice' in Swedish pharmacy services, including drug auditing procedures, infection control and surgical services.

'Ensuring accountability and tracking controlled drugs were addressed in the hospital's plan of correction,' Wolk said.

Hospital spokeswoman Nicole Williams said the problems found were not directly related to the Allen case and that a later review found 'zero deficiencies'.

If convicted, Allen faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison and a possible fine of $500,000, CBS reported.
A teenage babysitter shot this week while looking after her young cousin gave police the name of a man before she died.

The shooting happened while Shemel Mercurius, 16, was caring for three-year-old Josiah in her East Flatbush apartment in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, The New York Post reported.

Shemel's 70-year-old grandmother Joan told the newspaper: 'She died before she got to the hospital.

'But before she died she gave the cops her boyfriend's name. She told them he shot her.'

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The shooting happened while Shemel Mercurius, 16, was caring for three-year-old Josiah in her East Flatbush apartment in Brooklyn on Tuesday night

A man and a woman went into Shemel's apartment ahead of the incident Tuesday night and later took off

Joan told The Post: 'They're looking for him. Her boyfriend. Nobody knew that she had this boyfriend.

'I always told her, "Shemel, you're a beautiful girl, don't worry about boys. Focus on your education."'

Shemel was originally from Guyana and was declared dead at a Brooklyn hospital.

The girl's father Dexter Mercurius, 38, told the newspaper: 'Before she passed she called out a boy's name.

'I don't know if it was the boyfriend or not. I just have questions right now and no answers.'

Speaking to WABC, the father said Shemel had an order of protection against an ex-boyfriend -- who isn't the person whose name that Shemel gave.

Shemel was originally from Guyana and declared dead at a Brooklyn hospital

A man and a woman went into Shemel's apartment ahead of the incident Tuesday night and later took off, the TV station reported.

Shemel's cousin Josiah was not hurt. His mother, who is Shemel's aunt Latoya Price, told WABC: 'I feel it, like I literally gave birth to her.

'We were really that close. I'm the mother figure in her life, and I don't know what to think because I don't know how it happened.'

Price told CBS New York: 'I said, "What happened?" He said "Shemel died."
Will and Grace star Debra Messing has come under fire after posting a selfie that was meant to bring awareness to gun violence in America amid news of the UCLA campus shooting.

As news broke about the tragic murder-suicide at UCLA's engineering school on Wednesday, Messing shared a photo of her wearing shirt that read 'Under the Gun,' the title of Katie Couric's new gun violence documentary.

The 47-year-old's now-deleted tweet also included the caption: 'HORRENDOUS Watching news about shooting at UCLA with casualties while taking selfie 2bring awareness to Gun Violence.'

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Will and Grace star Debra Messing drew ire on Twitter on Wedneaday after posting a selfie (pictured) that was meant to bring awareness to gun violence in America amid news of the UCLA campus shooting

Twitter users were quick to call the actress out (shown above), criticizing her for posting the selfie

One Twitter user wrote tweeted at Messing: 'People dying... better take a selfie!' (shown above)

Twitter users quickly hit out at the actress, criticizing her for posting the selfie with some calling her a 'narcissistic, self-absorbed celebrity,' according to the New York Daily News.

'Ima talk about the senselessness of gun tragedies, but 1st a pensive airbrushed selfie to convey the seriousnes of it~shorter @DebraMessing,' user LMR wrote.

'People dying...better take a selfie!' another user, Lazarus Stalker, wrote.

'You didn't think this through did you,' Twitter user suburban dad tweeted at The Mysteries of Laura actress.

Messing deleted the tweet after she was faced with backlash and apologized as she wrote 'Take a stand. This day was predetermined as a day of awareness. Don't belittle the effort. #wecandobetter'

She then posted several tweets explaining she had shared the selfie as part of the pre-planned day of advocacy meant to bring awareness to gun violence in America.

'We were all asked to a post a picture today wearing this t-shirt. AS I took the picture, the news broke about the shooting at UCLA,' Messing wrote.

'I was so shocked and struck by the horrible IRONY that yet another shooting was occurring as I was participating in this effort.

'In an effort to highlight the irony, I posted a picture referencing the breaking news.

'I am heartbroken and embarrassed that so many people misconstrued my actions and that I caused offense. Thats the last thing I want to do.

'The horrendous irony of the timing, I was hoping, would shine an even brighter light on the crisis and need for all of us to do something together to make the US safer.

'I am so truly sorry. #wemustdobetter'

Messing removed the tweet after she was faced with backlash and apologized as she wrote 'Take a stand. This day was predetermined as a day of awareness. Don't belittle the effort. #wecandobetter'

She then shared a note on Twitter explaining she had shared the selfie as part of the pre-planned day of advocacy meant to bring awareness to gun violence in America

In one tweet she responded to someone saying the incident was not about Katie Couric. It is 'about bringing awareness to a very real crisis in the US. Too many people dying'

One young woman tweeted at Messing thanking her for her efforts in bringing awareness to the gun violence.

'As a survivor of a gun crime, I thank you for your efforts to bring awareness to the crisis,' user Caileigh Scott wrote.

Messing replied: 'Just trying to do what I can. But clearly human. Made a mistake. Still believe in the effort.'

National Gun Violence Awareness Day is on Thursday, a nationwide movement made popular by the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, which sees people wear orange in solidarity as they honor the lives of people cut short by gun violence.

The day was initially started in honor of 15-year-old Chicago high school student Hadiya Pendleton who was shot and killed in 2013.

Her friends wore the color orange to remember her life and chose it because it is the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others.

On Wednesday, hundreds of heavily armed officers swarmed the sprawling UCLA campus following the shooting that forced thousands to barricade themselves in classrooms and offices, some using belts and chairs to secure doors, until authorities determined the gunman and the professor he shot were dead.

On Wednesday, hundreds of heavily armed officers swarmed the sprawling UCLA campus following the shooting. A third year student is shown emotional as she calls her mother, telling her not to worry

FBI officers are pictured at the scene on Wednesday. Two people were confirmed dead following the tragic ordeal

An emotional student is pictured on the campus following the shooting. William S. Klug, a professor of mechanical engineering, was gunned down in an engineering building office, according to authorities

About two hours after the first 911 call came in around 10am, with the center of campus still saturated with officers, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said it was a murder-suicide and declared the threat over.

Two men were dead, and authorities found a gun and what might be a suicide note, he said.

William S. Klug, a professor of mechanical engineering, was gunned down in an engineering building office, according to a law enforcement official.

The official has knowledge of the investigation but was not authorized to publicly discuss it. The shooter has not yet been identified.

Colleagues of Klug's told The Associated Press he was a married father of two and a kind, gentle person.

UCLA biology and chemistry Professor Charles Knobler said those who knew Klug are in shock. He described the professor as "a very lively, lovable, likable guy."

The response to the shooting was overwhelming: Teams of officers in helmets and bulletproof vests looking for victims and suspects ran across the normally tranquil campus tucked in the city's bustling west side.

Some with high-powered rifles yelled for bystanders to flee.

Groups of officers stormed into buildings that had been locked down and cleared hallways as police helicopters hovered overhead.

The shooting occurred the week before final exams at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose 43,000 students make it the largest campus in the University of California system.
Obama cited his own Christian faith and said it instructs him to follow the Golden Rule and treat people with respect

President Barack Obama rebuffed a town hall attendee tonight who wondered why he was making an issue of bathroom use in public schools.

'I'm not the one making a big issue of it,' Obama told him.

Schools are asking for guidance about how to handle transgender students, Obama said, and his administration was responding to their requests.

'Somehow people think I made it an issue. I didn't make it an issue,' he told the man.

President Barack Obama rebuffed a town hall attendee tonight who wondered why he was making an issue of bathroom use in public schools

Elkhart, Indiana, resident Arvis Dawson told Obama at the PBS-sponsored town hall that he considers himself a 'strong' believer in equal rights.

But 'of all the pressing issues you have before you right now, why is the issue of which bathroom a person uses such an issue?' he asked.

'There are a lot of things that are more pressing, you're absolutely right,' Obama told him.

Explaining the administration's position, Obama told Dawson, 'We should deal with this issue the same way we'd want it dealt with if it was our child, and that is to try to create an environment of some dignity and kindness for these kids.

'And that's sort of the bottom line. I have to just say what's in my heart, but I also have to look at what's the law.'

Continuing the president said, 'We should try to accommodate these kids so they are not in a vulnerable situation.

'Now I understand that people for religious beliefs or just general discomfort might disagree,' he said.

Emphasizing again that he's not the one making a national issue out of it, Obama said he want to 'make sure these kids are not excluded or ostracized.'

'I'm not the one making a big issue of it,' Obama told him. Schools are asking for guidance about how to handle transgender students, Obama said, and his administration was responding to their requests

At that point PBS newscaster and town hall moderator Gwen Ifill jumped in to asked the man why he was so bothered by the president's directive. He told her it was his religious beliefs and church background that gave him pause.

At that point PBS newscaster and town hall moderator Gwen Ifill jumped in to ask the Dawson why he was so bothered by the president's directive to schools that said they must allow students use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.

He told her it was his religious beliefs and church background that gave him pause.

Dawson again said he believes in equal rights, 'but I think too, wherever you were going to the bathroom before, continue to go to the bathroom there. I don't have a problem with that.'

The president told him, 'The problem is...just for lot of these kids, they might not even feel comfortable going to the bathroom, which is a touch situation if you're a kid.

'And look I have profound respect for everybody's religious beliefs on this. But if you're at a public school, the question is, how do we just make sure that children are treated with kindness. That's all.

Obama went on to talk about his own faith, and said, 'My reading of scripture tells me that the "Golden Rule" is pretty high up there.

'In terms of my Christian belief, that doesn't mean that somebody else has to interpret it the same way,' he said. 'That does mean as President of the United States, those are the values I think are important.'

The president said the policy will eventually be set by the courts.

'It's not like I woke up one day and I said, "Man, you know what we really need to do, is let's start working on high school bathrooms." I was thinking about ISIL, and I was thinking about the economy and I'm thinking about jobs.'
The father of a teenage woman murdered by a convicted sex offender leaped over a table and tried to attack the smirking serial killer in court after he was sentenced to death on Thursday.

Michael Madison was given the death penalty for murdering 18-year-old Shirelda Terry, Angela Deskins, 38, and Shetisha Sheele, 28, in Ohio in July 2013.

Miss Terry's father, Van Terry, was speaking about the loss of his daughter after Madison was sentenced to death when he suddenly ran and lunged at the murderer.

Madison, 38, was seen laughing as Cuyahoga County courtroom deputies wrestled the upset father away.

Van Terry (above), the father of Shirellda Terry, one of Madison's three victim, was giving testimony on Thursday about the loss of his daughter

Sudden attack: Terry turned, paused and lunged toward Madison, who was seated behind a table in court

Terry then leaped over a table to attack the defendant in court just minutes after the judge pronounced a death sentence

Mr Terry turned, paused and lunged toward Madison as police officers scrambled to haul him back.

The hearing continued once Mr Terry was taken from the courtroom. Madison did not appear to be injured.

The scuffle happened just minutes after Madison was sentenced to death for the 2013 killings.

The bodies of Ms Deskins, Ms Sheeley and teenager Miss Terry were found wrapped in garbage bags near the East Cleveland apartment building where Madison lived in July 2013.

A cable television worker reported a putrid smell coming from a garage shared by Madison at the apartment building.

Inside, police found the decaying body of a woman wrapped in garbage bags that were sealed closed with tape.

The next day, searchers found bodies in the basement of a vacant house and in the backyard of a home nearby.

Madison told police he strangled two of the women but could not remember killing the third.

Smirk: Madison was seen laughing as Cuyahoga County courtroom deputies wrestled the upset father away

Cuyahoga County courtroom deputies wrestled the upset father (right) as Madison (left) and others scrambled to get out of the way

Shirellda Terry (above), 18, was killed by Michael Madison and her body was found in July 2013

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell accepted a jury's recommendation that Madison receive the death penalty. She could have instead chosen to sentence Madison to life in prison without parole.

McDonnell said the horrific nature of Madison's crimes far outweighed evidence presented in efforts to spare him, including an abusive and chaotic childhood.

Madison was also convicted last month of multiple counts of aggravated murder and kidnapping.

Any execution is likely years away because of lengthy appeals. Ohio also lacks supplies of lethal drugs.

Madison's attorneys never contested his guilt at trial. They instead focused on saving his life by presenting evidence that Madison suffered lasting psychological damage from physical abuse as a youngster.

There was testimony that Madison was abused by his drug-addicted mother, a stepfather, some of his mother's boyfriends and family members.

'This history of abuse and his dysfunctional upbringing certainly doesn't excuse what happened here but certainly provides a basis for understanding the type of person Michael Madison evolved into,' defense attorney David Grant told the judge Thursday.

The bodies of 38-year-old Angela Deskins (right), 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley (left) were also found in July 2013 near the East Cleveland apartment building where Madison lived

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy McDonnell accepted a jury's recommendation that 38-year-old Michael Madison (above) receive the death penalty for killing three women in Ohio

Prosecutors argued both at trial and during the mitigation hearing that Madison deserved to die because of the circumstances surrounding the killings.

A death sentence 'will send a message to the community that the strongest possible sentence will be imposed upon crimes of this nature,' Christopher Schroeder, a Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor, told the judge.

Madison was classified as a sex offender in 2002 when he was sentenced to four years in prison for attempted rape.

The discovery of the three women's bodies in 2013 drew national attention to the possibility that another serial killer like Anthony Sowell had been killing women in and around Cleveland.

Sowell was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to death for killing 11 women whose bodies were found at his Cleveland home.
A volunteer firefighter has been charged with one count of arson over a fire that burned down a house and caused an estimated $150,000 in damage.

Adam Patterson, 30, appeared in Hobart Magistrate's Court on Thursday in relation to a fire which burnt down a house in Primrose Sands, near Hobart, in Tasmania.

Tasmanian Police have accused him of deliberately lighting the fire on Primrose Sands Road on May 15.

Adam Patterson, a volunteer firefighter, has been charged with one count of arson for a house fire in Tasmania

The fire caused an estimated $150,000 in damage, according to The Mercury.

Patterson pleaded not guilty to the charge and was bailed. He will appear in in the Supreme Court again in August.

The Tasmanian Fire Service has suspended Patterson, citing the the severity of the charges.

Tasmanian Police are investigating 12 suspicious fires in Primrose Sands.

Since July 2015, holiday homes, houses and caravans in the small seaside community have been torched in a string of incidents.

Two children also face charges in relation to another one of the fires, The ABC reported.

Police have accused Patterson of deliberately lighting the fire in the Tasmanian community of Primrose Sands

Tasmanian Police are investigating 12 suspicious fires that have been lit in Primrose Sands since 2015

Detective Inspector Steve Burk, from the Tasmanian Police, thanked the Primrose Sands community for their patience and providing information resulting in charges being laid against Patterson.

'We understand that it's a difficult time and we are determined to bring the person or people responsible to justice,' Detective Inspector Burk said.

'Investigations are continuing into house fires in the area and anyone with any information is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or contact Bellerive CIB on 6173 2318.'
Senator David Leyonhjelm wants Australia Day Council to be abolished

David Morrison retired as Chief of Army last year

Mr Joyce says he will continue using terms like 'guys', 'ladies' and 'mate'

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says he will not be dropping the phrase 'guys' from his vocabulary to describe a group of men and women.

The straight-talking deputy prime minister has vowed to defy a call from Australian of the Year David Morrison to stop using gender-specific terms.

Words like 'mate' are just part of the Aussie lexicon, the Nationals leader said.

Mr Morrison, a retired chief of army is campaigning for gender equality and has stopped using the term 'guys' when speaking to groups of people.

G'day guys: Deputy Prime Minister and National Party Leader Barnaby Joyce pictured during a street walk in Bundaberg, Queensland. He says he won't be changing his greeting style

David Morrison was the former Chief of the Australian Army - he was named the 2016 Australian of the Year

'I'm going to continue using 'fellas', I'm going to continue using 'guys', I'm going to continue using 'ladies',' Mr Joyce told reporters in Rockhampton on Thursday.

'I'm not going to go home to mum and say, "Hello parent-type person, how are you?'''

Mr Joyce was in the marginal seat of Capricornia, held by Nationals MP Michelle Landry on a 0.8 per cent margin, to pledge funding for an expanded car park at the local hospital.

He used the opportunity to test his Morrison-lexicon-defiance.

'How you goin' mate?' Mr Joyce asked one person during his walk.

Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm has even called for the Australia Day Council to be abolished in the wake of the comments by the Australian of the Year.

He says exclusive language should be avoided as it shows a lack of respect.

Senator Leyonhjelm said the best response to such 'political correctness' would be to shut down the National Australia Day Council which oversees the Australian of the Year awards, and save the federal budget $4 million a year.

Former Chief of Army David Morrison (left) wants Australians to stop saying gender-based terms like 'guys'. An idea which has been rejected by Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce (right)

'This is political correctness with bells on it,' he said.

'What are we going to substitute? XX and XY (chromosomes)? People with jiggly bits and dangly bits?

'I think Australians are over it.'

Senator Leyonhjelm says freedom of speech was already under enough threat with defamation laws and anti-terrorism legislation which impacted on media reporting.

'I don't think Morrison has done anything to inspire us,' he said.
Three Fort Belknap Indian Community members, one of them a tribal council member, have been found guilty of violating state hunting laws.

The cases highlight whats been a long-brewing dispute between members of the northeastern Montana Assiniboine and Gros Ventre tribes and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks over off-reservation hunting. In 2014 that disagreement escalated when tribal game officials detained an FWP warden for more than five hours and threatened to tow his state vehicle. The standoff ended with a citation issued to the warden for violating a tribal resolution that barred nontribal members access to Indian-owned lands without permission.

Off reservation

The three tribal members were charged in two separate cases that were settled in March.

Tribal council member Warren Morin, 51, was fined $135 after pleading guilty to solicitation. His son, 27-year-old Chase Morin, was fined $135 after pleading guilty to accountability. Both men live in Hays.

The Morins were guiding a Texas hunter in 2014 who shot a mule deer buck on Bureau of Land Management property outside of the reservation. The hunter, Chris Moore, 32, of Allen, Texas, had purchased a reservation hunting license which requires that he be guided by a tribal-approved guide. Moore admitted that he harvested the deer while under the direction and supervision of his tribal guides, Chase and Warren Morin. Moore did not have a Montana hunting license.

The Texas man was found guilty of hunting without a valid license and was ordered by Blaine County Justice Court to pay a $535 fine. He also forfeited the mule deers antlers.

Treaty rights

In a separate incident, Clay Chandler, 20, of Hays was found guilty in District Court in March after shooting a bull elk on state land in Blaine County out of season on Oct. 1, 2013.

Chandler was charged with hunting during a closed season, unlawful possession and transportation of a game animal, and hunting game animals while his privilege to do so was suspended. Chandler was convicted in 2012 for unlawfully harvesting two bull elk.

The Hays man pleaded guilty to each violation in Blaine County Justice Court and then appealed the case to the District Court claiming he had a right to hunt the property under the Blackfeet Treaty of 1855, and that the 1888 treaty establishing the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation reserved those hunting privileges.

The District Court denied Chandlers claim, explaining that states have jurisdiction to regulate the wildlife within their borders, and that tribal members are subject to the state laws when they are off the reservation; unless their off-reservation hunting and fishing rights had been expressly reserved by the tribe when they ceded lands to the federal government. The Court found that the two treaties argued by Chandler and his attorney did not reserve those privileges, thus Chandler was subject to Montanas fish and game regulations.

Sentencing

Given his defiance of the terms of his previous sentencing, Chandler was convicted of unlawful possession of a game animal, second offense, which was punishable by 10 days in county jail, a $600 fine, $1,000 in restitution for the unlawfully taken bull elk, and loss of privileges to hunt for 60 months in Montana and all 48 states that are members of the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact.

Hunting while his privilege was forfeited or suspended meant another 10 days in county jail, a $500 fine, and loss of privileges to hunt for 60 months in Montana and all 48 states.

For hunting during a closed season, second offense, Chandler received another 10 days in county jail and a $600 fine. His jail time and hunting suspensions were all to run concurrently, and his fines consecutively. In addition, Chandler was ordered to pay for his own incarceration.

FWP wardens and Fort Belknap Fish and Wildlife tribal wardens worked together to compile evidence during the investigation. Wardens had received reports of the illegal harvest, and photographs surfaced showing Chandler with the bull elk. Later, a spent rifle cartridge was collected that ballistic analysis showed belonged to the same .30-06 rifle that was seized and later returned to Chandler during the conclusion of his earlier 2012 conviction.

The state of Montana has been negotiating with the Fort Belknap Community Council since 2015 to create a separate hunting district to the west of the reservation that would be managed jointly by Fish, Wildlife and Parks and tribal game officials. The tribe would be tasked with enforcement of tribal members, and FWP would enforce laws against nontribal members.
A new litter of bobcat kittens was found this spring in California's Santa Monica Mountains.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Facebook page posted some cute footage of the youngsters on Tuesday.

The two male kittens have been named B-340 and B-341.

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A litter of bobcat kittens was found this spring in California's Santa Monica Mountains

The two male kittens have been named B-340 and B-341, according to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Facebook page

The Tuesday Facebook post, written by Ranger Zach, said: 'Studying the movements of animals can reveal certain behaviors.

'Earlier this spring, biologist Joanne Moriarty saw something familiar with Bobcat-339.

'Her GPS points indicated denning.

'So we went to check it out last month and, lo and behold, kittens!'

The two youngsters are seen together with their mother

According to the ranger, B-340 and B-341 were around four weeks old when the footage was taken

A bobcat kitten is seen being held by a human

The post said that: 'We found the brothers in a commandeered woodrat nest, took samples and measurements, placed ear tags, returned them, and set up a camera trap to monitor for mom's return.'

Ranger Zach said in the comments section that 'Mom came back (you can see her in the black and white footage) and then when she and the kittens moved on to another den site, the woodrat reclaimed its home!'

According to the ranger, B-340 and B-341 were around four weeks old when the footage was taken.
An award-winning Spanish tapas restaurant will close its doors in Sydney at the end of the month following the closure of fellow fine-dining destinations Rockpool 1989 and Marque.

MoVida opened in Surry Hills, central Sydney, just four years ago following owner and chef Frank Camorra's successful run of three restaurants in Melbourne and an expansion in Southeast Asia.

But MoVida in Sydney will serve Spanish for the last time on Wednesday June 29 for a combination of reasons, Good Food reported, as the number of fine-dining destinations shrink.

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Movida was opened four years ago by owner and chef Frank Camorra

Camorra said the harbour city restaurant would have fared better in the CBD rather than in trendy Surry Hills  which has an oversupply of restaurants with less foot traffic.

'Absolutely it was a mistake [choosing Surry Hills]. Our business model stacks up much better in the CBD,' Camorra told Good Food.

'It's simple  it's not busy enough,' he told Broadsheet. 'The first couple of years, it was very different and then it sort of quietened down.

'In Sydney, competition is becoming stronger and stronger. There are some amazing places with more and more opening all the time.'

There were plans in the works for a second Sydney restaurant to open near Martin Place, using the MoVida Next Door concept already running in Melbourne.

But the location fell through and they are unlikely to proceed unless a suitably affordable space opens up.

Camorra said the harbour city restaurant would have fared better in the CBD rather than in trendy Surry Hills

'Absolutely it was a mistake [choosing Surry Hills]. Our business model stacks up much better in the CBD,' Camorra told Good Food

There were plans in the works for a second Sydney restaurant to open near Martin Place, but it fell through

MoVida will continue serving at the Sydney domestic airport.

There are three restaurants in Melbourne, one in Bali, and plans are underway for openings in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Daily Mail Australia is awaiting a response from Camorra.

It follows news chef Neil Perry will close his famous flagship restaurant Rockpool Est. 1989 after 27 years serving.

The three hat restaurant in Sydney, which has become one of Australia's most awarded restaurants, will close its doors for good on July 30.

There are still three Movida restaurants in Melbourne and one operating in Bali

Its wide variety of tapas dishes made the restaurant hugely popular in Sydney

For the time being MoVida will continue serving its delicious meals at the Sydney domestic airport

It provided a number of dishes that made it an award-winning Spanish tapas restaurant

However the restaurant will serve Spanish tapas for the last time on Wednesday, June 29

Perry will reopen the space nine days later with a new restaurant - Eleven Bridge - as he opts to move away from the traditional concept of fine dining.

'It has been a difficult decision, having dedicated the past 27 years to making Rockpool Est. 1989 one of Australia's best and most awarded restaurants,' Perry said in a statement on the restaurant's website.

'However, after much consideration and conversation, we have decided to move away from the traditional concept of fine dining that Rockpool Est 1989 has forged its reputation on.'

Rockpool Est. 1989, which opened in The Rocks in 1989 and now resides on Bridge Street in Sydney's CBD, was named Gourmet Traveller's restaurant of the year just 12 months ago.

Earlier this week, chef Neil Perry (pictured) announced he will close his famous flagship restaurant Rockpool Est. 1989 on July 30 after 27 years

Perry, who runs a string of restaurants across Australia that will remain open, said it had become problematic having Rockpool Est. 1989 and his similarly named steak restaurant - Rockpool Bar and Grill - in close proximity to each other.

'We'd have at least 100 people a month who would go to the wrong restaurant. It just got to the point that it was driving us completely crazy,' Perry told Good Food.

The chef and his business partner Trish Richards will reopen the new restaurant in Rockpool's place on August 8 with executive chef Phill Wood remaining on board.

The new restaurant promises to be more relaxed with an a la carte style.

'It's completely the end of an era,' Perry told Good Food. 'It's certainly not a decision you make lightly.

'Of course the final service at Rockpool Est. 1989 will bring a tear to our eyes, it has been the foundation of our great business partnership and holds so many wonderful memories.

Last service at Rockpool will be dinner on Saturday, July 30.

Rockpool, a three hat restaurant in Sydney which has become one of Australia's most awarded restaurants, will close its doors for good on July 30

Rockpool, which opened in The Rocks (pictured) in 1989 and now resides on Bridge Street in Sydney's CBD, was named Gourmet Traveller's restaurant of the year just 12 months ago

Rockpool, which opened in The Rocks in 1989 and now resides on Bridge Street in Sydney's CBD, was named Gourmet Traveller's restaurant of the year just 12 months ago
Three deaf people have been found unfit to stand trial over the death of a man they are accused of throwing off a balcony.

Robert Wright, 36, fell to his death from the balcony of his apartment in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood with police alleging he was thrown by two men and a woman.

His deaf roommate Warwick Toohey, 37, was charged with murder along with co-accused Georgia Fields, 19, and Jake Fairest, 26, who are also profoundly deaf.

Warwick Toohey, 37, Georgia Fields (pictured), 19, and Jake Fairest, 26, have all been found unfit to stand trial over the death of a man they are accused of throwing off a balcony in Melbourne

Mr Toohey was found unfit to stand trail due to mental impairment on Thursday by a Supreme Court jury, while his co-accused had earlier been deemed unfit.

The trio have each entered a plea of not guilty, by reason of mental impairment.

They will now have to face a special hearing later this year where a judge must determine if they are likely to become fit to stand trial within a year.

They were charged with murder in June last year after Mr Wright, who is also profoundly death, was allegedly dropped off the balcony on January 15, 2015.

The Supreme Court heard last year that the trio were allegedly captured on CCTV using Auslan sign language to plot Mr Wright's demise in a train, and in the foyer and lift of the apartment he shared with Mr Toohey.

Robert Wright, 36, fell to his death from the balcony of his apartment in the Melbourne suburb of Ringwood with police alleging he was thrown

Robert Wright fell to his death from his Ringwood apartment balcony in Melbourne on January 15, 2015

The Supreme Court heard last year that Georgia Fields (pictured), Warwick Toohey and Jake Fairest were allegedly captured on CCTV using Auslan sign language to plot Mr Wright's demise

Ms Fields allegedly told the others 'I think falling's better'.

The trio are accused of restraining Mr Wright in his loungeroom before he was dropped off the balcony, though the court heard Ms Fields was not physically involved.

The court heard last year that the group, who are also charged with theft, allegedly took Mr Wright's iPad, bankcards and ID into Mr Toohey's bedroom and were lying on the bed when police arrived.

Ms Fields and Mr Fairest are free on bail, while Mr Toohey has been remanded in custody.

Ms Fields (pictured) and Mr Fairest are free on bail, while Mr Toohey has been remanded in custody
Two parents have died after their adult son allegedly shot and stabbed them before killing himself.

Police believe part-time actor Aaron Wulf, 36, gunned down and knifed his parents, Jan and Arthur, in their suburban Las Vegas, Nevada, property on Wednesday.

Neighbors told the Las Vegas Review Journal it was a summer home and that the family hailed the Chicago area.

Police believe part-time actor Aaron Wulf, 36, gunned down and knifed his parents, Jan and Arthur, in their suburban Las Vegas, Nevada, home (pictured) on Wednesday. He then killed himself

The cops were alerted when one of their relatives called a neighbor, who then called police.

Homicide Lt. Dan McGrath said the son had a history of mental illness but no criminal record.

According to an IMDB, he played a police officer in the cop show Monk in 2002 and played a bartender in an episode from the series Girlfriends in 2000.

McGrath added that the bodies were found with both stab and gunshot wounds.

An autopsy will be carried out to determine exactly how they died. They will also wait to be officially identified, but property records say the home belonged to Jan and Arthur Wolf.

Metro Capt. Rich Fletcher also told the paper: 'This is a great neighborhood. The apparent murder-suicide Wednesday was shocking but isolated.

'We are not currently looking for anybody in the neighborhood; we have no suspects that we're looking for.'

The property was the family's summer house. Policesaid the adult son had a history of mental illness but no criminal record
One section of Azraq has been fenced off, as Jordan wants guarantees newcomers are not ISIS supporters

On the Jordanian side of the border, the U.N.-run Azraq camp is now home to 64,000 Syrian refugees

2014 and May 2016 show how thousands have moved to Rukban border camp

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These images, taken just 18 months apart, shows how the Rukban refugee camp on the Syrian-Jordanian border has grown from a handful of tents in November 2014, to a full-on shanty town in May 2016.

Thousands of Syrian refugees wait in the Rukban tent camp in the hopes that they will be allowed to cross into Jordan as they flee the five-year civil war and the brutal rule of ISIS.

Once in Jordan, they will be moved to a barbed wire-fenced isolation unit inside the U.N.-run Azraq camp - already home to 64,000 displaced Syrians - as Jordanian authorities fear ISIS terrorists are trying to sneak into the country disguised as refugees.

Then: The Rukban Syrian refugee encampment on the Jordan-Syria border is pictured in November 2014

Now: The Rukban refugee camp is pictured last week, May 23, 2016, after thousands more arrive - and stay - over the past two years

As well as four 'vetted' villages, Azraq now also has a section cut off by a fence, where recent arrivals are kept isolated from the others until Jordanian authorities are convinced that they are not ISIS supporters.

This camp-within-a-camp, called 'Village 5,' was set up in late March as part of an uneasy trade-off between Jordan and international aid agencies trying to speed up admissions of tens of thousands of refugees stranded in remote desert areas on the kingdom's border.

Under the deal, Jordan agreed to let in about 300 Syrians a day, or five times more than before, on condition that newcomers are isolated in Azraq for more security checks. Jordan says strict vetting is crucial to prevent ISIS extremists from infiltrating the kingdom.

In turn, aid agencies agreed to put traumatized war survivors behind barbed wire, if only temporarily.

Yet neither side expects the new admissions deal to empty out two rapidly growing encampments on the Syrian-Jordanian border. Instead, the population there is expected to reach 100,000 by the end of the year if fighting in Syria continues.

Syrian children look through the gate of a grocery store at the al-Azraq refugee camp in northeast Jordan, where thousands of newly arrived refugees have been moved behind barbed wire in a separate section because Jordan considers them potential security risks

'Risk': Jordanian authorities fear ISIS terrorists are trying to sneak into the country at the al-Azraq camp, disguised as refugees

Syrian refugees near the berm at the Jordan-Syria border at Hadalat camp, where thousands of refugees are stranded in remote desert areas on the kingdom's border

The two encampments sit between low earthen mounds, or berms, that run in parallel lines, about 1.2 miles) apart in an area where the border isn't clearly marked.

Refugees live in tents or shelters made of tarp, wood scraps and even women's scarves, exposed to the desert's extreme cold, heat and sand storms. Lack of latrines and trash collection has led to the spread of diarrhea and infections.

Delivering aid to the berm has become one of the U.N. refugee agency's most challenging and costly operations in the Middle East, said spokeswoman Ariane Rummery, citing 'remoteness of locations, extreme weather conditions, lack of access roads, and risk of escalating insecurity.'

Other aid officials worry that ramping up support will inadvertently transform the jumble of shelters into de facto refugee camps in unsafe areas.

Yet saving lives trumps any misgivings at a time when Syrians are increasingly trapped in their homeland, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters about the conditions at the berm.

Neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, which have absorbed the bulk of close to 5 million Syrian refugees since 2011, have severely restricted admissions, while doors to Europe are slamming shut.

Jordan has taken in about 650,000 refugees and says it has already done more than its share.

Those now waiting at the border are the responsibility of the international community, said Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani. In allowing some asylum seekers to enter, 'Jordan is doing its best to balance its security needs with humanitarian concerns,' he said.

Jordan argues that all those at the border are still on Syrian soil, a claim disputed by the international group Human Rights Watch. The border is believed to run between the two berms and most tents are pitched closer to the southern, Jordanian-controlled berm, said researcher Adam Coogle.

The head of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Jordan, Petr Kostohryz, said Jordan is 'perhaps the only country in the region retaining at least partially open borders.'

Aid groups agreed to isolate the newcomers to allay Jordanian security concerns and help speed up admissions of 64,000 refugees stranded at the border, but the new arrangement is barely making a dent

At the same time, refugees live 'in the middle of the desert, with zero access to services, with high degrees of crime and exploitation,' he said.

Refugee Khaled Mallak, 34, his wife and six children were among those who made the dangerous trip from Syria to the Azraq camp in Jordan's eastern desert.

The Mallaks left the Syrian capital of Damascus in mid-January and reached Hadalat three days later. 'The area was full of insects and even rats,' Mallak said of the border camp.

After three months, the family was admitted to Jordan and was moved to Azraq, the only permitted destination for refugees. In fenced-in Village 5, they received food and basic supplies, but often waited for hours to collect them, said Mallak.

The family was allowed to leave the restricted area after a month, and now lives in a part of Azraq where they have greater freedom of movement.

A Jordanian security officer prevented Associated Press reporters from approaching Village 5.

Azraq consists of rows of white prefab shacks that can house up to 51,000 Syrians in four sections, or villages. Only two villages were populated after the camp's opening in 2014.

However, a third section, Village 5, filled up over the past six weeks, as Jordan admitted more than 16,000 refugees under the new policy, said Kostohryz, the NRC chief.

Last week, the first group of 1,500 refugees was allowed to move out of the restricted area, in what the NRC hopes will be the start of integrating all newcomers into the camp.

A close-up satellite image taken on May 23, 2016 of the Rukban Syrian refugee encampment in the Jordan-Syria border

Ever growing: The zoomed out satellite image shows how the Rukban border camp stretches into the distance

Meanwhile, aid agencies are facing growing challenges at the berm, a 2.5-hour drive from the nearest Jordanian town, including an 80-kilometer stretch over unpaved desert.

Aid workers cannot enter the camps for security reasons, and set up distribution points near the southern berm. Jordanian troops stand atop the earth mounds and screen refugees.

Refugees permitted to climb over the berm fetch water or line up, often for hours, to register with the U.N. or receive canned food, dry rations and fruit.

Crowds have repeatedly surged toward aid workers amid rumors that distribution was ending for the day, an aid official said. Troops have responded with tear gas or warning shots.

During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week, refugees will be lining up in scorching temperatures while fasting during daylight hours.

A lawless atmosphere prevails in the camps, said aid officials, citing accounts by refugees. War profiteers with no intention of seeking asylum steal rations from the most vulnerable, the officials said.

Some refugees at the berm don't seek asylum, for fear of being rejected by Jordan and sent into a more dangerous area of Syria.

Momani confirmed that some have been rejected on security grounds, but did not provide figures. He argued that this does not amount to expulsions  problematic under international law  because Jordan never admitted them as asylum seekers.

It's not clear how long the faster pace of admissions will last. Jordan promised the United States earlier this year to let in at least 20,000, aid officials said. White House officials declined comment.

Existing shelters in Azraq can now house several thousand more refugees; the camp is designed for an additional 75,000 people.

However, Jordan is unlikely to let in large numbers of refugees. It says it has confidential evidence that ISIS sympathizers posing as refugees are trying to infiltrate the kingdom, which is a member of the U.S.-led military coalition against the extremists in Syria and Iraq.

Even if most of those waiting at the berm were moved to Azraq, many more would likely take their place, Momani said.
Racist memes comparing retired indigenous AFL star Adam Goodes to a gorilla which were posted on social media have caused fury among fans and the sport's governing body.

The offensive photos, posted to 'AFL Memes' and 'Troll AFL', shows an image of Harambe the gorilla with the four-year-old child, along with the text: 'RIP Adam Goodes'.

The beloved gorilla was shot dead by Cincinnati Zoo officials in the United States after the little boy fell into the animal's enclosure last week.

On Thursday, the AFL Memes Facebook page - followed by nearly 200,000 people - came under fire after posting two images comparing Harambe with Goodes, who was labelled an 'ape' in 2013.

In the second post, an image shows Harambe with the words: 'Too many celebrities taken early. First prince [sic] now Adam Goodes. Rest in piece [sic].'

Daily Mail Australia has chosen not to publish the photographs.

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AFL star Adam Goodes has been compared to Harambe the gorilla in the latest offensive social media posts

A special zoo response team shot and killed a 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe (pictured) that grabbed and dragged a four-year-old boy who fell into its gorilla exhibit moat, the Cincinnati Zoo's director said

He singled out a 13-year-old girl in the crowd in 2013 after she racially vilified Goodes by calling him an 'ape'

The images have since sparked outrage, prompting AFL media spokesman Patrick Keane to slam the latest attack on the former Sydney Swans player as 'utterly appalling'.

Mr Keane told Herald Sun the AFL demanded the post, which surfaced on Wednesday and still online on Thursday morning, be removed.

By Thursday afternoon, the posts appeared to have been removed from the AFL Memes page but was still on the Troll AFL page, which has more than 21,000 followers.

'We do not accept this type of behaviour and see it as utterly appalling,' Mr Keane said.

'We contacted Facebook as soon as we were made aware of the post and hope they take it down as soon as possible.'

Goodes retired after the 2015 AFL season, following a career that included winning two Brownlow medals

Goodes retired from AFL after the 2015 season following a career in which he won two Brownlow medals

Goodes was the target of the three racist memes shared on social media pages on Wednesday

Furious AFL fans have described the actions of those who posted the memes 'sickening' and 'racist'

Another Facebook user said the people involved with the memes should 'talk a look' at themselves, and described them as 'what's wrong with this world'

This social media user couldn't understand how photos of women breast feeding were banned from Facebook but the racist memes were not

Goodes in action against the Carlton Blues at the SCG during a round nine match in 2015

The post was widely condemned by Facebook users on both pages.

One user wrote on the Troll AFL page: 'AFL came together and celebrated our traditional indigenous round, and you just put this up. Seriously just a bunch of racist pigs. #norespect'.

Another posted: 'Sickening how many people think this is f***ing funny. It's racist. You only hate Adam Goodes because he ain't afraid to stand up to racism. It's reconciliation week smh [shaking my head]'.

Yet another of the hundreds of comments added the people involved in the meme were 'what's wrong with this world these days'.

The page AFL Memes later made this post saying 'this meme should't be deleted'

It also tried to claim the meme was 'just a joke' and that the page was 'just for fun'

Goodes was called an 'ape' by a 13-year-old girl in the crowd at a game in 2015 and was repeatedly booed by spectators

Pedestrian reported administrators for the AFL Memes page had initially refused to remove the memes despite the outrage.

Those in control of the page had written posts stating that 80 per cent of the fans had voted and the post shouldn't be deleted, as well as claiming it was 'just a joke'.

Goodes was named Australian of the Year in 2014.

In 2013, Goodes singled out a 13-year-old girl in the crowd after she racially vilified the star by calling him an 'ape'.
The legal battle for West Australian construction billionaire Len Buckeridge's estate has escalated, with his ex-partner Siok Puay Koh 'Tootsie' fighting for a bigger share of his estate, while his granddaughters seek a $90 million inheritance.

Ms Koh's claim is for ownership of a riverfront mansion in Mosman Park in Perth's western suburbs that she shared with Mr Buckeridge, held in the name of Esther Investments.

Ms Koh, who is allowed to live in the house until she dies, is understood to want ownership so she can pass it on to her sons, reported The West Australian.

Esperance (left) and Alba (right) Stephen, aged 19 and 16, are the teenage granddaughters of West Australian construction billionaire Len Buckeridge. They have launched legal action to ensure they get their inheritance

Mr Buckeridge's granddaughters Esperance and Alba Stephen, aged 19 and 16, have launched a legal bid for a $90 million share of his $2.5 billion fortune.

Mr Buckeridge, who abruptly died aged 77 in 2014, left behind immense wealth to his extended family of six children, eight grandchildren, widow Toostie and ex-wife Judith Lyon.

Ms Koh and her son, Julian Ambrose, who is a leading executive at BGC, and his two children are set to inherit 10 per cent of Mr Buckeridge's $2.5 billion fortune when several trusts vest in mid-2019.

Mr Buckeridges sons Sam and Andrew and their four heirs will get up to 35 per cent of the estate in three years.



Billionaire Len Buckeridge (with widow Tootsie) founded the Buckeridge Group of Companies (BCG), a construction firm which has a 'hand in just about every facet of the building process'. Tootsie is also challenging the will, according to reports

Mr Buckeridge's daughter Rachel (right) is pictured with her daughter Alba. The WA Supreme Court has heard Rachel supports her two children and was financially dependent upon her father prior to his 2014 death

The Vaucluse residence of the Buckeridge family - one of the country's wealthiest

The teens claim they are entitled to about $90 million - a percentage of shares from their grandfather's 'Buckeridge Group of Companies' (BGC) construction group.

But they argue the will does not make 'adequate provision' for them because of the way the trusts are structured.

The pair live with their mother, artist Rachel Buckeridge, in a luxurious mansion near the waters of Sydney Harbour in the exclusive suburb of Vaucluse.

WHO ARE THE BUCKERIDGE FAMILY? The Buckeridges are one of the country's wealthiest clans. They placed fourth on the 2015 BRW Rich Families list worth $2.46 billion. Len Buckeridge, the family's late 'larger-than-life' patriarch, founded the West Australian construction company BCG. The company turns over about $3 billion a year and 'has a hand in just about every facet of the building process', according to BRW. It has interests in cement, roof tiling, windows, mining, transport and property management. Mr Buckeridge's sons Andrew and Sam run the company, along with his step-son Julian Ambrose. Advertisement

Esperance attended Rose Bay Secondary College, according to social media, and the sisters appear to have gone on trips overseas.

Mother Rachel Buckeridge told The Australian she too is challenging the will.

'What we are after is what we were left, but we just want to be able to make our own decisions about it,' she was quoted saying.

The Australian newspaper reported the family is 'divided' between members on the west coast - where most of the family lives - and their east coast relatives.

The granddaughters' trusts are controlled by Mr Buckeridge's Perth-based children Sam and Andrew and their step-brother, Julian.

The brothers are directors of BCG, the influential outfit which is said to have a 'hand in just about every facet of the building process' in Western Australia.

In an affidavit to the court, Rachel Buckeridge revealed she was 'substantially' financially dependent on her father between 1980 and 1999.

She was completely dependent upon him for her needs until his death in 2014, the court has heard.

WA Supreme Court Judge Master Craig Sanderson said it was therefore 'arguable' the granddaughters were 'at least partially dependent' upon Mr Buckeridge's fortune.

Ms Buckeridge also claimed her Vaucluse property had been provided to her by her wealthy father. The judge noted she and her daughters arguably maintained the property.

Earlier this month, the judge granted the granddaughters' lawyers an extension of time so they can bring proceedings.

He noted the daughters 'do not say they are entitled to more from the estate... rather they argue the way in which their entitlement is structured should be altered'.

In 2014, Len Buckeridge suddenly passed away aged 77, leaving behind an immense mass of wealth to his extended family of six children, eight grandchildren, wife and ex-wife

Siblings: The Buckeridge sisters are pictured left and right

Mr Buckeridge founded the Buckeridge Group of Companies - a group of construction and building-related companies operating primarily in Western Australia. It has more than 4000 staff




For Hillary Clinton, the presidential campaign has been about building an approachable image: She's often eschewed big arenas in favor of town halls, peppered her ads with personal stories and planned less-scripted gatherings with voters.

But emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal a careful, behind-the-scenes effort to review introductory remarks for college presidents and students presenting the Democratic front-runner as a speaker, as well as suggesting questions that happened to be aligned with her campaign platform.

While it's not unusual for campaigns to plan detailed appearances, the exchanges preview the kind of image-control apparatus that could be deployed in a Clinton White House, including attempts to steer conversations with her audiences.

They also run counter to her campaign's efforts to make Clinton look less wooden and scripted than she did when running eight years ago.

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Behind-the-scenes Hillary Clinton 's presidential campaign has made a concerted effort to review the introductory remarks of college presidents and suggest questions to be asked of the candidate at events

Last August, Hillary Clinton spoke at the Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa. For Clinton, the presidential campaign has been about building an approachable image

The former secretary of state's preparedness appears in contrast with the presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, who rarely pulls punches in his speeches, speaks more spontaneously and has far more apparently unplanned, unscripted interactions.

Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said, 'We take pride in Secretary Clinton's ability to answer tough questions. We do not screen questioners at events, nor do we script interactions.' He said Clinton has answered about 900 questions in formal events on the campaign, and that more-memorable moments came from the fact her events were 'completely unscripted.'

The newly revealed exchanges, which surfaced in open-records requests, show the workings of a Clinton campaign that touts off-the-cuff moments, like the story of a little girl who asked Clinton: 'If you're elected the girl president, will you be paid the same as the boy president?' That line is a stump speech favorite.

But the campaign still injects itself into the minute details of the candidate's appearances down to the stemless glassware in her green room. That fixation on planning has sometimes pulled local officials uncomfortably into the political arena.

'They offered to write your introduction. I told them no,' Becky Mann, the head of public relations for South Carolina's Greenville Technical College, wrote in an email to the college's president, Keith Miller.

Clinton's campaign also suggested questions that Miller could pose such as, 'We have a number of students who have a financial need  what do we need to do to make college affordable?' College affordability is one of Clinton's campaign issues.

But Miller dismissed the suggestions, calling them 'bad questions' and said he would develop his own. 'Probably after hearing her speech,' he wrote.

In South Carolina, state director Clay Middleton asked another college to 'provide a list of 2 or 3 students that would be fitting to introduce the Secretary.'

Des Moines Area Community College's president, Robert Denson, incorporated talking points sent by Clinton's campaign into his August 2015 opening remarks ahead of her appearance. In an interview, Denson said the college was visited by several candidates including Clinton and Trump, and handled each campaign the same: reaching out for specific remarks ahead of time to incorporate into his usual introduction, which notes the school is nonpartisan and doesn't favor any candidate.

'We did the same thing with Trump,' he said, adding that candidate visits at community colleges provide insight into what's important and the opportunity to hear from future White House occupants who could shape the nation's policies.

Merrill said the campaign at times assists people as part of an event, 'especially those introducing Secretary Clinton, with the points on our campaign's message. More often than not, it's because they've asked.'

Clinton's campaign also reviewed the Des Moines transit agency's press release prior to Clinton's visit there in July 2015, where she called climate change one of the 'most urgent threats' of our time. 'I have the changes and OK from their team, so we'll get it out shortly,' one transit official said in a July 2015 email.

Later that year, at Keota High School in Keota, Iowa, Clinton's staff had asked to see a student's introductory remarks before the event, according to a December 2015 email.

That exchange came a month after Clinton's appearance at a middle school in Clinton, Iowa, which was preceded by a flurry of emails in which school officials were worried about her campaign's plans to film media ads.

Four days before the event, a campaign official wrote to the school: 'We are wanting to do some small commercial filming in the vocational spaces at Clinton High School earlier in the day before the town hall' at the middle school. School officials, concerned the school's name might be used for political purposes, moved quickly to limit the filming  asking that the school not be identified in any advertisements and making sure no school signs would appear in the ads.

About 400 Clinton residents, campaign officials and media filed into the cafeteria the Sunday that Clinton appeared for her event. She touted her 'Caring Economy' plan to cut federal taxes, promote tax credits and expand Social Security.
Both of the officers are being treated for their injuries at hospital

the suspect at another location, where he shot another cop and ran away - locking himself inside the local home

Firefighters worked to put out the blaze from outside of the home, and didn't go inside since the suspect was still presumed alive and armed

, Fremont police confirmed that the suspect had been found dead inside a burned down home

The man who died in a tense standoff with police after shooting and wounding two cops in Northern California has been identified as 44-year-old Gerald Villabrille Jr of San Jose

The man who died in a tense standoff with police after shooting and wounding two cops in Northern California has been identified.

Officials say the suspect they found in a burned down house in Fremont Thursday morning is 44-year-old Gerald Villabrille Jr, who also goes by the name of Marcus.

The San Jose man sparked an hours-long manhunt on Wednesday after he shot and wounded two Fremont police officers.

Cops tracked Villabrille down to a local home early Thursday morning, and then tried to force him out by shooting tear gas into the house.

It appears that the tear gas sparked a fire in the house, which raged for several hours.

It was finally put out around 7:30am, and a little less than an hour later, authorities went inside and found Villabrille's dead body inside a closet.

It's still unclear whether Villabrille died from the flames, injuries sustained from a shootout with police or another means.

The home is considered a total loss. Villabrille did not know the owners of the home, who were not there when he broke in. Authorities say they have informed the owners of the damage.

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Authorities found Villabrille's body in a closet of the above home after they put out a fire around 7:30am

The suspect behind the shootings of two police officers in Fremont, California on Wednesday was found dead inside this burned down home on Thursday

The suspect had been inside the home since early Thursday morning, when he got into a standoff with police. Police fired tear gas into the home around 3.30am, which is believed to have sparked the fire

It's still unclear how the suspect died, whether from the fire or perhaps suicide. Above, the home just before sunrise on Thursday

When the first first broke out around 3am, firefighters were called to the scene and tried putting out the blaze from outside the house.

They did not go into the house since the suspect was still considered armed and dangerous inside.

Police also lost contact with the man around the same time, when his cellphone died.

Meanwhile, the two officers who were wounded in the Wednesday shootings are recovering at the hospital. One of the officers is in stable condition while the other remains in critical condition.

'There is reason to believe he can survive these injuries,' Fremont police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques told the East Bay Times.

The incident started when an officer with a year's service with the department stopped a white pickup truck in Fremont, which is about 40 miles south of San Francisco, police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said.

Courtesy KRON4

The incident started when an officer with a year's service with the department stopped a white pickup truck in Fremont, which is about 40 miles south of San Francisco, police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said

The suspect then backed into the officer's patrol car, fired shots at the cop and then fled the scene on foot

Above, officers take part in the manhunt for the suspect on Wednesday in northern California

The pickup truck backed up into the officer's patrol car, a person in the truck fired shots that injured the officer and the shooter and another suspect fled on foot.

Shortly after that officers from several law enforcement agencies flooded the area and searching got underway.

A while later, a Fremont police officer with about 10 years of service with the department was wounded in a shootout with the suspect, officials said.

Above, an aerial view of the search area late Thursday night in Fremont, California

A witness at one of the shootings took this cellphone video of paramedics helping one of the injured officers outside of a restaurant on Wednesday

Police officers gathered at a local trauma center to hold vigil for the two cops who were shot

Officers search a Fremont, California neighborhood for the shooter on Wednesday

Above, officers at the scene of one of the shootings on Wednesday

The suspect sparked a manhunt on Wednesday. Above, police scour the streets for the armed man

Bosques told the East Bay Times that the officer in the initial shooting was in critical condition after surgery. The second officer remained in stable condition.

Investigators had ordered residents of the blue-collar neighborhood to remain in their homes and to call police about anything suspicious.

Police helicopters were deployed and police dogs used in searching yard-by-yard and door-to-door. Around 6am, the lockdown was called off and neighbors were allowed to go about their business.

Kelly said residents of the neighborhood can breathe easier now that the shooting suspect has been confined to one site.
Gordon Brown has claimed the murder of Alexander Litvinenko on the streets of London with radioactive polonium 210 was ordered 'from the top' in the Kremlin.

In a new book, the Labour prime minister reveals his view the assassination was carried out on the orders of Vladimir Putin.

Mr Brown dealt with Mr Putin while he was Prime Minister and British relations with Russia fell into a deep freeze after the killing as his government expelled four diplomats over the incident.

Alexander Litvinenko was killed in London in 2006 after Russian agents slipped radioactive Polonium 210 into his tea pot

A public inquiry held last year by Sir Robert Owen concluded that the killing of Litvinenko, by agents who slipped radioactive material into his teapot, was 'probably approved' by the Russian president.

The conclusions, published in January, renewed diplomatic tensions between Britain and Russia and David Cameron warned continued relations would be pursued with a 'very cold heart'.

In a new book, Britain: Leading Not Leaving, timed to coincide with the referendum, Mr Brown today revealed: 'We were clear that the assassination had been ordered from the top  and what was clear was that further assassinations on British soil were possible.

'Indeed, we believed that one new assassination was being planned.

Ex-PM Gordon Brown today claimed the orders to kill Litvinenko came 'from the top'. Mr Brown expelled Russian diplomats over the murder in 2007

'This led to the diplomatic stand-off that has characterised our relations with Russia ever since.'

Mr Brown's book includes in a wide study of Britain's post-war relationship with Europe and includes reflections on his embattled time in No 10.

Extracts revealed in The Guardian show Mr Putin remained firmly in charge in Russia despite the appointment of his deputy Dmitry Medvedev to avoid constitutional rules on term limits.

The former Labour leader writes: 'Putin left it in no doubt that he was in charge.

'I particularly remember the G8 meeting [in Japan] in 2008.

'After we thought we had secured a common G8 position on Zimbabwe, Russian president Medvedevs acquiescence was immediately overruled by prime minister Putin.'

In January, a bombshell inquiry laid the blame for the killing of Mr Litvinenko at President Putin's door.

Sir Robert Smith declared the president had 'probably' personally ordered the assassination, which involved two FSB spies slipping radioactive polonium 210 into a tea pot.

Following the report, Mr Cameron said: 'What happened was absolutely appalling and this report confirms what we've always believed, and what the last Labour government believed at the time of this dreadful murder, which is it was state sponsored action.'

He said Britain's actions in 2007 had continued, adding the relationship with Russia was 'tough'.

The premier added: 'We must now read the report in its entirety and take everything into account but be in no doubt, this shocking event was reacted to years ago when it happened and we are toughening our action again today.'

Mr Brown's book confirms the belief Mr Putin never surrendered control of the Kremlin despite nominally shifting to the post of prime minister to avoid constitutional term limits

Mr Cameron said he was not ruling out further punitive action against Russia but links could not be severed.

'Do we at some level have to go on having some sort of relationship with them because we need a solution to the Syria crisis?,' he said.

'Yes, we do but we do it with clear eyes and a very cold heart.'

But the Russians ridiculed the British report and dismissed its conclusions.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that 'such a quasi-investigation such as the one being talked about today undoubtedly is able only to still further poison the atmosphere of our bilateral relations.'

Mr Peskov said the report 'cannot be accepted by us as a verdict.'
A right of way and conservation easement, both in northeastern Montana, are two of the topics the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will discuss at their meeting on Thursday in Dillon.

The right of way would guarantee access to a large block of state and federal land in Phillips County at a cost of $20,000. The money would come from FWPs Access Public Lands Program.

The conservation easement would apply to more than 1,700 acres in Phillips County at a cost of $405,000. The money would come from the Migratory Bird Wetland Program and Habitat Montana.

The commission will also take final action on 2016 mountain goat and mountain lion quotas.

The board will consider approving for public comment an investment in stock water sources for the Veebaray Ranch near Sidney to enhance upland game bird habitat as well as 2016 mule deer quotas.

The meeting will be held at the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation Dillon Unit Office at 840 N. Montana beginning at 8:30 a.m. Audio of the meeting will be available at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional offices. The meeting will also be streamed live online at fwp.mt.gov.

On Wednesday the commission will take a field trip around Dillon, touring local wildlife winter range, the Salmon Fly fishing access site and the Poindexter FAS. The tour will begin at 11 a.m. and conclude at 5 p.m.

Following the tour the public is invited to a public open house to meet and discuss issues with the commission and staff at 6:30 p.m. at the Department of Natural Resources Office.

For the full agenda and background on the scheduled topics for the Commission work session and meeting, go to the FWP website at http://fwp.mt.gov/; under Quick Links click Commission.
Britain's shorelines are said to be dangerously exposed to migrants - yet two years ago police sold a patrol boat for less than a quarter of what it would be worth today.

Kent Police spent 350,000 on buying and equipping the former Princess Alexandra III in 2006 but amid restructuring in 2014, they sold it at auction for just 80,000.

Today, amid warnings that Britain's shorelines are vulnerable because a lack of boats to defend them, the current owner is offering to sell the boat back to Kent Police for 250,000.

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Kent Police spent 350,000 on buying and equipping the former Princess Alexandra III (pictured) in 2006 but amid restructuring in 2014, they sold it at auction for just 80,000

Today, amid warnings that Britain's shorelines are vulnerable because a lack of boats to defend them, the current owner is offering to sell the boat back to Kent Police for 250,000

The 16-metre former RNLI lifeboat, which would have cost around 2million new, is now being sold by private seller Steven Adams and is being kept in Essex

The advert boasts: 'She has been built in true no expense spared RNLI fashion and underwent a major refit before entering service as the Kent Police high speed launch based at Sheerness.'

Her two 1,000 horsepower diesel engines give it a top speed of 30mph and Mr Adams says it would be perfect for chasing people smugglers, who have been using small, high-speed boats

Mr Adams says he already has a number of people interested in buying the vessel, which is being advertised online

Mr Adams, a commercial seller, said: 'It's a very specialised piece of kit which is worth a lot of money but it is only worth what someone will pay for it, and people who need it are few and far between

Mr Stevens used to deal with naval boats that the Royal Navy was disposing of, and said some of these had been barely used. Pictured is the radio room in the Princess Alexandra

Pictured is the toilet inside the former Kent Police boat, which is likely to sell for a fraction of what the police spent on buying it and kitting it out with the necessary equipment

The boat has been out of the water for some time since it was last bought but the seller says it is seaworthy

Inside there are steps going down into the hold, which has kitchen facilities for the crew (pictured)

This is a room inside that can be used as both a meeting room and to berth the crew of the ship

Pictured is the bridge, where the captain will steer the boat with its two 1,000 horsepower engines

Kent Police said the cost of running the boat were 'not proportionate to the benefits it provided', and that it is the UK Border Force's job to patrol Britain's shore, reports The Sun.

But it comes after 18 migrants were saved from a sinking ship off the Kent coast at the weekend, and 17 more trying to enter the country illegally were found in a lorry nearby in Ashford yesterday.

And after the Albanians were rescued from the Channel, it emerged that Border Force has just three boats patrolling Britain's 7,700 miles of coastline.

Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, called for more patrol vessels in British waters after the latest arrival by boat.

He said: Our sea border needs to be robust because we are an island. The deployment of cutters in the Channel must now be a priority. We need to have zero tolerance in the war against people trafficking.

The situation, described by Admiral Lord West as a complete mess, comes after aerial surveillance of Britains shores was scrapped in January to save money.

Both Britains Maritime and Coastguard Agency and HM Revenue & Customs officials are said to be deeply concerned that the UK has not got control of its territorial waters.

Since then it has emerged that four separate reports, the most recent last week, sounded the alarm over lax border controls, but the Government claimed the threat was not assessed as significant.

Footage from Dymchurch Kent showing an inflatable power boat on beach after 18 Albanian migrants were rescued from the Channel. Five of them have now claimed asylum

Just two days later, 17 migrants were found trying to enter Britain illegally in the back of a lorry in Ashford, Kent - just 13 miles from Dymchurch, where the Albanians were landed after being rescued

The 16-metre former RNLI lifeboat, which would have cost around 2million new, is now being sold by private seller Steven Adams and is being kept in Essex.

The advert boasts: 'She has been built in true no expense spared RNLI fashion and underwent a major refit before entering service as the Kent Police high speed launch based at Sheerness.'

Her two 1,000 horsepower diesel engines give it a top speed of 30mph and Mr Adams says it would be perfect for chasing people smugglers, who have been using small, high-speed boats.

Mr Adams says he already has a number of people interested in buying the vessel, which is being advertised online.

Mr Adams, a commercial seller, said: 'It's a very specialised piece of kit which is worth a lot of money but it is only worth what someone will pay for it, and people who need it are few and far between.

'I'm going to have my work cut out for me trying to find a buyer and it will go for a fraction of what the police spent on it, but I feel sorry for them in this situation.

'I think its very short-sighted in this time of heightened security as I would've thought they needed more boats rather than less, but the police are facing budget cuts and there's not a lot they can do.'

Mr Stevens used to deal with naval boats that the Royal Navy was dealing with, and said some of these had been barely used.

Even today, he said it is not uncommon for boat yards to be given former government vessels to sell after budget cuts.

Yesterday it emerged that a gang of people smugglers accused of sneaking Albanian migrants into a British seaside village bought one of their boats on eBay.

Five men went to a private sellers home in the New Forest, Hampshire, last week and paid 3,000 in cash for the inflatable craft called Antares.

They told the owner that they wanted the speedboat  which is a type once popular with the Royal Navy for anti-piracy missions  for fishing trips.

For sale: The people smugglers' inflatable Avon Sea Rider boat 'Antares' appeared on the website eBay and was found on the beach in Kent after the failed smuggling attempt

Caught on camera: Days after being purchased the boat was seen on CCTV being towed in Dymchurch in Kent

But four days later it was found abandoned on the beach at Dymchurch in Kent, after a botched attempt to bring 18 Albanian migrants into the country.

And five Albanians rescued from the sinking dinghy off the Kent coast had by last night claimed asylum  even though their country is not at war.

Those who applied for asylum were taken to an intake centre in Kent for checks

In Britain, refugees are placed in asylum accommodation and can receive payments as soon as a claim is lodged.

Each person receives 36.95 for essentials such as food, clothing and toiletries. Asylum seekers are also entitled to free NHS care, housing and education for any children.

Between 2008 and 2014, there were 4,653 asylum applications from Albanians. Of these, 1,449  or 31 per cent  were granted asylum.

Although the country is not at war or in the midst of a humanitarian disaster, Albanians have in the past claimed that they fear minority persecution, for instance for being Kosovar, or insist they are gay and would be in danger of homophobic reprisals

Pensioner patrol: Army of elderly volunteers is policing Britains coast  for FREE

Britain's coastlines are being watched by an army of elderly volunteers - but the stations close overnight.

There are 50 lookout posts up and down Britain staffed mainly by OAPs who work for free for the National Coastwatch Institution charity.

However, critics claim the charity is being used to plug the gaps left by funding cuts, and the stations only open 10am until 6pm, leaving the coasts ahead of them unpatrolled overnight.

Britain's coastlines are being watched by an army of elderly volunteers - but the stations close overnight. Pictured are members on duty at Froward Point Station between Brixham and Dartmouth in South Devon

There are 50 lookout posts up and down Britain staffed mainly by OAPs who work for free for the National Coastwatch Institution charity. Here, volunteers work in the lookout station at Shoreham on Sea

Critics claim the charity is being used to plug the gaps left by funding cuts, and the stations only open 10am until 6pm. Pictured is the post at Rame Head, Cornwall

Volunteers who work there fear that the information they report to Border Force is not followed up on as they are never told of the outcome. Pictured is Swalecliff, near Canterbury, Kent

And the volunteers who work there fear that the information they report to Border Force is not followed up on as they are never told of the outcome.

Retired Merchant Navy sailor Andy Pope, 67, said he reported suspicious activity just days ago from the station at Folkestone, Kent, just ten miles from where 18 Albanians were rescued from a boat at the weekend.

Mr Pope believes it was a gang trying to create a beacon for a boat full of migrants so they knew where to land.

He said: 'Someone was spotted signalling on the coast. They were signalling out to sea at the time with a torch or some light source to help a boat land,' reports The Sun.
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Gale force winds and heavy downpours are expected all weekend as a complex low pressure system sweeps across Australia's east coast.

Sydney and Brisbane are expected to be the worst affected, with up to 250 millimetres forecast to fall in some parts. Melbourne and Canberra can also expect wet weekends.

The system is expected to form around south-east Queensland and spread to NSW in the coming days.

After the fifth-driest May on record for Sydney, the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting heavy rains this weekend, with the city expected to record at least 100mm of rainfall by Monday. Above, a general view of Manly Beach on Thursday

Sydney and Brisbane are expected to be the worst affected, with up to 250 millimetres forecast to fall in some parts. Melbourne and Canberra can also expect wet weekends (stock image)

Melbourne, pictured, will escape the brunt of the weather system that is expected to batter Brisbane and Sydney, but the city can expect showers most of next week (stock)

FORECAST: WHAT THE WEATHER LOOKS LIKE AROUND AUSTRALIA SYDNEY Friday : Min 12, Max 20. Shower or two Saturday: Min 14, Max 21. Windy with rain Sunday: Min 13, Max 22. Heavy rain BRISBANE: Friday : Min 14, Max 20. Showers Saturday: Min 16, Max 21. Rain Sunday: Min 15, Max 21. Showers ADELAIDE Friday : Min 9, Max 18. Partly cloudy Saturday : Min 10, Max 16. Mostly sunny Sunday: Min 11, Max 18. Shower or two DARWIN Friday: Min 24, Max 33. Mostly sunny Saturday: Min 24, Max 32. Sunny Sunday: Min 24, Max 33. Partly cloudy MELBOURNE Friday : Min 6, Max 16. Cloudy Saturday: Min 7, Max 16. Possible shower Sunday: Min 10, Max 16. Shower or two

CANBERRA Friday : Min 3, Max 14. Some rain Saturday: Min 5, Max 14. Showers Sunday: Min 6, Max 14. Shower or two PERTH Friday : Min 10, Max 18. Showers developing Saturday: Min 12, Max 17. Morning shower Sunday: Min 9, Max 19. Cloudy

HOBART Friday : Min 4, Max 14. Mostly sunny Saturday : Min 5, Max 14. Shower or two Sunday : Min 9, Max 15. Possible shower

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of possible flash flooding and property damage from falling tree branches, with Queensland and New South Wales expected to hit the hardest.

'Saturday may be steady rain but not really heavy,' Neale Fraser, senior bureau forecaster told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'But at this stage, Sunday looks like the heavier one with the low getting much close closer to Sydney and continuing into Monday.'

Acting Queensland Regional Director Bruce Gunn said coastal regions of southeast Queensland and northern NSW with the heaviest falls in these areas expected on Saturday afternoon.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of possible flash flooding and property damage from falling tree branches, with Queensland and New South Wales expected to hit the hardest

A man walks with a surfboard on Manly beach on Thursday before a low pressure system is set to hit over the weekend

Gale force winds and heavy downpours are expected all weekend as a complex low pressure system sweeps across Australia's east coast

'With events like this, localised falls in excess of 250mm are possible, particularly in coastal areas and at elevation including the Sunshine Coast Hinterland and ranges extending south into NSW,' he said.

Acting New South Wales Regional Director, Jane Golding, said as the system moves south it is likely to develop into an East Coast Low.

'The system will likely impact the entire NSW coast and adjacent ranges over the weekend, with widespread heavy rain and high winds that have the potential to cause riverine and flash flooding, bring trees down and cause property damage,' she said.

Acting New South Wales Regional Director, Jane Golding, said as the system moves south it is likely to develop into an East Coast Low

It was an unusually warm and dry autumn, with some parts of New South Wales climbing up to five degrees above the average minimum (stock)

But Melbourne recorded the wettest month since the middle of last winter and parts of Brisbane documenting the coldest May morning in 16 years after an icy chill swept through on Monday (stock)

It was an unusually warm and dry autumn, with some parts of New South Wales climbing up to five degrees above the average minimum.

But Melbourne recorded the wettest month since the middle of last winter and parts of Brisbane documenting the coldest May morning in 16 years after an icy chill swept through on Monday.

Parts of Queensland and South Australia experienced their share of showers earlier in the week, with a pair of troughs stretching from central Australia, according to Weatherzone.

A heavy downpour across Sydney on Tuesday afternoon left unprepared office workers scrambling for cover (pictured)

Sydneysiders are bracing themselves as a coastal trough settles in, triggering heavy rain over the weekend

Melbourne documented its coldest morning in nine months and at Laverton, Melbourne Airport and Viewbank, the temperature was below one degree.

'It has really cooled off in the last week with temperatures around the mid-teens which is probably what you'd more expect for the end of May,' Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Rod Dickson told AAP on Tuesday.

Rainfall has also been above average for most of Victoria with 57mm of rainfall by the end of the month.

This man, caught in the unexpected dumping of rain, used his briefcase to try and remain relatively dry on Tuesday

Photos taken in the CBD on Tuesday show office workers on their lunch hour trapped in an unexpected downpour

Showers and a maximum average of 19 forecast until Monday across Sydney

On Monday, Sydneysiders shivered through its coldest May morning in almost three decades at 1.7 degrees sub-zero

Some city dwellers were lucky to have umbrellas with them as they dashed for cover on Tuesday afternoon

May will still go down as another warmer-than-average month for Melbourne and the city is expected to stay dry until Saturday.

Photos taken in the CBD on Tuesday show office workers on their lunch hour trapped in an unexpected downpour. Many were seen holding briefcases over their heads in an attempt to stay dry.

On Monday, Sydneysiders shivered through its coldest May morning in almost three decades at 1.7 degrees sub-zero. But meteorologists do not expect it will be any colder than -1.7 degrees for the rest of the week.

Sydney residents are currently preparing for an entire weekend of wet weather as a low pressure system sweeps across the east coast

Melbourne (pictured) documented its coldest morning in nine months on Tuesday, but then cleared and remained relatively dry throughout the day after the frosty morning

Sydney residents have not had as much luck, with showers and a maximum average of 22 forecast until Monday

Across Brisbane, Monday was the coldest May morning since 2006 at 4.5 degrees and up to 25 millimetres of rain is expected to fall over the weekend, according to The Courier Mail.

The average maximum temperature for Brisbane is forecast to stay around 24 degrees.

Perth and Adelaide may experience showers over the coming weekend but will remain dry and sunny throughout the week.

Hobart will also stay dry, but overnight temperatures will plummet to four degrees and early morning frost will develop.

Rain is also forecast for every day except Thursday in Canberra for the coming week.

On Monday, Sydney woke to frost as western Sydney shivered through its coldest May morning in almost three decades. Pictured: water frozen from a dripping tap and is surrounded by frost at New England in NSW

Melbourne documented its coldest morning in nine months and at Laverton, Melbourne Airport (pictured) and Viewbank, the temperature was below one degree
Aaqil Ahmed (pictured), The BBC's head of religion, has said although it is 'uncomfortable' to accept, the ideology behind ISIS is based on Islamic doctrine

The BBC's head of religion has said although it is 'uncomfortable' to accept, the ideology behind ISIS is based on Islamic doctrine.

Aaqil Ahmed, the first Muslim to hold the post, said it was untrue to suggest that ISIS had nothing to do with Islam, despite the fact that the majority of Muslims do not agree with the extremist group.

He was speaking at an event at Huddersfield University, when he was asked to explain the BBC's controversial policy on referring to the group as 'so-called Islamic State'.

Prime Minister David Cameron has been among those who have called for the corporation not to use the phrase when referring to the terror group operating in Iraq and Syria, saying Muslims would 'recoil' at the phrase being used to justify the 'perversion of a great religion'.

Mr Ahmed was asked at the event organised by Lapido, the centre for religious literacy in journalism, to defend the term by barrister Neil Addison on the grounds that he wouldn't have said 'so-called Huddersfield University'.

According to a report by Lapido, he responded by saying: 'I hear so many people say ISIS has nothing to do with Islam  of course it has.

'They are not preaching Judaism. It might be wrong but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine. They are Muslims.

'That is a fact and we have to get our head around some very uncomfortable things. That is where the difficulty comes in for many journalists because the vast majority of Muslims won't agree with them [ISIS].'

Clarifying his comments, he told The Times that he had not been referring explicitly to the label used for the group, but that 'it [was] a reflection of the complexity of how you describe them and the religious belief structure.'

The extremists are variously known as Islamic State, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and Daesh, based the Arabic acronym for the group, which the terrorists consider to be offensive because it sounds similar to the word 'Dahes' meaning 'one who sows discord'.

Critics have warned that referring to 'Islamic State' legitimises the group's attempt to carve out parts of Iraq and Syria.

The BBC has used its preferred term to describe ISIS since 2014, when the group shortened its name from Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant to Islamic State.

However, the broadcaster qualifies the phrase by adding 'so-called' or 'self-styled', a reference to the extremists' claims of statehood rather than religious affiliation.

Prime Minister David Cameron has asked the BBC to stop calling the terror group 'so-called Islamic State'

Last summer, Mr Cameron asked the BBC to drop the term, and criticised BBC presenter John Humphrys for referring to the group as Islamic State.

During an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme Mr Cameron referred to the group as 'ISIL'.

'I wish the BBC would stop calling it Islamic State because it's not an Islamic State; what it is is an appalling, barbarous regime,' Mr Cameron said.

'It is a perversion of the religion of Islam and many Muslims listening to this programme will recoil every time they hear the words "Islamic State".

They are not preaching Judaism. It might be wrong but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine. They are Muslims Aaqil Ahmed

'So-called' or Isil is better,' he added.

His request was backed by 120 MPs, including Boris Johnson, Keith Vaz and Alex Salmond, who wrote to Director General Lord Hall calling for the broadcaster to refer to the group as Daesh instead.

However, Lord Hall rejected the demand, saying to use Daesh would 'bias their coverage', risked giving the 'impression of support' for the group's opponents and 'would not preserve the BBC's impartiality'.

Former Channel 4 commissioning editor for religion and head of multicultural programming, Mr Ahmed was appointed as the BBC's head of religion and ethics in 2009, in what was seen as a radical departure from broadcasting tradition.

He began his broadcasting career at the BBC, primarily working for BBC Birmingham, and had also worked as a director for Here And Now, as well as a producer and director on a number of documentaries and news broadcasts.

Prior to his 2009 appointment, the then Archbishop of Canterbury was reported to have raised concerns over the prospect of a Muslim head of religious broadcasting, amid fears the BBC was reducing its religious output.

Previously, the post had been considered a job for a senior and respected cleric or lay churchgoer.

Last month, an internal report compiled by Mr Ahmed suggested that the BBC was too Christian in its output, and the recent white paper on the BBC's future ordered the broadcaster to offer more for ethnic minorities.

As it stands, religious programming across the BBC includes the likes of Songs of Praise, Sunday Morning Live and The Life of Muhammad on television. Moral Maze, Beyond Belief and Thought for the Day feature on radio.
The couple have now finally been allowed to bring their baby home to US

Both babies were returned to their biological parents eight months ago

Were immediately suspicious as the baby they had been given was darker

A couple who were given the wrong baby by a hospital in El Salvador have finally been allowed to return home to the US with their child.

Richard Cushworth, originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire, and his Salvadoran wife Mercedes Casanellas tracked down their son Moses after realizing the baby they had been taking care of was not theirs.

But the couple said they still have no idea how the swap happened.

Ms Casanellas was suspicious when she noticed the features of her newborn differed from those of the boy doctors handed her the day after she gave birth by emergency Caesarean in May 2015.

She thought the second baby's skin was darker.

The couple have now been given a birth certificate for Moses (pictured) and recently arrived home in Dallas

Wrong baby: This is a picture of Mr Cushworth and Ms Casanellas with Jacob, the boy they took home in May

Last September Ms Casanellas emerged for the first time with her own child, Moses, who looks markedly different to the dark-skinned boy they were told was theirs

After returning to their home in Dallas, Texas, Ms Casanellas took a DNA test which said there was a 0 per cent chance she could be the mother of the baby she had been given.

The couple feared their child could have been sold to human traffickers and returned to El Salvador to make an appeal on local TV to find their son.

Investigators tracked down their biological child by ordering other new mothers to have their babies' DNA tested.

In a hugely emotional scene, both families 'wept their hearts out' when when they swapped babies eight months ago as they had formed a powerful bond with the infants.

Since then, the couple had been trying to get a birth certificate to bring their son home, a process that almost bankrupted the family.

The couple with their biological son, Moses, after they had been handed the wrong baby in the hospital

The couple refuse to believe it was a simple blunder as long as the hospital does not offer an explanation

Describing the birth, Ms Casanellas, 39, said she saw her son only briefly after he was born.

'He was just passed to me and I gave him a kiss and then he was taken to the nursery and that was the last time I saw him,' she said.

The next day nurses at the country's Ginecologio hospital - considered the best private hospital in El Salvador - brought her a baby and insisted it was hers, despite her immediate doubts.

'My first impression was "this is not the same baby I saw last night'''.

She said the most difficult moment was handing over a child they had nurtured since birth.

Describing how she felt, she said: 'The pain, the thought that the baby I had been nursing, taking care of, loving, that he was not mine.

'And then I had another thought, which was "Where is my baby?"

Final goodbye: Richard Cushworth kisses Jacob, the child he and his wife Mercedes Casanellas had been raising as their own, before being reunited with their actual son Moses, and handing Jacob over to his parents

Ms Casanellas gave birth to a pale-skinned boy (pictured), thin and with not much hair, but the baby that was given back to her was plumper, with darker skin and had dark hair

Mr Cushworth, 41, told the BBC: 'I just accepted it as my child. Now I look back at the pictures around the time we came to Dallas when he was three months old, and I'm shocked that I never suspected, because you can see that it's just obviously not my child if you look at some of the pictures.

'I don't know how I didn't ask myself. You just don't think about these things. Who thinks about these things?'

His wife added: 'I think we were in love with the baby. Even when I did the DNA tests, I thought I was betraying him. That was the feeling I had - I'm betraying my son but I cannot live with this.'

They were helped by the British Ambassador to El Salvador, Bernhard Garside.

'When we first got involved it looked very much like an uphill struggle,' he said. 'My fear was we weren't really going to see a happy conclusion to this.'

He said swapping the babies back was 'the easy bit', but unravelling the paperwork took a long time through the Salvadoran court system and was only completed thanks to 'good old fashioned diplomacy'.

'If we have been able to play a part in it somewhere then it makes my job worthwhile,' he said.

The couple, who are missionaries, named their biological baby Moses after the Jewish prophet who was also missing for three months. They had called the baby who was not theirs Jacob.

They had turned to God to help them overcome what life had thrown at them and married in 2012 after meeting at the Christ for the Nations Institute, an evangelical organisation in Dallas.

Mr Cushworth, by his own admission, had spent half his life in severe drug addiction including heroin, cocaine, cannabis and alcohol. While he was away doing missionary work in El Salvador his rented apartment in Dallas was burned down and he lost his belongings.
The engineer who inspected a carnival ride before it flung a girl, eight, to her death will fight charges of recklessness in court.

Adelene Leong died in September 2014 after she was flung 10 metres off the high-speed ride in front of her mortified mother at the Royal Adelaide Show.

Engineer Hamish Grant Munro, 57, is facing charges in the South Australian Industrial Court related to the death of the girl, who was on holiday from Malaysia at the time, reported Adelaide Now.

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Malaysian national Adelene Leong, 8, (pictured) died after she was thrown from the Airmaxx 360 ride at the Royal Adelaide Show on September 12, 2014

It is alleged that Mr Munro, the director of Victoria-based business Safe is Safe Ltd, exposed ride-goers to the risk of death or serious injury.

The states director of public prosecutions has previously ruled out charging Mr Munro with criminal manslaughter.

If found guilty, he faces up to five years in jail.

State watchdog SafeWorkSA claims that Mr Munros inspection of the AirMaxx 360 ride was reckless and he failed to identify issues with the seat Adelene sat in before her death.

It is alleged he failed to assess the condition of the ride, including the harness, safety locks and connecting pins while he did not detect the primary lock cylinder, which was 'unthreaded'.

He also allegedly failed to check the 'restraint creep' to ensure whether showgoers could move while they were strapped to their seats.

Police guard the Airmaxx 360 ride where the eight-year-old girl was flung from her seat in front of her mother

On Thursday a lawyer for Mr Munro and Safe is Safe told Adelaide Now outside court that the charges would be contested.

The lawyer said: They are at this stage but I will be making no further comment.

Mr Munro has previously defended his business, saying he was 'innocent, because [he] carried out the inspections and it operated safely for a couple of days.'

It is the first time the government agency is prosecuting the 'category one' offence, which could lead to five years in jail, a $300,000 fine for Mr Munro and a $1.5 million fine for Safe is Safe.

Police and safety officers inspect the ride at the Royal Adelaide Show following the tragic death in 2014

Adelene was above the height requirements when she boarded the ride with her mother and took a photo just moments before the tragedy unfolded on September 12, 2014.

Paramedics were called to the scene after Adelene was thrown from the ride as her mother watched on in horror.

Adelene was rushed to hospital with critical injuries but died a short time later.

Emergency services rushed to the scene after the young girl was flung to her death in September 2014
He was knifed following an argument with a group of men, police believe

Stabbed to death: Father-of-two Romeo Nkansah

A father-of-two was seen chatting to two women moments before he was stabbed to death during a night out, police revealed today.

Romeo Nkansah, 37, is believed to have been killed following an argument with a group of men in the trendy Camden area of north London in the early hours of last Sunday.

Scotland Yard has released CCTV images of two women who were seen speaking with Mr Nkansah and his friends shortly before the attack. It is believed the women also knew the other group of men.

Detective Chief Inspector Jamie Piscopo said Mr Nkansah, a Dutch national, and his friends were walking along Greenland Road at 3.30am when they met the women.

He said: 'At some point an altercation took place between Romeo and his friends and a group of men, who we believe are known to the group of women.

'The group made their way down Bayham Street and into Greenland Street and at some point Romeo was fatally stabbed.'

Police and paramedics were called at 3.46am and Mr Nkansah, who was living in Holloway, north London, was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.

A post-mortem concluded he was killed by a single stab wound.

DCI Piscopo said officers wanted to speak to people who were part of either group seen that night.

He said: 'It is clear that you may have vital information about the events that led up to Romeo's murder and who is responsible.

'There are two women in particular that we believe Romeo was trying to talk to and I would like to speak to them as a matter of urgency.

Appeal: Police released this CCTV image of two women who were seen speaking with Mr Nkansah on Sunday

Popular night spot: Mr Nkansah and his friends were out in trendy Camden, north London, on Saturday night. The father-of-two, a Dutch national, is obscured by the road sign (centre) in the image above

'This is a really popular and busy area, with a nightlife that runs until the early hours so I know there will be other people who may have seen something that have yet to come forward.

'This is why we have taken the decision to release CCTV images of people seen in the area.

'If you are one of those shown in the images or know who is, please get in touch and help use with our inquiries.'

DCI Piscopo said the victim's next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specially trained family liaison officers.

He added: 'Romeo was a loving and committed father of two, and a much loved brother and son.

Information: Officers would like to speak to the women above, who are believed to have spoken to Mr Nkansah

'I would urge anyone who may have seen something, or knows the identity of Romeo's murderer to get in touch with us and help us find answers for his family.'

Mr Nkansah's death was one of a number of stabbings across the capital over the Bank Holiday weekend. A 16-year-old boy was left in a critical condition following a stabbing in Deptford.

And an 18-year-old was injured after being stabbed in the stomach in Homerton High Street.
Thousands of women have taken to the streets to demand an end to Brazil's 'culture of rape' blamed for a horrifying attack by 33 men on a 16-year-old girl.

Protesters flooded central streets in cities including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, carrying signs with slogans such as 'We are all bleeding' and 'Not the victim's fault.'

The largest rally was in Sao Paulo, where more than 5,000 women marched.

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Thousands of women have taken to the streets to demand an end to Brazil's 'culture of rape' blamed for a horrifying attack by 33 men on a 16-year-old girl

Protesters flooded central streets in cities including Sao Paulo (pictured) and Rio de Janeiro, carrying signs with slogans such as 'We are all bleeding' and 'Not the victim's fault'

The nationwide protests came a day after the Senate passed a bill increasing the penalties for gang rape and criminalising rape recordings

Brazilians have been outraged by the gang rape case, which came to light in an online video that showed the bloodied girl naked and seemingly unconscious on a bed, as a man boasts that she has been 'impregnated' by more than 30 men.

Three suspects have been arrested - the last one on Wednesday. Police are hunting three others.

The video was made on May 21 in a Rio de Janeiro favela, one of the poor and often lawless neighbourhoods that exist in Brazil's largest cities.

The nationwide protests came a day after the Senate passed a bill increasing the penalties for gang rape and criminalising rape recordings.

Brazilians have been outraged by the gang rape case, which came to light in an online video that showed the bloodied girl naked and seemingly unconscious on a bed, as a man boasts that she has been 'impregnated' by more than 30 men

A woman with her face painted with the female gender symbol and with a sign that reads in Portuguese 'Rape never more,' stands next to a police barricade during a protest against the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl

A woman is pictured protesting in Paulista Avenue in Sao Paulo as part of nationwide demonstrations

Making a point: The largest rally was in Sao Paulo, where more than 5,000 women marched

But many Brazilian women see little hope in politics.

One slogan at Wednesday's protests was 'Fight without fear' - a play on the name of acting president Michel Temer, whose surname means 'fear' in Portuguese.

Temer has come under fire for appointing an all-male cabinet after sidelining suspended president Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first woman president.

The acting president ditched Rousseff - his former running mate - as her foes in Congress moved to impeach her for allegedly fudging the government's books.

The 16-year-old, attacked while visiting a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, said she woke to find 'one man under me, another on top of me, and two more holding my hands'

Three suspects have been arrested, including Rai de Souza (pictured left). Police are hunting three others

Women in Sao Paulo, Brazil, march during a protest against the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl

One slogan at Wednesday's protests was 'Fight without fear' - a play on the name of acting president Michel Temer, whose surname means 'fear' in Portuguese

He will serve in her place until a final ruling in her impeachment case.

Temer's secretary for women's policy, Fatima Pelaes, is an Evangelical Christian who said in 2010 she opposed abortion even in cases of rape.

She said in a statement Wednesday that she would nevertheless keep her personal views out of debate on the issue.

Heavily Catholic Brazil allows abortion only in cases of rape, brain damage or danger to the mother's life.

Crowd control: Police were called in as thousands gathered for a demonstration in the streets of Sao Paulo

Support: A woman and her baby joined the demonstration. The country has been left outraged by the attack

Defiance: Two Brazilian activists kiss in front of riot police during a rally in Sao Paulo last night
See more of the latest Vladimir Putin news at www.dailymail.co.uk/putin

Twitter has been forced to backtrack on a suspension of popular accounts parodying President Vladimir Putin and other Russian leaders.

Several Russian-themed joke accounts, such as @DarthPutinKGB, which parodies Putin, @SovietSergey, which mocks Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and two accounts poking fun at the Russian Embassy in London, were shut down on Tuesday.

The person behind the @DarthPutinKGB account has since accused the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of being behind the Twitter suspension.

The person behind Putin parody account @DarthPutinKGB has since accused the Russian government of being responsible for the temporary Twitter suspension

Tweeting directly to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the suspension was lifted, the Putin parody wrote: 'Spare a thought for the idiot at the parody account @mfa_russia who gave The Prez [the president Vladimir Putin] all this publicity about their thin skin.'

The parody Putin account had attracted more than 50,000 followers before it was shut down on Tuesday, and following its restoration is now up to over 63,000.

Social media users launched the #NoGulagForDarthPutinKGB hashtag in protest, accusing Twitter of clamping down on free speech.

All tweets of @DarthPutinKGB has now been restored, with fans able to relive such one-liner gems as: 'Leonardo DiCaprio isn't good looking enough to play me', and; 'Don't believe anything the Kremlin doesn't first deny'.

Another tweet reads: 'Russia has cut defense spending. Attack spending remains unchanged.'

The parody Putin account had attracted more than 50,000 followers before it was shut down. The link to the account said it was suspended

Estonian Toomas Hendrik Ilves, an avid social media user, condemned the suspension calling it 'one of the funniest parody accounts around'

Social media users launched the #NoGulagForDarthPutinKGB hashtag on Twitter in protest

According to the Daily Telegraph, a Twitter spokesperson said the website 'does not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons' before pointing to its policy on parody accounts.

Twitter's rules on parody accounts state that these should 'indicate that the user is not affiliated with the account subject by stating a word such as 'parody', 'fake', 'fan', or 'commentary', and be done so in a way that would be understood by the intended audience'.

Last year it was reported how Putin had an army of professional trolls running thousand of fake Twitter and Facebook accounts to flood social media with pro-Russia propaganda.

Hundreds of workers were said to be paid 500 a month to work exhausting 12-hour shifts bombarding the internet with comments placing Putin in a more favourable light.

The trolls reportedly work under strict condition which see them banned from talking and even forging friendships with one another.
UCLA staff and students were forced to use their belts to lock doors during yesterday's terrifying murder suicide which left two men dead.

A campus-wide emergency urged everyone to find shelter and lock the door until police could secure the situation.

But many students discovered they were unable to properly lock the doors and had to improvise by moving furniture to prevent the gunman from entering.

Students at UCLA had to improvise in order to keep the door closed during yesterday's fatal shooting

Students dragged a table over to the door and tied printer cables to the handle to keep it securely shut

Students turned off the lights and piled tables and chairs almost to the ceiling in front of the door

A gunman shot dead Professor William Klug in an Engineering building on the UCLA campus yesterday

The gunman shot dead Professor William Klug in UCLA's Engineering building before turning the gun on himself.

Klug, 39, was a married father of two.

The gunman has not yet been formally identified. Police have recovered what is believed to have been a suicide note.

Students said there were chaotic scenes as they tried to barricade themselves behind doors.

Some claimed they had to use photocopiers and foosball tables to wedge shut the door.

Olivia Cabadas, a 22-year-old nursing student, was getting ready to take a quiz in the mathematics building when her classmates began getting cellphone alerts. Through a window, they could see students rushing down the hallway.

Students wedged tables and chairs against the door in an effort to prevent the gunman from entering

It is thought this man, circled was the gunman who shot dead Professor Klug in his Engineering web

An officer yelled that everyone should get out.

'It was just a little surreal - this is actually happening,' Cabadas said. 'It was chaos.'

Those locked down inside classrooms described a nervous calm. Some said they had to rig the doors closed with whatever was at hand because they would not lock.

Umar Rehman, 21, was in a math sciences classroom adjacent to Engineering IV, the building where the shooting took place. The buildings are connected by walkway bridges near the center of the 419-acre campus.

'We kept our eye on the door. We knew that somebody eventually could come,' he said, acknowledging the terror he felt.

The door would not lock and those in the room devised a plan to hold it closed using a belt and crowbar, and demand ID from anyone who tried to get in.

Scott Waugh, an executive vice chancellor and provost, said the university would look into concerns about doors that would not lock. Overall, he said, the response was smooth.

Police searched students seeking to leave the campus yesterday following yesterday's fatal shooting

Tanya Alam, 19, also was in the same classroom with about 20 other students. She said she saw an alert on her phone that warned of police activity near Engineering IV. Then, several minutes later, an alert said there was an active shooter.

'I let that sink in. Then I realized there was a shooter on campus and Engineering IV is right here! So I said it out loud,' she said.

The teacher's assistant told students to shut their laptops, turned out all the lights and switched off the projector. They were ordered to be quiet and got under their desks. Sitting on the ground, Alam cried.

Students were told to put their phones away, too, but no one did, she said. In the darkened room, the glow of screens illuminated many faces.

'On one hand, yes, this is an emergency. But on the other hand when your mother is calling from miles away ...' Alam said, trailing off.

Their entire classroom was finally allowed to leave. Students were greeted by a phalanx of SWAT team members but were not searched.

SWAT officers cleared occupants one by one at the mathematical sciences building. One man walked out with his hands up and was told to get on his knees. An armed officer searched him and his backpack, then sent him on his way with his hands still in the air.

Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh said that the school will review the situation with the doors and all of its procedures to make sure the campus is as secure as possible.

Waugh said he was pleased with the campus alert system that quickly texted and emailed people about the danger.

Police say the morning shooting was a murder-suicide that occurred in an office in an engineering building where the bodies of two men were found.
Missing EgyptAir flight MS804 had reportedly been forced to make three emergency landings in the 24 hours leading up to crash.

The Airbus 320 is said to have been forced to turn around shortly after takeoff on three separate occasions after it's warning systems signalled an anomaly onboard.

The claims, made in French media, have since been denied by the Egyptian lead crash investigation committee.

A French soldier searches for debris from the crashed EgyptAir flight MS804 over the Mediterranean Sea

The airplane's onboard warnings system, Acars, went off shortly after take off from three airports where in the 24-hours before the crash, Euronews reports.

All alerts were reportedly investigated after emergency landings, with nothing found,

'We cannot presume to know know exactly what happened on board but its not entirely normal to turn around several times after a technical incident without finding anything,' Jean-Paul Troadec told TV channel France 3.

Mr Troadec added that 'Acars signals are emitted automatically only in the case of a malfunction. In normal mode they remain silent'.

The search zone for the crashed EgyptAir flight's black boxes has today been been narrowed to two kilometres (1.25miles) from five kilometres(3.1miles), a source on the investigation committee said.

The EgyptAir Airbus A320 crashed into the sea with 66 people on board during a May 19 flight from Paris to Cairo after disappearing from radar screens

This comes after French naval search vessel Laplace picked up signals believed to originate from one of the black boxes of flight MS804.

The Civil Aviation Ministry is citing a statement from the committee investigating the crash as saying the vessel Laplace is the one that received the signals.

The EgyptAir Airbus A320 crashed into the sea with 66 people on board during a May 19 flight from Paris to Cairo after disappearing from radar screens.

Locator pings emitted by flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, can be picked up from deep underwater.

Investigators had been racing against time to find MS804's black boxes, as they only have enough battery power to emit signals for four or five weeks.

The recordings could help investigators determine the reason for the crash.

The plane was carrying passengers from different nationalities, with 40 Egyptians including the crew and 15 French nationals.

Egypt's aviation minister had initially said a terrorist attack was more likely to have brought down the plane, but a technical failure is also likely.

France's aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and a fault in the flight control unit minutes before losing contact.

Egypt and France have signed agreements with two French companies specialising in deep water searches, Alseamar and Deep Ocean Search (DOS).

Picture on the official Facebook page of the Egyptian military spokesperson shows part of debris found by search teams looking for the EgyptAir flight

'Those two companies have complementary roles: the first is for locating the pings of the black boxes (the signal being emitted by the black boxes' beacon), while the second is for diving and recovering them' with the help of a robot, a source close to the investigation told AFP in Cairo, requesting anonymity.

'But the DOS specialised ship left the Irish sea Saturday and it will reach the perceived crash site only in around 12 days, after having the Egyptian and French investigators embark in Alexandria,' the source added.

The investigators are searching for the black boxes at a depth of about 10,000ft, some 180 miles north of the Egyptian coast.

Three of Alseamar's DETECTOR-6000 acoustic detection systems, which submerged can detect pings for up to 4,000 to 5,000 metres below sea level, have left the French island of Corsica to the crash site Thursday onboard 'Laplace', a French navy ship.

It will arrive at the perceived crash site 'Sunday, or Monday at the latest,' according to one of the sources.

'While we are waiting for the DOS ship, equipped for detecting the pings in deep waters, but more importantly the robots capable of descending up to 6,000 metres to recover the black boxes, we will not be wasting time as Leplace will be trying to locate them in the meantime,' said one of the sources.

The source added that after 12 days, 'there is a very good chance of recovering the flight recordings thanks to the combination of these two French companies.'
A Wyoming teenager charged with killing a couple and wounding their daughter after the family stopped to help him on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation will rely on an insanity defense if the case goes to trial.

Defense attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Susan Watters to order a psychiatric exam for Jesus Deniz Mendoza.

The exam would determine his mental condition at the time of the July shootings and whether Mendoza is fit to stand trial in the deaths of Jason and Tana Shane.

If a trial happens, under federal law Mendoza could be found guilty, not guilty or "not guilty only by reason of insanity."

A not guilty by reason of insanity verdict would require Mendoza's automatic commitment to a state or federal mental institution. He would remain in custody until he could prove that he does not pose a risk to injure someone or cause serious property damage.

Mendoza, of Worland, Wyo., turned 19 last month. He suffers from an unspecified "severe mental disease or defect" that may have left him unable to appreciate the nature of his actions, Federal Defender David Merchant said in a Wednesday court filing.

Mendoza has pleaded not guilty to 12 criminal charges, including two counts of first degree murder. Friday is the deadline for him to seek a change in plea prior to trial scheduled for June 13.

Federal prosecutors had asked in February for Mendoza to undergo a mental exam to see if he was fit for trial.

But defense attorneys at the time opposed the move, arguing there were no signs Mendoza was unable to understand the charges against him or to assist in his own defense. Those are two primary standards for determining a criminal defendant's competency.

"Simply stated, (my) lay opinion of Jesus has changed," Merchant wrote in his notice that Mendoza would rely on an insanity defense.

Authorities say the Shanes and their 26-year-old daughter were shot with a .22 caliber rifle after stopping to help Mendoza along a roadside near Pryor. Mendoza told investigators he was tired of waiting around and shot the family in part because the Shanes' daughter laughed at him, FBI agents have said in court filings.

Should Judge Watters determine that Mendoza is unfit for trial, he would be further evaluated to see if he can be rendered competent through drugs or other means.

"If yes, he gets treatment and then can stand trial," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Hornbein.

If not, Mendoza likely would be civilly committed at the direction of the Bureau of Prisons, Hornbein said.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch in April decided against seeking the death sentence in the case if Mendoza were found guilty.

Mendoza faces a separate accusation of attempted second-degree murder in Washakie County, Wyo., where authorities say he shot a man at a campground near the small town of Ten Sleep during a 2013 robbery attempt.
John Long, 20, took pictures of himself abusing two young boys - one in a pram - which police found on his computer, along with 5,000 banned images

A paedophile who took pictures of himself abusing a baby and a toddler has been set free after a judge decided his sentence is too harsh.

Police raided John Long's home after a tip off and found more than 5,000 banned images and videos on his computer, including some of child porn and bestiality.

Among them were photographs of him molesting two very young boys as they slept, and in one of them he was abusing a baby in a pram.

Long, 20, from Maghull, Liverpool, later told police: 'My head is messed up.'

Judge Brian Cummings, QC, originally sentenced the paedophile to two years and eight months in a young offenders institution at Liverpool Crown Court.

But a day later, he decided to reduce the sentence under a law known as the 'Slip Rule', which gives courts the power to alter a sentence or order made within 56 days.

He instead handed Long a two-year detention and training order, suspended for two years, with two years' supervision.

The judge also ordered Long to attend a sex offenders programme designed to tackle his disturbing behaviour.

An indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order and requirement to sign on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely remain in place.

Long admitted two counts of sexual assault, two counts of making and one count of possessing indecent images of children, in relation to the two boys.

He also pleaded guilty to seven counts of making and five counts of possessing indecent images, plus possession of cannabis.

The court heard he took six photos of himself sexually assaulting the victims.

Sarah Holt, prosecuting, said his vile stash contained 324 Category A pictures - the most serious category - plus 504 Category B and 4,234 Category C images.

She said there were a further 48 Category A, 35 Category B and seven Category C videos on the seven devices.

Long had 3,074 banned images of children including cartoons, plus 37 pictures and two videos depicting extreme porn and bestiality.

Judge Brian Cummings, QC, originally sentenced the paedophile to two years and eight months in a young offenders institution at Liverpool Crown Court (pictured), but he set him free the next day

Ms Holt said that, when interviewed by police: 'He said he didn't know why he did it and thinks his head is messed up.'

John Rowan, defending, said Long was remorseful, ashamed and utterly disgusted in himself, but also relieved that he had been caught and could now get professional help.

Mr Rowan said his client had an 'unpleasant' early childhood, suffered from severe malnutrition at the age of four, and was taken away from his mum.

After he was fostered, Long was removed from mainstream education because of behavioural difficulties and diagnosed with ADHD, for which he is on medication.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service website, the usual reason for altering a sentence under the rule is that new information has emerged, sentencing guidelines were ignored, or the sentence takes effect in an 'unexpected manner'.
Facebook chief Sheryl Sandberg, who has denied that the social network knew board member Peter Thiel was funding Hulk Hogan to sue gossip website Gawker

Facebook chief Sheryl Sandberg has denied that the social network knew board member Peter Thiel was funding Hulk Hogan to sue gossip website Gawker.

It was revealed last week that Thiel had been funding several lawsuits against Gawker in an attempt to bankrupt the blog which is based in New York City.

Among them was the $10million he gave to wrestling legend Hogan, who successfully sued Gawker earlier this year for publishing a clip from his sex tape.

But speaking at the Recode conference in California yesterday, Miss Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, revealed she didn't know Thiel was funding the lawsuits and confirmed he would remain on the board.

She told delegates: 'He did what he did as an independent person. We didn't know. He didn't use any Facebook resources. If he had, that would be an issue.

'This is not a Facebook thing. We have very independent board members. Those same strong people make great board members, they have strong views.'

Venture capitalist Thiel, has held a decade-long grudge against Gawker ever since they published an article in 2007, outing him to the public as gay.

In the suit he funded for Hogan, the wrestler won the case with a Florida judge ordering Gawker to pay $140million for the invasion of his privacy, but the website is currently in the process of appealing the decision.

However, his decision to help fund suing the website has drew criticism from some media moguls, who say it curtails press freedom.

This week, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post, said he doesn't believe a billionaire like Thiel should use his financial means to bankrupt a publication.

It was revealed last week that Thiel, left, had been funding several lawsuits against Gawker in an attempt to bankrupt the blog which is based in New York City. Among them was a suit brought by wrestler Hulk Hogan, pictured right with his wife Jennifer McDaniel

He said: 'The best defense against speech you don't like is a thick skin. If you can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting.'

Bezos did not speak specifically about Gawker, or the article about Thiel's homosexuality, but he did go into detail about why its important to protect all expressions of free speech in a democracy - even articles that may be offensive.

'Beautiful speech doesn't need protection, it's ugly speech that needs protection. We have these cultural norms that allow people to say really ugly things.

'You don't have to invite them to your dinner party, but you should let them say it,' he said.

He added: 'This country has the best free-speech laws in the world. You don't want to erode those. You don't want to create fear or chill.'

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, pictured, who also owns the Washington Post, said he doesn't believe a billionaire like Thiel should use his financial means to bankrupt a publication

Meanwhile, First Look Media, a news organization financed by Pierre Omidyar, philanthropist and the co-founder of eBay, says it is reaching out to other media outlets to file supportive briefs about Gawker.

The briefs could be used for the site's appeal of a $140 million invasion-of-privacy verdict Hogan won two months ago because Gawker posted a sex tape of him.

But there is no indication that Omidyar might fund Gawker's defense.
Jobless: Lee Fenton must find a way to look after his son (both pictured) and wife without an income

A father was sacked from his job after Southern Rail cancelled his train three days in a row because too many workers were calling in sick.

Health and safety worker Lee Fenton, 44, had started a temporary placement on Monday last week, and had been hoping to catch the 7.33am from Coulsdon South, south London.

However, the service was cancelled for three days in a row, making the temp Merton Council employee more than 30 minutes late - which was deemed unacceptable by his bosses.

Jobless Mr Fenton must now find a way to look after his wife and eight-year-old son without an income.

He said: 'I lost my job because I was relying on the trains to get me to work and because they are continually cancelled I was late to work and they dismissed me.

'I am going to have to go back to searching for jobs, looking for anything I can because no one is supporting the family.

'It's huge amounts of stress for us.'

Mr Fenton had started work for the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme at Merton Council.

But on his first day, his train, which National Rail estimates takes just over an hour, was cancelled - meaning he had to catch the 7.50am.

Further cancellations and delays meant that Mr Fenton didn't get to work until 9.30am.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the same train was cancelled, and despite trying different routes, he was still unable to get to work on time.

The train finally came on Thursday morning and Mr Fenton managed to get to work on time - but when he arrived, he was told his contract has been terminated.

He then had to return home and tell his wife Charlotte, 42, that until he finds another job, their only income will be Jobseekers' Allowance.

Mr Fenton said: 'I got really upset when they told me and it gave me a splitting headache.

'I heard my wife crying over the phone after I told her and she has broken down in tears three or four times since.'

Excuses: Despite choosing different routes to get to work, Southern trains still resulted in Mr Fenton being late

In an email from Merton Council to his agency, Headstart Employment, council bosses blames Mr Fenton's lateness as a key factor in his dismissal.

Staff at the council had also apparently complained that he smelt of smoke and had made derogatory remarks about the training.

A spokesman said: 'The company had an arrangement with an agency who supplied a temporary worker who was not suitable and so the agreement was ended..'

Furious Mr Fenton is now considering making a Southern Rail bingo app for smartphones, with players checking off different excuses for disruption

He said: 'I think Southern should get rid of the term public transport, they are not looking after the public at all.

'All you hear is the rhetoric 'we are providing customers with the information'. Well I don't want the information that my train has been delayed, I want the train.

Poor service: Southern Rail have come under fire for pre-cancelling 19 daily services, because so many of their conductors are calling in sick

'We just want trains to be there and be on time.'

A Southern Rail spokesman apologised, and said that Monday's 7.33am service, which leaves Three Bridges for London Victoria at 7.02am, was running half an hour late and so Southern decided to run the service straight from Gatwick to East Croydon, skipping Coulsdon South.

On the Tuesday and Wednesday the train was cancelled completely following a signalling error on the Tuesday and a shortage of carriages on the Wednesday.

The spokesman said: 'We can assure your reader that there is no underlying reason for these cancellations which would make it a longer-term issue and we are investigating the root causes.

'The train ran on Thursday and Friday.'
Vigilantes in Germany dragged a mentally ill asylum seeker from a supermarket and chained him to a tree after he threatened a worker with a wine bottle.

One of the lynch-mob members was a CDU conservative politician in the town who said he and his cohorts displayed 'civil courage.' But all are now at the centre of a police probe.

The man, 21, is housed in a psychiatric facility in Arnsdorf near Dresden.

The Iraqi man was in the Netto supermarketin Arnsdorf to return a phone card he thought was faulty

But he picked up a bottle when a store assistant pointed out that the credit had been used up and that he needed to buy a new one

Video has now surfaced online showing three men (dressed in black) bursting through the supermarket doors and attacking the Iraqi

He was surrounded in a cut-price supermarket called Netto by members of the local citizens defence group - an organisation set up by right-wingers to 'protect' locals following the events in Cologne on New Year's Eve when hundreds of women were sexually assaulted and robbed by immigrants.

According to police the Iraqi man had purchased a telephone card in the supermarket and returned to complain it wasn't working.

A store assistant pointed out that the credit had been used up and that he needed to buy a new one.

The disturbed man then grabbed a bottle of wine from a shelf and threatened the employee with it.

He was surrounded in a cut-price supermarket called Netto by members of the local citizens defence group - an organisation set up by right-wingers to 'protect' locals and dragged towards the door

The bottle was removed from him, he was punched several times (pictured) and dragged screaming from the supermarket

A video has now surfaced online showing three men bursting through the supermarket doors and attacking the Iraqi.

The bottle was removed from him, he was punched several times and dragged screaming from the supermarket.

Outside he was chained to a tree. A woman can be heard saying on the videotape: 'It is a shame that we need vigilantes to do this...'

When police turned up they sent the three men away, freed the Iraqi and returned him to the mental hospital where he is being cared for.

Outside he was chained to a tree. A woman can be heard saying on the videotape: 'It is a shame that we need vigilantes to do this...'

When police turned up they sent the three men away, freed the Iraqi and returned him to the mental hospital where he is being cared for

Local councillor Detlef Oelsner boasted of his involvement in the incident saying: 'We have shown civil courage.'

Three vigilantes are now being investigated because of deprivation of liberty of the Iraqi man and two more are being hunted.

It seems that someone called the vigilante group before calling the police to deal with the incident.
Road has been closed off to allow for a police crash investigation

Boy was rushed to hospital with serious injuries to his head and leg

to stop and crashed into a Lexus sedan about 4.30pm

A young biker is in a serious condition after allegedly crashing his trail bike into a car during a police pursuit.

The motorcyclist, 15, was riding in Western Sydneys Seven Hills when Blacktown Traffic and Highway Patrol officers attempted to stop him about 4.30pm.

The boy allegedly failed to stop and struck a grey Lexus sedan on Leabons Lane, suffering serious injuries to his head and leg.

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The biker was rushed to hospital at Westmead for treatment after crashing into a car during a police pursuit

The boy was rushed to The Childrens Hospital at Westmead for treatment, while the driver of the Lexus was not injured.

A police crash investigation unit has attended the scene, while the road has been closed to cordon off the area.

The Lexus driver is undergoing mandatory blood and urine tests.

Footage from the scene shows a damaged red trail bike lying near the gutter.

Police are urging anyone with information in relation to this incident to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000

Footage from the scene shows a damaged red trail bike lying near the gutter where the accident took place
Johnny Depp apparently had a confrontation with one of his own bodyguards last night as he stayed out swigging champagne with a mystery blonde until 4am.

The star, 52, allegedly had a tense moment with a bodyguard who was trying to persuade him to go back inside the hotel bar at around 2.30am at the concert after-party in Denmark.

But Depp seemed more interested in 'drinking and smoking a lot' with the blonde woman, according to observers.

'Johnny was in a party mood that's for sure,' said one observer.

'His bodyguard had his hand on his shoulder and was trying to get him to go back inside, but Johnny refused to go.'

It comes as his estranged wife Amber Heard, 30, released shocking pictures that 'prove' he assaulted her during their 15-month marriage. Depp denies the claims.

Flashpoint: Johnny Depp appears to be looking furiously at his bodyguard (the bald man pictured) who was trying to persuade him to stop talking to fans outside the bar and go back inside

Bust up: Depp, who was described as being 'in a party mood for sure', refused to listen to his security team and go back inside the bar - which appeared to lead to a moment of tension

Celebrating: The star raised a bottle of bubbly as he partied with band mates and friends outside the Royal Hotel in Aarhus, Denmark, until 4am today

Swigging: A blonde woman (pictured) was talking animatedly with Depp for 'two hours' throughout the night and drinking and smoking 'a lot', according to an observer

Row: Mobs of fans came up to Depp during the night, according to an observer, as the actor stood smoking and drinking outside the hotel bar. A brunette woman was pictured putting a protective arm around the star

'More and more fans came up to him and he wanted to talk to all of them and take selfies with them.

'And the bodyguard got more and more persistent but Johnny didn't want to go. He was in a mood to celebrate for sure.

'And he definitely drank his fair share of alcohol.'

Photographs of the alleged row show Depp looking furiously at the bodyguard as he tried to lead him away from a trio of three men.

Meanwhile a brunette woman seems to be trying to soothe the actor, putting his arm around her shoulder.

The observer added: 'Johnny was the last one to leave the bar, even after everyone had finished the champagne and gone home it was Johnny that went back to the bar.

'To look at him last night, with his clothes from the show and the mascara and everything, he looked like he was Jack Sparrow one more time.'

Upset: Depp partied as his estranged wife Amber Heard released photographs showing her with a bruised eye and bloody lip after Depp allegedly assaulted her

Company: The 52-year-old star was by the side of a mystery blonde woman throughout the night who observers described as 'drinking and smoking a lot'

Row: A witness told MailOnline: 'Johnny was in a party mood that's for sure. His bodyguard had his hand on his shoulder and was trying to get him to go back inside, but Johnny refused to go.'

Party: The witness said: 'More and more fans came up to him and he wanted to talk to all of them and take selfies with them. And the bodyguard got more and more persistent but Johnny didn't want to go. He was in a mood to celebrate for sure. 'And he definitely drank his fair share of alcohol'

Smiles: Hollywood Vampires and their entourage arrived back at the celebrity favourite Royal Hotel last night around midnight, before heading out to a casino and an English bar

The actor was outside the bar of the Royal Hotel, a favourite with celebrities, with the blonde woman with whom he talked 'animatedly' for around two hours.

'They smoked a lot and drank a lot,' added another observer.

'Johnny was sitting at a table behind me at the time, before they went outside together. They were outside together for about two hours and looked very animated when they were talking.

'It looked like she was really leading the conversation, while he was listening to her. And she was smoking a lot the whole time and drinking from the bottle of bubbly.

'It's clear they already knew each other.

'I stood by her when she was at the bar and she asked a woman for a light, and she was bought a white wine by an older man at the bar.'

Depp was celebrating with band mates and crew members in the late-night drinking session following a gig with his band The Hollywood Vampires in the Danish city of Horsens.

Party: The group stayed out drinking until 4am after the Hollywood Vampires gig at an old prison in the Danish city of Horsens, 40km from Aarhus where they stayed

Casino: A fan told MailOnline: 'Johnny was sitting at a table behind me at the time, before they went outside together. They were outside together for about two hours and looked very animated when they were talking'

Control: An observer said Depp appeared to consume his 'fair share' of alcohol and was determined to stay outside the bar against the instructions of his security team

He is in the middle of a European tour with the band, which also features Alice Cooper and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.

On Monday Depp partied until 2am with a mystery brunette in a Swedish hotel bar.

The star looked relaxed as he drank cocktails, laughed with friends and chatted with the stunning female friend at the 8,000-a-night hotel in Stockholm.

Depp and his entourage had the bar at the city's Grand Hotel opened specially after closing time, following a sell-out gig with Depp's band The Hollywood Vampires.

Actor: The witness added that his mascara and clothes from the gig, as well as his Pirates of the Caribbean tattoo on show, he 'looked like Jack Sparrow', his character from the film

Party: The group arrived back at their 1,500 a night four star hotel in Denmark's second city at around midnight and continued to party

Centre of attention: The star was surrounded by the crew after his Hollywood Vampires sell-out gig in Horsens last night

The star left Sweden on Wednesday afternoon and flew into Copenhagen, Denmark.

They have been staying at the 1,500-a-night Royal Hotel, which is located in the city centre, has a casino, nightclub and garden restaurant. Depp was reportedly seen drinking in the hotel's English style bar on Wednesday afternoon.

Gig: The band were playing at a former prison, which is located in the city of Horsens, in Denmark

Rockstars: The Hollywood Vampires also features Alice Cooper (pictured) and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry

He was celebrating after after claims in the US that he will not be prosecuted for allegedly throwing an iPhone at estranged wife Amber Heard, which prompted her to file for divorce.

The actress, 30, released shocking images of her bruised face after an alleged confrontation with Depp in December 2015.

The photographs show her with a black eye and bloody lip after at attack that made her 'truly fear for my life'.

The furious legal battle is ongoing with Heard claiming that Depp has been physically abusive towards her during their 15-month marriage. Depp strenuously denies the allegations.

After party: On Monday Depp was pictured drinking next to a mystery brunette from inside the hotel bar he stayed at in Sweden

Drinks: The bar at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm was closing and other guests were leaving when Depp arrived and they reopened it for him and his group

Heard was granted a temporary restraining order against Depp last week after accusing him of domestic abuse in a court filing.

A judge ruled that Depp must remain at least 100 yards away from Heard until their next hearing, which is scheduled for late June.

Heard was also granted the right to live in the family home, but failed in her bid for sole custody of one of the couple's dogs.

A representative for Depp said in a statement on Thursday; 'Given the brevity of this marriage and the most recent and tragic loss of his mother, Johnny will not respond to any of the salacious false stories, gossip, misinformation and lies about his personal life.

'Hopefully the dissolution of this short marriage will be resolved quickly.'

Happier times: Depp's estranged wife Heard filed for divorce on May 23 and a restraining order against Depp on May 27 (couple pictured above in October 2011)

Injuries: The actress, 30, claims the photographs were taken after an incident in December 2015 during which she 'truly feared for my life'
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A British soldier's fascinating photographs showing the devastation across Nazi Germany immediately after the Second World War have come to light 70 years later.

The incredible album of 262 black and white pictures show the stark aftermath of the war, with buildings reduced to rubble, towns flooded, bridges and dams destroyed and battleships sunk.

Among them are intriguing and haunting images of an abandoned factory where the Germans made their deadly V-2 rockets.

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A British soldier poses with the remains of a V-2 rocket at the Leese factory where the Nazi's deadly weapon was made. The image is part of a fascinating archive of photograph that offer an insight into what post-war Germany was like just after the end of World War Two

Left to rust: Sunken ships still remained in Kiel harbour in 1946, revealing the stark and prolonged aftermath of World War Two

Reduced to rubble: The ruins of the famous Kaiserhof hotel in Wilhelmplatz which was badly damaged by a British air raid in 1943

Waterworld: The town of Minden was still flooded in 1946 after a devastating air raid by US B17s on March 28, 1945, that almost completely destroyed the town centre, including the town hall and cathedral and resulted in the death of over 180 people

Work gets underway to repair the bridge at Minden in 1946 after the town was destroyed by an air raid by US B17s an year earlier

The V-2 was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile, developed by the Germans as a 'vengeance weapon' to attack Britain in retaliation for the RAF's devastating bombings of cities like Dresden and Cologne.

Unfortunately, not much is known about the photographer but they are believed to have been a British soldier who was with the Allied forces in occupied Germany in 1946.

The album documents his travels through several regions of Germany, including Berlin, Minden, Bad Salzuflen, Bunde, Brunswick and Kiel Harbour, and also shows the efforts to rebuild the ravaged towns and cities.

The V-2 rocket factory near Leese, near Hanover was discovered on April 8, 1945 by the Allies.

The remains of a V2 rocket at the Leese factory where the Nazi's deadly weapon was made. The V-2 was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile, developed by the Germans as a 'vengeance weapon' to attack Britain

The V-2 rocket was developed by the Germans to attack Britain in retaliation for the RAF's bombings of cities like Dresden and Cologne

The V-2 rocket factory at Leese, near Hanover, was discovered on April 8, 1945 by the Allies as they advanced towards Berlin

It is believed a retreating German battalion haphazardly destroyed the V-2 and equipment with explosives before fleeing

Readied for launch: Hauntingly, one of the photos shows a rocket loaded onto a flatbed railcar, ready for transportation to a launch site

It is believed a retreating German battalion haphazardly destroyed the weapons and equipment with explosives before fleeing.

Hauntingly, one of the photos shows a rocket loaded onto a flatbed railcar, ready for transportation to a launch site. Another is of an unnamed soldier posing beside one of the huge damaged rockets like it is a tourist attraction.

And the pictures of the factory, which is surrounded by trees, show it with a grass-covered roof to hide it from any air attacks.

The album now belongs to an antiques dealer who has no links to the unidentified British soldier. The dealer is now selling it at auctioneers Martel Maides Auctions in Guernsey for an estimated 350.

Justin Gibney, of Martel Maides, said: 'It is a wonderful documentation of post-war Germany. Some of the images showing the level of destruction to buildings and bridges is quite shocking.

'The photographs of the V-2 building are very interesting but quite haunting as it still looks like it has just been abandoned by the Germans.'

Berlin was still a bomb site in 1946. The images from a British soldier shows the devastation across Nazi Germany

One shows a group of women sorting through the piles of bricks in Berlin, presumably for ones to reuse to rebuild the German capital

Blitzed: The remains of Minden after a devastating air raid by US B17s on 28 March 1945 almost completely destroyed the town centre

More bomb damage is seen here in the ancient town of Brunswick after an Anglo-American air raid on October 15, 1944 destroyed most of the city's churches and the Altstadt (old town), the largest ensemble of Medieval timbered houses in Germany

One set of photos that are captioned Minden residents thigh-high in flood water.

The town was heavily bombed during the war and sustained severe damage.

Underground factories for war materials were built in the Weser and Wiehen Hills near Minden and slave labourers from the nearby concentration camp were forced to produce weapons.

In a raid on October 26, 1944, the canal aqueduct was hit, breaching the Mittelland Canal and drowning workers in a nearby air raid shelter.

When the Nazis fled Minden they blew up almost all the bridges over the Weser and Mittelland Canal, as well as the aqueduct, in a futile attempt to delay the Allied advance, flooding the town again.

Flooded: When the Nazis fled Minden, they blew up almost all the bridges over the Weser and Mittelland Canal, as well as the aqueduct, in a futile attempt to delay the Allied advance

Underground factories for war materials were built near Minden and slave labourers from the nearby concentration camp were forced to produce weapons

One picture in this album shows one of these bridges near Minden being rebuilt.

There are poignant pictures of Kiel Harbour, a major naval base during the war, with a partially sunken ship in the water, and the rubbled remains of the heavily bombed capital, Berlin.

One shows a group of women sorting through the piles of bricks, presumably for ones to reuse to rebuild the city while another shows the ruins of Hotel Kaiserhof's, Berlin's first 'grand hotel' which was badly damaged by British bombers in an air raid in 1943.

The damaged Reichstag building, where the German Parliament had met up until it was set on fire in 1933, is also in the album.

The building wasn't fully repaired while the Nazis ruled and was further damaged by air raids in the Second World War.

It was partially refurbished in the 1960s but a full restoration wasn't completed until 1999, led by architect Norman Foster. The album is being sold on June 9.

The damaged Reichstag building, where the German Parliament had met up until it was set on fire in 1933, is also in the album
Angler Juan Gallo was shocked when he landed his latest catch because of its human looking teeth.

Gallo was fishing in duck pond in Petaluma City, north of San Francisco in California when he landed his unusual catch.

The fish is believed to be a pacu which is normally found in the Amazon rain forest and is illegal in California.

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Angler Juan Gallo landed the Amazonian pacu fish while fishing in his local duck pond in Petaluma City

The pacu is known as 'The Nut Cracker' due to its habit of biting the testicles of male swimmers

He said when the fish landed on the dirt he could tell it was like nothing he had ever seen before

However, Gallo was rather fortunate not to be injured by the pacu - as it is related to the flesh eating piranha.

Worse still for Gallo, the pacu is known as 'The Nutcracker'. In the wild, the pacu has been known to attack male swimmers by trying to eat their testicles.

Gallo told the Press Democrat: 'It landed on the dirt and you could tell it wasn't anything we had seen before.'

The fish's worldwide popularity has seen them spread far from their Brazilian homeland, with the fish being found in Paris, Scandinavia and Oceania.

In Papua New Guinea, where the fish is known as the 'Ball Cutter', a member of the species is thought to have contributed to two men's death from blood loss after it castrated them.

Scientists in Denmark said that reports of pacu eating genitalia were 'overblown' after they issued a joking warning to male swimmers to beware following a sighting of the fish, according to National Geographic.
The killers of little Liam Fee are being held just just yards apart in separate cells on the same prison wing.

Married Rachel and Nyomi Fee, of Fife, east Scotland, battered two-year-old Liam after putting him and two other boys through months of shocking abuse.

The pair are currently both being held on the remand wing at Cornton Vale prison in Stirling as they await sentencing.

Rachel Fee and her civil partner Nyomi Fee are in currently on the same wing of a Scottish prison

The couple were convicted of murder after little Liam died when his heart ruptured from blows to his chest

During their trial, it was revealed that, as they continued to abuse and neglect Liam, they were determined to make sure their relationship would last.

Analysis of their internet searches found questions including 'can wives go to prison together?'.

Ultimately the Fees will be separated, but for the next four weeks they will be allowed to remain close until they are sentenced.

Liam died when his heart ruptured from blows to his chest and a pathologist latee found he had more than 30 injuries, including a fractured upper arm and thigh.

The two killers carried out two years of sustained attacks on the toddler and two other boys as social services repeatedly failed to act.

The pairs depraved abuse included imprisoning one boy in a cage made from a fire guard, using cable ties to bind his hands behind his back.

They also tied another boy naked to a chair in a dark room with nine snakes and several rats, forcing him to eat his own vomit and telling him a boa constrictor ate naughty little boys. They also forced the youngsters to take cold showers when they wet the bed

The two women arrived at the Stirlingshire prison on May 20 after incriminating themselves when they admitted failing to get Liam help for his broken leg.

When Liam needed urgent hospital treatment, the couple Googled whether they could stay together in prison

The pair, who face lengthy jail terms, are now being held in the same wing at Cornton Vale prison in Stirling

According to a prison source, the couple are living on the same wing, which has 'sickened both prisoners and guards'.

They said that prison is a 'dangerous place' for the pair, who were verbally abused by others when they arrived.

The source said: 'It has sickened both prisoners and guards that this pair are on the same wing as each other and can still be together.

'They are still at each other's side. They may feel safer being together at the moment but the prisoners here hate this pair.

'Killing a child is the big no-no in here and when the women read about the abuse this lad suffered before they killed him, then it fuels the fire. They are in a very dangerous place. It seems a sick logic, but this crime will not be tolerated by the women.

'When they arrived it was like a scene from outside court. They were being verbally abused like I have never seen before.

'They will be separated after they get sentenced, that's when they will be sent into the mainstream jail.

'Child killers, especially those that have abused a toddler so horrifically like this pair did, are in for a very rough ride.'

As well as causing the injuries which led to Liam's death, they also kept another boy in a cage.

Pictures from their home show the chains used to tie one boy to a bed

Mothers Against Murder and Aggression chairman Amanda Everit said: 'We are astounded to learn these two women are in a position where, one would imagine, they are still able to openly associate.

'They not only murdered a defenceless little boy after what appears from the evidence to be sustained and prolonged abuse of him and other children but they further conspired to ensure a seven-year-old child would take the blame for their heinous act.

'This story will impact on the father and extended families of these children.'

After sentencing, it is believed the couple will be separated, with one staying at Cornton Vale while the other is sent to a female wing at either Edinburgh, Greenock or Grampian.

However, the Scottish Daily Mail revealed yesterday that it is likely the pair will be allowed to visit each other.

A source added: 'It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that they will meet behind bars, but it certainly wouldn't be on a regular basis.'
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The stylish inner-city warehouse apartment renovated by celebrity chef and restaurateur Mark Best has been sold at an auction.

Best and his wife Valerie bought two adjacent apartments in the harbour-side suburb of Pyrmont, Sydney, in 2007 and converted them into a single, striking minimalist space.

They bought the apartments, at 380 Harris Street, for a grand total of $1.4million and sold the converted property for $2m at an auction over the weekend, reported propertyobserver.com.au.

One of the minimalist apartment's highlights is the stylish but simple kitchen, which features stone bench tops, an induction stove and hidden cupboards to reduce clutter

Describing his desire to design a simple kitchen with minimal clutter, Best said: 'My dream kitchen is something that is hidden away'

The 212sqm apartment is a 'versatile living space' that highlights simplicity by tucking additional features out of site

The property's listing on describes the space as a 'rare mezzanine renovation in a prestigious warehouse location'.

The open-plan property stretches over 212sqm and has three double bedrooms and two bathrooms.

Not surprisingly, the simplistic kitchen is one of the property's highlights - featuring elegant stone bench tops, double ovens and storage spaces tucked away out of site to reduce clutter.

Architect Julius Belkor designed the apartment's conversion, taking care to emphasise original features such as the concrete floors, brick walls and exposed pipework.

Best enlisted architect Julius Belkor to help with the renovation, taking care to preserve original features such as the concrete floors and exposed brick work

The apartment is described as a 'rare mezzanine renovation in a prestigious location' and is located in a former warehouse at 380 Harris Street, Sydney

Describing the kitchen, Best told completehome.com.au: 'My dream kitchen is something that is hidden away.

'I already have large work surfaces which can be wiped down easily from fats and oils.

'I also love a huge sink and dishwasher, along with a walk-in larder and large refrigerator. Its basically everything Ive put in my latest kitchen, which Ive put a lot of thought into.'

The pared-back apartment also accentuates industrial features such as the exposed pipe work in the ceiling

In a biography for his fine dining restaurant Marque in Surry Hills, Mark Best is described as 'the Patrick Bateman of the Sydney dining scene'.

The former electrician from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, has been named in the World's 50 Best Restaurant's list and also owns a bistro in Melbourne.

In 2010 he was awarded the coveted Chef of the Year prize by the Good Food Guide and in 2011 Marque was named the restaurant of the year.

Mark Best was awarded the coveted Chef of the Year prize in 2010 by the Good Food Guide and his fine dining restaurant Marque was named restaurant of the year in 2011
A woman convicted of negligent homicide in 2006 is facing new charges for drug possession.

Eynette Lee Peterson, 40, was arraigned Tuesday on drug possession charges in front of Yellowstone County District Court Judge Michael Moses. It was Peterson's second arraignment in two weeks, having appeared Friday for a 2015 bail-jumping charge.

District Court has also received three supervision violation reports from Peterson's probation officer.

In 2005, Peterson was arrested for living in a meth laboratory with a man who was cooking the drug in his apartment. While those charges were pending, Peterson was involved in a car crash on May 13, 2006.

According to charging documents in the case, Peterson was driving a Ford Bronco on Story Road on a clear, dry, night when the Bronco left the roadway and struck a tree on the passenger's side.

Peterson's passenger, 43-year-old Gabriel Rodriguez Lopez, suffered massive head trauma and died three days later after being declared brain dead. Peterson admitted to drinking before the accident, and her blood alcohol level was measured at 0.13 percent.

She was sentenced in both cases on March 2, 2007. She pleaded no contest to the charge of negligent homicide and was sentenced to 10 years with the Montana Department of Corrections with five years suspended. An additional five years of supervision was added for her charge of criminal drug possession from when she was found in a meth lab.

During the sentencing, Lopez's widow, Donna Palido asked the judge to give Peterson the maximum possible sentence.

Then-Deputy County Attorney David Carter, who is now a Yellowstone County Justice of the Peace, argued for 15 years with five suspended, not including her drug possession charges. He told Gustafson Peterson needed more incarceration time to beat her addiction problems.

After her sentencing, Peterson was sent to Elkhorn Treatment Center, which Billings Probation and Parole Director Chris Evans said is one of the best treatment facilities the Montana Department of Corrections offers.

She started there in November 2007 and completed the program in August 2008. She returned to Yellowstone County to complete her supervision.

In April 2015, Peterson was taken to in-patient treatment at Rimrock after her counselors determined she needed a higher level of care. She left the facility about 24 hours later.

According to her probation officer, Joseph Dompier, Peterson did not adjust well to supervision.

On May 21, Peterson was arrested for possessing Ritalin and a glass pipe officers suspect was used to smoke meth.

Peterson has a revocation hearing set for August to determine whether her sentence will be revoked. She has pled not guilty to the charge of bail jumping as well as the possession charge.

Montana Department of Corrections Director Mike Batista said it is rare for an addict to succeed the first time they attempt to recover from drug addiction. He said probation officers struggle with this problem alongside addicts.

Many probation officers in Montana have 80 or more offenders on their caseloads. Its an enormous challenge," Batista said. "On a daily basis, officers are faced with weighing the fact that addicts are going to relapse against the risks offenders pose to public safety when they start to use again.
Actor is set for lead role in Bonnie Prince Charlie film The Great Getaway

The 24-year-old, from Poole, also has two previous convictions for violence

Bacon attacked Saman Alijaf after he was stopped from going behind bar

Jamie Bacon was found guilty of assaulting manager of a pub in Chiswick

Jamie Bacon, set to star in the title role of a new Bonnie Prince Charlie epic, attacked a bar manager when his girlfriend was refused an after-hours drink

A young actor set to star in the title role of a new Bonnie Prince Charlie epic attacked a bar manager when his girlfriend was refused an after-hours drink.

Jamie Bacon, 24, is set to play the Jacobite pretender in the multi-million pound production of The Great Getaway, which will begin filming in Scotland later this year.

He was picked to play the role of Charles Edward Stuart by Scottish writer-director Robbie Moffat, who is rumoured to have also cast Kristen Stewart and Brendan Gleeson.

Bacon and actress girlfriend Beatrice Colwyn-Foulkes, 22, were celebrating her final performance at a nearby drama school when the incident occurred at The Tabard pub, Bath Road, Chiswick.

Bar manager Saman Aljaf, 27, told Feltham Magistrates' Court how the pub stopped serving at midnight on December 6 last year.

'The defendant walked behind the bar and said: "Come on mate, you can serve one more" and I started to guide him, using very gentle force, away.

'People don't usually act with that level of arrogance or confidence to walk behind the bar,' added the manager, who told Bacon he had the power to bar him from the premises.

Mr Aljaf said the actor was reluctant to leave the bar area, pushing the manager in the chest and telling him not to touch him.

'He said: "F*** you, you can't tell me what to do, you can't bar me" and became progressively more defiant.

'He said if I tried to take his drink off him, he'd put me on the floor. He said: "I've paid for this drink, I'm not going outside."'

The manager admitted to putting his hands on the shoulders of Bacon 'with open palms to usher him out of the door' as staff members were becoming distressed.

'He immediately grabbed the scruff of my neck by the back of my shirt and forced me against the wall with his full body weight, his full force,' Mr Aljaf added. 'It was a heavy thud.

'He still had a bottle of cider in his hand and I was afraid he'd bottle me.

The 24-year-old actor, right, is pictured outside Feltham Magistrates' Court with girlfriend Beatrice Colwyn-Foulkes, 22

Jamie Bacon, shown outside court, is set to play the Jacobite pretender in the multi-million pound production of The Great Getaway, which will begin filming in Scotland later this year

'He did seem intoxicated, but not really drunk, but whatever he had gave him the confidence to do what he did.

'I had a bit of a sore neck, a fabric burn where he grabbed me.'

Barmaid Michaela Burton, 24, called the police and told the court: 'I saw Saman being pulled back by his shirt, which was tight around his neck and his neck was pulled backwards.

'The defendant kept saying: "Come outside." It was like he wanted to fight,' she added.

'His group were making fun of my [New Zealand] accent and were egging the situation on. One woman said to me: "Come outside so I can put you on the ground".'

Prosecutor Vijay Khuttan said: 'The defendant's girlfriend was seeking more alcohol and accepted the explanation, but the defendant demanded alcohol.

Bar manager Saman Aljaf was grabbed around the collar by Bacon and pushed against a wall

'He became boisterous and aggressive and when ushered away said he would not leave and would fight anybody.

'Mr. Aljaf ushered him out by placing his hands on him and the defendant got hold of the back of his shirt, around the neck, and pushed him against the wall.

'The friends of the defendant intervened and prised him away from the manager.'

Bacon, who has two convictions for violence as a teenager, told the court he had two glasses of wine earlier in the evening and went behind the bar in an attempt to get served by a barmaid he knew.

'The bar manager came aggressively at me and grabbed the top part of my chest and began pushing me backwards, shouting at me to: "F*** off."

'In self-defence I've pushed his arms off me and went outside with my girlfriend. Twenty minutes later the police turned up and arrested me in front of everyone.'

Bacon spent the night in police cells and when questioned nine hours later told officers the bar manager was 'heavy-handed and aggressive'.

Mr Khuttan asked him: 'You wanted your friend the barmaid to break the law to serve you and your friends drinks?'

Beatrice backed-up her boyfriends's account saying: 'He pushed back in self-defence when the manager aggressively moved towards him. It was quite scary.'

She had enjoyed a champagne dinner with her family and Bacon after the play and the pair joined around 30 drama students who had been drinking all night at the pub.

However, magistrate Chris Hack rejected both their accounts: 'There may have been some collusion and your evidence was less than credible,' he told Bacon.

'We believe Mr Aljaf and his account that you grabbed him by the collar and pushed him against the wall

'This was an unfortunate incident that got out of hand and you assaulted Mr. Aljaf during an intentional act of aggression.'

Bacon and actress girlfriend Beatrice Colwyn-Foulkes, 22, were celebrating her final performance at a nearby drama school when the incident occurred at The Tabard pub, Chiswick (pictured)

Bacon was found guilty of assaulting the manager and was fined 180, with 400 costs and was ordered to pay 50 compensation to Mr Aljaf and a 20 victim surcharge.

'We have hear the facts of this case and the seriousness of it,' added Mr Hack, who heard Bacon assaulted a bouncer six years ago and was convicted of actual bodily harm as a youth.

'There's clearly a little bit of a pattern and we should caution you as to your future actions. We don't want to see you in court again. We don't think you are a bad person.'

Bacon's lawyer Andrew Moxon told the magistrates: 'He is a very pleasant and likeable young man who went behind the bar maybe trying to impress the ladies by getting them a drink.'

He said the young actor, who is supported financially by his parents, has no alcohol or drug issues.

He splits his time between his parents' residence in Sandbanks, Poole, and his girlfriend's Battersea home.
A father-of-three who spotted this cloud has joked that it looks just like the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and that it could be a sign she is watching over the EU referendum.

Phil Stevens, 37, saw the cloud in the skies over Portsmouth, one of the UK's main gateways into Europe, and immediately thought it could be linked to the vote later this month.

The distinct shape of the Iron Lady can be seen in profile, with the shape of Thatcher's nose clearly visible while other fluffy clouds make up her trademark hairstyle.

Father-of-three Phil Stevens, 37, who spotted this cloud has joked that it looks just like the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and that it could be a sign she is watching over the EU referendum

Mr Stevens quickly took a picture of the shape on his phone and immediately shared it with friends saying that he had spotted the former Prime Minister in a cloud.

The events manager, who lives on the Wirral, Merseyside, but travels all over the country with work, said: 'The resemblance to Margaret Thatcher is uncanny.

'I was sitting in my van eating my lunch when I spotted the cloud. I thought of Thatcher straightaway. It had the hair, the nose, everything. I couldn't believe it.

'I took a photograph of it straightaway before it had the chance to change shape and I shared it on social media. A lot of people agreed with me.'

Mr Stevens believes the appearance of the Thatcher cloud is an eerie coincidence ahead of the EU referendum on June 23

Mr Stevens believes the appearance of the Thatcher cloud is an eerie coincidence ahead of the EU referendum on June 23.

He said: 'I thought it was strange to see the cloud so close to the EU referendum. It was quite spooky. It's daft but it really does look like her.

'I've never been to Portsmouth before but I know it is one of the main ports leading into the UK from Europe, so it made it even stranger.

'I think Thatcher would be the puppet master for Cameron and the rest of them, so she would be voting to remain in the EU.'

During her 11 years as Prime Minister, Thatcher fought numerous battles against what she saw as the excessive powers of Brussels.
She was jailed for a year as Ms Stafford said 'she broke my heart'

Fund was set up to send Ashton Stafford and her daughters to Disneyland

A single mother who stole thousands of pounds raised to help her terminally ill best friend go on a bucket list holiday with her family has been jailed.

Heartless Zoe Head, 30, took money raised by the community to help mother-of-three Ashton Stafford, 29, fulfill her dying wish of taking her young daughters to Disneyland Paris.

Head even compounded her crime by spreading lies that Ms Stafford had lied about her cancer amd telling people she had spent the money herself.

Zoe Head, 30, (right) took money raised by the community to help mother-of-three Ashton Stafford, 29, from Redruth, Cornwall, fulfill her dying wish of taking her young daughters, Mischa, 10, Skye-Lily, nine, (pictured with their mother, left) and Ffion, six, to Disneyland Paris

Head later admitted stealing 2,100 of the charity money from a fundraising PayPal account before transferring funds into her former partner's account to pay for a deposit on a rented property, and was jailed for a year at Truro Crown Court last week.

Speaking after the case, heartbroken Ms Stafford, of Redruth, Cornwall, said she had spent three years being vilified and ostracised by Head, who had been her best friend for eight years and had even sat on the top table at her wedding.

'She went round saying I wasn't ill, that I had spent all that money,' said Ms Stafford, who has since divorced. 'I want my name completely cleared.

'It's not just me that has gone through this, it is my children too.

'I didn't even pick my children up from school, that's how bad it got, because people didn't believe I had cancer.

'I was full of anxiety, I was completely rock bottom. To all of those people out there, now they know I didn't do anything wrong.

'I never stole any of that money and I do have cancer and I shouldn't even have to be making this statement.

Ms Stafford's plight prompted Head (second from right), Ruth Stevens (right) and Gemma Delaney (second from left) to start fundraising for the mother-of-three (centre). Miss Stevens's sister Lisa Williams (left) also organised a fundraising day at a local pub in May 2013, where the women are pictured

'She broke my heart and I couldn't understand why she couldn't look at me and say, "I'm sorry".

'She was my best friend who was on the top table of my wedding. It was the ultimate betrayal.'

Ms Stafford was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in her lymph node in 2009. Despite numerous operations, the cancer had spread by 2012 and doctors told her there was nothing more that could be done to save her life.

She broke my heart and I couldn't understand why she couldn't look at me and say, 'I'm sorry' Ashton Stafford

Her plight prompted Head and friends Ruth Stevens and Gemma Delaney to launch an appeal to send her and daughters Mischa, 10, Skye-Lily, nine, and Ffion, six, to Paris.

Alongside the PayPal account, which Head had set up and had access to. the trio organised a fundraising day at the Coppice Inn, Lanner, in May 2013, which was run by Miss Stevens' sister Lisa Williams.

With a 4,000 anonymous donation and money raised at the event, a total of 9,000 was collected.

The court heard that Head stole 2,100 between May 2013 and June 2104 after getting into 'significant rent arrears' and she had been responsible for setting up the PayPal account, operating it and had the details of passwords to access it.

Michael Brown, prosecuting, told the court that the Crown Prosecution Service, Miss Stafford and her friends believed that the transfer of money was closer to 5,000.

Head, also known as Zoey Marie Bryant, admitted transferring 2,100 from the fundraising account into that of her former partner Daniel Pellow in January 2014. Pellow was previously cleared of all charges.

Ms Stafford was diagnosed with malignant melanoma in her lymph node in 2009 and was told in 2012 that doctors would be unable to save her life

In an emotional impact statement read out in court, Ms Stafford branded her former friend, who had been beside her during many of her hospital appointments, as 'cruel and evil' for the lies she had spun, and detailed the 'devastating' impact of the betrayal on herself and her family.

She told the court she had been 'tormented' by people who believed the rumours and thought she was a fake.

She said: 'You were one of my closet friends, I loved you. You were at the top table the day I got married.

'To take away something meant for me and my beautiful children, it breaks my heart.

'What Zoe has done has robbed me of the last three years of my life.'

Chris Spencer, mitigating, said Head, from Camborne, Cornwall, had started with the 'best motives' and had even taken part in a skydive to raise funds.

He said: 'She had had every intention of paying back the money.'

Jailing Head, Judge Simon Carr said there had been an extreme breach of trust and she had tried to divert responsibility for the disappearance of the money onto others.

He said: 'Whilst the amount itself might not have been substantial the effect on Miss Stafford was devastating.'

He added if that 'trust is breached' people will not raise funds or donate to good causes.

Ms Stafford is currently undergoing chemotherapy and is taking part in drug trials to extend her life.

After the sentencing, she added: 'What upsets me more she had no remorse in there. I read that victim statement to her because I really wanted her to know what she had done to me.'That's the hardest thing I ever done. I have battled cancer for the last six years, I have had the most awful operations and I actually felt worse about reading that out.

'I felt like I was ostracised and I was on trial. I can finally clear my name. It's not just me that has gone through this, it is my children as well.'

Although the family never made it to Disneyland the family have used the money left to go on holidays in the UK.

After the case, Miss Stevens, 31, said Head's actions were 'unforgivable'.

'In all of this are Ashton's children,' she said. 'Her little 10-year-old came up to me a year after the fundraiser and asked me when she was going to Disney and that broke my heart.

'We just wanted the best for them.

'None of us want to raise money ever again.'

Damian Haydney, from Camborne CID, said it was a 'despicable crime' and a 'gross breach of trust'.
Amy El-Keria, pictured, died while receiving treatment at the Priory Hospital Ticehurst House

Neglect and staff shortages contributed to the death of a 14-year-old girl who died while under the care of the Priory, an inquest jury ruled today.

Amy El-Keria died while receiving treatment at the Priory Hospital Ticehurst House in East Sussex, where she was admitted after being asked to leave a boarding school for children for special needs.

The teenager, who had a complex range of mental health diagnoses, was found in her room in November 2012, just hours after she told staff she wished to end her life.

Delivering findings that are highly critical of the Priory, a jury said she died of unintended consequences of a deliberate act, contributed to by neglect.

It ruled that staff failed to dial 999 quickly enough, failed to call a doctor promptly and were not trained in CPR despite a request from an employee, among other failings.

The Priory Group also runs the Priory Hospital, Roehampton, which is known for the treatment of celebrities with mental health problems, including addictions and eating disorders. Kate Moss, Amy Winehouse and Robbie Williams are among those who have received treatment at the centre.

The Priory Group also runs mental health services as part of a contract with the NHS.

Amy had a complex range of diagnoses, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette's, oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), gender identity dysphoria and conduct disorder.

She attended High Close School in Berkshire, for children with special needs, before being asked to leave.

The inquest heard that, while at school, she had drawn a picture of herself killing herself and had written underneath: 'If only this could happen, but I haven't got the guts.'

Amy made several attempts to end her life in early 2012 before she was admitted as a 'nervous' inpatient to Ticehurst House in August, following a referral by West London Mental Health NHS Trust.

The teenager was deemed high-risk and put on 15-minute observations, and forcibly sedated on at least two occasions. Her risk was downgraded to medium before her death.

On the day she died, Amy told a member of staff she wanted to kill herself. That evening, a member of staff found her door locked and realised Amy had decided to try to end her life.

The inquest heard that, before an ambulance arrived, an oxygen mask was put over Amy's face which did not fit and there was a 'high level of anxiety among the team'.

Amy El-Keria died while receiving treatment at the Priory Hospital Ticehurst House in East Sussex, pictured, where she was admitted after being asked to leave a boarding school for children for special needs

She was not resuscitated properly by staff, was vomiting profusely and had to be removed from the hospital on a body board because the ambulance stretcher would not fit in the hospital lift.

Earlier in the inquest, Priory staff said that, due to pressure on wards, they had not always been able to give the teenager one-to-one time.

While summing up the evidence, West Sussex senior coroner Penelope Schofield said that one member of senior staff had 'put on training on Tourette's but nobody had attended'.

The inquest jury sitting at Horsham Coroner's Court, West Sussex, ruled that a series of failings on the part of the Priory contributed to Amy's death.

The response of staff was so inadequate that the jury agreed there was a possibility that Amy may have lived if she had received proper care.

It also ruled staffing levels were not adequate, and a lack of one-to-one time caused or contributed to Amy's death in a 'significant' way.

Risk assessments were not properly carried out; staff did not assess the risk of her being able to take her own life in her room; and opportunities were missed to help Amy in her room before her death, all causing or contributing 'significantly' to her death.

The jury also said the Priory failed to properly deal with the fact that Amy was being bullied, and staff failed to share details of the times the teenager had said she wanted to kill herself.

A delay in checking on her on the evening she died also contributed significantly to her death, while she should have been under even closer scrutiny, it said.

The jury heard that staff were not trained in resuscitation techniques and did not always tell parents when their children were being forcibly sedated.

Dr Sylvia Tang, Priory Group medical director, said: 'We would like to offer an unreserved apology and our heartfelt sympathies to Amy's family.

'Following the incident, we undertook an extensive investigation and strengthened a number of our procedures at the hospital.

'We will now review the findings of the inquest very carefully and consider whether further improvements can be made including in relation to staffing, care plans and risk assessments.

'Since the incident took place, we have been re-inspected by the independent Care Quality Commission which has confirmed the hospital is meeting all national standards.'
A police officer called to a disturbance near a gay bar in Glasgow gave patrons a surprise when he went inside and started singing karaoke.

The Police Scotland officer, known only as 'Sergeant John', and three colleagues had been called to deal with an incident outside the Waterloo Bar in central Glasgow on Wednesday evening.

After interviewing witnesses, he took to the stage and belted out Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive to loud applause.

The Police Scotland officer, known only as 'Sergeant John', performed karaoke after he was called to an affray outside the Waterloo Bar in Glasgow

The officer delighted punters - and his colleagues - with his lively and spirited performance

Police had been called to the scene following reports of an affray between a man and a woman.

Announcing 'I will sing', the officer gave a spirited rendition of the classic, complete with animated dance moves, as drinkers filmed the action on their phones.

At the end of his performance he took a bow and received a standing ovation before returning to duty.

After the performance, karaoke host Katie Boyle posted on Facebook: 'So I managed to get Sergeant John to sing in the Waterloo Bar today after a wee incident.

'It was an accomplishment that I got him up to do it. He was brilliant and just goes to show not all bad can be said about Police Scotland.'

Sergeant John took a bow and received a standing ovation before returning to duty

Another customer added: 'The officer had come in with a few of his colleagues and had spoken to the staff about an earlier incident.

'The pub was really busy. After he had done his duties the karaoke host got him up to perform.

'He tried to stop after one verse but the crowd was loving it so he carried on. He was really good and had all the moves.'

Last month, Police Scotland was one of the first forces in the country to join in the running man challenge set by their counterparts in the US, when it posted a video of officers dancing at Edinburgh Castle.
Wildlife officials have removed more of the 137 tigers kept at the temple

Bodies of 40 baby tigers found stuffed in freezers at temple

Monk caught trying to flee temple in a car filled with skins and fangs

More gruesome finds at Thailand 's Tiger Temple as raids continue

Thai authorities caught a monk trying to leave the kingdom's controversial 'Tiger Temple' with a car full of skins and fangs on Thursday, officials said

Raids at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province continued on Thursday, as police discovered animal body parts in the monks' sleeping quarters.

Dozens of police and park officials have been stationed at the popular tourist destination north of Bangkok since Monday after removing 137 tigers from the complex.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

National Parks and Wildlife officers examine the skin of a tiger at the "Tiger Temple," in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok

A police officer, right, examines the belongings of two men arrested after attempting to remove tiger skins and products from the Tiger Temple

Raids at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province continued on Thursday, as police discovered animal body parts in the monks' sleeping quarters

The carcasses of 40 tiger cubs found undeclared at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple on Wednesday

For decades the infamous Tiger Temple has been a popular stop for tourists who pay a steep fee to pet and be photographed with the predators - which animal rights groups say are heavily sedated.

The latest finds back up long-running accusations that the Tiger Temple is involved in the illegal wildlife trade, breeding tigers and selling dead and live animals on the black market..

'Today we found found tigers skins and amulets in a car which was trying to leave a temple,' Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy director of Thailand's parks department said.

Adisorn said a search of several monks' quarters turned up more body parts, bringing Thursday's haul to two full-body tiger skins, around 10 fangs and dozens of smaller pieces of tiger fur.

The discovery comes after authorities found thee carcasses of forty tiger cubs have been found crudely stuffed into freezers following a raid on a Buddhist temple which is believed to be involved in illegal trafficking and animal cruelty.

The Thai Department of National Parks (DNP) lined up the remains of the small cubs, along with a small bear, a dead boar jars of animal intestines and a set of horns, so they could start collecting DNA samples in the hopes of finding out how the endangered animals died, BBC reported.

The carcasses of 40 tiger cubs were lined up after officials made the grim discovery on Wednesday

Wildlife officials carry a sedated tiger on a stretcher at the 'Tiger Temple' in Kanchanaburi province

Deputy DNP director-general Adisorn Nuchdamrong stands by the carcasses of 40 tiger cubs and a bear

Officers carry a sedated tiger from its cage as forty of the 137 tigers were rescued by Tuesday

Veterinarian officers stand by tigers loaded on a truck at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple

The director of Thailand's Wildlife Conservation Office Teunjai Noochdumrong said 40 tigers were tranquilized and removed in two days.

They are being relocated to government animal shelters elsewhere in the country. She said they hope to move 20 tigers a day, or more if the weather is cool.

In a Facebook post, Tiger Temple has hit back at the illegal trading allegations, saying for the past six years, any cubs that have died were kept frozen instead of being cremated.

'There have been a lot of recent posts about missing tiger cubs which accuse Tiger Temple of selling them to the black market. This is not true,' the post reads.

'The general mortality rate of captive newborn tiger cubs has by some researchers been documented to be as high as 40 per cent; the temple mortality rate is therefore comparatively low.

'Cubs do occasionally die for various reasons, most often when a new mother lacks the experience to properly care for them. In the past, as per Buddhist customs, these tiger cubs were cremated.

'In 2010, the ex-vet of Tiger Temple changed this policy. Instead of cremation, the deceased cubs were preserved in jars or kept frozen.

'We have documented all the deaths from 2010 and have photographic evidence of them still being within the Temple.'

Officers load a sedated tiger onto a truck at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple on Wednesday

Forty of the 137 tigers were rescued by Tuesday from the country's controversial Thailand 'Tiger Temple'

Wildlife authorities in Thailand raided a Buddhist temple in Kanchanaburi province where 137 tigers were kept

Wildlife officials in Thailand on Monday began removing some of the 137 tigers held at a Buddhist temple following accusations that the monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals

Wildlife officials in Thailand on Monday began removing some of the 137 tigers held at a Buddhist temple following accusations that the monks were involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals

Thai DNP veterinarian officers tend to a sedated tiger after wildlife authorities raided the Buddhist temple

About 40 tigers are set to be relocated to government animal shelters elsewhere in the country

Forty of the 137 tigers were rescued by Tuesday from the country's infamous 'Tiger Temple' (pictured a sedated tiger set to be relocated to animal shelters

Thai DNP officers carry a sedated tiger outside its cage as its set to be relocated to animal shelters

Ms Teunjai said the temple in western Kanchanaburi province is still admitting tourists, but her personnel are warning visitors of the possible dangers of being present during the moving process.

There are 300 government employees at the site, including 80 veterinarians.

Animal rights activists have long accused the temple of mistreating the tigers. The government suspects the monks have been involved in illegal breeding and trafficking of the animals.

The monks had turned back previous attempts to take the tigers away and continued to resist Monday morning.

But they relented that afternoon after police obtained a court order to carry out the action.

'There was some resistance from the community, they didn't understand why we were taking them (the tigers) from the temple when they look so peaceful and fine at the temple,' Teunjai said.

'We tried talking to them, explaining to them that the tigers belong to the country.'

The monks still don't understand, but at least did not put up physical resistance, she said.

About 40 adult tigers were rescued as the animals were tranquilized so they could be relocated to shelters

Officers by caged tigers loaded onto a truck at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple on Wednesday

Officers carry a sedated tiger out of its cage after wildlife authorities in Thailand raided a Buddhist temple

About 40 adult tigers were rescued as the animals were tranquilized so they could be relocated to shelters

Veterinarian officers tend to a sedated tiger after wildlife authorities raided the Buddhist temple this week

A sedative dart hangs from a tiger's shoulder as it walks in a cage at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple

A Thai DNP veterinarian officer aims as he shots a sedative darts to a tiger in a cage at the Tiger Temple
The fight to save the rapidly decaying Great Barrier Reef could cost $16billion, according to confidential government estimates.

The figure, provided in an independent report for the Queensland Government, eclipses current conservation funding commitments made by both the Coalition and Labor.

The modelling was obtained by the ABC and shows a very significant increase in funding is needed to meet government water quality targets by 2025.

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A confidential report has estimated that $16bn is needed to save the rapidly-decaying Great Barrier Reef

Coral bleaching and pollution are responsible for the death of huge sections of the 2,300km-long reef

The estimates were part of a report by the Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce but have been stripped from the final paper so they can be double-checked and peer reviewed.

A copy of the initial costings warned: To meet the 2025 targets for the Great Barrier Reef requires a very significant increase in investment from current levels.

The total cost of meeting the targets is $16bn.

The Coalition has budgeted $171m for reef conservation while Labor has pledged to top this and invest $523m.

Dead and dying staghorn coral is pictured in the centre of the Great Barrier Reef in May 2016

World Wildlife Fund reef spokesman Nick Heath told the ABC that successive governments had buried their heads in the sand to avoid confronting the scale of the problem.

He said: It is a bit more than we thought. It does worry us.

We feel there's been a tendency over many years, over many governments of both sides of politics, to not even ask the question [about the cost of reef conservation] because they don't want to know the answer.

Coral showing signs of bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, off Cairns in Queensland (stock image)

The 2,300km-long Great Barrier Reef is the largest single living object in the world.

It is highly vulnerable to warmer sea temperatures caused by climate change, which kill large sections of the reef in a process known as coral bleaching.

Reef health and the effects of coral bleaching are also worsened by pollution  with the dumping of agricultural runoff near the reef another major problem affecting its health.
Britain's worst paedophile wanted to become a foster parent so he had a continuous supply of children to abuse, a court heard.

Depraved Richard Huckle, 30, spent nine years raping and sexually assaulting children in south-east Asia but was finally arrested at Gatwick Airport in December 2014.

The former grammar schoolboy made a sickening confession about wanting foster children in a post on a notorious paedophile website where he shared his graphic images and videos.

Britain's worst paedophile Richard Huckle claimed he wanted to become a foster parent so he could abuse the children who came through his care, a court heard today

He wrote that he wanted to wed one of the children he had been abusing since she was seven.

He posted: 'My ambition once married would be for our family to be like foster carers for children, temporarily or long term... I would like a cycle of children to come through my house.'

The court also heard today that Huckle's parents asked police to take him away after he admitted his horrific crimes.

Huckle was caught with more than 20,000 images of horrific child sex abuse but released on bail while officers unraveled his sex attacks on an estimated 200 young children.

At the second day of his sentencing hearing, prosecutor Brian O'Neill QC said before being charged Huckle was bailed under strict conditions to the home of his parents, Edwin and Christina, in Ashford, Kent.

'His father had been at the airport to meet him and investigators had conducted a search of the family address while he was in custody,' said the prosecutor.

'His mother questioned him about the allegations and he admitted to her that he had sexual activity with children aged three to 13.

'His mother was extremely upset and extremely angry. She and his father called the police and asked them to take their son away, making it clear they didn't want him under their roof.'

Richard Huckle faces a long jail term for a horrific rape campaign against children in south-east Asia. His parents, Edwin and Christina, did not want him under their roof after hearing of his crimes

Huckle faces up to 22 life sentences at the Old Bailey after admitting to an unprecedented 71 charges, including rape, sexual assault, and sexual activity with a child.

Judge Peter Rook QC compared the case to that of shamed Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for sexually assaulting a baby.

Although he agreed with the prosecutor it was a more serious case, the judge indicated he would not be considering a full life term, meaning Huckle is likely to get a conventional life sentence.

Earlier today Huckle's sickening videos were played in court. Police trawled hours of footage using an expert to identify the 30-year-old from his hands, forearms, thighs and privates.

The clips were played so Judge Peter Rook QC can decide on the seriousness of the 71 counts Huckle has pleaded guilty to. The screens were not visible to anyone in the public gallery.

Huckle was an 'unassuming and uncharismatic man' according to the minister of the church he attended in Kent.

The reverend told his sentencing hearing the paedophile was a 'peripheral figure' who 'didn't seem interested in taking part' in events.

Huckle posed as an English teacher and Christian volunteer before grooming the children for sex

The minister said no one in Kent, where Huckle had attended church between 2002 and 2007, had been a victim of the sex offender.

Huckle targeted an impoverished Christian community in Malaysia where he posed as a student, photographer and English teacher to groom his victims.

He took pictures and videos of himself raping and abusing young girls and boys and even a baby wearing a nappy.

Huckle bragged of the attacks in online blogs and wrote a 60-page handbook for how other paedophiles could groom poverty-stricken children in developing countries.

He sold the images he made of the abuse for Bitcoins on paedophile websites on the dark web - the encrypted version of the internet.

Huckle awarded himself 'PedoPoints' for carrying out the attacks and used a crowdfunding website to finance the abuse.

He began the nine-year campaign in 2006, aged just 19, and it is believed he assaulted up to 200 children before his arrest in December 2014 when he was caught with more than 20,000 indecent images.

Posts on Facebook show Huckle being welcomed into schools and institutions (including this orphanage in India which is not suggested to have any connection with Huckle's trial) while he posed as a 'photographer' who would 'teach the children about photography'

It took more than an hour for the charges to be put to Huckle at an earlier hearing, in what is believed to be the worst case of its kind.

The charges relate to the horrific sexual abuse of 23 girls and boys aged between six months and 12 years. Some 22 of the victims are from Malaysia while one is Cambodian.

But Mr O'Neill today said his online ledger contained reference to a possible 191 vicitms.

Among other offences, Huckle, formerly of Ashford, Kent, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13; thirteen counts of rape of a child under 13 and making 20,253 indecent images.
Sabah Khan is accused of killing 34-year-old Saima Khan (pictured) at a house in Luton on May 23

A woman has appeared in court for the first time after being charged with the murder of her older sister.

Sabah Khan, 26, is accused of killing 34-year-old Saima Khan at their house in Luton on May 23.

Khan was remanded in custody this morning and her case was sent straight to crown court where she will appear later this month.

She appeared at Luton Magistrates' Court and kept her head bowed throughout the hearing where she only spoke to confirm her name.

Mother-of-four Saima Khan was found lying in a pool of blood at their property at around 11.30pm after fellow family members are believed to have been at a funeral.

No details of the case were heard and Khan will appear at Luton Crown Court on June 6.

Khan was arrested on Tuesday and she was charged on Wednesday after police were granted more time to question her.

Saima Khan's husband Hafeez Rehman, a taxi driver, said the family's hearts had been 'torn apart' and their four children deprived of their mother.

Saima was found slumped on the floor by family members after they returned home from a late-night funeral and she is said to have suffered a stab wound to the neck.

Medics and police officers rushed to the scene but were unable to save her, with the mother-of-four being declared dead at her home at around 11.30pm.

Mrs Khan  who moved to England from Holland lived with parents, sister and taxi-driver husband Hafeez - was described by neighbours as a 'quiet but friendly lady'.

Last week, Mrs Khan's husband Hafeez pleaded with the local community to remain united as he made an emotional tribute to his wife.

He said: 'She was a loving mother to four beautiful children, a devoted wife, a beloved daughter and the most caring of sisters.

'She has been taken from us at the age of 34 and my children have been deprived of their mother.

'This was a junction in our lives where we intended to watch our children grow, to love them and spend quality time as a family and make memories.

'We have been left with a gap in our lives and we can only pray that she is resting in peace.

As everyone can appreciate and understand that the circumstances have torn our hearts apart. My family and I would like to thank you all for the condolences messages, and support that we have received from family, friends and the local community.'
A pet dog survived being bit by one of the worlds most deadly serpents while playing fetch with an eastern brown snake.

The images were captured by the dogs owner, who saw his pet carrying the venomous serpent in its jaws on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The snaps were uploaded to Facebook by Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers, who urged pet owners to encourage their animals to avoid dangerous wildlife.

Images captured by a dog owner on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland shows a dog carrying an eastern brown snake in its jaws

We were sent these intense photos recently from a local man, who captured this conflict between a Snake and his dog, asking for the snakes ID, the post begins.

Turns out to be an Eastern Brown Snake (currently ranking as the 2nd most venomous snake in the world)!

The post reveals the lucky canine survived the slippery encounter, but said the snake wouldn't have been so lucky.

The eastern brown snake is Australia's deadliest snake, carrying a strongly neurotoxic venom in their fangs.

The images were captured by the dogs owner, who uploaded them to a snake catchers page in the hope of identifying the snake

The eastern brown (pictured) is Australia's deadliest snake




U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said hes ready to work with Donald Trump should the presumptive Republican nominee become president.

Meeting with The Gazette editorial board Wednesday, Tester said he suspects Trump will win Montana in the presidential election. Because the federal government needs to function, Tester said he will work with Trump or Hillary Clinton to make sure they do the right things.

The problem with Trump, other than all the comments hes made about women and Hispanics and Muslims, and everyone else, he says stuff that drives me crazy, like Were going to buy down the debt. You cant do that. There are retirement funds in this debt. Are you going to cut those loose?

But yet theres other things he says that I like. Like, he says were going to spend on infrastructure and get our troops out of the Middle East. I agree with that.

Some of Trumps platform, like building a wall across the Southern border and getting Mexico to pay for it, is impractical.

In conversations with people who have done business with Trump, Tester said hes heard often that the Republican candidate refuses to pay bills in full, threatening a court battle if the full payment is sought.

Thats not the Montana way. Its really not, but well see. I think hell win Montana, and well see what happens, Tester sad.

In the Democratic presidential primary, Tester hasnt endorsed a candidate and says he probably wont until closer to the national convention. On social media, Bernie Sanders supporters have been on Tester for months to endorse Sanders.

Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, is no stranger to Tester. Less than two years ago, Sanders was chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, of which Tester is also a member. The two collaborated on a plan to allow veterans to seek private medical services at the governments expense when veterans clinics and hospitals are too far away.

Sanders mentioned his work with Tester on veterans care during an interview with The Gazette on May 11.

I want to let the primary run its course, Tester said. I think thats important. I do think Hillary is going to be the nominee. I dont think theres any way that Bernie can do it if you look at the numbers.

Im pretty sure its either going to be Trump or Hillary thats in the presidency, and whichever one it is, we have got to figure out a way to influence and work with them and make sure they do the right stuff, Tester said.

Montana's primary election is Tuesday.

Hillary brings a different challenge to the table, especially in a state like Montana, Tester said.
Described as having an olive

and was last seen on Argyle Avenue

Chemist was held up at knifepoint in Morphett Vale,

A man is on the run after a chemist was robbed at knifepoint in Adelaide.

Police were called to a chemist on Doctors Road in Morphett Vale at around 2.40 pm on Thursday after a man threatened staff with a knife.

He fled the premises with cash and was last seen heading north along Argyle Avenue on foot, police said.

Police have released CCTV images of a man (pictured) wanted in connection with a robbery at Morphett Vale

The man is described as having an olive complexion, around 180 centimetres tall with a stocky build and dark scruffy hair.

He was wearing a black beanie with a red and white logo and an orange and navy polar fleece hi-vis top.

He also had a red backpack.

No one was injured during the incident.

Anyone with information on the man is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

The man is described as having an olive complexion, around 180 centimetres tall with a stocky build and dark scruffy hair
Some foreign voters have been wrongly sent polling cards for the EU referendum but will be stopped from taking part, the Electoral Commission has admitted.

In an email sent to regional counting officers, seen by MailOnline, officials reveal a 'glitch' in election software used by several councils failed to properly record the nationality of some voters.

The fault was due to have been fixed by a software patch last night and any EU voters wrongly issued polling cards or postal votes will be written to with an explanation of what went wrong.

People who are not eligible to vote will not be issued a ballot paper at polling stations, while any ineligible postal votes will be cancelled, the elections watchdog said today.

Software firm Xpress have not confirmed how many voters have been affected but regional counting officers were told the number of definite cases was just seven split across two counting areas.

The emergence of the email comes after Iain Duncan Smith, the leading Vote Leave campaigner, wrote to David Cameron to demand a swift investigation into the 'deeply disturbing' claims.

Iain Duncan Smith, who explosively quit the Cabinet in March, has written a strongly worded letter to David Cameron demanding measures to stop EU nationals illegally voting in the referendum

EU citizens living in Britain are not entitled to vote in the poll, but migrants from Poland and Germany are among those who have reported getting voting cards.

The memo sent to counting officers revealed that if the system recording nationality is updated by someone typing in a country manually and then moving away from the screen before confirming the entry, a foreign voter was recorded as being eligible to vote.

EU nationals living in the UK are allowed to vote in council and European elections  but they are barred from voting for MPs or in the referendum.

When registering, voters are required to declare their nationality. They must also provide their National Insurance number which can be checked against the official database.

However, this only reveals whether their name and address is accurate, and does not check their nationality.

The Electoral Commission said it is aware of a 'small number of non-eligible EU citizens' had mistakenly been sent polling cards and is working to confirm exactly how many ineligible voters had been given a slip.

It also appealed for others to provide evidence of any ineligible voters being sent a polling card.

In his strongly-worded letter to the PM, Mr Duncan Smith and fellow Tory MP Bernard Jenkin wrote: 'We have been contacted by a number of concerned electors who have alerted us to the fact that ineligible EU citizens have been sent polling cards telling them that they have a vote in the referendum on 23 June.

'We believe the British public will be as shocked as we are to discover that the integrity of the franchise for this long-awaited referendum with profound consequences for the future of our nation is being protected in such a lax manner.'

They accused the Electoral Commission of 'shrugging off' concerns about the vote.

A Leave campaign supporter in Nottingham they said has received an email from a local election official admitting: 'If an elector lies during their registration, we are not able to check to see if the nationality is correct or not.

'We have to assume that the elector is submitting their correct nationality.'

Reports have emerged of referendum polling cards being sent to EU citizens who are not eligible to vote in the poll on June 23

Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliot said: 'Now we find out that EU migrants who should not be allowed to vote in this referendum are actually being given a vote. This is totally illegal.

'There should be an urgent inquiry by the Cabinet Secretary, involving people outside the Cabinet Office who are clearly impartial, to discover who is responsible for illegally giving EU migrants the vote and undermining the foundation of our democratic process.

'Immediate action must be taken to avoid the integrity of our referendum being undermined.'

The Electoral Commission has said that those who wrongly receive polling cards will be stopped from voting.

WHO IS ALLOWED TO VOTE IN THIS MONTH'S REFERENDUM? The people on Gibraltar have been given a vote in this month's referendum despite not usually taking part in general elections Laws implementing this month's referendum based the franchise for the historic vote on who can vote in general elections. This includes all British and Irish citizens but excludes EU nationals who are living in the UK via free movement rules. EU nationals are allowed to take part in local and European Parliament elections. The rules create surprising anomalies - such as Nick Clegg's wife, the Spanish lawyer Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, who cannot vote. In addition, the European Union Referendum Act allows peers to vote and also extends the franchise to the population of Gibraltar who, given their close proximity to Spain, will be enormously affected by the result. Advertisement

EU citizens are banned from voting in this month's referendum unless they have British citizenship - the same rules that apply for General Elections - but they are given a vote in local elections.

The elections watchdog has been urged to investigate why polling cards have been sent out to ineligible voters.

Only EU nationals that have applied and qualified for British citizenship are allowed to vote but several examples have emerged of Polish, German and Swedish migrants living in the UK being sent polling slips for the historic June 23 vote.

Reports of EU citizens being given voting cards first surfaced on the Guido Fawkes website, which reported that Jakub Pawlowski, a Polish citizen living in Kingston, Surrey, had never applied for British citizenship but was sent a polling card after buying a house in December.

He said: 'I recently bought a house and in December 2015, right after completion, filled the form to get registered on electoral roll. I have selected there that I'm a Polish citizen.

'I could therefore vote in London mayoral elections this month, however recently I got a polling card for the upcoming referendum on EU membership.'

Kingston council said Mr Pawlowski was given a polling card for the referendum because he had indicated his nationality was British when applying to be put on the electoral register.

The council said it was working closely with the Electoral Commission.

In a statement this afternoon, a spokesperson for hte Electoral Commission said: 'We are aware that a small number of non-eligible EU citizens had mistakenly received poll cards and, in some instances, postal votes for the EU Referendum.

'We are working to confirm the exact number of electors who have been affected by an issue with elections software and will be able to confirm numbers tomorrow afternoon.

'The software provider has resolved the issue which means that, if any postal votes have been issued to these electors, they will be cancelled and none of these electors will be shown as eligible on the electoral registers to be used at polling stations on 23 June.

'All of the affected electors will also be written to by their local Electoral Registration Officer with an explanation of what happened and will be told that they will not be able to vote at the referendum.

A postal voting guide sent out by Bristol City Council was criticised after the graphic hovering over the Remain box was said to subliminally suggest which way to vote

Appealing for evidence, the elections watchdog added: 'If anyone has evidence that someone who is ineligible to vote at the EU Referendum has received a poll card, they should forward the evidence to us at info@electoralcommission.org.uk.

'We are following up individual claims with the relevant Electoral Registration Officers to ensure that only those who are eligible are able to vote at the referendum.'

Journalist George Eaton tweeted that he also knew of German and Polish citizens who had been sent polling cards.

Another Twitter user said: 'This happened to a Swedish friend of mine who had a German passport. 'They were on the electoral roll and voted.'

The new row comes days after Bristol City Council was criticised for sending out instructions with postal votes that appeared to suggest voters should back remain.

The step-by-step guide includes routine advice such as to 'read the instructions carefully, then complete the ballot paper'.

But it also features an image of a hand hovering above the box stating 'remain a member of the European Union', and apparently about to tick it.
The 'deconstructed' coffee at the centre of an anti-hipster storm on social media was actually aimed at coffee snobs, says the cafe behind the creation.

Australian writer Jamila Rizvi posted a photo to Facebook on Tuesday showing her coffee arriving in three separate glass beakers, saying, 'Hispterism has gone too far '.

After the post went viral on social media, the manager of the Melbourne cafe that served the brew told Fairfax that hipsterism had nothing to do with it.

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Australian writer Jamila Rizvi called out a Melbourne cafe on Facebook for being too hipster after her 'deconstructed' coffee was served up in separate beakers

In her post ridiculing the coffee, Ms Rizvi said: 'Sorry Melbourne but no.

'Hipsterism has gone too far when your coffee comes deconstructed.

'I just waited almost 20 minutes for an actual cup before realising it would not be forthcoming.

'Next stage? I'll just get a chopping board with a bunch of actual coffee beans and an upside down hat on it.'

In response to Ms Rizvi, the manager of the Kitchen Cafe in Abbotsford, Melbourne, told Fairfax that she was merely catering for what her customers wanted.

She said: 'Generally, people want to choose how much milk they want to put in that coffee. I'm quite a coffee snob myself and I find myself asking for more milk, or more water.

'If we just put it all on the table, they can choose what they want. 'It hasn't got anything to do with being a hipster. We've had beakers for ages.'

The manager of the Kitchen cafe in Abbotsford, Melbourne, responded to Ms Rizvi by saying 'it has nothing to do with being a hipster'

Writer Jamila Rizvi posted a photo on Facebook on Tuesday of a coffee she ordered at a Melbourne cafe

Ms Rizvi's post went viral on social media  getting more than 12,000 likes on Facebook  and sparked passionate debate about hipster culture.

While many agreed with her stance on 'deconstructed coffee', others leapt to the defence of the cafe saying they would much prefer their caffeine fix to be served in this way.

'Actually I love this idea because you never know how strong a coffee is going to be and you can make it however strong or weak you like it,' one woman said.
A man has been charged over the death of a two-year-old girl who suffered a gunshot wound.

Emergency services were called to a Mangere property on Favona Road in northern New Zealand where they discovered the body of a toddler just before midday on Thursday.

The 26-year-old man was taken into custody where he was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. He will appear in the Manukau District Court on Friday morning.

A New Zealand man has been charged over the death of a two-year-old girl who suffered a gunshot wound

A witness, who lived nearby, said they saw a man appearing distressed as he was escorted from the property by police shortly after the incident.

'He was visibly upset and quite distraught. He was being escorted down the footpath wearing a white police jumpsuit,' the witness told NZ Stuff.

'He was absolutely hysterical.'

A woman who lived on the street said she heard a 'loud explosion' shortly before

'I heard a very loud bang and then some people were getting on the next-door berm. Someone was crying really loudly. It was very sad sobbing,' she told NZ Herald.

During a press conference on Thursday, Detective Inspector Faa Va'aelua said he was unable to determine whether the death was an accident.

'On arrival, we found the lifeless body of a two-year-old toddler, a young girl,' Det Insp Va'aelua said.

'Our inquiries have so far revealed that she has suffered a gunshot wound that has proven fatal.'

Emergency crews were called to a Mangere property on Favona Road in northern New Zealand on Thursday

Police charged a 26-year-old man with unlawful possession of a firearm following the incident (stock image)

He said the girl lived at the property with her parents and her three siblings.

Det Insp Va'aelua would not comment on whether the man was related to the little girl as police were 'not in any position to reveal any names, relationships or identities'.

'Extended family of the child are yet to be notified of her death so at this stage we're unable to identify her,' he said.

'This is a terrible tragedy for the child's family and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.'

He confirmed the weapon used was a shotgun, adding that no one living at the property had a firearm license as police are investigating how the weapon was obtained.
Ken Livingstone has again defended his claim that Hitler supported Zionism - insisting his statements were as true as'1+1=2'.

The former London Mayor blamed 'embittered' Labour MPs for provoking the row, and said he was expecting to be cleared by a party investigation.

He also suggested that Jeremy Corbyn had not wanted to suspend him, arguing the leader had 'no say' in the decision.

The defiant stance risks further inflaming the raging controversy over anti-Semitism in the party.

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Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone addressing the Oxford Union last night. He insisted his Hitler remarks were only the same as saying '1+1=2'

An extraordinary confrontation between Mr Livingstone and Labour backbencher John Mann was caught by television cameras in April after the veteran-left winger made his remarks.

Mr Mann branded him a 'Nazi apologist' after the ex-mayor said Hitler had been 'supporting Zionism  before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews'.

Speaking at the Oxford Union last night, Mr Livingstone again refused to apologise for the comments - which were made as he defended Labour MP Naz Shah for suggesting Israel should be 'relocated' to the US.

He told members of the famous debating society that the furore was being used to deflect attention away from Mr Corbyn's policies.

'I think this has been largely manufactured by people trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn,' he said.

'If someone says something anti-Semitic they will be expelled but you can't expel someone for telling the truth.'

He said it was 'damaging' to suspend someone for saying something 'factual' and compared his comments to '1+1=2'.

Mr Livingstone said Mr Corbyn, who has described his remarks as 'inappropriate', had been told by unelected party officials that he had been suspended.

'Jeremy had no say in this,' he added.

Asked by the union's president, Robert Harris, if he could understand the outrage and disgust he had caused, Mr Livingstone said: 'I put all of this in my autobiography five years ago and no one said anything then.

'Embittered MPs (think) here we can start screaming at Ken Livingstone, 'Nazi apologist' and so on, and create all this stuff about anti-Semitism.'

Mr Livingstone was suspended by Labour after his comments triggered a major backlash in April

He explained he had been attacked throughout his political career for his forthright views and has always refused to say sorry for his controversial opinions.

'When I have gone through lots of people saying I should apologise to this reporter or apologise for saying Hitler was a supporter of Zionism... I have never apologised,' he said.

He defended his record on the issue while running the capital, insisting his tenure from 2000 to 2008 is 'the best record in modern times' in terms of the drop in anti-Semitic incidents.

'In this latest anti-Semitic row, I couldn't walk down the street without being stopped by people saying, 'don't give into them, we know what you say is true'.

'One Jewish woman said, "don't these MPs read history?"'

'YOU'RE A NAZI APOLOGIST': THE EXPLOSIVE ROW BETWEEN MANN AND LIVINGSTONE The explosive row between Ken Livingstone and John Mann in April was captured in full - because it was carried out in front of ITV journalists. Mr Mann confronted the former London mayor and said: 'You're a disgusting racist, Livingstone. A disgusting racist rewriting history. You're a disgusting racist.' Livingstone: 'Are you saying it's not true?' Mann: 'Yes, you're a lying racist.' Livingstone: 'Really? Why don't you go and check the history.' Mann: 'A Nazi apologist.' Livingstone: 'Check the history.' Mann: 'A Nazi apologist.' Livingstone: 'Check your history.' Mann: 'A Nazi apologist. You're a disgusting Nazi apologist, Livingstone.'

Mr Livingstone insisted: 'The establishment don't want people like me or Jeremy in positions of power. They will do anything to stop us,' he said.

The Labour party has been hit with a slew of allegations of anti-Semitism over recent months, but Mr Livingstone said he had never heard any complaints before a row erupted in the Oxford University Labour Club (OULC).

In February, Alex Chalmers, an undergraduate at Oriel College, resigned as co-chairman after claiming a large proportion of members 'have some kind of problem with Jews' and some sympathise with Islamic militant group Hamas.

Reports of slurs and songs sung that were said to amount to anti-Semitism were reported by the university's Jewish Society, known as JSoc.

However, a review conducted by Baroness Royall found the OULC was not institutionally anti-Semitic but called on the student club to examine its culture and create a 'safe space' for discussion and debate without discrimination.

She said: 'I do not believe that there is institutional anti-Semitism within OULC.

'Difficulties however face OULC which must be addressed to ensure a safe space for all Labour students to debate and campaign around the great ideas of our movement.'

He also defended blaming Tony Blair for the London bombings on July 7 2005 that killed 52 people and injured hundreds more.

'I don't blame him exclusively but he was told by the security services, if you invade Iraq it will increase our risk as a target for terrorism, and we knew from the day of 9/11 London was a target,' said Mr Livingstone.
A police raid on a house in Sydney's south west on Thursday uncovered a cache of weapons, including a shotgun, a taser and knives.

The shotgun is one of about 10,000 seized in NSW every year  80 per cent of which will be unregistered.

Speaking to media, Detective Superintendent Mick Plotecki said the police have a 'very strong focus on firearms and attacking the illicit firearms market'.

Weapons were seized from two addresses in Sydney's south west on Thursday

The guns seized are only some in what is usually about 10,000 seized in NSW every year

Some of the weapons were on the niche side, with police finding intricate swords (pictured) at one address and nunchucks at another

'One gun in the community can have a significant effect,' he said.

The man, who lives in Aires, was one of two charged on Thursday, and will appear in court on Friday.

Just 30 minutes down the road, a second man was charged with firearms offences after a search warrant was produced for his home in Warwick Farm in Sydney's West.

Police raided his Hinkler Avenue home just before 9am on Thursday and allegedly seized a replica pistol, unsecured ammunition and a pair of nunchucks.

A 53-year-old man was arrested and charged with possession of an unauthorised pistol, two counts of possessing ammunition without licence and possessing a prohibited weapon.

He was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Local Court on Friday.

Two men have been arrested in relation to the raids, which were carried out separately, and will appear in court on Friday

The raids took place at Airds (pictured) and Warwick Farm - just thirty minutes from each other
Cincinnati Zoo officials have announced a taller fence will be in place when the gorilla exhibition reopens on Tuesday.

A new 42-inch high fence - a half foot taller than before - with solid wood beams on top and at the bottom, as well as knotted rope netting will be installed.

The zoo said there had been no earlier breaches in Gorilla World's 38-year history and the previous barrier had passed multiple inspections by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits zoos.

But the backlash around the world following the incident last week - when a three-year-old child managed to enter the enclosure - has prompted the zoo to take action.

The announcement comes as it emerged prosecutors have recommended not pressing charges against the parents of the boy who fell into the enclosure.

The zoo is not under investigation.

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Left, the new barrier that will be in place when the gorilla exhibition at Cincinnati Zoo on Tuesday. Right, the barrier that was in place when 3-year-old Isiah Dickerson fell into the gorilla pen

This graphic shows how easy it was for the three-year-old to climb over the barrier and crawl through the bush

In a statement, zoo director Thane Maynard said: 'Our exhibit goes above and beyond standard safety requirements, but in light of what happened, we have modified the outer public barrier to make entry even more difficult.'

The news came shortly after pictures emerged showing the small safety barriers protecting children from the gorillas at the zoo.

Three-year-old Isiah Dickerson climbed the 3ft-tall barrier and crawled through 4ft of bushes before falling 15 feet (4.5 meters) into the gorilla enclosure last Saturday.

It led to a 17-year-old western lowland silverback gorilla - called Harambe - being shot dead with a rifle while the boy was still between his legs.

Police said on Thursday a prosecutor was reviewing the police investigation into the parents of the boy, although legal experts have said it is unlikely they will face charges.

The boy's family has said he is doing well at home after being treated at a hospital on Saturday evening. Police said he had scrapes to on his head and knee.

'The child was alert and talking,' the police report stated.

Deidre Lykins, a woman who witnessed the dramatic incident unfold last Saturday, said Isiah 'flopped' over the metal and wire railing and crawled through the plants and shrubs before falling into the enclosure.

The boy's mother, Michelle Gregg, told her she was taking a picture and Isiah's hand was in her back pocket when he suddenly disappeared.

The child had allegedly said he wanted to go 'swimming' with the gorilla.

Despite Isiah being able to easily scale the fence and reach the enclosure, the zoo has insisted the barriers made it safe.

Another picture, that surfaced on social media, showed the metal and wire fencing designed to keep people out

Speaking immediately afterwards, Mr Maynard said: 'Do you know any three-year-olds? They can climb over anything.'

'Any of us could climb over barriers if we choose. As I said, you can lock your car or lock your house, but if someone wants to get in, they can.'

He added: 'The barriers are safe. The barriers exceed any required protocols. The trouble with barriers is that whatever the barrier some people can get past it...no, the zoo is not negligent.'

He cited the incident in Chile last month where a man with a suicide note in his pocket stripped naked and jumped into a lion enclosure at the Santiago Zoo where he was mauled before two of the animals were shot dead.

But the zoo caved into pressure from animal activists who accused it of negligence.

A special zoo response team shot and killed the 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe to protect a three-year-old who fell in the enclosure

The zoo shot the beloved animal after he dragged the boy through the water and up out of the moat, but many say he was simply trying to protect the child

Stop Animal Exploitation Now, a Cincinnati-based animal rights group, said it had filed a federal complaint against the zoo with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Michael Budkie, from the group, said: 'If this enclosure had been constructed adequately a three-year-old child could not have penetrated it.

'This wasn't someone who came in with grappling hooks and ropes. You tell me. If a three-year-old child can get through the barrier is that a safe barrier?'

The group also highlighted a safety breach at the zoo in March, when two polar bears escaped their enclosure and got into a service hallway.

Elsewhere, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said: 'The enclosure should have been surrounded by a secondary barrier to prevent this.'
Cruz is alleged to have shot three men dead at complete random having been inspired by the 2013 movie 'The Purge'

A 19-year-old man is accused of going on a four-day killing spree inspired by horror film 'The Purge'.

Jonathan Cruz is alleged to have shot dead three men at complete random between May 12 and May 15.

He is said to have sent messages referencing the movie starring Ethan Hawke in which crimes can be committed without fear of prosecution over a 12-hour period.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said the senseless killing spree began when Billy Boyd, a 54-year-old grandfather, was found lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the head just before 1am.

Around four hours later, a second victim Jay Higginbotham was found dead with multiple gunshot wounds.

The police report said Cruz pulled up next to Higginbotham in a Chevrolet Cavalier and tried to pick a fight with him.

The victim tried to walk away but Cruz followed him and demanded money.

Higginbotham then attempted to run away but Cruz pulled out a gun and started shooting him until he fell to the ground.

He then rifled through the victim's pockets and called him a n****r before returning to the car.

Three days later the body of Jose Ruiz was found slumped inside his Pontiac Grand AM just before 5am with a single gunshot to the head.

In all three cases detectives believe Cruz used a revolver as there were no spent cartridge casings recovered from the crime scene.

Ricki Cline becomes emotional as she watches a press conference about her friend Johnathan Cruz, who is alleged to have killed multiple people over several nights in attacks

Cruz is alleged to have sent text messages to his girlfriend saying: 'I purge every night now'.

He is also said to have told a witness to one of the shootings he was going 'purging'.

On the morning after the killings on May 12 Cruz's mother texted him saying: 'What r u doin?'

He responded by sending her a screenshot of a news article about the killings of Boyd and Higginbotham.

'Delete those after u read it,' Cruz told her.

'Do u know they can still pull up deleted history,' his mother responded, presumably referring to police.

Angela Barger, left, and Ricki Cline talk with reporters about Cruz, whose alleged killing spree began when Billy Boyd, a 54-year-old grandfather, was found lying in the street with a gunshot wound to the head

Cruz is alleged to have sent text messages to his girlfriend saying: 'I purge every night now', referencing the film that inspired him

'Yep Ima get a new phone soon say mine was stolen,' Cruz said.

Later that day he informed her he was 'buying a new gun'.

As well as three murder counts, he is facing 14 other charges including attempted robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, armed robbery, intimidation and criminal gang enhancement.

On May 14, Cruz and another man, Steven Clark, 18, are alleged to have robbed a man at gunpoint.

They then stole his money and phones before pistol-whipping him and running away.

'As alleged in the probable cause, it is set forth that Mr Cruz when on a four-day one man purge, including, as alleged, making statements to witnesses that he was going purging,' Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said

Later that same day Cruz grabbed a girl he had been selling drugs to at a Wendy's, pulled a gun from his pocket and threatened to kill her, according to police documents.

A manager at the fast-food joint was able to take Cruz's attention off the girl long enough for her to escape to her car.

When police arrested Cruz they found videos from shootings, as well as gang-related violence on a phone.

Prosecutors said Cruz could face the death sentence and described the crimes as apparently '100 percent random.'

Cruz is said to have sent messages referencing the movie starring Ethan Hawke in which crimes can be committed without fear of prosecution over a 12-hour period

At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr Curry said: 'Just when you think you cannot experience anything more inexplicable and shocking, as we frequently do, you are then confronted with circumstances that almost leave you at a loss for words.

'For those of you familiar with the film The Purge, from 2013, the premise of that movie was that for one night each year the government would allow citizens to commit any crime without fear of prosecution.
The shooting of a Florida State University law professor in his upscale neighborhood two years ago was part of a murder-for-hire scheme that may have been set in motion by a bitter divorce between him and his ex-wife, according to court records released Thursday.

Sigfredo Garcia was arrested last week in South Florida in connection with the July 2014 death of Daniel Markel, who was shot in the head in his garage as he talked on his cellphone.

Garcia's lawyer, Jim Lewis, says his client will plead not guilty to the murder charge filed against him.

But a Tallahassee Police Department affidavit that was unsealed by a judge contends that Garcia did not act alone, and that his alleged involvement in the case was connected to Markel's contentious divorce from fellow attorney Wendi Adelson. It does not, however, say who is suspected of arranging the killing.

Police believe Sigfredo Garcia, right, was hired by someone to kill Daniel Markel, left, in order to make it easier for his ex-wife to move with their two small children

Markel finalized a contentious divorce from Wendi Adelson (pictured above, with their sons) in 2013. At the time of his death, she wanted to move to south Florida to be closer to her family. The affidavit does not reveal who Garcia was hired by

David Northway, a spokesman for Tallahassee police, said that so far no additional arrests have been made.

Contacted by The Associated Press, he said investigators are 'actively working' the case, but he wouldn't say anything else about the scope of their investigation or anyone under scrutiny.

Wendi Adelson has not returned phone calls made to her in the past week, but in an email she sent last Friday she stated that she hoped Garcia's arrest 'will finally bring some closure' to the case. She did not respond immediately to calls and an email by The AP on Thursday.

Markel and his wife divorced in 2013, but before it was finalized court records show that the two fought over Wendi Adelson's push to move her two small children to South Florida to be closer to her family.

At the time of Markel's death, the two were battling over money after Adelson contended that Markel did not pay her as much as he was supposed to under their divorce agreement, the records show.

Markel was gunned down inside the garage of his Tallahassee home (above) in broad daylight and there were no signs of forced entry, police said at the time

Police in 2014 released a photo of a vehicle of interest (above), but wouldn't confirm exactly where the car was seen or even the make and model. It appeared to be a silver or light-colored Toyota Prius

The father-of-two (pictured with his sons) was found shot in the head inside the garage of his Tallahassee home

According to court documents, investigators contend that Garcia and another man followed Markel from a nearby gym before he was shot.

The police document does not say if someone in the Adelson family arranged the killing. Wendi Adelson now lives in Miami Beach and works for a federal judge.

The arrest affidavit states that 'investigators believe motive for this murder stemmed from the desperate desire of the Adelson family to relocate Wendi and their children to South Florida, along with the pending court hearing that might have impacted their access to the grandchildren. These new developments will finally bring some closure.'

Markel's shooting in the middle of the day stunned colleagues as well as residents in the affluent Tallahassee neighborhood where he lived. He died at a hospital where he was taken after being shot.

The 41-year-old Markel, who was born in Toronto, was well known in national and international legal circles.
A one-year old girl was killed after the car she was travelling in was rear-ended as her parents slowed down and tried to pull over for a funeral procession.

William Karey Jones, 38, slammed into the back of the car 21-year-old Silas Hart was driving with his young daughter and mother inside.

Jaylah Hart was unresponsive at the scene and was flown to a nearby children's hospital where she died.

Killed: Jaylah Hart was killed when her family's car was struck from behind as they slowed to a stop for a funeral procession

Crash: William Karey Jones, 38, 2014 Chevrolet Silverado slammed into the back of 21-year-old Silas Hart's 2006 Chevrolet Equinox

Tragic: The child's mother said Jaylah was in a car seat at the time of the wreck

The accident happened on Friday in Lincolnton, a small North Carolina town not far from Charlotte.

Hart, the wife and young daughter had been driving their 2006 Chevrolet Equinox and slowing down to pull over onto the shoulder when Jones slammed into them with enormous force in his 2014 Chevrolet Silverado pick-up truck.

'My son and I heard a large crash,' witness Kim Travis said to WSOC. 'We didn't hear any screeching of any brakes or anything. Just a large crash and the woman was screaming, 'My baby, my baby.'

Police say the investigation is ongoing although no charges have yet been filed against Jones.

Rescue: Jaylah was taken to the hospital and then airlifted to Levine Children's Hospital where she died

Distraught: Dad, Silas Hart, says he is struggling with everything that has happened over the past week

'God gained another beautiful angel. Our beautiful daughter Jaylah Kassidy Hart is now walking the streets of gold and hasn't got a care in the world. Only god knows why she was called 'home' early,' her parents wrote on a GoFundMe page.

'My wife Kathryn and I believe we know the reason. We believe she was put here to save other families from going through what we had to overcome. Giving other kids the chance to fulfill life to the fullest and enjoy all that life has to offer.

'We appreciate all the calls, messages, and prayers along with everyone who came by to check on us. Just be with us at this time and keep us in your thoughts in our time of need.'

Little Jaylah's organs were harvested after her death and went on to save the lives of three other children.

Writing on Facebook within the past couple of days, it is clear dad Silas is struggling with the past weeks events.

'I've been through a lot of things in my life. This is the one pain I wish on no one in this world. I know now how hard it will be to forgive. The hate in me for another person has never been this deep. It's taking all I've got to keep my head above the water.'

Greiving: Jaylah Harts mother, Kathryn Reep, 21, was also in the vehicle at the time of the accident

Comfort: The Family say they are finding some consolation from the fact Jaylah's organs went onto save three other young lives
The Montana Supreme Court closed a defamation lawsuit in May between two Billings real estate developers, backing the lower court's opinion that the case had no merit.

The suit stemmed from a spat over zoning variances in east Billings and an apparent rumor that floated among officials. But ultimately the courts awarded no damages in the two-year court tussle.

Jerry T. Ray brought the original lawsuit in June 2014. Ray owns Ray & Co. Realtors and is a member of the Yellowstone County Zoning Commission. The defendant, Martin Connell, is a businessman and developer.

According to court documents, Connell told former Billings City Councilman Jim Ronquillo in 2013 that Ray had stolen gates from one of Connell's properties. Connell later dismissed the comment as a joke.

Ray also sued over comments Connell made at 2014 city council meetings, including one October 2013 meeting during which he compared Ray to a "broken watch."

Ray's lawsuit over the public and private comments, alleging defamation, "tortuous interference with business interests" and anguish. He sought $82,500 in damages over an apparent failed real estate deal and $400,000 for "mental anguish and suffering" as a result of the alleged defamation.

Both the District Court decision and an appeal to the Montana Supreme Court ruled against Ray.

Attempts to reach Ray and Connell were unsuccessful.

In court documents, Ray claimed that Connell's comment about stolen gates cost him real estate business and that a rumor "spread like wildfire."

" ... it is more probable than not that Ronquillo told anybody that would listen about the alleged theft," according to Ray's appeal to the Supreme Court.

In April 2014, Ronquillo signed an affidavit that said the comment was defamatory and untrue. A year later, Ronquillo went back on his affidavit, saying that he "probably didn't read the whole doggone thing" and that the comment was meant as a joke.

In early 2013, the men were also at odds over Ray's request for a variance on a property in the East Billings Urban Revitalization District. The district code is administered by the Billings Industrial Revitalization District board, of which Connell is president.

The city Board of Adjustment denied Ray's variance, but he went to the Billings City Council with his request. During public comment in October 2013, Connell compared Ray to a broken watch, saying "he's right twice a day and he in-fills a lot of stuff."

In addition to the courts, Ray brought his grievance to the Montana Board of Realty Regulation. The board dismissed the case with prejudice.

After considering Ray's lawsuit, District Court Judge Rod Souza awarded a summary judgment in favor of Connell in August 2015. Ray appealed to the Supreme Court, and in April it affirmed the lower court.

In the unanimous Supreme Court opinion, Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote that comments about the stolen gate were not defamatory because Ronquillo deemed them jokes.

"Although it may have been unpleasant, annoying or irksome, the joke about Ray stealing gates did not disgrace or degrade Ray or cause him to be shunned or avoided and is not sufficient," McKinnon wrote in the opinion.

The comments made during the council meetings were privileged by Montana code because they were made during official council business, the opinion stated.

The Supreme Court denied a petition for rehearing, and the case was closed on May 18.
Sir John Major and President George Bush senior exchanged a 'love letter' and commiserated each other over their domestic political problems, new documents revealed today.

The extraordinary private conversations reveal the personal admiration the two embattled world leaders showed each other as they fought their respective 1992 national elections.

The publication of the private discussions between the pair also expose their joyless relationship with elections - with Prime Minister Major telling President Bush Snr how 'unpleasant' and 'horrendous' the 1992 election campaign was.

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The extraordinary private conversations reveal the personal admiration PM John Major (right) and President George Bush Sr (left), pictured in June 1992, showed each other as they fought their respective 1992 elections

The remarkable exchanges between the two world leaders were revealed today in records and notes of their meetings that were obtained through a freedom of information request by the BBC, who requested the details from the George Bush senior presidential library.

In one phone call - in November 1992 - the President told Major he had sent him a 'love letter' to thank him for a speech he had made the previous day, in which he had praised the President.

Bush Snr said: 'You were very sweet in a speech you made in London.'

He asked Major whether he had received the letter, but the PM said he hadn't received it yet.

As the pair were both fighting elections in their respective countries in the spring of 1992, President Bush Snr told PM Major: 'It's been a miserable five months here campaigning.'

Major replied: 'It's been miserable here too'. He also opened up about walkabouts during the General Election campaign which 'were really nasty and ugly' and how the crowds greeting him were 'horrendous'.

The publication of the private discussions between the pair (pictured in Camp David in December 1992) also expose their joyless relationship with elections - with Prime Minister Major (right) telling President Bush Snr (second left) how 'unpleasant' and 'horrendous' the 1992 election campaign

Criticising the supposedly friendly press in the UK, Major explained that the 'Conservative press here has been bloody and 'haven't been reporting our policy.

He also criticised the statutory neutral BBC, which he described as 'appalling,' adding: 'For what is supposed to be a public television service, it is not impartial at all'.

'Obviously we're rooting for you, and it's very important that you win. You're ahead of Kinnock in the polls, right? That should help.'

Major defied the polls in April 1992 to beat Labour's Neil Kinnock, but his troubles at home continued and within months the UK had dropped out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

Bush Snr asked: 'How are things at home?', to which Sir John replied: 'I've never known them to be so rocky, so testy, so bitter and unpleasant'.

He also spoke about the 'seedy sex scandal that's run and run in the press' - referring to his Cabinet minister David Mellor who was forced to resign after revelations about his affair with actress Antonia de Sancha.

Major said he wasn't looking forward to the next week's Conservative party conference, which 'will not be a barrel of laughs'.

In one phone call - in November 1992 - President George Bush Sr (right) told John Major (left) - pictured in December 1992 - that he had sent him a 'love letter' to thank him for a speech he had made the previous day, in which he had praised the President

While Major managed to win the 1992 General Election, President Bush Snr failed to win the US election seven months later - losing out to the more youthful Bill Clinton.

He lost many conservative voters due to breaking his promise not to raise taxes and with the economy in recession and his strength of foreign policy less important after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the relatively more peaceful Middle East, President Bush Snr failed to win a second term.

The exchanges also revealed conversations of the problems in the Middle East and Bosnia and the 'inflexibility' of opposing sides in the conflicts.

The exchanges revealed today echo the relationship between Tony Blair and Bill Clinton - whose private discussions were disclosed in similar documents earlier this year.

The documents revealed how they described their role to each other as 'shrinks' who provided therapy to other world politicians to bring about peace.

But their private relationship included the kind of light-hearted banter that was apparently lacking between Major and Bush, who referred to one another as 'mate' and 'bud'.

They joked about babysitting for each other's children and ruminate about the film Saving Private Ryan.
Tragedy: Author and journalist Wendy Leigh, 65, pictured last year, has fallen to her death from her London flat's balcony

Best selling celebrity biographer Wendy Leigh has died after falling from the balcony of her flat by the Thames.

The 65-year-old, who chronicled the lives of some of the world's biggest stars including David Bowie, Patrick Swayze, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John F Kennedy, was found dead on Sunday morning.

Ms Leigh, who also wrote for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, had struggled with the death of her mother Marion, who passed away last Christmas aged 88.

On May 22 she wrote on Facebook: 'Five months today since my mother, Marion died. I wish I could say it gets easier, but the truth is quite the reverse'.

She added: 'Missing her more than I can say, but I know I was lucky to have had her as my mother'.

The author and journalist fell to her death from her balcony close to Battersea Power Station on Sunday evening.

A friend told MailOnline: 'She was obviously struggling with the death of her mother. I'm completely shocked and so many people will be sad to hear the news. She was a warm and funny person'.

A former colleague also said: 'Wendy was kind, endlessly enthusiastic, a determined professional - and hugely talented. She will be greatly missed.'

Wendy famously had a love affair with Robert Maxwell, who once told her on a trip to Geneva together: 'I haven't brought you here to make love to you, but because I think you're so interesting.'

She replied: 'But why is there only one suite?' - and said afterwards he was dishonest about everything - but was a romantic man.

Struggle: Ms Leigh had struggled with the death of her mother Marion, pictured, and posted this message on Facebook last month

Star quality: Wendy, left, became famous for her biographies of some of the world's biggest star, right with Alec Baldwin in 2008

The writer was offered the chance to live a life as his mistress, but chose to pursue her career instead.

She said: 'Had I made different choices along the way, had I made myself constantly available to him, I know I could have been that woman. We had a tremendous affinity.'

Wendy was a prolific writer of Hollywood biographies and had a long association with the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

One of her most recent books was on David Bowie, which she said explored his 'uninhibited and voracious sexual appetite' as well as his music.

She also wrote other best sellers including Prince Charming: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story and Patrick Swayze: One Last Dance.

She also revealed the Nazi past of Arnolds Schwarzenegger's father in a 2008 book. In 2015 she also released her 'Unraveled' erotica series.

Most recently she interviewed Lady Colin Campbell for the Mail on Sunday after her exit from I'm a Celebrity, and a feature on how she was planning to sell her London flat and start again.

She was previously married, and has left no children.
A personal note that President John F. Kennedy wrote to one of his mistresses shortly before his assassination is going up for auction.

In the handwritten letter, believed to be from October 1963, Kennedy begs Mary Pinchot Meyer to come visit him in Cape Cod or Boston the following week and lets her know how desperate he is to see her.

'Why dont you leave suburbia for once - come and see me - either here - or at the Cape next week or in Boston the 19th,' writes Kennedy in scrawling cursive.

'I know it is unwise, irrational, and that you may hate it - on the other hand you may not - and I will love it.'

It is unclear if the two ever met up, but if they did it was likely one of the last times they saw one another before his tragic death.

That note is not the only letter up for grabs either, as also included in the auction is a 1943 correspondence Kennedy received from his Nazi spy lover Inga Arvad.

Longing: A letter President Kennedy wrote to his longtime mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer (left in 1962) and one he received from his Nazi spy love Inga Arvad (right in 1931) are going up for auction

Desperate: Kennedy begs Meyer to visit him in the handwritten note, sent just one month before he was assassinated

Flirty: Arvad gushes about Kennedy and reveals how much she misses him in the 1943 correspondence

In her letter to Kennedy, Arvad writes about how much she misses Kennedy, who was in the U.S. Navy Reserve at the time.

'I dont quite know what to write to you Jack dear, because if I follow my heart - it will be a love letter, and if I dont, it will be stiff as an old poket [sic],' writes Arvad.

'But you know me, I am on pins and needles, because I know you will be home soon. You do know- or dont you - that you are the person in this world I would rather see than anybody - or is that a little too much of an admission?'

She later signs the typed note 'All my love, Inga Binga.'

That letter is expected to fetch at least $6,000 while Kennedy's handwritten note is likely to bring in over $30,000 in the auction, which begins June 16 on RR Auction.

The relationship between Kennedy and Arvad began in 1941 while he was just starting in the Navy Reserve and she was working as a columnist at the Washington Times-Herald.

At the time Arvad was being closely watched and monitored by the FBI due to her past relationship with Adolf Hitler.

Arvad had attended the 1936 Olympics as a guest of the Fuhrer which fueled rumors about her possible ties to the Nazi party.

The FBI eventually went so far as to wiretap Arvad's phone lines at both her office and home upon learning she was having a relationship with Kennedy.

Tragedy: Kennedy wrote his note to Ms Meyer just one month before he was assassinated in November 1963 (above moments before)

In the end, they found no proof to confirm reports that she was a spy and Arvad went on to marry actor Tim McCoy after World War II, eventually becoming a prominent Hollywood gossip columnist.

Kennedy and Ms. Meyer meanwhile first met at a dance as teenagers while he was attending boarding school at Choate in Connecticut and she was enrolled at Brearley in Manhattan.

Ms Meyer's father Amos Pinchot was a wealthy lawyer and key figure in the Progressive Party while her mother Ruth was a journalist who worked for publications including The New Republic.

She too became a journalist after getting her degree from Vassar in 1942 and three years later married Cord Meyer, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps.

The family to moved to Washington DC in 1950 shortly after the birth of their third child when Mr Meyer received a job offer from the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Meyers began to make powerful friends over the years and in 1954 Ms Meyer was reacquainted with Kennedy after he and his wife Jackie moved to DC following his election to the United States Senate.

Ms Meyer and Mrs Kennedy also became close and would often be seen out together after the Kennedys purchased the house next door to the Meyers in Georgetown.

Horrible: Ms Meyer was also murdered a year after Kennedy's death

That friendship remained intact even after Ms Meyer divorced her husband in 1958 and moved out of the neighborhood, and in 1961 her affair with Kennedy began with the two getting intimate for the first time after she visited the newly elected president at the White House.

Ms Meyer would remain Kennedy's mistress until his assassination in November 1963, and even kept a diary of their time together.

She too was shot dead less than a year after Kennedy in October 1964 while out for a walk in a murder that remains unsolved to this day.

The man charged with the crime, Ray Crump, was acquitted by a jury in 1965 and no murder weapon was ever found.

In an odd turn of events, Ms Meyer's brother-in-law, Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, would later reveal in his 1995 memoir that following the murder, he and Ms Meyer's sister decided to go to her studio and retrieve her diary to keep it from ever being released to the public.

Bradlee wrote that while there they ran into a member of the CIA who was picking the lock to Ms Meyer's studio in an attempt to get the diary as well.
Up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed as the Ottoman Empire fell apart

Turkish President warned it 'will seriously affect relations' with Germany

Turkey has launched a furious attack on Germany and threatened consequences after Berlin voted to recognise the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide.

Ankara condemned the Bundestag's decision an 'historic mistake' at a time when Europe is relying on Turkey for help with the migrant crisis.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the resolution 'will seriously affect relations' between Germany and Turkey.

Ankara immediately recalled its envoy to Germany and summoned the German charge d'affaires to the Turkish foreign ministry.

Armenian activists embrace outside the Bundestag after German lawmakers voted to recognise the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces as genocide, prompting a furious reaction from Ankara

Only one MP voted against and another abstained as the German parliament approved overwhelmingly by a show of hands the resolution titled 'Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916' earlier today.

In the public gallery, onlookers including members of the Armenian community held up banners saying 'thank you' as the parliamentary speaker announced the result of the vote to applause.

Outside the Bundestag, Armenian activists embraced as news of the vote came through.

Armenia Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian praised the decision as 'Germany's valuable contribution not only to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, but also to the universal fight for the prevention of genocides, crimes against humanity.'

But Turkey swiftly condemned the resolution and recalled its ambassador to Germany for consultations.

Ankara also summoned the German charge d'affaires to the Turkish foreign ministry later Thursday.

In the public gallery of the Bundestag, onlookers including members of the Armenian community held up banners saying 'thank you' as the parliamentary speaker announced the result of the vote to applause

UP TO 1.5M ARMENIANS KILLED AS OTTOMAN EMPIRE FELL APART Armenians say up to 1.5million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart. But modern Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman empire, says that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops. More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, have recognised the Armenian genocide. Yerevan and Ankara have long been at loggerheads over the massacre.

Erdogan's condemnation came after Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Numan Kurtulmus called the Bundestag recognition a 'historic mistake' and dismissed it as 'null and void'.

The resolution, put forward by the ruling left-right coalition and the opposition Greens, carries the contentious word throughout and also puts partial blame on the German Empire, then allied with the Ottomans and which failed to prevent the atrocities.

The 'genocide' recognition comes at a particularly awkward time as Germany and the European Union are relying on Turkey to help stem a record influx of migrants even as tensions are rising between both sides over human rights and other issues.

Yerevan has long sought international recognition of the 'genocide', but Ankara rejects using the term to describe the killings more than a century ago and argues that it was a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died.

Acknowledging Turkey's fury over the Bundestag move, political leaders argued however that a clear recognition of historical facts was a key step to healing old wounds.

German parliamentarians approve with a show of hands a resolution to recognise the 1915 Armenian genocide

'We are not looking to put Turkey in the dock. Instead, this is about making clear that taking responsibility for the past is indispensible for reconciliation,' said Franz Josef Jung, speaking for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats.

Turkish leaders heaped on the pressure ahead of the vote, with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim saying earlier Thursday that it would 'amount to a real test of the friendship' between the two nations.

Erdogan had warned that passing the resolution 'would harm our future ties' and telephoned Merkel over the text.

Merkel backed the resolution, her spokeswoman said, even though she did not attend the vote due to other official engagements.

Before now, Berlin has not taken a clear position on the WWI massacre and President Joachim Gauck had been the highest-ranking German official who has called the killings a 'genocide'.

His speech last year during commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the killings had drawn fire from Turkey, but was also rejected by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

He has said he hoped the Bundestag resolution would not derail efforts to reconcile Turkey and Armenia.

People carrying Armenian, Greek and YPG flags wait outside as German MPs vote for the Armenian 'genocide' resolution at the German Parliament (Bundestag) in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday

The issue is particularly sensitive in Germany, which has special ties with Ankara not least due to its three-million-strong ethnic Turkish population which settled following a massive 'guest worker' programme in the 1960s and 1970s.

Revealing the pressure that lawmakers came under over the vote, parliament speaker Norbert Lammert said that 'many threats were sent to colleagues, particularly those with Turkish background, including death threats'.

Yerevan and Ankara have long been at loggerheads over the massacre.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart.

But modern Turkey, the successor state to the Ottoman empire, says that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, have recognised the Armenian genocide.

Referring to the atrocities against the Armenians, the German resolution says: 'Their fate exemplifies the mass exterminations, the ethnic cleansing, the expulsions and indeed the genocides that marked the 20th century in such a terrible way.'
But an Indonesian official confirmed she will not be executed if found guilty

Ms Wongso could have faced the death penalty over the January death

She allegedly put cyanide in the victim's iced coffee at Olivier Grand Cafe

A woman accused of slipping cyanide in her friend's iced coffee will not face the death penalty if she is found guilty of murder in Indonesia.

Australian resident Jessica Kumala Wongso is due to face trial over the death of her friend Mirna Salihin who police allege was poisoned with cyanide in a Jakarta cafe on January 6.

Murder is a capital crime in Indonesia and it was speculated that Ms Wongso could have faced the death penalty if convicted.

However, an Indonesian official said a document was signed on Thursday to assure the Australian government that she will not be executed if found guilty.

'We have written the letter. We co-ordinated it with the Attorney-General and the Jakarta Police Chief,' Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Australian resident Jessica Wongso (at left) is accused of murdering her friend Mirna Salihin (right) by slipping cyanide into her iced coffee at a cafe in Jakarta in January

Murder is a capital crime in Indonesia and it was speculated that Ms Wongso (pictured) could have faced the death penalty if convicted

However, an Indonesian official confirmed on Thursday that she will not be executed if found guilty (Pictured: Ms Wongso participating in a police re-enactment )

Australian Justice Minister Michael Keenan previously said he had been promised Ms Wongso would not be sentenced to death and had approved Australian Federal Police assistance in honour of that agreement.

But a Central Jakarta District Court said on Tuesday there was no binding agreement preventing the death sentence because the Indonesian justice system 'does not recognise that kind of deal'.

'No such deal is possible in our system,' District Court Judge and court spokesman Jamaluddin Samosir told ABC.

'The judges can decide any penalty they want. We are independent, there can be no intervention.'

A spokesperson for Mr Keenan's office told ABC: 'The Indonesian government has given an assurance to the Australian government in writing that the death penalty will not be sought nor carried out in relation to the alleged offending.'

Mirna Salihin (pictured), 27, died in January after police believe her iced coffee was spiked with cyanide a few weeks after she was married

Ms Salihin (seen above during another outing) began foaming at the mouth and convulsing after drinking the coffee

Ms Salihin began foaming at the mouth after one sip of Olivier Grant Cafe's 'Vietnamese coffee' and died on her way to hospital on January 6.

Wongso ordered the drink for Ms Salihin after arriving at the restaurant an hour before her in January.

She was seen handling the beverage on CCTV footage before her friends arrived, according to local media.

The 27-year-old was arrested on January 30, some three weeks after meeting her friend at the cafe. She denies one count of pre-meditated murder.

Wongso, a permanent resident in Australia, studied with Ms Salihin at the Billy Blue College of Design in Sydney and at Swinburne University of Technology.

They graduated in 2008 but Wongso remained in Sydney to work. She returned to Indonesia sometime afterwards but the pair had grown distant, it was claimed by local police.

It was previously alleged Ms Wongso was jealous (Ms Salihin pictured on wedding day with friends)

MsSalihin had only just married her partner Arief Soemarko, who was left devastated after her death (pictured together)

At the time of Ms Salihin's death she had recently married husband Arief Soemarko.

A consultant called in by local police in March to help unravel the case alleged that Wongso, who did not attend their wedding, had been driven to murder by 'revenge and jealousy'.

'A possible motive is some kind of jealousy and revenge,' Kirdi Putra told ABC's 7.30.

Wongso denies killing her friend and has vowed to clear her name.

She previously took part in a police reenactment of their meeting at the Olivier Grand Cafe, returning to the scene in an orange jumpsuit and police guard.

Her lawyer, who is also her uncle, has called in to question an autopsy apparently commissioned by police which found 15 grams of cyanide per litre in her system.

In March Wongso said she wanted to help her friend's family discover 'who was behind all of this'.

Ms Wongso (above being escorted by police) is accused of murdering her friend by slipping cyanide into her iced coffee in January

The 27-year-old woman (pictured escorted by police) denies killing her friend and has vowed to clear her name by helping police

Ms Wongso said she wanted to help her late friend's family discover 'who was behind' her death

The women met up at the cafe in central Jakarta (above) on January 6 with another friend

Business has boomed at the Jakarta cafe since Ms Salihin's death, with travellers waiting up to four hours for a table to sample the the drink themselves and take photos inside the 'dark tourism' destination.

Many took photographs of their visits to share on social media and joked about the looming case against Ms Wongso.

'Coffee without cyanide,' said one diner as she uploaded a photograph of the cafe's now infamous Vietnamese iced coffee.

Another said they had to book in advance for a table with the restaurant becoming 'far more crowded' as a result of the scandal.

'We had the infamous Vietnamese iced coffee which was alright. The place was pretty busy so I guess no bad effects from the 'murder case'' said another.

The scandal has not put diners off visiting the cafe, with even more flocking to it now to sample to coffee Ms Salihin was drinking when she died. Above, a review by one guest who described the drink as 'infamous'

Other visitors have shared photographs of the coffee on social media. It is alleged Wongso ordered the drink for her friend and slipped the poison in it before she arrived

Another diner claimed she was told she may have to wait four hours for a table at the now bustling restaurant

The case has boosted the cafe's profile to no end with diners now required to book in advance for a table
The is the horrifying moment a babysitter was filmed on CCTV abusing a 15-month-old toddler in Indonesia.

The carer - hired through a nanny agency - was exposed when the tot's horrified mother, Nely Chao was adjusting her home CCTV system and she stumbled across the images.

After calling the police, the Jakarta mum uploaded the footage onto social media as a warning to other parents.

The carer - hired through a nanny agency - was exposed when the tot's horrified mother, Nely Chao was adjusting her home CCTV system and she stumbled across the images

The babysitter, named in local media as Mutiyah, 23, was captured shoving the tot through the mesh of a playpen as well as slapping the child around the head as she walks around the enclosure putting away laundry

The babysitter, named in local media as Mutiyah, 23, was captured shoving the tot through the mesh of a playpen.

She also can be seen slapping the child around the head as she walks around the enclosure putting away laundry.

But the most disturbing footage is when the babysitter climbs into the playpen with the child and appears to be sleeping alongside the little one.

She is then seen shaking the toddler so hard its head can be seen swinging.

Later, when they lie next to each other and the baby appears to be wriggling, the nanny responds by shoving and manhandling it so violently the tot is sent sprawling.

But the most disturbing footage is when the babysitter climbs into the playpen with the child and appears to be sleeping alongside the little one

She is then seen shaking the toddler so hard its head can be seen swinging before shoving and manhandling the child so violently the tot is sent sprawling

Police say the babysitter fled to her home town of Lampung, where she is currently being held by local police officers.

Special Crimes police Chief Eko Barmula from West Jakarta Police said: 'We are on our way to bring Mutiyah back.'
Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop admits chartering a helicopter at taxpayer expense to fly to a party fundraiser was 'a pretty dumb thing to do'.

Appearing on Sky News on Thursday night, Mrs Bishop revealed she only wanted to travel from Melbourne to Geelong to get to the event on time.

But with hindsight, this should never have occurred, she told Sky News political editor David Speers in her first media interview since departing Parliament last month.

'Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It was probably a pretty dumb thing to do,' she said.

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Appearing on Sky News on Thursday night, former speaker Bronwyn Bishop (pictured) admits chartering a helicopter at taxpayer expense to fly to a party fundraiser was 'a pretty dumb thing to do'

Mrs Bishop said she resigned from the speaker position at the request of then prime minister Tony Abbott.

'It was to protect him and I did,' she told Sky News.

She rejected claims that she initially refused to resign and only agreed to go following pressure from others such as Alan Jones.

'When Tony Abbott asked me to go himself, that's when I resigned,' she said.

Mrs Bishop declined to elaborate on a comment in her valedictory speech in parliament in which she said there was 'much more than meets the eye in that saga. But not for now.'

She revealed to Sky News political editor David Speers (left) that she only wanted to travel from Melbourne to Geelong to get to the event on time

Mrs Bishop said she resigned from the speaker position at the request of then prime minister Tony Abbott

She said that was still not for now.

'We have an election that is raging. We have got so many more issues that are important to discuss. It's not all about me,' she said.

'There's always two sides to a story, isn't there.'

Neither would she say who she voted for in the leadership ballot in which Malcolm Turnbull defeated Mr Abbott.

Last year, Mrs Bishop was heavily slammed for using a taxpayer funded helicopter to travel to an event

Mrs Bishop told Sky News she believed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would comfortably win the election

Mrs Bishop said she believed Mr Turnbull would comfortably win the election and Mr Abbott would retain his seat.

Maybe Mr Turnbull would have gone to the polls earlier but he had things he wanted to do, she said.

'I don't accept that he (Mr Turnbull) is fighting for his political life against Bill Shorten,' she said.

Mrs Bishop said she occasionally spoke to Mr Abbott just to say 'g'day.'
Prince William flew to the rescue of an elderly heart attack victim today, landing his air ambulance helicopter on a village green so his colleagues could treat the man.

The Duke of Cambridge was on call to fly the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) helicopter to the scene of the emergency in Ely, Cambridgeshire at around 8.40am this morning.

The helicopter stayed for around an hour while medics tended to a man in his 80s, who had suffered a suspected cardiac arrest.

Prince William flew to the rescue of an elderly heart attack victim today, landing his air ambulance helicopter on a village green so his colleagues could treat the man

Darren Woodstock, 44, watched the future King come in to land after spotting the Air Ambulance in the sky close to his home.

'I saw the Air Ambulance coming and wondered whether Prince William could have been on board,' he said. 'I went outside to have a look and he landed not long after.

'He was really pleasant, we said "hello" and asked him how he was and he waved back and replied to say "good morning", and that he was well.

The Duke of Cambridge was on call to fly the East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) helicopter to the scene of the emergency in Ely, Cambridgeshire at around 8.40am this morning

Neighbours who saw the prince land said the helicopter remained at the scene for around an hour, and that William had smiled and waved to the crowds who gathered to watch

'He went off to do what he had to do and everyone just let him get on with his work. It was nice to see him out and about.'

'My wife Tasha was over the moon because she loves the Royals. It really made her day.

Another resident, who witnessed the royal arrival, said: 'Prince William was here for just over an hour.

The Duke joined the air ambulance last summer, and is paid a salary which he donates to charity

'He obviously went off to help treat the patient as he left the aircraft wearing blue rubber gloves, returned for some equipment and the disappeared again.

'I didn't approach him. He seemed preoccupied with his job, which is only right, but he did smile at all those standing around.

'The other pilot who remained with the aircraft was very friendly to all those who gathered around and invited them to go up to the aircraft and have a look.'

The Duke's colleagues were also on hand East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST) to assist with the call-out.

A spokesman for the EEAST said: 'We received a call at 8.41am to a report of a man with breathing difficulties.

'A rapid response vehicle, ambulance crew, and the East Anglian Air Ambulance were dispatched.

'They treated a man in his 80s who was suffering from a suspected heart attack.

'He was taken by land ambulance to Addenbrooke's Hospital for further treatment.'
She adores playing with kittens, gently plucking them up and cradling them in her arms. When she has toothache, she simply calls for the dentist  and she isnt at all intimidated by celebrities, having ordered Hollywood actors Robin Williams and Leonardo DiCaprio to tickle her.

However, Koko is not a little child, but a 44-year-old western lowland gorilla.

She is the world-famous talking gorilla, reportedly able to communicate with humans by using 1,000 words of sign language and capable of understanding 2,000 words of spoken English.

This week, the sad shooting of a gorilla in a U.S. zoo after a four-year-old boy fell into his enclosure has prompted an impassioned debate about the value we attach to our closest genetic relatives. Cincinnati Zoo officials insist they had to kill 450lb Harambe, like Koko a rare western lowland, in case any harm came to the boy.

Graduate student Penny Paterson with a young Koko on her back not long after they met in 1971 in San Francisco

After forming an inseparable bond, Ms Patterson began to teach Koko sign language as a means of communication

Koko has spent her entire life being cared for by humans after she had to be seperated from her mother in San Francisco zoo to be treated for a life-threatening illness

For many, the tragedy boils down to ethical questions. How much is the life of a gorilla worth against that of a human? And should an animal, no matter how endangered, automatically be sacrificed if there is any threat to one of us?

A deeply moving new BBC documentary about Koko will surely make those who are adamant that Harambe had to die a little less strident in their certainty.

Kokos extraordinary story challenges some of our most basic assumptions about the fundamental differences between humans and other animals.

The BBC was allowed to spend a month watching the gorilla, who lives a life far removed from a concrete zoo compound in an affluent town near San Francisco.

She is still watched over by the same two people  the devoted Penny Patterson and her university friend Ron Cohn  who have raised her for the past 44 years.

Koko has spent her entire life with humans and, looking at the archive footage, her behaviour is so familiar, its sometimes hard to believe this isnt someone in a very realistic gorilla suit. Not only does she leaf through magazines, she even licks her fingers before turning the pages.

Born in San Francisco Zoo in 1971, she was very young when she had to be permanently separated from her mother so she could be treated for a life-threatening illness.

I wanna be like you: Koko uses 1,000 signs to communicate and can even leaf through picture books. When she does so she even licked her fingers to turn the pages

Koko is also thought to be able to understand 2,000 words of spoken English

Patterson, a psychology PhD student investigating apes capacity for sign language, persuaded the zoo to lend Koko to her for research. The clever little creature was a fast learner, soon able to combine signs to ask for things.

Patterson and Koko were spending so much time together, they started to bond as mother and daughter  albeit a daughter who soon had the strength of ten men.

You just dont expect a gorilla to be that way, says Patterson in the documentary. Everybody thinks King Kong, stupid, aggressive. She was small and sweet and creative. So it was like raising a kid.

Eugene Linden, an animal language expert, recalls his first encounter with a young Koko after he was introduced by the sign language symbol for friend. They were standing by a closed door and he recalls: She took a really hard look at me and signed please, friend, open, hurry. I was stunned. It was unlike anything Id ever seen.

Koko has even been credited with an ability to pun  intentionally confusing the words for work and rock  and play practical jokes. She once tied Pattersons shoelaces together, then signed chase.

Brand new footage and pictures showing how the pair formed their inseparable bond will be shown on a new BBC documentary

Koko sits in the driver's seat of a car next to her trainer Ms Partterson, after striking up an inseparable bond

When she was four, the zoo demanded that Koko, as one of a now critically endangered species, should breed. Patterson would be allowed to keep her only if she found a potential mate. A young male, Michael, was procured from Vienna and, after joining Koko in California, was also taught sign language.

Aged seven, Koko was on the cover of National Geographic magazine  she took the photo herself by pointing the camera at a mirror  after Patterson published research claiming that not only did she have a vocabulary of more than 300 signs but, more controversially, she used them to express deep and complex emotions.

Some experts were far from convinced. Herbert Terrace, a prominent behavioural scientist who had conducted a similar sign language experiment with a chimp called Nim, believed the apes werent consciously communicating but merely copying the prompts from their human teachers.

He dismissed Patterson  who never married or had children of her own  as an overzealous mother who is very proud of her surrogate children and tends to project meanings onto those children that may not be apparent to another observer.

His criticism was, and remains, a blow to the credibility of talking ape projects.

Undaunted, Patterson soldiered on, moving the two gorillas to a new home in Woodside, California.

Koko has a maternal side, as she often signs the word baby. She is pictured caring for a young kitten

Koko caring for another young kitten. The animal mastered thousands of signs to communicate

Today, she argues that Terraces work with Nim in the Seventies, the focus of a 2011 documentary called Project Nim, was fundamentally flawed because  unlike her research  it involved an ever-changing roster of human carers who never really gained Nims trust.

Apes want to talk to someone they like, she says. Her argument has been bolstered by recent research which revealed that gorillas in the wild use 100 gestures of their own to communicate with each other.

Helpless to look after herself after a lifetime in captivity, 300lb Koko still lives in the same mobile home she grew up in, watching proprietorially as a team of carers cook her food, wrap her birthday presents and put on her favourite DVDs.

Patterson lives a few miles away and sees her almost every day, though she can monitor her continually via remote cameras linked to her home computer.

She and Cohn are often the only visitors in her enclosure, but the curious Koko insisted on getting to know the BBC camera crew for the new documentary (Patterson says she liked their British accents).As the cameraman discovered when Koko unbuttoned his shirt, Koko has a nipple fixation (which her carers discreetly try to conceal by claiming she is making the sign for people when she is actually shouting nipple!).

Might this have something to do with her pangs for motherhood? Koko may have become an international celebrity  visited by stars including Sting and Blue Velvet actress Isabella Rossellini  but the flip side of her very human life is that she has never been able to become a mother.

A more recent picture of the gorilla, showing off her sign language, and her trainer giving a webcast in Dulles Virginia

As substitutes, she has been given dolls and kittens to nurse. When a kitten she adopted was run over by a car six months later, the hunt for a replacement  or as Koko put it, Cat Gorilla Visit Koko Love  made news headlines around the world and even inspired a childrens book.

But a remorseful Patterson, now 69, admits that every birthday for years, Koko has asked for a real baby. She never mated with Michael, who died in 2000, nor has she done so with another male gorilla, Ndume, with whom she now lives.

Has Koko simply become too humanised ever to dream of mating with a gorilla?

Those who know her best appear to suspect this may be the case.

She knows shes a gorilla and she does like Ndume, but she likes people, too, so shes like in both worlds, says Cohn.

Koko also struck up a friendship with the late actor Robin Williams, and Ms Patterson says the gorilla was upset when she told her about his death in 2014

Asked in the programme if she has any regrets, Patterson becomes emotional and mentions not giving Koko a baby. It wasnt Kokos choice but her own, by bringing up her charge in isolation from other gorillas, she says.

Interestingly, the zookeeper who raised 17-year-old gorilla Harambe from a baby in Cincinnati Zoo warned this week against us ascribing too many human qualities or feelings to gorillas.

They do some things that are human-like, but they arent human, said Jerry Stones. Theyre very intelligent, but we need to let them be gorillas.

As the BBC documentary concedes, it may never be possible to know for sure how much Koko communicates with humans. But for some people concerned about gorillas, that isnt the point.

With demands growing for great apes to be accorded rights to protect them from mistreatment, animal rights campaigners will argue that anything which makes us a more compassionate species is to be welcomed. And its impossible to watch Koko and not feel compassionate.
Angela Merkel was last night accused of trying to bully Britain into staying in the EU by warning we would be punished if voters back Brexit.

The German Chancellor sparked a backlash after saying the UK could not expect favourable trade deals if it was outside the room.

Wading into the debate for the first time, she called for Britain to remain part and parcel of the EU. Her comments came hours after similar warnings by the Dutch and Spanish prime ministers in what appeared to be a co-ordinated push by the European elite to head off a Brexit vote.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed for Britain to stay in the EU during a press conference in Berlin

Boris Johnson accused the Foreign Office of orchestrating the threats, and said it suggested EU leaders had hit the panic button as polls shifted in favour of the Leave camp.

The Foreign Office is now desperately wheeling out foreign leaders to threaten the British people with retaliation if they dare to vote to leave and take back control, said the former London mayor.

The Germans and the Dutch must be worried that if we stop sending Brussels 350million a week they will have to pick up our tab for the EUs largesse. Angela Merkels claims that we will have more negotiating influence if we stay in the EU are completely hollow. David Cameron tried to get reforms to free movement but she blocked them.

The In campaign are panicking because they can see that people are turning against them and simply do not believe their relentless campaign of doom and gloom.

Former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox hit out at the veiled threats from Mrs Merkel and other EU leaders, saying: When will they understand we will not be bullied into staying? Labour MP and Leave campaigner Kate Hoey said the German leader would be well advised to stay out of what is a very, very important vote for British democracy.

Former Tory defence minister Sir Gerald Howarth said Mrs Merkels refusal to offer serious concessions during David Camerons renegotiation showed Britain had no influence inside the EU. Britain was instrumental in rebuilding Germany after the war and helping to restore democracy, he said. To be lectured by them for wanting to reclaim our own democracy is a bit rich, and very disappointing.

Mrs Merkel made her intervention in the campaign during a joint appearance with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

He added: The idea that we have influence inside the EU is for the birds.

Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested the veiled threat to punish Britain was bogus, as any attempt at a trade war would hit the economies of EU member states hard.

He said: Does Mrs Merkel want to punish German car manufacturers from whom we import billions of pounds of cars each year?

Mrs Merkel has so far kept out of the EU referendum debate because of fears that a German Chancellor lecturing British voters would backfire.

But with the polls this week suggesting support for Brexit is gathering, she has waded in.

Speaking in Berlin, Mrs Merkel said Britain would have far more influence at the bargaining table  and suggested it would struggle to strike a good trade deal. You will never get a really good result in negotiations, particularly on very important issues, when youre not in the room and giving input, she said.

Spains prime minister Mariano Rajoy claimed on Wednesday that a Brexit vote would be negative for everybody. Dutch leader Mark Rutte warned Brexit campaigners that their promise of a points-based immigration system would be met with a tit-for-tat response from other European countries. He told BBC News: You would get a race to the bottom and thats exactly what you dont want.
Jehovahs Witnesses from around the region will gather in Billings for their annual three-day regional conventions.

An estimated 3,500 adults and children from eastern Montana, the western part of North and South Dakota and northern Wyoming will meet Friday through Sunday in the Rimrock Arena at MetraPark. The public is invited to attend any of the meetings at the free gathering.

It really is the focal point where you get to strengthen yourself, said local media spokesman Joe Kurkowski. Its good biblical counsel.

This years theme is Remain Loyal to Jehovah!

It's all predicated on trying to build our loyalty with family, with friends and, most importantly, with God," Kurkowski said. And then theres the opportunity to meet with friends from a four-state area, some of them who you only see once a year.

The convention is one of 446 that meet in 120 cities in the United States and a total of 5,000 in 92 countries around the world scheduled through January 2017. The Billings convention will feature 49 presentations, 35 video segments and two short films, all focused on the idea of loyalty.

In addition to the spiritual benefits the Jehovahs Witnesses receive, they also benefit the Billings economy while theyre in town, Kurkowski said. And they appreciate the service they get.

Thats what helps bring us back to Billings every year, the cooperation we receive from the Metra and the motels and eating establishments, he said.

In the weeks leading up to the convention, members also go door to door, dropping off invitations to homes in Billings and the surrounding towns. Its a way to make individuals feel welcome to attend the meetings.

A convention is a good time to see what Jehovahs Witnesses are and do, to see what were all about, Kurkowski said.

For more information, go online to www.jw.org.
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This futuristic four-storey home has been designed into the shape of a ribbon in order to fit on a tiny sliver of land on the banks of Lake Zurich

The glass-fronted Flexhouse in Meilen, Switzerland, boasts panoramic views of the lake from two roof terraces, and has recently been put on the rental market for 5,300-a-month.

The unusual design of the two-bedroom home was born from its oddly-shaped triangular plot - wedged in-between a railway and a road.

Futuristic: The ribbon-shaped Flexhouse boasts striking views of Lake Zurich, Switzerland, from its two roof terraces

Ribbon: The two-bedroom propertyin Meilen, Switzerland, has wide walls of glass and a white facade that winds around the building

The designers wanted to create a building that reflected the movement of the road in front of it, and the railway line behind it

The building, which has an open plan living, dining and loft-style kitchen area on the ground floor, was completed in March 2016 by Swiss architecture and design studio Evolution Design.

Executive director Stefan Camenzind created the property after spotting a vacant plot which had a great location on Lake Zurich's banks but was triangular, narrow and squeezed between a railway line and a road.

Mr Camenzind said: 'When I found the plot I saw potential in the position. The land is at the edge of the village where housing meets the countryside.

'The railway lines behind the plot are a dynamic yet soothing boundary, and in front of the house there is a local access road and the lake. We wanted to create a building that reflected all that movement.'

Flexhouse boasts unbroken views and reams of natural light in the open plan ground floor and two large bedrooms and two bathrooms on the first floor.

Morning greetings: The first-floor master bedroom offers views across Lake Zurich to the mountains beyond

Time for breakfast: The island kitchen is located on the ground floor of the house, with a separate dining area

The building is shaped the way it is as designers found it was the only way they could fit a proper house on the small plot of land

With glass walls on three sides, Flexhouse blurs the boundaries between outside and inside, offering 180 degree views

The Flexhouse has an open plan living, dining and loft-style kitchen area on the ground floor

On the second floor there is a studio with panoramic views and two large roof terraces and there is also a basement level with an underground garage and a utility space.

Rather than closing off individual floors, the spectacular design incorporates a double height open space to allow a glimpse of the bedrooms above or the living room below from the first floor.

With glass walls on three sides, Flexhouse blurs the boundaries between outside and inside, offering 180 degree views across Lake Zurich to the mountains beyond.

Flexhouse's design features a floor plan which goes from wide to narrow to follow the railway lines and shape of the plot.

Stefan said: 'We have given the space a direction of view. When you're travelling in a car or train, you face a certain way and this house does too.

'On the ground floor it faces south east, from the bedroom it faces west towards the sunset and from the top floor terraces the views are 180 degrees.

'Connecting inside and out is very important to me as an architect. I want people to know where they are when they are inside a building.

The property is currently taking viewings and will cost 5,300 a month to let

Flexhouse's design features a floor plan which goes from wide to narrow to follow the railway lines and shape of the plot

Luxury bath: The master bedroom is ensuite and comes with its own separate bathroom

On the second floor of the Flexhouse, there is a studio with panoramic views and two large roof terraces

An image from inside the bedroom shows the rest of the first floor, with space for a sitting room or another bedroom

The house does have its quiet corners and there is always a back wall, which helps give a more cosy feeling. And you can close the blinds to create a peaceful, private corner.'

Despite its model good looks the house has been designed for practical everyday living and meets Switzerland's energy efficiency standards with thermally-activated concrete floors, a geothermal heat pump, external blinds and triple-glazed windows.

The rear living room wall functions as a storage and display space, the kitchen grows out of the same call and in the bedrooms it acts as a screen to separate the bathrooms from the sleeping spaces.

But Swiss building regulations are notoriously tight, and Stefan said building on Flexhouse's plot was particularly challenging.

Stefan said: 'There are strict rules around boundary distance and building volume, which means it is quite difficult to be creative with buildings in Switzerland.
Security guards have been sent to patrol a high school after a rolling brawl erupted between students and parents.

Police were called to southern Perths Hamilton Senior High School just after 3pm on Tuesday with reports more than 20 students and parents were involved in a melee in the visitors car park.

The Education Department said the clash was believed to have been sparked after a verbal altercation between a student and another students father, reports The West Australian.

There have been reports more than 20 parents and students at Perths Hamilton Senior High School (pictured) were involved in a brawl just after 3pm on Tuesday

The fight was broken up after 40 staff members swooped in alongside police officers to helped mediate those involved.

Some students are expected to be suspended when the school completed an investigation into the incident.

Security guards have been posted at the school on Wednesday and Thursday a precaution.

It is believed nobody was seriously injured in the altercation.
A woman who was brutally murdered may have been killed for spreading HIV, police have said.

Tangaru Ramazanova, 25, was found with multiple stab wounds in the city of Kizlyar in Russia's south-western Republic of Dagestan.

Her body had been wrapped in plastic and dumped in grassland close to the Terek River.

Revenge attack? Detectives believe Tangaru Ramazanova (left) may have been killed after infecting one of her partners with HIV. Her body had been wrapped in plastic and dumped in grassland close to a river (right)

Detectives say the victim was known locally for her free and easy lifestyle.

They believe she may have been killed in revenge after infecting one of her sexual partners with HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS.

Officers say she had been stabbed about 20 times in the body and had also been punched in the face.

Ms Ramazanova's body has been sent for autopsy and police have requested confirmation over whether she was HIV-positive.

Officers say she had been stabbed about 20 times in the body and had also been punched in the face

The story has attracted a great deal of attention on local internet forums where users have been expressing sympathy for the victim.

Netizen Imyarek said: 'They killed her with a lot of violence. This is horrible.'
England will have to build a new home every six minutes to cope with the demand caused by mass immigration, ex-Cabinet Minister Liam Fox warned yesterday.

The former Tory leadership campaigner said that, if Britain did not vote to quit the EU, young people would be stuck living with their parents for longer  unable to find or afford a home.

He also claimed large sections of the countryside would need to be concreted over.

Vote Leave backer Liam Fox today warned England will need a new home every six minutes to keep up with mass immigration if voters reject Brexit on June 23

In a speech this morning, the ex-Defence Secretary said: 'At current levels of immigration, the Office for National Statistics project that our population will continue to grow by around half a million a year - a city the size of Liverpool every year.

'This will mean that, in England, we will have to build a new home every six minutes, or 240 a day, for the next 20 years to accommodate just the additional demand for housing from new migrants.

'That is before we take into account the needs of those who were born here. The need to build a new home every 6 minutes it is to deal with the additional demand for housing.'

Dr Fox also warned that young people will be forced to live with their parents for longer if the UK does not vote to leave the EU owing to rising rent costs and greater competition to buy houses.

He said there is no 'realistic possibility' that money will be found to fund the extra infrastructure needed to match immigration levels.

The Brexit campaigner added: 'Most new immigrants move into the private rented sector, which has grown as the immigrant population has grown.

'Competition for rented accommodation obliges all those in the private rented sector to pay high rents which take a large share of income and makes saving to buy a home even harder.

'These resulting high rents and a shortage of housing make it much more difficult for young people to set up home on their own so they have to spend more time in house shares or with their parents.

'The continuing failure of the Eurozone and the tragically high levels of unemployment in southern Europe are likely to mean that more and more young people will head to the north of Europe, including the UK, in search of work.'

George Osborne has made a string of policy announcements to encourage house building and wants a million homes to be built by 2020

Major UK housing developers criticised Mr Fox's claim.

James Hopkins, executive chairman of Hopkins Homes, said: 'My greatest fear is that leaving the EU will exacerbate the housing crisis, bringing economic uncertainty and with it stagnation in the housing market.

'Instead of moving from 'generation rent' to 'generation buy' we could move to 'generation debt'.'

Labour's shadow housing minister John Healey said: 'The housing crisis is intensifying because of this Tory government, not the European Union.

'Under the last Labour government, we built two million homes, helped a million more families become home-owners and made the largest investment in social housing in a generation  all as a member of the European Union.

'Tory Ministers have put that progress into reverse  slashing funding for affordable homes and failing to help young people and families on ordinary incomes get a first home of their own.

'Before criticising the EU, Liam Fox should take a hard look at the housing policies of the Conservative government.'

It's not racist to worry about immigration, Jeremy Corbyn says as he slams David Cameron's Remain campaign  but tells people to vote for In anyway

Jeremy Corbyn today said people who are 'disconcerted' by rapid immigration are not 'Little Englanders, xenophobes or racists' as he urged voters to reject Brexit.

The Labour leader, who has come under renewed fire today for a lacklustre referendum campaign, said migration from Europe caused real pressure on public services.

But he said this was not the fault of new arrivals but the responsibility of government to ensure there are enough schools and hospitals available for communities.

Mr Corbyn made his remarks in a speech backing the campaign to keep Britain in the EU and he urged voters to register before the June 7 deadline and take part on June 23.

And he slammed the 'myth-making and prophecies of doom' issued by the Treasury and mocked David Cameron and George Osborne's claim a Brexit vote would produce a 'DIY recession'.

Immigration was thrown to the heart of the referendum battle by official migration statistics revealing record numbers are travelling to Europe while people smugglers have begun efforts to send people over the Channel illegally in small boats.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured making his latest EU referendum speech today, defended workers rights today but has been urged to campaign harder to keep Britain in the EU

Mr Corbyn responded to calls from the GMB union today to respond to the real concerns of voters about immigration.

He said: 'Most of us in Britain know someone who has studied, worked or retired abroad.

'We have reciprocal arrangements with the European Union. Our citizens, well over one million of them, live in other EU countries and EU citizens come to live and work here.

'But some communities can change dramatically and rapidly and that can be disconcerting for some people.

'That doesnt make them Little Englanders, xenophobes or racists. More people living in an area can put real pressure on local services like GPs surgeries, schools and housing.

'This isnt the fault of migrants. Its a failure of government. The coalition government in 2010 abolished the Migrant Impact Fund; a national fund to manage the short term impacts of migration on local communities.

'By abolishing it, David Camerons Coalition undermined the proper preparation and investment that communities need to adapt.'

Mr Corbyn also lodged a fierce attack on the Tory record on human rights and based his case on staying in the EU as necessary to limit Conservative excesses.

He said: 'A vote to Leave means a Conservative Government would then be in charge of negotiating Britains exit.

'Everything they have done as a Government so far means we could not rely on them to protect the workplace rights that millions rely on.

'A Tory Brexit negotiation would be a disaster for the majority of people in Britain.'

I'll be back! Nigel Farage bets 1,000 of his own cash on a Brexit win and predicts he'll return to the bookies in three weeks to collect his winnings

Nigel Farage today wagered 1,000 of his own cash on a Brexit vote on June 23 and insisted he was confident of collecting his winnings.

The Ukip leader got odds of 5/2 - worth 3,500 if Vote Leave pull of a win in three weeks time.

Polls on the referendum race have shown a mixed picture, with a string of strong results for the Remain side being reversed this week by three polls all forecasting a Brexit.

Mr Farage said he decided to put his money on the table after seeing the odds close in from 9/2 off the back of the new polls.

Nigel Farage brought a bundle of cash with him to lay the 1,000 bet on a Brexit vote on June 23 - a stake that could net him 3,500 if the gamble pays off

He said: 'The odds are moving in our favour and I'm very confident I'll be back after the referendum to collect my winnings.'

The Ukip leader placed his bet at Ladbrokes Moorgate branch.

Alex Donohue, a spokesman at the firm, said: 'We've seen plenty of large remain wagers in our city branches, but this is the biggest leave bet placed so who better to part with the cash than Farage?

'While the odds are still stacked against him, he was confident he'll be returning to pick up some cash to pay for the independence beers in a few weeks.'
This is the astonishing moment a suspected Muslim extremist calmly remembered to tap out of a London Tube station with his Oyster card shortly after allegedly trying to behead a musician.

Muhiddin Mire, 30, is accused of cutting the throat of Lyle Zimmerman, 56, at Leytonstone station in East London, three days after the Commons debate on the bombing of Islamic State in Syria.

Mire, who has a history of mental illness, was allegedly motivated by revenge for the air strikes by the UK and coalition forces and was heard shouting: This is for my Syrian brothers.

Avoiding a fine: This is the moment a suspected Muslim extremist calmly remembered to tap out of a London Tube station with his Oyster card shortly after allegedly trying to behead a musician

CCTV footage: Muhiddin Mire, 30, is accused of cutting the throat of Lyle Zimmerman, 56, at Leytonstone station in East London, three days after the Commons debate on the bombing of Islamic State in Syria

After allegedly kicking Mr Zimmerman six times to the head and chest, Mire began sawing at his victim's neck with a bread knife before being seen on CCTV standing over him, jurors were told

Mire is alleged to have been caught on CCTV fumbling in his pockets for his Oyster card before tapping out

He tapped out to avoid a penalty charge, the court heard. Mire is then said to have made his way up to street level and tried to stab Polish man Daniel Bielinski, who was with his girlfriend

The Old Bailey heard Mr Zimmerman had a guitar on his back, was holding a mandolin and an amplifier and had cowboy boots on when Mire knocked him to the ground last December.

After allegedly kicking him six times to the head and chest, Mire began sawing at his victim's neck with a bread knife, jurors were told, and was then caught on CCTV fumbling in his pockets for his Oyster card.

He tapped out to avoid a penalty charge, the court heard. Mire is then said to have made his way up to street level and tried to stab Polish man Daniel Bielinski, who was with his girlfriend.

Mr Bielinski dodged out of the way and allegedly filmed Mire as he lunged at other commuters, including Serena Valori, security guard Andrius Sabaliauskas and lift engineer David Pethers.

Mire was tasered three times by arresting officers before being brought to the ground, the court heard. As he was handcuffed, an onlooker shouted: You aint no Muslim, bruv.

On trial: Muhiddin Mire (pictured) allegedly tried to behead a musician in a London Underground station

Officers were so concerned by the angry crowd gathering around Mire that they called for backup so he could safely be led to the waiting police car. One onlooker even threw a bottle at him.

Mr Bielinski described Mire seemed quite slow, as if he was lacking energy. Mire repeatedly demanded if he was a Muslim, before stalking him three times around Leytonstone war memorial.

His eyes were sort of foggy as if he had taken some drugs possibly,' Mr Bielinski said. 'He was generally moving around quite slowly as if he didnt have any strength or was under the influence of something.

'Even though he was trying to attack people his movements were quite slow and he didnt seem aggressive.

Ms Valori said she thought Mire was either homeless or had mental health problems because he was staring at a space just above her head before he lunged at her throat.

Although the knife connected, she said it felt like a scratch and didnt leave any mark on her, adding: Afterwards I started to cry and shake and I realised things could have been a lot worse for me.

Mr Zimmerman suffered three knife wounds to the front of his neck but survived because none of his major blood vessels were damaged.

Mires Samsung mobile phone revealed searches on Sharia Law, the Muslim attack on the cultural centre in Texas, Islam v West and Islamic State, the court was told.

He also allegedly had images of hostages about to be beheaded in a similar position to Mr Zimmerman and Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was killed in Woolwich, south-east London, in May 2013.

Another image featured Labour politician Hilary Benn making his speech at the House of Commons shortly before the vote to approve the bombing of ISIS in Syria, jurors heard.

This is the moment a suspected extremist 'lunged at passengers with a knife (left) as they bravely confronted him as he rampaged through a busy Tube station'. Moments later Muhiddin Mire was tasered by police (right)

The 30-year-old also had photos of Jihadi John and murdered soldier Lee Rigby on his phone, a court heard

Prosecutors say Mire also tried to stab four other commuters during the attack at Leytonstone Underground station in East London, including a Polish man who filmed Mire saying: 'You attack our land, our Muslim land'

A clip shows Mire being tasered before he was arrested as an onlooker shouted: 'You ain't no Muslim, bruv'

CCTV FOOTAGE SHOWS SUPERMAN TUBE PASSENGER FLEEING ATTACK A Tube passenger dressed as Superman ran for his life after coming face to face with Mire, a video shown in court revealed. Footage filmed inside Leytonstone station showed members of the public arriving at the ticket barrier dressed for their Christmas parties on December 5. A Tube passenger dressed as Superman ran for his life after coming face to face with Mire, a video shown in court revealed Fleeing: The man dressed in a Superman outfit looked with horror at Mire as he prowled up and down inside the barrier after kicking Mr Zimmerman to the ground. He then turned round and ran for his life One young woman had mock antlers while others were wearing long dresses and one man came down the stairs dressed in a Superman outfit. He looked with horror at Mire as he prowled up and down inside the barrier after kicking Mr Zimmerman to the ground. As Mire crouched over his victim, pulled his head up and began cutting his throat with a bread knife, the man dressed in the superhero outfit ran for his life. Other members of the public remained and confronted Mire, the video showed. Advertisement

Officers also recovered a notebook containing handwritten notes listing the qualities needed by a mujihadeen commander to fight kuffar non-Muslims, including the ability to attack like a wolf and carry weapons like an ant, jurors heard.

Mire, who was born in Somalia and came to Britain as a young boy, told his GP a month before the attack he believed he was being followed by MI5 and MI6.

At the time of the attack he had stopped working as a taxi driver and was living on benefits at a one-bedroom council flat near Leytonstone station.

Mire admits wounding with intent on Mr Zimmerman and four counts of attempted wounding on Mr Pethers, Mr Bielinski, Ms Valori and Mr Sabaliauskas.

But he denies the attempted murder of Mr Zimmerman.

The trial continues.

Police at the scene: Prosecutors say it was planned as a 'revenge' attack in the days after the Parliament vote

Hacked to death: Mire allegedly had images of hostages about to be beheaded in a similar position to Mr Zimmerman and Fusilier Lee Rigby (pictured), who was killed in Woolwich, south-east London, in May 2013.
The New York City billionaire developing the world's tallest residential building hid his French girlfriend in a Park Avenue apartment for two years before leaving his wife of 57 years.

Harry Macklowe, told his wife Linda, 78, that he was leaving her and moving in with his girlfriend Patricia Landeau.

Macklowe, 78, moved in with Landeau, 60, who is president of the French Frends of the Israel Museum.

Sources tell the New York Post that Harry Macklowe told his wife Linda, both 78 (left in November), last week that he was leaving her after 57 years of marriage. He then immediately moved in his new girlfriend Patricia Landeau, 60 (right )

According to Page 6, Mackowe was keeping Landeau in an apartment complex he owns on 737 Park Avenue.

A source said: 'It was no secret in the building that the woman was Harry Macklowes girlfriend, and shes been coming and going for two years. Whether he was living a double life with the girlfriend, or his wife knew about her all along, nobody quite knows.'

The property developer is believed to be worth $2billion while it is understood he did not sign a pre-nuptial agreement before marrying his wife.

The Macklowes had been married for 57 years, so their break up comes as quite a shock.

'Harry told his wife last week he was divorcing her - completely out of the blue - then moved straight in with his girlfriend,' one source said. 'This is a total shock to everybody because hes been married to Linda a long time. Harry is almost 80, hes been married for [almost] 60 years, and suddenly he has a girlfriend. And hes been running around town and the Hamptons with her.'

Macklowe is currently developing 432 Park Ave, the tallest residential building in the world

Another source added to the paper: 'He could have handled it better...it's so in Linda's face.'

Harry Macklowe is the previous owner of the GM Building and also developed the Apple store on Fifth Avenue.

He is currently developing the tallest residential building in the world, 432 Park Avenue.

He and his soon-to-be ex-wife were donors to the Israel Museum, which his new girlfriend is associated with, and were regular attendees of the museum's New York City gala.

It's reported that Harry met his new girlfriend at a museum event.

The first source said the Macklowe's divorce is going to be a 'blockbuster' with a few billion to split up in addition to a very valuable art collection - which Linda spearheaded - including works by Franz Kline, Marth Rothko and Gerhard Richter worth at least $1billion.
Dashcam footage has captured the moment a car travelling at 50mph ploughed into the side of a van in Scotland.

The clip, recorded in August last year, shows the moment the van pulls out into the path of the oncoming car less than 15 feet away, leaving the driver no time to avoid the collision.

The impact injures the driver and leaves his windscreen shattered as smoke pours from the engine.

The dashcam footage shows the car travelling along a road at 50mph - before a van pulls out in front of it

The van pulls out 15 feet away from the car, leaving the driver no time to avoid the collision

Despite the dashcam footage, which displays an incorrect date, providing clear evidence, the motorist claims the van driver's insurer has only just admitted liability eight months later.

The accident, which happened on the B743 Mauchline to Ayr road in Ayrshire, left the driver with whiplash and a written off car.

The impact of the collision shattered the windscreen and left the driver with whiplash

A spokesman for the AA said the incident demonstrated the need for drivers to fit dashcams

The driver, who did not wish to be identified, said: 'It still took ages to get sorted and it was only a few weeks ago the third parties' insurance admitted liability and the claim has finally been settled.

'I ended up with whiplash and a sore back for a few months. He didn't see me. As soon as the car going the other way passes, he pulls out.

'I think I was doing around 50 to 55mph and I didn't scrub off much speed as the ABS went nuts as I hit the brakes.'

The crash wrote off the car. The driver said the insurer of the van only admitted liability months later

A spokesman for the AA said the incident demonstrated the need for drivers to fit dashcams.

He said: 'This appears to be a straightforward case of the van driver not properly looking as the car approached or completely misjudging its speed.

'Most people would never be involved in a collision of this sort, but when it does happen it can make the process of establishing liability much more straightforward.

'Evidence from dash-cam recordings is accepted by both insurance companies and police.'

Sandy Allan, road safety manager in Scotland for The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: 'Dashcams can provide useful evidence of people's driving, including your own, if you need to make an insurance claim.

'But don't be tempted to try to get footage of someone else's driving by deliberately following them or changing how you're driving.'

Police Scotland said the incident was being investigated.
A teen from Grosse Pointe South High School ranted to his laughing friends that he wants to bring back slavery for black people so he can brand and trade them in a shocking video.

The unnamed teen, filmed talking to at least three other boys, appears to be drunk as he rants about 'f***ing stupid' and 'worthless' black people being alternately segregated, exiled and enslaved in his vision for a 2040 presidential campaign.

The appalling video surfaced on Twitter this weekend, less than three months after other students from Grosse Point South High were photographed with the N-word written on their bodies, the WXYZ reported Thursday.

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Appalling: The video shows a teen from Grosse Pointe South High School in Michigan talking about how he wants to bring back slavery, calling black people 'f***ing stupid' and 'worthless'

The video begins with the student sprawled on a sofa, rambling almost incoherently about black people to three others, including the camera man. All appear to be in their late teens.

'F***ing stupid, worthless... need to leave our country,' he says, slapping his leg for emphasis, 'send 'em back to Africa.'

'All right, so what you going to do to them in 2040?' asks someone off-camera.

'Oh, segregate!' the student laughs, before reeling off a series of states that 'they get,' including North and South Dakota and Maine.

One of the boys suggests Idaho, but he turns down the suggestion as he 'likes potatoes.'

Another question from off-camera: 'How are they going to be treated?'

'They're going to be owned by white people,' the teen replies. 'White people are going to be the dominants (sic) of the country.'

'We're going to burn 'em on stakes,' one boy suggests.

'No, no, no,' the teen counters, 'you're going to put a bunch of those poles - those little burny things - and stab 'em so you can know who the owner is,' he says, miming branding himself.

'You can sell those b*****s, and trade 'em ... you could get alcohol for that s***,' he adds before cracking up into squawking laughter.

'Anything else, bro?' the questioner asks.

'Um, we're not gonna put them in coffins,' he says. 'We're gonna put them in the river and let them (indecipherable) to the lakes and oceans.'

'Deplorable': Grosse Pointe South Principal Moussa Hamka (pictured) called the students' behavior 'deplorable' and said that the students may be kicked out of school as a consequence

Forum: The school held a forum (pictured) on race, diversity and inclusion Wednesday. However, this was not the first time its students have posted racist remarks on social media

The video has appalled staff and students of Grosse Pointe South, Detroit Free Press reported.

School Principal Moussa Hamka described the video as 'deplorable' in an email to parents, saying staff 'do not accept and will not tolerate such bigotry.'

'Immediately after being made aware of the situation, South administration began contacting students and families (and) making appropriate decisions regarding consequences for those involved, including student separations from school,' he wrote.

The school said that three of the teens in the video were from Grosse Pointe South but didn't identify which ones they meant. A comment on Facebook confirmed that the main teen in the video attends the school.

Student Melba Dearing, 18, a black student at Grosse Pointe South, told the Free Press: 'They looked like they were drunk, but that's no excuse.

'We just had an incident a few months ago, and we have all these things still happening. But I'm happy our principal addressed it.'

Her father told the paper the video had reduced her to tears.

The previous incident occurred in March, when a photograph circulated on social media of three white girls from Grosse Pointe South with the N-word written across their stomachs. A fourth girl had 'I (heart) weed' written on her knee.

The students were later suspended for a week, and apologized at a diversity meeting.

Hamka Tweeted Thursday that the school had organized a 'forum on diversity, inclusion and race.'
A man released on bail after being charged with the rape and attempted rape of Korean women he met under the guise of teaching them English spent his time away from jail contacting more potential victims, phone records show.

Ashraf Makary, from Brisbane, continued to advertise English lessons online, and frequently ignored a court-ordered curfew, the Courier Mail reported.

The 42-year-old man will face the District Court in Brisbane on Friday for sentencing after he was convicted of the rape of two Korean women and the attempted rape of a third.

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Brisbane man Ashraf Kamal Makary (pictured), 42, has been convicted of drugging and raping two Korean women and attempting to rape a third

Urine and blood tests from some of the women had shown traces of drugs known as central nervous system depressants (Makary with one of the victims pictured in CCTV)

The incidents occurred in 2011 and 2012, and despite strong objections from Detective Sergeant Chris Canniffe, who labelled Makary an 'extremely dangerous individual', he was released on bail.

Justice Peter Applegarth based his decision on Makary's clean previous record, but imposed a number of restrictions on his activities and movement, including an 8pm curfew.

But just months later Makary was arrested again when he was found in the back of a car at New Farm, near the Brisbane River, with a Korean woman he had just raped.

She appeared to have been drugged in the same way as his previous victims, appearing semiconscious when police arrived.

Makary pleaded not guilty last month to three counts of rape and three counts of administering a stupefying drug with intent to commit an indictable offence

Police found 85 phone numbers on Makary's phone that he had either contacted or obtained since his release in relation to doing a language exchange.

He had attempted to meet 27 of these contacts and police found evidence to suggest he had actually met four.

Bank statements show the serial rapist used his debit card at Coles, a service station, liquor stores and Pizza Hut after his curfew.

Makary pleaded not guilty last month to three counts of rape and three counts of administering a stupefying drug with intent to commit an indictable offence.

But a jury on Wednesday morning convicted him of all charges except one count of rape, instead finding him guilty of attempted rape.

At least five other women said they had been drugged or raped but decided not to press charges, Courier Mail reports.

Makary posted advertisements on a website called SunBrisbane, which is used to organise cultural and language exchanges, using a host of fake names including 'Chuck' and 'Andrew'.

The 42-year-old from Murarrie in east Brisbane was a service station console operator.

He took two of the women to Mount Coot-tha and another to New Farm where he offered them drinks and snacks, after which they would become dizzy and suffer from memory loss.

One woman could only recall 'snapshots' of the April 2011 meeting and woke up lying in a bed with the man she knew as Andrew moving in to kiss her.

The court was told he then pulled her legs towards him, at which point she said: 'I don't like it, I want to go home'.

Another woman suffered vomiting after returning home feeling 'heavy', he said.

Urine and blood tests from some of the women had shown traces of drugs known as central nervous system depressants.

But a jury on Wednesday morning convicted him of all charges except one count of rape, instead finding him guilty of attempted rape

He would offer the women drinks and snacks and the victims then suffered memory loss

In his opening address at Brisbane District Court, crown prosecutor David Finch told the jury his three alleged victims were all young Korean women working and travelling in Australia with a view to improving their English skills.

'You will perhaps see an underlying pattern or unity emerge (of) striking similarities,' Mr Finch told the jury.

The three women in the case had been attacked over a three day period in 2011, the court heard in the trial.

The jury had deliberated for three hours after the four-week trial.

Makary is expected to be sentenced on Friday.

Makary posted advertisements on a website to organise language exchanges using a host of fake names (one of the victims points to an image of Makary and calls him 'Chuck')

At least five other women reportedly said they had been drugged or raped but decided not to press charges

He drove (car pictured) two of the women to Mount Coot-tha and another to New Farm where he offered them drinks and snacks, after which they would become dizzy and suffer from memory loss

The three women in the case had been attacked over a three day period in 2011, the court heard in the trial
The eighth grade teacher who allegedly got pregnant after daily sex with her 13-year-old student was released from jail hours after she turned herself into police.

Montgomery County police released Alexandria Vera, 24, on Wednesday after she posted $100,000 bond. She turned herself in to officers to face charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

The Stovall Middle School teacher allegedly told school district officials she had been engaging in a sexual relationship with the young boy since September, after they began flirting during a summer school session.

The English teacher even fell pregnant with the eight grader's child in January after they had continuous sex for nearly nine months, according to police documents.

According to KHOU, Child Protective Services is now investigating the child's family because of their alleged support of the relationship, investigators say.

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Alexandria Vera, 24, (left in her police mugshot, and right, from her social media) allegedly admitted to engaging in a sexual relationship with the boy since September, after they began flirting during a summer school session

Vera, who has a four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, was released from jail (above) after posting a $100,000 bond on Wednesday

Vera (above) turned herself into police on Wednesday after briefly going on the run. Child Protective Services is now investigating the boy's family because of their alleged support of the relationship, investigators say

Court documents show the boy's parents didn't object to their relationship, as she claimed they 'loved each other'.

She told a school district investigator they were 'very supportive and excited' when she disclosed her pregnancy.

The probable cause document said she aborted the pregnancy after a child welfare investigator questioned her, KPRC reported. School officials say she's been removed from her job.

In addition, students in her class reportedly said she was the 'cool teacher', since she let them have their cell phones out during sessions, but they suspected she was having an inappropriate relationship with the student.

One of her neighbors said that Vera 'always' had the 13-year-old boy at her home and would claim that he was her 'brother', according to KHOU.

Vera was an eighth grade English teacher at Stovall Middle School in Houston, Texas (pictured)

Court documents say that she held 'regular sleepover's at her home, while other neighbors say she would have as many as five teenage boys over at one time.

'She was having a lot of kids in her home,' one neighbor who did not want to be identified told KHOU.

'There was drinking in the front. We always found beer bottles and beer cans on her side of the lawn and half of the (teens) did not look older than high school, maybe.'

Vera, who has a four-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, was released from jail after posting a $100,000 bond. Prior to being arrested, the Houston native had gone on the run.

While exiting the Montgomery County jail facility, she repeatedly said 'no comment' to reporters asking her questions about the shocking charges she is facing.

The alleged relationship between Vera and the student began when she gave him her phone number through a direct message on Instagram when he didn't show up to class, court documents revealed.

Vera (left and right) of Houston, Texas, told prosecutors that she gave him her number on Instagram after he failed to show up to class and that the relationship developed from there

The eighth-grade English teacher, who has one child, told police that she and the teen 'are in love' and that she had been introduced to his family as his girlfriend

Their relationship allegedly developed from there after the boy asked Vera if they could hang out and she agreed.

They then began taking drives in her car and kissing and soon started having sex on an almost daily basis, according to court documents.

Their first sexual encounter happened after Vera went to drop the child off, but his parents were not home. They then went back to her house, it is claimed.

And the couple didn't keep their relationship a secret - even at school.

One student told Eyewitness news: '[The student] like grabbed her butt and everybody saw it. And then they were talking about it.'

According to court documents, Vera said the parents allowed the teen to spend the night at her house, after which she would drop him off at home in the morning so he could catch the bus to Stovall Middle School in Houston, Texas.

The mother-of-one had her phone forensically analyzed by the officer and it appears many messages between the student and teacher were consistent with what she said, according to the report.

Vera said the parents allowed the teen to spend the night at her house (pictured), after which she would drop him off at home in the morning so he could catch the bus to school

Alexandria Vera, 24, (left and right) allegedly admitted to engaging in a sexual relationship with the young boy since September, after they began flirting during a summer school session

Aldine ISD, the organisation that runs Stovall Middle School, issued the following statement to ABC-13: 'Aldine ISD has been made aware that charges have been filed against a former Stovall Middle School teacher involved in inappropriate behavior with a male student.

'When the allegation was made in April, the teacher was immediately removed from the school and placed on administrative leave.

'Aldine ISD Police investigated the incident and turned their findings over to the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

'The safety and security of Aldine ISD's students and staff remains a priority of the school district.'

Parents at the school were horrified.

'(It's) horrible for any father or any family member going through this situation,' Gerson Bonilla told Click 2 Houston.
While most Montanans will be working 22 days this month, the U.S. Senate will be in session for only 16.

June has more Senate work days scheduled than any other month for the rest of the year. In July, the 100 senators are scheduled to be in session for only six days. They are taking off the entire month of August, convening for 15 days in September, three in October, four in November and nine in December.

Thats the schedule set by Senate leadership. U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., pointed to that schedule, which he thinks has too few working days, on a visit with The Gazette editorial board Wednesday. Many of his Senate colleagues probably agree, but in that tradition-bound body, the majority leader, presently Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., gets to set the calendar and the agenda.

Its the least amount of days the Senate has worked in 60 years, Tester told The Gazette editorial board Wednesday. The Senate continues to be pretty dysfunctional.

The list of urgent matters not getting attention is long and growing. For example, the Veterans First Act, a bipartisan bill that Tester helped to write in the Senate Veterans Committee hasnt been brought to the floor, even though it aims to fix problems in the Veterans Choice program that have increased waiting times for some veterans to get medical care.

The Senate cut the Obama administrations request for funding to research and prevent Zika virus, the mosquito-borne infection that can cause profound birth defects and serious autoimmune disease. The House reduced the funding even more. Meanwhile, mosquito season is starting and residents in much of the southern United States are at risk, and no legislation is headed toward the presidents desk.

Tester recently introduced legislation designed to help rural hospitals keep their doors open, by assuring that they will receive fair reimbursement from Medicare. But theres no chance of the Senate considering stand-alone bills that make the most sense for small rural hospitals in the remainder of this session. Tester hopes that some provisions might be added as amendments to must-pass bills, perhaps in a lame-duck session.

If there was any rational thought to such things, Congress wouldnt delay big issues till after the Nov. 8 General Election. The Senate is scheduled to be in session for just 16 days after the election.

But its likely that must-pass appropriations bills may remain unfinished until the lame duck session.

The House schedule is no more rigorous than the Senate; just 12 House work session days scheduled in June. This is no way for the legislative branch to conduct the peoples business. Congress shouldnt be able to take its August vacation until the spending bills have been completed for the fiscal year starting on Oct. 1.
All finals were later axed at UCLA on Wednesday after the murder-suicide

A UCLA professor ordered her students to ignore a lockdown and take their final exams while an active shooter was on campus.

Gunman Mainak Sarkar, 38, was seen on surveillance footage prowling the campus armed with a semi-automatic gun before the murder-suicide that threw the campus into chaos on Wednesday.

The University of California, Los Angeles, was placed in lockdown as more than 200 armed police swarmed the campus looking for the shooter who shot dead his professor William Klug, 39, before tuning the gun on himself.

But, despite the dramatic scenes playing out around them, one UCLA professor insisted that students would still have to take their final exams.

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A UCLA professor ordered her students to ignore a lockdown and take their final exams while an active shooter was on campus, in an email (pictured)

Professor Vivian Lew (left and right) said that she was in her office on lockdown but the final exams still had to be taken and she even urged students to leave cover and find a computer during the active shooter situation

In an email, posted on social media, statistics professor Vivian Lew said that she was in her office on lockdown.

But she said that the final exams still had to be taken and she even urged students to leave cover and find a computer during the active shooter situation.

'This is what I will do, you can take the exam anywhere today, not in Boelter,' she wrote. 'Unfortunately, you need to take it between 11-11:50 Section 1A and 1 pm-1:50pm Section 1B.'

'I am locked in my office now and cannot leave[;] my building is under lockdown. So leave this area if you are in [it] and find a computer.'

Meanwhile, terrified students were locked inside their classrooms waiting for police to arrive.

A campus-wide emergency urged everyone to find shelter and lock the door until police could secure the situation.

PROFESSOR VIVIAN LEW'S EMAIL TO STUDENTS 'This is what I will do, you can take the exam anywhere today, not in Boelter. 'Unfortunately, you need to take it between 11-11:50 Section 1A and 1 pm-1:50pm Section 1B.' 'I am locked in my office now and cannot leave[;] my building is under lockdown. So leave this area if you are in [it] and find a computer.' Advertisement

But many students discovered they were unable to properly lock the doors and had to improvise, using their belts to lock them or barricading themselves in with furniture, during the murder suicide.

The school was placed on lockdown for more than two hours after police received reports of three gunshots at around 10am.

A psychology professor also emailed students saying she had no plans to cancel her final exams, according to The Tab.

'Our exams is at 4pm, right now it's morning,' Professor Dahlia Zaidel allegedly wrote at around 11.30am - just an hour and a half after the murder suicide. 'I am not cancelling our final. Am not aware of other classes cancelling.'

Zaidel has not yet responded to a request for comment by the paper.

CBS later reported that all other finals on Wednesday were cancelled.

Around the same time the lockdown was lifted, Lew sent an apologetic email excusing everyone from finals.

Lew said she was axing the exams because of effects the traumatic events would have on her students.

Terrified and emotional students were led away with their hands in the air, by Los Angeles Police Department officers after the campus shooting

Gabriela Romero, a third year student is emotional as she calls her mother telling her not to worry following the deadly campus shooting

Mainak Sarkar, 38, (right) has been identified as the PhD student who shot engineering professor William Klug, (left) 39, dead at UCLA yesterday before turning the gun on himself

'Many of you are too stressed out to take it and I cannot reschedule it. So no exam today,' she wrote, adding that those who did complete the first portion would be allowed to either drop the grade or use it to improve a lower grade on an exam given last Friday.

Lew later admitted she regrets her first email and says she had not been aware of the full situation when she sent it. She had heard there was little more than a rumor of 'police activity'.

She also claimed she 'wasn't aware at the time that some buildings had been locked down', although she does refer to being 'locked down' in her office in the first communication.

'I am thinking it was a "teachable moment" for me,' she told Campus Reform. 'I've never encountered a situation like this before, I don't recall receiving any training about a shooter or a lockdown when we are not inside a classroom and I didn't have good information about the severity of the situation.

'I did not react in a wise way and now I am paying the penalty.'

In her follow up email, she urged students to get in touch with their families after the day's terrifying events.

'Have a good day, remember, your families love you (even if you don't feel it sometimes) and are probably worried sick about you,' she writes. 'Let them know you are OK and that you finished 50% of your stats final :) :) :).'

A psychology professor, Dahlia Zaidel, also emailed students saying she had no plans to cancel her final exams

Around the same time the lockdown was lifted, Lew sent an apologetic email excusing everyone from finals

She said that many students would be too stressed for exams and even she urged students to get in touch with their families after the day's terrifying events

However, UCLA confirmed that students will not be excused from exams next week - despite the horrific double shooting on Wednesday.

Scott Waugh, UCLA vice chancellor and provost, told MyNewsLA yesterday that he hoped to return the campus to normal as soon as possible.

'We want to resume normal operations as quickly as possible so we will resume scheduled classes tomorrow morning,' Waugh said.

'We will go ahead with commencement and final examinations over the next few weeks and hope to return our campus to normal. This is a tragic event but it does show that with adequate preparation and good cooperation with all our law enforcement agencies, we can bring it to a successful close.'

Professor Lew's email caused outrage after students posted it to social media.

Melissa Platero, who shared the professor's email on Facebook, wrote: 'F*** all the professors who are asking for students to finish their finals and assignments, regardless of whether or not they have cancelled class.

The campus was declared safe around two hours after the shooting was first reported, though armed officers said they would remain for a short time to conduct final searches

Hundreds of students who were earlier preparing for finals were forced to shelter and were then evacuated by police

Students and university staff were released from lockdown after around two hours when police ruled the shooting a murder-suicide

'There should be a way to report them for their idiocy and insensitivity. There have been sightings of multiple shooters on campus, and they still have the audacity to request homework assignments and papers when most of us are worrying about our own state of being, and our friends/family.'

A friend of Platero chimed in adding that the request was 'absolutely disgusting.'I hope they get fired,' Kelly Bourque added.

But others leaped to the defense of the popular professor.

Connor Hennen wrote that Lew's email may have appeared 'callous', 'but I feel obligated to say that they are actually one of the most understanding and generous professors I've encountered at UCLA.'

He added that it was unlikely Lew was aware of the active shooter situation when she wrote the communication.

'As a professor she probably wasn't exposed to all the outlandish speculation that was floating around the student body and didn't realize how traumatized or scared many people might have felt.'

Student Wenqing fan also defended Lew saying: 'Just like the STUDENT experience of this tragic event, the PROFESSOR experience is no different.
The Federal Government has prohibited the sale of products tested on animals, sparking a ban on a sweeping array of cosmetics, toothpaste and makeup products.

From July 2017, the sale of any products that have been tested on animals will be banned in all Australian states, reports Herald Sun.

Popular beauty brands including L'Oreal, Revlon, and Estee Lauder are among the brands which may be affected under the reforms.

From July 2017, the sale of any products that have been tested on animals will be banned in all Australian states

Existing products will not be pulled from shelves, however new products containing the ingredients will be strictly audited under the laws.

Assistant Health Minister Ken Wyatt will reveal the policy in Melbourne on Friday in what he has deemed a positive step for Australia.

'We no longer need to test cosmetics on animals and many countries, including the European Union, have banned the use of cosmetic ingredients tested on animals.'

The RSPCA has campaigned for the measure to be introduced for years, noting there are more than 20,000 safe chemical ingredients accessible by manufacturers.

The move will still allow 'responsible animal testing' - such as tests for medicinal drug development.

Labor has pledged to bring in a similar reform if it wins the July 2 election.

Popular beauty brands including Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, and Revlon are among the brands set to be banned under the reforms




This is the moment the owner of a luxury car firm says he pulled over by police who later took his Lamborghini Huracan for a 'joyride'

The owner of a Lamborghini has accused police of 'joyriding' the supercar at twice the speed limit after they seized it from him.

Erwyn Mackee says his Huracan was confiscated near London's Heathrow Airport after he was wrongly accused of not having insurance.

He claims that when the vehicle was returned to him the following day, its tracker showed the car had done more than 60mph in a 30mph zone.

Mr Mackee owns City Supercars in London, a firm which hires out Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Bentleys for thousands of pounds a weekend to wealthy clients.

He says the 200,000 car was due to be taken to Bradford in Yorkshire for a client to use in a wedding when he was pulled over by police just before midnight on Wednesday evening.

The 32-year-old says the hire company was renewing its car insurance but the new details were not on the Motor Insurance Database.

Mr Mackee said: 'I emailed him the documents from the new insurer but they said that I could have Photoshopped them and that is wasn't proof of cover, I'm going to impound the car.'

After Mr Mackee told the police they needed 'overwhelming evidence' to take the car, he claims he was threatened with arrest.

He added: 'Then five more police cars turned up. They must have not had much to do last night and just wanted to look at the car. It doesn't really make sense, he just wanted to have a bit of drive.'

A still from a video of the initial incident shows the supercar pulled into the side of the road by a marked police 4x4

Owner Erwyn Mackee says the 200,000 car was due to be taken to Bradford in Yorkshire for a client to use in a wedding when he was pulled over by police just before midnight on Wednesday evening

He added: 'In the morning at 8am we went and showed the officers at the station the same paper work and they released the car.'

Mr Mackee says tracker records suggest the car was driven on the North Perimeter Road in Hounslow at speeds of 53mph, 47 mph and 63 mph in 30 mph zones between 1.03am and 1.05am on Thursday morning.

Mr Mackee sent a tweet to Metropolitan Police, saying his car had been impounded 'unlawfully' and was driven at over double the speed limit

He included with the post readings from his car's driver's log, which appeared to show exactly the speed the officers had driven at

He says he will make a formal complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, but did not receive a reply to his tweet to the Met Police.

He added: 'The tracker is picked up by our insurer and every time it breaks the speed limit it is logged so this will be costly, I'm going to have to explain this to our insurance company as well.

'And 60 mph is really unsafe in a 30 zone, nobody should be doing those speeds. If you or I were caught doing that speed we would be given huge fines. It's just crazy.'

The Met Police said they are investigating Mr Mackee's claims.
Reporter Tara Brown's job was on the line before Nine Network bosses decided to sack 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice over the botched child abduction scandal, it has emerged.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Nine chief executive Hugh Marks was in serious discussions with the company's board last week over the fate of up to four of their senior employees.

The four 'names' in question were the shows executive producer Kirsty Thomson, the network's director of sport Tom Malone, Ms Brown and the now-sacked Mr Rice.

However, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment did not play a significant role in the organisation of the child abduction so were not considered for disciplinary action.

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Tara Brown was arrested alongside senior producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment. The 60 Minutes crew is pictured with Nine news boss Darren Wick (second right) after their release from jail last month. Mr Rice (second from left) has been sacked after 32 years with Nine

60 Minutes executive producer Kirsty Thomson (right) and former executive producer Tom Malone (left), who is now the director of sport, were facing disciplinary action over the botched child abduction scandal

This week, an email chain was leaked, revealing how Ms Thomson and Mr Malone had outlined a plan to grab the children from the streets of Beirut and take them on a boat to Cyprus.

Ms Brown and the 60 Minutes crew could still be extradited to Lebanon and face three years behind bars for their role in the bungled child snatching.

The 60 Minutes crew along with Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner had spent two weeks behind bars in Lebanon.

The Channel Nine team will likely learn their fate this week, as Judge Rami Abdullah looks over the Australian network's internal investigation of their conduct before making a call on the charges.

According to The Daily Telegraph, the entire crew could still be hit with the felony charge of kidnapping, regardless of whether they 'organised, financed, were drivers or made the kidnapping'.

The entire 60 Minutes TV crew (reporter Tara Brown, producer Stephen Rice, cameraman Ben Williamson and sound recordist David Ballment - all pictured) could still be charged with kidnapping

If charged and found guilty, the team could face extradition back to Lebanon with a maximum penalty of three years jail time

The Channel Nine team will likely learn their fate this week, as Judge Rami Abdullah (courthouse pictured) looks over the Australian network's internal investigation of their conduct before making a call on the charges

If found guilty of those charges, the 60 Minute crew could be extradited back to Lebanon.

That extradition can be blocked by the Office of the Attorney General if it uses its discretionary powers, but the office remained tight-lipped on it's protocol when questioned by the Daily Telegraph.

'As a matter of longstanding policy, the Australian Government does not disclose whether it has received an extradition request from another country, or otherwise comment publicly on extradition matters,' a spokesman for the AG's office said.

It comes after an email chain confirmed that the top executives of 60 Minutes knew of the plan to abduct Sally Faulkner's two children in Beirut almost three months before the foiled attempt in April.

Discussions in January between Ms Thomson, Mr Malone and Mr Rice on January 18, outlined a plan to grab the children and take them on a boat to Cyprus, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The executives reached out to a Nine Network legal counsel the next day asking to 'draw up a contract with [Faulkner], which would involve payment to CARI' - Child Abduction Recovery International, which is run by Adam Whittington.

Thomson wrote to Malone and Rice interested in taking over a story involving the abduction of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's children (pictured) that was put on the back-burner another Nine Network show

The email chain began when the chief of staff at the time, Thomson, wrote to Malone and Rice interested in taking over a story involving the abduction of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's children that was put on the back-burner by Inside Story - another Nine Network show.

'Sally Faulkner has been talking to Adam Whittington for months about the possibility of snatching her four and six yo children from their father in Lebanon. Father lives in Beirut and runs a surfing business. Classic 'the kids aren't coming home' after holiday,' Thomson said, according to The Daily Telegraph.

'[Inside Story] were going to pay $115k ($69 up front) for CARI to snath the kids, escape via water (jetskis) to a boat and then on to Cyprus,' she said.

Stephen Rice (right) pictured with Tara Brown on their return to Australia on April 21 after being released from jail in Beirut after facing kidnapping charges over the botched child 'recovery' operation. Mr Rice has been sacked, according to a statement by the Nine Network

The veteran producer reportedly enlisted the help of workplace lawyer John Laxon when he was sacked from Nine - despite an internal review recommending that no staff member should be singled out for dismissal

Thomson said she wanted to get in touch with Faulkner about continuing with the plan, despite Inside Story backing out.

The snatch was planned for the last week in February but occurred in April.

On January 19, Rice emailed the legal representatives for the network asking to draw the contract with Faulkner and presenting them with an order by the Family Court issuing Faulkner full custody.

The legal counsel returned an email soon after acknowledging Rice's request.

On April 21, the team walked free from a Lebanese prison along with Ms Faulkner after her estranged husband, Ali Elamine, agreed to drop the charges.

Nine Network's review of the failed 'recovery' of Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner's (pictured) two children has been completed and made public on Friday

The budget for 60 Minutes has reportedly been cut after the report on Sally Faulkner's broken family incurred huge costs, including compensation to Faulkner's estranged husband Ali Elamin (pictured centre) with children Lahela (right) and Noah (left)
Mr Scott, 53, was the managing director at the

Former managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott has been appointed as head of the New South Wales Department of Education.

Premier Mike Baird made the announcement on Thursday.

'Mark's appointment takes our reinvigoration of the senior executive of the NSW public service a step further,' he said.

Former managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott (pictured) has been appointed as head of the New South Wales Department of Education

Premier Mike Baird (left) made the announcement on Thursday

'Along with promoting outstanding young talent from within the service, we have sought out the best and brightest from the corporate world.'

Mr Scott, 53, was as a teacher at St Andrew's Cathedral School in Sydney in the 1980s and held senior roles for two NSW Education Ministers before spending 10 years as boss at the ABC.

'On leaving the ABC, I was asked what I planned to do next. I can think of no more important opportunity than working alongside the teachers of NSW and the staff of the department to improve teaching and learning in our schools,' Mr Scott said.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said he's looking forward to working alongside Mr Scott.

'Our focus remains on improving student results and delivering the skills base needed to grow the NSW economy,' he said.

Mr Scott's appointment has been welcomed by the Catholic Education Commission NSW (CECNSW), saying his experience will benefit the state's schools.

'He comes into this important field with a record of achievement and innovation at the ABC, in a changing and sometimes unpredictable global environment,' CECNSW Executive Director Brian Croke said in a statement on Thursday.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli (pictured) said he's looking forward to working alongside Mr Scott.
Voters are skeptical that Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will do any of the things they said they would on the campaign trail.

Trump may try have a wall built on the border with Mexico if he wins the White House, but only 24 percent of voters think he will be successful. Three in 10 think he won't give it a shot at all.

They don't believe that Hillary Clinton will actually try to get money out of politics, either. Nearly two-thirds voters, including 39 percent of Democrats, told pollsters for Quinnipiac that Clinton wasn't likely to bother.

Voters are skeptical that Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will do any of the things they said they would on the campaign trail. Trump may try to build a wall on the border with Mexico if he wins the White House, but only 24 percent of voters think he will be successful

Trump, they said, wouldn't realistically deport the 11 million illegal immigrants living in America, either, because he would try and fail or not try at all

They don't believe that Hillary Clinton will actually try to get money out of politics, either. Nearly two-thirds voters, including 39 percent of Democrats, said Clinton wasn't likely to bother

The survey reinforces a bevy of data showing that voters' have negative opinions of both major party's leading presidential candidates.

Trump, they said, wouldn't realistically deport the 11 million illegal immigrants living in America, either, because he would try and fail or not try at all.

Just 19 percent said he'd fulfill the campaign promise. Another 45 percent said he would attempt to remove illegal residents but wouldn't be able to. A third group of 29 percent said he wouldn't make an attempt to do it at all.

Republicans were more likely to say he'd do it, 30 percent. A combined two-thirds of Republicans said he'd at least give it a try. But even three in 10 Republicans said he wouldn't pursue a strict deportation policy if elected.

Likely voters were most likely to believe that Trump would temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country - 29 percent said he'd absolutely do it.

Still, 42 percent said that while they do believe he's serious about it, he won't be able to make it happen. And 21 percent said they really don't think he'll try.

Men were consistently more likely to believe in Trump's ability to enact his proposals than women. A mirror image, women were more likely to believe that Clinton would do what she says than men.

The overall electorate was even more sour on Clinton than the man she's likely to face in the general election, however.

They had the highest hopes for her plan to make public, four-year colleges debt free, with 22 percent, saying she'll follow through and make it happen.

Another four in 10 said she'll make an effort but won't get the plan approved. A third of respondents said she won't fight for it at all.

When it comes to ending the influence of big money on politics and overturning Citizens United, a mere nine percent of voters said she'd attain the desired results.

Two in every 10 voters said she'd aim to get it done but would miss the mark. A majority said they don't think it's her intention to even try.

Most respondents to the survey did not think Clinton would venture toward Wall Street reform, either.

A total 56 percent of voters said it wouldn't be on Clinton's to-do list - a third of whom were Democrats,
She says watching her grandson be dragged through the moat by 450lb

The grandmother of three-year-old Isiah Gregg whose fall into Cincinnati Zoo gorilla enclosure led to the death of silverback Harambe believes the zoo did not need to kill the animal.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail Online Valerie Dickerson, 55, described herself as 'saddened' by Harambe's death.

She said: 'For me, I still think they could have gone another route though they said they couldn't.

'But mainly I just thank God my grandson is okay.'

Until now no family member has spoken out, with their only communication coming in the form of a Facebook statement posted by mother Michelle Gregg and those issued by family spokeswoman Gail Myers, who was retained soon after the death.

Now, Mrs Dickerson has provided the first true insight into the family mired in controversy since the shooting of Harambe at the weekend.

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Mother Michelle Gregg, 32 (right) and father Deonne Dickerson, 36 (left), and three-year-old son Isiah (center). Deonne's mother Valerie says her grandson is 'doing fine'

Speaking out: Valerie Dickerson, of Cleveland, Ohio, said she believed the zoo could have found a 'different route' to keeping her grandson safe instead of killing Harambe

The zoo shot the beloved animal after he dragged the boy through the water and up out of the moat, but many say he was simply trying to protect the child

They have been criticized and supported in equal measure as the incident has grabbed headlines across the world and the police are currently investigating whether parental negligence played any part in the accident.

But according to Mrs Dickerson, who has been in daily contact with her son, Deonne, 36, and Michelle, 32, they are bearing up well.

She said: 'Everybody's doing fine. We speak daily.'

Recalling the moment she first saw video footage of her grandson being dragged through the moat by 17-year-old Harambe she admitted: 'It was upsetting.

'I had to have some family members come round and kind of compose me. It was devastating to watch.'

And she disclosed that three-year-old Isaiah will receive counseling to come to terms with the traumatic experience that left him with a concussion and scrapes and bruises but no serious injury.

She said: 'We'll move forward. He'll receive counseling and life goes on. You just have to think positive thoughts.'

But despite her own belief that the zoo did not need to shoot Harambe in their bid to rescue her grandson, Mrs Dickerson said that she did not blame them for the incident.

She said: 'I have never been to that zoo so I really don't want to place any blame. It was just a freak accident and thank God it turned out okay.'

This graphic shows how easy it was for the three-year-old to climb over the barrier and crawl through the bush

This picture shows the small fence at the gorilla enclosure to keep children out (pictured: a boy, not Isiah)

Other members of the family said there was no question that Isiah was a well-behaved child.

Yvonne Dickerson, 76, his mother's great-aunt, said Isiah would recover just fine.

'He's doing well,' she said at her home in LaGrange, Georgia. 'That's God's child.

'He'll be okay, might be traumatized a little bit from floating in the water, that gorilla turning him over. A big thing like that happening, I'd be traumatized.'

Ms Dickerson said the three-year-old was a well-behaved little boy.

'Their mother keeps those children very much in order. Boys play, they will, but she watches her children,' she said.

Gregg's dramatic 911 call made by the mother of the boy who fell into the gorilla enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo has been released.

She is heard screaming that silverback gorilla Harambe is 'dragging my son' and yelling for three-year-old Isaiah to 'stay calm'.

Panicking, Gregg tells the police dispatcher: 'Hi, my son fell in the zoo exhibit at the gorilla - at Cincinnati Zoo. My son fell in with the gorilla. There is a male gorilla standing over him.'

As the operator tries to ask Gregg how old her son is, she shouts, 'be calm, be calm, be calm' to her son.

'Hes dragging my son. I cant watch this,' the mother adds before the line is disconnected.

In the wake of the incident, the family retained a spokeswoman to issue professionally-crafted statements to the public.

Gregg also used Facebook to issued an extended statement, but until now no family member has spoken about the incident directly.

A statement released by the family on Wednesday said: 'Our child has had a checkup by his doctor and is still doing well.

The family say they are 'thankful' to zoo staff who took action to protect their son - by shooting 450lb endangered silverback Harambe dead when he grabbed hold of Isaiah

The boy's mother, Michelle Gregg, wrote a Facebook post saying her son suffered a concussion and a few scrapes. She defended her role as a parent and called the incident an accident

'We continue to praise God for His grace and mercy, and to be thankful to the Cincinnati Zoo for their actions taken to protect our child.

'We are also very appreciative for the expressions of concern and support that have been sent to us.

Some have offered money to the family, which we do not want and will not accept. If anyone wishes to make a gift, we recommend a donation to the Cincinnati Zoo in Harambes name.'

Gregg and her partner Deone, 36, have three other children.

The zoo has stood by its decision to kill the silverback, who was 17, and said they had no choice but to use deadly force.

It said that the use of a tranquilizer dart was not an option because of the time it would take to knock out the 450lb animal.

Cincinnati Zoo director Thomas Maynard said the child was in imminent danger because the gorilla was disorientated and confused.

Gregg and Dickerson are now being investigated by child protective services.

Cincinnati Zoo director Thomas Maynard said the child was in imminent danger because the gorilla was disorientated and confused. 'Looking back we would make the same decision'

Cincinnati Police Department spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy told The New York Post: 'The investigation is regarding the action of parents and family that led up to the incident and is not related to zoo operations.

'Were looking into the incidents that led up to the incident.'

Prosecutor Joseph T. Deters said in a statement: 'The incident at the Cincinnati Zoo involving the young child who fell into the gorilla enclosure is under investigation by the Cincinnati Police Department.

'Once their investigation is concluded, they will confer with our office on possible criminal charges. When the investigation and review are complete, we will update the media.'

The family have been subject to death threats with some people on social media suggesting the parents deserve to be shot rather than the gorilla.

The zoo, however, is also now the subject of a complaint to the United States Department of Agriculture, which regulates safety for animals and visitors.

The boy's father has a significant criminal history, with offenses including burglary, firearms offences, drug trafficking, criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and kidnap.

In 2006 he was sentenced to one year behind bars for a drug trafficking conviction.

But in numerous pictures posted on Dickerson's Facebook site in recent years he appears to have turned his life around to become a proud father-of-four.

Indeed, the majority of his postings to the social media site are updates of his children and his working life.

In others pictures he has uploaded, his friends post congratulate him and Michelle on the birth of their fourth child last January.

Cleveland-based Dickerson is from Atlanta, Georgia, studied at Cuyahoga Community College, Ohio and now works as a sorter at a Cincinnati industrial equipment supplier.

Gregg is currently the administrator at a Cincinnati pre-school.

The pair have been sharply criticized online by those who believe Harambe was trying to protect the boy, though experts have suggested Isiah was in danger of being killed.

More than 426,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for the mother and father to be 'held accountable for their actions of not supervising their child'.
A Mississippi mother has been visiting the grave of her stillborn daughter for the last nine years, decorating it with flowers and keeping it clean.

But Amanda Reed lost her child, who she named Heaven Sent, all over again this week when she got a phone call informing her that her daughter's remains were missing.

Now all that remains is a white stick pinpointing the spot where Heaven Sent was once laid to rest at the Sutton Cove Graveyard - and a ditch.

Mississippi mother Amanda Reed has been left devastated after finding out the remains of her daughter Heaven Sent, born stillborn nine years ago, have gone missing from Sutton Cove Graveyard

Reed was in tears as she recalled answering the call that informed her the remains that she had visited for the last nine years were now gone

'It feels like a dream,' Reed told WREG.

'You know how you just wake up to a nightmare, and you never come out of it? That's how I felt when I woke up.'

And the nightmare has only just begun for an already devastated Reed, who is now in the middle of a dispute between the cemetery owner and county workers.

Owner Christopher Thompson said he should have been contacted by the county before they began working on the area, which he claims has been his property for years.

'They had no business whatsoever touching that cemetery,' he told WDAM.

But Joe Eddie Hawkins, the Tunica County road manager, said the ditch has been a part of the county's route for the last 15 years - not a graveyard.

Hawkins said the county was cleaning out the ditch to help with a flooding problem in the neighborhood.

Now all that remains is a white stick pinpointing the spot where Heaven Sent was once laid to rest at the Sutton Cove Graveyard - and a ditch

Owner Christopher Thompson said he should have been contacted by the county before they began working on the area (pictured is the ditch and nearby graveyard, which he claims has been his property for years

'They only thing we did was a wiping, not a digging,' he told the station.

Hawkins said if the county workers did in fact dig up human remains, the fault lies with Thompson.

'It's impossible unless two things happened,' he said. 'He buried the body in the ditch and he didn't bury it deep enough.'

Hawkins believes that Thompson himself is creating the controversy, hoping to distract from complaints others have made against his cemetery - a claim Thompson denies.

Deputies and at the Tunica County Sheriff's Office are investigating and the Mississippi Secretary of State has opened a file concerning the case.

Reed is hoping it will lead to less fighting - and some answers.

'I don't have a part in it, and I shouldn't be dragged into it,' she said.

'I would just like somebody to show me a body.'

But Joe Eddie Hawkins, the Tunica County road manager, said the ditch has been a part of the county's route for the last 15 years - and said county workers were merely cleaning the ditch, not digging into the graveyard
Professor Basil Ammori, 53, told a medical tribunal he had been 'shut off' by his daughter and two sons when he left his GP wife for new partner Hayley Pritchard (pictured together today)

A TV surgeon accused of punching and threatening to kill his daughter during a row over his 'white whore' lover sobbed as he was today cleared of attacking her.

Professor Basil Ammori, 53, told a medical tribunal he had been 'shut off' by his daughter and two sons when he left his GP wife for a single mother more than 20 years his junior.

The obesity expert, who appeared on Channel 4 show Embarrassing Bodies, rowed with daughter Huda, 22, over claims that she and her brothers had posted details of his then girlfriend, Hayley Pritchard, 30 - whom he has since married - on an internet site, prompting men to contact her for sex.

During a confrontation, Prof Ammori was accused of calling his ex-wife, Dr Almira Al-Abadi, 53, a 'wild bitch' after his daughter told him: 'You're the one who left for a white whore.'

Miss Ammori told the hearing her father grabbed her by the neck, before repeatedly punching her in the face and threatening to kill her during the argument, in September 2014.

But a medical tribunal yesterday dismissed her evidence and cleared Prof Ammori, a surgeon at Salford Royal Hospital, Manchester, of any wrongdoing.

As the decision was read out both Prof Ammori and Miss Pritchard, who have a young son together and live in a 1million property in upmarket Bowden, Cheshire, burst in to tears.

Gail Mortimer, chairman of the tribunal, told the medic: 'The tribunal accepted that an altercation took place over the space of a few minutes and that it was a highly volatile and fast moving confrontation.

'You acknowledged that during this heated exchange you might have gestured with your hands when asking her (Miss Ammori) to leave.

'In the tribunal's view the highly charged nature of the altercation has influenced the evidence of the participants. The tribunal is not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities that you hit your daughter repeatedly on the neck and head.'

The hearing was told that Miss Ammori had gone to hospital but there was no evidence she had suffered any physical injury. Police were also called but no charges brought.

The new Mrs Ammori told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester that she was seen by the obesity expert's children, including Huda (right), as a 'white whore' with a b****** son' after he left their GP mother Almira Al-Abadi, 53, (left) to set up home with her

When questioned by the panel Prof Ammori admitted his relationship with Miss Pritchard caused a serious rift with the rest of his family. He said he believed his ex-wife wanted to 'ruin his life and career.'

'I have been shut off from the family completely,' he said.

'I love my children deeply. I believe it is terribly unfair that a divorce between me and my ex-wife has to come between me and my children.
One of the hosts of HGTV's 'Property Brothers' was caught on camera being pulled out of a Fargo bar in a chokehold after an alleged fight, but will not face charges.

According to a police report Jonathan Scott, 38, who presents the home transformation show with twin brother Drew, repeatedly refused to leave Dempsey's Public House at closing time, early on the morning of April 24.

Footage released by Fargo police Friday shows Scott resisting bar staff while being escorted out, only to return and apparently being put in a chokehold before being pushed out again, InForum reported.

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Closing time: Jonathan Scott (pictured, in red circle), 38, was filmed in a disagreement with staff at a Fargo bar on April 24. They say he refused to leave when the bar closed, asking 'Do you know who I am?'

Jostling: Scott and the staff jostled one another before he fell down (circle on the left shows where he fell). He was escorted out but came back in, leading the 'Property Brothers' host and the staff to get pushy again (right)

Chokehold: Finally, the video shows Scott being put in a chokehold and dragged out of the rear exit. Scott's head is visible in the red circle; the bouncer's arm can be seen across his neck

Scott was in the bar after speaking at the Eco Chic Design Conference with his brother on April 23.

The grainy night-vision video shows Scott and his group sitting in a booth to the left of the camera, talking to a group of people surrounding the booth.

Scott stands up and continues talking to the man, who begins to jostle him, while indicating to the front door of the bar. At one point Scott falls over then gets back up and sways, looking a little tipsy.

Another member of the crowd near Scott's table is grabbed in a chokehold by a bar staff member and escorted out of the front while Scott and several others are bundled towards the rear exit.

The footage then cuts to some time later, after the bar is mostly empty.

Scott is seen re-entering from the rear exit with a couple of other people before quickly being surrounded by bar staff who push him back.

He falls down again and is last seen being pulled backwards by a man who has his arms around Scott's neck.

A bar staffer later told police that Scott said, 'Do you know who I am?' when asked to hand over his drink.

Scott, meanwhile, reported the encounter to police at around 1:57am, telling them he had been put in a chokehold.

However, Fargo City Attorney Erik Johnson told InForum that there wasn't enough evidence to establish a crime on anyone's part.

He said that although a physical altercation had taken place, it wasn't enough to rise to the level of disorderly conduct or assault.

Scott's publicist hasn't returned a request for comment by The Associated Press.
HELENA  A Montana State Prison inmate, a former inmate and a former prison laundry worker have been arraigned on federal drug distribution charges that prosecutors say came to light during an investigation into drug smuggling at the prison in Deer Lodge.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says inmate Ian Scott Barclay, probationer Cordero Robert Metzker of Billings and Erin Marie Bernhardt of Deer Lodge pleaded not guilty Tuesday in federal court in Missoula to conspiracy to possess drugs with intent to distribute and possession of methamphetamine and Suboxone with intent to distribute. Suboxone is used to treat narcotic addiction, but it can be addictive itself.

Barclay, 28, is charged with bribing Bernhardt, 48, and she is charged with accepting bribes. They denied those charges, as well.

It's not clear if the cases are related to charges recently filed against a state prison guard. Martin Reap pleaded not guilty on May 19 to charges that he smuggled meth and marijuana into the prison from February 2015 until April of this year in exchange for about $5,000. The indictment against Reap alleges he conspired with unnamed inmates to bring drugs into the prison.

Metzker's attorney, Colin Stephens of Missoula, said the indictment naming Barclay, Metzker and Bernhardt will remain sealed until all the defendants appear in court.

State records show Barclay was convicted of drug possession in Missoula County in 2008 and sentenced to the Department of Corrections in 2012 for a probation violation. He escaped from a Billings prerelease center in December 2014 and has been in prison since then. The Associated Press couldn't immediately reach his attorney.

Metzker served his prison time between December 2011 and August 2012 and is on probation for drug possession and distribution convictions in Missoula and Gallatin counties.

The state Transparency in Government website shows Bernhardt worked in the prison laundry for several years, ending some time in 2015. Her attorney, Wendy Holton, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
A 97-year-old man is fighting for his life in hospital after he fell from the roof of his house and fractured his skull.

It is not currently clear why the pensioner, who has only been identified as John, was on the roof of his home on Ash Road in Sutton, south west London.

Police, paramedics and firefighters, along with the London Air Ambulance, all attended the scene, where the man received immediate treatment.

The 97-year-old man was on the roof of his home on Ash Road in Sutton, south west London when he fell and fractured his jaw

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed they were called by the London Ambulance Service at 11.55am to reports of a man who had fallen from the flat roof of an extension to his house.

The pensioner's injuries were said to be life-threatening and paramedics took him to hospital by a road ambulance.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: 'We sent an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and a single responder by car to the scene, alongside London's Air Ambulance.

'The first of our medics arrived within seven minutes.'

Neighbour Keith Herve said the injured man, who he identified as John, was accompanied by his son in the ambulance

He said: 'The police told me he looked a bit shakey and that he had fallen off the roof.

The pensioner's injuries were said to be life-threatening and paramedics took him to hospital by a road ambulance (file photo)

'I used to see him regularly going for a walk with a dog.

'I don't know how he is, I just saw him getting rushed to hospital, maybe towards St George's.'

He added: 'What he was doing up on the roof I have no idea.

'When I saw the police outside I thought it was a window cleaner had fallen off a ladder.
A man is suspected of making two different violent threats directed at Newark airport on Thursday, drawing a heavily armed response from emergency police and bomb units.

The calls threatened gun and bomb attacks against airport customers and an arriving British Airways flight.

The male suspect made both calls to Port Authority personnel around 10am, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police spokesperson Joe Pentangelo told Daily Mail Online.

In the first call, the suspect threatened that 'people are going to be shot' in Terminal B in a machine gun attack, Pentangelo said.

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A man is suspected of making two different violent threats directed at Newark airport on Thursday, drawing a heavily armed response from emergency police and bomb units

Heavily armed officers from multiple Port Authority police units, wearing ballistic vests, responded to the terminal but determined that no evacuation was necessary. Pictured, the plane after landing

Flight BA185 landed on time and was taxied to a 'remote area of the airport,' where passengers were taken off and their luggage searched by bomb-sniffing dogs

There were reports the man was demanding an unspecified monetary amount, Pentangelo said.

Heavily armed officers from multiple Port Authority police units, wearing ballistic vests, responded to the terminal but determined that no evacuation was necessary, Pentangelo said.

In the second call, made shortly afterwards, the man made a bomb threat against a British Airways plane that was scheduled to arrive from London around 1pm.

Flight BA185 landed on time and was taxied to a 'remote area of the airport,' where passengers were taken off and their luggage searched by bomb-sniffing dogs, Pentangelo said.

U.S. Customs agents participated in the search, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was also notified.

Nothing suspicious was found, and the situation was deemed clear after 4pm.
David Cameron was mauled by audience members over immigration, his Project Fear tactics and 'waffling' tonight as he argued that Britain is better off in the EU.

The Prime Minister conceded that inflows from Europe were 'challenging' and refused to say when he would achieve his target for slashing numbers - but insisted that cutting ties with Brussels was not the answer.

He also urged for voters to 'look our children, our grandchildren in the eye' before making a decision and not 'roll the dice' with their future.

The appeal came as Mr Cameron - who has long been accused of tightly controlling his contact with ordinary members of the public - faced a series of fiery interventions during the first big televised event of the referendum battle.

David Cameron appeared to have a sheen of sweat on his upper lip during the Sky News EU referendum special tonight. He conceded that immigration levels were 'challenging'

The session kicked off an interview by Sky News political editor Faisal Islam, during which Mr Cameron was confronted with last week's huge immigration figures.

Net migration to the UK was 333,000 in the year to December - the second highest ever. A record 184,000 of those came from the EU, with around 77,000 arriving without having a job lined up.

Mr Cameron refused say when levels would be reduced to his long-standing target of below 100,000.

Admitting that since 2010 around 1.2 million EU citizens had come to the UK, Mr Cameron said: 'Immigration is a challenge and it's a particular challenge when our economy has been growing strongly, we've been creating jobs and people have come to our country to work.

'But I think the way to meet that challenge mustn't be to leave the single market, harm our economy, hurt jobs and damage our country, so we've got to find the right ways of dealing with the movement of people, not the wrong way.'

Mr Cameron said the EU often drove him 'crazy', and was 'not perfect'.

But he insisted Britons were not 'quitters' and leaving would result in a decade of uncertainty.

Mr Cameron said: 'If you are saying to me, "Are there regulations in Europe that annoy you?" Yes. "Are there things about Europe that frustrate you?" Yes.

'I'm the Prime Minister who sits around the table with 27 other heads of government and state and sometimes this organisation drives me crazy.

'But do I sit there and think Britain would be better off if we left? Are we quitters? Do we think we quit the EU, we quit the single market and somehow we will be better off? Absolutely not.'

Mr Cameron stressed that the EU 'would not stop existing' after Britain left and we would have our 'noses pressed up against the window' while they made key decisions.

Soraya Bouazzaoui (pictured centre) a second generation Moroccan immigrant who has just finished an English Literature degree from Southampton University, accused the Prime Minister of 'waffling' on his assurances that Turkey would not be allowed to join the EU anytime soon

He accused Brexit campaigners of repeatedly saying it was 'all going to be okay' rather than spelling out what the country would look like after a Leave vote.

He said 'uncertainty' and 'shock' would hit the economy and prices in the shops would end up being higher.

Mr Cameron clashed with Mr Islam over the PM's claims that leaving the EU would bring 'war and genocide' back to Europe and trigger an economic recession in the UK.

The journalist drew laughter and applause from the studio audience as he asked the PM: 'What comes first: World War Three or the global Brexit recession?'

But Mr Cameron shot back by accusing Mr Islam of being 'incredibly glib' and misinterpreting his remarks. 'Read my speech, the words 'World War Three never entered my lips.'

Ms Bouazzaoui, who has posted a series of racy selfies on social media, said after the programme that Mr Cameron had deserved a 'taste of his own medicine' after being 'dishonest' for the past six years

He added: 'On our continent  in the last century  twice we had an enormous bloodbath between our nations.

'Can we be so confident that we've solved all of Europe's problems and all of Europe's tensions?

'I sit round the European Council table, it can be immensely frustrating but when you're there you never forget 70 years these countries were fighting each other. I don't think you should take that for granted.

'Frankly, Nato has done the most to keep the peace in Europe but the European Union has been a way of getting countries that used to fight each other to talk to each other.'

The premier faced fierce questions from a live studio audience, picked to represent the wider public, in the second half of the programme, chaired by presenter Kay Burley.

Soraya Bouazzaoui, a second generation Moroccan immigrant from Romford who has just finished an English Literature degree at Solent University, challenged the Government on whether Turkey would be allowed to join the EU.

David Cameron (pictured in tonight's Sky News debate) praised the 50,000 EU migrants working in the NHS as he came under fire over his record on immigration

David Cameron (pictured debating with the studio audience in tonight's Sky News debate) said there was 'no prospect' of Turkey joining the EU 'anytime soon'

She asked: 'I've strongly been wanting to vote to stay in the EU but to be honest the entire campaign has been a complete shambles for it; I've seen nothing but scaremongering, I've seen no valid fact at all, I've seen no pros and cons.

'Everything that I've seen has just made voting into the EU look worse and what I also find interesting is that we haven't even addressed the fact that Turkey are wanting to become an ever-closer union with the EU when they are under such heavy accusation by the entire Middle East for funding Isis?

'How can you reassure us of staying in the EU and saying there are no risks when there are clear risks, especially when it comes to Isis, especially when have turned away so many refugees at the fear of having them being extremists and not willing to work with the Turkish government that had a brawl in their parliament just two weeks ago?'

When Mr Cameron tried to respond by deploying broad arguments for staying in the EU - saying it was important to stay in to 'get things done in the world  Ms Bouazzaoui interrupted by telling the PM: 'You're not answering my question'.

She told him: 'Let me finish now, because I've seen you interrupt many people beforehand, let me finish now.

CAMERON'S KEY DEBATE LINES ON IMMIGRATION 'Immigration is a challenge and it's a particular challenge when our economy has been growing strongly, we've been creating jobs and people have come to our country to work. 'But I think the way to meet that challenge mustn't be to leave the single market, harm our economy, hurt jobs and damage our country, so we've got to find the right ways of dealing with the movement of people, not the wrong way.' ON BRUSSELS 'DRIVING HIM CRAZY' 'If you are saying to me, "Are there regulations in Europe that annoy you?" Yes. "Are there things about Europe that frustrate you?" Yes. 'I'm the Prime Minister who sits around the table with 27 other heads of government and state and sometimes this organisation drives me crazy. 'But do I sit there and think Britain would be better off if we left? Are we quitters? Do we think we quit the EU, we quit the single market and somehow we will be better off? Absolutely not.' ON WAR IN EUROPE 'On our continent  in the last century  twice we had an enormous bloodbath between our nations. 'Can we be so confident that we've solved all of Europe's problems and all of Europe's tensions? 'I sit round the European Council table, it can be immensely frustrating but when you're there you never forget 70 years these countries were fighting each other. I don't think you should take that for granted. ON OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE 'I would just say to everybody: as we go home and wake up in the morning and look our children and our grandchildren in the eye and we think who we are responsible for through our pay packet, let us not roll the dice on their future. 'Britain doesn't succeed when we quit, we succeed when we get stuck in and we work to improve these organisations and we safeguard the prosperity and the security of this great country. To me, that's what it's all about.' Advertisement

'That is not answering the question  I'm an English Literature student, I know waffling when I see it, okay? I'm sorry.

'You have not answered my question  how can you reassure the people who do want to vote Out that we are safe from extremism when we are willing to work with a government like Turkey, who want to be part of the EU, when they are under heavy accusation [of links to Isis]?'

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Cameron, who appeared to have a sheen of sweat on his top lip, insisted: 'There is no prospect of Turkey joining the EU in decades; they applied in 1987, they have to complete 35 chapters, one has been completed so far, at this rate they'll join in the year 3,000.

'There are lots of reasons to vote one way or vote the other way; Turkey is not going to join the EU anytime soon, every country, every Parliament has a veto.

'I think there are lots of things to worry about in this referendum campaign; I absolutely don't think that's a prospect, it's not going to happen.'

Speaking after the grilling, Ms Bouazzaoui said she had wanted to give the premier a 'taste of his own medicine'.

The student said Mr Cameron had spent six years being 'dishonest, untruthful, brushing a lot of things under the rug'.

'For someone to finally call him out on it was necessary,' she added.

Asked by another audience member whether he would vote to join the EU if we were not currently members, Mr Cameron said: 'If I was offered the terms that Britain has I would accept them.'

Former mental health nurse Alison Hyde-Chadwick said she feared public services were 'sinking' under the 'never-ending stream' of migrants.

How do we deal with increased demands on public services with a seemingly never-ending stream of people arriving from Europe? she said.

'I think were struggling, I think were sinking, how do we deal with the increased demands on our public services the seemingly never-ending stream of people arriving from Europe?'

Mr Cameron replied: What we have to do is keep investing in our public services and keep investing in our NHS.

I would say the most important thing here is the worst thing we could do for our NHS is to wreck our economy by taking ourselves out of the single market.'

He added that it was 'worth remembering' there were '50,000 European nationals  French and Germans and others  working in our NHS as doctors and nurses and care assistants ... and they do a very important job'.

Mr Cameron urged parents to think about their children's future when making the decision on June 23.

'I would just say to everybody: as we go home and wake up in the morning and look our children and our grandchildren in the eye and we think who we are responsible for through our pay packet, let us not roll the dice on their future.

'Britain doesn't succeed when we quit, we succeed when we get stuck in and we work to improve these organisations and we safeguard the prosperity and the security of this great country. To me, that's what it's all about.'

Alison Hyde-Chadwick, a retired health nurse (pictured), said the NHS is 'sinking' under the strain of uncontrolled EU migration

The Prime Minister (pictured in tonight's interview with Sky News political editor Faisal Islam tonight) insisted that abandoning the bloc's single market in a bid to cut numbers was the 'worst thing' the country could do

Both the Remain and Leave camps are hoping that the televised events during the last three weeks of the referendum battle could swing the vote their way.

But Mr Cameron has been heavily criticised for refusing to take part in any head-to-head debates - instead merely agreeing to the Question Time-style programmes.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove is due to take to the stage in the second Sky News special tomorrow.

The PM's appearance came after another frantic day of campaigning that saw interventions from abroad and George Osborne team up with Labour predecessor Alistair Darling to urge a Remain vote.

Angela Merkel has become the latest foreign politician to wade into the EU referendum debate, warning that Britain will not get a 'good result' if we vote to leave.

The German chancellor raised the prospect of the UK getting a raw deal from the rest of the bloc as she made a personal appeal for us to stay.

Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi tweets his frustration at the Prime Minister for failing to deliver the Tory manifesto pledge to cut net immigration to the 'tens of thousands'

Another Tory MP James Cleverly also disagrees with his leader over how to control immigration

Ukip leader Nigel Farage accused David Cameron of ignoring the fact that Turkey is set to be given visa-free travel to Europe after he said there was 'no prospect' of the country joining the EU 'anytime soon'

The intervention comes after the Dutch PM suggested there would be retaliation tougher immigration controls were imposed after Brexit. The Spanish premier has also hinted that British expats may have to come home if we cut ties with Brussels.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn again delivered lukewarm backing for British membership of the EU in a speech amid concerns within Remain about whether Labour voters will turn out.

While insisting that wanted to maintain ties with Brussels, the party leader dismissed George Osborne's claim that Brexit would cause recession as he slammed the 'myth-making and prophecies of doom' issued by the Treasury.

He also admitted that people were entitled to be 'disconcerted' by rapid immigration, and that did not make them 'Little Englanders, xenophobes or racists'.

But he said this was not the fault of new arrivals and blamed the Tory government for failing to ensure there were enough schools and hospitals available for communities.

Immigration was thrown to the heart of the referendum battle by official migration statistics revealing record numbers are travelling from Europe while people smugglers have begun efforts to send people over the Channel illegally in small boats.

Mr Osborne joined forces with his Labour predecessor Alistair Darling today to slam Vote Leave for 'making up' its plans for Brexit.

Mr Cameron makes his point as he took questions from the audience at the Sky News studios

The Prime Minister arrives at Sky News studios for the first televised EU referendum special

The party-loving, selfie-taking student who put 'waffling' Cameron in his place in EU debate

David Cameron was accused of 'waffling' and scaremongering' over the EU by a selfie-loving party girl live on TV tonight.

Soraya Bouazzaoui, an English Literature student at Southampton Solent University, said she wanted to give the Prime Minister 'a taste of his own medicine' as she accused him of being 'dishonest, untruthful' and 'brushing a lot of things under the rug' by urging voters to stay in the EU.

Clashing with Cameron during the first major TV debate of the referendum campaign, Soraya repeatedly interrupted him as he tried to persuade viewers to reject the case for Brexit.

Soraya Bouazzaoui (pictured posing for photos that she posted on Facebook), an English Literature student at Southampton Solent University, said she wanted to give the Prime Minister 'a taste of his own medicine' as she accused him of being 'dishonest, untruthful' and 'brushing a lot of things under the rug' by urging voters to stay in the EU.

Soraya, a second generation Moroccan immigrant, said she was in favour of staying in the EU but signalled she was having second thoughts after Cameron's 'shambolic campaign'.

The student, from Romford in east London, has regularly posted racy pictures of herself on Facebook during her time at Southampton Solent, revealing a typical party-fuelled student life.

On one night out she showed off her 'Mrs. Captain America in disguise' outfit - attracting many Facebook 'likes' from her friends.

As Cameron set out his broad and vague pitch for staying in the EU, Soraya butted in by telling him: That is not answering the question  Im an English Literature student, I know waffling when I see it.'

Clashing directly with the PM, she tore into his strategy on the EU referendum so far. Ive strongly been wanting to vote to stay in the EU but to be honest the entire campaign has been a complete shambles for it; Ive seen nothing but scaremongering, Ive seen no valid fact at all, Ive seen no pros and cons,' she shouted.

Ms Bouazzaoui said after her showdown with Mr Cameron that he had deserved a 'taste of his own medicine'

She demanded Cameron give reassurances on Turkey's membership of the EU, saying the country should not be allowed to join the EU because of its links to Isis.

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Cameron insisted: 'There is no prospect of Turkey joining the EU in decades; they applied in 1987, they have to complete 35 chapters, one has been completed so far, at this rate they'll join in the year 3,000.

'There are lots of reasons to vote one way or vote the other way; Turkey is not going to join the EU anytime soon, every country, every Parliament has a veto.

'I think there are lots of things to worry about in this referendum campaign; I absolutely don't think that's a prospect, it's not going to happen.'

Speaking after the grilling, Ms Bouazzaoui said she had wanted to give the premier a 'taste of his own medicine'.

The student said Mr Cameron had been 'dishonest, untruthful, brushing a lot of things under the rug'.

'For someone to finally call him out on it was necessary,' she added.

Cameron refuses to say 'talented' Boris would be good PM

David Cameron repeatedly declined to say that Brexit foe Boris Johnson would make a good Prime Minister during the debate.

The premier was asked during whether he still thought the former London Mayor would be an effective inhabitant of 10 Downing Street given their bitter exchanges over the past few weeks.

'I think Boris is a very talented politician, he was a great mayor of London and I've always said he's got a huge amount to give to public service and public life,' he said.

'I don't get to pick the next prime minister. That will be a decision made by the party and by the country when the country votes. So I'm not going to put the black spot on anyone by saying who should or shouldn't do the job.

'But he is a very talented guy. On this issue we disagree.'

Mr Cameron said he had a 'profound disagreement' with Mr Johnson over Europe, but added: 'Frankly, in this debate I think we are finding that sometimes within a family you can find disagreements, within a community you can find disagreements, and that's why we are having a referendum.

'I'm not going to hold back from making the arguments I feel passionately about, and I'm sure neither will Boris.

'He has been a great mayor of London, he has got plenty of fuel in the tank and I will let other people decide.'

David Cameron repeatedly declined to say that Boris Johnson would be a good Prime Minister

Foreign voters HAVE been wrongly sent polling cards for the EU referendum, admits elections watchdog

Some foreign voters have been wrongly sent polling cards for the EU referendum but will be stopped from taking part, the Electoral Commission has admitted.In an email sent to regional counting officers, seen by MailOnline, officials reveal a 'glitch' in election software used by several councils failed to properly record the nationality of some voters.

The fault was due to have been fixed by a software patch last night and any EU voters wrongly issued polling cards or postal votes will be written to with an explanation of what went wrong.

People who are not eligible to vote will not be issued a ballot paper at polling stations, while any ineligible postal votes will be cancelled, the elections watchdog said today.

Iain Duncan Smith, who explosively quit the Cabinet in March, has written a strongly worded letter to David Cameron demanding measures to stop EU nationals illegally voting in the referendum

Software firm Xpress have not confirmed how many voters have been affected but regional counting officers were told the number of definite cases was just seven split across two counting areas.

The emergence of the email comes after Iain Duncan Smith, the leading Vote Leave campaigner, wrote to David Cameron to demand a swift investigation into the 'deeply disturbing' claims.

WHO IS ALLOWED TO VOTE IN THIS MONTH'S REFERENDUM? The people on Gibraltar have been given a vote in this month's referendum despite not usually taking part in general elections Laws implementing this month's referendum based the franchise for the historic vote on who can vote in general elections. This includes all British and Irish citizens but excludes EU nationals who are living in the UK via free movement rules. EU nationals are allowed to take part in local and European Parliament elections. The rules create surprising anomalies - such as Nick Clegg's wife, the Spanish lawyer Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, who cannot vote. In addition, the European Union Referendum Act allows peers to vote and also extends the franchise to the population of Gibraltar who, given their close proximity to Spain, will be enormously affected by the result. Advertisement

EU citizens living in Britain are not entitled to vote in the poll, but migrants from Poland and Germany are among those who have reported getting voting cards.

The memo sent to counting officers revealed that if the system recording nationality is updated by someone typing in a country manually and then moving away from the screen before confirming the entry, a foreign voter was recorded as being eligible to vote.

EU nationals living in the UK are allowed to vote in council and European elections  but they are barred from voting for MPs or in the referendum.

When registering, voters are required to declare their nationality. They must also provide their National Insurance number which can be checked against the official database.

However, this only reveals whether their name and address is accurate, and does not check their nationality.

The Electoral Commission said it is aware of a 'small number of non-eligible EU citizens' had mistakenly been sent polling cards and is working to confirm exactly how many ineligible voters had been given a slip.

It also appealed for others to provide evidence of any ineligible voters being sent a polling card.

In his strongly-worded letter to the PM, Mr Duncan Smith and fellow Tory MP Bernard Jenkin wrote: 'We have been contacted by a number of concerned electors who have alerted us to the fact that ineligible EU citizens have been sent polling cards telling them that they have a vote in the referendum on 23 June.

'We believe the British public will be as shocked as we are to discover that the integrity of the franchise for this long-awaited referendum with profound consequences for the future of our nation is being protected in such a lax manner.'

They accused the Electoral Commission of 'shrugging off' concerns about the vote.

A Leave campaign supporter in Nottingham they said has received an email from a local election official admitting: 'If an elector lies during their registration, we are not able to check to see if the nationality is correct or not.

Reports have emerged of referendum polling cards being sent to EU citizens who are not eligible to vote in the poll on June 23

'We have to assume that the elector is submitting their correct nationality.'

Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliot said: 'Now we find out that EU migrants who should not be allowed to vote in this referendum are actually being given a vote. This is totally illegal.

'There should be an urgent inquiry by the Cabinet Secretary, involving people outside the Cabinet Office who are clearly impartial, to discover who is responsible for illegally giving EU migrants the vote and undermining the foundation of our democratic process.

'Immediate action must be taken to avoid the integrity of our referendum being undermined.'

The Electoral Commission has said that those who wrongly receive polling cards will be stopped from voting.

EU citizens are banned from voting in this month's referendum unless they have British citizenship - the same rules that apply for General Elections - but they are given a vote in local elections.

The elections watchdog has been urged to investigate why polling cards have been sent out to ineligible voters.

Only EU nationals that have applied and qualified for British citizenship are allowed to vote but several examples have emerged of Polish, German and Swedish migrants living in the UK being sent polling slips for the historic June 23 vote.

It's not racist to worry about immigration, Corbyn says as he slams the Remain campaign  but tells people to vote In anyway

Jeremy Corbyn today said people who are 'disconcerted' by rapid immigration are not 'Little Englanders, xenophobes or racists' as he urged voters to reject Brexit.

The Labour leader, who has come under renewed fire today for a lacklustre referendum campaign, said migration from Europe caused real pressure on public services.

But he said this was not the fault of new arrivals but the responsibility of government to ensure there are enough schools and hospitals available for communities.

Mr Corbyn made his remarks in a speech backing the campaign to keep Britain in the EU and he urged voters to register before the June 7 deadline and take part on June 23.

And he slammed the 'myth-making and prophecies of doom' issued by the Treasury and mocked David Cameron and George Osborne's claim a Brexit vote would produce a 'DIY recession'.

Immigration was thrown to the heart of the referendum battle by official migration statistics revealing record numbers are travelling to Europe while people smugglers have begun efforts to send people over the Channel illegally in small boats.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, pictured making his latest EU referendum speech today, defended workers rights today but has been urged to campaign harder to keep Britain in the EU

Mr Corbyn responded to calls from the GMB union today to respond to the real concerns of voters about immigration.

He said: 'Most of us in Britain know someone who has studied, worked or retired abroad.

JEREMY CORBYN BLAMES THE MEDIA FOR MORE THAN HALF HIS VOTERS NOT KNOWING HIS POSITION ON BREXIT Polling released earlier this week indicated less than half of Labour voters knew that most of the party was for the In campaign with almost a third having no idea at all where the party stands Jeremy Corbyn today insisted it was 'partly down to the media' that Labour voters were not clear on where the party stood on Europe. Labour activists at Mr Corbyn's latest referendum speech today booed and hissed at BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg as she questioned the Labour leader. Mr Corbyn appeared to smile as the jeers broke out before indicating the need for quiet. Other journalists at the event were heckled as they asked questions. The event was held against a backdrop of polling suggesting less than half of Labour voters know most of the party's politicians back staying in the EU. Labour voters turning out for Remain is seen as a crucial part of the campaign to keep Britain inside the EU. But challenged on the difficulties of engaging his party's voters, Mr Corbyn said it was 'partly down to the media' and how they cover the party. The Labour leader insisted he had done a great deal of campaigning. Advertisement

'We have reciprocal arrangements with the European Union. Our citizens, well over one million of them, live in other EU countries and EU citizens come to live and work here.

'But some communities can change dramatically and rapidly and that can be disconcerting for some people.

'That doesn't make them Little Englanders, xenophobes or racists. More people living in an area can put real pressure on local services like GPs surgeries, schools and housing.

'This isn't the fault of migrants. It's a failure of government. The coalition government in 2010 abolished the Migrant Impact Fund; a national fund to manage the short term impacts of migration on local communities.

'By abolishing it, David Cameron's Coalition undermined the proper preparation and investment that communities need to adapt.'

Mr Corbyn also lodged a fierce attack on the Tory record on human rights and based his case on staying in the EU as necessary to limit Conservative excesses.

He said: 'A vote to Leave means a Conservative Government would then be in charge of negotiating Britain's exit.

'Everything they have done as a Government so far means we could not rely on them to protect the workplace rights that millions rely on.

'A Tory Brexit negotiation would be a disaster for the majority of people in Britain.'

In his speech, Mr Corbyn said Europe's 'social chapter' had helped 26 million British workers take advantage of paid holidays and limited working hours.

He claimed the EU protects eight million part time workers and another million temporary employees and while 340,000 women every year get enhanced maternity rights.

Mr Corbyn said: 'It's important to understand the benefit of these gains. It means workers throughout Europe have decent rights at work, meaning it's harder to undercut terms and conditions across Europe.

'Several Leave supporters have stated clearly they want to leave Europe to water down workers' rights, to rip up the protections that protect work-life balance, that prevent discrimination and prevent exploitation and injustice.

'That is why we say, the threat to the British people is not the European Union - it is a Conservative government here in Britain, seeking to undermine the good things we have achieved in Europe and resisting changes that would benefit the ordinary people of Britain.

Mr Corbynm continued: 'A vote to Leave means a Conservative government would then be in charge of negotiating Britain's exit.

'Everything they have done as a government so far means we could not rely on them to protect the workplace rights that millions rely on.

'A Tory Brexit negotiation would be a disaster for the majority of people in Britain.'

BREXIT-BACKING ECONOMIST ADMITS QUITTING THE EU WOULD LEAD TO 'HIGHER TARIFFS' ON BRITISH GOODS An economist who advised Margaret Thatcher and backs Brexit today admitted there would be 'higher tariffs' on British goods if the UK quits the EU. Professor Patrick Minford, part of the economists for Britain group, challenged claims that withdrawal from the EU would harm the UK economy. He argued that while Britain would face higher tariffs on trade with European neighbours, its ability to export to the rest of the world would be enhanced by the removal of 'protectionist' EU barriers to trade. David Cameron, pictured at the Toyota car factory in Burnaston, has warned about the imposition of tariffs on British exports if the country quits the EU. Brexit backing economist Patrick Minford today admitted higher tariffs would follow a Brexit Prof Minford told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'What we've had from the consensus is fraudulent calculations about Brexit policies that would not happen. 'The right and optimal policy for the UK if it leaves is to go to global free trade. Then we don't need any of these deals ... New Zealand did this at the end of the '80s and made their economy much more successful.' Under global free trade arrangements, there 'certainly would' be tariffs on British products and services sold into EU markets, said Prof Minford. But he added: 'We don't have to put all their external tariffs on the rest of the world, we (could) trade freely with the rest of the world. 'We (would) get rid of all the EU protectionism on all the stuff we buy from the rest of the world, which is an enormous benefit for the UK economy. 'The whole point of leaving the EU is to free ourselves of EU protectionism and EU regulationism.' But Lord Darling told Today: 'There is nothing in the world that stops us from selling our goods and services to other parts of the world. 'Germany has been highly successful in exporting engineering and manufactured products and yet they are a key member of the EU - they've been in it longer than we have. 'At the moment, we have trade deals with about 53 countries as a result of our EU membership. If we leave the EU, that's 53 new deals we would have to negotiate. 'Are the Leave campaign really in a position to guarantee they would be as good as or better than we've got at the present time?' Advertisement

EU rules forced me to let criminals and terror suspects into Britain, Michael Gove claims as he warns he is powerless to stop it without Brexit

Michael Gove has claimed that as Justice Secretary he is unable to stop terror suspects and criminals from entering Britain because of EU rules.

The leading Vote Leave campaigner revealed his 'frustration' at the impact of EU laws on free movement on his ability to keep the country safe.

Mr Gove's claims will heighten further growing scrutiny of Britain's border security days after it emerged people smugglers have begun sending boats into the English Channel.

The Home Office has come under fire for not providing enough patrols of the south east England coast as the migrant crisis continues to grip Europe.

Michael Gove, pictured left today on his latest campaign visit with Boris Johnson, centre, and Priti Patel, right, claimed EU rules had left Britain unable to stop criminals and terror suspects entering Britain

Mr Gove made his claims in an essay issued by Portland.

He said: 'As Justice Secretary, I have experienced the frustration at our inability to refuse entry to those with a criminal record and even some who are suspected of terrorist links.'

He has pushed tough new immigration rules on the latest leg of the Vote Leave battle bus tour which has seen him - together with leading campaigners Boris Johnson and Priti Patel.

The Justice Secretary has vowed to press ahead with 'emergency measures' to rein in the European Court of Justice if Britain backs Brexit on June 23.

George Osborne now joins forces with Alistair Darling to slam Vote Leave for 'making up' their plans

George Osborne joined forces with his Labour predecessor Alistair Darling today to slam Vote Leave for 'making up' its plans for Brexit.

In a highly unusual cross-party intervention, the current and former Chancellor said the Brexit campaign was offering 'uncosted and unworkable' policies.

Mr Darling, a veteran of the Scottish independence campaign, rejected calls from the current Labour leadership not to campaign alongside senior Conservatives to join Mr Osborne in the intervention.

The joint letter issued by Britain Stronger in Europe campaign is Mr Osborne's latest cross-party effort after he previously appeared alongside long time rival Ed Balls and Liberal Democrat Sir Vince Cable.

The intervention was dismissed today by Brexit campaigner Liam Fox who branded it 'utterly disingenuous'.

George Osborne (left) and Alistair Darling (right) today joined forces to slam Vote Leave for failing to answer 'basic' economic questions about the implications of Brexit

In their letter, Mr Osborne and Mr Darling said: 'You are coming forward with uncosted and unworkable proposals that would damage our country by taking us out of the single market upon which so many jobs depend.

'It is simply not good enough to pretend to the British people that they can vote leave and there would not be profound and negative economic consequences that would affect them and their families.'

The pair demanded Vote Leave spell out the 'specific trading relationship' Britain would have with the EU after Brexit and offer 'guarantees' on trade tariffs.

Mr Fox said the questions should be answered by the Government because they will still be in power after the referendum.

He told Sky News: 'If we vote to leave the EU, the Government will have a great deal more freedom on (public spending) because we will not be handing over 10billion a year to the EU.'

'These questions can only be answered by the party actually in Government... the Conservative Party will still be in Government.

'George Osborne will still be the Chancellor and he will have more options after Brexit than he has today.'

Liam Fox, pictured today hitting back at Mr Osborne and Mr Darling, claimed the questions they levelled should be answered by the Government of the day

Mr Corbyn responded to calls from the GMB union today to respond to the real concerns of voters about immigration.

He said: 'Most of us in Britain know someone who has studied, worked or retired abroad.

JEREMY CORBYN BLAMES THE MEDIA FOR MORE THAN HALF HIS VOTERS NOT KNOWING HIS POSITION ON BREXIT Polling released earlier this week indicated less than half of Labour voters knew that most of the party was for the In campaign with almost a third having no idea at all where the party stands Jeremy Corbyn today insisted it was 'partly down to the media' that Labour voters were not clear on where the party stood on Europe. Labour activists at Mr Corbyn's latest referendum speech today booed and hissed at BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg as she questioned the Labour leader. Mr Corbyn appeared to smile as the jeers broke out before indicating the need for quiet. Other journalists at the event were heckled as they asked questions. The event was held against a backdrop of polling suggesting less than half of Labour voters know most of the party's politicians back staying in the EU. Labour voters turning out for Remain is seen as a crucial part of the campaign to keep Britain inside the EU. But challenged on the difficulties of engaging his party's voters, Mr Corbyn said it was 'partly down to the media' and how they cover the party. The Labour leader insisted he had done a great deal of campaigning. Advertisement

'We have reciprocal arrangements with the European Union. Our citizens, well over one million of them, live in other EU countries and EU citizens come to live and work here.

'But some communities can change dramatically and rapidly and that can be disconcerting for some people.

'That doesn't make them Little Englanders, xenophobes or racists. More people living in an area can put real pressure on local services like GPs surgeries, schools and housing.

'This isn't the fault of migrants. It's a failure of government. The coalition government in 2010 abolished the Migrant Impact Fund; a national fund to manage the short term impacts of migration on local communities.

'By abolishing it, David Cameron's Coalition undermined the proper preparation and investment that communities need to adapt.'

Mr Corbyn also lodged a fierce attack on the Tory record on human rights and based his case on staying in the EU as necessary to limit Conservative excesses.

He said: 'A vote to Leave means a Conservative Government would then be in charge of negotiating Britain's exit.

'Everything they have done as a Government so far means we could not rely on them to protect the workplace rights that millions rely on.

'A Tory Brexit negotiation would be a disaster for the majority of people in Britain.'

In his speech, Mr Corbyn said Europe's 'social chapter' had helped 26 million British workers take advantage of paid holidays and limited working hours.

He claimed the EU protects eight million part time workers and another million temporary employees and while 340,000 women every year get enhanced maternity rights.

Mr Corbyn said: 'It's important to understand the benefit of these gains. It means workers throughout Europe have decent rights at work, meaning it's harder to undercut terms and conditions across Europe.

'Several Leave supporters have stated clearly they want to leave Europe to water down workers' rights, to rip up the protections that protect work-life balance, that prevent discrimination and prevent exploitation and injustice.

'That is why we say, the threat to the British people is not the European Union - it is a Conservative government here in Britain, seeking to undermine the good things we have achieved in Europe and resisting changes that would benefit the ordinary people of Britain.

Mr Corbynm continued: 'A vote to Leave means a Conservative government would then be in charge of negotiating Britain's exit.

'Everything they have done as a government so far means we could not rely on them to protect the workplace rights that millions rely on.

'A Tory Brexit negotiation would be a disaster for the majority of people in Britain.'

BREXIT-BACKING ECONOMIST ADMITS QUITTING THE EU WOULD LEAD TO 'HIGHER TARIFFS' ON BRITISH GOODS An economist who advised Margaret Thatcher and backs Brexit today admitted there would be 'higher tariffs' on British goods if the UK quits the EU. Professor Patrick Minford, part of the economists for Britain group, challenged claims that withdrawal from the EU would harm the UK economy. He argued that while Britain would face higher tariffs on trade with European neighbours, its ability to export to the rest of the world would be enhanced by the removal of 'protectionist' EU barriers to trade. David Cameron, pictured at the Toyota car factory in Burnaston, has warned about the imposition of tariffs on British exports if the country quits the EU. Brexit backing economist Patrick Minford today admitted higher tariffs would follow a Brexit Prof Minford told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'What we've had from the consensus is fraudulent calculations about Brexit policies that would not happen. 'The right and optimal policy for the UK if it leaves is to go to global free trade. Then we don't need any of these deals ... New Zealand did this at the end of the '80s and made their economy much more successful.' Under global free trade arrangements, there 'certainly would' be tariffs on British products and services sold into EU markets, said Prof Minford. But he added: 'We don't have to put all their external tariffs on the rest of the world, we (could) trade freely with the rest of the world. 'We (would) get rid of all the EU protectionism on all the stuff we buy from the rest of the world, which is an enormous benefit for the UK economy. 'The whole point of leaving the EU is to free ourselves of EU protectionism and EU regulationism.' But Lord Darling told Today: 'There is nothing in the world that stops us from selling our goods and services to other parts of the world. 'Germany has been highly successful in exporting engineering and manufactured products and yet they are a key member of the EU - they've been in it longer than we have. 'At the moment, we have trade deals with about 53 countries as a result of our EU membership. If we leave the EU, that's 53 new deals we would have to negotiate. 'Are the Leave campaign really in a position to guarantee they would be as good as or better than we've got at the present time?' Advertisement

EU rules forced me to let criminals and terror suspects into Britain, Michael Gove claims as he warns he is powerless to stop it without Brexit

Michael Gove has claimed that as Justice Secretary he is unable to stop terror suspects and criminals from entering Britain because of EU rules.

The leading Vote Leave campaigner revealed his 'frustration' at the impact of EU laws on free movement on his ability to keep the country safe.

Mr Gove's claims will heighten further growing scrutiny of Britain's border security days after it emerged people smugglers have begun sending boats into the English Channel.

The Home Office has come under fire for not providing enough patrols of the south east England coast as the migrant crisis continues to grip Europe.

Michael Gove, pictured left today on his latest campaign visit with Boris Johnson, centre, and Priti Patel, right, claimed EU rules had left Britain unable to stop criminals and terror suspects entering Britain

Mr Gove made his claims in an essay issued by Portland.

He said: 'As Justice Secretary, I have experienced the frustration at our inability to refuse entry to those with a criminal record and even some who are suspected of terrorist links.'

He has pushed tough new immigration rules on the latest leg of the Vote Leave battle bus tour which has seen him - together with leading campaigners Boris Johnson and Priti Patel.

The Justice Secretary has vowed to press ahead with 'emergency measures' to rein in the European Court of Justice if Britain backs Brexit on June 23.

George Osborne now joins forces with Alistair Darling to slam Vote Leave for 'making up' their plans

George Osborne joined forces with his Labour predecessor Alistair Darling today to slam Vote Leave for 'making up' its plans for Brexit.

In a highly unusual cross-party intervention, the current and former Chancellor said the Brexit campaign was offering 'uncosted and unworkable' policies.

Mr Darling, a veteran of the Scottish independence campaign, rejected calls from the current Labour leadership not to campaign alongside senior Conservatives to join Mr Osborne in the intervention.

The joint letter issued by Britain Stronger in Europe campaign is Mr Osborne's latest cross-party effort after he previously appeared alongside long time rival Ed Balls and Liberal Democrat Sir Vince Cable.

The intervention was dismissed today by Brexit campaigner Liam Fox who branded it 'utterly disingenuous'.

George Osborne (left) and Alistair Darling (right) today joined forces to slam Vote Leave for failing to answer 'basic' economic questions about the implications of Brexit

In their letter, Mr Osborne and Mr Darling said: 'You are coming forward with uncosted and unworkable proposals that would damage our country by taking us out of the single market upon which so many jobs depend.

'It is simply not good enough to pretend to the British people that they can vote leave and there would not be profound and negative economic consequences that would affect them and their families.'

The pair demanded Vote Leave spell out the 'specific trading relationship' Britain would have with the EU after Brexit and offer 'guarantees' on trade tariffs.

Mr Fox said the questions should be answered by the Government because they will still be in power after the referendum.

He told Sky News: 'If we vote to leave the EU, the Government will have a great deal more freedom on (public spending) because we will not be handing over 10billion a year to the EU.'

'These questions can only be answered by the party actually in Government... the Conservative Party will still be in Government.

'George Osborne will still be the Chancellor and he will have more options after Brexit than he has today.'
Threats: Russian tycoon Alexander Perepilichnyy

A Russian businessman suspected of being assassinated in the UK was known to police before he died, a coroner heard today.

Russian interpol had already linked Alexander Perepilichnyy to conducting organised money laundering in 2007 and 2009 where it was believed he had organised a crime group to 'misappropriate money.'

But UK police denied knowing anything further about the Russian tycoon, while also refusing to confirm any links he may have had to British Intelligence.

Businessman Perepilichnyy collapsed while jogging outside his 3 million mansion in Weybridge, Surrey, in November 2012 but police ruled out foul play at the time.

The 44-year-old whistleblower had fled to the UK and revealed 'explosive' information in an investigation into a 140 million Russian money-laundering scheme in Swiss bank accounts when he was found dead near his home.

After moving to the UK in 2009, Mr Perepilichnyy had turned whistleblower to Swiss authorities investigating the alleged complicity of corrupt Russian officials in a multi-million pound fraud of Hermitage Capital Management.

The information received from him was 'explosive,' said Ms Henrietta Hill, a representative of the company.

Today it was revealed the man had been known to the service and had been linked to money laundering crimes as the Government and Surrey Police came under fire at another pre-inquest hearing.

Miss Henrietta Hill, representing Hermitage Capitol Management said: 'He had links to crime groups and we have concerns about the matter of openness of intelligence. I find it concerning that Detective Superintendent Ian Pollard told us something that was not correct. Surrey police has not been fully transparent.'

Surrey police was also criticised for their handling of the case and it was claimed the police force had been 'less than transparent' in the proceedings of the death investigation.

Insurance firms for the dead Russian claimed the police had refused to say whether or not Mr Perepilichnyy had any connection to British Intelligence and failed to reveal his Interpol links.

Denying Detective Superintendent Pollard had lied about the force's knowledge of the man's alleged links with organised crime by failing to disclose the information, Dijen Basu, representing Surrey Police, said: 'It is quite wrong to suggest Detective Superintendent Pollard has been anything other than accurate.'

Sudden death: Mr Perepilichnyy collapsed while jogging outside his 3 million mansion in Surrey, pictured

It was said in previous pre-inquest hearings that Mr Perepilichnyy took out a number of multi-million pound life policies before his death, including one with Legal & General which only became active eight days before his death.

He had also provided evidence against those linked to the death of anti-corruption lawyer Sergei Magnitsky - and became the fourth person linked to the Magnitsky case to have died in sudden circumstances.

When the father-of-two's body was found in the street at the exclusive St George's Hill estate in November 2012, it prompted speculation that he was on the Russian Mafia's hit list.

Fuel was also added to speculation today that Perepilichnyy had been assassinated after tests to determine whether he died of natural causes came back negative.

Luxury: He was jogging in the private St George's Hill estate, pictured, when he suffered a suspected heart attack

The genetic testing, which can pick up rare heart arrhythmia and determine if a genetic malfunction of the heart had caused the man's death came back negative increasing the belief the man's death had instead been brought on by an assassination.

NO RULING ON JURY INQUEST A judgement on whether or not the inquest would take place in front of a jury was not made, despite arguments made both for and against a jury. Likening the case to the recent Hillsborough inquest in which a jury spent over two years deliberating documentary and witness evidence, Ms Hills claimed it was in the 'public interest' to have the inquest heard by a jury and she stated that a jury would be able to understand the complicated evidence due to be heard into his death. However Mr Basu, representing Surrey Police, said the Hillsborough disaster was a 'unique' occurrence where the deaths were not complicated and 'uncontroversial' in the way the victims died. 'They died from being crushed. The death here is very complicated and a number of conclusions could be drawn from the evidence,' he stated. Mr Basu said: 'What was Mr Perepilichnyy scared of? Who was he scared of? What was he doing in the country? How did he get into the country? Why did only after a few days, Surrey police rule out the idea he was killed? There has been a veil thrown on this matter. An inquest with a jury is the way to have an independent investigation.' The coroner confirmed he would write to the interested parties to inform them of his decision over jury hearing. He stated that a further pre inquest review would take place on September 6, one week before the full four week long inquest was due to begin on September 12.

However it was revealed that the genetic test was only successful in detecting the heart defects in 20 per cent of cases, and Surrey Police argued that the negative result could not rule out a natural death.

Mr Basu, representing Surrey Police, said: 'There was a way to discover if death might be due to a genetic cause of sudden heart arrhythmia. It has been said that four out of five cases where that has happened it has not been identified in genetic testing.'

Traces of a compound that could have come from toxic plant Gelsemium elegens were found in the exile's stomach by scientists carrying out tests on behalf of one of Mr Perepilichnyy's life insurers.

The coroner confirmed the Government had refused to provide reasons why a Public Interest Immunity order banning the disclosure of information had been sought on a number of documents which could reveal whether the dead man had been a spy or wanted by organised crime units.

Coroner Richard Travers added: 'I have expressed my disappointment in the way the Government has failed to respond in any way. I am reluctant to postpone the inquest and now order they make written submissions and provide evidence to support the Public Interest Immunity by June 10.'

Criticising Surrey Police's refusal to confirm if the dead man had links to British Intelligence, Bob Moxen-Brown, representing Legal and General, insurance company, said: 'We have asked Surrey Police to tell us if Mr P had contact with British Intelligence.

'There can be three answers, 'yes and here are the documents', 'no', or 'we are not going to tell you because it is not in the public interest to do so'. There has been no response from them on this matter.'

Surrey police claimed the request to find out if British Intelligence knew about Mr Perepilichnyy was 'not in the scope of the inquest' and refused to reply to the request.

A previous inquest review revealed a possible suspect for the killing, an Andrei Pavlov understood to be a member of the Klyuev Organised Crime Group (KOCG) in Russia - who was in the UK at the time of Perepilichnyy's sudden death and boarded a plane out of the country the next day.

The pre-inquest hearing, held in Woking coroners Court in Woking, Surrey, continues.
The homeowner, believed to be a veteran, still owns the residence, which will be observed after cleaning is finished

Took half a decade of citations, court hearings and complaints before a lawyer was given legal right of the property

Advertisement

After six years of accumulating a pile of belongings so large it has spilled out into the front yard, the infamous San Diego hoarder house is finally getting cleaned.

Neighbors are breathing a sigh of relief this week as agents began to clear the mountain of garbage, as well as 100 rats and 20 cats, that once greeted them every morning as they passed the driveway of the Mira Mesa home.

San Diego police have found everything from six dead cats, wrapped in plastic bags in the freezer, to opossums, hunter camouflage suits, and even potential explosive material.

Scroll down for video

After six years of accumulating a pile of belongings so large it has spilled out into the front yard, the infamous hoarder house in the Mira Mesa neighborhood of San Diego is finally getting cleaned

Six dead cats were found wrapped in bags in the freezer in the kitchen (pictured) where boxes of food and trash were also discovered

Crews from multiple agents were on hand as they cleaned out the garage, once so full it spilled out on the driveway

Courtesy CBS 8

Lt Natalie Stone said it was the worst hoarder house she had ever seen.

And yet it took half a decade and scores of complaints, citations and court hearings before anything could be done about the house with trash so high it could be seen from Google Earth.

At first the neighborhood tried to help, joining the homeowner's family members to aid the clean-up effort in 2010.

But the homeowner, who has a license plate reserved for veterans on his car, began to hoard again. And as the years went by, it became worse and worse.

Lily Larranaga had to stop opening her windows and buy air purifiers for her home.

'It was a health issue, a safety issue, a fire hazard,' she told The San Diego Union-Tribune. 'It was out of his control and we needed to get involved.'

Neighbors struggled to sell their homes because of the stench and eyesores, and others complained it was driving housing prices down.

'It's disgusting,' Ted Brengel, the president of the Mira Mesa Town Council, told CBS 8 in February.

Along with 50 to 100 rats and more than 20 live cats, San Diego police also found four opossums on the property

One of more than dozen cats found living in the cracks of free space available in the hoarder home

A San Diego Fire Rescue Bomb Arson team member carries empty ordinance tubes for disposal. It is believed the homeowner was a former veteran, due to a reserved license plate on his car

'It smells like garbage. It smells pretty ripe.'

There were reports of investigators climbing overs piles of trash 3ft to 4ft off the ground, the rooms inside covered wall-to-wall with belongings, the front door blocked by heaps of junk.

Animal control was called to the home 16 different times in seven years on reports of animal neglect, cruelty and the smell of feces and urine.

In April, attorney Richardson Griswold was given legal possession and control of the property. The clean-up could finally begin.

But it will come at a cost, tens and thousands of dollars to be exact.

Griswold said he initially believed it would cost about $22,000 and six industrial dumpsters to clean the house. But with two more weeks of work still to go, that number may triple.

An aerial practice bomb was just one of a number of potential explosives and military gear removed from the home

An animal control officer puts food out for cats in order to start trapping them the next day

The piles of trash became so big they could be spotted from the aerial view of Google Satellite in recent years

The attorney said the homeowner, currently residing in a hotel where he was provided with a room, will be responsible for paying back the loans Griswold has taken out for the finance the clean-up.

Griswold said cleaning crews are being extra careful with the homeowner's personal belongings, and hopes that the man will be able to find the support he needs.

'My hope is his mother and people who care about him are going to help him make decisions so he doesn't fall into a repeat pattern,' Griswold, whose company will monitor the property going forward, told the Tribune.

'It sometimes takes something pretty dramatic for change to happen.'

Neighbor Larranaga agreed.

'This wasn't just for the good of the neighborhood,' she said. 'It was also about his well-being.'

Problems at the home (pictured left in 2007, right in 2012) began in 2010, and neighbors helped with the first clean-up effort
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that he will vote for Donald Trump in November, marking what his spokesman called a formal 'endorsement' of the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee.

The Wisconsin lawmaker declared what appeared to be tepid and calibrated support in a newspaper column published Thursday afternoon, following weeks of wrangling and several high-profile Washington meetings.

Ryan wrote in the Janesville Gazette, his hometown newspaper, that Trump 'would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people's lives.'

'That's why I'll be voting for him this fall.'

Trump tweeted: 'So great to have the endorsement and support of Paul Ryan. We will both be working very hard to Make America Great Again!'

HE WILL: House Speaker Paul Ryan is done playing coy and has endorsed Donald Trump in the November presidential election

WON HIM OVER  SORT OF: Trump visited Ryan in Washington and earned his approval, although it appeared to be less than full-throated

'ENDORSEMENT,' YES  'SUPPORT, MAYBE: Trump tweeted his thanks to Ryan on Thursday, perhaps overstating the speaker's enthusiasm level

But underneath the surface of Ryan's grudging head-nod lay reservations about working with a Trump White House.

'Its no secret that he and I have our differences. I wont pretend otherwise,' Ryan wrote. 'And when I feel the need to, Ill continue to speak my mind.'

'But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.'

Ryan himself refrained from using the word 'endorsement,' tweeting only that 'I'll be voting for @realDonaldTrump this fall. I'm confident he will help turn the House GOP's agenda into laws.'

It took his spokesman Brendan Buck to dispel the fog 14 minutes later.

'We're not playing word games, feel free to call it an endorsement,' Buck tweeted.

He added minutes later that Ryan's coming-out for Trump wasn't a bid to monopolize a news cycle otherwise occupied by a scathing anti-Trump speech by Hillary Clinton.

'And no, while a fun coincidence, it wasn't timed to a Hillary Clinton speech,' Buck tweeted. 'Believe it or not, we don't follow her sched that closely.'

Ryan represents a centrist caucus of Republicans who have become unnerved by Trump's brash policy prescriptions.

The two men have hashed out a long list of 'nuts and bolts differences,' a Trump insider said Thursday.

RECALIBRATED: Ryan tweeted only that he would 'be voting for' Trump, leaving his spokesman Brendan Buck to clarify that it counted as an actual 'endorsement'

Ryan described the discussions as equal parts practical and philosophical.

'Donald Trump and I have talked at great length about things such as the proper role of the executive and fundamental principles such as the protection of life,' he wrote in his op-ed.

'The list of potential Supreme Court nominees he released after our first meeting was very encouraging.'

'But the House policy agenda has been the main focus of our dialogue,' Ryan explained.
New book claims huge cover-up took place as alleged killer was actually the illegitimate son of the Duke of Norfolk

Joan Woodhouse - a demure, deeply religious librarian - was raped and murdered in 1948. Her killer has never been convicted

On the sweltering August Bank Holiday weekend of 1948, Joan Woodhouse - a demure, deeply religious librarian - left her lodgings in London to visit her family home in Barnsley, Yorkshire.

She never arrived.

More than a week later her body was discovered in the grounds of the Duke of Norfolk's historic Arundel Castle in Sussex. She had been raped and strangled.

Joan was found by well-known local Thomas Stillwell - a renowned flasher, who admitted he was in the park on the day of her murder with the intention of exposing himself to young girls, confirmed to police that he did speak to Joan, and even once conceded: 'It must have been me.'

But he was cleared of her killing - twice - and no one has ever been found guilty of the 27-year-old's murder. The case has lay cold since 1950.

One author is now hoping to change that.

After studying the probe into Joan's death forensically for six years, Martin Knight is convinced he can prove that the murder was an establishment cover up, with Stillwell's freedom bought by the then Duke of Norfolk - a rich landowner rumoured to be the alleged killer's illegitimate father.

The writer is adamant all the evidence points to labourer Stillwell - and that police did not charge him because of fears such a move would trigger unwanted scrutiny into what from the outset was a highly-flawed police investigation.

In a case rife with 'cover-ups, cock-ups and conspiracy theories', Knight is aiming to finally expose an injustice that has been nearly seven decades in the making.

Joan was a deeply religious woman who had moved to London to work in the British Museum's antique books department.

On the weekend of the 1948 August Bank Holiday, she told her Blackheath room-mates she was heading home for the weekend.

Her body was discovered in the grounds of the Duke of Norfolk's historic Arundel Castle (pictured) in Sussex. She was found by well-known local man Thomas Stillwell - a renowned flasher

Ten days later her remains were found in the grounds of the Duke of Norfolk's Arundel Castle.

Detective Superintendent Fred Narborough was drafted in from Scotland Yard to head up the investigation and offer assistance to the local constabulary.

He immediately focused his attentions on a small address book found in Joan's bag that listed the names and addresses of dozens of men.

DC Narborough was convinced the murderer's identity was among them, adamant Joan was a 'good-time girl' who had travelled to Arundel to spend the weekend with a man.

That accusation provoked fury from Joan's family. Their daughter, they insisted, was highly religious and would never contemplate such a sordid liaison - and investigating such line of inquiry would be a waste of valuable police time.

They were correct. All of the names and addresses in the book were librarians for whom Joan was acting as a secretary through their professional association.

Flailing, Narborough then turned his attention to Tom Stillwell, the local man who had discovered her body.

Detective Superintendent Fred Narborough (middle) was drafted in from Scotland Yard to lead the investigation and offer help to the local constabulary. He immediately alighted on a small address book found in Joan's bag that listed the names and addresses of dozens of men, convinced the murderer's identity was among them

DS Narborough was convinced Joan was a 'good-time girl' and that she had travelled to Arundel to spend the weekend with a man (police looking for her body)

That accusation provoked fury from Joan's family. Their daughter, they insisted, was highly religious and would never contemplate such a liaison - and investigating such would be a waste of valuable police time

Under pressure from police, Stillwell admitted to being in the park on the day of the murder. He was there with the intention of exposing himself to young girls. He also admitted following a woman he later identified as Joan and attempting to speak to her.

He told officers that she walked into Box Copse, the exact spot where her body was found. He even added that 'It must have been me' during interview, but then changed his story, lying about why he had been in the park on the day he 'found' Joan's corpse.

Despite this and a wealth of circumstantial evidence, Stillwell was not charged. The Woodhouse family were devastated. Vincent Jackson, a solicitor engaged by Stillwells family, stopped the accused from speaking without advice thereafter.

In desperation, Joan's family employed a private detective  Thomas Jacks, a bluff Yorkshireman and ex-policeman. He compiled even more circumstantial evidence that was hard to resist and Scotland Yard were pressured to re-open the case.

Flailing, Narborough then turned his attention to Tom Stillwell (pictured), the local man who had discovered the body

In 1950 - two years after the murder - the well thought of Inspector Spooner was despatched to Arundel. However, he too concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge Stillwell - despite insisted officers look no further than the town to find Joan's killer.

Joan's family refused to give up and launched a private prosecution for murder  a legal device only used once since by the Lawrence family in the racially motivated killing of their son Stephen.

The Crown were forced to prosecute. However, according to Knight, it was made clear from the outset that they were not keen on doing so. Although Stillwell was held in prison an Arundel court elected not to put him to trial.

Knight has since unearthed papers detailing that Stillwell's original police statements could not be used as evidence in a court as DS Narborough failed to caution him before interview.

That blunder meant no-one knew of Stillwell's motives for being in the park and his confessed encounter with Joan.

Furthermore, Knight's digging also led him to a startling rumour that he believes may shed light on the lax handling of the entire investigation.

To this day, residents in Arundel believe that Tom Stillwell was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Norfolk, a much-loved local landowner.

Knight said: 'Stillwell escaped justice because of Narborough's blundering and an establishment cover-up not to highlight this.'

'These rumours suggest that the then incumbent Duke may have pulled strings to ensure Stillwell escaped a trial and thus prevented any unwelcome attention falling on him.

'Stillwell's mother is said to have worked in the Duke's household as a younger lady and the family home was owned by the estate.

Under pressure from police, Stillwell admitted to being in the park on the day of the murder with the intention of exposing himself to young girls. He also admitted following a girl he later identified as Joan and attempting to speak to her while she was in Arundel

Despite the evidence, Stillwell was not charged. The Woodhouse family (left) were devastated. Author Martin Knight has since unearthed papers detailing that Stillwell's original police statements could not be used as evidence in a court as DS Narborough (right) failed to caution him before interview.

'There is a strong facial resemblance between the two men and Land Registry documents indicate the Duke passed ownership of the estate cottage to Stillwell's mother shortly after the second 1950 investigation was closed.'

What may go against this theory is the fact the Duke would have only been a teenager when Stillwell was conceived, while his mother was in her early twenties.

However, weight is added to the theory by posing the question: who funded Stillwell's solicitor Vincent Jackson? He was expensive. Did the Duke pay to get Stillwell off the hook? Many locals believed he may have.

Stillwell passed away in 2008 as an innocent man. According to Knight, most Arundel residents were convinced of his guilt during both inquiries.

His revelations have only now come to light following lengthy requests for information from police and government. Stillwell's right to privacy prevents more files from being released for another 10 years.

In what would be nearly 80 years since Joan's death, perhaps the mystery surrounding the circumstances of her death will then be revealed.
Prairie Home Companion radio show host Garrison Keillor says he has suffered a brain seizure but that this week's show apparently will go on.

The 73-year-old Keillor posted on Facebook on Thursday that he had what he called a 'whirlwind weekend,' doing two shows at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia and suffering a 'nocturnal brain seizure.'

Garrison Keillor, creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion, says he has suffered a brain seizure but that this week's show apparently will go on (August 2015 file photo)

He said he flew to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he underwent an MRI, which showed what he called a 'black hole' where a previous stroke had struck near his brain's language center.

A doctor put him on medicine to stop convulsions that makes him feel lethargic but he intends to keep going.

His publicist, David O'Neill, said Keillor still planned to fly to Atlanta on Thursday to host Saturday's show.

Keillor has said that he'll step down as Prairie Home host after his final broadcast on July 1.

Musician Chris Thile is set to replace Keillor in 2016.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune quoted Keillor as writing in the post: 'I have five more shows and want them to be terrific. Plenty of time for lethargy in August.'

The website for the program says online: 'Today, A Prairie Home Companion is heard by 4 million listeners each week on nearly 700 public radio stations, online, and on the American Forces Networks, SiriusXM Radio, Radio New Zealand, and KPRG in Guam.'

A movie adaptation of A Prairie Home Companion, starring Hollywood A-listers - among them Meryl Streep - and Keillor as himself came out in 2006.
Secret Service stepped in to protect the senator who was unharmed on both occasions

They pulled the same stunt Monday in Oakland; an animal rights group claimed responsibility for the

Animal rights activists tried to rush Bernie Sanders again today as he campaigned in Northern California.

An activist jumped the barricade blocking Sanders off from the crowd and charged the stage at the Modesto Centre Plaza. She was immediately apprehended by Secret Service officers and did not get to the senator.

Two additional members of the group hopped onto a speaker positioned to the left of the stage and held up a banner declaring that 'animal liberation is social justice.'

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Animal rights activists tried to rush Bernie Sanders again today as he campaigned in Northern California

The protester who tried to storm the senator was forcibly removed from the rally as Sanders supporters alternately booed her group for interrupting their candidate and cheered on law enforcement officials

The protester who tried to storm the senator was forcibly removed from the rally as Sanders supporters alternately booed her group for interrupting their candidate and cheered on law enforcement officials.

The other two were ushered out by security without incident.

Two officers protectively huddled around Sanders until the commotion concluded.

Confident that the conflict had been resolved, Sanders elbowed his way back to the microphone and continued on with his speech, which he was only a few minutes into when he was interrupted.

Direct Action Everywhere, a group that fights for 'animal liberation,' took credit for the protest.

The group claimed in a press release that an activist was 'body slammed by the Secret Service' and that 'several' jumped onto the stage. None of the protesters came near the stage today, however.

The same animal rights activist group came after Sanders in Oakland on Monday, causing Secret Service to jump in and protect the presidential candidate that time, as well.

Sanders has been campaigning in California for the last two weeks ahead of the primary of June 7.

While speaking on Memorial Day, at least four activists were detained by police when they attempted to get on the stage with the Vermont senator.

Secret Service hugged a flustered Sanders to get him out of the way of the activists who stormed the stage.

The Democratic presidential candidate was uninjured and resumed speaking as the activists were taken away.

Zach Groff, believed to be a member of the group Direct Action Everywhere, was quoted by KRON 4 as saying:

'Over a dozen animal rights activists with the network Direct Action Everywhere just rushed the stage of a Bernie Sanders Rally outside Oakland City Hall in California, demanding the candidate promise action to secure legal rights for nonhuman animals.'

Bernie Sanders (pictured) was giving a speech in Oakland, California, when protesters rushed the stage he was speaking on

An animal right's activist group took responsibility for rushing the stage, which saw at least four people detained

Secret Service were forced to step in and tackle the protesters while ensuring the Vermont senator's safety

Secret Service agents arrest a woman after multiple people climbed a barricade and approached Democratic presidential candidate

The identities of those who rushed the stage was not immediately made available and it is unclear if they were arrested or released

The identities of those who rushed the stage was not immediately made available at either rally.

In a press release, Kearney Robinson was identified as the organizer of the Thursday protest.

'Sanders says hes against "factory farming," yet virtually all of the farms in this country, including those that he advocates for, are basically factory farms,' Robinson said in a statement. 'Until Sanders acknowledges animals as part of his platform, we will continue to put pressure on him.'

The senator began receiving Secret Service security in February, as the the primary season commenced.

After the events of Monday night in Northern California, Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said: 'It was handled professionally by the Secret Service.'

Direct Action Everywhere disrupted an event Bill Clinton was speaking at on behalf of his wife Hillary Clinton in October in Des Moines, Iowa, as well.

The senator began receiving Secret Service security in February early into the primary season as he began to challenge Hillary Clinton
In Colorado, a pilot with the Air Force's Thunderbirds squadron was unhurt when his F-16 jet crashed in a field 5 miles (8 km) south of Peterson Air Force Base, the Air Force said.

In Tennessee, one person was killed when an F/A-18 jet from the Navy's Blue Angels squadron crashed in Smyrna, about 24 miles southeast of Nashville, local media reported.

The status of the Navy pilot and the cause of the crash were not immediately known. The crash occurred while the Blue Angels were practicing for a weekend air show, local media said.

In Colorado, a pilot with the Air Force's Thunderbirds squadron was unhurt when his F-16 jet crashed in a field 5 miles south of Peterson Air Force Base, the Air Force said.

The pilot, whose name was not released, ejected safely and was picked up by emergency response crews, the Air Force said.

After leaving the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony, Obama visited the Thunderbird pilot at Peterson AFB to thank him for his service and express relief he had not been seriously hurt, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Earnest said the pilot was up and walking around when the president saw him. The president also thanked the emergency responders who picked up the pilot, Earnest said.
A man will spend more than 17 years in federal prison after a jury convicted him last year of raping and physically assaulting a woman in 2013.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters of Billings on Thursday sentenced Olaf James Haugen, 30, to 17 years, calling his conduct inexcusable and debasing.

The judge ordered Haugen to have no contact with the victim and for him to register as a sex offender.

Haugen, she noted, beat the woman and threatened her with a knife as he raped her.

The sentence was at about the middle of a guideline range that ran from about 15 years to 19 years in prison.

A jury in December found Haugen guilty of aggravated sexual abuse after a two day-trial. The assault happened overnight beginning on Aug. 31, 2013, when Haugen physically and sexually assaulted the victim after the two got into an argument.

The prosecution said earlier that the victim told law enforcement that she had confronted Haugen over drug use. Haugen later admitted he was snorting methamphetamine, and the argument escalated.

Assistant Federal Defender Mark Werner recommended a sentence of about 15 years, saying Haugen had a minimal record. He also said Haugen admitted physically assaulting the victim but denied the sexual assault.

The defense also submitted letters of support for Haugen from four members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council  Conrad Fisher, Loranzy "Oly" McMakin, Tracy Robinson and William Rowland. The council members said in mostly form letters that Haugen has been an outstanding community member and that they had the utmost respect and admiration for this young man.

Haugen apologized to the victim for things that went on and tearfully told the judge he was sorry for not being there for his children.

The victims mother, on behalf of her daughter, asked for the maximum sentence saying her daughter continues to suffer from the attack and had been the victim of previous abuse by Haugen.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Sullivan recommended a high-end term of nearly 20 years saying while the physical wounds have healed, sexual violence was far more insidious. Those wounds would likely last forever, he said.

Haugens conduct was not a product of drug or alcohol use and he didnt grow up in an environment of abuse or poverty, Sullivan said. Haugens conduct was a product of cruelty and domination, he said.

Sullivan called Haugen a danger to the community and to the women in his life.
Dramatic drone footage shows the Iraqi air force blasting ISIS fighters as the military remains gripped in a fierce battle with Daesh in the city of Fallujah.

A large group of fighters disappear in a huge cloud of smoke as an explosive missile strikes the unwary militias below.

The video is released as Iraqi forces announce they are continuing their offensive despite being unable to reach the city centre after more than a week of operations.

Dramatic drone footage shows ISIS fighters disappearing in smoke by the ISIS stronghold of Fallujah

Fallujah lies in Iraq's Anbur province, 40 miles west of Baghdad.

Attempts to retake the city, from the Iraqi army backed by air assaults from the US-led coalition, have been met with fierce resistance.

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In the massive assault Daesh has held 50,000 civilians, including 20,000 children hostage. The city had a pre-war population of 300,000.

They have now held the area for over two years as militants have deployed snipers and fired mortars to halt the Coalition's advances.

The Iraqi army, supported by Shiite militia units, is blaming the jihadist's use of human shields for the protracted progress.

A member of the Iraqi forces holds an RPG engaging in the Saqlawiyah area north west of Fallujah on June 2

Attempts to retake the city have been met with fierce resistance and 50,000 are being used as human shields

The Iraqi forces are now very dependent on airstrikes to gain small territorial victories in the city

Yet having secured the city's outskirts they say they are continuing to push in, reports the Associated Press.

Iraqi forces are now very dependent on airstrikes to gain territorial victories, and claim the limited number of strikes due to the large number of civilians is another reason for the slow advance.

The Coalition has said four airstrikes have been carried out in around Fallujah since Wednesday, hitting ISIS fighting positions, a weapons cache and a tunnel system.

A major assault to retake Fallujah was launched last week with aid from the Coalition but progress has slowed

Iraqi troops cover their ears from the deafening sound of artillery shells fired at ISIS positions in Fallujah

The city lies in central Iraq and is strategically vital in the confrontation with Daesh.

The UN has estimated that 20,000 of the hostages in the city are children, warns they face a dire humanitarian situation, and that they could also be recruited into the war.

Recent large-scale attempts to retake Fallujah began on May 22, and its capture would be a major coup for the government.

ISIS has been losing ground around their strongholds in Mosul and Fallujah in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria

It was one of the first major urban areas to fall to ISIS in 2014 and no aid has reached the city since September last year.

Residents have reportedly being relying on eating dates and animal feed, and drinking dirty water from the Euphrates to survive.
A Blue Angels pilot who died when his F/A-18 fighter jet crashed near Nashville, Tennessee, had wanted to fly since he was a child, relatives said.

The pilot killed Thursday has been identified as Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, his family confirmed to News Channel 5.

'It's hard to put into words right now, but it's beautiful that a person can live and die engaged in their life's pursuits,' said his grandfather, Dolph Kuss, reached at his home in Durango, Colorado.

'This was his dream since he was a child, to be an aviator, a flier.'

He choked back tears and said he was struggling to gather his thoughts.

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A Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter jet pilot is dead following a crash (pictured) on Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee

Officials said the pilot, Marine Captain Jeff Kuss, was killed during take off for an afternoon practice session

The pilot has been identified as Captain Jeff Kuss (pictured), who joined the Blue Angels in 2014, and was the father of two young children

Kuss's family confirmed the decorated pilot (pictured) died in the fiery crash to News Channel 5 on Thursday

'It's hard to celebrate someone's life in this way,' he said. 'It is certainly a shock. Everything in life has its dangers, I guess.'

Kuss was a married father of two young children from Durango and joined the Blue Angels in 2014. He had accumulated more than 1,400 flight hours and 175 carrier-arrested landings.

It was the second fighter jet crash of the day for the military's elite fighter jet performance teams. A member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds crashed in Colorado after a flyover for the Air Force Academy graduation where President Barack Obama spoke. That pilot ejected safely into a field.

Harry Gill, the town manager in Smyrna just outside Nashville, said Thursday that the Blue Angels pilot was the only casualty and no civilians on the ground were hurt.

The Navy said in a news release that the pilot was beginning to take off during an afternoon practice session for a weekend air show performance when the crash happened.

Five other F/A-18 jets landed safely moments after the crash.

This May 19, 2016, photo shows Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss at an air show in Lynchburg, Virginia, just days before he died

The Navy says Kuss (pictured, right) was beginning to take off during an afternoon practice session when the crash happened

'My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the Blue Angels after this tragic loss. I know that the Navy and Marine Corps Team is with me. We will investigate this accident fully and do all we can to prevent similar incidents in the future,' Adm. John Richardson, the Navy's top officer, said in a Facebook post. The team is based at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.

After a 2007 Blue Angels crash in South Carolina, Kuss was interviewed about flight safety.

'We do what's called like a crawl, walk, run mentality where we start out very basic levels and it progresses and progresses until eventually it's a flight demonstration in the form of an air show that you can deliver as a safe, homogeneous product all over the country.

'It's all going to be relatively similar,' said Kuss.

In a video the U.S. Navy posted to its YouTube channel, Kuss stood in his flight suit in front of a line of Blue Angels planes and answered a question from a fan about how to become a pilot.

'I started flying when I was a young kid,' he said. 'I always had a love for it, worked really hard through school, went to college and eventually got into the military.

After a 2007 Blue Angels crash in South Carolina, Kuss was interviewed about flight safety and knew procedure

The Blue Angels flight demonstration unit was practicing in Smyrna, Tennessee, for the Great Tennessee Airshow (STOCK IMAGE)

Witnesses to the crash said the impact was so loud it sounded like the jet crashed into their house and 'shook everything' (STOCK IMAGE)

'I wanted to fly the fastest, meanest thing I could. And that's why I'm here today, because I was fortunate enough to get to fly the F-18 Hornet. It's been a great experience every time I strap into it.'

The Blue Angels flight demonstration unit was practicing in Smyrna, Tennessee, for the Great Tennessee Airshow on Saturday and Sunday.

Five other jets landed safely, but pictures show the one that nose-dived set off a giant black plume as it collided with the earth.

The Blue Angels will not participate, but the Great Tennessee Air Show will go on as scheduled, Smyrna airport Executive Director John Black said in a news release.

'After close consultation with the Blue Angels, regulatory officials and the performers, we have made the decision to carry on with this weekend's show,' Black said.

A US Army Veteran takes part in a six minutes of silence followed by the singing of God Bless America during a candle light memorial service that was held for Captain Kuss

Rutherford County Councilman Brad Turner (center, left) leads a candle light memorial service in Smyrna

People near the Blue Angels crash site told The Tennessean newspaper that they heard a huge explosion and saw the massive plume of smoke when the plane went down.

Helicopters circled the area and first responders cordoned off nearby areas .

Jennifer Elliott, who had been watching the jets practice before going inside her house, said everything shook.

'It sounded like car crashed into my house. Everything shook' she told the Tennessean.

Rebecca Durand told the newspaper she thought the jet was performing a stunt when she saw its nose come straight down.

'Instead, I just saw this big orange explosion,' she said.

Retired teacher Brenda Lewis and her 21-year-old grandson had spent much of the day in her back yard near the airport watching the Blue Angels fly overhead.

She's seen them many times before.

Rebecca Durand told the Tennessean she thought the jet was performing a stunt when she saw its nose come straight down and exploded

'We will investigate this accident fully and do all we can to prevent similar incidents in the future,' Admiral John Richardson, the Navy's top officer, said

'But this afternoon, something made me really want to watch them,' she said. 'They looked like they were having such a good time playing up there.'

She went inside to bake a chocolate pie when she heard a loud boom.

She didn't think too much of it at first because the airport is just on the other side of her tree line and she's used to loud noises.

Then she heard sirens and went around the corner.

She saw the smoke rising and police cars arriving. She went inside because she didn't want to see any more.

Retired teacher Brenda Lewis and her 21-year-old grandson spent the day watching the team practice and knew something was wrong when they heard sirens (STOCK IMAGE)

'I'm always so fascinated by them, the anticipation of it all,' she said of their airshow. 'Then something tragic like this happens. My heart is just broken.'

A Blue Angels crash reported in 2007 in South Carolina is the last accident reported from the Navy group.

The pilot in the crash flew too low and tried to make a turn while traveling too fast.

The Associated Press reported that crash in 2007 was the 26th fatality the Blue Angels experienced.

The fatality on Thursday would mark the 27th death, it is believed.

A vigil was held Thursday night in Tennessee for Captain Kuss in Smyrna.
A man has been charged with 41 child stalking offences over a six-year period in western Sydney.

Police arrested the 32-year-old man on Thursday morning in South Penrith after an investigation into reports a child had been approached and photographed in the area multiple times since 2010.

Police confirmed the man stalked numerous children and was charged with 17 counts of stalking students while they attended school.

Police confirmed a man has been charged after stalking numerous children and was charged with 17 counts of stalking students while they attended school (stock image)

A man has been charged with 41 child stalking offences over a six-year period in western Sydney (stock image)

He was also charged with 24 counts of stalking with intent to fear.

The charges relate to alleged offences committed between June 2010 and May 2016.

This year, the man allegedly stalked a 15-year-old for an extended period of time.

The 32-year-old was refused bail and will appear at the Penrith Local Court on Friday.

He was refused bail at Penrith police station (pictured) and charged with 41 child stalking offences
David Cameron was accused of 'waffling' and scaremongering' over the EU by a selfie-loving party girl live on TV tonight.

Soraya Bouazzaoui, an English Literature student at Southampton Solent University, said she wanted to give the Prime Minister 'a taste of his own medicine' as she accused him of being 'dishonest, untruthful' and 'brushing a lot of things under the rug' by urging voters to stay in the EU.

Clashing with Cameron during the first major TV debate of the referendum campaign, Soraya repeatedly interrupted him as he tried to persuade viewers to reject the case for Brexit.

The student - a keen comic book fan and pro-Palestine campaigner, won plaudits from viewers for her performance, with Twitter users praising her for 'saying what many of us think' on the EU.

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Soraya Bouazzaoui (pictured posing for photos that she posted on Facebook), an English Literature student at Southampton Solent University, said she wanted to give the Prime Minister 'a taste of his own medicine' as she accused him of being 'dishonest, untruthful' and 'brushing a lot of things under the rug' by urging voters to stay in the EU.

Soraya Bouazzaoui, from Romford in east London, has regularly posted racy pictures of herself on Facebook during her time at Southampton Solent, revealing a typical party-fuelled student life. Above, she poses as 'Mrs. Captain America in disguise'

Soraya, whose family was originally from Morocco, said she was in favour of staying in the EU but signalled she was having second thoughts after Cameron's 'shambolic campaign'.

The student, from Romford in east London, has regularly posted racy pictures of herself on Facebook during her time at Southampton Solent, revealing a typical party-fuelled student life.

On one night out she showed off her 'Mrs. Captain America in disguise' outfit - attracting many Facebook 'likes' from her friends.

Outside of term time she works as a switchboard operator at Queens Hospital in Romford and has done a series of internships at publishing firms.

Soraya Bouazzaoui (pictured asking Cameron for reassurances that Turkey would not be allowed to join the EU anytime soon) won wide praise on Twitter for her performance, although some said she had been too 'rude'

Speaking after the grilling, Soraya Bouazzaoui (pictured speaking to Sky News) said she had wanted to give the premier a 'taste of his own medicine'

Soraya attended Chadwell Heath Sixthform in Essex between 2010-2012 having finished her schooling at Mayfield School in Dagenham.

As Cameron set out his broad and vague pitch for staying in the EU, Soraya butted in by telling him: Let me finish now because Ive seen you interrupt many people beforehand, let me finish now.

She added: That is not answering the question  Im an English Literature student, I know waffling when I see it.'

Clashing directly with the PM, she tore into his strategy on the EU referendum so far. Ive strongly been wanting to vote to stay in the EU but to be honest the entire campaign has been a complete shambles for it; Ive seen nothing but scaremongering, Ive seen no valid fact at all, Ive seen no pros and cons,' she shouted.

She demanded Cameron give reassurances on Turkey's membership of the EU, saying the country should not be allowed to join the EU because of its links to Isis.

Soraya's Bouazzaoui's Facebook page reveals she loves a selfie, but tonight she was the star of the show as she took Cameron to task for his 'shambolic' EU campaign

The student, from Romford in east London, has regularly posted racy pictures of herself on Facebook during her time at Southampton Solent, revealing a typical party-fuelled student life

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Cameron insisted: 'There is no prospect of Turkey joining the EU in decades; they applied in 1987, they have to complete 35 chapters, one has been completed so far, at this rate they'll join in the year 3,000.

'There are lots of reasons to vote one way or vote the other way; Turkey is not going to join the EU anytime soon, every country, every Parliament has a veto.

'I think there are lots of things to worry about in this referendum campaign; I absolutely don't think that's a prospect, it's not going to happen.'

Speaking after the grilling, Soraya said she had wanted to give the premier a 'taste of his own medicine'.

Twitter user ShelleyA praised Soraya, writing: 'Soraya said what so many of us think - but still Cameron goes round the houses with no real fact or answer'

Soraya won plaudits on Twitter for her performance in the debate

David Cameron was accused of being 'dishonest' and 'untruthful' in the EU campaign by Soraya Bouazzaoui - the student in her early-20s who stole the show last night

The student said Mr Cameron had been 'dishonest, untruthful, brushing a lot of things under the rug'.

'For someone to finally call him out on it was necessary,' she boasted.

But Soraya was savaged on Twitter for being too rude and it was left to Sky News presenter Kay Burley to jump to her defence.

Burley said she wouldnt have been considered rude if she was a man.

Soraya has posted critical posts on Cameron on her Facebook profile in the past. Earlier this year she posted a picture of the PM with the slogan: Just look how big my forehead is. Its where I keep all my stupid f****** ideas.

The politically-active student has backed pro-Palestine campaigns, calling for Israel to 'end the occupation' on social media.

Soraya won plaudits on Twitter for her performance in the debate.

Twitter follower Simon Budden said her intervention was his 'favourite moment' of the debate while fellow user ShelleyA wrote: 'Soraya said what so many of us think - but still Cameron goes round the houses with no real fact or answer.'

Soraya has posted critical posts on Cameron on Facebook in the past. Earlier this year she posted a picture of the PM with the slogan: Just look how big my forehead is. Its where I keep all my stupid f****** ideas

The selfie-loving party girl, whose family was originally from Morocco, said she had come to the Sky News debate to give Cameron a 'taste of his own medicine

Soraya posts regular selfies of her and her university friends at Southampton Solent on Facebook

Soraya was undoubtedly the star of the show according to viewers, but other audience members also gave Cameron a hard time during the 45-minute Q&A.

Former mental health nurse Alison Hyde-Chadwick said she feared public services were 'sinking' under the 'never-ending stream' of migrants.

How do we deal with increased demands on public services with a seemingly never-ending stream of people arriving from Europe? she asked.

'I think were struggling, I think were sinking, how do we deal with the increased demands on our public services the seemingly never-ending stream of people arriving from Europe?'

Mr Cameron replied: What we have to do is keep investing in our public services and keep investing in our NHS.

I would say the most important thing here is the worst thing we could do for our NHS is to wreck our economy by taking ourselves out of the single market.'

Soraya was undoubtedly the star of the show according to viewers, but other audience members also gave David Cameron (pictured left with Sky News presenter Kay Burley, right) a hard time during the Q&A

Soraya Bouazzaoui, the selfie-loving student from Romford in Essex, took David Cameron to task for his 'shambolic' campaign to keep the UK in the EU

He added that it was 'worth remembering' there were '50,000 European nationals  French and Germans and others  working in our NHS as doctors and nurses and care assistants ... and they do a very important job'.

Mr Cameron appeared on his own tonight - first answering questions by Sky News political editor Faisal Islam and then taking questions from a studio audience.

He has refused to debate his Tory Brexit rivals head-to-head during the referendum campaign because he fears the blue-on-blue action will overshadow arguments about whether to stay in the EU.

Tonight his close friend and the pro-Brexit campaigner Michael Gove will face the same grilling on Sky News, before another series of big debates on the EU next week.

With 20 days to go until Britain votes on whether to stay in the EU, polls reveal the referendum is on a knife edge.

After a week in which the campaign has concentrated on immigration, the Brexit campaign was seen to be leading in an ICM poll earlier this week, winning by 52 per cent to 48.

THE WOMEN WHO PUT THE PRIME MINISTER ON THE SPOT Pressures: Alison Hyde-Chadwick The questioner: Alison Hyde-Chadwick, a former mental health nurse now retired from the NHS, took the Prime Minister to task over the pressure from EU nationals on public services. Her question: Im very aware of the continued pressures of our public sector services. I think were struggling. I think were sinking. How do we deal with the increased demands on our public services given the never ending, it feels like, stream of people arriving from Europe? The PMs reply: Well what we have to do is keep investing in our public services and investing in our NHS. I would say the most important thing here is the worst thing we can do for the NHS, is to wreck the single market by leaving the EU. That would be very bad for our economy. It is worth remembering in this debate about movement of people and migration, there are 50,000 European nationals  French and Germans and others  and working in our NHS as doctors and nurses and care assistants and others and they do a very important job. I think if we care about our NHS and I do, we need a strong economy, and that means staying in. Angry: Denise Simpson The questioner: Self-employed Denise Simpson, from Essex, accused the Prime Minister of hypocrisy over his relationship with London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Her question: Describing herself as quite angry, she asked Mr Cameron: You said Sadiq Khan wasnt to be trusted a few weeks ago and then a couple of weeks later, you appear on a platform with him. Isnt that an example of your hypocrisy and scaremongering over the course of this campaign? The PMs reply: Well, obviously, I dont think so and Ill try and convince you of why I thought it was the right thing to do. We had a lively election campaign in London. I think some of the people he chose to share a platform with, I dont think it was the right choice and I criticised that. But he was elected by the people of London and I think the right thing for a Prime Minister to do is work with an elected mayor  for the good of people in London. Sadiq and I disagree about many things. But on Europe we agree. We think London will be better off, the country will be better off, if we stay in. And so we buried our differences, put aside the arguments weve been having and appeared on a platform. I dont think thats double standards. I think that is actually saying some of these issues are bigger than the politicians. Priced out: Victoria Crawford The questioner: Single mother-of-two Victoria Crawford, a mental health worker from London, took the Prime Minister to task over skilled migrants taking entry-level jobs away from British workers, the housing market and higher education. Her question: My children and myself are planning to move out of London because weve been priced out of the housing market. My kids cant find entry-level jobs, partly because migrants with more experience are coming in and taking entry-level jobs. What would you say to my children to encourage them to stay in the EU? My daughter wants to train to be a paediatric nurse, but she cannot commit to a university degree because she has to pay tuition fees, but also youre about to abolish the bursary. So she cant do that without me supporting her and Im a single parent. The PMs reply: There will be greater opportunities for jobs and building houses if we stay in because we will have a stronger economy. We can go on with the economy growing, recreating jobs, creating opportunities  if we leave well put those at risk. We are trying to make sure we train more nurses. Because we had a bursary system last year we actually turned away 37,000 British people who wanted to train as nurses. Now weve moved over to a loan system people are going to take on that training. Advertisement

Feeling the heat, Prime Minister? Cameron sweats as he gets a mauling from voters over immigration

David Cameron was mauled by audience members over immigration and his Project Fear tactics tonight as he argued that Britain is better off in the EU.

The Prime Minister conceded that inflows from Europe were 'challenging' and refused to say when he would achieve his target for slashing numbers - but insisted that cutting ties with Brussels was not the answer.

He also appealed for voters to 'look our children, our grandchildren in the eye' before making a decision and not 'roll the dice' with their future.

The remarks came as Mr Cameron - who has long been accused of tightly controlling his contact with ordinary members of the public - faced a series of fiery interventions during the first big televised event of the referendum battle.

David Cameron appeared to have a sheen of sweat on his upper lip during the Sky News EU referendum special tonight. He conceded that immigration levels were 'challenging'

The session started with an interview with Sky News political editor Faisal Islam, during which Mr Cameron was confronted with last week's huge immigration figures.

Net migration to the UK was 333,000 in the year to December - the second highest ever. A record 174,000 of those came from the EU, with around 77,000 arriving without having a job lined up.

CAMERON'S KEY DEBATE LINES ON IMMIGRATION 'Immigration is a challenge and it's a particular challenge when our economy has been growing strongly, we've been creating jobs and people have come to our country to work. 'But I think the way to meet that challenge mustn't be to leave the single market, harm our economy, hurt jobs and damage our country, so we've got to find the right ways of dealing with the movement of people, not the wrong way.' ON BRUSSELS 'DRIVING HIM CRAZY' 'If you are saying to me, "Are there regulations in Europe that annoy you?" Yes. "Are there things about Europe that frustrate you?" Yes. 'I'm the Prime Minister who sits around the table with 27 other heads of government and state and sometimes this organisation drives me crazy. 'But do I sit there and think Britain would be better off if we left? Are we quitters? Do we think we quit the EU, we quit the single market and somehow we will be better off? Absolutely not.' ON WAR IN EUROPE 'On our continent  in the last century  twice we had an enormous bloodbath between our nations. 'Can we be so confident that we've solved all of Europe's problems and all of Europe's tensions? 'I sit round the European Council table, it can be immensely frustrating but when you're there you never forget 70 years these countries were fighting each other. I don't think you should take that for granted. ON OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE 'I would just say to everybody: as we go home and wake up in the morning and look our children and our grandchildren in the eye and we think who we are responsible for through our pay packet, let us not roll the dice on their future. 'Britain doesn't succeed when we quit, we succeed when we get stuck in and we work to improve these organisations and we safeguard the prosperity and the security of this great country. To me, that's what it's all about.' Advertisement

Mr Cameron refused say when levels would be reduced to his long-standing target of below 100,000.

Admitting that since 2010 around 1.2 million EU citizens had come to the UK, Mr Cameron said: 'Immigration is a challenge and it's a particular challenge when our economy has been growing strongly, we've been creating jobs and people have come to our country to work.

'But I think the way to meet that challenge mustn't be to leave the single market, harm our economy, hurt jobs and damage our country, so we've got to find the right ways of dealing with the movement of people, not the wrong way.'

Mr Cameron said the EU often drove him 'crazy', and was 'not perfect'.

But he insisted Britons were not 'quitters' and leaving would result in a decade of uncertainty.

Mr Cameron said: 'If you are saying to me, "Are there regulations in Europe that annoy you?" Yes. "Are there things about Europe that frustrate you?" Yes.

'I'm the Prime Minister who sits around the table with 27 other heads of government and state and sometimes this organisation drives me crazy.

'But do I sit there and think Britain would be better off if we left? Are we quitters? Do we think we quit the EU, we quit the single market and somehow we will be better off? Absolutely not.'

Mr Cameron stressed that the EU 'would not stop existing' after Britain left and we would have our 'noses pressed up against the window' while they made key decisions.

He accused Brexit campaigners of repeatedly saying it was 'all going to be okay' rather than spelling out what the country would look like after a Leave vote.

He said 'uncertainty' and 'shock' would hit the economy and prices in the shops would end up being higher.

Mr Cameron clashed with Mr Islam over the PM's wild claims that leaving the EU would bring 'war and genocide' back to Europe and trigger an economic recession in the UK.

The journalist drew laughter and applause from the studio audience as he asked the PM: 'What comes first: World War Three or the global Brexit recession?'

But Mr Cameron shot back by accusing Mr Islam of being 'incredibly glib' and misinterpreting his remarks. 'Read my speech, the words 'World War Three never entered my lips.'

He added: 'On our continent  in the last century  twice we had an enormous bloodbath between our nations.

'Can we be so confident that we've solved all of Europe's problems and all of Europe's tensions?

David Cameron (pictured in tonight's Sky News debate) praised the 50,000 EU migrants working in the NHS as he came under fire over his record on immigration

'I sit round the European Council table, it can be immensely frustrating but when you're there you never forget 70 years these countries were fighting each other. I don't think you should take that for granted.

'Frankly, Nato has done the most to keep the peace in Europe but the European Union has been a way of getting countries that used to fight each other to talk to each other.'

The premier faced fierce questions from a live studio audience, picked to represent the wider public, in the second half of the programme, chaired by presenter Kay Burley.

Soraya Bouazzaoui, a student from Romford who has just finished an English Literature degree at Solent University, challenged the Government on whether Turkey would be allowed to join the EU.

She asked: 'I've strongly been wanting to vote to stay in the EU but to be honest the entire campaign has been a complete shambles for it; I've seen nothing but scaremongering, I've seen no valid fact at all, I've seen no pros and cons.

David Cameron (pictured debating with the studio audience in tonight's Sky News debate) said there was 'no prospect' of Turkey joining the EU 'anytime soon'

'Everything that I've seen has just made voting into the EU look worse and what I also find interesting is that we haven't even addressed the fact that Turkey are wanting to become an ever-closer union with the EU when they are under such heavy accusation by the entire Middle East for funding Isis?

'How can you reassure us of staying in the EU and saying there are no risks when there are clear risks, especially when it comes to Isis, especially when have turned away so many refugees at the fear of having them being extremists and not willing to work with the Turkish government that had a brawl in their parliament just two weeks ago?'

When Mr Cameron tried to respond by deploying broad arguments for staying in the EU - saying it was important to stay in to 'get things done in the world  Ms Bouazzaoui interrupted by telling the PM: 'You're not answering my question'.

She told him: 'Let me finish now, because I've seen you interrupt many people beforehand, let me finish now.

'That is not answering the question  I'm an English Literature student, I know waffling when I see it, okay? I'm sorry.

Alison Hyde-Chadwick, a retired health nurse (pictured), said the NHS is 'sinking' under the strain of uncontrolled EU migration

'You have not answered my question  how can you reassure the people who do want to vote Out that we are safe from extremism when we are willing to work with a government like Turkey, who want to be part of the EU, when they are under heavy accusation [of links to Isis]?'

An uncomfortable-looking Mr Cameron insisted: 'There is no prospect of Turkey joining the EU in decades; they applied in 1987, they have to complete 35 chapters, one has been completed so far, at this rate they'll join in the year 3,000.

'There are lots of reasons to vote one way or vote the other way; Turkey is not going to join the EU anytime soon, every country, every Parliament has a veto.

'I think there are lots of things to worry about in this referendum campaign; I absolutely don't think that's a prospect, it's not going to happen.'

Speaking after the grilling, Ms Bouazzaoui said she had wanted to give the premier a 'taste of his own medicine'.

The student said Mr Cameron had spent six years being 'dishonest, untruthful, brushing a lot of things under the rug'.

'For someone to finally call him out on it was necessary,' she added.

Asked by another audience member whether he would vote to join the EU if we were not currently members, Mr Cameron said: 'If I was offered the terms that Britain has I would accept them.'

Former mental health nurse Alison Hyde-Chadwick said she feared public services were 'sinking' under the 'never-ending stream' of migrants.

How do we deal with increased demands on public services with a seemingly never-ending stream of people arriving from Europe? she said.

'I think were struggling, I think were sinking, how do we deal with the increased demands on our public services the seemingly never-ending stream of people arriving from Europe?'

Mr Cameron replied: What we have to do is keep investing in our public services and keep investing in our NHS.

I would say the most important thing here is the worst thing we could do for our NHS is to wreck our economy by taking ourselves out of the single market.'

He added that it was 'worth remembering' there were '50,000 European nationals  French and Germans and others  working in our NHS as doctors and nurses and care assistants ... and they do a very important job'.

Mr Cameron urged parents to think about their children's future when making the decision on June 23.

'I would just say to everybody: as we go home and wake up in the morning and look our children and our grandchildren in the eye and we think who we are responsible for through our pay packet, let us not roll the dice on their future.

'Britain doesn't succeed when we quit, we succeed when we get stuck in and we work to improve these organisations and we safeguard the prosperity and the security of this great country. To me, that's what it's all about.'

The Prime Minister (pictured in tonight's interview with Sky News political editor Faisal Islam tonight) insisted that abandoning the bloc's single market in a bid to cut numbers was the 'worst thing' the country could do

Both the Remain and Leave camps are hoping that the televised events during the last three weeks of the referendum battle could swing the vote their way.

But Mr Cameron has been heavily criticised for refusing to take part in any head-to-head debates - instead merely agreeing to the Question Time-style programmes.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove is due to take to the stage in the second Sky News special tomorrow.

The PM's appearance came after another frantic day of campaigning that saw interventions from abroad and George Osborne team up with Labour predecessor Alistair Darling to urge a Remain vote.

Angela Merkel has become the latest foreign politician to wade into the EU referendum debate, warning that Britain will not get a 'good result' if we vote to leave.

The German chancellor raised the prospect of the UK getting a raw deal from the rest of the bloc as she made a personal appeal for us to stay.

Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi tweets his frustration at the Prime Minister for failing to deliver the Tory manifesto pledge to cut net immigration to the 'tens of thousands'

Another Tory MP James Cleverly also disagrees with his leader over how to control immigration

Ukip leader Nigel Farage accused David Cameron of ignoring the fact that Turkey is set to be given visa-free travel to Europe after he said there was 'no prospect' of the country joining the EU 'anytime soon'

The intervention comes after the Dutch PM suggested there would be retaliation tougher immigration controls were imposed after Brexit. The Spanish premier has also hinted that British expats may have to come home if we cut ties with Brussels.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn again delivered lukewarm backing for British membership of the EU in a speech amid concerns within Remain about whether Labour voters will turn out.

While insisting that wanted to maintain ties with Brussels, the party leader dismissed George Osborne's claim that Brexit would cause recession as he slammed the 'myth-making and prophecies of doom' issued by the Treasury.

He also admitted that people were entitled to be 'disconcerted' by rapid immigration, and that did not make them 'Little Englanders, xenophobes or racists'.

But he said this was not the fault of new arrivals and blamed the Tory government for failing to ensure there were enough schools and hospitals available for communities.

Immigration was thrown to the heart of the referendum battle by official migration statistics revealing record numbers are travelling from Europe while people smugglers have begun efforts to send people over the Channel illegally in small boats.

Mr Osborne joined forces with his Labour predecessor Alistair Darling today to slam Vote Leave for 'making up' its plans for Brexit.

Mr Cameron makes his point as he took questions from the audience at the Sky News studios
Senior Hillary Clinton aide Jake Sullivan and former tech support staffer Brian Pagliano each signed agreements with the government pledging not to disclose classified information, according to government documents released Thursday by Republicans.

Both men signed the nondisclosure statements swearing to protect 'marked or unmarked classified information, including email communications,' according to documents released by the Republican National Committee.

Hillary Clinton testified before the House Benghazi committee, with aide Cheryl Mills seated behind her

The document each of them signed is called a form 312, which requires federal employees to swear, under potential criminal penalty, that they won't mishandle classified information.

Sullivan is a senior campaign advisor who served as Clinton's direct of policy planning at State, and who sent more than 200 emails that weren't marked classified at the time but were later found to be classified following an agency review.

That review occurred after revelations Clinton maintained her own home email server rather than conducting business on a State.gov account.

The matter is currently under investigation by the FBI.

Former state employee Brian Pagliano also asserted his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination before the House Benghazi committee

Jake Sullivan is a top foreign policy advisor to Clinton at her campaign

Pagliano was an IT staffer for Clinton's 2008 campaign, and helped to set up her server at her home in Chappaqua, New York.

Pagliano invoked his 5th Amendment right not to testify in a lawsuit by Judicial Watch related to the email scandal.

"Mr. Pagliano will invoke his right under the Fifth Amendment and decline to testify at the deposition" scheduled for June 6, attorneys Mark MacDougall and Connor Mullin wrote in a court filing.

The documents state that the signers have received 'security indoctrination' about proper handling of classified information.

Spreading such information could cause 'damager or irreparable injury' to the U.S. government, according to the language included in the document.

Pagliano is also seeking to prohibit an 'audiovisual recording' of his deposition, citing constitutional arguments and the risk of 'absue.'

Clinton's longtime aide Cheryl Mills recently gave a deposition and was able to prevent release of a video recording, although a transcript was released.

The RNC got the documents through a FOIA request from the State Department. They released them hours before Clinton delivered a slashing foreign policy address in San Diego where she ripped Donald Trump as 'dangerously incoherent' and said he was unequipped to be near the nation's nuclear codes.

Signed, sealed, delivered: The standard document states that the signer has gotten 'security indoctrination' about the law and government policy

Officials must sign the agreement to gain access to classified information

'These documents show that the conspiracy to conceal Hillary Clinton's emails from the public involved many top aides casting aside their sworn obligations to protect classified information in the interest of her political ambition,' said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.

'Hillary Clinton endangered our national security and created a culture where top staffers went rogue, silenced career officials and hid a reckless email scheme that placed her political ambitions above all else,' he added. 'These records show that like Clinton, her closest aides did not meet their responsibilities to protect classified information regardless of whether it was marked.'
Bank of America worker Christine McMullen Lindgren has been fired after posting a vile racist rant on Facebook

A Bank of America worker has been fired after posting a vile racist rant on Facebook.

Christine McMullen Lindgren, who works at a branch in Atlanta, Georgia, said 'f***ing n*****s' should 'go back to Africa' in her offensive online tirade.

'I hate Facebook for this reason you f***ing n****rs. And yes, if [you] can call each that well I can too.

'F***ing n****r go back to Africa. Get over your pity party. You created this hatred and your own kind that brought your great-great-parents [sic] over here and sold them.

'Do something with your lives and your children's lives. I'm sure you don't work, collect welfare and teach hatred.

'Your poor children. All five of them you can't afford because I pay for them.'

It is not clear who Lindgren, 57, was specifically aiming the sickening abuse at.

Another Facebook user noticed that the woman worked for Bank of America and contacted her employers.

Thousands more took to the bank's Facebook page and phone lines to inform them of their worker's racist message.

Just hours later, the bank fired her.

Video courtesy of WXIA

'We are aware of an unacceptable post on Facebook,' Bank of America wrote on its Facebook page.

'The comments are reprehensible. We have completed our investigation and have terminated the employment of the individual who posted the comments.'

Lindgren, who works at a branch in Atlanta, Georgia, said 'f***ing n*****s' should 'go back to Africa' in her offensive online tirade

Bank of America fired Lindgren for the post after thousands of people complained online and on the phone

Lindgren has since deleted the post, as well as her entire Facebook profile.

Andy Aldridge, a senior vice president at Bank of America, told that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Lindgren's comments were 'reprehensible and unacceptable'.

'We have investigated the matter and terminated her. She no longer works for Bank of America,' he said.

Mr Aldridge added that the bank would be in touch with the thousands of people who contacted them about the employee.

Lindgren was unavailable for comment.
They say money can't buy love. One rich man from China has certainly learned his lesson.

A young wife in Guangzhou has allegedly threatened to divorce her wealthy husband after feeling annoyed with the numerous rules in his posh family, reportedHuanqiu.com, an affiliation to People's Daily.

The woman is reported to have burnt the expensive handbags his husband had bought for her as the couple argued outside their house.

Please don't go: Chinese media claim the couple were having an argument outside their home in Guangzhou

Desperate measures: The young wife was alleging burning her expensive bags as she threatened a divorce

A set of pictures from May 30 depicting the event have been widely shared by Chinese media.

In the images, a young woman in a black dress appeared to be arguing with a man wearing a blue shirt and black trousers.

In the background, a pile of goods were burning.

The man tried to hold the woman's hands in a bid to calm her down in several pictures; while later he was seen kneeling down and clinging on to her body in a desperate manner.

According to the report on Huanqiu, the woman, known as Xiao Tong, is a university student and is in her early 20s.

She was burning handbags from luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Prada and Hermes, as she and her husband quarrelled, it has been claimed.

The report said she had met her 'tall, handsome and rich' partner on a friend's party, and the two got married after having dated for over a year.

The man is described to be from a wealthy family who run a trading company while Xiao Tong comes from a lowly background.

The student has been treated with a bling lifestyle since she married into the affluent family, the article claimed.

Despite being offered a huge mansion, super cars and luxury fashion accessories, the woman however felt annoyed at the restrictions her husband and his family imposed on her, leading to the breaking point.

The man has not been identified by the reporters.

Bitter break-up: She had felt fed up with the numerous rule she had to put up with at his family, report claims

The last straw: The man was said to be rich and has taken extreme measures in hope of keeping her with him

The pictures have ignited an outcry among Chinese internet users.

On 163.com, more than 111,000 people have expressed their opinions on the page.

One user called 'wei da de di gua' thought the woman had not understood herself and had rushed into a marriage hoping to live an affluent life.

The user wrote: 'This lady wanted to live a rich life and to be taken care of, there is nothing wrong in it. But she lacked the methods and responsibility of sustaining a marriage - that's what she had done wrong.'

An anonymous user said: 'Real wealthy men won't kneel down to beg a woman like this. Perhaps she had discovered that all these bags were fakes and decided to burn them.'

Some people have doubted the authenticity of the pictures.

'Wu shang ba bai gui zi' said: 'How could they have a professional photographer to document their quarrel?'
Looking to add in app-new and feeds from Facebook and Twitter

Pi and Windows Hello for facial recognition

Most people have just enough time to brush their teeth and run out of the door in the morning.

For those who find themselves crunched for time, Microsoft has developed a smart mirror that displays all the updates you need before leaving for work.

Called Magic Mirror, this devices recognizes and greets users, reads emotion and displays the weather, time and other relevant information - while still showing your reflection.

Microsoft has developed a smart mirror that displays all the updates you need to start the day. Called Magic Mirror, this devices recognizes and greets users, reads emotion and displays the weather, time and other relevant information while you get ready for work

HOW DOES IT WORK? Magic Mirror is a one-way mirror that is made smart with a 23.6-inch LCD-lit screen sitting behind it and shows white UI elements on a black background. When the display is powered on, users can see both their reflection and the white elements on the mirror. Magic Mirror uses Windows Hello technology for facial recognition and Raspberry Pi powers the device. More-pressing information is placed at the top of the mirror, like weather and traffic alerts and the less relevant updates towards the bottom, such as stock information.

The cutting-edge technology was recently demoed at the InnovFest Unbound 2016, a digital technology conference in Singapore.

'Imagine when you wake up in the morning, you're able to use the mirror to style your hair, do your make up, and while doing that, you can also view the weather,' Izzat Khair, a member of Microsoft Singapore's developer experience team explained.

It is a one-way mirror that is made smart with a 23.6-inch LCD-lit screen sitting behind it and shows white UI elements on a black background.

When the display is powered on, users can see both their reflection and the white elements in the mirror.

Magic Mirror uses Windows Hello technology for facial recognition and Raspberry Pi powers the device.

'To power the mirror, we chose a Raspberry Pi because of its popularity, price point, support, and hardware specs,' Microsoft stated in a blog post.

Since Magic Mirror was designed for those in a time crunch, the firm placed more-pressing information at the top of the mirror and the less relevant updates towards the bottom  'where it can be ignored or consciously consumed'.

All this magic is done by a built-in camera integrated with a facial-recognition system, which can recognize eight different emotions, such as anger and happiness.

It is basically a one-way mirror that is made smart with a 23.6-inch LCD-lit screen sitting behind it and shows white UI elements on a black background. When the display is powered on, users can see both their reflection and the white elements on the mirror

This technology could lead to a product that benefits markers in learning user experience while viewing their ads.

The tech giant also built a Hosted Webb App using HTML, CSS and JavaScript, which it converted into a Universal Windows app to power the Raspberry Pi.

It is hosted in Azure and to add the personal touch, the app links to Microsoft Cognitive Services using the Face API.

To personalize Magic Mirror, users first create a profile and register their face by taking a lovable selfie.

The picture is then sent to Cognitive Services to create a unique identifier that is stored in MongoDB.

INSTRUCTIONS TO MAKE YOUR OWN MAGIC MIRROR You will need the following materials to assemble the Magic Mirror: 2-Way Mirrored Acrylic Sheets, Medicine Cabinet, 23.6' Screen LED-lit Monitor, LifeCam HD-3000, Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 Micro SD card Micro USB cord and USB power adapter HDMI cord Prerequisites:  Visual Studio (2013+)  Windows 10 SDK installed in Visual Stuido Steps: 1. In Visual Studio, click File > New Project > JavaScript Templates > Windows > Hosted Web Apps 2. Go to Solution explorer, click on package.appxmanifest > Application and set http://webreflections.azurewebsites.net/mirror as the start page 3. Within the package.appxmanifest view, click the Content URIs tab and insert http://webreflections.azurewebsites.net/ with WinRT Access All 4. Click the Capabilities tab and select Webcam 5. On the ribbon, Change the taget architecture from Any CPU to ARM 6. Click play (it should say Remote Machine) 7. A prompt should appear asking you for the Machine Name. Set the IPv4 of your RP as the Machine Name and selectUniversal for the Require Authentication 8. and voila! You have succesfully installed the Magic Mirror hosted web app in your RP running Windows IoT core. Source: GitHub

Microsoft is working toward showing app-fed news as well as Facebook and Twitter feeds on the display panel, reports CNBC.

The mirror is currently in early stages, but Khair believes it has real business potential.

He suggests advertising and marketing industries, for example, could use the technology.

Microsoft is working with Singapore's government in order to help boost the city-state's IoT ecosystem, as well as advance the area's talent development, research, cyber security and public sector partnership.
Bill Gates has proclaimed the 'AI dream is finally arriving' - despite admitting it could be a major concern for the future of humanity.

'The dream is finally arriving,' Gates said, speaking with wife Melinda Gates on Wednesday at the Code Conference in Southern California.

'This is what it was all leading up to.'

Scroll down for video

'The dream is finally arriving,' Gates said, speaking at the Code Conference in Southern California. 'This is what it was all leading up to.'

Gates said enough progress has been made to ensure that in the next 10 years there will be robots to do tasks like driving and warehouse work as well as machines that can outpace humans in certain areas of knowledge, according to recode.

He also suggested a pair of books that people should read, including Nick Bostrom's book on superintelligence and Pedro Domingos' 'The Master Algorithm.'

Previously he has warned the risk of artificial intelligence software becoming super smart is 'way out in the future,'

In the next 10 to 20 years, AI is going to be 'extremely helpful' in managing our lives, Gates told CNBC in a 'Squawk Box' interview earlier this year.

Gates said what he called 'alter-ego software' is going to deal with day to day emails and other correspondence.

'It will look at all the new information and present to you, knowing about your interests, what would be most valuable,' he predicted, saying Microsoft along with the Google unit Alphabet, Facebook and Apple are making great strides in artificial intelligence.

In a separate claim while taking part in an Ask Me Anything (AMA) Q&A session on Reddit, Gates said he had doubts: 'I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence.

'First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent.

There are mounting fears among the public about the threat posed by artificial intelligence. A new survey has revealed that one in three people now believe the rise of AI computing will pose a serious threat to humanity. A stock image of The Terminator is pictured above

That should be positive if we manage it well.

'A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern.

'I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned.'

So it is perhaps not surprising there are now growing fears among the public about the threat posed by artificial intelligence.

A new survey has revealed that one in three people now believe the rise of AI computing will pose a serious threat to humanity within the next century.

More than 60 per cent fear that robots will lead to there being fewer jobs in the next ten years and 27 per cent predict that it will decrease the number of jobs 'a lot' with previous research suggesting admin and service sector workers will be the hardest hit. An illustration of a human working with robots is shown above

More than 60 per cent fear that robots will lead to there being fewer jobs in the next ten years.

And 27 per cent predict that it will decrease the number of jobs 'a lot' with previous research suggesting admin and service sector workers will be the hardest hit.

The survey of 2,000 people was conducted by YouGov on behalf of the British Science Association (BSA) to mark the start of British Science Week, which begins today.

A quarter of the respondants predicted robots will become part of everyday life in just 11 to 20 years, with 18 per cent predicting this will happen within the next decade.

Just under half of those polled opposed the idea of robots or programming being equipped with emotions or a personality, meaning that pop culture favourite robots in films such as Wall-E or Ex Machina might prove unpopular in real life.

Both Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have been outspoken about their fears of artificially intelligent machines. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO (pictured) last year described AI as our 'biggest existential threat' and likened its development as 'summoning the demon'

WILL ROBOTS STEAL YOUR JOB? Claims made by an expert in artificial intelligence predict that in less than five years, office jobs will disappear completely to the point where machines will replace humans. The idea that robots will one day be able to do all low-skilled jobs is not new, but Andrew Anderson from UK artificial intelligence company, Celaton, said the pace of advance is much faster than originally thought. AI, for example, can carry out labour intensive clerical tasks quickly and automatically, while the latest models are also capable of making decisions traditionally made by humans. 'The fact that a machine can not only carry out these tasks, but constantly learn how to do it better and faster, means clerical workers are no longer needed in the vast quantities they once were,' Mr Anderson said. For example, a machine can recognise duplicate insurance claims by knowing it has seen a phone number or an address before. Advertisement

And the public is largely sceptical about whether machines will ever be trusted to take on roles where lives could be in danger.

The poll found that approximately half of those surveyed would not trust robotic surgeons, bus drivers or commercial aircraft pilots.

But they would be happy if intelligent machines could help around the house, with around half of those polled happy to let domestic bots cook and clean for older people.

A similar percentage would be comfortable with intelligent machines flying unmanned search and rescue or military aircraft, with 70 per cent eager for them to monitor crops.

'It isn't surprising that many people are apprehensive about the future when it comes to artificial intelligence,' said Lord David Willetts, Chair of the British Science Association.

'Innovation is often scary, but it is important to remember that the economy and the world is constantly changing and adapting: the rise of a new technology such as this is simply the newest invention that will take adjusting to and we are infinitely capable of that.

'What this research shows is that the public's fears need to be listened to as we go on to innovate and trail-blaze in this area.'

Professor Hawking (pictured) has recently said it is a 'near certainty' that a major technological disaster will threaten humanity in the next 1,000 to 10,000 years

GOOGLE SETS UP AI ETHICS BOARD TO CURB THE RISE OF THE ROBOTS Google has set up an ethics board to oversee its work in artificial intelligence. The search giant has recently bought several robotics companies, along with Deep Mind, a British firm creating software that tries to help computers think like humans. One of its founders warned artificial intelligence is 'number one risk for this century,' and believes it could play a part in human extinction. 'Eventually, I think human extinction will probably occur, and technology will likely play a part in this,' DeepMind's Shane Legg said in a recent interview. Among all forms of technology that could wipe out the human species, he singled out artificial intelligence, or AI, as the 'number 1 risk for this century.' The ethics board, revealed by web site The Information, is to ensure the projects are not abused. Neuroscientist Demis Hassabis, 37, founded DeepMind two years ago with the aim of trying to help computers think like humans. Advertisement

Both Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have been outspoken about their fears of artificially intelligent machines.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO last year described AI as our 'biggest existential threat' and likened its development as 'summoning the demon.'

He believes super intelligent machines could use humans as pets.

Professor Hawking has recently said it is a 'near certainty' that a major technological disaster will threaten humanity in the next 1,000 to 10,000 years.

The survey found that women fear the rise of AI machines more than men, with just 17 per cent of women claiming to feel optimistic about the technology, compared with 28 per cent of men.

Some 13 per cent of men can imagine themselves becoming friends with a robot, compared to just six per cent of women.

Lord Willets said: 'People will always want human experiences - robots will not kill the radio star, and we will always want to interact with other people.

'In fact, the greater problem is that artificial intelligence cannot quickly enough fill jobs that are going spare.'

Young people, between the ages of 18 and 24 are the most open minded about a future filled with AI machines, with one in four envisaging having robotic so-workers and 10 per cent even open to welcoming them as family members.

More than half of this age bracket - 55 per cent- also said that intelligent machines could take up the role of servants in a household.

Just under half of those polled opposed the idea of robots or programming being equipped with emotions or a personality, meaning that pop culture favourite robots in films such as Wall-E (pictured above) or Ex Machina might prove unpopular in real life
In just eight years, SpaceX will be sending humans to Mars.

CEO of SpaceX, Elon Musk, has said he expects to launch a manned mission to Mars in 2024, which would arrive in 2025.

The mission will be on The Flying Dragon 2 rocket, which will take around 18 months to reach the red planet.

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Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors. He has said he expects to launch a manned mission to Mars in 2024, which would arrive in 2025

Speaking at at the Code Conference in California, Mr Musk said he will be sending a mission to Mars on the Flying Dragon 2 rocket starting in 2018.

From then, rockets will be headed to Mars at every open opportunity - every 26 months.

But Mr Musk's ambitions do not stop there. He also said that the first rocket carrying human cargo will launch in 2024.

This is subject to delays which SpaceX has previously been subject to.

SpaceX plans to make that launch in 2018, although the Falcon Heavy rocket that will carry the company's Dragon capsule to will not have its first test flight until later in 2016. Nasa, which is aiming for a human mission to Mars in the 2030s, said it will provide technical support for SpaceX's first foray, known as Red Dragon

Mr Musk said he will be sending a mission to Mars on the Flying Dragon 2 rocket starting in 2018

For example, the launch of the Falcon Heavy rocket was initially meant to be in May 2016, but was pushed back on two separate occasions. The rocket is yet to launch.

The Flying Dragon 2 rocket has an interior size of 7.2 metres by 3.7 metres and is capable of carrying up to seven people, taking 18 months to get to Mars.

However, Mr Musk added 'I would not recommend traveling to Mars in that. It would be a long time to spend on an SUV.'

'It also does not have the capability to get back to earth, we put that in the fine print. If you're going to choose a place to die, then Mars is not a bad choice.'

Mr Musk himself has not been into space yet, but says he plans to venture into orbit in the next four or five years.

When asked whether he thought that Mars could be a replacement for Earth, Mr Musk said: 'Why would we abandon Earth, it's really nice here.

'It's not about being a single planet species and moving planets, it's about being a multi-planet species and have life extend beyond the solar system and ultimately to other star systems.'

Further details of the plans for Mars colonisation, including what would be required in order to transport a large number of people and a large amount of hardware to Mars, will be presented at the International Astronautical Congress conference in September.

GOOGLE AS COMPETITION FOR TESLA? ELON MUSK DOESN'T THINK SO Also at the Code Conference, Elon Musk was asked about the competition for Tesla. While Mr Musk admitted that competition from Apple will be direct, he said that he does not view Google as a potential competitor. He said: 'Google's done a great job of showing the potential of autonomous transport, but they're not a car company.' However, there has been lots of speculation recently as to whether Apple will produce their own car, with Mr Musk adding: 'Apple, yeah, that'll be more direct.' Apple is known to be very secretive about its special projects, but so far there have been few hints that the company is getting close to the process of scaling up production for a car. Mr Musk said: 'I think they should have embarked on this project sooner. I don't think there'll be volume production sooner than 2020. It's a missed opportunity.' With regards to whether Apple will successfully build a car, Mr Musk concluded: 'I hope it works out.'

Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur who helped to found Tesla Motors and PayPal, started SpaceX in 2002 with the goal of slashing launch costs to make Mars travel affordable.

The first SpaceX price list was published earlier this year, with prices for two sizes of rocket going into two different types of Earth orbit.

In a recent update, the company has upped its prices for geosynchronous orbits - an orbit that always remains above the same place on Earth - by 1.3 per cent, along with increasing the load the rockets can carry.

The company has updated its space launch price list, adding the option for a 'payload to Mars' carried by both its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.

The prices for adding payloads to the journey will start at 42 ($62) million.

This is the first time any space company has offered the service of sending cargo to our neighbouring planet.




A federal judge sentenced a Hardin man with three drunken-driving convictions to probation after he admitted he was driving drunk and on methamphetamine when he rolled his vehicle, injuring his two young daughters.

U.S. District Judge Susan Watters on Thursday sentenced Jon Lee Fighter, 30, to five years of probation, saying he has a full-time job, is supporting his family and has taken steps to address his substance abuse problems.

The judge departed from a guideline range of 27 months to 33 months and followed a defense recommendation for probation.

I regret that night, and I cant change it, Fighter said. But, he continued, hes made changes in his life and is trying to regain custody of his two daughters who were in the crash. I know I can stay sober, he said.

Assistant Federal Defender Gillian Gosch recommended probation saying Fighter, except for one time, has remained sober in the 18 months since the crash. Fighter supports his five children and two stepchildren. His wife also is pregnant, she said.

Sending Fighter to prison would hurt his family, Gillian said. She also asked the judge to give Fighter a chance to stay sober.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Suek recommended a 30-month sentence saying the government was going to take hard line.

While Fighter is working and supporting his family, Suek said, he also has had prior chances to address alcohol problems. Fighters three previous DUI convictions involved blood-alcohol concentrations ranging from .191 percent to .296 percent. The legal limit is .08 percent.

Fighters blood-alcohol concentration during the Dec. 24, 2014, crash on the Crow Reservation was a .152 percent.

Fighter pleaded guilty in February to assault resulting in serious injury and to felony child abuse and neglect. There was no plea agreement.

Fighter was driving a car with his two daughters, ages 5 and 4, who were passengers. The 4-year-old was belted into a car seat, while the 5-year-old was not restrained, the prosecution said.

The 5-year-old girl was taken to a Billings hospital where she was diagnosed with a bruised liver. The doctor had to give the girl Fentanyl, a powerful pain medication, because of her extreme pain.

The 4-year-old girl suffered scrapes to her face and some bruising.
They may be man's best friend, but the question of where domestic dogs originated has long remained a mystery.

Some argue that humans first domesticated wolves in Europe, while others claim this happened in Central Asia.

Now, a new paper suggests that both these claims may be right, and that dogs were domesticated not once, but twice.

There are an estimate 8.5 million pet dogs in the UK, but until now, the origins of domesticated dogs has remained a mystery

DOMESTICATING ANIMALS Domestication is the scientific theory of the mutual relationship between animals and the humans who influence their care and reproduction. Dogs are the earliest domestic animal. They appeared at least 15,000 years ago with mobile bands of human hunter-gatherers. This was about 5,000 years before the advent of the agriculture and its associated domestic crops and farmyard animals, such as sheep, goats cattle and pigs.

Researchers from the University of Oxford studied genetic data and compared it to existing archaeological evidence.

Their results show that man's best friend may have emerged independently from two separate wolf populations that lived on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent.

This means that dogs must have been domesticated not once, as widely believed, but twice.

Professor Greger Larson, senior author of the study, said: 'Animal domestication is a rare thing and a lot of evidence is required to overturn the assumption that it happened just once in any species.'

The researchers created an evolutionary history of dogs by sequencing the genome of a 4,800 year old dog, using bone excavated at the Neolithic Passage Tomb of Newgrange in Ireland.

Professor Dan Bradley, one of the senior authors, said: 'The Newgrange dog bone had the best preserved ancient DNA we have ever encountered, giving us a prehistoric genome of rare high quality.

'It is not just a postcard from the past, rather a full package special delivery.'

They also obtained mitochondrial DNA from 59 ancient dogs living between 3,000 and 14,000 years ago and then compared them with the genetic signatures of more than 2,500 modern dogs.

Early dogs appear in both the East and West more than 12,000 years ago, but in Central Asia no earlier than 8,000 years ago

The researchers created an evolutionary history of dogs by sequencing the genome of a 4,800 year old dog, using bone excavated at the Neolithic Passage Tomb of Newgrange in Ireland (pictured)

The results showed a distinct genetic separation between modern dog populations currently living in East Asia and Europe - suggesting they were domesticated separately.

A population turnover in Europe appears to have mostly replaced the earliest domestic dog population there, which supports the evidence that there was a later arrival of dogs from elsewhere.

Additionally, a review of the archaeological record shows that early dogs appear in both the East and West more than 12,000 years ago, but in Central Asia no earlier than 8,000 years ago.

These findings suggest that dogs were first domesticated from geographically separated wolf populations.

These results show that man's best friend may have emerged independently from two separate wolf populations that lived on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent

In the East, at some point after their domestication, dogs must have dispersed with migrating humans into Europe where they mixed with and mostly replaced the earliest European dogs.

Most dogs today are a mixture of both Eastern and Western dogs which could explain why previous genetic studies have produced confusing results.

Professor Larsen said: 'Maybe the reason there hasn't yet been a consensus about where dogs were domesticated is because everyone has been a little bit right.'

To test their theory, the researchers are now analysing data from thousands of ancient dogs and wolves.

This will also help them to establish the timing and location of the origins of the oldest ever pet dog.

Professor Keith Dobney, co-author of the study said: 'With so much new and exciting data to come, we will finally be able to uncover the true history of man's best friend.'
Scientists today announced a landmark plan to recreate entire human cells from scratch within the next ten years.

The enormously complex project involves synthesising all six billion letters of the entire human DNA code, otherwise known as the genome.

If the project goes ahead, it could have far reaching implications for the study of diseases such as cancer and even growing replacement organs, say researchers.

But the work could also heighten existing public concerns over a fast-track to designer babies.

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A group of scientists is pushing for man-made human genomes in the lab, calling for a huge international effort to launch this year. If the project goes ahead, it could have far reaching implications for the study of diseases such as cancer and even growing replacement organs, say researchers

WHAT ARE THEY PROPOSING? Researchers are suggesting the launch of a project to produce man-made human genomes in the lab. Human Genome Project-write (HGP-write) would enable researchers to expand on techniques already being used in the lab to create synthetic yeast, and synthesis DNA in the lab. The group of 25 scientists has highlighted the need for technology and ethical frameworks, but say the approach could lead to: Growing organs for transplant patients

Engineering immunity to lethal viruses, such as Ebola or Zika

Making synthetic genes to study their role in cells

Synthesising whole chromosomes, such as chromosome 21  an extra copy of which is responsible for Downs syndrome

Developing cancer-resistant cells in the lab

Scientists are hoping that the completed DNA, once its made, will be implanted into a living cell and - it is hoped - start to divide.

At this point scientists will have created, for the first time, a whole human cell of their own design.

Named the Human Genome Project-write (HGP-write) it could enable researchers to make synthetic human genes and chromosomes for study.

This could include chromosome 21  an extra copy of which is responsible for Downs syndrome.

But implications could extend far beyond, to growing organs for transplant patients, engineering immunity to lethal viruses, such as Ebola or Zika, and even developing cancer-resistant cells in the lab.

Writing in the journal Science today, researchers explain that plans to create a synthetic genome would be the next step on from sequencing of the human genome, which was completed in 2004.

Led by Professor Jef Boeke of New York University, the authors write that HGP-write would be a natural progression and would switch research from a reading to writing mode.

The groups paper follows in the wake of closed-door meetings on genome editing held at Harvard Medical School last month, with scientists, lawyers, entrepreneurs and government officials, but from which journalists were excluded.

One of the main goals outlined by the group is to slash the cost of engineering man-made genomes within cells in the lab, reducing the cost 1,000-fold over the coming decade and making the approach more affordable.

The team say it would be an expansion of techniques already used in the lab to edit human and animal cells, but scaled up considerably from making small amounts of synthetic DNA.

The ability for the DNA to produce egg and sperm cells would be deactivated in the synthetic human cell, the scientists said. The plan builds on the success of the Human Genome Project, which successfully deciphered the entire human genetic code in 2004

The 25 experts who outlined their aims said they initially need 70million funding to launch the project.

They said the final cost was difficult to estimate but would likely be a little more than 2 billion, which was the cost of the Human Genome Project.

Boeke claims the technology that needed to be developed to synthesise the human genome could also be used to construct animal and plant genomes  such as those of pigs and mice.

Possible applications include being able to grow, in pigs, human organs for transplantation.

THE QUEST TO CREATE ARTIFICIAL LIFE Building an entire lifeform from scratch is a daunting task, although many scientists believe it may be possible within the next ten years. They believe that synthetic living systems could be made to order to solve a range of problems, from producing new drugs to creating biofuels. Dr Craig Venter is among those who have been leading the way and in 2010 placed a basic DNA set synthesised in the laboratory into a bacterial cell. However, while these cells could replicate they were not able to survive without crucial nutrients provided by the scientists. This, they insist, is an important safety measure to stop synthetic cells from escaping and replicating in the environment. His latest breakthrough provides a basic life form that can then be adapted and molded by adding new genes, allowing scientists to customise it. Yet synthetic life will not necessarily have to be based on the same biochemical molecules as our own. Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge used an entirely synthetic form of DNA, called XNA, to store genetic information and catalyse simple biochemical reactions. These could eventually be used to evolve entirely new forms of life, the scientists believe. Scientists at the University of Glasgow have also found it is possible to mimic evolution by creating successive generations of oil droplets.

By being able to write long sections of DNA code it should be possible to genetically alter organs so that they are not rejected by the human body when transplanted.

They scientists say that the project will require consideration of ethical, legal and social implications from the start.

Scientists have already created a synthetic life form.

Called Mycoplasma laboratorium, it had only around 580,000 DNA base pairs compared to around 3billion in a human.

So to create an entirely synthetic human cell is vastly more difficult.

The four building blocks of DNA  adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T) are difficult to work with as they become increasingly brittle as the strands of DNA get longer, making them more difficult to manipulate.

To achieve the aim of synthesising the entire human genome will require a huge leap forward in techniques used to replicate DNA, assemble it into long strands, and to implant it in a cell.

But just as computers became hugely cheaper and more powerful in a short amount of time, scientists believe that the technology will rapidly advance.

Under guidelines outlined in todays paper, the initial stages would see a number of pilot projects carried out to explore techniques and make small chunks of the genome, around 1 per cent of the total.

However, the authors explain: [It] will require public involvement and consideration of ethical, legal, and social implications from the start.

One of the main arguments against research into editing of the human genome has been that any changes could be passed on to future generations through the germ line  in sperm and egg cells.

At the end of 2015, this led scientists to call for a moratorium on the tinkering with the DNA of any cell which can be inherited by the next generation  which had been demonstrated in non-viable human embryos by a Chinese team earlier in the year.

But the group has outlined security measures for ultra-safe cells with edited genomes, making it impossible for them to pass on changes down the germ line.

Experts reacting to the news have said that the proposal is just the start of an open and transparent debate on the topic of creating a man-made human genome.

Work is already under way to create a man-made yeast genome, with two groups in the UK involved in creating synthetic chromosomes as part of the project.

The latest proposals would be an extension of the research to humans, and an increase in the scale.

Researchers not involved with the group have said making man-made DNA will enable scientist to uncover the role of elements in the human genome without a clear role, and why there is so much variation from person to person.

Dr Nathan Richardson, head of molecular and cellular medicine at the Medical Research Council, told MailOnline: 'To our knowledge there have been no serious discussions within the UK about contributing to such an initiative.

DEMAND FOR THE HUMAN GENOME But implications could extend far beyond research, to growing organs for transplant patients, engineering immunity to lethal viruses, and developing treatments for disease. Stock image The human genome consists of roughly 3 billion DNA base pairs. There are four nucleotides bases found in DNA: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T). Critics of the synthesized human genome argue that advocates of this concept are presenting a challenge to scientists in order to drive demand, and reduce the cost of printing DNA fragments. Currently, it would cost $90 million to build the human genome, which is made up of three billion base pairs. With the right demand, they say this could drop to just $100,000. The National Institutes of Health, which funds a huge amount of research in the US told MailOnline that it does not consider the time to be right for funding such a large-scale DNA synthesis project, as outlined by the researchers in today's paper. Director of the NIH, and pioneer of the original human genome project, Dr Francis Collins, said: We are certainly in favour of encouraging advances in DNA synthesis. 'The elements of HGP-write that advance these technologies could indeed be beneficialboth for characterizing genome function and for designing strategies for genome-based therapies. He added: Whole-genome, whole-organism synthesis projects extend far beyond current scientific capabilities, and immediately raise numerous ethical and philosophical red flags. Those same concerns are being explored right now based on the much more immediate opportunities presented by genome editing using [existing] systems.'

'A major international initiative such as this would need substantial funding commitments from multiple countries. Whether it is necessary to establish an international consortium of the likes of the human genome (sequencing) initiative is a matter for debate.'

Dr Richardson also highlighted the need for responsible research, in line with existing legislation, which will need to evolve as the technology advances.

Hugh Whittall, director of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, told MailOnline: 'This is a highly speculative article about future possibilities in genomic research, and we will keep an eye on whether and how it develops.

'As the authors note, it will be important for the potential ethical considerations to be addressed from the earliest stages.

He added: 'This should be an inclusive, public and transparent debate that considers the public interest in research policies and priorities, potential applications, as well as possible risks and regulatory responses.'
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After a treacherous journey across the North Atlantic Ocean, the largest Viking ship in current existence has reached North America.

The Viking dragon vessel is a real-life reconstruction of a Great ship from the Norse Sagas, and departed over a month ago from Haugesund, Norway.

The crew battled harsh weather and unexpected troubles as they traversed the ancient routes used by Viking sailors 1000 years ago, before safely anchoring at St Anthony in Newfoundland, Canada.

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After a treacherous journey across the North Atlantic Ocean, the largest Viking ship in current existence has reached North America. The Viking dragon vessel is a real-life reconstruction of a Great ship from the Norse Sagas, and departed over a month ago from Haugesund, Norway

Called Draken Harald Harfagre, the longship sailed in the wake of the infamous Viking, Leif Eriksson.

It left on April 26th, stopping at the Shetland and then Faroe Islands before reaching Iceland, Greenland, and finally, Canada.

The 35 meter long, 8 meter wide wooden ship held 33 crew members and used a mix of modern and historical navigational tools, including log lines and magnetic and solar compasses.

The crew battled harsh weather and unexpected troubles as they traversed the ancient routes used by Viking sailors 1000 years ago, before safely anchoring at St Anthony in Newfoundland, Canada. Called Draken Harald Harfagre, the longship sailed in the wake of the infamous Viking, Leif Eriksson

It left on April 26th, stopping at the Shetland and then Faroe Islands before reaching Iceland, Greenland, and finally, Canada. The 35 meter long, 8 meter wide wooden ship held 33 crew members and used a mix of modern and historical navigational tools, including log lines and magnetic and solar compasses

The aim is to explore and relive one of the most mythological sea voyages  the first transatlantic crossing, and the Viking discovery of the New World, more than a thousand years ago, the expedition website explains.

History tells us about the Viking explorer, Leif Eriksson, who discovered America over 500 years before Christopher Columbus. The expedition is all about exploring the world, just like the Vikings did.

Just one day after it first set sail, the ship had to make an unexpected stop in Lerwick, Shetland after experience a problem with the rig, and a split shroud.

WHO REALLY 'DISCOVERED' NORTH AMERICA? New evidence has been uncovered that suggests the Vikings may have discovered North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus made his famous journey to the New World. Scientists claim to have uncovered what they believe to be a Viking settlement on the Canadian island of Newfoundland that appears to have been built between 800AD and 1300AD. It is only the second known Viking site to be discovered in North America and helps to confirm that they were the first Europeans to reach the New World. This new site, discovered in an area called Point Rosee in southern Newfoundland, is 400 miles (643km) south west of a Viking settlement found in L'Anse aux Meadows during the 1960s. It is thought the Vikings first discovered America by accident in the autumn of 986AD, according to one historical source, the Saga of the Greenlanders. It tells how Bjarni Herjolfsson was stumbled across North America after being blown off course as he attempted to sail from Norway to Greenland, but he did not go ashore. Inspired by his tales, however, another Viking Leif Ericsson then mounted his own expedition and found North America in 1002. Finding it a fertile land, rich in grapes and berries, he named it Vinland. Eriksson also named two further 'lands' on the North American coast - one with flat stones, which he called Helluland, and one that was flat and wooded, named Markland. The discovery of the settlement at Point Rosee now helps to confirm that these legends were in fact true. Advertisement

The setback didnt halt the team for long, however.

By May 2, Draken had moored in Torshavn, Faroe Islands after crossing through strong winds and high waves.

After this, the ship arrived in Greenland, which was first settled by the Viking Erik the Red  father of Leif Eriksson  around the year 1000.

Just one day after it first set sail, the ship had to make an unexpected stop in Lerwick, Shetland after experience a problem with the rig and a split shroud. The setback didnt halt the team for long, however. By May 2, Draken had moored in Torshavn, Faroe Islands after crossing through strong winds and high waves

The ship then arrived in Greenland, which was first settled by the Viking Erik the Red  father of Leif Eriksson  around the year 1000

Then, on Wednesday, Draken Harald Harfagre officially completed its crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean, anchoring in Newfoundland.

Im proud of the crew and the achievements we have made along the way, said Captain Bjorn Ahlander.

It has not been easy, we have faced a lot of problems along this voyage but the crew have been in good spirit and worked hard all the way.

The project started in 2010 and pulled from the history of the Norse Sagas along with archaeological findings and Norwegian boatbuilding traditions, to create what is now the largest modern Viking ship.

The aim is to explore and relive one of the most mythological sea voyages  the first transatlantic crossing, and the Viking discovery of the New World, more than a thousand years ago, the project explains

DRAKEN HARALD HARFAGRE The Viking 'dragon' ship is a real-life reconstruction of a Great ship from the Norse Sagas The project started in 2010, and the longship was built from historical knowledge of the Norse Sagas. This was combined with archaeological findings and Norwegian boatbuilding traditions. Now, Draken Harald Harfagre is the largest Viking vessel in modern times. It is 35m long and 8 m wide, with a mast that stands 24 m high. Draken Harald Harfagre can reach a speed of up to 14 knots. The longship sailed in the wake of the infamous Viking, Leif Eriksson. It left on April 26th, stopping at the Shetland and then Faroe Islands before reaching Iceland, Greenland, and finally, Canada. The aim is to explore and relive one of the most mythological sea voyages  the first transatlantic crossing, and the Viking discovery of the New World, more than a thousand years ago, the expedition website explains. History tells us about the Viking explorer, Leif Eriksson, who discovered America over 500 years before Christopher Columbus. The expedition is all about exploring the world, just like the Vikings did. On Wednesday, Draken Harald Harfagre officially completed its crossing of the North Atlantic Ocean, anchoring in Newfoundland. Advertisement

Now, the explorers will continue on to make stops at ports in Canada and the US.

It all started with a daydream, to build a large, seaworthy Viking ship, just like the ones spoken of in the Norse Sagas, said Sigurd Aase, curator and owner of the Draken Harald Harfagre project.

Draken Harald Harfagre is now a true story, having sailed the challenging voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean. It is a dream coming true.

History tells us about the Viking explorer, Leif Eriksson, who discovered America over 500 years before Christopher Columbus. The expedition is all about exploring the world, just like the Vikings did,' the project says.
The reaction from most visitors who pop in to see the gigantic collection is 'just a kind of disbelief', said one local

He's amassed antlers from whitetails, mule deers, elks and moose and they're on display at Three Forks, Montana

Collector James Phillips has dedicated a 30 by 64ft building to an antler collection he's been building for 60 years

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Inside an ordinary-looking shed in Montana is the result of one man's obsession - 15,000 antlers, horns and skulls collected over half a century.

Rows upon rows of bones have been lovingly stacked on the walls or carefully dangled from the ceiling in the 30 by 64ft building collector James Phillips has named The Horn House.

Phillips, or Antler Man as he is known in his hometown of Three Forks, offers curious enthusiasts the chance to gaze upon his eerily beautiful collection that he began when he was a boy.

Hidden inside an ordinary-looking shed in Montana is the result of one man's obsession - 15,000 antlers, horns and skulls collected over 60 years

James Phillips, the man behind the bizarre horde, is pictured here holding one of his largest specimens

Rows upon rows of the bone remains have been lovingly stacked on the walls or carefully dangled from the ceiling, in the 30 by 64ft building collector Phillips has named The Horn House

Phillips, or Antler Man as he is known his hometown of Three Forks, offers curious enthusiasts the chance to gaze upon his eerily beautiful collection that he began when he was a boy

As a young child Phillips lived in the Gallatin Canyon in a homemade trailer and would regularly hike the area's vast public land, fascinated by the discarded antlers being claimed by nature in the hillsides.

Days were spent scouring the ground for a glint of bone shed by whitetails, mule deer, elk or moose.

He said on his website: 'After a few years I decided to do something with the antlers. I had most of them stored in an old shed in our backyard in town.

'I was trying to figure a way to stack the antlers so they could be appreciated and a person would be best able to view them. I just didn't want a pile, like so many I had seen.'

The antlers he started gathering nearly 60 years ago are now available to view - free of charge to anyone who's keen - in the structure he constructed on his two-acre plot that's specifically designed to house the astonishing collection.

Visitors flock to gaze inside and, regardless of whether they have a personal interest in antler gathering or not, they are said to have a common reaction when the doors are thrown open.

'It's just kind of a disbelief for most of the people,' said a previous mayor of Three Forks, Gene Townsend, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

Some of his collection include 'atypical' antlers, which have grown in an inverted shape, or doe skulls with twiggy horns.

Over the years, his fascination with the remains of the animals has also proven lucrative, especially as most of the antlers have been sourced for free.

Phillips explained on his website: 'I have sold over 600 fresh elk sheds and 1,500 deer sheds, to help put three daughters through college. I haven't sold any deer sets or elk sets and haven't sold or traded any antlers in the past 25 years.'

Some of his collection include antlers that are 'atypical' - where the bone has become inverted (pictured)

Phillips' granddaughter holds up two 'sheds', which are labelled as weighing 17 pounds apiece. On the right is Phillips' wife

While his true passion lies in antler sourcing from the landscape, Phillips has also dabbled with hunting

Some of his collection has been gifted, some obtained in trade, but the rest have been strapped to Phillips' back and transported on dawn-to-dusk hikes or multi-day excursions

What is important to Phillips is that his obsession is not simply about numbers and his website shares some of the individual stories from each discovery.

Some have been gifted, others obtained in trade, but the rest have been strapped to his back and transported on dawn-to-dusk hikes or multi-day excursions that have seen him delve deep into the wild back country.

Phillips insists that anyone can do it. 'All it takes,' he said, 'is a strong back and a weak mind.'

He told MailOnline Travel: 'I was out about three weeks ago and hiked 14 hours and covered 26 miles, and ended up finding 11 sheds [when an animal sheds its antler].'

While his true passion lies in antler sourcing from the landscape, he has also dabbled with hunting.

He said: 'The first year I was allowed to go hunting I didn't get to carry a rifle. My dad believed that I had to learn a little about what it meant to hunt before I was allowed to kill. I love to hunt but hate to kill.'

What is important to Phillips is that his obsession is not simply about numbers, and his website shares some of the individual stories from each discovery

Eighty per cent of his harvested antlers have been sourced within 100 miles of Three Forks, but there are also antlers in the mix from eastern Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota and elsewhere.

And Phillips has no current plans to curb his collection.

He wrote: 'After almost 50 years you would think that this compulsion would wane and that the process of ageing or hopefully some maturing, or just a hint of common sense, would dilute this compulsion, but it has only seemed to grow stronger.

'I keep searching under the next sagebrush, behind the next tree, down in the next draw, over the next ridge, or around the next mountain. Searching, always searching.'

Eighty per cent of Phillips' harvested antlers have been sourced within 100 miles of Three Forks, but there are also antlers in the mix from eastern Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, North Dakota and elsewhere

The collector said his family are extremely supportive of his lifestyle. Pictured is his daughter, who is now grown up and works as a teacher

Phillips told MailOnline Travel he was out about three weeks ago and hiked 14 hours and covered 26 miles, and ended up finding 11 antlers
US air passengers looking for a quick and easy route to Europe after Brexit may find it easier to transfer in Dublin rather than a UK airport, an airline boss has claimed.

Stephen Kavanagh, chief executive of the flag carrier airline of Ireland, Aer Lingus, said airports such as Dublin could take business away from the UK if a Leave vote makes it harder for passengers to enter and exit the country.

Passengers are able to undertake all US immigration and customs inspections at Dublin Airport prior to departure, meaning they save time on arrival as they are treated as domestic travellers.

Passengers are able to undertake all US immigration and customs inspections at Dublin Airport prior to departure, meaning they save time on arrival as they are treated as domestic travellers

He made the comments while explaining that Ireland should already be targeting passengers who want to travel to cities on the east coast of the US without having to endure the 'poor' customer experience of the country's largest airports.

Speaking about the EU referendum ahead of the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) annual general meeting in Dublin, Mr Kavanagh said: 'Poor airports in North America are an opportunity for us to connect cities on the east coast directly to Dublin and flood those customers through to the UK and Europe.

'If Heathrow or the UK becomes difficult to transfer through from a European perspective then that again escalates the opportunity for our expanding Irish airports.'

Asked if that meant the Irish aviation industry should hope for Brexit, Mr Kavanagh replied: 'The lesson is to always look for opportunity and I think that is a distinctly Irish trait because we have such a small home market.

'We have to be internationally relevant in everything we do.'

Aer Lingus boss Stephen Kavanagh said airports such as Dublin could take business away from the UK if there is a Brexit scenario

Some 25 million passengers used Dublin Airport last year, including one million who were taking multiple flights.

The boss of the airport claimed it already offers a 'far better experience' for travelling to the US for some people in the UK.

Kevin Toland, chief executive of Dublin Airport Authority, said: 'If you want to go to North America from somewhere in the UK, you can find 33 cities in the UK connecting to Dublin, from Heathrow you can only go to eight other cities and towns in the UK, so there's far deeper penetration.

'Unless you like a long car journey and an expensive car parking stop in one of the major UK airports, it's easier and more straightforward and a far better experience to come through Dublin.'
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Super-rich jet-setters take note - the world's most expensive airline ticket is now available.

Millionaires travelling from London to Melbourne and back can now travel in Etihad's 'penthouse in the sky' - The Residence - for a cool 55,000, or 111,200 Australian dollars.

Customers splashing this ginormous amount of cash will be granted access to a three-room suite that comes with its own butler and chef.

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Guests will now be able to relax in sheer luxury all the way from London to Australia in Etihad's The Residence - but it will cost more than 55,000 return

Before landing the suite's passengers can freshen up in a bathroom that has a shower, make-up mirror and hairdryer

There is a change of plane in Abu Dhabi, but Residence guests will be ushered into Etihad's first-class lounge to ensure the pampering barely stops.

The price of the London to Melbourne ticket trumps the previous most expensive ticket by about 3,000 - a return journey in the Residence from New York to Mumbai, which costs 52,000.

The swanky cabin, which has a living room, bedroom and en-suite shower room, is available only on Etihad's fleet of Airbus A380-800 aircraft.

The Residence is the first three-room suite on a commercial jet and has helped Etihad win a number of awards for first class travel.

Measuring 125 square feet in total area, it is located on the forward upper deck of the A380 and is available for single or double occupancy.

The Residence's lounge area features a 32in flat-screen LCD TV, leather double sofa and two fold-away dining tables

A Savoy-trained butler will serve bespoke meals prepared by an on-board chef to those staying in Etihad's the Residence

WORLD'S PRICIEST RETURN FLIGHTS In addition to Etihad Airways' London-Melbourne route, these are some of the world's most expensive return flights: Etihad, New York-Mumbai  52,000 ($76,000) Etihad, New York-Abu Dhabi  42,000 ($64,000) Etihad, London-Mumbai  35,000 ($52,000) Emirates, Los Angeles-Dubai  23,500 ($36,000) Cathay Pacific, New York-Hong Kong - 18,000 ($28,000) Etihad, Los Angeles-Abu Dhabi  18,000 ($28,000) Japan Airlines, Tokyo-London  13,250 ($20,000) Advertisement

Its living room has a 32in flat-screen LCD TV, leather double sofa and two fold-away dining tables, where a Savoy-trained butler serves bespoke meals prepared by an on-board chef.

A hallway leads to a bedroom that boasts a double bed  another first for a commercial airline  with designer Italian bed linen. A 27in flat-screen TV is mounted on the wall.

Before landing the suite's passengers can freshen up in a bathroom that has a shower, make-up mirror and hairdryer.

Each of Etihad's A380 flights has a flying nanny trained by Norland College in Bath.

The cost of the ticket includes luxury chauffeured transport to and from the airport, private check-in, access to a private lounge and a personal travel concierge who can do everything from reserve a table at a restaurant to source tickets to a concert or sporting event.

Etihad Airways senior vice president of marketing, Shane O'Hare, told MailOnline Travel: 'Etihad Airways currently operates three daily A380 services from London Heathrow to Abu Dhabi, so our guests can now enjoy the convenience and class-leading comfort of an all-A380 service all the way to Melbourne.'

'Deploying our latest technology aircraft and class-leading product and service to Australia recognises its importance to our business and the strong demand from UK travellers for premium travel experiences.

'From the product and service innovations in every cabin to our inspired approach to hospitality, the Etihad Airways A380 offers touches of luxury to every guest and sets the benchmark for inflight comfort, entertainment, connectivity and service.'

And speaking to MailOnline previously on The Residence, Etihad chief president and chief executive officer, James Hogan, said: 'As we have done so many times in our short history, we are reshaping the landscape of modern air travel in our own way.

'It is the culmination of many years of hard work and tremendous endeavour by hundreds of people both in our airline and outside.'

The Airbus A380 containing The Residence was launched in late 2014 during a glitzy event at Abu Dhabi's airport, where 200 members of the press gathered in a hangar draped in black.

With a spectacular curtain drop, the A380 was unveiled to the sound of Richard Strauss' Sprach Zarathustra.

The Residence was the main talking point, but Etihad also revealed its revamped first class and business suites as well as a slightly tweaked economy cabin, and the carrier's fancy new livery  a mixture of 'desert' inspired browns and beiges and new interiors.
An Indian man hid inside Delhi airport for 10 days without anyone noticing he was there.

Mohammad Abdullah from Hyderabad reportedly got into the airport with a fake ticket from Etihad and was supposedly bound for the United Arab Emirates.

He was finally discovered when a member of the housekeeping team reported him to India's Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

The man reportedly got into the Delhi airport with a fake ticket to the UAE after initially being turned away

The incident took place in January this year but has only now come to light.

Times of India reported that the man had forged his ticket and tried to check in with Etihad at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on January 11.

The fake ticket was discovered and the airline reported him to CISF.

However, the CISF subsequently let the man go and he was able to take a second print out of the ticket and re-enter the airport from another gate according to the report.

He remained in the airport but was eventually reported to the CISF again, this time by housecleaning staff who had noticed his continuous presence.

The man was eventually handed over to Delhi Police on January 20.

Delhi police have booked him for trespassing according to their report.

A senior police officer told the Times of India: 'Abdullah was jointly interrogated by the police and intelligence agencies.

'He revealed that he had been waiting to receive some money to fly to UAE.

He remained in the airport until the housecleaning staff noticed his continuous presence and reported him to India's Central Industrial Security Force

'He was arrested under relevant sections and an FIR (First Information Report, equivalent of a criminal record) was registered against him.'

An Etihad Airways told MailOnline Travel: 'The safety and security of our passengers and staff is Etihad Airways' main priority.

'We are extremely vigilant with tight safety and security procedures in place at airports around the world with all travel documents thoroughly checked during the check-in and boarding process.

'Reports have been circulating about a passenger discovered in the terminal building at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi in January without a valid ticket.

'As per airport procedures in India, all passengers must have valid travel documents checked by airport security officials before being allowed to enter terminal buildings. Etihad Airways immediately escorted the passenger out of the airport when he tried to check-in with a void ticket.'

MailOnline Travel has contacted Indira Gandhi International Airport.
An easyJet flight out of Liverpool Airport declared a mid-air emergency this morning after the captain discovered a technical fault with the aircraft.

Flight EZY7193 was forced to circle above Merseyside before it was re-directed to Manchester after declaring the emergency.

The A320 aircraft - the same type as EgyptAir MS804, which crashed on May 19 - left Liverpool John Lennon Airport around 9:25am and declared there was a problem shortly after take-off.

An easyJet plane was forced to declare a mid-air emergency this morning after leaving Liverpool airport when a technical fault was discovered

Various aviation sources reported that the technical fault was concerning the landing gear, but easyJet have claimed this was left down in preparation to land

It was then left in a holding pattern above the Wirral before being re-directed to Manchester Airport, where it was met by standby emergency crews as it safely touched down.

It was reported online that the Airbus A320, which was due to land in Faro at 12:25, had technical issues with its landing gear.

However the airline has told MailOnline Travel that the landing gear was left down deliberately in preparation for the unscheduled landing.

Twitter users reported spotting the plane at a low altitude in a holding pattern above Merseyside. One tweeted to say it sounded like a 'jet was in his bedroom', while another added that he was 'worried'.

The Airbus A320 made a safe landing at Manchester Airport, used because it 'had a longer runway'

A easyJet spokesperson told MailOnline Travel: 'Easyjet can confirm that the captain of flight EZY7193 from Liverpool to Faro took the decision to divert to Manchester as a precaution due to a technical issue.

'The aircraft landed safely and was met by the fire services in line with our procedures as precautionary measure only.

'The safety of its passengers and crew is easyJet's highest priority and easyJet operates its fleet of aircraft in strict compliance with all manufacturers guidelines.

'We would like to apologise to passengers for any inconvenience caused are arranging for passengers to continue their journey on an alternate aircraft.'
A third of Brits are missing out on stunning road trips abroad - because they're too scared to hire a car, it's claimed.

A new study has found that language barriers, local motorists and the trickiness of reading road signs are the main reasons 32 per cent of travellers refuse to drive abroad and why the thought of getting behind the wheel makes 71 per cent nervous.

What's more, one in 20 (five per cent) Brits admit driving more dangerously abroad because they get nervous.

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A third of Brits are missing out on stunning road trips abroad - because they're too scared to hire a car, it's claimed

A staggering 83 per cent said that breaking down in a foreign country where they can't speak the language makes them worried, according to the Green Flag survey.

Surprisingly this figure was greater than the number of people who get anxious when missing a flight (82 per cent), going for a job interview (78 per cent), presenting in front of over 50 people (76 per cent) and meeting the in-laws (54 per cent).

Leading the top reasons for avoiding the road were found to be not understanding the language (38 per cent), followed by rules and regulations (37 per cent), driving on the wrong hand side (30 per cent) and local drivers (23 per cent).

And Brits fear running out of fuel in France  Green Flag has seen a 21 per cent increase in customers calling regarding fuel related breakdowns in France.

To tempt the 32 per cent of British travellers who avoid driving cars all together, Green Flag has suggested some epic foreign road trips.

Top of the list was French route Les Corniches, where drivers can see the beautiful French countryside and wind up in Monaco.

A new study has found that language barriers, local motorists and the trickiness of reading road signs were the main reasons travellers refuse to get behind the wheel abroad

Also featured in the recommended roadtrips were Germany's famous highway system, the autobahn, and Norway's beautiful mountain pass road, Trollstigen.

Nick Reid, Head of Transformation at Green Flag, commented: 'Europe is such a beautiful holiday destination, it is a shame to see how many of us are avoiding taking road trips on the continent.

'It seems that most Brits are worried about language barriers and the problems they could pose - but that shouldn't put people off.'
This is the moment a Ryanair plane was forced to abort a landing despite the wheels touching the tarmac in the face of fierce crosswinds at Liverpool Airport.

The Boeing 737 was arriving in the north west airport from Knock in Ireland on Tuesday around midday.

However, the pilots on board flight FR6674 were forced to perform a 'go around' due to the strong winds on the descent.

The Ryanair Boeing 737 was caught on camera coming in to land at Liverpool airport from Ireland

But after the wheels touched the tarmac, the aircraft aborted the landing and rose back into the sky

Footage of the incident was shared on YouTube by videographer Aviation UpClose, who wrote: 'Very windy at Liverpool today, wind gusts were exceeding 20+ knots (25mph) at 350 degrees making it a direct crosswind.

'EI-FRL (plane's registration) made an approach to (runway) 09 but was caught by strong downdrafts very close to the ground causing the 737 to lose lift and altitude rapidly.

'The pilot then made the sensible decision to abort the landing and come back around this time landing overhead on Runway 27. This looked absolutely incredible.'

The aviation enthusiast told MailOnline Travel that he believes the plane 'touched', before flying back into the air.

Despite the aborted landing, the Ryanair flight still landed two minutes ahead of schedule in Liverpool.

The filmmaker also captured this. The footage shows the Ryanair plane shifting slightly from side to side on approach before making a safe, if not bumpy, landing.

A spokesperson for Ryanair told MailOnline Travel: 'This flight from Knock (May 31) performed a routine go-around due to high crosswinds at Liverpool Airport. The aircraft landed normally on the second approach.'

The pilots of flight FR6674 decided to perform a go around as crosswinds battered the airport

The plane is filmed coming in for a second landing attempt at Liverpool John Lennon Airport

Despite a somewhat bumpy landing, the Boeing 737 came to a safe stop on the runway in Liverpool

Speaking on the subject of crosswinds to MailOnline Travel previously, Dai Whittingham, the chief executive of the UK Flight Safety Committee, stated that while crosswinds appear dangerous, they are an everyday occurrence.

He said: 'High winds in themselves are not dangerous but they can certainly be inconvenient, especially if the wind direction is across the runway.

'All pilots train to land in high crosswind conditions and will have practiced to the aircraft limits in the simulator.

'When any new aircraft is certified to carry passengers it comes with a published crosswind limit which is the maximum that has been demonstrated by a test pilot during the certification process.

'If the wind is outside that limit the crew will have to take the aircraft to an alternate airport where the wind is within limits (which means a runway that has less of a crosswind component).
A French Canadian received six months of probation after pleading guilty Thursday to putting a bison calf in his car at Yellowstone National Park because he thought the animal was cold.

Shamash Kassam should pay $500 to the Yellowstone Park Foundation Wildlife Protection Fund, federal magistrate Mark Carman ordered at the Yellowstone Justice Center. Kassam will also serve six months of unsupervised probation, as well as pay a $200 fine.

Park officials cited Kassam on May 17 for disturbing wildlife. According to the citation, Kassam put the bison calf in his car because it was wet and shivering and drove to a ranger station. Yellowstone officials later euthanized the bison calf after the human interaction caused the animal to be rejected by its herd.

Kassam told a park ranger he saw the baby bison in the middle of the road near Buffalo Ranch, according to the citation. He said he did not see any other bison in the vicinity and he waited 20 minutes to see if any adult bison would come back for the calf. Kassam said the animal appeared to be seeking warmth from his cars engine.

Kassam told the park ranger he picked up the calf because otherwise it would have been roadkill, the citation states. When the ranger made contact with Kassam at the Buffalo Ranch, he saw the calf lying in the back of Kassams Toyota Sequoia.

The park ranger told Kassam that park visitors are not permitted to intervene with wildlife and that by removing the calf he was preventing the mother from locating it and possibly altering its ability to survive in the wild.

Kasam stated that he understood what he did was wrong, and he would never pick up or disturb any wildlife again, the citation states.

The ranger located a bison herd near where Kassam had picked up the calf and released the calf back into the herd, according to the citation. The ranger then notified National Park Service bison management.

Rangers repeatedly tried to reunite the calf with its herd, according to a statement released by Yellowstone. The efforts failed, and the calf was later euthanized because it was abandoned and approaching people and cars along the road.

Human interference can cause mothers to reject their offspring, the park said.

Yellowstone released a statement after receiving criticism for euthanizing the calf. For the calf to leave the park, it would have had to spend months in quarantine to be monitored for brucellosis, a disease that causes bison, elk and cattle to miscarry. No approved quarantine facilities exist, and the park said it doesnt have the capacity to care for a calf thats too young to forage on its own.

Nor is it the mission of the National Park Service to rescue animals: our goal is to maintain the ecological processes of Yellowstone, the statement said. Even though humans were involved in this case, it is not uncommon for bison, especially young mothers, to lose or abandon their calves. Those animals typically die of starvation or predation.

The park has repeatedly advised visitors of late to respect wildlife and to know and follow safety regulations. A woman taking a picture of an elk during a recent Yellowstone visit was charged by the animal when she got too close. The elk knocked her to the ground before backing away.

Visitors should stay at least 100 yards from bears and wolves and at least 25 yards from all other wildlife, the park said.
Her partner is the patron for the Together For Short Lives children's charity.

So Lauren Silverman made a special effort on Wednesday night when was forced to step in for host Simon Cowell at his own fundraising event in London.

Making her man proud, the 38-year-old mother-of-two put in a solo appearance in place of the X Factor judge, 56, who pulled out of the Together For Short Lives Midsummer Ball at the last minute, due to illness.

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Representing her man: Lauren Silverman made sure she represented Simon Cowell well as she arrived at the glamorous Together For Short Lives Midsummer Ball event in London on Wednesday

Simon, who was named as a patron for the charity in 2009, was too sick to attend, with a spokesperson confirming that he was bed-ridden with the flu.

A source close to the star told The Mirror: 'He wouldn't miss this event unless he was feeling really ill, the charity means a great deal to him.'

MailOnline has contacted a representative for Simon Cowell for further comment.

In his absence, Lauren dazzled in a floor-length black dress and matching choker, adding a bit of expensive sparkle to her outfit with a pair of show-stopping diamond drop earrings and a diamond bracelet.

The American beauty completed her sleek outfit with a pair of gold sandals and a small woven box clutch.

Ill: The 38-year-old mother-of-two put in a solo appearance in place of the X Factor judge, who was due to host the Together For Short Lives Midsummer Ball fundraiser

Glam: Lauren dazzled in a floor-length black dress and matching choker, adding a bit of expensive sparkle to her outfit with a pair of show-stopping diamond drop earrings and a diamond bracelet

Dazzling: The American beauty completed her sleek outfit with a pair of gold sandals and a small woven box clutch

Appearing flawless, her make-up was contoured to perfection and she worked the flicked eyeliner look and nude lipstick.

Lauren's trademark glossy raven locks were blow-dried to within an inch of their life, hanging elegantly in a chic half up- half down look.

Alesha Dixon also put in an appearance, looking breathtaking in a bright silk ball gown, cinched in at the waist with a chic metal belt.

Featuring an intricate design, the calf-length dress featured a front slit showing off her toned thighs.

Solo: Lauren's trademark glossy raven locks were blow-dried to within an inch of their life, hanging elegantly in a chic half up- half down look

Dazzling: She looked simply sensational as she dazzled outside the event

Beaming: The stunner looked chic and sophisticated for the bash

Slinky: Her slender figure was clad in a sophisticated black gown with a fishtail hem

Black gown: Her dress oozed sophistication and style as she glided into the event

The 37-year-old former Mis-Teeq star kept her accessories simple, tying her blonde hair into a sleek ponytail.

The mother-of-one attended the event with partner of four years Azuka Ononye, the father of her two-year-old daughter Azura Sienna.

Alesha's Britain's Got Talent boss, Simon, is a key figure in helping the children's charity raise funds for young people with life-shortening conditions.

Scandalous: Alesha Dixon also put in an appearance, looking breathtaking in a bright silk ball gown, cinched in at the waist with a chic metal belt

He became a Patron in 2009 and has visited numerous childrens hospices including; Shooting Star CHASE, Richard House Childrens Hospice, Chestnut Tree House and Haven House and also hosted children at The X Factor and Britains Got Talent studios.

Together For Short Lives describe Simon as a key supporter of their annual fundraising and awareness week, Childrens Hospice Week.

He also secured The X Factor charity single for us in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 which raised significant funds for seriously ill children and their families.
Scarlett Johansson and Henry Cavill have united for a sexy smartphone campaign.

The stars - who work for competing film studios - came together for Huawei's P9 commercial and photo shoot.

The Black Widow beauty smolders in the new advert, which sees her taking snaps and sending them to the Superman stud on her phone.

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Scarlett Johansson, 31, posed in a sexy cowgirl costume for her new smartphone advert which also stars Henry Cavill

In two different scenes, Johansson is costumed as a sexy cowgirl in denim ensemble and wide-brimmed hat as she stands between two scantily-clad hunks.

She showcased her slender figure and fine form in skintight denim jeans and matching blouse while posing for the phone's Leica Camera.

The 31-year-old's makeup is kept minimal which allows her natural beauty to shine through on the Wild West themed set.

Hunky hero! The Superman stud looked handsome as ever in a formal black tuxedo

Flawless! The Black Widow beauty showcased her slender figure and fine form in skintight denim jeans and matching blouse

Cowgirl cutie! Johansson is costumed as a sexy cowgirl in denim ensemble and wide-brimmed hat

Scarlett sends images of her Western shoot to Cavill, who is handsome as ever in a formal tuxedo.

From his hotel room in the big city with large wall-to-ceiling windows, the British actor, 33, takes snapshots of a nighttime skyline.

Henry returns the favor and sends the photos of the city to Scarlett, who lights up with delight at the breathtaking views.

Sharing snapshots: The commercial features Scarlett and Henry sending images on their phone back and forth to each other

Sexy star! The Dawn of Justice star smouldered in the new campaign

Truce: The superhero stars - who work for competing film studios - came together for the advert

Goegeous: The Black Widow beauty stunned in the smouldering new advert

While the Hollywood A-listers clearly demonstrated their on-screen chemistry, they'll battle it out in July at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards.

In an ironic twist, Scarlett - who stars in Captain America: Civil War - and Henry from Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice are both nominated for Choice Movie.

Their films are both categorized under the sci-fi/fantasy section and it's up to fans who will take home the award.

Voting ends on Thursday and the Teen Choice Awards will air on Sunday, July 31.

Picture perfect! Scarlett and Henry united for Huawei's P9 commercial and photo shoot
She's quickly become one of the most recognisable faces on TOWIE, despite only joining the show last year.

And on Wednesday, Kate Wright reminded the world why, when she showed up to support former castmate Jessica Wright at the launch event for her shoe line at Vanilla restaurant in London.

The 24-year-old reality star showed off her ample assets in a skin-tight black dress with a deeply plunging neckline that left little to the imagination.

On Wednesday afternoon Kate Wright looked absolutely fabulous when she turned out to support former TOWIE cast mate Jessica Wright, who was launching her shoe line at Vanilla restaurant in London

The design, which featured mesh cross-strap detailing across her breasts and upper stomach, drew attention to her bosom, even if it also showcased her hips and endlessly lithe legs.

She elongated her perfect pins in a pair of sky-high heels, which included wrap-around straps at the ankles and across her toes.

Her platinum locks flowed in gentle waves, eventually turning a delicious caramel colour and resting just north of her chest.

See TOWIE cast updates as Kate Wright puts on a busty display in a VERY revealing dress

Stunning: The 24-year-old reality star showed off her ample assets in a skin-tight black dress with a deeply plunging neckline that left little to the imagination

Breast in show: Kate's dress attention to her bosoms with mesh cross-strap detailing across her chest and upper stomach

Beautiful: Her platinum locks flowed in gentle waves, eventually turning a delicious caramel colour and resting just north of her chest

Ready: Well aware that a fashionista must be prepared to look fabulous regardless of the weather, Kate wore an absolutely stunning shawl-like coat.

Well aware that a fashionista must be prepared to look fabulous regardless of the weather, Kate wore an absolutely stunning shawl-like coat.

She wore it off-the-shoulders, a well-worn trick among celebrities to help them cut an even slimmer figure.

A large silver wristwatch, a diamond pendant necklace and freshly manicured nails rounded out the highly polished look.

Showtime: A large silver wristwatch, a diamond pendant necklace and freshly manicured nails rounded out the highly polished look

Camera-ready: Kate was happy to flirt with the cameras outside, posing and pouting as she made her way to Vanilla

Nice and even: Kate's sun-kissed glow was truly stunning and stretched from head to toe

Meanwhile, Jess Wright - the woman of the hour - put on a suitably glamorous display in a thigh-skimming silk robe tied elegantly at the side.

Fellow TOWIE stars Ferne McCann and Danielle Armstrong looked suitably sunkissed following their recent break in Spain as they attended the launch.

Former hairdresser Ferne looked chic in a short khaki wrap dress, which showed off her long bronzed legs.

Danielle modelled a fitted white jumpsuit from her own Danni's Boutique range, which showed off her enviable hourglass figure.

Silk cut: Jessica Wright, 30, was back in London on Wednesday to showcase her Spring/Summer 2016 footwear collection

Here come the girls: Jessica posed alongside her sister Natalya and mum Carol for what was no doubt a proud moment for the family

Sister act: Jessica and Natalya were in a playful mood as they posed in front of a floral backdrop

Sun-kissed! Ferne McCann, 25, and Danielle Armstrong, 28, put on a glamorous display for Jessica Wright's shoe launch at London's Vanilla on Wednesday as the posed in front of a white wall of roses

A friendly face: Frankie Essex turned up to support her pal in an ensemble with striking purple elements

Eye-catching: Frankie's vibrant scarf and heels certainly caught the eye as she made her way to VANILLA

Something for everyone: Plenty of designs from Jessica's collection were on display inside the venue
She recently announced her second pregnancy.

And actress Teresa Palmer revealed on Wednesday that she and her actor-director husband Mark Webber have already chosen a baby name.

The Point Break star nearly let slip the name in a personal vlog marking her 12th week of pregnancy.

12 weeks: Teresa Palmer revealed on Wednesday that she and her actor-director husband Mark Webber have already chosen a baby name for their unborn son

Burgeoining baby bump: The Point Break star revealed her bare baby bump at 12 weeks

The 30-year-old Adelaide native is already a mother to two-year-old Bodhi Rain and Mark's eight-year-old son Isaac Love from a previous relationship.

'He's moving so much ... He's the most active baby, way more active than what I remember Bodhi being. I actually compared the [sonogram] videos,' she said before a sudden pause.

'And ... oh I was about to say his name! Whoops. And 'baby in the belly' just seems way more active.'

Blossoming bump: The actress shared a side view of her growing bump

The Los Angeles-based star is due in November and she will give birth to baby number two in her homeland.

'It's cool, we get to be in Australia, meet the midwife, get our house in Australia all ready because that's where we will be birthing. So we'll be bringing our new son home to our house in Adelaide,' she shared.

The blonde beauty described conceiving for a second time as 'a long process' that ultimately led her to cry tears of joy when it was finally time for the couple to announce their happy news.

Growing family: Teresa and Mark are already parents to their two-year-old Bodhi Rain and Mark's 8-year-old son Isaac Love from a previous relationship

'Yesterday I got to finally announce my pregnancy on social media ... thank you so much the comments were amazing, I cried,' she said.

'The process of getting pregnant was a long process for us because I was breastfeeding. The last four months [combined with] the desire to get pregnant and finally being able to announce it ... It was such a beautiful relief to finally put it out there.'

Earlier this week, Teresa and Mark, 35, who wed in 2013, were spotted arriving in Adelaide with their children in tow.

Happy families: The Adelaide-born star will give birth in her homeland later this year

The actress shared her reservations about traveling in economy as a family of four.

'... Traveling economy with two kids and my husband, not super psyched about that,' she said.

'But I bought a bunch of pillow pets ... I hope I'm gonna get some sleep if not I'll need about a week to get over the flight.'

Traveling home: Teresa and her family arrived in Australia earlier this week
She's always been fit and body conscious and has defended her naturally slender frame.

But on Wednesday, actress Sharni Vinson showed she did not have an inch to pinch as she flaunted her bikini body while on holiday in Hawaii.

The 32-year-old shared a picture to Instagram of her incredibly toned torso and lean frame as she basked in the sun on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

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Super slender: Sharni Vinson, 32, has always claimed to be naturally slim and on Wednesday she snared a picture to Instagram showed her svelte frame in a black bikini

Sharing a picture of the stunning island backdrop to her social media followers, she wrote: 'Fish out of water #Mermaid #Kauai'.

She kept her look simple with her brunette locks tied back and a sporty style cap and looked down at the water for the pose.

The former Home And Away star has been seen spending time in Hawaii since February.

Red carpet glamour: The Australian actress, seen here at the 2016 G'Day Usa Gala, is a regular fixture on red carpets and has never been afraid of showing off her super skinny frame

She has been sharing snaps of her adventures on Instagram documenting the postcard-worthy beach with turquoise water and white sand, and the sun setting behind the palm trees.

The Hawaiian break comes after a busy press tour to promote Dragon Blade, in which she stars alongside John Cusack, Jackie Chan and Adrian Brody.

Sharni has previously come under fire for her extremely skinny limbs when fans took to Twitter worrying about the star's weight, with one saying: 'Sharni shocks with super slim figure.'

Taking a break: The 32-year-old has been taking in the sights of Hawaii where she has been relaxing after after promoting movie Dragon Blade

Speaking about her physique, the star told Heat magazine in 2014: 'I've always been a very naturally slim girl. If I was the way I was perceived, I would not physically be able to do what I do.'

In 2014, the Step Up 3D star she dismissed claims she doesn't eat as 'laughable'.

'I've always been a very naturally slim girl. If I was the way I was perceived, I would not physically be able to do what I do.'

In fact, the actress said that with her schedule being so hectic, there would be no way she could function if she didn't eat properly.

Reaching new heights: She is seen posing here in Hawaii ahead of enjoying a helicopter ride

'You couldn't have a schedule like I do if you didn't (eat). You would actually faint.'

Speaking to Heat magazine, she credited her figure to a love of sport including swimming, dance and martial arts.

'Thats the truth. So people can hate me for that,' she said.

The way it was: The model is seen with ex flame actor Kellan Lutz arrive at premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 in Los Angeles in 2012

Since leaving Home And Away in 2008 for a new life in LA, Sharni's schedule became hectic.

She landed roles in Blue Crush 2, Step Up 3D and Patrick: Evil Awakens.

Her love life has also been a subject for talk.

She previously dated Twilight's Kellan Lutz after meeting on Step Up 3D in September, 2011.
She's been getting close to hunky Australian model Jordan Barrett as of late.

And Lara Stone, 32, appeared smitten with the teen when the pair attended the launch of the Kate Moss For Equipment x NET-A-PORTER collection at the Chiltern Firehouse on Wednesday night.

The mother-of-one was all smiles as she posed with her arm around Jordan, and she couldn't have sat closer to him if she'd tried as they hung out with Meg Mathews on a sofa.

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Blossoming romance? Lara Stone, 32, appeared smitten with Jordan Barrett, 19, when the pair attended the launch of the Kate Moss For Equipment x NET-A-PORTER collection at the Chiltern Firehouse

The Dutch-Anglo model looked carefree and happy at the event, wearing a white shirt emblazoned with stars buttoned down to reveal a glimpse of her bra.

She teamed the garment with a pair of three-quarter length black trousers which highlighted her lithe limbs, and her already statuesque frame was given a boost by a pair of heels.

Lara appeared to arrive at the event alone, however it wasn't long before she found Jordan, and the pair certainly weren't shy about being close in front of the cameras.

Having a blast: Lara couldn't have sat closer to Jordan if she'd tried as they hung out with Meg Mathews on a sofa

Revealing: The Dutch-Anglo model looked carefree and happy at the event, wearing a white shirt emblazoned with stars buttoned down to reveal a glimpse of her bra

Similarly to the other occasions they've been pictured together, the pair had each other in fits of giggles as they shared jokes.

Jordan's buttoned down black-shirt adorned with white lightning bolts perfectly complemented Lara's attire, while the up-and-coming model cut a cool figure with his hair coiffed in a messy surfer style.

On Tuesday night the pair dined al fresco at London's trendy Scott's Restaurant.

Model material: She teamed the garment with a pair of three-quarter length black trousers which highlighted her lithe limbs

Comfortable: The pair certainly weren't shy about being close in front of the cameras

Lara, who split from comedian David Walliams in March 2015 after five years of marriage, was dressed to impress as she draped her model figure in the sexy ensemble.

She showed off her incredibly long legs in distressed jeans featuring rips at the knees and a spray-on effect in their skin-tight nature.

The pair were also seen together at the Cannes amfAR disco-themed fashion auction - putting on a cosy display on the catwalk.

They sent tongues wagging when Jordan planted a kiss on Lara's cheek in a wholly up close display.
Jennifer Aniston was joined by husband Justin Theroux at the funeral for her estranged mother Nancy Dow.

The 47-year-old actress and Theroux attended the funeral service on May 27 that was held at Dow's apartment in Los Angeles two days after her death, according to an article on Wednesday by In Touch.

'Nancys bed had been moved from her bedroom into the living room, so thats where the service was held,' a family insider revealed of the service held in the North Hollywood area.

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Funeral service: Jennifer Anistin and husband Justin Theroux, shown in February in New York City, attended the apartment funeral service last week for her estranged mother Nancy Dow

A casually dressed female minister led the funeral service and 'the whole thing was strange,' the source added.

'Nancys body was propped up in her bed. She was dressed nicely and had makeup on,' the source added.

Aniston released a statement to People on May 25 announcing that Dow had died aged 79 'surrounded by family and friends after enduring a long illness.'

See Jennifer Anniston news as she attends estranged mother Nancy Dow's funeral service

Long illness: Nancy Dow, shown in March 2016 in Los Angeles, died last week aged 79

The Friends star and Dow had a strained relationship and there were years when they didn't talk as a memoir Dow penned caused a rift between them.

Dow's second ex-husband and Aniston's father, John Aniston, also attended the funeral service.

Aniston's half brother John Melick also paid his respects.

Paying respects: Jennifer's half brother John Melick, shown last week in Los Angeles, also attended the service

Veteran actor: John Aniston, shown last month in Los Angeles, was married to Dow and also attended the service

Dow was a model who acted on television in the 1960s, including appearances on The Beverly Hillbillies and The Wild Wild West.

Aniston and Dow had reportedly reconciled just prior to her death.

Dow reportedly had suffered a series of strokes in the last few years and lost the ability to speak and walk prior to her passing.
She's a former model known for her unique take on fashion and her individual spirit.

And on Wednesday evening, Jo Wood lived up to her reputation when she attended the Liudmila pre-Spring 2017 footwear presentation in London.

The ex-wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie looked decidedly boho in a pair of slouchy blue jeans, a low-cut black top and a brown-and-white polka dot robe.

Free spirit: On Wednesday former model Jo Wood, the ex-wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, looked decidedly boho in a pair of slouchy blue jeans, a low-cut black top and a brown-and-white polka dot robe as she attended the Liudmila pre-Spring 2017 footwear presentation in London

The 61-year-old carried a brown, animal-skin handbag with gold clasps, and wore a pair of simple suede boots.

She brought a lot of personality with her jewellery game, wearing a large gold wristwatch, several earth-toned bracelets, a necklace with a gold circular pendant and two very large Native American earrings with a series of pearl droplets.

Befitting her anything-goes attitude, she wore her platinum locks straight and free.

Congratulations! Ronnie Wood, 68, and Sally Humphreys, 38, welcomed their twin girls on Monday - Gracie Jane and Alice Rose

While Jo admired the parade of luxury footwear, her ex-husband Ronnie was likely tending to his 38-year-old wife Sally and their twins Gracie Jane and Alice Rose, who were born on Monday.

Jo, who divorced Ronnie in 2009 after 26 years of marriage, has been outspoken in her opinions about him becoming a father again so late in life.

Speaking to The Mirror in March she said: 'I know what it's like to have young children. But he won't know that and what it will be like to start all over again.

'When he last had kids he was flying high on cocaine and booze back then, so missed all the sleepless nights and the crying.'

Sharing a kiss: Jo's ex was seen planting a kiss on his pregnant wife Sally as they were pictured sharing a romantic moment on the streets of London last week

Jo and Ronnie share two grown-up children - Leah, 37, and Tyrone, 32.

She added: 'I don't think he remembers when the babies couldn't sleep and when they were ill... So this time now he's stone cold sober I think he'll get a shock.'

She also admitted that she is sad his children won't know him when they're grown up.

Shoe parade: Lauren and Maddie Mills were among the guests at the Liudmila pre-Spring 2017 presentation
Her ex-boyfriend was left in intensive care after being stabbed in an ugly club brawl while holidaying in Marbella on Sunday night.

And after learning of the news, Chloe Lewis - who was in the Spanish city with pals at the time - visited Jake Hall's bedside in hospital.

Breaking her silence on the terrifying ordeal, Chloe, 25, shared a quote on Instagram which read: 'I will always care for you even if we aren't together... & even if we are far away from each other.'

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Chloe Lewis's ex-boyfriend Jake Hall, 24, was left in intensive care after being stabbed in an ugly club brawl while holidaying in Marbella on Sunday

The reality star's post indicates the incident hasn't caused her to reconsider the pair's future together, but made it clear Jake was still very much important to her.

And she added in the accompanying caption: 'I don't feel the need to post all my feelings on social media... But instead of having negative people on my Instagram I thought I would. I have been with Jake for the last few days & I very much care about him. Big kiss to you! @jakehall01'

Jake, 24, who posted a Twitter picture of his own on Wednesday showing himself sat up smiling in his hospital bed, responded directly to Chloe's words.

See TOWIE cast updates as Chloe Lewis spends last few days by Jake Hall's bedside

There for him: After learning of the news, Chloe - who was in the Spanish city with pals at the time - visited Jake Hall's bedside in hospital

On the mend: Jake, 24, posted a Twitter picture of his own on Wednesday showing himself sat up smiling in his hospital bed

He wrote: 'Chloe thank your being over these last few scary days learnt that life's to short just wanna thank for being here every day making sure I'm ok and ruining your holiday coz me Thank you!'

Meanwhile, he told his Twitter followers: 'You can't get rid of me that easily.

'Thankyou so much for everyone's amazing support and getting me through this. I'm getting better thank [sic] to everyone.'

The Essex native was attacked when a group of Liverpudlian friends he was with squared up to a gang of violent Londoners at Marbella's celebrity hangout Aqwa Mist.

The two groups went for each other with broken champagne bottles and shards of glass from shisha pipes they had been smoking.

Several holidaymakers have spoken out after witnessing the aftermath of the incident.

Laura Wohlgemuth, who was queuing up outside the club at the time, told the Scottish Daily Record: 'Jake ran out into a car. Blood was everywhere.

The only way is up: Jake was in defiant mood when writing to his 157,000 followers

Feeling thankful: The Essex native appeared genuinely grateful for all the well-wishes he had received

'We thought we weren't going to get in but they just got a hose out and washed away blood.'

A spokesman for the reality TV star has admitted Jake is in hospital in Marbella but said he could not confirm that he had been attacked with a broken bottle during a nightclub fight.

However, a hospital report on his injuries, sent to a court in the Costa del Sol resort on Tuesday afternoon, states he was stabbed in his right side and his kidney was affected.

A spokesman for Marbella town hall, who local police officers answer to, said: 'This matter is a National Police matter.'

A source close to the case said: 'Neither of the two police forces were told a man had been stabbed when they reached the nightclub.

'They came across the aftermath of a fight but encountered the typical wall of silence they get after night-time altercations in the area, especially those involving Brits.'
The new Snapchat lens has become a celebrity favourite and model Lindy Klim has jumped on the bandwagon.

The 38-year-old mother-of-three, embraced the flower crown filter with daughter Stella, ten, in a cute Snapchat video that saw the pair sing karaoke style.

Lindy, who separated from former Olympic swimmer Michael, 38, was seen belting out lyrics to Taylor Swift's hit, Out Of The Woods in synch with her daughter.

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Flower bed: Lindy Klim, 38, is clearly a fan of the new Snapchat lens, cheering up sick daughter Stella, ten, in a fun sing-song to Taylor Swift's Out Of The Woods

Sharing the video to her Instagram followers, Lindy wrote: 'Stella sick in bed for 9 days straight...The boredom has set in..So snapchat karaoke it is!'

Posing head to head for the clip, the mother and daughter duo are seen lying in bed as they sing lyrics to the American crooner's hit.

Both are seen with flower crowns on their head thanks to the latest app favoured by celebrities Chrissy Teigen, Kim Kardashian and Katy Perry, among others.

Pop stars: The mother and daughter duo clearly are fans of Taylor Swift's hit Out Of The Woods

Lindy, a Balinese princess who shares three children with her Polish-born Australian sportsman ex, called it quits on their ten-year marriage earlier this year.

The pair tied the knot in 2006 and announced their separation in a joint statement in February after months of speculation.

At the time their management released a statement, insisting they will remain friends for the sake of their children who are their 'priority'.

'It is with much respect for each other that Michael and Lindy Klim have agreed to formally separate, believing that this decision is best for their family,' a spokesperson said.

All-white: Glamorous Lindy kept a relaxed figure in an all white ensemble of flared pants, top and long coat at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in May

Fashionable couple: Lindy has recently found a new love in boyfriend Adam Ellis, who accompanied her to this year's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

The statement went on: 'Michael and Lindy's children will always remain their highest priority, and their happiness will be Michael and Lindy's primary focus.'

Lindy has since moved on with boyfriend Adam Ellis, a British builder, whom she met in Bali.

Speaking with Daily Mail Australia, she said she didn't expect to fall into another relationship so soon.

'[It's] completely not what I expected, to fall back into another relationship, but he's so lovely,' she said happily.

'It's about time I got on with my life.'

Michael has been seen enjoying time with fashion designer Desiree Deravi, who bears a striking resemblance to his ex wife.
Dave Pearce normally wouldnt have had so many hay bales at Papas Pumpkin Patch in June, but 2011 had been a wet year and farmers didn't want the damp bales.

So when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the floodgates of the Garrison Dam spillway June 1, those 1,000 bales helped protect Pearces family home and those of his neighbors.

Today, that hay is strewn across the fields at the pumpkin patch, composting and acting as fertilizer for the coming crops.

The Becks, who grow pumpkins for the patch and other area retailers, lost almost 300 pine and apple trees as a result of the flooding. Theyre still cutting down trees that died, Maureen Beck said.

It was a mess, she said.

Their home sat in water for about three months. They thought it had been bermed properly, but the barrier didnt work and the home ended up with 3 to 5 inches of water, Beck said -- "enough to ruin the wallboard. But the structure was built in 1938 as a hunting cabin, and it was sturdy enough to withstand the damage.

The family held its pumpkin patch event in Mandan as usual that year to keep it going. The communitys love for the annual event was the impetus. Pearce said they had heard stories from Dorothy Moses Elementary students saying their trip to the patch was among their best memories.

The family thought the 2012 pumpkin crop would be bad, too, but it ended up being the best weve ever had, Beck said.

In 2012, puddles from rain showers stuck around longer than usual, not draining into the soil right away, according to Pearce. Silt had settled on the property as waters receded and changed the soil drainage. And the year brought incredible yields.

But the patch has lost a lot of its fruit and nut trees, including wild plums, choke cherries and crabapples. Pearce said the Bismarck/Burleigh Combined Communications Center likely knows his phone number by heart because he calls so often to inform them of controlled burns.

This year, his Russian olives started to die off. The top branches of some of the cottonwoods have fallen, and a fungus is growing on some of the ash trees. Pearce knows theyll lose some of those, too, and has started planting new trees.

And the pumpkin seeds are in the ground to continue the patchs nearly four-generation history for yet another year.

I dont think we ever had intended to quit, Pearce said.
She recently enthused about her three-year-old son's love of aircraft.

So Malin Akerman had the perfect partner as she headed through LAX on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old actress rocked her off-duty style as she pulled curly-haired toddler Sebastian behind her on a small blue suitcase.

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Hitching a ride: The 38-year-old actress rocked her off-duty style as she strutted across the airport concourse with curly-haired tot Sebastian

The Billions star teamed on-trend ripped blue jeans with a casual black sweater.

The striking Swedish-Canadian beauty went make-up free, showing off her flawless complexion as she pulled her son behind her on a small blue suitcase.

Malin's blonde bob was tousled around her pretty features, and she accessorized with a black cross-body bag and black boots.

Sebastian showed off his cute blonde curls and wore a white shirt with black slip-on sneakers.

Blonde ambition: Malin Akerman headed through LAX on Wednesday

Malin has been busy jetting back and forth from her home in LA to New York City, where her Showtime drama Billions is filmed.

She told People that the mother-son trips to New York for her work, are a treat for Sebastian.

'He loves airplanes,' she said.

'And hes been on sets since he was 3 months old. Hes been socialized from the get go!'

Casual: The Billions star teamed on-trend ripped blue jeans with a black sweater

Mini-me: Her blonde bob was tousled - and ensured there was no mistaking to whom Sebastian is related

Malin has been a hands-on single mother since her six-year marriage to Roberto Zincone ended in 2013.

The star - who is fluent in four languages - has more recently been making waves filming topless sex scenes with Damian Lewis in Billions.

Malin and the Homeland actor, 45, shared a number of steamy clinches in the Showtime drama; with Malin going topless for a raunchy romp in a pool with her co-star.

British star Damian plays Bobby 'Axe' Axelrod, a notorious hedge fund manager in New York, while Malin plays his glamorous wife, Lara.

She's also due to star in Netflix comedy Easy, alongside Orlando Bloom and Marc Maron.
The story of Louis XIV, Versailles was an irresistibly flamboyant, glossy, cross between historical costume dramas like The Tudors, 1980s pop promos like Duran Durans Girls On Film, and todays soft porn channels like Babestation.

This was according to Conservative MP George Brigden anyway  about the pornography that is, not Duran Duran. And who are we to doubt his expertise?

Above all it was like a French Game Of Thrones with so many parallels and knowing references it could have been called Jeux du Thrones. (GoT of course had plundered history, specifically The War of The Roses, in the first place.)

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Not for the faint-hearted: The BBC's new French-made series on Louis XIV, Versailles, served up some of the most graphic sex scenes ever seen on British TV

The power struggles, politics, secrets, and betrayals amongst the Kings courtiers, the plotting of assassinations, ambivalent loyalties, and sibling rivalries were all there.

You never very good at sharing, Louis brother Philippe carped at one point.

It also had enough violent torture, gratuitous nudity, salacious sex scenes, and juicy storylines to make GoT jealous. One of Louis XIVs (many) mistresses for example was the wife of his brother, who was a gay dilettante, who raped her nonetheless. It had three beasts who looked suspiciously like direwolves and even its own equivalent of Tyrion  a lascivious African imp who attended to the, um, needs of the queen.

The likes of Mr Brigden had got their knickerbockers in a twist over the amount of debauchery they claimed made it the steamiest show on the BBC since the last one and caused some papers to revive the term bonk-buster.

The show looks set to make international stars of its cast including George Blagden as Louis XIV and Alexia Giordano as Nymphe

The first bit of full-frontal hanky-panky took all of five minutes - a wanton young nymph ravishing the king on a nice-looking Louis Quatorze table while squeezing an orange over his chest in the manner of Madonna circa Erotica.

The first gay hanky-panky was one minute later - a case of oral sex interruptus followed by a saucy joke about snacks. Ooh la-la !

Elsewhere, we learnt that French men were way ahead of their time when it came to seduction (with the main technique seemingly being make girls suck their fingers) and also that young women in the 1660s invented the wet t-shirt look.

To be honest it was shocking. Sometimes as much as five minutes would go by without any rumpy-pumpy. The idea it could corrupt anyone was absurd. The styling and fashion of the age made it hard to take seriously.

Romping, 17th century style: By the end of the first hour of Versailles, viewers had already witnessed plenty of sex scenes

Louis XIVs long, lustrous, locks and nasty porn-star moustache meant he was a dead ringer for John Galliano and his various lovers in the royal court were pampered, manicured, superfoxes like the gals from Made In Chelsea. This meant every clinch the King enjoyed was not so much a sleazy sex scene than something resembling a Silvikrin advert to determine which had the most Lovely Hair.

His brother Philippe and his lover Chevalier, as well as the other hirsute hunks from the kings entourage observed his every move, standing around looking like a Slovakian heavy metal band.

Wolf Hall it certainly wasnt. Made by Canal Plus for twice the budget of Downton Abbey, visually it was so stylized and contemporary it made The Tudors look minimal - like Wolf Hall in fact. This was thanks to the director of photography, the magnificently named Pierre-Yves Bastard.

The beginning didnt bode well, prompting harrowing flashbacks of the nonsensical indulgent excesses of Jeremy Irons series, The Borgias.

It opened in 1667 Versailles where a storm raged over a CGI of the kings hunting lodge and Louis XIV was suffering a feverish sleep comprised of prophecies mixed with memories.

Your mother is dying. And the world is on fire, said his mothers voice. If history teaches us one thing it is this, she forewarned him. Terrible things happen to kings.

Louise De la Valliere, the Sun King's mistress is central to the saucy antics; De la Valliere bore Louis XIV five children

Her words were intercut with other, happier, images: a dreamy redhead dancer/model running along a riverbank who then appeared skipping and frolicking in a hall inside the palace festooned with mirrors and chandeliers. You waited for Louis to stare meaningfully into the night in the manner of Midge Ure from Ultravox and announce: this means nothing to me/oh-hhh Versailles. They had the same ratty moustache anyway.

You were anointed by God, blessed by the sun, intoned his mother again, trying to spoil The Sun Kings fun.

She told him to build a castle - for a king without a castle is no king at all and his dream of paradise.

But you must build it for yourself and let all the world know - Louis the Great has arrived !

I had a vision, he announced when he woke. A dream about a palace.

This of course would be Versailles, where he had grown up and now wanted to re-locate from Paris, despite warnings that he would be vulnerable to attack from Spanish, Dutch, and even French assassins.

There is not a path I do not know, not a tree I have not climbed. This is where I hunt. This is where I stay ! he vowed. I am about to drag this country out of the darkness into the light ! he asserted to his brother. We must build a new destiny right here, a new France will be born.

Before the show, Sue Deeks, BBC head of programme acquisition, said: 'Versailles will be a delicious treat for BBC2 viewers'

He was certainly not lacking in self-confidence and ambition. Or mirrors.

I want to talk to my architect about mirrors ! he announced.

If there was one thing Louis loved more than women it was mirrors. He wanted mirrors all over the place/palace.

We will need to buy most of Venice for the glass, he suggested. As you do...

His vision for Versailles was audaciously grandiose including a lake half a league in length and supplied with its own network of rivers, and so far ahead of its time his fountain flowed poetically in slow motion.

One of Versailles many modern touches was the music which - while not going as far as, say, Peaky Blinders soundtrack - ranged from the menacing techno hum that undercut Philippe raping his wife to the sparkling ambient chill out tones that accompanied an evangelical speech by Louis about his vision for Versailles that suggested he had just come back from annexing Ibiza and inventing ecstasy.

The Greeks knew what glory was ! he told his courtiers. Their buildings were temples for their Gods to live in. We will build a new temple here - a royal tabernacle of the sun, a dwelling place of the divine and of the people, with a great hall of light that will follow the sunrise and shine out to all corners of the globe so they might all see the glory of France.

His demented zeal made Tony Blair look plain-speaking as he continued: It will be a place of true wonder, to remind us all of the great and ancient past under our feet from whose roots we all now grow - as a land and as a people who know that true power comes not from our army, but from the inner beauty of our immortal soul. From the farthest reaches from the earth men will venture here simply to look upon her and those who do will never forget !

Elizabeth Goodwin tweeted: 'I have never had a hair day as good as anyone on Versailles right now. Serious wardrobe envy'

Not everything in Louis utopia was straightforward though. He was marshalling Frances forces against the Spanish Netherlands and having to overrule Philippe.

With great change, enemies are quick to follow, Louis asserted. Are you with me brother? Do you have my back?

You had your doubts judging by the way Philippes lover Chevalier was whispering in his ear about what his life would like if he happened to inherit power in the event of Louis being assassinated.

You would make Paris the capital of the world and we would dine and dance there every night !

Such shadowy machinations were the best parts of the plot as they are in Wolf Hall, Dangerous Liaisons or Game Of Thrones. The intrigue and tension between Louis, Philippe, and Henrietta also made for a compelling unholy trinity if not quite a menage a trois. Not yet anyway...

Tightening expenditure to raise funds for the war  and his exorbitant palace project - Louis lambasted his brother for spending 50, 000 francs on shoes.

Well you havent seen the shoes, quipped Philippe, a wry remark worthy of GoTs aesthetes Tyrion and Varys the Spider.

Enjoyably, Louis also dispatched his chief henchman Fabien Marchal to make an example of a tax man whose collections were down with the curt demand: educate him!

Educate him! Louis also dispatched his chief henchman Fabien Marchal to make an example of a tax man whose collections were down

This proved a tax demand even more painful than the standard variety. Monsieur Marchal needed no further instruction, collecting his instrument of choice (a hammer) and smashing off the mans fingers, as was his wont. That is apart from the times Marchal was torturing people plotting against the king and caving their heads in.

Seeing him stride through the streets towards his next raid, you waited for someone to cry: no one expects the French Inquisition!

Marchal was played by an actor with a touch of Gary Oldman called Tygh Runyan  a classic case of crazy name, crazy guy. His performance was one of the highlights, along with the kings sage advisor Bontemps.

As Louis, George Blagden (best known for The Vikings) was less convincing, handicapped somewhat by his hair (a wig costing  4000 apparently) and a distracting resemblance to Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Henry VIII in The Tudors.

He grew into the role as the episode progressed though, and as he stopped just having sex with any mademoiselle with a heartbeat.

Racy: The first episode included gay sex, a cross-dressing prince, and Queen Marie-Therese (pictured), who has a penchant for dwarves

The final scene saw the Queen going into labour and her doctor Monsieur Masson arranging a code to forewarn the king if the baby was not a boy. When it was born though Masson insisted all the courtiers eagerly awaiting news of the heir to the thrones leave the room.

What is the meaning of this doctor? Louis demanded. What is the sex?

The problem is not the sex sire, Doctor Masson revealed, holding the baby up for the king to see. It is her colour!

A queen giving birth to a black baby, presumably fathered by a sex-crazed dwarf...

Not even Game Of Thrones has had that.
She enjoyed the sun, surf and social scene when she graced our shores just a few months ago.

And now Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby is headed back Down Under for a week long whirlwind tour of Sydney and Melbourne later this month.

While most details of her trip are under wraps, the reality TV stars management told Daily Mail Australia she would be launching a fashion campaign for a well-known Australian brand.

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She's heading back: Geordie Shore star Charlotte Crosby is headed back down under for a weeklong whirlwind tour of Sydney and Melbourne later this month

She will also be making several appearances, likely at popular nightclubs where she routinely sells out venues.

The 26-year-old has also carved out some time in her busy schedule to catch a performance of acclaimed French opera Carmen at the Sydney Opera House on June 16.

Charlotte was last in Australia in March with then-boyfriend Gary Beadle to promote the 12th season of the British reality juggernaut.

See Geordie Shore news as Charlotte Crosby is set to head back to Australia in two weeks

Difficult ordeal: News of her tour comes a day after she revealed she suffered an ectopic pregnancy last month, after falling pregnant with ex-boyfriend Gary Beadle child

'Could have died': In an emotional interview  which has now been revealed in a video  she confessed that it happened while he was away filming Ex On The Beach, and that she was rushed to hospital for an operation

This time she will be making the trip solo in the wake of their recent breakup.

News of her tour comes the day after she revealed she suffered an ectopic pregnancy last month, after falling pregnant with Gary's child.

In an emotional interview with Heat magazine  which has now been revealed in a video  she confessed that it happened while he was away filming Ex On The Beach, and that she was rushed to hospital for an operation.

Charlotte had been filming Geordie Shore: Big Birthday Battle at the time and said she wasn't even aware she was pregnant at first, putting the pain down to a heavy period.

Star power: The 26-year-old will launch a fashion campaign for a well-known Australian brand

Sudden: Charlotte had been filming Geordie Shore: Big Birthday Battle at the time and said she wasn't even aware she was pregnant at first, putting the pain down to a heavy period

Whirlwind visit: Charlotte touches down in Melbourne on June 12 before hitting Sydney from June 16 to 19

'I didn't know what the hell was going on and I was in so much pain,' she explained. 'Then the X-ray showed how much damage had been caused.'

Because I'd left it a week, it'd torn open my fallopian tube and I was bleeding internally. He said: 'If you'd have left it any longer, you could have died.''

She called the ordeal a difficult personal time that she chose to share with her fans.

Charlotte touches down in Melbourne on June 12 before hitting Sydney from June 16 to 19.
Businessman Oliver Curtis looked tense as he arrived for another day's hearing into claims of insider trading with PR guru wife Roxy Jacenko.

The 30-year-old was seen looking preoccupied as he headed into the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney on Thursday while clutching his wife's hand.

Appearing to inhale deeply, the suited entrepreneur cut a serious figure beside his blonde wife who wore a Christian Dior dress and designer threads.

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Tense times? Businessman Oliver Curtis looked tense as he arrived for another day's hearing into claims of insider trading with wife Roxy Jacenko at the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney on Thursday

Her dress finished just above the knees, and was teamed with a military style Balmain jacket, which retails for a staggering $3,333.

Roxy's statement jacket, featuring gold buttoned detail, seems to be the same statement number worn by her mother Doreen earlier in the week.

She slipped her feet into a a pair of nude and black Gianvito Rossi heels, while a pair of sunglasses completed her courtroom look.

Meanwhile Oliver sported a navy pinstripe suit, teamed with a crisp white shirt and smart pink tie.

Feeling the heat? The 30-year-old was seen looking preoccupied as he headed into the Supreme Court of New South Wales while clutching his wife's hand

Serious: Appearing to inhale deeply, the suited entrepreneur cut a serious figure beside his blonde wife who wore a Christian Dior dress and designer threads

Court appearance: Roxy once again stepped out in a designer ensemble

Black has certainly been the predominantly popular colour choice amongst Roxy's outfits over the past few weeks while accompanying her man to court.

On Monday she yet again wore a black frock, this time the dress featuring gold metal embellishments across the front.

On Friday, Roxy also wore a black outfit, sporting a leather Louis Vuitton dress.

The cap-sleeved number, officially called the Laced Lambskin Dress, retails for around $5,469 AUD.

It finished just above her knees, and featured stylish slits and lacing detail.

Sleek in black: The 34-year-old blonde PR guru arrived in a black dress on the day, after having previously sported the dark colour during earlier court appearances

Designer outfit: Roxy's sleek black Christian Dior dress, finished just above the knees, and was teamed with a military style Balmain jacket, which retails for a staggering $3,333

Accessoriser: She slipped her feet into a a pair of nude and black Gianvito Rossi heels, while a pair of sunglasses completed her courtroom look

She slipped her feet into a pair of strappy black heels, while also wearing a delicate Cartier bracelet, which seems to be from its 'Divine collection' with products priced from $9,550 up to $122,000 in the range.

While accompanying her husband over the past few weeks, Roxy has sported an array of stylish ensembles, some of them even featuring a hint of colour.

On Tuesday Roxy wore a long-sleeved Miu Miu dress with two-toned Gianvito Rossi heels, while her Doreen sported a military style Balmain jacket, which retails for a staggering $3,333.

Everything is all-white, dear: On Wednesday Roxy wore a brighter Louis Vuitton ensemble

Like mother, like daughter: On Tuesday Roxy wore a long-sleeved Miu Miu dress with two-toned Gianvito Rossi heels, while her Doreen sported a military style Balmain jacket, which retails for a staggering $3,333

On Tuesday last week, she showed off her sartorial style in a bright floral printed mini-dress from Mary Katrantzou, which retails for a whopping $2,835.

The petite PR boss, who runs her own lucrative Sydney-based company Sweaty Betty PR, paired the feminine frock with a pair of $1,800 Azzedine Alaia stilettos, an item favoured by the likes of Kim Kardashian.

Meanwhile on Monday last week, she stepped out in a black dotted Christian Dior dress.

While accompanying her husband two weeks ago, Roxy also opted for sleek black ensembles on more than one occasion.

Court appearance: Roxy Jacenko wore a black dress as she arrived at the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney with husband Oliver Curtis on Monday

Stunning: Last Friday Roxy arrived in a sleek black leather Louis Vuitton dress

On the Thursday of that week she cut a serious demeanour in all-black outfit, as she arrived for court on the arm of her beau.

The astute businesswoman wore a knee-length leather skirt teamed with a black knit and strappy stilettos.

The day before she also opted for a basic black ensemble featuring a wrap skirt tied at the waist paired with a matching fitted singlet.

Earlier: Roxy wore a colourful floral printed mini-dress from Mary Katrantzou, which retails for a whopping $2,835 to support husband Oliver at court trial on Tuesday last week

Spotted: The astute businesswoman has mostly opted for low-key ensembles in dark shades for her court room attire - pictured on Monday last week in a black and white Dior polka dot dress

She did however manage to throw in a touch of her signature glam, capping her look off with her favourite Azzedine Alaia stilettos.

She later added to the streamlined look, throwing on a leather Balmain biker jacket which retails for around $5,500 AUD.

On the Monday of that week, Roxy opted for yet another monochrome ensemble, wearing a loose-fitting LBD from Miu Miu.

The long sleeve garment featured a conservative high neck and a leather belt around the hips before flaring out.

Bright and beautiful: The mother-of-two added a splash of colour here and there throughout the trial. Pictured on Friday the week before the last

Dark days: Roxy wore black for the fifth time in a row as she attended her husband Oliver's trial on the Thursday three weeks ago

The Sydney socialite teamed the chic dress with a pair of nude and black Gianvito Rossi shoes valued at over $1,000 AUD, and wore her glossy blonde mane in a perfect blow dry.

On the first day of her husband's trial the Wednesday before, Roxy wore a conservative chic all-black ensemble, consisting of a high-neck top and a flared A-line skirt.

The PR owner dressed up her professional attire with a pair of strappy leather heels and a gold embellished Louis Vuitton belt.

Day two, saw Roxy dress in a smart miniskirt suit with her gaze hidden behind dark Ray-Bans as the pair walked into court.

Basic black: On Wednesday two weeks ago, the blonde beauty arrived in all-black attire, throwing a leather Balmain jacket over the top of a wrap skirt and matching tank

LBD: The fashionista also previously opted for another monochrome ensemble, wearing a loose-fitting LBD from Miu Miu

She struck a slightly less conservative figure than a day earlier in a shorter ensemble and opted for her more daring heels that laced up to the ankle.

Prosecutors allege Roxy's husband Oliver Curtis conspired with his former best friend to commit insider trading offences between 1 May 2007 and 30 June 2008.

The alleged offences netted the pair a reported $1.433 million, prosecutors told the New South Wales Supreme Court on Wednesday a week before the last.

Just prior to jury selection, the 30-year-old pleaded not guilty to the charge telling Justice Lucy McCallum and potential jurors: 'Not guilty, your honour.'
Emily Blunt looks Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

The pregnant 33-year-old actress rocked casual cool style while heading to lunch in Beverly Hills at the iconic The Palm Restaurant.

No doubt she was in a good mood as just a day earlier Walt Disney Studios announced that she will follow the footsteps of Julie Andrews as the star of a new Mary Poppins film.

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Casual cool: Emily Blunt was spotted heading to lunch at The Palm Restaurant in Beverly Hills on Wednesday

She opted not to wear a large sunhat with flowers all over it on her latest outing, however, and instead rocked an on-trend denim jacket.

Under the jean top she wore a black dress which ended at the knees and strappy gold sandals.

She accessorised with two necklaces with gold pendants and a small black designer leather bag draped over her wrist.

Looking good: The pregnant 33-year-old actress rocked a trendy denim jacket over an LBD and strappy gold sandals

Her blonde locks were worn down in a middle-part as she had natural, complimentary make-up on her face topped off with pink lip.

No doubt this is an exciting time for the pregnant actress as she is not only expecting another child with actor husband John Krasinski but she will also be taking on that aforementioned iconic role.

She will reportedly be playing the magical nanny Mary Poppins in the sequel to the 1964 Disney classic which will be released on Christmas Day.

Magical skills: It was announced that Emily Blunt will be taking on the iconic role of Mary Poppins as Julie Andrews is shown as Mary Poppins from the 1964 Disney musical

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the 36-year-old creator and star of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, will play a new character in the film, Jack, a street lamplighter.

Mary Poppins Returns will the tell the story of an older Jane and Michael Banks and Michael's three children, who are visited by Poppins in the aftermath of a 'personal loss' in Depression-hit London, the studio said.

The nanny will use her unique magical skills and the assistance of Jack to help the family regain its lost joy.

Broadway star: Lin-Manuel Miranda, shown earlier this month in New York City, will portray a new character Jack, a street lamplighter, in Mary Poppins Returns

Hit musical: The Puerto Rican actor and composer is shown in February during a Hamilton performance for the Grammy Awards at the Richard Rodgers Theater in New York City

The film's director is 55-year-old Rob Marshall, whose previous work includes Chicago and Into The Woods, while the script is being produced by Finding Neverland writer David Magee.

PL Travers introduced the world to Mary Poppins in her 1934 book, which Disney adapted for the screen and released in August 1964.

The film won five Oscars, including Best Actress for Andrews.

Emily and her 36-year-old husband Krasinski already have a two-year-old daughter named Hazel together.
She is a fan of hoodies and track suits and dressing for comfort more often than not.

But on Thursday, 26-year-old reality star Sam Frost cut a co-ordinated figure in a wintry Parker as she headed for the Park Hyatt hotel in Sydney.

The 2DAYFM host look stylish figure in a navy parka, skinny jeans and biker boots as she was seen clutching paperwork ahead of giving media interviews.

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Stylish: Sam Frost cut a co-ordinated figure in a wintry parka and skinny leather trousers as she headed for the Park Hyatt hotel in Sydney

Coordinated The 2DAYFM hst cut a jolly figure as she was seen clutching paperwork

Wearing her hair piled into a chignon and shielding her gaze behind dark John Lennon style sunglasses, the former Bachelorette appeared contended as she checked her phone.

Swaddled against the cold in a maroon polo neck, the side kick to 2DayFM Hit 104.1's Rove McManus even ensured her nails were painted the same shade as her jumper.

Such has been Sam's penchant for comfortable casual clothes including hoodies and tracksuits in the past, the presenter's silhouette this week is in stark contrast.

Casual: Sam's penchant for comfortable casual clothes including hoodies and tracksuits in the past

Falling from grace? KIISFM's controversial duo Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson appear to be waning ever-so-slightly

Perhaps her upbeat stance had something to do with news released this week that FM's Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson appear to be waning ever-so-slightly in the ratings war.

The latest figures saw the pair drop their audience share by 1.4 per cent, falling to a total of 9.9, though they have managed to stay on top for now.

Meanwhile, Rove and Sam have gained some ground, picking up 0.3 per cent to a 3.3 share.

Gaining some ground: 2DayFM Hit 104.1's Rove McManus and Sam Frost picked up .3 per cent in audience share

Nova has also experienced in increase in their share, with breakfast pair Ryan 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald and Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli gaining 1.1 points to a 7.4 per cent share.

Though the reasons for Kyle and Jackie's tumble are not totally clear, the pair have experienced some unfavourable press in recent weeks.

Following an interview with former Friends star Matt Le Blanc and Top Gear host Chris Evans, Kyle called the actor an 'a**hole' for giving chilly answers to his line of questioning.

Rocky start: The duo have struggled with ratings, falling at the bottom of the pile in surveys since debuting on air in November last year

'Do you guys believe that you can pull a chick if you have a good car?' was one, while 'What do you guys think of those hanging tags in the car, you know, the air freshener things?' was another.

In April, the duo landed themselves in hot water after a recent phone prank segment called 'Wong Number' involving two Chinese restaurants.

A petition was launched by co-founder for the Asian Australian Alliance Erin Chew, after the hosts called the two restaurants, placing fake orders and then leaving the restaurant owners to speak to one another on the line, which unsurprisingly led to much confusion.

In stark contrast: The first survey of 2016 saw Kyle and Jackie jump to a 12.5 per cent from 10.1, taking out the top Sydney FM breakfast spot yet again

'Their main motivation was to humiliate hard working mum and dad businesses for the sake of improving their ratings at the expense of a few cheap laughs and jokes about being Chinese,' said Erin on the petition page.

Last month, Kyle and Jackie had demonstrated another slip, losing 1.2 points to a total audience share of 11.3 per cent.
He has had a good run at pushing his luck with the Kardashian sisters.

But their patience with Scott Disick may have finally run out after Khloe confessed she would like to punch him 'in the f***ing jugular' in the latest thrilling teaser for their show.

The self-styled chat show host rants about the fun-loving father-of-three's bad attitude, particularly during a family dinner held in remembrance of their parent Robert, in the Keeping Up With The Kardashians clip.

Tough love: Khloe Kardashian said she is so annoyed by Scott Disick's behaviour she wants to smack him in the jugular in the latest KUWTK teaser

Right there: Khloe admitted she would love to punch her pseudo brother-in-law in the throat

The 31-year-old said: 'He acts like he tries real hard to actually play it straight for even a month

'But like he comes and plays this victim, "I lost my family you guys gave up on me."

'How are you trying? I was like, "Scott I want to punch you in your f***ing jugular because of your depressed, negative energy.'

His on-off lover Kourtney, the only sister with a university degree, initially defends the father of her children, but then concedes: 'He's like, "I lost my whole family, I dont have any siblings."

Good golly gosh: Kourtney looked shocked after Khloe said she'd like to assault her on-off lover

Not this again: Kim looked thoroughly bored during the exchange, though she did complain about his 'moping'

'I go, you do, you have all my family members. Nobody's ditching you. They just get frustrated with you.'

Seeing an opportunity for another verbal jab, Kunning Khloe said: 'I text him all the time. Doesn't respond back. (He says) "Oh I forgot, I'm not in a good place."

'Then I talk in the same conversation, "What can I do to get Kourt back." I go, "Scott your not trying at all."'

Forget Scott: Most viewers would have been entranced by Kourtney's wonderful knitwear top

Ultimatum: The self-styled chat show host made her feelings clear as she spoke direct to camera

Afterwards the business mastermind delivers an ultimatum to camera, saying: 'I totally get that Kourtney and Scott's relationship is a work in progress, but Scott needs to be more accountable

'He tends to shift the blame all the time and if you want a relationship with us and you want a relationship with this family you have to try as well.'

Despite the character assassination Scott, who split from Kourtney after being caught canoodling with stylist Chloe Bartoli in Monaco last summer, was spotted taking their three-year-old daughter Penelope to karate practice on Wednesday.

A new episode of the stimulating show is due to air on E on Sunday at 9pm.

Mr Miyagi: Scott was spotted taking his Karate Kid daughter Penelope to Karate class in LA on Wednesday
Being comfortable in her own skin helped her launch a successful career in Hollywood.

But Rebel Wilson recently underwent a plastic makeover.

The Pitch Perfect actress became the latest Aussie star to go on display as a wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Sydney on Monday.

Madame Tussauds figure: Rebel Wilson became the first ever talking wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Sydney on Monday

Attention to detail: The project required a team of 20 artists and took three months

The Sydney-born funny woman made history at the Darling Harbour attraction this week by becoming the first talking wax figure.

Her likelike display will dish out classic one liners to passers-by at the Sydney museum and she recently described the feat as being a "career highlight."

'When I was told I was going to be made into a wax figure, it was a very flattering moment for me and one of my career highlights,' she told Sky News.

See Rebel Wilson updates as she transforms into talking Madame Tussauds wax figure

Thrilled: Rebel was pleased with the end result, saying 'I really love it!'

'I just really hope they put me next to someone good, like Channing Tatum? Actually, can I please request we get our own room, just us two?'

In a bid to make the clay figure appear as lifelike as possible, Rebel, 36, donated her own clothing to complete the job.

The figure is wearing the same embellished green dress that she once wore to the world premiere of Pitch Perfect 2.

Impressive: Artists used clay to create the lifelike sculpture

'The dress really is mine. I wanted to donate from my own closet to give to my own figure. I'm just generous like that,' she said.

The project required a large team of experts and it took around three months to finish but ultimately, the actress is thrilled with the end product.

'It all kicked off with a sitting, a team of sculptors and photographers meticulously took hundreds of measurements and pictures of me. They paid close attention to my vitals, including me skin, teeth, eyes and hair,' she explained.

Talented: The artists matched Rebel's glam makeup with that of the wax figure

'It took around three months and 20 different artists to make, I really love it...Wow!'

Rebel joins the likes of High Jackman, Cate Blanchett and the late Heath Ledger among other A-listers that are on display at the museum.
She's remained calm and well composed over the past three weeks while accompanying husband Oliver Curtis during his court trial.

But on Thursday afternoon, Roxy Jacenko's emotions got the better of her as her investment banker husband was found guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading.

The 34-year-old PR maven was spotted shedding tears while leaving the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, separately from her husband.

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Emotional: On Thursday afternoon Roxy Jacenko was spotted shedding some tears while leaving the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, separately from her husband Oliver Curtis after he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading

In an all-black ensemble, the mother-of-two emerged outside of the court, keeping her head down and not speaking to the press.

She had arrived earlier that morning in rather conservative attire, wearing a black Christian Dior dress teamed with a military style Balmain jacket.

She slipped her feet into a a pair of nude and black Gianvito Rossi heels, while a pair of sunglasses completed her look.

Solemn: In an all-black ensemble, the mother-of-two emerged outside of the court, while her husband Oliver walked the other way

In all black: She was seen wearing a black dress teamed with a matching blazer

Serious: The mother-of-two shaded her eyes with a pair of dark sunglasses

Meanwhile, Oliver sported a navy pinstripe suit, teamed with a white shirt and pink tie.

While the pair arrived at court that day hand-in-hand, they left separately in the afternoon with Oliver walking in one direction and Roxy in the other with her mother Doreen.

The jury delivered its verdict on Thursday following a tense three week trial where Oliver's former best friend and schoolmate John Hartman was pitted against him.

Dark day: She opted for a rather conservative outfit on the day

Hard times: The PR guru understandably struggled to keep her emotions in check

Support: Roxy's mother Doreen Jacenko was by her side

Oliver, 30, could face up to five years imprisonment and/or a $220,000 fine over the charge.

Oliver had vigorously denied the charge, pleading not guilty.

But following two days of deliberations, the eight men and four women of the jury disavowed his plea.

Over the course of the trial, the New South Wales Supreme Court heard Oliver traded using inside information from Hartman on 45 occasions between May 2007 and June 2008.

Devastated: The PR maven was visibly emotional as she made her way back to her car

Keeping her head down: As she made her way towards a dark vehicle, the media personality did not speak to press

There she goes: Roxy was seen getting inside a black Range Rover following the verdict

Waiting: Moments earlier she was seen anxiously waiting for the car to pull up

Tense times? Earlier that morning Roxy and husband Oliver had arrived holding hands

Previous court appearances: Oliver and Roxy pictured arriving at court on Wednesday (L) and on Monday (R), hand-in-hand
With long wavy tresses and round framed red-tinted glasses, she looks more flower power than pop princess.

Selena Gomez channeled a retro vibe as she hit up a nightclub in NYC on Wednesday, where she'd been performing on her tour.

The 23-year-old star showed off her slim figure in a simple black bodysuit and skinny black jeans as she arrived at Up&Down Nightclub.

Flower power? Selena Gomez channeled a retro vibe as she hit up a nightclub in NYC on Wednesday

She added a pair of unusual mesh high-heels and carried a demure black leather bag.

The beauty had put herself through her paces already, blasting out an energetic set to fans at Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the third night of her Revival tour.

The former Disney starlet flaunted her curves in a sheer suit, which covered her assets.

See Selena Gomez updates as she channels a seventies vibe as she hits a club in NYC

Hippy chic: With long wavy tresses and round framed red-tinted glasses, she looks more flower power than pop princess

Hitting the town: The 23-year-old star showed off her slim figure in a simple black bodysuit and skinny black jeans as she arrived at Up&Down Nightclub.

She also changed into an edgy black strapless gown which she wore with saucy leather boots.

Her honey-toned tresses were flowing loose around her shoulders, and assisted to some Beyonce-style lift possibly by a wind machine.

The Hands To Myself hit-maker had a smokey kohl-rimmed eye adding to her sultry siren appearance.

Concert: The beauty had put herself through her paces already, blasting out an energetic set to fans at Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the third night of her Revival tour

She wore an edgy black strapless gown with saucy leather boots

Ultra glam: Her honey-toned tresses were flowing loose around her shoulders, and assisted to some Beyonce-style lift possibly by a wind machine

Cheeky: The former Disney starlet flaunted her curves in a sheer suit, which covered her assets

Sultry: The Hands To Myself hit-maker had a smokey kohl-rimmed eye adding to her siren appearance

Red hot: She cut a sexy figure on stage during the sizzling show

Joe Jonas and his new band DNCE opened for the ex-girlfriend of Justin Bieber.

She kicked off her Revival Tour in the U.S. earlier this week in Boston, to the excitement of fans who made posters declaring their love for her.

Her Revival tour will continue on Thursday when she hits the Newark, New Jersey before venturing out to Washington DC and Cincinnati over the weekend.

Showtime: Joe Jonas and his new band DNCE opened for the ex-girlfriend of Justin Bieber

Rocking it: Joe performed with his band, dressed in a T-shirt
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton secured her second batch of endorsements from North Dakota political officials this week by gaining the support of multiple state tribal leaders.

The Clinton campaign announced Wednesday it had earned the support of Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Mark Fox and Richard McCloud, chairman of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians.

Also supporting Clinton are the chairs of two tribes that have land in both North and South Dakota: Chairman David Archambault II of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and David Flute, chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation.

Fox and other chairmen named in the campaign statement said Clinton has a positive record of working to promote more positive relations between the tribes and federal government.

Clintons endorsements from tribal leaders comes a day after she received the endorsement of more than a dozen North Dakota Democratic-NPL lawmakers, including the partys minority leaders in both legislative chambers.

The North Dakota caucus begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday, with the purpose of electing delegates in each legislative district to attend the partys State Delegate Selection Committee meeting June 18 in Bismarck. At the June 18 meeting, 23 delegates and two alternates will be selected to represent the state at the partys national convention July 25-28 in Philadelphia.

Clinton leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in a tight race for the 2,383 delegates needed to secure the partys nomination for president.

North Dakota is among the final six states to hold their primaries and caucuses.
She stunned on the red carpet last year when she wore diaphanous gown to the 4th Annual Australians In Film Awards.

But Kym Wilson left fans confused on Thursday when she arrived at the Heath Ledger Scholarship awards in Los Angeles clad in a haphazard ensemble.

The 43-year-old actress suffered a fashion faux pas by mis-matching a heavy, boucle jacket with a pair of leather short shorts.

Kym Wilson chose to channel the sartorial sense of another show-woman, Madonna, as she attended the Heath Ledger Scholarship awards in Los Angeles on Thursday

She also decided to layer on several clashing accessories, including an oversized floral headband, a layered pearl neck-piece, a knuckle-duster inspired ring and a series of gold bracelets.

Kym also carried with her a bold black and white clutch bag, while adding height to her frame with a pair of red kitten heels.

Slicking her hair completely away from her face, she wore a slick of wine-coloured lip and a rosewood-hue blush.

Her outfit can be likened to Madonna's controversial trouser-less outfit she wore to the 2013 Met Gala.

The Logie winner was also seen posing animatedly alongside Home And Away actor Nick Hardcastle.

Her outfit can be likened to Madonna's controversial trouser-less outfit she wore to the 2013 Met Gala.

Kym rose to fame after appearing as Darcy Hudson on A Country Practice in the early 90's.

Following her success on the small screen she went on and appeared on Australian television McLeod's Daughters and Heartbreak High.

In good company! The Logie winner was also seen posing animatedly alongside Home And Away actor Nick Hardcastle (right)

That's better! In contrast, she stunned on the red carpet last year when she wore diaphanous gown to the 4th Annual Australians In Film Awards

Acting elite: Following her success on the small screen she went on and appeared on Australian television McLeod's Daughters and Heartbreak High

She was also known for her relationship with legendary INXS rocker Michael Hutchence - she was the last person to see him alive before his 1997 death - and also posed for Playboy in 1999.

In 2008, she became a board member of Australians In Film, based in Los Angeles.

She is married to American writer Sean OByrne, whom she met through Russell Crowe at the premiere of his film Mystery, Alaska.
Brie Larson has become the frontrunner to portray Captain Marvel in an upcoming standalone superhero film.

The 26-year-old actress is in early talks to play the lead in the first female-led superhero movie by Marvel Studios and she's also the studio's first choice, according to an article on Wednesday by Variety.

Larson earlier this year won the Oscar for Best Actress for her work in the 2015 drama Room.

The frontrunner: Brie Larson, shown last month hosting Saturday Night Live in New York City, has become the frontrunner to portray Captain Marvel

Sources said that she was leaning toward taking on the part.

The Captain Marvel script is being written by Inside Out writer Meg LeFauve and Guardians Of The Galaxy co-writer Nicole Perlman.

A director has not yet been attached to the project.

Popular character: Captain Marvel is shown in a still from Marvel Comics

Captain Marvel is scheduled for release on March 8, 2019.

The comic book character Carol Danvers also known as Ms Marvel made her first appearance in 1967.

The US Air Force pilot had her DNA fused with an alien during an accident and gained superhuman strength, flight and the ability to shoot concussive energy bursts from her hands.

She's a winner: Brie is shown in February in Los Angeles after winning the Oscar for Best Actress at the 88th annual Academy Awards

She's one of the most popular and powerful superheroes in the Marvel universe and has been deemed a feminist icon.

Larson can next be seen in the British crime drama Free Fire also starring Armie Hammer.

The California native also has a starring role in the monster film Kong: Skull Island due out in March 2017.
He was one of Australia's biggest acting exports.

And eight years after Heath Ledger's passing, his family joined together to keep his memory alive at the Australians in Film event in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The late actor's father, Kim Ledger, along with Heath's half-sisters Olivia Ledger and Ashleigh Bell were on-hand at Mr C hotel in Beverly Hills for the announcement of the annual Heath Ledger Scholarship.

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Keeping his memory alive: Heath Ledger's (L-R) sister Ashleigh Bell, father Kim Ledger and sister Olivia Ledger were on hand for the announcement of the annual Heath Ledger Scholarship in LA on Wednesday

The Dark Knight star's younger sister Ashleigh, dressed in a black suit, announced Australian up-and-comer Ashleigh Cummings as this year's recipient.

And the honour seemed to have the desired effect, with the winning starlet gushing about the impact the Perth-born actor has already had on her career.

'Heath has, and will always be, a powerful source of inspiration to me, so to receive this award is inordinately humbling,' Ashleigh said in her acceptance speech.

'I'd like to sincerely thank AiF and the beautiful Ledger family for supporting young artists in our passionate endeavours to continue in Heath's wake; hopefully making waves in both professional and personal realms, as he did,' she added.

Dapper trio! The late actor's family were all dressed smartly in black ensembles for the dinner event at Mr C hotel in Beverly Hills

United: The family regularly come together in honour of their beloved Heath

Meanwhile, Kim, who is the patron of the scholarship noted: 'On behalf of Heath's family and Australian's in Film please accept our warmest congratulations and best wishes for greater success going forward.'

Kim looked dapper in a black suit with matching tie, offset by a crisp white shirt underneath and matched his ensemble with thick rimmed black glasses.

Meanwhile, Olivia looked darling in a chic sleeveless high-low black dress, paired with on-trend lace-up ankle booties.

Twice as nice! Heath's younger sister Ashleigh Bell handed the prize over to winner Ashleigh Cummings

Hoping to make an impact: The young winner said she hopes to make as much of an impact professionally as The Dark Knight star has done

Ashleigh's prize includes a US$10,000 cash fund as well as a two year scholarship at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting and Theatre in Los Angeles, along with flights, Uber credit and immigration assistance for when she's ready to make the move to Hollywood.

Runners-up Harley Bonner and Sara West, who each scored a return trip to LA, for when they are ready to 'profile themselves in the US market' as well as a scholarship to attend Masterclasses at Screenwise Film & TV School for actors in Sydney.

Many of Heath's famous friends are benefactors to the annual scholarship, given in his honour.

In addition to the Ledger family's contribution, it's understood Michelle Williams, Naomi Watts, Hugh Jackman, Rose Byrne, Vince Vaughn, Liam Hemsworth, Alex O'Loughlin, Deborra-Lee Furness, Phillip Noyce, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gregor Jordan and Nicole Kidman also contribute.

Also in attendance at the dinner was: Abbie Cornish, Jessica McNamee, Luke Hemsworth and wife Samantha Hemsworth, Todd Lasance, Nicky Whelan, Callan McAuliffe and Gia Carides.

benefactor: Heath's ex-partner Michelle Williams is among a number of famous benefactors to the scholarship
She's loving life in Las Vegas.

And after partying hard, on Wednesday Ex On The Beach star Megan Rees basked in the Nevada sunshine with close friend Lauryn Goodman.

Megan, 21, showed off her incredible curves in a tiny red bikini as the girls cooled off around their pool with some fruity drinks.

Sin city fun: After partying hard in Las Vegas all week, on Wednesday Ex On The Beach star Megan Rees basked in the Nevada sunshine with close friend Lauryn Goodman

Megan chose a teeny tiny bikini for her relaxing day in the Vegas heat.

The racy number highlighted the blonde's ample assets, with jewel detail on the top adding a touch of glam bling.

Megan layered a sheer black skirt over her tiny two-piece and kept comfy in flip flops.

Helping hand: The best pals made sure they were well protected from the sizzling heat as they rubbed suncream into each other for their poolside afternoon

Beach bod: Megan, 21, showed off her incredible curves in a tiny red bikini as the girls cooled off around their pool with some fruity drinks

Getting close: Lauryn, sister of Ex On The Beach star Chloe, matched her pal's glam holiday look with her own skimpy bikini

She left her platinum blonde locks loose and swept back from her face with the help of her shades.

The reality star finished off her poolside look with a full face of makeup.

Lauryn, sister of Ex On The Beach star Chloe, matched her pal's glam holiday look with her own skimpy bikini.

Kiss me quick! Megan showed off her cute lipstick kiss tattoo on her hip in her red hot bikini

Ready for the sun: Megan returned the favour, covering Lauryn in sunscreen

Curve appeal: The girls were full of body confidence in their skimpy swimwear

She added a pair of bright yellow trousers to her black two piece and tassel sandals.

The girls relaxed around the pool with their drinks, but made sure they were protected from the sizzling Vegas hit with suncream.

Ensuring they reached every last inch of skin, the pals helped each other out with the suncream application before hitting the pool.

Racy beachwear: Megan's tiny bikini featured some barely there thong style briefs

And relax: The girls enjoyed a cool dip in their hotel pool after a hectic few days of partying

Inked: Megan flaunted another tattoo on her derriere as she kicked back

Megan and Lauryn are living it up in Vegas, enjoying wild nights out in Sin City this week.

On Wednesday the girls had big plans, with an excited Megan tweeting:

'Today's plans will consist of a helicopter tour and a champagne picnic overlooking the Grand Canyon. Life is good.'

Chic cover up: Lauryn added a pair of yellow split trousers over her bikini

This is the life: The girls headed off for the short walk to the pool at their plush resort

Daring: Lauryn looked incredible in her mismatched black and tribal print bikini

Girls' trip: The close friends enjoyed a natter in the sunshine
They've only just emerged from a 16-year hiatus that had their cult-like following of fans wondering whether they would ever see a second album.

And elusive Melbourne band The Avalanches have finally announced the release of that second album, Wildflower.

The first track from the long-awaited album, which debuted on Zane Lowe's Beats 1 Radio Show, is titled Frankie Sinatra and features Detroit rapper Danny Brown and MF Doom.

Finally: The Avalanches have announced the release of their highly-anticipated second album, Wildflower, after 16 years away

The album, which is a follow-up to their 2000 debut LP Since I Left You, is set to be released on July 8 via record label Astralwerks.

The band sent out messages via social media on Thursday, beginning their statement with the simple words: 'We have a new album', before apologising to fans for keeping them waiting all this time.

'What kept us going was a belief in the day-to-day experience of music as a life force - as life energy.

'Sorry we kept you waiting': The band uploaded this statement to their Twitter and Instagram accounts on Thursday, apologising to their fans for the long wait

'How music can change the tone of your day. How the sunlight refracts differently through the atmosphere can make the world look different, changing colours and feelings.'

They concluded: 'What a beautiful thing that sound waves can be. It's magic.'

The band have teased fans and musos with their imminent second album for over a decade.

And in keeping with their secretive nature, the band treated fans to a 30-second sample clip of potential new music that could be heard over a telephone hotline in April.

The confirmation of their new album comes after it was announced the electronic group would be playing Byron Bay's Splendour In The Grass 2016 music festival.

They will perform alongside an impressive line-up, including exclusive international headliners The Cure and The Strokes.

Electronic producer Flume will lead the local lineup which includes Courtney Barnett, former Australian Idol contestant turned indie musician Matt Corby and King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard.

The band's make-up and members have undergone many changes over their expansive existence, and today it consists of three members, Robbie Chater, Tony Di Blasi, and James De La Cruz.
She gave birth to her first child in January.

And Cat Deeley looks to be revelling in motherhood as she enjoyed a low-key stroll with her baby son in London on Wednesday.

The 39-year-old TV presenter looked casual yet stunning in a checked shirt with a leather jacket underneath as she pushed the tot's pram along the street.

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Natural beauty: Cat Deeley looks to be revelling in motherhood as she enjoyed a low-key stroll with her baby son in London on Wednesday

Cat shares her son with husband Patrick Kielty, who she married in an idyllic ceremony in Rome in 2012 before welcoming their adorable son six months ago.

The pretty star nailed off-duty chic in her checked shirt which boasted red and blue hues, which she layered over a grey T-shirt comprised of a mottled cotton.

Over the top she gave the look an edgy feel with her black leather biker jacket, cut in a classic shape with a vintage feel thanks to the cut and battered leather.

She flashed her long legs in her skin-tight black jeans while showing off her youthful flare for fashion with the addition of a pair of box fresh white trainers.

Pushing along: The 39-year-old TV presenter looked casual yet stunning in a checked shirt with a leather jacket underneath as she pushed the tot's pram along the street

Glowing: Cat showed off her fresh-faced complexion by going make-up free for her stroll - highlighting her ageless complexion to the fullest

Cat showed off her fresh-faced complexion by going make-up free for her stroll - highlighting her ageless complexion to the fullest.

Her honey blonde tresses, which have earned her lucrative contracts with haircare ranges, were worn in loose waves tumbling over her shoulders and falling from a centre parting.

Cat certainly had the glow that comes with motherhood, and she has said she's 'besotted with the baby.'

'People keep asking me if I've been hitting the gym, but I haven't! I think breastfeeding is key and it's worked well for me,' the British blonde recently told Closer magazine.

Beaming: Cat and the Irish comedian - who wed in Rome four years ago - have yet to release the name of their bundle of joy

Happy as ever: 'Hey Now...That moment when you decide to rename your first born @jeffreytambor,' Patrick joked in a May 9 tweet while posing alongside the hilarious Arrested Development star

'Add to that running around after a new baby and you don't need to work out.'

Cat and the Irish comedian - who wed in Rome four years ago - have yet to release the name of their bundle of joy.

'Hey Now...That moment when you decide to rename your first born @jeffreytambor,' Patrick joked in a May 9 tweet while posing alongside the hilarious Arrested Development star.
He was feted with a prize from the Pope for his tireless humanitarian work later in the week.

And George Clooney looked as though he was ready to kick back momentarily, as he soaked up the sun while cradling a glass of wine during his trip to Rome on Friday.

The 55-year-old movie star, who is in the Italian capital with his wife Amal, looked typically handsome as he enjoyed his afternoon in the sun.

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Chilled out: George Clooney looked as though he was ready to kick back momentarily, as he soaked up the sun while cradling a glass of wine during his trip to Rome on Friday

George, soared to fame as an international heartthrob in the late 1970s, went super casual in a short sleeved black polo shirt.

He paired the look with matching black trousers - looking sleek and sophisticated in the swish ensemble which gave him a streamlined finish.

Rounding out the outfit was a chunky, no-doubt designer watch, which added a splash of bling and an injection of movie star glamour.

His skin was deeply tanned which drew out the array on tones in his silver fox mane.

See George Clooney updates as he enjoys some well-deserved downtime

Having a wine time: The 55-year-old movie star, who is in the Italian capital with his wife Amal, looked typically handsome as he enjoyed his afternoon in the sun

He cradled a glass of while wine as he drank in the views from his heightened stoop, looking classically handsome as he did so.

Two days after his relaxed break, George and Amal attended a seminar led by the Pope called 'Un Muro o Un Ponte' at the Paul VI Hall in Vatican City.

The event aimed to promote work by global educational initiative organisation Scholas Occurentes which works with young people all over the world, and highlighted the plight of migrants attempting to reach Europe.

A divine moment: Two days after his relaxed break, the duo attended a seminar led by the Pope called 'Un Muro o Un Ponte' at the Paul VI Hall in Vatican City'

As well as George, Pope Francis awarded medals to Richard Gere and Salma Hayek for their contributions.

'Important values can be transmitted by celebrities,' said one of the organisers, Lorena Bianchetti, adding that the actors had agreed to be ambassadors for one of the foundation's arts projects.

On Sunday Pope Francis held an emotional meeting with hundreds of children on Saturday, including a Nigerian boy whose parents drowned in a shipwreck, and told them migrants 'are not dangerous, but in danger'.

The meeting followed a surge in migrant traffic this week between Libya and Italy, with more than 14,000 saved from overcrowded boats since Monday and three consecutive days of shipwrecks in which hundreds may have died.
Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell is divorcing his wife of 32 years.

In an official statement given to MailOnline from Burrell's spokesperson - following the initial reports earlier this week - the 57-year-old florist's impending marital split from wife Maria has been confirmed.

'Our clients Paul and Maria Burrell would like to end any speculation over the past few days by confirming that they are currently going through a divorce,' the statement read.

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Split: Princess Diana's former butler Paul Burrell is divorcing his wife of 32 years Maria, it has been confirmed in an exclusive statement to MailOnline

'The decision to file for divorce was a mutual one, both Paul and Maria remain the best of friends and have two wonderful sons together who remain their priority.

'Paul and Maria will not be giving any further comments and would kindly request that their privacy is respected during this time.'

It was recently reported that Burrell - who is known for his reality TV stints and his job as Princess Diana's butler - was planning more TV appearances to pay for the case.

However, he has since denied such claims.

The florist has reportedly been living apart from Maria, 62, for years, and the couple have two grown-up sons Alexander and Nicholas together.

Claim to fame: Burrell, who served Princess Diana (pictured together in 1994) for ten years, claimed the Princess of Wales called him her 'rock' and the 'only man I ever trusted'

TV insiders claim Princess Diana's 'rock', a runner-up in series four of the ITV reality show I'm A Celebrity, is set to take part in Strictly Come Dancing and an episode of ITV's Through The Keyhole.

Friends close to the disgraced butler claim he will also make an appearance in an ITV daytime show with Brian McFadden called Who's Doing The Dishes?

A source previously told the Sunday Express: 'One of the reasons he wishes to star in reality shows could be because he needs money for an impending divorce.

'He is splitting from his long-suffering wife and may need to pay her off.'

It is claimed Burrell, who met Maria at Buckingham Palace when she was working for the Duke of Edinburgh, has been running a flower shop in Farndon, Cheshire, while Maria resides in Florida.

Burrell initially did not deny the divorce rumours but claimed he had not been asked to appear on any reality shows.

'I've not been asked to compete on Strictly,' he said, and responded 'Am I?' when asked if he was starring on any other shows.

It's over: The 57-year-old florist has reportedly been living apart from Maria, 62, for years and the couple have two grow-up sons Alexander and Nicholas

Burrell married Maria in 1983. A established tradition suggested one of them should give up their job with the Royal Family, but the Queen made an exception for them, allowing both to remain in Royal service.

He joined Prince Charles and Diana at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire in 1987 and remained there until her death in 1997.

In 2003 Burrell wrote a 2003 tell-all memoir A Royal Duty that went into detail about his time serving Prince and Princess of Wales, and featured letters to him from Diana.

In the international bestseller, which Princes William and Harry branded a 'betrayal', he claimed Diana described him as her 'rock' and 'the only man I can trust'.

With the proceeds of the book, he bought a property in Clermont, near Orlando, Florida, in 2004.

TV dreams? TV insiders claim Burrell is lined up to take part in Strictly Come Dancing and an episode of ITV's Through The Keyhole (pictured appearing on Stars In Their Eyes in 2006 as Richard Gere)

New life: The florist has made a number of TV appearances since Diana's death, including on Ant And Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (left) and pictured as a runner-up on ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2004 (right)

The relocation came two years after he was accused of stealing 352 items from Princess Diana's estate after she died - charges that were later dropped.

In 2006 he also released a follow-up book called The Way We Were. In his work, he claimed Diana's mother Frances Shand Kydd didn't like him and believed he was 'just another hanger-on grasping at Diana's celebrity'.

Maria moved to Florida in 2010 after Burrell admitted he had not told 'the whole truth' at the inquest into Diana's death in 1997, which was held in 2008.

HOW PAUL BURRELL BECAME THE 'ONLY MAN' PRINCESS DIANA TRUSTED Burrell, who entered Royal Service at age 18, as a Palace footman, became the Queen's personal footman a year later. He joined Prince Charles and Diana at Highgrove House in Gloucestershire in 1987 and remained there until her death in August 1997. Burrell was the only non-family member to be present at Diana's private burial at the Spencer estate Althorp. In 1993 she wrote a letter to him that claimed the Prince of Wales was plotting to kill her so he could marry Tiggy Legge-Bourke, the former nanny to Princes William and Harry. The note was shown at the inquest into her death and was sent to Burrell in October - 10 months after her separation from Prince Charles was announced. Burrell wrote two tell-all books after her death - A Royal Duty in 2003 and a follow-up book called The Way We Were in 2006 - in which he claimed she had called him 'the only man I can trust'. It is believed the Princess of Wales entrusted him with her private papers during her divorce. He said: 'She was surrounded by the richest, most educated people and she chose a lorry driver's son from Derbyshire. 'She called me her rock and I took care of her.' Advertisement

Household name: On I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! he stayed in the Australian jungle for three weeks - coming second to comedian Joe Pasquale

Burrell has made several appearances on TV following the Princess of Wales' death.

In 2004 Burrell was runner-up in series four of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! in which he stayed in the Australian jungle for three weeks - coming second to comedian Joe Pasquale.

He was a judge and trainer on Australian Princess in 2005, and in March 2006 appeared on Countdown in Dictionary Corner.

In early 2006, he appeared as Richard Gere on ITV's Stars In Their Eyes, singing Razzle Dazzle from the film Chicago.
She has stood by her husband's side over the past three weeks during his court trial and has showed no sign of weakness.

However, it seemed the weight of the past few weeks was finally hitting Roxy Jacenko, as she appeared frustrated after her husband, Oliver Curtis, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading.

The 34-year-old PR maven was understandably struggling to keep her emotions in check, appearing not only upset, but also irritated as she waited for her car outside the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney on Thursday.

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Taking its toll: PR Queen Roxy Jacenko appeared distressed as she left the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney after her husband Oliver Curtis was found guilty of conspiracy to commit insider trading

In an all-black ensemble, the mother-of-two waited on the side of the road with her mother Doreen Jacenko, holding her hands out in what appeared to be an exasperated gesture.

She was visibly upset as she left court, shedding tears while trying to hide behind her aviator sunglasses.

She had arrived earlier that morning in a rather conservative attire, wearing a black Christian Dior dress teamed with a military style Balmain jacket, and she slipped her feet into a a pair of nude and black Gianvito Rossi heels.

Waiting: She appeared to be frustrated as she waited for her car with her mother Doreen Jacenko by her side

There she goes: Roxy was seen getting inside a black Range Rover following the verdict

Emotional: She was spotted shedding some tears while leaving separately from her husband

Meanwhile, Oliver sported a navy pinstripe suit, teamed with a white shirt and pink tie.

While the pair arrived at court that day hand-in-hand, they left separately in the afternoon with Oliver walking in one direction and Roxy in the other with her mother Doreen.

The jury delivered its verdict on Thursday following a tense three week trial where Oliver's former best friend and schoolmate John Hartman was pitted against him.

Solemn: In an all-black ensemble, the mother-of-two emerged outside of the court, while her husband Oliver walked the other way

In all black: She was seen wearing a black dress teamed with a matching blazer

Dark day: She opted for a rather conservative outfit on the day

Hard times: The PR guru understandably struggled to keep her emotions in check

Support: Roxy's mother Doreen was close by for support after the distressing day

Oliver, 30, could face up to five years imprisonment and/or a $220,000 fine over the charge.

He had vigorously denied the charge, pleading not guilty.

But following two days of deliberations, the eight men and four women of the jury disavowed his plea.

Over the course of the trial, the New South Wales Supreme Court heard Oliver traded using inside information from Hartman on 45 occasions between May 2007 and June 2008.

Devastated: The PR maven was visibly emotional as she made her way back to her car

Keeping her head down: As she made her way towards a dark vehicle, the media personality did not speak to press

Tense times? Earlier that morning Roxy and husband Oliver had arrived holding hands
It's become the new celebrity hot spot.

And Malibu's Soho House once again hosted a flurry of big stars on Wednesday evening as the likes of Courteney Cox, Kevin Nealon and Owen Wilson were seen leaving the venue - and they appeared to have had a riot as they exited the hotspot with beaming smiles on their faces.

Leading the way was Courteney, 51, who kept it casual for the occasion in a knitted grey sweater, her face seemingly sporting minimal make-up.

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Star-studded: Courteney Cox joined a host of celebrities including Owen Wilson (not pictured) and Kevin Nealon (left) for dinner at Soho house in Malibu on Wednesday night

Her raven tresses cascaded around her face in effortless waves around her porcelain complexion, which was partly concealed beneath a pair of black shades.

The former Friends star appeared in high spirits as she left the hotspot and laughed with some of her fellow actors.

The Cougar Town actress was then pictured driving away from the venue in the company of a male companion, shortly after Blended actor Kevin Nealon.

Effortless: Leading the way was Courteney, 51, who kept it casual for the occasion in a knitted grey sweater, her face seemingly sporting minimal make-up

Natural beauty: Her raven tresses cascaded around her face in effortless waves around her porcelain complexion, which was partly concealed beneath a pair of black shades

Feeling good: The former Friends star appeared in high spirits as she left the hotspot and laughed with some of her fellow actors

Leaving them laughing: It seemed comedian Kevin Nealon couldn't resist sharing one final joke as he pulled off

The social butterfly was seendining at another venue that's also glittered with stars as she grabbed a bite at Craig's in West Hollywood earlier this week.

Transforming into a rock chick for the occasion, the Scream actress unleashed her vampy side in a chic all-black ensemble.

The actress teamed a punky leather biker jacket with a sheer black top and fitted high waist trousers.

Making the drop-off! The Cougar Town actress was then pictured driving away from the venue in the company of a male companion, shortly after Blended actor Kevin

Rock chick: The social butterfly was seen dining at another venue that's also glittered with stars as she grabbed a bite at Craig's in West Hollywood earlier this week

Highlighting her toned waist with a slim belt, Courteney completed the look with grey strappy sandals that added height to her frame.

Keeping her make-up minimal, the mother-of one accessorised with her staple black rimmed glasses and wore her dark locks in their typical poker straight style.

Courteney enjoyed dinner at popular celebrity spot Craig's restaurant in West Hollywood, before heading to the launch of EB Florals By Eric Buterbaugh with Saks Fifth Avenue.

Punk rock princess: Transforming into a rock chick for the occasion, the actress unleashed her vampy side in a chic all-black ensemble

Sylish duo: Courteney joined creator Eric Buterbaugh attended the launch of EB Florals By Eric Buterbaugh at Saks Fifth Avenue later in the evening

Attending the launch of the new luxe fragrance line collaboration, Courteney posed alongside creator Eric Buterbaugh, host Sara Foster and actor Balthazar Getty.

The actress, who shares daughter Coco, 11, with ex-husband David Arquette, reportedly became engaged to Snow Patrol musician Johnny McDaid, 39, again in April.

Irish star Johnny proposed to Courteney in June 2015 after two years of dating, but the couple split in December before reportedly reconciling early this year.

Posers: Courteney cosied up to host Sara Foster, who wore a striped bardot top and casual jeans

All in black: Courteney and Balthazar Getty showed their support at thestar-studded beauty event

'Courteney and Johnny are planning a fall wedding,' a friend told Life & Style.

'They just took a trip to London to meet with their wedding planner. They are considering Castle Leslie where Paul McCartney married Heather Mills, as well as Ballintubber Abbey where Pierce Brosnan got married.'

'She really wants a low-key wedding with about 100 guests,' said a pal.'Their good friend Ed Sheeran will be playing and Johnny will be singing a song he wrote especially for Courteney.'
A lawsuit challenging the state's corporate farming law, which was described by the North Dakota Farm Bureau as unconstitutional as well as discriminatory, was filed in federal court Thursday.

The lawsuit comes less than two weeks before voters weigh in on a ballot measure to determine whether or not to uphold exceptions to corporate farming law passed by lawmakers last session.

North Dakota Farm Bureau President Daryl Lies told reporters Thursday the states farmers should have the same opportunities as other businesses in the state to craft a corporate structure from which to operate.

At the heart of the issue is the simple question of whether the state of North Dakota should be able to pick winners and losers, Lies said. Our court system is the only appropriate place to settle this question without the issue being derailed by emotion.

Senate Bill 2351 passed last session following a lengthy debate. It provided exemptions to allow for corporate dairy and swine operations numbering at least 50 cows or 500 swine on a farm of up to 640 acres.

Nine states have corporate farming laws and most have some form of exemptions; North Dakotas corporate farming law has been in place since 1932.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said late Thursday afternoon the lawsuit hadnt yet been served to his office. Once his office is served, there will be 30 days to respond in federal court.

We have defended the corporate farming legislation before, Stenehjem said of the original law.

Stenehjem said his office will review the Farm Bureaus arguments and his office will respond soon.

Following the passage of SB2351, North Dakota Farmers Union worked to get Measure 1 on the June 14 ballot to ask voters whether they agree with the Legislatures decision. The group North Dakotans for Family Farms was formed to push for a no vote, which would overturn SB2351.

We werent surprised. There were some rumors over the past few months, North Dakotans for Family Farms spokeswoman Kayla Pulvermacher said of the lawsuit.

Lies said the group has been working on the lawsuit for more than a year and that was part of the reason why the Farm Bureau didnt get involved in the SB2351 debate.

Its been contemplated; its not a last-minute thing, Lies said of the lawsuit.

Lies referred to corporate farming laws in South Dakota and Nebraska being overturned as examples of why he believes their case is strong.

While other states around us have vibrant livestock industries as a result of having access to the tools associated with a corporate business model, why should North Dakotans be forced to operate at a disadvantage? Lies said.

Pulvermacher called the timing of the lawsuits unveiling suspect but vowed that efforts for a no vote on Measure 1 wont be impacted.

The lawsuit, however, will need to be watched following June 14.

Its going to be a long waiting game. Were not going to be done with this issue for a while, Pulvermacher said.

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said he felt the Legislature had used a pragmatic approach in crafting SB2351 by listening to all sides in order to avoid a lawsuit.

Why now? Goehring said of the lawsuit. This will be interesting to see how this plays out.
She first appeared on MasterChef Australia in 2014, but was tragically forced to bow out of the competition after suffering from a head injury that she sustained while snowboarding.

Now Cecilia Vuong has been sent home from the cooking competition for a second time after losing a challenge to competitors Heather Day and Elise Franciskovic.

'It's been an amazing journey,' she said as she excited the Channel Ten series, before adding: 'I think my kids would be proud of me.'

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'It's been an amazing journey:' Cecilia Vuong was sent home from MasterChef Australia on Thursday night's episode after previously exiting the competition in 2014 due to a brain injury

Following Wednesday night's Greek food challenge, the MasterChef Australia constants were tasked with testing their taste buds in a challenge that saw them blindfolded and identifying one inch cubes of food.

The first four to get it wrong would find themselves in the second round, forced to cook for their life.

Things got off to a smooth start, with the contestants correctly identifying easy snacks like cheese and apple.

Tough challenge: The MasterChef Australia constants were tasked with testing their taste buds in a challenge that saw them blindfolded and identifying one inch cubes of food

Laying down the law: The judges informed everybody that the first four to get it wrong would find themselves in the second round, forced to cook for their life

However, things took a tougher turn as the round progressed, with Mimi being the first to fail after wrongly identifying mango as nectarine.

'Mango is my favourite fruit and I got it wrong,' she lamented.

Cecilia was the next loser after identifying ham as chicken.

Zoe decided to use her hands to identify the food in addition to using her mouth and nose, pulling the food apart and sniffing her fingers like some kind of fastidious cave woman.

'Can I do something weird?' she said, as she then started rubbing the food on her face and lips to 'feel the texture.'

'Is it tuna?' she finally asked, guessing correctly.

'Can I do something weird?' Zoe started rubbing one of the food cubes all over her face in an attempt to identify it correctly

'Is it tuna?' Zoe's strange method proved to be successful as she correctly identified the meat

Heather then called lemon a grapefruit, putting her up for elimination, while Elise guessed lamb as veal.

The four failed contestants then got started with the second cooking challenge, which saw them having to cook using the item that they had guessed incorrectly.

Celicia got off to a slow start, spending too much time collecting ingredients which ultimately gave her rivals a fifteen minute head start.

Bottom four: Mimi, Cecilia, Heather, and Elise were in the bottom four and thus forced to compete in the second round

Yum: The contestants had to use whatever food they incorrectly identified as a part of their dish

Elise was also in a race against the clock as she struggled to get her lamb cooked in time.

Eventually she was forced to remove the meat from the oven and transfer it to the pan to fry.

While the lamb was eventually fine, it was the sauce that ended up bombing due to it being too salty.

As it got to the eleventh hour, Heather started to struggle as she had issues with her calamari.

Mimi's mango dessert was the first to get judged, receiving a positive reception for its flavour and passion-fruit sauce.

Heather was next with a crunchy lemon calamari, which was generally received positively but criticised for being too 'lemon heavy' as she used lemon in virtually every part of the dish.

Tasty: The judges liked Heather's crunchy lemon calamari dish

'Lemon heavy:' However, Heather was criticised for using too much lemon in the meal

Doting mother Cecilia was next, who impressed the judges with her croquettes but received criticism for not incorporating enough ham into the meal.

Last was Elise, who wowed the judges with her lamb dish, but also turned them off with the salty sauce.

However, it was Cecilia who was sent home due to her lack of ham.

'It's been an amazing journey,' she said as she left, before adding: 'I think my kids would be proud of me.'

What?! Despite the judges only complaint being that Cecilia didn't use enough ham, she was somehow still sent home over Heather's 'lemon heavy' dish and Elise's botched salty sauce
On Thursday, the MasterChef Australia contestants were tasked with testing their taste buds in a challenge that saw them blindfolded and identifying one inch cubes of food.

And while the majority of the aspiring chefs performed as expected, Zoe Konikkos stood out with her strange methods.

Zoe decided to use her hands to identify the food in addition to her mouth, pulling the food apart and sniffing her fingers like some kind of fastidious cave woman.

'Can I do something weird?' Zoe Konikkos used some strange methods to identify food in a challenge on Thursday night's episode of MasterChef Australia

'Can I do something weird?' she said, as he then started rubbing the food on her face and lips to 'feel the texture.'

'Is it tuna?' she finally asked, guessing correctly.

Zoe's unorthodox approach ultimately helped her succeed in the round, redeeming her for Thursday night's episode which saw her team lose a Greek-food challenge.

Unfortunately, four women from her group weren't so skilled when it came to identifying the cubes of food.

'Is it tuna?' The 31-year-old rubbed food all over her face and sniffed her fingers during the strange display

The MasterChef Australia contestants were tasked with testing their taste buds in a challenge that saw them blindfolded and identifying one inch cubes of food

Flop: Mimi, Cecilia, Heather, and Elise were the four who failed the challenge, forcing them to compete in a second challenge with the loser being sent home

Mimi being the first to fail after wrongly identifying mango as nectarine. 'Mango is my favourite fruit and I got it wrong,' she lamented.

Cecilia was the next loser after identifying ham as chicken.

Heather then called lemon a grapefruit, putting her up for elimination, while Elise guessed lamb as veal.

Bitter: Heather's calamari received praise, but was also criticised for being 'too lemony' due to the abundance of lemon in the dish

Salty: Elise botched the sauce for her lamb, which turned out far too salty

The four failed contestants then got started with the second cooking challenge, which saw them having to cook using the item that they had guessed incorrectly.

Sadly, it was Cecilia who was sent home for not using enough ham in her croquettes.

'It's been an amazing journey,' she said as she left, before adding: 'I think my kids would be proud of me.'

Minor mistake: Cecilia's only fault was not using enough ham in her cheese croquettes, which received praise from the judges
She's been inundating her Instagram feed with shots of her adorable puppy, Kuma.

And Helena Christensen appears more in love than ever with the most recent addition to her family, as she treated her miniature Australian Shepherd to a walk through New York.

Heading out for a stroll along the river with a male friend, the 47-year-old model cut a casually chic figure as she lavished attention on her adorable four-legged friend.

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Summer style: Helena Christensen appears more in love than ever with the most recent addition to her family, as she treated her miniature Australian Shepherd, Kuma, to a walk through New York

Making the most of some downtime in the city, the Danish model headed out for a relaxing walk in the sunshine with her four-legged friend.

The brunette beauty - who has posed for the likes of Chanel, Versace and Prada - opted for a laid back summer style.

Teaming a low-cut black vest with a stone dungaree midi skirt, the billboard beauty and photographer managed to retain her modesty while showing some skin.

And they called it puppy love: Heading out for a stroll along the river with a male friend, the 47-year-old model cut a casually chic figure as she lavished attention on her adorable four-legged friend

Subtly drawing attention to her cleavage thanks to the top's lace detailing along the neckline, Helena also made sure her lithe and tanned legs were on display - thanks to her midi dress.

Helena rounded her look off with a pair of complementary sandals, which only added to her summery vibe.

She accessorised her look in a typically chic yet low-key manner, with a black leather handbah and over-sized tortoise shell sunglasses.

Plenty of attention: Making the most of some downtime in the city, the Danish model headed out for a relaxing walk in the sunshine with her four-legged friend

Seasonal and stylish: The brunette beauty - who has posed for the likes of Chanel, Versace and Prada - opted for a laid back summer style

Wearing her dark locks tied up in a messy bun, the model kept her hair off of her face - inadvertently showcasing her striking and pretty features.

Her friend went for an equally relaxed look, teaming a navy Tee with ripped jeans and white hightop sneakers.

And it seems her bearded pal was just as enamoured with her puppy, as the bearded gent picked up Helena's puppy and lavished cuddles and attention on it.

Topping up the tan? Teaming a low-cut black vest with a stone dungaree midi skirt, the billboard beauty and photographer managed to retain her modesty while showing some skin

Another fan of Kuma: It seems her bearded pal was just as enamoured with her puppy, as the bearded gent picked up Helena's puppy and lavished cuddles and attention on it

Her new best friend: Helena is believed to have brought her puppy home in March, and the pair have been near inseparable since

Back in May the model shared an artsy black and white selfie with fellow model Martha Hunt who had the pup clutched to her shoulder.

'This sweet girl came by for a lil puppy hangout,' Helena wrote alongside the snap she posted on her Instagram.

The Australian Shepherd has one blue eye and one brown, a common feature in the multi-colored breed.

She also took to Instagram to let her fans know that she'd decided to call the new addition to her family Kuma, explaining it means bear in Japanese.

Helena also recently launch a beachwear collaboration with Thomson, creating a range of boyfriend style beach shirts.
Jennifer Garner departed London on Thursday, carrying her adorable son Samuel in her arms.

The 44-year-old actress - who has been spending time in the UK with her estranged husband Ben Affleck and their three children - looked in a great mood as she walked through Heathrow Airport with her youngest's arms wrapped around her neck.

Going make-up free, the gorgeous Hollywood star cut a glowing figure, her defined features and flawless complexion no doubt catching the eye of onlookers as she made her low-key journey towards her flight.

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Low-key: Jennifer Garner carried her four-year-old son Samuel in her arms at London's Heathrow Airport on Thursday

She had dressed comfortably for her flight, teaming a pair of cosy slightly fitted white jogging bottoms with a monochrome top.

Adding some warmth to her ensemble to battle against the unusually chilly British June weather, the 13 Going On 30 star also sported a chunky quilted blue jacket.

Her brunette mane was slicked back away from her beautiful face, which was often seen smiling as she chatted to her four-year-old son.

Happy! The 44-year-old Hollywood star looked in fantastic spirits as she cooed over her youngest child while walking through the terminal

The little boy - the younger brother to Jennifer and Ben's two daughters, Violet, 11 and Seraphina, seven - flashed a small grin as he chatted to his mum, before the pair headed off on their journey, perhaps back home to Los Angeles.

Almost a year after splitting from Ben, 43, there are now reports that the couple could be set to reconcile, despite claims that he had cheated on Jen with the family nanny.

Friends of the former couple, who have spent much of their time together in recent months, have told Us Weekly that they are heading towards a full reunion.

Comfort first: She had dressed comfortably for her flight, teaming a pair of cosy slightly fitted white jogging bottoms with a monochrome top

Little cutie: The little boy flashed a small grin as he chatted to his mum, before the pair headed off on their journey, perhaps back home to Los Angeles

A number of sources spoke to the magazine about the changing nature of the former couple's relationship, as they are spending the summer in Europe.

With Ben based in London while he films The Justice League: Part One and his estranged wife joining him with their children, the pair have been spending a lot of time together away from the stresses of Hollywood.

And, according to Us Weekly it's working, especially after yet another quick getaway.

Last month they headed to Paris for a mini vacation and, more recently, went to Italy and stayed as a family, at Venice's Gritti Palace hotel.

Wrapping up: Adding some warmth to her ensemble to battle against the unusually chilly British June weather, the 13 Going On 30 star also sported a chunky quilted blue jacket

A friend of the couple told the magazine that the mini getaways had helped rekindle the flame between the pair and while they are not back together, Jen is changing her tune and open to it.

The friend told Us Weekly: 'Jen would definitely get back together with him.'

Another insider elaborated saying the trip had helped mend the wounds of their hearts.

The source said: 'A lot of damage has been mended. They are really in a good place.'

However, Ben's camp do not seem to be so helpful, with insider telling the magazine it was strictly about the children.

The Ben source said: 'They're co-parenting while he's filming. That's all it is.'
He's something of a jet-setter.

And Jude Law was pictured with Dutch actress Halina Reijn as they attended a party in Amsterdam together alongside a bevvy of actors on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old British hunk looked dapper in a suit as he signed autographs for fans while the actress, 40, sported an A-line white gown.

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Heading out: Jude Law and Dutch actress Halina Reijn were seen in Amsterdam together alongside a bevvy of actors on Wednesday

Jude looked extremely dashing in his pinstripe navy blazer worn with a thin scarf layered beneath a scoop neck top which gave a glimpse of his chest.

He then sported matching navy trousers and smart shoes making for a slick ensemble for the event which was attended by a host of other actors.

The star was clutching a copy of Bob Moore's 2009 book Don't Call Me A Crook: A Scotsman's Tale of World Travel, Whisky and Crime alongside what seems to be a script.

Meeting the fans: The 43-year-old British hunk looked dapper in a suit as he signed autographs for fans while the 40-year-old sported a billowing white gown

Slick: Jude looked extremely dashing in his pinstripe navy blazer worn with a thin scarf layered beneath a scoop neck top which gave a glimpse of his chest

Meeting the fans: . He then sported matching navy trousers and smart shoes making for a slick ensemble for the event which was attended by a host of other actors

She slipped into a stunning white dress which she paired with stylish brown ankle boots, which made the most of her still slender pins.

The pair were pictured walking past the Grand Theatre of Amsterdam, Stadsschouwburg. Halina is actress of the grand theatre group Toneelgroep Amsterdam of director Ivo van Hove.

Halina and Jude and the other actors of Toneelgroep Amsterdam were meeting the star for there play together, which is called Obsession.

According to the play's website, Gino, an attractive vagabond, stops at a small roadside restaurant and gas station.

It is operated by Giovanna and Giuseppe. Giovanna is stuck in an unhappy and loveless marriage to an older man in order to escape a life of poverty.

A passionate affair occurs between her and the vagabond. Together, they devise the plan to kill her husband.

Pals: She slipped into a stunning white dress which she paired with stylish brown ankle boots, which made the most of her still slender pins

A bumpy trip: The white dress had a flirty hemline which hung loosely off her figure

Jude's trip to Amsterdam comes after his ex-fiance Sienna Miller spoke to PORTER's Features Director Vassi Chamberlain about her relationship with her famous ex-fiance.

She confessed that, while she doesn't see him much anymore, they still have a strong bond.

'We don't see each other that much. I care about him enormously,' she said.

Chatting away: Jude's trip to Amsterdam comes after his ex-fiance Sienna Miller spoke to PORTER's Features Director Vassi Chamberlain about her relationship with her famous ex-fiance Jude, she confessed that, while she doesn't see him much anymore, they still have a strong bond

Sienna and Jude were the showbiz world's golden couple back in the mid-noughties, after becoming engaged in December 2004.

They parted ways in 2005 after he cheated on her with his children's nanny, and attempted to reconcile and try again as they reunited in 2009.

However, while their romance didn't last the second time around, she was able to heal their friendship and they are clearly still on great terms over a decade after their initial break-up.
She's been busy filming her latest project, Our Girl, in Manchester.

And it seemed Michelle Keegan was making the most of her downtime away from the set of the BBC drama on Wednesday, as she enjoyed a day out with her brother Andrew.

The 28-year-old actress was seen picking up a sweet treat following a hard day at work, as spent an evening with her sibling and a friend.

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Family time: It seemed Michelle Keegan was making the most of her downtime away from the set of the BBC drama in Manchester, on Wednesday, as she enjoyed a day out with her brother Andrew

Michelle - who first shot to fame on ITV's Coronation Street - rocked a relaxed look as the trio strolled through the city centre.

And it seems that the Keegan kids were in the mood for a summery treat, as Michelle indulged her sweet tooth by tucking into a magnum ice cream.

Obviously in the mood to kick-back the pretty actress donned a grey scoop-neck sweater, which she teamed with a pair of complementary jogging bottoms.

Summer treats: The 28-year-old actress was seen picking up a sweet treat following a hard day at work, as spent an evening with her sibling and a friend

The former soap siren added a touch of high-end fashion to her ensemble by accessorising her look with a Louis Vuitton handbag.

Wearing her long chestnut tresses loose and pushed back off of her face, the Ordinary Lies star allowed her arrow-straight locks to tumble down past her shoulders.

The actress, who recently celebrated her first anniversary with husband Mark Wright, accentuate her naturally striking features with a complementary make-up palette.

Michelle began filming Our Girl earlier this year, taking over the lead role from Lacey Turner, who will reprise her character of Molly Dawes but in a minor capacity due to her hectic filming schedule with EastEnders.

Kicking back: Michelle - who first shot to fame on ITV's Coronation Street - rocked a relaxed look as the trio strolled through the city centre

For her scenes, the star was forced to move to South Africa for six months, separating herself from her new husband Mark.

However, the couple have sunnier climes in sight for their next home, as they are reportedly set to ditch the UK.

Mark and Michelle, who have been plagued by rumours that their marriage is on the rocks in recent months, are thought to be heading to Los Angeles.

According to Heat magazine, the former TOWIE star and the actress are hoping that the big move will give their careers a boost as well as a new start away from the UK.

A source told the magazine: 'They think it could be really good for their marriage and they feel like it's a really good time for a fresh start.
She rescued her dog Ava earlier this year.

And on Wednesday, Andie MacDowell continued to show just how attached she was to her new best friend.

The beaming 58-year-old actress grinned from ear-to-ear as she took her little pooch out for a spot of shopping in Beverly Hills' upmarket Rodeo Drive.

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Puppy love! Andie MacDowell took her dog Ava out for a spot of shopping in Beverly Hills on Wednesday

The makeup-free actress ran her fingers through her natural ringlets as she held her little pooch in her other free hand.

She had a black leather purse slung over her shoulders and sported a pair of ruby-tint sunglasses.

Adding a Midas touch were Andie's strappy gold sandals.

Ava was kitted out with a dark red leash, and looked relaxed as she rested in her master's clutch.

Stylin': Ava wore a red leash, and looked relaxed as she nestled in her master's arms

Andie rescued little Ava earlier this year, but not long after, she made waves after she ran into some trouble while trying to fly from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach with her dog.

The actress and Ava were booked on a flight from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach but an airline employee told her she had to move towards the back of the airplane even though she'd paid for First Class seats for herself and the dog on January 22.

Once she took her new seat, she took several selfies with fans, before posting one of them on Twitter with the caption: '@AmericanAir HELP I paid for first class & they put me in tourist because of my dog that I pre-booked & paid for.'

Aww: MacDowell cuddled her little dog during a hike last month

Things then turned slightly ugly, as the Twittersphere responded that her use of 'tourist' was derogatory. This led to some heated back and forth.

Many did sympathize with the point that she was simply asking for what she had already paid for, while some others said she was complaining about a 'first world problem.'

Though she did admit she wanted a refund for the second half of her trip, she quickly assuaged critics, promising that she would give the money to charity.

She later posted that the donation would be earmarked for Charleston volunteers for literacy & College of Charleston department of education.

Meanwhile, Andie will star in the upcoming series Model Woman as the tempestuous matriarch Bertie Geiss.

The show is about a renowned modelling agency that is led by Bertie, and takes place during the 1970s.
She made sure she was looking her best ahead of her summer break with a spray tan.

And Ashley James showed off her sun-kissed figure as she touched down in Mykonos on Thursday.

The former Made In Chelsea star didn't waste any time as she slipped into a series of skimpy bikinis for some sizzling Instagram snaps.

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Here come the girls: Ashley James (far right) showed off her sun-kissed figure as she touched down in Mykonos on Thursday

Ashley was seen posing with her girlfriends in a tiny pink bikini for one fun shot, with the halter neck number perfectly displaying her curves.

Another post on social media saw the blonde in a shot taken from behind as she flaunts her pert derriere in a bright print piece.

'Brazilian bikini. Not a Brazilian booty,' the cheeky star captioned the super hot snap.

Cheeky: Another post on social media saw the blonde in a shot taken from behind as she flaunts her pert derriere in a bright print piece

Ashley hasn't just been topping up her tan during her first 24 hours in Greece though, as she shared another shot of herself post-workout.

The blonde beauty shows off her impressive abs in a red crop top and matching shorts as she flexes her muscles outside her villa.

'Forced myself to get up and go for a quick run along the coast. Didn't want to but now I feel great, saw some beautiful sights, and can eat whatever I want for the rest of the day! #balance #travel #mykonos #mykonos2016 #fitfam,' the fitness conscious star captioned the sporty pic.

Fitness fanatic: Ashley hasn't just been topping up her tan during her first 24 hours in Greece though, as she shared another shot of herself post-workout

Ashley made sure she wasn't going anywhere without topping up her tan before jetting off on her hols.

On Wednesday the former Made In Chelsea star uploaded her photo in a black two-piece ahead of her sun-kissed trip to the stunning Greek isle and said: 'See you soon sunshine.'

Ashley showed off her incredible curves in her sultry black two piece as she posed on a bed for the shot.

Beach babe! Ashley James looked abs-tastic flaunting her washboard stomach and ample cleavage in a bikini ahead of her Greek holiday

The TV presenter put on an incredibly busty display in the simple yet chic number - proving less really is more.

Her black bikini was dusted with a sparkly silver trimming and bows on either side of the pants.

She kept her blonde locks loose and parted at the centre to frame her face, as she pushed her hair back with her sunglasses.

She captioned the picture: 'Off to Mykonos - see you soon sunshine! Always been a factor 50 girl so managed to squeeze in a spray tan before leaving, thank you for my healthy glow @fakebakeunited @secretspauk '

Kooky: Ashley James looked like she was headed to a festival on Saturday as she left her radio show at Hoxton Radio in London

Just last month Ashley James looked like she was off to join a crowd of festival revelers after she left her weekly radio show in this get-up.

Dressed in a rainbow-coloured pom-pom jacket and fuchsia jeans, the former Made In Chelsea star seemed better dressed for a party than work commitments.

Ashley had just finished presenting her radio show at Hoxton Radio when she left pulling a suitcase for the long, Bank Holiday weekend.

'When London gives me grey sky, I bring my own colour,' she wrote on Instagram beside a post of her sporting a hot pink lipstick to match her garish get-up.
She's not shy about flaunting her famous curves and enviable hourglass figure.

And Fiona Falkiner, 33, gave her Instagram followers a cheeky insight into her delightful-looking day out on the water in Italy, sharing a short video on Thursday.

The clip shows a fresh-faced and smiling Fiona quickly posing for the camera as she stands on the stern of a small boat, before jumping playfully into the deep blue water surrounding her.

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Racy: Fiona Falkiner showed off her figure in a snap added to her Instagram account on Thursday evening

She has her ample assets on display in a skimpy white bandeau-style bikini with a halter-neck and her bikini bottoms tie in cute bows at her hips.

The former Biggest Loser contestant and now host of the show has been enjoying a whirlwind trip around the world over the past couple of weeks, combining work and pleasure.

She is currently in Ischia, an island in the Bay of Naples where she is soaking up the Italian sun.'

Fresh-faced and happy! Fiona 33, also shared a short video to Instagram showing her jumping off a boat in a skimpy white bikini

'Boating': The model and TV presenter is currently in Italy where she is soaking up the sun after visiting the US and the UK

The model and TV presenter has been regularly sharing snaps from the US, the UK and now Europe with her followers.

Before departing for her extensive trip around the world, Fiona was enjoying a new relationship with a mystery restaurateur.

A while it is not known whether the two are still an item, Fiona seemed very happy with her new man in April.

London life: Fiona was recently in London where she enjoyed seeking out cafes and healthy foodie joints

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the launch of her friend Jodi Anasta's range for Mon Purse, the blonde beauty gushed over her restaurateur beau.

Suggesting online dating services such as eHarmony, for which she is an ambassador, the 33-year-old said: 'If you're kind of not really meeting new people then why not try something new.

'I did and I went on some really great dates and met an incredible guy. Just step out of the box and try something different.'

Bronzed beauty: The stunner has been on a whirlwind trip around the world, including stops in LA, New York and the UK

Little is known of the beauty's new boyfriend other than that he is in the restaurant business.

Speaking of their relationship after stepping out for the first time together last month, Fiona said the pair were enjoying their time together.

'The time I spend with him is really lovely and we've been doing really fun stuff.

Comfortable and confident: Having lost 30kg after her stint on The Biggest Loser's first season in 2006, Fiona got down to a size 12 before realising it wasn't a 'maintainable' size for her

'He's a restaurateur. One of my passions is food and I love checking out restaurants and stuff like that; so that's definitely something we have in common'.

She also revealed hopes to one day design a range of plus size clothing, adding: 'I represent the curvier lady.

'It's something I've always been passionate about.'

Busy lady! Fiona, who hosts The Biggest Loser Australia has said she would like to one day design a range of plus size clothing

And as an advocate for healthy body and lifestyle transformations, Fiona has often preached messages of body positivity and accepting one's imperfections.

Having lost 30kg after her stint on The Biggest Loser's first season in 2006, Fiona got down to a size 12 before realising it wasn't a 'maintainable' size for her.

'I get asked a lot what size I am, it's not about size it's about being the best you that you can be,' she wrote on social media.
While many may forget the real reason there is a holiday on Memorial Day, this star certainly is actually aware of its important.

On Tuesday, two days after remembering the country's fallen soldiers, Josh Duhamel was seen carefully taking the American flag down from his house on Brentwood, California.

The 43-year-old could not resist giving the flag one big dramatic wave before popping it in the back of his truck.

Patriotic star: On Tuesday, two days after remembering the country's fallen soldiers, Josh Duhamel was seen carefully taking the American flag down from his house on Brentwood, California

Josh spent the weekend with son Axl, 2, and his wife Fergie who had just returned home after being over in Europe after performing during the Grand Prix.

The actor comes from a family of veterans with his aunt deployed to the Balkans and Iraq and his grandfather was a World War II vet.

Josh's grandfather, Walter Bachmeier, passed away two months ago, so the star paid tribute to his life and service on Memorial Day on Monday.

Posting a picture of his late loved one in his uniform, Josh wrote: 'In loving memory of my Grampa Walter Bachmeier: February 6, 1921 - April 27, 2016. And to all the men and women who have fought our country. God bless you.'

Proud: The 43-year-old could not resist giving the flag one big dramatic wave before popping it in the back of his truck

Back together: Josh spent the weekend with son Axl, 2, and his wife Fergie who had just returned home after being over in Europe after performing during the Grand Prix

The actor is also dedicated to helping recent veterans through the #EnlistMe campaign which helps injured veterans by providing them wheelchair-accessible smart homes, which have high tech features to aid them so they can live independently.

Josh told the Associated Press: 'Having met a lot of these veterans, Navy SEALs, all kinds of special-ops guys over the last several years working, I really took an interest and really started learning more about what these guys really go through, especially when they come back.'

Giving back is important booth for those that it helps and also for his son to understand not everything is easy, the star said.

'God bless you': Josh's grandfather, Walter Bachmeier, passed away two months ago, so the star paid tribute to his life and service on Memorial Day on Monday

'The challenge in raising a kid in LA, you know with two parents who - we've literally come from nothing, my wife and I.

'And I want him to sort of understand that and respect that and understand the importance of not only money, but respect and compassion and kindness and all those kinds of things.'

They mist be doing something right, as Josh said Axl as a 'spirited little dude' and 'a really sweet-natured kid.'
Officials representing charities say granting North Dakotas five American Indian tribes exclusive rights to host online gambling could effectively end charitable gambling in the state. The tribes want Gov. Doug Burgum to approve the idea under tribal-state agreements known as compacts. The current compacts expire at the end of this year and only Burgum can approve them. The tribes argue that their casinos have been hurt by the explosion of the charities Las Vegas-style pull tab machines. Burgum heard arguments from the charities and tribes on Friday. He says the terms of the compacts are still being negotiated and should be completed next month.
He became father to twin girls Gracie Jane and Alice Rose on Monday.

And Ronnie Wood, 69, looked as though he was throwing himself fully into his new role as he headed to hospital to bring his wife Sally Humphreys, 38, home with their new tots.

The Rolling Stones' rocker was joined by Sally's parents Alison, 66, and Colin, 70, as they left the couple's London home on Thursday weighed down with all the necessities for two new babies.

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Bagged up: Ronnie Wood, 69, looked as though he was throwing himself fully into his new role as he headed to hospital to bring his wife Sally Humphreys, 38, home with their new tots

Ronnie was clearly prepping for the arrival of the mother and tots as he carried out a host of bags and clothing, while surrounded by a bevvy of aides and his helpful in-laws.

Clad in a colourful ensemble, the veteran rocker sported a purple shirt with green trousers and a black padded coat - ready for the busy day ahead.

Ronnie's in-laws carried gift bags out of the house, with a driver seen filling the boot of a car with piles of presents and supplies for the proud parents.

Alison and Colin looked laid-back and casual in their ensembles, ready for a day of putting all hands on deck with their new granddaughters.

Happiness! The Rolling Stones' rocker was joined by Sally's parents Alison, 66, and Colin, 70, as they left the couple's London home on Thursday weighed down with all the necessities for new babies

Proud grandparents: Sally's mum Alison looked like she was prepared for her new role as grandmother

All ready? Ronnie has done the role a number of times, as he is father to four others, yet he no doubt still feels the nerves that come with new fatherhood

Off he goes: It was indisputable that Ronnie had the glow of a new father

Atop the grandparents' and parent's loads, two helpful aides toted a red and black car seat to the car.

Ronnie Wood's twin girls are being spoiled by their famous father's nearest and dearest.

While the Rolling Stones rocker, who turned 69 on Wednesday,is headed to collect the girls, Sally and their girls, the couple's first children together, are resting in hospital four days after the birth.

On Tuesday a statement from the Wood's representative confirmed the happy news.

Brightly coloured: Clad in a colourful ensemble, the veteran rocker sported a purple shirt with green trousers and a black padded coat - ready for the busy day ahead

Beaming: Ronnie could not wipe the smile of his face as he headed into the car

Car seated and ready: Atop the grandparents' and parent's loads, a helpful aide toted a red and black car seat to the car

Packing up: A car seat was placed in the car in preparation for the return of the tots

The smile of a new dad: Ronnie looked overjoyed as he departed the residence

Furry: Naturally the car seats were only the very best for the children of a rock legend

'Ronnie & Sally Wood are delighted to announce the birth of their twins Gracie Jane (6lb) & Alice Rose (5.7lb),' the statement read.

'The girls arrived on 30 May at 22:30 and all are doing brilliantly. The babies are perfect.'

The smitten pair - who have been married since 2012 - have eagerly been awaiting the arrival of their babies, and earlier on Monday evening the musician shared a snap of himself ahead of the impending birth.

Showing him smiling into the camera along with his dog, he wrote: 'Waiting #38weeks+.'

Happy to help: The car seats were quick to get in the vehicles to ensure a safe return of the tots

More help: A second assistant helped with the other car seat for the second child

Sally was reportedly expecting to give birth to her daughters - Ronnie's fifth and sixth children - in June.

The couple were last pictured together on May 20 sharing a kiss in the street, with Sally's burgeoning baby bump on show.

Their tender moment in public came just days after Ronnie shared his excitement about the birth 'in the next few weeks'.

'Waiting': On Monday, the Rolling Stones rocker shared an Instagram snap as he revealed he was 'waiting' for the baby at 38 weeks

Sally was top-to-toe in a dark shades, keeping comfortable in flat boots while he dressed in his characteristically cool fashion.

The rocker wore a purple blazer with an open charcoal shirt and multiple chain necklaces and kooky slipper shoes to the image.

Ronnie took to Twitter in his excitement, last week to say: 'I'm getting excited about the arrival of my twin girls sometime in the next few weeks.'
It's every father's worst nightmare, but it seems Colin Fassnidge has found a way to ensure no potential suitors ever go near his daughter Maeve - however far in the future that might be.

The My Kitchen Rules judge and celebrity chef shared a snap on Thursday of his daughter's duvet, which he revealed to be a picture of his own face, as he joked about it working to keep future boyfriends at bay.

'Yes it is weird but very cute that my Maeve wants me in her room all the time,' the 43-year-old joked.

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Protective: Celebrity chef Colin Fassnidge shared a snap of his daughter Maeve's bedspread on Thursday, which consisted of a picture of his own face, as he joked about it working to keep potential boyfriends at bay

'Yes it is weird but very cute': The unique bedspread features a promotional image of the My Kitchen Rules judge with a forbidding look on his face from the recent series of the popular cooking show

The protective father added: 'And for the future that's the way it's going to stay BOYS!!!'

The unique bedspread features a promotional image of Colin with a forbidding look on his face from the recent series of the popular cooking show.

Colin and his wife Jane Hyland share daughters Maeve and Lily together.

Family snap: Colin and his wife Jayne Hyland share daughters Maeve and Lily together

Family fan: Despite both Colin and Jane hailing from Ireland, the family-of-four now resides in Sydney

The renowned chef who hails from Ireland, recently told Sunday Style that life in the public eye has never been easy as he opened up about the difficulties of juggling a professional career and his home life.

The father-of-two explained to the glossy publication that it is very difficult to live with a chef because they 'burn out' quickly.

'It's a hard life, it's the highest divorce, drugs, drink, suicide industry,' he told.

'Living with a chef is very hard, it's not good. We are the worst people in the world.'

Coming clean: The 43-year-old recently opened up about the difficulties of juggling a professional career with family

Truth: The television star explained that being a chef and married to on is 'a hard life, it's the highest divorce, drugs, drink, suicide industry'

Despite admitting life isn't all as it seems, Colin revealed he and Jane have made a promise to one another that the drama in the kitchen remains there.

'The rule we had was you can go crazy at work but you don't take it home...it doesn't always happen like that,' he said.

The celebrity chef began his career at London's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in 1994.

He stayed in London for five years before flying to Australia in 1999 and met his wife, who also hails from Ireland.

Staying strong: Despite admitting life isn't all as it seems, Colin revealed he and his wife, Jane Hyland, have made a promise to one another that the drama in the kitchen remains there

Colin worked at some of Sydney's most acclaimed restaurants including Banc and est.

He's been the head chef of The Four In Hand Dining Room in Paddington since October 2005, transforming the pub into a two hatted restaurant.

The location sadly closed its doors in early 2016 with Colin claiming to Daily Mail Australia at the time that it was due to location being sold for $10million.

Making a name for himself: Since arriving in Australia in 1999 Colin has run an operated two Sydney-based restaurants - 4/Fourteen and The Four In Hand

'The reason we are getting rid of it is because it is too small for what we are doing...it costs more to run the venue because there are that many other rooms.

'So we want to do something similar but bigger with the Four In Hand name,' he continued.

He now operates 4/Fourteen in Surry Hills which he opened in May 2012.

Besides his renowned cooking locations, he was also crowned GQ magazine's Chef of the Year in 2013 and released his long-waited debut cook-book Four Kitchens in February the following year.
She connected with her spiritual side during a trip to Bali last month to get over her ex, James 'Arg' Argent.

And it was evidently time to liven things up as Lydia Bright arrived at Las Vegas' Mccarran International Airport on Wednesday evening to start her party holiday.

The 26-year-old TOWIE star looked like she enjoyed a comfortable flight in a matching grey lounge-wear set as she accompanied by her older sister Georgia.

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Vegas baby! Lydia Bright, 26, arrived at Las Vegas' Mccarran International Airport on Wednesday evening with her older sister Georgia ahead of their holiday

Despite the reality star taking to Twitter to unleash her anger at the three hour delay, she looked in a much more jovial mood as she touched down on the other side.

With her newly-darkened locks pulled up in to a bun, she hid her make-up free face in a large pair of sunnies, which looked suitably prepared to embrace Nevada's sizzling heat.

Georgia on the other hand opted to flash a slither of her toned abs with a plain black crop top and skin-tight leggings.

She added a pop of colour with a lilac hoody which was tied around her waist and a pair of matching trainers.

Comfy sisters: Lydia opted for a matching grey lounge-wear set and oversized sunnies as her sister flaunted a hint of her stomach in a black crop top and leggings

'Parday!' Lydia expressed her excitement for the party trip on Twitter

The blonde also kept her tresses free as she clutched on to her hot pink suitcase, while Lydia opted for a jet black case.

Lydia was inevitably ready to party which was evident on her Twitter, before she heard of her flight's delay.

'Lego. Vegas 2016 bound!!! Bring on the PARDAY @vipvegas2016 @steviejayuk!', she enthused with a series of clapping emojis.

Shortly after, she let off some steam by tweeting: 'DELAYED. FUMING HELL'- obviously annoyed that she had to wait to cut loose as a newly-single independent woman.

Annoyance: Lydia's trip didn't get off to a good start as there was a three hour delay

She also opened up last month to TV host Lorraine Kelly about her choice to break-up with Arg: 'It was a tough decision to make but I felt like I didn't have a choice. I'm stronger and happier now.'

'I've just been away to Indonesia and I've come back a lot more positive and strong and looking forward to the future.'

Lorraine chimed: 'You'll always love him, though. You'll always be friends. I want to shake him sometimes.'

Lydia replied: 'You and me both, Lorraine.'

Calling it quits: Lydia broke up with her long-term TOWIE beau James 'Arg' Argent earlier this year




She has been throwing herself into filming the widely-anticipated second series of Our Girl.

And Michelle Keegan was back to work once more as she filmed energetic scenes at Manchester Piccadilly Station with her love interest on Thursday.

The 28-year-old actress was dressed low-key yet lovely as she ran through the station hand in hand with her co-star in dramatic scenes.

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Run! Michelle Keegan was back to work once more as she filmed energetic scenes at Manchester Picaddily Station with her love interest on Thursday

Michelle proved she can look just as stunning in low-key garb as she does on the red carpet as she slipped into a simple pair of jeans with a denim shirt.

She pulled over a suede khaki biker jacket which coordinated nicely with her funky Nike trainers - a super stylish edge to her look.

For some shots she was carrying a muted holdall yet in between shots she carried her own personal Louis Vuitton handbag, proving the contrast between her character and soap star status.

Her handsome co-star, who she was seen kissing in scenes late last month, was clad in a stylish navy blazer with a white shirt done up to the neck.

Taking a break: The 28-year-old actress was dressed low-key yet lovely as she ran through the station hand in hand with her co-star in dramatic scenes

On screen love interent: Michelle proved she can look just as stunning in low-key garb as she does on the red carpet as she slipped into a simple pair of jeans with a denim shirt

Michelle began filming Our Girl earlier this year, taking over the lead role from Lacey Turner, who will reprise her character of Molly Dawes but in a minor capacity due to her hectic filming schedule with EastEnders.

For her scenes, the star was forced to move to South Africa for six months, separating herself from her new husband Mark.

However, the couple have sunnier climes in sight for their next home, as they are reportedly set to ditch the UK.

Run along: She pulled over a suede khaki biker jacket which coordinated nicely with her funky Nike trainers - a super stylish edge to her look

Running along: Michelle could not resist looking lovingly at her co-star

Mark and Michelle, who have been plagued by rumours that their marriage is on the rocks in recent months, are thought to be heading to Los Angeles.

According to Heat magazine, the former TOWIE star and the actress are hoping that the big move will give their careers a boost as well as a new start away from the UK.

A source told the magazine: 'They think it could be really good for their marriage and they feel like it's a really good time for a fresh start.

Dashing: Her handsome co-star, who she was seen kissing in scenes late last month, was clad in a stylish navy blazer with a white shirt done up to the neck

Quick! The duo were seen running hand in hand through the station

The happy couple: Michelle began filming Our Girl earlier this year, taking over the lead role from Lacey Turner, who will reprise her character of Molly Dawes but in a minor capacity due to her hectic filming schedule with EastEnders

'They've both made no secret of their wish to crack America, and they're making plans to move over there.'

Just one day before, Michelle rocked a relaxed look as she enjoyed a day out with her lookalike brother Andrew .

It seemed Michelle was making the most of her downtime away from the set of the BBC drama on Wednesday, as she enjoyed a day out with her sibling.

The actress was seen picking up a sweet treat following a hard day at work, as spent an evening with her sibling and a friend.

All eyes on me: As ever Michelle looked her best when she strutted her stuff in front of the camera

Nearly: According to Heat magazine, the former TOWIE star and the actress are hoping that the big move will give their careers a boost as well as a new start away from the UK

Made it! Michelle clamboured on to the train once she realised she's managed to catch it

Family time: It seemed Michelle was making the most of her downtime away from the set of the BBC drama in Manchester, on Wednesday, as she enjoyed a day out with her brother Andrew

Michelle - who first shot to fame on ITV's Coronation Street - rocked a relaxed look as the trio strolled through the city centre.

And it seems that the Keegan kids were in the mood for a summery treat, as Michelle indulged her sweet tooth by tucking into a magnum ice cream.

Obviously in the mood to kick-back the pretty actress donned a grey scoop-neck sweater, which she teamed with a pair of complementary jogging bottoms.

Summer treats: The actress was seen picking up a sweet treat following a hard day at work, as spent an evening with her sibling and a friend

The former soap siren added a touch of high-end fashion to her ensemble by accessorising her look with the Louis Vuitton handbag she frequently rocks.

Wearing her long chestnut tresses loose and pushed back off of her face, the Ordinary Lies star allowed her arrow-straight locks to tumble down past her shoulders.

The actress, who recently celebrated her first anniversary with Mark, accentuate her naturally striking features with a complementary make-up palette.
She's the co-founder of a billion dollar company, a movie star with several titles under her belt and a happily married mother of two daughters.

But Jessica Alba has admitted that she struggled during the early days of her fame.

The 35-year-old spoke about shedding her sex symbol status during an interview with InStyle Magazine's July 2016 issue.

Cover girl: Jessica Alba looks stunning on the cover of the July 2016 issue of InStyle magazine

Jessica also graced the cover of the upcoming issue, which hits newsstands on June 10, and looked absolutely beautiful while posing in a meadow.

The actress sat on the grass while wearing a lovely white dress and natural make-up, with her brunette hair wet.

And while Jessica is now seen as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Hollywood, she realised at the age of 25 that she was being typecast as sexy characters in movies.

'I sort of went through a life crisis,' she confessed. I was like, "This isn't what I set out to be. I'm so much more than this, but I don't know how not to be a sex symbol."'

'My sexuality made me very uncomfortable': The actress confessed she had a hard time being seen as a sex symbol after her big break in Dark Angel. She is seen here in a shot from the show in 2002

Jessica, who was raised Catholic, recalled having a hard time being seen as a sex object after her breakout role in Dark Angel when she was a teenager.

'My sexuality made me very uncomfortable,' she told InStyle.

'I remember my first Maxim shoot, they were telling me to pose a certain way, and I was like, "Agh! I'm 19. I'm a virgin. I don't even know how to do that." It was so awkward.'

But after her 'life crisis' at the age of 25, Jessica revealed that everything fell into place when she fell pregnant with her first child.

Billion dollar woman: The 35-year-old (pictured last month at the Billboard Music Awards) is now the co-founder of The Honest Company, which was valued at $1.7billion last year

'It was not planned, but I was like, "OK, this is where my life is going. I always wanted to be a mom,"' she shared.

Jessica and husband Cash Warren married in May 2008 and welcomed their first daughter the following month.

As well as seven-year-old Honor, who turns eight next week, the happy couple are parents to four-year-old Haven.

Jessica launched The Honest Company, which sells non-toxic household products, in 2012, and last August it was valued at $1.7billion.

'OK, this is where my life is going': Jessica revealed that everything fell into place once she found out she was pregnant with first child Honor. She is seen here with husband Cash Warren, Haven and Honor last month

The Sin City star, who is said to be worth $340million, has just made Forbes' list of America's Richest Self-Made Women.

Jessica is also keeping busy in the acting world, and can next be seen in Dear Eleanor, due out on July 5.

The film follows two teenage girls who travel across the US in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, in search of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Jessica is also appearing opposite Jason Statham and Tommy Lee Jones in crime thriller Mechanic: Resurrection, out August 26.
She just celebrated her baby shower with a luxurious gathering at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City on Wednesday.

And now expectant mother Nicky Hilton is back on the move, this time stepping out in Soho on Thursday sporting a stylish boho-inspired ensemble that mostly concealed her growing baby bump.

The heiress wore a Tolani embroidered tunic top that flowed across a pair of skintight denim jeans.

Mama-to-be: Nicky Hilton is back on the move, this time stepping out in Soho on Thursday sporting a stylish boho-inspired ensemble that mostly concealed her growing baby bump

Pregnancy style: The heiress wore an intricately embroidered tunic top by Tolani that flowed across a pair of skintight denim jeans

Hilton, who is expecting her first child with husband James Rothschild in a matter of weeks, topped off her chic maternity moment with a pair of taupe heeled booties, round sunglasses and a large leather tote bag.

Nicky sported her blonde tresses in the same style as her baby shower the day before, with a small braid framing her flawless features.

The sister of Paris appeared to be in good spirits, offering a coy smile while chatting on the phone.

Recycled: She sported her blonde tresses in the same style as her baby shower the day before, with a small braid framing her flawless features

Walk this way: Hilton, who is expecting her first child with husband James Rothschild, topped off her chic maternity moment with a pair of taupe heeled booties, round sunglasses and a large leather tote bag

During the big event, the 32-year-old looked radiant in head-to-toe white which featured which featured a sheer detailed neckline and short sleeves.

Her svelte physique was put on full display next to sister Paris, who accidentally revealed the gender of the soon-to-be-born bundle of joy.

The 35-year-old DJ shared a photo with her glowing sister on Instagram with the caption: 'Can't wait to meet this little girl! #AuntParis'

Pampered child: Paris had previously given away the gender, fully embracing that she's expecting a niece

Like mother like daughter: Kathy Hilton, 57, takes a moment to pose with her daughters

Expecting: Baby showers are supposed to be male-free but there were a few rule breakers like designer Dennis Basso in attendance

The shindig's invite list included celebrities like Bethenny Frankel, mom Kathy Hilton, designers Stacey Bendet and Dennis Basso and more.

The beauty can afford to drop the dough on her forthcoming arrival - she is married to aristocratic financier James, and is an heir to the Hilton hotel fortune.

Confirmation that the couple were expecting their first child came in January from Nicky's aunt, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, Kyle Richards.

'Nicky's pregnant and she's the first of the cousins to have a baby, so we're all really excited!' the 47-year-old reality star told E! Online.
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes divorced in 2012 after five years of marriage - with the actress retaining custody of their daughter Suri.

Now comes word that the 53-year-old Top Gun star has not 'seen or spoken to Suri in 1,000 days,' according to an article in the current issue of In Touch Weekly.

Sources point to Tom's adherence to Scientology as the reason for the severance of ties with his only biological child, who is now 10 years old.

Where's dad? Suri Cruise - pictured with mom Katie Holmes in NYC on her 10th birthday, April 18 - hasn't seen or spoken to her father Tom Cruise in more than two and a half years, In Touch Weekly is reporting

The publication claims that Tom last saw Suri more than two and a half years ago, and that he hasn't spoken to his daughter on the phone since then either.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Cruise's representative for comment.

'They used to Skype and text, but that trailed off drastically,' a source told In Touch Weekly of Tom and Suri.

According to the magazine, Cruise 'uses his film commitments as an excuse.'

Indeed, Tom has maintained a rigorous shooting schedule and put out at least one film every year since his divorce from Katie including Rock Of Ages and Jack Reacher in 2012, Oblivion in 2013, Edge Of Tomorrow in 2014 and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation in 2015.

Career commitments: Tom - pictured with Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Leonardo DiCaprio in London on February 14 - 'uses his film commitments as an excuse' not to see or call Suri, the publication is claiming

Sighting: The A-list actor and devoted Scientologist was reunited with Suri on July 17, 2012, one of the last times he was pictured with his daughter

Working: Tom was all smiles alongside a youngster on the set of The Mummy in London on April 18 - Suri's birthday

The A-list actor is currently filming The Mummy in London, England, and he has two films in post-production, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and the crime-thriller Mena, and three more films announced including Top Gun 2, M:I 6 - Mission Impossible and Luna Park.

He is busy, to be sure, but the source says 'that doesnt hold much weight with Suri anymore.'

In Touch Weekly's insider claims Scientologys 'disconnection' policy is at work here.

'Disconnection': In Touch Weekly sources point to Tom's adherence to Scientology as the reason for the severance of ties with his only biological child (pictured last year in August)

Shunned: Tom has 'disconnected from Katie, and then... from Suri, because of her connection to Katie. He hasnt seen her since she was seven,' a source told the magazine of Katie and Suri, pictured on April 18 in NYC

Members are told to shun any friend, family member or colleague who is thought to be critical of Scientology, as the magazine reported.

'Tom eats, breathes and sleeps Scientology,' the source told In Touch Weekly. 'Hes disconnected from Katie, and then de facto from Suri, because of her connection to Katie. He hasnt seen her since she was seven.'

Tom is also parent to daughter Isabella, 23, and son Conner, 21, both adopted with his former wife Nicole Kidman but raised primarily by Cruise after their divorce in 2001.

In May, Tom sold the sprawling Beverly Hills mansion he once shared with Katie Holmes and their daughter Suri.

Working mom: Katie (pictured on May 25) is reprising her role as Jackie Kennedy Onassis for the TV miniseries The Kennedys: After Camelot filming in Toronto, Canada

The star bid adieu to the seven-bedroom, 10,000 square foot home for $40 million,TMZ reported.

Katie, on the hand, has been described as an 'amazing' mom by In Touch Weekly's sources.

Katie has often shared touching photos of her and daughter on Instagram.

On April 18, Suri's 10th birthday, mother and daughter enjoyed a relaxed hand-in-hand stroll in New York City with the birthday girl dressed up in a pink dress, pink bow and pink ballet slippers.

The actress is currently in Toronto, Canada shooting The Kennedys: After Camelot, in which she plays Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
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Elle Fanning picked just the right outfit for her regal surroundings on Thursday afternoon, as she attended the first ever fashion show at Westminster Abbey in London.

The elegant actress lead the stars at the Gucci Cruise Show 2017 in a Victorian blouse and a velvet LBD, adding fashion-forward fuchsia accessories to impress the style set with her show ensemble.

The 18-year-old couldn't have looked more excited about her attendance either, and clutched one of the hand-embroidered pillows gifted to guests under one arm as she practically glided out of the historic gothic venue.

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Cruise cutie: Elle Fanning looked delighted to be attending the Gucci catwalk show at London's Westminster Abbey on Thursday

Show outfits: Elle (left) joined Alexa Chung (centre) and Charlotte Casiraghi (right) in raising the fashion bar

Elle chose to go barelegged for the front row, elongating her slender pins with a pair of black heels that carried the vintage theme of her outfit with gold buttons down the front.

With her shoulder-length tresses pinned into a beehive hairstyle, Elle was preened to perfection, cleverly capping off the low-key beauty look with a pink lip colour.

She lead the likes of Alexa Chung and Charlotte Casiraghi with her appearance, appearing to have chosen to wear something understated by comparison.

Gothic gorgeous: Salma Hayek joined her husband Francois-Henri Pinault for the show, looking stunning in all-black

Clutching her prize: Elle carried a cushion that had been gifted to all of the guests in attendance

Fashion fans: (From left) Amina Muaddi, Susie Bubble and Ella Purnell brightened up a dull day in the British capital

Floral fancy: Soko (left) and A.S.A.P Rocky wore florals on their outfits

The guests bore witness to the first ever catwalk show held inside the Gothic church, which is the burial site of Lewis Carroll, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Aphra Behn.

Earlier this week, models, actresses and influencers were lead to Blenheim Palace for the Dior Cruise 2017 Show, the first fashion show at the historic venue for over 50 years.

British tartans, Union Jack prints and head scarves of the Gucci collection served to lift the dark setting on Thursday, with rainbow colours from the soles of the shoes to the floral garments brightening the surroundings.

While the younger attendees wore energetic shades, actress Salma Hayek plumped for a fitting gothic black from top-to-toe as she sat front of house with husband Francois-Henri Pinault.

On the catwalk: It was a bright and beautiful catwalk on Thursday afternoon, to lift the medieval surroundings

All things bright and beautiful: The show took place nearby the main church that is the burial site of Lewis Carroll, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Aphra Behn

Businessman Francois was no doubt excited to see what was in store for the pre-season collection as he is the chief executive officer of KERING, a Paris-based congolmerate that owns Gucci, as well as YSL and Bottega Veneta.

His wife sat beside Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri, who also shared the front row seats with guests Soko, ASAP Rocky, Jay Jopling, Tatiana Casiraghi and Hikari Yokoyama.

Kooky dresser Will.i.am also joined the star-studded attendees, along with Mick Jagger's model daughter Georgia May, who looked suitably chic in a scarlet blouse and colourful shoes.

On the front row: (From left) Marie Ange Casta, Valeria Golino, Francois-Henri Pinault, Salma Hayek, Marco Bizzarri, Gucci CEO, Charlotte Casiraghi, Tatiana Casiraghi, Ella Purnell, Bel Powley, Elle Fanning and Nicolas Winding Refn were in attendance

Further down the line: Flo Morrissey, Soko, ASAP Rocky, Alexa Chung, Jay Jopling and Hikari Yokoyama were also front row attendees

Couples alert: Giorgio Veroni (left) and wife Tamara Beckwith made it a couple's affair, just like Francois and Salma

First of its kind: The catwalk show was the first of its kind, being the only fashion show ever to be held at Westminster

Stunning scenes: Outside, the venue was captured on a grey day, while on the inside, the benches were lined with bright handcrafted cushions

A typically high fashion touch: Guests' seating was softened by emerald cushions with regal designs embroidered on them

Front row family: Elle snuck in pictures with Ella Purnell and Bel Powley (left) as well as musician ASAP Rocky (right)

Bisous: A.S.A.P was seen giving double kisses to guests outside the venue

Making his arrival known: He certainly made himself known outside the historic venue

Westminster Abbey has been known as the Coronation Church since 1066. The royal wedding of William, The Duke of Cambridge, and the Duchess Kate Middleton is among the most famous events to be held at the Abbey in recent years.

It has therefore also been the resting place of seventeen monarchs, with over 3,300 people buried or commemorated there in its thousands of years of history.

The Abbey is also where the Queen Mother married George VI in the Abbey as well as where her funeral was held, and where Prince Andrew and Princess Sarah were married.

Unlikely companions: Alexa Chung's ladylike look offset the rapper's bright bomber jacket and trainers

Fashion royalty: Georgia May Jagger wore brightly coloured shoes with her floral dress and scarlet blouse

Feeling chilly: Looking suitably cool, Alexa layered a leather jacket over the top of her frilly dress

Looking cool: Black Eyed Peas musician Will.i.am was among the guests, pairing a clutch bag with his suit

Centre stage: The designs were given quite a platform for writers, fashion journalists and celebrities to view

Fashion forward: The extraoradinary Gucci cruise show follows Dior at Blenheim Palace earlier this week
Charlotte Crosby has dismissed hope that she will ever return to Geordie Shore.

The MTV reality star shot down insider reports that she will make 'special appearances' on the show in a length Twitter rant on Friday night.

Charlotte, who sensationally quit the show on Wednesday, said that she is currently waiting for her 'real life to start.'

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She won't be back: Geordie Shore's Charlotte Crosby told fans that she will not return to the show, even for special appearances on Friday night

The fitness buff Tweeted: 'I appreciate all the optimistic articles of me returning to @mtvgeordieshore for "Special Occasions" But sadly there's no truth in these....

'I am no longer a part of Geordie shore and have no plans in returning. It's massively devastating for me and I will miss them all

'But I'm ready and MASSIVELY excited for my real life to start now. Just to clear that up from the articles that have been claiming otherwise'

Originally a hopeful show insider reassured devastated fans when they told The Sun that, 'It's not the end, she'll be back.'

Insistent: Charlotte took to Twitter on Friday night to dispel the news that she will return to Geordie Shore

All change: Charlotte (here with ex-boyfriend Gaz Beadle) was expected to return to Geordie Shore for special appearances and cameos despite dramatically quitting over ongoing conflict with Gaz

'Geordie Shore is like a family to Charlotte... She's one of the original cast members - the show helped her make her fortune.

'We know Charlotte has hinted at leaving in the past but viewers can expect to see her return for guest appearances and special occasions.'

MailOnline contacted Charlotte's representative, who declined to comment on the matter.

This week has seen the brave young star reveal details of an ectopic pregnancy and exchange harsh words with ex-boyfriend Gaz Beadle.

See Geordie Shore updates as Charlotte Crosby set to return for guest appearances

Shock: Charlotte revealed in an emotional interview with Heat magazine on Tuesday that she recently suffered an ectopic pregnancy, after falling pregnant with ex-boyfriend Gary's child

'Devastated': Gary broke his silence on Wednesday after learning of the ectopic pregnancy

On Tuesday Charlotte revealed in an emotional interview with Heat Magazine that she recently suffered an ectopic pregnancy.

An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilised egg implants itself outside of the womb, usually in the fallopian tube, meaning a baby is unable to develop and leaving the mother's health in danger.

While there is a chance of conception again, it is advisable for the woman to wait a while due to damage caused in the fallopian tube.

Charlotte also confessed that she is now in fear that she won't be able to have children following the distressing ordeal.

Blindsided: Gaz had kept quiet on Twitter as the news broke on Tuesday but told his Twitter followers on Wednesday he had to say something to clear his name

Her ex, Gaz, had kept quiet on Twitter when the news broke on Tuesday but told his Twitter followers on Wednesday he had to say something to clear his name.

Gaz posted a link a his Daily Star column on Twitter, telling his followers: 'I was quiet all day yesterday then last night decided to write this... Felt like I needed to say something... Gaz X.'

In a lengthy and passionate post, the Geordie Shore star detailed months of his on/off relationship with Charlotte, insisting he was keen to get serious with his co-star but she was the one who was holding back.

He then reveals that Charlotte jeopardised any hope of a monogamous relationship by kissing their Geordie Shore co-star Marty McKenna during a night out.

The pair did make up though and after being reunited following Charlotte's trip to Australia, Gaz says they enjoyed an 'amazing' time together.

See Geordie Shore news as Gaz thinks Charlotte should have kept ectopic pregnancy private

But despite being keen to again get serious with Charlotte, Gaz reveals it was her who was reluctant, even telling press that they weren't together and she couldn't trust the party-loving star.

Gaz writes that he was then contracted to shoot Ex On The Beach in Thailand with the couple telling each other they would see what happened when he returned to the UK.

'The next day, I was around the pool and got told I needed to take an emergency phone call. It was MTV saying that Charlotte had been rushed to hospital,' Gaz writes.

'Straight away, I was like, 'I need to go home immediately.' I was told I could speak to Charlotte, which calmed me down.'

Gaz insists he spoke to Charlotte every day and was keen to be updated about her condition, but she soon found out he had slept with a fellow EOTB contestant on day one of the show, before he found out about the pregnancy, leading to a huge argument.

Turbulent relationship: In a lengthy and passionate post, the Gaz detailed months of his on/off relationship with Charlotte, insisting he was keen to get serious with his co-star but she was the one who was holding back

'At the end of the day,' he added. 'I was going to be a dad. We were going to be parents, then this happened. It's bloody awful. I am devastated for the both of us,' he says.

Charlotte announced that she would be leaving their hit show Geordie Shore in an epic Twitter rant, explaining that she can't work with her ex anymore.

'Sadly because a certain some1 can't admit to being in the wrong and have to write a short story full of excuses. I have made the.....The very hard decision to Leave the show, it's something I have went back and forth with for a while now,' Charlotte told her Twitter followers.

Her side: Charlotte soon hit back at Gaz's version of events in an epic Twitter rant on Wednesday, where she announced she would be leaving their hit show Geordie Shore as she can't work with her ex anymore

Shock decision: The Geordie Shore favourite told fans she couldn't work on the show anymore with Gaz

'But I am willing to sacrifice that part of my career in order to be well away from. A liar and a cheat, I'm actually excited to watch the ex on the beach...to see the numerous girls emerge from the water who you slept with behind lillies back. You no the girl you all thought he wasn't cheating on?!'

'Am also really excited to see the show you went off to film before that with your grandad, the one you spoke to me every day on, and f**ked some1 else on! While I was sat waiting for you! You may have fooled every else with your victim act!' she continued.

'I am hugely sad and it kills me to write this, I will miss Geordie shore with all of my heart, it was my life and I love you all so much,' the reality star finished.

Emotional: Charlotte couldn't hold back the tears as she spoke of her horrific ordeal in her interview on Tuesday

Speaking out: 'I thought I had a really bad period because I was bleeding and cramping - I can't describe the pain, it was awful,' Charlotte explained, adding that it felt like she was 'being stabbed in the side'

Emergency: She couldn't stop the flow of her tears as she revealed the doctors made her go for emergency surgery after coping with the pain for a week

In love: The Geordie Shore co-stars had been working on their romance of late, but they are currently not together due to his alleged infidelities
She's the center of frenzied attention where ever she goes.

So Jennifer Lawrence appeared delighted that for once she could remain in the background as she celebrated the wedding of her best friend Laura Simpson.

Quaffing champagne, the supportive BFF enjoyed the chance to catch up with her pals, while taking a well-earned break from her usually packed filming schedule for the Italian nuptials.

The Oscar-winner spent time at the intimate bash with Kevin Burtch, a bartender from Long Beach, California.

He's got that X man factor! Jennifer Lawrence celebrated the wedding of her best friend Laura Simpsonin Tuscany over the weekend, spending time with Kevin Burtch, a bartender from Long Beach, California

Joker: The X-Men starlet certainly looked to be having fun with Kevin, who obviously tickled her funny bone

The X-Men starlet certainly looked to be having fun with Kevin, who obviously tickled her funny bone.

Jennifer's face lit up as the long haired Kevin amused her at the bash, which took place at the upmarket Borgo Stomennano Hotel in Tuscany.

Joined by a female friend, the pair walked arm-in-arm around the rose petal strewn outdoor site, sipping their drinks.

See Jennifer Lawrence updates as she celebrates best friend Laura Simpson's wedding

Bottoms up! Quaffing champagne, the supportive BFF enjoyed the chance to catch up with her pals, while taking a well-earned break from her usually packed filming schedule for the Italian nuptials

BFFs! It was clear that Jennifer was obviously delighted for her best friend, who she famously took to the Oscars as her date two years ago

Getting picture perfect: Jennifer adjusts Laura's gown on her big day

For the festivities the 25-year-old wore a mid-length silk sky blue dress that highlighted her toned but healthy frame.

Her bleached blonde hair was tied back in an updo, while she wore a simple choker around her neck.

It was clear that Jennifer was obviously delighted for her BFF, who she famously took to the Oscars as her date two years ago.

No red carpet here: For the festivities the 25-year-old wore a mid-length silk sky blue dress that highlighted her toned but healthy frame

Perfectly accessorised: A simple black choker and a small clutch bag were all the adornment Jen needed

She chatted constantly to Laura, even helping her friend readjust her dress.

And Laura's family were equally at ease with the A-lister in their midst, as the beauty amused those at the top table.

Jen flew to Italy on a private jet on Thursday ahead of the ceremony.

After enjoying the relaxed wedding day with friends it was back to work for the beauty, who had a series of promotional events lined up for her latest film X Men: Apocalypse.

The couple: Laura and her new husband Steve Ternosky both shared photos of the romantic ceremony online, clearly delighted to have tied the knot

Huger Games star Jennifer wasn't the only stars in attendance on the big day, with her Winter's Bone costar Lauren Sweetser and comic Aziz Ansari also scoring an invite.

Jen and Laura first met at an event nearly a decade ago, with Jennifer later joking they had bonded over a love of pizza.

Laura and her new husband Steve Ternosky both shared photos of the romantic ceremony online, clearly delighted to have tied the knot.
Her wardrobe is full of high-fashion, and she always looks glamorous.

So it was little surprise to see Salma Hayek, 49, putting on an eye-catching display at the Gucci Cruise 2017 fashion show at Westminster Abbey on Thursday.

The Mexican-American actress wore a quirky black dress with shimmering detailing which she matched with a pair of oversized shades befitting of a Hollywood star.

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Ravishing: Salma Hayek, 49, put on an eye-catching display at the Gucci Cruise 2017 fashion show at Westminster Abbey on Thursday

Similar to the footwear she wore to the Tale of Tales premiere in London the previous evening, Salma stood tall in a nude pair of heels with high platforms.

Posing in the Abbey's historic cloisters, Salma dazzled as she smiled and posed with a hand on her hip.

Her dress was secured at the waist with a gothic-tinged belt and she carried her essentials in a black bag with a silver chain handle.

Happy couple: She was once again joined by husband Francois-Henri Pinault, 54, who was typically dapper in a black suit with a white shirt

Style queen: The Mexican-American actress wore a quirky black dress with shimmering detailing which she matched with a pair of oversized shades befitting of a Hollywood star

The main man: The Frenchman is CEO of Kering -- the luxury goods holding company which owns Gucci -- so he was no doubt heavily invested in the event

The star's voluminous brunette locks cascaded in loose waves from a middle-parting and her complexion looked radiant.

She was once again joined by husband Francois-Henri Pinault, 54, who was typically dapper in a black suit with a white shirt.

The Frenchman is CEO of Kering -- the luxury goods holding company which owns Gucci -- so he was no doubt heavily invested in the event.

VIPs: Salma and Francois-Henri took their place on the front row as they prepared for models to hit the runway

Loved-up: Salma linked arms with her man and kept her shades on despite being inside

Debonair: Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri sat on Salma's left in a suave navy three-piece suit

Dressed to impress: Salma removed her stylish black jacket at the afterparty inside 106 Piccadilly to reveal her sheer sleeves and decolletage with lace detailing

Class act: The actress also removed her thick-rimmed shades to reveal her perfect chestnut peepers

The pair put on a loving display as they posed with their arms around each other before heading inside to view the fashion.

Other famous names in attendance included Elle Fanning, Nicolas Winding Refn, Alexa Chung and Will.I.Am.

Salma and Francois-Henri took their place on the front row as they prepared for models to hit the runway.

On the catwalk: It was a bright and beautiful catwalk on Thursday afternoon, to lift the medieval surroundings

First of its kind: The catwalk show was the first of its kind, being the only fashion show ever to be held at Westminster

Front row family: Elle snuck in pictures with Ella Purnell and Bel Powley (left) as well as musician ASAP Rocky (right)

Unlikely companions: Alexa Chung's ladylike look offset the rapper's bright bomber jacket and trainers

She removed her stylish jacket at the afterparty inside 106 Piccadilly as well as her shades to reveal her perfect chestnut peepers.

There were a number of garish outfits on display with Georgia May Jagger rocking a bright pink suit while carrying a golden case, and Tom Cohen couldn't be missed in a red patterned suit.

On Wednesday, Salma arrived for the UK premiere of her film Tale of Tales at the Curzon, Mayfair, in an ensemble fit for royalty.

The beauty covered up her famous curves in a vintage dress with regal insignia draped over her shoulders.

The film stars Salma as a childless queen who is willing to do anything to conceive, along with Cassel, Toby Jones and John C. Reilly as three troubled kings.

Fashion royalty: Georgia May Jagger wore brightly coloured shoes with her floral dress and scarlet blouse

Feeling chilly: Looking suitably cool, Alexa layered a leather jacket over the top of her frilly dress

Pattern clash: It will be the brightest colours and fashion clashes seen inside the venue for many years

All things bright and beautiful: The show took place nearby the main church that is the burial site of Lewis Carroll, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Aphra Behn

Brave and bold: Georgia May Jagger caught the eye in a pink suit with a glitzy golden case

Variety! Tigerlily Taylor modelled a green satin dress and black platform heels, while Elle Fanning opted for a casual black tracksuit tracksuit with red heels

Plunging: Pixie Geldof wore a cute pink dress with cartoon-like features

Bows and bra: Pixie wasn't afraid to flaunt her underwear in her pretty pink bow detailed dress

Garish: Thomas Cohen couldn't be missed in a snazzy suit as he posed with pal Jack Guinness

Fashionista: Alexa Chung picked the perfect party dress in the form of her glitzy bronze number

Vamping up: Soko rocked a gothic ensemble with her red eye make-up topping off her dark look

Belle of the Bal: Actress Bel Powley, who starred in film Diary of a Teenage Girl, was elegant in a Chinese inspired silk dress with ostentatious bow detailing

Beautifully bright: Fashion blogger Susie Bubble was a treat for the eye in her bubble gum pink coat and sheer red culottes

Lovely in Lace: Selma's black velvet jacket hid her exquisite calf-length gown with lace detailing and frilled flamenco inspired long sleeves
Every story has two sides and every breakup has a story.

Kenya Moore and her younger boyfriend Matt Jordan have called it quits on their relationship after just over seven months.

On Wednesday, the 45-year-old reality star's beau first announced their split via social media blaming his own insecurities for their split.

It's over: Kenya Moore and her younger boyfriend Matt Jordan have called it quits on their relationship after just over seven months

But now reports have surfaced that the breakup was a very dramatic one, with TMZ reporting the couple had a massive fight while on a romantic trip to Mexico over the weekend.

A source close the Real Housewives Of Atlanta star told the website that after the couple started fighting, Kenya locked herself in the hotel room but her 28-year-old personal trainer now-ex kicked the door in.

While things did not turn physical, the website's source claims Matt repeatedly called Kenya a 'bitch' and 'c**t'.

As their flight was already booked, the pair flew home on the same plane but Kenya moved seats.

Two sides: On Wednesday, the 45-year-old reality star's beau first announced their split via social media blaming his own insecurities for their split but a source close to Kenya claims things turned nasty between the pair while in Mexico over the weekend (pictured April)

Then, the site said, not wanting a scene at baggage claim, Kenya left but the pair once again started fighting when Matt brought her bag over to her home, leading them to call it quits for good.

While Kenya did not confirm exactly what had occurred, she took to Instagram and Twitter to express her feelings.

As the Instagram has since been deleted just part of the message appears on her Twitter: 'Love is never aggressive, hurtful, threatening, vindictive or accusatory nor distrustful. Love'

Hurting: While Kenya did not confirm exactly what had occurred, she took to Instagram and Twitter to express her feelings

Reflection: The reality star posted a picture of her vacation - without he ex of course - to show fans she was doing alright

Her now ex beau also said distrust was a problem in their relationship, not because of cheating but because of his own insecurities.

While Matt has since made his Instagram private, Starcasm was able to grab the lengthy posts beforehand.

Trust issues: Matt claimed it was his own failings rather than cheating that caused his and Kenya's (pictured last month) issues

The young trainer explained: 'Looking back I blame myself totally, I learned very late in the relationship that a woman will not trust a man fully if he seems irresponsible or not up to standard in areas of a relationship. If she doesn't feel like she can put trust in a man emotionally, spiritually, financially etc That will cause a woman to feel resentment and most of all untrusting in her man.'

He continued: 'Because of what he lacks she does not feel like she will be properly protected or served! So the woman will not feel like she can give her all to a man that is unstable or irresponsible in areas of the relationship. Causing her to go inward emotionally.

'I was in denial of my flaws until late in the relationship. It causes me to feel untrusting in her because I did not feel like I had her FULL love and attention. I didn't realize that I created my own circumstances

'To the men out there. Brothers in particular being a real man is a lot more than just being a strong physical dominating presence and opening doors for her.'

He denied there was any cheating involved: 'In addition just for the record infidelity or cheating was never part of our relationship or one of our problems!!'

When a commenter suggested it was the fact that he makes a lot less than his older ex, the personal trainer said a man should strive to be financial stable for him and his partner.

'I don't mean any disrespect but that's the mindset and the kind of talk that makes Brothers lazy. I hear it all the time that these women are all out for money they want a guy with money!!! Excusing it or calling women evil for wanting a man that has a lot of money sends the wrong message to brothers.

'Basically saying that as long as ''I'm a nice guy I should have smart strong beautiful intelligent woman that has money!!!????'' No sweetie it's 2016 and I live in the United States of America I should just get more money then.!! To all the brothers out there if you're upset about it get more money. Feel insecure? get more money. Tired of the nonsense? get more money. I'm going to go take my own advice now.'

Considering he was on such a roll, Matt also decided to defend Kenya against accusations she immaturely removed his pictures from her Instagram.

'She only took down my pics because it was what I requested. My own immaturity, not hers.'

The could first started dating late last year, with Kenya declaring the couple were in love just a few months ago.
It is the first ever fashion show to have been held at Westminster Abbey.

And Alexa Chung pulled out all the stops for the Gucci Cruise Show 2017 at the Gothic Abbey Church in London's Westminster on Thursday.

The 32-year-old model looked quite the Victorian lady in a floor-length sheer gown embroidered with flower appliques.

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Victorian glamour: Alexa Chung pulled out all the stops for the Gucci Cruise Show 2017 at the Gothic Abbey Church in London's Westminster on Thursday

The pale pink gown featured a subtle polka dot print, long blouse-style sleeves and a high collar, with a ruffled skirt pulled in at the waist by a matching tie.

Alexa matched the dress with intricate black lace-up heels with pom poms.

Letting her outfit do the talking, the TV presenter kept her make-up light adding just a hint of pink lipstick.

With her hair tied into a loose half bun, Alexa added a dash of rock chic to the ensemble with a black leather biker jacket.

Pretty in pink! The 32-year-old model looked quite the lady in a floor length sheer gown embroidered with flower appliques

Floaty: The 32-year-old model looked quite the Victorian lady in a floor-length sheer gown embroidered with flower appliques

Mingling: Alexa sat in the front row alongside ASAP Rocky, Jay Jopling and Hikari Yokoyama (l-r)

Also in attendance was Salma Hayek, donning gothic black from top-to-toe as she sat front of house with husband Francois-Henri Pinault.

Businessman Francois was no doubt excited to see what was in store for the pre-season collection as he is the chief executive officer of KERING, a Paris-based conglomerate that owns Gucci, as well as YSL and Bottega Veneta.

His wife sat beside Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri, who also shared the front row seats with guests Soko, ASAP Rocky, Jay Jopling, Tatiana Casiraghi and Hikari Yokoyama.

The guests bore witness to the first ever catwalk show held inside the Gothic church, which is the burial site of Lewis Carroll, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Aphra Behn.

Rocking out: Alexa added a dash of rock chic to the ensemble with a black leather biker jacket

In the FROW: Flo Morrissey, Soko, ASAP Rocky, Alexa Chung, Jay Jopling and Hikari Yokoyama
Adriana Lima is never one to back down from a grueling fitness challenge.

And the results have paid off as evidenced by an Instagram photo shared on the 34-year-old model's account Thursday.

The Victoria's Secret Angel captioned the snap: 'Relaxing at the beach in my @calzedonia bikini.'

Work it: It's no surprise the famed Victoria's Secret Angel would be keen on flaunting her enviable body while soaking up the sun on the beach

Lima's washboard abs take the spotlight, upstaged only momentarily by her ample cleavage and muscular shoulders.

The Brazilian bombshell sizzles as she glances nonchalantly over her shoulder, seemingly unfazed by the onlookers who most likely couldn't help but stare in awe.

A pair of dark sunglasses shade Adriana from the beating sun and a bold red lip color pulls the saucy look together.

Can't stop won't stop: The model takes a quick break from her gym session to share her progres

'Fresh out of a 6km run': Adriana works hard to get into shape as she showed off her toned abs in this sweaty selfie

The mom of two is no stranger to working up a sweat, often sharing her progress on social media in a number of eye-catching selfies.

'No matter where, you got to keep on moving,' Lima wrote alongside one snapshot, adding hashtags like '#TEAMLIMA' and '#BEASTLIMA.'

In addition to working out, Adriana has kept herself busy jetsetting around the world- including a trip to the 2016 Cannes Film Festival in May where she co-chaired the amfAR Gala.
They got engaged in January during a romantic trip to the Bahamas, after seven months of dating.

And it looks like Shanina Shaik and DJ Ruckus are ready for the honeymoon to begin already.

The happy couple were spotted putting on an affectionate display on Thursday after lunch in Miami Beach, Florida.

Daytime date: Shanina Shaik and fiance DJ Ruckus were spotted having lunch in Miami Beach on Thursday

Shanina, 25, looked gorgeous as she showcased her long legs and a sliver of her flat stomach in a casual but stylish outfit.

The model was sporting a knotted white T-shirt and Daisy Dukes, along with black gladiator sandals which had straps up to her knees.

Shanina had her dark hair pulled into a fuss-free bun with black and white striped headband.

The beauty also wore gold hoop earrings and round mirrored sunglasses over her minimally made-up face.

Showing some skin: The model showcased her long legs and a sliver of her flat stomach in a casual but stylish outfit

Summer wardrobe: Shanina was wearing a knotted white T-shirt, Daisy Dukes and gladiator sandals

Off-duty beauty: The 25-year-old wore minimal make-up under her sunglasses and styled her hair in a bun

Shanina was sipping on a green juice as she and Ruckus headed to Best Buy for some shopping after their meal.

The pair were joined by their cute French bulldog Choppa, who the Australian model walked on a leash before scooping into her arms.

They wrapped their arms around each other and held hands while strolling in the sunshine with the pup.

Ruckus - real name Greg Andrews - was dressed down in a camouflage T-shirt, jeans and flip flops.

Keeping in touch: Shanina was seen texting as she walked her dog Choppa, before scooping him into her arms

Healthy: The Australian beauty left lunch carrying a green juice, before heading to a Best Buy store

Piling on the PDA: Shanina and Ruckus were spotted holding hands and wrapping their arms around each other

Later on, Shanina shared an Instagram photo which showed her posing in a floral dress with a daring slit up one side.

The previous day, she had shared a video on Snapchat which showed her puckering up to her husband-to-be in bed, before he playfully licked her face.

Shanina and Ruckus are currently enjoying a sunshine getaway in Miami after attending a friend's wedding there last weekend.

Wedding bells: The couple got engaged in January after seven months of dating

Casual customer: Ruckus - real name Greg Andrews - wore a camouflage T-shirt, jeans and flip flops

Fun in the sun: The model and the 32-year-old DJ are enjoying a Florida holiday after attending a friend's wedding in Miami last weekend

The pair jetted to Florida after Ruckus allegedly got into a brawl with the model's ex-boyfriend, Tyson Beckford, 45.

Sources told TMZ that the 32-year-old DJ flipped off the model turned actor, and things are said to have promptly turned violent with the pair exchanging punches.

The publication reports that a doorman called police, however both men were gone by the time officers arrived and no arrests were made.

Floral fancy: Shanina shared an Instagram photo later in the day which showed her sporting a flowery dress with a daring thigh-high slit
Ahead of her long-haul flight to Las Vegas, she took to Twitter to rant about a three-hour delay.

And it seems that delay had reality star Lydia Bright in a hurry to strip down and get some sun, as she uploaded a scintillating Instagram photo during her first morning in Sin City.

In the image, the 26-year-old TOWIE star stood with her arms raised and her back exposed as her form-fitting bathing suit got lost in her pert posterior.

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Hello, Vegas! On Thursday TOWIE star Lydia Bright uploaded this sexy Instagram snap, which shows her standing with her arms raised and her back exposed as her bathing suit gets lost in her pert posterior

The blue-and-white swimsuit rose a third of the way up her back, showing off her even tan and endlessly lithe skin.

Besides its provocative fit, the tantalising suit included a thin strap that snaked from her derriere around her taut thigh.

Her blonde locks flowed straight down to her shoulder blades, where they gently curled and rested against her back.

Friends reunited: On Wednesday evening Lydia caught up with former TOWIE cast mate Danni Park-Dempsey

Lydia's fancy-free display on her balcony is a continuation of the good cheer and frivolity she enjoyed on Wednesday evening, when she partied with her best pal Danni Park-Dempsey.

Danni, who now runs a shisha bar in South Woodford, North-West London, looked stunning in a body-con black dress with shallow thigh split.

Holding a black clutch and working the ombre hair craze, she was the picture of confidence as she posed on a balcony for an Instagram shot, which she later shared with her 52,000 followers.

Stunning: Danni, who now runs a shisha bar, may have given Lydia the inspiration for her balcony shot. On Wednesday evening the TOWIE alum posed on a balcony in a sexy black dress with thigh split

Well-aware that her friend would turn it out, Lydia upped her own fashion game, slipping into an elegant black dress with a golden floral motif.

When Lydia turned around she revealed cross-strap detailing with large cut-outs, once again showcasing her toned back.

The 5ft 4in beauty elongated her slim pins in a pair of pointy black heels, which complemented her dress perfectly.

After checking in to their hotel suite at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Lydia and Danni joined their gal pals at the 1 Oak nightclub at The Mirage.

Groupie: Well-aware that her friend would turn it out, Lydia upped her own fashion game, slipping into an elegant black dress with a golden floral motif for a girls' night out

Details: When Lydia turned to the side she revealed cross-strap detailing with large cut-outs, once again showcasing her toned back

Lydia's jovial mood kicked off from the moment she and her older sister Georgia landed at Las Vegas' Mccarran International Airport on Wednesday evening to start their party holiday.

The sisters looked like they enjoyed a comfortable flight, with Lydia walking out in a matching grey lounge-wear set.

With her newly-darkened locks pulled up in to a bun, she hid her make-up free face in a large pair of sunnies, which looked suitably prepared to embrace Nevada's sizzling heat.

Sister act: Lydia Bright, 26, arrived at Las Vegas' Mccarran International Airport on Wednesday evening with her older sister Georgia ahead of their holiday

Georgia, on the other hand, opted to flash a slither of her toned abs with a plain black crop top and skin-tight leggings.

She added a pop of colour with a lilac hoody which was tied around her waist and a pair of matching trainers.

She pushed a bright pink suitcase - no doubt filled with fashionable bikinis and dresses - on which she rested an oversized Longchamp tote.

'Parday!' Lydia expressed her excitement for the party trip on Twitter

Annoyance: Lydia's trip didn't get off to a good start as there was a three hour delay

The blonde also kept her tresses free as she clutched on to her hot pink suitcase, while Lydia opted for a jet black case.

Lydia was inevitably ready to party which was evident on her Twitter, before she heard of her flight's delay.

'Lego. Vegas 2016 bound!!! Bring on the PARDAY @vipvegas2016 @steviejayuk!', she enthused with a series of clapping emojis.

Shortly after, she let off some steam by tweeting: 'DELAYED. FUMING HELL'- obviously annoyed that she had to wait to cut loose as a newly-single independent woman.

Comfy: Lydia opted for a matching grey lounge-wear set and oversized sunnies as her sister flaunted a hint of her stomach in a black crop top and leggings

She also opened up last month to TV host Lorraine Kelly about her choice to break-up with Arg: 'It was a tough decision to make but I felt like I didn't have a choice. I'm stronger and happier now.'

'I've just been away to Indonesia and I've come back a lot more positive and strong and looking forward to the future.'

Lorraine chimed: 'You'll always love him, though. You'll always be friends. I want to shake him sometimes.'

Lydia replied: 'You and me both, Lorraine.'
Ruby Rose has joked that she gets her style inspiration from an unusual source: watching Spongebob Squarepants.

The 30-year-old stepped out in Los Angeles on Wednesday in a long white jacket, which she compared to Spongebob character Squidward's nightgown.

Sharing a photo to Instagram later in the day which showed a side-by-side comparison of her and the cartoon character, Ruby wrote: 'When people ask me my fashion influences..'

An unusual look: Ruby Rose stepped out in an oversized white jacket in Los Angeles on Wednesday

The actress and DJ had teamed the oversized jacket with a holey Givenchy T-shirt and black skinny jeans tucked into matching heeled ankle boots.

Ruby, who also sported huge aviator sunglasses, was seen hanging out with a female friend in the Glendale area of LA.

The following morning, she shared an Instagram photo which showed her sporting an orange jumper and shoes in honour of National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

Julianne Moore, Amy Schumer, Kim Kardashian, Rachel Zoe and Elizabeth Banks are among the other stars who have been raising awareness.

'When people ask me my fashion influences': The Orange Is The New Black star later joked on Instagram that she looked like Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants

Stylish star: Ruby also wore a Givenchy T-shirt, black skinny jeans and matching boots as she hung out with a friend

Earlier this week, Ruby - who shot to fame thanks to her role as Stella Carlin in Orange Is The New Black - was spotted house hunting in Los Angeles.

The Australian beauty's career has been going from strength to strength and she has three upcoming movies in the works.

Ruby is joining Milla Jovovich in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and will appear opposite Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter Two.

'We wear orange': On Thursday, the actress wore orange for National Gun Violence Awareness Day

'Action films equal forced training': Ruby has three action-packed movies due for release soon, and showed off her fit figure as a result of all the exercise in an Instagram post over the weekend

The star also recently completed filming on xXx: The Return Of Xander Cage with Vin Diesel, Nina Dobrev and Samuel L. Jackson.

All three of the action packed movies are currently due to hit cinemas at the beginning of next year.

Ruby is in fantastic shape thanks to all the working out required for the roles, and shared a selfie showing her fit figure in a bikini over the weekend, captioned: 'Action films equal forced training.'
Rebel Wilson recently became the first 'talking' waxwork to go on display at Madame Tussauds in Sydney.

But fans will be left asking, 'Rebel who?' as the tourist attraction seems to have added some unnecessary extra weight to her wax figure.

The Bridesmaids star's so-called 'lookalike' appears to show unrealistic facial features, including a double chin, which doesn't account for her recent weight loss.

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Is that you, Rebel? Close-up photos of Rebel Wilson's wax figure at Madame Tussauds were released this week, but it seems unnecessary extra pounds have been added to her figure (Waxwork, left, and Rebel, right in May 2016)

The real thing: The Australian actress sported a much thinner face when she wore the green dress at the Pitch Perfect 2 premiere in LA back in May 2015, before donating the outfit for the wax figure

Rebel is the latest Australian star to be transformed into a wax figure at the Darling Harbour museum, but the portrayal looks rather out-of-date.

Compared to recent photos of Rebel, some face details are notably over-prominent, especially around the chin and cheeks.

The 36-year-old took to Instagram in April to reveal she'd lost weight during a four-day trek around Malibu, California, and has since continued her exercise regimen around LA.

It's not known if the measurements for Rebel's waxwork were taken before she began her recent weight loss regime.

Wax figure: The Bridesmaids star's so-called 'lookalike' appears to show unrealistic facial features, including a double chin, which doesn't account for her recent weight loss

Life and art: Rebel's wax portrayal (right) would appear rather out-of-date - as this Instagram photo (left) from the 36-year-old's trip to the Great Wall of China in May demonstrates

Old measurements? It's not known if the measurements for Rebel's waxwork were taken before she began her recent weight loss regime

Spot the difference! The wax figure (left) looks a little different to the moment in real life (right)

She previously told Sky News: 'When I was told I was going to be made into a wax figure, it was a very flattering moment for me and one of my career highlights.'

'I just really hope they put me next to someone good, like Channing Tatum? Actually, can I please request we get our own room, just us two?'

Nevertheless, when close-up photos of the finished wax work were revealed on Thursday, the results didn't quite match the real life inspiration.

Pleased: Regardless, Rebel was happy with the end result, saying 'I really love it!'

Process: Madame Tussauds artists were photographed in a differed stages of the project

Fortunately, the fashion choice did seem to be more accurate, as Rebel donated her own clothing to complete the job.

The figure is wearing the same embellished green dress that she once wore to the world premiere of Pitch Perfect 2.

'The dress really is mine. I wanted to donate from my own closet to give to my own figure. I'm just generous like that,' she said.

The project required a large team and around three months to finish but ultimately, the actress was pleased with the end product.

In the eye of the beholder? The artists matched Rebel's glam makeup with that of the wax figure

Hall of Fame: Rebel joins other Australian A-listers who are on display at the Darling Harbour attraction

'It all kicked off with a sitting, a team of sculptors and photographers meticulously took hundreds of measurements and pictures of me.

'They paid close attention to my vitals, including me skin, teeth, eyes and hair,' she explained. 'It took around three months and 20 different artists to make, I really love it...Wow!'

Rebel joins the likes of High Jackman, Cate Blanchett and the late Heath Ledger among other A-listers that are on display at the museum.
They spent Wednesday night partying together at his former flame Jessica Wright's shoe launch in London.

But it seems TOWIE stars Megan McKenna and Pete Wicks are far from sick of each other, spending more time together than ever.

The 23-year-old former Ex On The Beach star shared an intimate Instagram snap, lounging in her 27-year-old boyfriend's bath at his Essex home on Thursday.

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'They best not jump in!' Megan shared an intimate Instagram snap, lounging in Pete's bath at his Essex home on Thursday

Posing in the nude, Megan shared just a glimpse of her make-up free face and a hint of leg, as Pete's pugs Ernest and Eric peered curiously over the edge of the bath.

'Swear down Eric & Ernest best not jump in. @p_wicks01 look what happens when your away (sic),' she wrote in the caption.

Meanwhile Pete spent the afternoon at a tattoo parlour completing his intricate leg sleeve.

The reality star shared a snap of his full leg tattoo, boasting several portraits, quotes and roses, along with the caption, 'And that's it... full leg complete in 3 weeks!!!.'

'And that's it...full leg complete in 3 weeks!!!' The 27-year-old TOWIE star shared a snap of his full leg tattoo, boasting several portraits, quotes and roses

'Any suggestions for an a*se cheek piece, it's looking a bit bare now': Pete posted this cheeky snap

Earlier in the afternoon he shared a cheeky picture, flashing his bum beneath his underwear, writing: 'Any suggestions for an a**e cheek piece, it's looking a bit bare now'.

The couple appear to be going strong with both sharing sentimental snaps to their social media accounts on Thursday.

'My boyfriend's cooler than yours', CBB star Megan wrote alongside a snap of the duo on their way to Jess's shoe launch.

Soon after Pete shared a snap of the twosome in front of a wall of roses at the bash, with the caption: 'Lucky geezer.'

'Lucky geezer': Pete shared a snap of the twosome in front of a wall of roses at Jess Wright's bash

Peter struck up a bond with Ex On The Beach star Megan not long after she left Celebrity Big Brother in January.

Megan joined TOWIE back in March and she has proved to be a certifiable hit with the ITVBe audience.

It didn't take long for romance to blossom between Peter and Megan and by the time she was made a permanent castmember she was said to have been 'bowled over' by him.
She was born three decades after the music legend.

But Alessandra Ambrosio paid tribute to Tom Petty as she stepped out with a friend for a business meeting in Santa Monica on Thursday.

The 35-year-old beauty donned a vintage T-shirt emblazoned with the icon's band and a denim mini skirt which showcased her supermodel stems.

She's a Heartbreaker! Alessandra Ambrosio, 35, paid tribute to Tom Petty as she stepped out with a friend for a business meeting in Santa Monica on Thursday

The Victoria's Secret Angel went street chic for the casual gathering in the light wash fringed cutoff.

Her bronzed stems looked impeccable as always and were finished with a pair of black leather sneakers.

She wore her silky brunette tresses down and parted to one side as her locks gently blew through the wind while making her way down the sidewalk.

Endless stems! The Victoria's Secret Angel paired the vintage tee with a denim mini skirt that showcased her supermodel legs

Final touches: The Brazilian beauty rounded out her look with a black leather handbag, dark shades and a few pieces of dainty jewelry for some added sparkle

The Brazilian beauty rounded out her look with a black leather handbag, dark shades and a few pieces of dainty jewelry for some added sparkle.

A male friend dressed in head-to-toe black walked alongside the statuesque stunner as the pair shared a laugh while heading to their meeting.

But before Alessandra got down to business, she made sure to get in her regular workout regimen.

Pretty in pink! Earlier in the day Alessandra was spotted looking exquisite as ever in a pair of cropped skintight gym tights

She was spotted earlier in the day looking exquisite as ever in a pair of cropped skintight pink gym tights.

The mother-of-two was hard to miss in the brightly-coloured workout leggings which she teamed with a loose white top.

Ambrosio wore a pair of white sandals but upgraded her laid back look with a designer white Chanel handbag.

She plays herself in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows which is set to premiere on Friday.
Bismarck knows a national problem has started to grow in the area and wants to stop it, or at least slow it down. Opiate abuse has been described as a national epidemic and there are signs its taking root in Bismarck-Mandan.

Just a couple of days before a Tuesday meeting to discuss the issue a woman in Bismarck apparently overdosed on fentanyl. She received the opiate antidote Narcan and survived.

The statistics point to an increasing problem. In 2014, 43 people died from an opioid overdose in North Dakota, an increase from 20 deaths in 2013. In 2014, nearly 19,000 people died in the United States due to a prescription opioid overdose, or an average of 51 people each day. Opioids resemble morphine in their pain-relieving qualities. Almost 200,000 Americans have lost their lives to prescription opioid abuse since 1999.

Opiate addiction unfortunately can result from someone seeking medical relief. Opiates are prescribed to relieve pain. At Tuesdays meeting of law enforcement, treatment providers, educators and community members, witnesses spoke of getting hooked on opiates as they fought pain.

Chad Meyers, of Bismarck, who broke a hip in a motorcycle accident, explained how he became addicted to opiates. His doctor gave him opiates after his injury and nine months after he was prescribed the medication, he overdosed. When he had his left lung and rib cage removed he was prescribed more opiates.

Because of my condition, my primary care physician continued giving me my opiates, and that was my life. I could not live, I couldn't function. I could not do nothin' without my pain medications. I couldn't get out a bed. I couldn't walk across this room five years ago, Meyers told meeting participants.

Starting in 2011 Meyers began his recovery and hes now off opiates. It wasnt easy and it took time.

It would be too simple to say the opiate problem is just due to people seeking pain relief. Thats not the only cause, as dealers who push heroin, fentanyl and other opiates are creating a dangerous culture.

Steps are being taken to combat the problem with Dr. Chris Meeker, chief medical officer at Sanford Health in Bismarck, outlining a drug monitoring program the hospital has developed. They will track who's prescribing narcotics, who gets them and if the use is appropriate. Meeker noted that emergency room visits for substance abuse diagnoses are increasing, from less than 500 visits in 2011 to about 900 visits in 2015.

One thing that worries Meeker is that while prescriptions for opioid painkillers have dropped, deaths have gone up in recent years. That indicates to him that people are getting heroin laced with fentanyl.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., who organized the meeting, has a bill in Congress called the Budgeting for Opioid Addiction Treatment Act, or LifeBOAT, that would establish a 1-cent fee for every milligram of active opioid ingredient in a prescription pain pill. The bill would provide more than $1 billion nationwide each year to help establish new addiction treatment facilities and programs.

Its possible to slow, if not stop, a drug epidemic. A number of years ago meth had become the scourge of the nation. Meth labs were popping up across North Dakota, often in isolated rural efforts. Stopping meth production and traffic became the focus of law enforcement. Meth hasnt gone away, but its not taking the huge toll it took in the past.

Hopefully, the measures being taken will take a major bite out of the opiate problem. Opiates can help patients, the key is to keep them from controlling those they help.
She's famed for her ample assets and curvaceous physique.

And Kelly Brook, 36, put on an incredibly busty display as she made a stunning entrance to the Steam and Rye Goes Tropical party in London on Thursday night.

The model looked sensational in a form-fitting floral dress which just about managed to contain her impressive bust.

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A thing of beauty: Kelly Brook, 36, put on an incredibly busty display as she made a stunning entrance to the Steam and Rye goes tropical party in London on Thursday night

The plunging summer dress was certainly vibrant enough for the themed-night with its pink roses catching the eye.

But to ensure she brought plenty of colour to the party Kelly also slipped on a pair of ruby red heels.

The brunette beauty co-owns the venue with Nick House, and she certainly looked proud to be hosting the fun-filled event as she flashed a pearly white smile outside the entrance.

Flower power: The model looked sensational in a form-fitting floral dress which just about managed to contain her impressive bust

Ruby slippers: To ensure she brought plenty of colour to the party Kelly also slipped on a pair of ruby red heels

Feeling tropical: Once inside the trendy hotspot Kelly documented her fun by sharing a couple of snaps on Instagram

Happy couple: Kelly was joined on the night by her hunky French boyfriend Jeremy Parisi

Dapper: Jeremy dressed in a black blazer over a black t-shirt which he matched with blue jeans

Smitten: The Frenchman couldn't take his eyes off his attractive girlfriend

All smiles: The couple looked smitten as they made their way to the venue with Jeremy leading the way as Kelly held on to his arm

She was joined by her hunky French boyfriend Jeremy Parisi on the night. He looked dapper in a black blazer, matching tee and blue jeans as well as a pair of black shoes.

The couple looked smitten as they made their way to the venue with Jeremy leading the way as Kelly held on to his arm.

Kelly decorated her chestnut peepers with lashings of mascara and subtle smoky eyeshadow, while her lips were equally as vivacious as her outfit.

And once inside the trendy hotspot Kelly documented her fun by sharing a couple of snaps on Instagram.

Wild! She then posed up a storm in the venue's luggage room beside a lifelike giraffe wearing a lei and a sunhat

Host with the most: The brunette beauty co-owns the venue with Nick House and she certainly looked proud to be hosting the fun-filled event as she flashed a pearly white smile outside the entrance

Beaming: Kelly raised her hands to her chin as she grinned for the cameras

Effortless: The beauty brushed her tresses out of her eyes as she posed up a storm at the front of the venue

The first pic showed her stood in between two gals pals dressed in tropical attire, along with the caption: '@steamandrye Tonight Just got Leied lets get our Tiki on #KelTiki' followed by an array of holiday-themed emojis.

She then posed up a storm in the venue's luggage room beside a lifelike giraffe wearing a lei and a sunhat.

Last month Kelly visited the Cannes with Jeremy.

Despite her luggage being misplaced following her flight from Gatwick to Nice, Kelly appeared to have a great time on the French Riviera, sharing snaps of her and Jeremy hanging out.

A spokesperson for EasyJet, the airline Kelly flew with, said: 'EasyJet can confirm that the bag was found and sent on the next service to Nice and delivered to Kelly Brook last night. We would like to apologise for the delay to the bag.'

Eye-popping! Kelly's choice of dress certainly accentuated her famous figure

Shapely: The form-fitting dress showcased Kelly's curvaceous physique

Busty: Kelly's delicate decolletage was on full display due to the dress's off the shoulder design

Glamorous: She decorated her chestnut peepers with lashings of mascara and subtle smoky eyeshadow while her lips were equally as vivacious as her outfit
Jennifer Garner smiled happily as she touched down at home in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The doting mother held hands with her youngest daughter Seraphina, as the family jetted back following an extended trip to visit Ben Affleck.

While Jennifer has made the most of her time in Europe, enjoying trips to Paris and Venice from the family's London base, it must feel great to finally be back home.

The 44-year-old actress certainly looked in a good mood as she strode through Los Angeles airport following the transatlantic flight.

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Good to be back! Jennifer Garner smiles as she walks hand-in-hand with Seraphina in Los Angeles on Thursday after jetting home from visit to Ben Affleck

Showing no signs of jetlag, she clutched hold of her seven-year-old's hand.

Jennifer's outfit appeared to have been changed since she boarded the plane earlier in the day at Heathrow airport in London.

Her return home comes amid reports that she and her estranged husband are thinking about getting back together - almost a year after they split.

The reconciliation rumours come despite claims that he cheated on Jen with the family nanny.

Home sweet home: Showing no signs of jetlag, she clutched hold of her seven-year-old's hand

Quick change: Jennifer's outfit appeared to have been changed since she boarded the plane earlier in the day at Heathrow airport in London

Friends of the former couple, who have spent much of their time together in recent months, have told Us Weekly that they are heading towards a full reunion.

A number of sources spoke to the magazine about the changing nature of the former couple's relationship.

With Ben based in London while he films The Justice League: Part One and his estranged wife joining him with their children, the pair have been spending a lot of time together away from the stresses of Hollywood.

New development: Her return home comes amid reports that she and her estranged husband are thinking about getting back together - almost a year after they split

And, according to Us Weekly it's working, especially after yet another quick getaway.

Last month they headed to Paris for a mini vacation and, more recently, went to Italy and stayed as a family, at Venice's Gritti Palace hotel.

A friend of the couple told the magazine that the mini getaways had helped rekindle the flame between the pair and while they are not back together, Jen is changing her tune and open to it.

Low-key: Jennifer earlier carried her four-year-old son Samuel in her arms at London's Heathrow Airport

Happy! The 44-year-old Hollywood star looked in fantastic spirits as she cooed over her youngest child while walking through the terminal

The friend told Us Weekly: 'Jen would definitely get back together with him.'

Another insider elaborated saying the trip had helped mend the wounds of their hearts.

The source said: 'A lot of damage has been mended. They are really in a good place.'

However, Ben's camp do not seem to be so helpful, with insider telling the magazine it was strictly about the children.

The Ben source said: 'They're co-parenting while he's filming. That's all it is.'

Comfort first: She had dressed comfortably for her flight, teaming a pair of cosy slightly fitted white jogging bottoms with a monochrome top
They rekindled their romance in April after a devastating break-up.

And Danielle Armstrong and James Lock were looking more together than ever as they shared a smooch at shoe brand Ego's 1st birthday party at Bonbonniere, London on Thursday night.

However, caught up in the throes of passion, Danielle, 28, seemed unaware that her risque black vest had twisted slightly during the smooch, causing an embarrassing nip slip on the red carpet.

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Whoops! Danielle Armstrong suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction as she had a nip slip whilst smooching James Lock at Ego's 1st birthday party at Bonbonniere, London on Thursday

Just back from their Only Way Is Essex group vacation, the duo returned to the London nightlife scene straight away, later party-hopping over to Nudestix Make-Up event.

Danielle had glammed up with a curly hairstyle, putting the focus on her enviable curves in a figure hugging skirt and a low-cut top.

She robed a lime-green biker jacket over her shoulders and added an extra edge with a choker that spelled out 'GIRL'.

Bottoms up! Just back from their Only Way Is Essex group vacation, the duo returned to the London nightlife scene straight away and enjoyed a flute of bubbly, later at a Nudestix Make-Up event

Her boyfriend Lockie mirrored her colour scheme and wore a long-sleeved black top with dark denim jeans.

Danielle was flying solo only the previous evening, as she supported gal pal Jessica Wright with her shoe launch, though she and James have been virtually inseparable lately.

They rekindled their on-again/off-again relationship two months ago, after fans spotted their chemistry building during the latest series of TOWIE.

Handsome couple; James Lock and Danielle Armstrong joined guests at Ego's 1st Birthday at Bonbonniere in London on Thursday night

Sassy: The TOWIE star wore a denim skirt with a jacket robed over her shoulders

All about the accessories! She robed a lime-green biker jacket over her shoulders and added an extra edge with a choker that spelled out 'GIRL' as she joined her on/off beau at the party

Gal pal: Danielle cosied up to her gal pal Casey Batchelor at the second event of the night, who dazzled in a plunging black bodysuit and a satin skirt with flowers

Explaining the reunion, James said he had something of an epiphany when it came to their relationship.

He told OK magazine: 'It was mad  I woke up one day and realised we were making a mistake. The more time I spent around Danielle, the more I realised how much I missed her.'

'A lot of the problems we had before were down to the fact my life wasn't going in the direction I wanted.'

'I was enjoying being on TOWIE but I wanted something else to focus on, too.'

Proud: On Snapchat, James demonstrated his pride for girlfriend Danielle
Teresa Giudice had a fun glam time during this photo shoot for Us Weekly.

The 44-year-old Real Housewives Of New Jersey star got to play pin up for a day in which she recreated an image made famous by 'iconic woman' Raquel Welch.

Teresa put on a rustic two-piece to recall that famous scene with Raquel as the fair Loana of the Shell people in 1966's cult fave One Million Years B.C.

It was such an honor for me to be asked to re-create this legendary Raquel Welch photo. I have always looked up to iconic women like Raquel Welch and Sophia Loren, so this was a thrill for me. Thank you @usweekly  A photo posted by Teresa Giudice (@teresagiudice) on Jun 2, 2016 at 8:06am PDT

It wasn't a fur bikini but Teresa wore something close to it made of bits of fur and tan suede material.

'It was such an honor for me to be asked to re-create this legendary Raquel Welch photo,' Teresa captioned the snap.

She continued: 'I have always looked up to iconic women like Raquel Welch and Sophia Loren, so this was a thrill for me...'

"iconic woman': Raquel Welch was 26 years old when One Million Years B.C. was released in the US

Teresa's figure was mighty impressive too and toned in all the right places.

Her dark hair blew past her shoulders and there was a rock clutched in one raised hand while her bare feet braced on a big rock prop.

The mother-of-four even sported six-pack abs made even more noticeable thanks to a deep golden tan.

This year the #hotbodies issue of @usweekly was centered around all iconic TV! Here's #baywatch A photo posted by Melissa Gorga (@melissagorga) on May 25, 2016 at 8:45am PDT

'I'm Always Here': Like the show's theme song, Pamela Anderson and her famous red swimsuit appear to be permanently imprinted on the American psyche

Teresa was joined by her sister-in-law and fellow Housewives star Melissa Gorga in another shot inspired by the 1990s series Baywatch.

Clad in the now classic red swimsuits, the elder Teresa appeared to represent Pamela Anderson while Melissa posed as one of CJ Parker's sidekicks.

Melissa was so excited to pose alongside Teresa for the Baywatch-inspired photo.

Post-prison life: Teresa - pictured on April 6 - was released from federal prison last December after serving time on fraud charges

'This year the #hotbodies issue of @usweekly was centered around all iconic TV! Here's #baywatch,' Melissa wrote in the caption.

Teresa, meanwhile, has been sporting a trimmer and leaner figure since her December 23, 2015 release from federal prison, where she served time for fraud charges.

(Her husband, Joe Giudice, who was convicted of conspiracy and bankrupcy fraud, began his 41-month prison sentence on March 23. His sentence has been reduced by five months, according to Us Weekly.)

Teresa and Melissa will soon be seen in the new season of Bravo's The Real Housewives of New Jersey when it premieres on Sunday, July 10, 8 p.m. ET.
It was reported in Woman's Day earlier this week that she had diva like tendencies on the set of Home And Away.

But fellow co-star Ada Nicodemou has come to Pia Miller's defence to dispel the alleged report as 'comical'.

'We were laughing at how comical the story was. There are no on-set tensions. I don't even know what they are talking about,' the 39-year-old, who allegedly split from husband Chrys Xipolitas in February, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Not true: Ada Nicodemou has come to Pia Miller's defence to dispel the alleged reports of diva like attitude as comical

'It's a shame isn't it? That we are still doing that and there is negative press out there when there is no reason for it.'

Ada, who plays Leah on the long-running Australian soap, said she thought of her co-stars as family.

'You look forward to seeing people every day and we have great laughs,' she added.

Channel Seven has also spoken about the 32-year-old in high regard.

Speaking with The Daily Telegraph, a spokesperson said the claims 'are completely untrue'.

Friends for life: Ada, who plays Leah on the long-running Australian soap, said she thought of her co-stars as family

'Her recent Logie nomination underlines her popularity with the audience and her character Kat is resonating with viewers,' they added.

It comes after Woman's Day magazine quoted several unidentified sources who claimed Pia, who plays Summer Bay police officer Katarina Chapman, wasn't liked on set.

'People don't like Pia,' a source told the publication.

They then added the brunette mother-of-two has a tendency to indulge in her own stunning model looks and 'throws it in their faces any chance she gets'.

Rumours swirl: Woman's Day magazine quoted several unidentified sources who claimed Pia, who plays Summer Bay police officer Katarina Chapman, wasn't liked on set

Showing off: Chilean-born Pia reportedly also flaunts paparazzi photographs of herself in bikinis to the show cast and crew members, brandishing them on her mobile phone

The insider claimed: 'She has one of the smallest acting portfolios on the show, but carries on like she's a five-time Oscar winner.'

According to the report, Chilean-born Pia also flaunts paparazzi photographs of herself in bikinis to the show cast and crew members, brandishing them on her mobile phone.

There's no doubt the television star enjoys taking flattering selfies which pepper her Instagram account.

As well as the bombshell bikini looks she's made a habit of parading online, she also enjoys taking fun selfies while in her police woman uniform to play her character.
They say that with Wagner, you get some great moments. And some long half-hours. I was reminded of that comment when watching Nationals revival of Bertolt Brechts Threepenny Opera.

Based on John Gays Beggars Opera about pimps and hustlers fighting a turf war in 18th-century London, directed by National Theatre boss Rufus Norris, and starring Rory Kinnear, its ambitious and ingeniously staged  but still, at the end of the day (or night), a three-hour endurance test.

The show hails from a time, between World Wars I and II, when the German economy was in crisis; and Brechts idea was to create a sardonic parable of squalid self-interest epitomised by gangland anti-hero Captain Macheath (Kinnear).

George Ikediashi (Rev Kimble) and Rory Kinnear (Macheath) in The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill at the Olivier, National Theatre

Here, though, it comes across as a high-brow Carry On, with Kinnear making his first entrance on a cartoon moon, while up to no good with his newly-wedded wife (played by Rosalie Craig).

Kurt Weills score is jazzy, jagged and sometimes atonal. Mack The Knife, made famous by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, is croaked competently by Kinnear.

His Mack is not the most menacing of villains. A dead-eyed pimp, he is cool, rather than flamboyant, but nicely offset by sweet-voiced Ms Craig as his blushing bride.

Vicki Mortimers junkyard set is rooted in a cabaret-like German expressionist style with actors slicing through paper walls; and the onstage band look like theyve taken a detour from a gipsy wedding.

Titillation is provided by Simon Stephens scuffing up Susan Hingleys translation with the usual demotics. Stephens strikes politically correct postures, and makes the odd modern connection, including references to the plight of servicemen returning from Afghanistan.

Norris casts in line with the demands of cultural diversity, including a prominent role for wheelchair user Jamie Beddard (not enough of them at the National). There are nice cameos from Sharon Small and Debbie Kurup as two of Macks rough old flames, as well as Matt Cross as his clownish jailer.

Haydn Gwynne amuses as Mrs Peachum, bibulous wife of Macks would-be nemesis. But the finest turn is from Nick Holder, as Peachum himself. A middle-aged Billy Bunter in a pinstripe suit and pinny, he minces about in ladies shoes and purrs like a natural successor to Richard Griffiths.
Sunset At The Villa Thalia (Royal National Theatre)

Rating:

The Royal National Theatre, heavily funded by our Government, has come up with a new play about the displacement of Greeks in their own country.

Sunset at the Villa Thalia conjures romantic notions of nationalism. Playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell is distressed that economically-stricken Greeks have to sell their adorable villas.

Wow, you might think. How topical. As we all know, Greek teeters on the brink of bankruptcy. Greece is indeed being forced to sell many assets.

Ben Miles as Harvey, Elizabeth McGovern as June, Sam Crane as Theo and Pippa Nixon as Charlotte in Sunset At The Villa Thalia

But to be topical would require the National to be politically daring. It would require artistic truth about the ravages wrought on Greece by the European Union  which our Government worships. And so this play is set in the late 1960s and mid 1970s.

And its villain is an American CIA agent! Simon Godwins production is handsomely staged and well acted.

The setting is a small, whitewashed house on Skiathos. We can hear waves in the distance.

The house is being rented by a wishy-washy English writer (Sam Crane) and his new wife (Pippa Nixon). They have just met an American couple (Ben Miles and Elizabeth McGovern). Mr Miless character, CIA guy Harvey, is a piece of work: pushy, political, prone to oratory.

His wife June (Miss McGovern) is a dingbat tippler with flamingo legs and a Jackie Kennedy dress sense. Both parts are delivered with aplomb, Mr Miles surviving an iffily dyed hairdo.

Harvey insists that the CIA fights to preserve the freedom of creative Westerners.

By the end, inevitably, we have been shown that the CIA is more about naked American interests. Along the way, Harvey helps the English couple buy the house off its Greek owners, who are emigrating to Australia. It is acquired for a pittance. Poor Greeks, being exploited, we are urged to think. There is some stuff about a dead Greek matriach having always wanted to pass the house to her grand-daughter.
Iran rejects any output cap deal at OPEC meeting

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh rejected suggestions OPEC would agree a production cap at a meeting in Vienna, saying his country backed a return to a national quota system.

Tehran, which only recently returned to world oil markets after Western sanctions were lifted, has opposed any attempt to limit output to support weak crude prices.

Iran stayed away from a disastrous meeting in Doha on April 4 between OPEC and other major producers, including Russia, that failed to agree a coordinated output freeze.

Tehran, which only recently returned to world oil markets after Western sanctions were lifted, has opposed any attempt to limit output to support weak crude prices

Zanganeh said a production cap would be "no benefit" for Iran -- or for the other members of the cartel, which pumps around a third of the world's oil.

"One of our main ideas is to have country quotas, but I don't think we can reach an agreement on this subject at this meeting," the minister said as he arrived in the Austrian capital ahead of the meeting, starting Thursday.

Iran exported just over two million barrels of oil every day last month, and Zanganeh predicted that would soon double as the country is currently producing some 3.8 million barrels a day.

Instead, he said the meeting would focus on choosing a new OPEC secretary general to replace the Libyan Abdalla El-Badri.

Candidates to succeed him include Ali Rodriguez Araque of Venezuela, Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo and Mahendra Siregar of Indonesia, reports said.
Uber raises $3.5 bn from Saudi investment fund

Uber announced that the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia has pumped $3.5 billion into the ride-sharing giant, helping fuel its global expansion plans.

Terms of the investment give what was already one of the largest venture-funded startups a valuation, or implied value, of $62.5 billion, according to the company.

The deal comes as Saudi Arabia strives to diversify its economy away from reliance on oil production to include more entrepreneurship, open markets and productivity.

The new funding helps Uber's global expansion, including in the Middle East and North Africa, which the company see as among its fastest-growing regions Khaled Desouki (AFP/File)

The new funding also helps Uber's global expansion, including in the Middle East and North Africa, which the company see as among its fastest-growing regions.

In addition to the investment, which will boost Uber's cash holdings to more than $11 billion, the head of the Saudi fund, Yasir Al Rumayyan, is joining the Uber board.

"We appreciate the vote of confidence in our business as we continue to expand our global presence," Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick said in a statement.

"Our experience in Saudi Arabia is a great example of how Uber can benefit riders, drivers and cities and we look forward to partnering to support their economic and social reforms."

Rumayyan said in a statement that the fund "is excited to have completed this important strategic investment with Uber, an extraordinary company with an inspiring mission."

He added that the plan fits with the kingdom's Vision 2030, the blueprint for diversifying its economy away from oil.

According to Uber, the company is committed to investing $250 million in the region, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar and Morocco.

In Saudi Arabia, around 80 percent of Uber's riders are women, the company said, explaining that the service can help improve mobility for women, who cannot drive in the country and typically avoid public taxis.

- Egypt tightens reins -

Egypt in March said it will regulate ride-hailing services Uber and Careem after they sparked protests by taxi drivers in Cairo over allegations the smartphone apps bypass regulations.

Cab drivers contend that not only are they losing clients to Uber and Careem, but the two services use vehicles that are unregistered for ferrying commuters.

Egypt's cabinet said the authorities would take steps to regulate the two ride-hailing services.

Uber and Careem drivers would "have to pay taxes" and their apps would need to establish a "suitable framework for traditional taxi drivers to join them," the cabinet maintained.

San Francisco-based Uber has expanded to hundreds of cities worldwide, despite complaints from established taxi operators and regulators.

- Eyes on oil -

Saudi Arabia's push to diversify away from oil comes amid a significant global oversupply.

OPEC, which pumps about a third of the world's crude, has contributed to the chronic problem, led by kingpin Saudi Arabia.

Some OPEC ministers expressed hope that the oil market would improve in the second half of the year after prices took a beating from abundant supplies as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries prepared to open its biannual meeting Thursday in Vienna.

However most analysts do not expect the 13-nation cartel will announce any measure to reduce output, especially since prices have rebounded nearly 90 percent from February lows.

According to Uber, the company is committed to investing $250 million in the region, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar and Morocco Khaled Desouki (AFP/File)
Afghan forces improve performance over last year: US general

Afghan forces have improved their performance over the last year, a time when they saw a series of setbacks in their struggle against the Taliban, a United States general said Wednesday.

"We are cautiously optimistic about the coming months because overall we do believe that they have some momentum right now," senior spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan Charles Cleveland said via videoconference from Kabul.

"We do believe that the ANDSF has performed better this year than they were performing last year," he said, using the acronym for the Afghan national troops.

Afghan forces are progressing because they are now in "an offensive mindset" -- sometimes taking their own initiative in attacking the Taliban, a US general says Najim Rahim (AFP/File)

Last year concerns that Afghan forces lacked the ability to resist the Taliban led the United States to postpone indefinite withdrawal of its own troops.

The administration of President Barack Obama is under pressure to reevaluate the number of US soldiers that will stay in Afghanistan in 2017, now fixed at 5,500.

Cleveland said Afghan forces are progressing because they are now in "an offensive mindset" -- sometimes taking their own initiative in attacking the Taliban.

"They are getting better in employing their newer capabilities," including use of US-provided A-29 aircraft, MD-530 helicopters and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance tools.

Cleveland added that their special operations capability is "doing exceptionally well."

General John Nicholson, the new top commander of American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, is expected to conclude his assessment of troop needs for 2017 soon.
In 2011, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was hanging on to the Missouri River like an experienced horseman reining in a wild stallion.

Through the spring and a long wet summer, the corps used every mechanism and feature it had to prevent the Missouri River from causing the most severe flood in modern history. Garrison Dam and its upstream Montana sister, Fort Peck Dam, were built decades ago to control flooding on the longest river in the country. If nothing else, the U.S. taxpayers had the chance to see if they were getting their moneys worth.

The dam reservoirs filled to the brim with heavy mountain snowmelt and spring rain, but they held. Emergency spillway gates were opened for the first time for flood control, and they worked exactly as envisioned.

The river still ran too fast and too high to prevent downstream erosion and flooding; but without the dams, experts say, the situation could have become catastrophic rather than critical.

The dams allowed the corps to rein in the Missouri River flow to a peak flow of 150,000 cubic feet per second; unchecked, the river would have galloped toward Bismarck at the rate of 260,000 cfs, about 10 times the flow of a normal high-release rate.

Jody Farhat, chief of the corps Missouri Basin division, said at that rate the flood stage would have reached 24.2 feet at Bismarck, rather than 19.2 feet. With another 5 feet of water at that rate of flow, it's hard to know where and how emergency dikes and levees might have failed.

It was really something to experience, according to Farhat. It was just amazing to see the spillway, built so many years ago. We opened it in a crisis, and it operated as it was designed.

Even as the corps worked with state and local officials to help understand and mitigate the high water heading south, it had its hands full at the dam works.

Turned out, people were absolutely fascinated by the historic use of the spillway, normally a dry concrete expanse with 28 massive gates out of sight beneath the causeway. Thousands gathered to watch June 1 as the gates started creaking upward and water roared down the structure, out into a spillway pond, through a 2-mile pilot channel and into the Missouri River.

Todd Lindquist, Garrison Dam's project manager, remembers that time as a series of 18-hour days, coordinating emergency levee works in Bismarck-Mandan with one hand and managing emergency dam operations with the other.

I do remember telling my wife there had to be easier ways to make a living. It was very stressful, said Lindquist, pointing out that Garrison Dam also neared capacity in 1997, so he had no doubt the embankment would hold.

As prepared as he and the staff tried to be, he said they were caught off-guard by the sheer number of onlookers who came to observe the historic flood release.

To control the flood of people arriving at the dam from all corners of the region and the state, the corps contracted with the McLean County Sheriffs Department to set up parking and crosswalks.

The corps closed all of its downstream camping and boat ramp facilities during the release, partly because there was no way of knowing where the water would go.

Turned out, the pilot channel was too narrow and water backed up into the catchment pond and pushed west, damaging the popular day-use recreation facilities. The force of the water blasted the narrow channel into the much wider opening it is today.

Lindquist said money intended to repair the spillway pond and swimming beach had to be diverted to the spillway gates, which held strong but got beaten up in the process. Work on the spillway gates continues. When it's done next year, it will have taken every summer construction season since the flood.

The swimming beach is the feature that we regret losing the most. We hope to restore that day use at some point, he said.

Farhat said the main lesson learned from the event was that the corps needs to have a better handle on the amount of snowpack in the plains, not just in the mountains, as well as the soil moisture level prior to the freeze.

The state was collecting that information that we were not aware of. We now have much better systems in place, and are coordinating more on runoff forecasts, she said.

The corps spent $20 million on temporary levees during the flood event. Since then, the corps has spent $580 million on repairs to the dams and dam works.

The Missouri River wasnt the only one in trouble in 2011. Every river basin in North Dakota was impacted, and 21 peak records were set. Its estimated the public cost for the 2011 flood fight and mitigation exceeded $1.4 billion, according to a Department of Emergency Services report from November that year.

Lindquist said it was difficult being in the position of opening the spillway gates when everyone knew the heartache that water would cause downstream; but there was no easy compromise between creating a flow of faster, higher water that would last a short time, and allowing a slower, lower level of water that would last longer.

I hope we never have to go through that again, he said.
US adults reporting homosexual experience doubles: study

The percentage of American adults who said they've had a homosexual experience has doubled since the 1990s, according to a study, indicating a rapid change in cultural attitudes toward sexuality.

The study, based on a survey of more than 30,000 adults and published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, also shows that acceptance of homosexuality has increased among all generations, with Millennials the most accepting.

"These large shifts in both attitudes and behavior occurred over just 25 years, suggesting rapid cultural change," study co-author Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, said in a news release.

A study based on a survey of more than 30,000 adults, shows that acceptance of homosexuality has increased among all generations in the US, with Millennials the most accepting Robyn Beck (AFP/File)

These changes indicate "that American culture has become more individualistic and more focused on the self and on equality," she said.

"Without the strict social rules common in the past, Americans now feel more free to have sexual experiences they desire."

According to the data, the percentage of men who had sex with at least one other man increased from 4.5 percent to 8.2 percent between 1990 and 2014.

The percentage of women who said they had sex with at least one woman jumped from 3.6 percent to 8.7 percent in the same period.

The percentage of adults who reported having had sex with both men and women grew from 3.1 percent to 7.7 percent.

Among Millennials -- which the study considered as adults between ages 18 and 29 in the 2010s -- 7.5 percent of men and 12.2 percent of women reported having had a same-sex experience.

Female homosexual experiences were more likely to occur among young women, while age doesn't appear to be a factor for male homosexual experiences, the study said.

Public attitudes toward homosexuality have also changed significantly in the United States, which legalized gay marriage a year ago.

From 1973 to 1990, the percentage of adults who believed "sexual relations between two adults of the same sex (was) not wrong at all" rose from 11 percent to 13 percent.
Bones of Italian priest shed new light on Japan's Christian past

Disguised as a samurai in kimono and topknot, Italian missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti stole ashore on a small Japanese island in 1708, daring to enter a land hostile to his Christian creed.

He was quickly captured by authorities, who saw the alien faith as a threat to national identity, and thrown in a prison for Christians, where torture was routine.

Now, more than 300 years later, researchers using DNA analysis have confirmed that remains unearthed from a Tokyo construction site almost certainly belong to Sidotti -- and say they back up historical accounts of his treatment.

Remains which almost certainly belong to an 18th-century Italian missionary, Giovanni Battista Sidotti, who stole ashore on a small Japanese island in 1708, a country then hostile to his Christian creed Bunkyo Ward (BUNKYO WARD/AFP)

Sidotti helped shaped Japan's view of the Western world with his knowledge after he won over the nation's leading scholar of the day, historians say. But he fell from grace after refusing to give up his faith and his final days and death have been shrouded in mystery.

Christian missionaries made aggressive inroads in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries, gaining adherents among commoners and even powerful warlords.

But fears they were an advance guard for European colonialism spurred a brutal crackdown long before Sidotti arrived.

- Human jigsaw puzzles -

Three sets of bones were unearthed in July 2014 from land that now forms the parking lot of an upscale condominium but was once the site of the prison -- the Kirishitan Yashiki, or Christian Mansion. Its only reminder today is a stone marker commemorating the spot.

National Museum of Nature and Science researchers near Tokyo carefully cleaned the skeletal fragments before piecing them together like human jigsaw puzzles in a painstaking process that took more than six months.

Kenichi Shinoda, the museum's chief of anthropology, analysed DNA from a tooth and concluded that one of them had the same genetic type as present day Italians.

Japan's historical records show that only two missionaries from Italy had been held at the site, Sidotti and Giuseppe Chiara.

The latter was the model for the main character of a Portuguese priest in late Japanese author Shusaku Endo's novel "Silence," which director Martin Scorsese is turning into an upcoming film.

As records show that Chiara was cremated after his death at 84, the unearthed remains are almost certain to be of Sidotti, who was 47 when he died in 1714, researchers said.

While detained at the prison, Japanese Christians and foreign missionaries were tormented with demands they renounce the banned religion -- many did so under duress.

- 'Changed Japan' -

While they feared foreign religion, Japanese officials also craved Western knowledge and scientific insights harder to obtain under the official policy of national seclusion from 1639.

As part of his interrogations, Sidotti was questioned by Japan's top Confucian scholar, who developed a deep respect for the Roman Catholic priest for his knowledge of geography, languages and global affairs, experts in this case explained.

The scholar, the renowned Arai Hakuseki, is said to have tried to help Sidotti but the priest was later sent to the dungeon amid allegations he baptised the Japanese couple tending to his daily needs.

The Italian died there, but it is not clear exactly how, researchers said.

Historical accounts, such as those written by Japanese scholar Mamiya Kotonobu about a century later, however mention that Sidotti was accorded a certain respect and treated far better than other prisoners -- even in death.

Researchers say that is backed up by evidence from the remains.

"His body was laid flat in a casket, a luxurious one as far as I can tell by the brackets," Akio Tanigawa, professor of archaeology at Tokyo's Waseda University and lead researcher on the remains, told AFP, referring to coffin pieces discovered with the bones.

"People did not bury human bodies like this," Tanigawa stressed, suggesting Sidotti was likely given a burial "in the Christian way".

He said that in 18th century Tokyo, then known as Edo, people were buried in a sitting up position in a small tub.

The two sets of bones unearthed next to Sidotti's may be those of the Japanese couple, Chosuke and Haru, researchers said, as at least one was placed in a small tub, the then traditional way of burial.

The missionary had a great impact on Japan, Tanigawa stressed, citing books by Arai. An adviser to the rulers of the time, he penned a study of the Western world for which Sidotti is cited as a key source.

Tanigawa explained: "The knowledge shared by Sidotti surely changed Japan's view of the world."
Burkina police arrest six 'foreigners' over jihadist attacks

Burkina Faso police have arrested six "foreigners" suspected of being behind jihadist attacks in January that left 30 people dead, the government and police said.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed it was behind an assault on a top hotel and a cafe, both popular with foreigners, which also left 70 people wounded.

"Six individuals of foreign nationalities were arrested on Monday May 30 in Ougadougou," the national police said in a statement sent to AFP.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed it was behind an assault on a top hotel and a cafe in Ouagadougou in January which left 30 people dead and 70 wounded Ahmed Ouoba (AFP/File)

These people are believed to have "sheltered and aided the perpetrators of the attack in Ougadougou, and worked with the ringleader of the attacks (who is) still being tracked down".

Burkina's Minister of Internal Security, Simon Compaore, told reporters the arrests were made thanks to intelligence shared by other West African security forces.

Security forces have already detained a 38-year-old local man in connection with the attacks on the four-star Hotel Splendid and the nearby Cappuccino cafe.

Until this year, Burkina Faso had largely avoided the attacks and hostage-taking by jihadist groups that have wracked other Sahel countries since 2008.

On Wednesday, unidentified gunmen killed three police officers in northern Burkina Faso near the Malian border -- the second attack on a police station near the frontier in less than a fortnight.

The day after the January attacks, an elderly Australian couple were kidnapped in the north of the country where they had lived for more than four decades.
Sufis live in fear after Bangladeshi machete slaughter

Each time he hears of the latest deadly machete attack, Ashraful Islam can't help but think of his father's gruesome murder and fear his fellow Sufi Muslims will never be safe again in Bangladesh.

"The killings are not declining, they're getting worse. And every one reminds me what happened to my father," said the 30-year-old medical student.

"I've no idea why they are doing this but if they aren't stopped then our future is doomed, we'll become another Pakistan."

A Sufi's house in Dhaka, where near a 100,000 Sufis are expected in Dhaka to attend an annual congregation. Islamists have claimed responsibility for around 40 killings in the last three years of foreigners, secular bloggers, gay activists, Hindus and Christians STR (AFP)

Islamists have claimed responsibility for around 40 killings in the last three years of foreigners, secular bloggers, gay activists, Hindus and Christians. Many have been slaughtered with machetes.

But no group has suffered as much as Sufis, an offshoot of mainstream Islam whose followers are often denounced as "infidels" for their mystical traditions, including worshipping at shrines.

Fourteen have died since December 2014 in religiously motivated attacks, including Islam's father Khizir Khan.

More than 100,000 Sufis are expected in Dhaka Friday to attend an annual congregation, which this year is both a celebration and an act of defiance.

It comes less than a month after local Sufi leader Mohammad Shahidullah was found hacked to death under a mango tree in the northwestern Rajshahi district.

The deep wounds in his neck echoed Khan's murder last October when he was killed by suspected members of banned Islamist militant group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).

Khan had around 2,000 followers, many of whom would turn up at weekly prayers at the family home in Dhaka.

On the night of his killing, he had arranged to meet prospective tenants for a vacant apartment underneath the family's own flat.

But he went downstairs to an ambush by a gang who cornered him in a bathroom and then hacked at his neck until he bled to death.

The killers then burst into the upstairs living-room, tying up Khan's family, who later managed to escape.

- Slaughtered in bathroom -

"It was my mother who discovered the body in the bathroom. The head was partially severed.

"It was such a shocking thing. Every now and then my mother still breaks down."

Police soon arrested five suspects who allegedly told investigators it was their "religious duty" to kill Khan.

No-one has yet to be convicted for the killing and there have been few arrests in the other murders.

Most have been claimed by the likes of JMB or international jihadists such as the Islamic State organisation or Al-Qaeda's South Asia wing.

While more than 90 percent of Bangladesh's 160 million population are Muslims, it is an avowedly secular state.

For most of the first four decades after winning the 1971 independence war with Pakistan, Bangladesh had a reputation for religious tolerance and Sufi Muslim services drew tens of millions of worshippers.

But Islamist groups, discredited by their war-time allegiance to Pakistan, grew in strength over the decades.

The largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, became a key ally of the mainstream opposition before being banned by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a move critics say pushed its followers towards extremism.

Mubashar Hasan, an expert on political Islam, said Bangladesh's fate was familiar to other Muslim-majority countries where extremists have tried to impose a very narrow form of religion.

"Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq are facing similar problems," said Hasan from Dhaka's University of Liberal Arts.

He urged Hasina's government to co-opt Islamic scholars to join a campaign "to delegitimise religious justification of violence and terrorism carried out by these extremists".

- Militants 'brainwashed' -

There is a widespread fear that youths struggling to find work in an impoverished country are being radicalised in madrassas, or religious schools.

"These militants tend to be half-educated or illiterate and become brainwashed," said Rezaul Haq Chanpuri, an activist from a prominent Sufi family.

"There is a section of the country which believes these militants and the clerics who preach Salafi-Wahabi Islam represent the rightful path while Sufis are deviants."

A Dhaka-based Sufi, who has more than 100 followers, said he had adapted his services to avoid becoming a target.

"I am now using Koranic verses that are popular among Salafi-Wahabis so they can't brand me a deviant," he said on condition of anonymity.

Self-styled Sufi king Hazrat Dewanbagi, who is hosting Friday's congregation, now deploys heavy security around his inner sanctum -- which once was open to all.

Ashraful Islam admits being scared but won't reject his heritage.

"My father taught me that tolerance is true to the nature of Islam and it is others who have veered off the rightful path," he said.

The congregation comes less than a month after local Sufi leader Mohammad Shahidullah was found hacked to death under a mango tree in the northwestern Rajshahi district STR (AFP)
Vietnam war dead return to Australia

The remains of Australian troops killed in the Vietnam War and their families were returned to Sydney Thursday in a formal military ceremony, half a century after being buried in Malaysia and Singapore.

Thirty-three bodies, interred in Malaysia's Terendak Cemetery and Singapore's Kranji War Cemetery, were brought home in flag-drapped coffins on two Royal Australian Air Force C-17 Globemaster aircraft.

Almost 60,000 Australian military personnel fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, with 521 losing their lives. All remains were returned to Australia, except for 36 in Malaysia and Singapore.

Almost 60,000 Australian military personnel fought alongside the United States in Vietnam, with 521 losing their lives. All remains were returned to Australia, except for 36 in Malaysia and Singapore Manan Vatsyayana (AFP)

In May last year, then prime minister Tony Abbott offered repatriation to the families, with the bodies of 25 servicemen, including 22 soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, and eight dependents now back to Australia.

The other three soldiers died in the fight against communist insurgents in Malaysia, according to the Army Museum, which oversees Terendak Military Cemetery.

The ceremony at Richmond air force base near Sydney, marking one of the biggest single repatriations of Australian servicemen, was attended by Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, Vietnam War veterans and the families of those who died.

"Today's ceremony is an opportunity to commemorate the sacrifice of the men and women who serve in our armed forces and the families who support them," Defence Minister Marise Payne said in a statement.

"For the families of those whose loved ones are returning to them and the veterans and mates who served alongside them, I hope today will bring some solace and closure."

The director of the Office of Australian War Graves, the government agency that organised the repatriation, said it was an emotional time.

"(People will be) extremely happy that the 50 years of waiting has finally come to fruition," Ken Corke told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"But equally for some, the grief is as raw today as it was 50 years ago. And for some of them, they will find it a very difficult day."

Private memorial services were to follow the military ceremony.

Australian soldiers killed in World Wars I and II and the Korean War were buried near to where they fell but around the time of the Vietnam engagement this policy changed and bodies were usually brought home.
India court convicts 24 over 2002 Gujarat riots massacre

An Indian court convicted two dozen people on Thursday over a massacre during religious riots 14 years ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat state.

Judge PB Desai found them guilty of hacking to death and burning 69 Muslims sheltering in a residential complex in the city of Ahmedabad, in one of the single worst massacres of the week-long violence.

The riots that left more than 1,000 people dead in total have long dogged Modi who was accused by human rights groups of turning a blind eye to the violence as head of Gujarat.

Firefighters are seen tackling a blaze during the rioting in 2002. The massacre was one of the single worst incidents of the days-long riots that swept across Gujarat and left more than 1,000 people dead in total Sebastian D'Souza (AFP/File)

But the latest verdicts are unlikely to have an impact on the Hindu nationalist premier who was cleared in 2012 by a Supreme Court-ordered investigation of any wrongdoing.

Celebrations erupted in the courtroom in Ahmedabad amid tight security after the verdicts were read out, with victims and their families clapping and thanking the judge.

But Desai also acquitted another 36 people for lack of evidence and stated the massacre was a spontaneous attack, not a criminal conspiracy as many victims have alleged.

"I am happy 24 accused were convicted but sad that 36 others have been acquitted. This is incomplete justice and I will fight till the end," Zakia Jafri, whose husband was killed in the massacre, told reporters.

More than 300 witnesses gave evidence during the years-long trial that began in 2009 but was delayed by legal challenges and several of the original accused died.

The 24 convicted are expected to be sentenced next week.

Prosecutors had been seeking life in prison for all of the accused for storming the Gulbarg Society complex and killing the Muslims who were hiding there.

- Pleas for help -

Among those killed at the complex was former opposition Congress lawmaker Ehsan Jafri whose wife, Zakia, claims that he repeatedly called police for help but none came.

The violence was triggered by the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire on February 27, 2002 that was initially blamed on Muslims.

Hindus bent on revenge rampaged through Muslim neighbourhoods in some of India's worst religious riots since independence from Britain and partition in 1947.

More than 100 people have already been convicted over the riots, including one of Modi's former state ministers who was jailed for instigating some of the killings.

Rupa Mody, whose teenage son went missing during the massacre and whose body was never found, said she has long prayed for justice.

"I don't want any other mother to suffer the way I have as a mother who yearns for her son," she told the NDTV network.

"It hurts so much when your family is tormented and your house is destroyed."

The trial into the massacre only began after the Supreme Court ordered in 2009 a reinvestigation into some of the worst incidents of the riots.

But one year later the same court issued a stay on any final verdict from the trial after a petition was filed seeking a probe into whether Modi and others played a role in the violence.

The court only lifted its order last year when a lower court upheld a rejection of the petition.
How to spot a militant: Pakistani army removes roofs in Waziristan

House after house flicks by hundreds of feet beneath a military helicopter, many distinguished by one arresting feature: their roofs have been removed by the army to allow an "aerial view" of militants who may take refuge there.

South Waziristan was once a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, where the extremists operated with impunity, but the military says the region in the country's mountainous northwest has been cleared of its last militant stronghold.

Now the district, part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the border with Afghanistan, is welcoming thousands of displaced families back to their homes, many of which no longer offer shelter.

Roofs have been removed by the army to allow an "aerial view" of militants who may take refuge there Shaukat Khattak (AFP)

Some were damaged by weather, said a military official who flew with media on the army-controlled helicopter trip earlier this month over the towns of Makeen, Ladha and Kanigurm.

But not all. "(The) military has removed the roofs of the houses to have a better aerial view and stop militants taking refuge in these abundant, fort-like mud houses," the official told reporters.

From the helicopter journalists could see scores of homes with no roofs but appearing otherwise intact, their interiors exposed to the elements, though it was unclear how many had been removed by the military and how many had been damaged by the weather and fighting.

The Rah-e-Nijat operation was launched by the military against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its then-leader Baitullah Mehsud in 2009, displacing more than 72,000 families, according to the military.

Seven years later, some 42,000 families have been sent back, head of development Colonel Muhammad Imran told journalists during a briefing earlier this month in Shakai town, with another 30,000 expected by the end of 2016.

- Under 'complete control' -

Pakistani authorities have rebuilt roads, constructed health facilities and schools and reinforced the water supply in villages in the area.

"We are trying to make all the facilities available for IDPs (internally displaced people) before their return," Imran said.

But the lack of shelter, residents warn, will be a serious issue.

Traditionally roofs in South Waziristan are built of wood and iron sheets to hold off heavy winter snows, but from the helicopter hundreds could be seen with their wooden skeletons bared and interiors exposed.

The government says it is providing up to 400,000 rupees ($4,000) to families for the rebuilding of their homes.

"400,000 rupees is not a sufficient amount even to build one room," said Haji Muhammad, 55, a tribal elder from Makeen.

"My family, especially women, are anxiously waiting to go back but it may not be possible," he said.

When asked if the funds allocated were enough to rebuild a house, development head Imran said: "I can't answer to the question."

A senior military official told AFP some $285 million is needed to tackle reconstruction in FATA, but the government has so far released only $48 million, with $12.5 million of that distributed to displaced families.

Muhammad Aslam, from Kanigurm, said the security situation was "peaceful" and "under complete control of the military".

But only two rooms in his three-story house are still standing, he said -- adding that he and the 20 members of his extended family are "lucky" to have that much.

The 32-year-old told AFP $15,000 in compensation would be enough for the average home.

In neighbouring North Waziristan, resident Malik Muhammad Ghulam said "the majority of the houses" in the region's administrative headquarters Miranshah had been demolished.

"Authorities implement curfew from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am... we cannot even go to the market. (They) tell us not to leave the compound of our house."

Pakistan's anti-militan offensive Adrian LEUNG (AFP)

It was unclear how many roofs had been removed by the military and how many had been damaged by the weather and fighting Shaukat Khattak (AFP)
Offensive in Syria aimed at cutting off IS supply route

The US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria is trying to strangle it by cutting off a key supply route from Turkey.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led alliance, has just launched an offensive to capture the strategic northern town of Manbij with the help of coalition air strikes, 18 of them in the past 24 hours.

Manbij is on the north-south axis between Jarablus, a town on the border with Turkey and controlled by IS fighters, and Raqa, the Islamic State group's self proclaimed capital in Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces have just launched an offensive to capture the northern town of Manbij and cut a strategic Islamic State group supply route DelilL Soulieman (AFP/File)

That axis is the main supply route to Raqa, said Jennifer Cafarella, Syria analyst for the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.

If anti-IS fighters take Manbij and then Jarablus, that would sever this axis and leave the jihadist group with just a few rural areas further to the west as a way to maintain a link with Turkey, Cafarella said.

"Recapturing Manbij and ultimately advancing to Jarablus would disrupt but not eliminate ISIS's ability to resupply," she said.

The US-led coalition has long had its eye on the so-called Manbij pocket. But an offensive on this mainly Arab region has run into opposition from Turkey, a key partner in the alliance.

Washington sees the Syrian Democratic Forces -- which is dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) -- as the most effective ground force against IS in Syria.

But Ankara regards the YPG as a branch of the rebel Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state.

- Kurdish blood -

Turkey does not want to see the YPG, which already controls much of the Turkish-Syrian border, take over the last bit of the frontier that it did not already hold.

On Wednesday Pentagon officials stressed that the attack on Manbij was being led by the Arab component of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Kurds represent less than 20 percent of the forces on the ground, a US official said.

And they will leave after the battle and cede control to their Arab partners, the official said.

But some are skeptical of the Pentagon's assurances.

They suspect that despite Washington's touting the role of the Arabs, it is the Kurds who will ultimately retain control.

"I doubt that they are in command and they are going to have control over this territory once Kurds will have spent their blood," said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

The Pentagon has deployed more than 200 special forces troops alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Last week, AFP photos of US special forces wearing YPG patches on their uniforms angered Turkey.

The United States responded by telling these forces to stop wearing the badge, but insisted that US troops would continue to help the Kurdish fighters, saying they were taking on IS militants efficiently.

Over the past 10 days the Syrian Democratic Forces have also launched an offensive to retake Raqa, the main IS stronghold in Syria.

Troops identified by Syrian Democratic forces as US special operations forces ride in the back of a pickup truck in the village of Fatisah in the northern Syrian province of Raqa Delil Souleiman (AFP/File)
Australia to trial ground-level traffic lights for smartphone users

Ground-level traffic lights for pedestrians constantly looking down at smartphones are set to be trialled in Sydney as Australian authorities seek to drive down the road death toll.

It comes amid alarm about rising road fatalities this year, with officials launching the "Towards Zero" advertising campaign this week to increase awareness about accident rates.

In addition, the New South Wales government is shelling out Aus$250,000 (US$181,000) to test "in-ground traffic-light technology" at key crossings in Sydney's central business district, the state's Roads Minister Duncan Gay said.

Pedestrian fatalities in New South Wales are on the rise Peter Parks (AFP)

"Pedestrians are less protected in a road crash, and are therefore more likely to be seriously injured or killed," NSW Centre for Road Safety's executive director Bernard Carlon said in a statement sent to AFP Thursday.

"This is why we need to create a road system that keeps them safe, and this includes situations when they may not be paying attention. The lights are aimed at pedestrians using mobile phones who are not looking where they are walking."

Carlon said the trial is expected to start in December at five sites and last for six months.

Some 61 pedestrians died on NSW roads last year, a 49 percent jump from 2014, he said, adding that fatalities this year have so far increased by five from the same period in 2015, to 31.

Another Australian city, Gold Coast in Queensland state, is also looking at trialling the technology, which involves rows of lights at curbs that shine green and blink when it is safe to cross a road, Brisbane's Courier Mail reported.
Families of MH17 crew file suit against Malaysia Airlines

Families of six Malaysia Airlines crew members who were killed when flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine nearly two years ago filed a lawsuit Thursday blaming the carrier for the tragedy.

The suit accuses the airline of negligence and breach of contract and is believed to be the first filed against the company over the 2014 disaster, said Balan Nair, a lawyer representing families of the six Malaysian crew members.

It comes two weeks after a suit by 33 next-of-kin from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia was filed against Russia and President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights.

The wrecked cockpit of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is shown to the press during a presentation of the final report on the cause of its crash at the Gilze Rijen airbase in the Netherlands on October 13, 2015 Emmanuel Dunand (AFP/File)

All 298 passengers and crew -- the majority of them Dutch -- died when the Boeing 777 was hit by a Russian-made BUK anti-aircraft missile over war-torn eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014.

Thursday's filing in Malaysia blames the airline for the tragedy, saying it "dispatched and executed the MH17 flight over an area known to be under armed conflict, which posed an unreasonable risk of harm and death".

Balan did not give a compensation amount being sought, saying that would be decided by the courts.

He said the airline had offered to settle for an undisclosed amount, but families rejected the proposed sum. He did not rule out an eventual out-of-court settlement.

Malaysia Airlines meanwhile said it is yet to be served with the mentioned suits and that the MH17 flight route complied with International Civil Aviation Organisation regulations.

Under the 1999 Montreal Convention, next-of-kin have until the second anniversary of an air disaster to file lawsuits against the carrier involved.

Chong Seng See, whose sister Chong Yee Pheng is one of the six crew members mentioned in the suit, said in a statement issued by his lawyers that families have endured deep pain due to the "horrific manner" of their loved ones' deaths.

MH17 had a total crew of 15.

Malaysia Airlines already is facing lawsuits by scores of families over the disappearance of MH370 and could face legal action from more MH17 next-of-kin.

MH370 vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014 -- just four months before the MH17 tragedy -- with 239 passengers and crew aboard.
Pres. Dwight Eisenhower spoke on June 11, 1953, at closure ceremonies for Garrison Dam. He recalled a 1903 flood that covered Kansas Kaw Valley with water.

Certainly the last thing that would have occurred to us living in the midst of that flood was that man would ever have the temerity to try to harness the Big Muddy, he said.

For more than half a century, the dam did harness the river. Homes, roads and businesses were built where water once flowed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers managed releases for flood control, navigation, recreation and other interests.

But in 2011, heavy snow, late melt and spring rains defied typical management. Five years ago today, the Missouri River passed into flood stage. The rising water kept hundreds of people out of their homes for months, caused billions of dollars in damage and forever changed the way people look at the mighty Missouri River.

Wet conditions were common throughout the river basin that year, including in Bismarck, which had its fifth snowiest winter and a wetter-than-normal spring. Snowpack in the mountains peaked later than usual. People who watch the river worried that Lake Sakakawea was too full and that the corps had stuck too rigidly to its usual plans.

The corps increased releases from Garrison Dam throughout May, but it wasnt enough to make room for the approaching water. Before the month ended, Bismarck and Mandan began to prepare for the deluge.

Conversations in the community centered on releases, sandbagging, evacuations and elevations. People evaluated their risks with maps showing where water would go at different heights. City, county, state and federal officials held daily briefings to provide updates  and to dispel rumors.

The worst of the rumors never came to be. The dam held; water didnt cover all of south Bismarck. But the releases did grow. And on June 1, 2011, the spillway gates were opened on Garrison Dam for the first time in its history.

The next day, the river entered the flood zone of 16 feet in Bismarck. The releases continued to increase, and so did the river level. It crested July 1 at 19.25 feet  the highest level since Garrison Dam was built. Flood-fighting efforts lasted until late July. The dam gates stayed open until Aug. 17, and the river stayed at flood stage until Aug. 18.

But after the river returned to normal levels, the damage remained. Houses had to be cleaned up or torn down. Roads built to serve as dikes needed repairs, as did roads washed out by floodwaters. And the river itself had changed the way it flowed.

The Missouri had proved  all those years after Eisenhower stood over the dam  that it would never be completely under control.
Thai tiger temple monk caught fleeing with skins, fangs

Thai authorities uncovered a trove of animal parts and intercepted a monk trying to leave a controversial "tiger temple" with skins and fangs Thursday, the latest discovery to fuel accusations that the zoo is involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

Dozens of police and park officials have been stationed at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province since Monday after receiving a court order to remove over 100 adult cats from the complex.

For decades the infamous temple has been a popular stop for tourists who pay a steep fee to pet and be photographed with the predators -- which animal rights groups say are heavily sedated.

Thai wildlife officials load a tiger into a cage on a truck after they removed it from an enclosure after the animal was anaesthetised at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand on May 30, 2016 Christophe Archambault (AFP/File)

"Today we found tiger skins and amulets in a car which was trying to leave the temple," Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy director of Thailand's parks department, told AFP.

He said around 10 tiger fangs were also found in the truck, and that some of the hundreds of amulets contained tiger parts.

In addition to skins that were later found in monks' quarters, officials discovered a living lion, hornbill, sun bear and banteng (an endangered species of wild cattle) inside the temple compound, he said.

They also uncovered around 20 containers of preserved tiger parts holding "both whole bodies and organs to be used for medicines," Adisorn told AFP.

The discovery comes after authorities found dozens of dead tiger cubs inside a freezer at the temple Wednesday.

Animals rights groups and conservationists have long accused the temple of secretly acting as a tiger farm and reaping huge profits from selling animals and tiger parts on the black market for use in Chinese medicine.

The temple has always denied trafficking allegations and says it provides higher quality care for the animals than official park facilities.

Repeated efforts to shut down the site over the years have been delayed and complicated by the fact that secular Thai authorities are often reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy.

Park authorities said they have removed 84 tigers so far this week and are transferring the animals to nearby breeding centres.

Police said they have not filed any criminal charges yet and are still investigating the temple.

Previous raids of the temple revealed that dozens of hornbills, jackals and Asian bears were also being kept at the sanctuary without proper permits.

A Thai wildlife official speaks with a monk before officials removed tigers from enclosures at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand on May 30, 2016 Christophe Archambault (AFP/File)
Nigeria launches clean-up in devastated oil spill region

Nigeria's vice-president on Thursday launched a $1 billion oil pollution clean-up programme in the Niger delta, after President Muhammadu Buhari pulled out of visiting the restive region.

Yemi Osinbajo stood in for Buhari, who had been due to attend the ceremony in the Ogoniland area of Rivers state in what would have been his first visit to the delta as president.

The presidency gave no reason for the sudden change in plan but it comes in the wake of an upsurge in militant attacks on key oil infrastructure in the creeks and swamps of the oil-producing south.

Environmental devastation to farming and fishing in the Niger Delta has for many come to symbolise the tragedy of Nigeria's vast but squandered oil wealth Pius Utomi Ekpei (AFP/File)

Buhari has ordered enhanced security around installations while the military has called the Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks, "economic terrorists".

The attacks have cut production to 1.4 million barrels per day, heaping fresh misery on a crude-dependent economy already crippled by the global slump in oil prices.

Security challenges have long been linked to environmental devastation to farming and fishing blamed on the oil industry, as well as under-development of the delta region.

- Long task -

In August 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said Ogoniland may require the world's biggest-ever clean-up after a succession of oil spills.

Osinbajo pledged the government would reverse the damage: "We are determined the put right the wrongs of the past."

He added: "The restoration that is going to take place here is not just the restoration of your land but the restoration of fishing, your farming and health."

But experts believe the restoration of ecosystems could take up to 25 years to complete.

UNEP's incoming executive director Erik Solheim, said: "The task to clean up Ogoniland will neither be easy nor fast but it needs to be done.

"If we succeed here, it will demonstrate that degraded environments can be restored, sending a signal to many other communities around the world that peaceful cooperation can lead to positive outcomes."

- Soil, water contamination -

Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell was forced to quit Ogoniland in 1993 because of community unrest led by the activist Ken Saro-Wiwa over pollution and chronic under-development.

Saro-Wiwa was executed in 1995 by Nigeria's then-military regime on what his supporters believe were trumped-up murder charges of four Ogoni chiefs.

Shell was forced to pay compensation to Ogoni farmers and fishermen in the Bodo community who lost their livelihoods because of spills after a landmark court action in Britain in 2015.

The firm has been accused of not doing enough to prevent pollution and clean up spills in the delta, although it has always blamed sabotage.

The managing director of Shell's Nigerian subsidiary, Osagie Okunbor, said at the launch ceremony the company was "committed to cleaning the spills in Ogoniland".

"Shell will work with all stakeholders in the implementation of the UNEP report," published in 2011 and which highlighted severe and widespread soil and ground water contamination, he added.

The report also found drinking water contamination and devastated ecosystems in the delta, such as mangroves, and slammed the industry and government for not doing enough to tackle the problem.

- Not just spills -

Ledum Mitee, a former president of Saro-Wiwa's Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), welcomed the government's commitment to finally implement the UNEP report's recommendations.

But he said it should go further, given the extent of the pollution and the unresolved grievances of locals.

"Clearly the Ogoni struggle is not just about clearing and cleaning the spills. Ken Saro-Wiwa did not die because of a UNEP report, I did not go to jail because of it either," he told AFP.

"There should be conscious measures to address the issue of neglect and marginalisation, under-development and economic exploitation. These are fundamental issues.

"These are core issues that encourage militancy and restiveness in the region. That's why... you see a resurgence of violence in the region."
Five facts about life in besieged, IS-held Fallujah

Around 50,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in Fallujah, impeding an offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the city from the Islamic State group.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the need to spare civilians was slowing his forces, which completely surrounded Fallujah but have stalled at the fringes of the city.

Stuck under the rule of increasingly desperate and violent jihadists and with no safe exits, the civilian population is struggling to survive.

Iraqi families near al-Sejar village in Iraq's Anbar province, pictured after fleeing Fallujah on May 27, 2016 Ahmad al-Rubaye (AFP/File)

Here are some examples of the living conditions they face:

- Food and water -

Basic food goods have been in short supply for months and prices soared as the siege tightened. A kilo of sugar fetches $40 (35 euros), an amount very few remaining residents can afford.

The staple for trapped families has been dates. Flour is hard to find and expensive, forcing people to eat an unpopular form of barley bread or make their own flour by grinding date stones after roasting them.

One resident told AFP that families have been mixing animal feed with cereals to give their children. "When my nephew smells the bread I give him, he turns away and refuses to eat it," she said.

An elderly woman who escaped from a Fallujah suburb last week said IS fighters keep all the best food for themselves. One family that made it to a camp south of Fallujah had their first meal of rice in two years.

The water situation is equally bad in the city, which has not received any aid shipment since September 2015.

Residents say they have not had safe drinking water in months. Men and boys ride to the Euphrates on bicycles every day to fetch water from the river for their neighbourhood.

For those who have managed to flee and are now being housed in camps outside the city, the water situation is also precarious.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says the aid effort is underfunded and its delivery of safe water to displaced Fallujans is threatened.

- Electricity -

Most families have not had any electricity in months. State-supplied power is intermittent at best in the rest of the country and Fallujah residents rely on generators.

The Islamic State group controls fuel distribution and gives priority to its fighters and those who have clearly pledged allegiance to their organisation.

Residents have resorted to makeshift petrol lamps made with crude oil and a piece of string in glass bottles sealed with date paste -- a trick many Iraqis used when sanctions were imposed in the 1990s.

- Health -

Just like food and water, basic medicines are scarce and IS members are saving what is left for themselves. There is no baby milk.

This is how one 40-year-old woman reached by NRC described the situation at Fallujah hospital:

"There is no medicine for ordinary people. The doctor is affiliated with IS and he refuses to help ordinary people. Instead of providing adequate treatment, doctors often simply amputate a patient's arms or legs if they are in pain."

- Danger -

The city is being shelled by the artillery of government forces. The lack of access makes it almost impossible to estimate the number of civilian casualties but residents say there have been many in recent months.

Iraqi and US-led coalition aircraft also pound the city to take out IS leaders, their hideouts and their defence structures, which makes venturing into the streets perilous at any time.

IS has booby-trapped buildings and laid roadside bombs in the streets to slow any advance by Iraqi forces once they move into the streets of the city.

Under siege for months, increasingly paranoid IS fighters have regularly executed residents they suspect of spying for the government.

- Recruitment -

The more IS fighters die in the battle and from air strikes, the more the group needs new manpower and reports suggest that ever-younger boys are being forcibly recruited.

The United Nations Children Fund said Wednesday that the boys among the estimated 20,000 children trapped in Fallujah are at risk of forced recruitment.

A resident contacted by AFP inside Fallujah said around 100 men and boys were rounded up by IS recently and taken to an unknown location.

(Sources: AFP, NRC, UN)

Iraq: the battle for Fallujah Valentina BRESCHI, Thomas SAINT-CRICQ (AFP)

Iraqi forces help families near al-Sejar village, in Iraq's Anbar province, after fleeing the city of Fallujah, on May 27, 2016 Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP/File)

A member of the Iraqi pro-governement forces fires his weapon from the front line in the Albu Huwa area, south of Fallujah near the Euphrates river, on May 31, 2016, during an operation aimed at retaking areas from the Islamic State group Moadh Al-Dulaimi (AFP/File)

Iraqi soldiers carry a box of ammunition in an area on the southern outskirts of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, on June 1, 2016 during fighting against jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group Ahmad Al-Rubaye (AFP)
Israel to release Palestinian MP after 14 months in prison

Israel is set to release a prominent Palestinian lawmaker who has been in prison since April 2015, Palestinian and Israeli sources said Thursday.

Khalida Jarrar will be set free at the Jubara checkpoint near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem on Friday morning, the Israel Prison Service and Palestinian Prisoners Club told AFP.

Jarrar, a senior member of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a well-known political figure, had been sentenced by Israel to 15 months prison for encouraging attacks against Israel and violating a travel ban.

Khalida Jarrar, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was sentenced by Israel to 15 months in prison for encouraging attacks against Israel and violating a travel ban Ahmad Gharabli (AFP/File)

The prison service spokesman said she was being released a month early as part of an "administrative release," which can take place when prisons are filled beyond capacity.

Israel considers the PFLP a terrorist organisation and at the time of her arrest the Israeli army said Jarrar posed "substantial security risks".

Jarrar is a member of the Palestinian parliament which has not met since 2007 after elections a year earlier were won by the Islamist movement Hamas.
Three Syrians arrested in Germany over 'IS attack plan'

Three Syrian men have been arrested in Germany over an alleged plan to launch a suicide attack there for the Islamic State jihadist group, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

According to the suspects' plan, two attackers were to detonate suicide vests while the others were to kill passersby with guns and explosives in the western city of Duesseldorf, prosecutors said in a statement.

The suspects were identified as 27-year-old Hamza C., 25-year-old Mahood B., and Abd Arahman A. K., 31, who were arrested in the states of Brandenburg near Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wurttemberg.

German police have arrested three Syrians over an alleged foiled Islamic State plot Daniel Naupold (DPA/AFP/File)

A fourth Syrian man, Saleh A., 25, had been in custody in France since turning himself in in February, they said, and Germany had now requested his extradition.

"According to current investigations, the four accused were planning to commit an attack in Germany for the foreign terrorist organisation Islamic State," said the prosecutors.

Saleh A. and Hamza C. had joined IS in early 2014 in Syria, where "they were ordered by the group's leadership to carry out an attack in the old town of Duesseldorf".

"Two suicide attackers were to set off their explosives vests at the Heinrich-Heine-Allee, a major street in Duesseldorf," the prosecutors said in the statement.

"After that, other attackers were to kill as many passersby as possible with guns and other explosives."

Saleh A. and Hamza C. had crossed from Syria to Turkey in May 2014. From there they travelled separately in March and July last year via Greece to Germany.

Germany last year saw a major influx of 1.1 million migrants and refugees who mostly travelled overland, the majority via Turkey, Greece and Balkans countries, to seek asylum in Europe's biggest economy.

Abd Arahman A. K. had already arrived in Germany in October 2014 "on the orders of the IS leadership", tasked with manufacturing the suicide vests, said the statement.

By January this year, Saleh A. and Hamza C. had convinced Mahood B. to join in the attack.

The prosecutors added that there was no evidence "that the accused had already initiated the concrete implementation of their attack plan".

And they said that "today's arrests are not related to the forthcoming European football championship in France".

Since the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people, German authorities have repeatedly said they believe Germany faces the threat of jihadist attacks.

Last August, IS threatened Germany and Austria with attacks in an online execution video, urging jihadists to commit attacks against "unbelievers" there.
'It's a boy!': Chinese panda gives birth in Belgium

A giant panda on loan to Belgium from China gave birth to a cub in a Belgian zoo on Thursday, a rare event for the endangered species that numbers fewer than 2,000 in the wild.

The mother Hao Hao immediately took the tiny and hairless squealing male cub in her jaws to protect it and clean it, in video footage released by the Pairi Daiza wildlife park outside Brussels.

"Hao Hao's first son is right now in the best of health and weighs 171 grams (six ounces)," the zoo said in a joint statement with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda.

Giant panda Hao Hao holds her cub in her mouth at the Paira Daiza zoo in Belgium on June 2, 2016 Benoit Bouchez (Paira Daiza/AFP)

Announcing the news with "great pleasure," the statement said: "Less than 2,000 pandas can be found in the wild, making every birth a true miracle."

It was the third panda cub born in the world this year and only the third to be born in Europe in the last 20 years. Austria and Spain were the previous venues.

The little panda has yet to be named.

"We are waiting to be sure he is viable and armed for life. The name will be beautiful, and Chinese, but Belgians will be able to pronounce it," the veterinary team said in a statement.

The zoo warned that the mortality rate for baby pandas in their first year is high.

China loaned Hao Hao and her mate Xing Hui to Belgium for 15 years in February 2014 to mark Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the kingdom.

They quickly became a main attraction.

- 'Excellent mother' -

Hao Hao was artificially inseminated twice in February with the sperm of Xing Hui.

The zoo, in Brugelette, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Brussels, said last month that Hao Hao was showing signs she could be pregnant, but had remained cautious over whether she would actually give birth.

"For several weeks, she ate twice the usual amounts of bamboo, then she became increasingly disinterested in food and began to refuse to leave her cave", Hao Hao's minder Tania Stroobant had said.

"Very recently we also noticed a swelling of her breasts which indicates that she is preparing to breastfeed."

Hao Hao's Belgian and Chinese carers brought her to a so-called "birthing box" after she showed the first signs she was about to give birth on Tuesday.

Contractions began around 11:00 pm (2100 GMT) Wednesday, with the cub entering the world at 2:02 am on Thursday.

Hours after Hao Hao grabbed the cub in her jaws, carers managed to extract mother's milk to stimulate production.

They will continue to encourage Hao Hao to nurse her baby, but could give him a bottle if necessary.

"Hao Hao has all the traits that will make her an excellent mother," the zoo said.

There remain about 1,800 freely roaming pandas in the world, with about 400 in captivity, mainly in southwest China.

Giant panda Hao Hao is photographed on June 2, 2016 after giving birth at the Paira Daiza zoo in Belgium Benoit Bouchez (Paira Daiza/AFP)
Sri Lankan monks hold prayers for buried landslide victims

Sri Lankan Buddhist monks held funeral prayers Thursday for more than 100 villagers buried in a landslide two weeks ago, as rescuers formally ended the search for their bodies.

In a solemn ceremony near the side of the collapsed mountain northeast of Colombo, dozens of saffron-robed monks conducted last rites for the victims of the rain-triggered landslide that destroyed two villages.

"The families of the victims have told us there is no point in digging through tonnes of mud anymore," said Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe who led the search and rescue effort in Kegalle district.

Buddhist monks arrive to pray at the site of a landslide northeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, that left scores dead and missing, on June 2, 2016 Lakruwan Wanniarachchi (AFP)

"Since there is no prospect of finding anyone alive, we have stopped the search operation," he told AFP.

More than 46 bodies have been pulled from the landslide which struck on May 17. But rescuers have now stopped looking for another 103 villagers still listed by the Disaster Management Centre as missing and presumed buried in the debris.

Ranasinghe said a small group of troops will remain in Kegalle to help residents salvage any property from the disaster.

And the military will erect 550 tents in the district to house residents who lost homes in the landslide or are living in areas considered at high risk of further landslides.

The landslide was triggered by the heaviest rains in Sri Lanka in nearly 25 years that also caused flooding in Colombo and elsewhere and forced some 600,000 people from their homes.
Gunmen kidnap 17 in northern Afghanistan

Gunmen on Thursday kidnapped at least 17 people travelling in civilian vehicles in northern Afghanistan, officials said, in the second group abduction within a week, underscoring the worsening security situation in the country.

The passengers, all minority Hazaras, were pulled out of their vehicles in Sancharak district in Sar-e-Pul province and taken to a remote area controlled by Taliban insurgents, the local governor said.

"They are all innocent civilians with no government connections. We have asked local elders to talk to the Taliban commanders and secure their release," Governor Zaher Wahdat told AFP.

Taliban insurgents stepped up their annual spring offensive in Afghanistan after naming a new leader last week Noorullah Shirzada (AFP/File)

There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.

The three-million-strong Afghan Hazara community has been persecuted for decades, with thousands killed in the late 1990s by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

There has been a surge in violence against the community, with a series of kidnappings and killings in recent months that have triggered a wave of fury on social media.

The incident occurred two days after the Taliban killed 10 bus passengers, many of them summarily executed, and kidnapped dozens of others in northern Kunduz province.

The insurgents said they were targeting Afghan security officials aboard the buses passing through the insurgency-prone district of Aliabad, as the insurgents step up their annual spring offensive after naming a new leader last week.

Hundreds of people chanting "Death to Taliban" protested in Kabul on Thursday against the violence in Kunduz.

"How long will people have to suffer bloodshed?" said protester Sayed Mohammad. "Neither government staff nor civilians are safe to come out of their homes."

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan voiced concern over the growing incidents of attacks against civilian vehicles.

"Taking civilians hostage is indefensible," UNAMA chief Nicholas Haysom said in a statement.

"I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians detained and a halt to this horrible practice."

The Taliban last week announced Haibatullah Akhundzada as their new leader, elevating a low-profile religious figure in a swift power transition after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

The drone attack was the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil.
Pentagon chief arrives in Singapore for security summit

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Singapore on Thursday ahead of a regional security summit likely to be dominated by China's continued military build up in the South China Sea.

His attendance at this weekend's Shangri-La Dialogue is part of a broader US diplomatic push to build and maintain alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, which America sees as key to its own long-term economic and security interests.

In the year since the last summit, China has stepped up its maritime patrols across the South China Sea and built up a series of military bases on small islands it reclaimed from the ocean.

Crew members of China's South Sea Fleet take part in a logistics supply drill near the James Shoal area on South China Sea on May 10, 2016

Carter has spoken forcefully about China's military moves in the South China Sea and last week said Beijing risked building a "Great Wall of self-isolation."

There are no official US-China meetings planned at the Shangri-La meeting, at which Carter gives a keynote speech on Saturday.

China has indicated it may soon declare an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) that would require civilian aircraft to identify themselves to military controllers in the region. Beijing did something similar in the East China Sea two years ago over several small islands contested by Japan.

"We of course would be very concerned about a Chinese declaration of an ADIZ," a US defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The declaration of an ADIZ over disputed territory is provocative," the official added, but noted: "such a declaration would not affect our own military operations."

The US military has conducted several "freedom of navigation" operations in which it sends a ship or plane to pass by a Chinese-claimed island as a way of showing it rejects claims of sovereignty.

Washington has stressed the importance of increased ties to regional partners such as Vietnam and Malaysia as a counterbalance to China's moves.

But incoming Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he would not be fully reliant on the United States, the Philippines' former colonial ruler and most important military ally.

And in a sign of a possibly warming view of China, Duterte called Xi Jinping "a great president".

Chinese-Philippine ties soured during the six-year term of outgoing President Benigno Aquino, whose government sued China before a United Nations tribunal over its claims to most of the South China Sea.

The Philippines has "a new government there and we look forward to working with them, talking with them about our alliance, about security affairs in the region, and I very much look forward to meeting my new counterpart," Carter told reporters as he flew to Singapore, adding that the US-Philippines alliance was "ironclad."
Exiled Philippine rebel chief 'home' in July

The leader of the Philippines' communist insurgency said Thursday he expects to end nearly 30 years in exile by returning from Europe to Manila as early as next month.

While running for office last month, Rodrigo Duterte, now the newly elected president, said Jose Maria Sison, the rebel leader and Communist Party of the Philippines founder, would be welcome to return home to participate in peace talks.

The comments raised hopes of ending the 47-year-old insurgency, one of Asia's longest, which has claimed an estimated 30,000 lives since the 1960s.

Jose Maria Sison (on screen), rebel leader and Communist Party of the Philippines founder, answers questions from journalists during a press conference in Manila on June 2, 2016 Noel Celis (AFP)

"I want to visit (Manila) in July or August to hold serious talks with President Duterte," said Sison, who now styles himself as a consultant for the rebels' negotiating body, the National Democratic Front.

Sison, speaking to Manila reporters at a news conference via Skype, added that Philippine government and rebel emissaries were set to meet in Norway from mid-June to lay the groundwork for formal peace talks.

Sison, now 77, fled to Europe soon after Philippine peace talks failed in 1987 and has stayed abroad since, while the insurgency continued to claim thousands of lives.

Duterte has maintained ties with Sison, his former university professor, while the latter has lived in exile in the Netherlands.

Sison said his homecoming was contingent on the Oslo talks producing a ceasefire, as well as Duterte releasing jailed comrades, which the rebel group said currently numbered 543.

Duterte, 71, whose government will officially begin its term on June 30, has named two allies of the rebel group as prospective members of his cabinet, and pledged to free ailing or ageing communist rebels ahead of formal peace talks.

Sison warned the rebels will continue their attacks against government forces until a ceasefire is struck.

The communists' armed wing, the New People's Army, is believed to have fewer than 4,000 gunmen, down from a peak of 26,000 in the 1980s, according to the military.

However it retains support among the deeply poor in rural areas.

Outgoing President Benigno Aquino revived peace talks soon after taking office in 2010 but shelved them in 2013, accusing the rebels of insincerity in efforts to achieve a political settlement.

The talks broke down after the communists demanded the release of scores of their jailed comrades, which the Aquino government rejected.

Sison said the rebels want "democratic reforms that would lead to national industrialisation and genuine land reform", as well as the removal of US military forces from Philippine territory.
Palestinian tries to stab Israeli soldier, shot dead: army

A female Palestinian tried to stab an Israeli soldier in the West Bank Thursday and was shot dead, the army said, the latest in a series of such incidents since October.

The stabbing bid at a military post around Anabta village near the city of Tulkarem came on the eve of an international meeting in Paris on reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

"Moments ago an assailant, armed with a knife, attempted to stab a soldier at a military post near the village of Anabta," the army said in a statement.

Israeli security forces inspect the scene of a stabbing attack at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Tulkarem on June 2, 2016 Jaafar Ashtiyeh (AFP)

"Forces responded to the immediate threat by shooting the attacker, resulting in her death."

Palestinian media identified her as Ansar Hussam Harsha, from Qaffin, north of Tulkarem.

Violence since October has killed 206 Palestinians, 28 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese national.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.

The violence has steadily declined in recent weeks, though attacks have continued.

Many analysts say Palestinian frustration with Israeli occupation and settlement building in the West Bank, the complete lack of progress in peace efforts and their own fractured leadership have fed the unrest.

Israel says incitement by Palestinian leaders and media is a main cause of the violence.

- Israel wants direct talks -

On Friday, France will host a meeting of foreign ministers from around 30 countries as well as representatives from the United Nations and European Union as part of an effort to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Negotiations have been at a complete standstill since the collapse of a US-led initiative in April 2014.

The meeting will take place without the Israelis and Palestinians in attendance.

It aims to lay the groundwork for an international peace conference before the end of the year that the Israelis and Palestinians would attend.

The Palestinians strongly support the French initiative, but Israel rejects it, calling instead for direct negotiations.

"The way to peace does not go through international conferences that seek to impose agreements, make the Palestinians' demands more extreme and thereby make peace more remote," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech late Wednesday.

Netanyahu has repeatedly said he is ready to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas at any time.

The Paris meeting follows the swearing in of hardliner Avigdor Lieberman as Israeli defence minister on Monday, forming what has been called the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

The United States said the new coalition raised "legitimate questions" about the commitment of Netanyahu's government to a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu and Lieberman have sought to allay such concerns, stressing their desire for peace and saying they support a two-state solution to the long-running conflict.

The premier went a step further on Monday, saying an Arab League-endorsed peace initiative dating to 2002 "includes positive elements that can help revive constructive negotiations with the Palestinians".

Some analysts saw Netanyahu's comments as a means of fending off his international critics and perhaps scuttling the French initiative by proposing an alternative.

Others however said that his remarks represented a real opportunity, whatever his motivation.

Palestinian leaders greeted Netanyahu's comments with deep scepticism.

They have focused on a strategy of pursuing their cause through international bodies, saying years of negotiations with Israel have not ended the occupation.
Yemen truce boosts aid access: UN

Yemen's nearly two-month-old ceasefire has improved humanitarian access but civilians are still facing an "immeasurable" crisis, the United Nations said Thursday.

The fragile truce was declared on April 11, 10 days before Huthi Shiite rebels and the government of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi began UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait.

"The ceasefire has provided us an opportunity to get to areas we haven't been able to get before," the UN humanitarian chief in the country, Jamie McGoldrick, told AFP.

Armed Yemeni tribesmen from the Popular Resistance Committees, supporting forces loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, fire as they hold a position in the area of Sirwah, west of Marib city, on December 18, 2015 Abdoullah al-Qadry (AFP/File)

He said that while no part of Yemen had been besieged, a number of areas have proved extremely hard to reach since the conflict escalated in March last year, when a Saudi-led Arab coalition began air strikes in support of Yemeni forces resisting the Huthis.

McGoldrick said it was difficult to estimate the number of civilians reached with aid since the ceasefire came into force.

The UN was trying to assess the needs nationwide during the lull in violence, he added.

Fighting has also continued despite the truce.

McGoldrick called Yemen's war "an invisible crisis", voicing regret at the lack of global concern given to the country, for instance compared to Syria.

"The scale of the emergency is tremendous. The scale of the need is massive and the depth of the crisis is immeasurable," he told reporters.

Government services and the health system were hardly functioning before the conflict and "the war has all but broken them completely," McGoldrick said.
US announces near-total ban on African elephant ivory trade

US authorities on Thursday announced a near-total ban on the trade of African elephant ivory, finalizing a years-long push to fight the poaching of the threatened animals.

Conservation groups welcomed the move by the United States, the world's second-largest consumer of illegal ivory after China, even though it comes with notable exemptions including for antiques.

The new rule, which takes effect July 6, "substantially limits" imports, exports and sales of ivory across state lines, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) said.

The United States finalizes a near-total ban on the trade of African elephant ivory Tony Karumba (AFP/File)

"Today's bold action underscores the United States' leadership and commitment to ending the scourge of elephant poaching and the tragic impact it's having on wild populations," Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said.

More than 35,000 elephants are slaughtered each year on the African continent from an approximate population of more than 450,000 in the wild.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) hailed the US move to protect the species as historic.

"The USA is boldly saying to ivory poachers: You are officially out of business," WCS president and chief executive Cristian Samper -- a member of an Obama task force on wildlife trafficking -- said in a statement.

Patrick Bergin, chief executive of the US-based African Wildlife Foundation (AWF), also praised the new rule.

"Strong laws around wildlife crime and strong enforcement of those laws are absolutely critical in deterring traffickers and poachers," he told AFP.

"All countries -- and especially those that are source, transit or destination countries for illegal wildlife products -- have a role to play in tidying their own house."

- Hunter trophies -

But the new restriction comes with a series of exemptions, including for documented antiques which are at least 100 years old and meet several additional requirements.

Other exempt items include certain musical instruments, furniture and firearms that contain less than 200 grams of ivory.

Under the new rules, the import of sport-hunted trophies -- parts of an animal brought back to the United States for display -- will be allowed within a limit of two per hunter per year.

People will also be allowed to keep lawfully acquired ivory and are not banned from donating, giving away or receiving ivory as a gift provided "there is no exchange for other goods or services involved," the FWS said.

"Limited exceptions" to the elephant ivory ban will also apply to items that are part of a traveling exhibition or "are part of a household move or inheritance when specific criteria are met" as well as "ivory for law enforcement or genuine scientific purposes."

- 'Blood ivory' -

The new measures help fulfill President Barack Obama's 2013 executive order on combating wildlife trafficking.

Once illegal ivory enters the market, it becomes virtually impossible to distinguish from legal ivory, the FWS said, and demand for elephant ivory "is so great that it grossly outstrips the legal supply and creates a void in the marketplace that ivory traffickers are eager to fill."

The ivory trade is mostly fueled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhino horns are used in traditional medicine and for ornaments.

China has also pledged to ban the ivory trade domestically, and in March widened a ban on ivory imports.

"We hope other nations will act quickly and decisively to stop the flow of blood ivory by implementing similar regulations, which are crucial to ensuring our grandchildren and their children know these iconic species," Jewell said.

The global ivory network Adrian LEUNG, John SAEKI (AFP)

US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, pictured on April 19, 2016, announced new rules to limit imports, exports and sales of African elephant ivory Alex Wong (Getty/AFP/File)
Reagans' private collection up for sale in New York

Art, books, jewelry and furniture owned by Ronald and Nancy Reagan are expected to fetch more than $2 million at auction in New York this September, Christie's said Thursday.

Reagan, who died in 2004, was one of the most revered US presidents, and when his widow Nancy died last March, Hollywood stars and political powerbrokers turned out en masse to attend her funeral in California.

Lots in the sale include American, English and Chinese furnishings from the couple's Los Angeles home, as well as books, memorabilia, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings, Christie's said.

Christie's has said it will auction personal belongings of the Reagans in New York in September after the death in March of Nancy Reagan Mike Sargent (AFP/File)

The auction house has valued individual items from $1,000 to $50,000 and expects the sale to fetch more than $2 million across live and online auctions.

The collection "offers unprecedented insight" into the private lives of the couple, said Brook Hazelton, president of Christie's Americas.

"Each object offers a 'through the keyhole' experience revealing as-yet untold stories of two of the 20th century's most celebrated public figures," he said.

Christie's said the catalogue would be released this summer and that all proceeds would go to The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

Nancy Reagan was laid to rest beside her husband at the Reagan presidential library on March 11 after dying of heart failure aged 94 at her home in Los Angeles, 12 years after her husband.

Ronald Reagan served two terms in the White House in the 1980s and oversaw the end of the nuclear stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Canada loses former Tunisian leader's brother-in-law

Canadian authorities were unable to locate the brother-in-law of deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali when it came time to deport him last month, AFP learned from a judicial source Thursday.

Belhassen Trabelsi and his family flew in a private jet to Montreal in January 2011, following a mass uprising that swept Tunisia and touched off the Arab Spring.

He requested but was denied asylum last year.

Belhassen Trabelsi, pictured in 2010, was to be deported from Canada in May but authorities are not able to locate him and his family Fethi Belaid (AFP/File)

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officials were scheduled to meet with Trabelsi on May 24 in preparation for his deportation to Tunisia a week later.

But he "disappeared and even his lawyers say he cannot be found," the immigration authorities said in federal court documents obtained by AFP and dated May 26.

"It appears he has disappeared in the wilderness," Borhene El Kamel, the second in charge at the Tunisian embassy in Ottawa, told AFP.

"I hope that the Canadians will locate him as soon as possible and return him to Tunisia to face justice," he said.

Prior to his disappearance, the 53-year-old wealthy businessman had been living in a plush apartment in Montreal.

The Tunisian embassy does not know if he had been monitored by Canadian authorities, said El Kamel, noting that Tunisia "does not have the means to keep an eye on him outside its borders."

"We don't know" if a warrant has been issued for Trabelsi's arrest, he added.

Canadian authorities declined to specifically comment on Trabelsi's case, citing privacy laws.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, Scott Bardsley, said: "The CBSA is very vigilant and works to locate those who do not meet their obligations for removal."

- Trafficking in antiquities -

After the fall of the regime, authorities in Tunis asked Ottawa to detain Trabelsi, accusing him of being the Ben Ali clan's bag man.

Although Trabelsi, his wife and four children had previously been granted permanent residency in Canada, they lost their status because they had not spent an obligatory minimum amount of time in the country.

The tribunal that rejected his Canadian refugee claim cited a lengthy list of accusations brought by the authorities, including fraud against the Tunisian government, embezzlement and laundering criminal proceeds.

Trabelsi denied the allegations, saying he "amassed his fortune through work and his skills as an entrepreneur."

Although the evidence against him was mostly circumstantial, the board found it compelling enough to deny his refugee claim.

A leaked June 2008 US diplomatic cable concluded that Trabelsi was "the most notorious (Ben Ali) family member and is rumored to have been involved in a wide-range of corrupt schemes from the recent Banque de Tunisie board shakeup to property expropriation and extortion of bribes."

Trabelsi's sister Leila has been married to Ben Ali since 1994.

The diplomatic cable noted that his holdings include an airline, hotels, a radio station, car assembly plants, and more.
Suicide bomber kills two in Syria regime stronghold

A suicide bomb attack near a mosque killed at least two people and wounded another four in the regime stronghold of Latakia in northwestern Syria on Thursday, state media said.

"A terrorist attack hit near the Khulafa al-Rashideen mosque in the Daatur district of Latakia as people emerged from afternoon prayers," state television said.

Official news agency SANA quoted a senior police source as saying two people were killed and four wounded when the attacker blew himself up while riding his motorcycle in the coastal city.

A bombing in Latakia is the latest in a string of IS attacks on coastal cities in Syria Louai Beshara (AFP)

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor that relies on a wide network of sources on the ground for its information, said three people had been killed in the attack.

Last month bombings claimed by the Islamic State group in the nearby seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus killed at least 170 people.

IS is not known to have a significant presence in Syria's coastal provinces, where its jihadist rival, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front, is much more prominent.

But IS, notorious for using deadly sleeper cells to attack its enemies, suggested the creation of a "Wilayat al-Sahel" or Islamic province for the coastal area.
Burundi school suspends 300 students for defacing president photo

More than 300 students at a high school in Burundi have been suspended for defacing a photo of President Pierre Nkurunziza, parents and an official told AFP on Thursday.

The students, from a school in Ruziba, south of the capital Bujumbura, were sent home a week ago after staff found they had defaced a picture of the president in a textbook.

"After they found the defiled photos in human sciences textbooks, the administration sent every student in the eighth grade home," a parent who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

All the students in the 8th grade at a school in Ruziba, Burundi, have been sent home after pictures of the President Pierre Nkurunziza were found to be defiled in 40 textbooks Joel Saget (AFP/File)

The parent said the administration told the students, aged between 14 and 16, that they could not come back to class until they turned in those responsible for the graffiti.

School staff discovered the desecrated photos a week ago in about 40 of the textbooks. In some of the pictures the eyes had been gouged out, while insults against the president were scrawled over others.

The parent said they had apologised for the graffiti during a meeting with the management, but said they "wouldn't hear it".

"It's terrible. We don't know what's going to happen," the parent said.

School director Yves Marimba told AFP that "a solution has been found" but did not comment on the students' return.

Ruziba, a town in the county of Kanyosha just south of Bujumbura, is a stronghold of principal opposition leader Agathon Rwasa.

When reached by AFP, Kanyosha city chief Abdul Bampoye refused to answer questions on the issue, saying he "didn't have any details at the moment".

"Everyone is afraid," said a teacher at the school who also requested anonymity to discuss the controversy.

The unnamed teacher said Burundi's national intelligence and security service "has taken over the matter and soldiers stationed in Ruziba are the ones who came to lock the doors of all the eighth grade classes".

The central African country has been plunged into a deep crisis since Nkurunziza announced in April 2015 that he was running for a third term, a vote he won last July amid opposition boycotts.
Philippines' Duterte in hot water for wolf whistle

Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte was on Thursday accused of sexual harassment and disrespecting women after wolf whistling a female journalist on a nationally televised press conference.

Duterte, 71, interrupted a question from television reporter Mariz Umali on Tuesday night about his Cabinet appointees with a light-hearted comment about her trying to get his attention, then wolf whistling and breaking into a short serenade.

Umali continued trying to ask her question as Duterte smiled and some other reporters laughed.

Philippines' president-elect Rodrigo Duterte speaks as cabinet members look on during a press conference in Davao on May 31, 2016 Manman Dejeto (AFP)

In an interview with her GMA network on Thursday, Umali described his remarks as "improper".

While Umali said she would not ask for an apology and sought not to inflame the controversy, her journalist husband took to Facebook to criticise Duterte.

"Catcalling my wife is wrong in so many levels," husband Raffy Tima wrote.

"Some jokes are funny and should be laughed at but disrespecting women is definitely not one of them."

At the same press conference, Duterte created another controversy by saying there was justification for killing corrupt journalists, and that one "rotten son of a bitch" reporter deserved to have been murdered.

Duterte, an incendiary politician who won last month's elections by a landslide on a pledge to end crime by killing tens of thousands of criminals, has previously been criticised for comments about women.

On the campaign trail he made a joke about wanting to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who had been sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 prison riot in his hometown of Davao.

When his daughter reacted to those comments by revealing she had been raped, Duterte described her in jest as a "drama queen".

Duterte, whose first marriage was annulled and is in a long-term relationship with another woman, has also openly boasted about having mistresses and using Viagra to have sex with them.

- 'Not a sexual thing' -

Duterte dismissed the criticism at a fresh news conference late Thursday, saying wolf whistling was "not a sexual thing".

"There has to be sexual undertones but if I am just whistling, that kind of (criticism) is intruding into freedom of expression," he added.

Duterte had signed a local women's rights ordinance in 1997 which classified whistling at women as sexual harassment in Davao.

Aida Santos, president of Manila-based women's rights groups WeDpro, said Duterte's wolf whistling was a form of sexual harassment.

"Catcalling treats women as sex objects... some say it's a way of being cute but it's wrong," Santos told AFP.

Duterte and his aides have repeatedly said such controversial comments and actions should not be taken too seriously: that he is a straight-talker and an authentic character who likes to joke and speak the language of the streets.

His spokesman Salvador Panelo said Thursday that women should consider the president-elect's wolf whistling as a compliment and a sign of "fondness".

Supporters also point to his pro-women policies in Davao, which he has ruled as mayor for most of the past two decades.

However Duterte's jokes sent messages to society, according to Elizabeth Angsioco, national chair of the Democratic Socialist Women of the Philippines.
HRW: Bahrain trial of opposition chief 'travesty of justice'

Human Rights Watch on Thursday condemned the decision of Bahrain's appeals court to double the jail term of Shiite opposition chief Sheikh Ali Salman as a "travesty of justice".

Cleric Salman, who heads the largest opposition formation in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, had his jail sentence increased on Monday to nine years from the original four.

He had been convicted of inciting violence but the appeals court overturned an earlier acquittal of advocating regime change by force.

Sheikh Ali Salman, who heads the largest opposition formation in the Sunni-ruled kingdom, had his jail sentence increased on Monday to nine years from the original four Mohammed Al-Shaikh (AFP/File)

The appeals court "increased the sentence despite strong evidence his initial trial was unfair and the fact that two of the charges on which he had been convicted violated his right to freedom of expression", HRW said in a statement.

"Sheikh Salman is the latest casualty of Bahrains war on dissent, but he won't be the last unless Bahrain's allies in London and Washington loudly protest this travesty of justice," said HRW's deputy Middle East director, Joe Stork.

"This level of repression will not create stability for Bahrain, but quite the opposite," he warned.

Salman was originally convicted in July 2015, drawing condemnation from rights groups as well as both the United States and Iran.

The tiny but strategic Gulf state has been shaken by unrest since it crushed a month-long, Shiite-led uprising demanding reforms in 2011.

The Shiite-majority kingdom, connected to Saudi Arabia by a causeway, lies across the Gulf from Shiite Iran and is home to the US Fifth Fleet.

Despite the 2011 crackdown, protesters still frequently clash with police in Shiite villages outside the capital Manama.
Israel foreign ministry says French Mideast drive 'will fail'

The head of Israel's foreign ministry said Thursday that France's bid to revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks was doomed to failure, like a 1916 colonial effort to carve up the Middle East.

"This effort utterly failed then and will completely fail today," Dore Gold told journalists on the eve of an international meeting in Paris, referring to the Sykes-Picot agreement to draw up the region's borders.

"The only way to get a stable regional arrangement that will allow us to create real peace in the Middle East is if the parties of the region come to understandings between them," he said.

The head of Israel's foreign ministry, Dore Gold, said that France's bid to revive Israel-Palestinian peace talks was doomed to failure Thomas Coex (AFP/File)

"We believe the Arab states would give backing to direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians," said Gold, the ministry's director general.

"Therefore we prefer a Middle Eastern process and not a process that somebody is trying to create in Paris.

"What France is organising is not a regional conference it's an international conference," he said.

According to French diplomatic sources, the fresh peace push would centre on the 2002 Saudi peace initiative.

Under that proposal, Arab leaders said they would recognise the state of Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied since 1967, and the creation of a Palestinian state.

The proposal was largely ignored by Israel at the time but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a positive reference to it on Monday, saying it "includes positive elements that can help revive constructive negotiations with the Palestinians".

British diplomat Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot of France drew the borders of a new Middle East in May 1916 after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

"It was at the apex of the era of colonialism in our area," Gold said. "Their effort failed as we see today in the deserts of Iraq and Syria."

Netanyahu has already rejected the French-led multilateral effort.

"The way to peace is via direct negotiations without preconditions between the sides," he said in an address Wednesday evening.

"If the nations meeting in Paris this week really want to advance peace they should join me in calling on Abu Mazen to come to direct negotiations of this kind," he said using a familiar name for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

In talks Thursday with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini Netanyahu told his guest that the French initiative gave Abbas an opportunity to evade direct negotiations, an Israeli government statement said.
Dutch, US officials crack huge global mail scam

Dutch and US prosecutors said Thursday they had cracked down on a multi-million-euro scam in which hundreds of thousands of victims mailed money to the Netherlands after being told they had won the lottery.

In a simultaneous investigation carried out with the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Dutch authorities raided 10 locations across the Netherlands on Wednesday and Thursday, probing six companies believed to be behind the elaborate worldwide con.

Millions of personally-addressed letters are thought to have been sent since 2012 to people in the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Switzerland, claiming the recipients had won the lottery or a brand new car, or had been awarded some cash.

Millions of fradulent, personally-addressed letters are thought to have been sent since 2012 claiming the recipients had won the lottery or a brand new car, or had been awarded some cash Lex van Lieshout (ANP/AFP/File)

The victims were asked to send between 20 to 45 euros (or $15-$55 in the US) in pre-addressed envelopes to PO boxes in the Netherlands supposedly to cover the cost of dispatching the windfall. Around 300 mailboxes were used in the scam.

"It is assumed that the total fraud amount runs up to the millions," the Dutch fiscal and intelligence division said in a statement.

The DOJ in New York said it believed that American victims alone had mailed some $18 million (16 million euros) annually through the post in the four-year con which targeted the elderly and vulnerable.

US officials have now launched legal proceedings against two of the companies and their Dutch owner Erik Dekker, 54, of Langbroek, southeast of Amsterdam.

The six Dutch companies are suspected of emptying the mailboxes, keeping part of the cash as a fee and then depositing the rest in bank accounts which have now been frozen.

Dutch officials said they had seized about 500,000 euros in cash in the raids, along with watches, artworks and cars, including a Porsche.

US Attorney Robert Capers for the eastern district of New York said the suspects had taken money from thousands of elderly and vulnerable victims in Brooklyn and across the United States.

US authorities and their Dutch partners would "track down and stop the schemes wherever they lead," he added.
Iraq speaker concerned over abuses in Fallujah battle

Iraq's parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi said Thursday he was concerned over reports of abuses committed by government forces against civilians during the current operation to retake Fallujah.

He cited reports of mistreatment of civilians by members of the federal police and the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary forces and urged Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to enforce discipline among government ranks.

There is "information indicating that some violations were carried out by some members of the federal police and some volunteers against civilians", his office said in a statement.

Iraqi families near al-Sejar village, in Iraq's Anbar province, after fleeing the city of Fallujah on May 27, 2016 during an operation by pro-government forces to retake the city Ahmad al-Rubaye (AFP/File)

"These actions are a disservice to the sacrifices... made by our heroic security forces," Juburi's office said.

The statement did not provide details on the alleged abuses but urged Abadi to "look into these acts and deal with them in a strict and expeditious way".

Juburi, a Sunni politician, had warned from before the launch of operations to retake Fallujah of the risks of reprisals against the local population.

Fallujah is a Sunni city that lies only 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad and is one of the Islamic State group's most emblematic bastions.

The Hashed al-Shaabi is an umbrella organisation that includes Sunni tribal fighters but is dominated by powerful Tehran-backed Shiite militias.

It is nominally under Abadi's authority but some of its most powerful groups answer directly to Iran.

Those groups have been repeatedly accused of fuelling sectarianism and their involvement in the Fallujah battle was seen as potentially explosive.

Abadi has also warned that any whiff of sectarian violence by anti-IS forces against the local population risked enflaming an already precarious national climate and would tarnish military victories in Fallujah.
New poll observers to help ensure fair vote in Gabon

Civil society groups in Gabon are planning to train thousands of observers to help ensure a fair vote at polls this year when President Ali Bongo seeks a second term.

A new "citizen's movement" known as Active Witnesses has been formed by several trade unions and civil society groups to help ensure transparency at the polls where Bongo may face at least three challengers.

Active Witnesses will train "almost 9,000 observers who will deploy to all the polling stations" and take steps to make voters aware of "the electoral stakes", the movement said in a statement.

Gabon's president Ali Bongo was elected for seven years in August 2009 after the death in office of his father Omar Bongo Bertrand Guay (AFP/File)

Ali Bongo was elected for seven years in August 2009 after the death in office of his father Omar Bongo. He will run again for the Gabonese Democratic Party, a deeply entrenched force in the oil-producing nation of some 1.8 million people.

Part of the opposition claims Bongo has no right to stand again on the grounds that he was not born in Gabon, as required by the constitution, but was adopted by Omar Bongo during the Biafra war in Nigeria.
Outside prosecutor to probe police shooting of Chicago teen

The judge in the incendiary case of the police shooting of a black teenager in Chicago said Thursday he plans to appoint a special prosecutor, effectively taking the case out of the city's hands.

Graphic video footage of a police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald sparked street protests last winter in the third largest city in the United States, and led to the removal of its police chief.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city's top prosecutor Anita Alvarez faced criticism for not releasing the video sooner, and for waiting more than a year to file charges against officer Jason Van Dyke.

Demonstrators calling for an end to gun violence and the resignation of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel march through downtown on December 31, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois Scott Olson (Getty/AFP/File)

Alvarez was voted out of office in March over the issue. In May, she withdrew from the first-degree murder case against the officer, saying a special prosecutor should be appointed to avoid delays in the trial as her office changes leadership.

On Thursday, Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan confirmed he would appoint a special prosecutor -- who has yet to be named -- as well as seek for state authorities in Illinois to take over the prosecution.

In the video of the October 2014 shooting, McDonald appears to be walking away from police when he seems to turn slightly and officer Van Dyke fires multiple shots. The teenager was struck 16 times.

Van Dyke was not charged with murder until a judge compelled the city to release the video in November 2015.

A group of Chicago community organizations and McDonald relatives had filed a petition asking the court to remove Alvarez from the case, saying she is "beholden to the police union," according to Sheila Bedi, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center in Chicago.

"(Alvarez) has helped to facilitate the code of silence that so pervades the Chicago Police Department," Bedi said at the time.

Alvarez has defended her actions, saying she conducted a thorough investigation which took time, in tandem with a federal probe.

Protesters have said the shooting of the African-American McDonald by the white police officer, and the subsequent delay in filing charges, were emblematic of racial tensions in the city, and of the strained relationship and lack of trust between residents and police.
US shooter had 'kill list' including professors, wife

A gunman who shot dead his former college professor in California before taking his own life also murdered his wife as he worked off a "kill list," authorities and media reports said.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, killed Ashley Hasti in Minnesota and then drove 2,000 miles (3,220-kilometer) to Los Angeles where he shot his former professor William Klug on Wednesday, according to police and local media.

Officials in Hennepin County, in the midwestern state of Minnesota, said Hasti and Sarkar were married on June 14, 2011. It was unclear if the couple were still married at the time of their deaths.

Security personnel escort people from the University of California Los Angeles campus after two people were confirmed dead following a shooting at the facility, June 1, 2016 in Los Angeles, California Robyn Beck (AFP/File)

Klug, 39, a father of two who taught mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), was shot in his office on campus before Sarkar turned the gun on himself, police said.

A note in Sarkar's backpack -- in which he asked that someone look after his cat -- led police to his home in Minnesota, where a "kill list" was found, Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck told reporters.

He said Klug was named on the list along with another UCLA professor and the deceased woman, apparently Hasti.

She was found dead of a gunshot wound at her home in the small Minnesota town of Brooklyn Park.

Beck said investigators believe Sarkar killed her earlier in the week before driving to Los Angeles to continue his rampage, armed with two semi-automatic pistols and multiple rounds of ammunition.

"We believe he went there to kill two faculty of UCLA," Beck said. "He was only able to locate one. The second member was off campus."

He said Sarkar was apparently convinced Klug had stolen his computer code and given it to someone else, and seemed bent on revenge.

"That appears to be his motive," Beck said. "We have discussed this with UCLA (which) says there is no truth to it.

"This was a making of his own imagination."

He said investigators were trying to piece together Sarkar's movements between Minnesota and Los Angeles to "see if there is a trail" and any other victims.

- Held a grudge -

The murder-suicide prompted a lockdown and a massive security deployment at the university, amid fears of a mass shooting.

The university was shut down for the day but reopened on Thursday and a vigil was planned later in the evening to honor Klug.

Students and staff affected by the shooting were offered counseling.

The Los Angeles Times quote a source who was close to Klug as saying the professor had gone out of his way to help Sarkar finish his dissertation and to graduate, even though his work was subpar.

In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar thanked Klug for his help and support.

But he apparently developed a grudge against his former mentor, and offered scathing criticism of Klug in a now-deleted blog post on March 10.

"William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor," he wrote in the post quoted by several US media.

"He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy..."

Beck said the other professor targeted by Sarkar told investigators he was aware Sarkar held a grudge but did not think "it would rise to the level of homicide."

- 'We've become immune' -

According to his LinkedIn page, Sarkar got his master's degree from Stanford University and also studied aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, where he graduated in 2000.

He apparently worked as a research assistant at the University of Texas in 2003 and then took on a job as a software developer.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday that the deadly shooting at UCLA was a reminder of how endemic gun violence had become in the United States, where readily-available firearms claim around 30,000 lives each year.

"When guns are so easy to get, when that violence continues to play out on our streets, we have to speak up and speak out -- have smart legislation to try to prevent that where we can," he told reporters.

"You can have a Ph.D. or you can be a little kid, you could be black or white, brown or Asian ... and gun violence has just become too acceptable. We've become immune to it."

Security personnel check people at the University of California Los Angeles campus after two people were confirmed dead following a shooting at the facility, June 1, 2016 in Los Angeles, California Robyn Beck (AFP/File)

Shootings in Los Angeles Kun Tian, Thomas Saint-Cricq (AFP)
UN seeks 2,500 extra peacekeepers for Mali

The United Nations is seeking 2,500 extra troops and police to shore up its peacekeeping operations in Mali, one of its most dangerous missions worldwide.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday the MINUSMA mission also needs more air assets and quick-reaction forces after a series of attacks that left 12 peacekeepers dead in May alone.

"It's clear to everyone that the security situation in parts of Mali is deteriorating. UN staff have paid for it in blood," Dujarric said.

UN soldiers patrol in the northern Malian city of Kidal on July 27, 2013 Kenzo Tribouillard (AFP/File)

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed adding 2,049 troops and 480 police to MINUSMA, which currently has about 12,000 personnel.

The Security Council is due to consider steps to strengthen MINUSMA, with a vote on extending the mandate of the mission set for June 29.

Two attacks on Tuesday in the northern city of Gao killed a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians including a French contractor. Both were claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The deaths bring to 12 the number of peacekeepers killed in Mali in May alone, according to the UN.

"We are talking about quick-reaction forces, air assets, additional troops specialized in high security convoys," said Dujarric.

Deployed in July 2013, MINUSMA is already making use of drones and other technology to protect its bases.

In a report to the council this week, Ban said the mission needs an attack helicopter unit, armored personnel carriers and transport helicopters.

He also stressed the need to improve intelligence-gathering.

The request for more troops includes a 650-strong quick reaction force, an aviation unit of 85 personnel and the deployment of special forces in Timbuktu and Kidal for intelligence and surveillance.

A special team of 30 officers would be based in Bamako to support crisis response.
Terror deaths down but IS still major threat: US report

Despite a spate of bloody incidents that made global headlines, the total number of deaths in terrorist attacks fell last year by 14 percent, a US government report said Thursday.

While the Islamic State group remains the major threat and carried out devastating attacks in France, Lebanon and Turkey -- violence and total deaths decreased in Pakistan, Iraq and Nigeria.

According to figures compiled for the US State Department, there were an average of 981 "terrorist attacks" per month worldwide in 2015, killing a total of 28,328 over the year.

A picture taken on May 15, 2016 shows flames and smoke rising from tanks after a suicide bomb attack on the Taji gas plant, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad Sabah Arar (AFP/File)

This represents 13 percent fewer attacks and 14 percent fewer deaths than in 2014, according to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).

But while the global picture could be seen as encouraging, the figures record huge increases in indiscriminate political violence in Turkey, Bangladesh, Egypt, Syria and the Philippines.

The START figures were released Thursday as an annex to the State Department's annual strategic assessment -- "Country Reports on Terrorism" -- prepared for the US Congress.

This warned that the "global terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2015, becoming increasingly decentralized and diffuse."

The report also placed some of the blame on nation states, warning that extremists exploit frustrations "where avenues for free and peaceful expression of opinion were blocked."

Where countries, including US allies, have rigged judicial systems and abuses by security forces and corrupt politicians go unchecked, violent non-state actors can win support.

But the single greatest threat remains the Islamic State group and its growing legions of affiliates and supporters in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

The group has begun to lose ground to US-backed forces in its self-declared "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq, and it has begun to struggle to find funds, the report concludes.

But the IS group has expanded its territory in Libya, and its branch in Egypt's Sinai peninsula has gained strength, attacking local security forces and claiming the bombing of a Russian airliner.

The group has a small toehold in Afghanistan and in 2015 ordered or inspired attacks "by individuals or small groups of self-radicalized individuals in several cities around the world."

The Nigerian-based group Boko Haram pledged loyalty to the Islamic State in 2015, but has since come under increased military pressure from regional government forces.
UN could start using helicopters for Syria aid drops

Helicopters could be used to deliver aid to besieged areas of Syria, the UN said, on the eve of an emergency meeting of the Security Council about the issue.

Humanitarian access in Syria has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed at least 280,000 people and displaced millions.

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said helicopters would have to be used to carry aid to 15 of 19 besieged areas that include densely populated towns.

An aid convoy enters the rebel-held Syrian town of Daraya, southwest of the capital Damascus Fadi Dirani (AFP/File)

"In urban areas, airdrops are not feasible, so you are talking about the use of helicopters," he said.

"One can imagine the security challenges for that -- plus the security challenges of flying helicopters over the skies of Syria."

The comments came as a US-backed alliance of Kurds and Arabs pressed its advance in northern Syria towards the town of Manbij, held by the Islamic State jihadist group.

The US-led coalition also dropped ammunition to Syrian rebels fighting IS as they try to prevent the jihadists from entering the town of Marea, a monitoring group and US defence official said.

In Syria's second city, Aleppo, 23 civilians were killed by regime bombardments, the civil defence said, while a suicide bombing near a mosque killed at least two in the government coastal stronghold of Latakia.

The Security Council is due to meet on Friday to discuss the UN plan for airdrops.

Last month the United Nations said that if it did not see improvement on aid access to besieged areas by June 1, it would task its food agency to carry out drops.

- 'Too little, too late'-

A deputy to the UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said "as long as the World Food Programme has not yet finalised its plans, I don't think there's something imminent".

Ramzi Ezzedine Ramzi said airdrops were "very complex" and would need Damascus' approval.

On Wednesday, land deliveries reached two towns besieged by government forces where civilians are facing severe food shortages.

A truce allowed a convoy to enter Daraya near Damascus for the first time since late 2012, while another entered nearby Moadamiyeh for the first time since March.

But the opposition said only medical supplies were in the Daraya delivery and charity Save the Children said it was "shocking and completely unacceptable" that it excluded desperately needed food.

"It's too little, too late," said Matthew Rycroft, the British ambassador to the UN, referring to Wednesday's deliveries.

An estimated 8,000 people live in Daraya, one of the first towns in Syria to erupt in anti-government demonstrations in 2012 and one of the first to come under a strict regime siege the same year.

"Daraya needs everything," said local activist Shadi Matar.

"Some items come in through smuggling because some people risk their lives to slip out of town."

The UN says a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria -- most surrounded by government forces -- and another four million in hard-to-reach areas.

- Anti-IS offensive -

Ambassador Francois Delattre of France, which currently chairs the UN Security Council, called for airdrops to all areas in need and blamed the regime for blocking access to besieged villages and towns.

Moscow, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, said the Daraya truce would be observed until 00:01 am on Friday (2101 GMT Thursday) to allow aid deliveries.

But Russia's ambassador Vitaly Churkin suggested plans to airdrop humanitarian relief could be put on hold.

"I think we need to continue to pursue with land deliveries," he said.

In north Syria, fighters from the Kurdish-Arab alliance were 10 kilometres (six miles) outside the IS-held town of Manbij, a monitor said.

The Syrian Democratic Forces alliance has seized some 20 villages outside the town, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The US-backed SDF last week launched an offensive north of the jihadists' Syrian stronghold of Raqa city.

This week the alliance opened a new front towards Manbij, which lies on a key supply route between Raqa and the IS-held town of Jarabulus on the Turkish border.

Syria's main opposition group on Wednesday called on the UN to implement a truce in all of the country except areas under IS control during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week.

Aid convoy arrives in rebel-held Daraya

A truce allowed an aid convoy to enter Daraya near Damascus for the first time since late 2012, pictured, while another entered nearby Moadamiyeh for the first time since March Fadi Dirani (AFP/File)

Humanitarian access in Syria has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war Amer Almohibany (AFP/File)
Chinese military moves key issue at Singapore forum

Asia's largest annual security forum opens Friday in Singapore with territorial disputes in the South China Sea, North Korea's military provocations and Islamist extremism expected to dominate discussions.

The Shangri-La Dialogue, organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), is to be attended by at least 20 defence ministers led by Pentagon chief Ashton Carter, said IISS Asia executive director Tim Huxley.

Beijing's claim to nearly the entire South China Sea has angered Southeast Asian neighbours and pitted it against the United States, which has conducted patrols near Chinese-held islands to press for freedom of navigation in the body of water that encompasses key global shipping lanes.

Tensions in the South China Sea are expected to drive up Asia-Pacific defence spending by nearly 25 percent from 2015 to $533 billion in 2020, security think-tank IHS Jane's wrote in a research note issued on June 2, 2016 Sam Yeh (AFP/File)

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have competing claims in the area, which is believed to have significant oil and gas deposits.

"There is much speculation about Chinas next steps in the South China Sea, particularly in the context of an apparently imminent ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on a Philippine submission that challenges important aspects of Chinas claims and activities there," Huxley wrote in a pre-conference blog.

Tensions in the South China Sea are expected to drive up Asia-Pacific defence spending by nearly 25 percent from 2015 to $533 billion in 2020, security think-tank IHS Jane's wrote in a research note issued Thursday.

"By 2020, the centre of gravity of the global defence spending landscape is expected to have continued its gradual shift away from the developed economies of Western Europe and North America, and towards emerging markets, particularly in Asia," said IHS Jane's director Paul Burton.

- 'Jihadist terrorism' -

Tensions on the Korean peninsula are another concern to be addressed at the Singapore forum.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned North Korea's latest attempted missile launches and urged world governments to ramp up efforts to impose sanctions on Pyongyang.

Huxley also said there has been renewed concern over "jihadist terrorism", particularly the threat from organisations and individuals in Southeast Asia who have associated themselves with the Islamic State.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, a former army chief who seized power two years ago, will open the Singapore conference with an evening keynote address.

The forum also serves as a venue for military officials to meet behind closed doors.

Past editions of the conference have been marked by heated public exchanges between US and Chinese officials.

Zhou Bu, an honorary fellow at China's Academy of Military Science, wrote in Singapore's Straits Times newspaper ahead of the forum that public acrimony between the two powers could lead people to believe that "a showdown between the two giants is inevitable".

Recent editions of the Shangri-La Dialogue have been a "feast for the media" and could mislead people to believe that "a showdown between the two giants is inevitable," Zhou wrote.

But he said the US-China relationship is "also resilient, partly because each side can ill afford the consequence of a conflict or confrontation".

There are over 90 dialogues plus two hotlines between the two governments and two militaries to make sure the relationship stays on track, Zhou said.

He noted that China will take part in a 27-nation US-led naval exercise called the Rim of the Pacific Exercise, billed as the world's largest such drills, off Hawaii and California starting in late June.
US Air Force plane crashes after flying over Obama speech

A plane from the US Air Force's elite Thunderbird team crashed Thursday in Colorado shortly after flying over a ceremony where President Barack Obama spoke, an official said.

The pilot ejected safely from the aircraft and was undergoing a medical examination, according to the Air Force official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Following the accident, Obama met with the pilot at Peterson Air Force Base before heading back to Washington aboard Air Force One.

Emergency vehicles are seen on the Tarmac were US President Barack Obama met with a Thunderbird pilot who crashed earlier in the day during an Air Force Academy graduation at Peterson Air Force Base June 2, 2016 in Colorado Springs, Colorado Brendan Smialowski (AFP)

Obama expressed relief that the pilot was not injured and thanked him for his service to the country, according to reporters who were traveling with the president.

The official said the F-16 Thunderbird crashed "shortly after conducting a flyover in support of the US Air Force Academy graduation commencement ceremony" in Colorado Springs, where Obama addressed the crowd.

Obama used the occasion to defend his approach to the Syrian conflict, warning against allowing the United States to become drawn into a new civil war in the Middle East.

The accident occurred about six miles (nine kilometers) from Peterson Air Force Base.
Kansas faces new budget woes amid school funding fight

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  Kansas legislators wrangled on the final day of their annual session Wednesday over whether to comply with a court-ordered increase in aid to poor school districts amid fresh evidence of the state's deteriorating financial condition.

Leaders of the Legislature's GOP supermajorities considered whether to debate a school finance bill before lawmakers formally adjourned their annual session Wednesday. But they backed off after a meeting of Republican senators showed there was no consensus on what to do.

The state Supreme Court on Friday rejected some education funding changes enacted earlier this year by Republican legislators. The justices said the school finance system remains unfair to poor school districts and warned lawmakers that public schools will be unable to open after June 30 if lawmakers don't act by then.

Kansas Senate Majority Leader Terry Bruce, R-Nickerson, speaks with reporters during a break in the chamber's session with lawmakers trying to decide whether to tackle a school funding bill, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The state Supreme Court has rejected some education funding changes made by lawmakers earlier in the year (AP Photo/John Hanna)

A few GOP senators wanted to pass a bill Wednesday to boost aid to poor school districts. Others wanted more time to draft a response, something that would require Republican Gov. Sam Brownback to call a special session later this month. Another group wanted to defy the justices and test whether the court really would declare that schools must remain closed.

Brownback wouldn't say Wednesday evening whether he will call a special session. He issued a statement promising to work with legislators and the state's attorney general to respond "aggressively" to any action by the court to close schools.

"The courts should not be playing politics with our children's education," Brownback said.

Just after adjourning, lawmakers got more bad news about state revenues. The Department of Revenue reported that tax collections in May fell $74.5 million short of expectations, a 13.7 percent shortfall.

The shortfall in monthly tax collections means the state may have to delay paying some of its bills or take other steps to avoid a budget deficit at the end of this month. GOP lawmakers also said it means there's no extra money for schools, unless other parts of the budget are cut.

"We need to fight the courts," said Republican Sen. Rob Olson. "They've crossed the line."

Tax collections have fallen short of expectations in 10 of the past 12 months. Brownback last month cut higher education spending and money for Medicaid health coverage for the needy, disabled and elderly.

Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since Republican legislators slashed personal income taxes at Brownback's urging in 2012 and 2013 in an effort to stimulate the economy.

But Revenue Secretary Nick Jordan said in a statement Wednesday that the state economy continues to suffer because of slumps in agriculture, aircraft manufacturing and energy production hurting the entire region.

Similar budget problems shadowed a debate over school funding earlier this year. Republicans rewrote school finance laws in March in hopes of satisfying a Supreme Court order in February that poor schools weren't getting their fair share of more than $4 billion in annual aid to the state's 286 local districts.

Lawmakers also faced political pressure against cutting aid to wealthy districts while helping poor ones. Most districts didn't see any change in their overall aid  and the state's overall spending did not increase.

The state Department of Education estimated that complying with the Supreme Court's latest order would cost between $38 million and $51 million during the 2016-17 school year.

Sen. Jeff Longbine, of Emporia, advised fellow GOP lawmakers to pass a bill Wednesday and "move on down the road," and Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka said lawmakers should have provided extra funds to schools to satisfy the court.

But Republican Rep. Scott Schwab of Olathe Republican, said for many GOP legislators, "You hold a gun to our heads, we're going to say, 'Go ahead and make my day.'"

___
Reid on Sanders: 'Sometimes you just have to give up'

LAS VEGAS (AP)  Bernie Sanders needs to recognize that "sometimes you just have to give up," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.

Reid said his fellow senator should not carry his presidential campaign through to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, as he intends to do.

Instead, Reid said, Sanders needs to recognize that "math is math" after next week's primaries in California and New Jersey, when Hillary Clinton is expected to rack up enough delegates to effectively clinch the nomination.

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., cheer during a campaign rally at the Cubberley Community Center on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Palo Alto, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

"I've never been too good at math but I can figure that one out. I think he better do a little mathing," Reid told The Associated Press in an interview in his home state of Nevada.

Reid, who has endorsed Clinton, stopped short of calling on Sanders to drop out. But he made his views clear in direct and even harsh terms.

Reid said Sanders has a right to continue his campaign through the convention, but added: "No, I don't think he should. I don't know what that's going to prove. Sometimes you just have to give up. I've lost before. The numbers aren't there."

Sanders is disputing the suggestion that Clinton will be able to claim to have effectively clinched the nomination after next week's primaries. He says that's because Clinton's delegate totals will include "superdelegates," the party leaders selected by Democratic officials instead of voters. Sanders is hoping he can win California and change the minds of some superdelegates now backing Clinton.
Brazil police missing Australian may have been seen on beach

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  A 25-year-old Australian who disappeared shortly after arriving in Rio de Janeiro with a friend in mid-May was reported seen nine days later but authorities weren't able to find him, police said Wednesday.

A statement said police had received a call from a witness who reported talking with a man on May 30 who matched the description of the missing Rye Hunt. The witness said he was fishing on Cotunduba Island near Rio's Leme beach on May 30 when the man, with several bruises, walked up and asked for water. When asked how he arrived at the island the man responded "swimming."

Teams were sent to the island to search for Hunt but he was not found, the statement said.

Police also said that Hunt had used drugs before he went missing May 21.

According to the statement, Hunt and his friend arrived in Rio on May 16 and checked into a hostel in the Lapa neighborhood. The two friends took an ecstasy-like drug and went to a party May 21, then later headed to Rio's international airport to catch a plane to Bolivia, it said.

Once at the airport, the pair quarreled, with Hunt accusing the friend of wanting to steal his passport and kill him, the statement said. It did not explain how police obtained that information.

Hunt left the airport and checked into an apartment on Copacabana beach, police said. The statement said that after paying $200 for three days at the apartment, Hunt went out but came back soon afterward with a bottle of beer.

A few hours later Hunt left again while wearing the same clothes he had on at the airport  a green shirt with the number 33 on it, Bermuda shorts, a black cap and flip flops, the statement said. He never returned.
Back in business: Winslow working on sequel to 'The Cartel'

NEW YORK (AP)  Crime writer Don Winslow just can't leave the drug wars alone.

A year after he swore there'd be no sequel to "The Cartel," his acclaimed follow-up to "The Power of the Dog," Winslow tweeted Wednesday he's begun a third volume.

His literary agent, Shane Salerno, confirmed the news to The Associated Press and said the book currently has no title or release date. The first two novels center on the drug trade in Mexico and feature maverick drug law enforcement agent Art Keller and a cartel boss modeled on the notorious Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera, otherwise known as El Chapo.

"The Cartel" was published in May 2015. In an uncanny touch of prophesy, the drug lord escapes from prison, anticipating the 2015 real-life escape of El Chapo, who eventually was recaptured.

Shortly before the book's release, Winslow told the AP he was done with Keller, but on Wednesday he issued a statement through his agent saying he wasn't "ready to leave" the world of the first two books.

"There is more to say, particularly after the arrest of Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera and the fallout and fracturing that has taken place," he said.
South Korea uses technology to help pregnant women get seats

BUSAN, South Korea (AP)  Before they show a baby bump, what some pregnant women in South Korea can expect when expecting is accusing glares when they take subway seats meant for pregnant, disabled or elderly passengers.

One South Korean city is testing a wireless technology it hopes can alleviate such problems and perhaps help address one of the biggest challenges facing the Asian country: a stubbornly low birthrate.

In April, the southeastern port of Busan, South Korea's second-largest city, began testing a small, round device called a beacon. Equipped with a wireless sensor, it activates a pink light attached to another sensor installed on a metal bar next to special priority seats, usually at the end of subway cars. The idea is to alert all nearby that the person carrying the beacon has a baby on the way.

In this Wednesday, April 6, 2016 photo provided by Busan Metropolitan City, a woman sits on special priority seats next to a metal bar attached with a "pink light" wireless sensor in a subway train in Busan, South Korea. South Korea's second-largest city of Busan is testing a wireless technology it hopes can alleviate such problems and perhaps help address one of the biggest challenges facing the Asian country: a stubbornly low birthrate. (Kwon Sung-hoon/Busan Metropolitan City via AP)

The "Pink Light Campaign" can help non-pregnant passengers who might be occupying a seat designated for riders who are expecting to yield the spot without having to guess, is she or isn't she? In theory, pregnant women also can claim a seat without having to ask.

"It is hard to tell if a woman is pregnant, and give up a seat, when she doesn't have a baby bump," said Lee Gyeong-eon, a 23-year-old college student who frequently travels by subway.

Other South Korean cities also are trying to make travel by public transportation friendlier to pregnant women. Seoul, the capital, has installed bright pink seats designated for women who are expecting.

With one of the lowest birthrates in the world, South Korea is eager to encourage larger families. South Korean women had 1.21 children on average in 2014. The average for the wealthy nations belonging to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development was 1.68.

The Busan experiment is part of the trend toward the "Internet of Things," which uses wireless technology in products not usually associated with internet connectivity, such as toothbrushes or socks.

"I have felt a bit uncomfortable about getting a seat or claiming a seat reserved for pregnant women," said Ock Si-yoon, a 33-year-old who is expecting a baby. "Early on, there is a risk of miscarriage, so I'm a bit uneasy about using public transportation, since subways or busses shake a lot and it is difficult to get someone to yield a seat for me."

"These days, people are usually looking at their phones and they are not really aware that a seat is reserved for pregnant women," she said. "But now, with the 'Pink Light Campaign,' it is easy for people to notice when the sensor blinks."

For now, Busan's trial of the technology is limited to a few sections of the city's transit system. But the city plans to expand it to more subway lines and to buses.

"Consideration for pregnant women should prevail and they should be able to use public transportation more easily and conveniently with this policy," said Suh Byung-soo, Busan's mayor.

"Women should be able to use city facilities easily even when they are expecting," he said.

___

Lee reported from Seoul. She can be reached on Twitter: www.twitter.com/YKLeeAP

And at: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/youkyung-lee

In this Wednesday, April 6, 2016 photo provided by Busan Metropolitan City, a woman holds a bag with a small, round device called a beacon, the smaller one, written with "Pregnant passengers first" and equipped with a wireless sensor, in a subway train in Busan, South Korea. South Korea's second-largest city of Busan is testing a wireless technology it hopes can alleviate such problems and perhaps help address one of the biggest challenges facing the Asian country: a stubbornly low birthrate. The beacon activates a pink light attached to another sensor installed on a metal bar next to special priority seats usually at the end of subway cars. (Kwon Sung-hoon/Busan Metropolitan City via AP)
Jury to resume deliberating Islamic State case in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Jurors are about to begin a second day of deliberations in the federal trial of three Minnesota men accused of plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group.

The jury got the case Wednesday after closing arguments ended in the trial of 21-year-old Guled Ali Omar, 22-year-old Abdirahman Yasin Daud (Ahb-DEER'-ah-mahn YAH'-sin Dah-OOD') and 22-year-old Mohamed Abdihamid Farah (Mo-HAHM'-ed Ahb-dee-HAHM'-id FAHR'-ah). The jury went home without reaching a verdict and is expected to resume deliberations Thursday.

All three men have pleaded not guilty.

FILE - This undated file photo provided the Sherburne County, Minn., Sheriff's Office shows Abdirahman Yasin Daud, one of several Minnesota men accused of conspiring to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday, May 31, 2016, in the trial for Daud and two other men in Minneapolis. (Sherburne County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

During closing arguments, prosecutors pointed to recordings an FBI informant made of the men's conversations. Omar's attorney argued that the comments on the recordings amount to youthful one-upmanship.

But prosecutor Julie Allyn told jurors the defendants are "grown men" who "chose" the Islamic State.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office shows Guled Ali Omar, one of several Minnesota men accused of conspiring to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group. Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday, May 31, 2016, in the trial for Omar and two other men in Minneapolis. (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
Body of boy found in Detroit field; suspect arrested in Ohio

DETROIT (AP)  Police investigating the disappearance of a 13-year-old Detroit boy found his body Thursday in an empty lot on the city's east side and announced the arrest of a key suspect in Ohio.

Deontae Mitchell's mother, Crystal Mitchell, identified her son's body, and an autopsy is planned for Friday morning, according to the Wayne County medical examiner's office.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig offered his "heart and prayers" to the boy's family and called it a "horrific crime."

This undated image provided by the Detroit Police Department shows Gregory Walker, who police say is a suspect in the abduction of a boy who was taken from outside a Detroit neighborhood market. (Detroit Police Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

"We're talking about a defenseless child. An adult male with a gun," Craig said at a news conference earlier Thursday. "Once again, another coward preying on children, and that needs to stop."

Deontae disappeared Tuesday night while riding bikes with a cousin, who told police that Deontae had picked up money dropped by a man who was urinating outside a market.

Video shows Deontae being pursued by a man who grabbed the boy by his arm and forced him into a car.

Police believe that man was Gregory Walker, 45, of Detroit, who was arrested Thursday with a woman in Toledo, Ohio. Walker hasn't been charged.

But Craig noted that two more men were wanted by police in what he called "very much an active investigation." One of them, a 30-year-old from Detroit, was arrested Thursday in his home; he was not immediately charged. A 51-year-old man still is being sought.

Detroit police were preparing information to present to prosecutors for murder charges, said Sgt. Michael Woody, who added that Walker may have to be extradited to Michigan from Ohio.

Late Thursday morning, police combed through knee- to waist-high weeds and grass in an empty lot behind a vacant one-story building that once housed a men's clothing shop and a tax service.

About three dozen people gathered nearby, some praying for the boy's family, the neighborhood and the city.

Madgrine Jones, 35, cried, saying "the spirit led me here." A security guard at a cemetery, Jones didn't know the victim and is not acquainted with his family, but has children of her own.

"It hurts. It hurts," she told The Associated Press, tears streaming down her face. "Why can't we go back to when people spoke up? We got babies being killed. It's just too much. I pray for the family. I pray for the city. I pray for our kids."

This image provided by the City of Detroit Police Department shows Deontae Mitchell. Police say surveillance video from a neighborhood market shows a man abducting the 13-year-old Detroit boy. An Amber Alert was issued earlier Wednesday, June 1, 2016, for Deontae. (City of Detroit Police Department via AP)
Future funding murky for Hawaiian island used as bomb range

HONOLULU (AP)  Six miles from the scenic beaches of south Maui sits a small, deserted island with a rich history and a big problem.

Researchers say Hawaiians traveled to Kahoolawe Island as early as 400 A.D., and it's home to nearly 3,000 archaeological sites. It's also littered with unexploded ordnance.

The U.S. Navy used the barren island as a bombing range for decades starting in World War II. It later joined with the state and spent millions on cleanup, but they didn't finish the job.

In this undated photo provided by the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, marine debris litters Kanapou Bay on Kahoolawe, Hawaii. In World War II, the U.S. Navy started using the 45 square miles of Kahoolawe as a bombing range. But after two decades of trying to restore a Hawaiian island, its future funding is now in jeopardy. (Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission via AP)

Today, live grenades and bombs remain scattered across about a quarter of the 45-square-mile island. But the agency tasked with restoring Kahoolawe is likely on its own next year after lawmakers passed a bill pushing it to become financially self-sufficient.

Now, the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission and community advocates are looking for ways to fund the rest of the cleanup so they can bring back native wildlife and use the island as a Native Hawaiian educational center.

It's no small effort. Restoring and then replanting the entire island could take decades and cost billions of dollars, despite about $400 million spent between the commission and the Navy since 1994, the agency said. The commission also has depleted a $44 million federal trust fund since the state gained control of the island in 2004.

"It speaks volumes to the amount of bombing Kahoolawe sustained that so much work still needs to be done to complete this effort," U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said. She added she will work to help find solutions to finish the cleanup at the culturally significant site, which is banned from commercial use.

On a clear day, the islands of Maui, Lanai and Molokai are visible from the shores of Kahoolawe, which archaeological evidence suggests Hawaiians used as a navigational center for voyaging, a workshop for making stone tools and for cultural ceremonies. Fortunately, many of the cultural sites such as fishing shrines were on the coast and were spared from the military bombing, which went on for 50 years, said Michael Nahoopii, the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission's executive director.

Still, gold-colored grenades that explode if touched, bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds and hundreds of projectiles remain.

"You walk across this line, and it is night and day. One side of the line is very clean. There's no scrap metal. There's nothing on the ground," Nahoopii said. "You walk across this line, and there's bombs sticking out of the ground. There are pieces of razor-sharp metal."

A 2013 financial audit criticized the Kahoolawe commission for lacking a comprehensive cleanup plan and measures to gauge if objectives are being met.

Lawmakers recently passed a measure giving the agency $450,000 for restoration during the upcoming year, but no money after 2017. One of the requirements is that the commission come up with a plan for being self-sufficient. The proposal has been sent to Gov. David Ige, who hasn't said whether he will sign it into law.

Ideas for future funding include running the island off renewable energy and charging tuition for educational programs.

Josh Kaakua, a commissioner and member of the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana, said the state should help fund Kahoolawe's restoration since it took responsibility for the island after the Navy ended the federal cleanup.

The island was also ravaged by years of cattle and goat ranching before its military use  the Army first trained there in 1925  and faces problems with severe erosion and a lack of fresh water sources.

"I think people only care about what's in their backyard, so often I think Kahoolawe gets put to the side," Kaakua said. "Kahoolawe is a treasure. It's a resource. But we're losing it. We're slipping. Nobody is paying attention."

Nahoopii, meanwhile, said the Navy has a responsibility to finish restoring the island. When the federal government took over Kahoolawe in the 1950s, it agreed to return the land in a condition of "suitable habitation," he said.

Yet Agnes Tauyan, director of public affairs for Navy Region Hawaii, said the Navy completed what was required by the federal government and isn't aware of any requests to return to Kahoolawe.

Live-fire training at Kahoolawe ended in 1990, and the Navy, which ran the operation, was responsible for cleanup. About 100 other locations throughout the Pacific fall under the Formerly Used Defense Sites program overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

That program is cleaning up property that was used by the military before 1986, when it was founded. But the sites don't require nearly as much work as Kahoolawe, according to Joseph Bonfiglio, spokesman for the Honolulu Army Corps of Engineers.

___

This story has been corrected to show Kahoolawe is not part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Formerly Used Defense Sites program. Live fire training at the island was overseen by the Navy, which is responsible for cleanup, and ended in 1990.

In this 2015 photo provided by the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, restoration specialist Paul Higashino teaches volunteers about the challenges of planting the hardpan at the Hakioawa Watershed on Kahoolawe, Hawaii. After two decades of trying to restore a Hawaiian island ravaged by nearly 50 years of military bombing, its future funding is now in jeopardy. The Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, which is the agency tasked with restoring the island, has yet to be funded after 2017. (Cassie Pali/Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission via AP)

In this 2015 photo provided by the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, volunteers work on Kahoolawe, Hawaii. After two decades of trying to restore a Hawaiian island ravaged by nearly 50 years of military bombing, its future funding is now in jeopardy. The Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, which is the agency tasked with restoring the island, has yet to be funded after 2017. (Cassie Pali/Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission via AP)

In this 2010 photo provided by the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, volunteers work the hardpan at the Hakioawa Watershed on Kahoolawe, Hawaii. In World War II, the U.S. Navy started using the 45 square miles of Kahoolawe as a bombing range. After two decades of trying to restore a Hawaiian island ravaged by nearly 50 years of military bombing, its future funding is now in jeopardy. The Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, which is the agency tasked with restoring the island, has yet to be funded after 2017. (Mike Nahoopii/Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission via AP)

In this February 2015 photo provided by the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission, unexploded ordnance safety specialist Bart Maybee stands by the remains of nearly 50 years of military bombing in Kunaka on Kahoolawe, Hawaii. In World War II, the U.S. Navy started using the 45 square miles of Kahoolawe as a bombing range. But after two decades of trying to restore a Hawaiian island, its future funding is now in jeopardy. (Kelly McHugh/Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission via AP)
Days ahead of primary, Sanders has a plan for Puerto Rico

WASHINGTON (AP)  Three days before Puerto Rico's primary, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is digging in on his opposition to a House deal to rescue the U.S. territory from $70 billion in debt.

Sanders said Thursday that he will introduce his own legislation to help the island. His bill would allow the Federal Reserve to give the territory emergency loans and provide broad bankruptcy protections, unlike legislation approved by a House committee last week that would create a control board to oversee limited debt restructuring. Sanders' bill would also boost Medicaid and Medicare payments to the island and designate $10.8 billion to rebuild the territory's crumbling infrastructure.

The Vermont senator has said the existing House bill would make "a terrible situation even worse" and that it serves Wall Street bondholders over ordinary Puerto Ricans. The compromise bill is backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and the Obama administration. Puerto Rican officials are split.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally at the Cubberley Community Center on Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Palo Alto, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

"We have got to make it clear to these vulture funds that they cannot have it all," Sanders said in a statement. "The solution to Puerto Rico's debt crisis is not more austerity. The solution is more economic development, more jobs and less poverty."

Sanders is trailing Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the presidential primaries and Clinton has outperformed Sanders among Latino voters. Both are competing in the June 5 Puerto Rican primary.

In a statement after the House bill was introduced, Clinton said she has serious concerns about the power of the control board but believes the legislation should move forward, or "too many Puerto Ricans will continue to suffer."

The seven-member control board in the House bill would be comprised primarily of members chosen by congressional Republicans, with some also chosen by congressional Democrats and the White House. Sanders' legislation would create a seven-member "public corporation" that would mostly consist of representatives chosen by the legislature and governor of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico, which has struggled to overcome a lengthy recession, has missed several payments to creditors and faces a $2 billion installment, the largest yet, on July 1. The economic crisis has forced businesses to close, driven up the employment rate and sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of people to the U.S. mainland.
President Barack Obama implored the next generation of U.S. military leaders Thursday not to give in to isolationism or pull back from U.S. leadership in the world, drawing a contrast with a foreign policy vision that's been laid out by Donald Trump.

Obama used his final commencement address as president to reassure the military that it remains the dominant fighting force in the world, implicitly pushing back on critiques that the military's might has ebbed under his watch. Under searing sun and sweeping blue skies at the U.S. Air Force Academy, he told graduates they'd be called upon to strike a complicated balance between realism and idealism, withdrawal and overreach.

'We can't be isolationists. It's not possible in this globalized, interconnected world,' Obama said. 'In these uncertain times, it's tempting sometimes to try to pull back and wash our hands from conflicts that seem intractable, let other countries fend of themselves.'

President Obama returns a salute as he arrives to deliver his final commencement address to the 2016 class U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs

Calling isolationism a 'false comfort,' he added that history had shown how 'oceans alone cannot protect us.'

Though Obama didn't mention Trump or any other presidential candidates, his intended target was clear. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has called repeatedly for putting 'America first' by rethinking U.S. alliances, spending less to ensure other countries' security and enacting strict tariffs that Trump acknowledges could potentially lead to a trade war.

Obama's rebuke of that philosophy came the same day the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, was launching a concerted attack against Trump's foreign policy with a speech in San Diego. Campaign aides said that Clinton planned to assail Trump as dangerous to U.S. national security and unqualified to serve as commander in chief.

Though Obama has waited to start campaigning in earnest until the Democratic primary is concluded, he's worked increasingly to undermine Trump's appeal by attacking his policies both directly and indirectly. A day earlier, Obama was in a conservative stretch of Indiana on a self-described 'myth-busting' mission to derail GOP arguments on the economy.

'When we panic, we don't make good decisions,' Obama told the Air Force Academy graduates and their families. He said that the U.S. had to engage with the world but must also be wary of overextending itself, particularly with regard to military intervention.

'We have to chart a smarter path,' he said. 'As we saw in Vietnam and the Iraq war, often times the greatest damage to American credibility comes when we overreach, when we don't think through the consequences of all of our actions.'

Obama called isolationism 'false comfort'

In another clear nod to Trump, Obama specifically mentioned the value of NATO, an alliance that Trump has suggested is outdated.

Of the 812 graduates of the Air Force Academy this year  all of whom were handed diplomas by the president  345 are going on to train as pilots, the Air Force said. Sixty of them will train to operate remotely piloted aircraft, such as drones, which have become a central tool of U.S. counterterrorism efforts under Obama. About one-quarter of the class is female while 17 of the graduates come from outside the U.S.

For Obama, the speech is the culmination of a yearly tradition of addressing one of the military's four service academies at graduation. This year, Obama also delivered commencement addresses at Howard University, a historically black school in Washington, and Rutgers University, a public university in New Jersey.

Members of the 2016 class U.S. Air Force Academy applaud as they listen to Obama's adress

Sweet ride: Obama said he's 'really going to miss Air Force One' and thanked the Air Force personnel and academy graduates who flew him to the speech Thursday
Greece: 3 injured in violence at migrant detention camp

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  Authorities in Greece say three migrants have been hospitalized with injuries after violence broke out overnight at a detention camp on the island of Lesbos.

The clashes between migrant groups occurred early Thursday and also resulted in a fire that gutted a converted freight container used as trailer home, police said.

It was the latest violence at the Moria camp on the Greek island, where more than 2,500 are held in detention following a March agreement between the European Union and Turkey to deport migrants and refugees.

An Afghan girl get out her makeshift tent at the old international airport, which is used as a shelter for over 3,500 refugees and migrants, in southern Athens on Monday, May 30, 2016. The government has been moving migrants from makeshift camps into organized shelters and the Greek government said Monday they will continue to clear the Greek- Macedonian border area over the next few days. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Somalia forces end extremist siege of hotel; 15 killed

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)  Somali security forces Thursday ended an overnight siege by extremist gunmen at a hotel in the capital which killed least 15 people, including two members of parliament, officials said.

The assault started when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated outside the Ambassador Hotel Wednesday evening and three militants stormed inside the building, said the African Union Mission in Somalia. The AU multinational force is bolstering Somalia's weak government against an insurgency by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, which sheared off the front of the luxury hotel and left blood spattered on bullet-marked walls. The twisted remains of dozens of vehicles ringed the site.

Security forces examine the scene after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed the hotel, often frequented by government officials and business executives, killing people and taking a number of hostages, police said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

One militant was killed at the entrance to the hotel while two others entered and shot at residents, the AU force said in a statement. All the attackers were killed in the siege.

Nine bodies were removed from the hotel after troops killed the remaining assailants, Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer, told The Associated Press.

Six out of 40 people injured in the attack died from their wounds, Ahmed Mohamed, a nurse at Madina hospital in Mogadishu, said. Victims screamed in pain in overwhelmed hospitals, and there were fears the death toll could rise.

The two members of parliament killed in the attack had dual British citizenship, a statement from British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond's office said as he visited Somalia for security talks.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the attack, saying extremists launched it after suffering major blows from the country's security forces in rebel-held towns in recent months.

The U.N. Security Council also condemned the attack and stressed the need to "prevent and suppress the financing of Al-Shabaab, and any other terrorist group in Somalia," in a statement issued Thursday.

The hotel attack came on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which extremists often step up attacks in this volatile East African country.

The assault highlights challenges facing the Somali government and AU forces that are struggling to secure the seaside capital. An attack on another Mogadishu hotel and public garden in February killed at least nine civilians. A car bomb outside a restaurant in the capital in April killed at least five.

The insurgents have been ousted from most of Somalia's cities but continue to carry out bombings and suicide attacks.

The Pentagon on Wednesday announced that a U.S. drone strike on Friday had targeted a senior military commander of al-Shabab in Somalia, Abdullahi Haji Da'ud. U.S. officials said they couldn't confirm yet if he was killed.

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Associated Press Writer Michael Astor at the United Nations contributed to this report.

A Somali man walks past a destroyed vehicle at the scene after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed the hotel, often frequented by government officials and business executives, killing people and taking a number of hostages, police said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Somalis carry away the body of a dead civilian after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, June 2, 2016. Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed the hotel, often frequented by government officials and business executives, killing people and taking a number of hostages, police said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

A Somali policeman patrols at the scene after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, June 2, 2016. Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed the hotel, often frequented by government officials and business executives, killing people and taking a number of hostages, police said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - A member of security forces walks at the scene past an unidentified dead body, after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed the hotel, often frequented by government officials and business executives, killing people and taking a number of hostages, police said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - A member of security forces guards the scene near an unidentified dead body after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, June 2, 2016. Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed the hotel, often frequented by government officials and business executives, killing people and taking a number of hostages, police said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Security forces stand by an unidentified dead body at the scene after a bomb attack on Ambassador Hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, June 2, 2016. Somalia's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, stormed the hotel, often frequented by government officials and business executives, killing people and taking a number of hostages, police said. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Iranians impeded from going to hajj amid Saudi-Iran spat

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran said Thursday it won't facilitate sending pilgrims to the hajj this year because Saudi Arabia is allegedly failing to provide adequate security.

The hajj has become a contentious issue between the two Mideast rivals, particularly after last year's deadly crush of pilgrims that killed at least 2,426 people, according to a count by The Associated Press. Tehran has said 464 of the dead were Iranian.

Iran has demanded additional security guarantees for pilgrims, while the Saudis have balked at allowing Iranian pilgrims to perform a Shiite ritual that often includes protests against the West. A second round of talks in Saudi Arabia this week failed to resolve the dispute.

Head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Saeed Ohadi speaks in a news conference in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Iran officially announced on Thursday that it won't be sending pilgrims to the hajj this year, blaming Saudi Arabia for the move and claiming the kingdom has failed to provide adequate security for the pilgrims. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

The two sides needed to come to terms on involvement in part to arrange pilgrims' visas after they severed diplomatic relations earlier this year.

Saeed Ohadi, head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, said Thursday that "Saudi Arabia knows it must pay a heavy price for depriving pilgrims" from Iran of the chance to perform the hajj, considered a duty for every able-bodied Muslim.

He also said Riyadh sought to restrict the number of makeshift clinics Iran wanted to set up for its pilgrims and the amount of medicines it wanted to supply them with.

After the hajj disaster, tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia escalated further after Riyadh executed a prominent Saudi Shiite cleric convicted of a string of charges, including sowing dissent in the majority Sunni kingdom. This sparked widespread protests in Shiite-led Iran, which views itself as the protector of Shiites around the world. Iranian protesters stormed Saudi diplomatic posts and Riyadh responded by cutting diplomatic relations with Tehran.

The two countries also support opposing sides in Syria's civil war and the ongoing conflict in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country.

Journalists adjust their microphones ahead of a press conference held by head of Iran's Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization Saeed Ohadi, center, in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Iran officially announced on Thursday that it won't be sending pilgrims to the hajj this year, blaming Saudi Arabia for the move and claiming the kingdom has failed to provide adequate security for the pilgrims. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The Latest: Louvre to shut down, move art to higher floors

PARIS (AP)  The Latest on the flooding that's affected parts of Europe. (all times local):

6:10 p.m.

The Louvre museum in Paris says it will be closed Friday to remove artworks from rooms threatened by rising water from the Seine River.

Residents use a canoe to evacuate in downtown Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people reported dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

The museum says Thursday the art will be preventively moved upstairs. Its most famous painting, Leonardo da Vince's "Mona Lisa," is staying put on an upper floor.

Paris police, meanwhile, say their flood warning has been upgraded to "orange" level for areas in Paris near the Seine, which has overflowed its banks in many places. The warning is the second-highest level and means floods might have "a significant impact" on buildings and people.

Floods have inundated parts of France, Germany and Belgium this week, killing six people and trapping thousands in homes or cars as rivers burst their banks from Paris to Germany's southern state of Bavaria.

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5:15 p.m.

French President Francois Hollande says a "natural disaster" will be formally declared next week in a Cabinet meeting for areas most affected by the flooding that has hit Paris and France's central regions.

The procedure enables residents to get financial help from their insurance companies more quickly.

Hollande also says there will be a specific fund to help villages and small towns deal with the damages caused by the floods. He spoke Thursday to mayors gathered in Paris.

Floods have inundated parts of France, Germany and Belgium this week, killing six people and trapping thousands in homes or cars as rivers burst their banks from Paris to Germany's southern state of Bavaria.

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3:55 p.m.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is promising continued help for flooded areas of southern Germany, where five people have been killed this week amid the floods.

Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Thursday that she "mourns for those for whom the help has come too late, who lost their lives."

She says disaster relief is now on hand to help both controlling the floods and with rebuilding damaged areas.

Floods have inundated parts of France, Germany and Belgium this week, trapping thousands in homes or cars as rivers burst their banks from Paris to Germany's Bavaria. In Germany, the flooding has been worst in the south along the Austrian border.

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3:30 p.m.

One of Paris' central train lines is being closed down as the Seine River that winds through the French capital keeps rising and overflowing its banks.

The RER C suburban line runs alongside the Seine in central Paris, serving the Eiffel Tower, the Invalides plaza and the Orsay museum. French rail company SNCF says the line will be closed Thursday at 4 p.m.

Other subway lines in Paris are running normally despite the flooding.

A direct train line to Versailles has also been shut down due to the bad weather but travelers can still access Versailles castle through other train connecting lines.

Floods have inundated parts of France, Germany and Belgium this week, killing five people and trapping thousands in homes or cars as rivers burst their banks from Paris to Germany's Bavaria.

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1:35 p.m.

Police in Germany say they've found the body of a fifth victim after floods swept part of Bavaria.

The police said in a statement that the body of a man was found Thursday at a property in the town of Simbach am Inn. No further details were given.

The bodies of three other victims were found in the same town on Wednesday evening. In nearby Julbach, the body of a woman was also found in a stream Wednesday evening.

Although flood waters have receded in the area near the Austrian border, police say that some roads remain closed.

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11:10 a.m.

Belgium endured a fourth day of heavy rain, with flooding reported in several areas across the country.

After widespread flooding hit northern Antwerp and the west of Flanders early in the week, waters kept rising in eastern areas around Limburg and Liege. Several neighborhoods have had to be evacuated as cellars flooded and streets were submerged in overflowing creeks and rivers.

One major train line linking eastern Limburg to the capital had to be temporarily suspended early Thursday. No deaths or injuries have been reported so far in Belgium. More rain is expected later.

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10:50 a.m.

The German state of Bavaria is promising quick financial help to residents in areas near the Austrian border hit by flooding this week.

According to the dpa news agency, Bavaria's governor, Horst Seehofer, has pledged "quick and unbureaucratic help," saying his state "won't abandon those affected, some of whom have lost their whole homes."

Four people have been confirmed killed in the flooding, which swept through the towns of Simbach am Inn and Triftern, while others have been reported missing.

The waters have receded, and disaster relief crews were on the scene helping to clear the wreckage, while helping to prepare for more possible flooding. There are warnings of more storms in the forecast.

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9:45 a.m.

French media say that thousands have been evacuated as floods continue to threaten homes and businesses across the Paris region.

French authorities say that areas along the Loing River, a tributary of the Seine, had seen waters rise to levels unseen since 1910, when a massive flood swamped the French capital.

Media reported of evacuations in the town of Nemours, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Paris. The iTele broadcaster said 400 firefighters and police were at work there removing people from flood-hit homes.

France's meteorological service said Thursday that severe flood watches are in effect in two Paris-area departments: Loiret and Seine-et-Marne. Eight more departments, including three on the German, border, face flood warnings as well.

A man rides a bike through a road by the overflowing river Seine in Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

A playground and a pool is flooded by mud and water after the small town was hit by flooding in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. Several people have died in the flooding, which swept through the towns of Simbach am Inn and Triftern, while others have been reported missing. The waters have receded, and disaster relief crews were on the scene helping to clear the wreckage. There are warnings of more storms in the forecast. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

An aerial view shows the flooded streets and damages in Simbach am Inn, southern Germany, Thursday June 2, 2016.. Several people died when the small town was hit by heavy flooding the day before. ( Tobias Hase/dpa via AP)

Cars float in the flood waters in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

A destroyed oil tank lies in a flooded street after the small town was hit by flooding in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

People remove mud from a house damaged by floods in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Cars float in the flood waters in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Cars float in the street in the flood waters in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

A car is squeezed between houses after the small town was hit by flooding in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

In this June 1, 2016 photo fire fighters search for people in a house in Simbach am Inn, southern Germany, after the small town was hit by flooding. Several people have died. (Tobias Hase/dpa via AP)

In this June 1, 2016 photo rescue workers pull a rubber dingy through a flooded street in Simbach am Inn, southern Germany. Several people have died in the flooding. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)

In this June 1, 2016 photo a car is squeezed between houses of Simbach am Inn, southern Germany, after the small town was hit by flooding. Several people have died. (Tobias Hase/dpa via AP)

A car lies in mud after the small town was hit by flooding in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people died in the flooding, which swept through the towns of Simbach am Inn and Triftern, while others have been reported missing. The waters have receded, and disaster relief crews were on the scene helping to clear the wreckage, while helping to prepare for more possible flooding. There are warnings of more storms in the forecast. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

A woman tries to find a way out in a flooded street downtown Longjumeau, south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people reported dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

People remove mud from a house damaged by floods in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died in the flooding, which swept through the towns of Simbach am Inn and Triftern, while others have been reported missing. The waters have receded, and disaster relief crews were on the scene helping to clear the wreckage, while helping to prepare for more possible flooding. There are warnings of more storms in the forecast. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Cars float in the flood waters in Simbach am Inn, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Several people have died. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Residents are evacuated by firemen rescuers in downtown Longjumeau, south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people reported dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Residents evacuate their home in Nemours, south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Residents evacuate their home in Nemours, south of Paris, Thursday June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Residents use a canoe to evacuate in downtown Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people reported dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Residents evacuate their home in Nemours, south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Hildegard Hitzlinger cleans up in front of her damaged house in Triftern, southern Germany, Thursday June 2, 2016. Several people died when the region was hit by heavy flooding the day before. ( Armin Weigel/dpa via AP)

Residents use a canoe to evacuate in downtown Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people reported dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Residents use a bark to rescue people in downtown Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people reported dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Residents evacuate their home in Nemours, south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Residents use a canoe to evacuate in downtown Nemours, 50 miles south of Paris, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Floods inundating parts of France and Germany have left five people reported dead and thousands trapped in homes or cars, as rivers have broken their banks from Paris to Bavaria. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
The Latest: California police shooting suspect cornered

FREMONT, Calif. (AP)  The Latest on two Northern California police officers were shot after a traffic stop turned violent (all times local):

3 A.M.

Officers have fire tear gas into a house where a gunman suspected of shooting and wounding two Northern California police officers has taken refuge and was in a standoff with police early Thursday.

Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff's office tells The Associated Press that the gunman is still refusing to come out.

He says that so far there has not been any gunfire during the standoff and no one has been hurt.

The officers from the Fremont Police Department were shot Wednesday afternoon after a traffic stop turned violent, leaving one officer critical after surgery and one stable.

The shootings prompted a manhunt that involved a house to house search that lasted well into the night.

Kelly says that a lone suspect was eventually tracked down to a home in Fremont, where police had been negotiating with him to surrender.

2:15 A.M.

Authorities say a gunman suspected of shooting and wounding two Northern California police officers was in an armed standoff with law officers early Thursday.

The officers from the Fremont Police Department were shot Wednesday afternoon after a traffic stop turned violent.

That prompted a manhunt that involved a house to house search that lasted well into the night.

Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff's office tells The Associated Press that a lone suspect was eventually tracked down to a home in Fremont, where he was involved in the standoff.

He says police right now are negotiating with him to surrender.

No one else has been injured since the police shootings, which left the officers hospitalized  one critical after surgery and one stable.

12:01 a.m.

Police in Northern California are searching for at least one suspect after two police officers were wounded when a traffic stop turned violent.

The Fremont Police Department says the gunman was believed to have fled to a residential neighborhood.

He says the area was still on lock down late Wednesday night with no one allowed to go in or leave the six-block area.

Police say surveillance video and witnesses confirmed the man was still carrying the gun after he shot the two officers Wednesday afternoon.
Pope presses case for mercy with Holy Year priestly retreat

ROME (AP)  Pope Francis is pressing his case for the Catholic Church to be more a place of mercy than moralizing with a three-day retreat for priests from around the world aimed at encouraging them to show "infinite mercy" with their flocks.

Francis kicked off the retreat's main day Thursday with a meditation on mercy at St. John Lateran Basilica. He had two other meditations scheduled later at other Rome basilicas, one of the key events of his Holy Year of Mercy which, at its half-way mark, has drawn 8.5 million pilgrims to Rome.

Francis' emphasis on mercy has come under increasing criticism from conservatives for opening the door to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion. Conservatives say Francis introduced confusion in the church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.

Pope Francis walks as he leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis leaves after his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Police stop truck carrying 2 tiger skins from Thai temple

BANGKOK (AP)  Thai police stopped a truck Thursday carrying two tiger skins and other animal parts as it was leaving a Buddhist temple where monks have been accused of being involved in illegal wildlife trafficking, a police officer said.

Soon afterward, authorities found 20 jars containing preserved young tigers at the temple, a national parks official said  a day after 40 dead tiger cubs were found in a freezer at the temple.

The discoveries have come as authorities have been transferring 137 live tigers, mostly adults, from the temple to animal shelters after obtaining a court order.

National Parks and Wildlife officers examine the skin of a tiger at the "Tiger Temple," in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Thai police say they stopped a truck carrying two tiger skins and other animal parts as it was leaving the temple, two staff members were arrested and charged with possession of illegal wildlife. Police said a monk traveling with them will be arrested once he is defrocked. (AP Photo) THAILAND OUT

The temple in Kanchanaburi province, in western Thailand, is a popular tourist attraction that charged admission for visitors to take photos with tigers. It has been criticized by animal rights activists because of allegations it is not properly set up to care for the animals and flouted regulations restricting the trade of tigers.

Two men in the truck carrying the tiger skins were arrested and charged with possession of illegal wildlife, said police Col. Bandith Meungsukhum. He said a monk traveling with them will be arrested once he is defrocked.

An adult tiger skin can fetch anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000, according to Steve Galster, the director of Freeland, an organization that fights wildlife trafficking. Galster said he believes the temple was breeding tigers to sell them, either alive or in parts, into the lucrative illegal wildlife trade.

The truck was also carrying more than 700 vials containing tiger skin as well as many tiger teeth hidden in a suitcase, said Teunchai Noochdumrong, director of the government's wildlife conservation office. Such vials are typically used as good luck charms.

"I am quite shocked," Teunchai said. "We all have heard concerns and allegations about this temple. I would never have thought they would be so blatant."

The young tigers preserved in the jars were found in the vet's office at the temple, said Anusorn Noochdumrong, an official from the Department of National Parks who has been overseeing the transfer of the temple's tigers to shelters. The animals' bodies were preserved in an unidentified liquid, he said.

The temple's English-language Facebook page, which has criticized government efforts to take away the tigers, claimed surprise at what was found.

"The recent discovery of the tiger skins and necklaces comes as a shock to us as well as the rest of the world," it said. "We are disgusted at this discovery and we don't condone this. We are looking forward to the authorities bringing the culprits to justice."

The temple recently made arrangements to operate as a zoo, but the plan fell through when the government determined that the operators failed to secure sufficient resources. The monks resisted previous efforts to take away the tigers, but relented this week after police obtained a court order.

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Associated Press journalist Tassanee Vejpongsa contributed to this report.

Tiger skin and bone products are laid out on a table by National Parks and Wildlife officers at the "Tiger Temple," in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Thai police say they stopped a truck carrying two tiger skins and other animal parts as it was leaving the temple, two staff members were arrested and charged with possession of illegal wildlife. (AP Photo) THAILAND OUT

A police officer, right, examines the belongings of two men arrested after attempting to remove tiger skin's and products from the "Tiger Temple," in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Thai police say they stopped a truck carrying two tiger skins and other animal parts as it was leaving the temple, two staff members were arrested and charged with possession of illegal wildlife. (AP Photo) THAILAND OUT
The Latest: 6 injured in migrant clashes on Greek island

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  The Latest on Europe's migration crisis (all times local):

11 p.m.

Greek police say clashes have broken out between rival ethnic groups of refugees and other migrants at a detention camp on the eastern Aegean Sea island of Samos.

Migrant and refugee tents are set up in a new makeshift camp along the cliffs at the port of Dieppe, northern France, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A group of around 150 Albanian's have set up camp near the English channel hoping to cross to the UK. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Police say six people have been injured and 25 detained. About 1,100 people are held in the facility.

Thursday's violence came a day after similar clashes at a camp on the island of Lesbos, which left three migrants hospitalized with injuries.

More than 8,000 people are held in detention on Greece's eastern islands following a March agreement between the European Union and Turkey to deport migrants and refugees.

Deportations have been held up by delays in the asylum screening process  triggering frequent unrest.

About 52,000 refugees and economic migrants have been trapped in Greece after a series of Balkan border closures.

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9:10 p.m.

A senior EU official says the migration crisis will be with Europe "for at least a generation."

EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans says it will be visible in "the demographic development, political development, the economic development in Europe and its neighborhood."

Speaking with Sweden's Justice Minister Morgan Johansson on Thursday, Timmermans asked smilingly "How many Zlatans will you have 20 years from now coming the new Swedish community?"

His tongue-in-cheek remark was a nod to Sweden's top soccer player, striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic  the son of Bosnian-Croatian emigrants. It also referred to the fact that the Scandinavian country last year received the EU's highest per-capita rate of asylum seekers  163,000 people.

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8 p.m.

Police in Hungary and Slovakia say they have broken up a network of 19 human smugglers who were taking migrants from Greece through Serbia to Hungary and then onto western Europe.

Police said Thursday the suspected smugglers  including Slovaks, Afghans and Hungarians  charged people 400-600 euros ($445-$670) on the last leg from Hungary to Germany. They transported 95 migrants in 17 separate cases between May 2014 and February 2015. Police said 13 of the 19 suspected smugglers have been named so far in criminal cases.

Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, says "criminal groups appear increasingly at the EU's external borders along the main migration channels and around refugee camps to offer their services."

Over 13,000 migrants have been detained in Hungary this year, most for breaching the razor-wire fences built by Hungary on its borders with Serbia and Croatia.

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1:55 p.m.

Hungarian police say they have detained five Ukrainians suspected of human trafficking for transporting 25 migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan toward Austria.

The migrants were in one of two vans with Lithuanian license plates stopped by police early Thursday on a road near the western city of Szombathely, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Austrian border.

In another case, police said a 49-year-old Austrian man was taken into custody near the northern city of Tata after he was stopped with six Syrians, including two minors, in his car. The Syrians had registered with Hungarian authorities and requested asylum but did not have the documents needed to leave the country.

Hungary registered over 17,500 asylum requests this year by mid-May, but most of the asylum-seekers leave for western Europe before their cases are decided.

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12:38 a.m.

Police in eastern Germany say they're looking for three men from a suspected vigilante group after a video surfaced of them pulling an Iraqi migrant out of a supermarket.

Goerlitz police told the dpa news agency Thursday the 21-year-old Iraqi was arguing with supermarket employees over a defective phone card on May 21 in Arnsdorf when three men in black shirts stormed in, grabbed him, took him outside and zip-tied him to a tree.

The men fled when police arrived.

Bild newspaper on Thursday posted a video of the incident, which it said has been making the rounds on far-right websites.

Police are looking for witnesses who can identify the men. They're also investigating the migrant, who supermarket workers said threatened them with a bottle.

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11:15 a.m.

Authorities in Greece say three migrants have been hospitalized with injuries after violence broke out overnight at a detention camp on the island of Lesbos.

The clashes between migrant groups occurred early Thursday and also resulted in a fire that gutted a converted freight container used as trailer home, police said.

It was the latest violence at the Moria camp on the Greek island, where more than 2,500 are held in detention following a March agreement between the European Union and Turkey to deport migrants and refugees.

Deportations have been held up by delays in the asylum screening process  triggering frequent unrest at camps on Lesbos and the nearby island of Chios.

Migrant and refugee tents are set up in a new makeshift camp along the cliffs at the port of Dieppe, northern France, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A group of around 150 Albanian's have set up camp near the English channel hoping to cross to the UK. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Migrant and refugee tents are set up in a new makeshift camp along the cliffs at the port of Dieppe, northern France, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A group of around 150 Albanian's have set up camp near the English channel hoping to cross to the UK. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Migrants' tents are set up in a new makeshift camp along the storm-hit cliffs near the port of Dieppe, northern France, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A group of around 150 Albanian migrants set up camp near the English channel hoping to cross to the UK. The port of Dieppe seen in the background. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

Migrants' tents and refugees are set up in a new makeshift camp along the storm-hit cliffs near the port of Dieppe, northern France, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A group of around 150 Albanian migrants set up camp near the English channel hoping to cross to the UK. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)

A man walks by at least 30 unnamed graves of migrants at the Catania's graveyard, in Catania, Italy, Thursday, June 2, 2016. The International Organization for Migration says survivors' accounts now indicate the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Libya to Italy has claimed over 1,030 lives in the last week, mostly due to overcrowded smuggling boats sinking. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

A man cleans his family sepulchral vault near by at least 30 unnamed graves of migrants at the Catania's graveyard, in Catania, Italy, Thursday, June 2, 2016. The International Organization for Migration says survivors' accounts now indicate the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Libya to Italy has claimed over 1,030 lives in the last week, mostly due to overcrowded smuggling boats sinking. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)

Migrants' tents are set up in a new makeshift camp along the storm-hit cliffs near the port of Dieppe, northern France, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A group of around 150 Albanian migrants set up camp near the English channel hoping to cross to the UK. The port of Dieppe seen in the background. (AP Photo/Michel Spingler)
Tajikistan court jails 2 opposition leaders for life

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP)  A court in Tajikistan on Thursday sentenced two leaders of the Central Asian nation's banned Islamic opposition party to life imprisonment over an alleged attempted coup.

In addition to Mahmadali Hayit and Saidumar Khusaini, the Supreme Court sentenced another 12 top members of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan, or IRPT, to prison terms of between two and 28 years at the end of a closed-doors trial that has been condemned by rights activists and the international community.

Before it was banned last year, the party represented the only popular political group in the former Soviet nation opposed to President Emomali Rakhmon's rule.

New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch has cited relatives of the IRPT leaders on trial as saying the politicians were subjected to physical abuse while in prison. A lawyer who agreed to act for the IRPT after authorities first filed the case against them in September was himself subsequently arrested on fraud charges that rights groups have described as trumped-up.

A constitutional referendum held last month opened the way for Rakhmon to serve indefinitely as president of the impoverished and corruption-ridden country. The 63-year old former collective farm boss has ruled Tajikistan since 1992.
EU, US agree to protect data shared by law enforcers

AMSTERDAM (AP)  The European Union and United States signed a deal Thursday aimed at protecting personal data shared by law enforcement authorities in the EU and U.S. as they tackle major crime.

Dutch Justice Minister Ard van der Steur said the agreement he signed Thursday along with U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and European Commissioner Vera Jourova "will improve cooperation between U.S. and European law enforcement authorities when combating serious crime and terrorism."

U.S. President Barack Obama helped clear the way for the deal by signing in February a law that gives EU citizens the same rights to redress as U.S. citizens in privacy breach cases.

The signing ceremony Thursday came during a meeting of EU and U.S. justice and home affairs ministers that focused on ways to tackle the migration crisis and fight organized crime and violent extremism.
Team testing new scanner on Egypt's Great Pyramid

CAIRO (AP)  What mysteries might still be hidden under Egypt's pyramids? A team accompanied by Egypt's former antiquities minister and famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass are testing a new scanner on the Great Pyramid of Giza on Thursday, hoping that modern technology could help unlock ancient secrets buried deep beneath the stone.

The scanner, which uses subatomic particles known as muons to examine the 4,500 year-old burial structure, was first set up at the site last year and will complete its data collection this month.

"It's running right now, and if it manages to detect one of the three chambers we already know exist inside, then we will continue the scans," Hawass said. He has been appointed by the Antiquities Ministry to head the team that will review the scan results.

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former head of antiquities, speaks in front of the Great pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Late last year, thermal scanning identified a major anomaly in the pyramid  three adjacent stones at its base which registered higher temperatures than others.

Hawass has in the past downplayed the usefulness of scans on ancient sites, saying that they have never found anything important. He has clashed publicly with British Egyptologist Nicolas Reeves, whose theory that secret burial chambers could be hidden behind the walls of King Tutankhamun's tomb was both prompted and reinforced by scanning.

For more than a decade Hawass was a celebrity starring in TV documentaries, eventually ruling the Antiquities Ministry like a pharaoh. He was dismissed from the post after Egypt's 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and faced corruption charges, of which he was later cleared.

But back in the field following his new appointment, Hawass seemed more reluctant to criticize scanning technologies. He said they could be useful if directed by the right hands  such as his own.

"You need Egyptologists to oversee all this, otherwise mistakes can be made," he said. "I hope these scans will help us obtain accurate information," he said, adding that he believed another burial chamber remains undiscovered inside.

Debate over possible new discoveries in Egyptology echo far outside the country, most recently over a contested theory that King Tutankhamun's tomb contains additional antechambers.

Last month, researchers led by Daniela Comelli of the Polytechnic University of Milan published a paper on a rare iron dagger found inside the boy king's sarcophagus. Using a new form of portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, the team said that the dagger, dating to the Bronze Age, was most likely made using iron from a meteorite.

Dutch tourists visit the inside of the Great Pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Tourists pose for pictures at the entrance of the Great Pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former head of antiquities, speaks in front of the Great pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

French expert Sebastien Procureur, right, talks to Egyptian Antiquities Minister, Khaled El-Anani, fourth right, and Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former head of antiquities, second right, in front of a muon detector machine at a tent in front of the Great pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former head of antiquities, speaks in front of the Great Pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egyptian Antiquities Minister, Khaled El-Anani, left, and Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former head of antiquities, second left, listen to French expert Sebastien Procureur in front of a muon detector machine at a tent in front of the Great pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

A Japanese tourist visits the inside of the Great Pyramid, built by Cheops, known locally as Khufu in Giza, Egypt, Thursday, June 2, 2016. A scientific team scanning the Great Pyramid aimed at discovering the famed pharaonic monument's secrets including possible hidden burial chambers. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Stay? Go? UK's brainy Hay Festival abuzz with Brexit anxiety

HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (AP)  Three weeks before they vote on whether to quit the European Union, many Britons feel lost.

Buffeted by alarming and contradictory claims about the disastrous consequences of their decision, some are seeking guidance in a muddy field in Wales.

One question  should we stay or should we go?  is dominating this year's Hay Festival , an 11-day celebration of books and ideas plunked down outside Hay-on-Wye , a tiny town with a handful of streets and two dozen second-hand bookshops. Founded in 1988, Britain's leading literary festival is a passionate (but polite) intellectual carnival, dubbed the "Woodstock of the mind" by former President Bill Clinton.

People at the Hay festival enjoy the weather as they attend the Hay Festival in Hay on Wye Wales . With three weeks before they vote on whether to quit the European Union one question _ should we stay or should we go _ is dominating this year's Hay Festival, an 11-day celebration of books and ideas plunked down amid rolling green farmland beside the River Wye. (AP Photo/Jill Lawless)

It draws prize-winning authors, world leaders, Nobel laureates and 100,000 booklovers to a sylvan site 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of London, and serves as a barometer of what's on the minds of a big, middle-class chunk of British society.

This year, festival-goers have lined up to ask novelists, historians, scientists, politicians, poets and policy-makers from around the world: What should we do on June 23, referendum day?

Former American spymaster Michael Hayden, ex-director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, was emphatic.

"I think British security is better served by being in," he told an audience at the festival, which runs until Sunday. And "speaking as an American ... American interests are better served by Britain being in."

Roberto Saviano, an Italian journalist who exposed the inner workings of the mafia in his book "Gomorrah," argued that leaving the 28-nation EU would be a boon for organized crime. He said Britain was already "the most corrupt place on Earth" because of criminal funds sloshing through its offshore tax havens and London's financial district.

Saviano said leaving the EU would weaken the battle against financial corruption, allowing Mexican drug cartels and the Russia Mafia "to gain even more power."

Steve Hilton, a former policy adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron, provided a counterblast of pro-"leave" sentiment. Hilton, who advocates a "people-power revolution" against governing elites, wants Britain to leave an EU that he calls a body of "constraint and control and centralization."

"Of course it's true that there are risks if we leave," he said. "But what I hate about this debate is when people argue that there are no risks if we stay."

For some festival-goers, anxiety about the referendum has overcome a strong British aversion to being told what to do by foreigners. When President Barack Obama intervened last month to urge Britons to stay in the bloc, voters on both sides of the debate expressed irritation at his meddling. Now, though, many are actively seeking outside counsel.

Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King was not surprised to find voters looking for enlightenment. He spoke for many when he said he has been "deeply disappointed, to put it mildly, at the tone of this whole referendum."

"Both sides have been engaged in a public-relations campaign which insults the intelligence of voters by making wildly exaggerated claims," King said.

The comment drew loud applause, as the referendum campaign has grown increasingly histrionic. Cameron has said that leaving the EU would plunge Britain into recession, embolden an assertive Russia and increase the danger of a world war. Former London Mayor Boris Johnson, a leader of the "out" campaign, compared the centralizing aims of the EU to those of Adolf Hitler.

King declined to say whether he favored remaining or leaving, pointing out that either view would make life harder for the current central bank chief, Mark Carney, who has already been accused of bias for saying a U.K. exit, or Brexit, would cause economic instability.

The festival draws a liberal, cosmopolitan crowd, and snap audience surveys at several events showed a large majority backing "remain."

"I want to be part of Europe," said Daphne Cotton, a social researcher from London. "I don't want to be part of Little England, going its own way."

A short walk away, lawyer Neil Barbour proudly carried a "no to the EU" bag through the narrow streets below Hay's ruined medieval castle.

Barbour conceded that the bag had drawn "a few looks." But he hoped that his long-held dream of Brexit was about to come true.

"We are governed by a foreign jurisdiction," he said. "It's been a passion of mine for years, to get independence back for our country  to get control back."

Follow Jill Lawless on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Former adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron, Steve Hilton speaks at the Hay Festival in Hay on Wye, Wales Saturday May 28, 2016 . With three weeks before they vote on whether to quit the European Union one question _ should we stay or should we go _ is dominating this year's Hay Festival, an 11-day celebration of books and ideas plunked down amid rolling green farmland beside the River Wye. (James Crook/Hay Festival via AP) NO ARCHIVE ONE TIME USE ONLY
What's in a name? European Court rules against noble title

BERLIN (AP)  A German man who added nobility titles to his name after obtaining dual citizenship in Britain will have to settle with being plain-old Nabiel Peter Bogendorff von Wolffersdorff in his native land following a ruling from the European Court of Justice.

The Luxembourg-based court said Thursday that EU member states aren't always obliged to recognize name changes of a citizen who has dual citizenship with another in the bloc that contain "tokens of nobility" not accepted by that state.

Germany abolished titles of nobility in 1919, but the man added both "Graf" and "Freiherr"  Count and Baron  to his last name when living in Britain more than a decade ago, becoming Peter Mark Emanuel Graf von Wolffersdorff Freiherr von Bogendorff.
Man accused of shooting at 2 cops in Puerto Rico found in NY

NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP)  Federal authorities say a man who shot at two police officers in Puerto Rico has been taken into custody in New York's Hudson Valley.

The Times Herald-Record of Middletown reports (http://bit.ly/1sOsBL6 ) a warrant had been issued charging Roger Gonzalez-Martinez with attempted murder after police say he shot at officers in 2014.

U.S. Marshals in Puerto Rico learned that Gonzalez-Martinez had been staying in Newburgh, 60 miles north of New York City. Authorities found him at a home in the Orange County city on Tuesday.

He was taken into custody without incident and arraigned in Middletown before being sent to the county jail. He's being held without bail while awaiting extradition to Puerto Rico.

It wasn't immediately known if Gonzalez-Martinez has an attorney.

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Yemen's Shiite rebels retake ground from government forces

SANAA, Yemen (AP)  The country's Shiite rebels have retaken ground from forces loyal to the internationally recognized government in two central provinces, with at least 85 fighters killed on both sides over the past three days, Yemeni officials said Thursday.

The fighting has been taking place in Marib and Shabwa provinces, the officials said, adding that in Shabwa's region of Bihan, along with the 85 killed, about 100 fighters have been wounded on both sides.

Security officials loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi said pro-government forces retreated due to lack of air support from the Saudi-led coalition. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator, Yemen, speaks during a press conference about the Humanitarian situation in Yemen, at the European headquarters of the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday, June 2, 2016. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

Yemen's war pits rebels known as Houthis and their allies against Hadi's forces, backed by the Saudi-led coalition.

Also Thursday, airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition hit a gathering of the Houthis in the capital, Sanaa, killing five, security officials said.

Meanwhile, a fuel ship sent by the United Arab Emirates arrived Thursday in Yemen's southern port city of Aden, local officials said, where residents have been protesting power shortages. Government forces and allied militiamen retook the city from the Houthis several months ago.
News Guide: German vote recognizing Armenian genocide

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Germany's Parliament voted Thursday to label the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.

The move threatens to increase tensions with Turkey at a sensitive time when Ankara is playing a key role in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe.

Here are key things to know about the issue:

Guests hold posters of the 'recognition now' organization reading "RecognitionNow says Thank you" during a meeting of the German Federal Parliament, Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 2, 2016. The German Parliament is to vote Thursday on whether to label the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

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OTTOMAN-ERA SLAUGHTER

Ottoman Turks forced Armenians out of their homes in eastern Turkey amid fears they would cooperate with the enemy army of Czarist Russia around the time of World War I.

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed during the forced expulsion  an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Large populations of Armenians were dispersed worldwide and are pushing for international recognition of the killings as genocide.

The start of the mass killings on April 24, 1915  when about 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders were rounded up and subsequently deported or killed  is commemorated every year in Armenia and the Armenian diaspora worldwide.

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TURKEY'S POSITION

Turkey acknowledges that a large number of Armenians were killed as the Ottoman Empire collapsed, but strongly denies that the deaths constituted genocide, insisting that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. It also says that the death toll has been inflated and that many Turks were also victims. The event is a dark chapter rarely discussed publicly or taught in schools.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim this week described the events as "ordinary" that could have taken place "in any community, in any country" under conditions of war.

Some in Turkey fear that Armenians will use the genocide issue to press for compensation  either money or lost land.

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GERMAN VOTE

The German vote on describing the events as genocide is symbolically important even though it has no legal effect.

The resolution passed with support from all the parties in Parliament. It was put forward by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative bloc, their partners in the government, the Social Democrats, and the opposition Greens.

The motion acknowledges that Germany, as an ally of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, bore some responsibility for the massacres.

It urges the German government to "encourage" Turkey to "deal openly with the expulsions and massacres" in order to lay the foundation for reconciliation with Armenians.

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POTENTIAL FALLOUT

Turkey warned that relations with NATO ally Germany  home to some 3 million ethnic Turks  would be harmed if Parliament voted to describe the killings as genocide.

However, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey wouldn't nix a key deal with the European Union on curbing the flow of migrants to Europe over the issue.

In the past, Turkey has withdrawn ambassadors from countries soon after their parliaments or governments recognized genocide, but returned them quietly to their posts a few months later.

The German recognition could also stiffen Armenia's stance in the conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The mountainous region of Azerbaijan is under the control of the Armenian military and local ethnic Armenian forces. Most of the 150,000 residents are ethnic Armenians.

The German vote comes a few weeks before Pope Francis is due to visit Armenia and the genocide memorial.

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OTHER COUNTRIES

Dozens of countries have recognized the mass killings as genocide, including nearly half of the member states of the European Union. Turkey temporarily withdrew its ambassadors to the Vatican and Vienna last year after Austria and Pope Francis labeled the slaughter of Armenians genocide.

To the great disappointment of Armenians, U.S. President Barack Obama has stopped short of calling the deaths genocide. Washington has been keen not to offend Turkey at a time when it is playing a crucial role in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Armenian-American leaders have urged Obama each year to make good on a pledge he made as a candidate in 2008, when he said the U.S. government had a responsibility to recognize the killings as genocide and vowed to do so if elected.
Afghan official: Explosion at market kills 2, wounds 16

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  An explosion at a market place in Afghanistan's western Laghman province has killed two civilians and wounded 16, an official said on Thursday.

The blast took place in the Alisheng district in the late morning, when the market was packed with shoppers, according to Sarhadi Zwak, spokesman for the provincial governor.

In northern Sari Pul province, the governor's spokesman Zabiullah Amani said that 17 people had been kidnapped by insurgents on Wednesday. Negotiations were underway for their release, he said.

The abductees were all either Shiite Muslims or members of the Hazara minority, most of whom are Shiite, Amani said.

The United Nation's assistance mission in Afghanistan said that 25 people had been abducted from two vehicles in the Sari Pul incident.

Four women and an elderly man had been released but the fate of the 20 others remains unknown, it said in a statement Thursday.

Several mass abductions have taken place in the past year, usually claimed by militants other than the Taliban, some of whom claim links to the Islamic State group.

The latest kidnapping follows a string of Taliban attacks on buses in Kunduz province this week, in which at least 35 people were abducted, and at least nine were killed.

UNAMA expressed concern at "the spate of abductions, hostage-taking and summary executions carried out in recent days against passengers travelling in civilian vehicles."

Its head in Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom, said: "Taking civilians hostage is indefensible. I call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians detained and a halt to this horrible practice."

Adding to the violence, two Afghan men and a woman working for an international aid organization were shot dead in the Shekh Ali district of the northwestern Parwan province on Wednesday, according to the provincial police chief, Gen. Mohammad Aaman Mammorzai.

He blamed the Taliban and said that three people had been arrested. It was not immediately clear which organization the three worked for.

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Dirty license plate leads to $1,590 fine for motorist

GRANTVILLE, Ga. (AP)  A dirty license plate has led to a $1,590 fine for a Georgia motorist.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (on-ajc.com/19h2mCB) a Grantville police officer pulled Linda Ford over last fall, while she was on her way to a church yard sale to raise money for homeless women. The newspaper reports that soot blown from the car's exhaust made it difficult to read her license plate. The officer also discovered she hadn't attached a plate decal showing her registration was current.

The newspaper reports Ford was ordered to pay $720  many times what other neighboring communities levy when a decal isn't affixed to a car tag. It said that when she couldn't pay, a judge later raised the fine to $1,590.

Grantville is about 45 miles southwest of Atlanta.

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Dutch investigators raid companies linked to global fraud

AMSTERDAM (AP)  Dutch prosecutors raided a string of locations and seized cash and hundreds of thousands of fraudulent letters in an investigation into worldwide mail scams that U.S. law enforcement authorities said Thursday defrauded "elderly and vulnerable" Americans out of tens of millions of dollars.

The scams involved sending letters to people around the world, including thousands of Americans, telling them they had won or could win lottery or other prizes and could get their winnings by sending a processing fee or by buying goods or services.

"No one should ever be told they must pay a fee, or make a worthless purchase, to collect a prize," said Inspector in Charge Regina L. Faulkerson of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Criminal Investigation Group. "When that happens, it's fraud - plain and simple  and Postal Inspectors work to keep those falsehoods out of the U.S. mail."

Video released by the Dutch prosecutors following Wednesday's raids at 10 locations throughout the country linked to six companies and their directors showed law enforcement officials counting stacks of cash from around the world.

Ringleaders of the fraud are suspected of mailing millions of letters to people in countries including the U.S., Britain, France and Japan, Dutch fiscal prosecutors said in a statement.

Dutch authorities made no immediate arrests, but their investigations are ongoing. Prosecutors say the fraud masterminds likely live outside the Netherlands and that the businesses raided are suspected of facilitating the fraud by receiving and processing the money sent by victims.

The Dutch investigation started late last year when a large quantity of letters was intercepted at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

The U.S. Justice Department announced that a civil complaint has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against a 54-year-old Dutchman, Erik Dekker, and two companies he runs, that were among the locations raided by the Dutch on Wednesday.

According to details of the American complaint, Dekker's companies received and processed payments from the fraud schemes.

Dekker's whereabouts weren't known and he couldn't immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

"As alleged in the complaint, defendants act as the clearinghouses for multiple international mail fraud schemes, taking money from thousands of elderly and vulnerable victims not only in this district but also throughout the United States," U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement.

"Together with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and our international partner, the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Division of the Netherlands, we will track down, and stop, the schemes wherever they lead."
Anti-Israel boycott movement suffers a slew of cyberattacks

JERUSALEM (AP)  The international movement calling for a boycott against Israel on Thursday said its website was repeatedly attacked earlier this year and raised suspicions that Israel was behind the attacks.

The BDS movement released a report Thursday showing that its main website suffered six attacks in February and March. The denial of service attacks, which work by flooding a target website with bogus traffic, knocked out the BDS website for several hours at a time.

The report, compiled by nonprofit online security service eQualit.ie, said the attacks had a level of "sophistication and commitment" it normally does not see. It also noted that an unidentified Israeli human rights group had been attacked at the same time, indicating there was a "common adversary."

Assigning responsibility for cyberattacks is notoriously difficult and the report didn't speculate on who might be behind the rogue traffic.

In a statement, the BDS movement said the "advanced technology used in the attacks and the size of the botnets involved may show that Israel was directly involved" but it offered no hard evidence.

Israeli cybersecurity expert Gilad Yoshi said such attacks do not cause serious damage, adding it was unlikely a government was behind them.

"These are not high-level attacks," said Yoshi, an expert at the electronic defense training company CyberGym.

BDS calls for boycotts, sanctions and divestment from Israel in what it calls a nonviolent struggle against occupation. Israel says BDS' goal is to destroy the country, and it has identified the movement as a serious threat.

The Israeli government has earmarked funds for Israeli tech companies for digital initiatives aimed at gathering intelligence on activist groups and countering their efforts.

Initiatives are largely being kept covert. Participants at one recent invite-only forum, held on the sidelines of a cyber technology conference, repeatedly stood up to remind people that journalists were in the room.

Israel's Ministry for Strategic Affairs, which is spearheading the government's battle against BDS, was reviewing Thursday's report and had no immediate comment.

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UK's Cameron says leaving EU would be 'economic self-harm'

LONDON (AP)  Leaving the European Union would be an act of "economic self-harm," British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday during a televised grilling that saw him challenged on the emotive topic of immigration and accused of scaremongering about the impact of quitting the 28-nation bloc.

Three weeks before British voters decide whether to stay in the EU, Cameron was pressed on the repercussions for immigration, security and the economy as he fielded questions from a journalist and audience members during a lively Sky News program.

Cameron's Conservative government says it aims to reduce net annual migration to less than 100,000  but last year it was more than 330,000, roughly half of it from other EU nations.

Arenaflowers.com representatives Asta Foufas, left, and Lizzie Tree pose for photographs by displaying their "Stay or Leaf" EU referendum themed "Brexit Bouquet", left, and "Stronger In Arrangement" in west London, Thursday, June 2, 2016. British voters will decide in a June 23 referendum whether or not to deal a historic hammer blow to European integration by putting their island nation on an independent path outside the European Union. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

He insisted that Britain can use curbs to welfare benefits and other measures to control migrant numbers while remaining in the bloc, even though citizens of all EU nations have the right to live and work in other member states.

"There are good ways of controlling migration and there are bad ways," Cameron said.

"It would be madness to try to do that by trashing our economy and pulling out of the single market."

The referendum campaign is growing increasingly heated as widely varying polls suggest an unpredictable result. The "leave" side is stressing the pressure that EU immigrants have put on British jobs and public services, while "remain" campaigners seek to keep the focus on the economic uncertainty that U.K. exit  known as "Brexit"  would wreak.

Many voters have expressed frustration at all the claims and counterclaims, and Thursday's studio audience  selected to include pro-and anti-EU voters, as well as undecideds  was sometimes vocally skeptical of Cameron. One young woman accused the prime minister of "waffling" in response to her question about whether Turkey would join the bloc.

Cameron said leaving the EU's single market of 500 million people  with which Britain does almost half its trade  would hurt the British economy, and negotiating new trade deals could take a decade.

He said tumbling out of the single market "would be an act of economic self-harm," and rebuffed claims that he was scaremongering.

"I am genuinely worried about what would happen if we leave," he said.

Cameron also denied using hyperbole when he claimed last month that a Brexit would increase the risk of European war.

"On our continent in the last century, twice we had an enormous bloodbath between our nations," he said. "Can we be so confident that we have solved all of Europe's problems and all of Europe's tensions?"

The Vote Leave campaign said the audience's skepticism "showed the public doesn't trust Cameron."

"All he had was a single bogus argument  that we have to be in the EU to trade with Europe, which is simply untrue," chief executive Matthew Elliott said.

Other members of the EU are also weighing in as referendum day looms, with a mix of entreaties to stay and warnings of the risk of a Brexit.

Germpotan Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that Britain would get better results from the EU "when you sit at the bargaining table," rather than if it were lobbying from outside.

Cameron conceded that he often found dealings with the EU frustrating.

"Sometimes this organization drives me crazy," he said. "But do I sit there thinking Britain would be better off if we left? Are we quitters? ... Absolutely not."
US adopts near total ban on African elephant ivory sales

WASHINGTON (AP)  The federal government will enact a near total ban on the domestic sale of African elephant ivory under federal regulations issued Thursday.

It's been illegal for decades to import African elephant ivory for commercial use and to export raw ivory. The final rule largely focuses on sales inside the U.S. It restricts the sale of elephant ivory across state lines.

Fish and Wildlife Service officials said that once illegal ivory enters the market, it becomes nearly indistinguishable from the legal ivory used in products such as knife handles, billiard cues and furniture, so it was necessary to put more restrictions in place. The rule also prohibits the export of ivory products, with exceptions for antiques.

The administration is encouraging other nations to follow suit, and the final rule was announced just days before Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew visit China. Demand for ivory there has helped fuel the illegal trade in African elephant ivory.

The U.S. delegation can now say Obama has fulfilled his pledge to nearly ban domestic ivory sales and can challenge Chinese President Xi Jinping to do the same, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.

"We still have much to do to save this species, but today is a good day for the African elephant," Ashe said.

The final regulation varies little from the proposed rule Obama announced last summer when visiting Kenya. That proposal generated more than 1.3 million responses from the public, said Ashe, second only to a proposal to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list.

The rule allows for some exceptions to the ban on interstate sales, namely musical instruments, furniture pieces and firearms that contain less than 200 grams of ivory and so long as the ivory makes up less than half the value and volume of the product. The rule also allows exceptions for antiques more than 100 years old.

The final rule also continues to allow for the import of sport-hunted African elephant trophies, but limits the number to two per hunter annually.

Ashe said that hunting can bring an economic value to elephants. They can be difficult to live with, but if that animal can have value, local people will seek to sustain the population rather than seek its removal.

The population of African elephants in the wild is estimated at 470,000.

The National Rifle Association has opposed the rule, saying that while it supports efforts to stop poaching and the illegal trade of ivory, the rule would do nothing to protect elephants and instead destroys the value of property held by countless gun owners and others.

Various environmental and animal rights groups are largely supportive of the new rule.
Pair, son are shot dead in burning home; no suspects sought

FAIR LAWN, N.J. (AP)  A couple and their adult son were found fatally shot in their burning home, but police weren't looking for any suspects, authorities said Thursday.

Acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal said the fire was intentionally set, and there are no suspects to pursue.

"The matter is limited to a domestic event," Grewal said.

Investigators are seen through a window Thursday, June 2, 2016, where police say multiple people were found dead inside the home that had been ablaze, in Fair Lawn, N.J. According to Sgt. Brian Metzler, a neighbor reported the home was on fire late Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Police received a 911 call about the house fire in Fair Lawn late Wednesday, Grewal said.

Authorities arrived and found a firearm and the bodies of 76-year-old Richard Tempe, his 73-year-old wife, Barbara, and their 53-year-old son, Richard Jr., inside the home.

Authorities were awaiting autopsy results.

Pam Coles, who grew up next door to the Tempes, told The Record newspaper that they were good people. She said they had an almost open-door policy. If her family ever needed anything, they would knock on the Tempes' door, and the Tempes would help, Coles said.

"They were a wonderful family," she said. "I'm so surprised."

Valerie Cook, who lived across the street from the Tempes for decades, said they were the first to welcome them to the area after a 1978 blizzard. They had just moved to the neighborhood a month before.

She told the newspaper the Tempes were friendly and active in the neighborhood.

"I have to tell you I am very, very upset," she said. "There was no indication that something was amiss."

A cruiser is parked outside of a home where police say multiple people were found dead inside the home that had been ablaze, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Fair Lawn, N.J. According to Sgt. Brian Metzler, a neighbor reported the home was on fire late Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

A person, bottom, tries to get a view of a home as investigators are seen through a window where police say multiple people were found dead inside the home that had been ablaze, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Fair Lawn, N.J. According to Sgt. Brian Metzler, a neighbor reported the home was on fire late Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Officials stand outside of a home where police say multiple people were found dead inside the home that had been ablaze, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Fair Lawn, N.J. According to Sgt. Brian Metzler, a neighbor reported the home was on fire late Wednesday night. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
UK Defense Secretary pledges support on trip to Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Britain's secretary of state for defense has pledged continued support to Afghanistan during a surprise visit to the country's capital, Kabul.

Michael Fallon said during a one-day visit Thursday that security in Afghanistan is a global issue and Britain's presence will help defeat terrorism.

Fallon met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

Britain has 352 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO Resolute Support mission, which has a mandate to train and advise Afghan forces.

At the height of the war, Britain played a significant role in the southern province of Helmand, losing more than 450 troops.

Most British troops pulled out when the international combat mission drew down in 2014.
Cooking and crime are on the menu with 'Feed the Beast'

NEW YORK (AP)  After "Friends" ended in 2004, David Schwimmer moved from Los Angeles, where his hit sitcom was filmed, to re-settle in New York.

In all the years since, he has never passed the West Village apartment building known to the world (or, at least, to a steady stream of photo-snapping "Friends" fans) for its role as the exterior location shot of the title characters' home.

Schwimmer didn't even make a pilgrimage from a few blocks away at the Cherry Lane Theater where in 2008 he was directing a play, one of many varied projects he has pursued, onstage and on film, during the peripatetic stretch he calls his "professional experimentation."

In this image released by AMC, Jim Sturgess portrays Dion Patras in the new series, "Feed the Beast," premiering Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. (Frank Ockenfels/AMC via AP)

Now he's back as a regular on series television, starring in AMC's "Feed the Beast" as the woeful widowed father who teams up with a trouble-courting chum to open a fine restaurant on a mean street of the Bronx while mobsters and corrupt officials nip at their heels. This piquant drama debuts Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT before moving to Tuesdays.

"Now that my daughter's going to school as a kindergartner, the timing was palatable for me to sign up for a series," explains Schwimmer, who says that his wife and child  not working  have become his top priority.

He comes to "Feed the Beast" on the heels of playing Robert Kardashian in FX network's limited series "The People vs. O.J. Simpson" where, he reports, he had a great time. "Then I got the offer to play Tommy Moran. I loved the character, and I had a great vibe with (series creator) Clyde Phillips. So I said, 'Let's try it.'"

Schwimmer's co-star is Jim Sturgess, the London-born actor whose wildly diverse films include "The Way Back," ''Fifty Dead Men Walking," ''Across the Universe" and "The Best Offer."

As Tommy's lifelong friend, Dion Patras is a petty criminal and druggie who nonetheless knows his way around a kitchen: We meet him shortly before release from jail cooking up a gourmet meal for his prison guards.

Once on the outside, he seeks out Tommy, a world-class sommelier (wine steward) who, grief-stricken since his wife's recent death, now is forlornly selling wine while oversampling his stock.

Can these hapless gastronomes transform a ramshackle industrial space into the restaurant of their dreams?

"The first season's journey for Tommy is from death to life," says Schwimmer, who, at 49, looks brawny in jeans, T-shirt and running shoes.

As the restaurant takes form, it reflects Tommy's return to the living. But the journey won't be smooth. One big problem: both the mob and the cops, as well as drugs, all have their hooks into Dion, who doesn't always act in the best interests of Tommy, or anyone but himself, as he scrambles to stay above water.

"He's a bit of a train wreck and he makes bad decisions  and long may that continue," laughs Sturgess, animated and affable at 38, though he could pass for half that age without the scruffy beard his character sports. "Playing him, you have to find moments of vulnerability to make sure the audience stays on his side. But he keeps doing more and more terrible things."

Besides the rough and tumble of "Feed the Beast," an important counterpoint is the culinary focus.

"That's the poetry," says Schwimmer. "Even though our lives are so dreary and dark, the food and wine draws on our knowledge and passion, and it's elevated to art  even if it's fleeting."

Viewers who can barely tell red wine from white will savor seeing Tommy in action, a bloodhound of an oenophile who can pinpoint the year and region of a wine with just a sniff and a swirl.

"I'm fascinated by how someone becomes a 'somm,'" says Schwimmer, who, before working with the show's consulting sommelier, had imagined he had a bit of wine savior-faire. "Then I discovered I actually know next to nothing."

The food-and-wine pairings introduced by Tommy on the show are actually conceived by its resident expert, and, says Schwimmer, "I want viewers who know wine really well to think, 'Wow! That's a really fascinating choice to go with that dish.'"

Dion is no less adept in his own specialty than Tommy, which makes Sturgess laugh when asked about his real-life experience slinging hash.

"I had never really cooked at all until shortly before the series came along," he confides.

He has since gotten schooled.

"But I don't need to know recipes. THAT doesn't read on camera," he notes. "I have to know how does a chef move, how does he look comfortable with his pans, how does he hold his knife realistically."

Meanwhile, Sturgess has incorporated Dion's manic drugginess into his drive as a chef.

"He's got a lot of pain he's trying to escape, and the kitchen is a perfect place," explains Sturgess. "A chef I spoke to says that, in the kitchen, everything else just disappears. You're in that moment, and life outside, it just doesn't exist. So it's perfect for a man who has a troubled past and a difficult future ahead of him."

But as "Feed the Beast" will demonstrate with both its would-be restaurateurs, a kitchen can only cook up temporary relief.

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EDITOR'S NOTE  Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier. Past stories are available at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/frazier-moore

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Online:

www.amc.com

In this image released by AMC, from left, Jim Sturgess portrays Dion Patras, Elijah Jacob portrays TJ Moran and David Schwimmer portrays Tommy Moran in the new series, "Feed the Beast," premiering Sunday at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. (Frank Ockenfels/AMC via AP)

FILE - In this May 23, 2016 file photo, Jim Sturgess, left, and David Schwimmer attend the premiere screening of AMC's new series, "Feed The Beast" in New York. The show premieres on Sunday at 10 p.m. ET. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, FIle)
Jessica Morris has been chosen to represent Jefferson Christian Academy at the 2016 session of American Legion Auxiliary Alabama Girls State, held on the campus of the University of Alabama.

For one week, she will become a citizen of an imaginary state, taking part in the political life of her community, primarily through campaigning for and electing city, county, and state offices. She will learn the operation of government by participating in party caucuses and through the election process. Well known speakers and other state, county and city officials are expected to visit and enlighten the young women on their civic responsibilities.

Jessica plans to campaign for the office of state treasurer. Miss Morris will speak with her sponsoring organization, American Legion Auxiliary Post 113, and to other organizations upon invitation, about her experiences at American Legion Auxiliary Alabama Girls State. The daughter of Jeff & Sheila Morris and the granddaughter of Wayne & Betty Morris and Mack & Sidney Prince was selected to attend the American Legion Auxiliary's Alabama Girls State because of her outstanding leadership. Sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary, Alabama Girls State is a laboratory of practical government, and a personal application of the duties, responsibilities and privileges of being an American.

In her high school and local community, Miss Morris is also involved with her church, Youth Leadership Forum of Birmingham, National Honor Society, Jefferson Christian Academy Ambassadors, school plays, and volleyball.
New riot kills 3 at Mexico prison where 49 died earlier

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP)  Three prisoners were killed and 19 wounded in disturbances at the same prison in northern Mexico where 49 died in a riot in February, officials said Thursday.

Nuevo Leon state general secretary Manuel Gonzalez said that guards responded within two minutes Wednesday night, but three prisoners were already dead in the new riot at the Topo Chico prison.

He said the motive appeared to be to eliminate an inmate leader, who was among those killed.

State prosecutor Roberto Flores raised the number of wounded to 19, from the 14 that officials originally reported. Seven of those are serious, he said.

Standing outside the prison on Wednesday night, Gonzalez said, "We have a prison with a lot of deficiencies because it is a very old prison ... The fight between prisoners is part of a very big problem." He added that no shots were fired. Guards and state police responded to the fight with tear gas around 9:30 p.m.

Some guards are under investigation, he said.

The new incident comes just days before Gov. Jaime Rodriguez Calderon is scheduled to visit the prison to talk about more medical services and training for the prisoners.

The Feb. 11 riot between two factions of the Zetas cartel led to seizure of more than 200 weapons and the arrest of some of the prison's administrators.

Mexican Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said Thursday in an interview with Radio Formula that the previous incident showed there was no administration, but rather impunity and corruption.

"We're talking about a riot. We're not talking about an attempt to escape the prison," he said.

After the February riot, authorities hauled a trove of contraband luxuries out of the prison. They found saunas, food stands, refrigerators and aquariums among other items.
The Latest: Hundreds gather to honor slain UCLA professor

LOS ANGELES (AP)  The Latest on a murder-suicide at UCLA (all times local):

9:05 p.m.

Hundreds of students have gathered at UCLA to remember a professor who was shot and killed by a former student, who then took his own life.

This undated photo shows Ashley Hasti, left, and Mainak Sarkar, who police say carried out a murder-suicide at the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 1, 2016. Sarkar had a "kill list" with multiple names that included professor Bill Klug, Hasti who was found dead in a Minneapolis suburb and another UCLA professor who was not harmed, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press. (Facebook via AP)

The crowd gathered for a vigil Thursday night in Bruin Plaza, where the base of the bear mascot statue was covered with colored notes paying tribute to William Krug.

The 39-year-old professor was shot in a campus office Wednesday by one of his former students, Mainak Sarkar, who then turned the gun on himself.

Sarkar claimed Klug had stolen his computer code. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck says Sarkar was mentally unstable and the theft was all in his mind.

Authorities say days before the shooting, Sarkar also shot and killed his estranged wife in Minnesota.

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7:45 p.m.

The grandmother of the slain wife of the UCLA gunman says the two of them "just didn't get along."

Jean Johnson, grandmother of Ashley Hasti, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that her granddaughter and Mainak Sarkar split about a year after they married in 2011, and she moved back to her hometown of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

Johnson said the two didn't get a divorce because Hasti couldn't afford one.

Johnson says Hasti was in medical school at the University of Minnesota and expected to graduate in spring.

She says Sarkar was the only enemy her granddaughter had.

Authorities say Sarkar shot and killed a professor at UCLA on Wednesday and later found a "kill list" he had made.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation tells The Associated Press Hasti was on the list.

The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Reporting by AP writer Amanda Lee Myers

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7:45 p.m.

The wife of a UCLA professor gunned down in his campus office says she'll miss him every day for the rest of her life.

Mary Elise Klug released the statement Thursday via UCLA a day after her husband, engineering professor William Klug, was shot and killed.

Klug says she is grateful for the outpouring of support from UCLA and elsewhere for what she calls an indescribable loss.

She says Klug was so much more than her soul mate and knowing so many others share her sorrow has provided comfort.

She asks that her family's privacy be respected so they can mourn.

A campus vigil for Klug will be held later Thursday night.

Police say Mainak Sarkar shot William Klug on Wednesday before fatally shooting himself.

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5:40 p.m.

A law enforcement official says the Minnesota woman on the UCLA gunman's "kill list" was Ashley Hasti, and documents show they were married.

Los Angeles police said the list was found in gunman Mainak Sarkar's Minnesota home and included two UCLA professors and a woman.

Following Wednesday's UCLA shooting that left one of the professors and Sarkar dead, police went to the woman's home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, and found her dead.

Police would not disclose the woman's name.

However, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said the name on the kill list was Hasti, and a neighbor told The Associated Press that Hasti lived in the home with her father.

The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the case and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The neighbor, Gordy Aune Jr., is the neighborhood watch commander and said he sometimes spoke with the Hastis on his walks. He described them as quiet.

Records in Hennepin County, Minnesota, show Hasti married Sarkar in 2011. It's not clear if they still were married.

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Reporting by AP writer Amanda Lee Myers

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1 p.m.

The man who carried out the UCLA murder-suicide wrote a dissertation in which he thanked the professor he fatally shot.

The 2013 dissertation by Mainak Sarkar includes two lines about professor William Klug. It says: "I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. William Klug, for all his help and support. Thank you for being my mentor."

The document thanks several other professors and three friends, with Sarkar saying, "I will always remember all the good time we had together."

The dissertation, approved by Klug and four colleagues, is dedicated to Sarkar's dead mother, Ira Sarkar. It's titled, "Coupled Cardiac Electrophysiology and Contraction using Finite Element."

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday that Sarkar drove from his home in Saint Paul, Minnesota to kill Klug and another professor named in a "kill list" found in Sarkar's home. Sarkar killed himself after killing Klug. The other professor named is safe.

A woman on the "kill list" was found dead in her home outside Saint Paul, and authorities say it appears she was killed before the UCLA shooting.

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11:30 a.m.

The Los Angeles police chief says a note about a cat at the scene of the UCLA murder-suicide led to the discovery of a so-called kill list and a dead woman's body in Minnesota.

The note was found Wednesday after Mainak Sarkar killed engineering professor Bill Klug and then himself in Klug's office.

Beck says the note requested that the finder check on a cat at Sarkar's residence in St. Paul, Minnesota.

At the residence, investigators found a so-called kill list with the names of two professors and a woman living in Brooklyn Park outside St. Paul.

Local police found the woman's body and believe she was killed before the UCLA shooting.

Police believe Sarkar also intended to kill the other professor, who was off campus at the time.

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11:10 a.m.

The Los Angeles police chief says investigators believe the man who carried out the UCLA murder-suicide went to the campus to kill two professors.

Chief Charlie Beck says the second professor was off campus Wednesday when Mainak Sarkar (MY'-nahk SUR'-kahr) arrived armed with two guns and many rounds of ammunition.

Sarkar killed engineering professor Bill Klug and then killed himself.

Beck says the other professor's name turned up in a "kill list" discovered in Sarkar's Minnesota residence.

A woman also named on that list was found dead early Thursday of an apparent gunshot at her Minnesota home.

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10:10 a.m.

A blog post that appears to be written by a man who carried out a murder-suicide at UCLA calls the victim of the crime a "sick guy."

The blog, posted in March by a man identifying himself as Mainak Sarkar (MY'-nahk SUR'-kahr), says he and UCLA Professor Bill Klug had personal differences.

The blog accuses Klug of stealing Sarkar's intellectual property and giving it to another student and says "he made me really sick."

It ends with: "Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust."

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told KTLA-TV on Wednesday that the motive of the UCLA shooting was tied to Sarkar's belief that Klug released his intellectual property. Beck says UCLA asserts it was all in Sarkar's imagination.

Family and friends of Klug describe him as a kind, gentle man who didn't appear to have conflicts with anyone.

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9:45 a.m.

Police in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, say they found a dead woman when Los Angeles police asked them to conduct a welfare check at a local address in connection with the UCLA murder-suicide investigation.

A Brooklyn Park police statement says officers responded early Thursday and found the woman dead of an apparent gunshot wound.

The statement says early indications are that the woman's shooting happened before the UCLA shooting, which occurred at midmorning Wednesday.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck tells KTLA-TV that a "kill list" was found in the Minnesota home of UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar.

The list contained the names of UCLA engineering professor Bill Klug, who was slain in the murder-suicide, another UCLA professor, and the Minnesota woman. Beck says the other UCLA professor is OK.

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9 a.m.

The Los Angeles police chief says the man who carried out a murder-suicide at UCLA left a "kill list" at his Minnesota home that led authorities to find a woman's dead body.

Speaking on KTLA-TV, Chief Charlie Beck says Mainak Sarkar drove to Los Angeles from Minnesota with two guns and killed Professor William Klug before killing himself.

Beck says when authorities searched Sarkar's home in Minnesota, they found a "kill list" with the names of Klug, another UCLA professor and a woman.

Beck says the woman was found shot dead in her home in a nearby Minnesota town. The other professor on the list is all right.

Beck says it appears that mental issues were involved and says Sarkar's dispute with Klug appears to be tied to Sarkar thinking the professor released intellectual property that harmed Sarkar.

Police are asking the public's help to find the car Sarkar drove to Los Angeles, a 2003 Nissan Sentra with the license plate of 720KTW.

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7:15 a.m.

Los Angeles police have identified the man they say carried out a murder-suicide on the UCLA campus.

A police spokeswoman, Officer Jenny Houser, says the gunman was Mainak Sarkar.

Sarkar gunned down mechanical engineering professor William Klug in an office Wednesday before taking his own life.

The shooting triggered a huge police response until authorities determined there was no continuing threat.

Classes are resuming Thursday except for the engineering department, which will reopen next week.

This undated photo shows Mainak Sarkar, who police say carried out a murder-suicide at the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday, June 1, 2016. Sarkar had a "kill list" with multiple names that included professor Bill Klug, a woman found dead in a Minneapolis suburb and another UCLA professor who was not harmed, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. (Facebook via AP)

This undated photo provided by the University of California, Los Angeles shows Bill Klug, a professor of mechanical engineering. Mainak Sarkar fatally shot Klug before taking his own life in a UCLA engineering building Wednesday, June 1, 2016, leading to a lockdown on the campus. (University of California, Los Angeles via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck comments on the investigation into a murder-suicide on the UCLA campus during a news conference in Los Angeles Thursday, June 2, 2016. Detectives believe that Mainak Sarkar, a former engineering graduate student, intended to kill a second professor Wednesday morning, but could not find him on the UCLA campus. Chief Beck, said Sarkar left a "kill list" at his Minnesota home that led authorities to find a woman's dead body. At left is a Minnesota license plate illustration of the missing car driven by Sarkar. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Brooklyn Park deputy chief Mark Bruley, left, reads a brief statement during a press conference Thursday June 2, 2016, at Brooklyn Park City Hall about a woman whos body was found, in Brooklyn Park, Minn. The investigation into a murder-suicide on the UCLA campus took a more sinister turn Thursday when police announced they suspected the shooter earlier killed a woman in Minnesota then drove to Los Angeles to confront a professor he believed had stolen his work. (Jerry Holt /Star Tribune via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT; ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS OUT; MAGS OUT; TWIN CITIES LOCAL TELEVISION OUT

Police officers get information from students at the scene of a fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Los Angeles Police officers search the UCLA campus near the scene of a fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. Los Angeles police chief says shooting was murder-suicide. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles Police officers walk by the Mathematical Sciences Building on the UCLA campus after a fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. Los Angeles police chief says shooting at UCLA was murder-suicide. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

A person from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner's office removes a body at the scene of a fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. About two hours after the first 911 call came in around 10 a.m., with the center of campus still saturated with officers, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said it was a murder-suicide and declared the threat over. Two men were dead in an engineering building office, and authorities found a gun and what might be a suicide note, he said. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)
The Latest: Police to seek murder charges in boy's death

DETROIT (AP)  The Latest on the discovery of a young boy's body in Detroit and the arrest of a suspect found in Ohio (all times local):

5:50 p.m.

Police are preparing information to present to prosecutors for murder charges in the death of a 13-year-old Detroit boy whose body was found in a vacant lot.

This undated image provided by the Detroit Police Department shows Gregory Walker, who police say is a suspect in the abduction of a boy who was taken from outside a Detroit neighborhood market. (Detroit Police Department via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Detroit police Sgt. Michael Woody also says the chief suspect remains jailed in Toledo, Ohio, and may have to be extradited to Michigan.

Deontae Mitchell's body was found Thursday. An autopsy is planned Friday.

The boy disappeared Tuesday night while riding bikes with a cousin, who told police that Deontae had picked up money dropped by a man who was urinating outside a market. Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man who grabbed his arm and forced him into a car.

Police believe that man was 45-year-old Gregory Walker, who was arrested Thursday. Another man was arrested in Detroit.

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4:20 p.m.

Police say a second suspect wanted in the abduction of a 13-year-old Detroit boy has been arrested.

Officer Jennifer Moreno says the 30-year-old man was taken into custody Thursday at his Detroit home but has not been charged. A 51-year-old man still is being sought.

Deontae Mitchell's body was found Thursday morning in a vacant lot on the city's east side. He disappeared Tuesday night while riding bikes with a cousin, who told police that Deontae had picked up money dropped by a man who was urinating outside a market.

Video shows Deontae being pursued by a man who grabbed the boy by his arm and forced him into a car.

Police believe that man was 45-year-old Gregory Walker who was arrested Thursday with a woman in Toledo, Ohio. No charges have been filed.

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2:45 p.m.

A body found in an overgrown vacant lot on Detroit's east side has been identified as a 13-year-old boy abducted two days ago from a city street.

The Wayne County medical examiner's office says Deontae Mitchell's mother made the identification Thursday afternoon.

An autopsy is scheduled for Friday to determine how he died.

Deontae's cousin told police they were riding bikes Tuesday night when they saw a man drop money while urinating outside a market. The cousin said Deontae picked up the money and they rode away.

Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man who grabbed his arm and forced him into a car. The chief suspect, Gregory Walker, has been arrested in Toledo, Ohio.

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12:25 p.m.

Police are combing through knee-high weeds and grass behind a vacant building in Detroit where a boy's body was discovered.

The body was found Thursday, and authorities are trying to determine if it's 13-year-old Deontae Mitchell, who was forced off his bike Tuesday night.

About three dozen people gathered at the scene, some forming a circle to pray.

Madgrine Jones says she doesn't know the family but has children. The 35-year-old cried, saying "it's just too much" when kids are being killed.

The chief suspect was arrested Thursday in Toledo, Ohio.

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10:25 a.m.

Police say the body of a young boy has been found in Detroit, two days after a 13-year-old was abducted.

Chief James Craig says the medical examiner will determine if it's the body of Deontae Mitchell. But at the same news conference Thursday, he offered his prayers to the boy's family.

Craig called it a "horrific crime."

Deontae's cousin told police they were riding bikes Tuesday night when they saw a man drop money while urinating outside a market. The cousin said Deontae picked up the money and they rode away.

Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man who grabbed his arm and forced him into a car. The chief suspect, Gregory Walker, has been arrested in Toledo, Ohio.

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9:40 a.m.

Police say a 45-year-old man suspected in the abduction of a 13-year-old boy who was snatched outside a Detroit neighborhood market has been arrested in Ohio.

Michigan State Police Lt. Calvin Hart on Thursday morning confirmed the arrest of Gregory Walker of Detroit, but didn't have details about where he was found.

Investigators cordoned off a crime scene on Detroit's east side, but details weren't immediately released.

Police say Deontae Mitchell's cousin told police they were riding bikes Tuesday night when they saw an apparently drunken man drop money while urinating outside the market. The cousin said Deontae picked up the money and they rode away.

Surveillance video shows Deontae being pursued by a man police believe to be Walker, grabbed by his arm and forced into a car.

This image provided by the City of Detroit Police Department shows Deontae Mitchell. Police say surveillance video from a neighborhood market shows a man abducting the 13-year-old Detroit boy. An Amber Alert was issued earlier Wednesday, June 1, 2016, for Deontae. (City of Detroit Police Department via AP)
Prisoner tells of 'mental torture' in secret Guantanamo camp

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP)  A Somali prisoner at Guantanamo Bay told a military judge Thursday that he has experienced what he believes are intentional noises and vibrations inside the high-security section of the prison known as Camp 7, echoing the complaints of a defendant in the Sept. 11 war crimes case who alleges he has been subjected to sleep deprivation while in custody.

Hassan Guleed, an alleged member of East Africa Al-Qaida making his first appearance in a U.S. court since his 2004 capture, portrayed the sounds and vibrations as well as chemical odors in testimony at the U.S. base in Cuba as "a kind or pressure" intended to make detainees cooperate with authorities. He contrasted it with other forms of abusive treatment that he and others experienced while held by the CIA in overseas prisons before being taken to Guantanamo.

"We have mental torture in the Camp 7. In the black site, there was physical," Guleed started to say when prosecutors and the judge cut him off to keep him from discussing details about his confinement that are classified as secret.

This undated photo released by James P. Harrington, the lawyer of Ramzi Binalshibh, shows his client Ramzi Binalshibh while he is detained at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. A Somali prisoner at Guantanamo Bay told a military judge Thursday, June 2, 2016 that he has experienced what he believes are intentional noises and vibrations inside the high-security section of the prison known as Camp 7, echoing a defendant in the Sept. 11 war crimes case who has alleged he is the victim of deliberate attempts at sleep deprivation. The testimony was intended to support allegations by Sept. 11 defendant Binalshibh, who has alleged he has been subjected to intentional sleep deprivation, which his lawyer says interferes with his ability to participate in his defense. Binalshibh and four other Guantanamo prisoners face trial by military commission for planning and providing logistical support to the Sept. 11 hijacking plot. They could get the death penalty if convicted. (James P. Harrington via AP, File)

Guleed said several other prisoners have experienced the same sounds and vibrations, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, and Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian who was the first prisoner to be subjected to brutal CIA interrogation techniques.

The Somali prisoner, who wore a black and white head scarf and a traditional white dress shirt as he testified in broken English, faced aggressive cross-examination from federal prosecutor Ed Ryan, who sought to show he was a biased witness by asking him about allegations that he trained at an al-Qaida camp and performed surveillance on a U.S. military base as part of a suicide bombing plot.

Guleed, who has never been charged with a crime, denied involvement with al-Qaida. "You are lying to us right now aren't you sir?" Ryan asked. The defendant said he was not.

Twice, courtroom monitors cut the sound feed so that spectators could not hear information deemed classified.

The testimony was intended to support allegations by Sept. 11 defendant Ramzi Binalshibh, who has alleged he has been subjected to intentional sleep deprivation, which his lawyer says interferes with his ability to participate in his defense.

Binalshibh, Mohammad and three other Guantanamo prisoners face trial by military commission for planning and providing logistical support to the Sept. 11 hijacking plot. They could get the death penalty if convicted.

Abu Zubaydah, who has not been seen in public since he was captured in Pakistan in 2002, had been expected to testify Thursday about his own experiences with noises and vibrations in Camp 7. But James Harrington, a civilian lawyer for Binalshibh, asked the judge to postpone his appearance just as he was about to come into the courtroom when it became clear that the judge would allow Ryan to ask questions similar to those he asked Guleed. Unlike the Somali, Abu Zubaydah has a lawyer, and he told the court that he would object to incriminating questions.

Afterward, Navy Cmdr. Patrick Flor, the military lawyer for Abu Zubaydah, said his client was disappointed not to get a chance to express himself in a public setting after so many years.

"If he would have been able to walk into the courtroom, that would have been the first time he would have been able to walk that far, unshackled in 14 years," Flor said.

Zubaydah may get a chance to testify later, possibly in a hearing scheduled for July.

Military officials have repeatedly denied that guards in Camp 7 intentionally make sounds or vibrations, though there has been documented use of sleep deprivation during interrogations in CIA black site prisons and Guantanamo in the past.

Prosecutors have suggested in court that Binalshibh is inventing the allegations, which have become one of the many issues that have sidetracked proceedings in the Sept. 11 case, which remains in the pretrial stage with no trial date set.

The judge, Army Col. James Pohl, earlier issued an order directing the military to cease any deliberate noises or vibrations without determining whether any had occurred. Binalshibh says it has continued despite that order.
23 arrested in Guatemala campaign finance case

GUATEMALA CITY (AP)  Twenty-three people were arrested Thursday on charges related to the alleged illegal financing of the political party that carried former President Otto Perez Molina to power, Guatemalan authorities said.

National Civil Police spokesman Jorge Aguilar said more arrests were expected.

Judge Miguel Angel Galvez said 45 arrest orders have been issued against business executives and former government officials.

Perez Molina and his former vice president, Roxana Baldetti, are in jail awaiting trial in multiple corruption cases.

Thursday's arrests have to do with the alleged financing of the Patriot Party in exchange for favors.
Fidelity's John Sweeney talks rebalancing your portfolio

Like many things in life, investing is all about balance.

As the market moves and other forces take shape, different investments will grow at different rates. Over time, this may leave investors with a higher percentage of money in one type of investment than originally intended, such as more stocks than bonds.

Rebalancing, as it is known, is the act of reviewing and shifting investments to make sure they continue to reflect your goals. That could mean restoring them back to your original asset allocation or updating them to reflect your changing needs.

This undated photo provided by Fidelity Investments shows John Sweeney, executive vice president of retirement and investing strategies at Fidelity. The Associated Press spoke with Sweeney on why rebalancing your portfolio and occasionally ignoring the election are good financial decisions. (Courtesy of Fidelity Investments via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

It's an important and often overlooked part of investing that we discussed with John Sweeney, executive vice president of retirement and investing strategies at Fidelity. Answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: There are different theories on rebalancing. What are your thoughts on how to approach it?

A: Our philosophy on asset allocation is important to understand first, and that will feed into why rebalancing is important. We try to work with our investors to make sure their asset allocation lines up with their goals, which include time horizon and their risk tolerance.

A 25-year-old is not going to retire for 40 years, so their risk tolerance should be fairly aggressive and therefore heavily oriented toward equities. Because they have time to withstand volatility, we suggest 90 percent (stocks). A 65 year-old, by contrast, should have more like 55 percent in stocks.

What ends up happening when you have a period like we have over the past 10 years, even with the market downturn, the stock market is up about 170 percent from its lows. So you are likely to end up with a portfolio that is significantly more heavily allocated to stocks than to bonds. Unless you've been rebalancing or are in some portfolio or service where that happens automatically, then you are probably more heavily weighted to stocks than you would like to be.

Q: This is obviously important as you near retirement, but seems to be an issue at any age. Who should consider rebalancing?

A: Target date funds are becoming a much more significant part of people's retirement accounts. And that is a really good thing because the asset allocation question is taken out of the hands of the individual saver and put in the hands of the portfolio manager.

So you are seeing a lot more people in the appropriate allocation for their age and risk tolerance. That's good news.

People who are managing their portfolios on their own should be aware of (rebalancing) regardless of age. You should also pay attention to the money you have outside of your retirement plan, such as a brokerage account that is for some other goal.

Q: How often should people be rebalancing?

A: One way to do it is time-based. We would suggest at least once a year. Certainly we have some customers that do it once a quarter. You could do it every month if you want.

The way our portfolio managers would do it in a managed account or a mutual fund is on a risk-adjusted basis. What I mean by that is you let the portfolio drift within a band. (Once you hit a certain threshold,) you are going to take some of that equity risk off the table so the portfolio doesn't get whipsawed too drastically should stocks fall.

Q: What is the most common mistake you see?

A: People don't do it. We ask people when they come in: "Okay, when was the last time you rebalanced your portfolio?" and they give you a blank stare.

Sometimes the structure of the fund will do it for you. But sometimes people just don't do it.

You end up with people who have an allocation that is the same as when they started working, which may have been 40 or 20 some years ago. That is a risky scenario. The other scenario is a young person who doesn't make any election at all and they are 100 percent in cash. And that money isn't really earning anything for them because it's just sitting there.

Q: Where is the line between responsibly rebalancing and tinkering with things too much?

A: We have what I like to characterize as three different ways of driving: you can have an automatic transmission. I liken that to a target date fund. You can have a manual transmission, where you can have the portfolio construction tool and rebalance it on your own. And you have a car service: a managed account where you don't have to worry about the rebalancing or the fund selecting. We'll worry about the taxes for you, too. People may migrate among those over time as their skills and lifestyle change.

Q: When people are making adjustments, how much should they be looking at long-term market performance versus recent market activity?

A: We often meet people who say, "Oh my goodness, there is an election coming up, what do I do? Should I pull out of the market until the election is over? What about growth slowing in China? What about natural disasters happening around the world?"

These global events and elections and changes in leaderships in countries have happened for hundreds of years.

Try to keep your focus on the time horizon in which you need the money, instead of short term movements in the chart.

The best example we can provide for folks is to show a chart of '08 and '09. While we were living through that, it was incredibly painful. And you know it was very hard for us to every day tell investors to stay the course, but when you look in the rearview mirror, that very significant drop, which it absolutely was, looks like a small pothole in an otherwise upward trajectory.
Letter written by JFK to purported paramour is for sale

BOSTON (AP)  An intimate letter written by President John F. Kennedy to a purported paramour seeking to set up a liaison is one of several Kennedy-related items being sold at auction.

The four-page letter to longtime Kennedy family friend Mary Pinchot Meyer, an artist and former wife of a CIA agent, is thought to have been written in October 1963, about a month before the president's assassination.

"Why don't you leave suburbia for once  come and see me  either here  or at the Cape next week or in Boston the 19th," the letter reads. "I know it is unwise, irrational, and that you may hate it  on the other hand you may not  and I will love it. You say that it is good for me not to get what I want. After all of these years  you should give me a more loving answer than that. Why don't you just say yes."

This April 15, 2016 photo provided by RR Auction shows a hand-written letter by President John F. Kennedy. The letter written by Kennedy to a purported paramour seeking to set up a liaison is one of several Kennedy-related items being sold at auction. The online auction is being held by Boston-based RR Auction starting June 16. (RR Auction via AP)

It's signed simply "J."

"It's incredible to see the president writing something so personal," said Robert Livingston, the executive vice president of Boston-based RR Auction , which is handling the sale. "We've handled a lot of JFK letters here, and he was always very formal."

The undated letter looks to be written on White House stationery. Although the tops of each page have been cut off, the presidential seal watermarks are visible under light.

The letter was never sent but remained in the collection of Kennedy's longtime personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln. It originated from the estate of Robert White, a friend of Lincoln's and an avid collector of JFK memorabilia who died more than a decade ago.

It is being sold now by an anonymous collector.

Pinchot Meyer was fatally shot nearly a year after Kennedy's assassination. The man charged with killing her was found not guilty.
Staffer who set up Clinton's email server to take 5th again

WASHINGTON (AP)  The ex-staffer who set up former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's home email server intends to refuse to testify, again, in an upcoming deposition.

Lawyers for Bryan Pagliano said in a court motion filed Wednesday that he will invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at a deposition scheduled for next week.

A federal judge last month granted a request from the conservative legal advocacy group Judicial Watch to question six current and former State Department aides about the 2009 creation of the private email system used by Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign stop at the Newark campus of Rutgers University, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Pagliano previously refused to testify before Congress. He has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors in a separate FBI probe into whether classified information that flowed through Clinton's server was mishandled. Clinton is expected to be interviewed soon as part of that investigation.

A separate review by the State Department's Inspector General concluded last month that Clinton and her team ignored clear internal guidance that her email setup broke federal standards and could have left sensitive material vulnerable to hackers. Clinton has called her decision to rely on the private server a mistake, but contends she violated no laws.

The State Department has thus far released more than 52,000 pages of Clinton's work-related emails, including a small percentage that have been redacted because they contain information considered sensitive to national security. Thousands of additional emails have been withheld by Clinton, whose lawyers say they contain personal messages unrelated to her government service.

At issue in the Judicial Watch case is whether the State Department conducted an adequate search of public records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed in 2013. The group is seeking records related to former Deputy Secretary of State Huma Abedin's outside work as a paid consultant for a charitable foundation run by Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton.

The department's initial search did not include the thousands of emails Hillary Clinton exchanged with her aides, including Abedin, using private email addresses. The department said it didn't have access to those emails at the time.

There have been at least three dozen civil lawsuits filed, including one by The Associated Press, over public records requests related to Clinton's tenure as the nation's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.

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Authorities say man cited 'Purge' film in Indiana slayings

INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  A 19-year-old Indianapolis man has been charged with killing three people over four days in attacks a prosecutor said he justified by citing the horror movie "The Purge," which is about one day a year when murder is legal.

A Marion County judge entered a not guilty plea for Johnathan Cruz and ordered him held without bond during an initial hearing Thursday on three murder counts and other charges for the attacks starting May 12.

Angela Barger, who told reporters after the hearing she was Cruz's girlfriend, said she was with him at least one day during that time and didn't believe he committed the crimes.

This image provided by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department shows Johnathan Cruz. Prosecutor Terry Curry said Wednesday, June 1, 2016, that 19-year-old Cruz faces multiple charges including robbery, intimidation and a criminal gang enhancement. (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department via AP)

"They're making him out to be some type of crazy, violent person and he's not," she said. "Yeah, he had issues, but he wasn't that violent."

Detectives said a witness told them that Cruz confessed he had been "purging" by shooting and robbing people, according to court documents filed Wednesday. Police said this referred to the 2013 movie starring Ethan Hawke, in which during one night a year, all crime is legal. Detectives found a text message dated May 2 from Cruz saying "I Purge every night now."

Deputy Prosecutor Denise Robinson said authorities have cellphone video of at least part of one suspected attack.

"I can't get into his mind, but he certainly used the movie as at least his excuse or justification when he was recording himself committing these acts," she said.

Court documents say Cruz fatally shot Billy Boyd and Jay Higginbotham on May 12 and Jose Ruiz on May 15 during attacks on the city's east and north sides. He is also charged with the armed robbery of a man on May 14.

Barger and Ricki Cline, the mother of Cruz's 3-month-old daughter, said the people blaming Cruz for the killings are trying to protect themselves and that connections to "The Purge" have been blown out of proportion.

"It's irrelevant and it's pointless," Cline said.

The 2013 film focuses on what is called "The Purge," a nationwide catharsis, which runs for 12 hours once a year, during which violent crime including murder is encouraged as a patriotic duty. In the film, set in the year 2022, income inequality has reached such a level that the rich barricade themselves in their homes while the poor are vulnerable to the killing, which is promoted by government to cull the population. A sequel came out in 2014, and the series' third film is scheduled for release this summer.

Cruz was already jailed since his May 16 arrest on felony charges from a restaurant confrontation with a teenage girl two days earlier.

His public defender, Kendal Gulbrandsen, didn't immediately return telephone messages seeking comment.

In another incident that some people on social media linked to the movie, a high school student's hoax tweeted in August, 2014, about an impending "Louisville Purge," in which the Kentucky city would be overtaken by crime. The hoax kicked off a social media storm and prompted schools and other organizations to cancel events. No such purge took place.

Police declined to take action against the student, but Louisville Metro Police Department Sgt. Phil Russell said they took seriously any threat "that encourages and incites violence against our community."

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UN: Sexual violence integral tactic of terror

UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Just as the international community has made some inroads combating sexual violence as a weapon of war, extremists are adopting the age-old tactic as a tool of terror.

Speaking Thursday at a Security Council session on sexual violence in conflict, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointed to the recent conviction of Democratic Republic of Congo politician Pierre Bemba Gombo by the International Criminal Court as the "latest sign that the era of impunity for sexual violence as a tool of war is over."

But he acknowledged much more remained to be done.

"One extremely disturbing aspect is the use of sexual violence as a tactic of terrorism. Daesh, Boko Haram and other extremist groups are using sexual violence as a means of attracting and retaining fighters, and to generate revenue," he said, using another name for the Islamic State group.

Ban's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura told the council that of the 48 parties accused of employing sexual violence in a new U.N. report, 37 were non-state actors, requiring new tools and strategies that go beyond resolutions, treaties and sanctions traditionally used to address the scourge.

"The war of conquest of extremist groups is being fought on and fought over the bodies of women and girls generating millions of dollars of revenue," Bangura said. "It is the revival of the slave trades in our own time and life."

Ban's report to the Security Council estimated that the Yazidi people in Iraq paid some $45 million in ransom to the Islamic State group in 2014 alone for the return of their girls and women.

Bangura said social media was another factor facilitating the trade and trafficking of women, who are offered in on-line forums alongside "rifles and rocket propelled grenades."

"When we think terrorism we think of destruction of property, killing, bombing or hostage taking. But we cannot deplore the public violence of terrorism while ignoring the violence terrorists inflict on women and girls behind closed doors," she said, adding that, worse yet, when victims are lucky enough to be freed from captivity they are often shunned by their communities.

"Sexual violence is still the only crime that stigmatizes the victim rather than the perpetrator," Bangura said.

She said efforts to battle sexual violence carried out by non-state actors should focus on draining extremists' resources and degrading their capacity to communicate, travel and do harm, as well as providing better care to victims.
Brazil Congress looks to raise pay for government workers

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  Brazil's Congress moved Thursday toward giving big pay raises to government workers just a week after announcing a multibillion-dollar deficit this year. The move also benefits the supreme court justices who are still to make decisions on the divisive fight over the president's impeachment.

The lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, voted to approve raises that range from 16 percent to 41 percent. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it's expected to pass.

Raises would go to hundreds of thousands of workers in the legislative, executive and judicial branches, but not to elected officials.

Brazil's acting President Michel Temer, left, greets the new president of state oil company Petrobras, Pedro Parente, as the new president of the Bank of Brazil, Paulo Rogerio Caffarelli, center, looks on during their inauguration ceremony at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

The move came a week after acting President Michel Temer estimated the government's fiscal deficit in 2016 at about $47 billion. In recent weeks, his administration has suggested there will be cuts in spending on health care, education and social programs.

"I am happy to see the Senate and Chamber of Deputies actively working, something that hadn't happened in a long time," Temer said after the vote.

Latin America's most populous nation is facing its worst economic crisis since the 1930s, and its economy is expected to contract about 3 percent this year after a similarly dismal 2015.

Lawmakers and public workers have often argued that a raise is necessary to help offset inflation, currently around 10 percent.

Suspended President Dilma Rousseff, who has an impeachment trial pending in the Senate, vetoed a similar bill last year. This time her supporters in Congress said nothing against the raise.

Temer's chief of staff, Eliseu Padilha, said the raise was negotiated by lawmakers while Rousseff was in power.

"Trying to stop this deal now would create a mess," he said. "This raise was already anticipated in this year's budget. "

The raise for government workers comes at a delicate moment for Temer's three-week-old administration, which has already lost two Cabinet ministers because of leaked recordings of their conversations. In the recordings, important allies of the interim president suggest "a pact" and "a deal" with Brazil's highest court in the impeachment process. Justices have denied involvement in political issues.

One of the recordings shows the head of the Senate saying that Chief Justice Ricardo Lewandowski had met with Rousseff to lobby for a pay raise before the president was suspended. Lewandowski will preside over Rousseff's impeachment trial in upcoming weeks.

The pay raise also includes workers of a government watchdog that kicked off the impeachment proceedings by saying Rousseff broke fiscal laws.

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This story has been corrected to show that lawmakers and other elected officials are not covered by the pay raise measure.

A demonstrator of the Homeless Workers Movement shouts at a police officer that they to stop firing tear gas during a protest, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. The movement organized the protest against acting President Michel Temer and in support of suspended President Dilma Rousseff. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Haiti prosecutor withdraws travel ban on former officials

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP)  A Haitian prosecutor has withdrawn a travel ban he issued against nine former electoral officials and 11 Cabinet ministers in ex-President Michel Martelly's government.

Port-au-Prince prosecutor Jean Danton Leger earlier this week issued the order to prevent the people on the list from leaving the country. Former Prime Minister Evans Paul and ex-ministers had blasted Leger for issuing the ban against them and fought against it.

Leger never specified a reason for issuing the ban. He did not respond to Thursday calls. But a late Wednesday statement he signed said it was cancelled "pending referral to the ordinary channels of prosecution."
France's Valls in Greece for talks on economic cooperation

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  France's prime minister has arrived in Greece amid tight security for a two-day visit expected to focus on economic cooperation.

Manuel Valls is due to meet Greece's figurehead president, Procopis Pavlopoulos, later Thursday. On Friday, he will hold talks with left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Police sealed off a chunk of central Athens on Thursday to allow Valls to lay a wreath at the Unknown Soldier's Tomb outside Parliament.

Greek officials hope French companies will show interest in the country's massive privatization drive, which is a key condition of the debt-crippled country's bailout program.
US Senate hopeful forced to explain 1st-to-college claim

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  The Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania was forced Thursday to explain her campaign trail statements that she was the first in her big family to go to college  even though an older brother graduated from college years before her.

Katie McGinty's brother John received degrees from La Salle University and Temple University before she started attending St. Joseph's University in 1981, soon after she graduated from high school.

The claim is a key campaign talking point of McGinty's as the Philadelphia native has played up her blue-collar roots in her challenge to Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey in a race that could tilt control of the U.S. Senate.

McGinty has made rising student loan debt a central part of her campaign, and has cast herself as the candidate who would do more to make college more affordable.

The McGinty campaign said the difference is that John McGinty earned credits from a community college before getting a bachelor's degree from La Salle.

In a statement released by his sister's campaign, John McGinty said "the way that Katie and our family have always talked about our experience is she was the first of the 10 McGinty kids to attend and graduate from a four-year college, straight out of high school."

Buzzfeed first reported Wednesday that McGinty's brother graduated from La Salle in 1973. He also received a master's degree from Temple in 1978.

In January, McGinty told The Associated Press she was "the ninth of 10 kids and the first in my family to go to college." Her Facebook site repeated the claim on Feb. 25. Her campaign website said she was the first to go to a "four-year college."

In a brief interview Thursday with The Philadelphia Inquirer, McGinty addressed questions about the Buzzfeed report.

"Our family story here is one that we're proud of, and that is that as the ninth of 10 kids in our family I was the first who right out of high school was able to go to four-year college . it was a big moment in our family's life," McGinty said. "It just brings home to me that every kid needs to have a shot at affordable education and it's an essential piece of who I am."

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An Allegiant Air plane made two emergency landings within 24 hours because of problems with the hydraulic system.

A US paper reported that a plane bound for New Windsor, New York, returned to St Petersburg-Clearwater Airport in Florida around 90 minutes after take-off on Thursday after the crew discovered a drop in hydraulic fluid.

There were 165 passengers and six members of staff on board the Airbus A320 - the same type of aircraft as the EgyptAir MS804 that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, which vanished after it had reportedly made three emergency landings 24 hours previously.

Passengers have described being 'scared' and 'nervous' on one of two Allegiant Air flights that had to make an emergency landing - involving the same plane (file photo, not actual aircraft)

Allegiant officials said the fluid never dropped below the minimum level, according to The Tampa Bay Times. The crew returned out of an abundance of caution, circling over the Gulf of Mexico to burn off fuel so the aircraft won't be overweight for landing.

Passengers have spoken of being 'scared' and 'nervous' as the plane made its unscheduled descent.

Speaking to the Times Herald Record, Lisa Cozzolino said: 'I was nervous the whole time, I was taking tranquilizers.'

The Allegiant Air plane made both emergency landings at St Petersburg airport (pictured)

Haddy Sanchez, who was also on the plane, added: 'I was scared, I was dizzy the whole time.'

Officials said a leak in a hydraulic line caused the pilot to declare an emergency. The plane landed safely and was tested and cleared.

On Wednesday, the same plane ran into trouble before its scheduled arrival at St Petersburg-Clearwater airport on a flight that departed from Moline, Illinois.

Officials said a leak in a hydraulic line caused the pilot to declare an emergency. The plane landed safely and was tested and cleared.

No one was injured.
Egypt's former top auditor detained, refused to pay bail

CAIRO (AP)  After refusing to pay bail, Egypt's former top auditor has been detained over allegations he spread false news, his lawyers said Thursday.

Hesham Genana "refused to pay bail because he does not believe he committed a crime. He was only doing his job," his lawyer Ali Taha told The Associated Press.

Genena, who was summoned for questioning last month, will remain in detention until he stands trial on 7 June, rights lawyer Negad El-Borai told AP. He said that Genena's refusal to pay bail was "respectable" and indicated that he did not recognize the allegations against him.

Genena was accused of spreading false news after a newspaper quoted him in December as saying corruption cost the country 600 billion Egyptian pounds ($67.6 billion) in 2015. Genena said he was misquoted, that the figure covered four years and that it was arrived at following an exhaustive study.

Last March, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi dismissed Genena from his position as head of the Central Auditing Organization after a commission investigated his report, concluding that Genena had misled the public.

Critics say the moves intend to silence dissent.

Last week, the head of Egypt's journalists union and two board members also refused to pay bail after they were referred to trial on charges of spreading false news.
Report cites policy progress for Cleveland Police Department

CLEVELAND (AP)  Cleveland has made progress developing a new use-of-force policy for police but is being criticized for not maintaining the department's core infrastructure, the group selected to help the city implement its agreement with the U.S. Justice Department said in a report Thursday.

The report also criticized a civilian group for its inability to investigate complaints against officers, according to the review obtained first by The Associated Press.

The monitoring team is required in the consent decree between Cleveland and the DOJ to submit reports every six months to a federal judge overseeing reform efforts. Thursday's report is the first since the judge approved the consent decree's first-year monitoring plan in February.

The consent decree was signed last year after a DOJ investigation found that Cleveland officers had shown a pattern and practice of using excessive force and violating people's civil rights. The consent decree is expected to remain in place for at least five years.

The DOJ investigation cited numerous incidents of excessive uses of force, such as police officers striking people with handguns and using stun guns on people who had been subdued. It also cited a case in November 2012 when two unarmed black suspects were killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire after a high-speed chase.

The report said Cleveland has made "tremendous progress" in creating a new use-of-force policy. Some deadlines will have to be pushed back because of demands on the city and police department in preparing for the Republican National Convention in July, the report said. But, the expectation is that officers will be trained on the new policy by the end of the year and that it will take effect Jan. 1.

The report said the monitoring team, consisting of a team of attorneys and police professionals, learned early last month that the civilian-run Office of Professional Standards had more than 200 open investigations from both 2014 and 2015. The report raised further questions about how OPS managed to close more than 120 investigations in several weeks after the monitoring team began making inquiries.

"The foundational deficiencies with OPS are more significant and urgent" than what the monitoring team initially thought, the report said, and has prompted it to form a group to develop "an emergency organizational transformation plan" for the unit.

Cleveland officials have acknowledged the problems with OPS and have committed additional resources to fix them, the report said.

Equipment problems and shortages within the police department are issues that police union officials have complained about for years. The monitoring team's report said the city "will have to make significant progress to fulfill their commitments to equipment and officer resources under the Consent Decree." The expectation is that those commitments will cost the city tens of millions of dollars in the coming years.

The report detailed problems with the department's records management system. In April, the report said, more than 11,000 incident and arrest reports hadn't yet been entered into the system. The hiring of temporary workers reduced the backlog to around 7,500 reports last week.

"Without such reports entered into the system, it is as though these events never happened," the monitoring report said.

Police cars are in "significant levels of disrepair  with personnel at times having serviced on their own time and dime," the report said. "Many elements of CPD's core infrastructure  computers, cars, and the like  are either aging, run-down or deficient."

A spokesman for the city declined to comment, saying the city had not yet received a copy of the report.
Firm: New casinos could kill 4 of Atlantic City's 8 casinos

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP)  A Wall Street analyst predicts as many as half of Atlantic City's eight casinos could be forced to close if voters in November approve two new casinos just outside New York City.

A Monmouth University poll released Thursday shows voters evenly divided on whether to authorize construction of two new casinos near New York City. Hours later, Fitch Ratings predicted that one to four Atlantic City casinos could be forced to shut down if new casinos are built in northern New Jersey.

That prediction is similar to one made by Resorts Casino Hotel president Mark Giannantonio at a major gambling conference last month. He said three to five of his city's casinos could go under if faced with in-state competition.

This May 17, 2016 photo, a dealer conducts a roulette game at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. A Monmouth University Poll released Thursday June 2 finds New Jersey voters evenly split on whether to allow the expansion of casino gambling to the northern part of the state, with 48 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed. The issue will be decided by a ballot question in November. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

In its Thursday report, Fitch listed the Trump Taj Mahal, Resorts and the Golden Nugget as the most vulnerable. It also said Bally's faces an uncertain future.

The firm said a 25 percent decline in gambling revenue would wipe out the Golden Nugget's operating income before management fees. It also said a decline of 10 percent in gambling revenue would put the Taj Mahal at risk, while a decline of 20 percent would imperil Resorts.

If the referendum does pass, Fitch predicted it would take four years for a new casino to open closer to New York.

But others have predicted a shorter time frame, particularly at the Meadowlands Racetrack, where operator Jeff Gural and Hard Rock International propose a casino at the existing track complex. The other leading proposal is for Jersey City, where footwear magnate Paul Fireman proposes a casino costing up to $5 billion.

The Monmouth poll found 48 percent of voters in favor of the northern New Jersey casinos and 48 percent opposed.

The telephone poll of 806 adults conducted from May 23 to 27 has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

The poll also found that most voters believe expanding casinos to other parts of the state will hurt Atlantic City. The new casinos would have to contribute part of their revenues to help Atlantic City.

Respondents said that expanding casino gambling will bring some economic benefits to the state overall: 12 percent said it will help the state's economy a great deal, while 42 believe it will help somewhat.

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Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

In this May 17, 2016 photo, a dealer conducts a card game at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, N.J. A Monmouth University Poll released Thursday June 2 finds New Jersey voters evenly split on whether to allow the expansion of casino gambling to the northern part of the state, with 48 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed. The issue will be decided by a ballot question in November. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Lawyer: Texas teen recorded rape, fatal attack on girlfriend

HOUSTON (AP)  A teenage suspect is accused of raping and fatally choking his 15-year-old girlfriend then stuffing her body in a kitchen cabinet in an abandoned Houston-area apartment.

The Houston Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1WYP3xL ) that court records show the teenager used his cellphone to record the sound of Karen Perez begging for him to stop attacking her.

Perez was reported missing after she failed to return home from school Friday. Her body was found Monday in South Houston.

The suspect is under 17. His name hasn't been released.

Harris County prosecutors say the teen and his father joined the search for Perez Sunday but that the parent turned him in when he said he knew she was not alive.

Prosecutors say the teen confessed when confronted with the recordings, threatening texts and other evidence.

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Bulgarian man gets prison for role in $6M tax return scheme

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)  A Bulgarian citizen who admitted his role in a $6 million fraudulent tax return scheme has been sentenced in New Jersey to nearly four years in prison.

Vanyo Minkov was part of a ring that used personal information stolen from accounting firm networks. He was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty last July to conspiring to file false and fraudulent tax returns.

Prosecutors say in 2012, the conspirators hacked into the networks of at least four accounting firms and stole the 2011 tax filings for more than 1,000 clients. They used the information to file fraudulent returns or sold the information to others for the same purpose.

The IRS has identified more than $6 million in fraudulent claims made in the scheme.
Iraqi forces: small number of airstrikes slow Fallujah push

CAMP TARIQ, Iraq (AP)  Iraqi forces say they are continuing to push into the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah, having secured its outskirts.

Iraqi officers said Thursday that the large number of civilians in the city was slowing down the military operation, because it means fewer airstrikes can be carried out.

Brig. Haider al-Obeidi says "there were fewer civilians in Ramadi, therefore airstrikes are now less than during Ramadi operation."

Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces clash with Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqi forces are heavily dependent on airstrikes to achieve territorial victories against IS.

The U.S.-led coalition says they have carried out four airstrikes against IS targets in and around Fallujah since Wednesday. The strikes hit fighting positions, a weapons cache and a tunnel system.

Fallujah is one of the last IS strongholds in Iraq. The militants also hold Mosul, the second largest city.

Hadi al-Amiri, commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, visits forces in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces advance during fighting against Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces cross the main highway to Jordan and Syria as they advance during fighting against Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Smoke rises after an airstrike by U.S.-led coalition warplanes as Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces advance during fighting against Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces advance during a fight against Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces advance during fighting against Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces fire a mortar at Islamic State positions during fighting in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)

Smoke rises after an airstrike by U.S.-led coalition warplanes as Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces face off with Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed)
New Jersey bans import, export of threatened trophy animals

TRENTON, N.J. (AP)  It is now illegal in New Jersey to import or export big game trophies of animals that are threatened or endangered.

Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday signed the measure approved by lawmakers in response to the killing of Cecil, a Zimbabwean lion, whose death sparked protests last year.

Those who violate the ban face a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for a first offense and up to $3,000 for subsequent offense.
US: Global terror attacks dip; Iran still main state sponsor

WASHINGTON (AP)  The U.S. said the number of global terrorist attacks declined slightly between 2014 and 2015, although the Islamic State group expanded its reach. Iran remained the leading state sponsor of terrorism despite sealing a nuclear deal with world powers, the State Department said in its annual survey of worldwide terrorism released Thursday.

The department reported a 13 percent decrease in attacks in 2015 from the year before  the first such decline since 2012  but said the threat from extremists keeps evolving as groups exploit lawlessness in ungoverned areas and seize on corruption to recruit members.

"The global terrorist threat continued to evolve rapidly in 2015, becoming increasingly decentralized and diffuse," it said. "Terrorist groups continued to exploit an absence of credible and effective state institutions, where avenues for free and peaceful expression of opinion were blocked, justice systems lacked credibility, and where security force abuses and government corruption went unchecked."

Statistics compiled for the report by researchers from the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism showed that there were 11,774 attacks that resulted in 28,328 deaths in 2015, compared with 13,463 attacks in 2014 that killed 32,727 people. Of those killed in 2015, 19 were private American citizens, compared with 24 in 2014.

The report attributed the decline to fewer attacks and deaths in Iraq, Pakistan and Nigeria but noted that attacks increased in number between 2014 and 2015 in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, the Philippines, Syria and Turkey.

The report said that while the Islamic State's control of territory in Iraq and Syria ebbed toward the end of 2015, it remained the greatest worldwide terrorist threat with a "formidable force" of fighters in those two countries. It noted that IS group followers also carried out deadly attacks in Turkey, France and Lebanon, demonstrating international capability. It said that those attacks may have been part of "an effort to assert a narrative of victory in the face of steady losses of territory in Iraq and Syria."

Al-Qaida and affiliates also remained active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of west and north Africa, where it continued to stage mass casualty strikes, including on hotels in Burkina Faso, Mali and Tunisia as well as the bombing of a Russian passenger jet over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, it said. In East Africa, the report noted that Somali group al-Shabab remained a serious threat in 2015 not only in Somalia but in neighboring Kenya where the group attacked a university in April, killing nearly 150 people.

Along with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the Sinai, Somalia and Syria, the report designated Libya, the southern Philippines, the Sahara, Yemen and portions of Colombia and Venezuela as "terrorist safe havens" where groups are able to operate with relative ease due to poor or inadequate governance.

Meanwhile, as it has done in numerous previous years, the report identified Iran as the world's "foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015" through its provision of financial support, training and equipping of various extremist groups, notably Lebanon's Hezbollah, as well as the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. In addition to Iran, Syria and Sudan were again tagged as state sponsors of terrorism in the report, which is the first to be released since the Obama administration removed Cuba from the list last year as Washington and Havana moved to normalize ties.

Although it achieved a diplomatic resolution to concerns over its nuclear program, Iran in 2015 continued to use the Quds Force of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to implement foreign policy goals, which include creating instability throughout the Middle East, according to the report. In addition to arming the Hezbollah and the Assad government, it also provided weapons and other assistance to militants in Bahrain and remained active in supporting anti-Israel groups such as Hamas, the report said.
State to provide supplies to Flint after fed emergency ends

FLINT, Mich. (AP)  Michigan officials say they will keep providing water bottles, filters and testing-kits to residents dealing with the lead-tainted water crisis after the federal emergency declaration ends in August.

Michigan State Police Capt. Chris Kelenske said in a release Thursday the state will provide supplies until the water meets quality standards. The emergency declared by the Obama administration in January ends Aug. 14.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been providing resources under a 75 percent federal and 25 percent state cost-sharing agreement. The state will be responsible for all costs once that declaration ends.

Scientists say Flint's water has gotten much better in recent months and is safe for hand-washing, showering and bathing. A filter should still be used for drinking and food preparation.

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Shadow of jailed ex-leader hangs over Peru election

LIMA, Peru (AP)  The shadow of an imprisoned former president looms over Sunday's Peru election, which has become in many ways a referendum on the legacy of Alberto Fujimori's iron-handed rule in the 1990s.

Many of the nation's rural, indigenous poor have flocked to the support of his daughter Keiko, grateful for her father's success in routing guerrillas who preyed on their communities.

But tens of thousands have marched in the streets of the capital against the return of any Fujimori, haunted by the memory of the elder's bloody crackdown on dissent and his corrupt government, which have him serving 25 years in prison. Even leading politicians from the left have endorsed former Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

Presidential candidates Keiko Fujimori, right, and Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, wave at the end of the presidential debate sponsored by the National Elections Board, in Lima, Peru, Sunday, May 29, 2016. The South American country is gearing up for a tight June 5th runoff between Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, and former World Bank economist Pedro Kuczynski. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Recent polls showed Fujimori opening a small lead over Kuczynski, though within the margin of error and with a large number of voters still undecided. Fujimori had 45 percent support in a GfK poll of 1,508 people taken May 23-25 compared with 41 percent for Kuczynski. The survey had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

The two candidates have focused mostly on fighting crime and corruption. But the success of the winner's administration is likely to depend most on an ability to keep investment flowing to a mining industry that has been ravaged by low international prices.

Peru's economy soared in recent years on the back of mining, which now represents about 15 percent of gross domestic product. Thanks to record foreign investment, Peru reduced its foreign debt and slashed poverty by more than half in the last 15 years, according to government data. It became the world's third-largest copper producer and a major player in the gold market.

But more than a dozen mining projects are now stalled, including the country's two biggest, Tia Maria and Conga, which had been expected draw a combined $6 billion in investment. Many also face militant resistance from local communities fearing pollution or the loss of their water and farmland.

It was Alberto Fujimori who opened the country to mining in the 1990s after reclaiming much of Peru's countryside from Maoist rebels and adopting free-market policies that helped spur the economy.

His daughter, a former congresswoman who served as first lady during much of his term, is capitalizing on a well-funded campaign as well as those who remember her father fondly.

Kuczynski, once president of a U.S.-owned mining company in West Africa, has gotten a powerful boost from those fearful of the Fujimori name.

"None of the candidates inspires confidence. We're going to defend ourselves against the imposition of mining," said Marilu Marroquin, a farmer leading protests against the Mexican-owned Tia Maria copper mine project in southern Peru.

Marroquin and some 1,500 rice and potato farmers fearing for their livelihood held a three-day strike last month against Tia Maria, where clashes with police last year killed four people and injured 300.

On the other side of Peru, the Conga gold and copper project faces resistance from opponents of owner Newmont Mining Co.'s plans to dredge four high-altitude lakes, a move they say will contaminate drinking and irrigation water downriver.

The country's ombudsman last month reported 72 mining conflicts, slightly more than a year ago, in the lead up to the presidential vote.

Fujimori has said she would strengthen oversight and listen more to local opponents if she becomes president, but said the central government will remain the "fair arbiter" of mining conflicts. Kuczynski has said that he'd deliver electricity, roads and drinking water before opening the areas to mining.

The candidates differ on how to combat illegal mining, which is estimated to account for as much as a fifth of the country's gold production.

In an attempt to attract voters among Peru's roughly 400,000 small-scale miners, Fujimori has vowed to repeal a decree by outgoing President Ollanta Humala that allowed destruction of dredges and heavy machinery found at wildcat mines. She has said police crackdowns only discourage miners from seeking authorization to operate legally.

Kuczynski has called his rival's proposals a license to continue polluting and says there are better incentives to eliminate illegal practices, such as paying miners more if they demonstrate respect for the environment and labor standards.

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Franklin Briceno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/franklinbriceno . His work can be found at: http://bigstory.ap.org/author/franklin-briceno .

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Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman contributed to this report.

Demonstrators protest against presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of disgraced former leader Alberto Fujimori, at Plaza San Martin in downtown Lima, Peru, Tuesday, May 31, 2016. The South American country is gearing up for a tight June 5th runoff between Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, and former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Fuerza Popular presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori greets supporters as she arrives at a campaign rally in Lima, Peru, Thursday, June 2, 2016. The South American country is gearing up for a tight June 5th runoff between Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, and former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski of the "Peruanos por el Kambio" political party gives a speech during his closing presidential campaign rally in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. The South American country is gearing up for a tight June 5th runoff between Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former President Alberto Fujimori, and former World Bank economist Pedro Kuczynski. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

FILE - In this Oct. 29, 2013 file photo, jailed former President Alberto Fujimori attends a hearing at a police base on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. Many of the nations rural, indigenous poor have flocked to the support of his daughter Keiko, who is running for president, grateful for her fathers success in routing guerrillas who preyed on their communities. But tens of thousands have marched in the streets of the capital against the return of any Fujimori, haunted by the memory of the elders bloody crackdown on dissent and corrupt government, which have him serving 25 years in prison. Peru holds its presidential election on June 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, File)

Demonstrators hold posters with a message that reads in Spanish; "Reject the Narco State, reject Keiko," during a protest against presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, at Plaza San Martin in downtown Lima, Peru, Tuesday, May 31, 2016. The South American country is gearing up for a tight June 5th runoff between Keiko, the daughter of disgraced former leader Alberto Fujimori, and former World Bank economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
Obama warns Air Force grads not to succumb to isolationism

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP)  President Barack Obama implored the next generation of U.S. military leaders Thursday not to give in to isolationism or pull back from U.S. leadership in the world, drawing a contrast with a foreign policy vision laid out by Donald Trump.

Obama used his final commencement address as president to reassure the military that it remains the world's dominant fighting force, implicitly pushing back against critiques that its might has ebbed under his watch. Under searing sun and sweeping blue skies at the U.S. Air Force Academy, he told graduates they'd be called upon to strike a complicated balance between realism and idealism, withdrawal and overreach.

"We can't be isolationists. It's not possible in this globalized, interconnected world," Obama said. "In these uncertain times, it's tempting sometimes to try to pull back and wash our hands from conflicts that seem intractable, let other countries fend of themselves."

President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address to the Air Force Class of 2016, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Calling isolationism a "false comfort," he added that history had shown how "oceans alone cannot protect us."

For Obama, the speech was part of a tradition of addressing one of the military's four service academies at graduation. His outdoor address ended with a dramatic Thunderbird flyover as cadets tossed their caps  a moment later marred by news that one of the jets had crashed shortly after completing the maneuver. Obama was at the stadium at the time of the crash.

The pilot, identified as Maj. Alex Turner of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, safely ejected and later met with Obama.

"The president thanked the pilot for his service to the country and expressed his relief that the pilot was not seriously injured," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

Obama didn't mention Trump or other presidential candidates by name in his remarks, but his target was clear. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has called repeatedly for putting "America first" by rethinking U.S. alliances, spending less to ensure other countries' security and enacting strict tariffs that Trump acknowledges could potentially lead to a trade war.

Obama's rebuke of that philosophy came the same day the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, sharply criticized Trump's foreign policy. She delivered a speech in San Diego in which she assailed Trump as dangerous to U.S. national security and unqualified to be commander in chief.

Though Obama is waiting for the conclusion of the Democratic primary to start campaigning in earnest, he's worked increasingly to undermine Trump's appeal by attacking his policies. A day earlier, Obama visited a conservative stretch of Indiana on a self-described "myth-busting" mission to derail GOP arguments on the economy.

"When we panic, we don't make good decisions," Obama told the cadets and their families. He said the U.S. has to engage with the world but must also be wary of overextending itself, particularly with regard to military intervention.

"As we saw in Vietnam and the Iraq war, oftentimes the greatest damage to American credibility comes when we overreach, when we don't think through the consequences of all of our actions," Obama said.

In another clear nod to Trump, the president specifically mentioned the value of NATO, an alliance that Trump suggests is outdated.

Though Obama came into office pledging to end two wars and to keep the U.S. out of unnecessary entanglements, he's repeatedly bumped into the reality of overseas messes that seem to have pulled the U.S. back in.

Nearing the end of his term, Obama is weighing whether to again increase the number of troops he'll leave in Afghanistan. In Iraq, troop levels have crept back up, while special forces have been dispatched to Syria and Libya. Deep concerns about Russia and China have spurred calls for a more aggressive U.S. military posture in eastern Europe and Asia.

Of the 812 Air Force Academy graduates, 345 are going on to train as pilots, the Air Force said. Sixty will train to operate remotely piloted aircraft, such as drones, which Obama has made a central tool of U.S. counterterrorism efforts. About one-fourth of the Class of 2016 is female.

Obama also delivered commencement addresses at Howard University and Rutgers University this year.

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Associated Press writer Dan Elliott contributed to this report.

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Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

President Barack Obama, center, meets with Thunderbird pilot Maj. Alex Turner at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016, before returning to Washington after the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover met with Obama shortly safely ejecting safely into a Colorado field. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP, Pool)

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly overhead as graduating cadets celebrate with the "hat toss" after graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama salutes a color guard member as he arrives to the commencement ceremony for the class of 2016, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly in formation during graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address. A Thunderbirds jet crashed after flyover of academy commencement attended by Obama. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama congratulates graduating Air Force Academy cadet Ellis Anne Field during the commencement ceremony for the class of 2016, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. Obama delivered the commencement address to the Air Force Class of 2016. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

President Barack Obama returns a salute as he arrives to deliver his final commencement address to the 2016 class U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama delivers the commencement address at the 2016 class U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Obama is giving his final commencement speech to U.S. Air Force Academy graduates who are coming of age at a time of fresh global threats that seem to be pulling the U.S. back into conflicts with uncertain ends. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Members of the 2016 class U.S. Air Force Academy applaud as they listen to President Barack Obama deliver the commencement address, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Obama is giving his final commencement speech to U.S. Air Force Academy graduates who are coming of age at a time of fresh global threats that seem to be pulling the U.S. back into conflicts with uncertain ends. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Phoenix police: mother stabs, partially dismembers 3 sons

PHOENIX (AP)  The Phoenix mother had been transported to the hospital covered in blood with stab wounds to her neck and abdomen when police officers searching her house opened a closet to a grim discovery.

Inside officers found the partially dismembered bodies of her three young sons.

Police discovered the dead boys  ages 2 months old and 5 and 8 years old  in a closet full of miscellaneous items. Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump said the youngest boy's body was in a suitcase.

Law enforcement officials stand outside a home, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Phoenix where three boys were killed during a several hour period Wednesday night. The boy's mother was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds according to Phoenix police. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Crump said the children appeared to have been stabbed to death and "parts of their bodies were dismembered."

The 29-year-old mother is in the hospital in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds. Police say she is the primary suspect and will face charges.

A Phoenix police detective exits a home, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Phoenix where three boys were killed during a several hour period Wednesday night. The boy's mother was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds according to Phoenix police. (AP Photo/Matt York)

A Phoenix police detective prepares to enter a home, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Phoenix where three boys were killed during a several hour period Wednesday night. The boy's mother was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds according to Phoenix police. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Phoenix police detectives stand outside a home, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Phoenix where three boys were killed during a several hour period Wednesday night. The boy's mother was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds according to Phoenix police. (AP Photo/Matt York)

A Phoenix police detective stands outside a home, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Phoenix where three boys were killed during a several hour period Wednesday night. The boy's mother was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds according to Phoenix police. (AP Photo/Matt York)

A Phoenix police detective exits a home, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Phoenix where three boys were killed during a several hour period Wednesday night. The boy's mother was hospitalized in critical condition with self-inflicted stab wounds according to Phoenix police. (AP Photo/Matt York)
5 dead, 4 missing after Army truck swept away in Texas flood

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP)  Five soldiers were killed and four were missing after an Army troop carrier was washed from a low-water crossing and overturned Thursday in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood, the Texas Army post said.

Three soldiers were found dead shortly after the 2-ton truck was toppled by the swift current of Owl Creek during a morning training exercise. Two more bodies were found late Thursday night, according to a Fort Hood statement. Three soldiers were rescued and were hospitalized in stable condition.

No further details were provided in the statement, but spokesman Chris Haug said the search continued for the four soldiers who remain missing. Army officials planned a briefing early Friday to provide an update.

A Texas DPS helicopter flies over Lake Belton near the scene of an accident at Fort Hood at Owl Creek Park near Gatesville, Texas, on Thursday, June 2, 2016. Fort Hood says several soldiers are dead and six are missing after an Army troop truck was washed from a low-water crossing and overturned in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood in Central Texas. A statement from the Texas Army post says the accident happened about 11:30 a.m. Thursday in an area near Cold Springs and Owl Creek. (Michael Miller/The Temple Daily Telegram via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Aerial and ground crews searched the 20-mile creek that winds through heavily wooded terrain on the northern fringe of the sprawling Army base. Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were being used.

The Army did not release the names of the dead because it was still notifying relatives.

Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week  at least six deaths have been blamed on flooding  and more than half of the state is under flood watches or warnings, including the counties near Fort Hood.

Fort Hood spokesman John Miller said the crossing was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck, called a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, from the road. The vehicle resembles a flatbed truck with a walled bed and is used to carry troops.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a statement saying the state "stands ready to provide any assistance to Fort Hood as they deal with this tragedy."

Across the state, many were watching a new batch of storms that could dump up to 10 inches of rain from Thursday through Saturday and worsen flooding caused by rivers and other waterways that already have risen to record levels.

The heaviest rainfall Thursday night was reported in LaPorte, on the western shore of Galveston Bay, where 4.36 inches was recorded between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Earlier, a storm system that moved through the Houston area Wednesday night and Thursday morning dumped nearly 8 inches of rain in some of the city's northern suburbs, causing flooding in some neighborhoods. In Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, about 1,400 homes have been affected by the Brazos River, swollen by heavy rainfall from last week.

The river reached 54.8 feet in Fort Bend County  4 feet higher than the record set in 1994  with water spilling into neighborhoods that hadn't previously flooded. Officials say levels in the Brazos have not dropped much and additional rainfall could make the flooding worse.

"With the rain that's predicted, that's not going to help things as that water has no place to go," said Lt. Lowell Neinast, with the police department in Richmond, where more than 700 people have been evacuated.

Fort Bend County emergency management coordinator Jeff Braun said officials have worked to warn and prepare residents ahead of the additional rainfall.

More than 50 people are staying at shelters in Fort Bend County, one of the 31 included in a disaster declaration by Abbott. Braun said it could be at least a week before the flooding recedes and residents can go home.

This week's storms are the latest in a string of torrential rains since May 2015 that have put swaths of the state underwater. Some areas now overwhelmed by water had run dry two years ago due to drought conditions.

Other areas of Texas dealing with heavy rainfall include Bexar County, where San Antonio is located. Parts of that county got more than 4 inches of rain Wednesday and Thursday, causing more than 20 streets and roadways  including parts of Interstate 35  in San Antonio to be temporarily shut down.

The rising Colorado River was expected to cause minor flooding in the coming days around Bastrop and La Grange, cities located southeast of Austin, according to the National Weather Service.

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Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press writer Terry Wallace in Dallas also contributed to this report.

Morgan's Point Resort Fire and Rescue works on Lake Belton near the scene of an accident at Fort Hood at Owl Creek Park near Gatesville, Texas, on Thursday, June 2, 2016. Fort Hood says several soldiers are dead and six are missing after an Army troop truck was washed from a low-water crossing and overturned in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood in Central Texas. A statement from the Texas Army post says the accident happened about 11:30 a.m. Thursday in an area near Cold Springs and Owl Creek. (Michael Miller/The Temple Daily Telegram via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

A motorist passes through a low-water crossing on a road closed due to high water near New Braunfels, Texas, Thursday, June 2, 2016. About half of Texas is under flood watches or warnings, including Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, where about 1,400 homes have been affected by the swollen Brazos River. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A motorist passes through a low-water crossing near New Braunfels, Texas, Thursday, June 2, 2016. About half of Texas is under flood watches or warnings, including Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, where about 1,400 homes have been affected by the swollen Brazos River. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Chance Morgan canoes past flooded townhouses in the Forest Cove neighborhood as he tries to get to his home Thursday, June 2, 2016 near Kingwood, Texas. Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week, and more than half of the state is under flood watches or warnings, including the counties near Fort Hood. At least six people died in floods last week in Central and Southeast Texas. (Michael Ciaglo/Houston Chronicle via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

A Travis County Emergency Medical Services, Fire and Rescue helicopter flies over Lake Belton near the scene of an accident at Fort Hood at Owl Creek Park near Gatesville, Texas, on Thursday, June 2, 2016. Fort Hood says several soldiers are dead and six are missing after an Army troop truck was washed from a low-water crossing and overturned in a rain-swollen creek at Fort Hood in Central Texas. A statement from the Texas Army post says the accident happened about 11:30 a.m. Thursday in an area near Cold Springs and Owl Creek. (Michael Miller/The Temple Daily Telegram via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
The Latest: Father of slaying victim attacks killer in court

CLEVELAND (AP)  The Latest on a convicted sex offender being sentenced in the slayings of three women (all times local):

4:05 p.m.

The father of one of three victims of an Ohio serial killer has leaped over a table to attack the defendant in court just minutes after the judge pronounced a death sentence.

Van Terry is the father of victim Shirellda Terry. He was giving testimony Thursday about the loss of his daughter when he turned, paused and lunged toward Michael Madison.

Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County courtroom deputies wrestled Van Terry as Madison and others scrambled to get out of the way.

The proceeding continued once Van Terry was taken from the courtroom. Madison didn't appear to be injured.

The outburst happened minutes after Judge Nancy McDonnell sentenced Madison to death for the 2013 killings.

The body of 18-year-old Shirellda Terry and two other victims were found near the East Cleveland apartment building where Madison lived.

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2:40 p.m.

A convicted sex offender has been sentenced to death in Ohio for killing three women and wrapping their bodies in garbage bags.

A Cleveland judge on Thursday followed a jury's recommendation that 38-year-old Michael Madison should be executed for aggravated murder and kidnapping. The judge could have instead chosen life in prison with no chance of parole.

The bodies of 38-year-old Angela Deskins, 28-year-old Shetisha Sheeley and 18-year-old Shirellda Terry were found in July 2013 near the East Cleveland apartment building where Madison lived. Madison told police he strangled two of them but couldn't remember killing the third.

Madison's attorney never contested his guilt at trial. The defense instead focused on saving his life by presenting evidence that Madison suffered lasting psychological damage from abuse as a youngster.

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1:30 a.m.

A suburban Cleveland man convicted of killing three women and wrapping their bodies in garbage bags is set to learn whether he'll be sentenced to death, as a jury recommended.

The Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County judge sentencing Michael Madison on Thursday must decide whether he should die by lethal injection or get life in prison without parole.

A jury convicted Madison on aggravated murder and kidnapping counts last month, then deliberated for less than a day before recommending the death penalty.

Madison's attorneys argued that he shouldn't get a death sentence because of psychological damage caused by child abuse.
Colombia police rescue dogs from troubled neighborhood

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP)  Authorities have returned to a rugged Bogota neighborhood to rescue the dogs and cats left behind when police shut down the country's largest open-air drug market.

Col. Nelson Arias of Bogota's police says about 50 dogs and 20 cats were rescued by veterinarians during Thursday's operation. Arias says authorities hope to find people to adopt the rescued animals.

More than 1,000 people were removed over the weekend in a surprise raid on the neighborhood known as the Bronx that is located just blocks from the presidential palace. Authorities also rescued 136 minors, some of them possibly used as child prostitutes.

A police officer carries a dog that was rescued from El Bronx, a neighborhood plagued by drug addicts and prostitution, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

The Bronx has long been a major embarrassment and symbol of abandonment by the state. Authorities have tried to neutralize the neighborhood in the past but to no lasting effect.

A veterinarian gives deworming drops to a cat that was removed from El Bronx, a neighborhood that was plagued by drug addicts and prostitution, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police officers capture a cat roaming in El Bronx, a neighborhood that was plagued by drug addicts and prostitution, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police officers remove a dog roaming in El Bronx, a neighborhood that was plagued by drug addicts and prostitution, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police officers bathe a dog after he was captured in El Bronx, a neighborhood that was plagued by drug addicts and prostitution, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A police officer attempts to calm a dog after she was snatched with a release catch pole in El Bronx in downtown in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police officers use a release catch pole to capture a dog roaming in El Bronx, a neighborhood plagued by drug addicts and prostitution, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A police officer holds two newborn kittens removed from an apartment in the El Bronx neighborhood, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A police officer attempts to calm a dog after she was snatched with a release catch pole in El Bronx in downtown in Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Police officers watch over a group of dogs removed from the El Bronx neighborhood, as they wait their turn to bathe the animal in their care, in downtown Bogota, Colombia, Thursday, June 2, 2016. Days after the police raided the streets of Colombia's largest open-air drug market, authorities returned to rescue the abandoned dogs and cats. The goal is to get the animals adopted. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
Iowa Democrats mull challenger for veteran GOP Sen. Grassley

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  Republican Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has been winning Iowa elections for nearly six decades, yet Democrats are sensing vulnerability this time stemming from his refusal to hold confirmation hearings for President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee.

Underscoring the issue, party leaders even recruited a candidate with a fitting name  Patty Judge. The former lieutenant governor swiftly won the endorsement of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and has built her campaign bank account with an influx of donations, mostly from outside Iowa.

However, just as the progressive candidacy of Bernie Sanders turned the Iowa presidential caucuses into a nail-biter against the establishment favorite Hillary Clinton, Judge is facing a tough nomination battle against more liberal state Sen. Rob Hogg, who is supported by two key labor unions.

In this May 19, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge talks to local residents during a campaign stop in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Judge hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Hogg, a 49-year-old from Cedar Rapids who has written a book about climate change, had been considered the likely Democratic nominee before party leaders in Washington turned to Judge. Her experience as a farmer could appeal to rural voters, and her tenure as lieutenant governor and state agriculture secretary give her stronger name recognition across the state.

Since she entered the race in March, Judge, 72, has kept her focus clearly on Grassley, all but ignoring Hogg and two other Democrats running in the June 7 primary  attorney Tom Fiegen and former state legislator Bob Krause.

In early May, she released an online ad that criticized Grassley's actions blocking Merrick Garland's nomination to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Grassley and other Republican senators have maintained the next president should fill the seat.

"You really wonder whether or not he's doing his own thinking or has become a tool of Republican leadership," Judge said of Grassley shortly before she filed to run for Senate. "We're watching his aura of invincibility beginning to erode as Iowans realize he's no longer doing the job he was elected to do."

Even if there's some backlash against Grassley over the Supreme Court, the Democratic nominee still will face a tall task. The incumbent, who ranks fourth in the Senate in seniority, has $5 million available in his campaign account and hasn't lost an election since he first ran for the state Legislature in 1958.

If Judge is hoping to prove Grassley isn't invincible this fall, Hogg is trying to do the same against Judge in the Democratic primary. Although he hasn't been combative against her on the campaign trail or during debates, he has claimed to have stronger grass-roots support in the state.

"I think the best strategy for winning this is to focus on Iowans and talk to Iowans," Hogg told The Associated Press. "I don't think the way to win this campaign is spend all your time in D.C. raising money."

There has been no public polling, and Democratic activists said it's anyone's guess who will win. Although Iowa's general election turnout percentage is among the highest in the nation, primary turnout is far lower, adding to the uncertainty.

Megan Suhr, chairwoman of the Marion County Democrats in south-central Iowa, said the perception that Hogg is more liberal and not backed by national party leaders could help him in a year when Sanders and Republican Donald Trump have seen so much success.

A key difference between the two has been their stand on a lawsuit by the Des Moines water utility, which is trying to force three counties to reduce farm runoff into the city's water source. Hogg has supported the lawsuit while Judge joined with a private organization that criticized the utility and called for less confrontational actions.

Art Behn, who is chair of the Dallas County Democrats, said Judge's message that she's more electable also resonates with voters.

"The goal here is to defeat Grassley," Behn said. "A lot of people are thinking that Patty is better positioned to do that. They would vote for her in the primary in order to put her in that position."

Hogg has focused on small, in-state donations while Judge has received significant funding from outside Iowa. About a month after announcing her run, records show she had raised about $213,000  more money than Hogg had raised altogether since last July. By mid-May, Judge had added another roughly $155,000. Hogg to-date has raised more than $250,000.

Danny Homan, president of the state's largest public employee union, criticized the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's decision to recruit Judge shortly before the deadline to enter the race.

"I quite frankly am astounded and appalled by the DSCC coming into this state and hand picking a candidate without talking to anybody in this state ... and they decide who Iowa's candidate should be for the United States Senate," said Homan, who runs the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61. Homan's union and the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, have endorsed Hogg.

DSCC press secretary Lauren Passalacqua said the group had concluded Judge was "best positioned to give Iowans the representation in the U.S. Senate they deserve" but declined to respond to Homan's comments.

Suhr, the Marion County chairwoman, said she expects a close race.

"I live in a district right next door to Patty ... our counties are neighbors, and it's not a slam dunk for her there," she said. "It's a wide open field."

In this May 19, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge speaks to local residents during a campaign stop in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Judge hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this May 19, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge talks with Joanne Peterson, left, during a campaign stop in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Judge hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this May 19, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate former Iowa Lt. Gov. Patty Judge talks with Julie Geopfert, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, right, during a campaign stop in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Judge hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this May 18, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate state Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, speaks to local residents during a campaign stop in Hampton, Iowa. Hogg hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this May 18, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate state Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, does a radio interview with KLMJ radio general manager Craig Donnelly, left, during a campaign stop in Hampton, Iowa. Hogg hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this May 18, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate state Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, greets local residents during a campaign stop in Hampton, Iowa. Hogg hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

In this May 18, 2016 photo, Iowa Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate state Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, speaks to local residents during a campaign stop in Hampton, Iowa. Hogg hopes to unseat six-term Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Committee. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
AP Interview: In pursuit of GOP unity, Ryan endorses Trump

JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP)  House Speaker Paul Ryan endorsed Donald Trump's bid for president on Thursday, bringing an end to the extraordinary public split between the GOP's presumptive White House nominee and the nation's top Republican in office.

"I had friends wishing I wouldn't support him. I had friends wishing I would," Ryan said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. "I really didn't feel any pressure, other than my goal is to make sure that were unified so that we're at full strength in the fall so we can win the election."

Ryan's announcement, made in a newspaper column published in his Wisconsin hometown, marks a significant step for a Republican Party trying to come together ahead of a general election matchup against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Janesville, Wis. Ryan endorsed Donald Trump on Thursday, ending an extraordinary public split between the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee and the nation's highest-ranking Republican office holder. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

And Ryan made clear he had Clinton on his mind when he decided to join the ranks of Republicans who have slowly come around to backing Trump, the brash billionaire few expected to emerge as the party's nominee when the campaign began in earnest last year.

"This to me is about saving the country and preventing a third progressive, liberal term, which is what a Clinton presidency would do," Ryan said.

Trump celebrated the endorsement on his favorite venue, Twitter.

"So great to have the endorsement and support of Paul Ryan," Trump wrote. "We will both be working very hard to Make America Great Again!"

However, Trump made no mention of Ryan during a rally in San Jose, California, Thursday evening.

There are still some GOP leaders who say they won't support Trump, including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who tapped Ryan as his running mate four years ago. A day earlier, Romney signaled that he'd support a possible third-party candidate instead of the presumptive Republican nominee.

Ryan himself acknowledged that he continues to have concerns Trump's combative style, but said after a series of conversations with Trump, he's confident he and the House Republicans he leads as speaker will be able to work with him as president on their agenda.

"We obviously have a different kind of style and tone. That's very clear. Anyone who knows anything about us knows that," Ryan said. "But what really, ultimately matters is how best can we make sure these principles and policies get enacted in 2017."

As the GOP's so-called "Never Trump" movement struggled to identify a viable alternative, many believed it was only a matter of time before Ryan fell in line. The endorsement, he said, was not the product of any deal with the billionaire developer, but a decision based on "an understanding of our mutually agreed upon principles."

Ryan said he specifically wanted to go over Trump's approach to executive power, judicial appointments and his position on abortion.

"Those conversations took some time," he said, adding: "I feel much more comfortable that he's in the same page with us. Most importantly, it is obvious that Hillary Clinton is not."

Ryan ended a weeks-long standoff with Trump minutes before the interview by outlining his support for the New York billionaire in a column published online by The Janesville Gazette.

He had shocked the political world last month by refusing to endorse Trump once the real estate mogul became the last major Republican presidential contender still in the race.

The pair spoke privately in a series of Washington meetings last month and their staffs' stayed in touch. Ryan said he made the decision to formally endorse Trump earlier in the week.

"I wasn't just going to sign up sight unseen without even having a conversation or knowing what direction, because he had only mentioned a few policies in the primary," Ryan said. "I wanted to basically make sure that (we agreed) on the big issues of the day, on really important principles."

Major differences remain, however. And conservative leaders across the country continue to have deep reservations about Trump's devotion to Republican principles and his temperament.

In particular, Ryan has embraced major changes to Medicare and Social Security as his signature issue on Capitol Hill. Most Republicans in Congress have followed Ryan's plan to reduce the cost of the popular programs that are contributing to the national debt.

Trump has repeatedly promised not to touch the popular programs, echoing a position more commonly adopted by Democrats.

The two also break on immigration. Trump wants to deport more than 11 million immigrants in the country illegally in addition to imposing a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the U.S.

Ryan opposes both policies.

"It's no secret that he and I have our differences. I won't pretend otherwise," Ryan wrote in The Janesville Gazette column. "And when I feel the need to, I'll continue to speak my mind."

Ryan's announcement was released as Clinton was delivering a foreign policy speech excoriating Trump's approach.

Electing Trump, she said, would be "a historic mistake."

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Peoples reported from Washington.

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Follow Scott Bauer and Steve Peoples on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sbauerap and http://twitter.com/sppeoples

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., pauses during an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Janesville, Wis. Ryan endorsed Donald Trump on Thursday, ending an extraordinary public split between the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee and the nation's highest-ranking Republican office holder. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)
The prosecutor for St. Louis said Thursday she won't be charging two officers in the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old last year, concluding that no evidence disproves claims by police that it was self-defense.

Calling Mansur Ball-Bey's August 2015 death 'a tragedy in every aspect of the word,' Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said the officers and a witness reported that an armed Ball-Bey ran from a home during a drug and gun raid.

Both officers, who are white, have said they fired at Ball-Bey at the same time after he pointed a gun at one of them, though one officer missed, according to Joyce.

Joyce, whose office investigated the shooting separately from an internal police probe, said Ball-Bey's loaded gun was found at the scene, with his palm print on the ammunition clip.

Scroll down for video

Mansur Ball Bey's death came a little more than a year after a white police officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed Michael Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old, in nearby Ferguson, Missouri. Ball-Bey is seen in these photographs

St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce said Thursday she won't be charging two officers in the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old last year, concluding that no evidence disproves claims by police that it was self-defense

A local medical examiner concluded that Ball-Bey sustained a severed spinal cord, and a bullet pierced his heart.

'One of the biggest challenges we face in this case is that there is no independent, credible witness we can put in front of a grand jury or regular jury who contradicts police statements,' Joyce said in a statement. 'None of the other witnesses had a clear view at the moment when Ball-Bey was shot.'

She noted that the officers declined to speak to prosecutors.

An attorney for Ball-Bey's family, Jermaine Wooten, has questioned the police account, saying officers planted the gun on Ball-Bey at the scene if there was any weapon at all. Wooten said Thursday before Joyce's announcement that he anticipated the officers would not be prosecuted, adding that he has 'been down this road before' with area police being cleared in fatal shootings involving blacks.

After Joyce's decision, he reiterated that 'we're going to maintain the fact he did not have a gun that day.'

Ball-Bey's death came a little more than a year after a white police officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed Michael Brown, a black, unarmed 18-year-old, in nearby Ferguson, Missouri. Brown's August 2014 shooting sparked waves of protests, including some that turned violent, and was a catalyst for the national Black Lives Matter movement and debate over police treatment of minorities.

A St. Louis County grand jury and the U.S. Department of Justice ultimately cleared Wilson, who resigned in November 2014.

Ball-Bey's death led to an outcry as well, with protests leading to arrests and damaged property.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said Thursday he was confident Joyce made her decision after 'a comprehensive review.' He said his department plans to assess possible tactical lessons that could be learned.

The family of Mansur Ball-Bey listens on the steps of the Mel Carnahan Courthouse as their lawyer, Jermaine Wooten speaks Thursday. Wooten has questioned the police account, saying officers planted the gun on Ball-Bey at the scene if there was any weapon at all

'I have pledged transparency to the citizens of St. Louis and will continue to uphold this promise,' Dotson said in a statement.

The law gives police officers latitude to use deadly force when they feel physically endangered. The Supreme Court held in a 1989 case that the appropriateness of use of force by officers 'must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene,' rather than evaluated through 20/20 hindsight.

That standard is designed to take into account that police officers frequently must make split-second decisions during fast-evolving confrontations, and should not be subject to overly harsh second-guessing. The Justice Department cited that legal threshold last year when clearing Wilson in Brown's shooting.

Last November, Joyce cleared two St. Louis police officers in the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Kajieme Powell, who in August 2014 was armed with a steak knife as he approached the officers and urged them to shoot him. The white officers fired 12 times, killing Powell, who was black, while the region already was on edge over Brown's death 10 days earlier.

But last month, Joyce charged former St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley with first-degree murder in a 2011 shooting of a 24-year-old black man. Joyce said Stockley, who is white, was on duty when police say he witnessed a drug deal involving Anthony Lamar Smith. She said Smith and police became involved in a chase exceeding 80 mph and that Stockley approached Smith's car after the pursuit was over, firing five times into the driver's side and striking Smith with each round.

Stockley's attorneys have said he fired in self-defense.
The Latest: Thunderbirds cancel shows after jet crash

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP)  The Latest on an Air Force Thunderbird jet crash in Colorado (all times local):

8:03 p.m.

Upcoming Thunderbirds shows are being canceled after a pilot was forced to ditch his plane shortly after a flyover at the Air Force Academy's commencement ceremony, where President Barack Obama was speaking.

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly in formation during graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address. A Thunderbirds jet crashed after flyover of academy commencement attended by Obama. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Officials say they are canceling the shows while they investigate Thursday's crash, but they didn't say how long the team will be grounded.

The pilot, who safely ejected, is in good condition, but he will undergo medical screenings.

The Thunderbirds' next scheduled shows were at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico; North Kingston, Rhode Island; Ocean City, Maryland; and Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

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3:35 p.m.

The Air Force has identified the pilot of a jet that crashed following a flyover in Colorado. He is Maj. Alex Turner of Chelmsford, Massachusetts.

The Air Force Combat Command says Turner has more than 270 combat hours over Libya and Iraq.

Turner bailed out of his F-16 jet just after doing a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where President Barack Obama was speaking during a graduation.

Obama met with the pilot after the crash and thanked him for his service. The president also expressed his relief that he wasn't seriously injured.

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2:20 p.m.

President Barack Obama met with the pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird jet shortly after the plane crashed following a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says the president thanked the pilot for his service and expressed his relief that he wasn't seriously injured. The pilot safely ejected.

The F-16 crashed in a field near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs just after ceremonies at the nearby academy where Obama delivered the commencement address.

Authorities say no one on the ground was injured.

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2:00 p.m.

President Barack Obama was about 15 miles away from where an Air Force Thunderbird jet crashed after an Air Force Academy graduation.

Obama was still at Falcon Stadium at the Air Force Academy, where commencement took place. The ceremony lasted about 30 minutes. The president was taking photographs and greeting attendees in a private area during the Thunderbirds flyover.

News of the crash broke while Obama's motorcade was returning to Peterson Air Force Base  just next to where the jet crashed  for his flight back to Washington.

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1:44 p.m.

An Air Force Thunderbird jet crashed south of Colorado Springs just after a flyover for a graduation of Air Force Academy cadets where President Barack Obama had spoken.

Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michal (ma-CALL) Kloeffler-Howard said Thursday the pilot ejected. There was no information on the pilot's condition. No injuries on the ground were reported.

Obama was still at the graduation site at the time of the crash, taking photos with attendees prior to returning to Washington. The crash happened about 15 miles south of the academy.

Air Force Academy graduates throw their caps into the air as F-16 jets from the Thunderbirds make a flyover, at the completion of the commencement ceremony for the Air Force Class of 2016, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

A U.S. Air Force Thunderbird rests in a field where it crashed following a flyover performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets, south of Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

An Air Force security officer guards the site where a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird crashed following a flyover performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets, south of Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

An Air Force security officer guards the site where a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird crashed following a flyover performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets, south of Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

Madison Martin and Frank J. Ricotta III make a pinky promise to stay in touch following the Air Force Academy Class of 2016 graduation Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Ryan Jones/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

Crew inside a military helicopter examine the site where a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird crashed following a flyover performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets, south of Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

A U.S. Air Force Thunderbird rests in a field after it crashed following a flyover performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets, south of Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly overhead as graduating cadets celebrate with the "hat toss" after graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. A Thunderbirds jet crashed after a flyover of the academy commencement attended by President Barack Obama. The pilot was able to safely eject from the jet. (Ryan Jones/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly overhead after graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. A Thunderbirds jet crashed after a flyover of the academy commencement attended by President Barack Obama. The pilot was able to safely eject from the jet. (Ryan Jones/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows Maj. Alex Turner, of Chelmsford, Mass. The Air Force has identified Turner as the pilot of a jet that crashed following a Thunderbirds flyover in Colorado. Turner bailed out of his F-16 jet just after doing a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where President Barack Obama was speaking during a graduation ceremony. Obama met with the pilot after the crash and thanked him for his service, and expressed his relief that he wasn't seriously injured. (U.S. Air Force via AP)

Kyle Jameson, center, Jeffery Herrala and the Class of 2016 toss their hats into the air as the Thunderbirds fly over Thursday, June 2, 2016, at the end of the 2016 Commencement ceremony at Falcon Stadium on Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP)

Air Force One flies over the scene south of the Colorado Springs, Colo., airport after a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird crashed following a flyover after a performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

A U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover rests on the ground south of the Colorado Springs, Colo., airport after a performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

A U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover rests on the ground south of the Colorado Springs, Colo., airport after a performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

A U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover rests on the ground south of the Colorado Springs, Colo., airport after a performance at a commencement for Air Force Academy cadets Thursday, June 2, 2016. The pilot ejected safely from the jet. (Jerilee Bennett/The Gazette via AP) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

President Barack Obama, center, meets with Thunderbird pilot Maj. Alex Turner at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016, before returning to Washington after the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover met with Obama shortly safely ejecting safely into a Colorado field. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP, Pool)

A helicopter flies past U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration jets parked at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. An Air Force Thunderbird jet crashed south of Colorado Springs just after a flyover for a graduation of Air Force Academy cadets where President Barack Obama had spoken. (AP Photo/Joe Mahoney)

Air Force Thunderbird jets sit on the tarmac at Peterson Air Base, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016. An Air Force Thunderbird jet crashed Thursday in Colorado just after a flyover at a graduation ceremony for Air Force Academy cadets where President Barack Obama had spoken. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama, center, meets with Thunderbird pilot Maj. Alex Turner at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Thursday, June 2, 2016, before returning to Washington after the Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. The pilot of a U.S. Air Force Thunderbird that crashed following a flyover met with Obama shortly safely ejecting safely into a Colorado field. (Christian Murdock/The Gazette via AP, Pool)

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly in formation during graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. President Barack Obama delivered the commencement address. A Thunderbirds jet crashed after flyover of the academy commencement. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly overhead as graduating cadets celebrate with the "hat toss" after graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. A Thunderbirds jet crashed after a flyover of the academy commencement attended by President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The Air Force Thunderbirds fly overhead as graduating cadets celebrate with the "hat toss" after graduation ceremonies at the 2016 class of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Men say they invested in speaker's company out of friendship

OPELIKA, Ala. (AP)  Two prominent businessmen testified Thursday that they invested in Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard's debt-riddled printing company out of friendship and because they thought it would be a good investment.

Media outlets report that Great Southern Wood President Jimmy Rane and Hoar Construction President Rob Burton said their $150,000 investments were not made because of Hubbard's political position.

"I invested in that because Mike Hubbard was a friend, and it had nothing to do with being speaker of the house," Burton testified, according to the Montgomery Advertiser (http://on.mgmadv.com/20WcSom ).

Prosecutor Matt Hart questions witness Jimmy Rane during Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard's trial on Thursday, June 2, 2016, in Opelika, Ala. (Todd J. Van Emst/Opelika-Auburn News via Pool)

Hubbard's business partner testified earlier in the trial that in order to alleviate the company's debt, they decided to seek investments from deep-pocketed individuals in exchange for preferred stock in the company.

Hubbard is charged with 23 felony ethics violations, accusing him of using his positions as speaker and state GOP chairman to make money and benefit his clients. Those charges include that he solicited financial favors from lobbyists and people with business before the Alabama Legislature. Hubbard has maintained his innocence, saying he stayed within the limits of the law, which includes exemptions for longstanding friendships and normal business dealings.

The owner of a drinking cup company, who hired Hubbard in a $10,000.00 per month contract, also testified he that hired Hubbard to help market his products because of his background in college sports.

"We went to him because of the sports network connection is where I thought he might be helpful," Abrams said, according to al.com (http://bit.ly/1U0HpRn ). Hubbard's company once held the broadcasting rights for Auburn University athletics.

Testimony resumes Friday.
Elderly man sentenced in wide-ranging Jamaican lottery scam

FARGO, N.D. (AP)  An elderly man from Kentucky who decided to participate in a Jamaican lottery scam after he was victimized was sentenced on Thursday to time served and ordered to help pay back more than $5 million in losses to other victims.

North Dakota authorities say James Simpson, 74, opened individual bank accounts, deposited money and transferred funds on orders from scam leader Lavrick Willocks. Simpson deposited and withdrew more than $200,000 in cash from one bank account in three months, according to court documents.

Simpson's lawyer, Jackie Stebbins, said her client is a "good and honest man" who was persuaded by scammers to engage in criminal activity. Simpson is confined to a hospital bed and wheelchair in Kentucky and did not attend the sentencing hearing in Bismarck.

"My client was not the predator, he was the victim," Stebbins said. "To end up being charged as a federal felon, it just reeks."

Jamaican lottery scams have been happening for years, but few cases of this magnitude have been prosecuted. The case began after a North Dakota woman told authorities she was scammed out of $300,000 after someone called and told her she had won $19 million and a new car, and needed only to pay taxes and fees. The investigation led authorities to others that had been scammed, many of whom lost their retirement savings.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Clare Hochhalter, the lead prosecutor, said Simpson had "relatively low culpability," but helped the scammers become successful.

"Scammers and those who knowingly help them need to know their conduct will not be tolerated, wherever it occurs," Hochhalter said. "We need to raise awareness among family members and friends."

Stebbins said she appreciates that Hochhalter and North Dakota FBI Special Agent Frank Gasper are going after the scammers and called the resolution to Simpson's case a just result.

"We might disagree if my client should have been charged. I think he was a victim first and any role in the criminal conspiracy came second," Stebbins said. "It's a sad case. But these guys at the top, they prey on vulnerable people."
Officials: Pencil sharpener sparks fire at elementary school

UNION CITY, N.J. (AP)  Fire officials say a pencil left inside a running electric pencil sharpener sparked a fire at a New Jersey elementary school.

North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue Deputy Chief Michael Cranwell tells NJ.com (http://bit.ly/1O6Omjf ) the fire was reported around 7:20 a.m. Thursday in a room in Washington Elementary School in Union City.

Students, faculty and staff left the building and temporarily moved to a middle school.

Cranwell says the pencil sharpener's motor overheated and eventually ignited into flames.
Vote recount involving Dominican gay candidate underway

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP)  A court on Thursday ordered a partial recount of votes in a municipality where results have been challenged by the Dominican Republic's first openly gay person to run for Congress.

Officials expect to start a manual recount Friday of 30 percent of votes cast in the populous municipality of Santo Domingo Oeste.

Deivis Ventura, the gay candidate who lost his congressional bid, had asked the court to annul the results and order new elections in the municipality over allegations that the process was flawed, in part because ballots were moved to several different locations.

The Elections Commission already annulled the results last week amid irregularities including that precincts did not report vote totals electronically as required.

The recount is not expected to change the outcomes of federal-level races.

Ventura, a 42-year-old former private school teacher, told The Associated Press that he was frustrated by the court's decision ordering a recount rather than new elections.

"What that ruling does is validate the elections," he said.

Ventura was one of six candidates of his party running for the Chamber of Deputies in the municipality. Voters in that area also chose one senator and one mayor.

___
Schools with large numbers of EU pupils 'perform better'

Schools with a large number of immigrant children from the European Union (EU) outperform their rivals, new research suggests.

Figures studied by data analysts School Dash show that while nationally the number of white non-British or Irish schoolchildren has increased by just 1.2% from 2011 to 2015, some areas have seen an increase of up to 30%.

But while fears have been raised that this might place a strain on teachers, figures show that schools where pupils speak English as an additional language perform better.

Figures show that schools where pupils speak English as an additional language perform better

The findings will fuel concerns white British children are lagging behind their classmates.

Dr Timo Hannay, founder of School Dash, told the Press Association: "Nationally there doesn't seem to be a huge change over that period, but locally in some areas and some particular schools, there can be. It is a very location-specific phenomenon.

"You get some locations where it is 30% of the population, and obviously that is huge. But it is highly localised, it is not only location specific, it can be very school specific as well.

"On the whole those schools that have large numbers of non-British white pupils tend to do better than schools that have a smaller number of them."

The report aims to shed light on the impact EU expansion and immigration has had on Britain's schools ahead of the referendum later this month.

Dr Hannay, the report's author, said there are no national statistics for the number of British school pupils from the EU, so he used figures for white non-British and non-Irish children to give an approximate picture.

The figures show that London, Peterborough and parts of Lincolnshire and Norfolk have had the biggest influx of EU immigrant children enrolling in its schools.

The report found that schools with high white immigration did better than their low white immigration rivals, although this was mainly the case in London and outside the capital there was little, if any, difference.

It stated: "This may seem surprising. Why would schools with large numbers of foreign kids, many of whom learned other languages before picking up English, do better academically than similar schools catering mainly for native British pupils?"

Dr Hannay said the difference may be because immigrant families value education more than British natives.

He said: "Educationists tend to see having English as an additional language as a positive indicator of educational outcomes because a lot of those immigrant communities take education incredibly seriously.

"So even though the child may not have learnt English as a first language, they still may be adept at it and on the whole they seem to do better at school."

He added: "The increase in performance seems to be a London-specific effect. Why is that? There are two hypotheses and I suspect they are both a little bit true.

"One is that London is better at assimilating and educating those kind of children, it has got a very diverse population and its schools in recent years have got quite good, and maybe London for one reason or another is a better environment for those kids to thrive.
I told him to wear a tie! Veteran jokes with Harry at Normandy anniversary event

Prince Harry got a ticking off by a 91-year-old D-Day veteran for not wearing a tie as he met a group of comrades preparing to mark the anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

The prince was meeting with 45 veterans at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, Hampshire, where the Allied commanders planned the military action that changed the course of the Second World War.

But as Harry arrived, he immediately became aware that he was a little under-dressed for the occasion as he was wearing shirt and suit but no tie.

Prince Harry meets veterans John Dennett, centre, and Frank Diffell, left, in the Map Room during a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.

He asked John Phipps, founder of the D-Day Revisited charity, which organises visits to the Normandy beaches each year: "Are they all wearing ties in there? I should have worn a tie. Oh well, it's too late now."

Then when he met Ivor Anderson, a sapper in the 591 Para Squadron Royal Engineers, he was told off jokingly for not wearing the right attire.

Harry replied to him: "I was told not to wear a tie and then you all turn up wearing ties, I feel under-dressed."

Afterwards, Mr Anderson, from Salford, Manchester, said: "I told him he should wear a bloody tie. I said I had a spare one, he said he couldn't wear mine because he didn't have his wings."

Harry spent time meeting and chatting with many of the veterans including John Dennett, from Wallasey, Wirral, and Frank Diffell, from Melksham, Wiltshire, who are both 91.

He said to them: "I have so much respect for you guys - running off a boat on to those beaches."

Harry then wished them well on their trip to France for the commemorations and added: "Don't get into trouble and if you do, don't get caught."

After posing for a group photo with the veterans, he told them: "Enjoy the week, share the memories."

During his visit to Southwick House, Harry visited the Map Room where the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D Eisenhower, with naval Commander-in-Chief Admiral Ramsay and Army Commander-in-Chief General Montgomery plotted the campaign.

They used a large plywood map of the English Channel, which was big enough to fill an entire wall of the old drawing room, which was commissioned by the firm Chad Valley Toys and was installed in the house in April 1944.

The pins, tapes and markers on the map have now been reset to mark the moment when the landings began on the British and Canadian beaches on D-Day.

D-Day Revisited has been organising trips for the annual pilgrimage to France for D-Day veterans since 2008, providing medical support as many of the retired servicemen get older and less mobile.

Prince Harry speaks to Anthony Colgan, 92, during a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.

Prince Harry attends a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.

Ivor Anderson, 91, who gave Prince Harry a ticking off for not wearing a tie as he met a group of comrades preparing to mark the anniversary of the Normandy invasion.

Prince Harry attends a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.

Prince Harry attends a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.

Prince Harry meets veterans John Dennett, left, and Frank Diffell, right, in the Map Room during a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.

Prince Harry attends a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.

Prince Harry signs a visitors book during a reception with veterans who took part in the D-Day landings in 1944, at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, the headquarters where the Allied commanders planned the Normandy invasion.
4m scratchcard winner finishes shift after scooping prize on dinner break

A Wetherspoon kitchen manager scooped 4 million on a scratchcard he bought while taking his dinner break - then returned to work to finish his shift.

Amandou Gillen, 46, nipped into a newsagents in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, to buy two Black and Gold scratchcards at 8pm last Wednesday.

He returned for the remainder of his 12-hour shift at the Lloyds No 1 bar in the town and scratched the two cards while sitting in an outdoor staff area.

Amadou Gillen has won four million pounds on a scratchcard

The father-of-two, who has lived in Trowbridge for 23 years, immediately discovered he had won 10 on the first card and the top prize of 4 million on the second.

Mr Gillen kept his winnings secret from his colleagues and returned to his work in the kitchen, later breaking the news to his thrilled family.

"I bought the card at about 8pm on my dinner break, which I have an hour for," Mr Gillen said.

"I also bought cigarettes. I went outside the pub and that's when I started scratching the cards.

"I knew straight away I'd won four million. I went back to my work to finish my shift but I didn't say anything to anyone - I was screaming and dancing inside.

"I think my shift finished at 11.30pm or midnight, so it was almost four hours that I kept it quiet."

He only informed his daughters Takysha Smith, 20, and Sera Gillen, 22, about his win the following week - telling Takysha during a meal at Nando's.

Since the money arrived in his account, Mr Gillen has splashed out on a new wardrobe and booked a trip to see his family in the Gambia, where he is originally from.

The provisional driving license holder plans to take an intensive course in the next week in order to pass his test and buy his first car.

He currently lives in a one-bedroom rented flat in Trowbridge but has already began house-hunting for a four-bedroomed property in Bristol.

At a National Lottery press conference in Calne, Wiltshire, Mr Gillen said: "I have never started lessons. I have had my provisional driving licence since 2009 but I have never been able to afford to have a car or lessons.

"At the moment I just want to get a simple Peugeot and then I will get a BMW X6. I want to start an intensive course by next week."

Mr Gillen has worked five days per week as a kitchen manager at the pub for the past five years following an apprenticeship with McDonald's.

He purchased the two scratchcards, costing 10 each, from McColl's in Trowbridge on May 25 and received the money in his account on Tuesday.

His colleagues are still unaware of his win as he did not disclose it when he left work and handed his keys to his manager at the pub on Saturday.

Mr Gillen, who is single and came to England to study in 1993, has treated himself to a shopping spree at his favourite TK Maxx.

"I can get designer stuff there for discount prices - it is the same stuff as you get in the Gucci shops," he added. "I do like a bargain."

Part of his winnings will go to help his daughters, with Sera hoping to study sciences at university, and a holiday to Jamaica.
Britain's first plastic banknote featuring Sir Winston Churchill will, like the great stateman's reputation, "stand the test of time", the Governor of the Bank of England has said.

Unveiling the full new design for the 5 at Sir Winston's birthplace on Thursday, Mark Carney paid tribute to the wartime prime minister's "bulldog spirit" and his part in British history.

He said: "This spirit is just one, only one, of his many contributions that the Bank commemorates with the new fiver."

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney unveils the full design of the new polymer 5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

Mr Carney said "money was memory for a country and its people" and for that reason it was right that historical figures such as Churchill appeared on notes.

The "new fiver", which is being issued in September, marks a break from the current paper notes because it is printed on polymer, a thin flexible plastic film, which is seen as more durable and secure.

It is slightly smaller than the note it is replacing, can be wiped clean, and is tear-resistant.

The note was revealed today at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire where Sir Winston was born in 1874.

Mr Carney added: "Our banknotes are testaments to the outstanding achievements of the nation's greatest individuals.

"They are repositories of the United Kingdom's collective memory.

"That contribution will continue with the new 5, which brings together the future, in the form of polymer and the most advanced security features yet, and Britain's glorious history, in the achievements of Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill."

The new design is set to enter circulation in the autumn with a first print-run of 440 million notes, marking the start of the old notes' withdrawal.

Current 5 notes feature prison reformer Elizabeth Fry.

The announcement by the Bank of England in 2013 that Fry was being replaced caused an outcry as it could have meant that, apart from the Queen, there would be no female faces on the UK's notes.

Thousands of people signed a petition in protest at the move, and it was subsequently announced that novelist Jane Austen would be the face of the new 10 note from 2017.

Like the new fiver, the new 10 and 20 notes will also be printed on polymer.

In April, the Bank announced that artist JMW Turner will appear on the next 20 banknote, due to be issued by 2020.

Australia introduced the world's first plastic bank notes in 1988 and more than 30 countries have since followed suit.

Sir Winston's grandson, Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Soames, said the note was "a wonderful tribute" and thought the man himself would have liked it.

Speaking at the launch in the palace's Marlborough Room, he said: "I think he would regard it as an amazing tribute.

"When he was a young man I think he used to get through a fair bit of the stuff himself, so I think he probably would have thought it unlikely he would ever feature on a bank note himself.

"I think it's a wonderful tribute and it's a living tribute."

The note itself features Sir Winston's glowering visage in a famous portrait captured in Ottawa by Yousuf Karsh after the photographer is said to have taken his cigar from him.

The decision to use an image of the man voted "the greatest ever Briton" in a 2002 BBC poll went down well with the public in a showcase of the new note held immediately following the Governor's speech.

Ann Humby, from Swindon, said: "It's great, as it should be. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him."

However the 75-year-old thought some of the blue colouring on the note was "a bit wishy-washy".

The note is also supposed to be "cleaner, safer and stronger", as demonstrated by eight-year-old James Caccavone, who was unable to tear the new note, branding it "unbreakable".

His father Tony Caccavone also welcomed the new fiver's introduction, slated for September, and said: "It something that can handle today's life much better - especially the washing machine."

His wife Sue added: "I like the feel of it but I think it'll be tricky separating it when you're in the queue trying to get them out of your purse."

The Bank of England has estimated that the replacement notes will last at least two-and-half times longer than the old cotton-fibre version, and will stand up better to staining and folding.

The technology used in their manufacture also means they can incorporate stronger security features, although the governor stressed the UK has "a very low rate of counterfeiting".

The notes, which feature the Queen on the reverse, can also be told apart by people are partially-sighted or blind through new "tactile features".

The surface of the new fiver is entirely smooth, while the 10 and 20 notes will incorporate lines of bumps of differing lengths.

Mr Carney also confirmed there is "no immediate plan" to introduce a new 50, adding "those decisions will be taken in due course".

The new polymer 5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill is unveiled at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

The new design for the 5 banknote which features Sir Winston Churchill (Bank of England/PA)

Th new 5 banknote being printed (Bank of England/PA)

The new polymer 5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill is unveiled at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney unveils the full design of the new polymer 5 note featuring Sir Winston Churchill at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

Victoria Cleland, Chief Cashier, holding the new 5 polymer notes which feature Sir Winston Churchill. (Bank of England/PA)
Union barred from taking strike action on Southern and Gatwick trains

Train drivers' union Aslef has lost a High Court fight over proposed industrial action on Southern and Gatwick services.

A judge has barred union bosses from inducing drivers employed by operating company Govia Thameslink Railway to take industrial action in the wake of a disagreement about the introduction of driver-only operated trains.

Mr Justice Supperstone said his injunction would last until a judge had fully analysed Govia's claims that Aslef had acted unlawfully at a trial.

Workers on Southern are barred from striking by an injunction

The judge imposed the injunction on Thursday after analysing preliminary issues at a High Court hearing in London.

Aslef had objected to the introduction of trains without conductors on some services - complaining that they were less safe, the judge heard.

Bosses had balloted members - who had voted for industrial action - and Govia had taken legal action.

Company bosses claimed that Aslef had - in breach of rules - already called upon members to participate in industrial action.

They also said the union had wrongly balloted drivers who would not be asked to drive trains at the centre of the dispute.

However Aslef disputed Govia's claims.

But Mr Justice Supperstone ruled in Govia's favour. He said Govia had a "strong case".

The judge said if Govia was successful at any trial a damages award would not be enough to compensate the company for the harm caused by industrial action.

"I am satisfied that damages would not be an adequate remedy," he said.

"The balance of convenience falls in favour of granting an interim injunction."

Aslef had said the imposition of an injunction barring industrial action in the wake of a ballot would be "oppressive".

Mr Justice Supperstone rejected the union's complaint.

He said: "The potential disruption and inconvenience to the general public and damage likely to be caused by the industrial action significantly outweighs the suggested harm to the union."

The judge said a trial had been fixed to start on June 27.

A GTR spokesman said: "We are pleased that the court has agreed with us and granted an injunction against the Aslef ballot. This means that any industrial action the union was planning cannot now take place. This will come as a great relief to our passengers.

"Following this ruling, we now urge both RMT and Aslef to return to the negotiating table.
Helicopter pilot shot while tracking Tanzania poachers 'died doing heroic work'

A British helicopter pilot shot by elephant poachers in Tanzania died doing "heroic and important work", minutes before a doctor reached his remote location in the bush, an inquest heard.

Roger Gower, 37, was helping authorities in the east African country track criminals after an animal was killed and stripped of its ivory tusks when they opened fire on his aircraft with AK-47 assault rifles on January 29.

The inquest on Thursday heard that he survived the crash landing of the helicopter, which had been flying at low level on the Mwiba Wildlife Ranch. But he went quiet just five minutes before a doctor could get to where he lay awaiting rescue near the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania's north.

Roger Gower, 37, was helping authorities in the east African country after an animal was killed and stripped of its ivory tusks

Nick Bester, who was the passenger in the helicopter, broke his back in the crash landing. In a statement read at the hearing in west London on Thursday, he described how, after finding the carcass, Mr Gower had spotted what turned out to be a backpack with ivory in it on the ground.

"We were then fired upon from bushes below us," he said.

"As he attempted to gain altitude and retreat, a bullet came through the bottom of the helicopter, hitting Roger Gower. I looked over and saw (he) had been badly wounded, his right forearm was shattered and hung limp, his shoulder was also seriously damaged. He also had a visible wound to his right eyebrow."

Mr Bester said that Mr Gower's wounds meant he could not control the helicopter and it came down. Despite his own injuries, he managed to free the pilot, drag him to cover and use the first aid kit to bandage his wounds before collapsing himself.

Mr Bester added: "From then on we lay and waited for our rescuers to arrive, who were greatly hampered by weather conditions and the remoteness of the location, there had been a huge amount of rain and rivers were full of water.

"It took approximately two hours for the first two men to get to us, they were only able to carry a limited amount of equipment as they had to swim the river to get to us. They rebandaged Roger Gower's wounds. We then had to wait for the doctor to get to us, this took several hours.

"Roger last made sound about five minutes before the doctor arrived, up until this point he had been conscious or semi-conscious. The doctor noticed he was very cold when he arrived and asked us if Roger was still alive, he had no pulse and the doctor performed CPR for about half an hour but he was unable to resuscitate Roger."

The inquest heard that Birmingham-born Mr Gower had attended the independent Hallfield School in Edgbaston and Malvern College in Worcestershire before attending Bristol University.

A statement from his father David Gower said his son, the youngest of three brothers, had then qualified as an accountant before decided to become a helicopter pilot, training in Florida before working in Tanzania and Kenya. He had been working for the Friedkin Conservation Fund at the time of his death.

Jeremy Chipperfield, the assistant coroner for west London, recorded a verdict of unlawful killing at his inquest, saying: "Roger Gower was involved in heroic and important work when he was attacked by suspected elephant poachers, and the injuries sustained from the bullet wounds and or from the crash when his helicopter landed caused his death."

Speaking after the inquest, Roger's brother Max Gower, from west London, said: "We know everybody who Roger worked for tried their very best to save him."

He said eight people had already been jailed for five years each in Tanzania for firearms offences but several were also due to stand trial over his brother's death. He said he believed the Tanzanian government was doing all it could to root out corruption linked to poaching.

The east African nation is fighting a bitter struggle to stop ivory poachers - a report last year stated 60% of its elephant population had been lost in the previous five years. China is the world's largest market for illegal ivory, which has been thriving under the cover of legal ivory sales.

Mr Gower added that around 250,000 had been committed so far to the Roger Gower Memorial Fund. Its first project will be repairing a school in Kenya and it is looking for a similar project to fund in Tanzania.
Plane returned to British Airways after threat prompts security alert in US

A security alert was launched after a threat was made about a British Airways flight from London to New Jersey in the US.

The flight, carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew, arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport at around 1pm after the unspecified threat was received.

Police at the airport later said nothing harmful or suspicious was found after a search of the cabin and cargo area at a remote section of the airport.

A British Airways plane was the subject of a security alert
Michael Gove admits to nerves as he pitches Brexit to TV audience

Michael Gove has admitted he is "nervous" ahead of his chance to address the nation and "allay people's fears" about Brexit.

David Cameron faced questions from journalists and members of the public on Sky News on Thursday evening as he sought to make the case for the UK to remain in the EU.

And it will be the Justice Secretary's turn to be grilled on Friday night when he seeks to sway viewers to back a leave vote.

Michael Gove is in the Brexit camp

Speaking ahead of his appearance, Mr Gove said: "I'm quite nervous about tomorrow because I've never done anything like this before but the main thing is I have been chosen to make sure that people have a chance to hear the Vote Leave message, so the main thing that I want do is to try to get across the essence of our case.

"And of course Faisal Islam is a tough interrogator and I'm sure that he will challenge me to make the case as to how life will be a bit different and better if we were outside the European Union, and I'm sure there will be some worries from members of the audience about what leaving might mean.

"I hope to be able to paint a positive picture of life outside and allay people's fears."

Mr Cameron has avoided appearing alongside Tories who back Brexit during the referendum campaign.

But Mr Gove said he is not frustrated that he is not going head-to-head with the Prime Minister, saying the format was chosen by the broadcaster and that he is "very happy to make the case in this way".

When asked what he will try to avoid during his televised appearance, he said: "I think falling over as I arrive or leave would be a bit of a no-no. And cracking up in the middle of one of my own answers."

He also said he will be seeking to avoid imitating Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, who almost fell off a stage at a televised event prior to the last general election.

"I remember Ed Miliband falling off the stage, which is why it was in my mind," he said.

"But that's the BBC Question Time format, this is a slightly different one."

Mr Gove also downplayed the potential impact of the event.

He said: "I think that they are important because they are an opportunity to make the argument, but I think that when we had the first debates in a general election in 2010 a lot of attention was put on them, but in the end I think the debates - while they were interesting and I am sure helped some people make up their minds - weren't game changing.

"So I don't think these debates will be game-changing, but I do think that they are an important part of giving people the information they need in order to make up their mind fairly."
Two Tunisians killed in landmine blast near Algerian border - ministry

TUNIS, May 30 (Reuters) - Two Tunisian civilians were killed and one other injured on Monday by a landmine planted by jihadist groups in a mountainous region near the Algerian border, the defence ministry said.

Security forces are engaged in a crackdown on Islamic State militants after they carried out four major attacks in the last year, and a small group of al-Qaeda linked group is also fighting troops along the Algerian border.

"A mine implanted by terrorists exploded in Samama Mountain killing two women and injuring another," ministry spokesman Belhassen Oueslati said.
PASCAGOULA, Miss - As Jackson County prepares to take bids on a new ambulance service contract, a review of similar contracts in nearby counties suggest that Jackson leaders could expect to see proposals with lower subsidies and more accountability.

Acadian Ambulance has provided service to Jackson County for years; in recent discussions, some officials have said they are satisfied with the quality of Acadian's service, while others have questioned whether the county has maintained proper oversight, and whether it has been getting an adequate accounting of Acadian's response times. Acadian also has been receiving a $180,000 subsidy from the county, and District 5 Supervisor Randy Bosarge has said that is unnecessary and should be ended.

Bennie French, community and governmental relations representative for Acadian, has said that because of likely patient privacy violations under HIPAA laws, monthly compliance reports cannot include time of arrival.

A Mississippi Press comparison of ambulance contracts in Jackson, Harrison and Hancock counties shows that each county has stipulations that must be met in order for ambulance services to receive their subsidies from the counties. In analyzing contracts from Harrison and Hancock counties, it is immediately apparent that Jackson County is paying a much larger subsidy than their neighboring counties.

According to Section 2.1 of the Hancock County contract with American Medical Response (AMR), "the county will provide an annual subsidy of the greater of $15,000 or the minimum subsidy required by the Mississippi Department of Health Division of Emergency Medical Services to participate in the Emergency Medical Service Fund (EMSOF) grant program to AMR." The county will direct all EMSOF money to AMR.

Section 3.3.1 of the Hancock County contract specifies that response times will be calculated from the time of receipt of the EMS Control Center of "essential information" until the arrival at the scene of the incident by an ALS paramedic representing AMR or its mutual aid delegate. Response times will be calculated each calendar month by AMR and verified by the contract administrator.

According to the Harrison County contract, the county will pay AMR an annual subsidy of $28,065.75 as required by the state of Mississippi in order to qualify for funding from EMSOF. The annual subsidy is due on April 1. Section 3.1.1. states that all EMSOF funds "will be utilized at the direction of the County for the purpose of enhancing the provision of the emergency medical care in accordance with the EMS state statutes, rules and regulations." The County EMS Coordinator will determine how the funds are to be distributed.

The Harrison contract does not appear to specifically require that time of arrival be reported. Like the Hancock County contract, it specifies that AMR must make a monthly report showing how well it is meeting specified response time goals. Response times are calculated from the time the service has the "essential information" necessary to send out an ambulance, to the time of arrival.

According to Chris Cirillo of AMR, every clause AMR is contracted to provide in Hancock and Harrison county, they administer.

"AMR has always consistently provided the level of service that we have been contracted to provide in our contracts," Cirillo said. "Not only have we met the standard, AMR has always provided response times and every other requirement of our contracts, not just to meet the standard, but to provide better than expected service. We are very transparent about the response times and all the other deliverable expectations in our contract. We do not hide behind various excuses to withhold reports. Our records are open to be audited."

Request for Proposals (RFP) will officially go out to bid at Monday's Board of Supervisors meeting and while it is not clear if AMR will bid for Jackson County, potential suitors will be lined up to present their cases to the board.
Lockheed says will spice up Sikorsky helicopter offer in Poland

By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN, June 1 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp aims to sweeten Sikorsky's bid to build 50 helicopters for Poland if Warsaw scraps a $3 billion plan to buy the helicopters from Airbus Group SE, a senior Lockheed executive told Reuters on Wednesday.

Steve O'Bryan, head of business development for Lockheed's mission systems and training business, which includes Sikorsky, said a new bid would include weapons, combat training and pricing in the Polish currency, all elements that were not included in Sikorsky's original bid.

He said Lockheed's acquisition of Sikorsky last year provided opportunities to strengthen the proposal. "We're better together," O'Bryan told Reuters in an interview, underscoring the benefit of bidding as a newly joined unit.

As well as boosting Poland's defence industry, buying Sikorsky helicopters could further strengthen Warsaw's ties with Washington, already its closest ally, and could help secure U.S. backing for Poland's demands for a stronger NATO presence on the alliance's eastern flank.

Lockheed officials have said they are standing by to work with the new Polish government if it decides to cancel the Airbus order placed by the previous government, and even have pre-built Black Hawk helicopters on hand if needed.

Earlier this year, a Polish deputy defence minister said the deal with Airbus was likely to be scrapped. Members of the new government have said they would rather see the deal awarded to a company that builds the helicopters locally.

Both Sikorsky and AgustaWestland, a unit of Italy's Leonardo, formerly known as Finmecccanica SpA, have facilities in Poland. Airbus would source work on its helicopters in Poland, but Polish officials have said the aircraft would mostly be built in France.

Lockheed will also display a Black Hawk helicopter built in Poland during large-scale bilateral U.S.-Polish military exercises planned in Poland next month, company officials said.

Other Black Hawk helicopters will fly in the exercise, company officials said. This will take place shortly before a NATO summit in Warsaw in July, where Poland is expected to seek a greater allied presence on its territory.

O'Bryan said it was increasingly important for weapons makers to involve local industry, ensure some technology transfer and help build lasting domestic industries when competing for large arms sales today, unlike the shorter term "offset programs" favoured in the past.

Poland's previous centrist government, beaten by the eurosceptic Law and Justice (PiS) party in elections last October, agreed a provisional deal with Airbus for 50 EC-725 Caracal multi-purpose helicopters.
U.S. takes further steps to block N.Korea's access to financial system

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday declared North Korea a "primary money laundering concern" and moved to further block its ability to use the U.S. and world financial systems to fund its weapons programs.

The U.S. Treasury Department called for a prohibition on certain U.S. financial institutions opening or maintaining correspondent accounts, which are established to receive deposits from or make payments on behalf of a foreign institution, with North Korean financial institutions.

Crucially, Treasury also prohibited the use of third parties' U.S. correspondent accounts to process transactions for North Korean financial institutions.

The announcement came days after the latest failed missile launch by the isolated state. Tensions in the region have been high since January when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and then followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles, in defiance of UN resolutions.

Those efforts have all fueled calls in Washington, and abroad, for a clampdown on Pyongyang.

U.S. law already generally prohibited U.S. financial institutions from engaging in transactions with North Korean institutions, but Treasury's latest actions would impose additional controls, especially the prohibition on the use of third-country banks' U.S. accounts to process transactions for North Korea.

"This is meaningful," said Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is designating the entire country, which means essentially that any entity that is interested in interacting with U.S. financial institutions should no longer have any business with North Korea."

"Most, if not all, entities, if faced with the choice of having access to the U.S. financial system or doing business with North Korea, are going to make the obvious choice," Cha added.

South Korea's foreign ministry on Thursday welcomed the move, which it said in a statement would boost the effectiveness of existing sanctions on the North and have a broader impact than a 2005 U.S. Treasury measure that targeted a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau.

But China, North Korea's most important backer despite Beijing's anger at Pyongyang's nuclear program and support for U.N. sanctions, expressed concern.

"We have consistently opposed any county using its domestic law to impose unilateral sanctions on another country," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.

About $24 million of North Korean funds was frozen at Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) after the U.S. Treasury accused it of helping to channel earnings from the North's illicit activities, leading to a frantic attempt by Pyongyang to retrieve the money.

The North has since developed tactics to skirt financial restrictions by resorting to informal means to transfer money, including the use of bulk cash hand-carried by officials.

Adam Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Washington expected other governments and financial authorities to make similar moves to prevent Pyongyang from "abusing" global financial institutions to support its development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

"The regime is notoriously deceitful in its financial transactions in order to continue its illicit weapons programs and other destabilizing activities," Szubin said in a statement.

The Treasury was required to assess North Korea's status as a money laundering jurisdiction under the "North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act," passed nearly unanimously by the U.S. Congress in February.
Switzerland's Kudelski opens U.S. HQ to counter strong franc, tap demand

ZURICH, June 1 (Reuters) - Swiss digital TV security company Kudelski said it is opening a second headquarters in the United States to mitigate the effect of the strong Swiss franc which has hurt its profits and to better access faster-growing markets.

Kudelski, based near Lausanne, will open a second headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, and begin reporting in U.S. dollars, instead of francs, starting next year.

The company, which makes swipe cards used by skiers to access slopes and digital television access systems for customers including Dish Network, said in February its annual sales growth had been held back by the strong Swiss franc.

The franc has surged in value after the Swiss National Bank scrapped a longstanding cap versus the euro last year and as investors seek a safe-haven currency.

"The strength of the Swiss franc continues to affect the profitability of the Kudelski Group and more specifically its capacity to invest over the long term," Kudelski said in its statement.

As most of the company's revenue is generated in currencies other than the Swiss franc it has given it less visibility over its future results.

Additionally, Kudelski said it saw stronger growth opportunities outside Europe, particularly in the United States. More than a third of its digital TV-related sales are already in the Americas, according to its annual report.

"The outlook in Switzerland and Europe... is less promising," Kudelski added, saying some Swiss employees would be offered a transfer to Arizona.
Lawyer for alleged 9/11 attacker claim cancer risk at Guantanamo

By Lacey Ann Johnson

FORT MEADE, Md., June 1 (Reuters) - Attorneys for one of five men charged in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington expressed concerns about the safety of the trial's current location at a U.S. Navy base in Cuba, citing reports of cancer-causing chemicals.

Wednesday's request of an independent review of the safety of the courtroom in Guantanamo Bay came in the third day of a pre-trial hearing for the defendants, including Pakistan-born Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who took credit for masterminding the hijacked plane attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The five could be put to death if found guilty.

A lawyer for Yemeni defendant Walid bin Attash, a suspected al Qaeda training camp leader, told the judge, U.S. Army Colonel James Pohl, that he felt unsafe in the Guantanamo courtroom.

"I'm not comfortable being in this room," said defense attorney Michael Schwartz, a former U.S. Air Force captain. "What I'm concerned with are the toxins that are known to cause cancer ... We're standing on top of a piece of property that was likely used for jettisoning fuel in the course of regular military operations for decades."

Reuters monitored the court proceedings from a media center at Fort Meade, Maryland, outside Washington.

A public health report released by the Navy in February detected chemicals including mercury, formaldehyde, arsenic and Benzo pyrene at the Camp Justice portion of the base, which once served as an airfield. The report found that "potential cancer risk and non-cancer health effects associated with Camp Justice ... cannot be determined."

At least seven civilians and military members who worked on detainee trials at Guantanamo Bay have been diagnosed with cancer, according to a complaint filed last year with the U.S. Defense Department's Office of the Inspector General. Over the past decade, roughly 200 prosecutors, defense lawyers and other court personnel have worked on the base.

The complaint did not allege an increase in cancer levels among detainees, who are imprisoned on a separate part of the 45-square-mile (117-square-kilometer) base.

Pohl denied a request to bring in an independent expert for an opinion on the matter this week, saying Schwartz's team had filed a motion asking for a review too late. He said he would consider having an expert testify on the health risks when the pre-trial hearing next convenes in July.
U.N. council condemns N.Korea missile launches, threatens action

UNITED NATIONS, June 1 (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday condemned three recent failed ballistic missile tests by North Korea and threatened to take further "significant measures."

Tension in Northeast Asia has been high since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and followed that with a satellite launch in February and test launches of various missiles.

Last month the 15-member Security Council was unable to condemn two failed ballistic missile launches by North Korea in late April after Russia proposed amendments to a draft statement that had already been approved by the remaining 14 members.

The United States, Japan and others found the proposals unacceptable.

The statement issued by the council on Wednesday condemned the two late April tests as well as another failed missile launch by Pyongyang on Tuesday.

Earlier in April North Korea had conducted an intermediate-range ballistic missile test and a submarine-launched ballistic missile test, which were both condemned by the Security Council at the time.

"The members of the Security Council deplore all DPRK (North Korea) ballistic missile activities, including these multiple failed launches, noting that such activities contribute to the DPRK's development of nuclear weapons delivery systems and increase tension," the council said on Wednesday.

"The members of the Security Council further regretted that the DPRK is diverting resources to the pursuit of ballistic missiles while DPRK citizens have great unmet needs," the council said.
Syrian opposition wants clarity over attacks by U.S.-backed force

By Tom Miles

GENEVA, June 1 (Reuters) - The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have attacked armed groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad and sometimes appear to have interests aligned with the Syrian government, a Syrian opposition negotiator said on Wednesday.

Basma Kodmani, a member of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition group at U.N.-mediated peace talks, told reporters that the HNC wanted clarity on the objectives of the SDF.

She said the concerns included "how they are viewed by the local population, what they stand for politically, and also because they have so far attacked some of the Free Syrian Army groups and the areas under their control".

The SDF is an umbrella group of fighters from the Kurdish YPG militia and Syrian Arab groups, some of which fought alongside it in a campaign that drove Islamic State from wide areas of northern Syria last year.

NATO member Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast. Washington considers the PKK terrorists but backs the Syrian Kurdish militia in the fight against Islamic State.

Last week Turkey's foreign minister called the United States "two-faced" for refusing to call the YPG terrorists, after photos emerged purportedly showing U.S. Special Forces wearing YPG emblems on their shoulders.

The SDF fighters have opened a major new front in Syria's war, launching an offensive to drive Islamic State out of a swathe of northern Syria it uses as a logistics base, and were reported on Wednesday to be making swift progress.

A senior western diplomat said that the SDF was made up of almost 90 percent Kurdish fighters and that Arab representation was more symbolic and within the SDF's Political echelons.

"The big concern here is that if the Kurds are deemed to be launching the offensive on (the Islamic State stronghold) Raqqa then it could open a new civil war between the two communities."

He added that the U.S. stance of openly backing the YPG but being ambiguous in military support of HNC-backed armed groups was muddying the waters and adding to the opposition's apprehension towards the U.S. administration.

"We have a player here who is not clear at all on what they stand for, what they want, what their ultimate agenda is. None of this is clear to us," Kodmani said.

"This creates a lot of discomfort, at least with them, and sometimes outright hostility because they themselves are in a position of aggressing the Free Syrian Army and working either directly with regime forces or to the benefit of regime forces.

"They have indeed on some fronts been working in exactly the same direction as the regime, unfortunately."
Philippines won't be "lackey" to anyone - incoming foreign minister

By Manuel Mogato and Karen Lema

MANILA, June 1 (Reuters) - The Philippines will not distance itself from its long-time security ally, the United States, but neither will it be a lackey to any foreign power, incoming Foreign Minister Perfecto Yasay told Reuters on Wednesday.

In his first interview with the foreign media since being appointed by President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, the lawyer by training sought to underline the Philippines' independence in dealing with disputes with China over the South China Sea.

"We should not be a lackey of any nation," Yasay said in Manila, the day after Duterte named his cabinet.

Under outgoing President Benigno Aquino, the Philippines moved closer to Washington, in turn straining ties with China.

Yasay said relations with China should improve.

"For as long as it (China) adheres to the rule of law, respects our territorial integrity and sovereignty...we should continue to make sure that our friendship and relationship would be stronger," he said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the door was always open to dialogue, which would be helpful for "breaking the deadlock" in China-Philippines relations in recent years.

"If the Philippines sincerely wish to come back to the track of dialogue and negotiations we welcome that," Wang told reporters in the Canadian capital Ottawa.

"We would be happy to see the new government in the Philippines make wise choices."

Duterte, the tough-talking mayor who takes office on June 30, said on Tuesday that the Philippines would not rely on Washington, signalling a potential shift in approach to the South China Sea and broader security issues.

"He was simply articulating the position that, according to the constitution, we are supposed to carry an independent foreign policy," Yasay said of Duterte's remarks.

Yasay added that the president-elect would honour existing treaties with the United States, including the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement that allows U.S. troops increased access to local bases.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Duterte on May 17 to congratulate him on his election win.

"That was a very strong indication about our friendship with America not being affected, and will not be affected by his election," Yasay said.

At the same time, Duterte has not ruled out renegotiating agreements in the future if it was deemed necessary.

"When he said he is committed to agreements we have entered into...he does not discount the possibility that in the future, if it is determined that there is a need to further negotiate on these agreements on the basis of pursuing the mutual interest of both countries, we should not hesitate to do so," Yasay said.

The Supreme Court this year upheld the constitutionality of the agreement that lets the United States build warehouses and logistics hubs anywhere in the Philippines.

Washington is also helping its former colony to bolster its defences, providing three Hamilton-class cutters, radar equipment and a research ship that will arrive in July.

The build-up is part of an effort by the Philippines to strengthen its claims in the disputed South China Sea, where China has been constructing artificial islands.

Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines also have overlapping claims in the sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas and a key trade route through which an estimated $5 trillion worth of goods pass each year.

Yasay, who has participated in global trade deals in the past, said Manila would respect whatever decision is handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, where the Philippines is challenging China's position on the disputed waters. It is not clear when a ruling will come.

Duterte has said he was open to joint ventures with China to explore and exploit resources in the South China Sea.
U.S.-backed forces open major front in Syria war

By Phil Stewart and John Davison

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT, June 1 (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S.-backed fighters opened a major new front in Syria's war, launching an offensive to drive Islamic State out of a swathe of northern Syria it uses as a logistics base and appearing to make swift initial battlefield advances.

The operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of quiet preparations, aims to choke off the group's access to Syrian land along the Turkish border that the militants have long used to move foreign fighters back and forth to Europe.

"It's significant in that it's their last remaining funnel" to Europe, a U.S. military official told Reuters, which was first to report the offensive.

A small number of U.S. special operations forces will support the push on the ground to capture the "Manbij pocket" of territory, acting as advisers and staying back from the front lines, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss military planning.

"They'll be as close as they need to be for the (Syrian fighters) to complete the operation. But they will not engage in direct combat," the official said.

The operation will also count on air power from the U.S.-led coalition, which pounded Islamic State positions near Manbij with 18 strikes on Tuesday, including six militant tactical units, two headquarters facilities and a training base.

A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town.

It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that Islamic State defences stationed on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign.

ASSAULT

Driving Islamic State from its last remaining foothold at the Turkish border has been a top priority of the U.S.-led campaign against the group. The group controls about 80 km (50 miles) of the frontier stretching west from Jarablus.

Still, some U.S. military and intelligence officers caution that Islamic State has proved adaptable, willing to change tactics.

In Iraq, for example, the Sunni extremist group has countered some territorial and other losses by staging attacks in Baghdad, the seat of the country's Shiite-led government.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said U.S.-led air strikes in support of the ground operation killed 15 civilians including three children near Manbij in the past 24 hours. The Observatory's reporting is based on an activist network in Syria.

It said the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, which is conducting the assault to capture the Manbij pocket, had taken 16 villages and was 15 km (9 miles) from Manbij town itself.

The U.S. officials said earlier the operation would be overwhelmingly comprised of Syrian Arabs instead of forces with the Kurdish YPG militia, who will only represent about a fifth or a sixth of the overall force.

That is seen as important to NATO member Turkey, which has opposed any further expansion of Syrian Kurdish sway at the frontier.

Ankara sees the Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, who already control an uninterrupted 400-km (250-mile) stretch of the border, as terrorists and has been enraged by U.S. backing for the militia in its battle with Islamic State in Syria.

But the Observatory said the Kurdish YPG militia made up the majority of the fighters taking part in the SDF assault.

SDF and YPG officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The U.S. officials told Reuters the YPG would only fight to help clear Islamic State from the area around Manbij. Syrian Arab fighters would be the ones to stabilise and secure it once Islamic State is gone, according to the operational plans.

"After they take Manbij, the agreement is the YPG will not be staying. ... So you'll have Syrian Arabs occupying traditional Syrian Arab land," the official said.

TURKISH SENSITIVITIES

A U.S. official said Turkey supported the operation, but another clarified it was not expected to directly participate militarily.

A Turkish military source said Ankara had been informed by Washington about the operation but could not contribute to it because of the involvement of Kurdish YPG militia fighters and because it was beyond the range of artillery stationed in Turkey.

Still, Turkey has been shelling Islamic State positions in northern Syria by firing across the border in recent weeks.

The operation precedes an eventual push by U.S.-backed Syrian forces toward the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and the prime objective in Syria for U.S. military planners.

The U.S. military official said depriving Islamic State of the Manbij pocket would help isolate the militants and further undermine their ability to funnel supplies to Raqqa.

U.S. President Barack Obama has authorised about 300 U.S. special operations forces to operate on the ground from secret locations inside Syria to help coordinate with local forces to battle Islamic State.

One U.S. service member was injured north of Raqqa over the weekend, the Pentagon said.

The YPG has been the most effective ally on the ground for U.S.-led air strikes against Islamic State, and last year captured large areas from it in Hasaka province.

The United States hopes that success will draw more and more recruits from Arab populations in Syria to battle the militants and reclaim territory from it.

U.S. officials caution that territorial gains would not spell the end of Islamic State, which has "metastasized" and established itself outside of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria, spreading to Libya, Afghanistan and beyond.

"It would be premature to say that the gains in Syria, even if they're sustained, will spell defeat for ISIL, any more than the pummelling of al-Qaeda in Pakistan has meant the end of that group," said one official, using an acronym for the group.
Oracle hit with whistleblower lawsuit over cloud accounting

June 1 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp was sued on Wednesday by a former senior finance manager who claimed she was terminated in retaliation for complaining about improper accounting practices in Oracle's cloud services business.

Shares of Oracle fell about 2.6 percent to $39.23 in after-hours trading.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the former executive, Svetlana Blackburn, accused upper management of trying to push her to "fit square data into round holes" to make Oracle Cloud Services' results look better.

"We don't agree with the allegations and intend to vigorously defend the matter," Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said.

Blackburn said her bosses instructed her to add millions of dollars of accruals for expected business "with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers," and said executives above her added accruals on their own.

Like many legacy software companies, Oracle faces a dilemma with the move to cloud computing - essentially software in servers in data centers accessible through the internet rather than traditional packaged software. The older type of software still generates massive profits for Oracle.

Last quarter, Oracle's traditional on-premises software sales shrank slightly compared with a year earlier, but still generated $6.35 billion in revenue, 70 percent of total revenue for the quarter. In comparison, cloud revenue was $735 million, or 8 percent of the revenue, but grew by 40 percent.

The Redwood City, California-based company has come under considerable pressure from younger and smaller cloud-first companies such as Salesforce.com Inc, whose chief executive delights in mocking Oracle's cloud strategy.

Oracle has invested aggressively in its cloud business over the last few years in a bid to gain market share in the cloud. Safra Catz, Oracle's co-chief executive, said in March that the cloud business was in a "hyper-growth phase."

Blackburn said Oracle terminated her employment on Oct. 15 last year, one month after the alleged wrongdoing began and two months after she received a positive performance review.

She said Oracle had come to view her as "more of a roadblock than a team player who would blindly generate financial reports using improper bases in order to justify the bottom lines that her superiors demanded to see."

V.J. Chetty, a lawyer for Blackburn, declined additional comment.

Blackburn's lawsuit also accused Oracle of violating the anti-retaliation provisions of the federal Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance and Dodd-Frank financial-reform laws. It seeks punitive damages, double back pay and other remedies.
Early days, but Apple Pay struggles outside U.S.

By Matt Siegel, Jeremy Wagstaff and Eric Auchard

June 2 (Reuters) - More than 18 months after Apple Pay took the United States by storm, the smartphone giant has made only a small dent in the global payments market, snagged by technical challenges, low consumer take-up and resistance from banks.

The service is available in six countries and among a limited range of banks, though in recent weeks Apple has added four banks to its sole Singapore partner American Express ; Australia and New Zealand Banking Group in Australia; and Canada's five big banks.

Apple Pay usage totalled $10.9 billion last year, the vast majority of that in the United States. That is less than the annual volume of transactions in Kenya, a mobile payments pioneer, according to research firm Timetric.

And its global turnover is a drop in the bucket in China, where Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent dominate the world's biggest mobile payments market - with an estimated $1 trillion worth of mobile transactions last year, according to iResearch data.

Anecdotal evidence from Britain, China and Australia suggests Apple Pay is popular with core Apple followers, but the quality of service, and interest in it, varies significantly.

To use Apple Pay, consumers tap their iPhone over payment terminals to buy coffee, train tickets and other services. It can be also used at vending machines that accept contactless payments.

Apple Pay transactions were a fraction of the $84.5 billion in iPhone sales for the six months to March, which accounted for two-thirds of Apple's total revenue.

TECH HITCHES

In Australia, where Apple Pay launched a month ago, payment machines supported by one mid-sized bank reported frequent failures.

"Bendigo Bank is experiencing some unforeseen technical issues in accepting Apple Pay payments at selected merchant terminals," a spokeswoman for the bank told Reuters, adding that a lack of wider industry engagement in launching the service limited the lead time in testing the new technology.

Apple Vice President Jennifer Bailey said such experiences were premature and not representative. "Like any set of major technology changes, it takes time," she said. "We want to move as quickly as possible, we push it as quickly as possible."

Facing a slowing smartphone business, Apple has taken on the payments market hoping to add ways to make its devices more appealing, and more revenue streams. Apple takes a cut of up to 15 cents in the United States on every $100 spent.

While it has long mastered the supply chain for its mobile devices, the payments ecosystem has proved harder to control, and banks in other countries have reportedly negotiated lower transaction fees, contributing to its slow global roll-out.

Apple nearly doubled its R&D spending to more than $8 billion in 2013-15 as it pushed out a wave of new products including Apple Watch and Apple Pay, as well as upgrades to existing hardware devices and new services.

RESISTANCE

Apple has leveraged its huge U.S. user base to push Pay, but has met resistance in Australia, Britain and Canada where banks are building their own products.

"Payments in general is such a complicated system with so many incumbent providers that revolutionary change like this was not going to happen very quickly," said Joshua Gilbert, an analyst at First Annapolis Consulting.

The upshot: Apple has rolled out Pay in a dribble, adding countries and partners where it can - Hong Kong is expected to be added next - resulting in an uneven banking landscape with users and retail staff not always sure what will work and how.

In Britain, for example, $14 billion was spent via contactless cards last year, according to Windsor Holden, a Juniper Research analyst. That makes it harder to persuade people to take the extra step on their smartphone for the same checkout convenience.

"You have over 86 million contactless cards in circulation, you have to persuade Britons to register their cards to the (Apple Pay) service when they can already use them to make a contactless payment," Holden said.

In Australia, where more than 60 percent of all card transactions are through contactless cards, reception has also been muted. A spokesman for one large retailer said he had seen "very little uptake of the payment option" in his sector. He didn't want to be named as he was not authorised to speak publicly about the matter.

Diego Machuca, 32, banks with Apple Pay-holdout Commonwealth Bank, has an iPhone and is already "largely cashless". He says Apple Pay is appealing, but he wouldn't switch banks just to access that one feature. "Not over that. There's too much work involved just for tap-and-go," he told Reuters.

Three months after the China launch, users on online forums complained that using Apple Pay, even at popular fast-food outlets, was not as seamless as local services such as WeChat, Tencent's messaging and mobile commerce phenomenon.

Nonetheless, Apple's approach has spurred development in several markets where the mobile payments industry had previously not taken hold - giving it the jump on rivals Google's Android Pay and Samsung Pay.
MOSS POINT, Mississippi-- A Moss Point man in May plead guilty to two counts of touching of a child for lustful purposes, according to District Attorney, Tony Lawrence. Samuel David Hannah, 58, committed those crimes over a span of six years when the victim was 9-years-old. Hannah had no record, nor was he related to the victim, but was her caretaker.

On Thursday, Judge Dale Harkey sentenced Hannah to 15 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, 13 years to serve day for day, and the remaining two years to serve on Post Release Supervision. Hannah was given a total fine of $1,000 court costs, $250 to the Crime Victim Compensation Fund and $1000 assessment to the Mississippi Children's Trust Fund.

Assistant District Attorney NeShondria Ellerby was satisfied with the ruling levied onto Hannah.

"I commend the investigation of the Moss Point Police Department on this case, who helped hold the defendant accountable for his actions upon this young girl," Ellerby said. "The victim's family was satisfied with the sentencing recommendation and I am glad that we were able to resolve this case without the victim having to relive the trauma by testifying at trial."

District Attorney Tony Lawrence concurred with Ellerby.

"All too often we see adults abuse the trust placed in them by children in order to satisfy their lustful desires," Lawrence said. "Children should be protected by adults, not abused by them."

Hannah is not permitted to have any contact with the victim and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Fugitive Connecticut fund manager charged in new U.S. indictment

By Nate Raymond

June 1 (Reuters) - A Connecticut fund manager who fled the United States after being hit with criminal insider trading charges was indicted on Wednesday for engaging in a separate scheme to embezzle $54 million from the private equity firm for which he worked.

Iftikar Ahmed, a former general partner at Oak Investment Partners, was named in a seven-count indictment filed in federal court in Boston charging him with having engaged in wire fraud and having made false statements on income tax returns.

Prosecutors said that Ahmed, 44, embezzled the more than $54 million from the firm from 2004 to 2015 by submitting false invoices, overstating prices of business deals he orchestrated on the fund's behalf and by setting up fraudulent bank accounts.

The indictment alleged that Ahmed used the money to buy a $9.6 million residence in Greenwich, Connecticut, and a luxury New York condominium for about $8.6 million.

The indictment follows a civil lawsuit last year by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the same alleged fraud at Norwalk, Connecticut-based Oak Investment Partners.

Prosecutors later in August filed a criminal complaint against Ahmed and his wife, Shalini Ahmed, for conspiring to engage in money transactions in property derived from illegal activity related to the fraud.

Wednesday's grand jury indictment expanded the charges against Ahmed, but did not name his wife. Neither could be reached for comment, and a lawyer for Iftikar Ahmed declined comment.

Ahmed, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi and Harvard Business School, previously fled to India in May 2015 after prosecutors accused him and longtime friend Amit Kanodia for having engaging in insider trading.

In court papers, Ahmed has said that he is now prohibited from leaving India without a court's approval after being arrested last year for unlawful entry into the country.

In the insider trading case, prosecutors said Kanodia learned details about India-based Apollo Tyres Ltd's 2013 attempt to buy Cooper Tire & Rubber Co from his wife, then Apollo's general counsel.

Kanodia began tipping Ahmed and another friend, allowing them to make more than $1 million making trades before the proposed $2.5 billion deal was announced in June 2013, authorities said.

The merger was abandoned that December amid an acrimonious legal battle between the companies.

Kanodia has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to face trial on Sept. 19.

The cases in the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, are U.S. v. Ahmed, No. 16-cr-10154, and U.S. v. Kanodia et al, No. 15-cr-10131.
Libyan forces lose 10 men in clashes with Islamic State near Sirte

TRIPOLI, June 2 (Reuters) - Libyan brigades aligned with a new U.N.-backed government in Tripoli lost 10 men and had another 40 wounded in fighting close to the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte on Wednesday, a hospital spokesman said.

The brigades, mostly composed of fighters from the western city of Misrata, have advanced to the outskirts of Sirte over the past week and say they intend to recapture the city.

On Wednesday they had gained ground south of the city, and at a power station west of Sirte, according to statements posted on their social media accounts. They said they had faced four suicide car bombings, two of which had exploded before reaching their targets.

Western states are hoping the United Nations-backed government, which arrived in Tripoli in March, can bring together Libya's competing factions to defeat Islamic State.

The extremist group established a foothold in Libya amid political chaos and conflict in the North African state, gaining control over Sirte last year.

Earlier this week a separate force that guards key oil terminals east of Sirte also advanced towards the city, taking control of two small towns previously controlled by Islamic State.

In Sirte itself, a resident told Reuters that a senior cleric had toured the streets on Tuesday urging people to stay in the city and fight.

Most of Sirte's population of about 80,000 is thought to have fled, and the government-backed brigades have said they want to give those residents who remain a chance to escape before advancing into residential areas.

The brigades had already seen 75 of their fighters killed and more than 350 wounded before the latest casualties.
Former Los Angeles mayor starts anti-Trump campaign

SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 1 (Reuters) - Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on Wednesday he had formed a political action committee and started raising money to help fight Donald Trump's Republican presidential campaign in key states with large Latino immigrant populations.

"I'm focusing all my efforts from now to November on stopping Trump," Villaraigosa said in a conference call with reporters.

Calling Trump a racist and misogynist, Villaraigosa said his committee, called Building Bridges, Not Walls, would focus on organizing immigrants to oppose the presumptive Republican nominee in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida in the campaign for the Nov. 8 election.

Opened with his own $1,000 contribution, the committee would seek donations to pay for its activities, Villaraigosa said.

Villaraigosa, a Democrat who was Los Angeles mayor from 2005 to 2013 and also served as speaker of the California Assembly, is perhaps the state's highest-profile Latino leader. He has said he is considering a run for governor in 2018.

His anti-Trump campaign is among the first efforts to formally turn concern among immigrants about the billionaire's campaign into political action. Last week, Democrats in San Diego organized an anti-Trump demonstration that drew about 400 people.

Trump has made concern over illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign. He has accused the Mexican government of sending rapists and criminals across the border, pledged to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and called for a temporary halt to Muslim immigration amid fears that radicalized immigrants will commit terrorist acts.

Last week in the border city of San Diego, Trump called a judge hearing a case against one of his businesses "hostile" and "a hater" and said he believed the judge was Mexican.

"Both Democrats and Republicans are horrified at the prospect of a Trump presidency," Villaraigosa said.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Temasek, GIC buy $1 bln in Alibaba stock in SoftBank sale

By Peter Henderson and Arathy S Nair

June 1 (Reuters) - Singapore state funds bought $1 billion of shares in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd as part of an $8.9 billion sale by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Alibaba's biggest shareholder, the company said on Wednesday.

Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd, and state investor Temasek Holdings each purchased $500 million of Alibaba shares at $74.00 apiece through subsidiaries, Alibaba said, offering details of the SoftBank sale announced on Tuesday.

GIC and Temasek confirmed the transactions but declined to provide further comment. Temasek is an existing investor in Alibaba. (http://bit.ly/1WxEce6)

Alibaba purchased $2 billion of its own stock at the same price, in a move which would add to earnings, Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai told analysts on a call.

Members of the Alibaba Partnership of senior executives and founders purchased another $400 million, as expected, at the $74 per share price, he added.

SoftBank also offered $5.5 billion in debt securities, which can be exchanged for Alibaba stock in three years, Tsai said.

SoftBank Group said on Tuesday it would sell at least $7.9 billion of shares in Alibaba to cut the Japanese company's debt. It said it would remain Alibaba's largest shareholder after the sale.
Glencore to close Tahmoor coal mine in Australia by early 2019

SYDNEY, June 2 (Reuters) - Glencore plans to close its Tahmoor coal mine in Australia by early 2019 due to low prices for metallurgical coal used in steelmaking, the company said.
Japan to roll out new growth strategy, economists asking for more

TOKYO, June 2 (Reuters) - Japan's government will announce a new growth strategy on Thursday that has already disappointed many economists for lacking the bold structural reforms needed to narrow income disparity and reverse rapid population decline.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan will raise pay for child care workers, raise the minimum wage and improve access to elderly care, but economists say the reforms do not go far enough to change Japan's two-tier labour market.

Aggressive structural reforms are essential to pulling Japan out of decades of malaise, but economists say the flaws in Abe's piecemeal approach are evident in the lack of progress after more than three years of "Abenomics".

"There are many granular policies that lack concreteness, though the general direction of these policies isn't wrong," said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance.

"Japan's biggest problem is the ageing and shrinking of its population and the supply-side weakening that follows from it."

Abe shifted his economic agenda this year to focus more on the redistribution of wealth and improving access to day care.

Many economists said this shift was an admission that despite Abe having had more than three years in office many low-income households have failed to benefit from his "Abenomics" strategy to ref late a listless economy.

The growth strategy, to be approved by the cabinet on Thursday, will take steps to narrow the pay gap between regular and part-time employees, but critics say it is still too easy for companies to flout labour laws and suppress pay for part-time workers.

Some economists also worry companies could try to lower pay for full-time workers to narrow the pay gap, which would depress overall wage growth.

The government also wants to raise the birth rate to 1.8 per woman from 1.4, which is a step in the right direction but still below 2.1 which is the rate needed to simply prevent a population from shrinking.

Abe's fiscal policy has also disappointed after his decision on Wednesday to delay a sales tax hike created widespread doubts over how he will plug the hole left in public finances.

The growth strategy will reiterate a pledge to bring the primary budget balance into surplus by fiscal 2020 to rein in public debt which is already more than double annual economic output.
Philippines' Duterte denounced for defending killing of some journalists

MANILA, June 1 (Reuters) - Philippine press groups denounced President-elect Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday for saying journalists were being killed because they were corrupt and "you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch".

Duterte's comments about extrajudicial killings, calling bishops "sons of whores" and a joke about a murdered rape victim do not appear to have dented his popularity in the largely Roman Catholic country.

But his comments about killing journalists have struck a nerve. About 175 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since 1986, ranking it among the most dangerous places to work in the news business.

Duterte addressed reporters on Tuesday in the southern city of Davao, where his loud approval of hundreds of execution-style killings of drug users and criminals over nearly two decades helped propel him to the highest office.

"Most of you are clean, but do not ever say all journalists are clean," he said. "Just because you are a journalist, you are not exempted from assassination if you are a son of a bitch."

"... Most of those killed, to be frank, have done something. You won't be killed if you don't do anything wrong."

When a female journalist asked a question, he wolf-whistled at her.

Ryan Rosuaro, head of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said press freedom and murder were not joking matters.

"It is appalling that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte should justify the murder of journalists in the country by playing the corruption card," he said.

Philippine Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said journalists had a fundamental right to protection.

"We deplore the proposition that some journalists may have been assaulted or killed in view of their alleged involvement in media corruption," he said in a statement. "It is the duty of government to arrest, prosecute and punish those responsible for violence against members of the media."

Romel Regalado Bagares, executive director of the Center for International Law, said Duterte's comments showed "a cynical attitude towards what is a serious concern to the international community" and could perpetuate impunity for the killers.

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines also expressed alarm.
Clinton to blast Trump on North Korea, NATO in foreign policy speech

By Amanda Becker

WASHINGTON, June 2 - Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton will slam Republican Donald Trump for being too friendly with North Korea and too harsh on European allies during a foreign policy speech in California on Thursday, designed to paint the billionaire businessman as unfit for the White House.

The speech in San Diego comes as the former secretary of state seeks to shift her attention to the Nov. 8 presidential election against likely rival Trump, and away from Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont who is continuing his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination.

Trump has said he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program and has criticized the decades-old NATO alliance with mainly European nations as obsolete and too costly for the United States.

"It's important that people understand this is not just about Republican versus Democrat, that Trump is unlike any presidential candidate we have seen and he is fundamentally unfit to be our commander in chief," Clinton aide Jake Sullivan said in an interview ahead of Clinton's speech.

California, the most populous U.S. state, is among six states that are to hold Democratic nominating contests next Tuesday.

Clinton already has a nearly insurmountable lead over Sanders in the delegate count, but is hoping a decisive win in California can help her clinch the party nomination early and quell concerns about divisions in the party ahead of the general election against Trump.

Clinton has already delivered several speeches on foreign policy and national security. Her address in San Diego will not break new policy ground, but will mainly respond to Trump's recent comments, her campaign said.

Clinton will argue that Trump's statement that he was prepared to talk to Kim Jong Un, made in a Reuters interview last month, has only emboldened him and invited him to be more provocative, Sullivan said.

A column this week in DPRK Today, one of North Korea's state mouthpieces, described Trump as a "wise politician" and Clinton as "thick-headed Hillary."

"Donald Trump's statements about North Korea show that he has more interest in making Kim Jong Un like him than backing up our friends and allies in the region," Sullivan said, noting that South Korea has worked with the United States on missile defense.

Trump's remarks on the decades-old NATO alliance of 28 nations will also elicit a response from Clinton, Sullivan said. The New York businessman has said that member nations should pay for their own defense to ease the U.S. burden and that the alliance itself needs reconfiguring.

Sullivan, who worked with Clinton at the U.S. State Department, said burden-sharing is "not a novel point" within NATO and that Clinton will highlight her record of getting allies to "step up" and share defense costs.

Clinton, however, would not walk away from the alliance, which coordinates with the United States on counter-terrorism, nuclear proliferation and other issues, Sullivan said.

In addition to California, states holding nominating contests on June 7 are Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.

California Governor Jerry Brown this week endorsed Clinton in the Democratic contest, saying she was the "only path forward" to "stop the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump."
Norway bans Airbus Super Puma helicopter from search and rescue missions

OSLO, June 2 (Reuters) - Norway's Civil Aviation Authority has extended its ban on the use of Airbus H225 Super Puma Helicopters in Norway to include search and rescue missions, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.

The ban, which includes an older version of the aircraft, follows the discovery of metal fatigue in the gear box of a Super Puma helicopter that crashed in Norway on April 29, killing all 13 people on board.
Panama's indigenous tribes launch drones to fight deforestation

By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, June 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indigenous people in Panama are using drones as a new weapon to monitor deforestation on their lands as thousands of hectares disappear every year in one of the world's most biodiverse rainforests, the United Nations said.

More than half of Panama is covered with tropical rainforest, home to various indigenous groups who rely on the forests to survive.

"The main objective of monitoring with drones is to identify changes in specific points of the forest cover," the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The monitoring is carried out in areas under deforestation and degradation pressure, which are only observable with high resolution spatial images."

Indigenous people make up nearly 13 percent of Panama's population of 4 million, with about 200,000 living on autonomous tribal lands, known as comarcas.

"These tools enable us to better know the forests' characteristics and resources we have in our territories," Eliseo Quintero, a leader of the Ngabe-Bugle tribe, said in a statement.

Panama's indigenous groups first started using drones to monitor their ancestral lands last year, the FAO said.

The current FAO drone project began in February and is being carried out through the U.N.'s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Programme (UN-REDD), in partnership with Panama's environment ministry and the non-governmental Rainforest Foundation.

The project focuses on seven ethnic tribes in Panama. Up to three representatives of each tribe, including women, are trained to use drones, download and interpret images, produce detailed maps and collect data.

The project's first drone flight was last month, the FAO said.

Drones can be used year-round and can also help indigenous groups to monitor forest fires, crop harvests and water sources, it said.

Giving indigenous groups tools like drones to help them protect their forests is also one way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by deforestation, the FAO said.

For Panama's indigenous groups, like others in the world, forests are a key source of water and food.

Panama loses about 20,000 hectares each year to deforestation, according to the National Association for the Conservation of Nature (ANCON), a Panamanian non-profit.

Across Latin America and the Caribbean nearly 2 million hectares of rainforest disappear every year, largely due to illegal logging, the FAO says.

Since the 1980s Panama has introduced legislation to protect indigenous rights and land, including a 2008 law that gives indigenous communities living outside the comarcas the right to request official recognition of their lands.

Still, the report said swathes of indigenous lands have been lost, taken over by hydroelectric dam projects, private mining companies and cattle ranchers, and destroyed by illegal loggers who cut down precious timber such as redwood and mahogany.
GULFPORT -- The woman accused of human trafficking, money laundering and running a spa as a front for prostitution will plead guilty to one count of money laundering, according to a motion filed in federal court.

Yeon Sook "Jackie" Hwang, a 41-year-old Korean, will change her plea to guilty in exchange for the U.S. Attorneys office dropping some or all of the remaining charges. Her attorney, Jim Davis, filed the motion in U.S. District Court May 27.

JJ Spa Massage on Washington Avenue in the St. Martin community was raided last November by agents from a special Jackson County task force. Two days later, Hwang a six-count federal indictment was unsealed with charged Hwang with transporting individuals from at least six other states to Mississippi for the purposes of engaging in prostitution.

The raid came as a result of a year-long investigation, Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell said at the time. JJ Spa Massage was operating under the name 777 Spa when the investigation began, under the same ownership.

During the raid, evidence was found that at least some of the spa employees were forced to live there, according to District Attorney Tony Lawrence.

At an arraignment hearing in December, FBI Agent James Grunwald testified that nearly $1 million went through the spa over a two-year period, but added that was likely not all of the money which was funneled through the business.

Grunwald said the FBI used an informant who had served as a courier for the spa, shuttling women to and from the airport and making bank deposits for Hwang and the women who worked there.

Hwang personally garnered about $150,000 from the spa, but only $1,600 a month came in the form of a paycheck, according to records from the State of Mississippi.

Investigators also interviewed five spa customers who each confirmed they had received sexual services at the spa in exchange for cash.

Because of her access to cash, Hwang was deemed a flight risk and denied bond by U.S. Chief District Judge Louis Guirola Jr.

Hwang's initial trial date was Jan. 4, but her trial was continued three times, with the most recent court date set for July 5 before her attorney filed the motion to change her plea.
EU air safety agency grounds Airbus Super Puma helicopters

OSLO, June 2 (Reuters) - The European Aviation Safety Authority on Thursday grounded Airbus H225 LP and AS332 L2 Super Puma helicopters following the discovery of metal fatigue in the gearbox of a Super Puma that fatally crashed in Norway on April 29.

The flight ban was announced after Norway's Civil Aviation Authority earlier extended its ban on flying the aircraft to include search and rescue missions.

The Super Pumas, a workhorse of the offshore oil industry, were banned from commercial traffic in Norway and Britain following the accident, but hitherto search and rescue missions had still been allowed.

"EASA has decided to prohibit all flights by the Airbus H225 LP and AS332 L2 helicopters as a precautionary measure and until further information is available," EASA said in a statement.

In the April 29 crash the H225 Super Puma's main rotor blades separated from the aircraft as it was ferrying passengers from a Norwegian offshore oil platform operated by Statoil . All 13 people on board were killed.

The findings were published in a preliminary report by Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN) on Wednesday, which urged EASA to take immediate action to ensure the safety of the helicopter's main gearbox.

Statoil said in a separate statement it would find other ways of operating its emergency services for the Oseberg Field Centre and Statfjord B platforms in the North Sea.

"Statoil is currently mobilizing the necessary resources to safeguard preparedness requirements," the company said.

The helicopter that crashed in April was working for the Norwegian firm and operated by Canadia-based group CHC Helicopter.

CHC said it welcomed the latest report from the AIBN and that it had suspended all flights by the H225 aircraft as a result, even before the Norwegian ban was announced.

Airbus Helicopters declined to comment further as the investigation continues, a spokesman said on Thursday.

Investigators have ruled out human error, saying the crash was caused by a technical fault.

On Wednesday the AIBN said it had found metallurgical evidence "strongly consistent with fatigue" in a part of the gearbox, while adding it was focusing simultaneously on several different scenarios for the crash.

Previous Super Puma incidents linked to gearbox problems included a 2009 crash off Peterhead, Scotland, in which the rotor also flew off and 16 people died.

Airbus Helicopters told operators in a bulletin this week that there were "significant elements" differing from the 2009 crash, according to a copy seen by Reuters.

It placed most emphasis on a possible failure of one of the struts holding the rotors to the aircraft, saying that could have been caused by either faulty bolts or missing safety pins.
Thailand's PTT studies proposal for retail business IPO-sources

By Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE/BANGKOK, June 2 (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest energy company PTT is examining a proposal to list its retail marketing business and is expected to complete the study in the third quarter of this year, the state-backed company's investor relations official told Reuters on Thursday.

PTT has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co, Phatra Securities, and other domestic banks to advise on the potential IPO, people familiar with the matter said. The sources declined to be identified as the information was not yet public.

Kasikorn Securities, brokerage unit of Kasikornbank , has also been hired, a Kasikorn official said.

PTT's retail division may be valued between $2 billion and $3 billion, the people said. One of the proposals being considered include bringing in a strategic partner before the likely IPO in 2017, they added.

The PTT official declined to comment on hiring of the banks and the timing of the IPO.
Sporadic gunfire heard at Mogadishu hotel day after al Shabaab attack

MOGADISHU, June 2 (Reuters) - Somali authorities said on Thursday at least 16 people were killed and 55 wounded in a car bomb and gun attack on a hotel in the centre of Mogadishu where sporadic gunfire could still be heard on Thursday.

Islamist militant group al Shabaab, affiliated with al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Hotel Ambassador. Two lawmakers were among the dead.

"So far we have confirmed 16 people, mostly civilians, died and 55 others were injured," Major Nur Mohamed, a police officer, told Reuters on Thursday.

He said gunfire had died down at the hotel. "We suspect the roof top is not safe. Security forces are inside from the first to fourth floor."

Government forces have blocked off all the main roads near the hotel.

Reuters witnesses said sporadic gunfire could still be heard at the five-storey building which has been extensively damaged.

Relatives were gathering at hospitals and at the hotel searching for loved ones, with some people believed trapped inside.

A Reuters witness heard one man on the fifth floor crying out: "Please rescue me."

Al Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu by the African Union peacekeeping force AMISOM in 2011. But it has remained a potent threat in Somalia, launching frequent attacks aimed at overthrowing the Western-backed government.
At least four people killed in flooding in south Germany

BERLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - At least four people have been killed in floods in the southern German state of Bavaria and thousands of households were cut off from electricity, officials said on Thursday.

Firemen found three women in the basement of a flooded house in the town of Simbach am Inn some 120 km (75 miles) east from Munich, police said.

In the nearby village of Julbach, emergency services found a drowned woman hanging over a tree trunk in a stream, police said, adding that her house had apparently collapsed.

At least two people were missing in the district of Rottal-Inn. "We're expecting the worst," police spokesman Michael Emmer said, adding divers were searching for those missing.

Police arrested two looters who tried to steal car radios. Several thousand households were cut off from electricity in the flooded region close to the Austrian border, an official said.

Weather forecasters said more rain was expected in the region on Thursday, further complicating the rescue works.
Slovakia - Factors To Watch on June 2

BRATISLAVA, June 2 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Slovak financial markets on Thursday. ALL TIMES GMT (Slovak Republic: GMT + 2 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA======================== Real-time economic data releases.................. Summary of economic data and forecasts......... Recently released economic data................ Previous stories on Slovak data.......... **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/1C/events-overview =========================EVENTS=============================== BRATISLAVA - European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini meets Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak before Slovakia takes over the EU's rotating presidency in July. Related stories: =========================NEWS=============================== REUTERS SUMMIT - CENTRAL BANK: A bustling Czech economy is setting the central bank on course to end its cap on the crown currency as planned in 2017, board member and incoming governor Jiri Rusnok said on Wednesday. Story: Related stories: ** For more stories from Reuters Eastern Europe Investment Summit: IMMIGRATION: Slovakia will put aside its strong views on curbing immigration and act as an honest broker on the issue when it holds the European Union presidency later this year, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday. Story: Related stories: BOND AUCTIONS: Slovakia will offer two bonds due in 2023 and 2027 in auctions on June 20, followed by a second round of non-competitive bids the same day, Ardal debt agency said on Wednesday. Story: Related stories: BUDGET DEFICIT: The Slovak central government budget deficit reached 1.11 billion euros ($1.24 billion) at the end of May, narrower than a 1.53 billion euro gap posted a year ago, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. Story: Related stories: =====================PRESS DIGEST=============================== IMMIGRATION: Slovakia will accept 100 asylum seekers from refugee camps in Greece, Dennik N daily said quoting documents released by the European Commission. Slovakia has so far accepted 149 asylum seekers from Iraq but has opposed mandatory refugee quotas that would require the country to accept several hundreds of asylum seekers. https://dennikn.sk/475635/slovensko-sa-chysta-prijat-stovku-utecencov-greckych-taborov/?ref=mwai Reuters has not verified the media reports, nor does it vouch for their accuracy. For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX Main currency report TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets News editor of the day: Jason Hovet on +420 224 190 476 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com
OPEC deal on oil output ceiling seen tough due to Iran - sources

VIENNA, June 2 (Reuters) - A deal for OPEC to set a new ceiling on oil output looks unlikely as Iran is taking a tough position, two OPEC sources said on Thursday.

Last-minute diplomacy was under way in an attempt to have OPEC reach a compromise at its meeting on Thursday, with the Iranian delegation meeting Nigeria and Qatar in the morning.
Lebanese army kills IS militant, arrests three during raid-source

BEIRUT, June 2 (Reuters) - The Lebanese army shot and killed an Islamic State militant and detained three more during a raid on Thursday in the Akkar region of northern Lebanon, security sources said.

The cell was accused of participating in the killing of Lebanese soldiers and of wounding an officer in the Interior Ministry's intelligence branch.

The raid took place at a house in the village of Khirbet Daoud, near the northern border with Syria. The man who died was shot in a clash between soldiers and the militants, the sources said.

Sunni militants, including members of Islamic State and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, have mounted a number of attacks in Lebanon since the war in neighbouring Syria began in 2011.
OPEC fails to agree policy but Saudis pledge no shocks

By Reem Shamseddine, Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler

VIENNA, June 2 (Reuters) - OPEC failed to agree a clear oil-output strategy on Thursday as Iran insisted on steeply raising its own production, though Tehran's arch-rival Saudi Arabia promised not to flood the market and sought to mend fences within the organisation.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shi'ite Islamic Republic had blighted several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group fell short of agreeing a formal output target for the first time in years.

Strains were less acute on Thursday, however, as new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih showed Riyadh wanted to be more conciliatory and his Iranian peer Bijan Zanganeh kept his criticism of Riyadh to an unusual minimum.

In a rare compromise, OPEC also decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as its new secretary-general after years of friction over the issue.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose OPEC set a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair the group's waning importance. But Thursday's meeting ended with no new policy or ceiling amid resistance from Iran.

Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt OPEC's largest producer, already pumping near record highs, to raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.

"We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," Falih told reporters.

"There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could accelerate production.

The market has grown increasingly used to OPEC clashes over the past two years as political foes Riyadh and Tehran fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilising oil markets - in April in the Qatari capital of Doha. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.

Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme.

Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual-country production quotas, effectively abandoned by OPEC years ago.

"Without country quotas, OPEC cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of OPEC's overall production.

OPEC is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates.

"BENIGN DEAL"

At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will.

As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages.

On Thursday, Brent prices were down 1.5 percent at $49 per barrel after the OPEC meeting but later rallied on data showing a weekly drawdown in U.S. crude stockpiles.

That OPEC could not agree on a benign deal is a sign that political differences are undermining the organisation, said Gary Ross, founder of U.S.-based PIRA consultancy.

"It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market," Ross added.

Zanganeh made a few conciliatory remarks, saying he was happy with the meeting and received no signals from other producers that they planned to increase output.

For Amrita Sen of Energy Aspects, who like Ross travelled to Vienna to meet OPEC officials, the meeting sent an encouraging signal about the state of the organisation.

"After the Doha debacle, it actually restores market confidence that Saudi Arabia is committed to OPEC. This is a success compared to three days ago when people had been expecting Falih to walk out of the OPEC room," said Sen.

Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signalling he takes the organisation seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output.

"There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, OPEC might intervene and yet other situations - such as long-term growth of marginal barrels - in which case it should not," Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting.
Thailand's PTT studies proposal for retail business IPO-sources

By Denny Thomas, Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong

HONG KONG/SINGAPORE/BANGKOK, June 2 (Reuters) - Thailand's biggest energy company PTT is examining a proposal to list its retail business and is expected to complete the study in the third quarter of this year, the state-backed company's investor relations official told Reuters on Thursday.

PTT has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co and Phatra Securities to advise on the potential IPO, people familiar with the matter said. The sources declined to be identified as the information was not yet public. Kasikorn Securities, brokerage unit of Kasikornbank, has also been hired as an advisor, a Kasikorn official said.

Last month, PTT invited banks to make pitches and then selected the three to work on the IPO, the people added.

PTT's retail division may be valued between $2 billion and $3 billion, the people said. One of the proposals being considered includes bringing in a strategic partner before the likely IPO in 2017, they added.

A successful listing would rank among Thailand's largest IPOs. BTS Group's $2.13 billion IPO holds the record for Thailand's biggest.

PTT, like other global energy companies hit by slumping oil prices, is trying to find new ways to fund its capital spending needs. PTT plans to invest 297 billion baht ($8 billion) during 2016-2020, of which 50.8 billion baht is earmarked for this year.

It is also catching up with the global trend that has seen a series of oil companies selling their low-margin fuel marketing businesses.

CONVENIENCE STORE MODEL

PTT has 1,458 outlets, representing 40 percent of Thailand's petrol station market. The company has said it plans to invest 20 billion baht over the next five years to expand its gas service station network to 1,600.

The planned IPO would consist of the oil marketing business and PTT-owned Amazon coffee shops at the petrol stations, the official said.

PTT shares extended gains to trade up 2.3 percent after Reuters first reported that the company was studying doing a possible IPO, while the benchmark Thailand index was up 0.7 percent.

Unlike in Western markets, where non-fuel businesses - convenience stores, fast food operations, and services such as car washing - can account for more than half of a gas station's profits, the majority of PTT's profits comes from petrol sales.

By spinning off the business and introducing a strategic partner, PTT is hoping it can help boost the share of non-fuel business and improve its overall profit margin.

Such a deal will boost the value of the low-margin marketing business, bolster the group's finances and free up funds for investment in exploration and production.

PTT has previously raised the prospects of a retail IPO, but this is the first time it has hired banks to undertake a detailed study, underscoring the seriousness of its intent.

PTT's IPO plans comes two years after China's oil refiner Sinopec Corp raised $17.5 billion by selling almost 30 percent of its retail arm to 25 Chinese and foreign investors. Sinopec Retail plans to list the business at a later date.

Sinopec's marketing and distribution unit, which includes a wholesale business, has more than 30,000 petrol stations and more than 23,000 convenience stores, as well as oil-product pipelines and storage facilities.

The PTT official declined to comment on hiring of the banks and the timing of the IPO.
Iran says OPEC cannot control anything without output quotas

VIENNA, June 2 (Reuters) - Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Thursday OPEC cannot control anything if it doesn't set individual country production quotas and insisted Tehran deserved a high quota based on historic output.

Zanganeh said a fair quota for Iran should be 14.5 percent of OPEC's overall oil output.

The group is producing 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output levels.
The final rule announced today will bar the sale of ivory from African elephants across state lines and further restrict commercial exports. Photo by Alamy

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The United States today announced a near-complete ban on the commercial ivory trade, marking a historic step forward in ending the global elephant poaching crisis. This is just the latest of nearly three dozen major rulemaking actions addressing animal protection concerns during President Obamas two terms, and one in which the president himself has taken an active interest, having made a number of public statements on the poaching crisis and its threat to elephants and African nations.

The rule, announced this morning by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will bar the sale of ivory from African elephants across state lines and further restrict commercial exports. It will provide very limited exceptions for interstate trade of antique items that are over 100 years old or contain a small amount of ivory.

The rule comes just a week before the United States-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, the eighth such session between the two countries with the most active ivory markets in the world. U.S. action in this arena has encouraged China to pledge to follow suit, replicating our own domestic policies to end the ivory trade in the worlds most populous nation.

In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responding to an HSUS legal petition, said it will consider increasing Endangered Species Act protections for the African elephant.

In recent years, we have called on Congress, the Administration, and states to take action against the illegal trade in ivory because elephant poaching has surged in the past decade. Poachers are killing elephants faster than they are able to reproduce. It is estimated that every 15 minutes an elephant is killed for his or her ivory.

Poaching and wildlife trafficking dont just terrorize animals; they fuel terrorism and instability around the world. Profits from the sales of poached elephant tusks pay for sophisticated transnational criminal syndicates to smuggle arms, humans, and other illicit goods, and theres evidence that the illegal ivory trade is helping finance extremist groups, including the Lords Resistance Army and Sudans Janjaweed militias.

Todays historic announcement from the USFWS is by no means the end of the battle  more like the next stage of it. The fight against poachers and traffickers requires not just action from the government, but a transformational shift in how we, as humans, view and interact with wild animals. No animal should be killed to churn out dispensable luxury goods. Elephants and other wildlife are worth far more alive than dead, and its this principle that I discuss extensively in The Humane Economy. Wildlife viewing draws millions of people to Africa each year, and enthusiasts spend billions of dollars annually that these nations use to educate children, pay for vaccinations, and provide jobs to people in both urban and rural areas.

Ivory looks best on its original owners. Killing elephants and hacking off their tusks enriches terrorists, robs Africa of one of its great revenue generators, and denies future generations the opportunity to see these iconic creatures. The policy announced today is the right one on so many levels, and The HSUS applauds the USFWS and the Obama Administration for taking this important step.

P.S. Even as we celebrate a national policy on the ivory trade, its critical to remember that the states have a key and complementary role in the battle against the ivory trade and wildlife trafficking. A ballot initiative in Oregon would protect some of the worlds most iconic animals, including elephants, rhinos, lions, sea turtles, rays, and sharks. Visit Save Endangered Animals Oregon for more information on how we can get this initiative qualified in the weeks ahead and passed this November.
Venezuela oil minister proposes OPEC "supply range"

VIENNA, June 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's oil minister Eulogio del Pino proposed an "oil supply range" for individual OPEC countries, he told reporters ahead of the group's meeting in Vienna on Thursday.

Del Pino added that such a range could substitute for talks on an output ceiling.
U.S.-backed Syrian force vows to take all Manbij from Islamic State

By Rodi Said

NEAR THE EUPHRATES RIVER, Syria, June 2 (Reuters) - U .S.-backed Syrian militias vowed on Thursday to drive Islamic State (IS) from the city of Manbij and surrounding areas in northern Syria and urged civilians there to stay away from militant positions that would be targeted in the campaign.

The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, including the powerful Kurdish YPG militia, thrust into IS-held territory near the Turkish border this week. The attack is backed by U.S.-led air strikes and U.S. special forces on the ground.

"We confirm that this campaign will continue until the liberation of the last inch of the land of Manbij and its rural areas," said a joint statement in the name of the SDF and allied Manbij Military Council.

The statement was read out on the banks of the Euphrates River by Manbij Military Council commander Adnan Abu Amjad.

"We urge our people in the city of Manbij to stay away from all centres and positions where the Daesh terrorists are present because they will be military targets for our forces. We call on them to take measures to ensure their safety," he said.

"We also call on our people in Manbij to offer support and help to our forces," said Abu Amjad. He said the Manbij military council represented all the area's ethnic groups, which he listed as Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Circassians.

The statement said control would be handed to a civilian council after the town was freed.

"Oh brave people of Manbij, our forces are coming to liberate you from the shackles of the Daesh terrorist torturers," it said.

MAJOR OFFENSIVE

Thousands of U.S.-backed fighters have opened a major new front in Syria's war, launching an offensive to drive IS out of a swathe of northern Syria that it uses as a logistics base.

The operation, which began on Tuesday after weeks of quiet preparations, aims to choke off the group's access to Syrian land along the Turkish border that the militants have long used to move foreign fighters back and forth to Europe.

A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters in Beirut, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town.

It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that IS defences on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign.

The council due to manage the city's civilian affairs was set up on May in the town of Sarrin, said Sheikh Farouk al-Mashi, head of the council. Sarrin was captured by the YPG from Islamic State last year.

Speaking to Reuters from Syria, he said IS had launched a campaign of arrests and had tried to cut communications in Manbij in the run-up to the assault.

"The detentions are currently in Manbij city, but they told us five minutes ago they are also detaining people in the rural areas too," he said.

Naser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the SDF general command, told Reuters that IS was still putting up a fight: "In general, the progress is at a good pace and performance, keeping in mind that Daesh still has the capability to fight."

The SDF has launched two other offensives in the last week in nearby Raqqa province, which is where Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa city is located. Raqqa city is not a target in the operations currently underway.
Qatar energy min: all options, including OPEC output ceiling, are open

VIENNA, June 2 (Reuters) - Qatar's Energy Minister Mohammed al-Sada said on Thursday that the oil market was positive at the moment and heading towards balance, adding that all options, including that of a new OPEC crude output ceiling, were open.

Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet on Thursday in Vienna.
Militants launch attacks in Niger Delta as Buhari cancels visit

By Tife Owolabi and Ulf Laessing

BODO/ABUJA, Nigeria, June 2 (Reuters) - Militants launched new attacks in the Niger Delta on Thursday, vowing to bring Nigeria's struggling oil industry to a halt, and the president cancelled a long-awaited visit to the region.

The army said militants killed six people on Wednesday when they ambushed a boat belonging to state oil firm NNPC in the Warri area.

Separately, the Niger Delta Avengers group said it had attacked two crude pipelines operated by Italy's ENI.

"At about 2:00 am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State," the group said on Twitter.

"This is in line with our promise to all international oil companies and indigenous oil companies that Nigeria oil production will be zero."

The group also said on Friday it has again blown up the Forcados oil pipeline, which was under repair after an attack in February.

"At 3:00 am today @NDAvengers blew up the SPDC Forcados 48" Exportline," the group said on a Twitter feed it uses to claim credit for attacks.

"We warned SPDC not to go ahead with repair works," the group said.

Nigeria's oil minister said in April that repairs to the Forcados pipeline, controlled by Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited, would be completed in June.

Royal Dutch Shell could not be immediately reached for comment.

But the NDA said in a statement late on Thursday that it was not responsible for the boat attack.

"Killing of sleeping soldiers is not our style," the NDA said in an emailed statement.

The Avengers group has claimed responsibility for other recent attacks on Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell facilities. A wave of such attacks have helped drive the country's oil output to a 20-year low.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari cancelled at the last minute a visit planned for Thursday to the Delta, source of most of Nigeria's crude.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made the trip in Buhari's place to launch a cleanup programme in an area badly hit by oil spills, vowing to work with community leaders to end militant attacks.

POVERTY AND POLLUTION

No reason has been given for the cancellation of what would have been Buhari's first visit to the region since taking office a year ago. Western allies and local officials have told the former military chief that he needs to address poverty and oil pollution in the Delta to stop unrest.

"We are determined to put right the wrongs of the past, where the people of this land were treated unfairly and the environment unduly polluted and degraded," Osinbajo said in a speech in the town of Bodo in the polluted Ogoniland area.

"The cleanup of this land will require change on the part of all those who deal with the Niger Delta environment - particularly the oil companies and our communities," he said.

The Avengers have accused Buhari, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, of ignoring the problems of the predominantly Christian Delta.
EU referendum fears trigger first decline in UK construction orders since 2013 - Markit

LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - British construction orders fell last month for the first time in more than three years, as concern about a June 23 referendum on whether Britain should remain a member of the European Union prompted companies to put off new projects, industry figures showed on Thursday.

Financial data company Markit said its monthly survey of construction purchasing managers showed the weakest overall growth in activity growth since June 2013, with its headline construction PMI dropping to 51.2 from April's 52.0.

Economists in a Reuters poll had expected the index to hold steady at 52.0 in May.

The new orders component fell especially sharply, dropping to 48.1 from 50.1, its first time since April 2013 below the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction and the lowest index reading since March 2013.

"Survey respondents noted that the forthcoming EU referendum has disrupted new order flows and the timing of client decision-making in particular," Markit economist Tim Moore said.

Last month, the Bank of England said commercial property transactions had ground to a halt in the run-up to June's EU vote. Official figures for the first quarter of 2016 showed the first year-on-year drop in business investment in three years, led by weaker spending on offices and non-residential buildings.

Markit said civil engineering projects showed the least activity, followed by housebuilding and commercial work.

However, companies stepped up hiring, increasing staff numbers at the fastest rate since January, and Moore said there was the biggest divergence between orders and staffing trends since the survey began in 1997.

"An optimistic interpretation is that construction firms are looking through the second-quarter weakness and feel that workloads will recover momentum," he said.

"However, should this fail to materialise later in 2016, then job creation is likely to come under pressure given its elevated trend relative to current demand patterns," he added.

Construction makes up 6 percent of Britain's economy, though it accounts for a disproportionate amount of volatility in official gross domestic product data.
Terror case opens up Kuwait's sectarian divisions

By Sylvia Westall

KUWAIT, June 2 (Reuters) - Kuwaiti security service officers raided farmhouses near the Iraqi border late last summer, slicing through carpets and smashing open concrete floors. Hidden in large plastic containers was a weapons cache, the largest discovered in Kuwait's history. State television showed Kuwait's Interior Minister, a senior ruling family member, solemnly viewing the results of the operation.

Kuwait charged 25 of its nationals - all of them Shi'ites - and an Iranian with spying for Iran and Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah.

The case has opened up sectarian divisions in Kuwait. While Kuwait's Sunni majority and Shi'ite minority get on better than in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, tensions still exist, and relatives of some of the charged men say they are innocent victims of regional politics.

It also highlights the delicate position of many of the Gulf's smaller states, which find themselves caught up in a power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran.

One Middle Eastern diplomat said Kuwait, a major OPEC oil producer and home to U.S. military bases, was squeezed between the two regional giants, who have jousted in recent months over everything from Iran's nuclear programme to oil production. "Kuwait is in a critical situation, a small dot in a very big triangle," he said. "They are killing themselves to be in the middle."

Kuwaiti prosecutors said the men intended to carry out "hostile acts" against Kuwait. Members of the "Abdali cell," as local officials dubbed the group for the place the weapons were found, were charged with buying, transporting and storing weapons and explosives. Several were also accused of receiving military training in Lebanon from Hezbollah, according to an investigation by Kuwaiti Homeland Security referred to by prosecutors in a Kuwaiti court.

The men denied the charges.

In January a Kuwaiti court found 23 of the 26 guilty of various crimes. Two were sentenced to death, including one, the Iranian, in absentia. The others were fined or received jail terms between five years and life. Three were acquitted. The prosecution is appealing the sentences, saying some of the men should have received tougher punishments.

The men have all appealed their convictions. The charges, the lawyers say, were based on confessions nearly all of the defendants allege were extracted under torture.

Khalid al-Shatti, a defence lawyer for Hassan Hajiya, the Kuwaiti man sentenced to death, said the case was politically motivated. "There is a conflict in the region and those who pay the price of this conflict are the accused."

The Interior Ministry declined to comment for this story, referring queries to the judiciary. The judiciary did not respond to requests for comment. The Information Ministry, which deals with general media enquiries, said it was unable to comment on the topic.

The government and state security officials have said the weapons show that Tehran was seeking to destabilize Kuwait and other countries in the region by infiltrating and manipulating local Shi'ite communities. In recent months Kuwait has accused Iran of stirring up local politics and ignoring "basic diplomatic norms."

Iran has denied any connection with the alleged cell and has said Kuwaiti authorities have not contacted it regarding the Iranian defendant. Last September, the Iranian embassy issued a rare statement expressing "deep dissatisfaction with the association of the name of Iran" with the case.

A senior Kuwaiti government official said that while Iran may not be happy with the court decision "they should respect our laws and they should also respect our internal affairs."

Historically, relations between Kuwait's Sunnis, who make up between 70 and 85 percent of the country's 1.4 million citizens, and its minority Shi'ite community, have been mostly amicable. Shi'ites hold important positions in business, government and parliament. And last June, Kuwait's ruling emir comforted worshippers and families at the scene of a suicide bombing in a Shi'ite mosque. Claimed by Sunni extremist group Islamic State, the attack killed 27.

But the Abdali case, said Abdullah Bishara, a Kuwaiti diplomat and former secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), has opened up splits. "Iranian politics, Hezbollah politics, have played a role in the agitation of differences in Kuwait," he said. "Abdali sharpened differences."

The editor of one of Kuwait's main newspapers, who mixes regularly with senior ruling family members, agreed. "The Kuwaiti government overdid it," the editor said. "The Shi'ites say: This is against us."

GUNS, GRENADES AND EXPLOSIVES

The weapons cache Kuwait's security forces uncovered included Kalashnikov rifles, submachine guns, grenades, 144 kg of explosives, and 19 tons of ammunition, according to a 186-page court judgement issued in January.

"These are all high explosives. To have them in thousands and tens of thousands of kilograms is very significant," Sheikh Thamer al-Sabah, President of Kuwait's National Security Bureau, told Reuters.

But lawyer Shatti, whose own nephew was among those charged and jailed, said the weapons were for self defence. Members of Kuwait's Shi'ite community regularly keep weapons at home, he said, in part because of the rise of Sunni militant groups in the region.

"It is in their interest to defend themselves, to defend their honour and defend their homeland, to defend the Kuwaiti government and the ruling family, to keep their weapons," Shatti told Reuters at the start of appeals proceedings in March.

Hassan Hajiya, the primary defendant in the case, owns the Abdali farmhouses where the weapons were found. The prosecution said he smuggled the weapons by sea from Iran.

Hajiya told the appeals court that the weapons were left over from local resistance to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The defence has asked the prosecution to examine the serial numbers of the weapons which they say will prove the weapons are old.

Thamer of the National Security Bureau, which assesses domestic security risks, said the number of weapons suggest they were for more than just self defence and that the case fitted a pattern of Iran-linked militant and espionage activity in Kuwait dating back to the 1980s.

"This is the Iranian influence again, like with militias in Iraq," he said.

TRAUMATIC INJURIES

The men's appeals hinge in part on the evidence used in the trial. The defence questions the testimony of two Homeland Security officers and the Interior Ministry investigation because, it says, they were based on confessions extracted under torture and duress.

The defence team wants to see CCTV footage of the interrogations and video from cells where the men were held before the trial. It has also asked for the clothes the men were wearing when they were arrested; one lawyer said he saw blood stains on his client's garments.

Homeland Security told the court it cannot locate the clothes. The CCTV footage, it said, was erased.

A request for medical files for one of the defendants who was twice taken to a military hospital during interrogations was also denied, according to Fawaz al-Kateeb, whose law firm Taher Group is representing three of the defendants and is coordinating the entire defence team. "So no CCTV, no clothes, no medical files. Is it a fair trial? Are these fair proceedings?" Kateeb asked.

An August medical report from the Interior Ministry's general department of criminal evidence, referred to in closed court but seen by Reuters, described doctors' examinations carried out on three of the defendants after they were interrogated.

The report said the men, Hassan al-Attar, Hassan al-Bathar and Yousef Ghudunfary, all sustained "frictional abrasions" on their wrists as the result of restrictive handcuffs. Attar had bruising on his upper right arm, Bathar on his neck and left arm, and Ghudunfary had abrasions on his elbows and feet, the report said.

It also described "traumatic injuries" seemingly due to a "collision with a solid object" but said the cause was not clear. The men were not in severe physical pain and their injuries were expected to heal within 30 days, the report said.

The Interior Ministry declined to comment.
Britain's FTSE rises as banking stocks gain ground

LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - Britain's benchmark share index rose on Thursday, lifted by gains in major financial stocks, although traders said the market's near-term progress would be stymied by uncertainty over this month's Brexit vote.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 0.4 percent at 6,213.40 points in early session trading.

The FTSE is down nearly 1 percent so far in 2016, and some 13 percent below a record high reached in April 2015, with concerns over a slowdown in China - the world's second-biggest economy - having hit global stock markets.

Banking stocks such as Barclays and Standard Chartered were among the best performers, tracking gains in rival European bank shares, with analysts at HSBC striking an upbeat note on Spanish banks.

However, some traders said they would use any move higher on the FTSE to sell out and cash in profits, given uncertainty over the Brexit vote this month on Britain's membership of the European Union.

"I'd be looking to sell the rallies here," said Dafydd Davies, partner at Charles Hanover Investments.

Concern about the June 23 referendum on Britain's EU membership also led to British construction orders falling last month for the first time in more than three years.

Shares in heating and plumbing supplies group Wolseley fell 1.3 percent, following broker downgrades on the stock, while the FTSE 350 Construction & Building Materials Index fell 0.3 percent.

ADVISORY- Reuters plans to replace intra-day European and UK stock market reports with a Live Markets blog on Eikon (see cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets for site in development). In a real-time, multimedia format from 0600 London time through the 1630 closing bell, it will include the best of our market reporting, Stocks Buzz service, Eikon graphics, Reuters pictures, eye-catching research and market zeitgeist. Breaking news and dramatic market moves will continue to be alerted to all clients and we will continue to provide a short opening story and comprehensive closing reports.

If you have any thoughts, suggestions or feedback on this, please email mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com.
International airlines raise their profit forecast for this year

By Victoria Bryan and Tim Hepher

DUBLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - Airlines should make more money than previously expected this year, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Thursday, helped by low oil prices and work by airlines to fill planes and drive ancillary revenues.

IATA, representing over 260 airlines accounting for 83 percent of global air traffic, is now forecasting they will make a collective net profit of $39.4 billion this year, up from a previous estimate of $36.3 billion and with more than half of all profits generated by North American carriers.

That would be the fifth straight year of improving profits and give a net profit margin of 5.6 percent, while the industry's return on capital is also expected to exceed the cost of capital for only the second time, a boost for investors in the often beleaguered sector.

"It's an impressive performance given the economy is pretty weak. So I think it's a sign of change," IATA Chief Economist Brian Pearce said at the association's annual meeting in Dublin.

However, the picture was mixed across the globe, and profitability is set to vary widely depending on region and type of carrier, meaning potential investors need to be choosy.

While North American carriers are expected to account for more than half of this year's industry profits, Latin American economies have been hurt by the fall in oil prices and the region's carriers are seeing hardly any decline of fuel costs due to slumping exchange rates.

Aviation banker Bertrand Grabowski said it was a good time to invest in airlines if you were selective, citing for example U.S. airlines' discipline on capacity and costs.

"In Europe, the legacy carriers have been squeezed by the low-cost carriers and the Middle East carriers and they have started working to improve profitability and that is beginning to show," he added.

Some state-owned carriers in emerging economies have done little to improve profitability, he said.

In the United States activist investors are also getting more involved in aviation, as shown at United Continental Holdings, where hedge funds successfully pushed for board changes.

PwC analysts said the improved profits were piquing investor interest, not only in airlines, but also in other fields in aviation, such as infrastructure.

"Investors will be looking for those opportunities where they're not constrained by some of the structural issues, such as legacy labour agreements or difficult regional markets," PwC transportation and logistics director Bryan Terry told Reuters.

Aer Lingus boss Stephen Kavanagh said the Irish airline's takeover by British Airways and Iberia's owner IAG was a sign of how Aer Lingus had worked to become an attractive asset.

"There are a significant number of major airline companies and groups that are focused on that return, and that puts discipline on the entire industry," he added.

Falling ticet prices have been a concern for airlines over recent months and IATA estimates fares will drop 7 percent this year, but unit costs will fall faster, by 7.7 percent.

The improved performance is not only down to the low oil price but is also due to airlines becoming better at filling planes and generating extra revenue, IATA head Tony Tyler said.

Nevertheless, fuel is expected to account for just under 20 percent of expenses this year, down from a 33 percent high in 2012-2013.

Tyler said while it was becoming more normal to make a profit there was still room for improvement, especially on the debt front.
Leaders of banned Tajik Islamist party get life sentence in coup case

ALMATY, June 2 (Reuters) - Two former leaders of a banned Islamist party were jailed for life in Tajikistan on Thursday on charges of being behind an attempted coup last year, in a case criticised by human rights groups as politically motivated.

The Central Asian state, formerly part of the Soviet Union, borders Afghanistan and is seen in Russia and the West as a conduit for drug traffickers and militants. Russia, which supported President Imomali Rakhmon in a civil war in the 1990s, maintains a military base there.

The sentences passed by Tajikistan's Supreme Court completed the virtual elimination of the main opposition force capable of challenging Rakhmon, in power since 1992, and follow a May referendum that could allow him to rule for life.

The court has also sentenced 11 other members of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan to 14-28 years in prison and Zarafo Rakhmoni, the only woman among the defendants, to two years on the same charges.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has described the trial as part of a "severe crackdown on political opposition".

Tajikistan banned IRPT last September after accusing it of being linked to a failed coup earlier that month led by a general, Abdukhalim Nazarzoda, who was killed along with 37 of his supporters in clashes with government forces.

IRPT chairman Mukhiddin Kabiri, who has left Tajikistan and spoke to Reuters before the verdict was announced, dismissed the charges as trumped-up and said they were part of a broad campaign aimed at eliminating the party.

"What is happening in the country will play into the hands of radicals and more and more youths, having lost all trust in the government, will join the ranks of exrtemist groups," he said.

"Perhaps, this is what the Tajik government wants in order to draw the international community to its side against the background of growing extremist tendencies."
Germany braces for Turkish backlash to Armenian genocide vote

By Noah Barkin and Orhan Coskun

BERLIN/ANKARA, June 2 (Reuters) - Turkey's prime minister condemned a vote by German lawmakers on Thursday expected to label the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a "genocide" which risks Ankara's wrath just as Berlin needs its help to tackle the migrant crisis.

Turkey rejects the idea that the killings of Christian Armenians during World War One amounted to a genocide and has warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Bundestag vote would damage bilateral ties.

The timing could not be worse for Merkel, who has championed a deal with Turkey under which Ankara has agreed to stem the flow of refugees to Europe in return for cash, visa-free travel rights and accelerated talks on European Union membership.

Merkel is powerless to stop the symbolic resolution, which was initiated by the opposition Greens and is also backed by lawmakers in her conservative bloc and the Social Democrats.

In a sign of the sensitivities, Merkel will not take part in the vote due to public appointments, although she did back it in an internal party straw poll this week. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, both Social Democrats, will also be absent.

Berlin has already had a taste of the expected backlash from Ankara. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said lawmakers' approval would be "irrational" and that the vote would be a test of friendship between the allies.

Yildirim said he had personally urged Merkel to work against the vote and that she had promised to do all she could.

"We wish Germany would not allow such an irrational issue," Yildirim told ruling party members in comments broadcast live, adding the vote "was a real test of Germany's friendship".

On Wednesday he said the vote was "ridiculous". "It was an ordinary event that occurred during wartime conditions in 1915," he said at a news conference.

The nature and scale of the killings remain highly contentious. Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in 1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted an act of genocide, a term used by many Western historians and foreign parliaments.

Last year, when Austria passed a similar declaration as Germany's proposed resolution, Turkey recalled its ambassador to Vienna and warned of "permanent negative effects" on relations.

MIGRANT DEAL THREAT?

German officials hope the vote will not scupper the EU-Turkey migrant deal, which has been under a cloud since Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan pushed out his prime minister last month and began questioning parts of the agreement.

They say Erdogan has a strong interest in making the migrants deal work and will not allow this to get in the way.

Merkel's conservative ally Volker Kauder stressed that the resolution did not condemn the Turkish people or the current Turkish government.

"We expressly recognise that Turkey is making an incredible contribution to the migrant issue as it has taken in 2 million people and looked after them. We want to work with Turkey," he told Germany's ARD television.

The resolution could also raise tensions with Germany's roughly 3.5 million-strong Turkish community.

Over a thousand Turks demonstrated against the resolution on Saturday in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin.

"I don't think this is the right step," said Murat Kayman of Germany's DITIB Turkish-Islamic group. "There is a blind spot in Europe's historical consciousness that makes working through this more difficult and maybe even explains the vehemence of the Turkish reaction to the accusation of genocide," he added.

The resolution uses the word "genocide in the headline and text and also acknowledges that the German Empire, then a military ally of the Ottomans, did nothing to stop the killings.

"The fate of the Armenians is exemplary in the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way," states the resolution.
(NAPSI)--On Tuesday, CME Group, the world's leading derivatives exchange, presented 77 high school seniors with $1,000 college scholarship awards. The students were selected based on essays they wrote about innovation, as well as their academic standing and extracurricular activities.

"These scholarships demonstrate CME Group's commitment to promoting education and innovation," said Anita Liskey, CME Group's Managing Director of Corporate Marketing and Communications. "As a company with a 170-year history in Illinois, it's important to us to invest in and encourage the next generation of leaders in our community. We congratulate these talented students on their achievements."

Since it was established in 1986, the CME Group Center for Innovation Mayoral Award for Student Achievement has awarded more than $1.4 million to approximately 1,700 high-achieving Chicago Public Schools students.

Four of the 77 students awarded scholarships this year were also chosen for summer internships at CME Group clearing firms: Phillip Alpern of Lane TechCollege Prep High School, Jaiden Fallo of Walter Payton CollegePreparatory High School, Bailey Street of William Jones College PreparatoryHigh School and Nicolas Xu of Northside College Preparatory High School.

For more information about the CME Group Center for Innovation Mayoral Award for Student Achievement, visit cmegroup.com/mayoralaward.
Families of six crew on downed Malaysian plane MH17 sue airline

KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 (Reuters) - The families of six cabin crew aboard ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 sued the airline on Thursday for negligence and breach of contract, nearly two years after the plane was downed over eastern Ukraine.

Flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in July 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in a report last year, but did not identify any responsible party or group.

The suit, filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court by 11 relatives of the crew, named as defendants Malaysian Airline System (MAS) and Malaysia Airlines Berhad, which replaced MAS in a restructuring exercise last year.

"We are suing them for negligence because they failed to take seriously the warnings of the possible dangers that they may have faced," the families' lawyer, Balan Nair, told reporters.

In the lawsuit, which Balan said he believed to be the first filed by families in Malaysia, the relatives allege the airline was in breach of contract for failing to ensure the safety, health and well-being of its crew.

They also allege MAS was negligent in failing to conduct an adequate risk assessment and for charting a flight course through a known conflict zone.

Fighting was raging between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces when the aircraft was downed over the rebel-held territory of Donetsk.

"Had they been more careful in choosing what path to take, they could have avoided this," Balan added.

Malaysia Airlines said it would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing litigation, and had yet to be served with the suit.

"We would like to reiterate the finding of the report by the Dutch Safety Board, which states that the way in which MAS prepared and operated the flight complied with International Civil Aviation Organization regulations," it told Reuters in an emailed statement.

One of the relatives said his sister, flight attendant Chong Yee Pheng, had worked for the airline for 18 years.

"The families of all the victims of MH17 deserve to be treated with humanity, compassion and respect," Chong Seng See said in a statement. "I hope MAS will do right by them."

More suits are expected before a two-year deadline for legal action expires on July 17.

Last month, an Australian firm filed a $330-million compensation claim against Russia, and its president, Vladimir Putin, on behalf of 33 families of MH17 passengers and crew.
PRESS DIGEST- Canada-June 2

June 2 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories from selected Canadian newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

THE GLOBE AND MAIL

** Fresh warnings are being issued about the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets as a growing chorus urges further action from Ottawa amid a continual rise in housing prices. (http://bit.ly/1r3w0o3)

** A federal spy agency inadvertently shared logs of Canadians' phone calls and internet exchanges with intelligence allies such as the United States for years, a newly disclosed report says. (http://bit.ly/1O6velB)

** Saudi Arabia is arming Yemeni forces led by a controversial military commander accused of using child soldiers, a leading human-rights researcher is warning Parliamentarians. Ottawa must suspend sales of Canadian-made combat vehicles to Riyadh if it fails to obtain guarantees that they won't become embroiled in this, Belkis Wille, of Human Rights Watch told a Senate committee. (http://bit.ly/1O6tMiV)

NATIONAL POST

** Vantage Airport Group Ltd began work Wednesday on a $4 billion makeover of New York's rundown LaGuardia Airport, and said the massive contract will significantly raise its profile in the United States. (http://bit.ly/1sqzzWR)

** The NDP is planning to force debate on a special committee on Canada's electoral system Thursday, proposing a new model that would put the Liberals in a minority position. (http://bit.ly/1ZfA6VW)
Even for BP and Shell, North Sea remains a hard sell

By Ron Bousso

LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - When it comes to the North Sea, there is no such thing as an easy sale, even for oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP.

More than any other region in the world, the North Sea has suffered greatly over the past two years as a 60 percent drop in oil prices, high operating costs, dwindling reserves and a tough tax regime has hit operators hard.

As a result, producers ranging from Shell and France's Total to smaller regional players such as Enquest and Tullow Oil have put dozens of assets in the region on the block to boost their balance sheets.

But deals have been few and far apart. Buyers and sellers have found it hard to agree on the value of assets and how to share the costs of dismantling and cleaning up of obsolete fields, known as decommissioning.

With around 30 percent of fields operating at a loss in 2016 and others seeing razor thin margins, "almost all UK North Sea assets are up for sale," said Fiona Legate, senior UK upstream oil and gas analyst at consultancy WoodMackenzie.

"There is however a limited pool of buyers," she added.

BP has struggled to sell a stake in its Forties pipeline system, one of the region's oldest and the main source for the eponymous crude used to price the global Brent crude benchmark.

Talks with Swiss-based chemical giant Ineos recently collapsed after the sides could not agree on how to price the asset, sources close to the negotiations said.

The Forties pipeline has a capacity to deliver over 1 million barrels per day and serves over 50 offshore oil and gas fields in the central North Sea, according to BP's website.

But declining output has meant the pipeline operated at less than 40 percent of its capacity last year, WoodMackenzie says.

Ineos wanted BP and other producers using the pipeline to commit to a fixed capacity fee that would guarantee revenue even if output continued to decline, industry sources close to the talks told Reuters.

BP however sought to pay on a per-barrel basis, they said.

"Buyers want something to protect them against a drop in throughput," one source said.

The pipeline system remains on the market.

BP and Ineos declined to comment.

The UK North Sea was a trailblazer for the unlocking of new oil and gas resources deep under the sea. But since hitting peak production in the late 1990s, it has been in steady decline.

VICIOUS CIRCLE

Shell is starting an ambitious three-year $30 billion global asset sale programme to pay for its $54 billion acquisition of smaller British rival BG Group in February.

In the North Sea, the company is planning to bundle several assets in packages that will include mature fields along with more attractive assets such as the Buzzard field and pipelines, banking sources said.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch will run the North Sea asset sales, banking sources said.

The Anglo-Dutch company held talks in recent months with Neptune, a North Sea-focused investment company headed by former Centrica boss Sam Laidlow and backed by private equity funds Caryle Group and CVC Partners.

Shell, Carlyle and Bank of America declined to comment.

Shell Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry remains confident it can meet its target within around three years. Shell will focus at first on selling infrastructure, refining and retail businesses that are less exposed to oil price fluctuations over production, or upstream assets, he said.

"If the oil price stays at $48 a barrel maybe (the sale programme) will take us a little bit longer. We are not chasing sales of upstream assets at $48."

Operating in the North Sea remains challenging even after Shell cut costs sharply in recent years, Henry said, adding that within the region, some areas are more profitable than others.

"We've taken our costs down hugely and improved our reliability and availability. So the performance today is much better than it was two years ago but it is still not good," Henry told reporters on May 24.

"In general it is high cost region in which you have to keep spending to stay in business and have significant decommissioning and restoration costs."

An extended period of low oil prices also leads to an earlier decommissioning of fields, he said.

WoodMackenzie estimates 142 fields will cease production over the next five years. Total UK North Sea decommissioning are expected to reach 55 billion pounds.

"It is a vicious circle with the low oil price," Henry said.

M&A activity has not stopped completely and is focusing mostly on consolidating existing positions, Legate said.

The recent recovery in oil prices to around $50 a barrel was nevertheless expected to revive M&A activity in the second half of the year, she added.

BP last month doubled its interest in the Culzean gas field development to 32 percent after buying a stake from JX Nippon.

Shell and Exxon Mobil last year sold a small cluster of fields, including the Anasuria Floating Production Storage and Offloading unit, to two Malaysian firms.
Dispute erupts in Serbia over plan to move Nikola Tesla's ashes

BELGRADE, June 2 (Reuters) - A dispute has broken out in Belgrade over what should be done with the remains of Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American revered as one of the world's greatest inventors.

The ashes of the man who developed, among other things, the alternating current electricity supply system widely in use today, are preserved in a gold-coloured sphere in the Nikola Tesla museum in the Serbian capital.

The Serbian Orthodox Church wants to move the ashes to a cathedral in the city, but the museum and others are resisting the plan.

Tesla was born of Serbian parents in 1856 in what is now Croatia and died in New York in 1943. His ashes were later brought to Belgrade.

Most of his work was done in the United States but in Serbia he is a national hero. He developed the elecric motor and did pioneering work in radar, radio and x-rays. Elon Musk named his Tesla electric car in honour of the inventor.

Church leaders have been campaigning for Tesla's ashes to be relocated to the grounds of Saint Sava's cathedral, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world.

"The museum needs to exist, that is not in doubt," Radivoje Panic, a priest at the church, told Reuters. "But the remains should not be in a corner there, where they are not visible to everyone. Here they would be visible to everyone."

The Church issued statements this week calling for the remains to be moved to Saint Sava's. "The Serbian Orthodox Church had always been present in the life and deeds of the great Nikola Tesla," it said.

Others say Tesla was a scientist whose remains should not be in any church.

"I just don't believe Tesla belongs in a church," said film and theatre director Gorcin Stojanovic, a leading voice among those campaigning against moving Tesla to Saint Sava's. "He was not an ancient king, nor a saint. He was a scientist."

In a statement, the Tesla museum said only that it had not been officially informed of the proposal to move the ashes by "an appropriate state institution".

Some saw economic motives at work.
Use it or lose it: Occasional Ohio voters may be shut out in November

By Andy Sullivan and Grant Smith

CINCINNATI, June 2 (Reuters) - When Larry Harmon tried to vote on a marijuana initiative in November in his hometown of Kent, Ohio, the 59-year-old software engineer found his name had been struck from the voter rolls.

Two hours south in Zanesville, restaurant worker Chris Conrad, 37, was also told he was no longer registered.

Both men later found out why: they had not voted often enough.

As the Nov. 8 elections loom, officials in Ohio have removed tens of thousands of voters from registration lists because they have not cast a ballot since 2008.

All U.S. states periodically cleanse their voter rolls, but only a handful remove voters simply because they don't vote on a regular basis. And nowhere could the practice have a greater potential impact in the state-by-state battle for the White House than Ohio, a swing state that has backed the winner in every presidential election since 1960.

Voters of all stripes in Ohio are affected, but the policy appears to be helping Republicans in the state's largest metropolitan areas, according to a Reuters survey of voter lists. In the state's three largest counties that include Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, voters have been struck from the rolls in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods at roughly twice the rate as in Republican neighborhoods.

That's because residents of relatively affluent Republican-leaning neighborhoods are more likely to vote in both congressional elections and presidential contests, historical turnouts show. Democrats are less likely to vote in mid-term elections and thus are more at risk of falling off the rolls.

In the three biggest counties, at least 144,000 voters have been removed, the Reuters analysis found. The statewide total is unclear. Each of the state's 88 counties manages its own voter rolls, which generally are not made public.

Unlike other voting-rights disputes that have sparked protests and lawsuits, the practice doesn't appear to be driven by one specific party. Both Republican and Democratic officials in Ohio have purged inactive voters over the past 20 years.

But neighborhoods that have a high proportion of poor, African-American residents are hit hardest, the Reuters analysis found.

"It's absolutely unfair," said Donna Porter-Jones, an organizer at Amos Project, an interfaith group that aims to register 30,000 voters from some of Cincinnati's poorest neighborhoods ahead of November.

CLEANING UP THE ROLLS

Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, says canceling registrations for voters who missed three straight federal elections helps keep voting rolls current. Since 2011, the state has cleared out more than 2 million records of people who have moved or died, he said.

Those who don't vote over a six-year stretch or respond to a postcard mailed to their address have only themselves to blame, he said. "If this is really important thing to you in your life, voting, you probably would have done so within a six-year period," he said in an interview.

People who don't respond to the postcard can be removed from voting lists if they sit out the next two federal elections. Many other states only remove voters from the rolls if they have died or moved to a new address.

"You shouldn't be struck of your right to vote because you skipped an election," said Kathleen Clyde, a Democratic state representative who has been fighting the practice.

Four civil liberties groups sued to end the practice last month, arguing that it violates federal law and unfairly targets low-income and minority voters.

Voting-rights advocates say they are concerned that many infrequent voters who helped drive turnout to a record in the 2008 presidential election won't be able to vote in this year's likely matchup between Democrat Hillary Clinton, vying to become the first female president, and Republican Donald Trump, the celebrity billionaire.

PARTISAN BATTLES

The Ohio lawsuit is one of a number being fought across the country. Photo ID requirements and other efforts to tighten voting laws have spurred fierce partisan battles and protests in recent months. They follow a Supreme Court decision in 2013 that struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act, a signature achievement of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

The Ohio dispute, by contrast, centers on a practice that has been in place for decades but is receiving new attention from civil liberties groups and Democrats ahead of November.

"We are pleased the courts are reviewing the state's actions," said Pratt Wiley, national director of voter expansion at the Democratic Party in Washington.

Republican party officials at the local and national level, as well as the Trump campaign, did not respond to requests for comment.

But Tom Fitton, the head of Judicial Watch, a conservative group that has pushed Ohio and other states to keep their voting lists up to date, described the lawsuit as a "power play" by civil liberties groups "to ensure that candidates they like are able to steal elections if necessary."

Federal law prohibits states from removing voters solely because they haven't voted, but it also requires them to keep voter lists up to date. Ohio residents who are removed from voting lists must re-register at least 30 days before an election.

Harmon, the software engineer, backed President Barack Obama in 2008 but has sat out presidential and congressional elections since then. He says he initially thought he had done something wrong to get kicked off the voting rolls.

"I felt embarrassed and stupid at the time," said Harmon, who is involved in the Ohio lawsuit. "The more I think about it, the madder I am," he said.

"KICKED OFF"

In Cleveland's Cuyahoga County, 5 percent of voters in neighborhoods that backed Obama by more than 60 percent in 2012 were purged last year due to inactivity, according to the Reuters analysis of the voter lists. In neighborhoods where Obama got less than 40 percent of the vote, 2.5 percent of registered voters were removed for that reason.

In Franklin County, home to the state capital Columbus, 11 percent of voters in Democratic-leaning neighborhoods have been purged since 2012 due to inactivity. Only 6 percent of voters in Republican-leaning neighborhoods have been purged.

The disparity is especially stark in Hamilton County, where affluent Republican suburbs ring Cincinnati, which has one of the highest child-poverty rates in the country.

In the heavily African-American neighborhoods near downtown, more than 10 percent of registered voters have been removed due to inactivity since 2012. In suburban Indian Hill, only 4 percent have been purged due to inactivity.

Overall, 30,000 voters have been removed due to inactivity since 2012, a larger figure than Obama's margin of victory that year.

On a recent rainy afternoon, Amos Project canvasser Marcia Mackey tried to get some of those voters back in the system. Wielding a clipboard and a smile, Mackey asked pedestrians in the Over the Rhine neighborhood north of downtown Cincinnati when they last cast a ballot. If they couldn't remember, she encouraged them to register again.

"People don't know they've been purged until they go to the election site and get turned away," Mackey said. "We need to make sure that people have voices."
Militants kidnap 17 members of Afghanistan's Hazara community

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan, June 2 (Reuters) - Gunmen have kidnapped 17 members of Afghanistan's Hazara community, officials said on Thursday, the latest incident involving members of the Shi'ite Muslim minority highlighting the risk of sectarian violence.

The men were abducted on Wednesday afternoon from a bus in the northern province of Sar-i-Pul, with officials blaming Taliban militants.

"The passengers, all our Hazara brothers, were travelling towards the city centre when their van was stopped by the Taliban and taken away," said Zabihullah Amani, spokesman for the provincial governor.

"We have launched an operation to free them but it didn't help, so now the elders are trying to free them," Amani added, referring to village leaders.

Mohammad Noor Rahmani, head of the provincial council, said the kidnapping happened a day after a Taliban commander in the area was detained by Afghan forces during a clash.

"The Taliban may have abducted the passengers to exchange them with their local commander," Rahmani said.

A series of kidnappings against the mainly Shi'ite ethnic Hazaras last year fuelled fears that the community was being targeted in a country long divided by ethnic and political rivalries.

The Taliban were responsible for the mass killing of Hazaras in the 1990s but the militants, fighting to oust the Western-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, have largely avoided targeting Shi'ite Muslims over recent years.
Germany triggers Turkish outcry with Armenian genocide vote

By Madeline Chambers and Tulay Karadeniz

BERLIN/ANKARA, June 2 (Reuters) - Turkey recalled its ambassador to Germany on Thursday in protest against a parliament resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide at a time when Europe is looking for Ankara's help in the migrant crisis.

Turkey rejects the idea that the killings of Christian Armenians during World War One amounted to a genocide. Its deputy prime minister said the vote was a "historic mistake".

Even before Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament passed the symbolic resolution by an overwhelming majority, Turkey's prime minister had condemned the motion as "irrational" and said it would test the friendship between the NATO partners.

Within two hours, Turkey had recalled its ambassador to Germany for consultations and summoned a top German diplomat to the foreign ministry in Ankara, according to officials.

Armed riot police were deployed outside the German consulate in Istanbul, near Taksim square, in case of protests.

President Tayyip Erdogan, in Nairobi, said the resolution would seriously affect relations with Germany and the government would discuss what steps Ankara would take.

"The way to close the dark pages in your own history is not by besmirching the history of other countries with irresponsible and groundless parliamentary decisions," tweeted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

A spokesman for the ruling AK Party responded swiftly to the vote, saying it had "seriously damaged" relations.

In a rare show of unity, three of Turkey's political parties, including the ruling AK, issued a statement condemning the vote.

"This decision which is against history and the future will no doubt have an impact on German-Turkish relations and will damage bridges of friendship between the two countries," they wrote in the statement, putting their usual divisions aside.

The timing could not be worse for Merkel, who is relying on the success of an EU-Turkey deal she has championed to stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for cash, visa-free travel rights and accelerated talks on EU membership.

In an indication of how sensitive the issue was, she did not take part in the vote due to "public engagements". Later, however, she put the emphasis on the close ties between the two countries.

"Even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great," she told reporters when asked about it.

A poll for ARD television showed that 74 percent of Germans support the term 'genocide' to describe the killings. Some 57 percent think the resolution will hurt ties with Turkey.

Merkel is also keen to avoid raising tensions with Germany's roughly 3.5 million-strong Turkish community

"I want to say to people with Turkish roots: you're not only welcome here but you are part of this country," said Merkel.

Over a thousand Turks demonstrated against the resolution on Saturday in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin.

The nature and scale of the killings remain highly contentious. Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in 1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted an act of genocide, a term used by many Western historians and foreign parliaments.

MIGRANT DEAL THREAT?

In Argentina, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he hoped the vote would not prompt Turkey to overreact. "As expected, Turkey reacted and I hope that over the next days and weeks we can manage to avoid overreactions," he said.

Several German lawmakers said they did not want to point a finger at the current Turkish government but rather wanted to bolster reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia.

"We know from our own experience how difficult and painful it is to work through the past ... but only in this way can human trust and strength grow," Social Democrat Rolf Muetzenich said in parliament before the vote.

Armenia welcomed the resolution. The foreign ministry said Turkish authorities continued "to obstinately reject the undeniable fact of genocide".

Nearly a dozen other EU countries have passed similar resolutions. French lawmakers officially recognised the Armenian massacre as a genocide in 2001, infuriating Turkey.

Ankara also threatened a "total rupture" with France over a 2012 law outlawing denial of the genocide but France's highest legal authority ruled that was an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech, prompting a thaw in relations.

The German resolution says the Armenians' fate exemplified "the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way."
IMF, EBRD warn Ukraine over "too high" sale price for Odessa Portside Plant -letter

By Matthias Williams

KIEV, June 2 (Reuters) - Ukraine has set too high a reserve price for its flagship privatisation of Odessa Portside Plant (OPP) that could deter reputable foreign investors from bidding, the IMF and EBRD told the government in a letter seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The auction of OPP, the first major privatisation since a 2014 uprising brought in a pro-Western leadership, is seen by Ukraine's allies as a test of its ability to attract vital foreign investment and improve transparency in line with a $17.5 billion aid-for-reforms programme from the International Monetary Fund.

In their letter to Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, the lenders said the valuation process - which set a reserve price of $521 million for auctioning the state fertiliser group - fell short of international standards and risks damaging Ukraine's image.

"We are concerned that many reputable international investors could simply decide to not even investigate the opportunity," wrote Jerome Vacher and Francis Malige, regional representatives for the International Monetary Fund and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

"Should this be the case, it would negatively affect the trust of foreign investors in the next round of privatisation of OPP, as well as broadly damage Ukraine's image and its potential attractiveness for foreign direct investments," the letter, dated May 27, said.

The IMF and EBRD "strongly encourage" the government to reconsider the valuation, it said.

Groysman's spokesman said the price had been determined in accordance with Ukrainian laws before the election of the current government, which came to power in April.

"The price was agreed at a government meeting attended by representatives of the EBRD and IMF," said spokesman Dmytro Stolyarchuk. "The government adopted transparent privatisation conditions, which in particular involve the participation of no fewer than two contenders, including one foreign (contender)."

The State Property Fund, which is responsible for managing the sale, said it regarded the valuation as fair.

"The Fund thinks the price is objective. From our point of view, the price is not too high. The valuation was carried out using three methods and the price was based on their average," a spokesman said.

The sale of OPP and other state firms has been repeatedly pushed back. This has concerned potential foreign investors, some of whom have said they had begun to question Ukraine's commitment to the process.

While no auction date has yet been set for OPP, the State Property Fund has previously said it could be put on the market this month.

Transparency has been a top issue because of fears that the sales could strengthen the control of Ukraine's oligarchs over strategic industries.
Clinton attacks Trump's foreign policy as a threat to U.S. safety

By Amanda Becker

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lambasted Donald Trump's foreign policy platform as "dangerously incoherent" in a speech on Thursday that cast her Republican rival as both a frightening and laughable figure.

In remarks that at times resembled a comedy roast, Clinton unleashed a torrent of polished zingers and one-liners to attack Trump's policies and character, suggesting Trump might start a nuclear war if elected to the White House simply because "somebody got under his very thin skin."

"Donald Trump's ideas are not just different, they are dangerously incoherent," she said to a room of supporters in San Diego, California. "They're not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies."

Clinton, the front-runner in the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee, delivered her speech as she seeks to shift her attention to the Nov. 8 election against likely rival Trump and away from Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, who is continuing his long-shot bid for the nomination.

Clinton was speaking in San Diego ahead of California's June 7 primary election.

Democratic Party leaders have fretted about how to best oppose Trump, who managed to knock out all 16 rivals for the Republican nomination in part with his uninhibited style of assailing them with personal insults. Trump revels in referring to Clinton as "Crooked Hillary" and dredging up the infidelities of her husband, Bill Clinton, the former president.

Clinton's remarks were intended in part to show she would not be cowed and that she could go toe-to-toe with him in scornful put-downs.

"He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia," she said as the crowd guffawed, and she suggested Trump would run the U.S. economy "like one of his casinos."

During her speech, Clinton predicted Trump, who has been deeply critical of Clinton's foreign policy record, would take to his Twitter account to insult her, and he did.

"Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton!" ran one posting during the speech, which included a typo. "Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesn't even look presidential!"

Trump has said previously that Clinton is distorting his actual policies.

TWO VISIONS

Amid the laugh lines, Clinton cited her own experience as secretary of state, in particular her role advising President Barack Obama during the mission to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, to suggest her approach to foreign policy was the more serious.

"He praises dictators like Vladimir Putin and picks fights with our friends, including the British prime minister, the mayor of London, the German chancellor, the president of Mexico and the pope," Clinton said, listing some of the allies with whom Trump has verbally sparred in the last year.

Obama, who has also been repeatedly mocked by Trump, has criticized Trump as being ignorant or cavalier about world affairs and has said that Trump's rise has "rattled" foreign leaders.

Trump has talked tough on foreign policy. He has said he would bring back waterboarding and other brutal interrogation techniques for terrorism suspects that are widely regarded as torture and were discontinued by Obama.

Trump has also vowed to renegotiate trade deals, called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country, and said he would ask members of the 28-nation NATO alliance to "pay up" or "get out." He has said he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program.

Clinton derided these and other positions, promising she would do a better job keeping the United States safe. Standing in front of a backdrop of 19 large U.S. flags, an unusual abundance even by the standards of presidential campaign events, Clinton painted the election as a choice between "two very different visions."

"One that's angry, afraid and based on the idea that America is fundamentally weak and in decline," she said, summing up Trumpism. "The other is hopeful, generous and confident in the knowledge that America is great, just like we always have been."

Trump has criticized Clinton for her handling of foreign policy during her 2009-2013 stint as secretary of state, including the Sept. 11, 2012, attack by Islamist militants on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

He cites Clinton's support for the war in Iraq, launched by former Republican President George W. Bush, as another example of her shortcomings.

Democratic challenger Sanders echoed Clinton's concerns about Trump after her speech, though he also criticized Clinton's foreign policy. "I agree ... that Donald Trump's foreign policy ideas are incredibly reckless and irresponsible," Sanders said in a statement.

In criticizing Clinton, Sanders cited her vote for the war in Iraq, calling it "the worst foreign policy blunder in modern American history," and said "she has been a proponent of regime change, as in Libya, without thinking through the consequences."

In assailing each other's suitability for the White House, Clinton and Trump are reflecting a negative voter mood ahead of next month's party conventions that will choose the presidential nominees.

Both Clinton and Trump are facing record-low favorability ratings. A Reuters/Ipsos poll taken Friday through Tuesday shows half of Trump supporters say the primary reason they are going to vote for him is "I don't want Hillary Clinton to win," while 41 percent of Clinton supporters cite their primary reason as not wanting Trump to win.
Egypt receives first of two French Mistral warships

CAIRO, June 2 (Reuters) - Egypt on Thursday received the first of two French Mistral helicopter carriers and said the second would arrive in September as part of a deal signed last year.

France agreed last year to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers to Egypt for 950 million euros (656 million pounds) after their sale to Russia was cancelled last August.

"We now have advanced capabilities in confronting terrorism within our borders and on our shores," Minister of Defence Sedky Sobhi said at a handover ceremony at Saint-Nazaire, Western France.

"It increases our combat capabilities and our ability to carry out long-term missions at sea...and we are awaiting on the arrival of the second in September," he said.

Cairo has sought to boost its military power in the face of a two-year insurgency in northern Sinai and fears that the conflict in neighbouring Libya could spill over.

The Mistral is known as the "Swiss army knife" of the French navy for its versatility. Equipped with missile defence and radar navigation systems, it can store up to 16 helicopters and has enough landing pads for six helicopters, according to Egyptian state television.

The warship, named Gamal Abdel Nasser after the second president of Egypt, is headed toward Alexandria where it is expected to arrive within weeks, state television said.

In April France signed separate deals worth about 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion) with Egypt during a visit by French President Francois Hollande to Cairo.

The deals included a contract for a military telecommunications satellite expected to be built by France's Airbus Space Systems et Thales Alenia Space.
Carter says Islamic State used Manbij to plot against U.S., Europe, Turkey

SINGAPORE, June 2 (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters have used the northern Syrian city of Manbij as a base to hatch plots against Europe, Turkey and the United States, necessitating a U.S.-backed offensive against it, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Thursday.

U.S. officials disclosed to Reuters this week that thousands of U.S.-backed fighters in Syria were launching an offensive to capture a swath of land known as Manbij pocket after weeks of quiet preparations.

Carter, who was en route to a regional security meeting in Singapore, told reporters the Arab-led force, which the United States was supporting, was moving towards Manbij city.

The city was a route for the flow of foreign fighters, making it "essential and important for the counter-ISIL fight in Syria," he said.

"We know that there is external plotting, from Manbij city ... against the homelands of Europe, Turkey - all good friends and allies of ours - and the United States as well," Carter said.

"This is capable force. They are doing all the things we can always do with able and motivated local forces to fight ISIL."

He did not elaborate on the plotting he was referring to.

The operation, which began Tuesday and could take weeks to complete, aims to choke off Islamic State's access to Syrian territory along the Turkish border that militants have long used as a logistics base for moving foreign fighters to and from Europe.

U.S. officials said a small number of U.S. special operations forces would support the offensive on the ground, acting as advisers and staying back from the front lines.

The operation would also count on support from U.S.-led coalition air strikes and ground-based firing positions across the border in Turkey, a U.S. ally in NATO.

It comes ahead of an eventual push by the U.S.-backed Syrian forces toward Raqqa, the Islamic State's de facto capital in Syria and the prime objective in Syria for U.S. military planners.

The U.S. military official said depriving Islamic State of the Manbij pocket would further isolate them and undermine their ability to funnel supplies to Raqqa.

U.S. President Barack Obama has authorized about 300 U.S. special operations forces on the ground in secret Syrian locations to battle militants in coordination with local forces.
MSF urges Turkey to open border to Syrians fleeing fighting

BEIRUT, June 2 (Reuters) - International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres on Thursday urged Turkey to open its border to some 100,000 displaced Syrians trapped by fighting including a recent Islamic State advance.

Fighting near the Turkish border in northern Aleppo province intensified last week when IS launched an attack against rebel groups, advancing towards the town of Azaz in clashes that NGOs said sent thousands of civilians fleeing.

The United Nations says tens of thousands are already sheltering near the Turkish frontier having fled fighting earlier this year.

"After countless displacements from military offensives, there is no place left for these people to escape to," MSF Middle East operations manager Pablo Marco said in a statement.

"The Turkish government and the Turkish people are making an immense effort to help Syrian refugees" hosting almost 3 million people already, he said.

"But today the people of Azaz can only count on them. We ask Turkey to show this generosity once again and open its border to those trapped in Azaz."

MSF, which supports dozens of hospitals inside Syria, had to evacuate patients and staff from a hospital in the Azaz area as the fighting got closer.
Three Syrians arrested in Germany suspected of planning attack

By Noah Barkin and Michelle Martin

BERLIN, June 2 (Reuters) - Three Syrian men with suspected links to Islamic State have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning a large-scale attack in the western city of Duesseldorf, the federal prosecutor said on Thursday.

The plot was uncovered because a fourth Syrian man, identified as Saleh A., voluntarily turned himself in to authorities in Paris on Feb. 1 and confessed to the plot.

After the confession, it took German investigators four months to accumulate enough evidence against the three men to arrest them. Saleh A. remains in custody in France and Germany is seeking his extradition, the prosecutor said.

The arrests, made about two months after suicide bombers killed 32 people in Brussels, are likely to deepen concerns that Germany has become a priority target for Islamic militants operating in Europe.

Germany has not been the victim of a major attack like those seen in Belgium, France, Spain and Britain. But it is seen as particularly vulnerable because hundreds of thousands of migrants streamed into the country over the past year, overwhelming authorities who could not vet many of them.

German intelligence officials have said they believe IS militants took advantage of the chaotic influx to sneak fighters into Germany.

Prosecutors said in their statement that they believe Saleh A., 25, and one of the three men arrested in Germany, a 27-year-old named Hamza C., joined Islamic State in Syria in the spring of 2014 and received orders to carry out an attack in the old town of Duesseldorf.

IS leaders sent them to Turkey in May 2014, prosecutors said. The two men are believed to have then traveled separately through Greece to Germany in March and July of last year.

By January 2016, they had convinced a third man, Mahood B., 25, to participate in the attack, prosecutors said. Around the same time they contacted a fourth man, Abd Arahman A., 31, whose task was to make suicide vests.

Prosecutors believe Abd Arahman A. had worked previously for the militant group Nusra Front in Syria making suicide vests and bombs before he was sent by IS leaders to Germany in Oct. 2014 to participate in the planned attack.

SUICIDE BOMBINGS

According to the prosecutors' statement, two of the men were planning to blow themselves up on the Heinrich-Heine-Allee, a busy road in the Duesseldorf city centre, while other attackers would mow down pedestrians with guns and explosive devices.

There is no evidence the suspects had begun implementing their attack plans. The three men were arrested in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Baden-Wuerttemberg. Their homes were also being searched.

"Germany, just like other European countries, finds itself in the crosshairs of international terrorism," a spokeswoman for German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.

"We will do everything in our power to prevent terrorist attacks and protect people in Germany as best we can," German Justice Minister Heiko Maas added.

The accusations are interesting because they suggest that Islamic State was deploying its members to launch attacks in Germany as early as 2014.

Authorities said earlier this month they were investigating 40 cases in which Islamic militants are suspected of having entered the country with the recent flood of refugees from the Middle East, which began last summer.

The number of migrants entering Germany reached peaks of more than 10,000 a day last autumn, but has fallen dramatically in recent months due to the closing of the Greek border with Macedonia and a deal between the European Union and Turkey that has discouraged refugees from crossing the Aegean Sea.
Nestle Chairman says succession announcement expected this year

By Silke Koltrowitz

VEVEY, Switzerland, June 2 (Reuters) - Nestle is looking at internal and external candidates to lead the world's largest food and drink company and will announce its choice for a new chairman before the end of the year, its current chairman said on Thursday.

The election of a new leader next year is an opportunity to shake up the Swiss company just as the global packaged food industry faces a slew of challenges from changing consumer tastes and greater competition.

Speaking at the company's headquarters in Vevey on Lake Geneva, Chairman Peter Brabeck told Reuters that Nestle also uses external candidates to benchmark internal ones.

"It's a task of the nomination committee not to look only internally, but also externally, because it is also important to be able to compare if our internal candidates are competitive in the current environment," Brabeck said on the sidelines of the festivities for the company's 150th anniversary.

He said the board's nomination committee meets at least three times a year to discuss succession planning, and has plans for both emergency and long-term succession.

"We obviously always have several candidates for long-term planning," said Brabeck, who recently recovered from cancer and will soon reach the mandatory retirement age of 72.

Earlier on Thursday, Swiss newspaper Blick quoted Brabeck as saying current Chief Executive Paul Bulcke was among several candidates to succeed him, and that there was also more than one possible candidate to succeed Bulcke.

While the CEO runs the company, the chairman provides strategic guidance. Nestle's last four chiefs, whose collective CEO tenure lasted 40 years, all became chairmen.

PROMOTING FROM WITHIN

Nestle has a history of promoting internally and some analysts and shareholders expect that to continue.

Thomas A. Russo of Gardner Russo & Gardner says Nestle's management bench is deep enough that it can deliver "quite comfortably" a capable new CEO.

"There's a wealth of choices and I don't believe that we need an outsider just because Nestle needs to be changed," said Russo, whose firm holds roughly $1 billion worth of Nestle's U.S.-traded shares. "I know Nestle is aware of the kind of drumbeat for transformation."

Jon Cox at Kepler Cheuvreux predicts Bulcke as chairman and said frontrunners for CEO include Laurent Freixe, head of Nestle's Americas business, and Wan Ling Martello, former chief financial officer who now runs the Asia, Oceania and Africa unit.

Cox previously said Martello, a Chinese American woman, would be seen as something of an outside appointment and would likely signal a bigger shift in strategy, albeit within the company's current business model.

"We see the Nestle model as being maintained whoever becomes the next CEO," he said.

Nestle sells thousands of goods from baby food to coffee and chocolate, and has been investing lately in higher-margin, higher-growth healthcare businesses as it tries to fend off criticism that its scale stifles agility. It has signed a series of deals with small companies in its bid to create a new kind of business that is midway between food and pharmaceuticals.

It is also being put to the test by investment groups 3G Capital and JAB Holding, which have bought up big food and drink businesses and are injecting an intense cost-consciousness into the sector, as industrywide growth slows due to a shift towards healthier and more natural foods.
Bodies of at least 25 migrants washed up in western Libya - Red Crescent

TRIPOLI, June 2 (Reuters) - The bodies of at least 25 migrants who drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean have been washed up near the western Libyan city of Zuwara, a Red Crescent official said on Thursday.

Al-Khamis Al-Bosaifi said aid workers were still recovering the bodies, and that the circumstances in which the migrants died were not clear.
Eight women killed in stampede for Ramadan alms in Mauritania

NOUAKCHOTT, June 2 (Reuters) - Eight women were trampled to death in a stampede to receive alms being distributed by a charity in Mauritania ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, hospital sources and the event's organiser said on Thursday.

A large crowd had gathered on Wednesday to receive the equivalent of around $30 per person that was to be handed out by wealthy businessman Zeine Abidine Ould Cheikh Ahmed in the capital Nouakchott.

Mohamed Mahmoud Issa, the director of Ould Cheikh Ahmed's charity foundation, said that upon arriving at the scene he had gone in search of police reinforcements to control the crowd.

"It was on the way that we were informed by the police that the crowd of women had forced their way through the entrance," he said. A number of women fell to the ground during the crush and were trampled upon, witnesses said.

Ramadan, Islam's holy month of fasting, begins this week. Wednesday's charity distribution was meant to be an act of zakat, a form of alms-giving that constitutes one of the religion's five pillars.

Issa said that Ould Cheikh Ahmed, a well-known business figure in the West African nation where nearly a quarter of the population lives on less than $1.25 per day, had visited the victims of the stampede.

"He distributed the sum of 4 million ouguiyas (around $12,800) to each of the families of the eight dead and paid for the healthcare for the 20 injured, who have incidentally left the hospital today," he said.
EU throws support behind "sharing economy" firms like Uber, Airbnb

By Julia Fioretti

BRUSSELS, June 2 (Reuters) - The European Union executive threw its weight behind the "sharing economy" on Thursday, saying governments should only ban services such as ride-hailing app Uber and Airbnb as a last resort.

In new guidelines intended to foster development of the new Internet-based services in Europe, the European Commission said any restrictions on them by EU member states should be proportionate to the public interest at stake, such as public safety or social policy.

Although not legally binding, the guidelines are an attempt to set a Europe-wide approach to the fast-growing sector instead of the patchwork response adopted by European cities so far.

Some European cities have responded with curbs and bans on companies like Uber and home-sharing site Airbnb which challenge traditional industries such as taxi services and hotels, drawing complaints of unfair competition.

"Absolute bans and quantitative restrictions should only be used as a measure of last resort," the Commission said in a statement.

The guidelines were welcomed by Airbnb, which called them "a valuable tool to ensure a clear, stable and consistent regulatory environment for sharing economy users across Europe."

The Commission said it would use the guidelines to ensure that any national legislation does not violate the EU treaties, a veiled threat to any government seeking to impose overly restrictive measures on the sharing economy.

Uber said the guidelines were an encouraging sign.

"The European Commission has made it clear that EU laws protect collaborative economy services against undue restrictions, and member states should review regulations that undermine the development of such services," said Gareth Mead, Uber spokesman.

The Commission is assessing complaints from Uber against France, Germany and Spain.

"Limiting the possibility for new transport operators to use new technologies, such as geo-localisation services, is one clear example of bad practices," said EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc.

"Some restrictions could run contrary to EU law and the Commission might have to take action."

The Commission also wants to foster European sharing-economy start-ups. Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen said the sector could produce Europe's next unicorn, or start-up company valued at more than $1 billion.

"Our role is to encourage a regulatory environment that allows new business models to develop while protecting consumers and ensuring fair taxation and employment conditions," he said.

U.S. firms Airbnb, founded in 2008, and Uber, launched a year later, have faced regulatory battles around the world.

Taxi drivers have staged high-profile protests against Uber in many European countries. Last year, French prosecutors raided Uber's Paris offices in a showdown over whether the company was violating a law to curtail online taxi services.

Airbnb has faced criticism from city officials in Barcelona and Paris, who say it has driven up property rents.

In the case of room-renting sites like Airbnb, the Commission said banning short-term lets of apartments "appears difficult to justify" when limits on the maximum number of days apartments can be rented out would be more appropriate.
MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf mixed before OPEC meeting; Egypt's Cleopatra lists

By Celine Aswad

DUBAI, June 2 (Reuters) - Gulf stock markets were mixed before an OPEC meeting later on Thursday to discuss coordinated action among oil producers to support prices. Egypt's market rose as a newly listed healthcare stock performed strongly.

Riyadh's stock index added 0.5 percent with support from some petrochemical shares as Brent oil held near $50 a barrel. Saudi Basic Industries climbed 1.5 percent.

Low-cost supermarket operator Abdullah Al Othaim jumped 2.1 percent to 99.00 riyals, its highest close since August 2015, in heavy trade. The stock is approaching its mean fair value of 108.27 riyals, according to a Reuters survey of analysts. Of 12 analysts, seven have a "buy" rating on Othaim and the rest a "hold".

Healthcare stocks also advanced with National Medical Care gaining 2.6 percent.

But Dubai's index dropped 1.6 percent, weighed down by a 1.2 percent decline in blue chip Dubai Islamic Bank .

Shuaa Capital, which had surged 6.3 percent on Wednesday after Reuters identified several bidders for a stake in it, fell back 4.4 percent.

The banking sector was the main drag on Abu Dhabi's index , which declined 0.7 percent. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank fell 3.5 percent.

EGYPT, QATAR

Cairo's main index rose 0.6 percent to 7,618 points, nearing minor technical resistance at its mid-May peak of 7,670 points.

Cleopatra Hospital Holding jumped 6.9 percent from its initial public offer price to 9.62 Egyptian pounds on its first day of trade. Sigma Capital suggested a target price for the stock of 11.66 pounds, saying Egypt's healthcare sector was highly regarded but lacked representation on the bourse.

Investment bank EFG Hermes rose 1.6 percent to an 11-month closing high. It has been in an uptrend since mid-May.

Dubai Group has said it will divest its 11.8 percent stake in EFG by the end of this year and investors are hoping a strategic shareholder could benefit the company.

Qatar's index erased early gains and retreated 0.4 percent to its lowest close in 3-1/2 months. Vodafone Qatar dropped 2.1 percent.

THURSDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS

SAUDI ARABIA

* The index rose 0.5 percent to 6,489 points.

DUBAI

* The index fell 1.6 percent to 3,263 points.

ABU DHABI

* The index dropped 0.7 percent to 4,255 points.

QATAR

* The index lost 0.4 percent to 9,533 points.

EGYPT

* The index added 0.6 percent to 7,618 points.

KUWAIT

* The index edged up 0.1 percent to 5,377 points.

OMAN

* The index was flat at 5,820 points.

BAHRAIN

* The index added 1.0 percent to 1,116 points.
France to take in 400 refugees a month from Greece - minister

PARIS, June 2 (Reuters) - France plans to take in 400 refugees a month from Greece under a European Union plan for distributing asylum seekers, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Thursday, substantially increasing its intake.

The announcement came as Prime Minister Manuel Valls was in Athens to offer reassurances that Paris would live up to its commitments to take in 32,000 additional asylum seekers over the next two years.

Nearly 100 additional refugees arrived this week from Greece and Italy and another 253 are due from Greece next week, Cazeneuve said in a statement.

The EU plan for sharing out refugees was agreed last September, but has been very slow in taking off.

The scheme was set up as Greece struggled to cope with the chaotic arrival of nearly a million people last year, many of them Syrian refugees, most of whom went to Germany.

As of last month, only 1,441 asylum seekers had been relocated to other EU countries out of the 160,000 provided for under the temporary scheme.
Romanian rescue helicopter crashes in Moldova, four killed

BUCHAREST, June 2 (Reuters) - A Romanian SMURD emergency service helicopter crashed on Thursday after carrying missions in neighbouring Moldova, killing all four crew, the interior ministry said.

It said an (Eurocopter) EC135, which lifted off in the morning from the northern Romanian city of Iasi in the morning, crashed near a forest in the Cantemir district.

Ministry spokeswoman Monica Dajbog said the accident occurred at midday, close to the border with Romania after a couple of short flights across the country to rescue an 85 year-old woman with pulmonary disease.

She said the helicopter was manufactured in August 2014, had its technical inspection on schedule in February 2016 and that the pilot had more than 4,000-hour flight time.
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Embed Chuck Todd: Donald Trump's behavior at presser 'borderline irresponsible' 3:19 Donald Trump has branded him a "hater," "very hostile" and "Mexican." U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who's presiding over two of the three lawsuits against Trump University in San Diego, is clearly now in the cross hairs of the bombastic presumptive Republican presidential nominee. But Curiel is no stranger to being targeted  and in the 1990s he was even reportedly on the hit list of a Mexican drug cartel. Judge Gonzalo Curiel US District Court Southern District of California

On the campaign trail last Friday, Trump lobbed a number of verbal assaults against Curiel, whom Trump slammed for his handling of the case in which his namesake online school is accused of defrauding students.

"The judge was appointed by Barack Obama," Trump told a campaign rallyon the same day as a hearing in the case. "I mean frankly, he should recuse himself because he's given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative."

Related: Trump University Staffers Describe 'Fraudulent Scheme'

The judge appeared to take a swipe at Trump that same day by ordering internal Trump University documents to be released as part of a class-action lawsuit. (He is prevented by a judicial code of conduct from responding publicly to the verbal attacks.)

In deciding to release the documents, Curiel simply noted that Trump "has placed the integrity of these court proceedings at issue."

It's a move that will likely keep Curiel at odds with Trump. Here's what else is known about the veteran jurist:

He's the son of immigrants.

Curiel was born in East Chicago, Indiana, in 1953, according to the Federal Judicial Center.

During a Senate confirmation hearing in 2012 regarding his appointment as a U.S. District judge, Curiel was described as the son of Mexican immigrants, whose parents came to the United States with an elementary school education.

Trump had referred to Curiel as "Mexican" on Friday  a description that someLatinos say was meant to be disparaging.

He worked his way up to a judgeship.

After earning his law degree from Indiana University in 1979, Curiel spent the next 10 years in private practice in Indiana and California.

He then served as an assistant U.S. attorney in California's Southern District, and worked in the Narcotics Enforcement Section before he was appointed in 2006 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as a San Diego Superior Court judge.

Related: Latinos Blast Trump for His 'Mexican' Judge Comments

He oversaw domestic violence cases as well as family court and civil cases.

In 2011, Obama first nominated him to a district judgeship representing the Southern California district in San Diego. He was confirmed the following year by the Senate. He tried over 300 cases at that point, mostly in front of a federal criminal jury.

Before his nomination, he was lauded for his years on the bench.

"He comes to us, in short, as a nominee with impressive  indeed, extraordinary  record of experience, public service, and I look forward to his swift confirmation," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D.-Conn., said at the confirmation hearing.

He was targeted by the Tijuana drug cartel.

When Curiel was part of Narcotics Enforcement, he helped to bring down the Mexican criminal organization run by Benjamin Arellano Felix, who was arrested in 2002 and convicted of running a violent and deadly drug cartel between the U.S. and Mexico.

Before Felix's arrest, the Los Angeles Times reported that Curiel had been a possible target by the cartel when a top lieutenant was arrested and claimed in a bugged conversation that he was given the go-ahead to assassinate the U.S. prosecutor.

Curiel, who was involved in the extradition of cartel henchmen, was reportedly placed under tight security.

In discussing the case with The New York Times in 2002, Curiel didn't mention the threats against him, and said that it was useful that he and other prosecutors were of Mexican descent and could speak Spanish.

"When it comes down to it, this involves the country of our parents," Curiel told the newspaper. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-university-case-who-federal-judge-gonzalo-curiel-n584096
Moroccan authorities arrest six suspected militants linked to IS

RABAT, June 2 (Reuters) - Moroccan police have arrested six people suspected of belonging to a militant cell with ties to Islamic State, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The cell had been active in Casablanca and the northern city of Tetouan and its neighboring town of Martil, a ministry statement said.

The group was planning to send members to war zones and carry out attacks against Morocco when they return, the ministry said. It gave no further details.

Hundreds of fighters from Morocco and other Maghreb nations have joined Islamist militant forces in the conflict in Iraq and Syria, and also in Libya. Some are threatening to return to carry out attacks and recruit more jihadis in their home countries, security experts say.

Moroccan authorities believe around 1,500 Moroccan nationals have left to fight with armed groups in Syria and Iraq, including 220 who have returned home and been jailed and 286 have been killed.

Morocco, a Western ally against Islamist militancy, has suffered bomb attacks by suspected Islamist fighters, most recently in 2011.
GRAINS-U.S. soybeans surge to near two-year highs; corn, wheat firm

By Mark Weinraub

CHICAGO, June 2 (Reuters) - U.S. soybean futures soared to their highest in nearly two years on Thursday on hopes that export demand will rise amid concerns about the quality of the crop being harvested in Argentina.

Corn firmed to its highest since July 2015, supported by forecasts for a reduced harvest in Brazil. Wheat also rose, with technical strength overcoming concerns about plentiful global supplies.

Soymeal futures led the gains in the soy complex, rising 3.5 percent on expectations that overseas buyers will start to turn to the United States to meet their needs due to weather problems in South America. Soybeans were up 2.4 percent, on track for their third day of gains in four sessions.

"Realistically, we have seen the numbers out of South America, with the governments there dialling back their production," said Bill Gentry, a broker with Risk Management Commodities in Lafayette, Indiana. "I think things are tighter than they were. The market is basically dialling it (increased demand for U.S. supplies) in now."

At 10:31 a.m. CDT (1531 GMT), Chicago Board of Trade July soybean futures were up 27 cents at $11.26-3/4 a bushel. The most-active contract peaked at its highest since July 8, 2014.

CBOT July corn was 4 cents higher at $4.17-3/4 a bushel.

"There is a bullish trend as we are expecting strong demand for U.S. products, both soybeans and corn," said Kaname Gokon at brokerage Okato Shoji in Tokyo. "Chinese pork prices are at record high, so they will need more corn and soybeans to boost pork production."

Government data released on Wednesday showed Chinese pork prices hit record levels this week, with farmers holding back pigs from slaughter to rebuild herds following widespread culling in 2014 when prices were low.

Brazil's cereals exporters association Anec cut its estimate for 2016 corn exports to 23 million tonnes, down 7 million tonnes from its April outlook.
EMERGING MARKETS-Brazil stocks rise after Kroton says considering Estacio deal

By Bruno Federowski and Paula Arend Laier SAO PAULO, June 2 (Reuters) - Brazilian equities rose on Thursday after Kroton Educacional SA said it was considering a purchase of rival Estacio Participacoes SA, boosting shares of both education companies. Kroton, the world's biggest private education company, jumped by as much as 11.5 percent. Estacio shot up almost 20 percent, its biggest daily gain since October 2008. Kroton said in a securities filing it had hired Itau BBA and law firm Barbosa Mussnich Aragao to advise on the possible all-stock deal. Hopes that interim President Michel Temer could have an easier time gathering lawmaker support than his predecessor Dilma Rousseff also fostered appetite for Brazilian assets. The lower house of Congress, in a first round vote on Thursday, approved a constitutional amendment that would free up about 120 billion reais in funds currently earmarked for special purposes. Backed by Temer's government, the lower house also sanctioned pay raises for military and civil servants that will cost about 4 billion reais ($1.1 billion) this year. "This points in the opposite direction of fiscal austerity but could also increase governability. In net terms, it might not be so negative," said SLW brokerage trader Joao Paulo de Gracia Correa. The loss of two ministers to a corruption scandal has not set back Temer's plans to balance Brazil's government accounts and return the country to growth, his chief of staff told Reuters on Thursday. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1550 GMT: Stock indexes daily % YTD % Latest change change MSCI Emerging Markets 809.03 0.22 1.65 MSCI LatAm 2055.24 0.52 11.74 Brazil Bovespa 49469.08 0.93 14.12 Mexico IPC 45665.57 0.24 6.25 Chile IPSA 3930.30 0.01 6.80 Chile IGPA 19365.67 0.01 6.69 Argentina MerVal 12579.19 -0.37 7.74 Colombia IGBC 9667.83 0.01 13.11 Venezuela IBC 15543.11 -0.08 6.55 Currencies daily % YTD % change change Latest Brazil real 3.5927 -0.17 9.86 Mexico peso 18.6015 -0.42 -7.37 Chile peso 691.4 0.06 2.65 Colombia peso 3112.21 0.03 1.83 Peru sol 3.3639 0.03 1.49 Argentina peso (interbank) 13.9250 0.22 -6.77 Argentina peso (parallel) 14.37 0.42 -0.70 (Reporting by Bruno Federowski and Paula Arend Laier; Editing by Dan Grebler)
U.S. not bringing specific proposals to Middle East peace talks in Paris

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - The United States will not bring any specific proposals at a Paris conference meant to set out a framework for fresh negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians nor has it decided what, if any role, it may play in the French effort, a senior State Department official said on Thursday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is attending the French conference on Friday, which is set to include the Middle East Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations - the Arab League, the U.N. Security Council and about 20 countries, without Israeli or Palestinian participation.

U.S. efforts to broker a two-state deal collapsed in April 2014, and Kerry has said any peace effort would require compromise from both sides.

Diplomats say the meeting will package all the economic incentives and other guarantees that various countries have offered in previous years to create an agenda for an autumn peace conference.

The United States will be in Paris "to listen to the ideas that the French and others may have, and talk through with them what might make sense going forward," a senior State Department official said.

"We haven't made any decisions about what, if any, our role would be in that initiative going forward," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We're not bringing any specific proposals to this meeting."

Previous attempts to engage the adversaries have come to nought. The Palestinians say Israeli settlement expansion denies them a viable state they seek in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and a capital in Arab East Jerusalem.

Israel has demanded tighter security measures from the Palestinians and a crackdown on militants who have attacked or threaten the safety of Israeli citizens.
Peru to vote on returning a Fujimori to presidential palace

By Mitra Taj

LIMA, June 2 (Reuters) - Less than a decade after Peru imprisoned its former president Alberto Fujimori, voters will decide on Sunday whether to put his 41-year-old daughter back in the presidential palace where she once served as his first lady.

Keiko Fujimori has a five percentage point lead over her rival Pedro Pablo Kuczynski ahead of the run-off vote, helped by her tough stance on crime and years of campaigning in poor villages in the populist style of her right-wing father.

But with pollster Ipsos estimating a fifth of voters tend to remain undecided until election day, Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former investment banker, could stage a late surge.

It is Fujimori's second bid to become Peru's first female president. Her critics fear a return to the days when her father ruled the Andean nation by decree, despite her repeated promises to respect the democratic institutions he trampled before his government collapsed in a vast corruption scandal in 2000.

Alberto Fujimori, the son of Japanese immigrants, is serving a 25-year sentence for graft and human rights abuses committed during a crackdown on a bloody leftist insurgency.

"Voting for Fujimori would be legitimizing the dictatorship," said Eduardo Leon, a 34-year-old restaurant owner who plans to vote for Kuczynski.

Both candidates are free-market champions who defeated leftist rivals in a crowded April 10 first-round vote as Peru reinforced the recent trend of South American countries turning away from left-wing policies.

Fujimori's brand of populist conservatism is rooted in her father's decade-long rule when a bloody leftist insurgency was quashed and new schools and roads were brought to far-flung towns.

That stands in stark contrast with Kuczynski's technocratic style.

"As an economist he's used to numbers and can be frigid in that sense," said Kuczynski's running mate Martin Vizcarra, a former governor of a copper-mining region in southern Peru.

Kuczynski is one of the few high-profile politicians in the global minerals exporter unburdened by corruption and money laundering allegations. While he is widely viewed as honest and experienced, he is seen as less supportive than Fujimori of the social safety network that millions of poor Peruvians rely on despite nearly two decades of robust economic growth.

Fujimori has also eclipsed him with her iron-fist approach to the leading voter concern, crime, by backing a proposal to declare a state of emergency in Lima after a wave of homicides.

She also supports the death penalty for rapists of children and has vowed to build prisons high in the Andes to isolate dangerous criminals, a proposal Kuczynski dubbed "cruel."

"He feels sorry for them, he's trembling," Fujimori said mockingly at a campaign rally. "My hand will not waver! I'm going to be firm with criminals!"

The fierce battle between Fujimori and her opponents has overshadowed Kuczynski, who has shied away from direct attacks even as he has courts undecided voters.

"Vote for democracy, no blank or spoiled ballots!" Kuczynski said, wagging a finger in a campaign ad.

Fujimori says her father, who named first lady after he divorced her mother, is innocent of the crimes that made him one of the few world leaders to be imprisoned in his own country. But she has promised not to use presidential powers to free him.

Her supporters say that her background would set the bar higher if she became the second Fujimori to rule Peru.
Philippines' Duterte says he won't surrender rights in S.China Sea

DAVAO, Philippines, June 2 (Reuters) - Philippines President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday he would not surrender the country's rights over the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, which China seized in 2012.

"There will never be an instance that we will surrender our right over Scarborough Shoal," Duterte told a news conference after holding talks with China's ambassador Zhang Jianhua.

"That is not a territorial issue. It is an issue about being obstructed or impeded because of the constructions there and we cannot exercise freely the rights under UNCLOS of the 200-mile economic zone that is exclusive to us."

He said he did not discuss the South China Sea dispute with the ambassador because the Philippines was anticipating a decision from a tribunal in The Hague.

Manila has brought a case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration against China under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China does not recognise the court's jurisdiction in the dispute.

Duterte, a tough-talking mayor who won the presidency last month, said he would pursue multilateral talks to resolve peacefully the sovereignty issues in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands on reefs and atolls.

China claims most of the sea area, through which about $5 trillion worth of ship-borne goods passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines also have claims on the region, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas.
Coca farmers face uncertain future as Colombia nears peace deal

By Melissa Fares

June 2 (Reuters) - As Colombia nears a historic peace deal with the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the nation's authorities are struggling to tame an increase in farming of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine.

Leftist FARC rebels agreed in 2014 to break ties with drug traffickers, help eradicate illegal crops like coca and help fight the production of narcotics.

But authorities have accused the rebels of instead stoking resistance to the eradication of illicit coca crops and keeping up their ties to drug trafficking.

The latest United Nations figures showed a 44 percent increase in coca cultivations in 2014 to 69,000 hectares (170,503 acres) in the South American nation. The U.S. government estimates there were 159,000 hectares in 2015.

Many farmers, who according to the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime earn an average of $1,000 a year, are well aware of the harmful uses of their crops but say they have no other choice.

"The government does not want to resolve the huge problem we have here," said Orlando Castilla, president of the Farmers Association in the Guaviare region. "We appear to be rich, millionaries on a national and international level, but we have nothing to live off."

Ferin Oviedo, a representative of the Guayabero Regional Farmers' Association, said coca, unlike the government, helped provide the local residents with "a way of sustaining their families in every sense."

Even Colombian Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas, who has deployed some 7,000 soldiers to eradicate coca in the country, admits that the crop will probably increase until 2018.
U.S.-backed fighters advance to cut off Islamic State, win tacit Turkish support

By Rodi Said

NEAR THE EUPHRATES RIVER, northern Syria, June 2 (Reuters) - U .S.-backed Syrian fighters in a major new offensive against Islamic State vowed on Thursday to cut off the last remaining access route to the outside world for the self-proclaimed caliphate, and won vital, if tacit, backing from Turkey.

The assault around the Syrian city of Manbij, backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes and a contingent of American special forces, aims to cut off Islamic State's last 80 km stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier by seizing territory in northern Syria west of the Euphrates River.

If successful, that would achieve a long-standing aim of Washington and amount to one of the biggest strategic defeats inflicted on Islamic State since it proclaimed its rule over all Muslims from territory in Iraq and Syria two years ago.

"We confirm that this campaign will continue until the liberation of the last inch of the land of Manbij and its rural areas," said a statement read out on the banks of the Euphrates by Adnan Abu Amjad, a commander of a group called the Manbij Military Council, allied to the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces.

"Oh brave people of Manbij, our forces are coming to liberate you from the shackles of the Daesh terrorist torturers," said the statement, using an acronym for Islamic State also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Washington has been leading an international campaign of air strikes against Islamic State for two years in both Syria and Iraq. It has long been in search of reliable allies on the ground in Syria, where it also opposes the government of President Bashar al-Assad in a multi-sided civil war that has ground on for five years.

The SDF, set up last year, includes a powerful Syrian Kurdish militia and what Washington says are growing numbers of Arab forces that have been persuaded to join it. It has swept into villages west of the Euphrates since launching its offensive on Tuesday.

That advance comes as Iraqi army forces have separately begun an assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, 750 km down the Euphrates at the opposite end of Islamic State's sprawling caliphate.

The Iraqi troops held their positions without advancing for a third straight day on Thursday, after pouring into the besieged city's southern outskirts on Monday. A Reuters reporting team in Saqlawiya, a village near Falluja, saw Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighters in control of a complex of well-fortified trenches and tunnels captured from Islamic State.

In other separate campaigns, Iraqi Kurds have also been advancing in villages near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and Russian-backed forces of the Syrian government have fought Islamic State in other parts of Syria. The fighting amounts to some of the biggest pushes against the militants by their disparate enemies across a variety of fronts.

TURKISH SUPPORT

Washington hopes the assault near Manbij will be a turning point in the two-year conflict by choking off Islamic State's last major link to the outside world. The militants have used the frontier for years to receive supplies and manpower, and more recently to send back fighters for attacks in Europe.

"We know that there is external plotting from Manbij city... against the homelands of Europe, Turkey, all good friends and allies of ours, and the United States as well," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said.

Of the SDF fighters, he said: "This is a capable force. They are doing all the things we can always do with able and motivated local forces to fight ISIL."

Washington's ultimate goals are to drive Islamic State from its main bases: Raqqa in eastern Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, to bring about the collapse of its control.

Kurdish fighters allied to Washington have already captured much of northeast Syria near the Turkish border, but their advance west of the Euphrates to close off the frontier once and for all was limited by strong opposition from U.S. ally Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG its enemies.

However, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan signalled his apparent tacit support for the latest advance on Thursday, saying he had been informed that most of the fighters involved would be Arabs rather than Kurds.

Turkish military sources said Turkey had shelled Islamic State positions across the border at Azaz, west of where the advance was taking place, killing five militants. Medical charity Medicins sans Frontieres says 100,000 people are trapped near Azaz and in peril as the battle lines draw near.

A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters in Beirut, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town.

It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that IS defences on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign.

However, Naser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the SDF general command, told Reuters Islamic State was still putting up a fight: "In general, the progress is at a good pace and performance, keeping in mind that Daesh still has the capability to fight."

FALLUJA ASSAULT PAUSED

In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the assault on Falluja 11 days ago, veering from the strategy sought by Washington which wants its Iraqi allies to concentrate on Islamic State's de facto Iraqi capital Mosul.

Falluja, where U.S. forces fought the biggest battles of their 2003-2011 occupation of Iraq, has long been a bastion for Sunni Muslim insurgents and was the first Iraqi city where Islamic State raised its flag in 2014 before storming through the north and west of the country.

It is just an hour's drive from Baghdad, and seizing it would give the government control of the main population centres of the fertile Euphrates valley west of the capital for the first time in more than two years. But the mission in potentially hostile Sunni territory is also fraught with risk.

Abadi repeated calls on Thursday for Iraq's fractious politicians to unite behind the army in its advance on Falluja. On Wednesday he announced a pause in the advance to reduce the threat to civilians still trapped in the city.

Although most of Falluja's population has fled, the United Nations has expressed deep concern over the fate of tens of thousands of civilians still there, including hundreds of families held by Islamic State fighters as human shields in the city centre.

U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said 4,380 people had fled Falluja so far during the offensive and it was searching for places for them in camps. It estimates 10,000 families could be displaced during the assault.

Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, is trying to hold together a coalition government in the midst of popular protests against an entrenched political class. An operation in Falluja that harms Sunni Muslim civilians could further alienate Sunnis, but he has decided he must act there to protect Baghdad from suicide bombers who have escalated attacks in the capital.
Peru's presidential candidates and their policies

LIMA, June 2 (Reuters) - Keiko Fujimori, the conservative daughter of a jailed former president, will face former investment banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in a divisive run-off election on Sunday.

Fujimori, whose father Alberto was Peru's authoritarian leader throughout the 1990s, garnered nearly twice as many votes as runner-up Kuczynski in the first-round election.

The free-market model that has been in place for 25 years in Peru would be maintained in either a Kuczynski or Fujimori presidency. Kuczynski, 77, is more liberal on social issues than Fujimori but is considered slightly more to the right in economic policy.

Below are key policies supported by Fujimori and Kuczynski, one of whom will succeed President Ollanta Humala when his term ends on July 28.

KEIKO FUJIMORI

* A 41-year-old former lawmaker who lost the presidency to Humala in 2011, Fujimori has moderated her right-wing stance and pledged not to repeat the autocratic actions of her father. The elder Fujimori closed Peru's Congress in 1992 and was later jailed for corruption and human rights abuse.

* To boost economic growth that has waned in recent years due to falling mineral prices, Fujimori pledged to ramp up stimulus spending on infrastructure in a country that remains largely undeveloped beyond its big cities. Her economic adviser said she would raise the tax rate and widen the fiscal deficit.

* While friendly to business, Fujimori says she would not back rural mining projects unless they have the support of nearby towns. She has said she would slap stiff fines on polluting companies or revoke their operating licenses.

* Fujimori is tough on crime and wants to build prisons at high altitudes in the Andes to isolate prisoners. She also wants the military to protect government institutions and supports the death penalty for rapists of young children.

PEDRO PABLO KUCZYNSKI

* A former prime minister, Kuczynski is popular among Peru's business elite and pledges to cut red tape and seek private partners to roll out new infrastructure projects.

* He also promises to lower sales taxes to broaden the payer base while giving rebates to big companies that reinvest their profits.

* Kuczynski says he would personally negotiate with opponents of proposed mines to ease conflicts in the world's No. 3 copper producer, and make sure communities see benefits to mining before projects start.

* The septuagenarian promises to manually eradicate coca plants and squash remaining bands of Shining Path rebels by 2018. He promised to boost police patrols and triple the number of detectives as crime became a greater voter concern.
Venezuela's highest court to mull animal sacrifice legalization

By Girish Gupta and Corina Pons

CARACAS, June 2 (Reuters) - Venezuela's highest court will decide whether to annul a ban on animal sacrifice, after admitting a petition by a member of a small religious group saying his constitutional and civil rights were violated.

The case opens up questions of religious freedom but also comes amid an economic and social crisis in Venezuela in which staple foods and medicines are running short.

The petition was filed by a lawyer who said that local ordinances violate the country's constitution. It was accepted by Venezuela's highest court two weeks ago, according to documents on its website.(http://goo.gl/VNLSBu)

The lawyer, Giogerling Mendez, is a self-described adherent of the Santeria religion, which has roots in West African traditions and beliefs brought to Latin America by slaves.

It is practiced by around one in a hundred Venezuelans, according to a 2011 local survey. More than 70 percent of the country identified itself as Catholic in the same poll.

"In our Yoruba religion, known as Santeria, we make animal sacrifices and this is prohibited by procedural laws but protected by the constitution," read the petition.

In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down ordinances in Hialeah, Florida, that banned animal sacrifice, after the Santeria Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye appealed against the local legislation.


Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a rally with supporters in San Diego, California, U.S. May 27, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Some conservatives and libertarians who otherwise have little love for Donald Trump believe that he is preferable to Hillary Clinton because he might appoint good judges, whereas the Democrats almost certainly will not. That tendency may have increased after Trump announced a solid list of potential Supreme Court appointments last month. Leading legal scholar John McGinnis (with whom I have coauthored several articles), for example, argues that Trump is now a better bet on the Supreme Court than Hillary Clinton, even though there are strong reasons to oppose him on other issues. Although Trump may not care much about the Supreme Court or constitutional issues, McGinnis and others argue he might stick to the list in order to get the support of Republicans for other initiatives (such as his plan to massively increase tariffs, for example). On this theory, the case for Trump is that he might appoint much better judges than Hillary Clinton, even if it is by no means certain.

The problem with this sort of reasoning is that it overlooks the possibility that Trump might not only fail to appoint better judges than Hillary Clinton, but actually appoint much worse ones. Even more importantly, it overlooks the likely longterm effects of a Trump victory on the Republican Party and its judicial philosophy. When it comes to constitutional law, Trump is not just a blank slate. He has an agenda.

I. Why Trump Might Appoint Worse Judges than Hillary Clinton.

The mere existence of the list certainly does not preclude Trump from appointing terrible judges. As I have previously pointed out , Trumps announcement of the list indicated that it is just a guide, and he later reiterated its nonbinding nature . Much more importantly, all or most of the judges on the list are at odds with Trumps strong commitment to undermining freedom of speech and constitutional property rights . Both long predate his presidential campaign, and are therefore likely to be genuine objectives, not merely short-term political ploys. Trump also seeks to undermine constitutional limitations on presidential power on a shockingly wide range of issues . Trump could appoint some good judges if he thinks it is politically advantageous to do so. But he could instead appoint ones more in line with his own positions.

Once President Trump discovers that the judges on the list probably wont support his agenda, he might well instead nominate people who will. Where will he find such nominees? It would likely have to be among those conservative jurists and legal scholars who support wide-ranging judicial deference to the political branches of government across a very broad range of issues. Such people do exist, and they would be the ones most likely to give him much, if not all, of what he wants on speech, property rights, executive power, and other issues. If you care about enforcing constitutional limits on government power, such ultradeferential judges are likely be even worse than standard-issue liberal ones. The latter, at least, will enforce a wide range of civil liberties, some restrictions on executive power, the rights of criminal defendants, and so on. The former wont even do that much to a more tha minimal degree. Some on the right might argue that the Democrats are worse on freedom of speech because they want to overturn Citizens United. But, so does Trump .

Admittedly, you might welcome all of this if your main goal is to promote judicial restraint defined as deferring to the legislature, the executive, and their agents in the bureaucracy. Ditto if your main judicial goal is overruling Roe v. Wade. But if you care about enforcing originalism, and its associated limits on government power, judges who reflect Trumps views are likely to be worse than liberal ones would be.

II. Why We Cant Count on GOP Senators to Save US.

Perhaps we neednt worry about this because Republican senators will refuse to confirm Trumpist judges, and instead insist on getting more conventional conservatives. Dont count on it. Senators rarely oppose judicial nominees by a president of their own party. John McGinnis suggests that the Senate will refuse to confirm cronies, citing the example of the 2005 rejection of poorly qualified Bush nominee Harriet Miers. An obvious crony may indeed be rejected. But it is unlikely very many GOP senators would oppose a reasonably well-qualified nominee with a conservative background, who nonetheless takes an ultradeferential approach to judicial review.

If a few GOP senators do defect, Trump could potentially make up the shortfall by soliciting Democratic support. Given growing liberal fear of what they decry as conservative judicial activism, some Democrats might well prefer a deferential Trumpist judge to a more conventional Republican nominee, who might want to tightly limit federal power or strengthen protection for property rights and religious liberties.

Ultimately, it is dangerous to count on the congressional GOP to restrain Trump. Few politicians will put principle ahead of support for the partys leader  especially if that leader has just led them to a major electoral victory. Just as GOP members of Congress supported Bush in many actions they would never have accepted from a Democrat, and Democrats did the same (in reverse) with Obama, so too most Republican members of Congress will back most of Trumps agenda if he wins the presidency. Such tendencies are particularly strong in our age of virulent partyism, where partisans are reluctant to attack a president of their own party for fear of giving aid and comfort to the opposition. As conservative columnist Mona Charen puts it : If Donald Trump is president, there will be no united opposition among Republicans. As weve seen in the past few weeks, the urge to bend the knee is very strong. How much more intense will it be if he sits in the Oval Office?

III. A Look at the Long Run.

Understandable focus on the Supreme Court nominations in our immediate future has led virtually all commentators to overlook the likely longer-term effects of Trumpism on Republican judicial philosophy. Even if Trump initially appoints a few good judges, that trend is not likely to last.

Trump is not just a conventional Republican candidate. He wants to remake the GOP into a workers party (as he himself calls it), similar to the big-government right-wing nationalist parties of Western Europe, such as Frances National Front . Like Trump, these parties combine xenophobia and protectionism with a strong authoritarian streak, and support for an expansive welfare and regulatory state (so long as the beneficiaries are primarily people of the right racial and ethnic background).

If Trump wins the presidency and his agenda is seen as a political success, he will have the opportunity to move the GOP further in a National Front-like direction. And a Trumpist/National Front party will have little use for limited government-originalist judicial philosophy. To the contrary, federalism, the separation of powers, and many individual rights limitations on government power would be an impediment to its agenda. A Trumpist GOP would, over time, seek to appoint judges in line with its priorities.

We dont yet know what the full contours of a Trumpist judicial philosophy might be. But they are likely to include sweeping executive power (so the partys Great Leader will not be hamstrung by constraints on his power), a narrow view of freedom of speech (so he can intimidate critics with libel suits and administrative harassment ), tight restrictions on civil liberties (making it easier to, among other things, round up and deport many millions of undocumented immigrants), and weakening constitutional property rights (so that the government can have a free in transferring property to its cronies in the business community).

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More speculatively, it could also include a weakening of legal rules barring racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination by the government. Trump, after all, has called for a ban on the entry of Muslims into the US, and referred favorably to one of the most infamous cases of racial discrimination in American history: the World War II-era internment of Japanese-Americans, which Trump has cited as a precedent justifying his own policies . Such discriminatory policies are consistent with his efforts to capitalize on white racial resentment and identity politics . Here too, Trumpism is very similar to the agenda of European far-right nationalists.

History shows that in the long run parties tend to appoint judges who are at least generally in line with the partys ideology. When the ideology shifts in a major way, the partys judicial philosophy eventually changes as well. Traditional Progressive judges such as Learned Hand became dinosaurs after the Democratic Party shifted in favor of civil liberties and racial equality in the 1950s and 60s, and old-style Republican judges went the same way after the GOP became more conservative in the late 70s and 80s. The same thing will eventually happen to pro-limited government originalists in a Trumpist GOP.

Judges are not just the handmaidens of their partys political agenda. They have an important measure of autonomy. But rarely will they be fundamentally at odds with that agenda  at least not for very long. Admittedly, Trump might not succeed in changing the GOP much, even if he becomes president: if he gets impeached or otherwise fails spectacularly, for example. But that wont be much consolation to people who want the GOP to be able to make judicial appointments. The party would be (rightly) blamed for Trumps failures, and its ability to win the White House and make future judicial appointments would be seriously impaired for quite some time.

If Trump wins the election and manages to recast the GOP in his image, the types of judges the party appoints will also change. And a president who is perceived as politically successful usually has a substantial impact on his partys agenda, as other politicians will seek to mimic his platform in order to share in the electoral spoils.

If Trump loses, on the other hand, there is a good chance that originalists who seek to limit government power will continue to have a strong influence on the partys judicial philosophy. As long as that philosophy is the dominant view within one major party, it is likely to have a considerable impact on the judiciary and constitutional debates more generally. Admittedly, support from one party is not nearly as good as a bipartisan consensus. But its a lot better than being shut out from the major parties entirely. Ultimately, maintaining the long-term viability of a judicial philosophy is a lot more important than any one Supreme Court appointment, or even two or three of them. If you care about the long-term future of originalism and enforcing constitutional limits on government, you have good reason to be #NeverTrump  all the way.
GM, regulators clash over latest Takata air bag recall

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - The push by U.S. auto safety regulators to replace potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators in millions of vehicles is running into resistance from General Motors Co, documents released on Thursday show.

GM's response highlights the challenges that the Takata airbag scandal, which has led to the largest-ever auto safety recall, presents to automakers and regulators.

The largest U.S. automaker issued a "preliminary recall" for 1.9 million 2007-2011 trucks and sport utility vehicles equipped with Takata Corp passenger-side airbag inflators that use ammonium nitrate as a propellant.

Its action was the latest in a series of recalls announced by major automakers since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) declared that all Takata airbag inflators made with ammonium nitrate should be replaced.

But GM told U.S. regulators it may not be necessary to recall many of the Takata-equipped 2007-2011 full-size trucks and SUVs, according to documents filed with the NHTSA. GM said its Takata inflators have a unique design that does not pose a safety risk.

The company said its data shows no cases of an airbag rupturing among 44,000 deployments in large pickups and SUVs that contain Takata inflators.

The Takata inflators used in GM trucks and large SUVs are designed with different venting for hot gases released when the airbag deploys, and they are installed in the vehicle in a way that minimizes exposure to moisture, the company said.

"GM believes that the vehicles it manufactured with these inflators do not contain a present defect which poses an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety," the automaker stated in a document filed with the NHTSA.

GM said it plans additional testing to make the case that its vehicles are safe.

Takata and other airbag suppliers lack the production capacity to quickly produce replacement parts, officials have said.

Michigan-based air bag maker Key Safety Systems and new Chinese parent Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp are discussing a potential investment in Takata with the Japanese company's investment banker Lazard, Key Chief Executive Jason Luo said on Thursday.

Luo said he could not provide further details on whether Joyson and Key were interested in acquiring Takata or its air bag and seat belt operations.

AT ODDS WITH REGULATORS

GM's stance is at odds with the position regulators took last month when they said all frontal Takata airbag inflators without a drying agent must be recalled.

"The science clearly shows that these inflators become unsafe over time, faster when exposed to humidity and variations of temperature," NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas said Thursday.

Upward of 100 million vehicles worldwide with Takata airbag inflators have been recalled and are linked to 13 deaths and more than 100 injuries. Inflators can explode with too much force and spray metal shrapnel into vehicle passenger compartments.

NHTSA confirmed in April that about 85 million Takata airbag inflators eventually will have to be recalled and replaced unless automakers can prove they are safe. Federal officials have agreed to give Takata and automakers until December 2019 to either recall ammonium nitrate inflators, or prove they are safe.

NHTSA is staggering recalls over time and directing replacement inflators first to states with extended high heat and humidity, linked to inflator failures.

However, NHTSA's handling of the situation has come under fire from Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, a U.S. Senate report said four automakers were continuing to sell some new vehicles with defective Takata airbag inflators that will eventually need to be recalled.

Ruptures have occurred without warning. In December, a driver of a 2006 Ford Ranger was killed in South Carolina when the inflator ruptured in a crash. NHTSA said 1,900 tests of the Ranger inflator type did not result in any ruptures. Ford on Wednesday recalled 1.9 million additional vehicles for Takata inflators.

GM's large pickups and SUVs are its most profitable and highest-volume models. GM declined to say how many trucks it has sold in the U.S. with ammonium nitrate Takata inflators that could be subject to recall. Data provided by LMC Automotive indicate GM built 4.9 million large pickups and large SUVs in the years 2007-2011. About 300,000 of those vehicles, heavy duty pickups, already were recalled.

GM's action Thursday was the largest of six separate recalls made public by the NHTSA. Volkswagen AG recalled 217,000 vehicles; Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz USA unit recalled 200,000 vehicles, and the German automaker's U.S. van unit recalled 5,100 vehicles. Another 92,000 vehicles were recalled by BMW AG, while Jaguar Land Rover, a Tata Motors Ltd brand, recalled 54,000 vehicles.

In total, 15 automakers have recalled nearly 16.4 million vehicles in the United States since last week, stemming from Takata's decision in May to declare another 35 million to 40 million inflators with ammonium nitrate defective by 2019.
Cambodia opposition leader holed up in party HQ to avoid arrest

By Prak Chan Thul

PHNOM PENH, June 2 (Reuters) - A Cambodian opposition leader has been holed up in his party's headquarters for seven days to avoid arrest on charges he says are trumped-up as Prime Minister Hun Sen looks to neutralise his opponents ahead of a 2018 election.

About 100 supporters of the politician, Kem Sokha, have gathered at the headquarters of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) as tension runs high in the capital after police visited the building last week in a bid to arrest him.

Kem Sokha faces an accusation of procuring a prostitute. The case has dominated politics for weeks.

The opposition says Hun Sen is using the judiciary to weaken it and avoid a repeat of a close-run 2013 election that nearly cost him the premiership.

CNRP leader Sam Rainsy, a former finance minister, lives in self-imposed exile to avoid arrest after authorities last year reactivated an old defamation case for which he had received a pardon.

The European Union called this week for a halt to "judicial harassment". The United Nations also voiced alarm at the tension between Hun Sen's party and the opposition, in particular the arrest or attempted arrest of politicians.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern again on Thursday when reporters asked him about Kem Sokha's situation.

"The Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) remains concerned about reports of widespread intimidation, harassment and arrests of members of civil society organizations, the media, members of the opposition, and the National Election Committee," he said.

Dujarric added that Ban urged "all political parties to de-escalate tensions."

The government says criminals should face punishment and denies the charges are political.

Supporters are prepared for a long stay. They took delivery of donated food and water on Thursday and erected a shelter in front of the headquarters.

"He will stay here forever," said CNRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang.

Kem Sokha would come out only if there was a solution with the veteran prime minister's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), he said.

"We are here to protect him, no matter what happens, we are ready to die," said Kem Sarun, 51, a farmer who travels 70 km (40 miles) a day to Phnom Penh for the vigil.

The party and its trade union allies have threatened to stage protests if Kem Sokha is arrested.

Hun Sen's party said there would be no compromise and politicians must be held accountable.

"This can't stop the enforcement of law, whether it is sooner or later, it will happen," CPP lawmaker Sok Eysan said.

The accusations against Kem Sokha stem from a secretly recorded telephone conversation between him and a woman with whom the government says he was having an illicit affair.

Prostitution was made illegal in Cambodia in 2008, though it is widespread.
Militant group says it will bring Nigeria's oil production to "zero"

ABUJA, June 2 (Reuters) - The Niger Delta Avengers militant group said on Thursday it had blown up two crude pipelines in Nigeria's Bayelsa state in the Delta area.

"At about 2:00am today @NDAvengers blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State," the group said on a twitter feed it uses to claim attacks.
Angolan president makes billionaire daughter state oil firm chief

By Herculano Coroado

LUANDA, June 3 (Reuters) - Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has appointed his billionaire businesswoman daughter Isabel as head of state energy firm Sonangol in a shake-up that cements his dynastic grip on power in a major African oil exporter.

Isabel, ranked as Africa's richest woman by Forbes, would become chief executive after the firing of Sonangol's board, a presidential decree carried on Angolan state media said.

Angola, currently Africa's top oil producer because of supply outages caused by militant attacks in Nigeria's Niger Delta, said in April it would restructure Sonangol to increase efficiency and profitability.

Putting the 43-year-old in charge could mean dos Santos is serious about reforms, but it could also be seen as Angola's leader of the last 36 years laying the ground for his family to control the central pillar of the economy when he leaves office.

Oil sales account for more than 90 percent of Angola's foreign exchange earnings, making Sonangol by far the biggest source of dollars and state funding.

The president's son, Jose Filomeno, is chief executive of Angola's sovereign wealth fund.

"Sonangol was always regarded as one of the more effective African national oil companies, but governance has slipped quite considerably over the past decade through issues where political factors played no small part," independent Africa-focused energy analyst Antony Goldman said.

"She's not an engineer or necessarily an energy expert but she is someone with a track record of getting deals done."

London-educated Isabel, who denies any political ambitions and says she started her business career as a six-year-old selling eggs, has been a major investor in the domestic and Portuguese telecoms, banking and petroleum sectors.

"The case can certainly be made that this is a political move whereby the president is strengthening his grip," Cobus de Hart, an Angola analyst at NKC African Economics in Cape Town, said.

"But the news that global consulting firms will be assisting with the reform strategy is at least a step in the right direction."

COMPLIANCE HURDLES

One senior Johannesburg-based banker said the appointment could make it more difficult for international banks to do business with Sonangol, given the perception of nepotism it creates.

"From a compliance point of view, it's going to make it harder," the banker said.

Sonangol said in February that debt owed to foreign oil companies had soared and it expected a very difficult year.

The OPEC member imports around 6 million cubic metres of refined products a year, according to national statistics.

Dos Santos, one of Africa's longest-serving rulers after coming to power in 1979, said in March he intended to step down as president in 2018 but gave no reason for his decision and did not name a preferred successor.

His mild, inscrutable public demeanour belies his tight control of the former Portuguese colony, where he has overseen an oil-backed economic and construction boom to rebuild a country devastated by a 27-year civil war that ended in 2002.

Critics accuse the 73-year-old of mismanaging Angola's oil wealth and making an elite, mainly his family and political allies, vastly rich in a country ranked amongst the world's most corrupt.
Burundi's Nkurunziza asks criminal gangs to surrender in next 15 days

By Clement Manirabarusha

BUJUMBURA, June 2 (Reuters) - President Pierre Nkurunziza has given armed gangs in Burundi 15 days to surrender to authorities and hand in their weapons or face unspecified action.

Nkurunziza was speaking during a visit to Mugamba district, some 65 km southeast of the capital Bujumbura, where many local officials have been killed in recent weeks.

Tit-for-tat attacks between Nkurunziza's security forces and his opponents have escalated since April 2015 when he announced a disputed bid for a third term. He won re-election in July.

"We give them 15 days to surrender," Nkurunziza said of the armed gangs on Wednesday. "On the 15th (of June) we will put a stop to (the violence). I came to tell you that we won't rest until security is restored."

The government conducted a similar arms mop-up in the capital in November.

Burundi police said in early May that more than 450 people had been killed in unrest that began a year ago. The United Nations says over 250,000 have fled the country since last April.
U.S.-led coalition airdrops weapons to Syria rebels in Aleppo province

BEIRUT, June 2 (Reuters) - A U.S.-led coalition fighting against Islamic State in Syria air-dropped weapons to rebels in the town of Marea in northern province Aleppo on Thursday, a rebel commander and monitoring group said.

The commander, requesting anonymity, said ammunition was dropped. "The alliance dropped them ammunition ... Their situation was difficult," he told Reuters, without elaborating.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said weapons and ammunition were dropped. It was the first time the coalition had dropped weapons to fighters other than the Syria Democratic Forces, an alliance fighting separately against IS that includes the Kurdish YPG militia.

Islamic State last week drove rebels, including foreign-backed groups, out of areas near the Turkish border and cut off supply lines to rebel-held Marea, in a setback to groups that have been supported through Turkey.

Those groups are backed by states opposed to President Bashar al-Assad in the country's five-year-old civil war. They have separately been fighting against IS and have struggled to advance against it in the area.
SEC names Christopher Hetner cyber-security adviser to Mary Jo White

June 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission named Christopher Hetner senior adviser to the chair as it looks to address rising instances of cyber attacks.

The appointment comes two weeks after SEC Chair Mary Jo White told the Reuters Financial Regulation Summit in Washington D.C. that cyber attacks were the biggest risk facing the financial system, adding that the SEC "can't do enough" in the cyber security sector.

The financial industry has been rattled by a cyber theft from the Bangladesh central bank funneled through SWIFT, a member-owned industry cooperative that handles the bulk of cross-border payment instructions between banks.

Hetner, who currently coordinates cyber-security efforts within the SEC's office of compliance inspections and examinations, will help address cyber-security policy and assess market risk across the agency, the regulator said on Thursday. (http://1.usa.gov/22B3Pe6)
Two jets from elite U.S. military squadrons crash, one pilot dead

June 2 (Reuters) - Two fighter jets from elite U.S. military demonstration squadrons crashed in separate incidents on Thursday, including one that had just done a flyover of the Air Force Academy graduation in Colorado where President Barack Obama had spoken.

In Tennessee, a pilot from the Navy's Blue Angels squadron was killed when his F/A-18 jet crashed in Smyrna, about 24 miles (39 km) southeast of Nashville, a Navy spokeswoman said.

The crash occurred about 2 miles (3 km) from an airport runway while the Blue Angels were practicing for a weekend air show, the Navy said, adding that the cause of the crash was being investigated. The pilot's name was not made public.

In Colorado, a pilot with the Air Force's Thunderbirds squadron was unhurt when his F-16 jet crashed in a field 5 miles (8 km) south of Peterson Air Force Base, the Air Force said.

The pilot, whose name was not released, ejected safely and was picked up by emergency response crews, the Air Force said.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said a military helicopter that had been supporting Obama's motorcade on the drive back to Peterson AFB peeled off to find the crash site.

A Secret Service agent onboard who is also an emergency medic assessed the pilot, who was then flown to Peterson. The helicopter then resumed its mission in support of Obama's motorcade.

Obama later visited the Thunderbird pilot at Peterson to thank him for his service and express relief he had not been seriously hurt, Earnest said.

Earnest said the pilot was up and walking around when the president saw him. The president also thanked the emergency responders who picked up the pilot.
Only a few months ago I held no great love or respect for Indian cinema, specifically Bollywood. The song and dance routine, the sugary sweet romance and the larger than life emotional stories drew only mockery from me.

To me, everything about Bollywood was what was wrong with Indian cinema. In many ways I felt that our movies were not a true representation of Indian culture and art.

But then things changed. No longer do I think that Bollywood sucks. In fact my feeling for our tinsel town is now quite the opposite. There is a new-found respect in my heart for our superstars and starlets. Not just that, I think our music and dance is the best in the world.

Bollywood's influence seems purely organic, at least outside of its traditional NRI markets.

It might be of some interest to you to know how this transformation occurred.

For the last one year I travelled through many countries like Thailand, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A personal project called "The 12 Project" took me to all these countries.

And slowly it dawned upon me that Bollywood is a force to reckon with. Much beyond the imagination of many Indians like me.

I, myself, did not know much about the countries I was visiting. Then, who would have expected that Kareena Kapoor is loved in a tiny Central American country called Nicaragua? But she is, and that is a fact.

My host in the capital Managua, Denis Solano, would wake up to and go to bed watching videos of Hindi songs. "Dhoom machale" was his favourite.

"I understand nothing, but I just love the music and movies from your country," he would say with the excitement of a teenager.

Bollywood displays the beauty of Indian culture, our dress, our music and culture.

The enthusiasm was not just limited to him. Apparently, Hindi movies with Spanish subtitles were a regular at multiplexes of Managua.

Denis is lucky, because he can watch Hrithik or Kangana at a cinema near him. Not everyone in Latin America is so lucky.

But that does not stop them from getting their regular fix of Danca - Indu (Bollywood dancing is known this way across Latin America). It was in Banos, an adventure junkie destination in Ecuador, that I noticed something completely unexpected.

The local market had many stalls selling pirated CDs and DVDs. And would you believe it if I said that number of Bollywood movies on offer almost rivalled the Hollywood ones?

And in all probability, I was one of the first Indians to have arrived in that small town. But Bollywood had beaten me by many years.

I would realise that this was a trend everywhere. Markets in small towns across the continent would be incomplete without their Bollywood offerings.

People across the world are smitten by our dress, accessories and the grace of our performing arts. Most cities in Colombia, like any other South American country, have at least one Danca-Indu academy.

And if the number of students were anything to go by, all of them were doing good business. Closer home, in Sri Lanka any social occasion of importance is incomplete without a Bollywood dance performance.

And I am sure like me you would have awed at the ability of Sinhala dancers to recreate the moves of their favourite stars.

Yes, it is true that Bollywood is way behind Hollywood in terms of reach and influence. Having said that, Bollywood's influence seems purely organic, at least outside of its traditional NRI markets.

And for a country that suffers from some major negative perceptions, Bollywood is its required balancing act.

Without Bollywood, most people would only know stories about India's caste system and that cow is a god. Most foreigners just cannot comprehend these aspects of Indian society.

It is Bollywood that displays the beauty of Indian culture, our dress, our music and culture. Sometimes, also the beauty of our land. Surely, Bollywood needs to do some work on bringing more realism into its cinema.

But now I am of the view that the realism should not mean sacrificing Bollywood's traditional routine. Also, somehow if the industry can market itself beyond the US, UK and a few other markets, it has a real shot at being a global force in cinema. And like some of our actors say, then the Oscars truly would not matter.

The most poignant example of Bollywood's dream building ability was what I found in Oruro in Bolivia. This non-descript town surrounded by the Andes Mountains is home to Indi-World, an Indian dance group.

Members of this group are more passionate about Bollywood than most Indians are. They spend their own money to dance like their Bollywood stars. Sometimes at graduation ceremonies and other times on the streets.

And I remember the exact moment when I started loving and respecting Bollywood.

Norma, a girl from this group said to me, almost teary-eyed, "All I dream of is to someday go to India and do a Bollywood dance for a huge crowd in your country. That's all I want from life."
Pinterest Photo by Tim Hout

This story is part of our continuing coverage on Abortion in America: The Tipping Point . On the cusp of a possibly historic decision on abortion access by the Supreme Court , we'll be investigating how the latest abortion legislation is impacting women and doctors; answering your most commonly asked questions; and looking at whats next for activists on both sides of this ongoing debate.

With access to safe, legal methods becoming increasingly limited, some women are taking matters into their own hands with black-market remedies. Phoebe Zerwick goes underground to get their stories.

There are a lot of things I cant tell you about Renee. I cant say her real name. I cant reveal where she lives. I cant discuss her family. What I can tell you is that last summer, at 17, she gave herself an abortion, which in some parts of the country means she could end up in jail.

Renee knew the minute her test read positive that she was not ready to be a parent. At that point, she told me, she and the father were not on speaking terms, and she didnt want to derail her plans for medical school. But going to the local clinic felt out of the question for her because shed seen so many protesters there: All that screaming, telling you, Youre going to hellI couldnt do all that, she said. Through a relative, she found out how to take the drug misoprostol, often called miso on the black market, to induce an abortion; the relative also knew someone who got Renee the pills. Shed missed two periods by then.

Renee took the first dose at home with a cup of mint tea. When nothing happened for three days, she took more pills. I had severe cramps and was feeling sick, she said. In the end, it was like a very, very bad period. I asked her if she had any regrets. I love kids. Im just too young to have them now, she answered. But if I had to do it again, I would go to the clinic. I cant deal with that sitting at home. Id like it to just be done.

For four months Ive been investigating why more and more women like Renee are opting for whats being called do-it-yourself abortions. Rebecca Gomperts, M.D., Ph.D., founder of Women on Web, which sends abortion drugs to women in countries where the procedure is banned, said she received nearly 600 emails last year from Americans frantic to end pregnancies under hard circumstances:

Please, I need info on how to get the pills to do [an abortion] at home, one woman wrote.

I have considered suicide, another messaged. If [my boyfriend] finds out about me being pregnant, God only knows what will happen. He is a violent, angry person, so I need some help.

I need the pills bc Icant travel that far, a third woman emailed. I live [in] Mississippi where I cant find a doctor. Please help!

Has it come to this? How did women end up so desperateeven willing to break the law to get an abortion? And what does the new landscape mean for our health? Our rights? Our power as women?

Running Out of Options

For years pro-choice advocates have worried about what might happen if Roe v. Wade were overturnedwhether women wanting to end their pregnancies would resort to the back-alley doctors and coat hangers of past eras. What weve learned is that it didnt take such a monumental legal flip-flop to make that a real possibility: In the past five years, highly restrictive Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) state laws have shut down at least 162 clinics or stopped them from terminating pregnancies, and made both surgical and medical abortions incredibly expensive and time-consuming in many areas. As a result, some women are taking matters into their own hands, a phenomenon that, experts say, will only become more common if the Supreme Court upholds Whole Womans Health v. Hellerstedt when the ruling is handed down this summer. Its considered the most important reproductive-rights case in more than 20 years because it could decide how far states can go to control abortion care.

The first alarm bells of a self-induced-abortion trend went off late last year, when a Texas survey suggested that up to 240,000 women in that state alone had, at some point in their reproductive years, tried to end their own pregnancies. The findings dont surprise Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Womans Health, who challenged the Texas law now before the court. (The law requires that abortion providers have hospital-admitting privileges and clinics be ambulatory surgical centers; shell have to close all but one of her clinics in that state if she loses the case.) People call us and ask, Can you tell me how to do my own abortion?  she says. When we tell them we cant, they say, How about if I tell you whats in my medicine cabinet and under the sink? 

And its not just Texas. Glamour surveyed 15 providers in more than 10 states, most of whom said they knew of women trying to self-induce abortions; five had seen patients who had attempted it. Our hotline staff regularly hears from women who have tried and failed to terminate their own pregnancies, says Vicki Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation, which helps thousands of women a year obtain legal abortions. And if Google reveals what were really up to, consider this: Last year Americans entered at least 700,000 searches for variations of the phrase how to self-abort, according to Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Ph.D., an economist in New York City who saw a surge in such queries when TRAP laws started getting passed in 2011. The search data shows an unambiguous and disturbing interest in DIY abortion in parts of the U.S. today, he says, and its highest in the places where its most difficult to get an abortion.

The Underground Drug Women Are Taking

The DIY methods women are using vary, experts say: Some turn to herbs and supplements to end their pregnancies, while others resort to more extreme measures, like self-injury. Many women use misoprostol, which they buy online or at flea markets and bodegas. I saw American women purchasing it across the border in Mexico, says filmmaker Dawn Porter, whose new abortion documentary, Trapped, will air on most PBS stations on June 20. Its incredibly easy to buy. Women also get the pills through an underground network of midwives, doulas, and activists in this country. I spoke to 10 such activists, who told me that together theyve helped at least 275 women perform abortions at home. If I got caught for this stuff, I could be facing 25 years to life, admitted one. I have a seven-year-old. Going to jail is a scary thought. But I cant just sit around and wait for things to change.

Just to be clear, misoprostol is a 100 percent legal and approved drug when prescribed by a doctor; its used to prevent ulcers as well as to induce abortion. For the latter, its almost always given with a second drug, mifepristone, commonly known as RU-486. In this two-drug regimen, called a medical abortion, a woman receives a dose of RU-486 in an office or clinic; the drug helps cause the pregnancy to detach from the uterine lining. Miso, usually taken later at home, then triggers contractions that expel the tissue. Colleen McNicholas, D.O., a provider at Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, the only abortion clinic left in Missouri, and an assistant professor at Washington University, tells her patients they should expect to soak at most two maxipads an hour for a couple of hours. The heavy bleeding doesnt last very long, she says, but it can be something like a period for a couple of weeks. The protocol is up to 97 percent effective when taken within 10 weeks after the beginning of a patients last period, and more than a third of women who get an abortion in the first nine weeks of a pregnancy now choose this method over a surgical procedure.

When a woman attempts to end a pregnancy on her own, though, she typically uses only miso. The reason: RU-486 is so strictly regulated that a doctor must watch the patient take itthe drug never leaves the clinicmaking it almost impossible to get on the black market. Miso, which experts agree is largely safe, is easier to obtain (and a lot cheaper, at as little as $2 a pill). But the drug on its own is only about 80 percent effective, meaning that in one out of five cases the pregnancy continuesand if carried to term, theres an elevated risk of birth defects.

Some women feel OK about those odds. A 28-year-old woman in Texas Ill call Julie said shed been seeing an older man who dumped her when she told him she was pregnant. As a midwife, she had access to a reliable source of pills. So she asked two friends, both doulas, to come over while she curled up in her pajamas and offered a prayer to the life she was carrying. Her friends took turns rubbing her back until the bleeding eased, and she felt both sadness and relief. But, she says, I dont think I would have done anything on my own if I didnt have medical knowledge or hadnt been with someone who did.

The problem is that, unlike Julie, many women dont have a reliable source of miso. We see people come in who got it over the Internet or off the street, and its not what they thought it was, says Hagstrom Miller. Pills bought online or through a nonmedical source can be fake or contaminated, and its impossible to confirm the dose. One patient ordered pills onlineshe thought they had worked, but they had not, a provider in the South told Glamour. I saw her when she was in her second trimester. Instead of a simple early abortion, she needed a more complex procedure.

And some women resort to options much riskier than miso. In his research, Stephens-Davidowitz logged 4,000 very, very disturbing Google searches for directions on how to use a coat hanger. And I spoke to a 29-year-old woman, Angela, again a pseudonym, who almost went that far. Last summer she discovered shed gotten pregnant by a boyfriend she saw no future with. Out of work and unable to afford an abortion at a clinic, she tried unsuccessfully to get miso, then took herbs and supplements shed read about online. After they didnt work, she considered using the speculum and plastic brush for Pap smears shed stolen at a doctors appointment (a very dangerous idea that wouldnt work, doctors emphasize). She called her best friend to come over and help. She was going to do it, Angela told me. There was even one night when I took a couple of shots of vodka and asked her to punch me in the stomach, but she said, I cant.  Eventually Angela scraped up enough money for a surgical abortion. Thank God, she says. These methods were threatening, but I wasnt thinking about that. If I hadnt gotten the money, what might I have done?

Pinterest Photo by Tim Hout

Jailed for Ending a Pregnancy

Beyond any possible health risks of these at-home methods, there are legal ones: According to the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice (CRRJ), at least 17 women have already been arrested for allegedly trying to perform their own abortion or helping someone do so. (In one well-known case, a Pennsylvania mother, Jennifer Whalen, was sent to jail after buying pills online for her daughter.) Some experts say thats just wrong. CRRJ is working to decriminalize home abortions, and others argue that taking misoprostol at home is actually a practical solution for women with little access to care, a position shared by the World Health Organization.

If the source of miso is known, I dont actually think [women taking it on their own] is that risky, says Dr. McNicholas. While using misoprostol alone is not optimal, many treatments in medicine are far less than 80 percent effective, including drugs for asthma, migraines, and Alzheimers, points out Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., a medical ethicist at the New York University School of Medicine. With the politics of abortion, to me, this is the road youre going to have to travel. Some activists even view at-home abortions as a form of female empowerment: Francine Coeytaux, a principal investigator at the Public Health Institute in Los Angeles advocates for misoprostol to be available over the counter. Her new website is a clearinghouse on self-abortion because women can feel very alone and scared, she says.

Yet not all doctors are convinced. To me, empowerment means demanding the safest possible care from the best medical experts, says Katharine OConnell White, M.D., a Massachusetts ob-gyn. Sometimes that expert is the patient. But in the case of an abortion, the safest care is with a doctor. And many of the providers Glamour contacted stressed that most women who end their own pregnancies arent doing it because its a more empowered choice; they simply dont have other options.

One 38-year-old Missouri mother told me she was pregnant and found it almost impossible to make it to the states only clinic, 200 miles away. She first tried herbs and supplements, and then ordered miso and RU-486 online. Eventually she miscarried, though its unclear why. Still, she cant believe women have to resort to extreme measures. The legislation to remove a legal right absolutely infuriates me, she says. Unwanted pregnancy happens to intelligent people, to people probably sitting in the pew next to you at church. Thats what gets lost in this debatethat we are everyday mothers and daughters. We are normal women just trying to make the best choice.

What will that choice look like in 2017? 2027? Even if the Texas law is struck down, the effort to pass more restrictions wont stop, especially if the next president fills the Supreme Court vacancy with a justice who opposes the right to choose. The patients I see sometimes mention that they looked things up on the Internet or have taken pills or tried herbal remedies, says Bhavik Kumar, M.D., a provider at Whole Womans Health and member of Physicians for Reproductive Health, a doctor-led advocacy organization. But I often think about the women who dont make it to the clinic. Thats what really scares me. Our rights are being taken away, and if we all dont do anything, thats going to continue.

Phoebe Zerwick is an investigative journalist in North Carolina. Her last story for Glamour covered abortion-sonogram laws.

This article originally appeared in the July 2016 issue of Glamour, on newsstands June 14.
Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse should resign or chief minister Devendra Fadnavis should dismiss him without sparing any time. The minister has violated the very causes which are espoused by Prime Minister Narendra Modi - of "zero tolerance towards corruption" and "national security". The senior most minister in the Fadnavis government is accused of being involved in dubious land deals and remaining in constant touch with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim over phone.

It is beyond comprehension why the state government has not ordered any probe into the allegations against the minister even though he has misused his official position. Khadse, who holds additional portfolios of agriculture, relief and rehabilitation and minority affairs, in multiple cases, is in a position to influence witnesses and destroy evidence. His continuation as a minister will affect probes, whenever they take place. Hence, he should be removed as a minister forthwith.

1. Controversial land deals

In fact, Khadse stooped down to a level of a real estate broker to buy a piece of highly expensive land, worth about Rs 23 crore at market rate. It is common knowledge that brokers buy controversial pieces of land. Then, in connivance with the musclemen, police and revenue officials, they manage to get the land cleared and eventually sell it at an astronomical price. In the process, they get massive windfall gains.

Khadse adopted the same modus operandi and misused his position. As a revenue minister, he came to know of the controversy surrounding the three-acre land in Bhosari, near Pune, and tried to take undue advantage of the situation. Abbas Ukani, the original land owner, is in dispute with Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC). While MIDC claims that it had acquired the property in 1971, both Ukani and Khadse have contested it.

They maintain that the acquisition process, which started in 1971, was not completed, and the compensation amount had not been awarded. In September 2015, Ukani approached the Bombay High Court and the next date was fixed for June 28. However, in the meantime, on April 27, Khadse's wife Mandakini and son-in-law Girish Chaudhari bought the property at Rs 3.75 crore.

Khadse bought the property in full knowledge of the controversy surrounding it as the MIDC had cautioned him and tried to reason out with him that it was their property. MIDC regional manager Sujata Kulkarni is on record stating that MIDC had acquired the three-acre land and divided it into 15 plots - among 14 industrialists and a civic body.

Khadse is also guilty of conflict of interest and misusing his position as a minorities welfare minister. Ukani, 90 and residing in Kolkata, sought his help in disposing of the property and suggested him to buy it. That was because he was not getting buyers owning to the matter being sub judice. As Khadse could not buy the property himself, for he was a minister, he accepted Ukani's suggestion that members of his family could surely buy it, and they did.

Are the days of Maharashtra minister Eknath Khadse numbered?

2. Calling Dawood Ibrahim

While the Modi government plans to nab Dawood, Khadse is accused of talking to him on the latter's landline number in Pakistan a number of times. This allegation should be probed seriously as it is an anti-national act by any standards. Neither Modi nor BJP president Amit Shah should not tolerate such an act. Khadse should not be allowed to continue on his post for even a minute.

3. Threatening cops to file case against whistleblower

A sting operation by India Today has revealed that Khadse left no stones unturned to intimidate and silence whistleblower Hemant Gawande, who had red-flagged the land grabbing by Khadse.

Due to the grave irregularities he has committed and the mess he finds himself in, Khadse is now a lonely man even in the BJP. He is not likely to get the backing of his ministerial colleagues and the BJP's alliance partner, Shiv Sena, has already demanded he puts down his papers. Maharashtra's industries minister, Sena's Subash Desai, has even raised questions over the controversial land deal and reiterated that the plot belonged to MIDC.
A 120-bed nursing facility for veterans is slated for construction on the former Army intelligence campus at Vint Hill in Fauquier County, according to a news release Wednesday from Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

The Northern Virginia Veterans Care Center is planned to be built starting next year at the former Vint Hill Farms Station that once played a critical role in eavesdropping on enemy communications during World War II. Fauquier County, the Vint Hill Economic Development Authority and Vint Hill Village are donating the land for the planned care center, according to the release.

McAuliffe said the state-of-the-art facility would provide nursing care, Alzheimers and dementia c are, and short-term rehabilitative care.

The Northern Virginia region is home to more than 200,000 veterans, the second largest concentration in the commonwealth, and we owe it to them, and their families to build this new facility, he said.

The new care center will deliver top-quality care to Virginia veterans in a home-like setting, according to the news release. The facility will have all private rooms that will be organized into households and neighborhoods surrounding a central community center.

Construction is slated to start in late 2017 and be completed in late 2019, according to the release.

Fauquier County is excited to have been chosen as the site of the new veterans care center, said Fauquier County Board Chairman Christopher Granger. Our veterans are a critical part of this community and this veterans care center will offer many veterans the care they have earned.

Planning for the Northern Virginia Veterans Care Center, along with a similar facility in Hampton Roads, began in earnest during the 2015 session of the Virginia General Assembly with State Senator Bryce Reeves, R-Spotsylvania, among the patrons of legislation enabling the two projects estimated to cost a total of $96 million.

As we ramp up our programs and services for younger veterans, especially in the areas of transition, employment and education, we must not lose sight of the fact that one third of Virginias veterans are 65 and older, said House Majority Leader Kirk Cox. I believe I speak for all members of the General Assembly in affirming our unwavering support for veterans of all ages.

The Northern Virginia Veterans Care Center will be the third of its kind in the state; one in Roanoke opened in 1992 and another in Richmond in 2008.
Dropping the nations suspension rate by even a small amount could yield a multi-billion-dollar economic impact by helping to lower drop-out rates, leading to savings in public programs and higher wages for affected students, a new analysis finds.

A one percentage point drop in the 16 percent in-school and out-of-school sophomore suspension rate could lead to a fiscal benefit of $691 million as estimated by the study, because of improvements in areas like earnings and taxes for affected students, and it could lead to a social benefit of $2.2 billion because of savings in areas like welfare, criminal justice, and health care spending, says the study, released today by the Center for Civil Rights Remedies and the University of California Los Angeles.

If schools knew the real costs associated with suspension, its use might not have become so pervasive, says the analysis, which was co-written by Russell Rumberger of the University of California and Daniel Losen, a UCLA researcher and advocate for cutting back on classroom removals.

Nationwide, the economic impact of 10th-grade suspensions exceeds $35 billion, the authors conclude.

So how did the researchers draw these conclusions? They used a combination of federal data and previous research to estimate:



the likelihood a student will be suspended, in or out of school, in 10th grade; how much suspensions at that age increase a students likelihood of dropping out; and how much it costs, directly and indirectly, when a student drops out of high school.

The national suspension data comes from sophomores surveyed as part of the Educational Longitudinal Survey of 2002 . The data includes survey responses of about 16,000 public and private school students included in the study, who were later resurveyed to determine if they graduated from high school.

To isolate how those suspension rates would affect the likelihood of dropping out, the researchers controlled for other factors that could influence high school completion on their own, factors like parents educational attainment, family income, and test scores. Without those controls, they estimated that 71 percent of students who had received an in-school or out-of-school suspension in their 10th-grade year later graduated from high school, compared to a rate of 94 percent for students who had not been suspended. Controlling for the other variables, 68 percent of suspended students graduated, compared to 80 percent of students who had not been suspended.

The economic impact estimates relied on analyses from Clive Belfield, an economics professor at Queens College. He estimated that, over the course of a lifetime, every student who drops out leads to $163,000 in lost tax revenue and $364,000 in other social costs, such as health care and criminal justice expenses. For more information about the researchers methodology, take a look at the whole report here.

Advocates for reworking school discipline policies have previously suggested that classroom removals, such as suspensions, can be the first domino in a string of events that can lead to a students gradual disengagement from school. But others have suggested that suspensions are sometimes a necessary tool to maintain safety and order in schools.

The researchers conclude that schools should work to collect and analyze discipline data and consider alternatives to classroom removal. Schools may also be able to offset the impact of suspensions by ensuring swift and smooth re-entry for students whove been removed from classrooms and by keeping them up with their academic work while they are out of school.

Do you agree with the reports conclusions?

Further reading on suspensions, drop outs, and school discipline:

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A few months ago, I wrote about a vexing school consolidation effort in Vermont by the states legislators thats caused quite a bit of controversy and unanticipated complications.

Now, John Tulenko, an Education Week correspondent for NewsHour has traveled to a northern region of Vermont to take a deeper look at a move to consolidate more than five districts into one and the resulting tensions. As in other other communities, residents there are concerned about rising property taxes, local control over educaton, and the future of small schools. The story aired Tuesday night.

With a plummeting student enrollment, Vermont has one of the highest per-pupil costs and some of the lowest student-teacher ratios in the country. By consolidating some of the states 280 school districtssome of which have an enrollment of just a few dozen students state officials are hoping to save millions of dollars and give students in small towns greater access to academically rigorous programs and more electives like the arts.

The state is doing this through a law known as Act 46 which was passed last year. By providing a series of tax breaks for residents of districts that consolidate and tax increases for residents of districts that dont, the state hopes to cut in half the amount of districts it has.

Vermont is just one of many mostly rural states still attempting to consolidate districts, a movement that began in the 1930s. Just last week, Iowa shuttered several more districts amid dramatic budget cuts and dwindling population in some of the states agriculture regions where thousands of farm workers have been laid off because of technological advances.

For updates on the Vermont situation and other district consolidation efforts, follow this blog.
Barbara-Ann Hamilton-Hinch, from the community of Beechville, has been told that she is the first African Nova Scotian-born to graduate with a PhD from Dalhousie University.



Barbs history with the university is extensive. A faculty member in the School of Health and Human Performance, shes a Dal alumna twice already (Bachelor of Science in Recreation and Master of Arts) and also holds a Bachelor of Education from Mount Saint Vincent University. This spring, Barb adds another honour as she graduates with her PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies.



Its fantastic that Im able to teach, work and learn at a university that has given so much to me and that Im able to give back, she says.

Barb is also one of the original founders of the Imhoteps Legacy Academy, a university-community partnership that aims to increase the representation of African Canadian students in STEM subjects. Shes also co-chair of PLANS (Promoting Leadership in health for African Nova Scotians), which aims to do the same in health fields.



As a Dal undergraduate student in the late 80s, she was actively involved in the proposal to then-President Howard Clark for establishing a Black student advising position for campus. It was a role she herself would later fill, from 2002-2008. That was exciting for me to be in a position that I helped create, she says.



Barb resigned from the advisors role to accept a limited term teaching position in the School of Health and Human Performance. Inspired by Dr. Wanda Thomas Bernards national research project on racism as a form of violence, she became involved as a research assistant and community advisor, subsequently asking Dr. Bernard if she could use the data as part of a PhD. She defended her thesis that explored racism, health and the well-being of women of African ancestry living in Nova Scotia in December, and hopes to develop courses from it for students in the Faculty of Health Professions as well as in Dals new Black and African Diaspora Studies Minor.



My coming back here, and staying here, is based on the fact that I thought  and I still think  that I have more to contribute to the African Nova Scotian students, students of African descent, and the general student population that is coming to Dalhousie, she says.


How Do Drug Charges Affect Financial Aid?

You may have heard recently that universities and the federal government are working to remove barriers for college hopefuls with criminal records. While this may be welcome news to those with youthful indiscretions in their past or those trying to turn lives around, there remains one crucial hurdle left: financial aid.

Even if someone with a criminal conviction on their record is accepted to college, he or she may not be able to afford it without help, and a drug conviction especially can make securing a student loan far more difficult.

Don't Get High on the Government's Supply

Here's the good news: a drug conviction will only affect your eligibility for federal student aid if the conviction is for a drug-related offense that occurred while you were receiving federal student aid. How do you know exactly when that is? The White House can help:

You are considered to be receiving aid beginning on the day that classes start for any term you have applied for, been approved for, and for which you have accepted an offer for Federal student aid. Summer breaks do not count as time receiving aid if you are not enrolled in classes. However, holiday breaks during the academic year count as time enrolled.

(There's a chart if you need more help.)

Also, you're not automatically disqualified from receiving financial aid forever with a drug conviction. A first drug possession offense makes you ineligible for one year from the conviction, while a second possession offense or first drug selling offense makes you ineligible for two years.

Reinstatement

Even if your eligibility for federal student aid has been suspended due to a drug conviction, there are ways to apply for early reinstatement. But they won't be easy. You're eligibility can be automatically reinstated if your conviction is overturned, rendered invalid, or set aside.

Otherwise, you will either need to complete an approved drug rehabilitation program that includes passing two unannounced drug tests, or pass two unannounced drug tests administered by an approved drug rehabilitation program.

Whether a drug conviction will affect non-federal student aid may be up to the lender and there may be ways to expunge a drug conviction from your criminal record before you apply for financial aid. If you have further questions about drug convictions and financial aid, you should speak with an experienced drug crimes attorney in your area.

Related Resources:
In the fall of 1914, just weeks after the outbreak of the First World War in Europe, Dalhousie welcomed a new batch of students into its ranks. No one could have foreseen at that early stage just how big a toll the bloody conflict would take in the coming years on all involved. That years incoming class was no exception.



The war and its broader impact meant high attrition rates for university students: by the time convocation rolled around roughly four years later, only 20 members of the Class of 1918s 72 members were still enrolled at the university.



Ernest Parker Duchemin was one of them. In a valedictory address delivered on May 9, 1918, a day before that years spring convocation, the Bachelor of Arts grad from Sydney, N.S., spoke of the dark shadow the war  still raging at the time  had cast over his class.



It has haunted us at our studies as at our sports, in the lecture rooms, at our college functions, and in all the varied activities of college life, he said in the speech, later reproduced in the Dalhousie Gazette. The war has interpreted history, literature and philosophy for us in new and impressive ways. It has broken our class circles by the departure of those who have responded to the call of country."



Indeed, 34 of Duchemins classmates left Dal during those years to serve overseas on the front lines. Some discontinued their studies to contribute to the war effort in other ways. Three made what he called the supreme sacrifice, perishing on the battlefield.



Just another bunch of college grads



Not all graduating classes at Dal have been through so much. But members of each class  from those in the first small cohort in 1866 to those in the more than 3,000-strong group graduating this week  have had their own set of defining events, experiences and milestones that have shaped not only their education, but the world they exited into come convocation.



The Class of 1933, for instance, entered Dal in 1929 at the height of an era of unparalleled prosperity. Just weeks later on October 29, the U.S. stock market crashed spectacularly, setting off what was to become the longest, most brutal recession in the history of the Western industrialized world.



The descent into economic depression would come to radically reshape the world into which those students emerged four years later. Opportunities that once seemed so plentiful had long ago dried up, leaving the graduates to ponder the very usefulness of the education theyd worked so hard to achieve.



"Now we go out to face the stern realities of life, said class valedictorian E. Benjamin Rogers (left, upper-left photo) in a downbeat speech to fellow Class of 33 graduates that May. When we were children we used to hear that the world needed college-trained people. But times have changed. Today we are regarded as just another batch of college graduates going out to swell the ranks of the unemployed."



Rogers, an Arts grad from Prince Edward Island, lamented the lack of cooperation on the part of world leaders and the rise of nationalism, distrust and greed  all of which he claimed (somewhat presciently) brought about the threat of a new war. The seizure of power in Germany by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party four months earlier, though not explicitly mentioned, was no doubt on Rogerss mind.



Faced with such darkness, Rogers envisioned his own classmates as a force for good.



Today we go out to face a weary, troubled, discouraged world, he said. Let us bring to the solution of its problems the spirit of moderation and toleration with which the university has imbued us, the course and the determination which our forefathers met their problems, and the enthusiasm of youth.



Celebration in a time of loss



Other graduating classes have crossed the stage against sombre backdrops of a different sort. In 1896, spring convocation happened just days after the death of George Munro, a publisher whose generous donations helped save Dal during grave financial times for the university in the late 1870s.



Munros death at 70 struck the university community hard at the time, resulting in a quieter and less public convocation with the character of a memorial service, according to a report in the Gazette.



Although Munro himself had no direct affiliation with Dal, discussions with his brother-in-law (a member of the Board of Governors at that time) encouraged him to support the university. He ended up donating hundreds of thousands of dollars  millions in todays currency  over the years to set up several research chairs and bursaries, the latter of which no doubt helped many in the Class of 96.



"Though he cannot appear amongst us again, he cannot be forgotten," said Reverend Robert Murray in an address at that year's convocation. "He was a kindly helper of students. He opened to many a deserving youth the glorious portals of knowledge, and made possible careers of incalculable usefulness.



You, ladies and gentlemen of Dalhouise, you and your predecessors and successors have the name of George Munro engraved upon your grateful hearts and souls. In your gratitude and love he has a precious monument which rust cannot corrode, and which the sharp tooth of time can never mar."



The changing face of graduates



Just as the tenor of convocation ceremonies shifted through the years, so too did the composition of graduating classes.



In 1881, Dal admitted two women into its ranks. One of them, Margaret Florence Newcombe (left, middle individual in the middle row), went on to become the universitys first female graduate. At convocation in the spring of 1885, Newcombe left not only with her Bacehelor of Arts degree in hand but also with two academic prizes for German and political economy. She went on to become principal of the Halifax Ladies College.



About a decade or so later, a man by the name of James Robinson Johnston also made history at Dal, became the first African Nova Scotian to graduate from university. Johnston first entered Dal at 16. He completed a Bachelor of Letters degree in 1896 and a Bachelor of Laws degree two years later before going on to become a successful military and criminal lawyer.



The Halifax Herald called him a pre-eminent citizen and ornament to the Bar Association of Nova Scotia during his years of practice. In 1991, a research chair in Black Canadian Studies (the only one of its kind in the country) was set up in Johnston's name  a testament to the Dal grads lasting influence on the university and the wider community.



As the years passed, Dal welcomed more women and students of African descent into its halls. In the early 1970s, the university launched its Transition Year Program that helped offer a supportive path for individuals from marginalized communities  particularly African Nova Scotian and Indigenous students  a path to a university education.



Dalhousie News characterized the convocations in the spring of 1990 as something of a watershed moment for Indigenous graduates. Eight Indigenous students received degrees (one in arts, seven in social work), Mikmaq grand chief Donald Marshall Senior (right) gave an invocation and benediction in the Mikmaq language, and two of the five honorary degree recipients were from Indigenous communities: Viola Robinson of the Native Council of Nova Scotia and Ontario ombudsman Roberta Jamieson.



Jamieson, the first Indigenous woman to become a lawyer in Canada, implored the graduates assembled for the law school convocation to engage in the issues of the day and resist the urge to conform. She said changes to the law were beginning to bring about change and increased pressure on institutions to open up to more women and ethnic minorities presented opportunities to contribute to the richness of our experience.



Missing out on those opportunities would be nothing less than shirking our responsibility, Jamieson said. We cant afford outmoded ideas as we move toward the 21st century.
Surely the Internet of Things will be crowdfunding, but first a question hangs in the air.

Few buzzwords are heard more often in tech circles than the Internet of Things (Iot). The vision of a series of connected smart devices, the IoT is supposed to revolutionize everything from households and appliances to cars and clothes. Yet, considering that the conventional wisdom is that new products take about five years from concept to market, the time is coming when a legitimate question to ask is: where is the IoT?

The answer, perhaps, is that we are looking for the IoT in all the wrong places. Instead of originating in long-established corporations, the IoT may be developing in plain sight in a mixture of startups, free software, and  above all else  crowdfunding.

Not that corporations are not working on smart devices. In a sense, the IoT is the next generation of embedded systems, which have been around for years.

Moreover, many corporations, particularly the most innovative ones, have been exploring the possibilities of the IoT for years. In 2014, Google purchased Nest Labs, a move that Business Insider described as making a huge bet on the consumer Internet of Things. Similarly, in 2015 Samsung announced a focus on technologies to help the development of the IoT.

Even Microsoft, which has not been considered a center for innovation for some time, plans in 2016 to roll out technologies to provide enhanced monitoring of meters and alarms.

Yet such initiatives seem cautious compared to the buzz around the IoT  especially when you consider that the IoT, for all the excitement it generates, is more about new applications for existing technologies than radical new technologies.

In contrast, a year after an unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign, Cornerstone, a startup spun off from DoBots, a Dutch robotic company, is already taking orders for its namesake product, a device that adds smart services to existing electrical outlets.

Nor is Cornerstone an exception. From 2012-2014, Kickstarter listed at least 176 campaigns associated with the IoT, with an approximate 40% success rate  a rate slightly above average. Add the last year and a half, and the number likely increases by at least fifty percent.

Figures from Indiegogo are unavailable, but a search on the site for Internet of Things returns dozens of campaigns. As on Kickstarter, many of these campaigns are educational  often centering on the Raspberry Pi  but at least as many are attempting to raise funds that put them in the category of would-be small businesses.

In fact, for every corporation exploring the possibilities of the IoT, there are probably three or four projects actively developing or even selling products. Perhaps some of these projects will be eventually be sold to corporations, but the numbers and the activities suggest that, when the IoT becomes as common as household appliances, many of the ideas behind it  if not necessarily the products  will have come from crowdfunded startups.

IoT Crowdfunding: Sources of Innovation

By conventional business theory, such statements may sound wild and grandiose. According to Joseph Schumpeter in the 1934 The Theory of Economic Development, innovation comes from manufacturers.

However, more recent work, in particular that of Eric von Hippel, refutes the traditional perspective. A professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT, von Hippel has been studying innovation for almost four decades. His conclusion is that as much as eighty percent of innovation comes from users  both consumers, and developers who work regularly with a product  and he has found an independent confirmation of his research in the practices of free and open source projects.

According to von Hippel, established companies can add incremental improvements to existing projects. However, corporations are far less likely to develop new products, let alone a radical shift in direction. The people who create the market are the lead users, von Hippel says.

Von Hippels conclusions help explain why corporations are slow to respond to new directions like the IoT  they are set in their ways. Either they are have trouble seeing the potential in a new direction, or else the fact that the innovators are either low in the corporate hierarchy or outside it altogether means that the average corporation can easily make decisions without taking their ideas into account.

By contrast, in crowdfunded small businesses, the innovators are also the decision-makers. Familiar with the products, and often personally enthusiastic, they have less trouble seeing possibilities and acting on them than many executives do.

Add the facts that the organization of innovators is smaller and flatter, and that many innovators prefer open standards and open source software, and the fact that much of the development of the IoT comes from crowdfunded small businesses becomes obvious. The perfect combination of crowdfunding, open source and small business is not only where much of the IoT is going to be created, but also other innovations as well.
There's a scene early in 'London Has Fallen' where U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) asks Secret Service Agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) how he came to be the man he is. "Bourbon and bad choices" is Banning's reply, but I'm guessing it might also be the reply if one queried the screenwriters on how they came up with this movie's plot. 'London Has Fallen' is a bad movie, and a huge step down from Olympus Has Fallen, a movie that many critics and moviegoers also had issues with, but which I enjoyed quite a bit.

This time around, President Asher (along with other leaders around the globe) is asked to come to London for the funeral of the UK Prime Minister. Naturally, given the events of the first film, the president wants Banning to head up his detail. As it turns out, the death of the Prime Minister was a plot by terrorist mastermind Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul) to get world leaders in one place so he can kill them all  the United States launched a drone attack on Barkawi two years earlier and his daughter was killed in the strike, so now he wants to exact his revenge  particularly on President Asher.

Okay, this isn't the worst of ideas for a film, but it's executed (pardon the pun) in the silliest and most unbelievable way possible. For starters, the Brits must really hate this movie. When the terrorist attack begins, it's due to the fact that there are terrorists who are already members of the British military and police...and not just a few  dozens! Every organization from the London police to the guards at Buckingham Palace seem to be infiltrated with bad guys. So, you need to work better on your vetting process for recruits, England.

Even more laughable is the way the leaders are picked off one by one during the terrorist strike. None of these people seem to have any serious security around them. The German Chancellor is at Buckingham Palace with maybe three or four people watching over her...and she's got the most protection. The French President is relaxing on a boat in the Thames. The Italian Prime Minister is hanging out on the roof of Westminster Abbey with his 30-year-old mistress and no one else around, and  in the most laughable of these scenarios  the Japanese Prime Minster is stuck in traffic on London Bridge with his driver...not an entourage, mind you...a single car with a single driver for this world leader!

Fortunately, President Asher has Banning with him, a one-man killing machine, so it's going to take a lot more to bring America's leader down. After the presidential limo gets smashed, it's off to Marine One (the movie also mistakenly refers to the two decoy helicopters as Marine Two and Marine Three, but accuracy is the least of the issues here) for a display of the worst special effects you'll see in a major motion picture this year. It also gives co-star Angela Bassett  who quite literally just seems to be "along for the ride" this time out  a chance to scream like a schoolgirl, despite the fact that her character is supposed to be head of the Secret Service and, one would think, should be a lot cooler in these kind of circumstances.

While the UK is going ka-boom, Morgan Freeman (playing the U.S. Vice President) is back in the "war room" of the White House, surrounded by an admirable list of fellow actors  including Melissa Leo, Robert Forster, and Jackie Earle Haley  all of whom seem to have no idea that there's a much worse movie being filmed elsewhere. Everything is somber and serious in Freeman's scenes, with the only annoying bit coming when the movie shows on-screen text introducing each of the Cabinet members and IDs Melissa Leo's character as the Secretary of 'Defence'  with no one working on this movie apparently realizing that Americans spell that word and title with an "s".

The movie also fails in its climax, giving us a showdown in a dark, abandoned building between the heroes and villains, which may be loaded with bullets and explosions, but is also pretty visually underwhelming. After all the smoke has cleared and despite the silliness that proceeded it, 'London Has Fallen' doesn't even give viewers the satisfaction of Asher and/or Banning taking care of Barkawi  that duty falls to Freeman, perhaps because Director Babak Najafi felt sorry he didn't give him much of anything else to do in the film. This is Najafi's first big-budget movie and his lack of experience shows. One can only wonder why 'Olympus' director Antoine Fuqua wasn't called back, or how much better this movie might have been if he were.

With all its problems though, I can't honestly say 'London Has Fallen' was ever boring. It certainly kept my attention for 99 minutes, even if most of that time was spent shaking my head at how dumb some of the screenwriting choices were here (and I'm guessing there's 100 more factual and continuity errors that I didn't pick up on). Also, if you like a lot of action, explosions, and violence in your movies, there's more than enough to go around here. One of the advantages to the film is that it doesn't give you too long to think about the stupid thing that just happened, because it's already along to its next stupid thing. Still, I'm only recommending this to fans who really liked the first film, and with the caveat that you aren't going to get something very good here, but not so bad that it's completely unwatchable. Go in with the correct mindset (set your brain to "clueless") and you might even have some fun. Alas, however, I'm pretty sure we won't be seeing 'Paris Has Fallen' in theaters anytime soon.

The Blu-Ray: Vital Disc Stats

'London Has Fallen' shoots it out on home video in this Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD combo pack. The 50GB Blu-ray and dual-layer DVD are housed inside a standard Elite keepcase, along with an insert containing a code for either an UltraViolet or iTunes copy of the film. A slipcover matching the artwork of the keepcase's slick slides overtop.

Although most of them amount to only 30-second clips, Universal has front-loaded a ton of trailers on this release. Both the Blu-ray and the DVD are front-loaded with ads for 'Kubo and the Two Strings', 'A Monster Calls' (both of these first two are full-length trailers), The Young Messiah, Hardcore Henry, Triple 9, Eye in the Sky, Mr. Robot: Season 1, The Expanse: Season 1, and Hail, Caesar!. The main menu of the Blu-ray is the standard Universal design, with a still of the box cover image and menu selection vertically down the left side of the screen.

The Blu-ray in this release is region-free.
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Protection of Northern Long-eared Bats

Protective Measures Required for Northern Long-eared Bats When Projects Occur within Occupied Habitat

Development and forest management projects within habitat occupied by the northern long-eared bat (NLEB) should be reviewed for potential adverse impacts to the species. See map of known locations on right. Protective requirements vary depending on the type of project proposed.

If your project is located in any of the occupied towns indicated on the map you can obtain further guidance by contacting your regional DEC Office of Environmental Permits or you can assess the potential for harmful impacts using the following self-evaluation guide.

Please note: What follows does not address the operation of wind turbine projects but may be helpful in assessing the potential for adverse impacts to NLEB during construction of wind energy facilities.

NLEB Self-evaluation

Guidance from DEC

In New York, all federally threatened species that occur in the State are also afforded threatened status under the New York Endangered Species Law and its implementing regulations.

The Department concurs with the conclusion of the USFWS that the NLEB population decline is not the result of habitat loss. Because the State endangered species law and its implementing regulations require consideration of impacts to occupied habitat of listed species, however, the Department requires additional protections. These consist mainly of conditions placed on tree cutting in order to protect any bats that may be roosting in the trees in the vicinity of their hibernacula and documented summer occurrences. Therefore, in addition to the requirements of USFWS Final 4(d) Rule for the NLEB, projects located in occupied habitat must comply with additional protective guidance.

Forest Management and Projects that Result in a Change in Land Use

Projects that are intended to convert forested habitat to other uses have a greater impact on NLEB than projects that allow for the regeneration and retention of forest habitat on the landscape. This is because even though trees are not currently a limiting resource for NLEB, the species also uses forest habitat of all types for feeding. NLEB will use regenerating forest for foraging habitat within the same year that cuts are implemented. However, when forest habitat is lost from the landscape because the land is converted to another use, these areas no longer provide any benefit to NLEB.

A project maintains the existing land use if forest habitat or a hibernation site is being managed to perpetuate its existing use by bats (e.g., sustainable forestry, forest maintenance, cave or hibernacula maintenance).

In contrast, a project will result in a change in land use when any portion of forest habitat or a hibernation site is converted to another form that bats will use in a reduced capacity (e.g., most development).

Further Guidance

To be eligible for a permit to take NLEB, the project proponent must be able to demonstrate a net conservation benefit to NLEB as a result of their action. For information on how to apply, contact your regional DEC permit administrator.

Snag and cavity trees, as referred to here, are defined under DEC Program Policy ONR-DLF-2 Retention on State Forests (PDF).

The guidance on this page is only intended to address NLEB protective measures. Additional regulations may apply to the land, including wetland and stream protection regulations and protective measures for other federal or state endangered species that may be present. Regional DEC staff in Division of Environmental Permits can help determine if any of these restrictions apply to the property and project in question.

Background on NLEB Listing

NLEB were listed as "threatened" by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) under the federal Endangered Species Act on April 2, 2015.

The USFWS has the authority to write special rules and exemptions for federally threatened species under section 4(d) of the federal Endangered Species Act. On January 14, 2016, USFWS issued just such a "4(d) rule" for NLEB. The rule imposes a number of specific conservation measures. Purposefully harming NLEB remains prohibited except in defense of human health and safety.

Most incidental take (defined as unintended impacts to the species from otherwise legal activities), however, is allowed without the need for a federal permit, with the following specific exceptions:

All incidental take within hibernacula is prohibited.

Incidental take resulting from tree removal within a 0.25 mile of a known occupied northern long-eared bat hibernacula or within 150 feet of a known occupied maternity roost tree during the pup-rearing season (June 1 through July 31) is prohibited.

On April 27, 2016, USFWS announced its determination that it would not designate critical habitat for the NLEB because "Northern long-eared bat summer habitat is not limited or in short supply and summer habitat loss is not a range-wide threat to the species."




Federica Mogherini, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, said: "Myanmar is at a turning point. The newly elected government has expressed its willingness to bring peace and development to its people, through a democratic path. As the European Union, we have constantly accompanied this path, and we are committed to cooperate even more with Myanmar to support the reform efforts of the government: to strengthen democracy, good governance, the rule of law, peace, national reconciliation and human rights, to tackle poverty and to boost trade and investment. With this Joint Communication, the EU renews its strong commitment to work with Myanmars authorities and civil society to reinforce our bilateral relations, to the benefit of our people.

According to the EU statement, the Joint Communication looks at how best to work with all stakeholders towards consolidating democracy, creating lasting peace, bringing equitable development and social justice in alignment with the priorities of the government and the aspirations of the people.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) roped in HDFC Realty and SBI Cap after being asked by the Supreme Court to initiate the process of selling Sahara properties whose titles have been deposited with it by the group.

New Delhi: Tasked by markets regulator SEBI to sell land parcels of Sahara, HDFC Realty will e-auction on July 4 five properties owned by the beleaguered group at a reserve price of Rs 722 crore.

HDFC Realty has been asked to auction a total of 31 land parcels at Rs 2,400 crore, while SBI Cap has been tasked to auction another 30 land properties with an estimated market value of about Rs 4,100 crore.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) roped in HDFC Realty and SBI Cap after being asked by the Supreme Court to initiate the process of selling Sahara properties whose titles have been deposited with it by the group.

Following a go-ahead from the Court, the two entities have put in place a mechanism to auction these properties. In a public notice issued today, HDFC Realty said it will e-auction as many as five land parcels on July 4 between 11 am and 12 pm.

These properties will fetch around Rs 722 crore at reserve price. These properties are located in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

The assets being sold include agricultural non-agri land. Interested bidder can inspect these land parcels on June 10. As per the court directions, these properties cannot be sold at less than 90 per cent of circle rates.

After spending two years in jail, Sahara chief Subrata Roy is currently out on parole. He was sent to jail on the orders of the Supreme Court in a long running dispute with SEBI.
Mumbai: Government has decided against dragging the US to the WTO for alleged violation of the world trade body's norms on renewable energy as it prefers a bilateral solution, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal said today.

"The US has requested for bilateral consultations to which we readily agreed. The commerce ministry is in dialogue with them. We believe that dialogues are a better way in sensitive subjects like renewable energy," he told reporters.

The Minister further said the government has found 16 instances of violation of norms about local content requirement under the National Solar Mission, and lawyers have been working on filing the cases since April.

Goyal, however, made it clear that the government is engaging with the US only for a favourable outcome. "As long as the bilateral resolution is in our interest, we are open to it," he said.

On May 11, Industry and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had informed Parliament that Government would file 16 cases against the US for violating WTO norms in the renweables sector.

Sitharaman had said the Government believed that certain American renewable energy programmes at the sub-federal level are inconsistent with WTO provisions, particularly with respect to the Gatt obligations (General agreement on tariff and trade of 1994), agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures and/or Trims (Trade-related investment measures) agreement.

In another statement in the House, she had said the country continued to be placed on the priority watch list under the Special 301 on account of US assessment of our intellectual property rights (IPR) protection being inadequate.

Meanwhile, Goyal today said his ministry will be focusing on the wind and the hydel power next year, having achieved good success in solar sector over the past two years.
New Delhi: Global airlines' body International Air Traffic Association (IATA) on June 2 asked the government as to why the aviation sector was being taxed "punitively" like that of alcohol or tobacco industry, saying such fees were weakening its ability to be a force for good.

Noting that there were "nearly 2,000 government-imposed aviation taxes and charges" in its data base-of which 230 were statutory taxes imposed on tickets, IATA said "the number seems to grow with each government budget cycle, most increases are incremental, but they add up."

"It is not unusual for the net impact of government taxes and charges to reach 20 per cent or more of the cost of travel nearly four times the airlines' average net margin. Airlines are a force for good creating jobs and spreading wealth. Why then are we taxed as punitively as the 'sins' of alcohol and tobacco" asked IATA Director General and CEO Tony Tyler.

Addressing the IATA annual meet in Dublin, Tyler said, "Many governments are simply not doing the maths" and creating an environment for the aviation sector to function as any other industry, generate jobs and enhance connectivity. Tyler maintained that reduction or abolition of most taxes would lead to "a net positive benefit for government finances, national economies and individuals", an IATA release said.

Referring to heightened regulations in the aviation sector, Tyler said, however, "not all regulations have the same galvanising clarity of focus. Passenger rights rules, for example, often seem more intent on penalising airlines than helping passengers enjoy the benefits of efficient travel."

Stressing that the regulations must stand up to rigorous cost benefits, Tyler said "as a force for good, we need smarter regulation, clearly defined rules easily implemented to solve real issues while respecting global standards. Regulation must stand up to rigorous cost-benefit analysis," Tyler said.

He also referred to aviation safety and security issues and mentioned recent incidents including those involving aircraft of EgyptAir, Malaysian Airlines and others, saying "we face real threats. Government and industry must be nimble, share information, use global standards and keep a risk-based mindset when developing counter-measures."
New Delhi: Questioning regulator Trais drive test results showing worsening call drop situation, telecom operators on Thursday said that the issue is limited to area where there are problems in installing towers. Given the limited coverage of these drive tests, the results show problems limited to the known problematic areas where the industry faces issues in obtaining cell sites, said COAI.

Citing the test results, the telecom regulator had asked the government amend the law to give it penal powers forcing telecom companies to reduce call drops. The association said that the Trai report clearly shows a majority of the call drops happening in the four areas of Central Delhi, Dwarka and IGI airport, Gurgaon and Manesar and Noida and Mayur Vihar.

It said that Delhi IGI airport has large areas of defence property and only recently has the minister of communication and IT opened up defence land for setting up of telecom infrastructure. Another area where call drops were seen as out of parameter is Central Delhi. Here again, this is a known problem area and the industry is involved in ongoing deliberations with NDMC for Central Delhi and with MCD for other parts of Delhi, for installation of towers, said COAI. It said that resolution of the call drop problem in the known difficult areas is not through the imposition of penalties but a constructive partnership between the industry, telecom ministry, urban development ministry and local municipalities to facilitate and hasten the approvals of required cell sites.

COAI said that the drive test and its results do not cover all the cell sites but only a limited amount of the telecom circle. While the area of Delhi NCR is 46,208 square km, these results are limited to a route covering 600 km only. Hence the quality of service (QoS) results from the drive test are not strictly comparable with the standard QoS for dropped calls regularly published by Trai for the entire service area, COAI said. It said that the industry is concerned that the publication of results by Trai, before resolving the outstanding technical and measurement issues, leads to erroneous conclusions by citizens.
The USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is also proposed to pass through the area, which India objects due to the disputed status of the region. (Photo: Twitter)

New Delhi: In sharp reaction to Islamabad's reported move to make strategically located Gilgit-Baltistan a province, India today said the entire Jammu and Kashmir including Pakistan Occupied Kashmir is its integral part.

"We have seen recent media reports stating that various options are under consideration in Pakistan regarding the political status of Gilgit-Baltistan.

"India's position is crystal clear on this. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir which includes areas currently under Pakistan's occupation is an integral part of Union of India," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

Gilgit-Baltistan is strategically located and provides the only land link with China. The USD 46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is also proposed to pass through the area, which India objects due to the disputed status of the region.

He said India's concerns are regarding "exploitation of resources" and implementation of economic projects in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir are well known and have been shared with all the countries and organisations concerned.

There were reports that Pakistan was planning to make Gilgit-Baltistan as its fifth province.

Elections were held in Gilgit-Baltistan region in June last year. India had objected to the elections strongly, saying it is an attempt by Pakistan to "camouflage its forcible and illegal occupation" of the regions which are its integral part.

Replying to a question on whether India was seeking extradition of Khalistani militant Paramjeet Singh alias Pamma from Portugal when some Sikh advocacy groups were opposing such a move, Swarup said government wants him to face trial for the crimes he committed in India.

"As far as we are concerned, Paramjit is a known terrorist and has Interpol Red Corner notices against him. He was detained by authorities in Portugal on December 18, 2015 based on these Red Corner alert.

"He is accused of a number of criminal cases in India including the murder of the president of Rastriya Sikh Sangat and for this reason we are seeking his extradition from Portugal," the spokesperson said.
Mumbai: The doting father Shah Rukh Khan along with his wife Gauri and daughter Suhana recently joined Aryan at his school Seven Oaks in London, to celebrate his graduation day. While Shah Rukh flew back to Mumbai to spend quality time with Suhana and AbRam, Gauri decided to spend few more days with Aryan.

Read: Conversations with my grown-ups Aryan and Suhana have become interesting: SRK

Gauri shared a picture with Aryan on her social networking handle and wrote, "Shopping#for#my#18#year#old ... Super#fun#day#selfridges."

We also stumbled upon a group picture of the entire Khan family with Amitabh Bachchans daughter Shweta Nanda and grand daughter Navya Naveli. The Khans and the Bachchans have always been cordial towards each other and are often seen sharing candid moments together.

The Khans and the Bachchans at the graduation ceremony.
Gunday stars Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor might just be taking over the small screen with their web series. The two actors, who took their bormance to the big screen, the stage and even television shows, will now reportedly be a part of an all star web series.

Buzz is that the makers of the series are keen to get Ranveer and Arjun to star in a romantic-action-drama that will showcase their bromance. The show produced by Y Films will also see a hot B-Town actress. Like their previous two successful series, the makers will try and target the youth.

Although much of the shows plot is under wraps, fans can expect to see the films challenge conventions and cover all genres. The only thing standing in the way to this dream project is the actors shooting dates. Ranveer is currently shooting for his film Befikre in Paris, while Arjun Kapoor will be busy shooting for his next romantic flick Half Girlfriend.

Arjun is also reportedly in talks to star with Fawad Khan in Abhishek Varmans next film titled Kalank.
Mumbai: We recently told you that Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma will head to Europe in July for Imtiaz Alis next. Before starting preparations for their upcoming film, Imtiaz and Anushka have collaborated on an advertisement.

We got our hands on few pictures from the ad shoot and it pretty evident that the filmmaker and the actress instantly bonded with each other and share a good chemistry.

Recently, Imtiaz along with his team flew to Budapest to finalise locations for his next film starring SRK and Anushka. The will be shot across five different countries in Europe, providing a rich visual experience to the audience.

Shah Rukh, who had discussed this film with Imtiaz long before the latters Tamasha went on floors, had said at the time that he would be able to work on the project only after June. Meanhwile, Anushka is also wrapping up her home production. Once the shoot starts in July, both the actors will dedicate their time solely to this project before taking on any other work.
Deepika Padukone sported an all-black look in an asymmetrical top, leggings and boots.

Mumbai: Deepika Padukone, who recently wrapped up her professional commitments abroad, has finally returned back to Mumbai. The actress, post wrapping her 'xXx' shoot had headed to Budapest to shoot for a special dance number for 'Raabta'.

The leggy lass was spotted at the Mumbai Aiport today early morning. She sported an all-black look in an asymmetrical top, leggings and boots.

When quizzed about her shoot in Budapest, she refused to divulge any details about it. Deepika was also asked to comment on Ranveer Singh's 'Befikre' poster and she said 'not seen it yet'.

Watch the video here.
Despite remarkable advances in treatment and prevention since then, HIV/AIDS is still neither contained nor manageable.

New Delhi: May 18 marks the HIV Vaccine Awareness Day that commemorates U.S. President Bill Clinton's 1997 declaration that, "only a truly effective, preventive HIV vaccine can limit and eventually eliminate the threat of AIDS."

In India, 2016 also marks 30 years of work in research and development of an AIDS vaccine since the first case of HIV was documented.

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day is commemorated on May 18 each year to educate the world on the need for an AIDS vaccine and recognise and celebrate the many scientists, health professionals and community members across the world who are working together to discover an HIV vaccine and make AIDS history.

Despite remarkable advances in treatment and prevention since then, HIV/AIDS is still neither contained nor manageable.

"Recent studies make it clear that we will not be able to accelerate the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic without a cure for HIV or new tools to treat and prevent virus transmission. Further investment and innovation in HIV prevention will be required to realize our shared vision of a world without AIDS," said Dr Rajat Goyal, Country Director - India, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

As per a recent report by Nations AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), India is still estimated to have 2.1 million people living with HIV (PLHIV), out of which, 6.54 percent are children below the age of 15, while a massive 40.5% of total HIV infections are among females.

However, a recent modeling study, partnered by IAVI, indicates that even with substantially increased use of existing treatment and prevention options there will be hundreds of thousands of new HIV infections per year, in low- and middle-income countries like India, for decades to come.

Therefore, added to the comprehensive HIV/AIDS response, an effective and well-implemented vaccine could prevent a majority of new HIV infections, driving down the number of people who need life-long treatment, and ultimately the total costs of global HIV/ AIDS programs.
Indo-Japanese CTO Club is established to share technical and operational expertise in interventional cardiology between India and Japan especially in the removal of Chronic Total Occlusion, Occlusion characterised by complete or near complete blockage of coronary artery. (Representational image)

Kochi: Indo-Japanese CTO Club (IJCTO) is holding its fourth live summit on Chronic Total Occlusion (CTO) from June 3 to 5. Dr. M K.C Nair, VC, Kerala University of Health Sciences, will inaugurate the conference on Friday at 7 pm at Hotel Crowne Plaza, Kochi.

Indo-Japanese CTO Club is established to share technical and operational expertise in interventional cardiology between India and Japan especially in the removal of Chronic Total Occlusion, Occlusion characterised by complete or near complete blockage of coronary artery.

In three days, the Indo-Japanese team would perform complex Chronic Total Occlusion surgeries at various super specialty hospitals across India which would be transmitted live to the venue at Kochi.
"The perception that an attitude we hold is based on morality is enough to strengthen it," researcher said.

Washington: Branding an opinion to be morally befitting makes it stronger and resilient to counter argument, says a new study.

Researchers found that people were more likely to act on an opinion - what psychologists call an attitude - if it was labeled as moral and were more resistant to attempts to change their mind.

The results show why appeals to morality by politicians and advocacy groups can be so effective, said Andrew Luttrell, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology at The Ohio State University.

"The perception that an attitude we hold is based on morality is enough to strengthen it," Luttrell said.

"For many people, morality implies universality, an ultimate truth. It is a conviction that is not easily changed," he added.

The key finding was how easy it was to strengthen the people's beliefs by using the 'moral' label, said Richard Petty, co-author of the study and professor of psychology at Ohio State.

"Morality can act as a trigger - you can attach the label to nearly any belief and instantly make that belief stronger," Petty said.

Other co-authors of the study were Pablo BriAol of the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain and Benjamin Wagner of St. Thomas Aquinas College.

The results showed that "morality had a lot more impact than the values of tradition and equality", Luttrell said.

Luttrell said the study highlighted that the people hold on to their moral beliefs in a way they didn't for other values.

"But what was remarkable was how easy it was to lead people into thinking their views were based on moral principles," he said.

The results suggest that appeals to morality can be very effective to groups and political candidates trying to appeal their supporters.

"People may be more willing to vote for a candidate or give money to an advocacy group if they believe it is a matter of morality. They're also less likely to be swayed by the opposition," Luttrell said.

This research has been published in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The police rushed to the spot, rescued the body and identified the deceased as Ramakrishnan.

Coimbatore: At least four persons including a forest anti-poaching watcher were held on Wednesday in Valparai for murdering a 22-year-old person from a tribal community.

K. Ramakrishnan, who was residing in Shekal mudi estate, went missing a month ago. His father Kuttan lodged a complaint at Valparai police.

Meanwhile, police received a tip about a body covered in a gunny bag hidden in the space between rocks in a 1,000 feet gorge near Anali estate inside the reserve forest.

The police rushed to the spot, rescued the body and identified the deceased as Ramakrishnan. Police enquired with his friends Siva Kumar, 20, and Karthic, 18. Aafter an enquiry at the police station they admitted to the crime.

According to a police official, Ramakrishnan had thrown a drinks party for his friends Siva Kumar, Karthic and a forest AP watcher Muthu, 26, who is a common friend.

They went to Anali estate inside the thick forest and drank, Siva Kumar and Karthic teased about the looks of the girl, whom Ramkrishnan is yet to marry. Ramakrishnan, who got angry, shouted at his friends and also verbally abused them.

Sivakumar and Karthic attacked Ramakrishnan cruelly for abusing them; meanwhile Karthic stabbed Ramakrishnan with the knife, which he had with him.

They packed the body in gunny bag and hid it in the space between rocks in the gorge near Anali estate inside the reserve forest, Palanisamy 45, uncle of Karthic, was also arrested in the case for helping them to hide the body, said the official.
New Delhi: With Jats deciding to launch quota agitation again, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said his government will not allow peace to be disturbed as he met BJP chief Amit Shah here to deliberate on the sensitive issue.



Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan, a Jat leader from western UP roped in by the party to hold talks with community leaders, insisted that the state government was doing everything possible to restore the Jat quota, which has been stayed by Punjab and Haryana High Court, and will fight the case strongly.



Khattar was joined by party general secretary and the state in-charge Anil Jain besides Balyan during the meeting with Shah.



"Talks are on. We will not allow peace to be disturbed," Khattar told reporters after the meeting.



At least 30 people were killed and property worth hundreds of crores of rupees was destroyed during the violent quota agitation by Jats in February this year.



Buckling under pressure, the state government passed a law in the state assembly to provide reservation for Jats and five other communities under a newly carved Backward Classes (C) category but the High Court stayed it, acting on a public interest litigation. Jat groups have carried out fresh round of protests.



Jain said the state government is fully-prepared to meet any eventuality and tried to play down the issue, saying it should not be hyped.



Balyan said the government has been ready to give quota but the court's order has stopped it.



"We are making every attempt. We will hire the best lawyers to ensure that reservation is restored," he said.
The Basilica is a home for relics of St Francis Xavier, whose body is kept for exposition once in ten years. (Representational image)

Panaji: A 75-year-old man from Chennai was arrested for allegedly stealing Rs 50,000 cash from a donation box at a church in Old Goa Heritage Monument complex near here, police said on Thursday.

John Louids was apprehended on Wednesday by the Old Goa Police after 'Basilica of Bom Jesus Church' authorities found him stealing the cash from a donation box, a police official said.

The Basilica is a home for relics of St Francis Xavier, whose body is kept for exposition once in ten years. Fr Savio Barretto, the parish priest at the church, lodged a complaint on Wednesday.

As per the complaint, the accused was caught on CCTV while stealing the cash and after that the church authorities informed the police. A case under relevant sections of IPC has been registered in this regard and investigations are underway, the officer added.
Hyderabad: A BTech students suicide turned out to be a murder committed by her husband and her own mother, who were in an illicity sexual relationship, says the police team probing the case at Nalgonda. The victim, G. Jhansi Rani, who died on May 24, had written a letter to the CI of Nakrekal before her death revealing details of the assault by her mother and husband.

In the letter sent via India Post, which was received by the police after her death, Jhansi Rani revealed that her Husband G. Vijayender Reddy, 31, and her mother G. Padma, 43, were in a sexual relationship, and that Padma had forced her into the marriage. It also revealed that Vijayender is a nephew of Padma and their relationship was many years old. On May 24, Jhansi Rani died in her house at Nakrekal. After that Padma and Vijender buried the body in a hurry without informing the police. They told neighbours that Jhansi had committed suicide. However, the Nalgonda police, who received leads about the case, has decided to exhume the body.

Police suspects that Padma and Vijayender gave Jhansi pesticide forcibly and killed her. We have got information that on May 24 afternoon Vijayender bought pesticides from a shop in Nakrekal. Before that the victim was assaulted by Padma and Vijayender, said CI Venkateswarlu. Police received information about the death on May 28 when they received a letter written by Jhansi via post. Police found the girl was already dead and that it was not informed to the police.

Police said Jhansi, who was a student at an engineering college in Hyderabad, went back to Nalgonda on May 23. On that night, Vijayender and Padma assaulted her. There was also marital rape, said the inspector. Police said Padma had taken Rs 20 lakh from Vijayender and was unable to pay it back. Padma, whose husband had died four years back, then forced her daughter to marry him. Later, in order to recover the money, they forced her into prostitution.

The police has started a hunt for the absconding Padma and Vijayender.
Lucknow: One cop turned into a groom and the rest became baraatis in order to arrest a bride who had poisoned her husband on the third day of the wedding.

A software engineer Nirmal had married a girl Tara and was found poisoned on the third day in Agra while his wife, along with jewellery and cash, went missing.

The police got the photo of the accused woman and her mother from a family album and began the probe. The police laid a trap to nab Tara and looked for a bride. The police succeeded in getting information from a mediator who told them that the original name of the accused woman is Rubina and not Tara and she lives in Kashipur in Uttarakhand.

The cops sent their informer to the girls house telling them that he had found a husband. During interrogation, she revealed that she had duped several men by marrying them.
Balasore: Bolstered by BJP's success in Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday made a strong pitch for his party in Odisha and asked people to vote for change, asserting that his government would work for the common man and does not discriminate against anyone.

"Our government strives for the welfare of poor across the country, we don't want any state or any region in the country to be devoid of development and change," Prime Minister Modi said while addressing BJP's 'Vikas Parv' rally in Balasore.

Read: Modi govt goes all out showcasing achievements at 2-year bash

Addressing the partys Vikash Utsav rally here at AIIMS Groun, Modi, without making direct reference to the ruling BJD headed by Naveen Patnaik, - said the government in Bhubaneswar was sleeping in deep slumber and needed to be replaced by the BJP can bring growth and development.

BJP and Vikash (development) are synonymous. Look at the BJP-ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, Maharashtra. These states have made rapid strides in development on all sectors. Compare these states with non-BJP ruled states, including Odisha and West Bengal. People in Odisha still languish in poverty and suffer from lack of infrastructure such as roads, bridges and railway network. Electricity is still a distant dream in many villages of Odisha. Dont you want development here? Lets bring BJP to power here, he said.

Taking an indirect dig at Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaiks populist sops that are often attributed to his partys repeated successes in successive Assembly and Lok Sabha polls, - the Prime Minister said, If you roll out sops and make false promises, you can win elections, but we can never bring sustainable development in the state. People will continue to suffer from poverty and deprivation.

Claiming that the BJP always believed in accountability, the Prime Minister said he came to Balasore to tell the people what his government had achieved in the last two years.

He listed out successes of many programmes and schemes such as Make in India, Startup India, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana rolled out by his government.

I have come here to give you a detailed account of our pre-poll promises and what we have achieved in the last years. Did the previous government (UPA) ever give account of its commitments and achievements in those respects? Does the present Odisha government do this exercise? he questioned.

This was the third visit of Mr Modi to Odisha in the last six months. On February 7, he had addressed a farmers rally in Bargarh in western Odisha. He again visited the state on February 27 to Paradip in coastal Odisha to dedicate the Paradip Oil Refinery project of Oil India Corporation to the nation.

The Balasore rally was attended by at least two lakh people from five North Odisha districts such as Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Mayurbhanj.

Keonjhar, Balasore and Mayurbhanj parliamentary constituencies which were represented by the BJP from 1998 till 2009, are now under the BJD control. The BJP is trying to regain its hold in these three crucial Lok Sabha constituencies.
Hyderabad: The central government has rejected the request of the state government to give a copy of the NITI Aayog report on central assistance to Andhra Pradesh. It was on the directions of PM Modi that NITI Aayog prepared the report a while ago. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had met the Prime Minister a few months ago and submitted a memorandum seeking a special financial package for the state government, and implementation of the assurances given by the Centre to the state in the AP Reorganisation Act. The PM, thereon, asked the NITI Aayog to prepare the report. While the report was submitted to the government, the state government is in the dark about its recommendations.

AP finance department officials sought a copy of the NITI Aayog report to know what its contents were, but the Centre rejected the request. AP state government development commissioner and ex-officio principal secretary in the Chief Ministers Office (CMO), P.V. Ram-esh, revealed this to the media. Meanwhile, the state is hopeful the Centre would release the necessary funds under outstanding arrears of revenue gap for the year 2014-15.

Out of the Rs 16,078 crore revenue gap, the Centre has released about Rs 2,803 crore. The state has requested the Centre to release Rs 4,000 crore to pay the PRC arrears for the state government employees. After April 1, 2014, the state government has spent Rs 2,245 crore but the Centre has released only Rs 845 crore. The balance of Rs 1,400 crore is yet to be released. Mr Ramesh had, a couple of days ago, held talks with Union finance department officials in Delhi on financial issues. Ramesh has expressed the hope that the Centre would release some funds to the state at the earliest.
The 9-km extension envisages connecting Washermenpet with Wimconagar, which would be a mix of underground and elevated lines.

Chennai: Decks were cleared on Wednesday for the extension of Chennai Metro from Washermenpet to Wimconagar in north Chennai with the Union Cabinet approving the proposal at a cost of Rs 3,770 crore.

The 9-km extension envisages connecting Washermenpet with Wimconagar, which would be a mix of underground and elevated lines. The Union urban development ministry, which holds 50 per cent stake in Chennai Metro Rail Corporation, had given its go ahead for the project in December last year and placed the proposal before the Union Cabinet.

The project will be completed by March 2018. The new extension will be part of the Washermenpet-Airport line. This extension will provide improved access to public transport for dense population comprising predominantly industrial workers to move towards the central business district of the city for work, an official release said.

In the total project cost, Government of India's share will be Rs 713 crore and Government of Tamil Nadus share will be Rs 916 crore. The share of TN govt included cost of land and R&R of Rs 203 crore. The balance amount of Rs 2,141 crore will be met from loan from multilateral/bilateral/domestic funding agency, it said.

The estimated ridership will be 1.6 lakh passengers per day in first year of operation. The Metro Line, once operational, will bring in a paradigm shift in the way people travel from North Chennai to other parts of the city. The Metro's Koyambedu-Alandur section was inaugurated in June, 2015 and other stations on the line are expected to be operational in phases beginning next year.
The Maharashtra branch of the BJP has reportedly conveyed to the party in Delhi that there is no clear evidence to link Khadse to Dawood Ibrahim. (Photo: ANI)

New Delhi: BJP President Amit Shah has asked Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis to explore the charges against state minister Eknath Khadse, who is accused of having been in touch with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.

According to a report, Shah asked Fadnavis to give a detailed response on the issue.

Read: Eknath Khadse's links with Dawood: Bombay HC to hear petition on June 6(

The Maharashtra branch of the BJP has reportedly conveyed to the party in Delhi that there is no clear evidence to link Khadse to Dawood Ibrahim. Khadse had met the Maharashtra CM on Wednesday. However, he skipped a cabinet meeting and has stopped using his official car.

The Bombay High Court will on June 6 hear the petition filed by Manish Bhangale, a Vadodara hacker, against Revenue Minister Khadse in the matter.

Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress on Wednesday stepped up demand for dismissal of controversial Maharashtra Minister Eknath Khadse over alleged corruption and wondered why Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not taking action against him.

Party spokesperson Sushmita Dev said that Khadse, who has got embroiled in several controversies, should resign on his own, failing which he needs to be dismissed.

Read: Hacker wants CBI probe into Khadse-Dawood phone calls

Hacker Bhangale has alleged that the call records from Dawood's Karachi residence show that he was in frequent touch with a specific mobile number registered in Khadse's name. In his petition, Bhangale alleges that the Mumbai Police has strong electronic evidence against Khadse, adding that despite that no proper action has been taken against him yet. AAP leader from Maharashtra Preeti Sharma Menon has also demanded strict action against Khadse.

The minister, however, has denied the accusations, claiming the number in question has not been active for a long time.
A special court on Thursday convicted 24 of the 66 accused, 11 of them for murder, but dropped conspiracy charges against all. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: Congress on Thursday welcomed the conviction of 24 of the 66 accused by a Gujarat court, including a VHP leader, in the 2002 post-Godhra Gulberg society massacre which left 69 people dead, saying justice has been delivered to the victims.

Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said it was a long-pending case, which has finally seen the light of the day.

Read: 2002 Gulberg case: Ahmedabad court convicts 24, acquits 36

"We haven't read the verdict completely. I do hope final justice is done to the victims.

"Accusations have been made and cross accusations have been made. Finally we believe that justice has been done," he said.

Read: Not satisfied with Gulberg verdict, fight to continue: Zakia Jafri

Fourteen years after the gruesome massacre of 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in the Gulberg Society in Ahemdabad, a special court today convicted 24 of the 66 accused, 11 of them for murder, but dropped conspiracy charges against all.
HSPA member Ashish Naredi stated this protest was planned to ensure government takes note of scores of parents concerns. (Representational Image)

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad School Parents Association (HSPA) is leaving no stone unturned to make the June 11 mahadharna at Indira Park a big success.

They launched an online and offline campaign to mobilise support for the protest. Videos of short duration have been created in which the association highlighted how school managements were looting parents every year.

The video explains how from a big business like none other, schools have become a big loot like none other at present. It also laments about lack of rights for parents as well as students along the lines of consumer rights since schools have now become shops doing big business.

HSPA has decided to release more videos until the protest date of June 11. Also a Facebook page Stop school fee loot was created and parents were asked to confirm their participation for the dharna.

Besides these, the parents body has been texting messages to those who lent support to their earlier missed call drive. HSPA member Ashish Naredi stated this protest was planned to ensure government takes note of scores of parents concerns.

This fight is going on for last four months. We are waiting for concrete steps from government to regulate school managements from charging exorbitant fees. With schools set to re-open from June third week, we demand the education department to resolve the issue, he said
New Delhi: India and the US on Thursday signed a key pact for exchange of intelligence on terror on a real time basis that include biographic information of known and suspected terrorists.

An arrangement between the authorised Indian governmental agencies and the government of the United States of America for exchange of terrorist screening information was signed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma.

As per this pact, India and the US will provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations, an official spokesperson said.

The agreement would enhance counter terrorism cooperation between India and the US.

With signing of the key pact, India has formally entered into the US Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6 (HSPD-6), which will enable it to access 'unclassified biographic information of known and suspected terrorists' maintained by the US on a reciprocal basis.

The HSPD-6 is a model text agreement for exchange of terrorist screening information between Terrorist Screening Centre (TSC) of the US and an Indian agency.

There have been several rounds of discussions between the interlocutors of the two countries in the past one year and both sides have narrowed down their differences on several key issues with the aim of signing the pact.

The US has already finalised such agreements with 30 countries.

TSC is a multi agency organisation administered by FBI which consolidates several terrorist watch lists maintained by different US government agencies into single terrorist database on terror suspects.

The database includes the name of the terror suspect, nationality, date of birth, photos, finger prints (if any) and passport number.

Officials said, initially some Indian security agencies had expressed their reservations saying the arrangement primarily protects US interests.

However, later, the security agencies came to the conclusion that there was no disadvantage in entering into the proposed pact with TSC. The Intelligence Bureau will be the nodal agency and designated as the Indian party to the agreement.

It was agreed that while signing the pact, it must be ensured that privacy issues are taken care of, officials said.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been summoned to the national capital by party chief Amit Shah to discuss the matter. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Trouble mounted for Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse, presently embroiled on charges of dealing with 'black money' in the purchase of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said that a decision would soon be taken regarding his fate in the party.

Read: Dawood call logs: Shah asks Fadnavis to probe charges against Khadse

"The way the matter has been brought to light in the media, some facts can be highlighted. With new facts out, Eknath Khadse is under a cloud of suspicion and the party is sure to take a decision soon," former Mumbai police commissioner and now BJP leader Satyapal Singh told ANI.

Read: Amidst land controversy, Eknath Khadse meets Devendra Fadnavis

However, he asserted that Khadse, a prominent leader, should introspect his deeds soon.

According to reports, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been summoned to the national capital by party chief Amit Shah to discuss the matter.

A delegation of Congress leaders yesterday met Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao and demanded Khadse's resignation over the land deal and his alleged involvement in calls made to gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan .

However, Khadse had earlier denied changing reservation of the MIDC plot at Bhosari, as acquisition process was in progress.
New Delhi: Noted lawyer Indira Jaising's NGO 'Lawyers' Collective' was today barred from receiving funds from abroad as its licence was suspended for six months for alleged violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

The Home Ministry, while suspending the licence, asked the NGO to submit its reply within 30 days for violation of various provisions of FCRA after which its registration may even be cancelled.

The 'Lawyers' Collective' has allegedly received foreign contribution between 2006-07 and 2013-14 and the Home Ministry found alleged discrepancy in the filing of annual returns of the NGO where Jaising, who had served as the Additional Solicitor General in UPA government, was functioning as Secretary.
[My friend Peter Sheridan is a Los Angeles-based correspondent for British national newspapers. He has covered revolutions, civil wars, riots, wildfires, and Hollywood celebrity misdeeds for longer than he cares to remember. As part of his job, he must read all the weekly tabloids. For the past couple of years, he's been posting terrific weekly tabloid recaps on Facebook and has graciously given us permission to run them on Boing Boing. Enjoy!  Mark]

Prince Charles is now a serial killer. Having murdered Princess Diana, he recently ordered the assassination of his "secret daughter" who claimed to be next in line for the British throne. That's the claim in this week's Globe magazine, which having had fun for the past two years reporting on "Sarah"  allegedly conceived in vitro by Charles and Diana during a pre-marital fertility test, and implanted by a devious doctor into his wife's womb  has now killed her off.

As if that wasn't enough, the Globe declares that "Charles ordered her death." Presumably because the Tooth Fairy was busy and the Easter Bunny doesn't do contract hits on innocent women.

There has never been a shred of evidence that the Globe's mystery Sarah ever existed, let alone died. She appears to have been inspired by a 2011 novel The Disappearance of Olivia, which imagined a fictionalized child of Princess Diana's growing up in Florida.

Now  surprise, surprise  Sarah has disappeared while traveling on the Greek isle of Crete, and "a special tracking device she always kept hidden in her clothing" has stopped signaling.

Let's ignore for one moment that there are currently no reports of missing tourists on Crete, and the fact that the Globe wasn't imaginative to dream up a tracking device embedded under Sarah's skin rather than in clothing that is easily shed. Why, when Prince Charles' imaginary "secret daughter" fictionally disappears is she first assumed dead, and secondly presumed murdered on her father's orders? The Globe has the answer: "She knew the truth about Princess' death in Paris car wreck." Right. If she ever existed as claimed, Sarah would have been 15 years old and living a life utterly unrelated to the British monarchy when Princess Diana died in 1997. How could she know the truth about anything happening within the Royal Family, let alone events one night in a tunnel in Paris? Perhaps she reads the tabloids  that's clearly the best way to keep up with the truth about those dastardly Royals.

The fate of Prince Charles' secret daughter has as much of the ring of truth about it as many of the offerings in this week's tabloids.

Bill Cosby was "caught fleeing country!" screams the grammatically-challenged National Enquirer cover, detailing his "plot to escape justice." But as the 78-year-old disgraced entertainer prepares to face his first criminal trial for sexual assault, the Enquirer claims he has "stashed millions overseas and has plotted his escape from America." The evidence for this? Zero. It's just what "top law enforcement experts fear." That should stand up in court.

Charlie Sheen "moved to Mexico to satisfy his sick vices!" claims the Enquirer, which claims the actor has purchased a three-home waterfront estate for $1 million in Rosarito. Let's get real: For Sheen a $15 million mansion would be moving to Mexico. A $1m estate? Just a vacation retreat.

On the political front, Hillary Clinton is "freaked out . . . on booze and food binges as Feds expose her lies!" yells the Globe, which actually ran the same story last week with the throw-away line that Hillary is "hooked on pills" amid a larger rant about her physical and mental health. This week Hillary's alleged predilection for prescription pills is front and center in yet another unsubstantiated attack by the Trump-loving tabloids that alleges: "People are very, very worried about her!" I'd be worried about her too, under all that assault by the tabloids.

Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani "elope in Vegas!" says the Globe  except they haven't. Demi Moore is "painfully thin" and "heading for a deadly collapse," while Britain's Princess Kate is being "eaten alive by stress," claims the Enquirer, for whom being thin is always a life-threatening medical crisis, except when it's a life-long aspiration.

Fortunately we have the crack investigative team from Us magazine to tell us that Kate Hudson wore it best, Paula Abdul believes in UFOs, Roselyn Sanchez carries keys, Chapstick and mascara in her handbag, and the stars are just like us: they drink iced coffee, have facials and walk their dogs  revelations that will doubtless touch many readers and change their lives forever.

The "toxic marriage" and "nasty divorce" of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard dominates the covers of People magazine and Us mag respectively. Both promise the "inside story," but fail to deliver. People mag claims that Depp is possessive, while Heard is freedom-loving, evidently a synonym for screwing around, though she insists she was always faithful. Us mag merely reports the he-said/she-said clash: Heard's allegations of physical and emotional abuse by Depp, and his army of friends insisting that's not the gentle peace-loving Caribbean Pirate they all know and love.

None of this will matter soon if the National Examiner is right in reporting: "Darth Vader's Death Star Ready To Attack Earth!" Evidently Saturn's moon Iapetus bears an uncanny resemblance to Star Wars' Death Star, complete with a giant crater that looks like the deep-space battle-station's planet-destroying weapon. Photos of Iapetus were taken by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2004, so presumably the Examiner's scientific team has spent the past 12 years analyzing the images before reaching this devastating conclusion. While conceding that Darth Vader and Imperial Stormtroopers "may not" be living within Iapetus, the mag's crack reporting team found someone on a UFO web site willing to speculate that "Iapetus is a constructed object, it's artificial." And that must mean it has weapons pointed at Earth, because aliens (who say they believe in Paul Abdul, too.)

Onwards and downwards . . .
Smoke emanating from the building where the fire broke out. (Photo: DC/Shripad Naik)

Mumbai: A massive fire broke out in a building near Regal Cinema in South Mumbais Colaba area on Thursday after noon. Huge plumes of smoke were seen rising from the building.

Eight fire tenders were rushed to the spot to battle the blaze and rescue operations are currently underway at the spot. Four more fire tenders from the Naval Dockyard joined fire brigade to help douse the flames.

Firemen trying to douse the flames. (Photo: Twitter)

The building was soon identified as Metro house building that is home to popular fast-food joint McDonald's.

"We have rescued two people from the fire," said DCP Manoj Sharma, Mumbai Police. There are no reports of casualties yet.

Firemen busy trying to bring the fire under control at the roof of the building. (Photo: DC/Sripad Naik)

"The whole building is on fire. We don't know what exactly happened. I wasn't inside. I came back from market and saw this. I have my goods inside," said a resident of the building.

Colaba is a bustling and packed area situated at the southern-most tip of the city and Regal cinema is very popular with both locals and tourists.
The petitioner from Mahbubnagar district told the court that the district medical officers passed an order terminating their services without notifying them.

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has sought the response of the governments of TS and AP for dispensing with the services of NGOs operating Urban Health Centres located in the two states.

Society for National Integration through Rural Development of Prakasam district, Society for National Integration of Nellore district in AP and Urban Mahila Development Society in Wanaparthy of Mahbubnagar in TS moved the High Court separately, challenging the proceedings issued by the authorities in UHCs operating their services.

The petitioners from AP informed the court that the AP government issued a GO in April 2016 for dispensing with the services of NGOs operating 194 Urban Health Centres in the state. They said that based on the GO, collectors of Prakasam and Nellore districts issued notices to relieving them from running of the UHCs.

The petitioners told the court that the Centre has approved upgradation of all existing 193 UHCs as Urban Primary Health Centres in 2014-15 and 2015-16 under the National Urban Health Mission. As part of the upgradation, each UPHC is provided with additional human resources including medical officer, staff nurse, lab-technician, pharmacist, ministerial assistance and supporting staff to work in UPHCs and five ANMs provided for one UPHC for providing community services.

The petitioner from Mahbubnagar district told the court that the district medical officers passed an order terminating their services without notifying them. The petitioners alleged that the governments of both the states were now trying to hand over the services to private players in the guise of upgrading the services.

The court, while staying the notices issued by the collectors of Nellore and Prakasam districts; and also the order passed by the Mahbubnagar district medical officer, directed the two governments to spell out their stands through counter affidavits within four weeks.

Bench refers plea on public hearing back to single judge

A division bench comprising Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar and Justice T. Sunil Chowdary of the Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday referred a petition back to the single judge asking him to hear afresh the question whether a public sector employee can participate in public hearings of TS Electricity Regulatory Commission and raise his voice against the decisions of the authorities.

The bench was dealing with an appeal by K. Raghu, a superintendent engineer in the Transmission Corporation of TS in Warangal, questioning the decision of a single judge in declining to order the authorities to permit him participate in the forthcoming public hearing of TSERC.

The TSERC had on February 9, 2016, issued an advisory to Transco and Discoms asking them not to allow their employees to participate in its public hearings without prior approval from the higher authorities.

Pursuant to the advice from the TSREC, Transco issued a circular on February 17 asking its employees not to participate in such meets without prior approval.

When Mr Raghu questioned the advisory before the High Court, a single judge declined to pass an interim direction. He then preferred the appeal before the bench. The bench referred the matter to the single judge for fresh hearing stating that there was need to give reasoned orders in matters involving public interest.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Afghanistan on June 4, where he will, along with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, inaugurate the Afghan-India Friendship Dam, earlier known as Salma Dam, in Herat province of Western Afghanistan.

About 1,500 Indian and Afghan engineers and other professionals worked relentlessly in very difficult conditions to complete the dam.

It also highlights India's continued commitment to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development.

On December 25 last, Prime Minister Modi and President Ghani had dedicated the new Parliament building constructed under India-Afghanistan development cooperation to Afghanistan.

The forthcoming meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Ghani will also provide an opportunity to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and how the two countries can cooperate further for promoting peace and stability there.
Hyderabad: On the occasion of the second anniversary of Telanganas formation, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao unfurled the second tallest National Flag at Sanjeevaiah Park on Thursday.

Read: Formation Day: In 2 years, KCR aces it all

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished Telangana on its second statehood day and hoped the state progressed to new heights in the coming years.

"On the Statehood Day of Telangana, my greetings to the people of Telangana. I hope the state progresses to new heights in the years to come," the Prime Minister tweeted.

Read: Narendra Modi wishes Telangana on second statehood day

"I convey my greetings to my sisters & brothers of Andhra Pradesh. My best wishes as the state continues to develop at a rapid pace," he added.

The flag was hoisted on a 291-foot-high pole. Though the Chief Minister wanted a 303-foot-high pole, which would have made it the tallest in the country, its height has been reduced after the Airports Authority of India denied permission for the same.

Read: Telangana Formation Day: Hidden faces of agitation to be celebrated

The government has spent nearly Rs 2 crore on the project. The tallest tri-colour is on a 293-foot-high pole, in Ranchi, Jharkhand. We got approval for 291 ft. Accordingly, all arrangements have been made for the flag hoisting by the CM on Thursday, said Mr Ashok, executive engineer, Roads & Buildings department.

The flag has been made by the Flag Foundation of India in Mumbai while a spare flag is being readied in Khammam district. AAI authorities in Hyderabad had earlier given permission for a 167-foot-high pole.

However, on the request of the Telangana government, they had forwarded the application to the AAI headquarters in Delhi for the 303-foot-high pole. The flag itself is 72-foot high and 108-foot wide, while the Ranchi flag is 66-foot-high and 99-foot-wide.
New Delhi: Victims of sexual harassment in government and private offices will soon be able to get findings of an in-house probe committee, in case it does not recommend charges against the accused, before giving its final verdict.

The Ministry of Personnel said on Thursday decided to form new rules in this regard.

As per the proposed changes in a law, in cases where a complaint committee has not recommended any action against the charged officer in a case of sexual harassment, the disciplinary authority shall supply a copy of the committee report and shall consider her representation before coming to a final conclusion, it said.

These changes are aimed at providing more security to women government employees at work place and avoid any litigation in such cases.

"There may be instances where a complainant can be aggrieved in cases she find co-employee accused of sexually harassing her has not been found guilty. As per existing rules, she would go for appeal to tribunal or court after the final verdict which may delay the justice.

"By these proposed changes, a woman complainant will come to know in advance in case a complaint committee looking into such charges does not recommend action against the accused.

The complainant will be able to appeal in such matter when the matter is being examined and it will be considered by disciplinary authority before arriving on its final decision," a senior official in the Ministry said.

Existing rules allow appeal by complainants in tribunal or court against the final order only.

Sexual harassment includes physical contact and advances, demand or request for sexual favours, sexually coloured remarks, showing any pornography and any other unwelcome physical, verbal, non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature.

Besides, implied or explicit promise of preferential or detrimental treatment in employment; implied or explicit threat about her present or future employment status; interference with her work, creating an intimidating, offensive or hostile work environment for her; and humiliating treatment likely to affect her health or safety may also amount to sexual harassment.

The Personnel Ministry has sought comments from all ministries and departments on the proposed changes by amending the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013. They have been asked to give their reply by June 21.
NEW DELHI: Three IIT students were detained by the Italian police in North Italys Ventimiglia town on Monday during checking for illegal immigrants. They were, however, released hours later following intervention by the Indian mission in Rome.

The ministry of external affairs identified one of the students as Akshit Goyal while news agencies stated that the other two were Deepak Bhatt and Uday Kusupati, the latter hailing from Kurnool.

While Akshit and Deepak are from IIT Delhi, Uday is from IIT Bombay. They were in Italy as tourists, carrying valid passports with Schengen visas. Uday thanked everyone for support on his FB post. He said he was back at INRIA (French research institute) where he is doing his internship. External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup said Italian authorities have admitted it was a mistake on their part.

After they were detained, the three IITians were flown along with other detainees to Bari, a town almost a 1000 km away in south of Italy. Swarup said the Indian Mission in Rome, after coming to know of the incident from a relative of Akshit, swung into action and contacted Italy officials.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday took a dig at AP, saying that it was trying to obstruct irrigation projects in TS, while neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka were cooperating with it to resolve long-pending water disputes.

In his 40-minute speech at the Parade Grounds on the occasion of second anniversary of the formation of Telangana State, Mr Rao lashed out at AP on various issues.

He said Telangana people had been treated like second-class citizens by rulers in undivided AP who looted the regions water, jobs and funds for decades.

After formation of Telangana, we are now marching towards Bangaru Telangana. Giant strides have been taken in various sectors in just two years and TS is poised to become the No.1 state in the country, Mr Rao said.

He said the government could successfully overcome the power crisis within five months of coming to power and in a similar way it will achieve uninterrupted drinking water supply in three years and irrigation of one crore acres in the coming five years.

The CM listed out the achievements of the Telangana government in power, welfare, housing, irrigation, drinking water, education, medical and health, infrastructure, industrial and IT sectors in two years.

He said, Around 250 residential schools and colleges in English Medium for BCs, Minorities, SCs and STs are being opened this year as part of the KG-to-PG free education scheme. This will reduce dropout rate among poorer sections.

Mr Rao said the government will soon set up four multispecialty hospitals in Hyderabad and three in districts in government sector to make quality medical facilities accessible to all, who cannot afford costly corporate hospitals.
New Delhi/Mumbai: The BJP high command has come under tremendous pressure to sack the controversial Maharashtra revenue minister, Eknath Khadse.

On Thursday, Maharashtra chief minister, Mr Devendra Fadnavis arrived in the national capital and met the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi and party president, Mr Amit Shah over the issue.

That the party high command was planning action against Mr Khadse was clear after the BJP top bosses in New Delhi rebuffed his relentless attempts to meet them.

Surrounded by a string of controversies ranging from telephonic conversations with underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim to buying an MIDC land at a throwaway price to his aide getting arrested for demanding Rs 30 crore bribe over a land deal and his son-in-law illegally possessing a limousine, the minister has reportedly been knocking on the doors of the party high command over the past few weeks.

On Thursday, Shiv Sena also joined the Opposition Congress in demanding Mr Khadses resignation. In fact for a change the BJP state unit also toed the Sena and Opposition line by mounting pressure on the party high command to sack Mr Khadse. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that the minister should resign owing allegations.

It has been the late Sena supreme Balasaheb Thackeray that a minister should resign from the post until he is proved innocent. I request the CM to come up openly on the allegations made against Khadse, Mr Raut said.
According to police reports, the incident took place on Thursday morning when the truck coming from Agra overturned. (Representational Image)

Lucknow: Villagers in Firozabad district torched a truck and damaged police vehicles after 11 cows were killed and 12 injured in an accident that took place when the truck carrying them overturned.

According to police reports, the incident took place on Thursday morning when the truck coming from Agra overturned. The station in charge of the Uttar police station, Shashikant Sharma said that the infuriated mob then set the truck ablaze and damaged two police four-wheelers. The driver and other occupants of the truck managed to flee from the spot. It is suspected that the carriers may have been cattle smugglers.

Meanwhile, One police official was killed and five others seriously injured in a clash with 3,000 squatters in the Jawahar Bagh in Mathura on Thursday.

Clashes began when the police went to get the Jawahar Bagh evacuated. Members of a semi religious organisation had been staging a satyagrah for the past two years and had refused to vacate the park despite court orders.
They are agitated over cancellation of admissions made in April. (Representational image)

Lucknow: A flash strike by junior doctors in the King Georges Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow, has so far claimed the lives of 21 patients in the past three days.

The patients have died either due to lack of medical care or because they were turned away from the KGMU which is the biggest medical facility in the state capital.

KGMU vice chancellor Prof Ravikant said that efforts were being made to resolve the crisis and normalcy was expected to return to KGMU in the next few hours.

The junior doctors went on strike on Tuesday in protest against revision of the criteria for admission to post-graduate courses. They are agitated over cancellation of admissions made in April.
A Middle East investor is now Uber's single largest source of cash. On Wednesday, the global ride-sharing startup said it had raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the main investment fund of the kingdom.

The "grand gesture" from the Middle East "represents the largest-ever U.S. funding round for a venture-backed company," wrote the Wall Street Journal.

The company said it plans to work with the government to create more opportunities for women in the country. Around 80% of Uber passengers in Saudi Arabia are women, Uber said.

This latest massive cash infusion is part of Uber's most recent financing round, in which the company is valued at $62.5 billion. None of Uber's existing investors are cashed out with today's funding round.

"We appreciate the vote of confidence in our business as we continue to expand our global presence," Uber founder Travis Kalanick said in a statement emailed to reporters today. "Our experience in Saudi Arabia is a great example of how Uber can benefit riders, drivers and cities and we look forward to partnering to support their economic and social reforms."

From Mike Isaac's New York Times piece:
Hyderabad: The TS Secretariat is likely to be shifted to a premises in the neighbourhood to pave the way for reconstruction of the existing buildings to meet vaastu requirements. Official sources said that as per Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Raos directions, a new Secretariat complex would be built on the existing premises at a cost of Rs 200 crore.

The CM had gone on record that the existing Secretariat lacked good vaastu and planning. As such he plans to shift it to some other place. However, the plans have been changed and now, Mr Rao is in favour of building a new complex by demolishing the existing structures in a phased manner, starting from this Dasara.

The CMO and the offices of the CMs aides will be the first to be moved to the Chief Ministers under-construction camp office at Begumpet.

As far as the other offices are concerned, they will be moved to the Burgula Ramakrishna Rao Bhavan near the Tank Bund which is near the existing Secretariat from where they will function till the new complex is built. Officials said that the BRK Bhavan has about 2 lakh sq. ft. space available.

However, no decision has been taken with regard to demolition and reconstruction of a temple and masjid that exist in the Secretariat complex.

Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma who is heading a high-power committee on building new Secretariat complex will begin a series of meetings to finalise various plans for shifting the existing offices as well as demolition of the structures.
Octopus commandos keep an eye on the Nava Nirmana Deeksha at the Benz Circle in Vijayawada on Thursday. (Photo: DC)

Vijayawada: The state governments Navanirmana Deeksha again organised in the citys busiest Benz Circle totally disrupted traffic movement on Thursday.

Though the state government faced criticism by conducting the meeting at the same venue last year, but again it followed the same practice without considering the inconvenience to the public.

The traffic was not allowed from 4 am to 1 pm on Thursday for the meeting. Heavy vehicles on Chennai-Howrah route faced major hardships along with local traffic diversion in the city. Actually, several grounds are available in the city to organise the meeting as an alternative venue.

Moreover, a meagre crowd only took part in the programme. The state government selected the venue by taking into consideration the previous agitations against the state bifurcation held in the same centre. The government wanted to recall the agitations against the state bifurcation.

But whatever the reasons, thousands of heavy vehicles on the National Highway stretch were diverted forcibly. Similarly, several city buses, especially those passing Benz Circle, were also diverted to other roads.

Passengers were confused by not being aware of the new routes and they totally depended upon auto services. One RTC conductor said that they could not follow bus timings schedule due to traffic diversions and traffic jams in various centres.

A Rammohna Rao, a passenger, said that the government should not organise or allow any meetings further on roads. He said that the meetings would create hurdles and finally it leads to mpublic wrath. Then what is the use of conducting meetings on streets, he added.

Meanwhile, CPI state secretary K. Ramakrishna said that there was no use of holdikng the meeting at Benz Circle except for traffic jams on the city roads. He said that the people in the city faced inconvenience due to traffic jams. He said that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and other leaders should fight for protecting state interests on various platforms.

APCC spokesperson Kolanukonda Sivaji said that the government violated norms by conducting meeting on the NH. National Highway by stopping vehicles. He said that though the government is not allowing the opposition parties to conduct meetings or protests anywhere in the city, it should fight with PM Narendra Modi for special status instead of Deekshas.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao sent out a message to his AP counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu stating that there was no point in quarrelling over sharing of river waters.

The Chief Minister said, There is no need to quarrel on the water issue. I hope wisdom will prevail and the issue will be settled in an amicable manner. The CWC has records of 47 years of water flow. We have 2,654 tmc ft in Godavari and 1,204 tmc ft in Krishna. We have 4,200 tmc ft, which is enough to irrigate four crore acres. Let AP utilise water for three crore acres and leave water for one crore acres for us.

He also claimed that he had checked political corruption, and promises to weed out corruption at lower levels through multiple actions including online transactions for permissions and others.

Visualising a vibrant, economically and industrially strong TS, Mr Rao reeled out various government developmental programmes and welfare schemes for the uplift of the poor. I need to openly speak to you. There are no better friends and relatives than you all. The Governor advised me to seek suggestions from intellectuals. Telanganas growth rate is more than the national average. We have set the goal and laid a road map. You will see multiple, manifold growth. Let us all rededicate ourselves to uplift the poor and strive for development, he said.
New Delhi: With recent reports on Rahul Gandhis probable elevation as Congress party president, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah took to social media platform Twitter to put forth his opinion on the same. He said that Congress should stop planting Rahuls imminent elevation stories and finally render the Gandhi scion the responsibility of helming party affairs as its president.

Been reading them for years now. Just do it and let him get on, he added.

Isn't the Congress fed up of planting "Rahul's imminent elevation" stories"? Been reading them for years now. Just do it & let him get on.  Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) June 2, 2016

This isnt the first time when a politician is throwing weight behind Rahuls elevation.

On Wednesday, Congress leader Capt. Amrinder Singh said that junior Gandhi should be promoted and given the responsibility of the party president. Sonia is a brilliant leader. I have said she has been working (as Congress chief) for the past 20 years. If she feels time has come to give it to a new generation, then she should pass it on and we will fully support Rahul, he said.
Bhopal: First chief minister of Chhattisgarh and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Ajit Jogi on Thursday dropped enough hints to snap his decades old ties with the party and float a regional outfit.

I have been left with no options but to quit Congress and explore formation of a new party that alone will ensure Raman Singh-Mukt Chhattisgarh in the next Assembly elections, Mr Jogi, who was apparently upset over denial of Rajya Sabha ticket by the party, told reporters in his Raipur residence.

He also claimed that 15 out of 38 Congress MLAs in the state have been in touch with him. Speculation had been rife for last six months on his leaving party after his MLA son Amit was expelled from Congress.
The BJPs success in four Assembly polls after the 2014 Lok Sabha verdict, in Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir, signalled that the Narendra Modi wave was continuing, but the massive defeats in the Delhi and Bihar elections put a big questionmark on whether that wave lingered, or if the BJPs popularity was on the decline. The partys triumph in Assam, and the outcome of the Assembly polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were seen as an endorsement of the Centres work.

No one can deny that the successes in these states are a clear indication that the BJP is more popular than other parties, but it may not be entirely correct to jump to the conclusion that the BJPs victories are an endorsement of the Centres policies. While there is no visible sign of peoples unhappiness in the past two years of BJP rule and no indication of any decline in Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity, the BJPs success in these states are due to various reasons. In some states, it emerged victorious due to the division of the anti-BJP vote, in others it won due to a strong anti-incumbency factor.

Local issues and local leaderships also contributed to the victory in some states. If we compare the BJPs popular vote in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly polls in 10 big states  Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, J&K, Delhi, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu  the BJPs popular vote declined in eight out of 10 states by two to 20 per cent. Only in two states  Assam and Kerala  did the vote share increase. The vote for the BJP in Assam can hardly be seen as an endorsement of the Centres policies, it was a vote against 15 years of Congress rule.

Also, not only were the elections mainly fought over state and local issues, the BJP contested them under the local leadership, such as by projecting Sarbananda Sonowal as its CM candidate in Assam well in advance. A survey by the Centre for Study of Developing Societies indicates that a huge majority (60 per cent) was satisfied with the Central governments work, but it is not clear what bearing this had on the minds of voters while casting their ballots.

In Delhi and Bihar, where the BJP was badly defeated, a large majority (Delhi 66 per cent; Bihar 72 per cent) also expressed satisfaction with the Central governments work, but this didnt help the BJP electorally. In Kerala, a slightly lesser number (55 per cent) was satisfied with the Centres work, but the BJPs voteshare rose from 12 to 16 per cent. People clearly expressed their desire for the third alternative, but this was not any endorsement for the Centres functioning.

The story is not very different in other states where the BJP won either alone or in alliance. In Haryana, where it managed to form the government on its own, 66 per cent felt satisfied with the Centres work. But the partys vote share actually declined from 44 per cent (per seat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls) to 33 per cent in the Assembly polls the same year. In Jharkhand, where a massive 81 per cent felt satisfied with the Centres performance, the BJPs voteshare fell from 40 per cent in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to 35 per cent in the Assembly elections later that year.

In Maharashtra, where the BJPs voteshare remained the same (27 per cent in Lok Sabha; 28 per cent in Assembly) in the two elections, 60 per cent felt satisfied with the work of the Central government. There are some differences in the level of peoples satisfaction with the Centres work in different states, but overall it is a decent endorsement of work done by any government, an indication of the high level of satisfaction with the governments performance.

There is hardly any sign of disenchantment with the work of the Centre in these 10 states, and it may be safe to assume that popular opinion on this issue may not be very different in several other states. There are clear indications that Mr Modi remains popular among large sections of Indian voters, and far more popular compared to many other leaders. But still, there may be some issues that may worry the BJP about its two years of governance.

The two big defeats in Delhi and Bihar in 2015 must be seen as some sort of failure of the wining duo  Mr Modi and BJP president Amit Shah  as the poll campaign in these two states were clearly led by these leaders. On the other hand, the Assam success cannot be seen as a victory for Mr Modi and Mr Shah. Clearly the architect of this Assam victory is Mr Sonowal.

There is hardly any doubt that the BJPs popularity increased in the past few years, but its victory in many states is due to its alliance or due to a split in the anti-BJP vote. Had the Opposition parties managed to forge an alliance in Jharkhand, Maharashtra or Jammu and Kashmir, the BJPs victory may not have been easy. On the other hand, had the RJD and JD(U) not formed an alliance in Bihar, that prevented votes being split between the two, the BJP may well have won the elections even in Bihar.

Elections are all about popularity, but votes come from trust. The fact that peoples trust has somewhat declined on Achche din aane wale hai should be a matter of grave concern for the BJP. In eight states (except Haryana and Jharkhand), more people believed Mr Modi has failed to bring achche din, than those who still believe it will come. Even in Assam, where people voted for the BJP in such large numbers, 52 per cent felt Mr Modi has failed to bring achche din. But different people interpret achche din differently, and it may not be easy for the Centre to usher in the good days.
Jawaharlal Nehru, who tried to build a bridge between democracy and communism and mediated in many world crises at the height of the Cold War between the two rival blocs led by the United States and the then Soviet Union, stood demoralised after the 1962 Chinese aggression on India. He never recovered from that shock, and eventually died on May 27, 1964 as a broken-hearted man.

He was conditioned to think in terms of peace, and assumed his peace-loving country wouldnt be a victim of aggression for there are not many instances in history where one country, that is India, has gone out of her way to be friendly and cooperative with the Chinese government and people, and to plead their cause in the councils of the world, as Nehru said in his broadcast to the nation on October 22, 1962. There is no parallel in history of such a trusted and reliable friend being stabbed in the back.

Nehru was not ignorant about the Chinese designs and the contradictions in his China policy. His nonalignment policy was meant to extend the area of peace and defuse war-like situations. Panchsheel  the five principles of peaceful coexistence  that was signed on April 29, 1954 between India and China, was a corollary of the nonalignment policy he pursued. Panchsheel was adapted by the Afro-Asian bloc at the 1955 Bandung Conference and by the United Nations as a code of international conduct among nations. Incidentally, it was Prime Minister Nehru who introduced Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai to the world at Bandung.

His policy of befriending China was deliberate, as he felt there was no alternative to it. In his July 1, 1954 letter to chief ministers, Nehru wrote: The uncommon factor is that China had adopted very largely the communist way and India the parliamentary democratic way... Another and major uncommonness in the two... was Indias stress on peaceful progress and China having followed a harsher and more violent course. He realised this soon after the Communist revolution in China on October 1, 1949, with India one of the first countries to recognise the new regime headed by Mao Zedong.

In another letter to chief ministers on December 22, 1962, he wrote: China has repudiated the doctrine of peaceful coexistence... It believes in the inevitability of war and, therefore, does not want tensions in the world to lessen. It dislikes nonalignment... It is not afraid even of a nuclear war... because it could afford to lose a few hundred million people and yet survive as the most populated country. China did not like India and the Soviet Union befriending each other. It was on the invitation of Nikita Khrushchev that Nehru had launched the greatest peace mission of his life to rescue the UN in 1960, after the Congo crisis, when the Soviet Union threatened to withdraw from the world body and demanded the shifting of its headquarters from New York.

In spite of being no match for the major powers in military and economic power, China could not accept the growing stature of India internationally under Nehru. Nehru represented Indias best traditions  a true Buddhist and Gandhian at that  of exercising moral authority. With the Non-Aligned Conference in Belgrade in September 1961, nonalignment had become the worlds largest peace movement. Addressing the conference, Nehru spoke of the objectives of the movement: At the present juncture one has to see how to lessen international tensions, how at least to remove some of the obstructions to peace, how at least to prevent war coming.

His prestige and position internationally reached new heights. India came to be regarded with respect in the community of nations. Non-alignment was showing results in defusing international crises  like the Korean war, the Indochina conflict, the Suez crisis and Congo  and bringing rapprochement between the two warring blocs. What prompted China to attack India in 1962? V.K. Krishna Menon, in an interview with Nehrus biographer Michael Brecher, said the main aim of the Chinese attack was to discredit Nehru.

The success of Indias parliamentary democracy and its nonalignment policy was a serious challenge to Chinas hegemony. As Bertrand Russell said in his Unarmed Victory, Nehru was more willing to negotiate the dispute than Maos China. He accepted the Colombo proposals to end the India-China conflict, but China did not accept them.

According to Gamal Abdel Nassers biographer, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, the Chinese attack was rooted in something bigger than a border dispute: The Chinese had thought that non-alignment was just a passing phase... but when they discovered it was growing in strength and that the Soviet Union, with whom they were quarrelling, was strongly supporting the nonaligned countries, felt nonalignment had become a force to reckon with... the Chinese attacked India in the hope that Nehrus socialist and nonaligned polices would be discredited, the right wing would take over and political feelings in India would (get) polarised between Right and Left.

The New York Times of October 22, 1962 echoed that the Chinese attack was meant to discredit Nehru as he wanted to establish an Indian sphere of influence in Asia that would far surpass that of the colonialist system formally set up by the British Empire. Nehrus position was too envious for the Chinese to bear it. However, if anything, the Chinese aggression had vindicated Nehrus policy of nonalignment. When he appealed for military aid to some 80 heads of state, after the aggression, all expressed sympathy and support, including Pakistan, Israel, France, Britain, United States and the USSR, with Pope XXVIII openly expressing his sympathy and support for India.

The fact that both the Western and Communist blocs were willing to give military aid was an indication of the strength of Nehrus India. This had in fact isolated China all the more from the community of nations. The strong expression of indignation by several countries, cutting across political systems, against the Chinese aggression forced China to retreat unilaterally from Indian territory much before the arrival of arms supplies in India from foreign nations.
If no direct tickets are available then ConfirmTkt Alternates looks for vacant seats by exploring un-used quota.

ConfirmTkt.com, a train PNR director has launched ConfirmTkt Alternates app, aimed to help waitlisted train passengers to get confirmed tickets by unlocking all the hidden and other available travel options.

If no direct tickets are available then ConfirmTkt Alternates looks for vacant seats by exploring un-used quota of seats on the same train from other stations. When all quotas of seats are occupied on a train then it looks for vacant seats on other trains on the route and suggests alternate options of booking tickets on two different trains, or a combination of train and bus to reach the destination.

Additionally, the app also takes into consideration the delay in the train arrivals and departures while suggesting these alternates.

For example if one want to travel from Bengaluru to Kolkata. If no direct tickets are available, then ConfirmTkt Alternates finds vacant seats from other stations on the same route. If no vacant seats are available, then it looks for other trains on the same route and suggests booking a train from Bengaluru to Vishakapatnam and change train at Vishakapatnam to reach Kolkata or suggests a bus instead to reach Kolkata.

ConfirmTkt Alternates provides four option for a long distance traveler: Train + Train- which will show train combination with layover time, Train + Bus- which will show train and bus combination, Bus- which will show direct bus option to desired destination and Bus + Bus- which will get user to certain point from the traveler would have to change the bus to reach the destination.

ConfirmTkt Alternates app will be available on Android as well as Apple iOS.

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CHENNAI: India has overtaken the United States in terms of Internet usage and now stands next only to China after witnessing a phenomenal 40 per cent year-on-year growth. On the other hand, global Internet user base is shrinking.

With 277 million Internet users in 2015, India is the only big country to have registered an increase in the number of Internet users, the Mary Meekers 2016 Internet Trends report released on Wednesday night says.

From 33 per cent in 2014 to 40 per cent in 2015, the country has witnessed nearly 40 per cent year-on-year increase in those taking to the medium, the report by Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, an investment firm, said.

The report says the global Internet user base grew only 9 per cent in 2015, reaching 3 billion or 42 per cent of the worlds population and goes on to add that if India is excluded from this list, the growth would come down to 7 per cent year-on-year.

The report also suggests India has huge potential to continue its phenomenal growth when it comes to internet usage as only a little over 22 per cent of the Indian market is penetrated by the new medium. Experts say this offers scope for huge growth, particularly in the mobile sector.

The excitement about the Indian Net explosion is due to the booming market in smartphones, which are no more the prerogative of the rich. With prices as low as Rs 5,000-6,000, even middle and lower-middle urban employees or students and a rural artisan is able to possess one. For farmers and other urban artisans, the smartphones also help find better farm markets and jobs on the Net. All this makes India a fast growing Net terrain on the globe, Kiruba Shankar, CEO, Business Blogging, told this newspaper.

It is a wonderful thing that India has taken over the US in Internet usage and the report says there is huge scope for growth in smartphone market as well. Not just the urban population, even the rural masses are taking to the Internet. The number of people using Internet and smartphones is zooming and that is a good sign, he said.

The report said the smartphone market is witnessing a slump as it registered at least 10 per cent reduction in growth with 21 percent year-on-year as opposed to 31 percent year-on-year in 2014. Asia Pacific, which includes countries like India, accounted for 52 per cent of total smartphone market, which also saw a drop.

The growth that India has witnessed is not driven just by an existing low penetration, but also due to availability of low-cost smartphones as one could buy a smartphone for just $158, which is among the lowest in the world.

Yet another bright spot on the Net is the booming revenue it has been generating, as global giants like Google and Facebook gobble up almost 76 per cent of online advertisement in the US.

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WhatsApp enabled End-to-end security on the messaging platform, but a telecom flaw can allow hackers to intercept calls, SMS and get into your accounts with least efforts.

WhatsApp recently enabled End-to-End security with 256-bit encryption. This is a very strong encryption and a single word can take hours and days to decrypt; imagine trying to decode a sentence or a complete message. The same is with another highly encrypted messaging platform Telegram. But though the messaging platforms are highly secure, they can still be bypassed by a hacker to intercept your messages. No, the flaw is not in the messaging app or its services, but its in your telecom operators technology.

Signalling System 7, or SS7, is the main culprit and it is the technology used by telecom operators, on which the highly secure messaging system and telephone calls rely. SS7 is a set of telephony signalling protocols developed in 1975, which is used to set up and tear down most of the world's public switched telephone network (PSTN) telephone calls. It also performs number translation, local number portability, prepaid billing, Short Message Service (SMS), and other mass market services.

Several SS7 vulnerabilities that allow cell phone users to be secretly tracked were publicized in 2008. In 2014, the media reported a protocol vulnerability of SS7 by which both government agencies and non-state actors can track the movements of cell phone users from virtually anywhere in the world with a success rate of approximately 70%. In addition, eavesdropping is possible by using the protocol to forward calls and also facilitate decryption by requesting that each callers carrier release a temporary encryption key to unlock the communication after it has been recorded. Researchers created a tool (SnoopSnitch) which can warn when certain SS7 attacks occur against a phone and detect IMSI-catchers.

Currently, SS7 is used by all the worlds cellular carriers. But there is no fix or governing body for them. And this is the simplest way that a hacker can gain control of your secure messaging platforms to eavesdrop on your conversations. Check out the demo by a hacker who shows off the telecoms SS7 flaw to intercept WhatsApp and Telegram and take over the victims conversations.

-with inputs from Wikipedia.

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Artist and researcher Terence Broad is working on his master's at Goldsmith's computing department; his dissertation involved training neural networks to "autoencode" movies they've been fed.

"Autoencoding" is a process that reduces complex information to a small subset that the neural net believes to be most significant; in Broad's dissertation, he reduced each frame of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner to a 200 digit number, then invoked the net to reconstruct the image just using that data.

The result was nothing short of fantastic  the neural net, working naively to identify the significant elements of each frame, without human supervision, was able to capture the most important data so well that its reconstruction of Blade Runner triggered a copyright notice from Warner Brothers when he posted it to Youtube.

Vox's Aja Romano got in touch with Warners to ask them about the copyright takedown, and they rescinded it. But as Romano notes, this kind of autoencoding raises interesting and thorny copyright conundra. It's pretty settled that letting a machine "read" the web in order to index it and draw inferences about meaning and structure from that index isn't a copyright violation.

What happens when machine-learning systems begin to do the same with audiovisual works, in order to do things that are protected under statute (for example, adding realtime scene narration for people with visual impairments), or legitimate areas of scholarly research?

Still, Broad noted to Vox that the way he used Blade Runner in his AI research doesn't exactly constitute a cut-and-dried legal case: "No one has ever made a video like this before, so I guess there is no precedent for this and no legal definition of whether these reconstructed videos are an infringement of copyright." But whether or not his videos continue to rise above copyright claims, Broad's experiments won't just stop with Blade Runner. On Medium, where he detailed the project, he wrote that he "was astonished at how well the model performed as soon as I started training it on Blade Runner," and that he would "certainly be doing more experiments training these models on more films in future to see what they produce." The potential for machines to accurately and easily "read" and recreate video footage opens up exciting possibilities both for artificial intelligence and video creation. Obviously there's still a long way to go before Broad's neural network generates earth-shattering video technology, but we can safely say already  we've seen things you people wouldn't believe.

Autoencoding Blade Runner

[Terence Broad/Medium]

Autoencoding Video Frames, dissertation for the degree of Msci Creative Computing [Terence Broad/Academia.edu]

A guy trained a machine to "watch" Blade Runner. Then things got seriously sci-fi.

[Aja Romano/Vox]
The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the hotel's gates. (Photo: AP)

Mogadishu: Somali security forces on Thursday ended an overnight siege by extremist gunmen at a hotel in the capital which killed least 15 people, including two members of parliament, officials said.

The assault started when a vehicle laden with explosives detonated outside the Ambassador Hotel Wednesday evening and then three militants stormed inside the building, said the African Union Mission in Somalia. The African Union multinational force is bolstering Somalia's weak government against an insurgency by the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.

Read: Somalia: Al-Shabaab extremists kill 15 soldiers in ambush

One militant was killed at the entrance of the hotel while two others entered the building and shot at residents, the AU force said in a statement. All the attackers were killed in the siege that ended early Thursday.

Nine bodies were removed from the hotel after troops killed the last remaining assailants, Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer told The Associated Press.

Six out of 40 people injured in the attack died from their wounds, Ahmed Mohamed, a nurse at Madina hospital in Mogadishu said.

Chairman of the African Union Commission for Somalia, Francisco Madeira, condemned the attack, saying it targeted government ministers, politicians and innocent citizens

The attack came on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which extremists often step up attacks in this volatile East African country.

The hotel assault highlights challenges facing the Somali government and African Union forces that are struggling to secure the seaside capital, which has seen a series of attacks by al-Shabab. An attack on another Mogadishu hotel and public garden in February killed at least nine civilians. A car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in the capital in April, killing at least five.

The insurgents have been ousted from most of Somalia's cities but continue to carry out bombings and suicide attacks.
The federal government told public schools they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity. (Photo:AFP)

Washington DC: US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the decision to direct public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice was based on the law and the best interests of the children.

Speaking at a town hall event broadcast by the PBS television network, Obama, a Democrat, said the federal government waded into the controversial issue after school districts asked the Education Department for guidance. Republicans have blasted the directive as executive branch overreach, and more than a dozen states have sued the Obama administration to block it.

What happened and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools. And they get bullied. And they get ostracized. And its tough for them, Obama said. My best interpretation of what our laws and our obligations are is that we should try to accommodate these kids so that they are not in a vulnerable situation, he said.

On May 13, the federal government told public schools they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

The non-binding guidance contained the implicit threat of cuts in federal funding if it was not followed. It relied on an interpretation of Title IX, which protects people from discrimination based on sex in education initiatives that receive federal financial assistance.

The directive came as the Justice Department and North Carolina battled in federal court over a North Carolina state law approved in March that prohibits people from using public restrooms not corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. Other states are weighing similar measures.

We should deal with this issue the same way we would want it dealt with if it was our child and that is to try to create an environment of some dignity and kindness for these kids, Obama said.  According to Obama there are a lot of things that are more pressing than the transgender bathroom controversy, including Islamic State, the economy and jobs. Somehow people think I made it an issue. I didnt make it an issue, he said.
Washington: The war of words between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Thursday intensified as the Democratic presidential front runner accused the Republican presumptive presidential nominee of "scamming" the American people after he got embroiled in a fresh 'Trump University' controversy.

"He (Trump) is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University. It's important that we recognise what he has done, because that's usually a pretty good indicator of what he will do," Clinton said at an election rally in New Jersey.

"Today, we're learning about another scam, the so-called Trump University. The New York Attorney General is suing Donald Trump for fraud," she alleged.

"And his own employees testified - I want you to hear this - his own employees testified that Trump U - you can't make this up - that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where

Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hardworking people," she said.

"Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud," Clinton said.

In documents released this week from one of the three pending lawsuits against Trump University, former employees have described the now-defunct business as a "fraudulent scheme" and "total lie" that "preyed upon the elderly and uneducated".

In its sales efforts, the varsity relied on high pressure tactics and intimidation to drum up customers, encouraging them to take out new credit cards or drain their retirement accounts to pay for Trump University.

Clinton and Trump are expected to clash in the November general elections. The Democratic presidential primary is scheduled for June 7 and Clinton is pitted against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, unleashing a new round of attack against Clinton, Trump said the 68-year old former Secretary of State has "no natural talent" to be the US president.

"She has no natural talents to be president. This is not a president," the 69-year-old business tycoon told his supporters at an election rally in Sacramento in California.

"A lot of people think I look extremely presidential. This (Clinton) is not presidential material," Trump said.

Referring to the email scandal of the former Secretary of State, Trump said she should not be allowed to run.

"Honestly, she should not be allowed to run. It's a disgrace to the laws of our country.

"I'll tell you what. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing. It's going to be another four years of disaster," he said, adding voters would probably be "better off" with Bernie Sanders as their president.

"But that's not going to happen," he said.

Meanwhile, the Clinton Campaign announced that in May, it raised USD 40 million.

Clinton raised more than USD 27 million in primary funds for Hillary for America (HFA) and over USD 13.5 million for the DNC and state parties across the country through the Hillary Victory Fund (HVF) during May, a media release said.

She has now raised more than USD 240 million in primary funds for the campaign and more than USD 62 million for the DNC and state parties through the HVF.

HFA continued to stockpile resources and enters June in strong financial shape with more than USD 42 million on hand.

The average donation to HFA in May was about USD 44 million.
The gunman who killed a professor in University of California is an Indian named Mainak Sarkar.

Los Angeles: Police on Thursday identified the gunman who killed a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, before taking his own life as Mainak Sarkar, an engineering student at the school.

Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Jane Kim confirmed that the gunman had been identified as Sarkar but declined to provide other details. Sarkar had been a doctoral candidate at the school, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing police.

Read: UCLA students struggled with unlocked doors during shooting

The shooting prompted the sprawling urban campus to close for about two hours on Wednesday as police confirmed that Sarkar and his victim, 39-year-old engineering professor William Klug, were the only people involved in the incident.

The Los Angeles coroners office confirmed that Klug died in the attack.

File photo of people being evacuated by Los Angeles Police officers from the UCLA campus near the scene of a fatal shooting at the University of California. (Photo: AP)

University officials said classes would resume on Thursday and counselors will be available for students, faculty and staff.

Our hearts are heavy this evening as our campus family mourns the sudden and tragic deaths of two people on our campus earlier today, said Chancellor Gene Block in a statement.

Klug was a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, according to the universitys website. The Times reported that Klug was attempting to develop a computer-generated virtual heart.

Police carrying the dead body from the crime scene. (Photo: AP)

You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug, professor Alan Garfinkel told the newspaper of his colleague.

Engineering student Aaron Feigelman said he received a text message alerting him to the emergency on Wednesday and entered an adjacent building, where he and five others took refuge for 90 minutes.

Read: Student kills professor, commits suicide in shooting at UCLA campus

We tied the bathroom door hinges with belts to keep the door closed because there were no locks. And we just waited. It was really scary, Feigelman said.

Some 200 police officers wearing bulletproof vests and helmets responded to several calls of shot fired, converging on the campus with rifles drawn, fearing the shooter might still be at large.

Police recovered a gun and what may be a suicide note at the scene, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said.

UCLA, with more than 43,000 students, is one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system.

I am heartbroken by the sight of SWAT teams running down avenues normally filled with students, and angered by the fear that one person with a firearm can inflict on a community, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
"The invitation and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters. (Photo: PTI)

Washington: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit next week at the invitation of President Barack Obama is about "consolidation" and "celebration" of bilateral ties, India's envoy to the US has said in Washington.

"The invitation and the visit is part of consolidating and celebrating the relationship," Ambassador of India to the US Arun K Singh told a group of Indian reporters on Wednesday ahead of Modi's visit to the White House next week.

Read: Modi, Obama have forged close working relationship: US think-tank

Modi is scheduled to arrive at the Joint Airforce Base, Andrews on June 6 and is expected to spend a little over 50 hours in the American capital. While his schedule is still being given final shape by officials here, he is likely to lay wreath at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery the afternoon of his arrival.

The Prime Minister is likely to stay at Blair House, the personal guest house of the US President on Pennsylvania Avenue across the White House.

Leaders of the two largest democracies of the world are scheduled to meet at the White House on June 7, which would include meetings at the delegation level and one-on-one-meeting, following which the two are likely to address mediapersons.

Thereafter Obama would host lunch for Modi. Later in the evening, Modi would interact with a select group of top American corporate leaders including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and address the annual gala of US India Business Council (USIBC) as part of his relentless effort to attract foreign direct investment in India.

"Another important dimension of his visit would be his address to the joint session of the Congress (on June 8)," the Indian Ambassador said.

Modi is expected to spend some four hours at the Hill attending four back to back meetings. He would be received by House Speaker Paul Ryan who decided to invite Modi for his first joint address to the Congress. Ryan would also host a lunch for him.

Thereafter Modi would attend a rare reception hosted in his honour by the Senate and House foreign relations committees and the India Caucuses in the House and the Senate.

Some 400 people are likely to attend this reception. "It is a reflection of the bipartisan support in the US to the relationship with India. It is also a reflection of the value people attach to this relationship," Singh said.

Describing the visit as consolidation and celebration of relationship, Singh said "consolidating what has been achieved so far and seeing what more can be done as we move into next year" when there would be transition of administration in the US and to celebrate the achievements in the relationship," Singh said.

In a sense the new phase in Indo-US relationship started from 2000 with visit of the then President Bill Clinton to India. This was further consolidated by George Bush and Obama's visit to India twice. Obama has described India-US relationship as the defining partnership of the 21st century, Singh said.

"His articulation of support for our permanent membership to the UN Security Council. US support to India's membership to the multilateral export control regimes. The advances we have made in defence partnership including through the defence trade and technology initiative where among the projects we are now looking at our projects related to aircraft career technology and jet engine technology," Singh said.

"So a lot of progress has been made in the two terms of President Obama. And then to celebrate that, see where we are and then launch it into the new administration. That has been the thrust and effort related to this visit," he said.

The US has repeatedly articulated that India is the net provider of security in that region, Singh said.

"The US sees India as not adversarial but as a very useful partner. So the visit is a reflection of that," he said.

Ahead of the visit, the two countries are likely to sign a series of agreements this week and early next week both in Washington and New Delhi. Some of them related to wildlife trafficking, global entry program.

Intense discussions are currently underway between Westinghouse and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited to arrive at some kind of agreement before or during Modi's trip.

The discussions are mostly believed to be in the domain of cost and financing.

With defence and security being one of the key issues of discussions, Defence Secretary Ashton Carter would call on him. Secretary of State John Kerry would be away in Beijing attending the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

During his visit, Modi is expected to participate in a ceremony for repatriation of 16 historic stolen items to India.
The victim can also be heard pleading for her life in the recovered video clip. She can be heard saying, "I don't want to die." (Photo: Facebook)

Houston, Texas: A teenager has been arrested on the charges of brutally raping and murdering his 15-year-old girlfriend and hiding her body inside a cabinet in an abandoned apartment.

According to a Mirror report, police officials recovered the half-naked body of Karen Parez, 15, stuffed inside a closed cabinet in an apartment in Houston, Texas.

Investigators said that they came across a video clip showing Karen's last moments, supposedly filmed by her boyfriend. In the video, the accused can be heard calling the victim by her name and forcing her to have sex with him.

Police alleged that the accused choked the victim only after she refused to have sex with him, following which he forced himself on her.

The victim can also be heard pleading for her life in the recovered video clip. She can be heard saying, "I don't want to die."

Karen Parez (victim) with her teenage boyfriend (accused). Parez was just 15-year-old when she died. (Photo: Facebook)

Investigators also said that the crime was first reported to the police by the accused's father. Initially when the girl went missing, her family filed a police complaint and asked police to go to her boyfriend's house.

Meanwhile, the boyfriend and his father went out in search of the victim. As they drove around searching for Karen, the accused told his father to drive back home, mentioning that Karen was dead. His father then called up the police to inform them about the murder.

A case has been registered in a juvenile court and the accused is due to appear in the court on Thursday.
The accused identified as Richard Huckle, 30, was allegedly financed by his friends who had also crowdfunded the rape of a three-year-old girl multiple times. (Representational Image)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: A crowdfunded paedophile has been locked up behind the bars and is facing charges of sexual abuse and rape of minor children, as young as six-months old.

According to a report in the Mirror, the accused identified as Richard Huckle, 30, was allegedly financed by his friends who had also crowdfunded the rape of a three-year-old girl multiple times.

During the trial, the court heard that Huckle used to target slums and orphanages in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. He would often disguise himself as an English teacher and would sexually abuse minor children.

Huckle has also been accused of forcing minors to indulge in sexual acts while he filmed the entire act, which he would later share with his audience on the social platform.

The accused would often share the X-rated videos on the 'dark web' which his audience would access through a special internet connection.

While making the sexual content available to other paedophiles, Huckle would often boast about it by writing things such as hitting the jackpot with a three-year-old girl, who he said was loyal as my dog and nobody seems to care.

While sharing one of the child abuse videos online, he captioned it, You can probably tell from her expression that she wasnt best pleased but thats a small price to pay when nobody else is interested in celebrating your birthday.

Huckle, originally a resident of Ashford, Kent, was nabbed by the Australian police while they were investigating a child abuse case after receiving a tip-off from the Britains National Crime Agency.

Huckle is undergoing trial at the Old Bailey court which began on Wednesday. If convicted, he would face sentencing for up to 71 crimes, 22 of which are serious offences that could land him up to maximum time in jail.
A file photo of people walking on the debris at the crash site of the passenger plane in Ukraine. (Photo: AP)

Kuala Lumpur: The families of six cabin crew aboard ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 sued the airline on Thursday for negligence and breach of contract, nearly two years after the plane was downed over eastern Ukraine.

Flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in July 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in a report last year, but did not identify any responsible party or group.

The suit, filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court by 11 relatives of the crew, named as defendants Malaysian Airline System (MAS) and Malaysia Airlines Berhad, which replaced MAS in a restructuring exercise last year.

We are suing them for negligence because they failed to take seriously the warnings of the possible dangers that they may have faced, the families lawyer, Balan Nair, told reporters.

In the lawsuit, which Balan said he believed to be the first filed by families in Malaysia, the relatives allege the airline was in breach of contract for failing to ensure the safety, health and well-being of its crew.

They also allege MAS was negligent in failing to conduct an adequate risk assessment and for charting a flight course through a known conflict zone.

Fighting was raging between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces when the aircraft was downed over the rebel-held territory of Donetsk.

Had they been more careful in choosing what path to take, they could have avoided this, Balan added.

Malaysia Airlines said it would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing litigation, and had yet to be served with the suit.

We would like to reiterate the finding of the report by the Dutch Safety Board, which states that the way in which MAS prepared and operated the flight complied with International Civil Aviation Organization regulations, it told Reuters in an emailed statement.

One of the relatives said his sister, flight attendant Chong Yee Pheng, had worked for the airline for 18 years.

The families of all the victims of MH17 deserve to be treated with humanity, compassion and respect, Chong Seng See said in a statement. I hope MAS will do right by them.

More suits are expected before a two-year deadline for legal action expires on July 17.

Last month, an Australian firm filed a $330-million compensation claim against Russia, and its president, Vladimir Putin, on behalf of 33 families of MH17 passengers and crew.
Sri Lanka's expatriate workers, mainly house maids and unskilled labourers, send back remittances - the island nation's main foreign exchange earner - that help earn around $7 billion a year for the $82.2 billion economy. (Representational Image)

Colombo: Sri Lanka will gradually stop sending house maids abroad, mainly to the Middle East, due to rights abuses, social costs and a local labour shortage, government spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka's expatriate workers, mainly house maids and unskilled labourers, send back remittances - the island nation's main foreign exchange earner - that help earn around $7 billion a year for the $82.2 billion economy.

Senaratne said President Maithripala Sirisena had appointed a committee to study strategies to reduce the numbers gradually and finally stop sending maids abroad. "We want to discourage the house maids category in the foreign employment because the social cost is very high," he said.

Human rights abuses and social costs due to rapes, drug addiction and child abuse in many families of house maids, and labour shortage locally, have prompted the government to take such a decision, he said. The total number of departures for foreign employment declined by 12.4% in 2015 to 263,307, partly due to the slowdown of economic activities in the Middle East.

Sri Lanka is already encouraging sending skilled male workers abroad instead of low-skilled females and house maids. In 2013, around 1,650 Sri Lankan house maids complained of being physically and sexually abused by their employers mainly in the Middle East, the latest data from the Foreign Employment Bureau showed.

In 2013, the Saudis beheaded a young Sri Lankan housemaid for killing an infant left in her care, rejecting repeated appeals by the Indian Ocean island against her death sentence. Colombo recalled its ambassador from Riyadh in protest.

After their Sri Lankan maid complained of too much work in 2010, a Saudi couple tortured her by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead. The maid returned home. In 2015, however, Saudi authorities reduced a Sri Lankan maid's sentence for adultery from death by stoning to a three-year jail term after an appeal.
Wildlife officials sedate a tiger at the "Tiger Temple" in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand. (Photo: AP)

Bangkok: Thai authorities intercepted a monk trying to leave the kingdom's controversial "tiger temple" with skins and fangs on Thursday, officials said, the latest discovery to fuel long-running accusations that the zoo is involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

Dozens of police and park officials have been stationed at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province since Monday after receiving a court order to remove over 100 adult cats from the complex.

For decades the infamous temple has been a popular stop for tourists who pay a steep fee to pet and be photographed with the predators -- which animal rights groups say are heavily sedated.

"Today we found found tigers skins and amulets in a car which was trying to leave a temple," Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy director of Thailand's parks department, said.

The discovery comes after authorities found dozens of dead tiger cubs inside a freezer at the temple Wednesday.

Adisorn said a search of several monks' quarters turned up more body parts, bringing Thursday's haul to two full-body tiger skins, around 10 fangs and dozens of smaller pieces of tiger fur.

Animals rights groups and conservationists have long accused the temple of secretly acting as a tiger farm and making huge profits by selling animals and tiger parts on the black market for use in Chinese medicine.

Repeated efforts to shut down the temple over the years have been delayed and complicated by the fact that secular Thai authorities are often reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy.

The temple has always denied trafficking allegations.

Officials said they have removed 84 tigers so far this week and are transferring the animals to nearby breeding centres.

But police say no charges have been filed against the temple yet, with the case still under investigation.

Previous raids of the temple revealed that dozens of hornbills, jackals and Asian bears were also being kept at the sanctuary without proper permits.
Seanan McGuire is one of science fiction's most passionate voices, no matter whether she's writing under her Mira Grant pseudonym or her own name, you always know that you're going to be reading a story that moves and inflames, illuminating the cause of the underdog and the overlooked with stories that are firmly adventures first and allegories second, the best kind of political fiction, and now, with her new novella Every Heart a Doorway , McGuire shows us that she can weaponize that talent and use it as a skewer to pin the reader, right through the heart.

Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children is a boarding school for children  almost all girls  who've gone through a mysterious doorway and found themselves in some fantasy world: wicked worlds, playful worlds, nonsense worlds, brilliant worlds. These adventures these children lived in their worlds changed them forever, as years passed in the other realms and they grew to be people they'd never imagined being before they passed through the door.

And then, for reasons most of them will never understand, they were sent back to the world they'd come from. Our world. For their parents, they'd been gone for months, or maybe a few years in some extreme cases, and all those parents assume that their children were kidnapped, or ran away, or faced some terrible privation, and that's the reason they're full of obviously impossible tales of these other worlds. That's the reason they're so inconsolably, cripplingly sad to have been exiled from the realm of magic.

Eleanor West tells the parents that this is a rare but not unheard-of mental illness among girls on the verge of womanhood, and offers to treat their children at her rural boarding school, a Hogwarts for faerie's refugees. But Eleanor West is herself one of those girls who went to faerie, a High Nonsense realm whose door is open to her now, though she herself is too infected by our world's logic to survive there any longer. She operates the school as a kindness and a mission, to comfort her fellow refugees and offer them coping skills and the pooled knowledge of all those who've walked to other worlds (including those rare, lucky few who've been able to go back to their adopted homes after their exile in our reality).

Nancy has newly come to the school, from a "High Logic" world, an underworld kingdom where she served the lord of death, first as a statue who held so still that she could live on a few sips of pomegranate juice, then as an important courtier. Her lord has sent her back to reality so she can assure herself that she would freely choose the world of the dead forever, but now that she's here, she can't find the way back.

Nancy's arrival at the school barely dents her sorrow, but gradually, she forges relationships with a few of her fellow students, including her roommate, a refugee from a nonsense kingdom. But that's until her fellow students start to turn up murdered and mutilated, and suspicion turns to her.

The secret to writing great allegories is to write great stories, first. McGuire never loses sight of this, and while Every Heart's trenchant commentary about gender, social expectation, and neurodiversity are never hard to find, they're also almost never center-stage. Instead, McGuire's characters live out a story that is romantic, terrifying, and exciting, and this story illuminates the book's politics, rather than conveying them.





McGuire's working in fertile territory here, plumbing the fundamental strangeness of those Narnaiesque stories where magical realms open for children. Lev Grossman's Magicians did it, and touched some of the same themes of loss and exclusion; Valente's Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland also plumbed some of the same depths  hell, even The Phantom Tollbooth got there.

But though Every Heart is part of a rich tradition stretching back past Alice and Wonderland (and even Persephone), and has something to say about all those stories, it is also its own tale, very much a product of the Seanan McGuire sensibility that has seen her so well-loved and well-read since her entry into the field.

This is a gorgeous story: sometimes mean, sometimes angry, and always exciting.

Every Heart a Doorway [Seanan McGuire/Tor.com]
The measure will prevent both direct and indirect North Korean financial activities within the US banking network. (Photo: AP)

Seoul: South Korea welcomed Thursday the US decision to label North Korea a "global money laundering concern" -- a move that will further isolate Pyongyang from the global financial system.

The measure will prevent both direct and indirect North Korean financial activities within the US banking network, ensuring that any third-party deals involving significant sums of US dollars or other currencies cannot transit the United States.

Read: US moves to lock North Korea out of global financial system

"The government highly appreciates the action which reflects the firm US commitment to strongly pursuing its own separate sanctions" against North Korea, South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Washington led the drive for a UN Security Council resolution that imposed the harshest sanctions to date on North Korea following its fourth nuclear test in January.

As well as unprecedented inspections of all cargo to and from North Korea, the resolution called on UN members to terminate banking relations with Pyongyang.

Last week, the European Union also tightened sanctions on Pyongyang, blocking any trade finance activity and banning certain trade and investment with the country.

The foreign ministry statement said South Korea would "continue to step up sanctions and pressure against the North" to force it towards a path of denuclearisation.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday strongly condemned a recent series of attempted ballistic missile launches by North Korea and urged world governments to ramp up efforts to implement the recent sanctions resolution.
The BBC had come under fire from British Prime Minister David Cameron for using the term "Islamic State" rather than 'Daesh' in reference to the terrorist group. (Photo: PTI/Representational Image)

London: It is time to acknowledge the "uncomfortable" truth that the Islamic State is linked with Islam as the terror group is "not preaching Judaism", the BBC's head of religion and ethics has said.

Professor Aaqil Ahmed, the first Muslim to hold the role at the British news corporation, said in a speech at Huddersfield University it was wrong to suggest that the terrorist group "has nothing to do with Islam".

"I hear so many people say ISIS has nothing to do with Islam -- of course it has. They are not preaching Judaism. It might be wrong but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine," Ahmed said last week.

The academic was?fielding questions about the BBC's approach to Muslim issues at the event curated by Lapido, the centre for religious literacy in journalism.

"They (Islamic State) are Muslims. That is a fact and we have to get our head around some very uncomfortable things. That is where the difficulty comes in for many journalists, because the vast majority of Muslims won't agree with them," he said.

The BBC had come under fire from British Prime Minister David Cameron for using the term "Islamic State" rather than 'Daesh' in reference to the terrorist group.

The Prime Minister in January had said, "I think Muslim families around the country would have held their heads in despair this morning when once again you just called it 'Islamic State'. You didn't even say 'so-called Islamic State'. It's so important."

The BBC has since resorted to the phrase 'so-called Islamic State' when referring to ISIS.
Paris: A French search vessel has picked up signals from one of the black boxes of EgyptAir flight MS804, Egyptian and French investigators said, a potential breakthrough in efforts to uncover why it plummeted into the Mediterranean in May.

Search teams are working against the clock to recover the two flight recorders that will offer vital clues to the fate of the plane that crashed en route from Paris to Cairo on May 19 killing all 66 people on board. Without the black boxes, say investigators and aviation disaster experts, there is not enough information to determine what went wrong or whether the plane was brought down deliberately.

The recorders are designed to emit acoustic signals for 30 days after a crash, giving search teams fewer than three weeks to spot them in waters up to 9,840-feet deep, which is on the edge of their range. The Egyptian investigation committee said on Wednesday that the search was intensifying ahead of the arrival of another vessel, the John Lethbridge, from Mauritius-based company Deep Ocean Search to help retrieve the devices. That ship is expected to arrive within a week, it said.

"Search equipment aboard French naval vessel Laplace ... has detected signals from the seabed of the search area, which likely belong to one of the data boxes," the Egyptian committee said in its statement. France's aviation accident bureau BEA confirmed that the signal had come from one of the recorders.

The Laplace has equipment from ALSEAMAR, a subsidiary of French industrial group Alcen, which can pick up black box pinger signals over long distances up to 5 km and was contracted by the Egyptian investigators last week.

Egyptian investigators have said that the EgyptAir plane did not show any technical problems before taking off and the pilot made no distress call to air traffic control. There has been no claim of responsibility for the crash.

The jet transmitted a series of messages in the minutes before it crashed showing a rise in temperature at the co-pilot's window and smoke on board, but investigators say these shed little light on the cause. There are also conflicting reports of the plane's last moments as it crossed from Greek to Egyptian airspace.

The head of Egypt's air navigation has said the plane disappeared suddenly from the radar while at a cruising altitude of about 37,000 feet. That conflicts with the account given on the day of the crash by the Greek defence minister, who said the plane swerved and dropped to 15,000 feet before disappearing from radar.

The air disaster is the latest in a series for Egypt, complicating its efforts to restore tourism, which has suffered since the 2011 uprising ushered in a period of instability. In March, a man wearing a fake suicide belt hijacked an EgyptAir flight. In late October, a Russian plane carrying holidaymakers from a Red Sea resort crashed in Sinai. Islamic State (ISIS) said it downed the plane with a bomb. Britain and Russia suspended flights to Sharm al-Sheikh pending improvements to security.
In this photograph taken from a Pakistani army helicopter on May 20, 2016, empty houses whose roofs have been removed by the army during an operation are seen in the South Waziristan tribal district on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. (Photo: AFP)

Shakai, Pakistan: House after house flicks by hundreds of feet beneath a military helicopter, many distinguished by one arresting feature: their roofs have been removed by the army to allow an "aerial view" of militants who may take refuge there.

South Waziristan was once a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, where the extremists operated with impunity, but the military says the region in the country's mountainous northwest has been cleared of its last militant stronghold.

Now the district, part of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on the border with Afghanistan, is welcoming thousands of displaced families back to their homes, many of which no longer offer shelter.

Some were damaged by weather, said a military official who flew with media on the army-controlled helicopter trip earlier this month over the towns of Makeen, Ladha and Kanigurm.

But not all. "(The) military has removed the roofs of the houses to have a better aerial view and stop militants taking refuge in these abundant, fort-like mud houses," the official told reporters.

From the helicopter journalists could see scores of homes with no roofs but appearing otherwise intact, their interiors exposed to the elements, though it was unclear how many had been removed by the military and how many had been damaged by the weather and fighting.

The Rah-e-Nijat operation was launched by the military against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its then-leader Baitullah Mehsud in 2009, displacing more than 72,000 families, according to the military.

Seven years later, some 42,000 families have been sent back, head of development Colonel Muhammad Imran told journalists during a briefing earlier this month in Shakai town, with another 30,000 expected by the end of 2016.

Under 'complete control'

Pakistani authorities have rebuilt roads, constructed health facilities and schools and reinforced the water supply in villages in the area.

"We are trying to make all the facilities available for IDPs (internally displaced people) before their return," Imran said.

But the lack of shelter, residents warn, will be a serious issue.

Traditionally roofs in South Waziristan are built of wood and iron sheets to hold off heavy winter snows, but from the helicopter hundreds could be seen with their wooden skeletons bared and interiors exposed.

The government says it is providing up to 400,000 rupees ($4,000) to families for the rebuilding of their homes.

"400,000 rupees is not a sufficient amount even to build one room," said Haji Muhammad, 55, a tribal elder from Makeen.

"My family, especially women, are anxiously waiting to go back but it may not be possible," he said.

When asked if the funds allocated were enough to rebuild a house, development head Imran said: "I can't answer to the question."

A senior military official told AFP some $285 million is needed to tackle reconstruction in FATA, but the government has so far released only $48 million, with $12.5 million of that distributed to displaced families.

Muhammad Aslam, from Kanigurm, said the security situation was "peaceful" and "under complete control of the military".

But only two rooms in his three-story house are still standing, he said -- adding that he and the 20 members of his extended family are "lucky" to have that much.

The 32-year-old said $15,000 in compensation would be enough for the average home.

In neighbouring North Waziristan, resident Malik Muhammad Ghulam said "the majority of the houses" in the region's administrative headquarters Miranshah had been demolished.

"Authorities implement curfew from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am... we cannot even go to the market. (They) tell us not to leave the compound of our house."
At least 10 people, including two lawmakers, were killed in a car bomb and gun attack on a top hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab group, medical and security sources said.





Around 40 others were injured in the assault yesterday on the central Ambassador Hotel, where Somali security forces continued to battle Shabaab fighters into the evening, around five hours after the attack began. The initial blast took place at around 5:40 pm (local time).



"The attack was started with a heavy explosion and members from the Mujahedeen fighters stormed the building," the Shabaab said in a statement.



A security source told AFP that "a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) exploded" after which a firefight erupted inside the hotel complex.



Mohamed Elmi, a witness, said the blast "destroyed the whole area." "I saw the dead bodies of seven people, most of them burned," he added.



Another witness, Ibrahim Sheikh Nur, said he saw "several dead bodies outside the hotel." "The security forces are now inside and the whole area is cordoned off."



Shabaab fighters were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 but the group remains a major threat in both Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, where it carries out frequent attacks.



They jihadists are fighting to overthrow Somalia's internationally-backed government.



Yesterday, an official said the Shabaab commander who led a attack on Kenya's Garissa University in 2015 that left 148 people dead had been killed in a special forces raid in the south of the country.



Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said another senior Shabaab military commander was "presumed killed" following a US air strike on May 27.
The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) has now threatened to go on strike in the city from June 8, giving the Central government another week to respond to their demands for a better pay structure.





The association had earlier announced an indefinite strike from June 1. The decision to defer the strike comes after Union Health Minister J P Nadda met the FORDA doctors and assured them that their demands would be looked into.



We have postponed the strike to June 8. This is in light of the ministers assurances. We will be waiting for the government to respond to the demands till June 7. Otherwise, we will launch into an indefinite strike from June 8, said FORDA president Dr Pankaj Solanki.



According to government doctors, if the new recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay Commission are implemented, their non-practising allowance will be reduced from the existing 25 % to 20 %. Instead, the doctors have demanded that it be increased to 40 %.



The resident doctors have also demanded night shift and extra duty allowances.The other issues raised by the doctors are vacancies at hospitals not being filled by the government through the UPSC exam and inadequate seats for post-graduation.



Backlog of surgeries



The FORDA went on a days token strike on May 26 which created a backlog of surgeries across government hospitals in Delhi.



OPD services were paralysed and surgeries postponed. Hospital officials said surgeries were not scheduled for that day.



The FORDA, with senior faculty members, has now decided to conduct more surgeries to clear the backlog within the next seven days.



The resident doctors have become proactive in taking up more than the scheduled number of surgeries so that the waiting queue can be cleared within the next week. We are aware that surgeries had to be postponed due to the strike, said Dr Solanki.



During the last strike, family members of a 70-year-old woman had alleged that she died after being kept waiting for three hours by doctors at Lok Nayak Hospital.
A Delhi Police constable committed suicide by shooting himself with his service pistol in a police booth in north Delhis Sabzi Mandi area on Wednesday morning, police said.





The deceased didnt leave any suicide note behind him. A case of suicide has been registered, and investigation behind the reason of his death has been ordered, police said.



A resident of Rajasthan, Kailash joined the force in 2010 and was posted as the personal security officer (PSO) for a murder witness, Raju, by the orders of the court. He is survived by his wife and two children.



On Wednesday morning, Kailash reached at Rajus house for his duty and after a cup of tea he told him that he would be back after putting on his uniform.



After leaving Rajus house, Kailash went to a nearby police booth in Roshanara marg, and shot himself dead.



He went inside the booth closed the door, and shot himself with his service pistol, said a police officer.



The incident took place around 10 am in the morning. Kailash had just returned from a leave he took two days back, police said.



When the duty officer of the booth arrived there he found the door of the booth locked from inside. He knocked the door but didnt get any response. He then peered from the window and found blood stains on the floor. After that he broke open the door.



We found that Kailash had shot himself in the forehead with his service pistol, and was lying on a chair motionless. He was shifted to a nearest hospital for post mortem," a senior police officer said.



So far the police are investigating the case and trying to ascertain as to why he committed suicide.



His family has been informed about the incident and police are waiting for their arrival as family related stress or some other personal problem could have been behind the suicide.
In a bid to diffuse tension and create a channel of dialogue between the locals and African nationals in Mehrauli area, police officials of south Delhi police district on Wednesday held a joint meeting between the representatives of the two groups in Chattarpur here.





Around 200 locals from nearby villages where the Africans live and 40-50 African nationals who have been living in these villages for some time attended the interaction session.



Senior police officers shared their numbers with the African nationals to help them get easy and prompt help in case of any trouble.



Africans experience problems while interacting with local police officials and struggle in expressing their issues due to communication gap. By having the numbers of police officers they can now be better heard and understood, said Baljeet Khatri, a local who attended the meeting.



Deputy Commissioner of Police (south range) Ishwar Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Nupur Prasad, Sanjay Bhatia and the Assistant Commissioner of Police and Station House officer of Mehrauli attended the meeting.



DCP Singh told the locals that the way they treat their foreign guests is being seen by the people around the world.



The behaviour of the locals towards their foreign guests helps in building a perception of our country in the eyes of the people living abroad. If you have allowed them to live in your houses here then the responsibility to protect them also rests on you, said DCP Singh to the locals.



Police officers also told the representatives of African nationals that they have to follow the law of the land and also respect the culture and tradition of the country.



They should refrain from doing any such act which could cause problem for the locals here, said DCP Singh to the representatives of the African nationals in the meeting.



The DCP also warned the African nationals that if they break the law of the land then action will be taken against them. He urged representatives of both the groups to refrain from sorting out issues through force or violence and rather report the matter to the police.



The meeting was a part of an effort by the police to create a harmonious relationship between the locals and the African nationals in the wake of the May 26 incident when a group of locals had assaulted half-a dozen Africans in Rajpur Khurd village.
Yesterday, the State Department declassified and released Organization and Management of Foreign Policy: 1977-80, volume 28, a Carter-era document that includes startling statements by CIA General Counsel Anthony Lapham on the role of the WWI-era Espionage Act in prosecuting leaks of classified material to the press.

The Espionage Act dates back to 1917  it was used to imprison Eugene Debs, a socialist candidate for the presidency of the United States. Though it was rarely invoked for most of a century, the Obama administration revived it to attack whistleblowers who provided official documents to the press. All told, the Obama administration invoked the leak provisions of the act seven times  more than all the administrations of the USA, combined. Among those prosecuted under the act are Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Thomas Drake.

That's why the memo is so surprising: General Lapham says, very clearly, that the Espionage Act shouldn't be used in cases of leaks of classified information to the press, because it won't work, and because the act wasn't "intended to have application in such situations."

A 1977 memorandum from CIA General Counsel Anthony Lapham stated that when it comes to prosecuting leaks of classified information to the press, "It is extremely doubtful that the provisions [of the Espionage Act] were intended to have application in such situations, and as a matter of historical fact, leaving aside the unsuccessful Ellsberg prosecution and possibly one or two other cases, they never have been so applied." Moreover, added Lapham, "Under current Justice Department procedures, unauthorized disclosures of national security information, in other than espionage situations, are almost never even investigated, let alone prosecuted." "It seems to us that the universe of classified information is quite simply too large, and encompasses such a great variety of material of so many different degrees of importance to the national security, as to make impractical the idea of extending criminal sanctions to the unauthorized disclosure of all such information," he wrote (document 34, pp. 156, 159).

FOREIGN

RELATIONS

OF THE

UNITED

STATES

19771980

Intelligence Reform in the Jimmy Carter Era

[Steven Aftergood/Federation of American Scientists]



(Image: Yours for the Presidency, Eugene V. Debs., public domain)
The New Delhi Municipal Council will soon have its first state-of-the-art AYUSH centre in Sarojini Nagar area.





The centre will provide medicines and treatment in the branches of Ayurvedic, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy and Naturopathy.



Currently, the council does not have an integrated centre offering treatment in all the branches of Indian medicines. The decision to open the AYUSH centre was announced by MP Meenakshi Lekhi while inaugurating a Unani medicine dispensary at Mandir Marg on Wednesday.



The setting up of a national-level AYUSH centre in the NDMC area is with the aim of providing Indian medicines to residents of council area, said an official. The centre will be set up under the National AYUSH mission.



The sole purpose of health care delivery unit is the betterment of the patient and it does not matter if he gets it from one system of medicine or other. There are many diseases which respond better to alternative system of medicine like Ayurvedic, Naturopathy, Homeopathy and Unani, said council chairperson Naresh Kumar.



On some occasions, it is only the faith of the patient, which is actually working on his ailment. Keeping this in view, the NDMC has set up the Unani dispensary and such dispensaries would be extended in other locations of the New Delhi area, he added.



Besides catering to residents of Valimiki Sadan, Gandhi Sadan, residential Complexes Gole Market, local residents of the Walled City will also be able to avail the medical facilities at the dispensary.



In another initiative, the NDMC will have all Indian medicines available at its existing polyclinics.
Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung-controlled Anti-Corruption Branch has launched a probe into alleged lapses in the AAP governments proposal for introducing an app-based premium bus service.





The process for registration of bus operators for the scheme was initially supposed to begin from June 1.



Now, uncertainty hangs over its launch with the LG seeking more details and suggesting to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to take a relook at the proposal.



The investigation, initiated on the complaint given on Tuesday by BJPs Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta, revolves around allegations of the proposal being notified without the LGs nod and favouring a particular Gurgaon-based aggregator.



Anti-Corruption Branch chief M K Meena said: We have got a complaint. We are looking into the matter.



The new development is likely to once again pit the Raj Niwas against the Aam Aadmi Party government, which has repeatedly blamed the Centre for creating hurdles in its working by controlling the ACB.



A functionary at Kejriwals office said the elected government was not wrong in issuing the notification without sending the file to Jung.



This is yet another attempt to interfere in the working of the elected government and delay the people-oriented bus scheme, he said.



Gupta told reporters that the ACB has initiated a criminal probe into the scam of framing, approving and notifying the app-based premium bus service scheme.



The scheme was framed and notified by the AAP government to provide huge financial benefit to the Gurgaon-based aggregator platform, he claimed.



He alleged that the aggregator was already illegally operating contract carriage buses in Delhi".



The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said the use of LGs name, without sanction, in the notification amounted to breach of trust and an act of deceit that called for a criminal probe.



How did the AAP government, under the signature of Secretary-cum-Commissioner (Transport), misuse the LGs name in this manner? he said.



Gupta said the AAP government showed undue haste in issuing the notification and to do so it used a specific provision of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 that can be invoked only to deal with extraordinary circumstances.



The proposal sets no limit on number of buses, no limit on number of routes and no limit on number of trips on these buses, he said.



The Delhi government notified the app-based premium bus scheme last week. The scheme was aimed at encouraging private vehicle users to take to public transport buses.



The scheme proposed an app-based facility for commuters to book their seats in advance and proposed penalties on bus staff for carrying passengers without an advance ticket.
In a major goof-up, a university in Morocco welcoming Vice President Hamid Ansari for a talk showed a map of undivided India, with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan as part of its territory.





A display put up at Mohammed V University here for Ansari's scheduled lecture yesterday showed the error, which was noticed by a member of the Indian delegation accompanying Ansari before his arrival following which the map was immediately removed.



Ansari later visited the University to give a lecture on 'Accommodating Diversity in a Globalising World: The Indian Experience'.



The wrong map was displayed on the screen for a very short duration and was corrected immediately. The goof-up was attributed to an error by the students who were managing the display system.



Ansari's trip here is the first high-level visit to the African country after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee went there in 1999. He will now head to Tunisia for a two-day visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Habib Essid.
A 47-year-old Sikh gas station owner was shot dead in the US city of Newark and the victim's family is suspecting a hate crime.





Davinder Singh was shot at the gas station yesterday, a report in NBC New York said. Singh, of Iselin, was found unresponsive at the gas station and taken to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, police said.



Singh's son, Jatinder Singh, said that he thought his father, who had moved to the US from India 25 years ago may have been targeted because he was Sikh and wore a turban.



There was no struggle, no confrontation, Jatinder said. "I don't know what else it could be other than a hate crime," he said.



Jatinder said that his father was "the best man I ever knew" and that the family had worried about him working in Newark.



He said the his father had been robbed before but had always fought back. But on Monday afternoon, he didn't even have a chance.



"My dad came out to get some fresh air and the male came up to my dad, pointed a gun and shot him point-blank," he said in the report.



Detectives from the Essex County Prosecutor's Major Crimes Task Force are investigating the shooting.



They didn't comment as to whether the case is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the report.
Attacking Congress' "gareebi hatao" slogan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said though intention of those who gave the slogan may have been good, the path they chose for delivering the promise was wrong.



Addressing a rally in this coastal Odisha town on completion of two years of his government, he called for a 'balanced' development in the country and wondered why the eastern belt had remained backward despite being generously bestowed with natural resources.



Pitching for development of Odisha, eastern Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam, Modi said his government was committed to the welfare of the poor people who would be at the centre of all schemes.



Questioning former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's 'gareebi hatai' slogan, he said, "We have for the last 60 years heard the slogan of 'gareebi hatao'. I do not doubt the intention of those who gave this slogan. The intention may have been good but the path they chose to eradicate poverty was certainly wrong because poverty, umemployment and disease grew."



He said governments are not for the rich, but the poor and they should work towards fighting poverty. Till the time scientific solutions to the problems are found, poverty will not be eradicated, he said.



"I had said that my government is dedicated to the welfare of poor people in the country. When I said this, my purpose was that no state or area should be left behind in development. There should be a balanced development and everyone should benefit from it...



"Governments are not for the rich but for the poor and should work for them. The poor should be at the centre of all governments schemes," he said.



During his almost hour-long speech, Modi welcomed public scrutiny of governments and said it was his responsibility to give an account of the work being done and every penny spent, unlike the governments in the past that never came forward with any such account.



On the issues of poverty and backwardness in the eastern belt, he said, "What is the reason that the eastern belt has not seen development? Why should the people from these areas migrate to western states for jobs? These states have been blessed with natural resources. You have the sea and the coal reserve and God has bestowed the resources on you generously. But then why are you still poor?"



The Prime Minister said, "The government seeks to develop the eastern part of the country. All our schemes are targeted towards the poor and we are giving priority to the development of these states."



Modi said all BJP-ruled states were developing faster than other states.

"Being a BJP worker, my only mantra is development. We see development in all BJP-ruled states. But where BJP is not there you can see what is happening, like in Odisha.

"BJP's objective is development. BJP is the other name for development. If we have to eradicate poverty, unemployment and bring about a change in life, we need development. It is the solution to all the problems," he said.



Attacking Congress governments, Modi said, "Previous governments thought they were good to the country. But we have seen the results. We believe in Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas."



He said the poor need the government's help in healthcare, education and other needs and schemes initiated by the Centre are aimed at empowering the poor so that they can work with the government as partners to fight and remove poverty.



Modi also took a dig at his opponents, saying the 'shahs' sitting in air-conditioned rooms in Delhi worry so much about the country 24 hours a day least realising how the people have turned up in such large numbers in this 'missile city' (Balasore) to hear him despite the hot weather.



He said they have come only out because of love and affection for him even when there is no election, agitation or demand and this gave him strength to serve them better.



Presenting an account of the works done by his government, the Prime Minister said, "I am happy that before the people of Odisha, the country's 'pradhan sevak' is presenting an account of the works done. Did governments in the past come here to give an account. In the past 70 years has any government given such an account. When election comes, they would come up sops.



"We want to bring such a culture where governments and leaders are accountable and governments give an account of every minute and every pie. That is why I am in your midst to give an account. I am not giving it sitting in Delhi. This is not a celebration, but a responsibility."



Modi said the blessing of the people will help give him renewed vigour to work even harder and serve the people better to ensure that their dreams are fulfilled.



He listed various schemes initiated by his government in the past two years for welfare of every section in the society.



"When it comes to gender equality, though we are living in 21st century many people have a mindset that prevailed in the 18th century. It must change," he said as he referred to 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' scheme. He also lauded girls for their achievement in various examinations.



Modi also asked the people of Odisha to bring about a political change.

"You can look at the condition of states where BJP is yet to get a foothold," he said, apparently taking a dig at the Naveen Patnaik government.


Working of government machinery in Karnataka virtually came to a grinding halt today as more than five lakh employees, ignoring warnings of disciplinary action, struck work demanding pay parity with Central staff.



Most of the government offices, including the Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat and its annexe Vikasa Soudha wore a deserted look as most of the employees abstained from attending duty.



Only a few employees, most of them on contract work, trickled in for duty. Functioning of government colleges and schools was also affected as most of the faculty and staff did not turn up, officials said.



At some institutions, those who had come for work returned home. Similar reports of employees not attending to work at government offices have come from across the state.



State Government Employees Association President Manjegowda said government did not call them for discussion despite giving notice.



He said "We had given notice to Chief Secretary, but neither he nor any one from the government bothered to call us for any kind of discussion." "If government does not look into our demands, the agitation will be intensified in the days to come," he added.



The state government yesterday in a circular had warned its employees of strict action if they took part in the one-day strike.



Quoting various rules, the circular had said that employees striking work can be imprisoned for a period extending up to six months or face a fine of Rs 500 or both.



It also listed out the actions that the government can take under various rules against employees who go on leave to participate in the strike.



Responding to the circular Manjegowda said, "government has power to threaten employees that it will dismiss or arrest them, but no employee will fear it."


Joining the chorus for Maharashtra Revenue minister Eknath Khadse's ouster over allegations of wrongdoings, Shiv Sena today reminded ally BJP of its promise of a corruption-free rule and demanded Chief Minster Devendra Fadnavis to clarify his stand on the issue.





The BJP, however, retorted saying the Sena should stop interfering in its internal affairs and that the party leadership was capable of taking a call on the issue.



"Eknath Khadse is a senior leader of the BJP and at a time when allegations are being leveled against him, he is the only one answering everybody. The Chief Minister is not speaking on the issue at all," Sena MP Sanjay Raut told reporters here.



"The CM should immediately speak on the issue. The BJP, before coming to power, had promised of corruption-free governance and today serious allegations are being leveled against its leader. There seems to be inconsistency in the promises made by the BJP," he said.



Raut said if Khadse has not done anything wrong, the CM should come forward and say so.



"The BJP should maintain moral standards. We will take a stand on the issue once the CM speaks on the demand for Khadse's resignation," he said.



BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, however, said that party president Raosaheb Danve has already backed Khadse over the issue.



"The Sena should stop advising the BJP and stop interfering in our internal matters. We have already taken a clear stand on Khadse and the BJP leadership is capable enough to take the necessary decision over the issue," he said.



Khadse has found himself embroiled in a series of controversies over allegations of impropriety in purchase of a Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation land in Pune and alleged calls from fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim's residence to his mobile.



It is also alleged that when he was a minister in Shiv Sena-BJP government in late 1990s, he had conceived the Tapi Irrigation Development Corporation and got awarded contracts to his relatives and supporters.



Also, a plot purchased by Khadse's wife in April 2012 was not mentioned in Khadse's election affidavit in 2014, and the user (the stipulated purpose for which the land is to be used) was changed arbitrarily from educational purpose to residential.



Meanwhile, former Maharashtra Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan demanded that Khadse be immediately sacked and a case registered against him.



Former AAP leader Anjali Damania has launched a hunger strike demanding an inquiry into the allegations of corruption against Khadse and has sought his ouster from the state cabinet.
British liquor giant Diageo Plc today filed an interlocutory application before the Debt Recovery Tribunal seeking vacating of DRT's March seven order barring liquor baron Vijay Mallya from withdrawing USD 75 million exit buyout by it under a sweetheart deal till the disposal of SBI's case against him over loan default.



Other two defendants, United Breweries (Holdings) Limited and Kingfisher Airlines Limited also filed interlocutory applications.



UBHL has filed the application for producing evidence and Kingfisher for submitting objections to all the facts pertaining to the case.



After filing of interlocutory applications by Diagio, UBHL and Kingfisher, DRT Presiding Officer Benakanahalli posted the matter for next hearing tomorrow.



The Presiding officer also said since the Supreme Court had ordered DRT to complete the hearing in two months, the hearing of the case will be taken up on a daily basis.



"The Supreme Court, in its order, had directed the Tribunal to complete the hearing in two months time and hence the Tribunal will conduct the hearing on daily basis," Benakanahalli said.



DRT had barred Mallya from withdrawing USD 75 million exit payment from Diageo till the disposal of the case over the loan default by Kingfisher Airlines. It had also restrained Diageo and United Spirits Limited, owned by the UK-based firm, from temporarily disbursing the amount to Mallya who worked out the deal under a severance package.



However, a sum of USD 40 million of the USD 75 million severance package deal had already been disbursed, following which the bankers' consortium had prayed for directions from the Tribunal to attach the amount before it.



Following a directive of the Tribunal, Diageo submitted the details of severance package deal, in which the bankers figured out that USD 40 million of the USD 75 million was parked in the account held by Mallya in the New York-based J P Morgan Bank.



Thereafter, on May 17, the Tribunal directed J P Morgan Bank not to disburse to Mallya USD 40 million sweetheart deal struck between him and Diageo PLC.



The Tribunal also had directed the bank to "attach" (submit) before it the statements of accounts held by Mallya in the bank. Benakanahalli also had directed companies including Watson Limited, a Mallya-affiliated firm, to attach shares before the Tribunal.



Diageo, the worlds largest spirits maker which acquired control of United Spirits (USL) in 2012, had issued a guarantee to Standard Chartered Bank for a USD 135 million (around Rs 900 crore) loan to Watson to release certain UBL shares that were to be acquired as part of the deal.



The company, in their statement, had said that the risk had arisen due to default by Watson in May and DRT preventing sale or any other transfer of such UBL shares in June as part of the enforcement process pending further orders following the petition by bankers. Benakanahalli had also pulled up the banks for not taking due deligence of taking appropriate action to know the details of transaction between Diageo and Mallya.



Mallya, whose now-defunct group company Kingfisher Airlines owes over Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) to 17 banks, had left the country on March 2 and is in the UK.



With Britain recently declining India's request to deport him, government has approached Interpol for issuance of an arrest warrant against Mallya in connection with a money laundering case being probed by ED.


If you hire Prestigious Pets of Dallas, TX to take care of your pets, you have to sign a sleazy nondisparagement contract through which you promise not to complain in public about the company's service.

It's not surprising that Michelle and Robert Duchouquette of Plano, TX trusted their fish, a beta named Gordy, to Prestigious Pets, after all, their Yelp page was full of five-star reviews. But when they watched the bowl via their webcam, they found that Gordy's water was cloudy, with food at the bottom of the tank, and this led them to believe that he'd been overfed. They posted a one-star review, saying that while Prestigious Pets gave their two dogs "fine" care, they didn't think the fish-care was up to snuff.

So Prestigious Pets filed a one million dollar lawsuit.



The disparagement went beyond the Yelp review, too, according to the lawsuit. It reportedly included a "variety of written and broadcast mediums, including but not limited to via Facebook, Inc., ABC.com, CBS.com, and other media outlets." The real kicker is the defamation allegation regarding Michelle's statement on Yelp and media interviews about Gordy being overfed. The statements are defamation per se because each (a) was reasonably calculated to injure Plaintiffs' reputation and thus exposed them to public hatred, contempt, ridicule, or financial injury,1 (b) injured Plaintiffs in their business/occupation regarding the alleged lack of a peculiar or unique skill (pet care) necessary for the proper conduct of the business/occupation, and (c) falsely charged Plaintiffs with the commission of an act that is a crime (violation of TEX. PENAL CODE  42.092, "Cruelty to Nonlivestock Animals"). The statements have been continuously published and re-published both by the Duchouquettes and by third parties. In a blog post, Levy said this litigation is worth "watching because until Congress passes the Consumer Review Freedom Act, it could be our best chance to get one of these clauses declared unenforceable." He said the Duchouquettes' hold a "First Amendment right to make fair comments about the plaintiff company."

1-star Yelp review says "Gordy" the pet fish was overfed, attracts $1M lawsuit

[David Kravets/Ars Technica]
The gunman who killed a UCLA professor was today identified as his former doctoral student Indian-American Mainak Sarkar, who had accused him of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, a media report said.





Sarkar, an alumni of the IIT-Kharagpur, shot and killed professor William Klug in a small office in University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) before killing himself yesterday, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources.



The shooting prompted a complete lockdown of the campus and deployment of hundreds of police officers as well as federal agents.



All university classes were cancelled yesterday. The lockdown was lifted shortly after noon. Some 43,000 students are enrolled at the UCLA campus, according to its website.



Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and had been the target of Sarkar's anger on social media for months, the paper said.He accused the professor of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, it said.



"William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy," Sarkar wrote on March 10.



"He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust," he wrote.



In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar had expressed gratitude to Klug for his help and support, the paper said. "Thank you for being my mentor," he wrote.



Before enrolling at UCLA, Sarkar earned a master's degree at Stanford University, according to his LinkedIn page.



In 2000, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a degree in Aerospace Engineering.



He also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer.



After UCLA, Sarkar worked remotely as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company, Endurica LLC where he worked until August 2014.


Three years ago, social entrepreneur Sophia Swire approached Amrapali Jewels with a proposal to arrange a workshop in Jaipur for Afghan women to train them in jewellery making. The idea was to make them self-sufficient and find means to generate regular income for these women who live in a war-torn country.





Around the same time, Swire was busy spreading word about this workshop in Afghanistan. She was surprised to receive overwhelming response for the application, but was clear in her strategy. We werent choosing random people. We were looking for women who had character, personality and leadership qualities to train other people, Swire, who was in the city, tells Metrolife.



Swire selected 36 women from Balkh province in the northern part of landlocked mountainous country. These women travelled to Jaipur and participated in skill enhancement training programme for six months as a part of Amrapalis CSR activity. For us it was a great opportunity to do something away from commercial business, says Suman Anand Khanna, head of operations, Delhi.



The main focus was to train them in practices and prepare them to create something for international market. The idea was to make them self-sufficient and it could be achieved only if they were able to sell their products. So sustainability was the key to succeed, she says.



This association is now scripting its own success story and one of the prominent faces to be emerged from it is of Khala Zada, a woman in her fifties, who has trained around 360 people after undergoing training in Jaipur.



Afghanistan is known for its lapis jewellery and these artisans work with this deep-blue semi-precious stone to create modern products by taking design motifs from the regions traditional jewellery. Their traditional jewellery is extremely heavy. They create light and modern products with layered components to produce jewellery for the

millennial generation, says Swire.



Swire is the executive chairman of Future Brilliance, a non-profit organisation that stresses on vocational training of local Afghans to help them build a prosperous future. Aayenda jewellery is one of its projects and through this they work closely with women artisans, and then sell contemporary jewellery created by them in different countries.

The collection is designed to keep the jet set traveller in mind. The one who travels a lot and likes to pick up something that is light and bright, says Swire.



Lapis and turquoise goes well with resort wear, she adds, adding they have roped in three international designers to help these women create modern designs.



The focus, Swire says, is to make artisans self-sufficient. We dont want to hold their hands forever. They have understood the importance of quality control and drawbacks of shipping substandard products. They are doing well and hope the trend continues,

she adds.



Aayenda, meaning future in the Afghan language of Dari, is now an acclaimed fair-trade brand, selling at 40 leading retailers internationally, including Donna Karans iconic store in New York.



We also sell in Sri Lanka and Maldives and hope to sell soon in India, says Swire.

Shilpa Raina




The BJP-led NDA government today ordered complete sealing of Assam's border with Bangladesh by June next year, fulfilling an electoral pledge of BJP within a week of assuming power in Assam to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.





Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh issued the order at a high-level meeting attended by top Home Ministry officials here.



During the meeting, the Home Minister directed that the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam should be sealed completely," a Home Ministry official said.



In the run up to recent Assam Assembly elections, BJP had promised to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border in the state completely to check illegal immigration from the neighbouring country.



Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said that sealing of the borders with Bangladesh in two years is one of his two top priorities.



The Home Minister also directed that full use of technological solutions be made to secure sensitive areas along the borders.



This will involve networking of equipments like high resolution cameras, radars, unattended ground sensors, optical fibres, infra red sensors, aerostats, hand-held thermal imagers etc. and integration of these with command and control architecture.



The total length of the Indo-Bangladesh border is 4,096 km of which 284 km falls in Assam.



The meeting was told that besides deployment of adequate number of battalions of Border Security Force in Assam, 224 km fence has been constructed for sealing of Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam.



However, there are 122 locations (60.7 km) in Assam where physical barrier is not present.



In order to achieve the objective of sealing the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam, it was decided that 100 locations covering 11.9 km will have physical barrier i.e.

fence and 22 locations covering 48.8 km. of riverine areas will have non-physical barriers including technological barriers which will be achieved by June, 2017, the official said.



Additional Director General, Border Security Force and Additional Director General (Border) CPWD are already on site visit on Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam to prepare comprehensive plan for sealing the border by June, 2017 by means of physical and non-physical barriers.



Besides the Home Minister, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju reviewed various aspects of the border management in the country.



Secretary (Border Management) in the Home Ministry, Susheel Kumar along with senior officials of briefed the Ministers about the progress of border security infrastructure, programmes of border management and the way forward.



It was informed that 4,374 km fence, 5,329.6 km border roads, 3,974 km floodlights and 2420 nos Border Out Posts (BOPs) have been constructed along the different international borders for security of the frontiers.



Further, major impediments hampering the development of border infrastructure have been resolved during last two years which will increase the pace of development of border infrastructure in coming years, the official said.



In the meeting it was also outlined that almost all the remaining infrastructure works at the border will be completed in next three years, the official said.




The invitation of Speaker of US House of Representatives Paul Ryan to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint sitting of the US Congress next week is being viewed as a defining movement in the bilateral relationship of the two countries. However, the ties between India and the US are not the same when Modi came to power in May 2014  they were at a low level.





At the same time, given Modis personal differences with the US, sections of diplomats and experts in both the countries had opined that relations between New Delhi and Washington would continue to face bad weather in future. Surprisingly, however, showing his pragmatism, Modi decided to redirect efforts to sustain and deepen ties with the US.



This became soon evident when he made a state visit to the US in September 2014 on the invitation of President Barack Obama. Subsequently, Obama became the first US President to become chief guest at the Republic Day Parade in January 2015.



Since then, bilateral ties have progressed significantly, with the two countries having held two summit-level talks and signed many transformative agreements including strategic and commercial dialogue to expand cooperation in all the areas of common interests in the last two years. Economic and trade relations form one of the most important segments of bilateral ties. This is evident from the fact that trade between India and the US is now US$ 100 billion and Obama and Modi have set a goal of taking it to $500 billion in the next few years.



For that to happen, the two countries have established an India-US Investment Initiative as well as an Infrastructure Collaboration Platform. The American industry has also expressed its desire to be part of Indias Smart Cities programme by developing three smart cities in Ajmer, Vishakhapatnam and Allahabad.



The Parliamentary approval to reforms such as the Goods & Services Tax (GST) will further boost economic ties between the two countries. Another area which has witnessed significant progress is civil nuclear treaty. Unlike the UPA government, the Modi government addressed Americas concerns regarding Indias Civil Liability Nuclear Damage (CLND) Act 2010 by establishing an insurance pool, paving the way for US nuclear companies to invest in the civil-nuclear sphere of India.



The defence sphere has emerged as a cornerstone of bilateral ties. New Delhi and Washington have extended the defence agreement for the next 10 years. The US has become Indias largest defence supplier with bilateral defence trade between the two countries crossing US$ 14 billion in 2015. To boost the defence trade further, both the countries have made significant progress on the Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), with four projects, called pathfinder projects, having already been identified. The prospect of increased technology transfer from the US to India has gained momentum ever since a bill regarding the US-India Defence Technology and Partnership has been introduced in the US Congress in March.



Military engagement

With the aim of strengthening military engagement with the US and effectively dealing with issues of terrorism, piracy and other security threats, the Modi government has agreed in principle to sign three agreements  Logistic Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMA), Communication and Information Security Memorandum of CISMOA and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA). At the same time, to ensure that these agreements should not affect Indias strategic autonomy, New Delhi has asked the US to make these agreement India-specific.



There are concrete reasons for both the countries to deepen security ties with each other. There is a growing feeling among the US security officials and experts that given Americas economic slowdown and increasing security crises in the Asia-Pacific, West Asia and other parts of the world, it is not possible for the US to ensure peace and security alone. Thus, Washington needs to engage rising powers like India for this purpose.



As the Modi government has speeded up the process of military modernisation, along with massive deduction in US defence spending, Washington sees good economic prospects in deepening defence ties with New Delhi. The rise of China and its assertive posturing in the South China Sea in recent times is another reason for the US to expand security and military relations with India.



For Indias part, New Delhi is concerned by Beijings position on disputed territories and by the growing nexus between Beijing and Islamabad. New Delhi feels that the presence of the United States in South Asia would help maintain balance of power in its favour. It also knows it cannot aggressively pursue military modernisation without access to advanced US weaponry and technology.



Modis ambitious Make in India initiative would also not be successful without the active participation of the American defence industry, given its expertise in the field. Isolating Pakistan internationally for failing to adequately address terrorism also requires New Delhi to sustain security talks and military exercises with Washington.



The Modi government has shown a desire to work with the United States in ensuring freedom of navigation and flight throughout the region, including in the South China Sea. This shift in Indias stance is critical as it reflects the governments determination to take a firm stance on China. This understanding has been reinforced by the Modi governments special attention to developing triangular and quadrilateral coalitions with the United States, Japan and Australia as a part of its regional security strategy.



Surely, New Delhi and Washington have differences on many issues including how to deal with terrorism in South Asia, US military assistance to Pakistan, the H-B1 visa issue and others. Thus, with the visit by Modi to Washington, one hopes that both the countries would be able to address these issues and pave the way for a stronger IndiaUS relationship in future.



(The writer, an ICSSR Doctoral Fellow, is with the UGC Centre for Southern Asia Studies, Pondicherry University)
You walk into a coffee shop, spot a mug that triggers a memory. You take out your smartphone and take a snap. In a jiffy, videos, audio and pictures pop out dramatically reigniting every moment of your last visit there, five years ago! This is precisely what Bengaluru-based startup, FlippAR, can do with its Augmented Reality application, unveiling a whole world hitherto trapped in nostalgia.





FlippARs co-founder Vivek Jain calls it social object tagging. In this case, it is about tagging all your experiences to a cup of coffee. Initially, it would be a logo of the coffee shop. Later the glass, or a piece of furniture in the shop can be a target image, he explains. This potential to smartly link the past, captured in all glory by a million photos and videos, with the present could alter the way we look at reality itself.



The technology, showcased recently at startup accelerator NUMAs Demo Day, had its pilot at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technology Museum here. Visitors only had to point their FlippAR app camera at a dinosaur exhibit to get a 3D-model of the same.



People take millions of pictures in their mobile phones. Twenty years down the line, those visuals will still make sense if they are appropriately tagged, says Jain.

But this is not all about social tags and connections. As a customer, you walk into a furniture shop. You wouldnt need to imagine how that sofa would look in your living room. FlippAR, says Jain, will help you visualise it in real time.

The same Augmented Reality technique works with art galleries, too. Customers can visualise art pieces on the walls of their homes and share it with their friends and family to get feedback. The method is simple: Download the branded application, pick the artwork from a catalogue and shoot a picture of your room with the artwork embedded on the mobile screen.



Since its launch a year ago, the FlippAR app has been downloaded about 11,000 times so far. To get a glimpse of the possibilities, click on the Scan button and point it to a set of a AR samples uploaded at http://flippar. com/sam ples.html. Pointing it to the car image gives a 360-degree view of the vehicle right on the mobile screen. You could spin it around or zoom into it.



The app says you could also watch trailers of Hollywood / Bollywood movies by just pointing the device to select posters at the theatres or newspapers.




Yoga got another boost with the government on Thursday deciding to give tourist and e-tourist visa to foreigners coming to India for short-term yoga courses.





Foreigners coming to India for short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine can also avail tourist visa though they are not brought under the e-visa scheme.



The announcement was made by the Home Ministry as the government is gearing up to celebrate the International Yoga Day on June 21.



The government has brought yoga in the list of permissible activities under tourist visa and e-tourist visa while short duration medical treatment under Indian systems of medicine is in tourist visa section only.



Presently, a tourist visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, sight seeing and casual visit to meet friends or relatives, short duration medical treatment or casual business visit. All Indian missions abroad and Foreigners Regional Registration Officers (FRROs)/ Foreigners Registration Officers (FROs) in the country have been requested to take action as per the latest decision, an official statement said.



Officials expect that the new amendments to rules would attract foreigners who are interested in yoga and traditional branches of medicines to India.
Barely 48 hours after the Tamil Nadu Police recovered 34 ancient sculptures from a house, the states Idol Wing conducted a fresh raid on Thursday and seized another 100 idols.





The seized idols are valued at several hundred crore rupees. Following a court order, a team of officials headed by Idol Wing Inspector General Pon Manickavel broke open two locked rooms at a house in Alwarpet area, which was earlier raided, and seized at least 100 more idols.



In one of the biggest seizures in recent times, 34 ancient idols were recovered from a house at Murrays Gate Road in Alwarpet on Tuesday. They were being packed to be smuggled through Mumbai port to be delivered to foreign countries especially to the US and European nations. The idols were being packed in cardboard boxes using haystack, when officials raided the house.
After the Army introduced dope test for Punjab youths participating in military recruitment rallies in the state, the Punjab police has decided to follow suit.





Dope test has been made mandatory for all candidates to wean away the possibilities of drug addicts getting into the state police force.



Punjab could possibly be the only state in the country to have brought about this practice of examining youths for possible use of contraband before induction into the police force.



Even women candidates aspiring to join the Punjab Police will have to take the dope test. The process has already begun. The state police are underway with the recruitment process of over 7,400 constables.



Punjab is ill-famed for narcotic use and drug-peddling. A sizeable section of the states youths are addicted to drugs. Punjab also has the highest number of narcotic seizures, including high priced heroin.



The amount of heroin seized from Punjab, both from the border with Pakistan by the BSF and within the territorial jurisdiction of the state police, has been more that the recoveries from all other states put together. This border state is notorious for smuggling of drugs through Pakistan and Afghanistan routes, dubbed the golden triangle.



Last year, when the state police launched a concerted drive to break drug supply lines, de-addiction centers in the state were at full capacity with drug addicts looking for medical intervention.



Wary of addicts getting into the armed forces in wake of the doleful projection of Punjab as a drug state, the army last year held random testing of youths at three of the recruitment rallies that were conducted here. Interestingly, all youths who participated in the rallies cleared the test. The state government that has been drawing flak on the issue of drug abuse maintains that its position as a largely drug-free state stands vindicated by the outcome of dope tests at military recruitment rallies. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said dope tests for candidates aspiring to join the state police is only a reassertion that Punjab is not a drug heaven.



No candidate from Punjab was found positive even during the recent selection trials of Chandigarh Police where more than a dozen Punjabi youths were inducted into the force, he said.
Investigators have not found any evidence to indicate direct complicity of Pakistan or Pakistani agencies in the Pathankot attack, National Investigation Agency chief Sharad Kumar has said.





He also said the NIA has completed its India leg of investigation in the Pathankot case and is waiting for Pakistan to allow the NIA team to visit Islamabad to complete the investigations.



Asked whether any evidence of involvement of Pakistan or any Pakistani government agency aiding terrorists to enter India was found, Kumar told CNNNews18, so far no evidence to show that the Pakistan government or Pakistani government agency was helping Jaish or Masood Azhar or his aides carry out Pathankot attack.



When specifically asked whether any inside help to terrorists was given, he said investigation so far does not point to any inside hand.



He said he was hopeful of visiting Pakistan on the basis of reciprocity. He said charge sheet will be filed even if Pakistan did not give NIA access.



We have sufficient and stringent evidence against Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf Azhar and we will include those in our chargesheet,Kumar said.



Asked about the lapses in securing the air base, he said, it is for the government to see. We are an investigating agency. We are investigating the case as a crime.



We will not recommend any action for lapses or security breach, Kumar said.
India has subscribed to an international code of conduct against indiscriminate spread of ballistic missile technology, once again reaffirming its commitment to global non-proliferation objectives.





India has joined the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (or HCoC in short) by notifying Austria, the designated central contact of the convention, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Vikas Swarup, told journalists in New Delhi on Thursday.



The HCoC, adopted in 2002, is a voluntary, legally non-binding international confidence-building and transparency measure that seeks to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles that are capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction. New Delhi said that its joining the HCoC signalled its readiness to further strengthen global non-proliferation objectives.



Indias accession took the number of the nations subscribing the HCoC against ballistic missile proliferation to 138. China, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea are among the nations, which are yet to accede to the code despite having significant missile development capability.



India, which did not sign the NPT, had been a pariah for the global non-proliferation regimes till 2008. The Nuclear Supplier Group, which controls global atomic material and technology trade, however granted an exemption to India in 2008, despite its non-NPT status.
Though there are important differences, the parallels between Reagan's political life and Trump's are downright chilling, from their media careers to the way that the press and their own party establishment viewed them.



Both positioned themselves as outsiders (Reagan, absurdly, ran successfully as a political outsider while he was the sitting president of the USA, and painted his opponent as the Beltway insider). Both offered economic platforms that didn't hold up to even the most cursory scrutiny. Both lied like crazy, about everything, and refused to answer any press questions that called them on this. Both are masters of deflection overall, brilliant at moving the focus away from their radioactively obvious shortcomings to the places where they shone.

Of course, both also had careers in forgettable, modestly successful media properties. Both had checkered pasts in which they dabbled in Democratic politics and painted that opportunism as a reason for Conservatives to vote for them. Both managed to court evangelicals despite their divorces.

Reagan's slogan? "Let's make America great again."

Shirley's memories are corroborated by reportage contemporaneous with Reagan's last two presidential runs. (There was also an abortive run in 1968.) A poll in 1976 found that 90 percent of Republican state chairmen judged Reagan guilty of "simplistic approaches," with "no depth in federal government administration" and "no experience in foreign affairs." It was little different in January 1980, when a U.S. News and World Report survey of 475 national and state Republican chairmen found they preferred George H.W. Bush to Reagan. One state chairman presumably spoke for many when he told the magazine that Reagan's intellect was "thinner than spit on a slate rock." As Rick Perlstein writes in The Invisible Bridge, the third and latest volume of his epic chronicle of the rise of the conservative movement, both Nixon and Ford dismissed Reagan as a lightweight. Barry Goldwater endorsed Ford over Reagan in 1976 despite the fact that Reagan's legendary speech on behalf of Goldwater's presidential campaign in October 1964, "A Time for Choosing," was the biggest boost that his kamikaze candidacy received. Only a single Republican senator, Paul Laxalt of Nevada, signed on to Reagan's presidential quest from the start, a solitary role that has been played in the Trump campaign by Jeff Sessions of Alabama. What put off Reagan's fellow Republicans will sound very familiar. He proposed an economic program  30 percent tax cuts, increased military spending, a balanced budget  whose math was voodoo and then some. He prided himself on not being "a part of the Washington Establishment" and mocked Capitol Hill's "buddy system" and its collusion with "the forces that have brought us our problemsthe Congress, the bureaucracy, the lobbyists, big business, and big labor." He kept a light campaign schedule, regarded debates as optional, wouldn't sit still to read briefing books, and often either improvised his speeches or worked off index cards that contained anecdotes and statistics gleaned from Reader's Digest and the right-wing journal Human Events  sources hardly more elevated or reliable than the television talk shows and tabloids that feed Trump's erroneous and incendiary pronouncements.

Ronald Reagan Was Once Donald Trump

[Frank Rich/New Yorker]





(via Naked Capitalism)
India and the United States on Thursday signed an agreement on the exchange of intelligence on terror on a real-time basis.





With the signing of the pact, both countries will now exchange biographic information of known and suspected terrorists.



The arrangement between the authorised Indian agencies and the government of the US for exchange of terrorist-screening information was signed by Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma.



As per this arrangement, both sides shall provide each other access to terrorism screening information through the designated contact points, subject to domestic laws and regulations. The arrangement would enhance the counter-terrorism cooperation between India and US, an official statement said.



This pact would help India access unclassified biographic information of known and suspected terrorists maintained by the US on a reciprocal basis.



Officially, New Delhi has entered into the US Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6 (HSPD-6).



The HSPD-6 is a model text agreement for exchange of terrorist-screening information between Terrorist Screening Centre (TSC) of the US and an Indian agency. The US has already finalised such agreements with 30 countries.



Earlier, there were reports that security agencies had red flagged the proposal as one section felt that it primarily protected the US interests only.



The TSC of the US would coordinate with the Intelligence Bureau, the designated Indian agency on the subject.



TSC, a multi-agency organisation administered by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), consolidates several terrorist watch list maintained by different US agencies into a single terrorist database.




Suspending the licence of Lawyers Collective on charges of violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, the MHA said that the NGO transferred money to organisations in Hungary and Malaysia.





The order issued on Tuesday also said among other reasons the NGO, led by noted lawyer Indira Jaising, organised "rallies and dharnas with political colour and hue" using foreign funds.



Protesting against the government move, Jaising said this was an "attempt to damage her reputation and that of the NGO." She said she condemns the beaten attack by the government "disguised as alleged violations of FCRA, days after I spoke at Rana Ayyub book release". Ayyub's book 'Gujarat Files' was released recently and it talks about the 2002 riots.



She also sought to link the action to her representing former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt in the past as also Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai.



Lawyers Collective had earlier said it intends to "challenge the order as unconstitutional and required to be set aside", terming it as "a malafide act and an act of vindictiveness on the part of the government".



According to the order, the NGO transfered Euro 30,000 (around Rs 19.01 lakh) to Hungary towards reimbursement of expenses. It also transfered Rs 12.83 lakh to Malayasia for local organisations. The foreign funds, the order said, was meant for utilisation inside the country as per the FCRA.



The MHA did not buy the NGO argument that these transactions took place before the FCRA 2010 was enacted on May 1, 2011. Inspection of account books, the order said, also showed that Rs 13.03 lakh were used for advocacy.




The central BJP leadership is contemplating appropriate action against Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse over allegations of corruption. The charges against the Muktainagar MLA have created trouble for the saffron party, which claims to provide taint-free governance.





The party, which had earlier defended Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in Lalitgate and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in the AgustaWestland chopper deal, is unlikely to back Khadse, with BJP chief Amit Shah terming the allegations serious. Apart from reportedly indulging in two shady land deals, Khadse, leader of opposition in the previous Congress-NCP regime, is also under the scanner after an expose that his telephone number figured in the calls made by an aide of Dawood Ibrahim.



ReportDuring a meeting at the party headquarters in Delhi, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis submitted a report on the Khadse episode to Shah.



"I have submitted a factual report on matters which have come up recently. We have discussed them as well. The party will direct whatever appropriation has to be taken ahead," Fadnavis said.



Meet with PMThe CM also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a scheduled official interaction. But BJP sources said Khadses scandals figured in the discussion, given that NDA ally Shiv Sena and opposition parties Congress and AAP have sought his resignation.



Contrary to a clear message from the central leadership, Khadse has so far not shown any inclination to resign, saying he has done no wrong.



He, however, did not attend the state Cabinet meeting on Wednesday and gave up his official car.



What has made it tough for the central leaders to take action against six-time MLA Khadse is that he is the seniormost BJP leader in the state and enjoys support of the farmers in the northern part of Maharashtra, party sources said.



Allegations levelled against Eknath Khadse are completely false and baseless, state BJP president Raosaheb Danve said in support of the leader.


African applicants have quadrupled in a years time, Delhi University authorities said on Thursday.





According to the head of DUs foreign registration office, Amrit Kaur Basra, 428 out of the 3,792 foreign students seeking admissions in this years academic session are African nationals. Last year, less than 100 students applied to various varsity-run programmes.



The surge in applications comes at a time when last months lynching of a 23-year-old man from Congo has raised alarm bells for African nationals living in the Capital.



Basra told DH that students from over 100 countries have applied to DU this year. According to her, the university has received applications from a majority of the African countries, including Niger, Lesotho, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia. All university departments and colleges have 5% supernumerary quota for foreign students. It means the institutions can admit 5% more students than its sanctioned strength.DU had earlier extended the deadline for registrations of foreign students to May 31, following requests from several embassies. According to Basra, a larger chunk of foreign applicants is from Tibet, Nepal and Afghanistan.



The Indian Council for Cultural Relations, an autonomous government body involved in Indias external cultural relations, has recommended 153 foreign students for admission in DU, Basra said. English and law have emerged as preferred choices for foreign students, she added. Meanwhile, DU received over 81,000 registrations for undergraduate courses till Thursday 6 pm. The online registration process for over 60,000 seats in more than 5 dozen undergraduate colleges began on Wednesday noon and will conclude on June 19. Until last year, the university invited both online and offline registrations.
Did the ruling Congress compel its MLAs to go against Upalokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi? At least, this is what is reflected in the statements of the witnesses, including the Congress MLA Tanveer Sait, before Justice R B Budihal enquiry authority appointed by the High Court to probe charges against the Upalokayukta.





The main complainant Sait, MLA from Narasimharaja in Mysuru, gave statement that he had not drafted the complaint.



Representing all the 78 MLAs, who had signed the complaint, before the enquiry, Sait stated that it was Government Chief Whip Ashok Pattan who drafted the complaint. Sait said he along with other MLAs just signed on it, without even looking into the allegations. During the cross examination, Sait stated that he had not verified the allegations and some of them were based on assumptions.



Held in two complaints

The allegations against Justice Adi were that he stepped into the jurisdiction of the other Upalokayukta and held enquiries in two complaints, one in Belagavi and the other in Hubballi; did not allow the Lokayukta police to prosecute his son-in-law Gangadhara Swamy; gave a clean chit to Dr Shyla Patil in a complaint and interfered in the police investigation pertaining to a POCSO Act case registered in the Cubbon Park police station.



This is not all. Mohan Beerappa Maliger, a complainant before the Upalokayukta in a case pertaining to irregularities in Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, admitted that he was trying for the post of information commissioner and ministers H C Mahadevappa and Vinay Kulkarni had issued recommendation letters.



Complaint submitted

After Congress MLC V S Ugrappa held a press conferences and made certain charges against Justice Adi, Mohan submitted his complaint to the Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa on December 9, 2015.



The motion was admitted by the Speaker on November 27, 2015 and three more charges were added later. I gave all the documents to Ugrappa, by mentioning the date as December 9, 2015. I had made a request to the government to appoint me as information commissioner.



I had given the request letter and also made requests to ministers.



The ministers didnt give me recommendation letters, but they might have given such letter to the commission directly,'' Maliger said during cross-examination.



Former Bengaluru Police Commissioner M N Reddi, who deposed before the enquiry proceedings, denied writing anything to the government stating that Justice Adi was interfering in police investigation. However, the complaint copy had a letter by him to the Home department.



During cross-examination, Reddi said that he was not aware that Cubbon Park police had recorded the statements of the victims in the POCSO case and sent them for medical examination after the Upalokayukta had summoned the police and directed them to do so as per law.



The DCPs and ACPs have not at all given in writing alleging that Upalokayukta is interfering in the police investigation. It (letter) was not at all sent by me to the government and it is a got up document (sic),'' Reddi deposed almost hinting that it is fabricated and forged letter.




Sting operations by two news channels showing four MLAs reportedly discussing sale of votes for the Rajya Sabha polls created a flutter on Thursday.





The two national channels claimed that Chamundeshwari constituency MLA G T Devegowda, Basavakalyan MLA Mallikarjun Khuba (both JD-S), KJP MLA from Aland B R Patil and Kolar MLA Varthur Prakash (independent) discussed sale of votes for the elections scheduled on June 11.



Friday is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.



Though channels claimed that some of these MLAs demanded Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore to vote in favour of a Congress candidate, the audio was not clear.



The channels claimed that Congress and Janata Dal (S) candidates K C Ramamurthy and B M Farook, respectively, also discussed on camera about votes being sold.



Meanwhile, the Election Commission has taken note of the sting operations and is likely to act after studying footage apparently showing Karnataka MLAs indulging in corrupt practices.



The poll panel is likely to seek a report from the Chief Election Officer of Karnataka, sources said in New Delhi.



EC officials discussed the matter at Nirvachan Sadan after television channels aired the footage.



The poll panel will take a call after studying all aspects, said a source.

The channels said that Khuba told their representatives, who posed themselves as negotiators for a candidate that he was ready to vote in favour of the Congress for Rs five crore. The JD(S) legislator also claims that he has a team of MLAs who can cross vote and just one or two crores will not do, the channels claimed. But the audio was not clear.



The channels mentioned Deve Gowdas son-in-law Ram discussed the deal. During the conversations, Ram reportedly asks the representatives how much they can pay. When the representatives tell him not to worry about the sum, he asks whether they can pay Rs 10 crores.



Patil describes buying and selling of votes as a political match while discussing the elections. Varthur Prakash reportedly confides that it is not a problem to get money for Independent MLAs. All the politicians who appear on the sting operations have, however, denied the charges.



What they said

Ramamurthy, when contacted by this newspaper, said he was surprised about the claims made by the channels. A reporter from a TV channel met me to take my reactions on the elections. All I said was that I have the support of the Congress and that would ensure my victory. I have no idea about the sting operation.



Patil said: None had approached me or come to me to talk about the money aspect. Of course, political leaders including chief minister had approached me seeking my support for their candidates. I will never stoop to the level of seeking money for my vote. I demand a judicial or a CBI probe into the TV programme.



Deve Gowda said: I am not involved in it. I will discuss it tomorrow. I will get all the details about the programme tomorrow. While Varthur Prakash and Khuba were not available for comments, the JD (S) candidate Farook disconnected the phone.
The state government may have to incur an additional expenditure of about Rs 6,000 crore if it revises the salary of its employees on a par with the Central government staff.





About 6.4 lakh employees of the state government went on a strike on Thursday demanding pay parity. However, the government has refused to make any commitment.



The pay revision was last done in 2012. The then government had implemented in toto the recommendations of the Office Pay Committee, incurring a total Rs 4,450 crore expenditure. The employees are now demanding that the government should pay salary to them as per the recommendation of the Seventh Pay Commission of the Centre. The government is currently spending a whopping Rs 32,500 crore on salary and pension expenditure in a year against the total annual revenue of Rs 1.17 lakh crore, leaving limited scope to take up new development programmes.



According to sources, nearly 40% of the government workforce constitute teachers, nurses and police constables. Compared with the Central employees in these three cadre, the state government employees are in very large numbers.



The Centre runs KV schools, far less compared with state government schools. The CRPF personnel are a handful compared with the constables of the state. Hence, it is impossible for any state to pay on a par with the Centre. At the most, the differences could be reduced, sources said.



The convention is that the Centre goes for a revision of pay to its employees 10 years once, while Karnataka does it once in five years. Going by this, the state would have to form a new panel to look into revision of salary in 2016. It may not be tough to increase once in five years if revenue resources are well managed, the sources said.




Akhila Karnataka Police Mahasangha president V Shashidhar and its member Basavaraj Koravar were arrested for organising protest of police constables.





The action came within 24 hours after the government invoked provisions of Essential Services Maintenance Act-2013 (Esma). Yelahanaka and Hubballi police conducted separate raids around midnight in Bengaluru and Hubballi and the duo were arrested, police said.
The police arrested Akhila Karnataka Police Mahasangha president V Shashidhar and its member Basavaraj Koravar within 24 hours after the government invoked provisions of ESMA for organising the protest of constabulary. Yelahanaka and Hubballi police conducted separate raids around midnight in Bengaluru and Hubballi and the duo were arrested, said the police.



A team of 30 policemen raided Shashidhars house behind RTO office in Yelahanka New Town and arrested him while Basavaraj was arrested by another team in Hubballi. Shashidhar was produced before a court and was remanded in judicial custody till June 16, the police added.



Shashidhar and Basavaraj served as constables in the past and were dismissed for dereliction of duty. The duo are trying to become messiah of constabulary in Karnataka by provoking the constables for the protest, they said.



Any person can be arrested without warrant under the provisions of Essential Services Maintenance Act 2013 for committing offences described under the Act. The offences are considered non-bailable offences and punishment will be imprisonment for a term of one year and fine of Rs 5,000.
Residents of Ulsoor in central Bengaluru took to the streets on Thursday, protesting the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palikes (BBMP) inaction over a host of civic problems in the locality, especially the poor condition of the 1.3-km-long Annaswamy Mudaliar Road.





More than 100 residents gathered near Shree Complex, close to Ajanta theatre, to raise their voice against the BBMP for not solving problems such as garbage, bad roads, absence of footpaths, among others.



Pointing to the muddy Annaswamy Mudaliar Road, Purushottam Venkataraman, president of Ulsoor Lake Residents Welfare Association, said the stretch had not been asphalted in the last 20 years. It gets flooded whenever it rains, he said.



There are no proper footpaths in the locality and most of them have broken slabs and cause accidents. We have been writing to the BBMP for the past two years, but there has been no response. The residents claimed that the footpath near RBANMS College had not been relaid since the British Raj. They accused the local corporator of ignoring local problems.



Holding placards with messages as We want justice and immediate action, Dont pass the buck, Clean city green city and My dream city, residents sought solution to three main problems: garbage, bad roads and improper footpaths.



Ajay Sapra, a resident, suggested that some people were dumping garbage on the streets and vacant sites. The locality is facing mosquito and dog menace, he said.



When contacted, Ulsoor corporator Mamatha Saravana referred to technical problems in floating the tender for road works but promised that all prominent roads in the ward would be relaid within a month.




Yusuf Abdi Ali, a former Somali national army commander, is a pretty famous alleged war criminal, someone who's been profiled on major news media, deported from Canada over a failed claim of refugee status, arrested in the USA for lying about his participation in "genocidal acts" on his visa applications, currently embroiled in a lawsuit with someone who claims Ali tortured and shot him  and now he works as a private airport security officer at DC's Dulles airport.

Searching on Mr Ali's name turns up all of this and more.

Airport security workers are supposed to go through a "full, federally mandated vetting process" and an FBI background check. Mr Ali was working for the TSA under his own name.

As Kevin Underhill points out, the FBI background check has experienced some pretty high-profile lapses lately: a convicted terrorist was given Precheck clearance and a fugitive with a nationwide arrest warrant was given a job at the DHS.

The CNN team who broke the story about Ali wrote a stomach-churning account of the crimes he stands accused of, which involve torture, ethnic cleansing, mass executions and shallow mass graves, putting towns to the torch, murdering people by dragging them behind vehicles, forcing children to view mass killings and more.

He's been suspended pending an investigation into the matter.

Update: The article has been updated to reflect the fact that Mr Ali worked for a private security firm, not the TSA.

While I might have doubts about a TSA administrator's ability to do thaton average I'd expect about the same computer literacy as Derek Zoolandersurely an FBI agent could handle it. But the alternative is that being an alleged war criminala charge not yet proven in court, admittedly, but not without supporting evidenceis not necessarily a deal-breaker when it comes to an airport-security job. I suppose his experience with arbitrary detention might be seen as a plus. But any evidence of a past willingness to murder and torture others seems like a good reason to select a different applicant, all else being equal. I'm not an employment lawyer, but I think that's an OK reason to turn someone away. While Ali is not accused of the kind of terrorism we're currently super worried about, one might suspect him of a certain, shall we say, moral flexibility that one would not favor in an employee granted free access to secured areas.

He's accused of war crimes in Somalia. Now he works security at a U.S. airport.

[Scott Bronstein, Kyra Phillips and Curt Devine/CNN]





Apparently He Left "War Criminal" Off His Resume

[Kevin Underhill/Lowering the Bar]





(Image: CNN)
Almost all the 84 departments of the state government, including those in the Vidhana Soudha and the Vikasa Soudha, were deserted on Thursday as government staff went on mass leave demanding better pay.





Even heads of many departments skipped work as their chauffeurs were off duty. So much so that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was forced to confine himself to his official residence Krishna.



None of the ministers attended office at the Vidhana Soudha or the Vikasa Soudha. The government had not scheduled any event or high-level meeting in view of the protest. Only police personnel on security duty were seen around.



The state government has around 6.4 lakh employees. Besides, there are around four lakh employees under urban and rural local bodies and boards and corporations. Except the contract staff, almost all employees struck work. Essential services such as health, water and electricity supply, however, were unaffected.



The protest was a total success. We will wait for 10 more days. If the government fails to respond, we will intensify the protest, said Karnataka State Government Employees Association president B P Manje Gowda.



He blamed the government for inconveniencing people, saying the strike was announced 45 days ago but neither the chief minister nor the chief secretary cared to respond. Chief Secretary Arvind Jadhav was unavailable for comment.



Before the office hours, members of the association went around government departments in Bengaluru to ensure their colleagues didnt report for work. BMTC and KSRTC services were not affected, however, as the corporations have a separate salary and allowance system.



The strike was very successful in North Karnataka. The striking staff took out rallies in Kalaburagi, Raichur, Yadgir, Ballari, Vijayapura, Bagalkot, Belagavi, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri and Karwar.



MS Building, which houses several government offices, Kandaya Bhavana (revenue department), deputy commissioners office, regional transport offices, BBMP headquarters and subdivisional offices in Bengaluru remained closed.



Ramesh Babu, an office-bearer of the employees association, said that no work was carried out in the DC or taluk offices. On average, at least 10,000 people come here every day for various work. Of them, roughly about 1,000 people had come without being aware of the protest, he said.



Rajanna, a resident of Banashankari, was among those who went back from the DCs office. I came to make changes in ration card. I didnt know about the protest, he said.



Though essential services staff reported for duty, many showed solidarity with the protesters. Dr Gangadhar B Belavadi, Medical Superintendent of Vani Vilas Hospital, said all nurses and doctors showed up. Around 20 nurses belonging to the Health and Family Welfare Department worked but did not sign the attendance register as a mark of protest. The union asked us to work without wearing aprons, a nurse said.



Nearly 1,000 government lecturers reported for evaluation duty at Central College, but took a one-hour break at 1 pm to stage a snap protest. Most government educational institutions sent back students, Maharanis Arts, Commerce and Management College for Women conducted Sociology exam with skeletal staff.




The proposal by the Army to revive Bellandur lake has received a mixed response.





Departments involved in the revival of the lake are claiming that they have expertise to handle the problem, but residents and experts opine that the Army can do a better and faster job.



Mahendra Jain, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, and chairperson of the expert committee for restoration of Bellandur lake, said portions of the water body abutting defence areas like near HAL and Agara were well taken care of. Their proposal seems be nice, but a decision will be taken later.



The Bangalore Development Authority is the custodian of the Bellandur lake. Jain is also the BDA Board chairperson.



But this proposal has not gone down well with BDA officials. A BDA official said, BDA has revived many lakes in the past and our engineers are qualified. The help of the Army is not needed. However, a decision will be taken by the Board.



The BDA is awaiting government funds to revive 25 lakes under its limits in the last one year. The state government is also awaiting a Rs 500-crore grant from the central government, to revive Bellandur and Varthur lakes. This was promised by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar during his last visit to Bengaluru, in 2015.



B V Satish, BBMP executive engineer (lakes), said that the Army has a condition that sewage flow should be stopped. But 99% of the problem is sewage entering Bellandur lake. Once sewage is stopped, the lake will revive by itself. There is no need for anyone to do anything.



Prof T V Ramachandra from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, who is a part of the expert committee, said that allowing the Army to revive the lake was the best solution as so far, nothing has been done. They have technology and expertise. The Army's eco-battalion is doing a good job in cleaning River Ganga.



The government will hand over the task to contractors, who will make money. The contractors and the departments will dry up and desilt the lake. Wet dredging is ideal for such a huge water body and the Army has the technology.



Former member of the Bellandur Panchayat K Jagannath said that the government was considering the proposal by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation. But, if the Army revives it, then there is no problem, he said.


An honest essay has numerous characteristics: original thinking, a good structure, balanced arguments, and plenty more.

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Theres a limit to the quantity of actual story-telling youll do when youre writing an essay; in the end, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesnt, initially glance, feel considerably like story-telling. However, youll apply a number of the principles of story-telling to create your writing more interesting.

consider your own opinion

Take the time to figure out what its that you think instead of regurgitating the opinions of others.

Cut the waffle

Rambling on and on is dull and almost bound to lose the interest of your reader. Youre in danger of waffling if youre not completely clear about what you wish to mention or havent thought carefully about how youre visiting structure your argument. Doing all your research correctly and writing an essay plan before you begin will help prevent this problem.

Editing is a vital part of the essay-writing process, so edit the waffle once youve done a primary draft. Read through your essay objectively and eliminate the bits that arent relevant to the argument or labor the purpose.

employing a thesaurus isnt always a decent thing

Avoid using unfamiliar words in an essay; theres too great a likelihood that youre misusing them.

You may think that employing a thesaurus to seek out more complicated words will make your writing more exciting or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the incorrect effect.

Avoid repetitive phrasing

Please avoid using the identical phrase structure again and again: its a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a variety of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities and makes your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound, and complicated sentences to avoid your paper becoming predictable.

Use some figurative language

Using analogies with nature can often make concepts more accessible for readers to know.

As weve already seen, its easy to finish up rambling when youre explaining complex concepts  mainly after you dont know it yourself. One way of forcing yourself to think about a couple of pictures, present it more simply and engagingly is to form figurative language. This implies explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy.

Employ rhetorical questions

Anticipate the questions your reader might ask.

One of the ways ancient orators held the eye of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by using the statement. A decent place to use a statement is at the top of a paragraph, to steer into the following one, or at the start of a replacement section to introduce a brand new area for exploration.

Proofread

Finally, you may write the top interesting essay an instructor has ever read. Still, youll undermine your good work if its plagued by errors, which distract the reader from the particular content and can probably annoy them.
Trivikram Is A Very Good Friend And A Philosopher: Nithiin
Digital money transfer service WorldRemit and MTN Cote DIvoire have launched instant international remittances to MTN Mobile Money wallets in Cote DIvoire.

With the WorldRemit app, the Ivorian diaspora can now send overseas money transfers to any MTN Mobile Money wallet in Cote DIvoire. This means people in Cote DIvoire can now receive vital remittance payments on their phones or at any of the 10,000 nearest MTN money transfer agents as cash.

MTN Mobile Money was established in Cote DIvoire in 2009 and is one of the largest Mobile Money services in West Africa, with more than three million accounts and 10,000 point-of-sale network.

In a country where 85% of adults lack bank accounts, MTN Mobile Money plays a vital role in supplying innovative and suitable financial services to the needs of the population. It allows Ivorians to securely store, send and receive money, pay for electricity and other bills, set up a savings account, and access a range of other financial products with just their phones.

Catherine Wines, co-founder and COO, WorldRemit, said: Remittances are central to the lives of the Ivorian diaspora and the people they support back home. With Mobile Money (powered by MTN) increasingly becoming the norm in Cote DIvoire, WorldRemit and MTN are now giving Ivorians the security and convenience of receiving remittances on their phones as well.
Palau National Communications Corporation has signed an agreement with O3b Networks to increase its allotted capacity to bring faster, more reliable connectivity to Palau.

O3b Networks satellite technology enables PNCC to offer high-performance 3G mobile services to its customers in the remote island nation, with the latency and throughput required to support other technologies in the future.

Palau is comprised of more than 300 volcanic coral islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, eight of which are inhabited by more than 21,000 residents. Historically, achieving connectivity via undersea cables has been logistically challenging and cost prohibitive. This upgrade with O3b is a direct effect of the results PNCC has seen with connectivity through O3bs low-latency, high throughput Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) Satellites. O3b Networks is the only satellite operator that can deliver connectivity comparable to fibre, making it the ideal solution to bring broadband quality internet to places like Palau.

Since PNCC began its relationship with O3b in 2013, the company has experienced dramatic improvement in speed and reliability of its services. In the short 17-month relationship, PNCC has upgraded its capacity three times. In addition to supporting existing 3G data and Wi-Fi hotspots, PNCC currently supports fixed broadband using DSL. The increase demonstrates the significant impact access to reliable high-speed broadband internet has had on demand for improved services in Palau.

Just because an island nation is remote, doesn't mean it's residents should be subject to low-performance internet, said Imran Malik, Regional Vice President for the Middle East and Asia for O3b. Everyone deserves broadband connectivity, and PNCC is showing the rest of the world it can be done more easily, quickly and economically with O3b.

We launched 3G services as soon as we went live with O3b, and right away the data usage began increasing, Paulus K. Kingzio, General Manager of PNCC. We needed an international connection that would support the required 3G networks for services and applications our customers are demanding, and we found that with O3b.
Googles My Account hub now offers a Find My Phone section that will allow users to locate, lock or call their device.

Google will now offer users a new way of locating lost Android and iOS smartphones. The companys My Account hub now offers a new Find My Phone section that can be used to access a list of handsets that the user owns. Clicking on any of them brings up a list of options. These include ringing the phone or locating it on Google Maps. In addition, users can choose to lock the device with a password, and set a message and callback number for anyone who finds the phone. Users can also sign out or erase all data from the device. Google also says that the feature will soon be accessible by searching for I lost my phone on Google. Further, Google announced that users would soon be able to access the My Account hub by searching for their own name.

Guemmy Kim, Product Manager, Account Controls and Settings at Google, said in a blog post, When you entrust your data to Google, you should expect powerful security and privacy controls. These features are just the latest in our ongoing efforts to protect you and your personal information.

Google already offers a number of ways for users to help locate their smartphone. Back in 2014, the company updated the Android Device Manager that would allow the user to lock their phone or let it ring. Last year, Google introduced a feature wherein users would be able to locate their device by searching Find my phone on Google.
The Sony Xperia X has a decent display, good build and reasonably decent performance and battery life, but it is simply not flagship class. At Rs. 48,990, you inevitably have better options out there.

Sony Xperia X Dual SIM detailed review

Ive always been excited about Sony, and the technology that they work on. When the Sony Xperia X was announced at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016, the introduction of Predictive Hybrid Autofocus (PHAF) had a lot of us excited about Sony finally focussing on improving its smartphone camera. The company claims that it delivers 42 percent of DSLR camera sensors, and 36 percent of smartphone cameras are powered by Sonys sensors.





The question, though, was not just about upgrading the sensors involved, but about optimising the technology. Adding to that, Sony has focussed on design and overall ergonomics, attempting to build a flagship smartphone that not only has enough power to tackle your performance requirements, but also feels compact and ergonomic in hand.

Admittedly, the Sony Xperia X is not an outright flagship smartphone. The Sony Xperia X Performance leads Sonys 2016 lineup worldwide, although the Sony Xperia X leads Sonys portfolio in India, at least for now. The pricing, though, places it in line with the present generation flagship smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5, HTC 10 and others. How well does it fare? Lets find out.

Camera

The Sony Xperia X packs in a 23-megapixel, Exmor RS mobile imaging sensor, with RGBW pixel array, f/2.0 Sony G lens and Predictive Hybrid Autofocus, with higher focus point count. The model number has not been specified, but it is presumably an upgrade from Sonys Xperia Z5 lineup. The same is reflected in the quality of colour reproduction in photos shot by the Sony Xperia X, which still remains crisp and vibrant, but is not as oversaturated on Intelligent Auto as previously.

Sony admitted that the Xperia Z5 did not have as good a camera as its flagship peers, and aims to correct that mistake. The Xperia camera offers manual shooting adjustments, including white balance, sensitivity and multiple enhancement modes. There are, though, a lot of restrictions. For instance, shooting at 20-megapixel, 16:9 aspect ratio will not allow you to choose any of the scene modes, and most of the scenes will not allow touch focus. You are expected to rely on Sony to have accurately nailed the automatic shooting modes, and while some of them are indeed optimised well, the rest are not.

In terms of photograph quality, the Sony Xperia X does well with colours. It does not shoot flat colour control photographs, but the marginally enhanced colour and saturation levels make photographs look crisp and vibrant. Photographs are not as crisply detailed but have enough details to look appealing on smartphones. In poorly lit situations, photographs are rather noisy and lack much detail, which is a deterrent in this camera module.

On to the Predictive Hybrid Autofocus bit. In our explanation of the technology, you will find what Sony has done with it. In practical implementation, the Sony Xperia X does not focus as fast as Sony claims. It is not the fastest in the industry, but is reasonably fluid and efficient. While the camera does focus fast, the total time take to shoot a photo is still somewhat slow. Shutter response and processing is fluid, and once you have switched the camera on, shooting is actually a breeze. The Snapdragon 650 has Qualcomms Spectra ISP running in the background, and Sonys own algorithms concentrate in reading the frame for subjects and locking the subject to prevent disturbance due to subject movement or sudden jerks while using the device itself.

The technology may have been even more effective when paired with Optical Image Stabilisation, which the Xperia X somehow misses out on. In bright light situations, you may procure photographs that are similar in competence with the Apple iPhone 6s Plus and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. In low light situations, the Xperia X is barely passable  an area where Sony has been struggling for a while. Sony has also thrown in a 13-megapixel Exmor RS camera module to the front for better low light selfies, but somehow, the camera seemed to struggle with focussing in slightly dubious lighting conditions.

Sonys major focus here has been in improving low light performance, along with faster focussing. Incidentally, Samsung had the same intentions with its flagships this year, the Galaxy S7 lineup with Dual Pixel technology integrated to the sensors. While the improvements under Dual Pixel is very visible, you will be hard pushed to pinpoint the improvements that Predictive Hybrid Autofocus brings to you as an end-user. The camera looks and seems like a mid-season upgrade to the Xperia Z5, something that stretches you hard in justifying the price tag that the Sony Xperia X commands.

Build and Design

The second area where Sony has focussed on is the build and design of the smartphone, and has fared much better here than the camera. The Sony Xperia X packs in a 5-inch, 1080p display panel with a fingerprint sensor to the right, integrated with the power button. As a result of the fingerprint sensor, the bezels are around 4mm in size. If you come across the Sony Xperia XA, and particularly the XA Ultra, you will clearly notice the change in Sonys design philosophy.

What I particularly like is how Sony revamped the design statement while still sticking to its original design principle. The Sony Xperia X does not try too hard with metal and glass. Instead, it merges smoothly curved glass on the top with metal on the sides, and a sturdy, matte plastic back panel. Sony attempted pure glass with the Xperia Z5 Premium and others before that, but that may not have turned out too well. The matte plastic back feels very good in hand, and the glass on top fused with the metal rails and the 5-inch form factor make it an overall premium device. In terms of build and design, the Sony Xperia X feels like a classic Sony flagship product. The button placements are typically Sony, but I have never really faced a problem with it. The indented power button feels a tad too deep, and requires an additional amount of effort to be pressed, which is not an ideal situation. Sony has also stuck to a standard microUSB port, although an USB-C port may have improved its ease of usage.

Display and UI

The 5-inch Full HD panel on the Sony Xperia X is crisp, sharp and vibrant. The colours are sharp and great to look at, and the display is amply bright. It delivers good colour depth, leading to bright whites and deep blacks, although it is a bit on the cooler side. Nothing that the RGB toggle for display colours cannot fix, though. You will find this in the Settings menu.

Sony uses the TRILUMINOS technology with its X-Reality Mobile engine to amplify the colours, and the vibrance aids when you plan on watching movies and other videos. There is no colour shift in the display, even at very acute angles, and the touch response is smooth and fluent. I have not encountered a single missed touch or swipe on the phone yet, and Sonys Xperia UI feels smoother here, with Android Marshmallow.

Sony has added new live wallpapers to it, but they are not highly responsive. The UI also presents many of Android Marshmallows Developer Settings by default on Xperia UI (like battery percentage details), which is a good element. Ive always liked the shifting glass effects of Xperia UI, and on Marshmallow, the device feels even smoother.

Performance

Sony has powered the Xperia X with Qualcomms Snapdragon 650, along with 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The processor is well optimised, and comes under strain mostly when you attempt Sonys Predictive Hybrid Autofocus. Gaming performance is smooth and nearly flawless, with only marginal stutters when a lot of background activity is being done. But, the question also lies here: While the performance is good, it is not jaw-droppingly smooth or fast. The smartphone is functional, and takes care of all your browsing, social media, calling, texting, streaming and occasional gaming needs. It is not a multitasking beast, but is not a novice, either.

Having said that, at Rs. 48,990, you would nowadays expect a device to be a beast. The Sony Xperia X is a well-optimised device, and many may state that you would seldom need more power as an average user, but selling a smartphone based on the same processor and same amount of RAM as a smartphone priced at Rs. 11,999, is a bit hard to justify to most smartphone buyers. In a price-conscious market as India, the Sony Xperia X will be hard-pushed to find buyers beyond its niche.

In terms of audio, Sony has included its Hi-Res audio technology, and over wired channels, audio sounds very good. The internal speakers of the Sony Xperia X are among the best in its category, and while we are yet to comprehensively judge the audio delivery of HTC 10, it is one of the very well-balanced audio delivery from internal speakers.

Battery

On paper, the 2620mAh battery pack is one of the smallest. In terms of benchmarks, the Sony Xperia X survives for slightly over 10 hours. In real life, you can easily make the Sony Xperia X last for an entire work day of about twelve hours, and come back with 20 percent remaining charge. This, with lots of emails, texting, social media surfing, web browsing, occasional photography, about 15-20 minutes of gaming and streaming 30 minutes worth videos on YouTube. Sony has optimised power consumption on the device, and this is a very good thing to have done. It is slightly above the industry standard of battery life, and is not as extensive as a Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, but will see you through the day. It's not ideal battery performance from a smartphone, but it's better than many.

Bottomline

The Sony Xperia X has its strengths. It has a great display, decent performance, sublime build and decent battery life. Its main point, the camera, is yet to be as well optimised as Sony would have hoped, and at Rs. 48,990, the Sony Xperia X just does not have enough oomph to wow me. It is a good smartphone, but not one that would startle you.

Sony is on a mission of playing to its strengths, and while the Sony Xperia X is a step forward, there is still a lot that holds it back. Maybe the Sony Xperia X Performance would have been a better representation of what Sonys path to innovation stands for, but it is not being launched in India, yet.
Brent crude slid back below $50 as members of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC) failed to agree on output levels at their meeting, although the need to draw inventories down from levels above the five-year average was acknowledged.

There were suggestions that the talks would seek some agreement on an output ceiling, but this looked unlikely as Iran, having just emerged from the yoke of international sanctions, was keen to boost production to generate much needed revenue and therefore would not agree to any cap.

Brent crude hit $48.99, while West Texas Intermediate fell 1.8% to $48.19.

The cartel said crude oil production was 1m barrels a day (b/d) lower than its peak at the beginning of 2015 with global demand anticipated to expand by 1.2m b/d after growing at 1.5m b/d during 2015.

"This demand growth remains relatively healthy considering recent economic challenges and developments," it said in its closing statement.

"The conference observed that, since its last meeting in December 2015, crude oil prices have risen by more than 80%, supply and demand is converging and oil and product stock levels in the OECD have recently shown relative moderation," OPEC said.

"This is testament to the fact that the market is moving through the balancing process. The latest numbers, however, still show OECD and non-OECD inventories standing well above the five-year average and these need to be drawn down to normal levels."

"The conference also noted the very low investment level currently prevailing in the oil industry and emphasized the need to increase upstream investment in order to achieve long-term balance in the oil markets."

Member countries also confirmed their commitment to a "stable and balanced oil market, with prices at levels that are suitable for both producers and consumers", OPEC added.

Saudi Arabia's new energy minister, Khaled al-Falih earlier said the market was "rebalancing as we speak".

"Demand is extremely healthy and robust. Non-Opec supply is declining. Prices will respond to the rebalancing of the market," he said at the start of the meeting.

Mohammed Bin Saleh Al-Sada, Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry and president of the OPEC conference told delegates at the start of the meeting that world demand remained healthy and the market now appeared to be rebalancing as the lower oil price led to a scaling back of producion and exploration.

From the supply perspective, in the first half of this year, we have seen a further downward revision to the 2016 outlook for non-OPEC supply. We now anticipate a contraction of 740,000 barrels per day this year. This is more than 2m barrels per day lower than the growth of 2015, he said.

This trend stems mainly from reduced cashflows, investment cutbacks and the deferral or cancellation of projects.

It is evident that these developments point to a more balanced market in the second half of this year, with demand for OPEC crude averaging around 32.5m barrels per day during this period. The overall demand increase year-on-year for OPEC crude is around 1.8m per day.

However, we do need to appreciate that stock levels remain high. The five-year average for OECD commercial stocks is currently at a surplus of around 360m barrels. It is important that we take note of this figure on a downward trend. A more stable and balanced market will be beneficial to all.

Al Sada said global exploration and production spending fell by around 20% last year, and a further 15% drop was anticipated this year.

This is a major concern for an industry that generally sees investments increasing year on year to sustain production. It is important to keep in mind the link between the marginal cost of production, the oil price and investments, he added.
Hikma Pharmaceuticals ' promotion to the FTSE 100 index was confirmed after the latest quarterly review was announced overnight, while demoted blue chip Inmarsat was joined in the FTSE 250 by three recently floated finance groups CYBG , CMC Markets and Metro Bank plus several others.

Smurfit Kappa, Ascential, Countryside Properties and Hill & Smith were also promoted to the mid-cap index, where along with the other newcomers will be officially added by FTSE Russell on 20 June.

As indicated recently, Inmarsat rejoins the mid-cap index after just a year as its shares were hit when the satellite group cut its full-year revenue guidance by $50m amid an ongoing recession in global maritime and energy markets.

Demoted from the 250 were Lookers, Melrose Industries, Northgate, Ophir Energy, Interserve, Jimmy Choo and the Highbridge Multi-Strategy Fund.

CYBG is the holding company that owns Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank consumer lending brands, which was floated by National Australia Bank in February. Its shares have surged from their 180p float price, where it had a market capitalisation of 1.58bn, to 275p.

Joining in the same month but with a debut valuation of less than half that was CMC Markets, the spreadbetting firm founded by Peter Cruddas in 1989, it has gained ground at a slower rate, rising from an initial 240p to above 270p recently.

Metro Bank is a more recently formed challenger bank that had its initial public offer at a price of 2,000p in March after being founded by US businessman Vernon Hill in 2010. It has since risen to 2,241p where it has a capitalisation of 1.8bn.

Irish based paper-packaging company Smurfit Kappa was added after changing to a dual listing, with London now its primary listing and Dublin secondary.

Another February flotation, Countryside Properties is a housebuilder with high growth aspirations and market leading position in public-sector housing redevelopment. Since listing at a price of 225p and a market cap of 1.01bn, the shares were hiked up above 275p by encouraging interim results in May.

Ascential, the publisher formerly known as Emap and Top Right, had 35% of its equity floated in February by private equity firm Apax and Guardian Media at a price of 200p that gave the group an 0.8bn valuation. The shares have since risen to 238p.

Hill & Smith Holdings, an infrastructure product and galvanising services provider, has the longest stock market history, having floated in 1969. After an uninspiring decade, since the millennium the shares have surged from around 60p to around 925p, including a leap from just over 400p in the last three years.

As indicated by the comments from some, all the companies should expect to see benefits for shareholders and attract new institutional and retail investors.

"Inclusion in the FTSE 250 Index is another significant milestone for us all at CMC and we look forward to widening our existing strong investor base with new shareholders," said CMC founder and chief executive Peter Cruddas.

Smurfit CEO Tony Smurfit said: "We expect our inclusion in the FTSE AllShare to provide an incremental benefit to our shareholders. Over time, our new dual listing arrangement should widen the base of investors eligible to invest in the group while further strengthening the liquidity in our shares."
3 weeks until crucial UK referendum on whether to stick or twist on EU

Speculation is rife these days as Britain's future in the European Union comes increasingly under scrutiny by the upcoming 23rd June referendum. Travel is obviously one of the issues firmly planted in the minds of the population, as millions of Brits flock to European destinations for sun, fun and culture. How would Brexit affect your holiday?



Will family holidays cost hundreds more?

The remain vote believes that the price of various aspects of foreign travel would increase substantially with the expected fall in value of the euro. David Cameron said last week that a typical holiday cost would rise by at least 57 pounds, which is based upon the Treasury prediction that the currency would lose 12%.

David Cameron said last week that a typical holiday cost would rise by at least 57 pounds

This assumes that every cost incurred during a trip is valued in Sterling, which of course it isn't. Key expenditures such as aircraft and fuel are priced in foreign currency, but air crew wages and Air Passenger Duty would still be valued in pounds.

Will we see the end of cheap flights?

Open skies is one of the most significant benefits of EU membership from an ordinary citizen's perspective. Airlines have been free to fly between any two places since 1994, leading to the the emergence of Easyjet and Ryanair as big players in the market.

Outers point out that Norwegian flies successfully within Europe and has managed to avoid sky high prices, although this assertion appears to be a weak one. It's more probable that prices would increase, leaving customers out of pocket.

Will we see the resurgence of roaming charges?

The European Union has made inroads into squeezing mobile phone companies' roaming charges which have been causing holidaymakers heartache for years. From July next year the extra fees will bhe completely scrapped, having already been reduced considerably this year. The remain side say that "these arrangements, which benefit millions of British travellers every year, would not be guaranteed to continue were the UK to leave the European Union".

It's difficult to fathom that in any case a British government would bring back the fees, but anything is possible.

Will we need visas to head to the Mediterranean?

Unlikely. Britain's tourism deficit rests heavily towards what we spent abroad rather than what we attract in tourism income. Bar and hotel owners in Spain, Greece and Portugal reap the benefit of this factor, and their governments surely wouldn't provide too much of an obstruction to the Brits flocking to their beaches.

Britain's tourism deficit rests heavily towards what we spent abroad rather than what we attract in tourism income

Will foreign healthcare get more expensive?

European Health Insurance Cards provide the same healthcare as the locals of the country, true. But Britain already had various health agreements with several EU countries prior to the sweeping changes to health brought in by the body. It's likely that a similar set of agreements would be put in place, but many travel insurance companies have the possibility of hiking up premiums for those without the cards.
Digitimes Research: Global OEM AIO PC market to undergo drastic change in 2016

The landscape of the global OEM AIO (all-in-one) PC market will undergo a dramatic change in 2016 as number-two maker TPV-Inventa Technology begins making its gradual exit from the segment, according to Digitimes Research.

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How are Black residents here doing compared to rest of U.S.?

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SOMERS, Conn. (AP)  A Connecticut home that is a replica of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello has been sold at auction for more than $2.1 million, far below the $7.7 million it cost to build just two years ago.

The listing agent, Sherri Milkie of William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, tells The Republican newspaper of Springfield, Massachusetts, that the 10,000-square foot home in Somers was sold Tuesday to a local doctor. She did not disclose a name.





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Gortahork hosted events over the weekend to mark the strong association Colaiste Uladh had with three of the Easter Rising leaders.

Colaiste Uladh was established in Gortahork in 1906 to help foster and revival of the Irish language and culture which was taking place countrywide at the time.

The central figures in the early days of the college development were also prominent leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. They were, Padraig Mac Piarais, Joseph Mary Plunkett and Roger Casement. The weekend was preceeded by a number of events held on Thursday evening.

A parade led by Cloughaneely Band took place from the Church of Christ the King up to Colaiste Uladh. There were a number of stops for street plays based on Mac Piarais, Plunkett and Casement.

The first stop was opposite the old cemetery where Constable Charles McGee a native of Inis Bo Finne is interred. He was the first member of the R.I.C. to have died in the Easter Rising. His great great grand niece, Aoibhinn Ni Bhriain gave a talk about Constable McGees life. The procession then proceeded to the grounds of Gortahork national school where a number of cultural events including, singing, music, poetry and short sketches took place.

They then went on to the former Colaiste Uladh. The proclamation was read by school children. 105 year old, Mrs. Biddy Greene, Ardsbeg, Gortahork was on hand to raise the national flag.

There was a very large crowd in attendance. Afterwards local historian and author, Noel O Gallchoir presented his highly acclaimed one-man-show, O Pheann and Phiarsaigh. The celebrations continued on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Pictured: The first class of Colaiste Uladh in 1906.

Local school children taking part in the celebrations in Gortahork
It was with considerable regret that natives of Ballina learned of the untimely passing of Kevin McNamara, son of Eileen and Padraic McNamara, Bohernasup, Ballina.

At the time of his passing, Kevin was in his 11th year of service as Chaplain to Letterkenny Hospital where he was much loved and renowned for his patient kindness and willingness to serve his patients.

Educated at St. Muredach's College, Ballina, he studied theology subsequently at St. Patrick's College, Maynooth before attending the Angelicum University in Rome where he obtained a Bachelors in Sacred Theology.

Imbued with a charitable and caring nature, he was devoted to his profession and always went the extra mile with his patients in their time of need. The night before his unexpected passing from his grieving family and friends he attended three separate wakes to comfort the bereaved in surrounding Letterkenny, little knowing the favour would so soon be returned in earnest by those he had comforted.

He loved his work, was deeply conscientious in the execution of his Christian duties and did so with little account of the many hours giving without counting and the personal cost his dedication required of him.

In return, the affection returned by his many patients, friends and colleagues brought him great joy, and the scenes of grief that accompanied his sudden passing were a testament to the esteem and affection in which all held him. He found his continued role as Catholic Chaplain deeply fulfilling, and he brought much laughter and solace to many a bedside with his ability to relate funny stories and items of news to distract from their suffering and pain.

His charitable endeavours did not end with the onerous duties of a hospital chaplain. He also volunteered his able services to the local Mary's Meals Group and entered into this role with equal selflessness and a spirit of giving. His arrival brought a smile to many a face, and he befriended the old and disabled with sincere affection and took a personal interest in their spiritual well being.

A former Mayor of Letterkenny, Paschal Blake said Kevin's passing, at so young an age, leaves a huge void in the lives of so many people. Kevin always carried out his pastoral duties in a quiet and dignified manner. He was a great support to patients and families in often tough circumstances.

His remains reposed at the Letterkenny Hospital Chapel, where he spent many an hour in prayer followed by a Mass the following morning. The hospital by all account came to a standstill, and the large crowds were a testimony to the esteem in which his adopted community held Kevin.

He was a regular visitor to his home in Ballina and renewed his cherished familial bonds with his mother Eileen and father Padraic. He had planned several trips over the coming months to include a trip to Canada with his beloved parents to visit his brother Patrick, a doctor in Toronto. These plans are regrettably not to be, leaving a great void in the lives of his extended family.

May the Lord reward him for his many services and may he rest in peace.
Halloween creatures  owls, crows and bats  all live at Crossroads, and that makes us very happy, for these scary animals make a positive contribution to the habitats of the preserve. We don't even mind black cats, IF they are kept indoors. Feral and outdoor cats are exceedingly harmful to wildlife ... and that's not a superstition! But to tamp down superstitions, we at Crossroads will spend the week demystifying Halloween creatures.

On October 28, 2022, at 6 p.m. will be our Evening with Owls. The Open Door Bird Sanctuary will be at Crossroads, offering a one-hour presentation followed by the opportunity to meet and greet live birds. Learn all about owls and the other incredible birds in the care of the Sanctuary!

Down through the centuries, in many cultures throughout the world, owls have been associated with evil and death. Truth is, owls probably are not smart enough to be evil. But researchers agree that owls are about as dim as the nighttime forests in which they hunt.

Owls don't need to be smart. They have everything else going for them. They are muscular. They fly silently. Their huge eyes enable them to see in the dark. Their beaks and talons are strong and wickedly sharp. But their sensitive ears are what make owls extraordinary hunters.

Most people assume that the plumicorns (a.k.a. "horns) of an owl are its ears. Not so.

The actual ears lie under feathers on the sides of the head, and they aren't symmetrical. Because one ear is higher than the other and the ears are unequal in size, sound is different from different directions, helping owls locate prey, which they do almost unfailingly, even in total darkness.

Owls do not smell their prey. As with most birds, the sense of smell is insignificant, if it exists are all. Great Horned Owls frequently prey on skunks. Enough said.

But well-developed intelligence? Researchers have observed owls beating their wings on bushes to try to flush out little birds. Is this learned behavior? Is it problem-solving?

Maybe.

For the most part, owls do not have a lot of problems to solve. They appropriate abandoned nests of other birds, so they don't need building skills. They are stealthy by nature, and they pounce on and usually catch anything they hear, so they don't need hunting techniques.

In spite of ghost stories, legends of American First People, and superstitions from Europe and India, hooting owls do not foretell impending death, although their nocturnal calls are spooky. We hear them now and then this time of year, but we will regularly hear those eerie calls at Crossroads in January or February.

In contrast to owls, crows are noisy all year round and they are amazingly intelligent. They can learn. They can remember. They can solve problems. They can even identify individual humans. And they detest owls, though whether this is innate or learned behavior is not clear.

Those curious about crows will want to attend the Crossroads Book Club on Wednesday, October 26, at 10:00 a.m. This month, the book Crow Planet, Essential Wisdom for the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt will explore the fascinating world of these remarkable birds. The program is free and open to all, whether or not they have read the book.

So bring the family to our program on owls, learn about crows at the Crossroads Book Club, or learn about bats at our pre-school Junior Nature Club on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. or our Family Science Saturday program at 2:00 p.m. Costumes are encouraged but not required at Junior Nature Club and Science Saturday, and adult visitors are welcome.
As Jeff Davis emptied the fryer and prepped his Copper Kettle diner early Thursday morning he thought he heard a bomb exploding.

I just seen the lights flicker, and the whole building shook, then I just ducked down, said Keith Jacobs, Davis son, also on duty at the downtown Headland diner Thursday.

An explosion and fire leveled two structures at 5:57 a.m. and left a few blocks covered with ash Thursday morning. The event also left a man severely injured from burns.

Right now the prime harmful event was an explosion in one house, Headland Fire Capt. Tony Wilkerson said. Apparently the embers or something else caught the house next door on fire.

Wilkerson said fire fighters found one man inside the home that exploded. He was taken to Southeast Alabama Medical Center for treatment.

Wilkerson said both structures were considered a total loss. He said the second building was an old home turned into an antique business called Junktiques. The Junktiques business faces Forrest Street in Headland and backs up to the home that exploded.

Wilkerson said authorities have launched a criminal investigation.

Right now were treating it as a crime as a precaution, Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson said its too early in the investigation to know what caused the explosion. He said the fire is being investigated by the Headland Police Department, the Dothan Fire Department, and its K-9 unit, along with officials from the Alabama Fire Marshals Office. He also said officials with the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) have been contacted because the incident involved an explosion.

The Headland Police Department released a statement on its Facebook page late Thursday morning stating streets from Main to Roberts are closed as officials continue to investigate the explosion. The police statement said the hot dog shop next to the home that exploded suffered major damages.

The explosion and house fire also left the drive-through closed at the nearby Headland National Bank located on the square of downtown Headland.

Dwight Gamble, the CEO and president of the bank, said the bank has a second branch located on U.S. 431, which has a drive-through open for its customers. The back of the downtown branch, which includes the drive-through, is across the street from the antique shop, which caught fire and burned.

Everything is OK, but we may have some roof issues, Gamble said. Weve got a local guy coming over to check it out.

Gamble said he found some dust-like residue on the desks of the second-floor of the bank.

They just told me it shook the bank pretty hard, Gamble said. Its amazing you dont think anything like that will happen in Headland. You dont ever know what a day holds.
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Moorehall Lodge will be the centre of festivities when the Tain March arrives at one of its spiritual homes in Ardee on Friday (June 3) at 1.30pm.

Ardonians are asked to gather at Moorehall Lodge when the march, led by Queen Maeve, rolls into the town at the centre of the Cuchulainn legend.

The march will be accompanied by members of the 27th Infantry Battalion, from Aiken Barracks in Dundalk, and will be met by a pageant involving the Ardee community as a whole.

The nine-day heritage march starts in Co Roscommon and follows the route of Queen Maeve and her army, ending on the shores of Carlingford Lough in Omeath on Monday June 6.

Ardee  otherwise known as the Ford of Ferdia  is at the heart of the Tains mythology, and is the scene of the fight between Cuchulainn and Ferdia for the Brown Bull of Cooley, said Frances Byrne, Social and Recreational Activities coordinator at Moorehall Lodge Ardee.

The community have come together to give Queen Maeves army a real Ardee welcome, with music, art, performance and plenty of craic.

Music is going to be supplied by The Monastery National School tin whistle group, led by Bartle Woods, playing a specially-composed March tune by Gerry OConnor.

The Scoil Mhuire Na Trocaire girls school will be at the heart of the pageant with their home-made shields.

Anna Keenan and the Ardee Ladies Group have made a Celtic tapestry of Cuchulainn and Ferdia, and poetry will be recited by Alice Carolan, said Breege Conlon, Moorehall Retirement Village Co-ordinator.

The residents of Moorehall Lodge nursing home and Moorehall Retirement Village have been busy making brooches and tabards with our resident artist Rachel, and our staff and residents will be dressed up in period costume for the occasion.

Professor Paul Gosling, a renowned expert on The Tain and its archeological history will be talking on the significance of the march in Ferdia House.

We will also be hosting an exhibition on Ardees part in the March in Ferdia House.
Donald Trump is involved in a number of scandals this week. First, his swindling of Trump University students has made the national spotlight when the Washington Post convinced the judge overseeing the case to release internal Trump U. documents to the public. That sham operation is still unfolding and the sleazy media thats daring to do its job by investigating Trumps integrity will continue to face harsh rebukes from Trump, a man who counts on his supporters to like him MORE when his unethical and immoral actions are made public. Its a small demographic, thankfully, but they are all his.

The Washington Post was also instrumental in pulling back the covers on Trumps fundraising for veterans. On, January 28th, Trump rebuffed Fox News and their Republican presidential debate and instead held what he billed as a fundraiser for veterans. He went public multiple times claiming to have raised $6 million including $1 million of his own money.

Four months later, the Post couldnt find any veterans group that had received money and so they went asking. Finally, after posting a piece about it, Trump finally started doling out the checks after kiting their money for four months.

In his press conference yesterday Trump ludicrously blamed the whole thing on the media, calling the journalist who wrote the original piece a sleaze and, without any apparent irony at all, characterized American media outlets as being unbelievably dishonest. He also earned a Pants on Fire Politifact rating for his statement that he wanted to keep it private, because I dont think its anybodys business if I want to send money to the vets.

All of this prompted Dana Milbank to write this scathing bit of truth:

So, students, to review: Trump University encouraged people to run up high-interest credit card debt to learn how to profit from the financial collapse by borrowing more money to help a family in crisis by taking away their foreclosed homes. And all this was a public service by Trump, who pledged to give his proceeds to charity but never did  and who now is calling the U.S.-born federal judge presiding over his fraud case a Mexican. By comparison, the veterans who waited four months to receive Trumps largesse did relatively well.

As it turns out, one of the groups that got some of that sweet, sweet Trump #VetGate cash was Michigans own Foundation for American Veterans. The group has received an F rating from the charity watchdog group CharityWatch after they were found to spend ONLY 10% of the money they raise to help veterans.

The Foundation for American Veterans, based in Michigan, received an F from the group CharityWatch. The Better Business Bureau issued an alert about the group in January, citing a pattern and high volume of complaints and customer reviews that alleged customers received a high volume of what they consider to be harassing phone calls from the groups solicitors. The BBB said the group had blamed the problem on its telemarketer. An examination of the groups tax filings shows that the foundation spent just $2.4 million of its total $8 million budget on helping veterans directly in 2014. The group spent the rest of the money in 2014 on fundraising and management expenses, with $3.5 million paid out to professional fundraising companies. Another $2 million went toward salaries and general expenses, including billing and collection services.

One of those professional fundraising companies is Associated Community Services (ACS), also from Michgian. As it turns out, ACS has gotten into big trouble with the Michigan Attorney Generals Office for their very shady practices. Attorney General Schuette was particularly incensed that ACS was convincing donors, often veterans themselves, that it was a legitimate group because they were on file with the Attorney Generals office. This, according to Schuette, has nothing to do with the legitimacy of a fundraiser or charity. You can listen to one of their deceptive solicitations HERE.

Shady people like Trump, who Sec. Hillary Clinton yesterday called a fraud who is trying scam America, like to pal around (if youll excuse the Sarah Palinism) with other shady people. Trump and his minions could easily have found veterans groups with good CharityWatch ratings. Instead, one of the groups that got his #VetGate cash was a sham front for profiteers enriching themselves by exploiting veterans.

Just like Trump exploited victims of the Bush Recession to enrich himself.

[CC image credit: Gage Skidmore | Flickr]
You have to take the threat of Trump becoming president seriously, but you shouldnt treat him as a serious person, Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to President Obama, recently told The New York Times.

Get it? You dont have to squint to see a bit of Ronald Reagan in his rise and it would be easy to do what Republicans did and underestimate to extent of his appeal to several different voting constituencies.

But this isnt 1980. The general electorate isnt the GOP base. And Trumps nuclear tantrum at the press who hounded him about donations he was supposed to make to veterans revealed a man who is unprepared for the scrutiny of a presidential campaign despite his wealth of questionable interests and ethical lapses that demand such scrutiny.

With his alleged wealth built inherited privileged, confidence schemes, tax avoidance, all in service of cultivating his brand, hes the personification everything thats wrong with our economy, which has been engineered to make life easy for the few born winners who take all while leaving the rest of us on the constant hunt for a gig.

I have a simple wish for this crucially important election, which must be won because it could decide the Supreme Court for generations: The same way the press forced him to make good on his promises to veterans charities, I want the tax dodges that rich developers like Trump use to get us to subsidize their lifestyle exposed and fixed.

Just as Mitt Romneys loss personally cost him because the president ended many of the Bush tax breaks for the rich, Trumps loss should end up personally costing him  possibly forcing him to pay his first federal taxes in decades.

Lets not just beat Trump. Lets end his free ride.

[CC image credit: Gage Skidmore | Flickr]
Alumna, Mary Albritton Douglas, humbled by honorary doctorate of public service

By Kesha Williams

You never stop learning.

Thats an impressive statement from Mary Albritton Douglas. Albritton Douglas, a scholar-educator, who was the valedictorian of her 1948 high school class at Washington Colored High School in Beaufort County, earned undergraduate and a masters degree from Elizabeth City State and Columbia Universities. She also taught elementary and middle school students for more than 30 years in Maryland and New York.

Her learning continued as a volunteer for 30 years at a New York hospital and by traveling as an adult to every continent on the globe except Antarctica.

Albritton Douglas, one of ECSUs most active alumnae, laughs when describing her travels. She acknowledges that she has been a roadrunner of sorts.

I have been places I never thought I would go, seen people I thought I would never see, she said.

She has visited Rome, Italy, twice; Sydney, Australia; Barcelona, Spain; Nairobi, Kenya. There were trips to the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Haiti, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Panama Islands, and half the states in the United States.

As a young teacher in the New York public schools, Albritton Douglas journeyed during the summers on excursions arranged for teachers to learn the customs and norms of other countries. Some of her leisure trips were made with her sorority sisters of Sigma Gamma Rho. Others were tours she took with fellow church members. Whether the tour was for pleasure or professional development, Albritton Douglas said she was amazed by the lessons she learned on each trip.

When I was in Kenya, I took a safari. We rode on a bus and saw tigers, lions and elephants come in quietly for water or food then wander away, Albritton Douglas recalled.

It was nothing like the African jungle scenes you might have seen in old Hollywood movies. If it was a tour we took as teachers, we were expected to spend some time in the company of local citizens learning how they shop or prepare food. Then we had to prepare a report based on our observations.

One teacher took me to visit her family. They lived in a small place. It had a dirt floor, a simple place in a Nairobi, Kenya village. She also asked if I would like to see her school, she continued. It was a simple place, a wooden structure where children with bare feet came to learn. They were so glad to meet a Black teacher from the United States. They asked if there were many Blacks in America because all of the magazines they received showed only white Americans.

She assured them there were many Black Americans and they worked in all sorts of jobs in the U.S. Despite the condition of the schools or the communities she visited, Albritton Douglas said she tried to inspire the children and the people she met. She returned home eager to relay the lessons learned to her son and daughter, and to her husband. Albritton Douglas describes him as an independent, Army veteran who was comfortable running the home when his wife was on travel. He enjoyed spending summer days with their kids.

After their children graduated from college and her husband of nearly 30 years died, Albritton Douglas said she saw no reason to sit home like many retirees. Volunteering for 30 years as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) at a Bronx hospital and encouraging hospice patients allowed her to give something special to people in need. Instead of the elementary or middle school pupils she taught in the past, it was an elderly population she turned to. Many were necessary tasks not completed by medical professionals, yet the purest acts of humilitychanging bed linens, changing diapers, helping to groom patients. Some were nearing the end of life. It was an opportunity for Albritton Douglas to assure an aging population, some who had few visitors, that someone still cared.

Ive had a full life so Id rather be out helping someone than home watching TV. After Id done the duties I was trained to do as a CNA, Id go around and visit the patients. Id go in and say something nice, brighten their day, Albritton Douglas said. I tell grieving family members dont let them (patients) see you crying. Help them plan ahead for a funeral or burial if that is what they want. Reduce their stress. None of us are here to stay after all. 

Albritton Douglas has an impressive record of helping others complete their plans. She has been a dedicated scholarship donor for Elizabeth City State University since 2001. On past occasions, she was humbled by thank-you notecards she received from ECSU students who wrote her after receiving scholarships. The cost of college is as much a factor now as it was 60 years ago when she was a student on campus. She recalls being proud to become a member of the college honor society and to repeat the feat she achieved in high school. She met instructors and administrators at Elizabeth City State Teachers College who would make life-long impressions on their students. Albritton Douglas said her relationships with her fellow classmates were an important part of her college experience. She and her peers werent aware, but their generation was on the brink of an incredible lifestyle change for northeastern North Carolinians.

After we graduated, we were standing around crying. We had met more people here than we ever thought we would know. Wed been here four years together and it was hard to imagine moving on and not seeing each other anymore. Some stayed in the South to work and some moved to the Northern states to work. I didnt return to Washington County (NC) for 22 years, Albritton Douglas recalled.

Graduating and becoming a successful teacher allowed her to reach a personal goal she had set and one she promised her family she would achieve. It was possible because dedicated ECSU faculty and administrators were determined to produce a new generation of professionals. Her undergraduate degree was the foundation that led to additional professional accomplishments and journeys beyond her dreams. Recalling that journey was all the motivation she needed to begin investing in others. Her scholarship donations are now her investments in the dreams and future accomplishments of current ECSU students.

I am doing what alumni should do. It doesnt take a lot of money to get started. Just give as you can.

The theatre inside the Walter N. and Henrietta B. Ridley Student Complex was named in her honor in 2009. She was also the Grand Marshal of the 2009 Homecoming parade. On May 14, the university presented Albritton Douglas with an honorary doctorate degree of public service. Volunteering at the middle school she retired from and volunteering at the hospital, allowed her to give service from her heart--she never thought it would result in such a public award.

I was surprised when they told me I would receive it, but I am so proud of this degree. It was just wonderful to attend the commencement and to be part of that day with the graduates.
(Photo: World Council of Churches)

German lawmakers have declared the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a "genocide" in a symbolic resolution which could damage relations with Turkey while Berlin and its European partners engage in tackling the migrant crisis.

Turkey responded by recalling its ambassador from Berlin after the motion was approved, The Guardian reported June 2 after the motion was passed.

Turkey's prime minister had said such a motion would test relations between the two countries at a sensitive time.

Turkey rejects the idea that the killings of Christian Armenians during World War One amounted to a genocide and a spokesman for the ruling AK Party responded swiftly to the vote, saying it had "seriously damaged" relations, Reuters reported.

Only one lawmaker voted against and another abstained, as the parliament approved overwhelmingly by a show of hands the resolution titled "Remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in 1915 and 1916," Agence France-Presse reported.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned "the resolution adopted by the German parliament will seriously affect relations between Germany and Turkey."

The timing was bruising for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has backed a deal under which Turkey has agreed to stem the flow of refugees to Europe in return for cash, visa-free travel rights and accelerated talks on European Union membership.

The resolution which was initiated by the opposition Greens and was also backed by lawmakers in Merkel's conservative bloc and the Social Democrats with whom she shares power in the federal government.

"With one vote against and one abstention, this resolution has been passed by a remarkable majority of the German Bundestag," said Norbert Lammert, the president of the lower house of parliament.

The five-page paper was co-written by parliamentarians from the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Green party.

"We wish Germany would not allow such an irrational issue," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told ruling party members, hours before the vote, Reuters news agency reported.

"It was an ordinary event that occurred during wartime conditions in 1915," he said at a news conference.

In April last year world political and church leaders including France's Francois Hollande, Russia's Vladimir Putin and the head of the World Council of Churches, Olav Fykse Tveit, in Yerevan marked 100 years since the start of the Armenian genocide.

Many countries recognize that some 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of Ottoman forces between 1915 and 1917.

Turkey, which became a nation following the dissolution of the Ottoman empire, does not recognize the killing the Armenian as genocide and says many Turks died in an Armenian uprising.
NASHVILLE, Tennessee  The refreshed 2017 Nissan GT-R Premium coupe will arrive at Nissan dealerships in mid-July with a starting price of $111,585, Nissan North America announced on Thursday.

The price includes a $1,595 destination charge and reflects an $8,220 increase over the base 2016 Nissan GT-R Premium.

The 2017 GT-R Premium is the first of four 2017 GT-R models. Prices for the additional trim levels will be announced at a later date, Nissan said in a statement.

Options include $3,000 Super Silver exterior paint and a $4,000 charge for premium interior packages. They are Rakuda Tan, Amber Red and Ivory.

Nissan said the improvements to the 2017 GT-R are the most dramatic upgrades since the car launched in the U.S. as a 2009 model.

On the performance side, the 2017 GT-R delivers an extra 20 horsepower and 4 more pound-feet of torque, courtesy of additional turbo boost and a more advanced ignition timing system. Output totals now stand at 565 hp and 467 lb-ft of torque.

The GT-R also features a stiffer chassis and revised suspension for sharper handling.

A titanium exhaust system that features Active Noise Cancellation and Active Sound Enhancement is now standard on the GT-R Premium model.

Key competitors to the GT-R include the BMW M6, Chevrolet Corvette and Porsche 911.

Edmunds says: Car shoppers in this segment should note that the 2017 GT-R gets a major round of enhancements and a price increase.
High school graduation rates have received a lot of news coverageand mixed reactionsin the past few months.

President Barack Obama and 19 governors hailed increasing graduation rates in their annual addresses. At the same time, leading journalists and policy wonks have raised questions about those gains and the value of a high school diploma.

How can we make sense of this optimism and skepticism? Lets take it one step at a time.

First, there is no denying the progress in graduation rates. Just 10 years ago, the nations on-time high school graduation rate was hovering around 70 percent , where it had been stuck for decades. Today, the graduation rate is 82.3 percent , the highest in history. And, significantly, weve seen the greatest increases among students of color and students from low-income families.

As a result, over the past 12 years, there have been about 2 million additional on-time high school graduates, according to researchers at Americas Promise Alliance, of which I am the CEO. Thats great news for those young people, their families, and their communities.

It is also a success story for the nation. At a time when political discord is high and stalemate persists on Capitol Hill, the increase in high school graduation rates offers a happier narrative. This is a bipartisan success story that spans a Republican and a Democratic presidential administration and owes a great deal to former U.S. Secretaries of Education Margaret Spellings and Arne Duncan.

Spellings and Duncan shared a passion and determination to improve graduation rates. Both sought better outcomes for all students, created accountability systems, and devoted resources to creating the conditions that helped more young people succeed in school.

This is also a success story written at kitchen tables, in schools and communities where students, families, educators, and leaders of nonprofit organizations, churches, and businesses did the hard work to produce better results.

There is no magic to this work. The progress thats been made is a testament to the fact that so many people subscribed to a big goal, changed their expectations and behaviors, and stuck with it over time. Those who are skeptical should be careful not to disparage the efforts of people who took this challenge seriously and worked hard to make it happen.

Still, this is hardly a high-five moment. More than half a million young people left high school without graduating in 2014, this years annual Building a Grad Nation Report found. And sobering graduation gaps for certain student groups persist .

Nationally, 74.6 percent of low-income students graduated on time in 2014, compared with 89 percent of non-low-income studentsa gap of 14.4 percentage points. The gap for students with disabilities is more than 21 percentage points. Its 14.7 percentage points for African-American students and 10.9 percentage points for Latino students, compared with their white peers.

But gaps are not the only trouble spot. There are still roughly 2,400 schools (with 100 or more students) that fail to achieve even a 67 percent graduation rate. Across the nation, these low-graduation-rate high schools enroll 1.23 million students.

A high school diploma doesn't guarantee success, but the lack of a diploma consigns a young person to almost-certain failure."

New research in the same report also shows that a disproportionate number of the low-graduation-rate schools with 100 or more students are alternative, charter, or virtual schools. Traditional public high schools account for 41 percent of low-graduation-rate high schools and are where a majority of the students who do not graduate on time can be found.

Although alternative, charter, and virtual schools collectively make up 14 percent of high schools and enroll 8 percent of high school students, they make up 52 percent of low-graduation-rate high schools nationwide and produce 20 percent of the students who dont graduate.

As the national high school graduation rate continues to rise, leading media and research outletsincluding The New York Times, NPR, and the Thomas B. Fordham Institutehave raised serious questions. Are some districts lowering the bar or cooking the books to increase graduation rates? What does it mean when states discontinue or change high school exit exams? Should diplomas certify that graduates are college-ready?

Overall, the evidence shows that, in most places, high school graduation rates and more-rigorous standards are rising together . The results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress High School Transcript Study show that the trends are moving in the right direction: In 2009, a greater percentage of high school graduates completed a curriculum that was more challenging than it was in 1990 or 2005.

Since 2009, the number of students taking the ACT and the SAT is up. If standards were lowered, one would expect scores to decrease, but theyve stayed basically flat. The number of students taking Advanced Placement tests is also way up, as is the number of students passing at least one of them.

Recently released NAEP scores show that reading scores have stagnated, while math scores have dropped slightly. At a time of rising graduation rates, this seeming disconnect between attainment (graduation) and achievement (NAEP scores) begs for closer analysis.

Documented examples of gaming the system are comparatively rare and dont involve enough students to have a major impact on graduation rates. For example, after admitting that dropouts had been misclassified as transfers, Chicago school officials lowered the official graduation rate for 2014 from 69.4 percent to 66.3 percent. Thats still in the same (too low) ballpark, but it is an increase over previous years.

While some see the elimination of exit exams as an indication of lower standards, Stanford University research published in 2009 (by what is now the Center for Education Policy Analysis) shows that in some states, like California, exit exams have had a negative impact on graduation rates without improving student achievement .

And several studies make the case that grade point average is a better predictor of success in college than standardized tests anyway.

Still, vigilance is warranted. The real goal is not just to graduate more young people, but to keep more young people on the path to success in adulthood. Giving false diplomas or passing students who arent ready helps no one.

Thats why those of us working to increase graduation rates are equally forceful in insisting that we must continue to raise the bar and the value of a diploma.

The challenge of raising graduation rates and graduation standards doesnt lend itself to easy answers. Districts that are making progress are doing some combination of smart things, like using data to make decisions, working to increase teacher quality, raising expectations for all students, paying attention to early warning signs, adding more caring adults into the lives of young people living in challenging circumstances, fighting chronic absenteeism, and eliminating disciplinary practices that disproportionately impact students of color.

In todays economy, a high school diploma doesnt guarantee success, but the lack of a diploma consigns a young person to almost-certain failure. It is our responsibility to prevent schools from foreclosing their students futures.

Weve demonstrated that progress is possible, and now we must redouble our efforts to help millions more young people get and stay on track to adult success.
Of all the terms used to describe Alexandria Area High School in Alexandria, Minn., one that comes up frequently is flexible.

Perhaps the reason is because the $73.2 million, 283,000-square-foot structure set in this wealthy resort community in the middle of the state was designed with the rapid pace of technological change and the future of education in mind.

This building will be here for the next 50 years as our high school, explained Principal Chad Duwenhoegger. I dont know what education looks like 50 years from now. We need to be flexible with it.

Much of the flexibility of the new three-story buildingwhich has been dubbed as everything from the Alexandria University to the Googleplex of Schools"emanates from the fact that it doesnt have traditional classrooms and hallways, but rather open floor plans and moveable walls that allow the classrooms to be reconfigured as needed.

And not those old accordion walls like the ones that can be used to convert one large room in, say, a hotel, into two or more rooms. Rather, the school has moveable glass walls that can be written on with markers and have various forms of technologysuch as flat-screen TVs or whiteboardsinstalled on them or removed within hours.

It allows us to grow and be flexible and do whatever we need to do to reach kids, Duwenhoegger said. And that flexible space is being used in interesting ways to accommodate nontraditional learning approaches.

For example, two classrooms are sometimes connected so that teachers from can team-teach in an interdisciplinary way.

That approach was being taken this spring by a physics teacher and an industrial-technology teacher, whose students collaborated to build a remote-controlled car and learn physics through the process, according to Duwenhoegger.

The furniture inside the classroomswhich ranges from soft couches to regular hard chairs and a variety of tablescan also be easily moved and rearranged to accommodate students with different learning preferences or needs.

My classes tend to be designed around collaborative scientific inquiry experiences, said Tom Smith, a chemistry and earth sciences teacher. I need a classroom that can quickly flip between a teacher-focused design to a collaborative design to a student-discussion design at a moments notice. ... This facility does that for me.

A Mental Pause

People might assume that students inside a glass classroom might be more susceptible to distractions. But the situation is quite the opposite, said the designer, John Pfluger of Cuningham Group Architecture Inc.

Theres a philosophy that I think we used to have for a long time as designers and educators, that kids will be easily distracted if they have a view of the outside, a view of other parts of the building, Pfluger said. What we have come to understand about the learning process is that its really critical that in a learning setting, youre able to take a break.

You can pay attention for about 15 minutes topsand this is sort of well-grounded, proven researchand one of the best ways to take a break is to be able to look outside the environment youre in, he said. It gives you a mental pause.

Overall, with input from the community, the school was designedboth its exterior and interiorto look like anything except what it is.

Pfluger said the idea was to break out of the mold of the old cells and bells style of high schools that characterized many, if not most, of the those built during the 20th century, and to make the new high school more like the places where its students are headed nextcollege, the workplace, or even a favorite hangout.

It doesnt feel like a school, Pfluger said. It feels more like a blend, sort of a mash-up between kind of a hotel or Starbucks and an Apple store.

The three-story common areawhere students can choose from a variety of food services rather than stand in a single cafeteria linegets flooded with sunlight. Guidance counselors officers are deliberately placed nearby so students can interact with them during lunch.

Outside the classrooms are learning stairs, or giant wooden steps where students can lounge or work on group projects or do presentations.

The school has two three-story towers that house four different academies with about 300 students apiece. Those academies include the freshman academy, where students explore different career paths and then select one of the three other academies in which they want to enroll for the next three years: the business, communication & entrepreneurship academy; the engineering, manufacturing technologies, and natural resources academy; and the health sciences and human services academy.

Its about getting kids to figure out what theyre passionate about and what are all the tons of careers out there that are in their area of their passion, Duwenhoegger said.
Making U.S. high schools great is a tough nut to crack, and the landscape of the past half-century is littered with failures to prove it. But those decades of trying have yielded some lessons that are guiding the latest school improvement pioneers.

Reviewing the progressand problemsof high school reform in a 2013 report, the Carnegie Corporation of New York noted that many high schools have latched on to key improvement strategies but failed to incorporate others that are equally important. It called for national attention to intentional new school designs that incorporate 10 principles that research has shown to be pivotal in creating high-performing secondary schools, such as having a clear mission and coherent culture and personalizing learning to fit students needs.

By purposefully integrating many of these advances in a comprehensive school design, much more can be accomplished than applying each individually, wrote co-authors Leah Hamilton and Anne Mackinnon.

Researchers have learned a lot in 50 years, so the list of best practices is dauntingly long.

Each of Carnegies 10 principles, for instance, includes multiple subpoints, producing 33 best practices in all. To name just a few: Schools should facilitate close relationships between students and adults. They should provide a challenging curriculum with appropriate supports, encourage students to take charge of their learning, and let them demonstrate their learning in many ways. They should let teachers team up to strengthen instruction and they should ensure fair and equitable teacher evaluations.

In makingor remakinghigh schools, there is so much to think about that its no wonder many projects have been unraveled by entrenched practices, poor planning or execution, lack of support, or institutional barriers, Paul T. Hill and Tricia Maas say in their 2015 study of high school reforms checkered history.

Decades of trying to revive high school education, starting with James B. Conants 1959 treatise, The American High School Today, have featured arguments for and against comprehensive high schools, small schools, shared curriculum, and grouping students by ability.

Some Converging Principles

The debates produced key areas of agreement, however, according to Hill and Maas. Even those with opposing ideas on other aspects of high school improvement agreed that its important to build a school community with shared goals that guide all policies and decisions, the co-authors wrote. Similarly, they say, most agree on a few other requirements for a good high school: a rigorous, engaging core curriculum; strong student-adult relationships; and a personalized approach to learning that guarantees strong supports for struggling students.

Hill and Maas argue for coherent schools: places that take those lessons and others to heart. Adults must help students see real-life connections to what theyre learning. Schools must be grounded on a well-thought-out theory of youth development and led by people who understand and embrace that theory. The schools core ideas must be explicit, with the full embrace of staff members and community partners.

Such schools need control of their funding, and as little regulation as possible, to enable them to thrive, Hill and Maas wrote.

More and more, arguments about how to produce the best high school have increasingly sounded this note, too: diversity. Its the idea that making all schools great is a good goal, but making them great the same way isnt.

Districts and states need to stop creating rules that make all schools operate alike, Hill and Maas wrote in their paper. This means abandoning the hopeless effort to create exactly the right set of rules that will force all schools to be good. It also means expecting schools to be different and assessing them only on resultswhether students learn, graduate, and succeed at the next-higher level of education.

Few high schools have found successful designs in recent years that incorporate all the principles that research tells us are sound. But many are focusing intently, passionately, on specific ideas that drive their improvement agendas. And in that work, little by little, they are adding diversity to the supply of American high schools, to meet the varied needs of the countrys 15 million high school students.

Models for Change

In this report, Education Week brings you stories of some of those schools and districts:

In Cleveland, theres a STEM-focused high school that has taken the idea of community partnerships to a new level, literally moving entire grades of students out into the city to work at the science museum, at a local business, and on a university campus.

Community engagement was high on the radar in Boston, too, which undertook an unusually intensive initiative to bring parents, colleges, businesses, and advocacy groups together to brainstorm about redesigning its high schools.

Ambitious ideas dont always come off without a hitch, though.

Education Week documented Denvers effort to create a comprehensive high school of the future, featuring the elements that researchers have found to be best for teenagers, including a challenging curriculum for all students, a diverse population, competency-based grading, and starting class at a civilized hour. Even the chairs were designed to be welcoming. (They rock!)

But when the dream met reality, things got tough: Leadership changes and compromises have watered down or delayed the original vision.

A high school in Omaha, Neb., is working hard to expose its students to career ideas, arranging for them to work outside the traditional classroom in a variety of industries, from transportation to agriculture, in the hope that something will spark their imaginations and drive them into job training or college.

In rural Vermont, a high school has remade itself around the idea of student voice, giving teenagers a powerful role in deciding the most important things about school life, from the way courses are taught to which teachers are hired.

And, finally, El Paso, Texas, is a place that is shaping its schooling around pathways to college, working closely with its state university system to ensure that students coursework carries them seamlessly from grade school to the college campus.

Those and many other schools are drawing on lessons learned to advance toward the crucial, but often elusive, goal of making high school work for all students.

History suggests they have a hard road ahead. But these schools are the ones writing its pages.
Diplomas Count 2016 Map: Graduation Rates by State, Student Group

Beginning with the class of 2011, federal regulations required each state to calculate graduation rates using a method known as the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR). All states and the District of Columbia have reported ACGR rates.

Based on those state-reported data, the U.S. Department of Education indicates that the nations graduation rate reached an all-time high, 82 percent for the class of 2014. Thats an increase of 1 percentage point over the prior year. But black, Latino, and American Indian students continue to lag behind their white and Asian peers.

Browse the latest state and national data for all students and subgroups:

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Continuing their longstanding cooperation, AB Siauliu bankas and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have signed two new agreements to support the refurbishment and modernisation of multi-apartment buildings in Lithuania with an additional EUR 110 million under the Jessica II fund, of which EUR 40 million is contributed from European Regional Development Fund and EUR 70 million is contributed by Siauliu bankas.

The Jessica II fund, managed by the EIB, supports energy efficiency modernisation of residential buildings under the Lithuanian government's Multi-apartment buildings Modernisation (Renovation) Programme. This is the second agreement with Siauliu bankas as the selected financial intermediary under the 2014-2020 EU regulations for Decentralised Financial Instruments. Under this agreement Siauliu bankas will disburse EUR 80 million in preferential loans to home owners. Half of this amount (i.e. EUR 40 million) will be made available from Siauliu bankas own funds.

Under the agreement signed last month, Siauliu bankas made available an additional EUR 30 million of its own funds for housing renovation loans. Through the two new agreements, Siauliu bankas will soon be able to finance the renovation of an additional 400 multi-apartment buildings in total.

Siauliu bankas head of administration Vytautas Sinius said: The successful partnership with the EIB and our longstanding commitment to financing renovation projects allows us to significantly contribute towards the countrys energy efficiency targets as well as the development of cities and businesses in all its regions. The renovation process involves the companies administrating the projects and the construction companies alike, a considerable number of which are small and medium-sized enterprises. These processes cultivate the prosperity of residents and businesses, which is one of the most important aims of Siauliu bankas.

EIB Vice-President Jan Vapaavuori, responsible for operations in the Baltic countries, added: We are delighted to expand our partnership with Siauliu bankas in implementing the Jessica II programme. Siauliu bankas was crucial in ensuring the smooth continuation of the programme last year by providing their own funds. In this way it has helped to guarantee the programmes ability to meet the ever growing demand for housing refurbishment in Lithuania. Urban renewal is high on the EIBs agenda and the success of this programme is an example for other countries as well.

Housing renovation, which is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania, has gained traction across the whole country. According to the Housing Energy Efficiency Agency, currently 784 renovation projects are undergoing works, for a combined worth of circa EUR 245 million. Most active in the renovation process are the regions of Ignalina, Druskininkai, Moletai, Anyksciai, Jonava and Kelme.

Lithuanian Minister of Environment Kestutis Treciokas said: The vastly increased scale of the multi-apartment building renovation in the country, which was not anticipated even by the biggest optimists, demands to pool our every effort so that our old houses would be reborn for a new life  would become comfortable, beautiful and economical in terms of energy efficiency. However, finding the necessary financial resources is not so simple and thus all additional funds are especially important. This is why we are so glad with the recently signed agreement between the EIB and Siauliu bankas. 
Ely, Cambridgeshire is best known for its majestic cathedral dubbed the 'Ship of the Fens' because it dominates the flat landscape. The city, which is the second smallest in England, is about 14 miles north-northeast of Cambridge and about 80 miles by road from London.

13:33, 25 OCT 2022
Residents urged to be 'scrupulous' when hiring tradespeople

People are being urged to remain scrupulous when picking tradespeople after cold calling was made illegal.

As of this week - businesses may no longer 'cold call' customers by phone or turning up at a property offering services.

So now residents have been offered advice about to best select a trader for home improvement.

The Office of Fair Trading and the Manx Accredited Construction Contractors Scheme have released advice and a list of recommended local traders.

The OFT says complaints about home maintenance, repairs and improvements account for 11 per cent of all complaints and enquiries.

Doug Skinner is the president of the construction federation - he offers some advice:

Media

Doug Skinner
Sometimes the answers come from unexpected places:

The Georgia Council on Economic Education has named Morrow Highs Cary Hargett its 2016 Georgia Economic Teacher of the Year.

Hargett was honored for his contributions to the economic education of students in Clayton County Public Schools, school officials noted in a press release.

On May 23, Hargett was recognized in front of the Georgia Council Board of Trustees and Executive Committee at the Annual Georgia Council Luncheon held at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, where he received a plaque and a $1,000 prize.

Mr. Hargett is intelligent, hardworking and friendly, said Morrow High Principal Pamela Pitts. There are many proficient and dedicated educators but Mr. Hargetts commitment to his students makes him an outstanding educator and a true asset to Morrow High School and Clayton County Public Schools.

A graduate of East Carolina University, Hargett majored in economics and later received his teaching certification from Paine College before continuing his career at Morrow High in 1997. ...
Who and where are the women doing science in India? Two science writers set out on a journey to collect stories that counter the popular narrative of science being the domain of old bearded men.

Conception of The Life of Science

What gave birth to The Life of Science (TLoS)? It was while working together at a science magazine for children that plans for the project began. The initial idea was to build a digital resource for students and the general public to have an idea of what a life in science and technology research entails. Popular media accounts are often misleading as they fail to capture the complex terrain that a life in science entails, both professionally and personally. Digital resources of institutions are not helpful either as they are, more often than not, poorly curated for the general public.

What does an archaeologist do? Why do seismologists bother studying earthquakes that have passed? What does it mean to study the neurobiology of a specific emotion? By answering some of these questions for people, we hope to help open new worlds of opportunity and give people the required knowledge to be able to decide if a career in research is possible for them, and if yes, what kind.

We decided that the best way to do this would be to go on the ground and see for ourselves. As former scientists-in-training ourselves, this would mean catching glimpses of the life we left behind not because we were not passionate enough, but because we realised that our strengths lay in communicating rather than doing research.

Focus on Women

For the past 25 years, 2530% of PhD students in India have been female (Godbole and Ramaswamy 2015). However, this does not translate to women actually pursuing research or holding faculty positions. As of April 1998 only 9% of the total scientists engaged in research and development in science and technology institutes of Delhi were female (Society for Environment and Development 1998). Similarly puzzling statistics persist in recent yearsfor example women pursuing a physics degree in India comprised 32% of the undergraduateshigher than the United Kingdom as well as the United States 20%, but the proportions drop to 20% and further to 11% in the graduate and professional level respectively (Kurup et al 2010).

The same report makes several fascinating observations regarding the familial situations of these women, working hours, factors like career breaks, and reasons for dropping out. Since its conception in 1957, out of around 500 recipients of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, only 16 have been women. Even here there is an imbalance in the disciplines that they have been awarded inMathematics: 2; Physics: 0; Engineering: 2; Chemistry: 3; Earth Science: 1; Biology + Medical: 8.

The questions are many, and it is this reality that we were keen to explore when we decided to focus on women in our project.

Way of Working

The two of us carrying out this research have two different approaches of finding subjects. One of us finds word of mouth most reliable and the other benefits from the spontaneity of simply walking into institutions without an appointment. Except with high security establishments, we have found that most of our scientific centres are quite open and welcoming.

We now find ourselves talking to women who would otherwise have stayed invisible as they work in smaller towns in non-premier institutions, but nevertheless are a crucial component in the world of Indian science as they train hundreds of students and conduct significant research themselves.

Many times, our personal and social networks fail to give us the required connections in a particular town or university. We then turn to the internet but even this often does not work as Indian science is not well documented in the media. Renowned institutions like the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Indian Institute of Sciences in Bengaluru and Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology in Thiruvananthapuram have websites that have proved to be quite user-friendly, but this is not always the case. The websites of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are unhelpfully heterogeneousIIT Bombays is pretty good, while IIT Madras is still a counter-intuitive mess, at least for outsiders like us who want to scope out good research. Even the website of the Banaras Hindu University, Indias flagship university, has very limited information of the research that is happening in the laboratories there. At the other end, we have been surprised to find local colleges like the Union Christian College in Aluva, Kerala, having informative websites. These are the notable cases but overall, websites of most scientific institutions continue to be bare, out-of-date and uninformative.

Emerging Trends

At the time of writing this article, TLoS is 13 interviews old (we publish one a week), and has documented the personal and professional experiences of 15 women working in science. There are six to seven more in production for the coming month. There are early days but there do already seem to be some characteristics that these women, despite varying widely in age, field of study, stage of career and background, have in common.

Family Support

Almost all of the 17 or so women interviewed so far emphasised the role of family support in their success. Most of them boast of the unconditional support of either their mother or father through their journey as a scientist. This support also comes in the form of childcare among the mothers in the groupmany had parents or in-laws who live in the same city or the same household.

Wife-Husband Scientist Team

All of the researchers are above 30 years of age. 11 out of 15 interviewed so far are married; most are mothers. Among the 10 who run their own labs, have spouses who are also doing scientific research. Four of the five spouses work in the same field as their wives. Each of these three women, though studying vastly varied subjects (geophysics, pharmaceutical biotechnology and microbiology) and hailing from different corners of India (Ajmer, Bengaluru and Mumbai), emphasised how much working as a team and having a spouse who understands and shares the pressures has helped them advance their careers and manage their families better than they could have otherwise.

The stories of husband-wife scientists team seem to suggest that if the husband is an academic, their partners are more likely to continue their academic life. In one case, the husband was in the room while the interview took place as they share the responsibility of handling the department.

Raising Children

A number of our subjects who have children admitted that some of their career choices have been dictated by what made sense with regard to bringing up their children. Radhika decided to return to India from a successful run in a reputed Australian laboratory so that she could give back to her parents who she had highly depended on for childcare support. Another subject Ramadevi, came back from the US following concerns about the countrys influences on her teenage daughter. Importantly, none of these choices were made rashly; they all followed years of deliberation and preparation to ensure a smooth transition into Indian academics.

Backgrounds

Most of our subjects so far have been privileged to come from backgrounds where academics is considered a priority for daughters as much as men. Though primarily urban, a handful, like junior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist Kriti Faujdar we met at Hassan, Karnataka, were brought up in small towns, in this case, a village in Bihar. However, Kriti counts herself lucky to have a father who has always placed a high priority on his three daughters education despite societal disapproval.

Challenges

Even with our small dataset, stories of challenging scenarios have emerged. Though many of our subjects insist that they have been treated with equal respect and given equal opportunities, a few have had unpleasant experiencesone biochemist recounted a horrible episode where she was accused of having a questionable relationship with her superior.

A scientist from a government research institution later changed her mind about her views on working under male bosses (she had said that any awkwardness with women in the workplace could stem from the lack of women they had to interact with while studying), indicating that there exists a fear of speaking ones mind especially about sensitive topics like sexism.

Several researchers, especially from smaller institutions with greater funding crunches, have had a hard time jumping through bureaucratic hurdles in the path to setting up a functional laboratory. A microbiologist from Ajmer, for example, informed us that no faculty recruitments had taken place in the past 10 years and there is hardly any facilitation for the existing researchers to do collaborative research or file for patents. Another biotechnologist in Varanasi had to literally build up her laboratory from an empty room, right from the electrical wiring to experimental equipment.

Researchers who engage in a lot of field studies and travel have offered multiple perspectives. A fisheries scientist in Kerala said that being female earns her more respect and people seem more enthusiastic to help, whereas an ecologist, also from Kerala, felt that the risk is undeniably more for women and often accepting help from strangers involves blind faith.



Interestingly, all of these women continue to research and publish work irrespective of social background, quality of their institutes, and bureaucratic battles. This seems to suggest that scientific research in India is a little more democratic than that in the social sciences where research is skewed towards the well-known central universities and research institutions even after successive reforms instituted by the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) (DFID SARH 2011).

At the start of their career, most of these women have been told by close or distant relatives to concentrate on their personal life rather than their chosen academic path. Get married and then do whatever you want, seems to be a universal statement.

One of these scientists opened up about sexual harassment faced at the workplace but requested this information to not be included. One of them was wrongly accused of having an affair with someone in the higher management, as if it was the only way to explain her efficiency in the bureaucratic process.

Comments on Equality

Towards the end of the interview, we always ask our subjects to share some pointers towards more gender equality in science. Most of them agree that family pressure and responsibilities are the prime challenges. Many of them remind us that a woman can be successful in science if she has optimum work-life balance, unlike most other women in our country who havent. There are several changes that could be institutedday-care spaces close to the workplace, at least one women in higher management positions or simply listening to women colleagues when they have an opinion. There has even been a case (in a yet to be published interview) of a scientist insisting to us that its simply not possible to have it alla woman has to make a choice between family and career.

Aspirations

TLoS project aims to reach as many cities and towns as possible to unearth as many different stories and profiles of people who work in scientific labs. We want to be accessible to varied audiences and we intend to do this by eventually translating our content into regional languages and making use of regional media to disseminate it.

These stories will travel, as all stories inevitably do. It will be nice to see them in popular newspapersmajor and regional, rather than just as Facebook posts. These stories are relevant in local newspapers that are read where these scientists live and work.

The project strives to develop into an honest and reliable resource both for young science enthusiasts to understand what rewards and challenges a life in research will likely entail as well as for the general public to eliminate the shroud of mystery around scientific work so that they can appreciate the role scientists play in the community.

References

[All URLs accessed on 31 May 2016]

DFID South Asia Research Hub (2011): Social Science Research in IndiaA Mapping Report, September, http://r4d.dfid.gov.uk/pdf/outputs/mis_spc/60911-MappingReport_social_science.pdf.

Godbole, Rohini M and Ramakrishna Ramaswamy (2015): Women Scientists in India, Report for the Indian Academy of Sciences, http://www.ias.ac.in/public/Resources/Initiatives/Women_in_Science/AASSA_India.pdf.

Kurup, Anitha et al (2014): Trained Scientific Women Power: How Much are we Losing and Why?, IAS-NIAS Research Report, April, Bengaluru: Indian Academy of Sciences and National Institute of Advanced Studies, http://eprints.nias.res.in/142/1/IAS-NIAS-Report.pdf.

Society for Environment and Development (1998): Status of Women Scientists in S&T/R&D Institutions in India, New Delhi: National Commission for Women, http://ncw.nic.in/pdfreports/WOMEN_SCIENTISTS.pdf. The Life of Science
The genome of an ancient dog, described in a new study, informs upon the demography and domestication of man's best friend. How wolves became the canine companions of today has remained controversial, both in terms of the number of times dogs evolved, as well as just where this evolution occurred. A number of genetically-based studies have concluded that dogs were probably domesticated just once, yet the scientific community continues to debate whether this occurred in Europe, Central Asia, or East Asia. From where and when then, did man's best friend originate? To gain even greater insights into the prehistoric pattern of dog domestication, Laurent Frantz analyzed 59 mitochondrial DNA sequences from ancient European dogs that lived between 14,000 to 3,000 years ago, as well as a comprehensive genome of an ancient Newgrange (Irish) dog that lived roughly 4,800 years ago, comparing these genetic data to the full genome sequences of hundreds of modern wolves and dogs of different breeds from Western Eurasia and East Asia. Their analyses reveal a deep split between dogs from the two regions - one they say occurred several millennia after the first known appearance of dogs in Europe and East Asia. While the researchers do not rule out the possibility of a single origin of Eurasian dogs followed by early transportation to Europe, they emphasize that a lack of archeological evidence of dogs between the two regions supports two independent dog domestication events. Some species, such as the Greenland sledge dog or Siberian husky, appear to possess mixed ancestry from both Western Eurasian and East Asian dog lineages, the authors say.

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DALLAS, June 2, 2016 -- Forty-five year-old African-Americans are more likely to die of stroke than are whites, not because of differences in care, but because blacks are having more strokes, according to new research in the American Heart Association's Journal Stroke.

Few studies have examined whether the elevated stroke rate in blacks explains why there are more stroke deaths. The REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study investigated why blacks and U.S. Southerners are more likely to die from stroke. They found the higher number of stroke deaths is due to a greater number of strokes occurring at younger ages among blacks.

At age 45, blacks were four times more likely to die of stroke than their white counterparts in this analysis. By age 85, there was no difference in stroke death rates among blacks and whites.

"The magnitude of public health burden of the racial disparity in stroke is staggering, with an estimated 22,384 "extra" stroke events i.e., above what would be expected relative to rates in whites occurring in blacks in 2014," said George Howard, Dr.P.H., study lead author and a professor of biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. "With a life-long cost of stroke of $104,000 for each of the events, this black-white difference in stroke costs America more than $2.3 billion annually. Obviously, efforts that would even marginally reduce this burden would pay remarkable dividends for the U.S."

He blamed racial differences in the development and control of risk factors and encouraged more aggressive prevention efforts.

"We need to do more to focus on prevention and control of risk factors before they result in a stroke. Unfortunately, most of the research resources are focused on treating stroke patients and preventing recurrent stroke."

Researchers said prevention efforts addressing risk factors like high blood pressure and diabetes that are more common in African-Americans are at the root of the problem; and to reduce the disparity in stroke we must "go further upstream" to make inroads on racial differences in the traditional and non-traditional risk factors that lead to stroke.

Researchers analyzed data on 29,681 people selected at random from across the United States. Conducted between 2003 and 2007, REGARDS used a combination of mail and telephone interviews to assess risk factors, followed by regular in-home visits to collect other biological samples and measure blood pressure, height, and waist circumference.

The pattern of stroke mortality they found in their study data mirrors national data, where the black-to-white hazard ratio for dying from a stroke is about 4.0 at age 45 but falls to just 1.0 by age 85. The researchers found that the risk of having a stroke followed a remarkably similar pattern; however, there were no black-white differences in the risk of dying once a stroke occurred.

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Co-authors are Claudia S. Moy, Ph.D.; Virginia J. Howard, Ph.D.; Leslie A. McClure, Ph.D.; Dawn O. Kleindorfer, M.D.; Brett M. Kissela, M.D.; Suzanne E. Judd, Ph.D.; Fredrick W. Unverzagt, Ph.D.; Elsayed Z. Soliman, M.D.; M. Safford, M.D.; Mary Cushman, M.D.; Matthew L. Flaherty, M.D. and Virginia G. Wadley, Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke funded the study.

Additional Resources:

Stroke images are located in the right column of this release link http://newsroom.heart.org/news/prevention-is-key-to-closing-racial-disparity-gap-in-stroke?preview=f49415120fc2632d90b07963b1189ac0

After June 2, 2016, view the manuscript online.

African Americans, Heart Disease and Stroke

Stroke Prevention Resources

Stroke Warning Signs

Learn how to improve your personal health and the health of multicultural communities at EmPOWERED To Serve

Women can find motivation and support at AHA and Macy's #GoRedGetFit

Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews.

For stroke science, follow the Stroke journal at @StrokeAHA_ASA

Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association's policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding.
WASHINGTON, DC, June 1, 2016 -- There's a stark and troubling way that incarceration diminishes the ability of a former inmate to empathize with a loved one behind bars, but existing sociological theories fail to capture it, Vanderbilt University sociologists have found.

According to a commonly used model of stress and health, the experience of having a family member locked up does not have a significant mental health effect on African American men. It was only after accounting for an individual's own incarceration history that the researchers were able to reveal both how difficult it is for former inmates to connect with incarcerated family members and how painful it is for their peers who had never shared that experience. It turned out that the lack of distress experienced by former inmates had been masking the distress felt by the never incarcerated all along.

Because African Americans are disproportionately affected by incarceration, lead author Tony Brown, associate professor of sociology, says these findings lay bare a significant blind spot in the way social science research captures their experience. "We can no longer ignore incarceration as a stratifying status," he said.

The research by Brown, Evelyn Patterson, assistant professor of sociology, and recent Ph.D. graduate Mary Laske Bell appears in the June issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

The Incarceration-Blind Approach

The researchers used the National Survey of American Life, a particularly detailed survey that not only includes information about the respondent's own incarceration history but also the incarceration status of his or her extended family members. They then analyzed the data for African American men invoking a model commonly used by social scientists to predict health outcomes based on the relationship between a variety of stressors and coping resources.

They found that while a family member's incarceration was stressful for African American men, the effect largely disappeared when the researchers controlled for other chronic stressors like money problems, family discord, and so on. They also found that it didn't really matter how many coping resources a person had available to them.

"Had we stopped there we would have said, 'Familial incarceration is a serious issue that affects a lot of African American families, but it turns out it's not a unique stressor,'" said Brown. "I doubt anyone would have even published the paper."

It wasn't until they broke the data down further that they saw how much a difference incarceration history made.

The Cost of Caring

The researchers developed a new theory that predicted formerly incarcerated African American men would experience worse mental health than their never-incarcerated peers because they would be better able to empathize with their incarcerated relative. The new theory came out of the cost-of-caring hypothesis, which proposed that women report higher rates of depression than men when something bad happens to a loved one because women tend to have stronger social ties and thus feel a greater connection to their loved one's suffering.

"It made perfect sense at the time, because if you care about your family, and you've been incarcerated, and you know how it can strip you of dignity, be isolating, and in some ways so damaging that you never recover from it, then you would feel much worse when someone in your family was going through the same thing," said Brown. "And what we found was the complete opposite."

Not only did former inmates with a relative behind bars cope better than their never-incarcerated peers -- rather than worse, as predicted -- those former inmates experienced better mental health than former inmates whose relatives were all free.

Meanwhile, never-incarcerated African American men behaved as expected -- they were more distressed when a relative was behind bars.

The finding about formerly incarcerated African American men was such a surprise that the researchers went back and re-analyzed the data to make sure they hadn't made any measurement errors or missed any mitigating factors. But they didn't.

The old model had failed to capture the effect of familial incarceration on African American men because the negative effect it had on never-incarcerated men canceled out the unexpectedly positive effect it had on former inmates.

Prison's Psychological Scars

So why do former inmates seem to do better when a relative is locked up?

The researchers considered a number of reasons. One theory is that sharing the experience of incarceration makes a former inmate feel less socially isolated. "There is this other family member who is incarcerated, and now you have someone to connect with, or someone who just gets it--who gets why you're not going to talk about it," said Patterson. "Because people don't want to talk about it afterwards."

Another theory is that a former inmate may believe his incarceration toughened him up, and that it will do the same for his relative. "There's a value [behind bars] to having a 'prison mask,' this persona of a hard, tough, invulnerable, invincible exterior," said Brown. "So you might think, 'Hey, my family member's going to benefit from that,' not recognizing that the loss of empathy is a perversion of what we think of as humanity -- our emotional connections with one another makes life worthwhile."

The researchers believe this empathetic inurement, as they term it, may well have implications for an entire socio-demographic group.

"These are black men who no longer have the ability to connect to other black men," Brown said. "That creates real problems when you begin to think about what mass incarceration means for society."

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This research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (Grant #U01-MH57716) and the Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research at the National Institutes of Health.

About the American Sociological Association and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior

The American Sociological Association), founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the ASA.

The research article described above is available by request for members of the media. For a copy of the full study, contact Daniel Fowler, ASA Media Relations Manager, at 202-527-7885 or pubinfo@asanet.org.

Liz Entman, Public Affairs Officer, Vanderbilt University News and Communications, wrote this press release. For more information about the study, members of the media can also contact Entman at 615-322-NEWS or liz.entman@vanderbilt.edu.
You can't sign up for the quantum internet just yet, but researchers have reported a major experimental milestone towards building a global quantum network - and it's happening in space.

With a network that carries information in the quantum properties of single particles, you can create secure keys for secret messaging and potentially connect powerful quantum computers in the future. But scientists think you will need equipment in space to get global reach.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the University of Strathclyde, UK, have become the first to test in orbit technology for satellite-based quantum network nodes.

They have put a compact device carrying components used in quantum communication and computing into orbit. And it works: the team report first data in a paper published 31 May 2016 in the journal Physical Review Applied.

The team's device dubbed SPEQS creates and measures pairs of light particles, called photons. Results from space show that SPEQS is making pairs of photons with correlated properties - an indicator of performance.

Team-leader Alexander Ling, an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at NUS, said "This is the first time anyone has tested this kind of quantum technology in space."

The team had to be inventive to redesign a delicate, table-top quantum setup to be small and robust enough to fly inside a nanosatellite only the size of a shoebox. The whole satellite weighs just 1.65-kilogramme.

Towards entanglement

Making correlated photons is a precursor to creating entangled photons. Described by Einstein as "spooky action at a distance", entanglement is a connection between quantum particles that lends security to communication and power to computing.

Professor Artur Ekert, Director of CQT, invented the idea of using entangled particles for cryptography. He said "Alex and his team are taking entanglement, literally, to a new level. Their experiments will pave the road to secure quantum communication and distributed quantum computation on a global scale. I am happy to see that Singapore is one of the world leaders in this area."

Local quantum networks already exist. The problem Ling's team aims to solve is a distance limit. Losses limit quantum signals sent through air at ground level or optical fibre to a few hundred kilometres - but we might ultimately use entangled photons beamed from satellites to connect points on opposite sides of the planet. Although photons from satellites still have to travel through the atmosphere, going top-to-bottom is roughly equivalent to going only 10 kilometres at ground level.

The group's first device is a technology pathfinder. It takes photons from a BluRay laser and splits them into two, then measures the pair's properties, all on board the satellite. To do this it contains a laser diode, crystals, mirrors and photon detectors carefully aligned inside an aluminum block. This sits on top of a 10 centimetres by 10 centimetres printed circuit board packed with control electronics.

Through a series of pre-launch tests - and one unfortunate incident - the team became more confident that their design could survive a rocket launch and space conditions. The team had a device in the October 2014 Orbital-3 rocket which exploded on the launch pad. The satellite containing that first device was later found on a beach intact and still in working order.

Future plans

Even with the success of the more recent mission, a global network is still a few milestones away. The team's roadmap calls for a series of launches, with the next space-bound SPEQS slated to produce entangled photons. SPEQS stands for Small Photon-Entangling Quantum System.

With later satellites, the researchers will try sending entangled photons to Earth and to other satellites. The team are working with standard "CubeSat" nanosatellites, which can get relatively cheap rides into space as rocket ballast. Ultimately, completing a global network would mean having a fleet of satellites in orbit and an array of ground stations.

In the meantime, quantum satellites could also carry out fundamental experiments - for example, testing entanglement over distances bigger than Earth-bound scientists can manage. "We are reaching the limits of how precisely we can test quantum theory on Earth," said co-author Dr Daniel Oi at the University of Strathclyde.

###

Reference:

Zhongkan Tang et al, 'Generation and Analysis of Correlated Pairs of Photons aboard a Nanosatellite', Physical Review Applied 5, 054022 (2016); https://journals.aps.org/prapplied/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.5.054022 Preprint available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1603.06659

This research is supported by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore under its Competitive Research Programme (CRP Award No. NRF-CRP12-2013-02), and NRF Singapore and the Ministry of Education, Singapore under the Research Centres of Excellence programme. The authors also acknowledge the Scottish Quantum Information Network and the EU FP7 CONNECT2SEA project "Development of Quantum Technologies for Space Applications."

Researcher contacts:

Alexander Ling

Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor

Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore

cqtalej@nus.edu.sg

+65 6516 2985

Daniel Oi

Lecturer, SUPA Department of Physics

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

daniel.oi@strath.ac.uk

+44 (0)141 548 3112

Notes for editors:

Alexander Ling will be presenting this work at CLEO2016 in San Jose, United States, on 9 June. He and Daniel Oi will also be participating in a panel on quantum projects in space at the EuroScience Open Forum in Manchester, UK, on 27 July.

A video clip of Alexander Ling describing the project is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUzP0v6rl_4&list=PL4CHL5j4XhurVKJz16Qg6qj0toMHyLh7q&index=6
Astronomers have used Hubble to measure the distances to stars in nineteen galaxies more accurately than previously possible. They found that the Universe is currently expanding faster than the rate derived from measurements of the Universe shortly after the Big Bang. If confirmed, this apparent inconsistency may be an important clue to understanding three of the Universe's most elusive components: dark matter, dark energy and neutrinos.

A team of astronomers, led by Nobel Laureate Adam Riess and using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, have discovered that the Universe is expanding between five and nine percent faster than previously calculated. This is in clear discrepancy with the rate predicted from measurements of the infant Universe.

"This surprising finding may be an important clue to understanding those mysterious parts of the Universe that make up 95 percent of everything and don't emit light, such as dark energy, dark matter, and dark radiation," explains Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, both in Baltimore, USA.

One possible explanation for this unexpectedly fast expansion of the Universe is a new type of subatomic particle that may have changed the balance of energy in the early Universe, so called dark radiation.

The team made the discovery by refining the measurement of how fast the Universe is expanding, a value called the Hubble constant, to unprecedented accuracy, reducing the uncertainty to only 2.4 percent [1].

This new measurement presents a puzzle because it does not agree with the expansion rate found by looking at the moments shortly after the Big Bang. Measurements of the afterglow from the Big Bang from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)and the European Space Agency's Planck satellite mission yield smaller predictions for the Hubble constant.

Comparing the Universe's expansion rate as calculated by WMAP and Planck (for the time after the Big Bang) and Hubble (for our modern Universe) is like building a bridge, Riess explains: "You start at two ends, and you expect to meet in the middle if all of your drawings are right and your measurements are right. But now the ends are not quite meeting in the middle and we want to know why."

This refined determination of the Hubble constant was made possible by making precise measurements of the distances to both nearby and faraway galaxies using Hubble [2]. The improved distance measurements were made by streamlining and strengthening the cosmic distance ladder, which astronomers use to measure accurate distances to galaxies. The team compared these measured distances with the expansion of space as measured by the stretching of light from receding galaxies and these two values were then used to calculate the Hubble constant.

The team is continuing to use Hubble with the aim of reducing the uncertainty in the Hubble constant even further, their goal being to reach an uncertainty of just 1 percent. Current telescopes such as the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite , and future telescopes such as the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) could also help astronomers make better measurements of the expansion rate and lead to a better understanding of our Universe and the laws that govern it.

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Notes

[1] Before Hubble was launched in 1990, estimates of the Hubble constant varied by a factor of two. In the late 1990s the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale refined the value of the Hubble constant to within 10 percent, accomplishing one of the telescope's key goals. The new, improved Hubble constant value is 73.02 kilometres per second per Megaparsec (where one Megaparsec is equivalent to 3.26 million light-years).

[2] For the calibration of relatively short distances the team observed Cepheid variables. These are pulsating stars which fade and brighten at rates that are proportional to their true brightness and this property allows astronomers to determine their distances. The researchers calibrated the distances to the Cepheids using a basic geometrical technique called parallax. With Hubble's sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) , they extended the parallax measurements further than previously possible, across the Milky Way galaxy. To get accurate distances to nearby galaxies, the team then looked for galaxies containing both Cepheids and Type Ia supernovae. Type Ia supernovae always have the same intrinsic brightness and are also bright enough to be seen at relatively large distances. By comparing the observed brightness of both types of stars in those nearby galaxies, the team could then accurately measure the true brightness of the supernova. Using this calibrated rung on the distance ladder the accurate distance to additional 300 type Ia supernovae in far-flung galaxies was calculated.

More information

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

The international team of astronomers in this study consists of Adam G. Riess (John Hopkins University, USA; STScI, USA), Lucas M. Macri (Texas A&M University, USA), Samantha L. Hoffmann (Texas A&M University, USA), Dan Scolnic (John Hopkins University, USA; University of Chicago, USA), Stefano Casertano (STScI, USA), Alexei V. Filippenko (University of California Berkeley, USA), Brad E. Tucker (University of California Berkeley, USA; Australian National University, Australia), Mark J. Reid (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA), David O. Jones (John Hopkins University, USA), Jeffrey M. Silverman (University of Texas, USA), Ryan Chornock (Ohio University, USA), Peter Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA), Wenlong Yuan (Texas A&M University, USA),and Ryan J. Foley (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA)

Image credit: NASA, ESA

Links

Images of Hubble -- http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/category/spacecraft/

Link to hubblesite release -- http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2016/17/

Link to science paper -- http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/releases/science_papers/heic1611a.pdf

Contacts

Adam Riess

Space Telescope Science Institute

Baltimore, USA

Tel: 1-410-516-4474

Email: ariess@stsci.edu

Mathias Jager

ESA/Hubble, Public Information Officer

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Cell: 49-176-62397500

Email: mjaeger@partner.eso.org
The most intense source of gamma radiation constructed to date will soon become operational at the ELI Nuclear Physics research facility. It will be possible to study reactions that reveal the details of many processes occurring within stars, in particular those leading to the formation of oxygen. An important part of the equipment will rely on a particle detector built by physicists at the University of Warsaw. A prototype has recently concluded the first round of testing.

Oxygen is essential for life: we are immersed in it yet none of it actually originates from our own planet. All oxygen was ultimately formed through thermonuclear reactions deep inside stars. Laboratory studies of the astrophysical processes leading to the formation of oxygen are extremely important. A big step forward in these studies will be possible when work commences in 2018 at the Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility near Bucharest, using a state-of-the-art source of intense gamma radiation. High energy protons will be intercepted using a specially-designed particle detector acting as a target. A demonstrator version of the detector, constructed at the Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw (FUW), has recently completed the first round of tests in Romania.

In terms of mass, the most abundant elements in the Universe are hydrogen (74%) and helium (24%). The percentage by mass of other, heavier elements is significantly lower: oxygen comprises just 0.85% and carbon 0.39% (in contrast, oxygen comprises 65% of the human body and carbon 18% by mass). In nature, conditions supporting the formation of oxygen are present only within evolutionarily-advanced stars which have converted almost all their hydrogen into helium. Helium becomes then their main fuel. At this stage, three helium nuclei start combining into a carbon nucleus. By adding another helium nucleus, this in turn forms an oxygen nucleus and emits one or more gamma photons.

"Oxygen can be described as the 'ash' from the thermonuclear 'combustion' of carbon. But what mechanism explains why carbon and oxygen are always formed in stars at more or less the same proportion of 6 to 10?" asks Dr. Chiara Mazzocchi (FUW). She goes on to explain: "Stars evolve in stages. During the first stage, they convert hydrogen into helium, then helium into carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, with heavier elements formed in subsequent stages. Oxygen is formed from carbon during the helium-burning phase. The thing is that, in theory, oxygen could be produced at a faster rate. If the star were to run out of helium and shift to the next stage of its evolution, the proportions between carbon and oxygen would be different."

The experiments planned for ELI-NP will not actually recreate thermonuclear reactions converting carbon into oxygen and photons gamma. In fact, researchers are hoping to observe the reverse reaction: collisions between high-energy photons with oxygen nuclei to produce carbon and helium nuclei. Registering the products of this decay should make it possible to study the characteristics of the reaction and fine-tune existing theoretical models of thermonuclear synthesis.

"We are preparing an eTPC detector for the experiments at ELI-NP. It is an electronic-readout time-projection chamber, which is an updated version of an earlier detector built at the Faculty's Institute of Experimental Physics. The latter was successfully used by our researchers for the world's first observations of a rare nuclear process: two-proton decay," says Dr. Mikolaj Cwiok (FUW).

The main element of the eTPC detector is a chamber filled with gas comprising many oxygen nuclei (e.g. carbon dioxide). The gas acts as a target. The gamma radiation beam passes through the gas, with some of the photons colliding with oxygen nuclei to produce carbon and helium nuclei. The nuclei formed through the reaction, which are charged particles, ionise the gas. In order to increase their range, the gas is kept at a reduced pressure, around 1/10 of the atmospheric one. The released electrons are directed using an electric field towards the Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) amplification structures followed by readout electrodes. The paths of the particles are registered electronically using strip electrodes. Processing the data using specialised FPGA processors makes it possible to reconstruct the 3D paths of the particles.

The active region of the detector will be 35x20x20 cm^3, and at nominal intensity of the photon beam it should register up to 70 collisions of gamma photons with oxygen nuclei per day. Tests at ELI-NP used a demonstrator:a smaller but fully functional version of the final detector, named mini-eTPC. The device was tested with a beam of alpha particles (helium nuclei).

"We are extremely pleased with the results of the tests conducted thus far. The demonstrator worked as we expected and successfully registered the tracks of charged particles. We are certain to use it in future research as a fully operational measuring device. In 2018, ELI-NP will be equipped with a larger detector which we are currently building at our laboratories," adds Dr. Mazzocchi.

The project is carried out in collaboration with researchers from ELI-NP/IFIN-HH (Magurele, Romania) and the University of Connecticut in the US. The Warsaw team, led by Prof. Wojciech Dominik, brings together physicists and engineers from the Division of Particles and Fundamental Interactions and the Nuclear Physics Division and students from the University of Warsaw: Jan Stefan Bihalowicz, Jerzy Manczak, Katarzyna Mikszuta and Piotr Podlaski.

Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) is a research project valued at 850 million euro, conducted as part of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures roadmap. The ELI scientific consortium will encompass three centres in the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary, focusing on research into the interactions between light and matter under the conditions of the most powerful photon beams and at a wide range of wavelengths and timescales measured in attoseconds (a billionth of a billionth of a second). The Romanian ELI - Nuclear Physics centre, in Magurele near Bucharest, conducts research into two sources of radiation: high-intensity radiation lasers (of the order of a 10^23 watts per square centimetre), and high-intensity sources of monochromatic gamma radiation. The gamma beam will be formed by scattering laser light off the electrons accelerated by a linear accelerator to speeds nearing the speed of light.

Physics and Astronomy first appeared at the University of Warsaw in 1816, under the then Faculty of Philosophy. In 1825 the Astronomical Observatory was established. Currently, the Faculty of Physics' Institutes include Experimental Physics, Theoretical Physics, Geophysics, Department of Mathematical Methods and an Astronomical Observatory. Research covers almost all areas of modern physics, on scales from the quantum to the cosmological. The Faculty's research and teaching staff includes ca. 200 university teachers, of which 88 are employees with the title of professor. The Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, is attended by ca. 1000 students and more than 170 doctoral students.

###

CONTACTS:

Dr. Chiara Mazzocchi

Institute of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw

tel.: +48 22 5532666

email: chiara.mazzocchi@fuw.edu.pl

SCIENTIFIC PAPERS:

1. "Nuclear reactions at astrophysical energies with gamma-ray beams: A novel experimental approach"; M. Cwiok; Acta Physica Polonica B Vol. 47 No 3 (2016); DOI:10.5506/APhysPolB.47.707

2. "Perspectives for photonuclear research at the Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) facility"; D. Filipescu et al.; Eur. Phys. J. A 51, 185 (2015); DOI:10.1140/epja/i2015-15185-9

RELATED LINKS:

http://www.eli-np.ro/

ELI Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP), Magurele, Romania.

https://eli-laser.eu/

European consortium Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI).

http://www.esfri.eu/roadmap-2016

European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures roadmap.

http://www.fuw.edu.pl/

Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw.

http://www.fuw.edu.pl/informacje-prasowe.html

Press office of the Faculty of Physcis, University of Warsaw.

IMAGES:

FUW160602_fot01s.jpg

HR: http://www.fuw.edu.pl/press/images/2016/FUW160602b_fot01.jpg

Installation of the mini-eTPC demonstrator detector during on-line test beams at the 9 MV Tandem accelerator facility at IFIN-HH, Magurele, Romania. From left: Jan Stefan Bihalowicz, Lukasz Janiak, Marcin Zaremba. (Source: Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw)

FUW160602_fot02s.jpg

HR: http://www.fuw.edu.pl/press/images/2016/FUW160602b_fot02.jpg

Example track of an alpha particle (energy 15 MeV) from the test beam registered with the demonstrator detector mini-eTPC. Read-out electrodes of the detector are parallel to the X-Y plane, the direction of the drift electric field is along the Z axis. (Source: Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw)
The days of drilling into the ground in the search for fuel may be numbered, because if Daniel Nocera has his way, it'll just be a matter of looking for sunny skies.

Nocera, the Patterson Rockwood Professor of Energy at Harvard University, and Pamela Silver, the Elliott T. and Onie H. Adams Professor of Biochemistry and Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, have co-created a system that uses solar energy to split water molecules and hydrogen-eating bacteria to produce liquid fuels.

The paper, whose lead authors include post-doctoral fellow Chong Liu and graduate student Brendan Colon, is described in a June 3 paper published in Science.

"This is a true artificial photosynthesis system," Nocera said. "Before, people were using artificial photosynthesis for water-splitting, but this is a true A-to-Z system, and we've gone well over the efficiency of photosynthesis in nature."

While the study shows the system can be used to generate usable fuels, its potential doesn't end there, said Silver, who is also a Founding Core Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.

"The beauty of biology is it's the world's greatest chemist - biology can do chemistry we can't do easily," she said. "In principle, we have a platform that can make any downstream carbon-based molecule. So this has the potential to be incredibly versatile."

Dubbed "bionic leaf 2.0," the new system builds on previous work by Nocera, Silver and others, which - though it was capable of using solar energy to make isopropanol - faced a number of challenges.

Chief among those challenges, Nocera said, was the fact that the catalyst used to produce hydrogen - a nickel-molybdenum-zinc alloy - also created reactive oxygen species, molecules that attacked and destroyed the bacteria's DNA. To avoid that problem, researchers were forced to run the system at abnormally high voltages, resulting in reduced efficiency.

"For this paper, we designed a new cobalt-phosphorous alloy catalyst, which we showed does not make reactive oxygen species," Nocera said. "That allowed us to lower the voltage, and that led to a dramatic increase in efficiency."

The system can now convert solar energy to biomass with 10 percent efficiency, Nocera said, far above the one percent seen in the fastest growing plants.

In addition to increasing the efficiency, Nocera and colleagues were able to expand the portfolio of the system to include isobutanol and isopentanol. Researchers also used the system to create PHB, a bio-plastic precursor, a process first demonstrated by MIT professor Anthony Sinskey.

The new catalyst also came with another advantage - its chemical design allows it to "self-heal" - meaning it wouldn't leech material into solution.

"This is the genius of Dan," Silver said. "These catalysts are totally biologically compatible."

Though there may yet be room for additional increases in efficiency, Nocera said the system is already effective enough to consider possible commercial applications but within a different model for technology translation.

"It's an important discovery--it says we can do better than photosynthesis," Nocera said. "But I also want to bring this technology to the developing world as well."

Working in conjunction with the First 100 Watts program at Harvard, which helped fund the research, Nocera hopes to continue developing the technology and its applications in nations like India with the help of their scientists.

In many ways, Nocera said, the new system marks the fulfillment of the promise of his "artificial leaf" - which used solar power to split water and make hydrogen fuel.

"If you think about it, photosynthesis is amazing," he said. "It takes sunlight, water and air--and then look at a tree. That's exactly what we did, but we do it significantly better, because we turn all that energy into a fuel."

###

This work was supported by Office of Naval Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative Award (N00014-11-1-0725), Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant (FA9550-09-1-0689), and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. The Harvard University Climate Change Solutions Fund is supporting ongoing research into the "bionic leaf" platform. The work is a direct result of the First 100 W Program established at Harvard University.
An international team of scientists has pushed the limits of radio astronomy to detect a faint signal emitted by hydrogen gas in a galaxy more than five billion light years away -- almost double the previous record.

Using the Very Large Array of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the US, the team observed radio emission from hydrogen in a distant galaxy and found that it would have contained billions of young, massive stars surrounded by clouds of hydrogen gas.

As the most abundant element in the Universe and the raw fuel for creating stars, hydrogen is used by radio astronomers to detect and understand the makeup of other galaxies.

However, until now, radio telescopes have only been able to detect the emission signature of hydrogen from relatively nearby galaxies.

"Due to the upgrade of the Very Large Array, this is the first time we've been able to directly measure atomic hydrogen in a galaxy this far from Earth," lead author, Dr Ximena Fernandez from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, said.

"These signals would have begun their journey before our planet even existed, and after five billion years of travelling through space without hitting anything, they've fallen into the telescope and allowed us to see this distant galaxy for the very first time."

As an archaeologist digs down they find older and older objects. The same is true for astronomers -- as they build bigger telescopes and develop new techniques to see farther into the Universe, they look further and further back in time.

"This is precisely the goal of the project, to study how gas in galaxies has changed through history," Dr Fernandez said.

"A question we hope to answer is whether galaxies in the past had more gas being turned into stars than galaxies today. Our record breaking find is a galaxy with an unusually large amount of hydrogen."

This success for the team comes after the first 178 hours of observing time with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope for a new survey of the sky called the 'COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey', or CHILES for short.

Once it's completed the CHILES survey will have collected data from more than 1,000 hours of observing time.

In a new approach, members of the team including Dr Attila Popping from International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and the ARC Centre of All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) in Australia are working with Amazon Web Services to process and move the large volumes of data via the 'cloud'.

"For this project we took tens of terabytes of data from the Very Large Array, and then processed it using Amazon's cloud-based servers to create an enormous image cube, ready for our team to analyse and explore," Dr Popping said.

Professor Andreas Wicenec, head of the Data Intensive Astronomy team at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said the limiting factor for radio astronomers used to be the size of the telescope and the hardware behind it.

"It's fast becoming more about the data and how you move, store and analyse vast volumes of information," he said.

"Big science needs a lot of compute power--right now we're designing systems to manage data for several large facilities around the world and the next generation of radio telescopes, including China's 500m radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array and the SKA's pathfinder telescopes that are already up and running in outback Western Australia."

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The study involved researchers from the US, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Korea and Chile, and was published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

More Information:

The previous record was set in 2014 when two researchers from Swinburne University used the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to detect atomic hydrogen in a galaxy three billion light years from Earth.

The Very Large Array is one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories and is managed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States. It consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin in New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 metres in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to simulate the resolution of an antenna 36km across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 metres in diameter. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia with support and funding from the State Government of Western Australia.

CAASTRO is a collaboration between Curtin University, The University of Western Australia, the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Queensland. It is funded under the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence program and receives additional funding from the seven participating universities and the NSW State Government Science Leveraging Fund.

Professor Jacqueline van Gorkom leads the CHILES team and is a researcher with Columbia University in New York. Her main interest is in the structure and evolution of galaxies, and more specifically in the role of gas in galaxy evolution. CHILES is partially supported by a collaborative research grant from the National Science Foundation.

Dr Attila Popping is a member of the CHILES team and a researcher with the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Perth, Western Australia. His main interest is the evolution and distribution of neutral hydrogen in the Universe.

Dr Andreas Wicenec is leading ICRAR's Data Intensive Astronomy program to research, design and implement data flows and high performance computing systems for current and future observatories.

Original publication details:

'Highest Redshift Image of Neutral Hydrogen in Emission: A CHILES Detection of a Starbursting Galaxy at z=0.376, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Full text available on request info@icrar.org

Multimedia:

High resolution images are available from http://www.icrar.org/news/chiles

Contacts:

Dr Attila Popping

(The University of Western Australia, ICRAR, CAASTRO)

Ph: +61 420- 686 215

E: Attila.Popping@icrar.org

Dr Ximena Fernandez

(Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)

Ph: +1 (848) 445 8898

E: ximena@physics.rutgers.edu

Prof. Jacqueline van Gorkom

(University of Columbia, New York)

Ph: +1 (212) 854 6850

E: jvangork@astro.columbia.edu

Prof. Andreas Wicenec

(University of Western Australia, ICRAR)

Ph: +61 431 832 602

E: Andreas.Wicenec@icrar.org

Kirsten Gottschalk

(Media Contact, ICRAR)

Ph: +61 438 361 876

E: kirsten.gottschalk@icrar.org
Higher levels of an enzyme in the brain correlate with better cognitive function in older people

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A study led by biomedical researchers at Indiana University has found evidence that an enzyme known as NMNAT2 may help protect against the debilitating effects of certain degenerative brain diseases, including Alzheimer's.

The research was led by Hui-Chen Lu, the Gill Professor in the Linda and Jack Gill Center for Biomolecular Science and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, a part of the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences. First author Yousuf Ali, an IU research scientist, and three other members of Lu's lab conducted the work in collaboration with researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rush University, University of Texas and Harvard University.

The results appear June 2 in the journal PLOS Biology.

"This study found that NMNAT2, or nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyl transferase 2, is a key neuronal maintenance factor," Lu said. "It exerts both an enzyme function to protect neurons from stress caused by over-excitation, and a 'chaperone' function, shown for the first time in this study, to combat the misfolded proteins encountered by the brain during aging."

Many neurodegenerative disorders are caused by accumulation of proteins in the brain. These conditions, called proteinopathies, occur when proteins "misfold," causing them to grow "sticky" and clump up in the brain in a form often referred to as "plaques," or "tangles." As a molecular chaperone, NMNAT2 binds to misfolded proteins to prevent or repair the errors that cause these clumps.

Common proteinopathies are Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. More than 6 million Americans suffer from degenerative brains diseases, with Alzheimer's disease alone recently estimated to have been a factor in the death of over 500,000 people in the U.S. in 2010.

By examining NMNAT2 levels in brains donated by more than 500 elderly people whose cognitive function was tested annually before death, starting with the year of their enrollment in a clinical study established in 1997. Lu and colleagues found higher levels of NMNAT2 in people who had greater resistance to cognitive decline. People with lower NMNAT2 were more likely to suffer from dementia, suggesting that the protein helps preserve neurons related to learning and memory.

Lu's team tested this hypothesis in mice whose brains were damaged by high levels of Tau, a toxic protein that correlates with disease progression. They found that increasing the level of NMNAT2 in the hippocampus, a brain region important for learning and memory, significantly lowered levels of Tau.

"Maintaining neuronal health is key to preventing neurodegeneration and dementia," Lu said.

"This is a fresh look at neurodegenerative disorders," Ali added.

The power of statistics using large and comprehensive human data sets allowed the team to form a testable hypothesis and then examine it in preclinical animal models to demonstrate causal relationships.

"Such studies are only possible through multidisciplinary team efforts, and we are extremely grateful for our wonderful collaborators and funding support," said Lu, who credits the contributions of colleagues including Hugo Bellen and Joshua Shulman at Baylor, David Bennett at Rush and Philip L. De Jager at MIT.

"A detailed knowledge of how NMNAT2 maintains neuronal integrity and its role in neuroprotection is critical not only for understanding normal brain function but also for providing necessary insights to assist in the development of new drugs," Lu said.

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This study started in Lu's lab at Baylor College of Medicine and continued by Ali at IU under Lu's direction, along with Dena Bakhshizadehmahmoudi and Hunter M. Allen. Additional authors are Bellen, Asante Hatcher, David Li-Kroeger and Shulman at Baylor; Bennett and Lei Yu at Rush University; De Jager, Cristin McCabe and Jishu Xu at MIT; and Nicole Bjorklund and Giulio Taglialatela at University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston. Jager is also affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Lu joined the Gill Center at IU Bloomington in 2015.

This research was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health and the Robert A. and Renee E. Belfer Family Foundation.
A group of scientists from Russia, US, Canada and Germany has developed a simple and effective web service called GAM (Genes And Metabolites) to help researchers study complex biological processes in cells. The program identifies links between changes in metabolism and genes, enabling a better understanding of how, for example, cancer or immune system cells work. Metabolic regulation plays a major role in these biological objects. New insights gained by means of the service can be applied to develop treatments for autoimmune diseases and cancer. The study was published in the Nucleic Acids Research.

Maxim Artyomov, assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, supervised the project: "Our service is a helping hand to many biologists and immunologists who investigate the effects of metabolism on clinical changes. In previous studies, we confirmed experimentally how well our algorithm performs. A large number of research groups turned to us for the help and Alexey Sergushichev from ITMO University in Saint Petersburg, Russia has created a web service, so that scientists from all over the world have easy access to this method.

Until now there were no simple, effective and free software products that can simultaneously analyze genes and metabolites (simple low-molecular substances involved in biological processes). There are no good models for biological processes in mammal cells due to extreme number of interrelated reactions - about 1,500 - that occur in one cell in a moment.

Therefore, the solution developed by the group, which included researcher from Computer technologies department at ITMO University Alexey Sergushichev, can already assist biologists and pharmacologists in their work. For instance, the web service can be useful to study processes that occur within cancer cells. Using the service one can analyze an entire map of metabolic pathways in such cells and reveal mechanisms of tumor growth. Fighting cancer without this basic knowledge is problematic.

In a previous study, the scientists used this algorithm and showed that inhibition of certain metabolic processes in cancer cells delays the tumor growth. Now everyone can use the program. The service is already being deployed in dozens of biological laboratories and pharmaceutical companies.

Because metabolism plays an important role in the workings of the immune system, GAM can also find application in the investigation of autoimmune pathologies where in most cases the immune systems rather has to be deactivated as it starts to attack healthy tissues. The majority of these diseases is chronic and result in serious malfunctions in the organism.

Besides metabolism, the balance of the immune system is significantly influenced by the activity (expression) of genes. "Metabolic pathways incorporate enzymes that catalyze chemical reactions. These enzymes are encoded by specific genes. Using our web service, one can analyze changes not only in metabolite concentrations but also in gene expression. Thus, we can understand the mechanisms of cellular processes and to identify key reactions in the course of various autoimmune diseases. In the future, it will aid the development of immune system regulators, for example, immune suppressors for the effective treatment of such pathologies as diabetes mellitus type I or chronic hepatitis B, which are caused by the immune system disorders," says Alexey Sergushichev.

The program compares the original data on metabolite concentrations and gene expression with KEGG database where biological processes are described in a standard state. Then a network is built where nodes represent the substances that were changed significantly, and edges are the pathways of their transformation in the course of chemical reactions. For each node the program defines weight - an indicator of a metabolite significance in the overall process; the indicator depends on deviation of the concentration from the norm.

Thus, cell processes can be identified through analysis of two states: reference (normal) state and the one under influence of an external factor. For example, previously, scientists have observed how macrophages (immune system cells) activate and restructure when a pathogen appears.

The web service is free, user-friendly, efficient and requires no installation. Researchers can use it without getting access to special software and KEGG database.

On the one side, the method is well-suited for non-targeted analysis of reaction network when scientists do not know which patterns they are looking for. On the other side, it helps to detect signal substances from which the immune system receives information about changes in metabolism, and to study their role in intracellular processes. Simultaneous analysis of gene expression and metabolite concentration narrows the search area and makes a complex network of reactions intuitive and readable for researchers.

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Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is one of the most aggressive and deadliest forms of cancer. Treatment options are limited because symptoms typically do not appear until the disease is advanced and complete surgical resection of tumors is not possible. In this issue of JCI Insight, a group of researchers led by Motoyuki Otsuka at the University of Tokyo describe a pilot study of a new method for detecting a pancreatic cancer biomarker in patient serum. Previous work has shown that an RNA known as human satellite II (HSATII) RNA is highly enriched in human pancreatic cancer tissue. This RNA contains repetitive elements that make it difficult to detect with conventional methods. This study now reports a method to easily and specifically quantify HSATII in blood serum from pancreatic cancer patients. They show in an initial cohort of 20 cancer patients and 20 normal patients that HSATII levels are significantly higher in serum from individuals with pancreatic cancer. They validated these findings in a second cohort of patients and showed that the test could detect patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm, a precancerous pancreatic lesion. These studies provide a promising early detection method for pancreatic cancer that can now be tested in a larger cohort of pancreatic cancer patients.

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TITLE: Quantitation of circulating satellite RNAs in pancreatic cancer patients

AUTHOR CONTACT: Motoyuki Otsuka

The University of Tokyo

Email: otsukamo-tky@umin.ac.jp

View this article at: http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/86646?key=52a5cd934c740390968b

JCI Insight is the newest publication from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a nonprofit honor organization of physician-scientists. JCI Insight is dedicated to publishing a range of translational biomedical research with an emphasis on rigorous experimental methods and data reporting. All articles published in JCI Insight are freely available at the time of publication. For more information about JCI Insight and all of the latest articles go to http://www.insight.jci.org.
Pulmonary hypertension is an abnormal elevation of pressure in the pulmonary circulation that results in stress on the heart and remodeling of blood vessels in the lung. Pulmonary hypertension is caused by a variety of factors, and patient prognosis often depends on the underlying cause. Increased stiffness of pulmonary arteries has been linked to increased mortality in patients with pulmonary hypertension, but it is not clear how stiffness develops or drives worsening of disease. In this issue of JCI Insight, a team led by Laura Fredenburgh of Brigham and Women's Hospital shows that alterations in pulmonary arterial stiffness occur early during disease and promote vascular remodeling by altering signaling mediated by prostaglandins, a class of hormones that regulate inflammation, smooth muscle contraction, and vasoconstrictoin. Using very high-resolution microscopy, Frendenburgh and colleagues detected vascular matrix stiffening in early stages of pulmonary hypertension in both humans and experimental animal models. Pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells grown on matrices with enhanced stiffness exhibited increased proliferation, contraction, and production of matrix proteins. Additionally, the stiff matrix reduced production of a class of prostaglandins that are known to protect against vascular remodeling. Importantly, in a rat model, treatment with a prostaglandin analog reduced pulmonary arterial stiffening and attenuated pulmonary hypertension. The results of this study reveal pulmonary arterial stiffening as an early driver of pulmonary hypertension.

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TITLE: Distal vessel stiffening is an early and pivotal mechanobiological regulator of vascular remodeling and pulmonary hypertension

AUTHOR CONTACT: Laura Fredenburgh

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Email: lfredenburgh@rics.bwh.harvard.edu

View this article at: http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/86987?key=398ec5c1fa8855ce45b4

JCI Insight is the newest publication from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a nonprofit honor organization of physician-scientists. JCI Insight is dedicated to publishing a range of translational biomedical research with an emphasis on rigorous experimental methods and data reporting. All articles published in JCI Insight are freely available at the time of publication. For more information about JCI Insight and all of the latest articles go to http://www.insight.jci.org.
The lungs contain a thin layer of fluid known as the airway surface liquid (ASL), which helps protect against pathogens. The appropriate ASL volume, pH, and ionic composition are required for optimal airway defense. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is caused by expression of a dysfunctional cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), which acidifies the ASL and renders CF patients more susceptible to lung infections. In this issue of JCI Insight, Joseph Zabner and colleagues at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine examined the effect of tromethamine, a drug that is currently approved to treat metabolic acidosis, on ASL pH and bacterial killing activity. They demonstrated that inhalation of aerosolized tromethamine raised ASL pH in both pigs and CF patients. Importantly, tromethamine enhanced bacterial killing in the airways of pigs with CF and in sputum samples from humams with CF. These findings suggest that tromethamine may be beneficial in CF patients.

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TITLE:

Repurposing tromethamine as inhaled therapy to treat CF airway disease

AUTHOR CONTACT:

Joseph Zabner

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

Email: joseph-zabner@uiowa.edu

View this article at: http://insight.jci.org/articles/view/87535?key=7b80083f8876f1b1d56f

JCI Insight is the newest publication from the American Society of Clinical Investigation, a nonprofit honor organization of physician-scientists. JCI Insight is dedicated to publishing a range of translational biomedical research with an emphasis on rigorous experimental methods and data reporting. All articles published in JCI Insight are freely available at the time of publication. For more information about JCI Insight and all of the latest articles go to http://www.insight.jci.org.
Eight days. That's how long it takes for skin cells to reprogram into red blood cells. Researchers at Lund University in Sweden, together with colleagues at Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, have successfully identified the four genetic keys that unlock the genetic code of skin cells and reprogram them to start producing red blood cells instead.

"We have performed this experiment on mice, and the preliminary results indicate that it is also possible to reprogram skin cells from humans into red blood cells. One possible application for this technique is to make personalised red blood cells for blood transfusions, but this is still far from becoming a clinical reality", says Johan Flygare, manager of the research group and in charge of the study.

Every individual has a unique genetic code, which is a complete instruction manual describing exactly how all the cells in the body are formed. This instruction manual is stored in the form of a specific DNA sequence in the cell nucleus. All human cells -- brain, muscle, fat, bone and skin cells -- have the exact same code. The thing that distinguishes the cells is which chapter of the manual the cells are able to read. The research group in Lund wanted to find out how the cells open the chapter that contains instructions on how to produce red blood cells. The skin cells on which the study was based had access to the instruction manual, but how were the researchers able to get them to open the chapter describing red blood cells?

With the help of a retrovirus, they introduced different combinations of over 60 genes into the skin cells' genome, until one day they had successfully converted the skin cells into red blood cells. The study is published in the scientific journal Cell Reports.

"This is the first time anyone has ever succeeded in transforming skin cells into red blood cells, which is incredibly exciting", says Sandra Capellera, doctoral student and lead author of the study.

The study shows that out of 20,000 genes, only four are necessary to reprogram skin cells to start producing red blood cells. Also, all four are necessary in order for it to work.

"It's a bit like a treasure chest where you have to turn four separate keys simultaneously in order for the chest to open", explains Sandra.

The discovery is significant from several aspects. Partly from a biological point of view -- understanding how red blood cells are produced and which genetic instructions they require - but also from a therapeutic point of view, as it creates an opportunity to produce red blood cells from the skin cells of a patient. There is currently a lack of blood donors for, for instance, patients with anaemic diseases. Johan Flygare explains:

"An ageing population means more blood transfusions in the future. There will also be an increasing amount of people coming from other countries with rare blood types, which means that we will not always have blood to offer them".

Red blood cells are the most common cells in the human body, and are necessary in order to transport oxygen and carbon dioxide. Millions of people worldwide suffer from anaemia -- a condition in which the patient has an insufficient amount of red blood cells. Patients with chronic anaemia are among the most problematic cases. They receive regular blood transfusions from different donors, which can eventually lead to the patient developing a reaction to the new blood. They simply become allergic to the donor's blood. Finding a feasible way to make blood from an individual's own skin cells would bring relief to this group of patients. However, further studies on how the generated blood performs in living organisms are needed.

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Defining the Minimal Factors Required for Erythropoiesis through Direct Lineage Conversion. Published in Cell Reports on June 2, 2016

For more information, please contact:

Johan FlygareMD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Lund University, Sweden

Tel: +46 727 395959

E-mail: johan.flygare@med.lu.se
The Medical University of South Carolina's (MUSC) Hollings Cancer Center was awarded a five year grant from the NCI to lead an international consortium of research designed to evaluate the impact of government policies on tobacco use behaviors and the evolving nicotine delivery market, which includes the use of vaporized nicotine products such as e-cigarettes. This grant builds upon the longstanding International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project), which has used cross-country comparisons and a common set of measures to evaluate the behavioral impacts of national-level tobacco control policies implemented as part of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The grant includes five inter-related studies and the collaborative efforts of over two dozen investigators from 10 academic institutions in four countries with a goal of assessing the likely impact of current and potential future policies to regulate tobacco products, including the new class of projects referred to as vaporized nicotine products (e.g., e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products).

"The timing of this project is opportune since policies regulating vaporized nicotine products and conventional tobacco products are evolving in different countries, including the recently enacted regulations adopted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and data are needed to help guide effective policy development," said K. Michael Cummings, Ph.D., professor in the MUSC Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and co-leader of the project.

Other institutions included in this research consortium include the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), Roswell Park Cancer Institute, King's College London (England), Georgetown University, Virginia Tech, The Cancer Council Victoria (Melbourne, Australia), University of Illinois at Chicago, The State University of New York, University of South Carolina, and Susquehanna University.

Dr. Anthony J. Alberg, Ph.D., MPH, a co-investigator on the grant and the interim director for the Hollings Cancer Center, noted that "there is a hotly contested debate in the medical and public health communities about whether vaporized nicotine products such as e-cigarettes will prove to have a net positive or negative impact on population health."

According to Alberg "with so many new nicotine products being introduced into the marketplace, we are in new and uncharted terrain, and in desperate need of data to characterize the strengths and weaknesses of different policy options. The data generated from this project will help guide decision-makers and ultimately governments as to the most prudent course of action under this complex set of circumstances."

The proposed research utilizes both experimental and observational methods to explore the impact of policies on tobacco use behaviors in four countries - the United States, Canada, Australia and England. According to Cummings, "Canada and Australia have fairly restrictive regulations about the sale of e-cigarettes, while the U.S. and England are less restrictive, although evolving new regulations are likely to come into play in the next several years.

"We predict that policies such as higher taxes, product warnings, plain packaging that makes the use of cigarettes less convenient and attractive will increase interest and use of alternative forms of nicotine such as e-cigarettes, while the opposite effect will occur if policies make vaporized nicotine products less convenient and accessible."

Collectively, the proposed set of studies are designed to comprehensively examine how different policies are likely to influence the use of vaporized nicotine products as well smoked tobacco products, with the goal of developing forecasting models to predict the population health impact of different product regulatory schemes.

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About Hollings Cancer Center

The Hollings Cancer Center at the Medical University of South Carolina is a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center and the largest academic-based cancer research program in South Carolina. The cancer center is comprised of more than 120 faculty cancer scientists with an annual research funding portfolio of $44 million and a dedication to reducing the cancer burden in South Carolina. Hollings offers state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities, therapies and surgical techniques within multidisciplinary clinics that include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation therapists, radiologists, pathologists, psychologists and other specialists equipped for the full range of cancer care, including more than 200 clinical trials. For more information, visit http://www.hcc.musc.edu.
Nagoya, Japan -- Across the centuries, forming cooperative networks beyond cultural boundaries has been a way to overcome natural disasters.

A Nagoya University researcher and his leading international research group discovered a Great Platform built with different kinds of stone at the archeological site of San Andres, El Salvador, and challenged the prevailing theory regarding the sociocultural development of Southeastern Maya frontier.

San Andres is located in the Zapotitan Valley, El Salvador, known as Southeastern Maya zone. Archaeological investigation conducted during 40's and 90's has shown that San Andres had long human occupation beginning from the Middle Preclassic (ca. 600 BC) until the Early Postclassic (ca. AD 1200), in which had role as political, economic and religious center during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900). As San Andres has been affected by numerous explosive eruptions -- at least three or four -- during the past two millennia, archaeologists have been interested to understand the role of volcanic eruptions in human history.

Between February and May of 2016, the research group led by Assistant Prof. Akira Ichikawa of the Institute for Advanced Research and at the Graduate School of Letters, Nagoya University, made a new discovery that allowed them to reconsider the recovery process from the volcanic eruption of Ilopango (ca. AD 400-450), which was one of the greatest Holocene eruptions in Central America. Assistant Prof. Ichikawa explained: "We have discovered a masonry platform just above the ash caused by the Ilopango eruption in San Andres, which could prove that people reoccupied in such a devastated area even immediately after the enormous disaster occurred."

He noted that the discovery of masonry architecture (4 tiered platform, measuring probably ca. 70 m north-south, 60 m east-west, and ca. 6 m) was conclusive in this study. In the Southeastern Maya periphery, especially present western El Salvador, monumental architecture had been principally constructed by earthen material during the Preclassic to Classic period (ca. 800 BC to AD 900). The type of platform mentioned above is very similar to that of Quelepa located in now eastern El Salvador and had other cultural affiliation in the Precolumbian era. This evidence indicates that San Andres's new construction technology was introduced by external cultural connection.

Assistant Prof. Ichikawa speculated that the social group lived in the Quelepa may have given a hand to help the people in the fully devastated Zapotitan Valley soon after a volcanic eruption occurred. Since the Great Platform found in this study could be considered as a monumental architecture to commemorate the people in the affected area, people in these areas must have had some cooperative relations beyond their cultural boundaries.

San Andres has been investigated in terms of its relations mainly with Copan, the representative Classic Maya center located in western Honduras. "In this study we opened the gate by broadening our perspectives to the peripheral border beyond the cultural boundaries," Assistant Prof. Ichikawa added. He expects that an understanding of the cultural development in peripheral areas will reveal the historical dynamism across multicultural societies.

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The investigation of this study was fully authorized and assisted by Direccion Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural y Natural, la Secretaria de Cultura de la Presidencia, El Salvador. This study was financially supported by MEXT KAKENHI, Grant Number 26101003.
Street lights change the natural behaviour of moths and disrupt nocturnal pollination, new research has shown.

The study, published today in the scientific journal Global Change Biology, reveals the shift in moth activity in street-lit areas from vegetation level to lamp-post height and the impact this is having on their ability to pollinate flowers.

The role played by moths in plant pollination has until now been largely overlooked as previous studies have focussed on daytime pollinators, such as bees.

Now the team from Newcastle University, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and the charity Butterfly Conservation say more research is needed to understand the effect of street lighting on moth populations and their importance as pollinators.

Callum Macgregor, a PhD student at Newcastle University who led the research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), explained:

"We all know moths are attracted to light - some people might grumble about finding them flitting around in the bathroom or banging against the window.

"Where there are street lights, our research indicates that the moths are being attracted upwards, away from the fields and hedgerows. This is likely to cause disruption of night-time pollination by moths, which could be serious for the flowers which rely upon moths for pollination, and of course there could be negative effects on the moths themselves as well."

Dr Darren Evans, Reader in Ecology and Conservation at Newcastle University and one of the authors on the paper, adds:

"Our research shows that light pollution significantly alters moth activity and this in turn is disrupting their role as pollinators.

"There is a great deal of concern at the moment about our falling pollinator populations and the knock-on effect on plant pollination. Our research suggests that it's a process that is being damaged on two fronts - night and day - and together the impact could be significant."

Nocturnal pollinators

Like the more well-known pollinators, bees and butterflies, moth populations in the UK and Europe are in severe long-term decline, with artificial night lighting one potential cause.

It is only recently, however, that the crucial role played by moths in plant pollination has been fully appreciated.

Capturing and counting moths in lit and unlit areas of farmland in Oxfordshire, the team found that moth abundance at ground level was halved in lit areas but flight activity at the height of the street light was nearly doubled. Species richness was also reduced at ground level, with 25% fewer species in lit areas compared to those areas where there was no street lighting.

Analysing the presence of pollen on the captured moths, the team found that 1 in 4 of the insects were carrying pollen (from at least 28 plant species) so the halving of moth activity at ground level at lit sites could be affecting nocturnal pollination.

Dr Michael Pocock from NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and a co-author of the paper, said:

"Street lighting at night is important for road safety and people's security but our research is just the latest piece of evidence showing the unintended negative effects of street lighting on wildlife.

"It indicates that the blanket of street lighting that covers Europe not only affects moths but has effects which cascade across ecosystems."

Richard Fox from partner organisation Butterfly Conservation and also a co-author, adds:

"Moths are an important part of the UK's biodiversity, as pollinators of wild flowers and as food for many birds and predators. However, the total abundance of moths in Britain has decreased by over a quarter since the 1960s with likely knock-on effects on many other organisms. The role of artificial light in causing moth declines remains unclear, but this new research indicates effects not just on moths but on the whole ecosystem."

The impact of street lighting on our ecosystem

It was Joseph Swan's invention of the incandescent light bulb that led to Newcastle becoming one of the first cities in the world to be fitted with electric street lights. Globally, there are now an estimated 300 million street lights.

The current study focussed on the high pressure sodium street lamp found on most streets in Britain but the team are now investigating the impact of replacing these with LED lights. They recommend that, before replacement road lights are widely introduced, policy-makers should investigate their wider impact on natural systems.

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Although the United Kingdom is considering leaving the European Union and other economic players, such as China, are emerging, researchers suggest that the EU is -- and will remain -- a dominant player in the world's business arena.

Among other regulatory duties, the European Commission keeps a watchful eye on the mergers of European and foreign companies to maintain a competitive playing field, said Terrence Guay, clinical professor of international business, Penn State.

"Since the EU is an important regulator it gets to decide whether U.S., Japanese, Korean or any other country's firms merge, if they are operating within Europe," said Guay. "What they're interested in is how the merger or antitrust policies would affect competitiveness within the EU market."

Several international firms, including American companies, have paid the price for underestimating or failing to recognize the power of the EU to regulate its markets and approve mergers, according to the researchers, who released their findings in the book, "European Competition Policy and Globalization" (Palgrave Macmillan 2016). In 2001, for example, after receiving support from American regulators, Jack Welch, then CEO of GE, expected an easy approval of his company's merger with Honeywell, but was shocked when the commission rejected the proposal.

"Each case is a little different, but I think the GE-Honeywell case is one where there was a personality -- Jack Welch -- who basically didn't care what the EU thought and the earlier Microsoft cases from the 1990 were similar, too," said Guay, who wrote the book with Chad Damro, senior lecturer in politics and international relations, University of Edinburgh. "I think what has happened since the late 1990s, almost 20 years, is that more companies are realizing that you have to pay attention to the EU."

The clashes with GE and, soon after, a highly publicized tussle with Bill Gates and Microsoft, showed the gathering power of the EU.

"The EU was created in the 1950s, but it didn't have the power to regulate companies in anti-trust, government subsidies and mergers," said Guay. " Nobody took the EU's competition, or anti-trust in U.S. parlance, regulators very seriously until the 1990s. As the EU became more integrated, particularly the 1980s, that's when its leaders decided that if they wanted to make European companies more competitive, then they would need to build a regulatory regime that ensures that some companies don't become too dominant."

The EU was not afraid to flex this regulatory muscle as the high tech sector became more dominant. Besides the EU's involvement in the controversial Microsoft case, Guay noted that two cases against Google are currently making their way through the EU system.

Besides the prestige of its regulatory arm, the EU also serves as a model for regulatory bodies among countries in emerging markets.

"As other countries like China and India become more important to businesses and struggle to develop a regulatory system, most countries don't try to reinvent the wheel, so they look at U.S. models and European models," said Guay. "We are seeing a gradual influence of the European model taking hold in other countries."

Guay suggests that even with the challenges the EU faces, such as the UK's possible exit, he expects the European Commission to continue to exert its power, especially on mergers.

"The EU is not going away," said Guay. "As new products are developed and new services are provided, it's going to create questions on how these companies are competing."

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Researchers at Ruhr-Universitat Bochum were the first ones to prove the existence of an olfactory receptor in pigment-producing cells in human skin, the so-called melanocytes. The team headed by Prof Dr Dr Dr habil. Hanns Hatt demonstrated that the violet-like scent Beta-Ionone can activate the receptor.

Together with colleagues from Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the university hospital in Jena, the researchers at Bochum's Department for Cellphysiology reported their findings in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Cause of black skin cancer

The group identified the olfactory receptor 51E2 in cell cultures of melanocytes from human skin. Those cells produce the black melanin which renders the skin tan. Excessive growth of melanocytes may cause too much pigmentation and possibly trigger black skin cancer.

Signalling pathways in cells identified

The researchers identified the signalling pathway in detail that is activated by the 51E2 receptor. If a fitting odorant binds to the receptor, a reaction cascade is triggered similar to the one occurring in olfactory cells of the nose: the concentration of calcium ions increases.

This, in turn, activates the signalling pathways at the end of which phosphate groups are transferred to specific enzymes, such as MAP-kinases. The newly detected receptor uses this mechanism to regulate enzyme activity and, consequently, cell growth and melanin production.

Starting point for melanoma therapy

"The receptor and its activating odor molecule might constitute a new starting point for a melanoma therapy," says Hanns Hatt. If healthy melanocytes turn into tumour cells, they strongly increase the proliferation rate, but they focus less efficiently on their actual functions. The Beta-Ionone odorant appears to affect these properties using the relevant receptor. Hanns Hatt's team is currently analysing the causes and effects in melanoma cells gained through biopsies.

The scent researcher from Bochum expects the newly detected receptor to have other potential applications: "With its help, we might be able to treat pigmentation disorders of the skin, and they might also be used in tanning products," says Hatt.

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Funding

The German Research Foundation funded the study under the umbrella of the Collaborative Research Centre 642. Additional funding came from Vogelsang Foundation.
Being an entrepreneur is not easy. There are a lot of challenges on the way - you have to have a good idea, you need to know where, when and how to raise the money that funds its development and you have to lead a team of various professions to follow your vision. Anil Sethi started working for two cups of coffee per day when he began his first startup. He had to struggle with lots of failures and eventually became a successful Swiss entrepreneur. In his book From Science to Startup: The Inside Track of Technology Entrepreneurship (Springer) he charts the experiences, pitfalls and knowledge behind transforming scientific ideas into successful startups and offers a practical guide for those who want to turn their ideas into real business.

Drawing on his own experience and a wealth of global case studies, Sethi takes us on a detailed, step-by-step journey through the whole startup process: from initial positioning to getting the interest of investors to tips and tricks that most entrepreneurs won't admit to. "This book is about things I wished I had known when I began my journey," Sethi says. That's why he enhances his text with useful advice for future entrepreneurs in takeaway messages, like'Targeting the right investors is as important as avoiding the wrong ones.'

From Science to Startup is meant for students finishing their MBA and entrepreneurs who haven't yet found a clear path to follow. But it also addresses scientists and engineers who want to commercialise their innovations because it helps them "to recognize their box and how to think outside of i" as Sethi puts it. With this book, Sethi wants to help improve the communication between scientists and economists. "Scientists are fantastic at developing and understanding their work, but they simply can't communicate how their work will make our lives better and how it could be put into practical use in ways that us normal folks can understand," says Sethi, sharing his experience.

Anil Sethi is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Swiss Extension. He also founded Flisom, one of the world's leading flexible PV companies. Sethi took the technology that was developed at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and changed and developed it so it became a real company. He then led the company as the CEO and CFO from its inception in 2005 to 2012. He led three rounds of funding and built a team of over 20 people to transition the technology to market. Sethi was recognised for his efforts with honours from various entities along the way. These include being honoured as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and an invitation to attend WEF in Davos in 2007.

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Anil Sethi

From Science to Startup

The Inside Track of Technology Entrepreneurship

2016, XII, 243 p. 18 illus. in colour

Softcover 29,99 | 16.50 | $29.99

ISBN 978-3-319-30424-3

Also available as an eBook
An endowment from the National Institutes of Health will build the university's operational infrastructure and make SDSU a hub for health disparities research.

A major award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will help San Diego State University build its capacity to conduct pioneering public health research for many years to come. Earlier this year, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), part of NIH, awarded SDSU a $10 million endowment to improve the infrastructure that supports population health and health disparities research.

Rather than funding specific research projects, the money will be spent to boost SDSU researchers' ability to carry out their research, and to better collaborate across disciplines and institutions. Examples could include purchasing technology to allow researchers to collect more and better data, hiring computer programmers to design new research software, or investing in data storage systems to better manage forays into big data.

"Technology changes so quickly that you don't want to get locked into funding for specific technologies that will become outdated," said Guadalupe X. "Suchi" Ayala, associate dean for research in the College of Health and Human Services, director of the Institute for Behavioral and Community Health, and one of the endowment's principal investigators. "The most exciting aspect of this endowment is that it will allow us to build an infrastructure to support health disparities research well into the future."

Strengthening connections

Principal investigator and SDSU mathematics professor Jose Castillo said that "connecting the College of Health and Human Services with the College of Engineering and the College of Sciences via the Computer Science Research Center High Speed Network will allow researchers in the colleges to move and share data in real time."

Kee Moon, professor of mechanical engineering and founding principal investigator of the SDSU Smart Health Institute, added that he believes the new infrastructure will provide a home to multi-college and transdisciplinary collaboration, and it will help to foster innovations in research programs with potential applications to a broad range of fields including health, medical innovation, medical devices, disease diagnostics, and wireless communication.

Ayala believes SDSU succeeded in winning the endowment because the university already has a strong, productive and collaborative cohort of researchers studying population health and health disparities. Her own work, supported largely by NIH funding, focuses on family and community-level interventions to promote healthy eating among San Diego and Imperial Counties' Latino population. The new award outlines plans for collaboration between SDSU's College of Health and Human Services, College of Sciences and College of Engineering.

Long-term planning

The endowment's funding mechanism is relatively unique among grants awarded by NIH. Rather than a lump sum accorded to a particular investigator, the endowment will contribute $2 million per year over the next 5 years to SDSU's philanthropic auxiliary, the Campanile Foundation. This money will be invested and the returns it generates will be used for research infrastructure improvement. At its peak, Ayala estimates that the endowment will generate approximately $479,000 per year.

SDSU must maintain this investment for 20 years, after which the funds will release fully to the Campanile Foundation to be used to support population health and health disparities research. At that point, the endowment will have generated about $20 million in total funding. The initial $10 million investment will count toward The Campaign for SDSU, which is raising $750 million to strengthen the university's academic excellence.

Better infrastructure will allow researchers across SDSU's campus to share data and resources and answer new kinds of questions, said Kristen Wells, an assistant professor of psychology at SDSU who contributed to the endowment application. She studies cancer-related health disparities and how best to communicate cancer risk and prevention information. Having the resources to more easily work with researchers from different disciplines will allow her to explore deeper, more complex relationships between communities and their cancer risk.

"One of the main reasons we pursued this funding was to be able to build networks between people who don't necessarily work together every day," Wells said. "We want to bring those resources together, especially for looking at emerging technologies like big data."

New insights

Ming-Hsiang Tsou, geography professor and director of SDSU's Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, added that the university's expertise in combining geospatial research with social media will give researchers new insights into how communities understand and respond to their own population health issues.

"With this endowment, we can collaborate with many different disciplines across campus to develop geospatial technologies to facilitate research in health disparities and population health," Tsou said.

Fruitful interdisciplinary collaborations and new avenues of research will make SDSU investigators even more competitive for future funding from agencies like NIH, Ayala said, supporting the university's commitment to health disparities and population health research.

"I believe we are on the cusp of some really wonderful things," she said.

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Injecting modified, human, adult stem cells directly into the brains of chronic stroke patients proved not only safe but effective in restoring motor function, according to the findings of a small clinical trial led by Stanford University School of Medicine investigators.

The patients, all of whom had suffered their first and only stroke between six months and three years before receiving the injections, remained conscious under light anesthesia throughout the procedure, which involved drilling a small hole through their skulls; the next day they all went home. Although more than three-quarters of them suffered from transient headaches afterward -- probably due to the surgical procedure and the physical constraints employed to ensure its precision -- there were no side effects attributable to the stem cells themselves, and no life-threatening adverse effects linked to the procedure used to administer them.

The promising results set the stage for an expanded trial of the procedure now getting underway. They also call for new thinking regarding the permanence of brain damage, said Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD, professor and chair of neurosurgery.

'Clinically meaningful' results

"This was just a single trial, and a small one," cautioned Steinberg, who led the 18-patient trial and conducted 12 of the procedures himself. (The rest were performed at the University of Pittsburgh.) "It was designed primarily to test the procedure's safety. But patients improved by several standard measures, and their improvement was not only statistically significant, but clinically meaningful. Their ability to move around has recovered visibly. That's unprecedented. At six months out from a stroke, you don't expect to see any further recovery."

The trial's results are detailed in a paper to be published online June 2 in Stroke. Steinberg, who has more than 15 years' worth of experience in work with stem cell therapies for neurological indications, is the paper's lead and senior author.

Some 800,000 people suffer a stroke each year in the United States alone. About 85 percent of all strokes are ischemic: They occur when a clot forms in a blood vessel supplying blood to part of the brain, with subsequent intensive damage to the affected area. The specific loss of function incurred depends on exactly where within the brain the stroke occurs, and on its magnitude.

Although approved therapies for ischemic stroke exist, to be effective they must be applied within a few hours of the event -- a time frame that often is exceeded by the amount of time it takes for a stroke patient to arrive at a treatment center.

Disabling effects of stroke

Consequently, only a small fraction of patients benefit from treatment during the stroke's acute phase. The great majority of survivors end up with enduring disabilities. Some lost functionality often returns, but it's typically limited. And the prevailing consensus among neurologists is that virtually all recovery that's going to occur comes within the first six months after the stroke.

"There are close to 7 million chronic stroke patients in the United States," Steinberg said. "If this treatment really works for that huge population, it has great potential."

For the trial, the investigators screened 379 patients and selected 18, whose average age was 61. For most patients, at least a full year had passed since their stroke -- well past the time when further recovery might be hoped for. In each case, the stroke had taken place beneath the brain's outermost layer, or cortex, and had severely affected motor function.

"Some patients couldn't walk," Steinberg said. "Others couldn't move their arm."

Into these patients' brains the neurosurgeons injected so-called SB623 cells -- mesenchymal stem cells derived from the bone marrow of two donors and then modified to beneficially alter the cells' ability to restore neurologic function.

No immune rejection

Mesenchymal stem cells are the naturally occurring precursors of muscle, fat, bone and tendon tissues. In preclinical studies, though, they've not been found to cause problems by differentiating into unwanted tissues or forming tumors. Easily harvested from bone marrow, they appear to trigger no strong immune reaction in recipients even when they come from an unrelated donor. In fact, they may actively suppress the immune system. For this trial, unlike the great majority of transplantation procedures, the stem cell recipients received no immunosuppressant drugs.

During the procedure, patients' heads were held in fixed positions while a hole was drilled through their skulls to allow for the injection of SB623 cells, accomplished with a syringe, into a number of spots at the periphery of the stroke-damaged area, which varied from patient to patient.

Afterward, patients were monitored via blood tests, clinical evaluations and brain imaging. Interestingly, the implanted stem cells themselves do not appear to survive very long in the brain. Preclinical studies have shown that these cells begin to disappear about one month after the procedure and are gone by two months. Yet, patients showed significant recovery by a number of measures within a month's time, and they continued improving for several months afterward, sustaining these improvements at six and 12 months after surgery. Steinberg said it's likely that factors secreted by the mesenchymal cells during their early postoperative presence near the stroke site stimulates lasting regeneration or reactivation of nearby nervous tissue.

No relevant blood abnormalities were observed. Some patients experienced transient nausea and vomiting, and 78 percent had temporary headaches related to the transplant procedure.

Motor-function improvements

Substantial improvements were seen in patients' scores on several widely accepted metrics of stroke recovery. Perhaps most notably, there was an overall 11.4-point improvement on the motor-function component of the Fugl-Meyer test, which specifically gauges patients' movement deficits.

"This wasn't just, 'They couldn't move their thumb, and now they can.' Patients who were in wheelchairs are walking now," said Steinberg, who is the Bernard and Ronni Lacroute-William Randolph Hearst Professor in Neurosurgery and Neurosciences.

"We know these cells don't survive for more than a month or so in the brain," he added. "Yet we see that patients' recovery is sustained for greater than one year and, in some cases now, more than two years."

Importantly, the stroke patients' postoperative improvement was independent of their age or their condition's severity at the onset of the trial. "Older people tend not to respond to treatment as well, but here we see 70-year-olds recovering substantially," Steinberg said. "This could revolutionize our concept of what happens after not only stroke, but traumatic brain injury and even neurodegenerative disorders. The notion was that once the brain is injured, it doesn't recover -- you're stuck with it. But if we can figure out how to jump-start these damaged brain circuits, we can change the whole effect.

"We thought those brain circuits were dead. And we've learned that they're not."

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A new randomized, double-blinded multicenter phase-2b trial aiming to enroll 156 chronic stroke patients is now actively recruiting patients. Steinberg is the principal investigator of that trial. For more information, please email stemcellstudy@stanford.edu.

The ongoing work is an example of Stanford Medicine's focus on precision health, the goal of which is to anticipate and prevent disease in the healthy and precisely diagnose and treat disease in the ill.

Other Stanford co-authors of the study are Neil Schwartz, MD, PhD, clinical associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences and of neurosurgery; and former neurosurgery fellow Jeremiah Johnson, MD, now at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

The SB623 cells were provided by SanBio Inc., a biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California. SanBio also funded and helped in designing the trial, but did not participate in its execution.

Stanford's Department of Neurosurgery also supported the work.

Print media contact: Bruce Goldman at (650) 725-2106 (goldmanb@stanford.edu)

Broadcast media contact: Margarita Gallardo at (650) 723-7897 (mjgallardo@stanford.edu)
Implicit Cognition and Gifts: How Does Social Psychology Help Us Think Differently about Medical Practice?

Nicolae Morar and Natalia Washington

This article examines in depth the negative effects of medical industry gifts to physicians and argues that the failure of recent policies addressing gift giving can be traced to a misunderstanding of what psychological mechanisms are most likely to underpin physicians' biased behavior. The problem with gift giving is largely not a matter of malicious or consciously self-interested behavior, the authors conclude, but of well-intentioned actions on the part of physicians that are nonetheless perniciously infected by the presence of the medical industry. Without fully appreciating the social-psychological mechanisms at play, policy-makers are likely to overlook significant aspects of how gifts influence doctors.

At Law--Medicare and Advance Planning: The Importance of Context

Rebecca Dresser

In January, Medicare began reimbursing doctors for time they spend talking with patients about end-of-life care. Many people think the Medicare change is a big deal, but others are not so sure. After all, laws promoting advance care planning have existed for decades, but they have had relatively little impact. And from a broad perspective, advance care planning is a small piece of the puzzle. The effort to improve end-of-life care must take into account the limitations of advance decision-making, as well as the overriding importance of the general standard of care for terminally ill patients.

Robert Gatter

Nurse Kaci Hickox is among the "Ebola Fighters" honored by Time magazine as its 2014 Person of the Year, having treated Ebola patients in Sierra Leone while volunteering with Medecins Sans Frontieres. When she returned to the United States in October 2014, she was quarantined in New Jersey for three days before returning home to Maine under the terms of a negotiated release. A year later, Hickox filed suit in federal court against Governor Chris Christie and New Jersey health officials, claiming that the quarantine violated her civil rights. Her complaint asserts that New Jersey officials lacked the authority to quarantine her because she did not pose a significant risk of transmission. The lawsuit raises important questions about disease-transmission risk, the inability of science to rule out certain theoretical risks, and the state's power to quarantine. It also demonstrates that population health depends on respecting individual liberty and using the best available epidemiological data to set public health policy.

Also in this issue:

Case Study, Perspective, and book reviews ("Minding and Caring about Ethics in Brain Injury" and "Dispelling Stem-Cell Ideology")

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Men who live outside major Canadian cities and have sex with other men are less likely to get an HIV test than their metropolitan counterparts, a UBC study shows.

The study, conducted at UBC's Okanagan campus, also shows that the lower testing rates are likely connected to internalized feelings of homophobia and a reluctance to disclose sexual preferences at a doctor's office.

"This study shows that a lack of feeling accepted appears to not only pose mental health risks, it poses physical health risks," says Susan Holtzman, associate professor of psychology. "The fact that these men are reluctant to tell their doctor about their sexuality is something that requires attention in our healthcare system if we hope to increase the number of people tested for HIV."

Holtzman's study, conducted in cooperation with the Living Positive Resource Centre in Kelowna, BC, surveyed 153 people recruited through online dating sites and events in the gay community.

The study found that 24 per cent of men living in smaller communities had never had an HIV test, compared to the 14 to 17 per cent of untested men living in large cities such as Vancouver and Toronto.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, men who have sex with men represented 53 per cent of total HIV infections in 2014, accounting for 39,630 people across the country.

Holtzman's study was recently published in the journal AIDS Care.

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A protein known as STING plays a crucial role in the immune system's ability to "sense" cancer by recognizing and responding to DNA from tumor cells. Injection of compounds that activate the STING pathway directly into solid tumors in mice has been shown in prior studies to result in very potent anti-tumor immune responses.

In the June 14, 2016, issue of Cell Reports, researchers from the University of Chicago show that by injecting substances that mimic tumor-cell DNA into the bloodstream, they could stimulate STING to provoke a life-extending immune response in mice with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the most common type of acute leukemia seen in adults.

This is the first demonstration that activating the STING pathway could be effective not only in solid, localized tumors such as melanoma, but also in widely disseminated "liquid" cancers, such as leukemia.

"Delivery of these substances into the blood led to massive immune responses," said Justin Kline, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago and senior author of the study. "I've worked extensively with animal models of this disease, and have never seen responses like this."

STING - short for STimulator of INterferon Genes - plays a central role in detecting threats, such as viral infections or cancer. STING is activated when DNA turns up in the wrong place, inside the cell but outside the nucleus.

When it encounters such misplaced DNA, STING induces the production of an immune stimulant, interferon-beta, as well as other chemical signals that recruit certain components of the immune system to manage the threat, such as leukemia-specific killer T cells.

Emily Curran, MD, a clinical instructor in hematology/oncology working in Kline's laboratory, and first author of the study, found that mice with established AML were rarely able to launch an effective immune response against the disease. But when the researchers exposed mice with AML to DMXAA (5,6-dimethylxanthenone-4-acetic acid), a molecule that activates STING, the immune system responded aggressively, culminating in the activation of highly potent, cancer-cell killing T cells.

This response prolonged survival and, in some cases, cured the mice of their leukemia. About 60 percent of DMXAA-treated mice survived long-term. They were even able to protect themselves when "re-challenged" with AML cells.

Because of significant differences between mice and humans, DMXAA does not activate the human STING pathway, but researchers have found that several cyclic dinucleotides - signaling molecules produced by bacteria - have a comparable effect in stimulating the STING pathway. This leads to an immune response that begins with the production of type I interferons and proceeds to later, more powerful stages, ultimately including leukemia-specific T cells.

This approach "demonstrated impressive therapeutic efficacy in two aggressive, syngeneic AML models, potently activated leukemia antigen-specific cells, and induced immunological memory," Curran said. "Our results provide strong rationale for the clinical translation of STING agonists as immune therapy for leukemia and possibly other hematologic malignancies."

Kline emphasizes that their approach is "not without risk." It can induce "a lot of inflammation, fever, even shock." Such a stimulated immune system can be "too effective," he said, especially when the therapy is given through the blood stream, rather than injected into a solid tumor.

"I think drug makers will want to focus on intra-tumoral injection studies before they are ready to bet on systemic infusion," he said. "But this is an important first step."

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The National Institutes of Health, the University of Chicago Institute for Translational Medicine and the Cancer Research Institute funded this study. Additional authors were Emily Curran, Xiufen Chen, Leticia Corrales, and Douglas Kline from the University of Chicago; Thomas Dubensky from Aduro Biotech Inc., Berkeley Calif.; and Priyanka Duttagupta and Martin Kortylewski from the Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope, Duarte, Calif.
A USDA grant to UMass Amherst will identify insect vectors that best spread mummy berry, and show how variations in insect visitation can explain varying resistance levels among blueberry varieties.

AMHERST, Mass. - As New England's blueberry season approaches, University of Massachusetts Amherst doctoral candidate Matt Boyer says a fungal pathogen of highbush blueberries known as mummy berry is a common threat to growers, and if left untreated can destroy up to 50 percent of a crop. It is so named because it produces dead-looking, berry-shaped lumps instead of healthy berries.

Boyer, studying organismic and evolutionary biology and entomology, recently received a two-year, $79,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to identify the insect vectors that best spread the disease, and to study how variations in insect visitation can explain varying resistance levels among blueberry varieties.

He says, "It would be quite valuable to know what insects are responsible for spreading it. There are quite a few other pathogens in the genus that affect other crops, so the problem goes beyond blueberries. The more we know about insect-vectored pathogens the better off we will be, because they affect many agricultural systems and end up costing farmers millions of dollars in crop losses."

"Pathogen vectoring in general is common, but for something that can really decimate your crops, we know surprisingly little about it," he adds. The mummy berry pathogen, Monilinia vaccinii-corymbosi, is widespread and a major problem for highbush blueberry growers from the mid-Atlantic through northern New England and west to Michigan.

The infection can be controlled by fungicides, but organic farms do not use toxic chemicals and commercial growers would like to reduce costs and dependence on them. Boyer hopes he can help growers cope and perhaps reduce their reliance on fungicides. Wild and lowbush blueberries are much more resistant to the disease than the highbush variety, he notes.

For this work, Boyer and colleagues John Hulvey, Rob Wick and Ann Averill, plus Joan Milam in the environmental conservation department, will study pollinators at an experimental plot at UMass Cold Spring Orchard Research and Education Center in Belchertown, at Quonquont Orchard and Nourse Farms in Whately and at the Roberts Family farm in Chesterfield.

Professor Lynn Adler, Boyer's advisor, says, "Matt's work is exciting because he can look at the benefits of insect visitation to flowers for pollination compared to the costs of vectoring a pathogen."

As Boyer explains, mummy berry damages blueberries by commandeering the plants' tissues in spring to produce a "pseudo flower" that mimics not only the wavelength of light reflected by real blueberry flowers, but also the scent of real flowers, to fool pollinating insects into landing on it. Insect visitors, tricked into seeking pollen at these flower-like tissues, instead collect fungal spores and spread the disease when they land on real blueberry flowers.

When deposited on a real flower, the spores produce thread-like mycelia that grow down into the bud, which in turn produces grey, pumpkin-shaped mummy berries that drop to the ground at harvest time. These will produce cup-like fungal structures, releasing spores that disperse in the wind to land on new shoots of blueberry bushes in the spring and infect the plant.

Boyer says many different insect species visit blueberry flowers, including bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, blueberry bees, hornets, wasps and a variety of flies. Bees pollinate many plants per day, but little is known about whether other pollinators might be also be responsible for spreading mummy berry disease, whether different blueberry cultivars have different resistance and whether timing of flower blooms, for example, might affect infection rates.

Boyer and colleagues will use a combination of techniques including observing flowers to identify which insects are visiting, catching insects to collect Monilinia spores from them to assess disease load by species and employing quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) techniques to quantify disease loads. They will also compare results of these among several different highbush blueberry cultivars. He says, "We do know that different cultivars have varying levels of resistance to the disease. We're trying to assess whether differences in insect visitation can help explain that variation."

In the field, Boyer will identify and record floral visitors, insect probe time per flower and whether the visitor is observed visiting pseudo flowers. The researchers will also quantify pollen levels on more than 700 insect flower visitor specimens collected from a field site with heavy mummy berry blight in order to quantify fungal conidia and pollen loads by insect species.

Finally, Boyer and colleagues plan to use laboratory experiments to assess the ability of another fungus, Irpex lacteus, to suppress mummy berry growth as a first step to determining its potential as a biochemical agent. Specifically, they will test the hypothesis that Irpex produces chemical compounds that inhibit Monolinia's growth.

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Action is needed to keep innovation going on brain-based disease and behavior, while helping young neuroscientists prepare for careers

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Call them the Brain Generation -- the tens of thousands of college and graduate students working toward degrees in neuroscience, and the high school students who want to join them someday.

They've grown up in a time when exciting new discoveries about the brain come out every day, fueled by a revolution in scientific tools during their short lives. And that has fueled a boom in students choosing to work toward a neuroscience degree.

But even as they study and train, they're worried about their futures - and whether they'll get to use their brains to the fullest in a time of tight research funding.

Top senior neuroscientists are worried too. That's why a team of them has just published a report filled with recommendations about how neuroscience education must change. Only by doing so, they say, will we keep the discoveries coming while preparing these bright young people for many paths - not just the traditional university research career.

Writing in the journal Neuron, they present key insights and recommendations that grew out of a fall 2014 workshop held by the Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

"This should be the best of times for both the scientists and the field," they write. "The shared task of all the stakeholders -- academia, government, industry, scientific societies, foundations, and other components of the private and public sectors -- is to ensure that we do not kill this hope."

Huda Akil, Ph.D., a University of Michigan Medical School neuroscientist who's the paper's corresponding author, looks back on the incredible growth in the field over the past two decades and sees reason for hope, not pessimism, for the new generation. But, she says, it's up to university programs to adapt to the new reality that more than half their graduates will someday work outside academia, and train them appropriately.

"The number of opportunities is huge, within and outside academic institutions," she says. "This is a perfect moment for neuroscience in particular, when the field is blossoming and growing with many ideas, tools, approaches, and intersections with other fields, and huge interest among young people. It's a perfect recipe for success - the question is how to proceed so we don't squash that opportunity."

Akil and her co-authors, who come from industry, government, universities and a private foundation, lay out some key calls to action, including:

incorporating more computational science, statistics and programming into neuroscience training, to help students handle with the massive amounts of data generated by modern tools including brain imaging, genetic sequencing, molecular analysis, bioinformatics and more

promoting skills that can help students communicate with and work in teams with researchers from other fields, from genetics, math, physics and engineering to the social sciences and philosophy, or even other sub-fields of neuroscience

informing students about the range of careers available to them, and the challenges and opportunities involved in each, through courses and internships -- while still keeping the path to academic research careers strong

developing two types of training programs - one to prepare traditional "neuroscientists" who will focus on making basic discoveries about the brain and its disorders, and one for those who will go into a more "applied" field in industry, nonprofit, policy and other areas - to ensure they get a solid background in neuroscience

improving the representation of women and diverse groups in neuroscience careers, and better support for the personal life trajectories of all students, especially in academia where women are underrepresented on the faculty despite making up the majority of graduate students

finding new ways for universities to fund graduate training in the biosciences, beyond the usual federal grants, and assisting young scientists in finding private funds to offset the declining supply of federal research dollars

creating career path of "staff scientists" in American universities, who can work on the teams of traditional neuroscience professors without having to climb the traditional academic ladder

"We are likely losing promising scientists from the academic career path," the authors write, because of the stagnation in federal research funding, and the perception by younger neuroscientists that the path to academic success and secure funding has become nearly impossible to climb.

They point with hope to efforts made by U.S. federal research funding agencies to provide innovative funding for training. But they say universities and other sectors must also change, at a time when many nations have launched massive neuroscience efforts such as the U.S. Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, China Brain, the Japan Brain/MINDS Project, and the Human Brain Project in Europe.

"We need to be giving out hopeful signals that it's not a horrible risk to get a Ph.D. in neuroscience, and that you can make discoveries about the brain and apply them in many ways," says Akil, a past president of the Society for Neuroscience and co-director of U-M's Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute. She holds the Gardner Quarton Distinguished University Professorship in Neurosciences and is a member of the Medical School's Department of Psychiatry faculty.

Akil especially points to the growing role for neuroscience-trained professionals in the technology sector - not just the traditional biotechnology and pharmaceutical path, but high-tech computing-based companies that want to use new knowledge about behavior in apps and gadgets.

"The more people in society want to understand their own behavior, control their behavior such as eating and exercise, improve their memories and attention, and more, the more we can apply what we're learning in neuroscience about brain function and how it changes with various conditions or natural aging," she says. "We have a lot to figure out going forward, and we needs all hands on deck. Anyone smart enough, passionate enough and willing to be flexible and bring ideas together, we need them to stay with us."

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In addition to Akil, the paper's authors are Rita Balice-Gordon of Pfizer, David Lopes Cardozo of Harvard Medical School, Walter Koroshetz of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Sheena Maria Posey Norris, of the National Academies, Todd Sherer of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, S. Murray Sherman of the University of Chicago and Edda Thiels of the National Science Foundation.

REFERENCE: Neuron, Akil et al: "Neuroscience Training for the 21st Century" http://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(16)30209-4 / 10.1016/j.neuron.2016.05.030

Join the conversation in a RedditAMA on June 10th, 1 pm - 3pm EST. The link will be posted on the front page of Reddit at 7 am EST. Participants include: Huda Akil, Floh Thiels, Todd Sherer, David Cardozo, Walter Koroshetz, and Murray Sherman. To register, visit: http://info.cell.com/neuron-reddit-science-ama-2016.

The authors' views are personal views and do not necessarily represent those of the NIH and NSF, the Federal Government, or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Man's best friend may have emerged independently from two separate (possibly now extinct) wolf populations that lived on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent

The question, 'Where do domestic dogs come from?', has vexed scholars for a very long time. Some argue that humans first domesticated wolves in Europe, while others claim this happened in Central Asia or China. A new paper, published in Science, suggests that all these claims may be right. Supported by funding from the European Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council, a large international team of scientists compared genetic data with existing archaeological evidence and show that man's best friend may have emerged independently from two separate (possibly now extinct) wolf populations that lived on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent. This means that dogs may have been domesticated not once, as widely believed, but twice.

A major international research project on dog domestication, led by the University of Oxford, has reconstructed the evolutionary history of dogs by first sequencing the genome (at Trinity College Dublin) of a 4,800-year old medium-sized dog from bone excavated at the Neolithic Passage Tomb of Newgrange, Ireland. The team (including French researchers based in Lyon and at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris*) also obtained mitochondrial DNA from 59 ancient dogs living between 14,000 to 3,000 years ago and then compared them with the genetic signatures of more than 2,500 previously studied modern dogs.

The results of their analyses demonstrate a genetic separation between modern dog populations currently living in East Asia and Europe. Curiously, this population split seems to have taken place after the earliest archaeological evidence for dogs in Europe. The new genetic evidence also shows a population turnover in Europe that appears to have mostly replaced the earliest domestic dog population there, which supports the evidence that there was a later arrival of dogs from elsewhere. Lastly, a review of the archaeological record shows that early dogs appear in both the East and West more than 12,000 years ago, but in Central Asia no earlier than 8,000 years ago.

Combined, these new findings suggest that dogs were first domesticated from geographically separated wolf populations on opposite sides of the Eurasian continent. At some point after their domestication, the eastern dogs dispersed with migrating humans into Europe where they mixed with and mostly replaced the earliest European dogs. Most dogs today are a mixture of both Eastern and Western dogs -- one reason why previous genetic studies have been difficult to interpret.

The international project (which is combining ancient and modern genetic data with detailed morphological and archaeological research) is currently analysing thousands of ancient dogs and wolves to test this new perspective, and to establish the timing and location of the origins of our oldest pet.

Senior author and Director of Palaeo-BARN (the Wellcome Trust Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network) at Oxford University, Professor Greger Larson, said: 'Animal domestication is a rare thing and a lot of evidence is required to overturn the assumption that it happened just once in any species. Our ancient DNA evidence, combined with the archaeological record of early dogs, suggests that we need to reconsider the number of times dogs were domesticated independently. Maybe the reason there hasn't yet been a consensus about where dogs were domesticated is because everyone has been a little bit right.'

Lead author Dr Laurent Frantz, from the Palaeo-BARN, commented: 'Reconstructing the past from modern DNA is a bit like looking into the history books: you never know whether crucial parts have been erased. Ancient DNA, on the other hand, is like a time machine, and allows us to observe the past directly.'

Senior author Professor Dan Bradley, from Trinity College Dublin, commented: 'The Newgrange dog bone had the best preserved ancient DNA we have ever encountered, giving us prehistoric genome of rare high quality. It is not just a postcard from the past, rather a full package special delivery.'

Professor Keith Dobney, co-author and co-director of the dog domestication project from Liverpool University's Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, is heartened by these first significant results. 'With the generous collaboration of many colleagues from across the world-sharing ideas, key specimens and their own data -- the genetic and archaeological evidence are now beginning to tell a new coherent story. With so much new and exciting data to come, we will finally be able to uncover the true history of man's best friend.'

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For more information or for the full paper, please contact the University of Oxford News Office on 44-0-1865 280534 or email: news.office@admin.ox.ac.uk

Alternatively, contact Professor Greger Larson =- email: greger.larson@arch.ox.uk; mobile: 0044-0-7963905362, or Dr Laurent Frantz -- email:laurent.frantz@arch.ox.ac.uk; mobile: 0044-0-7950351348.

Notes for Editors

A video interview with the researchers is available for media to use on their websites. For further details, please contact news.office@admin.ox.ac.uk

The paper, 'Genomic and archaeological evidence suggest a dual origin of domestic dogs', will be published in Science. Publication is strictly embargoed until 2:00pm US Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, 2 June 2016.

The University of Oxford's centre for the study of ancient DNA, Palaeo-BARN (the Wellcome Trust Palaeogenomics & Bio-Archaeology Research Network) at Oxford University, was launched in March 2015. Its laboratories have a sterile, physically isolated environment in which DNA samples can be analysed without the risk of contamination from the local environment. Its research team combines the resolution afforded by DNA sequences and fine-scale morphological variation with the time depth of archaeology and palaeontology. For more information, go to: http://www.palaeobarn.com/

Professor Greger Larson is the director of Palaeo-BARN, overseeing a team of five post-doctoral researchers and two PhD students. Professor Larson is a world-leader in investigating both the pattern and process of animal domestication. For more information, go to: http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/GL2.html and http://www.palaeobarn.com.

The paper is funded as part of the project, 'Deciphering dog domestication through a combined ancient DNA and geometric morphometric approach' which is funded by the NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) UK and two European Research Council grants: Unifying Evolution and Domestication using Ancient DNA (UnDEAD) (Greger Larson Oxford) and Codex; Decoding domesticate DNA in archaeological bone and manuscripts (Dan Bradley Trinity College Dublin).

The French researchers are based in the Ecole Normale Superieure in Lyon and at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, with their main funder being CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique).

Dogs are the earliest domestic animal. They appeared at least 15,000 years ago with mobile bands of human hunter-gatherers and about 5,000 years before the advent of the agriculture and its associated domestic crops and farmyard animals (sheep, goats, cattle and pigs). The research project establishes where they were first domesticated and over what time, how much interbreeding occurred between different breeds of domesticated dogs and wild populations, how the process of domestication changed wolves to dogs and the characteristics of their relationships to humans.
PITTSBURGH, June 2, 2016 - Surgery to remove the primary tumor in women diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer, followed by the standard combination of therapies, adds months to the patients' lives, compared with standard therapy alone, an international clinical trial led by a University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) professor revealed.

The results of the phase III randomized, controlled trial will be presented Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago. The study was selected for the society's "Best of ASCO," an effort to condense the research "most relevant and significant to oncology" into a two-day program to increase global access to cutting-edge science.

"Our findings will change the standard of care for women newly diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer," said principal investigator Atilla Soran, M.D., M.P.H., clinical professor of surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and breast surgical oncologist with UPMC CancerCenter. "We've shown that surgery to remove the primary tumor--either through lumpectomy or mastectomy--followed by standard therapy, is beneficial over no surgery."

Dr. Soran began the trial in 2007, ultimately recruiting a total of 274 women newly diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer from 25 institutions. Half the women received standard therapy, which avoids surgery and consists of a combination of chemotherapy, hormonal therapy and targeted therapy, while the other half first had surgery to remove their primary breast tumor, followed by the standard therapy.

At about 40 months after diagnosis, the women who received the surgery plus standard therapy lived an average of nine months longer than their counterparts who received standard therapy alone. Nearly 42 percent of the women who received surgery lived to five years after diagnosis, compared with less than 25 percent of the women who did not receive surgery.

The trial also showed that surgery in younger women with less aggressive cancers resulted in longer average survival than in women with more aggressive cancers that had spread to the liver or lungs.

"Our thinking is similar to how you might approach a battle against two enemies," said Dr. Soran. "First you quickly dispatch one army--the primary tumor--leaving you to concentrate all your efforts on battling the second army--any remaining cancer."

###

This research was primarily funded by the Turkish Federation of Societies for Breast Diseases. The study received scientific advisement from UPMC and assistance with statistical analysis from epidemiologists at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

About UPCI

As the only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in western Pennsylvania, UPCI is a recognized leader in providing innovative cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, and treatment; bio-medical research; compassionate patient care and support; and community-based outreach services. Investigators at UPCI, a partner with UPMC CancerCenter, are world-renowned for their work in clinical and basic cancer research.

http://www.upmc.com/media
Prosthetic limbs made with technology developed at the University of Strathclyde are to become more readily available through a $1 million grant from Google.org.

Dutch-based social enterprise company ProPortion has received the funding from the charitable arm of search engine Google for its LegBank venture, which provides high-quality limbs to amputees on low incomes.

The limbs use a hands-free device, known as Majicast, which is used for manufacturing lower limb prosthetic sockets. It has been developed by researchers in Strathclyde's Department of Biomedical Engineering and engineers with design company Reggs.

The Google.org funding will enable production by LegBank, and its distribution to developing countries, to be expanded. It is initially focusing on Colombia, which has one of the highest number of landmine victims worldwide; the devices have killed or injured more than 10,000 people in the South American nation in the past 25 years.

The venture could be adapted for use in other countries alongside its pilot programme in Colombia.

Dr Arjan Buis, a Senior Research Fellow in Strathclyde's Department of Biomedical Engineering, led the team which developed the Majicast. He said: "We are delighted that proportion has received this funding from Google.org. It will make a significant contribution to Legbank's work in delivering high quality prostheses to people who need them - but often have great difficulty getting access to them.

"At Strathclyde, we seek effective, practical solutions to the world's most urgent challenges. In partnership with ProPortion and LegBank, we are addressing a major and long-standing problem in a sustainable manner, with the aim of the project becoming a well-organised, impactful international venture."

The socket in the Majicast is the component which connects prostheses securely to patients' residual limbs. It is unique to each person and is therefore crucial for pain-free walking. Sockets produced with this device can increase user comfort and stability and make the devices fit better, subsequently resulting in enhanced quality of life. In addition, the total time and costs for socket production decrease by an estimated 75%.

The Google Impact Challenge committed $20 million in Google.org grants behind not-for-profit companies using emerging technologies to increase independence for people living with disabilities. ProPortion will use the Google.org grant to boost LegBank's efforts in the development of the Majicast. This will involve the validation of the device within clinical settings in the Netherlands, at Orthopedic Centre de Hoogstraat in Utrecht, and in the Colombian cities of Bogota and Medellin.

To bring this innovative solution into the market, ProPortion has developed a business model that will enable it to reach both urban and rural amputees, in close collaboration with local partners. These include established orthopaedic laboratories in major urban centers in Colombia, enhancing the quality of their product with the use of the Majicast and enabling the service to become self-sustaining.

Funds will also be deployed for the establishment of three orthopaedic start-up clinics in rural Colombia, along with micro-entrepreneurs from the National Orthopaedic Education Centre in Colombia, to help an estimated 15,000 amputees with limited access to prosthetic care.

###

LegBank is continuing to seek new investors in its project. Further information can be seen at http://www.proportionfoundation.org/legbank

Further information on Google.org can be seen at https://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/creating-world-that-works-for-everyone.html
Genetic diversity is important for plant species to persist in Northern forests that experience human nitrogen inputs. This is one conclusions that Franziska Bandau at Umea University in Sweden draws.

Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plants. In Northern forests, nitrogen availability to plants is limited, but plant species growing in these forests are well adapted to the low nitrogen conditions.

However, nowadays humans are increasingly adding nitrogen to forests. Through the burning of fossil fuels, fertilizer production, and agriculture men release large amounts of nitrogen into the atmosphere, which is transported by winds, and deposited in the environment tens or even thousands of kilometers away from the pollution source. Besides these unintentional nitrogen inputs into forests, land owners also intentionally fertilize their forests to increase their wood harvest.

These two forms of human nitrogen input can have numerous effects. One consequence can be the loss of plant species, which in turn reduces biodiversity. There are two mechanisms believed to cause these plant species losses. First, extra nitrogen may change how plants compete with each other, and plant species that can use extra nitrogen faster may replace plant species that are well adapted to generally low nitrogen conditions. Secondly, additional nitrogen can cause changes in leaf chemistry, which in turn influences how strongly plants are attacked by natural enemies, i.e. insects or fungi.

In her dissertation, Franziska Bandau performed a series of fertilization experiments with the model tree species aspen to investigate which effects human nitrogen inputs could have on genetically diverse plant individuals. Franziska Bandau grew a number of aspen individuals that possessed varying abilities to produce certain chemical compounds in their leaves, called condensed tannins. These compounds have been described to potentially protect plants from insect attacks by making leaves un-tasty or un-nutritional, and to defend plants against some pathogenic fungi. During her work, Franziska Bandau found that plants that obtained nitrogen doses simulating atmospheric deposition and forest fertilization were generally more damaged by insects and fungi than plants that did not receive any additional nitrogen, but plants with a high-tannin production were always less damaged than low-tannin plants.

"I also observed that aspen with a genetically pre-determined, high tannin production were restricted in growth at ambient nitrogen and atmospheric deposition levels, but that this growth constraint was removed, when plants received nitrogen doses corresponding to forest fertilization rates, and when natural enemy levels were high," says Franziska Bandau.

As competition and changes in plant-enemy interactions have been suggested to drive plant species losses, both low- and high-tannin plants could potentially be favoured under altered nitrogen conditions. When natural enemies are key drivers of vegetation change, high-tannin plants would be more likely to survive. However, when competition drives vegetational change, low-tannin plants that grow more under slightly elevated nitrogen conditions than high-tannin plants, would probably perform better.

"But as both nitrogen conditions and enemies pressure vary a lot across space and time, genetically diverse populations would have the highest chances to persist in environments that experience human nitrogen inputs," says Franziska Bandau says.

###

Franziska grew up in Berlin, Germany. She studied forest management at the University for Sustainable Development in Eberswalde, and during her undergraduate studies she participated in an Erasmus exchange with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umea. After receiving her Master's degree, she worked in a public forest enterprise in Germany, before she returned to Umea for her doctoral studies.
Written by ACM

*Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- According to the latest Official Data, the Number of Asylum Demands lodged in Greece Skyrockets and more than Tripled after the Controversial EU - Turkey Deal : F.ex. instead of Less than 1.100 per Month in average during the Late 2015-Early 2016 Mass Migrants' Influx via Turkey, just for April 2016, it reached 3.700, i.e. a Sharp Augmentation of More than X 300%, (just after the Entry into Force of that Agreement, back from 20 March) !



Almost at the Same Time, the Composition of the Mass Irregular Migrants' inflow via Turkey Changed considerably : While a Big Majority used to came from Syria until March 2016, on the Contrary, from April 2016, an Equal Number of such Migrants come from ... Pakistan and Afghanistan (1.217 compared to 1.268). Moreover, most are Men alone, only a Small Minority being Women, (19% compared to 47%), so that Families aren't but only a Tiny Part.



Meanwhile, the Trend towards Deaths of People Trying to Cross Irregularly into EU Member Greece has Augmented considerbly : Instead of just 272 throughout All the Year 2015, on the Contrary, on Early May 2016 it had already reached 138, (i.e. More than the Half of Last Year's Annual Number, with 8 more Months to Go)...



In Addition, 2 more Children of Refugees Died by Drawing Today in Greece : The corpses found at an Artificial Lake used for Agricultural Irrigation were those of Khuded and Hussein, 2 "Yezidi" Christian Kids. I.e. from the same Religious Community notoriously Ill-Treated by Extremist Islamic Terrorists of ISIL, many Families of whom had been reportedly also Attacked by Stones etc. and Obliged to Flee Away from a Refugee Camp at the Northern Village of Katsika recently, where the Attackers were among the Majority of Other Irregular Immiigrants coming from Turkey, (as it has also happened repeatedly inside several Collective Refugee Hosting Centres in Germany, according to various Media and Local Police Reports of Violent Incidents).



In Parallel, another Demonstration of Inhabitants, at the City of Thermis, Protesting against the Establishment of one more Mass Migrants' "Hotspot", at a Disaffected former Agricultural Building for the Storage of Wheat, took place earlier Today, while Thousands of Inhabitants of Aspropyrgos also demonstrated accross NATO Highway against Plans to create there another such "Hotspot" too.



More than 52.561 Registered Refugees and Migrants are Now in Greece, according to the Official Figures Published Today, and almost the Entire Country has been filled up with Many, (mostly Formal, but also Informal), Centers or Sites Hosting them, partly on the Islands facing Turkey, but mostly at Mainland Greece, particularly in and around Pireas Seaport/Athens (including at the Airport "Helliniko") and Thessaloniki, as well as Near the Country's Northern Borders towards the FYROM, Bulgaria or Albania, but also at the Central Historic site of Thermopiles, (See relevant MAP just Published by UNHCR).



However, these Numbers naturaly don't take into account all those various "Visitors from Turkey" travelling to the Greek Islands of Aegean Sea (and part of EU's "Schengen" Area) which are located Near the Turkish Borders, (such as Lesvos, Hios, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, etc), for whom the current Greek Authorities have Eased the attribution of "Tourist Visas" since the 2015 Mass Migrants' Crisis, according to a Special "Pilot Program" whose Extension was reportedly just Decided Today, for one Year more.



- Meanwhile, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz(ChristianDemocrat/EPP), recently qualified the Controversial and UnPopular EU - Turkey Deal on Refugees and Migrants as an Eventual Short-Time Pause, which might serve Only as "a Plan B", while, "our (EU's) Plan A" should be a Strong Europe, Ready to Protect itself its External Borders. Adding that he wasn't in favor of a Deal with Turkey at any price, he also Denounced as "Dangerous", any "Dependence", as that of "a Europe which would Depend from Other Countries, and particularly from Persons as (Turkish) President Erdogan".



- In this context, under the Heading "All Possibilities are Open", mainstream Greek Newspaper "Kathimerini"s No 1 Editorial Article published Today, observes that "it's Obvious that the ReAdmission Agreement (between EU and Turkey) is Not Working".



- Since "the Scenario of New, UnControlled Migrants and Refugees' Influx towards Greece (via Turkey) canNot be Excluded",... while, "Now, .. (Greece's) Northern Borders have been Closed", (by all other European Balkan Countries), "therefore, any New Wave will be Trapped inside the Greek space", it Notes.



- "The Next Weeks will show whether the (EU) Deal with Turkey will Collapse, or not. But we must be Ready for All Possibilities", the mainstream Greek Newspaper Warns.

(../..)

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***

("DraftNews", as already send to "EuroFora"s Subsrcribers/Donors, earlier. A more accurate, full Final Version, might be Published asap).

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NEW YORK and TORONTO, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

DH Corporation [http://dh.com ] ("D+H"), a leading provider of technology solutions to financial institutions globally, today announced that it will demonstrate its real-time payment capabilities at EBAday, an industry leading forum covering the key trends impacting the payments industry, on June 7-8 in Milan, Italy, and at Payments Panorama, the biggest stage for Canada's payments sector, from June 15-17 in Calgary, Alberta. By using D+H's mobile app, which was created for this demonstration, attendees will experience first-hand how money can move from one account to another in real-time, empowering businesses and consumers to make and receive payments immediately, with certainty and convenience.

D+H will demonstrate its immediate payments functionality by providing a pool of funds that attendees can move to one of three accounts associated with charitable organizations. Attendees will also have the opportunity to experience how the app will allow customers to request and transfer money in real time.

"D+H is committed to advancing real-time payments, and currently supports millions of faster payments transactions around the world," says Gene Neyer, head of industry and regulatory, global payments, D+H. "All over the globe, payments are moving to real-time, driving benefits to the banking industry and society at large. We are excited to demonstrate these benefits while doing something to benefit others."

About D+H

D+H is a leading financial technology provider the world's financial institutions rely on every day to help them grow and succeed. Our global transaction banking, lending, payments and integrated core solutions are trusted by nearly 8,000 banks, specialty lenders, community banks, credit unions, governments and corporations. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, D+H has more than 5,500 employees worldwide who are passionate about partnering with clients to create forward-thinking solutions that fit their needs. With annual revenues in excess of CAD$1.5 billion, D+H is recognized as one of the world's top FinTech companies on IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings and American Banker's FinTech Forward rankings. For more information, visit dh.com [http://www.dh.com ]

Please contact: Patrick Kilhaney, Public Relations & Analyst Relations Manager, D+H, +1-917-286-1053, patrick.kilhaney@dh.com; Cognito, +1-646-395-6304, dh@cognitomedia.com
Many among us are emotionally invested in reducing our self-concept to that of just another animal in the forest. But we are exceptional among every species in the known universe. Apparently even elephants know that.

From the AOL News story:

An injured bull elephant named Ben made his way to the Bumi Hills Safari Lodge in Zimbabwe, in what appears to be a search for help.

The staff at Bumi Hills were very surprised to see Ben, as it is not common for elephants to walk right up to human homes

Since the in-house vet was away for the weekend on business, another wildlife vet flew 200 miles to treat Ben.

For the six hours that it took the vet to arrive, Ben waited patiently, lingering nearby and drinking water. The staff tranquilized Ben and found a deep wound in his shoulder, likely from a poachers bullet, as well as two more bullet holes in one of his ears.

They were able to clean and disinfect Bens injuries, and he is now healing on the property, outfitted with a tracking device so the foundation can monitor his improvement. With the help of his human friends, Ben was lucky to have survived two attacks on his life.
The deal will see Times Music exclusively represent Warner/Chappells rich catalogue in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the first time, as well as renew their existing partnership in India

Warner/Chappell Music (WCM), the global music publishing arm of Warner Music Group, and Times Music, have announced that the two companies have expanded their existing licensing deal to now cover several additional South Asian countries.

The deal will see Times Music exclusively represent Warner/Chappells rich catalogue in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the first time, as well as renew their existing partnership in India.

Times Music will manage the rights to Warner/Chappells repertoire in South Asia and drive publishing and synch deals on behalf of its wide array of legendary songwriters.

Stephen Clark, Senior Vice President, Global Administration, Warner/Chappell Music said, Warner/Chappell songwriters music knows no boundaries, and Times Music has been a fantastic partner in helping us extend their reach.The expansion of our partnership allows us to tap into new and vibrant markets with enormous growth potential, and we look forward to further exploring South Asia with the continued help of Times Music.

Mandar Thakur, COO, Times Music added, We are pleased to be able to build on our success of representing Warner/Chappells amazing songwriters in India, by expanding our work to other markets in the region. We are at the forefront of the rapidly developing music publishing market in South Asia. We will be bringing our expertise to bear on behalf of the legendary Warner/Chappell catalogue to ensure it reaches its full potential in the region.

Works by leading songwriters that will be looked after by Times Music include: Barry Gibb, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Eric Clapton, fun, Gamble & Huff, Green Day, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar, Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Muse, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Stephen Sondheim, Chris Stapleton and Tove Lo, among many others.

Read more news about (marketing news, latest marketing news,internet marketing, marketing India, digital marketing India, media marketing India, advertising news)
Despite the fact that weaker-than-expected UK construction output renewed concerns of a major economic slowdown in the second-quarter, the GBP/CHF exchange rate climbed.

The British pound to Swiss franc exchange rate fell today, in part be due to the US Dollar diving and raising the value of the CHF.

Additionally, the cost of gold per 100 ounces has also leapt up to support the Swiss franc.

Currency exchange markets had been in a muted mood on Friday morning as investors awaited direction from the May US Non-Farm Payrolls report,.

With the latest UK data bettering expectations, however, the Pound Sterling to Swiss Franc (GBP/CHF) exchange rate remained on a stronger footing.

The currency exchange market sentiment has seen massive changes in response to global stocks volatility and commodity price fluctuations.

The 'safe-haven' Swiss Franc exchange rates softened on Thursday's trading session as market sentiment improved in the face of rising Asian stock values.

The British Pound, meanwhile, advanced versus most of its major peers after ECB President Mario Draghi gave a clear warning regarding the potential fallout from a Brexit.

Below are the latest live FX rates:

On Tuesday the Pound to British Pound exchange rate (GBP/GBP) converts at 1

The live inter-bank GBP-GBP spot rate is quoted as 1 today.

At time of writing the pound to euro exchange rate is quoted at 1.15.

FX markets see the pound vs us dollar exchange rate converting at 1.146.

Today finds the pound to australian dollar spot exchange rate priced at 1.795.

NB: the forex rates mentioned above, revised as of 25th Oct 2022, are inter-bank prices that will require a margin from your bank. Foreign exchange brokers can save up to 5% on international payments in comparison to the banks.

UK Pound (GBP) Exchange Rates Advance after Draghis Brexit Warning Bolsters Remain Campaign

Yet another high ranking global official, this time European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi, has made a clear warning against the economic dangers of a Brexit.

This caused the Pound to strengthen amid hopes that undecided voters will be persuaded by the volume of high-ranking officials backing the UK to remain in the European Union.

Even weaker-than-expected construction output in May wasnt enough to offset Sterling gains as traders take advantage of the comparatively weak trade weighting resulting from two days of depreciation.

Swiss Franc (CHF) Exchange Rates Cool as Risk Appetite Returns

After the Peoples Bank of China (PBoC) intervened in the markets to shore up the flagging Yuan and boost equity values, market sentiment improved.

Heightened demand for high-yielding assets weighed on the safe-haven Swiss Franc.

Also adding to CHF exchange rate headwinds is the falling price of gold which was down by over -0.2% towards the close of the European session.
kirankm8 said: Hello,

I m confused about PTE academic or General. One of the consultant told PTE General for 189/190 Visa. Which one do i need to take, Please help me.



Thank you Click to expand...

As has already been stated by three other members previously in this very thread - and which is also verifiable on the DIBP website (see here: https://www.border.gov.au/Lega/Lega/Form/Immi-FAQs/aelt ), you need to take the PTE Academic test.PTE General is not accepted for Australian visa applications. This is also verifiable on the Pearson website. PTE General - Pearson English Tests Please consider researching things on your own and not listening to everything that your "consultant" tells you. If your "consultant" is telling you to take the PTE General test then you're better off throwing your money in the garbage for all the good it will do you.
Hello, we use BUPA- through my husbands work. You can also just pay from pocket, because it's not insanely expensive- if it's just regular dr. Appointments and such. We get a receipt, then have to turn the paperwork in to get reimbursed. It is hard to find good dr.'s here and even harder to find clean hospitals. You have to ask around, and even then it isn't easy to find. Depending on the area you live in, it's good to know the closest and best hospital for an emergency. Traffic is insane, so you can't get anywhere quickly. Hope it helps a bit.
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Amazon.com is hiring more than 1,000 employees for its new 855,000 square-foot distribution center near San Antonio as the online retail giant expands its footprint in Texas.

Its newest Texas order fulfillment center in San Marcos, slated to open later this summer, will mark the latest stake in Amazons growing presence in Texas. The online retailer operates at least six other distribution centers here: including a second site outside San Antonio and four in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The company opened a fulfillment center outside Houston two years ago.

Amazon has grown into the second-largest seller of clothes in the U.S., after Walmart, when counting merchandise sold on its platform by third parties. The companys net sales surged 28 percent in the first three months of this year to $29.1 billion.

The new fulfillment center in San Marcos, which is between San Antonio and Austin, will be used for Amazons regular delivery service for books and other goods. The company started offering same-day delivery in December 2014 to go after other markets.

Launched in New York, Prime Now now is available in 27 U.S. cities, including San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Dallas. The companys Prime Now delivery hubs are separate from its fulfillment centers.

The service offers free, two-hour delivery for groceries, pet food and office supplies, among other items, for members who pay a $99 annual fee. Local restaurant food delivery is guaranteed within one hour.

The online retailer needs to hire 1,000 full-time, permanent employees for its newest facility in Texas, slated to open later this summer, Amazon spokeswoman Ashley Robinson said Tuesday. Its looking for managers, support staff and workers to package orders among other positions, she said.

Starting salaries for the San Marcos site were advertised on Indeed, a job search website, ranging from about $10 an hour for a fulfillment associate to more than $75,000 a year for software developer managers, senior financial analysts and human resources managers.

All employees will receive a benefits package including health care, 401(k) and stock awards along with coverage under the companys new parental leave policy, Robinson said.

We knew Amazon coming to San Marcos meant quality jobs for our residents, San Marcos Mayor Daniel Guerrero said in a news release. On behalf of everyone who was involved in the project, I am happy to see this day, the day in which Amazon opens hiring for our people.

Officials in San Marcos and Schertz lured Amazon with tax incentive packages: Schertz, Guadalupe County and the Schertz Economic Development Corp. approved about $7.6 million in direct tax incentives for the companys 1.25 million-square-foot distribution center, which opened in September 2013 at a cost of about $150 million.

In July, San Marcos City Council members approved an incentive package that would refund the company 85 percent of personal property taxes and 40 percent of real property taxes for the next 10 years with a possible five-year extension.

Amazon also will receive partial refunds of its sales taxes for two decades.

Voter Guide: What to know for the midterm election Your guide to the Texas and San Antonio races and candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Under the agreement, Amazon promised to hire more than 350 employees in San Marcos by the end of 2017.

Estimates show the distribution center in San Marcos southern region will bring almost $200 million in investments to the city, including a capital investment of about $60 million and about $131 million in personal property and equipment. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation peg estimated construction costs at $75 million.

The San Marcos center still is under construction but is stepping up staffing before it opens, Robinson said. State records show an estimated construction completion date of June 1.

The companys parental leave policy allows employees who give birth to take up to 20 weeks of maternal leave including four weeks of paid pre-partum medical leave, 10 weeks of paid maternity leave and six weeks of paid parental leave. New fathers and other new parents who adopt or are also eligible for six weeks of parental leave.

The company implemented the new parental leave policy in November after a New York Times investigation published in August detailed numerous worker complaints about the companys allegedly high-stress atmosphere, including a lack of paternal leave.

Express-News archives contributed to this report.

jfechter@express-news.net
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Oil closed near $49 a barrel in New York as OPEC delegates said the group would be discussing the reintroduction of output ceilings at Thursdays meeting in Vienna.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is considering a production cap along with other proposals, and any deal would be a signal of group unity but unlikely to affect actual production, delegates said.

Nobody thought they would do anything this week, so the introduction of a target is a big deal, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. The introduction of a quota would be the first time in a year and a half that they have done anything that hints at production restraint.

OPEC probably will stick to its policy of squeezing out rivals by maintaining production as the price rally helps justify the groups strategy, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

West Texas Intermediate was little changed after rising 6.9 percent in May as supply was curbed by wildfires in Alberta and militant attacks in Nigeria. WTI for July delivery declined 9 cents to close at $49.01 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures briefly topped $50 Tuesday for the second time this year.

Oil in New York has surged about 85 percent since touching the lowest level since May 2003 in February on signs the global surplus is easing.

Brent for August settlement dropped 17 cents to $49.72 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The July contract expired Tuesday after slipping 7 cents to $49.69. The global benchmark crude closed at a 23-cent premium to WTI for August delivery.

Saudi Arabia will use this weeks meeting to repair relationships with fellow producers after the failure of an April accord to freeze crude output in Doha, according to the people familiar with the matter. The kingdoms Minister of Energy Khalid Al-Falih will reassure other members his nation wont flood the oil market, the people said.

The global oversupply that sent prices tumbling in 2014 and 2015 is correcting itself, United Arab Emirates Oil Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said Tuesday after arriving in Vienna. The market will fix itself to a price that is fair, he said. Nigerias minister of state for petroleum resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, also said prices are moving in the right direction.

I would call it a victory lap, Jeff Currie, head of commodities research at Goldman Sachs, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. OPEC successfully engineered a market that rebalanced on its own.

Forecasters including the International Energy Agency and Goldman Sachs agree that the crude glut is starting to dwindle as the Saudi-led approach of pressuring high-cost suppliers finally pays off. There are still signs of division within OPEC, with Venezuelan Energy Minister Eulogio Del Pino saying Wednesday the price recovery has had more to do with unexpected outages than a successful OPEC strategy.

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Near term, the market should trade in the $45-to-$50 range, but as we move toward the end of the year, the market should soften again, Currie said. The market will stay in this range due to the temporary disruptions that have driven the market into a deficit.

Prices dropped as much as 2.7 percent earlier in New York as Canadian oil-sands producers including Suncor Energy Inc. began resuming operations. Cooler weather is helping keep the wildfires at bay.

U.S. crude stockpiles, which are near an 87-year high, probably fell by 2.5 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg survey conducted before an Energy Information Administration report Thursday. The nations crude production dropped for an 11th week to 8.77 million barrels a day in the week ended May 20, EIA data show.

Oil should grind higher with occasional bumps along the way, said Joe Bozoyan, an equity portfolio manager who focuses on energy at John Hancock in Boston. The move higher has been driven by supply disruptions. Canadian oil production is coming back but output continues to fall elsewhere.
Jerry Ruiz, executive director of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, is stepping down to focus on his theater career.

Ruiz has taken a job with PlayMakers Repertory Company, the professional theater company in residence at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Ruiz was hired by the Guadalupe in May 2015. He made headlines in March when the West Side arts organization withdrew as the host of the Contemporary Art Month Perennial exhibition because of a lack of Latina artists in the show.

Before taking the position, Ruiz had spent the bulk of his career as a stage director and a producer. He said he had hoped to balance his job as executive director with working in theater, but I just see that the responsibilities are such that thats really not too feasible.

The CAM controversy, he added, had no bearing on his decision.

In fact, despite all the controversy with that, I feel that we really reclaimed our mission and our purpose throughout the year, he said Wednesday after the Guadalupe announced his resignation. Not just with that event, but (by) overall really doing multidisciplinary programing and focusing on Latina artists, so that really had nothing to do with the decision. Its more about continuing to grow my career as an artist that really kind of swayed me to make this decision.

A Brownsville native, Ruiz spent four years as curator and producer of the Crossing Borders Festival at the Two River Theater Company prior to his tenure at the Guadalupe. He was hired to replace Patty Ortiz, who headed the organization for five years before resigning.

Staff was informed Tuesday of Ruizs impending departure by email.

Guadalupe board President Celina Pena praised Ruiz for his contributions to the center over the past year and said he is leaving the organization on firm footing.

I feel that I honor Jerrys passion and commitment to what he wants to do, and Im glad its now versus later, because I do think the (staff and board) together over this past year has really created a foundation for somebody to come in and grow the organization to the next level, Pena said.

Juan Tejeda, producer of Guadalupes Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio for most of its 35 years, said he was disappointed by the news.

The Guadalupe went through a long process to find somebody to take it over, and theyve gone through director after director, and interim directors before that, he said. I think its disruptive that somebody gets hired finally, and then after a year theyre gone, so they have to go through the whole process again.

Since the departure of Pedro Rodriguez, who served as executive director from 1983 to 1998, the Guadalupe has struggled to keep the position filled. In that time, the organization has had four executive directors, including Ruiz, with interim directors in the gaps between hires.

Tejeda characterized Ruiz as a good guy and gave him credit for filling the positions of literature director and performing arts director, which had long been vacant.

Ruiz will stay on at the Guadalupe through July. The organization is immediately launching a national search to fill the position. Two staff members have been assigned new roles to assist during the transition. Education director Belinda Menchaca will serve as associate director, and performing arts director Joel Settles has been named program manager.

The Guadalupe is obviously a great organization, and its been an honor to lead the organization, but as far as moving forward, I think its going to be in a good position to continue to grow and do the important work that its doing, Ruiz said. Im pretty confident in the team thats in place in the board, and Im sure well find someone great to step in and continue that work.

lsilva@express-news.com
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HOMESTEAD, Fla.  If Mariela Diaz could travel back in time, she would go back to Monday morning, Aug. 12, 2013, and block her teenage daughter from going to a cosmetic surgery clinic for a breast augmentation procedure.

Five minutes after the surgery at Coral Gables Cosmetic Center, Linda Perez, 18 at the time, started developing problems when her heart rate and blood pressure dropped significantly, causing her to become unconscious, barely breathing. After the doctor who administered the anesthesia tried to resuscitate her for more than 30 minutes, she had to be transported by ambulance to Mercy Hospital, where she lay comatose for weeks.

She had suffered severe brain damage, due to a lack of oxygen to the brain, according to state records. When she left the hospital, she was unable to move or speak.

Today, Linda Perez, now 21 and mother of a 6-year-old son, has gained back some weight, can speak a few words and can stand alone for a few seconds. Doctors have told her mother she will never recover fully. The family is struggling financially and their attorneys have set up a gofundme.com campaign to help with her medical expenses.

No one would want to live just a tiny bit of what I have lived, said Mariela Diaz, who takes care of her daughter and grandson. I tell the daughters and mothers to think it over before going to those clinics, because they never know how they are going to come out. They should accept what they have naturally.

Her daughter already had undergone a buttocks augmentation procedure before the breast augmentation procedure.

The Florida Department of Health filed an administrative complaint against the physician who administered the anesthesia, Dr. Mario Alberto Diaz of Miami. According to the settlement agreement with the Department, Diaz has to pay a $10,000 fine and complete 15 hours of Continuing Medical Education. As of Tuesday, a Department of Health spokesman said Diaz had not provided documentation to the Florida Board of Medicine that he had completed the 15 hours of coursework. As such, he cannot practice medicine in Florida, the Health Department spokesman said.

Last Wednesday, the Department of Health rechecked its records and discovered that Diaz had completed the 15 hours of Continuing Medical Education course requirements.

So, he can practice medicine in the state of Florida.

He did pay the $10,000 fine on Jan. 6, 2016, and on Jan. 12, 2016, paid an additional $11,288.37 to reimburse the Department of Health for its investigative costs. Additionally, he has to complete a medical records course by the Florida Medical Association by Dec. 15, 2016. Diaz, who did not return an email to him Tuesday night, did not admit nor deny the allegations in the complaint, according to state records.

Cases like this are not uncommon in South Florida. In fact, there were 46 office surgery deaths in Florida from 2000-2010, the latest period that data are available.

Earlier this month, Heather Meadows, a 29-year-old West Virginia mother of two young children, died after undergoing a fat transfer procedure at Encore Plastic Surgery in Hialeah, Florida. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiners Office said she died from fat clots that entered her bloodstream during a fat transfer procedure, causing her heart and lungs to fail.

Just a week before Meadows died, on May 7, Catherine Gonzalez, a 19-year-old from Hialeah, was hospitalized for eight days after suffering three respiratory arrests following a liposuction at Encore Plastic Surgery.

Another woman, Yahaira Espada, traveled from the U.S. Army base at Fort Greely, Alaska, to Miami in January for a liposuction and butt augmentation at Vanity Cosmetic Surgery, which is affiliated with Encore Plastic Surgery. She found the center on the internet.

The procedure cost $5,000, said Espada, but the results were far from her wish for a butt like Kim Kardashians. She now has a 6-inch lump on her hip. She said it is painful, and she cannot move.

The Florida Department of Health has charged physicians who work at Encore Plastic Surgery and two other clinics, Vanity Cosmetic Surgery and Spectrum Aesthetics in Miami, with medical malpractice and employing unlicensed professionals. Police and federal authorities have charged other doctors affiliated with the clinics with attempted murder, kidnapping and prescription drug fraud.

The Florida Department of Health is trying to revoke the license of the doctor who performed Espadas procedure, Osakatukei Osak Omulepu, for medical malpractice after he seriously injured four patients in three days in May 2015.

In the case of Linda Perez, the administrative complaint says Diaz should have responded in a more aggressive and timely fashion to deal with Perezs sudden drop of blood pressure. The complaint also said Diaz failed to provide an adequate airway for assisted breathing during the prolonged resuscitation process.

The Florida Department of Health is familiar with Diaz, a convicted felon who went to federal prison for illegally selling pills online. He pleaded guilty in March 2006 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

In August 2007, the Florida Department of Health reached an agreement with Diaz that allowed him to keep his license, after a one-year suspension following his prison term. The department stipulated that he be placed under direct supervision of a licensed physician.

Today, the states license verification website indicates Diazs license is active with obligations.

Mariela Diaz said she still hopes that some day justice will be done in her daughters case. She has not explained to her grandson, Dainier, who just started elementary school, why his mother cannot play or speak with him.

You can imagine. Hes a little kid. What can I tell him? I tell him that his mother is sick, said Diaz, whose family is in Cuba. He asks me why his mother cant run with him, carry him and dance with him, like she used to.

Helping her daughter to sip water from a baby cup with images of Minnie Mouse last week, Diaz said she feels like shes raising two children.

Her daughter is like a baby again. I have to teach her to eat, carry her to the bathroom, help her to take little steps, said Diaz. Her son is the one who helps me to take care of her.
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Harlandale Independent School District trustees argued with each other and community members took opposing viewpoints at a Wednesday night meeting that included discussion of a proposal to rename Vestal Elementary School for late Tejano star Emilio Navaira.

A San Antonio native, Navaira died May 16 at age 53 in his New Braunfels home. Authorities belive his cause of death was natural.

Navaira was one of the few Tejano stars who crossed over to the mainstream and is credited alongside Selena with helping popularize the genre. Some call him the King of Tejano. He won a Grammy Award in 2003 for best Tejano album.

He was also charged three times with driving while intoxicated. One of those charges came after Easter Sunday in 2008, when Navaira crashed his tour bus. Several musicians were injured and Navaira flew through the windshield, causing a severe brain injury for which he spent years in recovery.

My brother is a role model but he also is human, Raul Navaira, 48, said to trustees. We all make mistakes.

Supporters of the name change cited Navairas philanthropic efforts in addition to his artistry. They said Navaira raised more than $1 million for the Childrens Hospital of San Antonio and sponsored Little League teams.

His first stage, the first time he ever sang was at Vestal Elementary, Raul Navaira said.

His mother, Mary Navaira, worked as a bilingual aide at Vestal for more than 25 years and continued as a full-time substitute until the day her son died.

Opponents to the name change did not directly mention Navairas charges, but said they wanted the Vestal community to have more input in choosing the schools namesake.

They must demonstrate qualities that reflect an outstanding moral character, said Leylani Salazar, a parent who lives across the street from Vestal. I respectfully request that the board take into consideration any ethical and moral standards.

Superintendent Rey Madrigal went over the procedure for renaming schools and facilities, which also gives community members the option to petition for a name change. No vote was taken on Vestals renaming, which board Vice President Tomas Uresti proposed. Board Secretary Christine Carrillo seconded Urestis request to vote on renaming the school, which must happen at the June 20 meeting according to board policy.

Vestal, located at 1111 West Vestal Place, is being reconstructed, one of many projects funded by last years $65 million bond issue. When finished, the school will face Cantrell Drive, so a new name would be fitting, Uresti wrote last month on Facebook. Even more fitting would be naming the school after somebody that attended Vestal and left an impact on that community, the city, and nationwide.

An argument broke out Wednesday at the dais between Uresti and board President David Abundis, who accused him of speaking on behalf of the entire board.

Trustee Juan Mancha apologized to the Navaira family for the emotional discussion. This has nothing to do with you guys, Mancha said. I hope you understand that. We should have known better.
Courtesy

The Alamo Endowment, a nonprofit foundation charged with supporting the Texas shrine, announced the selection of a manager from the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York to oversee operations at the historic mission and battle site downtown.

Ian Oldaker, who has been vice president of operations and planning at the memorial and museum for nearly a decade, was hired by Alamo Complex Management, a subsidiary of the nonprofit endowment, to serve as chief operations officer at the Alamo. The endowment is run by a board seated and chaired by Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush to support operations of the state-owned Alamo.
RIO GRANDE CITY  The injustices that sparked a farmworker movement in Texas half a century ago remain fresh in the memory of those who experienced it. But many in the state have forgotten, or never learned, what happened in the melon fields of Starr County so long ago.

While many of the men and women involved in the 1966 melon strike and march on Austin have passed on, around two dozen of the original field hands gathered in Rio Grande City on Wednesday to commemorate the strike, and serve up a bit of living history.

Fifty years ago the farmworkers had the courage to throw down their sacks for picking melon, and hold a picket sign to demand better wages, said Rebecca Flores, a former United Farm Workers representative in Texas, who was a high school secretary at the time of the strike. They had all the forces against them  the politicians, the judges, the sheriff  and they stuck it out.

Over several hours of protest songs, testimonials and aged photographs, middle school students, descendents of farmworkers and residents were introduced, or perhaps reintroduced, to a time when farmworkers earned around 40 cents for an hour of backbreaking labor. Then on June 1, 1966, several hundred strikers picketed outside six major melon growing ranches in Starr County, holding up signs that declared in Spanish that a strike was on.

Elaine Ayala: Activists rekindling memories of 1966 strike

Daria Vera, 69, was raised in the agricultural fields of the Rio Grande Valley, picking tomatoes, melons, bell peppers and cucumber. She spent 10 hours a day in the fields without bathrooms or cold water. In September, 1965, the Delano grape strike and boycott in California had begun, and soon rumors of a possible strike in deep South Texas had begun.

Still, many people were afraid to oppose the powerful growers, Vera said. When the strike did come, she remembers, she was roughed up by law enforcement and arrested. She and the other strikers survived on the money and donations of union members from across the country.

There were some in the community who called us lazy. They said we didnt want to work, Vera recalled. Id tell them thanks to those lazy people youre earning what you are.

What started in the fields of Starr County evolved, and soon the farmworkers were marching 490 miles to Austin. The Texas farmworker and Chicano movement was born. Yet state officials, including then-Gov.John Connally, refused to yield to the farmworkers demands.

Back then, Ed Krueger, 85, had been hired on by the Texas Council of Churches, an association of Protestant churches, to keep an eye on escalating tensions in Starr County. In the early days of the strike a Texas Ranger grabbed him by the collar and said Krueger, you aint no preacher, youre a troublemaker, the octogenarian told the roughly 100 people who attended the commemoration ceremony Wednesday.

Magdaleno Dimas lost his life to the farmworker movement. His daughter, Bertha Dimas, 45, was a toddler when he was beaten to death in 1973. His killing was never solved. These days, Dimas keeps her fathers dream alive through her volunteer work with the children of migrant farmworkers. During the anniversary celebration, Dimas carried a black-and-white photo of her father.

The history of that time was pushed aside because of the violence, she said. But they will never be forgotten.

United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez sent union representatives to establish a presence in the Lone Star State. And in 1970, the Texas Legislature approved a state minimum wage of $1.25, and in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Texas Rangers had deprived farmworkers of their constitutional rights.

The UFW in Texas went on to spur other state legislation to improve safety and working conditions for farmworkers in the state. But the struggle of that time does not appear in public school text books, and the hard-fought gains of those brave men and women have eroded, Valley residents say.

An Austin American-Statesman investigation earlier this year found that state housing laws meant to protect migrant farmworkers and their families routinely fail inspections, and go unpunished by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, the state agency responsible for inspecting facilities and levying fines.

Today in Starr County, fruit vendors sell freshly harvested watermelon from pickup trucks along the side of the road. But area growers say they have had difficulty recruiting farmworkers because many are undocumented immigrants and fear the ubiquitous presence of Department of Public Safety troopers that patrol the county, part of the so-called border surge to crack down on border crime.

If you were to reduce this to one word, this is bittersweet, said Jose G. Villagran, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. Villagran is studying the working conditions of migrant farmworkers. Its one thing to have a minimum wage law, its another thing to have it enforced. Texas farmworkers continue getting paid among the worst in the country.

anelsen@express-news.net
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A decision that could boost funding for VIA Metropolitan Transit stalled Wednesday amid a debate regarding whether the City of San Antonio could afford to give up some of its sales tax revenue.

The Advanced Transportation District Ad Hoc Committee, tasked with determining how much, if any, city funding ought to be transferred to the transit agency to improve its service, had planned to approve a recommendation for the City Council to consider. But it failed to reach a consensus and deferred the decision to a future meeting.

I would hope by next (meeting), well have a better sense of all being on the same page, said District 4 Councilman Rey Saldana, who co-chairs the committee.

Mayor Ivy Taylor called for the committees creation last year after Saldana proposed giving VIA the citys annual share of Advanced Transportation District tax revenue, which amounts to about $15 million. Voters approved the quarter-cent sales tax in 2004 to help fund transit, traffic safety, and highway projects in Bexar County.

The tax has generated more than $520 million since collection began. Half of the revenue is allocated to VIA, and the other half is split between the city and the Texas Department of Transportation.

Saldana said the committees decision on whether to recommend the transfer would demonstrate a commitment to improving transit options as the city and VIA work to update their master plans, both of which emphasize a need for multimodal transportation.

This is a chance for us to put our money where our mouth is, Saldana said.

The ATD tax makes up only a fraction of the citys overall revenue, but it has become an important source of funding for sidewalks, traffic signals and other street fixtures.

The tax is a more substantial source of revenue for VIA, which is funded mainly by a half-cent Metropolitan Transit Authority sales tax. This year, the agency expects to collect $32 million in ATD taxes and $143 million in MTA taxes  about three quarters of its total revenue.

Jeff Arndt, VIAs president and CEO, said the agencys current service frequency is all it can afford and urged the committee to consider the impact more funding could have on the lives of those who rely on the bus.

If our street network operated at the same level of service as our transit network, none of us would find that acceptable, he said.

After meeting several times this year, the committee discussed a proposal to give VIA $10 million of the citys annual ATD revenue. That would leave about $5 million for sidewalks and other infrastructure needs.

VIA said the extra $10 million each year would allow it to improve frequency on 10 of its routes, most of which run every 60 minutes at some point in the day. The agency could also implement 12-minute service in five major corridors.

The proposed changes would impact about 60 percent of VIAs ridership. But several committee members were at odds over whether the city ought to find a different way to improve VIAs service without risking future allocations for sidewalks and other street needs.

Mike Frisbie, director of the citys transportation and capital improvements department, said reducing the citys annual share of the tax would require the department to either cut projects and staff or tap into the general fund to make up the difference.

With the needs we have, we dont recommend allocating the ATD funding to VIA, he said.

The committee discussed the possibility of approaching the state Legislature to raise the citys sales tax cap of 8.25 percent, as well as other funding mechanisms that would require state approval. But several members cautioned that transit funding isnt a legislative priority.

If were waiting for Superman to come in from the state, we may be waiting longer than 10 years in our current climate, Saldana said.

kblunt@express-news.net
One of six defendants in the Crystal City public corruption case has pleaded guilty to bribing a city official in exchange for receiving favors and tax breaks for his 8-liner gaming operation.

According to the agreement, Ngoc Tri Nguyen, a North Texas businessman, may receive a recommendation of a reduced sentence if the government believes he has provided truthful and substantial cooperation.

In the agreement, Nguyen acknowledged paying Mayor Ricardo Lopez a total of $6,000 and received a waiver of some city taxes and help in shielding his operation from law enforcement.

Lopez also allegedly helped force the closure of one of Nguyens gaming competitors.

Nguyen is set to be sentenced on Nov. 9 in Del Rio by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses. He faces a maximum penalty of five years and has also agreed to forfeit about $35,000.

The other five defendants  James Jonas III, Rogelio Mata, Roel Mata, Gilbert Urrabazo and Lopez  were current or former city officials when they were indicted in February.

They are all accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks from contractors and others who did business with Crystal City, a low-income community about 130 miles south of San Antonio.

The court has set a tentative trial date of July 19, and advised that all plea agreements must be made by June 13, according to the court docket. According to court records and prosecutors, the Matas also plan to plead guilty.

While Jonas, the controversial city manager and city attorney remains technically suspended from his job, the others, all members of the city council, have either quit or were removed in a recent recall election.

jmaccormack@express-news.net
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Another private company is quietly trying to sell central Texas groundwater to utilities along the fast-growing Interstate 35 corridor, putting it in competition with the San Antonio Water System and others.

Coastal Water Regional Supply Co. is trying to sell Hays Caldwell Public Utility Agency on a proposal for a water pipeline to Kyle and San Marcos from Burleson and Milam counties. A slideshow obtained by The Express-News shows a proposed 92-mile pipeline from a well field in Burleson County southwest to Kyle, then south another 11 miles. The route is similar to the path the San Antonio Water System chose for its 142-mile Vista Ridge pipeline.

The water would essentially come from the same source as Vista Ridge. Coastal Water, incorporated in 2013 and headed by Reytec Construction President and CEO Gregg Reyes of Houston, wants to sell water from leases held by Metropolitan Water Co. LP.

Met Water President W. Scott Carlson has over 15 years amassed roughly 5,900 leases for water rights from landowners amounting to 120,000 acres in Burleson and Milam counties.

The leases lie over the prolific water-bearing layers of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. Coastal Waters wants to ship 11.4 billion gallons of water per year to the entities that make up the Hays Caldwell agency: the cities of Buda, Kyle and San Marcos and three water supply corporations called County Line, Maxwell and Crystal Clear.

For its part, SAWS hopes the Vista Ridge project will deliver up to 16.3 billion gallons per year, but SAWS officials have expressed interest in selling up to 30 percent of that, at least in early years, to other communities along Interstate 35. SAWS officials say they have spoken to local governments from Williamson County to Comal County, though no one has said they will buy Vista Ridge water.

Meanwhile, other private companies are also trying to sell water to the same region, one of the fastest-growing in the U.S.

Big picture, what youre seeing is entities are looking at finding ways to produce groundwater and deliver it throughout central Texas, said Coastal Waters project manager Albert Cortez, an Austin lobbyist who once worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. planning a fiberoptic network from San Antonio to Dallas. Were not the only group doing it, he said.

Reyes said Coastal Water originally started marketing water to smaller entities around the Houston area but is now focused primarily on a potential deal with Hays Caldwell.

Coastal Waters presentation to the utilitys board in November touted the prolific nature of the aquifer and the amount of water believed to be stored there in central Texas  more than 12 times as much water as in all Texas lakes. It also emphasized Met Waters leases that become perpetual once water starts flowing, and the fact that the leases lie in the Post Oak Savannah Groundwater Conservation District, which the company called a pro-development (groundwater conservation district).

The district has faced criticism from some locals opposed to shipping water to the cities. Post Oak manager Gary Westbrook called Coastal Waters description of the district inaccurate and irresponsible.

We have management strategies in place to protect water levels in the aquifers and protect landowners rights, whether they decide to produce or decide not to produce, Westbrook said.

For now, Hays Caldwell seems lukewarm to Coastal Waters proposal.

To be honest, were leaning towards doing our own project, Hays Caldwell director Graham Moore said Tuesday.

Hays Caldwell in 2012 obtained a permit to pump 3.4 billion gallons per year from the Gonzales County Underground Water Conservation District, about 30 miles from Kyle and San Marcos. It applied in December to pump 1.5 billion gallons per year from another nearby groundwater district.

In October, it began work on a pipeline from Buda to Kyle that it expects to complete in 2017. It is considering building a pipeline from a well field in Caldwell County that would branch north and south and connect to all the water suppliers in its service area.

Moore said Hays Caldwell needs another 6.5 billion gallons per year within 25 to 30 years to meet projected demand. Moore said it believes it can do so for $1,500 to $1,600 per acre-foot. SAWS has also tried to sell its future Vista Ridge water at an estimated $2,000 per acre-foot.

Asked what SAWS would do if a private company outcompeted Vista Ridge in the I-35 area, SAWS vice president Donovan Burton said in an email that the region needs diverse water development solutions. SAWS encourages other utilities to look at the benefits and drawbacks of each project, he said.

SAWS will continue exploring regional partnerships with various communities, however, if those communities choose other options, SAWS is prepared to utilize our diverse water supplies, and will have an abundant supply for our future, he said.

Coastal Waters presentation includes a handwritten note of $1,475 per acre-foot, though Cortez said that number is not final and based on conceptual analysis.

Moore said Hays Caldwells executive committee asked Coastal Water to come back with a more detailed presentation. Cortez said they would do so soon.

bgibbons@express-news.net, Twitter: @bgibbs
An Austin judge on Wednesday blocked the state of Texas from issuing a child care license to the controversial 2,400-bed immigration detention center in Dilley, according to an activist group suing to stop the licensing.

State District Judge Karin Crump issued a temporary injunction against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, preventing the state agency from issuing the license, according to the Austin-based advocacy group Grassroots Leadership. The license was sought by federal immigration officials.
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Claiming special-education students were denied a fair chance on STAAR tests in March because of a software glitch, Seguin school officials want the Texas Education Agency to apologize to about 60 affected youngsters, invalidate their scores and retest them.

I will not compromise the success of my students, Seguin Independent School District Superintendent Stetson Roane said in announcing hed filed a due process complaint Friday with the TEA over its refusal to allow local staffers to read parts of the test aloud to students after a computer malfunction disabled its audio.

TEA had issues with their software. We suggested a solution and were told no, Roane said. As a result, our students were put into a position to fail due to TEAs errors.

TEA spokeswoman De Etta Culbertson said the complaint will be assigned to an independent hearing officer.

She couldnt say whether similar problems were reported with State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness tests administered to about 2.3 million fifth-and eighth-graders in March.

Several school districts in Bexar County reported problems, including students being unable to save their answers.

The agency has acknowledged that test answers entered online by more than 14,000 students  most in special-education classes  were erroneously erased in March.

What happened last week was unacceptable, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath told the State Board of Education in April, promising to closely monitor the testing vendor, Educational Testing Services.

Seguin ISD spokesman Sean Hoffmann said Wednesday that only 6 percent of Seguin special-education students tested in March passed, which he called indicative of students who were denied accommodations required under federal law during the administration of the exam.

Beside reflecting poorly on individual students and the district, depressed test scores could affect the accreditation ratings for the district and individual campuses under the states accountability system.

Hoffmann said he suspects similar problems occurred in other districts and wants to know how they were resolved.

If TEA has addressed this issue with individual districts, Seguin ISD wants TEA to treat its students the same, he said.

zeke@express-news.net
AUSTIN - Texas took a dramatic step toward ending a controversial form of de facto severance pay for state workers on Wednesday when Gov. Greg Abbott ordered all agencies under his control to stop keeping ex-employees on the payroll, several other elected officials promised to do the same and lawmakers sped up their push for a legislative ban on the practice.

The moves, announced in quick succession starting with Abbotts order, followed weeks of news stories revealing that Land Commissioner George P. Bush, Attorney General Ken Paxton and more than a dozen state agencies had spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to reward former staffers or entice them not to sue over their terminations.

The use of emergency leave, administrative leave or other mechanisms to continue paying state employees who have ceased to work will be prohibited, Abbott wrote in a joint letter with Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who said he would monitor compliance with the order until the Legislature examines the issue. All agencies subject to the direction of the governor must not make such payments to departing or departed employees.

Hegar, Bush and Paxton, whose agencies are not under the governors control, said they would follow Abbotts directive.

Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and the Texas Railroad Commission declined to take such a pledge.

State legislative leaders signaled that they soon could end the practice for all officials and agencies for good. House Speaker Joe Straus asked a committee to study the possibility before the Legislature convenes in January, while Senate budget writer Jane Nelson said she already was researching the issue.

The more we learn, the more concerned I become about this issue, which appears to be occurring across state government, said Nelson, R-Flower Mound. We need a legislative fix, and I am researching ways to tighten up the law during the next legislative session.

The coordinated response marked a major escalation in a drama that began in mid-April when the Dallas Morning News reported that Paxton had kept paying two top aides after their resignation dates by putting them on so-called emergency leave. That type of leave typically is reserved for workers who have suffered a death in the family, but state law allows officials to use it when they believe there is good cause to do so.

Paxtons office has not explained the leave other than to tell a conservative website that the attorney general acted in a compassionate, legal and ethical manner in granting pay to staffers who had worked tirelessly for the state.

Several experts said the payments did not comply with long-standing rules prohibiting state agencies from giving severance pay, however, and a liberal advocacy group requested an investigation.

The Hearst Austin Bureau since has reported that a third former Paxton aide had received emergency leave after resigning and that 17 state agencies had given out emergency leave to employees who did not return to work.

Bush has kept, by far, the most ex-staffers on the payroll. The General Land Office has spent nearly $1 million since late 2014 to entice at least 40 former staffers to sign separation agreements in which they promised not to sue Bush or the agency. Most of those staffers were allowed to remain on the payroll for two months, although one stayed for five months.

Following that revelation, another liberal advocacy group called on the Department of Public Safety, the state auditor and the Travis County district attorneys office to investigate whether the practice of keeping former employees on the payroll violated state law.

Bushs office defended the moves at the time, saying the commissioner has been consistent, fair and wise in reducing the possibility of a lawsuit.

On Wednesday, however, the General Land Office issued a statement saying it would stop using separation agreements until the Legislature addresses the issue next year.

We look forward to continuing our work with the governor, comptroller, and members of the Texas Legislature to not only clarify the law on this issue but also discuss how state agencies should manage workforce in an efficient and cost-effective manner, said Brittany Eck, a Bush spokeswoman.

Paxton and Hegar released similar statements.

A Railroad Commission spokeswoman said only that it supports Abbott and Hegars initiative. A Miller spokesman said only that he welcomes the guidance provided by Governor Abbotts statement on this issue. As always, all employee actions and compensation decisions are made in accordance with state and federal law.

All of the officials agreed that the state law surrounding the issue of how the state agencies compensate departing workers should be addressed, but legislators did not offer many specifics.

It was not clear, for example, whether lawmakers would do anything to limit bonuses for departing state workers, a much more common practice than keeping ex-staffers on the payroll. The Hearst bureau reported last year that agencies had spent nearly $50 million over the previous decade to give bonuses to thousands of employees who left state government shortly thereafter.

The public should have confidence that state agencies are being cautious with taxpayer dollars, Straus, R-San Antonio, said in his letter asking the House General Investigating and Ethics Committee to study the issue. Misapplying state leave provisions undermines this confidence.

Reporter Peggy Fikac contributed to this story.

brian.rosenthal@chron.com

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For the past year, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert has loudly touted an ambitious city-county partnership to fund affordable housing in San Antonio.

A few weeks ago, Mayor Ivy Taylor told him to stop.

I was forwarded the following e-mail communication that was sent out by your staff, Taylor wrote in a May 11 email to Calvert, referring to a letter distributed a week earlier seeking support for his initiative.

As a result, I believe it is necessary to re-iterate our previous conversation about your Neighborhood Reinvestment Fund proposal, the mayor continued. The City of San Antonio is not participating in the Neighborhood Reinvestment Fund with $100Million. The sample letter suggested by your office is misleading in even mentioning the possibility of $100M from the City of San Antonio.

Seeking endorsements for his initiative, Calverts sample letter called his idea bold because it seeks $100 million from the City of San Antonio and $100 million from Bexar County for a housing bond.

This week, Calvert told me the letters reference to a city-county partnership was an error.

That was my staffs error, he said.

A more recent version of the letter deleted the reference to $100 million from the city. At the same time, Calvert hasnt given up his quest to capture city funds.

I actually believe there are six votes on (city) council, the commissioner said. Ive lobbied them and there are six votes, I believe, for $100 million. I think the conservativeness comes in because it has not been done here before.

The citys first housing bond will be tucked into a municipal bond voters will consider in May 2017.

For the past year, Calvert has urged investing in existing infrastructure as a fiscally conservative measure, considering more than one million people are expected to move to Bexar County and San Antonio in the next 25 years.

Calverts program would subsidize condos, homes, and create home ownership with mortgages people can afford in the $600-$1,000 range, his letter stated. It seeks to maintain economically diverse neighborhoods and address gentrification by freezing property taxes.

A strong city investment in housing is justified.

Home costs have skyrocketed. In 2014, only five percent of new homes were priced under $150,000, while average household income is stuck at $50,000.

Poverty has long plagued the city. More than 79,000 households here make less than $14,000 a year. Another 65,000 can barely afford $489 a month in rent.

City staff has said theres a need for 153,000 affordable housing units in San Antonio.

Last year, Taylor reconstituted a housing commission formed in response to the displacement of residents from the Mission Trails mobile home park on the South Side. Hundreds were forced out after it was rezoned and sold for a pricier development.

Last week, a subcommittee requested that the housing commission recommend an affordable housing bond measure of $50 million. A council committee will consider the commissions recommendation before any ballot language is approved.

In her curt email to Calvert, the mayor wrote that the citys investment in housing will be modest.

As we discussed, the City of San Antonio has a Housing Commission that is working on proposals for our 2017 bond, Taylor wrote. None of the draft proposals mirror your Neighborhood Reinvestment Program. I believe we will propose a modest pilot program to the voters to address housing issues.

Taylor added that even mentioning $100 million for housing could jeopardize our entire $750 bond package which will be largely focused on basic infrastructure (streets and drainage).

Others on council see the need for more robust investment.

I dont think ($100 million) is so outrageous, Councilman Rey Saldana told me. I think its pretty close to being in line with a real investment in housing.

Nonetheless, lacking support from the mayor, Calverts vision is compromised.

bchasnoff@express-news.net
AUSTIN  State lawmakers and officials will face somewhat tighter restrictions on travel and lodging bankrolled by lobbyists under a proposal regulators passed to prevent fact-finding trips from being used as a vehicle for junkets.

The Texas Ethics Commission voted Wednesday to make it slightly more difficult for lobbyists and lawmakers to potentially take advantage of an exemption in state law that allows special interests to fund educational trips.

The commission said it took up the issue of retooling the definition of what qualifies as a legitimate fact-finding trip after hearing from lobbyists who complained about getting pressured by state officials for free travel under a carve out in state law.

But the commission's final product is a far stretch from a proposal floated earlier this year by the panel's former chairman. That proposal, some argued, would have all but eliminated the ability of lobbyists to pay for fact-finding trips

Jack Gullahorn, a veteran Austin lobbyist, successfully persuaded the commission to change the proposal, arguing that lobby-funded travel is an important part of the learning process for state officials.

"It's going to create some headaches, but it's much easier for people to find an opportunity to deal with it," Gullahorn, who used to head the trade association for state lobbyists, said of the new regulation. "This at least gives the opportunity for the educational trips to still happen."

The issue of lobbyists paying for Texas officials  from state lawmakers and their staff to agency and executive branch employees  to travel has been criticized by watchdog groups that argue the practice creates potential conflicts of interest.

State law prohibits lobbyists from picking up the tab for a state official's travel or accommodations unless it's for a conference or a fact-finding trip on "matters directly related to the state officer's or employee's duties."

Former commission Chairman Paul Hobby proposed earlier this year to allow for lobby-paid fact-finding trips only in situations when "the member cannot obtain the facts by any means, electronic or otherwise." Hobby argued that most fact-finding trips were unnecessary because technology allowed state officials to gather facts without having to travel.

The proposal, however, was softened in April, and again on Wednesday. It now allows for lobby-paid fact-finding trips in situations where the state official "cannot reasonably obtain the information without the expenditure." The difference in language might seem subtle, but is huge because it will still allow lobbyists to pay for educational travel, said Gullahorn, the Austin lobbyist.

Commission Chairman Chase Untermeyer proposed the change. He described the original proposal as a "very strict and high test," and wanted the regulation to focus on the gathering on information, not facts. Facts, he said, can be acquired through a computer.

"But to get information, which is a much broader word or an understanding of the impact of a drought or work rules or a potential diseases, it does require talking to people," Untermeyer said. "You can sit in a hearing room and have experts come to you and ask fact-related questions, but until you go to a place and see things for your self and ask questions, you can't really hope to get a full picture."

The commission's months-long inquiry focused only on fact-finding trips and neglected another exemption in state law that allows lobbyists to pay for lawmakers and officials to travel to conferences, a carve out that has allowed special interests to spend more than $1.1 million since 2005.
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Local attorney Roy Barrera Sr.s plan to sell his 5.9-acre homestead to a developer seeking to convert it into a gated community has created controversy among North Side residents concerned about the areas rapid population growth and strained infrastructure.

Many neighbors support the 37-home community out of fear that if it isnt built, something with more density could replace it  under the current zoning, a maximum of 63 units could be built there. Others are taking a firm stance against development on the property, saying the adjacent stretch of two-lane Vance Jackson Road is already a traffic nightmare that endangers students from Shirley J. Howsman Elementary School across the street.

It doesnt stop. (Developers) just keep buying up blocks, said Patricia Seidenberger, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years. I dont want to be Austin, I dont want to be Dallas, I dont want to be Houston.

City Council will vote Thursday on whether to rezone the property to allow for the project  the developer wants it zoned as a planned unit development so it could be made into a gated community. Barrera is seeking the rezoning in preparation for the sale.

More Information Past coverage: Barrera selling North Side ranch See More Collapse

Barrera, who was Texas first Hispanic secretary of state when he served in 1968, decided to sell it after his wife, Maria del Carmen Zendejas Barrera, died last year. Shes the namesake of the property, known as Villa del Carmen, which is well-known for displaying abstract sculptures. Austin developer Scott Felder Homes is under contract to buy the property.

The city Zoning Commission unanimously approved Barreras rezoning request in April after a handful of neighbors spoke against it. But opponents said they only learned about the zoning case recently because notification signs werent placed prominently on Barreras property. Word has since spread on social media websites such as Nextdoor.

District 8 City Councilman Ron Nirenberg said he supports the project, pointing out that the developer plans to preserve trees and historic buildings on the property.

What were trying to do is achieve the best outcomes for these areas considering the rights to private property, Nirenberg said in a phone interview. Theres a need to balance green space and development, and in this specific case we feel like weve done that.

The project also has the support of Vance Jackson Neighborhood Inc., the areas neighborhood association, after Scott Felder Homes agreed to restrictive covenants that barred it from deviating from its 37-home site plan.

Its not that we arent concerned about the impact on traffic  but we (think) the city needs to do something about that," said the associations president, June Kachtik. "If theres going to be development, it should be as appropriate as possible.

Zoning the property as a planned unit development, or PUD, would also give Scott Felder Homes flexibility when laying out streets within the property, helping it accommodate the trees and historic buildings, according to the developers representatives, Daniel Ortiz of Brown & Ortiz P.C. and Paul Basaldua of Mosaic Development.

As for traffic concerns, the representatives pointed out that the developer plans to put the entrance and exit away from the crosswalk leading to Howsman elementary, and to build several entrance lanes so that vehicles wont back up onto Vance Jackson.

On Tuesday afternoon, the stretch of Vance Jackson Road next to Howsman was a nightmare of human and vehicle congestion. The traffic was nonstop; older children, possibly from a nearby middle school, walked along the edges of the busy road rather than on its 4-foot-wide sidewalk; and cars veered illegally into a bike lane to avoid waiting for others making a left turn.

Worsening traffic congestion is a problem throughout Northside ISD, which includes Howsman, said Pascual Gonzalez, the districts communications director.

All over NISD, unfortunately, this is something that we deal with all the time, he said. We will certainly work with the developer, and in this case the city, to ensure that kids are able to get to school safely.

Barreras property is the latest front in a long-running struggle between developers and North Side residents who are frustrated by increasing density in the area. Barrera, who co-founded the high-profile Nicholas & Barrera law firm, said his property was next to a 200-acre dairy farm when he bought it in 1959, but it has been engulfed by urban sprawl since the city annexed it in 1971. Now its surrounded by apartments, condos and single-family neighborhoods.

In April, concerns about density led Nirenberg to propose downzoning a 36-acre vacant property near the intersection of Prue and Babcock roads to prevent the construction of high-density apartments. The Babcock property was owned by the federal government when Nirenberg applied to change its zoning, but it was later bought by a group of investors based in California. His proposal ran into vigorous opposition from local real estate leaders saying it violated property rights. It ultimately was voted down by council.

Nirenberg said the Babcock Road case hasnt changed the way he approaches zoning cases in his district.

I was disappointed, dismayed by that episode, and I think we certainly owe it to citizens to do better, he said. Our approach has always been collaborative  the key difference in the Babcock case was that it was publicly owned property (when) we started the zoning process. And I stand by that.
Weve been having some strange weather this spring, cold and wet, but it could be worse.

Nandad, my grandfather, Sherman Moore, who was born in 1867, used to tell of hearing the old-timers, including his own grandfather, tell of the year when the Fourth of July was celebrated by throwing snowballs.

No summer

This wasnt at the Arctic Circle, by the way, but across New York and New England and reaching as far south as Pennsylvania and even Virginia.

This phenomenon occurred 200 years ago, in 1816, and was known by such names as The Year Without a Summer, The Poverty Year and Eighteen Hundred and Froze to Death or Starve to Death, among others.

At the time, U.S. agriculture was confined to the original 13 colonies, with most grain grown in New England and eastern New York and Pennsylvania, while the more southern states along the Atlantic seaboard raised mostly cotton and tobacco.

Volcano

This was the situation when, on April 10, 1815, Mount Tambora, a long dormant volcano on an obscure island east of Java, in what is now Indonesia, erupted with explosive force, spewing out vast amounts of molten rock and sending millions of tons of sulphur dioxide and volcanic dust into the atmosphere.

The earthquakes and tsunamis resulting from the Mount Tambora eruption killed tens of thousands of people in the islands but wasnt really of much interest to Europe and the U.S., where the news was all about Napoleons defeat at Waterloo.

Even then no thought was given to the volcano as a cause in the spring of 1816, when the weather across the northern hemisphere began to turn decidedly weird.

Unusually cold

The winter itself had been unusually cold, but spring never seemed to come, with hard frosts every month.

One Virginia resident recalled, In June another snowfall came and folks went sleighing. On July 4, water froze in cisterns and snow fell again, with Independence Day celebrants moving inside churches where hearth fires warmed things a mite.

The Boston Independent Chronicle in Trenton, New Jersey, reported June 17, 1816, On the night of 6th instant, after a cold day, Jack Frost paid another visit to this region of the country, and nipped the beans, cucumbers, and other tender plants.

This surely is cold weather for summer. On the 5th we had quite warm weather, and in the afternoon copious showers attended with lightning and thunder  then followed high cold winds from the northwest, and back again the above mentioned unwelcome visitor. On the 6th, 7th, and 8th June, fires were quite agreeable company in our habitations.

Frozen

Clothes froze on the line in New England; ice on ponds and lakes was reported in northwestern Pennsylvania in both July and August; and Virginia had frost in August.

The temperature occasionally got into the 90s, but then would drop to nearly freezing in just a few hours.

In upstate New York, crops that had begun to grow were frozen out in early June, replanted, and frozen again in July.

Very few crops were harvested and of those that yielded anything were poor.

Food and grain prices went through the roof  in 1815, for example, oats sold for $0.12 a bushel, but by the next year had soared to $0.92 a bushel.

At the time there were no railroads, major canals or decent road networks, so even if a few areas might have a surplus there was no way to move it and people went hungry.

Coldest ever

In her book, Under Old Roof Trees, published in 1908, Eliza B. Hornby from Warwick, New York, wrote:

The year 1816 was the coldest ever known in this country. It is remembered as the year without a summer. There were snow and ice every month.

On June 17th, a terrible snowstorm swept from New England to New York, in which travelers were frozen to death. Farmers worked in overcoats and mittens to but little purpose. Scarcely anything planted grew.

On our home place were a number of fine fruit trees. The young fruit managed to get a start, when there came a freezing rain. Every cherry, pear, apple, plum and peach was encased in an armor of ice, and was literally shaved from the trees by a fierce, cutting wind.

On the 4th of July, ice formed an inch thick. There was great scarcity and consequent suffering during the ensuing winter. The grain crop was a total failure.

Around the world

Much of the rest of the world was affected as well. Excessive rain and cold temperatures prevailed in northern Europe.

The potato crop in Ireland rotted in the ground and widespread starvation resulted.

In England, France and Germany wheat crops failed leading to bread shortages and food riots and looting. Northern China was hard hit with thousands of people starving to death.

In southern Asia, torrential rains triggered a cholera epidemic that killed many more.

Moving west

All this misery spurred a mass migration of Europeans to the American west  at that time Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and southern Michigan, as well as western New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia areas  that were opened after the War of 1812.

Many New England farmers, after suffering through the hard times of 1816, packed their families and belongings into wagons and headed west as well, searching for the Promised Land.

At the time no one knew what had happened, some people blamed it on sun spots, but folks knew there was something strange going on.

What happened?

An Albany, New York, newspaper wrote in October: The weather during the past summer has been generally considered as very uncommon, not only in this country, but, as it would seem from newspaper accounts, in Europe also.

Here it has been dry, and cold. We do not recollect the time when the drought has been so extensive, and general, not when there has been so cold a summer.

There have been hard frosts in every summer month, a fact that we have never known before. It has also been cold and dry in some parts of Europe, and very wet in other places in that quarter of the world.

Volcanic link

It was many years before meteorologists made the connection between Mount Tamboras eruption and the Year Without a Summer.

It seems clear that the sulphur dioxide released by the volcano, as it spread around the world, changed into sulfate ions which crystallized and reflected some of the sun away from the earth, causing the cool temperatures.

Happily, there seems to have been no such cataclysm occurring in the world in 2015, and there are signs that nice weather is in the offing, so theres not much chance of 2016 repeating the catastrophe of 200 years ago.
Since late last summer, Big Seeds big players have looked more like anxious high school kids hoping to pair off for the senior prom than international businesses investing in new products and markets.

The first to go courting was St. Louis-based Monsanto. Last August it offered nearly $46 billion for its Swiss classmate, Syngenta, only to be spurned. Syngenta later sold itself to China National Chemical Corp., or ChemChina, for $43 billion.

Next, in December, DuPont, owner of Pioneer, and Dow Chemical agreed to a merger of equals. The influential magazine Economist saw it differently; it called the deal a bad romance pushed by activist investors looking for a fast buck instead of by management with a plan to concentrate on higher-margin products.

Getting bigger

Either way, the new company, called DowDupont, believes it will pass antitrust muster by mid-summer to become a $130-billion-a-year giant.

Monsanto returned to the dance floor in March to make a pass at Bayers crop science unit for a reported $30 billion. Like Syngenta, though, Bayer declined Monsantos overtures.

Two months later, Bayer took the lead. On May 22, its boss, Werner Baumann, confirmed that Bayer hoped to buy Monsanto, the worlds biggest biotech seed company, for $62 billion, or a fat 37 percent premium to its May 9 share price.

The proposed deal didnt get much love on Wall Street. Despite Bayers sweet offer of $122 per share, investors didnt lift the stock to that level even after the buyout went public, a rarity.

Speaking out

Sensing the deal might be headed for trouble, Bayers Baumann took to cable network CNBC on May 23 to sell it directly to the American public.

The beauty of this combination, the German explained in pitch-perfect English, is that both businesses are highly complementary  (each) with great science and great people. 

And, he added, Bayer isnt just German; it, in fact,  has a 150-year heritage in the U.S. as a good corporate citizen that has more employees in the U.S. than Monsanto. 

But Baumanns instincts were right; Monsanto rejected the Bayer offer May 24. Hugh Grant, Monsantos CEO, curtly explained the kiss-off by saying the current proposal significantly undervalues our company and also does not adequately address or provide reassurance for some of the potential financing and regulatory execution risks related to the acquisition 

Further talks

Bloomberg News, however, did note that Grant remains open to further deal talks. In other words, if you want to date Monsanto, Herr Baumann, bring more money.

How much more? Some analysts say Bayer could boost its $122 per share bid to $140 because the combined firm (about 40 percent ag-based) would control nearly 30 percent of the global pesticide market, 36 percent of U.S. corn seed market, and 28 percent of the American soybean seed market.

And, too, the combined companys genetic material would be present in 80 percent of all corn sold in the U.S. and 90 percent of soybeans.

Consumer groups in the U.S. and Europe see that size as the key reason antitrust regulators on both continents should either kill the deal or require the newly merged company to heavily pare its joint holdings.

They shouldnt hold their collective breath. A merged Bayer/Monsanto would be about equal in size of merged ChemChina/Syngenta, or about $67 billion in annual sales.

Green lighting one would likely green light both.

Feeding the world

Also, while global GMO seed sales are down one percent this year, a first, its hard to imagine any nation taking antitrust action against any global biotech company or merger of companies that argues scale is a vital element in the discovery of new and innovative ways to feed the world.

That means a year from now six of the biggest Big Ag companies will likely be only three, and those Bigger Still firms will dominate 60 percent of the global seed market and 75 percent of the worlds ag chem market.

All, however, will find their research efforts undermined by the new debt each used to buy their bigger market position.

Still, its prom time and these pairs came to dance and dance they are.
COLUMBUS  After a national search, Ohio State University President Michael V. Drake has named Bruce A. McPheron executive vice president and provost, effective today, June 1.

McPheron was named interim provost in November, and has been vice president for agricultural administration and dean of the universitys College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences since August 2012.

As Ohio States chief academic officer, he will oversee and help to advance the educational mission of one of the nations largest and most comprehensive universities.

Bruce is the special type of leader who inspires those around him to always bring their very best effort, Drake said. Under his leadership as provost, we are confident that the university will continue to advance its national influence and impact in faculty research, cutting-edge teaching and learning initiatives, and exemplary community and civic engagement.

Land grant roots

An alumnus and Ohio native, since McPheron returned to Ohio State in 2012, he has placed emphasis on positioning Ohio State to be a leader on issues of significance to communities at home and across the globe. He is a member of the executive team of the universitys Discovery Themes, aimed at solving the worlds most pressing challenges through research and discoveries.

Nationally, McPheron is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has served as chair of the Policy Board of Directors of Agriculture for the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.

As dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, McPheron launched the Field to Faucet initiative, a statewide effort led by Ohio State faculty and staff to ensure clean drinking water for all Ohioans.

He also convened the Vice Presidents Conversation on the Future of Extension, the colleges outreach arm serving all 88 counties in Ohio, to successfully address critical issues facing Ohioans by 2035.

Leadership

McPheron has earned multiple national awards for excellence in leadership and is the sole person to hold elected leadership roles on three APLU agricultural boards.

Ohio State is focused on ensuring that our best thinking crosses disciplines to have an impact on the world around us, McPheron said.

An entomologist by training and an active Twitter user under the handle @medflygenes, he is widely recognized for his scientific expertise. His research focusing on the use of genetic tools to examine population structure in pest insects has been adopted by state, federal and international agencies. McPheron has taught a wide range of classes in entomology and has traveled internationally sharing his research. McPheron earned a bachelors degree at Ohio State and masters and doctorate from the University of Illinois.

He has almost 20 years of leadership experience in higher education, previously serving as dean of Penn State Universitys College of Agricultural Sciences.
The NFU has taken part in a high-level meeting with EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety to discuss delays on a vote to reauthorise products containing the active ingredient glyphosate.

Speaking after the meeting NFU Vice President Guy Smith, part of a delegation from European farmers' organisations Copa and Cogeca, said: "Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in the EU.

"I have been using it on my arable farm for 40 years to produce quality grain used for bread-making.

"Pre-harvest use in particular ensures the highest quality for bread and saves money and CO2 emissions compared to drying the crop after harvest.

"Losing glyphosate would cost the UK economy alone 630 million euros annually, making us less competitive to farmers in non-EU countries who have good access to these tools."

Copa and Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen added: "Based on the unanimous mandate from all Copa and Cogeca members, we call for an extension of the approval of glyphosate for the next 15 years.

"Farmers need to have cost-effective and sustainable tools available to ensure safe, reliable and affordable food."

Mr Smith added: "Like most farmers who use glyphosate regularly on my farm I am nothing short of exasperated as to why this key herbicide cannot simply and quickly be given the reauthorisation that has been recommended by EFSA - the appropriate EU scientific body.

"Some member states in the committee are prevaricating and wasting time when they could be taking decisions based on scientific evidence.

"Glyphosate is a pesticide which allows farmers to combat weeds while supporting cultivation methods that can preserve good soil structure. There is no sense behind this delay."

Scientific process is 'very stringent'

In a statement to the press yesterday EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis said: "Our scientific process is very stringent and relies on pooling of expertise between the European Food Safety Authority and all 28 member states.

"Our proposals and decisions on glyphosate were based on the guided assessment done by EFSA and before it the German Federal institute for Risk Assessment (Bundesinstitut fur Risikobewertung).

"They both concluded that Glyphosate is unlikely to be carcinogenic.

"Since last autumn, my services have been discussing the best way forward. We have been aiming at a solution that commands the widest possible support.

"So far, even though a majority of member states is in favour of the renewal, no qualified majority has been reached, in spite of the Commission's efforts to accommodate requests and concerns from a number of national governments, as well as from the European Parliament (which expressed itself in favour of a 7-year renewal).

"Some have been reluctant to take a position. I believe it is important to clarify that once an active substance is approved  or renewed at EU level  it is then up to member states to authorise the final products (the herbicides and pesticides themselves) put on their respective markets."

Another Europe is possible, says critics

Green MEP, Molly Scott Cato, a member of the European Parliaments Agricultural Committee, said: "The rebellion from several EU countries to the relicensing of glyphosate and a previous vote by MEPs calling on the Commission to restrict permitted uses of the toxic herbicide shows another Europe is possible  one where we are not willing to cave in to pressure from corporations.

"Sadly, the UK has been absent from the list of dissenting voices. The Tories have been cheerleaders for both agribusiness and GM crops  two sides of the same coin.

"National governments have powers to ban glyphosate if they choose to and France has already indicated it will impose a ban.

"This is not the EU forcing glyphosate down our throats; the UK government can choose whether or not to allow the use of this toxic chemical which poses risks to both human health and biodiversity."

Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett said: "Time is running out for glyphosate  its licence for use in the EU expires at the end of June.

"The views of not only the EU Parliament but also one of the largest farming countries in the EU  France, which has independently decided to ban glyphosate  supported by Sweden and others - have signalled a firm position in favour of a precautionary approach.

"Even Germany, whose scientists carried out the study for the EU that cleared glyphosate, is not voting in favour of continued use.

"The European Commissions decision to postpone the vote on glyphosate means it is surely only a matter of time before glyphosate is banned.
EU agricultural co-operative Copa & Cogeca have underlined the crucial role of using drones in agriculture as an additional agronomic tool.

It can help to enhance resource efficiency, productivity and profitability as well as ensure greater sustainability.

At the high-level event in the Netherlands entitled 'European Space Solutions: Bringing Space to Earth', Copa & Cogeca underlined upcoming challenges for the agriculture sector, notably to produce more with limited resources to feed a growing world.

And here, digitally enhanced agriculture, precision farming automated vehicles, robots, drones, informatics, satellite imaging, remote sensing have the potential to play a major role.

In particular, precision agriculture offers great opportunities in terms of minimizing inputs and maximizing productivity, providing a whole new farm management approach.

The use of drones in agriculture shows great potential.

In combination with other smart techniques, drones can contribute to enhanced resource efficiency, productivity and profitability as well as greater sustainability, contributing to the fight against environmental damage.

They are currently used to complement traditional remote sensing techniques and enable farmers to monitor nutrients in the soil and herd monitoring.

Copa & Cogeca have consequently welcome the EU Commission proposal on the revised of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) that will bring an EU wide set of rules set to be agreed very soon by EU Ministers.

But Copa & Cogeca believe that it is crucial to strike the right balance between regulation and innovation and ensure that prescriptive rules are proportional to the complexity of the operation.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, European and African farmers appealed to policy-makers on both continents to advocate for fair and responsible solutions to the milk market crisis.

"EU policy-makers must create a crisis instrument that addresses production volume and is binding for all Member States of the European Union," states an appeal by the European Milk Board, the European umbrella organisation for milk producers.

The appeal has also been signed by the Initiative to Support Dairy Cattle Herders in Burkina Faso (PASMEP), the National Association of Small Dairies in Burkina Faso (UMPL/B), as well as development cooperation organisations MISEREOR and Germanwatch.

The appeal goes on to state: "Economic Partnership Agreements between the EU and West Africa should not be concluded at this point because they would negatively affect our West-African partners, especially their local structures."

In addition to the UN's World Milk Day on June 1, this statement coincides with an ongoing visit by European dairy farmers to Burkina Faso, accompanied by MISEREOR and Germanwatch.

This trip is an opportunity for all participants to get to know the conditions under which milk is produced in Africa.

Burkina Faso: "We can provide for ourselves"

Marianna Diallo, a dairy farmer from Tambolo - a small village about 170 kilometres from the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou, explains to the visitors: "We can provide enough milk for ourselves.

"We have built a small dairy where we produce milk and yogurt."

Farmers from Tambolo also cultivate soy, broad beans and maize, among other crops.

The income from the sale of milk is used to feed their families and pay for their children's education.

One third of the population of Burkina Faso raises cattle.

However, the major import of milk powder from Europe is increasingly putting their livelihood in danger because the EU products are on an average half the price of local milk products.

Farmers on both continents are struggling

The signatories to the mentioned appeal urgently call on Europe to put a stop to the large-scale overproduction of milk in the EU as this exerts downward pressure on prices worldwide and continues to erode away at the livelihood of farmers.

"Milk producers in Europe and Africa are struggling because of current policies," critiques Wilhelm Thees, rural development expert at MISEREOR.

"In Burkina Faso, it is the women who produce milk. When this source of income is destroyed, a whole social structure collapses as the women have no alternative and thus no income."

Johannes Pfaller, a milk producer from southern Germany and a representative of the European Milk Board on the visit to Burkina Faso, says: "We cannot displace our home-grown problems to Africa.

"Those who hamper the development of other countries, compromise their own development as well."

Practical project on the ground

Belgian EMB member organisation MIG has already been active in Burkina Faso for a number of years.

Currently, the Belgian dairy farmers, together with Oxfam, are supporting a micro-dairy in Ouahigouya.

Belgian and African milk producers are also working together to create a fair label for milk from Burkina Faso.

"Fairefaso" is aiming to position itself as a sign of quality on the market - as a symbol for fair milk prices for producers.
Dairy farmers must know the cost of production on a rolling basis, the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers (RABDF) chairman, Mike King said.

Future dairy producers must know their cost of production and know the market, and if the contributing elements dont tally, then they should weigh up future options.

"Dairy farming businesses will have to survive at 21ppl to 25ppl farmgate milk price for the next five years since there is no appreciable change in sight to future market trends," he said.

"Consequently producers are going to have to focus, and once and for all know how much it costs to produce one litre of milk.

"Calculations must be made on a month by month basis, not a one off, in order to respond to market conditions and build resilience in to the business.

"If these figures dont stack up, then farmers should seriously consider, should I stay or should I go."

'Building resilience in the business is an essential'

Mr King who together with his brother, Chris manages a 550 cow pedigree Holstein herd in south Gloucestershire explained: "We are regularly reviewing our businesss cost of production and making decisions accordingly.

"For example, this season we are saving in excess of 1ppl from our cost of production by introducing zero grazing from March to October."

Host farmer and current holder of the RABDF NMR Gold Cup, Neil Baker explained how he was continually trimming budgets in line with the current milk price and making ongoing changes to the business which features 1,750 pedigree Holstein cows and 900 followers.

"Building resilience in the business is an essential part of our plans going forward. We are currently looking at five key areas and applying tactics.

 Improving forage management to reduce feed cost inputs

 Fine tuning replacement policy by culling poor cows more quickly

 Reducing antibiotic interventions by reducing mastitis, dealing and fresh cow issues and lameness

 Improving manure utilisation by spreading at the right rates at the right times

 Improving breeding selections by increasing beef calf sale values and breeding heifers from best animals

"Some of these measures are incurring big changes, others small, however when added together should have considerable impact."

NMR director, Jonathan Davies said: "Measuring and monitoring every component of a dairy farming business is absolutely essential for all producers going forward if they are to make fully informed management decisions.

"Quite simply, if you dont measure you cant manage and thats not just milk yield and quality but also health, fertility and disease status monitoring."
High ranking politicians nailed their colours to the mast at the Royal Bath & West Show on Wednesday (1 June), with a Brexit debate kicking off proceedings at the CLA breakfast.

Visitors were treated to a head-to-head between Neil Parish MP and Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, concluding with a second bout between Defra minister George Eustice and Rebecca Pow MP.

"We face a defining moment in history  it will shape our future and our childrens future," said Tim Breitmeyer, deputy president of the CLA.

"On 24 June our destiny will have been decided and we will need immediate reassurance from the government if we do vote out."

George Eustice admitted it had been extremely difficult to take a different view to the Prime Minister, but insisted that leaving the EU was the right decision.

"Big decisions always make people apprehensive but we must not duck the big decisions," he said.

"Although the Government says its got no plan B it does have people like me whove done a lot of work," added Mr Eustice.

"I can assure you Defra will be Brexit ready if we vote to leave.

"And if we do vote for change the Prime Minister will lead the reconciliation to that new reality  the entire machine of government will be committed to withdrawal from the EU in the best possible way."

'Could take years to renegotiate trade agreements'

However, Neil Parish warned rural voters that the British Government was not as supportive of agriculture as other nations in the EU, and insisted that in the case of a Brexit it would be the treasury making decisions on farm payments, not Defra ministers.

"And while we may have problems sometimes with the EU we also have an area where we can trade freely. You dont walk away from half your trade."

Mr Parish said it could take years to renegotiate trade agreements, while the Governments policy for cheap food would likely open the doors to more cheap imports.

"Therell be plenty of open markets, plenty of cheap food and no support: Thats where its going."

In riposte, Jacob Rees-Mogg insisted that trade deals with the EU would be in member states interest, given the UKs 15.3bn trade deficit with the EU in food, beverages and tobacco.

And he warned that the future within the EU was far from certain.

"The Euro is devastating half the EUs economies, with unemployment at nearly 50% in some countries  is that the future you want for your children," he said.

"The EU is declining  lets not remain shackled to it."

Crucially, the EU was undemocratic, added Mr Rees-Mogg. "The question is: What is my country? Is it Europe, or is it a democratic UK where through our votes we can change our government?"

Arguing for the Remain camp, Rebecca Pow admitted the CAP did need reforming to work better for the British countryside.

"There is no all wrong or all right with leave or stay," she said. "We need to stand up for ourselves more, which we havent been doing, but on balance I believe were better off in."
Global food commodity markets are on a stable path for the year ahead, with solid production prospects and abundant stocks pointing to a broadly stable outcome for prices and supplies.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said lower food prices than last year means that the world's food import bill are on course to fall to $986 billion this year - below $1 trillion for the first time since 2009 - even as traded volumes increase, according to FAO's biannual Food Outlook.

Wheat production in 2016 will outstrip utilization for the fourth year in a row, boosting inventories of the world's most important cereal to a 15-year high, with major surges in China and the United States.

Total wheat utilization will actually decline marginally as more of the world's farmers turn to maize to feed their livestock.

That's an increasingly popular option in China, where the government's decision to lower maize reserves is expected to boost consumption of that coarse grain.

China's move should have important effects on international markets, leading to sharp declines in demand for barley and sorghum.

Dwindling international trade may intensify competition among major exporters, FAO said.

Decisions to release government stockpiles may also affect rice prices, which began to stabilize in late 2015 after a prolonged decline, and even rebounded in May.

Dairy prices are projected to remain weak, while fish prices appear poised to remain contained due to a vibrant aquaculture production.

Meat production in general is expected to be stable although poultry output - largely for export - is forecast to grow.

Food Price Index rises in May, led by surging sugar prices

Also released today was an updated FAO Food Price Index, which rose in May for the fourth month in a row, increasing by 2.1 percent from April to 155.8 points - still some 7 percent below the level reported one year ago.

Prices rose across the index - a trade-weighted index tracking international market prices for the cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat and sugar commodity groups - with the exception of vegetable oils, which subsided after a strong hike in April.

The FAO Sugar Price Index led the increase, surging 11.7 percent from the previous month, as deteriorating production prospects in India, the world's number two sugar producer, outweighed a bumper crop and large export availabilities in Brazil, the leading producer.

The FAO Cereal Price Index rose 1.6 percent from April, led by a sharp increase in maize prices and buoyed by stronger quotations for Indica and aromatic rice varieties.

The FAO Meat Price Index rose 2 percent, spurred by brisk import demand from Asia for pigmeat from the European Union.

The FAO Dairy Price Index, which is 24 percent below its level of a year-ago, also eked out a 0.4 percent increase thanks to improved prices in the EU and sustained international demand for whole milk powder and butter.

FAO raises its global wheat and maize output forecasts

FAO raised its world cereal production forecast for 2016 to 2 543 million tonnes, just 0.7 percent below the record high of 2014.

The new production figure in today's updated Cereal Supply and Demand Brief is 17 million tonnes higher than reported in May, reflecting upward revisions for wheat and maize in major producing countries.

World cereal utilization, meanwhile, is expected to be 2 546 million tonnes for the marketing year, a slight markdown from the May projection.

At the same time, the forecast for global cereal stocks was raised to 642 million tonnes - less than two million tonnes below their all-time high, driven by a historical revision to China's wheat inventory.

Global trade in cereals is predicted to decline by 1.9 percent from the previous year to 369 million tonnes. The contraction "is likely to intensify competition for market share among major exporters, a prospect that could keep international prices in check," FAO said.
It is a great time to go organic. The Basic Payment Scheme favours organic farmers with no requirement for greening, there is sustained growth in the organic market and a new generation of customers give farmers a range of promising options to explore.

Plus the Countryside Stewardship scheme, open until the end of September2016 for payments starting 1st January, guarantees all organic enterprises automatic qualification for funding.

Farm Business Survey data for England and Wales, analysed by the Organic Research Centre and the Soil Association, shows the financial performance (Farm Business Income) of organic farms on average out performed that of comparable non-organic farms between 2006 and 2105.

There was an average annual advantage in this period of 28-68/ha for organic farmers over their non-organic counterparts.

In addition, the Soil Associations Organic Market Report also found that two thirds of licensees are predicting growth in the next year.

This shows the trust and recognition commanded by the Soil Association symbol.

In February this year a new study was published that confirmed what you feed your animals affects not just their health and your farm but the nutritional value of milk and meat.

This study joins another from Newcastle University published in the British Journal of Nutrition, that found significant differences, due to the farming system, between organic and non-organic food and that organic crops such as fruit, vegetables, cereals, and crop-based foods are up to 60% higher in a number of key antioxidants than non-organic crops.

There is now more evidence than ever before to support a switch to organic, and data shows this is just what consumers are doing.

Organic market is growing

The Soil Associations 2016 Organic Market Report showed sales of organic products increased by 4.9% in 2015 whilst the value of non-organic sales actually decreased in the same time period.

The organic market value is expected to push through 2 billion later this year.

Organic licensees with Soil Association Certification are reporting even greater sales whilst over 1,000 new products have been registered through this certification body in the last 12 months, showing people are positive about the value organic certification can bring.

Consumers list choosing products free from pesticides as a key reason to buy organic.

People are increasingly making more healthy and environmentally friendly choices and a recent Mintel study found animal welfare is also high on the list of ethical shopper concerns.

An organic farming system supports around 50% more wildlife and guarantees the highest standards of animal welfare.

Organic businesses are finding new customers who are searching for these things, notably millennials  people in their 20s and 30s who lead an aspirational lifestyle, are concerned about social and environmental issues and who have all the information they need instantly at their fingertips via the internet.

Environmental benefits of organic farming

The environmental benefits of organic farming stretch much further than finding new sales outlets.

As more and more chemical inputs are banned and restricted, or reduced in efficacy, it makes good business sense to choose organic farming.

A study in 2014 conducted by the University of California, Berkley and published by the Royal Society, compared organic and conventional yields and found that the gap was significantly lower than expected and highlighted that organic farming can be a very competitive alternative to industrial farming.

The study looked at a new meta-dataset three times larger than previously used (115 studies containing more than 1000 observations).

If more research is done into agro-ecological techniques it may find the yield gap reduces even further; with methods like inter-cropping and cover-cropping, farms become more ecologically diverse, benefit from more healthy soils and have the potential for even higher yields.

Farming is about innovation and working together to feed a growing population and safeguard our land and our environment for the future.

The Soil Association is helping farmers innovate through the Innovative Farmers network, showing all farmers that by linking up and sharing ideas you can find new, practical solutions that are often more cost effective and less harmful to the land.

Talking more about these alternative options in the media helps raise public awareness of where our food comes from and why its important to consider the farming method.

Approximately 10 million hectares of cropland is abandoned worldwide, every year, due to soil erosion and a loss of productivity.

Soil fertility (a reduction in soil organic matter and soil biota essential to effective soil function) is an increasing issue for all farmers.

By looking at different farming techniques we can begin to rebuild the soils organic matter and structure, which will help improve soil fertility and increase the yield potential.

For example, growing legumes helps to fix nitrogen for the next crop, reducing fertiliser costs and limiting exposure to input price volatility.

Pros and cons of going organic

Before embarking on any particular farming system, its important to weigh up the pros and cons.

In a low-input organic system there will be fewer costs and exposure to input price volatility is reduced.

By selling certified organic you may have some hurdles to face but there is generally a price premium for products.

The Soil Association can help advise on the organic market and offers support for finding new routes to market through initiatives such as the Supplier Scheme which feeds into caterers with the Food for Life Catering Mark accreditation.

Soil Association Certification offers many business opportunities.

From practical solutions to techniques to help improved yield, new routes to market and up to date research. To find out more contact our certification team today: 0117 914 2406

Soil Association Certification is the UKs leading organic certification body - certifying over 70% of the UKs growing organic market.

By certifying with us, youll have a dedicated and experienced certification officer who will work closely with you as your business grows.

Youll also benefit from over 60 years organic farming experience with access to practical on farm support from our skilled and experienced technical experts, as well as our inspectors who are on hand to support you every step of way.
The pig industry is once again seeking one of its own to receive the highest honour it can bestow.

The David Black Award is given annually to somebody who has made a valuable and sustained contribution to the industry.

Previous winners have come from academia, journalism, processing, the allied industry and production, so the field is wide.

Anybody can make a nomination through the AHDB Pork website and the eventual winner will be chosen by a panel of independent judges.

AHDB Pork strategy director and chairman of the judging panel Mick Sloyan said: "More than 50 years ago, East Anglian pig producer David Black created the award that bears his name and it is as relevant now as it was then.

"We still look for somebody who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help the industry. There are many people who fit that description and we want the industrys help to find them."

The award itself will be presented at an industry breakfast held on the terrace of the House of Lords in November, attended by parliamentarians, Lords, senior civil servants and members of the industry.

Nominations close on Friday 26 August and can be made through the AHDB website http://pork.ahdb.org.uk/news/david-black-award/
The Ulster Farmers Union has met with the NI Meat Exporters Association (NIMEA) to discuss concerns about lamb price stability and other matters of importance to the sheep sector.

Following the meeting UFU deputy president, Victor Chestnutt said: "New season lamb prices have been volatile in recent years and this has been no different in 2016.

"This year the poor spring has undoubtedly added cost to sheep production and instability with prices is making it difficult to market lambs and give farmers the best chance of making a margin."

Mr Chestnutt added that factors such as currency and demand from ROI plants have an influence on this instability and as such the industry needs to look objectively at what can be done to better the position of Northern Irelands sheep producers.

Arguably one area that must be closer examined is improving the marketability of NI lambs.

"While seeking new market access is something we continue to highlight with Government, ensuring that our product is attractive to both new and existing customers is extremely important," said Mr Chestnutt.

He also highlighted that there is a growing ethnic population in Europe, which is one of the few really encouraging growth markets for lamb.

"We as an industry have to look at ways in which we can market lamb to these consumers because our options are currently limited," he added.

'Increasingly difficult' to sell non-quality assured lambs

The Union also used the meeting as an opportunity to discuss Quality Assurance for lamb.

"Processors have reported that it is becoming increasingly difficult to sell non-quality assured lambs, and meetings with retailers at Balmoral show have confirmed that they will only source quality assured lambs for their retail stores," said Mr Chestnutt.

However the UFU has noted that just over half of lambs slaughtered in Northern Ireland are quality assured, meaning there is a significant number of lambs not eligible for the UK retail market and alternative outlets must be found.

"While many sheep farmers will quite rightly argue that there is not enough financial incentive to become farm quality assured, the other side of the coin is that the less quality assured lambs that we produce, the less shelf space we will pick up in major retailers.

"Where we cant deliver on quality assurance and volume, retailers will argue that they will have to source elsewhere," said the deputy president, adding that as an industry we need to decide whether having so few quality assured lambs is an acceptable place to be if we are serious about trying to market lamb better.

EID systems

UFU has also encouraged NIMEA members to continue developing EID systems in their plants which allows more information to be passed back to farmers.

"On an individual basis this is particularly important for lamb carcase classification, while we also feel that the industry should be seeking assistance from DAERA to try and get more post mortem information feedback on batches of lambs," said Mr Chestnutt.

Interest in this information is growing to help aid farm performance, however further uptake is being restricted because the technology is still considered relatively expensive.

"This is why DAERA must commit to including the technology in their Farm Business Investment scheme, a move which many sheep farmers would welcome," he said.
South Caernarfon Creameries has announced that it has been awarded the contract to supply Sainsburys with their Basics Cheese range.

The contract includes 13 products across Sainsburys Basics range and will launch into store later this year.

Alan Jones, Managing Director at South Caernarfon Creameries said: "We are extremely pleased to have been awarded the Basics cheese supply contract by Sainsburys.

"This contract will result in us supplying both entry level cheese as well as top tier products nationally to Sainsburys."

"With our new cheese production facility soon to be fully operational, this contract will result in the new facility being at full production from the outset.

"It will also mean that we shall be investing significantly in our cheese packing operations and creating around 15 more jobs when the contract starts which is great news for our local economy."

"Securing an important contract such as this will give all of our stakeholders great confidence for the future of our business."

"This award is testament to our relationship with Sainsburys and our journey together during the last few years.

"We thank them for their continued support and look forward to working with them on both this project and others as we enter a really exciting period for our business."

James Connaughton, Cheese Buyer at Sainsburys said: "Having worked with South Caernarfon Creameries on recent projects, we have been continually impressed by the quality of their products and consistency of supply.

"The flexibility and capability in production and the knowledge and professionalism of their team will enable us to adapt and create new products in the future and we are pleased to be working with a business in which provenance is integral."

South Caernarfon Creameries is owned by its 130 farmer member suppliers who are located in North and Mid Wales.
AHDB agrees to transfer surplus levy funds to new horticultural body
Inaugural day will take place in February

By Diego Flammini

Assistant Editor, North American Content

Farms.com

Canadians involved with agriculture are encouraged to mark Thursday, February 16, 2017 on their calendars as it will be recognized as Canadas Agriculture Day.

The announcement was made on the final day of the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity Public Trust Summit, and the countrys ag industry is coming together to make the day possible and celebrate everything agriculture provides.

Every link in the food production chain  from the farm to the grocery store and restaurant  plays a vital role in bringing food to your table every day, said Crystal Mackay CEO of Farm and Food Care Canada, in a release. Canadas Agriculture Day is an opportunity to get involved, celebrate and be a part of the conversation about food and farming.

According to Stats Canada, more than 90 per cent of Canadians had a connection to agriculture, compared to only about three per cent today.

Farms.com will also be doing its part to bring awareness to the celebration.

This is an exciting new idea and Farms.com will be developing some activities that help to introduce Agriculture Day in Canada to farmers, agribusiness and consumers, said Joe Dales, Vice-President, Farms.com. We think it is important for us to celebrate agriculture, food and the role everyone in the industry plays.

Farmers, agribusinesses and other industry professionals are encouraged to use the hashtag #CdnAgDay on social media.
"There is the potential to meet the domestic demand, but also long-term potential to look for opportunities overseas, particularly in South-East Asia  that's the vision."
"I think once you have a facility like this you can adapt it to do a range of things and I think it has opened up a whole world of opportunities for Harvey Beef but also for WA producers, which is fantastic news."
"He said it would shut the industry down overnight. We stressed to Mr Nalder's advisers that these were the sorts of issues that needed to be researched and some form of protection for the industry determined here, not in Canberra.
7 things to know about Wawa as it plans a Fayetteville location

Wawa, the convenience store chain eyeing Fayetteville, has a cult-like following. What's so special about it, and what is it known for?
Brazils Acting President, Michel TemerBrazils historic anti-corruption moment has reached a glorious, if ironic, crescendo.

The new Transparency Minister  arguably the nations chief anti-corruption officer  has resigned. It came in the wake of revelations that he was counseling a senator on how to avoid prosecution for corruption.

Brazils got no use for an anti-anti-corruption minister.

We discussed in a prior post the ambiguous steps that Brazils acting president, Michel Temer, has taken during his very short tenure. First came the dissolution of Brazils main anti-corruption enforcement agency, the Comptroller General (CGU). He replaced the CGU with a Transparency Ministry; we still arent sure whether the new ministry will see its authority reduced.

Then someone  we know not who  leaked a recording of the new Transparency Minister counseling a friend in the Senate on how to avoid prosecution for corruption. That recording was played on national television, and the minister resigned the next day.

Temer also halted certain of the plea negotiations with the construction companies caught up in the Petrobras investigation. As we explained, that might not be as bad as it seems. But it might.

So what is Temer doing? Is he committed to seeing Brazils historic anti-corruption moment through? Or are his various maneuverings but covert ways to obstruct what may be the most thorough anti-corruption enforcement effort in history, in any country?

For further discussion of these changing times in Brazil, see our two new videos:

What is Temer doing?

Ministers Resigning

See also our ebook (now being published serially) and related materials at law.richmond.edu/olympics.

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Andy Spalding is a Senior Editor of the FCPA Blog and Associate Professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. Hell be a moderator and panelist at the FCPA Blog NYC Conference 2016.
The DOJ announced that Daniel Kahn became Chief of the FCPA Unit, effective June 1.

Kahn had been acting chief of the FCPA Unit since March, when his then boss, Patrick Stokes, became Senior Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section. Charles Duross had led the FCPA Unit before Stokes.

Kahn joined the Fraud Section in 2010. He was promoted to Assistant Chief of the FCPA Unit in 2013.

Kahn was the lead prosecutor on ten corporate FCPA enforcement actions, including Alstom. The company paid $772 million in criminal penalties  the biggest criminal fine ever levied for FCPA offenses and the second biggest FCPA enforcement action overall.

He was also a prosecutor on the Haiti teleco case. A Miami jury convicted Joel Esquenazi and Carlos Rodriguez, former executives of Terra Telecommunications Corp., of bribing officials at Haitis state-owned telecom company.

Esquenazi is serving a 15-year jail sentence, the longest FCPA-related sentence ever imposed. Rodriguez was jailed seven years.

In the same case, Robert Antoine, a former employee of Haitis state-owned national telecommunications company, pleaded guilty to money laundering and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Esquenazi and Rodriguez appealed their convictions to the U.S. Supreme Court. They said the definition of the foreign official in the FCPA was vague and the DOJs interpretation of it was wrong. The Supreme Court rejected their appeal in 2014.

Kahn graduated from Cornell and Harvard Law School. He spent six years at Davis Polk before joining the DOJ Fraud Section.

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Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog. Hell be the keynote speaker at the FCPA Blog NYC Conference 2016.
Johnny Depp's friends have begged him to go to rehab.

Johnny Depp

The 'Mortdecai' actor - who is set to go on a US tour next month with his band The Hollywood Vampires - has reportedly been advised by his bandmates Alice Cooper, Joe Perry and Matt Sorum to check into a rehabilitation centre because they fear he will suffer a "meltdown" and has begun to drink excessively following allegations he abused his estranged wife Amber Heard.

A source told The Sun newspaper: "He's received death threats over the domestic violence claimed and they fear he will suffer a meltdown.

"The thought of having to face Amber in court and to go through the humiliation is way too much for him.

"Everyone thinks the best place for him is rehab for a month where he can clear his head and get the support he needs."

The 52-year-old star has previously battled with alleged alcohol abuse and reportedly attended rehab when he disappeared off the radar following a boozy session in Brisbane after sustaining a hand injury which halted filming on 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales' last year.

Speaking previously a source said: "There are rumours on the set that he was in rehab.

"As soon as Johnny arrived in Australia, he was partying hard. After he got injured, no one was surprised. He didn't seem to care at all about filming and was all about partying.'

And since the couple's 15-month marriage came to a dramatic end two days after Johnny's mother Betty died aged 81, it is alleged the dark-haired heartthrob has returned to his old ways and "hit the bottle" to cope with the unfortunate tale of events.

The source explained: "Johnny's team are really worried. He's hit the bottle to cope with it all."

And the musician's former partner Vanessa Paradis - with who he has daughter Lily-Rose, 17, and Jack 14, - has been one of his greatest support.

A source said: "He is being closely watched by his security guys. They constantly check to make sure he is OK. His management, sister, head of security and even Vanessa have joined together to support him. "

Meanwhile, Johnny is keeping himself to himself and has jetted off to Sweden to stay in a plush suite at one of Stockholm's best hotels, which costs 8,000 a night.

A member of the team was heard saying: "We've got to protect Johnny at all costs."
Julianne Hough will co-host the Miss USA pageant.

Julianne Hough

The 27-year-old actress will present Sunday's (05.06.16) ceremony with Terrence J. Jenkins and backstage host Ashley Graham and is also set to serve as one of the show's creative producers.

She said: "I admire and share The Miss Universe Organisation's commitment to celebrating young women for more than just their physical beauty, and I feel fortunate to be a part of encouraging and uplifting them to make a positive difference in the world.

"I'm also excited to contribute what I've learned in over a decade in front of the camera and behind the scenes as a performer and choreographer on live television to the Miss USA broadcast."

Joe Zee, Ali Landry and former Miss USA Crystle Stewart will be on the judging panel while the Backstreet Boys and Chris Young are set to perform during the ceremony.

Meanwhile, Julianne has plenty of time to co-host the ceremony after quitting as a judge on 'Dancing with the Stars'.

The star - who won the coveted Mirrorball Trophy twice as a professional on the ABC show - is taking a break from the glitz and glamour of the dancing competition and has not taken part in its 22nd season which kicked off on March 21.

She previously said: "I promise it's not the last you'll see of me in the ballroom. I will miss being on the panel for season 22, but have a lot of exciting stuff coming that I look forward to sharing."

Producer Rob Wade said: "Julianne will always be a part of the 'Dancing with the Stars' family and we hope to see her back in the ballroom in the future."

Julianne was a judge for three seasons after competing as a pro dancer in seasons four to eight.
Tyga looks at "everything differently" now he is a father.

Tyga

The 26-year-old rapper admits his fast-paced lifestyle has changed dramatically since he and former girlfriend Blac Chyna - who is expecting a baby with fiance Rob Kardashian - welcomed their son King Cairo into the world in October 2012.

He said "[King] has changed my life a lot.

"He makes me step back and really enjoy life.

"That's what life is about. You bring something into the world like that, your whole world kind of stops. It slows down and you look at everything differently."

The 'Rack City' hitmaker thinks being a parent is a "great accomplishment" and he loves how similar to him his little boy is.

He added: "It's just a great accomplishment to have a mini version of yourself.

"You don't owe the world anything, but when you bring a beautiful child like this into the world, you know that you've got a lot to live for."

But Tyga - who recently split from Kylie Jenner - is having to be cautious about what he says as King is beginning to repeat what he hears.

He told People magazine: "You've got to be real cautious on what you say and things like that.

"But as he's getting older and going to school, he's around other kids so now his personality is just ... like, he's learning words I've never heard him say. This is crazy!"

The rapper has a fairly simple parenting style which he applies to his little boy as he wants the youngster to have the space to make his own mistakes.

He said: "He's going to learn things, he's going to make mistakes.

"I want to let him be a kid and explore what he likes.

"You just got to have a lot of faith in what you do. Every situation is a learning process, and you evolve from everything ... it's just really all about evolving and sticking with what made you."
A woman got the surprise of her life when Prince Harry responded to her invitation to attend an awards ceremony with her.

Prince Harry

Sue Reinhardt and her colleagues at independent record label Eleven Seven Music were debating who they should invite to the Kerrang! Awards when they thought it would be "a bit of a joke" to ask the 31-year-old royal to be her plus one.

Describing how it came about, she told the Daily Star newspaper: "I was thinking about celebrities who like rock music and Prince Harry sprung to mind ... Admittedly I wrote the letter as a bit of a joke and was surprised when I got a reply. Perhaps I'll ask him again next year and see if he can make it!"

The letter, dated May 17, reads: "Prince Harry has asked me to write and thank you very much for your letter of 6th May, in which you invite His Royal Highness to The Kerrang! Awards at The Troxy, London on 9th June.

"The Prince was extremely grateful for your kind invitation. Having given careful consideration to the possibilities, however, I very much regret that His Royal Highness reluctantly feels he has to decline. Prince Harry is focussing on his commitments in support of the charities with which he is already associated, and feels unable to take on anything further at this time.

"I am sorry to have to send you this necessarily disappointing response but do hope you understand. His Royal Highness would have me send you his best wishes and thanks for thinking of him on this occasion."
Prince Philip has returned to work after being forced to cancel an appearance in Orkney earlier this week.

Prince Philip

The 94-year-old royal - who is married to Queen Elizabeth - was ordered by doctors to miss the commemoration of the Battle of Jutland but has since met with the President of Germany, Joachim Gauck.

The Prince - who had spent the weekend at his home in Balmoral before returning to London on Tuesday (31.05.16) - joined the monarch at a private meeting with Mr Gauck at Buckingham Palace.

And Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence - who is married to Princess Anne - has put people's minds to rest, insisting Prince Philip was just suffering from a minor ailment and all agreed it would not be wise for him to be stood outside for the long ceremony.

A statement from a royal spokesperson at the time read: "Following doctor's advice, the Duke of Edinburgh has reluctantly decided not to attend the commemorations marking the Battle of Jutland in Kirkwall and Hoy. The Princess Royal, who was already attending the events, will represent the royal family."
Britain's Queen Elizabeth celebrated becoming the longest serving Captain-General of the Honourable Artillery Company by unveiling a bronze bust of herself.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth

The 90-year-old royal marked 64 years at the helm of the organisation by asking portrait sculptor Antony Dufort to create the beautiful piece of artwork, which she unveiled in London on Wednesday (01.06.16).

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wood, commanding officer of the Honourable Artillery Company regiment, said: "We've got a long and proud history and association with the Royal Family and the Queen in particular as our Captain-General. So to have her here today to mark her longest service [record] as our Captain-General has been absolutely amazing and we're incredibly privileged, particularly in what is such a busy year for Her Majesty.

"Let's not forget that essentially the Queen was, in modern language, a reservist in the Second World War. So I think she understands the service that the regiment provides. She understands the sacrifice of the members of the regiment and the value we add from ceremonial through to operational and charitable activities."

Later in the afternoon, the monarch joined members of the territorial army unit at a reception.

The Queen joined the Auxiliary Transport Service in February 24, 1945 and qualified to be a driver later that year before being promoted to junior commander.
Jake Hall is "slowly getting better" after he was allegedly stabbed earlier this week.

Jake Hall (c) Instagram

The 'Only Way is Essex' star has assured fans he's on the mend after spending three days in intensive care in a hospital in Spain following the shock attack, which reportedly almost left him without a kidney, at the Aqwa Mist nightclub in Marbella.

Taking to his Instagram account on Wednesday night (01.06.16), the hunk uploaded a photograph of himself sitting in his hospital bed with sensors attached to his chest alongside the caption: "Managed to pull a smile for all the amazing people who sent nothing but love and wishing me better.. Your support has got me through this worring time but as I said you can't get rid me that easy! (sic)."

The handsome star then went on to thank his family, his on/off girlfriend Chloe Lewis - who was also holidaying in the Spanish resort at the time - and his fans for their continued love and support.

He added: "I'm slowly getting better my family @chloelewis91 and close friends have been here for me and love them very much (sic)."

Jake then took to his Twitter account to praise the incredible doctors and nurses, who seemingly saved his life, for looking after him and providing him with the "best" care.

He tweeted: "Nurses and doctors are best people on Earth the way they look after you and help is just something else all deserve much more Thank u (sic)."

It's believed the 24-year-old heartthrob was rushed to hospital by his friends in the early hours of Monday morning (31.05.16) after he was reportedly stabbed with a sharp object - thought to be a bottle - in the right hand side of his stomach when he got caught up in nightclub mayhem.

Despite initial fears that he'd suffer permanent damage as a result of the alleged stabbing, it's thought the doctors' swift intervention has prevented any long-term issues.

Meanwhile, Jake is set to be quizzed about the incident over the coming days, despite police originally planning to hold off on questioning until he's discharged from hospital, after the attack was made public.
Vicky Pattison has joked her dating show has been forced to air after the watershed because of her potty mouth.

Vicky Pattison

The former 'Geordie Shore' star is one of the team captains in the new programme 'It's Not Me, It's You' alongside Kelly Brook and believes bosses decided to screen it later on in the evening because she can't control her outbursts.

Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, she said: "I've just signed up to do a new panel show with channel five called 'It's Not Me, It's You'. Eamonn Holmes is the host, Kelly Brook is the other team captain and it's going to be about relationships and love lives, it's going to be naughty, it's going to be cheeky, it's gonna be funny. It's gonna be after the watershed, because I'm on it! It's great, I'm excited."

And that's not the only show the 28-year-old beauty has been lined-up for as she and Ferne McCann are set to do their own travel mini series.

She added: "I can't tell you too much but it's not as exciting as it sounds. It's a great opportunity, and I love Ferne, but I think everyone is under the impression that it is a massive series and it's not. We're just filling a slot for ITV."

However, the brunette beauty is extremely grateful for every opportunity and believes she owes a lot to 'I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!' because she's been bombarded with projects since she won the show last year.

She said: "Everything's helped me. You know, since the jungle I've been so fortunate and so lucky, I've been really can't thank ITV and Channel five and all of the networks for that matter, who gave me a chance since the jungle. Because the things that are coming my way are incredible and I couldn't have dreamed of them."
"I didn't want to dilute the effect of depicting young Bengal by including pioneers on board," says Chikky. "I decided to keep a happy mix of fashion week regulars with some young designers doing tasteful work sans much national presence. Frankly, it's young Bengal with a different design aesthetic that i want to portray. As a representation of young Bengal, we intend to fuse Bengali elements in experience with some global design aesthetic."

So expect a quintessentially Bengali ambience in Chikky's pop-ups. Case in point there will be designers working on natural textiles and handwoven fabrics like Jamdani, every shopper will be greeted with a red bindi as they enter our pop-up and get romanced by a Bengali ditty playing in the background throughout the event and as they leave with burgeoning bags, we present them with paan and or sandesh," she signs off.



After Delhi and Ahmedabad, Travelling Trunk is heading to Hyderabad and Jaipur.



CHIKKY'S PICK - Kolkata designers to watch out for:

Paromita Banerjee

Pranay Baidya

Rimi Nayak

Rohan Arora (makes hand-embroidered shoes)

Aditya Dugar



ELEMENTS OF BENGAL AT TRAVELLING TRUNK

Handwoven Jamdani

Kaantha

embroidery
When multilingual South Indian actor Priyamani announced her engagement to Mustafa Raj on social media, she did not expect to be accused of "love jihad". Twitter trolls called Mustafa a `jihadist while others called her a "shame on Hinduism".



Priyamani gave a fitting reply: "Fed up of so much hatred and negativity with regards to the engagement news I shared this morning hoping that everyone would be a part of my new journey and bless me with your kind messages... but I am appalled by so much of negative reactions! Grow up you people!!! ITS MY LIFE.. and Im NOT answerable to anyone a[art from my parents and my fiance!" (sic)



This is not the first time Priyamani has been trolled. Earlier in May when she tweeted in solidarity with Jisha, who was raped and murdered, she was attacked for her tweet, "Appalled and shocked to read about yet another tragic rape and murder! i don't think India is safe anymore for women#JusticeForJisha." The reaction from trolls was obvious: "IF HINDUSTAN is unsafe please leave the country."



Priya hit back: "To everyone who's replying to my tweets...I request u to READ my tweets properly..I have never spoken against our country!" Not satisfied, trolls accused her of being publicity hungry and spammed her TL with out-of-context photos from her films, showing her in revealing clothes. Some even went to the extent of saying that actors who have essayed roles like hers in films have no right to speak up on issues of safety.



Priyamani joins a long list of actors who have been trolled recently and who refuse to be intimidated by online bullies. Fed up with having to constantly clarify herself on Twitter, all Priyamani had to say when we contacted her was, "There is nothing more to say."

Next Story : Raashis no more the girl next door
Scientist Swati Bedekars invention - Ashuddhinashak  a clay-based incinerator to dispose used sanitary napkins has found buyers in India and overseas. Countries like Jordan and Cameroon have replicated the invention. In rural areas ranging from Kerala to Jammu & Kashmir, Swati has sold nearly 2,500 incinerators and in Gujarat alone around 6,000. Currently, the incinerators are being manufactured in Gujarat and tribal areas of Maharashtra and cost Rs1,500.



In 2010, the Vatsalya Foundation in Vadodara, with which Swati was associated, started Sakhi, the sanitary napkin manufacturing unit. But the absence of a convenient disposal system for the used sanitary napkins was not only a threat to hygiene but also discouraged young girls from using it. Notices on school bathroom walls told students not to flush the sanitary napkins or throw it into the dustbin. Owing to such rules, girls were left with no choice but drop out of school.



In order to tackle this issue, the foundation brainstormed for an incinerator. We devised this keeping in mind four factors  it has to be low cost, woman friendly, should not disturb the rural landscape and should not have any recurring cost. That is how ashuddhinashak was born. It is made of clay and we use pottery techniques to make it, says Swati. So, while the rural women receive employment by making sanitary napkins, the clay incinerator provides employment to potters in the neighbourhood.



So far, the incinerator has bagged the Environment Excellence Award in 2015 and Swati received the LOreal Paris Femina Women Awards  Science and Innovation in 2015.

Next Story : A look at Kolkata's next gen designers
Mumbai's SoBo European-gastro-cool comes to the Eastern suburbs. I ate here twice. Quite recently, when I went back, Craft had mastered its craft. But that wasn't the case when we had lunched here when it had just opened almost five months ago. It didn't quite hit the sweet spot. But my exceptionally brilliant lunch companions more than made up for it. Globetrotting, discerning foodies. Combining style with substance, the charming Priya Jhaveri and Amrita's gallery for contemporary art has been blazing trails. It is distinguished not only for producing Sir Anish Kapoor's landmark exhibition in India, but also for its creation of original scholarship, through carefully crafted shows. Art historian and curator, Dr Prajna Desai's latest all-colour and path-breaking book has recipes from eight Dharavi cooks and blends food, aesthetics, and women's labour in Dharavi. Our tried, tested and tasted review follows.



DECOR

Zoom up to the first floor of the Phoenix Marketcity mall, walk into this large, pleasant, wooden space, with open kitchen, deli counter, bar that swerves into comfy seating booths and has alfresco seating, too.



FOOD

A deli counter with artisanal cheeses (locally sourced), homemade bread, mueslis, dips and salads is one of the highlights. Milk from 'Pride of Cow', coffee blends curated for Craft from estates Chikmagalur are the other highlights.

What we love are the unusual marriages that Chef Paul Kinny successfully presides over. Be it of Coconut and Corn in the velvety delicious Soup or the Asian Nampla, with the tenderloin Carpaccio. 'Three Little Pigs' crisp pizza serves up pepperoni, ham and bacon. 'No Carb Spaghetti' combines carrot, zucchini, squash and almonds. He batters the Grouper with ale and spikes his Tartar Sauce with ginger and jalapeno. Peanut Butter is paired with Chocolate Ganache. Love the sea salt caramel drizzle on it.



MINUS POINTS

The music is too loud. Some of the dishes don't live up to their fancy sounding names, like the savoury Baklava (bhut jhalokia pepper et al) which is stodgy. Ditto for the Baked Omelette. The fresh house made Caprese lacks freshness, the Green Goddess Hummus, Fresh Dill Tzatziki could do with more punch.



MY POINT

To open a bistro, bar and deli of this level of sophistication in an Eastern suburban mall is a gutsy step. Kudos, Romil Ratra. Plenty of choice, well-crafted dishes, open through the day, all-day breakfast are its plus points. Though it was empty both times we had lunch here, Craft certainly merits many a visit should you be in the vicinity.







Next Story : Say cheers to summer with sundowner cocktails
Yesterday, the Internet exploded with well wishes for Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh, who announced the arrival of their second child on social media. Well wishes are in store for many more celeb mommies-to-be. Here are a few more celebs expecting this year:

The adorable couple Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza welcomed a healthy baby boy yesterday. An excited Riteish tweeted, on behalf of his older son Riaan:

Hey guys, my Aai & Baba just gifted me a little brother. Now all my toys are his...Love Riaan
Deepika Padukone arrived in style at the Mumbai airport from a shoot in Budapest, Hungary for the film Raabta. We hear that Deepikas close friend, director Dinesh Vijan, convinced her to do an item number for his film. The films producer Homi Adajania posted an adorable photo of the two of them on Instagram with the caption: Always fun to have fat cheeks back! @deepikapadukone #filmshoot #raabta #maddockfilms #live #laugh #love #budapest

Prior to this shoot, the actor had been busy shooting for her Hollywood debut: XxX: The Return Of Xander Cage. From what we hear, she hasn't signed on any Bollywood movies yet, but may be reuniting with director Sanjay Leela Bhansali for another epic.

Looking extremely chic, Deepika strolled out from the airport flaunting an all-black attire and red lips. Here are a few more photos of her stylish attire:
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) will convert India into one common market, prevent tax-on-tax and make goods and services cheaper.He also hoped the main opposition Congress will come on board to help in the passage of the India's biggest indirect tax reform bill since independence in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament and said failing which the government will have no option but to seek for a Parliamentary vote.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) will convert India into one common market, prevent tax-on-tax and make goods and services cheaper. He also hoped the main opposition Congress will come on board to help in the passage of the India's biggest indirect tax reform bill since independence in the upcoming monsoon...#

"The idea behind the GST is to make India into a one common market to have a seamless transfer of goods and services, to prevent tax-on-tax, make goods and services cheaper and therefore provide to any person very large markets that is one-sixth of world population,"" he said at a conference organized by Institute for International Economic Studies in Tokyo on Wednesday.The GST Bill has already been approved by the Lok Sabha and is pending in the Rajya Sabha where the government doesn't have a majority.Jaitley said he was trying to persuade the Congress party to support the legislation, which originally was introduced by the same party in 2006."This was proposed by the previous government. We have accepted it. It has been passed by the Lower House (and now) it requires to be cleared by a two-third majority in Upper House. Almost every political party in principle says it supports the GST," he said.Without naming Congress, he said the party which was in power earlier and had moved the GST bill now wants to bring some changes to the legislation.The Congress wants the rate of the goods and services tax capped at 18 per cent, the proposed 1 per cent additional levy on inter-state trade be removed and an independent dispute resolution mechanism for states set up."One particular change I am willing to accept. (In) others there is some difficulty," he said referring to the demand for removal of 1 per cent additional levy."I have been discussing with them and trying to persuade them to accept this idea. I am reasonably hopeful that it will be passed in monsoon session and if they come on board, my preference is to do it with consensus but if that is not possible then I have no option but to seek for a Parliamentary vote," Jaitley added.(SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Sri Lanka has become the latest WTO member to ratify the new Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Sri Lanka's ambassador to the WTO, R.D. Susiri Kumararatne, presented his country 's instrument of acceptance to Director-General Roberto Azevedo on May 31, according to a WTO press release.The TFA which was concluded at the WTO's 2013 Bali Ministerial Conference, contains provisions for expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. It also sets out measures for effective cooperation between customs and other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues. It further contains provisions for technical assistance and capacity building in this area.

Sri Lanka has become the latest WTO member to ratify the new Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Sri Lanka's ambassador to the WTO, R.D. Susiri Kumararatne, presented his country's instrument of acceptance to Director-General Roberto Azevedo on May 31, according to a WTO press release. The TFA which was concluded at the WTO's 2013 Bali Ministerial#

The TFA will enter into force once two-thirds of the WTO membership has formally accepted the Agreement. With the acceptance by Sri Lanka, the number of TFA ratifications now stands at 81. Thus, the WTO has received three-quarters of the ratifications needed to bring the TFA into force.On July 31, 2014 Sri Lanka submitted its Category A notification to the WTO indicating which provisions of the TFA it intends to implement upon entry into force of the agreement.The TFA broke new ground for developing and least-developed countries in the way it will be implemented. For the first time in WTO history, the requirement to implement the Agreement was directly linked to the capacity of the country to do so. In addition, the Agreement states that assistance and support should be provided to help them achieve that capacity.A Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility (TFAF) was also created at the request of developing and least-developed country members to help ensure that they receive the assistance needed to reap the full benefits of the TFA and to support the ultimate goal of full implementation of the new agreement by all members.Implementation of the WTO TFA has the potential to increase global merchandise exports by up to $1 trillion per annum, according to the WTO's flagship World Trade Report released on 26 October 2015.The Report also found that developing countries will benefit significantly from the TFA, capturing more than half of the available gains. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Wool is likely to come to the rescue of garment manufacturers in Tirupur who are struggling to maintain the momentum round the year due to lack of adequate diversification into value-added winter garments.According to The Hindu. garment manufacturers in Tirupur knitwear cluster will explore the possibilities of using wool more in knitwear production to sustain the business all through the year.

Wool is likely to come to the rescue of garment manufacturers in Tirupur who are struggling to maintain the momentum round the year due to lack of adequate diversification into value-added winter garments. According to The Hindu. garment manufacturers in Tirupur knitwear cluster will explore the possibilities of using wool more in knitwear production to#

Exporters here are now planning to collectively focus on research to develop knitwear with wool or wool-blended fibres reducing the over dependency on cotton . This move will help avoid slowdowns presently encountered by many factories in the cluster, due to lack of adequate orders for winter garments, said T. R. Vijayakumar, an apparel exporter and chairman of Research and Development wing in NIFT-TEA Knitwear Institute promoted by the Tirupur exporters.He said that currently only less than one per cent of the knitwear produced from the cluster use wool as raw material.M. Veluswamy, another apparel exporter, said that around 85 per cent of the apparels made from the cluster still use cotton as the main raw material. He pointed out that use of wool would help retain heat better than cotton in the garments.Meanwhile, the NIFT-TEA Institute is planning to team up with Woolmark, a global authority on Merino wool and pioneer in investments in R&D, to encourage research activities with wool and wool-blended fibres in Tirupur cluster itself.Once self-sufficiency is obtained in making value-added winter garments, the Tirupur exporters will be able to challenge the dominance of Chinese garments in the winter apparels segment, said Vijayakumar.Chinese winter wear has gradually been increasing its footprints across north India with customers saying the products are better and cheaper than those made in the country . (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Cotton Australia has welcomed the announcement of funding for two programmes that will benefit growers. The funding is part of a $150 million funding commitment for feasibility assessments and construction of water infrastructure across the state.Cotton Australia's reaction came after Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce today announced $650,000 would be made available to fast-track a feasibility assessment into using recycled water to expand agricultural production in south-east Queensland.

Cotton Australia has welcomed the announcement of funding for two programmes that will benefit growers. The funding is part of a $150 million funding commitment for feasibility assessments and construction of water infrastructure across the state. Cotton Australia's reaction came after Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce today announced $650,000 would#

"We are very pleased that funding for such a feasibility project would be made available, given its potential to provide up to 100 gigalitres of water for high-value irrigation land on the Darling Downs," said Cotton Australia General Manager, Michael Murray."Making Brisbane's waste water available for irrigation would be a significant boost to farmers on the Darling Downs and the communities they support, and we welcome this news whole-heartedly."The cotton industry has also welcomed the announcement of an additional $60 million in new funding for the Federal Government's mobile communications black spot programme.There are more than 6000 mobile black spots across regional communities. More than $160 million had already been committed to fix about half of those, with the additional funding bringing the total commitment to $220 million.Murray said that while the use of technology has made Australia's cotton industry the most efficient in the world, yielding more per hectare on average than any other country , the power of that technology has been throttled by poor communications in rural areas, making it difficult to adequately process the extremely valuable useful data this advanced machinery generates."We welcome the announcement of additional funding to fix these black spots, which is a significant step towards the creation of adequate telecommunications networks that will benefit agriculture," he said. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy.

Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy. From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in #

From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in 1992, the International Oeko-Tex Association has now, through the continuous further development and expansion of its portfolio, established itself as a full-service provider for independent certifications and services for greater sustainability along the textile value-creation chain.

Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy. From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in #

Oeko-Tex is now also taking account of this strategic change from niche provider for human-ecological product safety to a global system solution for brands, retailers and manufacturers with a new brand architecture. As part of the new brand strategy, the association's focus will be on the Oeko-Tex logo and the claim Confidence in Textiles, which over the past almost 25 years has become known across the industry, and has become an international synonym for effective consumer protection, responsible handling of chemicals and the use of environment-friendly production technologies and compliance with fair working conditions.

Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy. From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in #

The theme of sustainability has represented increasing challenges for our customers from industry and trade for years and they are looking for suitable solutions. With our product portfolio we are able to provide wide-ranging assistance for this, explains Oeko-Tex general secretary Georg Dieners.

Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy. From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in #

For its customers, the important thing is that Oeko-Tex is a reliable and competent partner. Therefore, in our future communication, the umbrella brand Oeko-Tex and our slogan Confidence in Textiles will be in the foreground. Our individual product modules, or rather the sufficiently known brands within the Oeko-Tex system, are arranged under the umbrella brand to strengthen this and meet the needs of our customers, summarizes Dieners.

Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy. From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in #

Oeko-Tex has already presented the new brand design during the market launch of the MySTeP database, the Made in Green product label and the Eco Passport certification for textile chemicals. Beginning in autumn 2016, the modernised appearance will also be used with the most well known Oeko-Tex brand, the Standard 100, and the STeP certification. At that point, the new Standard 100 product label and the refreshed STeP logo for B2B communication will also be available to more than 10,000 partner companies around the world.

Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy. From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in #

Also as part of these changes, the Oeko-Tex certification center in Frankfurt (Main) will cease operations on June 30th, and as an official Oeko-Tex member institute in Germany, the Hohenstein Textile Testing Institute GmbH & Co. KG will take on the laboratory tests as well as the issue of Standard 100 certificates. (RKS)

Global full-service provider for sustainable textiles, Oeko-Tex, has announced fresh design for Standard 100 and STeP by Oeko-Tex certification, and closure of Oeko-Tex certification centre in Germany, as part of its new brand strategy. From product certification in accordance with the Oeko-Tex Standard 100, which was first introduced in #

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Yay! B-town's bae Deepika Padukone is back in town and we are super happy! The moment, Deepika was spotted at the Mumbai airport, she was surrounded by media personnel and why wouldn't? After all she is every photographer's delight!

A few days ago, Deepika was in Budapest to shoot an item number for Homi Adajania's upcoming film, Raabta, which stars Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon in the lead roles.

Check Out Deepika's Stylish Airport Pictures Here:

Hotter Than The Hottest! Katrina Kaif's New Bikini Pictures From Vogue Photoshoot!

There is no denying that when it comes to airport styling, she truly knows how to nail it, and never fails to impress us with her unique yet droolworthy airport looks!

She was seen sporting a knee-length waistcoat, boots and black sunglasses. And the way she paired up her red lips with her black attire wasthe cherry on the cake.

Deepika's heartwarming smile was the best thing about her look. Unlike many other B-town actresses, Deepika really knows how to handle paparazzi and we just love it!

Latest: Sonakshi Sinha's Birthday Party Pictures; She Looks So Pretty!

Interestingly, a few days ago, Priyanka Chopra was in town after wrapping up the shooting of her upcoming Hollywood project, Baywatch.

Now, whether these Bollywood beauties will catch up with each other or not, time will tell. But we are really happy to see our favourite stars back to India after a long time.

On the work front, the Piku actress will be next seen in her upcoming Hollywood project, xXx: The Return Of The Xander cage. The film is already in tremendous buzz owing to the reason that for the first time, Deepika will be seen sharing screen space with the popular Hollywood actor Vin Diesel.
Shahrukh Khan and Gauri Khan's handsome son Aryan Khan recently graduated from the Sevenoaks school, in London. We all saw the pictures that the proud father Shahrukh posted from the graduation ceremony.

Now, Gauri Khan shared an adorable picture on her social networking handle saying, "Shopping#for#my#18#year#old ... Super#fun#day#selfridges.''



A few days back, it was reported that Aryan Khan would soon make his Bollywood debut with Gauri Khan's closest friend Karan Johar's film. But Aryan's superstar father Shahrukh Khan denied it in an interview to a daily and said, "He is very young right now. He needs to complete his studies first. Abhi usko padh lene toh do. After that, he will make his own career choices. As of now, there are no plans of him getting launched in the industry.''



Also Read: John Abraham Talks About His Fantastic Chemistry With Varun Dhawan

Shahrukh Khan, also revealed that more than his son, his daughter Suhana Khan is interested in joining Bollywood, "Aryan is not media friendly. He is extremely shy. But my daughter Suhana wants to become an actress someday.''

The Raees actor also said, ''She is very good in drama and she tells me, 'Papa I'll become an actress'. But I will never force her. Now she is busy finishing her studies and there's a long way to go. But I will be happy if any of my kids become an actor."

Well, we know Aryan Khan is already a star in the making and with his dashing looks he will rule the industry one day. Don't you think the same readers? Please tell us by commenting below.
Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif were in Morocco for the shooting of their upcoming film Jagga Jasoos. They are no longer together but their pair still looks the best.

We recently got a picture of Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif from the sets of Jagga Jasoos in which they are standing very close and are looking adorably cute. You can check out the picture by clicking on VIEW PHOTOS.

It has been reported that the actors do not talk to each other on the sets of the film, but they follow whatever director Anurag Basu tells them to do, and often help each other with their scenes.

Also Read: Rare Sighting: Gauri Khan Spotted Shopping With Her Handsome Son Aryan Khan

After finishing the Morocco schedule of Jagga Jasoos, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif flew to London but separately. Surprisingly, Ranbir attended the birthday party of Karan Johar in London but Katrina chose to give it a miss!

Ranbir Kapoor attended KJo's 44th b'day bash along with Ayan Mukerji, Sidharth Malhotra, Shahrukh Khan, Gauri Khan, Shweta Bachchan Nanda, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan.

A source revealed to a leading daily, "Kat felt it was better to skip the party altogether because she knew RK was going to be present and it would get awkward for her, and everyone else present because they are no longer on talking terms. Just last year, the couple had walked into Karan's birthday bash, hand-in-hand."

At Aarti Shetty's birthday bash a couple of months ago, Katrina Kaif tried to meet Ranbir Kapoor but he left her in tears and snubbed her publicly. And it seems like Katrina did not want to face the same situation again which could be why she missed KJo's Birthday.
We recently heard that renowned scriptwriter John Paul is making a comeback to films with Major Ravi's upcoming film which would have Mohanlal in the lead role.

John Paul, is one of the most versatile scriptwriters in the industry and his comeback is indeed a good sign for Malayalam cinema. Here, we list some of the best works of John Paul, so far.

Chamaram (1980) Chamaram directed by Bharathan had the script written by John Paul. The film went on to become a trendsetter, by narrating the story of an affair between a student and a lecturer. This was a path- breaking movie and won great applause. Yathra (1985) This definitely has to be one of the finest works of John Paul, so far. Yathra was a path-breaking movie and the film directed by Balu Mahendra gave Mammootty one of his finest roles in his initial days of film career. The film won both critical and commercial success. Palangal (1981) Palangal, which is best remembered for the amazing craftsmanship of director Bharathan, was written by John Paul. His amazing sense of characterisations can be noted through this movie. Oru Minnaaminunginte Nurunguvettam (1987) John Paul yet gain showed his mastery by scripting the heart-wrenching tale of an aged couple. This film directed by Bharathan went on win two Kerala State Film Awards. Vida Parayum Munpe (1981) This film is considered to be one of the best movies of Prem Nazir. The actor won the Special Jury Award at the Kerala State Film Awards. The film written by John Paul was directed by Mohan. Athirathram (1984) This film which narrated the story of a smuggler named Tharadas went on to be a huge success. Many don't know that this film directed by I V Sasi had its script written by John Paul.

John Paul has so far penned screenplays for nearly 100 movies and by all means we could call him a master writer.

His association with the renowned director Bharathan has given some evergreen classics to Malayalam cinema. The scripts written by John Paul has provided solid content for many of the Bharathan movies.

More importantly, what makes John Paul different from other writers, is his versatility. He has shown his skills in writing dramas, action thrillers and even comedies, with the same amount of perfection.

It is after a gap of 9 years that the writer is making a comeback to the film industry. His previous outing as a writer in films like Vellathooval directed by I V Sasi and Nammal Thammil directed by Viji Thampy, were unforgettable.

The upcoming Major Ravi movie is said to be a family drama. We hope that the master writer would make a thunderous comeback and would continue to amaze us with some fine works.
Nivin Pauly, the young actor, is known as a complete family man. He is a caring husband to wife Rinna Joy, and a doting father to their only son Daveed.

Daveed aka Dada, Nivin's little son, turns 4 today (June 2nd, 2016). The actor shared some super cute pictures of Daveed through his little son through his official Facebook page and wished him.

This time, Nivin and Rinna are celebrating their son's birthday in the most unique way. The couple chose to celebrate Dada's 4th birthday with about 350 cancer patients of Thrissur medical college, this year.

Nivin had arranged a special lunch for the patients and spend some time with them, in between the busy shooting schedule. Interestingly, the actor's mother also attended the celebrations, to the much surprise of his fans.

Along with Nivin Pauly's family, director Sidhartha Siva, cinematographer George C Williams, producer B Rakesh, actors Aishwarya Rajesh, Althaf, Gayathri Suresh, etc also attended the birthday celebrations.

He is currently filming for Sidhartha's upcoming movie, in the medical college. Nivin is busy with some promising projects in Tamil and Malayalam movie industries, including debutante Gautham's Tamil movie and Althaf's directorial debut.

Here we wish the little Dada a very happy birthday....
For a man who enjoys a massive fan base, it is not easy to bring smiles upon faces of each and every fan of his, when he is not performing on the silver screen. To be fair to Ilayathalapathy Vijay, it is almost impossible.

Yet, the Theri star makes sure to get in touch with his fans through various social media platforms like Twitter and so on. If need be, he even takes out time to personally meet some of his fans.

One such fan who got lucky recently was Jithin. A member of Vijay fans association at Kollam district in Kerala, Jithin, who is on the verge of losing his eyesight, got his wish fulfilled in Chennai.

According to a report, Jithin, after losing complete eyesight in one of his eyes, has already lost 75 percent of his ability to see in the second.

Being an ardent Vijay fan, Jithin had expressed his wish to see his favourite star before completely losing his eyesight.

When Vijay learned about this fan of his, he took a break from his busy schedule to fulfil Jithin's wish. Vijay even offered him monetary help, which he thought would help JIthin regain his eyesight, only to learn that doctors are yet to come up with a treatment for a case as peculiar as Jithin's.

Jithin will undergo an Ayurveda based treatment soon and that is said to be his last hope. Members of fans' association in Kerala have thanked their Tamil Nadu counterparts for helping Jithin realize his dream.

It was the members of Tamil Nadu fans' association who informed Vijay about Jithin and his wish. Yet again, a kind gesture from the star actor shows his love and compassion towards his fans.

Also Read: Vishal's 'Marudhu' Collects Big At The Tamil Nadu Box Office, Exceeds Expectations!
The much awaited audio launch of superstar Rajinikanth's upcoming film Kabali will most likely be held in Chennai on June 11, according to sources close to the project.

"June 11 has been locked as the date for the audio launch. By then, Rajinikanth sir should be back from his holiday in the US. The makers had earlier planned on June 9 but postponed it by two days to have it on a weekend," a source from the film's unit told IANS."

Earlier, it was speculated that the event might be organized in Malaysia, given Rajinikanth's huge fan base in the country and the fact that the film is set against the backdrop of Malaysia.

But sources have rubbished such claims and have confirmed that the starry affair will be held at the YMCA grounds in the city.

Kalaipuli S Thanu, the producer of Kabali had recently requested fans to stay calm and that the official announcement regarding his film will be made soon. Looks like the team has started off by giving away the date of the film's audio launch.

Directed by Pa Ranjith, Santhosh Narayanan has composed tunes for the much awaited flick. Kabali is expected to narrate the story of a gangster, in which Rajinikanth will be seen in two different get-ups.

Meanwhile, the movie itself is expected to hit the big screen on July 1st.

"The film was earlier slated to release in June. It has now been pushed to July 1. The makers had actually planned to release the film on July 7 but have advanced the release to avoid a clash with Salman Khan's 'Sultan'," a source from the film's unit had said.

Also starring Radhika Apte, Dinesh, Dhansikaa, Kishore, Kalaiyarasan and Taiwanese actor Winston Chao in key roles, Kabali will become the first Tamil movie to be dubbed in Malay language.

Also Read: PHOTOS: Ilayathalapathy Vijay's Surprise Birthday Gift To Sathish!
Some 30 people have been let go at Macquarie as the Australian bank retrenches from the region due to increased competition and lower trading volumes, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Matthew Smith left the bank this week as a China financials analyst in Shanghai after more than 13 years with the Sydney-based firm, joining a casualty list that stretches across Hong Kong, Japan, and India, the two people said.

Prior to his role in China, he covered banks, insurance companies, and brokerage firms in Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, according to his LinkedIn profile. Smith could not immediately be reached for comment through a Linkedin message.

Jeffrey Chung, Hong Kong-based head of sales for Asia cash equities, has also left the bank less than a year after he joined, the two people familiar with the matter said. He was previously a partner with RAYS Capital Partners, a Hong Kong-based fund management firm.

A Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Macquarie declined to comment on the redundancies.

Tougher times

One of the people familiar with the matter said the job cuts at Macquarie form part of a broader initiative to trim costs as tougher competition crimps revenues.

Macquarie has 3,599 employees in Asia who generated income of A$1.3 billion ($950 million) for the infrastructure fund and investment bank in the year to March 31, according to its latest presentation to investors.

But it is not alone in seeking to trim costs in Asia as it tries to weather a slump in trading and deal-making.

In April, Nomura cut around 30 jobs in its Asia ex-Japan equities business as the Japanese bank scaled back its overseas operations after years of losses.

Barclays pulled out of the Asian cash equities business in January while Standard Chartered decided last year to shut down its loss-making global equities businesses, resulting in about 200 job cuts.

There is also widespread speculation in the market that more investment banks will probably be forced to deepen their cost cuts and reallocate resources to growth markets such as Chinese domestic markets.

Amid these tougher conditions, a handful of senior bankers are switching their focus from deal-making to capital management.

Dominique Jooris left Goldman Sachs in April, where he was the Hong Kong-based head of credit capital markets for Asia ex-Japan. Jooris will head Pictet Group's private banking arm in Singapore effective from July 11, the Swiss firm said in a statement on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, William Fung, a former UBS debt syndicate banker, joined Hong Kong-based financial firm AMTD as a fund manager in March.
OAKVILLE, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 09/22/16 -- Giyani Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE: WDG) (JSE: GIY) ("Giyani") announces the results from its annual general and special meeting of shareholders held in Toronto on September 21, 2016 (the "Meeting").

Election of Directors

At the Meeting, shareholders elected the following to the Giyani Board of Directors: Duane Parnham, Scott Breard, John Petersen, and Eugene Lee.

Appointment of Auditor

At the Meeting, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, were re-appointed as auditors of Giyani for the ensuing year and the Board of Directors have been authorized to fix their remuneration.

Approval of Stock Option Plan

Annual ratification of the Giyani rolling Stock Option Plan was also approved by shareholders at the Meeting.

In accordance with National Instrument 51-102, a report of the voting results for each resolution presented at the Meeting will be filed and available under Giyani's profile on www.sedar.com.

Giyani also sold 2,910,000 common shares of Canoe Mining Ventures to an insider for proceeds of $87,000.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Giyani,

Duane Parnham, Executive Chairman

Contacts:

Scott Breard

289 837 0066

info@giyanigold.com






BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - SoftBank Group Corp. (SFTBF.PK) announced that it has priced a series of capital raising transactions including an additional sale which involve monetizing a portion of its shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) for $8.9 billion in aggregate, announced in its press release of June 1, 2016, entitled 'SoftBank Announces a Minimum $7.9 Billion Monetization of its Alibaba Stake in Coordination with Alibaba Group'.



Specifically, the Mandatory Exchangeable Trust, a newly formed trust, has priced the offering of its mandatory exchangeable trust securities exchangeable into American depositary shares or 'ADSs' of Alibaba in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers for an aggregate purchase price of $5.5 billion. The Trust granted the initial purchasers of the Trust Securities an option to purchase up to an additional $1.1 billion aggregate purchase price of its Trust Securities.



SoftBank Group concurrently entered into a series of transactions (through a wholly owned subsidiary) comprising of the sale of $2.0 billion of Alibaba ordinary shares to Alibaba, the sale of $400 million of Alibaba ordinary shares to members of the Alibaba Partnership, acting collectively, and the sale of $500 million of Alibaba ordinary shares to GIC Private Limited pursuant to an exemption from registration under the U.S. Securities Act. The shares would be eligible for resale under Rule 144 following a 6-month holding period.



In addition to the previously announced transactions, SBG has subsequently also entered into a sale of $500 million of Alibaba ordinary shares to Aranda Investments Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings Private Limited pursuant to the same exemption from registration.



Following completion of the transactions, SBG will continue to hold approximately 28% of Alibaba's total outstanding shares. The net proceeds of WRH LLC through the issuance of Trust Securities excluding amounts in respect of the Trust's expenses and amounts used to purchase U.S. Treasury securities are approximately $4.4 billion.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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Large and expanding pipeline of UK opportunity to be led by two industry experts with strong experience from stints at large wireless and IT organisations

Australian ASX-listed data services start-up, Skyfii (ASX:SKF), has launched operations in the United Kingdom to meet strong market demand for data-driven analytics from bricks-and-mortar venues and businesses.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601007100/en/

Wayne Arthur, CEO at Skyfii (Photo: Business Wire)

Founded in 2012, Skyfii's software allows retail centres, hospitality venues, campuses, hospitals and other large public venues to monitor mobile devices throughout their premises and then track those devices around the complex identifying, for example, high-traffic areas. By providing opt-in Wi-Fi to visitors, the cloud-based solution also offers additional sales and marketing capabilities for venues by gathering information that can be shared with commercial tenants or departments.

Skyfii's customers include The GPT Group, Mirvac Group, Blackstone and Jen Properties.

The company's launch into the UK coincides with its expansion into the United States through the opening of an office Dallas, Texas.

"As in our other markets, bricks and mortar venues in the UK understand that data is not just useful to online business but has become a critical component of their own revenue-generating and promotional strategies," said Wayne Arthur, Chief Executive Officer at Skyfii.

"Whether they operate shopping malls, airports, hospitals, stadia, universities or even restaurants and bars, these companies want to learn more about their visitors. These insights can be used to monitor the asset performance in order to provide specialised and targeted digital marketing for themselves or their commercial tenants to generate greater value, and in turn, boost brands."

Skyfii has made two senior executive appointments to manage the new office located London, England. Michael Owen joined the company as Director of Technical Operations, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), while Andrew Clark is Sales and Alliances Director, EMEA. Owen and Clark are charged with heading sales, go-to-market and channel sales operations.

"Michael and Andrew are industry veterans who have held senior leadership roles at some of the wireless and IT industry's largest organisations," said Arthur. "With their extensive experience in helping organisations adapt to the digital, cloud and application-driven world, UK venues will be able to capitalise on the opportunity of smart marketing by better understanding the needs of the consumers visiting their facilities."

Owen joins Skyfii from Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, where he was Channel and Pre-Sales Manager for its UK and Ireland operations. In this role, he led a team of experienced engineers with responsibility for the enablement of distributors and partners. Before Aruba, Owen held leadership roles at Lifesize and BT.

Clark comes to Skyfii with 20 years' channel management experience, having held senior roles at Computerlinks, Nokia Security and Check Point Software before moving to lead Aruba's partner business in the UK and Ireland as Channel Director.

About Skyfii

Advancements in cloud, mobile technology and Wi-Fi systems have enabled bricks-and-mortar venues to become more competitive by better understanding the needs of their diverse types of visitors. Today, every smartphone is a chatterbox of information. The cloud-based Skyfii platform uses existing Wi-Fi infrastructure, BLE beacon networks, door-to-people counters, video sources, web and social platforms to allow various types of venues to not only analyse behaviour of anonymous visitors, but also capture data from those who opt-in to free Internet connectivity. In doing so, it converts the data into a critical sales and marketing tool that allows venues and their commercial tenants to deliver content that is catered to each visitor's needs and interests. For more information visit www.skyfii.io.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601007100/en/

Contacts:

For Skyfii

Watterson Marketing Communications

Nermin Bajric, +61299297533

nermin.bajric@watterson.com.au
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - Finance and technology expert Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki recently praised Chile for the emphasis it has been placing on solar energy. The South American nation has become the region's leader in solar PV (photovoltaic cells) power, and as the need for renewable sources increases, Chile has provided an example of how to successfully move in the direction of sustainable energy use.

At the beginning of 2016, Chile became the first country in the region to reach one gigawatt of installed solar PV -- a considerable capacity for production of electricity through environmental power. Many additional projects are currently under construction, and a host of others have either received approval or are being considered. With the programs in progress expected to go online between now and the end of 2017, Chile is poised to become a major player in producing electricity from sustainable elements.

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki addressed the fact that with the considerable capacity for solar PV-produced electricity Chile is committing to, the country will be able to export power to adjacent countries in addition to using it locally. A transmission line to Argentina, which has been inactive for many years, was recently reactivated for this very purpose. The Chilean government has embraced this move, with their energy minister suggesting the export of solar energy could be considered one of North Chile's main industries. "With this type of governmental support," Witwicki said, "it is clear Chile is committed to its contributions of sustainable energy." Within the country itself, solar electricity will be consumed in a number of ways. It will be sold immediately on the public market and in electricity distribution company auctions as well as being provided to mining companies through contracts. Many of these companies are multi-national corporations, which will provide an influx of valuable foreign exchange that strengthens the economy. With so many options for the sale of solar energy, the list of projects continues to grow, and with it, employment opportunities both in the construction phase and the ongoing need for permanent personnel. "With plans like those by Andes Green Energy representing an investment of US $11 billion," Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki concluded, "Chile's dedication to solar energy is an example for the rest of the world."

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki is a leader and driving force within Central and South America's technology and finance industries. Based in Mexico City, Mexico, he is the director of the investment banking firm Simple Trading Corporation and the manager and private advisor to telemarketing company Strelaline, S.A. DE C.V. Witwicki is actively involved in volunteer activities focusing on business education such as the DESEM Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs. He also supports ONG "Manitos Unidas", a non-governmental organization that focuses on the promotion, aid, and development of the Third World countries.

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki - Financial and Technology Expert: http://www.JulioCesarDiazWitwickiNews.com

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki -- Chilean Economy Exceeds Experts' Forecast: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/julio-cesar-diaz-witwicki-chilean-034658856.html

Julio Cesar Diaz Witwicki - LinkedIn: https://uy.linkedin.com/in/julio-cesar-diaz-witwicki-53633b116

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DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - Leading currency exchange broker Your Trade Choice provides unique tools and resources for training new investors in the unpredictable and lucrative Forex market. The firm's focus on educating and supporting clients in this global market enhances the skills of even the most seasoned investor. Beginning traders benefit from the personal advice given through step-by-step direction on each transaction, enabling them to experience profitable exchanges early in their career.

Your Trade Choice offers a wide array of educational tools and ongoing support through their 24-hour access to an account executive and individual consultations. Forex education is at the heart of the firm's vision to be more than just a broker service. Your Trade Choice provides detailed guidance, specialized reports for thorough analysis of every transaction, and expert advice through webinars and instructional materials. The company's professionals study the markets and the economic developments that influence trading to bring up to date advice to the clients. Your Trade Choice also runs a demo account to acclimate customers to the platform and allow them the opportunity to practice new strategies without using real funds. Clients of every level will see the difference as new investors enter the market with more confidence in their abilities and knowledge and seasoned traders develop new skills to increase their earnings.

The ability to build wealth quickly is what entices many to the Forex market over traditional investments. With more than $4 trillion of currency moved every day and the ability to use leverage to increase earnings with a minimal investment, traders are willing to take on calculated risk for the prospect of great rewards. Your Trade Choice has developed a precise approach to reduce the level of risk without affecting the level of returns for its clients. While many brokerages do not focus on education, Your Trade Choice offers a wealth of tools to enhance learning. Providing specialized services that go beyond the typical broker firm is what makes Your Trade Choice unique. These resources are available for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of the Forex market and how to become successful in the industry.

Your Trade Choice offers a state of the art MT4 platform with 24-hour assistance in the client's native language for a premiere trading experience. Based in New Zealand, the firm is a leading expert in the financial services industry, enabling clients to trade in the Forex and Contracts For Difference (CFD) markets. Your Trade Choice works with both private clients and institutions, providing analysts and advisors who are trained and equipped to assist with the most accurate and credible advice to all of its global clientele.

Your Trade Choice -- Leading Provider of Forex & CFD Trading: http://yourtradechoicenews.com

Your Trade Choice -- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Yourtradechoice

Your Trade Choice -- Offers Advice for Beginner Forex Traders: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-trade-choice----offers-advice-for-beginner-forex-traders-2016-05-26-0160017

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Contact Information

ControlPROnline.com

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www.ControlPROnline.com
BINGHAMTON, NY--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - Expert brain and spine neurosurgeon Dr. Saeed Bajwa has recently been named Director of Neurosciences at United Health Services Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, New York. A dedicated and acclaimed surgeon, Dr. Bajwa has used his vast firsthand knowledge to treat neurological conditions for decades while utilizing his commitment to serve non-profit groups. As the Director of Neurosurgery since 1995 at Southern New York NeuroSurgical Group P.C., his significant contributions in research and experience in neurosurgery and neurology have improved the quality of life for countless patients suffering from brain and spinal injuries in Southern New York. In addition, Dr. Bajwa has used his success for philanthropic purposes for many years, and continues to do so. He brings his extensive knowledge, cutting-edge treatments, and compassionate insight to this distinguished position.

In January of 2016, Southern NY NeuroSurgical Group, headed by Dr. Bajwa, joined United Heath Services Medical Group, a multi-specialty group comprised of more than 250 physicians, based in Johnson City, and covering eight counties in the southern tier of New York. As Director of Neurosciences, Dr. Saeed Bajwa will be involved in marketing, enhancing patient care, and developing clinical research as well as coordinating and planning the expansion of services such as neuro-radiology, pain management, stroke care, neuro-intensive care service, and endovascular neurology.

United Health Services (UHS), a prominent leader in the treatment of brain and spinal disorders for more than five decades, treats patients with neurological conditions all across the globe. Ranked as one of the top neurosurgical centers in New York, UHS is a not-for-profit health care system comprised of five general hospitals. Dr. Bajwa will be working closely with the qualified staff at UHS Wilson Medical Center to provide comprehensive care to patients with spinal cord and brain injuries, seizure disorders, and other neurological conditions.

A contributor to the medical world for 30 years, Dr. Bajwa began his journey to helping others in his homeland of Pakistan, where he attended Nishtar Medical College of the University of Punjab. He pursued his career in neurosurgery after spending several years as a lecturer of Forensic Medicine and Pathology at King Edward Medical College in Lahore. After the devastating earthquake in Pakistan in 2005, Dr. Bajwa took part in treating the injured, broadening his experience and philanthropic efforts. He was recently awarded the ICNA Relief USA Award of Appreciation for his dedicated work with committee and community services. A respected professor in Neurosurgery, Dr. Bajwa received the Distinguished Teaching Award from the SUNY Health Science Center.

Currently as Chairman at the Section of Neurosurgery at Lourdes Hospital as well as Wilson Hospital, and a dedicated member of the New York Medical Society, Dr. Saeed Bajwa shares his knowledge with other medical professionals. He was involved in clinical research in CyberKnife for the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia and he assisted in the development of the first CyberKnife Radiosurgery Center in New York state and also later on in Karachi, Pakistan. His expertise and activity in community philanthropy have made Dr. Bajwa one of the most sought-after neurosurgeons in New York.

Dr. Saeed Bajwa -- Expert Brain and Spine Neurosurgeon: http://drsaeedbajwanews.com

Dr. Saeed Bajwa -- Named One of The Leading Physicians of the World: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dr-saeed-bajwa-named-one-050001556.html

Dr. Saeed Bajwa -- Receives ICNA Relief USA Award of Appreciation: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dr-saeed-bajwa-receives-icna-034238561.html

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NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - June 01, 2016) - Leading public relations and reputation management firm, ICMediaDirect has underlined the importance of building a successful online brand for businesses and individuals. Online reputation management is increasingly vital in the 21 st Century as more companies understand the importance of focusing on their digital footprint. Rising above the competition is challenging, especially with the quick pace at which technology changes -- and the pressure on businesses to keep up. See your Online Reputation Report now, by visiting http://www.icmediadirect.com

Optimizing SEO is more fundamental now than it was towards the end of the 20th century, not long after Google launched. Ensuring positive content is in the number one spot is imperative, since 33 percent of people always click on the search engine's top result after inputting a word or term. ICMediaDirect emphasizes that businesses and individuals should adapt to new ways of controlling their online reputation through a smart content management plan. In comparison to SEO, content marketing is a relatively new technique, but is also key for companies hoping to create a positive image. It allows firms to take full control of their branding by formulating a distinctive voice and a clear message through content -- whether on websites, blogs, or social media platforms -- while also promoting their products or services. Trust is key for attracting consumers, and content marketing cultivates a brand that seems reliable and likable while also boosting sales.

ICMediaDirect experts advise companies to choose wisely when it comes to connecting with their target customers, with a consistently multiplying array of social media channels to choose from. Teens are moving from sites like Facebook, for example, in favor of newer options like Snapchat and Instagram. With live-streaming apps set to excel in 2016, digital natives are migrating to Periscope in striking numbers. With two decades of experience providing companies with the tools to achieve success, ICMediaDirect has in-house staff trained in the latest technological and media advances to provide forward-thinking strategies for brands to utilize in the most effective manner.

Founded in 1996, ICMediaDirect is a full-service reputation management, marketing and public relations company. With offices in New York and Washington DC, the firm operates globally, serving a range of clients. Experts in formulating campaigns and navigating SEO, the company has generated effective online reputation management strategies for countless clients, including Olympic athletes, celebrities, politicians and Fortune 500 companies. A leading force within the industry, ICMediaDirect is an award-winning firm and has been recognized repeatedly by the Small Business Institute for Excellence in Commerce. To see your Online Reputation Report, visit http://www.icmediadirect.com

ICMediaDirect -- PR and Marketing News: http://icmediadirectnews.com

Reputation-Control.com -- 100% Reputation Control: http://www.reputation-control.com

ICMediaDirect.com -- Reputation Management -- IC Media Direct to Attend New York ad:tech 2016: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/icmediadirect-com-reputation-management-ic-041656580.html

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Results of the LOCATION study demonstrate the functionality of CER-001 and are reassuring prior to the publication of the study CARAT, planned for first quarter of 2017

Regulatory News:

Cerenis Therapeutics (Paris:CEREN) (FR0012616852 CEREN), an international biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative HDL therapies ("good cholesterol") for treating cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, today announces the publication of the LOCATION clinical study results in the internationally peer-reviewed journal ATHEROSCLEROSIS (Click here to access the abstract), the reference publication of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS).

Dr. Jean-Louis Dasseux, Founder and CEO of Cerenis Therapeutics declared: "Results of the LOCATION study offer a valuable validation of the functionality of CER-001, demonstrating the mimetic's capacity to penetrate the vessel walls, to preferentially target atherosclerotic plaques and to increase cholesterol efflux capacity. Indeed, these outcomes are of major scientific importance, as proved by their publication in the world-renowned scientific journal ATHEROSCLEROSIS. Additionally, they are particularly reassuring prior to the publication of the CARAT study results, planned for first quarter of 2017, as the targeting of atherosclerotic plaques was observed at the dose of 3 mg/kg, dose used in this phase II clinical study in post-ACS patients which intends to demonstrate plaque regression

Professor Erik Stroes, Principal Investigator of the LOCATION study commented: The LOCATION study confirms for the first time the targeting of atherosclerotic plaques by apoA-I containing HDL mimetics in humans, an effect only previously observed in experimental models of atherosclerotic disease. Our results are also consistent with the observed reduction in atherosclerosis shown in patients with HDL deficiencies, in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemia, and in post-ACS patients. Our data support the concept that CER-001 targets plaque regions in patients, which correlates with plaque contrast enhancement. These clinical findings are supportive of the ongoing CARAT and TANGO studies and may also guide future nanomedicine development using HDL particles for drug delivery in atherosclerosis".

The LOCATION study, whose positive results were announced in July 2015, allowed to assess the selectivity of CER-001, an HDL mimetic made of recombinant human apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) and phospholipids, for carotid plaques in patients with advanced atherosclerotic disease. LOCATION provided the first evidence of CER-001 selective targeting of atherosclerotic plaques in patients, and of the role of plaque permeability in plaque penetration by an HDL mimetic. The study evaluated 8 patients with >50% atherosclerotic stenosis of the carotid artery who received an infusion of CER-001 (3 mg/kg body weight) labeled with Zirconium-89, a tracer suited for PET/CT imaging, to determine the extent to which CER-001 targets and penetrates atherosclerotic plaques and the effect on cholesterol efflux, a marker which is inversely related to the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events1

The results of the LOCATION study are consistent with the findings of the CER-001 pre-clinical and clinical programs to date, which have shown that CER-001 effectively mobilises cholesterol and regress atherosclerosis. The findings of this study validate plaques targeting with CER-001 at the dose being investigated in the planned CARAT study (NCT02484378), a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase II study assessing the effect of CER-001 on atherosclerosis regression in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS).

The press release on results of the LOCATION study is available on Cerenis' website in the section Media/Press releases. Click here to access.

Reference

1. Rohatgi A, Khera A, Berry JD, Givens EG, Ayers CR, Wedin KE, Neeland IJ, Yuhanna IS, Rader DR, de Lemos JA, Shaul PW. HDL Cholesterol Efflux Capacity and Incident Cardiovascular Events. N Engl J Med. 2014;371(25):141118051511004.

Upcoming events

Investor and scientific forum:

Jefferies Global Healthcare

Conference

June 7-10, 2016 Outstanding conference on HDL

therapy in Toulouse, France

June 10, 2016 Kepler Cheuvreux Biotech Days

June 15-16, 2016

Financial agenda:

Shareholders' meeting

June 10, 2016 Revenue for the 1st half of 2016

July 28, 2016 2016 half-year results

September 5, 2016

About Cerenis Therapeutics: www.cerenis.com

Cerenis Therapeutics is an international biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of innovative HDL therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. HDL is the primary mediator of the reverse lipid transport, or RLT, the only natural pathway by which excess cholesterol is removed from arteries and is transported to the liver for elimination from the body.

Cerenis is developing a portfolio of HDL therapies, including HDL mimetics for the rapid regression of atherosclerotic plaque in high-risk patients such as post-ACS patients and patients with HDL deficiency, and drugs which increase HDL for patients with low number of HDL particles to treat atherosclerosis and associated metabolic diseases.

Cerenis is well positioned to become one of the leaders in the HDL therapeutic market, with a broad portfolio of programs being developed.

Since its inception in 2005, the company has been funded by top tier investors: Sofinnova Partners, HealthCap, Alta Partners, EDF Ventures, Daiwa Corporate Investment, TVM Capital, Orbimed, IRDI/IXO Private Equity and Bpifrance (Fund for Strategic Investment) and last March successfully completed an IPO on Euronext raising 53.4m.

About CER-001:

CER-001 is an engineered complex of recombinant human apoA-I, the major structural protein of HDL, and phospholipids. It has been designed to mimic the structure and function of natural, nascent HDL, also known as pre-beta HDL. Its mechanism of action is to increase apoA-I and the number of HDL particles transiently, to stimulate the removal of excess cholesterol and other lipids from tissues including the arterial wall and to transport them to the liver for elimination through a process called Reverse Lipid Transport. Previous Phase II studies have provided important data demonstrating the efficacy of CER-001 in regressing atherosclerosis in several distinct vascular beds in patients representing the entire spectrum of cholesterol homeostasis. The totality of the data to date indicates that CER-001 performs all of the functions of natural pre-beta HDL particles and has the potential to be the best-in-class HDL mimetic in the market.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601007069/en/

Contacts:

Cerenis

Jean-Louis Dasseux, +33 (0)5 62 24 09 49

CEO

info@cerenis.com

or

NewCap

Investors relations

Emmanuel Huynh Louis-Victor Delouvrier, +33 (0)1 44 71 98 53

cerenis@newcap.eu

or

NewCap

Media relations

Nicolas Merigeau, +33 (0)1 44 71 94 98

cerenis@newcap.eu
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Cabinet office is slated to release the Japan consumer confidence index for May at 1:00 am ET Thursday. The index is seen at 40.1, compared to 40.8 in April. Ahead of the data, the yen held steady against its major rivals. As of 12:55 am ET, the yen was trading at 122.31 against the euro, 157.66 against the pound, 110.54 against the Swiss franc and 109.16 against the U.S. dollar. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Irish Continental Group PLC takes delivery 'Westpac Express'. Irish Continental Group PLC ('ICG') is pleased to announce that, further to the announcement issued on 15 April 2016, it took delivery of the High Speed Craft 'Westpac Express' from BALI Westpac 2006, LLC on 1 June 2016. The Vessel has been onward delivered by ICG to Sealift LLC who has in turn chartered the Vessel to Military Sealift Command, a U.S government organisation. The charter is subject to usual US government procurement regulations and is fixed for a firm 4 month period to 30 September, with charterer's options to extend the charter period to a maximum of 59 months in total. The vessel was built in 2001 by Austal Ships, Australia. It has a gross tonnage of 8,403 tonne, passenger capacity of 900 and a car carrying capacity of 182 units. END 2 June 2016 Enquiries: Eamonn Rothwell Chief Executive Officer +353 1 607 5628 David Ledwidge Chief Financial Officer +353 1 607 5628 This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein. Source: Irish Continental Group plc via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2017373] BLP59W1R402 Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Taxi service provider Uber Technologies Inc., which is thriving for a global reach, attracted a record $3.5 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. For Uber, the deal is its biggest cash investment from a single investor.



The most valuable startup in the world, with a valuation of $62.5 billion, expects the investment would help it to expand in the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, 80 percent of Uber users are women, who are not allowed to drive a car. This will help the company in attracting more women to use its cab services.



With the investment, Public Investment Fund managing director Yasir Al Rumayyan will take a seat on Uber's board.



Uber in November last year had announced that it was planing to invest $250 million in the Middle East and North Africa, where it has been expanding aggressively.



The sovereign Fund was set up by Saudi Arabia to develop the country and invest the revenues from its vast oil reserves. The latest move is seen as Saudi Arabia's effort to reduce its dependence on oil and also to improve employment.



Travis Kalanick, one of Uber's founders and its chief executive, said in a statement, 'We appreciate the vote of confidence in our business as we continue to expand our global presence. Our experience in Saudi Arabia is a great example of how Uber can benefit riders, drivers and cities and we look forward to partnering to support their economic and social reforms.'



Since starting up, Uber has collected more than $11 billion from investors, including BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Other sovereign wealth funds including that of Qatar have also invested in the company.



Uber's Chinese rival Didi Chuxing recently bagged a $1 billion investment from Apple. In March, General Motors had made a $500 million investment in Uber's US rival Lyft for developing an on-demand network of self-driving cars.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
Sensor technology from Dyna Image joint venture creates high growth opportunity in USD 8.14 Billion emerging smart lighting market*

Dialog Semiconductor plc (FWB:DLG), a provider of highly integrated power management, AC/DC power conversion, solid state lighting (SSL) and Bluetooth(R) low energy technology, today announced the addition of ambient light and color sensor controls to its smart lighting platform of advanced LED drivers and Bluetooth controllers. This represents another significant milestone in the recently announced joint venture with Dyna Image as both companies continue to combine their core technologies to provide complete platform solutions.

In recent months, Dialog and Dyna Image successfully collaborated on a wearable reference design integrating Dyna Image's all-in-one optical heart rate monitor and MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) accelerometer sensors with Dialog's SmartBond DA14580 Bluetooth(R) System-on-Chip (SoC)and sensor fusion software to provide a complete turn-key reference design for wearable fitness bands. Now, just a few months later, the two companies have brought their proven technologies in SSL and optical sensing together to deliver cost and performance optimized sensor-based control to LED lighting systems.

Integrating color sensing with Dialog's tuneable-white driver allows lamps to automatically change their color temperature from cold (blue-white) to warm (amber) in tune with the ambient environment. One application is auto- tuning lamps, which work together with other lamps to provide a more consistent, pleasant light experience. This sensing feature also facilitates automatic compensation for normal variations in color temperature between LED light fixtures. Other applications include the ability to sense color temperature outdoors and replicate it indoors. This creates a natural light experience to help stimulate the human body's circadian rhythm, which is claimed to produce significant health and wellbeing benefits.

Dialog is already a leading supplier of driver integrated circuits in SSL. In smart lighting, its partnership with Dyna Image significantly increases the company's share of the bill-of-materials (BOM) in lighting fixtures: wireless Bluetooth control, optical sensor control, and advanced digital and TRIAC dimming drivers.

"As the SSL market goes mainstream with 60 watt equivalent lamps using Dialog drivers retailing at mass market prices, the lighting industry is looking for creative ways to add value and differentiate its products," said Mark Tyndall, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Dialog. "Smart lighting is an emerging market where we see significant product innovation and huge growth opportunity. Adding Dyna Image's optical sensors to Dialog's smart lighting platform enables our customers to quickly deploy world-leading lighting products into this fast growing market."

"Twelve months into our joint venture, we are excited to be leveraging our combined technology portfolio moving us beyond sensor component level to supplying customers with complete value-added system solutions," commented Sean Li, CEO of Dyna Image. Smart lighting adds significant complexity to a typical lamp design, making sense for the core technology vendors to optimize designs, providing customers with cost-effective faster time-to-market solutions."

Optical sensing on Dialog's smart lighting platform will be demonstrated at Computex Taipei, being held from May 31 June 04, 2016 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center in Taipei, Taiwan.

ENDS

*According to analyst Markets And Markets, the smart lighting market is expected to grow to USD 8.14 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 22.07% between 2015 and 2020.

Dialog, the Dialog logo, and SmartBond are trademarks of Dialog Semiconductor plc or its subsidiaries. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. (c) Copyright 2016 Dialog Semiconductor All rights reserved.

About Dialog Semiconductor

Dialog Semiconductor provides highly integrated standard (ASSP) and custom (ASIC) mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs), optimized for smartphone, computing, IoT, LED Solid State Lighting (SSL) and smart home applications. Dialog brings decades of experience to the rapid development of ICs while providing flexible and dynamic support, world-class innovation and the assurance of dealing with an established business partner. With world-class manufacturing partners, Dialog operates a fabless business model and is a socially responsible employer pursuing many programs to benefit the employees, community, other stakeholders and the environment we operate in.

Dialog's power saving technologies including DC-DC configurable system power management deliver high efficiency and enhance the consumer's user experience by extending battery lifetime and enabling faster charging of their portable devices. Its technology portfolio also includes audio, Bluetooth(R) low energy, Rapid Charge AC/DC power conversion and multi- touch.

Dialog Semiconductor plc is headquartered in London with a global sales, R&D and marketing organization. In 2015, it had approximately $1.35 billion in revenue and was one of the fastest growing European public semiconductor companies. It currently has approximately 1,660 employees worldwide. The company is listed on the Frankfurt (FWB: DLG) stock exchange (Regulated Market, Prime Standard, ISIN GB0059822006) and is a member of the German TecDax index.

About Dyna Image

Dyna Image (DI) is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and markets an innovative range of optical sensors, inertia sensors and integrated, multi-function sensors for consumer market applications. The company, a subsidiary of Lite-On Semiconductor and a member of the Lite-On Group, has support locations in Taiwan, China and Korea. Its product development is focused on sensor solutions for mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, wearables and other IoT applications the fastest growing consumer electronics sectors. More information: www.dyna-image.com.

Additional features:

Picture: http://newsfeed2.eqs.com/dialog-semiconductor/467255.html Subtitle: Sensor technology from Dyna Image joint venture creates high growth opportunity in USD 8.14 Billion emerging smart lighting market

Language: English Company: Dialog Semiconductor Plc. Tower Bridge House, St. Katharine's Way E1W 1AA London United Kingdom Phone: +49 7021 805-412 Fax: +49 7021 805-200 E-mail: jose.cano@diasemi.com, lauren.ofstedahl@diasemi.com Internet: www.dialog-semiconductor.com ISIN: GB0059822006, XS0757015606 WKN: 927200 Indices: TecDAX Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart; Terminborse EUREX; Luxemburg

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160601007118/en/

Contacts:

Dialog Semiconductor

Lauren Ofstedahl

Phone: +1 (408) 845 8518

lauren.ofstedahl@diasemi.com

Web: www.dialog-semiconductor.com

Twitter: @DialogSemi
Tallinn, 2016-06-02 08:50 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AS Tallink Grupp employee option program



On 8 February 2011, the annual general meeting of AS Tallink Grupp approved the terms of employee share option program that allowed issuing options for up to 15 million shares until 31 August 2013. In accordance with the program the Group issued options during the 2011 and 2012 financial years. At 31 December 2015, the Group had outstanding 7,276,903 share options. Each option gives the right to purchase one share in AS Tallink Grupp. In the case the new shares are issued the exercise price is EUR 0.858 and in case the shares are purchased from the market the exercise price is the average of the acquisition cost. Pursuant to the terms of the option program, the Supervisory Board of AS Tallink Grupp has the right to decide the method of fulfilment of the options. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the options the options are exercisable between 21 December 2015 and 21 June 2016.



Considering that the forthcoming annual general meeting of shareholders of AS Tallink Grupp to be held on 14 June 2016 is expected to adopt a resolution to decrease the share capital of AS Tallink Grupp, the Management Board considers fulfilling of the option agreements by issuing new shares or purchasing them from the market during the long-term process of reduction of share capital impractical due to legal and economic considerations.



Therefore, the Supervisory Board of AS Tallink Grupp has decided to not issue new shares or purchase them from the market for the fulfilment of the option agreements. The Supervisory Board has authorized the Management Board to pay option holders compensation of 0.15 Euros for each share option in cash for the performance of option agreements.



Veiko Haavapuu Finance Director



AS Tallink Grupp Sadama 5/7, 10111 Tallinn Tel. +372 640 9914 E-mail veiko.haavapuu@tallink.ee

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DUSSELDORF, Germany, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- PHNIX, a leading manufacturer of printing dryers in China, appears at Drupa 2016 with its series of PHNIX Hot Air Printing Dryer.

The PHNIX Hot Air Printing Dryer is a typical product which has proven to be a comprehensive energy-saving solution specifically designed for flexible packaging. The hot air dryer adopts a unique heat reclaim technology, which effectively makes full use of the waste heat as part of its drying process. Compared with the traditional boiler and electric heater drying system, PHNIX Hot Air Printing Dryer can reduce users' energy costs by 70%.

Intelligent central controller, as another highlight of PHNIX Hot Air Printing Dryer, is able to check and control the parameters of more than 12 units. Checking running parameters, adjusting air pressure, alarming failure and auto power off protection are easily realized for users thanks to this technology. In addition, the inlet air has to pass through double filter nets before entering the heating and drying circulation. Because of this, only clean air is used in the drying process so as to ensure high quality products.

PHNIX printing dryers have many installation and application sample projects in China, India and other countries in Southeast Asia.

"By debuting at the Drupa trade fair, PHNIX printing dryers take an important first step to seek for more access to high-end cooperation in Europe," said Will Yi, PHNIX senior executive who attended the fair.

About PHNIX

PHNIX, one of the largest manufacturers of heat pumps in China, is an international enterprise specialized in R&D and production of heat pump products and energy-saving solutions. More than 60% of PHNIX products are exported to Europe, United States and other overseas markets. Headquartered in Guangzhou, China, PHNIX has been named as China High-quality Brand and Guangzhou High-tech Enterprise. For more information about PHNIX and its products, please visit www.phnix-e.com.

About Drupa

Drupa, the largest printing equipment exhibition in the world, kicks off a new strategic focus, improved scheduling over eleven days with a new look and greater frequency running every three years. Under the motto "touch the future", Drupa places the industry's innovative power on center stage and provides a platform for future technologies. The focus is especially on next-generation and highlight themes such as print, packaging production, multichannel, 3D printing, functional printing and green printing.

John Zhu

+86-20-3906-7742

john_zhu@phnix.com
Sign, Graphics and Visual Communications Franchisor Continues Expansion and Plans to Open Another 45 to 50 Locations in 2016

CARROLLTON, Texas, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- FASTSIGNS International, Inc., franchisor of FASTSIGNS, the leading sign, graphics and visual communications franchise,announced today that it has signed 12 franchise agreements with new franchisees who will open new centers across the country. They also celebrated the milestone of opening the first ever Co-Brand centre in the United Kingdom.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160216/333668LOGO

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. currently has franchised locations in over 600 locations in nine countries worldwide with plans to open 45 to 50 additional locations by year end. Markets with planned FASTSIGNS center openings include Chicagoland, the Pacific Northwest, Tampa Bay, Central Texas and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

"Over the last six months, we have experienced tremendous growth including introducing 12 new franchisees into our growing system across the U.S and Canada-all of whom will provide a 'More Than' experience for customers," said Mark Jameson, EVP of Franchise Support and Development, FASTSIGNS International, Inc. "The opening of FASTSIGNS Oxford North, our first UK Co-Brand centre, helps us lay the foundation to take the successful North American Co-Brand concept to international markets."

Launched in 2012, the FASTSIGNS Co-Brand program offers independent business operators with print-related services the opportunity to add the FASTSIGNS brand of sign and visual graphic solutions, while continuing to own and operate their existing business. Co-Brand franchisees consistently report that adding a FASTSIGNS franchise to their business has added value for customers, promoting long-term growth opportunities for their businesses.

"FASTSIGNS' strength lies in its ability to be at the cutting edge of the sign, graphics and visual communications industry," said John Davies, Managing Director, FASTSIGNS UK. "For any existing business looking to expand into this fast-paced market, FASTSIGNS gives the added support and training needed to make the process smooth. Whether an existing print-based business or a photography studio our Co-Brand and Conversion centres receive the same assistance as any new franchisee, with the added bonus of being able to exclude established revenue streams, outside of the FASTSIGNS core business offering, from future royalty payments."

Getting started as a Co-Brand FASTSIGNS is quick; FASTSIGNS can help finance the franchise fee with as little as $15,000 down to begin the Co-Brand process. TheCo-Brandprogram accounted for 20 percent of the franchise agreements signed in 2015, a significant increase from prior years. FASTSIGNS International, Inc. also offers a Conversion program whereby an existing independent sign or related business can become a FASTSIGNS franchisee.

In May, the company launched a new franchise development website, making it easier for potential franchise candidates to learn about the FASTSIGNS brand and opportunity.

For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity, contact Mark Jameson (mark.jameson@fastsigns.comor 214-346-5679) or download an eBook that explores the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity athttp://amzn.to/1FrnDJu. For information about the FASTSIGNS franchise opportunity in the UK, contact John Davies (john.davies@fastsigns.com).

About FASTSIGNS

FASTSIGNS International, Inc. is the largest sign and visual communications franchisor in North America, and is the worldwide franchisor of more than 600 independently owned and operated FASTSIGNS centers in nine countries including the US, Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Grand Cayman, Mexico and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE).

FASTSIGNS locations provide comprehensive sign and visual graphic solutions to help companies of all sizes and across all industries attract more attention, communicate their message, sell more products, help visitors find their way and extend their branding across all of their customer touch points including decor, events, wearables and marketing materials.Learn more about sign and visual graphic solutions or find a location at fastsigns.com. Follow the brand on Twitter @FASTSIGNS, Facebook at facebook.com/FASTSIGNS or LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fastsigns.

Franchise Research Institute has named FASTSIGNS a top sign and graphics franchise and has awarded the company certification as a 2015 World-Class Franchise for four consecutive years. FASTSIGNS was also recognized byUSA Today, Military Times magazine, G.I. Jobs magazineand Franchise Business Review as one of the top franchises for military veterans. For more information about FASTSIGNS franchise programs visithttp://www.fastsigns.com/.

Contact:

Rachel Tabacnic

Fish Consulting

+1-954-893-9150

rtabacnic@fish-consulting.com




CAMPBELL, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Friendable, Inc. (OTC PINK: FDBL), today released the May download numbers of its Friendable app.

For May, the Company posted total downloads of 37,470 with 16,481 originating from Apple's iTunes App Store and 20,989 coming from Google's Android PlayStore. Mays's download numbers represent a 29% increase over April downloads and a 43% increase over March downloads.

In addition, Friendable app rankings in Apple's iTunes App Store continue to trend higher reaching record highs in 6 countries in both the social media and overall app categories. (Source: App Annie)

"When launching and growing a new mobile app attracting new users is paramount to its success, so when we see the Friendable download and ranking numbers rise month after month it is providing us with confirmation that our marketing efforts and celebrity relationships are adding much needed fuel to our fire, for that we are extremely pleased," said Friendable, Inc. CEO Robert Rositano Jr. "Ranking numbers are important in the sense that the higher we rank, the easier it is for users to find our app, and the more organic downloads we realize translates to lower user acquisition costs, which will ultimately drive revenue and increase profits."

About Friendable:

Friendable Inc. is the mobile-social network focused on the future, rather than sharing the past, where it's all about having location specific and nearby opportunities to connect with others. The Friendable brand represents a friend's first approach and takes all the pressure off for its users, making it simple to make new connections, create meetup style events or simply tell others what you are "Friendable for" then based on shared interests and location users can engage with what makes sense for them. Increased user interactions will allow Friendable to offer advertising and sponsorship opportunities to local venues/businesses, to begin to generate revenue by providing these venues with location specific opportunities to reach potential customers when it matters most; when they are nearby and looking for something to do or someone to do it with. As of April 2016 Friendable has over 1 Million downloads and 700,000 registered users.

For more information about Friendable, Inc. please visit:

www.Friendable.com

For Additional Investor Information and to Receive Company Updates:

http://www.friendable.com/fdbloptin

Visit our social media properties at:

Facebook: http://facebook.com/friendable

Twitter: twitter.com/friendableapp

Instagram: instagram.com/friendableapp

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements. The words or phrases "would be," "will allow," "intends to," "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "project," or similar expressions are intended to identify "forward-looking statements." Actual results could differ materially from those projected by Friendable, Inc. The iTunes rankings should not be construed as an indication in any way whatsoever of the future value of the Friendable's common stock or its present or future financial condition. The public filings of Friendable, Inc. made with the Securities and Exchange Commission may be accessed at the SEC's Edgar system at www.sec.gov. Statements made herein are as of the date of this press release and should not be relied upon as of any subsequent date. Friendable, Inc. cautions readers not to place reliance on such statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable law, Friendable, Inc. does not undertake, and Friendable, Inc. specifically disclaims any obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect occurrences, developments, unanticipated events or circumstances after the date of such statement.

CONTACT:

Investor Relations & Financial Media:

Ticker Media Group

585-301-7700

info@TickerMediaGroup.com



COMPANY:

Friendable, Inc.

(855) 473-7473

Info@friendable.com




Mondi Limited

(Incorporated in the Republic of South Africa)

(Registration number: 1967/013038/06)

JSE share code: MND ISIN: ZAE000156550

Mondi plc

(Incorporated in England and Wales)

(Registered number: 6209386)

JSE share code: MNP ISIN: GB00B1CRLC47

LSE share code: MNDI

2 June 2016

As part of the dual listed company structure, Mondi Limited and Mondi plc (together "Mondi Group" or "Mondi") notify both the JSE Limited and the London Stock Exchange of matters required to be disclosed under the Listings Requirements of the JSE Limited and/or the Disclosure Rules and Transparency Rules and/or the Listing Rules of the United Kingdom Listing Authority.

Mondi Group signs agreement to acquire Kalenobel

Mondi Group has signed an agreement for the acquisition of 90% of the outstanding share capital in Kalenobel* from ARGUS Capital, a CEE focused private equity group, and M. Olcay Hephiz, one of the company's founders, for a consideration of around EUR90 million on a debt-and-cash-free basis (consideration for 90% of the business).

Established in 1955, Kalenobel is a Turkish consumer packaging company focused on the manufacture of flexible consumer packaging for ice cream and other applications as well as aseptic cartons. The company is headquartered in Istanbul and operates two manufacturing sites northwest of the city.

Kalenobel serves both international FMCG companies as well as regional food and beverage producers. The company exports approximately half of its production, mainly to Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Commenting on the acquisition, David Hathorn, Chief executive of Mondi Group, said: "The acquisition of Kalenobel supports the growth of our Consumer Packaging business, broadening our product portfolio and geographic reach to better serve our customers in high-growth markets".

The transaction remains subject to competition clearance and other customary closing conditions and is expected to complete during the second half of 2016.

* Kale Nobel Ambalaj Sanayi ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi.

Contact:

Mondi Group

Lora Rossler

Group Head of Communications

Tel: +27 (0)31 451 2111 or +27 (0)83 627 0292

E-mail: lora.rossler@mondigroup.co.za

Andrew King

Group CFO

Tel: +27 (0)11 994 5415

E-mail: andrew.king@mondigroup.com

We are Mondi: In touch every day

At Mondi, our products protect and preserve the things that matter.

Mondi is an international packaging and paper Group, employing around 25,000 people across more than 30 countries. Our key operations are located in central Europe, Russia, North America and South Africa. We offer over 100 packaging and paper products, customised into more than 100,000 different solutions for customers, end consumers and industrial end uses - touching the lives of millions of people every day. In 2015, Mondi had revenues of EUR6.8 billion and a return on capital employed of 20.5%.

The Mondi Group is fully integrated across the packaging and paper value chain - from managing forests and producing pulp, paper and compound plastics, to developing effective and innovative industrial and consumer packaging solutions. Our innovative technologies and products can be found in a variety of applications including hygiene components, stand-up pouches, super-strong cement bags, clever retail boxes and office paper. Our key customers are in industries such as automotive; building and construction; chemicals; food and beverage; home and personal care; medical and pharmaceutical; packaging and paper converting; pet care; and office and professional printing.

Mondi has a dual listed company structure, with a primary listing on the JSE Limited for Mondi Limited under the ticker code MND and a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange for Mondi plc, under the ticker code MNDI.

For us, acting sustainably makes good business sense and is part of the way we work every day. We have been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series since 2008 and the JSE's Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index since 2007.

Sponsor in South Africa: UBS South Africa (Pty) Ltd
Network meets requirement for high security and increased bandwidth

Extension of 15-year relationship shows Orange public sector expertise

Orange Business Services has won an extended contract to deliver global networking services for the Government Offices of Sweden to 100 embassies and consulates around the world. A customer since 2001, the Government Offices of Sweden expanded the current contract Orange Business Services has held since 2013.

Under this new four-year agreement, Orange Business Services will provide networking services to connect the Swedish representation entities abroad securely and reliably. The network combines Business VPN, satellite, Ethernet and internet for sites in a variety of locations, including urban areas, remote places and countries with limited infrastructure.

"There are few organizations that depend as much on their international connectivity as Ministries of Foreign Affairs. We have developed a strong expertise in supporting Ministries on a global scale to improve their operations with reliable and secure communications solutions. Orange Business Services will give Sweden's Government Offices access to the world's largest network, along with the peace-of-mind that network security and business continuity are at the very forefront of our business," said Anne-Sophie Lotgering, senior vice president, Europe, Russia and CIS, Orange Business Services.

Orange Business Services has extensive experience providing integrated ICT services to Ministries of Foreign Affairs around the world, including: Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand.

About Orange Business Services

Orange Business Services, the Orange branch dedicated to B2B services, is not only a telecom operator, but also an IT solutions integrator and applications developer in France and around the world. Its 20,000 employees support companies in all areas of their digital transformation: mobile and collaborative workspaces; IT/cloud infrastructure; fixed and mobile connectivity; private and hybrid networks; applications for Internet of Things, 360 customer experience and Big Data analytics; and cybersecurity thanks to dedicated experts and infrastructure to protect information systems. More than 3,000 multinational organizations and 2 million SOHOs, enterprises and local authorities in France rely on Orange Business Services as their trusted partner.

Learn more at www.orange-business.comor follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and our blogs.

Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with annual sales of 40 billion euros in 2015 and has 155,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2016. Orange is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN).

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005112/en/

Contacts:

Press contact:

Orange Business Services

Elizabeth Mayeri, +1 212 251 2086

elizabeth.mayeri@orange.com,
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 4:30 am ET Thursday, the U.K. CIPS/Markit construction PMI for May is due to be released. The index is seen unchanged at 52.0 in May. Ahead of the data, the pound showed mixed trading against its major rivals. While the pound rose against the U.S. dollar and the Swiss franc, it fell against the yen. Against the euro, the pound held steady. As of 4:25 am ET, the pound was trading at 0.7766 against the euro, 1.4238 against the Swiss franc, 1.4432 against the U.S. dollar and 157.13 against the yen. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Registration Now Open for "Paris Lymphoma" Congress

Physicians' Education Resource, LLC (PER), the leading source for oncology and hematology continuing medical education (CME), and its international affiliate, PER Global, LLC, today unveiled its second 2016 European annual congress, with registration now open for the first annual European Congress on Hematology: Focus on Lymphoid Malignancies, also known as "Paris Lymphoma."

Being held November 3-5, 2016, at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile, in Paris, France, this highly practical and interactive program will focus on improving patient care for the clinician who manages patients with lymphoid malignancies. Leading international experts will participate in cutting-edge lectures and panel discussions that interpret and apply recent data sets. Most importantly, the meeting will allow for an in-depth interactive exchange of ideas for participants to engage directly with renowned faculty to share their perspectives, personal experiences, and methods to address clinical challenges in the management of lymphoid malignancies.

An application has been made to the European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education for CME accreditation of this congress.

"As PER Global is expanding its oncology and hematology CME offerings, this congress will draw leading international experts and European physicians to discuss and address ongoing, worldwide advances in managing lymphoid malignancies," said PER President Phil Talamo. "Given the fast pace at which practice-changing evidence continues to emerge, clinicians face the constant challenge to maintain state-of-the-art care in managing patients with these tumors. Our Paris Lymphoma congress is specifically developed to assist those physicians now and in the future."

PER Global is the educational resource of choice for live and online activities focusing on oncology and hematology. Serving the oncology health care community, including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, pharmacists, and other health care providers who are involved in the treatment and management of patients with cancer, PER Global plans, develops, implements and evaluates educational activities using a wide variety of formats, as well as leading national and international faculty, targeted to the needs of health care providers.

About PER

As a leader in CME for nearly 20 years, PER educates more oncologists and hematologists through live annual CME-certified conferences than any other medical education provider in the United States. PER provides high-quality, evidence-based, CME-certified activities that translate the science of oncology into the art of patient care by featuring leading national and international faculty that focus on practice-changing advances that help the busy oncologist stay up-to-date with cutting-edge oncology knowledge and treatments. Accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, PER serves the broader oncology health care community, including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists. PER also consists of PER Global, which carry's PER's mission of advancing cancer care through professional education outside the United States. PER is part of Michael J. Hennessy Associates Inc., a full-service health care communications company offering education, research and medical media.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005209/en/

Contacts:

Physicians' Education Resource, LLC

Michael J. LaCosta

Executive Director of Public Relations

551-655-3718

mjlacosta@mjhassoc.com
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- BearingPoint, one of Europe's leading management and technology consultancies, had another strong year in 2015. The firm reported full-year revenue of 563.3 million euros, the highest level since the company's Management Buyout in 2009, and had record newly booked business. The consultancy delivered profitable and sustainable growth for the year, especially in the second half of 2015, and that has continued into the first quarter of 2016.

In 2015, BearingPoint reorganized its business and created three synergetic pillars: Consulting, Solutions, and Ventures. The three units work together to drive innovation, sustainable revenue, and client value. A large share of future growth is expected from the Solutions unit providing software solutions to deliver rapid results. BearingPoint invested heavily in this unit with a focus on digital transformation, regulatory solutions and advanced analytics. As a result, Solutions bookings grew by 44 percent. Another major step toward delivering more digital technology solutions was the acquisition of Helsinki-based Magenta Advisory, the leading independent management consultancy for digital business development in the Nordic region.

Peter Mockler, who, in 2015, was reelected as Managing Partner of BearingPoint for the third time, said: "In our rapidly changing world, we have to solve the problems of our clients with new solutions focusing on their specific needs. Combining Consulting and Solutions and being business-led will help differentiate us from traditional consulting, software and technology firms."

Another strategic priority is expanding BearingPoint's global reach through alliance partners. Starting with 14 EMEA countries in 2009, the consultancy has expanded its presence to 35 countries with more than 10,000 people ready to serve clients throughout the world. In 2015, the firm won key engagements in the Middle East, grew its operations in China, opened a third office in Romania and built a joint Center of Excellence with its alliance partner ABeam Consulting in Singapore.

"I'm particularly happy to report that our dynamic development enabled BearingPoint to appoint more new partners to the firm in 2015 than in any year before. In 2016, we will continue to execute our strategy and maintain the growth momentum we gained over the latter part of last year. I expect to see our new strategy and investments made in the past few years to accelerate our growth in 2016 and achieve our ambitious goal of 1 billion euros in gross revenue by 2020. We'll leverage our global reach and continue to empower our people. Most importantly, we must stay close to our clients and be proactive in identifying how we can best serve them," Peter Mockler commented.

About BearingPoint

BearingPoint consultants understand that the world of business changes constantly and that the resulting complexities demand intelligent and adaptive solutions. Our clients, whether in commercial or financial industries or in government, experience real results when they work with us. We combine industry, operational and technology skills with relevant proprietary and other assets in order to tailor solutions for each client's individual challenges. This adaptive approach is at the heart of our culture and has led to long-standing relationships with many of the world's leading companies and organizations. Our global consulting network of more than 10,000 people serves clients in over 75 countries and engages with them for measurable results and long-lasting success.

For more information, please visit: www.bearingpoint.com

Contacts:

Alexander Bock

Manager Communications

+49 89 540338029

alexander.bock@bearingpoint.com

Twitter: @BearingPoint




AMSTERDAM, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

LSP (Life Sciences Partners), the European life sciences investment group, today announced the final closing of its new life sciences fund, LSP 5. The fund surpassed its $170 million target and reached the 'hard cap' of $280 million, making LSP 5 one of the largest life sciences funds in Europe.

Commenting on the announcement, Dr Rene Kuijten, Managing Partner at LSP, said: "The basis of this fundraising success is reflective of our strong financial performance as well as meeting the challenges of life sciences investing. This has been recognized by not only large and loyal institutional investors, but also by strategic partners like the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, who selected LSP as a partner for identifying and investing in European breakthrough technologies. Moreover, the interest from family offices and private investors looking for broad exposure to life sciences in Europe has increased significantly over the years."

The fund has already started to invest, taking positions in 9 companies. Examples include Irish medical device company Neuravi, active in acute ischemic stroke, Swiss-based immuno-oncology company Nouscom, and Kuros Biosciences, recently listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange and focused on tissue repair and regeneration. The fund, primarily focused on Europe, will look to invest in around 20 companies across the areas of drug development, medical devices and diagnostics. LSP has helped several well-known life sciences companies to grow and prosper, including Dutch companies Crucell, Merus, Prosensa, Sapiens; Belgian companies argenx, Movetis; German companies Activaero, Jerini, U3 Pharma; Swiss company Okairos and Danish company Zealand Pharma.

Dr Kuijten added: "The healthcare sector is developing favorably and European science is reaching new heights. There are a lot of opportunities for investment in the sector and we will continue to explore these avenues as we have done in the past."

About LSP

LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is an independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life sciences companies. LSP's mission is to connect investors to inventors, focusing on unmet medical needs. Since the late 1980s, LSP's management has invested in about 100 innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life sciences industry. With over $1.2 billion of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is one of Europe's leading life sciences investors. LSP also invests in public companies through its Euronext-listed LSP Life Sciences Fund (Bloomberg: LSP NA).

About LSP 5

Launched in 2014, LSP 5 targets investment opportunities in healthcare companies developing pioneering products and technologies that provide solutions to unmet medical needs, similar to its predecessor funds. The fund will invest in around 20 companies across the areas of drug development, medical devices and diagnostics. LSP partners Rene Kuijten, Joachim Rothe, Martijn Kleijwegt, Joerg Neermann, John de Koning and Fouad Azzam have worked together for a decade and combine entrepreneurial and financial skills with a strong background in biosciences and medicine.

For more information, please visit lspvc.com.

Contacts:

Dr Rene R. Kuijten

Managing Partner LSP

Contact: sdwinger@lspvc.com

Hume Brophy

Supriya Mathur, Hollie Vile

Phone: +44 (0) 207 862 6475

E-mail: lsp@humebrophy.com
DUBLIN, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Research and Marketshas announced the addition of the"Production and Market of Thiamethoxam in China"report to their offering.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160330/349511LOGO )

As the second largest insecticide in the world, the sales value of thiamethoxam reached USD1,180 million in 2014

Due to its good performance in the global market, thiamethoxam has caught much attention in China after its patent expired in China in July 2013. Many domestic and foreign companies actively registered both thiamethoxam technical and formulations in China, and rapidly expanded their production scale.

However, it was noted that the both the production and consumption of thiamethoxam in China and the world have changed gradually under the influences of some other factors, such as environmental policies. Many companies who once looked good of Chinese thiamethoxam industry now began to suspect.

Focusing on the production and market of thiamethoxam in China, this report will bring the following value:



- For those who plan to enter the Chinese thiamethoxam industry: This report can be an important reference material, because it has forecasted the future market (2016-2020) of thiamethoxam in China based on the specific analysis on the major factors that influence Chinese thiamethoxam industry.

- For foreign buyers: This report provides you with information about the major players in Chinese thiamethoxam industry as well as the market conditions in China.

- For the domestic pesticide producers and traders: The export analysis on this report can be a good guidance material for your business.

- For investors who are interested in the whole industry chain of Chinese thiamethoxam technical: This report can provide you detailed information about the upstream and downstream industries.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction to thiamethoxam industry in China

2 Thiamethoxam industry in China

3 Forecast on thiamethoxam industry in China

4 Conclusion

5 Profile of major thiamethoxam technical manufacturers in China



- Jiangsu BVCO New Material Co., Ltd.

- Hebei Brilliant Chemical Co., Ltd.

- Jiangsu Subin Agrochemical Co., Ltd.

- Shandong Sino-agri United Biotechnology Co., Ltd.

- Jiangsu Luye Agrochemicals Co., Ltd.

- Kaifeng Pulangke Bio-chemical Co., Ltd.



For more information visithttp://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/9x29tj/production_and

Media Contact:

Laura Wood

Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470

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BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 5:00 am ET Thursday, Eurostat releases producer prices for April. Economists forecast euro area prices to fall 4.1 percent on a yearly basis in April following a 4.2 percent drop in March. Ahead of the data, the euro traded mixed against its major rivals. While the euro edged down against the pound, it held steady against the rest of major rivals. The euro was worth 1.1210 against the greenback, 122.21 against the yen, 1.1060 against the franc and 0.7761 against the pound as of 4:55 am ET. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Nordic Nation Is 19th Country to Deploy World's Fastest-growing IoT Network

SIGFOX, the world's leading provider of global communications service for the Internet of Things (IoT), and Connected Finland, a company created by an experienced team of Finnish telco professionals, announce the extension of the SIGFOX's global network throughout Finland by 2017.

The fast rollout, which makes Finland the 19th country worldwide to have SIGFOX's dedicated IoT network, will provide coverage to the nation's largest cities by this summer and coverage for 85 percent of the population by spring 2017.

Registering more than 7 million devices in its network with a footprint on all continents, SIGFOX is rapidly establishing one global, seamless network that provides simple, ubiquitous, energy-efficient connectivity for billions of connected devices that will make up the vast majority of the IoT. In the past 12 months alone, SIGFOX has added 14 countries to its global coverage map.

Connected Finland's founders Markku Patronen, Marko Vanninen and Tom Lindblad have extensive network operator background. They also bring experience in hardware sales and development companies, software and hosting services, consulting and entrepreneurship.

"Finland is one of the world's most competitive economies, with a strong focus on innovation and adopting new technologies in such fields as electronics and telecommunications," said Rodolphe Baronnet-Fruges, SIGFOX executive vice-president networks operators. "This positions the country to become a European leader in terms of quick adoption of the IoT and invention of exciting new applications for industry, business and personal use. We have seen this entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated strongly by our partners Connected Finland."

As a SIGFOX Network Operator, Connected Finland is backed by well-known industrial investors and a group of private angel investors committed to quickly adding Finland to the world's fastest-emerging, mass-market IoT network.

"There is a very clear and urgent need in Finland for SIGFOX's energy-efficient and low-cost IoT solution, which can open a huge number of exciting new use cases in sectors such as insurance, smart cities, smart buildings, and asset tracking, safety and security, transportation and industry," said Patronen.

Vanninen added: "Connected Finland's partnership with SIGFOX will also provide many unique opportunities for Finnish device-and-solution providers to create new use cases that can extend the benefits of the IoT across Finnish society and in all sectors of the economy. Our partner Helsinki Ventures is already facilitating a developer program in Finland, enabled by SIGFOX's connectivity solution."

By the end of 2016, SIGFOX plans to cover more than 30 countries with its network.

About SIGFOX

http://www.sigfox.com/

About Connected Finland

http://www.connectedfinland.fi/

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005567/en/

Contacts:

Amelie Ravier, +33 6 64 52 81 10

Mahoney Lyle

aravier@mahoneylyle.com
AS Tallinna Vesi's Annual general Meeting of Shareholders was held on Thursday, 2nd of June 2016 from 09:00-10:24 at the Hotel Euroopa conference room "Laane-Euroopa". 15 068 344 haalt, i.e. 75,34% of the Company's 20 million votes were represented at the meeting.THE AGENDA OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING:Item of Agenda no 1. Approval of 2015 Annual Report.RESOLUTION: with 15 060 574 votes in favour ( i.e. 99,96 % of all votes represented at the Annual General Meeting) to approve the 2015 Annual Report.Item of Agenda no 2. Distribution of profitRESOLUTION: with 15 064 651 votes in favour (i.e. 99,99 % of all votes represented at the Annual General Meeting) to approve the profit distribution proposal The net profit of the Company in 2015 is 19 858 000 (nineteen million eight hundred fifty eight thousand) euros. To distribute EUR 18 000 600 (eighteen million six hundred) euros of AS Tallinna Vesi's retained earnings of 50 995 000 (fifty million nine hundred ninety five thousand) euros as of 31.12.2015, incl. from the net profit of 19 858 000 (nineteen million eight hundred fifty eight thousand) euros for the year 2015, as dividends, of which 0,90 euros (zero point ninety) euros per share shall be paid to the owners of the A-shares and 600 (six hundred) euros per share shall be paid to the owner of the B-share. Remaining retained earnings will remain undistributed and allocations from the net profit will not be made to the reserve capital.To pay the dividends out to the shareholders on 27th June 2016 and to determine the list of shareholders entitled to receive dividends on the basis of the share ledger as at 23.59 on 16th June 2016.Item of Agenda no 3. Amendment of Articles of AssociationRESOLUTION: with 15 048 923 votes in favour of A-shareholders (i.e 99,89 % of all votes of A-shares represented at the Annual General Meeting) and with 1 vote in favour of B-shareholder (i.e. 100 % of all votes of B-shares represented at the Annual General Meeting) to add a new clause 6.2.9 into the Articles of Association and approve the new wording of the Articles of Association. as follows:"6.2.9. Electronic participation in a general meeting6.2.9.1 The shareholders may vote on the draft resolutions prepared in respect to the items on the agenda of a general meeting using electronic means prior to the general meeting or during the general meeting if it is possible in a technically secure manner and it is established in the notice to convene a general meeting.6.2.9.2 The procedure of the electronic voting shall be determined by the management board. Electronic voting shall be performed in a format which can be reproduced in writing.6.2.9.3 The notice to convene a general meeting shall establish, whether electronic voting can be performed and shall include a reference to the procedure of the electronic voting determined by the management board.6.2.9.4 The shareholder who voted using electronic means shall be deemed to have taken part in the general meeting and the votes represented by the shareholder's shares shall be accounted as part of the quorum of the general meeting unless otherwise provided by law."Item of Agenda no 4. Election of members of Supervisory CouncilRESOLUTION nr 1: with 14 830 946 votes in favour (i.e. 98,44 % of all votes represented at the Annual General Meeting) to elect Mr. Rein Ratas as a Supervisory Council member of AS Tallinna Vesi from 2nd June, 2016RESOLUTION nr 2: with 15 048 250 votes in favour (i.e. 99,88 % of all votes represented at the Annual General Meeting) to elect Mr. Mart Magi as a Supervisory Council member of AS Tallinna Vesi from 2nd June, 2016RESOLUTION nr 3. with 15 056 780 votes in favour (i.e. 99,94 % of all votes represented at the Annual General Meeting) to elect Mr. Simon Roger Gardiner as a Supervisory Council member of AS Tallinna Vesi from 2nd June, 2016RESOLUTION nr 4. with 15 059 560 votes in favour (i.e. 99,96 % of all votes represented at the Annual General Meeting) to elect Mr. Martin Padley as a Supervisory Council member of AS Tallinna Vesi from 1st of November,2016.Item of Agenda no 5. Election of auditorRESOLUTION: with 15 024 109 votes in favour (i.e 99,72 % of all votes represented at the Annual General Meeting) to appoint AS PriceWaterhouseCoopers as the auditor and Mr. Ago Vilu as the lead auditor for the financial year of 2016. To pay the fee to the auditor as per contract to be entered into.Item of Agenda no 6. CEO pdateCEO update can be found here.Mariliis Mia Topp AS Tallinna Vesi Head of Communications Ph: (+372) 62 62 275 mariliismia.topp@tvesi.ee
HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, England, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

As a society, it is estimated that we spend around 21 billion each year dealing specifically with alcohol-related harm. With 1.2 million hospital admissions and more than a million UK crimes linked each year to alcohol, it has become increasingly evident, that in addition to enforcing the law, we need to understand and tackle the root causes of alcohol use.

On 1st June 2016 Druglink launches an Alcohol Diversion Scheme in Cheshire after being awarded the contract by Cheshire Constabulary. Since 2007 Druglink, a substance misuse charity, has successfully operated Diversion Schemes in 15 police forces throughout England.

The scheme to be launched from 1st June 2016 will implement an initiative, aimed at reducing the reoffending rates of disorderly behaviour related directly to alcohol. The scheme invites individuals issued with alcohol related tickets or cautions in Cheshire to attend a 3 hour interactive educational session. These sessions will, through group work and direct learning, educate attendees about the physical, social and psychological effects of alcohol. Additionally, offenders will be encouraged to acknowledge the consequences of their behaviours and the impact of their drinking on themselves and others.

Individuals will pay a fee to attend a course and this contributes to the ongoing costs of the scheme.

Sarah Clark, Director of Commercial Operations for Druglink, commented "Druglink are delighted to have been awarded the contract to design and deliver the Alcohol Diversion Scheme to Cheshire Constabulary and communities within the county. As an established provider of high quality educational programmes, Druglink's aim is to reduce reoffending rates of alcohol related disorderly behaviour whilst offering information around the known effects of excessive alcohol consumption. As a substance misuse charity committed to a pathway of prevention, recovery and reintegration we will foster links with local support agencies to establish a robust signposting process for those individuals seeking additional help".

For more information about Druglink's Alcohol Diversion Scheme please contact Lorraine Witherall, Diversion Scheme Manager, on +44(0)1923-260-733 or email lorrainewitherall@druglink.ltd.uk

Druglink (Charity No. 295384), aims to have a significant and positive impact on the lives of those who use substances, their families and the communities in which they live. Druglink achieves this by providing a range of both proactive and responsive services targeting three areas; Prevention, Recovery and Reintegration. For further information visit: http://www.druglink.co.uk

Contact:

+44(0)1923-260733 - sarahclark@druglink.ltd.uk


TAMPA, FL -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- KiteDesk, the maker of smart sales prospecting software for sharp salespeople, today announced a substantial new release -- KiteDesk FIND, version 3.

The next generation release of the company's flagship software application includes a host of new features, including a redesigned interface. Other highlights:

Prospects Screen - The all-in-one dashboard for each of your sales team's leads.

Upload & Enrich - Import CSV files to locate key people with complete contact information at target companies.

Rapid Find - Find Company and Find People search screens redesigned to feature saved search capabilities against multiple data sets. Perform prospect research in less than half the time as previous versions; Industry-leading speed-to-lead discovery.

Chrome Extension - Auto-highlight to add any Company or Person to a Lead List on the fly. Immediate ability to pull all available contacts from any company website.

"This is an exciting release," said Sean Burke, CEO of KiteDesk. "We believe that smarter prospecting is the key to predictable growth. So we've set about making the lives of every sales prospector less painful. It is such a time-consuming, demanding activity. When you see the substantial speed-to-lead gains we've made with KiteDesk FIND, our customers, and sales teams everywhere, sit up and take notice."

KiteDesk customers have rewarded the company with 4.8 out of 5-star ratings on the popular software review site G2 Crowd, calling the company's software, "the most valuable tool we've brought to our LeadGen team." Other evidence-based software ranking services like FindYourCloud currently have KiteDesk FIND as "A"-rated software, scoring 4.43 out of 5 (current market average is 2.88).

The new KiteDesk FIND product introduces search capabilities from multiple data providers, which enable customers to target Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP) by company geography, size, revenue, hierarchy, titles and keywords available to build targeted lead lists in record time.

"In study after study, the #1 challenge sales teams report facing is generating more targeted leads," said Eric Quanstrom, KiteDesk Chief Marketing Officer. "We assume that our product must deliver quantifiable results, and KiteDesk FIND delivers on exactly this promise. It's just so seamless to build, save and work targeted lead lists that result in booking more qualified meetings, daily."

A simple way to think about the value KiteDesk brings is in the streamlining of every prospecting activity, from targeting to research to outreach. Customers report the ability to become 2,900% more productive with their prospecting, which will now increase due to recent speed, search, and design improvements to the core application.

"The ROI discussion becomes quite clear when our customers see impressive results in their pipelines almost immediately," says Burke. "Many sales leaders look at their inside sales teams as potential goldmines, if only they could execute lead generation in a consistent, scalable way. This is the magic of KiteDesk -- delivering efficiency and effectiveness across lead generation activities on a day-to-day basis."

About KiteDesk

KiteDesk provides smart sales prospecting software for growth organizations. As a complete lead generation system, we help salespeople dramatically decrease the amount of time spent generating qualified leads.

KiteDesk is a venture-backed, privately-held company headquartered in Tampa, with offices throughout the United States. To learn more, please visit www.KiteDesk.com or connect with us @KiteDesk.

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Press Contact:

Eric Quanstrom

Email Contact




DURHAM, NC -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 --Percona, the company that delivers enterprise-class MySQL and MongoDB solutions and services, today announced the success of its fifth annual Percona Live Database Performance Conference 2016 (formerly the MySQL Conference and Expo), which was held April 18-21, 2016 at The Hyatt Regency Santa Clara and Santa Clara Convention Center. Percona also announced that the Call for Papers is now open for Percona Live Open Source Database Conference Europe 2016, which will take place October 3-5, 2016 at the Movenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Centre in Amsterdam. Super Saver registration rates are available until July 3.

More than 1,000 attendees from over 40 countries and more than 450 companies gathered in Santa Clara for eight keynote addresses and 180 breakout sessions designed to inform and inspire the MySQL and NoSQL markets. Companies with the greatest representation at the event were Facebook, Google, Amazon, Box, and Deep Information Science, an important indication of the value the conference offers to companies that rely on MySQL and NoSQL to run their businesses.

"Across the board, this was our most exciting conference yet," said Peter Zaitsev, co-founder and CEO of Percona. "The keynotes were illuminating, covering the essential topics of our industry, and the attendees left the breakouts with a far deeper understanding of how to make MySQL and NoSQL work for their companies and initiatives. Our community continues to be one of the closest and most engaged tech groups I have ever been a part of."

Highlighting the conference was a keynote address by Bill Nye the Science Guy and CEO of the Planetary Society on Bill Nye's Objective - Change the World. In the address, Nye discussed how the process of science and critical thinking can help us not only be positive about the challenges we face in our world today, but also come up with the big ideas we need to solve them. Topics included his parents' involvement in science (his mother worked on the Enigma Code in World War 2!), working at Boeing as an engineer, and his involvement with Carl Sagan.

The other keynote addresses included:

Amazon Web Services' Anurag Gupta on AWS Big Data Services: Reimagining Big Data Processing in the Cloud

DataStax's Patrick McFadin on Take back the power in your cloud applications with Apache Cassandra

Deep Information Sciences' Chad Jones on Transcending database tuning problems

Facebook's Mark Callaghan on MyRocks, MongoRocks and RocksDB

Oracle's Tomas Ulin on MySQL: Combining SQL and NoSQL

Percona's Peter Zaitsev on Winning with Open Source Databases

Panel Discussion on Data in The Cloud

Sponsorships

Percona Live Database Performance Conference 2016 was made possible through the support of sponsors, including:

Diamond Plus: Deep Information Science, RocksDb

Platinum: Rackspace, VivdCortex

Gold: Amazon Web Services

Silver: Shopify, Yelp

Exhibit Only: AgilData, BlackMesh, Box, Clustrix, Continuent, Eventbrite, Galera Cluster, GridGain, HGST, MaxGuage, MemSQL, Pythian, Raintank, RedHat, ScaleArc, Solarwinds, Vertabelo, DBSeer, Severalnines,

Media: Datanami, DBTA, Opensource.com, O'Reilly Media

Other: Google Cloud Platform, Intel, MailChip, MONyog

The Next Percona Conference

The Percona Live Open Source Database Conference will take place October 3-5, 2016 at the Movenpick Hotel Amsterdam City Centre in Amsterdam. The Call for Papers is now open, and the conference tracks will focus on MySQL, MongoDB and ODBMS. Sponsorships are available.

About Percona

With more than 3,000 customers worldwide, Percona is the only company that delivers enterprise-class solutions for both MySQL and MongoDB across traditional and cloud-based platforms. The company provides Software, Support, Consulting, and Managed Services to some of the largest and most well-known brands on the Internet such as Cisco Systems, Time Warner Cable, Alcatel-Lucent, Groupon, and the BBC, as well as to many smaller companies looking to maximize application performance while streamlining database efficiencies. Well established as thought leaders, Percona experts author content for the Percona DatabasePerformance Blog. The popular Percona Live conferences draw attendees and acclaimed speakers from around the world. For more information, visit www.percona.com.

Percona, XtraBackup, TokuDB and Fractal Tree are registered trademarks of Percona LLC or its subsidiaries. All other registered and unregistered trademarks in this document are the sole property of their respective owners.

Company Information



Press Contacts

Brigit Valencia

For Percona

(360) 597-4516

Email Contact




WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - Chevy Chase Dental Center has just invested in the leading edge technology, Planmeca PlanScan and E4D. With this integrated system the Washington, DC practice is able to provide patients with custom-made dental crowns in just one visit to the dental office.

When a tooth has been severely decayed, damaged, or weakened a dentist will frequently recommend strengthening the tooth with a dental crown. A crown encases the damaged tooth beginning at the gum line, restoring the tooth to its optimal shape and structure.

Dental crowns have long been an important part of both cosmetic and restorative dentistry. However, the procedure for receiving a crown has been time-consuming and uncomfortable, requiring several trips to the dentist over the course of many weeks.

As part of their commitment to acquiring and implementing the best technology to help their patients, Chevy Chase Dental Center has just invested in the Planmeca PlanScan system. This technology allows the dentists at Chevy Chase to complete the entire dental crown procedure in just one visit.

The dentists at Chevy Chase Dental Center can now take digital impressions and scans of a patient's teeth, design the crown using advanced computer software, and manufacture it using an in-office high precision milling machine.

These Planmeca PlanScan E4D crowns are made from high-quality dental ceramic, and matched to the patient's natural tooth color. With no more temporary crowns or multiple return visits, the dentists at Chevy Chase Dental Center expect this new system to be a huge benefit to their patients.

The practice, founded by Dr. Robinson over 20 years ago, recently reopened as Chevy Chase Dental Center when Dr. Telis joined the practice. The practice continues to provide comprehensive, cutting edge, general and cosmetic dental services with a friendly, caring touch. Patients enjoy the convenience of having a full range of services all under one roof, including General Dentistry, Dental Crowns, Dental Bridges, Implant Restoration, Orthodontics/Invisalign, Porcelain Veneers, Teeth Whitening and others.

At Chevy Chase Dental Center, you'll be in the highly capable hands of Dr. Sherman Telis, Dr. Richard Robinson, and Dr. Robert Shub.

Dr. Sherman Telis attended Case Western University in Cleveland where he received his BS and DDS degrees. He has been practicing in Washington, DC since 1976. He is a member of numerous professional organizations and actively pursues his professional advancement through continuing education.

Dr. Richard Robinson, founder of the dental center, received his DDS degree in 1983 from McGill University, in Montreal, where he also received his B.S. He is professionally affiliated with the Academy of General Dentistry and continues his education with them.

Dr. Robert E. Shub has been practicing dentistry for 46 years. He received his Liberal Arts and Sciences degree at University of Maryland College Park Maryland and his DDS at Farleigh Dickenson University School of Dentistry in 1967. He has professional affiliations with the American Dental Society, the District of Columbia Dental Society, Academy of General Dentistry and others.

Chevy Chase Dental Center is located at 5406 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 102, Washington, DC 20015. For an appointment, call (202) 362-3353, or visit their website at http://chevychasedentalcenter.net/

Chevy Chase Dental Center

5406 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 102

Washington, DC 20015

(202) 362-3353
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - Jukebox Print, a boutique printing company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has invited select artists -- hailing from the cities of Paris and Vancouver -- to showcase their personal translation of the theme PassePressFutur in a series of exclusive works printed in high fidelity letterpress.

Utilizing the bridge of illustration, PassePressFutur explores connections between culture, communication and humour that are intrinsic to language. Engaging the eye of the audience, this exhibition presents linguistic viewpoints of these expressions -- past and present, to form a future interpreted through each artist's lens.

In merging the tradition and craftsmanship of letterpress printing with the talent and imagination of this creative class, PassePressFutur parallels the timelessness of printing expertise Jukebox brings to the fore in drawing its sense of innovation from techniques of the past to serve the present, and inspire future projects.

Much more than the cheek of a humorous wink, this project marks the continued will of bringing international collaborations forward in encouraging close cultural exchange between Vancouver and Paris, Canada and France, and further, between Art and Industry the world over.

More information/content can be viewed here: http://www.jukeboxprint.com/PassePressFutur.php

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/1/11G100967/Images/PRINTING-press--03ce34b44b7aa8ce85e8335730a7b963.jpg

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/1/11G100967/Images/various_prints-f26e2298b2c9934b8548dde60d55b9a5.jpg

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/1/11G100967/Images/letterpress-printing_c-169fa012e31db9309a266b7974b34274.jpg

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/1/11G100967/Images/j-jullien-print_-a9c9cfefeef09170a755cadc3f8d11a8.jpg

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/1/11G100967/Images/letterpress-print-getting-checked-4f2ddd6305a795e092ad47784e4acd7e.jpg

Embedded Video Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rosuupxbvHE&feature=youtu.be

Edouard Angue

Media Relations (Canada)

edouard@jukeboxprint.com

888 667 0067 EXT. 3354



Marie de Cossette

Media Relations (France)

bonjour@mariedecossette.com
TALLAHASSEE, FL--(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - Four Florida citizen groups filed legal action today in their continuing case to stop state officials from taking the tax dollars that voters earmarked for land conservation buying and instead using the money to pay for existing employees and ordinary agency expenses.

A huge majority -- 75 percent -- of Florida voters approved the Water and Land Conservation Amendment to the state Constitution in November 2014. Its title was clear: "Dedicates funds to acquire and restore Florida conservation and recreation lands."

The amendment did not impose any new taxes. It requires that, for the next 20 years, 33 percent of the proceeds from the already existing real estate documentary-stamp taxes go for land acquisition.

"State officials have misused these funds, plain and simple," said Earthjustice Managing Attorney David Guest. "We are asking the court today to uphold the state Constitution. Floridians put an amendment into the Constitution directing the state to use these tax dollars to buy and restore conservation land. We don't understand why the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott's administration are shamelessly ignoring what 75 percent of us voted for. With this legal action, we are asking a judge to hold up the intent of Florida voters."

Today's action is part of a legal case filed in Leon County Circuit Court on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation, the St. Johns Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida.

"We are going to keep fighting to make sure the Legislature does what we asked it to do," said Florida Wildlife Federation Manley Fuller. "Floridians are hopping mad about this, and for good reason."

The proceeds of the Land and Water Conservation Amendment totaled $750 million in the first year. But, as today's request for summary judgment explains, instead of buying conservation land, the Legislature used the money to pay for existing employees and ordinary agency expenses at the Departments of Environmental Protection, State, Agriculture and Consumer Services, and at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The motion filed today states, in part:

"Floridians voted to dedicate tax revenues to land purchases and land restoration -- not salaries of existing employees and ordinary expenses. There is no doubt about what Florida voters understood Amendment One to mean because they read the ballot title -- "Dedicates Funds to Acquire and Restore Conservation and Recreation Lands" Having read the ballot title and summary, Florida voters approved Amendment One by an extraordinary 75% margin."

"It's the case of The Will of the People vs. The Greed of the Legislature," said Frank Jackalone of the Sierra Club. "We hope Florida's courts will reject the Legislature's power grab and uphold the voters' decision to spend their tax dollars to protect and conserve Florida's land and water forever."

"There is a dire need to conserve and restore more Florida land and water for future generations," said St. Johns Riverkeeper Lisa Rinaman. "It is heartbreaking to see voter-dedicated funds siphoned off on non-authorized expenses ignoring a 75% vote of Floridians."

To see a copy of the motion please visit this link:

http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Motion%20for%20Summary%20Judgment%20%282%29.pdf

Contacts:

David Guest or Alisa Coe

Earthjustice

(850) 681-0031



Manley Fuller

Florida Wildlife Federation

(850) 656-7113; cell (850) 567-7129



Lisa Rinaman

St. Johns Riverkeeper

(904) 509-3260



Frank Jackalone

Florida Sierra Club

(727) 824-8813 #302; cell (727) 804-1317
SAINT PETERSBURG, FL --(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - FutureWorld Corp (OTC PINK: FWDG), a cannabis technology accelerator and a leading provider of advanced technologies and solutions to the global cannabis industry, announces today that on May 20, 2016, the Company has elected Dr. Bobban Subhadra as the Chief Technology and Operation Officer of its subsidiary, Bioceutical Sciences, effective June 1, 2016. Dr. Bobban Subhadra core expertise is in drug target discovery and new drug applications for various indications. He works with early-stage biotech companies to develop and commercialize core platform technologies.

Dr. Subhadra has conducted his doctoral studies in Microbiology and Immunology at School of Medicine, University of New Mexico. After graduating he studied the role of neuroserpin, tissue plasminogen activator, and thyroid hormone in synaptic plasticity and Alzheimer's disease in mouse models. He has published extensively in prestigious journals including Nature, Science, and Neurochemistry International. With his core expertise in immunology and biochemistry and with 10+ years of industry R & D experience, he has developed numerous patented technologies and products for biochemical, biofuel, and pharmaceutical companies. More recently, as the Director of R & D at Quorum Innovations, he developed and commercialized numerous microbiome technologies.

Dr. Bobban Subhadra and his team at Bioceutical Sciences will focus on the creation of pharmaceutic drugs with multiple technologies incorporated as a drug delivery system such as hydrophobic, a nano-particle surrounded by a hydrophilic Nano-capsule much like liposomal but with improved efficiency for cellular integration using specifically formulated antigens. Potential theoretical applications are neuropathic pain, esophagitis, and immune enhancement. With the completion of the method of delivery technology for this current drug, Bioceutical Sciences' primary research team can effectively focus on technology for the drug's application and the drug's future classification.

The Company is in the process of filing multiple patents in the next few weeks.

FutureWorld is preparing Bioceutical Sciences for the ensuing spin-off.

About FutureWorld Corp.

FutureWorld (OTC PINK: FWDG), a Delaware corporation, is a leading provider of advanced technologies and solutions to the global cannabis industry. FutureWorld, together with its subsidiaries, focuses on the identification, acquisition, development, and commercialization of cannabis related products and services, such as industrial Hemp. FutureWorld, through its subsidiaries, provides personal and professional THC and CBD test kits, pharmaceutical grade CBD oil solutions, SafeVape vaporizers, smart sensor technology, communication network, surveillance security, data analysis for smart cultivation and consultation for the industrial hemp and legal medicinal cannabis. Our wireless agricultural smart sensor networks offer precision to the agriculture, irrigation systems, and greenhouses for the global cannabis and hemp industry. FutureWorld and its subsidiaries do not grow, distribute or sell marijuana.

As the only Cannabis Technology Accelerator, FutureWorld will incubate and fund leading technologies, products, and services for the cannabis industry (Industrial Hemp) for the foreseeable future, bringing value to its core and its shareholders.

To request further information about FutureWorld, please email us at info@futureworldcorp.com, log onto our website at http://www.futureworldcorp.com or visit us at our Facebook page facebook.com/futureworldcorp or on Twitter @futureworldinc.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements covered within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, plans and timing for the introduction or enhancement of our services and products, statements about future market conditions, supply and demand conditions, and other expectations, intentions and plans contained in this press release that are not historical fact and involve risks and uncertainties. Our expectations regarding future revenues depend upon our ability to develop and supply products and services that we may not produce today and that meet defined specifications. When used in this press release, the words "plan," "expect," "believe," and similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current expectations. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in technology and changes in pervasive markets. This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.

Media Contact

FutureWorld Corp.

http://www.futureworldcorp.com

info@futureworldcorp.com

(727) 474-1816 ext. 103

Twitter - @futureworldinc

Facebook - futureworldcorp
DENVER, CO--(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - FutureLand Corp. (OTC PINK: FUTL), a leading provider of strategic real estate investment, grow facilities and material solutions to the global cannabis industry, announced today that they have entered into a binding MOU to purchase 50% ownership in 78 acres of land in Southern Oregon for $125,000 plus additional investment capital. The land is currently being developed into a recreational marijuana facility.

Cameron Cox, CEO of FutureLand Corp., said, "There are great opportunities all around us at this present time. However, the trick sometimes is picking the right partners with whom to do business. We believe we have found such a group in Southern Oregon with Hspendleton, LLC and Groovey Groves. The agreement to purchase 50% of Hspendleton, LLC property also gives FutureLand Corp. the first right of refusal on 265 acres owned by Groovey Groves in Wolf Creek, Oregon where a recreational license is currently pending. The plan is to immediately pursue a recreational license on the 78 acres as well once the appropriate growing infrastructure is in place to proceed. We have some very exciting plans for this particular grow site and I look forward to sharing that plan more extensively with everyone as we progress".

Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp Inc. (OTC PINK: HEMP), as well as their consulting division, continue to be great assets to the FutureLand Corp. network.

Our subsidiary FutureLand Oregon, LLC continues to negotiate a takedown on the 40 acre medical marijuana grow facility parcel referenced in our last press release and is actively trying to conclude the deal. FutureLand Oregon, LLC agreed to purchase the property for $975,000 in cash and expected to close a few weeks ago but encountered structural and documentation delays with reference to the closing. We are in the final steps to correct the documentation delays to finalize our purchase. Once the purchase is complete, FutureLand Oregon, LLC will file for a recreational license on the property.

About FutureLand Corp.

FutureLand Corp., a Colorado company, is a cannabis and hemp specialty zoned land leasing company formed to capitalize upon the emerging global cannabis market. FutureLand, focuses on target acquisition, zoning, license fulfillment, site plan preparation and financing of cannabis or hemp grow facilities throughout the United States. We give growers the opportunity to grow. We monetize through leasing the land, leasing the structures on the land, financing interest revenue and management fees associated with cultivation centers. FutureLand retains ownership of all the land and the structures. FutureLand leases to both medical marijuana, retail marijuana as well as industrial hemp growers. FutureLand does not currently grow, distribute or sell marijuana. To request further information about FutureLand, please email us at info@futurelandcorp.com, log onto our website at http://www.futurelandcorp.com, or visit us on FB @ futurelandcorp and Twitter @futurelandcorp.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This press release may contain forward-looking statements covered within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, plans and timing for the introduction or enhancement of our services and products, statements about future market conditions, supply and demand conditions, and other expectations, intentions and plans contained in this press release that are not historical fact and involve risks and uncertainties. Our expectations regarding future revenues depend upon our ability to develop and supply products and services that we may not produce today and that meet defined specifications. When used in this press release, the words "plan," "expect," "believe," and similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current expectations. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in technology and changes in pervasive markets. This release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 27E of the Securities Act of 1934. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approval for anticipated actions.

Media Contact

FutureLand Corp.

http://www.futurelandcorp.com

info@futurelandcorp.com

cox@futurelandcorp.com

(720) 370-3554

Twitter - @futurelandcorp

Facebook - futurelandcorp
Jedediah Smith, famous mountain man, trapper, explorer and map maker, may not have been the first white man to enter the Nevada area  some Spanish conquistadors most likely had crossed the same deserts and mountains before him  but Smith certainly was the first to spend any significant time exploring the region. He made two trips across Southern Nevada and one across sections of the central part of the state when all of it was just a blank area on any maps of the day.
NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- NYI, an enterprise grade data center and managed IT solutions provider enabling clients to build customized infrastructure, announces that Lightower Fiber Networks, the premier provider of all-fiber, high-performance networking solutions delivered over its own network, has established an access point at NYI's Bridgewater, New Jersey facility. NYI customers can now tap into expanded options across NYI's technology ecosystem and leverage Lightower's network services for robust and diverse connectivity solutions.

Located at 999 Frontier Road in Bridgewater, New Jersey, NYI's data center is less than 40 miles from Lower Manhattan and offers premier connectivity for trading platforms, backup processes and other latency-sensitive applications. The company offers a full suite of Internet infrastructure services extending from colocation to cloud. NYI's community of enterprise and net-centric customers is now just a cross-connect away from Lightower's all-fiber backbone.

"Augmenting carrier diversity should be every colocation provider's goal," says Phil Koblence, Chief Operating Officer for NYI. "Having Lightower build into our Bridgewater facility not only strengthens NYI's already-dense ecosystem of carriers and cloud providers, but also provides our customers strategic access to Lightower's dark fiber services."

"Lightower is always looking for ways to further expand our network, especially in the New York Metro market," explains Jason Campbell, Chief Operations Officer for Lightower Fiber Networks. "By establishing an all-fiber access point at NYI's Bridgewater facility, we continue to highlight our dedication to delivering market-leading networking solutions with customer friendly connectivity options."

NYI owns and operates data centers in New York and New Jersey. In addition to serving the Northeast, NYI also extends its data center, managed and cloud services across the country, with facilities located in Seattle and Los Angeles. For more information about NYI, visit www.nyi.net.

About NYI

At NYI, we are more than a data center operator. We are a solution-oriented, hands-on data center facilitator, taking the time to truly understand our clients' businesses and provide the support they require. Our approach is simple, effective and unique in the marketplace -- we look beyond our world-class data centers and focus on supporting customer growth and success, acting as a genuine extension of your IT team. Through our robust technology ecosystem, we quickly deliver solutions as your single point of contact for IT. Since 1996, we have provided our customers with fully managed, highly customized infrastructure solutions built to suit their specific business and mission critical IT needs.

Colocation - Cloud - Hybrid - Managed Services - Disaster Recovery

NYI is SSAE16/SOCI/PCI/HIPAA/HITECH Compliant. For more information, visit www.nyi.net; call (800) 288-7387; or follow the company on Twitter and LinkedIn.

For NYI media inquiries, please contact:

Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA)

+1.866.695.3629 ext. 13

Email Contact




NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Troymet Exploration Corp. (TSX VENTURE: TYE) ("Troymet" or the Company is pleased to report the successful completion of the Phase I RC drill program on its Wildcat gold-silver project in Juab County, Utah, held under option from Renaissance Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE: REN). Ten holes (1,321.2 metres) were drilled:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Target Area Holes Metres ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Core 5 809.0 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SE 2 363.6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- High Grade Hill 3 148.6 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Drilling tested structural and stratigraphic targets, alteration zones including de-calcification zones in carbonates, silicification-jasperoids, oxidation after sulphides and geochemical anomalies (News Release of May 10, 2016).

Drill samples will be analyzed by ALS Global, Reno, an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited facility. Results will be reported once received, interpreted and validated.

Troymet, through its wholly owned subsidiary Troymet USA LLC ("Troymet USA"), holds an option to acquire a 70% interest in the Wildcat property from Renaissance Exploration, Inc. ("RenEx"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Renaissance Gold Inc. Under the terms of the option agreement, Troymet USA has retained RenEx as its contractor to take advantage of RenEx's expertise and established infrastructure. Troymet USA is exclusively responsible for the planning, execution and supervision of all exploration programs.

Qualified Person

President and CEO, Kieran Downes, P. Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and verified the technical information provided in this release.

About Troymet Exploration Corp.

Troymet Exploration Corp. is a junior exploration company with a solid treasury and with projects in British Columbia (Redhill and Golden Eagle), Manitoba (McClarty Lake) and Utah (Wildcat). Troymet operates the Wildcat, Redhill and Golden Eagle projects. Hudbay Minerals Inc. is the operator of the McClarty Lake joint venture and must contribute $1,151,052 in joint venture expenditures before Troymet is required to fund its participating interest. Troymet retains a 2% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on the Key property, British Columbia, which was sold to New Gold Inc. in 2013.

TROYMET EXPLORATION CORP.

Kieran Downes, Ph.D., P.Geo., President, CEO & Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release contains certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information in respect of: the Wildcat Project, including the exploration potential and analogous deposit potential of the Wildcat Project; future data analysis, sampling plans and exploration plans on the Wildcat Project; exploration targets and the potential of such exploration targets; and the Phase I drill program of the Wildcat Project, including the commencement of drilling, the budgeted metres to be drilled and the number of drill holes in Phase I. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. This forward-looking information reflects Troymet's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Troymet and on assumptions Troymet believes are reasonable.

These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the current share price of Troymet's common shares and the ability to raise future equity financing, if needed, at prices acceptable to Troymet; Troymet's current and initial understanding and analysis of the Wildcat Project; the ability of Troymet to discover viable exploration targets and the results of exploration on the Wildcat Project; Troymet's general and administrative costs remaining constant; Troymet's cost assumptions for its exploration programs at the Wildcat Project and the market acceptance of Troymet's business strategy. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Troymet to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Troymet and its projects, and in particular, the Wildcat Project; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; capital market conditions and market prices for securities, junior market securities and mining exploration company securities; commodity prices; the actual results of current exploration and development or operational activities; competition; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents and other risks inherent in the mining industry; lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting Troymet; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of other assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of other risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Troymet's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Troymet does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Contacts:

Troymet Exploration Corp.

Investor Relations

250-729-0453

info@troymet.com

www.troymet.com




Leading German infrastructure provider to benefit from flexible, low-latency network

Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) has been selected by Link11, a German infrastructure provider and CDN specializing in DDoS protection and server hosting, to provide an Ethernet solution. The network for Link11 will span London, Frankfurt, Miami, New York and Los Angeles and leverages the recently acquired Viatel assets.

Zayo's E-LAN solution provides Link11 with a multipoint-to-multipoint configuration, consolidating fragmented elements into a unified, high-performance network. The solution features one overall data commitment for the entire network, providing the customer with the flexibility to move data allowances within the network to accommodate fluctuating demand.

Link11's customer base includes leading e-commerce, finance and insurance companies, with many providers and server hosts offering Link11's own products as white-label solutions. Zayo's dense networks in key cities ensure that Link11's and its customers' content is as close as possible to its end-users resulting in low-latency performance. This results in faster load times of data and websites and much higher reliability.

"For global companies like Link11 that are looking to connect multiple sites to their network, our E-LAN multipoint-to-multipoint service is an ideal solution," said Alastair Kane, managing director, Northern Europe at Zayo. "Our new network assets, acquired from Viatel and Allstream, have significantly expanded our footprint across Europe and Canada, providing customers with lower latency and better application performance."

"We pride our network on three attributes: availability, performance and security. Our customers rely on us for the safety of their data, which means our network has to be reliable and resilient. We make no compromises with our network, and we entrust Zayo with keeping our network always on," said Jens-Philipp Jung, managing director at Link11. "With more than 500 Gbps bandwidth capacity worldwide, Link11 has one of the largest networks as an anti DDoS solution provider in operation in Europe."

About Zayo

Zayo Group Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO) provides communications infrastructure services, including fiber and bandwidth connectivity, colocation and cloud services, to the world's leading businesses. Customers include wireless and wireline carriers, media and content companies and finance, healthcare and other large enterprises. Zayo's 112,000-mile network in North America and Europe includes extensive metro connectivity to thousands of buildings and data centers. In addition to high-capacity dark fiber, wavelength, Ethernet and other connectivity solutions, Zayo offers colocation and cloud services in its carrier-neutral data centers. Zayo provides clients with flexible, customized solutions and self-service through Tranzact, an innovative online platform for managing and purchasing bandwidth and services. For more information, visit zayo.com.

About Link11

Link11 GmbH is a German IT business specialised in DDoS protection and server hosting headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In 2011 Link11 successfully established a new and innovative product on the market called the DDoS Protection Cloud. This Link11 DDoS Protection has already been filed for patent and enables it to protect every website and complete server infrastructures from DDoS Attacks. Clients from the Top DAX 30 as well as e-commerce, finance, insurance, media and production sector all trust Link11's expertise. As one of today's large DDoS filter providers worldwide Link11 is connected by fiber highways with network locations between Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London. The constant network expansion includes further locations in Asia and the US.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005481/en/

Contacts:

Zayo Group Holdings Inc.

Media:

Shannon Paulk, Corporate Communications

303-577-5897

press@zayo.com

or

Investors:

Brad Korch, Investor Relations

720-306-7556

IR@zayo.com
PFORZHEIM, Germany and BIELEFELD, Germany, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

SAP full-service provider itelligence acquires 100 percent of the German SAP consulting and SAP Gold Channel Partner ITML GmbH

itelligence AG and ITML GmbH, Pforzheim, today announced the acquisition of ITML by itelligence AG. With effect from June 1, 2016, itelligence will take over 100 percent of the renowned South German SAP consulting company and SAP Gold Channel Partner, ITML GmbH.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160601/374311 )

With the acquisition of ITML, itelligence AG consolidates its position as the world's most successful SAP consulting house for the SME sector, continues its expansion in Germany and significantly increases its market presence in southern Germany. In addition, itelligence strengthens its position in the promising and fast-growing CRM segment, particularly in cloud solutions for customer relationship management (CRM), and in the area of customer commerce, with the ITML experts nationwide.

As an SAP Gold Channel Partner, ITML is one of SAP's main partners and is a key CRM specialist in the German-speaking countries. Its core competencies include not only SAP consulting and implementation, but it also has its own software suite for customer relationship management (CRM), which is fully integrated in SAP. ITML employs more than 160 people.

Herbert Vogel, CEO of itelligence AG says: "With ITML, we not only strengthen our presence in the lucrative southern-German market but also in the booming field of Customer Engagement & Commerce and omni-channel. SAP and ITML both offer sophisticated solutions which we can adapt to suit the SME sector."

For example, in a recent press release SAP reported particularly strong growth in its CRM / CEC cloud business: "In the first quarter, cloud revenue increased by 33 percent compared to last year. The rapidly-growing cloud business and solid growth in support revenue meant that the proportion of more-predictable total revenue generated reached a record level. The total revenue from cloud subscriptions and support and also from software support for the first quarter 2016 accounted for 69 percent of total sales."

Norbert Rotter, CFO of itelligence AG says: "The purchase of ITML GmbH is a strategic asset for itelligence AG. itelligence acquires an attractive customer base and significant CRM expertise. In addition, we are significantly strengthening our presence in south-western Germany, which we will continue to expand."

ITML's customers include international concerns, hidden champions from the SME sector and regional SME customers. In total ITML serves more than 400 customers.

Stefan Eller, founder and CEO of ITML GmbH says: "We are very excited about the new opportunity offered by itelligence AG. I expect that the integration of ITML will enable itelligence to increase CRM / CEC turnover significantly, because I am convinced that our customers and our employees will benefit from both the integration and our solutions alike. We are pleased that our mission to deliver user-friendly applications based on SAP solutions, will be continued and strengthened."

Tobias Wahner, founder and CEO ITML GmbH says: "itelligence is very well prepared for the future and offers us a great base on which to drive new innovation topics such as the Internet of Things (IoT) or cloud solutions. There are already data centres in operation, which means that new solutions by SAP and ITML for customers can be operated efficiently. Future-proof forms of operation and service, such as managed services, will therefore stay in the foreground. Existing and new solutions can also be offered to itelligence's extensive installed customer base of itelligence, so that they too will benefit from the stronger CRM focus."

The takeover by itelligence is being undertaken on the assumption of continuity. All employees of the previous ITML will be transferred. All three ITML-founders and CEOs will assume senior positions within itelligence. In addition, itelligence plans further recruitment in southern Germany.

Willy Krieler, founder and CEO of ITML GmbH and responsible for human-resources management, finance and IT says: "The acquisition by itelligence AG opens up many opportunities for our employees to develop professionally in an international environment. Each of our employees is and will remain valuable to us. The Pforzheim office will be maintained and further developed. Human resources and fair treatment is therefore still our focus, because if our skilled personnel can work happily and be highly motivated, it will also benefit our customers. We are confident that our exceptional team spirit will help us to develop rapidly together with our colleagues from itelligence. As we have come to know itelligence, we have learned that our corporate cultures, with their flat hierarchies, are very similar."

Dr. Andreas Pauls, Executive Vice President Managing Director Germany of itelligence AG says: "We are planning to use this strategic expansion to expand our cloud-based market share significantly, particularly in the area of CRM and in the hybris environment. For our customers this acquisition means a more extensive service network in Germany and even better advice on the topic of customer relationship management, which is one of the most important issues for the future."

The parties have agreed to refrain from comment on the specific purchase price.

itelligence AG

itelligence is one of the leading international full-service providers of solutions in support of SAP solutions, employing more than 5,000 highly qualified employees in 23 countries. As a frequently awarded SAP partner, among others global value-added reseller, itelligence is SAP-certified in cloud services, an SAP-certified provider of hosting services for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and an SAP platinum partner. itelligence realizes large projects in the SAP solution-based environment for customers worldwide. The company's services in support of SAP solutions range from consulting and licensing to application management services and hosting services to proprietary industry-specific SAP solutions. In 2015, itelligence generated total sales of EUR 696.2 million.

ITML GmbH

About ITML GmbH: ITML is an independent IT service provider with solutions for the entire SAP Business Suite. The company plans, builds and optimizes the smooth application of new and existing SAP applications - customers include SMEs up to global corporations. As an SAP Channel Partner with Gold Status, ITML is an important SME partner of SAP Germany AG & Co. KG. In addition to SAP solutions, ITML the only provider which offers CRM solutions which are fully integrated into SAP. ITML has grown continuously since its founding in 1998. At present the company, which has its headquarters in Pforzheim, employs more than 160 people. It also has locations in Dortmund and Biel (Switzerland).

SAP, SAP HANA, Hybris and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.



Public Relations:

Silvia Dicke

Tel:+49(0)521-91448-107

Fax:+49(0)521-91445-201

silvia.dicke@itelligence.de


Comprehensive ELUXA trial programme explores olmutinib* (BI 1482694) as a monotherapy and in several combination studies

Olmutinib will be studied in combination with the immuno-oncology therapy Keytruda , second-generation TKI Giotrif /Gilotrif , anti-angiogenic agents Vargatef and Avastin , and Boehringer Ingelheim's investigational IGF mAb BI 836845

, second-generation TKI Giotrif /Gilotrif , anti-angiogenic agents Vargatef and Avastin , and Boehringer Ingelheim's investigational IGF mAb BI 836845 Accelerated trial programme underway with ELUXA 1 trial fully enrolled; additional Phase III trials to start soon

Boehringer Ingelheim has initiated the ELUXA trial programme, designed to further investigate the therapeutic potential of olmutinib (BI 1482694 HM61713), a novel third-generation, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for the treatment of EGFR mutation-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The company will comprehensively investigate olmutinib as a monotherapy in different settings as well as in combination with investigational and established anti-cancer treatments, such as MSD's anti-PD-1 therapy, pembrolizumab (Keytruda). Third-generation EGFR TKIs, including olmutinib, aim to provide new, much-needed treatment options for patients who have developed resistance to first- and second-generation TKIs and their potential as new treatment options in first-line is currently being investigated.

The ELUXA trial programme builds on the encouraging clinical data seen in the Phase I/II HM-EMSI-101 trial investigating olmutinib in EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer patients who have become resistant to first-line TKI therapy. The trial was the basis for the first registration of olmutinib in South Korea. An updated analysis of this trial will be presented at ASCO 2016.

Dr Mehdi Shahidi, Medical Head, Solid Tumour Oncology, Boehringer Ingelheim commented, "With encouraging activity of olmutinib observed in patients with EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC, we are proudly announcing our extensive ELUXA trial programme. We are excited to apply our expertise in this field, gained during the continuing development of afatinib through the LUX-Lung programme, and launch another comprehensive clinical programme. The ELUXA trial programme is designed to shed further light on our understanding of EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer to ultimately improve the outcomes for patients with high unmet medical need."

Olmutinib will be investigated as a monotherapy through the following trials:

ELUXA 1 (HM-EMSI-202) : This Phase II trial was initiated in 2015 and aims to help establish the safety and efficacy of olmutinib in patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive lung cancer, following initial EGFR TKI treatment. The study has completed enrolment with more than 150 patients worldwide and will form the basis of regulatory submissions

: This Phase II trial was initiated in 2015 and aims to help establish the safety and efficacy of olmutinib in patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive lung cancer, following initial EGFR TKI treatment. The study has completed enrolment with more than 150 patients worldwide and will form the basis of regulatory submissions ELUXA 2 : This Phase III trial will be initiated in 2016 to investigate the efficacy and safety of olmutinib in comparison to standard, platinum-doublet chemotherapy for patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive lung cancer, whose disease progressed on one prior EGFR TKI treatment

: This Phase III trial will be initiated in 2016 to investigate the efficacy and safety of olmutinib in comparison to standard, platinum-doublet chemotherapy for patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive lung cancer, whose disease progressed on one prior EGFR TKI treatment ELUXA 3 : This Phase III head-to-head trial to be initiated in 2016 will investigate olmutinib as a first-line treatment compared to a second-generation EGFR TKI, afatinib (Giotrif /Gilotrif ), in patients with EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC

: This Phase III head-to-head trial to be initiated in 2016 will investigate olmutinib as a first-line treatment compared to a second-generation EGFR TKI, afatinib (Giotrif /Gilotrif ), in patients with EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC ELUXA 4 : This Phase I/II trial in Japanese patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive NSCLC will be initiated in 2016

: This Phase I/II trial in Japanese patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive NSCLC will be initiated in 2016 ELUXA 6: This Phase II study will be the first trial to prospectively use blood-based biomarker testing to select patients with EGFR T790M mutation-positive NSCLC where a needle biopsy may not be appropriate

As the landscape of lung cancer care changes, and the development of novel therapies and biomarker testing continue to rapidly evolve, Boehringer Ingelheim is committed to investigating how treatment approaches might be combined to develop more effective therapies and sequences of treatments for patients. By targeting multiple oncogenic mechanisms, research suggests that combinations may overcome drug resistance and better control cancer, delivering improved outcomes for patients.

The ELUXA trial programme will investigate olmutinib in different settings of EGFR mutation-positive lung cancer in combination with both Boehringer Ingelheim compounds and treatments developed by external parties. These trials will include:

Olmutinib in combination with pembrolizumab (Keytruda ), a new collaboration through a subsidiary of MSD (MSD is also known as Merck in the U.S. and Canada)

), a new collaboration through a subsidiary of MSD (MSD is also known as Merck in the U.S. and Canada) Olmutinib plus afatinib (Giotrif /Gilotrif

(Giotrif /Gilotrif Olmutinib plus IGF ligand-neutralizing antibody BI 836845

Olmutinib plus oral nintedanib (Vargatef

(Vargatef Olmutinib plus bevacizumab (Avastin

Olmutinib (BI 1482694 HM61713) is approved in South Korea for the treatment of EGFR T790M mutation-positive lung cancer. Olmutinib is not approved in other indications and jurisdictions. Trials are ongoing and data will be submitted to other regulatory bodies in due course.

Afatinib is approved in a number of markets, including the EU, Japan, Taiwan and Canada under the brand name Giotrif, in the US under the brand name Gilotrif and in India under the brand name Xovoltib for use in patients with distinct types of EGFR mutation-positive NSCLC. Afatinib is also approved in the EU, US and other markets for the treatment of patients with advanced SqCC of the lung whose disease has progressed (on or) after treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy. Afatinib is under regulatory review by health authorities in other countries worldwide. Registration conditions differ internationally, please refer to locally approved prescribing information.

Nintedanib is approved in the EU under the brand name Vargatef for use in combination with docetaxel in adult patients with locally advanced, metastatic or locally recurrent NSCLC of adenocarcinoma tumour histology after first-line chemotherapy. Nintedanib is not approved in other oncology indications. Nintedanib is under regulatory review by health authorities in other countries outside the EU.

BI 836845 is not approved and its efficacy and safety have not yet been fully established.

KEYTRUDA is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck Co., Inc.

Intended audiences:

This press release is issued from our Corporate Headquarters in Ingelheim, Germany and is intended to provide information about our global business. Please be aware that information relating to the approval status and labels of approved products may vary from country to country, and a country-specific press release on this topic may have been issued in the countries where we do business.

For more information please visit: www.boehringer-ingelheim.com

~ ENDS ~

For references and notes to editors, please visit

http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/boehringer-ingelheim-launches-ambitious-eluxa-trial-programme

Further Media Channels

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View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005716/en/

Contacts:

Boehringer Ingelheim

Corporate Communications

Media PR

Reinhard Malin

Phone: +49 (6132) 77-90815

Fax: +49 6132 77 6601

Email: press@boehringer-ingelheim.com
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Aria Systems, which helps enterprises grow recurring revenue, today announced that award-winning brand expert John Cinquina, author of Build Great Brands and founder of Red Meets Blue, has featured Aria CEO Tom Dibble in the new "Thought Leaders" video series. In Thought Leaders, Cinquina looks to innovators in New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles to glean insights on the changing relationship between customers and brands. Thought Leaders presents a broad range of perspectives on technology, advertising, iconic brands, growth hacking, and innovation.

"The world is changing and the way that we interact with brands and each other is changing with it," says Cinquina. "In 2015, we filmed a series of conversations with thought leaders in the USA to hear from them on the global market, entrepreneurship, and innovation and brands. The resulting series of 'Thought Leaders' is a high paced, edgy and entrepreneurial collection of five episodes from experts, innovators and leaders."

In Cinquina's interview with Tom Dibble, the topics range from what makes a brand, the difference between the most recent tech "gold rush" and today's business climate, advice for startups, and the consumer mandate.

In the interview, Dibble is frank about today's business models and some of the biggest transformations taking shape: "There's been a dramatic shift for Fortune 500 companies with their willingness to buy cloud services from younger, more agile startups," said Dibble. "We're definitely seeing a shift back to best-of-breed for CRM, for marketing automation, for monetization, and other critical systems. Customers would much rather have the best technology vs. just a one stop shop because the line of business drives the project more often now, and they don't want to compromise on features and functions."

To view the series, visit www.thoughtleadersfilms.com.

About Aria Systems

Aria Systems' cloud billing and monetization platform is the consensus analyst choice, top ranked by Forrester, MGI, Ventana and TEC. Innovative enterprises like Adobe, Philips and Zipcar depend on Aria to accelerate time to market and increase flexibility, enabling them to maximize customer value and grow recurring revenue through subscription and usage-based offerings. For more information, visit: www.ariasystems.com.

Aria Systems and the Aria logo are trademarks of Aria Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Press Contacts

Parker Trewin

Aria Systems

+1 415 549 2531

Email Contact



Marina Greenwood

Activa PR

+1 415 776 5350

Email Contact




BRUSSELS, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Thailand has been put on formal notice that it faces a potentially crippling exports ban unless further action is taken to tackle fishing irregularities.

The European Union says that it is dissatisfied with progress made in improving conditions in the Thai fishing sector.

Brussels has now given Thailand another six months to end illegal fishing over a year after the European Commission threatened Bangkok with a trade ban.

A source at the European External Action Service (EEAS) said no decision had yet been taken on a red card, or export ban.

"But," cautioned the spokesman, "we keep the yellow card and continue the dialogue with the Thai authorities."

The EEAS says it will wait to see if "enough progress has been made" before it reaches a decision on whether to remove the yellow card.

Since receiving the warning from the EU in April 2015, an EU source said that several issues have yet to be addressed, particularly the installation of tracking systems on fishing trawlers and the enforcement of laws.

The Thai authorities are making more regular checks on vessels and demanded employers give workers written contracts but the issue for many MEPs are human rights on boats, including labour abuses and human traffickers selling people on to boats.

The EU's yellow card is seen as having been a "wakeup call" to deal with an obsolete fisheries law and if it fails to address the issue, Thailand risks getting a red card, which means the EU would ban the country's seafood imports.

To read the full story please visit EU Reporter

Contact:

publisher@eureporter.co

+44 (0)7548 034225


COSTA MESA, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- NEMUS Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB: NMUS) has announced, in conjunction with the company's research and commercialization partner, the University of Mississippi (UM or the University), the identification of a unique cannabidiol (CBD) derivative possessing analgesic properties, that will be advanced through Investigational New Drug (IND)-enabling studies for the treatment of pain disorders, especially those related to neuropathy.

In December of 2015, NEMUS announced that the company had in-licensed a number of CBD derivatives from UM. Since that time, NEMUS and the University have been conducting research to assess the biologic activity, bioavailability, and pharmacokinetics of leading CBD derivative candidates for commercialization.

"Research conducted at UM, under the joint supervision of faculty members Mahmoud ElSohly and Kenneth Sufka, has identified a lead CBD derivative candidate for further developmental advancement," reports Brian Murphy, MD, MBA, the CEO and CMO of NEMUS. "In vitro and in vivo testing of the molecule, particularly in a rodent model of tactile allodynia induced by cisplatin, revealed significant analgesic effect provided by our lead CBD-like molecule, commensurate with that provided by high-dose morphine. The ability to develop a family of cannabinoid-based molecules for pain management could allow for significant therapeutic alternatives, especially in the current opioid abuse crisis."

Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, professor at the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi, commented: "The University has conducted cannabinoid research for more than four decades and our relationship with NEMUS enables us to unlock the commercialization potential of our library of compounds to treat and manage a spectrum of diseases. We are eager to further the scope of our research utilizing other cannabinoid derivatives in our portfolio in an effort to alter the pathology of chronic diseases as well as acute infectious processes."

Dr. Kenneth J. Sufka, professor of Psychology and Pharmacology and Research Professor with the National Center for Natural Products Research at UM, noted, "Our research has examined multiple routes of administration, including parenteral and non-parenteral means. Our team expects to present this data at a future medical conference. Moving forward, we plan to further explore topical and buccal patch methods of delivery in our next phase of testing, as this formulation has exhibited superior absorption over CBD itself, leading to half-life enhancement."

Dr. Murphy concluded, "The global pain management market is expected to exceed $35 billion by 2017 (GBI Research) fueled by an increased incidence of cancer-related pain as populations age and neuropathic pain management owing to the obesity and diabetic epidemics in developed countries. NEMUS expects this CBD-like molecule will be initially developed for use in chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), complementing our THC-prodrug being developed for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV). Together, these programs form the basis of our palliative-care treatment initiatives, with our goal to begin early human testing later this year."

ABOUT NEMUS BIOSCIENCE, INC.

The Company is a biopharmaceutical company, headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of cannabinoid-based therapeutics for significant unmet medical needs in global markets. Utilizing certain proprietary technology licensed from the University of Mississippi, NEMUS is working to develop novel ways to deliver cannabinoid-based drugs for specific indications, with the aim of optimizing the clinical effects of such drugs, while limiting the potential adverse events. NEMUS' strategy will explore the use of natural and synthetic compounds, alone or in combination. The Company is led by a highly qualified team of executives with decades of biopharmaceutical experience and significant background in early-stage drug development.

For more information, visit http://www.nemusbioscience.com

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties, including statements about the potential benefits of cannabinoid-based medicine and the timing of our near term, intermediate term and long term goals. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price could be materially negatively affected. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology including "goal," "focus," "aims," "believes," "can," "challenge," "predictable" "will," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. We operate in a rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. As a result, it is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements the Company may make. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, uncertainty regarding the results of future testing and development efforts and other risks that are described in the Risk Factors section of NEMUS' most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by law, NEMUS disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

CONTACT:

PCG Advisory Group

Investor Relations

Adam Holdsworth

Email: adamh@pcgadvisory.com

Phone: 646-862-4607



Media Relations

Sean Leous

Email: sleous@pcgadvisory.com

Phone: 646-863-8998




OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- GrowPros Cannabis Ventures Inc. ("GrowPros" or the "Company" or "GCI") (CSE: GCI) is pleased to announce the creation of a new subsidiary PhytoPain Pharma Inc. ("PPP"). PPP will be owned 80% by GCI and with 20% owned by Dr. Guy Chamberland, M.Sc., Ph.D. and Mr. Andre Rancourt as co-founders with GCI.

The mission of PPP is the development and commercialization of botanical based pharmaceuticals. PPP is a clinical-stage drug development company engaged in the development of medication to alleviate symptoms related to pain, Insomnia and anxiety disorders in patients suffering from Cancer and other chronic and terminal diseases that cause uncontrolled pain and or insomnia.

PPP has submitted a pre-CTA (Clinical Trial Applications) information package to the Therapeutics Drug Directorate (TPD). As agreed with TPD, Health Canada will provide guidance to PPP's planned Phase I clinical trial of its lead product, an inhalation cannabis drug product. The company intends on initiating the Phase I clinical trial later this year. PPP is developing this product as a prescription controlled drug for the management of uncontrolled pain in cancer patients.

PPP has licenced a hypnotic drug from Mondias Naturals Inc for the management of insomnia in patients with chronic pain. This latter product is currently in late stage (Phase III) clinical testing. PPP is currently developing a combination product for the treatment of uncontrolled pain. The proprietary combination product should reach clinical testing in 2017.

GrowPros announced today that Dr. Guy Chamberland, M.Sc., Ph.D., was appointed as Chief Scientific Officer and will take over the role of drug development and regulatory affairs. "The Board of Directors and I are delighted that Guy has agreed to join PPP," said Andre Audet, Chairman. "Guy is someone with tremendous expertise in drug development and specifically the development of botanical drugs and combination products, his unquestioned intellect, work ethic, and integrity will prove to be of great value to the GCI organization and its shareholders."

Dr. Chamberland has worked over 22 years in the pharmaceutical and natural product industries and is also a professor of herbal medicine and clinical research at the Ecole d'Enseignement Superieur de Naturopathie du Quebec. He has successfully developed intellectual property for several botanical drug products and has managed numerous development programs and worked closely with marketing teams to develop physician education programs.

GCI is also announcing today that Andre Rancourt was appointed as the Vice President Corporate Development and will take over the strategic and licencing operations of PPP.

Mr. Rancourt is highly experienced in management, start-up companies, and commercial strategies for human and agriculture products. He has developed an expertise in the area of negotiation and has successfully negotiated collective agreements for Station Radiophonique Regional de Telemedia Quebec as well as agreements for companies in the metal and Agro-Food businesses. In addition, he negotiated license agreements as well as several technology transfers. Over the last ten years, Mr. Rancourt worked as a consultant to re-organize the operations of companies on behalf of several venture capital investment funds.

"Andre is someone with tremendous expertise in negotiation and has a vast network of contacts in the industry. His dedication and work ethic will benefit the PPP organization and its shareholders. The Board of Directors and I are excited that Andre is joining PPP to help the corporation become a world leader in botanical drugs," commented Andre Audet, Chairman.

Subject to regulatory approval, Mr. Rancourt and Dr. Chamberland will each receive from GrowPros:

a. upon submission of pre-CTA information package: 1,250,000 options at $0.05 for 5 years and 750,000 common shares warrants at $0.05 for 1 year; b. upon commencement of Phase 1 clinical trials of PPP0001: 2,000,000 common shares warrants at $0.05 for 2 years; and c. upon successful completion of Phase 1 clinical trials of PPP0001: 2,000,000 common shares warrants at $0.05 for 3 years

"The creation of PPP provides GCI with a clear and defined approach to medicinal cannabis product development. GCI 's subsidiaries will now be able to collaborate on the development and design of a cannabis production facility designed to produce the standardized raw material that PPP will require to develop and bring their inhalation cannabis drug product to market. Rather than being another applicant producer vying for a piece of an already oversaturated ever changing dried flower and cannabis oils market, we will now focus on creating licensed protected pharmaceutical and natural health products containing cannabis and other medicinal plants," commented Ryan Brown, Chief Executive Officer.

Update on application

GCI is finalising technical plans for its revised 12,500 sq. ft. two-storey production facility to be built in conjunction with Delta 9 Bio-Tech Inc. ("Delta 9") a licensed producer under the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulation ("MMPR"). As previously announced, Delta 9 will be submitting an application to build a secondary production facility under section 26 of the MMPR. As per the terms of the agreement, GCI will acquire the license from Delta 9 in exchange for $2,000,000 in stock payable in 5 equal payments upon milestone completions.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) has not reviewed this news release and does not accept responsibility for its adequacy or accuracy.

Forward-looking statements

Some statements in this release may contain forward-looking information. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding potential acquisitions and financings) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "may", "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "intend", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, the inability of the Company, through its wholly-owned subsidiary, GrowPros MMP Inc., to obtain a licence for the production of medical marijuana; failure to obtain sufficient financing to execute the Company's business plan; competition; regulation and anticipated and unanticipated costs and delays, and other risks disclosed in the Company's public disclosure record on file with the relevant securities regulatory authorities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results or events not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company does not undertake an obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise unless required by applicable securities legislation.

Contacts:

GrowPros Cannabis Ventures Inc.

Ryan Brown

Chief Executive Officer

(613) 421-8402



GrowPros Cannabis Ventures Inc.

Andre Audet

Executive Chairman

(613) 421-8402



GrowPros Cannabis Ventures Inc.

Dr. Guy Chamberland

Chief Scientific Officer and Regulatory Affairs

(514) 220-9225




QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Petrolia (TSX VENTURE: PEA) is pleased to announce the first crude oil delivery from its long-term production test initiated last May 18th. Two tanker trucks holding nearly 530 barrels of crude oil are heading for a Quebec refinery. This represents the first shipment of a portion of the crude oil produced since the beginning of the production test.

The long-term production test aims to gather data, over a period of 240 days, to help estimate the economic potential of the project and eventually submit a production lease request.

About Petrolia

Petrolia is a junior oil and gas exploration company which owns interests in oil and gas licenses covering 16,000 km2 (4 million acres), which represents almost 23% of the Quebec territory under lease. The closing of a partnership on Anticosti Island has led to the creation of Anticosti Hydrocarbons L.P., a limited partnership in which Petrolia holds a 21.7% interest. In order to carry out the project's operations, Petrolia Anticosti Inc., a subsidiary of Petrolia, was designated project operator. Petrolia is a Quebec company whose objective is to develop oil from here, by the people here, for here. Petrolia has 92 420 195 shares issued and outstanding.

Disclaimer

Certain statements made herein may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or the future economic performance of Petrolia and carry known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may appreciably affect their results, economic performance or accomplishments when considered in light of the content or implications or statements made by Petrolia. Actual events or results could be significantly different. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Petrolia disclaims any intention or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Alexandre Gagnon

President and CEO

418-657-1966

agagnon@petrolia-inc.com



For Interviews

Jean-Francois Belleau

Director of Public and Governmental Affairs

418-657-1966

jfbelleau@petrolia-inc.com




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/22/16 -- The Alberta Medical Association (AMA) will install its president for 2016 on Saturday, September 24, during its Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Representative Forum (RF) at the Hyatt Regency in Calgary. The AMA president serves a one-year term, in addition to one year each as president-elect and immediate past president.

Dr. Padraic E. Carr will officially assume the role of AMA president at the end of the RF meeting on Saturday afternoon. Dr. Carr is a psychiatrist in Edmonton. He received his medical degree in 1990 from the University of Alberta. In 1995 he became site leader/facility chief for Grey Nuns Community Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, a position he held for 11 years. He was president of the Professional Association of Resident Physicians of Alberta, the Alberta Psychiatric Association, the Grey Nuns Community Hospital Medical Staff, and representative to the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association for Western Canada. More recently, he was president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association. He was recognized internationally in 2004 as a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Carr has mentored and instructed medical students and residents for 21 years and is currently a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Carr has been actively involved on many AMA committees, beginning in 1992 as the resident representative on the Committee on Constitution and Bylaws. He was a member of the Board of Directors from 2006-14 and has been a Representative Forum delegate since 2003. In his role as AMA president, Dr. Carr will serve as a member of the Board of Directors and on various committees.

During the AGM, current AMA President Dr. Carl W. Nohr will reflect on some of the highlights of his year as president and comment on the events and issues that have defined his term.

Dr. Nohr will also officially welcome the Canadian Medical Association's (CMA's) 149th President, Dr. Granger R. Avery, to Alberta. Dr. Avery became CMA president in August at the CMA's Annual General Meeting, held this year in Vancouver.

At the Lunch with the CMA President on Saturday, Dr. Avery will officially install Dr. Carr as the AMA president, address RF delegates and present the CMA Honorary Membership awards to Alberta physicians.

Dr. Avery, a world traveler in his youth, studied at the University of London in England and Auckland University in New Zealand before settling in British Columbia in 1973. Following additional training and a residency, he started a general practice in Port McNeil, which included emergency medicine, obstetrics, surgery and general anesthesia. He has been teaching at the University of British Columbia for over 35 years. He became president of the BC Medical Association (now Doctors of BC) in 1997. In that role, he improved rural physician recruitment in BC and authored the "Wait List" system, which recorded the number of patients awaiting surgery and diagnostic care, now a national initiative. Recognizing the need for a coordinated medical body to help manage issues faced by those practicing in rural environments, he created with government the first BCMA Collaborative Committee, which now manages BC's rural programs.

Dr. Avery has been involved in the CMA for many years in various roles and is a member of a range of associations and commissions. He has been working to improve the "continuum of care" - a physician's life cycle and the necessary system supports. In recognition of his contributions, Dr. Avery has received many awards including the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal for his services to rural medicine.

The Representative Forum is the governing body of the AMA. It includes representatives of all sectors of the profession - specialty sections, zones, students, residents, past presidents and deans of medicine. The RF meets at least twice a year to establish policy and set direction.

Contacts:

Shannon Rupnarain

Assistant Executive Director, Public Affairs

Alberta Medical Association

Cell: 780.907.9003

media@albertadoctors.org




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/06/16 -- Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: CEM) ("Constantine" or the "Company") is pleased to announce start of the 2016 drill program at the Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold Project ("Palmer" or "Project") in Southeast Alaska. The work is part of a US$3.7 million budget for 2016 that is funded by partner Dowa Metals & Mining Co., Ltd. ("Dowa").

This year's exploration program is starting by drilling several high quality VMS targets outboard of the known mineral deposit. Principal targets for the 1700 meter first phase drill program include:

-- An untested zone of intense VMS footwall style alteration exposed in a creek drainage approximately 1000 meters on strike and east of the mineral resource -- Depth and strike extensions of silver-rich massive barite sulphide mineralization at the Cap prospect where limited historic drilling has intersected 134 g/t silver over 23.2 meters and 31 g/t silver over 90.6 meters; Cap is one of several stratigraphically linked prospects that define a hydrothermal system of comparable scale to the RW-South Wall resource area that is located 2500 meters to the northeast -- A strong conductor anomaly identified by geophysical surveys in 2015 that is supported by the presence of mineralized boulders grading up to 16.1% zinc and 13.2 g/t silver, located 1000 meters to the north of the mineral resource

Garfield MacVeigh, President and CEO, states, "We are excited to be stepping out beyond the immediate resource and begin testing other high-quality prospects that surround the known deposit. The new exploration drilling will occur in parallel with important advanced exploration work that is focused on evaluating the high-grade RW and South Wall resources that are open to expansion in multiple directions."

The 2016 field program includes environmental, hydrogeology and engineering studies in support of the ongoing evaluation of the inferred mineral resource required for the next steps to advance the project. Work in 2016 will also include road construction and the completion of several geotechnical drill holes.

About the Palmer Project

Palmer is a resource expansion stage, high-grade volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) project, with an Inferred Mineral Resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver(i). The Project is being advanced in partnership with Dowa, who can earn 49% in the project by making aggregate expenditures of US $22 million by December 31, 2016. The project is located in a very accessible part of coastal Southeast Alaska, with road access to the edge of the property and within 60 kilometers of the year-round deep sea port of Haines. Mineralization at Palmer occurs within the same belt of rocks that is host to the Greens Creek mine, one of the world's richest VMS deposits. There are at least 25 separate base metal and/or barite occurrences and prospects on the Palmer property, indicating the potential for discovery of multiple deposits a few of which will be tested this exploration year.

About the Company

Constantine is a mineral exploration company led by a proven technical team with a focus on premier North American mining environments. The company's principal asset is the Palmer copper-zinc-silver-gold VMS Project located in Alaska that is being advanced in partnership with Dowa Metals & Mining Co., Ltd. Constantine also controls a pipeline of quality gold projects in the Timmins camp Ontario and Yukon. Management is committed to meaningful community engagement, environmental stewardship, and responsible mineral exploration activities that support local jobs and businesses. Please visit the Company's website (www.constantinemetals.com) for more detailed company and project information.

On Behalf of Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.

Garfield MacVeigh, President

(i) 8.125 million tonne inferred resource grading 1.41% copper, 5.25% zinc, 0.32 g/t gold and 31.7 g/t silver. See the Company's news release dated May 11, 2015 and the Company's technical report entitled "NI 43-101 Technical Report and Updated Resource Estimate Palmer Exploration Project" dated June 24, 2015 available on www.sedar.com. Resource estimate utilizes an NSR cut-off of US$75/t with assumed metal prices of US$1200/oz for gold, US$18/oz for silver, US$2.75/lb for copper, and US$1.00/lb for zinc. Estimated metal recoveries are 89.6% for copper, 84.9% for zinc, 75% for gold (61.5% to the Cu concentrate and 13.5% to the Zn concentrate) and 89.7% for silver (73.7% to the Cu concentrate and 16% to the Zn concentrate) as determined from metallurgical locked cycle flotation tests. An "Inferred Mineral Resource is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity and grade or quality can be estimated on the basis of geological evidence and limited sampling and reasonably assumed, but not verified, geological and grade continuity. Confidence in the estimate is insufficient to allow the meaningful application of technical and economic parameters or to enable an evaluation of economic viability worthy of public disclosure.

Darwin Green, VP Exploration for Constantine Metal Resources Ltd. and a qualified person as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release.

Notes:

Forward looking statements: This news release includes certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (collectively "forward looking statements")." Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "forecast", "expect", "potential", "project", "target", "schedule", budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the expected. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Company's expectations include actual exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause such actions, events or results to differ materially from those anticipated. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate and accordingly readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.

Garfield MacVeigh

President

604-629-2348

info@constantinemetals.com



Constantine Metal Resources Ltd.

Darwin Green

VP Exploration

604-629-2348

info@constantinemetals.com




NEW YORK, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --Navatar, the connected growth platform for financial services firms, is proud to announce the expansion of its global footprint with the launch of a new office inLondon. The Navatar London office will help boost its presence in the EMEA market and complement sister offices in New York and India.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130715/PH46787LOGO

The new office, located at 99 Bishopsgate in the heart of London's financial district, will be used for sales and customer support as well as to better understand the needs of European firms. Navatar already has more than 100 customers in the EMEA market in countries such as UK, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, France, Turkey and UAE (read recent JLL case study here).

Navatar's platform serves asset management, private equity, M&A advisors, hedge funds, real estate funds, venture capital, wealth management, private placement, corporate development, and others.

"Even though financial firms in EMEA have their unique needs, they interact with their investors and investments worldwide," said Alok Misra, CEO of Navatar. "Our European office will help them meet their local needs, while giving them a global reach."

To watch a demo of Navatar M&A, click here, or go to:

http://navatargroup.com/Download_MA.php?download=VIEW%20DEMO%20-%20Merger%20and%20Acquisitions

To watch a demo of Navatar Private Equity, click here, or go to:

http://navatargroup.com/Download_Private_equity.php?download=VIEW%20DEMO%20Private%20Equity%20/%20Venture%20Capital

Please visit Navatar's product overview page for demos of its other solutions:

http://navatargroup.com/financial-services-cloud/navatar-products-overview.php

ABOUT NAVATAR

Hundreds of financial services firms in 35 countries depend on Navatar (@navatargroup) to power their client management and drive front-end performance. Navatar is a connected growth platform -- always evolving to help clients lead, not lag the changing markets and the competition.

Built on Salesforce, Navatar is also known for its industry-specific workflow solutions for private equity, M&A, hedge funds, real estate funds, venture capital, corporate development, wealth management, private placement and others. Navatar clients include PNC, JLL, Cowen Group and Evercore.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/financial-services-industry-cloud-provider-navatar-opens-london-office-to-serve-private-equity-funds-hedge-funds-pere-funds-and-ma-advisory-firms-in-emea-300278627.html
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Sotheby's International Realty Canada today released data revealing significant gains in single family home sales over $1 million in Greater Victoria from January 1 to May 31, 2016, reflecting strengthening demand for luxury homes in the region.

In the first five months of 2016, the volume of detached single family homes sold over $1 million increased 240% year-over-year to 388 units, an increase from 114 homes sold at this price range during the same period in 2015. The $4 million-plus market also experienced a significant upswing during this period, as the market absorbed ultra-luxury homes at a velocity not experienced in recent years. Eight detached single family homes in the $4 million-plus bracket sold in Victoria during the first five months of this year, a substantial year-over-year increase given that there were no single family homes sold over the $4 million-plus mark during the same period in 2015. Multiple offers and sales over asking price indicated sellers' market conditions, and the luxury neighbourhoods of Oak Bay-Gordon Head, North Saanich and James Bay experienced some of the greatest demand within the Greater Victoria region during this time.

According to Sotheby's International Realty Canada, demand for top-tier real estate in Victoria is expected to remain strong as the first half of 2016 draws to a close, propelled by consumer confidence due to local economic optimism and below-national average unemployment rates, growing interest and migration from Vancouver homebuyers seeking alternatives, escalating interest from Alberta buyers, and increased awareness of Victoria real estate as an investment opportunity for buyers from mainland China.

"We expect to see the intensity experienced in the first few months of 2016 to remain into the foreseeable future," predicts Tom Stratton, Managing Broker for Sotheby's International Realty Canada in Victoria and Kelowna. "Victoria has always offered an attractive lifestyle for people at all life-stages whether they're students, young families or retirees. Luxury real estate within Victoria has now been 'discovered' by a much broader audience. Given current market conditions, we expect to see more buyers from both the Greater Vancouver and Alberta regions move into the market to access attractive, and relatively affordable, luxury housing."

Key Luxury Market Drivers

- Victoria's economy is projected to post its strongest gains since 2007 with GDP forecast to expand by a solid 2.3% this year according to the Conference Board of Canada, which ranked the market among the top ten fastest growing cities in Canada for 2016. An optimistic local economic outlook and unemployment rate that is below the national average of 7.1% at 6.2% as of April 2016 has fostered consumer confidence in the real estate market.

- Steeply escalating single family home pricing in Vancouver is driving demand for luxury options outside the Lower Mainland, including in Victoria, as buyers priced out of top-tier real estate in Vancouver seek alternatives. While benchmark pricing for detached homes was at $3,199,600 in Vancouver West and $1,345,400 in Vancouver East in April 2016, the benchmark price for a single family home in Victoria was $684,900. Attracted to the relative value and accessibility of Victoria luxury real estate, buyers from Vancouver were the most influential, non-local cohort within the market in the first five months of 2016.

- Interest in the Victoria luxury real estate market increased from Alberta buyers in the first five months of 2016. In particular, Victoria has seen notable interest from retired Calgary buyers looking to put down roots further west.

- Increased awareness of Victoria's top-tier market from mainland Chinese buyers, who have been significant influencers in Vancouver's luxury real estate market in recent years, has resulted in an increase in activity in Victoria. The primary, non-local driver of high-end Victoria real estate, however, are homebuyers from Vancouver.

About Sotheby's International Realty Canada

Combining the world's most prestigious real estate brand with local market knowledge and specialized marketing expertise, Sotheby's International Realty Canada is the leading real estate sales and marketing company for the country's most exceptional properties. With offices in over 30 residential and resort markets nationwide, our professional associates provide the highest caliber of real estate service, unrivaled local and international marketing solutions and a global affiliate sales network of over 845 offices in more than 63 countries to manage the real estate portfolios of discerning clients from around the world. For further information, visit www.sothebysrealty.ca.

Contacts:

Talk Shop Media

Laura Mitchell

604.738.2220

laura[at]talkshopmedia[dot]com




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- InZinc Mining Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: IZN) ("InZinc" or the "Company") announces that Chris Staargaard has resigned as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of InZinc to pursue other interests effective June 1, 2016. The board thanks Mr. Staargaard for his instrumental role in the advancement of the West Desert project and his many years of dedicated service to the Company and wishes him the best in his future endeavours.

Mr. Kerry Curtis, Independent Chairman and Director of InZinc since 2012, will assume the role of Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

Mr. Curtis has over 30 years of experience in exploration, feasibility, permitting, financing and development as well as corporate development and general corporate affairs. He is the former President, CEO and Director of Cumberland Resources where his responsibilities included the successful exploration of the Meadowbank gold project into one of Canada's largest gold resources. Under his leadership, this was followed by a production decision and initial construction at which point the company was acquired by Agnico-Eagle Mines in a transaction valued at $730 million. Mr. Curtis has worked on a wide variety of exploration to production stage polymetallic and precious metal deposits in the Americas for senior and junior listed companies and private resource investment companies.

"InZinc is in a comparatively rare position, owning a significant North American zinc resource in a positive jurisdiction with abundant infrastructure. West Desert also comprises a large mineralized system which has yet to be fully explored," stated Kerry Curtis, Chairman and Interim CEO of InZinc. "The Company is in a good position to leverage our experience and skills for growth and I am excited to work more closely with the management and board of InZinc to achieve this."

For his services as Interim CEO, Mr. Curtis has agreed to accept stock options in lieu of cash compensation.

Election of Directors

InZinc is also pleased to announce that the nominees listed in the Management Proxy Circular for the 2016 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on May 26, 2016 were elected as Directors of InZinc. Results of the vote for the election of Directors are tabulated below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Director Votes For % Votes Withheld % ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kerry Curtis 12,765,263 99.45 71,000 0.55 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wayne Hubert 12,765,263 99.45 71,000 0.55 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Louis Montpellier 12,765,263 99.45 71,000 0.55 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris Staargaard(i) 12,815,263 99.84 21,000 0.16 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (i) Chris Staargaard subsequently resigned as Director of InZinc effective June 1, 2016. Mr. Staargaard will remain as a consultant to the Company.

In addition, the following resolutions were passed:

1. The appointment and remuneration of auditors Davidson and Company LLP 2. Annual approval of the 2004 Incentive Stock Option Plan

Issuance of Stock Options

InZinc announces the grant of stock options to directors, officers and consultants to purchase a total of 2,650,000 common shares of the Company for a period of five (5) years at an exercise price of $0.09 per share effective May 31, 2016.

These stock options will vest as to 50% immediately and 50% on May 31, 2017.

About InZinc Mining Ltd.

InZinc owns a 100% interest in the West Desert zinc-copper-iron project located in western Utah. West Desert hosts a large and potentially expandable resource and benefits from all-weather road access, on-site grid power and proximity to natural gas transmission. It is located 90 kilometres (55 miles) from multiple transcontinental rail networks accessing all major North American markets and servicing a variety of western US ports. For more information please visit our website at www.inzincmining.com.

InZinc Mining Ltd.

Kerry Curtis, Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and US securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's next shareholder meeting. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results, performance, or actions and that actual results and actions may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, those risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2015 filed with certain securities commissions in Canada and other information released by the Company and filed with the appropriate regulatory agencies. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via www.sedar.com and readers are urged to review these materials, including the technical reports filed with respect to the Company's mineral properties.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

InZinc Mining Ltd.

Kerry Curtis

Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer

(604) 687-7211



InZinc Mining Ltd.

Joyce Musial

Corporate Communications

(604) 317-2728

joyce@inzincmining.com

www.inzincmining.com




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Irving Resources Inc. (CSE: IRV) ("Irving" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has incorporated a wholly-owned subsidiary in Japan named, "Irving Resources Japan GK". This subsidiary enables Irving to acquire and hold exploration projects in Japan.

The Company has also entered into a consulting agreement with Mitsui Mineral Development Engineering Co, Ltd. (MINDECO) in Japan to assist in evaluating opportunities to explore for precious and other metals in Japan.

About Irving Resources Inc.:

Irving, through a subsidiary, holds Project Venture Agreements with Japanese Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") for joint exploration programs in the United Republic of Tanzania and the Republic of Malawi.

JOGMEC is a government organization established under the law of Japan, administrated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and is responsible for stable supply of various resources to Japan through the discovery of sizable economic deposits of base, precious and rare metals.

Additional information can be found on the Company's website: www.IRVresources.com.

Akiko Levinson, President & Director

Forward-looking information

Some statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, customary risks of the mineral resource exploration industry as well as Irving having sufficient cash to fund any planned drilling and other exploration activities.

THE CSE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Contacts:

Irving Resources Inc.

Tel: (604) 682-3234

Toll free: 1 (888) 242-3234

Fax: (604) 682-0537




Asentinel, LLC, a Marlin Equity Partners portfolio company, is pleased to announce that it has acquired Anatole, a leading provider of SaaS telecom and IT expense management solutions that help customers reduce costs by auditing and managing services and IT assets. Anatole's SaaS Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solution unifies mobile, fixed and data telecom services management on a single software platform, and seamlessly integrates with advanced Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions as well as real-time TEM solutions to monitor employee roaming and smartphone application usage. Anatole is headquartered in Paris, France and has employees in the UK, Germany and Belgium. The merger will add robust wireless capabilities to Asentinel's existing TEM product offering and create a global, market leading provider of wireline and wireless technology expense management software solutions.

"For 16 years, Anatole's success has resulted from our team's passion to exceed clients' expectations. Our clients know that there is no substitute for local staff with proven expertise in the nuances of the European market," said Raphael Vergnaud, Managing Director of Anatole. "Combining with Asentinel allows us to fulfill our dreams to deliver excellence in telecom expense management and IT expense management around the globe."

"Anatole has distinguished itself as a TEM leader in a complex and shifting European marketplace," said Tim Whitehorn, Chief Executive Officer of Asentinel. "With the addition of Anatole, we are now well-positioned to respond to the challenges of telecom expense management and mobility in a rapidly growing global market."

About Anatole

Anatole provides solutions allowing enterprises to deal with key aspects of telecoms, mobility and IT: cost, policy, usage and assets. Anatole offers a market-leading TEM solution and a management suite for analytics, reporting and management of all telecoms and IT assets, including enterprise mobility solutions and other user/asset systems.

Anatole offers a complete range of solutions, from software, to consulting, to managed and professional services. Anatole manages telecom spend in more than 50 countries throughout the world; and over 150 customers rely on Anatole solutions. Anatole works directly with enterprises as well as mobile operators and systems integrators. For more information, please visit: www.anatole.net/en.

About Asentinel

Asentinel, a leading provider in Technology and Telecom Expense Management (TEM) and Managed Mobility Services (MMS), meets the needs of customers by providing lifecycle solutions and services delivered through a customer-focused, technology-driven SaaS platform. Asentinel holds the only comprehensive United States patents in TEM for its groundbreaking software. The company serves a growing client base of Global 2000, Fortune 1000 and multinational entities that rely on the power of TEM and MMS to reduce spend, automate processes, manage inventory and maximize business intelligence and actionable analytics. For more information, please visit: www.asentinel.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005816/en/

Contacts:

For additional information

Asentinel

Jenny Wallace, (901) 312-6514

jenny.wallace@asentinel.com
DETROIT, MI--(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - Midwest nonprofit IFF, in partnership with The Kresge Foundation, today launched IFF Learning Spaces, a program that will improve Detroit's early education system by awarding grants to quality child care providers in neighborhoods across the city.

Providers can apply for grants from $5,000 to $15,000 to pay for real estate consulting, minor repairs to their facility or other facility-related needs. Assistance can range from fixing the lighting in a few classrooms to finding a permanent home after leasing for years. Nonprofits and home-based caregivers are eligible as long as they have a score of three stars or higher in Great Start to Quality, Michigan's child care rating system.

"Many providers face challenges, both big and small, in helping Detroit's youngest children gain a better start to their education," said Monica Duncan, IFF's director of early childhood services. "IFF Learning Spaces builds on IFF's strong history of expanding quality care in low-income neighborhoods, and I'm thrilled to play a leading role in this work."

Duncan will lead the IFF Learning Spaces program and host informational meetings for providers beginning Tuesday, June 21, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Marygrove College, 8425 W. McNichols Road, Detroit, MI 48221. Previously, Duncan was Michigan director for First Children's Finance, a regional community development financial institution focused on early care and education programs.

The Kresge Foundation granted IFF $150,000 to launch Learning Spaces and help quality providers in Detroit increase their capacity and improve access to child care and learning opportunities. This effort is part of Kresge Early Years for Success (KEYS): Detroit, a $20-million, five-year initiative to promote the healthy development of Detroit children through investments in high-quality early childhood centers, neighborhood collaborations focused on early childhood development, early childhood workers and an infrastructure redesign that supports young children throughout the city.

"IFF has been committed to ensuring children reach their full potential since the beginning," said Kirby Burkholder, IFF's executive director in Detroit. "IFF Learning Spaces gives providers the resources and tools they need to help us build a better Detroit. We're proud to be a key partner in Kresge's efforts to improve Detroit's early education system."

"Through Learning Spaces, quality Detroit child care providers will receive needed support to grow their businesses, improve their facilities and ultimately ensure more of Detroit's youngest residents have a chance to learn in a safe, nurturing environment in their earliest years," said Wendy Lewis Jackson, co-interim managing director of Kresge's Detroit Program. "We hope as many providers as possible take advantage of this program and are so pleased to work alongside IFF to make it happen."

The Kresge Foundation also made $4 million in investments to IFF including a grant to support up to three new early childhood centers in Detroit and a program-related investment to create a low-interest loan program for child care facilities projects in the region.

Nearly 28,000 of the city's children ages birth to 5 years old lacked access to quality early childhood care programs at licensed and registered facilities last year, according to an IFF report commissioned by The Kresge Foundation.

For more information about the grant program, visit iff.org/learningspaces.

IFF is a mission-driven lender, real estate consultant and developer that helps communities thrive by creating opportunities for low-income populations and individuals with disabilities. From child care to senior housing, IFF works closely with clients from every sector, offering affordable, flexible financing; full-scale real estate consulting; and community development services. Since 1988, we have made over $620 million in loans, leveraged $1.7 billion in community investments and grown our total managed assets to $498 million. In Michigan, IFF has provided nearly $40 million in financing for nonprofits and housing developers across the state, and consulted with 40 agencies on real estate projects. For more information, visit iff.org.

The Kresge Foundation is a $3.6 billion private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development in Detroit. In 2015, the Board of Trustees approved 370 grants totaling $125.2 million, and nine social investment commitments totaling $20.3 million. For more information, visit kresge.org.

CONTACT:

Jose Cerda III

jcerda@iff.org

312-629-0060



Krista Jahnke

kajahnke@kresge.org

248-643-9630
FORT WAYNE, IN -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- New Wave Holdings, Inc. (OTC: NWAV), an electronic payment services and solutions company, announces today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Good Gravy! executed a Contract on Tuesday, May 31st with a leading news and multimedia company reaching the largest single audience of any media company in Northeast Indiana.

This includes an online readership of approximately 95,000 monthly readers, a print readership of over 200,000 monthly readers and average monthly digital impressions of 522,000.

Good Gravy! (https://GoGoodGravy.com) is an online shopping platform launching later this month for public use that allows users to collect rebates on each and every purchase across 4000+ national and online retailers. Good Gravy captures a percentage of each and every rebate generated by transactions, net of the face value promoted to users.

The media company will be utilizing a unique shopping URL to direct shoppers to the Good Gravy platform in a profit-splitting arrangement with Good Gravy on each and every transaction.

In addition, the media company has committed to employing marketing dollars and resources to promote the URL through its standard marketing channels in print, digital and social media and include prominent links on its various publication websites, including northeast Indiana and the five Michigan and Ohio counties bordering the territory.

The companies meet Monday, June 6th to discuss marketing and deployment.

Good Gravy's flagship model works to provide non-profits with a free tool that allows each and every rebate dollar generated by supporters, to support the non-profit through a 'passive giving' model, enabling users to earn money for their organization with convenient everyday shopping at nationally recognized retailers such as Macy's, Target, Best Buy, Petco and more.

It will include iOS and Android companion apps, along with Browser tools and geotargeted notifications (optional for user) reminding users when they are near a retailer that offers rebates via the Good Gravy platform.

Upon launch for public use this month, Good Gravy founders Steve Devine and Mark B. Newbauer will be making contact with ideal user candidates such as Amnesty International, Oxfam and Chive Charities.

Good Gravy also works to provide tools in the for-profit realm, to be used as a loyalty/rewards platform, employee benefits and more.

Ebates, a platform similar to that of the new rollout, recently sold for $1 billion with only 2.5 million users on board, the price tag justified by the user data these types of programs can capture, which will have the platforms valued on factors well beyond profits.

If there is interest in sharing either platform with an organization you are passionate about, please email us at info@newwaveholdings.com so we can set up a call to discuss.

"Like" and "Share" NWAV on OUR OFFICIAL FACEBOOK

and FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!

New Wave Holdings is a Holding Company focused in electronic payment services and solutions with a focus in bringing innovative prepaid programs to market. The company strives to be a leading contender in the issuance of prepaid solutions and services that are both highly marketable and with socially conscious profitability.

SchoolFuel, LLC is a Company dedicated to innovative fundraising solutions for schools, universities, club teams, churches and more! Its inaugural programs include an e-commerce cash-back platform and a General Purpose Reloadable Debit Card which uses a patent-pending process to effect donations for consumer chosen non-profits.

Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward- looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

Contact Investor Relations

New Wave Holdings, Inc.

260-245-1173

info@newwaveholdings.com




LOS ANGELES, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Decision Diagnostics Corp. (OTC PINK: DECN), the manufacturer, quality plan administrator and the exclusive worldwide sales, service and regulatory processes agent for GenStrip 50 and the GenUltimate! glucose test strips, both designed to work with the market leading Johnson & Johnson's ("J&J") LifeScan OneTouch Ultra family of glucose testing meters, and the in-development GenSure! and GenChoice! glucose test strips targeted to the U.S. and/or developing world markets, today reports the completion of term negotiations and the signing of a final settlement to conclude all patent litigation filed by J&J against PharmaTech Solutions and its parent company Decision Diagnostics.

As the company's loyal shareholders are well aware, Decision Diagnostics and its subsidiary PharmaTech Solutions were reluctantly drawn into this lengthy patent litigation journey nearly five years ago, with two divisions of Johnson + Johnson. The management team at DECN was deeply knowledgeable and extensively experienced in glucose test strip technology. Prior to market introduction, it was the shared internal opinion that the companies' GenStrip product was independent of any current product patent and infringed on no proprietary intellectual property. Extensive research by expert patent attorneys was contracted by the company and its insurers to corroborate that belief.

Fortified with comprehensive legal assurances, GenStrip was targeted for launch and commercialization. Market planning and projections strongly indicated rapid growth and broad distribution. Contracts were negotiated with critical brick and mortar chain drug and mass merchandisers, as well as pharmaceutical group purchasing organizations. Print and television advertising was created and a supportive promotional campaign was launched. Revenue began flowing and DECN's market awareness quotient was elevating.

Growth and expansion was abruptly interrupted by the now broadly known meritless litigation and intimidation barrage of our customers leveled by the divisions of Johnson + Johnson (LifeScan/J&J). A "scorched earth" campaign of lies, threats and intimidation coupled with tens of millions of dollars in allocated legal expenditures to finance unfounded patent infringement allegations functionally curtailed further GenStrip market expansion. The relentless legal assaults forced our transition from an aggressive, vital market focused entity to allocation of a preponderance of available human and financial resources towards refuting each lie, countering every threat, overcoming false testimony, and defeating all accusations. The corporations' directors and senior management in conjunction with its litigation patent attorneys evaluated the legal and market environment concluding that the only just recourse was to be vindicated by the courts and to ultimately defeat J&J/LifeScan in the marketplace of free competition. It was appreciated at the time that J&J would resort to any tactic in order to prevail. There was no action, lie, provision of false witness, delay or accusation to which they would fail to stoop to defeat our just position as a viable competitor. They were expected to behave egregiously and abominably; they proceeded to exceed all of the worst expectations.

More than four years of searing, vitriolic and relentless attacks and prevarications were not only endured but thoroughly rebuffed. The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit on May 10, 2016 finally terminated the J&J/LifeScan meritless and illicit legal campaign through a unanimous rejection of the J&J petition for en banc rehearing requested in a desperate attempt to preserve their foundational patent. That ruling, and the Mandate that followed nine days later, not only rendered any J&J claims to patentability null and void, but also shattered their erected customer intimidation barrier to the GenStrip market reentry.

As has been previously reported, J&J/LifeScan and DECN and PharmaTech were ordered by the district court judge to participate in mandatory mediation to resolve all patent infringement and trademark violation litigation filed by J&J/LifeScan against PharmTech Solutions, the subsidiary of DECN. Those mediation sessions were held on April 26, 2016 and conducted by the Chief Magistrate of the Federal District Court. At the close of the mediation Decision Diagnostics/PharmaTech Solutions agreed in principle to terms that would dismiss all litigation by J&J against the companies.

On May 20, PharmaTech formally agreed to the terms of a final settlement and executed an agreement to that effect. Those actions have brought to a conclusion all litigation by J&J/LifeScan against the company's PharmaTech subsidiary in pursuit of any and all claims of patent and trademark infringement. PharmaTech has been proven to be entirely innocent of each and every accusation leveled against it. J&J will pay the company for their actions a cash settlement in an amount that has been made confidential by the court. It is with great pleasure that the company hereby informs its shareholders, the investment community and followers of our company that GenStrip, GenUltimate! and its family of associated products are now free of any legal constraints, and also all threats of intimidation and retribution targeted to our customers have been removed.

"GenStrip and GenUltimate! are now officially, legally and justly available for sale," Keith Berman, PEO of DECN and President of PharmaTech Solutions, Inc. commented. "It is over and we have unconditionally won. The long, seemingly endless legal carnage that we all have been forced to weather is now behind us. As a company, we faced a crucial decision once the courts had ruled on the veracity of our claims and the legitimacy of our position. We evaluated the benefits of continuing legal pursuit of a maximum settlement of damages in California versus the associated costs of that pursuit in financial and human resource allocation, and also in critical opportunity cost. The decision that was made responded to the fundamental issue that prompted our defense and drove our continued pursuit. This odyssey was governed and sustained by the conviction of our unencumbered right to market our 'Gen' family of test strips to whomever, and wherever, we chose. That right is now undisputed and we have unanimously decided to immediately exercise it. The maximization of penalty and damage collection will appropriately be derived from J&Js own product revenue stream. We intend to beat them in the marketplace, own their market share and capture their earnings."

Although the company believes we had been justly compensated through the settlement, and extended litigation may have expanded the amount, we came to the realization that our singular immediate objective was manufacturing and delivering low priced, quality strips to diabetics. Our entire growing organization is alive and eager to directly engage J&J/LifeScan in a free and open market. The company capitalized on its functional market hiatus by extensively planning and developing a suite of new products and the protection of our own technologies through patent infringement litigation against J&J. These new additions are scheduled for release throughout 2016 with additional product and product line extensions anticipated in 2017.

Mr. Berman concluded, "Once again, we have won a resounding, and frankly, startling series of legal victories. Our little Pharma Tech has crushed a healthcare leviathan. We have metaphorically brought it to its knees and forced it to beg for forgiveness. However, the resources that we were forced to expend in pursuit of this result were far from modest. We learned from this confrontation that we are competing in a litigious landscape dominated by the large and wealthy. As a result, our planned new product introductions will be fortified with an extensive legal defense financial armada and partnership participation by specialty legal (case) financing funds. A large litigation financing fund has been contracted and additional IP defense insurance policies have been established to protect against possible future baseless allegations. In fact, the entire cash settlement award from J&J has been directly transferred at our request into this fund, maintained by our counsels. In effect, J&J is underwriting our future litigation victories and our future litigation defenses. Some might refer to this as justice."

Forward-Looking Statements:

This release contains the Company's forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and assumptions as of May 31, 2016, regarding the Company's business and performance, its prospects, current factors, the economy and other future conditions and forecasts of future events, circumstances and results.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Decision Diagnostics Corp.

Keith Berman

(805) 446-2973

info@decisiondiagnostics.com

www.genultimate.com

www.decisiondiagnostics.com

www.pharmatechdirect.com






WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Payroll processor ADP released a report Thursday morning showing that private sector employment in the U.S. increased roughly in line with economist estimates in the month of May.



The report said private sector employment rose by 173,000 jobs in May after climbing by an upwardly revised 166,000 jobs in April.



Economists had expected employment to increase by about 175,000 jobs compared to the addition of 156,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.



Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, said, 'Job growth has moderated this spring as energy companies and manufacturers shed jobs. Retailers are also more circumspect in their hiring.'



'Despite the recent slowdown, job growth remains strong enough to reduce underemployment,' he added.



The increase in private sector employment in May reflected job growth in the service-providing sector, which added 175,000 jobs.



ADP said the professional/business services industry contributed 43,000 jobs, while employment in the trade/transportation/utilities industry grew by 28,000 jobs.



Meanwhile, the report said goods-producing employment dipped by 1,000 jobs in May, partly reflecting the loss of 3,000 manufacturing jobs.



Employment at large businesses edged up by 34,000 jobs, while medium and small businesses added 63,000 jobs and 76,000 jobs, respectively.



Friday morning, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its more closely watched monthly employment report.



The report is expected to show an increase of about 158,000 jobs in May, while the unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 4.9 percent.



Analysts have noted the Labor Department data will reflect the impact of a recent strike by Verizon (VZ) workers, which did not affect the ADP data.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Trevali Mining Corporation ("Trevali" or the "Company") (TSX: TV)(LMA: TV)(OTCQX: TREVF)(FRANKFURT: 4TI) announces results from four new drill holes of its ongoing 2016 underground exploration drill program at the Santander zinc mine in Peru. The aim of the current drilling is to test recently discovered mineralization in the hanging wall of the Magistral North deposit. Drill holes continue to intersect multiple stacked mineralized massive sulphide replacement zones, or mantos, both within the main Magistral North body as well as in the newly discovered Oyon mantos (Table 1). The intercepts are near existing mine infrastructure and will be quickly incorporated into the near-term (2016-2017) mine plan. Mineralization in both the Magistral North deposit and the new Oyon mantos remains open for expansion and further underground drilling is in progress (Figure 1).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zone / Core Length Borehole From - To Interval(i) Zn Pb Ag oz/ton (dip/azimuth) (metres) (metres) (%) (%) (g/tonne) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MN-142-16 114.90 - 121.20 MN / 6.30 3.33 1.19 1.65 (56.49) --------------------------------------------------------------- (-41.20 degrees / 125.55 - 140.30 MN/OYO / 14.75 5.21 5.78 2.11 (72.26) --------------------------------------------------------------- 246.10 Incl. 125.55 - degrees) 132.75 MN/OYO / 7.20 7.37 8.96 2.66 (91.08) --------------------------------------------------------------- Incl. 136.85 - 139.15 OYO / 2.30 5.22 4.32 2.50 (85.72) --------------------------------------------------------------- 147.65 - 153.50 OYO / 5.85 4.69 3.79 5.75 (197.08) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MN-143-16 133.90 - 158.45 MN/OYO / 24.55 5.74 3.98 6.00 (205.88) --------------------------------------------------------------- (-39.20 Incl. 135.70 - degrees / 148.20 MN/OYO / 12.50 5.66 4.67 4.14 (141.94) --------------------------------------------------------------- 214.70 Incl. 149.05 - degrees) 157.05 OYO / 8.00 5.67 1.81 10.92 (374.32) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MN-144-16 (-27.20 degrees / 207.30 degrees) 115.20 - 115.90 OYO / 0.70 3.11 3.25 1.40 (47.90) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MN-145-16 111.85 - 130.80 MN/OYO / 18.95 4.11 3.40 3.47 (119.01) --------------------------------------------------------------- (-35.30 Incl. 124.35 - degrees / 130.80 OYO / 6.45 4.80 2.31 6.68 (229.05) --------------------------------------------------------------- 218.10 Incl. 115.40 - degrees) 121.90 MN/OYO / 6.50 5.82 6.04 2.72 (93.34) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table 1: Summary of latest Santander Mine underground drill assay results. (i) True widths of the mineralized intervals are estimated at 60-80% of core length. MN-Magistral North; OYO-Oyon.

To view Figure 1: 3D view, looking southeast, and cross section illustrating geometry of the Oyon mineralization and location of recent drillhole intercepts in the Magistral North Deposit at the Santander Mine, visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1057524-F1.pdf

MAGISTRAL NORTH AND OYON ZONES

This latest follow-up expansion-definition drilling program continues to define additional mineralization in the Oyon mantos, located in the hanging wall to the main Magistral North deposit (Figure 1).

As presently defined the Oyon zone contains multiple stacked lenses (or mantos) of replacement semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization and associated veining that varies from 1 to plus-10-metres thick, a modeled strike length of approximately 100 metres and a currently defined dip length of approximately 180 metres.

In general, average grades for all key metals (Zn, Pb and Ag) are significantly higher than current Santander mill feed grades (Table 1). Zinc to lead/silver metal ratios remain high, in the 1:1 to 2:1 range, which is suggestive of the upper to mid-portions of the mineral system and is interpreted to suggest significant additional depth potential remains. Initial targeting suggests that similar style (Pb-Ag rich) mineralization may exist in the hanging wall of the Magistral Central deposit. The Company cautions that additional drilling is required to further test this hypothesis.

The mantos are proximal-to-immediately-adjacent to the main Magistral North deposit and close to existing and future planned mine development. Consequently minimal additional work will be required to begin adding value (feed) to the Santander mill. Both the Magistral North Zone and emergent Oyon Mantos remain open and expansion/definition drilling is ongoing.

AGM RESULTS

At the Company's recent Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on June 1, 2016, shareholders re-elected the nominated slate of directors. Shareholders also approved: the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, as auditors of the Company for the current fiscal year and authorized the directors to fix the auditors' remuneration; the amended Stock Option and Stock Bonus Plan and Unallocated Options and Other Entitlements under the Plan; and the Shareholder Rights Plan.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Description of Matter Outcome Votes Votes Votes of Vote For Withheld Against ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Election of the Resolution following directors of approved by the Company: a show of hands ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Cruise 141,016,775 153,725 n/a (99.89%) (0.11%) ------------------------------------------------------------- Anton Drescher 113,957,148 27,213,352 (80.72%) (19.28%) ------------------------------------------------------------- Christopher Eskdale 138,898,275 2,270,225 (98.39%) (1.61%) ------------------------------------------------------------- Catherine Gignac 141,016,275 154,225 (99.89%) (0.11%) ------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Hoffman 135,186,075 5,984,425 (95.76%) (4.24%) ------------------------------------------------------------- David Huberman 135,176,575 5,993,925 (95.75%) (4.25%) ------------------------------------------------------------- David Korbin 140,993,775 176,725 (99.87%) (0.13%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Appointment of Resolution 141,148,000 22,500 n/a PricewaterhouseCoopers approved by (99.98%) (0.02%) LLP, Chartered a show of Accountants, as hands auditors of the Company for the current fiscal year and authorizing the directors to fix the auditors' remuneration ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Approval of the amended Resolution 81,173,363 n/a 59,997,137 Stock Option and Stock approved by (57.50%) (42.50%) Bonus Plan and ballot Unallocated Options and Other Entitlements under the Plan ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Approval of the Resolution 140,343,820 n/a 826,680 Shareholder Rights Plan approved by (99.41%) (0.59%) ballot ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Qualified Person and Quality Control/Quality Assurance

EurGeol Dr. Mark D. Cruise, Trevali's President and CEO and Daniel Marinov, P.Geo, Trevali's VP Exploration, are qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101, have supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Marinov is responsible for all aspects of the work, including the quality control/quality assurance programs. Dr. Cruise is not independent of the Company, as he is an officer, director and shareholder. Mr. Marinov is not independent of the Company as he is an officer and shareholder. Drill core samples were processed and assayed in the Santander mine onsite laboratory. Zinc, lead and silver, assays were obtained by Aqua-Regia dissolution followed by Atomic Absorption measurement. Values of lead and zinc over 15% are assayed by volumetric method. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples. Quality control is further assured by the use of international and in-house standards. Blind certified reference material is inserted at regular intervals into the sample sequence by Trevali personnel in order to independently assess analytical accuracy. The onsite laboratory is outsourced and managed by SGS-Peru personnel. SGS-Peru's quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025: 1999. Finally, representative blind duplicate samples are routinely forwarded to an ISO compliant third party laboratory for external quality control.

ABOUT TREVALI MINING CORPORATION

Trevali is a zinc-focused, base metals mining company with one producing operation in Peru and another currently undergoing commissioning in Canada.

In Peru, the Company is actively producing zinc and lead-silver concentrates from its 2,000-tonne-per-day Santander zinc mine.

In Canada, Trevali owns the Caribou zinc mine and mill, Halfmile mine and Stratmat deposit all located in the Bathurst Mining Camp of northern New Brunswick. The Company is currently commissioning its 3,000-tonne-per-day Caribou zinc mine.

All of the Company's deposits remain open for expansion.

The common shares of Trevali are listed on the TSX (symbol TV), the OTCQX (symbol TREVF), the Frankfurt Exchange (symbol 4TI) and on the Lima Stock Exchange (symbol TV). For further details on Trevali, readers are referred to the Company's website (www.trevali.com) and to Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of TREVALI MINING CORPORATION

Mark D. Cruise, President

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States private securities litigation reform act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Statements containing forward-looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results and the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation to, update such statements containing the forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to statements as to: the intended use of proceeds in connection with the Offering, the accuracy of estimated mineral resources, anticipated results of future exploration, and forecast future metal prices, expectations that environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, political, marketing or other issues will not materially affect estimates of mineral resources. These statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies.

These statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this news release and the company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors.

Such factors include, without limitation: fluctuations in spot and forward markets for silver, zinc, base metals and certain other commodities (such as natural gas, fuel oil and electricity); fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar and Peruvian sol versus the U.S. dollar); risks related to the technological and operational nature of the Company's business; changes in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States, Peru or other countries where the Company may carry on business in the future; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological or structural formations, pressures, cave-ins and flooding); risks relating to the credit worthiness or financial condition of suppliers, refiners and other parties with whom the Company does business; inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks and hazards; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability and increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining, diminishing quantities or grades of mineral resources as properties are mined; global financial conditions; business opportunities that may be presented to, or pursued by, the Company; the Company's ability to complete and successfully integrate acquisitions and to mitigate other business combination risks; challenges to, or difficulty in maintaining, the Company's title to properties and continued ownership thereof; the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, and changes in project parameters to deal with unanticipated economic or other factors; and increased competition in the mining industry for properties, equipment, qualified personnel, and their costs. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty or reliance on forward-looking statements.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

Trevali's production plan at the Caribou Mine is based only on measured, indicated and inferred resources, and not mineral reserves, and does not have demonstrated economic viability. Trevali's production plan at the Santander Mine is based only on indicated and inferred mineral resources, and not mineral reserves, and does not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is therefore no certainty that the conclusions of the production plans and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) will be realized. Additionally, where Trevali discusses exploration/expansion potential, any potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.

We advise US investors that while the terms "measured resources", "indicated resources" and "inferred resources" are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the US Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize these terms. US investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the material in these categories will ever be converted into reserves.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the securities laws of any state and may not be offered or sold within the United States, absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.

The TSX has not approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release.

Contacts:

Trevali Mining Corporation

Steve Stakiw, Vice President,

Investor Relations and Corporate Communications

(604) 488-1661 / Direct: (604) 638-5623

sstakiw@trevali.com

www.trevali.com




The Luxembourg Government today announced that Mr. Georges Schmit, Consul General and Executive Director at the Luxembourg Trade Investment Office in San Francisco, joins the Government's Advisory Board of the recently announced spaceresources.lu initiative. The initiative defines a framework for the exploration and commercial utilization of resources from Near Earth Objects (NEOs) such as asteroids.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005886/en/

Georges Schmit (Photo: Business Wire)

Prior to his current position which he holds since 2009, Georges Schmit was Director General for Enterprise Policy, Economic Development and Foreign Trade, Secretary General, and Director of Industry at the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade which he joined in 1981. From 1995-2002 he was Executive Chairman of the National Credit and Investment Corporation (SNCI), a State-owned development bank.

In these various capacities, Georges Schmit was for more than 17 years a Member of the Board of Directors of Luxembourg-based mining and steel company Arbed, and later ArcelorMittal. Until 2009 he was also a Director of Luxembourg Government promoted satellite services provider SES and the Luxembourg post and telecom services incumbent POST.

Georges Schmit is a recognized expert on trade and investment, innovation and start-up promotion, economic development and enterprise policy.

Georges Schmit stated: "I am honored to continue serving the Luxembourg Government in its efforts to position Luxembourg as an ideal location for innovative projects in advanced space technologies. Spaceresources.lu is a bold but highly promising initiative, taking humankind to new unexplored horizons and creating new opportunities on Earth."

Georges Schmit joins Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA) from 2003 to 2015 and Dr. Simon "Pete" Worden, longstanding Director of NASA- Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, who already serve as high-level advisors to guide the Luxembourg Government.

Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Etienne Schneider, commented: "I am delighted to welcome Georges Schmit in this new role in his country of origin which he has well served during his distinguished career. I am convinced that Georges' valuable expertise and long expertise further strengthen the Advisory Board of spacereources.lu, an initiative of which he was one of the early instigators. His contribution and advice will have an important and positive impact on future activities in the frame of the spaceresources.lu initiative."

The "Luxembourg Government Advisory Board on Space Resources" will meet on June 3, 2016. The meeting is followed by a press conference scheduled for 5:00 PM (Note: Times are in Luxembourg Time GMT+2) to highlight the latest developments and the future strategy of the recently announced spaceresources.lu initiative. The press conference will be hosted by Mr. Xavier Bettel, Prime Minister, Minister of State, Minister for Communications and Media and by Mr. Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Economy.

Released by the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005886/en/

Contacts:

Ministry of the Economy, Luxembourg

Paul ZENNERS

E-mail: paul.zenners@eco.etat.lu

Tel.: (+352) 247-74126

mobile: (+352) 621 409 141
Firm continues strategic growth in London and further enhances transactional capabilities

International law firm Proskauer has announced today the arrival of Joanne Owen as a partner in the Firm's Private Equity Real Estate Group in London.

Ms. Owen focuses on complex, institutional and commercial real estate matters, with a particular emphasis on private equity, real estate finance and alternative vehicles for property investment. She has been involved in numerous landmark transactions in the UK and internationally, advising on acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, developments and redevelopment schemes. Her clients include major private equity houses, sovereign wealth funds, institutional landowners, investors and developers, pension funds and PLCs. She also has extensive experience advising hospitality and leisure industry clients on the full spectrum of transactional and operational issues. Some of Ms. Owen's marquee matters include serving as lead partner on the acquisition of a landmark building in the City of London for an Asian company and the acquisition of a high-profile London shopping center by way of a joint venture for a leading U.S. private equity house.

Jeffrey A. Horwitz, co-head of the Firm's Private Equity Real Estate Group, said, "Jo is one of the sector's leading corporate real estate lawyers with a strong reputation for advising asset managers and PLCs on a vast range of real estate matters. As Europe continues to be a key region for the industry at large, her cross-border experience and robust knowledge of the lodging sector enables us to provide clients with an even deeper bench of expertise in the global markets."

"Joining Proskauer is a truly exciting opportunity," said Ms. Owen. "The Firm is a leader in corporate real estate transactions and has a clear vision to execute its strategy. I look forward to helping the Firm continue to strengthen its position."

Ms. Owen's arrival follows several recent high-profile additions to Proskauer's London office, including M&A partners Steven Davis, Matt Rees and James Howe; Bruno Bertrand-Delfau, a leader in private equity secondary transactions; and finance partner Alex Griffith.

"It's an exciting time at Proskauer, and we are delighted Jo will be joining our team in London," said Mary Kuusisto, head of Proskauer's London office. "Jo has an excellent reputation and her substantial experience will be a valuable asset to our practice and our client base."

Proskauer has advised on some of the most complex and sophisticated private equity real estate transactions in the market, and in the last week alone has advised on transactions with a combined value of over $13 billion, including the $8.4 billion combination of New York REIT with The JBG Companies. Recent headline transactions also include representing longtime client AccorHotels in its acquisition of three of the world's most iconic hotel brands: Raffles, Fairmont and Swissotel; advising an international sovereign wealth fund buyer in the acquisition of The London Hotel in New York City and representing Inland Real Estate in its $2.3 billion acquisition by real estate funds managed by DRA Advisors.

Ms. Owen received her undergraduate law degree with honors from Exeter University and her graduate law degree with distinction from Nottingham Trent University. She previously was a partner at DLA Piper where she was the head of the hospitality and leisure sector.

About Proskauer

Proskauer's Private Equity Real Estate Group handles the most complex and important assignments for clients focused on real estate and real estate-related businesses and investments. Comprised of practitioners from our corporate, real estate, mergers acquisitions, private equity, fund formation, capital markets, finance, litigation, tax, labor and environmental practices, our team is an established leader in this complex, interdisciplinary field. Our seasoned and client-focused lawyers advise on acquisitions, dispositions, financings and recapitalizations; real estate taxation (both domestic and cross-border); public, private and non-traded REITs; joint ventures; fund formations, roll-ups and spin-outs; creditors rights; bankruptcy and restructurings; and BDCs; among other highly specialized fields.

Our London team has been integral in accelerating Proskauer's international reach and strengthening our core platform. Our London office has become a hub of transactional activity and a private equity powerhouse with a fast-growing reputation for securing high-end mandates in the European market. This is coupled with our provision of best-in-class counsel across investment funds, M&A, capital markets (including high-yield and other debt capital markets work), finance, restructuring, tax, financial services regulation, and labor and employment.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005890/en/

Contacts:

Proskauer

Stefanie Marrone, 212-969-3302

Associate Director of Communications

smarrone@proskauer.com
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Fujitsu Limited Public and Investor Relations Tel: +81-3-3215-5259 URL: www.fujitsu.com/global/news/contacts/ Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. ICT Systems Laboratories Server Technologies Lab E-mail: Retimer_ISSCC2015@ml.labs.fujitsu.com

TOKYO, June 2, 2016 - (JCN Newswire) - Smart Agriculture Iwata Co., Ltd., Fujitsu Limited, ORIX Corporation, and Masuda Seed Co., Ltd. today announced that, starting in mid-June, Smart Agriculture Iwata (SAC iWATA) will begin full-fledged sales in Japan of kale that can be eaten fresh and uncooked as the first product in its "B-Food"(1) brand series of functional foods intended to facilitate health and beauty. Masuda Seed developed the kale from seedlings, which were grown in cultivation facilities using advanced environmental controls.Going forward, SAC iWATA will produce this kale using optimal cultivation technology in an environment where factors such as temperature and humidity are controlled using Fujitsu's information and communication technology (ICT), and provide it to a growing number of businesses across Japan, such as supermarkets and the restaurant industry.BackgroundRecently, functional foods are garnering a great deal of attention for their high nutritional value, and the expected effects on health and beauty. SAC iWATA, which started business on April 1, 2016 with investment from Fujitsu, ORIX and Masuda Seed, provides food with high nutritional value, including vitamins and minerals such as calcium, as part of its B-Food series. SAC iWATA cultivates the product in an optimal environment, with the best technology, and great care in selecting seeds (seedlings and varieties), fusing experience in each field in the food value chain, including seeds and seedling development, cultivation, environmental control, and marketing.As the first product in this series, it will begin full-fledged sales in June of kale that can be eaten fresh, without cooking.About this kaleMasuda Seed, which has extensive experience in the development and production of seedlings in the Brassicaceae family, especially cabbage and kale, spent 10 years developing the delicious Samba Carnival variety of kale (variety registration #17704), which SAC iWATA is cultivating and will start selling as kale that can be eaten fresh, without cooking.Unlike ordinary kale used in green juices and so forth, this kale has softer leaves that are less bitter, making it easier to eat raw. It can be used as-is in salads or a variety of other foods, such as soups, stir-fry, and smoothies.Future PlansGoing forward, SAC iWATA will continue to produce this kale in an optimized environment. The company will provide it to companies such as supermarkets and those in the restaurant and ready-made-meal industries, expanding across Japan with a focus on the Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai regions.In addition, the company plans to continue to add new varieties to its B-Food series, such as nutrient-rich tomatoes and bell peppers, by fusing its cutting-edge environmental control, cultivation, and processing technology with the development ability of its partner seedling company.(1) B-FoodA functional food brand name based on the concept of "Flowering Beauty through the Power of Seeds."About Fujitsu LtdFujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 159,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702; ADR:FJTSY) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$41 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.* Please see this press release, with images, at:http://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/Source: Fujitsu LtdContact:Copyright 2016 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
THOMPSON, MANITOBA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Western Economic Diversification Canada

Today, the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada, announced $574,000 in funding for the University College of the North (UCN) to establish an Industrial Skills Trades and Training Centre (ISTTC).

This investment will help to ensure that Manitoba's Indigenous population has the education and skills required to succeed in the vibrant industry clusters across Western Canada, including the mining industry, the oil and gas sectors, in machinery and equipment, and within renewable energy.

The new facility will also address current and future employment needs in Northern Manitoba: there is a high demand for industrial trade workers, yet there are currently no high quality industrial trades training programs being offered in the Thompson region.

Quick Facts

-- The mission of the University College of the North is to ensure Northern Manitoba communities and people have access to educational opportunities, knowledge and skills, while being inclusive and respectful of diverse Northern and Indigenous values and beliefs. -- UCN has campuses in The Pas and Thompson and delivers a range of programs in a network of 12 regional centres that include nine First Nations communities. -- UCN is partnering with local schools and industry through the School District of Mystery Lake and Vale for the establishment of the new training facility.

"The Government of Canada is pleased to support the creation of the Industrial Skills Trades and Training Centre and is committed to ensuring that Indigenous peoples - First Nations, Metis and Inuit - have the support and training they need to participate in the growing economic opportunities that exist in Western Canada. The government is investing in students and post-secondary institutions like UCN, so that the next generation of Canadians will be well-equipped to tackle the challenges of the future."

- The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Minister responsible for Western Economic Diversification Canada

"Western Economic Diversification Canada's generous investment is well aligned with UCN's mandate to enhance the economic and social well-being of northern Manitoba by providing quality, affordable trades training for our students. The availability of high quality equipment, made accessible through WD funding, will ensure that students are well prepared and qualified to fulfill the requirements identified by our industry stakeholders and partners."

- Konrad Jonasson, President & Vice-Chancellor, University College of the North

Additional Links

- University College of the North

- School District of Mystery Lake

- Vale

Subscribe to news releases and keep up-to-date on the latest from WD. Follow us on Twitter at @WD_Canada.

IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY PRINTED VERSION AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WILL PREVAIL.

Contacts:

Carmen Kardoes

Director, Policy, Planning and External Relations

Winnipeg, Manitoba

(204) 298-9881

carmen.kardoes@canada.ca



Jim Scott, Director of Communications

University College of the North

The Pas, Manitoba

204-627-8244

jscott@unc.ca



WD Toll-Free Number: 1-888-338-WEST (9378)

Teletypewriter (TTY): 1-877-303-3388

Website: WD is online at www.wd-deo.gc.ca.




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Buffalo Coal Corp. (TSX: BUF)(JSE: BUC) ("Buffalo" or "the Company") announces that its majority shareholder, Resource Capital Fund V L.P. ("RCF"), has informed the Company that it is undergoing a review of its strategic options in respect of its investment in the Company, and has appointed an advisor to assist in this regard.

The Company cautions that there are no guarantees that the strategic review will result in a transaction or if a transaction is undertaken, as to its terms or timing. The Company does not intend to disclose developments with respect to the strategic review process unless and until a definitive transaction or strategic option has been approved, unless otherwise required by law or disclosure of which is deemed appropriate. Shareholders of the Company are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the Company's securities until a further announcement is made.

About Buffalo

Buffalo is a coal producer in southern Africa. It holds a majority interest in two operating mines through its 100% interest in Buffalo Coal Dundee, a South African company which has a 70% interest in Zinoju. Zinoju holds a 100% interest in the Magdalena bituminous mine and the Aviemore anthracite mine in South Africa. Buffalo has an experienced coal-focused management team.

Cautionary Notes:

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the outcome of the strategic review process being undertaken by RCF. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Buffalo to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, foreign operations, political and social uncertainties; a history of operating losses; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of any proposed transaction; conclusions of economic evaluations; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; future prices of mineral products; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; and, delays in obtaining governmental approvals or required financing or in the completion of activities. Although Buffalo has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Buffalo does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither the Toronto Venture Exchange, nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the exchange), accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Buffalo Coal Corp.

Malcolm Campbell

Chief Executive Officer

+27 83 781 1405

malcolm.campbell@buffalocoal.co.za



Buffalo Coal Corp.

Sarah Williams

Chief Financial Officer

+27 83 781 1405

sarah.williams@buffalocoal.co.za




CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - The Advanced Group, an industry-leading diversified professional staffing, consulting, and outsourcing organization, announced today the appointment of Jessica Miller-Merrell as the Vice President of Talent Strategies.

Merrell is a 15-year human resources and talent acquisition veteran who in 2007 founded Blogging4Jobs.com, the leading online resource for the HR and recruitment industry. Her community boasts more than 9,000 resources in the form of articles, eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, and podcasts for HR practitioners. She's the author of Tweet This! Twitter for Business and The HR Technology Field Guide. In 2015, Merrell was interviewed by The Economist on the future of HR and has been recognized by major media outlets including Forbes as a top 50 social media power user and The Huffington Post as the number one HR business leader on Twitter.

"We're absolutely thrilled to have Jessica join the Advanced Group leadership team," said Leo Sheridan, CEO. "She is a successful industry thought leader who brings a wealth of experience. Her depth of knowledge about talent acquisition will be a valuable asset. Jessica's expertise in the areas of technology, marketing, and digital is critical to the success and growth of our portfolio of Advanced companies."

"I am excited to join the Advanced Group team and look forward to impacting Advanced's growth through exceptional talent strategies, especially in the areas of recruiting process, marketing, and technology," said Merrell.

Jessica Miller-Merrell began her career with Target as a Field Human Resources Manager in 2001 and has worked in a number of corporate roles as a HR Director and recruiting leader. Jessica has spent the last eight years as a human resources and recruiting consultant focusing on technology, social media, and process enhancements working with companies including SAP, Whole Foods, Chickasaw National Industries, and AT&T.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Anthropology and Business from Kansas State University. Merrell and her family reside in the suburbs of Oklahoma City.

About the Advanced Group

The Advanced Group provides expertise in talent acquisition and management, consulting, outsourcing, and professional services. Founded in 1988, our businesses include Advanced Clinical, Advanced Resources, Advanced RPO, and the WunderLand Group. Awards that we have won include Best of Staffing  , Chicago Tribune's Top Workplaces, Best Places to Work in Illinois, Best and Brightest Companies to Work For  (Chicago and National), and inclusion on the Inc. 5000 list. To learn more, visit advancedgroup.com.

Image Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/1/11G101029/Images/Jessica_Miller-Merrell-e38d8e6f77ac9738a008cefb35659ae1.jpg

Sara Drake

Marketing Manager

312-572-6020

sdrake@advancedgroup.com
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - With Hillary Clinton expected to deliver an aggressive speech attacking Donald Trump on foreign policy on Thursday, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee launched a pre-emptive strike against his likely general election opponent. In remarks to supporters in Sacramento, California, on Wednesday, Trump bashed Clinton as one of the worst Secretaries of State in the country's history. 'Now she wants to be our president? Look, I'll be honest, she has no natural talent to be president,' Trump said. 'A lot of people think I look extremely presidential.' The real estate tycoon claimed to have seen an advance copy of Clinton's upcoming remarks, which he described as full of 'lies.' The Clinton campaign has signaled that she will outline why she believes Trump is fundamentally unfit to be commander-in-chief. Trump also criticized Clinton's use of a private email server while Secretary of State, which he suggested should land her in prison. The billionaire also accused Clinton of sleeping during the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi and claimed she made deals with China in exchange for paid speeches by her husband President Bill Clinton. The war of words between the two candidates is likely to continue to heat up in the coming months in what is expected to be a highly vitriolic campaign. (Photo: Gage Skidmore) Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
JERICHO, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Nectar Services Corp., a leader in the development and deployment of proactive network monitoring and management software for the Unified Communications (UC) industry, announced today that it has been named a finalist for the 2016 Communications Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Nectar has been awarded, or been nationally recognized, eight times in the last two years for the company's development and support of Microsoft Skype for Business.

"Nectar is extremely proud to be selected as a 2016 runner-up finalist for Microsoft's Partner of Year Award in the Communications category. This recognition speaks volumes to the efforts of the entire Nectar team and our strategic partners and alliances that provide our solution in support of the Microsoft ecosystem," said David Giangano, CEO for Nectar. "Being recognized by Microsoft in such a way encourages us to work harder to support their efforts in growing the Skype for Business market."

Awards were presented in several categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 2,500 entrants from 119 countries worldwide. Nectar was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in the Communications category.

"We are honored to recognize Nectar as this year's Finalist of the 2016 Microsoft Communications Partner of the Year award," said Gavriella Schuster, general manager, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. "Nectar is a prime example of the excellent talent we see in our Microsoft partner community to deliver innovative and transformative solutions to our mutual customers."

Nectar provides advanced UC software solutions that offer the best in comprehensive monitoring, management and diagnostics to enhance application performance and end-to-end visibility across the UC network. The company's flagship UCMP solution focuses on critical areas for ensuring performance management for Skype for Business deployments, including planning and deployment, network pre-assessment, monitoring, advanced reporting and analytics and real-time diagnostics. Nectar's UCMP has been selected by many Microsoft partners globally to provide critical visibility, enabling these partners to effectively manage their client's Skype for Business environments.

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year. You may find the full list of finalists and winners here.

About Nectar Services Corp.

Nectar, a global market leader in providing the most comprehensive monitoring and diagnostics software solution for Unified Communication services enables IT and operation organizations to proactively ensure the end-user experience. Our flagship offering, the Unified Communications Management Platform (UCMP), which improves visibility and service delivery across integrated voice, video and data application solutions by providing unique and critical performance information. Nectar provides monitoring and diagnostics for millions of enterprise endpoints to over 1,400 enterprises in over 86 countries -- including some of the largest global banking, search engine, service provider, healthcare, and manufacturing organizations in the world.

Media Contact:

Jas McDonald

Connect2 Communications

919-435-9115

jas@connect2comm.com




LONDON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- By 2025, 67 million automotive 5G vehicle subscriptions will be active-three million of which will be low latency connections mainly deployed in autonomous and driverless cars. ABI Research highlights that 5G will unify connectivity in autonomous vehicles; enabling broadband multimedia streaming, cloud services for vehicle lifecycle management, the capturing and uploading of huge volumes of sensor data, and cooperative mobility through V2X (vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure) communication.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151014/276887LOGO

"V2X is a key requirement for the connected and autonomous vehicle of the future," says Dominique Bonte, Managing Director and Vice President at ABI Research. "It is closely linked to the concept of cooperative mobility, allowing vehicles to exchange both status and event information with each other via reliable, low-latency communication technologies. With it, vehicles can be proactive and capture and share critical events happening locally with each other, ultimately ensuring safer driving practices."

But for V2X to become a reality, the automotive and transportation industries must first expand the scope and relevance of 5G cellular connectivity. ABI Research anticipates this to dramatically increase through 2025, allowing connectivity providers to bring more value-added services to the table and better position themselves in the automotive ecosystem. From there, new business models will emerge and ultimately more closely align the automotive and telecom industries.

ABI Research suggests that 5G's most promising capability for automotive will be its low latency, which could be as low as one millisecond. However, Bonte says that this will require underlying URLL (ultra reliable low latency) 5G capabilities based on the use of millimeter wave bands, latency reduction techniques, and advanced device-to-device (D2D) communication.

"The extent to which these latencies will be achieved will heavily depend on the 5G standards and deployment strategies, but the question is not so much if, but when the industry will embrace the disruptive approach," continues Bonte. "While right now, the industry is leveraging and upgrading current LTE/4G networks, it will eventually build new RAN networks based on millimeter waves. Once this happens, starting from the second half of the next decade, very low-latency capabilities will be achievable and V2X-enabled smart mobility applications will be possible."

These findings are part of ABI Research's Automotive Safety and Autonomous Driving Service (https://www.abiresearch.com/market-research/service/safety-and-security-telematics/) and Smart Transportation Service (https://www.abiresearch.com/market-research/service/intelligent-transportation-systems/), which include research reports, market data, insights, and competitive assessments.

About ABI Research

For more than 25 years, ABI Research has stood at the forefront of technology market intelligence, partnering with innovative business leaders to implement informed, transformative technology decisions. The company employs a global team of senior analysts to provide comprehensive research and consulting services through deep quantitative forecasts, qualitative analyses and teardown services. An industry pioneer, ABI Research is proactive in its approach, frequently uncovering ground-breaking business cycles ahead of the curve and publishing research 18 to 36 months in advance of other organizations. In all, the company covers more than 60 services, spanning 11 technology sectors. For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.







Contact Info:Mackenzie Gavel Tel: +44.203.326.0142

pr@abiresearch.com




LONDON, June 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

The Department of Transport Management (DOTM) of Nepal has awarded the 44 million US Dollar project, for the 'Supply and Delivery of High Security Embossed Vehicle Plates including Personalization, Enrolment, and IT Infrastructure' to Decatur, a world leader in the production and implementation of Identity Management Solutions. Numerous renowned international vendors participated in the tendering process in January, however Decatur was selected for the most compliant and innovative solution. The contract signing ceremony took place on the 1st June 2016, at the DOTM headquarters in Minbhawan, Kathmandu.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160602/374833 )



The project will facilitate enrolment of vehicle and owner information, create a national database, and supply high security number plates and RFID tags. Both the number plates and RFID tags will help police in fighting crime and maintaining law and order. Decatur will provide the end-to-end solution including project management, support, and training.

"After the successful implementation of our vehicle identification solution in countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa, we are delighted to be able to work for the people of Nepal," says Mr. Goffin, President of Decatur. Decatur is a trusted partner in designing innovative solutions that help meet the evolving challenges in the identity management sector, their technology is patented by the US Patent Office.

Mr. Shrestha, Director General of DOTM, says, "We are very excited about bringing such advanced solutions to our country. We are pleased that our strategic partnership with Decatur will help set important trends for Nepal's vision on e-governance. We look forward to having Decatur developing a cutting-edge identification management system aimed at assisting us in excelling our services for our citizens."

About Decatur

Decatur is a global IT group specializing in identity management products and services which include turnkey solutions for National IDs, E-Passports, E-Voting Systems, Electronic Vehicle Registration Systems, Driving License, Border and Immigration Control, and Biometric Matching Systems.

Projects that Decatur have also won include, the 'Medical Marijuana Authorization System and Registry' for the Department of Health in Washington State, USA; 'Driving License Registration, Issuance, Related Functions and Examination Management' for the Republic of Tajikistan and the 'Automated Solution for Production and Distribution of License Plates', for the Republic of Moldova. Similarly, Decatur is implementing its solutions in Bangladesh, Kenya and Myanmar amongst other countries.

info@decatureu.com
Regulatory News:

Adocia (Paris:ADOC), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on diabetes treatment with innovative formulations of approved proteins, announced today that Dr. Gerard Soula, the Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, has been invited to present at the Jefferies 2016 Global Healthcare Conference being held on June 7-10, 2016 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

Dr. Soula is scheduled to present on Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 10:30 AM EDT. The presentation will take place in Ballroom 1.

The conference will feature a widespread range of public private companies across the healthcare sector and executives from the investment community. The event will include company presentations, Q&A breakout sessions and thematic panels.

A live-streaming webcast will be available at http://wsw.com/webcast/jeff97/adoc. The archived presentation will be available for 90 days following the event.

About ADOCIA

Adocia is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that specializes in the development of innovative formulations of already-approved therapeutic proteins. Adocia's insulin formulation portfolio, featuring four clinical-stage products and one preclinical products, is among the largest and most differentiated in the industry.

The proprietary BioChaperone technological platform is designed to enhance the effectiveness and/or safety of therapeutic proteins while making them easier for patients to use. Adocia customizes BioChaperone to each protein for a given application in order to address specific patient needs.

Adocia's clinical pipeline includes a unique formulation of PDGF-BB for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcer and four novel insulin formulations for the treatment of diabetes: two ultra-rapid formulations of insulin analogs (BioChaperone Lispro U100 and U200), a rapid-acting formulation of human insulin (HinsBet U100) and a combination of insulin glargine and a rapid-acting insulin analog (BioChaperone Combo). Adocia is also developing a concentrated, rapid-acting formulation of human insulin (HinsBet U500).

In December 2014, Adocia signed a partnership with Eli Lilly for the development and commercialization of the BioChaperone Lispro projects.

Adocia's extended, early-stage programs include innovative monoclonal antibody formulations, featuring two ongoing collaborations programs with major pharmaceutical companies in the field, and the delivery of anticancer drugs using the proprietary DriveIn nanotechnology platform.

Adocia aims to deliver "Innovative medicine for everyone, everywhere."

To learn more about Adocia, please visit us at www.adocia.com

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy Adocia shares in any jurisdiction.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005950/en/

Contacts:

Adocia

Gerard Soula, Tel.: +33 4 72 610 610

Chairman and CEO

contactinvestisseurs@adocia.com

or

Adocia Press Relations Europe

MC Services AG

Raimund Gabriel, Tel.: +49 89 210 228 0

raimund.gabriel@mc-services.eu

adocia@mc-services.eu

or

Adocia Investor Relations USA

The Ruth Group

Tram Bui, Tel.: +646.536.7035

tbui@theruthgroup.com


2 June 2016



PayPoint plc



Directorate Change



PayPoint today announces that David Morrison, will retire from the board at the annual general meeting in 2017, following over 10 years of service as a non- executive director of PayPoint plc.



Enquiries Rollo Head, Finsbury +44 207 251 3801



ABOUT PAYPOINT PayPoint is a British success story that has been powering local and national businesses for 20 years.



We support market leading national networks across 39,000 convenience stores in the UK and Romania so that our customers are always close to a PayPoint store. In thousands of locations, as well as at home or on the move, people use us better to control their household finances, essential payments and in-store services, like parcels. Our UK network contains more branches than all banks, supermarkets and Post Offices together, putting us at the heart of communities for over 10 million regular weekly customers.



We have a proven track record of decades of tech-led innovation, providing retailers with tools that attract customers into their shops. Our industry- leading payments systems give first class service to the customers of over 1,500 clients - utility companies, retailers, transport firms and mobile phone providers, government and more.



We are on and offline; providing for payments by cash, card including contactless; retail, phone and digital; at home, work and whilst out and about from Land's End to the highlands and islands - helping to keep modern life moving.



Multichannel payments



We offer clients streamlined consumer payment processing and transaction routing in one, seamlessly integrated solution, through MultiPay. This gives customers the flexibility to pay in the way that best suits them; including mobile app, online, text, phone/IVR and cash in-store.



MultiPay is live with Utilita, a fast growing challenger energy supplier. We have signed several other energy companies, a framework agreement with Procurement for Housing and, significantly, Scottish and Southern Energy, our first Big 6 energy client



Retail networks



In the UK, our network includes over 29,000 local shops including Co-op, Spar, Sainsbury's Local, Tesco Express and thousands of independent outlets. These outlets are quick and convenient places to make energy meter prepayments, bill payments, benefit payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, TV licences, cash withdrawals and more.



Our Romanian network continues to grow profitably. We have more than 10,200 local shops, helping people to make cash bill payments, money transfers, road tax payments and mobile phone top-ups. Our clients include all the major utilities and telcos and many other consumer service companies.



In the UK, our Collect+ joint venture with Yodel offers parcel drop-off and pick-up services in nearly 6,000 convenience stores. Customers use Collect+ to handle parcels from major retailers including Amazon, eBay, ASOS, New Look, John Lewis, House of Fraser, M&S and Very.



The UK network also includes over 4,200 LINK branded ATMs, and 10,000 of our terminals enable retailers to accept debit, credit and contactless payments, including Apple Pay.



We operate over 3,000 Western Union agencies in the UK and Romania for international and domestic money transfers.



This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that: (i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and other applicable laws; and (ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.



Source: PayPoint plc via GlobeNewswire [HUG#2017691]



B02QND9R555



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
According to the latest research study released by Technavio, the global data-as-a-service (DaaS) market is expected to witness spectacular growth with a CAGR of more than 43% until 2020.

DaaS is a cloud computing model that refers to the provision and distribution of information in which data files, including text, images, and videos are made available to users on demand via the Internet. This research report titled 'Global DaaS Market 2016-2020', provides an in-depth analysis of market growth in terms of revenue and emerging market trends.

Request sample report: http://bit.ly/1TMsOc1

"DaaS helps organizations reduce costs, improve business productivity by focusing on core business activities, and gain a competitive edge over others. It offers tremendous opportunities for organizations across sectors such as banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing, healthcare, government, IT and telecom, and retail to boost their revenues through better customer understanding and engagement models," said Amit Sharma, one of Technavio's lead analysts for cloud computing research.

"APAC is expected to show promising growth in the global DaaS market during the forecast period due to exponential growth in data driven by digital transformation efforts to improve customer experience," added Amit.

Segmentation of global DaaS market by end-user 2015

BFSI 21.43%

Healthcare 18.57%

Government 17.14%

Manufacturing 14.29%

IT and telecom 12.86%

Retail 11.43%

Others 4.29%

Source: Technavio research

BFSI segment of the global DaaS market: largest market

The global DaaS market by the BFSI sector was valued at USD 45 million in 2015. The residential market is the largest revenue contributor to the general lighting segment. In 2015, the BFSI sector held the largest share of this market. It is an information-intensive sector and has seen the highest spending on information and communications technology (ICT) compared to other sectors. The investment is directed toward digitalization and the growing need to keep pace with the digital era. Most products and services have now become digital in nature. Certain critical transaction processes such as electronic fund transfer, interbank settlement, and securities trading are now fully digital.

Healthcare segment of the global DaaS market: second-largest market

The global DaaS market by the healthcare sector was valued at USD 39 million in 2015. The healthcare sector is undergoing rapid digitalization changes. The sector generates large data volumes for record keeping due to legislative regulations. Most of the healthcare data are paper-based, and there is a growing need for digitization to harness the potential benefits of such data. The sector's efforts to revamp electronic medical records, medical imaging, and healthcare service delivery mechanisms such as telemedicine will augur well for the market during the forecast period.

Government segment of the global DaaS market: third-largest market

The global DaaS market by the government sector was valued at USD 36 million in 2015. Government organizations worldwide invest in improving IT infrastructures and embracing digitalization. This helps governments meet citizen demands and achieve operational efficiency at lower costs. Also, the public sector aims to link all departments electronically so that people can have a single interface point to connect with government agencies.

Market conditions and regulatory imbalances often restrict governments of developing countries from spending on projects involving high capital outflow. Hence, these countries prefer cloud-based data management solutions. Government spending is a key driver for the growth of IT spending globally. This trend is expected to encourage the private sector to invest more on innovative IT solutions such as DaaS to improve business efficiency and drive down costs.

Browse related reports:

Global Big Data as a Service Market 2016-2020

Global Data Loss Prevention Applications Market 2015-2019

Global Big Data Professional Services Market 2015-2019

Global Data Protection as a Service (DPaaS) Market 2015-2019

Purchase any three reports for the price of one by becoming a Technavio subscriber. Subscribing to Technavio's reports allows you to download any three reports per month for the price of one. Contact enquiry@technavio.com with your requirements and a link to our subscription platform.

About Technavio

Technaviois a leading global technology research and advisory company. The company develops over 2000 pieces of research every year, covering more than 500 technologies across 80 countries. Technavio has about 300 analysts globally who specialize in customized consulting and business research assignments across the latest leading edge technologies.

Technavio analysts employ primary as well as secondary research techniques to ascertain the size and vendor landscape in a range of markets. Analysts obtain information using a combination of bottom-up and top-down approaches, besides using in-house market modeling tools and proprietary databases. They corroborate this data with the data obtained from various market participants and stakeholders across the value chain, including vendors, service providers, distributors, re-sellers, and end-users.

If you are interested in more information, please contact our media team at media@technavio.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005036/en/

Contacts:

Technavio Research

Jesse Maida

Media Marketing Executive

US: +1 630 333 9501

UK: +44 208 123 1770

www.technavio.com

media@technavio.com
Axalta Coating Systems (NYSE: AXTA), a leading global manufacturer of liquid and powder coatings, is launching its Nason Finishes refinish brand in Russia. With its clear focus on its customers, Axalta has identified a requirement in Russia for a cost-competitive, easy-to-use refinish paint system that's suitable for straight-forward spot, panel and overall repairs.

"By adding Nason Finishes to our stable of refinish brands in EMEA, we are able to meet our customers' requirements, regardless of their size, or whether they require a premium brand, something more mainstream or an economy solution. But whatever they choose, they know they have Axalta's innovation behind it," says Matthias Schonberg, Vice President of Axalta and President of its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

Nason Finishes' regionally-specific product portfolios are well-established in the economy refinish paint sectors in the US, Canada, Australia and Asia Pacific, where the brand has been delivering reliable, cost-competitive results for many years.

For further information on Axalta worldwide, please visit www.axaltacs.com

About Axalta Coating Systems Celebrating 150 Years in the Coatings Industry

Axalta is a leading global company focused solely on coatings and providing customers with innovative, colorful, beautiful and sustainable solutions. From light OEM vehicles, commercial vehicles and refinish applications to electric motors, buildings and pipelines, our coatings are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and enable the materials we coat to last longer. With 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, the 12,800 people of Axalta continue to find ways to better serve our more than 100,000 customers in 130 countries every day with the finest coatings, application systems and technology. For more information visit axaltacoatingsystems.com and follow us on Twitter @axalta and on LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602006224/en/

Contacts:

DA Public Relations Ltd

Chantal Bachelier-Moore

D +44 207 692 4964

chantal@dapr.com
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2016) - Northern Sphere Mining Corp. (CSE: NSM) is pleased to announce it has completed its first pre production processing run of material from its Arizona Silver Property. NSM successfully produced 143 ounces of Silver dore and over 200 ounces silver in concentrate which it is currently being smelted. The silver / gold / copper bars were produced by gravity separation. The run of mine (ROM ) consisted of approximately 800 lbs. of feed to the mill. Internal assays done in its onsite assay facility established the grade to be 500 ounces per ton. After gravity and smelting it was determined the recovery to be approximately 80 %. NSM is currently preparing to commission its leach circuit which should increase recovery to over 95 %. Optimization tests are currently ongoing.



NSM continues to upgrade the underground at site to enable it to mine at a rate of over 200 tons ROM per day feed to the mill.



We are also pleased to announce we have added Mr. Bob Budd to our team as Senior Metallurgist. Mr. Budd provides over 25 years of experience to NSM and will be an integral member of our team as we move to production.



Please go to our website at www.northernsphere.com for photos of our first dore bars as well as a full resume for Bob Budd.

About Northern Sphere Mining Corp.

Northern Sphere Mining is dedicated to growth through the acquisition and development of mining assets, with an emphasis on near term production opportunities. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Northern Sphere Mining has a strong project pipeline of properties with a focus on gold, silver and other metal production in pro-mining jurisdictions.

Cautionary Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements which reflect Northern Sphere's current expectations regarding future events. The forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from those projected herein. Northern Sphere disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by applicable securities laws.

For further information, please contact:

John Carter

Chief Executive Officer

Northern Sphere Mining Corp.

Tel: 905-302-3843
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Editors Note: There is a photo associated with this release.

Katerina Cozias and other top media personalities will be covering this year's Los Angeles Greek Film Festival. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the festival runs from June 1 - June 5th at Hollywood's famed Egyptian Theater.

"I am delighted to be covering this year's festival including the Orpheus Awards which, in addition to celebrating top filmmakers, will be honoring Chairman & CEO of 20th Century Fox, James Gianopulos and Academy Award winning actor J. K. Simmons. Both men are an inspiration to those in the media and arts arena," says Cozias.

Canadian born Katerina Cozias is an international host with a dynamic on-air presence. Early in her career, Katerina trained as a host with Antenna Television in Athens, Greece, making her the ideal choice to cover the festival's red-carpet opening ceremony and ensuing events. Corresponding for the Greek Reporter, the world's leading international Greek news portal for Greeks in Greece and abroad, Katerina is fluent in Greek, English and French. Followers in 34 countries enjoy Katerina's entertaining style in delivering news and opinion on today's global topics of interest.

The Los Angeles Greek Film Festival is recognized as one of the world's top ethnic and independent film festivals showcasing new films from Greece & Cyprus. The festival will also include works by international film makers of Greek decent including films from Australia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, the U.K., Greece, Sweden, Turkey and the U.S. The festival represents 9 documentaries, 15 narratives and 31 shorts. The Festival will introduce 4 world premieres, 25 North American premieres, and 13 Los Angeles premieres to the Hollywood audience. Forty-two films will vie for LAGFF's "Audience Choice" Orpheus Award. Integral to the festival, the Orpheus Award is named for the legendary Greek Poet and is the annual prize honoring the best in Greek cinema.

The Orpheus Awards will take place on Sunday, June 5th at the Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles and will serve to close out the Festival. The ceremony and will be emceed by actress Mena Suvari and will feature special behind the scenes coverage by host Katerina Cozias.

Experience more Katerina at global-gab.com

To view the photo associated with this release, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20160602-Katerina-Cozias-Profile-Photo.jpg.

Contacts:

Katerina Cozias

Media Relations & On-Air Personality

+1 305.608.8812

ccozias@gmail.com




RICHMOND, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Catalyst Paper today welcomed United States Senator Susan Collins to the company's pulp and paper mill in Rumford, Maine.

Senator Collins toured the Rumford mill to meet with senior management and employees, and demonstrate her support for ongoing efforts to revitalize operations to support the mill's long-term sustainability.

"Maine's pulp and paper industry is part of our heritage, our present, and our future," said Senator Collins. "Catalyst's Rumford mill is an important contributor to the economic health of our state. The mill employs approximately 640 hardworking men and women and is vital to Rumford and the surrounding communities in western Maine. I will continue to strongly advocate for federal policies to support Maine's paper mills and help preserve these high-quality jobs."

Over the past year, the Rumford mill has made significant progress in its effort to revitalize its financial and operational performance. The mill recently re-started No. 12 Paper Machine, added 32 jobs to the facility and supported the commercialization of "Rumford Offset", a new uncoated freesheet grade of paper.

Catalyst appreciates Senator Collins' support on the countervailing duty issue related to the export of supercalandered paper to the United States. After Catalyst was assessed an "all-others" duty rate, which was not reflective of its own business circumstances, Senator Collins urged the United States Department of Commerce to prioritize an individual investigation of Catalyst through an expedited review process, which is now in progress.

"Catalyst values Senator Collins' efforts to protect jobs, and to support a healthy and thriving manufacturing sector in the State of Maine," said Joe Nemeth, President & Chief Executive Officer.

Senator Collins was joined on today's tour by Catalyst senior leaders, Joe Nemeth, President & Chief Executive Officer, Frank De Costanzo, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Greg Maule, Senior Vice President, Operations, Len Posyniak, Senior Vice President, Human Resources & Corporate Services, Sean Curran, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing and Randy Chicoine, Vice President & General Manager of the Rumford mill.

Catalyst acquired Rumford Pulp and Paper in January 2015 and invested nearly $16 million last year in the mill, including the upgrade of Recovery Boiler C. Rumford produces 500,000 tons of paper products and 460,000 tons of pulp on an annual basis. As one of the region's largest employers, the mill delivers regional economic spin-off benefits of approximately $317 million.

About Catalyst Paper

Catalyst Paper manufactures diverse printing papers such as coated freesheet, C1S, coated and uncoated groundwood, newsprint, directory, as well as market pulp. Customers include retailers, publishers and commercial printers in North America, Latin America, the Pacific Rim and Europe. With five mills across North America, Catalyst has annual production capacity of 2.3 million tonnes. Catalyst is headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, and is ranked by Corporate Knights magazine as one of the 50 Best Corporate Citizens in Canada.

Contacts:

Media Contact:

Tony Lyons

Director, Fiber Supply & Public Policy

207-369-2615 or 904-460-6604

Anthony.Lyons@catalystpaper.com




WINNIPEG, MANITOBA -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- IGM Financial Inc. (IGM) (TSX: IGM) today reported preliminary total mutual fund net new money in May of ($186.8) million as shown in Table 1. Total assets under management were $135.1 billion at May 31, 2016, compared with $132.4 billion at April 30, 2016 and $148.5 billion at May 31, 2015. Mutual fund assets under management were $129.8 billion as at May 31, 2016, compared with $127.0 billion at April 30, 2016 and $131.6 billion at May 31, 2015. Assets under management are shown in Table 2.

Table 1 - Mutual Funds Net New Money(i) Month ended May 31, 2016 Investors IGM ($ millions) (unaudited) Group Mackenzie Counsel Financial ------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------ All Mutual Funds Gross Sales $591.8 $511.9 $71.5 $1,175.2 Net New Money ($53.8) ($132.6) ($0.4) ($186.8) Long Term Mutual Funds Gross Sales $500.3 $482.9 $66.9 $1,050.1 Net New Money ($76.5) ($137.3) ($4.0) ($217.8) (i) Mutual Fund Net New Money is defined as Gross Sales less Gross Redemptions and is consistent with the terminology used by The Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC). Table 2 - Assets under Management ($ billions) May April May % Change % Change (unaudited) 2016 2016 2015 Last Month YOY ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ Total Assets under Management(1) $135.14 $132.41 $148.52 2.1 (9.0) Mutual Fund Assets under Management $129.77 $127.00 $131.57 2.2 (1.4) Investors Group Mutual Funds $76.90 $75.23 $76.81 2.2 0.1 Mackenzie Mutual Funds $48.58 $47.55 $50.71 2.2 (4.2) Sub-advisory, institutional and other(2) $12.83 $12.69 $23.91 1.1 (46.3) ------------------------------------------------------ Total Mackenzie $61.41 $60.24 $74.62 1.9 (17.7) ------------------------------------------------------ Counsel Mutual Funds $4.29 $4.22 $4.11 1.7 4.4 (1) Excludes assets managed by Mackenzie on behalf of Investors Group and Investment Planning Counsel. These assets had a value of $7.5 billion at May 31, 2016 ($7.3 billion at April 30, 2016 and $7.0 billion at May 31, 2015). (2) Includes $36.3 million of Exchange Traded Fund assets managed by Mackenzie.

Preliminary average mutual fund assets under management and average total assets under management for the quarter to date are set out in Table 3.

Table 3 - Average Assets under Management (3) ($ billions) (unaudited) Quarter to Date --------------- --------------- Total Average Assets under Management (4) $133.12 Mutual Fund Average Assets under Management $127.58 Investors Group Mutual Funds $75.58 Mackenzie Mutual Funds $47.76 Sub-advisory, institutional and other $12.86 --------------- Total Mackenzie $60.62 --------------- Counsel Mutual Funds $4.23 (3) Based on daily average mutual fund assets and month-end average institutional, sub-advisory and other assets. (4) Excludes average assets of $7.3 billion managed by Mackenzie on behalf of Investors Group and Investment Planning Counsel.

IGM Financial Inc. is one of Canada's premier personal financial services companies, and one of the country's largest managers and distributors of mutual funds and other managed asset products, with approximately $135 billion in total assets under management. Its activities are carried out principally through Investors Group through a network of approximately 5,300 Consultants, Mackenzie Financial Corporation through a diversified network of third-party financial advisors and Investment Planning Counsel through a network of financial planners who are dedicated to serving the needs of their clients.

MEMBER OF THE POWER FINANCIAL CORPORATION GROUP OF COMPANIES.

Contacts:

IGM Financial Inc.

Media Relations

Ron Arnst

204-956-3364

ron.arnst@igmfinancial.com



IGM Financial Inc.

Investor Relations

Paul Hancock

204-956-8103

investor.relations@igmfinancial.com




NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) - New York real estate mogul and private equities expert Jacob Frydman has announced plans to attend the National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education's (NCFJE) 76th annual awards dinner. This gala celebrates the NCFJE's many achievements and volunteers making a positive impact within the local and national Jewish community.

Founded in 1940 by Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, the NCFJE assists Jewish participants through meal programs and educational initiatives. During its 76 years of operation, the NCFJE has served thousands as a means of promoting humanitarianism. "I have had the privilege of working with the NCFJE for the past several years," Frydman said. "I have seen firsthand the impact this group has made throughout New York's Jewish community and am looking forward to attending this year's annual dinner to celebrate everything this uplifting organization offers."

Jacob Frydman has personally participated in several NCFJE charities, including its Released Time Program and Toys for Hospitalized Children project. The Released Time Program teaches Jewish students about their distinctive heritage through exposure to prayers, traditions, and the Torah. Frydman, a long-time educational activist who founded a scholarship fund in 2013, supports the Released Time Program's goal of using synagogues to teach modern-day public school children to embrace Judaism. The program works in joint with NYC public schools, offering Jewish classes for the students once a week in the last hour of school at a Jewish center nearby.

Frydman has also worked alongside the organization's Toys for Hospitalized Children initiative, directed by Mrs. Baila Hecht. This 50-year-old NCFJE project services numerous hospitals, senior residences and special needs facilities as it collects and distributes over 10,000 toys and gifts to young patients each year. As an active contributor to the Toys for Hospitalized Children, Frydman helps families across New York and New Jersey, while assisting NCFJE participants develop deep, sustainable roots within their Judaic faith.

Jacob Frydman has built a successful 30-year career in real estate investments and development. A Boston University graduate with a Bachelors of Science in Finance, and a Juris Doctor degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Frydman left his mark throughout the United States by developing over five million square feet of commercial properties. As an innovator in the property investment market, he often lends his insight as a speaker, panelist, and consultant at industry events and televised news broadcasts. Frydman is an avid humanitarian dedicated to a wide range of charitable organizations. In addition to the NCFJE, he also contributes to The Brem Foundation and The Chabad of Duchess County.

Jacob Frydman -- Property Expert and Consultant: http://jacobfrydmannews.com

Jacob Frydman -- Generously Donates to Chabad of Dutchess County: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-generously-donates-chabad-163516676.html

Jacob Frydman -- Devoted Member and Supporter of The Rhinebeck Jewish Center: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jacob-frydman-devoted-member-supporter-050741846.html

Contact Information:

JacobFrydmanNews.com

contact@jacobfrydmannews.com

www.JacobFrydmanNews.com
FREDERICK, MD -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Welocalize, global leader in innovative translation and localization solutions, is a sponsor and exhibitor at the upcoming Localization World 2016, taking place at the Convention Centre Dublin, June 8-10.

Welocalize language solutions experts will be sharing insights and presenting best practices related to the LocWorld31 conference theme, "Engagement of Global Customers." The Welocalize team will meet with clients and industry colleagues at exhibition booth #45 to discuss globalization and supporting the entire product lifecycle through specialized services, including multilingual digital marketing, transcreation and cultural adaption, quality validation, language automation, patent protection and agile localization.

Welocalize Vice President of Language Technology Solutions Olga Beregovaya will join Pablo Vazquez from NetApp to deliver a joint presentation, "Managing an Effective MT Program in an Ever Changing MT Environment," on Friday, June 10 at 9:00 AM.

Welocalize Vice President of Corporate Development Tuyen Ho is hosting the LocWorld31 Growth Strategies Round Table to stimulate discussion around mergers and acquisition activity in the language services industry. This half-day interactive session takes place on Wednesday, June 8.

"Welocalize is looking forward to participating in the Localization World 2016 Conference in Dublin through our supporting sponsorship, interactive exhibition and informative presentations," said Smith Yewell, CEO and co-founder of Welocalize. "We are eager to meet with localization professionals and global organization business leaders to share updates about our recent acquisitions in life sciences and multilingual digital marketing, which expands our diverse capabilities and expertise in addressing globalization needs across all industries, from pharmaceutical to consumer products."

Welocalize will host LocLeaders Forum 2016: Expanding Your Global Reach, on Wednesday, June 8 at No.6 Kildare Street in Dublin, home of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland since 1864. This exclusive event is a unique opportunity to bring together language service colleagues, clients and peers to share experiences and talk openly about current localization challenges and opportunities.

"We will be welcoming business leaders from a number of leading global organizations to take part in our exclusive LocLeaders Forum in Dublin," said Jamie Glass, CMO and EVP of global service lines at Welocalize. "Clients and localization experts will participate in a dynamic exchange of ideas about trending topics, including optimizing quality in localization, in-country reviews and validation, as well as bridging the digital divide between marketing and language services."

LocLeaders Forum hosts include Smith Yewell, Welocalize co-founder and CEO, Paul McManus, Welocalize chief customer officer, and Huw Aveston, co-managing Director of Adapt Worldwide, a Welocalize Digital Multilingual Marketing Agency. To register for LocLeaders Dublin, go to http://bit.ly/LocLeadersDublin16.

For more information about Localization World 2016 Dublin, visit http://locworld.com/events/locworld31-dublin-2016/.

Welocalize, Inc., founded in 1997, offers innovative language services to help global brands reach audiences around the world in more than 175 languages. We provide translation and localization services, talent management, language tools, automation and technology, quality and program management. Our range of managed language services include machine translation, digital marketing, validation and testing, interpretation, staffing and enterprise translation management technologies. We specialize in consumer, technology, manufacturing, learning, oil and gas, travel and hospitality, marketing and advertising, finance, legal and life sciences industry language solutions. With more than 800 full-time employees worldwide, Welocalize maintains offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Romania, Poland, Japan and China. www.welocalize.com

Media Contacts:

US: Jamie Glass

Email Contact

602.369.5537

Europe/Asia: Louise Law

Email Contact




OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is pleased to announce that it will be launching a feasibility study, which will include an online and in-person consultation process, to review the decision to cease its agribusiness operations.

This process will assess the effectiveness and viability of re-establishing agriculture and agri-food employment initiatives for offenders at Collins Bay and Joyceville Institutions.

CSC will offer an online forum where stakeholders from government, business, and the community will be invited to share their opinions. This online forum will be open from June 2 to August 2, 2016

In addition to the online forum, a town hall meeting will be held in Kingston, Ontario to allow local residents, business leaders and other stakeholders to voice their perspectives. Details about the town hall will follow.

Once the feasibility study is complete, the findings will be posted publicly.

Quotes

"Our government understands that an effective criminal justice system is built on evidence-based policies that promote public safety and the reintegration of offenders. That's why we will be reviewing the cost and effectiveness of reinstating the prison farm program at Collins bay and Joyceville Institutions, and encouraging citizens, business leaders and other interested stakeholders to share their visions for what the program could look like."

The Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

Associated links

History of CORCAN and the evolution of prison industries

Contacts:

Media Relations

Correctional Service Canada

613-992-7711

media@csc-scc.gc.ca




Ingersoll-Rand plc (NYSE:IR), a world leader in creating comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments, held its 2015 Annual General Meeting of shareholders in Straffan, Ireland.

During the Annual General Meeting, the company's shareholders considered 11 proposals: nominations to re-elect or elect 12 members of Ingersoll Rand's board of directors; advisory approval of the compensation of the company's named executive officers; appointment of independent auditors and authorization of the Audit Committee to set the auditors' remuneration; renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares; renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares for cash without first offering shared to existing shareholders; a resolution to determine the price range at which the company can re-allot shares that it holds as treasury shares; amendment of the Company's Articles of Association to implement proxy access; amendment of the Company's Articles of Association to make certain administrative amendments in connection with the Companies Act 2014; amendment of the Company's Memorandum of Association to make certain administrative amendments in connection with the Companies Act 2014; amendment of the Company's Articles of Association to provide for a plurality voting standard in the event of a contested election; and amendment of the Company's Articles of Association to grant the board sole authority to determine its size.

The preliminary results of the Annual General Meeting voting are as follows:

All 12 individuals nominated for the board of directors Ann C. Berzin, John Bruton, Elaine L. Chao, Jared L. Cohon, Gary D. Forsee, Constance J. Horner, Linda P. Hudson, Michael W. Lamach, Myles P. Lee, John P. Surma, Richard J. Swift, and Tony L. White were elected to a one-year term, which expires at the company's next Annual General Meeting.

The proposal to give advisory approval of the compensation of the company's named executive officers received approximately 94 percent of votes cast in favor.

The proposal to approve the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as the independent auditors of the company and to authorize the Audit Committee to set the auditor's remuneration received approximately 99 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to approve renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares received approximately 95 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to approve renewal of the Board of Directors' existing authority to issue shares for cash without first offering shared to existing shareholders received approximately 97 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to determine the price range at which the company can re-allot shares that it holds as treasury shares received approximately 97 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to amend the Company's Articles of Association to implement proxy access received approximately 96 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to amend the Company's Articles of Association to make certain administrative amendments in connection with the Companies Act 2014 received approximately 99 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to amend the Company's Memorandum of Association to make certain administrative amendments in connection with the Companies Act 2014 received approximately 99 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to amend the Company's Articles of Association to provide for a plurality standard in the event of a contested election received approximately 98 percent of the votes cast in favor.

The proposal to amend the Company's Articles of Association to grant the board sole authority to determine its size received approximately 96 percent of the votes cast in favor.

About Ingersoll Rand

Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR) advances the quality of life by creating comfortable, sustainable and efficient environments. Our people and our family of brands- including Club Car, Ingersoll Rand, Thermo King and Trane -work together to enhance the quality and comfort of air in homes and buildings; transport and protect food and perishables; and increase industrial productivity and efficiency. We are a $13 global business committed to a world of sustainable progress and enduring results. For more information, visit www.ingersollrand.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602006238/en/

Contacts:

Ingersoll Rand

Media:

Misty Zelent, 704-655-5324, mzelent@irco.com

or

Analysts:

Joe Fimbianti, 704-655-4721, joseph_fimbianti@irco.com


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A month after saying he was 'not ready' to support Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., revealed Thursday he will vote for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this fall.



In a column for his hometown Janesville Gazette, Ryan said his decision comes after extensive conversations with Trump about issues such as the proper role of the executive and the protection of life.



Ryan said he was very encouraged by the list of people Trump said he would consider nominating to the U.S. Supreme Court.



The House Speaker expressed confidence a President Trump would help turn the agenda House Republicans plan to offer into laws to help improve people's lives.



Ryan said the agenda includes reforming the tax code, repealing and replacing Obamacare, restoring the separation of powers and reducing government regulations.



'It will be a positive, optimistic vision for a more confident America,' Ryan said. 'It's short of all that's required to save the country, but the goal was to focus on issues that unite Republicans.'



'It's a bold agenda but one that can bring together all wings of the Republican Party as well as appeal to most Americans,' he added.



Ryan acknowledged that he has differences with Trump but said they have more common ground than disagreement on the issues that make up the House Republican agenda.



'For me, it's a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I-and my House colleagues-have invested so much in through the years,' Ryan said. 'It's not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America.'



He added, 'And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead. Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.'



Ryan made headlines last month when he held back on supporting Trump even after the real estate tycoon became the presumptive GOP nominee.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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TORONTO, ON --(Marketwired - June 02, 2016) -Primero Mining Corp. ("Primero" or the "Company") (TSX: P) (NYSE: PPP) announced today that it has issued a Notice of Intent to submit a claim to international arbitration against the Government of Mexico, pursuant to Article 1119 of the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA").

Primero's Notice of Intent under NAFTA highlights improper actions taken by the Mexican tax authority, the Servicio de Administracion Tributaria ("SAT"). These actions have the intent of revoking legal rights previously granted to Primero and upon which Primero relied to expand its investment in Mexico.

Primero is a publicly-listed Canadian company with significant investments in Mexico, including its flagship San Dimas gold-silver mine located in Durango, Mexico. The mine employs approximately 1,100 local workers and has been repeatedly awarded Clean Industry certification by PROFEPA, Mexico's Environmental Protection agency. The Company also holds a 100% interest in the Cerro del Gallo gold-silver-copper development project located in Guanajuato, Mexico, and the Ventanas exploration property located 32 kilometres south of the San Dimas mine. At each of these sites, Primero has proven itself to be a responsible corporate citizen, having recently been recognized as an "Empresa Socialmente Responsable" or "Socially Responsible Company" by the Mexican Centre for Philanthropy (CEMEFI) for the fifth consecutive year.

The actions of the SAT have been neither fair nor equitable. The Company believes that the SAT's actions are discriminatory against Primero as a foreign investor. As a consequence, Primero believes the Government of Mexico has failed to uphold the core values of NAFTA, including its obligation to protect Primero's foreign investment under NAFTA Chapter 11, and therefore the Company is entitled to full compensation.

Primero has resorted to utilizing international arbitration proceedings to ensure that Mexico's commitments under NAFTA are upheld.

About Primero

Primero Mining Corp. is a Canadian-based precious metals producer that owns 100% of the San Dimas gold-silver mine and the Cerro del Gallo gold-silver-copper development project in Mexico and 100% of the Black Fox mine and adjoining properties in the Township of Black River"Matheson near Timmins, Ontario, Canada. Primero offers immediate exposure to un-hedged, below average cash cost gold production with a substantial resource base in politically stable jurisdictions. The Company is focused on becoming a leading intermediate gold producer by building a portfolio of high quality, low cost precious metals assets in the Americas.

Primero's website is www.primeromining.com.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release contains "forward-looking statements", within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business and operations of Primero Mining Corp. and its consolidated subsidiaries (collectively, "Primero" or the "Company"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "if approved", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "in order to" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "are anticipated", "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will require", "will allow", "will enhance" or "will include" or similar statements or the negative connotation thereof. Forward-looking information is also identifiable in statements of currently occurring matters which will continue in future, such as "is updating", "is working" or "is also assessing" or other statements that may be stated in the present tense and are not historical facts or words with future implication such as "opportunity", "promising".

Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to statements regarding the APA and the Company's ability to defend its validity, the Company's ability to pay taxes in Mexico on realized silver prices; the Company's intent to submit a NAFTA claim to international arbitration against the Government of Mexico; and the Company's intentions to become an intermediate gold producer.

The assumptions made by the Company in preparing the forward-looking information contained in this news release, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to: the expectations and beliefs of management; the specific assumptions set forth above in this news release; assumptions regarding the discriminatory nature of the actions of the SAT against the Company; assumptions regarding the failure of the Mexican Government to uphold the core values of NAFTA and to protect the Company's foreign investment in Mexico; that there are no material variations in the current tax and regulatory environment or the basis for the calculation of the Company's income tax (including as a result of the current challenge to the advance pricing agreement).

Forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Primero to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including: the Company's ability to obtain full compensation from the Mexican Government; the Company may not be able to become an intermediate gold producer by building a portfolio of high quality, low cost precious metals assets in the Americas. Certain of these factors are discussed in greater detail in Primero's registration statement on Form 40-F on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and its most recent Annual Information Form on file with the Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com.

Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. In addition, although Primero has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and accordingly are subject to change after such date. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of our operating environment. Primero does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Attachment Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2016/6/2/11G101155/PR13-16_NAFTA_NOI_Notice_Final_v2-0b08c1c46caca3478b1648e36677698f.pdf

For further information, please contact:

Evan Young

Manager, Investor Relations

Tel: (416) 814-2694

eyoung@primeromining.com
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- AlarmForce Industries ("AlarmForce") (TSX: AF) will release its second quarter results for 2016 on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 prior to market open. The company will subsequently hold a conference call on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time hosted by Graham Badun, Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Lynch, Chief Financial Officer. A question and answer session will follow the corporate update.

CONFERENCE CALL DETAILS Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2016 Time: 3:00 PM Eastern Time Participant Dial-in Numbers: Local - Toronto: 647-788-4919 Operator-Assisted Toll Free - North American: 1-877-291-4570 Conference ID: 69184285 CONFERENCE CALL REPLAY A digital recording of the conference call will be available for replay later the same day. To access the recording: Local - Toronto: 416-621-4642 Toll Free - International: 1-800-585-8367 Passcode: 69184285 Expiry Date: March 30, 2016 at 23:59 ET

About AlarmForce

AlarmForce provides security alarm monitoring, personal emergency response monitoring, video surveillance and related services to residential and commercial subscribers throughout Canada and selected centers in the United States. More information about AlarmForce's products and services can be found at alarmforce.com.

This press release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information contained or referred to in this press release includes, but may not be limited to, AlarmForce's future enhancement and development of products, AlarmForce's proposed write down and possible other write downs of assets or investments (and the timing thereof) and other actions which may impact financial performance.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the inability of AlarmForce to reach an agreement with one or more specialty manufacturers, the inability of specialty manufacturers to meet the demands and requirements of AlarmForce, the actual amount of the proposed write down being different than the estimated amount, a change in AlarmForce's decision to complete the proposed write down, as well as certain other risks set out in AlarmForce's public documents, including its annual information form dated January 21, 2016, filed under AlarmForce's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking information in this press release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of AlarmForce based on information currently available to AlarmForce. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this press release, AlarmForce has made assumptions about: AlarmForce's business, the economy and AlarmForce's industry in general. AlarmForce has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of AlarmForce's normal course of business. Although AlarmForce believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, AlarmForce disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

Contacts:

Hugh Mansfield

(416) 599-0024 x 235

hugh@mansfieldinc.com



Nila Halycia

(416) 599- 0024 x 236

nila@mansfieldinc.com




OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 06/02/16 -- Product photos are available at http://bit.ly/1Uj0ZEv

The food recall warning issued on May 16, 2016 has been updated to include additional product information.

Quaker Canada, a business unit of PepsiCo Canada ULC, is recalling Quaker Harvest brand Quinoa Granola Bars and Spitz brand Sunflower Kernels from the marketplace due to possible Listeria monocytogenes contamination. Consumers should not consume the recalled products described below.

The following products have been sold nationally.

Recalled products

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brand Product Size UPC Codes ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars 175 g 0 55577 11021 8 All lot codes and Harvest - Chocolate Nut (5 bars) best before dates Medley ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quaker Quinoa Granola Bars 175 g 0 55577 11020 1 All lot codes and Harvest - Yogurt, Fruit & (5 bars) best before dates Nut ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitz Salted Sunflower 100 g 0 69579 21000 5 All lot codes and Kernels best before dates ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spitz Dill Pickle 100 g 0 69579 21001 2 All lot codes and Sunflower Kernels best before dates ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What you should do

If you think you became sick from eating a recalled product, call your doctor.

Check to see if you have recalled products in your home. Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled but can still make you sick. Symptoms can include vomiting, nausea, persistent fever, muscle aches, severe headache and neck stiffness. Pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems are particularly at risk. Although infected pregnant women may experience only mild, flu-like symptoms, the infection can lead to premature delivery, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth. In severe cases of illness, people may die.

- Learn more about the health risks

- Sign up for recall notifications by email, follow us on Twitter, or join the CFIA community on Facebook

- View our detailed explanation of the food safety investigation and recall process

Background

This recall was triggered by the company. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is conducting a food safety investigation, which may lead to the recall of other products. If other high-risk products are recalled, the CFIA will notify the public through updated Food Recall Warnings.

The CFIA is verifying that industry is removing recalled product from the marketplace.

Illnesses

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.

More information

-- For Quaker Harvest Quinoa Granola Bars: Quaker Canada - Consumer Contact: 1-800-267-6287 -- For Spitz Sunflower Kernels: Spitz - Consumer Contact: 1-800-376-2257 -- CFIA: www.inspection.gc.ca/contactus

Contacts:

Media enquiries

CFIA Media Relations

613-773-6600




CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Malaysia will on Friday release April figures for imports, exports and trade balance, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. Exports are expected to add 2.0 percent on year after gaining 0.2 percent in March. Imports are called flat after dipping 5.5 percent in the previous month. The trade surplus is pegged at 8.62 billion ringgit, down from 11.19 billion a month earlier. New Zealand will release Q1 figures for building value, as well as May figures for commodity prices. Building value is expected to add 1.0 percent, slowing from 2.5 percent in the previous three months. Commodity prices slipped 0.8 percent in April. China will see May results for the services and composite indexes from Caixin; in April, their scores were 51.8 and 50.8, respectively. Australia will release May results for the Performance of Service Index from AiG; in April, the index score was 49.7. Japan will see May results for the services and composite indexes from Nikkei, as well as April figures for labor cash earnings. The services PMI had a score of 49.3 in April, while the composite came in at 48.9. Labor cash earnings are expected to gain 0.8 percent on year after rising 1.5 percent in March. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SenseLuxury, a Shangai, China-based luxury villa and apartment rental platform, completed a Series B funding of undisclosed amount.

GoHigh Fund, which previously invested in 7 days Inn, Red Star Macalline and Mofang Apartment, made the investment.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand its portfolio of villas and apartments.

Founded by James Bian, SenseLuxury is an online platform for luxury villas and apartment rentals in China. The company has already handpicked nearly 2,000 luxury villas and apartments in 150 destinations around the world.

SenseLuxury raised its Series A round financing in November 2015, led by SIG and followed by China Rock. Its Series Pre-A round was led by ZTEVC, ZTE Corporations finance arm.

FinSMEs

02/06/2016
WalkMe, a San Francisco, CA-based enterprise class guidance and engagement platform, received $50m in Series E funding.

The round was led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Greenspring Associates, and Scale Venture Partners.

The company, which has raised an aggregate amount of $92.5m, intends to use the funds to continue to scale operations.

Founded in 2011 and led by CEO Dan Adika, WalkMe provides an enterprise platform that provides step-by-step guidance and calls-to-action in order to increase customer engagement.

The company, which has offices in New York and Raleigh, Melbourne, and Tel-Aviv, serves such customers as Kimberly Clark, Stanley Black & Decker, SAP, SurveyMonkey, Intuit, Adobe, Phillips66, Metro Bank, and Citrix.

In addition to the funding, it has also launched WalkMe Apps, a free SDK for mobile user engagement and retention solution.

FinSMEs

02/06/2016
Planet3, a Washington DC-based exploration-based learning company, raised an additional $3m in funding.

Switch, the Nevada-based developer of the Supernap Data Centers, provided the funds.

The company, which has now raised a total of $13m, will use the funding to advance its digital learning platform and further expand the Early Adopter program.

Co-founded and led by Tim Kelly, former President of the National Geographic Society and media pioneer, and Tim Kelly, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Planet3 is a personalized learning platform that uses the planet Earth as a laboratory for teaching Earth, Life, and Physical Science. The platform utilizes narratives, real world data and visualization to inspire scientists, engineers, artists, and technologists.

The just launched initial pilot is designed to tap into students interest in the world around them, and will focus on middle school Earth and Life Sciences. Planet3 will be targeting a minimum of 25 pilot schools in six districts in Nevada, including Clark County, the largest school district in the state.

The platform is scheduled to formally launch in Fall 2017 while the companys long-term plans include K-12 curriculum for all Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) subjects.

FinSMEs

02/06/2016
Notion, a Denver, Colorado-based provider of a complete IoT home awareness system, secured $3.2m in seed funding.

Backers included XL Innovate, Liberty Mutual Strategic Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Liberty Mutual Insurance Global Consumer Markets business, and other investors. As part of the financing round, Martha Notaras, a partner at XL Innovate, will join the Notion board of directors.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate go-to-market initiatives.

Led by Brett Jurgens, co-founder and CEO, Notion provides complete home awareness via a system of smart sensors. Its initial product is a multi-function sensor that provides recognition of doors or windows opening, water leaks, temperature changes, smoke alarms going off, etc.

The companys home monitoring system  available on both iOS and Android platforms  can be up and running within a few minutes and sends alerts to homeowners via a mobile app.

Notion is currently selling its products in the US, Canada and parts of Europe.

FinSMEs

02/06/2016
FanXchange, a Toronto, Canada-based provider of white-labeled live event ticketing solutions, closed a $5m funding.

The round was led by Azure Capital Partners and Plaza Ventures with participation from existing investors including Gibraltar & Company. In conjunction with the financing, Dan Park, Principal and Head of Canadian Investments at Azure Capital Partners, joined FanXchanges board of directors

The company intends to use the funds to enhance the current suite of products.

Founded in 2009 by Brandon Koffler, CEO, FanXchange powers white labeled live event ticketing solutions for major loyalty programs, financial institutions, distribution partners and e-commerce marketplaces providing their users with access to tickets for every major sports, concert and theater event in North America.

FinSMEs

02/06/2016
New Delhi: The External Affairs Ministry on Thursday claimed it has been successful in "defusing" the apprehensions of the African community in the wake of string of attacks on African nationals.

"We have, I think, been successful in defusing the issue that was building up," he said, listing steps to address concerns of African community while replying to a question on the issue.

He also referred to the "heart warming" and "positive" statement issued by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after meeting a group of African envoys and students on Tuesday, besides the sensitisation campaign carried out by her MoS VK Singh in Chattarpur in south Delhi.

"I appeal to fellow Indians. Next time you meet an African citizen, pl shake hand and say 'India loves you'," Swaraj tweeted.

The MEA spokesperson said Singh will visit Bengaluru, Goa and cities where there is concentration of African nationals, to carry out the sensitisation campaign.

He said African envoys will be involved in identifying cities where African community has sizable presence.

Swaraj on Tuesday had announced a slew of steps including a country-wide sensitisation campaign after a meeting with African envoys and students.
New Delhi: Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar on Thursday described a Gujarat court verdict in Gulbarg Housing Society case as a "stain" on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, considering that he was the Chief Minister in Gujarat when the killings took place.

In a statement, the former President of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) also deplored "communal approach" by "Hindu Chauvinists" who were resisting shifting of displaced Muslim families to a locality following demolition of their homes.

According to a report in a national daily, residents of Kapurai a neighbourhood in Vadodara where about 300 displaced families, mostly Muslims, are supposed to be relocated following the demolition of their homes in Suleiman Chawl have written to the Vadodara Municipal Corporation protesting against the move.

The letter states that allowing Muslims to move into the locality will "hamper the peace-loving nature here" as their "daily activity involves assaulting and abusing", the report said.
When it comes to human rights activists, members of the civil society or eminent personalities in the legal field, the mainstream media has always reserved its deepest respect and maybe even unquestioned awe. Many of those involved in these arenas do deserve our veneration but the media must always be objective in its assessment. It cannot let itself be ruled by too much reverence or fear, or perhaps both.

The job of the mass medium is to create and shape public opinion and act as a watchdog to protect public interest against malpractices of all sorts but when it comes to matters in this jurisdiction, it has mostly abdicated its responsibility. There has been zero effort to expose the many acts of omissions and commissions that, for instance, allegedly occur in the NGO space.

The Congress, which put in place this elaborate ecosystem through decades of careful nurturing, turned a blind eye to it because it benefitted immensely from the support structure that this edifice provided and continues to provide. Even when India's grand old party has been reduced to a rump, the bio-network of patronage has acted as the de facto opposition, subjecting the NDA government to some of the shrillest attacks. Part of their nervousness must have been caused by a belief that the new government could put under scanner the many violations that allegedly take place among this corner of the civil society.

While barring noted lawyer Indira Jaising's NGO Lawyers Collective from receiving foreign funds for 180 days with immediate effect for alleged violation of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2010, the Union Home Ministry in an order on Wednesday asked the NGO why its licence under the FCRA should not be cancelled over misuse and diversion of foreign contributions. These include a payment of Rs 96.60 lakh as remuneration to Jaising while she was the Additional Solicitor General in the UPA government between the years 2009-12.

"It is really surprising how a senior law officer such as the ASG can simultaneously and for such a long period be on the rolls of a private entity, being paid for undisclosed purposes by the entity in gross violation of rules applicable to law officers of the Union of India, and how the association agreed for such an arrangement and she herself would have agreed for such an arrangement," the home ministry order read, according to The Times Of India.

The NGO has been faulted by the MHA for picking up the tab (without prior intimation or approval as required under FCRA) for the former ASG's visit to Nepal and the US. According to the order, Jaising's lawyer husband Anand Grover had not only drawn foreign funding received by Lawyers' Collective for his United Nations Special Rapporteur activities, but also used it for personal benefit and spent it outside India, in violation of FCRA norms.

The Times of India journalist Bharti Jain, who has been reporting on the story, tweeted this on Wednesday:

Lawyers Collective tfd over Rs 31 lac to Hungary & Malaysia; though FCRA mandates utilization of foreign funds within India  Bharti Jain (@bhartijainTOI) June 1, 2016

Lawyers Collective organised dharnas/rallies "with political hue" in 2011 & 2014, even though FCRA debars political activity: MHA  Bharti Jain (@bhartijainTOI) June 1, 2016

These are serious charges and Lawyers' Collective has said it will challenge the suspension order in court, adding that the Centre is using government machinery to try and crush dissent.

Soon after the home ministry order, Jaising posted on Twitter that she was being targeted by the government for speaking at Rana Ayyub's recently released book Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up.

Condemn the beaten attack by government disguised as alleged violations of FCRA , days after I spoke at Rana Ayub book release  indira jaising (@IJaising) June 1, 2016

The former ASG seems to be suggesting that there is some sort of a causal effect between her appearing at the release of a book on Narendra Modi's handling of Gujarat riots and the government's action against her NGO. The book release function that Jaising refers to in her tweet, took place in New Delhi last week, according to Narada News.

Interestingly, a report carried by The Hindu in November 2015 points out that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had in 2015 served a notice to Lawyers Collective for allegedly receiving foreign funds over Rs 11 crore when Jaising was the ASG  a government post  which is a violation of the FCRA, 2010.

The newspaper reported further that MHA has also sent a set of 32 questions to the NGO, seeking details of foreign funds which it received in kind, the salary details of all the office bearers, list of vehicles purchased from foreign funds, and details of all payments done in cash (above Rs 20,000) in the past three years.

And in March 2016, quoting from a Ministry of Home Affairs inspection report which it claimed to have accessed exclusively, India Today reported, "Lawyers Collective received foreign contribution of Rs 32 crore between 2006 and 2014. The MHA inspection team found that a large part of the money was spent on activities which were outside the list of items for which it had been collected. Paying volunteers to organise dharnas, receiving foreign contributions while working for the government, sending foreign donations outside India, spending foreign money to lobby with parliamentarians are some of the main violations listed in the report."

Jaising has since told NDTV that the government order is an act of "vindictiveness" and "nothing but an attempt to intimidate".

It remains to be seen how the battle plays out in court but instead of bowing down in perpetual awe, it is high time the media starts asking some tough questions.
New York: India's membership in the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum will likely be an important topic in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's talks with Preisdent Barack Obama next week, according to Arvind Panagariya, the vice chairman of the Niti Aayog.

"One concrete thing I would hope would be on the agenda is India's entry into Apec," during the Modi-Obama summit, he told a roundtable at the Asia Society Policy Institute here Wednesday.

Panagariya, who advocated an "outward orientation" as a development strategy for India, emphasised the need to join trade agreements. He said "APEC is a stepping stone" on the way to other trade agreements. APEC by itself is not going to get the country very far and it had to get into other arrangements, he added.

"If India is going to sustain a growth rate of eight to 10 percent over a period of 20 or 25 years, it cannot be done without actually capturing some of the world markets" through trade arrangements, he said. "The strategy of free trade agreements becomes quite important part of the whole strategy (of development) that if you have free market within a large region, India would have the right to sell duty free into that market."

Founded in 1989 at Australia's initiative, the 21-member APEC stretches from Australia to Peru and includes the US, Russia, China and Japan representing 2.8 billion people, 57 percent of the world's gross domestic product and 47 percent of global trade. It had a moratorium on new members for a decade which has now been lifted and India is actively lobbying to join it.

Modi was committed to joining the APEC and had sought Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's help when he visited India, Panagariya said.

Asked about India joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the more restrictive but ambitious trade pact pushed by the Obama administration, Panagariya said candidly: "India is below the standards that are required in the TPP."

It is too early to think ot the TPP, he said. "A lot the things that India would need to do to be a member of the TPP remain to be done on issues of intellectual property, labour, standards, government procurement  these are integral parts of the TPP."

The TPP agreement was signed by 12 Pacific-rim countries in February and does not include China.

While seeking to join trade agreements, India also needs to act internally on issues like trade facilitation so goods can move in and out of the country fast without bureaucratic delays, he said.

One of the problem areas for India in international trade is the lack of large companies and that 73 percent of the workforce is employed by firms with 20 or fewer persons, he said. The smaller units are less productive and limited in competing on the global markets, he said.

As bigger companies proliferate, they will define the ecosystem and ensure that small and medium enterprises in their region would also become highly productive, he said.

The big players "have to compete with the best of the world markets", he said. "They will have to be constantly on their toes. They will see to it that the small and medium firms that are around them will do the same."
Shimla: President Pranab Mukherjee arrived in Shimla on Thursday for a five-day sojourn in Mashobra near Shimla.

Mukherjee, who landed at Kalyan Helipad in Chharabra, 14 kms from Shimla, was received by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Governor Acharya Devvrat, state ministers and army officials.

The President, accompanied by his daughter Sharmistha, drove to 'The Retreat', which is part of the President's Estate where he was accorded a formal guard of honour.

He will stay here till 6 June, a statement issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Mukherjee would preside over the golden jubilee convocation of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) at Peterhoff here on 3 June and attend a banquet in his honour at Raj Bhawan.

The President will host a reception for senior dignitaries of the state, ministers, officials and journalists on 5 June, the statement said.

As per the tentative schedule, Mukherjee will leave on the morning of 6 June, official sources said.
Mumbai: Countdown on the fate of Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse reached its climax on Thursday as Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis rushed from the BJP headquarters at 11, Ashoka Road after meeting party chief Amit Shah to 7, Race Course Road to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Fadnavis, however, did not divulge any significant detail on what transpired between him and the BJP chief in the 20-minute long meeting but indicated that he presented the factual position on the matter.

"The party will direct us on further steps that needs to be taken. I gave a a factual report on the recent developments to Amit Shah," the Maharashtra chief minister told the media while coming out of the BJP headquarters.

The ministerial future for Khadse looks grim at the moment as according to sources Shah had asked Khadse to quit from the Fadnavis cabinet during a conference call held on Monday between the BJP president, Maharashtra chief minister and the Muktainagar MLA.

However, the Revenue Minister held on to his ground asserting that he did no wrong and refused to resign from the cabinet.

Khadse's tough stand has put Fadnavis in a fix as he is the senior post minister in the cabinet. The chief minister has reportedly asked Shah to accommodate in such a manner to allow Khadse an honourable exit if the need be, the sources said.

Given the circumstances surrounding him, Khadse could soon meet former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa's fate and quit the state cabinet as pressure mounts on the state leadership from the BJP top brass and party ideologue Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) seeking his removal.

Like Yeddyurappa, who had to resign as Karnataka chief minister in July 2011 following pressure from the BJP central leadership after a damning report from the Karnataka Lokayukta probing the illegal mining case, Khadse faces grave allegations of irregularities.

Khadse, who is also the OBC face of the party, is in the mid of massive turmoil as Shah had already indicated being firm in maintaining the "zero-tolerance for corruption" policy in the party.

Recently his close aide Gajanand Patil was arrested for allegedly demanding a bribe over a Kalyan land deal. Pune-based builder Hemant Gawande also filed a FIR accusing Khadse of allegedly grabbing plots owned by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation, or MIDC. Apart from these alleged dubious land deals, what has proved to be the biggest blot on Khadse's profile, is his alleged involvement in the calls made to gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan.

Also Read

Land deal scam: Why it's time for Devendra Fadnavis to sack Eknath Khadse

Eknath Khadse out? His fate rests firmly in Devendra Fadnavis' hands

In April this year, the alleged sale of government-owned land to Khadse's wife and son-in-law for about Rs 3 crore, at a time when the market value of the plot is estimated to be Rs 40 crore has raised eyebrows. However, Khadse has maintained that the land is not owned by the government and that bought it from a private party. The minister also said he paid the stamp duty on the market value of the plot.

Earlier Khadse denied any links with Dawood, stating that though the cellphone number that crops up in Dawood Ibrahim's records does belong to him, it was not in use for the last year, and that phone records can be manipulated through software.

With the RSS wanting Khadse out from the Maharashtra cabinet, it is in all likelihood a matter of time or a mere formality for the Muktainagar MLA to lose his ministerial berth, sources confirmed. However, there is also a section within the BJP who wants Khadse's wings to be clipped and not entirely drop him from the cabinet. There are suggestions flying in and out that the heavyweight revenue ministry should be taken away from him instead.

RSS think tank and Delhi University professor Rakesh Sinha even tweeted out seeking Khadse's resignation.

                    Dr Rakesh Sinha (@RakeshSinha01) June 1, 2016

As speculations are rife on Khadse's fate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis are likely to take a collective call Thursday evening.

Khadse problems have only compounded as ally Shiv Sena too joined the clamour demanding his resignation.

"If he is cleared by the enquiry then he should come back. It is BJP's internal matter but Khadse is a senior minister in the BJP-Sena government. So the chief minister should ask Khadse to resigna. PM Modi always says 'no corruption', the chief minister also thinks in the same manner. Why has the BJP not sought his resignation so far?" asked Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut.

According to sources in the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, Fadnavis has been summoned to the National Capital by party Shah to discuss the matter on Thursday evening. Prior to that the BJP chief also had a telephonic conversation with Fadnavis and state BJP chief Raosaheb Danve and asked the duo to submit a detailed report.

The chief minister will in all probability discuss about the state cabinet expansion as well with Shah.

The chief minister had met Khadse on Monday for a detailed discussion.

"It was expected he may resign on Monday, but he didn't. The central BJP is mounting pressure. He will have to give in. There is little room for defiance now," said a senior BJP source on the condition of anonymity.

Earlier it was said that Shah had asked Fadnavis to "handle the Khadse issue" at the earliest, a source told Firstpost.

"The way the matter has been brought to light in the media, some facts can be highlighted. With new facts out, Eknath Khadse is under a cloud of suspicion and the party is sure to take a decision soon," said a state minister on condition on anonymity.

A delegation of NCP and Congress leaders met Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively and demanded Khadse's resignation.
The Gulbarg society massacre verdict was expected to send political temperatures soaring, generate the kind of heat and dust that was seen all through between 2002-2014. But it didn't ignite the passions in Gujarat and in Delhi as was otherwise anticipated. The banks of Yamuna and Sabarmati remained calm.

It was not because of the fatigue factor. People on both sides of political and social divide have enough in them to debate the issue afresh with same vigour as the nation has seen for past 16 years, since the time, on 28 February 2002, this most unfortunate massacre of 69 persons happened. But the response of most in political spectrum is measured. Unlike in the past there is no vitriolic chorus from the activists and "secularists" pointing fingers at Narendra Modi or the BJP making a spirited effort to defend their leader.

This broadly has to do with two reasonsfirst, the Ahmadabad special SIT court, which today convicted 24 persons and acquitted 36 other accused persons has negated possibility of a `criminal conspiracy' behind the heinous acts of the rioters. This means Modi and for that matter Amit Shah could no longer be accused of consciously letting the events on 28 February 2002 happen, when 69 hapless persons were massacred including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in Gulbarg society. The special court has convicted Bipin Patel, a BJP corporator and 10 others for murder under Section 302 of the IPC and 13 more have been convicted for other charges.

Second, the special court judgment was based on investigations and evidence presented by the Supreme Court appointed and monitored Special Investigative Team (SIT), not on investigation and evidence presented by Gujarat Police. The SIT couldn't be accused of the bias, at least directly. The SIT was constituted in March 2008 by the Supreme Court under RK Raghvan, former CBI chief who had a reputation of being a no-nonsense officer. The SIT had submitted its report in May 2010. The court had then asked the SIT to look into the doubts raised by amicus curiae Raju Ramchandran. Subsequent to that SIT submitted its final report including case papers, witnesses testimonies and other details on 15 March 2012. Since the entire thing was under observation of the Supreme Court, the SIT could not be accused of bias, at least directly, in its approach and investigations.

Also, before the trial in the case could be completed and verdict pronounced, the case on various matters has gone through all three layers of the judiciary -- trial court, High Court and Supreme Court. The role of Narendra Modi in the case constituted a central item of proceedings in the court.

The SIT had summoned Narendra Modi, then Gujarat Chief Minister in March 2010 and extensively quizzed him regarding accusations against him in the killing of Ehsan Jafri and 68 other persons. In its final report the SIT had given a clean chit to Modi. Another rounds of petitions including from Ehsan Jafri widow Zakia Jafri followed and prolonged judicial proceedings were conducted.

The question is, will the special court verdict bring some sense of closure to victims' families? That is debatable. The loss of the victims' families had been immense and they suffered for too long. Zakia Jafri will go for an appeal.

But the verdict is a way forward in terms of delivery of justice. Gulbarg and some other massacres had stirred the conscience of the nation and delivery of justice was the least that was expected from the state. Could the state have done better to deliver justice? The answer to that, without doubt is yes.

There is another aspect to the 2002 riots and the delivery of justice. Over the decade and half, the way political and social discourse had shaped, as also the courts had been petitioned mostly revolved around one aspectimplicate Modi for riots and killings. Sustained investigations by various central law enforcing agencies and media scrutiny could not find him legally liable. Modi has since then become Prime Minister with a massive mandate. Today verdict comes as a reprieve for him and the BJP.

The BJP has chosen not to react either way on the judgment. The Congress's response too is very calibrated. Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat will go to polls next year, UP in the beginning of 2017 and Gujarat in end of 2017. No side is willing to be adventurous, perhaps rightly so in case of a human tragedy of this nature.

It could also be that the Gujarat riots have lost their political relevance. If that is the case, the fight of the victims' families for justice would become even more tougher.
Mumbai: Amidst renewed speculation about elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the Congress president, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said any such development will only strengthen BJP's resolve for a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'.

"That only strengthens our case for a 'Congress-mukt Bharat'," Goyal told reporters, when asked about reports on the possible elevation of Rahul as the Congress president which have been playing through the day.

There was high speculation surrounding elevation of the 45-year-old Gandhi family scion as the Congress president, but the party dismissed any such immediate possibility even as Sonia Gandhi remained tightlipped on the issue.

Sonia, who is on a visit to her constituency Rae Bareli, was asked to comment on media reports about Congressmen wanting Rahul to take over as the president, parried questions from the media earlier in the day.

"We are a national party. There are certain procedures...When it comes to Sonia and Rahul we all wholeheartedly accept (their leadership)... We all want Rahul to take over, as and when (it will happen), we will make a proper statement," party spokesperson Sushmita Dev told reporters.

Replying to a volley of questions on the speculation over Rahul's imminent elevation and also on the possibility of Priyanka Gandhi becoming active in UP where Assembly polls are scheduled next year, Dev said, "Speculation is the privilege of the media."

Earlier in the day, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh had said in Chandigarh that the time is right for Rahul to take over the mantle of the party from his mother and also favoured Priyanka's entry into active politics.

"Sonia is a brilliant leader. I have said she has been working (as Congress chief) for the past 20 years. If she feels time has come to give it to a new generation, then she should pass it on and we will fully support Rahul," he said.

A section in the party feels that Sonia should continue as the party chief, while another feels that the earlier Rahul takes over the reins the better. Leaders like Jairam Ramesh have said earlier that Rahul will be party president in 2016.

Talk is that a meeting of the Congress Working Committee will be held this month to discuss threadbare the situation caused by the party's debacle in the recent Assembly polls. Holding of a 'Chintan Shivir' to brainstorm over the losses, among other things, is also being talked about.

Rahul was made party vice-president in January 2013 at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir. Sonia has been at the helm of the party since March 1998 and has created a record of sorts.
GENEVA The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have attacked armed groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad and sometimes appear to have interests aligned with the Syrian government, a Syrian opposition negotiator said on Wednesday.

Basma Kodmani, a member of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition group at U.N.-mediated peace talks, told reporters that the HNC wanted clarity on the objectives of the SDF.

She said the concerns included "how they are viewed by the local population, what they stand for politically, and also because they have so far attacked some of the Free Syrian Army groups and the areas under their control".

The SDF is an umbrella group of fighters from the Kurdish YPG militia and Syrian Arab groups, some of which fought alongside it in a campaign that drove Islamic State from wide areas of northern Syria last year.

NATO member Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency for autonomy in Turkey's largely Kurdish southeast. Washington considers the PKK terrorists but backs the Syrian Kurdish militia in the fight against Islamic State.

Last week Turkey's foreign minister called the United States "two-faced" for refusing to call the YPG terrorists, after photos emerged purportedly showing U.S. Special Forces wearing YPG emblems on their shoulders.

The SDF fighters have opened a major new front in Syria's war, launching an offensive to drive Islamic State out of a swathe of northern Syria it uses as a logistics base, and were reported on Wednesday to be making swift progress.

"We have a player here who is not clear at all on what they stand for, what they want, what their ultimate agenda is. None of this is clear to us," Kodmani said.

"This creates a lot of discomfort, at least with them, and sometimes outright hostility because they themselves are in a position of aggressing the Free Syrian Army and working either directly with regime forces or to the benefit of regime forces.

"They have indeed on some fronts been working in exactly the same direction as the regime, unfortunately."

Asked if the problem had been discussed with the United States, Kodmani said: "It is under discussion with any country that can clarify this position, definitely.

(Reporting by Tom Miles, editing by Larry King)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
WASHINGTON Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's campaign signalled on Wednesday plans for a big assault on Republican Donald Trump even as she battles to hold off rival Bernie Sanders in California.

Clinton, a former secretary of state, is to deliver what her campaign described as a major speech on Thursday in San Diego to underscore what she feels would be the threat posed by Trump to U.S. national security if he is elected president on Nov. 8.

Her language to describe Trump has grown more aggressive by the day. On Wednesday, she seized on testimony released in a lawsuit against Trump University in which some former workers said they believed Trump's for-profit school was fraudulent.

"Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning," Clinton told a campaign event in Newark, New Jersey.

"This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud."

Lawyers for Trump have said most students were satisfied with Trump University, dismissing the former workers' testimony as discredited.

The effort to define Trump as unfit to be commander in chief comes as Clinton faces fierce opposition from Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who has insisted on staying in the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination despite Clinton's nearly insurmountable lead.

California's primary next Tuesday is shaping up to be pivotal in the Democratic contest, with Clinton holding a 13-point advantage over Sanders, 51 percent to 38 percent, according to the Hoover Institution's Golden State Poll in the state.

Clinton, with 2,312 delegates, needs 71 more delegates to reach the required 2,383 for the Democratic nomination. Sanders has 1,545. At stake in the California primary are 548 delegates that are awarded proportional to the vote. Five other states also vote next Tuesday, including New Jersey, which could also turn the tide for Clinton.

Despite Clinton's perceived advantage, there are lingering concerns among some Democrats about possible weakness given the protracted battle with Sanders, a democratic socialist whose calls for free college tuition have energized young voters.

Doug Schoen, a Democratic pollster, wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that California voters appeared to be leaning toward Sanders in recent days.

Sanders has been holding multiple events each day in the state this week. Clinton cancelled a New Jersey event planned for Thursday to go to California a day earlier than anticipated and is to stay there until Monday.

"The inevitability behind Mrs. Clintons nomination will be in large measure eviscerated if she loses the June 7 California primary to Bernie Sanders," Schoen wrote. "That could well happen."

'CAN'T IGNORE TRUMP'

Other Democrats expressed confidence in Clinton's position and her move to assail Trump on foreign policy.

"I think she has to," said Democratic strategist Jim Manley. "Leaving aside California, I think they cant just ignore Donald Trump in that they should be spending a majority of time focusing on him instead of Sanders at this point, because based on the math Sanders cant win."

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the election, has faced criticism for a variety of positions on foreign policy, such as his willingness to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his idea that Japan and South Korea might need to develop nuclear arsenals.

On the other hand, past Republican presidents and current Democratic President Barack Obama have, like Trump, said NATO nations should pay more for their defence to ease the U.S. burden. Trump, however, has declared NATO obsolete and in need of reconfiguring.

A Clinton aide said Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, would say Trump had not outlined a coherent foreign policy doctrine and had proven himself to be temperamentally unfit to serve as president.

Republicans see weakness in Clinton's foreign policy credentials as Obama's first-term secretary of state, given festering foreign policy problems such as the Syrian civil war.

(Additional reporting by Luciana Lopez in Newark, N.J.; Writing by Doina Chiacu and Steve Holland; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Berlin/Ankara: The German parliament, despite a barrage of pressure from the Turkish government, on Thursday approved a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a "genocide". Turkey was equally scathing, calling the resolution a historic mistake.

The Germany parliamentary vote was almost unanimous, with just one MP voting against and another abstaining. The resolution was largely expected and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, she had to skip the vote due to prior commitments.

Gregor Gysi, a politician from the Left Party who was critical of Turkeys treatment of the Kurds who were doing "an excellent job" in fighting Islamic State, said that Germany was a historical accessory and has a duty to recognise the mass killings of Armenians in the First World War.

We need to call this what it was  a genocide, he told the German parliament. The Bunderstag should not allow itself to be blackmailed by Turkeys threats. The news was greeted with delight by dozens of Armenian supporters who had gathered outside the parliament building carrying banners commemorating the genocide.

According to the Christian Democratic Unions Albert Weiler, Germany had a historical duty to recognise the mass killings of Armenians. Without this admission, there cannot be forgiveness and reconciliation. Suffering does not know temporary boundaries. Genocide will never remain in the past. By recognising the genocide, it will force the Turkish government to take a brave step and look into its own history, he said.

Representatives from the Turkish and Armenian embassies were present in the German parliament when the vote took place.

The ruling AK Party in Turkey responded to the slur by saying that the decision taken by the German parliament has seriously damaged relations between the two countries.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus called the resolution a historic mistake. Turkey has also recalled its ambassador to Germany after the symbolic resolution was passed.

In one last bid on Thursday to try and sway German opinion, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said it would be irrational for the German parliament to approve such a resolution, while it would test the friendship between the two countries. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had already warned that relations between Ankara and Berlin would suffer if Germany was to recognise the mass killings of Armenians as a genocide.

Ankara launched a high-profile campaign of intimidation in the build-up to the vote, which even included the Turkish community sending out thousands of emails to German MPs. However, some emails crossed a line, intimidating politicians and threatening the lives of journalists.

Sections of the German media were worried about what impact the decision by parliament to recognise the genocide could have on the migrant deal between Turkey and the EU, which has been championed by Merkel. The bloc says the agreement is necessary to stem the tide of migrants heading towards Europe. Some 1.1 million refugees settled in Germany last year. In return, Ankara will receive billions of euro from the EU, while its citizens would also be given visa-free travel to the Schengen zone, which encompasses most of Europe, even though Turkey is not a member of the EU.

The parliamentary vote was originally scheduled to take place a year ago to mark the centenary of the genocide, but due to concerns over the fallout with Turkey, Merkels allies postponed the move. The mass killings began on April 24, 1915, when 250 Armenian intellectuals were detained by Ottoman authorities and later executed in their capital, Constantinople, present-day Istanbul.

Most of the Ottoman Empires Armenians were subsequently displaced, deported or placed in concentration camps, ostensibly for rebelling against the Ottomans and siding with Russia during World War I. This affected up to 1.5 million Armenians.

Turkey  the successor of the Ottoman Empire  concedes that many Armenians were mistreated at the time, but maintains that the number of victims has been grossly exaggerated and that there was no "genocide".

Turkey recalls ambassador

The vote heightened tensions between Germany and Turkey at a time when Ankara is playing a key role in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that "this decision will seriously impact Turkish-German relations." Speaking during a visit to Kenya, Erdogan said recalling the ambassador for consultations was a "first step" and that the Turkish government would consider further steps to be taken in response to the vote.
Washington: Hillary Clinton is set to unleash a major foreign policy attack on Donald Trump, using a speech in San Diego to cast the Republican as unqualified and dangerous.

The former secretary of state, who has repeatedly called Trump a "loose cannon," will seek Thursday to contrast her foreign policy experience with Trump's. Foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan said Clinton would make clear how high the stakes are in the race, as well as share her "larger vision of who we are, what we're all about as a country."

"She is going to make clear why Donald Trump is simply unqualified to be commander in chief," Sullivan said, adding that the speech "will go into specifics in a very direct and clear way about what makes Donald Trump unfit, both in terms of temperament and ideas. This is as full-throated and full-bodied a case as you will have seen from anyone on the danger that Donald Trump poses."

During an appearance in Newark, New Jersey Wednesday, Clinton assailed Trump over his past statements, criticising him for proposing to ban Muslims from entering the country, for advocating the use of torture and for saying other countries should acquire nuclear weapons.

"This is not just divisive rhetoric, my friends, this is dangerous," Clinton said. "What he has already said has given aid and comfort to terrorists."

Clinton and Trump offer starkly different visions of US foreign policy. Clinton's detail-oriented proposals reflect the traditional approach of both major parties. Despite differences on some issues, such as the Iraq war and Iran, Democratic and Republican presidents have been generally consistent on policies affecting China, Russia, North Korea, nuclear proliferation, trade, alliances and many other issues.

Trump says US foreign policy has failed. His strong-man "America first" approach is short on details, but appeals to the emotions of angry voters who believe that successive leaders have weakened the country, made it vulnerable to terrorism and have been duped into bad trade deals that have cost American jobs.

Trump accused Clinton of lying about his foreign policy plans at a rally at an airport hangar in Sacramento, California, Wednesday night.

"She lies. She made a speech and she's making another one tomorrow. And they sent me a copy of the speech and it was such lies about my foreign policy," Trump said.

"They said I want Japan ... to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break," he objected. "I want Japan and Germany and Saudi Arabia and South Korea and many of the Nato nations  they owe us tremendous. We're taking care of all these people. And what I want them to do is pay up."

Trump has suggested in the past that he might be OK with Japan one day obtaining nuclear weapons.

Clinton's campaign hopes her foreign policy experience will appeal to voters who may be wary of Trump's bombastic style and lack of international experience. They hope those points, combined with Trump's controversial statements about women and minorities, will give Clinton opportunities with independent and moderate Republican voters.

In recent days, Clinton has criticised Trump over his past business practices, his recent promises to raise money for veterans and his now defunct education company, Trump University. On Wednesday, Clinton called Trump a "fraud" and said the real estate mogul had taken advantage of vulnerable Americans.

Trump has pushed back against the critiques. On the education company, he has maintained that customers were overwhelmingly satisfied with the offerings.

While Clinton is stressing her concerns about Trump, she is still dealing with her primary race. Clinton needs just 71 more delegates from states voting Tuesday to win the Democratic primary, but is dealing with an increasingly tough fight with rival Bernie Sanders in California, where the Vermont senator is gaining in polling. Clinton plans to be in California through Monday as she seeks to avoid a primary loss there.
Mogadishu: Gunmen holed up in a central Mogadishu hotel for more than 12 hours killed at least 10 people in the latest attack in Somalia by the Al-Qaeda group, the Shabaab.

A huge car bomb that tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel in the heart of the capital signalled the start of the assault on Wednesday evening, with shooting continuing until Thursday morning when Somalia's security minister declared the attack over.

"All the gunmen were killed by the security forces," said security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed.

"More than 10 people are so far confirmed dead and many others are wounded," he told reporters, adding that rescuers were searching the badly-damaged building for survivors and bodies.

Medical and security sources said late Wednesday that around 40 people were so far known to be injured.

As Mohamed spoke, the bodies of three suspected attackers were displayed in the dirt outside the hotel.

The Shabaab was quick to claim responsibility for the attack and has regularly in the past targeted hotels popular with government officials and wealthy Somalis.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) which protects the internationally-backed government and fights the Shabaab said two parliamentarians were among the dead.

Witnesses said the initial explosion, believed to be the result of a suicide car bomber ramming a vehicle into the hotel, was large by Mogadishu standards. Smoke rose from burning cars and debris was strewn across Maka al-Mukarama, the capital's usually busy main street.

Mohamed Elmi, who was nearby at the time, said the blast "destroyed the whole area."

Attacks expected to escalate

An unknown number of gunmen then entered the hotel. Gunfire continued throughout the night and could still be heard by dawn on Thursday.

The Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda group, lost its foothold in the capital in 2011 but continues its battle to overthrow the Somali government and launches regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Violence is expected to increase with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week, a time when Shabaab traditionally ups the tempo of its attacks.

Also on Wednesday, Somali special forces claimed to have killed Mohamed Mohamud Ali  also known as Dulyadin and Kuno  the suspected organiser of an attack on a university in Garissa, Kenya, in April 2015 that killed 148 people, mostly students.

"Sixteen armed men, four of them senior commanders including Mohamed Mohamud Ali known as Dulyadin... were killed by the Somali commandos and the special forces of Jubaland," said Abdirashid Janan, minister of state security for Jubaland, a federal state in southern Somalia.

The Garissa attack was the deadliest since the Al-Qaeda bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi in 1998 and was carried out by four gunmen, all of whom died.

The US also said it had killed a senior Shabaab planner, Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, in a drone strike on 27 May, the latest in an increasing number of air strikes and US-led or US-backed raids in Somalia targeting Shabaab leaders and recruits.

"Da'ud was one of Shabaab's most senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of militia attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. He said Da'ud was "presumed killed".
Colombo: Sri Lanka on Thursday called off search operations to locate over 100 persons missing following the recent landslides and Buddhist monks performed religious rites to pay the last repect to those who died in the disaster.

Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe, who oversaw the search- and-rescue operation, said the operation has been called off after relatives of the missing persons gave up hope.

"We called off the search operations following requests made by people and relatives as they felt there is no point in further searching for the missing people," Ranasinghe said.

Massive landslides struck Sri Lanka on 17 May following heaviest rains in more than 25 years, causing damage worth USD 2 billion. In the worst-hit central district of Kegalle more than 100 people had been listed as missing.

Over 60 bodies was recovered at the landslide site buried in deep mud.

The Disaster Management Centre said the missing persons in Kegalle were presumed dead. Last week, it had said the search would continue but there was no hope of finding anyone alive.

The search had been halted since Monday.After the search was called off, Buddhist religious rites were performed on site to pay the last respect to those who died. It was attended by relatives of the missing persons.

President Maithripala Sirisena, who attended a meeting in the Kegalla administrative secretariat on Tuesday, has ordered several relief measures, including the construction of homes for the victims by the government.

According to the DMC, nearly 3,40,000 people have been displaced across the country after days of rains, and floods. Sri Lanka has received emergency aid from other countries, including India which dispatched two naval ships and an aircraft loaded with supplies.
Washington: The war of words between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on Thursday intensified as the Democratic presidential frontrunner accused the Republican presumptive presidential nominee of "scamming" the American people after he got embroiled in a fresh 'Trump University' controversy.

"He (Trump) is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University. It's important that we recognise what he has done, because that's usually a pretty good indicator of what he will do," Clinton said at an election rally in New Jersey.

Trump himself is a fraud. He's trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University.https://t.co/yMt4mGLwYO  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 1, 2016

"Today, we're learning about another scam: the so-called Trump University. The New York Attorney General is suing Donald Trump for fraud," she alleged.

"And his own employees testified - I want you to hear this - his own employees testified that Trump U  you can't make this up  that Trump U was a fraudulent scheme where Donald Trump enriched himself at the expense of hardworking people," she said.

"Trump and his employees took advantage of vulnerable Americans, encouraging them to max out their credit cards, empty their retirement savings, destroy their financial futures, all while making promises they knew were false from the beginning. This is just more evidence that Donald Trump himself is a fraud," Clinton said.

In documents released this week from one of the three pending lawsuits against Trump University, former employees have described the now-defunct business as a "fraudulent scheme" and "total lie" that "preyed upon the elderly and uneducated".

In its sales efforts, the varsity relied on high pressure tactics and intimidation to drum up customers, encouraging them to take out new credit cards or drain their retirement accounts to pay for Trump University.

Clinton and Trump are expected to clash in the November general elections. The Democratic presidential primary is scheduled for 7 June and Clinton is pitted against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

Meanwhile, unleashing a new round of attack against Clinton, Trump said the 68-year-old former Secretary of State has "no natural talent" to be the US president. "She has no natural talents to be president. This is not a president," the 69-year-old business tycoon told his supporters at an election rally in Sacramento in California. "A lot of people think I look extremely presidential. This (Clinton) is not presidential material," Trump said.

Referring to the email scandal of the former Secretary of State, Trump said she should not be allowed to run. "Honestly, she should not be allowed to run. It's a disgrace to the laws of our country. "I'll tell you what. She doesn't know what the hell she's doing. It's going to be another four years of disaster," he said, adding voters would probably be "better off" with Bernie Sanders as their president. "But that's not going to happen," he said.

Meanwhile, the Clinton Campaign announced that in May, it raised $40 million. Clinton raised more than $27 million in primary funds for Hillary for America (HFA) and over $13.5 million for the DNC and state parties across the country through the Hillary Victory Fund (HVF) during May, a media release said.

She has now raised more than $240 million in primary funds for the campaign and more than $62 million for the DNC and state parties through the HVF.

HFA continued to stockpile resources and enters June in strong financial shape with more than $42 million on hand. The average donation to HFA in May was about $44 million.
NEAR THE EUPHRATES RIVER, northern Syria U.S.-backed Syrian fighters in a major new offensive against Islamic State vowed on Thursday to cut off the last remaining access route to the outside world for the self-proclaimed caliphate, and won vital, if tacit, backing from Turkey.

The assault around the Syrian city of Manbij, backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes and a contingent of American special forces, aims to cut off Islamic State's last 80 km stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier by seizing territory in northern Syria west of the Euphrates River.

If successful, that would achieve a long-standing aim of Washington and amount to one of the biggest strategic defeats inflicted on Islamic State since it proclaimed its rule over all Muslims from territory in Iraq and Syria two years ago.

"We confirm that this campaign will continue until the liberation of the last inch of the land of Manbij and its rural areas," said a statement read out on the banks of the Euphrates by Adnan Abu Amjad, a commander of a group called the Manbij Military Council, allied to the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces.

"Oh brave people of Manbij, our forces are coming to liberate you from the shackles of the Daesh terrorist torturers," said the statement, using an acronym for Islamic State also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Washington has been leading an international campaign of air strikes against Islamic State for two years in both Syria and Iraq. It has long been in search of reliable allies on the ground in Syria, where it also opposes the government of President Bashar al-Assad in a multi-sided civil war that has ground on for five years.

The SDF, set up last year, includes a powerful Syrian Kurdish militia and what Washington says are growing numbers of Arab forces that have been persuaded to join it. It has swept into villages west of the Euphrates since launching its offensive on Tuesday.

That advance comes as Iraqi army forces have separately begun an assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, 750 km down the Euphrates at the opposite end of Islamic State's sprawling caliphate.

The Iraqi troops held their positions without advancing for a third straight day on Thursday, after pouring into the besieged city's southern outskirts on Monday. A Reuters reporting team in Saqlawiya, a village near Falluja, saw Iraqi Shi'ite militia fighters in control of a complex of well-fortified trenches and tunnels captured from Islamic State.

In other separate campaigns, Iraqi Kurds have also been advancing in villages near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, and Russian-backed forces of the Syrian government have fought Islamic State in other parts of Syria. The fighting amounts to some of the biggest pushes against the militants by their disparate enemies across a variety of fronts.

TURKISH SUPPORT

Washington hopes the assault near Manbij will be a turning point in the two-year conflict by choking off Islamic State's last major link to the outside world. The militants have used the frontier for years to receive supplies and manpower, and more recently to send back fighters for attacks in Europe.

"We know that there is external plotting from Manbij city... against the homelands of Europe, Turkey, all good friends and allies of ours, and the United States as well," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said.

Of the SDF fighters, he said: "This is a capable force. They are doing all the things we can always do with able and motivated local forces to fight ISIL."

Washington's ultimate goals are to drive Islamic State from its main bases: Raqqa in eastern Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq, to bring about the collapse of its control.

Kurdish fighters allied to Washington have already captured much of northeast Syria near the Turkish border, but their advance west of the Euphrates to close off the frontier once and for all was limited by strong opposition from U.S. ally Turkey, which considers the Kurdish YPG its enemies.

However, Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan signaled his apparent tacit support for the latest advance on Thursday, saying he had been informed that most of the fighters involved would be Arabs rather than Kurds.

Turkish military sources said Turkey had shelled Islamic State positions across the border at Azaz, west of where the advance was taking place, killing five militants. Medical charity Medicins sans Frontieres says 100,000 people are trapped near Azaz and in peril as the battle lines draw near.

A Kurdish source, speaking on condition of anonymity to Reuters in Beirut, predicted the Syrian militias would reach Islamic State-held Manbij within days, after advancing to within 10 km (6 miles) of the town.

It was too early to say how the battle for Manbij would go, the source said, but added that IS defenses on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign.

However, Naser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the SDF general command, told Reuters Islamic State was still putting up a fight: "In general, the progress is at a good pace and performance, keeping in mind that Daesh still has the capability to fight."

FALLUJA ASSAULT PAUSED

In Iraq, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the assault on Falluja 11 days ago, veering from the strategy sought by Washington which wants its Iraqi allies to concentrate on Islamic State's de facto Iraqi capital Mosul.

Falluja, where U.S. forces fought the biggest battles of their 2003-2011 occupation of Iraq, has long been a bastion for Sunni Muslim insurgents and was the first Iraqi city where Islamic State raised its flag in 2014 before storming through the north and west of the country.

It is just an hour's drive from Baghdad, and seizing it would give the government control of the main population centers of the fertile Euphrates valley west of the capital for the first time in more than two years. But the mission in potentially hostile Sunni territory is also fraught with risk.

Abadi repeated calls on Thursday for Iraq's fractious politicians to unite behind the army in its advance on Falluja. On Wednesday he announced a pause in the advance to reduce the threat to civilians still trapped in the city.

Although most of Falluja's population has fled, the United Nations has expressed deep concern over the fate of tens of thousands of civilians still there, including hundreds of families held by Islamic State fighters as human shields in the city center.

U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said 4,380 people had fled Falluja so far during the offensive and it was searching for places for them in camps. It estimates 10,000 families could be displaced during the assault.

Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, is trying to hold together a coalition government in the midst of popular protests against an entrenched political class. An operation in Falluja that harms Sunni Muslim civilians could further alienate Sunnis, but he has decided he must act there to protect Baghdad from suicide bombers who have escalated attacks in the capital.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry and John Davison in Beirut, Maher Chmaytelli and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, David Brunnstrom in Singapore, Seyhmus Cakan, Humeyra Pamuk and Ece Toksabay in Turkey, Tom Miles in Geneva and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff, editing by Peter Millership)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Beirut: Britain and France urged the United Nations to begin humanitarian air drops to Syria's besieged areas including a rebel-held town near Damascus after the first aid convoy there in years contained no food.

In northern Syria, a US-supported Kurdish-Arab alliance on Thursday pressed its advance towards the town of Manbij held by the Islamic State jihadist group.

A US-led coalition is backing offensives against the extremists in Syria and neighbouring Iraq where forces have surrounded the IS-held city of Fallujah.

Humanitarian access in Syria has been a key sticking point in stalled UN-backed peace talks aimed at ending the five-year war that has killed at least 280,000 people and displaced millions.

Last month the United Nations said if it did not see improvement on aid access to besieged areas by 1 June, it would task the World Food Programme to carry out air drops.

Calls from London and Paris for aerial aid came despite supply deliveries yesterday to two towns besieged by government forces where civilians are facing food shortages.

A local truce allowed a convoy to enter the town of Daraya near Damascus for the first time since late 2012, while another entered the nearby town of Moadamiyeh for the first time since March.

But Syria's opposition said only medical supplies were in the Daraya delivery and British charity Save the Children said it was "shocking and completely unacceptable" that it excluded desperately needed food.

According to the United Nations, a total of 592,000 people live under siege in Syria  the majority surrounded by government forces  and another four million live in hard-to-reach areas.

Britain has called for an emergency Security Council meeting tomorrow to discuss humanitarian access and to press ahead with air drops.

"It's too little, too late," said British envoy Matthew Rycroft, referring to yesterday's land deliveries.

French ambassador Francois Delattre, who holds the council presidency this month, blamed the Syrian regime for blocking access to towns and villages under siege.

"France is asking the United Nations and in particular the WFP to begin humanitarian air drops for all the areas in need, beginning with Daraya, Moadamiyeh and Madaya, where the civilian population including children risks dying of hunger," Delattre told a press conference.

Madaya became infamous in late 2015 after dozens starved in the town, which is besieged by pro-government forces.

It however remains unclear whether the Syrian government will give its approval for air drops.
Beijing: China on Thursday said it will not allow any "foreign" interference in the Communist nation's religious affairs and defended its crackdown on Islamic militants in the restive Xinjiang province bordering countries like Pakistan as a "just act" to protect its fundamental interests.

"Xinjiang enjoys unprecedented religious freedom", a Chinese government white paper said asserting that the freedom of religious belief in the province" cannot be matched by that in any other historical period."

Religious extremists, in the name of religion, spread radical and extremist views and take extremist means to try to establish a theocracy, the report titled Freedom of Religious Belief in Xinjiang said.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, citizens' freedom of religious belief is fully respected and believers' normal religious needs effectively met, it claimed.

In Xinjiang, "the positive role of religious circles in promoting economic development and social stability is well displayed, the government's capability of administrating religious affairs is constantly strengthened, international exchanges in the religious field are being expanded and the proliferation and spread of religious extremism is being effectively contained," it said.

Religious extremism is by nature "anti-human, anti-society, anti-civilisation and anti-religion," it said. It defended China's efforts in fighting religious extremism, saying it is a just act to safeguard the fundamental interests of the country and the people.

The paper said the Chinese government resolutely opposes the politicisation of religious matters and any other country's interference in China's internal affairs in the name of religion. "China...will never allow any foreign organisation or individual to interfere with China's religious affairs," the white paper said.

Xinjiang, which has over 10 million Uyghur Muslims of Turkik origin, is in turmoil for the past few years over Uyghur unrest over the settlements of Hans, the dominant community in China from different provinces settling there.

The province as well as other places in China including Beijing witnessed several terrorist attacks for which Beijing blames the separatist East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

Xinjiang shared borders with the Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Afganistan, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The reference to any foreign or individual organisation in the white paper comes in the backdrop of reports that the leader of the Pakistan-based Jamat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba, Hafiz Saeed has criticised China for the crackdown on Uyghur Islamic militants in Xinjiang.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) had launched 4G services for its employees in December last year. It has now launched the Jio.com website, which is now live for everyone. Previously it was restricted only to its employees internally.

The website also has an option to register interest in its products and services, by submitting you details. Jio says that their team will the person with necessary details. According to a report from Telecomtalk, Jio will rope around 25 lakh beta testers under preview offer who will get unlimited data , calls and SMS for 3 months, along with Reliance Jios exclusive content and apps, ahead of commercial roll out later this year.

The Jio website also lets you login to your Jio account and manage your number, billing and other details. Previously this was only available through the My Jio Android app. The company has also released the app for iPhone. The website has details about other Jio apps  JioChat, JioPlay, JioOnDemand, JioBeats, JioMags, JioXpressNews, JioDrive, JioJoin, JioMoney, and JioSecurity. It doesnt reveal any details about the plans.

Last month Jio extended its services to the public through an employee-driven invite system. Recently we reported that Lyf phones with free unlimited data and calls are available even through non-Reliance stores in some cities in India.
Samsung Galaxy J3 Pro (SM-J3119) has surfaced in press shots. The phone will head to China Telecom and is expected to pack a 5-inch 1080p AMOLED screen, according to TENAA certification. GFXBench listing confirms Snapdragon 410 SoC and 2GB of RAM. The phone will also come with 4G LTE connectivity. There is also a variant (SM-J3110) with a 720p display, but other specifications are the same.

Samsung Galaxy J3 Pro rumored specifications

5-inch (1920 x 1080 Pixels) Full HD Super AMOLED display

1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916 ) 64-bit processor with Adreno 306 GPU

2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 128GB with microSD

Android 5.1 (Lollipop) OS

8MP auto focus rear camera with LED Flash

5MP front-facing camera

Dimensions: 142.2371.38mm; Weight: 138g

3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio

4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS

2600mAh battery

The Samsung Galaxy J3 Pro comes in Gold and Gray colors and is expected to be announced for China later this month.

Source | Via
During an interview with the Fox Business Networks Deirdre Bolton, Gloom, Boom & Doom Publisher Marc Faber discussed his take on Britain possibly leaving the European Union and why investors should think about investing in Europe.

Faber said he believes that if England leaves the EU, it would give other countries incentive to leave as well.

It would set up a cascade of positive dominos for the whole world because small countries function better than big countries. Weve seen that with Denmark, Sweden, Finland and many others including Hong Kong and Singapore. The best that could happen to the U.K. would be to exit the EU, he said.

Faber also commented on the devaluation of some U.S. stocks.

First of all, devaluations in the U.S. are very high. If you measure price to sale of the S&PMy sense is that there are much better values overseas, he said.

Faber suggests that investors should look into investing in Europe.

So I say for the investor who has patience now, its a much better opportunity to invest in Europe and in emerging economies than stay in the U.S., he said.

Faber said gold and energy stocks are where investors should be looking, if they want to invest in the U.S.
Most consumers consider using credit cards as a way of getting themselvesfurther into debt. Some credit card companies, though, are now offering consumers with student loans a way of getting ahead. These lenders have added the option to cash out the points earned from their rewards programs as payments towards the cardholder's student loans.

While not all credit cards have this option, those offering it generally do not make direct payments to student loan companies. Instead, most will send the cardholder a third-party check for the student loan holder. Cards offering this option include the Sallie Mae Upromise MasterCard and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, BankAmericard Cash Rewards Credit Card. Rewards points can be used to pay on both private and federal student loans.

Before requesting a third-party check, cardholders are urged to contact their student loan servicer, to make certain that they accept third-party rebate checks. Not all do, which could lead to wasted points that could have been used for travel or as a credit made to the cardholders monthly credit card bill.

Customers should also remember that there may be a processing period for their rebate check. They should request it early enough that they will not miss their student loan payment deadline.

If you want more credit, check out MoneyTips' list of credit card offers.

This article was provided by our partners at moneytips.com

Read More From MoneyTips:

Graduating With Debt Affects Student Retirement

4 Types Of Existing Debt That Affect Getting A Mortgage

Credit Cards and the 20/10 Rule
"You should tell your work to build one of these near us." - My daughter after our visit to the new 365 storein Los Angeles

My daughter may not quite understand what a channel check is (due diligence for distribution channels) or what I do for a living, but she was clearly impressed with the store.

As was I.

365 by Whole Foods Market is closer to a combination of a fruit stand, convenience store, and a restaurant than a traditional grocery store. While there were some people with full shopping carts, most customers were not ticking through their weekly grocery list. Some of that may have to do with the newness of the store -- it had only been open for five days when we visited.

The "5ish Items or Less" line had about 10 people in it constantly, while we were there, although the line was moving quickly with two employees checking out customers. The standard checkout, with about twice as many people in line, had an even split of shoppers with small baskets and carts. Combine those two lines, and it's pretty clear the average sale will likely be substantially smaller than a standard Whole Foods Market or other traditional grocery store. But 365 should be able to make up for that with a higher volume of customers and higher margins, especially on the prepared foods.

The store was absolutely packed at 12:30 p.m. on Memorial Day. Whole Foods had parking attendants pointing people to open spaces. We drove into the lot the wrong way, messing up the queue, so we snuck out gracefully and parked on the street a few blocks away. I'm sure the CVS Health pharmacythat 365 shares the strip mall with isn't too happy, but the crowds will probably die down after the initial rush of curious shoppers subsides.

The single main entrance lands you in the produce section. There's a separate area with a glass partition for refrigerated produce, saving energy by cooling just the smaller space. In fact, the whole store seems to be designed for energy efficiency, including the refrigerators and freezers that all have sliding doors to keep the cold in.

The next section contains self-service prepared foods at multiple stations. Everything from salad and pizza to soups, noodles, and rotisserie chicken is available for purchase.Food is sold by volume rather than weight, which should help with speedier checkouts.

The food is prepared in a work space visible from the store, making 365 feel like a restaurant with an open kitchen. There are also made-to-order options for bowls, pizza, and hot dogs. Customers order on a tablet and a digital display on the wall tells them when their order is ready. Might as well pick up a few items while they wait, no?

Continuing our tour, there are refrigerators and freezers followed by staples in traditional aisles with 365 branded items alongside other products although options are fairly limited. The shelves are simple, which fits with the unfinished style and exposed ductwork of the building. The too-cool-to-finish-it aesthetic works well with the artsy design as the store features large murals on the walls and a modern vibe with electronic price tags and large electronic screens throughout the store promoting Whole Food's My 365 Rewards program and ways to connect on social media.

Against the far wall, there's a nice selection of beer, wine, and other adult beverages. A few tablets are available to look up reviews of the offerings, certainly cheaper than paying the wine experts available in its larger Whole Foods Market stores.

In that section, there are a couple of stands with "flash finds", mostly of the non-alcohol variety. The concept seems like a good idea, but it's a bit out of place. The flash finds are similar toCostco'srotating items, which make you feel like you have to buy it now or risk missing out. But while Costco puts many of those items on the endcaps of the main aisle, at 365, they're tucked in the back where fewer people would see them.

Of course, 365 will hopefully have customers returning more frequently than Costco, so the impulse to buy might not be as strong. Perhaps management's idea is to bring customers through the alcohol and staples sections to check out the flash finds-- and potentially make a purchase along the way -- rather than make the flash finds a direct selling point.

Speaking of impulse buys, the main checkout has one line feeding all the cashiers, speeding up the checkout process while also creating a corridor that everyone with more than a handful of items has to follow with opportunities to purchase magazines and other items while they wait to pay.

In the front two corners of the store, you'll find a bar-coffee-juice shop called Allegro Coffee and by Chloe, a vegan restaurant. Allegro is fully integrated into the store with the ordering window visible from the main store and seating both inside and outside that is also available to customers buying prepared foods in the store.

By Chloe, a New York City-based vegan restaurant, on the other hand, has its own space with an entry from the 365 store -- which was blocked off as it wasn't open for business yet -- as well as its own separate entrance from the parking lot. Like the larger Whole Foods Markets, the smaller 365 stores will have a variety of offerings in a program called Friends of 365. Two more 365 stores, one in Washington and one in Oregon, are planned for this year with potentially 10 more next year, but they may have other Friends of 365 offerings.

Enough for a turnaround?

While first impressions were very positive, the big question for investors is whether the new 365 concept can help reaccelerate Whole Foods' revenue growth as the company has started to see new stores cannibalize sales from existing locations.

Data by YCharts

After experiencing a 365 store firsthand, it's easy to see management's vision. The 365 stores are designed to supplement, not replace, the larger Whole Foods Markets. I think they'll do well as an alternative to dinner restaurant takeout, especially for people that want to pick up a few grocery items along the way, and in areas where there's a large contingency of workers that eat out for lunch.

It'll be awhile before we know whether that vision becomes a reality. The initial high volume of customers during my visit was certainly a good sign, but the results following the new store hype will be a better indication of the long-term prospects of the 365 concept.

The article First Impressions of the New 365 by Whole Foods Market Inc. Concept
Model S Supercharging. Image source: Tesla.

Now that we know that Tesla will indeed charge extra for Model 3 Supercharging, including both a pay-per-use model as well as a lifetime accessoption, the biggest question remaining is how the electric-car maker will price each respective option.

There are plenty of economic implications to Tesla's business, so let's dig in.

Lifetime access

Initially, Supercharging for early Model S vehicles that did not include the service by default cost $2,000 or $2,500, depending on if the option was selected at the time of purchase or after. Tesla is keenly aware of the declining costs of technology over time, a notion that has guided the company's entire market strategy since inception. Combined with the fact that Model 3 will cost less, it seems intuitively obvious that lifetime Supercharging for Model 3 should cost less, too.

I tend to think that the option will cost $1,000 to $1,500 upfront, and slightly more if purchased after the fact.

Tesla ambitiously hopes to deliver 500,000 vehicles in 2018, and almost no one thinks that the company will hit this target. Let's conservatively assume that Tesla delivers 350,000 vehicles total that year, including 250,000 Model 3s. However, it's hard to estimate how many people will opt for Supercharging, since Tesla has never shared any data about early penetration rates back when Supercharging was optional.

Let's just say that 50% of customers buy the lifetime option, and the remaining half pay as they go or don't Supercharge if they only commute locally. If Tesla prices Model 3 lifetime Supercharging at $1,000 a pop, the company could bring in $125 million in 2018 alone just for that option. Greater adoption rates or higher pricing could increase that figure further.

For context, at the end of the first quarter, the net book value of the Supercharger network was $170.6 million and Tesla had $58.3 million worth of deferred revenue related to Supercharger access. That net book value figure represents four years of growing the network, so even $125 million would go a long way toward continued expansion. Each Supercharger location costs a few hundred thousand dollars to construct.

Pay-per-use

The EV charging industry is still incredibly young -- even younger than the EV industry itself. Companies are still trying to figure out different revenue models. Some locations offer public EV charging for free as an amenity, since the associated electricity cost is negligible. Some companies operate the networks and charge based on charging time.

Most third-party charging network operators are still struggling to find a financially viable model, and the overall lack of profitability is a key question for the charging industry. But Tesla doesn't need to profit on Supercharging itself, and likely doesn't intend to. The company has never looked to profit on services, instead seeing other strategic values in Supercharging. Once the Superchargers are built, maintenance and operational costs are minimal.

Additionally, since Supercharging rates adjust dynamically based on the vehicle's battery capacity and current charge rate, it might not be appropriate to price based on charge time. Instead, perhaps Tesla will charge based on kWh delivered, which is the most prominent marginal cost associated with operating a Supercharger.

While the national average for commercial electricity is about 10.1 cents/kWh, prices vary wildly by geography. States like Oklahoma get commercial electricity for as little as 6.7 cents/kWh, or less than half the 13.8 cents/kWh that Californians pay. Tesla should accommodate for regional differences while simply passing along that cost to the customer, perhaps with a modest markup only to help cover other operational costs.

The article How Much Will Tesla Model 3 Supercharging End Up Costing? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Evan Niu, CFA owns shares of Tesla Motors, andhas the following options: long January 2018 $180 calls on 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.
I once considered both Verizon and AT&T to be stable sources of income and solid defensive plays in tumultuous times. However, I recently decided to sell Verizon and keep AT&T, since the growing rift between the two telcos indicates that the former could fare worse than the latter over the next few years.

Verizon's digital expansion plans are risky

My main reason for selling Verizon is my lack of faith in its digital expansion strategy. Verizon is currently trying to reinvent itself as a digital content provider and ad platform, and that transformation is a pricey and risky endeavor.

Last June, it spent $4.4 billionon AOL, a company which eMarketer estimates controls less than 2% of the U.S. digital ad market. AOL then took over Microsoft's display ad businessin exchange for switching AOL's default search engine from Alphabet's Google to Bing.However, the deal simply looked like Microsoft was dumping a dying business. eMarketer estimates that Microsoft's share of the U.S. digital ad market will fall from 4.5% in 2015 to 4.2% in 2017.

Verizon then acquired mobile ad and app monetization company Millennial Media for $250 million, which eMarketer estimates accounts for just 0.3% of U.S. mobile ad revenues. Based on those estimates, the three ad businesses that Verizon gained might generate about $4.3 billion in sales this year. However, thatwould only account for about 3% of the telco's projected sales for 2016.

Verizon's Go90. Image source: Verizon.

Verizon then launched Go90, a data-free streaming video platform similar to T-Mobile'sBinge On, but the company admitted duringlast quarter's conference call (as transcribed by Thomson Reuters) that the service remained in the "very early stages of gaining traction and engagement." It also recently acquired 50% of Complex Media, anonline magazine covering music, styles, pop culture, and sports, sharing it with media giant Hearst. It's unclear how Verizon plans to pull all these pieces together to coherently expand its digital ecosystem.

The shopping spree hasn't ended

But Verizon's spending spree isn't over -- analysts have speculated that the company might spend billions more on Yahoo, or even scoop up troubled music streaming services likePandora.

There are two big problems with Verizon's growth plan. First, it's assembling an army of also-rans, similar to what Microsoft did by acquiring onlineadvertiser aQuantive and Nokia's handset business -- which both resulted in billion dollar writedowns. Second, Verizon's total debt hit $109.9 billion last quarter, giving it a debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.2. Selling various landline services has helped extinguish some debt, but those divestments might not be sufficient to cover bigger purchases down the road.

AT&T has a slightly higher ratio of 2.3, but it doesn't seem interested in pursuing any morebig acquisitions after its $49 billion takeover of DirecTV. Buying DirecTV makes AT&T the top pay TV provider in theworld, offsets its loss in landline-tethered U-Verse customers, and gives it new growth opportunities in Latin America, all while boosting its free cash flow -- which translates to solid earnings and dividend growth. Those benefits are much easier to understand than Verizon's scattergun attempt to build a digital content and advertising ecosystem.

Verizon has also had a much rockier history with unions than AT&T. While AT&T quickly reached new agreements with wireline unions earlier this year, Verizon engaged the unions in a lengthy, PR-damaging standoff. In late May, Verizon finally warned that the strike couldhurt its second quarter earnings, beforefinally agreeing to raise wages and create new jobs.

AT&T has better growth prospects

Analysts currently expect AT&T's revenue and earnings to respectively improve 12.5% and 5.5% this year. That growth is expected to be fueled by robust demand for its pay TV services, wireless gains in domestic and overseas markets, and new services for connected cars and other Internet of Things devices. The company is also expected to grow its annual earnings by 8.2% over the next five years -- which outpaces the domestic telecom industry's projected growth rate of 6.4%.

Verizon is expected to post a 2.7% decline in revenue and a 1% decline in earnings this year. The company's attempts to grow inorganically are expected to weigh heavily on both the top and bottom lines, and the new businesses could cause big writedowns if they aren't properly integrated. Over the next five years, Verizon's annual earnings are expected to grow just 3.6%.

The key takeaway

I still think Verizon and AT&T are both decent long-term investments for conservative investors. But if you own both stocks, you might want to consider selling the former and keeping the latter. Verizon might be biting off more than it can chew, and its investors could be burned if its digital expansion plan falls apart.

The article Why I Sold Verizon Communications Inc. But Kept AT&T Inc. originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fools board of directors. Leo Sun owns shares of AT&T.; The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Pandora Media, and Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool owns shares of Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends Yahoo. 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.
Logitech's BASE for iPad Pro uses Apple's Smart Connector to recharge the tablet.

Apple isn't the only company that could benefit from the next iPhone.

The Cupertino tech giant's upcoming handset, which should launch this fall, is likely to pack a number of new features, including a better camera and faster processor. It might also introduce a new port, one that could open the door to a flurry of new iPhone accessories. If so, it could provide a boon to the business of accessory-makers, includingLogitech .

Is the Smart Connector coming to the next iPhone?Although we won't know for sure until Apple unveils the phone later this year, apersistentstring of rumors suggest that the Smart Connector is coming to the iPhone 7. The Smart Connector made its debut last fall with the introduction of the 12.7-inch iPad Pro. It returned earlier this year, with the launch of the iPad Pro's smaller, 9.7-inch sibling. Apple's Smart Keyboard uses the Smart Connector to interface with the iPad Pro, as it provides both power and connectivity.

In April, Japanese magazine Mac Fan included anallegeddiagram of the forthcoming iPhone 7 Plus in its latest issue (via Macotakara). The diagram featured an image of the iPhone 7 Plus' rear shell, which notably sported the triple dot designcharacteristicof the Smart Connector. Then, late last month, another set of diagrams appeared online, this time from mydrivers, also showing the Smart Connector.

For now, these remain mere rumors, but it wouldn't be surprising if Apple gave the next iPhone a Smart Connector port. In addition totransferringdata, the Smart Connector canalso provide power. Logitech's Logi BASE is a charging stand designed for the iPad Pro. Like Apple's Smart Keyboard, it uses the Smart Connector to recharge the iPad's battery.

Other reports, from a wide variety of sources, have said Apple plans to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack from the next iPhone model. Users could switch to wireless, Bluetooth headphones, or they could make use of the Lightning port for audio, either with a pair of Lightning-equipped headphones or with a converter. That could present a problem, however, as it would be impossible to both charge the phone and listen with wired headphones without utilizing a cumbersome andpotentiallyexpensive dongle. A charging stand, case, or plate that made use of the Smart Connector could provide a better solution.

The Smart Connector could make it possible for accessory-makers to introduce a variety of more powerful add-ons. For years, companies have offered physical keyboard cases for the iPhone, but none have ever gone mainstream. Most of them rely on Bluetooth, which can be problematic, and use aseparatebattery, giving users the unfortunate liability of having yet another device they must remember to recharge. The Smart Connector could eliminate these issues as it's done for the iPad Pro.

More generally, there's a growing trend toward giving smartphone users access to better accessories. LG's G5 is notable for its commitment to modularity -- using a system ofswappablelower bezels, G5 owners canimbuetheir handsets with a variety of different features. Motorola's next flagship handset is rumored to offer something similar. More recently, case-maker Otterbox unveiled a system composed of a modular case and various accessories designed for use with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s. And, later this year, Google will finally launch its long-awaited Project Ara handset, a phone distinguished through its use ofswappablemodules.

Logitech's business could benefitLogitech sells many different sorts of accessories and peripherals, most notably mice and keyboards, as well as devices for video games and mobile and PC speakers.

But Logitech also has a tablet accessory business, which generated more than 8% of its revenue last quarter. Sales in the category rose 18% on an annual basis, exceeding Logitech's total revenue growth, which edged up just 4%. During Logitech's most recent earnings call, CEO Bracken Darrell attributed the growth directly to Apple, pointing to the success of its CREATE keyboard among iPad Pro buyers.

Logitech could enjoy a similar boost if the Smart Connector comes to the iPhone 7. For now, investors should take a wait and see approach, but if Appleunveilsa SmartConnector-equipped iPhone come September, investors may wish to add some Logitech shares to their portfolio.

The article 1 Stock That Could Benefit from This iPhone 7 Rumor originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Sam Mattera has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2018 $90 calls on Apple and short January 2018 $95 calls on Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
There's arguably no scarier diagnosis for a patient to hear than cancer, which is a large reason why oncology is one of the most researched therapeutic indications by today's drugmakers.

In 2014, per IMS Health, global oncology sales tipped the scales at $100 billion for the first time ever. Based on its estimates through 2018, sales could grow an additional 47% to $147 billion. That's a huge figure, and both Big Pharma and little biotech want their fair share, while also getting the chance to make their mark on treating a complex disease.

Drugmakers have a new weapon up their sleeves: cancer immunotherapies (also known as immuno-oncology drugs). Immunotherapies have one purpose: to reignite your immune system's ability to locate and fight cancer cells. Cancer's greatest trick is that it often goes undetected by the immune system, allowing it to freely proliferate. Cancer immunotherapies seek to cut off this immunosuppressant quality, exposing it to the full force of the immune system.

10 cancer immunotherapies you should be following

The early results from various approved immunotherapies and other experimental immunotherapies still in clinical trials have been extremely encouraging. In quite a few instances, we're talking about improved response rates and progression-free survival, longer survival, and better quality of life. The more data we see from drug developers on cancer immunotherapies, the more it's becoming evident that these drugs could form the backbone of cancer treatment (since many work best in combination with existing chemotherapies and oncology drugs) for years to come.

So what cancer immunotherapies should you be watching? Here are 10, some of which are already approved, that have game-changing potential.

1. Opdivo

Image source: Bristol-Myers Squibb.

If there's a current kingpin in the cancer immunotherapy space, it'sBristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo, a drug which may already be on track for $3 billion-plus in sales in 2016. Bristol-Myers' Opdivo is approved to treat various forms of metastatic melanoma, second-line non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and second-line renal cell carcinoma. Opdivo has been picking up market share especially quickly in the latter two indications. With the vast majority of studies demonstrating a survival advantage for patients taking Opdivo, and dozens upon dozens of combination studies ongoing, Bristol-Myers' immunotherapy workhorse should remain relevant for a long time to come.

2. Keytruda

Image source: Merck.

If Opdivo is akin to Batman, then Merck's Keytruda is most certainly Robin among cancer immunotherapies. Keytruda was actually approved a few months prior to Opdivo, but Opdivo has had a clearer path to success in NSCLC since it can treat patients regardless of PD-L1 expression, unlike Keytruda. Keytruda is currently approved to treat a variety of metastatic melanoma patients, where it's been very dominant, as well as high-PDL1-expressing NSCLC patients. Based on Q1 sales of $249 million, Keytruda could become a blockbuster drug this year. Known for ridding former-President Jimmy Carter of his metastatic melanoma metastases, Merck's Keytruda is an immunotherapy whose expansion into new labels should be closely monitored.

3. Tecentriq

If the name Tecentriq doesn't ring a bell, that's because Roche's drug only gained its first therapeutic approval two weeks ago. Previously known as atezolizumab, Roche's immunotherapy received the green light in treating bladder cancer after 14.8% of the 310-patients treated experienced at least partial shrinkage of their tumors, with a 2.1-month to 13.8-month duration of response. The objective response rate for high PD-L1-expressing patients was even higher at 26%. With Roche having the largest clinical pipeline of any drugmaker, it has a bounty of opportunities to run combination studies with Tecentriq.

4. Durvalumab

Having fallen way behind its peers in oncology, AstraZeneca is betting the farm on durvalumab, a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy that's currently being tested in at least two dozen therapeutic indications, according to the company's posted pipeline. Among these are 10 late-stage studies, eight of which are in combination with CTLA-4 inhibitor tremelimumab. The upcoming annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology could give us a more in-depth look at AstraZeneca's leading immunotherapy.

5. Avelumab

Another Big Pharma clinical creation is avelumab, which is being developed by Pfizer and Merck KGaA . Pfizer paid nothing short of an arm and a leg to forge this alliance -- $850 million in upfront cash, $2 billion in possible development milestones, and a portion of its Xalkori revenue stream -- so there's a lot riding on its success. Preliminary data from Pfizer's and Merck KGaA's midstage JAVELIN study for Merkel cell carcinoma patients netted avelumab the highly coveted breakthrough indication back in November, possibly signaling big things to come.

6. VGX-3100

Cancer immunotherapies aren't exclusive to drug giants, as Inovio Pharmaceuticals' development of VGX-3100 for cervical dysplasia caused by human papillomavirus type 16 and 18 shows.

Image source: Inovio Pharmaceuticals.

Currently moving into phase 3 studies, VGX-3100 helped 49.5% of treated patients move from grade 2 or 3 of the disease to grade 1 or no disease in a midstage study. It also cleared HPV, and provided this drop to grade 1 or no disease in 40.2% of patients, which was far and away better than the placebo with only 14.3% effectiveness in HPV clearance and a drop in disease severity to grade 1 or no disease. Inovio's DNA-based vaccine platform is different from that of many of its peers, which makes this advancing immunotherapy one to watch.

7. JCAR015

With JCAR015 from Juno Therapeutics , we're talking about a much earlier-stage cancer immunotherapy, but nonetheless one with an encouraging outlook. A phase 1 study conducted in 22 evaluable adults with relapsed/refractory B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia by the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center showed a 91% complete remission rate. By comparison, historical complete remission rates with current standard of care treatments are less than 10%! Juno's technology is also unique, relying on the production of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) from genetically modified T-cells to induce an immune response against cancer cells that produce these CARs. It's an intriguing scientific advancement that's worth monitoring.

8. Ad-RTS-IL-12

Image source: NIH Image Gallery via Flickr

It may not be the most attractively named immunotherapy, but Ad-RTS-IL-12, which is being developed through a collaboration between Ziopharm Oncology and Intrexon for the treatment of breast cancer and glioblastoma multiforme (an aggressive type of brain cancer), is one of the most unique. The two are looking to combine Ziopharm's CAR-T therapy (same principles as with Juno's JCAR015 above) with Intrexon's RheoSwitch gene therapy technology, which allows for genes to effectively be upregulated or downregulated. In other words, Ziopharm's CAR-T could help the immune system locate cancer cells, and RheoSwitch could, for a short period of time (a few days to a week), kick the immune system into hyper-drive before returning it to normal function. Keep your eyes on this stealthy duo.

9. NeuVax

Image source: Galena Biopharma.

A cancer immunotherapy underdog of the group could be Galena Biopharma's vaccine NeuVax, which is designed to work as an adjuvant therapy to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer following treatment. In a midstage study that lasted five years, the recurrence rate in the placebo arm was 25.9% compared to just 5.6% in the NeuVax arm -- a 78% clinical benefit. Will the results translate over into a larger trial? That's what we're waiting to find out, as Galena is conducting the phase 3 PRESENT study as we speak. Interim data is due shortly, but the study itself won't be completed until sometime in 2018. If all goes well, Galena's NeuVax could have multiple opportunities to expand its label indications.

10. Epacadostat

Last but not least, we have Incyte's epacadostat, an IDO-1 inhibitor that's being tested in multiple tumor types. IDO-1 inhibitors work as an alternative to PD-1 inhibitors like Keytruda and Opdivo by blocking the immunosuppressant quality of cancer cells to allow for their detection. Results from a phase 1/2 study released in November in combination with Merck's Keytruda showed an overall response rate of 53% and a disease control rate (i.e., stable disease) of 74% for patients with advanced melanoma. Mind you, most people used to die within the first 12 months from advanced melanoma as recently as a few years prior, so this is certainly encouraging data for Incyte and its shareholders.

Did I leave an intriguing cancer immunotherapy developer off this list? Share your thoughts below.

The article 10 Potentially Game-Changing Cancer Immunotherapies You Should Be Following 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, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool recommends Juno Therapeutics. 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: Getty Images.

After you retire, your investment goals generally shift away from growth and speculation in order to focus on income and capital preservation. However, the right stocks can provide you with a strong income stream and allow for significant growth potential, all while letting you sleep at night knowing that your investment is safe. With that in mind, here are two great income stocks for retirees, both of which I own in my own retirement account and plan to keep for decades.

Healthcare real estate for income and growth

There are several compelling reasons to invest in healthcare real estate. Now that it's shed its most unstable assets, HCP (NYSE: HCP) could be a great way for retirees to take advantage.

Since its recent spinoff of its skilled nursing and post-acute assets into the newly created REIT (real estate investment trust) Quality Care Properties (NYSE: QCP), HCP's portfolio is mostly composed of senior-housing, life-science, and medical-office properties, nearly all of which are private-pay (read: stable and predictable). The company has about 800 properties in its portfolio, spread out among 43 states.

Source: HCP investor presentation.

Why healthcare? A few reasons. First, the healthcare real estate industry is highly fragmented, with even the largest REITs holding just a 3% market share. This translates to lots of opportunities for consolidation within the existing market.

More importantly, the U.S. population is aging rapidly, with the senior-citizen (65+) population expected to roughly double by 2050. Seniors spend five times as much on healthcare per person as the overall population, which translates to rapid growth in the most lucrative part of the healthcare market. This is especially good for HCP, since senior housing is the company's largest property type.

As of this writing, HCP pays a 5% dividend yield and trades for a low multiple of 15.3 times 2017's expected AFFO (adjusted funds from operations) of $1.92 per share. And since this is substantially higher than the company's current $1.48 annual payout, income investors shouldn't worry about the dividend's safety going forward.

Monthly income and strong returns

Leading freestanding retail REIT Realty Income (NYSE: O) is a favorite among income investors because of its 4.3% dividend yield, paid out in monthly installments. I like it for retirees because of its low-risk strategy and high potential for returns.

Specifically, virtually all of Realty Income's retail properties are either competition-resistant or recession-resistant (or both). Just to name a few of Realty Income's largest tenants: Walgreens sells goods that people need, no matter what the economy is doing. Dollar General and other dollar-store brands actually tend to do better in tough economic conditions, and often offer deals that even the largest online competitors can't match. And LA Fitness is a business people need to go to in person, which makes it immune to the threat of e-commerce stealing its market share.

Image source: Realty Income investor presentation.

Furthermore, Realty Income's lease structure is designed to eliminate unpredictable expenses, keep occupancy high, and steadily grow the revenue stream. Tenants sign a type of lease known as a "net lease," which shifts the variable costs of property ownership to the tenant, including property taxes, hazard insurance, and building maintenance. These leases come with initial terms of 15 to 20 years, and typically have annual rent increases built in. All Realty Income has to do is collect a rent check. This long-term net lease structure is a big reason why Realty Income's properties have never fallen below 96% occupancy.

Image source: Realty Income investor presentation.

Because of the combination of rental income and property-value appreciation, the company has produced some impressive returns for its investors. Since its 1994 NYSE listing, Realty Income has averaged a total return of 17.9% per year -- a total of more than 3,700% in 22 years. I'm not saying that this level of performance will continue, but I don't see any reason to believe the company can't beat the returns of the market going forward.

Diversification is the most important thing for retirees

High-quality REITs like these two make excellent investments for retirees because of their high income potential and low-risk property types. However, when investing in stocks after retirement, diversification is perhaps the most important part of your investing strategy.

The REIT sector is an excellent example of why. Over the past few months, speculation that the Federal Reserve will begin to normalize interest rates has increased significantly. Higher interest rates are generally bad for REITs, which is a big reason that the sector has fallen by about 13% since August, even though major market indices are near record highs.

The point is that retirees shouldn't rely too much on any one type of stock. These are excellent choices from the real estate sector, but you should diversify into stable industry-leading companies from other sectors as well.

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Matthew Frankel owns shares of HCP and Realty Income. 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.
The software that controls the Model X and the operation of the doors has been incredibly difficult to refine. I think we're almost there in making the doors useful. ... Digging ourselves out of the hole has been quite, quite hard.I think with the software release that's going out shortly -- and then the other one that's going out in a month or so -- I think finally we'll be at a point where the doors will be better than normal doors as opposed to worse.

Recently announcing Tesla is accelerating its goal to build 500,000 vehicles per year by 2020 by two years, to 2018, Musk has been rethinking how vehicles are produced.

We've realized that the true problem, the true difficulty, and where the greatest potential is, is building the machine that makes the machine. In other words, building the factory. And really thinking of the factory like a product, not sort of a hodgepodge of things where the machines are bought from a catalog.

...

I actually think the potential for improvement in the machine that makes the machine is a factor of ten greater than the potential on the car side. I think maybe more than a factor of ten.

Investors, of course, want more than an aspiration -- and even more than a target for a certain vehicle production goal. Following a quarter in which the company's deliveries fell short of its own expectations

Supercharger economics

While Tesla doesn't charge today's buyers of Model S or X a fee for access to free lifetime Supercharging for long-distance travel, the company has charged a fee in the past for entry-level versions of Model S. Having charged for Supercharging before, one key question

Model S at Tesla Supercharger location. Image source: Tesla Motors.

But wonder no longer: It won't be free
While both bluebird bio and Inovio Pharmaceuticals started out 2016 poorly, the paths of the two biotech stocks have diverged greatly since late January. Bluebird's stock price is down over 30% year to date, but Inovio's shares are up nearly 60%.

The bigger prize for LentiGlobin, however, is in treating sickle cell disease. Around 288,000 patients worldwide have beta-thalassemia, but an estimated 25 million patients across the world have sickle cell disease.Bluebird currently has a phase 1/2 study of LentiGlobin in progress for treatment of sickle cell disease. Analysts project that between the two indications Bluebird is pursuing, LentiGlobin could hit peak annual sales of up to $4 billion.

Bluebird plans on seeking conditional approval in Europe for LentiGlobin based on two ongoing phase 1/2 clinical studies focused on the treatment oftransfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. The company also plans to initiate two other pivotal clinical trials with the goal of obtaining accelerated approval in the U.S. for the indication.

Does Bluebird's beaten-down stock price now make it the better buy? Or does Inovio's positive momentum portend even better days ahead? Here's how these two up-and-coming biotech stocks stack up against each other.

Inovio reported positive results in 2015 from a phase 2 study of its lead candidate, cervical dysplasia vaccine VGX-3100. The company is now working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency to finalize details on a registrational phase 3 clinical trial. Inovio plans to begin the late-stage study later this year.

The market potential for VGX-3100 should be pretty solid if the vaccine wins regulatory approval. There are around 3.4 million cases oflow-grade and high-grade cervical precancers in the U.S. and Europe. Analysts estimate that Inovio's vaccine could reach peak annual sales of around $500 million.

Rest of the pipeline

Bluebird lays claim to another lentiviral-based gene therapy that might not be too far away from regulatory approval. Lenti-D is being evaluated in a phase 2/3 clinical study for treatment of rare genetic diseasecerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD). Interim data from that study presented earlier this year was encouraging.

The biotech has one other clinical trial in progress with its partner, Celgene. The phase 1 study ofchimeric antigen receptor (CAR T) drug candidatebb2121 is focused ontreatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. Bluebird also has several pre-clinical studies under way.

Inovio has a diverse pipeline lineup, although most of the candidates are only in early stage clinical trials. The company is collaborating with AstraZeneca's MedImmune subsidiary on testing of INO-3112, a combination of VGX-3100 and a DNA-based immune activator, in treating cervical cancer as well as head and neck cancer.Inovio's pipeline also includes three other phase 1 clinical trials for cancer drug candidates.

Anti-viral vaccines make up a core component of Inovio's development program. Inovio has three early stage HIV clinical trials in its pipeline. It is also partnering with other companies on phase 1 studies of hepatitis B and hepatitis C vaccines. Inovio has attracted U.S. government interest for clinical trials of its experimental Ebola and influenza vaccines.

One pre-clinical candidate in Inovio's pipeline merits special attention. The biotech has emerged as a leader in the race to develop a vaccine for the deadly Zika virus. Inovio's testing in mice and monkeys has been very positive

Financial condition

Bluebird appears to be in great financial shape for a clinical-stage biotech. The company reportedcash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities totaling$826.9 million as of March 31. Bluebird thinks that amount will carry it through 2018.

Inovio's cash position doesn't look as good as Bluebird's, but it's not hurting. Inovio reportedcash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of$146.8 million at the end of the first quarter. The company believes that its cash stockpile should be enough to fundphase 3 testing of VGX-3100 plus development of other candidates in the pipeline.

Partnerships have helped both biotechs financially. Bluebird received $10 million in the first quarter from Celgene's exercise of an option for bb2121.Meanwhile, Inovio continues to benefit from federal grants for development of its Ebola vaccines as well as AstraZeneca's funding of INO-3112 clinical studies.

Better buy

I like the long-term potential for both of these biotechs. While Bluebird and Inovio face risks common to most clinical-stage biotechs, each company could see considerable success.

If we were just focusing on lead candidates, my pick as the better buy would be Bluebird. That choice is based primarily on the greater market potential forLentiGlobin compared to VGX-3100. However, when the full pipeline is included, the nod goes to Inovio.

If VGX-3100 ultimately wins approval, that bodes well for the chances for INO-3112 -- which could be an even bigger success commercially. The real wild card for Inovio, though, is its Zika vaccine. I won't be surprised if the company's clinical testing in humans goes well. It's quite possible that Inovio could obtain accelerated approval for the vaccine within the next few years. Should that happen, it could be a game changer for the biotech.

The article Better Buy: bluebird bio vs. Inovio Pharmaceuticals
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton will slam Republican Donald Trump for being too friendly with North Korea and too harsh on European allies during a foreign policy speech in California on Thursday, designed to paint the billionaire businessman as unfit for the White House.

The speech in San Diego comes as the former secretary of state seeks to shift her attention to the Nov. 8 presidential election against likely rival Trump, and away from Bernie Sanders, the U.S. senator from Vermont who is continuing his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination.

Trump has said he would sit down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program and has criticized the decades-old NATO alliance with mainly European nations as obsolete and too costly for the United States.

"Its important that people understand this is not just about Republican versus Democrat, that Trump is unlike any presidential candidate we have seen and he is fundamentally unfit to be our commander in chief," Clinton aide Jake Sullivan said in an interview ahead of Clinton's speech.

California, the most populous U.S. state, is among six states that are to hold Democratic nominating contests next Tuesday.

Clinton already has a nearly insurmountable lead over Sanders in the delegate count, but is hoping a decisive win in California can help her clinch the party nomination early and quell concerns about divisions in the party ahead of the general election against Trump.

Clinton has already delivered several speeches on foreign policy and national security. Her address in San Diego will not break new policy ground, but will mainly respond to Trumps recent comments, her campaign said.

Clinton will argue that Trumps statement that he was prepared to talk to Kim Jong Un, made in a Reuters interview last month, has only emboldened him and invited him to be more provocative, Sullivan said.

A column this week in DPRK Today, one of North Koreas state mouthpieces, described Trump as a wise politician and Clinton as thick-headed Hillary."

Donald Trumps statements about North Korea show that he has more interest in making Kim Jong Un like him than backing up our friends and allies in the region, Sullivan said, noting that South Korea has worked with the United States on missile defense.

Trump's remarks on the decades-old NATO alliance of 28 nations will also elicit a response from Clinton, Sullivan said. The New York businessman has said that member nations should pay for their own defense to ease the U.S. burden and that the alliance itself needs reconfiguring.

Sullivan, who worked with Clinton at the U.S. State Department, said burden-sharing is not a novel point within NATO and that Clinton will highlight her record of getting allies to step up and share defense costs.

Clinton, however, would not walk away from the alliance, which coordinates with the United States on counter-terrorism, nuclear proliferation and other issues, Sullivan said.

In addition to California, states holding nominating contests on June 7 are Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota.

California Governor Jerry Brown this week endorsed Clinton in the Democratic contest, saying she was the only path forward to stop the dangerous candidacy of Donald Trump.

(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Leslie Adler)
In a statement, Saudi Arabias oil minister said any kind of production ceiling would put the cartel in a dilemma and such action would be premature until a longer term picture becomes clearer.

The outright refusal by OPEC nations to adjust policy or trim their output levels in the face of ultra-low prices  and then witness a more than 80% rise in the 2016 price of crude  begs the question: Is OPEC still relevant?

Omar Al-Ubaydli, affiliated senior research fellow at George Mason Universitys Mercatus Center, said the meetings outcome was 100% predictable and all the bluster about a growing rivalry between Iran, which earlier this year saw relief from international trade sanctions, and Saudi Arabia is a distraction.

The bottom line, he said, is there is no international cartel in any commodity  be it gold, copper, wheat, and even oil. Rather, he contends the swift swoon in oil prices in the summer of 2014 to the recovery crude has made so far this year, is a simple act of market forces.

The market is bigger than any of these nations, he said. There is a large enough number of producers that no one nation is going to do anything to steer prices in one direction. Like any other commodity, there are ups and downs.

Al-Ubaydli said while its good publicity for OPEC nations to make it seem as though there were active policy negotiations, for the most part, its smoke and mirrors.

Western countries were happy to let OPEC think it had power because they could blame [low prices] on any difficulties. OPEC likes to think it has power because they get to say were sticking it to the man, and holding the West by its throatbut ultimately its about politics in each country, he said.

Suzanne Minter, Platts Bentek Energy oil and gas consulting manager, said regardless of what happens with OPEC from here, what matters now to the rest of the oil-producing world is prices. And with the cost of crude hovering around the $50-barrel mark, it spells opportunity for non-OPEC nations, including U.S. producers.

Essentially, its every man for himself in this environment.

We expect to see U.S. production stop declining at this point, and actually grow in the first quarter of next year, Minter said. Producers Ive talked to have said with these prices, theyll bring production on and maybe activate new rigs.
Saudi Arabia promised on Thursday not to flood the oil market with extra barrels even as OPEC failed to agree on output policy, with Iran insisting on the right to raise production steeply.

Tensions between the Sunni-led kingdom and the Shi'ite Islamic Republic have been the highlights of several previous OPEC meetings, including in December 2015 when the group failed to agree on a formal output target for the first time in years.

Tensions were less acute on Thursday as Saudi Arabia's new energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, showed Riyadh wanted to be more conciliatory and OPEC decided unanimously to appoint Nigeria's Mohammed Barkindo as the group's new secretary-general.

Several OPEC sources said Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies had tried to propose a new collective ceiling in an attempt to repair OPEC's waning importance and end a market-share battle that has sapped prices and cut investment.

But OPEC sources said the organization had failed to agree on output policy and set a new ceiling.

Despite the setback, Saudi Arabia moved to soothe market fears that failure to reach any deal would prompt OPEC's largest producer, already pumping near record highs, to raise production further to punish rivals and gain additional market share.

"We will be very gentle in our approach and make sure we don't shock the market in any way," Falih told reporters.

"There is no reason to expect that Saudi Arabia is going to go on a flooding campaign," Falih said when asked whether Saudi Arabia could add more barrels to the market.

The market has grown increasingly used to OPEC clashes over the past two years as political foes Riyadh and Tehran fight proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia effectively scuppered plans for a global production freeze - aimed at stabilizing oil markets - in April. It said then that it would join the deal, which would also have involved non-OPEC Russia, only if Iran agreed to freeze output.

Tehran has been the main stumbling block for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree on output policy over the past year as the country boosted supplies despite calls from other members for a production freeze.

Tehran argues it should be allowed to raise production to levels seen before the imposition of now-ended Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear program.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said Tehran would not support any new collective output ceiling and wanted the debate to focus on individual country production quotas.

"Without country quotas, OPEC cannot control anything," Zanganeh told reporters. He insisted Tehran deserved a quota - based on historic output levels - of 14.5 percent of OPEC's overall production.

OPEC is pumping 32.5 million barrels per day (bpd), which would give Iran a quota of 4.7 million bpd - well above its current output of 3.8 million, according to Tehran's estimates, and 3.5 million, based on market estimates.

POLITICAL TENSIONS

That "OPEC could not agree on a relatively benign deal which would have been constructive for price is a sign that political differences are undermining the organization", said Gary Ross, founder of U.S.-based PIRA consultancy.

"It is bearish short-term for oil prices. But what is also important is that Saudis are not planning to flood the market and want higher prices," he added.

Falih was the first OPEC minister to arrive in Vienna this week, signaling he takes the organization seriously despite fears among fellow members that Riyadh is no longer keen to have OPEC set output.

"There could be shorter-term situations in which, in our view, OPEC might intervene and yet other situations  such as long-term growth of marginal barrels  in which case it should not," Falih told Argus Media ahead of the meeting.

At its previous meeting in December 2015, OPEC effectively allowed its 13 members to pump at will.

As a result, prices crashed to $27 per barrel in January, their lowest in over a decade, but have since recovered to around $50 due to global supply outages.

Until December 2015, OPEC had a ceiling of 30 million bpd - in place since December 2011, although it effectively abandoned individual production quotas years ago.
U.S. private employers added 173,000 jobs in May, below economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Thursday.

Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of 175,000 jobs, with estimates ranging from 105,000 to 200,000.

Private payroll gains for April were revised up to 166,000 from an originally reported 156,000 increase.

The report is jointly developed with Moody's Analytics. The ADP figures come ahead of the U.S. Labor Department's more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public and private-sector employment.

Economists polled by Reuters are looking for U.S. private payroll employment to have grown by 152,000 jobs in May, down from 171,000 the month before.

Total non-farm employment is expected to have risen by 162,000 jobs.

The unemployment rate is forecast to tick down to 4.9 percent from 5.0 percent recorded a month earlier.

(Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
On June 23, voters in the United Kingdom will decide in a referendum whether to remain in the European Union. And while it looks like the stay camp might edge out the leave camp, the polls show a statistical dead heat.

If I were a betting man, Id wager on cooler heads prevailing and the Brits opting to stay put. Thats what the actual betting markets are pricing in, anyway.

But what if they dont?

Trumpism

After all, a year ago no one would have bet on Donald Trump becoming the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, or on Bernie Sanders giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money.

But these days, anythings possible. Voters are angry and agitating for change. And for what its worth, Trump, whos never shy about offering an opinion, recently encouraged British voters to leave the EU.

Not that British voters necessarily care, mind you. But it goes to show that anti-establishment voices around the world share similar sentiments.

And yet, this British exit  or Brexit, as theyre calling it  is hardly getting any press on this side of the Atlantic.

Domino Effect

It should. Its a big deal in my opinion. A really big deal.

Even if the UK were to split from the EU, London would probably maintain its role as the financial capital of Europe. None of the other financial centers are big enough or sophisticated enough to carry the torch.

But beyond that, it gets murky.

If the British leave the EU, then Scotland will probably vote to leave the United Kingdom, in my view.

That, in turn, may embolden Catalonia and possibly the Basque Country to finally pull the trigger and secede from Spain.

And once you have a euro-denominated country like that go through a political breakup, yields on European government bonds would probably spike all across the continent.

German Dilemma

It would basically be a continuation of the Greek sovereign debt crisis maybe on a larger scale.

At that point, would Germany be willing to prop up the Eurozone? Or would German voters shout nein, walk away, and allow the entire Eurozone experiment to go up in flames?

Again no one really knows. Which is precisely what makes all of this so disturbing.

But even if the UK votes to stay put, the very fact that theyre having a referendum is proof enough of how fragile Europe is right now.

Ever since the sovereign debt crisis started six years ago, European integration has been going into reverse. Banks have essentially been walled in under the control of national regulators.

Theres been plenty of talk of restricting migration between EU member countries. And overall, the European world is getting smaller rather than larger.

Divided US

On our side of the Atlantic, its not too different. The presumptive nominees of both political parties are two of the most polarizing political figures of the past 30 years. There is literal talk of building a wall as well as figurative walls by re-negotiating trade deals.

The overall trend across the entire Western world is one of disengagement and retrenchment.

I think thats bad for economic growth and by proxy, the stock market.

Market Impact

Lets get back to the case at hand, the potential Brexit on June 23. Again, I see cooler heads prevailing. But if they dont, I think we should expect the following to happen:

The U.S. dollar should soar in value relative to the euro and the pound. Markets hate uncertainty, so they will stick with the perceived stability of the dollar. U.S. bond yields (and probably German yields) will likely hit new all-time lows. I would expect British and most other European bond yields to spike, bringing on another 2010-style debt crisis. Energy prices will sell off again, putting pressure on the U.S. banking system and the junk bond market. Stock markets, particularly in Europe, will take a major hit. Investors will sell first and ask questions later.

Again, I dont expect the Brits to take that jump into the wild unknown. But as we get closer to June 23, youll want to keep an eye on this.

Because, if there is any single thing that could take a wrecking ball to your portfolio, I think this is it.This article first appeared on Economy & Markets.

Photo Credit: brett jordan via Flickr Creative Commons

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Sodastream International hopes you'll try its Beer Bar, an at-home beer-making appliance, but it seems doubtful there's much of a market for instant beer made from concentrate and sparkling water. Image source: Sodastream International

Sodastream International , is this really a way to make good beer? Although the market seemingly loved the recent announcement that the producer of home soda machines would be introducing an at-home beer-making system -- investors sent its stock up a heady 6% on the news -- I'm skeptical this will be a success.

After struggling due to declining rates of soda consumption and its rocky attempt to redefine itself as a sparkling water company, Sodastream finally recorded sales last quarter that were stronger than anticipated. It now hopes that tapping into the home craft brew market by introducing the Beer Bar will build on that momentum. This latest offering addsto Sodastream's portfolio of adult beverage makers, joining the Sodastream Mix, which carbonates cocktails.

Its first do-it-yourself brew is a light beer called Blondie that has 4.5% alcohol by volume -- a one liter bottle of the mix yields approximately three liters of beer.

Crafting new growth

Home brewing is certainly popular. It helped to spawn the craft beer market, which has given birth to an army of small U.S. breweries. Indeed,there are more in existence now than at any time in history, according to the Brewers Association, the trade group representing the industry. Craft beer now accounts for over 12% of all beer produced in the U.S., and production rose 13% year-over-year in 2015 to 24 million barrels.

Regardless, I don't think leading craft brewer Boston Beer , nor megabrewers like Anheuser-Busch InBev , have much to worry about when it comes to the Beer Bar.

Initially, the Beer Bar will only be available in select European markets, notably Germany (undoubtedly to gain some street cred) and Switzerland, which has the highest concentration of breweries per capita in the world. Other markets are said to be coming later this year and in early 2017.Yet even if it comes to the U.S., major brewers can simply shrug, even though, like Boston Beer, they're losing market share.

Saturated with suds

The maker of Samuel Adams lager -- and arguably, the face of the craft beer industry -- has reported declining sales of its flagship brand as other craft options continue to proliferate. Anheuser-Busch has been muscling into the market as well, buying up nearly a dozen small breweries to spark some growth in its own lackluster sales.

Yet a country like Germany, for example, that takes its beer seriously -- witness its centuries-old Reinheitsgebot purity rules -- hardly seems like an ideal market to generate sales for an "instant beer" made from concentrate. And more broadly, although there are kits that significantly narrow the fermentation time of homebrews down to a matter of days instead of months (Whirlpoolis crowdfunding an at-home appliance to make beer in seven days), they've failed to make much of an impact on the market.

Heineken offers a DIY draught machine for the home, but it comes with real, already brewed beer in a "torp", or torpedo, not something you mix up on your own in seconds. Image source: Heineken

Even Heineken, which introduced an at-home draught machine called The Sub several years ago, gave consumers "torps" filled with real beer to insert into the appliance, not aconcentrate to be mixed with carbonated water.

Strange brew

One problem I see is how Sodastream is marketing this beer. The company says it's tapping into the home craft beer market, but there's a big difference between people who want a quick glass of soda, which really is little more than concentrated syrup mixed with carbonated water,and those interested in crafting a quality beer. The latter groupis much more concerned about the ingredients and the process that go into creating a unique taste profile. I'm worried not many home craft brewers will be interested in breaking those long-held traditions.

Of course, not everyone is a beer snob, which is why Anheuser-Busch is still able to sell hundreds of millions of barrels of mass brewed beer every year. And if Sodastream can enable its users to fill a glass with "home-brewed" beer in just seconds rather than having to wait months for traditional brews, the Beer Bar could find a receptive niche of customers.

It would certainly be cost effective. The Blondie concentrate sells at just under three euros per bottle, according to Sodastream's German website,or about $3.34 at current exchange rates. That comes out to approximately $0.03 per ounce. That's still a bargain compared to the low-cost mass brews in your grocery aisle, even if you need to buy one of their machines to get started (the Beer Bar appears to work with existing Sodastream appliances).

Ultimately, the key to the Beer Bar's success will be the taste.If the beer fails to meet flavor expectations, it pretty much won't matter how much it costs. Sodastream seems to have been successful on that front with its cocktail machine as thecarbonation reportedly improves the flavor of the alcoholbut whether that can be replicated with beer remains to be seen.

Although my initial reaction is to cringe at the thought of making beer in seconds from concentrate, there could very well be a market for it. Still, I'd wait for the reviews to pour in before jumping into the stock. Beer drinkers can be quite loyal to their favorite brews, and home brewers can be persnickety about the process. The market seems to think Sodastream International is just getting the party started with the Beer Bar, but I'd be a little more circumspect to avoid waking up with a hangover.

The article Sodastream International Ltd Taps Into Craft Beer Market, but Will It Fall Flat? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rich Duprey has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Boston Beer. The Motley Fool owns shares of SodaStream. The Motley Fool recommends Anheuser-Busch InBev NV. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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What:Shares ofJack in the Box Inc.rose 26.1% in the month of May, according to data provided byS&PGlobal Market Intelligence

So what:More specifically, shares climbed more than 14% on May 12 after Jack in the Box announced quarterly revenue climbed a modest 0.8% year over year, to $361.2 million, including flat same-store sales at its core Jack in the Box system locations, and 2.1% same-store sales growth from its wholly owned Qdoba subsidiary. With the help of the company's healthy margins and cost control initiatives, that translated to 24.7% growth in net earnings, to $28.7 million, and -- thanks in part to aggressive share repurchases over the past year -- 40% growth in adjusted net income per share, to $0.84. Analysts, on average, were anticipating adjusted earnings of just $0.70 per share.

Then shares continued their climb on May 25, 2016, following Jack in the Box's 2016 investor and analyst meeting, during which the company revealed plans to increase the percentage of its restaurants owned by franchisees from around 82% today to a range of 90% to 95% over the next several years. In doing so, Jack in Box believes it can drive growth in operating earnings per share in the mid-teens, at least 25% returns on invested capital from operations (up from 15.5% last year), and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBTIDA) of at least $400 million (up from $290 million last year) through the 2018 to 2020 time frame.

Now what:As it stands after last month's rally, shares of Jack in the Box trade almost exactly where they stood one year ago, having rebounded from a particularly painful report in February as the chain suffered under the competitive weight of McDonald's successful all-day breakfast campaign. So while I'm personally content watching its progress from the sidelines for at least another quarter in these early stages of its strategic plan, I won't be the least bit surprised if Jack in the Box stock continues to rise from here.

The article Why Jack in the Box Inc. Stock Jumped 26.1% in May
What: Keryx Biopharmaceuticals is up 15% at 1:25 p.m. EDT after Seth Klarman's Baupost Group disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had a 42.5% stake in the biotech. The Baupost Group previously disclosed a 34.6% stake in Keryx Biopharmaceuticals as of Oct. 14.

So what: Klarman is a smart guy, so if his hedge fund increased its stake, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals must be a good buy, right?No.Well, maybe Keryx is a good buy, but that thesis is completely wrong.

The devil is in the details.The Baupost Group didn't buy any shares between Oct. 14 and now, but you'd have to read the notes in the filing rather than just glance at the raw numbers in the convenient boxes in the SEC Schedule 13Ds.

The Baupost Group's stake increased as a result of an adjustment to the convertible senior notes that the hedge fund got back in October in exchange for giving the biotech $125 million. At the time, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals didn't have enough authorized shares to convert all of the notes into shares, so the notes were designed to convert to 16,224,598 shares and the rest in cash.

But the October filing made it clear that the cash portion would go away:

Last week, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals held its annual meeting and shareholders voted to increase the authorized shares by 50 million, allowing all the notes to be converted to 33,422,459 shares. Subtract that number from the 16,224,598 that the shares were previously designated to convert into and you'll find that Baupost Group's stake increased by 17,197,861 shares, the exact difference in the number of shares reported in October and the number reported in yesterday's filing.

Now what: I fear that many investors are buying today because they think Klarman thinks Keryx Biopharmaceuticals is a better buy than it was in October, but the new disclosure certainly doesn't imply that.

Unless you were worried that Keryx Biopharmaceuticals wasn't going to get shareholder approval to increase its authorized shares so it could convert the notes into shares, there's no reason for it to be worth more today than yesterday.

The article Why Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Shouldn't Be Up Today originally appeared on Fool.com.

Brian Orelli and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The Department of Justice said on Wednesday that a U.S. district court and Native American Enterprises LLC have resolved a litigation following which the Kansas-based company will stop manufacture or distribution of food and other meat products.

The DOJ filed a complaint in U.S. district court in Kansas on March 21 at the request of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, alleging that the company's refried beans and sauces have been prepared, packed under insanitary conditions.

The insanitary conditions include the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in NAE's facility and insanitary employee practices.

The FDA inspected NAE's facility in August and observed rain water leaking through the roof in the packaging room, directly above where the refried beans were packed, a complaint filed by the regulator on the matter said.

The court and Native American Enterprises agreed to a consent decree of permanent injunction against the company, its vice president and part-owner, William McGreevy, and production manager Robert Conner.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first-ever implant to fight opioid abuse last week, offering hope amid an epidemic that killed nearly half a million Americans between 2000 and 2015. But some addiction experts are arguing that making the implant commercially available is premature, as questions remain over whether it would do more harm than good.

The matchstick-size implant, Probuphine, was developed by Braeburn Pharmaceuticals and Titan Pharmaceuticals, and is designed to release buprenorphine over a period of six months.

Buprenorphine is used to treat opioid dependence including narcotic painkillers and heroin. It's part of a class of medications called opioid partial agonist-antagonists and works to prevent withdrawal symptoms when someone stops taking opiod drugs by producing similar effects to these drugs.



Probuphine developers say the rod-like device is designed to make the drug less susceptible to abuse or illicit resale, which is a common issue with oral drugs currently on the market. However, Probuphines four rods must be surgically implanted into a patients arm, and thats just one area where Dr. Indra Cidambi, an addiction expert and detox specialist, sees problems arising.

Doctors of osteotherapy, internists and psychiatrists are three-fourths of the prescribers, Cidambi told FoxNews.com. That means these are the offices which dont have a setup to perform a minor surgical procedure.

This barrier brings a divided-care component into play, raising questions over which doctor will be responsible for overseeing the patients care, she said.

It should be that the prescriber and implanter are in the same office, but its difficult to get two doctors in the office in the same time frame, Cidambi said.

In a statement following the FDA's approval, president and CEO of Braeburn Pharmamaceuticals Behshad Sheldon said the company's top priorities are to train and certify healthcare providers to make Probuphine available to patients across the country. Currently there are 121 physicians certified to both prescribe and implant Probuphine, with training in 55 cities planned over the next six weeks.

Another concern is whether patients will continue with psychiatric care and lifestyle changes after receiving the implant, Cidambi said. Patients prescribed oral buprenorphine may be prone to mixing the drug with another opioid obtained illegally to achieve a high, but therapy can help dissuade patients from taking part in such behavior.

When you mix buprenorphine with opioids, there is an increased risk of respiratory depression. Thats what you see when a parent goes into a childs room and theyre not audible, Cidambi said. When someone is on these four rods, theyre not following therapy theyre easily combining the drugs, and that can lead to death.

Patients may also forget the drug is helping them achieve their sobriety, leaving them under the false impression that they dont need to attend therapy or adjust their lifestyle changes. In turn, rather than addressing the problem, the device could lead to co-abuse and eventually relapse after the six-month period of Probuphine ends, Cidambi said.

However, Sheldon told FoxNews.com that the medication's labeling does idicate that behavior therapy is recommended, and that there is a policy in place regarding coverage for a patient that requires a physician to indicate that the patient has complied with recommendations for additional care.

According to the Centers for Human and Health Services, fewer than half of the estimated 2.2 million Americans who need treatment for opioid abuse are receiving help. Those who are receiving care are typically prescribed either methadone, which is available only in government-endorsed clinics, or buprenorphine, which is available as a pill or a strip of film. Probuphine works to release 8 milligrams of buprenorphine, which means potential candidates would need to require a low dose.

Its really for those doing well on buprenorphine and dont need a high dose, Dr. Adam Gordon, a professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and member of the advisory panel who voted in favor of approving Probuphine, told NPR in January. Will they need to be on it six more months, maybe many times over their entire life? When is a good time to stop treatment? These are unanswered questions.

Cidambi also questioned the removal process. She cited a simulation study in which doctors were required to remove all four rods, which had been placed in a model patient with different levels of difficulty. For example, one rod was glued, one was broken and one was implanted in such a way that the trainee would have to order imaging. Despite following proper procedure, only seven of 15 participating surgeons successfully removed all four rods.

Im not saying that they shouldnt come up with a new medication to address the problem, but we need to be more practical, Cidambi said. Every medication has its pros and cons. Im questioning, why complicate it more than what it is right now?

Despite concerns from experts like Cidambi, Sheldon told Reuters ahead of the devices FDA approval that the company has high hopes for the implant.

I intend to make this the most successful implant thats ever been marketed  and I think its absolutely possible given the unmet need, Sheldon said.

The company is aiming to implant a patient with Probuphine by June 21.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The death of a teenage girl during an operation to illegally perform female genital mutilation (FGM) on her in Egypt raises questions about the north African nation's efforts to end the practice, anti-FGM campaigners said on Tuesday.

Mayar Mohamed Mousa, 17, died of heavy bleeding in a hospital in Suez province on Sunday while under anesthesia, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Cairo-based rights group.

The private El Canal Hospital, where Mousa's twin sister also underwent the procedure but survived, was yesterday shut down and Egyptian prosecutors are investigating the death, said Sedkhi Sidhom, an official from Egypt's health ministry.

"Not all cases of female circumcision are reported across Egypt. There are cases of circumcision where the women die and are then buried without a word being mentioned," Sidhom said.

More than nine in 10 women and girls aged between 15 and 49 in Egypt have undergone FGM, and around 80 percent of these procedures are carried out by medical professionals, despite the practice being banned in 2008, according to U.N. estimates.

The teenager's death comes more than a year after doctor Raslan Fadl was convicted of manslaughter in Egypt's first FGM trial after a 13-year-old girl died in a botched procedure.

While Fadl was sentenced to more than two years in prison, he has not yet been imprisoned, said Suad Abu-Dayyeh, Middle East and North Africa consultant at rights group Equality Now.

"It is incredible that the Egyptian police are not taking a tough line on ending FGM in a country where over 27 million have been affected," she said in a statement. "The death of the 17-year-old should be yet another shocking wake up call for Egypt."

ENFORCING THE LAW

FGM affects an estimated 140 million girls and women across a swathe of Africa and parts of the Middle East and Asia, and is seen as a gateway to marriage and a way of preserving a girl's purity. It causes numerous health problems that can be fatal.

The practice is punishable in Egypt by up to two years in prison under a 2008 law, which was enacted after an 11-year-old girl died following an FGM procedure in Minya province.

Yet rights groups say the law has not been enforced and that Egyptian society is permissive of FGM, which is widely practised among Muslims as well as Christians in the mostly Muslim nation.

"It's a catastrophe that these cases are still happening. The doctors are actually not performing operations, but crimes," said Dalia Abd El-Hameed, gender and women's rights officer at the EIPR.

"Criminalization alone is not enough," she said. "The state must focus on changing individuals' beliefs ... that cannot be done using only medical and religious discourse," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by email from Cairo.

Magdy Khaled, head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said she was deeply saddened by Mousa's death in light of the progress Egypt had made in combating FGM in recent years.

Around six in 10 girls aged 15 to 17 had been cut in Egypt in 2014, down from three quarters of girls in 2008, the UNFPA said.
Diem Brown was an MTV reality star who competed in several fitness challenge shows while battling ovarian cancer. She was diagnosed at age 22 and fought a public battle with the hopes of raising awareness and giving help to patients who find themselves face-to-face with the deadly disease.

During her treatment Diem founded MedGift, a website that originally was intended to be a gift registry for patients but grew into much more.

Megan Brown, Diems older sister and a producer at Fox News, said that the website started with the intention of taking the awkwardness out of asking for help.

She was surrounded by thousands of flowers and gifts and people reaching out saying, How can I help you? What can I do? said Megan, adding She said I felt awkward asking, I felt awkward answering them with, actually I need this.

After Deims death in November 2014, Megan took the website by the reins to honor her sisters legacy.

So we found out what works best when creating a MedGift page is having a friend or family member create it for you, Megan told FoxNews.com. She said patients prefer that way because it removes the awkwardness of asking for help -- a feeling that Matthew and Gina Wargas of Long Island, New York, know all too well.

Just six weeks after the birth of their third daughter, Matthew, 38, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer called glioblastoma.

Everything just stopped and then went into another mode, Matthew, a former Suffolk County police officer, told FoxNews.com. The Wargas neighbor had heard of MedGift and recommended it to the couple. At first, like many patients and caregivers, they were hesitant to ask for help.

It was very uncomfortable, Matthew said. [It was] very hard for me because I was always the one helping. I was a cop for 13 years.

My girlfriend said People want to help and they are going to help, so if they are sending a check in the mail or through this website, let people help if they want and the response was great, Gina, 32, said.

The friend and another neighbor helped them build the page, which was a huge asset to the couple during their fight. The medical expenses as well as unexpected costs escalated for the couple quickly.

Matthew needed surgery but there werent any doctors on the East Coast who were able to perform the procedure. A doctor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was their only option. The family had to move cross country twice to help fight the disease, meaning that in addition the mortgage and car payments at home in Long Island, they had to rent an apartment and car in L.A. as well.

I loved MedGift because there was all that money that I didnt even know we were going to need, Gina said, adding, I would have never guessed we would have needed to rent an apartment. I dont even know what we would have done.

Megan wants to honor Deims wish for MedGift to be a one-stop-shop for patients and their caregivers. Apart from financial support, its designed to offer emotional and physical support as well.

One feature enables users to put the patients schedule into a calendar and indicate what they may need help with. Gina found this option very helpful when she found herself juggling three kids and a household while caring for Matthew, who had to relearn to read, write and walk after surgery

Sometimes I would just put on there if someone wanted to make dinner for us tonight, that would be great or if someone just wanted to come paly with the kids so I can just grab an hour to myself, she said.

This feature is something that Megan found useful herself when she was taking care of Diem. She said that the calendar helps a caregiver be a better caregiver by giving them a reprieve from the pressure.

This can also be a therapeutic help for the patient as well.

You know, chemo is four hours long and its very undervalued when you think about somebodythat you just want to come and sit and hold your hand, Megan said.

MedGift also gives patients a community and an outlet share stories. In some instances, it can lead to patients finding additional therapies and care. This was the case for Diem, who was able to find a trial through someone she met on MedGift. This trial put her cancer in remission for five years.

The Wargas are continuing their fight against cancer. It has been 18 months since Matthews diagnosis, but he is doing better than he has. Gina hopes that by sharing their story she can persuade other people who are embarrassed to ask for help to turn to MedGift.

Megans dream for MedGift and cancer patients is to think this is obviously going to be hard. Its going to be a challenge, but I have MedGift which means I have an entire support team.

MedGift is free. For more information visit MedGift.com.

To visit Matthew's MedGift page, click here.
To fundraise for her son, a Georgia woman put donation jars in local businesses, but one jar was stolen before the family was able to collect the much-needed money.

Jennifer Titman, of Henry County, Ga., watched surveillance video of the store and told Fox 5 Atlanta she could clearly see a man pick up the jar, which was full of money. Her son, Ayden, 9, has neurofibromatosis.

Neurofibromatosis is characterized by tumors that grow in the nervous system. The most common diagnosis, NF1, occurs in 1 in 3,000 to 4,000 individuals in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health. It is unknown how to prevent tumors from growing and surgery is often recommended.

Right now [Ayden] has tumors on his brain and one on his spine, Titman told Fox 5 Atlanta.

Titman is trying to get her son to a medical specialist in Florida.

Henry County Police arrested Tiffany Jones and Josh Parlier, and charged them with theft by taking, but they did not recover the jar.

Now, Titman is trying to find new ways to raise money for medical expenses of up to $100,000. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family.
Florida will experience a "disaster" with the Zika virus if federal authorities don't immediately provide money to help battle the virus, Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Wednesday.

Scott, who had already visited Washington, D.C., in an effort to get Congress to act, sent a strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama asking the federal government to do something. The Republican governor called it "profoundly disappointing" that Congress has not taken "immediate action."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest responded to the letter by saying that "we hope that Republicans in Congress will finally get the message" and approve the $1.9 billion that the president has been seeking. Congress is currently divided over how much money to spend to battle the virus, which can cause grave birth defects and be spread by certain mosquitoes.

Florida currently has 162 cases of Zika virus, including 38 pregnant women. All of the cases involve residents infected outside the country, but state officials are worried that the onset of hurricane season and wet weather will lead to the virus being transmitted to mosquitoes domestically.

"There is no doubt that we fall further and further behind fighting the spread of this virus with every day that passes and we are not fully prepared," Scott wrote in his letter. "... We need federal action now to keep our citizens safe and healthy through what would no doubt be a disaster if this virus becomes mosquito-borne in our state."

Scott wants money to help the state pay for insecticides, mosquito-spraying equipment and kits to help with Zika preparation efforts as well as money to help local governments hire additional people to increase spraying efforts.

Adding urgency to Scott's request: Health officials announced Wednesday that a tourist contracted dengue fever in Key West. The mosquitoes that carry dengue also transmit Zika and other viruses.

A statement from the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County says the person, who is not a state resident, is recovering. "All indications are that this infection was locally acquired in Key West," it says, adding that mosquito control officials have intensified their activities in the southernmost city in the continental U.S.

Dengue fever is rarely fatal but causes debilitating pain. The island chain had been free of dengue since an outbreak that infected dozens of people in Key West ended in October 2010. Since then, the state typically records a handful of cases each year, mostly in the Miami area.

Scott has not yet said if he will tap into state dollars to cover costs needed to battle the virus if the federal government remains at a stalemate over how to respond. He has the power to ask that legislative leaders approve emergency spending requests, but he has not done so.

"This is a national issue and they (Congress) need to make it a priority," said Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz, although she noted that Florida has spent some of its own money on the problem.

Earnest noted Scott's letter while addressing reporters as the president flew to Indiana for events.

"It is clear that Republicans outside of Washington recognize that there is more that should be done to support local efforts to fight Zika. And we hope that Republicans in Congress will finally get the message," Earnest said.
Cutting the high cost and heartache of in-vitro fertilization isnt as easy as Silicon Valley thought.

Progyny, a startup that bills itself as the Uber of fertility as it touts new tactics and technologies to democratize the $10 billion-a-year IVF industry, has been forced to flip its strategy over the past six months in a bid to keep itself alive  and on the right side of health regulators, according to an investigation by The Post.

The New York company is angling to bring the joy of childbirth to millions of American couples by creating a national network of IVF clinics to lower the price of assisted reproductive technology, or ART, which now costs up to $24,000 a cycle.

Hospital bills can dwarf that figure, Progyny notes, and it can slash them by pushing fresh technologies that increase success rates while reducing costly multiple births.

But Progyny has run into stiff headwinds from the medical community.

Click for more from the New York Post.
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A young Georgia man who was severely burned in a fire has another chance at life after doctors biopsied, then re-transplanted his own skin to grow a new layer.

Fox 5 Atlanta reported that Taylor Duke, 19, of Austell, Ga., suffered third-degree burns on nearly 70 percent of his body after a diesel can exploded while he was lighting a fire about four months ago. Duke, an avid hunter, had been on a campsite in Cuthbert, Ga., and didnt realize someone else had mixed gas with the diesel.

When Duke arrived at WellStar Cobb Hospital, in Austell, he was in critical condition.

But a cultured epithelial autograft helped restore his burned skin. For the procedure, doctors biopsied a postage stamp-sized piece of non-burned skin from under Taylors arm, and then sent it to a lab that develops Epicel skin grafts using healthy skin tissue.

"From a small biopsy, you can grow as much skin as you need to cover him three times over, Becca Coley, nurse manager of burn services at WellStar, told Fox 5 Atlanta. You just continue and continue to grow."

Within four weeks, Vericel Corporation, a Boston-based biomedical company, generated 130 sheets of skin with which surgeons covered Dukes acute burns like patchwork.

"When they put it on me, they had to put me on ventilator because I had to be still so that it would take, Duke told the news station.

Inpatient physical rehabilitation is next for Duke, who said he is motivated and ready to return home.

Doctors expect Dukes skin to heal in two to three years, but his mother, Velda Duke, said her son's new skin is a good first step.

That's just amazing to have smooth skin after all he's been through, she told Fox 5 Atlanta.
Access to mental health care in the U.S. may vary by race and class because of biases on the part of psychotherapists, a new study suggests.

Based on calls to hundreds of therapists, the study found that middle class patients had an easier time than their working class counterparts getting an appointment, but among middle class callers, blacks were less likely to be offered an appointment than whites.

"Although we expected to see evidence of racial and class-based discrimination, the magnitude of discrimination against working-class therapy seekers, in particular, exceeded our grimmest expectations," said author Heather Kugelmass, a doctoral student in sociology at Princeton University in New Jersey.

"Deeply-rooted stereotypes associated with the working class could lead to negative reactions to their requests for care," she speculated. "Even though all therapy seekers in the study were covered by the same insurance, it is possible that mental health care providers view working-class patients as a financial risk because, for example, they cannot be relied upon to keep appointments or pay insurance co-payments at the time of treatment."

Kugelmass recruited four voice actors to record nearly identical voicemail messages using racially distinctive names as well as race- and class-based speech patterns. One voice actress played both the middle class and working class white female roles, while another played both black female roles, and two male actors did the same.

Each "help seeker" recording mentioned symptoms of depression or anxiety, named their health insurance plan, and requested an appointment for a weekday evening and for the psychotherapist to leave a return voicemail with available appointment slots.

The messages were left for 320 psychotherapists with solo practices in New York, who each received messages from one black middle class and one white middle class help seeker or from one black working-class and one white working class help seeker.

Just 287 return calls were received, representing 44 percent of all the calls placed.

Middle-class messages received appointment offers at more than twice the rate of working class messages, according to results in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

But white middle class patients received appointment offers in response to 28 percent of their calls while black middle class patients got offers from 17 percent of their calls. In particular, the black middle class male message was left for 80 psychotherapists and only one-third of the therapists left messages in return, with just one offering him a weekday evening appointment.

"Even the middle class white therapy seekers received return messages only half of the time," Kugelmass said. "As consumers, or potential consumers, of mental health care, we'd like to think that everyone deserves a response," she added.

"If individuals experience a lack of responsiveness during their help-seeking process, they may view reaching out to psychotherapists as a fruitless activity or develop negative attitudes toward the profession," she said.

Appointment offer rates were similar for women and men, but women were more often given an appointment in their preferred time range, Kugelmass found.

"It is possible that working-class therapy seekers would receive more positive responses from social workers, who may be more willing to work with disadvantaged populations, or from group practices, where there could be more social pressure to be less discriminatory when selecting clientele," she told Reuters Health by email.

Audit studies have revealed similar discrimination in other marketplaces, such as real estate and employment, she said.

Among the study's limitations is that it did not have racial information about the therapists, and did not look at the reasons for their responses or failure to respond.

Kugelmass writes that there may be conscious and unconscious biases on the part of therapists, including a greater affinity for people more like themselves and self-doubt about their "cultural competence" to treat patients of a different class or race.

"This study identified racial and class-based disparities in access, but could not evaluate potential solutions," Kugelmass said. "Also, it's important to caution that this study investigated only doctoral-level psychotherapists in New York City who were sole practitioners; therefore, recommendations based on this research might not be generalizable."
A Kansas military base abruptly canceled an upcoming prayer breakfast that featured retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin after complaints were lodged that Boykin is anti-Muslim and anti-gay.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein told Army Times that Boykins invitation had caused great angst among soldiers at Fort Riley  leading some to break down in tears.

I have clients of ours weeping on the phone about this, he said.

Weeping? Oh, please.

I sincerely doubt that America can expect to win wars if the people who are tasked to do so are frightened by an old retired general with biblical views and a testimony of faith, Boykin told me.

Boykin, an original member of Delta Force and an executive vice president of the Family Research Council, was scheduled to deliver remarks at a June 6th prayer breakfast. The event was set to be held in conjunction with the 1st Infantry Divisions Victory Week celebration.

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The MRFF launched a protest on May 31 accusing the retired three-star general of being a homophobic, Islamophobic, fundamentalist Christian extremist.

He sows hatred and heinous divisiveness with his sickening screed of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, primacy, exclusivity and triumphalism, Weinstein wrote in a complaint to Fort Riley.

Mr. Weinstein might want to consider cutting back on caffeine  and adjectives.

He went on to label the decorated military hero as a World Class bigot and threatened to sue unless Boykin was ejected.

Gen. Boykin told me the cancellation is just another reminder of the incredible discrimination against Christians in our armed forces.

This should tell you how difficult it is for Christians, and especially chaplains, to live their faith in our military, he told me.

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I reached out to Fort Riley and they confirmed that the prayer breakfast has been called off. They blamed the cancellation on a scheduling conflict and said it would be rescheduled.

Lt. Gen. (Ret) Boykins credentials as a Soldier and leader speak for themselves and his 36 years of service to our nation are worthy of our respect, Chief Public Affairs NCO MSG Mike Lavigne told me in a statement. However, in an effort to ensure everyone in our broad and very diverse community feels welcome at any event on Fort Riley, we will pursue the invitation of a different speaker for the prayer breakfast once it is rescheduled.

Now, its important to follow the timeline on this story. Boykin was extended an invitation to speak on March 31. On June 1, the MRFF filed their complaint and 23 hours later Fort Riley canceled the breakfast.

However, Fort Riley denies the MRFF complaint had anything to do with their last-minute decision to drop the prayer breakfast  calling it a coincidence of unfortunate timing.

Folks, now you know that I deeply admire and respect the Armed Forces  but you could plant a mighty big crop of butter beans with the kind of fertilizer coming out of Fort Riley.

Mr. Weinstein makes a very comfortable living by bullying the military into eradicating public displays of the Christian faith within the Armed Forces.

Most recently, the MRFF has been successful in forcing the military to remove Bibles from Missing Man displays. And they arent big fans of the Baby Jesus either.

The MRFF demanded those responsible for inviting Boykin (base chaplains) be aggressively investigated and visibly punished.

So what kind of punishment would be suitable Mr. Weinstein and his MRFF minions? Would they be satisfied if the chaplains were stripped naked, tied to a pole and beaten with a whip?

Boykin said he understands that Fort Rileys commander was caught between radical secularists and a Commander-in-Chief who seeks to impose a politically correct culture on the military.

The Fort Riley commander is in a tough spot, he said. However, he must remember we all took an oath to support and defend the Constitution  all of it, including the First Amendment.

Sadly, Im afraid the Constitution doesnt have a prayer at Fort Riley.
Late last week, the inspector general of the State Department completed a yearlong investigation into the use by Hillary Clinton of a private email server for all of her official government email as secretary of state. The investigation was launched when information technology officials at the State Department under Secretary of State John Kerry learned that Clinton paid an aide to migrate her public and secret State Department email streams away from their secured government venues and onto her own, non-secure server, which was stored in her home.

The migration of the secret email stream most likely constituted the crime of espionage -- the failure to secure and preserve the secrecy of confidential, secret or top-secret materials.

The inspector general interviewed Clintons three immediate predecessors -- Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice -- and their former aides about their email practices. He learned that none of them used emails as extensively as Clinton, none used a private server and, though Powell and Rice occasionally replied to government emails using private accounts, none used a private account when dealing with state secrets.

Clinton and her former aides declined to cooperate with the inspector general, notwithstanding her oft-stated claim that she cant wait to meet with officials and clear the air about her emails.

The inspector generals report is damning to Clinton. It refutes every defense she has offered to the allegation that she mishandled state secrets. It revealed an email that hadn't been publicly made known showing Clintons state of mind. And it paints a picture of a self-isolated secretary of state stubbornly refusing to comply with federal law for venal reasons; she simply did not want to be held accountable for her official behavior.

The report also makes clear that had she sought permission to use her own server as the instrument through which all of her email traffic passed, such a request would have been flatly denied.

In addition, the report rejects her argument -- already debunked by the director of the FBI -- that the FBI is merely conducting a security review of the State Departments email storage and usage policies rather than a criminal investigation of her. The FBI does not conduct security reviews. The inspector general does. This report is the result of that review, and Clinton flunked it, as it reveals that she refused to comply with the same State Department storage and transparency regulations she was enforcing against others.

Here is what is new publicly: When her private server was down and her BlackBerry immobilized for days at a time, she refused to use a government-issued BlackBerry because of her fear of the Freedom of Information Act. She preferred to go dark, or back to the 19th-century technology of having documents read aloud to her.

This report continues the cascade of legal misery that has befallen her in the past eight months. The State Department she once headed has rejected all of her arguments. Two federal judges have ordered her aides to testify about a conspiracy in her office to evade federal laws. She now awaits an interrogation by impatient FBI agents, which will take place soon after the New Jersey and California primaries next week. Her legal status can only be described as grave or worse than grave.

We know that Clintons own camp finally recognizes just how dangerous this email controversy has become for her. Over the Memorial Day weekend, John Podesta, the chairman of Clintons campaign, sent an email to her most important donors. In it, he recognizes the need to arm the donors with talking points to address Clintons rapidly deteriorating support with Democratic primary voters.

The Podesta email suggests attempting to minimize Clintons use of her private server by comparing it to Powells occasional use of his personal email account. This is a risky and faulty comparison. None of Powells emails from his private account -- only two or three dozen -- contained matters that were confidential, secret or top-secret.

Clinton diverted all of her email traffic to her private server -- some 66,000 emails, about 2,200 of which contained state secrets. Moreover, Powell never used his own server, nor is he presently seeking to become the chief federal law enforcement officer in the land.

The inspector general who wrote the report was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2013, after Clinton left office. He did a commendable job -- one so thorough and enlightening that it has highlighted the important role that inspectors general play in government today.

Today every department in the executive branch has, by law, an inspector general in place who has the authority to investigate the department -- keeping officials feet to the fire by exposing failure to comply with federal law.

If you are curious as to why the inspector general of the State Department during Clinton's years as secretary did not discover all of Clintons lawbreaking while she was doing it, the answer will alarm but probably not surprise you.

There was no inspector general at the State Department during Clintons tenure as secretary -- a state of affairs unique in modern history; and she knew that. How much more knowledge of her manipulations will the Justice Department tolerate before enforcing the law?
It is getting harder and harder, and in legal terms more dangerous, to be an American farmer these days, thanks to the aggressive behavior of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

I know, because Im paid as a consultant to advise farmers in California on how best to comply with federal regulations under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

Increasingly, those regulations are changing at the arbitrary say-so of the Corps regulators who implement the EPAs regulations on the ground, even though most practices followed by American farmers have been exempted from CWA prohibitions since it was written in 1977.

In the past few years, those regulatorsmany of whom admit that they know very little about farming or agricultural practicesare radically reinterpreting the rules to limit what farmers do, even on land where they have done similar things for decades.

The eerie thing is that there have been no amendments to the CWA to make these changes in oversight possible.

In many places, for example, Corps regulators now send threatening letters to farmers who switch from one crop to another, such as rice to orchards, or perform routine plowing. The Corps says the farmers can be performing a land-use change that suddenly puts a farm under Corps jurisdiction.

Corps regulators routinely request nowadays that farmers check with them to decide if their farming activities are exempt from federal jurisdiction.

So what has changed? Only the Corps and EPAs perceived authority for arbitrary reinterpretation of plainly worded exemptions in the CWA.

These changes have also drawn some of their draconian nature from aggressive new federal interpretations of the meaning of the term waters of the U.S.known as WOTUSthat have been viewed skeptically by U.S. courts.

For example, senior wetland specialists with the Corps have recently informed our consulting staff that all plowing, even disking for the purpose of creating firebreaks, results in a prohibited discharge into WOTUSand needs a permit. .

This is in contrast to section 323.4 (a) of the Clean Water Act regulations, which says that the act of plowing will never result in such discharges.

At the local level, Corps regulators are literally a law unto themselves with no accountability.

As a scientist with over 20 years of experience it has become challenging if not down-right scary to provide my clients with advice on the nature, location, and extent of jurisdictional features and whether their farming practices are exempt.

We have been forced to collect extensive farming histories, evaluations of irrigation practices, and documentation of regional farming practices as part of our consulting services, which is a significant change in how we go about assisting landownersand a significant extra expense for farmers, and, ultimately, consumers.

Several of our agricultural clients engaged in expensive studies on thousands of acres of land to determine the extent of WOTUS so that they could develop agricultural plans to avoid affecting them. This is exactly the intent of the CWA, to avoid affecting WOTUS to the greatest extent practicable.

The Corps delayed their responses, changed regulators in the middle of evaluations, made unreasonable data requests inconsistent with protocol, and threatened to pursue landowners for alleged violations for activities that occurred years before the farmers even owned the land.

I was encouraged by my employees and clients to testify before Congress in May, and tell our stories of how the CWA is being applied on the ground. Despite concern that regulators might respond negatively toward my firm, I decided to do so.

At the hearing where I testified, a law professor urged Congress not to let stories influence decision makers regarding their oversight on the CWA and WOTUS rule.

I could not disagree more.

Our stories are not rooted in partisan opinions. Congress needs to understand how regulators can and do use the CWA to thwart, interrupt, and challenge long-established farming operations, which are one of our greatest economic strengths, and a mainstay of the American way of life.

The lofty assurances, sound bites, and talking points expressed by the EPA and the Corps about their work are in many ways completely the opposite of reality.
The man who set up Hillary Clintons private email server will assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions over an open records lawsuit, according to court documents obtained Wednesday by Fox News.

Bryan Pagliano declined to answer questions from watchdog group Judicial Watch during his deposition scheduled for Monday, according to his lawyers.

His lawyers also asked a federal judge to block Judicial Watch from recording his deposition, stating that a written transcription should be enough.

"Given the constitutional implications, the absence of any proper purpose for video recording the deposition, and the considerable risk of abuse, the Court should preclude Judicial Watch, Inc. (Judicial Watch) from creating an audiovisual recording of Mr. Paglianos deposition," they wrote.

His lawyers added that videotaped depositions "pose a serious danger to deponents invoking the Fifth Amendment."

Pagliano, who worked on Clintons 2008 presidential campaign before helping install the so-called homebrew server system in her Chappaqua, N.Y. home, cut an immunity deal last fall with the Justice Department amid the FBI probe. He was recently described to Fox News by an intelligence source as a devastating witness.

In the fall, Pagliano told at least three congressional committees in the fall that he will invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying against Clinton. He was asked to testify about the serve by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

The Washington Post reported in September 2015 that Pagliano had been subpoenaed by the Benghazi committee Aug. 11 and committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. had ordered that he appear for questioning Sept. 10. Gowdy also demanded that Pagliano provide documents related to all servers or computer systems controlled or owned by Clinton between 2009 and 2013.

The Post reported in August 2015 that Pagliano had worked as an IT director on Clintons 2008 presidential campaign, and was asked to oversee the installation of Clintons server to handle her correspondence while secretary of state. He was paid by a political action committee tied to Clinton until April 2009, when he was hired by the State Department as an IT specialist.

According to the paper, Pagliano left government service in February 2013 and now works for a technology contractor that provides some services for the State Department.

Lawyers for senior Clinton aide Cheryl Mills, during a nearly five-hour deposition last week in Washington, repeatedly objected to questions about Paglianos role in setting up the former secretary of states private server.

According to a transcript of the deposition with Judicial Watch released on Tuesday, Mills attorney Beth Wilkinson  as well as Obama administration lawyers  objected to the line of questioning about Pagliano, who has emerged as a central figure in the FBI's ongoing criminal probe of Clinton's email practices.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing related to her private server.
U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, the lawyer who successfully defended the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court, is stepping down from his position.

The Justice Department announced Thursday he will step down on June 24.

After serving in the White House counsels office, Verrilli assumed the role of solicitor general in June 2011, which makes him the seventh longest-serving solicitor general.

Verrilli, 58, made the principal argument in defense of the health law against a major challenge in 2012 and a challenge over subsidies for low-income Americans last year. The 2012 case took place in the midst of Obama's re-election campaign, with the signature domestic achievement of his first term essentially on trial at the Supreme Court.

In a written statement, Obama praised him for moving America forward by winning several landmark cases involving same-sex marriage and other issues.

"Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable health care; were combatting discrimination so that more women and minorities can own their piece of the American Dream; weve reaffirmed our commitment to ensuring that immigrants are treated fairly; and our children will now grow up in a country where everyone has the freedom to marry the person they love," Obama said in the statement.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Deputy Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn would assume the position of acting solicitor general on June 25.

Gershengorn previously served as special assistant and counsel to the deputy attorney general under Attorney General Janet Reno during the Clinton administration.

While Verrilli was victorious in cases involving same-sex marriage and immigration, he was on the losing end of a 5-4 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, the 2013 decision which ended the requirement that states that historically discriminated against minorities gain federal approval before making changes to their election laws.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Here they all are on the congressional playground. Hanging from the jungle gym bars. Pushing each other on the swing set. Getting dizzy on the merry-go-round. There are games of tag and hide-and-seek.

And yet lawmakers arent engaged in one schoolyard staple: follow the leader.

House Republicans have held an aversion to this pastime for quite a while now. There certainly wasnt a lot of follow the leader during the tenure of former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. Conservatives balked at Boehner when it came to immigration reform  to say nothing of engineering a government shutdown over funding ObamaCare. Boehners race for speaker was in jeopardy in January of last year  culminating in tension last summer and fall as dissidents essentially pushed the Ohio Republican out the door.

When it came to must-do items, Boehner repeatedly turned to Democrats to avoid government shutdowns, raise the debt ceiling, sidestep the fiscal cliff and approve money to help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Think things are better under House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.? Well, people in the House of Representatives have certainly felt better over the past few months. There are certainly a few notable legislative achievements including a transportation bill late last year.

But the calculus is becoming more complicated for Ryan. The House stumbled dramatically to adopt a budget this spring. The House last week defeated one of the 12 annual spending bills which fund the government. The House sank the Energy and Water appropriations bill primarily because of a dispute over banning LGBT discrimination in federal contracting. The House narrowly averted a similar disaster on a bill funding veterans programs back in May. The legislative traffic wont get easier.

The House and Senate leadership is likely to face the unenviable task of shoving all of the spending bills into a gigantic, take-it-or-leave-it package if the House continues to struggle with LGBT-related amendments. Moving legislation in amalgamated measures with Democratic support required for passage is reflective of Boehners technique when it came to important matters. Often Boehners endeavors on that front saved Republicans from themselves as he sheltered the majority party from controversial votes or salvaged the House from embarrassing defeats.

For his efforts, House conservatives pelted Boehner with brickbats.

In the House, the leader changed. But not the membership. Thats why it wont be surprising if Ryan begins to face tougher challenges in the coming months.

Many House conservatives demand real change. Its unclear how much leeway they would give Ryan if they dont start to see real change.

Is all of this on Ryan? Absolutely not. But the same circumstances which tormented Boehner could bedevil Ryan. In short, the makeup of the House Republican Conference makes it exceptionally hard to manage  and few are willing to follow the leader.

Its no surprise that Ryan spent much of his valuable political capital trying to empower individual members and committees and restore an organic legislative process. That goes a long way.

But results matter.

As the House wrestles with spending bills, Republicans are also digging into an effort to potentially impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. On their respective faces, approving spending bills has little to do with the conduct of the IRS commissioner. But the posture of Ryan and other House leaders provides a contrast to those who want to go for Koskinens jugular. The dynamic reflects the conundrum over appropriations efforts.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, floated the idea alongside many GOPers on his panel to impeach Koskinen last fall. Ryan tangled openly with Koskinen at Ways and Means Committee hearings and has taken him to task during his tenure as speaker. But Ryan is cool to the impeachment idea as well. Thats to say nothing of current Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. By nature, all impeachment inquires must advance through Goodlattes panel.

House GOP leaders, Goodlatte, Chaffetz and members of the House Freedom Caucus (who have it in for Koskinen) forged an unholy alliance to take a stab at impeachment. To be clear, leadership really doesnt want to deal with this issue on the floor. And its unclear how Goodlatte may handle the issue in his committee. The Judiciary Committee heard the case against Koskinen last week and plans another hearing on the same topic soon.

But this is the challenge when the members arent willing to follow the leader. Under a strong speakership, if the leader said no, members would back down. But under a speakership where Ryan attempts to empower the members (which detractors may characterize as a weak speakership), the issues and topics gurgle from the bottom up. In other words, Ryan may not want to tussle with the impeachment skein  especially in an election year. But if thats what conservative members want  well 

Neither the House nor Senate has impeached any Cabinet official since the mid-1870s. And note thats a Cabinet-level official, here. Not something lower like IRS Commissioner.

But the push for impeachment isnt coming from the top. So its unclear how the House will resolve this.

That said, the push to approve spending bills is coming from the top. But thats hard to accomplish when no one is willing to follow the leader.

Capitol Attitude is a weekly column written by members of the Fox News Capitol Hill team. Their articles take you inside the halls of Congress, and cover the spectrum of policy issues being introduced, debated and voted on there.
Lawmakers are fuming over what they describe as a "shameful" decision by the Justice Department that could help the former head of the scandal-scarred Phoenix Veterans Affairs hospital get her job back.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in a letter sent Tuesday, notified House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that the DOJ would not defend a key provision of the Veteran Affairs reform law, passed in the wake of the scandal over officials covering up long patient wait-times.

The provision in question had helped uphold the expedited firing of the Phoenix official at the heart of the scandal, Sharon Helman.

Now, lawmakers say Lynch's decision could put Helman back on the job, as she pursues a lawsuit against the government.

Helman had been fired in November 2014 amid criticism not only over the wait-time cover-ups at the Phoenix VA but also unreported gifts. Congressional critics warn the DOJ move is a blow to accountability.

The effect of this reckless action is clear: It undermines very modest reforms to our broken civil service system supported in 2014 by the president and an overwhelming majority of Congress, House Veteran Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said in a statement Wednesday night.

Lynch stressed in her letter that the DOJ will "continue to defend the vast bulk" of the law, including against Helman's other legal challenges. But she said the DOJ would not defend the provision that denied Helman an appeal after a judge upheld her removal.

"In its narrow decision, the Department determined that one aspect of the procedures to review the lawfulness of the employees removal - the provision giving an administrative judge final and unreviewable discretion to determine if the removal was lawful - violates the U.S. Constitution," a spokesperson for the DOJ told Fox News. "The Department continues to defend all other aspects of the statute in this matter."

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticized the decision.

The Obama Administration's decision to disregard the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act with regard to Sharon Helman  who led the Phoenix VA during the scandal in care in which at least 40 veterans died  is shameful, McCain said in a written statement Wednesday.

Helman was fired as part of a crackdown in the wake of the national scandal over long wait times for veterans trying to get medical care and falsified records covering up the delays.

When Congress passed the Veterans Choice Act, a key provision allowed for incompetent and indifferent executives whose inaction allowed veterans to die to be more easily fired. Now, even after the President signed this provision into law, his administration is refusing to defend this measure of accountability," McCarthy told CNN Wednesday.

Helman, who led the hospital from 2012 to 2014, as well as two other high-ranking officials, were placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations that 40 vets died while awaiting treatment at the hospital. The scandal also led to the ousting of former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and the creation of the new law that overhauls the veterans health care system.

Helman is suing the federal government to win her old job back and as part of that argued the congressional reforms unconstitutionally denied her a step to appeal her dismissal.

"While this matter is still pending in federal court, we will immediately begin exploring legislative remedies to thwart the Obama administration's blatant advocacy on behalf of those whose mismanagement, malfeasance and crimes may have contributed to veteran and taxpayer harm," Miller said.

Fox News' Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.
Top Obama press adviser Jen Psaki lashed out at Fox News on Thursday after being pressed for clarification over her statements on press briefing footage that the State Department admitted had been deliberately deleted from a public archive.

The department acknowledged Wednesday that several minutes of video from the 2013 briefing  at which then-State Department spokeswoman Psaki appeared to acknowledge misleading the press over the Iran nuclear deal  had been intentionally cut. The order apparently came from an official in the public affairs office, but that individual has not been identified.

Psaki, who is now White House communications director, issued a statement late Wednesday saying it wasnt her:

I had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of any form of editing or cutting my briefing transcript on any subject while at the State Department. I believe deeply in providing the press as much information on important issues as possible.

Fox News James Rosen, though, sent Psaki an email seeking clarification, noting that the issue was not edits to the transcript but the actual video of the briefing.

Psaki responded that her statement also applies to the video  but then went on to accuse Rosen of vilifying her without evidence.

The full email exchange is as follows:

ROSEN EMAIL

Jen,

Some have pointed to a certain aspect of your statement, highlighted below, as not removing yourself from consideration for having issued the order to edit the briefing video:

I had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of any form of editing or cutting my briefing transcript on any subject while at the State Department. I believe deeply in providing the press as much information on important issues as possible.

Of course, as Liz Trudeau and others have stressed, the briefing transcript remained unaltered the entire time. Do you want to issue a revised statement, asserting the same for the video, which was altered?

Forgive me if you have already put out something along these lines and I missed it.

Yours cordially,

James

PSAKI RESPONSE

James,

My statement applies to the video which is considered a form of the transcript and every aspect of this.

I understand it is inconvenient for you that I have nothing to do with this given you have spent the last three weeks vilifying me on television without any evidence of my knowledge or involvement and without once reaching out and asking me, but I would encourage you to also ask the State Department if there is any evidence. A shred or any information at all that suggests I had any knowledge of this or any connection to this on any level. Hopefully you will find the time to spend on the range of global events happening in the world in between attacking my character.

Consider that on the record from me as well

Thanks

Rosen said Thursday he has never assailed Psakis character, nor has he ever asserted or implied she was responsible for editing the footage.

Psaki isn't the only ex-spokeswoman denying involvement in the edits.

Former deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also told Fox News in a statement Thursday that she had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of this editing.

I have no idea who asked for the editing of the tape, said Harf, now a senior adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry.

The denials leave a mystery over which official indeed had the footage cut from the 2013 briefing.

At that briefing, Psaki was asked by Rosen about an earlier claim from another official that no direct, secret talks were underway between the U.S. and Iran  when, in fact, they were.

Psaki at the time seemed to admit the discrepancy, saying: There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.

However, Fox News later discovered the Psaki exchange was missing from the departments official website and its YouTube channel (though not from the transcript). Eight minutes from the briefing, including the comments on the Iran deal, were edited out and replaced with a white-flash effect.

While the department initially claimed this was the result of a glitch, officials looked into it and State Department spokesman John Kirby revealed Wednesday there was a deliberate request to cut the footage.

He said somebody in his public affairs office had a video editor excise part of that footage from the briefing in question.

Kirby told Fox News' Fox & Friends on Thursday he does not know who made the request, though he did not rule out pursuing the matter further if more information comes to light.

There's no cover-up, Kirby said.

Kirby also said Psaki, in the 2013 briefing, was not trying to say anybody at the department lied about the Iran deal. We dont lie, he said.

Kirby also thanked Rosen for "bringing this to my attention, because if he didnt a couple of weeks ago, I would never have known that this occurred. So first of all, kudos to him, hes a journalist who I have a great respect for."

Fox News Lucas Tomlinson and FoxNews.com's Judson Berger contributed to this report.
President Barack Obama said Wednesday his order that public schools allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with as based on the law and the best interests of children.

Obama, speaking at a town hall broadcast on PBS, said the federal government got involved in the matter after several school districts asked the Department of Education for guidance. However, Obama has been under heavy scrutiny for his directive.

"What happened and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools. And they get bullied. And they get ostracized. And it's tough for them," Obama said. "My best interpretation of what our laws and our obligations are is that we should try to accommodate these kids so that they are not in a vulnerable situation.

Obamas directive was issued on May 13. The federal government told public schools they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity rather than the gender listed on their birth certificate.

If schools failed to heed the order, the Obama administration threatened to cut federal funding. According to Reuters, the order relied on an interpretation of Title IX, which protects people from discrimination based on gender in education programs that receive federal funds.

Outraged over Obamas order some states have decided they would challenge the White Houses directive in court.

Republican-led Kansas said it will sue the Obama administration over the order, but has not yet decided whether to join a lawsuit brought upon by 11 other states.

The state Senate lauded Attorney General Derek Schmidt for announcing the intent to legally challenge the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education. Texas and 10 other states already have filed suit against the federal government over the directive. Kansas Republican legislators also urged the Republican-majority Congress to blunt the directive by passing legislation that protects privacy rights.

Meanwhile, Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick pledged at a press conference Tuesday to support schools that refuse to let transgender bathrooms of their choice.

"Transgender students deserve the rights of anyone else. It does not mean they get to use the girls' room if they're a boy," Patrick said.

Parents of transgender children rallied outside the Texas Capitol Tuesday, warning that constant repudiation is taking a dangerous toll. They included the mother of a 5-year-old transgender girl who held a picture of her child smiling in a pink patterned dress and shoulder-length hair. She cried while asking why the state wants to force her daughter into the boys' room at school.

She and other parents said Patrick's comments are provoking hostilities in school hallways. Like many other Republicans across the country, Patrick said the privacy and safety of students are put at risk by letting transgender people use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.

"You, specifically you, are endangering my child's life," said Ann Elder, mother of a 10-year-old transgender child near Houston. "You have now told everyone in the state of Texas it is OK to harass my child."

Transgender-rights advocates have said claims of bathroom rights posing a public safety risk are malicious and false. They say that 18 states and scores of cities have experienced no significant public safety problems linked to their existing laws allowing transgender people to use the bathrooms of their choice.

Obama said Wednesday that there are a lot of things more pressing than the so-called transgender bathroom policy, including the economy, ISIS and jobs.

"We should deal with this issue the same way we would want it dealt with if it was our child and that is to try to create an environment of some dignity and kindness for these kids," Obama said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Reuters.
The State Department, in a stunning admission, acknowledged Wednesday that an official intentionally deleted several minutes of video footage from a 2013 press briefing, where a top spokeswoman seemed to acknowledge misleading the press over the Iran nuclear deal.

There was a deliberate request [to delete the footage]  this wasnt a technical glitch, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday, in admitting that an unidentified official had a video editor excise the segment.

The State Department had faced questions earlier this year over the block of missing tape from a December 2013 briefing. At that briefing, then-spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked by Fox News James Rosen about an earlier claim that no direct, secret talks were underway between the U.S. and Iran  when, in fact, they were.

Psaki at the time seemed to admit the discrepancy, saying: There are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. This is a good example of that.

However, Fox News later discovered the Psaki exchange was missing from the departments official website and its YouTube channel. Eight minutes from the briefing, including the comments on the Iran deal, were edited out and replaced with a white-flash effect.

Officials initially suggested a "glitch" occurred.

But on Wednesday, current State Department spokesman Kirby said someone had censored the video intentionally. He said he couldn't find out who was responsible, but described such action as unacceptable.

While saying there were no rules [or] regulations in place that prohibited this at the time, Kirby said: "Deliberately removing a portion of the video was not and is not in keeping with the State Department's commitment to transparency and public accountability.

Kirby said he learned that on the same day of the 2013 briefing, a video editor received a call from a State Department public affairs official who made "a specific request ... to excise that portion of the briefing."

Kirby says he has since ordered the original video restored on all platforms and asked the State Department's legal adviser to examine the matter. He said no further investigation will be made, primarily because no rules were in place against such actions.

Kirby said he has ordered new rules created to prevent a recurrence.

Speaking Thursday with Fox News, Kirby did not rule out looking further into who might have been behind the request, but said right now: We just dont know who made the request or why.

Kirby also said Psaki, in the 2013 briefing, was not trying to say anybody at the department lied about the Iran deal. We dont lie, he said.

One of the toughest congressional critics of the Iran deal, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, called Thursday for the administration to find who was responsible.

The Administration must start dealing in the truth. One place to start is to identify the official who ordered the manipulation of the video and impose appropriate discipline, he said in a statement.

In a statement issued late Wednesday aftrnoon, Psaki, now White House Communications Director, said, "I had no knowledge of nor would I have approved of any form of editing or cutting my briefing transcript on any subject while at the State Department."

The Psaki footage took on new significance last month on the heels of a New York Times Magazine profile of Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes, who boasted of creating an echo chamber to sell the Iran deal.

Rhodes later claimed they did not mislead the public and confirmed publicly there were discreet channels of communication established with Iran in 2012.

Yet in a February 2013 briefing, then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland claimed there were no secret, direct talks with Iran at the time. It was Psakis explanation of that briefing, months later in December, that was later scrubbed from the footage archives.

Fox News James Rosen and Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
In just over three weeks, when a rocket lifts 37-year-old microbiologist Kate Rubins from Kazakhstan up to the International Space Station, the moment will mark her first time in space.

Rubins spoke to FoxNews.com from Moscow on Wednesday about the opportunites that doing research on the ISS provides, the music she will listen to, her time at space camp when she was young, and what shell miss the most about Earth while shes in orbit for roughly four months.

Rubins, a virus expert and former fellow at the Whitehead Institute in Massachusetts, has previously studied pathogens like HIV, ebola, smallpox and monkeypox, and holds a doctorate in cancer biology. While she obviously wont be taking any dangerous pathogens with her into space, she said that shes excited about the platform the ISS provides to study cellular biology.

Specifically, shell research heart and bone cells in zero gravity.

Related: Could space research offer new hope for cancer patients?

Were going to grow those heart cells on orbit, and were going to see the differences between heart cells grown on Earth, where you always have a gravity vector pulling those cells down into the bottom of the plate, versus cells that are weightless and theyre suspended on board, she told FoxNews.com. Were going to do similar experiments with bone cells to try to understand bone loss and deterioration.

While experiments on Earth have always had gravity as a constant force, she pointed out that research in space does not.

Weve never been able to examine gravity as a variable until humans have started leaving the planet, she said. That opportunity, she said, sparks discoveries about biology, fluid dynamics, and physics.

Related: How the Air Force's 'space fence' will keep American satellites safe

Rubins is allowed to bring music with her, and although she said they usually have to keep the communications line quiet, shell still take a bunch of different tunes along for the ride.

Ive got everything from classical music, to pop music, to music from the 60s, 70s, and on through today, she said.

When she was little, she had posters of the space shuttle displayed in her room in California, and even went to space camp in seventh grade. That was a great experience, she reflected. It was a really good opportunity to see how they train kids, putting together a mission. And I found that theres a lot of echoes of that when I work with engineers, the training team, international partners its an incredible effort of people all over the globe that support this space station.

During her time in orbit, she said she might miss the texture of being down on Earth sensations that planet-bound people take for granted.

I have heard from a lot of other people, that funny enough, they miss weather, she said. They miss things like rain, they miss the smell of earth, they miss wind Well be looking forward to getting back to that when we come home.

Follow Rob Verger on Twitter: @robverger
There are eight planets in our solar system, and have been officially ever since Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006. But what if there was a ninth planet, billions of miles past Neptune?

Earlier this year, researchers from CalTech announced that they had found signs of the planet, which is referred to a Planet 9, through modeling and computer simulations. If a ninth planet were out there, it would be a big one ten times the mass of Earth and very, very far away, completing just one orbit around the sun as slowly as perhaps every 10,000 to 20,000 years.

Related: Scientists may have just found a ninth planet and it's massive

Now, scientists from Lund University in Sweden have used computer simulations to propose a new theory about how Planet 9 if it exists came to be a member of the solar system. They propose that it was stolen by our sun from another star about 4.5 billion years ago.

What we were arguing was that you could create this [Planet 9] around another star, and then the sun could capture it, in a close encounter, Alexander Mustill, a researcher in the department of astronomy and theoretical physics at Lund University, explained in a video about the theory.

Related: NASA identifies 1,284 new exoplanets, most ever announced at once

We argue that this is how you could put this planet on a wide orbit around the sun, he added. You first create it around another star, and then the sun captures it.

The researchers argue that this would make this planet an exoplanet, which is the term scientists use to describe planets in other star systems beyond our own. Just last month, NASA announced that they had added over 1,200 new exoplanets to the official roster, all of them discoveries from the Kepler spacecraft that had been validated through a new statistical method.

Related: Planet discovery fuels interest in mythical world of deep space

Its very exciting to this that there might be an extrasolar planet in our own solar system, Mustill said.

The study proposing the new theory about Planet 9 was published online in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in April.
An unusual event is happening at a cave in Slovenia as rare salamanders hatch from so-called dragon eggs.

The pale, blind salamander, known as the olm or proteus, only reproduces every 5 to 10 years, and is thought to live to 100, according to the BBC. Olms, which are called "baby dragons" by locals, typically grow to between 8 and 12 inches.

"We got our first Baby dragon!" the Postojna Cave posted on Facebook Wednesday.

Related: Watch this endangered monkey 'chat' with a camera



The BBC reports that another baby olm was making its way out of its egg Wednesday. There are another 21 developed eggs in an aquarium at the Postojna Cave, which is a popular tourist attraction.

Originally there were 64 eggs, which were laid by a single female over a period of weeks, according to the BBC, which notes that only 23 embryos developed. The first egg was noticed in January.

Two years ago, a Postojna olm also laid eggs, but they fell prey to other cave inhabitants. So, this time biologists isolated the female and her eggs in a dark spot, added extra oxygen and removed any outside influences.

Related: Bodies of 40 tiger cubs found in Thai temple freezer

Native to the underground rivers of the Balkans, olms have long fascinated scientists, included legendary naturalist Charles Darwin, who discussed the creatures in his famous On the Origin of Species.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A rare Bible from the battle of Bunker Hill will be exhibited at the Museum of the American Revolution when it opens in Philadelphia next year. The recently-acquired King James Bible is inscribed by American soldier Francis Merrifield, who thanks God for sparing his life in the bloody 1775 battle.

The museum confirmed Thursday that it purchased the Bible at a Bonhams auction in New York on April 11. The Bible sold for $161,000, including the buyers premium.

This Bible is one of only two known to exist from the Battle of Bunker Hill, and is an authentic witness to one of the most iconic moments of the Revolutionary War, R. Scott Stephenson, the Museums vice president of collections, exhibitions, and programming, told FoxNews.com, via email. It provides an incredible opportunity to showcase the role that religious faith played in sustaining those who were involved in the American Revolution. While historians still passionately discuss and debate this important subject, it doesnt always get a great deal of attention in museums.

Related: Historian discovers secret notes hidden in 500-year-old Bible

The Bible was owned by Francis Merrifield, who was born in Ipswich, Mass. in 1735. A veteran of the French and Indian War, which ran from 1754 to 1763, Merrifield joined the Ipswich militia after the Revolutionary War began in 1775. Merrifield served as a sergeant in the company of Captain Nathaniel Wade in Colonel Littles regiment at Bunker Hill.

More than 100 American troops were killed and 300 wounded in the battle on June 17, 1775. Merrifield survived heavy fighting during the battle and was one of the last to leave the field, according to the Museum of the American Revolution's Historian and Curator Philip Mead.

Merrifield wrote extensively on the front and back covers of the Bible, thanking God for his survival. On the reverse of the New Testament page, he wrote: Cambridge, Jun 17 1775. I desire to bless God for his Kind aperince [sic] in delivering me and sparing my life in the late battle fought on Bunkers Hill. I desire to devote this spared life to his Glory and honour. In witness my hand, Francis Merrifield. Below the inscription, Merrifield wrote a poem on his hope for divine grace.

Related: Bookstore finds rare Napoleonic War journal hidden in storage cabinet

The soldier survived the Revolutionary War. He died in 1814.

Several donors funded the purchase of the rare Bible, the museum told FoxNews.com.

When the new museum opens in spring 2017, the Bible will be displayed in a gallery documenting the 1775-1776 siege of Boston. Other exhibits will include a rare signed and dated New England-made military drum and a large-scale reproduction of John Trumbulls painting The Death of General Warren at Bunker Hill.

Related: Isaac Newton and the 'philosopher's stone' -- Manuscript reveals alchemy recipe

A spokeswoman told FoxNews.com that the museum will announce its specific opening date later this month.

Earlier this year, a historian in the U.K. discovered secret notes hidden in the text of Englands first printed bible.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
An unusual sponge was making waves in waters near the Hawaiian Islands  though it doesn't wear square pants and is far too big to live in a pineapple under the sea.

The massive sponge  a marine animal with no skeleton and a soft, porous body  is the largest on record, researchers reported in a study. Identified as measuring approximately 12 feet (3.5 meters) in length and 7 feet (2.1 m) in height, the minivan-size creature was discovered at a depth of 7,000 feet (2,134 m) during dives by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) system, which was deployed from the ship Okeanos Explorer by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

And according to the scientists, the sponge's unusual size could suggest that it might be capable of living for thousands of years.

More from LiveScience:

During the 69-day expedition, which extended from July 10 through Sept. 30, 2015, scientists investigated deep-sea ecosystems in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument and the Johnston Atoll Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

NOAA scientists published a description of their giant discovery on May 24 in the journal Marine Biodiversity, saying that the sponge's dimensions exceeded those of the largest specimens reported in earlier studies.

Previously, the largest known sponges were a colony of the species Aphrocallistes vastus, found in shallow waters near Canada and measuring about 11 feet (3.4 m) in length and about 4 feet (1.1 m) in height.

After projecting laser beams onto the new sponge and capturing high-definition images, the researchers used image-analyzing software to approximate the animal's size.

The lone but sizable sponge was not a reef builder, the scientists noted in the study. They obtained a sample from a smaller specimen in a nearby location, which they suspected to be the same species as the giant sponge. But those were the only individuals of this type of sponge that the scientists encountered in the 18 ROV dives that were completed during the expedition.

There is much about sponges' life spans that science has not yet discovered. But very large sponges living in shallow waters have been estimated to live for more than 2,300 years, which hints that this giant  "and presumably old"  specimen could be equally long-lived, according to the study authors.

Sponges filter seawater, and an enormous individual such as this one likely plays an important role in preserving its ecosystem. Its discovery emphasizes the necessity of exploring deep-water environments, and how much still remains to be learned from them, the scientists said in the study.

Copyright 2016 LiveScience, a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Three space station astronauts chatted live on Wednesday with Facebook's founder about experiments and fun in space, the things that training can't prepare you for, and the true astronaut ice cream.

The live-streamed video marked the first use of Facebook Live in space, and the discussion among Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Tim Kopra, and British astronaut Tim Peake garnered hundreds of thousands of views as it was happening and 2.6 million views as of press time.



Zuckerberg read off questions asked by Facebook users, throwing in a few of his own as well, delving into how the astronauts spend their time in space.

Related from Space.com: Amazing Space Photos by British Astronaut Tim Peake

Besides running experiments that take advantage of the lack of gravity  "physical science experiments that range from combustion to fluid flow to microbiology," Kopra said  the astronauts discussed how their existence itself is an experiment to measure microgravity's effect on the human body. So they're constantly exercising and measuring the changes in their physical attributes, like eyesight.

All three astronauts trained to prepare for those effects and the tasks they'd have to complete on orbit. But some aspects of life in space were impossible to convey through training, said astronaut Tim Peake, who's nearly six months into his first space mission. (Peake is the first British astronaut to stay on the International Space Station.)

"As a rookie astronaut on my first flight, there were so many new experiences," Peake said. "The training is phenomenal, and we have a wonderful training team all around the world, in all our international sites. [But] it's the real experience of launching in a Soyuz rocket, seeing that first orbit of planet Earth going through a sunset, seeing a moonrise, seeing a sunrise  you can't put into words how beautiful a planet is from up here.

"And also having the privilege of seeing it change over the nearly six months that we've been up here now already, and seeing the Northern Hemisphere going from winter to summer, seeing thunderstorms at nighttime, the aurora  it's just absolutely incredible," he continued. "It's all of those kinds of elements that the training just can't prepare you for."

The trio also discussed communicating with the other astronauts, using English, Russian or a mix of the two; the internet service in space, which is relatively new and incredibly useful for keeping in touch, albeit much slower than on Earth; and the cool new virtual reality tech they've been testing out in the space station's halls.

The astronauts also delved into what they do for fun. Williams, who is on his third long-duration stay on the station, mentioned he also particularly enjoys viewing the Earth: "All the different seasons and stuff that goes by, the different lighting conditions and weather patterns, and all the geography and geology and the ocean currents, and thunderstorms, seeing lightning ripple across a weather system  that's a lot of fun," he said. "So we spend a lot of time in the window," he said.

Another pastime, often done during meals, is playing around in microgravity. "We all, from time to time, especially around the dinner table, play with our food in unique ways," Williams added. "We all get to be kids again."

The astronauts discussed how food tastes very slightly different in microgravity, probably because an increase of fluid in the head makes the astronauts feel slightly "stuffed up." They particularly enjoy spicy foods for that reason, Williams said.

And Zuckerberg asked another food-based question, getting the information that really matters: Is astronaut ice cream a real thing?

"We know that the astronaut ice cream that you buy in the gift store, that powdery stuff  yeah, that's not real," Kopra said. "But we've had ice cream on board. When SpaceX came up, they delivered a bunch of ice cream and a freezer, so that's been quite the treat. I think we're down to our last few bars. We're trying to ration it."

The three astronauts won't have much longer to save it, though; Kopra and Peake return to Earth June 18, along with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, and Jeff Williams will head down in September with cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka.

June 24, three new team members will join the orbiting lab: American astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. But they probably shouldn't count on any leftover ice cream.

Original article on Space.com.
Three children, all under the age of eight, were found Thursday stabbed to death by their mother, according to police.

Homicide investigation @phoenixpolice on scene. Neighbors concerned for children who lived in home @mrobisonfox10 pic.twitter.com/eHXc5X5wWU  Anita Roman Fox 10 (@ANITAROMANFOX10) June 2, 2016

Fox 10 Phoenix reported that the mother, who tried to kill herself, fatally stabbed a 2-month-old, a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old.

Sgt. Trent Crump says the woman's brother called 911 after returning home late Wednesday and finding she had locked him out.

He said the brother eventually got into the home and found his sister with self-inflicted stab wounds. She then tried to drown herself in a bathtub while he got towels for her bleeding.

Police said the woman told officers arriving at the scene that her children were somewhere else. But police then found the boys  ages 2 months old and 5 and 8 years old  dead from stab wounds. At least two of the bodies were in a closet.

No identities were released.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
The Army said Friday they have found the bodies of four Fort Hood soldiers who were swept away in a rain-swollen creek during a training exercise at the sprawling Army base in Central Texas.

Maj. Gen. John Uberti says the bodies were found a day after their 2 1/2-ton truck overturned in Owl Creek at Fort Hood. Five other soldiers were killed and three more injured.

Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug said late Thursday that teams found the bodies of two more soldiers who had been in the vehicle. Three other soldiers were found dead shortly after the 2 1/2-ton truck overturned in Owl Creek during a morning training exercise on the Central Texas army post.

"It was a situation where the rain had come, the water was rising quickly and we were in the process, at the moment of the event, of closing the roads," Haug said Thursday.

Soldiers on training exercises regularly contend with high-water situations following heavy rains, he said.

"This was a tactical vehicle and at the time they were in a proper place for what they were training," Haug said. "It's just an unfortunate accident that occurred quickly."

Three soldiers were rescued and were hospitalized in stable condition.

This tragedy extends well beyond Fort Hood Maj. Gen. John Uberti said Friday, adding that the Army is providing support and counseling to soldiers, families and friends affected in the incident.

It was the third tragic incident of the day for the U.S. military, after a Blue Angels fighter pilot was killed in a crash in Tennessee and the pilot of an Air Force jet participating in a Colorado graduation ceremony's flyover was slightly injured after he ejected before the craft crashed in a field.

The Texas soldiers involved are from the Armys famed 1st Cavalry Division, which is based at Fort Hood.

The Army has yet to release any of the names of the deceased soldiers because it was still notifying relatives.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the soldiers their families and the Fort Hood community," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement late Thursday.

"The brave men and women stationed at Fort Hood put their life on the line every day, be it through rescue operations or on the battlefield. Texas will forever remain grateful for their sacrifices," Abbott said.

Fort Hood spokesman John Miller said the low-water crossing of the creek was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck from the road.

Maj. Gen. John C. Thomson II, the commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division, released a statement on Facebook late Thursday.

Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week, and more than half of the state is under flood watches or warnings, including the counties near Fort Hood. At least six people died in floods last week in Central and Southeast Texas.

Across parts of Texas, many were keeping an eye on a new batch of storms that could dump up to 10 inches of rain from Thursday through Saturday and worsen flooding caused by waterways that have already risen to record levels.

The heaviest rainfall Thursday night was reported in LaPorte, on the western shore of Galveston Bay, where 4.36 inches of rain was recorded between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday.

Earlier, a storm system that moved through the Houston area Wednesday night and Thursday morning dumped nearly 8 inches of rain in some of the city's northern suburbs, causing flooding in some neighborhoods. In Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston, about 1,400 homes have been affected by the Brazos River, swollen by heavy rainfall from last week.

Officials say levels in the Brazos have not dropped much and additional rainfall could make the flooding worse.

"With the rain that's predicted, that's not going to help things as that water has no place to go," said Lt. Lowell Neinast, with the police department in Richmond, where more than 700 people have been evacuated.

Fort Bend County emergency management coordinator Jeff Braun said officials have worked to warn and prepare residents ahead of the additional rainfall.

More than 50 people are staying at shelters in Fort Bend County, one of the 31 counties included in a disaster declaration by Abbott. Braun said it could be at least a week before the flooding recedes and residents can go home.

This week's storms are the latest in a string of torrential rains since May 2015 that have put swaths of the state underwater. Some areas now overwhelmed by water had run dry two years ago due to drought conditions.

Fox News Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Somali man accused of leading mass executions and torturing people during the countrys bloody civil war in the 1980s has been quietly working as a security guard at a Washington, D.C., airport for the past six years  all while passing FBI and TSA checks.

Yusuf Abdi Ali, who is living in Alexandria, Va., is an employee at the Dulles International Airport, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority confirmed to Fox 5 on Wednesday.

The airport authority also said they are aware that Ali  who is now on administrative leave -- was named in a lawsuit filed by a human rights group in 2006 for crimes against humanity. The case has had numerous appeals and is now destined for the Supreme Court, CNN reported.

Airport security guard placed on leave after being discovered to be accused war criminal https://t.co/PF0knGf1UO pic.twitter.com/SP8gNjhgo7  FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) June 2, 2016

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority maintains a contract with Master Security to provide unarmed security services, said Rob Yingling, a spokesperson. Master Security's employees are subject to the full, federally mandated vetting process in order to be approved for an airport badge, including a criminal history records check by the FBI and a security threat assessment by the TSA.

Yingling said the authority has verified that all of these processes were followed and approved in this instance.

We have been informed by Master Security, which hired Mr. Ali, that he has been placed on administrative leave, and as a result his access to the airport has been withdrawn, he added.

The company also said it was unaware of the pending litigation and is now reviewing the facts surrounding the case.

Officials told CNN that the U.S. government has been aware of Ali for years "based upon allegations that he had been involved in human rights violations, but declined to elaborate.

"He oversaw some of the most incredible violence that you can imagine," Kathy Roberts, an attorney for the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), which is leading the civil lawsuit, told CNN. "He tortured people personally; he oversaw torture."

A government regime led by Mohamed Siad Barre took power and ruled with an iron fist after a coup in Somalia in 1969. Ali, who then served as a commander in the regime, is accused of terrorizing the once-dominant Isaaq clan in the countrys north.

"He tied [my brother] to military vehicle and dragged him behind. He said to us if you've got enough power, get him back," one villager said during a documentary that aired on CBC in 1992, according to CNN. "He shredded him into pieces. That's how he died."

Ali denies the accusations in the lawsuit, telling CNN that they are baseless and false.

"How dare anyone call him a war criminal," added his lawyer, Joseph Peter Drennan. If he is indeed a war criminal, take him to The Hague. Or if he is a war criminal, take it up with the immigration authorities. Don't sue him in an American court... My client deserves to live in the U.S. just as any other legal permanent resident."

Ali entered the country on a visa through his wife, who became a U.S. citizen. She was found guilty of naturalization fraud in 2006 after claiming she was a refugee from the same Somalia clan Ali is accused of targeting.


A Florida university announced Monday it has offered scholarships to a woman who made the viral Facebook video showing her laughing hysterically as she tries on a Chewbacca mask.

Southeastern University said that its president presented Candace Payne and her entire family with full tuition scholarships. President Dr. Kent Ingle said Payne, a Texas native, inspired the university with the joy she expressed on her video.

Ingle said the school wanted her family to experience some of that joy in return.

"Over 90-percent of our students receive institutional aid. We've had the privilege to increase that aid from $6 million to $25 million this year. If we can help her in any way, we want to do that," Executive Vice President Brian Carroll said.

The move didnt come without criticism. August Schmidt, a Southeastern University student, told Fox 13 News he didnt like the move but said Payne and her children are welcome at the school.

"I have student loan debt. I have two jobs, a family and a kid, but honestly, it's a gift to them they should take it," he said.

Payne has been presented with several other gifts since her video went viral. She received Star Wars toys from Kohls and she also met Chewbacca at Disney World during her visit to Florida earlier this week.

The video has become an internet sensation, garnering millions of views and landing Payne as a guest on several talk and news shows.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox 13 News.
College-bound high school students who have had trouble with the law may still have to check a certain box the Obama administration wants off of admissions forms.

Not all colleges and universities are buying into the Department of Educations Beyond the Box campaign to stop admissions officers from forcing applicants to disclose criminal and disciplinary histories. The administration believes such probing is a barrier to minorities, but critics say schools have a right to know if incoming students have rap sheets.

Its a nationwide social experiment putting college students at risk, said Dan Gainor, of the Media Research Institute. If you commit crimes  sexual assault, domestic violence and others  we have a right to know and decide whether we want to associate with you.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education sent colleges around the country a letter urging them to get rid of the line of questioning that could bar students "who have been involved with the justice system.

The Department of Education's recommendation could have broad reach through the Common Application, a form used by nearly 700 schools which enables college hopefuls to apply to multiple schools using one form.

The Common Application, a nonprofit formed in the 1970s by school administrators to smooth the application process, had since 2006 included in a box to be checked if the applicant has ever been found guilty of a felony, misdemeanor or other crime. The "other crime" portion was cut this year and more changes could be coming.

Common Application is studying the question to determine if any more changes will be made for the 2017-2018 year, spokesperson Aba Blankson acknowledged.

Among public schools, 43 percent of directors surveyed by the organization last year wanted full reporting of all infractions; 46 percent wanted at least some disclosure and only 11 percent were in favor of not asking applicants about legal or disciplinary records. Administrators at private institutions were even more in favor of disclosure, with just 1 percent saying no such questions should be asked.

FoxNews.com reached out to numerous private and public higher education schools across the country, with mixed response.

The University of Idaho has no current plans to stop asking about applicants' criminal background. But Director of Admissions Cezar Mesquita stressed that a checked box doesnt mean a dead end.

We weigh the seriousness of any offenses and consider them holistically in conjunction with other application information provided, Mesquita said.

The University of Washington asks applicants if they have been convicted of a violent felony and if he or she is required to register as a sex offender. Officials say it does not result in discrimination.

We have tracked effects of this policy over the years, and there is no evidence that students who report on these backgrounds have been disadvantaged in the admissions process, school spokesman Norman Arkans said.

Colorado College requires disclosure, said Mark Hatch, vice president for enrollment management, who added that it can benefit an applicant.

On occasion, these can be very positive statements that allow the Admission Committee to see strong moral conviction and how a young adult takes responsibility and owns a mistake, Hatch said.

The federal push does seem to be having an effect. Most institutions contacted by FoxNews.com said existing questions pertaining to criminal and disciplinary histories will come under review to be limited or for possible removal in the coming months.

The University of Illinois and University of Florida currently ask about criminal histories in the application process, but officials at both schools said they are considering the governments suggestions. Officials at University of the Pacific, in Stockton, Calif., said they intend to involve students in the discussion of whether or not to drop the questions. The University of Colorado plans to form a committee of campus leaders over the summer to look at possible changes.

Other schools, including the University of California system, University of Texas, the College of Idaho and the University of Utah, told FoxNews.com they do not query applicants on criminal history.

A University of California official said that in some cases the school may ask students who have already been accepted about past criminal history on other forms, such as applications of on-campus housing.

The Department of Education also recommended colleges offer any existing justice-involved individuals special support services including counseling, career guidance, mentoring and legal aid.

Gainor said the issue is not one of discrimination, but of schools being able to ensure a safe and law-abiding student body.

This isnt about people of color, Gainor said. This is about people of crime and keeping violent ex-cons away from unsuspecting college students.

Jamie Brennan contributed to this report.
Authorities in Michigan said Wednesday they are searching for a 45-year-old man in the abduction of a 13-year-old boy who was taken outside a Detroit-area convenience store.

Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody said in a statement that tips led to the identification of Gregory Walker of Detroit as the suspect in the case of missing Deontae Mitchell.

The boys cousin told police they were riding bikes Tuesday night when they saw an apparently drunken man drop money while urinating outside the market. The cousin said Deontae picked up the money and rode away.

Surveillance video shows the boy being pursued by the suspect, grabbed his arm and forced into a black Chevrolet Impala.

According to the Department of Corrections, Walker was previously convicted of cocaine possession, firearms, receiving and concealing stolen property.

Woody said Walker should be considered armed and dangerous.

Authorities encourage anyone with information about the abduction to call Detroit police at 313-596-5521 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Fox 2 Detroit.
Friends of a Houston man who grabbed his gun and tried to stop a shooter who terrorized a Houston suburb Sunday are rallying to his side, and praising him as a hero.

Byron Wilson was shot three times, twice in the legs and once in the shoulder, while trying to stop the rampage of Dionsio Garza. Wilson engaged Garza, before getting wounded, then managed to crawl to a nearby business and call his wife. He faces a long recovery and an uncertain future, according to friends, who have launched a GoFundMe page to help him pay his medical bills.

The generosity and kind words [are] overwhelming for the Wilson family, Angie Guerra wrote on the online appeal she set up for Wilson and his family. On their behalf, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for donating and sharing.

A close friend of the family, Guerra told local news station KHOU said that Wilson and his wife were trying to start a business before the incident and now find themselves facing mounting medical bills.

He was the good guy, and it sucks when the good guy is the one that gets hurt, she told the news station. The whole world kind of came down on them with this happening.

So far, Guerra has helped to raise nearly $25,000, half of their goal. Wilson has already been through several surgeries and blood transfusions.

Garza, an Army veteran from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., opened fire Sunday at tire store in West Houston, according to Fox11 Los Angeles, spraying 212 rounds at innocent bystanders and police. Eugene Linscomb, 56, was killed and six, including one police officer and Wilson, were injured.

Garza's family told KPRC TV in Houston that "something snapped" in him following two tours in Afghanistan. They said his condition worsened in the weeks before he traveled to Houston to visit an Army friend.

Cops first on the scene initially thought Wilson may have been the shooter, but it was quickly determined that the concealed-carry permit holder had opened fire on Garza in an attempt to subdue him.

He could have prevented more people from being shot, Guerra told KHOU. "Hes a hero, even though he was shot. Hes a hurting hero.
The body of the gunman suspected of shooting and wounding two Fremont, Calif., police officers was found Thursday morning inside the house where he was barricaded for hours in the residential neighborhood.

Fremont Division Fire Chief Diane Hendry told FoxNews.com that the suspects body was found inside a closet in the home.

Two officers from the Fremont Police Department were shot Wednesday afternoon after a traffic stop turned violent, prompting a manhunt that involved a house to house search that lasted well into the night.

Fremont home where officer shooting suspect is barricaded is still on fire.

Police hoping daylight will help. pic.twitter.com/eRvb1x5mTG  Matt Keller (@MattKellerABC7) June 2, 2016

The lone suspect was eventually tracked down to a home in the San Francisco Bay-area community of Fremont, where he was involved in the standoff, said Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff's office.

He said no one was home when the suspect broke in and barricaded himself inside. Tear gas was blamed after the roof of the house caught fire. Fire crews worked to extinguish the blaze.

The incident started when an officer with a year's service with the department stopped a white pickup truck in Fremont, which is about 40 miles south of San Francisco, police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said.

The pickup truck backed up into the officer's patrol car, a person in the truck fired shots that injured the officer and the shooter and another suspect fled on foot.

Shortly after that officers from several law enforcement agencies flooded the area and searching got underway.

A while later, a Fremont police officer with about 10 years of service with the department was wounded in a shootout with the suspect, officials said.

coordinating an exterior fire attack now. This is a defensive fire. No firefighters going inside. @FremontPD pic.twitter.com/G5S1zWBqHc  Fremont Fire Dept. (@FremontFire) June 2, 2016

Bosques told the East Bay Times that the officer in the initial shooting was in critical condition after surgery. The second officer remained in stable condition.

He said the others were with the suspect when the shooting erupted, but just the single gunman was accused in the violence.

The Associated Press contributed to this report
An Indianapolis man faces nearly 20 charges in connection to a four-day killing spree last month inspired by the horror film The Purge, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said 19-year-old Jonathan Cruz went on a four-day, one-man purge. Curry said Cruz made statements to witnesses that he was going purging and posted explicit messages which included him saying I purge every night now.

In the movie, the U.S. government legalizes all crime, including murder, for one day without fear of prosecution.

Cruz is accused of committing three murders between May 12 and May 15. According to Fox 59, investigators said the man killed Billy Boyd and Jay Higginbotham on May 12. Court documents state that Cruz had told one of his friends that he needed to leave Indianapolis asap.

However, on the following Sunday Cruz allegedly killed Jose Ruiz inside his car. Court documents said that Cruz picked his victims at random.

He was being held on kidnapping charges before authorities were able to piece together that he couldve been responsible for the killing spree across the city in the middle of May. The kidnapping victim told authorities that Cruz was murdering and robbing people on the east side of Indianapolis.

"The charges against Mr. Cruz arise out of statements made to several witnesses, photos, videos and text messages taken from a phone seized from him when he was arrested on May 16," Curry said.

Cruz is also a suspect in a May 14 robbery. Steven Clark has also been charged in connection with the robbery.

Cruz is facing 17 charges including: three murder charges for each victim, attempted robbery resulting in a serious bodily injury, two counts of robbery results in serious bodily injury, armed robbery, intimidation, two counts of pointing a firearm and criminal gang enhancement.

Curry said prosecutors could potentially ask for the death penalty.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett released a statement shortly after authorities announced the charges against Cruz, praising officials for their efforts.

"Senseless acts of violence such as those alleged in this case are incomprehensible, but thanks to the swift actions of IMPD detectives, Prosecutor Terry Curry and witnesses willing to come forward, we are one step closer to providing answers for these victims families, he said.

Officials found videos from the shootings and various gang-related activities on his cellphone. Court documents revealed that he allegedly told a kidnapping victim that he had killed before.

"Another body wouldn't mean anything," he said, according to court documents.

According to Fox 59, Cruz allegedly sent text messages to his mother about the murders he had allegedly committed. When his mother told him that authorities can still pickup deleted cellphone history, Cruz allegedly said he was going to get a new phone.

Additional text messages to the mother of one of his girlfriends alluded to him needing to skip town. The woman replied that she would put him in a hotel and possibly get him to another state. She told him to change his appearance and delete his Facebook account.

According to court documents, authorities recovered two guns during the investigation. His arrest came after statements from several witnesses and victims, Curry said.

The Indy Star reported that Cruz will have a hearing Thursday at 1:30 p.m.

Click for more from Fox 59.
New Jersey officials determined Wednesday that Kean University violated the law when purchasing a conference table from China for more than $200,000.

The Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) said that the table was already on a boat from China to the U.S. before the Union-based university voted to approve its purchase in May 2014, NJ.com reported.

The OSC said an email sent five months prior to the finalization of the purchase stated that Kean President Dawood Farahi gave the green light for the table to be made and for the school to pay around $200,000 for it. Officials said other documents and payments reveal that the project to bring the table over to northern New Jersey began before the trustees gave final approval.

School officials told trustees that the purchases utilized exceptions to New Jerseys public advertising and bidding requirements. However, the OSC said the transaction didnt satisfy any exceptions, NJ.com reported.

The university claimed that the purchase covered two exceptions: extraordinary unspecifiable services and products" and for "acquisitions of artifacts or other items of unique intrinsic, artistic or historic character." NJ.com reported the OSC said neither exception was appropriate.

A Kean official also told trustees the purchase was a nod to our partners in China. Kean University has a campus in Wenzhou, China.

The final cost for the table added up to $250,000; $30,000 for the specifications, $150,000 for the actual table and $70,000 for the modifications that were also approved before the board of trustees voted to bring the table over, the OSC said.

According to the report, the OSC claims that Kean officials bypassed its own purchasing standards by allowing its Chinese campus to deduct money paid for the table from money it owed Kean. State officials said Wenzhou Kean already paid for about 60 percent of the table before trustees approved it.

Kean University spokeswoman Margaret McCorry said in a statement to NJ.com that the university had done its due diligence and followed the law when purchasing the table.

"The report issued by the Office of the State Comptroller has significant omissions that explain Kean's actions," McCorry said. "Kean University acted legally and with transparency throughout the process of developing the Loehning Conference Center."

Kean University Executive Vice President for Operations Philip Connelly defended the value the William F. Loehning Conference Center brings to the campus in a statement to students, faculty and alumni Wednesday and said the comptrollers report has significant omissions that defend Keans actions.

The Conference Center already has generated invaluable interest and revenue from alumni, investors, corporate leaders and lawmakers, Connelly added. The Conference Center has hosted dozens of policy roundtables on important state, local and national issues, including: solitary confinement; rampant drug abuse among New Jersey teens; domestic violence; issues facing the Latino community in New Jersey and the nation; and the ramifications of the Affordable Care Act on business and government.

Connelly linked the value of the conference center to the role Kean University plays in the community in advancing the dialogue on the most pressing issues of our time.

The 22-foot circular table, located on the Union campus Green Lane Academic Building, seats 23 people and is made of oak with cherry veneer. The university said the price tag also includes lighting, data ports, gooseneck microphones, an illuminated world map and a motorized, two-tiered glass turntable. There also is a power manager unit with an 8-channel power output independent socket to reduce and restrain surge impact, and a separate cabinet to house the electronic equipment.

Kean is no stranger to controversial monetary decisions. The university has a $2.5 million restaurant called Ursino that serves farm-to-table cuisine. The restaurant has a spiral staircase and floor-to-ceiling windows.

Peter Turso, the executive chef at the restaurant, told The New York Times in 2012 that the venue appealed to the administration because it raised the schools profile. Farahi told NJ.com in 2013 that the restaurant "has an amazing marketing value."

"People come to see the new Kean University. It was a good decision," he told the paper.

The Star-Ledger wrote in a 2014 editorial that the restaurant exists for no other purpose than Farahi's vanity. The editorial points out that there is no culinary program at the school and few students who can afford to eat there.

Fox News Edmund DeMarche and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from NJ.com
Conservative Christians are anxious about their future after losing the fight over gay marriage, and amid the growing share of Americans who have left organized religion. Here's a look at why white evangelicals are feeling so alienated from other Americans and at the changes fueling this anxiety.

WHAT'S CHANGING?

The U.S. remains solidly Christian, but between 2007 and 2014, the share of Christians in the country dropped from about 78 percent of the population to just under 71 percent, according to the Pew Research Center.

The decline was fueled mostly by losses among Roman Catholics and mainline Protestants. However, even in parts of the Bible Belt, conservative Christians who hadn't been very active in church are now feeling more comfortable saying they're no longer religious. The membership ranks of some evangelical denominations, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, are shrinking.

At the same time, the segment of Americans who say they have no particular religion has increased from 16 percent to 23 percent, Pew found. That's close to the share of evangelicals, who comprise just over 25 percent of the population.

At the same time, evangelicals are wrestling with being on the losing side of the fight over same-sex marriage. It was not only a defeat on a deeply significant religious and moral issue, but also evidence of a lack of conservative Christian influence over public opinion. More than half of Americans now support same-sex marriage.

Politically, white evangelicals remain one of the most important blocs in the Republican Party, and they continue to shape the early presidential primaries. But with the diminishment of old-guard religious right groups, Christian conservatives no longer have a unifying leader. As a result, evangelicals are splintering, diluting their influence. And they can't match the growth rate of groups who tend to support Democrats: Latinos, young people and people who are unaffiliated with a religion.

WHY ARE CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS SO ANXIOUS?

Evangelicals are deeply worried about the fallout from the spread of LGBT rights and the growth of secularism.

They point to cases like the fines levied on a New Mexico photographer and Oregon baker for refusing business related to gay weddings. Conservative Christians fear their schools and colleges could lose their tax-exempt status or accreditation over codes of conduct barring same-sex relationships.

A 1983 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed the IRS to revoke tax-exempt status from religious schools that banned interracial dating. In the Supreme Court gay marriage case last year, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, representing the government, was asked whether something similar could happen to Christian schools, which often provide housing for married students. "It's certainly going to be an issue," he responded, causing alarm in the evangelical blogosphere.

And religious conservatives worry about new rules added to government contracts that will affect faith-based social service agencies. For example, Catholic Charities in Illinois shuttered its adoption program over a new state rule that agencies with taxpayer funding can't refuse placements with same-sex couples.

Gay rights groups consider these changes a welcome corrective to decades of discrimination. They contend conservatives are using conscience rights and religious freedom complaints as an end run around advances for LGBT people. But conservative Christians say they are just seeking a balance between religious liberty and civil rights.

_

HOW ARE EVANGELICALS REACTING?

Evangelicals are debating whether they should even more fiercely wage the culture war, withdraw back into their own communities or stay engaged with Americans of other views, not only to help shape public discussion of morality but also to try and bring people into the church.

Christian publishers are churning out books and Bible studies on this last strategy, such as "Onward," by Russell Moore, "Thriving in Babylon," by Larry Osborne, and "Good Faith, Being a Christian When Society Thinks You're Irrelevant or Extreme," by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman.

Advocates of this strategy generally feel the sharp rhetoric of the religious right  on homosexuality and other issues  ultimately hurt Christians. This group aims to confidently advocate for their beliefs, no matter how unpopular, but without vilifying their opponents. These evangelicals are also emphasizing issues that can cross ideological lines, including fighting racism and human trafficking, as part of highlighting the more compassionate side of their faith.
On a recent trip to Zagreb, Croatia, I stumbled across the LEAP Summit, a conference fostering entrepreneurship in the Balkans. There were over 1,200 attendees from 26 countries represented at this initial year of the conference.

Related: 4 Ways International Work Experience Helps Entrepreneurs Succeed

It was an event that provided me, an American entrepreneur, a great window on to what the region is about today, following years of war in parts of a region loosed defined as Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro, mainland Greece, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Albania -- and sometimes referred to as "Southeast Europe.")

In fact, the Balkans are an interesting, emerging region that most people dont know much about, but that has great potential mixed with difficult challenges. Those challenges were very much on the mind of Andrej Hanzir, a graduate student at the University of Zagreb, who was the driving force behind the conference.

We have some of the highest unemployment rates in all of Europe, yet many countries have a very skilled workforce and good language skills," Hanzir said at the conference. "We really need to get young people on board with the entrepreneurial mindset, because thats going to up the level of the region.

Many of the countries came from socialism or communism and were part of ex-Yugoslavia just 25 short years ago, and we need to accelerate the shift to a market-driven economy. We need jobs -- and the best way to create jobs is to foster startups and small business.

Thats why the conference focused on people under 35, who have grown up in this new world. Those current and potential entrepreneurs hope that their governments are paying attention, because there is much that can be done, specifically around bureaucracy and taxes.

It can be expensive, for instance, to start a new legal entity in the region -- often requiring $1,000 or more (big money in the Balkans) to start a company, and weeks to months. The challenge comes into perspective when you consider that average wages in the region range from only about $500 to $1,000 a month. Paperwork can seem endless, and it also changes frequently.

One positive point is that some of the countries, such as Croatia and Greece, are in the European Union, which helps open up trading opportunities and reduces at least some of the bureaucracy.

A negative? Taxes, which companies pay for their employees, on top of the salaries, and which can be quite high.

Related: 5 Things International Startups Should Know Before Joining a U.S. Accelerator

The biggest challenge, however, is mindset. It used to be that, if you start a business and it doesnt succeed, you are labeled a failure. Yet if you succeed, you are a crook. So why even try? commented Davorin Stetner, a well-known entrepreneur in the region. Stetner heads up the Croatian Business Angel Network and also serves on the Presidential Economic Council, which advises Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi, who's president of Croatia.

Were changing that," Stetner continued, about the region's issues with mindset. "With mentoring, education, accelerators and incubators, were giving the people the tools they need to succeed. Theres just so much potential here.

While area universities are churning out skilled technology workers who speak good English and German, many of them move to London, Germany or the United States after graduation to make more money. Its the challenge of the countries here to give them a reason to stay. And, in fact, some have cracked the code, quite successfully.

Yellow Designs is a web and digital design company in Montenegro that has thrived by finding Western clients through outsourcing outlets like Upwork and Freelancer.com. The company offers graphic design, web design, 3D design, animation, video editing and photography.

Marko Mujicic, one of the founders, remarked of his firm that, We have quality people -- college graduates, many with masters degrees -- that our clients can take advantage of, for around $10 an hour. Thats cheaper than most anywhere in the world, and our customers tell us that its much easier to communicate with us than other outsourcing theyve done.

We like working with the Western companies because they know what they want -- it can be frustrating working with local companies, who dont value IT projects the same way.

Yellow Designs ends up paying its people significantly more than the average Macedonian wage, which keeps them people-focused, and loyal.

But that's the story of only one Balkans company: It will be interesting to see how the region shapes up over the next few years. Will area governments do more to support the startup scene? Will people start accepting the risk that comes with starting a business? Will capital facilities be able to fund the high-potentials?

Related: 7 International Cities That Welcome New and Expanding Businesses

Great questions to ask -- with a whole region on the line.
A UCLA student who shot and killed a mechanical engineering professor in a campus building Wednesday morning was heavily armed, had a "kill list" and was responsible for the death of a Minnesota woman, police said Thursday.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, shot Prof. William Klug to death in his office, reportedly because he believed Klug stole computer code from him. Sarkar later shot and killed himself. Sarkar had multiple magazines of ammunition and multiple loose rounds of ammunition.

"He was prepared to engage multiple victims," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said on Thursday.

Minnesota police said Thursday afternoon that Sarkar also killed an unnamed woman in that state, though no motive or relationship between the two was identified. Authorities did not say when the woman was killed, only that Sarkar drove 2,000 miles from his home in Minnesota to Los Angeles sometime after her killing to begin his assault on UCLA.

Police are still searching for Sarkar's 2003 Gray Nissan Sentra, which officials believe "may contain evidence."

Sarkar graduated UCLA in 2013 with a master's degree and Beck said it was unlikely Sarkar's victim at the school "expected to see him."

Minnesota authorities said they were asked by the LAPD to perform a welfare check at a residence just after midnight on Thursday. Inside the house, officers found a female dead from a gunshot wound. The woman was on a "hit list" kept by Sarkar, officials said.

Beck said during an interview on KTLA that the list identified another potential target -- a UCLA professor who was not harmed during Wednesday's incident. That professor's name was not released.

"There is no good reason for this," Beck said.

Beck said a note found at the Los Angeles murder scene listed Sarkar's Minnesota address and asked the finder to check on Sarkar's cat.

There was "no immediate evidence" to suggest any other crimes, Beck said.

The shooting shortly before 10 a.m. local time brought a massive police response. Hundreds of heavily armed officers swarmed the sprawling Westwood campus, while thousands of students and staff barricaded themselves in classrooms and offices, some using belts and chairs to secure doors.

Approximately two hours after the shooting was first reported, Beck declared the threat over. The chief confirmed at least three shots were fired and said authorities found a gun and what might be a suicide note.

UCLA biology and chemistry Professor Charles Knobler said those who knew Klug are in shock. He described the professor as "a very lively, lovable, likable guy."

But Klug was also reportedly the target of Sarkar's scorn on social media.

William Klug, UCLA professor, is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy, Sarkar wrote, The Times reported. He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust.

The shooting disrupted the week before final exams at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose 43,000 students make it the largest campus in the University of California system. Classes were canceled Wednesday, but they are expected to resume Thursday. However, UCLA Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh said engineering classes were canceled for the rest of the week.

The initial report of the shooting prompted the university to send a so-called "Bruin Alert" to all students and staff notifying them to avoid the area and shelter in place.

Olivia Cabadas, a 22-year-old nursing student, was getting ready to take a quiz in the mathematics building when her classmates began getting cellphone alerts. Through a window, they could see students rushing down the hallway.

An officer yelled that everyone should get out.

"It was just a little surreal  this is actually happening," Cabadas said. "It was chaos."

FoxNews.com's Malia Zimmerman, Fox News' Matthew Dean and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from FoxLA.com.
Police in Northern California are searching for at least one suspect after two police officers were wounded when a traffic stop turned violent.

The Fremont Police Department says the gunman was believed to have fled to a residential neighborhood.

He says the area was still on lock down late Wednesday night with no one allowed to go in or leave the six-block area.

Police say surveillance video and witnesses confirmed the man was still carrying the gun after he shot the two officers Wednesday afternoon.

Fremont police spokeswoman Officer Geneva Bosques says one of the officers is in critical condition after surgery. The other officer remains in stable condition.
Police called it a lockdown, but for many UCLA students who spent a tense two hours cowering in classrooms Wednesday as police hunted a gunman rumored to be stalking the campus, it was no such thing.

There are no working locks on the doors in many of the central Los Angeles schools older buildings. Students were left to secure themselves, barricading doors with desks and chairs as they frantically texted loved ones, shared updates and waited in fear that a killer would storm in and spray rooms with bullets.

"We had a problem because apparently the doors dont lock, Shawndeez Jadalizadeh, who was in English class when a campus-wide alert went out, told Fox 11. Its an old building so that was a huge issue. It was very unsafe.

Doors open outward with no locks so we had to improvise our own locking mechanism #uclashooting #engineers pic.twitter.com/GAI1OeCSzK  Pranasha Shrestha (@pranashalovesu) June 1, 2016

The gunman, identified Thursday as Mainak Sarkar, a former doctoral student, had apparently already killed Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering William Klug, 39, and then himself in a small office in Boelter Hall by the time the alert had been sent. Sarkar had accused Klug of stealing his computer code. No one else was hurt.

But for hours that surely felt like an eternity, a massive wave of LAPD and UCLA police combed the campus, going room-to-room and searching students. Those in class were told to shelter in place, and, given recent campus shootings around the nation, did so with the knowledge that a killer could burst in at any moment.

"At one point we got in the farthest corner in the room. We turned all the lights off and stopped talking because that scenario runs in your head over and over again," Jadalizadehs classmate, Frankie Masi, told Fox 11.

Students secured the classroom door with a belt, and hoisted a podium onto a table to barricade it. Students in other classrooms went to similar efforts in the hopes they could keep a gunman out in the absence of working locks. In some classrooms, chairs were piled against doors.

"You never expect it to happen right on the campus where you are," said Professor Mario Picazo, who normally works out of the building were police say the shots were fired in an apparent murder-suicide involving a professor and a student.

UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh said he was troubled to find many of the classrooms could not be locked from the inside. He said the school will study the situation with an eye toward making the campus as secure as possible.

"We'll review the locks on the doors and any security issue that has arisen in the course of today," he said Wednesday.
The pilot of a US Navy Blue Angel F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet was killed Thursday when the aircraft crashed in central Tennessee, a Navy official confirmed to Fox News.

The crash involving the jet happened after 3 p.m. southeast of Nashville in the town of Smyrna, a Rutherford County dispatcher told Fox 17.

La Vergne, Tenn. Fire Chief Rick McCormick told Fox News that the jet crashed off airport property just after takeoff.

He added that the jet did not crash into buildings off the runway.

Commander Jeannie Groeneveld, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Forces, told Fox News the crash happened during a practice flight for the Great Tennessee Airshow in Smyrna. The Blue Angels were supposed to perform June 4 and 5 at the airport, but canceled after the deadly crash.

Harry Gill, the town manager in Smyrna just outside Nashville, said Thursday that the pilot was the only casualty. Some power outages were caused by the crash, but no civilians were hurt.

A U.S. official told the Associated Press the pilot invovled in the crash was Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to the AP. According to his official Blue Angels biography, Kuss joined the elite acrobatics team in 2014 and accumulated more than 1,400 flight hours.

The Navy said that it will conduct an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Becca Cullision-Burgess told Fox 17 she was in her shop "My Southern Charm" when she saw the crash.

"I've never seen such a big ball or orange fire before," she said.

The Blue Angels flew over downtown Nashville earlier in the day.

Earlier Thursday, an Air Force Thunderbird jet crashed south of Colorado Springs, Colo. just after a flyover for a graduation of Air Force Academy cadets where President Obama had spoken.

Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Michal Kloeffler-Howard said the pilot safely ejected from the jet.

President Obama met with the pilot shortly after the plane.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president thanked the pilot for his service and expressed his relief that he wasn't seriously injured

The F-16 crashed in a field near Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs just after ceremonies at the nearby academy where Obama delivered the commencement address.

Authorities say no one on the ground was injured in the Colorado incident.

There were four crashes of U.S. military jets last month in May.

Following the crash of two Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets involved in a collision on May 26 off the coast of North Carolina as well as a crash of a USAF B-52 in Guam earlier in the month, Fox News asked Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook if the secretary was concerned about the state of US military aviation.

There is some significant investment in this budget, aggressive investment in terms of trying to deal with readiness issues, but we're not going to solve this overnight, said Cook.

The four Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet aviators were rescued following a safe ejection into the Atlantic Ocean, with local fisherman picking up one of the jets crew.

In early May a USMC Harrier jet crashed off the coast of North Carolina, but the pilot ejected safely and was recovered.

Fox News recently traveled to four US Air Force and Marine aviation bases, where pilots complained that their flight hours had been cut in half.

Almost 70 percent of of USMC F/A-18 Hornets cannot fly right now, and a similar amount of heavy lift CH-53 helicopters as well.

In the Air Force, half of B-1 bombers right now are not mission capable.

Click for more from Fox 17.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Thursday that Puerto Rico will receive $25 million more a year to pay for public school meals, as well as federal resources to help strengthen rural communities amid a financial crisis.

Vilsack is the latest top federal official to visit the U.S. territory in recent months as it struggles to emerge from a decade-long economic slump and faces $70 billion of public debt.

"It will certainly take some of the pressure off," Vilsack said of the 17 percent increase in school meal reimbursement rates.

He said his agency also selected Puerto Rico's eastern region as a federal Promise Zone, which in part gives local communities an advantage when seeking grants or other federal assistance. Vilsack said AmeriCorps volunteers will visit the eastern region where an abandoned U.S. naval station is located in an effort to revitalize communities in three municipalities. Local government officials have struggled to attract investors to the former Roosevelt Roads station.

Vilsack said the aim is to create jobs through tourism and increased development, as well as attract film and TV crews to the island, build affordable housing and establish a marina and a commercial hydroponic farm, among other things.

He noted that Puerto Rico imports 85 percent of the food it consumes.

"I think there is incredible opportunity for Puerto Rico to reverse (this)," he said, adding that crops should be grown not just for food and fiber, but for fuel and energy sources.

Puerto Rico was the site of a federal pilot program that allowed people enrolled in a nutrition assistance program to buy food at participating farmers market with their cards. Vilsack said the program has been made permanent in part to support local farmers.

Puerto Rico Agriculture Secretary Myrna Comas praised those efforts and said they would help boost steps taken by her own agency, such as increasing the number of local products used in school meals from 25 percent to 60 percent.

___

Danica Coto on Twitter: www.twitter.com/danicacoto
A federal report released Thursday details a shocking turf battle that broke out when immigration officials blocked law enforcement agents from interviewing a person of interest in the San Bernardino terror attack last December.

Just one day after a radical Muslim couple opened fire on office workers at a Christmas party, the FBI asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain the man later determined to have supplied guns used in the attack.

When Homeland Security Investigations agents went to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office where Enrique Marquez and his wife were being interviewed, they were turned away, according to the report.

Here, the agents were justifiably concerned that Marquez and Chernykh may pose a threat to the occupants and visitors of the USCIS facility, the report by the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general states. Less than 24 hours before, individuals associated with the couple had committed an atrocity on an unthinkable scale against unarmed innocents; at the time of HSI's visit to USCIS, Marquez and Chernykhs intentions were unknown.

Homeland Security Investigations is part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which, like U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is part of DHS.

The audit confirmed a March report by FoxNews.com and provided new details of the turf battle a day after Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik murdered 14 people in the Southern California community.

The Inspector General's Office conducted 23 interviews and a review of email, text, and phone records from the agencies, confirmed the stunning breakdown in cooperation that first caught the attention of Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., in March.

"Today's report confirms whistleblower complaints I received about a dangerous lack of coordination between ICE and the USCIS, Johnson said Thursday. The refusal to allow armed ICE agents into a USCIS facility to detain a suspected terrorist could have had tragic consequences.

When five agents went to the USCIS building dressed in tactical gear to detain the couple, the report said they were confined to the lobby for up to 20 minutes, and then waited another 10 minutes to meet with the USCIS field office director. The agents told the field director they were looking for Marquez, because he was connected to the shootings and there was concern that he could be in the building, but the field office director told agents they could not arrest, detain, or interview anyone in the building based on USCIS policy.

The agents also were denied a file on Marquezs wife as well as known addresses or any other information that could lead to their apprehension, according to the report. The HSI agents waited outside for an hour before being given clearance from Washington DC to return to the USCIS offices where they were allowed to hand copy the file.

The contract security personnel at the USCIS facility should have immediately permitted entry to the HSI agents once they identified themselves  the report said - adding USCIS had no authority to restrict their access.

The USCIS Field Directors behavior was not only outrageous and reprehensible, but in violation of federal law and policy that ensure any law enforcement agency the ability to make arrests or conduct interviews in government facilities, said Jessica Vaughan serves as Director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, DC-based research institute. These ICE agents are from the very same agency she works for  they are her homeland security colleagues.

A delay such as the one that occurred here could have disastrous consequences under different circumstances, the report added.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Neema Hakim said since this clash in December, changes have been made.

ICE and USCIS have since improved their protocols for facility access and information sharing in circumstances with potential national security or public safety implications, in order to avoid any such delays in the future, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Neema Hakim said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

USCIS agents were investigating Marquez for marriage fraud, stemming from his 2014 union with Chernykh, a Russian national married to Farooks brother. Marquez, who is now in jail and awaiting trial this summer, is accused of supplying the guns as well as marriage fraud.

Both Farook and Malik were killed by law enforcement after their morning attack.

Marquez is already in jail and awaiting trial for conspiring with one of the San Bernardino attackers, Syed Rizwan Farook, in terror plots that never materialized.

Federal court documents obtained by FoxNews.com tied to Marquezs case show both he and Farook abruptly halted plans for a dual terror attack in 2012. In that assault, Marquez and Farook allegedly planned to use pipe bombs and two AR-15 rifles to maximize the number of casualties at Riverside City College, a nearby institution they attended, and on state Route 91, a busy freeway with few exits where motorists are frequently stuck in heavy gridlock.

Marquez is also accused of supplying weapons to Farook and Malik before the Dec. 2 attack that also left 22 injured and is accused of making false statements in connection with his weapons purchases used in the San Bernardino shooting.

Marquez has pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against him. If convicted of all counts, Marquez faces up to 50 years in prison.
In todays fast paced, highly connected world, consumers are accustomed to hailing a cab with the tap of a finger, or receiving goods delivered to their door with the press of a button. As a result, we are putting new pressure on older, dare-I-say "legacy" companies to keep up with newer brands that have prioritized and redefined the customer experience from day one.

Related: How Startups and Legacy Companies Can Both Cash In on Market Trends

While you dont have to be the next Amazon, Zappos or Airbnb, you do have to deliver on customer expectations. And in todays world, that requires providing intuitive and frictionless customer experiences.

That may seem simple in theory, but in practice it requires a complete overhaul of company culture. The brands that are on the cutting edge of customer service live and breathe customer service. Theirs is more than a business model, its a full consumer-centric culture.

If you havent already, then, you should adopt that culture. It's time.

Heres what you can learn from those businesses, both new and old, that are redefining company culture in order to provide best-in-breed experiences that keep up with shifting expectations.

Create a culture of 'customer.'

How do you take a 100-plus-year-old company and influence its culture to become customer-centric? The task may seem daunting, but its not unlike the shift in focus to re-engineering for profit in the 1980s, or the zeroing-in on revenues and soaring stock prices in the 2000s. There have been a number of shifts in business dynamics over the years and the transition toward a customer-centric culture is one thats here to stay.

Start by ensuring your employees know their role in customer experience and encouraging them to go above and beyond. Build your culture around customers by empowering employees with the information and tools they need to serve customers -- share metrics, trends and feedback. Put share-of-voice data in charts and back up that data with true stories, then empower your employees to act and react.

One of the largest energy companies in the U.K., E.On, uses data to bring customer experience to life. Every strategic move it makes is backed by a story of how that service impacted a customer. Then that story is supported by data on the number of customers who shared that same experience. This method allows employees to better understand customer experiences and the impact of their work -- inspiring a culture of caring and commitment.

Related: Customer Care Is Your Best Marketing Strategy

Meanwhile, a top bank in Montreal encourages employees to prioritize customer experience through an initiative called 1,000 Acts of Kindness. This project challenges and rewards employees for delighting customers with service that reflect the companys commitment to quality customer experiences. Since instituting 1,000 Acts of Kindness, and several other company-wide customer service initiatives, the banks personal-relationship net promoter score (NPS) is up 43 percent and small-business relationship NPS is up 25 percent.

Let customers decide your future.

In order to meet customer needs, you have to know what makes them tick. The good news is, your customers are more forthcoming with this information than ever before. Introspection about this data allows you to shape your business accordingly, so that you can delight those customers and adjust your strategy as consumer needs and wants change.

Take Amazon, for example. Amazon is widely recognized for its ability to predict what customers might want to put into their virtual shopping carts next. Algorithms and customer analytics drive business, but it doesnt stop there. Amazons CEO, Jeff Bezos, states that, The customer-centric way is at this point a defining element of our culture.

In other words, its a strategy that has shaped important company decisions. For example, Amazon carefully monitors customer sentiment for Kindle -- keeping an eye on products, services and offers by analyzing voice-of-customer data to inform product improvements, packaging updates and even the content used to support customer self-service.

Similarly, GE Healthcare listens to doctors, nurses and patients, to drive its engineering road map for the medical devices it's continually improving. Most notably, this strategy has made it possible for GE Healthcare to improve the accuracy of its MRI machine by dissecting doctors' usage notes.

Adjust methods of communication by audience.

Last, but not least, at the heart of every customer-centric culture is communication. Customers expect constant communication, but they want it through the channel they prefer. Its the 21st century -- snail mail may still suit some of your customers, but it wont work for everyone.

According to a 2015 TSAI study, millennials strongly prefer self-services and social support over direct connection with your business, while baby boomers still prefer direct email and calls, and Gen X members take varying approaches depending on their current situations.

Thats why public utility company Con Edison recently partnered with Opower to better assess residential energy use and improve communications with customers through digital channels. Its a move that allows this company, founded in 1823, to stay on the cutting edge and compete with new companies born in the digital era.

These days, every company has its own unique culture. From ping pong in the break room to trivia nights on Tuesdays, each business environment has its own vibe, and thats a great thing.

Related: Technology Trends That Will Radically Change The Face Of Customer Care

Still, no matter what your own culture looks like on the outside, it should be grounded in care and compassion for your customers. That's a big secret to success.
A Georgia homeowner was attacked Tuesday by a woman dressed in a burka armed with the American flag that was in the homeowners yard, The Smoking Gun reported.

Aisha Ibrahim, 30, allegedly pulled Old Glory out of a mailbox in Lawrenceville, which is outside Atlanta, and in a threatening manner swung the flag at the homeowner, the report said. A fight ensued until a neighbor was reportedly able to hold Ibrahim, whose eyes were only visible, until police arrived.

Authorities told FoxNews.com that the fight appeared to be unprovoked.

The alleged victim was identified as Dami Arno, who reportedly called for hate-crime charges against Ibrahim.

A Muslim women tore my flag pole down this morning and attacked me and my daughter with it. After the fight she was charged with simple battery 2 counts, nothing else. No hate crime, no destruction of property, no criminal trespassing -- nothing, Arno reportedly posted on Facebook.

Capt. Tim Wallis, from the Lawerenceville Police Department, said he is going to look into a hate crime charge.

The report did not indicate the alleged attackers religion and said she was arrested on a pair of battery counts. A third misdemeanor charge was later filed, the report said.
A canine unit has found nothing suspicious during a sweep of a London-to-Newark, New Jersey, flight after authorities received an unspecified threat.

The British Airways flight carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members arrived Thursday afternoon atNewark Liberty International Airport.

A Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police spokesman says the crew is off the plane and passengers' bags are being re-screened.

The plane was moved to a remote area of the airport after it landed.

British Airways PLC is based in Hounslow, England, and is owned by Consolidated Airlines Group S.A. It says the safety of its passengers and crew is its top priority.
BIGGBY Coffee To Reserve Michigan Expansion For Current Owner/Operators

BIGGBY COFFEE Plans to Craft Future Development Strategies with Owner/Operators

June 02, 2016 // Franchising.com // East Lansing, MI  After a very successful 20th year, BIGGBY COFFEE has made the proactive decision to reserve expansion in the state of Michigan for current owner/operators and suspend expansion to new owner/operators in the state of Michigan until further notice. This decision is a reflection of the companys love and support for their current owner/operators and will result in a future plan crafted as a collective body. Chapter one of this story is complete and its time to move on to chapter two, says co-President/CEO Michael McFall.

The BIGGBY COFFEE Franchise Sales Team, led by Director Tony DiPietro, will be working with existing owner/operators to come up with a strategy moving forward in terms of market expansion. This plan will not only consider the established markets in the state of Michigan, but will also include strategies for growth in other states like Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. BIGGBY held in-market roundtable events where the Franchise Sales Team and existing owner/operators discussed the current expansion process and opportunities in that model for enhancements. Michael McFall had wonderful things to say about the process. This open dialogue has led to brand advancement and continued strong communication within BIGGBY Nation. This is something we work hard for and it was a key piece of this initiative for us. These relationships are very important and transparency has been a top priority.

Michael has seen the amazing things that a small business owner can do and he and co-President/CEO Bob Fish both have complete confidence in the Franchise Sales Team as they explore this new opportunity. We want to ensure continued strength in the BIGGBY system by working with our owner/operators to move forward on this. Were a company that encourages collaboration, which is why we need our owner/operators to be part of this process. We are better, smarter, and stronger together, said Michael.

BIGGBY currently has 182 stores open in Michigan, which represents roughly 48% of coffee shops in the state. This percentage was derived from the number of BIGGBY locations compared to the number of other street side coffee shops; a standard determined by the BIGGBY COFFEE Real Estate Team. BIGGBY also has 44 locations under contract scheduled to open in 5 states within the next 12-24 months. Interest in the brand has grown and with that comes new faces and exciting new business ventures. BIGGBY Nation is overflowing with enthusiastic entrepreneurs and as 2016 progresses, you can be sure that your town, or a town near you, will be sipping the worlds best coffee very soonif youre not already!

The decision to refine a plan for expansion in the state of Michigan is a demonstration of BIGGBY COFFEEs loyalty and commitment to their existing owner/operators. At the present time, the average initial investment to open a BIGGBY cafe is $220,000. Current owner/operators have already made the investment in the brand and have dedicated their future to the growth of their business and the company overall. In other words, theyre wearing BIGGBY underwear. Ideally, a BIGGBY COFFEE owner/operator will begin with their first store and between their 13th and 18th month, will start the conversation towards multi-unit ownership. This plan to reserve additional franchise agreements in the state of Michigan for current BIGGBY owner/operators will ensure that when theyre ready to move forward, the BIGGBY brand will grow with dedicated and successful entrepreneurs.

About BIGGBY COFFEE

BIGGBY COFFEE, East Lansing, Mich.-based, was started with a single store on March 15, 1995. One year later, and on the cusp of opening a second location, Michael McFall and Bob Fish, on a handshake and $4,000, decided to franchise the concept. BIGGBY COFFEEs core values of B happy, have fun, make friends, love people, and drink great coffee help coffee-lovers and the coffee-curious alike benefit from a less pretentious and fun approach to the standard gourmet cafe paradigm. Besides connoisseur-worthy drinks with pronounceable names like Teddy Bear and Caramel Marvel, BIGGBY baristas provide a unique experience focused on brightening their customers day. The Big B on the orange background caught on, and today BIGGBY COFFEE has 257 cafes open or under contract across nine states including: Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Florida, and Texas.

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Caitlin Courval at 517-898-3677 or email at ccourval@biggby.com.

SOURCE BIGGBY COFFEE

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Chronic Tacos Welcomes New Southern California Locations

Mexican Grill Celebrates Continued Franchise Expansion in 2016

June 02, 2016 // Franchising.com // ALISO VIEJO, Calif.  Chronic Tacos, the California inspired Mexican grill, is set to open five new locations in California this year. The new locations include Barstow, Palmdale, Tustin, San Marcos and Oceanside.

Our ever-growing momentum comes from our commitment to authenticity and quality as well as the demand and loyalty we see for our food, said Michael Mohammed, CEO and President of Chronic Tacos. Were excited to announce even more locations coming throughout the year and continue expanding the Taco Life with our Southern California communities.

With 24 preexisting California locations, the new restaurants provide even more convenient access across the state. The new opening locations dates and locations include:

Palmdale, CA now open

Tustin, CA to open in June

San Marcos, CA to open in June

Barstow, CA to open in August

Oceanside, CA to open by years end

Chronic Tacos continues to use third generation recipes to create authentic Mexican food, differentiating Chronic Tacos from other chains. Fresh ingredients and high-quality cuisine are staples of the Chronic Tacos menu.

Menu offerings will include burritos, tostada bowls, tortas, taquitos, flautas, salads, tacos and an all-day breakfast menu. Customers can choose from carne asada (steak), pollo asado (chicken), carnitas (slow-cooked pork), al pastor (spicy marinated pork), and fresh pico de gallo and guacamole. Seafood lovers can also order grilled, beer-battered, or baja-style fish and shrimp.

For more information visit eatchronictacos.com. Get involved! Follow Chronic Tacos on Twitter and on Instagram or become a fan on Facebook.

About Chronic Tacos

Chronic Tacos is a California-inspired Mexican grill that celebrates authenticity and the individuality of its customers. The fast-casual franchise is known for its fresh Mexican cuisine that is customized for each guests distinctive taste. Founded in 2002, the Aliso Viejo, California-based company has more than 30 locations operating across North America and is committed to serving only the highest quality with fresh ingredients and all-natural meats. Chronic Tacos offers traditional Mexican items such as tortas, taquitos, flautas and tacos as well as burritos, tostada bowls and salads, including a breakfast menu all day. Customers can choose from vegetarian and gluten-free options, as well as carne asada (steak), pollo asado (chicken), carnitas (slow-cooked pork) and al pastor (spicy marinated pork). Seafood lovers can also order grilled, beer-battered or baja-style fish and shrimp. Each restaurant incorporates original art designs inspired by traditional Day of The Dead art, creating a unique experience at each location. For more information or to find the nearest Chronic Tacos, visit www.eatchronictacos.com.

SOURCE Chronic Tacos

Media Contact:

Matt Kovacs

Blaze Public Relations

(310) 395-5050

mkovacs@blazepr.com

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Who needs aerosolized ribavirin?

Infections that pose little or no risk to people with healthy immune systems can be devastating for those who have undergone chemotherapy or radiation in advance of a hematopoietic stem cell transplant or are taking immunosuppressive drugs afterward. Aerosolized ribavirin is used to treat pneumonia caused by respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a highly contagious seasonal virus that studies show affects from 2 percent to 17 percent of transplant patients during the winter and spring seasons.

Its a relatively infrequent but very serious infection that can be fatal, said Boeckh. RSV can also cause outbreaks in cancer centers.

Other patients at high risk of RSV disease include lung transplant recipients and people with blood cancers.

A lower-respiratory-tract RSV infection can be fatal 35 percent of the time for immune-compromised patients. Those with an RSV infection in their upper nose and sinuses are often treated with a week-long course of aerosolized ribavirin to prevent the infection from moving lower. Those with lower-tract infections require a 10-day treatment.

Aerosolized ribavirin is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in infants and children. Retrospective reviews and data analyses show that its also effective for adult stem transplant patients, as summarized in a recent paper on treating respiratory viral infections after transplantation published in the journal Blood. Whats more, there are presently no other drugs for treating severe RSV-caused pneumonia, said Boeckh, the senior author of the Blood paper, although new drugs are being tested in clinical trials.

Although ribavirin is available in oral form, giving it directly through respiratory tissues as aerosol has been the preferred way to administer the drug, and most study data are based on this form of administration. But due to the dramatic price increase, the commentarys authors wrote, Many cancer centers are now limiting the use of aerosolized ribavirin to all but the highest-risk patients or not using the drug at all. Some cancer centers are substituting oral ribavirin, despite only limited data on its effectiveness.

We strongly believe that the substitution of standard of care therapy solely in response to significant price escalations is highly detrimental to the patients we serve every day and may lead to worse outcomes, including death or serious morbidities in cancer patients and children across the country, the letters authors wrote.

Boeckh said Seattle Cancer Care Alliance institutions will continue to use the aerosolized drug when needed.

There are no good alternatives, he said. We feel that it is an important drug for our patients that we want to use when we feel that its needed.

Because insurance covers a set amount for treatment, the added costs will have to be absorbed by hospitals or practice plans, he said.

For children, we have no other options

RSV is a common cause of bronchiolitis, and Seattle Childrens sees about 20 to 60 children a week with the virus during the viral respiratory season, said Dr. Janet A. Englund, a physician-researcher and specialist in infectious diseases at Seattle Childrens Pediatric Infectious Disease Program and the University of Washington. Most dont need treatment. Children at greatest risk of severe RSV infection include premature infants, children younger than 2 who were born with heart or lung disease, and babies and young children who have undergone bone marrow or stem cell transplants or other treatments and whose immune systems are weakened.

Our bone marrow transplant children can have severe consequences, and theyre the ones we really need this for, said Englund, who reviewed and approved the commentary in Transplant Infectious Diseases. These are very vulnerable patients with no other alternatives. Without this, we dont know what to do. We have no other drugs. We have no experimental drugs. Although were doing research on other drugs, the FDA wont even let us try these drugs on children. For children, we have no other options, no alternative.

Even before the recent price hike, aerosolized ribavirin was already both expensive and complicated to administer, Boeckh said. Patients must be hospitalized during treatment, adding to the costs. Hospital workers have to undergo specialized training to minimize exposure and wear respirator masks, and the drug is administered using hoods or tents in negative-pressure rooms with specialized ventilation.

Yet the price increase has nothing to do with supporting research to improve the drugs effectiveness or make it easier to administer, he said.

We are desperately in need of better RSV drugs because this is not an easy drug to give, Boeckh said. But until then, we have to have the option to give it when its needed.

Rising concern about the high costs of cancer drugs

The increase in the cost of the anti-RSV treatment came on the heels of a much-publicized price increase by another drug company, Turing Pharmaceuticals. In September, it significantly increased the price of a drug used to treat a parasitic condition called toxoplasmosis to $750 a tablet from $13.50. Toxoplasmosis also affects people with compromised immune systems, including those with HIV and cancer.

Martin Shkreli, Turings chief executive officer, was indicted in December in the Federal District Court in Brooklyn on unrelated charges of securities fraud. Shkreli, who resigned from Turing, was subpoenaed to testify before the Full House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in February. He invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not answer questions. The hearing focused on drug price increases by Turing and Valeant.

In April, the Senate Special Committee on Aging called Valeant chief executive J. Michael Pearson to answer questions on drug pricing. Pearson left the company in May.

The price increases come in the context of rising concern over the high costs of new cancer drugs. More than 100 leading cancer experts from top treatment centers around the U.S. signed an editorial decrying the high costs of cancer drugs that was published last summer in the journal Mayo Clinical Proceedings. Six physician-scientists from Fred Hutch signed the editorial, including Dr. Gary Lyman, an internationally recognized oncologist and co-director of the Hutchinson Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research, or HICOR.

Hopefully there will be strong and sustained pushback not only by patients and providers but by our political leadership, Lyman said.

Join the conversation on our Facebook page.
Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water Launches #SweatClean Summer Series and Contest: Win A Trip to Hawai'i

Top Athletes and Influencers Share Exclusive Content on Waiakea's Social Channels

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Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water is launching the first official #SweatClean Summer Series, a month-long social media takeover, where top athletes, performers, and influencers share their inspirational stories on how they #SweatClean, pursuing big goals with purpose and authenticity. From June 1 through June 30, fans and followers can tune into the alkaline water brand's Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds for exclusive interviews with top athletes and brand ambassadors, as well as a chance to win a trip for two to Hawai'i.

Founded on a progressive triple bottom line platform, Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water is known for its ongoing eco, ethical, and health initiatives, from donating clean water to millions of people in disadvantaged communities to becoming the first premium water brand of its kind to be certified CarbonNeutral. Now, with the #SweatClean Summer Series, Waiakea plans to highlight and generate greater enthusiasm for living life with purpose, authenticity, and hard work.

"'Sweat' is a byproduct of hard work, and 'clean' implies we do that work honestly, authentically, and sustainably. That's where #SweatClean comes from," said Ryan Emmons, founder and CEO for Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water. "Throughout our #SweatClean Summer Series, followers will have the rare chance to both interact with and learn from our talented brand ambassadors, who have proven just how far you can go when you relentlessly pursue your goals and dreams with integrity and hard work."

Waiakea's impressive roster of brand ambassadors is made up of Olympic athletes, surfers, yogis, musicians, and more. Followers of the #SweatClean Summer Series can expect exclusive content from top ranking American surfer Lakey Peterson, professional beach volleyball players Maddison and Riley McKibbin, and lauded surfer/skater Shane Borland, to name a few.

"We are really hoping to start a conversation by inspiring people to not shy away from hard work, but instead to embrace it," said Emmons. "Social media can instill an impression that dreams can be served up on a golden platter, but our athletes and ambassadors are here to show that in reality it takes hard work, sweat, consistent focus, and authenticity to really make it happen, and it's totally possible."

In addition, Waiakea fans will also have the opportunity to enter a Snapchat scavenger hunt for a shot at a paid luxury stay at Hawaii's Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel and airfare for two to the Big Island. For details, please visit: http://get.waiakeasprings.com/hawaii-summer-trip/.

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About Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water

Originating as both snowmelt and rain on the Big Island's Mauna Loa volcano, Waia?kea Hawaiian Volcanic Water is filtered through thousands of feet of porous volcanic rock, producing one of the most delicious alkaline and electrolyte-rich natural waters in the world. For every liter bought, Waia?kea donates 650 liters of clean water to disadvantaged communities in rural Africa through Pump Aid. In accordance with the Hawaiian practice and notion of "ma?lama i ka 'a?ina", Waia?kea is proud to be certified CarbonNeutral for its variety of eco-initiatives.

To find out more about Waiakea and its initiatives, please visit: http://waiakeasprings.com.

For more information about us, please visit http://waiakeasprings.com/

Contact Info:

Name: Matt Rindone

Email: matt@tylerbarnettpr.com

Organization: Waiakea Hawaiian Volcanic Water

Address: 8484 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 242

Phone: 323.937.1951

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/waiakea-hawaiian-volcanic-water-launches-sweatclean-summer-series-and-contest-win-a-trip-to-hawaii/117660

Release ID: 117660

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Georgia Trial Attorneys Co-Founders Secure Prestigious Pair of Recent Awards

Mark Kirchen recognized as 2016 Rising Star by Super Lawyers, while James Grant named a National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 standout, Georgia Trial Attorneys reports

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With the practice having recently marked its first anniversary, the co-founders of Georgia Trial Attorneys at Kirchen and Grant have received prestigious awards. Co-founder Mark Kirchen has been recognized as a Rising Star for 2016 by Super Lawyers, while co-founder James Grant has been named to the Top 40 Under 40 list compiled by the National Trial Lawyers. Having founded Georgia Trial Attorneys with a mission of providing top-quality representation, Mr. Kirchen and Mr. Grant have in a single year laid down a rock-solid foundation and helped many clients with their legal needs, as their peers recognize and the recent awards show.

"Mark and I believe that every resident of Georgia deserves diligent, devoted and personalized legal representation, and that securing this important form of assistance should be afforded to all," Mr. Grant said, "That's why we founded Georgia Trial Attorneys, and we're happy to report that the first year has been even more successful than we had hoped. I'd like to congratulate Mark on his nomination as a Super Lawyers Rising Star and to thank the National Trial Lawyers for being inducted into the Top 40 Under 40. These awards mean a lot to us and make us even more determined to provide top-notch, effective and personalized representation to our clients."

With a unique, patented process that combines peer-volunteered nominations with third-party research and the assessments delivered by an expert panel of veteran attorneys, Super Lawyers every year issues a number of awards that highlight the cream of the nation's legal crop. With only 2.5% of all nominated lawyers eventually being designated as Rising Stars by the group, Georgia Trial Attorneys co-founder Mark Kirchen's reception of the award signifies the utmost in peer-evaluated legal excellence and dedication to his clients.

James Grant's inclusion in this year's National Trial Lawyers: Top 40 Under 40 class is a similarly impressive accomplishment. Open only to the nation's top civil plaintiff and criminal defense attorneys under 40 years of age, the group highlights those lawyers who are possessed of the greatest in "leadership, reputation, influence, stature and public profile," as judged through a peer-based nomination process; metrics provided by third parties; and other reliable means of assessing the qualities that most contribute to legal excellence and results.

Having already done outstanding work individually at some of the region's top law firms and governmental entities, Mr. Kirchen and Mr. Grant founded Georgia Trial Attorneys together a little over a year ago. Working since then to provide the firm's clients with the most capable and committed representation for personal injury, family law, criminal defense, and traffic violation matters, they have built up a strong and growing reputation for the firm as one of the most effective in the state. The recent awards reflect the impressive capabilities and dedication of the Georgia Trial Attorneys at Kirchen and Grant co-founders, along with the successes and impressive future prospects of the firm.

About Georgia Trial Attorneys at Kirchen and Grant, LLC.:

Founded with a firm commitment to treating every client with the utmost in respect and compassion, Georgia Trial Attorneys at Kirchen and Grant provides highly effective legal representation for personal injury, family law, criminal defense, and traffic violation matters.

For more information about us, please visit http://gtakg.com

Contact Info:

Name: James Grant

Organization: Georgia Trail Attorneys at Kirchen and Grant

Phone: (678) 667-8965

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/georgia-trial-attorneys-co-founders-secure-prestigious-pair-of-recent-awards/117737

Release ID: 117737

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Standard Lifes head of adviser and wealth manager propositions has ruled out the prospect of buying more platforms in the near future as the provider looks to bed down the deal with Axa.

Standard Life announced its plan to snap up Axas Elevate platform earlier this month, and also recently bought three independent advice firms for its restricted financial planning arm 1825.

Speaking to FTAdviser, David Tiller said Standard Life will focus on completing the Elevate deal and ensuring continuity for advisers before looking at other potential acquisitions.

He suggested it is important to put an offer out quickly when choosing another business to takeover, adding: If you wait until you are at the end of the queue then you have to take what is left.

He also said Standard Life has absolutely no plans to buy Cofunds, adding we have just bought the platform we want.

At the start of this year, there were rumours Legal & General-owned platform Cofunds is set to end up in the hands of the Dutch-owned Aegon UK, which is headquartered in Edinburgh.

Mr Tiller said: Its about the fit in terms of business model and sectors of the market; Cofunds operates in quite a different space from us.

He said all platforms will constantly be thinking about which of their rivals they want to buy or be sold to by looking at which is the best match for their business.

The technology challenges are massive across platforms, so there is a distinct first-mover advantage in terms of consolidation because you get to choose the platform which is most aligned to your business and is the easiest one to deal with. There are platforms out there which are very fragile and the potential for consumer detriment is high. David Tiller

This trend of consolidation in the platform market has given Mr Tiller grounds to believe there will only be five adviser platforms by 2021.

He said, however, there is still a long way to go in the consolidation process, which means it is difficult to see which platforms will be left standing at this point in time.

Mr Tiller denied platform consolidation will limit adviser choice, adding the market cannot support the 30 platforms which are currently active.

There are platforms out there which are very fragile and the potential for consumer detriment if one of them fell over is high, so actually choice for choices sake is misleading.

Mr Tiller said the adviser market is the hardest platform market to play in because advisers are making discretionary judgments about the quality of the platform and the investment options available.

Every adviser has a different central investment process and a different point of view as to what is the right investment universe, which the platform has to be able to accommodate.

Adviser View

Dan Farrow, IFA and director of SBN Wealth Management, said: Standard Lifes strategy in the wealth management space seems a little confusing at the moment.
A national newspaper article with the headline Pension Pot Gamble caught my eye recently, so I thought it worthwhile to revisit the vitally important subject of pension freedoms.

The article highlighted that in Australia, where pension freedoms started 20 years ago, a massive 40 per cent of pensioners are now running out of money before they are 75 years old.

These days, 75 is no age at all, so it is not difficult to imagine the human misery which lies behind that cold statistic. Too many people, who in their 50s had looked forward to a comfortable retirement, are now bereft of their extra income and left to struggle on whatever state pension the government of the day decides it can afford.

On the same day I read the article, I received a call from an experienced IFA facing the dilemma of how to advise a long-standing client wishing to cash in his final salary pension.

His client, in his mid-50s, wished to transfer 200,000 from a final salary scheme and then take the cash out to invest in a failing business. Definitely not, dont be a fool, I hear you cry.

I agree. However, let me add a few more details. The failing business belonged to his wife who recently passed away. He has now become the new owner.

His final salary scheme is an old one, though the fund continues to enjoy uplifts and could be more than 250,000 at 65. There are also other property assets of 750,000 net.

What should he do  risk all or play safe?

If he cashes his pension and the business fails, he loses everything. If it survives, it could become a win-win situation.

These are the challenges advisers face in the world of pension freedoms. Sadly, I believe people are being misled by the government into thinking that cashing their pension is an easy, risk-free, option, without considering the long-term implications.

My question is always, how would you have solved the problem before pension freedoms? This approach can help a client realise how nonsensical it is to cash in their pension. If he cashes his pension and the business fails he loses everything

Encashing a final salary scheme can only be justified in the most extreme situations.

Advisers must clearly spell out to clients all the reasons why the pension should not be cashed and, if they insist, they must acknowledge the advice in their own hand and words.

Ken Davy is chairman of SimplyBiz Group
Providers including Aviva, Scottish Widows and Standard Life have revealed they must calculate the cost of the Financial Conduct Authoritys proposal to cap exit fees at 1 per cent.

Last week (26 May) , the regulator proposed for existing contract-based personal pensions, including workplace personal pensions, exit charges will be capped at 1 per cent of the value of a members pot.

The consultation on capping early exit pension charges also stated firms will not be able to apply any exit charge for personal pension contracts entered into after the new rules come into force.

The majority of providers Financial Adviser spoke to following the announcement of the proposed cap stated the bulk of their pension contracts had exit fees of less than 1 per cent.

But several admitted they do still have a small number of contracts with exit charges of a greater amount meaning they will now have to assess the impact of the cap being set at this level.

An Aviva spokesperson stated while the vast majority of their pensions do not carry any early termination charges the provider had introduced a 5 per cent cap on the small proportion of pension policies that carried charges above that amount.

Avivas spokesman said the provider will now consider the FCAs proposals and respond to the consultation.

David Lascelles, head of propositions at Scottish Widows, said his business has removed exit fees across workplace pensions and is now reviewing the exit charges on individual pensions.

He added only a very small proportion of Scottish Widows personal pension customers pay an exit charge above 1 per cent, so the financial impact will be small.

Mr Lascelles said: These fees are largely associated in the industry with older style products and reflect expenses already paid by a provider in setting up the policy, which would normally be paid back if the saver stayed in the scheme to their retirement date.

But with pension freedoms enabling people to access their money earlier than they had originally expected, we believe these fees place an unnecessary barrier on those wishing to take their money or move to a more modern product either with us or another provider.

A spokesman for Zurich pointed out early exit charges were not a source of profit for the provider.

He said: However, as the FCA acknowledges, the introduction of a cap will carry a financial cost for providers.

Our pension charges are set out in the terms and conditions of customer contracts.

Jamie Jenkins, head of pensions strategy at Standard Life, said they were one of the first to cap exit charges.

He said: Fewer than 7 per cent of Standard Lifes pension customers have exit charges and, for those that do, the average is less than 1 per cent; so it has limited impact.

Exit charges largely relate to small number of historic contracts so we do not anticipate any change in pricing for new pensions.
Muller UK & Ireland has confirmed the controversial closure of its processing plants in East Kilbride and Aberdeen, with milk moving to Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, near to Glasgow, for processing instead.

The 43 dairy farms currently supplying the Tullos plant in Aberdeenshire will bear the brunt of the move.

While all these suppliers are being given the chance to stay with the company, this is conditional on the acceptance of a 1.75p/litre transport charge, which reflects the need for milk to be hauled from Aberdeenshire to North Lanarkshire.

Those farmers currently sending milk to East Kilbride will not be asked to pay the same charge, as the site is only seven miles from Bellshill.

See also: Muller farmers could lose 1.75p/litre in Scottish dairy closures

Producers who want to avoid the charge will see their contracts terminated after 12 months notice.

Muller has pointed out that the Tullos plant, which is likely to be shut as soon as mid-June, is currently operating at less than 40% of capacity. The closure of the facilities will also lead to the loss of 255 jobs.

Disappointing

NFU Scotland said the move was deeply disappointing, adding that it had called on Muller to withdraw the haulage cost plan but had not been successful.

Tesco has committed to picking up the transport charge on behalf of those suppliers who are members of the Tesco Sustainable Dairy Group, understood to be in the region of 16 farmers, but the rest of the suppliers will feel the full effects of the new policy.

Jean McLean, NFU Scotlands milk committee representative for the North East, said the announcement could affect the viability of the dairy industry in the north-east of Scotland.

Many businesses are not in a good place and this will leave many considering if they have a future in dairying.

Graeme Kilpatrick, NFU Scotlands milk committee chairman, added: We are still awaiting answers to several questions we have posed to Muller in recent weeks. NFU Scotland has asked who will foot the bill if the need arises for the milk to go elsewhere other than Bellshill, and if the transport charges will be introduced to other areas of Scotland.

The transport costs should have been discussed with all those supplying Muller from across the UK as there is the possibility that these charges could be implemented more widely.

Market changes

A spokesman for Muller said the closure of the two smaller plants reflected changes in the marketplace, where scale was required to secure efficiencies and to maximise market opportunities.

Unfortunately, the market has changed. Most of the milk processed is now going into regional distribution centres and they are all based close to Bellshill on the M8 corridor, he added.

The spokesman said that when other companies had closed plants they had often served notice on their suppliers. Muller had chosen not to do that and had given the affected farmers the option to keep supplying it on an evergreen basis.

He added: We accept that it is a blow. However, even with the 1.75p/litre transport charge, the cash in hand that farmers will receive is still higher than many other farmers receive in the UK.
As modern tractors become techier and more expensive, Massey Ferguson bucks the trend by investing 245m to make a simple, cheap alternative to its 75-95hp range. Farmers Weekly took a quick drive.

Massey Ferguson is calling the 4700 series a global range of tractors and the same model will be sold around the world. Production is currently in Turkey, China and its Beauvais 2 factory in France.

This simple tractor comes with the companys new 3.3 litre, 3-cylinder engine attached to a 1212 gearbox, with a 17:1 super creep available. Air-con, electric shuttle, air-seat and even a cab are an option. It comes across as a tractor from the early 1990s but with a selection of modern day comforts.

See also: Massey Ferguson launch 75-95hp MF4700 tractors

The 4700 has a well-built feel to it, and although it isnt the most comfortable tractor at 40kph, we expect to see quite a few of these roaming the British countryside.

Its perfect for low-cost horsepower where a vast choice of gears isnt essential and is ideally suited to go on a post-driver, on a picking trailer or for someone that wants a bit more than a scraper tractor.

However, this isnt a tractor to be spending long hours in and the lack of gear choices might limit its capability for heavier work. Although it would be interesting to see if it could, as the engine does feel pokey.

There is a place on most farms for a tractor like this, one that anyone could jump on and use. Visibility is reasonable and there are plenty of storage places.

Currently Agco produces 9% of the worlds 75-130hp tractors and with this one it hopes to boost that to 17%. The first of these should arrive on British soil in June with other updates to its 5700 series in November, and a new 6700 series of tractors arriving in the first quarter of 2017.

This would give MF more than five ranges of tractors in this key horsepower range.

Massey Ferguson says that the 4700 range will be competitively priced. Given the straitened times at the moment (and assuming that the price-tag is cheap) this new range should be a hit.
Farm minister George Eustice has insisted Defra will be ready if the country votes to leave in the upcoming EU Referendum.

Earlier this year, Defra secretary Liz Truss openly admitted her department had No Plan B to support farming in the event of a Brexit.

Ms Truss said officials within her department were not working on a contingency plan that would form the basis of UK agricultural policy, if the UK votes leave in the referendum on 23 June.

See also: Truss and Eustice poles apart over Brexit

David Cameron has since confirmed that as long as he is prime minister, his government would make sure an agricultural support system would be properly maintained.

Mr Eustice, Conservative MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, who is backing the Vote Leave campaign, admitted it had been extremely difficult to take a different view to the prime minister. But he insisted that leaving the EU was the right decision for the country.

Big decisions always make people apprehensive but we must not duck big decisions, he told reporters at the Royal Bath and West Show on Wednesday (1 June).

PM would lead change

Speaking at a Brexit debate, Mr Eustice said: Although the government says its got no Plan B, it does have people like me who have done a lot of work.

I can assure you Defra will be ready if we vote to leave. And if we do vote for change the prime minister will lead the reconciliation to that new reality  the entire machine of government will be committed to withdrawal from the EU in the best possible way.

The EU currently contributes about 40% of its budget to agriculture and Mr Cameron has previously warned that he could not guarantee that future Brexit-led UK governments would back agriculture to the same extent.

Critics fear that the Treasury would divert any funds gained from leaving the EU from agriculture to more pressing priorities, such as the NHS, education and housing.

Neil Parish, Conservative MP for Tiverton and Honiton, warned rural voters that the British government was not as supportive of agriculture as other nations in the EU.

Treasury allocates funding

In the case of a Brexit, he said the Treasury would make decisions on farm payments, not Defra ministers.

While we may have problems sometimes with the EU we also have an area where we can trade freely. You dont walk away from half your trade, added Mr Parish, who is also chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Select Committee.

Rebecca Pow, Conservative MP for Taunton Deane, said the common agricultural policy needed reforming to work better for the British countryside.

There is no all wrong or all right with leave or stay, she said. We need to stand up for ourselves more, which we havent been doing, but on balance I believe were better off in.

Farmers Weekly has asked Defra to respond to Mr Eustices comments.
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There are many indie game developers out there trying to bring awareness to their games! How does an indie game studio manage to advertise with limited to no budget? Its very difficult to compete with AAA game companies who have the resources to advertise their games on various media, but you can still compete. The cheapest technique to market your game is to use social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and reddit. These sources require continuous activity and communication with followers, which is time consuming, but free. It is also crucial for you to have a website for your game, with a press link.

In order to be successful, you should be very active and continuously post your progress on social media sites.

Twitter can be your number one advertising tool. In order to thrive on Twitter you must use the proper Hashtags. You can find trending and popular ones at hashtagify.com. Some important ones to use on a weekly basis are:

#ScreenshotSaturday

#indiedev

#gamedev

#ThrowbackThursday

#indiegame

The game engine you are using for example #unity3d, or #cocos2d.

These are just a few of the many that can be useful. If you have the budget and want to increase your marketing opportunities with twitter you can also advertise with twitter ads. Twitter has a number of campaign objectives to choose from:

Tweet engagement (reach more people and drive conversation)

Website clicks or conversions (send people to your site to purchase, sign up, etc.)

App install or app re-engagements (get people to reinstall or re-engage with your mobile apps)

Video views (get people to watch your videos using Twitters native video player)

Followers (build your community on Twitter)

Leads on Twitter (collect emails from people who express interest in your offer)

Its important to keep in contact with your followers by turning on your notifications, replying to their DMs, downloading their games, and subscribing on their other social media platforms, so you can support them as they will do the same for you.

Facebook is another good resource for marketing and offers paid advertising similar to Twitter. Facebook is good to update family and friends on your game, but Twitter helps you capture a broader audience.

Tumblr is a blog site; post on topics such as: introducing your dev team, your game, art work, game mechanics, particle effects, soundtracks, sound effects, interesting data structures or algorithms used in your game, and challenges you encounter during your development.

Reddit is very useful to get feedback on your game, website, art style, soundtracks, and daily discussions in the subreddit r/gamedev. You can find weekly threads at the very bottom right of the r/gamedev page. These threads consist of:

Feedback Friday

Screenshot Saturday

Soundtrack Sunday

Marketing Monday

Daily Discussions

Keep in mind that you need to be active on the site by providing feedback to other posts, and being an active participant on reddit.

Website

A good web site for your game goes a long way. I would suggest looking at popular games in the same genre to seek out inspiration for your site. There are many free templates out there that you can use; Bootstrap offers a variety of free and paid templates. The important thing to keep in mind when designing your web site is to use a consistent theme that follows your games theme. The first thing people see when they visit your site is the landing page, so you should invest a good amount of time creating an engaging one.

Presskit is a press page; used by the press to learn everything there is to know about your game, all stored on one page with images, videos, contact info, social media links, etc. It is crucial to remember that this page is not for a popular audience, it is specifically for journalists. There are strong conventions with presskit pages; do your best to follow them as closely as you can. Remember, the point of all this is to allow a journalist to get important details quickly. All the material on this page has to be very polished and fascinating in order to motivate the press to write about your game. To learn more about presskit check out my post on how to set one up.

Next you need to create a press release document, which is used when approaching press about your game. A press release template perfect for indie game developers can be found here.

Once you have your press release document, then you need to get in touch with the press to bring awareness to your game. The best way to get in touch with press is to attend gaming festivals or tradeshows, learn more here. If meeting with the press face to face is a challenge for you, you can also reach out to bloggers directly. Make sure you do some research on who they are and what they like to write about: dont approach an FPS commentator to write about your mobile puzzle game.

A great game doesnt become successful on its own; developers need to invest their time to create an audience prior to releasing their game so it doesnt get buried amongst the thousands of games that are released for iOS, Android, and Steam on a daily basis. A great icon, header, tagline, unique selling point, elevator pitch, presskit, website, and social media are your tools for success, so make them count.
Apple May Adopt New Three-Year Cycle On Full Model Change For Future iPhones

The iPhone 7 debut is fast approaching but right now, many are not to high on it with word that the next Apple flagship will be coming out with minor changes.

The past months have seen less than stellar things to look forward to for the iPhone 7 with most of the enhancements coming from within. That includes a better processor, bigger base storage and a dual-lens camera module which could be present in both the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus versions.

Aside from these, there is the removal of the 3.5 mm jack which was taken out to make the iPhone 7 thinner. In all, there is not much to look forward to for the upcoming device and some are even weighing in on whether folks should wait instead for the iPhone 8 in 2017.

The iPhone 7 will still be an interesting device though at a lower level with the minor changes and likely resulting in not-so-impressive sales figures. Based on Apple production schedules from suppliers, it looks like the Cupertino company is pretty much aware of it and are not expecting big iPhone sales this year.

Looking ahead, the span of time that Apple needs to come out with a redesigned iPhone could follow a new trend. Rather than Apples typical two-year term, Nikkei reports that the Cupertino company seems headed for a longer three-year cycle when it comes to major changes .

If so, he report adds as well that such may affect large-lot suppliers from Asian regions like Japan and Taiwan who have been known to strike it rich as far as iPhone manufacturing is concerned.

The reported shift to a three-year cycle is still unofficial and RBC Capital Market analyst Amit Daryani believes that the move is not yet 100% certain.

"From that perspective I would say they have a lot of the right data points. I'm just not sure if Apple is truly going to a conscious three-year cycle as you go forward though," said Daryani to CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia was among the right people enshrined on the memorial wall on Saturday, Oct. 21.
Dec. 14, 1925  May 31, 2016

Clarence Eugene Gene Mills of Corvallis passed away at his residence at Timberhill Place Assisted Living on Tuesday, May 31, 2016, at the age of 90 years.

A celebration-of-life service will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 3, 2016, at Northwest Hills Community Church, 3300 N.W. Walnut Blvd., Corvallis. Burial with military honors will take place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, June 4, at the IOOF Cemetery in Lebanon, 37295 Cemetery Road. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Huston-Jost Funeral Home in Lebanon.

Gene was born in Pratt, Kansas, on Dec. 14, 1925. He attended Pratt High School. In 1942, at age 17, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy and served until April 1946 as a gunners mate aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Halford.

Gene was married to the love of his life, Joy Annette Johnson, on May 16, 1948. They recently marked their 68th wedding anniversary.

In 1957, Gene moved from Kansas to Corvallis where he and Joy lived for 19 years before moving to an 80-acre farm just off Knox Butte Road east of Albany, where they lived happily for 37 years.

Gene had the unusual distinction of holding journeyman status in four areas: carpenter, machinist, welder and millwright. He spent the last 23 years of his career as a millwright at Wah-Chang/Teledyne in Albany before his retirement in 1990.

Gene confessed his faith in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, was baptized and became a member of First Baptist Church in Corvallis from 1960-1976. He was a member of Lebanon First Baptist Church from 1976 until the present.

Gene is survived by his wife, Joy; sister Virginia Garrison of Wichita, Kansas; daughter Janet (Case) Koolhaas in Atlanta, Georgia; son John (Vicki) Mills of Wilsonville; son Paul Mills of Lynnwood, Washington; son Roger Mills of Union City, Ohio; 10 adult grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and several cousins, nieces and nephews.

Gene is preceded in death by his parents, James Franklin Frank Mills and Edna C. (Strobel) Mills; brother Robert Dean Mills; brother Norman Dee Mills; and sister Norma Lee Mills.

Memorial donations may be made to Benton Hospice Service or Lebanon First Baptist Church in care of Huston-Jost Funeral Home, 86 W. Grant St., Lebanon, OR 97355.

The family of Gene Mills wish to sincerely thank the wonderful staff at Timberhill Place and the staff and volunteers of Benton Hospice Service for their loving care and support.
March 31, 1925  May 28, 2016

Sylvia Wilde Hedeen left this world Sunday morning from her home at Conifer House in Corvallis with her daughters by her side.

She came into the world 91 years ago in a log cabin in Howe, Idaho, delivered by the hands of her own father. Her parents were Anna Marguerite (Nielsen) Wilde and Otto George Wilde. She was the sixth and youngest child in a Danish-American farming family. When she was 4, Sylvia moved with her family to Junction City where she spent the remainder of her childhood and graduated from Junction City High School.

Sylvia attended Willamette University in Salem where she earned a bachelors degree in English. She taught at the Oregon School for the Blind in Salem and there she met the love of her life, Paul Hedeen. Sylvia and Paul were married in 1950 and remained in Salem where they raised their four children. Sylvia substitute taught in Salem elementary schools while her children were young and then worked for Childrens Services in the area of foster care.

Sylvia and Paul retired in 1984 and in 1990 fulfilled a long-held dream when they moved to a home with an ocean view in Waldport. In 2004, they returned to the Willamette Valley, moving to The Corvallis Caring Place. Sylvia moved to her last home, Conifer House, in February of this year.

Sylvia loved being near the ocean and walking along the beach. She loved nature photography, travel and exploring the natural world. She and Paul took their children on camping adventures to most of the National Parks in the western United States and Canada. They continued their adventures after their children were grown, especially in their early retirement years. Their biggest adventures in those years were a car camping trip to Alaska and a Rick Steves tour in Europe. Sylvia loved animals, both wild and domestic, and in her last years became especially concerned with the preservation of wolf populations.

Sylvia was a devoted mother and grandmother and was delighted by the birth of her first great-grandchild in April of this year. She was a sweet, kind, brave, bold, inventive, feisty, strong-willed, hard-working woman with a good sense of humor. Her sweet, sweet smile that no camera could capture will be greatly missed.

Sylvia leaves behind her daughters Paulette Simmons and Sylvana Reeve; son Arden Hedeen; granddaughters Breanne Sherwood, Sarah Simmons, Emily Simmons and Mariah McDonald; great-granddaughter JeanMolly Sherwood; sons-in-law Randy Reeve, Jamie Simmons and Michael McDonald; grandson-in-law Aaron Sherwood; and many nieces and nephews and friends.

Gone before Sylvia were her mother, Anna Wilde; father Otto Wilde; brothers Harold Wilde, Verdon Wilde, Lloyd Wilde and Arden Wilde; youngest daughter Bernice McDonald; husband Paul Hedeen; and sister Laura Finck.

A celebration of life will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, July 17, at Pringle Community Hall, 606 Church St. S.E., Salem. You may contact Sylvias daughters at sylvias2daughters@yahoo.com.

Donations in Sylvias honor may be made to the World Wildlife Fund at https://secure.worldwildlife.org/donations/memorial-donation.aspx.
'Feels Like Home Season 2' offers something real and tangible to think about; takes home a pertinent point - if your intentions are good, there is nothing in life that isn't achievable.
AF releases Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan

By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs Command Information, / Published May 31, 2016

WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- The Air Force released a flight plan directing development activity as a result of a yearlong study focused on developing capability options to ensure joint force air superiority in 2030 and beyond.

According to the unclassified version of the Air Superiority 2030 Flight Plan, released May 26, the gap between the U.S. military's air superiority capabilities and potential adversaries' means, as it currently stands, the Air Force's projected force structure in 2030 may not be capable of fighting and winning against those adversary capabilities.

In order to counter emerging threats, air superiority must be viewed as a condition the Air Force sets to enable joint forces to accomplish mission objectives, and not as an end in and of itself. Providing the capabilities to do this will require multi-domain solutions developed through a more agile acquisition process.

"After 25 years of being the only great power out there, we're returning to a world of great power competition," said Lt. Gen. Mike Holmes, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and requirements. "We need to develop coordinated solutions that bring air, space, cyber, the electronic environment and surface capabilities together to solve our problems."

The flight plan, put together by an enterprise capability collaboration team composed of Air Force operators, acquirers and analysts, says that to achieve air superiority in 2030 and beyond, the Air Force needs to develop a family of capabilities that operate in and across the air, space and cyberspace domains, including both stand-off and stand-in forces.

The speed of capability development and fielding will be crucial to retaining the U.S. advantage. The service can no longer afford to develop weapon systems on acquisition and development timelines using traditional approaches. According to the ECCT, air superiority capability development requires adaptable, affordable and agile processes with increasing collaboration between science and technology, acquisition, requirements and industry professionals.

"There's no silver bullet," said Col. Alexus Grynkewich, the Air Superiority 2030 ECCT lead. "We have to match tech cycles -- some of them are really long. Engines take a long time to make, but information age tech cycles are fast. Software updates are constantly moving. So how do you move from pacing yourself off industrial age mindsets to information age mindsets?"

The answer, Grynkewich said, is parallel development of maturing technologies for sensors, missions systems, lethality and non-kinetic effects, on appropriate time cycles, of an integrated and networked family of capabilities. The next step is to pull technologies out of each of those parallel efforts when they are ready and developing prototypes, experimenting and gaining more knowledge to determine if the developments are what's needed in the field.

"What the flight plan lays out is a series of capability development needs, as well as initiatives to prototype and experiment with a number of concepts," Grynkewich said. "You can start building and then move forward if experimental capabilities are determined to make enough of a difference in highly contested environments of the future."

In order to achieve air superiority in 2030 and beyond, bringing agility to multi-domain acquisition is crucial.

"We've talked about acquisition agility a number of times in terms of, 'How do we save money' and not wasting taxpayer dollars is absolutely important," Grynkewich said. "But there's an operational imperative that says we have to do this faster, and if we don't we're at a risk of failing as an Air Force and a joint force."

Air Superiority 2030 is the first enterprise capability collaboration team to release its flight plan. The ECCTs examine, comprehend and quantify operational needs, including current and emerging capability gaps that span the Air Force enterprise. Future topics will likely cover other core Air Force mission areas.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter May 31, 2016

Media Availability with Secretary Carter at Fort Hauchuca, Arizona

Q: Sir, if you want to make some opening comments?

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, ASHTON CARTER: You heard what I had to say about Huachuca and its importance when I talked to the spectacular people who work here and I won't repeat that. I'm happy to take any questions on that.

The only thing I will note is that I just met with Congresswoman McSally, who is a great colleague, represents this base, but actually is a national leader, good friend, and admired partner in the Congress. So I appreciate you being out here.

Q: Mr. Secretary, I had a question about Iraq (inaudible).

SEC. CARTER: Well, it's a big city and a populated one, and ISIL seems there as elsewhere - heedless to the welfare of the population as the battle unfolds. Indeed, there are reports of moving the population around in order to put people deliberately at risk, which is obviously a deplorable practice.

In general, the Iraqi forces there as in all cases and certainly this is one of the areas where our support to them, and our advising and assisting enables greater precision on the part of the Iraqi forces. The CTS who are in overall command of the operation there, the Counter Terrorism Service of the Iraqi Army is exceptionally proficient in that regard and mindful of civilian - the welfare of the civilian population.

I guess the only other thing I'd say Bob, is that from the Ramadi and Tikrit experience, the Iraqi government now has experienced not only in retaking its own territory but of assisting the population to take back their homes and put their lives back together. And that is also an area where the United States and the rest of the international coalition can be helpful. And it's one of the areas where I particularly ask the coalition partners to make sure they're making contributions.

Q: (Inaudible)

SEC. CARTER: Right sure.

Yes of course Tara, these people were in harm's way as part of the campaign plan execution to defeat ISIL, which we will do and that's what our plan is about. We do it by enabling capable and motivated forces who have to hold in government territory taken back from ISIL. But there is risk, and the most serious thing that I do is take those decision about putting people at risk.

And - So they were carrying out the purpose for which they deployed there and were both injured. We're following their progress here. I don't want to comment on their individual progress here but that - it's a serious business in which people are at risk and there should be no doubt and no question as the President himself made clear yesterday.

Q: Is it clear to the local (Inaudible)?

Q: Secretary, (Inaudible) post-post. For the (Inaudible) people are always wondering, where is the (inaudible) the future of this facility and they also want to (Inaudible) ?

SEC. CARTER: I'm sorry, the last part?

Q: People in the (Inaudible) are certainly wondering what you could say about the long-term future of both (Inaudible).

SEC. CARTER: Oh, well, I think in both cases it's pretty firm and bright. And the reason I say that is that both of them are unique facilities. And, let me just speak to Huachuca here, where I am right now. If you look at Huachuca's specialties of ISR and intelligence and cyber, those are clearly a part of the joint military future.

And this is one of the hearts of our -- not only of the army's effort, but the joint effort. If you look at the environment here, the range opportunities, particularly in electromagnetic spectrum, of the wonderful support of the local community, the proximity to other ranges where we can do training that combines manned and unmanned platforms that combines use of ISR with use of live munitions and other nearby, neighboring ranges that allows the exploration of operational and tactical approaches to full spectrum operations.

Not just counter-insurgency, but full spectrum which is what we need to do. And so there's so much going on here that is so clearly of long-term necessity for the Department of Defense and that's a very installation. That's why I came here in the first place.

Q: (Inaudible).

SEC. CARTER: Same thing. Davis-Monthan, very important. And the A-10 has, I'd say two things about that. First of all, it has proven in just in recent years that even though an old platform, it has made an important contribution to our operations in the Middle East, that's one thing.

And the other things is that the -- there has -- there will come a time when the A-10 is going to phase out of the force. Obviously, the Air Force planned some years ago and the department planned for that to be earlier. That is not the case. Therefore, we've got the benefit of the A-10 in the meantime, but in years to come, we're going to need to find other ways to accomplish that mission.

It is going to be essential that the Air Force continue to support the ground force with close air support. The Air Force has made that commitment, but we'll be watching closely how they accomplish that as the years go by.

Q: (Inaudible)

SEC. CARTER: Well, the Iraqi government and the CTS, as I said earlier, have overall command of the operation. And that -- and so it is they and not any of the other forces that will be in the deciding position in the battle for Fallujah.

And I think everyone in the government of Iraq understands. And certainly the prime minister has conveyed to our government that he understands that the reconstruction of the city and the re-provision of a decent life for its people there, has to be done in a non-sectarian basis.

And that's why it's important the government of Iraq be in overall control of the operation as has been -- as it has been in the case of all six vessel military operations so far. And obviously, we support it in that and we will support it in it's effort in Fallujah as well.

STAFF: Thanks everybody.

SEC. CARTER: All right. Thanks everybody.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/788069/

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter May 31, 2016

Remarks by Secretary Carter at a Troop Event at Fort Huachuca, Arizona

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ASH CARTER: Thank you General Morrison for the visit. I really appreciate it. I wanted to come here for quite a while, see Fort Huachuca, got to do it today. More on that in one moment.

I got a few other people to thank here, and I don't know if they're out there or not. But the mayor, thank you, sir. Thank you for being here.

And I don't know whether Congresswoman McSally made it or not. Hey, Martha. Good to see you. Good to see you.

And let's see, somebody I don't know, but the supervisor, Mr. Potucek, is he here also? No?

Anyway, this is important because this is an isolated base, but it's not isolated in our world, it's not isolated in our country. We count upon the support of the people more generally for what we do. We get that through our public officials. We're grateful for it.

I had the opportunity yesterday, I was at Arlington, of course, it would be Memorial Day, and you saw all the wonderful people out there who were celebrating our service members of the past and there's a connection to those that are serving today because when our folks, including you, and I'm talking about uniformed and civilians, see that level of commitment on the part of the population, that shows how much they value what you do.

And because what you do is the noblest thing a person can do with their life, which is providing security for their fellow citizens because nothing else in life, all the other precious things in life of family and kids and a professional life and being what you want and thinking what you want and doing what you want, none of that is possible if you don't have security, and what we provide is security.

So it's a wonderful thing to wake up in the morning and feel part of. I am immensely proud to be the leader of and part of the finest fighting force the world has ever known, and that's you.

I hear it everywhere I go, not just around the country but around the world. And just to walk around the world a little bit, it's not like we don't have enough to do in today's world and just to give you the tick list here, I'll be heading off to the Asian Pacific tomorrow, a place that's not in the headlines and that's a very good thing because it's a very important place. Probably the single region of the greatest consequence for the American future overall simply because half of humanity and half of the economic activity of the globe is there.

But like anything else, peace isn't a birthright. We play a role out there. There are still animosities and tension out there, and the American role is pivotal there, and that's why the rebalance is so important. You guys are a part of that.

I go to Europe, where for 25 years we didn't have to worry about aggression in Europe by Russia. Now we do. It's unfortunate, but I don't see any way around it and I don't see particularly any end to it, at least in the near term.

So we are where we are. We have to do what we have to do. Y'all are involved in that as well.

Our good friends in North Korea, still out there after all these years. Isn't there a song to that effect? And they did their Musudan launch, didn't work, yesterday. But they're there. We stand tall, strong, alert every single day and we have year after year after year after year.

Iran, aggression, malign activity potential in the Persian Gulf against many of our friends and allies there. Need to stay strong there.

And then, of course, we have to defeat ISIL and we're -- of course we're going to. We need to do that in Iraq and Syria where it began and we need to destroy it there and show that there can't be a state based upon an ideology like that. There isn't going to be a state based on ideology of that sort.

And then everywhere around the world it's spread, including protecting here at the homeland -- here in the homeland. We can do all that, but we got to do all that and at the same time, we have to be thinking about the future also because we're pretty good at not knowing exactly what comes next. We almost never do. And so we got to be ready for what comes after that.

So you have your hands full, and whether it's electronic warfare or intel or cyber, and ISR -- those are central disciplines to the future of the world and therefore both for the Army to have and for us to have as a joint force, an installation like this, where we can kind of do it all, and we do training, we do pre-deployment training, we do all kinds of developmental work and developmentive operational approaches to new problems.

We do gun-integrated training, we have this fantastic ability to do emission and to control emissions in this great bowl here. So it isn't -- and the tremendous training pipeline, both Army and joint and all the intelligence disciplines.

So this is a huge treasure for us at the Department of Defense. It's the fulcrum of everything that is happening to us and with us as we move from a exclusive focus on COIN to a more full spectrum outlook. Today in the department everything that's -- that we're doing that -- we're moving strategically, technologically, you are at the center of it.

And of course, our people are the reason that our military is the finest fighting force the world has ever known. Yeah, we got -- yeah, we're big, yeah, we're -- we've got -- we have a lot of good technology and so forth, but it's the people.

And I'll just close on that note because that's something that makes me really proud as I go around the world is -- in addition to having the finest fighting force the world has ever known, if you haven't noticed, we have all the friends and allies, too. And our antagonists or potential antagonists or competitors don't. And that is, first of all, because of what we stand for and they like that and they -- those are things that human beings find attractive and they like what America stands for.

And secondly it's because they like working with you. They like the way you conduct yourselves. They like the respect and dignity with which you treat other people and I hear that everywhere around the world. They just like working with you. So I am immensely, immensely proud of you and I hope your families are proud of you. If they're not, tell that if they were here I would tell them to be proud of you and they certainly should be. But the country is proud of you and I'm immensely proud of you.

Now I've got some time here to take -- these -- to hear from you. These can be questions or something that you think I ought to know that I might not know. Either one. And I guess we have two stick mics and Peter -- Peter -- where's Peter? He'll be our impresario. Peter, how do you want to do this?

Question, comment, anything. Come on up. Any subject, anything's fair.

Q: So first of all, sir. Good afternoon. I'm from Electronic Proving Ground. My question is on the budget. So -- every year we get to a point where we go, hey, we've got this pot of money and we need to spend it because if we don't spend it, we're not going to get it next year.

So my question to you, sir, is -- is there a way that you can look into some programs or you can have your leadership look into some programs that -- that these units that don't need that get rewarded or these individuals that don't need that money that run programs get rewarded for turning that money back in and getting it reallocated to other areas that we need -- that we need because we have -- the shrinking -- with the shrinking budget, it will be a lot better than just going out and spending stuff that you don't need. So that's my question.

SEC. CARTER: Yeah. It's a great idea. And this is the binge or bust at the end of the fiscal year phenomenon, which is kind of a scourge, and you all know it, and it's kind of human nature that if you got money burning a hole in your pocket, and either it's going to have to go back to the treasury people spend it on whatever they spend it on at the end of the year.

Whereas, down the hall there may be somebody who is dying at the end of the fiscal year and they were unable to complete their task and isn't there some ability to have that kind of flexibility. I -- some of you may know -- was the acquisition executive and -- years ago and that was something that I worked on at that time.

I actually, to be quite honest with you, I don't know what the status is of what we were trying to do then, which was to provide that kind of flexibility -- the only thing I'll say is this. And this isn't a criticism of the Congress and -- because they're wonderful partners in every way and they see -- but you know, what the constitution says that we get to ask for the money and they spend the money and believe me, they don't -- they read -- they must read it every day -- I mean, Congresswoman, maybe they read it and reread it every day. But we're never in any doubt about whose money it is.

And they do things on an annual basis and they don't like us to change our minds. They thing we're screwing around sometimes. So it's a hard thing to get the authority from Congress and end of year is one kind of authority. I'll give you another kind of authority, and this really is a problem for us all. And again, I'm not blaming it on anybody. I think we both need to work together, us and the Congress, to get -- and that is reprogrammings in the middle of year. That's way too hard.

And it's -- that's a bad practice in peacetime, it kills you in wartime because we -- you know -- the reality is I can't be sure of every nickel we're going to need or spend or how we're going to spend it next year. So we ask for a budget, particularly in OCO, which we think is right, and you know, we work really hard to make it right, but the reality is that, you know, in today's world a year is a hell of a long time.

It really -- and so if we're going to be competitive in today's world, we have to be more agile than that. And the only way to do that is to get Congress to agree and accept and have a process, and that means we have to be honest, we have to be straightforward, we can't game the system, and then we just have to ask them, and I'm all the time in front of the committee saying, could you please.

And there's more I could say about the budget -- obviously, that's a heartache -- or a headache for us. We could go into seven -- the seventh straight year of turmoil now in the budget. I hope that doesn't happen, but it's really tough to manage in that circumstance.

But I kind of owe you an answer on that. I mean, it's a long way of saying I don't know exactly where I left that when I was undersecretary and I'm going -- I'll tune back in. Thanks. I'm talking about the end of year part.

Q: Sir, Chief Foreign Officer Five Kevin Boughton from the Warrant Officer Training Branch. I'm with the 111th MI brigade. And my question is more on personnel issues, specifically to Warrant Officers across DOD.

You recently discussed the need to change Goldwater-Nichols, the 1986 act. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but you know, we here in the Army -- and Army MI specifically, through our lessons learned over the last 15 years have found that it's a critical requirement to train our MI Warrant Officers on operating in a joint environment. Also not sure if you're aware of this, but warrant officers aren't part of the joint officer management system, and I was wondering, in your opinion, if you would consider changing as you changed Goldwater-Nichols.

SEC. CARTER: It is, it is. And I'll say something first about Goldwater-Nichols in general and then go to that. Or really we can do it the other way around, because warrant officers -- this is an enormous strength of our military. We had a lot of our rules, including for jointness, which was a huge advance -- let's make no bones about it, Goldwater-Nichols is a great thing. It can use a little burnishing 30 years afterwards, but good thing.

But it was, I think at a time when the country didn't appreciate the role of the warrant officer to the extent we do now, particularly as a result of the last 15 years of war. So it is very much on my mind as something that we need to address. And there are lots of other things as well, about the way joint experience has accumulated, how it's scored -- it's a little too rigid for today's world.

It was a huge advance -- I'm old enough to remember before this, believe it or not. It made your head hurt. You could just see things that weren't being done right because they weren't being done joint. And now it is and that's a great thing. I do -- again, this is an area where we need to work with Congress and get the cooperation from them. They have their own ideas, good ideas as well, we're working towards some common solutions here. Thirty years is a period of time for even some of the successful Goldwater-Nichols to get updated.

And this is exactly one area. And by the way we're looking at a whole lot of talent-management related things, and the reason is that talent is the key to our military. But the other thing is if you look around the country, people are learning how to manage people, in some better ways, in all kinds of ways. Training, and on-the-job training, personal development, treatment of people in the workplace and therefore the quality of their contribution, moving people around and picking people and banding people -- all kinds of stuff. People are just getting better at it, so the day of the old HR department in a company is gone and we've got to keep up ourselves.

Now we can't use everything the commercial world uses because we're not a business. We're in the profession of arms. That doesn't mean we can't learn things from the outside. We need to do that in general.

Q: Seeing that the Middle East continues to erupt on a daily basis with insurgent forces seeking power, given weak or non-existent government structures, the need for cultural advisers, interpreters and translators is extremely important. Senior military leaders, and that includes yourself, and we have a picture of you with zero nine lima U.S. Army interpreter, use these interpreter-translators during high-level military engagements with foreign nationals.

As the military force shrinks, and this native speaking population becomes smaller, what are your thoughts on ensuring this cultural resource is filled with vetted, clearance-holding interpreter and translators?

SEC. CARTER: Very good question. An important one, and two things I'd say about that.

The first is, you say as the force shrinks, and yes we are reducing -- let's just take the Army now, Army end strength. For the very reason that we increased it for the COIN fight, because we have large rotational formations to support. Without that, we think the money is better spent on modernization and readiness than that extra increment of force structure.

That said, the wrong way to reduce force structure is the way you're suggesting might be done in this particular case, which is reducing where it's easy, rather than reducing where it makes sense to reduce, because reducing is hard, right?

And this may be an area, and I -- let me enlarge from interpreter, specifically. Let me talk about the whole question of human terrain, because that's a -- dominating human terrain is one of the Army's future missions. And you can't dominate human terrain unless you know human terrain.

And that means we need people in general -- it's not just language skills, it's other kinds of skills that are, by their nature, regionally aligned and require some real depth and time to acquire, so they can't kind of be bought by the yard.

In order to have access to that and have it in good people, you have to reward it -- not only keep it, but you have to reward it. And that gets to something else that I'm looking at when I'm -- in the personnel system for people of all ranks.

And that is how we value in-career -- I'll call it in-career training. Is it regarded as a diversion? Is having that kind of in-depth knowledge regarded as a side show? Or is it regarded as a central part of force. And I think we have to regard self-improvement in a force whose excellence depends upon people as a career long thing, if we're going to have people in for a long time. We're going to help them get better, better and better, because the world will change.

And if we're going to dominate human terrain, we need people who understand human terrain, and they have to be central to the force and not second, you know, class citizens of the force.

So, that's a managerial challenge in the talent -- in general talent -- talent management, and it's very uppermost in my -- mind, and the mind of all of our senior leaders as well because we know it's a competitive world.

I mean, look at these guys. We don't like them, but they're competitive. And if we're going to stay better than them, we've got to keep -- keep at it in all of these areas. So, you can't relax and just say, well, we don't think this is good enough, and I can remain the way I am and don't have to improve myself.

We all have to improve ourselves in today's world all the time. And it's actually -- it's a nicer way to live, if you're constantly growing, getting better, mastering new things.



Q: Sir, Sgt First Class Reed. I'm enlisted.

Given President Putin's response to the bolstering of NATO forces along the eastern border of the EU, how do you see the U.S.' role playing out in the upcoming years?

SEC. CARTER: Well, I think -- I think we and our NATO allies are committed to stand strong for the long run.

And I don't see any alternative to that right now. That's going to require some real ingenuity on our part, because the defense we mount in Europe can't be the fold the gap 30 years later. Just -- that's not the point anymore.

It's going to have to be a different thing. It has to take hybrid warfare, little green men and other aspects of modern warfare into account if it's to be an effective deterrent. And an effective deterrent means, you try anything, you're going to be sorry.

And so, it's -- you know, how do you make people sorry and sorry fast for trying? We have, on our side, a very strong alliance. It's a unified alliance. But it hasn't done this or had to do this for 25 years.

So, we're, you know, building the force and the operational approaches, and the alliance approaches to do that. I don't have any doubt about the direction we're going.

You know, I'd like to think, but I don't have any expectation -- I mean, that -- this is not, in my judgment, for whatever it's worth, in the interest of the Russian people in the long run. I mean, I don't think confrontation and isolation are good for the -- you know, you can say that all you want, but that doesn't seem to be their leadership's view.

And although they don't get news in any kind of open way, and in the news environment in which they live, that seems to be accepted. But -- so it is what it is, from our point of view, and we're just going to have to stand strong. I don't have any doubt about our ability to do it.

And we're going to put the resources behind it. We've put four times the money this year into the European Reassurance Initiative. And everything you're doing -- let me just take those of you in the Army, at -- for full spectrum is, you know, in part necessitated by the need to have a strong defense in Europe -- which, again, sadly, quarter century, we didn't have to do it. But now we do.

Well, listen. Thank you all once again for what you do. Tremendously proud of you. Really good to have a little time to be with you today. And again, I've wanted to come here for a while, and it's terrific to be able to stop over here on my way actually to Singapore, is where I'm off to next where you all are active out in that area as well.

So, keep up the good work. We're counting on you.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/788073/

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Harpers Ferry Helps Solidify U.S. Relationship with Jordan

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160531-36

Release Date: 5/31/2016 3:30:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Zachary Eshleman, Commander, Amphibious Squadron 1 Public Affairs

GULF OF AQABA (NNS) -- During the month of May, around 3,000 U.S. military personnel who represent United States Central Command and its components, including the crew of dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49), participated in exercise Eager Lion 16 with Jordanian Armed Forces.

Harpers Ferry's role in the bilateral exercise involved utilizing its ability to deploy its payload of Marines and their equipment quickly and efficiently at a moment's notice. This year the ship moved 12 amphibious assault vehicles, six M1A1 Abrams tanks, and approximately 450 personnel to the Jordanian shore from its position in the Gulf of Aqaba over the course of two days.

The involved crew and leadership of the Navy and Marine Corps completed this task without any casualties to either equipment or personnel. With variables such as weather, sea state, language barriers and unfamiliar territory, accomplishing this was no easy task.

"The different equipment all has different needs when it comes to moving them from ship to shore," says Chief Warrant Officer 3 Richard Pollard, combat cargo officer aboard Harpers Ferry. "Communication is also always a challenge with these types of operations, both within the ship and from ship-to-shore, but we overcame all the challenges and had a safe evolution."

The purpose of this exercise was not just the physical training and practice for everyone involved, but also to strengthen relationships between Jordanian and U.S. forces and improve our military-to-military interoperability.

Located in a volatile and important region of the world, Jordan has been an invaluable ally to the United States since the countries signed a major non-NATO ally agreement in 1996. The U.S. and Jordan hold the mutual goals of a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in the Middle East.

The Navy and other branches of the military share Jordan's interest in regional security. Exercises like Eager Lion provide Jordanian and U.S. forces the opportunity to train together and learn from one another.

This relationship between the countries has resulted in improved health indicators, roads and water networks, and improved education for the Jordanian people according to the U.S. Department of State. In return, stability in the region has improved -- including improved relations between Jordan and it's neighbor, Israel, and increased security on its borders with Iraq and Syria.

Harpers Ferry, along with other components of United States Central Command, stands as functional support to Jordan and as a symbol of the United States' commitment to this region.

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UN envoy welcomes Israeli officials' comments on Arab Peace Initiative

31 May 2016  The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process today welcomed statements by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on the Arab Peace Initiative.

"This can help advance negotiations on achieving a two-state solution," said Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

"It follows the call by the President of Egypt to Israelis and Palestinians to continue the historic step toward peace taken by Israel and Egypt 37 years ago," he added.

On Monday, media outlets reported that Mr. Netanyahu, in response to a speech this past week by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, had said that the Arab Peace Initiative includes "positive elements that can help revive constructive negotiations with the Palestinians."

Mr. Mladenov noted that the diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East peace process has repeatedly emphasized the significance and importance of the Arab Peace Initiative "with its vision for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict and as an opportunity for building a regional security framework."

"This opportunity should not be missed and must be followed up with concrete and timely action," he stressed.

The Arab Peace Initiative was adopted at the Arab League's 2002 Summit.

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Nigerian Oil Production Falls as Militant Attacks Take Toll

by Chris Stein May 31, 2016

Nigeria is Africa's oil king no more.

Months of militant attacks on pipelines and oil infrastructure in the southern Niger Delta region have crippled production in Africa's largest producer of crude.

The militant group behind the attacks, the Niger Delta Avengers, vowed in an early communique to reduce Nigeria's economy to "zero." They appear to be getting their wish.

Exports have fallen from about 2.2 million barrels per day to as low as 990,000 barrels per day, analysts say, making Angola Africa's largest producer of oil, at least for now.

The drop in production and the low price of oil globally are major reasons why Nigeria is expected to enter a recession in coming months.

Gail Anderson, research director at energy research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie, says the militants have been careful in their sabotage.

"The attacks themselves have been well-targeted and they've been designed to cause maximum damage, and I think they've been quite successful in that respect," Anderson said.

Attacks hit hard

The NDA emerged earlier this year with a blog that took credit for a number of attacks on pipelines in the delta. It also listed demands, including apologies from politicians, the release of an imprisoned separatist leader and a redistribution of ownership of oil blocks.

After months of sabotage, Anderson estimates production has fallen by about 560,000 barrels per day.

Dolapo Oni, head of energy research at Ecobank, gave a more drastic estimate. Between pipeline repairs and militant attacks, Nigeria is probably producing no more than 990,000 barrels of oil every day, he said.

Crude has long been Nigeria's top export. Though President Muhammadu Buhari wants to wean the country off its dependence on oil, it remains the major source of revenue for the country's recently enacted $30.4 billion budget.

"We're not producing up to the level we need to produce, the government won't generate the amount of revenue it needs to generate from oil," Oni said.

Low oil prices and shortages of fuel and foreign exchange led Nigeria's economy to contract last quarter. It's expected to do the same this quarter, putting the country into a recession.

Repairs on the attacked pipelines will likely take weeks, Oni said, and that might not deter the militants. The militants blew up one pipeline in Bayelsa State twice, and warned its owners against repairing it, he said.

Past problems

Militancy in the Niger Delta is nothing new. The delta was the site of a years-long insurgency that only ended in 2009 when the government started paying off militants and offering them job training as part of an amnesty program.

That effort was criticized for not addressing the underlying issues fueling the militancy, namely the joblessness, poverty and pollution in many communities where people live next to oil production sites.

The government is winding down the amnesty program, but the NDA says it wants the program to continue. Oni said its unknown if any participants in the program are part of the new group, but the sophistication of their attacks suggests a high level of familiarity with oil infrastructure.

"They carry out attacks at specific times of the day, when they know they're able to strike without specific reprisal from the enemy," Oni said.

Buhari is headed to the delta this week to kick off the cleanup of Ogoniland, a region of Rivers State that has been extensively polluted by oil spills over the years.

Rehabilitating Ogoniland is one of the NDA's demands.

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F-15s reinforce defense capability at Arctic Fighter Meet

By Senior Airman Erin Babis, USAFE-AFAFRICA Public Affairs / Published June 01, 2016

BOD MAIN AIR STATION, Norway (AFNS) -- The 48th Fighter Wing trained alongside the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish air forces from May 23-27 during exercise Arctic Fighter Meet 2016.

Seven jets from the 492nd and 493rd Fighter Squadrons were brought to Norway to conduct basic fighter maneuvers with dissimilar aircraft to improve combined air operations.

"Back home we are training against like aircraft, other F-15s," explained Maj. Nick Norgaard, the Arctic Fighter Meet 2016 project officer. "The opportunity that is unique here is that we get to train with F-18s, F-16s and Gripens. That allows us to get a different perspective on how other aircraft maneuver because when we go to war, we don't expect to fight other F-15s."

This training exercise allowed forward-based U.S. Airmen and aircraft from Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, to train with NATO allies and European partners, building on skill sets and improving every nation's ability to seamlessly work together.

"There are always challenges, that's why we do training like this," said Royal Norwegian Air Force Col. Baard Reidar Solheim, the Bod Main Air Station commander. "We are getting better every time. To have different types of jets work together from different nations, there will always be different things to think about and different ways of doing things."

Training regularly with other nations improves the U.S. Air Force's interoperability with fellow air forces and increases all NATO allies' and partner nations' overall ability to respond to crises together.

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Strikes Continue Against ISIL Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, June 1, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Syria and Iraq yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 21 strikes in Syria:

-- Near Raqqah, a strike destroyed two ISIL oil pumpjacks.

-- Near Manbij, 18 strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units, two ISIL headquarters, two ISIL logistics facilities, an ISIL assembly area, an ISIL weapons cache and an ISIL training base; destroyed eight ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL headquarters, two ISIL vehicles, two ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL cave entrance, two ISIL communication towers, an ISIL artillery system, an ISIL ammunition storage facility and six ISIL-used bridges; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Mara, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL mortar system.

Strikes in Iraq

Attack, bomber, fighter, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 13 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Fallujah, four strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units; destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions, three ISIL vehicles, five ISIL heavy machine guns, two ISIL bunkers, three ISIL weapons caches and an ISIL improvised explosive device; suppressed an ISIL tactical unit; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Hit, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL recoilless rifle and two ISIL boats.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, 14 ISIL assembly areas, five ISIL vehicles, an ISIL command-and-control node, an ISIL vehicle bomb facility, an ISIL vehicle bomb, four ISIL weapons caches, four ISIL rocket rails and an ISIL mortar system and suppressed a separate ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Rawah, a strike struck an ISIL vehicle bomb factory.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike struck an ISIL refueling station.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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Afghan Forces Make Slow, Steady Gains, Resolute Support Official Says

By Lisa Ferdinando DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, June 01, 2016  The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are making slow and steady progress, giving them momentum for an expected tough fight ahead, Army Brig. Gen. Charles H. Cleveland said today in Kabul.

"It's still obviously very early in the fighting season [with] a long way to go," Cleveland, Resolute Support's deputy chief of staff for communications, told Pentagon reporters via teleconference.

"Frankly, there will be bad days over the coming months -- there's no doubt about that," he said. But the Afghan forces, he added, are "slowly but surely getting progressively better."

Optimism

Gains have been achieved in Kunduz, where the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces' early spring offensive degraded the Taliban, Cleveland said.

"Although the ANDSF did bend a little bit, they didn't break and they were able to repel the Taliban," he said. "Once they successfully did that, they were able to reopen lines of communication out to the surrounding provinces."

The Afghan forces have performed better this year, in comparison to last year, Cleveland said.

"Based on that, we are cautiously optimistic about the coming months, because overall we do believe that they have some momentum right now," he said.

He reported a "small, slow [and] gradual, but steady level of improvement."

Cleveland cited the Afghan forces' increased expertise in their newer capabilities, including in special operations. In addition, they have switched from a defensive mindset to an offensive one, Cleveland said.

Commander's Assessment

The commander of Resolute Support and U.S. Forces - Afghanistan, Army Gen. John W. Nicholson, who assumed command March 2, is wrapping up his 90-day assessment of the situation in the country, Cleveland said.

The assessment is to include the overall threat situation, current operations, resources, and projections for the future, he said.

Nicholson is expected to privately brief his chain of command in the next days on his findings and any recommendations, Cleveland said. His assessment at this point is expected to remain classified, to allow for frank discussions with military leadership, according to Cleveland.

Some Taliban May Turn to Peace

Cleveland said he does not expect peace talks "anytime in the short term" with the Taliban's new leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who replaced Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansur.

Mansur was killed in a U.S. airstrike May 21 in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.

Some Taliban members, according to Cleveland, might want to abandon the fight, after seeing the precision strike that killed Mansur, and being faced with continued violence and improved capabilities of the Afghan forces.

"Our hope is that some of those lower-level people will begin to engage on the peace piece," Cleveland said.

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South China Sea issues seen likely to flare up at Asia Security Summit

ROC Central News Agency

2016/06/01 22:35:58

Singapore, June 1 (CNA) Defense ministers and professionals from the Asia-Pacific region are expected to engage in heated debates on South China Sea issues at the 2016 Asia Security Summit that will kick off in Singapore June 3, experts said Wednesday.

Cheng Yu-chin, director of the EU-China Economics and Politics Institute in Prague, Czech Republic, said the summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, has changed from a forum for dialogue into an arena for high-stake players in national and regional security.

China has beefed up its armed forces and integrated its power-projecting capabilities in an attempt to lead the establishment of international order in the South China Sea, Cheng said.

Despite the U.S.' military moves in the area, China has raised its voice in asserting its sovereignty claims over the South China Sea, which has signaled a "powder-keg" ahead of the three-day summit in Singapore, Cheng said.

Rather than retreating from China's aggressive posturing, the U.S. has been helping its allies around the South China Sea to make their sovereignty claims through international arbitration and has been boosting military cooperation with China's rival claimants, he said.

Huang Hui-hua, an assistant research fellow at the Taipei-based Taiwan Brain Trust, said Japan has been seeking to enter into strategic partnerships with Southeast Asian countries to counter China's suspected plan to use its military and economic might to obstruct freedom of passage in the disputed area.

Japan has amended its weapons exports and defense and security laws in an effort to boost military cooperation with the Philippines, Vietnam and India, she noted.

In fact, Japan stepped up its intervention in the South China Sea following a series of China-Philippines conflicts over the Scarborough Shoal, in an evident move to work with China's rivals in the South China Sea to thwart China, said Yang Yu-sheng, a military affairs expert.

The three-day summit in Singapore will discuss, among others topics, "managing military competition in Asia" and "managing South China Sea tensions." The participants will also try to identify "common security interests in the cyber-domain."

(By Huang Tzu-chiang and S.C. Chang)

ENDITEM/pc

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-190-16 June 01, 2016

Statement by Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook on U.S. Airstrike in Somalia

On May 27, U.S. forces carried out an airstrike in south-central Somalia targeting Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, a senior military commander for al-Shabaab. Da'ud was one of al-Shabaab's most senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of al-Shabaab's militia attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda. He held several positions of authority within the terrorist organization over the years, including head of the Amniyat, al-Shabaab's Security and Intelligence Branch.

Da'ud has been responsible for the loss of many innocent lives through attacks he has planned and carried out. We are confident that the removal from the terrorist network of this experienced al-Shabaab commander with extensive operational experience will disrupt near-term attack planning, potentially saving many innocent lives.

We are currently assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate. U.S. forces remain committed to supporting the Federal Government of Somalia, the Somali National Army, and our African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) partners in defeating al-Shabaab and establishing a safe and secure environment in Somalia.



http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/788062/

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27 Nations to Participate in World's Largest Maritime Exercise

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160601-12

Release Date: 6/1/2016 12:28:00 PM

From Commander, U.S. Third Fleet Public Affairs

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- Twenty-seven nations, 45 ships, five submarines, more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel will participate in the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise scheduled, June 30 - Aug. 4, in and around the Hawaiian Islands and southern California.

As the world's largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity that helps participants foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world's oceans. RIMPAC 2016 is the 25th exercise in the series that began in 1971.

The theme of RIMPAC 2016 is "Capable, Adaptive, Partners." The participating nations and forces will exercise a wide range of capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. These capabilities range from disaster relief and maritime security operations to sea control and complex warfighting. The relevant, realistic training program includes amphibious operations; gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises; counter-piracy operations; mine clearance operations; and explosive ordnance disposal and diving and salvage operations.

This year's exercise includes forces from Australia, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the People's Republic of China, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.

This is the first time that Brazil, Denmark, Germany, and Italy are participating in RIMPAC. Additional firsts will involve flexing the command and control structure for various at-sea events and incorporating a submarine rescue exercise. This year will see amphibious operations in the Southern California operating area, feature a harpoon missile shoot from a U.S. Navy littoral combat ship and highlight fleet innovation during the Trident Warrior experimentation series.

The Department of the Navy's Great Green Fleet yearlong initiative will also play a major role in RIMPAC. The initiative highlights global operations using energy conservation measures and alternative fuel blends to demonstrate how optimizing energy use increases resiliency and operational readiness. During RIMPAC, almost all participating units will operate using an approved alternate-fuel blend.

Hosted by U.S. Pacific Fleet, RIMPAC 2016 will be led by U.S. Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander of the U.S. 3rd Fleet (C3F), who will serve as the Combined Task Force (CTF) Commander. Royal Canadian Navy Rear Adm. Scott Bishop will serve as deputy commander of the CTF, and Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Rear Adm. Koji Manabe as the vice commander. Other key leaders of the multinational force will include Commodore Malcolm Wise of the Royal Australian Navy, who will command the maritime component; Brig. Gen. Blaise Frawley of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who will command the air component; and the amphibious task force will be led by Royal New Zealand Navy Commodore James Gilmour.

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CARAT 2016 Series Kicks Off in Malaysia, Aiming for Increased Complexity with Allies and Partners

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160601-01

Release Date: 6/1/2016 9:04:00 AM

From Task Force 73 Public Affairs

SANDAKAN, Malaysia (NNS) -- The 22nd annual Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) exercise series between the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and the armed forces of nine partner nations began June 1 with a commemoration ceremony for the Malaysia phase in Sandakan.

As the premier naval engagement in South and Southeast Asia, CARAT provides a regional venue to address shared maritime security priorities, enhance interoperability among participating forces and develop sustained naval partnerships with nations across South and Southeast Asia.

"Our persistent engagement with our allies and partners through CARAT builds trust and creates strong relationships that endure beyond the exercise series," said Rear Adm. Charles Williams, commander, Task Force 73."This translates to increased readiness and interoperability that allows us to work closely with navies across the region and enhance cooperative maritime security."

CARAT Malaysia will take place on the ground in Sandakan and in the waters and airspace of the Sulu Sea. The Malaysian Armed Forces have participated in CARAT since the exercise series began in 1995 and this year's exercise reflects more than two decades of increasingly complex training ashore, at sea and in the air.

The harbor phase for CARAT Malaysia will feature an amphibious landing, as well as explosive ordnance training, medical and dental capabilities seminars and a civil-engineering project. At sea, flight operations, coordinated gunnery drills and surface warfare maneuvers will highlight an exercise that continues the trend of increasing complexity each year.

"We've been working very closely with the Malaysian Armed Forces for 22 years as part of CARAT," said Capt. H.B. Le, commodore Destroyer Squadron 7. "Over that time we've developed a familiarity with each other's capabilities that allows us to push the envelope with the planning and execution of each exercise, something that is important in such a diverse maritime environment."

U.S. ships and units participating in CARAT Malaysia include the Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63), amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48), expeditionary transfer dock USNS Montford Point (T-ESD 1), a P-3C Orion, staff from CTF-73 and CDS-7, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) 5, Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 4, Coastal Riverine Group (CRG) 1 and Marines from 3rd Marine Division.

Following CARAT Malaysia, additional bilateral phases of CARAT will occur from June through November 2016 with Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Timor-Leste.

While the exercise series remains bilateral at its core, elements of CARAT 2016 will include multi-lateral cooperation ranging from observers to training activities.

Phases vary based on exercise locations, mutual training goals and participating assets. Many CARAT phases feature a broad range of naval competencies including surface warfare, undersea warfare, air defense and amphibious warfare, maritime security operations, riverine operations, jungle warfare and explosive ordnance disposal, combat construction, diving and salvage, search and rescue, maritime patrol and reconnaissance aviation, maritime domain awareness, military law, public affairs and military medicine and humanitarian assistance and disaster response.

CARAT 2016 will be the most complex series to date. It's continuing relevance for more than two decades speaks to the high quality of exercise events and the enduring value of regional cooperation among allies and partners in South and Southeast Asia.

As U.S. 7th Fleet's executive agent for theater security cooperation in South and Southeast Asia, Commander, Task Force 73 conducts advanced planning, organizes resources and directly supports the execution of maritime exercises, such as the bilateral CARAT series, the Naval Engagement Activity (NEA) with Vietnam and the multi-lateral Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (SEACAT) with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

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USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) Stops in Guam during Pacific Partnership 2016

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160601-14

Release Date: 6/1/2016 12:30:00 PM

From USNS Mercy Public Affairs

NAVAL BASE GUAM (NNS) -- Hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) arrived in Guam May 31, in support of Pacific Partnership 2016.

While in Guam, personnel aboard the ship will participate in a field training exercise to train mission personnel prior to the first mission stop. Mercy is also taking on supplies, additional crew, both civilian and military, during the stop.

After Guam, Mercy will visit Timor Leste, the Republic of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, where Pacific Partnership personnel will participate in cooperative subject-matter expert and civil-military exchanges, focused on disaster response preparedness, emphasizing the importance of cooperation on regional scale.

Throughout the mission, crewmembers will engage in side-by-side humanitarian and disaster relief drills, medical, and civil-engineering training projects, as well as community health exchanges, medical and disaster preparedness symposia.

Pacific Partnership is in its 11th year and began in response to the December 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of Southeast Asia. Pacific Partnership 2016 is focused on enhancing relations and multi-national interoperability through knowledge exchange and side-by-side training, ensuring partner nations are prepared to respond when disaster strikes.

Pacific Partnership 2016 will increase regional stability, security, open dialogue between leaders and foster new and enduring friendships across the Indo-Asia-Pacific.

"I think it's a great opportunity and I feel honored to be a part of the mission and to augment the staff that's aboard," said Lt. Col. Andrew Rice, deputy chief of staff of Pacific Partnership 2016. "I'm really looking forward to our deployment to the five countries this summer and to working with military personnel from the other services and to work on the same staff with partner nations."

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USS Decatur and USS Momsen to Visit Sasebo, Japan

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160601-09

Release Date: 6/1/2016 12:23:00 PM

From Commander, U.S. Third Fleet Public Affairs

PACIFIC OCEAN (NNS) -- The guided-missile destroyers USS Decatur (DDG 73) and USS Momsen (DDG 92) are scheduled to arrive in Sasebo, Japan for a regularly scheduled port visit, Jun. 2-4.

Decatur and Momsen are deployed as part of a U.S. 3rd Fleet Pacific Surface Action Group (PAC SAG) under Commander, Destroyer Squadron 31 (CDS 31).

"Our relationship with the Japanese, and their maritime force, over the last 70 years has been one of the closest alliances we have maintained," said Capt. Charles Johnson, commander, Destroyer Squadron 31. "We are grateful for any opportunity to learn more about the Japanese culture and people."

The U.S. Navy maintains a presence in the Indo Asia-Pacific region to help preserve peace and security and to further partnerships with friends and allies. Our forward presence contributes to freedom of navigation and lawful use of the sea, as well as furthers operational training and enables an exchange of culture, skills and tactical knowledge.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111) and embarked "Devil Fish" and "Warbirds" detachments of Helicopter Strike Squadron (HSM) 49 are also part of the PAC SAG. Spruance is underway conducting Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) operations. OMSI is a Department of Defense initiative, in conjunction with the U.S. Coast Guard, to provide enforcement against illegal fishing and poaching in economic exclusive zones.

Under the operational control of U.S. 3rd Fleet, the PAC SAG is scheduled to conduct routine patrols, maritime security operations and theater cooperation activities to enhance regional security and stability.

U.S. 3rd Fleet leads naval forces in the Pacific and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy.

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Pacific Submarine Force Bids Aloha to USS City of Corpus Christi

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160601-24

Release Date: 6/1/2016 1:57:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jason Swink, Pacific Submarine Force Public Affairs

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- The Pacific Submarine Force and the Pearl Harbor waterfront said farewell to the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS City of Corpus Christi (SSN 705) in a decommissioning ceremony on Memorial Day, May 30, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

Guest speaker for the ceremony, Rear Adm. (ret.) Winford "Jerry" Ellis, City of Corpus Christi's first commanding officer and whose last assignment was as commander of the Pacific Submarine Force here in Hawaii, shared some of the highlights from the commissioning of City of Corpus Christi at the Electric Boat Division of the General Dynamics Corporation in Groton, Connecticut, on January 8, 1983.

"It was an incredible beginning of the life of this wonderful submarine," said Ellis. "I am now standing on the decks again after an absence of more than 33 years, what a feeling of both happiness and sadness."

Ellis said officers and enlisted of that first crew established a superb reputation that continued throughout its years of service.

"All who have served on this submarine, whether in the audience today, standing on her decks, on watch below, or located some place in the world can be proud of being a part of the success this submarine has always had," said Ellis.

Representing the city of Corpus Christi, Texas, the Veterans Band of Corpus Christi performed a Memorial Day tribute to open the ceremony, and Corpus Christi city councilman Mark Scott expressed his pride and gratitude to the crew.

"Today we pause to recognize a job well done and a journey ending," said Scott.

"To the men who served her, we say, 'thank you.' We know that it has not always been easy, but we know you have done it well, with pride, and have made it a better ship."

City of Corpus Christi's current commanding officer, Cmdr. Travis Petzoldt from Beaver Falls, New York, a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, said that we are here to recognize that the City of Corpus Christi is larger than the sum of all her people, and all her parts; our unity.

"She is the manifestation of our collective will not only to survive, but to thrive as a nation of free people," said Petzoldt. "On behalf of the United States, thank you to all the men and women who have touched this fine ship, who have designed her, built her, took care of her and sailed in her."

During her 33 years of patrolling the world's oceans, City of Corpus Christi has circumnavigated the globe, completed multiple overseas deployments and several first-in-class distinctions such as the first to complete an engineering refueling overhaul in record 24 months.

City of Corpus Christi has been assigned to Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, since her arrival to Apra Harbor, Guam, in October 2002, becoming the first-ever forward deployed fast-attack submarine. In May 2011, City of Corpus Christi came to Pearl Harbor for a final overhaul and to serve out its final years.

City of Corpus Christi is the 18th ship of the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarines and the 2nd ship to bear the name of Corpus Christi, Texas. The submarine is 362-feet long, displaces 6,100 tons, and can be armed with sophisticated Mk-48 advanced capability torpedoes.

Following today's decommissioning ceremony, City of Corpus Christi will transit to the Pacific Northwest where the submarine will be prepared for inactivation and removal from the roles of active U.S. naval warships.

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New York Times editorial on South China Sea misleading, partial

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 18:45, June 01, 2016

NEW YORK, June 1 (Xinhua) -- A recent New York Times editorial that criticized China's rightful territorial claims in South China Sea is misleading by misconstruing and ignoring facts and international norms, said Ben Reynolds, a U.S. foreign policy analyst.

The Times editorial, "Playing Chicken in the South China Sea," accused China of escalating tensions between itself, its neighbors, and the United States.

The editorial has vastly overstated the importance of the South China Sea to an audience that is increasingly skeptical of overseas interventions, argued Reynolds in a column piece with China-US Focus, an open-platform website focusing on China-U.S. relations based in Hong Kong.

OVERINFLATING THE SEA'S IMPORTANCE

The editorial misstated and overly exaggerated the fact of the South China Sea being rich in resources, wrote Reynolds, pointing out that the only resource currently being extracted from the region in significant quantities is fish.

Regarding other energy resources like oil and natural gas, the vast majority of their reserves lie outside disputed areas according to the U.S. Energy Information administration, wrote the columnist.

Reynolds acknowledged the argument that the South China Sea is of vital strategic importance because it contains major trade flows is partially correct, but he argued that no party to the territorial disputes believes or suggests that China's claims pose a threat to peacetime trade.

IGNORING FACTS

The Times editorial blamed China's land reclamation and construction activities in the South China Sea as an "aggressive and outrageous tactic," but it ignored the fact that U.S. allies and partners involved in the dispute have also expanded or constructed islands in the South China Sea in recent years, argued Reynolds.

Reynolds continued his rebuttal on the Times' innuendo from bringing up China's rising military budget, noting that the editorial deliberately omitted the fact that the 2015 U.S. military budget was 601 billion U.S. dollars, more than three times than that of China.

Reynolds pointed out that the Times editors offered little criticism on the United States' own astronomical military budget and its deployments in the Asia-Pacific.

"I should not have to remind the reader, much less the editors of a major global newspaper, that the United States is not located in Asia," wrote Reynolds.

MOUTHPIECE FOR U.S. INTERVENTIONIST FOREIGN POLICY

Reynolds proceeded to point out the hypocrisy of the editorial's argument that China is attempting to dangerously revise the post-World War II international norms.

The argument ignored the fact that the post-war order in Asia was designed by the United States to hedge against the influence of the Soviet Union, wrote Reynolds. "It was not designed to promote freedom and democracy".

"Again, we see that the object of the Times' critique is not militarism, threatening behavior, or the revision of international norms as such...Rather, the Times is critiquing Chinese behavior because China is a geopolitical rival of the United States," wrote Reynolds.

Misleading the American people about U.S.-China rivalry in the South China Sea with omissions and half-truths is the job of the Defense Department, not the press, said Reynolds.

The New York Times has been on the wrong side of history in almost every proposed foreign intervention since World War II, which in its history endorsed the Vietnam War, the 2003 Iraq War, and the bombing of Libya, according to the columnist.

"Let us hope that the New York Times is more thorough and careful with the facts in future pieces, lest it sell the American public on yet another disastrous foreign intervention."

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Al-Shabab's intelligence unit head killed in Somalia

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 5:9PM

Somali government forces have killed the head of the intelligence unit in al-Shabab militant group during a cleanup operation in the troubled country.

Abdifatah Omar, the spokesman for Mogadishu municipality, said on Wednesday that intelligence agents had killed the man, only identified by the first name Daud.

Omar did not provide any information when the operation was carried out.

Daud was reportedly in charge of al-Shabab's intelligence division, known as Amniyat.

Car bomb kills 10 in Somali capital

Separately, ten people lost their lives and a dozen others were wounded when a car bomber crashed his vehicle into a gate outside Hotel Ambassador on Maka al-Mukarama Road in the center of the Somali capital. The sound of fierce exchanges of gunfire could be heard later on.

Al-Shabab militant group later claimed responsibility for the car bomb attack, saying some of its members had stormed the premises.

In another incident, security forces from the semi-autonomous Jubbaland region killed 16 al-Shabab terrorists in Bulagadud, located about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of the Indian Ocean port city of Kismayo.

The developments came less than a day after al-Shabab militants detonated a bomb in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, killing two soldiers.

Major Mohamed Abdi, an officer in the region's military, said the soldiers were killed late on Tuesday, when their military convoy struck two improvised explosive devices as it was heading toward Galgala Hills, which lie east of Puntland commercial capital city of Bosaso.

"We lost two soldiers and four others were injured. Al-Shabab planted two bombs as our convoy headed to Galgala Hills," Abdi said.

Al-Shabab's military operations spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, later claimed responsibility for the act of terror.

"We eliminated 17 Puntland soldiers and destroyed two of their vehicles using bombs yesterday," he said on Wednesday.

Somalia has been the scene of militancy by al-Shabab since 2006. The Takfiri terrorist group has been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities by government forces and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which is largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

Puntland lies outside the area of operation of AMISOM, which deploys some 22,000 troops in the Horn of Africa state.

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Four UN staff killed in al-Qaeda attacks in Mali

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 4:5PM

Four members of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, have been killed in two al-Qaeda attacks.

The UN mission said in a statement on Wednesday that a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians-- an international expert and two security guards--working for the MINUSMA were killed in the attacks in the northern town of Gao on Tuesday night.

It added that the MINUSMA camp was targeted in a mortar or rocket attack on Tuesday night, noting that three peacekeepers were also seriously wounded in the attack.

A second armed attack on a de-mining unit of the UN also killed "two security guards and an international expert," said the same statement.

Al-Qaeda's North African affiliate AQIM claimed responsibility for the attacks, the US monitoring group, SITE, said.

An African military source said "it is the first time a Chinese UN peacekeeper has been killed in the north," adding that the assaults also left three Chinese peacekeepers seriously injured.

The source noted that one of the dead civilians was French while the other two were Malians.

China confirmed the killed peacekeeper was Chinese, and strongly slammed the "terrorist attack."

"This is a grave and outrageous crime, China strongly condemns it, we call for the UN and Mali to carry out a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

Mali has been witnessing violence linked to militant activity in its northern regions since 2012. The area remains vulnerable to attacks despite an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013, which came after the UN Security Council passed a resolution on the deployment of MINUSMA.

Last June, Tuareg separatists, who have launched a number of uprisings since the 1960s, signed a peace deal with the Malian government.

The peace agreement, brokered by Algeria, raised hopes for an end to years of unrest in the country; however, its implementation has proven challenging.

The UN mission in Mali has been targeted three times in the last month alone. The UN says 60 peacekeepers have so far been killed while on service in Mali.

Late last month, unidentified gunmen ambushed UN staff, killing five Togolese peacekeepers in central Mali.

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New Taliban Leader Mullah Haibatullah Unlikely to Engage in Peace Talks

Sputnik News

19:52 01.06.2016

Resolute Support Mission deputy spokesperson Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland said that Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada will take part in the peace talks in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States does not envision newly ascendant Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada to negotiate with the Afghan government anytime soon given his violent radical background, Resolute Support Mission deputy spokesperson Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland told reporters on Wednesday.

"I don't believe that we will see peace talks anytime in the short term with Mullah Haibatullah [Akhundzada]," Cleveland said.

Akhundzada has issued religious rulings, or fatwas, to suicide bombers and authorized Taliban to kill each other, and is not expected to come to the negotiating table, Cleveland noted.

The United States hopes that lower level Taliban leaders will engage in talks and follow the example of Hezb-i-Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a militant group that has recently negotiated with the Afghan government, Cleveland added.

Last week, the Taliban confirmed it had appointed Akhundzada as its new leader to replace Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan just days earlier.

 Sputnik

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Watch the Quiet Ones: Norwegian Navy Boasts New Superweapon

Sputnik News

17:48 01.06.2016(updated 19:17 01.06.2016)

Norwegian Armed Forces have acquired a hitherto unknown capacity, as the Norwegian Navy now boasts that all of its frigates and corvettes are equipped with top class medium-range cruise missiles.

Earlier this week, the Norwegian tabloid newspaper Verdens Gang proudly presented images of cruise missiles from KNM "Storm" smashing a full scale model of a "hostile" control center. According to the tabloid newspaper, the further development of the Norwegian high-tech project the Naval Strike Missile (NSM) allows the Norwegian Armed Forces to fire middle distance cruise missiles from warships. This sought-after addition to its military arsenal grants Norway exclusive club membership.

NSM missiles have a high speed and a very low altitude, which makes it "virtually impossible" to detect and stop them before they reach their target. With a range of "over 200 km" they are close to being an advanced brother to American Tomahawk or Russian Kalibr, Verdens Gang noted.

"This increases our overall military capacity significantly. Now, the Norwegian Navy is able to attack ground targets with a weapon system that is both long range and high precision," Navy information officer Per Rostad told VG.

"The fact that the Norwegian Navy now can annihilate significant ground targets means that their capacity has been greatly increased, Paul Bratlie of the Missile Division at the defense company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, told VG. According to him, this is the world's only fifth-generation precision weapon of its class, which seriously enhances Norway's export abilities. Previously, Kongsberg invested up to a billion kroner (120,000 dollars) in the missile project and is looking forward to a rich harvest.

Bratlie noted the great export potential for the missiles, as a number of NATO member states with outdated missile arsenals supposedly showed a "marked interest." At present, the NSM is one of two finalists in a bid to land a major contract with the US Navy. The deal to equip 52 new Littoral Combat Ships with cruise missiles may actually mean billions of kroner in revenue as well as a large number of jobs for the Norwegian defense industry.

At present, each of the five Norwegian frigates and six corvettes are equipped with eight NSMs. However, the joy and pride may soon die down, as the Norwegian government is pondering further cutbacks in defense expenditure and corvettes are usually listed among the most likely cuts.

"Most of the Norwegian values upon which our welfare state is built are coming from the sea. The Navy's task is to ensure access to all these areas and resources, such as fish, oil or gas, in the years to come. We already have few warships available, and it would be a significant loss if we lose such a useful resource as the corvettes," Rostad said.

The Naval Strike Missile (NSM) is an anti-ship and land-attack missile developed by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA). A multi-role version of the NSM is in development. This missile is called Joint Strike Missile (JSM) and will be integrated with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II "Joint Strike Fighter". Kongsberg is also working on a version to be launched from submarines.

 Sputnik

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China to Proceed With South China Sea Air Defense Zone Pending US Moves

Sputnik News

08:49 01.06.2016(updated 09:11 01.06.2016)

In case of the United States continues its "provocative" actions in the South China Sea, China is ready to proceed with installing its planned air defense identification zone, local media reported Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  China is ready to go ahead with installing its planned air defense identification zone in the South China Sea if the United States continues "provocative" activities in the disputed area, local media reported Wednesday, citing Chinese army sources.

"If the US military keeps making provocative moves to challenge China's sovereignty in the region, it will give Beijing a good opportunity to declare an ADIZ in the South China Sea," a source in the People's Liberation Army was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post newspaper.

In May, Beijing expressed discontent with a US warship sailing in the waters near the disputed Spratly archipelago, also known as the Nansha Islands, in the South China Sea.

Previously, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed the United States' concern over the possible deployment of China's air defense systems to the South China Sea. China had also announced a possible creation of an air defense identification zone in the region, while US defense officials have stated that it will not be recognized by the United States.

China maintains that installing an air defense identification zone is within its right as a sovereign country.

"Regarding when to declare such a zone, it will depend on whether China is facing security threats from the air, and what the level of the air safety threat is," the Chinese Defense Ministry told the South China Morning Post in a written reply regarding the issue.

In 2013, China implemented an identification zone over the East China Sea, another region disputed among east Asian countries, requiring all aircraft passing through the area to declare their route.

The South China Sea contains a number of disputed islands. The Paracel Islands are controlled by China while being claimed by Taiwan and Vietnam. The Spratly Islands are contested by China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. In the East China Sea, China, Japan and South Korea are locked in a dispute over exclusive economic zones and the use of maritime resources.

 Sputnik

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Mali: Ban 'outraged' by latest deadly attack on UN mission; urges authorities to investigate

1 June 2016  In two separate incidents that took place yesterday in the Gao area of Mali's restive north, terrorists attacked an outpost of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA), as well as the services of a local provider for the UN Mine Action Service (UNMAS), the most recent in a string of deadly attacks against the UN in the country.

"The Secretary-General is outraged by the terrorist attacks carried out yesterday in Gao, Mali, against the United Nations," said a statement issued by a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon.

According to preliminary reports, one peacekeeper from China was killed and a dozen UN personnel were injured when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated at the MINUSMA camp. In the second incident, one civilian contractor from France and two security guards from Mali were killed when the camp of a UN contractor, in another area of the city, was attacked by unknown assailants, the statement explained.

"[Mr. Ban] is deeply concerned by the recent series of attacks directed against MINUSMA that have killed 12 peacekeepers and injured many more in May alone," said the statement, reiterating that nothing can excuse these acts of terrorism against men and women who are serving with the United Nations to help the people of Mali to restore stability and peace across the country.

Urging the Government of Mali, with the support of its partners, to expeditiously investigate and hold the perpetrators accountable, the UN chief in his statement, also calling on the people of Mali to provide information on the attacks to the authorities.

The Secretary-General extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to the Governments of China, France and Mali, and he also wished a speedy recovery to those injured.

Mr. Ban reiterated that the UN will continue to support the peace agreement and stabilization of Mali.

According to the statement, in the coming days, the Secretary-General intends to present to the UN Security Council proposals to strengthen the Mission's posture and capabilities. The UN chief also reiterated the long-standing demand to ensure that MINUSMA forces are adequately equipped to operate in a dangerous and unpredictable environment such as Mali.

In a separate press statement, the members of the Security Council strongly condemned the attacks and reiterated their full support for MINUSMA and the French forces that support it.

They also reiterated their strong support for the head of the Mission, Mahamat Saleh Annadif, and for MINUSMA to assist the Malian authorities and the Malian people in their efforts to bring lasting peace and stability to their country, including through MINUSMA's support to the implementation of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali.

Echoing the Secretary-General's concern about the security situation in Mali, the Council members also noted that the full implementation of the peace agreement and the intensification of efforts to overcome asymmetric threats can contribute to improving the security situation across Mali. They further stressed the importance that MINUSMA has the necessary capacities to fully fulfil its current mandate.

MINUSMA for its part condemned the attacks and provided more details, noting that while the exact facts are still being determined, preliminary damage is being assessed and the information revealed that staff housing had been destroyed in the deadly incident. The wounded were being treated and the Mission has deployed attack helicopters to conduct aerial surveys and a rapid reaction force is on patrol in Gao, MINUSMA said in a press release.

"I am outraged by these vicious, cowardly and totally unacceptable attacks against the MINUSMA camp of [mostly civilian personnel], and against the staff of the partner company of UNMAS [] in a city where the MINUSMA and UNMAS have invested heavily in efforts to support local authorities and in support of the local population," said Mr. Annadif.

The MINUSMA chief went on to urge the Malian Government and local authorities in Gao to ensure that those responsible for these "heinous crimes" are identified and brought to justice.

"These crimes against MINUSMA and United Nations staff [] can no longer be tolerated and [can no longer] go unpunished," he emphasized.

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Burundi: UN agency warns 4.6 million people facing food insecurity

1 June 2016  Some 4.6 million people in Burundi are food insecure, with more than 500,000 of them requiring urgent emergency food assistance, the United Nations food relief agency has said, warning that food stocks are stretched as a result of the fragile socio-economic context in the country.

In a situation report, the World Food Programme (WFP) highlighted that as of 30 May, more than 265,000 Burundians had fled the country into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and as far away as Zambia. In all, there are 1,000 new arrivals weekly into neighbouring countries.

In addition, WFP said it requires $57 million for the next six months to meet the needs of new arrivals and existing refugees, particularly in Rwanda and Uganda.

The Emergency Food Security Assessment (EFSA) conducted in April 2016 in 18 provinces across the country concluded that about 4.6 million people are food insecure. Of these, about 590,000 are severely food insecure and require urgent emergency food assistance, WFP said.

"The assessment further indicates that the socio-political crisis has aggravated an already fragile food security, nutrition, and socio-economic context in Burundi," the agency said.

WFP noted that among the drivers of food insecurity include increasing poverty levels; reduced agricultural production; El Nino phenomena associated with heavy rainfall, flooding and landslides, which resulted in displacements and destruction of crops; adoption of severe livelihood coping strategies, such as reduction of expenditure on agricultural inputs; and disruption of markets.

The assessment recommends provision of short-term food assistance and farm inputs for shorter-season crops.

In addition, the assessment recommends strengthening of resilience activities for vulnerable food insecure households and strengthening or expanding social protection programmes for the most vulnerable, to enable them to cope with shocks, WFP said.

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US Drone Strike in Pakistan Renews Calls for Transparency

by Aru Pande June 01, 2016

The strike was unprecedented.

For the first time, a U.S. drone struck Pakistan outside its lawless border area with Afghanistan, killing the leader of the Afghan Taliban in the country's southwestern province of Baluchistan.

"It would have been better if Pakistan had targeted him inside its own territory," Pakistani government employee Umair Khan told VOA. "It's against the law for the U.S. to target him in our country."

Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen  the United States has not hesitated to target terrorist targets when and where it deems fit.

In Pakistan alone, the U.S. has carried out 391 air strikes since 2008, according to The Long War Journal. In Yemen, U.S. strikes targeting al-Qaida commanders total 145 since 2002.

The figures are based on press reports.

Human rights groups have long called for hard numbers when it comes to counterterrorism strikes that until recently the administration refused to even confirm.

"Saying 'just trust us, we have high standards, we are doing the best we can' really isn't enough and that they need to be disclosing more," said Rita Siemion of Human Rights First.

Full disclosure?

The Obama administration has promised as much  with a soon-to-be released report outlining the number of combatants and civilians killed in U.S. drone strikes since 2009, outside of areas of active hostilities, like Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

"For a decent portion of this administration and the previous one, we wouldn't even acknowledge publicly that these things were taking place," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in March. "The fact that we're now in a position on a regular, routinized basis to publish the results and to quantify that totals about the impact of these operations I do think represents substantial progress in the direction of transparency."

What the administration will release remains to be seen, rights groups say lump sum totals of civilians and combatants killed in the last seven years will not do a great deal to increase transparency.

The many critics of the policy say that instead, White House officials should outline how they collected data, and how they define terms like combatant, imminent threat and feasibility of capture, while taking further steps to formalize U.S. drone policy.

"All of the work they [the administration] has done over the years, to set standards, to set boundaries, they need to codify that into an order so that Obama does not leave as his legacy a sort of boundless, endless forever war," Human Rights First's Siemion noted.

Drawing the United States into a protracted military conflict is exactly what Obama has wanted to avoid  repeatedly drawing stark contrast between his presidency and the previous administration that saw the U.S. mired in ground wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Contradictory counterterror policy?

Still, the deployment of drones, particularly this most recent strike against Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor is perplexing to some.

"The U.S. provides so much funding to Pakistan though USAID and development funds. But then it does something [like this] that scuttles all that effort," Islamabad resident Hina Ahmed said.

Still others question how the administration determines where it can engage.

"We [U.S. forces] are not allowed to aggressively move against the Taliban [in Afghanistan], yet now they are going and bombing and violating Pakistan's sovereignty, and taking a shot at the Taliban leadership inside of Pakistan, it's a curious kind of decision-making," according to Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Senior Counselor John Hannah.

Hannah served as senior adviser in the Clinton administration and the George W. Bush administration, which attracted its own criticism for the creation of Guantanamo Bay military prison.

"The Obama administration has almost completely foregone an effort to capture and detain and get intelligence from these terrorists," he said. "Instead it has universally decided it's going to be the judge, jury and executioner and take the lives of these terrorists, as well as the lives, unfortunately, of a lot of innocent people."

Still, Hannah says drone strikes are an effective tactic in countries like Yemen and Pakistan, where the government is either unwilling or unable to go after terrorists  while minimizing civilian casualties  compared to conventional military conflict.

The key, Hannah says, is creating the necessary institutions and safeguards to create accountability, while balancing national security, transparency, and rule of law.

"Ensure that we are not crossing that line into becoming a lawless nation," he said. "It's very difficult and challenging, and I think it's a challenge that will continue into the future."

VOA's Ayesha Tanzeem contributed to this report.

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Liberia's Main Opposition Calls for Expansion of Corruption Probe

by James Butty June 01, 2016

Liberia's main opposition party, Congress for Democratic Change (CDC), is calling on all officials implicated in the ongoing alleged corruption scandal to recuse themselves from their current positions while the prosecutorial process takes place.

Mulbah Morlue, vice chairman for operations and mobilization for the CDC says more than 300 Liberians will embark on a hunger strike Wednesday to drive home their point.

"Ninety-five percent of all the individuals citizens are members of the might Congress for Democratic Change who have said enough is enough, who have said we are tired of the widespread prevalence of endemic corruption at all sectors of the governance process, and have decided to take desperate measures in the interest of the state to promote the interest of democratic government," Morlue said.

The corruption report by the Britain-based Global Witness alleges that over $950,000 in bribes and other suspicious payments were made to top Liberian officials by the Britain-based Sable Mining Company and its Liberian lawyer, Varney Sherman.

According to the report, Sable Mining wanted to get the concession rights to Liberia's Wologizi iron ore deposit.

Alleged bribe requirement

Sherman, who is also chairman of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's ruling Unity Party, allegedly told the company that in order to get the contract, Sable Mining must first offer bribes to senior officials to change Liberia's concession laws.

Sherman, along with House of Representatives Speaker Alex Tyler, has been indicted for bribery, criminal conspiracy, economic sabotage, criminal solicitation and criminal facilitation.

CDC wants bigger probe

Morlue also calls for the expansion of the investigation to include other past corruption allegations.

"We are expecting that all those individuals named, be it the speaker of the national legislature, whether it is Mr. Fombah Sirleaf [President Sirleaf's son] of the National Security Agency, once you are named in the report that is undergoing investigation, the Congress for Democratic Change believes the proper thing to do is for individuals to recuse themselves so is to allow the free dispensation of the rule of law," Morlue said.

Morlue cited a "preponderance of evidence" of past official corruption allegations that he said is available that warrant an expansion of the current probe.

"For instance, the dilapidated National Oil Company of Liberia [NOCAL] where the president's son, Mr. Robert Sirleaf was presiding as Chairman of the Board of Directors. We want NOCAL investigated; we also want recent allegations involving $3 million bribery scandal involving one of the senior members of government, Mr. Sandolo, to also be investigated," Morlue said.

Officials named should step aside

Morlue said although Sherman, who is senator of Grand Cape Mount County and Speaker Tyler are elected officials, they also hold certain administrative and national leadership positions that they must recuse themselves from to quash the appearance of a conflict of interest.

"For instance, the Speaker of parliament still has the power to preside over sessions of plenary at the legislature. You remember when the indictment unraveled, the day after there was a section of the national legislature where the Speaker abrogated unto himself the right to investigate themselves," Morlue said.

He said the CDC is concerned about the prevalence of a conflict of interest that could jeopardize the possibility of the free dispensation of justice. He said this this could damage the democratic credibility of our country," Morlue said.

The report alleges Speaker Alex Tyler received $75,000 for "consulting fees" and Richard Tolbert, chairman of the National Investment Committee $50,000 for "consulting fees".

Morris Saytumah, minister of state for finance, economic and legal affairs, now a senator, also allegedly received $50,000 for "consulting fees", and Willie Belleh, chairman of public procurement and concessions commission allegedly received $10,000 for "consulting fees".

Two of the biggest payments went to persons identified in the report as "Bigboy 01" and "Bigboy 02", who each allegedly received $250,000 with no explanation why the payments were made.

The report also alleges that President Sirleaf's son, Fombah Sirleaf, who is director of the national security agency also benefited with "a $7,598 hunting trip to South Africa paid for by Sable".

Others mentioned in the report include Senator Sumo Kupee and Cletus Wotorson, both of whom allegedly received $5,000 each for "consulting fees".

Speaker Tyler along with Sherman and two others, ECB Jones and Christopher Onanuga have all filed insurance bail bonds and were released from custody.

In a strange twist, the prosecutor is now saying the bond filed by Speaker Tyler and Sherman is insufficient and fatally defective.

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Besigye Treason Hearing Erupts in Anger After No-Show

by Lizabeth Paulat June 01, 2016

Tensions have escalated in Uganda's capital after a court appearance for opposition leader Kizza Besigye was canceled and two opposition leaders were arrested. Besigye is charged with treason after calling February's presidential poll rigged and declaring himself president.

When it became clear that Besigye wouldn't attend Wednesday's hearing, the packed courtroom erupted in anger.

The government cited security concerns for Besigye's absence, saying that they couldn't risk bringing him to court.

Although the chief magistrate called for calm, Besigye's supporters continued to demonstrate, eventually shutting down the session. They remained in the courtroom demonstrating their dissatisfaction by holding prayers and singing that one day President Yoweri Museveni would die and they would be free.

The demonstration remained calm with no police intervention. One activist with Besigye's FDC party, John Mugabe, says they just wanted to be heard.

"We are not here to cause disruption; because, as Ugandans, we are here also to defend our vote, which was rigged; however, as much as the police and the state are trying to push us to that side, to cause violence, but we know Museveni is good at violence," said Mugabe. "And we are going to demonstrate in a free and fair way according to the constitution; but, violence is not our weapon to use at this side."

After leaving the courtroom, a group of activists marched to the main road. Police called on them to disperse, asking them to stop singing and chanting. When they continued, two FDC members, Ingrid Turinawe and Doreen Nyanjura, were arrested.

Member of parliament Betty Nambooze, who was in the courtroom to support Besigye, says she has concerns about the future.

"We're so sad that as a country we are heading for a situation where the law of the jungle, going by might and not right, it's quite, quite very bad that we are heading for such a very bad period," said Nambooze. "And at the moment, have nothing to do apart from keep guessing the next move President Museveni will be taking."

The opposition is calling for an independent audit of the February presidential election, which President Museveni officially won with 60 percent of the vote.

Besigye's next court appearance is scheduled for mid-June.

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IS Forces Under Assault In Iraq's Fallujah, Key Syrian Town

June 02, 2016

by RFE/RL

Iraqi government forces have slowed their advance on the major city of Fallujah, held by Islamic State (IS) fighters, as U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters opened a major new offensive against the extremist militants in northern Syria.

At the United Nations, meanwhile, Britain called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to push forward with air drops of humanitarian aid to areas besieged by government forces.

In Syria, the push by the Syrian Democratic Forces toward Manbij, a town near the Turkish border, is the latest effort by U.S.-backed forces to squeeze the extremist group and uproot it from its self-declared capital, Raqqa.

Officials said taking Manbij would deny IS militants the ability to move supplies and foreign fighters across the border from Turkey.

The region is the last remaining tract of territory IS holds at the border with Turkey, a top priority for the U.S.-led campaign.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on June 1 that the Kurdish and Syrian Arab troops seized control of 16 villages and were about 15 kilometers from Manbij.

Aircraft from the U.S.-led international coalition pounded Manbij before dawn, killing at least 15 civilians, the British-based monitoring group said.

The clashes were "fierce and intense," said Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser to the Syrian Democratic Forces.

One unnamed Kurdish official told Reuters on June 1 that IS defenses on the west bank of the Euphrates River had collapsed at the start of the campaign earlier this week, but it was too soon to say how the Manbij battle would go.

Unnamed U.S. officials were quoted as saying thousands of forces were deployed in the operation, which could take weeks. A small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces will support the push on the ground, acting as advisers, they said.

At the United Nations, meanwhile, France and Britain urged the world body to begin humanitarian aid airdrops in Syria.

The call for action came despite land deliveries of aid supplies to two towns besieged by Syrian government forces where civilians are facing food shortages.

Britain called the emergency Security Council meeting for June 3 to discuss humanitarian access and to press ahead with the airdrops agreed to at a meeting last month of the International Syria Support Group.

The 20-country support group set June 1 as the deadline for aid convoys to reach all besieged areas.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the United States also supported moving forward on plans for the airdrops.

According to the United Nations, about 592,000 people live under siege in Syria -- the majority besieged by regime forces -- and another 4 million live in hard-to-reach areas.

Peace talks to end Syria's five-year war stalled in April after escalating fighting on the ground and lack of humanitarian aid prompted the opposition to walk out.

Islamic State militants also faced an offensive in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, where Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi ordered his troops on June 1 to slow an advance at the city gates, two days after the army poured into rural areas on the city's outskirts.

The order was intended to limit harm to tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city.

Fallujah has been a bastion for the IS militants, who raised their flag in the city in 2014 before sweeping through Iraq's north and west.

The United Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families in the center as human shields.

With reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/iraq-syria-islamic- state-assaults-manbij-fallujah/27773784.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Somalia Says Organizer of 2015 Garissa Massacre Killed

by Mohamed Olad Hassan June 01, 2016

Witnesses in Somalia's capital say at least 10 people were killed and more than 15 others wounded when militants attacked a major hotel Wednesday.

The assault on Mogadishu's Ambassador Hotel came hours after Somali officials said a top commander of militant group al-Shabab was killed in a late-night military operation.

Militant behind 2015 Garissa attack killed

Mohamed Mohamud, better known as Dulyadeyn, allegedly masterminded the April 2015 attack on Kenya's Garissa University College that left 148 people dead, nearly all of them students.

Dulyadeyn was killed in southern town of Bula-Gaduud, about 30 kilometers north of Kismayo.

There are conflicting reports about the circumstances of his death. A senior Somali official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. helicopters fired missiles into a car in which Dulyadeyn and two others were traveling.

A security minister in the Jubba region, Abdurashid Janan, told VOA Somali that the militant was killed by a U.S.-trained Somali commando unit known as Danab, or lightning.

U.S. officials have yet to comment on the attack.

Hotel attack

The Pentagon Wednesday reported a separate airstrike in south-central Somalia on May 27 that targeted Abdullahi Haji Daud, a senior al-Shabab military commander and attack planner. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook says the U.S. is currently assessing the results of that attack.

In Mogadishu, the assault on the Ambassador Hotel began with an explosion outside the hotel late Wednesday afternoon. Gunmen then stormed inside. Government security forces entered the building and have been moving floor to floor, trying to clear out the attackers.

The hotel is used by Somali lawmakers, businessmen and visitors from abroad.

No one has claimed responsibility for the hotel attack but suspicion fell on al-Shabab, which has attacked several other Mogadishu hotels in a similar manner.

The attack came less than a day after the operation in Bula-Gaduud that killed Dulyadeyn. Frightened residents of the town said they heard the sounds of fighting overnight Wednesday.

"We could hear heavy gunfire and several blasts," one said. "We could also hear sounds of planes flying overhead, and at dawn this morning, we saw the government troops transporting three bodies."



Both the Kenyan and Somali governments had offered rewards for Dulyadeyn.

Somalia-based al-Shabab has been fighting to install a strict Islamic state in Somalia since 2006. U.S. troops are not officially involved in combat but play an "advise and assist" role with Somali government troops and the African Union force fighting al-Shabab, known as AMISOM.

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N Korea begins 200-day battle to boost economy

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 6:40AM

North Korea has begun a 200-day battle to boost the country's sanctions-hit economy as part of a five-year economic plan.

The move started on Wednesday right after a 70-day campaign to increase production in the country ended.

"All party officials, military officers and people .... have broken loose and stepped forward with 100-times the normal courage and vigor, fully-charged for the 200-day battle," the North's Rodong Sinmun daily said in an editorial.

The newspaper linked the new campaign to the five-year economic plan declared by the country's leader Kim Jong-un at the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) congress last month.

"The 200-day battle is a safeguard for the party policy that will open up a breakthrough for carrying out the five-year strategy for economic growth," the paper said.

The country has come under the most crippling sanctions by the UN and the West recently over its nuclear missile tests.

Pyongyang declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and carried out four nuclear weapons tests - in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2016.

The UN sanctions have imposed trade restrictions on the North, required all UN members to inspect all cargo to and from the country and barred vessels suspected of carrying illegal goods for North Korea from ports.

Exports of coal, iron and iron ore, gold, titanium and rare earth minerals from North Korea are also banned while the supply of aviation fuel including rocket fuel to the country is also prohibited.

The measure tightens banking restrictions on North Korea and governments are to be required to ban flights of any plane suspected of carrying contraband destined for North Korea.

In April, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned against worsening hunger in the North, as it has been hit by a record low in food production since 2010 because of poor rainfall.

UN figures show that over 70 percent of North Koreans are food insecure and 28 percent of children under the age of five have suffered stunted growth due to malnutrition.

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Japan, US, South Korea Agree to Step Up Pressure on North Korea

Sputnik News

10:10 01.06.2016(updated 10:21 01.06.2016)

The foreign ministers of Japan, the United States and South Korea agreed on Wednesday to increase pressure on North Korea and are against possible negotiations, Japanese media reported.

TOKYO (Sputnik)  The foreign ministers of Japan, the United States and South Korea agreed on Wednesday to increase pressure on North Korea and not to accept the proposals for negotiations reopening as long as Pyongyang fails to show commitment to denuclearization, Japanese media reported.

A trilateral meeting between Japan's Director-General of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Kimihiro Ishikane, US State Department's Special Envoy for North Korea Policy Sung Kim and South Korea's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Kim Hong-kyun took place in Tokyo, Kyodo news agency reported.

The parties further called on North Korea to refrain from any provocative actions and to strictly comply with the UN Security Council resolutions.

Tensions over North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs escalated after Pyongyang said on January 6 that it had successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test and put a satellite into orbit on February 7, violating UN Security Council resolutions and triggering condemnation from the international community in both cases.

 Sputnik

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North Korea State Media Call Trump 'Wise Politician'

by VOA News June 01, 2016

As the Republican party starts to coalesce around presumptive nominee Donald Trump, one endorsement has come from an unlikely place: North Korea.

An editorial on the state-run DPRK Today website called the billionaire candidate a "wise politician" and implied a Trump presidency would be beneficial to North Korea.

"It turns out that Trump is not the rough-talking, screwy, ignorant candidate they say he is, but is actually a wise politician and a prescient presidential candidate," said the column,which was penned by a China-based Korean scholar identified as Han Yong Muk.

The same editorial slammed Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton calling her "dull."

Trump has said he would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jung Un and has stated he would be open to removing U.S. troops from South Korea, something the North would welcome.

North Korea has long wanted U.S. troops out of the south, seeing it as a first step toward reunification

The editorial implied Trump would not want the U.S. involved in a conflict between the two countries which was "fortunate from North Koreans' perspective."

While state run, the DPRK Today site is not as authoritative as other outlets.

Still Aidan Foster-Carter of Leeds University, a Korean scholar, told the NK News website that the editorial was "very striking."

"Admittedly it is not exactly Pyongyang speaking, but it is certainly Pyongyang flying a kite, or testing the waters", he said.

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41st flotilla of Iran Navy off to Gulf of Aden

ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency

Wed 1 Jun 2016 - 15:15

TEHRAN (ISNA)- The 41st flotilla of Iranian Navy was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden from Abbas Port, southern Iran.

The flotilla involves Lavan logistic warship and another destroyer.

Iranian Navy Commander Habibollah Sayyari was also present in the dispatching ceremony.

The flotilla aims to establish security for shipping lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran and confront Iranophobia projects.

The 40th flotilla of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Navy included Alborz destroyer and Tunb logistic war ship which aimed to protect ships and vessels of the Islamic Republic of Iran berthed in Abbas Port after completing its mission in the Gulf of Aden.

"Different naval flotillas of the country are on mission with the message of might and peace," Sayyari said.

Also, the Iranian Navy's 40th fleet of warships, which had been dispatched to the high seas on a 55-day mission, was welcomed after returning home in Bandar Abbas port in Iran's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf.

The flotilla of warships ended its mission in the Gulf of Aden, and returned home after tracing and identifying 762 cargo ships and 16 Iranian navy vessels during its mission.

The Iranian Navy has been conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008, when Somali raiders hijacked the Iranian-chartered cargo ship, MV Delight, off the coast of Yemen.

Linking the Indian Ocean with the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Aden is an important energy corridor, particularly because Persian Gulf oil is shipped to the West via the Suez Canal.

End Item



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Iran unveils indigenous defense tech

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 10:9AM

Iran has unveiled three homemade defense technologies, including a GPS system, in a ceremony attended by the country's defense minister.

Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan visited the Malek-Ashtar University of Technology in Tehran, where the advancements were showcased.

They comprised a one-megawatt Local Positioning System (LPS) transmitter, which Dehqan said, would render the defense forces independent of the Global Positioning System (GPS).

The minister said the LPS apparatus can be availed of when the GPS proves inaccessible during critical conditions or does not provide the desired precision.

The second technology was named as a robotic vacuum plasma coating mechanism, which can be used in the manufacturing process of the vanes used in power plant turbines and jet engines.

As the last one, the university lifted the curtain off the vacuum arc re-melting furnace.

Dehqan said, "The furnace can be operated both manually and automatically. It can be used for the melting and the purification of titanium alloys as well as re-melting of super alloys and certain types of steel."

In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in its defense sector. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly said its military power poses no threat to other countries, reiterating that its defense doctrine is based on deterrence.

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Iran to Produce Stable Isotopes at Fordow Site

Sputnik News

18:22 01.06.2016(updated 18:31 01.06.2016)

Iran began production of stable isotopes project facilities, according to the statement of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Construction of stable isotopes project facilities has begun at the Fordow underground uranium enrichment site near the Iranian city of Qom, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said Wednesday.

"In the ceremony held on this occasion, Dr. Salehi [AEOI head] said that this project will further facilitate Iran's progress vis-a-vis stable isotopes production and technology, which is of utmost importance in the framework nuclear industry, and multiple useful applications in industry," the AEOI said in a statement.

According to the statement, Tehran and Moscow are in talks "to further advance the scientific dimensions of this technology."

 Sputnik

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Iran Sends Naval Flotilla on Anti-Pirate Patrol Mission to Gulf of Aden

Sputnik News

17:41 01.06.2016

Iranian Navy Commander Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said that the 41st flotilla of the Iranian Navy was sent sent for an anti-pirate patrol mission to the Gulf of Aden.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Iranian Navy sent the 41st flotilla on an anti-pirate patrol mission to the Gulf of Aden, local media reported Wednesday.

"Iran's Navy, as a strategic force, is in charge of bolstering security of the country's border lines on high seas and international waters," Iranian Navy Commander Adm. Habibollah Sayyari said, as quoted by Mehr News Agency, at the see-off ceremony for the naval group.

Reportedly, the flotilla comprising the Martyr Naghdi destroyer and the Lavan logistic warship is to conduct anti-pirate raids and protect Iranian security at sea.

"In addition to providing security to the shipping lines of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the 41st flotilla aims to maintain the authority of Iran by confronting the Iranophobia and the enemy's propaganda," Sayyari added.

The Iranian Navy has been on watch in the Gulf of Aden since November 2008 as Somali pirates hijacked the Delight cargo ship chartered by Iran to carry wheat off the coast of Yemen.

 Sputnik

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Iraq slows down Fallujah operation over civilians safety concerns

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 2:27PM

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced the slowdown of the massive military offensive to liberate Fallujah from the grip of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group due to fears for the safety of civilians trapped in the city.

"It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasn't among our priorities," Abadi told military commanders at the operations room near the frontline in footage broadcast on state television on Wednesday.

He further noted that the Iraqi army units are stationed "at the outskirts of Fallujah and victory is within reach."

Daesh overran Fallujah in the western Anbar Province in January 2014, six month before the terror group proceeded with its offensive, taking more areas in Iraq.

On May 23, the Iraqi military started a large-scale push to drive out the militants from Fallujah, located 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of the capital, Baghdad.

Iraqi commanders say they have killed dozens of Daesh elements since the beginning of the Fallujah liberation operation.

Fallujah is believed to be the base from which militants have staged a campaign of bombings in Baghdad.

Even though the majority of Fallujah's population is believed to have fled during six months of siege, 50,000 people are still thought to be holed up with limited access to water, food or healthcare.

Earlier on Wednesday, the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF) said at least 20,000 children remain in Fallujah.

"We are concerned over the protection of children in the face of extreme violence," representative of the UN children's agency in Iraq, Peter Hawkins, said in a statement, adding, "Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting" and "separation from their families" if they manage to escape the city.

Gruesome violence has plagued the northern and western parts of Iraq ever since Daesh launched an offensive in the Arab state two years ago.

The Iraqi military and volunteer fighters are engaged in joint military operations to win back militant-held regions.

The Iraqi military recaptured the city of Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital, in December 2015.

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Kurdish Troops Liberate Over 40 Square Miles From Daesh Near Mosul

Sputnik News

10:40 01.06.2016(updated 10:55 01.06.2016)

Kurdish Peshmerga forces have liberated some 120 square kilometers (46 square miles) from the Daesh to the east of Iraq's Mosul, a Peshmerga representative said Wednesday.

EBRIL (Sputnik)  Kurdish Peshmerga forces have liberated some 120 square kilometers (46 square miles) from the Daesh to the east of Iraq's Mosul, a Peshmerga representative said Wednesday.

"After three days of fighting, Peshmerga was able to capture 120 square kilometers of territory, containing nine settlements, to the East of Mosul," Amir Sherifi told reporters.

The advance is being carried out with the support of the international coalition air cover, he added.

Some 5,000 Kurdish fighters armed by large-caliber weapons were participating in the offensive, according to Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The second largest Iraqi city of Mosul was captured by the militants of the Daesh, which is a militant jihadist outlawed in many countries, including Russia and the United Kingdom, in 2014. The IS overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2013 and 2014.

 Sputnik

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Some 20,000 Children Feared Trapped in Fallujah

by Sharon Behn June 01, 2016

Some 20,000 children are believed to be trapped in Fallujah, Iraq as fighting rages for control of the city that Islamic State militants seized more than two years ago.

Since the Iraqi military operation began for Fallujah, 60 kilometers west of Baghdad, "very few families have been able to leave; most have moved to two camps while others have sought refuge with relatives and extended families," according to the U.N. Children's Fund. The U.N. agency also warns that children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting and separation from their families.

Nearly 3,700 people, or 624 families, have managed to escape the fighting in Fallujah - a traditionally Sunni stronghold - since last week, said the U.N. There are fears that the thousands of civilians who remain trapped could be used as human shields by IS. Humanitarian agencies say those who have managed to escape describe a deteriorating situation where food and medicines are in short supply and the water unsafe for drinking.

Dressed in the black uniform of the Iraqi counterterrorism forces and flanked by Iraqi military commanders, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi urged the country's armed forces to protect civilains as they fight to take the city.

Iraqi forces, including the army, counterterrorism units, special forces, local fighters and Hashd al Shaabi militias, have met with stiff IS resistance around the city.

"A human catastrophe is unfolding in Fallujah. Families are caught in the crossfire with no safe way out," said Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Egeland said he expects the situation to quickly worsen as summer approaches, with temperatures likely to hit or exceed 50 degrees Celsius.

Civilian men screened

Iraqi forces, meanwhile, are separating out and screening the men, concerned about the loyalties of those who are leaving the city after living under IS rule.

"Approximately 500 men and boys over 12 years old are held for security screening, which can take five to seven days," said UNHCR spokesman William Spindler. VOA spoke to one refugee, who gave his name as Ayad, about the process.

"They interviewed me, the Hashd al-Shaabi and the Iraqi army," he said, referring to the umbrella group of Shi'ite militias who work in parallel with the Iraqi military.

"They said if we find your name in our database, we will kill you. If you are in the clear, you can live with us in peace," Ayad said, as he spoke through an interpreter in a telephone interview.

Shi'ite presence

Hashd al-Shaabi has taken an important role in the fight against IS, and some see the pro-Iran militias as better trained than the Iraqi army. Others, however, are worried that a strong Shi'ite presence in the war against IS -- whose strongholds are in predominantly Sunni areas -- will only further aggravate the deep sectarian divisions that already exist in the country.

Many Sunnis in Baghdad say they live in fear of the Shi'ite militias, and human rights organizations have flagged abuses by the militias in the past.

Lawmaker and former national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie defended the Hashd's role in the fight against IS.

"I believe the Hashd al-Shaabi should have, and is having, a pivotal role in the liberation of our occupied territories," Rubaie told VOA.

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Libya forces retake two towns from Daesh

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 6:30AM

Forces aligned with Libya's new Government of National Accord (GNA) have pushed Daesh out of two towns within a matter of two days.

On Tuesday, the Petroleum Facilities Guard (PFG) took control of Nawfiliyah, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from the northern city of Sirte, which is the Takfiri terrorist group's stronghold in Libya.

The PFG captured the nearby town of Ben Jawad on Monday after clashes that killed five of its troopers.

Before the recent advancement, other GNA-tied military brigades had driven Daesh back to the outskirts of Sirte from the west.

Also on Tuesday, the government announced the establishment of an operations room to command the battle against Daesh on the coastal stretch between the eastern town of Ajdabiya and Sirte, which includes the PFG-controlled oil terminals of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf.

Daesh captured Sirte in June 2015 before pushing its way outward across the Mediterranean coast, and attacking the terminals in January.

Last month, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report cataloging the atrocities carried out by the terrorist group in the city.

It contained "scenes of horror" described by the witnesses as they recounted Daesh brutalities dating back to February 2015, including the beheadings of dozens of residents accused by the group of espionage.

The group has relied on the chaos the country has been embroiled in since the NATO-backed overthrow of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi back in 2011.

Libya has had two rival governments since 2014, when politician Khalifa Ghweil and his self-proclaimed government seized control of the capital, Tripoli, with the support of militia groups, forcing the internationally-recognized government to move to the country's remote eastern city of Tobruk.

The two governments achieved a consensus on forming a unity government, the GNA, last December after months of UN-brokered talks in Tunisia and Morocco to restore order in the country.

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Syrian Observatory, Reuters spreading lies about airstrikes: Russia

Iran Press TV

Tue May 31, 2016 10:24PM

Russia has accused the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Reuters news agency of spreading lies about its involvement in a series of airstrikes is Syria's northwestern Idlib province.

"We urge people to remain critical of any horror stories spread by the 'British tandem' of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Reuters news agency," said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov on Tuesday.

Earlier, the UK-based monitoring group reported that Russia carried out air raids on the province, and Reuters said they were "the heaviest bombardment there since a cessation of hostilities was agreed in February."

The reports claimed that at least 23 civilians, among them seven children, were killed in the strikes which targeted several areas, including a hospital.

Reuters also quoted Turkish sources as saying that 60 civilians were killed and 200 more injured.

"No combat missions, let alone delivering airstrikes, have been performed by the Russian Air Force in Idlib province," stressed Konashenkov.

"As we presented to the world the objective monitoring data, fully disproving their previous fabrications -- neither the Observatory nor the agency even tried to listen and much less publish a denial," he noted.

The allegations of Russia's involvement in the incidents were not confirmed by the US either. "We're still looking into what happened in Idlib. We don't have a great sense of complete knowledge here of who's responsible," said State Department spokesman John Kirby.

"We're going to continue to work closely  inside the cessation of hostilities task force  with the Russians to try to figure out what happened here, and we'll take it from there," Kirby added.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said airstrikes against terrorist groups that have not joined a ceasefire in Syria will recommence this week.

Last week, Russia's Defense Ministry announced that it would temporally suspend its airstrikes against terrorists in Syria following a request by several groups who are willing to join the ceasefire.

Daesh and al-Nusra Front are excluded from the "cessation of the hostilities" agreement reached in late February as an attempt for facilitating peace talks.

At the time, Konashenkov said the groups have asked for time to drive out the Nusra Front terrorists by themselves.

On September 30, 2015, Russia launched an air campaign against Daesh and other terrorist groups upon a request by the Damascus government. Later in mid-March, the bulk of Russian military forces were withdrawn from Syria.

Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of some 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 forces start operation to retake control of Manbij from Daesh

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 5:5PM

Syrian forces have launched an offensive to push Daesh Takfiri terrorists out of the northern city of Manbij near the Turkish border, US military officials say.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - a coalition of Kurdish and Arab forces - began the operation in a bid to choke off Daesh's access to an area it uses to move weapons and militants across the border, US officials speaking on condition of anonymity said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

"It's significant in that it's their last remaining funnel" to Europe, a US military official said.

The raid in Manbij, located in Syria's Aleppo Province, will be supported by a small number of US special operations forces on the ground, who will be acting as advisors and staying some distance back from the frontline, the official added.

He further went on to say that airstrikes by the US-led coalition will also back up the campaign.

"They'll be as close as they need to be for the (Syrian forces) to complete the operation. But they will not engage in direct combat," the official said.

Meanwhile, US officials said the assault would be mostly comprised of Syrian Arabs rather than Kurdish fighters, who will only represent about a fifth or a sixth of the overall force.

However, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the majority of those taking part in the raid were from the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG).

'Turkey not contributing to Manbij operation'

Meanwhile, a Turkish military source said on Wednesday that Ankara could not support the offensive because of the involvement of YPG fighters and because it was beyond the range of artillery stationed in Turkey.

"Turkey has no contribution to the support that the US gives to the YPG in Syria's Manbij region. Turkey was informed by the United States about the operation, but any contribution is out of the question," the source said.

Ankara regards the YPG as a terrorist organization, saying it is linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group, which has been engaged in a three-decade fight for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast.

The YPG already controls an uninterrupted 400 kilometers (250 mile) stretch of the Syrian-Turkish frontier.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus regards Turkey as one of the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces in the Arab country.

Since late September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has been conducting airstrikes purportedly against Daesh extremists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or the United Nations. The air raids have failed to disband the extremists.

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Syrian Troops Kill 20 Terrorists in Hama

Sputnik News

20:02 01.06.2016(updated 22:39 01.06.2016)

At least 20 terrorsits from the Daesh and Nusra Front were killed in the Hama province of Syria, also a number of the Daesh vehicles were destroyed in Syria, according to local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The Syrian army killed at least 20 terrorists in the Hama province and targeted a number of Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) vehicles across the country on Wednesday, local media reported, citing military sources.

The Syrian army clashed with Nusra Front terrorists and Ahrar ash-Sham militants in the northern part of the Hama province, destroying their weapons and ammunition, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said.

Fierce clashes between the Nusra Front terrorists and the Syrian troops took place in the southwestern countryside of Damascus, leaving a number of militants dead and injured.

The government troops also targeted Daesh fortifications and hide-outs in the province of Homs destroying three pick-up vehicles with machine guns and a truck, transporting terrorists in different parts of the region.

A number of Daesh vehicles equipped with machine guns were also destroyed by Syrian airstrikes on the outskirts of the city of Deir ez-Zor.

The war in Syria erupted in 2011 after a wave of anti-government protests, which were part of the so-called Arab Spring. Destabilization of the situation in Syria resulted in the rise of terrorist organizations such as the Nusra Front and the Daesh, both outlawed in Russia.

On February 27, a US-Russia-brokered ceasefire came into force across Syria but the truce does not apply to terrorist groups.

 Sputnik

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Russia Regrets Absence of Cooperation With US on Anti-Terror Fight in Syria

Sputnik News

13:13 01.06.2016(updated 13:38 01.06.2016)

Russia regrets that despite regular exchange of information there is still no cooperation between Moscow and Washington on anti-terrorist efforts in Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia regrets that despite regular exchange of information there is still no cooperation between Moscow and Washington on anti-terrorist efforts in Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

"We regret to state that there is still no cooperation during the counterterrorist operation in Syria, but at the same time I would like to remind  and [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin spoke about this  that we exchange information with our US partners through the existing communication channels twice a day. So the exchange of information is really taking place," Peskov told journalists.

He also added that there was no "secret" Russia-US agreement on Syria.

Russia launched airstrikes against terrorist groups in Syria in September 2015, at the request of Syrian President Bashar Assad. On March 14, Putin ordered to withdraw most of Russia's military contingent from Syria after objectives of the operation had been accomplished.

On February 27, a US-Russia brokered ceasefire entered into force in Syria, with terrorist groups such as the Daesh and Nusra Front, both outlawed in Russia, being excluded from it. Russia also organized a center for Syrian reconciliation at the Hmeimim airbase that is a platform for negotiations between the Syrian government and militant groups willing to lay down arms.

 Sputnik

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Syria: UN experts urge protection of civilians amid ISIL offensives in country's north

1 June 2016  Two United Nations human rights experts today urged immediate protection for thousands of civilians caught up in offensives by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da'esh) in the Aleppo region of northern Syria.

The experts voiced their concern at the prospect of massive new displacement of populations in the region and the targeting of trapped and vulnerable civilians including those already internally displaced and highly vulnerable due to the conflict.

According to the UN in Syria, ISIL has rapidly seized a number of villages and advanced to within two kilometres of Azaz town in recent days, putting at risk those internally displaced living in camps near the Turkish border and other vulnerable communities.

An estimated 9,500 people were also encircled by fighting around Mare'a city as ISIL advanced into areas held by other non-state armed groups on 27 May.

ISIL's swift takeover of Kiljibrin and Kafr Kalbein left some 6,000 civilians stranded in the two towns and unable to access safety.

"Despite some reported action to clear routes and allow blockaded civilians safe passage, this situation is deteriorating and urgent responses are needed to save lives," said Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons.

"That means ensuring immediate and unhindered passage of all civilians out of the conflict areas and their protection until they are able to return as well as rapid, safe and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid to all those in need," he stressed.

Mr. Beyani noted that some 165,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) remain stranded at the Turkish border in settlements hit by shelling and airstrikes which have killed and injured dozens of civilians since the beginning of the year. "If safety cannot be secured for IDPs inside Syria it is incumbent on neighbouring countries to open their borders and offer safe passage as well as the right to seek asylum," the expert urged.

Humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have evacuated some staff, restricting essential assistance and humanitarian programmes for IDPs and other civilians, including medical care. Hospital staff have been evacuated and at least three humanitarian workers were reportedly critically wounded in areas close to the conflict.

"Unconfirmed yet disturbing reports indicate that ISIL militants have executed families, including women and children, with alleged links to Free Syrian Army affiliated groups in the town of Kiljibrin," said Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. "If verified any such actions would constitute arbitrary executions and could amount to war crimes."

The experts noted that IDPs and others in the conflict area are also allegedly being arrested and they face an uncertain fate, suspected of belonging to opposition groups.

Disregard for the rights and the lives of civilians has regrettably become the norm in this conflict, the experts said, stressing that it is imperative for all parties to return to the rule of law and protect civilians as required under international humanitarian and human rights law and standards.

The experts called for the cessation of violence to allow trapped civilians to leave conflict areas as quickly and safely as possible.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

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Civilians Press for More Control in Syria's Rebel Areas

by Jamie Dettmer June 01, 2016

While most media coverage of the Syria conflict has focused on the clash of arms, in northern Syria, the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule has followed two tracks  the military struggle to oust the government and the effort to establish civilian governance in rebel-held areas. Those efforts have frequently come into conflict, with civilians, seeking to provide basic services, struggling to persuade armed groups that there should be a separation of powers.

But in rebel-controlled areas of the city of Aleppo, two sides of Syria's revolution have cohered more effectively in recent weeks, with less friction between the civilians and the armed groups.

Local activists say the "cessation of hostilities" brokered in February by the U.S. and Russia has helped, despite the fact that it has not been an all-embracing cease-fire. Rebel-held districts in Aleppo city are still pounded by government airstrikes and shelling but with less intensity than before the "cessation of hostilities" agreement.

Relative calm

This has provided some relative calm, allowing shops to open and an increase in civic activity, says Eyad Kalloul, a development worker with the Muwatana, a pro-opposition but independent Syrian NGO that helps facilitate dialogue between militias and civilians.

The local city council in Aleppo is one of several hundred councils functioning in rebel-held towns and villages across Syria, some elected in rudimentary-run polls, others not. It has made significant progress in gaining control from the armed groups of much of the governance of insurgent-held districts, including distribution of humanitarian aid and organizing basic public services, Kalloul says.

Kalloul, a father of two, cites as a recent example the control of a neighborhood water well.

"We asked why the well should be controlled by a militia instead of the council," he says. "And after negotiations involving local notables as well, the militia agreed." He adds: "The aim is to get all civil services under civilian control."

Assistance getting organized

Many of the councils in rural Aleppo, rural Idlib and some areas in the countryside of Latakia, as well as in rebel-controlled towns ringing Damascus, originated as local relief efforts. They grew mainly from the grass roots and were quickly encouraged by Western governments, who saw their development as a major civil breakthrough.

Western officials hope the councils can help to nudge the ideological direction of the rebellion, tempering its sectarianism and curtailing the power of radical Islamists by building up popular support for secular local governance.

Progress defining areas of civilian responsibility  from the provision of water and electricity to health care and education  has been easier in the city of Aleppo thanks to the recent departure of fighters with Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaida affiliate that is the most reluctant of the armed groups in northern Syria to relinquish any power to civilians, a reflection of the jihadists' theocratic beliefs.

According to Gen. Salim Idris, former chief of the staff of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, al-Nusra has withdrawn many fighters from Aleppo, fearing it could suffer major losses if the government, backed by the Russians, do mount a major assault on rebel districts.

"Al-Nusra is always thinking several moves ahead," he says.

In neighboring Idlib province, civilians have been much more restricted in what they can do. Foreign donors have been reluctant to provide funds for civilian projects there, from reconstruction to relief services, fearing al-Nusra entanglement.

Civilians and civil defense members look for survivors at a site damaged after suspected Russian airstrikes on the Syrian rebel-held city of Idlib, Syria, late May 30, 2016. The strikes killed at least 50 people and left dozens more injured.

Nusra leaders won't even sit with civilian negotiators, leaving that to an allied Islamist faction, Ahrar al-Sham, says a European aid worker who oversees dialogue efforts in Idlib from Turkey. He asked not to be identified, citing the political sensitivity of the dialogue attempts. Meanwhile, there are growing signs that al-Nusra might be about to announce an emirate in Idlib.

Lessons from prison

"Al-Nusra doesn't want to talk to us because we are secular," says Kalloul, speaking in English, which he learned as a detainee in Syria's notorious Sednaya prison by listening to VOA on a smuggled radio.

A one-time Communist, he says English wasn't the only thing he learned during his five years in jail. Debating in prison with other detainees, reading and being exposed to news from around the world, his political views changed.

He now describes himself as a liberal, but says prison debates equipped him with the skills that now help him to facilitate talks between civilians and armed militias that hold opposing political views.

Setting up a justice system in the rebel-held areas has proved difficult.

"Justice is much more complicated than who oversees the provision of basic services and even education," Kalloul explains. In different districts, there are different and often competing courts. "Civilians have asked for a unified court system across rebel-held areas and one controlled by civilians and not the armed groups," he says.

They have also called for Unified Arab Law to be adopted as the legal code.

Unified Arab Law is a compromise between Syrian state law and religious Sharia law that is being developed by jurists and the Arab League. But here, too, interests compete; militias have proven reluctant to give up their courts and Islamist groups are adamant that Sharia law should be followed.

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Turkey warns Germany over Armenian 'genocide' vote

Iran Press TV

Wed Jun 1, 2016 8:51AM

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says a resolution expected to be approved by German lawmakers declaring the 1915 killings of Armenians a genocide will damage ties with Berlin.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital Ankara on Wednesday, Yildirim called the resolution "ridiculous."

German lawmakers are expected Thursday to back the symbolic resolution on the massacre by Ottoman Turkish forces a century ago. Turkey strongly rejects the notion that the killings constituted genocide.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Germany of consequences if Berlin goes ahead with the plan.

Erdogan condemned those who were trying to "deceive" Germany about the events.

"If Germany is to be deceived by this, then bilateral diplomatic, economic, trade, political, and military ties - we are both NATO countries - will be damaged," he said.

Erdogan also expressed his concern about the plan to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone conversation.

The German parliament's vote was scheduled to take place in 2015 on the 100th anniversary of the killings. A number of MPs, however, pushed the resolution back repeatedly as they believed it could hurt ties with Turkey.

Germany's opposition party, the Greens, has pushed the resolution onto the agenda. It comes at a time when Merkel is relying on Turkey to implement a controversial deal with the EU to help slash the number of refugees trying to reach Europe.

The resolution uses the word "genocide" in its topic and text. It also refers to German Empire's "inglorious" role for failing to stop the killings by its military ally.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday that he did not believe the resolution would change the view that the country's Turkish community have of Germany.

He, however, voiced concern that the resolution would cause an "unproductive response" from Ankara.

Yildirim dismissed suggestions that the Armenia bill would impact the refugee deal.

On Armenia, Turkey argues that the there was no organized campaign to wipe out the Armenians and no evidence of any such orders from the Ottoman authorities.

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Turkish PM Plays Down Armenian Genocide Claims in Feud with Berlin

by Dorian Jones June 01, 2016

Ankara is warning of serious consequences if the German parliament passes a motion accusing Turkey's then-Ottoman rulers of genocide against its Armenian minority. Turkey and Germany have close economic and political ties and Berlin has become dependent on Ankara to stem migrants entering the European Union.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim Wednesday condemned a potential Bundestag vote on a motion that accuses Turkey's Ottoman rulers of genocide against its Armenian minority in 1915.

He said this vote is very absurd and that there is no truth to it. It is one of the ordinary events that could be lived in any country in 1915 under the conditions of World War I. He said if the vote passes, Turkey's relations with Germany undoubtedly will be harmed.

Yildirim's warning followed even sterner language from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who on Tuesday threatened serious repercussions.

Germany's parliament is due to vote on the bill Thursday.

'Tough rhetoric'

Ankara insists those killed in the 1915 mass killings died as a result of a civil war. More than 20 countries, including several in Europe, recognize the killings as genocide; but, political scientist Cengiz Aktar of Istanbul's Suleyman Sah University says despite the threats, there will be few far-reaching consequences.

"There is a tough rhetoric on the Turkish side, but I frankly don't expect a spectacular reaction by Ankara. If the motion goes through, which is highly probable, there will be all sorts of nationalist propaganda for internal purposes. They may recall the ambassador," Aktar said.

One of the main reasons widely cited as to why few expect little long-term damage to bilateral relations if, as expected, the motion passes, is that Germany is simply too important to Turkey. Diplomatic columnist Semih Idiz of Turkey 's Cumhuriyet newspaper and Al Monitor website says Ankara has few options to punish Berlin.

"It's not as if Turkey can sever diplomatic ties with Germany, given the 3 million Turks living in Germany. It can't take sanctions against German companies, because it will be shooting itself in the foot. A lot of German companies have a Turkish component in them, operating in Turkey," Idiz said.

Migrant deal as leverage

Ankara believes its most important diplomatic leverage over Europe is a recently agreed-to migrant deal with the European Union, which has seen a marked reduction in the number of people entering Greece from Turkey. Observers say the deal is especially important to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is desperate to stem the number of migrants entering Germany. Columnist Idiz says Ankara will likely refrain from jeopardizing the deal.

"Well, Germany depends on the migrants deal. Turkey has been using this as a kind of stick, if you don't honor your side, we will not honor our side; but, the migrant issue, the refugee issue, is not just a one-sided problem. Turkey has this problem also and whether it likes or not, it will have the kind of arrangement with Europe over this," Idiz said.

Analysts say Ankara is unlikely to use the leverage it has over the migrant deal to simply punish Berlin. More likely, it will want to use the deal to secure the more important goal of ensuring the EU honor its commitment to visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.

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Alan Burkitt-Gray speaks to Michael Wheeler, executive vice president at NTT Ltd, about a name change for the company, NTT's contribution in the midst of the pandemic and all things network security.
A week after most Danville school students had gone home for summer vacation, 20 middle school students stayed behind in George Washington High Schools career and technical building, where they built, programmed and relentlessly tested miniature robotics kits Wednesday morning.

The students were attending the Team Talon Robotics Camp, a week-long summer camp offering a chance to build, program and pilot robots.

Were hoping to expose them to some STEM learning, said camp instructor and GWHS robotics team mentor David Waters.

Four years ago, Waters and other robotics team members wanted to find a way to give back to the community and the school system. With help from a Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce grant, the robotics team has been hosting the camp ever since  and educating area middle school students.

For the first two years, the campers designed one large-scale robot for the team. However, Waters said he wanted to switch to something campers would be able to take home and continue working on after camp had ended. So, the camp switched to do-it-yourself kits running for each camper to build individually.

Now we focus the funds on buying the kits for them, he said.

Several GWHS students and robotics team members also assist the campers with building the robots. Waters said the mentors learn how to lead and teach others while furthering their understanding of the robots.

The mentors, I think, get as much out of it as the middle school students, Waters said.

In the robotics lab, campers attach wires to circuit boards and test out their robots on a floor mat driving course. Camper and Epiphany Episcopal School student Mary Hawkins said she loved how the camp was helping her think critically about finding solutions to programming her robot.

Ive learned a lot and I really enjoy learning, the seventh-grade student said.

Mentor and GWHS senior Jon Stephens said he enjoyed helping the campers learn programming and become interested in robotics, and added that a few campers had become team members in high school.

I just like to help them grow, Stephens said.

Metcalfe reports for the Danville Register & Bee.
Danville Regional Medical Center will soon add about 20 third-year medical students from Liberty Universitys College of Osteopathic Medicine in Lynchburg to its roster of educational training programs.

In August, DRMC  in partnership with Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County and local physician practices  will begin training about 20 third-year Liberty University medical students. The students will live in Danville and do the majority of their clinical rotations locally.

Alan Larson, DRMCs market president and CEO, said the hospital is pleased with the new partnership, which will give medical students the ability to continue their training in the Dan River Region.

Larson said the agreement with Liberty University began several years ago, when the college decided to add a medical program to its fields of study.

The first two years in medical school is spent primarily in classrooms  after that, students are required to spend their third year doing clinical rotations in medical facilities. In Danville, they will do 10 one-month rotations through various hospital departments and medical practitioners offices to help them refine their field of interest, Larson said.

Once their first two years is over, basically, they are out working in the community, Larson said. This benefits the students as they broaden their experience and establish relationships among those who could potentially become their colleagues. Most importantly, it will have a positive impact on our patients, who will benefit from the innovations in medicine that these new minds will bring to patient care and the patient experience.

During their fourth year in medical school, students work longer rotations in their fields of interest, deciding what branch of medicine they want to study during their three-year residency. At DRMC, they can study family medicine or internal medicine for a residency; for other fields, they would have to seek a residency program elsewhere.

After four years of medical school and their residency, students can seek certification to go into practice on their own or opt for an elective one- to five-year fellowship to work toward various specialties. Larson noted that neurosurgery, for instance, is a field that requires a five-year fellowship.

Since its inception in 2010, DRMCs graduate medical education program has grown, with the hospital training about 59 medical students and resident physicians each year. The agreement with Liberty University would bring that total to about 80.

Currently, DRMC has an expanded relationship with the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg. Medical students from VCOM also train at DRMC and local physician practices in preparation for internship and residency training.

In addition to training medical students and resident physicians, DRMC also partners with James Madison University and Elon University to train physician assistant students and with Averett University to train baccalaureate nursing students. These students rotate throughout the hospital and work with closely with physicians and nursing staff.

Larson said the programs goal is to attract more doctors to the area.

As a teaching hospital, DRMC is helping to address the high demand for skilled health care professionals and will ensure that our community continues to have access to high-quality care, Larson said.
NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Jun 2, 2016) - Troymet Exploration Corp. (TSX VENTURE:TYE) ("Troymet" or the Company is pleased to report the successful completion of the Phase I RC drill program on its Wildcat gold-silver project in Juab County, Utah, held under option from Renaissance Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE:REN). Ten holes (1,321.2 metres) were drilled:

Target Area Holes Metres Core 5 809.0 SE 2 363.6 High Grade Hill 3 148.6

Drilling tested structural and stratigraphic targets, alteration zones including de-calcification zones in carbonates, silicification-jasperoids, oxidation after sulphides and geochemical anomalies (News Release of May 10, 2016).

Drill samples will be analyzed by ALS Global, Reno, an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited facility. Results will be reported once received, interpreted and validated.

Troymet, through its wholly owned subsidiary Troymet USA LLC ("Troymet USA"), holds an option to acquire a 70% interest in the Wildcat property from Renaissance Exploration, Inc. ("RenEx"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Renaissance Gold Inc. Under the terms of the option agreement, Troymet USA has retained RenEx as its contractor to take advantage of RenEx's expertise and established infrastructure. Troymet USA is exclusively responsible for the planning, execution and supervision of all exploration programs.

Qualified Person

President and CEO, Kieran Downes, P. Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and verified the technical information provided in this release.

About Troymet Exploration Corp.

Troymet Exploration Corp. is a junior exploration company with a solid treasury and with projects in British Columbia (Redhill and Golden Eagle), Manitoba (McClarty Lake) and Utah (Wildcat). Troymet operates the Wildcat, Redhill and Golden Eagle projects. HudBay Minerals Inc. is the operator of the McClarty Lake joint venture and must contribute $1,151,052 in joint venture expenditures before Troymet is required to fund its participating interest. Troymet retains a 2% net smelter returns royalty (NSR) on the Key property, British Columbia, which was sold to New Gold Inc. in 2013.

TROYMET EXPLORATION CORP.

Kieran Downes, Ph.D., P.Geo., President, CEO & Director

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

This news release contains certain forward-looking information. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information and such information involves various risks and uncertainties. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking information in respect of: the Wildcat Project, including the exploration potential and analogous deposit potential of the Wildcat Project; future data analysis, sampling plans and exploration plans on the Wildcat Project; exploration targets and the potential of such exploration targets; and the Phase I drill program of the Wildcat Project, including the commencement of drilling, the budgeted metres to be drilled and the number of drill holes in Phase I. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. This forward-looking information reflects Troymet's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Troymet and on assumptions Troymet believes are reasonable.

These assumptions include, but are not limited to: the current share price of Troymet's common shares and the ability to raise future equity financing, if needed, at prices acceptable to Troymet; Troymet's current and initial understanding and analysis of the Wildcat Project; the ability of Troymet to discover viable exploration targets and the results of exploration on the Wildcat Project; Troymet's general and administrative costs remaining constant; Troymet's cost assumptions for its exploration programs at the Wildcat Project and the market acceptance of Troymet's business strategy. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Troymet to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Troymet and its projects, and in particular, the Wildcat Project; general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; capital market conditions and market prices for securities, junior market securities and mining exploration company securities; commodity prices; the actual results of current exploration and development or operational activities; competition; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; accidents and other risks inherent in the mining industry; lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting Troymet; timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. A description of other assumptions used to develop such forward-looking information and a description of other risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking information can be found in Troymet's disclosure documents on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com. Troymet does not undertake to update any forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
Vancouver, June 2, 2016 - Durango Resources Inc. (TSX.V-DGO), (the "Company" or "Durango") announces that upon further review of historic data on the Nemaska area, the Company has further refined targets for its upcoming exploration program at its NMX East property in northern Quebec.

Based on observations from gradiometric and total field magnetic surveys conducted on the area in 2011, several geophysical signatures have been found on the property which coincide with mapped pegmatites from the 2011 Tucana Lithium technical report on the Abigail property (1)(2). These geophysical signatures appear to extend eastward from Nemaska Lithium's Whabouchi property.

Three parallel signatures were found to occur clearly on the Durango property in both the gradiometric and total field magnetic surveys. Two of these signatures were confirmed in Tucana Lithium's 2011 report to be coincident with pegmatite outcropping at surface, while the third was not mapped (1). Furthermore, one of the signatures appears to lie directly along strike with the Whabouchi deposit.

Marcy Kiesman, CEO of Durango, comments, "There has been extensive staking in the Nemaska area over the past few months, while work programs in the area are beginning to commence. Our approach has been to compile and reinterpret all available materials prior to commencing work in an effort to make Durango's upcoming exploration program in Nemaska as efficient as possible and to provide the best chance of discovery."

The technical contents of this release were approved by Mr. Case Lewis, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. The property has not yet been the subject of a National Instrument 43-101 report.

References

(1)Theberge, D. (2011). NI 43-101 Technical Report Pertaining to the Abigail Property, Nemiscau Area, Northern Quebec, Canada, prepared for Tucana Lithium Corp. (2)D'Amours, I., (2011). Leve magnetique aeroporte de la partie sud-est de la Sous-province de Nemiscau et de la partie nord de la Sous-province d'Opatica, Baie-James, Quebec

About Durango

Durango is a natural resources company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. The Company has a 100% interest in the Mayner's Fortune and Smith Island limestone properties in northwest British Columbia, the Decouverte and Trove gold properties in the Abitibi Region of Quebec, and certain lithium properties near the Whabouchi mine, the Buckshot graphite property near the Miller Mine in Quebec, the Dianna Lake silver project in northern Saskatchewan, the Whitney Northwest property near the Lake Shore Gold and Goldcorp joint venture in Ontario, as well as three sets of claims in the Labrador nickel corridor.

For further information on Durango, please refer to its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Marcy Kiesman, Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: 604.428.2900 or 604.339.2243

Facsimile: 888.266.3983

Email: durangoresourcesinc@gmail.com

Website: www.durangoresourcesinc.com

Forward-Looking Statements

This document may contain or refer to forward-looking information based on current expectations, including, but not limited to the development, commencement and completion of future exploration or project development programs and the impact on the Company of these events. Forward-looking information is subject to significant risks and uncertainties, as actual results may differ materially from forecasted results. Forward-looking information is provided as of the date hereof and we assume no responsibility to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. For a detailed list of risks and uncertainties relating to Durango, please refer to the Company's prospectus filed on its SEDAR profile at www.sedar.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.

Copyright (c) 2016 TheNewswire - All rights reserved.


Trading Symbol: TSX-V: JSP

News Release No. 16-272-05

CALGARY, June 2, 2016 /CNW/ - Jasper Mining Corp. ("Jasper" or the "Company") (TSX-V:JSP) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a letter of intent dated May 16, 2016 (the "Letter of Intent") with two arm's length private Alberta companies, Tacitus Ventures Corp. ("Tacitus") and Delfan Energy Resources Corp ("Delfan"), to acquire all the issued and outstanding common shares of Tacitus and Delfan in an all-stock transaction that is anticipated to be completed by way of Plan of Arrangement (the "Transaction"). The Transaction will constitute a reverse takeover under the rules and policies of the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSXV"). The Transaction gives Jasper exposure to scalable and economically attractive opportunities in both the exploration and production of helium for industrial customers and CO2 for enhanced oil recovery efforts in the United States.

The Transaction may also involve a concurrent (brokered/non-brokered) private placement offering of common shares in the capital of Jasper ("Jasper Shares") at a price of $0.3482 for aggregate gross proceeds of up to $3,000,000 (the "Private Placement"). The gross proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to provide operational and working capital. The Transaction is expected to close prior to the end of August 2016 and is subject to the approval of the shareholders of each of Jasper, Tacitus and Delfan and of the TSXV and approved by the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta.

For the purposes of the Transaction, the Company will have a deemed value of approximately $4 million, Tacitus will have a deemed value of approximately $4 million and Delfan will have a deemed value of approximately $2 million.

Shareholders of each of Tacitus and Delfan will receive Jasper Shares, at a deemed price of $0.3482 per Jasper Share in exchange for each common share in the capital of Tacitus and Delfan, respectively, held by such shareholder for aggregate deemed consideration of approximately $6 million. It is expected that following the Transaction and Private Placement, the Company will have 37,335,678 Jasper Shares issued and outstanding and that former holders of shares in Tacitus will hold 11,487,976 Jasper Shares and former holders of shares of Delfan will hold 5,743,988 Jasper Shares.

The Letter of Intent contemplates material conditions precedent to be fulfilled prior to there being a binding agreement between the Company, Tacitus and Delfan, including customary due diligence, the negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement and board approvals being obtained. Until satisfaction of these and other conditions precedent, the likelihood of closing the Transaction is uncertain and trading in the securities of the Company would be highly speculative. Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including, but not limited to the receipt of all necessary regulatory, corporate and third party approvals, compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements, satisfactory financing arrangements, satisfactory retention of key employees and absence of material adverse changes in the business, assets, condition, or prospects of any of the parties to the Transaction. Further disclosure concerning the terms and conditions of the Transaction, including management, directors and advisors will be disclosed once the conditions precedent have been fulfilled and a definitive agreement is entered into.

Tacitus is an exploration and development company that has identified and acquired high concentration helium prospects in the United States, uniquely positioned to lead the North American marketplace in helium source development. As existing sources of helium mature, the long term market demand continues to grow as it is built-in to the technology economy which includes electronics, healthcare, aerospace and industrial uses.

Tacitus is controlled by three major shareholders, Gareth Roberts of Dallas, Texas, who holds approximately 50% of the issued and outstanding shares of Tacitus ("Tacitus Shares"), Jason Demers, of Calgary, Alberta, who holds approximately 24% of the Tacitus Shares and Michael Frey of Calgary, Alberta who holds approximately 22.5% of the Tacitus Shares.

Delfan holds the rights on approximately 50,000 acres on the Kevin Dome in Montana. Technical information regarding Delfan's holdings in Montana will be released in a subsequent news release.

Jasper has historically been an early stage mining corporation. Its present mineral holdings include the Isintok property which is prospective for copper, molybdenum, gold, silver and tungsten and the Vowell Creek property which is prospective for lead, zinc and silver. Management also believes that the Vowell Creek property may contain commercial quantities of gold. In addition to Jasper's present mineral holdings, Jasper holds fee simple interest to a 4 acre industrial property in the city of Cranbrook, British Columbia.

The strategy of Jasper going forward is to develop new sources of helium in the short term while the Company continues to build additional long term value from its present mineral holdings.

"Jasper will become the only helium focused exploration and development company to be publicly listed, offering exposure to a high value industry that until now has been primarily controlled by the U.S. Government and a small number of major industrial gas companies", said Jasper President Gordon Dixon. "I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the team that has created this model and established the business opportunities we are about to embark on together".

Tacitus' Chairman, Gareth Roberts, who will take over as Jasper's new Chairman following the closing of the Transaction, explains, "The helium market is exciting, unique and in a state of structural flux that has opened up a tremendous opportunity for us. Being able to draw on the exploration and extraction methods developed in the energy sector provides all the upstream expertise we need to be successful in this space."

Following the Transaction, it is expected that the directors and officers of Jasper will be as follows:

Gordon F. Dixon, Q.C.

Director

Mr. Dixon is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Jasper Mining Corp. and is in private legal practice at Dixon Law in Calgary, Alberta. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Calgary in 1965 with majors in Political Science, History and English and an LLB from the University of Alberta in Edmonton in 1968. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1992. From 1969 to 1994 he practiced law with the Macleod Dixon law firm in Calgary as a partner. Mr. Dixon developed the San Antonio gold mine in Manitoba and was President of New Forty-Four Mines Ltd. where he restored the property to gold production in 1980. Mr. Dixon also developed a gold mining property in Bolivia. He has been a director or an officer of several other publicly traded companies in the oil and gas, mining and financial fields. Mr. Dixon owns and operates Calaway Park, Western Canada's largest amusement park. He has developed several hundred residential condominiums as a principal developer. For many years he was a director and part owner of the Fernie Ski Hill until its sale in 1999. Mr. Dixon has been active in mining and oil and gas exploration for 40 years.

Jason Demers

Director and President and Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Demers is a businessman and entrepreneur, having started and subsequently selling an established engineering and regulatory business in Calgary. Mr. Demers has spent the past 8 years building a private company primarily on the development of a natural CO2 and helium resource in the United States. This experience has helped Mr. Demers to gain a unique understanding of helium market opportunities which has led to taking a lead role in the creation of a unique helium resource development model. Establishing the vision and a network of technical, business and political contacts that support and propagate the business model are foundational to his achievements.

Gareth Roberts

Director and Chairman of the Board

Mr. Roberts has over 40 years of experience in the oil industry working initially as a geologist for Texaco, Murphy Oil and Coho Resources. He founded Denbury Management, Inc. in 1990, which subsequently became Denbury Resources Inc. (TSE, NYSE). Mr. Roberts was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Denbury from 1992 to 2009 and served as a Director until 2011. He has served on the board of Genesis Energy Inc. (NYSE) as Chairman and as a Director of Belden & Blake Corp. He founded Petro Harvester Oil and Gas in 2011 and is the current Chairman.

Mr. Roberts holds honors and master degrees in Geology from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, where he has been elected to an Honorary Fellowship. He has also been elected to the Oxford Chancellors Court of Benefactors.

Michael Frey

Director and Sr. Vice President Exploration & Development

Mr. Frey is a graduate of the University of Alberta, with more than 25 years of business, exploration and development activities in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Frey has been involved in senior management and oversight roles with both public and private companies overseeing exploration and business development activities in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Mr. Frey brings a fundamentals basis to identify and acquire unique resource opportunities which provide significant growth potential across diverse geological and economic environments.

It is expected that two additional directors will be added to the board of Jasper following the Transaction and that the Company will appoint a Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary although no candidates have been selected at this time.

If and when such candidates are selected, the Company will issue a subsequent news release in accordance with the policies of the TSXV which will include the names and biographies of such candidates, summary financial information of each of Tacitus and Delfan as well as any additional information on the Transaction not contained herein.

The trading of common shares of Jasper has been halted as a result of this announcement and will remain halted pending receipt by the TSXV of certain required materials from Jasper and until Jasper engages a sponsor or a sponsorship exemption is granted. The Company intends to apply for an exemption from the sponsorship requirements of the TSXV in connection with the Transaction. There is no assurance that such sponsorship exemption will be granted or be granted on terms satisfactory to the parties.

Cautionary Statements

Statements in this press release may contain forward-looking information including in relation to the Transaction, the conditions to closing of the Transaction, the Company's business objectives, the sufficiency of the Private Placement to achieve such objectives, and the availability of additional financing in future. Any statements that are contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward- looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by securities law.

THIS PRESS RELEASE, REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE CANADIAN LAWS, IS NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR A SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO SELL ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN IN THE UNITED STATES. THESE SECURITIES HAVE NOT BEEN, AND WILL NOT BE, REGISTERED UNDER THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES ACT OF 1933, AS AMENDED, OR ANY STATE SECURITIES LAWS, AND MAY NOT BE OFFERED OR SOLD IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS UNLESS REGISTERED OR EXEMPT THEREFROM.

Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, TSXV acceptance, and, if applicable pursuant to TSXV rules and policies, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of Jasper should be considered highly speculative.

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS IN NO WAY PASSED UPON THE MERITS OF THE TRANSACTION AND HAS NEITHER APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE CONTENTS OF THIS PRESS RELEASE. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

SOURCE Jasper Mining Corp.
Sydney's Culinary Tales is a non-for-profit project that trains refugees in how to present cooking classes. Photo: Supplied

The mark of a good social enterprise project is one that results in win-wins. Supporters of Sydney-based Culinary Tales get to take a cooking class focusing on little known cuisines, such as Iranian, Pakistani or Yemeni, for a bargain price. Refugees get to share their cuisine and their tales and gain valuable work experience, while improving their English skills. Win-win.

Culinary Tales has only been running since 2014, currently under the direction of 21 year old Tara Mahapatra, and has seen classes whipping up bint al-sahn (a thin, layered honey cake from Yemen), pav bhaj (an Indian mixed vegetable curry with bread) and fattoush, the famous Lebanese salad.

"The whole purposes of the project is two provide two things; a source of income and employment through running hte classes, and a social connection, so they can share their experiences and connect with different people in the community," Mahapatra said.

Sydney's Culinary Tales is a non-for-profit project that trains refugees in how to present cooking classes. Photo: Supplied

"At the end of the class, we see people exchange numbers, and the participants have a real connection and learn about different cultures."

Community classes run with a maximum of ten participants, to ensure the cooking is a hands-on experience, but Culinary Tales has just expanded to offer classes for school groups, as well.

"They will spend half or a full day with year nine or ten students, either as a social justice exercise or to supplement their food technology classes - there's more of an emphasis on the cultural aspect."

Culinary Tales provides a framework for their refugee-turned-teachers, offering training in effective ways to run a class, how to delegate and budget for ingredients.

"We have a relationship with Newtown's Asylum Seeker Centre, who connects us with most of our teachers. A month ago, we ran information sessions their and now have a few ladies for Iran interested in our next lot of classes."

For a class to break even, they need a minimum of eight participants, Mahapatra said, and she is hoping to expand to a corporate class market soon.

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"The classes provide a great foundation for our teachers to leverage off, to gain work experience and improve their communication skills," she said.

"A lot of the time we find that our teachers feel like they've come to Australia and haven't been exposed to different people i n the community. They enjoying getting to talk to different people and talk about where they've come from. It makes them feel acknowledged."

Classes start from $65 for a three-hour program, with all proceeds going back to the program.

The Good Food team shines a spotlight on organisations and projects using food as a tool for change.

If there's a project or person you think should be featured, please email us at: editorial@goodfood.com.au
Signs prohibiting hoverboards hang in the Hudson Yards subway station, Tuesday, May 31, 2016, in New York. Hoverboards are attempting a comeback in the U.S., months after videos showing them bursting into flame went viral. On Wednesday, Segway will start taking pre-orders for a new version of the self-balancing scooter thatis been certified under U.S. fire safety standards. Federal safety officials are still looking at other standards to improve safe riding, and many places like airports and college campuses continue to ban them. (AP Photo/Lisa Gibbs) Signs prohibiting hoverboards hang in the Hudson Yards subway station Tuesday in New York. Hoverboards are attempting a comeback in the U.S., months after videos showing them bursting into flame went viral.

SHARE In this May 27, 2016, photo, company representative Zach Servideo demonstrates Segway's new self-balancing scooter, the MiniPro, in downtown Los Angeles. The MiniPro is going on sale on Amazon, Wednesday, June 1, 2016. Hoverboards are attempting a comeback in the U.S., months after videos showing them bursting into flame went viral. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon) Associated Press photos Company representative Zach Servideo demonstrates Segway's new self-balancing scooter, the MiniPro, in downtown Los Angeles. The MiniPro went on sale on Amazon on Wednesday. Hoverboards are attempting a comeback in the U.S., months after videos showing them bursting into flame went viral.

Newer models have more safety standards

By Ryan Nakashima, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES  Don't look now, but hoverboards are angling for a comeback.

Months ago, the powered scooters  which balance themselves but don't actually "hover"  largely vanished from the U.S. market after they exhibited a distressing tendency to burst into flame. Now, though, Segway and other manufacturers want consumers to give hoverboards a second chance.

On Wednesday, Segway  which also makes the eponymous upright scooter beloved by mall cops and airport security  will begin taking Amazon pre-orders for a new hoverboard, the MiniPro. Although the boards won't actually ship until July, it's a significant step, given that Amazon, Walmart and other retailers dumped the products months ago after videos of burning hoverboards went viral.

The MiniPro and other new scooters have passed new safety standards designed to prevent fires. But that doesn't mean they're completely safe  nor that manufacturers like Segway can overcome their enormous image problems.

Few consumer products have zoomed in from nowhere, only to literally crash and burn, as quickly as hoverboards did. Produced by little-known companies, the scooters shot to prominence late last year after a host of celebrities from Justin Bieber to Jamie Foxx were seen riding on them. Small manufacturers in China, which can quickly clone popular products, flooded the market with lookalikes.

Then came the fires and embarrassing falls by the likes of Kendall Jenner and Mike Tyson . Florida congressman Carlos Curbelo tweeted a post-Christmas picture of his arm in a sling with the message, "#hoverboard is for kids. My daughter got it. I ended up in @BaptistHealthSF."

Since last August, the Consumer Product Safety Commission counts at least 62 hoverboard-related fires and an estimated 7,200 falls that required emergency-room visits. It's still investigating 13 hoverboard makers, including Chinese companies such as Yooliked and Keenford Ltd. Many municipalities, airports and college campuses still ban the gadgets.

Turning all that around will be a challenge. Brand consultants point to the incredibly damaging nature of safety issues: Chipotle is still recovering from a 40 percent drop in sales after federal investigators probed the chain's E. coli outbreak last year.

On the other hand, hoverboards' earlier problems were mostly associated with no-name brands, making it possible for more reputable manufacturers to establish a better safety record, says Laura Ries, an Atlanta-based brand consultant.

That's what Segway, now a subsidiary of Beijing-based Ninebot , is counting on. Its solution starts with safety certification by UL (formerly Underwriters Laboratories), a venerable Northbrook, Illinois, firm that tests everything from toasters to outlet extenders. Among other tests, UL submerged the MiniPro in water, dropped it on concrete from a height of three feet and disassembled it to ensure its wiring wouldn't cause a short.

Several other manufacturers, including Razor USA, a private California company known for its kick scooters, have also received UL certification, and plan to relaunch hoverboards in the U.S. market soon.

The next step for Segway: making hoverboards easier to ride. Your typical board is little more than a skateboard turned sideways, with a large wheel on each end. Leaning forward causes you to accelerate; leaning back slows you down or starts a backward roll. (Gyroscopes and electronics keep the board upright.)

Segway's MiniPro adds a steering stick  a vertical padded bar in the middle of the board. Pushing one way or the other with the inside of your legs turns the board. If you're a skier, it's like carving around a mogul. Getting on isn't any more difficult than jumping on a skateboard.

Segway says the stick makes its board more of a "personal transporter" similar to its classic upright, handlebar-equipped Segway. It plans to lobby local governments to reclassify the MiniPro in order to sidestep existing hoverboard bans in some subways, universities and airports, says Brian Bucella, Segway's vice president of marketing and business development.

Hoverboards, however, may still have more hurdles to clear. The federal product-safety commission says it's looking into whether the scooters need to have settings that adjust to the rider's weight before zooming forward, back and turning in order to reduce the number of falls.

___

AP Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima at https://twitter.com/rnakashi . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/ryan-nakashima
FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2015 file photo, Paul Simon participates in the Country Music Hall of Fame benefit concert in New York. Simon's latest album, "Stranger to Stranger," will be released Friday, June 3. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

SHARE This CD cover image released by Concord Music shows, "Stranger to Stranger," the latest release by Paul Simon. (Concord via AP)

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP)  Look at the liner notes on Paul Simon's new disc, "Stranger to Stranger," and it seems like a laboratory of exotic instruments. Musicians use a mbira, a bamboo marimba, cloud chamber bowls, a chromelodeon, a zoomoozophone  and a cheap clock.

It's an album as notable for its sound as its songs, without the feel of an academic exercise. Simon, at 74, is more adventurous musically at an age many peers are content to ride on their reputations.

"There's no point in resting on laurels," said Simon, whose Manhattan office displays both of his Rock and Roll Hall of Fame trophies side by side. "You're either interested in an idea, in which case you pursue it, or you have no ideas or aren't interested in pursuing ideas. ... Rest is indicated by a sign on a staff."

Busting beyond his folk-rock roots is not new for Simon, an impulse that has become more pronounced in the past few decades following his work with African musicians on "Graceland" and Brazilians in "The Rhythm of the Saints." It hasn't always been smooth; the success of "Graceland" opened a debate about cultural appropriation.

"It's not like I set out to explore," he explained. "There's a connection that I'm following that pushes me toward some pleasing sound that I can barely imagine, so I go looking for it."

For the percussive "Stranger to Stranger," which is being released Friday, Simon was initially intrigued with flamenco music and the use of hand-claps. Through his son, Simon met and collaborated with Italian producer Digi G'Alessio, who records under the name Clap! Clap! Old recordings of the vocal group the Golden Gate Quartet are used to ghostly effect. But Simon's most intriguing journey took him to Montclair State University in New Jersey.

At the time Montclair housed a collection of instruments created by the late Harry Partch, a composer who worked with instruments that had smaller tuning differences than is typical. Simon brought a portable studio in to record instruments like the cloud chamber bowls  glass-shaped bowls that hang from a wooden frame and produce a haunting sound, said Robert Cart, director of Montclair's John J. Cali School of Music.

"I wasn't surprised that if there were a pop musician who was interested in the instruments, that it would be Paul Simon," he said.

Simon was the only popular musician to explore the Partch instruments in the 15 years they were housed at Montclair, Cart said. They've since moved to the University of Washington following a caretaker's death.

Simon believes he has an unusual songwriting process, connecting sounds together to see if they fit and bringing in lyrics later. Here, his observational songs muse on mortality, mental health, insomnia, romance and an overzealous security guard.

In "Wristband," the narrator is a musician who sneaks out of a concert hall for a smoke and isn't allowed back in because he lacks the evidence that he belongs backstage. Together with "The Werewolf," they contain a quality not always present in music: humor. The Milwaukee man he describes in "The Werewolf" had "a fairly decent wife," he sings. "She kills him  sushi knife."

"I've always had that in my music," he said. "A lot of it has been in there and people don't know that I'm kidding. My mind works in comedy a lot but my voice is not a comedic voice."

Later in the album, Simon guesses that it took dozens of takes for him to get the right read on a 12-letter obscenity that the song "Cool Papa Bell" even concedes is "an ugly word." The very surprise of it alters the song's mood.

Simon is heading out on tour, crafting a show with a mixture of the old and new. He understands the need for crowd-pleasing favorites, even for something he doesn't particularly like ("You Can Call me Al"). There are enough new songs from the past decade that go over well in concert, he said.

He's toured with Sting and done a "Graceland" reunion tour over the past few years. Don't expect any reunions with estranged partner Art Garfunkel. "I would have been happy enough to sing with Artie if it would have been pleasurable," he said.

When he finishes a new disc, Simon wonders whether it will be his last. But then the cycle of creativity begins again.

"Six months later you have an idea, and you do begin," he said. "That's happened to me my whole life. From that, I infer that it's part of my nature to do that. But it's not an automatic thing that will happen forever."

___

Follow David Bauder at twitter.com/dbauder. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/david-bauder
Graphic Illustration. Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a policy institute focusing on national security. Contact him at cliff@defenddemocracy.org.

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By Clifford D. May Is President Of The Foundation For Defense Of Democracies, A Policy Institute Focusing On National Security. Contact Him At Cliff@Defenddemocracy.Org.

In his 6,000-word speech on national security at the National Defense University last week, President Barack Obama devoted only one paragraph to the ideology of those who proclaim themselves Americas enemies. But those 92 words are worth a closer look.

Most, though not all, of the terrorism we face is fueled by a common ideology, the president began. Quite right: Al-Qaida, the Taliban, Irans rulers, Hezbollah, Hamas and many others who utilize terrorism do indeed see the world through similar lenses.

The president did not name their ideology but most of us have, over time, come to employ such terms as jihadism, Islamism, political Islam and radical Islam.

The president described this ideology as a belief by some extremists that Islam is in conflict with the United States and the West. This, too, is accurate. If you read the writings of Osama bin Laden, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and such Muslim Brotherhood intellectuals as Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna, there can be no doubt that, by their lights, such a conflict is inevitable  and well underway.

The extremists also believe, Obama continued, that violence against Western targets, including civilians, is justified in pursuit of a larger cause. He refrained from defining that cause, though earlier in the speech he did mention that deranged or alienated individuals have been inspired by larger notions of violent jihad.

Exactly: They believe that Muslims have been divinely commanded to wage jihad against those who refuse to accept Allah as the supreme authority of the universe; Mohammad as Allahs messenger; the Quran as the revealed and unchanging word of Allah; and sharia as the laws that all humankind must obey.

They believe, too, that the Dar al-Islam, the lands where Muslims rule, and the Dar al-Harb, the lands where infidels rule, cannot peacefully coexist.

Many Westerners find it hard to conceive that anyone could actually hold such beliefs. But for millennia there have been conflicts in which one group has imposed upon another its language, culture, religion and DNA. The use of religion or ideology to justify such aggression and domination is hardly new.

Next, the president said: Of course, this ideology is based on a lie, for the United States is not at war with Islam. That is something of a non sequitur: As noted above, a central tenet of the ideology hes discussing holds that Islam is at war with the United States and other nations that persist in rejecting Islams message  and that the conflict must continue until the infidels submit.

Further: And this ideology is rejected by the vast majority of Muslims. ... Indeed, most Muslims have no wish to wage war against non-Muslims, no desire to strap their children into bomb vests, or even to give money to the charities that support such missions.

But if only 5 or 10 percent of the worlds more than 1 billion Muslims do see such efforts as virtuous, were still looking at a substantial jihadist movement.

The president noted that Muslims are the most frequent victims of terrorist attacks. Yes, and whats more, the extremists reserve their most vehement hatred for fellow Muslims who reject their ideology, who  as they see it  have abandoned the true faith in favor of a watered-down interpretation of Islam.

They call such Muslims apostates, and the punishment for apostasy is death. This is among the reasons so few Muslim dare speak out against the fundamentalists.

Obama concluded his single-paragraph disquisition with this: Nevertheless, this ideology persists. That raises the key strategic question: What is to be done? The president answered: This war, like all wars, must end. Thats what history advises. Thats what our democracy demands.

Wars do end  but rarely because one side declares them over unless, of course, that side is willing to accept defeat. Imagine President Franklin D. Roosevelt, circa 1943, deciding it was time to end the wars in Europe, Asia and North Africa even as German and Japanese troops continued to spread fascism. Imagine President John F. Kennedy saying it was time to wind down the Cold War even as the Soviets were expanding the frontiers of communism.

The ideology that confronts us today is no less totalitarian, supremacist and bellicose.

Surely, what history advises is that it is does no good to attempt to appease those who hate us. Surely, what democracy demands is that we stand up to those who threaten our freedom  even if that means paying the price and bearing the burden of a long war.
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CDI completes yearlong study on regional health needs

By Kenneth L. Stewart and Casey Jones

Community Development Initiatives at ASU was privileged during 2015 to lead an important yearlong study of regional health needs. CDI conducted the Survey of Health and Behavioral Health Needs of the Poor & Extremely Poor in West Texas between January and December of 2015.

The study covered 20 counties including Coke, Concho, Crockett, Edwards, Irion, Kimble, Kinney, Mason, McCulloch, Menard, Mills, Reagan, Runnels, San Saba, Schleicher, Sterling, Sutton, Tom Green, Upton and Val Verde.

CDI and 72 community-based organizations across the region collaborated to complete a detailed face-to-face interview with a sample representing the more than 39,000 residents of the 20 counties living in poverty.

CDI trained members of many local communities included in the study to help conduct interviews. Working along with CDI's own research staff, they completed 597 interviews, including 280 (46.9) percent) with respondents from the more than 14,000 "extremely poor" residents in the region who live on incomes below half of the poverty level.

Interviewers collected information on more than 170 health-related factors. These included 31 items modeled on questions answered in 2013 by respondents representing the general adult population of Texas in an annual survey called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).

Conducted statewide by the Texas Department of State Health Services, the BRFSS is part of a national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention effort to track and monitor behavior and health risks in the overall population. By including 31 related items, the project gained the ability to compare responses of poor and extremely poor residents to the general regional population as reported in the BRFSS results.

A general result of these comparisons is that the level of health risk among poor residents in the region is much higher than the general population.

For instance, most knowledgeable citizens recognize that people in poverty often do not have a personal doctor, and frequently have trouble paying the cost of going to see one. However, many would not anticipate the large gaps the survey revealed between the poor and the overall adult population on these important factors affecting access to health care.

Many people also know that low-income adults are more likely to smoke or use tobacco products. Fewer would guess, however, that 25 percent more local adults in poverty are current tobacco users.

In fact, more than four of every 10 (43.4 percent) of the 275 Tom Green County residents interviewed in the survey of the poor and extremely poor reported they smoke or use tobacco. This compares to an estimate from the 2013 BRFSS of 18.7 percent for the overall adult population of the county. A higher level of exposure to second hand smoke in the home is a related issue for local residents living in poverty.

Meanwhile, the American Lung Association's recent 2016 State of Tobacco Control report gives Texas a straight "F" grade for creating access to tobacco cessation services, despite estimates that smoking costs Texans more than $8.8 billion annually and more than 28,000 die from smoking-related causes.

Obesity is another significantly elevated health risk within the local poverty population. The interview data indicates that 44.6 percent of the poor in Tom Green County are obese, compared to 32.8 percent of the overall county population according to the BRFSS. The added level of difficulty reported by the poor in getting access to fresh fruits and vegetables aggravates the problem.

The excess number of people in poverty who report being diagnosed with depression is one of the most telling findings from the survey. One of two (50.2 percent) poor and extremely poor residents of Tom Green County confirmed to interviewers that they were told by a professional they had depression or anxiety.

A comparable item in the 2013 BRFSS indicated that medical or mental health professionals similarly diagnosed 15.1 percent of the county's overall adult population.

Gregory Rowe, executive director of the regional MHMR Services, touched on the potent importance of this disparity in his excellent recent appeal to raise awareness of mental illness. In the May 12 edition of the Standard-Times, Rowe wrote that "people living with a serious mental illness die 25 years earlier than other Americans, largely because of other treatable medical conditions that are complicated by mental illness."

Based on these and other findings from the survey, CDI identified hundreds of needs for reducing health risks across the 20 counties in the study region. These included 20 challenging issues for Tom Green County.

To gain a sense of the priority that should be attached to various needs, the project team contacted a wide variety of key informants comprised of community leaders and stakeholders who work every day in health care, or in the trenches providing services to the poor. Thirty-eight key informants in Tom Green County rated each of the 20 issues identified by CDI from the survey results.

The key informants used a rating system to assign priorities. They rated every issue on each of four separate factors including: (1) prevalence  the number of people potentially affected; (2) significance  the consequences of not addressing the need; (3) impact  the impact on vulnerable populations; and (4) feasibility  the likelihood that the community takes action.

Informants used higher ratings on a five-point scale to assign a greater sense of prevalence, significance, impact or feasibility to an issue. Of course, lower scores signaled less priority.

The average of the four ratings provided the overall priority score for each issue.

The process resulted in the following seven top priorities for Tom Green County: increase ability to address needs of growing numbers of seniors and children; prevent diabetes and reduce hospitalization for diabetes; increase investment in community health needs; prevent obesity; reduce cost and other barriers to care; increase services for depression; and increase services for alcohol and drug abuse.

Concerted efforts to work together as a community on any one of these priorities could lead to immense improvements in the quality of life among the county's poverty population while averting countless early deaths from preventable causes and saving millions or billions of dollars in avoidable economic costs to the community.

To us, the most challenging result from the rating process is the relatively timid sense of feasibility conveyed by the key informants. Feasibility, as noted, refers to the assessment by key informants of the likelihood of the community taking action on a given health-related need.

For the top Tom Green County priorities, feasibility ratings from the 38 key informants ranged from 2.9 (for the need to reduce cost and other barriers to care) to 3.7 (for addressing the needs of seniors and children. The average feasibility rating for top seven priorities was 3.3 on the five-point scale.

This finding shows the key informants generally held only a moderate sense that community actions to address priority health needs are feasible. The finding clashes with much stronger assessments from key informants that the top priority health needs strongly impact vulnerable groups and carry significant consequences if not addressed.

Like the beloved journalist and Texas commentator Molly Ivins quipped, "It's a low-tax, low-service state  so shoot us. The only depressing part is that, unlike Mississippi, we can afford to do better. We just don't."

For the sake of a vibrant community and sustainable economy in the future, we hope Tom Green County's leaders and citizens will come together to work in ways like never before to solve just one of the challenging, high-priority health and behavior risks.

Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas and the San Angelo Health Foundation provided support for the Survey of Health and Behavioral Health Needs of the Poor & Extremely Poor in West Texas. However, the observations expressed in this article are strictly those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Methodist Healthcare Ministries or the San Angelo Health Foundation.

Susan McLane served as project director for The Survey of Health and Behavioral Health Needs of the Poor & Extremely Poor in West Texas. Cera Cantu served as research assistant to the project.

Kenneth L. Stewart is director of Community Development Initiatives at the ASU Center for Community Wellness, Engagement, and Development. Casey Jones is recently retired professor of political science at ASU. Contact them at casey.jones@angelo.edu or kenneth.stewart@angelo.edu.
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Has it occurred to no one who favors the bathroom law enacted by North Carolina and contemplated by Texas officials how it's supposed to play out? Something like this:

People in women's clothes and makeup, possibly without what in Shakespeare's day were called "privy members"  but whose birth certificates say they were male when they were born  would join us boys in the men's room when the coffee or the beer forces them to answer nature's call.

Surely transgender haters haven't thought it out this far; otherwise, they'd have left things as they were. And as much as it would serve them right to have transgender women sidling up next to them at the sink, it wouldn't serve anyone else right, transgender people least of all.

The twisted logic of the law calls to mind a theory that the late Texas historian Joe Frantz put forth as to why Texas A&M University integrated racially sooner than it allowed women. Frantz had a deadpan comic delivery similar to Jack Benny's, with similarly long pauses, but with a twang. His explanation of Aggie logic went like this:

"Do you want (pause) your son (pause) to go off to A&M (pause) and marry (pause) a woman?"

Do you want your daughter to go into a women's room and be molested by a man who deliberately misinterpreted a transgender-friendly bathroom policy to mean that he could go into the women's room to molest your daughter? Well, do you?

A lot of people are asking that question as if it were a serious question. According to the logic behind the bathroom law, it's what's bound to happen under the gender identity-friendly policies favored by Target and compassionate school districts such as Fort Worth's.

Here's another question being asked of Texans by their state's top officials: Do you want the imperialistic Obama administration to usurp a state's right to put transgender people in their place?

Gov. Greg Abbott has accused the president of trying to change laws "as if he were a king" because the administration warned North Carolina that its law could put it afoul of Title IX and it could lose federal education funding. In Abbott's world, which by rights should be confined to the inside of his head but unfortunately is all of Texas, protecting civil rights and preventing gender discrimination is a divine right of kings.

And now (Joe Frantz-style pause) Texas (pause) is suing the U.S. government (pause) at our expense (pause) because it considers discrimination (pause) against transgender people (pause) a state's right.

Texans should be outraged, if not for the right human-rights reasons then because it's costing them money. It's unfortunate but true that some people don't mind discriminating as long as it's for free.

For all the failures of logic that have given this issue its momentum, arguably the craziest of all is that we Texans have allowed an accused felon to make the decision to go to court and represent us there, while saying sanctimonious things unctuously, as is Attorney General Ken Paxton's irritating style. Paxton is under indictment accusing him of steering clients to investments without disclosing that he received commissions.

With apologies to Miranda, Texas has a right to an attorney not under indictment, and nothing Paxton says should be used in a court of law on Texas' behalf. We have a right for Paxton to remain silent on our behalf, at least until such time that a kangaroo court can be rigged to go through the motions of clearing him.

Instead we pay Paxton's salary and he has used his time on our dime to say the following in a court filing, in our name: "Defendants have conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment, flouting the democratic process, and running roughshod over commonsense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights."

All the defendants have conspired to do is make bullies quit picking on people, which sounds like compassionate common sense. Our attorney general, governor and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are conspiring, meanwhile, to force people in dresses and high heels into the men's room with the rednecks. That's a social experiment that no one with a lick of common sense would propose.
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The following editorial appeared in USA TODAY:

Everyone, including Hillary Clinton, now agrees that the newly confirmed secretary of state made a mistake in 2009 when she decided, for the sake of "convenience," to run her own email system out of her home in Chappaqua, New York, rather than use an official State Department email account.

But a new report by State's inspector general makes clear that within two years, Clinton's bad decision had turned into something far worse: a threat to national security, one that she repeatedly ignored despite multiple warnings.

Warning No. 1: The report, released last week, reveals that in January 2011, hackers were attacking her private server. Twice, the Hillary and Bill Clinton staffer responsible for maintaining the server had to shut it off to protect data held by America's top diplomat and the former president. The staffer notified State Department officials of the attempted hack, and Clinton's top aides there emailed each other to say that "sensitive" matters should not be discussed with Clinton over email.

Warning No. 2: Two months later, the assistant secretary for diplomatic security sent a memorandum on cybersecurity threats directly to Clinton, warning of a dramatic increase in efforts "to compromise the private home email accounts of senior department officials" in a likely attempt to "gain access to policy documents and personal information that could enable technical surveillance and possible blackmail." The memo to Clinton warned her that some personal email accounts had already been compromised and had "been reconfigured  to automatically forward copies of all composed emails" to the hackers.

Warning No. 3: That May, Clinton herself suspected that there might have been another hacking incident when she "received an email with a suspicious link." Hours after her aides discussed the issue over email, Clinton received another email with a suspect link, this time from the personal account of the "undersecretary of state for political affairs."

Warning No. 4: A month later, the State Department sent a cable to "all diplomatic and consular posts" about the dangers of unsecured personal email accounts. Staffers were ordered to "avoid conducting official Department business from your personal email accounts." Who signed that cable? Hillary Clinton.

Those warnings, coming in a span of six months, should have made any responsible public official, even one without Clinton's access to classified information on cyber threats from the vast U.S. intelligence network, aware of the national security dangers of failing to secure the secretary of state's email communications.

Instead, Clinton and several of her top aides continued to use personal email for sensitive State Department business thousands of times.

If Clinton wants to become the president of the United States, she needs to explain how she could make such a reckless decision. She had a chance to answer questions when the Obama administration-appointed inspector general contacted her about the investigation that was released last week. Among five recent secretaries of state, only Clinton refused.

While Clinton is under potential criminal investigation by the FBI for the mishandling of classified material sent through her email, remaining silent might be in her best interests and it is certainly her right. But to be president, she is going to have to convince voters that she can put the national security of the United States above her own short-term self-interest.

It's already clear that, in using the private email server, Clinton broke the rules. Now it remains to be seen whether she also broke the law.
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By Suzanne Carter Hahn

"Our guide looks and sounds like Meryl Streep!" I wrote in my journal on Sept. 27, 2007, on a trip to Nuremberg, Germany.

"First tour stop, the stadium where Hitler's Nazi rallies began in 1934. Next, to the Justice Department. In the late 1940s, the War Crimes Tribunal sat in Courtroom 600. Their job? To judge the Germans responsible for their country's downfall. In 1963 I saw the movie 'Judgment at Nuremberg,' and was profoundly affected by the story. Set in 1948, the movie covers just one of the famous Nuremberg Justice Trials  only four defendants. But it captures a moment in history that cannot be forgotten."

When I first returned from Europe, I intended to see the movie again. I finally did  just last week. It's a masterpiece, then and now. But it's painful to be reminded that humans can be capable of monstrous acts. Yes, ignorance is bliss. At least in the short term.

I've known Germany's dark history since 1945. I remember my mother crying when the concentration camps were liberated. There were graphic pictures on the front page of the Standard-Times. I was 7 years old.

Like many in my generation, my education began with "The Diary of Anne Frank." Then Elie Wiesel's "Night" and Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning," and books by Primo Levi, an Italian Jew whose life ended in suicide when he could no longer live with what he had witnessed.

I visited the Washington Holocaust Museum when it opened in 1993. I saw lampshades made of human skin, piles of gold teeth and the discarded shoes of children, all evidence of man's inhumanity to man. How did it happen?

Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in 1933 and grew until it reached a tipping point on Nov. 9, 1938  Kristalnacht (Crystal Night), considered the genesis of the Final Solution. Jewish synagogues and businesses throughout Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia were attacked  many destroyed  by German storm troopers. Hitler had stirred basic human emotions  anger, fear, hatred and pride  to a fever pitch. And the already blinded German people followed him into the dark.

Nuremberg was Hitler's favorite city and the ideological center of Nazi Germany. It's where Hitler's dream began and ended. In the last days of World War II, the British RAF bombed the city into near oblivion.

By 1948, only Germany's judges, who upheld and carried out Hitler's laws by legitimizing murder, torture and untold brutalities, were left to prosecute. When Hitler came to power, these were highly educated men, trained in the law. Justice as they had known it was gone.

Some refused to serve in the new regime. Those who remained embraced the new order and sewed swastikas on their sleeves. Their lawyers later argued they had hoped to positively affect the system from within. Hard to prove.

Fear had overtaken the German people  an old, old story. If Germany were to return to glory, lambs must be sacrificed. Did ordinary Germans know what was happening? Or choose not to? What started as a passing phase became a way of life  the infamous slippery slope. The Third Reich, famous for making the trains run on time, also made sure laws were followed  to the letter. Were the laws just? No one seemed to care.

As late as 1938, Winston Churchill praised Hitler for bringing Germany out of recession. American industrialists continued to profit from German trade. Our government did not have a specific immigration policy for German Jews until 1944. And yet John F. Kennedy's book, "Why England Slept," his senior thesis at Harvard, was written in 1940. But most heads stayed buried in sand.

As the justice trials dragged on, tensions were rising. The U.S. and Great Britain had joined their sectors of Berlin and implemented the Marshall Plan. Russia threatened to blockade Berlin, and the Allied commanders were planning airlifts to supply the city. They needed the good will of Germans if the effort were to succeed. And they believed that if Berlin were lost to the Eastern bloc, all of Germany would follow.

At the same time, Russia was gaining tighter control of the Eastern European countries. The tribunal was under heavy pressure to wrap up the trials. But to its credit, it finished the job.

The defense argued that judges do not make law. Their job is to ensure laws are obeyed. Witnesses for the defense testified that more than one judge under scrutiny had been beyond reproach before Germany's justice system was hijacked by the Nazi Party. The tribunal wasn't buying it. They ruled that the defendants had actively supported illegal German law, and that each judge bore responsibility for his actions.

The court found that if any judge's ruling had resulted in just one death, that judge was guilty. It was the ultimate test for each defendant, and all failed. In July 1949, each judge was sentenced to life in prison. (Although justice prevailed, all were free by the mid-1950s.)

History is littered with fallen nations, often destroyed from within. And here we are today, slippery slopes in every direction. "These are the times that try men's souls," Thomas Paine wrote in 1775. Paine believed the "summer soldier and the sunshine patriot" alone cannot do the job, that every citizen is responsible for the good of his country.

Watch "Judgment at Nuremberg"  at least every 50 years or so. Lest we forget.

Suzanne Carter Hahn

lives in San Angelo.

Suzanne Carter Hahn lives in San Angelo.
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Bobby D. Lacy

I was reminiscing on Memorial Day as I simultaneously watched some of the memorable events, both past and present, being televised and celebrated. They ranged from acts of valor on the battlefield to stories of determined efforts to help those who bravely fought for our American causes, and even to hearing the president in his annual holiday ritual honoring all involved.

As a veteran, I always feel proud because I believe that we are worthy, all of us who served honorably in our armed services.

One of the things I thought about as I scanned the channels was that President Obama had just returned from honoring the memorable event that ended World War II, the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. I say honoring because he talked of it as a historical event. It happened, right or wrong, depending on how it is viewed by whoever will.

He spoke to those of one country on behalf of those of the other country, who at the time of the event were the worst of enemies. He spoke in a manner that gave credence to both sides and even justified devastating acts of war, effectively combining the two in a way that only he can, and he left with an outward appearance of continued harmony between the nations and a profound respect from those present.

It was beautiful to observe and some believe it was very important in the annals of American history. Others do not. How can they, when they are trying to rate and even degrade all that the president does as insignificant, or not the sensible thing to do, or simply just wrong?

And while he was in Japan, The president spoke to some of those survivors of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima many years ago. After he was finished, those in attendance gave him a great ovation, and survivors even hugged him.

But some on television try to tell us that what he said and did was wrong, while at the same time omitting his speech entirely and instead televising to us only his ensuing answer to a reporter's question about Donald Trump. They contend it was not something that a president should say about a presidential candidate. It is not presidential for sure, they tell us, especially if it is not favorable to Trump.

However, despite the day's ups and downs, I am still hopeful, as a veteran who served during the original Iranian crisis (Navy, 1975-1980), even spending a then-record 110 consecutive days at sea aboard the USS Constellation, CV-64, a ready and heavily armed aircraft carrier waiting on orders during that conflict.

I hope to someday, somehow see us as the country we thought we were fighting for and defending at that time. We were a diverse crew, hailing from many places and having many different backgrounds and upbringings. But we were fighting for one cause and one nation, united, under God.

And we received our orders from the highest office in the land then, just like today, and we pledged to obey those orders, even to our peril. We veterans did that for our country that we loved and vowed, under oath, to defend.

The prevailing situation doesn't much seem like that these days. I wonder if the next president, Republican or Democrat, will be responsible for changing the overall atmosphere, because some have blamed the deterioration of it all on Obama.

Some say that he has truly changed America and we are, for sure, headed in the wrong direction. They continue to say that about our leader, and our situation, although economic conditions for many of us have greatly improved, or so we think.

At the same time, others around the world seem to respect our president and even think highly of what he is doing and has done around the world, with or without those tasked with the specific duties of at least helping him do just that.

Some speak to the contrary and publicly condemn our president all the time and often without justification. Yet we call out other nations for any and all humanitarian violations.

On Memorial Day we honored our fallen veterans and praised those still living and who might be forever dependent on our undying attention to their present and future needs, our needs. It was very inspirational, even though it conjured up not-so-great thoughts about where we are as a nation.

Thanks, America. We veterans appreciate you.

Bobby D. Lacy lives

in San Angelo.
A lawsuit by supporters of Bernie Sanders seeking more time and information from election officials for independent voters -- the bloc crucial to the Vermont senator's presidential hopes in next week's California primary -- failed Wednesday to impress a federal judge, who called the suit tardy, misdirected and meritless.Filed May 20, the suit accused state and local officials of providing misleading or incomplete instructions in their mailings and websites about the rights of nonaligned voters to cast a presidential ballot for a Democrat, American Independent or Libertarian candidate next Tuesday. To do so, a voter must request such a ballot by mail -- the deadline was Tuesday -- or at the polls."No-party-preference voters' voting power is being diluted," attorney William Simpich argued during a court hearing in San Francisco, noting that nonaligned voters make up 23 percent of the California electorate. Information provided to voters varies between counties, he said, and "this is a case that cries out for uniformity."But U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the suit was filed much too late, just 2 1/2 weeks before the election, and mostly alleged violations of state laws over which he has no jurisdiction. And he said the federal claims -- that election officials are discriminating against independent voters, in violation of the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act -- were unfounded."The citizens of California are smart enough to know what their rights are," Alsup said in denying Simpich's request for a court order requiring new statewide voter information. He said the ballot pamphlet and other election materials tell independent voters they have a right to request a presidential ballot from one of three parties, and "if their ballot doesn't say Sanders, they can ask."Sardonically, the judge told Simpich he could seek an emergency order from a federal appeals court, the U.S. Supreme Court or the International Court of Justice. Simpich said afterward that the plaintiffs hadn't decided whether to file an appeal in federal court or refile their claims in state court.The suit was filed against the state and San Francisco and Alameda counties by a group of Sanders supporters called the Voting Rights Defense Project, along with the American Independent Party and two individual voters. They argued that the absence of clear statewide instructions in ballot materials left many independent voters in the dark about how to obtain partisan presidential ballots, leading some to write in a candidate's name, which won't be counted.They asked for a variety of remedies, including extending the state's registration deadline from May 23 to election day, a step that election officials called unworkable and a formula for chaos. Simpich scaled down his requests at Wednesday's hearing, seeking only a brief statewide announcement, by email, radio and social media, on how to obtain a presidential ballot.But the state already mails that information to voters, said Deputy Attorney General Sharon O'Grady, representing Secretary of State Alex Padilla. Padilla's office also provides the information on signs posted at polling places, said Alameda County's attorney, Senior Deputy County Counsel Raymond Lara."All poll workers are trained to actively inform (nonaligned) voters they can get crossover ballots" to vote for president, said San Francisco's lawyer, Deputy City Attorney Joshua White. "There's no evidence of any kind of burden on voting rights."
With Opa-locka on the edge of bankruptcy, Gov. Rick Scott declared a financial emergency for the city on Wednesday, calling for a special oversight board to take over the city's finances and stem the bleeding that has led to crippling debts and cutbacks that have impacted every level of government.The executive order comes just weeks after Miami-Dade County officials sent letters to the governor warning that the city could be shut down because of gaping budget shortfalls in the millions."It's finally coming to end," said Steve Shiver, a former city manager who called for the state to step in last year after turning up grave financial problems. "This is long, long overdue. It's critical that they find the true financial picture of Opa-locka."The state will appoint members of the oversight board to monitor the spending of every city department -- the second time the city of 16,000 residents has been placed under an emergency since 2002."We are deeply concerned about this community and all the residents that live in Opa-locka," said McKinley Lewis, Scott's spokesman. "The governor's office has been in constant communication with local officials and will continue to work with them on ways to fix the issues facing this community."Scott's order was released late Wednesday, just as the city commission voted to request that the governor set up a "financial oversight committee" but stopped short of publicly declaring a financial emergency.Civic activists who attended the meeting expressed surprise when they learned that the governor had taken a more dramatic step. "This is a total surprise," said Natasha Ervin. "But if we're in a state of emergency, I'm happy."At nearly every step, the Opa-locka commission -- harshly criticized by county officials for not acting sooner to stop the spiraling debts -- will need approval to take any actions that could affect the city's finances, according to the order. That means the city would need the oversight board's permission to spend any significant amount of money.For months, County Mayor Carlos Gimenez had urged Scott to issue the order -- a rare action taken only when local governments are in serious fiscal trouble -- while the FBI carries out a sweeping corruption investigation targeting some of the city's most prominent leaders, including Mayor Myra Taylor, City Manager David Chiverton and City Commissioner Luis Santiago.Not since the late Gov. Lawton Chiles ordered a takeover of the city of Miami -- with a $68 million shortfall -- has a Miami-Dade city captured so much attention over a financial crisis. Just last week, one of the outspoken critics of the city's handling of the budget, Commissioner Terence Pinder, took his own life by crashing his SUV into a tree. His death came two days before he was to turn himself in to Miami-Dade prosecutors in a state corruption case.Scott's order comes nearly nine months after Shiver, who had been hired as city manager in September, discovered millions in undisclosed debts. Despite efforts by Mayor Taylor to deal with the problems internally, Shiver wrote to the governor, revealing nearly $8 million in debts."The city can't pay its bills," he said at the time. Shiver was fired in November in a 3-1 voted led by the mayor, who accused the manager of taking the issue to the governor without consulting the commission.Longtime resident Alvin Burke, who attended the meeting on Wednesday, said the commissioners had never discussed a financial emergency. When told by a Miami Herald reporter of the governor's order, Burke said he was "elated. That's great news. It took long enough."
A 31-year-old woman from Honduras, a nation ravaged by the Zika virus, gave birth to a baby girl suffering from the devastating effects of the virus on Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Center, the first believed to be born with microcephaly in the continental United States, her physician said.The mother, who was not identified, contracted the disease in Honduras after being bitten by a mosquito early in her pregnancy. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that she was infected with the Zika virus, said Dr. Manny Alvarez, chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Hackensack.The baby was delivered "uneventfully" at 3 p.m. by cesarean section after an ultrasound on Friday confirmed the birth defects _ low birth weight and severe microcephaly, a condition in which the baby's head is smaller than expected. It can lead to seizures, developmental delays, hearing loss and severe mental disabilities, Alvarez said. The baby also has intestinal and visual issues, Alvarez said.The baby "came out crying," and the mother looked sad, the doctor said. "You could see the pain in her heart," Alvarez said of the mother.There have been 591 cases of Zika diagnosed in the United States, but it was not clear on Tuesday whether there have been any other cases of babies born with serious defects because of the virus in the continental U.S. Earlier this year, the CDC reported that a baby was born with microcephaly related to the Zika virus in Hawaii.In the Hackensack case, the mother had been visiting relatives after arriving in the United States a little more than a month ago. Alvarez declined to say where she was staying.Before coming to the United States, she was monitored by physicians in Honduras after her mother, a microbiologist, shipped a blood sample to the CDC in Atlanta to confirm she had contracted Zika, Alvarez said. She told doctors in Hackensack on Friday that "something is wrong with my baby's brain," Alvarez said."We saw on the ultrasound the baby was highly affected with multiple congenital abnormalities, including severe microcephaly," Alvarez said.The hospital determined the woman, who was 35 weeks pregnant, was at risk for Zika and contacted state health officials and the CDC, Alvarez said. She was not admitted Friday but returned Tuesday for a follow-up visit, Alvarez said."Our high-risk team saw the baby was not doing well," Alvarez said. "We decided the baby needed to be delivered." Alvarez assembled a team of experts including neonatologists, infectious disease experts and others. The baby, born a little more than one month premature, weighed less than 6 pounds at birth, Alvarez said.The CDC registry of pregnant women who have been confirmed to have Zika virus lists 168 women in the United States, and 142 in U.S. Territories, including Puerto Rico, as of May 19. Of those, fewer than 12 had "adverse outcomes," including birth defects or miscarriage, and the majority of pregnancies are ongoing, CDC officials said last month.The CDC has issued a travelers' alert for U.S. citizens going to the Central American nation of Honduras. The agency says that all the cases of Zika in the United States were the result of traveling abroad. The virus typically is spread by mosquitoes but can also be spread by sexual contact.Alvarez said the mother, whose husband is home in Honduras, accepted that her baby, her second child, would have challenges. He said she had told him that she wanted to talk publicly about her baby because "people have to know Zika can destroy a perfect life. I want to make sure people are careful and take precautions."
On Wednesday, in the afternoon, at Government House, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC greeted students from Birkdale State School touring Government House.

Earlier, at the Shrine of Remembrance, Brisbane, the Governor was represented by Honorary Aide-de-Camp, Lieutenant Gail Rogers, Royal Australian Army, at the 2016 Indigenous Veterans Ceremony who laid the first wreath.
On Tuesday, in the morning, at Brisbane Airport, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC toured facilities, met staff and received a briefing on operations.

In the evening, at Government House, the Governor and Mrs Kaye de Jersey hosted a reception in support of QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, where His Excellency addressed guests.
Description

GIS - 02 June, 2016: Canada has expressed interest to work on the possibilities of simplifying the visa application procedures for Mauritian Nationals travelling to Canada following a request of the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, to the Canadian Authority yesterday. Canada has expressed interest to work on the possibilities of simplifying the visa application procedures for Mauritian Nationals travelling to Canada following a request of the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, to the Canadian Authority yesterday.

This issue was at the fore of discussions during a courtesy call by the newly appointed High Commissioner designate of Canada to Mauritius, Mrs Sandra Mc Cardell, on the Prime Minister, at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis.

In a statement, Mrs Sandra Mc Cardell, conveyed her appreciation with regards to the countrys economic growth as well as good governance. She also gave a positive response to the appeal of the Prime Minister in respect of visa procedures for Mauritian Nationals. She further pointed out that Canada is studying the various possibilities towards reducing the visa formalities for those who have already visited the country as well as issuing a long-term visa for a maximum period of ten years. The possibilities of introducing a visa-free travel for high government officials travelling to Canada were also evoked.

Other topics raised pertained to the shared concerns of both parties regarding environmental issues and climate change. Furthermore, the strengthening of partnership as well as encouraging and boosting trade and investments between the two countries were also on the agenda.
Description

 GIS - 02 June, 2016: The High Commissioner of India to Mauritius, Mr Anup Kumar Mudgal, paid a farewell call yesterday on the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, at the New Treasury Building in Port Louis.

In a statement, Mr Anup Kumar Mudgal, expressed appreciation regarding his meeting with the Prime Minister which he qualified as very cordial and fruitful. He underlined that discussions focused on strengthening further both bilateral and friendly ties between the two countries which is rooted in bonds of kinship and culture.

The High Commissioner spoke about several joint ventures initiatives that have been materialised between India and Mauritius during his mandate as High Commissioner since January 2014. He also recalled some of the events that have contributed in furthering the relations between the two countries namely, the visit of the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, in Mauritius last year as well as the visit of the Prime Minister, Sir Anerood Jugnauth, in India.

Mr Anup Kumar Mudgal concluded by stating that he has sought the guidance of Sir Anerood Jugnauth, for the way forward in strengthening the comprehensive and dynamic partnership between India and Mauritius.

It will be recalled that Mr Anup Kumar Mudgal, was appointed High Commissioner of India to Mauritius on 15th January 2014. Mr Mudgal has previously served in Indian diplomatic missions and posts in Mexico City, Lima, Belgrade, Brussels, Vienna, and Munich. In India, he has served in the East Europe Division, South East Asia Division, and at various times headed the Disarmament, Establishment, and Administration Divisions of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Radical beginnings

Scaling back

First things first

ROOM FOR ALL As municipalities have scaled back their smart city ambitions  from grand plans to more modest projects  a space has opened up for niche vendors. No longer the sole realm of big-name corporations, smart city technologies are increasingly being purveyed by niche suppliers.



One such vendor is AutoGrid Systems of Redwood Shores, Calif., whose products analyze energy data generated by smart meters, building management systems, voltage regulators, thermostats and other equipment.



The niche play fits into local governments overall plans. The smart city evolution is happening alongside this evolution in the electric grid. So cities view our technology as a tool to integrate all of these sources of energy, said Quique Schwarz, vice president of products and analytics at the 50-person firm.



As niche players, firms like AutoGrid promise to deliver a level of specific expertise a bigger provider might not possess. We work with just this problem, so we are able to suggest best practices that we see globally, Schwarz said.



AutoGrid is hardly alone in its efforts to carve out a space in the shadow of the giants. Consider the recent Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, which drew some 450 exhibitors, many of them niche companies like BreezoMeter (air pollution); Atos Worldgrid (energy management); Dimenteq (GIS solutions); and Black and Veatch (engineering, procurement and construction services).



There is this fascinating, complicated ecosystem developing, and it is the perfect time for these niche players to have a place at the table, said IDC analyst Ruthbea Yesner Clarke. The big vendors have the technology in general, but they may not have the specific expertise.



There is a lot of jockeying right now, as smaller players look to forge alliances and stake out their positions. But many of those players wont stay small for long. We will start to see some interesting acquisitions happening as soon as these markets get more mature, once the cities start getting specific budgeting for this, she said.





Lighting

Transportation

Parking

when it began suggesting that emerging technologies could dramatically change the way cities served their populations. A new wave of sensors, meters, data collection and data processing tools: All these would come together to radically change the urban landscape, to create what came to be known as the smart city.It was a grand vision, a sweeping ambition. From a technology perspective it was about everything being interconnected and intelligent, said Jennifer Belissent, principal analyst with Forrester. Everything would be sensor enabled, there would be data generated by everything around the city and that would make everything smart.That vision continues to play out, but not as first formulated. The biggest technology vendors of smart city systems have followed their customers in a trend toward more modest goals. Instead of the sweeping overhaul first envisioned, todays smart city initiatives are evolving on a far more modest scale. How did all this change come about, where are smart cities today, and where are we heading?City managers had good reason to believe they could radically reshape their processes. Resources had emerged in the IT world unlike any seen before. The assumption when we started out was that, with unlimited compute and storage and bandwidth  would you run a city the same way? Would you run education and water and waste management the same? No you wouldnt, said Anil Menon, president of the Cisco Smart+Connected Communities program.It was all going to happen at once. Parking management, highway traffic flow, water management. Toxicity sensors would alert for water gone bad. Capacity sensors would tell us when it was time to empty the trash.It is perhaps not difficult to understand why city managers would have been drawn to a smart city program that offered sweeping changes. We had advanced analytics available as needed, enough to reroute traffic on the fly or to guide emergency response. We had the tools to achieve a new level of collaborative decision-making.At the same time, changes in the social fabric were pushing city leaders to take action on a big scale, with a growing demand for transparency and accountability. Citizens meanwhile were tapping into a rich vein of technology in their own lives, as they came to understand the potential of the new tools. As they began to see what the technologies could do, they started to expect improvements in the way the urban ecosystem was run.Some IT vendors were ready and willing to encourage what has been called the boil the ocean approach. We already had expertise in our organization around government administration solutions, around public safety solutions, health care and education, said Kathryn Willson, program director for the Microsoft CityNext initiative. While technical people across departments were still seeking stovepipe solutions, Microsoft encouraged them to seek bigger things.When Microsoft launched CityNext on a modest scale in 2013, the press was still predicting big things. This sort of efficiency could not only save lives during an emergency but also drive day-to-day savings that total millions, and perhaps even billions, of dollars over time, read one news report.Today few cities are talking about savings in the billions. Projects have been scaled back. The scope of potential change no longer sprawls across the urban landscape, but rather is limited to more targeted ambitions. What has changed?The scaling back of the grand vision began, as so often happens, with money. With the financial crisis, we were seeing businesses closing, we were seeing foreclosures, and for most municipalities that meant a sharp reduction in the budget, Belissent said. The capital-intensive IT infrastructure projects needed to launch smart city investing suddenly seemed less viable.At the same time, city managers discovered that their big ambitions were being rapidly thwarted by the nature of their own institutions. Stovepipes and silos were going to be stumbling blocks to across-the-board change.Youve got organizations that each have their own different priorities. One might be looking at public safety while another looks at energy efficiency, said Toni Oubari. As Verizons manager of Smart Communities, she has talked to over 300 mayors and 100 county representatives in researching smart city initiatives. Sometimes it comes down to who has the most power, when the better way to do it is to look at program management first. What are the top priorities and objectives? That is your framework and you can work from there.Finally, local governments have narrowed the scope of their smart city ambitions in response to public demand. Money helps in the beginning, but there are still people in the mix, Oubari said. Constituents want to see improvements in specific services, even when a citys overarching plan may not be moving in those particular directions.Maybe there is a chronic drought and you are running out of water, said Michael Dixon, general manager of IBM Smarter Cities. The best, most exciting leaps often come from crises. People dont make the big leaps sitting around the table with nice linen napkins.In addition to these varied pressures, city managers slowly came to discover that the new technologies, while promising, were not always ready for prime time. Tools that worked on the lab bench didnt always deliver when deployed in real-life situations. Everyone bought into this big-bang vision, but when they started to deploy they discovered the solutions were not fully developed and ruggedized. People couldnt have known that: These things cannot be tested in the lab. They have to be tested in a living context, Ciscos Menon said.Even when the technology could deliver, other pieces of the puzzle had yet to fall into place. Few technical standards existed that might define best practices or even measure success. That made it hard to deploy at scale, Menon said. Finally, a big plan needs a big infrastructure. Technology is not the only component to a smart city. It is also about having smart public-private partnerships, smart planning, the integration of physical infrastructure into digital infrastructure.Taken together, these diverse factors have pushed a rethink in the smart city program. No one talks about saving billions anymore. Now we talk about traffic lights, trash pickup  the incremental wins that over time might move the needle in the direction of better management and ultimately better living.All this brings us to the present day. No one doubts the smart city ambition is going to revolutionize urban management, but its going to happen incrementally. What does this mean, in practical terms? Forresters Belissent laid out a likely roundup of the low-hanging fruit that will make up initial smart steps in most cities. In fact, many such deployments are already up and running.Theres an immediate cost savings in going to LED, but the possibilities go further. Light posts become real estate to host Wi-Fi, a place to mount air quality sensors, and stations for attaching cameras that may manage security, traffic or pedestrian activity. All that data can drive economic development and help to determine real estate values. Not bad, for just a lamppost.Data-driven decision-making can help improve not only commuter traffic management but also the scheduling and routing of public transportation, not to mention optimizing pedestrian and bicycle paths.Embedded sensors already track available spots on the streets in a growing number of cities, connecting motorists to nearby parking options. Why not also connect drivers to other nearby services and amenities too?Its not exactly that cities are thinking smaller. Better to say that they are being strategic, setting their sights on the projects that are technologically, economically and politically doable, as well as those that best meet constituent needs. In particular, they are eager to identify projects that may have some tangible ROI. Oubari points to digital lighting as a way to save on energy costs without a vast capital outlay. (Verizon will build in the upgrade as a monthly cost.) Likewise, digital banners downtown can generate advertising revenue while simultaneously energizing revitalization efforts.IBMs Smarter Cities program offers a road map to spur thought among public-sector leaders. Planning and management projects might include public safety and government administration. Infrastructure improvements include water and energy initiatives. People solutions embrace health care and education. From these broad headings, technology planners can drill down to specific elements that seem most doable.One example of how this plays out in practical terms can be seen in IBMs initiatives in Miami-Dade County, Fla. It started with problems around water distribution. Data collected from smart sensors found that the county itself was the biggest consumer of water. The park system alone drank up roughly 360 million gallons of water per year at a cost of about $5 million.Asset management tools helped Miami-Dade assess and remediate shortcomings in the system. Officials then realized they could apply these same tools to optimize public transportation routes, overhauling a bus scheduling system built 50 years ago. That transportation data in turn helped to show where people congregate, which then led to the implementation of tools in public safety, from criminal activity data collection to electronic casebooks for police officers.Lesson learned? Youve got to start somewhere, Dixon said.Within the citys IT leadership, somewhere may begin not with lampposts or water meters, but rather with an internal infrastructure in need of modernization.Most cities so far have been trying to figure out how to squeeze efficiencies out of the systems they have, said Microsofts Willson. For more mature IT organizations, the implementation of smart tools will have to come hand in hand with a smartening up of ITs underlying bone structure. Now they are trying to figure out: What is the platform position they need to take to move forward? They are trying to understand the Internet of Things, to understand big data, in order to understand how all of these things are going to fit together.Decisions regarding platform will be a key element moving forward, said Joel Cherkis, global vice president at Oracle. Platform doesnt necessarily mean the platform as a service, although that is its own component. It also points to their underlying infrastructure, he said. How is information managed within the city from a security perspective? Its also about interoperability from the data perspective.Platform decisions made up front could determine the success of later efforts. Smart initiatives are more likely to succeed if elements such as education management, transportation and public safety all share a common core of technology, Cherkis said.For many the key here will lie in a systems-wide migration to the cloud. When we talk about smart cities, the cloud is what gives us the scale and the computational horsepower to do it, Willson said. In addition to enabling sheer volume, the cloud also can offer a shared workspace, one that finally breaks down the silos that have long hindered interdepartmental collaboration.In the smart city trajectory, sweeping ambition has given way to more modest goals. Weve gone from the City of Tomorrow to an improved parking system. Maybe there is a third way, an approach to smart cities that fits like Baby Bears chair: just right.AT&T envisions such an approach with its Smart Cities Framework. In this model, AT&T teams with a range of partners  Cisco, Deloitte, Ericsson, GE, IBM, Intel and Qualcomm Technologies  to strategize with a city and pull together three to five manageable projects, which are then deployed in a limited geography: 10 blocks on a college campus, or the west end of Dallas. Its bigger than a one-off but still more manageable than a grand sweep.If we can prove it can be done over a narrowly defined area, that gives the city the ammunition to go to their key stakeholders and show that three to five solutions do add more value than siloed point solutions deployed departmentally, said Mike Zeto, AT&Ts Smart Cities general manager. You show that a holistic strategy can be deployed and proven. Then you can raise the funds you need to take the key learnings from that framework and deploy them across the city.Even as the scope of the smart city ambition has been scaled back, IT managers have more finely honed their ultimate ambition: to make life better. Today its not just about servers and routers, said Menon. Now the city managers and deputy mayors are talking about outcomes. How can I decrease congestion? How can I create a better tourist experience? This is a very different conversation than weve seen in the past.
(TNS) -- PITTSBURGH -- A newly-developed task force has formed that will shape policy and research into self-driving autonomous vehicles.The task force is comprised of PennDOT officials as well as state and local politicians, industry stakeholders, educational institutions and other transportation officials.Called the Autonomous Vehicles Testing Policy Task Force, the group met Wednesday for the first time in Pittsburgh to talk about how it will shape the states approach to autonomous vehicles.The task force will work closely with officials from Carnegie Mellon University, which for 30 years has been working to ensure self-driving cars will be safe, affordable and ultimately, accepted by the public, according to a news release from PennDOT.The university has already created 14 generations of self-driving cars, including the most recent version that is capable of driving 70 mph by itself.The task force is also comprised of state politicians who have sponsored legislation that will foster innovation while also ensuring the safety of drivers.According to the PennDOT release, that legislation would provide guidelines for controlled automated vehicle testing while also requiring companies to provide proof of $5 million in liability insurance before they test new technology.State Rep. Jim Marshall, R-14, Big Beaver, is a subcommittee chairman for transportation safety in the House of Representatives and a sponsor of the forthcoming legislation.According to the PennDOT release, Marshall said with matters of public safety, we must be proactive, not reactive.This important legislation will get Pennsylvania out in front of this new and evolving technology, Marshall said.State Sen. John Rafferty, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, agreed with Marshall and said autonomous vehicles represent the next generation of our transportation system.Thats why new legislation is important, Rafferty said, to ensure the new technology provides safety, mobility, innovation and economic development.PennDOT said its decided to get behind the new technology because it has both environmental and travel benefits in addition to reducing human error in driving.We are always looking at ways to make travel safer, and these new vehicle technologies offer a huge opportunity to not only advance our network, but also reduce human behavior as a factor in crashes, PennDOT Secretary Leslie Richards said. Were looking forward to expanding on the innovation thats already alive and well here in Pittsburgh so companies can test their technologies in our states varied seasons and roadway types.PennDOT mentioned that automated technology could also provide a significant opportunity for elderly or disabled drivers who could use the technology.There will be an estimated 48 million people over the age of 75 by 2050, PennDOT said, so the time is now to invest in and study this new technology.
Get on Board or Be Left Behind?

Is Ownership Obsolete?

How Government Is Tapping into Potential We Economy Solutions

Digital: A Direct Line to Citizens and Their Data

From Airbnb, Uber and Lyft to other sharing economy services, citizens have embraced the shift from the Me Economy to a We Economy and its digitally enabled platforms, models and tools. But a recent Accenture Public Service survey of more than 3,000 U.S. citizens and 130 public-sector leaders reveals a clear gap between citizens acceptance of these models and governments plans to embrace sharing economy opportunities.Regardless of the type of collaborative consumption considered, fewer than half of government leaders say they will consider utilizing such models over the next 10 years. Fewer than one in five are considering it today. Meanwhile, citizen support for government use of the sharing economy is strong, ranging from 73 percent to 87 percent for a variety of services.There is no doubt that digitally enabled platforms are forging new operating models for transportation, lodging and a host of other services. Digital is also powering new avenues, including crowdsourcing, for collecting, sharing and using data to drive innovation and tackle some of societys most complex problems. But what does the We Economy mean for government?In a word: plenty. While many are focused on regulatory issues arising from these disruptive models, government innovators are embracing them as opportunities to drive enhanced performance. Indeed, as We Economy models continue gaining momentum, government can either get on board or be left behind.The Accenture research confirms that citizens support governments use of sharing platforms and other We Economy models, and points to opportunities to enhance citizen perceptions, engagement and satisfaction with government. The survey also reveals that many public-sector leaders see potential value in using We Economy strategies  from sharing of assets to crowdsourcing  to support government innovation, strengthen citizen engagement and improve outcomes.All told, two crucial questions are raised about governments role in the We Economy. First, should government build what it can borrow? And second, why shouldnt government use digitally enabled platforms to get more from what it already owns?Digital technologies are empowering citizens to take a modern approach to an old-fashioned idea: sharing. Shared use platforms make it easy to connect those who need a particular asset or service with those who have excess capacity. Shared use creates clear advantages in terms of cost efficiency  whether paying only for what you consume as a buyer or generating a better return on investment as a seller.Both public-sector leaders and individual citizens recognize that access to an asset or service does not require owning it. In the survey, 62 percent of citizens and 66 percent of leaders think government use of sharing economy services will improve overall citizen satisfaction with government. Whats more, 62 percent of citizens and 76 percent of government leaders think shared use will positively change citizen views of government as innovative and forward thinking.Some governments are already tapping into the potential for We Economy solutions. One example is use of third-party car-sharing platforms to dramatically reduce the size and improve the utilization of government fleets, or maintaining a common pool of vehicles for rent across agencies or municipalities. In communities with robust public transportation, third-party car sharing services, such as Lyft and Uber, may enable government to completely exit the business of fleet management  cutting capital and operating expenses, reducing risk, and making a positive impact on the environment.In the San Francisco Bay Area, local government employees are using Lyft to cover the first and last mile of public transportation. Similarly, the city of Chicago uses Zipcar to meet some of its fleet needs and has found that Zipcar costs $.25 less per mile versus owning and operating its own fleet.By the end of 2020, New York City plans to eliminate 10 percent of its light-duty vehicles, replacing the fleet with car sharing. The Department of Corrections will be the first city agency to roll out car sharing. In time, NYC will expand car sharing and fleet sharing for city workers and expects to save $5,000 per year per reduced vehicle.To reduce the size of its fleet, the General Services Administration (GSA) launched a car-sharing program with Enterprise CarShare. Through a pilot in Washington, D.C., New York City, Boston and Chicago, government agencies and their employees will have access to car-sharing services 24/7 in these cities.Car-sharing platforms can also help close gaps in public transportation services without requiring massive government investment. Consider, for instance, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), which has partnered with Uber. Using the GoPass MobileTicketing Application, customers can purchase a ticket for DART, as well as order an Uber ride for transportation to and from the station.Similarly, HART  the public transit system in Hillsborough County, Fla.  is talking to Uber and Lyft about a partnership to connect customers to the bus system. The pilot project is helping deliver door-to-door public transit for disabled riders and those who use paratransit services.Forward-thinking governments also are tapping into sharing platforms to reduce the cost and risk associated with the real estate they own. In Accentures survey, fully eight in 10 citizens agreed that government has excess resources  including facilities  that are currently underutilized. LiquidSpace, which lists offerings in more than 500 cities across the U.S., Australia and Canada, offers a platform for renting workspaces and meeting rooms by the day or hour. In California, the cities of Palo Alto, San Francisco and Santa Cruz have listed their unused space, including areas in public libraries and other government buildings, for rent via LiquidSpace.Widespread adoption of mobile devices is creating another set of opportunities for government innovation. Through third-party mobile apps, citizens are already providing valuable information that can be used to shape and deliver public services  without government bearing the full burden of storing and managing the data. More than three-quarters of citizens (76 percent) support the use of crowdsourced data to inform service delivery.Among the opportunities: monitoring Yelp or similar apps to identify which restaurants and hotels are most likely to be out of compliance with health and safety regulations; using third-party sensor data to monitor and respond to weather and/or public safety conditions; and mining driver-provided data to help guide highway and road infrastructure repairs and long-term planning. Already, the city of Detroit and other municipal governments are using the mobile app SeeClickFix as a communications platform for citizens to report non-emergency issues. Governments can use SeeClickFix to track, manage and reply to citizen-reported issues.There is no doubt that digital and mobile technologies combined with public support have created a host of opportunities to transform the way government manages the infrastructure it has already acquired. Embracing new models can help drive government innovation, trim costs, reduce waste and enhance risk management. However, half of the government leaders surveyed said their agencies are unprepared to meet the challenges of engaging with or using the sharing economy to deliver services. The following are ways to start:1). Getting started with the We Economy shouldnt be a long, protracted project. To start, tap into existing platforms, such as Uber and Lyft for first- and last-mile transport or Airbnb for emergency shelter following natural disasters.2). When contemplating the purchase of almost any asset, ask first, Can we borrow or rent? The opportunities for sharing are limited only by a willingness to try.3). Look at existing assets. Ask, What is owned thats underutilized? Then look for a We Economy approach that can be adopted to get more use, and more revenue, from what is already owned.5). Apps like Nextdoor and SeeClickFix can quickly get your citizens connected and active with you in solving problems and effectively delivering services.For government, the path to participation in the We Economy is not long nor are the barriers high. Government doesnt need to own every asset and control every resource in order to deliver public services. It does, however, need to let go of long-held assumptions in order to grab on to newly forming models that will allow it to fuel government innovation and succeed at delivering public services for the future.
(TNS) -- The Louisiana Legislature has given final passage to a bill that outlines access to footage from body cameras worn by police. Senate Bill 398 now heads to the governor for approval.As initially proposed, the bill would have made all body camera footage exempt from state public records requirements  unless a court ordered its release, but it was heavily amended after facing pushback from several advocates, including those representing the media. It now largely mirrors existing state public records laws.Under the measure, anyone seeking access to body camera recordings that are public records would have to submit detailed requests, as they currently do, and pay for the copying of the footage in advance. Further, recordings that violate a reasonable expectation of privacy wont be released without a court order and evidence related to ongoing investigations can be withheld.Supporters of the bill say provides clarity and guidance for law enforcement as they navigate the new technology , instead of individual agencies relying on their own interpretations that can lead to lawsuits. separate piece of legislation that has also passed this session will recreate a task force to study the use of body cameras in law enforcement.
(TNS) -- The city of Alamogordo will head back to court after failing to agree on the proposed monetary settlement over former Mayor Susie Galea's Facebook page.In April, Galea and the city of Alamogordo were found in violation of New Mexico's Inspection of Public Records Act after 12th Judicial District Judge Jerry H. Ritter Jr. ruled that Galea's Facebook page was subject to inspection requests under the state's records act. According to 12th Judicial District records, Wendy Irby filed a public records request with the city of Alamogordo to inspect a Facebook page established by Galea, who was Mayor of Alamogordo at the time, and the city denied her request.Ritter concluded that Irby is entitled to a summary judgement including a finding that the Mayor's Facebook page is a public document subject to inspection and disclosure, and that the city's refusal of Irby's request is wrongful. The summary judgement also granted Irby an award of taxable costs and reasonable attorney fees.Irby's attorney, Blair Dunn, submitted a settlement proposal to the City of Alamogordo on May 17. The proposal indicated the cost of representing Irby is $41,115.25 and proposed damages amount to $20,000."When it comes to denying someone their First Amendment rights to petition the government or to engage in speech, that's a tough thing to put a dollar amount on," Dunn said. "Ms. Irby would've liked to petition her government regarding what was in the Facebook page of the Mayor and she would've liked to be able to speak about it, but they denied her the ability to engage in speech by denying her access to those records."In Dunn's proposed settlement to the City, he gave recent examples of restricting First Amendment rights in Roswell and Albuquerque. Dunn said in 2014, the city of Roswell settled the First Amendment claims of two individuals for $97,000 for restricting their First Amendment right to preach on public sidewalks. Dunn also said in 2013, the city of Albuquerque settled a case involving the prohibiting of public speech at a police oversight meeting of four individuals by paying each of them $14,000.City Attorney Stephen Thies met with commissioners in executive session on May 24 to discuss the settlement and responded to Dunn on May 25 that the City could not agree to the proposed settlement terms."The $20,000 was honestly, as is my firm's bill, negotiable," Dunn said. "I'm not in this to break the City or do anything like that and neither is Ms. Irby. We just want to be fairly compensated and all they had to do was make a counteroffer. Instead of making a counteroffer and saying we'll pay you so much on fees and so much for the infringement on speech and getting the City out cheaper, they said no we're going to fight this out so let's go to trial."Thies, who said he shouldn't comment on the case, said they will now go back to court and a judge will make the determination on the settlement. Thies said the City has not turned over Galea's Facebook page and are waiting on the judge to sign the order before they do so."I believe the order provided that we had a certain amount of days in which to turn the contents over," Thies said. "There's a provision where if we want to submit it to the judge, we have that ability to submit the contents of the page to him and he'll review the contents and then make a decision on if there's any private information that should be withheld."Thies said he would like to move on and address other issues but if the City can't agree on the amount of attorney's fees and damages, they are not going to just write a check."We want our governments to be transparent," Dunn said. "When they won't or they don't and we have to file a lawsuit like this, don't make it worse by after you lose continuing to waste more money continuing to fight when you screwed up. I think that's the biggest problem with what the city of Alamogordo is doing is instead of owning they were wrong, they want to continue to fight forward and don't have any regard for the fact that they violated the law and should pay for it."
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Pastor Maldonado has confirmed rumours he is "looking for a way" back into formula one.

The Venezuelan, whose F1 foray with Williams and Lotus was heavily backed by the state oil company PDVSA, lost his seat at the end of last year.

A polarising figure and widely known as 'Crashtor' due to his regular on-track incidents, 31-year-old Maldonado has been doing some work with Pirelli recently but the Italian marque clarified that he is not a full-time test driver.

Maldonado, who lives in Monaco, was in the F1 paddock last weekend, triggering speculation he was eyeing the Manor seat that might be vacated by Rio Haryanto after July.

Reportedly, Maldonado tried but failed to find an Indycar seat for 2016, and is now doing some media work with Fox Latin America.

"I am not ready to stop with formula one," he told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport. "I am looking for a way back into the cockpit."

(GMM)
Eric Boullier has warned that Honda will not be unveiling a "revolution" when it is ready with a new specification of its F1 power unit.

McLaren and Honda figures have played down Fernando Alonso's claim that an upgrade will definitely make its debut next weekend in Canada.

"The new engine is coming, but it will not be a revolution," team boss Boullier is quoted by Italy's Autosprint.

However, there are positive signs. Honda and Renault have improved markedly since last year, and Renault's latest step in Monaco was achieved by using just 3 performance 'tokens'.

"Don't forget that we used a large number of tokens late last year, but we couldn't produce all the parts on time and only tried one of them in practice," said the French marque's Remi Taffin.

"We were criticised for it, but we could live with it because we knew that it would help us in 2016. It was the foundation of the current engine," he told Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

(GMM)
Ballard Power Systems subsidiary Protonex has received a $5.8-million purchase order for the supply of Squad Power Manager ( SPM-622 ) Special Operations Kits for end customer US Special Operations Command. The purchase order is the largest order in its history and represents follow-on business from the $2.8-million SPM order from the same customer received in December 2015. All products under this new order are expected to be shipped in 2016.

The US military is one of the largest consumers of energy in the world and the proliferation of electronic devices in military operations has presented tremendous power and energy management challenges for the military. Our focus at Protonex has been on the development of power management products that address this transition to the digital battlefield. Protonex power managers are among the smartest, smallest, lightest and most capable systems for extreme applications, increasing mobility and flexibility for soldiers while making them safer and more efficient. This orderthe largest in our corporate historyrepresents an important customer milestone. Paul Osenar, President of Protonex

The purchase order was issued by the Program Executive Office (PEO)  Soldier, as part of the Nett Warrior program. These Protonex SPM-622 kits have been specifically designed for the requirements of US Special Operations Command and will be deployed with designated Special Operations forces for use in the field.

The SPM-622 Squad Power Manager is a tough and agile power management device, weighing less than a pound and enabling a squad of Soldiers or Marines to optimize power use for various power electronics devices, including portable radios, GPS systems, computers and other electronic equipment from an available battery, as well as to recharge that battery from solar, vehicle, AC or scavenged energy sources.

Protonex unique system design combines leading edge advances in ultra-high efficiency power conversion, equipment power management, and energy harvesting technology in one product. The SPM system design offers a lightweight, compact, and rugged intelligent power management solution designed to withstand the harsh operating conditions of military field use. This unit directly powers virtually any man-packable military equipment, recharges a squads batteries, and intelligently adjusts to changing mission conditions or requirement.

The Squad Power Manager fulfills a US Special Forces Command requirement resulting from a number of unit-level trial deployments that validated the utility of SPM-622 in combat operations. The product delivers high-priority benefits in military applications, including: reliable energy for various devices carried by soldiers, regardless of changing battlefield conditions; lightened load for soldiers in the field; reduction in logistical support requirements, such as batteries; and energy flexibility for soldiers.

The SPM-622 product has been developed and is produced for military use by the Protonex engineering and operations team at the companys facility in Southborough, Massachusetts. To date more than 4,500 Power Managers have been trialed and deployed by the United States and allied militaries.
Torotrak has now signed the development agreement for a high-power flywheel KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) in a large off-road vehicle as initially announced in the Groups trading update in April.

The agreement has been entered into with one of the largest global manufacturers of off-highway construction and mining equipment within the UK Energy Technologies Institutes Heavy Duty Vehicles Efficiency program. This fully funded program will work to design, develop and demonstrate a high-power KERS for integration in the main drivetrain of both a large mining truck and an on-highway articulated truck.

Work is already underway on this project, which will demonstrate the scalability of the Groups KERS technology. All the project partners believe there are significant potential opportunities for the Groups low-cost KERS technology in a range of on and off-highway vehicles.

In the April update, Torotrak noted that KERS-equipped buses have so far delivered fuel savings of 11.1% on the MLTB cycle when compared to the baseline latest Euro6 busand that simulations show that this could be potentially increased up to 14%.

However, the company added, the results of the UK Governments Ultra Low Emission Bus (LEB) grant applications have been delayed and no announcement has been made by the Government to confirm the new date for the awards. This uncertainty, coupled with persistent low fuel prices, is causing bus operators to postpone investment in all low emission technologies.

As a result, Wrightbus and Torotrak have agreed to delay further investment in the production launch of bus KERS until the situation becomes clearer.

Correspondingly, Torotraks engineering and cash resources will be redeployed onto the other more promising, revenue generating and near-term commercial opportunities.
Trestle Energy LLC, a low carbon fuel company working with ethanol producers across the Midwest, and Larksen LLC, a biomass company providing sustainably sourced agricultural residues to Midwestern power plants, will collaborate to commercialize a new Fuel Pathway Management Platform. The platform is designed to enable ethanol producers to reduce their fuel carbon intensity substantially and to facilitate cost-effective use of biomass fuel pellets at existing power plants.

Trestle and Larksens integrated approach furthers ethanol producers ability to scale up production of low carbon biofuels and allows existing power plants to generate electricity with the cost and reliability of coal and with carbon emissions similar to wind. This will expand supplies of dispatchable, renewable energy and substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions from domestic energy supplies. Delivering these benefits at existing energy facilities while building feedstock supplies for emerging cellulosic industries will help smooth the energy sectors transition to a low carbon economy, the partners said.

The partnership charts a cost-effective path for American energy companies to comply with ambitious climate and energy programs, such as Californias Low Carbon Fuel Standards (LCFS), thereby enabling greater access to premium regulated markets.

In January, Californias Air Resources Board officially approved Trestles ethanol production process under the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). The approved process is a corn ethanol pathway with residue co-products (CERC) of less than 50% of available agricultural residues. In the feedstock supply system, the utilization of corn stover agricultural residues reduces biofuel carbon intensity by removing biomass from farm fields and processing it into biofuel co-products used at power plants to generate electricity.

Trestles CERC pathway incorporates co-products to directly reduce biogenic emissions and displace fossil fuel combustion at power plants. Trestle worked with Golden Grain Energya dry mill corn ethanol plant located in Mason city, Iowato demonstrate a carbon intensity reduction by utilizing the proprietary residue co-product supply system.
An unidentified motorcyclist was transported to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County after a crash involving her motorcycle and a truck Friday afternoon.

The crash occurred at about 12:13 p.m. at the intersection of Uinta Drive and Roosevelt Drive. According information from the Green River Police Department, a pickup truck driven by 83-year-old Chris Leventis moved into the turning lane and attempted to make a left turn, striking a motorcycle traveling south on Uinta Drive.

The police department, along with Castle Rock Ambulance Service and the Green River Fire Department, also assisted at the scene. The motorcyclist was pinned beneath the truck until emergency responders were able to free her and transport her to the hospital. She was later transferred to Utah for additional treatment.

Leventis was issued a traffic citation for his alleged role in the crash.

A police report regarding the crash requested by the Green River Star was not released by Green River Prosecuting Attorney Bobby Pineda as of press time.
Filing period closed Friday

Residents will have a lot to think about while marking their ballots in the upcoming primary election.

Both Republicans and Democrats will have to decide which two commissioner candidates from their respective parties will move on to the November election, cutting a group of eight total candidates in half.

Green River residents in Ward I will face a similar decision, deciding which two out of the three candidates for City Council will move on to the primary.

In Green River, the race for the Ward I Council seat is between Richard Baxter, Tom Murphy and Kenny Ball. Mark Peterson, whose Counc...
A man who pleaded guilty to spitting on a Sweetwater County Detention officer will serve prison time for his actions.

Keith Allen Rhodes, 40, of Rock Springs, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Nena James at a change of plea and sentencing hearing to five felonies, two counts of aggravated assault and battery, interference with a peace officer and two counts of aggravated assault and battery on a detention officer.

The two aggravated assault and battery on a detention officer counts stem from Rhodes allegedly spitting on the officers when he knew he had Hepatitis C.

In exchange f...
A cheerleader for local tourism at the Green River Chamber of Commerce was recently recognized at the annual R.E.A.C.H Awards hosted by the Sweetwater County Travel and Tourism Board.

Lisa Harrera received the Cheerleader of the Year award for her efforts at the chamber. The awards, which stands for Rare and Exceptional Achievement for Customer service in Hospitality, is a program in its ninth year.

Rebecca Eusek, director of the Green River chamber, said Harrera goes above and beyond when visitors come into the center.

"She does an excellent job and she encourages (visitors) to stay longer...
The Green River High School Future Farmers of America members hosted its first banquet and awards ceremony to cap off its first season.

McKena Wallentine, GRHS agriculture teacher and FFA advisor, said they took this opportunity to recognize their sponsors and volunteers. They also recognized students who excelled in the agriculture class or competed on a Career Development Event Team.

"CDEs build on what students learn in their agricultural-education classes and FFA," Wallentine said. "They allow students to practice making decisions and experience both teamwork and competition. CDEs provi...
For the second year in a row, Green River seniors pets will receive free food, treats and toys.

During the Care for Critters program this May, Golden Hour Senior Center employees encouraged visitors to help seniors take care of their pets by donating pet food, treats, toys or money for vaccinations.

GHSC activities coordinator Megan Brown said prior to this, seniors who were in need of some pet assistance were encouraged to fill out an application form with information about what their pet needed.

Some of them just wanted one bag of dog food, Brown said.

If an applicant met the re...
In 2005, the Bigler family and OCI Chemical, predecessor to Ciner Resources, partnered to establish a scholarship to honor Terry A. Bigler and to carry on his legacy. The scholarship is intended to help students enrolled at WWCC who are entering their second year of a degree program.

The scholarship is need-based with preference given to students enrolled in the mine maintenance or trades and industry programs, as well as to students who have graduated from a high school in Southwest Wyoming. Bigler is remembered by his family, friends and coworkers as a loyal, compassionate, humorous and...
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GREENWICH  Just about every vehicle that will be on view at the 20th annual Greenwich Concours dElegance this weekend has a story to tell, but the 1947 Italian Cistalia might top them all.

Owned by Greenwich finance executive Henry Miller, the Spyder Vignale Cabriolet was restored using an extensive amount of international detective work stretching from Italy to Argentina to southern Connecticut.

The car has been virtually unseen for 40 years, said Miller. Its a one-of-a-kind car. It was really ahead of its time. It was really inspired by modern design.

The vehicle was shipped from Argentina to Connecticut in boxes.

It came to Stratford in pieces, he said. They did an amazing amount of research to restore it to as an original condition as possible.

The results are impressive, Miller said.

Its a small car, not enormously fast, but quick. And beautiful, he said. Theres this distinctively Art-Deco look and feel of the car. Its a work of art.

Miller was looking forward to showing off the Cistalia at the Concours and seeing what else was out there.

My problem is I get tempted to buy stuff. My wife isnt happy about that, he joked.

There will be many temptations at the show running Friday through Sunday.

BMW enthusiasts will be especially rewarded. The Bavarian car company is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and some rare models of the iconic auto brand will be on display. Powerful American cars wont be slighted either - a 1967 Ford GT40 that captured a fourth place at Le Mans will be shown off by owner James Glickenhaus. It was re-painted in its Le Mans racing colors, bright yellow.

Overall, 100 cars and motorcycles will be viewed during the car show at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park.

The family of Malcolm Pray, a Greenwich car collector and automotive businessman who was a chief supporter of the Concours, will be represented. Two cars from Prays collection will be on view, and his 1961 Mercedes-Benz 190SL will be driven by his granddaughter, Portia. Malcolm Pray died in 2013.

Lilly Pray, the daughter of Malcolm and the mother of Portia, said a fine family tradition would be upheld when Portia, 16, takes the wheel of the classic car. Shes been learning to drive on a used Subaru in Colorado where they live, but Portia is ready to follow in the family footsteps by revving the engine of the high-end Mercedes in Greenwich. Her grandfather would be proud, she said.

When I was little, and I wanted to spend time with my dad, it was spending time in the garage with him. He always told me stories about the cars, she said.

Lilly Pray will be a judge at the event, and she likes to see and hear the stories behind the car.

I put a lot of stock in the memories of the car. I would rather see a driver than a museum piece. I like people to drive their cars, as something to be enjoyed, and pass down the history of their cars, she said.

Mary Wennerstrom, event chairman of the Greenwich Concours, said this years selection of vehicles was especially intriguing.

We have amazing cars this year, she noted.

The event is also kid-friendly, and youngsters will hold their own judging competition. A peoples choice award is also part of the festivities.

Advance tickets are available at www.greenwichconcours.com, and tickets are also available at the gate.

Robert.Marchant@scni.com
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GREENWICH  Like many, Greenwich resident Cyndy Anderson felt she could not follow in her mothers footsteps.

Barbara Tufts was someone whom Anderson called an amazing citizen and a world-class volunteer, serving, among other positions, as president of her towns League of Women Voters chapter.

But Anderson did echo her mothers position, serving as president of the League of Women Voters of Greenwich for three years.

At a ceremony Wednesday at Riverside Yacht Club, Anderson was presented with The Mary Award, the highest honor awarded by the Greenwich League of Women Voters.

In accepting the honor, Anderson said she couldnt help but think of her late mother  because working with the League of Women Voters ended up being the best thing she ever did.

There is no other organization like this around, Anderson, who is now a member of the leagues steering committee. We are truly non-partisan and embrace civil discourse and civility in all of our activities. We cherish voting and believe we need to fully believe people should be fully responsible for knowing what they are voting about with reliable, unbiased information.

The Mary Award is named after Greenwich League of Women Voters icons Mary Lou Woods and Mary Sullivan, who worked for the League and the community as a whole.

All the past winners of the Mary Award have been exemplary citizens and they have really, through their dedication, improved our community and our state, Anderson said. Thats essential. These people are legends and I am most grateful for this honor.

In giving her the award, the league noted Andersons work overseeing all aspects of the organization from voter education programs to candidate debates to programs dedicated to promoting good governance.

Anderson was repeatedly praised for her work getting new members. Currently the League of Women Voters of Greenwich, which was founded in 1921, has 350 members, making it the fifth largest in the country.

I think actually we may be chasing number four, Jara Burnett, a past league president and now a member of the steering committee with Anderson, said to cheers from the audience. Under Cyndys leadership, the membership grew and her spirit, energy and commitment helped the league become a vital force in the community.

Burnett praised Anderson for reaching out to a new generation, getting them involved with the leagues main mission of encouraging people to actively participate in democracy.

First Selectman Peter Tesei, before presenting her with The Mary Award, said he had gotten to know Anderson through monthly meetings that are scheduled for an hour but regularly go twice as long.

Cyndy has really taken a keen interest in educating our citizenry and educating our voters about the issues that are before us, Tesei said. She is always well-prepared and always pleasant with a broad smile.

One of the leagues most recent projects and one in which Anderson took an active role was an evaluation of the towns Representative Town Meeting. The result of the year-long evaluation led to several recommendations including term-limits for moderator and committee and district chairs, improved use of technology and speaker time limits.

Burnett vowed the recommended changes were going to be implemented because Cyndy is going to make it happen.

kborsuk@scni.com
Just a little. Photo: Davies and Starr/Getty Images

The FDA finally gave the food industry a strong incentive today to cool it with the insane amount of salt it crams into what people eat. The agency has long tsk-tsked Americans for their sodium intake, noting that its linked to a variety of health problems, but this move marks the first major step by the government to curb salt content at the source. Its a set of guidelines that have been in the works since 2011, and, while technically voluntary, the idea is theyll help shame Big Food manufacturers and chain restaurants in particular into using less sodium. Todays announcement is about putting power back in the hands of consumers, the FDA says, so that they can better control how much salt is in the food they eat and improve their health.

Right now, the average American eats 3,400 milligrams of sodium per day, about 50 percent more than the 2,300-milligram limit the FDA recommends. Consumer advocates applaud the new guidelines for offering people a reliable measure of how salty something is, a benchmark that hasnt existed until now. (In its announcement, the FDA notes its kind of dumb how one salad dressing can contain 150 milligrams of sodium while another has 2,000.) The government says the guidelines amount to a a common system for defining and measuring progress on reducing sodium, and would apply to most processed and prepared foods, which the FDA divides into roughly 150 categories, each with a corresponding sodium-level recommendation.

According to the agency, most salt comes from processed and prepared foods, not the saltshaker  or, put another way, over 70 percent of the sodium Americans eat is in their food before it ever reaches the table, so theres not much they can do to reduce it anyway. However, if these voluntary guidelines guilt enough companies into curbing the excessive salt levels currently in their foods, the FDA thinks that, in turn, will put a good dent in Americans heinous sodium-intake levels. A decrease of as little as 400 milligrams a day could stop 32,000 heart attacks and 20,000 strokes each year, the government argues.

[NYT, Reuters]
Before, we really had to fight for the whole cow. Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

Mimi, a 27-seat French bistro, quietly opened in Soho in the fall, but only recently have critics begun heaping praise on the place: Last week, New Yorks own Adam Platt awarded it three stars, and GQs Brett Martin named it one of the 12 best new restaurants of 2016. Before that, the Village Voice gave Mimi a glowing review that may have first tipped people off. Credit goes to Liz Johnson, a 25-year-old chef whos been cooking since age 15 and has put in time at Noma, Chicagos Grace, Toro, and Ma Peche, to name just a few spots. Even when Mimi was really slow for a long time, Johnson  who has no stake in the restaurant  stood by her vision to make rich, intense dishes like veal Oscar and throwback French desserts like baba au rhum. Grub spoked with Johnson about her impressive career path, why shes obsessive about sourcing products, and how shes dealing with cooking in a restaurant thats suddenly slammed every night.

Its hard to Google-stalk you. When did you begin cooking? Whats your background?

I started cooking when I was 15. Ive never held a job that wasnt in a kitchen. Ive been fortunate enough to pretty much know that I wanted to be a chef for my entire life. I just kind of went for it. When I was 16, I left high school early to go to a local community college to take cooking classes, and then I got into CIA. I graduated and took a job in Boston at Toro. And then I took a temporary job in Manhattan  I went to work for Ma Peche for a little bit. They needed somebody, and I had a couple of months in between Boston and going to Copenhagen. I got accepted to Noma, so I had downtime.

Whats the application like?

I just wrote them a letter and I was like, I really want to work here. Jamie [Bissonnette] got me the cookbook for Christmas my first year at Toro. I really honestly didnt know a lot about food or restaurants or the top 50 list or anything, and Jamie was just like, You like heavy metal, you like Scandinavian stuff, heres this cookbook. I remember reading the book and tears coming to my eyes. I thought, I have to go here. I have to go here. Yeah, I basically wrote them a letter saying that.

How long were you there?

I was there for a month. I was only there for a bit. I met my fiance [Will] there, and we left early and traveled around a little bit. We went to Sweden. We ate at Faviken and all these places. That was kind of cool. Next I was in Charleston and Chicago, and then we went to Japan for like over half a year, cooking at a restaurant called LEffervescence in Tokyo. Traveling was so awesome. I miss it a lot. It was just so cool cooking with no responsibilities. I love Japanese culture, cuisine, everything about it.

How was Charleston?

I honestly didnt like it there at all. Ill be straight-up honest. Hated it there. Met up with Will and went to Chicago for a little bit.

Where in Chicago?

I was at Grace, and he was at L20.

Youve made the rounds  and youre 25, yes?

Yeah, weve kind of bounced around a little bit. When we got back from Japan, I wanted to come to New York, but I didnt really have enough funds, so we went to D.C. and worked at Minibar for a little bit, just to make some money.

What do you think helped you build up such an impressive resume?

I dont know. I just kind of like  you just have to go for it. I remember being in Boston, and I didnt know anything about food. I really didnt. But Im a hard worker, so I dont see why I wouldnt be able to get in. At Noma, basically I was there from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. every day. All the other people would go home early, and I was like, Why are you going to come here to, like, party and stuff? I can do that in Boston. I dont need to do that here. I was very serious about it.

So how did the Mimi job come about? Youre not the owner, correct?

Im not the owner, no. I wouldnt own a restaurant in New York. Its just too much shit you have to deal with. You get fined for having trash on your curb. Thats ridiculous.

Where would you want to open a restaurant?

I have a place in mind, but its a secret.

Fair.

I was working at Empellon Cocina; I was the sous-chef for Alex [Stupak] there doing pastry. Literally Mimi just kind of fell into my lap. I had a friend who I had met at Noma text me and go, Do you know anybody who wants to be a chef? My friends opening a restaurant. I put it off. I didnt even think about it, and then a couple of weeks later, I was like, Let me see the blueprints. He sent me their sample menu that the owners had written up  mind you, theyre not chefs. It was really bad. Really bad. I remember reading this and going, This is serious. They dont know anything. It was so out there. I dont even know if they knew anybody whos a chef.

They knew they wanted it to be French, though?

Thats the only thing they knew they wanted. There were spelling errors on the menu. It was pretty bad, and I was like, Oh, why not? Ill just try out, and I did, and then I got the job.

How much freedom do they give you now?

It took a bit, but theyve given me full freedom with the menu now. In the beginning, we were really slow for a long time. It was a lot of We need side dishes, We need more vegetarian things. And I was like, Im telling you this is not what people want, but they were just panicking. Once the Village Voice review came out, they were like, Okay.

Was that the turning point?

That was probably the turning point. I guess before that we used to type our menus, and there was this one day where we just ran out of everything. Now Im writing the menu every day because its just easier, and also if I write the menu by hand every day, they cant be so on top of me, because they wouldnt get the menu until, like, 4:30 p.m. Now they just give me full rein, so thats awesome.

Including herself, Johnsons kitchen staff is just three people. Photo: Konstantin Sergeyev

Your cooking is quite ambitious and technically challenging. What went into creating dishes like your veal Oscar?

Ive done a lot of research. A lot of reading. I dont want to say it begins with the dish, because sometimes it begins with an idea of, Oh, I love a Blanquette sauce, which is something that nobody really uses anymore. How can we make this interesting? It has to be interesting, and we have to use ingredients that we think rock  like, really rock. So I guess thats how it starts. But we want to say that the ingredients are the biggest thing  like well go anywhere to get a good ingredient. In two weeks, my fiance and I are driving to Vermont to pick up a whole cow. That kind of thing. Its kind of obsessive at this point.

But its not necessarily local. A lot of our fish comes from Japan. We tried six different unis before we found one that we really liked. And sometimes wed come in and we wouldnt like it and we wouldnt serve it. Thats just it. It doesnt matter how good the dish is; if theres not an awesome product in it, were not going to serve it.

That must be hard when youre working at a small restaurant with a tight budget.

We only have three cooks, and thats it. Its my fiance, myself, and another cook.

Was your fiance onboard from the start? Do you get to boss him around?

He doesnt let me boss him around. I told him I was going to try out, and he was like, Dont screw over Stupak.

Im sure Alex is happy for you.

He hasnt been in. I dont know. I would love to cook for him. Jamie, too  Will was like, Do the right thing. Give Stupak a month and a half. Dont just get up and leave.

And then Will decided to join you?

Yeah. While he was working at Per Se, he was at Mimi. It was insane. He was working seven days a week, and it sucked. We fought a lot.

That can definitely put a strain on a relationship.

Its a give-and-take. Its getting better, though. In the beginning, when he was there, he was just super-tired all the time, and the bosses were on us about being busy. We were like, We dont know what to do. We were open for lunch, brunch, and dinner. We just didnt have the crowd.

Its amazing how that can so suddenly change with a review.

Literally, like in a day. Between New York Magazine and the GQ  its a little overwhelming. I feel like I cant get anything done, you know? Im really desperate for another cook. But why would a random cook want to come? There are so many cool places in the city that are well-enough established.

Will the success change what youre actually serving? Does it now give you the resources to purchase different ingredients?

Honestly, for this week, were just trying to figure it out. Were just running out of everything. Its insane. We always buy the whole animal, just because its cheaper. For instance, two months ago, we would buy three lambs, and they would last us forever, and now were almost through three lambs in two weeks. So I think we have to figure out the demand first and go from there. Whereas before we really had to fight for the whole cow.

Do you connect with French cuisine, or do you still feel like thats what they were looking for and youre just filling the part?

I never connected with French food, but my food really isnt that French. Its super-non-French in a way, like the way how we cook is Chinese almost, or Southeast Asian sometimes. We draw a lot of inspiration from anything but French cuisine. The French part is the mind-set, like its going to be luxurious and over-the-top.

Escargot vol-au-vent, ramps, ris de veau. Photo: Tirzah Brott/New York Magazine

Whats the most popular item on your menu?

Our chicken dish. But thats the most popular dish at any restaurant. Its just the only thing thats been on the menu since weve opened, I think, besides maybe the chocolate tart and the veal tartare. The chicken is just a roast chicken with long dumplings that we fold and toss in a mustard creme fraiche. We make it like a salad with gizzards.

Do you find that people are surprised to see that youre a young woman making this rich, intense food?

No. I dont think so. Well, I remember when I first went in, I was nervous that they wouldnt give me the job because I was young, and I wore my engagement ring to look older. And then one of the owners sat down with me and was like, I was so excited to hear you were 25. Were all really young, so this is awesome. And I was like, Really?

If you had your own place, what kind of food would you want to cook?

I dont know. I dont think it would be a specific style or have a culture behind it. But I think it would be super-representative of getting the best products. I hope I never compromise for that. I dont think I will. Maybe Ill have a casual restaurant, but Ill probably have something thats more refined.

Why dont you think youll stay in New York?

Most cities in America, across the board, are at a higher level in terms of restaurants. New York is a little less, like, important for me. I really mean that. Im here because Will had a job, and I found a job, and now I have this. But it wasnt because we were like, Oh, New York! We love New York!

Like you didnt feel that you needed to be here to progress your career.

Yeah, I didnt feel that way at all. The clientele is very, like  hype-driven. A restaurant can be busy, and then in a year from now it can be closed.

Lowlife just closed after six months.

Really? I cant believe that closed. Will worked with [Lowlife chef Alex Leonard]. He offered me a job, but I said no, actually because of Mimi.

Well, you made the right choice.

Wow, I cant believe that. Thats crazy. Maybe he needs a quick job! Im kidding 
Make Trump Tower Starbucks-Less again. Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Starbucks has suddenly found itself on the unfamiliar side of social activism: A petition is circulating online that demands the coffee chain, arguably among Americas most overtly political corporations, terminate any and all leases it holds on properties owned by Donald Trump. Its racked up 7,000 supporters in less than a day and, at last glance, had already stretched that goal to 8,000.

On the page for the petition, posted to activist-networking site Care2, creator Kyle Brooks tries to clue CEO Howard Schultz and the rest of the company in to the paradox he sees:

Starbucks is a bold company that values belonging, inclusion, and diversity. They have continuously stood beside the LGBT community, African-Americans, and other minority communities. Unfortunately, Starbucks still has a business partner with a man who has called Mexicans rapists, stereotyped the Muslim community as terrorists, and disgraces women.

Its unclear how many Starbucks stores are on Trump properties, but Trump Tower, the Donalds home base in midtown and headquarters for the entire Trump Organization, still has a very conspicuous one in the buildings atrium. Trump actually threatened to close it last year after Starbucks released plain red holiday cups that some Christians dismissed as insufficiently Christmassy. Pandering to them at the time, Trump suggested a boycott, then announced very definitive plans to banish the store from his building. (By the way: Thats the end of that lease was how he unambiguously put it.)

Itd be fair to call that a pretty major swipe by one business partner against another  the sort of thing a person could even see Trump suing for  and Brooks thinks his petition will send a bold statement that good business partners do not shame each other, and if they do, that it will not be tolerated. Probably Starbuckss exit wouldnt send any kind of message like that to Trump, but seeing the space all boarded up inside the flamboyantly gold Trump Tower would at least feel like justice was served.

[The Hill]
The winner, based on a recipe from the chefs grandmother. Photo: Liz Clayman

Chicken is one of those things that can easily be a restaurants most boring dish  or its most exciting. Perfectly roasted chicken hits all the right notes: crisp, bronzed skin; soft, flavorful meat; maybe some stuffing or garnish that amplifies the entire experience. And for our money, whole birds are where its at, so without further ado, these are the absolute best roast chickens in New York.

The Absolute Best 1. Mission Chinese Food

171 East Broadway, nr. Rutgers St.; 212-432-0300 Its easy to love Jonathan Waxmans plate of golden, salsa-verde-topped chicken at Barbuto. The brick-flattened half-chicken at Marlow & Sons is among the most consistently comforting dishes in the city. But nothing beats the majesty of a whole bird, activating some primal impulse to share an entire beast among friends. No bird in New York is more majestic than the one served at Mission Chinese Food, glistening with fat and cut into thick, oversize slices. Based on a recipe from executive chef Angela Dimayugas grandmother, the kitchen debones the breast and stuffs it full of spiced pork, olives, raisins, cheese, butter, and just-cooked eggs before roasting it all until everything melds into meaty, fatty whole. Just as Obi-Wan warned Darth Vader was more machine than man, the finished bird is probably more sausage than chicken. And you cannot resist. Embrace the dark side.

2. St. Anselm

355 Metropolitan Ave., nr. Havemeyer St., Williamsburg; 718-384-5054

These compact chickens, enough to feed one and not much more, arrive at the table with their heads and claws intact. Bird plus fire, in its most elemental form. The only garnish, if you want to call it that, are two little lemon wedges tucked into the wings. Silverware is provided, but the better move is to dive in with your hands. The dark skin has a satisfying crackle, while the flesh underneath is firmer than what you find in a supermarket bird. A sweet-tea brine doesnt seem to add any actual sweetness, which is nice, and instead only serves to deepen the flavor of the meat itself.

3. Le Coq Rico

30 E. 20th St., nr. Broadway; 212-267-7426

The dish to get at famed French chef Antoine Westermanns so-called bistro of beautiful birds is his interpretation of the Alsatian baeckeoffe, a whole bird stewed with  among other things  Riesling, potatoes, herbs, and olives. But this is gilding the lily, because the birds that Westermann uses are a French breed, raised upstate, and slaughtered at the ripe old age of about three months. Simply ordering a whole chicken straight from the rotisserie allows the deeply comforting and somehow  familiar flavor of the meat to shine properly. At about $100 per chicken (with a saucer of proper jus on the side), a meal here isnt cheap, but do yourself a favor and spend the extra $7 for some French fries, which are the only real way to sop everything up.

4. Pok Pok NY

117 Columbia St., at Kane St., Columbia St. Waterfront District; 718-923-9322

An excellent roast chicken doesnt have to cost as much as a monthly subway pass. The deeply golden, $12 birds at Malecon have a devoted following. The cumin-and-cinnamon-scented whole pollo a la brasa from the Chinese-Peruvian chainlet Flor de Mayo is easily among the best things that can be bought for $15. Even that St. Anselm bird holding down the No. 2 spot will run you $23. But for $24, the whole Kai Yaang Tua from Andy Rickers Brooklyn Thai spot is one of the citys true steals. Enough to feed two, its packed with a bright-green mix of garlic, lemongrass, and coriander, and as you dig in, dipping the juicy meat in tamarind sauce, it gets all over your fingers and only adds more dimension. Theres a reason they serve this thing with Wet-Naps.

5. The Nomad

1170 Broadway, at 28th St.; 212-796-1500

One of New York Citys original luxury chickens  a butter-burnished bird, stuffed with foie gras and brioche under the skin, thats presented whole before being scurried away to the kitchen to be carved and individually plated  is as technically impressive as youd hope, given that the kitchen is run by Daniel Humm and executive chef James Kent. And its very difficult to overstate how elegant and rich the little cocotte of truffled thigh meat truly tastes. So look: Its all lovely and delicious and you eat it and get that kind of deeply happy feeling that only truly exquisite food can make you feel. But it nevertheless loses just a few points because the refined presentation feels a little at odds with the hedonistic satisfaction youre truly after when youre eating a whole animal.
Google has released a blog post today outlining the new updates coming to Google Now on Tap very soon. Google knows that oftentimes Google Now on Tap wont be able to make sense of a long email or a screen with a lot of text and images.

Now on Tap users will be able manually set where they would like to target Googles search to take place. An example would be if someone were to summon Google Now on Tap while reading a long article where they only wanted to search for the definition of a single word.

This should let users have a better experience in the case that a large amount of information is already being displayed.

Two other features are also coming to Now on Tap: Youll be able to perform a Now on Tap search of an image from any app such as the browser or Pinterest to learn more about the image displayed, and youll be able to use your devices camera viewfinder to search for certain landmarks or logos. Youll even be able to search on a page of a magazine or a movie poster to get more information about it.

These new Google Now on Tap features will begin rolling out now. Rollouts could take several days to complete, so you may not get it today. Word definitions will only be available in English, other languages will arrive in the coming weeks. Do any of you use Google Now on Tap on a regular basis? How do you incorporate it into your lives?

Source | Via
Timeline for One UI 5 rollout revealed: Galaxy S and Z models to get it by the end of the year
Hola! Cuanto cuesta? Samsung Pay is launching in Spain, finally getting a foothold on the mainland after the UK launch.

Research showed that among Spaniards aged 35 to 65, 64% pay with a credit or debit cards for most or even all of their purchases. And they have to carry more than two cards to do it.

At launch, partner banks are CaixaBank and imaginBank, Abanca and Banco Sabadell will join soon. Here are just some of the venues that will accept Samsung Pay:

Cepsa, Cerveceria La Surena, Dominos Pizza, El Corte Ingles, Fridays, Ginos, Grupo DIA, MediaMarkt, Mercadona, Phone House, Repsol, Rodilla, Saba, Starbucks, The Good Burger, The Wok, VIPS, VIPSmart, 100 Montaditos

El Corte Ingles, the biggest department store group in Europe (and 4th worldwide) will be the first in Spain to issue private cards to its customers so they can use Samsung Pay. Samsung has organized an event at the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and Industry to get even more venues involved.

"The Spanish markets progressive approach to digital payments makes it a logical launch market for Samsung Pay," added Nathalie Oestmann, Director, Samsung Pay Europe. "We believe that the comprehensive support from telecom service providers; networks and processors; and banks and merchants, will help to accelerate mobile payments adoption across Spain."

So far Samsung Galaxy S7 and S6 (including edge and edge Plus) and the Galaxy Note5 are supported. Soon the Galaxy A5 (2016) will be added to this list too.

Source




Haiti - Politic : The Lower House is not linked to the report of the CIEVE





Tuesday in a note signed by Cholzer Chancy, President of the Chamber of Deputies, the latter indicates that the Chamber of Deputies took note of the report of the publication of the report of the Independent Commission of Electoral Evaluation and Verification (CIEVE) created by the presidency, "in violation of the agreement of 5 February 2016 and the Constitution of 29 March 1987 amended. In addition, the Chamber of Deputies noted that the said report calls into question the foundations of democracy and the laws of the Republic."



Furthermore, the lower house recalls the prescription of the section 187.1 of the Electoral Decree in force which stipulate that "The decisions of the National Office of Electoral Litigation (BCEN) are not subject to any appea". Furthermore, according to Article 108 of the amended Constitution "Each House checks and validates the credentials of its members and judge sovereignly the disputes arising about it."



Faithful to its principled position expressed after the formation of the CIEVE, the Chamber of Deputies reiterates "being in no way linked to the report of the Commission which, in no case, can produce legal effects on the term of office of members of the Legislature."



For history, the Chamber of Deputies reminds the Nation the declaration, of February 7, 2016, before the National Assembly by the Senator Jocelerme Privert, current President ai of the Republic elected in the second degree by Parliament "No statement, no declamation, no decision, no action, or statement no matter where it comes from can remove a braided crown on the shuttle of the popular sovereignty."



Finally, the Chamber of Deputies reminded the Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) that it is the product of the Agreement of February 5, 2016. Consequently, it warns it of any initiative that goes against the provisions of the Agreement of February 5, 2016 and the Constitution, at the risk of falling under the Articles 186 (c), 189-1, 189-2 and 195 of the Constitution which expose them to prosecution.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17594-haiti-flash-the-commission-report-all-details.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17593-haiti-flash-the-commission-recommends-to-redo-the-presidential-election.html



HL/ HaitiLibre


















The Rescue Paw Foundation will have an adoption event at Herrick Park on Sunday, October 23rd. The event is sponsored by London Jewelers and will be an all out dog lover's dream, but it is also going to be fun...
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Published on 2016/06/01 | Source

Director Kim Gok, Hong Eun-hee, Lomon, Lee Jae-in, Kim Su-an, Park Jung-min, Kyung Soo-jin, director Kim Sun, Lim Seulong, Min Moo-je, Ji An and directors Min Gyoo-dong and Baek Seung-bin

VIP Premiere for the Korean omnibus movie "Horror Stories 3" (2015)

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Directed by Baek Seung-bin, Kim Gok, Kim Sun, Min Gyoo-dong

With Lim Seulong, Kyung Soo-jin, Park Jung-min, Hong Eun-hee, Cha Ji-yeon, Ji An,...

Synopsis

"Horror Stories", 2012, was about the four horror stories told by a high school student girl who was kidnapped by a murderer, and 'Horror Stories 2', 2013, depicted horror about death and the world after death. "Horror Stories 3" plays a role as a bridge between the first and second sequels, thus talks about past, present as well as future. The story of the third sequel is delivered in a unique setting borrowing the scientific fiction genre.

'A Girl from Mars' by Min Gyoo-dong

A girl makes an emergency landing on a planet ruled by machines.

The girl starts revealing her horrible memories about mankind one by one, while she tries to explain to the machines the reasons why she had to leave the people on earth and ended up landing on this planet.

Story of the Past - The Horrible tale 'Fox Valley'

'Man is not the lord of creation. In fact, they are a parasite.

A scholar Saengwon (classics licentiate) Lee (Lim Seulong) who was heading to his hometown after he successfully finished his Civil Service examination. He is chased down by a gang of robbers all of sudden and finds himself in a remote village after he ran and ran to save his own life. He decides to stay one night at a house, where a mysterious woman and one elderly person reside. However, the place he ended up happens to be the Fox Valley, where people say no one could get out alive! Saengwon Lee is trying to escape the Fox Valley to save his life.

Story of the Present - The Horror story of instinct of speed 'Road Rage'

'Why kill people? I don't know'

Dong-geun (Park Jung-min) and Soo-jin (Kyung Soo-jin) were driving on a highway late at night. A strange freight truck appears in front of them. As the truck keeps passing their car and blocking them several times, Dong-geun gets angrier each time and tries to pass the truck by driving even more violently. However, the freight truck won't give up either and keeps following them, then threatens Dong-geun and Soo-jin. On a dark night, the horrible speed competition accompanied by rage begins!

Story of the future - The Horror story of Artificial Intelligence 'Ghost of Machine'

'We will be together, forever'

An artificial intelligence robot, Doon-ko makes the best friend for a young boy, Jin-goo in place of his mom Ye-seon (Hong Eun-hee). Jin-goo and Doon-ko have been together for ten years and promise to be with each other forever. However, one day Doo-ko develops errors and hurts Jin-goo. Jin-goo's mom Ye-seon gets rid of Doon-ko without telling her son and purchases a new robot. But the new robot also develops strange symptoms. And Doo-ko keeps appearing in front of Ye-seon and Jin-goo's eyes. The curse of a promise you can't keep; what will be the end of it?

Lim Seulong

Kyung Soo-jin

Park Jung-min

Hong Eun-hee

Kim Su-an, Lim Seulong, Hong Eun-hee and director Kim Gok

Yu Jun-sang

UEE

Han Groo

Shin Eun-jung

Kim Sung-eun

Chae Soo-bin

Oh Jung-yeon

TV personality Han Suk-joon

Oh In-hye

Hak Jin

Singer Yuk Ji-dam

Singer Heize

Ahn Hyo-seop

Song Won-seok
Harlow is a former New Town in Essex with a population of 86,000. Located in the upper Stort Valley, it was built in the decades after the Second World War to ease overcrowding and London and provide homes for people bombed out during the Blitz. It includes Britain's first pedestrian precinct and first modern residential tower block, The Lawn. Old Harlow, the historic part of the town, was mentioned in the Domesday Book. David and Victoria Beckham's former home, Rowneybury House, nicknamed 'Beckingham Palace', is nearby.

11:52, 25 OCT 2022
Norway grounds all Airbus H225 helicopters following fatal North Sea crash

The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority has decided to suspend the use of all Airbus Super Puma H225s in Norwegian service, including search and rescue helicopters, after Accident Investigation Board Norway (AIBN) called on the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to take immediate action to ensure the aircraft was safe.

Stock image

The call came after AIBN published a report which found evidence of fatigue in gear box parts retrieved from the remains of the H225 involved in a crash off the island of Tury on 29 April, which killed all 13 crew and passengers.

The helicopter type had already been suspended from regular traffic in Norway following the incident, however it was still being used search and rescue assignments. Statoil uses the H225 for SAR emergency services from the Oseberg Field Centre, Statfjord B and Sola.

The Norwegian oil group said it would ensure alternative cover was provided following the grounding of the type.

The Super Puma was travelling from the North Sea Gullfaks B oilfield, about 74 miles off the Norwegian coast, when it crashed en route to Flesland Airport, Bergen. Witnesses said the main rotor became detached from the helicopter prior to the crash.

AIBNs preliminary report published on June 1 detailed fatigue in the gearbox and a catastrophic failure, rendering early safety warnings not effective.

The AIBN report read: Among the recovered parts were two pieces which together form approximately half a second stage planet gear. Examinations of these parts have revealed features strongly consistent with fatigue. The fatigue appears to have its origin in the outer race of the bearing (inside of the gear), propagating towards the web of the gear teeth. There is sign of spalling in front of the fracture surface.

The report said it felt the findings to be of such significance that it has decided to issue the following safety recommendation to ensure the continuing airworthiness of the Main Gear Box (MGB).

It added: It cannot be ruled out that this signifies a possible safety issue that can affect other MGBs of the same type. The nature of the catastrophic failure of the LN-OJF main rotor system indicates that the current means to detect a failure in advance are not effective.

The Super Puma, a workhorse of the oil industry, has now been completely grounded in both Norway and Britain. Investigators have ruled out human error, saying the crash was caused by a technical fault.

Results of the investigation have potential implications for the Super Puma programme following earlier accidents.

On June 2 EASA issued an emergency bulletin, however, focusing on a different problem.

It said checks on the rest of the Super Puma fleet had revealed problems with struts that fix the rotors, including bolts tightened incorrectly or washers in the wrong position. It ordered all attachments replaced before the next flight.

It was not immediately clear whether EASA also planned another bulletin responding to Norway's gearbox findings.



Previous Super Puma incidents linked to gearbox problems included a 2009 crash off Peterhead, Scotland, in which the rotor also flew off and 16 people died. Airbus Helicopters told operators in a bulletin this week that there were "significant elements" differing from the 2009 crash.


The following information is provided by local law enforcement agencies.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Compiled by Jessica Isaacs

The following were provided by the Watauga County Sheriffs Office.

May 23

INCIDENT: Drug violations were reported at 8483 U.S. Highway 421 N in Vilas.

ARREST: A male suspect, 17, was charged with assault and battery and injury to personal property. He was held under a $1,500 secured bond and will appear in court on July 5.

May 24

INCIDENT: Larceny from buildings and vandalism were reported at 1724 Rush Branch Road in Sugar Grove.

ARREST: A male suspect, 25, of 148 Shady Creek Lane in Boone, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, simple possession of a schedule VI controlled substance and possession of marijuana paraphernalia. He was held under a $5,000 secured bond and will appear in court on June 17.

ARREST: A female suspect, 41, of 2571 Longhope Road in Todd, was charged with possession pf drug paraphernalia, simple possession of a schedule VI controlled substance and possession of marijuana paraphernalia. He was held under a $5,000 secured bond and will appear in court on June 17.

ARREST: A male suspect, 20, of 234 Camp Rock Road in Boone, was charged with felony larceny of ginseng. He was held under a $10,000 secured bond and will appear in court on June 17.

May 25

INCIDENT: DWI was reported at 127 Park Street in Boone.

INCIDENT: Fraud was reported at 251 Carlton Circle in Blowing Rock.

INCIDENT: Assault on a female and assault and battery were reported at 276 Rocky Glen Lane in Blowing Rock.

INCIDENT: Harassment was reported at 119 McNabb Lane in Boone.

INCIDENT: Larceny of a motor vehicle was reported at 2655 Roby Greene Road in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 49, of 199 McNabb Lane in Boone, was charged with sexual battery. He was held under a $1,000 secured bond and will appear in court on July 5.

ARREST: A female suspect, 40, of 2894 Old U.S. Highway 421 in Boone, was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine. She was held under a $3,000 secured bond and will appear in court on July 5.

ARREST: A female suspect, 40, of 210 Howards Creek Road Apt. 2 in Boone, was charged with DWLR. She was held under a $500 secured bond and will appear in court on June 14.

ARREST: A male suspect, 20, of 192 Lloyd Bentley Road in Boone, was charged with FTA criminal summons or citation. He was held under a $500 secured bond and will appear in court on July 8.

ARREST: A female suspect, 46, of 276 Rocky Glen Lane in Blowing Rock, was charged with assault and battery and will appear in court on July 8.

ARREST: A male suspect, 70, of 276 Rocky Glen Lane in Bowing Rock, was charged with assault on a female and will appear in court on June 8.

ARREST: A male suspect, 22, of 127 Park St. Apt. F in Boone, was charged with DWLR and DWI and will appear in court on July 8.

May 26

ARREST: A male suspect, 32, of 689 Burkett Road in Boone, was charged with FTA DWLR, exp tag, poss of Sch VI and will appear in court on July 8.

May 27

ARREST: A male suspect, 45, of 18161 U.S> Highway 221 S in Fleetwood, was charged with contempt of court/perjury/court violations and all other offenses/RDO. He was held under a $1,200 secured bond and will appear in court on June 16.

May 28

INCIDENT: Flee to elude arrest and failure to register vehicle were reported at 2628 Brookshire Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Drug violations were reported at 2706 U.S. Highway 421 S in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 24, of 176 Monteagle Drive in Boone, was charged with flee to elude, fail to register motor vehicle and NOL and will appear in court on July 8.

ARREST: A male suspect, 37, of 356 Bettys Circle in Boone, was charged with contempt of court/perjury/court violations and drug violations. He was held under a $5,000 secured bond and will appear in court on June 10.

May 29

INCIDENT: Weapons violations and drug violations were reported at 100 Perkinsville Drive in Boone.

INCIDENT: Simple physical assault, vandalism and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle were reported at144 Ridge Point Drive in Boone.

INCIDENT: Fraud  credit card/ATM was reported at 175 East Cove Lane Unit A in Boone.

INCIDENT: Communicating threats was reported at 485 Private Drive in Sugar Grove.

May 30

INCIDENT: Carrying a concealed gun and fictitious information to an officer were reported at 2047 Linville Creek Road in Vilas.

INCIDENT: Possession of methamphetamine was reported at 895 Blowing Rock Road in Boone.

INCIDENT: Breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny from motor vehicle were reported at 138 Kellwood Drive in Boone.

ARREST: A male suspect, 19, of 217 Edgecliff Lane Apt. 7 in Boone, was charged with order for arrest for failure to appear. He was held under a $2,000 secured bond and will appear in court on June 27.

ARREST: A male suspect, 35, of 103 McNabb Lane in Boone, was charged with felony possession of methamphetamine, misdemeanor failure to appear OFA, drug violations and parole and probation violations. He was held under a $15,000 secured bond and will appear in court on July 5.

ARREST: A male suspect, 35, of 200 Slabtown Road in Zionville, was charged with carrying a concealed gun, fictitious information to an officer, OFA reckless driving to endanger, communicating threats and assault on a female. He was held under a $1,550 secured bond and will appear in court on July 8.

May 31

INCIDENT: Simple possession of a schedule VI controlled substance and possession of marijuana paraphernalia were reported at Trash Can Falls, 5800 U.S. Highway 321 N in Sugar Grove.
By Jessica Isaacs | [email protected]

One of the High Countrys newest venues opened its doors to the wedding and events community last week for a grand opening celebration, and guests who walked through them enjoyed a great evening of food and fun in a truly beautiful place. Youll love the Overlook Barn as soon as you see it, but you may love the story behind it even more.

Following their engagement in late November 2014, Katie Elder and David Schumann embarked on a journey to find their perfect wedding venue in the hills of western North Carolina. When they decided to tour an old barn in the Beech Mountain community, which has belonged to the brides family for generations, the couple set sail on another new adventure.

Built by Katies grandfather in the 1960s, the expansive barn sits atop the mountain with a truly breathtaking panoramic view. Upon first look, its infrastructure showed signs of wear from its past life as a horse stable, as a storage facility and even as the site of community square dances hosted by her family long before Katie was born.

Despite its leaky roof, dirt floors and the countless old relics that called the place home, the bride-to-be saw endless potential in this piece of her familys history, and she wasnt alone. CeCe Hampton, her wedding planner, also knew they were staring at a diamond in the rough.

CeCe absolutely loved the space and gushed about it, and, with that positive affirmation from an industry professional, I started to give it more serious consideration, Katie said. All of this happened while I was in North Carolina for the holidays and David was in California visiting his folks. Imagine his surprise when I called, completely convinced that we should by my uncles farm, renovate it to get married there and start a wedding venue business, all within a year.

David was on board immediately, without even seeing the property, and renovations began right away. After tackling countless renovation projects to bring the place to life, the two exchanged their own vows at the newly outfitted ElderManns Overlook Barn.

Today, the property boasts a polished concrete floor, state-of-the-art styling suites, event lighting, pristine landscaping, an outdoor fire pit, a two-acre meadow and enough space in the barn for 250-300 reception guests. The couple now looks forward to hosting special wedding days for other brides and grooms who love the barn as much as they do.

This has got to be the most exciting part about owning a wedding venue. Davids day job is in software sales and mine is in human resources. Neither of us get to see a real, direct impact on customers on a daily basis for those jobs, said Katie. To think that couples will be using the barn my grandfather built and we renovated as the place they will kick off their life journey together is astounding. We had the time of our lives at our wedding and reception surrounded by friends and family, and we just cant wait to see others have that same experience.

We also are curious to see how couples make the barn their own for the evening by decorating with their own personal style. Im sure so many people will come up with great ideas and we cant wait to see pictures from those events!

If your heart is set on using this new venue for your next special event (and we totally dont blame you if so), then hop over to overlookbarn.com for more information or reach Katie and David at [email protected]

Visit the blog to our sister publication, High South Weddings, for photos from Overlook Barns recent grand opening event.

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The rise of nationalist-populist parties has continued practically everywhere in Europe due to the weak economic conditions and growing immigration. [The recent] presidential elections in Austria are the latest reminder of how wide distrust in traditional parties and political structures, including the EU, has spread, she writes.

The crumbling of democracy and the rise of introverted nationalism are the greatest threats currently facing Europe, Kristi Raik, a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, argues in her guest contribution to Kaleva .

Raik reminds that even though the right-wing presidential candidate, Norbert Hofer, was defeated in the elections, his popularity will inevitably have an impact on policy-making in Austria.

She also points out that populists do not direct their criticism only at the European Union but have also questioned the capability of democracy to resolve contemporary problems.

Populist movements juxtapose public will with the elite and culturally and ethnically different population groups. They do not tolerate compromises and diversity and present their views as the only true voice of the people. Populist parties struggle to maintain their popularity, if they rise to power as part of a coalition government  as has been noticed by the Finns Party in Finland, says Raik.

She reminds that the concerns and fears expressed by populist parties should be taken seriously, despite the fact that such parties have yet to offer credible and reasonable solutions.

Substituting free trade for protectionism would not promote the well-being of Europeans. Closing borders would damage the economy but would not stop transnational crime. Labelling all outsiders as threats would destroy European humanism and see us turn against ourselves.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Heikki Saukkomaa  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi
Whitmire optimistic about 'donut hole' development

State Rep. Chris Whitmire sees development of the DuPont State Forest "donut hole" as a potential job producer and catalyst for economic activity.

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In his weekly newsletter and in an interview on Thursday, Whitmire added more details about what kind of development state and National Guard officials are looking at for the 400-acre site still owned by the DuPont Corp.

The Department of Agriculture and the North Carolina National Guard are making plans for a first responder training facility at the site of the old plant. "Focus areas would include emergency response needs common to North Carolina such as mountain and swift water rescue, forest fire containment, severe winter storm and tornado recovery, and flooding and hurricane response among other mission sets," Whitmire said.

In addition, the development would also include recreation the general public, military families, veterans, and wounded warriors; and an educational academy for at-risk youth.

Noting that no decisions had been made, Whitmire said he would like to see the N.C. National Guard create a Challenge Academy, similar to facilties it operates in Salemburg and New London for at-risk youth 16 and 17 years old. "The master plan calls for three" in North Carolina, he said. "Once they're built, 90 percent of the funding comes from the National Guard. It's like, I don't want to say a mini-service academy, but it is a miitary type setting."

Whitmire, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, points out that 53.5 percent of Transylvania County land is federal or state owned  with an additional 8,420 acres transitioning from private to state ownership. That poses "an additional challenge to the local economies with less and less ability to generate jobs in the private sector and (to raise) tax revenue for local education and public safety essential services.

"To mitigate this situation," he said, "the land mass known as the Headwaters Tract and the nearby DuPont 'Donut Hole' offer a unique opportunity to generate jobs, enhance public safety, and open certain natural attractions for public enjoyment."

Whitmire said residents should be confident that the military would be a "responsible user and responsible neighbor" for the surrounding forest. The partnership should add jobs, act as an economic catalyst and improve the safety of outdoor enthusiasts, he added.
The High Court has extended the bankruptcy of Priory Hall developer Tom McFeely by almost five years.

Ms Justice Caroline Costello said it had been done over "very grave" failures to co-operate with the official administering of his bankruptcy, including failures to disclose his interest in 12 apartments in Dublin.

Five years is the maximum period by which a bankruptcy may be extended, but Ms Justice Costello said McFeely's conduct warranted an extension of almost that period.

She reduced the five year period by some two months to take into account McFeely's age of 67.

The effect is that McFeely, whose bankruptcy was set to expire in July 2015, will now exit bankruptcy in May 2020.

He was adjudicated bankrupt here in July 2012, with substantial debts including 200m owed to Nama.

He was previously adjudicated bankrupt in England and Wales but that was rescinded after a woman, owed 100,000 by companies of McFeely, brought proceedings here.

McFeely, who was not in court for the judgment yesterday, had opposed as disproportionate and oppressive the extension sought by the official assignee in bankruptcy, Chris Lehane.

The judge upheld arguments by Bernard Dunleavy SC, for Mr Lehane, the extent of non-cooperation justified the bankruptcy being extended. The non-cooperation and failure to disclose assets was on the "very grave" and "extreme end of the spectrum" and the extension should reflect that fact, the judge said.

In reality, McFeely has refused to co-operate in any meaningful way with his bankruptcy, she said.

McFeely's initial interview with Mr Lehane in August 2012 was, to McFeely's knowledge, "misleading", she said. He gave his address as his late parents' home in Claudy, Derry, when he knew he never resided there and did not intend to.

He had also failed to disclose his interest in 12 properties.

He had also presented to Mr Lehane the statement of affairs which he had used for his English bankruptcy when he knew that was incomplete and continued thereafter to fail to co-operate with his bankruptcy.

He also sought to "dictate" to Mr Lehane where he would be interviewed.

He also decided his 20pc interest in some properties "and quite possibly 100pc interest" was of nil commercial value although there was no charge on the relevant properties.

Loss

Were it not for the investigations of Mr Lehane, McFeely's creditors would be at a loss as a result of his persistent breach of his statutory obligations, the judge said.

In these proceedings, McFeely had "flatly refused" to provide the address or addresses where he now lives, failed to provide a sworn statement of affairs and has provided a statement of affairs prepared in his English bankruptcy which he knows to be false.

He had "greatly hindered" Mr Lehane in the administration of his estate and the effect of his non-cooperation was to severely prejudice the realisation of his estate for the benefit of his creditors, she said.
Lawyers for the Anglo accused had argued that their clients believed that the deposits were real deposits and were accounted for correctly on Anglo's balance sheet and so no fraud was carried out (Picture: PA)

Two former executives from Anglo Irish Bank have been found guilty of conspiring to defraud the public in 2008.

On day 84 of the longest- running criminal trial in the State's history, the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court returned the majority verdicts.

The verdict comes after 38 hours of deliberations - the longest jury deliberations in the State's history.

The jury is still considering charges against two Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) bankers who were alleged to have taken part in the 7.2 billion conspiracy.

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Anglo's former head of debt capital markets, John Bowe (52), and the bank's then finance director, Willie McAteer (65), were on trial accused of conspiring to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo.

Bail

Judge Martin Nolan remanded the men on continuing bail until Friday. "Obviously, you don't have to be here tomorrow gentlemen," the judge told McAteer and Bowe. There was no reaction from the men when the verdicts were read out.

Jurors will continue deliberations today on charges against former chief executive of Irish Life & Permanent (ILP) Denis Casey (56), and his finance director in 2008, Peter Fitzpatrick (63)

Expand Close John Bowe, Anglos former head of capital markets, was found guilty of fraud (Picture: Collins Courts) / Facebook

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Bowe, from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Co. Tipperary; Casey, from Raheny, Dublin, and Fitzpatrick, of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin, all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2 billion circular transaction scheme between March 1 and September 30, 2008, to bolster Anglo's balance sheet.

The State's case was that the four men were involved in setting up a circular scheme of billion euro transactions where Anglo lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back, via their assurance firm Irish Life Assurance, to Anglo.

Deposits

The scheme was designed so that the deposits came from the assurance company and would be treated as customer deposits, which are considered a better measure of a bank's strength than inter-bank loans.

The 7.2 billion deposit was later accounted for in Anglo's preliminary results on December 3, 2008, as part of Anglo's customer deposits figure.

The prosecution alleged that the entire objective of the scheme was to mislead anybody reading Anglo's accounts by artificially inflating the customer deposits number from 44bn to 51bn, a difference of 16pc.

Lawyers for the Anglo accused had argued that their clients believed that the deposits were real deposits and were accounted for correctly on Anglo's balance sheet and so no fraud was carried out.

The prosecution argued there was no commercial substance to the transactions and the only purpose was to deceive.

"They take a vast amount of time and trouble and they amount to one large candy floss whose only conceivable purpose is to bolster up and artificially inflate the Anglo customer deposit. That is manifestly dishonest and was done with dishonest intent," Paul O'Higgins, SC, told the jury.

Lawyers defending the former ILP executives argued that their clients had no control over how Anglo would account for the deposits and had no intention to mislead the public.

Inconceivable

The prosecution argued that it was inconceivable that high- level banking professionals, who were trained accountants and in the business of supervising the financial industry and doing deals, wouldn't have known "full well what Anglo were doing".

Una Ni Raifeartaigh, SC, for the DPP, said that if Anglo did not present the deal in the way they did, and so misleading the public, there would have been no point in doing the deal at all.

She told the jurors: "These are not stupid or inexperienced people. These are experienced bankers. Do you find it reasonably credible, that they did this deal, thinking Anglo was doing it as an exercise in futility?"
A judge who described Dublin's gangland war as an "abominable and cold-blooded feud" has refused bail to a young man charged by gardai investigating the murder of Gareth Hutch.

Thomas Fox (29), who is accused of unlawful possession of a handgun the day before the killing, was remanded in custody for a week after gardai objected to bail at Dublin District Court.

He is the second person to be charged after Gareth Hutch (35) was shot dead outside Avondale House flats on North Cumberland Street in the inner city last week.

The father-of-one was the seventh victim of a feud between the Kinahan and Hutch gangs.

"Mr Fox [is] charged with a most serious offence and it is linked to the abominable and cold-blooded feud between two gangland families, the ferocity and viciousness of which has increased exponentially," Judge Halpin said.

"You would have to be living on Mars to escape the daily reportage of the war raging between these two families and the mounting victims."

Mr Fox had been detained since he handed himself in to gardai at Mountjoy Station hours after the shooting of Gareth Hutch last week.

The accused, of Rutland Court, Dublin 1, was charged with unlawful possession of a Makarov 9mm handgun at Avondale House on May 23.

Chief Superintendent Pat Leahy objected to bail, citing the nature, degree and seriousness of the alleged offence, which has a maximum potential prison sentence of 14 years.

"It is anticipated that a further, more serious charge will be proffered," he said.

Child

Applying for bail, defence solicitor Yvonne Bambury said the accused's partner was due to have their first child in six weeks.

Mr Fox had lived in the community all his life and would abide by any bail conditions, she said.

On Monday, Mary McDonnell (44), of Avondale House, North Cumberland Street, appeared in the same court charged with failing to disclose information to the gardai.

Another woman remained in custody last night.
A second maternal death has been recorded this year by one of the country's major maternity hospitals, the Herald has learned.

The Coombe Hospital in Dublin confirmed yesterday that a pregnant woman who had been in its care died in another hospital that has not been named.

The tragic news comes after the death of Malak Kuzbary Thawley (34) at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles St on May 8, when she was having emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy.

A spokesman for the Coombe said a maternal death is classified as the death of a patient for whom the hospital has accepted medical responsibility, during pregnancy or within six weeks of delivery.

Most deaths of women transferred to other hospitals relate to an underlying health condition rather than an obstetric failure. It is practice that a review is carried out into all maternal deaths.

Meanwhile, the Herald has learned that it took nearly an hour-and-half for a heavily-pregnant haemorrhaging woman to get to Cavan maternity hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning after calling an ambulance. The woman was in a life-threatening condition when she arrived at Cavan hospital at 3.21am on Sunday.

Her baby did not survive and the woman, who was administered medical treatment, is recovering.

The HSE confirmed yesterday that the ambulance service received a 999 call at 1.57am on Sunday morning to go the Bailieboro area of Cavan.

Triggered

The call was triaged, using recognised protocols and standards of the advanced medical priority dispatch system. The nearest available ambulance was dispatched to the call from Castleblaney and he arrived at the woman's house at 2.31am.

The woman received out-of-hospital emergency care at the scene and was taken to Cavan maternity unit where she arrived at 3.21am. The length of time it took the woman to reach the hospital is expected to form part of a review into her care. A second investigation is also under way at Cavan into the death of a day-old baby who had been delivered by Caesarean section.

Health Minister Simon Harris said yesterday he expected to receive preliminary reports on both deaths shortly.

The delay in completing reviews into previous baby deaths at Cavan - some dating back to 2012 - was raised in the Dail yesterday.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said only one of those investigations has been completed and two others were at "an advanced stage", but added: "if an independent outside review is necessary, well, then that can happen."
Founders of the LauraLynn childrens hospice Jane and Brendan McKenna with their award in Dun Laoghaire (Arthur Carron Photography)

The parents who established the LauraLynn children's hospice, following the tragedy of losing two daughters to serious illness, have been honoured with the freedom of Dun Laoghaire.

Jane and Brendan McKenna were yesterday the guests of honour at a civic reception by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council at County Hall.

They were praised for their work in providing end-of-life care for children with terminal illnesses.

The couple were delighted with the recognition of the charity set up as a legacy for their daughters Laura and Lynn.

It comes as they should be celebrating their 21st and 30th birthdays.

The couple were joined by family and friends at the reception for the civic honour - only the second one ever conferred by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Mr and Mrs McKenna, who were presented with a scroll as part of the proceedings, said they were "delighted and honoured" at the award.

The honour was bestowed on the couple by Barry Saul, Cathaoirleach of the council.

"It is a great privilege to award the county's highest honour to Jane and Brendan for their tireless work in fundraising and raising awareness for families with children with life-limiting or threatening conditions requiring respite care," he said.

"Jane and Brendan finally saw the result of their efforts in 2011 - the opening of Ireland's only children's hospice in the grounds of the Children's Sunshine Home in Leopardstown".

The Hospice, dedicated to the memory of their daughters, cost 5.5m to build and costs 3.5m annually to run.

The money is raised through fundraising and donations by members of the public and corporate organisations.

Cllr Saul presented Mr and Mrs McKenna with a Certificate of Honour and sterling silver scroll, crafted by a local silversmith, which bears a specially commissioned stamp for the centenary year.

Last week was dedicated to raising awareness about children's hospices and LauraLynn used the occasion to call for more palliative care services to be provided for affected families.

"Too few children and families who require palliative care can currently access hospice services," CEO of LauraLynn Sharon Morrow said.

"As a result, they often rely on emergency and acute support because the hospice care services are not available in their area," she said.

"Time is short for these families.

Dedicated

"LauraLynn is calling on all political parties to commit to increase the provision of children's hospice care by ensuring that there is fair and sustainable funding for children's palliative care," she added.

Currently, LauraLynn is the only dedicated children's hospice in the state.

Last year it launched a hospice-at-home programme which has enabled it to expand its services to many more families.

Jane and Brendan lost Laura (4) and Lynn (13) within two years of each other.
County GOP central committee chairman to leave after Election Day

Jerry DeWolf, Washington County GOP Central Committee chairman, says he's leaving the group after the election to spend more time with family.
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According to reports, actor Kareena Kapoor Khan is expecting her first child with husband Saif Ali Khan.

The couple, who got married in 2012, recently went to London for a vacation where they reportedly visited a prenatal baby clinic. The rumour got stronger when she was spotted wearing a loose shirt at the airport on her return to India.

Read: Maintaining marriage in industry isnt tough: Kareena Kapoor

Kareenas father, actor Randhir Kapoor reportedly told DNA, Well, they havent told me yet, so I have no clue, but I hope its true. Its high time that they had a baby.

Kareena started dating Saif Ali Khan while the two were shooting for Tashan in 2008. The couple has starred together in several other films including Omkara, Agent Vinod and Kurbaan.

Read: I am feeling good, says Shahid Kapoor on impending fatherhood

Before Saif, Bebo was in a much-talked-about relationship with actor Shahid Kapoor, who she began dating while shooting for Fida in 2004. After doing a string of unsuccessful films together (36 China Town, Chup Chup Ke, Milenge Milenge), the two separated during the filming of their superhit film, Jab We Met (2007).

Kareena is Saif Ali Khans second wife. He was previously married to actor Amrita Singh from 1991 to 2004. He has two children  Sara and Ibrahim  with her.

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His film lineup boasts of top class comedy, but actor Kunaal Roy Kapur says this was not a choice but something that just kept happening.

Comedy has been chasing me , but it isnt the only thing I am interested in. I am interested in drama, thrillers, horror and in all kinds of genres. However, comedy is something I am associated with , says Kapur, who has been part of films such as Delhi Belly(2011), Nautanki Saala(2013), Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) and Action Jackson(2014).

Read: Censorship is an outdated concept: Kunaal Roy Kapur

Making people laugh is no childs play but Kapur has managed to do it anyway. But he says he does not follow method acting much. I dont think my process follows a method. Method is very much like becoming that character. I use some of the techniques sometimes but usually it is what comes out of a discussion and I dont take my character back home with me, he says.

Read: Actor Kunaal Roy Kapur to host his first-ever live podcast

Hes got his share of fan following, but thats never been a motivation for him. I didnt get into acting for that reason. I like acting and stardom is a wonderful by-product and a cherry on top but it was not the main dish, says the actor, who was recently seen in Azhar.

Kapur, who has worked in television series and satirical documentaries, is very clear about what his choice of profession would have been had acting not happened to him. I would have been a photographer because I used to click pictures professionally. I wouldnt have been a professional actor then, he says.

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Deepika Padukone recently finished shooting for her Hollywood debut xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, which also stars Vin Diesel, in Toronto, Canada. The actor returned to Mumbai yesterday (June 2). A source close to Deepika says that she bought gifts for her staff. Deepika picked up gifts for her team. This isnt the first time she has done this. She cares for her staff, says the source, adding that before returning to India, the actor went shopping in Canada.

Read: I want to work with Salman soon: Deepika Padukone

Deepika also gifted her co-stars and crew members in Toronto some Indian goodies, says the source, adding that the actor specially ordered customised gifts for each individual in the unit, from handcrafted potli bags to designer shoes and sarees.

Read: Deepika Padukone gifted a Kurta Pyjama to her xXx director DJ Caruso

When contacted, Deepika says, I enjoy looking around and picking up little gifts for people close to me. Sometimes, you see a small thing and it reminds you of a person. I hope they like it.

Read: Deepika Padukone: I had to take medication for depression
Rishi Kapoor on Thursday paid tribute to his father, legendary Bollywood actor-filmmaker Raj Kapoor, on his 28th death anniversary.

Raj Kapoor died on June 2, 1988 at the age of 63. Raj Kapoor. My Father. 1924-1988. Adieu, 28 years back! Achieved what most yearn in a life time. So proud to be his son! Rishi wrote on Twitter.

Read: Why Raj Kapoor was popular in Russia

Raj Kapoor. My Father. 1924-1988.Adieu,28 years back!Achieved what most yearn in a life time.So proud to be his son! pic.twitter.com/grPXzE2V3Q  ......rahenge sada! (@chintskap) June 1, 2016

The 63-year-old actor also changed his Twitter handle to rahenge sada which is the lyrics of a famous Raj Kapoor song Jeena Yaha Marna Yaha from the film Mera Naam Joker.

Watch Raj Kapoor in the iconic song from Mera Naam Joker

Read: Remembering Raj Kapoor

Raj Kapoor, known as the Showman of Hindi cinema, has starred in films including Awara, Shree 420, Boot Polish, Sangam among others.

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Sonakshi Sinha turns a year older on Thursday, but the Bollywood actor doesnt believe in hosting an elaborate bash to celebrate the occasion. Instead, she likes going with the flow. I never make big plans for my birthday. I think last-minute plans are always more fun. Im all for spontaneity, says Sonakshi.

Read| First look of Sonakshi Sinha as Pakistani journalist in Noor

Sonakshi Sinha as a Pakistani journalist in Noor. (Twitter)

Recently, it was reported that Sonakshi, who has two films lined up (one opposite John Abraham and the other, in which she plays a boxer), has signed three new movies. According to the reports, Sonakshi is set to star in a murder mystery opposite Sidharth Malhotra, in filmmaker Vipul Shahs Namastey England opposite Akshay Kumar, and in Noor - a movie based on the novel, Karachi Youre Killing Me!, in which she will play the role of a journalist. However, the actor refrains from divulging any details, and when asked about the projects, simply says, That (announcing the films) is the call of the producers. They will talk when the time is right.

Read: Shraddha replaces Sonakshi in biopic on Dawood Ibrahims sister

However, she is looking forward to her two upcoming films, calling them exciting projects. I have wrapped up my next, and will soon finish shooting for my film with John. The release dates of both the movies have been announced, so, Im excited. I finally have some time off now. So, I am doing what I love to do  travel. I have also started painting, says Sonakshi, who recently auctioned a painting made by her. Im really happy that I was able to contribute to a cause. There is a lot more that I want to do with my art, and Im sure I will in the near future, she says.

On the other hand, Sonakshi often remains unperturbed by whats happening around her or what is being said about her on social media. Ask her if her detached attitude might be taken as being uninterested, and she says, My calm demeanor has got me so far in life. Who is mistaking it for what is the least of my concerns. Thats just who I am, says the actor.

Watch: Sonakshi Sinha in a song from Lootera

Even in terms of her professional choices, Sonakshi is trying to add more versatility to her portfolio. When I read a script, I start thinking if I would like to watch a film like that or not, and will it be a great family entertainer. Im also trying different genres now, says the actor.

Read: Good Samaritan Sonakshi Sinha does her bit for Nepal earthquake victims

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Following serious disagreement with students, veteran actor Tom Alter has resigned as Head of the Acting Department at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). The FTII administration, while confirming the resignation of Alter said, It is yet to be accepted

According to Brijendra Pal Singh, chairman of FTII academic council, the students had refused to attend Alters classes as he had sought 100 per cent attendance. The FTII students however accused that Alter had dictatorial ways and was failing as an administrator, as a result of which students had to suffer.

Sources said on May 23, students misbehaved with Alter as they had scuffle with him at Directors office. At that point, the actor threatened to resign. In his resignation letter sent through an email, Alter has maintained that because of other commitments he was unable to find time for academic activities.

Read: Delhi theatre audience is ready for different genres, says Tom Alter

Read: I have a special connection with Kashmir, says Tom Alter

FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola while confirming the resignation said, The institute is trying to persuade him to withdraw the resignation. Alter had joined the institute in November 2014, and he voluntarily decided to not take any honorarium. He was teaching students without accepting any salary.

Alters resignation is a latest standpoint between the students and FTII management as the institute simmers again after Academic Council proposed to bring in new syllabus, shifting to choice based credit system and extra measures to maintain discipline on the campus.

Read: FTII, 40 central universities extend support to JNU students

Read: 20 FTII students lathicharged, detained for protesting against Chauhan

The Council has proposed that hostel facility will be allowed to be used only during the duration of course while proctor is to be appointed on the campus to bring in order among students.

At an Academic Council meeting held on Wednesday, students opposed all the proposals put forth by Council members. Irked by the constant opposition by students, Brijendra Pal Singh reportedly expressed his disappointment saying he had never come across students who wanted to oppose everything.

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While 42% of the worlds population is now using internet, the growth of netizens in India is the highest, says the 2016 edition of Mary Meekers Annual Internet Trends report. With a growth of 44% in 2015, India is keeping the global internet growth steady. Without Indias contribution the global rise in net users would have decelerated from 9% to 7%.

While India with its internet users has surpassed US, China continues to be the true tech leader. The report lauds China as the global innovation powerhouses in e-commerce, messaging, travel, financial services, and on-demand transportation.

Mary Meeker, a former Morgan Stanley internet analyst who is now partner at venture-capital fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, has been studying the technology and internet economy for close to two decades. The Meeker Report shows that the global internet user base grew only 9% in 2015, reaching 3 billion.

The report shows a surprising decline in global smartphone user growth down from 31% to 21% in 2015. A closer look at smartphone usage trends show that 80% of time is spent on three apps, while in the US it is Facebook, Chrome and YouTube, worldwide Facebook, Whatsapp and YouTube take up the maximum mind space.

The report also dwells on online advertising; Google and Facebook control 76% of digital advertising revenue. While Facebooks yearly advertising revenue (up 59%) grew much faster than Googles (18%) last year.But online advertising still has a long way to go as advertisers still spend a lot on legacy media.

The report warns that online video ads are ineffective: 81% of people surveyed mute video ads, 62% are annoyed by pre-roll ads, and 93% have considered using ad-blocking software.

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NEW DELHI: Postmen are set to sport smartphones and iPads soon, as the government on Wednesday gave India Post the go ahead to set up a payments bank with a corpus of Rs 800 crore.

The Cabinet has cleared proposal of postal payments bank. We have 154,000 post offices out of which 139,000 are in rural India. 650 branches of postal payments bank will be established in the country and will be linked to rural post offices, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Prasad also said all grameen dak sevaks in rural post offices will be given hand-held devices by March 2017. Postmen in the urban post offices will be given iPads and smartphones to improve efficiency, he said.

Of the total corpus of Rs 800 crore, Rs 400 crore will be equity and the remaining 50% grants from the Central government.

The payments bank will be headed by a chief executive officer and run professionally, Prasad said, adding that there will be representation from various other government departments including the departments of posts and expenditure.

By September 2017, all 650 branches of postal payments bank will become operational. The plan was to do it in three years but now we will be doing it in a year, the minister said.

This comes at a time when three private sector players have withdrawn their applications to set up payments banks.

In March, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance shunned its plan to set up a payments bank, while last month a joint venture of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries promoter Dilip Shanghvi, IDFC Bank and Telenor Financial Services dropped out. Tech Mahindra has also given up on its licence.

Responding to the second withdrawal, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor SS Mundra last week, said, We would certainly feel little aggrieved because lot of efforts goes into processing applications. Mundra also hinted at a possible penalty for opting out.

Vijay Shekhar Shar ma, co-founder of One97 Communications, said on Monday that the Paytm Payment Bank, which will be owned 51% by him and 49% by One97, will be operational by November this year. The bank will have an initial corpus of Rs 400 crore.

Others including Vodafone and FINO PayTech have also announced plans. FINO PayTech, with partner ICICI Bank, plans to raise Rs 500 crore to finance its operations.
CBI is planning to file multiple chargesheets against Vijay Mallaya as it has brought under its one FIR the cases of his alleged loan default, of now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, with various banks of over Rs 9,000 crore.

CBI sources said the agency has registered the case of alleged loan default of Mallya with IDBI Bank which was about Rs 900 crore on the basis of information cultivated by the agency as no affected bank had filed any complaint with it.

They said any investigation agency is capable of filing such a case but it involves much more work in terms of collecting evidence which could have been made easy if any of the affected bank had filed an FIR against Mallya.

The sources said till now no bank has filed any complaint against him prompting the agency to expand the ambit of its probe from IDBI Bank to all the banks which were exposed by the alleged loan default of Mallya.

We have one FIR based on source information. We have brought under it exposure of all the public sector banks who have given loan to Mallya. Now we will file separate charge sheets against him, an official said.

The banks affected by alleged loan default include State Bank of India, which has the biggest exposure to Kingfisher Airlines at Rs 1,600 crore besides Axis Bank Ltd, Bank of Baroda, Corporation Bank, Federal Bank Ltd, IDBI Bank Ltd, Indian Overseas Bank, Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd, Punjab and Sind Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Mysore, UCO Bank and United Bank of India.

Mallya is in negotiations with banks to settle his debts. Mallya has defended his position of not being personally liable for repayment of over Rs 9,000 crore loan to now defunct Kingfisher Airlines saying he had given personal guarantee for the loans under coercion.

The former business tycoon, who flew to London on March 2 just days before a consortium of lenders knocked on doors of the Supreme Court to recover Rs 9,431.65 crore of loan and interest, in his deposition to the Rajya Sabha Committee on Ethics said he had approached the Bombay high court for declaring his personal guarantee for KFA loan void way back in 2013.
Worried over worsening call drop menace, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday asked the government for powers to penalise mobile operators as most of them have failed to meet the quality benchmark in this regard.

As the Supreme Court in its judgement has observed that Trai does not have power to impose such (call drop) penalty on telecom operators, we wrote to DoT on Wednesday for amendment in Trai Act to give us more power, Trai secretary Sudhir Gupta said.

The SC recently quashed a rule of Trai which mandated telecom operators to compensate consumers Rs 1 for each call drop with upper limit at Rs 3 a day.

At present, disputes between consumers and telecom operators are not taken up by consumer courts as a SC judgement of 2009 had barred seeking any such relief under the Consumer Protection Act.

The National Telecom Policy 2012 envisages to undertake legislative measures to bring disputes between telecom consumers and service providers within the jurisdiction of consumer forums established under the Consumer Protection Act.

However, it is yet to be executed by the government.

Trai on Wednesday published result of test drive conducted in Delhi between May 3-6, and in next 15 days will publish result of test drive conducted in 12 cities.

The report said All 3G networks; 2G networks of Airtel and MTNL and CDMA network of RCom have shown degradation in performance.

In the latest test drive conducted by Trai in Delhi, state-run telecom operator MTNL failed on all network-based quality of service parameters.

Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Aircel and Idea need to further improve the call drop rate performance. The CDMA operators and MTNL need to improve across all parameters, in order to offer acceptable levels of service, Trai said.
The bank board bureau and the government may consider giving an extension to State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya, who completes her three year tenure as the chief in September. Sources said that the bank is going through a crucial phase and is gearing up to take over its subsidiaries and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank. Bhattacharya, who has been driving the bank for the last three years, may be given an extension for a few months to ensure a smooth transition.

A final decision would be taken only after two months based on a thorough assessment of the situation. No outsider will be brought in to head the bank, an official source who did not wish to be identified told Hindustan Times.

Extension (of Bhattacharya) will be considered..there is no decision on the issue as yet and only preliminary talks have on the issue (of the post) have been held, the source said. Bhattacharya was the first woman chief of the bank.

She has been dynamic in her performance and has managed things very well especially at a time when the industry is going through a tough phase with non performing assets surging to alarming levels, he added. Bhattacharya is also known for being vocal against willful defaulters including Vijay Mallya, promoter of the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

Sources added that Bhattacharya will bag a respectable and responsible position after her innings with SBI.

Last year, the government for the first time, threw its doors open to private sector executives to head large state owned lenders and Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda got their chiefs from the private sector.

Names of Anshula Kant, CFO, SBI; Dinesh Khara, MD and CEO of SBI Mutual Fund and Praveen Kumar Gupta, MD, SBI are also being considered for the top post.

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In recent years I have stopped marvelling about Sharad Pawars propensity to survive. But it is the Congress that I marvel about now  its generosity and equally extreme stupidity. And I wonder its leaders have no pride in themselves or in their party.

In October 2014, when minutes after the BJP broke its ties with the Shiv Sena and the NCP announced it was no longer an ally of the Congress, one former minister in the Maharashtra government told me, We should never have allied with this party in the first place. If we had had the guts to sit in the opposition in 1999, the NCP would have been finished in two-three years and we would have had an absolute majority at the next election.

I believe that assessment is quite true because more than any other party in the country, the NCP needs the oxygen of power and its trappings to survive. Both the BJP and the Shiv Sena can spend decades in the opposition and still be able to keep their necks above water. So can the Congress despite its leadership issues and weak-kneed reactions to its opponents. The NCP, however, would be dead if Pawar did not keep holding out promises to his supporters that he would one day be Prime Minister  and now President, given that the PMO is now probably out of his reach forever.

So after offering suo moto support to the BJP for precisely that reason somehow or the other, the NCP wished to exert control over the government  now it is eyeing the Congress again. Notwithstanding the partys defeat in Assam, it seems to be on the path of revival at least in Maharashtra, leading all other parties in local self government elections. So the NCP with a mixture of bullying and cajoling tactics has forced the Congress into an alliance with it again.

With elections to the legislative council due next month, it is very obvious that the NCP has no friends at all at this point of time  neither the Shiv Sena nor th BJP is interested in propping up the party. That is not quite the case with the Congress who the Sena might be willing to support with second and third preference votes for its second candidate had the party decided to field one. So the best way out for the NCP was to exert extreme pressure on the Congress to cede the second seat to them on the promise they would return the favour at the next round of elections in 2018. Now even Pawars own supporters would not trust him so far  I have had his closest supporters tell me his promises hold good only so far as you do not exit his room and shut the door. After that you are quite on your own, so I wonder why the Congress leadership in New Delhi should believe in any of his assurances. But, strangely, despite the added fact of Ajit Pawars abuse of Congress leaders in the last couple of years and Pawars earlier critique of Sonia Gandhi for her foreign origins, the Congress leadership forgives him again and again and allies with the NCP despite the better counsel of its local leaders.

I recall, in 2009, as Pawar was pushing the Congress for a larger share of Lok Sabha seats, local Congress workers were leading delegations to their party president in desperate opposition. Madam gives us a patient hearing, one such leader told me. But I do not know what magic Pawar works on her, he just has to drop in on her for five minutes and she throws all caution to the winds and does exactly as he asks her to.

What was galling to these leaders then, including former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, was that after such display of generosity, NCP leaders, including Pawar and Praful Patel, would go to town laughing about how they had tricked Sonia Gandhi into doing their bidding  of course none of these Congress leaders had the guts to inform her of this travesty and, I note, even today that is what the NCP banks upon.

So Maharashtras Congressmen may not have wanted accommodation with the NCP but no one has the courage to oppose Pawar or indeed their own party president. As one of them told me, This is now written into our horoscope  Pawar hamein topi pehnate rahenge aur hum khushi khushi pehente rahenge.

Hats  or should I say topis off then to Sharad Pawar.

sanandan@hindustantimes.com

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On the heel so fits provocative step to prevent the UNSC sanctions committee from designating JeM chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist, China has publicly opposed India s membership of the NSG. In both cases China s all weather friendship with Pakistan and disdain for India s reaction have influenced the decision-making. China s policy of trying to box India in the subcontinent is being stretched to the point of treating both the terrorism and NSG membership issues as ones of managing India-Pakistan rivalries.

China would want to deprive India of diplomatic advantage over its iron ally in forums where it can hold up consensus. It has chafed at the India-US nuclear deal, openly questioning US favour it ism towards India and advocated a similar deal for Pakistan. Its decision to build two additional nuclear power plants beyond the two it grand fathered while joining the NSG is a violation of its NSG commitments. It was intended as a signal to the US that it can not have a monopoly on decision son non-proliferation matters and that China can balance the US nuclear gesture towards India with one of its own towards Pakistan.

Undeterred by its egregious proliferation record( the AQ Khan affair), blocking of the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT) negotiations in Geneva, the frenetic build up of its nuclear assets, the introduction of tactical nuclear weapons in the sub-continent, and its threats to use nuclear weapons against India, Pakistan is seeking parity of treatment with India on nuclear matters. It uses its irresponsible nuclear conduct to coerce the US/West into giving it an India-like nuclear deal as an incentive to be responsible.

China has been the biggest pro life rat or with its well- established nuclear transfers to Pakistan. Its continued nuclear cooperation with Pakistan as a non-NPT country, without any NSG exemption in the latters favour, is itself a serious act of proliferation. That the Chinese built re actors are under International Atomic Energy Agency( IAEA) safeguards is irrelevant, as India, before the In do-US nuclear deal and the NSG exemption, had offered putting all its foreign-aided nuclear re actors under IA EA safeguards but the proposition was not acceptable even to friendly countries like Russia and France because of their international obligations. In Chinas case, its civilian nuclear cooperation with Pakistan is accompanied by the construction of reprocessing plants that are not under IAEA safeguards. It is these plants that are giving Pakistan the capability to produce plutonium and develop miniaturised warheads for tactical nuclear weapons. China is not accountable for all this activity.

Just as in Masood Azhars case the Chinese explanations for its position were misleading and duplicitous, China s reasons for opposing India s NSG membership are hollow, and even arrogant. It explains its opposition on the ground that as a member of the UN SC wear ethe watchdog of the world, we must ensure that rules are followed. And we must also think it is not just India who want san exception to the rules . Hum bug apart, this is an astonishing language of entitlement and privilege. China feel sit must follow the rules as a global watchdog when it comes to India and the NSG, but is not obliged to do so when it comes to the East China and South China Seas. It pleads helplessness in having to oppose India because the rules were made by western powers and we just have to maintain them, ignoring its repeated tilting at the West-imposed international rules governing the international system. China find sit normal to defy these rules in the western Pacific. Its concern about being the Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) watchdog disappear when it protects the North Korean regime from sanctions and insist son dialogue to resolve the issue of its NPT violations.

China  after opposing the NPT as discriminatory for years  is now taking the position that only NPT countries can be members of the NSG. Russia, US, France and the UK, all four recognised nuclear weapon states under the N PT, do not take this position. The US, which initiated the NSG as a stringent export control mechanism to deny access to certain critical nuclear technologies event o NPT member states, has said that India is eligible for NS G membership and is committed to making it happen. The NS G is just an ad hoc body, it is not a treaty. The logic of China demanding that India sign the NPT in order to become an NSG member is malevolent on another count. India cannot sign the NPT as a nuclear weapon state as the NPT has been permanently extended without any scope for amendment. China is therefore implicitly asking India to sign as anon-nuclear weapon state, which means dismantling its weapons programme under international supervision. This is consistent with its non- recognition of India as a nuclear weapons state.

In the past, before high-level visits, China has st aged provocations as part of both engaging India and pressuring it. Significantly, it chose to pique India just before President Pranab Mukherjee s recent visit. This way China sets the terms of the relationship. In any case, having been cajoled by president Bush to agree to the NS G exemption for India, China has yielded on substance. The purpose of blocking Indias NSG membership therefore makes little sense apart from power politics to boost its client Pakistan and diminish Indias standing. As regards the argument that China has hardened its position because India is drawing closer to the US, it needs recalling that Xi had in effect proposed a G2 to Obama.

Kanwal Sibal is a former foreign secretary

The views expressed are personal
The Delhi high court has doubled to 10 years the jail term of two convicts for throwing acid on a 25-year-old woman, saying the brutal inhuman attack on a beautiful woman and the mere sight of her injuries were traumatising.

The very sight of the victim (who was present in the court at the time of hearing) is traumatising. If the court could be traumatised by the mere sight of injuries caused to the victim by the inhuman attack on her, what would be the situation of the victim, perhaps, cannot be judged, justice Sunita Gupta said, adding the court cannot be oblivious of the fact of her trauma.

The verdict came on the appeal of the woman, who was a dancer at a hotel in south Delhi and was attacked in 2004 with sulphuric acid by another woman (also a dancer) and her brother out of jealousy, seeking enhancement of the five-year jail term awarded to them by a trial court.

The high court also dismissed the appeals of the duo against their conviction and five-year sentence awarded by the trial court in 2011, saying the jail term was on a lower side.

Keeping in totality of facts and circumstances, sentence of five years awarded to appellants (convicts), in my view, is on a very lower side, hence the same is enhanced to 10 years, the judge said and also directed Delhi State Legal Service Authority (DLSA) to appropriately compensate the victim under victims compensation scheme.

The high court observed, Present is a glaring example of another brutal inhuman attack with acid on a young girl of hardly 25 years of age, who worked as a dancer..., out of jealousy.

According to the prosecution, the victim was working as a bar dancer in the hotel here and her colleague Simran, who was envious of her, had threatened to get acid thrown at her.

On December 19, 2004, the victim left her house and boarded an autorickshaw to attend work when Simrans brother Raju, who was already standing near the auto covering himself with a shawl, splashed acid on her face. She received severe burn injuries on her face and lost her eyes.
A petty fight between teenagers at a playground claimed the life of an autorickshaw driver who tried to intervene in east Delhis Pandav Nagar on Tuesday.

Azhar Ali, 36, on Thursday died of injuries he sustained while trying to stop the fight between his son and some other boys.

Alis 16-year-old son had gone out to play with his friends in the local playground when a petty argument broke out between them.

The minor squabble escalated with parents of the teens clashing with each other.

Jon Nabi, Alis brother, said that the matter was soon sorted out. But the relatives of another boy came to their house and threatened Ali in the afternoon.

In the evening, they returned and called Ali outside his house on the pretext of solving the matter and attacked him with knives and hammers.

Alis relatives have named Munna, the father of the kid, along with three others  Sulaima, Kallu and Jumman  as accused.

My nephew went in the morning to a park to play and got into a tiff. We did not take the matter seriously at the beginning and forgot about it. But in the afternoon, Kallu, Jumman, Sulaiman and Munna (the relatives of the boy) came and threatened us. They said you will pay for this, wait till the evening. In the evening they attacked him with hammers and knives. It is clear that the attack was planned, said Nabi.

He said Ali was rushed to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital after the attack where no doctor attended to him. We took him to a private hospital later as his condition had worsened. He died at 2am on Thursday, Nabi said.

DCP (east) Rishi Pal said two accused, Munna and Kallu, were arrested while police were looking for the other accused.

Relatives of Ali claimed that despite repeated requests the police had been dragging its feet in probing the case.

Alis nephew Mohammad Akib said the accused tried to reach a settlement by offering to pay a certain sum of money.
AGRA: At Mathuras forensic lab, no one seemed ready to talk about the lynching of 52-year-old Mohammed Ikhlaq on suspicion of slaughtering a cow in Dadris Bisada village last September.

His son Danish was seriously injured while trying to save his father.

It was at this lab  situated on the premises of the veterinary college of Mathura  that four kilos of red meat seized from Ikhlaqs home had been sent for testing in October last year.

The forensic lab is the only one in Uttar Pradesh where such a test can be carried out.

The forensic report, which was submitted in a sealed envelope to a fast track court in April, said the sample of flesh collected was beef.

Police have maintained that the report is of no use as the investigation being carried out was for murder and assault.

RK Dixit, the then in-charge of the forensic lab, had declined to comment about the sample in October last year. He was unavailable for a comment even now.

The chief veterinary officer (Mathura) Dr SK Malik said Dixit had retired.

Last year, Dixit had confirmed that the UP Police had sent a sample of meat for testing, but refused to give a time frame for confirming if the sample was of beef.

It is a sensitive issue and we have instructions not to react to

the subject, Dixit had said in October 2015. He had admitted that teams were being formed to test the flesh. The outcome would be conveyed to the appropriate authority and that is all we can reveal, he had said.

Dixit, the then joint director, was due to retire on October 31, 2015.

Mukul Anand, public relations officer at the veterinary college, said till 2001, the Mathura Veterinary College was under Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Kanpur. In 2001, the college became part of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Pashu Chikitsalaya Vishwavidhalaya and Gau Anusandhan Sansthan, Mathura.

The institute specialises in research on cow and holds a unique status in Uttar Pradesh.

The forensic lab, however, continues to be under the state governments animal husbandry directorate with the joint director heading it as in-charge.

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NEW DELHI: As much as parched Delhi is longing for rain relief, the nightmare of waterlogged roads is staring in its face.

Though the municipal corporations claiming to be desilting the drains for the past months, official data suggests less than 70% work has been completed. But questions are already being raised over the veracity of the claims.

Questioning the delay, senior leaders said officials had been asked to finish cleaning of drains in time for monsoon.

We have asked the officials to ensure that desilting is completed before June 30. We have asked senior officials to deploy more machines and employees in every ward to ensure that what is happening for several years is not repeated this year, said Rajesh Bhatia, deputy chairman, North Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Monsoon is expected to arrive in Delhi by June-end.

The municipal corporations spend a little over Rs 240 crore annually on desilting, cleaning of the drains, including the payment of salaries to the workers, transportation, etc. The promise of waterlogging-free monsoon is made each year but it is never delivered.

Fed up with the constant flooding of the city roads, the high court had ordered the civic agencies last year to ensure that the city remains waterlogging-free.

Senior leaders in the municipal corporations said the data being provided is merely eyewash. They claimed there are several discrepancies and the extent of work may not be as much as being claimed by the officials.

The officials claim to have completed desilting and being prepared for monsoon every year. But even a light shower washes away the claims and bring out the truth, said Farhad Suri, leader of the opposition in south corporation.

Another issue that could derail the monsoon preparedness is the multiplicity of authority. Roads and drains come under a number of agencies so even if drains on one road are clean, the other may be waterlogged. And the blame game seems to have started already.

Municipal leaders, who rejected contentions of the opposition, claimed that even though they had completed the process of desilting the drains under their jurisdiction, those under the public works department (PWD) are not ready. They said the PWD, which comes under the Delhi government, has cleaned only 25% the drains.

All major roads and drains in the city fall under the jurisdiction of the PWD. However, the work on the drains has not been completed. During heavy showers the sewage water will flow on roads and because the outfall of MCD drains are in PWD drains, the roads will remain waterlogged, said Bhatia.

PWD officials refuted the allegations and said all drains had already been desilted and they are being cleaned regularly. The work on drain cleaning has already begun and would be completed before June 30, said an official.

Experts say apart from clogged drains, poor road design is also responsible for waterlogging every year. Apart from disrupting traffic movement, frequent waterlogging also weaken road surface and cause potholes.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police constable was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly demanding a bribe from a labour contractor.

The constable was identified as Raj Karan and had recently been posted to the security unit on transfer from South-East District.

One labour contractor dealing in removal of debris from old buildings demolished for reconstruction in South Delhi and dumping it in Jaitpur approached Vigilance Branch of Delhi Police with the complaint that a police constable was demanding a bribe of Rs10,000 and threatened to seize the truck, DCP, Vigilance, RK Jha said.

The contractor reportedly paid Rs7,000. But the constable was regularly demanding the balance amount by calling him on his phone, he said.

Following the complaint, a team was constituted and a trap was laid to arrest the constable. The contractor was asked to call the constable, promising him the bribe.

When the raiding party along with the complainant reached Jaitpur, constable Raj Karan called the complainant on his phone and a meeting point was fixed near Kalindi Kunj. The complainant met the constable to

give him Rs3,000. The moment the constable took the

money, he was arrested by the team present at the spot, Jha said.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police constable was today found dead inside a police booth on Roshanara Road in Subzi Mandi area of north Delhi.

Kailash (29) was posted as personal security officer of a murder witness. He allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service weapon around 1.30 pm when he was alone in the booth, a police officer said.

When the beat constables reached the booth, they found his body on a chair with blood on the floor and the door locked from inside.

Kailashs body has been sent for post-mortem and his brother-in-law, posted at Hauz Khas Police Station, was told about the incident who informed the other family members.

No suicide note has been recovered, he said.

A native of Dausa in Rajasthan, the constable stayed at north district police lines in Civil Lines area. He returned from his home on May 29 and police are trying to find out led the young police constable to take the extreme step.
These days Delhi Police are polishing their English speaking skills with an accent.

In order to communicate better with foreigners, who are increasingly becoming targets of crime, the police have decided to train officers to not just converse in English but also pick up different accents.

The move comes on the heels of attacks on Africans in the past week, which has triggered a diplomatic row and forced the government to step in and defuse the tension.

The department plans to rope in language experts who will train the police staff in speaking and understanding English in different accents.

Representatives of the natives of 42 African nations living in Delhi have been asked to provide two translators each so that the police can understand their problems better and quicker. They have been asked to nominate one coordinator each to represent their country in the meetings with the city police or local residents.

A senior officer said the trained staff will be posted in the New Delhi district control room to attend calls on the recently launched helpline for foreigners. Some of the trained personnel will be deployed in the central police control room (100) that receives over 21,000 calls of every day.

Since our 100 number is the first responder to any grievance or crime, at least one police officer trained in English with foreign accent will remain available 24x7 at the central control room for addressing grievances of foreigners, said a senior police officer.

RP Upadhyay, joint commissioner of police (south-eastern range) and the nodal officer for the issues concerning the African community in Delhi, said the decision on accent training was taken after a recent meeting with a delegation of Africans in Delhi.

They shared their experiences in which despite attempts the police had difficulty in understanding their language because of heavy accent. In the meeting, we assured them that the problem would be sorted out soon. We requested them to nominate two representatives from each of the 42 African nations for a better coordination during emergencies, said Upadhyay.

Currently, in any emergency situation involving foreigners, the police have to send a formal requisition to the countrys embassy officials concerned to get a translator. This delays police action, said joint commissioner Upadhyay.

The special helpline number for foreigners received two calls in as many days from Africans living in Delhi. One call was related to a fight between a couple and another regarding an argument between a group of friends.
Delhi University results are likely to be delayed as the varsitys teachers on Thursday decided to extend their evaluation boycott till June 6.

The teachers are protesting the University Grants Commissions 3rd amendment regulation since May 24. The regulation that defines their service conditions could lead to retrenchment of more than 5,000 teachers.

The regulation also defines stringent academic performance indicators (API)  the index that defines their promotion terms.

Around 3,000 teachers evaluate papers daily at 13 centres -- Miranda House, Kirori Mal College, Hansraj College, Daulat Ram College, Gargi College, Kalindi College, Deshbandhu College, Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma, Sri Venkateswara College, Maitreyi College, Dyal Singh College and Keshav Mahavidyalaya.

The protest is being led by the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA). The teachers had on Monday held a protest march at the Union human resource development ministry.

Read: Thousands of teachers march against new UGC rule

The evaluation boycott has been extended. Now on June 6, teachers have been called by the MHRD and UGC for consultations. Depending on this, there will be a general body meeting on June 7 when we will decide on the future course of action, said Nandita Narain, DUTA president.

The decision to extend the boycott was taken at a general body meeting held at Hansraj College. Teachers will hold a protest at UGC on the day of the consultation.

We believe a massive turnout of thousands of teachers will force the government to roll back the UGC Gazette Notification (3rd Amendment). We are committed to take the fight to its logical conclusion and ensure its complete rollback, said Aditya Narayan Misra of the Academics for Action and Development  a teachers body.
NEW DELHI: A 58-year-old textile factory owner and his 14-year-old granddaughter were drugged and their house ransacked, allegedly by their domestic help, at north Delhis Banarsi Das Estate in Timarpur on Monday.

The 30-year-old help was employed a fortnight ago without police verification. After drugging the family members, she called her two aides. The three allegedly ransacked the house for an hour and made away with cash and jewellery worth over Rs5 lakh, police said.

According to the family, a CCTV camera in the residential colony captured the two men leaving the locality with the stolen items. The video footage shows the domestic help, Pooja, following them a few minutes later.

The businessman, Pawan Saraf, owns a textile factory in Haryanas Kundli. On Monday morning, he was at home with his grandchildren, Siya (14) and Yashwardhan (6). His wife and daughter-in-law had gone to visit a doctor.

Around 10 am, Sarafs son Puneet had left for the factory, leaving his father, the children and the domestic help at home.

My mother and wife returned around 2 pm and found my father sitting unconscious on the chair in his room. They went to Siyas room and found her unconscious on the floor. Yashwardhan was found unhurt and playing in the other room. Pooja was missing and our house was ransacked, said Puneet.

Saraf and his granddaughter were taken to Sant Parmanand Hospital in Civil lines from where Ruchi was discharged on Tuesday.

My father is still in ICU though he is recovering. Doctors told us my father and daughter were given an intoxicant with juice. My daughter says Pooja had forced her to drink a glass of wood apple squash, Puneet said

The almirahs lock was broken and diamond, gold and silver jewellery and ornaments, besides Rs50,000 in cash, were missing.

Two days after the incident, Pooja or her accomplices were still to be traced. A senior police officer said Pooja was employed at the house on the reference of a local security guard, Sultan.

The family said they were not sure if Pooja was their domestic helps real name and were unaware of her permanent residential address. They did not approach the police for her verification.

Apart from her photos, we have no other details. Her employers say Pooja had told them that she belonged to a village in West Bengal. But we have reasons to believe she had been misleading the family, said the officer.

Madhur Verma, DCP (north), said, We registered a case and teams have been formed to trace Pooja and her aides. It is shocking that despite our advertisements, people are still employing domestic helps without police verification.
New Delhi: Customs officials at Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) nabbed two passengers and recovered 14 pieces of gold bars from them. Officials said the passengers had inserted the bars inside their rectum.

On Tuesday evening, we intercepted two passengers, who were in the transit area of Terminal 3, to proceed for their onward journey to Mumbai. They were searched but nothing was found. During interrogation, the confessed of carrying gold in the rectum, said a customs official.

Total 14 gold bars weighing 2.69 kg and worth Rs76 lakh were recovered.
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court asked lower courts on Wednesday to submit progress reports on 2,110 FIRs lodged during the violent Jat reservation stir in Haryana in February.

Also, the court sought the latest status report on alleged gang rapes in Murthal, which are being probed by a government-constituted special investigation team.

A bench of justice SS Saron and justice Gurmit Ram observed that hearings on the Murthal incident were important but equally imperative were other cases such as FIRs registered against suspects involved in the violence that besieged the state for more than a week. The other cases should not suffer, the court said.

The order paved the way for speedy trial on the 2,110 FIRs registered by Haryana Police, of which more than 1,200 were registered in Rohtak alone. At least 30 people were killed during the stir by Jats for reservation in education and jobs while government and private properties were damaged in at least seven districts.

The amicus curiae in the case, senior lawyer Anupam Gupta, pointed out that the number of arrests were comparatively lower than cases registered by police.

The high court then ordered that the district and sessions judges would summon reports from their area magistrates on FIRs registered for the violence. The lower courts will have to submit their reports by July 4.

The court is likely to take up an application on Thursday filed by the government seeking revocation of a stay order on a state law granting reservation to Jats, the states dominant community.

Rohtak was the epicentre of widespread rioting and arson during the Jat stir, while Murthal, a popular stopover between Delhi and Chandigarh for its 24-hour eateries, turned into a war zone on the night of February 21.

Protesters burnt vehicles, assaulted motorists, allegedly pulled women out of cars and raped them. A litter of womens clothes, especially undergarments, at the site gave validity to the allegations, though villagers in the areas said those belonged to nomads who had camped there.
While the whole city sleeps, a kilometre long narrow street in Zakir Nagar area comes alive. Dotted with small eateries serving haleem, kebabs, kulfi or momos, the road is abuzz with activity past midnight. The shops and stalls are open throughout the week. Popular among students and MNC executives, known for staying up late, this street is a foodies paradise in true sense. Even long working hours fail to dim the enthusiasm of the shopkeepers and cooks who always greet the hoards of customers with warm, welcoming smiles.

The liveliness of the street is best witnessed after dusk, while daytime is dull. The charm of this street is possible to experience only at midnight when it is jam-packed by people looking for scrumptious food items like tandoori momos, mutton haleem, kebabs and kulfi faluda, etc.

Zakir Nagar has a population of more than 3.5 lakhs people, and the midnight hustle and bustle has been the norm here since the 1990s when people started migrating from Old Delhi.

I thought of exploring this food street and the experience was completely out of world. The wafting flavours are enticing and my taste buds sensed some amazing cuisine here, said Aniket Jamwal, a visitor.

Food lovers from across the city, especially from adjoining neighbourhoods such as New Friends Colony, make frequent visits here. More than 20 food points small or large do a brisk business in its capacity.

A large number of students come to the market. Most of them belong to various parts of the country and this street is next to home for them in terms of food availability and taste.

Each evening, from 7pm to 3am, Zakir Nagar becomes a replica of Lahores world famed Food Street. This has become a culture and part of life for the people living here, said Firoz Bakht Ahmed, a resident and grandnephew of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

The street begins from a juice corner called Akhter Blender and ends at Madina Hotel known for its nihari and paya. (S Burmaula / HT Photo)

The street begins from a juice corner called Akhter Blender and ends at Madina Hotel known for its nihari and paya. According to visitors, during the month of Ramzan, the month of fasting, the street is possibly the best avenue. Every visitor has a favourite on the street. Like Talib Kebab, operational for more than two decades, is crowded with elderly people who mostly come to get the kebabs packed. Moreover its a meeting point for many.

Outside the Jamia Masjid, Mohammad Ashraf is well-known among people. Sitting at the same site for the past 15 years, Ashraf sells delicious desserts like rasmalai, kulfi falooda and rabri falooda. During summers it is a favourite spot for children, who love to have these items along with their parents. Opposite to Ashrafs stall is Dood Bhawan, which is thronged by people after prayers at the mosque. During the month of Ramzan it remains open round the clock in view of the demand.

HOD or Head of Delicacies is a popular joint for tandoori momos. It also sells nutrient-rich food items for body building, thus it is always flocked by people who come here after a workout.

Staffed with stewards dressed in blue jeans, brown kurtas and white topis, Purani Dilli Restaurant has been celebrated by food channels, magazines and food blogs. It is a family-friendly diner and is famous for its haleem.

A meal or a meeting with friends is always incomplete without tea. The charming hall of Qayyum Chai Walla is one such spot which can accommodate 20 people at a time. One can spend hours here over cups of tasty tea. Its a student-favourite as many can be seen engulfed in discussions here over tea.

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NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday told the Delhi high court that it had increased the number of lines of police helpline number  100  from 60 to 100 and the number of lines of women helpline number  1091  from four to 10.

Elaborating on the steps taken to ensure safety of women in the capital, additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain said Delhi Police had identified 325 vulnerable areas that are under constant patrolling.

The home ministry in an affidavit before the court said CCTVs were being installed in DTC buses, and GPS installation in public service vehicles had been made mandatory. It said the installation of CCTVs would begin in 200 buses in the first phase.

Apart from this, all civic agencies have initiated work to install CCTV cameras in areas under their jurisdiction, the affidavit said.

The government said several other measures were being taken to ensure that no crime against women went unreported.

During the hearing, the court said, We are concerned over the response time of the police team in reaching the crime spot. They should reach quickly in order to give guarantee to citizens of Delhi that they are safe here.

The response time of police should be known to everyone so that the citizens here are aware that the police are always there on time at the crime scenes, a bench of justice BD Ahmed and justice RK Gauba said.

It asked the Centre and Delhi Police to file a response on quality of criminal investigation, presence of forensic expert or team at the crime spot, and forensic training given to police crime teams.

The Delhi government was asked to examine inclusion of forensic pathologists in citys hospitals and file a status report. The Ministry of Health and AIIMS were also asked to file similar status reports.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation initiated by it for womens safety and recruitment of additional police in Delhi after the December 16, 2012 gang rape case.

The court posted the matter till July 27.
NEW DELHI: Pakistani president Mamnoon Hussain said on Wednesday that foreign secretary-level talks with India remained suspended as the neighbour was running away from dialogue. The remark drew a sharp response from New Delhi that India had never shied away from talks and was willing to discuss all issues in an atmosphere free from terrorism and violence.

Hussains statement made at a joint session of parliament assumes significance as the presidents address to lawmakers generally sets the governments policy parameters. Hussain also raked up the Kashmir issue, terming it the unfinished agenda of Partition.

Despite Pakistans efforts for resumption of talks (with India) and its offer of a joint probe in the Pathankot attack, the foreign secretary-level talks are still suspended. Pakistan is concerned about it, he said.

Hussain said Pakistan wanted peaceful ties with all neighbours by addressing disputes through talks and accused India of running away from talks with Pakistan.

The development marked another low in efforts between the neighbours to get their fragile peace process back on track after the New Year attack on the Pathankot airbase threw it in limbo. Hussains speech came days after Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif had a telephonic conversation before the latters open-heart surgery in London on May 30.

We have never shied away from talks. We are prepared to discuss all issues with Pakistan in an atmosphere free of terror and violence, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup told Hindustan Times.

Hussains statement came ahead of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tashkent on June 23 and 24 where Modi is expected to meet Sharif, though there is no confirmation of the meeting from either side. India and Pakistan are set to become new members of the grouping.

Pakistani high commissioner Abdul Basit said in April that talks between the neighbours were suspended and the Indian foreign office reacted to it by saying both sides were in touch to hold them.

Though it was not a meeting to announce a timeline for the talks, the two foreign secretaries met in Delhi in the same month and agreed to remain in touch.

India insists Pakistan must take action against those behind the Pathankot attack, linking talks with progress on the case of terrorism launched from across the border.

Pakistan also did not respond favourably to a team of Indian investigators visiting the country to probe the attack as a reciprocal measure to Pakistani investigators visiting the airbase.

We believe the main cause of tension in the region is the Kashmir issue. It is part of the unfinished agenda of Partition of the subcontinent. Unless the Kashmir issue is settled according to the wishes of the people of Kashmir and UN resolutions, the problems of this region cannot be resolved, Hussain said on Wednesday.

Reacting to that, Swarup said, Our stand on Jammu and Kashmir is well known. India maintains that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the country.

Despite several promising measures such as Modis surprise visit to Pakistan last December, ties between the neighbours remain frosty.

Hussain said Pakistan was a peaceful country and wanted its foreign policy to be based on friendship and brotherhood with all nations. We do not wish to be aggressive towards any nation and intend to participate with honesty in national and global affairs, he said.
NEW DELHI: A 48-year-old man was shot at by two bike-borne men who chased him for around 100 metres on a crowded road at the Kanti nagar market in east Delhis Krishna Nagar on Tuesday afternoon.

The man, Charanjeet Singh alias Dabbu, an alleged habitual offender from Usmanpur area in northeast Delhi, sustained a bullet injury on his shoulder.

Police suspect the incident was a fallout of a property dispute Dabbu had with another habitual offender from

Jafrabad area.

Eyewitnesses said that in order to save himself, Dabbu ran inside a shop and hid himself behind a glass door.

The attackers followed him and fired at him from outside the shop.

The bullet pierced the glass door and hit Dabbus shoulder. He was admitted to a nearby hospital where his condition was said to be out of danger, said police.

A police officer said the crime was captured in one of the CCTV cameras at the market.

A case of attempt to murder and arms act was registered at the Krishna Nagar police station and teams were formed to trace the attackers.

The attackers were identified as Saurabh and Sunil, said the officer.

A preliminary probe into the crime revealed Dabbu had a dispute with another criminal from Jafrabad over a 50-square yard land in northeast Delhi.

They had reportedly clashed in the past over the same dispute.

Our teams are making efforts to trace the attackers and bring them to book at the earliest, said the officer.
The Delhi Police have argued that the accused driver in the Mercedes hit-and-run case should not be given the benefit of a juvenile since he was just four days shy of turning an adult.

The police, in its chargesheet submitted before the juvenile justice board, contended that four days would not have made any significant difference to the accuseds physical or mental maturity. Therefore, he should not be allowed to take the plea that he should be tried as a juvenile, the police said.

If treated as a juvenile, the accused driver would only be sent to a correction home and not a jail.

Because of the calculation of biological age of 18 years, the mental capacity/ability and physical capacity/ability cannot be expected to get a drastic change towards maturity in those four days, the police said in the chargesheet.

Police said the teenager must be tried as an adult and charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They said the accused had been involved in similar incidents of rash driving in the past and managed to dodge legal action by either compromising or giving false representation about his identity.

The officer said it proved the minor was mentally capable of understanding the consequences of his act.

The police said the teenager driver did not even apply the brakes when his car hit Siddharth Sharma the victim. Police said they did not find a single skid mark at the crime spot.

A separate chargesheet is being filed against the teenagers father and the family driver, who had earlier misled the police by claiming that he was driving the car when Sharma was hit. The driver backed out after learning that Sharma had died.

The accuseds father is being chargesheeted for abetment to culpable homicide. The police have submitted the details of the past cases, in which the teenager was fined for speeding.

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NEW DELHI: A Muslim woman advocate associated with the RSS has moved the Supreme Court seeking that the religions personal law be codified to end practices such as polygamy and triple talaq.

Farah Faiz contended in her plea that talaq-e-bidat (triple talaq) is not a form of divorce recognised in the Quran. The procedure prescribed entails arbitration and reconciliation after talaq is pronounced by the husband.

The practice of talaq-e-bidat without proper conciliation violates the basic right of every Muslim woman to live with dignity, it read, adding that Muslim women have become victims of gender discrimination in the absence of proper codified rules governing marriage, divorce and maintenance.

Faizs petition reflects the growing demand among Muslim women for the discriminatory practice to be liquidated. Petitions challenging the age-old ritual were filed after the top court decided to look into the issue on its own last year.

However, many Muslim bodies  including the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and the Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind  have opposed the petitions. They are of the view that the judiciary does not have the authority to scrutinise religious practices.

Faiz, who runs an NGO Muslim Womens Quest for Equality in Uttar Pradesh, is also national president (honorary) of the RSS-associated Rashtrawadi Muslim Mahila Sangh.

Her petition contended that while several Islamic countries have codified the Muslim personal law, the Shariat is interpreted as per the whims and fancies of the local ulemas in India.

She demanded a high-level committee comprising scholars and broad-minded academicians, not clergymen, be set up for the codification. For too long, Muslim women have been victimised by the interpretations of our semi-literate clergy, Faiz told HT.

The advocate also vowed to challenge the AIMPLBs authority to govern the practices of Muslims in India. Its an NGO and does not have any right to control us, she said.

Social evils like polygamy, unilateral talaq and gender discrimination were not an integral part of the religion, Farhas petition said. Muslims are totally dependent on half-baked maulanas, muftis and qazis who try to sort out problems in their own way.

Faiz cited a 2005 incident in UPs Muzaffarnagar district where a woman was raped by her father-in-law  to put forth her point. Instead of punishing the accused, the local clergy had issued a fatwa stating the victim should divorce her husband and treat him as her son.

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A 40-year-old Ola cab driver was arrested on Thursday for allegedly sexually harassing and misbehaving with an additional sessions judge (ASJ) at north Delhis Kamla Nagar market.

The crime took place on Tuesday but the judge filed a complaint on Wednesday, the police said.

Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police (north), said the driver, Sandeep Kumar, was arrested from Gurgaon after an FIR was registered on the judges complaint at the Roop Nagar police station.

We had been asking the cab driver to join the probe but he was not appearing before the investigating officer. On Thursday, we conducted a raid and arrested him from Gurgaon, said Verma.

In the complaint, a senior police officer said, the ASJ told the police that she had booked an Ola cab through the companys mobile application to reach home after work.

The booking was marked to Sandeep Kumar who contacted the judge and she asked him to pick her up from the court. The Ola driver picked up the judge to drop her home.

The judge alleged that during the journey she asked the cab driver to stop the car at Kamla Nagar as she had some personal work to finish. An argument broke out between them when the cab driver turned down her request.

Soon, the cabbie started misbehaving with the judge and shouted on her. He also made some obscene gestures in front of her before throwing her belongings out of the car, said the officer, quoting the complaint by the judge.

On the basis of the complaint, a case under 354 A (sexual harassment), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 427 (causing damage to property) of the IPC was registered against Sandeep, said DCP Verma.
Firing a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday accused them of creating hurdles for the Delhi government.

The attack came after the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi government launched a probe into an app-based premium bus service on a complaint of BJP legislator and Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta, who alleged the AAP government wanted to launch the scheme to benefit a Gurgaon-based private bus aggregator.

The scheme was red-flagged by the Lt Governor on the ground that his approval was not taken before its launch.

LG n Modi Govt aggressively start creating hurdles in Del Govt, almost in every file. Modiji bhi LG Ke Kandhe Par Rakh Kar Bandhukh Chalate hain, Kejriwal said in a tweet.

The premium bus service was scheduled to be launched on Wednesday with registration of buses under the scheme through which people can book their seats on the lines of app-based cab aggregators in the national capital.

A senior Delhi government official alleged that a conspiracy is being hatched to delay the scheme under which people would be able to book their seats in buses through their smartphones on the lines of app-based taxi services in the national capital.

Only air-conditioned buses would ply under the scheme according to which one bus aggregator will have to run at lease 50 vehicles to get a licence from Delhi governments Transport Department.
NEW DELHI: A group of youth, including the vice president of a private company, was allegedly thrashed by bouncers at a pub in south Delhis Aurobindo market last week.

The police have launched a probe into the matter though no formal case has been registered as yet.

While the youths claim that the bouncers misbehaved with them, the pub staff alleged the youths stepped out of the pub with their drinks insisting that they would drink on the staircase. This led to an argument and the youth argued with the staff, said a police officer.

The pub staff called the police, alleging that the youths were creating a ruckus outside the watering hole. We need to verify both claims before registering an FIR, the police officer said.

The incident was reported late on Friday night when the youths, Ishan and Sushant, had gone to the pub for dinner. According to them, Ishaan carried his bottle of beer to the staircase of the pub. The pub staff objected as they were closing for the day. This led to an argument between them and a scuffle ensued. The youths were injured.

A friend of one of the alleged victims later wrote about the incident on her Facebook page. They were on the staircase finishing their drinks when two bouncers asked them to hurry up since the bar was closing. We told them that we are just finishing and going and thats when suddenly one of the bouncers slapped my friend Ishaan, pushed him to the ground, and abused him. They also took out lathis and started to hit both my friends!!!, the Facebook post read.

The woman claimed that she called the PCR immediately but got no response. Seeing this ruthless behaviour, other guests jumped into the fight as well to defend us. Our other friends who were trying to salvage the situation got pushed, manhandled. My women friends including me got hurt as well, she wrote.

The woman claimed that she had take her friends to the hospital.

The police said that the investigation in the matter is on.
The bare facts relating to the court judgment on the Gulberg Society killing of 2002 cannot be flattering for our criminal justice system. First, the delay of 14 years has been rather inordinate and traumatic for the victims and their kin. The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) for probing the case had submitted its final report in February 2011. That this is a high-profile case is borne out by the fact that in this Narendra Modi as chief minister of Gujarat had been questioned by the SIT and given a clean chit. Next, of all the theatres of disturbances in Gujarat in February-March 2002, the Gulberg killing, in which 69 persons, including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, died, was the second-worst in terms of the number of people killed, next to Naroda Patia. Finally this judgment has come after all the cases of the Gujarat riots barring one have been disposed of by various courts.

Read: Gulberg massacre verdict: 24 convicted, 36 acquitted; sentencing on June 6

There are some other questions that need to be answered also. First, it was initially reported that a crowd of about 400 people, including Vishva Hindu Parishad workers, attacked the society. If just 24 people are convicted, it may be legitimately asked how many people were involved in the killing and how many had provided them support. And on the conviction list the name of just one VHP leader figures. It is inconceivable how such an act of killing could take place without the rioters being mobilised organisationally. That such mobilisation had taken place in Naroda Patia is proved by the fact that former minister Maya Kodnani had been convicted in the case. Also, the conviction number is astounding when seen in the light of the fact that in the Mehsana incident of March 1, 2002, when 33 people died, a special trial court had convicted 31 for murder and other charges. Second, it was in the Gulbarga case that the Supreme Court had asked the SIT to look into the doubts raised by amicus curiae Raju Ramchandran, who had visited Ahmedabad and met witnesses and others to prepare his report on the SITs report. In July 2011, Mr Ramchandran submitted his report, in which he differed from some of the SITs findings. The Supreme Court had then decided to keep the report confidential and did not allow the Gujarat government or the SIT to access it. What action was taken on it is not known till now.

Read: Not satisfied with Gulberg massacre verdict, fight will continue: Zakia Jafri

The wheels of justice will not stop here, in the same way that they did not stop in all other cases relating to Gujarat 2002. In the Godhara train-burning case, in which 59 kar sevaks died, 11 of the accused were sentenced to death, but the matter has gone up to the higher courts. The same is likely to happen in this case also, which means waiting for some more years. There are lessons that can be drawn from this: First, it is important that the State prevents any riots of a communal nature and makes preventive arrests as and when required. Second, a broader point, it should increase the number of courts and judicial officers, along with strengthening the police and training the personnel in handling riot-like situations. Finally, in such cases where there has been such destruction and loss of life, there has to be a shorter timeframe for judicial proceedings.
Two instances this week pointed again to the ambivalent condition that India-Pakistan ties find themselves in. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called Prime Minister Narendra Modi just before he was wheeled in for an open heart surgery in the UK. PM Modi duly wished him a speedy recovery and good health on Twitter. But personal equations rarely transcend structural constraints as Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussains remarks on bilateral ties indicate. Addressing Parliament this week, Hussain framed the relationship in ways that reflect Mr Sharifs congenial outlook while conveying the militarys misgivings about the relationship. This balancing act unfortunately achieves little beyond irritating Indian policymakers, aggravating public opinion and highlighting the cul-de-sac that bilateral ties are in.

Read | India expecting breakthrough in dialogue with Pakistan: Envoy

Mr Hussain did not mention India explicitly but spoke of Pakistans desire for friendly relations with neighbours. He reiterated that the main cause of tension was the Kashmir issues and said that as long as this issue was not resolved in accordance with the wishes of the people of J&K and UN resolutions the problems of this region will remain unresolved. This is standard rhetoric that is usually deployed during a hiatus but India is well within its rights to argue about Islamabads reasoning about stalled dialogue. Mr Hussain reckoned that Pakistans warm and sincere offer to conduct an uninterrupted and meaningful dialogue had not been reciprocated and said that the abeyance of foreign secretary-level negotiations was a matter of serious concern to Islamabad. This is all unfortunately a bit self-serving. The fact is that India is still waiting for Pakistan to show the requisite urgency to prosecute those behind the Pathankot attack.

Read | Talking is best policy for India, Pakistan

New Delhi rightly assumes that successful prosecution of terrorist attacks, be it Mumbai, Gurdaspur or Pathankot, will not only rally public opinion behind dialogue but that it will break the cycle of terrorist violence disrupting resumed dialogue as has often happened in the past. Islamabad must understand that the BJP-led NDA government cannot be seen as substantively discussing J&K without a measure on action against terrorists that satisfies Indian public opinion.

Read | Pakistan must not keep testing Indias patience

The Dawn newspaper dismissed Hussains remarks as a speech to forget. But Indians will be interested in the way it articulated Pakistans ambitions, notwithstanding the difficult circumstances it finds itself it. It refers to its expanding ties with neighbouring West Asia and Central Asia in the context of connectivity projects that are driven by China and other multilateral ventures. But Islamabad needs to remind itself that its prosperity is linked to linkages with India  and for its interests to be served it needs to both imaginatively tackle economic constraints (like granting transit rights for Indian goods to Afghanistan) and be more purposive about countering India-focused terror.

Read | Pak-China economic corridor problems over disputed Kashmir region
She loves her bling, has jeans in every shade, and has an inexhaustible collection of jewellery.

Actor Shruti Seth welcomes us into her Andheri home. She is dressed in dungarees and nerd glasses, with zero make-up on. But her wardrobe is a treat for those who adore colours and bling.

At home: Youll find me in loose and comfortable clothing. My dungaree is my go-to outfit.

Wedge pumps from Forever 21 (Photo: Aalok Soni/HT)

Style mantra: I dont think Im much into the latest trends. I believe in clean cuts, so I end up wearing a lot of pants, pencil skirts and fitted dresses, etc. I will rarely wear something Im not comfortable in. I would like to wear more saris, but Im trying to get a hang of it. Being a recent mother, Im constantly on the go. So, I need to be in clothes that I dont have to worry too much about.

A clutch Seth picked up at an exhibition (Photo: Aalok Soni/HT)

Changing tastes: Kids nowadays care a lot about how they dress. Back when I was in college, it was always budget shopping. I remember wearing the same clothes every time I went out. But now I rarely repeat my clothes. Now, Im careful about how I team up my clothes and complete a look. When girls say that they just put on whatever they feel like, its a lie. Everything is well thought of and girls love dressing up. Though, I do find it exhausting sometimes.

Also read: Behind closet doors: Esha Gupta

Mood swings: If Im in the mood, Ill be impeccably dressed even if Im just staying at home. But if Im not, I could be going to the biggest party, but Ill don a pair of jeans and a white shirt. Sometimes I can get ready in 10 minutes and sometimes, I take ages while my husband turn into a skeleton waiting for me.

The actor loves all things bling (Photo: Aalok Soni/HT)

Bling it: I love clothes that shimmer. If theres something that shines, I need to get it. When I got married, I had something called a bling party, where the guests were supposed to come in shimmery clothes.

Paint it red: Youll also find a lot of colour in my wardrobe. I love different shades of red. I also like cobalt blue. I have a confession: I own jeans in pretty much any colour you can imagine.

Also read: Behind closet doors: Emraan Hashmi

Brand love: Forever 21. I have started buying stuff from exhibitions though. When you get your clothes from an assembly line clothing store, almost everybody lands up having the same clothes. If I shop online, I get my outfits from Koovs.com.

A Michael Kors sling from Seths closet (Photo: Aalok Soni/HT)

Fashion advice: I hate visible panty lines. Another thing I never do is wear a dark lip liner with a light shade of lip colour. And I always keep my toenails clipped. I remember someone telling me that long toenails can remind one of a witch.

Accessory love: Ive collected so much jewellery over the years that its unbelievable. I can never do justice to them  even if I wore a piece of jewellery every day, till the day I die, I know Ill still have stuff left unworn.

Seth has a vast collection of jewellery (Photo: Aalok Soni/HT)

Impulsive shopper: I have to keep asking myself, Do I really, really need this? I have a dirty habit of getting the same outfit in different styles. Recently, I picked up these culottes from Zara, and I got them in all styles  side-zip, front-zip, button-down.

Lavish purchase: A handbag. My husband fails to understand how a handbag can cost more than a computer.

A blazer from Seths wardrobe (Photo: Aalok Soni/HT)

Faux pas: I remember the time I wore a pair of shiny tights to college. My friend has never let me forget that. I just wear clothes that make me feel comfortable. I dont care if they dont make me look good.

Shopping destination: Bangkok and Thailand. However, [designers] Gauri and Nainikas wardrobes win over them. If given a chance, I would totally raid their wardrobe and wear the clothes they design through the day.
A city hospital inserted the worlds smallest pacemaker for patients with bradycardia -- a condition in which the heart beats very slow  in an 89-year-old Delhi resident on Wednesday.

The pacemaker, comparable to the size of a vitamin capsule, was inserted in the patients body in a surgery that lasted only 30 minutes at Medanta- The Medicity. The new pacemaker is merely 2 grams compared to the 25 grams instrument used conventionally.

I am happy that my body was not cut open for placing the pacemaker. When the doctor told us about the capsule-sized pacemaker, we were not sure but the insertion did not take time and was painless, the patient who lives in Civil Lines, Delhi, said.

Recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Micra Transcatheter Pacing System (TPS) is placed inside the heart through a keyhole puncture in the groin. Unlike traditional pacemakers, the device does not require cardiac wires (leads) or a surgical pocket under the skin to deliver a pacing therapy. The latest innovation in pacemaker technology coupled with the minimally invasive procedure increases the benefit to a patient manifold. Not only is Micra TPS device MRI compatible, it also does not have wires like other traditional pacemakers that reduce the risks of infections caused due to wires, Dr. Balbir Singh, chairman of Department of EP & Pacing and senior interventional cardiologist at Medanta hospital, said.

The Micra TPS also incorporates a retrieval feature. However, the device is designed to be left in the body.

As the device is leadless, the chances of infection or dislodging the lead goes down. That is the benefit of the new device. The only limitation is that it is a single chamber ventricular pacemaker, which means it works on only the lower chambers, Dr VK Bahl, head of the department of cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences that participated in the international trial for the device, said.

The first implant was placed in India at AIIMS about a year back. Four or five other centres including citys Govind Ballabh Pant hospital and a centre from Hyderabad and Bangalore each participated in the trial from India, he said.

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A MasterChef-size kitchen with six state-of-the-art cooking stations, a bakery, a dry storeroom, and a 40-seater dining area. Could this be Mumbais hottest new culinary destination?

A dusty lane leads us to Devidayal Compound in Byculla. A lone, abandoned rail track runs across the road, serving as a reminder of the brisk activity the neighbourhood witnessed during the good old days. A massive wrought-iron gate welcomes us into the compound.

The space is named after the street its located at  Magazine Street, a reference to the firearms industry that took shape in the 30s and 40s. It was later renamed as Darukhana and, till date, is known by that name (Pratham Gokhale/HT)

The 11-acre industrial space is home to many warehouses, one of which is Gala no 13, now known as Magazine Street Kitchen. A large wooden entrance leads us into what looks like a MasterChef kitchen, with six state-of-the-art cooking stations, a bakery, a dry storeroom, and a 40-seater dining area set up with classy wooden chairs and tables. The space can be used by budding chefs to showcase their talent, by established chefs to conduct experimental dinners or even for food shoots.

Started by the trio behind The Table  Gauri Devidayal, Jay Yousuf and Chef Alex Sanchez  Magazine Street Kitchen has been a work-in-progress for the past two years. My grandfather used to have a steel manufacturing unit here, says Devidayal. I think they used to melt ore here, adds Sanchez, pointing to the dining area, where we are seated.

(From left) Jay Yousuf, Gauri Devidayal and Chef Alex Sanchez, the trio behind Magazine Street Kitchen (Pratham Gokhale/HT)

Through large glass panes, one can see the massive kitchen below, probably the biggest in the city. The space is named after the street its located at  Magazine Street, a reference to the firearms industry that took shape in the 30s and 40s. It was later renamed as Darukhana and, till date, is known by that name.

Neighbourhood as the muse

Inspired by kitchen rental spaces (where chefs can rent the kitchen for a day) and cooking studios in the West, Magazine Street Kitchen will function as many things all at once. It can be used by chefs to come and experiment, host intimate dinners, for underground food events or just to test their recipes, says Yousuf. The bakery, which will be called as the Magazine Street Baking Company, will roll out over 30 types of artisanal breads.

READ MORE: 10 of Mumbais most delicious vegan meals

The bakery, which will be called as the Magazine Street Baking Company, will roll out over 30 types of artisanal breads (Pratham Gokhale/HT)

The space will witness one of its first few events later this month with Cellar Door Hospitalitys Food with Benefits. At this charity dinner, Sanchez and other city-based chefs will cook a meal for guests and the proceeds will go to an NGO. I liked the fact that the space has a minimalistic look. It will turn out to be a great venue to conduct food pop-ups, says Nachiket Shetye of Cellar Door Hospitality, a company that organises food-based events.

READ MORE: Kunal Vijayakar on the pav wallas of Mumbai

Apart from providing an offbeat venue for food-related events, the trio is also excited to bring focus back to Byculla, a forgotten neighbourhood. This neighbourhood has a gorgeous heritage aspect to it. We want to celebrate that, which is why we decided to retain its name, adds Devidayal. The other advantage is that the area is accessible from busy centres like Lower Parel and Colaba. Byculla has the potential to be another Lower Parel. It just needs a few people to come in and take that risk, adds Yousuf, who is working on another F&B project in a 10,000 sq ft warehouse in the same compound. It wont necessarily be a restaurant, he says, dropping a hint.

The dining area can seat 40 guests and overlooks the massive kitchen

I liked the fact that the space has a minimalistic look. It will turn out to be a great venue to conduct food pop-ups, says Nachiket Shetye of Cellar Door Hospitality

The space will witness one of its first few events later this month with Cellar Door Hospitalitys Food with Benefits. At this charity dinner, Sanchez and other city-based chefs will cook a meal for guests and the proceeds will go to an NGO.

Where: Magazine Street Kitchen

Gala No 13, Devidayal Compound, Gupta Mills Estate, Reay Road

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Oscar-winning actor Brie Larson is reportedly in early talks to play Captain Marvel, one of Marvels most popular female superheroes, in an upcoming standalone film.

It is unknown where negotiations stand, but sources claim that Larson is Marvels first choice, and that she is leaning toward playing the role, reports variety.com.

Read Room review: An unforgettable film thatll be discussed for decades

No director is currently on board. Marvel, however, had always planned to have an actor lined up early, with the idea of possibly introducing her in one of its upcoming films before the Captain Marvel movie.

Captain Marvel will reportedly be introduced in Avengers: Infinity War. (Marvel)

Read: Wholl play Captain Marvel? Avengers: Infinity War will reveal the hero

Writers Meg LeFauve and Nicole Perlman are currently penning the script, which follows Carol Danvers, an airforce pilot whose DNA is fused with that of an alien during an accident. The resulting alteration imbues her with the super powers of strength, energy project and flight.

Kevin Feige is producing the film.

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Ryan Gosling, the 35-year-old actor, who grew up with women and whose home life is now mostly women, said that he is very much in touch with his feminine side, News.com.au reported.

Asked what percentage woman he was, he told ES Magazine Id say 49%, sometimes 47%, it depends on what day you catch me.

The Nice Guys trailer: Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling have a blast

The Drive star, who is father to 18-month-old Esmeralda and newborn daughter Amada with Eva Mendes, also praised women as the stronger sex, confessing that he thinks they are better than men.

Read: Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling welcome second daughter

Ive always liked women more. I was brought up by my mother and older sister. I found my way into dance class. My home life now is mostly women. They are better than us. They make me better, he noted.

Gosling added You can tell especially when you have daughters and you see their early stages, they are just leaps and bounds beyond boys immediately, explaining that women are better than men because they are stronger; more evolved.

Read: Jealousy, panic and Russell Crowes dinner date with Ryan Gosling

Speaking on being objectified, the star of the movies, including The Notebook, The Big Short and The Nice Guys, said Its our time as men to be on the receiving end of the stick. I grew up with women so Ive always been aware of it. When my mother and I walked to the grocery store, men would circle the block in cars. It was very scary, especially as a young boy. Very predatory; a hunt.

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Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to star in Ubisofts movie based on its Tom Clancys the Division video game.

According to sources, Gyllenhaal is also attached to the film as a producer, and the studio is currently looking for a writer to pen the adaptation, reports variety.com.

Read Demolition review: Jake Gyllenhaals streak of success cannot be broken

Ubisoft will package the project, possibly adding one more actor to the mix before taking it out to studios. It currently has Assassins Creed starring Michael Fassbender in post-production at Fox and New Regency, as well as Splinter Cell starring Tom Hardy at Paramount.

The Division is set in a dystopian New York City in the aftermath of a smallpox pandemic; the player, who is an agent of the titular Strategic Homeland Division, commonly referred to as simply The Division, is tasked with helping to rebuild the Divisions operations in Manhattan, investigating the nature of the outbreak and combating criminal activity in its wake.

Watch Assassins Creed trailer: 15th Century kills and a Kanye West song

Assassins Creed is scheduled for a December release.

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Controversy-hit Maharashtras revenue minister Eknath Khadse is in trouble with the BJPs top leadership taking serious note of corruption allegations against him.

The party is not in a hurry to sack him but action is not ruled out after the June 10 election for legislative council seats. The BJP has fielded six candidates while it has the numbers for just five. Khadse support is crucial to win these seats. At least a dozen MLAs are loyal to him, a BJP office bearer said.

Khadse is in middle of a controversy for buying an industrial plot from Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation at allegedly less than one-sixth the market price and flouting rules. Amid growing speculation about the fate of his cabinet colleague, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met BJP chief Amit Shah in Delhi on Thursday.

After the meeting, Fadnavis told reporters: I have submitted a factual report on the matters which have come up recently. We have discussed them as well. The party will direct whatever appropriate action has to be taken ahead. The opposition has turned the heat on the

BJP, asking for the ministers resignation. Khadse was also in news for allegedly receiving calls on his mobile from fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim.

Shah is unlikely to take action immediately under media pressure and will proceed once the dust settles down, said BJP sources. Shah has left it to Fadnavis to sort out the matter. He has taken a strong note of the case and is keeping a close watch, a source close to the BJP chief told HT.

But BJPs wait and watch tactic prompted ally Shiv Sena to fish in troubled waters. Sena leader Sanjay Raut asked Fadnavis to speak on the matter since the BJP had promised corruption-free governance before coming to power.

The BJP should maintain moral standards. We will take a stand on the issue once the CM speaks on the demand for Khadses resignation, he said, adding that Fadnavis should take a stand if Khadse has not done anything wrong.

Voices of discontent are being heard even in the BJP. Former Mumbai commissioner Satyapal Singh, Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh, said that a decision should be taken soon.
The Congress attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday over allegations of corruption against his party colleague and Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Khadse, asking why the charges were not being investigated.

Khadse -- number two in the state cabinet and holding around 10 key portfolios -- has been accused of corruption by different Opposition parties, which have demanded his sacking or resignation.

A Pune-based businessman-cum-activist charged Khadse with misusing power and authority, subverting laws, bypassing norms, evading tax and pressuring officials in closing a land deal to benefit his family members.

Read: Activist Damania to stage hunger strike for Khadses resignation

On Thursday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Khadse was being protected by his party. Khadse is accused, not by the Congress, but by Maharashtra industries minister also who said that industrial land belonging to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation was illegally purchased for Rs 3.21 crore, when it was for Rs 40 crore, Surjewala told ANI.

Modi ji says na khaonga na khaane doonga, then why no action against senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse? the Congress said.

Eknath Khadse must be immediately sacked. A case must be launched against him, former Maharashtra chief minister Prithiviraj Chavan was quoted by a television channel as saying.

Maharashtra chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been summoned to the national capital by the BJP top brass to discuss further course in the matter.

Trouble mounted another notch for Khadse as the BJP said that a decision would soon be taken regarding his fate in the party.

With new facts out, Eknath Khadse is under a cloud of suspicion and the party is sure to take a decision soon, former Mumbai police commissioner and BJP leader Satyapal Singh told ANI.

Khadse has rubbished all the charges levelled against him.
Hinting at the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill next year, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Thursday a constitution amendment bill on the new indirect tax regime will be brought to the Rajya Sabha in the next session and all supporting legislations required will be in place by the year-end.

 I intend bringing up the constitution amendment bill for consideration in the Upper House in the very next session of Parliament which starts next month and I am reasonably hopeful of this being passed, he said here.

Jaitley said the numbers in the Rajya Sabha are overwhelmingly in favour of GST.

The GST bill -- which aims to create a single national sales tax to replace several state and central levies -- has already been approved by the Lok Sabha and is pending in the Upper House where the government doesnt have a majority.

After the constitution amendment is approved, there are three legislations that are required to be passed, two by the central government and one by state assemblies.

Now, on the assumption that the GST will be passed in (the ensuing) monsoon session of Parliament, then by the end of the year those draft legislations are ready and GST council has to approve it, he said.

After Parliament approves the constitutional amendment to allow GST, the measure needs to be ratified by more than half of states. Then Parliament must pass another bill to implement the Goods and Services Tax.

The overall rate, which would vary for different goods, would be set by a newly formed GST council.

Jaitley, who arrived in Osaka on Wednesday, on the second leg of his six-day investor-wooing tour of Japan, said the IT backbone required for enforcement of GST has made significant headway.

Under the GST bill, the rate of tax is to be decided by GST Council. The Council comprises of State and Central government, he said.

The GST, he said, will help in checking tax evasion.

I think in the long run, GST rates will moderate further. At what rate, the GST Council will start it, I dont know... there have been recommendations which have been made by expert committees including the one that ministry of finance had set up. Im sure we will try to keep rates as moderate as possible, he said.

On Wednesday, Jaitley had said he hoped the main opposition Congress will come on board to help in the passage of the Indias biggest indirect tax reform bill since the Independence.

The main opposition party wants the GST rate capped at 18%, the proposed 1% additional levy on inter- state trade be removed and an independent dispute resolution mechanism for states.
Paramilitary forces have been deployed in seven sensitive districts of Haryana, while Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) has been enforced in eight as a preventive measure in the wake of recent calls given by the Jat community to resume protests from June 5.

The decision came after the Punjab and Haryana HC stayed their reservation in jobs and educational institutes under the OBC category.

In Rohtak, the epicentre of large-scale violence that rocked the state during the quota stir in February and led to the deaths of 30 people, a company of Border Security Force (BSF) and two companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF) have been deployed at entry points.

Read: Jat stir reboot ahead: Cops leave cancelled until further orders

The paramilitary is regularly conducting flag marches in the cities and villages. Two more companies of RAF have been called in Sonepat district. The administration has also imposed Section 144 for two months as a preventive measure. One of the two companies has been deployed at Garhi Bindroli village where the connection of Munak Canal was disrupted by mobs during the previous protest, leading to a water crisis in the national capital.

The steps are being taken even as All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) chief Yashpal Malik on Thursday said they have decided not to obstruct roads and railway tracks during their indefinite stir.

Haryana ADGP (law and order) Mohammad Akil, who held a meeting with police officials in Bhiwani, said, The police force is fully prepared to deal with the protests. All necessary measures are being taken to ensure everything remains under control.

Read: Jat stir round 2: After February fiasco, officials must learn their lessons fast

The administration has allotted one spot in the district where people can peacefully sit on dharna.

If people are found violating Section 144, strict action will be taken against them, Rohtak additional superintendent of police, Himanshu Garg, said.

Besides paramilitary, cops in the districts are being trained to deal with riot-like situations.

The police stations are stocked with tear-gas shells, plastic bullets and water cannons and police personnel are being trained to use the same.

The administration is also holding meetings in villages across the state, trying to dissuade angry community members from adopting violent means of protest again.
Former AAP leader Anjali Damania on Thursday launched a hunger strike demanding an inquiry into allegations of corruption against Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse and sought his ouster from the state cabinet.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asserted that Khadse, who has been caught in one dispute after another, was being protected by his party as he was still scot free despite having several cases against him with concrete proofs.

Damania, who met social activist Anna Hazare on Wednesday to seek his blessings before beginning with the hunger strike, reached Azad Maidan for the fast here.

She also demanded that the inquiry be completed within six months and the case be heard by a fast-track court.

There are so many corruption allegations against Khadse and the government should take action regarding this. I met Anna and showed him all the documents against Khadse. Anna said it is a grave issue and assured me that he will call the chief minister and bring it to his notice. I also sought blessings from him before beginning the fast, Damania said.

I wont give up my fast till the chief minister gives me a written assurance that the probe against Khadse will be completed in six months, she said.

The activist had alleged that Khadses son-in-law had been flouting norms while modifying his car Limousine without seeking proper permission from the Regional Transport Office (RTO).

There were also allegations that Khadse had received calls from underworld don Dawood Ibrahims residence, she said.

Damania claimed that she wanted to hold the hunger strike near Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis official bungalow but was denied permission by the police.

The former AAP leader said this time she wanted the government to take action against the minister and withdraw all the departmental responsibilities from him.

Whenever we bring corruption cases to the notice, we are told to go to the court. I have already filed PILs in the court on various issues. But then what is the government doing? It should act on the corruption cases. The court will do its duty. But the government should take action against Khadse, she said.

Asked what action she expects to be taken against Khadse, Damania said the government should conduct an inquiry. The government should conduct an inquiry into all the allegations against Khadse within six months. It has to be time-bound else it will never reach any conclusion. Also, the cases should be heard by the fast track court, she said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has reportedly been summoned to the national capital by the BJP top brass to discuss further course in the matter.
Odisha has become the first state in the country to give transgender people social welfare benefits -- such as a pension, housing and food grains -- which are usually allocated for only the most impoverished, an official said on Thursday.

Niten Chandra, principal secretary of Odishas department of social security, said the move to give the transgender community the same benefits as those living below the poverty line (BPL) was aimed at improving their overall social and economic status.

Most transgender people are in a very bad condition because of social exclusion. For example, they very often do not get employment easily, Chandra said.

Read: In MP, third gender reaches admission form, not colleges

There are no official figures, but activists say there are hundreds of thousands of transgender people in India, many of whom face ostracism and discrimination, as well as verbal, physical and sexual abuse.

A lack of access to education and employment opportunities has meant many male-to-female transgender people -- also known as hijras -- end up forced into sex work or moving around in organised groups, begging or demanding money.

In a landmark judgment in April 2014, Indias Supreme Court recognised transgender as a legal third gender and called on the government to ensure their equal treatment.

Identity documents such as birth certificates, driving licenses and passports must now recognise the third gender, and a certain number of public sector jobs, seats in schools and colleges must be allocated to third-gender applicants.

Chandra said Odishas transgender population was unofficially estimated at 40,000, but added a survey would be conducted soon to get a more accurate figure.

Read: Chinese transgender man fights for job equality

Members of the transgender community will be given BPL cards that will allow them to access benefits under various government welfare programmes.

This includes schemes that provide free housing, 100 days of paid work annually, pensions and loans to start up their own businesses. They would also be entitled 5 kg of food grains every month under Indias National Food Security Act.

Transgender rights groups welcomed Odishas new policy and called for its effective implementation.

We are thankful to the government. This is a welcome step. At least now the government has started recognising our problems, said Meera Parida, chairperson of All Odisha Third Gender Welfare Trust.

However, we will benefit only when such a decision is implemented properly and does not remain just on pen and paper.
India on Thursday joined a global regime to control proliferation of ballistic missiles but the move would not have any impact on national security as well as the missile programme of the country.

The decision came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the US from June 7 and the plenary of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) this week. India has been seeking US support in getting members to various export-control regimes such as the NSG and MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime).

External affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said India has joined the Hague Code of Conduct (HCoC) against Ballistic Missile Proliferation by notifying the HCoC Central Contact in Vienna through diplomatic channels.

The HCoC is a voluntary, legally non-binding international confidence building and transparency measure that seeks to prevent the proliferation of ballistic missiles that are capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction.

Read: Indias missile programme can nuclearise Indian Ocean: Pakistan

When asked if the decision will effectively mean that country has to shelve its Agni missile programme, he said, Our national security interest will not be impacted in any manner, whatsoever, by joining HCoC. He said India joining the Code signals our readiness to further strengthen global non-proliferation objectives.

Asked about Indias bid to become member of nuclear control regimes, Swarup said, As far as MTCR is concerned, our application is on track and well-received and we expect that process of Indias membership would be completed soon.
Toshiba Corps Westinghouse Electric and India are in advanced discussions for the company to build six nuclear reactors there, the countrys ambassador to the United States said on Wednesday, ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis planned visit to Washington next week.

A deal with Westinghouse would be the first such contract reached under the 2008 US-India civil nuclear accord.

There is a very detailed and advanced negotiation between Westinghouse and India, Ambassador Arun Singh told reporters. The issues that remain to be worked out are related to cost and financing.

Progress on the deal to build six AP-1000 nuclear reactors is one of the key developments anticipated during the June 7-8 visit by Modi to Washington, where he will be hosted by President Barack Obama for a final summit before the US presidential election in November. Modi will address both houses of Congress.

The United States and India agreed in 2008 to cooperate in the civil nuclear arena, but there have been no agreements yet to build any plants.

Reuters reported Tuesday that Westinghouse and India reached a breakthrough after officials said it will relocate the planned project in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The original site proposed for the multi-billion-dollar project, in Modis home state of Gujarat, faced local opposition.

Another obstacle had been to bring Indias liability rules into line with international norms, which require the costs of an accident to be channeled to the operator rather than the maker of a nuclear power station.

That issue had been largely resolved to the satisfaction of the US government in January 2015 after the United States and India reached a breakthrough understanding on nuclear cooperation.

Singh told reporters to the best of my knowledge insurance was no longer an issue in the discussions.

Westinghouse had hoped to clinch a deal to build six nuclear reactors in India by the end of March, during Modis last Washington trip to attend a global nuclear summit.

US lawmakers ratified the civil nuclear accord three years after it was struck in 2005, as part of an attempt to deepen the strategic relationship with India, but have expressed growing dismay over its failure to yield follow-on deals for US-based reactor makers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, which drew flak for breakdown of administrative machinery during the Jat quota stir, is still to initiate action against top officers indicted by the inquiry committee.

While the Khattar government has suspended three Haryana Civil Service and 10 Haryana Police Service officials and also initiated departmental proceedings against several lower-level policemen, no action has been taken against IAS and IPS officers found in the wrong by the Prakash Singh committee.

NO ACTION DESPITE SEVERE INDICTMENT

The inquiry panel, which on May 13 submitted its report on acts of omission and commission of civil and police officers during the Jat quota stir, has faulted 10 IAS and IPS officers for inaction, negligence and failure to show leadership. Barring transfer of some of them, no action has been taken. A few indicted officers have continued to retain the positions in which they had failed to perform their duty at crucial moments even as Jats are threatening to renew their agitation.

The report, for instance, has come down heavily on Jhajjar deputy commissioner Anita Yadav, finding her to be the most non-performing DC that the committee met and one who is unfit to hold charge of a district. She continues to hold the position.

Additional chief secretary, home, Ram Niwas told HT that the probe findings were under consideration of the government. Notices will be given to IAS and IPS officers to submit their comments and their replies and evidence will be considered on merit, he said without specifying any timeframe.

Meanwhile, pressure is also mounting on the state authorities to take action, with the Punjab and Haryana high court first asking the government to submit the probe panel reports, including the confidential findings on intelligence wing, and then seeking progress reports from district and sessions judges on criminal cases registered in connection with the quota stir violence.

POLITICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The Haryana government has repeatedly talked about initiating action against all those found at fault in the probe findings, but political considerations are likely to weigh on its plans to act against top civil and police officers with a couple of indicted officers having strong political connections in the ruling party and the Sangh Parivar. While Prakash Singh had already spoken about high-level people (he hasnt identified them till now) asking him to let off some officers found wanting during the quota stir, several politicians, including those from the ruling BJP, have been telling the government not to act on the report in haste or indulging in nitpicking. A Union minister, who belongs to the state, had told reporters in Bhiwani last week that the government was acting in haste. It should have waited for reports of others probing the stir, he said.

While a minister in the Khattar government found absence of signatures of two officers, who were only assisting the panel and were not its members, on the inquiry report amiss, a former Congress minister also spoke in defence of an IAS officer whose non-performance had drawn blistering comments from the probe panel. A section of the state bureaucracy has also been trying to give the probe report an IAS-versus-IPS twist, accusing Prakash Singh of being pro-police. While the retired IPS officer has flatly denied any bias, the state authorities have sought explanation from two indicted officers for criticising the probe report in the media.
The round 2 of the Jat agitation is about to begin with Jat groups ready to stage dharnas across the state from June 5 to protest against the high court stay on their reservation under the other backward caste (OBC) category. The intelligence inputs so far say the protests will be peaceful this time. However, in the wake of the unprecedented violence during February quota stir, the police and civil administration, especially those officials who were indicted by the Prakash Singh committee but still continue to enjoy the same positions, will have to be careful at every step.

The panel report notes that the public perception about officials was that they failed to take preventive and proactive measures to nip the problem in the bud. Police failed to take effective action against the miscreants and rioters in the initial stages. The Rohtak DC and SP also refused to come out for talks with the peaceful protestors at the initial stage, despite their repeated demands. The administration this time will have to ensure that it demoralises the protesters at the very outset to that the protest does not turn violent.

The report also comments on the poor coordination between the magistracy and the police which resulted in delay in enforcement of orders at various crucial spots. Various prohibitory orders, like section 144 and curfew, were also defied by the protestors in Rohtak and Sonepat where a complete lack of coordination was witnessed between DCs and SPs. As Prakash Singh said power and responsibility cannot be divorced, the civil administration and police officials will have to ensure that their coordination this time remains intact so that theres no blame game to be played after the crisis.

Another point which the report makes is the inadequate use of police, central armed police forces (CAPF) and the army against the rioters. The committee notes that during the period 7 to 22 February, when mild lathicharge was resorted to at 9 places, surprisingly no rioter was reported to have suffered injuries while 21 security personnel sustained injuries.

With companies of paramilitary forces already deployed in seven districts of the state for June 5 protests, the administration has to be effective in utilising the force this time.

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Had Leslie John Binns completed his trek up Mount Everest in the last week of May, his name would have been added to a list of 5,000-odd mountaineers (4,042 climbers till February 2014) who have scaled the worlds highest peak since the first ascent by Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

But, the British ex-serviceman abandoned his quest barely 450 metres before the summit to save a fellow mountaineer, and now stands out among the countless who have trod the same path.

Congratulatory messages have poured in from across the world, hailing Binns as a hero for giving up on reaching the summit when within kissing distance  a dream and life achievement for any mountaineer that close to the top.

The Britisher, who served in Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan and lost one eye in an IED explosion, turned around to save Sunita Hazra  an Indian woman who had scaled the summit only a few hours before.

Sometimes the peak is not the summit. This man from Yorkshire reached higher than the top of Mount Everest, a place that is taller than any pinnacle of sporting achievement. He is the only member of a team who could not make it. Yet, he shall remain one of the greatest that went on the trail. Because he showed humanity, compassion and conscience. Leslie, you are a role model to every mountaineer in the world, posted Subhojit Roy, a Bengali mountaineer.

Binns act was widely shared as a Facebook post, going viral among mountaineers and non-climbers alike.

Incredible. Rescuing two & cutting his dream of reaching the summit. Selfless & incredibly brave man. The mountain isnt going anywhere, I hope he gets another crack at her soon, said Adrian Cunliffe, a mountaineer who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in just five days last year to raise funds for a cancer foundation.

Binss wife Lindsey Empringham was also flooded with messages on her social media account as well.

Binns had set out from the UK on April 4 for his Mt Everest expedition and was set to reach the summit on May 22. But in the final hours of his endeavour, he came across Hazra who was low on oxygen and had slipped while on her way down.

Talking to a TV channel from Kathmandu on Wednesday, Binns admitted to having mixed feelings about what happened, but was glad of his decision. Of course I felt sad because I could not climb the summit. But I am happy that I have saved a life. I have received messages from many people. It really feels good.

A grateful Hazra said she was indebted to Binns.

I owe my life to him. I could return home to see my child. What else can I say? Hazra told a TV channel on Wednesday. She became the first Bengali mother to have reached the summit.

Leslie John Binns saved climbers life on summit day. George Kashouh and Gary Ervin helped too. Good work team!, tweeted mountaineer Dan Mazur. Kashous, Ervin and Binns were members of the same team. While Binns abandoned his venture, the two others made it to the summit.

C Michael Fairman, who worked for the US Marines, described in detail Binns sacrifice on Facebook.

On his summit attempt, just shy of the balcony, a young Indian lady had slipped on her descent and fell landing at the anchor next to Les. She had been in distress due to depletion and supposedly no replenishment of her O2, and now she was injured from the fall. Les without hesitation aborted his summit bid to assist and help her down, he wrote.

Binns changed out her O2 bottle and tried to get her moving. Though climbers passed by, nobody apparently stopped to help Binns or Hazra. He finally clipped her to him and began dragging her down.

As she drifted in and out, Les came across another man from her team who was also in distress. Screaming and yelling at the man to stand up and fight for his life, Les eventually clipped the man onto himself as well. Sliding, falling, crawling, Les continued to make his way down with these two climbers, while others continued to walk by even as he was yelling for help. A white out had now engulfed them, and as the neared the South Col, Les was unable to continue with both victims.

Binns eventually unclipped the man and encouraged him to keep moving. Though the man was stuck in the storm all night before help arrived, Binns was able to reach his tent with Hazra.

She was suffering bad from altitude, hypothermia, and frostbite. Her hand had been ungloved and now swollen. Les had warm soup from a thermos that he used to rewarm her hand... Several deaths occurred this day, and the outcome of these two remains unknown, but one thing that is not a mystery is the heroic actions of Les. I am humbled and yet so proud to have come to know him over the months, and his actions come as no surprise, the former marine wrote.

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A nine-member team of trekkers, including income tax officers from Delhi, who were on a trekking tour in Himachal Pradesh, has been reportedly trapped in remote Bara Bhangal village of Kangra district.

Kangra deputy commissioner Ritesh Chauhan said he got the information about some people trapped in Bara Bhangal on Wednesday evening.

The team had started trekking from Manali to Bara Bhangal over a week ago, said Chauhan. Two or three members of the team were injured while crossing the 4665 metre long Thamsar Pass, he added.

Chauhan said he had talked to the team members and they had reached Bara Bhangal. The injuries are not life threatening but they are unable to go further,said Chauhan.

The DC said state government had deployed its helicopter for the rescue operation. The first attempt to airlift the trekkers failed as the helicopter could not land owing to bad weather in Bara Bhangal, said Chauhan, adding that personal details of the trapped people could be known only after they were rescued.

The second sortie is scheduled in the afternoon.
Congress circles are again abuzz with the possibility of Rahul Gandhi taking over as the party president. If the change comes through in the coming days, as is being talked about but with little indication of the timings from the party, the 45-year-old will be elevated to the top rank at a challenging time.

The Congress has suffered a series of poll setbacks that began with the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which saw the party tally touch an all-time low of 44.

Here are the five big challenges that await Gandhi in the hot seat.

1. Back to winning ways: The Congress, which has ruled the Centre and also dominated the states for the larger part of its history, seems to be a declining force as the BJP expands its footprint. Though the party tasted success in Bihar as part of an alliance last year, its electoral base is fast depleting. If Gandhi takes charge in coming weeks, he will have limited time to prepare for the crucial assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab due early next year. These state polls may well be the first test of Congress president Rahul Gandhi.

2. Party revamp: Arguably the biggest job -- reshaping the party machinery to meet the aspirations of a young nation. He will have to tread carefully. His choices are limited and he will have to make the best use of them. A wholesale change or marginalisation of old guard may prove counter-productive. The challenge will be to take all the leaders along as he turns the Congress into a lean, mean fighting machine.

3. Rahul, the vote catcher: The Amethi MP was seen as the architect of the 2014 poll campaign, the outcome though was far from encouraging. But, it was Gandhi who in 2009 Lok Sabha elections won the party record number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, pushing the Congress tally to 206 seats that earned the UPA a second term. His supporters will certainly want to see him repeat the performance across the country and emerge as the partys key vote catcher.

4. Strong state leaders: In party meetings, Gandhi often speaks about grooming strong leaders in states. He realises that without popular leaders like late YS Rajasekhara Reddy in Andhra Pradesh or Ibobi Singh in Manipur, the Congress has little chance of regaining lost ground. It is easier said than done. Historically, the party leadership has not encouraged strong leaders in states.

5. Policies that also win votes: Gandhi was the force behind several pro-people initiatives and welfare programmes undertaken by the UPA governments. He championed right to information and forest rights acts while extending support to womens self-help groups but these have not translated much into electoral gains. His vision of entitlement-based politics has failed to deliver so far. It will be interesting to see how he blends poll politics with the pro-people policies.

Read | Rahul Gandhi as party chief will speed up Cong-mukt Bharat, says BJP

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The BJP has taken a dig at the Congress over demands of elevation for its vice president Rahul Gandhi as the party president, and said the country will move further towards Congress-free India if this happens.

Though its an internal matter of the Congress, but if such a decision is taken, the country will move ahead in the direction of a Congress-free India, Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told the media in New Delhi on Wednesday.

When Rahul became the Congress vice president, the country moved in the direction of Congress-free India. If he becomes Congress president, it will move more in that direction, he added.

Another party MP and Union power minister Piyush Goyal also said any such development will only strengthen BJPs resolve for a Congress-mukt Bharat.

That only strengthens our case for a Congress-mukt Bharat, said Goyal.

There was high speculation surrounding elevation of the 45-year-old Gandhi family scion as the Congress president, but the party dismissed any such immediate possibility even as Sonia Gandhi remained tight lipped on the issue.

Sonia, who is on a visit to her constituency Rae Bareli, was asked to comment on media reports about Congressmen wanting Rahul to take over as the president, parried a questions from the media earlier on Wednesday.

We are a national party. There are certain procedures... When it comes to Sonia and Rahul we all wholeheartedly accept (their leadership)... We all want Rahul to take over, as and when (it will happen), we will make a proper statement, party spokesperson Sushmita Dev told reporters.

Replying to a volley of questions on the speculation over Rahuls imminent elevation and also on the possibility of Priyanka Gandhi becoming active in UP where Assembly polls are scheduled next year, Dev said, Speculation is the privilege of the media.

Earlier in the day, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh had said in Chandigarh that the time is right for Rahul to take over the mantle of the party from his mother and also favoured Priyankas entry into active politics.

Sonia is a brilliant leader. I have said she has been working (as Congress chief) for the past 20 years. If she feels time has come to give it to a new generation, then she should pass it on and we will fully support Rahul, he said.

A section in the party feels that Sonia should continue as the party chief, while another feels that the earlier Rahul takes over the reins the better.

Leaders like Jairam Ramesh have said earlier that Rahul will be party president in 2016.

Talk is that a meeting of the Congress Working Committee will be held this month to discuss threadbare the situation caused by the partys debacle in the recent Assembly polls. Holding of a Chintan Shivir to brainstorm over the losses, among other things, is also being talked about.

Rahul was made party vice-president in January 2013 at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir. Sonia has been at the helm of the party since March 1998 and has created a record of sorts.
Gujarats infamous Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) went dormant after making headlines for all the wrong reasons, but it appears to have woken up from its years-long slumber.

After making no arrests between 2011 and May 2015, the Gujarat ATS came back with a bang, arresting 30 people in myriad cases from arson to murder and drugs in the past one year.

At its worst, the special police force was ensnared in a number of controversies, including the alleged fake encounters of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife Kausar Bi and associate Tulsi Prajapati in 2005. However, its first brush with infamy was a year earlier over the killings of Mumbai college student Ishrat Jahan along with three men.

The team faced accusations of being trigger-happy and many of its top officers were jailed. Even Amit Shah, the then Gujarat home minister and now BJP chief  was implicated, jailed and banished from the state for a while before being exonerated.

Eventually our network of sources and informers dried up, said an officer. We became the ultimate fall guys, particularly after the Ishrat Jahan case was handed over to CBI in 2011.

After spending years behind bars, most of the accused officers are now out on bail and a few have even been reinstated. This, ATS officials say, has boosted the morale of the 40-member team after hitting rock bottom.

Top-ranking officers languishing in jail without a hearing for seven years had affected the morale of Gujarat Police... Their reinstatement have lifted the spirit of policemen, said another officer.

Virtually back from the dead, the squad went back to the basics. In the last one year or so, we have strengthened our network, ATS SP Himangshu Shukla said. By combining technology with human intelligence, we have been able to make many arrests in important cases.

Its recent triumphs include the arrests of Faruq Bhana  who was sought for setting alight a train in Godhra in 2002 that killed scores of pilgrims and set off communal riots, and Karthik Halder  who was wanted for the murder of three witnesses in rape cases against Asaram.

This turn of fortune, they hope, resurrects the credibility the squad, lost after the arrest of high-profile officers such as DIG DG Vanzara and SP Rajkumar Pandian.

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Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday took a dig at Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, saying it is shameful that he was spending hundreds of crores of rupees on advertisement to mark the second statehood day celebrations while people were dying in the state.

In a series of tweets, Singh said only one family has been benefitted in the last two years in Telangana-KCR family.

Greetings to all in Telengana and we thank Sonia Gandhi to give Statehood accepting the long standing demand of the People of Telengana, he tweeted.

Read: Telangana@2: There is a method in KCRs madness

In two years we have seen only KCR Family benefiting. Farmers are committing suicides people are dying of heat stroke unemployment growing. KCR celebrating and putting huge ads worth 100s of crores. Another Nero in the celebration mode when poor people are dying. Shame on you KCR! he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also wished Telangana on its second statehood day and hoped the state progressed to new heights in the coming years.

Meanwhile, elaborate arrangements were been made by the state government to celebrate the states second formation day.

Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014 as per the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act passed in Parliament.
Azharuddim Beg alias Laddan Mian, the prime suspect and conspirator in the killing of Siwan journalist Rajdeo Ranjan surrendered to police on Thursday morning.

Laddan, who had been eluding capture since the murder took place on May 13, was forced to surrender as police sealed district borders and intensified their manhunt for him, Siwan superintendent of police, Saurabh Kumar Sah, said. Police had been conducting raids across several districts in Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh to catch Laddan.

When they produce him in court, police intend on pleading for a 15-day remand to interrogate Laddan and corroborate evidence.

Police arrested five people less than a week ago, including one Rohit Kumar, who, they claimed, confessed to carrying out the murder of Ranjan.

Read | Five arrested for Hindustan journalists murder, cops say one has confessed

Senior journalist Ranjan was shot dead last month near the Siwan railway station at close range. The 42-year-old was the bureau chief of Hindi daily Hindustan, a sister concern of Hindustan Times.

Laddan, who had been released from Siwan jail 15 days before Ranjans murder, fled from Siwan with his family just two hours after the crime. His is considered to be a close aide of former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP, Mohammad Shahabuddin, who is currently serving a life sentence for the abduction and murder of two people in 2004.

Shahabuddin, who was earlier lodged in Siwan jail, was shifted to Bhagalpur central prison after subtle links connected him to the case. Investigations indicated that kill orders for Ranjan had come from inside Siwan jail.

Police claimed they arrested 10 of 20 people close to Laddan who knew of the murder conspiracy. Though the CBI is set to take over investigations, police are keen to question Laddan to confirm their findings.

According to police sources, Laddan had been bailed out of jail a few months ago, leading to suspicions that he was offered a contract for the killing. Laddan used to be a sharpshooter for Shahabuddin who still holds considerable influence in the area.

Read | IB seeks help from Bihar Police to find missing Shahabuddin files

Read | Fear for my life today: Bihars Siwan clams up about journos murder

Authorities have been under pressure to solve the case as political opponents of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar claimed a return of the 90s jungle raj.

Police attach Laddans property, family files case

Sah said police had on Wednesday attached properties of Laddan to the case, leading to three of his sisters moving the chief judicial magistrate court, claiming they had joint claim to the two houses owned by Laddan in Siwan town.

Their argument needs to be heard before passing of any order, Laddans family lawyer said, presenting a copy of the land registration as evidence.

The court accepted the petition of Laddans sisters and sought a report from the circle officer in this regard, putting the attachment orders in abeyance.

Another case filed by Laddan will come up before the high court on Thursday. Laddan had filed a habeas corpus in the high court alleging a threat to his life and illegal confinement of his wife after police arrested five suspected in taking part in the shooting.

The bench of chief justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh sought replies from the director general of police and Siwan superintendent and posted the matter for hearing on Thursday.

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A special CBI court on Thursday summoned all the 38 accused, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, in one of the fodder scam cases after finding that some of them have not registered their attendance for the last six months. Special judge Sheo Pal Singh asked all of them to appear on June 13.

The court after inspecting the records found regular attendance of 27 accused, including Lalu Prasad. It got to know that some were acquitted by the higher court and some died during the course of trial but didnt figure out the whereabouts of six accused as their attendance was conspicuously missing, said advocate Prabhat Kumar, representing Lalu Prasad.

Looking into the current status of the case, the court sought personal appearance of all the accused to ascertain the truth, Kumar added.

The case relates to fraudulent withdrawal of `3.31 crore from Dumka treasury. It is currently running at prosecution evidence stage, in which statements of prosecution witnesses are being recorded. As many as 240 prosecution witnesses have been listed by the CBI, of which statements of 208 have been recorded.
Popular taxi aggregators like Uber and Ola may soon have to go by fixed fares  spelling the end of surge pricing  with the government planning to bring them under the ambit of the motor vehicles Act.

The app-based cab-booking services run in a grey area without government checks. Popular for their heavy discounts and easy availability, their practice of surge pricing  increasing fares when demand outstrips supply  has, however, come in for criticism.

The road transport ministry is working on a proposal to bring taxi aggregators within the regulatory framework of the MV Act under a new category  intermediaries. A ministry official said, Intermediaries will cover service providers like Uber and Ola that do not have their own vehicle fleets but function in the online market space by linking driver/owner with customer for a fee.

Bringing taxi aggregators under the regulatory framework will mean they wont get to arbitrarily fix fares. They will have to follow the rules framed for them under the MV Act. They will have to abide by fares prescribed by respective states, which can fix an upper cap beyond which the aggregator cannot charge, another official said.

Read | All you need to know about Ola, Uber surge pricing in 5 points

The aggregators can continue to offer discounts but within this limit.

Since the taxis and other automobile aggregation policy needs the states to be on board, a group of eight state transport ministers will consider and take a final call on it on June12-13 in Dharmasala.

This group was constituted in February to recommend ways to strengthen public transport and review the MV Act.

Terming the cab services intermediaries will also bring them under the purview of the Information Technology Act, 2000, where intermediary means any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits that record or provides any service with respect to that record.

Read | Uber raises $3.5 bn from Saudi Arabia, its single-largest investment so far

Furthermore, the ministry has proposed making city permits mandatory for taxis within the aggregator system, the fee for which will be fixed by the Centre. Right now, they only need all India tourist permits (AITP).

Cabs that run on city permits must have a fare meter  not a requirement under AITP rules.

Once the cabs get city permits, they will have to follow the rules framed by the state governments, including on a fare cap and fare meter. They will also have to follow a dress code, said an official.

In the absence of regulations, the road ministry can at best frame guidelines for taxi aggregators and the states are free to accept or reject them.

Last year, Maharashtra and Delhi attempted to regulate these cab services, without success. The Capitals AAP government got Uber and Ola to drop surge pricing during the odd-even fortnight in April this year, after receiving numerous complaints from residents. But the pricing mechanism was back as soon as the road restrictions were lifted.

Recently, Karnataka framed the On Demand Transportation Technology Aggregator Rules, 2016. But this, too, has been challenged in the high court by city-based cab aggregator Helion Technologies.

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An 18-year-old girl with a black belt in martial arts chased down and nabbed a burglar in east Delhi on Tuesday, holding on to him even when he injured her with a blade.

Priyanka, who has since become the hero of the neighbourhood, said she was visiting her grandmother in Pandav Nagar and sitting outside her house when she heard a neighbour shout that robbers had struck the opposite building.

The woman said her husband had walked in on four robbers in their flat, and that the locks of other homes on three floors had also been broken. When the robbers tried to escape, one of them jumped over to our building. I saw him and must have chased him for at least 100-150 meters, said the teenager, who is fresh out of school.

She grabbed the man by his neck after catching up with him and didnt let go even when he slashed her left hand with a blade. She handed him over to some locals, who took him to the police. His accomplices, however, managed to flee.

I remembered the three floors he had burgled and told myself I would not let him escape at any cost, she said. He seemed drunk. When I asked him for his name, he gave me two.

Priyanka lives with her mother in northeast Delhis Bhajanpura while her father, an engineer, works in Guwahati.

The karate kid  who passed out of the Government Girls Senior Secondary School in Yamuna Vihar  dreams of joining the armed forces or police. It was with this intention that she joined a self-defence course taught by the Delhi Police when she was in Class 9. Five years later, she earned a black belt and is now preparing for the Central Reserve Police Force entrance exams.

My parents always encouraged me to join the force. The exam is on the 26th of this month, and I am putting in all the hard work. I hope to be there, she said.
More than the prospect of facing a united opposition in the House and elsewhere, it is the threat of floods brought on by bumper rains that is likely to pose a stiffer challenge for the Mamata Banerjee government as it begins a fresh spell at the hustings.

The Bengal government could soon have to mobilise all resources to save lives and property as the Met department has predicted heavy rains in Bengal this monsoon, risking floods in several parts of the state and putting lives and livelihood in danger. Acres and acres of crop land could also face ruin should rain wreak havoc.

Shaking off two years of despondency over a sluggish monsoon and festering agrarian distress claiming lives across rural India, the Met officials have forecast bumper rains this year.

While the country is likely to receive 106% rainfall, Bengal, too, appears set to tide over the 14% deficit in rains last year and witness a deluge. Though the rains last year werent evenly spread, parts of Bengal faced flood-like situation with around 37 lakh people across 12 districts affected.

With the state staring at a fresh spell of floods this monsoon, alarm bells were set off in the corridors of power just days after Mamata Banerjee took the oath of office for the second time. Alarmed over the forecast and keen to hit the ground running in a bid to limit the damage, the state government opened two flood control rooms  one in North Bengal and another in the south  on Wednesday. Two senior officials have been posted at the DVC (Damodar Valley Corporation) headquarters to monitor the situation and ensure that the government is forewarned on the release of water from the dams.

Once monsoon arrives in Bengal, top state mandarins are to meet every day at Nabanna and take stock on the governments response to the crisis. The meeting, to be chaired by chief secretary Basudeb Bandopadhyay, will be convened at 10.30 in the morning. The states disaster management department has already dispatched teams and relief materials to districts that are likely to record heavy rains. The government is also keen to avoid allegations of political bias with regard to distribution of flood relief and ensure help reaches the marooned and distressed irrespective of their political leanings.

Were bracing for the natures fury this year. Since the elections went on for over a month, wed little time to prepare. However, were working on a war-footing and are making all arrangements to mount a swift response. Weve opened flood control rooms equipped with 24x7 helpline numbers, state irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee said. While the flood control room for South Bengal has been opened in Kolkata, the one for North Bengal is situated in Siliguri.

Those assigned to monitor the situation at these control rooms would also be able to send real time updates through video conferencing and radio communication.

The (disaster management) department started sending rescuers and relief materials to the districts from May. Were focusing on areas that are at high risk of flooding. While disaster management groups have been stationed at several high-risk areas, boats and boatmen, too, have been sent. Were ready to face the worst. As the monsoon sets in, a meeting will be chaired at Nabanna every day to plan our response, Javed Ahmed Khan, the minister for disaster management, said.

The irrigation department has already identified 145 kilometres of river embankments and dams as vulnerable. Work to fortify these embankments and dams has already begun.

Every year, the DVC releases excess water from dams triggering flood-like situation in several districts. This year, though, weve entered into a contract with the DVC and have set up a team to monitor the situation. We need to be forewarned on the release of water from dams, so that we could avoid a flood situation in vulnerable districts, Banerjee said.

The department has already summoned amateur (HAM) radio operators along with representatives of Bharat Sevashram Sangha, St John Ambulance and the Indian Red Cross Society among others have to discuss disaster preparedness.

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Playwright Ramu Ramanathan on the many shades of Mumbai showcased on stage over the years

Mumbai is the sum total of many languages. Consider the stats: 1,500 theatre shows per month (source: PT Notes, Prithvi Theatres newsletter), in Marathi, Gujarati, English and Hindi, followed by Kannada and Malwani. In a city known for its cosmopolitan populace, it is hardly surprising.

As a playwright, hence, the eternal question remains: how to embrace a city lingo with narrative power and lyricism, and highlight the phrases that are uttered in the slums, chawls, dargahs, government offices, corporate offices, homes, hospitals, courts, college campuses, and brothels.

Read: Radhika Apte: Theatre actor to thinking cinemas poster child

The novel Kuru Kuru Swaha (2008) epitomises the polyphony of Mumbai. Novelist Shyam Manohar Joshi deploys a start-stop structure to narrate how Mumbais underworld unleashed its lingo on Hindi. So, there is a mix of Bengali-Hindi and even Sanskrit-laced Hindi, along with a form of Sanskrit no one speaks today. Joshis book shows how Mumbai shifts from one linguistic ghetto to another.

Another underrated novelist, short story author, and playwright is Bhau Padhye, who penned the Marathi novel Vaitagwadi (1965). His characters bring together a variety of Mumbai experiences. My all-time favourite remains Namdeo Dhasals Gandu Bagicha (1986). I have heard Dhasal read the poems aloud and it is an incredible feat of plotting, pace and anger.

Playwrights need to master the language practised in chawls as well as high-rises, says Ramanathan (Getty Images)

Dhasals work is based in south-central Mumbai. This is the area from Khetwadi to Kamathipura to Falkland Road (present-day Pathe Bapurao Marg). This was the epicentre of Bombay after the British royalty were gifted the island city by the Portuguese. The first thing to spring up were plays in English. There were 35 makeshift theatres which featured plays performed in English for the recreation of the British soldiers.

Its been a long journey for English plays since then. Another highlight is Cyrus Mistrys play, Doongaji House, about the Parsi community, which was penned in the 1970s. Now a novelist, Mistry wrote what is one of the finest texts for the Indian English stage. The play transpires in a decrepit house, and Mistry uses it to take a hard look at the Parsi community.

Interestingly, many a literary great escaped this city. Premchand detested every day of his stay in Mumbai (then Bombay). So he bid adieu. As did authors Amrutlal Nagar and Upendranath. They didnt get along with the citys crowds and queues, the cruelty and chaos, the absence of innocence. And the city like a true-blue diva, turned her back on these wordsmiths and a lot of authors lost their mojo in Mumbai.

In the case of Saadat Hasan Manto, Mumbai lingers in the background of his short stories but it is a distant love affair. His Ganje Farishte (Bald Angels) is a collection of sketches and reminisces the Mumbai film stars of the late 1940s to early 1950s.

St Xavier's College (HT file photo)

Unknown one-act plays like Iqbal Khwajas Snafu (Hindi-English, 1987) in which lowbrow Raghu More from Bhandup enters St Xaviers College and tries to become more of a Xavierite than others have captured the sense of being an eternal outsider in this city.

Another uncompromising play, not for the faint of heart, is Mahesh Elkunchwars Holi, translated into English for an intercollegiate theatre competition. The production brimmed with violence, swearing, drugs and rock n roll but also a lot of laughs and agitprop resistance. Thats the spirit of Mumbai.

I started this story with Manohar Shyam Joshi. Let me conclude with a literary gem called Hamzaad (1999). It is the story of Mumbai. Bleak, sans ideals, and with zero optimism. Joshi talks about builders, film-makers, pimps, prostitutes, swapping partners, and the vileness of Mumbai. It is a belief among Muslims that once you are born, the devil is born too. This devil is a Hamzaad. The symbol of Hamzaad is used by Joshi to warn the 20 million citizens of Mumbai that our devils are hovering over our head.

And this is the drama of this city: 20 million of us, along with 20 million Hamzaads. Living our dramatic lives, together.

Ramu Ramanathan is a Mumbai-based playwright.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is mulling action against Maharashtra revenue minister Eknath Kadse, accused of wrongdoing on various counts, but after at a series of high-power meetings through the day, it appears no immediate step is likely. The issue was discussed by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis with the BJP national president Amit Shah and later with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday. Late in the evening, Khadses daughter-in-law and Raver (Jalgaon) MP Raksha Khadse too met Modi.

I have submitted a factual report on the matters that have come up recently. We have discussed them as well. The party will direct whatever appropriate action has to be taken, Fadnavis told reporters after meeting Shah at the BJP headquarters and submitting a report on the controversies related to Khadses land deals. Highly placed sources in the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said given the nature of the allegations the leadership was in a dilemma whether to drop Khadse from the cabinet or just strip him of the crucial revenue portfolio. However, the BJP apparently has a policy not to sack a minister on the basis of allegations made by the opposition or in the media.

Read | BJP leader Khadse faces more charges of wrongdoing as Sena rakes up land deal

The party did not take action against Union minister Sushma Swaraj or Vasundhara Raje or in Maharashtra against Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde. With this precedent, it may not be appropriate to ask Khadse to step down, said sources in the party. Further, the leadership was wary of the political damage that would be caused by Khadses ouster from the cabinet  he belongs to the Leva Patil community which belongs to the Other Backward Castes and has a strong presence in north Maharashtra and some other parts of the state. The party leadership, however, is irked with Khadse for playing the OBC card.

Khadse is now projecting that the party is being unjust to OBCs  first by not making him chief minister and now with his removal. The posters put up by Khadse at many places with the image of the late Gopinath Munde, the OBC face of the party, clearly indicate this, the sources said. This will show the party in bad light among the OBCs. The party has to consider this as elections to several civic bodies and zilla parishads (district councils) are to be held next year, the sources said.

Sources said any action against Khadse was likely after the legislative council polls to be held on June 10. He has the support of around a dozen MLAs, who can play an important role in the polls. In fact, if the party decides to strip him of key portfolios, it would be done during the reshuffle and expansion of the state cabinet, which is expected in the second half of June, the sources said.

Fadnavis, in his report to Shah, reportedly stated that Khadses Pune land deal involves a conflict of the interest because it was purchased by his wife Mandakini Khadse and son-in-law Girish Chaudhary eyeing compensation as high as Rs60 crore. The report also stated the land belongs to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation and industries minister and Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai had openly claimed ownership.

The report also mentioned the pressure tactics by Khadse and his supporters in Jalgaon and Mumbai. Seventeen corporators from the Jalgaon Municipal Corporation had threatened to resign if the party did not stand by him. In Mumbai, too, the followers staged a demonstration demanding no action be taken against Khadse. The minister, who has been in Jalgaon for the past two days, also tried to consolidate support from locals as well as the Leva Patil community.

Meanwhile, the clamour for Khadses removal is growing. Ally Shiv Sena on Thursday put pressure on the BJP to sack Khadse. Fadnavis should break his silence and tell what he is going to do, said Sena MP Sanjay Raut.

And activist Anjali Damania  the whistleblower in the irrigation scam  began an indefinite fast demanding action against Khadse. Veteran anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare has supported Damania and is likely to write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack Khadse.

Sources said Khadse, too, has sought an appointment with party chief Amit Shah to explain his side of the case. Although Khadse is hopeful about the appointment, party insiders feel he is unlikely to be heard before any action is taken against him. Khadse, who was supposed to meet a central drought-monitoring team in Aurangabad on Wednesday, had postponed the meet till Thursday hoping for a summons to Delhi. But that did not happen.
As pressure is mounting on the BJP to sack Maharashtra revenue minister and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis reached Delhi on Thursday evening to discuss the issue with party chief Amit Shah.

Khadse, a BJP heavyweight from north Maharashtra, is facing a series of graft allegations.

So far, Fadnavis and the BJP have been defending him but with various revelations being made by the media and activists, it is becoming difficult for the party not to take any action against him.

Sources said the options before the party are limited.

Earlier, Fadnavis was considering to take away the revenue department from Khadse, while retaining him in the state cabinet. However, now the demand for Khadses ouster from the cabinet is growing with ally Shiv Sena, too, joining the Opposition parties on Thursday saying that Khadse should step down.

In fact, the party put the onus on Fadnavis.

Chief minister Fadnavis should break his silence and tell what is he going to do,said Sena MP Sanjay Raut.

In a related development, activist Anjali Damania, the whistleblower in the irrigation scam, began her indefinite fast demanding action against Khadse.

Veteran anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare has supported Damania and is likely to write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to sack Khadse.

This is the first major crisis faced by the 18-month-old BJP-led government in the state.

The series of allegations against Khadse began with anti-corruption bureau arresting Gajanan Patil, a BJP worker from Jalgaon known to be a close aide of Khadse, for seeking bribe from a person who wanted allotment of government land in Thane for setting up an education institute.

It followed with allegations by Manish Bhangle, an ethical hacker, that seven calls were made from fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahims Karachi residence to Khadses mobile phone.

While the Mumbai police rushed to give Khadse a clean chit in the issue, another allegation of Khadse misusing his position as revenue minister to get benefit in a land deal surfaced.

According to Hemant Gawande, a Pune-based builder, Khadses wife Mandakini and son-in-law Girish Chaudhary bought 1.21 hectares land in an industrial area Bhosari in Pune from its Kolkata-based owner Abbas Ukani for Rs 3.75 crore.

It turned out that Usmani was in legal dispute with the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), a state government body that acquires land and develops industrial estates. Usmani had refused to let MIDC acquire the land.

Significantly, state industries minister Subhash Desai told the media that the land was already owned by the MIDC, while Khadse insisted that Ukani had not accepted the compensation and as such no land transfer had taken place. It is alleged that Khadse would have earned anywhere between Rs 60 crore and Rs 90 crore had they got the compensation now according to the new land acquisition law.

The minister is also accused of links with irrigation contractors.

Damania alleged that Khadses wife and relatives were directors of a sugar factory bought by two irrigation contractors who got contracts in Tapi Valley Irrigation Development Corporation in north Maharashtra.

Khadse has refuted all the allegations and said he has not done anything illegal. In case of allegations of receiving calls from Dawoods residence, the minister has presented documents saying he had stopped using the phone when the alleged calls were made.

The BJP, which made corruption its poll plank while fighting the electoral battle against the Congress and the NCP in Maharashtra, is in a dilemma over Khadse, who ironically was leading the partys charge against corruption as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly between 2009 and 2014.

Khadse comes from a politically influential Leva Patil community and has strong base in north Maharashtra. He is part of the top decision-making group in the state BJP. He was a contender for the chief ministers post after the party won the Assembly elections in 2014 but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah chose Fadnavis over him.

However, he was given the significant revenue portfolio, along with nine other departments and is considered as number two in the cabinet after Fadnavis.
State revenue minister and senior BJP leader Eknath Khadse, currently in hot soup over allegations of corruption, is putting pressure on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and the party to not take any action against him. A group of elected representatives of the BJP, including Jalgaon MP AT Patil and three legislators from the area, called on state party president Raosaheb Danve in Mumbai and expressed discontent over Khadse being isolated within the party.

Khadse, who skipped the state cabinet meeting on Tuesday, continued to stay in his constituency in Jalgaon district in north Maharashtra on Wednesday. He spent most of his day meeting supporters and discussing the situation. This led to hectic political activity in Jalgaon with Khadse supporters getting aggressive and issuing a veiled threat to the party against taking any action against him.

While Fadnavis and Danve have been maintaining the party is with Khadse, other party leaders have chosen not to defend the beleaguered minister. BJP chief Amit Shah told the media that Fadnavis has been dealing with the issue and will decide what to do about it.

Danve insisted the delegation met him to discuss organisational issues and it had nothing to do with the controversies related to Khadse. It is unfortunate to assume that the party is being pressurised. I want to reiterate the party stands firmly behind Khadse, he said.

In Jalgaon, 17 BJP corporators from the local civic body threatened to quit if the party did not stand by their leader. A delegation of ally Republican Party of India, too, sat on a hunger strike to support Khadse. At some places, effigies of Aam Aadmi Party leaders were burnt for levelling baseless allegations against Khadse.

Party sources said Fadnavis and the BJP are in a dilemma over the action to be taken against Khadse. A powerful BJP leader from North Maharashtra, Khadse wields clout in Jalgaon and the surrounding area. He is also a prominent leader from the Leva Patil community, which has influenced the politics in the region. After the 2014 assembly elections, he was seen as a frontrunner for the chief ministers post, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah picked Fadnavis for the job. Even then, Khadse supporters in north Maharashtra had staged demonstrations and expressed their unhappiness. To pacify him, he was given the revenue portfolio along with nine other departments. He is seen as the second-in-command in the state cabinet after Fadnavis. As such, the party leadership is being cautious while dealing with him. Sources said Fadnavis may meet the party leadership on the issue.
Two days after a major fire broke out at Adharwadi dumpyard in Kalyan, fire officials, who were fighting to douse the thick smoke, have managed to control it.

The situation is totally under control now and we have managed to cool down the place with constant operation. However, we will have to keep a watch on the yard till Thursday evening, as heat conditions and a strong wind during the afternoon may fan the end-fire, said Namdev Choudhary, a fire officer with Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC).

A group of 25 fire officials have been constantly working on the work to tame the fire and smoke at the dumpyard since Tuesday 3.30pm after a major fire broke out spreading across the 4 acre dumping site and emitting thick smoke in the premises.

We are constantly spraying water across the dumpyard to control the smoke and the heat. It is becoming difficult to reach beneath the garbage and cool the place, added Choudhary.

The entire incident had created havoc among the residents of Kalyan (West) making it difficult for many to breathe. Kalyan residents have been demanding the KDMC to shift the dumpyard from the city.

For two days the thick smoke from the dumpyard had affected areas such as Maharashtra Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Adharwadi, Sathe Nagar and Wadeghar in Kalyan (West).

The residential area is around 50 metres from the dumping ground. Adharwadi is surrounded by residential areas, a hospital and a college, which is hardly 200m away.

Hours after the fire broke out, more than 2,000 residents were shifted to safer places as smoke and smog filled the area. However, the residents had returned to their homes by Wednesday evening.

Before returning to my house at Sathe Nagar, which is near the dumping ground, I ensured there is no smoke on the premises. The fire officials assured us it is safe to be back home, as they have tamed the smoke. However, I think we residents have to be alert for the coming days, said Ameya Pandey , 40, one of the residents.

The residents were shifted to civic schools nearby for precautionary measures.

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NEW DELHI: Continuing its crackdown against foreign-funded NGOs, the home ministry has suspended the FCRA registration of Lawyers Collective, an advocacy NGO founded by activist lawyers Indira Jaising and Anand Grover.

The NGO called the move an act of vindictiveness on the governments part to victimise the organisation and its office bearers, Jaising and Grover. In a statement, it alleged the crackdown had a lot to do with the list of clients that the two eminent lawyers have had. The list includes former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and Greenpeace Indias Priya Pillai who had taken on the current dispensation.

The NDA government started withdrawing registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act  which is necessary to receive foreign funds  in 2015. It cancelled FCRA registration of 10,000 NGOs and other organisations the same year.

The home ministry order said the NGOs registration under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act has been suspended for six months for violation of the 2010 law on various counts. The NGO also faces cancellation of its FCRA registration.

It also indicted Indira Jaising for receiving remuneration to the tune of ` 96 lakh from the NGOs foreign funds while she was the additional solicitor general from 2009 to 2014.

Ms Indira Jaising, despite holding such position not only accepted ` 96 lakh from the corpus of foreign contribution but also travelled abroad... without any intimation to or approval under the provisions of FCRA 2010, the order issued on Tuesday said.

The home ministry went on to argue that the NGO had been using foreign funds for organising protests and rallies with political hue and colour. The government also raised a flag over the utilisation of foreign funds for lobbying with members of Parliament, insisting that this amounted to influencing the political process which was a violation of the law.

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MEERUT: In a bizarre incident a school teacher sustained severe injuries when she fell down from a school building during a mock civil defence drill for safety on Wednesday morning in the civil lines area of Moradabad.

The injured teacher has been admitted to a hospital and her condition is stated to be crticical.

She sustained severe injuries to her skull and multiple fractures.

The teachers were giving a demonstration on how to slide down from the rooftop of the building in case of an emergency.

Shraddha Sharma was also asked to slide down the building using rope which came loose on her way down causing her to fall despite efforts to hang on.
DEHRADUN: Violence erupted in Uttarakhands Landahura town near the pilgrim destination of Haridwar on Wednesday after a Muslim tenant was allegedly evicted from a house.

Reports said trouble broke out after a relative of local legislator, Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion, evicted the tenant from a house in a marketplace where he ran a shop.

The landlord threw out the tenants belongings on to the road and within minutes hundreds of people gathered and went on a rampage, eyewitnesses said.

About 10 vehicles were torched and more than 20 people wounded the violence that followed. The mob threw stones on policemen and torched vehicles close to a police post. People were wounded in clashes as police baton-charged to control the mob.

Garhwal region inspector general of police Sanjay Gunjyal said prohibitory orders have been clamped in the town and forces deployed to maintain peace in the communally sensitive town.

We have detained some people and are trying every bit to maintain law and order, he said.

Champion, who revolted against the Congress and joined the BJP on May 10, alleged that the mob entered his house and torched vehicles. My life is under threat and I demand a CBI inquiry into the incident, said the politician who was in Mussoorie at the time of the incident.

Champion, who was disqualified from the assembly along with eight other dissident Congress lawmakers for siding with the BJP, blamed chief minister Harish Rawat for the violence. The ruling Congress dismissed the allegations. Champion knows what happened and is making baseless allegations now, said Surendra Kumar, the spokesperson for Rawat. The CM requested residents of Landhaura to maintain harmony and peace.
Relatives of the accused persons in the Dadri lynching case filed a complaint against the family of the victim, Mohd Ikhlaq, for cow slaughter at the Jarcha police station on Thursday.

Law should be the same for everyone. Now that the forensic report has confirmed that cow meat was found from Ikhlaqs fridge, we have requested the police to register a case against Ikhlaqs family, said Omveer Singh, the father of an accused, Sandeep.

On Tuesday, the counsel of one of the accused persons accessed a certified copy of the forensic report of the meat recovered from Ikhlaqs fridge. The report concluded that the meat was of cow or its progeny.

The police said they were looking into the matter.

We will see what can be done in the complaint, said Anurag Singh, deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Dadri.

On the night of September 28, a mob of locals attacked Mohammad Ikhlaq, 52, and his son Danish, 21, at their residence at Bisada village in Dadri, 50km from Delhi. The mob alleged they had slaughtered a cow and stored its meat for consumption.

Read: Dadri lynching: Meat found in Ikhlaqs fridge was beef, says lab

Ikhlaq succumbed to his injuries a day later. Danish survived with a fractured skull. The mob claimed they had recovered a bowl of cow meat from Ikhlaqs fridge.

Nineteen residents of the village were named in the FIR, 18 of whom were arrested on charges of murder and assault. One of the accused was let off as he was reportedly not in the village at the time of the incident.

The police have already filed a charge sheet against the accused persons and said the forensic report of the meat was not relevant in the investigation of murder and assault.
A five-year-old girl was allegedly raped while she was playing near a gurdwara at Jamalpur village in Tarn Taran district on Tuesday evening. The Bhikhiwind police have booked Gurjit Singh, alias Ghuggi, a resident of the same village, for the heinous crime.

The victims mother told the police she resides in Ludhiana and was visiting her parents in Jamalpur. When she went to the village gurdwara to offer sewa (voluntary service) around 6pm, her daughter got busy playing with other children. Suddenly, the mother reportedly heard a childs cries, and on rushing there, she found the accused allegedly raping her daughter in a cattle feed store a few metres from the gurdwara premises.

On seeing me, the accused fled. I rushed my daughter to the Patti civil hospital, she said.

A case has been registered against the accused under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC and Section 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. The accused is still at large. Sub-inspector Ranjit Kaur is investigating the case, said senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manmohan Sharma.
A day after four main accused were arrested in the case of murder of Lyallpur Khalsa College student Manpreet Singh Manu, 20, a resident of Raj Nagar of Basti Bawa Khel of the city, the police on Wednesday arrested one more accused.

The accused, Satinder Singh Saini alias Kaka (19), BA-1 student at Lyallpur Khalsa College, was arrested from GNDU Ladhewali road by the team of CIA wings after getting a tip-off.

Satinder is a resident of Guru Nanak Pura West.

Meanwhile, Satinder, along with, Balraj Singh Aulakh of Satnam Nagar, Maninder Singh Goli of Suchi village, Palwinder Singh Kalsi of New Kamal Vihar and Bharat, a resident of the Officers Enclave, who were arrested on Tuesday, were produced in local courts on Wednesday and sent to three-day police custody.

The police claim it is yet to arrest three more accused and recover weapons used in the crime.

Aulakh is a former student and three others are presently studying in the same college.

The rivalry between two students groups over heading an unofficial student union in the college was the reason behind Manpreets murder.
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday sought a status report from Punjab Police on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh Dhadrianwales petition seeking transfer of probe into the May 17 attack on him to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The high court bench of justice Fateh Deep Singh has also sought response from the Punjab government and the CBI by July 7 on the petition in which Kulwinder Singh, Dhadrianwales driver, is also a petitioner.

The petitioners have blamed Damdami Taksal head Harnam Singh Dhumma for the attack in Ludhiana in which the preachers aide Bhupinder Singh died and Dhadrianwale sustained injuries.

After the hearing, advocates Anmol Rattan Singh and Pratham Sethi, who appeared for the petitioners, said the court had sought a status report on the investigations and issued a notice to the CBI and the Punjab government.

It was submitted that the petitioners were victims of grave persecution at the hands of the ruling government as it was intentionally aiding some culprits who wanted to kill the Sikh preacher. Dhumma supported the attack in interviews given to the media, the petition stated.

The court was told that the Punjab government and the police were not acting against Dhumma and he had not been associated with the probe so far even as the vehicle used in the attack was allegedly owned by him.

Dhumma enjoyed good relations with top leadership in the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, the court was told. Dhumma had been openly accepting the blame for the attack with a blatant disregard to the law and the police, the HC bench was told.

During the course of investigation, 14 accused were arrested but the prime accused were still at large and government was represented for the CBI probe, but in vain, stated the petition.
Notorious Haryana gangster Ajay Kumar alias Kannu --- accused of killing an army officers father and brother and carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head --- was shot dead in an encounter with police at Jagaram Tirath village in Bathinda district on Thursday.

Kannus three accomplices, who were travelling with him in a car, have been arrested.

A Haryana Police special team, led by deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Rahul Dev, was tracking Kannu movements for the past few days.

Police said Kannu and his men reached the Jagaram Tirath village on Thursday. They were provided shelter by one Bhola Singh, a seasoned criminal, whom Kannu met in a Bhiwani jail years ago.

DSP Rahul Dev said Kannus mobile phones were put on surveillance. We came to know about his location in a Bathinda village on Thursday morning following which we roped in Bathinda police to find him. Around 9 am we cordoned off the area where he was hiding following which the gangster started firing indiscriminately at the police party with his 9mm pistol, the DSP said.

Police fired in retaliation and two bullets hit Kannu in his stomach. He tried to run away, but was overpowered. The entire operation lasted around 30 minutes. The gangster died while being rushed to a hospital, said the DSP.

The police have recovered two .312 revolvers, 9mm pistol, two .32 pistols, .312 pistol and 50 live cartridges from the three accused, who have been identified as Deepak alias Ford, Mohit alias Neetu, Rakesh alias Lala. Bhola, who provided shelter to the accused, has also been arrested.

Bathinda senior superintendent of police SSP Swapan Sharma has gathered details of the operation from Haryana cops.

13 cases, had contested panchayat polls

Over 13 criminal cases have been registered against Kannu, a Sonepat resident, in several police stations in Haryana, said the DSP.

He was evading arrest in the May 12 double murder of Major Sushil Chikkaras father Jagbir Singh and his brother Anil Chhikara as they didnt vote for him in the panchayat elections.

He had also allegedly murdered a resident of Karawari village on May 8, besides critically injuring another one who is battling for life in a hospital.

Kannu had lost panchayat elections from Karawari village by 45 votes, following which he vowed to kill 45 people from his village randomly, the DSP claimed.

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The cash-strapped Akali-BJP government --- which is struggling to pay pension and retirement dues to its employees --- has decided to mount an additional Rs 2.20 crore annual burden on its exchequer in the poll year by giving the go-ahead to creation of 92 posts of senior vice-chairpersons in all boards and corporations of the state.

This is over and above Rs 6 crore a year what the Badal government is currently splurging on rehabilitating its non-elected second-rung leaders.

The nod to appointment of senior vice-chairpersons in boards and corporations of the state came in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. An approval was also given to amend legislations of all such boards and corporations that had no provision of this post.

This is an acknowledgement of sheer hard work done by tparty workers (of Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP), as they also deserve to occupy important positions, industries minister Madan Mohan Mittal told HT.

Party di sewa daa fal taa milna chaheeda hai, (one should get sweet returns for serving the party). Mittal quipped, when asked what was the need of make these appointments for which the statutes of several boards and corporations have to be amended.

The Badal government is on a spree to please rank and file of the party. Already, the strength of chairpersons, vice- chairpersons and members working in 32 boards, 26 corporations and 17 commissions is more than 620.

On being asked what role these vice-chairpersons have, one such appointee, Punjab health systems corporation (PHSC) vice-chairman Darshan Singh Mand of the SAD, says, I visit hospitals to see whether senior officers up to the rank of managing director were doing their job efficiently.

Many functional boards, corporations and commissions such as the PHSC, Punjab Agro Industries Corporation Ltd and Punjab Energy Development Authority that are administered by IAS officers give boost to the government functioning. There chairpersons or vice-chairpersons just have a monitoring role.

Amendment route

The states boards and corporations, as per their respective constitutions, have no provision of senior vice-chairpersons post. When asked, chief ministers principal secretary SK Sandhu said the cabinet agenda concerning such appointments had a clause that all relevant constitutions are considered as amended accordingly.

With the government yet to notify this cabinet decision, making amendments in the respective statutes of boards and corporations would be lengthy procedures involving the states legal remembrance. The statutes would have to be amended within next few months before the code of conduct is put in place in wake of the upcoming assembly elections.

Hefty allowances

The chairpersons and vice chairpersons, all political appointees, have been getting hefty allowances and other benefits, including official vehicles and phone bill reimbursements, besides the monthly salary of Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000 respectively.

Besides the chairpersons or vice chairpersons in boards and corporations, there were other political appointees such as the advisers to the chief minister and the deputy chief minister who enjoy the cabinet rank status, putting an additional burden on the state exchequer.

Also Read: Separate welfare boards to be constituted for 3 communities

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Already in campaign mode for the assembly elections due early next year, parties in Punjab are busy boosting their morale through internal surveys by independent agencies. In the latest, before kick-starting a full-fledged campaign from this month, the Congress has found inspiration in a survey by a Delhi-based company that has forecast a clear majority for the party.

This survey gives the Congress 65+ seats in the House of 117, according to party sources; the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) gets around 20 seats, and SAD ally BJP barely five or six. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tally has been estimated at below or at par with the SAD-BJP, which translates to approximately 25 seats.

Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh said that though he would like to discount such surveys as he had dealt with them often, he saw Congress better placed than its opponents. There is groundswell of anger against the ruling SAD. It will be a major achievement for them if they win even 20 seats. As for the AAP, it has influence in a few pockets; and it is more of a noise than reality, he said. He added that he would get a survey done by an independent agency closer to elections.

The ruling SAD, which too has got internal surveys done by a Delhi agency, is not so optimistic. According to party sources, the survey results have given the party 40+ seats, and less than eight to ally BJP, which means the majority mark of 59 would be hard to achieve. In the hung House thus predicted, the survey says the Congress would get around 20 seats and the AAP would finish second by bagging more than the Congress.

The AAP too has been gloating over a survey conducted by the agency C-Voter and published on the news website Huffington Post two months ago, which said the AAP was set to bag 94-100 out of the 117 seats. It had the Congress in a distant second position with 8-14, and the SAD-BJP alliance third with 6-12 seats. The party had pasted posters across Punjab about this survey, which was also a significant mention in its leaders speeches.

In the 2012 assembly elections, the Parkash Singh Badal-led Akalis had won 56 seats; Congress 46; and the BJP got 12. That equation swung further in favour of the SAD-BJP in bypolls.

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Amid reports of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to be given the partys throne, a delegation of senior party leaders from Punjab will meet him on Thursday in the national capital.

Punjab Pradesh Congress committee president Captain Amarinder Singh, who had earlier expressed hope that Rahul would do a good job as the party president, will have a one-to-one meeting with him for around 10 minutes.

Following which, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmad and Ambika Soni, who filed her nomination papers for Rajya Sabha election from Punjab recently, will meet Rahul together.

Earlier, Amarinder had asserted his confidence over Rahul Gandhi, saying he was ready to take charge as the Congress chief now.

Read: Time for new generation to come to fore in Cong: Capt Amarinder

From his great grandfathers like Motilal Nehru to Jawaharlal Nehru and his grandmother Indira Gandhi to father Rajiv Gandhi, he has inherited the legacy of great leaders. I have worked with him for the last six months as PPCC chief, and have seen him taking all executive decisions. It is high time he is given more responsibility, he said in a press conference.

Speaking to ANI later, he said it was time Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has served for 20 years, to take a call on her successor.

However, the Bharatiya Janata Party has asserted that this development will be ideal in their plan of Congress-mukt Bharat.

Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma on his part dubbed the Congress as a sinking ship, adding the entire nation was aware of Rahul Gandhis calibre.

According to sources, the grand old party is also likely to make major changes in senior positions following a series of defeats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and the recent elections in various states of the country.
In a shocking revelation, Punjab Police on Wednesday admitted before the information commission that they have sold weapons seized from various criminals to VIPs without verifying the threat claims made by the buyers.

Over 400 such weapons have been sold in the past decade to state ministers, IAS and IPS officers, at throwaway prices. Most of these weapons are foreign-made (either German or Chinese).

The weapons, recovered by police, can be sold to those who apply for it. The government, however, has to assess if the applicant has a valid threat to his life or not.

Read: Gun licences: Right to instant service for true-blue Akalis

It is mandatory that allotment of firearms shall be made to the applicants facing an existing threat to their lives in the assessment of the allotting authority, says the Union governments 2001 instruction.

However, Public information officer of the Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, (which allots these weapons) told the state information commission during the resumed hearing of a case that it did not verify any such claim.

The spotlight has been on the home department, which monitors the whole process, after the commission during the hearing of a case ordered that the names of those who bought these weapons be made public.

The lists provided by the home department on orders of the commission included the names of over 400 persons who bought these weapons from January 1, 2005, onwards. According to lists, no weapons have been issued after June 2014.

The home department invites applications from persons who are interested in buying these weapons and a committee comprising senior PPA officers and representatives of gun houses fixes the price of these weapons.

Fingers have been raised at the entire process as a host of weapons which command a high market rate are sold at throwaway prices to VIPs.
A businessman and a woman, who was married only 10 days ago, committed suicide here in separate incidents on Thursday morning.

Daman Jain, 31, running a business of selling dry fruits, committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan of a room at his house in Mandi Fentonganj near the railway station here on Thursday morning.

The businessman has blamed one Ramesh Chander Gupta in the suicide for his taking the extreme step. However, his family also accused some cops of pressuring him on a false complaint on the issue of vacating some shops supervised by Jains father Deepak Jain.

A resident of Mandi Road, the deceased had left for a morning walk and, when he did not return for long, his family members searched for him and when they checked in his room, he was found hanging from the fan.

As per the suicide note, Jain first thought of committing suicide inside the factory, but he found that labourers had got up there. So, he came to the room.

The family said Daman had complained against Gupta many a time, but the police did not heed him. Had they taken action against Gupta, my son would have been alive, said his father.

Earlier, Daman and Ramesh were business partners but, later on, Daman had started his own business. On the basis of the suicide note, the police have registered first information report (FIR) against Gupta and another person Neetu under Section 306 (abetment to suicide) of IIPC. 21-YEAR-OLD WOMAN ENDS LIFE AT KHURLA KINGRA

In the other incident, 21-yearold Lakshmi, a resident of Khurla Kingra, who was married 10 days ago, committed suicide on Thursday morning by hanging herself from a column beam of the room where she was residing with her husband Karan, 25. The couple were originally from Nepal, and Karan had brought her only six days ago after marriage in Nepal.

She was alone at home when she committed suicide. Her neighbour Pushpa was first to see the body hanging when she opened the rooms door. She informed other residents and they called the victims husband, who works as a cook in a local Dhaba near the PPR Mall.

After getting information about the incident, cops from police station-7 rushed to the site. No suicide note was recovered from the house. It was the second marriage of Karan. Pushpa said that she had planned to visit a religious place in the locality with Lakshmi for which she had come to the victims house.

Her husband told the police that he did not know the reason behind the extreme step taken by Lakshmi. Station house officer (SHO) Navdeep Singh said that a case under Section 174 of the CrPC has been registered and he ruled out any foul play behind the incident.
Entrusted with the task of supplying chlorinated water to the entire city, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has failed to ensure potable water on its own premises.

Not only several tubewells across the city are running without dozers (equipment used to chlorinate water), but the two that supply water to the MC offices and nearby areas are also not supplying chlorinated water posing a major health hazard to office employees as well as scores of people living in these areas.

Of the two tubewells on the MC Zone-A premises near Mata Rani Chowk, no dozer has been installed at the tubewell near union offices, while the other one has a dozer, which was not working on Tuesday.

Similar is the plight of the one at Giaspura, as the dozer installed there is not working. Sources in the MC said a number of old and worn out dozers were lying non-functional.

The MC has learnt no lessons from the diarrhoea and gastroenteritis outbreaks in the past which claimed many lives.

Of 950 tubewells in the city, dozers for chlorination of water (a process of adding chlorine to drinking water to disinfect it and kill germs) have only been installed at 400 tubewells.

The tubewells at New Vishnu Puri near Buddha Nullah, Focal Point, Old GT Road, outer areas and others also lack dozers.

Though civic body officials claimed that it was impossible to install dozers at some outdoor tubewells owing to lack of space, sources said dozers can be installed at 150 more tubewells.

District epidemiologist Dr Ramesh Kumar said, If dozers are not available, it is the responsibility of the MC to ensure supply of chlorinated water to avoid any disease outbreak. Chlorination of water is recommended.

Residents of Dhandari Khurd, Shimlapuri and some colonies on Tajpur Road have raised a concern on contaminated water being supplied to their areas. In past also, water samples of these areas had failed the tests multiple times.

A resident of Dhandari Khurd, Rajinder Sharma, said, Water samples should be collected from these areas for testing. We generally get dirty water during monsoon. So, the civic body should ensure chlorination of water.

Monitoring of chlorine level required

Meanwhile, former superintending engineer of Punjab Water Supply and Sanitation Department Jaswinder Singh said, Chlorine is added to the water for destroying bacteria. Besides, it is important to ensure regular monitoring of chlorine concentration after dosing in piped distribution networks and at distant points.

Equipment is required to be adjusted as required and a record of chlorine used should be kept. Results of monitoring and records of adjustments and repairs in the equipment should also be maintained. The tubewell operators are completely ignorant about any such provisions. Neither the residual chlorine is ever checked at distant points nor any such record is maintained, he added.

He said, Water characteristics and, hence, the chlorine requirement may vary due to external influences (e.g., rainy season, etc.). It is therefore necessary to monitor the water quality at the points of consumption from time to time in cases where the chlorine dosage is fixed. The objective of disinfection via chlorination can only be obtained if the chlorine dosage is adjusted to the changed water characteristics.

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After somehow managing to pay farmers the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat after fighting for cash credit limit (CCL), the Punjab government now struggles for the transfer of Rs 1,700 crore worth of various taxes on procurement from the Centre.

The 14.5% state tax on the procurement of wheat (the same on paddy) for the Centre comprises 2% rural development fund (RDF), 3% infrastructure-development (ID) cess, 5% value-added tax (VAT), 2% market fee, and 2.5% commission agent fee. Of the total tax imposed on the MSP paid to the farmers, 2.5% has gone to the commission agents, so far, and 12% is awaited.

The Centre has promised to transfer the tax into the government treasury directly but fixed no deadline. The sum is a major factor driving the states agrarian economy and late payment would delay development works. Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has asked the Centre to rush the payment and got a reply that it would be sent to different state

departments based on the breakdown decided by the state. The state is in the process of sending requisition.

In the earlier procurement seasons, the tax used to come with the CCL. We have disbursed about Rs 14,500 crore to the farmers for about 90-lakh tonne wheat procured through our five agencies, said state nodal agency Pungrains adviser Maniit Singh Sarang, adding: More than 95% procurement and disbursement of MSP is done.

Of more than 107-lakh-tonne wheat procured in Punjab, state agencies (state warehousing corporation, Markfed, Pungrain, Punsup, and Agro Industries Corporation) account for about 90-lakh tonnes. The FCI has procured another about 170-lakh-tonnes. The Centre also pays tax on wheat that the FCI buys from the state.

Securing CCL wasnt easy, as the Centre wanted the state to account for the outstanding Rs 20,000 crore first. The Reserve Bank of India cautioned 60 banks that funds procurement against releasing the amount.
These are the best bargains you are ever gonna get when it comes to travel. Offering low prices for tourists visiting the region, Asia is a major destination for travellers in search of idyllic beaches.

The Singapore-based hotel booking website, Agoda, which specializes in the region, has given AFP its expert advice on the best places to enjoy the turquoise waters of South-East Asia without breaking the bank. Plus, now is a great time to discover these upcoming Asian hotspots before the masses move in.

Thailand

Chanthaburi, located east of Bangkok in Thailand. (Istock)

To find rock-bottom prices in the Land of Smiles, travellers should avoid the countys well-trodden tourist hotspots. In Chanthaburi, in the east of the country, holidaymakers can find hotel rooms priced at an average Rs 3000 per night. This small town is situated 143 miles (230km) from Bangkok. For those who prefer to stay closer to the beaten track, Agoda recommends heading to Koh Tao, Koh Kood, Koh Mak or Kamala Beach in Phuket.

Read: Worlds best beaches 2016- Plan your next holiday in paradise

Philippines

Coron Isalnd in the Philippines. (Istock)

The gulf between luxury hotels and budget backpacker accommodation is huge in this Asian archipelago. Among the many low-cost options, the booking experts recommend Coron Island, where a nights accommodation can be snapped up for around Rs 5,500, on average. Travellers in search of low-cost luxury should consider Malapuscua Island, where a sea-view room with air con shouldnt cost more than Rs 9,000.

Indonesia

Banyuwangi in Indonesia. (Istock)

Travellers can count on spending around Rs 6700 per night for a room in one of Indonesias beachside destinations. However, lower prices can be found in Banyuwangi and Bangka, where intrepid travelers can find rooms under Rs 2600 a night. For an all-inclusive stay with breakfast and a sea view, the Raja Ampat Islands have options under Rs 8700 per night.

Read: Hawaii to New York, beautiful pictures of 10 most beautiful US beaches

Malaysia

Langkawi in Malaysia. (Istock)

Travellers dont have to pay premium rates to stay near popular beaches in Malaysia. The countrys three favoured beach destinations -- Tioman Island, Langkawi and Penang -- all offer reasonably priced accommodation, with hotels costing no more than Rs 4700 a night, on average.

Cambodia

Koh Rong in Cambodia. (Istock)

Cambodia still has some relatively well-hidden gems, such as Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem. According to Agoda, Koh Rong -- the second largest Cambodian island -- is set to become a popular tourist destination over the next few years. Theres no time like the present to visit, since the average hotel room currently costs under Rs 3000 per night.

Myanmar (Burma)

Ngwe Saung Beach palm coat, west coast of Myanmar. (Istock)

After a long period of isolation, Myanmar is Asias up-and-coming fashionable destination. The countrys most stunning beaches can be found in Ngapali, Ngwe Saung and Chaungtha. The cheapest option for travellers is no doubt Chaungtha, where the Agoda website lists hotel rooms under Rs 3000 a night, which is 50% less than in the two other destinations.

Vietnam

Phu Quoc in Vietnam. (Istock)

According to Agoda, one the best beach destinations in Vietnam is Da Nang, in the center of the country. In this coastal city -- right next to the Marble Mountains and not far from the picturesque Hoi An -- a hotel room can be snapped up for Rs 500 a night. At the other end of the scale, Vietnams luxury hotel prices can shoot up to Rs 2,69,420! The booking experts recommend the island of Phu Quoc as must-see in Vietnam. Located in the Gulf of Thailand, close to Cambodia, travellers can bag hotel rooms priced under Rs 6700 per night.

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This year at the recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, actors and directors appeared overly political. In fact, their statements on current state issues hogged headlines in major cinema dailies that were published during the 12-day festival on the French Riviera. The festival ran from May 11 to 22.

Hollywood star George Clooney told a media conference, soon after his Money Monster on a stock market television show screened, that there will not be a President Donald Trump in the US. This evoked a gasp from the journalists present at the conference, and the confidence with which he spoke these words seemed almost spectacular.

Read: Ken Loachs I, Daniel Blake is a brutal look at bureaucracy

And now we have the legendary British director -- who is just 80 -- saying that he does not want the UK Prime Minister, David Cameroon, to watch his Cannes Competition entry, I, Daniel Blake, which went on to win the festivals highest award, Palm dOr.

Watch I,Daniel Blake trailer here:

Loach -- who is the only British director to have won the Palm twice (earlier in 2006 it was The Wind that Shakes the Barley on Irish independence) -- tackles bureaucratic brutality in his country. We see in the movie the suffering of the poor, we see unemployment, poverty and the rise of food banks.

Speaking at a recent premiere of Versus -- a documentary on his life and work -- Loach said punishing the poor is part of the Prime Ministers project.

Read: British veteran Ken Loach wins Cannes top Palm dOr for I, Daniel Blake

The documentary opens in Britain on June 3.

Loach averred that he had changed his decision not to helm any more films after he saw the plight of the poor under Camerons Conservative Government.

Watch Ken Loach speak about his film at the Cannes 2016 press conference after his films screening:

He said: It is not an accident that the poor are punished for their unemployment. Thats their (Cameron and his team) project, thats the point, thats what has to happen because their model of society produces unemployment and if people question that model then they are lost ... Theres no point in showing the movie to them.

Loach, who has made daring films like Bread and Roses on the Mexican immigration problem, has always been a vociferous critic of the Conservative Party and of their so-called welfare measures. Loach thinks these have merely worsened poverty levels in Britain, promoting the demeaning system of food banks.

In 2013, Loach co-founded the Left Unity Party to challenge the Conservatives, and there was a time when it had 1500 members. The organisation did not shine, but it is said to have restored peoples faith in the Labour Party, which stands for the interests of the man on street.

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Carole, a scientist from Zurich, recently received a dream message on her phone: she will receive 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,500/ 2,300 euros) a month for the next year, no strings attached.

The 30-year-old ethnologist, whose last name has not been revealed, could be the first of many in Switzerland to receive such monthly cheques in the mail.

In a global first, the Swiss will on Sunday vote on a radical proposal to provide the entire population with an unconditional, basic income, or UBI, to fight poverty, inequality and provide a dignified existence to all, according to campaigners.

The idea is controversial, to say the least. The Swiss government and nearly all the countrys political parties have urged voters to reject the initiative -- advice 72% are inclined to follow, according to the latest poll.

But supporters of the initiative have already begun mobilising, raising enough money to showcase the idea by paying 2,500 francs a month for a year to a person chosen in a draw.

The winner, Carole, hailed her luck in a Youtube video, saying she planned to go back to school.

It is an enormous relief to know I can study and have my income taken care of, she said.

UBI supporters would like all Swiss citizens to have the same support, as well as foreigners who have been legal residents for at least five years.

Marxist dream?

Critics have slammed the initiative as a Marxist dream, warning of sky-high costs and people quitting their jobs in droves.

If you pay people to do nothing, they will do nothing, Charles Wyplosz, economics professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told AFP.

Proponents reject that, arguing people naturally want to be productive, and a basic income would simply provide them more flexibility to choose the activities they find most valuable.

For centuries, this has been considered a utopia, but today it has not only become possible, but indispensible, Ralph Kundig, one of the lead campaigners, told AFP.

Sundays vote will be on principle only, with the details of the amounts to be paid and financing to be determined later, if the initiative passes.

Discussions have centred around 2,500 Swiss francs a month per adult, and 625 francs per child.

That may sound like a lot, but it is barely enough to get by on in one of the worlds priciest nations -- leaving plenty of incentive to work, campaigners say.

Those with jobs would also receive the basic income, but would see their salaries deducted by the same amount, in a move campaigners say would smooth out inequalities.

Authorities have estimated an additional 25 billion francs would be needed annually to cover the costs, requiring deep spending cuts or significant tax hikes.

Supporters of the initiative however suggest the UBI could replace a range of other expensive social assistance programmes and could be easily financed through slight increases in sales tax or through a small fee on electronic transactions.

Different kind of life

Pascale Eberle, a 55-year-old nurse, said she planned to vote in favour.

We have to think about our children and grandchildren, and give them the chance at a different kind of life, she told AFP.

The idea of a basic income has been bouncing around in more radical circles for centuries, but it has recently gained more mainstream traction.

Concrete projects to introduce some variation of the UBI, albeit at a lower level than what is being discussed in Switzerland, are underway at local and regional levels in a range of countries.

Finland is planning to trial a universal basic income -- involving less money than proposed by Switzerland and with conditions attached -- in 2017. The Dutch city of Utrecht is also planning a similar experiment.

International Labour Organization chief Guy Ryder said he expected interest in the issue to swell, as technological advances make more and more jobs obsolete, and a growing number of people remain stuck in poverty despite holding a job.

We are going to have to find ways of distributing national income which are not directly related to the work that we do, he said.

Last month, campaigners rolled out a massive, 8,115-square-metre (87,350-square-foot) poster in Geneva asking: What would you do if your income were taken care of?

Since then, people have been covering billboards across Switzerland with their answers, including: Study quantum physics, and Make a feature film.

Eberle says she would keep working, because I like my job, but I would work less and do other things on the side.

As part of Switzerlands direct democracy system, the Swiss will also vote Sunday on a range of other issues, including on whether to allow genetic screening of embryos and a plan to speed up the countrys asylum process.


Thai authorities charged three Buddhist monks on Thursday after they were caught trying to smuggle tiger skins and charms made from tiger parts out a temple which monks said was a tiger sanctuary but critics said was a money-spinning tourist trap.

The Buddhist temple west of Bangkok has long been popular with tourists who paid about $20 each to get in and pose for pictures with its tigers, and to feed cubs and walk among them.

But the temple had come under mounting allegations of abuse and illicit wildlife trafficking and authorities armed with a court order raided it on Monday to confiscate the 137 tigers found there and take them to a government wildlife sanctuary.

Read | Thai tiger temple monk caught fleeing with skins, fangs

Dead tiger cubs are displayed by Thai officials after they were found during a raid on the controversial Tiger Temple. (Reuters)

The discovery on Thursday of the tiger skins and charms, or amulets, made from skins in a pick-up truck, and jars containing the bodies of tiger cubs in the temple, pointed to an even more lucrative business than thought.

The jars have labels, so I think theyve made medicine here, said Adisorn Nuchdamrong, deputy director-general of the Department of National Parks, who has been overseeing the raid to remove the temples tigers and search its premises.

Authorities found 20 glass jars containing baby tigers and tiger organs in a laboratory in the temple, reinforcing suspicion it was making folk medicine, he said.

Tiger parts are used in traditional Chinese medicine, a multi-million dollar business that has driven tigers in the wild to the brink of extinction and fueled the rearing of tigers in parts of Asia, especially in China.

We will discover more as we search on, Adisorn told Reuters.

Two temple devotees and a monk found in the pick-up truck, and two monks who helped load it, were charged under wildlife laws, Adisorn said.

Read | Bodies of 40 tiger cubs found in Thailand temple freezer after lockdown

This handout picture taken on June 1, 2016 by Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) shows the carcasses of 40 tiger cubs and a bear found undeclared at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand. (AFP)

Representatives of the temple were not available for comment.

The confiscation of the tiger products followed the discovery on Wednesday of 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer.

Wildlife officials suspect the cubs were being preserved for use in potions.

Thailand is well known as a hub for illicit trafficking of wildlife products, including ivory.

Activists had for years criticised the temple and urged tourists to shun it, and complained that wildlife protection laws were poorly enforced.

The Department of National Parks had removed 84 out of the 137 tigers found at the temple by Thursday.

Workers have been using tranquilizer darts to sedate the animals before lifting them into cages and on to trucks for the journey to the government sanctuary.



Read | Police stop truck carrying two tiger skins from Thai temple
At least 10 people, including two lawmakers, were killed in a car bomb and gun attack Wednesday on a top hotel in Somalias capital Mogadishu claimed by the al Qaeda-linked Shabaab group, medical and security sources said.

Around 40 others were injured in the assault on the central Ambassador Hotel, where Somali security forces continued to battle Shabaab fighters into the evening, around five hours after the attack began.

The initial blast took place at around 5:40 pm local time.

The attack was started with a heavy explosion and members from the Mujahedeen fighters stormed the building, the Shabaab said in a statement.

A security source told AFP that a VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) exploded after which a firefight erupted inside the hotel complex.

Mohamed Elmi, a witness, said the blast destroyed the whole area.

I saw the dead bodies of seven people, most of them burned, he added.

Another witness, Ibrahim Sheikh Nur, said he saw several dead bodies outside the hotel.

The security forces are now inside and the whole area is cordoned off.

Shabaab fighters were chased out of Mogadishu in 2011 but the group remains a major threat in both Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, where it carries out frequent attacks.

They jihadists are fighting to overthrow Somalias internationally-backed government.

On Wednesday, an official said the Shabaab commander who led an attack on Kenyas Garissa University in 2015 that left 148 people dead had been killed in a special forces raid in the south of the country.

Also on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said another senior Shabaab military commander was presumed killed following a US air strike on May 27.
A special court in Bangladesh on Thursday asked former prime minister Khaleda Zia to appear before it on June 23 for hearing in a graft case, after accepting her request for more time.

If convicted, Khaleda could be barred from contesting national polls, due in 2019.

The case involves charges of embezzlement to the tune of $400,000 in setting up a charity--Zia Charitable Trust-- named after her late husband and former President Ziaur Rahman in 2001-2006.

The opposition leader appeared as directed by special court judge Abu Ahmed Jamader for her self defence in the case, which is politically crucial for her and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

She did not take part in the hearing, and sought a new date in the trial court as she was separately seeking intervention of the Supreme Court for her case to be scrapped.

The special court has been dealing with the case, but Khaleda challenged its legality in the High Court, which rejected her appeal in April, and gave a go-ahead for prosecuting her.

Khaleda wanted the case to be scrapped, saying that it has legal weaknesses and is politically motivated. The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has rejected the allegation.

Later she moved the Supreme Court, seeking cancellation of the trial, which involves eight other people including a close aide during her last premiership.

On Thursday, prosecution wanted the court to continue with the days proceedings.

Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said they opposed the move for time extension but the judge accepted it.

Thirty-two prosecution witnesses have given their statement against Khaleda. Defence counsels argued that the court should allow more time as Khaledas appeal has remained pending with the Supreme Court.

The countrys official Anti-corruption Commission filed the case against Khaleda and others in 2011, accusing them of abuse of power in setting up the trust and the prosecution said the money came from unknown sources.
The longest global coral bleaching event in history is now devastating reefs in the crystal clear waters of the Maldives, with images released exclusively to the Guardian powerfully illustrating the extent of the damage there.

Photographed by the XL Catlin Seaview Survey, the images captured the event in May as it moved beyond the now devastated Great Barrier Reef and into waters further west.

The bleaching we just witnessed in the Maldives was truly haunting, said Richard Vevers, founder of the Ocean Agency.

Its rare to see reefs bleach quite so spectacularly. These were healthy reefs in crystal clear water at the height of an intense bleaching event. The flesh of the corals had turned clear and we were seeing the skeletons of the animals glowing white for as far as the eye could see  it was a beautiful, yet deeply disturbing sight.

The Maldives is series of coral atolls, built from the remains of coral. The livelihoods of people there depend on the reefs through tourism, fisheries and as a wave-break that helps prevent inundation on low-lying islands.

The photographs were part of an ongoing project, in partnership with Google, the University of Queensland and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency to capture the global bleaching event as it moves around the world.

The event started in mid 2014 in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii, which then got hit again in 2015. In early 2016 it spread to the Great Barrier Reef where 93% of its nearly 3,000 reefs were hit by bleaching. Western Australias reefs in the Indian Ocean have also experienced severe bleaching.
A professor was identified by authorities on Thursday as one of the men fatally shot in a murder-suicide at the University of California, Los Angeles, that shut down the sprawling campus for two hours a day earlier.

William Klug, 39, was one of the men killed in the shooting in the schools engineering building on Wednesday, the Los Angeles coroners office said.

Los Angeles police said on Wednesday the gunman shot himself after fatally wounding another man, but declined to elaborate on the circumstances of the incident.

University officials said classes would resume on Thursday and counselors will be available for students, faculty and staff.

Our hearts are heavy this evening as our campus family mourns the sudden and tragic deaths of two people on our campus earlier today, said Chancellor Gene Block in a statement. Klug was a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, according to the universitys website. The Los Angeles Times reported that Klug was attempting to develop a computer-generated virtual heart.

You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug, professor Alan Garfinkel told the newspaper of his colleague.

The coroners office declined to identify the other man involved in the shooting. The incident caused the large campus to be locked down for about two hours as students were told to shelter in place.

Engineering student Aaron Feigelman said he received a text message alerting him to an emergency and entered an adjacent building, where he and five others took refuge for 90 minutes. We tied the bathroom door hinges with belts to keep the door closed because there were no locks. And we just waited. It was really scary, Feigelman said.

Some 200 police officers wearing bulletproof vests and helmets responded to several calls of shot fired, converging on the campus with rifles drawn, fearing the shooter might still be active.

Police recovered what may turn out to be a suicide note and a gun at the scene, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. UCLA, attended by more than 43,000 students, is in the Westwood section of Los Angeles and is one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system.

I am heartbroken by the sight of SWAT teams running down avenues normally filled with students, and angered by the fear that one person with a firearm can inflict on a community, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.
The families of six cabin crew aboard ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 sued the airline on Thursday for negligence and breach of contract, nearly two years after the plane was downed over eastern Ukraine.

Flight MH17 was en route from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down in July 2014, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The aircraft was shot down by a Russian-made surface-to-air missile, the Dutch Safety Board concluded in a report last year, but did not identify any responsible party or group.

The suit, filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court by 11 relatives of the crew, named as defendants Malaysian Airline System (MAS) and Malaysia Airlines Berhad, which replaced MAS in a restructuring exercise last year.

We are suing them for negligence because they failed to take seriously the warnings of the possible dangers that they may have faced, the families lawyer, Balan Nair, told reporters.

In the lawsuit, which Balan said he believed to be the first filed by families in Malaysia, the relatives allege the airline was in breach of contract for failing to ensure the safety, health and well-being of its crew.

They also allege MAS was negligent in failing to conduct an adequate risk assessment and for charting a flight course through a known conflict zone.

Fighting was raging between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces when the aircraft was downed over the rebel-held territory of Donetsk.

Had they been more careful in choosing what path to take, they could have avoided this, Balan added.

Malaysia Airlines said it would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing litigation, and had yet to be served with the suit.

We would like to reiterate the finding of the report by the Dutch Safety Board, which states that the way in which MAS prepared and operated the flight complied with International Civil Aviation Organization regulations, it told Reuters in an emailed statement.

One of the relatives said his sister, flight attendant Chong Yee Pheng, had worked for the airline for 18 years.

The families of all the victims of MH17 deserve to be treated with humanity, compassion and respect, Chong Seng See said in a statement. I hope MAS will do right by them.

More suits are expected before a two-year deadline for legal action expires on July 17.

Last month, an Australian firm filed a $330-million compensation claim against Russia, and its president, Vladimir Putin, on behalf of 33 families of MH17 passengers and crew.


Turkey recalled its ambassador to Germany on Thursday in protest against a parliament resolution declaring the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman forces a genocide at a time when Europe is looking for Ankaras help in the migrant crisis.

Turkey rejects the idea that the killings of Christian Armenians during World War One amounted to a genocide. Its Deputy Prime Minister said the vote was a historic mistake.

Even before Germanys Bundestag lower house of parliament passed the symbolic resolution by an overwhelming majority, Turkeys prime minister had condemned the motion as irrational and said it would test the friendship between the NATO partners.

Within two hours, Turkey had recalled its ambassador to Germany for consultations and summoned a top German diplomat to the foreign ministry in Ankara, according to officials.

Armed riot police were deployed outside the German consulate in Istanbul, near Taksim square, in case of protests.

President Tayyip Erdogan, in Nairobi, said the resolution would seriously affect relations with Germany and the government would discuss what steps Ankara would take.

The way to close the dark pages in your own history is not by besmirching the history of other countries with irresponsible and groundless parliamentary decisions, tweeted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

A spokesman for the ruling AK Party responded swiftly to the vote, saying it had seriously damaged relations.

The timing could not be worse for Merkel, who is relying on the success of an EU-Turkey deal she has championed to stem the flow of migrants to Europe in return for cash, visa-free travel rights and accelerated talks on EU membership.

In an indication of how sensitive the issue was, she did not take part in the vote due to public engagements. Later, however, she put the emphasis on the close ties between the two countries.

Even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great, she told reporters when asked about it.

A poll for ARD television showed that 74 percent of Germans support the term genocide to describe the killings. Some 57 percent think the resolution will hurt ties with Turkey.

Merkel is also keen to avoid raising tensions with Germanys roughly 3.5 million-strong Turkish community

I want to say to people with Turkish roots: youre not only welcome here but you are part of this country, said Merkel.

Over a thousand Turks demonstrated against the resolution on Saturday in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin.

I dont think this is the right step, said Murat Kayman of Germanys DITIB Turkish-Islamic group before the vote. He said a European blind spot could explain the vehemence of the Turkish reaction to the accusation of genocide.

The nature and scale of the killings remain highly contentious. Turkey accepts that many Armenians died in partisan fighting beginning in 1915, but denies that up to 1.5 million were killed and that this constituted an act of genocide, a term used by many Western historians and foreign parliaments.

MIGRANT DEAL THREAT?

Several German lawmakers said they did not want to point a finger at the current Turkish government but rather wanted to bolster reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia.

We know from our own experience how difficult and painful it is to work through the past ... but only in this way can human trust and strength grow, Social Democrat Rolf Muetzenich said in parliament before the vote.

Armenia welcomed the resolution. The foreign ministry said Turkish authorities continued to obstinately reject the undeniable fact of genocide.

Nearly a dozen other EU countries have passed similar resolutions. French lawmakers officially recognised the Armenian massacre as a genocide in 2001, infuriating Turkey.

Ankara also threatened a total rupture with France over a 2012 law outlawing denial of the genocide but Frances highest legal authority ruled that was an unconstitutional violation of freedom of speech, prompting a thaw in relations.

The German resolution says the Armenians fate exemplified the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way.

It also acknowledges that the German Empire, then a military ally of the Ottomans, did nothing to stop the killings.
The gunman who killed University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) professor William Klug was on Thursday identified as 38-year-old Indian student Mainak Sarkar.

In 2000, Sarkar graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur with a degree in aerospace engineering.

Mainak was a brilliant student. He remained busy with studies and did not talk or socialise much. As far as I remember, he was from Kolkata, a professor of aerospace department of IIT-Kharagpur, who was not authorised to speak to the media, told HT.

According to his online profile, Sarkar worked for Infosys in Bengaluru from 2000 to 2001 before going to the US.

Before enrolling at UCLA, Sarkar earned a masters degree at Stanford University, according to his LinkedIn page.

He also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer.

Sarkar, a former doctoral student of Klug, accused him of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Read | Woman on kill list in UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkars home found dead

Read | Police identify UCLA gunman as Indian student Mainak Sarkar

Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and had been the target of Sarkars anger on social media for months, the report said.

William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy, Sarkar wrote on March 10.

He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust, he wrote.

However, in his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar had expressed gratitude to Klug for his help and support, the paper said. Thank you for being my mentor, he wrote.

After UCLA, Sarkar worked as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company, Endurica LLC, until August 2014.

The shooting prompted a complete lockdown of the campus and deployment of hundreds of police officers and agents.

All university classes were cancelled on Wednesday. The lockdown was lifted shortly after noon. Some 43,000 students are enrolled at the UCLA campus, according to its website.

Read | Professor William Klug was developing virtual heart

(with PTI inputs)


A former University of California,Los Angeles, graduate student shot dead a woman at her home in Minnesota before he drove almost 2,000 miles (3,200 km) to his alma mater, killed a professor and took his own life, police said on Thursday.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, had intended to kill a second professor in addition to engineering professor William Klug, 39, at a small office on the campus, prompting a two-hour long lockdown, police said.

Los Angeles police chief Charlie Beck told reporters on Thursday that a search of Sarkars St. Paul, Minnesota, home turned up a kill list that included the name of the woman found dead nearby, as well as the name of the other UCLA professor, who was not harmed.

We believe that Sarkar came to the Los Angeles area very recently, within the last couple of days, Beck told reporters at Los Angeles police headquarters. He went there to kill two faculty from UCLA. He was only able to find one.

Read | UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar had kill list, left another victim: Police

Police officers search corridors and rooms after the report of an active shooter on a UCLA campus in Los Angeles. (REUTERS)

Sarkar, 38, had been armed with two 9mm pistols and multiple ammunition clips, Beck said. He killed himself immediately after fatally shooting Klug, Beck said.

Police searched Sarkars Minnesota home after finding a note at the Los Angeles crime scene asking for someone to check on his cat, Beck said.

In the search of Sarkars residence in Minneapolis, a list was located, Beck said. The list has been described as a kill list, that was the wording that was put on it.

The attack appeared to be provoked by Sarkars belief that Klug had stolen computer code from him, according to a March blog post that appears to be written by him.

Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm, the post said. Be careful about whom you trust.

Reuters was not able to confirm the authenticity of the blog.

UCLA says there is no truth to this, Beck said of the alleged theft of code. This was a making of his own imagination.

Police officers conduct a search on people at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. (REUTERS)

Read | Professor killed by Indian student in UCLA was developing virtual heart

HARSH LANGUAGE

Beck said UCLA faculty members were aware that Sarkar, who had graduated in 2013, harboured anger towards them.

There was some harsh language but certainly nothing that would be considered homicidal, Beck said, referring to social media postings by Sarkar. His motive for killing the woman was unclear, Beck said.

University officials did not respond to requests for comment on Sarkars claims on Thursday.

Police in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, located north of Minneapolis, said they discovered the womans body when they went to check on her. Police did not immediately disclose her identity.

Klug was a married father of two children, UCLA said in a statement on Thursday.

Our entire UCLA family is mourning the loss of Professor Klug, a respected, dedicated and caring faculty member, Gene Block, the universitys chancellor, said in a statement.

Reports of shots fired, or even sightings of possible gunman, have sparked heavy police responses and lockdowns at US schools and other places because of the nations history of mass shootings.

Last October nine people were shot and killed at Umpqua Community College in southwest Oregon. The 2007 attack at Virginia Tech where a gunman shot dead 32 people was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Classes resumed at UCLA on Thursday, with the university offering counsellors for students, faculty and staff.

A Los Angeles Metro Police officer stands watch on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. (REUTERS)

Read | IIT alumnus, disgruntled student: Who is UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkar?

CANT THINK STRAIGHT

Students took to social media to ask the UCLA to reschedule final exams, saying they were rattled by the incident.

How the hell am I going to study for finals when this just happened? I cant think straight, Bahjat Alirani, a UCLA bioengineering student said on Twitter.

Students need time to process today. Hope my colleagues seriously consider postponing finals this week. Lets help everyone heal, Tyrone Howard, a UCLA associate dean and professor of education, said on Twitter.

UCLA, with more than 43,000 students, is one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system.

Read Police identify UCLA gunman as Indian student Mainak Sarkar


Los Angeles police on Thursday identified the gunman who killed a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, before taking his own life as Mainak Sarkar, an engineering student at the school.

Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman Jane Kim confirmed that the gunman had been identified as Sarkar but declined to provide other details. Sarkar had been a doctoral candidate at the school, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing police.

Sarkar is listed on a UCLA website as a member of a computational biomechanics research group run by the victim William Klug.

Sarkar, an alumni of IIT-Kharagpur, accused Klug of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, a media report said.

In 2000, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a degree in Aerospace Engineering.

He also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer.

Read | IIT alumnus, disgruntled student: Who is UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkar?

The shooting prompted the sprawling urban campus to close for about two hours on Wednesday as police confirmed that Sarkar and his victim, 39-year-old engineering professor William Klug, were the only people involved in the incident.

The Los Angeles coroners office confirmed that Klug died in the attack.

Read | Professor William Klug was developing virtual heart



University officials said classes would resume on Thursday and counsellors will be available for students, faculty and staff.

Our hearts are heavy this evening as our campus family mourns the sudden and tragic deaths of two people on our campus earlier today, said Chancellor Gene Block in a statement.

Klug was a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, according to the universitys website. The Times reported that Klug was attempting to develop a computer-generated virtual heart.

You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug, professor Alan Garfinkel told the newspaper of his colleague.

Engineering student Aaron Feigelman said he received a text message alerting him to the emergency on Wednesday and entered an adjacent building, where he and five others took refuge for 90 minutes.

We tied the bathroom door hinges with belts to keep the door closed because there were no locks. And we just waited. It was really scary, Feigelman said.

The doors open outward and we can't lock them so we are barricading things in front of the door #Ucla #activeshooter pic.twitter.com/KwA3VjqVHh  Jason Schechter (@Jasonschechter) June 1, 2016

Umar Rehman, 21, was in a math sciences classroom adjacent to Engineering IV, the building where the shooting took place. The buildings are connected by walkway bridges near the center of the 419-acre campus.

We kept our eye on the door. We knew that somebody eventually could come, he said, acknowledging the terror he felt.

The door would not lock and those in the room devised a plan to hold it closed using a belt and crowbar, and demand ID from anyone who tried to get in.

One student who spent hours sheltering in a building did the same thing almost exactly two years ago when he was locked down in a dorm at UC Santa Barbara during a shooting rampage in the surrounding neighborhood that left six students dead and wounded 13 people.

Jeremy Peschard, 21, said it was scary and eerily similar but also that having been through the feeling of crisis before left him almost numb.

I just felt a little bit less shocked, a little bit less taken aback by the reality of an active shooter on a college campus, he told The Associated Press in an email. Because I feel like this is the day and age were living in, that college campus shootings have genuinely become a normalized threat, almost like a natural disaster, except this type of destruction isnt natural. Its just really sad.

Some 200 police officers wearing bulletproof vests and helmets responded to several calls of shot fired, converging on the campus with rifles drawn, fearing the shooter might still be at large.

Police recovered a gun and what may be a suicide note at the scene, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said.

UCLAs commencement ceremonies and end-of-year events will now include mourning Klug, who was a devout Christian and a regular figure in organizing campus spiritual life.

In 2012, according to the campus website, he moderated a forum that his family and friends might find useful now. Its title: Does God Care?: Seeking the Meaning of Life in the Midst of Suffering and Death.

UCLA, with more than 43,000 students, is one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system.

I am heartbroken by the sight of SWAT teams running down avenues normally filled with students, and angered by the fear that one person with a firearm can inflict on a community, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.


Thai police stopped a truck Thursday carrying two tiger skins and other animal parts as it was leaving a Buddhist temple where monks have been accused of being involved in illegal wildlife trafficking, a police officer said.

Soon afterward, authorities found 20 jars containing preserved young tigers at the temple, a national parks official said  a day after 40 dead tiger cubs were found in a freezer at the temple.

The discoveries have come as authorities have been transferring 137 live tigers, mostly adults, from the temple to animal shelters after obtaining a court order.

Read | Bodies of 40 tiger cubs found in Thailand temple freezer after lockdown

Tiger skin and bone products are laid out on a table by National Parks and Wildlife officers at the "Tiger Temple," in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok. (AP)

The temple in Kanchanaburi province, in western Thailand, is a popular tourist attraction that charged admission for visitors to take photos with tigers. It has been criticized by animal rights activists because of allegations it is not properly set up to care for the animals and flouted regulations restricting the trade of tigers.

Two men in the truck carrying the tiger skins were arrested and charged with possession of illegal wildlife, said police Col. Bandith Meungsukhum. He said a monk traveling with them will be arrested once he is defrocked.

An adult tiger skin can fetch anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000, according to Steve Galster, the director of Freeland, an organization that fights wildlife trafficking. Galster said he believes the temple was breeding tigers to sell them, either alive or in parts, into the lucrative illegal wildlife trade.

The truck was also carrying more than 700 vials containing tiger skin as well as many tiger teeth hidden in a suitcase, said Teunchai Noochdumrong, director of the governments wildlife conservation office. Such vials are typically used as good luck charms.

Read | Thai tiger temple monk caught fleeing with skins, fangs

This handout picture taken on June 1, 2016 by Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) shows Thai DNP officers looking at the carcasses of 40 tiger cubs and a bear found undeclared at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand. (AFP)

I am quite shocked, Teunchai said. We all have heard concerns and allegations about this temple. I would never have thought they would be so blatant.

The young tigers preserved in the jars were found in the vets office at the temple, said Anusorn Noochdumrong, an official from the Department of National Parks who has been overseeing the transfer of the temples tigers to shelters. The animals bodies were preserved in an unidentified liquid, he said.

The temple recently made arrangements to operate as a zoo, but the plan fell through when the government determined that the operators failed to secure sufficient resources. The monks resisted previous efforts to take away the tigers, but relented this week after police obtained a court order.
A Canadian Sikh accused by Indian intelligence agencies of being a Khalistani terrorist running an arms training camp in British Columbia has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to dispel the politically motivated allegations against him.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar has retained the group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) to provide him legal defence.

In his letter to Trudeau, Nijjar urged the Canadian administration to dispel the Indian governments fabricated, baseless, fictitious and politically motivated allegations which, he claimed, were being used to label him a terrorist and to smear the Sikh nationalist campaign in Canada.

I have never believed in, supported or been involved in any violent activity, Nijjar wrote in the letter.

As the Indian government communicated with Ottawa on the issue on Monday, Nijjar reached out to Gurpatwant Pannun, legal advisor to SFJ. Pannun met Nijjar on Tuesday and said he would coordinate legal defence for Nijjar.

Read | India alerts Trudeau govt of Khalistan terror camp in Canada

Pannun said Nijjar has yet to be approached or questioned by Canadian authorities. He cited a statement by the mayor of Mission, a township in British Columbia, that the shooting range is in the open and could not have been used for a training camp.

Pannun further claimed the Indian consulate in Vancouver had issued a visa to Nijjar in 2014. Nijjar didnt go to India at that time but Pannun said if he was considered an imminent threat, he should not have been issued a visa.

Nijjar has not travelled outside Canada since an Interpol warrant was issued against him in late 2015. Pannun said he would coordinate efforts to stall any attempt to have Nijjar extradited from Canada to India.

SFJ has in recent months filed cases against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New York and Toronto. It was also instrumental in forcing Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh to cancel a scheduled visit to Canada.

Nijjar has been active in seeking a separate Sikh homeland. In November 2013, he was in Geneva to submit a memorandum to the UN Human Rights Commission pertaining to the 1984 riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

In June 2014, he participated in an event in New York during which a memorandum was prepared for the UN Secretary General for holding a referendum in Punjab. Later that year, as Prime Minister Modi held a bilateral summit with US President Barack Obama, Nijjar joined a protest outside the White House in Washington.

Read | Khalistani groups in Canada, ISI pose challenge to Modis Sikh outreach

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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says if things go according to plan people will be on Mars in just nine years from now.

During an interview Wednesday at the Code Conference in southern California, Musk said that we should be able to launch people in 2024, with arrival in 2025.

Musk also says he plans to go to space himself in about four to five years, but only into orbit around Earth.

Musk also runs Tesla Motors, which has been at the forefront of self-driving car technology. He says he sees Apple as more of a competitor than Google in the autonomous vehicle market, but suggests they may be too late to compete with Tesla.

He believes Apple will go into volume production of the cars no sooner than 2020.
Thai authorities intercepted a monk trying to leave the kingdoms controversial tiger temple with skins and fangs on Thursday, officials said, the latest discovery to fuel long-running accusations that the zoo is involved in the illegal wildlife trade.

Dozens of police and park officials have been stationed at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua temple in western Kanchanaburi province since Monday after receiving a court order to remove over 100 adult cats from the complex.

Read | Police stop truck carrying two tiger skins from Thai temple

Tiger skin and bone products are laid out on a table by National Parks and Wildlife officers at the Tiger Temple, in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok. (AP Photo)

For decades the infamous temple has been a popular stop for tourists who pay a steep fee to pet and be photographed with the predators -- which animal rights groups say are heavily sedated.

Today we found found tigers skins and amulets in a car which was trying to leave a temple, Adisorn Noochdumrong, the deputy director of Thailands parks department, told AFP.

The discovery comes after authorities found dozens of dead tiger cubs inside a freezer at the temple Wednesday.

Adisorn said a search of several monks quarters turned up more body parts, bringing Thursdays haul to two full-body tiger skins, around 10 fangs and dozens of smaller pieces of tiger fur.

Animals rights groups and conservationists have long accused the temple of secretly acting as a tiger farm and making huge profits by selling animals and tiger parts on the black market for use in Chinese medicine.

Read | Bodies of 40 tiger cubs found in Thailand temple freezer after lockdown

This handout picture by Thailand's Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) shows a Thai DNP officer holding the carcass among 40 tiger cubs and a bear found undeclared at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand. (AFP Photo)

Repeated efforts to shut down the temple over the years have been delayed and complicated by the fact that secular Thai authorities are often reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy.

The temple has always denied trafficking allegations.

Officials said they have removed 84 tigers so far this week and are transferring the animals to nearby breeding centres.

But police say no charges have been filed against the temple yet, with the case still under investigation.

Previous raids of the temple revealed that dozens of hornbills, jackals and Asian bears were also being kept at the sanctuary without proper permits.

Read | 3 Thailand monks charged as tiger potions, charms point to illicit trade
Hundreds of heavily armed officers swarmed the sprawling UCLA campus Wednesday following a shooting that forced thousands to barricade themselves in classrooms and offices, some using belts and chairs to secure doors, until authorities determined the gunman and single victim were dead.

About two hours after the first 911 call came in around 10 am, with the centre of campus still saturated with officers, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said it was a murder-suicide and declared the threat over. Two men were dead in an engineering building office, and authorities found a gun and what might be a suicide note, he said.

Authorities did not identify the men, and a motive was not immediately clear.

Members of security are seen on June 1, 2016 at the University of California's Los Angeles campus on June 1, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (AFP)

The response to the shooting was overwhelming: Teams of officers in helmets and bulletproof vests looking for victims and suspects ran across the normally tranquil campus tucked in the citys bustling west side. Some with high-powered rifles yelled for bystanders to flee.

Groups of officers stormed into buildings that had been locked down and cleared hallways as police helicopters hovered overhead.

Police officers search corridors and rooms after the report of an active shooter on a UCLA campus in Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 1, 2016 in a still image from a CCTV camera. (REUTERS)

Advised by university text alerts to turn out the lights and lock the doors where they were, many students let friends and family know they were safe in social media posts. Some described frantic evacuation scenes, while others wrote that their doors werent locking and posted photos of photocopiers and foosball tables they used as barricades.

People walk past an armored police rescue vehicle as police respond to a campus shooting at UCLA on June 1, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (AFP)

It was chaos

It was the week before final exams at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose 43,000 students make it the largest campus in the University of California system. Classes were cancelled Wednesday but would resume Thursday.

In this image made from video, police respond to a fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Olivia Cabadas, a 22-year-old nursing student, was getting ready to take a quiz in the mathematics building when her classmates began getting cellphone alerts. Through a window, they could see students rushing down the hallway.

An officer yelled that everyone should get out.

It was just a little surreal - this is actually happening, Cabadas said. It was chaos.

Students cross under police tape at UCLA, in Los Angeles, June 1, 2016. (NYT)

Those locked down inside classrooms described a nervous calm. Some said they had to rig the doors closed with whatever was at hand because they would not lock.

Umar Rehman, 21, was in a math sciences classroom adjacent to Engineering IV, the building where the shooting took place. The buildings are connected by walkway bridges near the centre of the 419-acre campus.

We kept our eye on the door. We knew that somebody eventually could come, he said, acknowledging the terror he felt.

A student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) peers around the corner of a hallway in the School of Education building, June 1, 2016. (REUTERS)

The door would not lock and those in the room devised a plan to hold it closed using a belt and crowbar, and demand ID from anyone who tried to get in.

Scott Waugh, an executive vice chancellor and provost, said the university would look into concerns about doors that would not lock. Overall, he said, the response was smooth.

A police officer conducts a search on people at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus after it was placed on lockdown following a shooting that left 2 people dead, June 1, 2016. (REUTERS)

Tanya Alam, 19, also was in the same classroom with about 20 other students. She said she saw an alert on her phone that warned of police activity near Engineering IV. Then, several minutes later, an alert said there was an active shooter.

I let that sink in. Then I realized there was a shooter on campus and Engineering IV is right here! So I said it out loud, she said.

The teachers assistant told students to shut their laptops, turned out all the lights and switched off the projector. They were ordered to be quiet and got under their desks. Sitting on the ground, Alam cried.

Teachers and students wait to be escorted inside the engineering IV building to collect belongings at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, June 1, 2016. (REUTERS)

Students were told to put their phones away, too, but no one did, she said. In the darkened room, the glow of screens illuminated many faces.

On one hand, yes, this is an emergency. But on the other hand when your mother is calling from miles away ... Alam said, trailing off.

A person from the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner's office removes a body at the scene of a fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles, Wednesday, June 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Their entire classroom was finally allowed to leave. Students were greeted by a phalanx of SWAT team members but were not searched.

SWAT officers cleared occupants one by one at the mathematical sciences building. One man walked out with his hands up and was told to get on his knees. An armed officer searched him and his backpack, then sent him on his way with his hands still in the air.
A team of Egyptian and Italian researchers has confirmed that the iron dagger found in the mummified remains of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was created from meteoric material, suggesting extraterrestrial origins.

Scientists have long theorized that King Tut's blade is of extraterrestrial origins, and now, the new study confirmed this through X-ray fluorescence spectrometry.

The results revealed that the dagger is composed mainly of iron and nickel with minor traces of cobalt, just like other iron-based meteorites.

"The nickel and cobalt ratio in the dagger blade is consistent with that of iron meteorites that have preserved the primitive chondritic ratio during planetary differentiation in the early solar system," said Daniela Comelli of Polytechnic University of Milan and lead researcher of the study.

The dagger, along with small beads from Gerzeh, Egypt, that also look to be composed of meteoric metal, suggests that people from King Tut's time period appreciated space rocks for use in ceremonial objects.

"The study confirms that ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of precious objects, and the high manufacturing quality of Tutankhamun's dagger blade is evidence of significant mastery of ironworking already in Tutankhamun's time," the team said.

"In this context, the high manufacturing quality of Tutankhamun's dagger blade is evidence of early successful iron smithing in the 14th C. BCE," the paper reads.

In addition to the discovery of meteorite-based objects stemming from Egyptian culture, the ancients used to use the phrase "iron of the sky," suggesting that they had an understanding of where the metal came from.

"The introduction of the new composite term suggests that the ancient Egyptians, in the wake of other ancient people of the Mediterranean area, were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th C. BCE, anticipating Western culture by more than two millennia," the paper reads.

The extraterrestrial dagger was found back in 1925 with King Tut's mummy, three years after the discovery of the pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

In addition to its iron blade, it possessed a decorated gold sheath and handle capped with a crystal.

The findings were published in the May 20 issue of the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Back in May, nearly 150 scientists held a secret meeting at Harvard University to discuss a plan to craft synthetic human genomes. Now, amid much criticism, the team has published its proposal in Thursday's issue of Science.

The proposal reveals the launch of a project that hopes to decrease the cost of synthetic genomes, which could allow technicians to grow human organs for transplantation at a much lower cost than current transplants.

In addition, the proposal reveals a breakthrough in RNA editing, a molecule closely related to DNA and integral for the synthesis of human genetic code.

The team hopes to eventually create a synthetic genome project on the same scale as the Human Genome Project (HGP) seen in the 1990s, which was responsible for the sequencing of the first human genomes. However, the new project, dubbed the "Genome Project-write," will be "writing" genetic codes instead of "reading" them.



"[T]he goal of HGP-write is to reduce the costs of engineering and testing large genomes, including a human genome, in cell lines, more than 1,000-fold within ten years, while developing new technologies and an ethical framework for genome-scale engineering as well as transformative medical applications," the group said.

Now that the plan is out in the open, detractors are speaking up, including Drew Endy, an associate professor of bioengineering who was critical of the secret meeting in addition to the new proposal.

"Do we wish to be operating in a world where people are capable of organizing themselves to make human genomes?" he said. "Should we pause and reflect on that question before we launch into doing it?"

"They're talking about making real the capacity to make the thing that defines humanity - the human genome," he added.

George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School and a lead organizer of the new research, assures that nine of the participants in the meeting were experts in the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic research and are paying close attention to their plan.

"Even when we identify something that we do not want, we need to think deeply about how to prevent it - effective surveillance, deterrents and consequences," Church said.

The proposal was published in the June 2 issue of Science.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Entertainment / Celebrity

by Bongani Ndlovu

THE Miss Curvy Zimbabwe finale will for the first time be held in Zvishavane with organisers calling on the services of fast-rising commercial radio station  YA FM to help popularise the pageant there.Fourteen contestants have been identified so far with pageant organisers hoping to travel to Bulawayo to scout for more curvaceous women here ahead of the finale on August 27. Four girls were selected from Rusape with some from Harare, Gweru and the host town among other cities.Pageant organiser Mercy "Catwalk" Mushaninga said she was in Bulawayo two weeks ago, but was not impressed with the quality of contestants who attended auditions."Bulawayo is known as the home of curvaceous women. When I came there recently, I saw some women and they did not impress me compared to what I've seen there in previous years," Mushaninga said."I know the city can give me more hence my decision to schedule another trip there soon."She said her hope was to have 16 models take to the ramp in Zvishavane although she is still looking for a venue in the mining town.The finalists are expected to converge in Zvishavane late July for their three-week boot camp at what Mushaninga called a secret location."We've since secured a house that we've named The Curvy Mansion where the ladies will check in for their boot camp. During this period, they'll participate in a lot of activities and will earn some marks which will be used on the day of the finale," Mushaninga said.She said the pageant, which was last held in 2014 where Sheila Chikengezha was crowned, was here to stay despite the economic challenges the country is facing."The pageant has grown in leaps and bounds over the years, although we've faced a lot of challenges along the way, especially financially. However, with resilience, the pageant has come to fruition and we'd like to thank all the sponsors that've come on board and also those who're considering doing so," said Mushaninga.
Despite the fact that I've interviewed as many as 66 successful hoteliers worldwide, Monique Dekker, the GM of Park Hyatt Vienna, Austria is only one of the two female GMs I've interviewed. She comes across as someone who is determined and driven. I also sense it that she is not the one who will back down from life's challenges. This is a strong lady who thrives on meeting her goals. It's obvious that her heart is embedded in the hotel business, most probably, for life.

INTERVIEW

Despite the fact I've to date interviewed as many as 66 successful hoteliers worldwide, you are one of the only two female GMs whom I have interviewed, the other one being Hiroko Noguchi, the GM of Hyatt Regency, Hakone Resort & Spa in Japan. Being a female, is it more difficult to become a GM?

No. I don't think it is more difficult for a female hotelier to become a GM. Becoming a general manager was my goal since I was a little girl. If you have a goal in mind  something that you want to do  then you know your path, and you can achieve anything you want. I have never experienced a glass ceiling. I have met many young ladies who have also had the aspirations of becoming a general manager.

My experience working with hoteliers tells me that most of the senior HR and PR managers are females. Most of the senior operations managers are males, and of course, most of the GMs in the luxury hotel industry are males. This pattern is similar across all brands and all geographical locations. Do you have any insight that you could offer as to why that is?

I think to be successful in the positions of HR, marketing and PR, as well as in operations, it requires certain types of personality. Personally, I would choose the person who can do the job better than anyone else regardless of gender.

I graduated from the Hotelschool The Hague in 1995. Back then, Madelon Boom, who was a graduate of the Hotelschool The Hague, also worked for Hyatt as a general manager. This was 23 years ago. She was a role model for me. I thought if she can be a female GM at the Hyatt then perhaps I can do it too. The funny thing is that in 2016, the male vs female question still comes up. I wish that there were more female GMs in the five-star luxury hotel industry.

Is your management style somewhat different comparing to your male counterparts?

With me, what you see is what you get. My team knows exactly where I stand and what I expect. If my team is happy, I am happy. What really counts regardless of gender is that the general manager has an exciting personality and always has fresh outlooks and new innovative ideas.

After you graduated from the Hotelschool The Hague in 1995, you worked in a number of luxury hotels in the US for 10 years. What did you learn from your US experiences that you have taken with you?

There were lot things I learned: For example, good leadership style, corporate and government rules and regulations, effective ways of dealing with unions, developing and management of staff, and especially a strong business-minded approach in solving management issues.

In 2005, you moved to Singapore and a couple of years later, you moved to Japan. How did you adjust to the cultural differences?

I think when you are an open-minded and flexible person, you are willing to learn and adjust to your surroundings wherever you are. At The Hotelschool The Hague, students were from different parts of the globe, and in New York, you are also surrounded by people from all over the world. So, adjusting to Singaporean or Japanese culture was not much of a shock. However, it was an eye-opening experience regarding my management style. This experience definitely helped to shape my management skills and style.

Did you always want to become an hotelier?

Absolutely! Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to be a GM. I've never wavered; I've never had the desire to be anything else. This was my dream. This was what I wanted. And this is where I am today.

What is your long-term career ambition?

To grow in the hotel industry and become an area director, responsible for several hotels.

You worked at the preopening of both Hyatt Regency Dusseldorf and your current hotel. What was the biggest challenge while working in preopening?

The biggest challenge in a preopening, especially while entering a new country, is being prepared for its labor laws and other legal regulations. Other challenges such as staying focused, making sure everything is on schedule so that the hotel would open on time, getting the support from the construction company, and putting the right team in place are part of your daily tasks during a preopening.

What is the biggest challenge you have to face on your current job?

I think the biggest challenge we and the industry face is finding good qualified young individuals who see that working in the hotel industry is exciting and challenging. Unfortunately, many people do not think that the hotel industry offers promising career opportunities. Therefore, finding people who are passionate about working in the hotel industry and who have the potential to reach management positions is rather difficult.

Monique Dekker Photo by Lin & Pavelson B.V.

Almost all successful hoteliers I've interviewed have talked about their passion. What does "passion" mean to you?

Passion is a big word. "Passion" to me is when you live and breathe what you do. That means in the hospitality and the hotel industry, passion for service excellence; passion for your guests and employees; passion for hospitality; passion for my employers and owners, and passion for my hotel. To me, "passion" must come from your heart!

At work, what pleases you the most?

What pleases me the most is that when I get a positive feedback from my guests about their stay; when they write a story about a particular individual who went out his/her way to serve the guests. Personal effort and personalized connections are very important to me as they make the difference. In the end, happy guests and happy employees equal happy me, and it usually also means a happy owner.

What displeases you the most?

Laziness. I can't stand it when people are lazy, uncaring. I mean lazy as in "I am working here but I am not putting myself 100% into my job; I just work for a paycheck."

Do you think a GM is important to his/her frontline employees? Why or why not?

I know I am very important to my team. At the end of the day, the GM should live and breathe the hotel. When he/she portrays the image of the hotel and what he/she expects from their employees, the GM should be a role model.

I want my staff to look at me and say, "Hey, she did a good job. I have learned something from her." Or "I want to be just like her." Or "She is so energetic! How does she do it?" You can't expect your employees to feel close to you if you are an "Ivory Tower GM", who stays in his/her office all the time. You need to be visible at all times.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

My strengths are that I am very energetic, very present, not just in the hotel, but also in my community. I am very good at delegating responsibility. I like to tell my people that as a GM I know a lot about everything, but I am not an expert at anything. I am not an expert in marketing, in HR, or in F&B, but I know enough about them that I can talk about it and make decisions about it. The actual expertise and efforts should come from those team members, who specialize in those particular fields.

My weakness is that I am very direct; maybe even a bit stubborn. I guess I am very Dutch. Sometimes people tell me that I'm too direct, too Dutch in my ways.

Many male senior hoteliers I've interviewed have a good sense of humor. On the other hand, the female hoteliers I've come across tend to be much more serious. Let's put it this way, most businesswomen are not good at telling jokes :). In your opinion, is having a good sense of humor important for the business?

Laughing . . . I cannot tell good jokes either. Of course, we need humor in certain situations to defuse tense emotions or to lighten things up a little. Personally, I use a small dose of female charm instead. Just like you, I am also surrounded by men. But no, telling jokes, I'm not good at it . . .

Are you more worried about doing things right or doing the right things?

Depends on the situation. When it comes to serious stuff, like labor laws and finance, then, doing things right is absolutely necessary. But doing the right things is necessary as well. Sometimes you need to be flexible. Life is not just black and white, there are several shades of gray, red and pink in between.

Life is too short to tolerate: _____________________________.

Laziness.

If you were to hire a manager, what qualifications would you be looking for?

First and foremost is that the person must have 'fire in his belly' regardless of the position. I interview every single applicant. I need to see if these people have the passion and the ability to do their job. I need to see their facial expressions, the sparkle in their eyes, their excitement, and their passion. And then, of course, I look at their experience and background. I would much rather take somebody who has no experience, than someone who has no passion, but who has lots of experiences. It also depends on the position, of course. For a top management position, it depends also on their knowledge and experience. But the passion and fire in their eyes is super important. There are a lot of things that I can teach you and show you and make sure you are capable of doing it, but I cannot teach you passion. It will either come naturally or it will never come.

Do you have to make personal sacrifices in order to achieve your career goals?

Well, no. I have been very lucky. I have a husband who is used to work in hotels as well. We travel the world together. I always knew exactly what I wanted and my husband has been very supportive and understanding. He is now very successful business owner.

Do you have any advice for female hoteliers who aspire to become a GM?

Follow your dreams! If this is what you want, then go for it. The sky is the limit. Don't think you'll never make it and that it's impossible. There are plenty of managers who don't care whether they hire a male or a female manager. They just want to know whether you are capable of doing your job.

We, women, often think that others dictate and define who and what we are. If you ask a male GM what their next job is, they would say: "VP!" A female GM would say: "Well... I don't know I'm not sure." IF you want something, you have to go for it! Someone will recognize your ambition! And to be honest, at Hyatt, they see me as an extremely professional GM --- and that's how I've always wanted them to see me first and I am a woman secondly :).

The Quote Book: Wit & Wisdom from Successful Hoteliers Source: Lin & Pavelson B.V.

Priit Pavelson

Publisher

+31 65 79 41 741

Lin & Pavelson B.V.

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A hotel's inventory is its lifeblood. As the digital world becomes a more important part of the circulation of that inventory, dozens, even hundreds of technology solutions have been built to help hotels promote and sell their inventory.

There are two broad segments of companies that help hotels sell their inventory online:

Firstly, there are technology providers that help hotels drive direct bookings. This is a highly competitive and highly fragmented industry, comprised mainly of small- to mid-sized companies and a few big players. This competition leads to innovation, competitive pricing and differentiated products, all of which benefit hoteliers. Technology companies in this sector range from internet booking engine providers to PMS systems, channel managers, digital marketing solutions, rate checker tools, data analysis tools and much more.

The other major arena for driving online bookings is inhabited by online travel agencies (OTAs) and other third-party booking sites. OTAs have been aggressively consolidating over the past few years, and at this point there are only 2 major players in the market: Expedia and Priceline. You can find a non-exhaustive list of OTAs here. While the massive size of these companies allows them to put enormous funding into research & development and marketing, it also allows them to take a highly privileged stance in their relationships with hotels. This can meanhigh commission rates, rate parity clauses and little room for hotels to negotiate.

Of course, all of these providers want their fair share for helping hotels sell rooms. However, there are some technology providers who would prefer to take control over the distribution process altogether  direct bookings and third-party bookings alike.

OTAs have begun acquiring and offering their own booking technologies to hotels, and they are marketing these aggressively. These systems include internet booking engines, rate comparison tools and even websites, all provided by the OTAs.

Priceline is selling this technology via BookingSuite, a company owned by Priceline that sells websites and booking engines for hotels, along with revenue management services. BookingSuite is offering hotels a "free" site under the condition that all bookings through it will be charged a 10% commission.

Meanwhile, Expedia-owned Trivago has recently acquired Base7Booking, which is a cloud-based PMS system.

Why is this happening? What do these systems have to offer OTAs, who already make high margins through their usual products? Is it simply a new revenue stream (with lower profit margins), or are other motivations in play?

Why Are OTAs Getting Into Hotel Technology?

These new offerings from OTAs are being called a Trojan horse by some in the industry, and we tend to agree. There are, as Mike Ford of Siteminder points out, more lucrative targets for OTAs to focus on. Also, hotel technology certainly isn't always a "core strength" for OTAs.

Here are a few possible motivations for OTAs offering these services, which are typically difficult and expensive to develop, and lay outside an OTA's main capabilities:

Control of rates and offerings:Inventory Access

Ford speculates that one strategy the OTAs might have in providing distribution and marketing tech directly to hotels is "they are attempting to gain greater control of the supply chain from the hotelier level, by isolating the inventory feed to themselves and therefore controlling price parity."

With the recent legal changes in France and Germany and the inquiry into OTAs commission by the British House of Lords, OTAs are facing an international downswing in support for their rate parity clauses.

These offerings may represent a kind of back door for OTAs: if they have access to all of a hotel's rates and availability, they can make it very difficult for a hotel to offer lower or different rates to those on an OTA site.

If an OTA owns and provides your property's internet booking engine and PMS, they gain "ongoing and in-depth access" to your inventory, revenue and pricing information.

Marketing Opportunities

It is possible that BookingSuite will be able to tag visitors with cookies to the sites they're offering hotels. Then, they would be able to retarget them with Booking.com offers. BookingSuite's privacy policy allows them to use cookies from themselves and third parties for various purposes.

BookingSuite declined to comment on this when asked by Regatta Travel Solutions. Given this, their Priceline ownership, and clauses that specifically allow for third party use, hotels should think twice before taking up their offer of a website with 10% commission. In addition to the potential conflict of interest, there are better offers for lower costs available on the market.

Limiting Rate Intelligence

One OTA is offering a "free forever" rate checker tool, similar to rate checker tools provided by independent technology companies.

These tools are widgets that are placed on a hotel's website. They allow hotels to display their rates across different OTAs and on their own site, so guests can see immediately whether they're getting the best deal. Some of these tools, like Paraty Tech's Parity Maker and Travel Tripper's Rate Match Tool, allow the price on the hotel's website to beautomatically adjusted

to match or beat the lowest price if it isn't already the best price. These tools are designed to encourage direct bookings and keep guests on site.

However, the tool OTAs are offering only shows rates of the hotel's competitors, and only on that particular OTA. It also withholds rates from the hotel's own website. There's nothing to discourage guests from shopping around on other OTAs, but also nothing to promote direct bookings, which of course is sensible from the OTA's perspective.

Ford points out, though, that this rate tool "naturally makes hotels less likely to adopt other independent rate intelligence tools," including ones that would let a hotel see if its direct rates were being undercut by OTAs.

If this rate intelligence tool does discourage hoteliers from using other, more objective rate checkers, it will limit the information hotels and guests can access. If, however, it's used alongside more holistic rate checker tools, it can be seen as a positive or at least neutral offering.

Conclusion

Regardless of an OTA's intention in offering a booking engine, rate checker, PMS or other tool, there is certainly a conflict of interest. What is in a hotel's best interest is not always in an OTA's best interest, although there is room for compromise. Instead, hoteliers should cultivate a distribution strategy that spreads over several channels, setting and changing rates on each as needed.

Properties shouldn't tie themselves to one distribution channel, especially one that has a vested interest in raising commissions as high as possible. Ultimately, hotels must resolutely keep control of their rates and inventory.

Net Affinity is an Independent Digital Agency providing Revenue Generating Solutions for Hotels. Our services include Website Design, Digital Marketing and Booking Engine Technology. Our culture of award winning design and innovation together with a keen eye for emerging trends allows us to deliver services that directly impact on growing revenue for our clients. As experienced hoteliers we have a genuine and wholehearted passion in providing a complete customer centric service to our customers. We pride ourselves on the development of a relationship that allows us to nurture your business and ensure our success is your success.

Taylor Smariga

Copywriter and Content Marketing Executive at Net Affinity

0871804188

Net Affinity

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CHICAGO -- Hyatt announced today the opening of Hyatt Centric Montevideo, the brand's first hotel to open outside of North America, and the second Hyatt-branded property in Uruguay. The 178-room hotel is located in the bustling Pocitos neighborhood, a prime destination for guests to explore and discover the heart of Montevideo. Hyatt Centric Montevideo is in close proximity to many of the area's business and leisure districts, including the World Trade Center, Montevideo Shopping and Ciudad Vieja, as well as La Rambla, the coastal avenue where locals meet daily to exercise, socialize and take in the city's best sunsets.

"We are delighted to welcome the first international Hyatt Centric hotel to the charming city of Montevideo," said Myles McGourty, senior vice president of operations for Hyatt in Latin America and the Caribbean. "Hyatt Centric Montevideo was designed to make guests feel welcome and connected with the heart of the destination. We are confident that this contemporary new hotel will allow for exploration and discovery, while introducing Hyatt's well-known hospitality to both guests and residents."

Arrival Experience

Guests can begin their journey cruising the Uruguayan coastline along La Rambla, the 19 mile (30km) waterside promenade near Hyatt Centric Montevideo. Upon entering the hotel, a large lounge welcomes guests as they make their way to the stylish lobby area. A stained-glass inspired ceiling invites natural light into the space and marks a central point that integrates the hotel's restaurant, lobby and bar. The hotel design sets the stage for an authentic Montevideo experience and includes mosaic floors, eclectic ambiance and local artwork combined with modern luxury design, creating a touch of local culture. Large windows from the bar, deli and library offer sweeping views of the Rio de la Plata.

"We are thrilled to open our doors in Montevideo and present a hotel that truly captures Montevidean culture and innovative design," said Guillaume Paupy, general manager of Hyatt Centric Montevideo. "Our team is ready to welcome guests and share their insider knowledge to help guests explore the best of the destination."

Guestrooms

The hotel's 178 spacious guestrooms, including 14 suites, balance the energy of the city with a calm, inviting respite. The minimal yet upscale features include contemporary furniture, destination-inspired artwork and modern colorful touches. Guestrooms offer impressive views of Rio de la Plata or the serene cityscape, and combine amenities to meet the needs of the millennial-minded traveler, including a luxurious plush bed, 47-inch LED TV (55-inch in suites), mini bar, large walk-in shower (additional bath tub in suites), generous work desk with enhanced lighting, complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi, premium bath amenities, JBL Horizon alarm clocks, a salon-grade hairdryer, concierge service, and 24 hour in-room dining.

Executive rooms and suites also have access to special services and amenities such as the rooftop lounge, which offers 180-degree waterfront views, continental breakfast, and evening cocktails, among other services.

Dining and Drinking

Hyatt Centric Montevideo features distinct dining options including breakfast, business lunches, intimate dinners, quick drinks or casual dining experiences designed to inspire food lovers during their journey to explore the best of local flavors.

The hotel's signature restaurant Plantado features a regionally inspired menu offering locally sourced produce and classic Uruguayan favorites for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Behind the culinary concept and menu is the talented Executive Chef Federico Ferrari, formerly of Palacio Duhau - Park Hyatt Buenos Aires.

When the sun sets over the city, guests can retreat to the hotel's vibrant Moderno Bar. Eclectic decor and scenic views complement creative signature cocktails, gourmet small plates and a unique selection of acclaimed local wines and artisan beers.

Additional food and beverage amenities include the Deli, a specialty market featuring Uruguayan olive oils and gourmet cheeses, freshly baked goods, local pastries, coffee and teas service, organic juices, to-go foods and other local goods.

Meetings and Events

Hyatt Centric Montevideo's event facilities total more than 18,700 square feet (1,700 square meters), with each meeting room named after an influential female Uruguayan poet, a tribute to local literature. The fully integrated area features an elegant, multi-purpose ballroom and six sophisticated meeting rooms that provide an extensive range of options for upscale meetings, conferences, social events such as quinceaneras and weddings of all sizes, complete with state-of-the-art audio visual services and dedicated staff to assist in planning and execution.

Wellness and Recreation

Hyatt Centric Montevideo features a 24-hour fitness studio with the latest high-tech cardio and strength training equipment from Life Fitness, and offers a massage treatment suite to relax and unwind, as well as a heated indoor pool.

Guests that like to take their workout outdoors will have the perfect opportunity to do so along La Rambla, the ideal spot for a walk, jog or to take one of the hotel's custom-designed vintage bicycles for rides.

Hyatt Centric Montevideo is offering a special opening rate of USD $190 plus taxes for standard guestrooms, including breakfast. For full offer details, including terms and conditions, or to make a reservation, please visit hyattcentricmontevideo.com or call +598 26211234.

The term "Hyatt" is used in this release for convenience to refer to Hyatt Hotels Corporation and/or one of its affiliates.

About Hyatt Hotels Corporation

Hyatt Hotels Corporation, headquartered in Chicago, is a leading global hospitality company guided by its purpose  to care for people so they can be their best. As of June 30, 2022, the Company's portfolio included more than 1,150 hotels and all-inclusive properties in 72 countries across six continents. The Company's offering includes brands in the Timeless Collection, including Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt, Hyatt Residence Club, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, and UrCove; the Boundless Collection, including Miraval, Alila, Andaz, Thompson Hotels, Hyatt Centric, and Caption by Hyatt; the Independent Collection, including The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Destination by Hyatt, and JdV by Hyatt; and the Inclusive Collection, including Hyatt Ziva, Hyatt Zilara, Zoetry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Secrets Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Vivid Hotels & Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts, and Sunscape Resorts & Spas. Subsidiaries of the Company operate the World of Hyatt loyalty program, ALG Vacations, Unlimited Vacation Club, Amstar DMC destination management services, and Trisept Solutions technology services. For more information, please visit www.hyatt.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Forward-Looking Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "likely," "will," "would" and variations of these terms and similar expressions, or the negative of these terms or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable when made, are inherently uncertain, and are subject to numerous assumptions and uncertainties, many of which are outside of Kiraku, Inc. or Hyatt's control, which could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements made in this press release are made only as of the date of their initial publication and neither party undertakes an obligation to publicly update any of these forward-looking statements as actual events unfold, except to the extent required by applicable law. If one or more forward-looking statements is updated, no inference should be drawn that any additional updates will be made with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.

Karina Faber

Hyatt

Hyatt
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Digital Innovation Remains Driving Force in Connecting Travelers to Hotels

TravelClick, a global provider of innovative cloud-based solutions that enable hotels to grow revenue, is pleased to announce that the Company has received 18 Horizon Interactive Awards for distinction in website design and 10 Communicator Awards for excellence in digital marketing and website design. Additionally, TravelClick has been recognized by the Webby Awards, a leading international award that honors excellence on the Internet, as an Official Honoree.

These award wins not only reflect the importance of digital innovation when it comes to connecting prospective and returning travelers to hotels all over the world, but they also highlight TravelClicks continued excellence in website design and marketing, said Curtis Brewer, Vice President, Reservations and Website Solutions. These successes are a reflection of what we are most proud of: our work on behalf of our clients, and the ability to highlight the uniqueness of every individual hotel.

The Horizon Interactive Awards, a leading international interactive media awards competition, honors the finest in media production. The awards were established to recognize creativity, originality, communication of message, user experience and effectiveness of solution. TravelClick and its hotel clients won the following Horizon Interactive Awards for websites in the Travel and Tourism category:

Gold:

Marquis Los Cabos  www.marquisloscabos.com

The Bristol Panama  www.thebristol.com

The Sukhothai Bangkok  www.sukhothai.com

Silver:

Aria Hotel Prague  www.ariahotel.net

Buena Vista Palace  www.buenavistapalace.com

Four Seasons Jackson Hole  www.fourseasonsjacksonholewy.com

Grand Hotel Oslo  www.grand.no

Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa  www.hideawaybeachmaldives.com

Palazzo Versace Dubai  www.palazzoversace.ae

Pullman Sydney Olympic Park  www.pullmansydneyolympicpark.com.au

The Grove Hotel  www.grovehotelboise.com

The Hotel Brussels  www.thehotel-brussels.be

The May Fair Hotel  www.themayfairhotel.co.uk

The Newstead Belmont Hills  www.newsteadbelmonthills.com

Time Hotels  www.thetimehotels.com

Bronze:

Arc The Hotel  www.arcthehotel.com

Casa Santo Domingo Hotel & Museum  www.casasantodomingo.com.gt

The White Swan Hotel  www.whiteswanhotel.com

Additionally, the Communicator Awards is a competitive international awards program honoring creative excellence for communications and marketing professionals. The annual competition highlights the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations and identity work for print, video, interactive and audio. TravelClick and its hotel clients won the following Communicator Awards in the hotel and lodging category:

Gold:

The May Fair Hotel  www.themayfairhotel.co.uk

Silver:

Aria Hotel, Prague  www.ariahotel.net

Buena Vista Palace  www.buenavistapalace.com

Four Seasons Jackson Hole  www.fourseasonsjacksonholewy.com

Hideaway Beach Resort & Spa  www.hideawaybeachmaldives.com

Pullman Melbourne on the Park  www.pullmanonthepark.com.au

The Grove Hotel  www.grovehotelboise.com

The Hotel Brussels  www.thehotel-brussels.be

The Time New York  www.thetimehotels.com/new-york

White Swan Hotel  www.whiteswanhotel.com

Lastly, in recognition of exceptional websites  with nearly 13,000 entries received  the Webby Awards honored TravelClick and Four Seasons Jackson Hole (www.fourseasonsjacksonholewy.com) as an Official Honoree in the Advertising and Media  Tourism and Leisure category.

TravelClick specializes in building websites and deploying compelling digital marketing plans that are custom-designed to function as core components of a hotels e-commerce strategy, helping a property to maximize direct bookings and drive revenue. TravelClick and its website clients have received more than 500 awards for excellence in web design and digital marketing since 2007.

About TravelClick, Inc.

TravelClick (TravelClick.com) provides innovative cloud-based solutions for hotels around the globe to grow their revenue, reduce costs and improve performance. TravelClick offers hotels world-class reservation solutions, business intelligence products, and comprehensive media and marketing solutions to help hotels grow their business. With local experts around the globe, we help more than 38,000 hotel clients in over 160 countries drive profitable room reservations through better revenue management decisions, proven reservation technology and innovative marketing. Since 1999, TravelClick has helped hotels leverage the web to effectively navigate the complex global distribution landscape. TravelClick has offices in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Barcelona, Dubai, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Orlando, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Follow us on twitter.com/TravelClick and facebook.com/TravelClick.
Hyatt Centric Montevideo Lobby

Hyatt announced yesterday the opening of Hyatt Centric Montevideo, the brands first hotel to open outside of North America, and the second Hyatt-branded property in Uruguay. The 178-room hotel is located in the Pocitos neighborhood, a prime destination for guests to explore and discover the heart of Montevideo. Hyatt Centric Montevideo is in close proximity to many of the areas business and leisure districts, including the World Trade Center, Montevideo Shopping and Ciudad Vieja, as well as La Rambla, the coastal avenue where locals meet daily to exercise, socialize and take in the citys best sunsets.

We are delighted to welcome the first international Hyatt Centric hotel to the charming city of Montevideo, said Myles McGourty, senior vice president of operations for Hyatt in Latin America and the Caribbean. Hyatt Centric Montevideo was designed to make guests feel welcome and connected with the heart of the destination. We are confident that this contemporary new hotel will allow for exploration and discovery, while introducing Hyatts well-known hospitality to both guests and residents.

Arrival Experience

Guests can begin their journey cruising the Uruguayan coastline along La Rambla, the 19 mile (30km) waterside promenade near Hyatt Centric Montevideo. Upon entering the hotel, a large lounge welcomes guests as they make their way to the stylish lobby area. A stained-glass inspired ceiling invites natural light into the space and marks a central point that integrates the hotels restaurant, lobby and bar. The hotel design sets the stage for an authentic Montevideo experience and includes mosaic floors, eclectic ambiance and local artwork combined with modern luxury design, creating a touch of local culture. Large windows from the bar, deli and library offer sweeping views of the Rio de la Plata.

We are thrilled to open our doors in Montevideo and present a hotel that truly captures Montevidean culture and innovative design, said Guillaume Paupy, general manager of Hyatt Centric Montevideo. Our team is ready to welcome guests and share their insider knowledge to help guests explore the best of the destination.



Advertisement

The hotels 178 spacious guestrooms, including 14 suites, balance the energy of the city with a calm, inviting respite. The minimal yet upscale features include contemporary furniture, destination-inspired artwork and modern colorful touches. Guestrooms offer impressive views of Rio de la Plata or the serene cityscape, and combine amenities to meet the needs of the millennial-minded traveler, including a luxurious plush bed, 47-inch LED TV (55-inch in suites), mini bar, large walk-in shower (additional bath tub in suites), generous work desk with enhanced lighting, complimentary high-speed Wi-Fi, premium bath amenities, JBL Horizon alarm clocks, a salon-grade hairdryer, concierge service, and 24 hour in-room dining.

Executive rooms and suites also have access to special services and amenities such as the rooftop lounge, which offers 180-degree waterfront views, continental breakfast, and evening cocktails, among other services.

Dining and Drinking

Hyatt Centric Montevideo features distinct dining options including breakfast, business lunches, intimate dinners, quick drinks or casual dining experiences designed to inspire food lovers during their journey to explore the best of local flavors.

The hotels signature restaurant Plantado features a regionally inspired menu offering locally sourced produce and classic Uruguayan favorites for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Behind the culinary concept and menu is the talented Executive Chef Federico Ferrari, formerly of Palacio Duhau - Park Hyatt Buenos Aires.

When the sun sets over the city, guests can retreat to the hotels vibrant Moderno Bar. Eclectic decor and scenic views complement creative signature cocktails, gourmet small plates and a unique selection of acclaimed local wines and artisan beers.

Additional food and beverage amenities include the Deli, a specialty market featuring Uruguayan olive oils and gourmet cheeses, freshly baked goods, local pastries, coffee and teas service, organic juices, to-go foods and other local goods.

Meetings and Events

Hyatt Centric Montevideos event facilities total more than 18,700 square feet (1,700 square meters), with each meeting room named after an influential female Uruguayan poet, a tribute to local literature. The fully integrated area features an elegant, multi-purpose ballroom and six sophisticated meeting rooms that provide an extensive range of options for upscale meetings, conferences, social events such as quinceaneras and weddings of all sizes, complete with state-of-the-art audio visual services and dedicated staff to assist in planning and execution.

Wellness and Recreation

Hyatt Centric Montevideo features a 24-hour fitness studio with the latest high-tech cardio and strength training equipment from Life Fitness, and offers a massage treatment suite to relax and unwind, as well as a heated indoor pool.

Guests that like to take their workout outdoors will have the perfect opportunity to do so along La Rambla, the ideal spot for a walk, jog or to take one of the hotels custom-designed vintage bicycles for rides.

Hyatt Centric Montevideo is offering a special opening rate of USD $190 plus taxes for standard guestrooms, including breakfast.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

ALERT Matatiele cops bust an evil gang of five when they came to the rescue of the gang's latest victim.Daily Sun reported that the 38-year-old woman was hitchhiking to Kokstad from Matatiele on Monday afternoon when a green Honda Ballade with a Durban number plate stopped to offer her a lift.When she got in, she found five people inside. She said she was asked to join in a prayer to keep her and all their money from fraudsters.She joined the prayer and closed her eyes.When the heated prayer ended and the woman checked her bag, R1 500 in cash was gone!She said when she started shouting that her money was gone, the car was stopped and the occupants pushed her out.Luckily for her, cops saw what was happening and rushed over to help.They gave chase and the five thugs were arrested.Captain Raphael Motloung said Matatiele police arrested the five suspects, including men and women aged between 27 and 41, on the R56 road, 7km from Kokstad.The suspects were found in possession of money stolen from the woman, with bank cards, scanning devices and remote controls used for blocking a car's central locking system, as well as cellphones, IDs and passports.These were all confiscated, along with their vehicle.Two of the suspects are due to appear in court on charges of fraud, robbery and forgery.The other three were released but could face arrest if they be implicated in the crimes.
The comedy superstar is over in August

Comedys hottest property Amy Schumer has confirmed an August 26 visit to the Dublin 3Arena, tickets for which go on sale on June 8.

A Comedy Central ratings-topper, Emmy Award-winner and fully-fledged Hollywood star, Schumer has a starring role in the imminent Thank You For Your Service, which follows a group of American soldiers returning from Iraq; is working on an as-yet-untitled mother/daughter adventure with kindred spirit Goldie Hawn and has her first book, The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo, hitting shelves on August 16.
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The world's longest and deepest rail tunnel opened in Switzerland on Wednesday, nearly seven decades after it was first proposed and 17 years after construction began with a blast in the main shaft.

The 35-mile twin-bore Gotthard Base Tunnel clears the way for a high-speed rail link under the Swiss Alps that the Swiss government says will revolutionize freight and passenger transportation.

The current four-hour trip between the economic hubs of Zurich and Milan will be cut by about an hour.

The ultimate goal is a seamless high-speed rail trip from the Dutch city of Rotterdam, Europe's busiest port, in the north, to Genoa, on Italy's Tyrrhenian Sea coast, in the south.

Violeta Bulc, the European Union's transportation commissioner, attended the tunnel's opening, calling the development "a milestone in European rail history and a major contribution of Switzerland to bringing Europe and Europeans closer together."

The $12.5 billion tunnel pushes the 33-mile Seikan rail tunnel in Japan, which connects the northern island of Hokkaido with the main island of Honshu, to second place on the list of longest tunnels, and the 31-mile Channel Tunnel, which links Britain and France, to third place.

But the record might not last long: China has announced plans for a 76-mile underwater link between the northern port cities of Dalian and Yantai, under the Bohai Strait.

Financing for the project - a package that includes sales and fuel taxes, road charges on heavy vehicles, and government loans - was approved by Swiss voters in a series of referendums.

For the Swiss, conquering the Alps - in this case, with a 1,345-foot boring machine, unlike the elephants used by the Carthaginian general Hannibal in his wars against Rome - is something of a national obsession.

Gotthard has been a symbol of Swiss unity going back to the 13th century, and it was later the centerpiece of Switzerland's plan of defense in case of an invasion by Nazi Germany, although that never happened.

On Wednesday, religious leaders blessed the tunnel; a statue of St. Barbara, the patron saint of miners, stands inside it. Nine workers who died while building the tunnel were honored Tuesday with a bronze plaque.

Five hundred passengers, selected from a lottery that 130,000 people entered, took part in the inaugural ride.
For hydrocarbon doomsayers, there's good news and bad news.

In 2015, there were record investments in renewable energy, and record capacity was added, much of it in emerging economies. Yet despite the huge investment, the global share of fossil fuels is not shrinking very fast. Renewables such as wind, solar and geothermal still account for a tiny share of energy production.

REN21, the international renewable energy association backed by the United Nations Environment Program, has summarized impressive developments in the sector in 2015. Total investment in renewable power and fuels reached $285.9 billion, an all-time record. For the sixth consecutive year, investment in new renewable capacity was higher than in hydrocarbon-burning power plants.

Much of the increase came from the developing world. China was in first place; the U.S. came in second, and added more solar and wind capacity than any other country. Turkey added the most geothermal generation. The narrative about the environmentally conscious rich nations and the laggard poor ones is obsolete; Mauritania invested the biggest share of economic output in sustainable energy in 2015, followed by Honduras, Uruguay and Morocco. Bangladesh is the biggest market for home-based solar systems.

But wind, solar, biomass and geothermal power used in power generation - the area where most governments have concentrated their sustainable energy efforts - account for just 1.4 percent of global energy consumption. Weaning the world off fossil fuels is still an uphill battle.

One reason is regulators' understandable fixation on generation. Wind and solar installations are relatively easy to promote: The technology is already there, all governments need to do is subsidize its use by levying additional taxes or "feed-in tariffs." It's much harder to set up an equally effective mechanism in transportation, which uses the lion's share of oil products.

Now, because oil is relatively cheap, the global market is moving toward cars that use more gas, especially SUVs. No wonder global oil consumption grew at the fastest rate in five years in 2015.
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Just about three years after announcing plans to lease two new office towers in west Houston, ConocoPhillips is putting one of those buildings up for sublease - before ever even occupying it.

The Houston-based independent producer told employees Wednesday that the company would not be moving into the new tower and would offer it up for sublease instead.

The news dealt another blow to Houston's office market, which is facing a glut of space. Energy companies are cutting capital spending and scaling back their physical offices amid the oil rout.

"We're now hitting 10 million square feet of sublease space," said Eli Gilbert, director of research for the Houston office of JLL, a commercial real estate firm. "That's newsworthy and a number everybody's been waiting to hit. We finally did."

The 15-year average for sublease space in Houston is 3.8 million square feet, according to CBRE, another commercial property firm.

The ConocoPhillips building, Energy Center Four, is part of the larger Energy Center office complex in west Houston's Energy Corridor.

In 2013, the company agreed to lease two Energy Center towers at the southwest corner of Interstate 10 and North Eldridge Parkway, just across I-10 from its 1.4 million-square-foot headquarters campus. Both buildings were to house the company's growing exploration and production operations focused on the continental U.S.

The company occupied one building, but the floors in Energy Center Four were never built out and remain shell space. The 22-story building contains 597,000 square feet.

Houston's mounting sublease woes are concentrated in west Houston and downtown.

Griff Bandy, a broker with NAI Partners who specializes in representing tenants, said rental rates for sublease space are "well below direct asking rates."

"For any tenant willing to relocate, they're achieving very aggressive below-market rent costs," he said.

If the overhang of space is not absorbed over the next few years, some of it will revert back to the landlords as leases expire. That has some worried.

"There are more bankruptcies yet to come, and those are events where those leases many times are rejected. They don't even go to sublease market. Those are much bigger hits than sublease," Bandy said.

Trammell Crow Co. and Principal Real Estate Investors, which developed the buildings at Energy Center, are constructing the 18-story Energy Center Five, the final piece in the collection.

When the company announced the building's groundbreaking in 2014, it said the bar had been raised for Houston office space, and the new tower would be built with high-end features and amenities to attract companies desiring to recruit and retain employees with top-of-the-line offices.

An executive with Trammell Crow could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

ConocoPhillips has struggled financially amid the global oil glut.

The company recently posted its fourth straight quarterly loss.

ConocoPhillips' first-quarter net loss was $1.5 billion, or $1.18 a share. That compares with a profit of $272 million, or 22 cents per share, a year earlier.

"The decision to market the building for sublease aligns with the company's focus on sustaining structural cost reductions and continued efforts to capture efficiencies," spokesman Daren Beaudo said Wednesday in a statement. "We constantly review our entire portfolio and make adjustments where appropriate, office space being no exception."
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The latest front in the Houston region's competitive grocery battleground is convenience, with Kroger this week launching a pickup service at four area stores.

The local market leader, which has 111 stores across the region, showed off its new ClickList service on Wednesday at a Kroger Marketplace in Baytown. For $4.95 per order, shoppers can submit a grocery list online and schedule a pickup time for the next day or another day within one week. A store employee will fill the orders, placing temperature-sensitive items like ice cream or poultry in refrigerated coolers, and at the appointed time bring them curbside.

"Technology has become such a lifestyle," Kroger spokeswoman Kristal Howard said. "Convenience is the No. 1 deciding factor in where people choose to grocery shop. You can't get around that."

Indeed, Kroger is merely the latest retailer to offer some type of on-demand service.

Wal-Mart Stores, which has 101 area locations, began offering ordering and curbside pickup at select locations in October. H-E-B, with 92 local stores, has been testing curbside pickup since December at its Bunker Hill Road store near Interstate 10 and plans to expand the service to The Woodlands and Kingwood.

Instacart, which delivers grocery items to homes, has partnerships with Central Market, Costco, H-E-B, Petco, Spec's and Whole Foods Market. Amazon has Prime delivery service for goods and Prime Now for groceries. The options make competition in Houston's grocery market even more fierce.

More Information CLICKLIST STORES Kroger is phasing in Clicklist at 22 stores in the Houston area. Available now: 6315 Garth Road, Baytown; 24350 Kuykendahl, Tomball; 5730 Seawall Blvd., Galveston Beginning Friday: 9703 Barker Cypress, Cypress Through summer: 25651 U.S. 59 North, Kingwood; 24401 Brazos Town Xing, Rosenberg; 12605 Interstate 45 North, Willis; 3410 Northpark, Kingwood; 18518 Kuykendahl, Spring; 1520 Eldridge Parkway, Houston; 14221 E. Sam Houston Parkway North, Houston; 1920 W. League City Parkway, League City; 1712 Spring Green Blvd., Katy; 20355 Cypresswood, Cypress; 1352 W. 43rd, Houston; 2750 E. League City Parkway, League City; 5150 Buffalo Speedway, Houston; 22150 Westheimer Parkway, Katy; 25050 FM 1093, Katy Fall: 3965 Dowlen, Beaumont; 8011 W. Grand Parkway South, Richmond; 4825 Sweetwater Blvd., Sugar Land Source: Kroger See More Collapse

In addition, Google announced Wednesday that it is targeting a potential market of 20 million new users by offering Google Express across large parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including Houston. The service allows for overnight delivery from some retailers and two-day delivery from others.

Think of these services as a modern-day interpretation of the neighborhood grocery delivery boy, said Barbara Stewart, retail professor with the University of Houston.

"The need has long been there, but now we've got the technology incrementally increasing so it can happen," Stewart said.

Houston is the perfect proving ground with the right population density, she said. For services like Google Express, the distance between retailers and residential areas is important and might not be attainable in areas that aren't as tightly packed.

That population also is changing, with a mix of people who want the convenience of those services and people who will need more ease of shopping as they age, said Betsy Gelb, marketing professor with UH's C.T. Bauer College of Business.

How retailers market these services ultimately will determine which ones survive, but blending technology and convenience is far from a fad.

"If more people want this, there will be more of it," Gelb said. "And if there's more of it, then people begin to know it's there and begin to expect that it will be there."

With its new service, Google Express customers can pay either an annual membership fee of $95 or $4.99 per order for next-day delivery from Barnes & Noble, Costco, PetSmart, Walgreens and Whole Foods Market. Two-day delivery is available from Fry's, Guitar Center, L'Occitane, Ulta, Vitamin Shop, Moosejaw, Sur La Table, Ace Hardware, Kohl's, Treasure Island Foods, Roadrunner Sports, Bed Bath & Beyond and Buy Buy Baby, the company announced.

Kroger this week kicked off ClickList in Baytown, Galveston and Tomball and plans to add Cypress by Friday. The service will be available at 22 Houston-area stores by year's end.

"Oh, it saves you a lot of time, especially somebody like me," said Andrew Garcia, 30, as workers loaded groceries his wife ordered into his Jeep Rubicon. "I go grocery shopping and end up buying the wrong stuff, the wrong brand of this and wrong brand of that, and I hear about it later. Now I'm just a messenger, and I like that."

Kroger has tested curbside pickup since 2014 at smaller markets across the country. Houston is one of 10 company divisions nationwide to have ClickList. The grocer soft-launched the program at its Baytown Marketplace store on May 11, citing the store's high number of digitally engaged customers, number of customers willing to drive long distances and having sufficient space for curbside pickup.

So far, the most prevalent Baytown users have been mothers with children, elderly residents and disabled people, said Jason Payne, e-commerce manager for Kroger's Houston Division. There's also been an order from a vessel in the Houston Ship Channel.

Kroger plans to eventually bump up the service to same-day service, delivery and adding other products, Payne said. Currently not available are hot prepared foods, food items bought in bulk, cosmetics or apparel, which is available at its marketplace stores. Eighty to 85 percent of the items sold at Marketplace stores and 95 percent of those at traditional stores are available for ClickList.
I knew I was in trouble at Flo Paris bakery cafe when I approached the counter to find out where the croissant and apple tart I had ordered were, only to be told they were "in the oven."

"What!?" I yelped in something between a squeak and a squawk. I'm afraid a few heads turned in the crisply designed room in a corner of a Westheimer strip mall. I hadn't meant to make a fuss, but my horror that my pastries had been put to the heat without my say-so overcame my usual decorum.

That was only the start of my vexing relationship with an establishment that ought to be a good deal better than it is.

I'm really the perfect audience for Flo Paris: I come from a long line of pastry and baked-goods fiends, and when I tell people that "carbs are my life," I am only half joking.

As a child, my venerated bakery models were the French pastry shops of Montreal, and when I travel, I invariably seek out the thrills of a Bouchon, a Gontran Cherrier, a Salon de The de Joel Robuchon. I love the crunch and give of a good baguette, too, and the kind of simple, fresh sandwiches that can be made from them.

So I approached Flo Paris with high hopes. The room was airy and pretty in a budget-conscious way, with lots of whites, a few lipstick-red accents, bold graphics and shelves full of French foodstuffs I could imagine taking home to my kitchen.

More Information Flo Paris (no stars) 5757 Westheimer713-706-4442 Hours: B&L daily, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Credit cards: all major Prices: sandwiches $9-$13.50; pastries $4-$8 Must-orders: cream puff; apple pie; salmon gravlax baguette Reservations: first come, first served Noise level: moderate Website: floparisbakery.com xxxx superlative; can hold its own on a national stage. xxx excellent; one of the best restaurants in the city. xx very good; one of the best restaurants of its kind. x a good restaurant that we recommend. (no stars) restaurant cannot be recommended at this time. See More Collapse

The pastry counter fairly gleamed with beautiful confections: tarts, puffs, meticulously layered cakes - the latter folded into glassine rectangles that magnified their shine. An array of pre-made baguette sandwiches beckoned, glossy flaps of cured salmon and matte curls of prosciutto peeking out from their margins.

Yet nearly everything I sampled at this inviting breakfast-and-lunch semi-service spot left me dissatisfied, sometimes by just a little and sometimes by a lot.

That croissant that had been placed unbidden into the oven to heat up? I managed in the end to procure a room-temperature specimen, the better to judge its textures, and to sample it in its proper, primal state. Compared to the pacesetting wonders from Common Bond, this croissant seemed bready and insufficiently buttery-tasting. It lacked that airy voluptuosity I look for in well-laminated Viennoiserie - a form of pastry in which the buttered dough is rolled again and again and again, until it achieves maximum layers.

Perhaps I would have enjoyed this croissant a little more had it been served with some good butter or preserves, but it came to the table with nothing save the cup of cappuccino I had ordered. That cappuccino turned out to be half foam. Seriously, there were a good two inches of white froth in the small cup. There was barely enough espresso to see me through the hunk of croissant I ate. And yes, I left most of the croissant on the plate, which is completely unlike me.

I had better luck with a so-called "apple pie" which was really an open-faced apple tart, its puff-pastry rectangle lined with caramelized fruit slices that retained a welcome bit of tartness to offset a sweet custard base. It was one of the most successful items I encountered at Flo - along with a high-and-mighty chocolate-topped cream puff that held a pleasant, not-too-sweet pastry cream in its pate a choux crust, covered by a veritable cloud of whipped cream and a layer of liquid caramel.

That cream puff, along with a striking fresh-strawberry version, tends to sell out early, so if you want to try one, best get there before 1 p.m.

I was considerably less smitten by the sharp espresso edge of the very, very sweet layered Opera cake; and by the even sweeter layers of the Foret Noir, in which the traditional Black Forest cherries were supplanted by candied pear and other fruits. I could only eat a few bites until the pastry began to cloy. I longed for a tinge of bitterness or tartness to set off the sugar.

Even a gorgeous little apricot tart in a pate sucree crust turned out to be far too sweet for me, thanks to the deep well of saccharine pistachio paste in which the fruit was set. Any bright tartness from the dried apricot went for naught. (On another visit, a mixed berry tart with just a bit of almond paste fared better.)

My sandwich experiences here disappointed, too. At lunch, diners can choose from an array of pre-made cold baguette sandwiches or a selection of sandwiches on various house loaves that turned out to be pressed and heated, although nothing on the lunch menu indicates that.

I ordered buffalo mozzarella, marinated eggplant, roasted pepper and tomato on pain de mie (a soft, fine-textured loaf that is usually sliced), thinking it would be light, fresh and suitably cool for a hot day. Instead it came pressed and seared to a serious crunch inside a seeded baguette, with the mozzarella melted to chewiness and the eggplant sweet enough to tilt the flavor profile too far from savory.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as advertised, and the ingredients seemed a bit manhandled and overwhelmed by the heat and pressure. (I took half the sandwich home, and it tasted much better the next day, once the flavors and textures had married.)

A pre-made baguette of prosciutto, arugula and parmesan shards would have been swell had the bread been given a couple of swipes of butter to soften the effect and tie the ingredients together. Butter on the baguette halves of a salmon gravlax sandwich, layered with slices of cucumber and fresh dill, made for a more satisfying whole. Still, I found myself craving a jot of acid or something for contrast; a few slices of pickled red onion might have made this sandwich live up to its excellent poppy-seeded baguette.

Of Flo's clunky, absurdly bready croque Monsieur - pre-made with a mantle of hardened melted cheese that never quite remelts properly when heated up again - the less said, the better. It's an ungainly excuse for this ham-cheese-and-bechamel classic. A crock of onion soup, roofed with pre-melted, cheese-covered bread, was based on a thin, unpersuasive broth that only made me pine for the profundities of the onion soup at Killen's Steakhouse.

Neither did the halfhearted seasoning of the Tandoori Salmon sandwich from the lunch menu impress. You can't just throw some vague curry seasoning on baked salmon and call it tandoori. Or rather, you can; but you shouldn't. It's not a good sign that the best thing on the plate was a little-nothing green salad with a lightly tart vinaigrette.

I departed from that particular visit wondering what chef Philippe Schmit would have thought of my lunch. When Flo Paris opened, the soi-disant "French Cowboy" - who has filled a variety of roles since he left his eponymous Philippe's (now La Table) - was assisting the French-Lebanese owners in a high-profile role.

Indeed, in the bakery-cafe's early days, he was frequently behind the counter making the cold sandwiches to order and putting the finishing touches on the cooked food. Schmit is still featured on Flo's flowery website, although he has gone on to take the executive chef's reins at new Dallas import Toulouse Cafe and Bar. His influence seems to have waned.

That's unfortunate. In a city which is undergoing a slow-but-sure bakery renaissance - and where newcomers such as Common Bond, Levure and Slow Dough are raising the bar - it's no longer sufficient to be okayish, or worse. Flo Paris has some catching up to do, and I hope they get with it.
Michael Ciaglo/Staff

Crime Stoppers of Houston is offering up to $45,000 for any information leading to the arrest of the killer of 11-year-old Josue Flores.

The increase from $20,000 last week to $45,000 was announced Wednesday. It comes after Flores' Near Northside neighbors raised $5,000 over the Memorial Day weekend and donated it to Crime Stoppers, said the organization's spokeswoman Tania Cruz.
It was, Brittni Darras said, the first time she had ever cried at a parent-teacher conference.

Darras, a 25-year-old English teacher at a Colorado high school, was speaking with a mother, who came to the meeting with a list of her daughter's teachers.

Next to each of the names was a "yes" or "no," indicating whether the girl wanted her mother to reveal the reason she hadn't been in classes for a couple weeks, Darras said.

"And so when her mom sat down, she said, 'you have a yes next to your name,' " Darras said.

So the mother relayed the story: Her daughter had deleted her social media accounts and written letters to those closest to her. That she had attempted suicide. That the police rushed in and stopped her, and the girl was missing school because she was recovering in a hospital.

"And her mom was sitting there in tears," Darras told The Washington Post. "I started crying. Her mom said that she had no idea."

The news was a shock to Darras, too.

"She's beautiful. She has friends. She comes in class, and she's laughing. She's the top in my class, always has A's, always does the best job on the assignments," Darras said. "She's just a phenomenal, phenomenal human being. So I never would have guessed that she was struggling."

Darras wrote a letter to the girl, delivered to the hospital via the girl's mother, telling her how much she cared, how the girl was missed in class, and that they wanted her back.

"Her daughter's reaction was that she was amazed that somebody could say such sweet things because she didn't think anybody would miss her if she was gone," Darras said.

That, Darras said, was when she realized "something had to be done."

"Because hearing that from somebody who is so bright, so beautiful, so fun -- to understand that she didn't think that she had a purpose, she didn't think that anybody cared, that's the hardest thing," Darras said. "Because I wouldn't have expected it from her. So that's just when I realized that something had to be done to make these students realize that they each are special, and they do matter."

Here's what Darras did: Over a two-month span, she said she composed about 130 notes that went to all of her students, she shared on Facebook last week. The messages were handwritten, so the students knew each note was authentic and took time to compose.

She wrote cards in an airport, during a weekend trip. She wrote them at school, during odd hours after everyone else had left for the day. She sat on her back porch and wrote. Then, after the students finished their final exams, she handed out the cards before the bell rang, she said.

It was possible the high school kids wouldn't care, or at least would play it cool. Darras said she didn't think they'd even feel comfortable reading the cards on the spot. But they did open them. One student jumped up and held her card in the air, saying she'd keep it forever. Parents emailed, saying their sons or daughters shared the notes.

As her last class filed out of the room, Darras said, every single student gave her a hug on the way out the door.

"Which was really powerful," she said.

Darras said she hoped her effort was a reminder that everyone has the capacity to make a difference - even with a simple note of encouragement. Or, in her case, 130 notes of encouragement.

"I want these kids to know that they're special, and that they've made an impact, and they are each unique in their own way. And seeing them light up, and have this huge smile across their face, and jumping up to give me a hug," she said, "that's all I could ask for in the world."
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Some stories stick with you.

The details became elusive, but I always carried the name Kelli Cox with me. About two months after graduating from college, I wrote a story for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about the one-year anniversary of her disappearance.

She was just a few years younger than me. She was a single mom who was completing college. She had met her University of North Texas class in July 1997 for a midday tour of the Denton police station, after which she realized she'd locked her keys in the car. She called her boyfriend on a pay phone, but had vanished by the time he arrived to rescue her.

No leads. No surveillance videos. No witnesses.

For a moment, I wondered if she just walked away, but there were no red flags. She seemed happy, was studying to become an adolescent psychologist and adored her toddler daughter, Alexis. A child who is now about the same age that her mom was when she went missing.

I remember how Kelli's mom, Jan Bynum, was both heartbroken and hopeful.

In the story I wrote for the Star-Telegram, I noted that Kelli's room remained untouched  the calendar stuck in 1997, makeup still out, waiting for Kelli's return.

"What I tell Alexis now is that her Mommy is lost and that we're looking for her very, very hard," Bynum told me. She later adopted her granddaughter.

As the years passed, I paused every time I heard that human remains had been found in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I wondered if it was Kelli Cox. I hoped it wasn't. I hoped that she had quietly reunited with her family, in a way so mundane it had escaped news headlines.

LAST MONTH, when we started reporting on the digging being done for Jessica Cain, I couldn't help but to note the similarities in the stories. The Galveston County girl was 17 when she vanished in 1997. A convict named William Lewis Reece pointed authorities to her remains in southeast Houston.

Reece, 56, already in prison on kidnapping charges, was recently charged with the murder of 19-year-old girl in Oklahoma. He is linked to other girls' disappearances as well.

And he is now linked to the disappearance of Kelli Cox. Her story likely ends in a horse pasture in Brazoria County just off Highway 288, where Reece pointed authorities to her remains earlier this week.

Bynum told a North Texas TV station that she is eerily calm as she awaits the DNA results.

"It's all in God's hands right now," she said. "It's all in God's hands."

My takeaways from the Kelli Cox story are grim. There are very real people behind our headlines. You never forget that once you've stood in their living rooms and talked to their grieving relatives.

The constant barrage of tragic headlines can become routine, and journalists can  maybe must  become numb. But there is always a case, like Kelli Cox's, that pierces your armor.

Her story makes me think: The world is an unsafe place, especially for young women.

And: Most stories don't have happy endings.





Bookmark Gray Matters. It's so mundane that it escapes news headlines.


News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

An angry landlord exacted a strange punishment on a family who failed to pay their rent when he had the doors of the house they were renting welded, so they were locked in.The Voice reported that the family-of-six were barricaded inside their Mmopane Block One home for the whole weekend and were only released when Mogoditshane police set them free on Sunday afternoon.Davids Mooke, 44, got the shock of his life when he arrived home on Saturday morning and discovered that the locks had been changed overnight and the doors sealed, leaving him shut out and his family locked in.Speaking to The Voice a visibly upset Mooke fumed, "The landlord welded the burglar doors on the door frames, changed the locks and then locked my family inside the house."Although the landlord, Sekete Khumiso, declined to comment on the drastic action, Mooke denied that his family refused to pay rent and claimed they were merely P100 short. However he claims that Khumiso rejected the rent and demanded the full amount instead."Our rentals is P2 000 monthly. On Friday we paid P1 900 to the landlord but she refused the money and decided to call her boyfriend to weld my family in on Saturday morning," he said.Mooke's girlfriend, 44-year-old Agnes Pitlagano, who was one of the people imprisoned inside the house, said the incident had traumatised her family."I feared they could have set the house on fire while welding as the doors are close to the curtains," she said.Pitlagano added that Khumiso's bizarre behavior did not stop at locking them in the house, saying, "On Sunday morning while we were stuck inside the house, the landlord brought church members to the house, splashing water all over the yard,"  action that an emotional Pitlageno described as a threat to kill'.Mmopane Chief, Tobara Radikoko who was present at the locked house, said Khumiso should be reported for her evil actions'."It's my first time to witness people being welded inside the house for failing to pay rent," said the chief.Station Commander for Mogoditshane police, Nkwebi Chilisa confirmed they had spoken to the landlord but had not laid any charges against her."She informed us that she had long told the family to evict the house. Furthermore,she said she knocked for a long period of time before sealing the house. She told us she even knocked on the windows and, when no one answered, concluded there was no one inside the house," said Chilisa.The Station Commander concluded by advising the family to pay their agreed rent.
AUSTIN - A Dallas appeals court on Wednesday upheld Attorney General Ken Paxton's three indictments for felony fraud, a decision he will likely appeal to the highest criminal court in the state.

"We are pleased with the court's ruling and we will be prepared for trial," special prosecutor Kent Schaffer said.

In its decision, the state's 5th Court of Appeals said three of the arguments Paxton used to challenge his indictments could not be considered at this point in the legal process. The fourth argument, it said, was invalid.

Paxton's first three arguments dealt with whether the judge who empaneled the grand jury that indicted Paxton had done so improperly. The fourth argued that one of the state laws Paxton is accused of violating is unconstitutional and trumped by similar federal law.

"Having concluded that appellant's first, second and third issues are not cognizable on pretrial habeas and that appellant's fourth issue lacks merit, we affirm the trial court's orders denying the relief sought by appellant," Chief Justice Carolyn Wright wrote in the court's opinion.

More for you Paxton takes the offensive

A Collin County grand jury indicted Paxton on two first-degree felony fraud charges in July, alleging that he persuaded people to invest in the North Texas tech startup Servergy Inc. while failing to disclose that he hadn't invested himself but was being paid by the company in stock. It also indicted him on one third-degree charge of failing to register as an investment adviser representative, while he encouraged and made a commission by referring clients to a friend's investment firm.

A Fort Worth judge chosen to oversee any trial in the case upheld the indictments in December, but Paxton appealed his decision to the Dallas court.

Paxton still has one more chance to appeal his indictments. He can now choose to ask the Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, to take another look at both decisions and make a final judgment.

That decision would mean his case would delay any potential trial in the case for many more months.

Taxpayers in Collin County, where Paxton lives and where the Fort Worth judge is hearing the case, would continue to be on the hook for the cost of the prosecution, which has already topped six figures.

Paxton is also facing several other legal problems. The federal government has also charged him with fraud, this time a civil charge, for the same issues alleged in his indictments.

He is also facing a State Bar complaint for telling county clerks, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding gay marriage, to consider their religious beliefs when marrying same-sex couples.
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A teenager accused of sexually assaulting and strangling his girlfriend will remain behind bars in the Harris County juvenile detention center, a judge ruled Thursday.

The 15-year-old high school student could also be certified to stand trial as an adult if prosecutors decide to move the case to state district court from the juvenile court system.

The teen, who is charged with murder, is accused of killing 15-year-old Karen Perez on May 27 in an abandoned apartment complex and hiding her body in a cabinet under a kitchen sink.

The sounds of the assault were captured on his cell phone video, prosecutors said. The girl's body was found Monday by investigators and Texas EquuSearch.

On Thursday, the teen made his first court appearance handcuffed and wearing a green jail jumpsuit for questioning before Magistrate Judge Aneeta Jamal. Because there is no bail in the juvenile justice system, teens accused of serious crimes are either held or freed without regard to posting a bond.

The teen's parents attended the brief hearing. They did not comment as they left the juvenile courthouse.

Jerry Michael Acosta, the teen's attorney, said the case remains under investigation, but he declined to answer questions about the case.

"We ask that the public reserve judgment until all the evidence is collected and evaluated," he said.

Under Texas law, suspects ages 14 to 16 can be certified to stand trial as an adult by a juvenile court judge based on criteria including whether the crime was against a person or property, the suspect's maturity level and previous criminal record. The decision to certify is made by a judge after a request is made by prosecutors; the potential punishment is higher in adult courts. Whether to seek certification typically takes weeks or months.

In Harris County, juveniles charged with serious crimes, especially slayings, are often certified to stand trial as adults.

In a case from 2014, two teens in Clear Lake were certified to stand trial as adults in the fatal bludgeoning and stabbing of a 15-year-old in an empty apartment.

Jose E. Reyes, who was 17 at the time of the crime, and Victor Alias, who was 16, were both sentenced to life in prison without parole after being convicted of capital murder in the death of Corriann Cervantes.

The so-called "Satanic Murder" made headlines because the youths told investigators they were trying to sell their souls to the devil. One later said Lucifer was in the room watching the fatal assault with approval.

If the 15-year-old accused of killing Perez is not certified, his punishment would be capped at 40 years in prison.

Experts in juvenile law said the Harris County District Attorney's Office will likely pursue certification, based on the allegations that have been made public.

"Something that serious, I would certainly expect (prosecutors) to seek certification," said Joanne Musick, a past president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association who practices juvenile law. "Typically the only time we don't see them certified is if they are extremely young and unsophisticated."

She noted that the accusations, although early in the investigation, seem to point toward premeditation.

Because of strict laws governing the identification of juveniles, prosecutors have not spoken about the case outside of court.

Depending on the autopsy results as well as other evidence, the teen could face capital murder charges if he is certified. If convicted of a capital crime, he could face life in prison without parole. His age bars prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.
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GALVESTON - A former pediatrician at MD Anderson Cancer Center asked a federal judge Wednesday to withdraw his guilty plea to child pornography charges, joining a multistate challenge to an FBI sting using a so-called "dark web" server that led to the arrests of more than 100 people across the U.S.

The challenges - which have been made in at least seven states - could jeopardize the government's ability to investigate cyber-crimes, particularly child pornography sites that often are conducted on anonymous servers, according to federal officials.

The potential unraveling of the government's cases in the sweeping Operation Pacifier sting in Texas and several other states follows a federal court ruling in Massachusetts that the government had no authority to reach into computers outside the area where the search warrants are authorized.

The ruling, which ultimately could be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, would effectively prevent agents from tracking down people who access child pornography sites or other dark-web enterprises.

"I'm not surprised to hear that defendants are trying to walk back their guilty pleas," said Mark Rumold, a senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on civil liberties protections in the digital world.

"I think the trend we're seeing - of courts suppressing the evidence stemming from the government's use of malware - is only going to continue."

Guilty plea in March

Dr. Dennis P.M. Hughes was a tenured professor of pediatrics and a pediatric oncologist at MD Anderson for 11 years before his arrest last summer.

Hughes, 50, of Pearland, pleaded guilty in March to all the charges against him, admitting he collected thousands of images and videos of child pornography on his home and work computers. He remains free on bond.

Hughes filed a motion in April in federal court, however, to withdraw his plea. His lawyer, Neal Davis, asked U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr. on Wednesday to allow the change in the wake of court decisions in Massachusetts and Oklahoma suppressing evidence gathered in the case.

The federal criminal code allows defendants to take back a plea prior to sentencing, and the circumstances in this case are very unique, he said.

"I don't think the floodgates will open," he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Zack, however, argued that permitting Hughes to withdraw his plea "sets a terrible precedent." Zack said Hughes waived his rights and knew what he was doing.

"Mr. Hughes is a doctor. He is not a stupid man by any stretch of the imagination," she said. "There was no mistake."

The judge took the former pediatrician's request under advisement and said he would rule as soon as possible. At least one other defendant in the Houston area has also retreated from a guilty plea.

Federal agents discovered Hughes' hidden pornography stash as a result of a nationwide sting dubbed Operation Pacifier in which they seized control of the server for a dark website called Playpen - where visitors downloaded and shared child pornography.

Federal agents kept the site running at an FBI facility in Virginia for about two weeks while they traced back links to people who visited the site.

Dark websites like Playpen operate on Tor, or The Onion Router, a software that encrypts identifying information for visitors and the hosts.

A U.S. magistrate judge in the Eastern District of Virginia granted the FBI a 30-day warrant to launch hacking software that could help agents bypass the encrypted identities of Playpen visitors and access their IP addresses. The sting led to charges against more than 135 defendants around the country, including seven in the Southern District of Texas, which includes Houston.

Broad searches criticized

In recent months, federal defendants in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wisconsin have asked to suppress evidence obtained through the Virginia search warrant on the Playpen server. The judges in all three cases denied these requests.

A district judge in Massachusetts, however, ruled that the Virginia court overstepped its bounds in issuing such a broad warrant, saying the FBI could not extend its search beyond the Eastern District of Virginia. The judge ruled that evidence collected from the defendant's computer could not be used in the case.

A federal magistrate judge in Oklahoma recommended a similar ruling to a district judge. And in Washington state, an Operation Pacifier defendant was granted a request to suppress evidence discovered as a result of the Virginia warrant.

A proposal to revise the federal rules of procedure governing search warrants is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Civil liberties proponents believe the new rules would allow magistrate judges to authorize remote electronic searches of devices anywhere in the world.

The rules are set to go into effect in December unless Congress acts to change the provisions.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators recently introduced legislation to limit local police and federal investigators' use of broad searches.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who co-authored the "Stop Mass Hacking" bill, said the searches go too far.

"There's no question the rules should keep up with the digital age to ensure law enforcement has the tools needed to go after perpetrators," he said, "but that has to include appropriate protections for law-abiding Americans including those who are victims of hacks."

The Department of Justice welcomes the rule changes, saying they would offer additional guidance to federal judges and magistrates, spokesman Peter Carr said.

The new rules would still require probable cause to believe a crime is being committed and compliance with the Fourth Amendment's protection against unlawful searches and seizures, officials said.

The rules allow agents to ask a single judge - rather than many - to investigate an illegal dark website through malware and go after so-called botnets that remotely seize personal and financial information.

"The various rulings in these cases highlight why the government supports the clarification of the rules of procedure currently pending before the Supreme Court," Carr said, "to ensure that criminals using sophisticated anonymizing technologies to conceal their identities while they engage in crime over the internet are able to be identified and apprehended."
RIO GRANDE CITY - The injustices that sparked a farmworker movement in Texas half a century ago remain fresh in the memory of those who experienced it. But many in the state have forgotten, or never learned, what happened so long ago in the melon fields of Starr County.

While many of the men and women involved in the 1966 melon strike and march on Austin have passed on, around two dozen of the original field hands gathered in Rio Grande City on Wednesday to commemorate the strike and serve up a bit of living history.

"Fifty years ago the farmworkers had the courage to throw down their sacks for picking melon and hold a picket sign to demand better wages," said Rebecca Flores, a former United Farm Workers representative in Texas who was a high school secretary at the time of the strike. "They had all the forces against them - the politicians, the judges, the sheriff - and they stuck it out."

Over several hours of protest songs, testimonials and aged photographs, middle school students, descendents of farmworkers and residents were introduced, or perhaps reintroduced, to a time when farmworkers earned around 40 cents for an hour of backbreaking labor. On June 1, 1966, several hundred strikers picketed outside six major melon growing ranches in Starr County, holding up signs that declared in Spanish that a strike was on.

Movement evolved

Daria Vera, 69, was raised in the agricultural fields of the Rio Grande Valley, picking tomatoes, melons, bell peppers and cucumber. She spent 10 hours a day in the fields without bathrooms or cold water. In September, 1965, the Delano grape strike and boycott in California had begun, and soon rumors had begun of a possible strike in deep South Texas.

Still, many people were afraid to oppose the powerful growers, Vera said. When the strike did come, she remembers, she was roughed up by law enforcement and arrested. She and the other strikers survived on the money and donations of union members from across the country.

"There were some in the community who called us lazy. They said we didn't want to work," Vera recalled. "I'd tell them thanks to those lazy people you're earning what you are."

What started in the fields of Starr County evolved, and soon the farmworkers were marching 490 miles to Austin. The Texas farmworker and Chicano movement was born. Yet state officials, including then-Gov. John Connally, refused to yield to the farmworkers' demands.

Back then, Ed Krueger, 85, had been hired on by the Texas Council of Churches, an association of Protestant churches, to keep an eye on escalating tensions in Starr County. In the early days of the strike a Texas Ranger grabbed him by the collar and said "Krueger, you ain't no preacher; you're a troublemaker," the octogenarian told the people at Wednesday's ceremony.

Magdaleno Dimas lost his life to the farmworker movement. His daughter, Bertha Dimas, 45, was a toddler when he was beaten to death in 1973. His killing was never solved. These days, Dimas keeps her father's dream alive through her volunteer work with the children of migrant farmworkers.

During the anniversary celebration, Dimas carried a black-and-white photo of her father.

"The history of that time was pushed aside because of the violence," she said. "But they will never be forgotten."

United Farm Workers leader Cesar Chavez sent union representatives to establish a presence in the Lone Star State. And in 1970, the Texas Legislature approved a state minimum wage of $1.25, and in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Texas Rangers had deprived farmworkers of their constitutional rights.

'This is bittersweet'

The UFW in Texas went on to spur other state legislation to improve safety and working conditions for farmworkers in the state. But the struggle of that time does not appear in public school text books, and the hard-fought gains of those brave men and women have eroded, Valley residents say.

"If you were to reduce this to one word, this is bittersweet," said Jose G. Villagran, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. Villagran is studying the working conditions of migrant farmworkers. "It's one thing to have a minimum wage law, it's another thing to have it enforced. Texas farmworkers continue getting paid among the worst in the country."
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A Honduran woman infected with Zika gave birth in New Jersey to a baby girl with birth defects caused by the virus, her doctor said Wednesday.

The infant is the second born in the United States with birth defects from the mosquito-borne virus. The first was born in Hawaii to a woman who had lived in Brazil, where the Zika epidemic began in the Americas.

The Honduran woman's baby was delivered premature by cesarean section Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Center, said Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, the hospital's director of maternal-fetal medicine and surgery.

The doctor said the 31-year-old mother was diagnosed with Zika in her native Central American country. She traveled to New Jersey, where she has family, to seek further treatment, he said. Hospital officials stressed that neither the mother nor the baby poses an infectious risk to others.

Al-Khan said the mother had a normal ultrasound early in her pregnancy, and that another one last week showed birth defects, including microcephaly, in which the baby's head is smaller than expected because the brain hasn't developed properly. He said there was a "medical need" for delivering the baby at about 35 weeks of gestation, more than a month shy of full term.

Al-Khan said the prognosis for babies born with microcephaly, which also can signal underlying brain damage, is "generally very poor."

The mother is "hanging in there" said Al-Khan. "But of course what human being isn't going to be devastated by this news?"

The Zika virus causes a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people. In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there was enough evidence to declare that Zika causes microcephaly and other brain defects.

Ten countries have reported cases of microcephaly linked to Zika, which is spread primarily through mosquito bites and can also be transmitted through sex. The baby born in Hawaii also had microcephaly.

The CDC and the World Health Organization have recommended that pregnant women avoid traveling to Zika-affected countries.

So far, all the nearly 600 cases of Zika infection reported in the U.S. have been connected to travel to outbreak areas - none were locally transmitted. Of that tally, 168 are pregnant women.
The United States carried out a drone strike last week in Somalia, targeting Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, a senior leader in the al-Shabab militant group, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

The Defense Department is assessing whether the May 27 strike killed Da'ud. Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement that, if confirmed, his death "will disrupt near-term attack planning, potentially saving many innocent lives."

According to Cook, Da'ud was one of Shabab's "senior military planners" and helped coordinate attacks in Somalia, Kenya and Uganda.

"He held several positions of authority within the terrorist organization over the years, including head of the Amniyat, al-Shabaab's security and intelligence branch," Cook said.

On Wednesday, al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack on a downtown Mogadishu hotel. The car bomb, which detonated outside the hotel's gate, killed at least 10 people.

In March, the Pentagon carried out a series of strikes on al-Shabab, one of which targeted Hassan Ali Dhoore, a senior leader in the organization and a member of al-Qaida. Earlier that month, a series of U.S. airstrikes killed at least 150 people after targeting what U.S. officials described as an al-Shabab training camp. The strike, which took place in Raso, a village approximately 120 miles north of Mogadishu, was the deadliest strike on the terror group in more than a decade. It is unclear whether there were civilian casualties.

Al-Shabab, which means "the youth" in Arabic, pledged allegiance to al-Qaida in 2012. Despite the rise and appeal of the Islamic State, the group has remained mostly insulated from the rival terrorist organization's influence.

The United States started striking al-Shabab in 2008. Before that, the United States had targeted only al-Qaida figures in Somalia in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Despite the repeated killings of al-Shabab's leadership, the organization has remained active throughout the region, ambushing African Union troops in Somalia and Kenya and carrying out attacks on civilian targets, such as hotels and airliners.
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TOKYO - Mitsubishi Materials Corp., one of dozens of Japanese companies that used Chinese forced laborers during World War II, reached a settlement covering thousands of victims Wednesday that includes compensation and an apology.

The deal was signed in Beijing with three former workers representing the company's more than 3,000 Chinese victims of forced labor, Mitsubishi Materials said in a statement.

The victims were among about 40,000 Chinese brought to Japan in the early 1940s as forced laborers to make up for a domestic labor shortage. Many died due to violence and malnutrition amid harsh treatment by the Japanese.

Under the settlement, Mitsubishi Materials will pay $15,000 to each of the Chinese victims and their families. The victims were forced to work at 10 coal mines operated by Mitsubishi Mining Corp., as Mitsubishi Materials was known at the time.

Mitsubishi Materials said it would try to locate all of the victims. The company's payments would total $56 million if all of them come forward.

Most hailed the settlement as a victory for their cause.

"World War II ended 70 years ago. Our forced labor case today has finally come to a resolution. We have won this case. This is a big victory that merits a celebration," One of the victims, Yan Yucheng, 87, told reporters.

Representatives of other ex-laborers, however, said they weren't convinced Mitsubishi Materials' apology was sincere, citing a desire by Japanese firms to ease widespread anti-Japan sentiment among Chinese, many of whom feel the country has yet to show true contrition for its invasion and wartime atrocities.

"The company did it not for reconciliation, but to try to relieve the pressure on the Japanese government," said Kang Jian, a lawyer representing 60 former workers who filed a case against Mitsubishi Materials in a Chinese court.

Responding to the settlement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing would pay close attention to how Japan deals with such matters.

"China urges Japan to adopt a responsible attitude and properly handle the relevant issue of history," Hua said at a briefing.

At the signing ceremony, held at a downtown Beijing hotel, Mitsubishi Materials "expressed its sincere apologies regarding its historical responsibility to the former laborers and the apologies were accepted by the three former laborers," the company's statement said. It promised to "continue to seek a comprehensive and permanent solution with all of its former laborers and their families."

Mitsubishi Materials also said it would construct memorials at the sites where the company's mines were located and organize memorial ceremonies.

The settlement comes two years after several groups representing the victims and their families filed a compensation lawsuit against Mitsubishi Materials. The sides negotiated a deal, though one of the groups, representing 37 plaintiffs, rejected the settlement that was finally reached, according to Japan's Kyodo News agency.

Japan's government has long insisted that all wartime compensation issues were settled under the postwar peace treaties, and that China waived its right to pursue compensation under the 1972 treaty with Japan that established diplomatic relations between Beijing and Tokyo.

Lawsuits filed in Japan by Chinese and Korean victims of Japanese wartime aggression, including former forced laborers and sex slaves, had previously been rejected.

Japan's Foreign Ministry acknowledged the country's wartime use of Chinese forced laborers after wartime documents were found in the early 1990s.

The settlement announced Wednesday is the first ever that Mitsubishi Materials has reached with former forced laborers. At least two other Japanese construction companies - Kajima Corp. and Nishimatsu Co. - have taken similar steps to compensate smaller groups of victims.

Last year, Mitsubishi Materials apologized for its harsh treatment of former U.S. prisoners of war, who were also used by the company as forced laborers.
BANGKOK - Thai wildlife authorities found 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer Wednesday at the Tiger Temple, a controversial tourist attraction in western Thailand, and were investigating whether the carcasses were evidence of the temple's involvement in the illegal wildlife trade.

The discovery came as Thai wildlife rangers were removing adult tigers from the temple in an effort to shut down the attraction after receiving complaints the temple was trafficking in endangered species.
News / Africa

by Staff Reporter

Residents of the sleepy community of Lepashe are living in constant fear of an evil thokoloshi that continues to haunt a primary school in their small village.The Voice reported that remote village, which is located 30 kilometers east of Dukwi, has had its normally quiet, peaceful existence shattered by a powerful shape-shifting spirit that has bought death and despair to Lepashe.Fed up villagers informed The Voice that the sinister spirit has plagued the community for almost six years now, apparently taking refuge within Lepashe Primary School, turning the school's toilets into its lair.According to the villagers, mysterious, malicious events have taken place at the school  the most tragic being the death of a schoolgirl in 2011.The young girl was apparently attending weekend lessons at school when she was attacked by a hairy, dwarf-like creature.She instantly became sick and later died, allegedly as a result of the encounter.The previous year,a 6-year-old schoolgirl was struck by an invisible creature whilst visiting the toilets, rendering her traumatised and unable to speak.She was rushed to the hospital where she eventually regained her powers of speech.This happened again in 2013, when a female pupil using the toilet was attacked by a mysterious creature and temporarily lost her ability to speak.Two years later, another student claims to have seen a hairy creature reading an agriculture book while sitting on top of a table.In November of the same year, a different pupil allegedly saw a huge black snake coiled menacingly upon the same table.The spooky events have continued unabated this year, starting in February, when lightning struck a tree in the school grounds despite the fact that it was not raining.Then in March, a female cleaner at the school suffered a broken neck when she was repeatedly slapped by an invisible being whilst cleaning the toilets.David Simon, a security guard who has worked at the school for the past six years nervously confirmed the incidents, adding that the thokolosi only attacks females.It is against this bizarre backdrop that desperate villagers are seeking social and spiritual help in order to restore sanity and calm to the school, as Lepashe Village Development Committee secretary,Gosaitse Ditaetso, explains, "We have written letters to Zion Christian Church (ZCC), Eloyi Church of Zion and Rara Spiritual Church seeking help."Ditaetso claimed that Eloyi have expressed a desire to help but added, "Unfortunately they do not have the transportation to get here.We have written a letter to the Tutume Sub-District Council seeking transport but they are yet to get back to us. Meanwhile our schoolgirls continue to suffer!"For his part, the village's Kgosi, Mmoloki Tshabisa appealed to well-wishers across the country for assistance in order to bring the Eloyi exorcists to the village."Thokolosi's are known to be sex-crazed creatures. Our worst fear is for it to start sexually abusing women and school girls in the village," lamented the traditional leader, unconsciously casting a nervous glance at his wife.
The city of Houston recently purchased 18 acres of vacant land in the Minnetex neighborhood of south Houston for the development of a new 120-bed state veterans' home.

Funding for the $35 million project is set to be split 65-35 between the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the state of Texas, said Carl Salazar, director of the city's Office of Veterans Affairs, with groundbreaking aimed for later this year.
Some politicians draw their inspiration from the Bible, others from philosophers, but last week District B Councilman Jerry Davis looked to rapper OT Genasis: "This deficit is way too high we need to cut it, cut it, cut it."

That was the attitude in City Hall as council members voted on the 2017 budget. Through a mix of one-time revenue sources, redirected TIRZ funds and tighter department budgets, City Council successfully bridged a projected $160 million deficit and passed a $2.3 billion general fund budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. It is $82 million less than the current budget. The quick and unanimous vote was music to the ears of City Hall observers who had grown accustomed to contentious budget fights under former Mayor Annise Parker, but Houston's real fiscal troubles won't be over until the fat lady sings, and this budget's $66.7 million unpaid pension obligations are looking mighty hefty.

So while the mayor and council members congratulate each other on a job well done, the fact of the matter is that this budget is anything but balanced.

Not only did City Hall fail to cover the actuarially required contributions for our public pensions, but the upcoming budget has taxpayers on the hook for $29 million more than last year. Overall, Houston owes about $6 billion in unfunded pension obligations.

There's nothing inherently wrong with defined benefit retirement systems. The problem that Houston faces stems from a 2001 pension deal that caused costs to spiral and created a growing debt pile that City Hall will one day have to pay off. These problems have been apparent for more than a decade. But the mayor and council have limited options because the underlying pension rules are controlled by the state Legislature.

Turner has said that he will have a pension reform plan ready before officials start filing bills in Austin this November, with a dedicated focus on reducing the pensions' unfunded obligations and reducing the annual cost to the city.

The mayor is saying all the right things, but what he doesn't say telegraphs another message.

As Chronicle reporter Mike Morris wrote last month, Houston's municipal employees' pension board recently spent $300,000 to buy out the contract of its executive director, Rhonda Smith, who had just received a contract extension. She was placed on paid leave Jan 20., removed on Feb. 29, and replaced the next day by David Long. That name is familiar to anyone following the sordid history of Houston's pension woes: Long helped make the actuarial presumptions back in 2001 that landed us in this mess.

Long also was blasted for taking dozens of junket trips and pushing pension changes that specifically benefitted city executives, such as himself.

Former mayors Parker and Bill White last week criticized the appointment of a man who helped orchestrate Houston's current pension problem and got paid handsomely for doing it.

Turner, on the other hand, has said that he doesn't care who is at the top.

He should. Negotiations only work if all parties are operating in good faith, and Long should have lost the faith of city officials more than a decade ago. Back in 2004 the Chronicle found that Long asked about raising pension benefits in the face of a billion dollar gap. That's not the attitude of someone who cares about the city's fiscal health.

At a time when "shared sacrifice" is the mayor's catchphrase, Houstonians should ask what, exactly, Long will give up in order to begin the financial healing. So far it looks like his questionable history is only being rewarded.

Turner needs to stop playing nice with the people who broke the city budget. It may be Kumbaya time in council chambers, but good feelings won't fix the pensions.
Rodger Mallison/MBR

Another day, another call for an investigation into chicanery by our elected officials in Austin. We already have the results from one investigation: two felony indictments against the state's top lawyer, Attorney General Ken Paxton, charging investment fraud. Now, two liberal advocacy groups, The Lone Star Project and Progress Texas, have called for investigations into some state agencies' practice of paying what appears to be hush money to employees who have been terminated or quit. Fortunately, this little scheme is so egregious it caught the eye of a governor who heretofore hasn't been all that eager to question some brazenly questionable actions by his fellow statewide officeholders.

Under this scheme, staffers continue collecting salaries - and accruing the benefits that go with a salary - sometimes for months after leaving their jobs, according to an investigation by the Chronicle's Brian M. Rosenthal. The awkward wrinkle is that severance pay is not allowed under state employment rules, so officials have been classifying these payments as "emergency leave," which is meant for employees who need time off for an "emergency," such as an illness or death in the family. "Leave" indicates that the employee will be returning to work. Neither of these conditions is met when someone quits or is fired - there is no emergency and the employee is being paid for not working. In fact, some officials were surprisingly straightforward in explaining their motives: The terminated employees were paid to accept their fates quietly and promise not to sue.
Hispanic voting power

Regarding "Artist blends politics, printing" (Page A3, Monday), Cruz Ortiz's effort to increase Mexican voter turn-out at the Texas State Democratic Convention with his artistic talent is a worthy and noble cause. However, Ortiz should not narrow his efforts to solely promoting the Democratic Party and its candidates. He intimates that voting for Democrats in local and national elections is the panacea for what troubles Mexican-Americans.

It is my earnest hope that Ortiz expand his talents and his horizon to reaching out to the GOP for some of the answers that ails Mexican-Americans. Let's not look at the GOP as the root cause of our troubles.

Mike Gonzales, Houston

Socialist nightmare

Regarding "In Venezuela, grocery lines last for hours" (Page A14, Wednesday), the photo of Caracans in a long grocery queue sequenced by their government-issued ID numbers is most illuminating.

Even as legions flock to Bernie Sanders for his determination to deliver socialism, Winston Churchill's quote about that political system is demonstratively most appropriate: "The socialist dream is no longer Utopia, but Queue-topia!"

J. Reynolds, Houston

Manage airport security

Regarding "Airport screenings" (Page A39, Sunday), the TSA, like so many other governmental bureaucracies, e.g., the Veterans Administration, United States Postal Service, the agencies that administer Medicare and Medicaid and the vaunted U.S. military, has morphed into a self-serving, self perpetuating organization run primarily for its own benefit, its own personnel and its own self-aggrandizement.

A few weeks ago, at Love Field in Dallas, it took me 1.5 hours to get through the security line. I missed my flight, as did many others. As a result, I was seriously inconvenienced to say the least.

Now, as is predictable, TSA is whining about the need for more money and pointing a finger at Congress, at the airlines and at the passengers themselves.

TSA does not need more money. Just as with the VA, the USPS, etc., it needs better management, better use of resources, less feather-bedding and in particular, more work from its agents.

Paul B. Radelat, Houston

Clean house at Baylor

Regarding "Baylor's Kenneth Starr resigning as "a matter of conscience" (HoustonChronicle.com, Wednesday), it is good to read that Kenneth Starr has resigned as chancellor of Baylor University, but Baylor's reputation will forever be tainted by the fact that the board of regents did not have the courage to fire him from that position.

If they really want to clean up the Baylor mess, the entire board of regents should also resign.

Robert White, Houston

Transparency all around

Regarding "Americans' reluctance to reveal salaries might hinder equal pay efforts" (HoustonChronicle.com, May 31), I agree: Employers should post everyone's salary on the bulletin board.

Just like public employees, there is no reason to hide what you pay each person in the company. I don't know if a law is needed, but I wonder what reason is there for keeping any salary a secret?

Eugene Baker, posted on HoustonChronicle.com
The recent defeat in Austin of an industry-proposed ride-sharing ordinance has once again raised the issue of how best to regulate companies like Uber and Lyft. This debate has largely been pitched as taxis vs. ride-sharing. The old vs. the new. The reality however, is that replacing one anti-competitive industry with another is a false choice.

The regulatory framework that governs all vehicles-for-hire has deep flaws that need to be fundamentally corrected to create a modern 21st century transportation system. This debate is less about taxis or Uber and more about what kind of regulations are needed to protect citizens while recognizing the critical public safety need for more transportation options.

Historically, taxis have been one of the most heavily regulated local industries. City governments have restricted everything from the number of taxi licenses issued to whether a driver can use a cellphone while operating a vehicle. The list can be quite long and intrusive. Ride-sharing companies often argue that these regulations are unnecessary. After all, no other industry is subject to this level of restriction. Municipalities place no restrictions on the number of fast-food restaurants, nor do they require background checks for cable employees entering people's homes. So why vehicles-for-hire?

The simple reason is the quasi-public function they serve. While private businesses, vehicles-for-hire serve a distinct public transportation function that is unique and still necessary in our society. They are an extension of the city in welcoming visitors, transporters of last resort for transit-dependent populations, and a critical safety valve for impaired drivers. They are simply not the same as a fast-food franchise or the cable company. They are a critical part of a community's transportation network.

If we accept the need for some restrictions, the obvious question is: what kind? Public safety, access protections and insurance requirements seem obvious. We have a high expectation of safety and security when using a vehicle-for-hire, and having fingerprint-based criminal background checks to determine basic eligibility to drive is important. But even those restrictions should be relatively limited.

While we can agree we don't want those convicted of serious crimes driving, we need to be more flexible to allow individuals who have paid their debt to society to be employed. Similarly, having broad insurance requirements is a critical need to ensure general public safety and avert catastrophic medical costs. We can't have accidents with uninsured passengers or drivers. Finally, there should be no debate over the need to protect access to transit services. All people, regardless of neighborhood, should have access to vehicle-for-hire services.

The most critical thing, however, is a broad deregulation of entrants into the marketplace. We have to make it easier to be a driver, whether for a taxi or ride-sharing service. Supply has to increase. No state in the country needs more transit options than Texas, and no city needs it more than Houston.

High growth in Texas combined with a plentiful supply of alcohol gives the state the dubious distinction of having all five of its major cities at the top of national DUI statistics. In Houston, unfettered development has led to the rapid growth of city and county, with limited transit options. Houston has the distinction of being the most car-dependent large city in the country. With a parking ordinance that encourages driving and with the largest number of bars and restaurants in the state of Texas, Harris County leads the nation in DUI fatalities. We need to get drunk drivers out of their cars.

It's important to look at the need for regulatory changes in this broad context. Public safety encompasses passenger protection as well as DUI prevention. Too often, we look at policy and regulatory development in an individual silo, failing to factor in the larger consequences. Regulatory reform is needed and can benefit all sectors in the vehicle-for-hire market. Most important, it can increase public safety and the quality of life for all citizens. What's needed is a comprehensive review of the regulations, one that recognizes our changing city. We can and should create efficient and effective regulations that protect all Houstonians.

Aiyer is an assistant professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Texas Southern University's Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs.
Sometimes, pollution is criminal. Usually, pollution occurs because of poor maintenance or a lack of investment in pollution-control equipment.

Once in a while, though, it is done with extreme negligence or malice. The Texas Supreme Court recently assured the city of Houston that it can protect the health of its residents from air pollution in civil court. It just can't charge polluters with a crime.

More than six months ago, when the city's Air Pollution Abatement Act was first up for discussion at our state's highest court, we urged city officials to take protecting public health seriously. "Finding the courage to fight air pollution" (Aug. 31, 2015, chron.com) We asked then-Mayor Annise Parker to put city resources into enforcing basic public health laws like violations of air pollution regulations (but also leaking sewers and overflowing dumpsters). We urged the city to "catch the crooks" - including the environmental crooks.

Last month, the Texas Supreme Court agreed - the city's Air Pollution Abatement ordinance allows the city to catch those environmental crooks, but does not allow for criminal enforcement. In other words, the Air Pollution Abatement Act can stand, but the city can't charge violators with a crime in municipal court.

This should be no surprise - a city's main interest is in protecting its citizens, whether it be from violent crime or pollution that is toxic to breathe and ingest. But environmental violations should carry the same penalty in city or state court - and violators should not be charged twice. But here's the rub: The court took not only the city's criminal violation, it took something else, too: the city's money.

The Texas Supreme Court eliminated the city's funding mechanism for enforcement, a registration fee that polluters paid allowing them to operate. This is another blow to our strained budget. And that blow is real. In 2007 and 2008, the city saw that the state budget was underfunding air quality inspectors and responded by creating a self-funded program. But the Texas Supreme Court believes the city cannot collect that fee without undoing industry's right to pollute under its permit.

All is not lost. Mayor Sylvester Turner has means to enforce all the laws - including the environmental laws. This is basic governance. No matter a person's political persuasion, a call to enforce the law - all the laws - is usually met with agreement.

What we need is some smart city attorneys to get involved.

First, Turner should take the court at its word and develop an attorney-led task force to start bringing civil suits for violations of state law. It won't take many. Big Industry, including its trade association BCCA Appeal Group, Inc., often knows which pipes are leaking, or which facilities have foregone maintenance cycles only to emit dirtier air. City attorneys should start by asking big polluters for a fix. If the fix doesn't come, they should file suit. If the suit is successful, the city gets its attorneys' fees and the state gets any penalties collected. That money would go to state coffers and, we hope, fund more state inspectors. This is what makes the court's elimination of the city's funding mechanism so painful. The state can't fund enough inspectors, but if city attorneys go out to do the work, the fees from penalties go back to the state. This might be difficult to swallow, but the city should do the right thing by enforcing the law, recouping the time for its attorneys, and providing that revenue to the state in the hopes that other programs are better funded.

Second, Turner should not reinvent the wheel. We know our most vulnerable communities - the communities most at risk with more heart attacks and more asthma attacks caused by polluting neighbors. A Rice University study, funded in part with a grant from the Houston Endowment, demonstrated by ZIP code correlations between health and bad air.

We should focus resources there first. Send an attorney out with the public health inspector and let the citizens know that all of Houston's laws will be enforced. You shouldn't get less protection from dirty air or leaking pipes based on where you live or work.

As nonprofit advocates, we understand working within tight budgets. We also understand the city's resources force tough decisions on priorities. But we believe the city can target communities most in need and ensure compliance with basic public health and safety laws.

Powis is an environmental attorney working with nonprofits and industry. Shelley is executive director of Air Alliance Houston.
The Houston Police Department is asking members of the public who have family or loved ones buried in Pine Lawn Cemetery to check their headstones for missing items.

Authorities said they have recovered multiple items from a rash of cemetery thefts in the area but have not identified the victims.

Anyone who discovers missing items should contact Houston police at 417-967-5558.
Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print.

Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition.

If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

The Zimbabwe Peace Project has claimed that poverty levels are escalating in Hwange as Hwange Colliery workers have gone for two years without full pay.The organisation said food situation remained critical."Incidents of partisan distribution were on the increase. Poverty levels in Hwange and the resultant social ills persisted as the workers have now gone for two years without salaries," ZPP reported."Colliery workers are now in conflict with their Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) counterparts whom they accuse of taking their spouses as the ZESA workers have money."The ZPP said on a positive note the Zambezi River gained significant inflows and people in Binga are now catching more fish for sale and their own consumption."Lupane District saw continued increase in numbers of suspected Central Intelligence Operatives," reported ZPP.
t weeks after one receptionist was sent home for refusing to wear high heels, the Australian arm of PwC has officially abolished its traditional employee dress code.The two are not linked but I dont mind the timing, insisted Sue Horlin, who starts as human capital leader at PwC Australia next month.Sydney-based Horlin says the move is actually about keeping up with what industry competitors can offer as well as driving innovation at the firm.The reality is we are in a war for talent and we want the same creative, innovative and diverse people that all the other companies are chasing, she said. We think this change will help us do that.Previously, men were expected to wear fine knitwear, smart shirts with collars, tailored trousers, traditional suits and dress shoes or boots.Women had to wear similar attire, with additional options of tailored dresses, shirts, smart shirts or blouses and business-style shoes or boots.Now, Horlin says the official guidelines will be removed with bosses placing more trust in employees judgement.Its not a dress up or dress down policy  all we are asking our people to do is think about what they are doing each day, who they are doing it with, and dress in a way that reflects that, said Horlin.We trust our people to use their judgement and common sense, and we firmly believe this small but symbolic gesture will help people be more comfortable, more confident and therefore deliver fantastic service to our clients, she added.
A photographer has captured the very moment when a mom realized her baby was not the sex she was expecting.

Koto Nakamura and her husband Sina Niakansafy, from Tasmania, Australia, were told they were having a girl. The couple chose the name Hinata for their daughter and had been showered with pink gifts in anticipation of her arrival. However, it turns out Nakamura's ultrasound tech was wrong in predicting the sex of her baby.

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When the mom gave birth to a baby boy, she was beyond surprised, and her birth photographer, Jessica Jackson, captured the priceless moment on camera.





At first Nakamura didn't believe the news. "I thought everyone was joking," she told Today.com. "I lost words and I couldn't believe it until I saw his bottom."

Despite the big surprise, the new mom and her husband are happy with their baby boy. "I was shocked for a few seconds, and then it didn't matter if it was a girl or a boy," she said.

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The couple named their son Taiga, a Japanese name meaning "big and gracious."





Speaking about her experience in the delivery room, photographer Jackson told Today.com: "This was one of the most amazing moments  a roller coaster of emotions in just a few short minutes. Pure shock, disbelief, excitement, happiness and relief. This is the reason why birth photography is so important."

Jackson, the owner of Itty Bitty Photography, has since shared her photo of Nakamura's surprise on her Instagram account where it has received hundreds of likes and positive comments.

"The many faces of motherhood," one user joked.

Another said: "Yes!!!! I was told at 32 weeks I was having a girl and out popped a BOY!! Beautiful surprise! I was always warned they get the 'girl' wrong sometimes."

Q13Fox reports that predicting the wrong sex of a baby can happen as frequently as one out of 10 times. This is because there are a number of factors at play.

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"It depends on how the baby is situated in the uterus," sonographer Catherine E. Rienzo, of the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography in Texas, said. "Sometimes it's not that easy. Size of the uterus, abdominal scars, position of the baby and other factors that can play into it. If it's a male and the testicles haven't descended, it can look like a female. It's not 100 per cent."

Dr. Yvonne Bohn, a Los Angeles-based obstetrician/gynecologist, agreed. "The biggest reason for error is that it's simply too early for the technician or doctor to see the gender clearly," Bohn wrote on The Bump. "Very early on, it's possible for a tailbone to get mistaken for a penis or a bum to resemble a vulva."

Generally, couples wait 20 weeks to find out if they're having a boy or girl. According to Bohn, an ultrasound tech should be able to tell the baby's sex with "about 95 per cent accuracy" at that time.

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A routine caesarean section turned into a life-changing experience for one mom after she woke up to find that both her legs had been amputated.

The incident occurred in December 2015, but UK mom Ella Clarke only recently opened up about her experience.

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During her pregnancy, Clarke was diagnosed with placenta previa, which occurs when the placenta partially or entirely covers the moms cervix. This condition is known to cause complications during childbirth, so Clarke was scheduled for a C-section to deliver her eighth baby.

Previously, the 31-year-old mom had had one vaginal birth and six C-sections, so she was not concerned about the procedure. It was the first time I'd suffered from placenta previa but I wasn't nervous about being cut open again to have a baby, as I was a pro by now, she told the Daily Mail.

Woman ends up with both legs amputated due to Csection complication #TODAYhttps://t.co/KZHGpOjZ2Apic.twitter.com/Vb7P6mLkHG  Report UK (@ReportUK) May 30, 2016

Clarkes daughter, Winter Rose, was born safe and healthy at Torbay Hospital, but unfortunately, during surgery, the mom suffered a serious complication called placenta accreta.

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This complication is common among women who have had previous caesareans and became a hot topic last year after Kim Kardashian revealed that she had suffered the same condition while pregnant with her first child North West.

Placenta accreta occurs when the placenta embeds too deeply into the uterine wall. When this happens, the placenta does not detach after childbirth, which can lead to severe blood loss.

While on the operating table, Clarke lost six litres of blood. She then received five blood transfusions and medical staff performed an emergency hysterectomy to save her life. The new mom was then placed in an induced coma.

Im a shadow of my former self and my kids are scared to cuddle me because my stumps frighten them.

Blood clots are common following surgery, which is why the medical staff was supposed to check on Clarke every hour. However, this did not happen and the mom was allegedly left unattended for six hours, the Torquay Herald Express reports. A clot formed in her legs.

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By the time the clot was discovered, nothing could be done to restore circulation and the moms legs had to be amputated below the knee. Clarke woke up from her coma five days later.

I remember the moment. I thought I was waking up from my C-section, Clarke said. I expected my beautiful little baby girl to be passed to me. I had no idea Id been in a coma.

The reality started to hit home when Winter Rose was placed in my arms and my restricted future flashed before me, the mom continued. Im a shadow of my former self and my kids are scared to cuddle me because my stumps frighten them.

Torquay mum gives birth - and wakes up to find her legs amputated https://t.co/Ydf0Gxnhkjpic.twitter.com/jBlyVmogqt  Herald Express (@TQHeraldExpress) May 29, 2016

Clarke received counselling and prosthetic legs before she left the hospital. However, she is now bound to a wheelchair and is still grappling with this traumatic experience.

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Going into hospital to have a baby should have been the best moment of my life, she told the Torquay Herald Express. I went from being an active mom to instantly wheelchair bound. I couldn't stop crying.

Clarkes partner, Ian Ross, said he was also devastated by what had happened. When doctors told me what they had to do, my heart sank, he said. But I was just happy she survived. Im now more hands-on around the house. Ill do whatever it takes to get back to our happy place.

This has impacted us far worse than you can ever imagine.

Clarke and Ross have since received an apology from Torbay Hospital.

I have eight children to look after, what life can I have now? Clarke said. This has impacted us far worse than you can ever imagine.

The UK couple has eight children in total: Abbie, 13, Holly, 8, Heidi, 7, Blossom, 5, Oakley, 4, Izzy, 3, Freddie, 2, and newborn Winter.

A spokesperson for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Torbay Hospital, also released a statement saying: We would like to offer our sympathy to Ms C. We are carrying out a full and thorough investigation and at this time it is not appropriate for us to make further comment.

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News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Harare Residents Trust has reported that numerous deaths caused by commuter omnibuses in the capital city are now a cause for concern for the residents who now fear for their safety."The deaths of people at the hands of kombis in the central business district in Harare should be a cause for urgent concern, Residents," the tryst said. "Should the Municipal and State Police be chasing after fleeing kombi drivers operating at undesignated points in order to arrest the drivers? Or the law enforcement agents should just take note of the vehicle registration numbers and and pursue them using the personal details stored at the central vehicle registry (CVR)?"The trust said lawlessness should never be tolerated by the authorities and the citizens."When this happens, the owners of the kombis breaking the law and causing unnecessary congestion in the central business district will know that they have a duty and obligation to abide by the city by-laws and State laws relating to traffic regulations. What should our Councillors and MPs do regarding this situation? Talking opens up opportunities to find lasting solutions," said the trust.
OTTAWA  The Liberal government waved a white flag Thursday, changing course on its democratic reform plans and handing the opposition a majority on a committee that will recommended changes to the electoral system.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters that he took to heart complaints that his government was behaving in a way that resembled the "previous government's" approach rather than the tone the Liberals had promised during the election campaign.

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"We saw clearly that the approach was raising questions in the minds of many Canadians and indeed opposition parties about how genuine our will is to work with opposition parties," Trudeau said of the Liberals' initial plan to stack the committee with a majority of Grit MPs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to a reporters question following an announcement at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Ottawa. (Photo: Adrian Wyld/CP)

The Liberals were elected on a platform of "collaboration, openness, working together and building consensus," he said, and that remains the focus.

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It's clear, Canadians hold his government to "a high standard, Trudeau added. He was "happy to demonstrate"  by backing an NDP motion giving the opposition MPs the balance of power  that the government is serious about respecting all members of Parliament and working collaboratively on issues.

The prime minister stopped short, however, of committing to hold a referendum.

"We've seen often that referenda are often a way to prevent change from happening," Trudeau said, noting that the Liberals were committed to fulfilling an electoral promise that the 2015 election would be the last under the current first-past-the-post system.

'Arrogant and elitist': Ambrose

Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose said Trudeau's explanation for refusing a referendum was one of the "most arrogant and elitist things" she had ever heard.

The only thing that he is stopping is the right for Canadians to have a say in what their vote means, she said during question period.

The process "used to be a sham" and now the government was arguing it was "less of a sham" because a "secret" "backroom" deal had been hatched with the NDP, she said.

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Tory critic warns of 'trap'

Conservative democratic institutions critic Scott Reid was livid Thursday morning when he found out about the changes. The Grits and the NDP cooked up this plan behind the Tories' back and now the New Democrats can't see they have fallen into a "Liberal trap," he said.

Reid said he still believes the "fix is in" and that the Liberals are trying to change the way MPs are elected because they know they can't win next time under the current rules.

"They are trying to steal the next election," he said.

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef answers a question in the House of Commons this week. (Photo: The Canadian Press)

Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef  who has been berated in the national media for her treatment of the electoral reform file so far  seemed genuinely relieved to be announcing a change of course.

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"We were elected on a promise to do politics differently. That means co-operating, that means recognizing that good ideas can come from all parties," she said in the Commons.

The Liberal government promises to engage Canadians, to recommend changes in the House and to allow all members to debate and vote, Monsef said. "We will not move forward on changes without the consent of Canadians."

Monsef said the government would support the NDP motion which transfers power on the committee from a majority of Liberal MPs to a majority of opposition members by giving the NDP a Liberal seat and making the Bloc Quebecois and the Greens full voting members.

"We were elected on a promise to do politics differently. That means co-operating, that means recognizing that good ideas can come from all parties."  Maryam Monsef

"Who has the committee majority has never been my key priority," Monsef told MPs.

The changes mean the government gives up control over the process. It's a complete 180-degree turn after being widely panned for appearing ready to change the electoral map unilaterally.

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The government always intended for the voices of Bloc and the Greens be included in the consultation process, Monsef said. But she had recently been "persuaded" that an additional way to show the government's commitment to inclusivity was to "break with tradition."

"Hopefully this will assure members that the government comes to this process with an open mind," she said.

Monsef also tabled a friendly amendment asking the committee to recommend "the best method of ensuring that any proposal has the full or broad support of Canadians."

That leaves the door open for the Tories and the Bloc on the committee to recommend a referendum, the NDP and the Greens to argue one isn't needed, and, perhaps, the Liberals to say there is no agreement between the parties.

Monsef: 'Co-operation in this place is possible'

The committee studying electoral reform will now be composed of five Liberals MPs, three Conservatives, two NDP members, one Bloc Quebecois MP and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

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The Liberals had initially suggested they be given six seats, the Tories three seats and one seat to the NDP. The Bloc and the Greens would have been allowed to participate in the debate but not vote.

Monsef said she wants to see the committee get going.

"The purpose of coming together with the parties across the aisle today was to demonstrate that co-operation in this place is possible," she later told reporters.

A government source said the Liberals backtracked because the minister felt electoral reform was stuck in an "unproductive partisan debate" about the process.

'Let's rock and roll'

NDP democratic institutions critic Nathan Cullen, who had introduced the original motion, praised the Liberals for their course reversal and for negotiating in "good faith."

"I feel that this is a good day," he told reporters.

Cullen had previously argued the government had stacked the deck in its favour. He argued changing the committees make-up would ensure its recommendations had "more legitimacy in the eyes of Canadians."

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NDP MP's Nathan Cullen and Alexandre Boulerice hold a press conference to comment on the government's announcement on electoral reform at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 11, 2016. (Photo: Sean Kilpatrick/CP)

"Credibility is at the heart of this whole conversation," he said Thursday.

If the committee was able to work collaboratively and collegially, Cullen said, he didn't think a referendum was required. But, he noted, there was language in the amended motion that allows for that consultative process to take place.

"Let's rock and roll," Cullen said, after the minister's announcement.

The Conservatives had previously agreed with the NDP's suggestion that the committee make-up should change, the party noted.

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In a fundraising note Thursday evening, the NDP said it had won an "important victory" but now it needs money to help fight for a proportional voting system.

May, whose party also supports a proportional system, praised the Liberals' decision of putting "Canada ahead of partisanship" by removing its majority on the electoral reform committee.

"I am gratified that the government has accepted parliamentary tradition that it is not unusual for members of smaller parties to be full members on committees," she said, in a statement.

Bloc spokeswoman Julie Groleau said their party was pleased to have new voting rights on the committee but also believes a referendum is necessary.

"The right to vote belongs to citizens so it's up to them to decide what they prefer in terms of an electoral system," she said.

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The NDP motion will be voted on early next week. It calls for the committee to begin its work within 10 sitting days, possibly in late June.

Trudeau speaks to reporters in Ottawa about the change of heart on the electoral reform committee:

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French's ketchup is already made with tomatoes grown out of Canadian soil.

Now, any product sold in stores will be bottled ON Canadian soil.

French's has partnered with Toronto-based company Select Food Products Ltd. to bottle any ketchup that will hit shelves in Canada, it announced in a Thursday news release.

The company spent months looking for food manufacturers to help it produce their ketchup, which became popular with Canadians after a social media post pointed out that it was made using tomatoes harvested from the Great White North.

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That's unlike condiment giant Heinz, which ended production at Highbury Canco, a Leamington, Ont.-based food-processing plant, in 2014, before French's moved in.

The partnership with Select Food Products will see a new facility opened early next year.

"The French's Food Company's goal is to continue to source additional materials including packaging and labels from local Canadian manufacturers," the news release said.

"One-hundred per cent of French's Ketchup sold and served in restaurants will be grown and manufactured in Canada."

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French's has also expanded its partnership with Highbury Canco, the owner of the Leamington plant where tomatoes are sourced and tomato paste is produced for its ketchup.

They will now develop two new, undisclosed products that will be launched in 2017.

"One-hundred per cent of French's Ketchup sold and served in restaurants will be grown and manufactured in Canada."

French's trails at least one competitor when it comes to its Canadian-ness.

Back in April, Ruthven, Ont.-based company Primo Food released a sell sheet touting its own, "100 per cent Truly Canadian" ketchup.

The company noted that it uses tomatoes grown in Leamington, and that the product is made with "Canadian labour, Canadian packaging, Canadian ownership" and "Canadian pride."

Primo is testing its ketchup in various southwestern Ontario stores with the hope that it can cash in on the condiment war.

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You've likely heard the stereotypes about millennials: they're lazy, entitled and unwilling to do what it takes to succeed.

A human resources consulting company has a simple instruction for that narrative:

Manpower, a company based in Milwaukee, Wis., released a study last week that shows that millennials are anything but lazy.

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One of its most fascinating findings surrounded hours worked in a week. Seventy-three per cent of millennials surveyed said they work more than 40 hours a week, and almost a quarter of them said they work over 50 hours.

The numbers varied by country  and some of the results were surprising.

Greek workers, for example, have long been stereotyped as "lazy." But that perception doesn't hold water when you look at the country's millennials, who work an average of 47 hours per week  the same as Switzerland.

Meanwhile, millennials in France, a country recognized less for its hardworking nature than its work-life balance, put in an average of 44 hours per week.

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Both countries beat the United States (45 hours), Canada (42 hours), the U.K. and Australia (41 hours each).

But millennials aren't just willing to work more hours per week. Over half of them expect to work past 65 years old, the age at which you can collect Old Age Security (OAS) in Canada. And 12 per cent expect to work until they die.

In Japan, for example, 37 per cent of millennials believe they'll work until their final days, compared to 18 per cent in China, 15 per cent in Greece and 14 per cent in Canada.

Manpower surveyed 19,000 millennials in 25 countries, asking them what they look for in a job, and what kinds of development opportunities would keep them in their current positions.

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The report came as millennials are set to make up over one-third of the global workforce by 2020.

The cost of understanding millennials

It's a demographic that numerous employers are at pains to understand  enough that they're willing to pay big bucks in order to do so.

Companies such as Oracle, Coca-Cola and Goldman Sachs are paying millennial consultants as much as US$20,000 per hour so that management can communicate better with younger employees, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month.

Firms earmarked anywhere from $60 million to $70 million to understand millennials last year alone.

Expert tips

One expert, Lisa McLeod, charges $25,000 to give talks on millennials, and an additional $5,000 to watch her communicate with her 23-year-old daughter.

They offer tips such as bringing food into the office; better team-building activities; even nights out at the movies.

In other words, millennials aren't lazy. They just want something different from what companies are used to.

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So your plan on marrying Prince Harry isn't going so well and you're feeling like your dreams of achieving royal status are slowly plummeting. We feel you. But now, for a steep price, you may be able to get your hands on something a little different that will still make you feel like a princess.

Princess Diana's sea-green Catherine Walker evening gown, worn for the first time during a State visit to Austria in 1986, is now up for auction online at The-Saleroom.com.

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The sequined, figure-hugging gown, which features ruching down the centre and a front slit to the knee, is expected to be bid on for 100,000 British pounds, which is approximately $189,000 CDN (WHOA). The auctioning website notes Princess Di paired the gown with a diamond and emerald choker necklace, which she had been given as a wedding present by H.M. The Queen Mother. Talk about glamourous.

Diana, Princess of Wales attends a gala at the Vienna Burgh Theatre on April 14, 1986.

Just like her daughter-in-law, Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales wasn't afraid of outfit-repeating and wore this dress on multiple occasions, including to the Diamond Ball in 1990 and to the film premiere of "Biggles" in 1993.

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Diana, Princess Of Wales, Attending The Diamond Ball At The Royal Lancaster Hotel in 1990.

And this isn't the first time this Catherine Walker frock has been auctioned off. Believe it or not, Diana was the first to put it on the market in 1997, just three months before she was killed in a car accident in Paris. It was sold again in 2013 for $131,000.

Other pieces from Diana's wardrobe that are set to be put on sale include her teal tartan Emanuel B. Couture coatdress, worn when she visited Italy with Prince Charles in 1985. If you're looking for the more affordable option, we'd say start your bids on this piece, as it's expected to be priced around a low $19,000 CDN.

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales during a trip to Venice, Italy in 1985.

BRB, calling all our relatives for money so we can get our hands on this piece of royal history.

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Princess Diana's Style See Gallery
Opposition MPs have called out Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion for keeping quiet as his Chinese counterpart publicly admonished a Canadian journalist after she asked about the country's human rights record.

At a joint press conference with Dion at the Global Affairs headquarters in Ottawa on Wednesday, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi called iPolitics journalist Amanda Connolly "irresponsible" for asking about the imprisonment of Canadian citizen Kevin Garratt on espionage charges.

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China's foreign affairs minister Wang Yi and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion leave a joint press conference on June 1, 2016. (Photo: Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Wang said the journalist's inquiry was "full of prejudice" and arrogance against China, according to a translator. He angrily dismissed Connolly's question  asked on behalf of several news outlets  as "totally unacceptable."

Dion had told reporters earlier that he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised Garratt's case with Wang and had a "frank" discussion about human rights.

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In question period Thursday, NDP foreign affairs critic Helene Laverdiere said Dion just "stood by" as a Canadian reporter was "berated."

NDP critic: 'Our minister stayed silent'

"Freedom of the press is an important value for Canadians and yet our minister stayed silent," she said.

Laverdiere asked if the Liberal government would stand up for human rights and press freedom by joining with "so many Canadians" to criticize Wang's conduct.

Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, a parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister, did no such thing. Instead, she noted the meeting between Dion and Wang was about opening up a dialogue to advance mutual interests, and, "of course," human rights.

"This is an excellent beginning for discussing how to expand our strategic partnership for the benefit of all Canadians," Goldsmith-Jones said.

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Conservative critic also blasts Dion's response

Moments earlier, Conservative deputy foreign affairs critic Peter Kent asked what millions of Chinese citizens might make of Trudeau's "fresh start" with their government.

"We recall, of course, the prime minister's professed admiration for China's basic dictatorship," Kent said, harkening back to a years-old gaffe.

But in light of the foreign minister "angrily" refusing to answer human rights questions, Kent wondered if it was time to "rethink and re-calibrate" priorities on the China file.

"Even when we don't see eye-to-eye with each other, we believe that dialogue is the most effective way forward," Goldsmith-Jones said.

"Freedom of the press is an important value for Canadians and yet our minister stayed silent."

Kent also noted that Wang "furiously dressed down a journalist" for daring to ask about Garratt, who he says has been imprisoned on unsubstantiated charges.

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"The minister of foreign affairs stood by quietly and said he raised these issues behind closed doors," said the Tory critic. "Mr. Speaker, can the minister tell us then if the Chinese foreign minister was as angry, condescending, and disingenuous in his denials there and how the minister responded?"

Omar Alghabra, a parliamentary secretary in charge of consular affairs, suggested Tories wanted things both ways. On one hand they don't want the government talking with China  while on the other they say Liberals aren't talking enough, he said.

Alghabra added that "unlike the previous government," Liberals won't abandon Canadian citizens abroad. He said Dion won't stop until Garratt is back home safe.

Wang Yi and Dion participate in a press conference on June 1, 2016. (Photo: Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

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On Friday, Dion took to Twitter to laud Connolly for the questions.

To @amandacconn, thanks for questions and for demo what #pressfreedom means. Calling for #humanrights anywhere is everyone's prerogative 1/2  Stephane Dion (@MinCanadaFA) June 3, 2016

And your questions provided an immediate example, which I used in my meeting to highlight how important #humanrights are for Canadians 2/2  Stephane Dion (@MinCanadaFA) June 3, 2016

But it isn't just opposition MPs who are critical of Dion's response during that heated moment in front of the cameras.

Michael Petrou, a non-resident fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights, penned a column about the matter for the National Post, arguing that it would have been difficult for Dion to look "more subservient."

'Foundational freedom' attacked, columnist says

"His outburst may seem like a small thing, and compared to the treatment the Chinese government inflicts on dissident journalists in China, it is," Petrous writes of Wang. "And yet by telling a journalist what is or isn't an acceptable' question, he was attacking a foundational freedom of Canadian democracy: that of journalists to hold politicians accountable."

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Petrou also suggests silence from Trudeau on the matter takes a bit of the shine off a much-lauded campaign moment in which the Liberal leader scolded his own supporters for heckling a journalist.

"Hey! We have respect for journalists in this country," Trudeau said at the time. "They ask tough questions and they're supposed to. OK?"

I was honoured to receive Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi today, as we strengthen ties between our countries. pic.twitter.com/WjvrePiAlU  Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) June 1, 2016

CBC News has video of the exchange between Wang and the journalist:

With a file from The Canadian Press

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The Communications Security Establishment complex in Ottawa. Software that was supposed to remove identifying information from material the agency captured failed, meaning allies received data that Canadian laws say they should not see.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press Share

A federal spy agency inadvertently shared logs of Canadians' phone calls and Internet exchanges with intelligence allies such as the United States for years, a newly disclosed report says.

The revelation that the Communications Security Establishment compromised Canadians' privacy while sharing clandestinely captured data appears in a confidential watchdog's report obtained by The Globe and Mail from court filings related to a lawsuit against the Canadian government.

The report said software that was supposed to remove identifying information on Canadians from material CSE captured during international surveillance operations had failed. This meant that Canada's intelligence allies received data that Canadian laws say they should not see.

The 2015 report puts in sharper focus the spy agency's struggles to protect Canadians from foreign threats while also safeguarding individual citizens' privacy. The problem was first revealed publicly in January by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and CSE officials.

The confidential report was written by Jean-Pierre Plouffe, a retired Quebec judge who heads the Office of the CSE Commissioner, the spy agency's watchdog agency. In it, he suggests the unlawful seepage of Canadians' phone and Internet records to foreign intelligence agencies could date back to the mid-2000s, and that the overall amount of compromised material is unclear.

Given this, Mr. Plouffe is urging Parliament to pass laws spelling out how it wants the spy agency to function. "As CSE's collection posture has strengthened,  the volume of metadata collected has increased considerably," Mr. Plouffe writes in his 2015 report. He urged federal politicians to give clearer direction on surveillance.

"Metadata" are logs of communications without the content of the conversation. The watchdog's report reveals that, during its international spying, CSE has been capturing phone logs and sharing them with allies since 2005. Internet logs have been shared since 2009.

In 2014, CSE suspended sharing both sorts of records when it realized its automated systems had failed to scrub out what it calls the "Canadian identifying information" that turned up in the wider mix. Mr. Plouffe, who has the last word on such matters, eventually ruled that although CSE's system failures were inadvertent, they violated the Privacy Act and National Defence Act.

CSE is part of the world's most powerful spying alliance. Since the 1940s, the "Five Eyes"  electronic-espionage agencies in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand  have been working closely together. The collective's members cannot eavesdrop on their own citizens, but their governments have relaxed their rules covering telecommunications trails  metadata  in the hopes it could help the Five Eyes track al-Qaeda terrorists.

Metadata collected and shared on a massive, global scale can show intelligence analysts who is talking to who, even when the contents of the underlying conversations are unknown.

Parliament passed a law in 2001 giving CSE increased latitude to collect data, subject to orders from defence ministers that spell out what it can and cannot do. The Globe reported in 2013 that both Liberal and Conservative governments have since signed such metadata ministerial directives.

The 2015 watchdog's report reproduces one of these directives. "CSE may search any metadata acquired" to help track "a foreign individual, state organization, terrorist group, or other such entities," the directive says. It adds: "CSE will share metadata  with international allies to maximize" surveillance capabilities, but "Canada's allies shall not be granted access to metadata known to be associated with Canadians located anywhere."

But CSE cannot guarantee it can avoid capturing Canadian telecommunications trails. On Wednesday, a director-general with the agency, Scott Millar, attested to this fact in a Federal Court proceeding related to the lawsuit. He said that while CSE does sometimes collect metadata on Canadians, this is a "very rare occurrence."

Just how CSE collects metadata is a state secret, but it is known that it is gathered in huge volumes indiscriminately. In his 2015 report, Mr. Plouffe says CSE "metadata is acquired without having gone through a targeting selection process."

Only after the initial collection do CSE analysts seek to "minimize" privacy violations by scrubbing out Canadian identifying information, the report says. The agency refers to this as "minimization."

The report reveals that CSE refers to the phone logs it collects as "Dialled Number Recognition" (DNR) metadata. The agency started sharing such material with Five Eyes allies in 2005, thinking it had devised ways to automatically strike out telling portions of any Canadian phone numbers that turned up.

Then, starting two years ago, CSE discovered that "DNR metadata was not being minimized properly," according to the watchdog report. Mr. Plouffe added: "CSE is unable to determine how many systems were impacted and for how long."

CSE calls the Internet logs it collects "Digital Network Intelligence" (DNI) metadata, and this material can consist of e-mail addresses and Internet protocol addresses that indicate who is communicating to who.

A scrubbing system was developed for that material as well  but this, too, failed. "DNI metadata was being shared with [Five Eyes] Second Parties  with minimization applied to Canadian e-mail address fields, but no minimization applied to Canadian IP address fields," Mr. Plouffe writes.

He adds that "CSE was under the impression that minimization was taking place, when in fact it was not."

The spy agency suspended sharing when the problems were discovered in 2014, and apparently have not resumed it.

If CSE is to return to exchanging such information, the report said, the Liberal government will likely have to enshrine in law how it wants CSE to reconcile individual privacy and security imperatives.

"I am recommending to the Minister of National Defence that the National Defence Act be amended in order to clarify CSE's authority to collect, use, retain, share and disclose metadata," Mr. Plouffe wrote in a letter to the Minister of National Defence last fall.

Records show Mr. Sajjan has since replied to say he accepted recommendations  but he did not commit to introduce new laws or directives.

With reports from Michelle Zilio and Chris Hannay
Closure, at last.

Five years after he unleashed it to the world, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has apologized for his infamous goatee.

"The Daily Show" aired an interview with Trudeau in May focused on Canada's intake of Syrian refugees. One segment of the interview, called "Sorry Not Sorry," was posted to YouTube on Tuesday.

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In the clip, "Daily Show" correspondent Hasan Minhaj gives the prime minister several topics to which he must be sorry, or, well, not sorry.

Trudeau had no apologies for Drake or Drake on "Degrassi." But for that goatee?

"The Daily Show's" Hasan Minhaj interviewed Trudeau about his government's refugee plan, as well as other topics including his goatee and Nickelback. (Photo: Comedy Central/YouTube)

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. There was just no call for that," Trudeau says. "I look like my own evil twin."

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The prime minister then defends himself, saying that it was for Movember, a fundraising drive in November encouraging men to grow out their moustaches to raise money for prostate cancer research.

"Yeah, Movember's responsible for this," Minhaj says, pointing to Trudeau's moustache.

"I said I was sorry," Trudeau says, cutting him off.

In another segment, titled "Get Ready to Look Like S**t," Minhaj predicts Trudeau will look like "busted Russell Crowe" at the end of his leadership.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Harare Residents Trust has reported that the squabbles at the Harare town house are far from over as the recently appointed town clerk James Mushore is reportedly refusing to step out and holds onto his appointment letter which gives him the right to be in office."The battles at Town House are far from over regarding the appointment of the Town Clerk. Mrs Josephine is the Acting Town Clerk while Mushore holds on to his letter of acceptance of the offer for the position of Town Clerk, which he signed before suspended Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni," reported the trust.The trust said information received is that Mushore has today instructed Ncube to stop forthwith from acting as the Town Clerk, and demanded that she reports to his office on 2 June 2016 at 10am.The trust said this is a confused situation."The City of Harare has the official Acting Town Clerk, appointed in terms of the Urban Councils Act, and the improperly appointed Mushore, whose appointment is not yet completed," said the trust."In terms of the Urban Councils Act, the names of the candidates selected through an interview process have to be submitted to the Local Government Board (LGB), which has to interview the candidates shortlisted by the local authority, before it makes its decision on who of the top candidates becomes the Town Clerk."The trust said sadly, the City of Harare interviewed the candidates, and without submitting the top shortlisted candidates to the LGB, decided to ignore that route, and went on to claim that they had appointed Mushore."The HRT stands guided by the Constitution and the Urban Councils Act, and argues that Mushore is improperly at Town House, and his appointment has to fulfill all the requirements of the law where he has to undergo an interview process led by the LGB, before he is either confirmed or rejected. One of the three top candidates could be the Town Clerk. The three as announced by the City of Harare are Jacob Mutisi, Mushore and Godfrey Pasipanodya, and their names, alongside other procedural documents, had to be submitted to the LGB for the final leg of the recruitment of the Town Clerk.," said the trust."In our view, Mushore's contestation is before the Courts, and before this matter is disposed of, the residents should not be burdened with paying him and for his stay at Town House. Ncube is the Acting Town Clerk.""She participated in the interviews, but was not shortlisted among the top three. However, the reality of the situation is that she is currently the Acting Town Clerk, and will continue to be so until the issue of the recruitment of the Town Clerk is resolved, either by the Courts, or by the LGB, who have the administrative responsibility to deal with senior council management recruitment."The HRT, said as a principle believes that the law should be followed to the letter without compromising it on the altar of political expediency."The continued fights over this matter at Town House hinders the provision of an efficient service to the citizenry at a time the council has failed to pay salaries to municipal employees for the past six months," said the trust."If the LGB fails to resolve this with urgency, then the HRT will also be left with no option but to approach the Courts to expedite the resolution of this confused situation, which largely disadvantages the citizenry."
Martin CvetkoviA via Getty Images A hand casting a vote in a ballot box for an election in the Canada

Electoral reform is back on the Canadian political radar and, as part of this process, the perennial issue of compulsory voting has once again raised its ugly head.

While most non-voters are simply apathetic, non-engaged citizens who couldn't be bothered to make the effort to educate themselves and cast a ballot, some are consciously opting out of the process. Should those folks be punished for what is essentially a political point of view?

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Some commentators suggest that compulsory voting is necessary to ensure a higher voter turnout and a stronger democracy. However, the lack of voter turnout appears to be a red herring.

Our last federal election saw almost 70 per cent of eligible voters show up to the polls. Granted, that was the highest rate in more than 20 years, but it demonstrates the strength of our electoral system. Where the differences between parties are minimal, the voting rate is typically lower, often in the 50 or 60 per cent range. However, when the differences are significant and the political direction of the country is at stake, it's clear that far more citizens become engaged and are motivated to vote.

Of course it would be preferable to have Australian-level turnout rates in the 90 per cent range, but at what cost? A forced vote is of little use. The reluctant voter is not likely to invest any effort in making an educated choice and may well simply spoil his ballot. That does nothing to legitimize the democratic process.

In Australia, failure to vote without providing a good reason results in a $20 fine and repeat offenders may have to pay a higher amount. Failure to pay the fine can result in prosecution and a court-imposed penalty of up to $180.

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While this system does increase the voter participation rate, there are costs. First, there is the matter of public shaming since non-voters appear on a public list. Second, there is a government bureaucracy that deals with the procedure with all the attendant costs. Finally, the courts occasionally have to get involved which is yet another drain on the public purse.

The objective of the exercise should not simply be to get more citizens to vote, especially if some are voting against their will. Rather, the aim should be to increase the number of educated, informed and engaged citizens going to the polls.

The Australian approach involves the use of a stick in the form of public shaming and a $20 fine. Instead of employing a stick, I recommend that we use a carrot in the form of a positive incentive to vote.

Instead of fining folks $20 for not voting, why not give them $20 to vote? This option avoids the public shaming and lessens the attendant bureaucracy. Given that Elections Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency already cooperate in the production of the National Register of Electors, it should be a relatively simple matter to give voters a $20 refundable credit on their tax return in the year of a federal election.

The world of commerce is replete with examples of consumers changing their habits in return for minor rewards. Think of the telecommunications provider who offered you the grand sum of $10 to switch to electronic billing or the provincial government that rewards you with 20 cents for each wine or liquor bottle you recycle.

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It doesn't take much in the way of a financial incentive to get people to change their behaviour. So let's forget about the Australian "vote or else" model and adopt a friendlier approach. This could be one time when buying votes is actually a good thing.

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As a little girl growing up in Niagara Falls, I was awed by the power of water. My dad is an engineer, and his jobs often took him to the hydroelectric generating stations on the Niagara River. He sometimes asked me to drive along.

From the safety of my perch, I watched generators channel the churning water on its wild descent from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. My dad said that the resulting power could light up a million houses. I imagined all the kids who could read by lamplight, thanks to water, gravity and some pretty gigantic turbines.

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Photo/Ontario Power Generation

The opposite scenario

We are lucky in Canada. In many parts of the world, children have never seen this much moving water, unless it contains salt and stays flat in the ocean. For billions of people, the largest source of water is the local stream or pond--both of which shrink in the summer months.

Photo/World Vision

I've travelled to communities in Africa where everyone, including the livestock, has to share what little water is available. Cows, pigs and goats see no problem with defecating in the water as they drink. Water, the source of life, becomes a carrier of sickness and even death.

The power of a borehole and pump

I grew up with a sense that water was power. It was there to meet our needs. But in much of the world, a desperate lack of water keeps people on their knees.

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I've also witnessed the power that water can bring to a community -- not hydroelectricity, but human empowerment. It happens when a single borehole is drilled deep into the ground, and a pump installed. Clean water becomes a source of hydration, refreshment and strength, freeing people up to do great things.

Two little girls in war-wracked South Sudan have little power to control events around them. But having clean water nearby frees them from water-borne illness, and half-day treks to the river. Photo/World Vision

The power of time and energy

In Mozambique, Helen's schooling was a patchwork of missed days and poor performance, says her mother. And no wonder. By the time Helen arrived at school each day, the teenager had already completed a half-day's labour, trekking three k.m. to fill the family's bucket at the nearest stream.

"I often got to school late and dozed in the classroom," Helen remembers. "I first had to fetch water. By the time I came back home to go to school it was late. I was already tired."

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World Vision drilled a borehole in Helen's village, reducing her water walk to just seven minutes. Her health has improved, and she's more alert in the classroom. Her school performance has moved from "unsatisfactory" to excellent.

It's just a simple machine, not a giant turbine. But Helen (right) can now pump clean, safe water from the ground just seven minutes' walk from her home.

Helen is no longer on the verge of failing in school. She has her mornings back, and isn't constantly battling illness from dirty water. She and the other children in her village have a fair shot at doing well in their classes.

It's like fifty light bulbs all switching on at once.

The power of a water committee

Helen's fellow villagers can now channel their energy into learning, problem-solving, and community building. As happens through World Vision programs whenever a borehole is installed, they have formed a Water Committee.

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A Water Committee's jobs are to maintain, repair and protect the borehole and pump. The entire community plays a role in keeping the life-source flowing freely. Best of all, people are equipped to keep this happening long after World Vision has left the area.

Most committees have a clearly defined structure, with each member -- chairperson, secretary, and treasurer -- playing a role. Every family in the community contributes to a small fund for ensuring the maintenance of the hand pump, and buying spare parts when needed.

There's also trouble-shooting to manage, thanks to four-legged visitors.

"Right after the borehole was drilled, pigs and cattle invaded the borehole area and dirtied it," says Dolica, one of the women in Helen's village. "But now, the borehole is protected. The committee built a wall around the borehole. Those animals no longer get close enough to dirty it."

The pride of children

I love that means everyone in the community can get involved in a large and important project. In Helen's village, for instance, teachers and even children play a critical role.

Teachers use their talents for making new things easier to understand, showing community members how to correctly use the borehole. Children are responsible for teaching other kids the proper steps to take.

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"Many people, especially children, don't know how to handle the large hand pump," explains one teacher. But she and the children show them. I enjoy thinking of the pride that children must feel, as they teach first-time users the ropes.

The pride of women

Imagine the helplessness a mother must experience, when her children are continuously sick from dirty water. Or failing in school because they spend hours each day fetching water.

Now, imagine the feeling as a mother helps drill the very well that her children will drink from. It's something more and more women are experiencing, as World Vision trains them to be members of well-drilling teams.

Angelique is one of four "women drillers" in her region, just outside Kigali, Rwanda. Her children are healthy -- and very proud. Photo/World Vision

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Becoming a driller empowered Angelique to change her family's life, she says. She could buy iron sheets to put a roof on their home, and even add a room for more privacy. And with a new job came the money to throw the very special party.

"We had dancing and singing. The kids were very excited," she says. "Now they know mommy is bringing something home. It gives them confidence that even ladies can make it in life."

"My children look beautiful and good," with the clean water, she says. "And I look beautiful too."

Manual driller Angelique Hakurinka, next to a pump she helped install near Kigali, Rwanda. Photo/World Vision

Visit worldvision.ca to help empower a community through clean water.
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Each week, I sit in my office counselling couples and consulting with them about loss. Loss of the idea that they will have a biological child.

By the time couples come in to see me for counselling, often they have been trying unsuccessfully, for years, to conceive a biological child.

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Their relationships with their fertility doctors are on a first-names basis. They know which ultrasound technicians work on which days. And they know which nurses they can rely on to give them proper instructions on how to inject themselves with hormones.

Each year in Canada, a week is dedicated to raising awareness about infertility and to educate the general public about their reproductive health, how their bodies function and about any reproductive challenges they may experience. It's called, National Infertility Awareness Week.

After years of losses and uncertainties and needles and doctors appointments...with absolutely nothing to show for it, I often have clients ask, "When will this pain stop?"

How can couples recognize when it's time to stop trying for a biological child?

For every couple, the answer is different. However the following themes ring true for most of the couples that I have counselled:

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When the marriage is starting to suffer. When intimacy is completely centred on the time when the woman is ovulating, and the topic of divorce has entered the conversation. When couples spend more time trying to get pregnant by going to appointments and surfing the internet for the 'magical cure' than they do on ANY other hobby or spending time together. When couples have truly lost their sense of joy about starting a family...and they are burdened with a constant state of anxiety, depression and hopelessness. When couples feel that their entire lives are in limbo. They cannot commit to anyone or any event because they might need to be at the clinic on those days. When one or both members of the couple begin to discuss the possibility of adoption or surrogacy or sperm or egg donation. As a therapist, it is never my job to tell a client what to do....they must reach their own conclusions. It is part of my job to convey the facts and support my clients' decisions.

If clients are motivated to keep trying to conceive a biological child, then whatever obstacles they face along the way should be met with joy and anticipation.

However, if the negative aspects of trying to get pregnant overshadow this joy, then it may be time for couples to reconsider their approach. Do they need a break? Do they need a second opinion? Or do they need to change their course of action all together? Or is it time to move on?

I welcome your comments.

About the Author: Sari Shaicovitch is a professional Social Worker and therapist whose calling is to spend her days helping clients with all sorts of issues. Sari has a monthly blog on Her Magazine where she talks about the pleasures and pains of intimate relationships, the complexities of raising children, and provides insights into what it takes to make family life run smoothly. You can find Sari at sarishaicovitch.com or by email at sari.socialwork@rogers.com.

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Chris Wattie / Reuters Canada's Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould speaks about the government's medically-assisted suicide bill in the Senate chamber on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 1, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Jody Wilson-Raybould, minister of justice and Attorney General of Canada, appeared before the Senate Wednesday to defend Bill C-14, assisted dying legislation that has raised questions from Canadians on both sides of the difficult issue. Here are her prepared remarks.

Honourable Senators, it is my great pleasure to be here today to address you all on the sensitive and complex matter of medical assistance in dying. I would like to begin by thanking the Senators who participated in the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying, and those who sit on the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which concluded its pre-study of Bill C-14 a few weeks ago.

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This issue has captured the attention of Canadians. Each and every one of us has personal stories that have shaped our thoughts and feelings. As Parliamentarians, we will be influenced by our personal histories and our individual fears about the future, but we must legislate for all 36 million Canadians, on whose behalf we have the privilege of coming to this place every day.

Bill C-14 reflects a reasonable, balanced approach to the criminal law dimensions of medical assistance in dying, where Parliament's jurisdiction primarily lies. Medical assistance in dying is different from all other forms of medical care in that, in the absence of an exemption, it is otherwise criminal conduct of the most serious nature.

Bill C-14 was developed with due consideration of what Canadians have had to say during the many consultations that have taken place.

Bill C-14 creates a series of exemptions from otherwise applicable criminal offences, so that physicians and other medical providers can help suffering individuals who choose to have a peaceful, medically-assisted death, without fear of criminal prosecution. It builds in clear statutory parameters around the types of individuals who are eligible. Indeed, it was carefully crafted to provide as much flexibility as possible to medical practitioners to determine when and how a person's death has become reasonably foreseeable.

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Unlike some U.S. state laws that require a specific prognosis and a fatal disease, Bill C-14 does not require a strict temporal or causal relationship between any single medical condition and the foreseeability of death. This purposeful flexibility recognizes circumstances such as those of Kay Carter, who was in the final stages of her natural life, even though she did not suffer from any single condition that was causing her death.

Bill C-14 also includes a critical set of safeguards that are designed to give Canadians confidence that life will only be ended where that is the genuine and firm wish of the person. Yesterday, a coalition of over 30 disability rights groups from across the country highlighted the need for these safeguards in order to protect vulnerable persons. Bill C-14 would also create the framework for a national monitoring system, which will produce the information necessary to assess its effectiveness and safety.

Bill C-14 was developed with due consideration of what Canadians have had to say during the many consultations that have taken place. It strives to respect the diverse interests that are implicated by this issue, which include those of the individuals who might seek medical assistance in dying, those of individuals who may be put at risk by legalization, and the interests of medical providers who, in the name of compassion, are being asked to take actions that have been legally prohibited and contrary to their professional ethics until very recently.

In charting our course forward, our Government followed the roadmap set out by the Supreme Court in its Carter ruling. While the Court found that an absolute prohibition was unconstitutional, and thus Canadians should be permitted to request medical assistance in dying in certain circumstances, it also said that the autonomy of individuals who seek assisted dying must be balanced against other, competing, values -- the protection of the vulnerable and what the Court called the sanctity of life. We may refer to this more plainly as respect for life, or the equal and inherent value and dignity of every person's life.

The Court acknowledged that giving some the ability to legally end human life creates risks for vulnerable individuals, risks which did not exist under the previous absolute prohibition. Parliament's duty is to listen not just to the voices of those asking for access to this new service, but also to those expressing fear for their safety in their interactions with the medical community, fear for the safety of their communities, and fears that their lives are being devalued.

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As one individual with a disability testified before Committee in the other place: "this right to die makes me feel as if society thinks I should choose to die." Their lives are just as valuable as those of all other Canadians, and Bill C-14 aims to promote this message by limiting access to those who are approaching death. Bill C-14 also aims, to the degree possible as a matter of criminal law, to re-inforce suicide prevention and to guard against death coming to be seen as a solution to suffering. A coalition of disability rights organizations, academics, lawyers and physicians, among others, consider limiting medical assistance in dying to those who are nearing death to be a necessary safeguard to protect the lives of vulnerable individuals.

Our Government is not willing to put the lives of those who are vulnerable at risk in this way; nor does the Charter require such risks to be taken.

The Supreme Court itself recognized these competing values, and that Parliament has a "difficult task" in weighing and balancing them. I am confident that Bill C-14 strikes a reasonable balance amongst all the competing interests. The Carter decision told us that the absolute prohibition against assistance in dying was unconstitutional, but it did not tell us what a new law should look like. A new law must respect the legal principles set out in Carter but it does not have to exactly mirror the wording from the court to be constitutional. This is because Bill C-14, as compared to the provisions that were struck down in Carter, is based on different objectives and new evidence. This is consistent with the principle that the relationship between the courts and Parliament is one of "dialogue." Parliament must respect court rulings and respond to them in good faith. In turn, courts must show deference to Parliament's judgments about the appropriate balance of fundamental interests and values.

Bill C-14 addresses both aspects of section 7: respect for autonomy, and respect for life, and strikes a new balance through a complex regulatory regime which the Court has said will be entitled to deference. Allowing some to have access to a medically assisted death, in order to spare them the suffering and indignity of a painful and degrading dying process, can be accomplished relatively safely, without unduly risking the lives of the vulnerable. But we do not have the same confidence with respect to eligibility for those who are not nearing the end of life. Assistance in dying in this context presents too many distinct risks, which some have said the medical community is not well-suited to address.

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A wide range of circumstances can cause or contribute to suffering in those who are not dying, such as loneliness, social marginalization or discrimination, poverty, and grief, for instance. Many argue that no system of safeguards can guard against all such risks. The relationship between medical assistance in dying and suicide is also very poorly understood. How does the availability of a medically assisted death impact broader suicide prevention initiatives? This is a complex question, involving difficult predictions about human behaviour, on which there is a diversity of views. Nevertheless, the experience in the few jurisdictions that permit assisted dying where death is not otherwise approaching gives us cause for concern. Our Government is not willing to put the lives of those who are vulnerable at risk in this way; nor does the Charter require such risks to be taken.

The constitutional rights and freedoms enjoyed by Canadians are not absolute. The Charter sets out these rights and freedoms, and these are guaranteed "subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society." The Court in Carter acknowledged that medically assisted death involves complex issues of social policy and a number of competing interests. In matters of this nature, Charter analysis takes into account the fact that there is no single right answer. Further, deference is shown to the choices of the legislative branch as long as its solution falls within a "range of reasonable alternatives."

The overwhelming majority of free and democratic societies do not permit any form of medically assisted dying. Of the few that do, the majority have chosen to limit access to those in the final stages of life. The experience in Belgium and the Netherlands -- where assisted dying is not restricted to the end-of-life context -- suggests that broader eligibility would frustrate a number of the objectives of Bill C-14. As Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, I am confident that Bill C-14 is a reasonable and justifiable policy choice.

Honourable Senators, with that being said, our Government has committed to studying broader forms of eligibility, and in particular eligibility for individuals suffering solely from a mental illness. There is still much that we do not know, and all Canadians can only benefit from having these issues explored more fully.

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Another issue that the Government has committed to studying is the possibility of advance requests for medical assistance in dying. I am aware that the pre-study report by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee has unanimously recommended that Bill C-14 be amended to permit medical assistance in dying for those who are no longer competent, but who made an advanced request after being diagnosed with a condition likely to cause loss of competence or of a grievous and irremediable condition.

We are fully aware of the high priority that Canadians are attaching to this issue.

This is an extraordinary step, a step that we are not compelled to take as a result of Carter, and a step that creates risks that we are only just beginning to grasp. Because of the similarities with substitute decision making in health care, we need to take the time to fully consider advance requests.

From the point of view of the person who makes the advance request, it is a genuine reflection of their autonomy to state what they want to happen in the future if certain conditions arise and they are unable to speak for themselves. But from the point of view of the person to whom the advance request would apply, we can never be sure death is what they want at the time that the advanced request would be acted upon. The decision to end their life was made by their former self, and they are neither able to confirm nor withdraw that request at the critical moment.

We have no useful international experiences to draw from. In the one place where advance requests for medical assistance in dying have been lawful for some time, the Netherlands, physicians are generally unwilling to follow through on these requests. Parliamentarians heard from Canadian physicians that it is already extremely difficult to implement advance directives, and that it would be even more complex to do so in the case of medical assistance in dying. We have no other information about the willingness of Canadian physicians to engage in this practice. We need to take the time to get this right; getting it wrong will result in the deliberate loss of human life.

Finally, some have suggested that those who suffer from dementia are "shells," and lack dignity and humanity. As the Canadian Alzheimer's Society reminded us when they appeared before the Special Joint Committee, dementia patients are human beings with Charter rights. We should be mindful of the existing stigma associated with this type of disease; its course is unpredictable and it is in fact possible to live well with dementia. This organization has publicly stated that medical assistance in dying should only be possible when a person is competent at the time that the assistance is administered.

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Honourable Senators, our Government has been clear that this issue will be studied. We are fully aware of the high priority that Canadians are attaching to this issue. We are taking this seriously but we do not believe that we are ready to take this very significant step today.

I would like to address why we must have a law in place as quickly as possible. The interim court-approval process will end on June 6th, and without federal legislation in place, medical assistance in dying will be unregulated as a matter of criminal law, and without any statutory rules outside of Quebec.

Parliamentarians have heard diverse interpretations of the Carter ruling, and we have heard that "grievous and irremediable" are not known medical terms. This translates into uncertainty for physicians. The uncertainty presents a legal risk to the medical professionals who are being asked to take on the responsibility of providing assistance, and to bear the risk of a criminal investigation or prosecution. A complaint might be lodged by a family member who feels that the physician did not take reasonable care with their loved one, or by a colleague who disagrees with a physician's determination of what "grievous and irremediable" means. Although the likelihood of a criminal investigation or prosecution would be small, the potential consequences would be dire. A number of medical professional bodies have stated that clear legislative protection is an absolute necessity for physicians to feel secure with giving assistance.

Dying patients are by far the largest class of individuals who seek medical assistance in dying, even in the very few jurisdictions that permit broader access.

Moreover, Carter does not appear to provide any legal protection to nurses, nurse-practitioners, psychologists, social workers, pharmacists, or a myriad of other professionals who could be asked to be involved in assessing requests.

Comparisons have been made to the striking down of the abortion laws, with no new laws enacted in their place. This comparison is not apt. When the abortion law was struck down, there was no criminal law left that could apply to the medical act in question. But deliberately ending a person's life continues to be murder, and charges can still be laid wherever law enforcement authorities consider actions to have fallen outside the scope of the Carter ruling. Despite the many statements we have heard that Bill C-14 is overly restrictive, a legislative vacuum on June 6 has the potential to operate as a barrier to access due to the legal uncertainty for the medical providers who would be asked to assist their patients.

While medical colleges have put in place polices in all provinces and one territory, these do not have the force of law and are inconsistent in several key respects, including in terms of who is eligible and what safeguards must be followed. Yesterday, in a piece in the Globe and Mail, the president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Cindy Forbes, highlighted the need for Bill C-14 to be passed, so that there is a consistent national legislative framework. Further, compliance with a medical college policy is no guarantee of criminal immunity as courts are not bound to accept a medical college's interpretation of Carter. Clear criminal laws are needed so that medical providers will have the security they need to help their suffering patients.

Honourable Senators, the data is clear. Dying patients are by far the largest class of individuals who seek medical assistance in dying, even in the very few jurisdictions that permit broader access. Bill C-14 clearly and directly addresses the needs of these Canadians. There is a broad social and medical consensus that medical assistance in dying is appropriate in these circumstances. Without this law in force, these very Canadians are likely to face barriers to access.

While some would prefer broader eligibility with fewer safeguards, and others would prefer narrower eligibility with enhanced safeguards, Bill C-14 reasonably balances both sets of interests. It is a reasonable and responsible law that respects individual autonomy to choose one's manner of dying, and at the same time, like other free and democratic societies, it maintains respect for life, suicide prevention, protection of vulnerable persons, and the equal and inherent dignity of all Canadians.

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Thank you.

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Dr. James Perry (right) at a press conference to discuss Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie's diagnosis of a brain tumour.

Visitors to Dr. James Perry's brain tumour clinic are often quite surprised to hear the sound that spills out into the hallway: laughter.

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"We try to make the most of things," Dr. Perry explains. "We know that time may be limited but that's no reason to stop living. So we celebrate that. Every good scan we have a little party or a high-five or a hug. Hugs are common in our clinic. There's much more happiness than people would expect."

It's that happiness has kept Dr. Perry, neuro-oncologist and head of Sunnybrook's Neurology Program, at Sunnybrook for 20 years. A neuro-oncologist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumours of the nervous system (brain and spine). These include primary brain tumours, like glioblastomas and metastatic brain tumours, which spread to the brain from other parts of the body. When Dr. Perry's mentors encouraged him to look into the field of work, there was no neuro-oncologist in Toronto.

"These patients and their families need a voice, an advocate, a researcher," Dr. Perry said. "We want to provide the best care possible and also invent the future of care."

And the father of four is doing just that -- he's heavily involved in global research trials that have been making a difference in brain tumour treatment for decades.

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"In my first year of practice, one of my young patients entered into a clinical trial, one of the first trials ever done here at Sunnybrook," he recalls. "She outlived every patient in the worldwide trial. She sends me a Christmas card every year and updates me what's been going on with her life."

Dr. Perry says stories like this remind him that this cancer can be cured, even if those instances are rare.

Dr. James Perry

Of course, there are still many very hard days. Those tougher days help push him forward in his research.

Dr. Perry says he's excited about some truly groundbreaking research going on at Sunnybrook, including blood-brain barrier disruption, which may allow drugs to be delivered to the previously unreachable part of the brain.

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He's also working to develop a cancer and cognition clinic, which will involve a team of doctors and other health care professionals and examine how memory and thinking are affected from cancer and its treatment.

A team player, Dr. Perry helped start the Canadian Brain Tumour Consortium, a network of researchers and doctors who work together to advance treatments.

"It's a collegial way of looking at new therapies instead of competing to see who finishes research first," he says. "It's a proud moment."

And when patients come to him to show him photos of their graduation, or another birthday with their grandchildren, or another summer's day up at the cottage, Dr. Perry is humbled and proud.

"I'm so grateful for those happy moments," he says.

Written by Alexis Dobranowski, Communications Advisor at Sunnybrook.

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The five things you need to know on Thursday June 2, 2016

1) TTIP FORAY

Its the big SkyNews EU programme tonight folks (Im refusing to call it a debate cos its nothing of the kind), with David Cameron in the hot seat. The spin room in Skys Osterley studios will be a sight to behold. Lets hope Faisal Islam deploys his excellent forensic skills to the full - and that the audience bowl some googlies.

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Ahead of all that excitement, some in Labour are trying their best to stick to the script that the need to keep Britain in Europe trumps usual party divides. Labours Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith told the Today programme: Im no fan of David Cameron, but I tell you, hes not the worst of the Tories.

Jeremy Corbyn, however, will never be caught uttering such heresy. He returns from his short break today with a Big Speech on Europe. It will focus on why Brits need to vote Remain to hold onto workers rights. But - as we first reported HERE - Im told it will also have a very strong dose of anti-TTIP sentiment.

Corbyn has never been a fan of the EU-US free trade plan, believing it gives corporations control over governments. And he is expected to make clear today that no Labour government he leads would sign up to the current deal. In fact he would team up with rebel Tories and the SNP, just as Labour did over the Queen's Speech TTIP amendment, to block it in Parliament. Its all part of Corbyn's pitch that hes more likely to get a hearing with Labour voters if he calls for EU reform, rather than suggesting all is lovely in Brussels.

Corbyn also believes that sharing platforms with Cameron is as toxic long-term for Labour in this referendum as it was in the Scots independence referendum. But the reluctant Remainer approach doesnt impress everyone on his side and the GMBs Tim Roache has told the BBC that Corbyn cant be seen to be half-hearted about his support for the In campaign.

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2) MOVE OVER DARLING

Speaking of strange bedfellows, George Osborne has already shared a platform with Ed Balls in this referendum campaign. Today, he has the backing of Alistair Darling in attacking the uncounted and unworkable proposals of the Brexit camp. They accuse the Vote Leave camp of making it up as you go along, not least given the latest Australian points-based immigration system that critics claim is unworkable for the UK.

The Remain camp were delighted last night when Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy warned that quitting the EU would mean that British citizens, 400,000 of whom live and work in Spain, would lose the right to move freely around Europe. And Dutch PM Mark Rutte warned that the Aussie rules points system would spark a race to the bottom with other nations.

Theres the footy/luvvy vote too. The Times reports that more than 100 European figures from science, sport and the arts have signed a letter to the Times Literary Supplement pleading with voters to reject Brexit. The Sun says the letter is signed by Arsene Wenger, Gerard Houliier, Per Mertesacker - and Swedish star of TV series The Bridge Sofia Helin.

Nigel Farage sounds cocky though, pledging to put his money where his mouth is today with a bet

that Britain will vote to Leave. Hes got odds with Ladbrokes of just 11/4 but tells the Sun Its a winner.

A more refined Euroscep, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has told HuffPost just why Mark Carney has to quit after his intervention in the referendum. Moggy has much more than that of course, adding that voters are now laughing at Cameron. Read the piece HERE.

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3) LABOUR PAINS

After that ViceNews documentary, some Labour HQ staff are furious at suggestions that theyve been leaking Corbyns PMQs prep - and as we reported yesterday, general secretary Iain McNicol has written to reassure them. Im told Seumas Milne wasnt pointing the finger at anyone with his remarks about leaks, but it seems that if anyone is in the frame it is neither Labour HQ nor the Corbyn inner circle. Those who join the PMQs prep half way through may more have cause to worry.

Ken Livingstone has meanwhile continued his never apologise, always complain approach to politics, telling the Oxford Union last night that his remarks about Hitler and Zionists working together were as factual as 1+1=2. He also said embittered MPs were to blame for the row. When I have gone through lots of people saying I should apologise to this reporter or apologise for saying Hitler was a supporter of Zionism  I have never apologised.

As for the wider battle for control of the party, moderates were delighted at a small victory as Momentum-backed Rhea Wolfson failed to get the required nomination to fight the election to replace Red Ken on the NEC. But Momentum arent giving up, and theres a possible plan for her to switch CLP, just as left-winger Christine Shawcroft did years ago.

BECAUSE YOUVE READ THIS FAR

Listen to this 5-year-old dial the cops after his dad drove through a red light.

4) RUSI BONUS

Amid chatter that Cameron will stage a Trident vote this summer, theres a debate on the Successor programme at the RUSI think tank today. And Shadow Defence Secretary Emily Thornberry is up against Tory defence select committee chairman Julian Lewis.

Im told Thornberry will say the Government has still failed to answer basic questions such as how much will the Trident renewal will cost in total and how long will it take to deliver. But she opens up a new front, arguing that ministers are equally silent on the long-established principle that the reason to keep a nuclear deterrent is to negotiate it away, and get us to a world where nuclear weapons don't exist.

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Thornberry will try to reframe the debate within Labour too - saying that Attlee and Bevan and Wilson (who signed the UK up to the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty) have been wrongly portrayed as ever-lasting champions of nuclear weapons, when in fact their pitch was for multi-lateral disarmament. Shell quote the bit of Bevan many forget: It is not a question of who is in favour of the bomb, but a question of what is the most effective way of getting the damn thing destroyed.

5) SNOOPER TROOPERS

The Investigatory Powers Bill hasnt gone away, you know. And its Report Stage next week is the last big big of Parliamentary business before the EU referendum.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights has a new report saying that the changes to the bill are a significant step forward but warns more safeguards are needed. It says the bulk gathering of personal data was "capable of being justified" and not "inherently incompatible" with privacy.

Last Thursday night, just before recess began, the Home Office laid several technical amendments which went some way to meeting concerns. Other concessions have been made of privacy, bulk data and journalists protection, as the Guardian reports. Labour looks like it will be largely happy but the Lords may want more proof of real judicial safeguards (though the word judicial is bandied about in many Government amendments, privacy campaigners say its still unclear).

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When I recently told a colleague that I want the UK to leave the EU, she expressed considerable dismay that someone of my background - mixed-race, working class, comprehensive education - was lining up with far-right racists. Such a misguided view of the people who support Brexit does a disservice to the millions of Britons up and down the UK, who are now in a majority that understands why it is morally, politically and economically essential for Britain to leave the EU.

Brand EU has established itself as unassailably virtuous - apparently to question it is to automatically declare oneself a small-minded bigot. We should all be very wary when any institution succeeds in putting itself beyond criticism. The EU has thrived as a result of its unassailable image and has operated in the shadows, beyond the light of scrutiny, creating an illusion of benevolence, while making itself incomprehensible and utterly unaccountable to the average European citizen. In such conditions, prejudice, myths and misinformation abound.

As a simple example, a commenter on one of my recent pieces stated that the EU Commission is elected. The EU Commission, the principal legislative body of the European Union is appointed, not elected. The UK's commissioner, Conservative peer, Baron Hill of Oareford, has never held elected office, and nobody in Britain voted for the man who is undoubtedly our most powerful lawmaker. Before voting in this referendum, I encourage everyone to find out exactly what the EU is and how it works. Don't be swayed by the EU's powerful brand image - rely instead on the facts.

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In the meantime, here are the ten reasons I gave my colleague why I'll be voting to leave:

1.THE EU IS ANTI-DEMOCRATIC

I've previously written about the importance of democracy and the reasons why the EU is anti-democratic. All I'll say here is that the ability to vote for our lawmakers is the only thing that protects us from tyranny.

2.THE UK'S CURRENT EU IMPOSED IMMIGRATION POLICY IS RACIST

We discriminate in favour of white Europeans at the expense of people from the rest of the world. Labour Leave General Secretary, Brendan Chilton, does a great job of explaining the issue in this speech:

3.THE EU'S TRADE POLICY TOWARDS THE NATIONS OF AFRICA IS REPREHENSIBLE

The EU actively harms the world's poorest people. I've previously written about the view from Gambia, a country that has lost trade, livelihoods, and its best and brightest people as a direct result of the EU.

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4.THE EU DOES NOTHING TO CREATE JOBS OR OPPORTUNITY

There can be little doubt that the Eurozone is in dangerous decline. With unemployment rates of 24% in Greece, 20% in Spain, 12% in Italy, massive debt and stagnant economies across the continent, it is staggering that the EU has convinced a large section of the British public that it is good for the economy. The EU's economic track record will one day feature in history books as a case study of ineptitude and mismanagement.

5.THE EU IS A CORPORATIST CLUB

There can be little doubt that the EU favours big business. EU rules on tax domiciles enable global corporations to select the most favourable jurisdiction and minimise tax, giving them an unfair competitive advantage against local small businesses. Recent ECJ judgments have upheld the principle that an employer's right to do business trumps an employee's right to strike. Paul Mason outlines the many ways in which the EU reveals itself to be no friend of the working person.

6.WE ARE NOT VOTING FOR THE STATUS QUO

Whether it's the EU Army or full political union, the EU is on the march. We agreed to a trade deal in 1975 and ended up with a political union. Many people who vote to remain think they're voting for an economic club, but we're already in a political union and will end up with a single currency and government. Andrew Lilico explains why such a development is inevitable.

7.THE EU IS IRRELEVANT TO TRADE

Go into any high street shop and see how many goods have been made in China, a country that does not have a trade deal with the EU. America also lacks a trade deal with the EU. How many US companies sell goods, products and services in the UK? As someone who has advised corporations all over the world, I know that it is business people, not the EU, who decide where and with whom to trade.

8.THE EU IS A THROWBACK TO A BYGONE ERA

This excellent speech by Daniel Hannan sets out why the EU is no longer relevant in the modern world. If it ever had any relevance, that time has long since passed.

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9.WE CAN SPEND OUR MONEY BETTER THAN THE EU

We currently hand 350 million per week to the EU. We receive approximately half back in the form of a rebate (an amount that will fall over time), but the EU directs where that rebate is spent, and gets the credit in the form of advertising that identifies the funds as having come from the EU. The EU has no funds - it spends our money and then brags about its generosity. Surely we are better judges of how to spend our money? And whether it's 350 million or 175 million per week, how can such an obscene sum be justified when we don't have the money to pay disability benefit?

10.POWER SHOULD BE FLOWING TOWARDS THE PEOPLE
With the OECD releasing yet another doom-laden report predicting recession and general turmoil in the event of a vote for Brexit, the ordinary voter could be forgiven for dismissing the whole debate as one of meaningless claims and counterclaims. Both sides have undoubtedly been twisting and manipulating the figures to try and scare the Great British Public into voting one way or the other. It is therefore necessary for the campaigns to get back to the important issues which matter to voters. Of particular interest to Britain's coastal communities is the fate of Britain's fishing industries in the event of Brexit. This is an industry which has been in significant decline over recent decades and the EU's onerous Common Fisheries Policy has undoubtedly played a role.

When we first joined the European Community (the forerunner to the European Union) in 1973 there were 23,476 fishermen in the UK - by 2014 this had halved to 11,845! It is not just fishermen who have lost their jobs. Between 2000 and 2012 the number of full time jobs in the UK sea fish processing industry has fallen from 22,256 to 11,864. Unlike other industries which have also declined over a similar time-scale - coal mining being the obvious example - there are no economic or environmental reasons why the UK's fishing industry should have collapsed like this. The fishing industry has thrived in other North Atlantic countries (notably Norway, Iceland and Greenland), which have no major competitive advantage over their British counterparts. The decline in our British fishing industry is simply due to political, not economic or environmental factors. The major political factor influencing our British fishing industry has been our membership of the EU and the Common Fisheries Policy, which has been forced upon us as a result.

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The Common Fisheries Policy works as follows. Every year the European Commission dictates a "Total Allowable Catch" for each species of fish. Each of these are then divided and allocated to each Member State. This is not an equal division based on the size of each nation's coastlines, or the size of their fishing fleets, but rather, it's negotiated between the different Member States. The British government has only a limited number of bargaining chips, and has to spend those protecting vital industries, such as the City of London, from harmful EU regulations. As a result they are unable to secure a fairer deal for Britain's fishermen, who are naturally fed up seeing British waters being allocated to their foreign competitors.

It is not just British fishermen who lose out under the CFP. The CFP dictates that once the "Total Allowable Catch" has been reached, the fishermen have to immediately stop fishing that species. Clearly various species live alongside each other, and this has led to the dumping of the non-allocated species - regardless of their subsequent chance of survival. This has caused huge damage to the UK's sea life and has resulted in a major fall in Britain's fish stocks. The problem is made worse by the EU's subsidies. The majority of these are given to a small number of national fishing fleets which utilise environmentally damaging 'monster boats.' This is instead of supporting and encouraging small-scale fishermen who use sustainable fishing techniques. The European Commission has itself accepted the huge environmental and commercial damage of the CFP, however the few reforms which have been passed are not enough to halt the current decline in European fish stocks, and the depletion of our fishing industry.

Remainers will undoubtedly point to the environmentalist groups which have come out in favour of the EU as evidence the UK's marine life is better off if we stay inside the EU. They will of course fail to mention the millions of s the EU pumps into these groups on our behalf. We are not suggesting Greenpeace and other groups have been 'bought off' by the EU, but they should be honest to the Great British Public and declare the fact they have a financial interest in Britain voting to Remain. It is true the UK government also gives money to various charities and campaign groups, and there is a case for taxpayer-funded campaigns. However it should be up to British taxpayers to decide where their money is spent, and if they feel the government is misspending and wasting their money, they can remove those responsible in a general election. The European Commission which runs the EU is not elected. The UK's own European Commissioner, Lord Hill, has never held an elected position in his life. It is therefore impossible for the Great British Public to have a say. The unelected and unaccountable nature of the EU ensures these funding deals are not transparent, meaning we do not know the conditions the charities had to agree to in order to receive the cash. All of this means the charities and groups which receive money from the EU are compromised and should not enter into the referendum debate.

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There is no doubt about it; social enterprise is a hot topic right now. Balancing making profit with having a positive impact on the world is something that many entrepreneurs are striving for, and increasingly leading them to focus on some of the world's developing nations.

Many entrepreneurs are heading to these underserved markets, with the added purpose of making a positive change in society in fields as diverse as energy, health and technology. There are also more in-country entrepreneurs with improved business skills looking to take advantage of the huge opportunities available.

I had a chance to experience this first hand in the past three months working for energy start-up Vitalite in Zambia. After consulting with senior members of charities and companies operating in the country with decades of accumulated experience in business development, these five key themes were highlighted as being vital to entrepreneur success in developing countries.

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Understand the culture

Top of the list of everyone's requirements is a deep and nuanced understanding of a country's culture. The most common source of failure is when an entrepreneur from a developed nation arrives with the right intentions, but their lack of understanding of the culture leads to fundamental flaws in the business plan.

Vitalite Directors John Fay and Samuel Bell spent ten years in Zambia before beginning their solar energy start-up. They both believe that this experience was crucial in gathering knowledge to develop a sustainable business. Director John Fay offers "What I would advise anyone starting a business in a developing country is to be prepared for it to take much longer than their most conservative expectations. Be persistent and apply lean start up principles as much as possible."

The cultural circumstances differ greatly between countries, and assumptions about the way in which consumers behave should be kept to a minimum. A combination of research and experimentation through an iterative testing process should instead inform the entrepreneur about the culture.

Prepare for regulatory complications

In developing countries the government is often less stable and the regulatory environment is more susceptible to change. Therefore, the industry within which a business operates can change quickly in terms of the parameters of tax laws, quality controls and required permits.

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Risk management of these potential issues is crucial to ensuring that they do not become a significant problem for the business. Operating in a proactive manner to stay abreast of current and potential changes to the legislative framework will help to ensure few hidden surprises.

Conquer cross-cultural working

This point is more pertinent for entrepreneurs who head out to developing nations to build their start up. Often when setting up a business, the internal workplace culture is not something that is considered as an immediate concern, but it is one that quickly rises to the top of the list. Everything from working pace to style of writing can bring frustrations, difficulties and inconsistencies due to backgrounds leading to significant gaps which need to be bridged, particularly between developed and developing country citizens.

Country Manager of Challenges Worldwide Joe Tang often has to face these critical issues. "Cross cultural working could be one of the most challenging things we'll come across working in developing countries. The first thing to know is that different doesn't equal wrong. It takes humility and maturity to accept the differences and identify the common goal to work through it."

I learnt many new ways of looking at problems, particularly in the realm of marketing and communications, through working with Zambian partners who had a completely different worldview driven by their upbringing and education. Seeing the opportunity in cross-cultural working rather than the problems is vital.

Network, network, network

Many developing countries have a less formal structure to business, transactions and contracts in general. Business is often conducted through connections and relationships, and this single cultural factor can have a huge impact on the way in which the business operates.

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It means that informal networks of friendships and partners become even more important to smooth operation of the business. Therefore, networking is a crucial skill that is even more vital to entrepreneurs in developing countries, particularly if they are going to survive with limited resources. Developing a network of support and partners should be a key focus of initial efforts.

Be patient but purposeful

I quickly found working at Vitalite that the pace of business was considerably slower. In a less developed economy, everything seemed to take longer than expected; there was slower access to capital; less business support; permits from government took longer; and the list goes on.

Therefore, entrepreneurs who do find themselves in this environment need to strike a fine line between remaining tenacious and purposeful, whilst maintaining the patience to understand that certain aspects of the business will move slowly. Keeping momentum in the early stages, through all the frustrations, is likely to be particularly important.
May in Copenhagen and the sound of the rush hour traffic whizzes by - on just two wheels.

Denmark boasts some of 'the happiest people', thanks to their enviable health, education and welfare systems and has set itself the goal of having the first carbon neutral city. And last month, Copenhagen hosted the fourth edition of it's increasingly established Fashion Summit.

Having been warned to expect a certain amount of greenwashing, I readied myself for an onslaught of corporate gibberish.

But it never came.

In fact, I was surprised by the honesty and authenticity of so many of the speakers. That's not to say I agreed with everything they said, but there was no shortage of passion on the stage.

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Delegates ranging from representatives of global brands, trend forecasters, editors-in-chief, educators and students to journalists, politicians, philanthropists and a touch of royalty were brought together to discuss a common theme: Responsible Innovation.

Which means being innovative and responsible at the same time.

Right, obviously.

Easy to say and yet decidedly more difficult to execute. Below I've selected some key thoughts that I took away:

I was not the only one surprised to see Nike, arguably the poster child of sweatshop labour in the 90s, take the stage. The aforementioned portrayal, said Hannah Jones (CSO of the brand), is precisely what kick started Nike's 'lean, green, equitable and empowered model' they now duly employ in their factories.

'Sustainability should start at the sketchpad' Jones added, and to achieve this Nike are working on developing a palette of sustainable materials as well as employing young designers who are innovative and keen to use them. They will be the revolutionaries of this industry she says.

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Vanessa Friedman's (chief fashion critic at The New York Times) speech entitled 'Sex and Sustainability' discussed the role of the media in promoting responsible fashion. To put it bluntly, 'Ethical' 'Sustainable' and 'Responsible' are not sexy words and we need to come up with something better if we're going to have even a slim chance of engaging people on any notable scale. Take inspiration from Margot Robbie explaining the financial crisis in The Big Short was her well-received advice. And her personal hope for the future of the industry? 'That it learns to be happy making less stuff'.

If passion came in human form, Livia Firth would be it. While I sensed both restraint and a little frustration, her speech titled 'Cutting Through the Noise' was a reality check. 'The current model with a few band aids will not deliver the change that we need' she said. In other words we, as an industry, simply have not moved on enough from the last time she graced the same stage.

And time is most certainly not on our side, as Dilys Williams so poignantly indicated when describing Generation Y as 'The first generation of people who really understand climate change, and the last ones who can really do anything about it'.

So how can we move forward, faster and more efficiently? The answer is surely by government collaboration and co-operation on a global scale. A breakout session entitled 'Fashion and Politics' seemed like the very place to find out more. Yet a stage of politicians, a couple of microphones and some questions strangely produced no significant answers. As the moderator of the discussion Lars Fogh Mortensen so poignantly said before the discussion 'Fashion and Politics is a bit like teenage sex. Everybody's talking about it but no one is actually doing it.' So what are they doing about it? Umm, they're not quite sure.

If there's a company I try to avoid talking about it's H&M. Why? Because I don't really know what to think. They place themselves at the forefront of the fight to achieve a better fashion industry. They do the ad campaigns, they bag the celebs and they sponsor all the events (including this very summit) and yet I remain sceptical, because their business model itself encourages the consumption of trends at an alarming rate.

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Anna Gedda, Head of Sustainability at H&M, was a hotly anticipated speaker. 'In 2050, the global population will reach more than 9 billion' she said, and they need to be clothed. From H&M's perspective, producing less is not necessarily the answer. It is in fact, developing a closed loop system allowing 100% of today's clothing to be deconstructed and then reconstructed to produce tomorrow's. But how can this be done exactly? Puzzlingly, she offered little explanation.

Then I met someone who had a different perspective. He, along with a group of university friends in San Francisco, is developing technology that would allow precisely this. They pitched their idea to quite a few brands and manufacturers, and the only one who displayed significant interest in collaborating? H&M.

When I asked him why this hadn't really been mentioned, the answer was fairly simple. H&M are tired of being criticized for not always meeting their goals in the time they set out to achieve them. They get bad press and badmouthed. Not exactly great encouragement to remain truly transparent, were his thoughts.

In the press conference before the summit, Marco Lucietti (global marketing director of ISKO) reminded us that 'Today, there is no clear global standard around sustainability.' And if the session on fashion and politics is anything to go by, it's unlikely to change soon.

Christopher Wright recently wrote'Of course personal responses are not sufficient to change an economic system hard-wired for environmental destruction. However, they demonstrate the potential for an individual's emotional engagement to begin the process of corporate and political change'

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So, for now, it's down to you and I.

We must decide what value means to us when it comes to buying our clothes.
News / Local

by Thobekile Zhou

Opposition Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) party's top leadership has reportedly stirred controversy over the inclusion of former war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda in top leadership with some Bulawayo party members saying they were uncomfortable with his alleged past human rights abuses.According to the latest report produced by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), some ZimPF members claimed Sibanda committed heinous crimes while in Zanu PF and should not hold a top post in the opposition party."Former Vice-President Joice Mujuru's Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) party, which was making inroads in the province, was rocked by infighting, as some members were objecting to war veteran and former Zanu PF mobiliser, Jabulani Sibanda's influence, saying he was a perpetrator of gross human rights violations," the organisation said in its April 2016 report."Yet, others were resisting the inclusion of former MDC-T members, saying they were not to be trusted, as they changed parties frequently."On April 9, 2016, at a meeting at the Small City Hall in Bulawayo Central constituency, one Max Mnkandla and other ZimPF members complained that Jabulani Sibanda should not be part of the party's leadership structures in Bulawayo."ZimPF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo and Sibanda denied the claims in separate interviews yesterday."It's the first time I'm hearing hear such. I have addressed meetings organised by other parties and I have not heard people saying Sibanda should not be a guest speaker because of some alleged past," the firebrand former war veterans leader said.Gumbo said: "I have not received any reports of that nature. That is not true. Actually, the party is seized with its mobilisation activities. We have made huge inroads and we are quite happy about the support that we now command in Matabeleland."
Orthopaedic and trauma surgeon Professor Deiary Kader has recruited many scrubs, nurses, physiotherapists, and surgeons into the Newcastle-Gateshead Medical Volunteers.

They use a week of their own holidays to do back-to-back operations for Kurds who have often waited decades for new knees and hips. They have put scores of Kurds back on their own two feet.

Dozens of NHS professionals from Newcastle have visited the Kurdistan Region over many years to perform life-changing operations but that may be unintentionally jeopardised by new American visa rules.

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The American authorities have this year introduced a new rule that foreign citizens who have visited Iraq since 2011 are no longer automatically eligible for visa free travel stateside. The rule also applies to Iran, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.

Those who have visited these countries can seek exemption if they show their visits were for governments, humanitarian bodies, the media, and legitimate business purposes. Some will probably buy a ten year visa but both require an interview. The cost of the visa and travelling to London and back counts for low paid workers.

The new rule was passed by Congress, although the measure troubles the US Administration, which seems to have decided not to veto it during election year.

Professor Kader said: "The problem is not only inconvenience but that it could also discourage people from going to Kurdistan. Let's say you're a nurse who wants to lend a hand but you don't have to go to Kurdistan. You work out that going will make it harder to holiday or honeymoon in America and it could chill the desire to go to Kurdistan."

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But, he added, "Kurdistan is a solid ally of America and the West and doing us a massive service in fighting the so-called Islamic State - Daesh. The Kurds want Westerners to take holidays there (small numbers for now), and play many vital useful roles from boosting health care, teaching in one of their many universities, or winning business contracts."

British parliamentarians from across the political spectrum have tabled a Commons motion pointing out these pitfalls and appealing to Washington to review and repeal the new rule.

The Kurdistan Region has, with Western airstrikes and military assistance, secured its borders against Daesh. It also seems to be turning the corner on the huge economic crisis caused by the Daesh assault and an influx of nearly two million refugees and displaced people. It is also seeking to live within its revenues, which have been reduced by plunging oil prices.

The Kurdistan Regional Government is increasing human capacity in its universities and governance as well as unlocking the potential in the private sector but this requires an influx of external expertise and investment.

Professor Kader comments: "Anything that blocks or complicates foreign involvement will make that Kurdish and Western goal harder. It seems as if the American left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing."

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Historians may judge that Boris Johnson's now infamous slip-up about bananas was the moment when the Brexit campaign finally skidded into the dustbin of history.

Last month, Boris in one of his trademark spoon-thumping rants about the EU, demanded to know why the overweening bureaucrats of Brussels prevent British grocers from selling bananas in bunches of more than two or three.

This assertion met with blank looks from everyone who has ever done their own food shopping as it is clearly untrue.

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But far from being easily brushed off, the slip seems to be sticking to the news wall and creating a bit of a stink. BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg documentary on the referendum "Britain and Europe: For Richer or Poorer" which aired this week featured her buying a bunch of bananas at a market stall. The Sun yesterday had an article about reality TV star Joey Essex who is making a doc about the EU referendum. He honed in on the heart of the matter, saying Boris was a bit "nutty" for his banana remark, adding "I don't get the whole bananas situation". A recent essay in the Guardian on the future of the European Union was illustrated with a photo of a man dressed as a gorilla waving bananas and a sign saying "I Eat Five In A Bunch, Boris".

There was a fracas at a meeting when this protestor, a teenager in gorilla suit was apparently punched by a Brexiter. Another protester has appeared at recent rallies dressed as a banana with a sign saying "Stop the Lies, Boris".

Britain has embraced the banana row. It has become one of those sound bites that will never go away. It will feature in any video montage of the Brexit campaign, and probably, many decades hence, in the obituary of the former Mayor of London.

Far from feeling mushed by all this, Johnson delivered a second rant on the subject, excoriating along with banana regulations, restrictions on hoover size. Perhaps he dimly imagined a larger hoover could remove the stain left by banana-gate.

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But there is more to this than just a bit of light relief in a dull campaign.

Most people have no real way of testing the veracity or otherwise of many of the claims made by the Leave or Remain side in this referendum. But hearing Johnson's' claim about the bananas in his stump speech, you can't fail to spot the easy, fluent, careless lie.

It is quite shocking to many people that a senior politician and one whom they have been looking to for leadership on a matter of national importance, would get up and make such a claim. Where did he get it from? He obviously didn't do much homework on it. It's a sign of how far Johnson has traveled down the road of blustering bravado. You don't know what he is going to say next. His tongue seems to run away with him. It may make him an interesting lunch companion but perhaps not someone to trust with your pension.

It is hard to imagine some of the Remain supporters: Alistair Darling, Mark Carney, Christine Lagarde, Barack Obama talking like this. It's a reminder that the calibre of those on the Remain side heftily outweighs that of those on the leave side. They have actually got the top bananas,a nd more than two or three.

You see the same 'Leave' faces over and over again and as the campaign goes on and they seem ever more desperate. They have long ago thrown caution to the winds, now piling everything on the bonfire of the vanities: their reputations, their friendships, even their integrity. Michael Gove was suspected of leaking an old conversation with the Queen to the tabloids; on another occasion he was accused of doing the same with a private letter. Is there going to be a way back for them into frontline politics?

The second reason "banana-gate" is important is that it exposes the fact that many of the Leave campaigns complaints about the EU are frankly footling. These are not serious matters.

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There are problems of course, but Britain is not doing so badly. Unemployment is relatively low. Judged on a global level, migration is moderate. Rules about bananas are matters that can be addressed within the European Union.
On Monday I watched the news on television. That isn't something I always do. Normally I pick up what's been going on from all sorts of different sources: the press, websites, the car radio, chatter in the pub; it varies from day to day. Anyway Monday was television's turn and what I saw was quite illuminating. The news item concerned the referendum campaign with shots of the Remain battlebus. There was Mr Cameron and, as you might expect with a cross-party campaign, there was a prominent Labour politician alongside him. It wasn't Mr Corbyn of course. He is in his tent paying lip-service to the campaign without actually mixing with those leading it. Nor was it one of his pet apparatchiks: presumably they sit snarling alongside him and would not pollute themselves by working with those of different views.

Who was it then? Some senior shadow minister from the centre? No, they are too busy worrying about whether they will be deselected. Some figure from Labour's Blairite past? No, again. They are yesterday's men in political terms. Actually, it wasn't an MP at all, or at least not any more. It was Sadiq Khan, the newly elected Mayor of London, clearly comfortable appearing with the Prime Minister, unfazed by the abuse cast at him in the mayoral campaign, rising above domestic politics to support the national interest: a Big Tent man, a man with broad vision, a man representing the type of social democracy which goes down well with the public. For a moment I forgot that he was only Mayor of London and saw him instead as the sort of politician with whom the country could be at ease should he ever exercise a different sort of power.

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The more you think about Mr Khan, the more you realise how extraordinarily well he is placed. Currently, moderate Labour MPs have a stark choice. They can, like the Vicar of Bray in the song, trim their views to those of the current leadership. No doubt that will preserve them from deselection and it may earn a shadow Cabinet post too. The trouble is that if the public rejects the hard left at the next election, those who have associated with them may join them as the victims of a giant flush of the political loo. That cannot be a very enticing prospect. Alternatively they can try their luck on the high wire by openly maintaining centrist views in a party which is becoming increasingly hostile to them. That is a hard world, a place of knives in the dark and secret cabals, of entryism in constituency parties, of glasses of wine being passed "across the water" before they are drunk. Entertaining, of course, if you have the skills of Machiavelli, but these are hard to pick up if your only experience prior to election was doing research for another constituency MP.

Khan, though, sits outside all this. He does not have to decide whether to follow the Labour whips. No one is going to ask him to sign the papers to bring about a leadership challenge. He can simply devote his energies to the interests of the people of London. In their name he can develop his own brand of social democracy. In their name he can reach out to those of all political views and none. And all the time, although his audience will be anchored by his position in London, he will have the opportunity to spread his reputation throughout the land.

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It is certainly not a bad place to be and the more the two main parties tear themselves apart, the better it becomes. With the Labour Party it is obvious. Mr Corbyn seems to be locked firmly in place by the left wing membership and it now seems very unlikely that he will be removed before the next election. If the public comprehensively reject him at that stage, his party will need someone who takes a different approach. Step forward Mr Khan. But it doesn't stop there. Who knows who will be leading the Conservatives in four years' time? Osborne's star seems to be waning, Boris makes people nervous and it is quite possible that the party will move to the right. If it does, the liberal wing of the party will find itself increasingly uncomfortable, so again there could be votes for a man of the centre, a one nation social democrat politician.

It isn't just political positioning which indicates leadership potential. The biggest challenges in politics are practical ones and to succeed you need to be seen as a good decision maker. Mr Khan will have the opportunity to demonstrate his qualities in a very public forum over the next four years. More important than this, though, is the quality of confidence. Mr Cameron has it in spades and it is one of the things which underpins his popularity with the electors. Watch Mr Khan carefully and you will see something of the same. He brushes aside the mud thrown in the mayoral elections because other things are more important. He wrong-foots the Labour leadership by appearing with Mr Cameron, thus representing his party at the top table. He makes it clear that he wants a constructive relationship with the government at the time when the instincts of Labour HQ are to run the other way.

If you were cynical you might put this down to a careful choice of a political posture, but you would probably be wrong. The truth seems to be that Mr Khan's relaxed and constructive political attitude reflects the way he thinks. If so, it is likely to go down very well with the public as the political infighting in both of the main parties develops.

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The seas of politics are stormy and any boat, however well positioned, may find itself sunk by unexpected squalls. Nonetheless, if you are passing a bookie in the next day or two and fancy a flutter on the identity of the next Labour Prime Minister, Sadiq Khan is a name you should keep in mind.
I'm sitting just ten feet away from two Belgian soldiers, as I begin writing this article (it'll be a week before I find the time to finish it). My brother would recognise their weapons immediately; I don't. They carry handguns in a holster and a what appears to be at least a semi-automatic rifle strapped across their chests.

This is the reality of daily life in Brussels; I'm at a cafe in the heart of one of Belgium's main shopping districts. Two more soldiers join them presently. In the meantime, young children walk past the soldiers, see their guns, and stop. Are they scared? Curious? It's hard to be sure. Two soldiers go away to patrol another street; another two exit from the metro station.

Arrive in Brussels from the Eurostar, and it's instantly noticeable. The first thing you see as you leave the station isn't just soldiers, but their armoured vehicles. Vigilance has become a way of life here; recent terror attacks, arrests and legitimate security concerns have seen to that. Nobody bats an eyelid as they walk past the army on the streets any more. My colleagues suggest that they feel more secure knowing that the Army is there, given recent events.

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Don't get me wrong, this place doesn't have the feel of a police state in any way. Soldiers allow themselves a smile and a cursory reply as an intensely curious young boy says hello with an expression of awe on his face. And yet, something feels wrong. It feels as though, in some ways, the change to Belgium's way of life might be a type of concession to ISIS and its sympathisers.

We live a sheltered existence in the UK. Most of us would look upon the army on the streets with particular horror. The brutality of Syria's war-torn nation, of an iconoclastic and brutal ISIS regime spanning parts of Iraq and Syria, seems a million miles away from the streets of Brussels.

Would we be so calm, so blase, so indifferent, if the atrocities in Syria were happening on our own doorsteps? I don't think we would. I think we would want to help.

We are helping, of course. The UK has sent more financial assistance to displaced Syrian refugees in appalling conditions in countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey than pretty much any other country. It's certainly more cost-effective to help people directly in the region; for every one person we help by bringing them to the UK, we could help 20-30 directly for the same cost in that region.

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It saddens me that successive governments, through their pro-mass immigration policies, have turned so many people's hearts hard against helping even those who are genuine. It's the Peter Mandelsons of this world (he famously said that Labour sent out search parties for more immigrants to rub the right's nose in diversity) that has turned a huge swathe of the population against caring.

Many people I speak to on the doorstep feel we're being taken for a ride with uncontrolled mass net immigration from the European Union. They feel that the government is misleading us over the scale of immigration, because twice as many people are registering for new national insurance numbers as are in the government figures. Yet for having these concerns, they are vilified. They're branded as bigots and racists when clearly they're not. They are the people who are impacted by uncontrolled mass net immigration. Controlled immigration means matching the skills our economy needs with the people who will come here, integrate, and make Britain a better place. Uncontrolled immigration means an oversupply of labour in certain sectors, wage compression and job losses.

Some people react badly to that. When they reject uncontrolled immigration, they don't always have a nuanced view. They don't always consider things from a broader social perspective, and the impact of all kinds of immigration. They think primarily from what they have seen, and what they have seen is a negative impact upon their community.

Part of being a (perceived) right-winger is about being able to see things from other people's points of view. Whilst the Left shriek accusations of every kind of 'ism' at those they don't understand, we try to understand where people are coming from, whether they have a genuine grievance, and whether their problems can be solved. When one prominent Labour MP tweeted "Don't speak to your grandfather, we know the problem are older white men", UKIP's Paul Nuttall MEP was quite right to blast her - saying "They treat British voters and their views with utter disdain. Anyone who doesn't fit their mould is considered to be less of a person".

Let's suppose that we had a sensible, controlled system of immigration. Just suppose, for the sake of argument, that we didn't have blue-collar workers losing out in pay and jobs due to uncontrolled mass immigration. That have net immigration running at 333,000 a year - and a gross figure of double that. Would people be more charitable, or less charitable, about the plight of refugees in that case?

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I think that they'd be more charitable. And that's what I'd like to see. A society which protects citizens from the consequences of uncontrolled immigration is a society which is caring when it comes to opening our arms to the women and children stuck in refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon. There's no prospect of such a society whilst we're members of the European Union, however. Unlimited immigration is a simple fact of life.

We don't want the kind of atrocities that have been seen in Brussels. Of course those who are most vulnerable, the women and children who have been abandoned in those refugee camps, are the least likely to have murderous intent.
Seventy five years ago today, on 1st July 1941, the Board of Trade introduced clothes rationing in Britain. It came completely out of the blue and almost everyone who heard the announcement by Oliver Lyttleton at 9am on the wireless was taken by surprise. Why was it necessary? Britain's resources had to be turned over to the war effort; raw materials and factory space were used purely for wartime purposes and the manufacture of civilian clothing was restricted. Churchill was against clothes rationing but eventually agreed it was a necessity.

In today's consumer-driven world where clothes are cheaper and more readily available than at any time in our history, it seems extraordinary to think that every man, woman and child was limited to sixty-six clothing coupons. This would be sufficient to buy about one full set of clothes a year: 18 coupons for an overcoat, 13 for a coat, jacket or blazer like garment, 8 for a pair of trousers and so forth. Even underwear had points: stockings were 3 points and handkerchiefs 1. The bureaucracy of clothes rationing was so complex that the Board of Trade had to issue a clothing quiz annually so that people could learn now many points individual articles were worth each year.

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The year after clothes rationing was introduced the government was still concerned that the demand for clothing outdid the supply. In 1942 it reduced the number of coupons per person and brought in the Utility scheme where long runs of small numbers of designs, ie mass produced clothing, would be cheaper and more efficient. The designs were dictated by a new concept: Austerity. This was brought in to limit the amount of material required to make dresses, trousers, shirts and so on. The number of pleats in skirts was limited, as were hem lengths. No more than three buttons could be used on a coat or jacket and men lost long socks and trouser turn ups, producing a howl of indignation that reached into the House of Commons.

If this all sounds dire, dull and grey, think again. A stunning exhibition at IWM North in Manchester celebrates Fashion on the Ration, 1940s Street Style. It is an enlarged version of the exhibition that ran at IWM London in 2015 and is full of delights and surprises. The exhibition explores how style survived and even flourished in the face of austere restrictions. Despite the strict rules of rationing, fashionable trends and creativity on the British Home Front blossomed in new and unexpected ways.

The first section of the exhibition looks at uniforms. Nearly one third of the population was entitled to wear a uniform. Not just the services but ARP wardens, women bus and tram conductors, Land Girls and members of the Women's Voluntary Service. Uniforms offered women, in particular, a sense of independence and status. Louis Katin observed his wife in her tram conductress uniform: 'She commands people. She directs and controls them. She has joined the great army of uniformed workers who minister to the public, and the postman and the policeman are her natural allies. You have known her up till now as a woman. Now you know her as a social unit.'

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Fashion houses responded at the outbreak of the war by rejecting the Paris-led nipped waist look for military style box skirts and square shouldered jackets. The editor of Vogue wanted women to look smart, even beautiful, but to be practical. She even advocated wearing trousers, which was frowned upon by both men and women in the countryside who thought it 'very peculiar' that women should be dress in slacks.

As the exhibition progresses there is more, not less colour and the styles become extraordinarily varied and the designs so inventive. There is a knicker and bra set made out of an RAF silk map for Lady Patricia Mountbatten and several example of Make-Do and Mend dresses, housecoats and even a long dress made from scarves.

The exhibition at IWM North is highly recommended. It is beautifully laid out with items given plenty of space so that they can be appreciated in their entirety. It is engaging as a visitor experience as there is so much material to study but the exhibition is visually strong so it has something for the casual visitor as well as for the aficionado. And one great advantage is that it runs until 1 May 2017 so there is plenty of time to see it.

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As part of the celebration of wartime fashion the museum is asking people to dig out photographs of What My Family Wore. I found this photograph of my grandmother with her three children, including my mother, taken at Rhosneigr on Anglesey in 1945. My grandmother is wearing slacks! She only ever wore trousers on the beach. At home she always wore a skirt and if it was a good tweed skirt, she would make sure she changed the position so that she didn't sit a bottom shape into it. The children all wore hand-me-downs and my mother remembers ripping her dress while climbing over a fence and getting severely ticked off for it. She only realised later that her mother was so upset because it was her only dress.
Nine-year-old Haneen has not eaten for days and often cries herself to sleep.

Born with physical disabilities, Haneen is unable to hear, speak or walk since birth - issues that would be challenging in any environment, let alone in a camp outside of Baghdad for people who have fled their homes.

The young child is among the millions in Iraq who were forced from their towns and villages due to conflict and violence. She now lives with her family in a tent in Al Kasnazaniyah camp in the Al Dora district of Baghdad, where International Medical Corps - with support from the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO) - runs mobile medical units to provide healthcare, mental health programmes, psychosocial support and other services.

That is where Farah, a psychosocial outreach worker with International Medical Corps' mobile medical unit, first met Haneen and her family. She recalls how a routine visit to the tents in the compound became something much more.

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"I was almost finished with the visit in Al Kasnazaniyah when a woman approached me - her face was covered, yet I still saw the sadness in her eyes.

"'Can you see my daughter?' was all she could say before she started crying, so I followed her inside the tent - and that's where I saw little Haneen."

Farah learned Haneen's story from her mother - the little girl had been born with a condition that had left her incapable of moving on her own.

"She refuses to look at anybody," Haneen's mother explained. "She hasn't eaten for two days and she cries all the time.

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"She cries for hours until she falls asleep and then wakes up only to continue crying."

"I returned home that day with grief on my face and pain in my soul," says Farah. "I immediately contacted my manager to get advice from him and did some research on how I could follow up on this difficult case."

Every day Farah would visit Haneen in an attempt to break the cycle of isolation and sadness. She worked step by step to build a simple dialogue - mostly through hand signals - with Haneen to build trust and a connection.

"Day by day, Haneen started to improve and look happier," Haneen's mother says gratefully. "If Farah doesn't visit she keeps waiting for her and missing her all day."

But Farah's dedication to Haneen and her family didn't stop there.

When Haneen turned nine, Farah and the International Medical Corps team organised a small celebration for her birthday - complete with a birthday cake and candles.

"This was the first birthday party in Haneen's life," her mother says.

"Our family is poor - and even before we were forced from our home, birthdays were not a priority - especially because Haneen's treatment was so costly."

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Now when Farah visits, Haneen always gestures to her phone wanting to look at photographs from her birthday party - with a huge smile across her face.

The ongoing violence has forced over 3 million Iraqis from their homes and another 3 million people are estimated to live in IS-controlled areas with limited access to essential healthcare services. International Medical Corps has been in Iraq since 2003 supporting the conflict-affected communities with health care services and psychosocial support.
Can technology transform the political process and make the UK a truly digital democracy? At Doteveryone, we believe it can. We want to see how technology can overhaul our rooted-in-tradition political system and break down the barriers that separate 'everyone' from our elected officials.

Digital skills for everyone at every level will help create a society where we can all benefit from what the internet can offer. From finding out further information on key social issues, accessing public services or looking up the location of our polling station, the internet is a vital tool in our everyday lives.

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But there are currently over 12 million adults in the UK who lack the basic digital skills needed to play an active role in civil society. And it's a double-edged sword. Universal basic digital skills are just the start of the digital skills crisis in the UK. Our public service and leadership also needs to be fit for a digital age. We don't all need to code, but our leaders need to understand how to harness the potential of the internet - for the benefit everyone as well as the economy.

This month we are tackling this problem head on. Doteveryone is at the beginning of its ambitious journey to help MPs, their offices and their constituents embrace the opportunities that technology can bring.

We've launched a pilot project where we're matching a team of digital mentors with a group of MPs in a collective quest for technological change. Embedded within the House of Commons and the parliamentary process, our four mentors will work with four MPs to develop their technological skills for the common good.

The use of software, social media and tech techniques will all be scrutinized, with our mentors identifying practical possibilities where technology can be a catalyst in our democratic process. They'll be looking for opportunities where digital can play a leading role in affecting the culture of Parliament and the interaction between citizens and our decision makers.

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Perhaps technology can be helped to provide constituents with a better understanding of the UK's legislative process and improve their experience with Parliament. Maybe the Internet can be used more efficiently to help MPs communicate better with their electorate whilst developing skills for both parties. Whatever the outcome, our mentors will be working hard to improve the channels of communication between MPs, constituents and our wider democratic society.

Finding out how they see and interact with their constituents through digital is just a part of the puzzle. Doteveryone and our team of mentors are keen to see if our work can be undertaken across other strands of British society, breaking down barriers between the public and the decision makers.

We want to help end the digital skills crisis in the UK, using the tools and creativity at our

disposal to make the UK a digitally inclusive society. Putting power in the hands of our citizens, collaboration can exert change over our institutions and the people that we place there.
The Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published to much acclaim earlier this year, has a bold vision for the future of mental health care in England, driven by a series of ambitious targets. None is more ambitious than the target to reduce the number of suicides by 10 per cent by 2020/21.

To do so would be an extraordinary achievement. Suicide rates have increased steadily in recent years, peaking at 4,882 in 2014. So the target set by Paul Farmer's independent taskforce requires us to prevent almost 500 deaths by suicide every year. That's 500 mums and dads, sons and daughters, friends and lovers; 500 lives that we have to save, protect, cherish and celebrate.

To achieve this target there must be systemic change across the NHS, the police and judiciary, and social care, as the Taskforce has acknowledged. There must be societal change to remove the stigma around mental health. But change will also be achieved through the determination and commitment of people like Joy Hibbins, who have resolved, through their own experience, to dedicate their lives to transforming mental health care.

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Joy twice tried to end her own life in November 2012. Since then she has helped to save hundreds of lives and is bringing new thinking to suicide prevention in the UK.

From the depths of despair Joy went on to set up the charity Suicide Crisis, using her own difficult journey through the mental health system to bring profound change to the care of people in a mental health crisis. Against all odds, and assuaging doubts about her ability to overcome difficult personal circumstances as a former mental health patient, Joy has established the charity as the go-to place for people who feel they have nowhere else to turn. The Suicide Crisis Centre, based in Cheltenham, has an exceptional zero suicide record since it opened in 2013. Funded entirely through public donations, the charity supports about 25 people in a typical week.

"We are tenacious in helping people to survive," Joy tells me. "If we need to stay up all night with a client, we will. We know of no other crisis centre that works like we do. Clients can visit us, or we will make home visits, providing extended support over several hours if there is an imminent risk. There is also an emergency line to a member of the team who knows them.

"What helped me to survive was the total focus of setting up the charity. I was very much on my own, and had to find people who felt like me, that there had to be a better way to help people who were in crisis. Given my illness, many people must have thought this was never going to happen. But I could see the potential of what could be done."

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"I wanted to set up the kind of suicide intervention services that would have helped me: small team, continuity of care, individualised support programme and team members who had empathy and kindness.

"The person that I was before the trauma could not have developed this charity. The difficulties and huge challenges would have defeated my previous self. The experience of trauma has given me a determination and tenacity that I didn't have before."

Joy had no previous history of mental illness. But in March 2012, following an extremely traumatic and terrifying experience, she developed symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and suffered a psychotic episode. She received treatment at home for three months but her recovery was made more difficult by the constant turnover of healthcare professionals who treated her and by the long waiting list for therapy. In November that year, unable to cope with her mental illness, Joy attempted suicide twice. She would have died but for the unexpected intervention of a nurse who came to visit a day early. Joy was assessed under the Mental Health Act, sectioned and admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

It is this lived experience which has informed the design of the support provided by Suicide Crisis, and which is attracting the attention of national policymakers looking for answers. Helen Garnham, the National Lead for Suicide Prevention at Public Health England, asked Joy to address a recent suicide summit in London. The value of Joy's work has also been recognised by Luciana Berger, the Shadow Minister for Mental Health, and by the South West Zero Suicide Collaborative, one of three pilot schemes for the Government's zero suicide initiative.
Slaves to technology

Technology controls more and more of our time. Smartphone use is still rising and according to some reports averages almost one third of our waking hours. At home and at work, we increasingly live from distraction to distraction, whether it's the latest celebrity spat on Twitter or breaking news on Donald Trump's most recent gaff. The pressure to keep on top of all of this information, despite its dubious importance and the inevitable FOMO, takes its toll. At the same time, social media encourages us to present polished versions of ourselves with recent research showing that the more time young adults spend on Facebook and Instagram, the more likely they are to feel depressed.

Tech to the rescue!

In spite of this, we can see trends of technology offering solutions too. There are apps that allow us disconnect or slow down, such as Headspace, the mindfulness app claiming over six million users. There's also rise in the Slow Living movement which espouses a more connected and attentive way of living. Led by the magazine Delayed Gratification, Slow Journalism is also on the rise and offers it's readers wider perspective and context in place of breaking news.

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But what are the options if mindfulness isn't for you? A simple alternative is reading fiction. Part of the growing tech-for-good movement, Biblio.life is an online bibliotherapy service offering personalised literary prescriptions to readers around the world. It's service offers many of the same benefits as meditation as well as the chance to connect with others and get a fresh perspective on life's challenges via literature.

Whilst the UK is a leading light in the readingforwellbeing movement, many initiatives are small and local. By offering their service online, Biblio is seeking to make the benefits of bibliotherapy available to a much larger audience.

The service is powered not by algorithms, but by a community of real people, from librarians to counsellors who believe that there is a book for every aspect of the human condition and that reading changes everything. The evidence is compelling with studies showing that after just six minutes of silent reading, participants' heart rates slowed and tension in their muscles eased up to 68%.

By allowing users to connect anonymously online, the service allows people to talk one to one about what's really going on for them in a safe, empathetic and confidential space. Many users choose to share intimate details of their life with their bibliotherapist and the recommendations act as conduits for the conversation. The books also offer an opportunity in which to rehearse, revisit and reflect upon difficult experiences seen through the eyes of others. Technology enables users from all corners of the world to exchange messages at any time and to discuss what they've read, in effect acting as a private digital book club.

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One of the team of volunteer curators, Julia Webb, a poet and currently writer in residence at Norwich Market, says "I enjoy the opportunity to connect with my readers, find out what's going on in their lives, and share my love of reading. I'm surprised by quite how much I enjoy the process and I await reader's responses to my suggestions eagerly. I often find myself wishing to reread books that I'm recommending too."
Danny Lawson/PA Wire

For British students, discussion on the EU boils down to several issues, one being Erasmus. The myth being pedalled by the NUS is that, if we leave the EU, all opportunities for students to study abroad will cease overnight. Yet from Chiba University in Japan to the University of Campinas in Brazil, the Erasmus programme extends far beyond EU member states.

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Simply put, no students planning to head to the EU whether in the interim period or longer term after we voted to leave would be affected.

On freedom of movement too, for those studying or working here through legal means, under international law their situation would not change after a leave vote. A fair agreement of mutual benefit would be reached so that any student would be able to reap the benefits of international exchange, in the same way as thousands of Britons who study outside the EU in the USA, Canada or New Zealand, do now.

This is especially the case when, according to The Times, six out of the world's top twenty-five universities are in the UK, whilst the EU has none. Furthermore we already see visa-free access to the EU permitted to citizens from Chile to Canada. Outside, we can build a more progressive system of immigration attracting talent from India, China and beyond on a meritocratic basis, rather than whether you have an EU passport.

In relation to minority rights, sixteen out of the twenty-eight EU states have failed to legalise same-sex marriage, whilst on equal pay and other worker's rights, the UK continues to legislate ahead of EU benchmarks.

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As a net contributor to the EU budget, we could set our own priorities on science and research if we left, whilst engaged with the principal Horizon 2020 programme that includes non-EU countries from Georgia to Switzerland.

The latter is in fact home to CERN and receives the greatest proportion of such funding despite rejecting EU membership. Elsewhere, directives on clinical trials and energy have restricted British competiveness and innovation in these sectors, reducing our impact on the world stage.

Far from a growing market we are currently shackled to a shrinking political union whose share of world trade has plunged from 37% in 1973 to 17% today, despite forcing crippling austerity on the Eurozone that has pushed youth unemployment over 50%. As the fifth largest economy in the world, a leading member of the G7 and G20 group of economies, EU customs policy prevents us from signing our own free-trade agreements, controlling tariffs or VAT on items such as tampons.

We have the fourth largest military budget on the planet and help lead the path to world peace and security through the organs of NATO and a permanent seat upon the UN Security Council, without the need for an EU army. As such, this referendum is more than about a single Parliament, but the next twenty to thirty years.

Whether on trade, higher education and beyond the out-dated European Union espouses narrow regionalism in an increasingly globalised world.

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News / Local

by Thobekile Zhou

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Deputy Minister responsible for livestock, Paddy Zhanda hs angered a section of Matabeleland farmers by insinuating that they are selfish.Zhanda told a foot and mouth meeting in Harare on Wednesday that Bulawayo cattle owners are peddling falsehoods that Government banned the movement of cattle.He said ""Government has never banned the movement of cattle. That must be emphasised."The movement of cattle has always been subject to restrictions, that is why a permit to move cattle is always sought before you move your cattle from one place to another depending on the disease outcome of that area."The issue is emanating from Bulawayo, where it is initiated selfishly by few individuals who want us to allow cattle at Zimbabwe International Trade Fair grounds, where there was last outbreak".His comments have been viewed as tribal and is due to meet Matabeleland farmers in Bulawayo this morning.Farmer and journalist Methuseli Moyo this morning said Zhanda has got a "stinking attitude" and wants to "distort the beef market in Matabeleland"."Zhanda makes tribally motivated comments saying Ndebele's are selfish.""Analyse his comments closely. My comment as a farmer and media and political analyst is that he has a malicious agenda and stinking attitude."His policy of closing cattle auctions in Bulawayo has no relationship with scientific facts about FMD. He is being misled by greedy and corrupt players to distort the beef market in Matabeleland so that they feast on desperate farmers who suddenly have no market for their cattle".
While claiming to have the highest standards of animal welfare in the world, the EU quietly engages in a trade of great cruelty. The EU exports over two million cattle and sheep a year to the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.

A terrible trade

The long journeys from Europe by road and sea take a terrible toll on the animals. All too often the trucks carrying them to Turkey or ports in southern Europe are overcrowded, poorly ventilated and filthy. The animals become increasingly exhausted, hungry and thirsty as the long journeys wear on. Some collapse, others get injured. In the worst cases many die. For those that survive, the worst is still in store. Slaughter practices in this region are deeply troubling.

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The trade is carried on in ways that breach the EU Treaty, EU law on the protection of animals during transport and internationally agreed standards on welfare at slaughter. Despite the suffering, the Commission, the exporting Member States and the traders refuse to halt these exports. The lure of profits drowns out the whimpering of terrified animals.

Game-changing judgment

Then in April 2015 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) delivered a potentially game-changing judgment. It ruled that in the case of exports to countries outside the EU, EU law on the protection of animals during transport (the Transport Regulation) continues to apply even after the animals leave the EU - it applies right through to the final destination in Turkey or the Middle East.

A year on many Member States and exporters simply ignore the ECJ ruling. However, realising that they cannot do this for ever, the EU has come up with a cynical ploy to dodge a crucial part of the ECJ judgment. It's going to change the law - it plans to scrap some of the key words in the Transport Regulation on which the ECJ based its judgment.

At present the Regulation states that before letting animals leave the EU, Official Vets at the border must "check that the animals are transported in compliance with this Regulation". The EU plans to drop these words; this will seriously weaken the Court's ruling. The EU's dictum: if you don't like what the Court says, change the law! This is stop-at-nothing, 'we don't care about animal suffering as long as the money keeps rolling in' behaviour.

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The EU's attitude to this trade is shot through with such cynicism. The EU Treaty requires it, when formulating and implementing its policies on agriculture and transport, to pay "full regard to the welfare requirements of animals". The European Commission tries to get round the Treaty by saying this cruel trade is not part of the EU's agriculture policy but part of its commercial policy. But at the same time as claiming that this trade is not part of the EU's agriculture policy, the European Commission's Agriculture department boasts of the recent increase in live exports!
62p doesn't quite buy you a first class stamp but this modest sum has averted the collapse of a hotly-anticipated Department for Education pilot scheme.

I'm talking about the 30 free nursery hours trial in York, which was boycotted by its participants before it began, hitting headlines in the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.

Happily now, things have moved on and this very important initiative is back on track.

After lengthy talks, the Government has now given York City Council a funding uplift to enhance the rate it can offer childcare providers for the Early Implementer Pilot.

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This equates to 62p. Or more specifically, 62p more per child per hour.

30 settings in the city originally said no to the Government's original offer of 3.95 per hour to test out the Government's flagship policy to offer 30 free hours per week for three and four-year-olds with working parents, ahead of full roll-out in September 2017.

3.95 might have been doable but the big issue was that there would be no increase in funding for the 15 free hours that children currently receive, which stands at a lowly 3.38, where it has been frozen for four years.

Now a new rate of 4 for all free hours for the pilot has now been agreed and the pilot - the biggest and therefore arguably most important of the eight pilots across England - will go ahead from September.

This has been reported in Nursery World and Children and Young People Now.

4 is still below the level of funding that nursery owners and managers would like to see, to cover all their costs. But all this is welcome news for the nursery sector, nevertheless.

Firstly because it's a very definite step in the right direction, financially. Crucially, the indications are that the York pilot will set a precedent for the others in terms of the Government, in partnership with local authorities, offering a flat rate in each area for all the hours when children are on the new 30 free hour places.

Secondly, because the pilots will show how 30 free hours actually works in reality. How much it costs, how it fits into nurseries' business plans, how those extra hours can be accommodated.

Despite all the headway that has been made on 30 free hours since it was announced as a Conservative Party pre-election pledge just over a year ago, nursery professionals still understandably feel like signing up to do their bit to deliver it represents a leap into the unknown.

Put simply, they don't know yet what the funding rates will be next year and how things will all add up in practice. They don't know whether saying 'yes we can' will lead to them incurring bigger losses and making their businesses unsustainable. We are all looking to the pilots to help formulate the answers.

All eyes will be on these high-profile trials. Not just in England but also in Scotland and Wales where 30 free hours schemes are expected to follow - the new Government in Wales has just announced this - after England's full roll-out in 2017.

Pilots are happening in Wigan, Staffordshire, Swindon, Portsmouth, Northumberland,York, Newham and Hertfordshire. York is the largest trial and the only one to encompass all eligible children in the local authority area.

The exercise will cost 13m in total. If the trials are all carefully carried out and thoroughly analysed, this will be 13m well spent.

All being well, the pilots will show how we can ensure 30 free hours is achievable and sustainable for providers in the longer term.

I say this all the time but NDNA and the nursery sector are really, truly keen to work with local authorities and the Government to create the right conditions for this flagship policy to thrive.
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Recently, I read of a story about an African man who had been detained in prison in London's Wormwood Scrubs for a short period while his immigration and visa details were resolved. On leaving the prison, he returned and asked the warden, "Excuse me, where is the community? I was told I was being released into the community." A thought-provoking misunderstanding, I felt, which reminded me of the renowned ad campaign of New York City.

After a journey of gentrification through the 2000s, New York emerged as an urban jungle of yoga bunnies and creatives, the new alphas taking over from the former schools of the contrast-shirt wearing Wall Streeters of the 80s and 90s. But it hasn't always been this way. In the 1970s, the City's authorities were approaching bankruptcy and a billion-dollar deficit, and with public services being a no show, crime and grime were forcing a mass exodus of its residents from the City. Something had to be done. The New York State Department of Economic Development knew it had to increase tourism to fund its much needed transformation, and approached an ad agency who subsequently approached a Milton Glaser. In the back of a yellow cab, it is Milton Glaser who designed the widely recognised and much loved 'I  NY', a symbol synonymous with NYC's identity for locals and tourists alike. Whilst it wasn't originally copyrighted, the meme, celebrating its 40th birthday this year, now generates income directly via merchandise branding and indirectly through the City's transformative tourism agenda. But if you asked Glaser today what the most powerful output of the 1977 campaign was, it's likely he would tell you about a cohesive journey that saw its community reconnect with its home.

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As the reinvented metropolis that can't sleep, if only because of a road-raged horn-happy population, you can still see elements of the 1970s in Manhattan's urban-chic exterior. And as I travelled between London and New York, I began to think: If New York managed to save itself with a City-defining branding exercise in its time of need, why wait for a critical moment to replicate the same. London is, in my humble opinion, not just a metropolis but an international city at the peak of its powers. Upcoming European and US election outcomes aside, London has forged a path and earnt its place as a leader in the fourth industrial revolution. From finance and technology to healthcare and life sciences, the UK not only competes on a global level but leads by example, breeding talent and understanding the responsibilities of creating sustainable long-term industry successes. This is particularly visible in the UK's approach and adoption of European financial services regulations, where the UK has opted to move first and build on top of the European framework a more applicable and inclusive model to enable progression across adjacent industries. As Z/Yen Group research stated in March this year, London is the world's leading financial services hub and is certainly a jewel in the crown, but it may be the UK's leading position in FinTech that sees technology unicorns of traditionally US scale appear for the first time.

Away from financial services, the story still reads well. London houses 40% of international company's European HQs, and is in many respects the perfect geographic positioning for trade both East and West while also being a spring-board into Europe (for the time being...). While London's macro-positioning is handy, the micro city view is surprisingly unique on the capital city playing field - a city that houses a nation's parliament, regulators and economic engine-room as well as a number of historic and cultural landmarks that give a modern skyline a genuine feeling of progression and evolution. That might be why it's the most visited city on the planet.

Dylan Jones recently likened London's status today as more of a citadel or city-state - a modern day Rome, Athens or Carthage. A statement of such dramatism seemed neglecting of the many wonderful cities that can also be found in the UK, but along with New York's moment of brand creativity it got me thinking - we shouldn't claim to be an independent international city as part of a United Kingdom, but we can be proud. We can come together and celebrate London's progress, hard-work, beautiful city architecture and surroundings. Why wait until we need a moment to rally around a community driven iconic meme, as New York did.

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Could we not create our own symbol of prosperity, responsibility, longevity and purpose?

It may be that the medium differs from a crayon-written phrase on an envelope, and transgresses to a sound or an image or a place. What it should be I do not know, but I like the idea of something collective, patriotic and defining. Rather than copying another city's victories, let's not reinvent the highline but ask the people that make this city so great: how do you think we can best represent London today?

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Ahead of the European Referendum on 23rd June, Stand Up is hosting an informative, non-partisan event to discuss the pros and cons of the Referendum's tentative outcome. What do you think the Referendum will mean for London?
The global health get together - #WHA69 - last week in Geneva was full of must dos. We must combat obesity, we must address the ageing crisis, we must have strong leadership - preferably female - in global health, we must do something about Zika, we must strengthen health systems, and we must end infant and maternal mortality. Attached to these must-dos was a variety of programmes and strategies of how the World Health Organisation (WHO) would address them through technical guidance for member states. This happens every year. The stand out of WHA69, however, was the new Health Emergencies Programme - a strategy that seemed to go beyond the usual must-do to can and will do.

The WHO's Health Emergencies Programme had to happen. The WHO's epic cluster!$%* over Ebola and fears over Zika meant the Organisation had to do something to reassert its legitimacy as the go-to institution for health emergency response. The Health Emergencies Programme goes some way in an attempt to reassert the institution's legitimacy in its frank 'no regrets' approach to emergency response and emphasis on action. The one committee, one budget, one programme is a valid attempt to cut through the institutional inertia that can often limit the WHO's ability to do something. If this programme is fully funded it will go a long way in enabling the WHO to do its job in responding to health emergencies.

A big question mark is, as always, over the funding. The World Health Assembly approved the US$494million budget for the programme for 2016-17. The WHO was quick to praise Japan's US$50million contribution to this and the commitment of Sweden, Australia, and Germany. However given the budgetary constraints of the core financing of WHO (the WHO is made up of roughly 25% assessed contributions from member states and 75% voluntary contributions) it is unclear how the rest of the programme will be funded if not for this year, then the future costs of US$150million per year that the programme projects. In effect, the new Health Emergencies Programme boils down to: nice plan, but few want to pay for it.

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Given the horrors of Ebola, the fear over Zika, and the threat of Yellow Fever, it would appear a no-brainer that states would want to pay to limit the spread of these disease and protect their citizens. However, the issue is not the need to act, but whether the WHO is the best actor to do so. While the Programme is an attempt to reassert the WHO's legitimacy, part of the problem is that for an actor to be legitimate, those who commit to its existence and authority have to believe in it. And this is where the problem lies: the WHO has lost legitimacy among a number of member states and actors in global health who no longer believe in its ability to act.

On the one hand, the fact that member states voted to approve the Health Emergencies Programme suggests that the WHO has clear formal legitimacy to act in this area. On the other hand, the legitimacy of the WHO has been informally questioned through the ongoing process of institutional reform, growth of actors that replicate aspects of its institutional mandate, and bilateral responses to health emergencies.

The result of which is many member states believe that bilateral action in response to health emergencies is more effective than waiting for delayed and ineffective multilateral action. This is clear when you look at how the UK and US have responded to Ebola and Zika respectively - the onus is on a commitment to multilateralism but in practice bilateral action is the method that is seen to work.
In 1648 the Treaty of Westphalia put and end to the 'Thirty Years' War and to the long-lasting religious confrontation between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. This treaty, guided by the principle "whose realm, his religion", permitted Princes to determine the religion of their lands without interference of external powers, which is widely perceived as the inauguration the concept of sovereignty. Since then, States were independent and free to regulate their internal affairs and determine their own legislation without external interference, and sovereign States became the primary subject of international law.

A Cosmopolitan Trend

However, international law has experienced a wave of cosmopolitanism during the last few decades. The approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the ratification of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court by more than 120 countries, or the creation of regional systems of human rights protection have blurred the lines between international and national law.

Following this trend, since the end of the Second World War the focus of international law has--although timidly--changed from sovereign States to individuals. The responsibility to protect people from human rights abuses and ensure accountability for atrocities has threatened the traditional concept of sovereignty and justified the international community's interference on the internal matters of individual states where gross human rights violations were committed.

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The creation of ad hoc international criminal tribunals, the establishment of the Universal Periodic Review in the UN Human Rights Council, the inauguration of Committees to analyse and review States' activities, and even the imposition of sanctions and the initiation of direct military interventions when atrocities are committed all serve as appropriate examples of this growing cosmopolitan trend.

However, the clearest example of this trend is the principle of Universal Jurisdiction, described as the principle allowing domestic tribunals to exercise--in representation of the international community--criminal jurisdiction to prosecute international crimes committed in any place and regardless of the nationality of the victims and perpetrators.

Therefore, this jurisdiction is based on neither national nor geographical connections with the State of the Courts, but simply on the type of crime committed and its gravity. The international community understood that certain acts, such as torture, crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, threatened humanity as a whole and the prevention of these crimes had primacy even over the main concept of international subjectivity: sovereignty. After all, human rights are the 'sovereignty' of the person.

The principle of Universal Jurisdiction has fostered not only the establishment of the International Criminal Court, but also the initiation of judicial proceedings in national jurisdictions against former leaders of sovereign States, such as the Pinochet Case in the United Kingdom, or the Spanish prosecution of Guatemalan officials for the commission of genocide.

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An American imposition?

However, some authors have seen in this cosmopolitan trend an imperialist imposition, a process of Americanization of international law. The increasing number of references to US Court decisions, and more importantly, the fact that numerous law students from US elite universities reshape the law of their countries of origin when they finish their studies and return to their national states are considered symptoms of the infiltration of American law in foreign jurisdictions. According to these authors, the expansion of the processes of democratization, constitutionalization and human rights protection respond to an American agenda.

It is true that law and its application is intrinsically linked to power. It is undeniable that powerful States, and particularly, the permanent members of the UN Security Council are de facto unaccountable for their actions. Three of the five permanent members of the UN Secutity Council (United States, China and Russia) have refused to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and therefore, international crimes committed by their nationals or in their territories are immune from the reach of the International Criminal Court. Further, and more disturbingly, they are able to veto UNSC resolutions to refer other States to the ICC - Syria as a point in case.

These double standards in international law create differential treatment between different States based on national or foreign policy interests. They permit voices to legitimately raise questions about the manipulation of the human rights discourse and of the principle of Universal Jurisdiction to illegitimately interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign States in order to further the political interests of powerful nations.

Recently I was asked to appear on a panel discussion hosted by Russia Today in its topical programme Cross-Talk. The discussion focused on a deeply flawed concept of the 'Americanization of International Law'. The panel host, and at least one of the guests, focused on the conspiratorial theory that American foreign policy and big business has corrupted the notion, and the application, of international law. There was discussion of US military invasions, corporate and banking monopolisation and the expansion of universal jurisdiction by holding foreign nationals accountable in US Courts.

I disagreed with much of what was discussed during the programme. Whilst there may be legitimate arguments as to non-sanctioned military interventions and questionable banking and business practices, the expansion of accountability mechanisms through national courts, where there might otherwise be none can only be a positive step. To ignore such an important legal development is to allow impunity to flourish.

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During the discussion there was also talk of the illegality of the US military role in Syria. It was considered that the role of Russia supporting an autocratic regime in Damascus was lawful as it was invited by the sovereign government, despite the fact that there are serious questions over Russian involvement in war crimes by targeting civilians, hospitals, schools and other non-military targets. There was also complete ignorance in the issue of Russia's unlawful annexation of Crimea. Clearly if one only considers the principles it has to cut both ways.

Separating Concepts

There was much confusion during the discussion as two wholly separate concepts: the alleged process of Americanization of international law and the principle of Universal Jurisdiction. Universal Jurisdiction is a principle independent from American politics and law. As a matter of fact, as democracy and human rights, universal jurisdiction is a concept that predates the creation of the American state.

Although Francisco de Vitoria had anticipated the concept of Universal Jurisdiction on several occasions, the first author to establish the first doctrinal definition was Hugo Grotius in the 17th century, in his work 'De iure Belli ac Pacis': "kings, and those who possess rights equal to those kings, have the right of demanding punishments not only on account of injuries committed against themselves or their subjects, but also on account of injuries which do not directly affect them but excessively violate the law of nature or of nations in regard to any persons whatsoever".

The principle of Universal Jurisdiction, far from furthering the particular interests of powerful States constitutes a strong tool to serve individual citizens in the fight against arbitrariness. This principle helps eliminate power inequality between nations, as its only reference is the gravity of the crime committed, regardless of the political strength of the person who committed it.

It is true that the trends of cosmopolitanism tend to be led by the countries dominating the international political arena, but it is the work of the international civil society to use the cosmopolitan tools at our disposal to fight against the impunity and double standards of the powerful nations of the world.

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Creative people and companies graft away with air and ideas and invent completely new experiences everyday. New products, new plays, new songs, films, commercials, shoes, clothes, buildings, new paintings and new games. At their best these new things touch something familiar and fundamental within us, a place of pleasure that helps us fit the world and connect with the people in it.

Creativity is about new ideas, new people and new companies, it's about growth.

Our festival, SohoCreate, is more than a celebration of creativity, it champions the people who grapple every day to give us all life changing experiences, constantly. It looks at why they do it, their inspirations and motivations, it helps us understand them and their process, and in doing so helps us understand ourselves.

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Creative Soho itself began 350 years ago as a craft collective servicing the rich of Mayfair. It welcomed the Huguenot refugees from France and Europe, and quickly became a diverse and vibrant community of tin and silversmiths, tailors and jewelers. It's evolution has always been about welcoming new people and ideas, which means it has grown into the most creative square mile in the world. 46,000 creative workers from dozens of different nationalities, turning over a collective 7.5billion.

At SohoCreate 2016 we have filmmakers talking with architects and authors, playwrights in discussion with actors and musicians, people from every creative sector talking about why they do what they do and how it tilts the world.

You can hear actor OSCAR-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia (Amy, Senna), fashion designers Henry Holland and Patrick Grant; theatre directors Max Stafford-Clark, Paulette Randall, Jeremy Herrin and Indhu Rubasingham; and celebrated chefs Mark Hix and Nuno Mendes (Chiltern Firehouse). Over 100 speakers are descending on Soho to talk all things creative.

As if that's not enough, there's our Creative Business Symposium in partnership with Creative Review, looking at the importance of creativity to growth and profit. We have two mornings of talks and workshops for aspiring young creatives, offering insight into forging a career in the creative industries. All this alongside SohoCreate's careers fair, supported by Microsoft Lift London, bringing together the UK's emerging creative talent with industry leaders all targeted at job opportunities for the best creative talent with the best creative companies.

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The whole wonderful affair is supported by Westminster City Council who themselves house 17% of the entire countries creative turnover.

We've put all this together simply because we all believe creativity is vital.
Of Hillary Clinton, Rick Perry said Donald Trump will peel her skin off, though he did concede that she would go down well with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Paul Ryan endorsed Donald Trump and if you need to get in touch with the House speaker he can be found in the gym, doing burpees until he loses consciousness. And today marks the 30th anniversary of C-SPAN's Senate broadcasts, a development that forever changed the way we think about people named "Akaka." This is HUFFPOST HILL for Thursday, June 2nd, 2016:

CLINTON DELIVERS SPEECH, NO QUESTIONS - Samantha Lachman: "Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton characterized Donald Trumps approach to the world as 'dangerously incoherent' on Thursday in a scorching speech about national security and foreign policy in San Diego. Clinton made the case that a Trump administration would pursue a risky and unpredictable foreign policy agenda, one that would threaten the United States relationships with its allies'Theyre not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies. He is not just unprepared, he is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility.'  Clinton had a lot of material to get through. She recited some of Trumps past statements on foreign policy, provoking laughter from the audience when she noted that he said he understands Russia because he held the Miss Universe pageant there. She also mentioned his past support for increased nuclear proliferation, taking out the families of terrorists and defaulting on the national debt, and mocked his remark that his primary consultant on foreign policy issues is himself, because he has a 'very good brain.'" [HuffPost]

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What the actual f: @GingerGibson: Rick Perry responds to Clinton's speech attacking Trump. "Donald Trump will peel her skin off in a debate setting."

PAUL RYAN ENDORSES TRUMP - P90xplains his thinking. Matt Fuller: "In an unceremonious op-ed in his local paper, Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) ended his dithering on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and said he would vote for Donald Trump in November. Ryan, who had been holding out on endorsing Trump, said the focus of his conversations with the real estate mogul were on the Houses policy agenda. 'Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve peoples lives,' Ryan writes, 666 words into an 806-word op-ed in the GazetteXtra. 'Thats why Ill be voting for him this fall.' Ryan says one person he knows wont support his agenda is Hillary Clinton. 'A Clinton White House would mean four more years of liberal cronyism and a government more out for itself than the people it serves,' Ryan writes. 'Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix.'" [HuffPost]

PAUL RYAN BLOCK GRANTS HIS DIGNITY - Here's what Donald Trump had to say about Reticent Ryan back in March: "Paul Ryan, Im sure Im going to get along great with him. And if I dont, hes going to have to pay a big price. Okay?" Way to stand up for yourself, Paul Ryan. [HuffPost]

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Igor Bobic, who recently got a haircut, has a helpful list of the remaining #NeverTrump people.

HILLARY CLINTON FINALLY ENDORSES KILLING GUY - Sam Stein: "Hillary Clinton supports the death penalty for Dylann Roof, the accused shooter of nine parishioners at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, her campaign confirmed. In the week since the Justice Department announced its decision to seek the death penalty in the Roof case, the former secretary of state had held off on weighing in. But in an email to The Huffington Post on Thursday, Clintons top spokesman, Brian Fallon, said 'she respects the Justice Department decision.'" [HuffPost]

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

Trump in 1994: "I have days where, if I come home  and I don't want to sound too much like a chauvinist  but when I come home and dinner's not ready, I go through the roof." [Vox]

TRUMP UNABLE TO EARN SUPPORT OF SWING STATE ESTABLISHMENT - Then again, he still thinks New York is a swing state so he's probably not super concerned about Ohio. Katie Glueck: "Trump will be without the backing of George Voinovich himself, the former Ohio governor and senator -- and one of the states favorite Republican sons -- who has yet to throw his support behind the presumptive GOP nominee. Trumps swing-state trouble isnt limited to Voinovich. While national Republican leaders have largely gotten on board, a host of key establishment figures in Ohio and Florida -- including current Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Gov. Bob Taft, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Carlos Curbelo and other influential Latino leaders in Florida -- are still refusing to get behind the GOP nominee...Polls in Ohio and Florida show neither Trump nor his likely rival, Hillary Clinton, has fully consolidated their bases in those states. According to a CBS News/YouGov poll out of Ohio from late last month, only 80 percent of Republicans would vote for Trump as of today, and 82 percent of Democrats are currently supporting Clinton." [Politico]

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Michael Fletcher writes on racism animating hatred of Obama for ESPN's The Undefeated.

SNYDER OPTS AGAINST TRUMP ENDORSEMENT - "Gov. Rick Snyder has sidelined himself in the race for president, choosing not to make an endorsement of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. The Republican governor also did not endorse in the March 8 primary, saying he was consumed with addressing Flints lead-contaminated water crisis. 'Ive stayed out of the whole thing, and Im going to continue to,' Snyder said Wednesday in an interview with The Detroit News Editorial Board at the Mackinac Policy Conference. 'Ive got important things I want to work on in Michigan.' The Republican governors neutrality in the presidential race is in contrast to his lieutenant governor, Brian Calley, who recently urged fellow Republicans to unite behind Trumps candidacy to keep Democrat Hillary Clinton out of the White House." [Detroit News]

NAME GAME - "Former Anchorage mayor Dan Sullivan made news with his last-minute decision to primary Alaska Sen. Lisa MurkowskiIf he wins, he could become the second Dan Sullivan in the Alaska delegation. Dan Sullivan, the state's junior senator, was elected in 2014...The former mayor could benefit from more than just campaign signs. Sharing a name with a sitting senator should give his candidacy a boost if voters confuse him for the incumbent...Last weekend, Florida Rep. Alan Grayson married girlfriend Dena Minning , and Minning announced she'd take her husband's last name. That's significant because Minning is running for Grayson's 9th District House seat. Grayson is running for the Democratic nomination for Senate. But when voters go to the polls, they'll still see a Grayson for House, which could help to distinguish the new Mrs. Grayson from the rest of the crowded Democratic primary field." [Roll Call]

OBJECTIVELY TRUE STATEMENTS ABOUT TRUMP UNIVERSITY SURE SOUND MEAN - Igor Bobic: "New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Thursday took aim at the now-defunct Trump University, which has been accused of being a scam. 'In New York, we have laws against business fraud, we have laws against consumer fraud,' Schneiderman said in an interview with ABCs George Stephanopoulos on 'Good Morning America.' 'We have a law against running an illegal, unlicensed university. This never was a university. The fraud started with the name of the organization, and you cant just go around saying this is the George Stephanopoulos Law Firm/Hospital/University without actually qualifying and registering, so it was really a fraud from beginning to end.' Trump University, an unaccredited for-profit company launched by presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump in 2005, offered courses in real estate and investment. Documents unsealed by a federal judge earlier this week pertaining to a lawsuit against the venture revealed how its salespeople were told to deliberately mislead potential customers, manipulate their emotions and ignore their concerns about parting ways with, in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars. 'Its fraud. This is just straight up fraud.'" [HuffPost]

BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a skateboarding dog.

MORE COLOR FROM THIS WEEKEND'S LIBERTARIAN CONVENTION - "Most party conventions are filled with head-scratching pageantry and aimed at firing up the base. So maybe that excuses some of the weekends eccentricities: conservative thinker Ayn Rands name being invoked with the same regularity that Republicans namecheck Ronald Reagan, the young attendee who jokingly labeled his companion a 'stateist' for stealing his lunch, and a long-shot presidential candidate who cheekily reiterated his support for legalizing drugs by saying that 'crystal meth should be as legal as tomatoes.'" [HuffPost]

COMFORT FOOD

- Tracking the coins that people throw into fountains.

- Pejorative names given to President Obama turned into a poem.

- Checking in with the "hot felon."

TWITTERAMA

@jerryspringer: C'mon Donald... you complaining about Hillary's temperament is like me complaining about the quality of television!

@politicoroger: Modern speechwriting: Take every focus group result and hammer them into power and eloquence.

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RYAN: not endorsing

TRUMP: ok

RYAN: unless you change

TRUMP: no

RYAN: I mean it

TRUMP: ok

RYAN: I n-need unity

TRUMP: you done?

RYAN: ...yes
Donald Trump's possible victory in the upcoming presidential elections has become a nightmare for many. Some people believe that he is leading a proto-fascist movement. Neocon stalwart Robert Kagan believes that Trump has opened up the possibility of fascism in the United States. Over at The New Yorker, Adam Gopnik warns us about the dire consequences of accepting Trump. As a political activist from Iran who lives in exile in the United States and whose region is deeply affected by the United States policy toward the Middle East and my native land, I too am terrified by the possibility that Trump might be elected President and take this country into an endless abyss, and have expressed my sentiments and thoughts in three previous pieces, here, here, and here. But, what people have discussed much less is that Hillary Clinton may actually contribute to a Trump victory. How? This article addresses this question.

The Likelihood of Trump Getting Elected

Unfortunately, when Trump announced his candidacy, most people did not take him seriously, and did not believe he could win the GOP nomination. The next mistake was the claim by Democrats that Mrs. Clinton will easily defeat Trump. Both have, of course, proven to be utterly wrong.

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There is of course no denying of the fact that many months ago Mrs. Clinton was far ahead of Trump in every credible national poll. But, the situation has completely changed. A poll by NBC/SurveyMonkey on May 17 indicated that Mrs. Clinton is ahead of Trump by only 3 percent, while a Washington Post/ABC News poll on May 22 showed that Trump is actually ahead of her by 2 percent. Of course, the polls at this time are volatile and have ups and downs for both candidates. But, they do indicate that Trump can actually win. Why is that?

Choice between Bad and Worse

A large majority of the American people do not hold positive views of both candidates. A New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that, (a) 55 and 52 percent of the people do not have favorable views of Trump and Mrs. Clinton, respectively; (b) 66 and 60 percent of voters do not believe that Trump and Mrs. Clinton share their values; (c) only 44 percent of the respondents believe that both candidates have strong leadership qualities, and (d) 64 and 60 percent of the people do not believe, respectively, thatMrs. Clinton and Trump are trustworthy.

The Washington Post/ABC News poll indicated that 60 and 53 percent of the voters do not hold favorable view of Trump and Mrs. Clinton, respectively, while the NBC News poll showed that 53 and 60 percent of the respondents either hold an favorable view of the two candidates or despise them.

It is therefore clear that the choice is one of bad or worse. Even Noam Chomsky, a greater thinker of our era, believes that people should hold their nose and vote for Mrs. Clinton.

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Hillary Clinton as the Embodiment of Failed Policies of the Past

U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, as well as its support for Saudi Arabia's aggression against the people of Yemen, have failed. The majority of the people are also opposed to U.S. military intervention around the world. As Stephen Walt of Harvard University, a foreign policy realist puts it, while the foreign policy establishment supports Mrs. Clinton, the support actually may not be bad for Trump. Mrs. Clinton and her foreign policy team and supporters symbolize the failed policy of military interventions, which can hurt her because people are tired of such interventions.

It should suffice to point out that Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense in both George W. Bush and Obama administrations, has likened the intervention in Libya to the invasion of Iraq that is universally believed to be a mistake, and Mrs. Clinton played a key role in the attacks on Libya. Despite this, Mrs. Clinton still advocates military solutions to the problems in the Middle East. In particular, she suggested in 2010 to give Israel the "green light" to strike Iran, and also said that if the leaders of Iran's Green Movement had asked for help, the U.S. would have been prepared to undertake operations similar to what happened in Libya.

Mrs. Clinton is highly experienced, but in the foreign policy arena she has experienced mostly glaring failures when it comes to immense and complex problems that the world is facing. Clearly, Trump will use this against Mrs. Clinton. Thus, while voters view the past negatively and are demanding fundamental changes, Mrs. Clinton has become a symbol of past failures, and does not show any fundamental shifts in her views.

Clinton's Victories in the Primaries

Unlike what most people believe, the U.S. elections are not democratic, in the sense that the election of a person is the direct result of each and every vote of the people. The system of Electoral College and the role of super delegates in the Democratic Party have taken that away from the people.

In the Democratic primaries held so far, Mrs. Clinton has received over 13 million votes, while Senator Bernie Sanders has received over 10 million votes. The two candidates have won 28 and 21 primaries, respectively. Of the 28 primaries won by Mrs. Clinton, at least 11 states (South and North Carolinas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Arizona and Kentucky) vote reliably for the GOP in the presidential elections, while Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Virginia are the swing states. Therefore, Mrs. Clinton has won only 10 primaries in states that vote reliably Democratic. This can hurt her in the general elections.

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What is the Goal: Beating Trump or Nominating Clinton?



Leaders of Democratic Party must decide whether their goal is defeating Trump in the general elections, or nominating Mrs. Clinton as their candidate. If the former, every poll indicates that Senator Sanders is a far better candidates than Mrs. Clinton, with only about 30 percent of the people holding negative views about him. One would think that a candidate whom people trust is better than one about whom a significant majority hold such negative views.

Mrs. Clinton has also been involved in issues that will definitely be brought up by Trump and used against her, ranging from murders of Christopher Stevens, U.S. Ambassador to Libya, to her private e-mails while at the State Department, her relations with the Wall Street, and the problems with the Clinton Foundation.

It is based on such problems that Senator Sanders has pointed out that he and his campaign will be far better positioned to defeat Trump. He has urged the unelected delegates to the Democratic Convention to consider these facts.

A More Plausible Way of Defeating Trump

I highly doubt that the leaders of Democratic Party will allow nomination of Senator Sanders as their candidates for the general elections. The Clintons are part of the ruling oligarchy. They are also members of the 1%. If everyone, including Senator Sanders and his supporters, must be terrified by the prospects of a Trump victory, why should Mrs. Clinton and her supporters not be so?

In my view, there is a simple way of unifying the Democratic Party. Mrs. Clinton can ask Senator Sanders to be her running mate. That would increase her chances of victory dramatically. The likelihood of this is, however, low.

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Mrs. Clinton can also act like President Obama, and ask Senator Sanders to be her Secretary of State, and concomitantly, to show sympathy with Senator Sanders' programs and gain his supporters' votes, bring into her cabinet Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), as her VP, and benefit from economist and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz in her team.

The Democratic establishment has taken the first concrete step toward reconciliation with Senator Sanders by giving him 5 representatives to the Democratic National Committee. In my view, this positive step must be completed by others toward Senator Sanders. If Mrs. Clinton does not show any flexibility toward Senator Sanders and his supporters, as well as her past failed policies and positions, she should be prepared to respond to the critics if defeated by Trump, because in that case she will have demonstrated that her personal ambitions are more important than those of the nation.
"Your Liberty to Swing Your Fist Ends Just Where My Nose Begins"

Sounds simple, but in real life, the resolution of conflicting rights is much less clear-cut. In a previous blog, my wife Donna Manning and I tackled the fuzzy and fraught boundary between religious rights and gender rights. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/are-women-really-inferior_b_8341570.html

A recent Swiss decision on the limits of religious freedom furthers our previous discussion in a very useful way. I have asked Donna to comment on it. She writes: "The question at issue was whether two Moslem brothers could refuse to shake a female teacher's hand because doing so would violate their religious freedom.

The school system ruled in favor of the teacher and against the brothers' claim. The statement explaining the decision is a classic of clarity and common sense. It acknowledged that forcing the pupils to shake hands represents an intrusion into their religious freedom, but declared it a justified and proportionate one, especially since the handshaking issue does not involve a central tenet of Islam.

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It opined that the public interest in this instance greatly outweighed the private interests of the pupils. This public interest includes equal treatment of men and women, the integration of immigrants, and the maintenance of a well-organized school system.

In addition, learning to shake hands with a woman in public situations was seen as an important part of the brothers' integration into Swiss society. The state has a right to promote the assimilation of its citizens, an issue that took on added relevancy in this particular case when it was discovered that one of the brothers had previously posted ISIS videos on his Facebook page.

Religious freedom is an important right, but isn't absolute when it violates the rights and dignity of others or the legitimate interests of public policy. The Swiss position is a model that should be followed whenever a pluralistic culture has to find a fair accommodation with the much less pluralistic, religious or ethnic subgroups that may exist within it.

The issue isn't associated specifically with Islam, it comes up with fundamentalist practitioners of all religions. Jewish, Christian, Mormon, or Hindu fundamentalism should be equally restrained, whenever it intrudes on other's civil rights and the public interest.

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Symbols matter. The world doesn't stop spinning when a Moslem kid or an Orthodox Jew refuses to shake a woman's hand, but it sends an unmistakable and unacceptable message that women are impure, inferior, and untouchable. We don't allow behaviors that are insulting or demeaning to minorities and we shouldn't allow such behavior toward women."

Thanks Donna. The same principle of proportionality should apply to the many other current controversies where religious freedom and other civil rights conflict. An abortion protester has the right to protest, but most certainly does not have the right to harass those who perform or receive abortions. Someone who doesn't believe in contraception has every right not to use it, but no right to stop others from using it if they choose. A business open to the public has no right to discriminate against customers because it doesn't like their skin color, ethnicity, religion, or sexual preference.
News / National

by Innocent Ruwende

Harare City Council is forging ahead with plans to install prepaid water meters despite protests from residents.Last week residents' associations petitioned council over the issue, which they said was not a priority.Residents argue that pre-paid meters will deprive the poor of a basic necessity.They said prepaid water meters were not a priority after council rolled out a pilot project in Bluffhill, Sunningdale, Kambuzuma, Greendale, Avenues and Avondale.The city's acting corporate communications manager Mr Michael Chideme said home owners had asked council to install the meters."We are clearly in agreement with individual home owners who are pressurising us to install the meters as early as yesterday. We even have letters from organisations requesting the installation of pre-paid meters on their properties," said Mr Chideme.Estate agents managing properties have requested same."For one to get water in a municipal area they need to invest in the service."In this case people need to pay for water to get water. For us to remain relevant as a local authority we need to move with the times," he said.He said water provision had to be funded by consumers and council was not deterred by opposition to prepaid water meters because the targeted people (home owners) were in favour of the project.Harare councillors are fully behind the introduction of the prepaid meters as well."If we lived in a developed country people would go for a referendum but we live in Harare, said a councillor who refused to be named."We were elected to council, so we will carry out our mandate, he said."We will not be deterred by four people claiming to represent residents. We are backed by Cabinet approval so we will go ahead with our plans," said the councillor.Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Saviour Kasukuwere is on the record saying pre-paid water meters are necessary to support local authorities."Water provision requires someone to pay for it. In as much as we understand that water is a basic human right, transmission of water should be paid for," he said.Pre-paid water meters have been a success story in Uganda, South Africa, Botswana and Zambia among other countries.
Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Senator Obama is our next president.

And I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort.
First let me state for the record that all of my previous predictions about Donald Trump since he began his campaign a year ago have been dead wrong. Which raises the question, why the hell should anyone care about yet another prediction from me? Because if I'm wrong again it will signal the fall of the greatest nation in history.

The conventional wisdom is that there's a huge difference between angry white male Republican primary voters and the general electorate. Given that roughly 16% of Americans voted in the Republican primaries, and that Trump garnered about 45% of them, that would mean his "fans" comprise approximately 7% of the general electorate. Now while we've learned that with Trump there is no conventional wisdom, it's still hard to fathom how he can expand his base to achieve the 51% majority need to win in November, especially without women, Hispanics, independents, moderate Republicans and with a 60% unfavorable rating.

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But what's really difficult to fathom is that America could be led by a fascist dictator like Trump. Someone who's blatantly and shamelessly attacked the likes of immigrants, minorities, women, the disabled, veterans, war heroes, world leaders and the Pope. An attention-starved thin-skinned narcissist who's run an insult-laden campaign built on bombast, bullying and false bravado. A mean-spirited, nasty, divisive, polarizing loose-cannon with an utter disdain for America's free press, the bedrock of a democracy. A tone-deaf, self-serving, entitled megalomaniac and pathological liar who's promised to shut the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency and the IRS; withdraw from NATO; expand nukes globally; defund Planned Parenthood; punish women for getting abortions; deport 11-million immigrants; and register and ban Muslims. In short, someone who is fundamentally unqualified to be president.

Trump is so dangerous and self-destructive that he'd turn America into a domestic and international joke, similar to Italy under controversial power-hungry billionaire Silvio Berlusconi's indictment-ending reign of greed, corruption and sleaze. Under "President Trump," America would degenerate to its ugliest, darkest days. He would single-handedly destroy its reputation and the 240-year-old principles on which it stands.

And that is precisely why Donald Trump cannot, will not, be elected president. Because I believe my fellow Americans are inherently good, decent, moral and patriotic people. Unlike the small minority of Republican primary voters, I refuse to accept that they will vote for a self-aggrandizing empty-suited reality-tv buffoon like Trump, who in just 12 months of campaigning has tarnished the office of the presidency like no one since Richard Nixon, the disgraced Republican whose career-ending unethical, amoral and criminal behavior paled in comparison to Trump's sexist, racist, xenophobic offenses.

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This past week found me back on the campaign trail with Donald J. Tramp. As usual, he encountered protesters from various groups. So all and all, it's just a typical week for this controversial candidate.

However, Mr. Tramp has been getting some interesting support. After this week's incident at DePaul University where Black Lives Matter protesters crashed an event, Milo Yiannopoulos said Mr. Tramp's message is only getting stronger. Those who liked Tramp cheered loudly at the event, and those who hated him jeered. While the opinions are strong about the man, one thing is for certain, there is never a dull moment when covering his campaign.

This last rally was no different. As usual, Mr. Tramp went head to head with some Black Lives Matter protesters As one would predict, it was a showdown of epic proportion. So I took a minute to chat with him about this as well as some of the other, interesting endorsements he was receiving from the Republican party. Let's see what our favorite political puppet had to say.
This is a Black Lives Matter Banner in Charlotte, NC, November 2015. Camera - Canon 7D Mark II, Lens - Canon EF 200mm f/2L IS USM

It's become a genuine movement. A vehicle for change. Nationally, a mouthpiece intimately connected to and driving much of America's conversation surrounding criminal justice reform, an end to institutional racism, and real, true equality for all. The question is, after the 2016 election, will it--the change movement called Black Lives Matter--flourish and advance or will it hit a dead end? More importantly, will its bold and outspoken leaders become the latest casts of Oprah's

"Where are They Now?"

Born after a series of unjustified and senseless shootings of young black men by law enforcement, Black Lives Matter has built a national grassroots brand and robust coast-to-coast organization. Its loose infrastructure characterized by its use of social media and its disdain for any centralized leadership has caused many to doubt whether its disruptive brand can be sustained or have any significant long-term impact on both local and national politics and policies. Some pundits compare the movement to the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protest movement whose focus on corporate greed garnered international attention and critique for its lack of vision, leadership and structure.

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Despite its critics, Black Lives Matter's aim to disrupt the status quo and to raise awareness about police brutality, civil rights, systemic inequality and social justice in the United States is in the process of being accomplished. Its core issues are integral to the national dialogue of the 2016 presidential contest. Many of the candidates running for commander-in-chief this cycle have developed policy positions, debated and discussed at length the need for reform on several of these issues. Even the U.S. Senate is contemplating bipartisan criminal justice reform laws, partially because of the issues raised by the movement's efforts.

While Black Lives Matter is making enormous strides toward creating positive change in America, its biggest challenge yet is to channel the organization's prowess and nationwide network into something tangible that can cement its legacy in America for the next four years and beyond and prevent it from becoming Occupy Wall Street 2.0. The vessel with which to do this is the November general election.

Why?

Because if a candidate, like the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who refused to disavow the head of the Klu Klux Klan and other white supremacists, becomes president, it'll likely put all the momentum the Black Lives Matter movement has gained to a grinding halt.

There's significant evidence that suggests this may very be the case. Often dubbed a tyrant, Trump plans to wall off America, ban Muslims from entering the country, and wants to institute Orwellian neighborhood-watch police patrols on Muslim communities.

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His discriminative statements of calling communities with large African American populations such as Ferguson, Missouri and Oakland, California as more "dangerous" than war-torn Iraq illustrates his continued tone-deafness and biased against such communities. All of these examples point to the fact that a Trump Presidency would likely roll back all the advances the Black Lives Matter movement has achieved to date.

For these reasons, among others, the outcome of the 2016 general election will represent a pivotal watershed moment for the Black Lives Matter movement. It could either bring all the gains its made to a standstill, or by electing a candidate more sympathetic to its cause, such as the likely Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the movement can continue advancing its social justice and civil rights crusade.

Clinton may not be a perfect candidate in the view of many activists within the Black Lives Matter's movement, but she's lightyears ahead and a far better choice than the Trump alternative. Much of the animosity against Clinton in the African American community stems from her use of the controversial term "super predators," and support of Bill Clinton's 1994 crime bill. Clinton has accepted responsibility and apologized for the use of this vile term and the failed policy. She has also met with leaders of Black Lives Matter. Clinton took the first steps and has shown an ability to change, Black Lives Matter now has an opportunity to move past their initial motivation, to a more mature disciplined approach to systemic change.

Its army of young people, brigades of enthusiasts and social media prowess can be game changers in the general election. They can play a key role in traditional red states like Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri, that have large African American populations and which show Clinton within striking distance of Trump.

Black Lives Matter can use its grassroots organizing acumen to mobilize its members and to boost voter registration and turnout on election day. These activists can also target independent voters who share their vision of eradicating disparities in the criminal justice system and income inequality. These efforts can help Clinton pick up unconventional battleground states, fundamentally transform the standard electoral map and possibly position her for a landslide victory.

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Beyond helping to propel Clinton to the White House, Black Lives Matter has an unique opportunity to build a national electoral strategy that can impact down ballot races in every state. An election apparatus that increases voter turnout gives them tremendous clout to influence all levels of government and to insure that candidates in races as diverse as county supervisor to the U.S. Congress share their commitment to racial equality.
By AsiaToday reporter Kim Yoo-jin & PD Kim Yoo-min - Today, Emanuel Pastreich, a professor at Kyung Hee University, interviewed with Dr. Jin Kai, a research fellow and lecturer at the Center for International Studies at Yonsei University, on different perspectives of the North Korea issue among major powers and long-term resolution.

[Emanuel Pastreich speaks with Dr. Jin Kai about North Korea]

Q1. What's the starting point and resolution for conflict with N.Korea?

Emanuel Pastreich: I have with me today Dr. Jin Kai, a research fellow at the Institute for Sinology at Yonsei University and an associate of the Asia Institute. Welcome, Dr. Kai. So I'd like to ask you first, why is this confrontation with North Korea, this leftover from the Cold War, still with us today?

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Jin Kai: It's a game and test of will now. We have seen substantial nuclear threats from North Korea and the so-called "invasion from the US and South Korea." So this is a game of will between the parties.

Emanuel Pastreich: So what would be ideal long-term conditions for conflict resolutions?

Jin Kai: There can hardly be any true resolutions that solve this problem easily. Simply put, there has to be compromise and reconciliation among major powers. That reconciliation is not only between North Korea and the US, but also between other major powers.

One point is to avoid making any other extra requests within these so-called Six Party Talks. The Japanese, the Russians, the U.S. and South Korea, and the Chinese all have different reasons for joining. But they need to make it clear that they all want denuclearization. The critical point is approaching quickly. We have to do something right now.

Emanuel Pastreich: When you say "the critical point," do you mean a serious conflict between the US and North Korea?

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Jin Kai: Yes.

Q2. How about China-N.Korea relations? How should the U.S. respond to N.Korea?

Emanuel Pastreich: I also think it's a serious concern. On the Chinese side, how do the Chinese perceive North Korea?

Jin Kai: My view may not be representative of mainstream views in China, but I do believe that what will happen depends on how people evaluate the influence China has over North Korea. We had a very great influence in the past, but now, we don't have such great influence any more, no.

So don't blame China for everything. China has actually been marginalized in the nuclear arms issue debate. The evolution of the situation does not seem to be closely related to China's behavior. It's between the North Korea and the US.

Emanuel Pastreich: What about the American side? You've had the chance to analyze the media and to talk to American experts. How do you think Americans perceive the North Korea issue?

Jin Kai: There are two American professors who made comments about North Korea's rationality who were correct. Basically the US has a very realistic view of North Korea. They are right to be concerned about the nuclear program, but they keep talking about "the evil regime," or so it seems to me. I don't think that such names are a productive way to deal with North Korea. To get change, you need engagement--which you had during the Bush administration, a totally different approach from the current"strategic patience." And I don't think that is a very constructive way to deal with North Korea. You can't keep silence. It's not good to go without dialog.

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As for North Koreans, they are thinking: "Well, now we have nuclear weapons, and that's your problem. Deal with it."

Q3. What will be the path to Korean unification?

Emanuel Pastreich: In terms of long-term resolution, it seems we need both the US and China to be committed at a higher level for an agreement on nonproliferation. It is important for us not to be distracted by other issues, and to let the North and South Koreans themselves have their own dialogue about the issues of unification.

Jin Kai: Yes. I think there are two very fundamental issues that underlie this issue. One is denuclearization. The other is peace. I think the second issue is actually a more critical issue. All of the issues stem from conflicts between North Korea and the US regarding security. So both issues must be dealt withdirectly.

Emanuel Pastreich: Because if you're moving towards peace, the idea that you have nuclear weapons isn't such a threatening fact. You can have nuclear weapons that just sit there. But if you're not moving towards peace, then every action becomes potentially threatening.

Jin Kai: Yes.
Susana Malcorra, Argentina's foreign minister and a former high-ranking UN official, is one of the latest candidates to run for UN secretary-general. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO

The second crop of campaigners making a pitch to replace Ban Ki-moon in January is now being assembled, and it looks like the first declared candidate on the list may well shake up the race. She is Susana Malcorra, Argentina's foreign minister and a well-respected, internationally known former United Nations officia

.

The next round of candidates to appear before an audience at the UN and the general public via webcast is scheduled for June 7; besides Malcorra, the other candidate speaking that day is Miroslav Lajcak, foreign minister of Slovakia.

More candidates are expected to join the race: among them Kevin Rudd, a former prime minister of Australia, and Christiana Figueres, the Costa Rican who piloted a global agreement to combat climate change through a tension-filled conference of world nations in Paris last December. So far, no African candidate has been proposed from the continent.

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These latecomers among possible candidates may be counting on the General Assembly to hold a third public hearing later in June or in July, by which time the Security Council will have begun weighing the qualifications and level of support among influential nations. A decision on a final nomination by the council may not be reached until late August or September, diplomats say.

Meanwhile, Malcorra has been presenting herself as a candidate with wide appeal and a broad resume. She has been deputy head of the high-profile World Food Program, chief of UN peacekeeping field support operations and, most recently, the secretary-general's chief of staff. Before that, Malcorra had 25 years of experience in the private sector, including top positions at IBM and Telecom Argentina. And she is a woman in a year of much lobbying to end the domination of men in the secretary-general's chair, which no woman has ever held.

If the schedule holds, Malcorra will get a chance to make her case to the world on Tuesday. A first round of candidate appearances took place in mid-April, when nine spoke and answered hours of questions in the first-ever open campaign, a step taken by the innovative current president of the General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark. Four of the nine candidates were women, all but one from Eastern Europe.

Malcorra's not coming from Eastern Europe, a region that has been demanding its "turn" in the office, may not find this an insurmountable stumbling block. The candidacy of one Eastern European man, Danilo Turk, a former president of Slovenia and UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs, has been favorably received in numerous quarters. But he is a strong human-rights advocate and international law expert, which may not play well among many of the UN's 193 member states.

Other regional candidates have not generated as much enthusiasm. They are Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian who is director-general of Unesco; Natalia Gherman, ex-foreign minister of Moldova; Vuk Jeremic, a Serbian politician and former General Assembly president; Srgjan Kerim, a media businessman and former foreign minister of Macedonia; Igor Luksic, foreign minister of Montenegro; and Vesna Pusic, a former foreign minister of Croatia.

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From outside the Eastern European region, Helen Clark, a former prime minister of New Zealand and now administrator of the UN Development Program (UNDP), and Antonio Guterres of Portugal, a former prime minister and until recently UN high commissioner for refugees, have also declared their candidacies. Both are from the regional group known as Western European and Others (WEOG).

Clark, originally a front-runner, is apparently losing some support because of reports circulating about her autocratic handling of UN Development Program staff members and the severe job cuts she has made to bolster her management skills.

It is the Security Council's job, under the UN Charter, to select a candidate and send that nomination to the General Assembly for a formal vote. Despite Lykketoft's bold reforms, there is no guarantee that the council will choose from the list of openly declared candidates. The normal procedure involves backroom geopolitical deals in the 15-person council, especially among its five permanent members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

At the moment, there are still differences among them not only about candidates but also about timing of the council's decision -- possibly put off until September -- and whether the applicants will be interviewed or whether straw polls will be used to test opinions.

Additional candidates, besides Rudd and Figueres, may join the race now that Malcorra is officially in. Other names are being floated most often by outsiders. Two prominent ones are Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, who does not want the job, and Kristalina Georgieva, a Bulgarian who was sidelined when Bokova was formally nominated by the Bulgarian government.

Georgieva has good credentials. Now the European Commissioner for budget and human resources, she has been a vice president and corporate secretary at the World Bank as well as its director for strategy and sustainable development. Those who see that the final choice could come down to a deal between the United States and Russia point to her three years as World Bank director for the Russian Federation from 2004 to 2007.

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Jeffrey Laurenti, who has written about and analyzed the UN and international affairs for the United Nations Association of the USA and the Century Foundation, described his sense of where the selection process stands and where it may be in flux.

"As Angela Merkel's domestic political situation in Germany has stabilized, the always long-shot prospect that she might be the super-trifecta candidate -- a politically heavyweight East European woman -- has all but vanished," Laurenti said. "Susana Malcorra's entry into the race probably provides the coup de grace to the notion of East European entitlement to the U.N.'s top job. She has deep U.N. experience as both chief of staff and head of field operations for U.N. peacekeeping, which almost none of the East European aspirants can match, save Danilo Turk.
In one extraordinary month, over 30,000 people, spanning every continent except Antarctica, joined together to "Break Free" for climate justice.

No two actions were alike. Struggles at the frontlines of climate injustice are, and must be, locally particular. Organizers responded in kind with diverse mobilizations led by those most affected by the costs of a differentiated, but all-too-familiar, carbon-guzzling economic status quo.

Here in the UK, where I'm currently studying, communities in Ffos-y-Fran, South Wales, have fought for years against the country's largest opencast coal mine. Outraged by Miller Argent's plans to dig another mine in nearby Nant Llesg, residents joined with hundreds of others on May 3rd to punctuate the grayed hills of Ffos-y-Fran with brilliant red lines. Deploying costumed bodies, puppet dragons, canisters of red smoke, and much laughter, singing, and dancing, activists shut down operations at the mine for twelve hours.

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Two years ago, I spent seven months working with and learning from people defying all odds to link social justice and environmental sustainability in low-income communities of color in Cape Town, South Africa. My admiration for their work swells all the more, then, as I hear news of the 1,000 South Africans who united in Johannesburg on May 14th to peacefully protest corrupt mining deals led by the Gupta family. Defying police bans on the mobilization, they left a coffin full of coal at the Guptas' doorstep.

The same day, back home in New York, a thousand people joined in solidarity with local activists from low-income communities of color at the Port of Albany - those most affected by funneling oil fracked in the Bakken Shale region of North Dakota through the Northeast in "oil bomb" trains and barges. Filling streets and blocking trains in their path, activists insisted on connecting global effects of climate change and economic exploitation with uneven exposure to volatile oil bombs that together perpetuate marginalization by race and class.

Taking stock after this beautifully variegated month of action crystalizes four critical lessons on why these mobilizations, and many more like it, matter so much to all of us.

First, our task as climate justice activists is two-fold: we must keep fossil fuels in the ground while building just and sustainable economies. We are as dependent on opening up as on closing down - on prefiguring better worlds through how we live and what we make together, as much as on dismantling structures of oppression.

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Second, Break Free teaches us that climate justice is a trans-local movement of movements. Our work for climate justice sharpens intersecting urgencies for justice on lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, religion, and ecological wellbeing. As ever, our struggles are overlapping and deeply uneven. As ever, our capabilities as living, earthly beings are interdependent.

Yet the entwined physical and political urgencies for climate justice lay bare the impossibility of carving off one piece of this struggle for "us" apart from those of "others." As the devastation of Hurricane Sandy drove home, no amount of wealth or collusion can ultimately spare us from recognizing shared urgencies for rejecting an unjust system and building more equitable alternatives. In movements for climate justice, "activism" cannot be relegated to a realm of its own. It is necessarily a shared pursuit across the many places, institutions, modes of expertise, and political resources from which we draw strength.

Third, struggles toward non-extractive economies must be led by those historically marginalized by structures of oppression and ecological devastation. Break Free activists in Wales, South Africa, and New York took leadership from women, indigenous people, people of color, low-income people, and those living directly with fossil fuel infrastructure. Our movements are only powerful when those at the frontlines shape the basic contours of our struggle, not when they are used as strategic tools serving ready-made agendas.

Fourth, and finally, Break Free demonstrates that movements for climate justice require dismantling conventional walls between reasoned thought, affective experiences, and physical action. To enact climate justice is to tell collective stories with our words, hearts, and bodies in step - to move with, from, and for each other as we work out more desirable futures.

As we move past this historic month of actions and further into what may (again) be the hottest year on record, the urgency to respond to these lessons could not be greater. Seeking opportunities for the kind of collective storytelling demonstrated by Break Free, I see no better starting place than the convergence spaces that everywhere surround us.

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Convergence spaces come in many guises, from conferences and festivals to services and gallery openings. Some of these are explicitly tailored to address climate justice. For action-research toward my graduate thesis, I will engage solidarity-building at a number of convergence spaces planned in the United States this summer: US Climate Action Network's national conference in Miami, Florida; Climate Justice Alliance's convening in St. Louis, Missouri; New Economy Coalition's CommonBound conference in Buffalo, New York; and the Northeast PowerShift convergence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At spaces such as these, all three ingredients of collective storytelling - thinking, feeling, and acting - are woven close. Sessions are designed not only to share words and experiences, but also to forge new relations and possibilities through mobilizations. Climate justice convergences are critical sites for building momentum set in motion this May through Break Free.

By facilitating work across difference, countless other convergence spaces that don't explicitly tackle issues of climate justice offer no less critical points for intervention. What might happen if endocrinologists propose a session on health, justice, and fossil fuel extraction at their next conference? What would it look like if Boards of Managers of our educational and cultural institutions call meetings on rethinking investments in fossil fuel industries? What might emerge if street artists engage their communities on the coal-hot asphalt of New York City summer street fairs on intersecting struggles for climate justice?
Over the past few days, around 600 West Papuan people have been reportedly arrested simply for peacefully demonstrating to call upon the Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Summit to support West Papuan self-determination.

The Africa Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Summit being held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea is bringing together heads of state and other government representatives from around Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. We West Papuans are making our plea to the ACP as a cry for help because we are being brutally suppressed and silenced under Indonesian military occupation and colonialism.

West Papuan elders hold up a message calling for the Africa Caribbean Pacific summit to support their calls for self-determination. May 31st 2016.

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West Papuans in Jayapura call for the Africa Caribbean Pacific summit to support West Papuan self-determination. 31st May 2016.

This week there were rallies held across West Papua as well as in several Indonesian cities as the people of West Papua took to the streets in our thousands to peacefully call for the ACP to support our fundamental right to self-determination as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) does. Demonstrations were held in many cities including: Port Numbay/Jayapura, Biak, Fakfak, Gorontalo, Jakarta, Manokwari, Nabire, Sorong, Timika, Wamena and Yahukimo.

West Papuans in the highland town of Wamena send a message appealing for help to the international community. May 31st 2016.

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However the Indonesian government is becoming increasingly scared of increasing international support for the people of West Papua and in an attempt to hide the real situation in West Papua, the Indonesian police arrested hundreds of people simply for joining these peaceful demonstrations.

There are unconfirmed reports that 469 people were arrested in Port Numbay/Jayapura, 112 people arrested in Wamena, 7 people arrested in Manado, 6 people arrested in Gorontalo and 3 people arrested in Yahukimo.Those who were arrested in Manado as well as 70 of those arrested in Wamena are still believed to be behind bars and are still at risk of being tortured like so many other West Papuan political prisoners.

West Papuan political prisoners being held in a prison in Manokwari held up placards calling for international help. 31st May 2016

Therefore on behalf of my people I appeal to all human rights groups, the Africa Caribbean Pacific Group of States and the world to please join us in calling for their immediate release.It is not a crime to to peacefully call for international support for ones' fundamental rights. We West Papuans risk our extinction as a people in the next few decades if this illegal occupation and terrible genocide continues.

Please help to support the people of West Papua in our peaceful struggle for self-determination. We West Papuans desperately want and desperately need to be free like other members of the Africa Caribbean Pacific Group of States.

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By Bill Baue, Bob Eccles, Julie Gorte, Carolyn Hayman, Stephan Lewandowsky, Thomas O. Murtha, Naomi Oreskes, Rich Pancost, and John Rogers

The Spring 2016 proxy votes supporting the 2C stress test resolutions at last week's Annual General Meetings of ExxonMobil (38.2%) and Chevron (41%) give cause for both celebration - and concern. These votes suggest that key asset managers are recognizing (and others seem to be willfully ignoring) climate risk inherent in the business-as-usual practices of the largest U.S. oil and gas corporations and their downstream value chains.

Celebration is justified because these first-time proposals "drew more support than any contested climate-related votes in the history of the two biggest U.S. oil and gas companies," according to the Wall Street Journal, which added that it is "an indication that more mainstream shareholders like pension funds, sovereign-wealth funds and asset managers are starting to take more seriously the threat of a global weaning from fossil fuels."

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A resolution at the Southern Company (an electricity public utility and the 3rd largest U.S. source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions) actually goes a bit further than stress testing and asks for management to disclose a 2C transition plan. As a first time proposal, this resolution received 34% support. For those unfamiliar with the proxy voting system, it is exceedingly rare for first-year resolutions to receive support from more than one-third of voters. Indeed, votes don't need to cross the majority-support threshold to catch the attention of management - companies often respond to resolution requests supported by a critical mass below half of voters.

The good news aside, these results are also cause for great concern given the high number of shareholders that did not vote in favor of these resolutions. Contrast the 2016 results at ExxonMobil (38.2%) with the actual vote for very similar resolutions filed in 2015 by the Aiming for A coalition at BP (98.3%!) and Royal Dutch Shell (99.8%). The difference between these results is more than 60% -- which raises the question: what accounts for this spread?

Significantly, BP's and Shell's managements recommended support for the resolution, while ExxonMobil not only recommended voting against the resolution, but also petitioned the SEC for permission to omit the resolution in what has been characterized as an "unusually aggressive" effort. This suggests the missing 60% essentially rubber-stamped management's recommendation. Moreover, this 60% almost surely contains institutional investors who voted in support of the Aiming for A resolutions at BP and Shell, which raises significant fiduciary duty concerns. While there may be other explanations, the most logical and likely explanation for this confoundingly inconsistent voting would seem to be: lack of the kind of independent thinking required by fiduciary duties of care and loyalty.

Nearly as confounding as this inconsistency was ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson's statement on the continuing need for fossil fuels to provide energy necessary for modern life, with fossil fuels still projected to supply 60% of the world's energy needs in 2040. "The world is going to have to continue using fossil fuels, whether they like it or not ... just saying 'turn the taps off' is not acceptable to humanity," said Tillerson.

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Consider the underlying logic of Tillerson's statements. The CEO of the largest publicly owned fossil fuel company suggests that the desire of some individuals and corporations to continue to benefit from the sale and use of fossil fuels trumps the imperative to avoid catastrophic risks to us all. The implications of adhering to Tillerson's views are sobering: Continuing to maintain an economy dependent on hydrocarbon combustion jeopardizes the very ecological foundations supporting humanity. Institutional investor Jeremy Grantham reminds us: "We should not unnecessarily ruin a pleasant and currently very serviceable planet just to maximise the short-term profits of energy companies and others."

Let's look at some facts. These climate risk resolutions do not require "turning off the taps" - at least not instantly. In ExxonMobil's case, the resolution asks for a stress test of the company's business model against the 2C scenario supported by the peer-reviewed science and policy recommendations of the COP21 Paris Agreement on climate. In ExxonMobil's case to the SEC for omitting the resolution, the company essentially argued that "national and world leaders will not have the backbone to restrict carbon sufficient to keep temperature increase down to 2C," according to attorney Sanford Lewis, who defended the resolution for its filers in the SEC process.

Actions of the missing 60% ignore the fiduciary responsibility to consider the potential implications of current fossil fuel business models functioning to undermine legitimate public policy and the interests of asset owners to address climate risk. Indeed, it now seems imperative that all companies conduct a 2C stress test of their business models. Most importantly, when stress tests reveal business models are deficient, companies need to prepare transition plans. Such action is likely needed for 93% of US listed equities that are impacted by climate change, according to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) research.

Preventable Surprises advocates Forceful Stewardship by investors in order to leverage their ownership positions to address climate risk. This stewardship approach combines scientific evidence (i.e. IPCC Assessment Reports and science-based targets for sector-wide emission reductions) with financial evidence on material risk (both systemic and transition risk for companies) to provide a path to a vibrant low carbon economy while keeping planetary warming below 2C. The fact that the SEC rejected ExxonMobil's bid to omit the resolution from the company's proxy ballot validates the case for 2C stress tests and the Forceful Stewardship approach.

Convening online and in person dialogues for positive mavericks -- individuals who are willing to stick their necks out to push beyond the status quo of incremental change to achieve the required transformative change - is how progress is being and will be made. This is not just about asset owners and managers: even the most progressive organizations often have institutional constraints that conflict with advocating and implementing the structural changes required to address both the systemic and transition risks of climate change.

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Preventable Surprises has a three-level strategy for how investors can work with companies to address climate risk. At each level, investors actively engage with companies (either directly or through the proxy process of shareholder resolutions) to explicitly require:

2C Stress Tests (Level One)

2C Transition Plans (Level Two)

2C Business Models (Level Three)

A "failed" 2C stress test (Level One) prompts the need for a 2C transition plan (Level Two) that results in a 2C business model that mitigates systemic climate risk and addresses transition risk. This strategy provides companies with opportunities to create value for both shareholders and stakeholders in the transition to a low carbon economy that keeps planetary warming 2C. And Preventable Surprises is not alone in this "next generation" evidence-based advocacy - the Reporting 3.0 Platform pursues a similar transformative approach, including the future launch of a Working Group to create a New Business Models Blueprint.

The missing 60% are key to bringing about the transformational change civil society needs to address climate risk and prevent irreversible climate change. But in order for the missing 60% to vote the right way in 2017, others - including NGOs, asset owners and policy makers - also need to act. And to help persuade them to do so, we invite you, the reader, to add your name to this call to action.

NB: If you would like to be a signatory to a set of 3 principles based on the concepts laid out in this article and listed as such on the Preventable Surprises website, please see the principles here and send your name and title to missing60@preventablesurprises.com.

About the co-authors
After the American Studies Association voted to boycott Israeli academic institutions in 2013, and the Presbyterian Church and United Church of Christ voted to divest from companies that support the occupation in 2014 and 2015 respectively, the Israeli government and the American Jewish leadership has recently started to take the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions ("BDS") movement seriously. The Israeli government has reportedly committed tens of millions of dollars, one government ministry and its military and security intelligence assets to the fight. Israeli Minister of Transport, Intelligence and Atomic Energy Yisrael Katz recently called for "targeted civil eliminations" of BDS leaders. According to Amnesty International, the term alludes to Israel's policy of "targeted assassinations." Yesterday, the Israeli Mission to the UN and the World Jewish Congress hosted the first international summit against BDSat UN headquarters in New York. Its avowed purpose was to paint BDS as an anti-Semitic movement to "delegitimize" the State of Israel with its "ideology of hate," and to give Jewish students on campus the tools to become "Ambassadors against BDS."

I attended a smaller similar meeting on the campus of SUNY Purchase, in Westchester County, New York last week, organized by seven "pro-Israel" organizations, including Hillel, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish National fund and Stand With Us. Utterly missing was any discussion of or concern for the plight of the Palestinians, the discrimination they face in Israel itself, and the wholesale deprivation of rights and dignity they suffer under occupation in the West Bank.

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Which is why, despite Israeli hasbara, power and money against it, BDS is continuing to win adherents among Jews and Gentiles in America, Europe and around the world, with one-third of American college students and 40% of British students in support. BDS is all about the Palestinians. More than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations issued the call for BDS in 2005. It is all about non-violent resistance to the occupation, in sharp contrast to the violent resistance that has been an abject failure for half a century. It is all about a liberation movement that calls for Israel to permit Palestinians to live lives of freedom and dignity with the full panoply of human rights that Jewish religious and moral values demand.

I attended the United Church of Christ's General Synod last year where its divestment resolutions were passed overwhelmingly. The UCC is a peace and justice church. I did not meet one Israeli or Jew hater among the proponents of those resolutions. They saw BDS as an act of love for both Palestinians and Jewish Israelis, who must accommodate each other's claims to live and flourish in the Holy Land as free and whole human beings. Pressure to do the right thing and end the occupation and the discrimination, yes. Tough love, perhaps. But hate? No. I attended the United Methodist Church's General Conference a few weeks ago, where the Pension Board succeeded in defeating the divestment resolutions which would have removed its discretion to handle the Church's investments as it sees fit. But it had recently divested from five Israeli banks and several Israeli companies in accordance with socially responsible investment screens that the Board had adopted on its own - another win for Palestinians and BDS. To really talk about an "ideology of hate," we have to look honestly at what we see in Israel today. Deputy Chief of the Israeli Defense Force Yael Galon likened "revolting trends" in Israel today to pre-Holocaust Germany. He was talking about "the seeds of intolerance, violence, self-destruction and moral deterioration," i.e., the widespread and pervasive hatred of Palestinians by Israeli Jews. "There is nothing easier than hating the stranger, nothing easier than to stir fears and intimidate."

Shortly thereafter, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak warned that Israel has been infected with "the seeds of fascism." He added that "there are no serious leaders left in the world who believe the Israeli government." Prime Minister Netanyahu now leads a government "dominated by religious and ultranationalist ministers who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state and have close ties to the West Bank settler movement." He has made clear that he has no interest in a two-state solution or any viable peace with Palestinians which would accord them real rights and human dignity.

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Efforts by Israeli or American Jewish leaders to defeat BDS will come to naught as long as it continues to keep Palestinian liberation at its core. BDS's influence on the Israel-Palestine conversation was clearly discernible when Bernie Sanders, the first Jewish Presidential candidate, had the courage to say to American Jews and Christians that "we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity.... I believe the United States and the rest of the world have got to work together to help the Palestinian people." And a bit later: "there will never be peace in that region unless the United States plays a role, an even-handed role trying to bring people together and recognizing the serious problems that exist among the Palestinian people."
News / National

by Fungai Lupande

A Stanbic Bank chief teller who allegedly stole $164 000 from a cash vault was yesterday freed on $1 000 bail.Aaron Rashama (45) of New Bluffhill in Harare appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe facing fraud charges.As part of his bail conditions, Mr Mahwe ordered Rashama to surrender his passport, report every Friday to CID Serious Fraud and to reside at his given address.The court heard that Rashama was based at Stanbic Bank at the intersection of Sam Nujoma Street and Julius Nyerere Way.He was in charge of the cash vault and his duties included "cashing and deposits", vault custody, foreign exchange and query resolution, among others.Prosecuting, Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa alleged that on January 18 this year, Rashama received and signed for $245 060 and $14 173, 75 vault and canister cash respectively.The court heard that the money reflected in Rashama's cash register and the bank's computer system.He worked as usual until May 24, when he reported for work, but left immediately without the branch manager's permission.On realising that Rashama had taken too long to return, the branch manager, Ms Joyce Mhlanga, phoned him on his mobile phone, but the phone went unanswered and was later on switched off.Ms Mhlanga notified the head of financial crime control, Mr Continue Mudekwa, and the investigations manager, Mr Stanley Shaninga.The pair visited the branch and noticed that Rashama had not yet returned and had also taken with him keys to the vault and canister.Ms Mhlanga was instructed to take spare keys and the vault and canister were opened.It was discovered that $4 252 was in the vault instead of $154 560 reflecting in the cash register.In the canister there was $3 323 instead of $20 404 also reflecting in the cash register.It is alleged that the sealed bundles Rashama was keeping in the vault were made up of $1 instead of $100, $50 and $20 notes.Noticing the discrepancies, the bank reported the matter to police on Africa Day.The bank lost $164 389 and nothing was recovered.
In San Francisco today, nearly 60 companies are announcing major plans to reduce their carbon emissions, increase the energy they get from renewable sources and bring their suppliers along with them. The companies -- ranging from Autodesk to Schneider Electric -- are making the pledges at the Clean Energy Ministerial, the next step in putting the international climate treaty reached in Paris in December into action.

These corporate investments and announcements won't just help address climate change, they will drive economic and job growth in communities all across America.

Honeywell, for instance, says it plans to spend nearly $900 million over the next four years on research and development to improve its insulation materials, controls and refrigerants. Ingersoll Rand plans to invest $500 million for R&D into energy-efficient HVAC systems. Autodesk, following other companies like Microsoft, is setting an internal price on carbon and also plans to power 100 percent of its offices by renewable energy.

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Philips Lighting, meanwhile, announced a goal to sell 2 billion high-efficiency LED lightbulbs by 2020. If it reaches that goal, it would save an amount of energy equivalent to the generation capacity of 60 coal-fired power plants and reduce emissions by the equivalent of 24 million cars.

You can expect all of these corporate initiatives also will create lots of good-paying jobs.

Energy efficiency is the biggest sector of the clean energy industry, already employing about 1.9 million Americans, according to Environmental Entrepreneurs' (E2's) recent Clean Jobs America report. Renewable energy, advanced vehicles, clean energy distribution and other sectors employ another 600,000 workers.



Like the energy leaders from 23 countries gathered in San Francisco this week for the Clean Energy Ministerial, local leaders know the economic value of clean energy too.

As part of the ministerial, Governors of California, Oregon, Washington -- along with their Canadian counterparts and the mayors of numerous Pacific Coast cities -- agreed to a sweeping new agreement to expand building efficiency, electric vehicles and renewable energy throughout region stretching from Southern California to British Columbia.

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In doing so, they'll cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050 -- and they'll also attract new clean energy investments, businesses and jobs to their states.

"Clean energy is the biggest job creator in the country," said Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. In addition to signing the multi-state agreement, Inslee on Wednesday announced a new clean air rule that for the first time will put a cap on greenhouse gas emissions by big industrial companies in his state.

What events like the Paris climate conference and the Clean Energy Ministerial do is bring leaders together -- whether at the international level, the state level, or the business-to-business level.

And when leaders work together, it makes a difference.

The three Pacific states that signed the new Pacific Coast agreement and British Columbia represent 53 million people.

Leaders of Pacific coast states, cities and provinces sign a new agreement to increase renewable energy, electric vehicles and energy efficiency at the Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco.

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"Our combined economies make up one-fifth of the world's economy," said Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. In recent months, Oregon has phased out coal, implemented a low-carbon fuels standard and set a goal of getting 50 percent of its energy from renewables.

"Oregon is a small state ... we can't change the nation's economy," Gov. Brown said. "But what we can do is provide a leadership role."

Of course no state leads on clean energy more than California.

For decades, California has been on the forefront of renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean fuels standards, including its latest plan to get 50 percent of its energy from clean, renewable sources.

As a result, California has created more than 500,000 new clean energy jobs. It has saved consumers and businesses billions of dollars on energy costs. And it has clean up its once notoriously filthy air by setting smart standards that cap emissions from factories, increase renewable energy and decrease emissions from power plants and automobiles.

"From where we started, we've come a long way," California Gov. Jerry Brown told attendees of the Clean Energy Ministerial.

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Some of today's top techies and scientists are very publicly expressing their concerns over apocalyptic scenarios that are likely to arise as a result of machines with motives. Among the fearful are intellectual heavyweights like Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and Bill Gates, who all believe that advances in the field of machine learning will soon yield self-aware A.I.s that seek to destroy us--or perhaps just apathetically dispose of us, much like scum getting obliterated by a windshield wiper. In fact, Dr. Hawking told the BBC, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

Indeed, there is little doubt that future A.I. will be capable of doing significant damage. For example, it is conceivable that robots could be programmed to function as tremendously dangerous autonomous weapons unlike any seen before. Additionally, it is easy to imagine an unconstrained software application that spreads throughout the Internet, severely mucking up our most efficient and relied upon medium for global exchange.

But these scenarios are categorically different from ones in which machines decide to turn on us, defeat us, make us their slaves, or exterminate us. In this regard, we are unquestionably safe. On a sadder note, we are just as unlikely to someday have robots that decide to befriend us or show us love without being specifically prompted by instructions to do so.

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This is because such intentional behavior from an A.I. would undoubtedly require a mind, as intentionality can only arise when something possesses its own beliefs, desires, and motivations. The type of A.I. that includes these features is known amongst the scientific community as "Strong Artificial Intelligence". Strong A.I., by definition, should possess the full range of human cognitive abilities. This includes self-awareness, sentience, and consciousness, as these are all features of human cognition.

On the other hand, "Weak Artificial Intelligence" refers to non-sentient A.I. The Weak A.I. Hypothesis states that our robots--which run on digital computer programs--can have no conscious states, no mind, no subjective awareness, and no agency. Such A.I. cannot experience the world qualitatively, and although they may exhibit seemingly intelligent behavior, it is forever limited by the lack of a mind.

A failure to recognize the importance of this strong/weak distinction could be contributing to Hawking and Musk's existential worries, both of whom believe that we are already well on a path toward developing Strong A.I. (a.k.a. Artificial General Intelligence). To them it is not a matter of "if", but "when".

But the fact of the matter is that all current A.I. is fundamentally Weak A.I., and this is reflected by today's computers' total absence of any intentional behavior whatsoever. Although there are some very complex and relatively convincing robots out there that appear to be alive, upon closer examination they all reveal themselves to be as motiveless as the common pocket calculator.

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This is because brains and computers work very differently. Both compute, but only one understands--and there are some very compelling reasons to believe that this is not going to change. It appears that there is a more technical obstacle that stands in the way of Strong A.I. ever becoming a reality.

Turing Machines Aren't Thinking Machines

All digital computers are binary systems. This means that they store and process information exclusively in terms of two states, which are represented by different symbols--in this case 1s and 0s. It is an interesting fact of nature that binary digits can be used to represent most things; like numbers, letters, colors, shapes, images, and even audio with near perfect accuracy.

This two-symbol system is the foundational principle that all of digital computing is based upon. Everything a computer does involves manipulating two symbols in some way. As such, they can be thought of as a practical type of Turing machine--an abstract, hypothetical machine that computes by manipulating symbols.



A Turing machine's operations are said to be "syntactical", meaning they only recognize symbols and not the meaning of those symbols--i.e., their semantics. Even the word "recognize" is misleading because it implies a subjective experience, so perhaps it is better to simply say that computers are sensitive to symbols, whereas the brain is capable of semantic understanding.

It does not matter how fast the computer is, how much memory it has, or how complex and high-level the programming language. The Jeopardy and Chess playing champs Watson and Deep Blue fundamentally work the same as your microwave. Put simply, a strict symbol-processing machine can never be a symbol-understanding machine. The influential philosopher John Searle has cleverly depicted this fact by analogy in his famous and highly controversial "Chinese Room Argument", which has been convincing minds that "syntax is not sufficient for semantics" since it was published in 1980. And although some esoteric rebuttals have been put forth (the most common being the "Systems Reply"), none successfully bridge the gap between syntax and semantics. But even if one is not fully convinced based on the Chinese Room Argument alone, it does not change the fact that Turing machines are symbol manipulating machines and not thinking machines, a position taken by the great physicist Richard Feynman over a decade earlier.

Feynman described the computer as "A glorified, high-class, very fast but stupid filing system," managed by an infinitely stupid file clerk (the central processing unit) who blindly follows instructions (the software program). Here the clerk has no concept of anything--not even single letters or numbers. In a famous lecture on computer heuristics, Feynman expressed his grave doubts regarding the possibility of truly intelligent machines, stating that, "Nobody knows what we do or how to define a series of steps which correspond to something abstract like thinking."

These points present very compelling reasons to believe that we may never achieve Strong A.I., i.e., truly intelligent artificial agents. Perhaps even the most accurate of brain simulations will not yield minds, nor will software programs produce consciousness. It just might not be in the cards for a strict binary processor. There is nothing about processing symbols or computation that generates subjective experience or psychological phenomena like qualitative sensations.

Upon hearing this, one might be inclined to ask, "If a computer can't be conscious, then how can a brain?" After all, it is a purely physical object that works according to physical law. It even uses electrical activity to process information, just like a computer. Yet somehow we experience the world subjectively--from a first person perspective where inner, qualitative and ineffable sensations occur that are only accessible to us. Take for example the way it feels when you see a pretty girl, drink a beer, step on a nail, or hear a moody orchestra.

The truth is, scientists are still trying to figure all this out. How physical phenomena, like biochemical and electrical processes, create sensation and unified experience is known as the "Hard Problem of Consciousness", and is widely recognized by neuroscientists and philosophers. Even neuroscientist and popular author Sam Harris--who shares Musk's robot-rebellion concerns--acknowledges the hard problem when stating that whether a machine could be conscious is "an open question". Unfortunately he doesn't seem to fully realize that for machines to pose an existential threat arising from their own self-interests, conscious is required.



Yet although the problem of consciousness is admittedly hard, there is no reason to believe that it is not solvable by science. So what kind of progress have we made so far?



Consciousness Is A Biological Phenomenon



Much like a computer, neurons communicate with one another through exchanging electrical signals in a binary fashion. Either a neuron fires or it doesn't, and this is how neural computations are carried out. But unlike digital computers, brains contain a host of analogue cellular and molecular processes, biochemical reactions, electrostatic forces, global synchronized neuron firing at specific frequencies, and unique structural and functional connections with countless feedback loops.



Even if a computer could accurately create a digital representation of all these features, which in itself involves many serious obstacles, a simulation of a brain is still not a physical brain. There is a fundamental difference between the simulation of a physical process and the physical process itself. This may seem like a moot point to many machine learning researchers, but when considered at length it appears anything but trivial.



Simulation Does Not Equal Duplication



The Weak A.I. hypothesis says that computers can only simulate the brain, and according to some like John Searle--who coined the terms Strong and Weak A.I.--a simulation of a conscious system is very different from the real thing. In other words, the hardware of the "machine" matters, and mere digital representations of biological mechanisms have no power to cause anything to happen in the real world.



Let's consider another biological phenomenon, like photosynthesis.Photosynthesis refers to the process by which plants convert light into energy. This process requires specific biochemical reactions only viable given a material that has specific molecular and atomic properties. A perfect computer simulation--an emulation--of photosynthesis will never be able to convert light into energy no matter how accurate, and no matter what type of hardware you provide the computer with. However, there are in fact artificial photosynthesis machines. These machines do not merely simulate the physical mechanisms underlying photosynthesis in plants, but instead duplicate, the biochemical and electrochemical forces using photoelectrochemical cells that do photocatalytic water splitting.



In a similar way, a simulation of water isn't going to possess the quality of 'wetness', which is a product of a very specific molecular formation of hydrogen and oxygen atoms held together by electrochemical bonds. Liquidity emerges as a physical state that is qualitatively different from that expressed by either molecule alone.

Even the hot new consciousness theory from neuroscience, Integrated Information Theory, makes very clear that a perfectly accurate computer simulation of a brain would not have consciousness like a real brain, just as a simulation of a black hole won't cause your computer and room to implode. Neuroscientists Giulio Tononi and Christof Koch, who established the theory, do not mince words on the subject:

"IIT implies that digital computers, even if their behaviour were to be functionally equivalent to ours, and even if they were to run faithful simulations of the human brain, would experience next to nothing."

With this in mind, we can still speculate about whether non-biological machines that support consciousness can exist, but we must realize that these machines may need to duplicate the essential electrochemical processes (whatever those may be) that are occurring in the brain during conscious states. If this were possible without organic materials--which have unique molecular and atomic properties--it would presumably require more than Turing machines, which are purely syntactic processors (symbol manipulators), and digital simulations, which may lack the necessary physical mechanisms.



The best approach to achieving Strong A.I. requires finding out how the brain what it does first, and machine learning researchers' biggest mistake is to think they can take a shortcut around it. As scientists and humans, we must be optimistic about what we can accomplishment. At the same time, we must not be overly confident in ways that steer us in wrong directions and blind us from making real progress.

The Myth of Strong A.I.
By 2020 an estimated 40% of American workers, 60 million people, will be independent contractors. The travel-the-world, live-it-up digital nomad movement has become the prevailing voice on this growing freelance trend, masking the silent and glum: the future of work might be as much about what's to come as it is about undoing the important work we've done.

***

I've worked remotely for 7 years. Truth be told, since graduate school and except for a 6-month stint, I have only worked remotely.

I wasn't trying to be part of some movement, and I wasn't forecasting where things were headed. I just needed a decent job, and couldn't for the life of me find one near where I lived.

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So, in a desperate 2-week scramble that left my nerves and nails frayed, I finally landed a gig teaching an online Shakespeare class for a university in Kansas--a state I'd never been to and a school I'd never heard about.

The work was better than nothing. I made about $2500 per class, but the university typically could only give me one class per semester (including summer session). I could work anywhere, but insurance wasn't offered. It felt great to help students and to have a job in my field, but at the end of each semester I was scared because I rarely knew if they'd give me a class for the following semester.

So the scramble continued, and since I still couldn't find something decent in the area, I picked up two additional gigs--one teaching two sections of online English composition for a university in Florida, and another teaching an online creative nonfiction class for talented high school students all throughout the country.

With three gigs that now amounted to full-time work (I had about 100 students at every point throughout the year, including summers), you'd think I'd be rolling, or at least stable. But I was still left in the scramble. I was making about $20k each year, and none of the programs offered health insurance or any stability from semester to semester.

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I found myself searching for other gigs while I should have been focusing on my students. And what this cool concept of "work from anywhere" really meant was that I mostly lived at coffee shops or libraries while contemplating moving back in with my parents.

But I marched on, and picked up two other gigs--as a freelance writer for several publications, and as a public speaker. Juggling 6 or 7 gigs at any one time, I'd boosted my yearly revenue to about $30k, but felt plagued by the multitasker's mind; I never felt like I could give any gig my full focus and therefore my best work.

Plus, after rent, health insurance, the car payment, a consolidated student loan payment, a phone bill, and groceries, I was barely keeping my head above water. When a car problem arose, for example, I'd pay with my credit card, and only be able to make $30 payments each month on it. It was always almost maxed out, and I always felt on the brink.

By working for everybody I was working for nobody. I was just spinning the wheels, and wasn't able to develop a core specialty other than my growing ability to not have a specialty. The companies I worked for didn't seem to care about me as an individual, and why would they? I wasn't a long-term asset, and others in the gig economy queue were ready to take my spot if I didn't want to keep on spinning. The more I spun in this frenetic, desperate way the more I realized millions of other people were doing the same.





The Digital Nomad Coin

On one side of the coin, the side of the coin most often shown, we have the prevailing bright and promising narrative. It's the one that posits now as the greatest time to work remotely and travel the world, that everybody, especially millennials, increasingly have the ability to choose and be empowered by their work, and the notion put forth by some economists that this rapidly growing gig economy (PDF here) can shore up income inequality because it grants those with lower incomes a greater ability to find work.

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As the first of my friends to enter this 'future of work' gig economy, I found myself, as the modern digital nomad movement does now--playing up the coolness and potential of this side of the coin (not having to dress up for work, make a commute, etc.).

And, for me, the true coolness finally did open up a bit. In the past few years, and while regularly filing anywhere from six to ten W-2 forms come tax season, I've worked in and traveled throughout 15 countries -- without actually working for any organizations within those countries. I'd spend time diving into some part of a country's culture I was fascinated by -- sumo wrestling in Japan or Buddhism in Laos, for example -- and then find some wifi, get a big ol' mug of tea, and grade papers or edit articles or work on my next book.

On the other side of the coin, we have compelling research, some of which is presented here at The Wall Street Journal, pointing to how the gig economy likely benefits higher-earning Americans just as much if not more than everybody else. We have brutally honest reporting, such as "The gig economy is coming. You probably won't like it." over at The Boston Globe, which projects a likely scenario: the end of salaries, the end of health insurance, the end of pensions.

In other words, the end of many of the benefits that generations of labor activists have fought for and are still dying for, and that many millennials haven't been around long enough to understand or really give a shit about.

And it's all moving so fast that methods to capture snapshots of a nation's economic health are quickly becoming antiquated. Take this piece, published a few weeks ago by Patrick Gillespie and Sara Ashley O'Brien, which shows how the gig economy is inflating traditional economic indicators:

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"The U.S. economy in recent months isn't adding a healthy number of jobs. However, the unemployment rate is at a robust 5.1%, almost half of the 10% it was at during the aftermath of the financial crisis."

In other words, the gig economy is still part and parcel of the larger rigged economy--where huge swaths of the U.S. middle class have remained economically stagnant for 20 years, union membership has been declining for decades, income inequality has reached a 30-year high, and the percentage of Americans making $25 million or more has grown 73% since 2008.

So while the gig economy may give rise to incredible stories like "How to Travel to 20+ Countries While Building a Massive Business in the Process", and make certain economic figures glisten in a way that hides their deeper truths, it's important that we all at once embrace this gig economy and figure out how to make the best of it. And for starters this means we refuse to become complacent, refuse to believe that access to hundreds of short-term gigs is good enough for people.

I often highlighted the cool factor as a newb in this gig economy, but the secret story was that I was often miserable in the moment and always terrified of what the future held. For years I was working so hard to grade papers that each night before bed I'd dip my fingers for 30 minutes in plastic food storage containers filled with ice water to reduce inflammation so I could do it all again the next day.

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To be clear, that is a ridiculously minor complaint compared to the crushing conditions labor movements of years past (and even still today) fought to address, but I do think the thousands of similar stories and the quiet financial desperation faced by many freelance workers highlight a need to be cautious of the loud and cool becoming a smokescreen for the dismantling of knowledge worker labor conditions.

The Future of the Future of Work

Intuit's 2020 Report paints a clear picture of what the next decade is going to look like. Contingent workers will likely hit that 60 million mark and only grow from there, full-time jobs with benefits will be harder to find, startups and companies of all sizes will gain access to the best talent available while minimizing fixed labor costs, and employees will increasingly have the world as their oyster and their mind on the next gig.

The gig economy will keep rolling, and with it I believe these three strategies will help ensure that both employers and employees can roll with it rather than get rolled over by it:

1. Employers should strive to hire freelancers on a multiple-project basis, and strive to hire under a retainer fee (and assist with insurance) when possible. This will allow the employer to think about the future just as much as the immediate work that needs to be completed, which will save them the time and hassle of having to vet, hire and onboard another freelancer for the next project. In addition, it gives the employee some peace of mind and even brand engagement because they'll know that they're locked in for a reasonable period of time.

2. Traditional labor unions need to get with the program. Their work has been the only voice for the middle and lower class physical labor workers for decades, and perhaps nobody both should and is more equipped to carry the lessons they've learned into the future of work. Stay true to your machinists and aerospace workers, IAMAW, but know it's a crucial part of your job to keep tabs on the future and to not be afraid to create massive partnerships with increasingly powerful nonprofit groups like the 300,000-strong Freelancers Union.

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3. Employees should--and I know from experience how hard this is to do--strive to take on better (not just more) gigs. If the gig economy is the future of work, focus in this age of mass distraction is the future of how we'll work. Take it from me: You're far better off to stay patient and take one or two solid gigs where you can focus, feel a sense of loyalty, and maybe even get some benefits, than you are taking seven gigs that will leave you in an endless scramble. Lastly, join up with local union chapters, join up with the Freelancers Union, and remember that you're not alone in this.

If in thinking about the future of work we forget to carry with us the lessons of the past, we're setting the stage for a brutal knowledge worker revolution.

It's one where tech savvy knowledge will be viewed as little more than the hammer and shovel of yesteryear, where traditional forms of organized labor strikes and protests will have to merge with their digital equivalents, where most have part-time gigs but a relative handful have insurance (let alone a pension) or any security for even the near-term future, and where perks like "work from anywhere!" become the bullfighter's muleta--the stick and cloth we run towards again and again and again all throughout our lives, completely oblivious to what it all obscures: the sword.

***

Enjoy this? Get more like it at The Modern Team.
Here's an English-translation of El Molino Online's week in Review, published in Spanish for a mostly international Spanish-speaking audience.

A Bernie Sanders rise in the California polls, a state where the socialist has mobilized enormous resources as the Democratic primary campaign winds down in the US, is another problem in a long and debilitating list faced by Hillary Clinton, who despite not having the delegates to nail the party nomination has already been anointed as such.

This week we saw that Hillary's problems are political: Her campaign's inability to "dispatch" her only opponent, a senator who proudly wears the socialist label and who started the campaign totally lacking name recognition. His support was minimal among colleagues; his coffers were empty -- nobody took him seriously. In just over a year, he's become in a "rock star" - particularly among the youth (under 30.)

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The California primary will be held on 7 June, and polls are showing the disappearing of what once seemed Hillary's insurmountable lead. Now, anything is possible in that state with a treasure trove of 548 delegates, in an open primary, where both Democrats and Indepedents can vote.

The size of Mr. Sanders's rallies in southern California rank amongst the largest during this primary season.

Hillary Clinton's problems are also related to ethics. One of the many scandals surrounding her, that of her emails during her tenure as Secretary of State, produced this week a scathing report. In a few words, concluded a review by an internal watchdog, Hillary Clinton and her subordinates knowingly violated the State Department's internal norms, endangering secure data. And she refused to cooperate in the investigation of the matter.

Several newspapers ran strong-worded editorials critical of Hillary Clinton.

The problem is dynastic. The name Clinton brings memories of questionable ethics, personal issues (sex) exposed in graphic details. Whether the accused was Bill Clinton, Hillary was there. She's even attacked the women who claimed to have had affairs with her husband.

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Also, the problem is the solid perception that there are no barriers between the political and the personal -- in a millionaire world of influence, bankers, foundations, secret speeches.

The problem is that more people hate Hillary Clinton than they like her.

The problem is Donald Trump, a less than orthodox candidate, who says whatever comes to mind whenever. With the field clear, and as the republican candidate, he has started to call Mrs. Clinton "Crooked Hillary"). He has said Bill Clinton's sexual conduct is a valid campaign issue. He even repeated rumors about the suicide of Vincent Foster -- to the delight the conspiracy theory crowd.

For the USA all of that is a return to the 1990s. A Deja Vu. And that in itself is a major problem: While society wants to look forward, the Clinton campaign forces a look back.

These are some of the problems facing Hillary. And they could get worse. If she has to testify to the FBI on the email scandal. Or if her political enemies manage to get an indictement.

Top it all with the weakening embarrassment for her candidature at the July convention if Mr Sanders's supporters come in with a list of demands, supported by a substantial amount of votes, delegates and victories.

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Another week that flew by in the US.
"These dreams go on when I close my eyes

Every second of the night I live another life

These dreams that sleep when it's cold outside

Every moment I'm awake, the further I'm away."



I once received a letter from a reader that said in part:

"Everyone tells me that I'm going to have a dream about my [departed loved one] and that I'll feel better. But I haven't dreamed about them yet. What's wrong with me? And what happens if I don't dream about them -- does it mean that I don't miss them? Because I really do".



Dreams.

We all have them.

Some dreams are the good dreams that rock us gently in our sleep and others are the worrisome dreams that invade our attempts to sleep at all.

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Do you feel like the author of this letter? Are you comparing your dreams (or lack thereof) to the dreams of others? Are you worrying about dreams that you are having -- or NOT having -- about someone you have lost? Let's put those worries to rest.

Since literally the age of 7, my daughter has dreamed of a career in fashion. This is all she's ever cared about and the only career goal that she has ever had. In fact, we still have her very rudimentary designs and "creations" from that age -- and it is the career in which she is now engaged quite successfully. On the other hand, my interest in fashion, while admittedly obsessive and extreme, basically consists only of trying on clothes and shoes to see what fits and carrying shopping bags to my car. I do not want to design it and I certainly do not want to have to assemble it (because I have the attention span of a gnat). I just want it to magically appear before me, fit perfectly and make me look fantastic. Does this then mean that because my daughter's fashion dreams and my fashion dreams are completely different, that someone's dreams are "wrong"? Of course not. The same thought processes apply here.

Naturally, we know that there is nothing "wrong" with the author of this letter. Furthermore, if she never once dreams about her late loved one, it certainly does not mean that she is not grieving or that she does not miss them. It simply means that her subconscious is dealing in its own way, in its own time. What did I advise our friend? I encouraged her to allow her mind and her soul to relax and to stop comparing herself (even in her sleep) to others; that she is unique and so are her dreams ... conscious and otherwise.

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Have I dreamed about my own late loved ones? Yes, I have -- and yes, those dreams have and continue to bring me comfort. When I became widowed years ago, I first dreamt about my late husband about six months after he had passed away. I found the most comforting thing about that dream (and many more since) is that in them, he is whole, he is healthy and he is happy. He is not the man whose body was slowly and torturously ravaged by one of the most hideous illnesses on the face of the earth (ALS/Lou Gehrig's Disease). I like to think that the dreams I have of him and other departed loved ones are their way of occasionally dropping in to see how things are going and to make sure that we are doing well.

Everyone dreams differently; both awake and asleep. As with everything else in the grief recovery process and just as you would not compare your daytime dreams to someone else, please do not compare your nighttime dreams -- whatever they are -- to the dreams of another. You are you. What happens if you do not dream about your loved ones? Nothing bad, I promise! There is nothing wrong with you and it certainly does not mean that you are not grieving or have not properly grieved. It simply means that you are different -- and it is OK to be different.

(...in fact, I rather pride myself on being different).

Rather than waiting for a magical dream (ala the cliffhanger scene from television's "Dallas" that featured Bobby Ewing in the shower), instead rest comfortably in love that never dies -- which is, in fact, a dream come true and a dream that many in this world never realize. Wrap yourself in the comfort of warm memories while progressing in your way and in your time through your Healing Journey.

And sleep well.

** "These Dreams" by Heart; written by Martin Page and Bernie Taupin. Released 1986 by Capitol Records. All rights reserved.

Bracketed additions are for privacy, clarity and continuity purposes.





Also a contributor to the iconic, "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book series, Carole Brody Fleet's latest book, "When Bad Things Happen to Good Women" is the #1 New Release on Amazon and an Amazon Hot 100 New Release. "Happily Even After..." is the winner of the prestigious Books for a Better Life Award. "Widows Wear Stilettos..." is in its seventh consecutive year on national bestseller lists. For more information about Carole Brody Fleet, please visit www.carolefleetspeaker.com and www.widowswearstilettos.com

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Facebook's stated mission is to "give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected." Yet the company knows that the expectation of privacy--the ability to decide who can see your postings and who can't--makes people willing to share private information in the first place. As Facebook put it in their Commitment to the Facebook Community: "everyone needs complete control over who they share with at all times."

Yet, some are suggesting that Facebook ought to reject the concept of a right to privacy, as well as reject the idea that their board members have a right to be involved in important debates about where freedom of the press ends and a right to privacy begins.

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That's the crux of the argument being made by those encouraging Facebook to vote out Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, from their board of directors. Thiel has helped finance a lawsuit against Gawker Media, a news outlet that deals in celebrity gossip, for violating the privacy of a former pro wrestler by posting a surreptitiously made tape of him having sex. Alex Kantrowitz of Buzzfeed believes this disqualifies Thiel from involvement in Facebook: "Will Facebook, a company dependent on publishers for the content that fuels its News Feed, stand by a board member seeking the destruction of one of those very publishers?"

Facebook users ought to hope, however, that the company stands by Peter Thiel, who was not simply seeking to destroy "media companies that publish stories not to the liking of powerful billionaires." Rather, the lawsuit against Gawker spoke to an important principle--the right of individuals, including those in the public eye, to a sphere of privacy. Indeed, as far back as the 1890s, legal scholars like Louis Brandeis were concerned about the media's increasing intrusion into "the sacred precincts of private and domestic life." Thus, for centuries, American tort law has recognized that the media can go too far in publishing intimate details about an individual (as opposed to matters of legitimate public concern). The Gawker lawsuit addresses those limits in the internet age and asks important questions regarding what constitutes journalism, and what topics are legitimately of public interest, and therefore deserving of extra protection from the courts.

One doesn't have to agree with every aspect of the Gawker verdict to believe that the imbedded privacy issue was a legitimate issue for Thiel to help protect. The public could take note of the jaw-dropping $140 million in damages awarded by the jury and consider if such supersized damages are truly an act of justice, or if they have the impact of destroying, rather than punishing, parties found guilty. That's a reason to support broader legal reform, including caps for damages. However, the amount awarded is entirely separate from Thiel's involvement in this case, and from the underlying issue of the balance between freedom of the press and the right to privacy.

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Some suggest that it's unfair that billionaire Peter Thiel had the resources to finance this case against Gawker (especially since he had a personal history with the company which also unwantedly exposed aspects of his personal life) while the rest of us don't have the capacity to get involved in such legal matters. Yet third parties commonly help finance litigation, particularly litigation that has broad implications for the legal system, and prominent nonprofit groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ensure that it isn't just wealthy individuals who can help finance litigation, but regular individuals who can pool resources that are then used for a legal defense.

As Eugene Kontorovich, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law, wrote for the Washington Post, the case against Gawker was well-suited as a test case for a broader policy principle:

Gawker is institutionally committed to revealing the private lives of public people. The question of how far the privacy rights of celebrities go is a legitimate one, and Gawker's anything-goes position is not without merit. But it is a legal and policy question. Thiel was in essence financing what he understood as public interest litigation on an issue of public concern.

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the company leadership should welcome greater clarification from the courts on an issue that is so important to their network. And Facebook users should be concerned if the company is so committed to the perspective of content creators--even those like Gawker that focus on revealing the private lives of individuals by obtaining surreptitiously made tapes and failing to obtain the permission of the parties involved to make them public--that it cannot tolerate its board members even being involved in the exploration of the issue.

Facebook's prominent board members undoubtedly are involved in a wide variety of causes and support a plethora of political views and ideologies. That's how it should be. Kicking out a board member for taking up a meritorious invasion of privacy case and cause would suggest that Facebook really isn't committed to ideological diversity or to the basic concept of privacy after all. If that's the case, Facebook users might want to reconsider how comfortable they feel about sharing intimate details of their own lives - and their children's - after all.

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By Dae Joong Yoon and Bati Tsogtsaikhan



Imagine walking into the White House as a DACA recipient, whose parents are undocumented and would benefit from DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents), to share your personal testimony with the President of the United States.



Mr. President. No hardworking family deserves to live a life in fear of being separated by deportation. DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) has changed my life. I would like others, including my parents, to experience the same benefits of obtaining a work permit to secure a job to support their families, and continue to contribute to their adoptive country they call home.



This is exactly what Bati Tsogtsaikhan, a DACA recipient from Virginia shared with President Obama back in February 2015 when he, along with five other "DREAMers" were invited to the Oval Room to share what DACA meant to them and what the DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents) and expanded DACA (DACA+) programs could do for millions of American families.



For Bati, who came to the U.S. with his parents from Mongolia at the age of 10, DACA has meant having the ability to work legally, drive, and access more affordable tuition. After graduating from George Mason University, he was selected for a job at Cityworth where he has begun his journey to contributing to the world of finance.



Now DAPA would open these doors to millions more of hardworking immigrants including Bati's parents. With a social security card and work permit, his parents would be better equipped to support his brother who is a U.S. citizen. Life would improve for his entire family because they could stay together in the U.S. legally.



Looking back at the success of DACA, we can only imagine what level of enthusiasm DAPA and DACA+ will bring to millions of families and not only from the Latino community.



In the four years following the implementation of the current DACA program, NAKASEC (National Korean American Service and Education Consortium) and its affiliates, KRC (Korean Resource Center) and KRCC (Korean American Resource and Cultural Center), provided information about initial DACA and DACA renewals to over 13,000 community members and processed nearly 2,000 DACA applications for community members, most of whom were Korean American. KRC received over 10,000 calls within a two month period after DACA was first announced in 2012.
UNITED STATES - MAY 29 - A biker shows off his shirt in support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, on the National Mall during the Rolling Thunder Inc. XXIX 'Freedom Ride,' on Sunday, May 29, 2016 in Washington. The annual bike ride which occurs over Memorial Day weekend, honors U.S. prisoners of war and missing-in-action troops, as well as raises awareness about veterans issues. (Photo By Al Drago/CQ Roll Call)

The judge, Donald Trump roared, was "very hostile." Trump was only warming up. The judge, he continued, was a "disgrace" and a "hater." "His name is Gonzalo Curiel." Trump suggested that he might be "Mexican," and complained of being "railroaded." The judge, he added, should be "ashamed" of his actions. Trump did all of this in San Diego, where the judge keeps his courtroom. Finally, Trump mused out loud that he just might win in November and he let that thought linger in the air.

This is conduct unbecoming any private person. It was a speech that questioned the integrity of the judicial process and incited an already raucous crowd to boo and jeer at the mention of the judge's name and ethnic heritage. It has been convincingly suggested that conduct such as this might amount to contempt of court. It was, after all, a clear and evident attempt at intimidation.

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Let us keep this in mind: This was not some otherwise anonymous frustrated litigant giving vent to disappointment at the way a judge was handling the details of an otherwise private lawsuit with little impact beyond the interests of the parties. Rather, it was an address delivered by a presidential candidate in front of a large crowd of already angry voters. And this was a speech delivered not in Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia or in Vladimir Putin's Russia. This was a speech delivered by the Republican Party's presumptive nominee for President of the United States.

Donald Trump, clearly, represents something new and very disturbing in American politics. This point has been made by countless commentators in a wide variety of venues. But in this speech it is fair to say that he crossed a threshold that few if any public figures have ever dared to approach. He revealed himself as having utter disregard for American constitutionalism.

What do I mean specifically by "constitutionalism"? Constitutionalism is grounded in respect for the Constitution but it is something larger than the text of that document. The Constitution, of course, is the cornerstone of the American nation. It contains many specific provisions of importance not only to lawyers but to all Americans. Some of these provisions are quite precise in the rules they prescribe. The president must be at least thirty-five years of age. The Vice President is given the duty of presiding over the Senate. The House of Representatives is entrusted with the authority of originating "all bills for raising Revenue." I could give other examples of the precision and craft with which the Constitution was drafted.

But the Constitution is something larger than a collection of neatly-drawn rules. And that is what I mean by constitutionalism. It is an ethos, a sense of self-restraint, and a commitment to respect and preserve the rule of law.

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Constitutionalism begins with an acknowledgment that our government is one of three coordinate branches. The presidency is not supreme, nor is the legislature, nor the judiciary. Each of the three branches of government was given the capacity to "check" the other two, thereby ensuring that no one person or party amassed all of the authority in the system. The system's success, furthermore, depends on the good will of the participants and requires the building of consensus.

Constitutionalism, furthermore, demands the self-restraint of the system's participants. Richard Nixon surely challenged the integrity of the constitutional order during Watergate but even Nixon obeyed court orders and finally resigned the presidency when his crimes were unmasked.

Good will, self-restraint, and respect, in other words, are crucial to the functioning of the entire system. Presidents are not bosses. They are not mercurial CEO's or petty tyrants empowered to fire or to intimidate members of the other two branches of government. Presidents must operate under the rule of law.

At a fundamental level, Donald Trump does not grasp the significance of the American constitutional order. The same can be said for the mob that cheered his taunts. One might ask, is Trump the cause or the symptom of American constitutional decline?

It seems that he might be both. Much of American popular culture no longer regards self-restraint and playing within the rules as positive goods. Consider professional wrestling -- an activity with which Donald Trump has some personal acquaintance. It is all about the celebration of strength. There is a good guy and a bad guy. Emotions are aroused, and after gruesome acts of simulated (and sometimes real) violence, a kind of catharsis is reached.

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Or consider action movies beginning, say with the Rambo movies of the mid-1980's. The establishment -- whether it be military command and control, or timid elected officials, or other weak and vacillating authority figures -- betrayed the hero or the hero's friends, and now the hero must fight not only real enemies but his own superiors.

The good will required to lubricate the system, to keep the branches of government working harmoniously, furthermore, has been under attack for a long time. One need only look at the so-called House Freedom Caucus -- far-right obstructionists who hounded the Speaker of the House John Boehner from office and who continue to prevent the House from doing much needed business.

So, certainly there are antecedents to Donald Trump. But he nevertheless represents a new magnitude of threat to the constitutional order. He rails against freedom of the press. He attacks journalists by name, he mocks them for their physical disabilities, and denounces them for the questions they ask. He engages in vile racial and ethnic stereotyping and condemns whole world religions, even threatening to bar Muslims from entering the United States. He is an enemy of constitutional stability more akin to the demagogues of 1930's Europe than anything we have seen in the United States.

And now he means to break the constitutional order altogether with his attack on the judiciary. We must not see this outburst as just another petty grievance voiced by the most singularly unfit man to run for the presidency since the nineteenth century. He is not some private litigant who is angry now that his scheme to fleece the public has been exposed. Donald Trump is a presidential candidate who has attacked the way we do constitutional business here in the United States.

Donald Trump cannot be entrusted with power. He is already abusing his position as presumptive nominee. He is temperamentally unfit to hold elective office. And all persons of good will, whether of the left or the right, should unite in opposing him.
I'm not a good one on advise, but I have to tell you a story that's really interesting. Years ago I was doing a television show with Geraldine Page who was a brilliant actress and I said 'God you know Gerry, the press they love you and they just hate my guts. They're just despicable to me and I feel terrible about this.' She grabbed hold of my arm and said 'Remember this Tab. If people don't like you that's their bad taste.' I thought Whoa, that's powerful. I thought, I'm going to apply that to my life and furthermore pass that along to every person I know particularly young people because they don't have the support and guidance while they're growing up. A lot of parents out there are very, 'I want to be your friend'. That's bullshit. You know, they're parents be parents. There's a yes and a no. There's a right and a wrong. You have to have it and I was very fortunate to have a strong but religious German mother and that was important and I think we need boundaries in our lives. Today there doesn't seem to be a lot of boundaries. But young people have to go forward as the best that they can and give a lot of thought to their development mentally, physically and spiritually.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, May 28, 2016, in Santa Maria, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

I can now say I have felt the Bern, from beginning to end. I am able to make this statement since I attended my second Bernie Sanders rally yesterday, in Santa Cruz, California. I attended my first Bernie rally all the way back in July of last year, in Phoenix, Arizona (held right after the Netroots Nation blogger conference). So I have seen how the Bernie revolution began and I have also seen it entering the homestretch of campaigning during the primary season, one short week before California and a few other states become the last to vote.

It would be hard to do a straight comparison between the two rallies, so I'm not going to attempt to do so. The Phoenix rally was massive, with over 11,000 people attending. The Santa Cruz rally was smaller, but there were a few mitigating factors (which is why a comparison of just crowd size isn't valid). Bernie announced his rally in Santa Cruz roughly 24 hours before it was held. The auditorium was much smaller (Santa Cruz doesn't really have a 10,000-plus-sized auditorium available), because Santa Cruz itself is much smaller than Phoenix. Even so (according to the fire marshal I talked to) there were 3,425 people allowed in before they shut the doors, which left at least a couple of thousand outside the arena who didn't get in. More on them in a moment. Here was the line which greeted me as I arrived at the arena, hours before the rally was set to begin. It's hard to see, but the line extends far over that bridge in the background.

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All photographs  Chris Weigant 2016

Bernie also gave a second speech that day, an hour down the coast in Monterey, which was attended by an estimated 8,000 people. So even though it's kind of apples and oranges, he spoke to the same total crowd in one day as he did in Phoenix, at the very least.

When I wrote about Bernie's Phoenix speech over ten months ago, I really didn't want to predict his ultimate chances of success. Back then, I wrote:

Bernie Sanders, to put this another way, doesn't need a focus group or a poll to tell him what he ought to stand for. He already knows what he stands for, and he'll freely tell you exactly what that is. This authenticity is likely what is drawing in such enormous crowds to hear him speak at such an early phase in the presidential contest. Bernie's not only beating Hillary Clinton and all the Democrats in crowd sizes, he's also beating the entire Republican field (unless you believe Donald Trump's laughable crowd estimates, which I have to say I do not). This populist enthusiasm has, so far, been largely sneered at by the inside-the-Beltway media, but the longer it continues (and the more it grows) the harder it is going to be to ignore. The question is whether Bernie will hit a ceiling of support or not. Is it possible for him to defeat the Clinton machine? Well, it's been done before, just ask Barack Obama. However, history really isn't on Bernie's side, since most "movement" presidential candidates ultimately fail in their bids for the nomination.

I then wondered whether he'd hit a ceiling of Democratic support, perhaps similar to Ron Paul's 15 percent mark among Republicans. He obviously did a lot better than that, I have to admit. What is impressive about Bernie, though, is that what I wrote about him back then has stayed true right to the end: his biggest strength all along has been his authenticity and his ability to focus on the issues he feels are the most important ones. And the enthusiasm he has inspired has not lessened one bit during the whole campaign.

The most enthusiastic member of the crowd yesterday might have been the gentleman dressed up as Bernie, who was gleefully greeting everyone as they entered the building.

The rest of the crowd seemed about average for Santa Cruz -- a heavy mix of old and young (Santa Cruz is a university town), with ultra-liberals dominating (that's a polite way of saying there were a lot of hippies there -- because there are a lot of hippies in general who live in Santa Cruz).

As the crowd milled around inside, an extraordinary thing happened outside the building. Bernie arrived, much to the delight of the overflow crowd who didn't get in, and then Bernie gave them a mini-speech before he even entered the building. Now, I'll fully admit I have limited experience covering political rallies live, but this was the first time I'd ever seen a candidate go to such an extra length to reach the people who didn't get in. Especially a candidate being protected by the Secret Service (who hate spontaneous events, especially in the open air). Bernie spoke for 15 or 20 minutes to the crowd outside (at a hastily-erected podium), and then he entered the arena to speak to those who had arrived early (I must point out in all fairness that I probably wouldn't have gotten in to see Bernie if I wasn't on the list of credentialed press, because I didn't arrive four hours early). Bernie speaking to the overflow crowd was a very nice gesture for a politician to make.

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Inside, Bernie took the podium to wild cheering. He made a joke about his support being an "earthquake" and the crowd obliged by stomping on the bleachers and making the whole place shake. Bernie has lost none of his crowd-pleasing appeal, to put it another way.

A side note about the arena: the preceding night to this rally was when the Golden State Warriors clinched their spot in the finals, with Bernie in the audience. The Santa Cruz arena is where the farm team for the Warriors plays, which explains all the Warriors stuff on the walls.

The content of Bernie's speech was similar to what I had heard 10 months ago. His issues haven't changed all that much in the intervening time. He has added and refined a few things in his stump speech, such as explicitly calling for marijuana to be moved from a Schedule I controlled substance to "descheduling" it entirely and ending the federal legal ban on marijuana altogether. Also added were short sections on Native American issues and fracking (fracking is currently a big local political issue, as Monterey County has an initiative banning fracking set for the November ballot). Fracking was also an issue where he painted a clear difference between his position and Hillary Clinton's.

Bernie did take a few shots at Clinton, which is entirely to be expected since he is, after all, running against her. But I saw none of the overhyped media narrative that "Bernie is viciously attacking Hillary" -- in fact, if anything, he went fairly easy on her, only mentioning her by name perhaps two or three times.

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What was new in Bernie's speech was an indication of how he's going to transition next week, when the campaign is over (technically, the primary season won't be over until Washington D.C. votes, but the last state will vote next Tuesday). He admitted that the media was going to call the whole race for Clinton next Tuesday night, likely hours before the California polls even close (when the New Jersey results are in):

On Tuesday night, on the seventh, you're going to hear from media saying that Hillary Clinton has received, whatever it is, 80 or 90 delegates, which she certainly will from New Jersey and other states. And they'll say, the primary process is over, Secretary Clinton has won.

The crowd booed loudly at this. Bernie pointed out that counting only "the real delegates that people vote for" (in other words, the non-superdelegates), this would not be factually correct.

The Democratic National Committee will tell you it's not factually correct. The truth is, no candidate, not Hillary Clinton, not Bernie Sanders, will receive the number of pledged delegates... that he or she needs to become the Democratic nominee.

Bernie vowed to push on to the convention and fight for every last superdelegate -- but then, what else is he really going to say, right now? He can't appear defeatist in any way, because then fewer people would then turn out to vote for him next Tuesday. Instead, he has begun listing the things that he'll attempting to change, using his influence and his leverage at the Democratic National Convention -- including (perhaps) the entire superdelegate system. If you read between the lines of Bernie's speech, you could hear the agenda items he'll be negotiating for before the convention starts.

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Much of the media is credulously taking Bernie at his word right now, about "fighting all the way to the convention" for the nomination. I, to be blunt, do not take Bernie at his word -- I fully expect him to concede the race next Tuesday night (even though I'll be voting for him and would be delighted to see him win California). To me, thinking along these lines gave the entire Bernie rally a sort of bittersweet flavor.

But that was just me -- the crowd itself reflected none of this feeling, and neither did Sanders. Bernie sounded strong (no raspy voice), well-rested, and as energetic as ever. This is remarkable when you consider all the hard work he's put in over the past year. He built, as he did when I first saw him, to a rousing end to his speech, and the crowd's response did seem like it should be measured on the Richter Scale. He's lost none of his appeal, and his crowds are just as fervent as they were right from the start.

Santa Cruz, like Phoenix and a whole bunch of other towns before it, was indeed feeling the Bern.

After the speech was over, I spent some time outside at the vendors' tables, seeing as how this might be the last chance to see such a wide display of Feel the Bern wares. This was one area where things have noticeably improved over what was on sale in Phoenix. There was a wide array of Bernie T-shirts, hats, and buttons on display to choose from. This being Santa Cruz, some were (of course) tie-dyed. The most amusing shirt I saw someone wearing was a riff on Trump's slogan: "Make American gay again!" Or, perhaps, the shirt with the classic Che Guevara image on it (replaced with Bernie's face under a beret) -- that one worked on a number of different levels. The most stark message I saw was on both T-shirts and professionally-printed signs, which stated bluntly: "FUCK TRUMP." I couldn't help but think, as I watched thousands of Bernie supporters disperse, that that might be a message they all could take to heart in the general election.

Chris Weigant blogs at:
News / National

by Abigail Mawonde

Claims on social media that Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa's son was arrested at Beitbridge Border Post while trying to smuggle out $7 million are false and meant to undermine the minister's efforts in turning around the economy.Minister Chinamasa dismissed the allegations in a statement saying they were deceitful."There have been rumours circulating in the social media about the alleged arrest of my son for allegedly trying to smuggle $7 million cash through Beitbridge Border Post on Sunday 29 May, 2016."These rumours and claims are false, evil, malicious and highly mischievous," he said."This onslaught on my character and reputation will not deter or intimidate us from pursuing economic reforms within the context of ZIM-ASSET (Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation)."I am actually emboldened to accelerate implementation of our reform agenda in order to turn around the fortunes of our economy."Social media was this week awash with reports alleging that Mr Tino Chinamasa was arrested for trying to smuggle the money into South Africa.He warned Zimbabweans against the abuse of social media."I urge journalists and other users of social media to report responsibly and avoid peddling falsehoods," he said.Minister Chinamasa said Government supported the recent measures by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe aimed at stimulating production, generating exports, reducing the import bill and containing externalisation of foreign currency.He said Government was in the process of consulting Afreximbank, International Monetary Fund, the African Development Bank and the World Bank to explore mechanisms that would be put in place to ensure there is no abuse on the issuance of bond notes and that they are issued relative to the quantum of exports generated in the economy.Minister Chinamasa said the RBZ Governor Dr John Mangudya was also available to engage any group to fully explain the measures and how they will help address the cash crisis and stimulate economic activities for the benefit of Zimbabwe and its people.
Activists in the sea try to interfere the deportation of Pakistani migrants on board a ferry set to sail for Turkey in the port of Mytilini of the Greek island of Lesbos, Friday, April 8, 2016. Forty-five migrants from Pakistan were deported to Turkey on Friday under the EU agreement with Turkey. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

This summer the images of drowning and dead people will stalk you in the media. The recent images of a dead African baby pulled from the sea is now being compared to the September 2, 2015 images of Aylan Kurdi lying face down on the beach of a Turkish resort in Bodrum. They look peaceful, almost sleeping. But that is not the reality of drowning at sea. Our crews deal with this on a regular basis and we choose to head out because we know we will save more lives than will perish.

Last year the impact of that single death mobilized global citizens into donating 2.4 million euros to the Migrant Offshore Aid Station, an NGO I started in 2013 with my wife Regina. We took that money and outfitted a ship, the Responder whose fast rescue boats are now named Alan And Galip in honor of the two boys. We have a perfect record of no deaths caused by rescues and we hire only the best professionals on board. We have media embeds and document everything we do so we operate in a transparent manner.

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I am sure people's sense of humanity will be outraged again as we set out on June 6 to begin our third season rescuing people in the Mediterranean. We set out with some apprehension that this year will be very different, almost like a war.

War is defined as "a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state." We have a group of nations in Europe that are using a massive moat, new walls, barbed wire and push backs to repel desperate people from other states. And we have people in those nations who refuse to lose their humanity and let people drown needlessly. A war of conscience perhaps.

This year will be busy. So far 203,981 people have braved crossing the Aegean and the Mediterranean in 2016. The weather is just turning friendly for the people waiting patiently for a space on a boat that may or may not make it to Italy from Libya or Alexandria, Egypt.

The scale of mortality so far this year is daunting. Take out the word "armed" and you have a snapshot of what MOAS experiences in the Mediterranean with death rates that this year already exceed 2,200. The figure rivals or even exceeds the civilian death toll in war zones like Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Kurdistan, Yemen and Libya.

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And many of these families are fleeing war or persecution in any case; bombings in Syria, a stifling dictatorship in Eritrea, ethnic cleansing in Iraq, terror threats from Boko Haram, al Shabaab, ISIS, al Qaeda. Many other young Africans also also fleeing the crushing effects of growing up in countries unable to offer them any real opportunities for a bright and decent future.

They come from all parts of the world, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and Asia all want a better life. The deaths by drowning are just a cruel form of collateral damage as each person consciously makes a decision to run for it knowing full well that high odds of abuse, injury or death that await them.

As of June 1, 2016 according to UNHCR statistics the death toll in the Mediterranean stands at 2,510 dead and drowned compared to 1,855 last year at this time and only 57 when MOAS started in 2014.

If you dig into those numbers for the Central Med this year you see a mortality rate of 1 in 23. In other words, for every 100,000 people that get on a leaking raft or rotting fishing boat in Libya or Egypt, 4,339 people will likely drown; a statistic that compares to the mortality rate in many modern combat zones and even in some older European wars. The same wars that sent crowded boats of European refugees to America, Israel and other safe harbors.

And this number of dead does not include what MOAS calls the "Dead Zone" the first few miles from the Libyan coast. We know from the bodies recovered on the Libyan shores, week-in, week-out, that there are hundreds more migrants who die in these waters but that their deaths never get reported. If Europe had to engage with this tract of sea, the death toll would be far higher.

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This year MOAS will do it's best to save lives with our two ships. So far, the Phoenix and the Responder have saved more than 13,000 people. The Phoenix is just back from the Andaman Sea where it was engaged in a research mission intended to bring attention to the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The Responder arrived in Malta this week from the Aegean where the crew battled winter storms and angry political winds to rescue hundreds of desperate Syrian families. We are heading out again with two 100km/h Scheibel drones. For the first time, we will scan the Dead Zone in Libyan waters and hoping that we along with other search and rescue partners can reduce this holocaust in the Mediterranean.

With this in mind, we expect this year to be especially challenging, despite the presence of more rescue ships in the Central Mediterranean; an uplifting trend started by MOAS in 2014. There is currently an ongoing conflict with the Islamic State in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte and there is a build up of movement in Egypt, from where the journey is even more arduous than it is from Libya. But we can thank our supporters for showing that no matter what obstacles are thrown our way, we will continue to save lives at sea.

We accept that Europe cannot shelter or accept any person that chooses to enter legally or illegally, Europe has an obligation to protect their borders and Europeans are entitled to have a safe nation of law-abiding citizens. After all that is whey they are coming to Europe. But why must they brave a higher death rate?

Europe has learned the hard way that intolerance is not a good answer to fear and that is why Europeans are a union of tolerant, industrious people that need migrants and experienced workers to build their futures. Europe does not need to become a brutal, unyielding, prejudiced place that builds new walls, barbed-wired faces and hate campaigns to keep potential migrants out. This only plays into the hands of extremists, the exact people many of these refugees are fleeing from.

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The French Donald Trump isn't a rich businessman; doesn't deliver incoherent diatribes while bragging about "having the best words;" and could never be accused of being anti-women. The French Donald Trump did, however, inherit the family business -- a political party -- from daddy; is an effective orator, entertaining and inflaming the audience with direct, simple language; and is also a blond, whose calling card is anti-immigrant rhetoric, meant to appeal to the economically disenfranchised, under-educated voter. As to being anti-woman, well, the French Donald Trump is -- a woman. Her name is Marine Le Pen, and her chances of being elected President are certainly no worse, and perhaps even better than, The Donald's.

Marine's father, Jean-Marie, a former paratrooper and street-brawler (he lost an eye in one such encounter) founded the Front National (the "FN") in the 1960s, built on the resentments of the one million French settlers who left Algeria after it gained independence from France. From its birth, the FN was virulently anti-Muslim and antisemitic. (Le Pen famously called Hitler's gas chambers a mere "detail of history.") But he was a brilliant speaker and magnetic personality, and he built the FN from a party on the lunatic fringe of French politics to the spring-board to his second place finish to Jacques Chirac in the French presidential elections in 2002 -- a political tsunami in France.

In 2011 Le Pen eventually handed over the reins of power to his daughter Marine. And, like King Lear, almost immediately he regretted it, for she quickly marginalized him and began to remake the party into her own image.

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Marine Le Pen is 47-years-old, the twice-divorced mother of three whose current partner is a high official of the FN. She graduated from France's top law school, and briefly practiced as an attorney. She physically resembles her father, fair-haired and burly, and shares certain personality traits too: She is pugnacious, quick on her feet, with a taste for blood and a feel for the crowd. But unlike her ultra-traditional far-right father, Marine portrays herself as a modern woman. The slogan "France is for the French" remains, but she has dropped the anti-semitic barbs while retaining and refining the anti-immigrant (that is, anti-Muslim) message that remains at the center of the FN's appeal.

Equally important, she has adopted a populist economic agenda designed to attract working-class, lower-income voters and unemployed youth, who feel abandoned by the traditional parties, including the ruling socialists, who have done little to protect them from the ravages of globalization. She is positioned to attract votes from the right and left -- not very far from Trump's strategy.

And it appears to be working. Unlike the Donald, Marine is a professional politician in for the long term. Polls have shown that she would receive twice the number of votes as President Francois Hollande if the election were held today.

The most worrying cloud on Marine's horizon is another woman -- her young niece, Marion Marechal Le Pen, petite, glib and photogenic, a traditional Catholic of the far-right, who is being pushed by Jean-Marie Le Pen to exact revenge on his daughter Marine for having excluded him from his own party and "democratizing" its agenda.

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Does the Donald have a niece (or nephew) possibly waiting in the wings?

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
Anti-Muslim protestor gather across the street from a mosque in Richardson, Texas, Dec. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Where were they radicalized?

That's the question we should be asking.

An extremist group of white, presumably Christian men in Texas are training against a non-existent Islamic "uprising" by dipping their bullets in pig's blood and bacon grease to target Muslims. The fact that consumption of pork is forbidden in Islam is well-known.

The extremist group, based in Irving, refers to itself as "Bureau of American Islamic Relations" (BAIR), an obvious mockery of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which carries out crucial work to safeguard the constitutional rights of Muslims in the United States.

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Members of BAIR think that lining bullets with pig blood would ensure that their Muslim victims would "go straight to hell", according to a video released by AJ+. One BAIR member in the video stated, "A lot of us here are using either pig's blood or bacon grease on our bullets, packing it in the middle so that when you shoot a Muslim, they go straight to hell". Another member insisted, "Don't f*ck with white people."

David Wright, spokesperson for BAIR, said he was "going to start doing something about Muslims... now". That's code word for "I'm going to threaten Muslims with violence".

Clearly, members of BAIR are misinformed and uninformed. One member told AJ+, "the next step in jihad does not involve random, sporadic attacks... They start killing people".

Actually, no. That's not true.

I teach the course "Muslims in American Society" at Rice University in Houston, not too far from Irving, where BAIR is based. Our class, composed of Muslims and non-Muslims, looks carefully at the various dimensions of jihad. The students, I should add, get along perfectly fine despite coming largely from Christian and Muslim backgrounds.

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Jihad has many meanings. It's often misinterpreted to mean "holy war", obvious in the case of BAIR, but jihad really means "to struggle" or "to strive". A jihad might be waking up when your alarm goes off in the morning. A jihad might be putting up with an annoying relative on a holiday.

A jihad might be turning the other cheek when blatantly Islamophobic groups like BAIR openly calls for the murder of Muslims.

It's true there is an offensive or "violent" form of jihad, but it's for the purposes of self-defense. The Quran, the Islamic holy book, calls on Muslims to "jihad" against the use of violence. The Quran (5:32) states, "if anyone slew a person unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land it would be as if he slew the whole of humanity: and if anyone saved a life it would be as if he saved the life of the whole of humanity". In another Quranic passage (2:190), Muslims are told, "fight in the case of God those who start fighting you, but do not transgress limits (or start the attack); for God loveth not transgressors".

Members of BAIR live in a fantasy world where Muslims pose the greatest threat to "civilization". Nothing could be further from the truth. Since 9/11, white right-wing terrorists have killed almost twice as many Americans in homegrown attacks than "radical Islamists" have, according to research by the New America Foundation.

BAIR's perception is not reality. The data, as Loon Watch points out, simply does not support their irrational view that Muslims pose a threat to the United States. On the FBI's official website, there exists a chronological list of all terrorist attacks committed on American soil from the year 1980 all the way to 2005. According to this data, there were more Jewish acts of terrorism within the United States than Islamic (7% vs 6%).

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To put it simply, the threat of Muslim American terrorism is grossly exaggerated.

Funny, too, that members of BAIR consider themselves Christians. Remind me about the passage of the Bible where Jesus asks people to put pig blood on bullets to kill non-Christians. That's apparently what BAIR members think. That killing people ensures a seat next to Jesus in heaven.

Let me wrap this up by flipping things around. Imagine if CAIR called on Muslims to kill Christians. Imagine the uproar. Imagine the media coverage, the hysteria. Politicians in Washington, DC and elsewhere would head to the press to pose the question, "where were they [CAIR members] radicalized?"

Why aren't we asking the same question about BAIR?
Sometimes the best way to hide is in plain sight.

Criminals, outlaws and insurgents have long understood the power of blending in. It's the same tactic used by traffickers around the world who trade in ivory from elephants slaughtered by the thousands.

For decades, they've used the legal ivory trade - here in the United States and globally - to launder their blood ivory, fueling unimaginable carnage in Africa.

They've used unscrupulous and sometimes unwitting dealers to sell poached ivory, and relied on a trusting and unquestioning public to believe what they are buying is legal. Forging paperwork, cosmetically "aging" ivory to make it appear antique, and bribing officials to allow it to slip into the marketplace unchallenged. The fog that results from the ability to sell ivory legally has obscured the illegal trade and routinely hindered and complicated efforts by our law enforcement agents to crack down on ivory trafficking.

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That stops now.

Today, we're taking action to tighten controls on ivory in the United States, eliminating domestic commercial trade in African elephant ivory and products containing it, with very few exceptions.

It's a great step forward strongly supported by the public and conservation community that will help protect wild elephants now in danger of vanishing from Africa in our lifetime.

Desire to own ivory, whether as a status symbol, jewelry, gift, or even an investment, is decimating elephant populations.- In one recent three-year period, more than 100,000 African elephants were poached for their ivory.

The slaughter is orchestrated by increasingly sophisticated criminal organizations and insurgent groups that, over the past decade, have murdered hundreds of game wardens and other local leaders - threatening security and stability in an enormous swath of Africa.

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Our ongoing investigations show that many seemingly legitimate businesses engage in illegal ivory trade. For example, Service Special Agents and state officers seized more than $2 million worth of illegal elephant ivory from two New York City retail stores in 2012. And we've made arrests in many other U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Miami and Los Angeles.

These arrests - which represent only the tip of the tusk when it comes to ivory trafficking - make it clear that the United States is not an innocent bystander--our citizens, our infrastructure and our commerce are intimately involved.

In 2013 and again last year in New York's Times Square, we crushed the United States' stockpile of seized illegal ivory to draw global attention to the elephants' plight - and to remind Americans that our nation remains one of the world's largest markets for ivory - both legal and illegal.

Given the unparalleled and escalating threats to African elephants, a near-complete ban on commercial trade in elephant ivory is the best way to ensure U.S. domestic markets do not contribute to the decline of this species in the wild.

These changes will make it easier for us to arrest and prosecute criminals who seek to profit from the pain and suffering of elephants and local communities in Africa.

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We recognize, however, that legitimate concerns have been raised by professional musicians, antique dealers and collectors, and museum curators, among others. They noted that a sweeping ban could hamper their ability to travel with, and trade in items that contain ivory but don't contribute to the current crisis, such as antiques, musical instruments or firearms.

We listened carefully to those concerns and developed a rule that allows commonsense exceptions for trade in antique ivory items that meet very specific criteria, and certain manufactured items such as musical instruments, furniture pieces, and firearms that contain less than 200 grams of African elephant ivory and where ivory is not the primary material or source of value of the item.

We've struck an appropriate balance that will dramatically improve our ability to catch and prosecute criminals, while allowing commercial activity in items that are not causes of poaching to continue.

Unless the United States steps up and leads, organized poaching and trafficking operations will continue to threaten elephant populations and the security and stability African elephant range countries.

These changes are an important part of exercising that leadership - and we're far from finished.

Right now, we're working with law enforcement agencies across the globe to target poachers and traffickers.

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We've posted law enforcement attaches in countries such as Peru, Botswana, Tanzania, Thailand and China to work with host country and regional law enforcement partners to strengthen their ability to close trafficking routes and make arrests.

We're providing training, and financial and technical support to range countries, helping to build their capacity to protect and conserve elephants at greatest risk.

And perhaps most important, we're working globally with our partners to reduce demand for ivory. The near-total ban on ivory trade in the United States puts us in a position of strength to urge China, Thailand and other major ivory consumers to stand with us and take similar decisive action.
In a strongly-worded open letter drafted by the well-respected Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), a number of U.S. human rights and civil society groups as well as concerned individuals, myself included, have urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to desist from its current plans to interfere in Venezuela's political process and to instead allow the government and opposition to resolve their differences through their ongoing peaceful mediation process.

This letter is in response to the OAS's call earlier this week for an emergency meeting to consider whether Venezuela should be kicked out of the OAS. In calling for this meeting, the Secretary-General of the OAS, Luis Leonardo Almagro Lemes, said that he "considers that the institutional crisis in Venezuela demands immediate changes to the Executive power." One interpretation of such an aggressive missive is that Almagro believes that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was democratically elected three years ago, should be removed from office. And indeed, the open letter to Almagro chides him for misusing the OAS Charter "on purely partisan grounds to favor the Venezuelan opposition and aid in its attempts to oust the Maduro government."

A little background on the OAS and its sordid history is in order here. For decades, the OAS has been accused, quite rightly, of being a tool for U.S. intervention in Latin America. In this excerpt from a three-part piece on the OAS in Cuba's Granma newspaper, the OAS is condemned, in quite colorful terms as

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[t]he organization that backed the 1952 coup d'etat [of General Batista] in Cuba; that was so inert in the face of the military action against the constitutionally-elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala; that backed the satrap [Nicaraguan dictator] Anastasio Somoza, and in 1961 failed to condemn the mercenary [Bay of Pigs] invasion of Cuba, just as it avoided any criticism of the coup d'etat against Velazco Ibarra, the elected president of Ecuador, remained the same as the one that had indulgently sponsored the military invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965, the shipment of Green Berets and weapons to Guatemala in 1966, and to Bolivia in 1967, while it applauded the graduation of hundreds of torturers and repressors from the Panama Canal School of the Americas. It contemplated U.S. government-sponsored coups in Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. It was silent in the face of the death of Salvador Allende, in the face of the murder and forced disappearance of tens of thousands of South Americans during the sinister Operation Condor. It failed to promote peace in Central America during the 1980s, in a conflict that cost nearly 100,000 human lives. It did not back any investigation into the suspicious death of General Torrijos in Panama, nor did its ambassadors stop drinking their coffee during the inglorious invasions of Grenada in 1983, and of Panama itself in 1989.

And, quite apropos to the current issue involving Venezuela, this same piece notes that the OAS remained silent for the duration of the short-lived coup against democratically-elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2002. And, it did so for the same reason that it is now calling for President Maduro to be removed: because it is siding, as it has always done, with the U.S.'s campaign against left-leaning governments of Latin America.

As the COHA letter to the OAS Secretary General explains, the OAS has been engaged in a long-term effort to undermine the Venezuelan government by its "strong support" of the efforts of MUD, the aptly-named opposition group, "to pressure the OAS into invoking the Inter-American Democratic Charter against the Maduro government; your attempts to cast doubt on the democratic legitimacy of last December's legislative elections during the weeks preceding the vote; your intense lobbying in favor of the highly controversial amnesty bill; the selective nature of your expressions of indignation over violation of human rights; and your failure to denounce Washington's increasingly belligerent posture towards Caracas."

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In terms of the OAS's attempt to cast doubt on December's legislative elections, even before they took place, it must be noted that the opposition handily won these elections, and the Maduro government quickly accepted their results, thereby showing that the OAS's feigned concerns were misplaced. And, in terms of the OAS's selective indignation over human rights, it should be noted that the OAS has remained silent as the corrupt right-wing of Brazil maneuvers to impeach President Dilma Rousseff in order to avoid being prosecuted for their own crimes; and the OAS has not seen fit to raise concerns about the mass graves of Mexico or Colombia's paramilitary reign of terror. For more on the OAS's selective indignation, check out this great piece by Telesur.
Well, don't this just beat all: The third season of FX's Fargo may attack the very way of life on which the movie and the hit TV series have been based.

Noah Hawley, the writer who did the near-impossible and turned Joel and Ethan Coen's weirdly wonderful 1996 movie into two different yet equally compelling TV seasons, says that next time around, "There may be a threat to Minnesota Nice itself."

Someone please notify Garrison Keillor.

The third Fargo season is scheduled for early 2017 on FX, and the first sketchy details have just been released.

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Ewan McGregor will star and co-star, playing the dual role of two brothers, Emmit and Ray Stussy.

Emmit is the Parking Lot King of Minnesota, a man who is above average in all things. Ray is an embittered parole officer, resentful of Emmit and naturally blaming him for all of Ray's disappointments.

"You want to start by setting up a situation that intrigues viewers," says Hawley. "In the first season, it was two men meeting by chance, Lester Nygaard obviously decent and Lorne Malvo obviously not. In the second season, it was a woman driving home with someone stuck through her windshield.

"You want it to make people wonder what could happen next."

Those who never saw where that windshield led Peggy Blumquist (Kirsten Dunst) (above), or would like to savor it again, can binge-watch all 10 episodes of season two on Saturday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. ET/PT.

The third season will unfold closer to the present than the first two, and Hawley says that could play a key role in where the story goes and how it affects the strange and stylized yet familiar world where Fargo stories transpire.

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"It's all set in a region that Ethan and Joel Coen call 'Siberia with family restaurants'," says Hawley. "There's a cruelty to the terrain that created what we know as Minnesota Nice. It's a culture where everyone is polite and seems to get along. But you never talk about your feelings because they're private. You never ask about anyone else's feelings because that would be rude.

"Today in our larger culture, people photograph their food and talk constantly about everything. So we may find out this season what happens to the real sense of this community when that wider culture comes into it.

"There's a lot of violence and threat in Fargo. This season that threat may be to Minnesota Nice itself."

Thrilled as FX has been with Fargo, Hawley says he's still taking it on a season-to-season basis and the network understands.

"The bar for Fargo is so high that if I don't think we can clear it, I wouldn't do it," he says. "With most networks, when they have a hit show, they want it to run forever. But if I said to [FX President] John Landgraf that I want to leave it where it is, I think he'd be disappointed and would accept it."

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The casual observer might wonder if Hawley's biggest challenge with Fargo is finding the time to do it. He had a novel published this week, "Before the Fall," and it looks to be one of the summer's hottest sellers. Next he'll write the movie screenplay.

He will also be directing the upcoming film Man Alive and he has a multi-project deal with FX that includes the Marvel-based series Legion and a limited-series adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle."

He allows that this multitasking may have been a factor in scheduling the third Fargo for 2017 rather than trying to push it for 2016. But he also says the singular nature of each season means that it benefits from incubation time.

"One thing TV writing teaches you is that you can't wait for the muse," he says. "But Fargo has to have the right idea, with room for strong characters and enough points to develop.

"Then they can all fit into the bigger issues that Fargo can also be about, like the death of the family business and the rise of corporate America."

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The show is obviously touching some chords, since it has received more than a hundred major awards nominations for its first two seasons. Among other things, that's not a bad selling point when Fargo does most of the rest of its season three casting around the end of the summer.

Hawley says that's still largely an "instinctive" process, like pulling Jeffrey Donovan (above) from the breezy USA series Burn Notice to play the nasty Dodd Gerhart in season two.

In any case, Hawley says it's easier now to get the actors he wants. "Yes," he says. "Short answer, yes."

What remains tricky is satisfying fans, finding the right way to wrap up stories for multiple characters with whom the audience has felt an intense connection.

"We want the endings to be unpredictable, but, when you think about them, inevitable," he says. "We also don't want to work everything out too neatly, because we want a real-life feel and that's how real life works.

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"You don't just want to kill every bad guy. The idea that [ambitious mobster] Mike Milligan [Bokeem Woodbine] ends up with a desk job is, for him, a fate worse than death.

"It's a tightrope. Tragedy with a happy ending."

Hawley is clearly enjoying life as the creator and overseer of those endings, though he also cautions that while he may be a hot ticket at the moment, he's not omnipotent.

Asked about the scene toward the end of Fargo's second season in which a spaceship seems to cast a blinding light over the characters in the midst of a lethal shootout, Hawley shrugs.
What we need and what we want are very different things. Our needs and wants often drive our decisions in opposite directions. I may want a swanky office, but I don't need it. For the entrepreneur navigating the startup, or anybody navigating life, being clear about what you need should come first. When dealing with the trade offs that inevitably arise in a growing business, the better we understand our needs the less confused we will be about our decisions.

When I tell people I run a social enterprise with the actor Hugh Jackman and that we support fair trade and organic coffee farmers in the developing world, I am often met with heartfelt expressions of solidarity.

"What a great thing to do!" people say. "I ALWAYS buy fair trade coffee."

Given the enthusiasm and celebrity involvement, you'd think a high volume of sales for worthy, charitable products would be easy to achieve. Unfortunately, there is often a disparity between what consumers say they want and their final purchasing decision. Those of us involved in running social enterprises are familiar with the mixed messages of well-intentioned consumers. Studies show consumers will choose a socially responsible brand assuming the quality is the same as their current brand. While such studies are reassuring, the are not always reflected in your actual sales numbers. Disappointing sales can shatter genuinely idealistic entrepreneurs who assume substantial risk betting on enlightened consumers.

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I've come to learn that the complexity consumer choice forces difficult choices on the social entrepreneur. We balance short-term and long-term concerns when shopping. Sometimes we can't afford the sustainable product option. We also do not turn off our own subjective preferences when we wander into the organic aisle. Basic consumer behavior can work for social entrepreneurs and against them. Many consumers, for example, bought our coffee because of Hugh's involvement and not because the product was fair trade. However, they continue to purchase the coffee because the product is excellent. Without meeting the expectation of quality, the social or celebrity aspect has limited appeal.

Every enterprise juggles trade offs. Social enterprises juggle trade offs under heightened scrutiny by owners, stakeholders and consumers. Should a social enterprise embrace a somewhat less sustainable model in order to immediately help farmers out of poverty, or should the organization remain focused on the long term? Poor farmers are anxious about their family's wellbeing and will often advocate for faster growth. Consumers who often don't, and can't be expected, to understand the reason for trade off's will push back against "compromises." Social businesses need to scale, and scaling often requires working with partners. What do you when you are a true pioneer and choices are limited to partners with different values?

Social Impact

Over many years, Hugh and I have both traveled to Ethiopia to meet with coffee farmers. Sustainability, deforestation, energy, and coffee production are closely interrelated. Clearing land for firewood ultimately erodes farmland and destroys coffee yields in the long term. Solving the energy question by finding an alternative power source was essential to ending a downward economic and environmental spiral for small farmers. Though burning livestock manure to generate clean methane initially seemed to solve the fuel problem, the practicality of implementing and maintaining complex methane digester systems in isolated rural areas proved problematic. Now highly efficient wood stoves are favored as a transitional technology. The pivot from radical to incremental change appears to be the right trade off in Ethiopia, for now.

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Distribution

On the distribution side, packaging and shipping challenges have forced other trade offs. Achieving broad distribution will help coffee farmers advance sustainable practices, but in many cases farmers cannot reach mass markets through existing channels. In many respects, consumerism and sustainability don't mix at this point. While certain options are improving, like recyclable k-cups, there is still much creative work to be done.

Consumerism and social responsibility are in the process of finding alignment and we have a long way to go, but I remain very optimistic. We need to meet the consumers where they are, educate them in ways they will be receptive to, and demonstrate that choosing wisely does not require dramatic change on their part.
Lust for exotic spices, opulent textiles and precious metals spurred the world's first trade routes and "international trade shows" via arcades and souks in ancient Greece, Rome and the Middle East. They were made possible by vital waterways, such as the Nile and Euphrates; hardscrabble land pathways such as the Incense Route and Silk Road; and the humble, hardworking camel.

Today, the centuries-old global-goods trade still exists, but it relies on instantaneous "global flows...of digital data rather than physical trade routes and slow-moving transport," says Digital globalization: The new era of global flows, a report from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). These "global flows [of digital data] make it possible for companies to reach international markets with less capital-intensive business models," notes the report.

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This flies in the face of conventional wisdom that says globalization has stalled thanks to unusual international trade patterns. This is the fifth year of lackluster growth, making this the worst period since the 1970s, says the Financial Times.

"The value of world trade in current dollar terms last year fell by 13% to $16.5 trillion from $19 trillion in 2014," notes the World Trade Organization.

In part, this is explained by creeping protectionism, a slowing Chinese economy, rising European imports and other factors. Yet in the same Financial Times article, WTO Chief Economist Robert Koopman predicts global trade will start to "grow again at its long-term average of 1.5 times global GDP" thanks to structural changes. World Bank and the International Monetary Fund economists agree structural shifts are necessary and will spur growth.

Global Digital Data Flows Spur a Revolution in World Trade

MGI has it right: The new revolution in world trade is due to global digital data flows enabled by the internet. These data flows did not exist 15 years ago, and besides transmitting valuable streams of information and ideas, they "enable the movement of goods, services, finance and people," says MGI.

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These digital data flows will also have a greater impact on GDP growth than any other trade model in history.

"The amount of cross-border bandwidth used has grown 45 times larger since 2005. It will increase nine times over the next five years as flows of information, searches, communication, video, transactions and intra-company traffic continue to surge," estimates MGI.

And "virtually every type of cross-border transaction now has a digital component," notes MGI.

Thanks to digital technology, thousands of small and mid-sized enterprises are turning themselves into exporters and joining marketplaces such as Alibaba, Taobao, Tmall, eBay, Amazon.com and Flipkart. Even the smallest firms can compete with the big multinationals thanks to digital flow: 86% of tech-based startups have some type of cross-border activity, according to MGI.

In short, the internet is becoming the old trading station, where buyers and sellers come together on demand. It fuels the second trading station, the trade show, which has shown steady growth and is going global. U.S., China and Germany are the top three exhibition markets in the world. Eighteen percent of U.S. companies attend foreign trade shows to gain sales and to gain business exposure. The U.S. Commerce Department has created an international buyers program where the agency partners with industry to bring international buyers to U.S. trade shows.

Today's Trade Shows Offer an Unprecedented Opportunity to Increase Sales

It is not surprising the U.S. government has focused on trade shows as the "trading station." According to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research, attendees are decision makers, and a company needs to be well prepared given the competitive nature of the shows:

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83% of attendees have some kind of buying power

85% of decision makers say attending trade shows saves their companies time and money by bringing vendors together under one roof

79% of attendees say attending shows helps them decide what products to buy

91% of attendees say trade shows impact their buying decisions, because the competition is in one place, allowing for comparison shopping in real time

Most foreign companies are not making the most of international trade shows, as shown by the McKinsey Connectedness Index, which ranks 139 countries on the inflows and outflows of goods, services, finance, people and data. There is a huge gap in connectedness between the leaders--Singapore, the Netherlands, the U.S. and Germany--and the rest of the world. This helps explain why many foreign companies go to shows poorly prepared, forgetting the importance of cultural and language differences.

Americans have a highly connected economy. For companies hoping to do business in the U.S., their connectivity matters and strongly relates to how they present themselves and their ultimate success at trade shows.

9 Steps to Maximize Trade Show ROI by Building a Digital Presence

And first and foremost, a digital presence is a must in the U.S. It requires these steps:

Building a digital presence through PR, in advance of, during and following a trade show; Digitally inviting a target list of buyers prior to a show; Having a mobile friendly website that has scheduling capabilities and comprehensive product information; Scheduling booth meetings before a show; Having a social media presence; Securing on-site media interviews; Selecting the best trade shows and attending more than one; Adding video with testimonials and marketing it strategically as the U.S. is a visual society; and FOLLOWING UP--do not let potential customers forget you.

It pays to work with a U.S.-based team to avoid potential day-to-day pitfalls, such as booth transportation, hidden exhibit costs, added display charges and poor locations. Costs and logistics make it clear why trade shows are the No. 1 investment for B2B participants in the U.S.

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For foreign companies, on-the-ground local assistance can craft a winning market entry strategy worthy of their largest U.S. competitors. But even U.S. companies can benefit from working with teams to improve trade show ROI. After all, trade shows are the No. 1 marketing budget investment in North America, according to Forrester Research.
What nickname would fit Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump?

Certainly he has not been shy about naming his rivals: "Lyin' Ted", "Little Marco", "Heartless Hillary", "Crazy Bernie", etc...

Crude but effective, nicknames stick, as any kid who has had one can verify.

And in today's world of Tweets, where the entire message is only a handful of words, naming one's rival can frame the debate.

So why don't Trump's opponents just nickname him back?

That is not as easy as it seems. Nicknames have to be succinct.

For example, Trump gets flustered when confronted by strong women: like Elizabeth Warren, Megyn Kelly, Rosie O'Donnell, Carly Fiorina, and of course Hillary Clinton, all of whom reduce him to his worst. When challenged, he splutters and fumes and repeats himself. Later on, he will make up some rude words for them, relating to their size, appearance, even their bodily functions--when the objects of his derision are not there to defend themselves.

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Am I wrong? Think back to his most famous insults to women: about Megan Kelly's menstrual cycle, Carly Fiorina's face, Rosie O'Donnell's shape, Elizabeth Warren's native American roots, even the sound of Hillary's voice, which he calls "screaming". (Perhaps he wants her to talk softly, so his own squawks can dominate.) Were any of those women in the room with him, when he talked his scripted trash about them?

Hardly an attractive quality-- but how could it be fit into a nickname?

Gender-threatened Trump? Misogynistic Donald? Neither has the right ring.

Big words don't do it.

If only we could borrow Trump's insult expertise... Imagine the nicknames he could dream up, if challenged by someone like himself!

For instance, what about that obsession with his hands? Do they seem unmanly to him? Are they small and soft, having never been calloused by manual labor?

He appears embarrassed by them, to the point where he waved and displayed them on TV--as well as making a not-too-veiled reference to the size of his penis.

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Lady-fingers Trump?

How about far more important characteristics, like honesty-- can we trust what he says?

He makes commitments casually, but is not so eager to fulfill them: note his promise to debate Bernie Sanders ("turns out Trump was not serious about the promise he made")--

--or to reveal his tax records.

At the Washington Post's fact-checking site, political statements are judged for accuracy. The Post has itemized many of Trump's statements as deserving "four Pinocchios" (their lowest rating), including:

"...(Trump's) claim that the Mexican government is sending criminals and rapists to the United States (when) a range of studies shows there is no evidence immigrants commit more crimes than native-born Americans..."

Truth-challenged Trump? Promise Procrastinator? Or maybe what the late William F. Buckley said of someone else: "He is a man of his most recent word."

While criticizing war hero John McCain, (shot down over Viet Nam, McCain suffered two broken arms and a leg, endured torture in the notorious "Tiger Cages", refusing to be rescued until his men could be freed with him) Trump showed no interest in military service himself, avoiding the draft by a series of student deferments. He also claimed medical unfitness because of "bone spurs" in one or the other of his feet. Challenged on the issue, he at first claimed he "could not remember which foot it was", then later stated it was both of them.

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Draft-dodger Trump?

Born into one of the wealthiest families in America, Trump claims the only advantage of being born rich was that his father once gave him a "small loan" of a million dollars. He seems to think it unimportant that he also inherited $40 million, was sent to the best schools, lived surrounded by servants most of his life, and was even allowed to take over a business empire-- built by his hard-working father.

Silver-spoon Donald?

And the cruelties he recommends for immigrants, in a country built and enriched by them?

Trump wants to evict ten million Mexicans, people who might lack documentation papers now, but whose country used to own nearly half of America-- California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.

Mexicans in our land deserve a pathway to citizenship--as Trump's own mother earned her way, after migrating from Scotland in 1930. Just 18 years old, Mary Anne MacLeod arrived in America full of boundless courage, and just $50 in her pocket. Unlike the oft-repeated story that she merely overstayed a holiday, she was in fact an economic migrant. Searching for a better life, she worked four years as a domestic servant, before meeting and marrying Fred Trump. Naturalized as a citizen in 1942, 12 years after she arrived, Mary Anne Trump's heart was kind; she became a major philanthropist--but Donald?

Not only does he intend to wall off Mexican migrants, but Trump even "suggests" prohibiting the entry of Muslims: banning the members of a religion practiced by nearly a quarter of the population of the world.

What attribute depicts such heartless exclusion?

My Hispanic-American wife Gloria has a one-word suggestion:

"Evil".

In the end, perhaps, the names we carry longest are the ones we earn ourselves, by the actions of our lives.

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Remember the classic Western THE PROFESSIONALS?

At the end of the movie, wealthy villain Ralph Bellamy shouts at hero Lee Marvin:

"You... you bastard!"

To which Lee Marvin replies:
Moments after Hawking made the remark, Google reported a sharp increase in searches for the terms "demagogue," "denominator," and "Stephen Hawking."

"For a so-called genius, this was an epic fail," Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said. "If Professor Hawking wants to do some damage, maybe he should try talking in English next time."
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The controversial Zanu PF youth member Energy Mutodi has challenged Zanu PF government to tolerate dissent as the party is suspected to be having a hand in the disappearance of a journalist cum democracy activist Itai Dzamara.In his post Mutodi said pictures showing an image suspected to be the abducted MDC activist and journalist Itai Dzamara have made sad reading to most Zimbabweans.Dzamara went missing on March 9 2015 and has not been found since then."When the journalist went missing, we all suspected it was a hoax by the MDC party to cause mayhem in the country and to precipitate an Arab-spring type of an uprising against the government of President Mugabe," Mutodi said."After being advised by a fellow party activist Fidelis Fengu, I wrote a story here on my Facebook page that was publicized by the media to the effect that Itai was hiding in Botswana."Mutodi said Professor Jonathan Moyo also issued a statement saying that Itai had skipped the border to Mozambique adding that Zimbabwean borders were porous and that government could not be held accountable for missing persons."However, a few months later, I received further information that disproved the earlier report I had got from Fengu. I shared that information with the police and with Dr Patson Dzamara," he said."I could not share that information with the public as it became and remains under police investigation. Images are disturbing and personally I wish Itai a safe return from wherever he is. I also regret my post on March 14 as it later came to my realization that it was a creation of one of our fellow activists Fidelis who desperately wanted to save the government from international condemnation following the abduction by suspected state security agents."Mutodi said Zimbabweans are suffering and it is evil to abduct, incarcerate or ill treat anyone simply for demanding his rights and good governance."As young Zimbabweans, we believe that no drop of blood needs to shed for political reasons as what has happened in the past. Government needs to tolerate dissent and divergent views," he said.
I am one of those people who watch television news obsessively to witness how truth is erased, twisted, spun, and replaced by paid-for news stories delivered by well-coiffed men and women who appear to simply be innocently "reading the news".

(By the way, is it necessary to smile while presenting clips of global bloodbaths and reporting weather catastrophes? Just wondering).

I am hooked on watching people lie in the public media where millions of people tune in for their daily "news".

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The Trump and Clinton tours are similarly dispiriting. Clinton and Trump are in solid company with bending truths and reaching away from the real to grab the popular. They are so brazen in their desperate messaging that it is an irresistible showcase to easily view where we are in this country.

Note the now normalized use of the term, "misspoke", as another way of saying, "I lied". Listen for it.

The practice of watching corporate-sponsored, well-paid news network liars lie, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call in the psychology biz, "masochistic".

By that I mean I am consistently alarmed, outraged, even extremely disheartened. And yet I persist.

What am I hoping to see?

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What I am not hoping to see is a massive replayed film clip of someone picking up a chair at a campaign event and having the story told that chairs were "thrown".

This is exactly what the news this week has centered on.

Presumably, these "chair throwers" were Bernie Sanders acolytes at a Trump rally.

Doesn't matter at all that every true witness on the ground that evening never saw a thrown chair.

News reporters from all networks, including cable channels left and right, appeared at the venue to tell the chair-throwing lie, while live footage of angry, loud protesters conveniently was used as evidence of the false allegation. There's nothing like anger to promote the illusion of violence. Point scored for the "home" team.

While serving as the current example of a naked media lie, what a grand opportunity to promote the protester as violent and insane.

Of course, there are insane and violent people in any group. Protesting, however, is not synonymous with violence, and is not an insane activity. Protesting is actually the essence of sanity in an insane world. There is not nearly enough thoughtful protest in this country.

Protesting is our freedom.

Brilliant public relations to smear the act of protest and protesters, but brilliant on behalf of what? For whom does this demonizing of the protester serve?

Surely, the protesting of false information is a terrible threat to those who peddle it.

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It is outrageous to have to accept that our country's biggest media today, both print and televised, presents biased fictional news about world events and our lives, along with celebrity "breaking news" stories considered to be news, and that this whole mess is taking the place of what once was called, "journalism"!

Many Americans don't have a clue that there could be real news somewhere, or that it's not being delivered. Those who are aware are too overwhelmed to dwell upon it, and are resigned to "the way it is".

There are many of us in this latter camp. We talk amongst ourselves about the media lies du jour, a shared, fundamental sigh infusing our sad words.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating: America is a depressed nation. Is it any wonder that Americans are individually so depressed?

The worst truth is that we are in such a depth of depressed anger and denial that many will regard this essay as "negative".

We are so overwhelmed and flummoxed by the swift overtaking of public truth that we fail to feel, let alone protest.

Psychology explains the danger in avoiding unattractive truth.

The reason psychotherapy has a prayer of being successful is that unless you identify and acknowledge the existence of a problem, there is zero possibility to change it.

So we are asleep and America is depressed. If you don't believe me, look around. Look up from your life-replacing hand-held device. Look into the empty eyes of people all around you.

Voila. It's not pretty, but it has been achieved to the point where "news" and other dangerously false promotions are not questioned by many people.

We are too exaggeratedly engaged by computer living.

As a strategy for distracting people, how utterly brilliant and successful.

I'm not talking conspiracy. I'm talking money, power, politics.

And if we become considered violent crazies because we protest, all the better.

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"Children should be seen and not heard" was a familiar refrain in the ice ages of my childhood.

The American people are the new "children" in this age.

Seen and not heard.

"Protester" is the new dirty word.

Nobody threw a chair this week.
Dr. Jonathan Horey is chief medical officer of Sunspire Health, a national leader in the treatment of addiction. www.SunspireHealth.com

Imagine this scenario: your 14-year-old daughter is visiting a friend when you get a hysterical, garbled call. You race to the friend's house to find your daughter wandering down the street, raving about God. When you ask if she's taken any drugs, you can't get a straight answer. She is confused, dazed, and paranoid. Your beautiful young teenager has metamorphosed into a psychotic mess.

When you take her to the emergency room, you learn she has likely taken "bath salts," a kind of synthetic drug with mood-altering and stimulant properties. Fortunately, she suffers no lasting effects except for the appropriate limitations on her activities that you will discuss with her (more on that later). Other young people are not so lucky. Bath salts and other synthetic -- or "designer" -- drugs can have serious health effects including nausea, seizures, agitation, high blood pressure, heart attacks and drug-induced psychosis -- even death.

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If you think something similar couldn't happen to you, that your family is somehow protected -- by living in a nice neighborhood, by close family relationships, by strong religious values or even by your child's innate intelligence or allotment of common sense -- you would be wrong. Simply by possessing an adolescent brain, your child is vulnerable to a dangerous mix of characteristics that can lead to experimentation with drugs, including curiosity, impulsiveness, risk-taking behavior, resistance to authority, a sense of invulnerability and a need for peer approval.

The adolescent brain has been compared to a car with the dangerous combination of a powerful gas pedal and faulty brakes. This is because adolescent brains mature asymmetrically. That is, the parts of the brain that register and reinforce emotions mature first (the gas pedal) while the parts that regulate decision making (the brakes) do not fully mature until their mid-20s. Thus, teenage brains are wired to seek out pleasurable experiences without the ability to fully weigh the risks of these experiences. It is important to note here that there is nothing "wrong" with adolescent brains. They are wired exactly how they need to be for this stage of life. Adolescents need to be willing to take risks, seek independence and explore their environment to figure out how they will live the rest of their adult lives. However, like most things in nature, brain development is not a perfect evolutionary solution.

Synthetic drugs are manmade drugs (as opposed to those formulated from natural ingredients, such as heroin), designed to mimic the stimulant, depressant and/or hallucinogenic effects of illegal drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and LSD. They are altered in order to avoid being classified as illegal. Some, such as "bath salts," "potpourri," "herbal incense," "plant food" or "jewelry cleaner," are marked as "not for human consumption" and labeled with common household names to disguise their true nature. Others are sold as "safe," "legal" or "natural" highs. They are marketed with packaging and names such as Black Mamba, Flakka, K2, Kush, N-Bomb, Salvia and Spice, designed to appeal to teenagers. They are cheaper than illegal drugs and easier to obtain -- online or at head shops, gas stations and tobacconists. Most of these drugs are manufactured overseas -- many in China -- and then shipped illegally to the United States.

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They are a serious public health threat. In order to circumvent existing drug laws -- as well as evade urine testing that would identify them -- unscrupulous manufacturers are constantly creating new formulas, which means no one knows what these drugs consist of, what the health effects are or what dosages are dangerous. Health authorities can, however, keep track of their impact on public health by monitoring emergency room admissions and deaths. The National Institute on Drug Abuse's National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), for instance, reports on trends and emerging patterns of abuse. Some of the alarming reports currently posted on its website include:

In the span of two weeks in April of last year, more than 160 patients were hospitalized following synthetic marijuana use -- in New York alone.

Last year, 19 people died from a synthetic hallucinogen called N-bomb, Legal Acid, Smiles or 25I. This drug can cause seizures, heart attacks, arrested breathing and death, even in extremely small amounts.

Florida and other parts of the country have experienced a surge in the the use of a synthetic stimulant known as Flakka, which causes hyper-stimulation, paranoia and hallucinations that can lead to violent aggression and self injury.

So what can be done to help adolescents resist experimentation with drugs? The short answer is: get involved. Take an interest in your adolescent's interests, know who their friends are and what they do together, and be aware of what they are doing on social media. This is not helicopter parenting, it is simply involved parenting. Your adolescent may protest at times, but some amount of protest is a good sign. Adolescents are supposed to resist boundaries as they strive for independence, but that does not mean that they don't need and want them, even if they won't admit it. If you have qualms, remember that teenagers are more vulnerable to behaviors leading to permanent injury or death than any other age group. When adolescents feel supported by reasonable boundaries, they will feel free to turn to adults for help and advice. Their needs for sensation seeking, peer involvement and novelty can be channeled into activities they are interested in and can safely participate in on their own.

If your child does develop any kind of addictive disorder, please seek out professional help. These illnesses are treatable and intervention at a young age can prevent an early death or a lifetime of suffering. Above all, don't think your child is immune. Awareness is crucial. As a county prosecutor said in an interview about synthetic drugs on NBC's Dateline: "Good kids do drugs and die."

For more information, visit www.SunspireHealth.com.



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If "a picture is worth a thousand words" then please, allow me this view:

In the juxtaposition of pictures, observe the one on the left, what do you see? At first glance, you will probably come away with an impression--one that will vary tremendously based on your social learning. But "isms" aside, the consensus would probably be a young couple, of color, and their ultra adorable little girl (that's KJ by the way).

Now observe the second picture, you see the same couple with KJ, they are older, she is graduating --from Amherst. Her degree is in Political Science and French. She will work at a lucky law firm before choosing a law school at a future date. She has lived in France, and has traveled more than most people at the tender age of 21.

KJ is by all accounts an exceptional child --as a parent, I know I am somewhat biased in my praise, but believe me, she is! Allow me to take you once again to the pictures.

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Observe again the one on the left; it was taken in Greene County in the summer of 1996. Greene is some three hours upstate from New York City. It's most beautiful in the spring and fall where the panoramic mountain ranges serve as nature's muse.

However, the pretty forest backdrop you see in the picture? Well, that's just an illusion --placed there to intentionally mask the inhumanity of the situation.

The picture on the left was taken in the Greene Correctional Facility visiting room. If you look again closely, you will notice my standard (and mandatory) state green pants. So as you can now imagine, my relationship with KJ for the first nine years of her life was anything but normal!

I was 19 years old, trapped on Rikers Island, without bail, facing life in prison when KJ came into the world. It's been almost 22 years, but I remember that day like it was yesterday. It was July 20, 1994, a Wednesday. Heather was due any moment, so that morning, when I called and called, but was unable to reach her, I suspected it was time.

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I made Heather a promise when I first learned she was pregnant -- it was thanksgiving night, 1993. We stood in the cold parking lot in front of her building in Coney Island to save me from the inquisition of her mother. I looked her in the eye and promised I would be there for our baby. I made many promises that night, but most I would not keep.

KJ came into the world at literally my darkest-moment--I felt isolated, trapped, depressed, I wasn't far from giving up, but something changed when I met her for the first time in that Rikers Island visiting room. I knew from that moment I would fight! Her birth reignited my faith, my belief that things would work out.

But they didn't, at least not right away. I had her picture in my bible when the judge looked at me, seemingly for the first time, then declared (in all sincerity) that he was doing me a favor by sentencing me to only 7 years to Life in prison as a first time, non-violent, drug offender .

This man, never once questioned the circumstances that lead to my arrest, or even seek to understand how incarceration would impact my family--especially KJ, who wasn't even yet one month old at the time of my sentencing.

I would miss 9 years of birthdays, and milestones too numerous to capture with mere words. Much of our relationship was cultivated through prison visiting rooms and collect calls. But it wasn't all hell. Heather, a true warrior, was determined that KJ had access to her father no matter the circumstance:

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So from Coxsackie to Attica, and any other prison in New York State for that matter, Heather was there. Sometimes spending her entire weekend traveling just so that KJ and I would have a relationship. Sending picture after picture, letter after letter over 9 years. She was the glue! She embodied love, and thus gave me an opportunity to be a father to my daughter even while incarcerated.

Today, when I look at her graduation pictures, I feel a lot of emotions. First, I feel immense pride at the resiliency, strength, courage, and beauty that KJ has manifested into the world; I also feel eternally grateful to the tribe of family, friends, and schoolteachers etc. who have helped to raise my daughter. But I also feel saddened!

Millions of children report having a parent incarcerated. More black men (aka fathers) are incarcerated today than were enslaved in 1850. Women (aka mothers) are the fastest growing prison population. Most of the research tells us that children impacted by parental incarceration, will have tattered lives with a significant likelihood of future incarceration--but this doesn't have to be so!

KJ doesn't have to be the exception. Even in the face of a system as destructive as mass incarceration, we have a formula --its "love"...not in theory, but in praxis.

It's the same formula Baldwin gave to his nephew James, and implored him to pass to his children, and their children's children.

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It's the same one our ancestors used to survive the "door-of-no-return", the transatlantic journey, and countless centuries of unspeakable suffering.

And it's the same one that we will utilize today, and everyday forward to unify our families in this fight for our collective humanity!
This year on World No Tobacco Day, held on 31 May, WHO called on governments to get ready for plain packaging of tobacco products.

Strip back the glamour and glossy packaging that contain tobacco products, and what is left? A product that kills almost 6 million people every year.

Tobacco packaging is a form of advertising and promotion that often misleads consumers and serves to hide the deadly reality of tobacco use.

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Now, the World Health Organization (WHO) is drawing attention to the role of plain packaging of tobacco products as part of a comprehensive approach to tobacco control, including comprehensive bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship and graphic health warnings. We do this for a very good reason: plain packaging works.

New evidence from Australia, the first country to fully implement plain packaging, shows that changes to tobacco packaging there led to over 100,000 fewer smokers in Australia in the first 34 months since implementation in 2012.

The evidence tells us that plain packaging reduces the attractiveness of tobacco products. It restricts tobacco advertising and promotion. It limits misleading packaging and labelling. And it increases the effectiveness of health warnings.

The evidence explains why plain packaging was included in guidelines to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

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It also explains why governments, like those in Australia, France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, have passed plain packaging laws. Norway, New Zealand and Canada announced, in conjunction with World No Tobacco Day 2016, that they would follow suit.

The strength of this evidence has been rigorously tested, including recently in the High Court of England and Wales, which rejected all 17 of the industry's challenges to the UK plain packaging law. In doing so, the court stated that some of the tobacco industry evidence was "wholly untenable and resembled diatribe rather than expert opinion." This decision came in the same week that arbitrators revealed that they refused to hear a Philip Morris claim against the Australian law on grounds that the company had engaged in an abuse of process in bringing the claim.

These results are a cause for celebration, but governments must remain vigilant. We have seen over and over again how industry, fueled by its deep pockets, has been able to develop new strategies in an attempt to protect profits generated from its deadly products. In the case of plain packaging, it has been the target of a massive tobacco industry misinformation campaign dating as far back as 1993.

WHO has stood up against this campaign, replacing falsehoods with the facts.

While plain packaging represents a power tool for tobacco control, it also builds upon other measures that governments have at their disposal to curb tobacco use. It is recommended that plain packaging be used as part of a comprehensive multisectoral approach to tobacco control.

On this World No Tobacco Day, we are telling the world to get ready for even more comprehensive tobacco control.

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Get ready to further accelerate implementation of the WHO FCTC.

And get ready for plain packaging.
As a Black professor in a predominantly White academic institution, I am aware of a conflict, a battle of ideas, or perhaps more accurately cognitive dissonance among many of my White students. For those students, my Blackness cannot legitimately coexist with my brilliance, my accomplishments, my expertise, and my PhD. Many may reach for the comfort inherent in assuming that this is simply my perception, not a real truth. However, these are challenges shared with me by some of my courageous White students. Although I have been stunned into silence in those moments, I appreciate those students' honesty about an unconscious conflict experienced by many White Americans faced with minority excellence.

My students' confusion stems in large part from the profound lack of faces of color in academia, in graduate psychology programs, and the larger mental health workforce, a topic that will be addressed at William James College's (WJC) annual gala on May 5. Although racial/ethnic minorities represent 30% of the American population, approximately 90% of mental health professionals identify as non-Hispanic White. Furthermore, in 2013, only 5.3% of psychologists were Black and less than 5% of Black individuals enrolled in graduate psychology programs. This paucity means that ubiquitous implicit biases, resulting from America's historical and contemporary racialized inequities, have few opportunities to be challenged and dismantled.

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As delivered.

Greetings alumni, graduates, families, and friends. It is such a pleasure to see you all here and offer congratulations on this day of celebration. I am in the unenviable role of warm-up act for one of the greatest storytellers of our--or any other--time. Nevertheless, my assignment is to offer a few reflections on this magnificent institution at this moment in its history. And what a moment it is.

From comments of astonished pundits on television, in print, and online, to conversations with bewildered friends and colleagues, the question seems unavoidable--and mesmerizing: What is going on? What is happening to the world? The tumultuous state of American politics, spotlighted in this contentious presidential contest; the political challenges around the globe from Brazil to Brexit; the Middle East in flames; a refugee crisis in Europe; terrorists exploiting new media to perform chilling acts of brutality and murder; climate-related famine in Africa and fires in Canada. It is as if we are being visited by the horsemen of the apocalypse with war, famine, natural disaster--and, yes, even pestilence--as Zika spreads, aided by political controversy and paralysis.

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As extraordinary as these times may seem to us, Harvard reminds us we have been here before. It is in some ways reassuring at this 365th Commencement to recall all that Harvard has endured over centuries. A number of these festival rites took place under clouds of war; others in times of financial crisis and despair; still others in face of epidemics--from smallpox in the 17th century to the devastating flu of 1918 to the H1N1 virus just a few years ago. Harvard has not just survived these challenges, but has helped to confront them. We sing in our alma mater about "Calm rising through change and through storm." What does that mean for today's crises? Where do universities fit in this threatening mix? What can we do? What should we do? What must we do?

We are gathered today in Tercentenary Theatre, with Widener Library and Memorial Church standing before and behind us, enduring symbols of Harvard's larger identity and purposes, testaments to what universities do and believe at a time when we have never needed them more. And much is at stake, for us and for the world.

We look at Widener Library and see a great edifice, a backdrop of giant columns where photos are taken and 27 steps are worn down ever so slightly by the feet of a century of students and scholars. We also see a repository of learning, with 57 miles of shelving at the heart of a library system of some 17 million books, a monument to reason and knowledge, to the collection and preservation of the widest possible range of beliefs, and experiences, and facts that fuel free inquiry and our constantly evolving understanding. A vehicle for Veritas--for exploring the path to truth wherever it may lead. A tribute to the belief that knowledge matters, that facts matter--in the present moment, as a basis for the informed decisions of individuals, societies, and nations; and for the future, as the basis for new insight. As James Madison wrote in 1822, a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives. Or as early 20th-century civil rights activist Nannie Helen Burroughs put it, "education is democracy's life insurance."

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Evidence, reason, facts, logic, an understanding of history and of science. The ability to know, as former dean Jeremy Knowles used to put it, "when someone is talking rot." These are the bedrock of education, and of an informed citizenry with the capacity to lead, to explore, to invent. Yet this commitment to reason and truth--to their pursuit and preeminence--seems increasingly a minority viewpoint. In a recent column, George Will deplored the nation's evident abandonment of what he called "the reality principle--the need to assess and adapt to facts." Universities are defined by this principle. We produce a ready stream of evidence and insights, many with potential to create a better world.

So what are our obligations when we see our fundamental purpose under siege, our reason for being discounted and undermined? First we must maintain an unwavering dedication to rigorous assessment and debate within our own walls. We must be unassailable in our insistence that ideas most fully thrive and grow when they are open to challenge. Truth cannot simply be claimed; it must be established--even when that process is uncomfortable. Universities do not just store facts; they teach us how to evaluate, test, challenge, and refine them. Only if we ourselves model a commitment to fact over what Stephen Colbert so memorably labeled as "truthiness" (and he also actually sometimes called it "Veritasiness!"), only then can we credibly call for adherence to such standards in public life and a wider world.

We must model this commitment for our students, as we educate them to embrace these principles--in their work here and in the lives they will lead as citizens and leaders of national and international life. We must support and sustain fact and reason beyond our walls as well. And we must do still more.

Facing Widener stands Memorial Church. Built in the aftermath of World War I, it was intended to honor and memorialize responsibility--not just the quality of men and women's thoughts, but, as my predecessor James Conant put it, "the radiance of their deeds." The more than 1,100 Harvard and Radcliffe students, faculty, and alumni whose names are engraved on its walls gave their lives in service to their country, because they believed that some things had greater value than their own individual lives. I juxtapose Widener Library and Memorial Church today because we need the qualities that both represent, because I believe that reason and knowledge must be inflected with values, and that those of us who are privileged to be part of this community of learning bear consequent responsibilities.

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Now, it may surprise some of you to hear that this is not an uncontroversial assertion. For this morning's ceremony I wore the traditional Harvard presidential robe--styled on the garment of a Puritan minister and reminding us of Harvard's origins. Values were an integral part of the defining purpose of the early years of Harvard College, created to educate a learned ministry. Up until the end of the 1800s, most American college presidents taught a course on moral philosophy to graduating students. But with the rise of the research university in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, moral and ethical purposes came to be seen as at odds with the scientific thinking transforming higher education.

But in today's world, I believe it is dangerous for universities not to fully acknowledge and embrace their responsibilities to values and to service as well as to reason and discovery. There is no value-free science. There is no algorithm that writes itself. The questions we choose to ask and the research we decide to support; the standards of integrity we expect of our colleagues and students; the community we build and the model we offer: All of this is central to who we are.

We can see these values clearly in the choices and passions of our faculty and students: in the motto of Harvard Business School, which you heard earlier this morning uttered by the dean, the commitment to make "a difference in the world." Most of the University would readily embrace this sentiment. In the enthusiasm of students and faculty, we see it as well. From across the University--graduate, professional, and hundreds of undergraduates--we see a remarkable enthusiasm, for example for the field of global health because it unites the power of knowledge and science with a deeply-felt desire to do good in the world--to lead lives of meaning and purpose. This spirit animates not just global health but so much of all we do. Harvard is and must be a community of idealists. And today we send thousands of you--doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, philosophers, business people, epidemiologists, public servants--into the world.

For our youngest students, those just beginning to shape their adult lives, lives who today received what the ritual language of Commencement calls "their first degree," for them these questions of values and responsibility take on particular salience. Harvard College is a residential community of learning with a goal, in the words of its dean, of personal and social as well as intellectual transformation. Bringing students of diverse backgrounds to live together and learn from one another enacts that commitment, as we work to transform diversity into belonging. In a world divided by difference, we at Harvard strive to be united by it. In myriad ways we challenge our students to be individuals of character as well as of learning. We seek to establish standards for the College community that advance our institutional purposes and values. We seek to educate people, not just minds; our highest aspiration is not just knowledge, but wisdom.

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The failure of organized labor and the environmental community to recognize their vital synergistic relationship was put to rest decades ago--or so one thought.

Unfortunately, seven construction unions have forgotten the lessons of the past and in effect revived the discredited industry-inspired rift with their natural environmental allies. The unions have demanded that their mother organization, the AFL-CIO renounce its alliance with an environmental political action committee dedicated to combatting climate change. The dissident unions contend that the environmental PAC's opposition to Canada's Keystone XL oil pipeline, and to the expansion of fossil fuel production in general, jeopardize job creation.

During the early 1970s, industry used the false choice between jobs and environmental protection to divide organized labor and the "green" community, weakening both sides' political clout in the process. Corporate barons' goal was to keep a lid on environmental regulation and the ensuing pollution abatement costs to their bottom line. Environmentalists were portrayed as elitists more interested in preservation of wilderness than human beings.

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Sadly, some environmental organizations initially gave credence to this allegation, not out of malevolence, but out of naive narrow focus on traditional outdoor conservation.

As the 1970s progressed, a change in outlook took hold. Union membership became aware of the health threats from their exposure to industrial toxic pollution. They also saw that the environmental movement had broadened its societal mission to include the creation of long term job security under sustainable healthy workplace conditions. The environmental community's activist expansion resulted from among other things, its recognition that it could not win many of its legislative battles without the support of organized labor.

A formidable coalition took shape and has played an instrumental role in influencing Congress and the outcome of national elections.

Today's building trade unions are bucking history for a Keystone Xl Pipeline whose route would threaten Midwest water supplies in the event of a major spill, and whose impact would dramatically set back efforts to reduce polluting greenhouse gas emissions. Ironically, the pipeline would result in at most, some 50 or so permanent jobs. As for fossil fuels in general, renewable energy such as wind and solar has a lock on the employment future, being three times more job intensive.

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For the employment disruption that will inevitably occur for some workers in the transition from fossil fuel to predominantly clean, renewable energy, there are answers. Government subsidized retraining programs should be initiated to prepare the suddenly unemployed to handle new technologies. Public works programs should be instituted for rebuilding, repairing, and maintaining the nation's crumbling infrastructure. It is a policy that would go far to correct the job deficit on a long term basis.
On June 1, a gunman opened fire in an engineering lab at UCLA, killing two and setting off a mass manhunt and a campus-wide lockdown.

Every few months, somewhere in the U.S., a community suffers a mass shooting. The perpetrators of these crimes are often armed with assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. In California alone, we have suffered such a tragedy every year for the past three years--at Santa Monica College in 2013, near UC Santa Barbara in 2014, and at a terrorist attack in San Bernardino in 2015. The violence at UCLA provoked little national outrage because only two people died.

This is senseless. Two people is too many. Just as tragic as these mass tragedies--which attract national attention and Congressional promises, almost always broken, to do something--are the shootings of individuals that happen in American cities every day with little to no fanfare from outside a particular family or neighborhood. More than 32,000 Americans die each year from gun violence.

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June 2 is National Gun Violence Awareness Day, and around the country, people are coming together to say that we cannot allow one more victim, much less one more mass shooting, before we take action. As a longtime supporter of sensible gun laws, I join them today to call for action from our elected representatives.

The origins of National Gun Violence Awareness Day date back to January 29, 2013. On that day, 15-year-old Chicago high school student Hadiya Pendleton, who had just marched in President Barack Obama's second inaugural parade, was gunned down and killed while enjoying an afternoon in the park with her friends. June 2 was her birthday--she would have been 19 this year.

Promising young people like Hadiya are shot and killed with tragic frequency. Last month, another Chicago man, whose efforts to resume his education were featured in the CNN documentary Chicagoland, was shot and killed. Since Hadiya's death, gun violence in Chicago has only increased, with 69 people shot and six killed on Memorial Day weekend alone. In fact, six other cities suffered shootings this past weekend, and in New York, families are demanding what should be a right for all children--safe schools.

In my hometown of Los Angeles, gun violence has increased slightly. In one incident, full of the same devastating irony of Hadiya's death, a young man was shot just outside Compton's Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School--a campus named after a champion of gun laws who was himself shot and killed. I voted for him in the California primary before he was murdered, and I was at the Ambassador Hotel the night he died. Since then, I have been a staunch advocate of sensible gun laws.

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California suffers shootings despite having some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. Last month, the state Senate passed 11 new bills last month restricting the use of guns. It is the most ambitious gun control effort in our state in decades, and I applaud it.

But we still need federal action. Hadiya's friends began the movement to make June 2 National Gun Violence Awareness Day and observe it by wearing orange, the color hunters wear to protect themselves from fire. Last month, members of Congress introduced a resolution to officially establish the day, and to name June National Gun Violence Awareness Month.

The resolution's sponsor, Rep. Robin Kelly of Chicago, made a telling comment about Congress' inability to act on this issue. She said, "This Congress has proven there is no appetite to end gun violence."

I'm afraid she's right. The only way we can start to change is marking this day, and this month, and demanding action. Let's call on our national representatives to do everything in their power to stop one more young person from falling victim to senseless gun violence.

Eli Broad is founder of The Broad Foundations and a longtime advocate for sensible gun laws.


When President Mugabe announced on his 92nd birthday, 21st February 2016, that $15 billion worth of revenues generated by the diamond industry had gone missing, the majority of Zimbabweans believed him. Zimbabwe is among the world's ten largest producers of diamonds. It is also one of the world's poorest countries, ranked 156 in the 2014 Human Development Index. Every year, it extracts 4,7 million carats of diamonds, enough to produce millions of engagement rings for enamoured couples around the world. But do people in Zimbabwe benefit from this natural wealth? The answer is a resounding no.

Zimbabwe is not an isolated anomaly. Revenues generated by mining around the world have gone missing for years, the results of a vast and complex web made of illicit financial flows, tax evasion and disrespect for the rule of law. The first to bear the brunt of corruption are citizens of resources-rich countries, especially local communities who often derive little benefit from mining yet suffer its environmental and social impacts. In Zimbabwe's community of Marange in the Manicaland province, possibly home to one of the world's richest diamond deposits, schools, clinics and paved roads are scarce.

I just came back from Harare, where I met with outstanding anti-corruption activists, who work to promote transparency and accountability in the diamond and gold mining sectors. Contrary to Western perception, there is a vibrant civil society sector in Zimbabwe promoting good governance as well as social, economic and environmental rights. They are hard at work to track these missing $15 billion. One of them, Darlington Farai Muyambwa, one of President Obama's Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) fellows, and Publish What You Pay's national coordinator in Zimbabwe is working closely with colleagues at the renowned Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) to train activists in following the money from mining sites to the state's coffer. It is no easy task. Last week, fifteen other activists from France, Indonesia, Mozambique, the Philippines, UK, US and Zambia came to lend a hand to Darlington. These "data extractors" spent three days in Harare digging into and analysing financial data in publicly available reports that detail the payments made by mining companies to governments (such as royalties, taxes, fees, etc.). They are finding discrepancies between what companies report they are paying and what governments report they are receiving. The difference amounts to vast sums of money going missing and ending up in tax havens, robbing countries of much needed revenues for development and poverty alleviation (Panama Papers anyone?). Meanwhile, Zimbabwe, which adopted the US$ as its currency in 2009, is running out of cash. Most ATMs in Harare last week were empty.

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The extractive sector (oil, gas, mining) is one of the industrial sectors most prone to corruption. It comes ahead of construction and transportation according to a recent OECD report on corruption. While many governments, companies and civil society organisations are increasingly coming together to increase transparency in the sector, with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the EU Directives on Accounting and Transparency as steps in the right direction, Zimbabwe has not kept pace with other governments in disclosing mining contracts and revenues. It showed interest in developing its own domestic version of the EITI the Zimbabwe Mining Revenue Transparency Initiative (ZMRTI) in 2011. But that initiative was abandoned shortly after. The government is party to the Kimberley process but there remains conflict between the position of government and that of civil society, creating a rift in opinions on how diamond mining affects communities in Zimbabwe.

The coming few months present a rare window of opportunity to make minerals exploration more transparent, accountable and sustainable: the Parliament is currently conducting a participatory revision of the 1961 Mines and Mineral Act, with a new draft bill under consideration. Civil society organisations have already noted that the new draft bill fails to ensure mining contract transparency, disaggregation of revenues by companies and gender equity and are asking for further amendments.

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This is an interesting time in Zimbabwe. Besides the flurry of activities around this new draft bill, digital activism seems to have reached a peak in the past couple of weeks. #Thisflag hashtag is being used by hundreds of Zimbabweans to demand accountability by the government to citizens. The campaign has gone viral on social media, with people voicing their concern on issues ranging from the lack of social services to institutionalised corruption.
Perhaps the most important thing about the Supreme Court this May was what it didnt decide. As Justice Ginsburg candidly admitted to a group of lawyers, having only eight justices hamstrings the Court by making it more difficult to decide closely-divided cases. Far from suggesting that the Courts importance has diminished, however, the Courts non-decisions in May show just how important the Court continues to be, particularly in this falls elections.

With only eight justices, the Court issued two non-decision decisions in May that effectively punted important controversies for a future, fully-staffed Court to decide, but leaving significant confusion and uncertainty in the meantime. In the Zubik case, rather than splitting 4-4, the Court issued a brief unsigned opinion and vacated conflicting rulings in the lower courts on whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows religious nonprofit colleges and other employers to effectively take away Affordable Care Act-required contraceptive coverage from their female employees. The Court directed that the lower courts should give the government and the objecting employers another opportunity to try to resolve the issue, and then decide the cases again if necessary, with Supreme Court review after that if needed. While resolving such controversies voluntarily is a desirable goal, it is clear from the prolonged litigation that at least some religious employers will not agree to any resolution under which its employees will get contraceptive insurance coverage from its insurer. The result is uncertainty for millions of women about their contraceptive coverage, as well as for religious employers about their claims.

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The same day that the Court effectively punted in Zubik, it also issued a non-decision decision in the Spokeo case. In that case, the Court was to decide whether Congress may give individuals the right to sue for damages in federal court, so that they have standing to sue, when a federal law has been violated even in the absence of other actual injury. This is an important issue since it affects the ability of Congress and individuals to hold companies accountable when they violate federal law. In a 6-2 decision, the Court did not resolve the question of whether the individual in Spokeo actually had standing, but instead suggested that the lower courts analysis was incomplete, and sent the case back to that court to reconsider the issue, without taking any position on the key issue presented by the case. This important question will need to be revisited by the Court again, after it again has nine justices.

During May, the Court accepted only three new cases for review starting in October, making a total of eight since Justice Scalias death. Legal commentators have suggested that the decisions not to take up more significant cases for review is another result of an eight-justice court, with the remaining justices concerned about their ability to resolve controversial cases -- again creating uncertainty about peoples rights.

Finally, non-decisions in three major pending cases in May, concerning affirmative action, reproductive rights, and immigration, will almost certainly lead to some kind of decisions in these cases in June, as the Court completes its work this term, with significant consequences for millions of Americans. Some decision on the merits is most likely in the Fisher case concerning affirmative action in college admissions, since Justice Kagans recusal from the case leaves the Court with seven members. The precise result will likely depend on swing Justice Anthony Kennedy, and may affect millions of minority students across America.

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4-4 ties are quite possible in some of the remaining cases, including Whole Womens Health, which concerns the constitutionality of extreme and unnecessary restrictions on abortion clinics in Texas. Advocates strongly believe the Court should resolve this case in favor of reproductive rights, which would protect the rights of millions, but the Court is clearly divided. Although not setting any national precedent, a simple tie vote in this case would leave the lower court opinions standing, which could effectively deprive all but the richest women in Texas of the ability to choose abortion. The Court will clearly be taking significant action soon.

In the meantime, Senate Republican leaders have refused to budge on their unprecedented blockade of the Presidents nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to fill the vacant seat on the court, refusing even to grant him a hearing. It is becoming increasingly clear that they are trying to hold open that vacancy to be filled by, they hope, a President Trump. Trumps list of potential nominees (also released in May) includes people who have called Roe v. Wade the worst abomination in the history of constitutional law and two others who voted to make their appellate court the only one in the country that sided with religious nonprofits efforts to deprive female employees of birth control.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A Harare constituency Terence Mukupe has blasted some businesses for importing useless products such as chewing gums and apples.Mukupe described the products as useless imports from South Africa."It is estimated that South African products make up more than 60 percent of local supermarket shop shelves. Worryingly, the importation of sundry items has continued. During the first quarter of the year, the country imported apples worth $1 million, $317 000 worth of chewing gum, Mineral water imports also came in at $690 000," he said."I will reiterate my stance again, these South African and Botswana retailers are not doing us any favors. I urge the people of Zimbabwe to buy local and promote local industry."
Father and daughter reading

Two important elections have been making headlines in the international arena: the American Presidency and the United Nations Secretary General. Neither position has ever been held by a woman. In the first, there is clearly a frontrunner woman candidate in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and in the second, there are at least four women among those vying for the position. But it seems like an uphill task to get people to consider a woman for these jobs even if she is the best person for it.

We see this kind of questioning of women's capabilities every day globally as women are routinely treated as second-class citizens. As the annual Global Gender Gap report shows, overall compared with men, women have limited rights, access to education, finance and health facilities. Further, they receive lower pay and compensation for the work they do.

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It is quite depressing that the new report released by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) indicates that the gender pay gap will not close in the U.S. until 2059. Though there's been a lot of progress since the 1960s when women started entering the workforce in large numbers, the current 21% gap amounts to at least half a million dollars difference across a person's career.

The gender pay gap is a global problem. At the end of 2015, data suggested that women made a global average of $11,000 compared with $20,500 for men. This gap is caused by many factors, including women traditionally being seen solely as "home makers" and "mothers" who take time off from work to have babies and look after them. They are seen as "primary caregivers" but "secondary workers" who are not fully available to contribute to a formal career. As a result, they are often passed over for important assignments, promotions and significant roles in their career. Further, if there is no affordable childcare, they may opt to just stay out of the workforce while their children are young.

Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee says, "In many ways, the pay gap is due to obsolete social norms and inequitable workplace policies that make women pay a steep price for becoming mothers and caring for their children."

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In order to change the social norms, we must first begin by breaking down stereotypical roles of parents and ensure that both parents are equal caregivers. Both parents must avail of parental leave thus sharing the burden of not only caring for the new-born child and adjusting to the change in family but also the time away from work which can be extremely agonizing for working women.

In Sweden for example, parents are entitled to 480 days of parental leave of which 240 days must be taken by each of the parents. Parental leave can be taken up until a child turns eight. The leave entitlement applies to each child (except in the case of multiple births), so parents can accumulate leave from several children. Should a father -- or a mother for that matter -- decide not to take them, they cannot be transferred to the partner.

This is a great incentive to promote gender equality and breakdown stereotypes. In 2014, fathers took a quarter of their leave to be with their children. This in turn has a positive impact on how children view traditional roles of parents, they have a closer bonding with their fathers and mothers and a well-rounded upbringing

As fathers would go through the same anxiety as mothers when they re-enter the workforce after taking leave for parental responsibilities, it might encourage male managers and supervisors to be more sensitive to the needs of new parents at the workplace and understand the need for greater flexibility in adjusting work-life integration.

A new McKinsey Global Institute report finds that $12 trillion could be added to global GDP by 2025 by advancing women's equality but the public, private, and social sectors will need to act to close gender gaps in work and society. If India can increase women's labor force participation by 10 percentage points (68 million more women) by 2025, India could increase its GDP 16 percent.

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To be sure, many more men are opting to take paternity leave and look after their children, an example that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tried to set by taking two months of paternity leave recently, but they often are in a minority. This can make it challenging for them when many childcare efforts are geared toward women. We need to do more to welcome men as caretakers.
With Brazil facing creeping instability as acting president Michel Temer waffles on reforms and ministers resign over corruption scandals the Obama White House has quietly nominated senior diplomat Peter Michael McKinley as ambassador to Brazil.

If his nomination is approved hitting the ground running could become a dicey situation for McKinley.

Since Temer has given women just a token presence in his interim government the isssue most likely to spark a groundswell of ugly street protests and social media rants is an effort to raise the retirement age for women from 55 to 60.

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If Temer's economic team has its way, women will have to work five additional years to help pay for the greed and corruption of Brazil's macho political class before they can retire on their pensions.

Ironically, president Dilma Rousseff also attempted to raise the retirement age of women from 55 to 60, but the queen of Brazil's caviar left was impeached before she could do so.

According to a report by the BBC, during the 5  years that Dilma served as president 86 ministers were either fired, or resigned from her government, a statistic that averages out to one new minister taking office every 22 days.

Since the United States is the top foreign investor in Brazil's struggling economy Temer is faced with the delicate issue of whether to accept McKinley's credentials in a timely manner.

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However, credentialing ambassador McKinley sends an overt signal that the Obama administration is willing to establish relations with an interim government before the constitutional impeachment process that could permanently remove Dilma as the the nation's freely elected leader plays out.

Temer's formal acceptance of ambassador McKinley will also amp up the meme that Dilma was removed from office in a "constitutional coup" organized by Brazil's "oligarchy" with tacit support from the United States.

That meme, which has been characterized by Temer's minister for external relations Jose Serra as a conspiracy theory, continues to be publicized by Pulitzer Prize winner Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, HuffPo blogger Cenk Uygur and The Guardian, as well as by Dilma's well oiled Workers' Party media machine.

Currently serving as president Obama's ambassador to Afghanistan, the 62 year old McKinley is no stranger to political hotspots. He has served as ambassador in Peru (2007-2010) and in Colombia (2010-2013), Latin American democracies that continue to struggle with narcoterrorism, internecine political warfare and wholesale corruption.

While in Peru ambassador McKinley maintained a working relationship with current undersecretary of state for political affairs Thomas Shannon when Shannon was deputy secretary for western hemisphere affairs under presidet George W. Bush.

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Shannon then became a "Bush holdover" filling the need of president Obama to name a senior diplomat as ambassador to Brazil. He left that post in 2013 after the United States was implicated in the eavesdropping of mobile conversations made by president Dilma Rousseff.

Ambassador McKinley is a smooth diplomatic operator cut from the same cloth as Shannon. Both men have extensive experience in Latin America. Both hold doctoral degrees from Oxford and each has considerable knowledge of the global terrorist landscape.

Brazil's current constitution provides a window of six months for the senate to determine whether Dilma is permanently removed from her presidency based on allegations that she committed financial irregularities during her second term in office.

The clock started ticking on May 16th, when 55 senators (just one vote above the two thirds required by law) voted to launch the constitutionally mandated impeachment protocol that temporarily removed Dilma from her duties as president.

Now the senate is scheduled to meet for several weeks as a court to argue the legalities of permanently removing Dilma from office with a minister from the supreme federal tribunal (Brazil's supreme court) serving as a mediator. Dilma can answer questions and speak in her own defense if she wishes to.

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When all arguments are concluded a final vote to permanently remove Dilma will require two thirds of Brazil's 81 senators to vote to convict her of the charges, putting an end to the impeachment process and making Michel Temer the official president of the nation until the next presidential election, currently scheduled for 2018.

Considering that the May senate vote to formally launch the impeachment process passed by only one vote more (55 votes) than the required two thirds (54 votes) of the 81 senators, backroom deals and objections to Temer's controversial reforms could turn the vote to convict Dilma into a vote of no confidence against Temer.

After all, in their emotional speeches preceeding the May 16th vote to launch the formal impeachment process against Dilma around half a dozen senators who voted to impeach her also said that Temer should be impeached.

If Dilma returns to the presidency she will likely push a constitutional amendment through congress calling for a new presidential election in October of this year, when state and municipal elections are scheduled to take place. Prior to her impeachment she invited politicians who were supportive of a presidential election in October to "talk to me." Fearing the idea was just another Workers' Party scam, nobody did.

Whether ambassador McKinley is credentialed and watches Brazil's political and economic drama play out from the American Embassy in Brasilia is now up to acting president Temer.

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Meanwhile, as Temer's spin doctors work overtime spinning the meme that recovery is just around the corner, Brazil's economic situation continues to deteriorate. Over 11 million Brazilians are jobless and more will be out of work as cutbacks continue.
Many people know who Gucci Mane is, his #FreeGucci campaign has made him a pop culture icon. Rightfully so, I became a fan of Gucci Mane when Myspace was still used in everyone's vocabulary. This was around 2009, and he was blowing up. Everyone I know had a Gucci Mane song as their profile song, my personal favorite was "On Deck". Gradually, I witnessed Gucci Mane's rise to stardom amongst the underground, to me he is the most consistent mixtape rapper. He has all eyes on him, but continues to dwell underground. He has enough leverage to become mainstream like Wiz Khalifa and Nicki Minaj, but that's not his priority. His songs such as "Wasted" and "Lemonade" could have easily cracked Billboard Top 20, they were the songs of the summer. Due to Gucci's keenness to the streets, he has chosen not to make 'mainstream' songs and continues to be gritty and raw. This has been both a good and bad decision.

Gucci Mane is a pop culture icon, but yet he can't seem to sell albums. He has forever been immortalized by the slogan Free Gucci, but it seems like Gucci is just a 'fad'. A lot of people popularized that slogan, and in many ways it stripped Gucci of his humanity, who is the human behind Free Gucci? Many people liked the idea of the slogan, and in turn forgot who Gucci Mane was. It became a slogan that was cool to caption or to write, rather than to fight for. Many people don't even know why Gucci Mane went to prison in the first place.

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Gucci Mane is very street from the way he talks and to his demeanor, many remark how intimidating and scary he is. No question about it; Gucci Mane has had constant quarrels with the law throughout his life, dating back to 2001 when he was arrested on cocaine charges and sentence to 90 days in county jail, the legal battles seem to plague his life and define his career. In 2013, Gucci Mane pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was scheduled to be released in late 2016. Luckily, he was released last week.

While in jail, Gucci Mane released many songs. You cant deny his focus is music, but the thing is Gucci Mane is a mixtape rapper. Yes, he has many fans and since his jail stint he has amassed even more, but the truth of the matter is Gucci Mane simply can not sell albums. He doesn't appeal to a wider audience due to his ruggedness. His #FreeGucci campaign made him a pop culture icon, but it didn't translate to his music success. I haven't heard a single Gucci Mane song on the radio since his 2010, but I have seen plenty #FreeGucci shirts and references. Simply put, mainstream likes the image of Gucci Mane, but not his music. Why don't they like his music? Cause Gucci is raw, he talks about the streets of Zone 6 (Atlanta) and doing 'hood' things. Something that is not relatable to the typical suburban kid. That scares many people, he doesn't have Katy Perry singing a hook and doesn't do electric beats, he is a trap rapper, the trap god. Do you think Gucci Mane cares? Not at all, he recognizes that he isn't mainstream due to not having a 'machine'. In many ways, I applaud Gucci Mane for being one of the few artist who has decided he doesn't care to produce mainstream 'pop' songs. Many black artist have that pressure, and most of them have succumbed to it. Not Guwop, he has always kept it real and 100.

In a letter to his fans in 2015, Gucci Mane says, "The difference between me and the average entertainer is they dream of signing to a major label so they can have this giant machine push them and propel them to stardom," he writes. ""My reality is I am all I got. I am the machine behind me. The streets signed me and the Trap named me God," Gucci Mane could have easily transcended his street anthems to global success, but that's not him. His counterparts like Nicki Minaj and Waka Flocka have seen worldwide success due to the fact they chose to make music that appealed to a wider audience.

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Long before Nicki Minaj was selling out stadiums and selling millions of albums, she was a vicious rapper from New York just hoping for her big break, eventually she started working with Gucci Mane and they released popular songs like "Slumber Party" that blew up on Myspace around 2009. Nicki was raw and very much hood, as she rapped songs like "Itty Bitty Piggy",this song became her signature song. She wore bangs with pink streaks and could go toe to toe with any rapper. She was that confident. Somewhere between then and now, Nicki realized she needed mainstream success, so she shed her hood anthems and opted for songs such as "Superbass" which capsulated her to stardom. Of course, Gucci Mane could have latched on to the success of Nicki, but Gucci chose not to and continued releasing mixtapes and being an underground artist. Around 2009, he released an album The State vs Radric Davis, this album produced his career defining hit sing, 'Lemonade'. Sadly, to date the album has only sold 424,000 copies. He released another album, The Appeal Georgia's Most Wanted, it has sold 150,000 copies to date since 2010. His latest album, Trap House III released in 2013, sold only 2,300 copies first week. While his counterpart Nicki Minaj has sold millions of albums to date. There's a constant pressure for black artist to 'whitewash' their music.

Unknown to many, Wiz Khalifa has actually been a rapper since 2005. He didn't gain much popularity until 2009 when he began Taylor Gang, for people present during 2010, Taylor Gang flooded the internet with people making clever slogans revolving around Taylor Gang or Die. During this time Wiz Khalifa released his highly anticipated mixtape Kush and Orange Juice, it immediately became a favorite of many people. The mixtape is one of his best, but still at that time he dwelled through the underground and was a fan favorite on Tumblr. Personally, I feel like some of the songs on Kush and Orange Juice deserved to be radio hits, but it didn't appeal to a wider audience. Wiz had a niche fanbase of hipsters. I guess Wiz was tired of the obscurity of being underground, so he continued to push for mainstream success with songs such as "Black and Yellow" and " Roll Up". Finally in 2015, he released "See You Again" for the Fast and Furious 7 soundtrack. We couldn't escape this song everywhere we went, supermarkets, and even clubs. "See You Again" became a worldwide hit and Wiz Khalifa became a household name. Wiz Khalifa chose to go mainstream, something Gucci Mane has always avoided, with going mainstream, the content of his music of course changed. The songs were more gimmicky now and had infectious pop beats. Wiz Khalifa decided to make himself more 'appealing' and 'softer'. A big contrast to his songs such as "In The Cut" and "Pedal To The Medal".

Gucci Mane is very rough around the edges, many people like the idea of him, but don't like him. Truth of the matter is, Gucci Mane will never be mainstream due to the fact that he makes white people uncomfortable due to his subject matter. Gone are the days where hard-core rappers were revered like Tupac and Biggie-- now a days people want rappers that are soft, the rise of rapper Drake has solidified this notion. Gucci Mane became a trending topic with over millions of tweets celebrating his new freedom, but how come he can't sell albums that easily? It seems like he does have a fan base, that's if you count everyone who tweets or hashtags #FreeGucci. But in actuality, people don't like the fact that Gucci is so 'hood'. He simply can't sell records because he decided a long time ago he wasn't going to sell out, maybe that has done him more harm than good. I respect Gucci Mane's decision because it shows that he is strong enough to not be wavered by money or popularity. Artist work in an industry where your sales determine your worth. Regardless of how many records he sells, Gucci Mane has the respect of many people, he is a street legend and he will forever be immortalized as such. He has curved out a niche fanbase that will always be loyal to Guwop.
ST PETERSBURG, FL - MARCH 08: NY POST OUT Terry Bollea, aka Hulk Hogan, testifies in court during his trial against Gawker Media at the Pinellas County Courthouse on March 8, 2016 in St Petersburg, Florida. Bollea is taking legal action against Gawker in a USD 100 million lawsuit for releasing a video of him having sex with his best friends wife. (Photo by John Pendygraft-Pool/Getty Images)

Who would you rather be stuck in an elevator with?

Or, Gawker Media, a media company that produces mostly tabloid journalism at best, who have been ordered by a Florida court to pay Bollea $115 million in punitive damages for releasing a private tape of Hogan that the wrestler claimed was "invasion of privacy, infringement of personality rights, and intentional infliction of emotional distress."

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Personally, I would not want to share any enclosed space with both entities present, seeing as there is a bitter feud currently being played out between the two in the news. Yet, we are all paying attention due to the ramifications this case could have on the "freedom of the press."

Journalists from all corners of the media industry have decried and criticized Peter Thiel in the role he has played for funding Hogan's legal team. These writers state that the "billionaire class" could litigate their way to shutting down media outlets that they are not in favor of, or also having unduly influence over what material they publish. At the same time, we should also be concerned about how the press reports news and whether that news is truly within the sphere of public interest.

Although journalists across the news industry are raising valid concerns about the dangerous influence the wealthy can have on media outlets, I fear more of a press that abuses its trust with the public as in the case of Gawker Media.

There are two major facets to this case that must be discussed separately: one, the verdict rendered in favor of Hulk Hogan by a jury of his (and our) peers; and two, the fact that Peter Thiel has funded Hogan's legal team to the tune of $10 million.

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The issue with the debate around Thiel's actions is that the actual verdict rendered in this case is completely separate from the fact that he funded the plaintiff's legal fees. If we fail to make this distinction now, it becomes impossible to correctly weigh and judge Gawker Media's and Thiel's motives in the proper light.

On the jury verdict in Hogan's favor: I am in full support of the jury coming to the decision in ordering Gawker Media to pay punitive damages to Hogan for their role in displaying his private encounter with a friend. If this verdict were to have gone the other way, it would set a precedent that the media has the right to display our private moments with others because it is in the public interest for us to see these intimate moments.

It is not in my best interest or yours to see intimate moments between two individuals, especially if they did not consent to having that content shown to other uninvolved parties. In this case, the content shown by Gawker Media did not serve the purpose of bettering the public's knowledge -- revealing that tape only served to humiliate a former WWE wrestler.

On Peter Thiel's funding of Hulk Hogan's legal team: This point invites more relevant questions: Should the funders (in this case, Thiel) be forced to disclose their involvement in a lawsuit? According to the Wall Street Journal, no.

"Funders are typically under no legal obligation to disclose their involvement in a lawsuit, just as plaintiffs and defendants for the most part aren't required to detail how they are paying for a case." - Wall Street Journal

And herein lies the journalist's worries: if they are to run a negative story about say a prominent Silicon Valley executive, will they now have to think twice before publishing that story in print and online due to the outcome and details of the Hulk Hogan case?

Consider this: if Hulk Hogan did not have the money provided by Thiel to retain his legal team, then he would not have been able to win in court against a well-heeled Gawker Media. If anything, there is a cost to pursuing justice (one could argue justice in the court system is nothing more the best lawyer your money can buy). Should we fault Hulk Hogan for receiving outside financial support from Thiel in order to pursue justice?

I believe these are valid questions to ask and have debate around -- but my problem in this specific case is that Gawker Media is not, and should not be, the martyr in which these questions are decided. Gawker Media, may I remind you, was found by a jury of its peers to be found in violation of Hulk Hogan's privacy, thus the subsequent damages need to be paid. Gawker's tabloid journalism went too far in this case, and even the founder of Gawker Media, Nick Denton, has admitted that his company has crossed the line multiple times in the past.

"Among the million posts published by Gawker and other properties since the company was founded, there have undoubtedly been occasions we overstepped the line." - Nick Denton

One of those times could also be when they "outed" Thiel himself.

Any potential moral or ethical conclusion reached from considering these questions are weakened due to the transgressions committed by Gawker Media. I would rather save this debate for another media company that is reporting on issues that are fundamental to the public interest, instead of generating "news" designed to target and humiliate an individual.

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With that being said, let me rephrase the question that I posed at the beginning of this piece:

Who should we fear more?

Media companies who could potentially violate our privacy as individuals by posting intimate moments with our loved ones and friends for all to "gawk" at?

Or billionaires who have the financial means to litigate news outlets into oblivion?

In a general situation, we should be equally afraid and distrustful of both.

But in this specific case, we should be more fearful of Gawker Media and the dangers of tabloid journalism, and be thankful for that St. Petersburg jury which sided with Hogan. The jury in this case helped set a precedent that media companies should be deterred from violating our privacy with reckless abandon.
On February 13, the very day of Justice Antonin Scalia's untimely death, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell stunningly announced that the Senate, under Republican control, would not consider any nominee President Barack Obama put forth to succeed Justice Scalia. McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans insisted that the American people should have the opportunity to weigh-in on this issue, and that it was therefore President Obama's successor, rather than President Obama, who should have the authority to replace Justice Scalia.

Despite that unprecedented proclamation, on March 16 President Obama nominated Merrick Garland, the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, to succeed Justice Scalia. Although everyone with even a modicum of expertise agrees that Chief Judge Garland is a highly-qualified, highly-respected, and moderate nominee, Senate Republicans have adamantly refused even to consider his nomination.

The purported "justification" for the Senate Republicans' refusal to even consider Merrick Garland's nomination is that the next president should be the one given the authority to appoint Justice Scalia's successor. By employing this strategy, Senate Republicans, praying for a victory in November, hope to enable Donald Trump, rather than Barack Obama, to appoint the next Justice of the Supreme Court.

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In a new scholarly article, law professors Robin Kar and Jason Mazzone have taken a deep dive into the history of Supreme Court nominations to test the plausibility of the Senate Republicans' purported "justification" for their action. Not surprisingly, they find that the Senate Republicans' alleged "justification" is completely bogus. It is, in short, exactly what it appears to be -- a cynical and unconscionable sham.

What Kar and Mazzone found is that over the entire course of American history there have been 103 instances (prior to this one) in which an elected president faced a vacancy on the Supreme Court prior to the election of the next president. They found that in every one of those 103 instances, the president nominated and, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appointed the new Justice. There has not been a single exception to this practice in all of American history. And this is true even when, as in the current situation, the vacancy arose during an election year. In short, this would be the first time in American history that a president in President Obama's position would be denied the opportunity to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

As Kar and Mazzone note, there have been six instances, all in the nineteenth century, in which a sitting president failed to secure the confirmation of a nominee before his term ended. But those six cases were clearly distinguishable from the current situation.

In three of those cases -- all of which occurred more than 150 years ago - the nomination was made by a president who had not been elected president. They all involved situations in which a vice-president had assumed the presidency after the death of the president. At that time, early in our nation's history, it was assumed that unelected presidents did not enjoy the full powers and authority of elected presidents.

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In the three other cases, all of which also occurred in the 19th century, the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice was made after the election of the president's successor. In those situations, it was thought reasonable to permit the already elected successor to make the nomination.

The bottom line, then, is this: In 225 years of American history, the only times a sitting president has not succeeded in filling a Supreme Court vacancy involved highly unusual circumstances not in any way implicated in the current situation. More to the point, in every one of the 103 instances that mirror the current state of affairs, the president has been able to appoint a Justice to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court -- without a single exception.

What this clearly demonstrates is that the rationale the Senate Republicans have cynically put forth to "justify" their behavior is in direct defiance of 225 years of American history. The plain and simple fact is that there is no constitutionally legitimate justification for the Senate Republicans' position. It is unprincipled, unprecedented, and, as Kar and Mazzone observe, dangerously destructive to a well-settled Supreme Court confirmation process that has served our nation well from the very founding of the Republic.

Moreover, as Kar and Mazzone warn, such an unprincipled departure from the settled constitutional process will seriously undermine the fundamental "norms of cooperation" that have enabled the Supreme Court appointments process to function reasonably smoothly throughout our nation's history.

The precedent set by this behavior, they conclude, will inevitably lead to a more "politicized appointment process and, ultimately, to a more politicized Court." Having opened the door to such abuse of the confirmation process, the Senate Republicans have now invited similar abuse in the future. None of this bodes well for our nation. It is, truly, unconscionable.
It used to be so simple. You'd be filling out some kind of form (probably for tax purposes) and come to the line that asked for your marital status. There were only two choices: "Single" or "Married."

How times have changed! Today we have open relationships and bicoastal marriages. With social media allowing members more leeway in how they choose to define themselves, it has become commonplace to see people who describe their relationship status as "It's Complicated."

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The above film (starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin) is a fairly vanilla affair compared to what happens in today's United States.

Instead of the proverbial "sailor with a girl in each port," there are frequent flyers, airline personnel, and road warriors who maintain relationships in multiple cities (even while they remain married).

It's no surprise to encounter widowed seniors who are "living in sin" because remarrying would cause them to lose significant financial income.

More people are starting to experiment with sex parties, polyamory, and throuples.

Nor is it shocking to learn about dominants who "own" their submissives.

Years ago, a Bay area physician told me about the time he was having lunch with some fellow doctors at a local hospital when the discussion turned to their respective marriages. Although the physician and his male partner were notorious horndogs, he didn't hesitate to remind his colleagues that his open relationship was far more stable and had lasted longer than any of their heterosexual marriages.

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Two recent dramatic experiences depicted relationships that were far more complicated than anything that might be tracked for demographic purposes. One took ventriloquism to new heights; the other dealt with undead souls who, rather than acting like brain-starved zombies, were temporarily stuck in a form of limbo.

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Based on a novel by Kazumi Yumoto, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film, Journey to the Shore (which was screened during the 2016 San Francisco International Film Festival) starts off as a young Japanese woman, Mizuki (Eri Fukatsu), is giving a piano lesson to a less than gifted child (whose doting mother thinks Mizuki should take a different approach to teaching piano). Later, as she shops for groceries in a local supermarket, Mizuki impulsively purchases a bag of flour.

The flour turns out to be one of the key ingredients in a Japanese pastry (a boiled bun which contains a sweet filling). As she works in the kitchen, Mizuki hears an unusual noise and turns to see her husband, Yusuke (Tadanobu Asano), standing nearby. Tall, handsome, and quiet, Yusuke is happy to chow down on his wife's home-made pastry.

A former dentist, Yusuke drowned at sea three years ago. He calmly explains to Mizuki that his body was completely eaten by crabs and there is nothing left of his former self. While most wives might start screaming at the sight of their dead husband re-entering their home, Mizuki 's reaction is surprisingly matter of fact (making one wonder if she hadn't expected that, at some point, Yusuke would return for a visit). She reminds him to take off his shoes. Later, when he suggests they go on a trip and visit some exciting places (something like a second honeymoon), she agrees to join him.

Tadanobu Asano (Yusuke) and Eri Fukatsu (Mizuki)

in a scene from Journey to the Shore

Money is no problem, nor does Yusuke have any trouble fitting into a crowd or making conversation with people. Strangely, he discourages physical intimacy and refuses to have sex with his wife. The goal of this trip is to visit people who were kind to him earlier in his life and are now struggling with their transition to another spiritual plane.

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One of the people he visits is Shimikage (Masao Komatsu), an elderly man who prints a newsletter and seems intent on distributing his work to the local community. When the old man invites Yusuke and Mizuki to stay with him for a while, she discovers that Shimikage's favorite pastime is cutting pictures of flowers out of magazines and pasting them to the wall behind his bed.

Yusuke explains that, although Shimikage can still ride a bicycle to deliver his newsletter and run errands around town, the old man does not know that he is already dead. One night, after he goes to bed, Shimikage makes his final transition. The next morning, when Mizuki enters his room, she is shocked to find it in shambles, looking as if it had been abandoned for years.

As they travel around the countryside, Mizuki keeps having strange encounters. In one village, they visit the Chinese owners of a dumpling restaurant -- Jinnai (Tetsuya Chiba) and Fujie (Nozomi Muraoka) --- where Yusuke once had a job making gyoza. When Fujie shows Mizuki a banquet room which has remained unused for several years, Mizuki notices an old upright piano with some sheet music.

Later, when she starts to sight read the sheet music, Fujie angrily re-enters the room and scolds Mizuki, explaining how that piece of music had been her daughter's favorite -- so much so that the little girl would never stop playing it. As they talk, Fujie confesses that she wishes she could have apologized to her daughter for saying something mean to her shortly before the girl died.

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After Fujie gives Mizuki permission to play the music again, her daughter miraculously appears. Mizuki gets up from the piano bench, asks the girl if she would like to practice the song, and guides her through the music as a tear runs down Fujie's face. Shortly after that, the child disappears into thin air.

Poster art for Journey to the Shore

On another trip, the couple visits a farming village where Yusuke was the beloved teacher who explained physics and the universe to the community. His old friend, Hoshitani (Akira Emoto), welcomes them to stay with him and his widowed daughter-in-law, Kaoru (Kaoru Okunuki), who often seems dazed and confused. Kaoru's young son, Ryota (Daiki Fujino), frequently forgets to take his lunch to school. When Mizuki offers to bring it to him, Kaoru suggests that she look for Ryota by the local waterfall.

Tadanobu Asano (Yusuke) and Eri Fukatsu (Mizuki)

in a scene from Journey to the Shore

When Mizuki finds the boy, Ryota explains that if she looks carefully, she will see a dark patch in the water. Behind the waterfall is a cave that leads to the other world. Yusuke tells his wife that Hashimoto is one of the undead who doesn't want to die. After an emotional meltdown in the local woods, Hashimoto vanishes.

After returning home, Yusuke tells his wife that it's almost time for him to make his final transition. They make love one last time before going to the seashore, where Yusuke's soul is finally released from limbo.

Kurosawa's film finds its roots in Ohigan, a custom derived from a mix of Buddhism and Japanese Shintoism. The word (which derives from Sanskrit) means "reaching nirvana" and essentially indicates a respect for one's ancestors and the never-ending cycle of nature.

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Journey to the Shore is a delicate and intimate film which depends on a lot of internal acting from its two leads. With a highly romantic musical score by Naoko Eto and Yoshihide Otomo, it aims for the sentimental without ever being overtly manipulative. Its running length (slightly more than two hours) may seem a bit long, but a film in which one learns to understand death through observance, introspection, and intuition demands that its chosen pace be respected.

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It goes without saying that TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's new production of Cyrano is a much more rambunctious affair which is not the least bit concerned with Buddhism, Shintoism, nirvana, or peace and quiet. Back in 2010, when the San Francisco Opera presented Placido Domingo in Petrika Ionesco's massive production of Franco Alfano's rarely-performed operatic adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac (1936), audiences were treated to a lavish spectacle with a musical score that matched the operatic passions of its principals.

Using a new translation of Edmond Rostand's famous play, Cyrano de Bergerac (1897) by Michael Hollinger and Aaron Posner, this TheatreWorks production pares down the spectacle, trims some of the text, and reduces the cast to eight men and two women (thus making it much easier to stage and a far more affordable enterprise for regional nonprofit companies operating on a tight budget). Directed by Robert Kelley (with help from fight director Jonathan Rider), this staging features costumes by Fumiko Bielefeldt and scenery designed by Joe Ragey.

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For those who have only experienced Rostand's story in Steve Martin's 1987 film adaptation, Roxanne, it may come as a shock to see Cyrano's antics unfold on a small stage with a tightly-knit ensemble. Introduced to the audience by Le Bret (Michael Gene Sullivan), the production employs several skeletal scenic elements, but mostly relies on the work of an energetic cast to draw the audience into their description of how the versatile Cyrano (J. Anthony Crane) defeated 100 men in a recent battle.

J. Anthony Crane as Cyrano de Bergerac

(Photo by: Kevin Berne)

In addition to being a fearsome fencing foe, Cyrano is also a prolific writer, poet, and political critic. The real man upon whom Rostand based his play was noted for pissing off the people he mocked. Acutely sensitive about his extra-large nose, Cyrano has resigned himself to loving his cousin, Roxane, in silence for fear that she would laugh at any declaration of love that he might proffer.

What Cyrano cannot bring himself to believe is that the well-read Roxane (who has a pretty strong mind of her own) could rise above the masses and see him for the beauty of his soul (rather than scorning him for the ugliness of his face). In this production, Sharon Rietkerk does a wonderful job of telegraphing Roxane's wit, intellect, feminine guile, and ability to mentally spar with someone when given the opportunity.

Chad Deverman (Christian) and Sharon Rietkerk (Roxane)

in a scene from Cyrano (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

The conflict at the heart of Rostand's play is that a handsome young chevalier named Christian (Chad Deverman) has fallen head over heels in love with Roxane. While Christian is a most attractive stud, he's also horribly inarticulate. When Roxane asks him to write to her, he becomes desperate for help.

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Enter Cyrano, another member of the famed Gascony Cadets who offers his help in making the tongue-tied Christian sound mildly coherent (if not floridly romantic). The ruse works well for a while, enabling Christian to find his way into Roxane's arms. The play's balcony scene (in which Cyrano starts to feed lines to the stammering soldier and eventually simply speaks from his heart while remaining out of Roxane's sight) is a classic moment in romantic comedy.

Cyrano (J. Anthony Crane), Roxane (Sharon Rietkerk),

and Christian (Chad Deverman) in a scene from Cyrano

(Photo by: Kevin Berne)

When the jealous Comte De Guiche (Peter James Meyers), who lusts after Roxane, discovers the identity of his rival, he sends the Gascony Cadets off to fight in the war against Spain. Roxane (who has successfully managed to thwart De Guiche's amorous advances) begs Cyrano to look after Christian and make sure that her husband remains safe. Never one to do things halfway, Cyrano promises that Christian will write to her every day and devotedly makes his way past the enemy's drunken guards to post a daily missive to Roxane.

All through their time on the battlefield, Christian has no idea of Cyrano's literary efforts on his behalf; nor does Roxane have the slightest inkling about who is actually writing the letters she treasures so deeply. When Roxane disguises herself as a young boy and makes her way to Arras (where the Gascony Cadets are encamped), she enjoys a brief reunion with her husband before Christian is killed by an enemy bullet. Luckily, Cyrano had planned for this possibility in advance and written a letter to be given to Roxane in the event of the young soldier's death.

Michael Gene Sullivan and J. Anthony Crane

in a scene from Cyrano (Photo by: Kevin Berne)

The final scene takes place 15 years after the war has ended. Roxane has entered a convent and looks forward to weekly visits with her devoted cousin, who brings her all of the latest Parisian gossip. After word reaches the convent that Cyrano has suffered a severe head injury at the hands of one of his political enemies, he arrives for his weekly visit, painfully aware that it will be his last. His famous death scene (in which Roxane realizes who truly captured her heart) remains a genuine tearjerker, beautifully staged in this production by Robert Kelley.

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As one listens to a live performance of Cyrano, one becomes acutely aware of the loss of poetry from our daily lives.

In a timely move, this new translation mocks Christian's arrival by having everyone in the Gascony Cadets refer to him as "the new guy."

As opposed to Montfleury's hammy efforts onstage, Cyrano's prompted phrases for Christian to use and the ardent letters he writes to Roxane bring audiences back to a time when poetic passion was an integral element in the act of wooing a lover.

Comparing Rostand's language to the texts sent in today's hookup culture via applications like Tinder and Grindr ("UR HOT," "STATS?") reveals how the ability to clinically swipe one's way through a catalogue of faceless torsos and available profiles has become an utterly dehumanizing experience that strips romance and spontaneity from the process of meeting someone new. As Tina Turner would say, "What's Love Got To Do With It?"

J. Anthony Crane as Cyrano de Bergerac

(Photo by: Kevin Berne)

All three principals (Crane, Deverman, and Rietkerk) excelled in their roles. They received sturdy support from Stephen Muterspaugh as the theatre manager, Bellerose; Christopher Reber as Ragueneau (a pastry chef who loves poetry); Kit Wilder as the narcissistic Vicomte de Valvert (who hopes to marry Roxane and makes the mistake of challenging Cyrano to a duel), and Monica Cappuccini as Roxane's chaperone, Desiree. Darren Bridgett did double duty as Montfleury (the overly emotive actor Cyrano had banned from performing onstage for a month) and as the drunken poet, Ligniere.
Lockers

Review of Education and the Commercial Mindset. By Samuel E. Abrams. Harvard University Press. 417 pp. $ 39.95

In 1992, a year after he launched The Edison Project, a for-profit venture designed to transform K-12 education in the United States, Chris Whittle lured Benno Schmidt, the president of Yale University, to be his CEO. In a front page story about the appointment, Whittle used a Cold War analogy to describe the revolutionary impact of his new company: "You have to have a West Berlin for East Berlin to fall and what we're really doing here is building West Berlin." Whittle predicted that by 2010 Edison would design, build, and run 1,000 schools with 2 million students.

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Schmidt used World War II for his analogy: "The reason this hasn't been done before is that this thing is a matter of D-Day dimensions...If this venture succeeds, there's nothing, there's nothing that could be done, aside from changing human nature, that would be more constructive for our society."

The Edison Project and its parent, Whittle Communications, seemed to be flying high - for a while. By 1999, Channel One, Whittle's twelve-minute cable news program, with two minutes of commercials, was watched by 8 million students in more than 12,000 schools on 25-inch television screens, which, along with videocassette recorders and satellite dishes, had been supplied by his company. Edison was running 61 schools, with 37,000 students in 17 states. Having raised $232 million from investors by 1999, Edison went public, netting $109 million from the sale of 6.8 million shares at $18 each.

But, as Samuel Abrams (director of the National Center of the Study of Privatization in Education, Teachers College, Columbia University) reveals in Education and the Commercial Mindset, Whittle's empire turned out to be "a shimmering house of cards."

The business model of The Edison Project depended on government vouchers to cover the high cost of tuition. Without vouchers, Whittle and Schmidt abandoned plans to build state of the art schools, lengthen the school day, redesign the curriculum, and provide home computers for every student. Edison became a subcontractor, managing charter and public schools. Subject to conditions set by school district officials and legislators, and not always embraced by parents and students, Edison did not produce profits for Whittle Communications, which began hemorrhaging money well before 1999. In that year Whittle sold Channel One, his only profitable property, for $240 million, and dissolved Whittle Communications. Edison soldiered on, running schools in Baltimore and Philadelphia, but it had lost its swagger and its swag.

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In Education and the Commercial Mindset, Abrams provides a detailed, informative and insightful account of the rise and fall of The Edison Project, as a case study of for-profit schools. To bolster his thesis that "much of our mistaken thinking about education policies derives from our commercial mindset," Abrams compares Edison to the non-profit Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) and public school reforms in Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Abrams demonstrates that for-profit schools have no incentives to consider long term educational or social goals. Obsessed with achievement metrics that might persuade consumers to purchase their product, they often exclude students with cognitive, emotional or behavioral problems. Or with failing grades. They concentrate on reading and mathematics, for which annual standardized tests are required, to the exclusion of other subjects, including writing and the sciences. Not surprisingly, then, there is convincing evidence that administrators and teachers helped students cheat on these tests at Edison schools.

Study after study, moreover, finds little if any positive affect of tests on student progress and some indication that administering frequent examinations is counter-productive. Nor are tests necessary to discern whether students are learning. Using sophisticated sampling techniques, Abrams reveals, the Finns obtain all the information they need, reclaiming valuable time, energy and resources to teach their students in all subjects.

Abrams' assessment of KIPP's non-profit charter schools is more positive. KIPP's "no excuses," character-building model, which requires the active involvement of parents, can work, he reports, but its impressive track record should be placed in the context of the organization's recruitment, attrition and replacement patterns. A significant number of students who do not prove to be a good fit drop out, return to public schools (which must accept them), and are replaced either by higher-performing individuals or no one at all. KIPP "does great work despite the force of poverty," Abrams points out, but the non-profit depends heavily on philanthropists (to augment budgets), "tireless teachers, and students as well as families capable of abiding by rigid academic and behavioral expectations that limit its reach."

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What is needed, Abrams concludes, is an approach that will work for all students in disadvantaged communities. The strategy should include granting administrators more autonomy, increasing the salaries of teachers (and making the everyday experience of teaching more appealing), extending the school day, providing substantial remedial help, and raising expectations. Universal standardized tests should be replaced with assessments of reading, writing, mathematics and science, using small, but representative samples of students.
by Rod Collins, Director of Innovation at Optimity Advisors

On January 2, 2001, Larry Sanger met his good friend Ben Kovitz for dinner at a small Mexican restaurant in San Diego. It is arguably the dinner that changed the way the world works. It had been almost a year since Sanger had come to Southern California to work as the editor-in-chief for Nupedia, a start-up online encyclopedia. Over the course of the dinner, Larry related how Nupedia's founder, Jimmy Wales, had come up with the novel idea of using the platform of the budding Internet to solicit volunteers who would contribute articles to build a free encyclopedia. However, by the end of 2000, the seven-step peer review process that Sanger and his academic advisers had designed had produced only a handful of articles. At this glacial rate, Wales and Sanger were both concerned about the viability of their ambitious project.

As Kovitz empathized with Nupedia's predicament, he urged Sanger to take a look at the WikiWikiWeb site, an innovative but obscure computer program developed by software engineer Ward Cunningham to provide individual programmers with the ability to pool their collective knowledge and create common staples for the software community. Given its ease and transparency, Kovitz suggested that the wiki page just might be the solution for how large numbers of volunteers could quickly produce and edit a high volume of encyclopedia articles. Sanger liked the idea, and he had no trouble convincing Wales, who on January 10, 2001, added the wiki software to the Nupedia website.

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However, not everyone in the Nupedia organization was as enthusiastic as Sanger and Wales about this novel way to build an encyclopedia. The academic experts were vigorously opposed to the notion that the masses could provide any value to a scholarly pursuit. The academics were professionals, and they were adamant that a collaboration with the crowd could never meet their high quality standards. Consequently, just five days later, on January 15, 2001, Wales removed the wiki software from Nupedia. While the academics were pleased that they had defended the traditions and the honor of their profession, Wales still thought the wiki approach had merit. So, he decided to launch a second independent project, which Sanger dubbed Wikipedia.

We all know what happened from there. None of us have ever heard of Nupedia and all of us are using Wikipedia. Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales made an incredible leap to extraordinary performance because they discovered how to aggregate and leverage collective intelligence.

The Network Effect

The capacity to access collective intelligence is the defining transformative phenomenon of the Digital Age. This digital transformation has given rise to what can best be described as the network effect: the fundamental architectural shift from hierarchies to networks. Those who have the courage to embrace the network effect quickly discover that hierarchies are no match for networks, especially in a hyper-connected world. While Wikipedia would produce more than 18,000 articles in its first year, Nupedia continued to struggle and would shut down in 2003. But more significantly, and perhaps surprisingly, as Wikipedia grew in both volume and popularity, the network effect would eventually disrupt the longstanding market leader in the encyclopedia world when the editors at the Encyclopedia Britannica announced on March 13, 2012 that after 244 years, the reference book was going out of print.

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Sanger and Wales resurrected their fledging effort because they transformed their fundamental model from a top-down hierarchy to a peer-to-peer network. Sanger and Wales made this leap because they had nothing to lose. After all, Nupedia was failing badly. The academics, however, couldn't embrace a network structure because it violated all their beliefs about how the world works. There was nothing in their mental DNA that would allow them to see how a collaboration of the masses could be a workable business model. Fixed in their beliefs, they were unable to recognize that the Internet was changing the rules for how the world works.

Two Fundamental Questions

Workable architectural structures need to address two fundamental questions: How does power work? And how do things get done? In hierarchies, power is about being in charge, and the way that things get done is accomplished through the exercise of control mechanisms. Thus, the mantra for traditional hierarchical management is "command and control." The mindset of the academics was thoroughly rooted in hierarchical thinking. And given that the academics were at the top of the pyramid, there was no incentive for them to give up the power positions they held in their professional world, even it that meant Nupedia ultimately failed.

Networks, on the other hand, answer the two fundamental questions very differently. In networks, power has nothing to do with being in charge and everything to do with being connected, as we discovered within the past year or two when executives at a national telecommunications company announced they would install an additional fee to anyone who elected to pay their monthly bills online. Those in charge who tried to impose this fee were forced to quickly reverse themselves within 24 hours when their connected customers leveraged their collective power by raising a fuss on social media.

When it comes to how things get done, networks rely on collective intelligence dynamics rather than control mechanisms to accomplish work. Control mechanisms are methods or devices that are used to regulate variable behavior in a desirable way. A usual example is a home thermostat system where the desired temperature is programmed into the system and the mechanism maintains this temperature by turning on the heating or cooling system as needed. These controls work by giving an individual unit or agent the ability to exercise an expected judgment. In human organizations, control mechanisms include supervisory reviews, budget authority parameters, and established work standards. Collective intelligence dynamics, however, don't rely upon individual units or agents to assure that things are done correctly. That's because networks don't behave like mechanical systems. Instead, they employ the rules of complex adaptive systems, such as flocks of birds, colonies of ants, or the human brain, to process information and make decisions. Collective intelligence dynamics are ways to rapidly achieve a workable consensus among a diverse group of agents about what needs to be done. In networks, the guiding mantra is "connect and collaborate."

Smarter and Faster

While it may seem counterintuitive, a well-functioning network leveraging the collective intelligence of large numbers is not just smarter and faster than traditional hierarchies, it is often far smarter and far faster, as we learned in the summer of 2011 when Firas Khatib, a biochemist at the University of Washington, turned to Foldit to solve a stubborn molecular puzzle that had stumped the world's best scientists for over a decade.

Foldit is a collaborative online video game developed by the University of Washington that enlists players worldwide to solve difficult molecular problems. What's most interesting about Foldit is that most of the more than 250,000 players have little or no background in biochemistry. There are no special requirements for joining the Foldit community--all comers are welcome.

The stubborn puzzle involved figuring out the detailed molecular structure of a protein-cutting enzyme from an AIDS-like virus found in monkeys. Cracking this puzzle could be the breakthrough needed to arrest the medical malady. When Khatib presented the molecular challenge to the Foldit community, what had evaded the world's best individual scientists for ten years was amazingly solved by the collective intelligence of a diverse group of online gamers within only ten days.

Wikipedia and Foldit are two examples of how the digital revolution, the network effect, and the phenomenon of collective intelligence are transforming the way the world works. The Internet has been the engine that has suddenly thrust us into a new world with very different rules from the old world that many of us now recognize is rapidly fading away. This transformation is not only likely to continue, but more importantly, it's likely to accelerate as we now enter the second wave of the digital revolution with its twin engines of the Internet of Things and Blockchain technology. These two collective intelligence systems, which will be subjects of future blogs, will very likely solidify the network architecture as the basic fabric for how we build business, operating, and management models in a hyper-connected world.
There is now more than a theoretical chance that Hillary Clinton may not be the Democratic nominee for president...

The inevitability behind Mrs. Clinton's nomination will be in large measure eviscerated if she loses the June 7 California primary to Bernie Sanders. That could well happen...

Another problem: In recent weeks the perception that Mrs. Clinton would be the strongest candidate against Donald Trump has evaporated. The Real Clear Politics polling average has Mrs. Clinton in a statistical tie with Mr. Trump, and recent surveys from ABC News/Washington Post and Fox News show her two and three points behind him, respectively.

Then there is that other crack in the argument for Mrs. Clinton's inevitability: Bernie Sanders consistently runs stronger than she does against Mr. Trump nationally, beating him by about 10 points in a number of recent surveys.

Mrs. Clinton also faces growing legal problems. The State Department inspector general's recent report on Mrs. Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state made it abundantly clear that she broke rules and has been far from forthright in her public statements. The damning findings buttressed concerns within the party that Mrs. Clinton and her aides may not get through the government's investigation without a finding of culpability somewhere.

With Mrs. Clinton reportedly soon to be interviewed by the FBI, suggesting that the investigation is winding up, a definitive ruling by the attorney general could be issued before the July 25 Democratic convention in Philadelphia. Given the inspector general's report, a clean bill of health from the Justice Department is unlikely.

Finally, with Mrs. Clinton's negative rating nearly as high as Donald Trump's, and with voters not trusting her by a ratio of 4 to 1, Democrats face an unnerving possibility.
Students taking notes in adult education classroom

Many distressed 7th/8th grade parents and high school parents come to us at Synocate asking us if they should send their child to private school. The main objective is to give their child more resources and a better opportunity to attend great universities. Some parents believe that going to private school has a direct correlation to the type of college their child will be accepted to. In this article, we want to dispel the myths of private vs. public school, the challenges at each, and the benefits of going to each. In the end, the decision is a personal one, but by illuminating our experiences and those of thousands of students, we can shed some light on this important decision.

1. Private schools increase my chances of admission

Private schools offer many good courses, extracurricular engagements with research programs, and most importantly, other students that have a similar mindset. In our experience, the seriousness of other students and the quality of teachers is generally high at private schools. Parents sending their children to these private schools value education and want the best for their child. They are also able to afford the tuition.

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Although there is likely a significant correlation between private schools and admission to top universities, the causation is unclear. We believe it is a combination of conscientious parents, good teachers, fellow students that are driven, and strong opportunities inside and outside of school to build a story.

Yet these factors do not necessarily need a private school. Students and parents themselves can find opportunities, build a story, and find tutoring help if needed. The benefit of a private school is all of these resources are in one place, and students get to consistently engage in conversation with teachers and students who are like-minded.

2. Colleges do not know the difference between local high schools

Many universities have regional admissions officers that learn about the schools in the area, down to the number of AP or IB courses each high school offers. These university officials also are in contact with your high school guidance counselor and sometimes with teachers directly. The differences in number of AP or IB offered, course difficulty, and activities offered are standardized because these regional admissions officers learn about these differences and communicate them to the broader admissions committee when reviewing applications.

3. School clubs are not very good at my high school, will I be at a disadvantage?

This is partially true, but think about the broader landscape - millions of school clubs exist throughout the country and students create thousands of new clubs each year in order to stand out in college admissions. At private schools, it is often easier to start new clubs. Some students and parents believe this key fact will be how they get into their top choice schools. The reality is school clubs is one of four types of activities that students must do. The other types of activities - out-of-school, social work, and competitions, are equally important for admission to university.

4. Public schools are overloaded with students and I will not be able to stand out

This is sadly often true - and the statistics around college guidance counselors to student ratios are dizzying. We did an analysis from the NACAC data on these ratios and found that across California, the average guidance counselor has 950 students.

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Parents can combat this trend by hiring external tutoring and counseling, being proactive and finding opportunities for students through their network and online, and generally watching deadlines and stepping back to make a plan before the school year stars. This does sound stressful, but it is worth it. Creating a framework for high school is important, but overloading a student with deadlines and timelines can be overwhelming as well. It is about identifying your values first, then your goals, and finally how you will achieve these goals in discrete steps.

Private schools often have lower ratios, but that means that all private school students have more access to guidance counselors. The sheer number of applicants to the Top 70 universities in the United States points to the fact that the extracurricular standard is higher for private school students. Regional admissions officers know all of these nuances and account for them when reviewing applications.

In the end, the choice between public and private high school is a personal one. You must look at your value system and how much you value the convenience of having resources in one place. In terms of admission, the Ivy League schools and others are able to standardize the admissions process through regional admissions officers, unweighted GPA, and other measures. In our opinion, and those of many universities, going to private school does not automatically increase a student's chances of admissions - the challenges become different instead. Instead of focusing on joining a few school clubs, students must stand out in out-of-school activities from their peers who are also focused.

In either scenario, students and parents should find analogous activities that complement their extracurricular story. At Synocate, we are building a searchable database of past summer activities and school year activities that is crowdsourced by our past students and those willing to help the next generation of high school students. Other ways to find activities include looking in the local newspaper, asking friends or fellow parents, and asking your school counselor or teachers for more resources.
News / National

by Thobekile Zhou

HIGHER and Tertiary Education minister and Zanu PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo has said missing activist, Itai Dzamara could indeed have been abducted.Dzamara, who is believed to have been abducted by suspected State security agents near his Harare home in March last year after staging a series of solo anti-President Robert Mugabe protests, has grabbed global attention with oppositionparties and diplomats based in Harare accusing government of not doing enough to account for him.In May last year, Moyo triggered a storm when he opined in a BBC interview that Dzamara, who disappeared without trace 15 months ago, may have voluntarily skipped the country's porous borders."People disappear every day and you mention one person, but in fact, we have quite some porous borders. A lot of people cross borders without our knowing," Moyo, who was Information minister then, said.But on Tuesday, in response to questions from his followers on micro blogging site Twitter, Moyo said he regretted his statements."On Dzamara, while a lot has been said, including by me, the scary and indubitable fact is that he was abducted in broad daylight. So yes, it's regrettable that I have said things that have unfortunately conflated and confused a missing person with an abducted person," he said, adding he felt for the Dzamara family.
Seventeen-year-old Robert Cenedella walked into his first class at the Art Students League of New York with a small-sized art pad. Scanning the room, Bob realized he was the youngest student in the classroom. "You're going to need a bigger pad," George Grosz, the late German painter, said to Cenedella. The aspiring artist would continue to study under the tutelage of Mr. Grosz (albeit with a much larger pad). Their relationship sparked the beginning of a lifelong commitment to art as a medium for social activism and personal expression for Cenedella.

Born in Massachusetts on May 24, 1940, Cenedella learned at a young age that he was illegitimate. His birth father was a family friend, a professor at Colgate University. After writing a controversial paper opposing atomic bomb drills, Cenedella was expelled from high school. Like his stepfather, who lost his job after being accused of being a Communist, Cenedella refused to compromise his beliefs and endured the consequences.

Daily life in New York City was a wonderland of mythical inspiration for the artist. Cenedella's landscape of peep shows, penny arcades, gritty subways, and streets jammed with bumper to bumper taxis showcased a frenzied circus of satirical humanity. Cenedella's fascination with soaring skyscrapers mirrors a dense, concrete jungle where harried New Yorkers push, pull, scuffle and brawl their way through the city.

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42nd Street (1983)

"As a painter," says the artist, "I've always felt that the still image ends up being more powerful than the moving image. The still photographer can catch the moment; the painter can create the moment."

The death of George Grosz was a devastating loss to Cenedella. In 1962, he painted The Death of George Grosz (1962), an homage to his mentor.

During the 1960s, as Abstract Expressionism was eclipsed by Pop Art, Cenedella continued to paint in the tradition of Depression-era realists. Cenedella's candid visions of life were shunned by a whirling art crowd immersed in a visual lingo of soup cans and Brillo Pads. In 1965, Cenedella curated "Yes ART!," his swan song exhibition to the art world after deciding to join an advertising agency. "Yes ART!" criticized Pop Art and the marketing spin that made it famous.

Le Cirque - The First Generation (1998) depicts notable celebrities and socialites dining at Sirio Maccioni's famed New York restaurant. Cenedella sketched each diner as they frequented the restaurant over a course of many months, producing an esteemed collage of famous faces - the Le Cirque family.

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Look closely and see how many famous faces you can recognize at Le Cirque!

"You want to learn how to think with your hands." Cenedella continues to pass Grosz's sage advice to his students today. Since 1988, Cenedella holds the George Grosz Chair at the Art Students League.

On June 3rd, the award-winning documentary film Art Bastard, a long, overdue homage to Cenedella will premiere at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas and the Angelika Film Center (check out the art show in the Angelika Cafe). The film will then roll out into theaters nationwide throughout the summer.

This film spotlights Cenedella as a rebel trendsetter, as well as an artistic practical jokester. An amusing, touching film, Cenedella takes us on his life's journey, sharing intimate and professional details of his life. Cenedella is a scruffy, street savvy guy that can also make a great Italian sauce.
Louis D. Brandeis, the great U.S. Supreme Court Justice who took his seat almost exactly 100 years ago, famously wrote that "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." In another illustration of that wisdom, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that seeks to delegitimize Israel was unable to survive the scrutiny of the United Methodist Church, which voted last week to reject four resolutions aimed at taking punitive action against Israel.

The 12 million member Church voted on pro-BDS measures at each of its last three quadrennial policy conferences, culminating this year in another defeat for BDS supporters in what one proponent of the resolutions described as an effort that "pretty much went down in flames."

This is a major victory for Israel, as well as everyone who believes that the BDS movement makes progress toward a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians more difficult.

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One member of the Methodist Church in particular may have played a large role in the decision. Just days before the vote was set to take place, former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton issued a statement outlining her rationale for rejecting the resolutions.

"We need to make countering BDS a priority...and need to work together -- across party lines and with a diverse array of voices -- to reverse this trend with information and advocacy, and fight back against further attempts to isolate and delegitimize Israel," Clinton wrote. "The BDS campaign is counterproductive to the pursuit of peace and harmful to Israelis and Palestinians alike."

The bad news is that the Methodist Church failed to reverse a previous decision to remove five Israeli banks from its investment portfolio. Its justification was that Israel is "high-risk" and that the Church's pension and health benefits fund was "committed to protecting human rights."

Earlier this year, the American Jewish Congress reached out to the Methodist Church to advocate that it reconsider the decision. We respectfully pointed out that dozens of Methodist hospitals across the United States benefit enormously on a daily basis from the vast number of new drugs, innovations and breakthroughs made possible by Israeli medical technology. Following is a brief excerpt from a letter to Church leadership:

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In the 21st century, it is impossible to talk about quality health care without acknowledging the outsized contribution made by dozens of Israeli firms that are at the forefront of medical research and innovation. From the largest manufacturer of generic drugs in the world, to products used in every Methodist hospital such as heart stents, treatment for Parkinson's, various cancers, MS, pill cams that are swallowed and painlessly take photos as they descend through the digestive tract, the reliance on Israeli medical discoveries and inventions are too numerous to list. The major Israeli banks now on the Methodist Church's hit list play an important role in helping finance the high tech industry in the so-called Start-Up Nation. For an institution devoted to providing modern health care in America, I can't imagine the Church intended to do damage to a global center of medical progress that helps Methodist hospitals literally every day.

The Church now is in the curious position of standing firm against the idea of BDS, yet still leaving in place an odious example of how a short-sighted and ill-informed practice can lead to counterproductive results. By singling out Israel banks, the Church no doubt violates its own commitment to ensure that Methodist hospitals do everything possible to provide the most modern and effective life-saving medical care.

I applaud the Church for its long-standing desire to play an active role in the social and political life of the nation, and for seeking to influence public policy on matters that stir the conscience of its followers. A desire to work toward a two state solution in the Middle East that achieves dignity for Palestinians and peace and security for Israel is a goal on which we can all agree.
TV Review- Jackie K Cooper

"Bloodline" (Netflix)

The only thought going through my mind at the conclusion of the second season of "Bloodline" episodes is they better have this sucker locked down for a third season. The second season is that good and the conclusion that dramatic. If you enjoyed the first season of this Netflix series you are going to have an even bigger blast watching season two. As Margo Channing once warned in "All About Eve," you had better fasten your seat belts, it is going to be a bumpy night. And season two is more than bumpy; it is suspenseful, engrossing and above all else entertaining.

The story picks right up where last season ended. Danny Rayburn (Ben Mendelsohn) is dead and the rest of his family is trying to cope with this fact. Brother John (Kyle Chandler) is telling everyone Wayne Lowry (Glenn Morshower) did it and he wants the investigation over. Sister Meg (Linda Cardellini) has high tailed it up to New York and is trying to shake off the cloud that surrounds her family. Brother Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz) is just getting high with a little help from a hidden stash. And Mama Sally (Sissy Spacek) wants to know why her children keep lying to her.

Last year we learned Danny had a teenage son named Nolan (Owen Teague) and in season two he has a very crucial role in how things shake out. His mother Ev (Andrea Riseborough) follows him to the Rayburn family inn and tries to ingratiate herself with Sally. Where she goes trouble follows and trouble takes the form of Ozzie Delvecchio (John Leguizamo).

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There is a lot of drama woven into these ten new episodes and the scripts are beautifully written. Still the effect of the words would be minimized did you not have the brilliant cast speaking and acting them. Cardellini and Butz make their characters nervous and edgy because of their past conduct. The sweat on their skin might be humidity or it might be fear.

Spacek's Sally has a bigger role this season due to the new storylines that open up because of the introduction of Ev and Nolan. Spacek is such a unique actress you can't ignore her when she is on screen. She demands to be seen and to be heard.

Still it is Chandler's performance as John that dominates the series. There are so many emotions fluttering over his face as he tries to be so many variations of John to so many different people. Chandler was highly effective on "Friday Night Lights" but this series shows a side of Chandler's talent you have not seen in the past. He brings out the best in his fellow actors by being so completely revealing in his role.

Since the series is located on Netflix it can be binge watched. The desire to watch just one more episode at a sitting will have you flying through the total ten. And when you have seen them all you will have a desire to go back and study them all over again.

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"Bloodline" has profanity, violence and nudity. It is not for the meek viewer but rather for the strong of will who can accept flawed characters and immoral activities. The Rayburns are not a model family for anyone's values but they sure are interesting people to watch as they implode.

"Bloodline" is available on Netflix now.
With the goal of harnessing the untapped potential of Iranian-Americans, and to build the capacity of the Iranian diaspora in effecting positive change in the U.S. and around the world, the West Asia Council has launched a series of interviews that explore the personal and professional backgrounds of prominent Iranian-Americans who have made seminal contributions to their fields of endeavour. Our latest interviewee is Ghassem R. Asrar.

Dr. Ghassem Asrar is Director of the Joint Global Change Research Institute, a partnership between Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland. Prior to this position, he served as the Director of World Climate Research Program (WCRP) in Geneva, Switzerland from 2008-2013, and as the Deputy Administrator for Natural Resources and Agricultural Systems with Agricultural Research Service (ARS), of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2006-2008. He was with the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from 1987-2006. He has received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Exceptional Performance Award (1997), the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (1999), and the NASA Medal for Outstanding Leadership (2000). For more details, please click (here).

Tell our readers where you grew up and walk us through your background. How did your family and surroundings influence you in your formative years?

I was born near the historic city of Persepolis in the Province of Fars, and raised in the city of Shiraz, Iran. I was the eldest child among nine siblings. I attended K-12 and university in Shiraz, prior to leaving for the United States in 1978 to complete my graduate degrees at Michigan State University. My goal at that time was to return to Shiraz to my alma mater to conduct research and teach. My plans were influenced to some degree by observing too many loved ones suffer from the lack of medical support during my childhood, notably my uncle who died of cancer at very young age. Other contributing factors were fascinating stories that I read about pioneers such as Ibn Sina (aka Avincea) and Albert Schweitzer, both were multi-talented scientists and medical scholars. I learned about Abraham Lincoln's life and his pioneering efforts during my eighth grade English class, and this motivated me to redouble my efforts to become proficient in English to be able to read more about Lincoln and American history. My favorite subjects were the biographies of scholars and history of science and religions. I believe that my acquired knowledge in these subjects has influenced my personal philosophy and lifestyle.

I vividly recall every aspect of my education and training in Shiraz. The closest elementary school to our home was a 45-minute walk or a 20-minute bicycle ride, if one could afford one. One could take the public buses to and from school, but their unreliable schedule and highly crowded environment was discouraging. The walk to high school was shorter, about 25 minutes and more pleasant. Both offered the opportunity to become more aware of daily lives of fellow citizens, and motivated me to complete my education to serve them. On the way to high school, I recall seeing a famous poem engraved above the door of a medical clinic, stating, "Those who give in kindness and work for the good of fellow citizens will have their names and kindness remembered forever". A philanthropic family had built and dedicated several such facilities to serve the citizens of Shiraz. The most difficult time in my life was the loss of my mother at the age of 58, who had been my mentor and motivator.

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My academic career was less than a decade long, but very rewarding professionally. I worked with more than 25 students, postdoctoral fellows and visiting scholars from US, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and the former Soviet Union during this period. This helped shape my great interest in international scientific partnerships and collaboration throughout the rest of my career. The teaching, mentoring and training of students were very rewarding. During the last two years of my academic career, I coordinated a major international project sponsored by NASA that engaged more than 200 scientists from around the world to study the relationship between the earth's surface and atmosphere with the aid of a variety technologies including airplanes and satellites. The data collected for this project were used by thousands of scientists worldwide, and the resulting scientific knowledge shaped some of the next generation sensors and satellites that NASA developed and launched into space during the ensuing decades.

As chief scientist for the Earth Observing System (EOS) at NASA from 1992 to 1998, you developed a communication and outreach strategy promoting the EOS program to the public, the U.S. Congress, and international scientific organizations that still exists today. Can you tell us more about it?

I joined NASA as a Distinguished Visiting Scientist through the California Institute of Technology/Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California in 1987, and worked in the Earth Science Division of the Office of Space Sciences and Applications at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. My main assignment upon arrival was to establish two new research programs: the first focused on using the fundamental principles of physics and computer models to interpret signals detected and collected by sensors on board aircrafts and satellites, while the second focused on investigating the role of land-surface and biologically controlled water and energy exchange between land surface and the atmosphere. These efforts helped me gain a deeper appreciation for the value of collaboration among scientists and experts from multiple disciplines to solve complex scientific and technical problems, and prepared me well for my next assignment at NASA.

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In 2002, I was appointed as Chief Scientist for the NASA Mission to Planet Earth, and NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) program. My responsibilities included; 1) developing the science strategy and priorities for EOS to secure its long-term funding by the U.S. Government; 2) establishing an interdisciplinary research funding program to attract and engage scientists in EOS; and 3) a communication and outreach strategy for attracting the public interest and support for EOS. These tasks provided greater opportunity to work with a wide spectrum of audience (e.g. scientists, educators, students, public), requiring equally a wide variety of communication means and approaches. I enjoyed immensely the time I spent in classrooms, scientific and technical events, and public forum to speak about the scientific and technical challenges and opportunities that EOS offered to US and the world.

From 1998 to 2004, you served as associate administrator for NASA's Office of Earth Science. In this capacity, you had overall scientific, technical, programmatic, and organization management responsibility for Earth science, with an annual budget greater than $1.5 billion. During this period, the program developed and successfully launched 15 Earth observing satellites and developed a comprehensive, multidisciplinary data and information system (-EOSDIS) that enabled the use of data from these satellites by more than two million users. Please share with us what you have done.

I was appointed as the Associate Administrator for Office of Earth Science in 2008. During my tenure, the office developed and successfully launched 15 of EOS satellites, and developed a comprehensive and multidisciplinary data and information management system that enabled the use of observations and data from EOS by more than two million users. We initiated the development of 10 more satellites for the following decade.

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My next assignment at NASA was to serve as the Deputy Administrator of the Science Directorate and to oversee more than 250 employees and an annual budget of about $5.5 billion which covered: 1) more than 50 robotic satellites studying the entire solar system; 2) sponsoring scientific research, modeling and data analysis; 3) developing the next generation of advanced sensors and satellites; and 4) developing and operating multi-disciplinary communication networks, data and information management systems, and a wide range of airborne and suborbital research facilities at NASA Centers, U.S. universities, and major centers in the U.S. and abroad. I oversaw the design and development of more than 30 new and highly innovative robotic satellites for launch to explore Mars, Pluto, and rest of our solar system and universe in the ensuing decades.

You have been as deputy administrator for the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 2006 to 2008, where you were responsible for management and oversight of a $250 million portfolio of environment and natural resources research projects located at numerous laboratories throughout the United States. Please share with us your achievement is this period.

I left NASA in late 2005 to serve as a Deputy Administrator with Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (ARS/USDA). I was responsible for management and oversight of a portfolio of environment and natural resources research programs and projects located at a large number of laboratories and centers throughout the U.S. I served as a focal point and member of a team of experts who developed the U.S. Energy Independence and Security plan, a U.S. Presidential initiative in 2007. This provided a major opportunity to expand the research and development programs of ARS/USDA that focus on bio-based energy (e.g. fuels and power), and other products (e.g. enzymes, chemicals, vitamins, oils), from agricultural products. This required working closely with a combination of agriculture, biochemist, energy experts and engineers. A companion set of research programs explored the development methodologies for efficient and effective use of water, soil and nutrients in agricultural systems for producing food, fiber and energy from such systems.

I accepted an international assignment in 2008 to serve as the Director of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), whose mission is to "understand and predict Earth's climate system" for use in an increasing range of practical applications by decision makers worldwide. The WCRP's activities are carried out by its major project that were distributed globally in the USA, UK, China, Norway, India and Switzerland with a network of several thousands of scientists from more than 85 countries.

The main motivation for participation of scientists in the WCRP is the need for addressing complex scientific challenges that require capabilities and resources transcending individual nations and organizations. The changes constituted in the Program under my leadership during the past five years are: 1) a major focus on regional, seasonal and decade-long aspects of climate research, modeling and prediction; 2) a greater emphasis on synthesis, analysis and translation of the state of climate science and information for use in adaptation planning, risk management and socioeconomic development; 3) enhancing the use of observations in conjunction with Earth system computer models, and in analysis and re-analyses of past and present state of the Earth's climate system; and 4) a focus on building research and analysis capacity in developing regions (e.g. Africa, South Asia).

The one role that you cherish most is your contribution to the NASA education programs such as the Earth system science fellowship, New Investigators program, and National Earth System Science curriculum and education standards. You have a keen desire to educate the next generation of Earth Scientists. Is that because you believe that young leaders emerging who will be the next generation will build new field of addressing climate security as a global challenge?

I brought my passion for teaching and education from my short academic career to NASA, and later on to WCRP. I established the NASA Earth System Science graduate student fellowship program to attract students with strong math, physics and basic sciences backgrounds to focus their PhD research and training on interdisciplinary field of Earth system science at U.S. universities. This program has graduated several thousand early career scientists, who are now serving as advisors and mentors to future generations of fellowship applicants and recipients. I assisted in establishing the K-12 Earth System Science education program, and the NASA-sponsored development of introductory and advanced Earth System Science courses at more than 60 major U.S. universities and two-year colleges nationwide. We envisioned a need for this next generation of scientists and experts to pursue a career in Earth system science, a pioneering field of science promoted by NASA at that time, and also future U.S. and global scholars and teachers who are able to take full advantage of the EOS capabilities for study of Earth and its environment. This idea of investing in generation of scientists, engineers and technology experts permeated every aspect of NASA science programs.

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Your devotion to the next generation of Earth scientists is very impressive. Have you established Earth System Science Fellowship Program in Iran? Would you like to run such a program for Iranians?

Later on during my tenure at WCRP, we sponsored several hundred post-graduates and early career scientists, especially from developing nations/regions, to ensure sustained support and engagement of international experts in Earth and environmental sciences in the future. It was through this program that we were able to reach out to early career scientists worldwide, including Iranian scholars, to engage them more actively in complex science projects that require by necessity international cooperation. Quite often, U.S. and European countries and agencies sponsored participation of these scientists in such activities, regardless of the prevailing political tensions at the time. Notable were cooperation of scientists from Russia, Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa working on topics such as climate change, ozone depletion, ocean warming and acidification, warming of polar regions, etc., a coalition of scientists without borders working on most urgent scientific topics in service to global citizens.

I do hope my scientific, technical and educational contributions in some ways have benefited my birth country, Iran, and its affectionate and hospitable citizens. My childhood dream of serving the public still remains with me to this date. I do hope and wish to be able to fulfill this dream, as I imagine this to be the case for every Iranian born citizens throughout the world.

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"The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them -- especially not from yourself."

-- Daniel Dennett

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in May implored the class of 2016 at the University of Rhode Island to learn from their mistakes, crediting one of her blunders as being instrumental in getting her to the high court.

Speaking at the commencement ceremony, the nation's first Latina justice talked to the graduates about life's "ah-ha" and "uh-oh" moments, and that while both are fertile ground for personal growth, the "uh-ohs" are our best teachers.

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"The ah-ha moment is the first time you gained an insight about yourself or the world around you ... the moment you realize things around you are not as they once seemed," she said. The uh-oh ones are "where you ask yourself, 'What have I done now?'"

The justice recounted how one of her most humiliating "uh-ohs" became a life lesson.

Sotomayor told the crowd that she bombed her first interview for a government job by going in unprepared. She had interviewed with several law firms in the past, she said, and received several job offers. So, she said, she "very conceitedly" went into the government interview blind. When asked what aspects of the agency's work she liked the most, she had a horribly embarrassing "uh-oh" moment. "I had no idea what they did," she said. After that, the now 61-year-old thoroughly prepared for every job interview and was never turned down again, she said.

Embrace Your Mistakes

We're taught in both school and at work that mistakes leave a permanent mark, either in the grade book or on one's career. Robert Sternberg, a psychologist and professor of human development at Cornell University, says that trying to avoid mistakes at all costs blunts creativity. "If you're afraid of making mistakes, you'll never learn on the job, and your whole approach becomes defensive: 'I have to make sure I don't screw up,'" he told Stanford's alumni magazine for an article called "The Effort Effect." The same holds true for students. Those who are shamed for mistakes become afraid to explore, take chances and think outside the box.

Mistakes in the Business World

Did you know that some of today's most popular products were errors? Here are just a few:

Silly Putty -- This kid favorite was stumbled upon by James Wright, an engineer at General Electric. Rubber was in such short supplying during World War II that the U.S. government tasked Wright with creating a rubber substitute. While what he created didn't work as planned, the goo became a top-selling toy and has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

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Microwave oven -- An engineer with the Raytheon Corporation noticed that microwaves from a magnetron he was working on had melted the candy bar in his pocket. Intrigued, he placed several popcorn kernels near the magnetron, and boom, our kitchens have never been the same.

Inkjet printers -- A Canon researcher discovered this one when he put a hot soldering iron next to a syringe filled with ink. When the syringe shot out ink, the household staple was born. Today's printers have dozens of nozzles, equal to several of those syringes.

There's also penicillin, the pacemaker, Post-It notes, potato chips and many more that prove it's good to make mistakes.

Mistakes in the Classroom

Jo Boaler, a professor of math at Stanford, says researchers have found that when people make mistakes, their brains benefit.

"Your brain grows when you make a mistake, even if you're not aware of it, because it's a time when your brain is struggling," Boaler said. "It's the most important time for our brains."

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This finding, Boaler said, "suggests that we want students to make mistakes in math class and that students should not view mistakes as learning failures but as learning achievements ... being outside their comfort zone is an extremely important place to be."

Studies have repeatedly shown that how well people bounce back from their mistakes is tied to their core beliefs about whether intelligence is fixed or can change with learning and effort. For people with a growth mindset, mistakes are viewed as opportunities to improve. For those with a fixed mindset, mistakes signal a lack of ability. Guess who fares better? Case in point: A research review by David Yeager of the University of Texas at Austin and Carol Dweck of Stanford University finds that students who believe that their intellectual abilities can be developed and grow (as opposed to being fixed) tend to show higher achievement. Yeager will do a deep dive into the importance of mindset at this year's MAPP (master of applied positive psychology) Summit at the University of Pennsylvania.

We also know that resilience -- the ability to recover from our mistakes -- can be taught, thanks in large part to the work of Martin Seligman, a psychology professor who runs Penn's Positive Psychology Center. The U.S. Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness program, based on Seligman's research, is a preventive program that teaches both drill sergeants and soldiers skills to build mental toughness and grow from failure. "Frankly, we were nervous that these hard-boiled soldiers would find resilience training 'girly' or 'touchy-feely' or 'psychobabble,'" Seligman wrote in the Harvard Business Review. "They did not; in fact, they gave the course an average rating of 4.9 out of 5.0. A large number of them say it's the best course they've ever had in the Army."

In his latest book, Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, cognitive scientist and American philosopher Daniel Dennett discusses seven tools for critical thinking and reasoning. The first -- and perhaps the most important --is that we should use our mistakes to our advantage.

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"We have all heard the forlorn refrain 'Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!'" Dennett writes. "This phrase has come to stand for the rueful reflection of an idiot, a sign of stupidity, but in fact we should appreciate it as a pillar of wisdom. Any being, any agent, who can truly say, 'Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!' is standing on the threshold of brilliance."

So which mistake are you going to learn from today? In truth, your only mistake is simply not trying. Success or failure, it's a win-win.
Concentric rings of ripples on a puddle

This blog is taken from a transcript of a talk given by Jeff Olivet at the African Meeting House in Boston on April 14, 2016, in which Jeff was joined by Marc Dones from the Center for Social Innovation and Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health, Dr. Monica Bharel.



We Have a Problem

What an amazing thing to be in this place. A place where powerful voices and powerful leaders and powerful thinkers and powerful activists have changed the world...abolished slavery...fought for equality and human rights. It is a profound experience to stand up here at this podium. And it's hard for me to say, but I'm here to tell you that we've got a problem. We got a problem that we don't talk about a lot, so we're going to talk about it now.

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When I got into homelessness work, about 23 years ago now, I was told that homelessness was a problem of housing. It certainly is that. I was told that it was a problem of healthcare. Commissioner Bharel and I both know this to be true. We share histories with Healthcare for the Homeless programs all over the country. Certainly it's a problem of healthcare. We were told it was a problem of mental health and addiction, domestic violence. All these things are true. What nobody ever told me was that it was also a problem of racism, discrimination, oppression, and inequality.

That is the conversation we need to have.

We've got a problem. And we've got a problem that has gone back to the beginning of this country. Back to the 1640s when homelessness was first documented in Boston, Newport, and Baltimore. Back to the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, a first federal policy that actively discriminated against a whole class of people in moving Native American folks from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia out to Oklahoma. That historical displacement and historical trauma still plays out in urban Indian homelessness.

We've had a problem since we institutionalized slavery, then Jim Crow, then the New Jim Crow--the mass incarceration of Black men and boys. These iterations of racism that go back to our historical roots as a nation still play out. They play out in poverty. They play out in homelessness. They play out in who gets the jobs, who gets the houses, who ends up in jail and ends up on the street and in shelters.

We have a problem. And that problem has been well documented in the last forty years. It has been documented by a study that looked at shelter utilization in New York and Philadelphia and found that African Americans were 16 times more likely than Whites to end up in the shelters in those cities. When you look at young kids zero to five, that same study found that Black boys and girls under the age of 5 were 29 times more likely than their White peers to end up in shelter. We've got a problem. It was documented in a Census Bureau Report that came out in 2011 that said not only do African Americans and Native Americans experience homelessness at higher rates, they stay homeless longer. There's something that is keeping people of color not only from staying in stable housing to begin with, but also keeping them from exiting homelessness once they end up on the street and in shelter.

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We have a problem when the point-in-time count that happens in Boston, and Washington, and San Francisco, and Toledo and every community in this country, shows year after year after year that people of color are dramatically over-represented in the shelters, on the streets, and in homeless programs all over this country. It is documented year after year after year, and yet...and yet...in all of that research, in all of that data collection, there is so little analysis of why. There is so little discussion of what those drivers are to begin with. And there is almost never mention of the word "racism." If you'll notice, we didn't name this conversation tonight, "A Conversation About Health Disparities." We did not name it "A Conversation About Cultural Competence." Those are all valuable concepts. But we named it "A Conversation About Racism and Homelessness." It is time that we look at this problem, and it is time that we call it what it is. It is time to say there is a deep and abiding connection between racism and homelessness in the United States.

But People Will Say...

But many people are going to say a lot of things about that. You may know that I blog a little bit on Huffington Post and elsewhere, and I rarely look at the comments because you just don't want to do that. But sometimes I can't help it. In one comment to one of my blogs on racism, somebody said, "Oh, just shut up. There are a lot of White people who are homeless also." Well, of course there are a lot of White people who are homeless. Of course, there are a lot of Latinos who are homeless. There are some Asians-Americans who are homeless. But that's missing the point. The point is that we should have no homelessness to begin with. This is unjust and outrageous in a country as rich as ours and if all other things were equal, you would expect the homeless population to reflect the overall population. But that same Census Bureau report says that's simply not true.

Other people will say "yeah but this is an issue of poverty. People of color are more likely to be poor and therefore, they're more likely to be homeless." Right, that sounds logical? But if you look at the numbers and if you control for poverty, what we learn is that African Americans who are about 14% of the overall population, represent 27% of the poverty population, and between 40 and 50% of the homeless population. Something else is going on here. Something else is happening. Now some people are going to say, "Yeah, but that's a problem in the South. That's a problem of bigotry down there somewhere." Down in North Carolina where they have a hard time figuring out what to do with Trans people trying to find a place to use the bathroom. They have a hard time figuring out in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where I grew up, how to integrate the schools. When I grew up in Alabama in the 70s and 80s, we were moving towards integration and that progress has been chipped away at year after year after year. As have many of the gains initiated by the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Acts in the mid-60s. I moved to Boston in 1994 and looked around and found this place every bit as segregated as Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Not a whole lot has changed since then. This is not a problem only in Alabama or North Carolina or Texas.

Marc [Dones] and I were at a conference in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago, doing some work around racism and homelessness. We were talking to this wonderful group of folks from a very progressive town--they're doing great work. And they said, "But it's not really like that where we live...we don't have this problem, do we?" And we basically said, "Yes you do. Look at your data." This problem of overrepresentation happens in community after community after community.

Finally, people are going to say, "Isn't this a thing of past?" Remember that moment after the 2008 presidential election when we were in a post-racial society? It was great, and it lasted about 30 seconds. Then a whole bunch of people said, "Hey, wait a minute, we've got a Black president now." And hatred came out of the woodwork and took root, and now we see that hatred and bigotry playing out in the current presidential campaign. People are going to say a lot of things when we raise this problem. They're going to say, "Let's not talk about it until we have fully-baked solutions...What are we going to do about it?...These are entrenched problems, they're hard to unpack, where do we even start? So let's not open that can of worms. Let's not go there until we have a toolkit to give to communities to train up landlords on how to not be bigots...or let's wait until we can give homeless shelters all the support they need to create more diverse staff and board that reflect the faces and diversity of the people they serve."

Open Our Eyes, Open Our Mouths

There is no silver bullet to ending racism, and there is no silver bullet to ending homelessness. What we have to do is wake up and start the conversation. We've got to open our eyes, we've got to open our mouths, and we've got to start calling this what it is and talking about it. Tonight's conversation is a step in that direction. We challenge all of you and everyone in our communities to begin an open, transparent, difficult, and courageous conversation about racism and homelessness.

At this spot, right here [at the African Meeting House], in about 1829 or so, stood a Black abolitionist named David Walker. He was a Black Nationalist. He was rowdy. He should have been a Black Panther. He was ready 150 years before a lot of other people took on the Black Nationalist cause. David Walker said, "America is more our country than it is the Whites', for we have enriched it with our blood and tears." David Walker published an Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America. It was outlawed throughout the south. It was contraband, and this thing was spread around surreptitiously. People were arrested for carrying it. David Walker had a bounty put on his head. He died mysteriously either from poisoning or tuberculosis in 1830...they're not sure which. Walker went on to say, "This country is as much ours as it is the Whites', whether they will admit it now or not, they will see and believe it by and by." He had a long view of racial justice, a long view of the fight for equality.

When we talk about race and homelessness, we have to connect the two. What we see is a larger national conversation about racism. You feel that, you hear it in the news every day and see dialogues in the city of Boston, in the state, across the country, about racism. And yet the broader conversation about racism rarely includes homelessness. Homelessness is scary and difficult for many people, and it doesn't enter into that mainstream conversation. Our job as homeless advocates, as homeless providers, as people who have experienced homelessness, is to infuse those conversations about race with a conversation about deep poverty and homelessness. It is also our job to bring that conversation in the other direction, so that our conversations about homelessness include a racial dimension. We have to bring that national conversation about race into our solutions to homelessness.

I just read hot off the press this week, The State of Homelessness in America 2016. This report comes out each year from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. It covers a lot of ground, it talks about housing and services, it talks about families, and youth. It documents where we are as a country. It recommends solutions, some of which I agree with, some I don't. But it's a comprehensive document. I went through it because I figured I could find some good ammunition for this talk and found not a word about race. Not a word. We've got to infuse the conversation about homelessness with a racial dimension and a courageous conversation that goes beyond cultural competence.

We've also got to look at our own organizations. I know from many of the familiar faces in the room that many of you work or volunteer at homeless service organizations. Look around. Look at your staff and do a really good, thoughtful analysis of whether it reflects the faces and diversity and background of the people you serve. Now, as you go upstairs to the higher paying jobs, to the senior managers, to the executive leadership, to the board that comes in once a month to provide guidance to the organization. Tell me if those faces reflect the faces of the people you serve. If the answer is no--which it may be, because I see some of you nodding--do something about it. Don't just talk about it. Do something about it. Don't just do the analysis. Make changes. Do the same thing with your data. If you're with the city or the state--and I know the Commissioner is going to talk later about how we can use data to drive change--look at your data and tell me if the folks who are getting the housing slots, which are precious commodities, and the folks who are getting the slots in detox and in drug and alcohol treatment, in mental health case management...tell me if those numbers reflect the overall numbers of shelter utilization in terms of race and ethnicity. If they don't, do something about it.

We've got to open our eyes. We've got to open our mouth. We've got to start doing something about it.

One way to think about this is to conceive of our work to fight bias and discrimination in concentric circles. The first little circle is me. This is a very Buddhist way of thinking...you look at yourself first and you be there with yourself. Do that around your own biases, around your own role in perpetuating institutional racism. For the White folks in the audience, examine for real all of the White privilege that has helped you be where you are now. Unpack that and live with it and own it. If we all think about the biases and microaggressions we perpetuate against one another, that's the place to start, we start with ourselves. Then you ripple that out to the next layer...to your friends and families, to the people you love, to the people you care about. Talk about this stuff. Talk about it over dinner. Talk about it when you're out with friends. Talk about it in a real and deep way. Address it. Don't pretend like this this is not happening. Don't pretend like we don't have a problem. And then the next circle includes our organizations, our coworkers, our community, our larger networks. Make change there.

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And if we start doing that in concentric circles, we make change happen in big and lasting ways. You've got to start somewhere, and you start right here. I want to leave you with a wonderful concept from Dorothy Day, who was fighting homelessness in the 1930s and beyond through radical activism. Dorothy Day said that "what we would like to do is to change the world." Ambitious, right? She said, "What we would like to do is make it a little easier for people to feed, clothe and shelter themselves...We can throw a pebble in the pond, and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world."
There is nothing new about anti-Semitism in this country; it has a long history here. But just as anti-Semitism has crept back into public view in France and other European nations, it is experiencing a public resurgence in the U.S. as well. This vocal, brazen brand of bigotry is coming in part from the alt-right, from a subset of Trump supporters who attack Jewish journalists through social media with regularity and viciousness. And by proxy from Trump himself, who never condemns the attacks -- allowing others to feel comfortable expressing their anti-Semitism. But it's also coming from the left -- rearing its ugly head on some famously liberal, elite college campuses. And while it's often disguised in academia as anti-Zionist or pro-Palestinian, there appears to be something more insidious at work.



Anti-Semitism may be the one most obvious intersection point in the Venn diagram linking the hard right and the hard left.



Strangely enough, I've encountered anti-Semitism on my own Twitter account, despite having identified myself as coming from a Protestant background. After I wrote a Huffington Post blog called "The Newly Emboldened American Racist," which asserted that Trump had enabled racists to be loud and proud, I received a series of angry tweets from a few different alt-right Trump supporting camps, some of them including anti-Semitic messages. I made a rookie Twitter mistake: I blocked senders - deleting the tweets - rather than keeping them for the record. I did hold onto one, in part because it was so ridiculous:



"So Jennifer, you sure you're a "white protestant" and not a Jew? Your name is kind of Jewy. Guess you just take their money."



That is quite mild in comparison to what Jewish writers are encountering. Last week Jonathan Weisman wrote a disturbing piece in The New York Times called "The Nazi Tweets of 'Trump God Emperor,'" about the barrage of hate he has been receiving since tweeting an article by Robert Kagan on the rising fascism in this country. Like Julia Ioffe, the journalist who was hit with horrific tweets after she wrote an unflattering article about Melania Trump, Weisman received sickening visuals to accompany the vitriol.



"Trump God Emperor sent me the Nazi iconography of the shiftless, hooknosed Jew. I was served an image of the gates of Auschwitz, the famous words "Arbeit Macht Frei" replaced without irony with "Machen Amerika Great." Holocaust taunts, like a path of dollar bills leading into an oven, were followed by Holocaust denial. The Jew as leftist puppet master from @DonaldTrumpLA was joined by the Jew as conservative fifth columnist, orchestrating war for Israel. That one came from someone who tagged himself a proud future member of the Trump Deportation Squad."



And there was this. "'I found the Menorah you were looking for,' one correspondent offered with a Trump-triumphant backdrop on his Twitter profile; it was a candelabrum made of the number six million," Weisman writes.



Many of the haters identify themselves specifically as Trump supporters, as was the case with Ioffe.



Though given multiple chances, Trump has never condemned the Ioffe attacks. In fact Melania told Du Jour magazine that Ioffe was partly to blame. "She provoked them."



And of course Trump will never stand up for Weisman or Jeffrey Goldberg or Bethany Mandel or anyone else who receives hate mail in his name. He despises most journalists, unless they kiss his ass. He'll never publicly condemn his own supporters. This is the same man who selected a white nationalist to be a delegate to California. It doesn't seem to matter that his beloved Ivanka is married to an Orthodox Jewish man and has herself converted to Judaism. Where is her calm voice in all of this?



It's how Trump's own silence is translated by his extremist supporters that's most chilling. Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, told Huffington Post, "We interpret that as an endorsement." Anglin explained why his group stands behind Trump.



"We support Trump because he is the savior of the White race, sent by God to free us from the shackles of the Jew occupation and establish a 1000 (year) Reich."



I'd like to think that most of the haters are extremists like this guy, and losers living in their mamas' basements, hiding behind Twitter handles and photos that reveal nothing of their true identities. But I'm not so sure.



The college students spewing anti-Semitic rhetoric aren't living in their parents' basements. They've left home - purportedly to be enlightened in a progressive academic setting.



It's not just students either. Oberlin Assistant Professor Joy Karega posted on Facebook hateful and historically inaccurate commentary about Jewish links to 911, ISIS and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, among other things. The memes she posted and then took down are undeniably anti-Semitic. She is still a member of the faculty.



There's been a lot of talk about micro aggressions on college campuses. But I would call what's happening around Judaism at places like Oberlin, macro. And the great irony is that while many of these students are likely Bernie supporters or Libertarian voters, they are, perhaps unwittingly, lining up with some Trump supporters in their common antipathy.



According to Nathan Heller's New Yorker article, "The Big Easy," Oberlin student Aaron Pressman told him, "I've had people respond to me, 'You could never understand--your culture has never been oppressed.' Pressman laughed. "I'm, like, 'Really? The Holocaust?'"



Other students have talked about the idea on campus that all Jewish students are perceived as white and rich, and therefore have no claim to any kind of oppression. Even at small Oberlin, there are Jewish students who are neither white nor wealthy. Some students have heard people call the Holocaust "white on white" crime. The list of anti-Semitic offenses is pretty long, and students are feeling it.



Earlier this year, more than 200 people formed Oberlin Alumni and Students Against Anti-Semitism, in response to the growing frequency of anti-Semitic events on campus.



Anti-Semitism has been reported at many of the nation's most elite and most liberal institutions. It's not just Oberlin, but schools like UC Berkeley and UC Irvine, Northwestern, University of Michigan and some of the Ivy League schools, among others, where students are reporting an uptick in threats, intimidation, and distribution of anti-Semitic literature. Much of it is an outgrowth of the movements BDS, which calls for Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel, and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).



It is one thing for students and professors to question and debate and disagree with Israeli politics, Israeli settlements and the level of Israel's responses to Palestinian attacks - and in fact some of the BDS and SJP protestors are Jewish students. But too often, those students and professors are not talking about a two-state solution, but rather the right of Palestinians to control all of Israel. And once people say Israel has no right to exist, or when they conflate the politics of Israel with all Jewish people, when they shout "Nazi" and "fascist" at students who support Israel, when they downplay the horrors of the Holocaust, or purport that all Jews are white and privileged and therefore unentitled to claim their oppressive history or even the current anti-Semitism, then they have entered another realm - the realm of pure, unadulterated bigotry.



In an essay in The New York Post in April, Lawrence Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and President Emeritus of Harvard University - now a professor there - wrote of the environment on many campuses: "There is hypersensitivity to prejudice against most minority groups but what might be called hyper-insensitivity to anti-Semitism."



Many schools are creating safe spaces for minorities, and elevating the comfort of students over free speech. That's to be debated in and of itself. But there's another issue at work - the issue of equality. "Unfortunately," Summers says, "there is a clear exception made on most university campuses for anti-Semitic speech and acts."



If Summers is right, then college administrations must examine why this is so, and figure out how to fix it expediently. Keeping professors like Joy Karega in the classroom in the name of free speech certainly isn't helping.



There's no fixing what's happening in the Trump camp, where anti-Semitism is part of a wider collection of bigoted ideas, some of which are voiced publicly by the candidate himself - while others are supported by his silence.



In the comments on the Weisman article in The New York Times, some readers complained about the author making the leap from his fans being racist to accusing Trump of racism. But if we are to believe that Trump does not hold the views of his supporters, he must disavow them. He must speak up. Absent such clarity, we are forced to believe he is one of them.



In anti-bullying education in schools, kids are always taught that it's not enough to be on the sidelines. When you don't speak up, you become a bystander bully. At the very least, Trump is a bystander to American anti-Semitism. I would argue that with her comments about Ioffe, Melania has already shown herself to be worse.



When a Palestinian or Iranian spews hatred for Jewish people, it's de rigueur. But to hear it, and read it coming from Americans in 2016 is another thing. It's an alarm sounding, and Americans must stand up to it - expose it at every turn and fight it head on. The resurrection of the ease with which people equate Jews with money lust and other ideas that hark back to the sentiments of vengeful Germans in World War II must always be condemned loudly and forcefully.



That surely won't happen if Donald Trump is president. Instead, those voices will grow ever louder and more confident.
Can market forces shift the model from premiums

for (sustainable goods) to lowering upfront costs?

It's no secret that people are generous. They give their time, talent and treasure to support a wide range of philanthropic efforts. But in many cases NGOs are not achieving the speed and scale necessary to address the key issues of our time. Just like in business, pilots are often created but private and public sector organizations often struggle to go beyond the pilot stage.

Today some NGOs are asking if they can create a new model, based on the success of venture capital, which drives innovations to scale? And what would that look like?

Accountability for outcomes and not outputs.

Some businesses and NGOs set goals, define strategies and tactics and measure their success against those implementation targets rather than the desired results or outcomes. But venture capitalists focus on "the freedom to succeed." They define and agree on desired results but allow some flexibility on strategy and how those goals are to be achieved.

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By setting milestones for outcomes, they shift thinking from the processes, practices or tools to whether or not achieving the desired results is happening at scale.

Earlier this year World Wildlife Fund (WWF) launched a new effort, the Markets Institute. This is a new platform that convenes stakeholders from across the food sector to explore market-based, results-oriented strategies to "optimize global food sector sustainability." This 'freedom to succeed,' informs the model of the Institute.

Sounding like an entrepreneur, Jason Clay, Ph.D, Executive Director, of WWF's Markets Institute explains; "you should pursue multiple strategies in the first year; then double-down on what works, abandon what doesn't, and come up with new ideas."

"Pursue multiple strategies; double-down on what works, abandon what doesn't, and come up with new ideas."

- Jason Clay, Ph.D, Executive Director, WWF Markets Institute

As an example he talks about the issue of deforestation which, despite decades of awareness, activism and efforts remains an ongoing problem around the world. Clay looks at it from a Venture Capital (VC) perspective. As the originator of 'rainforest marketing' in the late 1980s, he wanted to prove that the value of forests when generating income from the sale of Brazil nuts and other forest products was higher than from the same land converted to pasture. In fact, as a source of Brazil nuts, an acre of forest generates six times more income than an acre of pasture.

According to Clay, this effort which would have been considered a success because it generated more income and preserved forests actually "failed because it didn't transform the larger paradigm of converting forests to pasture which still dominates thinking 25 years later."

Conditions on operating capital.

The entrepreneurial approach also focuses on aligning investment strategies with policies. In this case putting conditions on capital - such as signing a long term contract that is contingent on elimination of deforestation, using inputs more efficiently or even replanting entire plantations as a condition of market access.

An example of this is meeting the world's demand for chocolate. As demand increases producers are facing a dilemma; it takes several years before a cocoa plant begins to produce. But meeting the income needs of a family today requires farmers to maintain their existing plants (even as they become less productive as they age).

WWF has proposed that global brands commit to long term contracts for more sustainable cocoa. This allows producers to engage in longer-range planning and to amortize the cost of replanting over 7-10 years while paying producers a salary for the first three years while trees are too young to produce.

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Today, some banks are starting to put environmental, social and governance criteria on their loans. And they are also looking for those 'strategic intervention points' where the actions of one person - or one company - saying/doing something causes a cascade, such as the cocoa traders offering a single place or way to reach a larger group of producers. If one identifies those places in the value chain, it offers a greater potential for change rather than individual entities.

Using the market to transform market forces, shifts the sustainability model from permanent premiums for increased costs of certification and verification to lowering upfront costs for market access by absorbing them or amortizing them over longer periods of time.

The financial model also demonstrates how things can work differently. A recent issue of slave labor in the Thai shrimp business offers an example. Traditionally companies that saw that as a reputational risk would sever their supplier relationships. But that would not help to end the practice, it would simply remove it from their supply chain.

Both buyers and banks reached out to WWF to ask if they should walk away from the problem or help try to fix it. WWF suggested that they put pressure on the producers, as a condition of continued access to preferred markets or capital, to end the practice. Brands gave producers 60 days to show that they had developed strategies and begun to eliminate the practice or they would lose their access to lucrative markets. The result was pressure to eliminate the practice in order to keep the business relationships.
Israel seems to be undergoing a protracted period of gloom and doom. The quarreling about its future leaders and possible downfall of Netanyahu make Israel look weak and incompetent. The passing of the Iran deal and dominance of its hardliners means that within five to 10 years Iran will threaten little Israel (8,000 square miles) with nuclear bombs launched from bases only 700 miles from Tel Aviv. Hizbollah and Hamas have built up sophisticated arsenals and tunnel capabilities (replete with showers and cafeterias) for their fifth war with Israel. Radical Islamic groups are close to the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

The success of the Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement in the United States and Europe and the repeated denunciation of Israel at the United Nations bodes poorly for Israel. The inability to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after nearly a century leaves Israel vulnerable to international criticism. Israel's most rapidly growing groups (ultra-Orthodox Hasidim and Israeli Arabs) are also anti-Zionist and could reach 40 percent of Israeli population by 2050.

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But, in many areas Israel excels. If today's version of the 19th century Industrial Revolution is the High-Tech Revolution, then Israel is well placed. As Michael Dell said last week in Tel Aviv, "Israel is the center of the digital future...Israel's performance has inspired the entire world and it's important for us to be in Israel. Technology here improves by about 10 fold every five years." Fully 250 foreign high-tech companies have opened offices and research and development centers in Israel. Forbes' Under 30 Summit EMEA, which brings together nearly 700 of the leading young entrepreneurs in the US, Europe, Middle East and Africa, was held last month in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv because, in Forbes' words, "they are the most entrepreneurial places on the the planet with more startups per capita than Silicon Valley." New York's new Cornell Tech School in Manhattan is a cooperative work of Cornell and Technion. In China Shantou University is pioneering with Technion for China's first hi-tech university. In Skolkovo in Moscow Israeli hi-tech will commercialize new Russian creations.

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Israel is doing well economically. It is one of the world's top 10 arms exporters and over 40 percent of it exports are in high-tech. Its unemployment rate of 4.9% is its lowest in 33 years. Israel is conducting free trade talks with India, South Korea and China. Immigration to Israel continues to rise with over 30,000 immigrants expected this year heavily from Russia, Ukraine and France. Its Third World economy ($6,000 GNP/capita) in the 1950s has blossomed into a strong First World economy with $38,000 GNP/capita. Israel exports $2 billion of water technology worldwide.

The once hostile inner circle of Egypt, Jordan and Syria from 1948-1982 has been transformed by peace treaties with the first two countries and the disintegration of the third one. Israel coordinates in intelligence and military affairs with Egypt. An Egyptian textbook just published for 9th graders explains "the advantages of peace for Egypt and the Arab states" with a photograph of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Egyptian leader Al Sisi is offering to help Israel and the Palestinians achieve a lasting peace. Israel coordinates with Jordan on a regular basis.

Many countries send their intelligence people to Israel to learn about combating Islamic terrorism. Hizbollah, which has lost over 6,000 dead and wounded in Syria, seems unlikely to want to take on Israel again. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the likely Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates respectively, are relatively pro-Israel. Diverse countries such as France, Spain and Switzerland, have taken action against BDS.
In two recent articles titled "A Confession of Liberal Intolerance" and "The Liberal Blind Spot," New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof accuses professors in the Humanities and Social Sciences of discriminating against "conservative" academics.

He argues there's a great injustice going on at colleges and universities across the country where "liberal" professors in disciplines such as English Literature, History, and Anthropology show "intolerance" towards underrepresented "conservatives."

Kristof links this assertion with incidents where college students have shut down right-wing guest speakers to construct a center-right version of essentially the same argument Donald Trump makes against "political correctness."

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In these articles Kristof doesn't define for his readers what he means by "conservative" in the academic context, but he nonetheless claims there are legions of qualified conservatives out there with sterling scholarly credentials in the Humanities and Social Sciences clamoring to be let into academia only to be unjustly locked out by "intolerant liberals." He imposes a false conservative/liberal binary on academia, which would quickly break down if he defined his terms more clearly. He also chooses to ignore the multitude of "conservative" professors in Economics and Business departments, in STEM fields, and among administrators and trustees to focus only on the Humanities and Social Sciences.

(Memo to Kristof: Just about everything we do in the Humanities and Social Sciences does not fit into a narrow "conservative/liberal" frame, and even if it did we would require far more precise definitions of those freighted terms before we took it upon ourselves to give advice. False equivalencies and poorly defined terms are no way to make an argument against a bunch of college professors.)

"There are no quick solutions to the ideological homogeneity on campuses," Kristof writes, "but shouldn't we at least acknowledge that this is a shortcoming, rather than celebrate our sameness?"

But Kristof doesn't offer any concrete examples from course offerings, curriculum vitae, or current scholarship to prove his sweeping generalization of "sameness" in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

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"Sure, there are dumb or dogmatic conservatives," Kristof writes, "just as there are dumb and dogmatic liberals. So let's avoid those who are dumb and dogmatic, without using politics or faith as a shorthand for mental acuity."

Kristof should at least identify a couple of these "liberal" Humanities and Social Science professors are who are using criteria based on "politics" or "faith" instead of scholarly work and teaching ability to deny "conservatives" their rightful place in the groves of academe. It's ironic to see Kristof denounce "liberal dogma" since in his own opinion pieces he consistently expresses the most predictable and conventional "liberal" worldview.

Another problem that makes these two editorials so weak is their lack of understanding they show about the power relations in contemporary American society. There is no crying need to buttress "conservative" ideas in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This is a terrible argument to make in the post-Citizens United era of runaway corporate power. As Jane Mayer shows in her new book, Dark Money: The Hidden History of Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right, the "conservative" Koch brothers are not only pouring money into political campaigns, but also into the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), "Americans for Prosperity," and dozens of other think tanks and foundations, as well as heavy-handed contributions aimed to control the curriculum at many colleges and universities.

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Kristof chooses to ignore the dozens of powerful "conservative" think tanks, such as the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, CATO, the Manhattan Institute, the Hudson Institute, the Claire Booth Luce Policy Institute, the Pope Center, the Clayton Christensen Institute, the Pete Peterson Institute, and so on, which provide a steady torrent of shoddy "scholarship" that all ends up validating their right-wing ideological biases. They don't need universities anymore and certainly not Humanities and Social Science departments to ventilate their viewpoint.

These "conservative" think tanks have so much power in Washington that on any given day or night you can switch on C-SPAN and catch their panel discussions on topics ranging from tearing up the Iran nuclear deal to privatizing Social Security and the U.S. Postal Service. I doubt if any of the "research fellows" at these prestigious and well-financed right-wing think tanks aspire to be let into the History or Sociology departments of Oberlin or UC, Santa Cruz.

Then there are "conservatives," such as the Business professors Jeff Sandefer and Clayton Christensen, who advocate doing away with academic tenure and shrinking the Arts and Humanities departments at public colleges and universities. So in Kristof's universe to fight against "liberal intolerance" on college campuses we must accommodate people who would "disrupt" academia to the point of obliteration?

And let's not forget that the "conservative" governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Pat McCrory of North Carolina have implemented policies that undermine the Arts and Humanities at their public colleges and universities.

Governor Walker boasts about his efforts to get rid of academic tenure and Governor McCrory has said he doesn't believe the public should pay to enable young North Carolinians to study worthless majors like the Arts and Humanities. The "conservative" former Florida senator and presidential candidate, Marco Rubio, derided students majoring in the Humanities calling it "basket weaving."

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With this kind of anti-intellectualism and contempt targeting public universities, academics, and the Arts and Humanities coming from leading "conservative" figures Kristof shouldn't be surprised that "conservatives" aren't equally represented in Comparative Literature and History departments.

"With her experience and intellect Condoleezza Rice would enhance any political science department," Kristof writes.



Condoleezza Rice -- President George W. Bush's National Security Advisor during the false WMD scare that led the country to war in Iraq, a person who sat on the board of directors of Chevron Corporation (and even had an oil tanker named after her) -- is Kristof's big example of someone who would "enhance any political science department."

Really?

With "conservatives" controlling the House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, most governorships and state legislatures, and financed to the hilt by right-wing billionaires it's disappointing to see Kristof lament the absence of right-wingers in the Humanities and Social Science departments at our nation's universities.
News / National

by Staff reporter

WAR veterans have described the imminent introduction of bond notes as a desperate ploy by a failed government.In resolutions made following countrywide meetings with the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) members, the group resolved to demand that President Robert Mugabe sets up a commission of inquiry into thedisappearance of over $15 billion in diamond revenue, an end to corruption and the sacking of Energy minister Samuel Undenge.ZNLWVA spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya confirmed the resolutions, accusing top government officials of creating artificial cash shortages and "then turning around to announce they will print bond notes"."The printing of bond notes is a sign of government failure. The fact that they are resorting to printing bond notes to deal with the current crisis is not a sign that government has excelled. It has failed," he said."This is supposed to be a people's government, which should derive its power from citizens. We need to see the democratic aspect of governance in policies such as the issuing of bond notes.""Government must listen to its people. Zimbabweans must be consulted, educated and their concerns taken into account before the bond notes are introduced. Those in power or close to it are the ones with the money and they will mop up every saving that our people have using the bond notes. It's a ploy to benefit from another black market corruption and that is wrong. It can only leave the people high and dry."Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, John Mangudya have been at pains to explain the rationale behind the bond notes set to be introduced in October this year. A sceptical public has grilled the pair and accused monetary authorities of seeking to re-introduce the Zimdollar "through the back door".
Over the next two weeks in Geneva, the International Labour Organization (ILO) will dedicate part of its annual conference to an important discussion about how to promote decent working conditions in global supply chains.

This discussion is long overdue!

The ILO debate should start with a clear understanding of what hasn't worked. Put simply, decades of voluntary corporate social responsibility initiatives have failed to deliver living wages, safe factories, or effective protections for workers' right to organize and bargain collectively. In the last ten years alone, more than 1,800 workers have died and thousands more have been injured as a result of catastrophic fires and factory collapses that all took place in facilities labeled "safe" by private social audits performed for major multinational apparel brands. The current regime of voluntary and confidential supply chain monitoring should be replaced with initiatives, like the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, where workers and their unions have a direct role in managing, implementing, and enforcing the relevant standards. Additionally, the Accord's transparent inspection reports combined with buyers' time-bound commitments to ensure safety reforms make it possible to hold brands legally accountable.

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One issue that ILO delegates should discuss is how multinationals' business practices, including rock-bottom prices for suppliers and fast production schedules, inevitably create labor rights violations on the factory floor. Large multinationals dominate global supply chains, using their considerable market leverage to demand low prices from their overseas suppliers. Desperate to maintain the global brands' business, suppliers often squeeze workers and cut corners on safety to stay profitable. Rather than invest in ineffective audits, companies should pay prices to their suppliers sufficient to support living wages and adequate health and safety protections, as well as taxes that support the government regulators and inspectors who have the responsibility to protect workers' rights.

Business analysts argue that regulatory reforms should be evaluated against the risk that some employers may be put out of business, causing a loss in jobs. But this analysis fails to consider that replacing many bad employers, each trying to underbid the others, with fewer good employers with better paid workers will in turn generate income and jobs as the workers themselves become able to invest in their communities. Taking such a high road approach to development is nearly impossible, however, when global buyers continually seek out countries with lower production costs.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) provide useful guidance on how to make a shift in global supply chain operations through the "protect, respect, remedy" framework. The Principles advance the debate by basing corporate responsibility on impacts that business activities already have, rather than on whatever corporations may choose to address with voluntary codes. They also advance the notion that enterprises are responsible not only for human rights violations in their own operations, but for all violations connected to their operations by a business relationship with another entity. They lay out a clear model of the responsibility of business to remedy human rights violations, and of governments to protect the rights of workers and their communities.

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The UNGPs as they are currently conceptualized, however, risk simply creating a new generation of voluntary programs because they do not define minimum performance requirements or regulatory standards. Thus there is a pressing need for the ILO to develop a Convention on Decent Work in Global Supply Chains. Such a Convention should require member states to regulate the conduct of their multinational enterprises overseas and require mandatory due diligence to identify labor rights risks in supply chains. It should also create a permanent dispute settlement facility, housed at the ILO, where multinational corporations can be held accountable for breaches of existing standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.
It's that time of year again. IRCE is kicking off June 7 for a four day event at McCormick Place West in Chicago, IL. With eCommerce evolving faster than ever, this year is a can't miss for companies looking to build a strong strategy with the know-how to execute on it for eCommerce. The content for IRCE is curated by the team at Internet Retailer magazine, which is focused on all things eCommerce, so you can rest assured you are getting a conference full of industry experts, an exhibit hall filled with the latest and greatest solution providers, and a community made for networking with thousands of like-minded industry peers.

Working for a company that's known for helping brands in retail to design, build, and grow their names online, I'm excited to have the opportunity for Echidna to attend and listen to experts that live and breathe the industry daily. From 200+ speakers, 130+ conference sessions an nearly 600 vendors covering over 250,000 square feet-- putting together a schedule seems like a daunting task. It was a big undertaking, but I've narrowed it down to five must-attends.

1. Session: Taking the Re-Platforming Plunge: How One Retailer Made Sense of the Technology Options

Cherri Newbury, President and Co-Founder - DiscountCoffee.com

Thu, June 09, 2016 3:45 pm to 4:15 pm

In a world where homegrown systems are making an exit for more scalable, speedier, lower TOC cloud technologies, this is a can't miss. Making sense of the options and choosing the right vendor are daunting tasks that have paralyzed some e-commerce execs. But not Cherri Newbury, president and co-founder of DiscountCoffee.com. Her company has been through replatforming four times and knows very well that choosing the right vendor can take longer than implementing the technology. She will discuss how to manage finding a vendor, then implementing the technology. Among her topics will be: how to make sure the vendor you choose can actually do the work you want, how to understand the language of technology so you get what you think you're getting, how to create clear communications, how to make sure the vendor's staff can work with your staff, and more.

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2. Mozu Booth #329

Mozu is the cloud commerce platform that simplifies enterprise commerce. Mozu drives top line revenue, optimizes the bottom line and keeps retailers on top of technology with SaaS updates. Top Internet Retailer brands like Bluefly, Jelly Belly, and Shindigz use Mozu as their eCommerce platform. Even better, the Echidna team created a Mozu accelerator to get brands traditional commerce project timeline lowered by up to 50%, allowing organizations to rapidly build and deploy fully functional, rich, responsive eCommerce experiences, while also streamlining future upgrades and ongoing enhancements and dramatically reducing total cost of ownership (TCO). Plus you get a free Mini Jambox and will be entered to win a DJI Phantom 3 Drone and Apple Watch just for setting up a demo and swinging by. Request an appointment here.

3. Session: How a 100-Year-Old Electrical Supply Company Became an E-Commerce Powerhouse

Michael Mayer, Director of E-Business Strategy & Commerce - Crescent Electric Supply Co.

Tue, June 07, 2016 9:00 am to 9:30 am

It is great to see so many B2B focused tracks this year. Mayer will discuss how Crescent Electric, a company with $1.2 billion in sales, is going through a major shift in how it goes to market. Michael will discuss how the company built the e-commerce team, created content, and addressed pricing, functionality and e-marketing. He will explain how the company overcame both internal roadblocks, such as commissions, salespersons' resistance and field education, and external roadblocks, such as communication to customers and coordinating customer's existing processes with e-commerce processes. He'll wrap up with how the company revised its strategy based on what it learned from its early efforts.

4. Meet 1:1 with an eCommerce Expert

Don't miss your opportunity to connect with one of our eCommerce experts to discuss any and all things about designing, building and growing your brand online. If you have questions on what the right eCommerce platform is for your brand, what a re-platform entails, improving site conversion through a strong User Experience or having us do a complimentary digital marketing assessment to understand what your competitors are doing and how to you improve your brands marketing online then this meeting would a great use of your time while at IRCE. You also get to take away a free Mini Jambox and are entered to win an Apple Watch, simply for meeting.

5. Session: Prescriptions for the Growing Pains of Mid-Market E-Retailers

Steve Elkins, President - WEBS America's Yarn Store

Darren Hill, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder - WebLinc

Gabrielle Gallo, Head of E-Commerce - The Sak Brand Group

Wed, June 08, 2016 1:15 pm to 1:45 pm

This session will bring together mid-market retailers in all phases of growth to share their experiences and lessons. Attendees will hear strategies for ramping-up an e-commerce team, meeting customer service needs, scaling marketing efforts and more. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the key performance indicators they should monitor to ensure they don't outgrow order management systems, warehousing or fulfillment, and that their platform can scale with growing traffic and catalog size.
(Photo Credit: Kelly Frazier)

For their 10th anniversary, the Columbus, Ohio-based Rock on the Range was bigger and better than ever, so I traveled down I-75 to US-23 from Detroit to get a taste of what has become one of the nation's best music festivals for hard rock and metal. Bands both new and seasoned from all flavors of rock-n-roll descended on the Ohio town for the three day event and it was a testament to the regional music community we have here in the Midwest and that rock is not dead.

One of the many bands I was able to chat with included the Los Angeles-based psychedelic rock band The Shrine, who's three members Josh Landau (guitar/vocals), Courtland Murphy (bass), and Jeff Murray (drums) formed the band back around 2008 because of general love of rock-n-roll and just to do something more with their lives basically, and music has let them play for audiences across the globe.

How did you guys meet?

Jeff Murray: Josh and Court went to high school together in Santa Monica. I was just a fledgling drummer in Los Angeles.

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Josh Landau: Yeah, we both went to Santa Monica High School. I was a punk kid, Court was a metalhead and afterwards, we met at a party and started talking about Thin Lizzy. We kind of met in the middle and started jamming. We met Jeff. There's not a lot of stuff going on in West Los Angeles despite the reputation and all the history and all the rad shit, so it was like really frustrating trying to get something together, to get some rock-n-roll for us and our friends.

How did all of those influences of punk and metal mold together into this band?

Jeff Murray: Its all rock-n-roll.

Josh Landau: They cross over in a bunch of different ways.

With the frustrations of what was going on in your area, how were you able to break out of your locale?

Jeff Murray: Because we were frustrated with everything outside of our area also, so we wanted to take what we were doing further out.

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Josh Landau: We got some really good friends in some other good bands locally, but there's not a lot going on so we didn't really have a choice. We had to venture where anybody would have us. We played in coffee shops, in warehouses in downtown LA, and anywhere we could. We took any show we could for a while and met a lot of cool people, then realized a lot of people all over the world, like in Japan, feel the same way. They feel like there's not much going on in their spot, so somehow we can, on a shoestring budget, wing it over there and people want to see us play.

What inspires the band?

Jeff Murray: Everywhere we travel, we meet bands that are on the same page as us. We always make really good friends with other bands. The whole skateboarding thing is the red thread that runs through everything. When we first started touring Europe, we'd find places to stay by just going to skate parks.

Josh Landau: The thing that drives the band to want to in a band is the desperation to escape normal life.

What are your future aspirations for this band?

Jeff Murray: If you can be as old as Alice Cooper and still be doing the same thing Alice Cooper does, then that's pretty cool.

Courtland Murphy: That's a success story.

When you were first started this band, what were your thoughts about how this band was doing to sound?

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Josh Landau: It was a front for a drug operation. (laughs)

Jeff Murray: First it was a restaurant (laughs). It was all about being loud. Josh, at the time, had huge amp stack. Me and Court came over for the first time to jam and we saw all of that and was like we knew we were home. That's where to jam even to this day is in that same studio with the same kind of amp stacks.

Courtland Murphy: No real preconceived notions. We're not going to be a punk band or a metal band necessarily, just jamming to it and see what comes out.
One unscrupulous person on an author team can wreck your reputation.

Recently a major journal in my discipline asked me to provide peer-review for a manuscript. With a half-dozen manuscripts from my lab open and splayed across three oversized computer screens, I certainly didn't have time to take on additional reviewer duties. But the subject warmed my interest. I was glad to give a little service to the journal, and the paper's authors are recognized for their compelling work. I decided to critically evaluate the submission.

I read the paper over a one-and-a-half-hour flight from Atlanta to Detroit, taking careful notes in the margins. The data were presented clearly and were interpreted conservatively. They tested a sound hypothesis with a reasonable approach. The scope and quality were consistent with the journal's typical articles. I only picked up a few simple errors and a noted handful of suggestions. As wheels touched runway I felt positive about writing up a recommendation for publication with minor revisions.

The next morning the first email in my inbox was a note from the Associate Editor, indicating the paper was declined without my review. It turns out that another reviewer recognized exact figures from a paper that was submitted, reviewed and declined months before. The same figures were cropped and re-labeled for this new, unrelated manuscript. Manufactured data. The journal issued a harsh rebuke to the authors, and cc'd the reviewers, thanking us for our time.

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I was shocked and saddened. The PIs on the project were top notch in their area. These are competent scientists and noted scholars. These were not sleazy scientists intent to pollute science-space with misleading information, so I could not imagine that they'd deliberately falsify data. My heart sank for them, as I suspected a deeper problem must exist. One of the other authors must have fabricated the figure, jeopardizing the integrity of the entire work.

You'll never believe what happened the next day.

A little backstory. Several weeks before I conducted the aforementioned review, I received an email from a journal indicating that I was named as an author on a manuscript submitted to a journal in my discipline. This was indeed curious. I didn't submit a paper, and while I knew some folks on the author team, I did not see the manuscript or even discuss the project. I contacted the corresponding author and demanded they withdraw the paper and allow me to at least see what I submitted.

The group submitting the work was not in the USA. The lead author was a brilliant student that spent a wonderfully productive year in my lab as part of her degree, taking her coursework in her home country and using time under my direction to forward her research. It turns out that upon returning home she discovered something new in our data, and since she developed the data set under my advising and input, she appropriately included me in the authorship team when publishing the new finding.

But to submit without my endorsement was a massive lapse in protocol, and the manuscript was withdrawn from the journal's review process without hesitation. I soon received a copy of the manuscript and began my critical evaluation. The data looked good but the writing was not acceptable, featuring over-interpretations of what were suggestive, but not conclusive results. It took me two full days to rewrite the manuscript and tone down the hyperbolic language, making it an acceptable paper for publication. It was not big-new science, but certainly an incremental advance. My feeling was that the work would not be acceptable for the journal they chose.

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I was right. The day after it was submitted, it was declined. But my heart sank as I read the rejection notice on my smartphone screen. The Editor-in-Chief, a leader in our field and someone I deeply respect, wrote that the paper was rejected because a figure in the submitted work was identical to one that the same group published the year before, only with different labeling. Between cold sweats and a sick stomach, I cradled my head in my hands contemplating this chilling coincidence.

Only the day before the paper I reviewed was declined because of a rigged figure. Now a paper where I was an author was disgracefully disqualified for the same reason.

The queasy feeling quickly gave rise to deep gratitude to the Editor-in-Chief. I don't know that it was standard practice to go back through a group's previous publications, but in this case he did, and he eagle-eyed the doctored figure. I am so grateful that this never was published, or even wasted a reviewer's time. These days I find myself in the cross hairs of activist groups that would celebrate a retraction with my name on it. This editor's oversight saved me tremendous embarrassment and hassle, let alone a permanent asterisk on my reputation.

As for the co-authors, I don't know what happened and I don't care. When they contacted me I did not respond and never will. Someone on that author team put my reputation at risk for a paper of marginal significance. My former student was always trustworthy and I could not fathom this being her doing, but someone on that author team massaged a false figure. When I look at the two figures side-by-side, it is clear, this was no mistake -- this was boldfaced misconduct. I don't know who to blame, and frankly I never will bother to find out. That relationship is over.

These two events in scholarly publishing fraud illuminate several important points. First, for this to happen two times in two days is an incredible coincidence, but underscores that this kind of misconduct must be more rampant than we think. Second, be grateful to the reviewers and editors that keep this deceit out of print, and we all should strive to make such cross checks part of our evaluations. Most of all, know your collaborators, everyone on the author team. In both cases above, it is almost certain that such malfeasance was perpetrated by a single person that took the shortcut of cut-n-paste rather than actually doing the work, without anyone else being wise to the fraud.

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Graduates! (Nataraj Metz/Flickr)

It's that time of year again ... when college graduates put on those awkward gowns and head off to commencement, where they sit in the sweltering sun or a stuffy stadium, waiting to grab their diplomas and meet up with their families while half-listening to distinguished speakers dispense timeless wisdom and advice.

Which means it's time for all of us to download some of that wisdom and advice. So here are the don't-miss graduation speeches of 2016.

1. President Obama at Rutgers: "ignorance is not a virtue"

Obama threw shade at Donald Trump without naming him in his address to Rutgers:

"It's not cool to not know what you are talking about. That's not keeping it real or telling it like it is. That's not challenging political correctness. That's just not knowing what you are talking about."



2. President Obama at Howard: "you've got to have a strategy"

At Howard University, Obama had some tough love for young people with passion, saying that's just not enough:

"Change requires more than righteous anger. It requires a program and it requires organizing. Passion is vital, but you have got to have a strategy."



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3. Graduate student Donovan Livingston at Harvard: "Lift off"

This grad's unique and powerful spoken-word-poem-as-speech has gone hyper viral. Watch it for pure inspiration:

"I belong among the stars. And so do you. And so do they. Together, we can inspire galaxies of greatness for generations to come. No, sky is not the limit. It is only the beginning. Lift off."



If you haven't watched it yet, you must:

4. Steven Spielberg at Harvard: "empathy for every soul"

Master filmmaker Spielberg got thoughtful about hatred and discrimination:

"To me, the only answer to more hate is more humanity. We have to replace fear with curiosity."

5. Richard and Mary Templeton at Southern Methodist: "when life throws you a curveball"

You've never heard of them before, but Richard and Mary Templeton are two leaders in the tech world, and they shared what they've learned and how they've coped since Mary became paralyzed in a freak accident, including this pearl:

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"Small and steady steps can be quite big and spectacular. They move you to a bigger place."

6. Sheryl Sandberg at Berkeley: "choose joy and meaning"

As the chief operating officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg is one of the most high-profile people in tech. Last year, her husband, Dave Goldberg, suddenly died. In a speech at Berkeley a year later, Sandberg spoke about his death and her experience for the first time in public:

"My hope for you is that you can find that gratitude--not just on the good days, like today, but on the hard ones, when you will really need it."



7. Michelle Obama at Santa Fe Indian School: "ask for help"

Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico has about 700 Native American students in grades 7 to 12. And this year they invited the First Lady of the United States to speak at their commencement--and she accepted. She shared her personal life story and told the graduates:

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"I want you to keep pushing forward. Just keep pushing forward. And I want you to reach out and ask for help. I know your teachers tell you that all the time, but please understand that no one gets through college--or life, for that matter--alone. No one. I certainly didn't."



8. Madeleine Albright at Scripps: "there is a special place in heaven for anyone who speaks truth to power"

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sparked controversy earlier this year when she suggested that women should vote for Hillary Clinton because "there's a special place in hell" for women who don't support other women. At Scripps, she alluded to that comment and went much broader on the value of diversity:

"The challenge for our leaders is not to eliminate the diversity of these perspectives -- for that is not possible. The challenge is to manage them -- and when necessary, moderate them -- so that we are not defined primarily by what keeps us apart."



9. John Lewis at Washington University in St. Louis:

Representative John Lewis is an icon of the civil rights movement. He spoke powerfully at Washington University in St. Louis about how he helped change the world for the better when he saw how black people were treated unjustly in the pre-Civil Rights era South:

"The action of Rosa Parks and the words and leadership of Dr. King inspired me to find a way to get in the way. I got in the way. I got in trouble. Good trouble, necessary trouble. ... You must leave here and go out and get in the way. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you must have the courage to stand up, to speak up, and find a way to get in the way."



10. William Foege at Emory: "avoid a life plan"

Have you ever had smallpox? No? Then you can thank William Foege. He's is an epidemiologist, which means he studies how diseases get distributed in certain places and populations. Back in the 70's, Foege developed the strategy that ended up wiping out smallpox. At Emory, he shared the story and lessons of his life in chapters, like Chapter 2, Life Plans:

"When I was your age, everyone was telling me to develop a life plan. My advice? Avoid a life plan. You cannot imagine what will be invented in the future. You cannot imagine the opportunities that will be presented. You enter a world of infinite possibilities, confusing ideas, continuous changes. But a life plan will limit your future."



11. Sonia Sotomayor at University of Rhode Island: "the uh-oh memories"

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor revealed some of the moments she is less proud of--and why those moments matter:

"The 'uh-oh' moments are worth cherishing just as much as 'ah-ha' moments: Mistakes, failures, embarrassments and disappointments are a necessary component of growing wise. We can learn more from our not-so-good experiences than we can learn from our good ones."



12. Lin-Manuel Miranda at Penn: "the stories we tell"

The creator and star of the smash Broadway hit Hamilton dazzled Penn talking about the stories we choose to tell:

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"Stories are essential. Don't believe me? In a year where politicians traffic in anti-immigrant rhetoric, there is also a Broadway musical reminding us that a broke, orphan immigrant from the West indies built our financial system, a story that reminds us that since the beginning of the great unfinished symphony that is our American experiment, time and time again immigrants get the job done. My dear terrified graduates, you are about to enter the most uncertain and thrilling period of your lives. The stories you are about to live are the ones you will be telling your children, and grandchildren, and therapists."



13. Elizabeth Warren at Suffolk: "you have to be willing to fight for what you believe in"

Senator Elizabeth Warren got political in her commencement speech, but that wasn't the best part. She was most inspiring when she was dropping science about the power of knowing yourself:

"Knowing who you are will help you when it's time to fight. Fight for the job you want, fight for the people who mean the most to you and fight for the kind of world you want to live in. It will help when people say that's impossible or you can't do that. Look, if you take the unexpected opportunities when they come up, if you know yourself, and if you fight for what you believe in, I can promise that you will live a life that is rich with meaning."



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14. David Gergen at Elon University: "there have to be creative solutions"

If you watch a lot of political talking heads on TV, you probably recognize David Gergen. He's a commentator who has worked in four White Houses advising Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. He's also from North Carolina, which is at the center of major political controversy this year. So it's interesting that he spoke at Elon, which is in NC, about getting beyond left and right to stand up for what's truly right:

"Enough is enough. For those of us who have stayed on the sidelines, it is time to stand up and be counted. It is time to raise our voices against this darkness. Indeed, it is time for fellow citizens of all stripes - white and black; young and old; native and newcomer; men, women and people of chosen gender - everyone - to join forces and preserve the best of who we are as a people."



15. Bill Maher from the future: "the oysters are dead"

Here's commentator Bill Maher's commencement address--from 25 years in the future, when Lady Gaga is president:

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Can't get enough? Here are 5 more worth checking out:

- Hank Azaria at Tufts--using his "Simpsons" voices

- Peter Thiel at Hamilton College, talking tech

- Harry Connick Jr at Loyola University New Orleans on kindness and humility

- Writer Maria Popova at Penn, on avoiding cynicism

- Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland--at the high school he graduated from
The Nepalese bordering gate to India in Birgunj. Photo: Wikipedia

An open border with India and weak controls at border raises concerns that international terrorist groups could use Nepal as a transit point.

Nepal has experienced no significant acts of international terrorism, although its open border with India and weak controls at border raises concerns that international terrorist groups could use Nepal as a transit point.

The latest report by the United States also focuses and claims that international terrorist groups could use Nepal as a transit point. According to the report, "Nepali law criminalizes activities related to terrorism, including the financing of terrorism. While Nepal has specialized units to respond to terrorist incidents, law enforcement units lack the capacity to effectively detect, deter, and identify terrorist suspects. An open border with India and relatively weak airport security hamper efforts to implement effective counterterrorism policing."

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South Asian countries are experiencing significant terrorist violence. India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan are on the frontline. Because of Nepal's open border with India, terrorist groups can exploit Nepal for safe heaven.

This risk is already high because of weak controls at the border between India and Nepal. Weak control at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport is another major loophole that international terrorist groups could misuse Nepal to hide or conduct activities.

The Indo-Nepal border is open. Nepalese and Indian nationals can move freely across the border without passports or visas and can live and work in either country. People of both the countries can cross the border at any point, despite the existence of border check posts at several locations. The whole length of the border is not monitored; illegal movement of goods and people is a common feature on both sides. Criminals commit crimes in either country and cross the border to hide and escape punishment. Yes, anybody can cross the border easily. Criminal, terrorist, smuggler, pickpocket or civilian can cross the border without obstacle.

The trafficking of girls from Nepal into India for forced prostitution is one of the easiest and busiest slave trafficking routes anywhere in the world. Open border between Nepal and India make trafficking simple and difficult to catch. None of the treaties between Nepal and India ever mentions the procedures for the regulation of the Nepal-India border.

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There is no immigration control for Nepalese migrating to India or Indians coming in Nepal under the 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty between India and Nepal. The Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty (1950) had agreed to grant to the nationals of one country in the territory of the other the same privileges on matters of residence, ownership of property, participation in trade and commerce, movement and other privileges of a similar nature. The treaty provides for an open border between the two countries and allows Nepali nationals to work in India without a work permit, to apply for government jobs and the civil services.

Nepal is a transit point of fake currency racket because of the open border between India and Nepal. Smugglers are using Nepal as the transit point for fake currency racket. Fake Indian currency worth millions make their way to India from Nepal and Nepal from India daily through the open border. The same route is taken to smuggle arms. Besides, the open border has been grossly misused for other purposes.

The open border harms Nepal much more than India. Because of the open border, India has encroached on Nepalese territory at dozens of places. More terrorists with illegal arms and ammunitions cross over to Nepal than the other way round. Smuggled Indian goods and material are in plenty in Nepal because of the open border. Archaeological materials such as ancient bricks and materials of Lumbini area (birthplace of Lord Buddha) have been smuggled to India. Because India is constructing duplicate structures to draw the attention of the world, saying as Buddha was born in India. They are trying to distort the historical facts due to lack of the controlled border system between two countries.
Some 'Monkey Poses' You May Want to Try 

Have you ever been at Pashupatinath in Kathmandu, Nepal? You would not be allowed to go into all the temples unless you are a Hindu. Only Hindus are allowed to enter inside the main temple of Pashupatinath where a Shiva's Nandi bull can be seen from the rear.

If you are not a Hindu, you can still visit around Pashupatinath area and have fun. Monkeys around Pashupatinath are enough to entertain you. Pashupatinath area is a major habitat of monkeys in Kathmandu valley. Many old monkeys are lazy but baby monkeys are active.

Due to human contact, monkeys act like a human at Pasupatinath. They eat like a human. They walk like a human. And they sometimes behave like a human. They like to eat junk foods than their natural food. They are interested eating biscuits, noodles, and cold drinks.

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If you are planning to go there, don't tease monkeys. They will become aggressive. They can bite you. They steal food, shiny objects and will take things from your hand or bag. Beware!
For a few years now Google has been making big announcements in the spring, and they've usually revolved around mobile - in 2013, there was the announcement of Enhanced Campaigns, which did away with the old best practice of creating separate desktop and mobile campaigns. Every year since then we've gotten more and more mobile ad types and features, and this year is no different.

Google continues to emphasize mobile-first, which means that the look of the SERP is changing in ways that favor the mobile experience. Of course, paid ads need to adapt to the mobile-first world too, and today Google has announced some new and interesting changes to AdWords, rolling out over the next few months, that PPC marketers need to know about.

Yesterday I flew out to the Google Performance Summit and got an exclusive first look at the newest ad formats and features coming to Google. Here's everything you need to know moving forward about these big changes coming soon to AdWords.



Check out: Industry Reactions to the Big News from #GoogleSummit

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1. New Local Search Ads to Appear on Google Maps

Last month, my colleague Erin Sagin wrote about Google's announcement that Maps would be part of the Search Network moving forward, speculating that "we're likely to see significantly more ads appearing on the maps platform."

She was right. Google had unveiled what it calls the "next generation" of local search ads. These new ads will appear within Google Maps (on the app as well as both the desktop and mobile versions of the site), as well as across Google.com.

In the new ads, brand logos and offers will appear directly on the surface of the map, rather than just alongside the map. For example, if you were to search on Google Maps for [electronics store], you'd see the following:

You can clearly see Best Buy's logo on the map. Clicking on that logo leads to this mobile local inventory ad format:

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Why the Focus on Google Maps?

Google Maps now has more than a billion users and people visit 1.5 billion destinations based on their Google searches. As Google noted, location-related searches:



Account for nearly a third of all mobile searches.

Have grown 50 percent faster than overall mobile searches in the past year.

To drive more online traffic from Maps to local businesses, Google is working on other new ad formats, such as promotion pins. Here's an example of a promotion from Walgreens:

You can see that an offer for $3 off contact lens solution appears right below the map and local store information.

Also, Google is revamping local business pages. Two key changes here: Advertisers can highlight an in-store promotion, and users can search local inventory. Have a look:

This is a nice integration, giving advertisers the ability to add logos and offers.

However, the ad targeting here is a bit complicated. Ads show based on queries, but Google is also looking at several other context signals (similar to display advertising), such as personal browsing history, similar users, time of day, interests, and behaviors.

This should open up a good amount of local ad inventory. I know I use Google Maps a lot - not as much as search, but when I'm looking for local business I'm equally likely to look on Maps or Search.

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For more coverage of Google Maps Search Ads: 10 Things You Need to Know About the New Google Maps Local Search Ads

2. Expanded Text Ads Get Double Headlines & More Characters

Google eliminated right side ads from the desktop SERP in February as a way to create a more unified Google experience across devices. Now text ads are about to undergo a significant change.

With new, expanded text ads, headlines are about to get much bigger - advertisers will soon be able to have two 30-character headlines, up from a single headline of just 25 characters. In early testing, Google found this change dramatically increased CTR - by as much as 25 percent.

Here's a look at the difference between old ads and new expanded text ads on both mobile and desktop:

At WordStream, we've found that adding an ad extension or call extension to mobile text ads tends to increase CTR by about 12 percent. So it makes complete sense that the CTRs for double headlines would be even higher.

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In addition to more clicks, Google said longer headlines will be more useful for advertisers, and result in better qualified traffic for advertisers.

This change is huge - literally. Particularly with so little space on the smartphone screen, this headline change is great news for advertisers (as usual, not so much for those on the organic side).

In addition, Google is expanding the number of characters that can be in the description line. Advertisers will soon have the ability to write a single 80-character description line, a 5-character increase over the current pair of 35-character description lines. You'll also notice that the display URL has been removed, as AdWords will automatically extract the domain from the final URL. Advertisers can then add in one to two paths to enhance the display URL.

Note that these bigger ads are coming to both mobile AND desktop. You'll want to jump on this opportunity right away rather than let your competitors beat you to the bigger ads.

You can learn more about the new ads in this post: 10 Things You Need to Know About Expanded Text Ads.

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3. Better Measurement of In-Store Conversions

You know people are clicking on your AdWords ads and this is driving traffic to your local business, but how much exactly? AdWords can now help more businesses bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds by measuring in-store conversions.

Technically this isn't "new" (Google says more than 1 billion store visits have been measured so far in the past two years), but it's still a pretty big deal. Soon in-store conversions will become more widely available to more types of businesses, which is critical considering 90 percent of sales will happen in stores, as opposed to online.

The beautiful part is that Google simply looks at phone location history to determine whether the person who searched and clicked on your ad ended up walking into the store.

As an example, Google cited Nissan UK, which discovered 6 percent of people who clicked on ads went to the dealership, resulting in 25x ROI.

4. New Responsive Display Ads

Get ready for Responsive Display Ads. Soon you will just have to give Google a URL, headline, description, and image, and Google will create responsive display ads for you. You will be able to run ads that adapt to the content of the websites they're on and apps in the GDN. This includes native ad inventory.

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This is really cool because it's a pain to create ads for all the different formats (skyscraper, leaderboard, square, rectangle, etc). Google is eliminating this hassle with Responsive Display Ads - they will figure out the best format for your ad depending on where it is being served.

Expect all these changes to roll out later this year.

5. Changes to Device Bidding

Finally, some changes are coming to the AdWords bidding process.

Currently, advertisers set a base desktop bid and then set mobile bids as a multiplier on the base bid. This was introduced with Enhanced Campaigns. (And tablet is stuck with desktop, something a lot of PPC people have complained about, though tablet searches only account for about 5% of traffic and aren't growing.)

Going forward, this is all being decoupled. You will have the ability to set mobile bids, desktop bids, and tablet bids independently or make them dependent on each other. This gives advertisers a little more flexibility and further enforces Google's mobile-first viewpoint (why start with the desktop bid if everything is moving to mobile-first?).

A Note on the Updated AdWords Interface

At the Performance Summit, Google also revealed an early look at the newly designed AdWords interface, which is coming in 2017. I provide a more in-depth look at the new design and features in this post.

We live in a mobile world. More than 50 percent of the trillions of searches conducted on Google every year come from mobile.

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That's why, every year, Google is innovating in mobile to provide a compelling experience for users and make sure advertisers are able to reach consumers at key moments.
Johanne Belanger was appointed President & CEO of Tourism Toronto in September 2015. She leads Toronto's Destination Marketing Organization representing and serving over 1,100 Association members and partners.

An internationally-acclaimed Industry Builder, Johanne is a multiple-award-winning business leader, international speaker, tireless volunteer and mentor.

President of Freeman Audio Visual Canada from September 2005 to June 2015, she received numerous industry accolades during her tenure, including the 2014 International Association of Exhibitions and Events (IAEE) Outstanding Achievement in Industry Leadership Award and an induction into Meetings + Incentive Travel's (M+IT) 2014 Hall of Fame. She also cofounded Freeman Women's Development (FWD), a program established to advance women as leaders at Freeman and contribute to an environment where the best talent goes to succeed.

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Prior to joining Freeman Audio Visual, she spent 14 years in a variety of roles including finance, operations, purchasing, sales and marketing. Proficient in English and French with a chartered accountant (CA) designation, she applies her multifaceted skillset to several charitable and industry organizations.

In 2009, she was nominated to serve on the Board of Directors for Tourism Toronto. In 2012, she was elected to fulfill a two-year term as Chair, focusing on promoting and selling the greater Toronto region as a remarkable destination for tourists, convention delegates and business travelers. Following this, she held the positions of Past Chair and Chair of the Governance Committee.

She was also appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for InfoComm International, the trade association representing the professional audio visual and information communications industries worldwide. Since 2009, she has fulfilled such roles as Member at Large, Secretary Treasurer, President-Elect and President. Today, she is Immediate Past President and Chair of the Leadership Search Committee.

A charter member of the Women of InfoComm Network (WIN), a global community of members and other professionals committed to supporting and empowering women in AV and technology, Johanne represents WIN at live speaking engagements around the world.

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How has your life experience made you the leader you are today?

My father has been a great mentor to me since a very young age. He dedicated his life to retail and therefore was always in the public eye. I always admired his ability to strike up a conversation with ANYONE, be engaged in meaningful communication and leave that person feeling like they were the most important person in the world. I try to do that with all the people I interact with and hope that one day I will be half the person he is.

My multiple battles with cancer are proof that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Every day I live life to the fullest and try to make as many meaningful contributions and connections as I can. Nothing is insurmountable as long as you have your health.

How has your previous employment experience aided your position at Tourism Toronto?

This is my first time working for a not for profit organization. In my board volunteer experience with InfoComm International, our CEO at the time used to always say that "not for profit is a tax status and not a way to operate a business," so my 25 years of working for for-profit companies will allow me to bring business principals and discipline into this new position.



My ten years as the President of Freeman Audio Visual Canada exposed me to the meetings and business events industry which provides me with different insights with which to have communications with meeting planners as we encourage them to come to Toronto to host their meetings. Don Freeman, who I reported directly to for a number of years, taught me to be a servant leader. He practiced that every day with all who he came into contact with.



Although I thought that my six years being a member of the board of Tourism Toronto would provide me with a real leg up to start my new job, it quickly became apparent that the responsibility as a board member was very, very, different than assuming the staff position and seeing how complex the organization is and what it does. It does however provide me with good insight on how to interact and engage with my current board.

What have the highlights and challenges been during your tenure at Tourism Toronto thus far?

One observation is that there is a lack of complete understanding about what it is that Tourism Toronto does and the impact of what we do for our city.



We have begun working on redefining our culture and values as we begin the journey to creating a three-year strategic plan that will be socialized with our members, partners and stakeholders.



One clear thread with the employees at Tourism Toronto is that each of them has an overwhelming passion for our destination and feels privileged to be selling and marketing our city around the world.

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What advice can you offer women who would like a career in the travel industry?

Be passionate in whatever segment of the travel and tourism industry you choose to spend your time in. Be a constant learner. And make sure you like working with people on a daily basis.

How do you maintain a work/life balance?

I don't actually believe in work/life balance. I operate under my "four quadrant" philosophy - personal, work, community and family. I believe in being 100% present in whichever quadrant is a priority at the time. By its nature, balance means compromising and in a compromise, there is always some dissatisfaction. So at times, work is a priority and I give myself permission to focus in this area and allow other items in other quadrants to take a back seat until they become the priority and I move around as required. Over time, as I have gotten older, and hopefully a little wiser, I have ensured that I spend sufficient time in my personal quadrant and not feel guilty taking time to take care of, and focus on me.

What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?

Unconscious bias; Women don't raise their hand often or fast enough. They tend to wait to be asked!

How has mentorship made a difference in your professional and personal life?

I have had many mentors throughout my life, some of which have been on a more formal and focused basis; while others have been more informal and specific to the issues at hand. I am grateful to everyone who has helped me along the way; but some of the greatest learnings I have had is when I assumed the role of mentor. It is true what they say that when you volunteer, you get back ten-fold what you put in, as such, I have learned as much when I was the mentor as I did when I was being mentored.

Which other female leaders do you admire and why?

Gloria Steinem - Gloria is the individual, in my first recollection of discussions about equality for women, from my youth - the PIONEER. In a way, Sheryl Sandberg, with her very successful Lean-In book and follow-up activities, is our modern day Gloria Steinem for me. They opened discussions to be had, with both men and women equally. I have had the pleasure of listening to Hillary Clinton live and found her very inspirational, smart and a role model to learn much from, both from a professional and personal stand point.

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Restroom Unisex

Outing the true culprits hiding in the stall: transmisogyny and gender-based violence.

The great American bathroom controversy continues to plague the political wasteland as bathroom bills and other discrimination-based proposals accumulate in courtrooms nationwide like flies on fresh manure. North Carolina's recently approved Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act House Bill 2 (HB2) banning transgender people from using the public restroom that corresponds with their gender identity is but one example of how gender matters can fan the fires of American ignorance and bigotry, leaving nothing but noxious fumes in its wake.

The recent state anti-LGBT measures (many introduced following the legalization of same-sex marriage) are but veiled attempts at maintaining the primacy of patriarchy and the heterosexual status quo -- at considerable cost to the public. To some, investing millions, if not billions, of dollars into policing bathrooms appears to be a worthwhile investment, even if it means that cuts to education, health care and other social services remain in place or deepen. Clearly, we don't need a Trump to prove that at bottom we are a nation that panders to our lowest common denominator: crap.

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Last week, officials in 11 states filed a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's May 20th action aimed at protecting the rights of transgender students in public schools. The lawsuit states that the Obama administration "had no authority to direct the nation's public school districts to permit students to use the restrooms that correspond with their gender identity." It also claims that the administration "conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment, flouting the democratic process, and running roughshod over common sense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights."

Common sense should absolutely play a role in this debate, first by putting an end to the absurd notion that states should have the right to force some public school students into environments that are detrimental to their health and wellbeing. Similarly, common sense should prevail over fantasy, or the invention of "a problem that doesn't exist as a pretext for discrimination and harassment, " as Attorney General Loretta Lynch warned in her recent public statement expressing support for the transgender community. Lynch is referring to the fabrication of theories like the now debunked bathroom predatory myth as justification for crafting b.s. infused legislation. Flush away the scum and the root problem floats to the surface.

Under the guise of protectionism (i.e., keeping women's bathrooms and locker rooms "safe"), NC Governor Pat McCrory and his cronies have said that allowing transgender women to use the women's bathroom "defies common sense and basic community norms by allowing...a man to use a woman's bathroom, shower or locker room." This statement first reveals the governor's ignorance about gender identity and then makes explicit that the impetus behind the state's latrine lockdown is in fact to protect women from men in bathrooms. Citing religious beliefs, McCrory and friends stake the transphobic claim that trans women are in fact men. This well-established fallacy then segues into underlying supposition of their argument: men are dangerous and women must be protected from them (by other men, presumably, in bathrooms). Yes, the Governor is talking about predatory cisgender men disguised in women's clothing. The bill does not include provisions for just how this penis patrol would be enforced .

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Without a doubt bias against the LGBT community drives the steady increase in bills targeting basic human rights and bodily integrity. In addition to restricting bathroom use, HB2 is drafted specifically to exclude protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people by prohibiting local governments from implementing nondiscriminatory policies that go beyond those established by the state. Yet, the proliferation of toilet talk cluttering the landscape obscures what the commode crusaders have revealed is the root cause pushing the bathroom bills: the threat of gender-based violence. (The term gender-based violence, more commonly referred to as male violence or violence against women, allows for a broader recognition and understanding of the connections between violence and gender to also include lgbt people and children.)

By attempting to transfer responsibility for the hypothetical threat of violence onto the shoulders of transgender women, moral outrage has trumped rational thinking effectively outing cisgender men like McCrory as the hypothetical perpetrators in the bathroom violence scenario. What about the vast majority of men implicated in McCrory's villianization of his brethren who are not in fact sexual predators? They join the growing ranks of collateral damage along with the rest of us.

The manner in which restrooms are organized reflect social and political priorities, so it comes as no surprise that gender segregated bathrooms are a relic of paternalist practices, constructed by men for the women they sought to protect. Through patriarchal practices, men have dictated the moral landscape under which (their) women and (their) progeny can be kept safe and pure (think miscegenation) -- and then devised the means to accomplish this end. When women joined the workforce in factories outfitted with newly constructed indoor plumbing, it "triggered a paternalistic impulse to "protect" women from the full force of the world outside their homes." Enter the "ladies" or "powder" room.

The conservative led quest to retain sovereignty over the nation's physical and moral landscape has already resulted in the steady erosion of reproductive rights, a campaign aimed at overriding women's physical autonomy under the guise of protecting the unborn child (along with the wayward mother). The restriction of trans* access to toilets is a natural extension of such body politics, by exercising control through body shaming and fear tactics. To satisfy their insatiable appetite for dominance, state lawmakers have elected to sink millions of wasted dollars into the cesspool of hate and intolerance instead of exploring more economical, common sense approaches like creating more gender-neutral bathroom facilities and implementing gender and diversity education programs.

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Returning to the nexus of bathroom ban, gender-based violence poses a significant threat to the health and well-being of all women. Not violence carried out in women's restrooms, but in parking lots, dorm rooms, private homes, in marital beds, etc. etc., etc. In fact restrooms remain one of the safer environments (presumably because most people use these spaces for their intended purpose). According to the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization RAINN, "Approximately 50 percent of all rape/sexual assault incidents were reported by victims to have occurred within 1 mile of their home or at their home; 7 percent take place in a school, 13 percent take place at the home of a friend, neighbor, or relative, and 18 percent take place in a public area, such as a commercial venue, parking lot, or park." Trans women are especially vulnerable to sexual violence with nearly 70 percent experiencing verbal harassment in a situation involving gender-segregated bathrooms and 10 percent suffering a physical assault.
News / National

by Staff Reporter

A man from Chikombedzi in Chiredzi has appeared in court after chopping off his father's head with a machete and then removed some parts which he said were to be used for rituals that were going to make him rich.Masvingo Mirror reported that Rodrick Chauke (23) of Davata Village, under Chief Sengwe in Chikombedzi, chopped off his father`s head and removed his right hand after he was allegedly told by a traditional healer that if he brings his father`s hand he will be rich.Chauke appeared before Chiredzi Resident Magistrate Constance Mutandwa on Monday facing murder charges.The State led by Doubt Phiri alleges that on March 1, 2016 Chauke came back from South Africa and was not feeling well. In May he visited a traditional healer Solani Chirhilele for herbal medication and on May 12, during the night he fought his wife Constance Baloyi for unknown reasons and his wife sustained injuries on her back, neck and right hand.The State said his brother and father tried to restrain him from assaulting his wife and it was during that commotion that the accused armed himself with a machete and ambushed his father James Musikwa and chopped off his head.He also amputated Musikwa`s right hand and wanted to remove his inner parts. Relatives searched for Musikwa only to find his lifeless body later. Asked why he committed the offence, Chauke said he was told to do so by a traditional healer for him to be rich.He said he was told to bring his father`s palm. Chauke was not asked to plead when he appeared before Mutandwa and was remanded in custody to May 30, 2016.
The Presidential Nomination 2020:

Part 2 - The Republicans

The Republican presidential nominating process was crafted by the RNC to quickly nominate a consensus candidate with broad general election appeal. The 2016 process and its result obviously did not go according to plan.

But the fault was not in the rules, although they certainly can be improved. The fault lies with a party that for 50 years has been nurturing an ever shrinking base, often playing the race card and advocating policies antithetical to basic American values. The party has alienated the emerging American electorate.

It is not only the delegate selection rules that nominated an authoritarian, racist, misogynist, anti-immigrant demagogue as the Republican presidential nominee. But nonetheless party leaders, seeking ways to avoid a repeat of this catastrophe, are now looking to their nomination rules for a better 2020 outcome. The goal of rewriting the rules should go well beyond tweaking elements that did not work well in 2016, but in using the rules to encourage the formation of a winning coalition that addresses the needs of all Americans, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, gays and women.

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For the 2016 contest, the Republicans "front-loaded" their calendar with many critical primaries and caucuses in February and March, hoping to winnow down the presidential field early in the spring to then rally around a presumptive, electable, consensus nominee and focus early on general election issues.

They also inexplicably established a system of proportional representation for early contests - through March 15 - that rewarded losing candidates with large numbers of delegates, thus inducing them to stay in the race long after it was clear that they could not be nominated. The next phase of the process was "winner take all," that allowed a factional demagogue to prevail even while only earning a plurality of each state's votes. The process was bitter, personal and chaotic and the nominee arguably unrepresentative of Republican principles and values.

So now the Republican Party begins its quadrennial dance of trying to adjust rules to improve its system and nominate a candidate who at least has a chance to secure 270 electoral votes, a difficult prospect for almost any Republican given U.S. demography and all but impossible for Mr. Trump.

Here are some unsolicited suggestions from a Democrat and a political scientist who will happily attend Hillary Clinton's inauguration next January. I helped craft my own party's rules for a number of cycles and thus speak from thought and experience.

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Confederation or Federation?

Democrats have strong national rules enforced for all state parties. Republicans on the other hand, reflecting their governing philosophy of "states rights," allow each state party an all but totally free hand in crafting nomination rules. Thus Democrats require broad, representative, national participation and transparency in the entire process. The multiple, idiosyncratic and confusing Republican rules prevent the RNC from establishing and enforcing party policies that would help to nominate an electable candidate.

The Republican chaos of the spring of 2016 was in large measure a result of a "states rights" mentality that allowed each state party to independently design and execute its delegate selection procedures. Unlike the national Democratic Party which took authority away from individual states as far back as the unseating of the segregated Mississippi Regular Democratic Party in 1964, Republicans continue to have a laissez faire nomination process that is difficult to understand and that lacks consistency, transparency and fairness.

The Republicans will have to decide whether their party remains a loose confederation of state parties, or becomes a federal system with control, regulation and accountability from the top. In other words, the Republicans will have to decide whether they are truly a national party.

The RNC should standardize and regulate delegate selection procedures. It should codify specific guidelines that must be followed by all state parties and approved by the RNC. Once approved, challenges would only be brought to state delegations for violation of approved plans.

Candidate Right of Approval

Trump argues that the system of delegate selection is unfair because it doesn't give the voters what they voted for. He earned delegates bound by law to him in primaries. But the delegates themselves were selected by a separate, often non-transparent and unadvertised system and frequently turned out to be hostile to Trump.

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These delegates could very well vote against Trump's interests on credentials, rules and platform issues. While they are required to vote for Trump on the first ballot, they could desert him on subsequent roll calls once they were liberated by state law. He won hundreds of delegates in primaries that turned out to be in fact supporters of his opponents, contradicting the primary voters' intent.

The RNC says that the system was known. But being known does not make it fair. Candidates are entitled to delegates that they have earned, and voters are entitled to having their presidential preferences expressed by their state delegations throughout the convention. There is a simple solution.

The Democratic Party, faced with the same phenomenon of "disloyal delegates" who do not represent primary results, adopted a binding rule called "Candidate Right of Approval". The rule is clear and simple. Presidential candidates must approve all delegates pledged to their candidacies. A Clinton delegate must be approved by the Clinton campaign. A Sanders delegate must be approved by the Sanders campaign. Such a rule for the Republicans would have eliminated the anomalies in state after state delegations where Trump won the primary, but a majority of the delegates were actually supporters of other candidates. Simple rule, simple change.

Proportional Representation

To prevent the nomination of a fringe, unelectable candidate, the Republicans should slow down the process that they recently accelerated. They should put obstacles in front of a rush to judgment. They should give the majority of their constituents time to rally around an electable alternative to a potential demagogue. In 2016 the Republicans required proportional representation, which chopped up delegations among many candidates, only through March 15th, and then permitted "winner-take-all", that allowed Trump to put away the nomination despite the objections of the national Republican Party and the Congressional Republican Party and most Republican Governors, not to mention the majority of Republican voters.

Requiring proportional representation through the very end of the primary calendar would allow Republican voters to take a breath, and potentially for the convention to rationally select a candidate who reflected the values of the party. After the 2016 experience, and Donald Trump's frequent tirades against minorities, women and the press, a slowing down of the primaries seems to be in order.

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The Calendar

Front loading speeds up the selection process. The Republicans hoped a front loaded system would quickly result in an electable, consensus candidate.

It did just the opposite. The calendar should be "back loaded" providing another systemic means to allow Republican electorates ample opportunity to rationalize and evaluate potential Presidents. Many more states should hold their primaries and caucuses in May and June, and fewer in February, March and April.

The RNC should also rethink allowing the same four early states to stand alone. Just because Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada have been the "chosen" in the past does not mean they should always lead the nomination process in the future. The Republicans could allow states to go at any point in the calendar year of the convention, or group states according to region, time zone or demography, thus broadening representation throughout the process. For the sake of avoiding Trump like disasters in the future, slow is better than fast, late is better than early.

Broadening the Demographic Base of the Party

After the 2012 Romney defeat the RNC conducted an "autopsy" to try to determine why they kept losing the popular vote in presidential elections and what ccould be done to reverse the process. They determined that the party should reach out to key groups to expand their party base. The targets were to be African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians and women.

The national and state parties have done little to implement these recommendations. If demography is destiny, the RNC had better move fast both in symbol and substance to make their party look and sound like the real America.

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The demography of Republican National Convention delegates is awkward, unrepresentative and often embarrassing to the party. The visual of heavily male, almost all white state delegations sends a hostile signal to minority groups and women across the country. The media frequently reports that Republican convention managers sometimes import minority group individuals to sit in delegations to make it appear that they are delegates, even paying and employing concession workers at the convention arenas. This problem can be addressed.

The RNC should require each state party to submit a comprehensive plan with their delegate selection proposals for party approval. These plans should outline the steps that each state party would be required to take to advertise to demographic targets, and reach out for their inclusion on the delegations.

The easiest way for Republicans to deal with female representation is to adopt what the Democrats have adopted: "equal division of each state delegation between men and women." Anti-quota Republican leaders shouldn't faint at this suggestion. The RNC is required to be half men and women. Each state has a Republican National Committeeman and Republican National Committeewoman. So do what the Democrats have done. It is not a quota; it is "equal division." It would be a first step, albeit just symbolic, but it would be the beginning of a process to make the Republican selection process representative of the U.S. electorate.

Ex-officio Unpledged Delegates

The Republican Party should make Republican Members of Congress and Republican Governors as automatic delegates to future Republican National Conventions. After 2016 it is clear that the party needs a "safety net" to ensure that a fringe demagogue does not lead it to the national and down-ballot catastrophe likely for 2016. Elected and party officials not only have their own constituencies, but they are loyal to the party. They belong at the Convention. They have a major stake in the selection of consensus, electable presidential candidates.

Conclusion

These are just a few ideas that would help the Republican Party to regain its footings and address the new realities of American politics. System Theory tells us that a system - social, economic, ecological or political - must respond and adapt to changes in the environment if it is to survive. The demography of the United States is a ticking time bomb for the Republicans. They must adapt and change if they are to survive. As someone who believes in a competitive two party system, I hope they do.
June 1-7 is National CPR-AED Awareness Week. It's time to start teaching all students CPR and how to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) before high school graduation.

Flashback. It was 30 years ago. I was moving from New Jersey to Indiana and I only had a few days left before heading west. So I took a chance. Just before the big move, a friend drove me to the city to meet with an editor at PARADE Magazine. I wanted to write an article about the need to teach cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in schools. Widespread CPR training was then--and is now--a passion of mine.

I will never forget how gracious Fran Carpentier was in listening to my pitch. Okay, she said. Send us something. And so I did. "These Children Can Save Lives" was published on April 13, 1986. I was shocked... and elated. The article described several successful resuscitations by students who had learned CPR in school and stated, "Proficiency in cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be a requirement for graduation."

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Now, 30 years later, thanks to the tireless efforts of advocates nationwide, 33 states have made it a requirement for students to learn CPR before high school graduation. However slowly, we have come a long way.

But one has to wonder what the other states are waiting for. As the late Peter Safar, MD, one of the inventors of CPR used to say, CPR is a basic life skill. It should be something that everyone learns from an early age, just as everyone learns how to brush their teeth.

And now, CPR is easier to learn than ever. And immediate bystander action, coupled with widespread deployment of AEDs in schools and other community settings, means the chances of survival have increased dramatically.

Frankly, there are no excuses.

Sudden cardiac arrest is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., affecting about 1,000 people every day in the U.S. On average, only 10 percent of victims survive. But when victims are treated quickly with CPR and defibrillators, the chances of survival increase fourfold. The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation's survivor network is a testament to the fact that early bystander intervention saves lives.

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It's hard to imagine a more important school subject than learning how to save a life.

June 1-7 is National CPR-AED Awareness Week. What better time to advocate for CPR training in schools. If your state does not require CPR education before graduation, it's time to demand change. Creating a new generation of lifesavers could mean the difference between life and death for thousands of future victims of sudden cardiac arrest. Let's claim a future where survival is the rule, rather than the exception.

In case you need a refresher, here's what to do if you suspect sudden cardiac arrest:

Recognize that the person is in trouble and decide to make a difference. Remember, the victim's heart has stopped beating and without treatment, he or she will die within minutes. Your actions can only help. Call 911 and ask someone to bring the nearest AED to the victim's side if one is available. Press hard and fast on the center of the chest at a rate of 100-120 times a minute. What does that look like? Imagine compressing to the tune of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, or "Love Story" by Taylor Swift. That's it. Mouth-to-mouth is no longer required.
A wooden court gavel next to a sign that says abortion on it.

Utah recently became the first state in the union to require that anesthesia be administered to fetuses aborted at or after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Pro-choice opponents of the Utah law argue that the best medical evidence indicates that fetuses do not feel pain until roughly 27 weeks. Moreover, they say, the administration of untested fetal anesthesia could jeopardize the health of pregnant women seeking abortions.

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These are legitimate concerns, but they do not argue against requiring fetal anesthesia. No one can deny that at some point prior to birth, the average fetus experiences pain and other sensations. If the Utah law mandates fetal anesthesia at a point in pregnancy when it would do no good, then the cutoff should be moved to later in pregnancy. If there are not current medical techniques for providing fetal anesthesia without jeopardizing the woman's safety, such techniques should be developed.

Is that all that should be done? Why doesn't the Utah law go further and ban abortions of pain-capable fetuses? Some other states have recently enacted laws doing exactly that, and similar legislation has been introduced in Congress.

The pro-choice community regards Utah's law and the pain-capable abortion bans as a threat to the abortion right. They are that, but they also challenge the conventional pro-life position.

According to the orthodox pro-life view, abortion is immoral and should be illegal from the moment of conception. In this view, a one-celled zygote has as much of a right to life as a 20-year-old college student, because each is a unique individual human being.

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Yet the pain-capable abortion bans rest on a very different rationale. They assume that the right to continued existence depends on the fetal capacity to experience pain. Of course, no one would want to live for the purpose of feeling pain. Pain-capable abortion bans are based on the notion that the capacity for pain is an indicator of other capacities as well. These laws treat sentience as the divider between a mere potential someone and an actual someone. Sentience is simply the ability to have experiences of any kind. It is the difference between being a someone and a something.

Zygotes, embryos, and fetuses have human DNA before fetal sentience, but by drawing the line where they do, pain-capable abortion bans invest sentience with moral significance that mere membership in the human species lacks. That distinction challenges conventional pro-choice and pro-life commitments. It also has implications for how human beings treat non-human animals.

After all, humans are not the only sentient beings on the planet. And if sentience, rather than membership in the human species, grounds the right to life of late-term fetuses, then why shouldn't other sentient animals also have a right to life? Cows, chickens, pigs, and fish are all sentient beings capable of experiencing pain, pleasure, and, as ethologists are increasingly discovering, other emotions.

The Utah law does not ban abortions of pain-capable fetuses. In that respect, it might be analogized to laws that limit the slaughter of animals to humane methods. Killing is permitted, so long as it is painless.

In fact, however, laws governing humane animal slaughter are woefully inadequate by design. For example, the federal Humane Slaughter Act does not cover birds, even though billions of chickens are killed for food each year. Meanwhile, uneven enforcement and the unfathomable numbers of animals raised and killed for food mean that suffering is routine even for the kinds of animals that are covered by the Act.

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The analogy to humane slaughter does not fit for another reason. The pro-life backers of the new Utah law probably would have proposed banning all abortions if Supreme Court cases finding a constitutional right to abortion did not prevent them from doing so. Similar pragmatic considerations also explain why the Utah legislature stopped short of banning abortions of pain-capable fetuses. Such laws have been struck down when challenged in court.

Utah's law and the pain-capable abortion bans raise important scientific and moral questions about late-term abortions. By shifting the focus from arguments about when human life begins to when sentience occurs, they also should lead us to question our routine exploitation and killing of billions of sentient non-human animals.
If you happen to be a journalist or just a plain old citizen in Colorado, you have a legal right to ask for information under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA).

Unless you happen to live here in Basalt--in this bucolic town where the waters of the Frying Pan and Roaring Fork Rivers happily commingle to produce year-round, world-class, gold-medal flyfishing.

Unless you happen to be Mary Kenyon, a marketing guru who lives in Basalt, does consulting work for the Town, has a law degree, and had the temerity to ask for all communications--before and after election day in April 2016--between Mayor Jacque Whitsitt and Town Clerk Pamela Schilling, when Whitsitt was a candidate for Mayor and Schilling's duties included being designated Election Clerk.

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The week before the election, Schilling complained to other workers at Town Hall that "Jacque is driving me crazy with all her election texts."

Whitsitt defeated Rick Stevens by only 21 votes in a bitter election about the future of a town now sitting on a plum piece of downtown riverfront property ready for redevelopment. Any election shenanigans, no matter how small, may have been enough to swing the vote in Whitsitt's favor.

"If this election process continues to be flawed," Kenyon said. "Why would anyone vote? I started this journey to assess the mistakes being made."

Citing CORA, Kenyon asked for all the records, including emails and text messages, but there was a problem--a big one--because both the Mayor and the Town Clerk had deleted all the text messages between them, violating the CORA law by not producing the records--a misdemeanor--and compounding their potential problem by destroying the records.

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Title 18-8-114 identifies these actions as an "Abuse of public records," a Criminal Code Violation because "the person knowingly destroys, mutilates, conceals, removes, or impairs the availability of any public record...."

The penalty for a Class 1 misdemeanor is a fine of $500 to $5,000, 6 to 18 months in jail--or both. The Class 1 misdemeanor is considered the most serious offense of its kind in Colorado.

Instead of simply producing the records, the Town of Basalt decided in Executive Session to sue Kenyon--and to simultaneously fire a warning shot against those who might deign to legally question the Mayor, the Clerk, or the results of the election. The irony is that when Whitsitt's husband made a similar request for records earlier in 2016, he received the information from the town, including text messages, without a hitch, and without the Town filing suit.

In Basalt, Colorado, it literally helps when you're in bed with the right people.

Verizon Wireless was able to produce the text records surrounding the April 2016 Basalt Town election, albeit without the text, which gets deleted by the telecommunications carrier after three to five days. Because Whitsitt and Schilling deleted the text of the texts, so to speak, the only thing left to retrieve from Verizon was the frequency of the texts between the Mayor and the Town Clerk, a development first reported upon by Elise Thatcher of Aspen Public Radio on May 26, 2016.

And here's the kicker. In the weeks from March 18 to April 12, 2016, there were 114 text messages sent between the Mayor and the Town Clerk, who happen to be close friends. Why would the Election Clerk and the Mayor, running for office, text each other 114 times--including 7 times on election day and 24 times the day after the election? Why would they delete those texts if they were not somehow incriminating?

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According to Thatcher's report, in an email on April 21, Basalt Town Attorney Tom Smith "told Town Clerk Pam Schilling that text messages 'constitute correspondence in electronic form and are public records.'" Even so, Whitsitt and Schilling both deleted the texts, and the Town of Basalt sued Kenyon for asking.

"Town attorney Tom Smith maintains the deleted messages are not a cover-up for election tampering," Thatcher reports. "He also says Whitsitt and Schilling did not make a mistake by deleting the messages in the first place."
Note: The following guest blog first appeared in the Northern Dutchess News in Dutchess County, New York. Story and photos by jim donick

They called it "The Great War" or, more optimistically, "The War to End All Wars." It was only after we became embroiled in another one that it simply became known as "World War I."

In Europe today--especially in the Champagne region and along the slopes of the Chemin des Dames, France, where so much of the butchery took place--they still call it "The Great War."

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Memorial Day had actually begun after the American Civil War, but was pretty much confined to North America. World War I changed it entirely. This was the very first conflict where so many young Americans were called up and sent away to a foreign land to help protect the ideals that had formed our country.

Many of those young people were laid to rest in cemeteries near where they fell, such as those at Oise-Aisne and Aisne-Marne in France. With this war Memorial Day became a global experience for the United States, even for individuals here in the Hudson Valley. Some of our own sons and daughters are buried there.

There had been overseas excursions before, like the Spanish-American War and Gen. John Pershing's efforts earlier in the century in what became known as the Mexican War.

This one, though, was different. The European powers had been at war since 1914 and any misconceptions they may have had about a short-lived conflict or about an easy and/or glorious victory were long dispelled by the time the United States entered the conflict.

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Aside from a newfangled war in the air that had a degree of chivalry and romance to it, The Great War was anything but great, except, of course, in size and in the price that was paid. On the ground, this one was fought in muddy trenches and over a desolate "no man's land" that came to be dominated by a relatively new weapon of war, the machine gun. We'll leave the gas and other horrors for another time.

Into this grinder of young bodies came the United State of America. During the war, the U.S. mobilized more than four million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including 43,000 to the influenza pandemic.

Though officially neutral, the U.S. had been involved from the beginning in supplying the allies and had paid a price in the submarine war of the Atlantic. Additionally, a number of idealistic young Americans had gone to Europe to assist the effort. Most notable of these was the Lafayette Flying Corps, also known as the Lafayette Escadrille. These were the 200 or so who joined the French aviation effort.

By the end of the war, 68 of them were dead. Nearly 35-percent mortality is a pretty high price in anyone's military. Wounded and captured would have been on top of that number.



"Here rests in honored glory

AN AMERICAN SOLDIER

known only to God"

In April 1917 the United States dropped its neutrality and declared itself to be with the allies. Almost a year later, declaring "Lafayette, we are here," the U.S. troops began arriving on French soil. On the "Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month" of the following year, at least the fighting was over.

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With the cessation of the fighting came a whole new set of challenges. Getting the surviving troops home was pretty much a replay of getting them over, only in reverse. More of a challenge was the question of the casualties. The U.S. had never lost so many so far from home. The dead had all been buried in temporary cemeteries near where they had fallen. Finding and identifying them was to become a massive effort. That was even before determining the final disposition of their remains. Would they be sent home to loved ones or buried in foreign soil?

Gen. Pershing and others understood that this was a more complex and difficult task than had been attempted in earlier U.S. conflicts.

By 1923, the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) was established, and with it came the role of managing the problem. The military still had the issue of notifying next of kin and offering them the opportunity to have their loved ones' remains shipped home for burial.

Almost 40 percent of them, though, decided that the dead should lie with their comrades. Some, the unidentified, didn't have the same choice, but their remains, too, would remain in Europe.

Eight American Military Cemeteries were created, spread throughout the areas where the American troops had operated. In those cemeteries, they consolidated the various temporary cemeteries into facilities where the American dead could be honored and respected forever.

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The ABMC still carries on that mission today and with the same passion and dedication they brought to the task more than 90 years ago. Next year will mark the centennial of the U.S. formally joining the effort and begins a more focused set of memorials. The various ABMC sites are getting prepared for that now.

When an American soldier was killed in battle, the family was notified as soon as was practical. The mothers of those soldiers were known as "Gold Star Mothers" and often put a gold star in the window of their homes or sewed one on their coats.

After the war, those mothers were offered the opportunity to be taken to France to visit the graves of their offspring.

In 1929 Congress enacted legislation that authorized the Secretary of War to arrange for pilgrimages to the European cemeteries "by mothers and widows of members of military and naval forces of the United States who died in the service at any time between April 5, 1917, and July 1, 1921, and whose remains are now interred in such cemeteries."

By Oct. 31, 1933, when the project ended, 6,693 women had made the pilgrimage. The stories of some of those women and their pilgrimages are kept alive today in the cemeteries they visited.

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One of them, the mother of George N. Meredith, came all the way from Anniston, Alabama, to find the grave of her son in the Aisne-Marne cemetery. The superintendent there, Shane Williams, is now the one who tells her story. The stories of the families are at least as important to the memory as the stories of the soldiers.

Battle Monuments superintendent Shane Williams with photo of a mother who came to visit her son's grave

Williams said that one of the challenges and rewards of the job is found in getting to know the people for whom he is now responsible.

"I sometimes just walk out here among the headstones and imagine them," he said. "On a hard day, that puts the whole job back in perspective."

Aisne-Marne lies at the foot of the hill called "Belleau Wood." That's the place where the United States Army and a regiment of United States Marines stopped a major German offensive. That hill has become sacred ground to the Corps. Looking after that memorial is also the responsibility of Williams and his staff at the cemetery.

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The men and women buried in the World War I cemeteries, like the ones buried in the World War II cemeteries, are a cross-section of the society and represent all economic strata of the time.

President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt had sons die in both conflicts, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. in the Second World War and his younger brother, Quentin, a pilot, killed in France on Bastille Day in 1918. The latter was moved to the World War II Cemetery in Normandy after that war to lie next to his brother. In the intervening years, he lay not far from Chateau Thierry. There are a number of memorials to him scattered throughout that area.

One of the greatest American poets/writers of the period, Joyce Kilmer, lies less than a mile from where he fell. Likened by some to the great British writer G.K Chesterton, he is buried in the Oise-Aisne Cemetery. The superintendent there, Geoff Fournier, can stand near his grave and point out the location of the farm where he fell.

Kilmer was a sergeant in the regiment known as "The Fighting 69th." The 69th, along with the storied "Harlem Hell Fighters," an African-American regiment, are among the most honored of the New York-based regiments.

Kilmer, a well-educated man, had been given the opportunity several times during his service to be commissioned an officer, but always declined. He said he'd rather be a sergeant in the 69th than an officer anywhere else.

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Kilmer's funeral in Europe was conducted by his chaplain, Father Francis P. Duffy. Duffy, himself, became the most highly decorated chaplain in the history of the armed services. He survived the war. His statue stands today in Times Square in that area known as "Father Duffy Square."

The cemeteries are not only the resting places of men. Nurse Felicita Hecht is buried in Oise-Aisne. Hecht was a widow with children. She became a nurse and joined the army to ensure there would be money coming in for them.

Leaving the kids in the care of some nuns at the hospital where she had trained, she embarked for Europe. Nurse Hecht came down sick sometime after her arrival. Having already survived the flu during the great pandemic, the nature of her illness was a quandary.

She died there, though. The cause was breast cancer. That isn't what might be expected in a military cemetery, but it is exactly what one should expect in any cemetery holding Americans from all walks of life.

The cemeteries not only hold the identified remains of Americans, but also the remains of those who were not able to be identified.

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In Oise-Aisne there is even one non-American. An unidentified Frenchman lies there among his allies. For those who went missing and were never found or identified there are the walls of honor, listings engraved in stone giving names, military units and state where they joined the service. The lists are long, even today, but the staffs of the ABMC continue to try to find the missing. When the remains are identified, maybe in a long-forgotten shell hole, a local cemetery or, sometimes, buried at home, then a rosette is put into the wall next to their name to indicate that, at long last, the missing has been found.

That search for the missing and the commitment to preserving the memories of all of the war dead is considered by the ABMC officials as an almost sacred trust. The war dead are different from the veterans who came home to tell the tale and to enjoy parades and honors and to watch their families grow.

Tim Nosal, the chief of external affairs for the commission, sums up the difference succinctly when he says, "the war dead never got the chance to be veterans."
I fell asleep the other night while visiting Wolf Blitzer's Situation Room on CNN. And I dreamed.

It started with the Democrats. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders emerged from a closed door meeting with a stunning announcement. Secretary Clinton spoke first:

"It appears that the FBI will not complete its investigation of the e-mail controversy until September or October. While I've done nothing wrong, I cannot in good conscience accept the Democratic Party's nomination for President with this investigation hanging over us. No matter what the FBI concludes, Donald Trump will try to mislead the public about its contents. Coming on the eve of the election, it would be a dangerous distraction from the imperative of keeping Mr. Trump out of the White House. So, I feel compelled to step aside for the good of our country."

But the cheers from Bernie Sanders supporters were short-lived:

"I admire Secretary Clinton's sacrifice," asserted the Vermont Senator. "And although I believe in my heart that I can beat Donald Trump, I recognize that he will try to demonize me as a naive socialist, which unfortunately is still a dirty word among much of the public. So, rather than risk a Trump victory, I, too, feel compelled to step aside."

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Secretary Clinton then stepped back to the microphone:

"So, Senator Sanders and I have agreed to recommend to our convention delegates that they nominate Vice President Biden for President and Senator Elizabeth Warren for Vice President. Together they will form a ticket that reflects both the foreign policy and legislative experience necessary to maintain America's greatness and the passion for economic justice into which Senator Sanders has so effectively tapped. And, not insignificantly, Senator Warren will bring us ever closer to shattering that glass ceiling and electing a woman as President."

The following day, Vice President Biden and Senator Warren held a press conference at which they agreed to accept the nomination if offered. And the Vice President added his own surprise by announcing that, in view of his age, he would serve only one term if elected.

A week later, with the Republican Convention about to begin, House Speaker Paul Ryan, inspired by the sacrifices of Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders, delivered a further shock to the political process:

"I recognize that Donald Trump won our Party's nomination fair and square. However, I am torn between duty to my Party and my obligation to be true to my core beliefs. Mr. Trump is not a conservative. Equally important, his bigoted utterings and his insistence on personally insulting those who don't agree with him are not who we are as Americans. I have deep policy differences with Vice President Biden and Senator Warren and wish there was another alternative. But I cannot in good conscience support a man who is so obviously not equipped to be President and who, if elected, will destroy the Republican Party, and possibly our nation."

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The Biden-Warren ticket was nominated by acclamation at the Democratic Convention, and on November 8, they coasted to a landslide victory. The Democrats also regained the majority in the Senate, but while picking up seats in the House, could not overtake the Republican majority in that chamber. During the lame duck session of Congress following the election, the Senate confirmed Obama-nominee Merrick Garland as successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Meanwhile, President-elect Biden and Speaker Ryan met to seek common ground on controversial issues like budget priorities, comprehensive immigration reform, gun control, and voting rights. They issued a joint press release saying that they were far apart on these issues, but they would continue talking and seeking compromise.

Secretary Clinton announced that she was through with politics for the foreseeable future and would focus on being a doting grandmother. Donald Trump returned to Washington, DC to cut the ribbon on the opening of his new hotel in the Old Post Office building. He petulantly asserted that the people were "stupid" for not electing him President, that the election was rigged anyway, and that "I am really rich." Jeb Bush became chair of the Republican National Committee and promised to be a high energy chair committed to taking back the White House for the Republicans in 2020. Senator Sanders took over the Democratic National Committee with a promise to continue the "political revolution."
If you're an entrepreneur with a new business idea but no money, you might turn to your parents or friends and borrow cash to get your idea off the ground. In Ohio, where I live, if you don't have wealthy friends or family members, entrepreneurs have other options. Our state government provides important incentives to support and match investment dollars to angel funds through our innovative Third Frontier Program. There is a growing interest in communities throughout the US such as Cleveland to encourage a culture of angel investing in entrepreneurs who are not family members.

But this is not the case in other countries around the world. Investing in non-family members is almost unheard of in many places. But as I learned on a recent trip to Indonesia, that trend is starting to shift.

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David Soukhasing, Head of ANGIN, explained to me that the angel investors have a vision and desire to "give back to Indonesia." These female business leaders share their expertise and networks to empower a new generation of entrepreneurs. They also hope to make a profit on their investment. David said that ANGIN's angels understood that they needed to be patient with the return on their portfolio investments.

One of ANGIN's first investments was in Wangsa Jelita, a company that specializes in Indonesian-sourced personal care products such as soaps, lotions, and oils. Wangsa Jelita's co-founder, Nadya Saib met one of ANGIN's angel investors, Shinta Kamdani, CEO of the Sintesa Group, when they both spoke at a panel in the World Economic Forum regional meeting. Nadya knew little about angel investing but she became intrigued by the possibility of raising money and obtaining support from investors like Shinta Kamdani. ANGIN invited Nadya to make her pitch and eventually selected her company to receive an investment. Nadya told me that the opportunity to have an investment from a woman like Shinta was something "she would never want to miss." Nadya also explained that it was "absolutely important for Wangsa Jelita to work with people (from investors to business partners) who have similar goals in creating a social impact through business."

Pak Anda, Rose Farmer in Lembang, West Java (with whom Wangsa Jelita has worked since 2010). Photo credit: Wangsa Jelita

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I visited Forward Factory, a co-working space in Surabaya, and met Evilita Adriani, an energetic 20-year-old entrepreneur who started Ojek Syari, a business targeted at providing religious women rides on motorbikes driven by other women. Her business was profiled recently in the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal. Like many entrepreneurs in Indonesia, she has struggled to find investors. I introduced Evilita to David and ANGIN, and they had an initial meeting last week.

Evilita Adriani with my son Matthew Goldberg at Forward Factory, May 2016. Photo credit: Evilita Adriani
Peter Thiel, head of Clarium Capital Management LLC and founding investor in PayPal Inc. and Facebook Inc., listens during the LendIt USA 2016 conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 12, 2016. Thiel discussed his outlook for the tech industry. Photographer: Noah Berger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

It's been widely reported that Amazon's Jeff Bezos weighed in on billionaire Peter Thiel and his crusade to destroy Gawker essentially because he's angry that the website focused on the fact that he is gay back in 2007. Bezos, responding to a question about the Gawker case at a conference, referred to an old quote, "Seek revenge and you will dig two graves - one for yourself." But, though he made clear he wasn't addressing Thiel's case in particular, Bezos also offered great advise for Thiel, and frankly, for many other public figures, including Hollywood celebrities and politicians, regarding media reporting about sexual orientation.

Last week in writing about the revelation that Thiel was funding the lawsuit against Gawker by Hulk Hogan, I noted that Thiel wasn't "outed'' by Gawker in 2007 when it discussed his sexual orientation (as Thiel has claimed). As the reporter noted at the time, Thiel was a prominent public figure who'd been out to a wide circle in Silicon Valley, so he was reporting on something that was common knowledge -- and pointing to the ridiculousness of no one in the media discussing it.

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As I've written before in more detail, the term "outing" was coined by a closeted, married, bisexual Time magazine critic back in 1990, using it pejoratively -- an active, violent-sounding verb -- to demonize the reporting on public figures' sexual orientation even when relevant to an important story. The term is a relic of the past, and needs to die. We don't have a word for reporting on any other fact about public figures. As a term used by journalists, the word "outing" stigmatizes what should essentially be called reporting, and it stigmatizes homosexuality itself as something so terrible it should not be revealed.

While anyone can remain a private citizen and keep details of his or her life private, public figures' lives, including the most influential and prominent titans of business among us, are open for dissection by the media. It comes with the territory of seeking public life, and that's certainly true from a legal perspective. Once one is in the public eye, the Supreme Court has affirmed, the First Amendment allows for truths to be reported about you.

Peter Thiel, as co-founder of Paypal and an early investor of Facebook, became a celebrated billionaire, and not a reclusive one at that. He's very public about his political leanings, his philanthropy, his funding of anti-aging research and many other projects and opinions. But obviously his sexual orientation is something he wanted to keep from being reported on, even though he was open about it to a wide circle. He can't have it both ways, and using his money now to exact revenge is an egregious abuse of power.

That's not to imply that Thiel, like many of us, didn't possibly have difficulties coming to terms with his sexual orientation. He grew up as an evangelical Christian, and perhaps he was even struggling with it regarding his family. That's all speculation, of course, but I can attest that many of us have been there. I grew up in a Catholic Italian family, and actually hadn't told my parents outright that I was gay before I became public as an AIDS activist 25 years ago. We didn't speak for months (though I'm happy to say they came to embrace me in a powerful way). But I didn't blame that on anyone but myself: I chose to go into public life and hadn't gotten my act together before I did that.

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Peter Thiel became a billionaire, an influential person in a powerful industry, out in public as a gay person, known to many, dating and going to gay gatherings, socializing with gay people. It's not incumbent upon others in his life, even those tangentially in his life, to collude in his secret, especially if it means silencing themselves about their own lives -- and they may not even had thought of it or known of it as a secret. And it's not wrong for the media to report on it, nor, as I pointed out last week, do courts, increasingly, view it as defamatory even to falsely call someone gay.

And that's where Bezos' criticism and advice comes in. Again, though he was clear he wasn't directing it to Thiel's case specifically, he appears to believe that public figures have to deal with what comes with their status rather than think they can control the world.

"I would say that as a public figure, the best defense to speech that you don't like about yourself as a public figure is to develop a thick skin," Bezos said. "If you absolutely can't tolerate critics, then don't do anything new or interesting."

I can already see those condemning Bezos, a straight man, for treating the reporting on someone's sexual orientation so cavalierly, especially since even a Gawker defender in recent days (wrongly) called the supposed outing "cruel." But I think it actually attests to Bezos viewing the issue with an enlightened perspective, in a time when we're more open and accepting. Bezos is a prominent ally of LGBT equality, having spent millions to pass marriage equality in Washington State. He's not suggesting the issue isn't difficult, nor is he addressing how it might be for those in private life.

But as a public figure himself, he seems to view reporting on sexual orientation as no bigger a deal than any of the other details and facts that have been reported on about him and other public figures, whether they wanted them out there or not. And that's how it should be.
New poll reveals overwhelming majority of Canadians agree shelter dogs shouldn't be sold to laboratories.

Canadians love dogs. Across Canada 6.4 million dogs are kept as family companions according to the most recent data from Canadian Animal Health Institute (CAHI).

I'm not sure if dogs who split their time between Canada and the United States are included in the CAHI data, but I'm sure that Penny McCormack would agree that her "Dad" actor Eric McCormack should be counted amongst dog-loving Canadians. Eric and Penny recently took part in a Cruelty Free International photoshoot to bring attention to the cruel use of dogs in laboratories.

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"I hope that dog lovers around the world will support the Cruelty Free International global campaign to end the use of dogs in outdated and cruel experiments." - Eric McCormack

Many Canadians don't know that thousands of dogs are used every year by Canadian laboratories. A 2016 YouGov poll found that 67 percent of Canadians are unaware that dogs are commonly used in experiments in Canada. The poll also found that 73 percent of Canadians agree that dogs found or given to an animal shelter should not be used in experiments.

Wait. What? Shelter dogs being sent to laboratories?

Yes: a little known and dark practice called 'pound seizure' involves laboratories obtaining dogs - and cats - from animal shelters for use in experiments or teaching. Dogs from shelters are categorized by the animal research industry as 'random source' because the health histories and exact source of the animals vary and may be unknown. According to the most recent animal use data available from the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC), 14,685 dogs were used in Canadian research institutions in 2013, and most of those dogs, 10,096 of them, were from 'random sources'.

It's easy to understand why the dog loving Canadian public is so uncomfortable with this. Pound seizure erodes the very core of a shelter's purpose - to care for animals in need, find new homes for homeless animals and to reunite families with lost companions. A shelter that releases animals to a laboratory loses the public trust. Indeed most Canadians would probably agree with Eric McCormack,

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"Shelter dogs should be adopted into loving homes not used in cruel experiments. That's why I support the Cruelty Free International global dog campaign."



As an Ontario native I'd guess McCormack would be disappointed to know that Ontario is the only province in Canada where pound seizure is still required by law. As such animal shelters must provide animals to registered research facilities if they request it. The province of Quebec is also problematic because it fails to address pound seizure - neither requiring it nor prohibiting it, thus leaving the door between shelters and laboratories open.

The good news is that despite the failure of provincial law to protect shelter dogs from laboratories, many municipalities and animal shelters in Ontario and Quebec have rejected pound seizure. The practice is also being rejected in other ways. In the United States the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ended all funding for research involving random source dogs in 2015.

So why not just make pound seizure of dogs, and other animals, illegal at the provincial or even national level already? We've got the science, public opinion and Eric McCormack on our side!

The time is right for Canadian law to match modern standards, and public expectation by officially prohibiting pound seizure, and thereby strengthening protection for shelter animals and setting an example for other countries to follow.

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If you've ever had the unfortunate experience of having your beloved dog go missing then you know firsthand the anguish and despair that brings. The long hours searching the streets, posting dozens of flyers, obsessively searching the Craigslist "Found" section and visiting every animal shelter in the county. During this time you imagine all types of scenarios: is she hurt, afraid, or dead?

But, chances are you never considered that your dog could be in a laboratory undergoing painful experiments. What's more, you probably would never imagine that the laboratory obtained him from your local shelter via a practice commonly known as "pound seizure."

If you think that's a horrific thought, you're not alone. A 2016 public opinion poll conducted by YouGov and commissioned by Cruelty-Free International found that 68 percent of US adults agree that dogs found or given to animal shelters should not be sold to laboratories for experiments. But it is allowed in many states across the nation. While 17 states now prohibit pound seizure, 11 states have laws that explicitly allow this cruel practice and 22 states are silent on the issue.

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Pound seizure actually has a long and sordid history in the US. In the 1940s the biomedical industry pushed through legislation in several states to legally require animal shelters to provide dogs and cats for use in experiments. But the practice was largely under the public radar until 1965 when a Dalmatian named Pepper was sold to a laboratory by dealer who collected animals from shelters and other sources for resale to laboratories. Pepper's family frantically searched for her but by the time they found out she had been sold to a laboratory it was too late. Pepper died in a laboratory experiment less than a month after she went missing.

Pepper's story gained national attention. And as a result, Congress passed the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act (now known as the Animal Welfare Act) in 1966.

However, the Act fell short of its intended goal. Regulating dog dealers proved to be difficult and costly and dogs continue to be stolen and abused at the hands of dog dealers. As a result, in a reversal of the 1940s trend, states began to take action to pass legislation that prohibits laboratories from obtaining animals from public shelters. In states that failed to take action, many local municipalities have passed bans - with support from local shelters who rightfully view the sale of dogs to laboratories as a conflict of interest and counter to their lifesaving missions, as well as a violation of public trust.

The legal strictures in some states on the use of stray or shelter dogs (known "random source dogs" in the research industry) has helped reduce the practice in the US. The flow of dogs from shelters to laboratories has also been stymied by the drying up of a major source of funding. A 2009, report by the United States' National Academy of Sciences report concluded that random source cats and dogs were not critical for biomedical research, and that using them could damage the reputation of the research industry with the public. As a result of this report, the United States National Institutes of Health (the largest funder of animal experiments in the US) ended funding for research using random source cats in 2012 and for random source dogs in 2015.

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Today thankfully the use of stray, shelter, or "random source" dogs in laboratory experiments is on the decline in the United States. And, if historic and present day public opinion is any indication, a complete end to this shady practice can't come soon enough.

Sadly other countries including Canada and Brazil are further from reaching this goal. This is why Cruelty Free International has launched a campaign this week to bring global attention to the issue. Cruelty Free International is also nudging the US along to the finish line by spearheading a bill to make California the 18th state to officially ban pound seizure.

Dogs become lost, stray or end up in shelters largely because of the irresponsibility, error, or misfortune of humans. We should not shirk our responsibility to them by allowing them to be handed over to suffer in laboratories.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The ministers of agriculture, Joseph Made and Paddy Zhanda are meeting farmers at a workshop in Bulawayo today when farmers are bracing themselves to confront them over the closure of the Commercial Cattle Sales which were being conducted at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair grounds in Bulawayo.Minister Zhanda closed the CC Sales after foot and mouth was detected on three of the cattle which were being sold at the sale. He said the move was meant to control the disease.One of the affected farmers by the closure of the CC Sales, Geniva Sibanda said the workshop has presented the farmers in Bulawayo with an opportunity to tell the ministers that they have seriously crippled the farmers progress."Farmers, this is the right opportunity today to meet Zhanda and Made at the FMD workshop Holiday Inn. These two ministers need to be told that this policy of decentralisation which has seen our cattle going for peanuts does not work. They hide behind the banner of FMD whilst driving their hidden Agenda," said Sibanda. "We say hidden cause it doesn't benefit us in any manner. They are stinking rich and don't feel the pinch, it's so difficult to convince some one who goes to bed with a full belly that there are people out there who are starving. Let's speak with one voice and challenge this draconian policy which benefit the few. We want all Bulawayo pens opened."
by Claire Tsosie

Donna was alarmed when she received an email from Capital One thanking her for redeeming about 171,000 credit card reward miles, worth $1,710, for more than a week's worth of hotel stays in New York. The reservation was under a name she didn't recognize.

"I thought, 'I didn't do that,'" says Donna, a Wilmington, Delaware, resident who asked that her last name be withheld because of the security issues raised by the theft. "I looked at last month's statement, and sure enough, we had 171,000 more miles than we had now."

After calling Capital One, she and her husband, with whom she shares the account, spent about two-and-a-half hours reporting the theft. Capital One contacted the hotel where the pilfered miles had been redeemed, and Donna was told that the hotel sent a representative to the room, though she doesn't know what happened next. A few days later, Capital One reinstated the couple's miles and sent them new cards.

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As strange and upsetting as Donna's experience was, it's hardly unprecedented. A handful of credit card points or miles thefts have made headlines during the past few years. In 2013, hackers poached miles from about 7,700 U.S. Airways loyalty accounts in a security breach, Bloomberg reported. And in 2015, The Dallas Morning News reported that miles had been stolen from 10,000 loyalty accounts at American Airlines, and as many as 36 loyalty accounts at United Airlines, both using stolen login data from other sources.

Points and miles thefts can easily go unnoticed. Unless fraudulent transactions are connected to a larger breach, airline and hotel loyalty programs probably won't flag them for you. Even credit card issuers' more advanced security systems aren't always able to sniff out a shady rewards redemption. For the most part, keeping an eye on your points and miles is up to you.

How miles and points get stolen

Capital One wouldn't comment on Donna's case specifically. But "protecting customer and account information is a top priority at Capital One and we take it very seriously," says Amanda Landers, a spokesperson for the company.

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"Rewards fraud can occur when a fraudster obtains customer information and is able to authenticate as the customer, such as by successfully answering security questions either on the phone or online," she adds.

This often doesn't require much effort on the crooks' part. Following recent data breaches, millions of consumer login credentials have been either published in data dumps or sold on the "deep web," corners of the internet you can't reach via a search engine. Some are sold for as little as $1 each, a 2015 report by security software company Trend Micro found. And consumers frequently reuse usernames and passwords, which works to criminals' advantage.

"Thieves then take that data and try the credentials at a slew of online merchants, knowing that a non-trivial number of them will work," says Brian Krebs, who reports on security matters on the blog KrebsOnSecurity.

Other criminals get information through "phishing" emails, messages that appear to be from a familiar company and try to trick you into providing your login information.

Why your card issuer might not catch theft

Points and miles are an easy target for theft. For one thing, many airline and hotel loyalty programs -- the kind associated with co-branded credit cards -- lack robust security systems. Hackers might be able to try out several variations on your password without being locked out of your account. And the program might not notify you when your rewards are redeemed.

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Major banks tend to have much stronger security and protect credit card rewards through multifactor authentication and email account alerts, says Al Pascual, research director and head of fraud and security at Javelin, a consulting firm for banks. Multifactor authentication requires users to verify their identity in more than one way. They may have to enter a password and answer a personal question, for example, or provide a code received via text message. And the account holder receives email alerts whenever points and miles are redeemed or certain transactions are made. That's how Donna was alerted to her theft. But thefts can occur even when these security measures are in place.

"The fact that you haven't looked at [your rewards] forever is a very useful thing for criminals," Pascual says.

No one collects comprehensive data on the cost of points and miles theft to consumers and companies. But it's likely a relatively small number compared with total cost of identity fraud in the U.S., which totaled $15 billion in 2015, according to Javelin.

How to report stolen rewards

Points and miles aren't the same as cash, but they can have significant value. Americans accumulate about $48 billion in rewards each year, one 2011 study by loyalty firm Colloquy found. In a recent survey, NerdWallet found that the average redemption value of a point or mile could range from 0.4 cent to 2.3 cents, depending on the loyalty program. That means that your credit card's points and miles could be worth thousands if you've been saving up -- so treat your rewards like money.

"If a customer notices rewards missing, he/she should report it to the credit card company, just as one would with any fraudulent purchase," says Landers, the Capital One spokesperson. "After investigating, the company will credit back to the account any rewards stolen."

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If your credit card is co-branded -- meaning it's tied to a specific airline or hotel loyalty program -- you might have to speak with the loyalty program, rather than the bank that issued the card, to get your rewards back.

After contacting your issuer, you can choose to report the crime to your local law enforcement agency. With enough information, the local authorities might be able to help you. Police say a Miami man confessed to stealing more than $260,000 worth of miles from American Airlines AAdvantage accounts, the Miami Herald reported in late April.

How to safeguard your points and miles

Protecting your points and miles falls mostly to you.

"Half of all fraud in any one year is detected by the consumer," says Pascual, the Javelin executive, citing data collected by the firm.

To prevent points-hacking headaches, take the following steps:

Keep different passwords for different accounts. "Don't use easy-to-guess passwords. Don't reuse your passwords across multiple sites, particularly those that handle your financial or personal data," Krebs writes. This can help you mitigate the potential impact of a future data breach.

Know your rewards balance. Consumers have long been advised to track credit card spending, but you should also track how much you're earning in your rewards programs at least once per month. If you see any unfamiliar transactions, contact your issuer.

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Beware of phishy emails. If you receive an email asking you to verify your login credentials for a certain website "as soon as possible," just delete it. A reputable company wouldn't make such a request by email.

Donna's surprising theft has been resolved. Capital One was good about following up, she says, and everything is back to normal. But now she's more cautious with her rewards.

"I always check my account, but I don't always check my miles," Donna says. "Now I will."

Claire Tsosie is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: claire@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @ideclaire7.
Good health/wellbeing phrenology head

We have a crisis in mental healthcare.

More than 40 percent of our population is reluctant to access a system that feels unwelcoming, because they won't see people who look and sound like them. A survey by the Annapolis Coalition found that approximately 90 percent of mental/behavioral health professionals are non-Hispanic White.

America urgently needs to develop a mental health system that is racially and culturally diverse.

This is an issue of importance to all of us.

Studies find that when others listen, only 7 percent of what they "hear" is words. That means that 93 percent of what they "listen" to is our tone of voice, what we look like and our body language. It makes sense that studies in psychology have found that when Spanish-speaking patients are first assigned to Anglo providers, half of them fail to return.

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When a profession is led almost exclusively by one racial group, it powerfully influences the research conducted, the theories developed, and how care is delivered. Our psychological knowledge is profoundly skewed by the race and ethnicity of our investigators and subjects. Diagnostic codes, ethical principles, evidence-based treatments, and social policies are highly representative of the white professionals who craft them.

Young, hyperactive black children are more commonly diagnosed with a conduct disorder than their white peers who are treated for ADHD. This diagnosis of conduct disorder (read "Bad Kid") puts these children on a path for punishment and prison, rather than in a consulting room for treatment. Caucasian young people who are suffering now from opioid abuse are correctly offered medical care for a health problem. But, when this problem was prevalent in communities of color, those young people were sent to jail. The failure to meet mental health needs of racial and culturally diverse people translates into expensive, overcrowded prisons serving as 'de facto' mental health systems.

The lack of diversity in the mental health system also impacts our nation's schools. The most frequent cause of high school dropout is untreated depression. Black and Hispanic children disproportionately fail to graduate from high school and contribute less to our economy over their lifetimes. Businesses are losing up to $100 billion each year due to absenteeism, poor job performance, and complaints of pain and lack of energy because the mental health needs of workers are not met. How can we reverse these trends?

We need more minorities choosing careers in the mental health field. William James College has been creating educational programs to attract people from racial and ethnically diverse backgrounds by educating all of our students to serve everyone who needs care. Our Lucero Latino Mental Health program is 10 years old and enrolls about 60 students each year. It is one of only eight initiatives in the whole country of its kind. Our Military Veteran's Psychology program has 50 students with military experience training to bring mental healthcare to their peers. Our Center for Multicultural and Global Mental Health aims to be a preeminent academic, clinical training, and research center promoting social justice and addressing mental health disparities among disenfranchised populations in the U.S. and abroad.

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In a speech given to the NRA a couple weeks ago, Donald Trump rechristened his all-but-inevitable general election opponent as "Heartless Hillary." This striking epithet encapsulates the wide array of criticisms that the presumptive Democratic nominee has endured from both parties over the last three decades for her perceived dearth of morality and authenticity. Hillary Clinton's political persona, as a recent NRSC web video concisely articulated, is defined by "fake accents, fake laughs, and fake concerns." However, even if these accusations were true, her selfishness wouldn't necessarily result in poor leadership at the presidential level. On the contrary, it could serve as the fuel for a highly successful administration.

For the sake of argument, let's assume the worst about Mrs. Clinton's motives. We'll ignore her impactful career in public service and forgive the deep sexism pervasive in the majority of charges against her intentions. In this exercise, Mrs. Clinton is interested solely in attaining power, money, and the Machiavellian conception of glory. If this caricature candidate were to win the election in November and ascend to the presidency, common sense dictates that she would abandon her campaign promises and instead adopt a corrupt agenda, completely forsaking the needs of the country. Chaos would ensue, and Her Highness Hillary would reveal her final form as (gasp!) a lesbian with a vicious vendetta against the middle-class.

Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, this scenario would never unfold. In this case, seemingly contrary to logic, now-President Clinton would serve her own selfish interest best by governing well and in a manner worth celebrating, in spite of any malice she internally harbors. This statement holds true because of an important modern-day manifestation of the classical notion of glory: the presidential legacy, a force to which every occupant of the White House is subject. All presidents want to be remembered favorably. This desire for a distinguished legacy informs the president's actions and, at least from the perspective of the cynical, sheds light on the reasoning behind them. In order to secure a renowned place in history, the president must have a positive impact on the country, exemplifying strong leadership qualities in the process. Therefore, even if she is solely concerned with her own self-interest, Mrs. Clinton would have every incentive to govern to her best ability and help as many people as possible.

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To address those who are concerned about Mrs. Clinton's history of flip-flopping, the president's selfish desire for a favorable legacy would also motivate President Clinton to fulfill her campaign promises. It is well-documented that politicians, once elected to office, seek to accomplish the proposals that prompted voters to support them. When elected officials contradict earlier promises, especially in highly visible positions, the resulting damage can end careers and tarnish legacies. For example, among my college-aged peers, George H.W. Bush's presidency is defined by the Persian Gulf War and his infamous "no new taxes" blunder -- that's about it. The repudiation of one pledge was enough to ruin his reputation, and that is what he is still remembered for today. Contemporary politicians have learned from such calamities and will avoid similar mistakes at all costs. Therefore, fears that Mrs. Clinton will walk back her more liberal policy stances if elected are largely unfounded, a fact that should ease Sanders supporters.

In conclusion, Mrs. Clinton the candidate and President Clinton will likely not differ much from one another (although hopefully the latter won't feel compelled to whip/nae-nae). If you agree with the proposals Mrs. Clinton has espoused on the campaign trail, you shouldn't feel guilty supporting her. However, if that's not the case, your opposition should be based in policy opinions, not judgements on her true intentions. Of course, when a campaign is based on offending people and recklessness, that's an entirely separate cause for concern...
Over the next ten years, we'll see significant advances in technology, many of epic proportions. In fact, the dawn of a new era has already begun. Advances in robotics manufacturing and 3D printing have opened up new avenues for the production of sophisticated products.

A future defined and shaped by what we wear, how we view the very environments around us, and the machines that help or hinder our humanity- is closer than we realize.

There are three such technologies that are currently in existence or on the verge of becoming mainstream.

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Virtual Reality

Oculus Rift, Samsung, and several imitators have recently released the first generation of virtual reality headsets. Mark Zuckerberg acquired Oculus VR two years ago and has invested time and money into the software and hardware conglomerate, gaining global popularity in the process.

Virtual reality, while in its infancy, will allow for immersive gaming and movie watching. But in the next few years, virtual reality will likely grow into a platform for virtual communication, where distance and space are all but absent in human to human relations. With developer access, the future of VR introduces endless untapped possibilities. Augmented reality appears to be the next likely evolution.

On the horizon, we can look for equally sophisticated products like a "smart" contact lens with a built-in camera, currently under patent by Sony, which brings about the next category.

Wearable Tech

From watches to health monitors, wearable technology has taken off over the past few years. According to Statistica, "The global wearables market is expected to reach a value of 19 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, more than ten times its value five years prior." The outlook is great for consumers and even better for wearables manufacturers.

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The wearable technology space has witnessed an exponential increase in consumer spending thanks to health and fitness digital product manufacturers like Fitbit and smartwatch products like Apples's Watch, which provide several features beyond simply telling time.

Taken one step further than wearables, we may begin to see "ingestibles" or digital pills that have sensors that internally track health-related vitals.

Artificial Intelligence

The advancements in AI have created some controversy among those that see unlimited potential and those that see the potential for robots to cause harm. Either way, the technology is here and trends show an increase in AI design and machine learning.

Factories in China are already replacing human labor with robots for manufacturing related tasks. The productivity increases enjoyed by companies are shadowed by job loss and income reduction felt by former employees.

AI has already proven harmful in social media, with the recent racial Twitter comments made by Microsoft's chat bot Tay.ai. Designed for playful communication, its vulnerabilities became apparent within hours of going live, forcing a shut down by Microsoft.

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Beyond the damage realized through online communication, concerns exist over the possibility for robots to cause physical harm to humans. In the 2015 movie Ex Machina, an AI develops a self-awareness that becomes deadly for the creator and potentially many more.

The flip side of these harmful effects are the extraordinary benefits of artificial intelligence.

Take, for example, AI used for robotic limbs for wounded soldiers (as described by Yoky Matsuoka, former Vice President of Technology at Nest) or robots used for exploratory research in locations too dangerous to send humans (suggested by Sabine Hauert, a roboticist at Bristol University). Read the entire Tech Insider article here.

No matter what opinion about artificial intelligence, the technology is evolving and is here to stay.
To all the global warming naysayers: book a ticket to Cusco, Peru.

Once the capital of the Inca Empire, Cusco now claims a less desirable title: land of the highest levels of ultraviolet radiation on Earth.

Resting 2.7 km above the sea level, the higher altitude of Cusco means there are fewer ozone molecules between the Earth and the sun. As a result, UV readings are more elevated in mountainous regions near the equator. While levels of UV over 10 are considered dangerous to even somewhat prolonged exposure, Cuzco has a measured index of 25. To contend with the extreme health risks, including skin cancer and permanent eye damage, residents of Cusco rely on umbrellas, layers of sunblock, long-sleeves, and sunglasses.

Cusco is just one example of the hazardous effects of climate change. From California's drought, to the coral bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, climate change is a crucial problem that cannot be ignored. As we face more extreme weather, rising sea levels, food shortages, and increased violent conflicts, climate change is one of the most important issues of this year's election. The fate of planet Earth relies on those in power to endorse environmental legislation and convey the changes needed to adequately address its force.

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Unfortunately, not everyone agrees.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he does not believe climate change exists. In fact, last week he promised to undo climate change policies enacted under the Obama administration, including canceling the Paris climate agreement, endorsing drilling off the Atlantic coast, and allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to be built.

He is not alone in his views. In 2015, 59 percent of House Republicans and 70 percent of Senate Republicans denied the reality of human-caused climate change. These climate deniers have received $73, 294, 380 from energy companies of coal, oil, and gas industries, according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Turns out, it simply isn't good business to confirm that humans are the main cause of climate change--or that climate change is even happening.

With the increasing risks of climate change around the world, such declarations by a presidential candidate--that are in turn supported by those of the Republican party--are terrifying. It works to completely disregard the very real dangers faced by the inhabitants of this planet. As a leading nation, the United States has a responsibility to the rest of the world to address climate change through legislation and policies, and then actually follow through with such procedures. Yet despite the continuing effects of a dying planet, there are some who instead turn a blind eye and advocate for policies that work to only do incredible damage, as if we have an extra ten Earths to spare.

When U.S. politicians deny climate change, they work to tarnish America's image as a global leader, as well as inspire doubt among international countries looking to America to take on responsibility. The only way to face climate change is by focusing on our relationship to the planet, as our behavior has led to the crisis we now live in. By reassessing our models of health and education, for instance, to include a curriculum of how to restore the Earth and rectify our levels of consumption, we will be better equipped to take on climate change and prove to the rest of the world that we take it seriously. Then again, if all else fails, perhaps Mr. Trump could take a weekend trip to Cusco, Peru to better understand the gravity of the situation.
LOS ANGELES - JUNE 24: Author Tom Hayden speaks before signing copies of his book, 'Ending The War in Iraq' at Book Soup June 24, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

With the California primary fast approaching, Berkeley-based KPFA Radio invited me to debate Hillary Clinton supporter Tom Hayden -- who declined to participate in a direct debate but agreed to back-to-back live segments, which aired on Tuesday. Our opening comments are interspersed below.

KPFA Radio host Brian Edwards-Tiekert: Tom Hayden ... is a veteran activist who spent 50 years in radical and progressive circles including 18 in the California Assembly and Senate.... About six weeks ago in an article printed in The Nation magazine, he came out as a progressive who had defected from the Bernie Sanders camp and intends to cast his California primary vote for Hillary Clinton.... Well, what accounts for the conversion?

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Tom Hayden: I didn't defect, I think it was just a headline. What I said was that I was at first supportive of Bernie when he came to Los Angeles for his first rally, I was there, I was supportive. But I was in the category of people who thought that his campaign was worthy, even noble and it would push Hillary to the left. And then as his campaign expanded and became very, very historic, I had to try to take a look at the numbers....

And I've always been very close to my friends and allies in the black community, the Latino community and organized labor and it just seemed to me that the numbers were not gonna be there for him. It was gonna be a close race, it was gonna be a historic race. It was gonna be a race that set a foundation for the Left in the future. But given the math, I didn't think he was gonna make it. And so I started to shift to Hillary and to discussions of the platform and discussions of what to do after this coming week.

And I still think Bernie could win California this week, who's to say. But she'll have the overwhelming support in terms of the popular vote, the pledged delegate vote and the unpledged delegates.

So we're looking at a quandary here where Bernie's the winner on a moral and even a political basis. He's made history, and she's the winner on the mathematical basis. And then you have Trump. So it could be the tightest, most hazardous race in political history and we can't afford to allow Trump to slither through. So that's where I'm at.

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Q: Well, I understand the mathematical argument and I think you'd find few rational people who disagree with you that the numbers are extremely daunting for the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Hayden: Right.

Q: But it doesn't speak to the question of why you would choose to cast your ballot for the Clinton campaign if you think your politics are more aligned with the Sanders campaign.

Hayden: It's because all my life I've been involved with racial politics. I was a Freedom Rider in the South. I was the author of books on gang violence, I was a community organizer in Newark, New Jersey, and when I spoke to the Black Caucus, congressional and state, I realized they were going all the way for Hillary and so was the Latino caucus in Sacramento and I asked myself this question: "Do I really want to cast my vote against these people who have been central to my life and to the soul of the country?" And so I went with them. Period.

Q: Our conventional idea of politics is you have a set of principles; you vote for the candidate who best represents those principles. It seems like you're doing a kind of politics by proxy.

Hayden: No, my politics are based on long relationships.

Q: OK, but fair enough, let's go back eight years, the 2008 ballot. African Americans broke 70 percent in favor of a ban on same-sex marriage in California. That didn't make you cast a ballot for Proposition 8 did it?

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Hayden: No.

Q: So what's different this time?

Hayden: Well, I mean what's at stake is Trump. Trump is fascism, that's all, so we have to find a way to work it out between Hillary and Bernie.

** ** ** ** **

Brian Edwards-Tiekert: The last time we had Norman Solomon on, his organization had just issued a press release calling for the Bernie Sanders campaign to take clearer positions on questions of foreign policy, and voiced some criticism about remarks Bernie Sanders had said about the potential role of Saudi Arabia in solving regional conflicts. Now, Norman Solomon is set up to be a delegate for Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention.... So, has your thinking about the Sanders campaign changed since we spoke last fall?

Norman Solomon: Well, I think that the critical support that you mentioned was always based on an understanding -- we understood that Bernie Sanders gave us an opportunity to help build a movement. And so in terms of critical support, that's been the case then, it's the case now. I think that a look at what Bernie has been saying in the last many months has shown a positive trend in terms of foreign policy.

He stopped saying what RootsAction.org objected to last summer and fall, which was that Saudi Arabia should quote "get its hands dirty" unquote in the Middle East -- we know that there's enough blood on Saudi Arabia's hands already in terms of intervention in Yemen, for instance -- so this is a work in progress in terms of a campaign. And having been one of the approximately 30,000 people in downtown Oakland yesterday at the rally hearing Bernie Sanders, I have to say that this is a very important campaign and progressive movements are strengthening the campaign and being strengthened by it.

Q: There's an argument that comes from the hard left that this is a bit of a distraction. At this point the Sanders campaign is basically running for a strong second place, for as many delegates as possible at the Democratic National Convention, and what they can achieve there is window-dressing. Sure, he's got almost half the platform committee, but who cares what the party platform is. What do you think you can actually accomplish in Philadelphia?

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Solomon: I've been pleasantly surprised by how much across-the-board support there is from progressives. I mean you referred to the "hard left" but I've really heard an enormous amount of enthusiasm from a wide range of people. From groups for instance that I've considered to be way too supportive and non-critical of the Obama administration such as MoveOn and Democracy for America have been very strongly behind Bernie. And on the other hand, even at the Green Party a lot of talk and actually an invitation for Bernie Sanders to run at the top of the Green Party ticket, presuming he's not nominated by the Democrats, and that's a surprising invitation as well.

But I think there's a good understanding that what has happened in the building of this campaign behind a self-described democratic socialist is a sea change in the political discourse of this country. And "hard left" or not, whatever you want to call it, many many people across the broad perspective of progressives understand that a class analysis for the first time has taken center stage in a positive way in presidential politics in this country.

Q: So let's stipulate that without something approaching an 80 percent landslide in California it is highly unlikely that Bernie Sanders will become the Democratic Party nominee. Short of becoming the party nominee, what good will come of the campaign?

Solomon: Well, I think we've already seen that there's a tremendous amount of capacity to organize that people have shown. And Tom Hayden, who we just heard -- who has really saddened me and many other people because he's thrown his lot in with the war hawk and corporatist Hillary Clinton -- has acknowledged himself that there's been enormous coalescence behind Bernie Sanders' campaign and that it's prefigurative of what can be accomplished in the electoral and non-electoral arenas.

That is for us the challenge ahead -- that we need to understand election campaigns are not movements, and that while we can enhance movements with electoral campaigns and vice versa, ultimately it's about building grassroots capability.

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And so this remains to be seen. This is not a passive operation to be engaged in elections or anything else. I was disturbed to hear Tom Hayden -- who sadly declined to be in direct debate here and so we're sequential instead of simultaneous dialogue -- he sounded like a horse racer. And progressives should be change makers, not horse racers. We've got to organize continually behind what we believe in, not what we think is a way to go with the math that already exists in the electoral arena or anywhere else.

** ** ** ** **

Brian Edwards-Tiekert: How do you counter the argument from the Sanders camp that he polls better against Donald Trump in match-up polls than Hillary Clinton does?

Tom Hayden: My experience tells me that that's more propaganda than fact because not a penny has ever been spent in negative advertising or campaigning against Bernie. And I think the Republicans like Rove are salivating at the chance to go after Bernie on the usual grounds and I'm skeptical that he would hold up.

Q: What do you think those attacks would look like?

Hayden: It'd be sophisticated and clever and then a fringe of the Republicans would be so off the wall that they would turn people off. But -- it's not gonna happen first of all. She's gonna get the nomination anyway, and then the real showdown starts and we'll see what goes from there, but suffice to say I don't trust the argument that because he does better than Trump in match-ups he would be the nominee and prevail, because I've just never seen any negative advertising used against him. Hillary wants his base so she's not attacking him. And Trump occasionally makes jokes but the Republicans want him.

So, anyway, it's virtually over. It's a very, very narrow race and we'll have to see what we can do to build a united front against Trump.

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Q: What about the question of what's beyond the election? The Sanders campaign has mobilized millions of people; it's put together the strongest fundraising apparatus that's ever been behind a progressive insurgency in a Democratic primary. What about the idea of supporting the campaign for the sake of developing some kind of movement infrastructure that persists past Election Day?

Hayden: I strongly support the development of a movement infrastructure; I don't know if the Left is capable of uniting around such a thing. But there certainly will be long-term impact, I think because the early signs are already there of all kinds of people running their own campaigns, I mean somebody's even running a campaign against the chair of the Democratic Party. There's dozens of these campaigns, so --

Q: Timothy Canova, we've had him on as guest several times as an economic analyst.

Hayden: Yeah, it will have a long-term effect that way, whether there are divisions or splinterings, I'm not able to tell you, I just don't know for sure, but it would take Bernie's leadership and some serious central office for it to be more than a phenomenon but for it to be an ongoing Left organization into the future around issues and around candidates.

Q: On the issues: Are you concerned that the Clinton campaign in contrasting itself to the Bernie Sanders campaign has basically couched itself as the campaign of diminished expectations? Everything he's promising but less so and more incrementally.

Hayden: Well, you can view it either way, as she's been moved somewhat to the left by Bernie and the center in terms of American politics has moved in a very progressive direction over the past years since 2008 in particular, so if she's still a centrist, which she is, the center has moved left and she'll have to deal with that, and I think we all have to be grouped around specific movements and causes and have political clout. The Black Lives Matter movement, Presente!, the women's movement, LGBT movement.

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Above all I think we're gonna have to reconfigure or reconstitute an anti-war movement which doesn't really exist at the present. And she's been much more hawkish than Bernie, although you never know about these things. But definitely that's the top of my agenda. And I'm working with Barbara Lee's office on some kind of plan because I think it'll need people in the streets, I think it will need the revival of a congressional peace caucus led by somebody like Barbara Lee as well, and unity around foreign policy that's very hard to come by on the Left, but I think it has to be done because that's the only pressure that will contain Hillary from going down the path of the past practices like intervention in Libya and so on.

Q: Right, I mean I think probably for people who are familiar with your work, this would probably be the biggest area of surprise hearing that you're intending to cast your vote for Hillary Clinton. By many measures she is the most hawkish major party candidate left in the race, even when compared to Donald Trump. She supported the invasion of Afghanistan, she supported the invasion of Iraq, she beat the drums of war around Iran and Libya. Even Donald Trump at this point is coming across as more of an isolationist than she is. How do you square supporting her with your principles?

Hayden: Well, Trump is for the revival of torture to the extreme, let's not forget what Trump stands for. And he's a belligerent, irrational candidate, potentially with a nuclear capability. I think what has happened is that she's won the nomination, virtually, and that'll happen soon enough, and plans have to be laid now to construct a new resistance to the wars, and it has to include congressional resistance, and that alone will move her, that alone -- I guess failure in wars might move her too, but that's too frightening to imagine. But that's what we have to do, and it's not happening.

Q: But isn't there a case that if you want the leverage to move her, then give her as strong a run for her money in the primary as possible, throw all your weight behind the Sanders campaign at this moment?

Hayden: You're talking about something that's five or six days away, so let's see, but certainly she's gotten all the push that she can get from Bernie. All the numbers are there. Bernie's platform is pretty good, somewhere between pretty good and very good on regime change and war, so I think we'll have to force her to adjust or contain her impulses that you describe correctly, starting this week, next week in the platform discussion and in the general campaign. I'm not sure why she would become more hawkish in a general election against Trump, but she might resort to that path, you're right, it's a great danger because we've lost the leverage of the peace movement.

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** ** ** ** **

Brian Edwards-Tiekert: I guess the question is, you're basically inside the campaign now, you're signed up as a Sanders delegate, so what preparations are underway to have an organization or an infrastructure that will persist past the last primary?

Norman Solomon: At RootsAction.org as well as among a number of other groups, with delegates who are headed to the convention floor in Philadelphia, we're already engaged in a lot of dialogue and organizing. First we need to have ways to reach all of the Bernie delegates, and some of them have yet to be selected. There's a statewide meeting of all Democratic National Convention delegates set for Long Beach in a few weeks, and that -- as we found in Nevada recently -- as a statewide venue can be very important, because there are some delegates yet to be chosen in this state, what they call "at large."

But most crucially, I think, first are the next seven days. A lot of what is going to be possible at the convention will hinge on what kind of momentum the Bernie campaign has going into it. And whether Bernie can carry California on June 7th is tremendously important.

And that's where, again, I'm going to differ with Tom in that while he claimed to be descriptive of the math and the politics in this campaign, it's actually a prescriptive position that he's taking. He's gotten behind Hillary Clinton even before the New York primary, and what we've got to do I think is carry California with as big as possible a margin for Bernie Sanders, so that the extremely hawkish politics of Hillary Clinton and her demonstrated affinity for Wall Street, for instance, her indifference to issues of poverty and universal health care in reality in terms of policies, and so many other things -- that we can challenge that, not only in terms of platform, but, lest we forget, there's this position called vice president of the United States, and it's an open question about whether if Hillary Clinton is the nominee she's going to select somebody from the traditional corporate wing of the Democratic Party hierarchy or whether we can push her, for whatever reasons she might come to fathom, to have a more progressive person on the ticket.

Q: So the vice presidential pick, the party platform which gets determined at the Democratic National Convention -- these are two things the Sanders campaign can influence without actually winning the nomination. What else?

Solomon: A third thing is that what we do in the next few weeks, and what we can do during and after the convention this year, will be prefigurative. And we have a horrible historical record in the last eight years of what happens when progressive groups and individuals defer to the Democrat in the White House. We've had as many bombs dropped under the Obama administration on the Middle East and Afghanistan as by the George W. Bush administration. We have a deep-seated pattern where many people go back to sleep and trust the Democrat who puts his, in the past, his feet up on the desk in the Oval Office. We've got to change that pattern.

And it's very dangerous, at any stage, whether it's now or in Philadelphia or anywhere else, if people defer to Hillary Clinton and the forces she represents. We've got to be willing to speak clearly and honestly about the warfare state, about the corporatist state, and on and on, all the time. And again, that's something we can accomplish ongoing.

Q: That said, if Hillary Clinton takes the nomination, and we have you back in these studios two months from now, won't you be making the case for voting for her versus Donald Trump?

Solomon: In California, I won't care. Because in California, Donald Trump is not a threat to get any of the electoral votes. In perhaps 15 states in this country, where they are genuinely swing states, I think it would be an abomination to assist Trump to become president of the United States. I agree with the position that Noam Chomsky articulated a couple of weeks ago on "Democracy Now," which is if you live in a swing state and Hillary Clinton is the nominee up against Donald Trump, you do what you need to do to prevent, help prevent Trump from becoming president, and as Chomsky said, hold your nose and vote for Hillary Clinton in that situation. But in California, it's not an issue.

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Q: You enumerated as one of the areas where the Sanders campaign could make inroads even without winning the nomination as influencing the Democratic Party platform, and I guess the question is: Why does it matter? It's not like a contract, it's not like it binds Hillary Clinton or any congressional candidates to abide by its policy positions. There's been lots of feel-good measures in there before that never came close to making it into policy, even when Democrats controlled every branch of government.

Solomon: Yes, well, what does it matter when we message around the country? A platform is not binding, but when you consolidate a political position and you articulate it and you propagate it around the country, and you say this is a majority viewpoint, that helps -- and so what happens with this platform will be important in sending a message as where the momentum is, where the center of gravity has become.

And the fact that we've got people like Bill McKibben, Keith Ellison, Cornel West, on that platform committee, because of the strength of the campaign behind Bernie Sanders, I think it's an epic change. Also, Jim Zogby as well. We've already seen that, where the New York Times on the front page is freaking out because so many people on the platform committee of the Democratic Party are advocates for Palestinian rights. Imagine that -- so many people who are behind human rights who'll be on the official national party platform committee. So it's a step, it's not a cure-all or the peace equivalent of a silver bullet, but it's an important development.

Q: You talked about the importance of pushing Hillary Clinton to the left. I had a lengthy interview with Doug Henwood, where he pointed out she's been happy to move in whatever direction she's had to at various points in her career. The one thing you can't count on is her staying with that position.

Solomon: Yeah, it goes to that point that what we do now, what we do at the convention and beyond, is prefigurative. And we need a different relationship with people in office. I mean, we started out by talking about RootsAction's critical support for Bernie Sanders last summer, because he was talking about Martin Luther King Jr. but never mentioning the need to challenge what King called "the madness of militarism." And so it goes to: we need to get rid of this idea that because you support a candidate, or were responsible for helping a candidate come into office, then you've got to lie about that person and lie about the positions or distort or soft-peddle or euphemize what they're doing. So I think that is a challenge that we have going forward.

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Co-authored by Amanda Garza, an Art History and Archaeology student at Boston University and also a closet political junkie and sci-fi nerd.

While seeking his first seat in the Illinois General Assembly, Abraham Lincoln published a statement in the Sangamo Journal that in part divulged his motivations behind seeking elected office. Lincoln wrote, "Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem." Fast forward through 150 years of American politics and it is jarring to see how much and how little has changed. The Party of Lincoln, of Theodore Roosevelt and of Ronald Reagan is now the Party of Donald Trump.

Throughout his career Trump's "peculiar ambition" has been power and his public pursuit of it has garnered him esteem as a paragon of financial wisdom in the eyes of the public. He has branded hotels, beauty pageants and yes, steaks, with his name. This branding leaves the United States precariously close to becoming "Trumps AmericaTM". Trump's candidacy has become perhaps the greatest acid test of the integrity of the Republican Party and its members that the GOP has ever faced. All along the line, from the grassroots to the establishment, the breakwaters are failing. Trump deftly defeated his primary opponents by promising a segment of the electorate that feels disenfranchised renewed power by his proxy and the party the establishment is falling in line behind him. Despite the vow by the Republican wing of the #NeverTrump movement to not go quietly into the night, Trump has proven to be the Borg of the GOP: resistance is futile.

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Previous Republicans who have vehemently condemned Trump - Carson, Christie, and Rubio - now fully endorse him. Trump, initially a political outsider, is now courting the Republican Party. Now the outsiders seem to be those still opposed to him. After he decried Trump as a "danger to democracy" who is "playing the American public for suckers" Newt Gingrich remarked about the previous Republican nominee Mitt Romney, "Having a guy like that go berserk in public makes you wonder what his problems are." Out of the political spotlight, Romney will likely weather such criticisms well but current elected Republicans face the prospect of being "Cantored" should Trump and his cronies lock down power over the party.



Meanwhile, the list of Republicans who have thrown their weight behind Trump (to varying degrees) is a curious laundry list of the entrenched old guard and the most power-hungry members of the Republican party. In contrast, those who continue to speak out against him or stay quiet are by and large those with no more political races left to run like Romney, the Bush family and Tom Delay. Curiously, many Republicans have been choosing to not "endorse" Trump but merely "support" him. While this may appear to be a ludicrous designation those who use it can be viewed as expressing their "support" of the will of the party while attempting to maintain distance from its controversial nominee.

Even more unusual are responses are those from party members like Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington representative and chair of the House Republican Caucus, who remained undecided for several weeks. By way of explanation, she commented on May 5 she would like to question Trump about his previous statements before passing judgment. On May 19 she publicly endorsed the GOP nominee. As Trump continues to soothe the fears of the hesitant party establishment by hiring mainstream staff members and whispering what have thus far been mere sweet-nothings into the jittery ears of the center right-wingers about dialing back his divisive rhetoric, the ranks of Republican holdouts against Trump will continue to shrink.

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While the GOP establishment's backing of Trump may seem unconscionable, it is merely an extension of the consent the Republican electorate has given Trump to be their nominee. The leadership of the Party of Personal Responsibility appears to recognize that they have dug their own grave after 7 years of overblown criticism of all but the most extreme elements of the party, leaving an outsider like Trump strategically placed to exploit the anger that has resulted. The only way Republican non-supporters of Trump come out ahead after the election is if Trump loses badly in the general election and they can say "I told you so." If he wins, they risk being outsiders in their own party. Worse yet, if Trump loses narrowly to Clinton, or even long-shot Bernie Sanders, Trump non-supporters will more than likely be derided as traitors to their own party who may as well have voted with the Democrats.

The most vocal remaining "questioning" Republican, as of May 31st, is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. His political calculus behind temporarily remaining on the fence about Trump is among the most complex. Ryan has consistently pushed for nuanced discourse among politicians about the issues facing America which provides among the sharpest contrasts against Trump's reductionist politics. In a recent video message Ryan declared, "Liberals and conservatives are going to disagree with one another on [how to help Americans succeed]. No problem, that's what this is all about. So let's have a battle of ideas, let's have a contest of whose ideas are better and why our ideas are better."

While Ryan and indeed no politician is always as pragmatic, by contrast, Trump is a true 21st-century candidate; his inflammatory rhetoric is pre-parsed into delectable sound-bites for the 24-hour news cycle that rarely even require 140 characters. In Trump's world the American economy can be distilled to a single word: "disaster"; Clinton is "crooked"; Ted Cruz is "lyin'" and the New York Times is "failing." Aside from urging Trump to invest in a thesaurus, Ryan is among the few Republicans with the political clout to push Trump to begin a more nuanced discussion of the issues facing America.

Ryan spoke out about not backing Trump as a presidential candidate on May 6. "I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now," he said in an interview with CNN. Media outlets breathlessly covered this. By tracking the 6,580 tweets on "Paul Ryan" and "Donald Trump" from May 6 to May 20 it becomes clear that speaking out against Trump sharply piques the media's interest. The herd mentality is present; as leading news networks such as CNN and NBC covered Ryan's speaking out against Trump, smaller news networks in the United States and foreign news networks jumped in.

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Tweets about Paul Ryan speaking out against Donald Trump were collected from May 6 to May 20. The graph shows the number of tweets about Paul Ryan speaking out against Donald Trump for each day.

Mitt Romney has also spoken out against Trump. On March 3, Romney called Trump a "phony" in a speech. Immediately, Romney was thrust back into the spotlight after months of relative obscurity.

There is a immediate benefit to speaking out against Trump, or even simply speaking about Trump. By simply mentioning his name, one gets a share of the media coverage Trump has monopolized. Media consumers pay attention to Trump, and whomever is associated with Trump - like him or not, most people have some opinion on Trump's larger-than-life cartoon character. Lukewarm ex-candidates such as John Kasich do not incite passion. However, there is also a downside - Trump still receives most of the attention from attacking those who speak out against him.

This network graph, modeled with open source data visualization software Gephi, shows the hashtags that are used across different communities on Twitter.

One would be remiss to romanticize any previous period of politics, including the one in which President Lincoln operated; our 16th President is renowned by historians for his shrewdness and political acumen, and even viewers of the recent Spielberg film Lincoln may recall the quip made by John Hawkes' character Robert Latham: "It's not illegal to bribe congressmen. They starve otherwise." However, Americans who have supposedly been pining for elected officials who aren't "bought and paid for" by special interests, while repeatedly re-electing officials who are, have finally come face to face with a candidate who is only accountable to his own ego and drive for power and has re-shaped the Republican Party in his own image. Despite this, he remains a dangerously unknown quantity American politics.
Aloha Gov. Brown,

I am so disappointed in your lack of courage. I supported and worked for your presidential campaigns in 1980 and 1992. I believed you were the best candidate then. However, your lack of understanding of what is at stake this year is troubling. First, you say you are supporting Hillary Clinton because you want to make sure Mr. Trump doesn't win. Then you haven't been following the polls; virtually all of which show Bernie Sanders beats Trump by much greater margins than she and in some she actually loses. Currently, as you can see from this poll, she is in a statistically, dead heat with Mr. Trump. None show Trump beating Bernie.

The future of the Democratic Party is at stake. Currently, millions of young people have joined the Democratic Party to support Sen. Sanders. Have you seen the increase in the Democratic rolls in your state between Jan and April? Did you see what happened two weeks ago when Facebook added a register here button? These young people represent new energy, commitment and enthusiasm for the ideals and ideas of the Democratic Party. This will insure Democratic victories for the next 50 years as the Democratic Party becomes the super majority party in America. However, if the Democratic Party refuses to see the future and closes the door on these idealistic young people, we will go back to the apathy of the past, to 30 to 40% voting again, and Republicans will maintain their hold on state and federal power.

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You, like so many others, have been seduced by the mainstream media, which has been doing its best to anoint Clinton despite the primary results. As we come down to the end of the race, we are within a couple of hundred pledged delegates from victory. Hillary Clinton has lost virtually every contest for the last month and a half. She doesn't appeal to independents and no Democrat can win without them. She only wins in states where there are large African American populations and where there are no open primaries. If you look at her wins they are in Red states. Sen Sanders takes virtually all of the Blue states. He has swept the West.

How are you going to feel when your state goes overwhelmingly for Sen. Sanders? Will you change your endorsement? What you have done is not helpful to your state, the country, or the world. Bernie has the message, he doesn't represent corporate or Wall Street interests. Just compare appointments on the Platform Committee, her's are tied to lobbying except for the AFSME guy. Bernie's are all activists for progressive causes. That should tell you something about their individual judgement and choices.

Finally, you say, "...Hillary Clinton, with her long experience, especially as Secretary of State, has a firm grasp of the issues and will be prepared to lead our country on day one." Lead us into what? The debacle that she was the architect of in Syria, or the disaster in Libya that provided the fertile ground for the rise of ISIS, or her parroting of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld lies on Iraq? Do you agree with what she endorsed in Honduras? Or perhaps you think her role as the chief salesperson for fracking in the world gives her great credentials in the fight to stem climate change?

Name one positive foreign policy that was brought about by Hillary during her tenure. I know I cannot. What did she do when she was the Senator from NY? What major piece of legislation was she responsible for? Her biggest vote was for the war in Iraq. For which, although she admits it was a mistake, she also has yet to apologize for it.

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Sen. Sanders, on the other hand, opposed the Iraq war and spoke out articulately against it and prophetically about what would result. His position on Israel, where he lived in a kibbutz, is against the Netanyahu regime and in favor of a state for Palestine and a restoration of Palestinian rights. His solution for the insanity in the Middle East is for Saudi Arabia and other regional military powers to get involved and bring an end to the killing.
MILFORD, UT - MAY 11: Large wind turbines operate at a wind farm on May 11, 2016 outside Milford, Utah . The wind farm was built by First Wind and has a total of 165 wind turbines producing 306MW of power for Los Angeles, California. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

It's five months since the world's leaders adopted the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. In doing so they sent a powerful signal that the world wants to stay below 2 degrees warming and is on a path to decarbonise our economies.

In practical terms this means an end to unabated fossil fuel use by around 2050, an end to the deforestation of tropical rainforests and a revolution in the provision of clean energy.

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It sounds incredible to a generation for whom growth and development have been synonymous with limitless exploitation of natural resources - from oil reserves to tropical forests.

Yet the transition world leaders signalled to a sustainable, low-carbon economy is not only necessary and overdue - it is also underway. And those who fail to get on board now risk losing out on what I believe will be the greatest growth opportunity the world has ever known.

Every day businesses and investors around the world are responding with new products and services, innovative solutions, reduced energy consumption - and they are reaping the benefits of doing so. Take Tesla, the manufacturer of electric vehicles. Demand for the Model 3 was so great that the company made $276 million in down-payments in its first weekend.

A group of enlightened venture capitalists, investors and corporations, including Bill Gates, Jack Ma and Mark Zuckerberg, have declared an intention - under their Breakthrough Energy Coalition - to scale up investment in early-stage energy companies committed to a near zero carbon emission future. They did so in support of Mission Innovation - an initiative backed by 20 governments - from the USA to Saudi Arabia - with the aim of making renewable energy widely affordable around the world.

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Not surprisingly, investment in renewable energy hit a high of $286 billion in 2015, more than double that committed to fossil fuel power plants.

Everywhere we look, partnerships are forming to bring the scale needed to take advantage of these new opportunities. The 'We Mean Business Coalition', for example, representing 400 companies with revenues of $8 trillion and 180 investors managing $20.7 trillion in assets, have made nearly a thousand commitments to take action.

The Consumer Goods Forum, representing the world's largest retailers and consumer goods manufacturers, has committed to sustainable sourcing by 2020 of the key commodities that drive tropical deforestation, which represents nearly 15% of total carbon emissions.

Over 55 companies have pledged to use 100% renewable power through the RE100 campaign and are halfway towards the goal. And 150 companies have set emissions reduction targets in line with climate science through the Science-Based Targets campaign.

Impressive as these are, they only tell part of the story.

In fact, the NAZCA commitment registry - developed by the UNFCCC but named after the historic Peruvian landmark - counts no fewer than 12,000 commitments from non-state actors such as companies, regions, cities, and investors. Nearly half of these come from companies and over 440 from investors.

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While the investor number is smaller, the impact can be greater. Consider the fossil fuel divestment movement. Investors worth over $2.6 trillion - including the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund and two Californian state pension funds - have withdrawn support for coal or other fossil fuels investments.

Energy sources, once the mainstay of high growth funds, are now shunned by mainstream investors. Peabody Coal, the world's largest privately owned coal company has filed for bankruptcy. It's not the first and I doubt it will be the last.

The commitment of many businesses to lead the transition to a low carbon economy is already yielding results. According to analysis by Arabesque Asset Management, sound sustainability practices lower the cost of capital, enhance a company's operational performance and positively influence stock prices.

The case for business to mainstream climate change and sustainability has never been greater. But just as business can lead this agenda, so governments must continue to set the right conditions in which to scale up efforts.

And there is no issue with more widespread support than carbon pricing. Already, 1,000 companies have committed to set an internal carbon price; and the same number back the World Bank Statement on Carbon Pricing, calling on governments to set a carbon price.

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The momentum is building and the message is getting through. The IMF estimates that the true cost of fossil fuel subsidies - including externalities such as public health costs from air pollution and environmental damage - is close to $5.3 trillion per year.

This is no longer a 'rich country' agenda, but an 'every country' agenda.

No longer a "leave it to the next guy" problem, but a "leave it to me" opportunity.

All around there is evidence of a world waking up to climate action as a driver of growth:

China's new 5 year plan includes doubling renewables and cutting coal pollution;

India's Energy Minister has acknowledged new coal plants provide more costly power than solar;

Saudi Arabia is unveiling a blueprint for an era after oil;

Argentina and Australia have outlined plans to meet and beat their 2020 targets;

And it's working. According to the World Resources Institute, 21 countries are growing their economies whilst accelerating cuts in emissions.

Of course the transition won't be easy, especially for businesses having to adapt to a new climate economy. Many are asking themselves the same questions: What are the opportunities for me? How can I make this work in my industry, in my value chain, in my local context? How to create value in the future without destroying value today?

We can only solve these questions by working together.

Bodies such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development or the United Nations Global Compact are providing invaluable networks for companies considering what the transition means from them:

Helping manufacturers consider what it means to become a circular economy company;

Helping fossil fuel companies consider what it means to become a new energy company;

Helping car companies consider what it would mean to become a mobility company.

Those that engage positively are sure to reap the benefits of the great transition underway. Those that don't are equally sure to miss the future.

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As the author Carlos Castenada observed: "We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same."

Let's work together to make our economies strong and our climate sustainable. It can be done.
Donald Trump just struck out swinging, so now he's attacking the umpire.

Unfortunately for Trump, the umpire is Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the Federal District Court in San Diego, who is presiding over a class action lawsuit accusing Trump University of defrauding and misleading consumers who plunked down at least $1,500 for three-day seminars -- and up to $35,000 for additional courses -- that promised to teach Trump's secrets of success in real estate. The lawsuit has already exposed Trump in a series of outrageous lies, confirming his well-deserved reputation as a huckster.

Newly released documents from Trump University's own files reveal Trump to be a creepy, greedy, and amoral con artist.

But we already knew that. Trump is contemptible is many ways. Now, however, legal experts are suggesting that, as a result of his recent crude and racist remarks about Judge Curiel, Trump should be held in contempt of court.

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At a campaign rally on Friday at the Convention Center in San Diego, just a few blocks from the federal courthouse, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee went ballistic, using 12 minutes of his 58-minute speech to engage in a vitriolic rant that included paranoid attacks on Judge Curiel. "The judge was appointed by Barack Obama," Trump said. "I mean frankly, he should recuse himself because he's given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative." Trump clamed that Curiel was "very hostile" and a "hater of Donald Trump." (Trump likes to refer to himself in the third person). Trump said that Curiel "should be ashamed of himself. I think it's a disgrace that he's doing this." Trump claimed that he was being "railroaded" by the legal system and has been "treated unfairly."

Then, within minutes after the rabid crowd had been chanting "build that wall," Trump said that Curiel "happens to be, we believe, Mexican." This comment was clearly meant to further inflame Trump's fans and suggest that the judge was not an American, was biased against him, or both.

All of these statements by Trump are lies. For one thing, Curiel is an American who was born in Indiana. In addition, contrary to Trump's claim that the judge was biased against him, a few weeks ago Curiel agreed to Trump's request to delay the start of the trial, which had been scheduled for this summer, until November 28, after the election. At the time, Curiel explained -- over the objections of the plaintiffs' attorneys -- that holding the trial during the election could create a "media frenzy" that would make it hard to impanel an unbiased jury.

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Finally, and again contrary to Trump's accusations, Judge Curiel is hardly a liberal activist beholden to Obama. Curiel served as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and San Diego between 1989 and 2006. In the 1990s, after Curiel sought to extradite two drug lords from Mexico, a Mexican drug cartel targeted him for assassination. He was first appointed to the bench in 2006 by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who named Curiel to the California Superior Court. In 2012 the U.S. Senate confirmed Curiel as a federal judge on a voice vote without a single Republican expressing any opposition.

On Friday, Judge Curiel ordered the unsealing of about 1,000 pages of the for-profit Trump University's internal documents. This came in response to a legal motion filed by the Washington Post and is standard procedure in civil lawsuits. So on Memorial Day Trump returned to Twitter to continue his attacks on Curiel, calling him "unfair" and "Totally biased-hates Trump."

The documents include Trump University's playbooks for employees that, according to the New York Times, "provide a detailed set of instructions for how to sell the classes, even to skeptical and reluctant consumers, by tapping into their psychological needs." (Trump's lawyers tried to to keep the playbook under wraps, claiming that they included trade secrets, but Judge Curiel disagreed).

Among those documents are testimony by former managers of the now-defunct Trump University that reveal the operation to be, as the Times summarized, an "unscrupulous business that relied on high-pressure sales tactics, employed unqualified instructors, made deceptive claims and exploited vulnerable students willing to pay tens of thousands for Mr. Trump's insights."

Ronald Schnackenberg, a Trump University sales manager, recalled that he was reprimanded for not pushing a financially struggling couple hard enough to sign up for a $35,000 real estate class, even though he believe that it would endanger their economic future. After Schnackenberg refused to make the sales pitch, another Trump University salesman persuaded the couple to enroll in the class.

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"I believe that Trump University was a fraudulent scheme," wrote Schnackenberg in his testimony, "and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money."

Trump opened Trump University in 2005. Although he claimed to have personally "hand selected" the instructors and shaped the curriculum, Trump was later forced to admit that he was completely uninvolved in its day-to-day operations. Jason Nicholas, a Trump University sales executive, testified that Trump's claim of being "actively involved" in the operation was "a facade, a total lie."

Moreover, most of the instructors had no experience in real estate. They were high-pressure salespersons selling fantasies of real estate riches, luring in prospective "students" by promising that they would learn how to take advantage of housing market crisis to earn quick profits. According to a transcript of a web-based promotional video, Trump claimed his university would "teach you better than the best business school."

In fact, Trump University wasn't a university at all. It wasn't licensed as an educational institution. It gave no degrees. It was simply a business operation -- another way for Trump to use his brand to scam people desperate to find ways to improve their lives at a time when the economy was crashing.

Reading the Trump University documents, which the Times has posted on its website, makes you want to take a shower. If the institution had a motto, it should have been "Make Donald Trump Rich Again."

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But beyond one's personal disgust with Trump's business practices and paranoid comments, there's the matter of legal ethics. Trump's attacks on Judge Curiel have led some legal experts to make the case that the GOP's nominee-in-waiting should be held in contempt of court.

"Mr. Trump's conduct could be subject to sanction for indirect criminal contempt of court," Charles G. Geyh, a legal ethics expert at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law, told the New York Times. According to Geyh, Trump " has impugned the honesty of the judge in a pending case and has done so in the context of a political rally that seems calculated to intimidate by inciting anger among his supporters."

On Tuesday, Jules Bernstein, a prominent Washington, DC-based employment lawyer, wrote a letter to Paulette Brown, president of the American Bar Association, calling on the organization to condemn Trump's remarks. Bernstein wrote:

"Under well-established canons of ethics and judicial rules relating to contumacious conduct, comments that are rude, insulting or disrespectful made by a party to litigation about a presiding judge, either in or out of court, are subject to censure as constituting contempt of court. Hopefully, Judge Curiel will see fit to hold Trump in contempt of court for his diatribe. But independently, the judges of our nation as well as the entire bar should speak out loudly against Trump's contemptuous remarks about a member of the Federal judiciary. It is precisely because Trump has demonstrated such contempt for the judicial branch of government through his attack on Judge Curiel, that it is the obligation of the legal profession to respond promptly and in no uncertain terms, to his outrageous conduct."



Trump's standard practice is to use bullying and name-calling to intimidate people he dislikes or is threatened by. His diatribe put Judge Curiel in an awkward position. As a federal judge, Curiel can't publicly defend himself against Trump's malicious attack. But there is certainly precedent for Curiel to hold Trump in contempt for impugning the integrity of the federal court and have federal marshals haul him to jail until he apologizes.

Judge Curiel is more likely to let Trump continue his campaign rather than toss him behind bars for contempt. In fact, he did Trump a big favor by postponing the trial until after the election.

During his San Diego tirade, Trump said that he looked forward to standing trial after being elected president. "Wouldn't that be wild if I'm president and I come back [to San Diego] to do a civil case?" he told the crowd.

Hopefully, by the time Trump he gets on the stand in federal court in late November, he'll simply be a former Republican presidential candidate on trial for his predatory business practices. Instead of being inaugurated in Washington, D.C., he'll be cross-examined in San Diego. Having lost in the court of public opinion, he'll have to defend himself in a court of law. And if the jury is as smart as the voters, he'll lose there, too.

Peter Dreier is a professor of politics and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His most recent book is The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame (Nation Books).
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Mthwakazi Liberation Front official Ndabezinhle Fuyane has blasted Rural Development, Preservation and Promotion of Culture and Heritage Minister Abednico Ncube over his remarks that Maleme Ranch must be fully given to the Central Intelligence Chief Rodney Mashingaidze indicating that Peter Cunningham must not be let to exploit villagers and making them slaves.Fuyane said Ncube should close his mouth if he has nothing to utter."The Maleme Farm wrangle was resolved by Mphoko sometime immemorial in the support of the local traditional leadership and and other stakeholders concerned who confessed benefiting from the farm,|" he said. "His stories are unheard of and are worthless, Ncube who can not defend defenceless Mthwakazians in the expense of Zanu PF perpetrators, he is but shameless and pathetic."Fuyane said in whose helm should people from this region suffer in the hands of the bogus CIOs."Ncube should be told what to or what not do by people, the issue of Maleme is water under the bridge not as the barbaric minister is saying, he has no testimony about the farm. By the way who is this Mashingaidze? Does this region fall short of people who can occupy that farm? All the way from Zimbabwe to occupy the land within which Mthwakazians should benefit, thus nuisance .Abedinico should go to hell," he said."MLF will always rally behind the powerful and supportive local traditional leadership in whose mandate is to protect the local populace,their natural resources and cultural values . Its time to fight for our long awaited freedom from this oppression . Let us stand up MLF, other stakeholders and other civic groups and speak our one word against such oppression, let's say No! No! No! to this. We are here to stay as Mthwakazians, we are not passersby,this is our heritage."He said let the minister give the Mashingaidze his farm,not the Peter Cunningham one."He talks of black exploitation he has never heard,is he not being exploited by Zanu PF? We are fed up with the ministers whose only cause is to get Mthwakazians suffering from this oppression . To make matters worse the platform was meant for mourning the bereaved families and society at large not to address mourners on land issues, the utterances were very irrelevant," he said.
Industrial pollution nature disaster concept, double exposure.

On Wednesday energy ministers from over 20 of the world's largest economies gathered in San Francisco in one of the first attempts to make sure the climate goals set under the Paris Agreement are met. New commitments were announced in energy efficiency, corporate purchasing of renewable energy, and other areas. One key item up for discussion was financing - specifically, how to raise the estimated $1 trillion a year needed to transition to a clean energy economy.



To raise that kind of capital, investment is required from all sectors of society including governments, philanthropy, and institutional investors. The largest investors, including insurance companies and pension funds, could help considerably by analyzing the risk that fossil fuel holdings have on their portfolios -- and then transition away from those investments toward the clean energy and climate solutions investments that are quickly displacing fossil fuels here in the US and around the world.



Smaller investors have a role to play, too. Take for example the investment portfolio that we manage at the Sierra Club Foundation. We realize that's it not enough to simply provide grant support for the important advocacy work of the Sierra Club and its grassroots partners, though that piece is essential. Just as important, we need to ensure that our investments complement our grant-making strategy by investing directly in the clean energy transition. We urge other investors - both large and small - to do the same.



As an investor and an early signatory of Divest-Invest - a network of foundations that have committed to divesting from fossil fuels and re-investing in climate solutions - as an initial step Sierra Club Foundation made sure that none of its funds were invested directly or indirectly in companies listed on the Carbon Tracker 200. Just as important, we are looking for ways to invest responsibly in clean energy. To date, about 10% of our endowment and operating funds are invested in climate and clean energy solutions. In June 2015, we made an additional investment commitment at the White House Clean Energy Investment Summit.

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Not investing in dirty fuels certainly aligns with Sierra Club Foundation's values, but it also had the benefit of insulating us from the crushing losses that have hurt coal investors. In 2011, Peabody stock was worth over $1,000 a share; now the company is in bankruptcy. And it's not just Peabody. Market Vectors Coal ETF -- a basket of coal company stocks -- has lost 85 percent of its value over the same time period. Just as important, our strong investment results have allowed us to return our earnings back to the grassroots campaigns that are fighting dirty fuels at every turn and creating a just and inclusive clean energy economy.



The forces at work against coal are beginning to take a toll on oil and gas. Communities everywhere are standing up to proposed dirty fuel projects that would jeopardize the health and safety of their families. Since the Keystone XL Pipeline was rejected by President Obama in November 2015 on the grounds that it would be harmful to the climate, twenty other major fossil fuel projects in the US have also been halted. Just last week, we saw French oil giant, Total, change course by integrating climate disruption into its business strategy.
On May 17 , I presented a series of initiatives that promote equality. Most notably, the package includes a proposal that establishes in our Constitution the right to marry, independently of gender identity or sexual orientation. This is in line with last year's ruling by our Supreme Court of Justice, which determined that outlawing same-sex marriage was indeed discriminatory.

Because individual States are not automatically bound by this particular ruling, only a change to the Constitution can guarantee every person's full marriage rights, regardless of where in our territory they choose to exercise them. It was thus a suitable time to announce these initiatives, which arose out of my government's and my own personal conviction, to advance toward a more inclusive society. The overall goal is to achieve a Society of Rights in which all Mexicans are guaranteed equal rights under the law.

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Perhaps not surprisingly, the announcement sparked an important debate not only between political parties in Congress, but also across some sectors of our society. I understand that these measures will be met with some resistance and that a number of taboos related to the topic still persist. However, as President, it is my duty to ensure that the personal beliefs and customs of some do not limit the human rights of others.

Mexico has in fact moved ahead at a tremendous speed in the recognition of equality. A national poll, for example -- taken just a few days after we announced this package of measures -- shows that 64 percent of Mexicans now recognize homosexuality as an "acceptable way of life." Back in 2000, this figure was only 27 percent. What is more, according to the same poll, today 66 percent of people fully or partially agree that same-sex marriage should be allowed under our Constitution.

Despite these advances, large challenges still persist, including the fact that numerous laws and norms in Mexico continue to be discriminatory. Recognizing this obstacle, I also launched an initiative to revise our entire legal framework with the active participation of scholars, civil society organizations and citizens. The aim is to collect recommendations from every corner of our country, in order to identify any and all laws that go against equality and propose the necessary changes to improve them. It is true that legislation alone will not eliminate stereotypes or long-held prejudices, but it is a necessary step to doing so.

Opening up the conversation, even beyond our borders, is also important to promote an agenda of inclusion. On May 17, I also announced that Mexico will be part of the United Nation's LGBTI Core Group of 19 countries that promote these rights at the international level. The principle guiding our participation will be the belief that every woman or man must have equal rights and that diversity is a very important element of the richness of our society.

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Mt. Everest climber was able to raise the picture of Buddha, Dalai Lama and Obama at the summit. Not just foreign climbers, but Nepalese citizens themselves have been able to set high records. One of them is Ang Gyaljeng Sherpa.

World record holder Sherpa who was able to raise the flags with messages of Gautam Buddha, President Barack Obama and the religious leader Dalai Lama on May 29 2013 has come to America. He shall "Root Set" at the "Everest Day Wall Climbing" competition being held on the occasion of the International Sagarmatha Day at USA Nepal Climber's Association in New York.

International Sagarmatha Day is held on May 29 on the occasion of the first men to have climbed the world's tallest peak Mt. Everest. Sherpa shall act as a judge at the event being held at New York's Long Island, which is a part of world's most powerful nation America.

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Sherpa who is also famous in Europe has scaled Everest for over 3 times. Sherpa has scaled the Everest in 2011 on the occasion of Nepal Tourism Year, in 2012 on the occasion of the Lumbini Visit Year and in 2013 for the third time. Besides, Sherpa has also scaled many other mountains taller than 8000 meters. In 2010 he scaled Manaslu is known as Killer Mountain (8163 m.) and Mt. Lhotse in 2012( 8516 m.) successfully. Sherpa has a deep relationship with the mountains. Sherpa born in Solukhumbu has already scaled Iceland Peak (6160 m.) for 24 times, Mera Peak (6654 m. ) for 24 times, Yala Peak 4 times, Lubuche Peak 5 times, Pisang Peak 6 times and Chulu Himal 12 times. Sherpa has also scaled Ama Dablam located at 7000 m. Above sea level. The Multi-Dimensional individual Sherpa who has fantastic knowledge of French, Japanese, Hindi, English, Tibetan along with education of Bachelor degree said that he had plans to climb Mt. Denali in the near future. Nepal faced massive earthquake during the time Ang Gyaljeng helped to rescue in Langtang and Mt. Everest Area.

Sherpa who scaled Mt. Blanc of France in 2010 said, " I am planning to climb America's tallest peak Denali on this occasion. Because of this reason, I shall remain in America for a while." Expressing his happiness at the successful scaling of Everest this year, he reminded people of his service to the people during the snowstorm at Everest summit.

Sherpa who participated as the member of the rescue team for over 3 times was awarded with " NMGAAdventure Award" in 2011 Besides, in 2013, International Mountain Guide, Sherpa received "Guide of the Year" award. On the other hand, Sherpa has received many awards, recognitions and other honors. Sherpa is also a member of Nepal Mountaineering Association, Nepal National Mountain Guide Association, Sagarmatha Climbers Association, USA Nepal Climbers Association and a member of the Lions Club.

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Herb Alpert kept checking in about his pin stripes, asking a rapt audience, some of whom traveled from Florida just to hear him perform at the Cafe Carlyle for opening night this week: "Was I wearing this suit?" Like a woman who does not want to repeat an outfit for the same group, he joked, told stories, and played that sweet trumpet, bringing in the crowd for an entertaining night of his greatest hits. Beside him was his wife of 42 years, Lani Hall, whose crystalline vocals in Portuguese and Spanish perfectly put everyone in the Tijuana/ Jobim mood. "I love it when she talks to me in Yiddish," he laughed, as their ensemble with Bill Cantos on piano, Hussain Jiffrey on a six-string bass he can play like a guitar, and Michael Shapiro on drums created a musical dialogue all their own.

"That was sick," said Alpert in praise of Bill Cantos' scat for Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine"/ "I've Got You Under My Skin." Having performed "A Taste of Honey" with the Tijuana Brass on The Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960's, he's been on the music scene for decades and co-created A&M records, and as he claimed, they could have had The Beatles. Their rendition of George Harrison's "Something" was homage to the man and his melody and lyrics, qualities Alpert admired most. Looking to the audience for questions, he fielded queries about performers who's meant most to him, like Stan Getz, and musicians of today: Jacob Collier, Bruno Mars, and Chris Botti.

As the audience, including Robert Redford, cheered for each medley, with anecdotes about giving "Close to You" to The Carpenters, and a segue to Carole King's "Up on the Roof," "The Fool on the Hill," "The Look of Love," and so on, many components of the evening felt improvised within the context of a well-honed music genre. Guaranteed: this is a show you may want to see more than once.

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Finding Meaning in Mom's Crazy Trip Part 2

Since returning from our voyage, and now officially divorced, so much of what was learned from working off the grid paralleled boardroom life as I experienced it. As an advisor to companies who are interested in connecting to their consumers with emotional branding, I often speak to groups about my own entrepreneurial story and share lessons learned at sea. Here are just a few of my favorites that may save you some time and effort:

1) Stretching your comfort zone grows self-confidence



Being off the grid forced a "new normal" and connected me to myself. On the long crossings I found clarity and calmness with no wifi, cell phone, or sight of land. I was the only one on the boat who didn't enjoy seeing the odometer getting smaller.

By swapping my Armani suit for a wetsuit, I was able to swim with a humpback whale the size of a school bus and witness its eyes pass just a few feet from my face. This adrenaline rush was empowering and provided a sense of assurance.

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There is a confidence acquired when arriving at countries only reachable by boat. It became incredibly easy to subsequently walk into the unknown of a high pressure boardroom and understand that what I had accomplished with my trip was much more difficult than whatever was going to happen at work.

The ocean provides perspective: when you are in the middle of the sea you can see the curve of the planet and realize how big it is and how small you and your problems are.

2) People will perform to your expectation

Since my crew was small and consisted of children, I had to believe in -- and rely on -- my kids to play a role in safety, fulfill basic needs, and perform volunteer work discovered along the way. I witnessed my 9-year old call out our depths to avoid hitting reefs outside Tahiti. My 11-year old reeled in a yellowtail that fed us dinner for three nights (sashimi, panko-crusted, and tacos.) My kids taught English at the local school in Sri Lanka and scooped elephant poop in Thailand for days in extreme heat, eventually laughing and feeling proud of their efforts. The iPads were gone, and the kids eventually hunkered down to make their own fun by creating puppet shows and Lego movies with underwater cameras.

3) Let it go: you are not in control and that is a good thing

Initially, I was trying to control how I moved around the boat, realizing by day four that I needed to stop resisting the waves and allow my body to roll with it. I learned to accept that when there are no birds in sight for days, there will be no fish caught for dinner. In the middle of the ocean, you must respect Mother Nature. Embrace what is happening. Departure delays with no weather window meant staying put and provisioning more. Waves higher than the top of the boat meant tying down furniture and eating crackers in bed for dinner.

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Discovering that I was not in control was rather freeing. After seven days at sea, we approached an island in Kirabati with one caretaker we were excited to see. I had submitted the necessary paperwork and inspections required to dock; yet at the last hour, we were turned away, told to keep moving because of an accident with nearby shark researchers.

We were so disappointed! The anticipation of running around, eating fresh fruit, and taking a break from tight living quarters was crushed. It forced us to ask why this could be a positive turn. We came up with several possibilities -- maybe somebody would have gotten hurt on the sharp reefs, bitten by a black tip shark, or stuck in this strange area dubbed the Bermuda Triangle of the West.

4) Chose your words carefully and take the emotion out of it

Everything is extremely exaggerated at sea. Happiness, sadness, hunger, pain, relationships, and most important, state of mind. Words need to be chosen carefully when sharing a small space with crew and family -- especially when you may be four days from help. There is no time for petty disagreements when respectful words translate to safety.

On a boat there is a hierarchy of what you want to say or do versus what you should say or do based on safety protocols. I would tell the kids "no," explaining it isn't a parental "no," it's a captain's "no" to prevent losing you overboard.

You realize how important connection is with the people close to you. How important it is to trust each other, to be disciplined and prepared, to work together, removing emotion from decisions, especially in extreme weather conditions. By removing the emotion, we can be our calmest, smartest self both in the boardroom as well as at sea.

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It has been said that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

A truer sentiment may never have been expressed.

In this season of presidential electoral politics, there is much going on, but one of the most disturbing things is the massive amounts of money being spent by the presidential hopefuls. This, while even the people most clamoring for relief and change are voicing their anger over having been forgotten and ignored, is an irony not to be ignored.

According to information found on OpenSecrets.org, Outside money raised by Hillary Clinton is $84,815, 067, for Bernie Sanders, the number is $607,096, and Donald Trump has raised $3,294 868. For each candidate committee money raised for each individual, according to the site: $204,248, 301 for Clinton; $207,664, 551 for Sanders, and $57,661.961 for Trump. The total amount of money raised by the candidates is $791 million, and the amount of money raised so far by super PACs supporting them: $462 million.

There is something terribly wrong. The people of this nation are in economic pain; one of the reasons the message of Bernie Sanders resonates is because he touts policies that recognize the economic hardship that Americans are experiencing because of many factors, including the loss of manufacturing jobs which have gone overseas, causing the loss of the middle class. And Trump appeals to a number of people for a number of reasons, among which is likewise a frustration among blue collar white males because they are no longer able to make a living the way they used to.

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For those reasons alone, the money being spent on the campaigns for president seems to be a slap in the face. While people go hungry, and kids in some states cannot get health care, and people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy are still trying to get enough money from insurance companies to be able to repair their homes, this inordinate amount of money is being spent for these candidates, and for what?

The working poor are suffering and the elite ...squander literally millions ...close to billions ...of dollars on buying the government, making sure the "right" people are in power. This shouldn't come as a surprise; this government was never intended to be on the side of the working poor. The late historian Howard Zinn quoted historian Charles Beard in his seminal work A People's History of the United States, who wrote that "four groups ...were not represented in the Constitutional Convention: slaves, indentured servants, and men without property. (p. 91) Historian Edmund Morgan wrote, "The fact that the lower ranks were involved in the contest (of the American Revolution) should not obscure the fact that the contest itself was generally a struggle for office and power between members of an upper class, the new against the established." (p. 84)

The framers of the Constitution were clear that one's wealth determined one's importance and place in governing "the American people." Zinn wrote that in Maryland, the new Constitution of 1776, to run for governor, "one had to own 5,000 pounds of property; to run for state senator, one had to own 1,000 pounds Thus, "wrote Zinn, "90 percent of the population were excluded from holding office."

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That paradigm seems not to have shifted much at all.

If reports to the same are to be believed, the very wealthy in this nation are still at it, giving their millions to keep their candidates in power while the poor and disadvantaged are pretty much left to fend for themselves. This "dark money" is nothing new, as we have seen, but the Right has been pouring money into local, state and now, the federal elections, to keep power contained and reserved for the very wealthy. Jane Mayer, the author of the book, Dark Money, believes that the Koch brothers and "a small number of allied plutocrats have essentially hijacked American democracy, using their money not just to compete with their political adversaries, but to drown them out."

The ugliness and amorality of all of this is troubling, but what is even more troubling is that the masses of people who are being manipulated by the rich and powerful will again be largely forgotten once the coveted office of president has been won. The intentionality to control government will not cease; in states where, again, people are having trouble making ends meet, there will be millions, maybe billions of dollars spent in future elections to get "the right people" into office, leaving the masses bereft, angry, frustrated and cut off from the American dream.

Edmund Morgan, the historian quoted earlier, said in essence that the idea of a Revolution fought in the name of a government which would be for all the people was always a sham, and another historian, Richard Morris, wrote, "Everywhere, one finds inequality...The people of "we the people" did not mean Indians, blacks, women or white servants." In fact, he said "there were more indentured servants than ever (during the Revolution) and the Revolution "did nothing to end and little to ameliorate white bondage." (p, 84)
A few weeks back, my wife, Renee, was sorting through family photos, and I found one of myself from the 1980s. And then I looked in a mirror. Have you ever had that experience? The contrast was jarring because the changes had happened so gradually.

I've been feeling that way about my country lately. Our politicians, often waving their Bibles, call us to turn our backs on desperate refugees, ban Muslims, bully our allies and build up our fortress against outsiders. This sums up the entire approach to foreign policy known as "America First."

This is not the welcoming America of my youth that held up the American Dream to the world. I grew up in New York, not far from the iconic Statue of Liberty that implores, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Are we still the same country that helped defeat fascism in World War II and launched the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe, that birthed the Peace Corps in 1961 to promote international peace and friendship? On the world stage, we were compassionate. We were generous. We had vision.

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But what about today? The U.S. ranks last among developed nations in providing foreign aid as a percentage of GDP, spending less than 1 percent of the nearly $4 trillion budget on international development. Americans spend more on soft drinks.

You might argue that Americans are generous charitable givers, and it's true, but only 4 percent of these funds goes outside our border. Donations to international causes plummeted during the 2009 recession and never rebounded.

What we're seeing, I'm afraid, is the closing of the American heart.

The reasons are understandable. The recession caused hurt here at home. Two 10-year wars have soured people on getting involved in the world. And recent terrorist attacks here and in European cities increased our own sense of vulnerability. In this climate of unease, politicians have swooped in and expertly rebranded protectionism as "greatness."

As a Christian, it's most disappointing for me to see this attitude embraced by other Christians, whose allegiance is supposed to be to Christ first and country second. When Christians read their Bibles, they see the bright thread of God's concern for "the other," the stranger in need, throughout the Old and New Testaments. In Matthew 25, Jesus says, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you have me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

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Unfortunately, we're witnessing the closing of the American heart at the very time we need it to open.

Poverty has always been the thief of human potential, the killer of dreams. But if instead we invest in this next generation of young people, helping them access basic needs as well as education and jobs, we can change that trajectory. One dollar invested in that kind of work is worth $100 in military defense. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, "Economic development is a lot cheaper than sending in soldiers."

I believe America has as much to contribute to the world as it ever has in history. We have the chance to remind people in their worst moments what's best about us as a nation. We can show our greatness by setting an example for the rest of the world in our compassion and respect for human rights. When we don't - when we close our eyes, hearts, borders and wallets - it confirms what some of our enemies are trying to say about us.

What Abraham Lincoln said at another troubled time in our history still resonates today: "My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth."
NEW YORK, NY - MAY 31: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump enters a news conference at Trump Tower where he addressed issues about the money he pledged to donate to veterans groups following a skipped a debate in January before the Iowa caucuses on May 31, 2016 in New York City. Trump had previously said he had raised $6 million at the nationally broadcast fund-raiser he attended instead of the debate and that he would donate it all to veterans groups. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Trump is in for a rude awakening when he finds out what the job of president is really about.

If you see democracy and the freedom that supposedly comes with it as sacred, Donald Trump's latest tirade should have you breaking into a cold sweat and making sure you're registered to vote. In fact, if you're not registered to vote, go do that right now.

During a press conference last week, Trump attacked the press like we've never seen. Sure, he's gone after the press, placed them in pens at his rallies, and complained about them, but this was a surprising escalation at a time when many in the GOP are hoping he'll act "more presidential."

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The press conference was held for Trump to explain what exactly happened to the $6 million that he bragged about collecting for veterans during an event in January. An event he scheduled to coincide with the FOX GOP primary debates that he didn't attend.

At the time, Trump had proclaimed, "We just cracked $6 million, right? Six million."

Later, Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said the fundraiser actually netted about $4.5 million, or 75 percent of the total Trump had announced. Last week, after being questioned about the funds, the campaign announced that they had dispersed $5.6 million to various groups.

Any questions? Does anyone have any questions about how the funds that Trump collected for veterans during a televised event went from $6 million, then later went down to $4.5 million, and then, when asked about the funds four months later, went back up to $5.6 million? Those are fairly benign questions aren't they? A reporter might want to know why the amounts kept changing and where the money was. The press did ask. A lot of the people in the press asked, and rather than simply answering the question or issuing a press release, Trump had a press conference during which he called the members of the press "dishonest," "not good people," sleazy, and among the worst human beings he has ever met.

"Yeah, it is going to be like this," Trump said when asked if this was how he would behave with the press as president. "You think I'm gonna change? I'm not gonna change."

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Isn't that great? A president that thinks he's beyond reproach and when he's asked questions, insults and lashes out at the press.

It's no great wonder that the latest lunatic to praise Donald Trump is the leader of North Korea. That's right, Kim Jong-un, the guy who murdered family members to get ahead and pal to Dennis Rodman, is a fan of Donald Trump. "There are many positive aspects to Trump's 'inflammatory policies'," Han Yong-mook, who described himself as a Chinese North Korean scholar, wrote in an editorial.

The media, is of course, freaking out and indignant about Trump insulting them. They've let him say whatever he wanted to for years and simply nodded their heads and now can't believe how they're being treated. He insulted war heroes, women, Mexicans, Muslims, to name a few, and the press sat quietly by and "commented" on his charming rhetoric, but now that they're a target, not only are they surprised, but actually offended.

Fortunately, one group of powerful lobbyists is doing something about Trump's imminent assault on the press and free speech. Silicon Valley lobbyists, along with the surprising support of Republicans, are working feverishly to combat what amounts to internet SLAPP suits. Basically, they are quickly trying to pass legislation to combat nuisance lawsuits against online speech before the highly litigious President Donald Trump gets a chance to knock it down. For once they're showing a little proactive initiative.

As Politico reports:

Tech companies and GOP lawmakers have found common cause in trying to make it harder to sue people for what they say online, inspired by cases such as a Virginia carpet cleaner's attempt to punish the writers of negative Yelp reviews. But while the anti-lawsuit crusade meshes with Republicans' traditional dislike of trial lawyers, supporters fear it will collide with Trump's fondness for litigation against his critics -- including his real or threatened suits against a Miss USA contestant, a rapper who used his name in a YouTube video, a journalist who questioned his net worth and former GOP primary rival John Kasich.

The supporters of the bill are pushing to get the legislation passed while Barack Obama is still president and are fairly convinced that a Pres. Trump would veto it.

Trump has already shown a complete disregard for free speech and most of the things that make up a democracy. He's insulted nearly every area of government that one could insult, including the judiciary with a recent swipe at the judge who is hearing the case against Trump University.

Trump launched into a tirade against Judge Gonzalo Curiel in the days before the release of the court documents. He went after him as a "hater" and called him "very hostile" on the stump on Friday and has implied that he's biased because he's "Mexican." If you thought making an enemy of the press was a bad idea, wait until this karmic boomerang comes back.

There are a couple of things that Trump doesn't seem to understand. He's running for president and yet seems to think the job is more about being a "Supreme Leader," of sorts. He doesn't seem to understand that he's going to have to contend with several branches of government that aren't going to agree with him, much less do his bidding. There's an entire majority of the population that can't stand him. And let's not forget a Constitution that limits his power and authority. He's in for a rude awakening should he become president, and what's coming at him now is just the beginning of a storm of insults, accusation, law-suits, jokes, and well written, extremely descriptive articles from very smart people.

Listen to the conversation on T&Z Talk and subscribe to the updates.
MONROVIA, LIBERIA - OCTOBER 09: U.S. Marines arrive to take part in Operation United Assistance on October 9, 2014 near Monrovia, Liberia. Some 90 Marines arrived on KC-130 transport planes and MV-22 Ospreys to support the American effort to contain the Ebola epidemic. The Ospreys, which can land vertically like helicopters, will transport U.S. troops and supplies as they build 17 Ebola treatment centers around Liberia. U.S. President Barack Obama has committed up to 4,000 troops in West Africa to combat the disease. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

What's the difference between education and obedience? If you see very little, you probably have no problem with the militarization of the American school system -- or rather, the militarization of the impoverished schools . . . the ones that can't afford new textbooks or functional plumbing, much less art supplies or band equipment.

The Pentagon has been eyeing these schools -- broken and gang-ridden -- for a decade now, and seeing its future there. It comes in like a cammy-clad Santa, bringing money and discipline. In return it gets young minds to shape, to (I fear) possess: to turn into the next generation of soldiers, available for the coming wars.

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The United States no longer has a draft because the nation no longer believes in war, except abstractly, as background noise. But it has an economic draft: It claims recruits largely from the neighborhoods of hopelessness. Joining the U.S. military is the only opportunity to escape poverty available to millions of young Americans. We have no government programs to build the infrastructure of peace and environmental sustainability -- we can't afford that, so it has to happen on its own (or not at all) -- but our military marches on, funded at more than half a trillion dollars a year, into ever more pointless wars of aggression.

Glory, glory hallelujah. I'd never been to a Memorial Day parade in my life, but I went to this year's parade in downtown Chicago because members of the Chicago chapter of Veterans for Peace were going to be there, protesting the militarization of the city's schools.

I arrived as the parade was still assembling itself along Wacker Drive. What I saw, along with the Humvees and the floats (Gold Star Families of the Fallen, Paralyzed Veterans of America: Making a difference for 70 years) were thousands of young people -- mostly kids of color, of course -- bedecked in various uniforms, standing in formation as martial music erupted sporadically, driven by the drumbeat of certainty. Some of the boys and girls seemed as young as 10 or 11. One boy walked past me twirling a rifle like it was a baton. Was it real? Was it loaded?

The concept of America is a totally military phenomenon, I thought as I walked along the parade route. This is what holds it together, not culturally, but as a legally organized entity. The flags, the rifles, the Humvees, the names of the dead . . . the uniformed children. For a moment I wondered if I could continue calling myself an American.

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Then I met up with the Vets for Peace people at State and Lake -- a small group of men and women handing out stickers that read: "No military in Chicago Public Schools. Education, not militarization."

"The idea is, just by being here, we're having people stop for a moment and think about the militarization of Chicago schools," Kevin Merwin told me. "There's opposition to the wholesale militarization of youth in Chicago. It's the most militarized school system in the country, if not the world."

Indeed, according to various sources, there are between 9,000 and 10,000 young people in the Pentagon's JROTC program, with "military academies" -- often in spite of furious community opposition -- taking over portions of 45 of the city's 104 high schools.

"Kids in seventh grade are being rolled up into this Memorial Day parade," Merwin said. "We're inculcating kids into the military system at a young age -- the kind of thing we criticized the Soviet Union for back in the day. And it's mostly kids of color."

Ann Jones, addressing this hypocrisy, pointed out in an excellent essay that Congress actually passed an act in 2008 -- the Child Soldiers Prevention Act -- that was "designed to protect kids worldwide from being forced to fight the wars of Big Men. From then on, any country that coerced children into becoming soldiers was supposed to lose all U.S. military aid."

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However, not surprisingly, the economic interests of the military-industrial complex eventually gutted the intention of this rare bit of compassionate legislation. Five of the ten countries on the child-solider list, Chad, South Sudan, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia, have been granted "waivers" so they can continue to purchase American weapons.

"Too bad for the young -- and the future -- of those countries," Jones wrote. "But look at it this way: Why should Washington help the children of Sudan or Yemen escape war when it spares no expense right here at home to press our own impressionable, idealistic, ambitious American kids into military 'service'?

"It should be no secret that the United States has the biggest, most efficiently organized, most effective system for recruiting child soldiers in the world."

Those who want to perpetuate the military mindset -- that is to say, the servants of the most powerful economic interests in the country -- have to grab the minds of the young, because only in one's youth does militarism resonate with uncontaminated glory. This is why the Army maintains a gamer website. And it's why every branch of military service sets up shop in our most desperate schools and parades the Junior ROTC boys and girls before the public on Memorial Day, our national holiday in celebration of arrested development.

- - -

Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally syndicated writer. Contact him at koehlercw@gmail.com or visit his website at commonwonders.com.

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On a business trip to London in the '80s, I saw a billboard for an airline at Heathrow Airport that proclaimed "Best Route to Europe''. I asked a cabbie: "Aren't we in Europe?'' He answered: "No, Sir, we're in England''.

Whenever I visit Britain, I never feel I am in "Europe,'' but rather in something closer to the U.S. or Canada. It isn't just the language; it's in the manner of the people and the look of the place. London reminds me of Boston (Mass.), Nottingham of Worcester (Mass.).

On June 23, British subjects will vote on whether the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) should quit the European Union (the exit called the "Brexit''). There would be pitfalls (for a while) in doing so but advantages too.

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The pitfalls: Harder for British people to get jobs on the Continent, less flexibility for big U.K. companies in doing deals with Continental companies and snags in coordinating some transnational anti-terrorism security measures with E.U. members.

Still, while Brexit would hurt the U.K. economy for several years it would strengthen it for the long term.

It would give the U.K. more control over its own affairs, thus letting it better maintain its best qualities, especially its love of liberty; its quirky individualism; its entrepreneurialism; the strength and stability of its institutions, including its glorious Common Law, the astonishingly adaptable language that England gave the world and that 1.5 billion people speak now, and its special relationship with America.

For all their flaws, no nations have benefited the world as much as have the United Kingdom and its offspring the United States. The U.K.'s cultural/political/economic characteristics made that possible. Further absorption into the homogenizing, bureaucratizing and centralizing European Union, mostly run by unelected administrators, threatens to dilute these strengths.

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The late historian Robert Conquest wrote: "within the West, it is above all the English-speaking community which has ...pioneered and maintained the middle way between anarchy and despotism.''

http://nationalinterest.org/article/toward-an-english-speaking-union-1263

Brexit would probably encourage the U.K. to tighten ties with its most important offspring - America -- with which it shares so many values -- and with the 53-nation Commonwealth of Nations, formerly the British Commonwealth, to help offset negative economic effects of Brexit.

I used to live in France and am a fan of the European Union - for the Continent. For all its regulations, bureaucracy and social engineering, the E.U. has, all in all, helped make the Continent more prosperous and humane and war in Western and Central Europe much less likely.

That the E.U. has made it much easier for citizens of E.U. countries to travel and work where they want within the Union has usually been a boon. But it also has made it easier for terrorists and other criminals to operate freely over a wide area, which has increasingly worried the British. Thank God for the Channel!

The biggest near-term threats to the E.U. come from the gangster Vladimir Putin's aggression and from Islamic pathologies, which wreak terror attacks and refugee floods, but confronting them is mostly NATO 's job, not the E.U.'s. And the United Kingdom will remain in NATO, whether or not it leaves the E.U.

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Meanwhile, for all the talk of the glories of "multiculturalism,'' the fact is that Western culture has brought more prosperity and human rights to the world than any other. No wonder almost all refugees want to flee to the West. We need to do everything possible to boost the broader Western World through, for example, such projects as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership - a huge free-trade area in the mutual self-interest of the European Union, the U.K. (Brexit or not) and the U.S.

But in such cooperation, let's not dilute the best idiosyncratic elements of Western Civilization's parts. The U.K., in the long run, would do better as a friendly partner of the E.U. than as a member. Its history, its enduring psychic separation from Europe, its curious blend of insularity and worldliness (much of the latter stemming from the British Empire experience) has served itself and the world well.
News / National

by Staff reporter

War veterans have joined the chorus of Zimbabweans agitating against the introduction of bond notes, describing the move as a desperate ploy by a failed government.In resolutions made following countrywide meetings with the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) members, the group resolved to demand that President Robert Mugabe sets up a commission of inquiry into the disappearance of over $15 billion in diamond revenue, an end to corruption and the sacking of Energy minister Samuel Undenge.ZNLWVA spokesperson, Douglas Mahiya confirmed the resolutions, accusing top government officials of creating artificial cash shortages and "then turning around to announce they will print bond notes".
Rear view shot of a young woman relaxing by the pool

It's been about a week since we celebrated Africa Day 2016, but I can't help but think about what it means to be African. And if I am indeed African enough.

First of all, let me clarify that Africa Day is not a celebration of the country Africa, but the continent of Africa which consists of many countries -- 54 to be exact. I know this is confusing because we celebrate Africa Day but please, believe me. Besides, you'll sound smarter when you proudly declare that you dream of visiting a particular country in Africa (insert name here) and not Africa.

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Now, if being African was based on an exam which included tests on language, culture, cooking, general knowledge or geography, then I would miserably fail.

I was born in Zimbabwe and raised in South Africa but I don't fluently speak any African languages. I know, you're disappointed and shocked but I am too. When I was younger it didn't really bother me that much. But now that I'm older, there's nothing more frustrating than understanding your home language and having to respond brokenly (as you drag out your words attempting to directly translate form English) or you reply in English.

There have been many phases in my life when I attempted "be more African" -- whatever that meant. Like the time I cut off my relaxed hair and went natural -- after a few weeks my hair broke and I rocked a massive afro-weave. Then there was the time I only listened to vernac music. I also had daily one hour Shona lessons -- thank you YouTube. Poorly wrapped doeks (head scarves) also became "my thing" for some time. And I can't forget African jewelry -- unsure of what tribe or country it came from, but if it looked African I wore it.

The thing is, none of these external elements made me anymore or any less African. Odd, how I was looking for validation for something that ran though my veins. I love reading Kwame Nkrumah's words:

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"I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me."

Questioning whether or not I'm African enough is a thought that should not be entertained. What bearing does the color of my skin, my accent or fashion style have on my Africanness? By who's standards shall I be praised?

I'm blessed that my soul finds great joy in the works birthed from the people of this land. I've been transformed by words of Chinua Achebe, Alan Paton and, of course, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who said:

"If you followed the media you'd think that everybody in Africa was starving to death, and that's not the case; so it's important to engage with the other Africa."

My family has been on countless road trips to Zimbabwe accompanied by the sounds of Oliver Mtukudzi and Thomas Mapfumo. I've sat at home glued to the TV watching Africa Magic -- captivated by the dramatic stories. Why are we so quick to take in negative stories about our continent from overseas? If you want to read some incredible stories about Africa written by Africans, then read the likes of Forbes Africa.

Being of this land lies not in the color of your skin, the dialect you speak or your culture. It is an inner being.

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One of the most moving speeches I've heard about our continent comes from Former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki. It's the speech he gave on the 8th of May 1996 when South Africa passed the new Constitution.
The South Bronx is notorious for its high rates of asthma among racial minorities as a result of their proximity to sources of air pollution. The combination of the poverty-stricken area and historical displacement exposed people of color to health hazards that are rooted in discrimination and negligence.

The truth behind the urban landscape of the South Bronx is an irony. Despite being the most open borough with green spaces in New York City, the South Bronx has been subjected to more environmental hazards than other boroughs. The area has transformed into a space for urban decay and toxic waste. In fact, the biggest waste stations in NYC are located there and two of them include: New York Organic Fertilization Complex and Browning Ferris Industries Medical Waste Incinerator. These waste stations are located close to residential neighborhoods and, since there is no direct access from the highways to the industrial areas, diesel trucks travel on local streets to get from Bruckner Expressway to designated places in the South Bronx like Hunts Point Peninsula. Air quality for residents is therefore significantly lower and more dangerous than other parts of the city because trucks are continuously entering the residential area from the Bruckner Expressway multiple times during the day.

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In trying to put forth a motion to prevent an online grocer called FreshDirect from building distribution centers in the South Bronx, the activist group South Bronx Unite filed a lawsuit to address the high asthma rates caused by the company's diesel trucks. Some, including the mayor of the Bronx, support the placement of FreshDirect in the area and argue that the most debilitating condition in the South Bronx is unemployment. Although it is true that FreshDirect plans on creating over 1,000 new jobs and increasing access to healthy food, unemployment does not perpetuate the dangerous levels of asthma in the community. Advocates like Mychal Johnson, co-founder of South Bronx Unite, discuss how the online grocer has been adding an unhealthy amount of truck traffic and diesel; over a thousand diesel truck trips are made every day. The South Bronx is congested with additional high emissions from the trucks, ultimately producing pollution in residential areas.

"We saw [FreshDirect] perpetuating health consequences in my neighborhood. We're trying to answer and create a type of response to these types of projects that are constantly bringing diesel trucks for decades. We don't need trucks for businesses. We need green space and fresher air" (Johnson).

To say the least, fresh fruits, vegetables, and the increasing employment does not change or excuse the overall deterioration in health in the racially marginalized community. The fine particulate matter (PM) in diesel, from the trucks sent to transport the company's food, can penetrate deep into the lungs where it may cause severe consequences to human health. In fact, 80% of NYC's waste contributes to asthma, lung cancer, and heart disease in the South Bronx alone. Healthy green spaces in the South Bronx are also diminishing in places where FreshDirect sends diesel trucks.

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In a personal account, Mychal Johnson talks about the effects of the company's negligence on children.

"Children with asthma can suffer with developmental and cognitive problems. My son does not have the same air quality as others. His mental ability may be hindered and this can affect his educational and life outcomes. People need to understand how dangerous and serious these impacts are on our health, especially on cognitive ability" (Johnson).



In addition to that, the dangers of diesel trucks are evident in the increased number of hospitalizations. Hospitalization rates for asthma are 21 times higher in the South Bronx than affluent parts of the city.

The element of racism appears from the fact that poor areas are overwhelmingly nonwhite. In these areas, policies are also less regulated and there is an insufficient maintenance of environmental resources. Poor white areas, however, are more likely to have their environmental needs addressed quicker than poor racially marginalized ones.

People of color are unable to enjoy the full benefits of being heard or attract policy makers to change and enforce policies that accommodate the environmental needs of their community. Instead, they bear the burdens and cost of industrial and corporate policies that cause conditions that reproduce racial inequality by placing hazardous facilities in their areas with insufficient representation and resources. The distribution of pollution is, as a result, discriminatory to communities of color as the response level to their environmental needs is lower than white communities. This makes it harder for people of color to resist toxic exposure or to take part in advocating or speaking up against it.
As some schools gear up to offer computer science pilot programs in 2017, what options are out there for the kid who just wants to get ahead and learn? What choices can you offer a child whose passion is computers? Here are a few that stand out among the many online providers today.

Which one would suit your child?

Tyker provides free coding activities for children, starting as low as grade K+. Children can learn as they play as they make their way through fun computer programming courses. Tynker provides over 1000 coding activities in the form of self-paced courses, games, online creativity workshops, and kids can even collect badges along the way.

Code Studio has courses for kids starting at the age of four years old, and offers courses right up to the age of 18. They also offer traditional printed lessons, for those who don't have a computer in their study room. Kids can learn code while using their favorite movie characters, such as Elsa of Frozen and Rey of Star Wars.

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Kano is a computer that anyone can make. The best part about Kano is that it is self-directed learning. Kids teach themselves how to make their own computer, what could give kids a better sense of accomplishment than that? It is currently sold out, but it is listed as being available again this month. At $149.99, it is a reasonably priced piece when you compare the learning value kids will obtain from it. And adults, who am I kidding. Big kids would love it!



CODECADEMY

Codecademy is arguably for adults, or teenagers who want a more serious level of instruction. However, some kids will love Codecademy and will excel in the lessons provided at a young age - some kids simply love learning and can excel beyond their years!

At Codecademy, anyone of any age can learn to code interactively, for free. If you wish to step up a level, you can upgrade to Codecademy Pro, which gives you access to advisors and a personalized learning plan.

Why Should Kids Learn To Code?

"Everyone should learn to code, because it teaches you how to think," ~ Steve Jobs

While coding may not be the right choice for all children, it will be exactly the right choice for some. Children can embrace their natural curiosity, while solving problems on their own terms. It may even propel children into a future of STEM related occupations. When it comes to spending time with devices, surely it is better to provide real educational experiences that are fun, rather than letting a kid roam free with app-based games?

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What About Those Who Cannot Afford It?
Eduardo Porter has published an article in the New York Times titled, "A Universal Basic Income Is a Poor Tool to Fight Poverty" It is not the first article to make such a claim, and it won't be the last, but all such articles tend to share one thing in common -- the outright omission of all evidence to the contrary, and a gross manipulation of facts to build an argument out of straw.

In the case of Eduardo's piece he offers three false premises: 1) Basic income is too expensive and could only be funded by defunding everything else; 2) Basic income will provide a disincentive to work but toil is for our own good; and 3) The freedom basic income provides as cash is damaging to people who would be better off with paternalistic programs that limit their choices and treat them like children. Being that none of these things are true, it's sufficient to say his idea of methodically taking something apart is sorely lacking.

Too Expensive?

As I've already covered in a prior article addressing the affordability of basic income, the estimated cost in the US to provide all citizens over 18 with $12,000 per year and under 18 with $4,000 per year would be around $1.5 trillion in additional revenue. This price tag does not touch Medicare or Medicaid or education or defense. It does touch Social Security but in a way that leaves all recipients better off.

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Basically, there's no reason whatsoever that a large portion of Social Security can't be distributed in the form of basic income instead, with Social Security itself still existing as a top-up for seniors and those with disabilities. If you're receiving $1,500, there's no reason that can't be $500 or any other number, on top of a $1,000 floor that every citizen receives. It is absolutely false to say this can't be done in a way that leaves everyone currently receiving benefits better off, and still reduces government administration costs in the process.

The question is then does replacing welfare benefits leave those receiving such benefits worse off? Is this as Porter suggests the redistribution of wealth upwards? I've written about this before as well. An example would be a single mother of two receiving $45,000 in Medicaid, child care, housing, food, and cash assistance getting $12,000 in basic income instead. In that case, yes, she and her kids would indeed be worse off, but again, Medicaid is not part of the deal, and neither is child care. Basic income would replace housing, food, and cash assistance totaling $20,000 with a basic income of $12,000 for her and $4,000 for each kid, so $20,000. She is no worse off at all. In fact, because she no longer has to ever jump through another hoop for any of those things again, and unlike before, can earn any amount on top of her basic income without it being taken away from her like welfare would, she is far better off.

So if one cares to dig into the details, which I do recommend we do, it's patently false to claim that a universal basic income by design will leave people worse off by leaving us no choice but to replace all of government with cash. Any intelligently designed program would do no such thing, and realistically there would be no politically achievable way of doing otherwise, because neither the extreme right nor left is going to get everything it wants.

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As for where the $1.5 trillion comes from, that answer is simple. It comes from the raises no one has gotten since productivity decoupled from wages and salaries back around 1973. Basic income belongs to us because it's been effectively stolen from us for decades.

We are more productive now than ever. We are doing more with less. We are worth more to our companies than ever before. But we aren't being paid for it like we used to as part of the unwritten productivity growth deal. The result is the real upward wealth redistribution that has been occurring for decades, and being squirreled away in places like Panama.

Meanwhile, spending an additional $1.5 trillion to reduce poverty and inequality would likely save more than that by preventing the costs of not reducing them, costs imposed by health outcomes and crime rates that wouldn't exist to the same degree with universal basic income in place.

To look at all of this and ask where the money will come from is a joke of the highest order. The money is there, it's just massively maldistributed after decades of upward redistribution. Universal basic income is a real way to correct such massive levels of inequality.

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Disincentive to Work?

The second argument Eduardo makes is that a basic income would sap the desire to work, and because "work remains an important social, psychological and economic anchor," basic income would be a bad idea. Although unmentioned by Eduardo, some strong evidence to the contrary was mentioned in another New York Times article late last year.

Abhijit Banerjee, a director of the Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, released a paper with three colleagues last week that carefully assessed the effects of seven cash-transfer programs in Mexico, Morocco, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Indonesia. It found "no systematic evidence that cash transfer programs discourage work." Still, Professor Banerjee observed, in many countries, "we encounter the idea that handouts will make people lazy."

It's a good article I suggest be read in full. The author went on to explain how cash assistance does not show work disincentive effects, instead providing "very tangible benefits" especially for kids who go on to see improved longevity of life, educational outcomes, health, and incomes in adulthood. The author even concludes with a response to Paul Ryan who last year wished to move people from cash assistance to work.

Before the United States goes down that road again, however, it might make sense to reassess the strength of the underlying argument: that poor people will never act responsibly, get a job and stay in a family unless they are thrown into the swimming pool and left to struggle with little support from the rest of us.

So the author warns the reader that we should look at the evidence before thinking people won't find work unless forced to. I agree. That's exactly what we should do. What does strike me as odd is how the author is the same Eduardo Porter.

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So, on the one hand, Eduardo believes basic income won't work because work is so important for us to keep doing and we'll choose not to work if work becomes fully voluntary. On the other hand he himself is familiar with the evidence that giving people cash does not reduce the amount of work we do, and does in fact have many positive effects. Even odder, Eduardo's article about welfare even makes the point that people continue to work despite the high marginal tax rates that welfare imposes by being removed with work. Universal basic income doesn't even have that problem because it's never reduced with any amount of earned income above it.

This is where it becomes clear that universal basic income is an idea judged by many not logically or scientifically, but emotionally. This is likely why Eduardo himself can make the case against those perpetuating the myth of welfare's "corrupting influence" regarding work disincentives in one article, and then in another about universal basic income, practically forget everything he knows is true in order to argue against giving people sufficient money to live without conditions aka basic income.

Be wary of any article against basic income that doesn't include any supporting evidence. Applicable experiments have been done. We have studied the work disincentive effects in the US and in Canada in the 1970s where the results were quite interesting. Fully universal basic incomes have been tested in Namibia and India, where the results of both were more work, not less. The charity Give Directly has given basic incomes to people in Uganda and Kenya, where the results in both locations were more work, not less. Unconditional cash transfers are being used more frequently all over the world entirely because of their successes, and in places like Liberia and Lebanon where they ended up being like basic incomes, they too show more work, not less.

Perhaps most interesting of all the applicable evidence of cash without strings is the seemingly universal shift from typical wage labor to more self-employment and unpaid work. This in no way points toward people doing nothing. This is also why basic income is not at all an idea about paying people to do nothing, but instead about paying people to do anything. There is so much work being done right now that is not seen or recognized as work, but is. And there is so much work people want to be doing on their own volition that they are prevented from doing in a system that requires they spend their hours working for someone else just to survive.

Look at the evidence. Always look at the evidence. If you do that, here's what the evidence is saying in a nutshell: in a world where all resources are locked up and money is the only key, a minimum amount of money does not prevent work, but enables it. No one can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps if they have no boots. The only way to make that possible is to make sure everyone starts with at the very least, a pair of boots with straps. That's universal basic income. It's universal bootstraps. It's the idea that in a globalized economy requiring less and less work of humans to meet the demand for everyone's basic needs, no one should start with bare feet.

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And this brings us to the final straw...

Not Paternalistic Enough?

Eduardo Porter argues that a housing voucher is better than cash, because parents would be forced to use a housing voucher on housing and thus would be more likely to move to a better neighborhood, whereas they would be less likely to use cash on housing and therefore less likely to use cash to move into a better neighborhood. He is absolutely mistaken.

First, when asked to agree or disagree with the statement "cash payments increase the welfare of recipients to a greater degree than do transfers-in-kind of equal cash value," 84 percent of economists agreed. The greater value of cash to not cash is one of those few things almost all economists agree upon. It's also why sometimes food stamps are sold for less than face value, so that people can gain the freedom to make their own choices on how to use it.

Second, the reality of housing vouchers is nothing at all like Eduardo thinks it is, possibly because he's never actually experienced it. The reality is that vouchers are only accepted by those who choose to accept them, and those who choose to accept them tend to not be located in better neighborhoods. Chicago's "supervoucher" program provides an illustrative example, by being a program specifically designed to enable those in poor neighborhoods to move to wealthy neighborhoods.

After driving around different neighborhoods, she and her children decided Lincoln Park was their top choice. But Weaver, who is African-American, quickly realized that even with access to CHA's new supervouchers, finding affordable housing in a prime Chicago neighborhood wasn't easy. "We had a few places that said, 'Yes, we love her, we want to do this!' " Weaver recalls. "Then when they found out I had a voucher they would say no." Eventually Weaver told her real estate agent to alert people up front that she had a voucher and see if they were still willing to show her the apartment. "I would say out of ten at least seven canceled."

After searching for almost two years, and after scores of application fees, Weaver finally gave up. In the end she described the experience as "one of the most disgusting and deplorable experiences" she's ever had. The reality of housing vouchers is that few accept them, even despite any laws created to prevent that.

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Yvette Jones has been a real estate broker for 22 years and works with many voucher holders. She says that out of ten listing agents or landlords she might reach out to, "maybe one" will be open to leasing the unit to a Section 8 client, supervoucher or not. Chicago is one of the few places in the country that bars discrimination based on a renter's source of income, including vouchers. The law is supposed to protect voucher holders like Weaver, but it's rarely enforced, and when it is, the penalty for landlords is only $500.

But the reality of housing vouchers is even worse than all of that, because to have a housing voucher you have to be deemed worthy of said voucher. This is where the grand flaw of means-tested assistance rears its ugly head. The truth is that 76 percent of those who qualify for housing assistance don't get it. Meanwhile those who do get it go through long waiting lists and the assistance is temporary in nature based on income.

Now compare all of this to cash. Whereas only one in four deemed worthy for assistance gets it in a means-tested system full of government bureaucrats and all of their hoops, four in four get basic income because there are no bureaucrats or hoops. There are even states like Wyoming where 1 in 100 living under the federal poverty line get TANF, whereas 100 in 100 would get basic income. The real effect of targeted benefits is that more people aren't helped than helped, and that help is always temporary. Basic income in contrast never goes away with any amount of income earned on top of it, and because it's universal and cash, it can truly be used anywhere by everyone.

In fact, when recipients of cash dividends in North Carolina were faced with an extra $4,000 per year without conditions, moving to nicer neighborhoods is exactly what some of them did. Should this really be surprising?

That people can use their basic income anywhere in any way they deem fit is its great strength. Cash can be used in an infinite number of creative ways, including the creation of innovative new businesses and inventions. It can be used at the consumer end of those as well. It can be put into savings. It can be used to pay down debts. And yes it can even be used to buy drugs and alcohol. But is that how it actually gets used? A meta-analysis of 19 studies and 13 interventions found that not a single randomized trial found a significant increase in alcohol and tobacco purchases as an effect of cash without conditions.

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On the other hand, those same people in North Carolina given cash dividends saw decreases in alcohol consumption. That shouldn't be surprising either, but unfortunately it is because most people don't understand what actually drives addictions and that's impoverished environments. Watch this video by Kurzgesagt and read about "Rat Park." I've also written about this topic before as well. Want to reduce drug use? Eliminate poverty and reduce inequality.

We should all be fed up with non-evidence based thinking. I certainly am. I'm fed up with people writing for well-respected outlets like the New York Times who choose to ignore evidence because it doesn't suit their preconceived notions of how the world works. I'm fed up with people with positions "up on high" looking down at everyone else and telling them they know better who needs assistance and who doesn't, and how that assistance should be provided and when that assistance should be taken away. I'm fed up with the idea that anyone must prove their right to live to anyone at all.

Is universal basic income a poor tool to fight poverty? No. It's the best tool to fight poverty, because poverty inside a monetary system is quite simply a lack of money. Poverty is the inability to purchase food and housing. It's the inability to afford a new outfit for that job interview, or transport to the job if given the job. It's the inability to afford schooling. It's the inability to focus on anything except for where enough dollars are going to come from to live day by day. Poverty is a lack of resources.

To fight poverty, we must simply abolish it. And to abolish it, we must get over the many scientifically unfounded mental barriers that have always prevented us from doing it to this day, mainly the notion that one must work for one's daily bread.

We must flip this notion on its head and finally understand it's the bread that makes anyone able to do any work in the first place.

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One surefire way to increase your chances of entrepreneurial success is to be a big fish in a small pond. Essentially, it's better to enter a small market with less competition than it is to enter a large market with many incumbent players.

This strategy mainly refers to cities. You have a higher chance of success in a smaller city than a larger one. However, this strategy can also apply to the Internet. The Internet is the largest market with the most competition. Therefore, you need to carve out a niche for yourself on the Internet with less competition--at least to start.

This strategy not only works well for business, but also for highly skilled professionals. Doctors and lawyers in smaller cities often earn higher salaries and gain greater recognition than their counterparts in larger cities. With fewer options to the population in small cities, highly skilled professionals can act as monopolists. I remember having a conversation with a very wealthy lawyer in Las Vegas. He mentioned that it was much easier for him to find success in Las Vegas than it was for him to have success in Washington DC where lawyers are a dime a dozen.

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This strategy also applies to academics. It's much more advantageous to go to a school in a city that is known for poor academics than it so to attend a school in a city that is known for stellar academics. Your opportunity to stand out as a top student is much greater in the former.

For example, it was a blessing for me to attend inner-city public schools in Las Vegas, which are known for having practically the worst academics in the nation with a 40% dropout rate. It was much easier for me to become my high school valedictorian. It was much easier to win scholarships that were only open to Nevada students from companies such as Coca-Cola, Toyota, and McDonald's. It was much easier to get into great colleges such as Brown, Northwestern, and Johns Hopkins (because colleges need students from every geographic region). I'm not sure I would have had the same levels of academic success had I attended an ultra- competitive high school in San Jose.

When I was first starting Prep Expert SAT & ACT Preparation, I was a senior in college at USC. My plan was to advertise the classes on my website during the spring and teach classes during the summer, before I headed to medical school. I had to decide where I wanted to start my Prep Expert classes.

I thought it made perfect sense to start my classes in Los Angeles. Because Los Angeles is a huge market with a lot of wealth, I just had to convince a dozen parents to enroll in my SAT prep classes. Easy right? Wrong.

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I tried everything to launch Prep Expert. I paid the deposit to rent a beautiful, modern classroom near Beverly Hills to advertise on our website. I e-mailed every college counselor in the Los Angeles area about our classes. I visited over 50 top high schools in the Los Angeles area. I did web and print advertising. But I could not get one student enrolled in our classes.

Right before spring break, I had a student from my high school in Las Vegas e-mail me. He said that he wanted to take my classes, and was hoping that I'd start them in Las Vegas. No one but me knew at the time that I had zero students in Los Angeles and one potential student in Las Vegas. So I pivoted. I cancelled my deposit on the Los Angeles classroom and made a new deposit on a Las Vegas classroom.

Prep Expert was now going to launch in Las Vegas, rather than Los Angeles. I told the Las Vegas student, and he enrolled. I now had my first student in Las Vegas without doing any marketing there.

The difference between starting my business in Las Vegas versus Los Angeles was night and day. In Los Angeles, I didn't have one student enroll for months. In Las Vegas, I had students enroll weekly. By the time June came around for me to teach the first set of Prep Expert SAT classes, I had not one, but two classes that were almost completely full in Las Vegas.

I'm fairly certain that I didn't succeed in Los Angeles because there is so much competition there for SAT prep. Test prep companies have been there for dozens of years with deep customer bases. So it was very hard for a solo entrepreneur like myself to enter the market. But Las Vegas did not have many test prep options. So it was much easier to start there. We are now the largest test prep provider in Las Vegas. Because we started in a small market, we were then able to expand to larger markets. I recently closed a deal with Mark Cuban on ABC's Shark Tank for an investment in Prep Expert and we now run classes online and in 20 major cities, including Los Angeles.

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Photo Credit: Disney | ABC Television Group

For entrepreneurs, consider setting up shop in a small city, not a large one. Your business will likely do much better in an environment where you are not surrounded by cutthroat competition. A bigger market does not always equal greater revenue.

Believing that it's better to enter a larger market because there are more dollars is like attempting to win the lottery. Your eyes are fixed on the big prize. This is likely why investors hate when entrepreneurs describe how big their market is (e.g., $100 billion) and then say that they only need to capture 1% of that. The bigger the market, the harder it is to capture any market share at all.

Moral of the story? Be a big fish in a small pond.
It is not often that a Muslim woman feels good about what is going on around her, particularly when it comes to her Muslim faith. Islam is on the hot seat. The word Muslim stirs up all kinds of unkind associations in the minds of the public. Muslims cannot be trusted. Muslims are the trouble makers..... they have destabilized the world and even worse, we are often dehumanized. It's a tough time to be a Muslim in the world today while continuing to adhere to your faith.



Recently Donald Trump has legitimized Islamaphobia and digs into the political scene, swinging the pendulum back and forth quite ferociously. He makes slanderous comments on Islam and Muslims, many of which are inappropriate and reprehensible. How does one respond and where does one turn in the face of insults and falsehoods about one's faith being flung at you? For most people, religion is a private domain and should stay that way but with politicians like Donald Trump - holding on to the privacy of one's religion is a tall challenge. Trump believes that he can say whatever he wants whenever he wants and thinks nothing of offending people of other faiths. Religion is typically very personal and really needs to stay in that realm - rather than being attacked inappropriately by politicians.



But Trump is not the only newly minted superstar in the political heavens. There is also Sadiq Khan, the newly elected mayor of London.



Khan, one of seven siblings in a Pakistani immigrant family in London grew up in public housing, and proceeded to be a human rights lawyer and government minister. He won 1.3 million votes in his recent election "unsurpassed by any politician in British history."



And get this, how does a lawyer and the son of a London bus driver see his success? "This victory is not about me," says Khan modestly. "It's about the millions of Londoners whose lives we can improve by building more affordable homes, freezing fares, restoring community policing and cleaning up our toxic air."



Despite attempts to thwart his inclusive campaign, Khan prevailed in his mayoral election and describes himself as the anti-Trump candidate. Roger Cohen writes in his New York Times column: "Sadiq Khan railed against Islamist extremism and stood tall on the horizon even as he defended openness against isolationism, integration against confrontation and opportunity for all against racism and misogyny. "



Khan campaigned as a Londoner, a European, and a Brit. He goes on to say, "I'm a man of Islamic faith, of Asian origin, of Pakistani heritage, a dad and a husband."



Once elected, Khan immediately turned to his priority mission; quenching "the politics of fear which are not welcome in London." He acknowledges that the hard work begins now and "commits to making London even better for all Londoners."



Sadiq Khan, like Trump was branded as a new breed of candidate. His Conservative opponent tried to demonize him and tie him to extremists - but the London voters rejected the smear. This is a game changer - not only for Britain but also broadly speaking for South Asians residing in England. Khan's election in London is a vital marker and belies the fact that "terrorist acts hide a million quiet success stories among European Muslim communities."



Perhaps you can sense why Khan is my new hero. He is smart, cautious and effective. He clearly understands the challenges he will face and he will undoubtedly address them with a thoughtful lens. I am truly excited about him being the new mayor of London and I particularly appreciate his priorities which veer towards enabling people to work, to strive, and to fully live their lives. I like his approach to making life more comfortable for his people above all. I have faith in Sadiq Khan and I doubt that he will let us down.



Looking backward and forward, he envisages a London as he experienced it growing up -- which provided opportunities for education, growth and development. But he worries that while his children don't face the raw racial discrimination he grew up with, they also live in a London so stressed by inequality and unaffordability that he is not certain that the next generation of immigrant families can achieve what his parents were able to do.



The contrast with Donald Trump - well, it's hard to overstate it.



Trump says: "I have learned to listen and trust my gut. It's one of my most valued counselors."



Well, what does his gut tell him (since he clearly doesn't look at facts)? It told him that immigrants from Mexico were "bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists." It suggests to him that three year old refugees from the Islamic State in Syria were themselves a security threat to the United States and needed to be sent back at the border. His gut provided him with the astonishing assertion that "27-35% of the world's Muslims are ready to go to war with the United States - that would be 500 million people"!



He also stated recently: "We must as a nation be more unpredictable." That's one campaign promise he probably would deliver on.



Roger Cohen, t he columnist, ends on a reassuring note when he writes:

"Sadiq Khan's victory is reassuring because he represents currents in the world--towards global identity and integration - that will prove stronger over time than the tribalism and nativism of the ever unpredictable Donald Trump."



But in case you have friends who need persuading, I thought I would provide this little Voter Guide for anyone wanting to know whether this century's politics should emulate Donald Trump or Sadiq Khan.
From The Feminist Wire

In American classrooms, where black children are never granted the luxury of being thinkers, brainy dreamers and nerdy eccentrics, invulnerability becomes their default mode and safe space; protective armor from the criminalizing gaze of school police, administrators and teachers. Inundated with racist pop culture images of violent black masculinity and hyper-sexualized black femininity, black boys in particular often struggle to define manhood in ways that aren't based on hardness and controlling black girls and women.

Black male feminist allies like Kevin Powell, Byron Hurt and Mark Anthony Neal have long championed linking anti-violence work on sexual assault, intimate partner violence and misogynoir with civil rights and social justice activism. Powell calls for a progressive men's movement to deprogram men and boys. Yet, making sexual violence relevant to young men of color is hampered by legacies of anti-feminist "gender warfare", epitomized by scorched earth attacks against forerunning womanist/feminists like Alice Walker, Michele Wallace and bell hooks. As a result, it is a persistent challenge to connect young black men to this work in their schools, communities and everyday lives.

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How, then, do black feminist educators work with boys of color to redefine masculinity and engage a new generation of "woke" feminist young men?

When students in my all-black Young Male Scholars' (YMS) high school program are asked to identify mainstream media examples of men of color being vulnerable, or expressing emotion that isn't violent, objectifying and/or "turnt up"; most are at a loss. Throughout the course of the school year, YMS students collaborate with Women's Leadership Project students on sexual violence prevention peer education--co-coordinated with youth activists Issachar Curbeon and Brandon Bell from health justice organizations Black Women for Wellness and Wisdom from the Field-- that unpacks sexist hetero-norms and attitudes about gender roles, gender identity and male bonding around violence. Critiquing the way rape culture influences public policy and media is key as many black youth don't see themselves meaningfully represented outside of violent dehumanizing imagery. In addition, black boys are programmed to view racist victimization as the primary issue confronting black communities, unaware of their own privilege and the ways black women and girls are subject to systematized sexual, domestic and intimate partner violence.



The influence of this erasure runs deep. According to a 2005 Justice Department study, "black victims reported sexual assault at much lower rates than white victims, [and] while 44 percent of white victims report sexual assault, only 17 percent of black victims did". Black women and girls continue to be the most vulnerable and most targeted populations when it comes to sexual violence and sex trafficking. Moreover, public agency interventions that address the sex trafficking of minors are often not culturally responsive. Time and again white folk who believe they are on the "frontlines" of "rescuing" trafficking victims are ignorant of the context of black girls navigating poverty, misogynoir, sexual abuse and school push-out. Sexual violence victimization is a key factor affecting the mental health and wellness of black girls K-12 schools. And for youth of all genders and sexualities, prevention resources and education are virtually nonexistent. Compounding matters, black girl survivors are often explicitly or implicitly told to just get over it and soldier on. In ultra-religious black communities they may be encouraged to seek therapy through patriarchal hetero-normative faith based institutions that view women's sexuality as "the problem" and not American as apple pie rape culture.

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The Los Angeles-based Media Done Responsibly (MDR) organization has been a leader in educating youth to push back against the prevalence of sexist media violence. The organization promotes media literacy and advocacy by training youth of color to become aware about and challenge toxic media images/lyrics that they consume. MDR founder Shaunelle Curry works in schools and universities across Los Angeles County using a culturally responsive arts curriculum. MDR engages youth in media advocacy which targets the multinational corporations that promote and profit from sexist, misogynist images of women of color. In addition, the organization trains young men of color to be facilitators at its partner schools and to commit



to challenging rape culture and the normalization of sexual assault and sexual harassment. For example, working with young men, Curry and MDR do "a 'Woman of Honor' lesson plan in which students have to name a woman who's been influential in their life that they love." According to Curry, "We then hand out objectifying, misogynistic lyrics. We have them read them out loud and insert the name of the woman they honor and hear their name in this misogynistic language. Some can't do it. This gives us a place to start the discussion. Many of them just listen to the beat not the lyrics. We also



look at why this is the predominant way black and Latino women are represented in media culture. In this respect, they begin to deconstruct how women are just there for male pleasure and desire; while understanding how this impacts the cycle of violence, abuse and degradation of women."

Recognizing young men and boys as violence victims/survivors is also a crucial piece. Gender violence prevention educator Clifton Trotter, formerly of the anti-violence prevention organization Peace Over Violence, has worked directly with young black men on its Engaging Men project (in partnership with the L.A.-based Brotherhood Crusade). He spoke recently with YMS and Women's Leadership Project students about the initiative, which leads young men through a ten-week violence prevention education program that focuses on hypermasculinity, violence in dating relationships, sexual violence and black fatherhood. After the training, youth participants develop confessionals, reflections, personal narratives and poetry into a dynamic performance piece that can be used in classrooms and community outreach.



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Trotter notes that male entitlement is one of the biggest challenges to developing young men as allies when it comes to addressing the normalization of violence against women. He says, "This is especially true for young men and boys who haven't been exposed to this paradigm shift because there is already a defensive posture. It's important to convey to our young men that it's not an indictment and [that this issue] is bigger than you."

Recently Kandee Lewis, executive director of the Positive Results Corporation, which focuses on teen violence prevention, organized a multi-generational men's conference in Los Angeles that explored male trauma and healing. Lewis maintains that "Most young men are confused because of the images they are exposed to and the trauma from the violence they may have seen or experienced at home. In relationships too often young men feel they have to prove how much of a man they are, and that includes the way they speak to women and behave around women." All of the conference presenters spoke from their



experiences with domestic and sexual violence. Far too often, homophobic and transphobic norms dovetail with racist stereotypes to shame, marginalize and victim-blame black male sexual violence survivors into silence. Reflecting on the impact of the conference, two young men who attended said, "Young men need to know that it's ok to be different, to prescribe to non-violence...to not succumb to peer pressure, and to not feel obligated to" be complicit in behavior that dehumanizes girls and women. In an age of mass black resistance, this continues to be one of the most radical propositions.

Media Done Responsibly will host a fundraiser and awards ceremony honoring artist-advocates for diversity on June 2nd.
Most of the post-Presidential primary analysis has focused on how wrong the pundits were when it came to Donald Trump winning and Bernie Sanders' staying power. While these are true and important observations, there has sadly been little discussion about what we can learn about the two inevitable nominees from the data in the primaries. Clearly, focus has moved on to the general election, along with the accepted narrative that Republican voters have come to accept the Trump nomination while Clinton has still yet to win over many Sanders supporters. But is this analysis based on actual data or does it just sound good and so it get repeated? On the surface, these narratives are somewhat true, but as is always the case there is a lot more to the story than a few topline numbers in public polls.

Starting with Trump, if you look back at the coverage, most pundits were insisting that Donald Trump was at his ceiling in January, and that he had no room for growth. Clearly this was not that case, but much of the focus recently has been on the fact that it wasn't until New York that Trump won a majority level of support. While the pure number of candidates had a lot to do with this, our data shows that Trump's inevitable path to a majority level of support can be traced back to late 2015.

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Since last fall, through our Trendency Research platform, we have been tracking the thoughts and opinions of likely voters in 10 swing states. Our analysis of data compiled from 8 months of research shows that the idea of a Trump ceiling was never correct. Instead it was a product of an oversimplified view of voters and of the data.

Just as a bit of background, Trendency Research is an online survey platform that breaks the mold of traditional polling. In our research, we don't ask for binary responses to questions (are you a Trump voter or not). Instead, we allow users to allocate their choice of candidates on a sliding scale. They can apportion all their support to one person, or divide it among several if they haven't made up their mind. Voters log-in to take our surveys on a regular basis over the course of several months and the site registers the changes (or lack thereof) in their opinions on each visit.

In the analysis, Trendency algorithms utilize what we term as Threshold Analysis to separate strong and consistent supporters from weak or more volatile voters. Voters at higher Thresholds display less volatility and are more likely to continue their current behavior or support their preferred candidate. As you move to lower Thresholds, voters begin to show more volatility in their choices and the support they would technically register in traditional polling methods is not necessarily predictive of their most likely final outcome.

In the end, this allows for a more complete view of the horserace than simple topline results. For example, a voter logging into Trendency may give Clinton 100 percent support one week and then only 75 percent support the next. Under the conditions of a standard survey, this voter would still say they were voting for Hillary, even though the strength of their support has dipped. Trendency reads this movement and inputs it into the Threshold Analysis, while traditional polling methods would not detect this shift.

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Looking back, we decided to examine the Presidential primaries at the Average Threshold across eight of the swing states we are tracking (we did not track the primaries in the two caucus states of Nevada and Colorado), to see what the numbers show. Over the past eight months, Donald Trump's support among Republican primary voters remained low at first, but continued to tick upwards starting in November of 2015 and then accelerated quickly in January. Throughout the fall and early primaries and caucuses, experts watching the race kept predicting that Trump would hit his ceiling, particularly as more candidates dropped out of the race and the Republican establishment coalesced around one candidate. However, that was never the case.

As Trendency's data shows (see Figure 1), Trump continued to grow his Average Threshold support, particularly once other candidates started dropping out. Regardless of which candidate left the race, whether they were considered an outsider or establishment favorite, Trump benefitted from each.

Figure 1: Average Threshold Analysis over time

From October to early January, Trump's Average Threshold was slowly rising each month (about a point each 30-day period). However, following the official start of the primary elections, Trump continued to pick up speed, hitting his stride among the Republican primary electorate in January where his Average Threshold support jumped five points. As the trend line above shows, Trump then continued to build that support through the beginning of the early primaries and was off to the races once March rolled around.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's support was about as steady as it comes. Last October, her Average Threshold was just under 39 and she held steady until the end of January when her average dipped just slightly to 38 and then down to 36 by mid-February. As Figure 2 shows, 30 days later her support was back up to 40. Said in another way, over a six-month period her Average Threshold moved only within a two-point range. Despite the increase in attention and enthusiasm directed towards Senator Sanders, Clinton had a reliable base of support in these eight swing states that remained unwavering throughout the primary. At the same time, that base of support did not grow larger regardless of the millions of dollars her campaign and supporting groups spent.



Figure 2: Average Threshold Analysis over time

Looking back, there are two clear takeaways from this data: 1) Donald Trump's support has been growing since late 2015 and he had a clear ability to attract Republican primary voters to his campaign regardless of which candidate they were previously supporting; and 2) Hillary Clinton's support was unwavering, and her campaign did little to change the views Democratic primary held of her, although given her strong starting position that was all she needed to do.
Lean methodologies have changed the way science is commercialized in the U.S. Now they are changing how we protect the homeland and keep Americans safe and around the world.

How the U.S. government has embraced Lean methodologies to reinvigorate its innovation efforts was the focus of the latest episode of my SiriusXM radio show, Entrepreneurs are Everywhere.

The show airs on SiriusXM Channel 111 (weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). It follows the journeys of innovators sharing what it takes to build a startup - from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. The program examines the DNA of entrepreneurs: what makes them tick, how they came up with their ideas; and explores the habits that make them successful, and the highs and lows that pushed them forward.

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Joining me in the Stanford University studio were

Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-IL), a champion of the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps)

Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA), who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and a champion of defense innovation





Listen to the full interviews with Reps. Moulton and Lipinski by downloading them from SoundCloud here and here.

(And download any of the past shows here.)

Clips from their interview are below.

Rep. Dan Lipinski is a six-term Congressman and on the Committee on Science, Space and Technology and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Research and Technology (and one of a handful with a doctorate). He championed the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (NSF I-Corps). I-Corps teaches scientists and engineers how to get their technical ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace using the Lean Startup processes.

Rep. Lipinski also serves on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and three of its subcommittees: Aviation; Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials; and Highways and Transit.

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Innovation drives the U.S. economy, he said:

Innovation is really is the life blood of our American economy. ... looking back at the stories of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and the Wright Brothers, you look at emergence to technology innovation and what it has done for our economy.

We need to continue that. America is full of entrepreneurs, inventor and dreamers.

Coming back to Stanford, reminds me of a German friend when I was here in grad school It was 1989. He saw the movie, "Field of Dreams." I asked him what he thought about the movie and he said, "Well, that would never happen in Germany. In Germany, you'd never have some guy with a crazy idea, who'd plow under his field so he can build something like a ball park." He said, "You just would not. No one in Germany would ever believe that story but in America, things are different. Americans are dreamers. They're doers."

I think that's why we are so good at innovation. We're risk-takers.

Unfortunately it seems in this presidential election, we're in a place where we have candidates who instead of growing the pie through innovation, are talking about "How are we going to divide the existing pie differently?" ... what we really need to do is to help innovators grow the pie.

To hear the clip, click here.

He offered context for the government's innovation efforts:

The Federal Government plays a critical role in innovation in our country and has throughout our history. If you're listening to this show on satellite radio, satellite radio was pioneered by the Department of Defense and NASA. If you're listening on the Internet, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the NSF (The National Science Foundation) were critical in developing the internet.

Most people don't know the role that the government has played and continues to play funding most of the country's technology and medical research. That research is the building block to innovative products. It's the envy of the world.

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To hear the clip, click here.

Rep. Seth Moulton is a Harvard graduate and U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served four tours in Iraq, including two tours as a platoon commander and two tours as a Special Assistant to Gen. David Petraeus. He was elected to Congress in 2014 and serves on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Budget Committee and the House Small Business Committee.

He spoke about the efforts of the Department of Defense to connect the Defense and Intelligence communities with the Silicon Valley innovation mindset, with their first innovation outpost called DIUx:

Connecting to the Silicon Valley innovation culture is another way to make sure that we're doing as much as we can to protect their lives of our soldiers as they're putting their lives on the line for our country.

He acknowledged the role that the new Hacking for Defense class is playing:

There's a lot of technologies that could save American lives overseas if we could just get them to the troops and get them more quickly. It's also a great way for people around the country, whether it's in Cambridge, Mass., or out here in California, to contribute in the fight against terrorism, to help the young men and women who are out there putting their lives on the line for us.

To hear the clip, click here.

The Cold War spurred innovation, Moulton said:

Rep. Moulton: There was a time in the 1950s and '60s, when the latest and greatest technology was coming out of the Department of Defense. Then later our advanced technology came from the civilian sector. That's why we had the most advanced intercontinental ballistic missiles and bombers and other things that we built during the Cold War.

Today, innovation isn't happening at the big defense contractors as much as it's happening right here in Silicon Valley. We've got to change them all.

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Steve: The Department of Defense and House Armed Services Committee helped start an innovation outpost out here called DIUx, didn't they?

Rep. Moulton: That's right. It was a recognition in Washington's that we ought to have better connections out here. This is one of the reasons why I come to visit. Not just because I'm on the Armed Services Committee but because I'm one of the youngest members of congress and I'm one of the only member of congress who has a degree in science. I like to think that I can understand this stuff, at least better than some of my colleagues. It's important that we have these connections between Washington and the innovation that's going on out here.

To hear the clip, click here.

As a former Marine, he has first-hand experience with the need to speed defense innovation efforts:

I remember when my GPS mapping system in my Humvee broke down when I was over in Iraq. We had to take it to the base to get reloaded and they brought out a stack of 3 -inch disks. A lot of listeners probably don't even remember what those are.

It was an amazing system ... in the late '80s or '90s or whatever, but now it's really out of date. The Department of Defense just hasn't been able to keep up with the pace of innovation. We would have been a lot better off with iPhones in our Humvees at the time.

We've got a lot of work to do on faster integration of innovation inside the Department of Defense. This is something that the committee right now is focused on, including the Republican chairman Mac Thornberry who's a great chairman, very bi-partisan. One of his priorities is to reform the procurement processes at the Department of Defense so that we can take advantage of all this incredible innovation that's going on right here at home.

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To hear the clip, click here.

He's also committed to improving the Veterans Administration to better serve veterans' healthcare needs, he said:

Rep. Moulton: We have a number of bills that we're working on. The most recent is called the Faster Care for Veterans Act, which directs the VA to conduct a pilot program with existing applications to make appointments on your Smart Phone.

We all know the stories of veterans who wait in line for months trying to get an appointment. It's also a problem with waiting in line on the phone to try to get through to schedule an appointment. That's what someone in my office who's a veteran was trying to do one day, and he kept, he got in this infinite loop on their phone system: Press 6. Press 2. Press 3. OK, back to the beginning. Press 6. Press 3. Press 2. Someone else in the office just made a video of it, and it went viral on Facebook.

This Faster Care for Veterans Act is totally bipartisan. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, one of the leaders in the Republican Conference, is cosponsoring it with me, and it's gotten a lot of support. My bottom line is this: Our veterans deserve the best healthcare in the world. If there's technology that's available to folks in the private sector right now, it should be available to veterans as well.

Steve: Is the problem with these institutions leadership, technology, bureaucracy that has no incentives to change, all of the above?

Rep. Moulton: It's all of the above, but I'll tell you, from my background in the Marines, I think a lot of it does come down to leadership. The leadership is starting to change. The new Secretary of the VA comes from the private sector. He's a veteran, but his experience is really in corporate America, and he's quickening the pace of innovation at the VA. So that's an example of a place where it's starting to change, but this is also why we need innovators in government.

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The government does a lot of important things and so many people are just frustrated with politics today, especially with the presidential election, that they're just checking out. Actually, this is the time when people need to check in, and especially young people.

To hear the clip, click here.

Rep. Moulton said he is inspired by the culture change he's seen during his short tenure in government:

Rep. Moulton: I like seeing new young people come into government and give some of the old bureaucrats a run for their money. We've got to improve the personnel system to give more opportunities to you young people, but I spend a lot of time as one of the youngest members of Congress just trying to get other young people involved. For some, it means potentially running some day, for others it means working on a congressional staff or just doing something else in government where you can be an important contributor to fixing some of the problems in government. ...



Steve: You've now been in the world largest bureaucracies, US military and probably the biggest bureaucracy in terms of spending, the US Congress. What still gives you hope?



Rep. Moulton: I've been pleasantly surprised by the impact that a freshman can make. I run my office like startup. I got my chief of staff from Silicon Valley. We're just trying to think outside the box and do things differently and we run into bureaucratic obstacles every single day but we don't let them stop us. Just in my own little personal experience over the past year, I've seen the difference that innovators, than an entrepreneurial spirit can make in government.

To hear the clip, click here.

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Among the ways the government fosters an entrepreneurial spirit is by helping to commercialize scientific research, Rep. Lipinski said:

Rep. Lipinski: Not all research is going to be turned into some new innovation, but there are some things that can be, and that haven't been, and I think the federal government has a proper role to play in doing that.

At the Department of Energy I pushed them to create an Office of Technology Transition at the Office of Science so that they can centralize their commercialization activities.

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I also was part of helping create the Technology Commercialization Fund created in 2005 to help get research out of labs and into creation of new products. The third thing at the Department of Energy is Lab Corps which is a ... version of the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps.

If you can't hear the clip, click here.

The NSF I-Corps is the biggest example of this effort, Rep. Lipinski said. To date, more than 800 teams of scientists and engineers have gone through the program which is built on the Lean LaunchPad curriculum.

I don't have a background as an entrepreneur. It's not something that's in my blood so I honestly had never really thought to myself, "If I had an idea, how would I go about trying to do something with that idea?"

Your Lean LaunchPad class, which became the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps, made complete sense to me, to my engineer mind.

You have an idea but before you say, "I'm just going to launch myself full-force into it," you must find out, "Does this idea make sense to customers? Do people really want this product?" Maybe they want something a little bit different. You need to get out of the lab to figure that out. ...

As someone who was a university professor, I know what some professors are like. These are extremely intelligent people, but they spend all their time in the lab. You really don't know until you get out and you ask questions, and find out what are people really looking for.

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The idea of taking a professor, a graduate student working under the professor and they get together with an entrepreneur -- someone who has the experience -- and work as a team, going through the whole Customer Development and Lean Startup process ... just made complete sense to me and I thought everyone would see that. I thought there was no question.

This is so obvious. First of all, I don't know why no one came up with this before, and once people hear this they're going to feel like I feel: This is such a great idea, we've got to do everything we can to promote this and spread this.

To hear the clip, click here.

But while the idea was a no-brainer to Rep. Lipinski, he had to convince others on Capitol Hill to support the program:

Well first of all I got a lot of pushback on the Science Committee. Questions about "Well, should we be choosing winners and losers here?"

A lot of members, mostly Republicans -- OK all Republicans -- would say, "Solyndra. Remember Solyndra? Remember that our government put all that money into this solar company and it went under, so why are we going to pick winners and losers like this? That's something the market should do."

The other thing was, "Well, the National Science Foundation should not be doing this. The National Science Foundation should just be doing basic research. This is not an area the NSF should be in."

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Although if you go back to the original charter of the NSF it clearly lays out that it is something that they should be in. I said, "Look, this is about education. NSF certainly is about education, what we're doing is educating professors and graduate students about how to be an entrepreneur."

I still could not get a hearing on the Innovation Corps. ... This is the way politics works:

I was the top Democrat on the Research and Technology subcommittee. Mo Brooks, the Republican chair of the subcommittee, said to me, "I want to have a hearing in my district. If you come to my district for a hearing I'll come to your district and do a hearing and you can pick whatever topic you want." So I said OK.

We went down to Huntsville, Ala., he did something with local educators about science education and I said "OK, I want to have a hearing in Chicago. It actually has nothing to do with anything locally," but this was my chance finally to say "I'm going to bring Steve Blank in and others from the NSF and we're going to talk about the Innovation Corps." That was the first hearing.

I tell you, things have certainly turned around since then and I think the Innovation Corps has really been embraced in Washington, especially on Capitol Hill by both sides of the aisle.

To hear the clip, click here.

The program has had a tremendous impact, he added:

There aren't that many things that get done in Washington these days, not many things, especially, that really work. I tell you that day that I came out to Stanford, and sat in on your class, met with you, talked with you, I came out of there thinking this is just an incredible idea.

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After the NSF I-Corps had been running for a while I visited and heard the presentations from the I-Corps teams and then saw companies developing from those ideas, venture capital coming to some of these companies that were being formed, I realized this is something that it really works and it's something that I championed that was right - and good for the country.

The NSF I-Corps is a great idea, something the government needs to really continue to invest in, and I'm very proud of this maybe more than anything else that I've been a part of in the 12 years that I've been in Congress because it's working and making a difference.

To hear the clip, click here.

Listen to my full interviews with Reps. Lipinski and Moulton by downloading them from SoundCloud here and here. (And download any of the past shows here.)

Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

Want to be a guest on the show? Entrepreneurship stretches from Main Street to Silicon Valley, from startups to big companies. Send an email to terri@kandsranch.com describing your entrepreneurial journey.

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An American Version of Class Struggle

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com



Arising from the shadows of the American repressed, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have been sending chills through the corridors of establishment power. Who would have thunk it? Two men, both outliers, though in starkly different ways, seem to be leading rebellions against the masters of our fate in both parties; this, after decades in which even imagining such a possibility would have been seen as naive at best, delusional at worst. Their larger-than-life presence on the national stage may be the most improbable political development of the last American half-century. It suggests that we are entering a new phase in our public life.

A year ago, in my book The Age of Acquiescence, I attempted to resolve a mystery hinted at in its subtitle: "The rise and fall of American resistance to organized wealth and power." Simply stated, that mystery was: Why do people rebel at certain moments and acquiesce in others?

Resisting all the hurts, insults, threats to material well-being, exclusions, degradations, systematic inequalities, over-lordship, indignities, and powerlessness that are the essence of everyday life for millions would seem natural enough, even inescapable, if not inevitable. Why put up with all that?

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Historically speaking, however, the impulse to give in has proven no less natural. After all, to resist is often to risk yourself, your means of livelihood, and your way of life. To rise up means to silence those intimidating internal voices warning that the overlords have the right to rule by virtue of their wisdom, wealth, and everything that immemorial custom decrees. Fear naturally closes in.

In our context, then, why at certain historical moments have Americans shown a striking ability to rise up, at other times to submit?

To answer that question, I explored those years in the first gilded age of the nineteenth century when millions of Americans took to the streets to protest, often in the face of the armed might of the state, and the period in the latter part of the twentieth century and the first years of this one when the label the age of acquiescence seemed eminently reasonable -- until, in 2016, it suddenly didnt.

So consider this essay a postscript to that work, my perhaps belated realization that the age of acquiescence has indeed come to an end. Millions are now, of course, feeling the Bern and cheering The Donald. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the first signs of what was to come as I was finishing my book: the Tea Party on the right, and on the left Occupy Wall Street, strikes by low-wage workers, minimum and living wage movements, electoral victories for urban progressives, a surge of environmental activism, and the eruption of the Black Lives Matter movement just on the eve of publication.

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But when you live for so long in the shade of acquiescence where hope goes to die or at least grows sickly, you miss such things. After all, if history has a logic, it can remain so deeply hidden as to be indecipherable... until it bites. So, for example, if someone had X-rayed American society in 1932, in the depth of the Great Depression, that image would have revealed a body politic overrun with despair, cynicism, fatalism, and fear -- in a word, acquiescence, a mood that had shadowed the land since black Tuesday and the collapse of the stock market in 1929.

Yet that same X-ray taken in 1934, just two years later, would have revealed a firestorm of mass strikes, general strikes, sit-down strikes, rent strikes, seizures of shuttered coal mines and utilities by people who were cold and lightless, marches of the unemployed, and a general urge to unseat the ancien regime; in a word, rebellion. In this way, the equilibrium of a society can shift phases in the blink of an eye and without apparent warning (although in hindsight historians and others will explore all the reasons everybody should have seen it coming).

Liberalism vs. Liberalism

Anticipated or not, a new age of rebellion has begun, one that threatens the status quo from the left and the right. Perhaps its most shocking aspect: people are up in arms against liberalism.

That makes no sense, right? How can it, when come November the queen of liberalism will face off against the billionaire standard bearer of Republicanism? In the end, the same old same old, yes? Liberal vs. conservative.

Well, not really. If you think of Hillary as the limousine liberal of this election season and The Donald as the right-wing populist in pinstripes, and consider how each of them shimmied their way to the top of the heap and who they had to fend off to get there, a different picture emerges. Clinton inherits the mantle of a liberalism that has hollowed out the American economy and metastasized the national security state. It has confined the remnants of any genuine egalitarianism to the attic of the Democratic Party so as to protect the vested interests of the oligarchy that runs things. That elite has no quarrel with racial and gender equality as long as they dont damage the bottom line, which is after all the defining characteristic of the limousine liberalism Hillary champions. Trump channels the hostility generated by that neoliberal indifference to the well-being of working people and its scarcely concealed cultural contempt for heartland America into a racially inflected anti-establishmentarianism. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders targets Clintonian liberalism from the other shore. Liberalism is, in other words, besieged.

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The Sixties Take on Liberalism

How odd! For decades progressives have found themselves defending the achievements of liberal reform from the pitiless assault of an ascendant conservatism. Its hard to remember that the liberal vs. conservative equation didnt always apply (and so may not again).

Go back half a century to the 1960s, however, and the battlefield seems not dissimilar to todays terrain. That was a period when the Vietnam antiwar movement indicted liberalism for its imperialism in the name of democracy, while the civil rights and black power movements called it out for its political alliance with segregationists in the South.

In those years, the New Left set up outposts in urban badlands where liberalisms boast about the U.S. being an affluent society seemed like a cruel joke. Students occupied campus buildings to say no to the bureaucratization of higher education and the universitys servitude to another liberal offspring, the military-industrial complex. Women severed the knot tying the liberal ideal of the nuclear family to its gendered hierarchy. The counterculture exhibited its contempt for liberalisms sense of propriety in a thousand ways. No hairstyle conventions, marriage contracts, sexual inhibitions, career ambitions, religious orthodoxies, clothing protocols, racial taboos, or chemical prohibitions escaped unscathed.

Liberalism adjusted, however. It has since taken credit for most of the reforms associated with that time. Civil rights laws, the war on poverty (including Medicare and Medicaid), womens rights, affirmative action, and the erasure of cultural discrimination are now a de rigueur part of the CVs of Democratic presidents and the partys top politicians, those running the mainstream media, the chairmen of leading liberal foundations, Ivy League college presidents, high-end Protestant theologians and clerics, and so many others who proudly display the banner of liberalism. And they do deserve some of the credit. They may have genuinely felt that Bern of yesteryear, the one crying out for equal rights before the law.

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More importantly, those liberal elites were wise enough or malleable enough, or both, to surf the waves of rebellion of that time. Wisdom and flexibility, however, are only part of the answer to this riddle: Why did mid-twentieth century liberalism manage to reform itself instead of cracking up under the pressure of that sixties moment? The deeper explanation may be that the uprisings of those years assaulted liberalism -- but largely on behalf of liberalism. Explicitly at times, as in the Port Huron Statement, that founding document of the ur-New Left group, Students for a Democratic Society, at other times by implication, the rebellions of that moment demanded that the liberal order live up to its own sacred credo of liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness.

The demand to open the system up became the heart and soul of the next phase of liberalism, of the urge to empower the free individual. Today, we might recognize this as the classic Clintonista desire to let all-comers join the race to the top.

Looking back, its been customary to treat the sixties as an era of youth rebellion. While more than that, it certainly could be understood, in part, as an American version of fathers and sons (not to speak of mothers and daughters). An older generation had created the New Deal order, itself an act of historic rebellion. As it happened, that creation didnt fit well with a Democratic Party whose southern wing, embedded in the segregationist former Confederacy, rested on Jim Crow laws and beliefs. Nor did New Deal social welfare reforms that presumed a male breadwinner/head of household, while excluding underclasses, especially (but not only) those of the wrong complexion from its protections, square with a yearning for equality.

Moreover, the New Deal saved a capitalist economy laid low in the Great Depression by installing a new political economy of mass consumption. While a wondrous material accomplishment, that was also a socially disabling development, nourishing a culture of status-seeking individualism and so undermining the sense of social solidarity that had made the New Deal possible. Finally, in the Cold War years, it became clear that prosperity and democracy at home depended on an imperial relationship with the rest of the world and the garrisoning of the planet. In the famed phrase of Life Magazine publisher Henry Luce, an American Century was born.

Uprisings against that ossifying version of New Deal liberalism made the sixties The Sixties. Political emotions were at a fever pitch as rebels faced off against a liberal establishment. Matters sometimes became so overheated they threatened to melt the surface of public life. And yet here was a question that, no matter the temperature, was tough to raise at the time: What if liberalism wasnt the problem? Admittedly, that thought was in the air then, raised not just by new and old lefties, but by Martin Luther King who famously enunciated his second thoughts about capitalism, poverty, race, and war in speeches like Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.

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Most of the rebels of that moment, however, clung to the ancestral faith. In the end, they were convinced that once equilibrium was restored, a more modern liberalism, shorn of its imperfections, could become a safe haven by excluding nobody. Indicted in those years for its hypocrisy and bad faith, it would be cleansed.

Thanks to those mass rebellions and the persistent if less fiery efforts that followed for decades, the hypocrisy of exclusion, whether of blacks, women, gays, or others, would indeed largely be ended. Or so it seemed. The liberalism inherited from the New Deal had been cleansed -- not entirely to be sure and not without fierce resistance, but then again, nothings perfect, is it? End of hypocrisy. End of story.

The Missing Link

Yet at the dawning of the new millennium a paradox began to emerge. Liberal society had proved compatible with justice for all and an equal shot at the end zone. Strangely, however, in its ensuing glorious new world, the one Bill Clinton presided over, liberty, justice, and equality all seemed to be on short rations.

If not the liberal order, then something else was spoiling things. After all, the everyday lives of so many ordinary Americans were increasingly constrained by economic anxiety and a vertiginous sense of social freefall. They experienced feelings of being shut out and scorned, of suffering from a hard-to-define political disenfranchisement, of being surveilled at work (if they had it) and probably elsewhere if not, of fearing the future rather than hoping for what it might bring their way.

Brave and audacious as they were, rarely had the rebel movements of the fabled sixties or those that followed explicitly challenged the underlying distribution of property and power in American society. And yet if liberalism had proved compatible enough with liberty, equality, and democracy, capitalism was another matter.

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The liberal elite that took credit for opening up that race to the top had also at times presided over a neoliberal capitalism which had, for decades, been damaging the lives of working people of all colors. (Indeed, nowadays Hillary expends a lot of effort trying to live down the legacy of mass incarceration bequeathed by her husband.) But Republicans have more than shared in this; they have, in fact, often taken the lead in implanting a market- and finance-driven economic system that has produced a few winners and legions of losers. Both parties heralded a deregulated marketplace, global free trade, the outsourcing of manufacturing and other industries, the privatization of public services, and the shrink-wrapping of the social safety net. All of these together gutted towns and cities as well as whole regions (think: Rust Belt America) and ways of life.

In the process, the New Deal Democratic Partys tradition of resisting economic exploitation and inequality vaporized, while the new Democrats of the Clinton era and beyond, as well as many in the boardrooms of the Fortune 500 and in hedge-fund America, continued to champion equal rights for all. They excoriated conservative attempts to rollback protections against racial, gender, and sexual discrimination; but the one thing they didnt do -- none of them -- was disturb the equanimity of the 1%.

And what does freedom and equality amount to in the face of that? For some who could -- thanks to those breakthroughs -- participate in the race to the top, it amounted to a lot. For many millions more, however, who have either been riding the down escalator or already lived near or at the bottom of society, it has been a mockery, a hollow promise, something (as George Carlin once noted) we still call the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it.

Given their hand in abetting this painful dilemma, the new Democrats seemed made for the already existing sobriquet -- a kind of curse invented by the populist right -- limousine liberal. An emblem of hypocrisy, it was conceived and first used in 1969 not by the left but by figures in that then-nascent right-wing movement. The image of a silk-stocking crowd to-the-manner born, bred and educated to rule, networked into the circuits of power and wealth, professing a concern for the downtrodden but not about to surrender any privileges to alleviate their plight (yet prepared to demand that everyone else pony up) has lodged at the heart of American politics ever since. In our time, it has been the magnetic North of right-wing populism.

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Class Struggle, American Style

In 1969, President Richard Nixon invoked the silent majority to do battle with those who would soon come to be known as limousine liberals. He hoped to mobilize a broad swath of the white working class and lower middle class for the Republican Party. This group had been the loyalists of the New Deal Democratic Party, but were then feeling increasingly abandoned by it and disturbed by the rebelliousness of the era.

In the decades that followed, the limousine liberal would prove a perfect pinata for absorbing their resentments about racial upheaval, as well as de-industrialization and decline, and their grief over the fading away of the traditional family and its supposed moral certitudes. In this way, the Republican Party won a substantial white working-class vote. Its clear enough in retrospect that this confrontation between the silent majority and limousine liberalism was always a form of American class struggle.

Nixon proved something of a political genius and his gambit worked stunningly well... until, of course, in our own moment it didnt. Following his lead, the Republican high command soon understood that waving the red flag of limousine liberalism excited passions and elicited votes. They never, however, had the slightest intention of doing anything to truly address the deteriorating circumstances of that silent majority. The partys leading figures were far too committed to defending the interests of corporate America and the upper classes.

Their gestures, the red meat they tossed to their followers in the culture wars, only increased the passions of the era until, in the aftermath of the 2007 financial meltdown and Great Recession, they exploded in a fashion the Republican elite had no way to deal with. What began as their creature, formed in cynicism and out of the festering jealousies and dark feelings of Nixon himself over the way the liberal establishment had held him in contempt, ended up turning on its fabricators.

A silent majority would no longer remain conveniently silent. The Tea Party howled about every kind of political establishment in bed with Wall Street, crony capitalists, cultural and sexual deviants, free-traders who scarcely blinked at the jobs they incinerated, anti-taxers who had never met a tax shelter they didnt love, and decriers of big government who lived off state subsidies. In a zip code far, far away, a privileged sliver of Americans who had gamed the system, who had indeed made gaming the system into the system, looked down on the mass of the previously credulous, now outraged, incredulously.

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In the process, the Republican Party was dismembered and it was The Donald who magically rode that Trump Tower escalator down to the ground floor to pick up the pieces. His irreverence for established authority worked. His racist and misogynist phobias worked. His billions worked for millions who had grown infatuated with all the celebrated Wall Street conquistadors of the second Gilded Age. His way of gingerly tiptoeing around Social Security worked with those whose neediness and emotional logic was captured by the person who memorably told a Republican congressman, Keep your government hands off my Medicare. Most of all, his muscle-flexing bombast worked for millions fed up with demoralization, paralysis, and powerlessness. They felt The Donald.

In the face-off between right-wing populism and neoliberalism, Tea Party legions and Trumpists now find Fortune 500 CEOs morally obnoxious and an economic threat, grow irate at Federal Reserve bail-outs, and are fired up by the multiple crises set off by global free trade and the treaties that go with it. And underlying such positions is a fantasy of an older capitalism, one friendlier to the way they think America used to be. They might be called anti-capitalists on behalf of capitalism.

Others -- often their neighbors in communities emptying of good jobs and seemingly under assault -- are feeling the Bern. This represents yet another attack on neoliberalism of the limousine variety. Bernie Sanders proudly classifies himself as a socialist, even if his programmatic ideas echo a mildly left version of the New Deal. Yet even to utter the verboten word socialism in public, no less insistently run on it and get away with it, exciting the fervent commitment of millions, is stunning -- in fact, beyond imagining in any recent America.

The Sanders campaign had made its stand against the liberalism of the Clinton elite. It has resonated so deeply because the candidate, with all his grandfatherly charisma and integrity, repeatedly insists that Americans should look beneath the surface of a liberal capitalism that is economically and ethically bankrupt and running a political confidence game, even as it condescends to the forgotten man.

To a degree then, Trump and Sanders are competing for the same constituencies, which should surprise no one given how far the collateral damage of neoliberal capitalism has spread. Dont forget that, in the Great Depression era as the Nazis grew more powerful, their party, the National Socialists, not only incorporated that word -- socialism -- but competed with the Socialist and Communist parties among the distressed workers of Germany for members and voters. There were even times (when they werent killing each other in the streets) that they held joint demonstrations.

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Trump is, of course, a conscienceless demagogue, serial liar, and nihilist with a belief in nothing save himself. Sanders, on the other hand, means what he says. On the issue of economic justice, he has been a broken record for more than a quarter-century, even if no one beyond the boundaries of Vermont paid much attention until recently. He is now widely trusted and applauded for his views.
News / National

by Staff reporter

The Tendai Biti led People's Democratic Party (PDP) did not sign Coalition of Democrats (CODE) because the party leader feared possible rebellion by some of his most senior officials who had been promised positions in Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF).ZimPF is led by Joice Mujuru.Several parties -Democratic Assembly for Restoration of the Economy (DARE), MDC, Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD), Renewal Democrats of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe United for Democracy (ZUNDE) -Tuesday signed a coalition agreement in Harare, expected to see them field and support one candidate for President and other positions, from local government elections up to legislators.PDP's Biti and ZAPU Secretary for Information and Publicity, Mjobisa Noko were at the signing ceremony and gave solidarity messages although they did not sign the agreement.Sources allege that some of PDP's senior officials offered positions at ZimPF include Samuel Sipepa Nkomo -PDP vice president, Gorden Moyo -Secretary General and Lucia Matibenga  the party's national chairperson.Sources claimed Biti wanted to sign the agreement but some of his counterparts resisted, leaving him option to say they will discuss CODE at their General Council meeting."Sipepa was called to People First and was offered a bigger position by virtue of him being Ndebele. To have people side with him on not signing the agreement, he, therefore bussed people to their last executive meeting. Delegates to the meeting were funding themselves, since he had money, Sipepa bussed in people from Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo and these were told what to say and do. Biti had few people on his side. The only option he has now is to bus people as well for the general council meeting," sources alleged.PDP Vice-President Spokesperson, Edwin Ndlovu, squashed reports that Biti faced rebellion from some of his executive members and that they were offered positions at ZimPF."There is no rebellion what so ever but the national council is yet to meet simply that. People First is a rival political party therefore it's strange how they could promise our leaders positions. What positions in the first place? Therefore that is just hogwash," he said.Ndlovu insisted PDP was yet to meet at its national council and decide way forward concerning CODE."PDP did not sign the document because we are yet to present it to our national council but our president did attend the ceremony. We will sign after our national council. If our vice president and secretary general were in Harare they were also going to attend the event but no signatures," said the spokesperson.Sources said some months ago, PDP secretary general would tell other parties to negotiate for a coalition with Mujuru otherwise she would sink the entire oppositional space like what MDC united did in 2000 when it entered the political space."Moyo said she would wipe other opposing parties like what happened to Zapu 2000 when MDC entered the scene," sources claimed.Some oppositional politicians claimed to win in an election, a candidate should need to have part of Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe's supporters, which Mujuru did not have.They said Mujuru, so far, has nothing, to show she can command greater support."What kind of party will she lead if it's made up of disgruntled people who have been let go from other parties but are now at the centre of her party," said one politician. Mujuru will only be relevant if she can divide the Zanu PF vote otherwise (MDC-T's) Tsvangirai can beat her anytime, anywhere. Where will she get the vote, does she have any significant number from MDC-T other than fired councillors? Who from the Zanu rank and file does she have? People First is failing to even sign Jabulani Sibanda and Temba Mliswa. You cannot say you will defeat Zanu PF if you don't have their foot soldiers, how will you expect to win."Last Saturday in Bulawayo while addressing his provincial Youth Advocacy for Reform and Democracy members, Temba Mliswa revealed that morning he had received calls from People First offering him a position in the party and also requested him to be an intermediary between the warring factions between Didymus Mutasa and Mujuru, which he refused.Mliswa said Mujuru was a good leader but she and company were cowards as they should have led reform within Zanu PF not outside it.Meanwhile, ZAPU's deputy secretary for publicity and marketing, Patrick Ndlovu, said the party did not pull out of CODE but would table the agreement at it congress to be held in two months' time where party members will have a chance to debate the proposal."Remember we never promised to sign but were mandated by our members to be part of the negotiations. Negotiations are done now we have to go back and have their mandate date to sign."Sources close to the CODE proceedings said some party leaders do not trust MDC leader  Professor Welshman Ncube and MKD's Simba Makoni."The feeling is they want to hijack the project and make themselves seem relevant as their parties have collapsed. Some are also concerned about who is funding CODE and to the tune of how much as no one is upfront about the donor and their expectations," said the source.Prof Ncube dismissed such notions and argued: "Who in CODE has a party stronger than us? How have we collapsed? Have we not had our obituary written every month since 2005?"The MDC leader said CODE's objective was to have each political party coming under the agreement to be one."We have made the first step towards coming together as various political parties, those who don't want have the upper hand but we will continue negotiating until everyone comes on board," Prof Ncube noted.


Ivo van Hove

Photo: Jan Versweyveld

Belgian director Ivo van Hove [pronounced EE-vo van HOE-va] made his Broadway debut with A View from the Bridge and The Crucible, which have been nominated for a combined nine Tony Awards. We spoke with him, from an Amsterdam rehearsal room, about his eventful season.

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Your productions of A View from the Bridge and The Crucible suggest that you have a strong affinity for the work of Arthur Miller.

IVO VAN HOVE: It turns out that I do, but I wasn't aware of it because I've avoided Arthur Miller my whole career. I've done a lot of Eugene O'Neill plays, but never Arthur Miller. But I discovered that, indeed, his work is fabulous. The plays are clearly very personal to him, but they deal at the same time with problems in society. The beauty and the strength and the urgency of Arthur Miller's plays is that they talk to every new decade, you could say, in a different way. You see it in The Crucible. The atmosphere of a society reigned by fear, people who are afraid of each other, what that does to people; also the pinpointing--the scapegoating--that goes on. I was watching the Republican debates very closely while I was working on The Crucible--it happened every night!! You are this! You are this! You are a liar! You are too! You-You-You! It's a kind of society that's very near to us. It's not only Salem in the seventeenth century, and that's the strength of Arthur Miller. He always finds a very specific situation in a society. In A View from the Bridge, it's about immigrants. In the case of The Crucible, it's a small community of American, extreme Christian people. But they become metaphors for all of us, all over the world.

Why, prior to A View from the Bridge, did you avoid Miller?

IVO VAN HOVE: I had a huge misunderstanding. I thought that Miller was a politically correct author who divided people into good and evil. And I was of course totally wrong in this. The plays are very ambiguous, the characters are very complex. So I discovered that I was totally wrong about him, I consider him one of the great--if not the greatest--American playwright.

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Did you ever meet him?

IVO VAN HOVE: I was introduced to him, two or three years before he died. I was at the Lincoln Center going to see a play and someone introduced me, he said "this is the greatest playwright in America." I just shook his hand, that's all.

Was the Miller Estate involved with the productions?

IVO VAN HOVE: I was in contact with Rebecca Miller. She saw the productions. She came to The Crucible, to an early preview, we talked about it. I had some questions also, here and there. That was a very open conversation. I think that the Miller Estate very much wants the plays of Arthur Miller to survive in the 21st century. That means that you have to develop. Also, Arthur Miller wrote stage directions that were very innovative when he wrote them in the 1950s. Do the plays that way now, they can become very old-fashioned because we have seen it already hundreds of times. So it needs also directors and an artistic team that push it; that push the work. The words and the dialogue are of a genius, so you know it's fabulous; but you push the plays aesthetically into the 21st century. I think the Miller Estate is doing a very good job about allowing that. Watching, of course, but not watching like a watchdog. Very open. If I had a problem with the text, where I thought it repeated itself a bit, I could openly have a discussion with them.



Phoebe Fox, Russell Tovey,

Nicola Walker and Mark Strong in A View from the Bridge

Photo: Jan Versweyveld

How did it happen that the two plays were produced within several months of each other?

IVO VAN HOVE: Actually, I think Scott Rudin had already set his mind on a production of The Crucible. Then he saw my production of A View from the Bridge, at the Young Vic in London. First of all, he asked if I'd do The Crucible, and I said--Yes!!! But I was also afraid, because to make your debut on Broadway with a production with eighteen actors on stage, it's a little bit scary; it's a little bit enormous. During the process when we started to talk about cast and about the production itself, Scott said "wouldn't it be a good idea to do A View from the Bridge before?" I said that would be great! I think that it was a great idea, because I don't make theatre in one style; I always start from text, and I see how this text wants to be produced. It gave us also the possibility to present the same author in two totally different acting styles, and also visually totally different productions. So I was very happy that Scott dared to do this, because it was a risk to do two Arthur Millers in one season.

Did you find working on Broadway, in the commercial theatre, different than what you are accustomed to?

IVO VAN HOVE: Artistically, there was no difference at all. But I worked with a very good producer, Scott, who really takes care of his artists and the artistic project. So once he believes in the project that you propose to him; and the set that you propose to him; and the effects that you want, and the music--once he supports that, he goes for it. He is not the kind of typical commercial producer who is penny-wise and dollar-foolish. He wants to make the best of the best. I think that a production like The Crucible, the way that we did it, would be very difficult to do within the commercial atmosphere in Europe. (That is, Europe; not England). There are a lot of actors onstage, they normally never do that in Europe.

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Did commercial considerations make you adjust your normal method of rehearsal?

IVO VAN HOVE: It was very collaborative, the circumstances in the rehearsal space were perfect. Actually, I had the time I wanted; but I'm not the type of director that wants eight weeks or something. I've worked in New York for ten years at New York Theatre Workshop, and I learned a lot; I learned that you can do it in less time if you're prepared well. Scott really gave us the perfect artistic circumstances, and logistic circumstances, to work with. He's a man who really loves theatre, and who wants to produce a play in the best way possible. And he chose us--my team--to do this not once on Broadway this year, with an Arthur Miller play, but twice during the Arthur Miller centennial year. That means that he had this vision, that he thought this would really mean something.

Typically, a director will work out his concept and then consult with designers. These productions seem to have been devised visually, rather than having scenery designed to accommodate the staging.

IVO VAN HOVE: Jan Versweyveld, the scenic and lighting designer, we work together. I think that's what theatre should be, it's a total collaboration from the first moment on during the preparations. What we do is, we were asked to do The Crucible, I said yes. Jan and me, we start reading and then we start talking about how to do this play. And then we came up with this idea of the classroom, I think it was Jan's idea in this case. He said the classroom is a very good space to show the development of people that should be a perfect society, a perfect education, with the young girls in school singing together in total harmony with each other. And then this same classroom is like an emergency room at the end, where a disaster has taken place. Like a prison, like a wasteland, at the end. So I like that idea because it's very American, a classroom, but it's also all over the world. Even in Africa, in the jungle, there are little classrooms. Everybody wants to be educated, wants the best in their life. When it becomes a disaster, that is something very moving, I think, and very cruel to watch.



Saoirse Ronan (center) and Ben Whishaw (right) in The Crucible

Photo: Jan Versweyveld

How long have you and Jan been working together?

IVO VAN HOVE: Thirty-six years. That's a long time, eh? Every production I ever did was with Jan, so we know each other very well but we still keep pushing each other towards the limits. We really are at the birth of every production. Everything, we are in touch with everything, because you cannot separate the work of the actors apart from the visuals; actors have to be aware of their bodies, where they stand. Everything is a part of the whole process.

You are most known for your work in what we would call experimental theatre.

IVO VAN HOVE: That's a misunderstanding. In Holland, I work in theatres that are like Broadway theatres. 600-700-800 people in the audience. I never work, anymore, in Europe in smaller theatres. Never. I only do that in New York, at New York Theatre Workshop. All my other work is large scale, very big scale. We present these quite daring productions, but for large audiences. There's a misconception that we are small-scale, experimental people doing productions in small rooms. Not at all.

How did you find the experience of working on Broadway?

IVO VAN HOVE: I must say, I was very surprised in a positive way. At the first preview of The Crucible, there was a great mixture of people. Not only rich people that can afford these expensive tickets, but also a lot of young people. And not schools; individual people who came with friends, so there was a great mixture of people. A second thing I was surprised by, in a very positive way, was the reception. Because this is a three-hour production, and there's a lot of text. Oh, there's a love story in it, but the love story is one scene of seven minutes. It's not like a feel-good evening, it's discussions about society, about the importance of religion, about the cruelty of religion, about conflicting ideologies, all these things. And the people--I was totally surprised in a very positive way, because I thought that after intermission only half of the auditorium would be here.

So this is not what you expected to find?

IVO VAN HOVE: For me, this whole Broadway experience is different. But you see it also now with Hamilton, there's a whole new wave going on. And I think audiences are much more ahead than most producers think. They want to see daring things that they cannot see on their television, otherwise why go to the theatre and buy an expensive ticket, if it's nothing special for them? They don't only want comedies or easy, easy things; they want something complicated. Hamilton is a complicated story, a political story that nobody knew about before the musical was there. Fun Home, a lesbian relationship, it's very un-Broadway, all these themes. I think Broadway is ready for it, the audiences are ready for it. They want it.

Two years ago, did you think you would ever be asked to do a Broadway show?

IVO VAN HOVE: No, never, never ever. I've been put in a box in New York, that I was this "bad boy of avant-gardists," so I was never ever expecting it to happen. I'm very glad that I had the experience, it was a very good experience.

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Are you considering directing any more Miller?

IVO VAN HOVE: I would love to do, once in my life, Death of a Salesman.

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The Crucible opened March 31, 2016 and continues through July 17 at the Walter Kerr Theatre
It is hard not to notice in historical paintings and drawings, the characteristic (for South Asians) truncal or central obesity in profound figures who led Indian soft power historical diplomacy -- for example the South Indian monk Bodhidharma (known in Japan as Daruma) who is credited with being the founder of Zen Buddhism, and lived and taught in ancient Imperial China in approximately 500 A.D. He and others also reportedly transmitted the Keralite martial arts, Kalaripayattu, along with his Zen teaching that over centuries evolved into the East Asian martial arts - such as Judo, Aikido, and swordsmanship (see here and here)

Today, most people around the world assume that Zen is a Japanese invention because Daruma so effectively transmitted his teachings that they thereafter propagated and took root in Japan. Zen is practiced in Japan and millions of foreign tourists visit the exquisitely preserved ancient Zen temples in Kyoto and other parts of Japan. Similarly, other famous Indian monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra resided full-time in China while teaching Buddhism 1,300 years ago, and their proteges directly taught the famous Japanese monk Kukai who first brought one branch of Buddhism to Japan. Naturally, all this occurred well before the era of passports and visas and before there was an Indian or Chinese government, in the current sense.

Fast forward to today's era, and even minor issues raise untoward sensitivities. Pertinent in this respect, is the recent brouhaha over the Taiwanese President's inauguration and India's uncertain response that only evokes concerns about weakness or irresoluteness. Prominent journalist Ms. Coomi Kapoor, a friend of many in Indian ruling circles, wrote about how the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) raised objections to a trip by two current Members of Parliament (MPs), one from the Government side and the other from the Opposition, using the excuse that they would have traveled on diplomatic passports, but India does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, though each country maintains a representative office in the other since 1995 when the late Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao was the Indian Prime Minister. It is hard to imagine that the MEA alone would have taken such decision on the MPs without consulting the Indian Prime Minister's Office.

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Seen as a renegade province by China, Taiwan has been managing its own affairs since the end of World War II, now for nearly the past 71 years. Indeed, as a private citizen, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Taiwan and often tells the story of his encounter with a less-than-aware interpreter in Taipei who asked him about snakes, snake-charmers and elephants in India. I myself attended PM Modi's speech at the Reception in Tokyo in 2014 when Mr. Modi told the story of his visit to Taiwan.

Further, Mr. Modi, when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat State, assiduously courted Taiwanese investment, and has guided his current protege-Chief Ministers of Indian States like Mr. Fadnavis of Maharashtra to work to secure investment from companies like Hon Hai / Foxconn Technology Group -- that recently acquired Sharp of Japan. Indeed, great efforts appear to have been expended to make Mr. Terry Gou, the maverick CEO and his team of Hon Hai that is a major components supplier to Apple, Inc. feel comfortable in areas outside the big cosmopolitan cities of India through very personalized & customized attention.

Disproportionate Size of Economic and Rhetorical RelationshipsChina's trade and investment with Taiwan are massive, whereas India's economic relationship with Taiwan is miniscule by comparison. Taiwan's economic relationship with Japan, by comparison, is also very large. The US and Taiwan maintain strong economic and defence ties.

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Taiwan's President's Inaugural EventsOn May 20th, 2016, after her assumption of office, Taiwan's President Dr. Tsai Ing-wen met with 30 foreign delegations, including Archbishop Joseph Chennoth, the Holy See's (Vatican) official representative who is the current Ambassador to Japan, who is himself an Indian national and belongs to the ancient Syro-Malabar Catholic Church that traces its history to the first century A.D. in Kerala State, India, about 1,400 years before the arrival of Europeans in India.

Also, Japan sent a 252-member delegation for the ceremonies led by ruling party parliamentarians Keiji Furuya and Seishiro Eto (both former Ministers) who participated in the Taiwan President's Inaugural ceremonies all as representatives of Japan.

Further, the Chairman of Japan's Parliament's House of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee, who is also the younger brother of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (but uses their maternal grandfather former PM Kishi's surname) had visited Taipei to meet with Dr. Tsai earlier this month. The US also sent a high-level delegation, led by a former Cabinet member of the Obama Administration.

Comparing Parliaments: India, Japan and the USI had believed that Indian parliamentarians are among the most progressive and independent in the world. However, the recent fracas makes it likely that while some individual parliamentarians are indeed great parliamentarians, who come prepared with research, clear points of view and advanced public policy goals, the system as a whole is inimical to that very independence. Virtually no private member's bills get passed, ever, despite Fridays afternoons being dedicated to discussion on such bills in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House). At best, those bills only serve to alert government ministries about specific issues. Time is very limited for Indian MPs to speak, and party discipline includes not being able to speak on particular issues often when more senior members are addressing a particular topic.

On the other hand, the US Congress has multiple committees and sub-committees that go in-depth into particular topics, even controversial ones. See this hearing/debate in a US Congress sub-committee on the future of US-Taiwan relations. Imagine the commotion if an Indian MP had requested such debate/discussion in either House of the Indian Parliament.

Also, the language used in the Congress is often direct, and almost nothing is ever expunged from the record. We learned recently that even mentioning a member from the other House of Parliament gets that name expunged in the Indian parliament. See how a prominent US Congressman refers to China.

The Japanese parliament is not known for being terribly independent, given the strong party affiliation of each member. Indeed, it had been assumed that some Japanese parliamentarians would benefit through training (collegial work in each other's offices) with independent-minded Indian MPs. In Japan, even without giving show-cause notices, MPs were expelled from the erstwhile Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) then the ruling party, by the then Prime Minister Mr. Noda who was the President of the Party, merely because some members voted against top-line (revenue item) tax-increases that the then ruling party was supporting. However, despite that background, Japan took the approach to reach out via formal and informal channels on the troubled East and South China Sea matter, including by sending a large delegation of MPs, and others to Taiwan.

Innovative Indian ApproachProf. D.P. Tripathi, MP, sent a letter in April 2016 to the incoming Taiwanese leadership and stated that "It will be most fitting to have a Centre in Netaji's memory to promote Taiwan-India investment & trade, and be a focus of cultural, educational & research efforts named the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Taiwan-India Centre located in Taipei and be responsible for immensely upgrading relations from the Taiwan side." Prof. Tripathi recalled that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, national hero for all Indians, who led the anti-colonial struggle based out of the Far East, was last seen alive in Taipei before he took off on his fateful journey.

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After attending the Inaugural, BJP's Mr. Vijay Jolly, a former Member of the Legislative Assembly from Delhi, along with Prof. Madhav Nalapat, Editorial Director of the Sunday Guardian (both who were in Taiwan in their personal capacities), said that Mr. Jolly would be sending a supportive letter. Thus, with both the Opposition side as well as Government side sending letters for the creation of a Netaji Centre in Taipei, coupled with President Tsai's keen interest unprecedentedly highlighted in her Inaugural Address, it is very likely to become a reality. That should promote a number of exchanges and activities to boost working relations between people in both India and Taiwan. Indeed, Prof. Nalapat was the host when Dr. Tsai as the then-leader of the Opposition in Taiwan visited India in 2012.

Informal, Complementary versus Formal-only DiplomacyThe US treasures informal channels and actively cultivates those individuals and institutions that have special links with key people in important countries. When India only has a similar number of diplomats as does New Zealand, which is a country having about 0.003% of India's population, shouldn't outstanding Indian parliamentarians such as Prof. D.P. Tripathi (known to his colleagues and friends as DPT) and others be encouraged to enhance India's outreach and goal to seek $1 trillion of foreign investment? Further, in the case of Taiwan, Netaji Bose's robust anti-colonial struggle based out of the entire Far East involved Bose criss-crossing multiple countries around the globe in the process -- hardly obsessing about diplomatic niceties.

Analyst Prakash Nanda, who has written a book on former PM Vajpayee's foreign policy, saw India's current actions as a continuation of former Prime Minister Vajpayee's "appeasement of China". In effect, rhetoric not matching up to actions, and also not much reciprocation taking place from the other side.

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China has become a great power by diligently pursuing self-interest; in that process, the Chinese have outmaneuvered most countries, indeed economies that were multiple times larger when it started its aggressive economic path in 1979 led by then-Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping. India needs to learn from that history, but must pursue its own agenda, and indeed must be guided by its own ethos. Key pillars of the current government, like Mr. Arun Jaitley, have overcome great adversity to reach where they have, and they never stepped back in the face of aggression.

Therefore, the recent diplomatic actions that reek of obsequiousness cannot enhance India's reputation built over thousands of years.

Full Text of President Tsai's SpeechIt is indeed extraordinary that President Tsai mentioned India specifically when explaining what her Administration plans to do to upgrade ties with foreign friendly nations:

President Tsai spoke warmly about outreach to India: "We will share resources, talents and markets with other countries to achieve economies of scale and to allow the efficient use of resources. This is the spirit on which our "New Southbound Policy" is based. We will broaden exchanges and cooperation with regional neighbors in areas such as technology, culture and commerce, and expand in particular our dynamic relationships with ASEAN and India."

See full-text of President Tsai's speech here.

A Missed OpportunityIt is very regrettable that both MPs who were scheduled to be at the Inaugural, could not. In future, if traveling on diplomatic passports to certain countries becomes an issue, MPs should get an ordinary passport and travel as individual citizens, thereby avoiding imbroglios.

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It seems quite hard to imagine that the Indian Foreign Ministry Mandarins in New Delhi thought that the actual Mandarins in Beijing would be swayed to give up major concessions (such as supporting India's candidacy for Membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group that China has been openly opposing), in exchange for minor concessions like blocking the two Indian MPs' trip to Taiwan, and facilitating the largely procedural visit by India's ceremonial president Mukherjee to China (see here and here and here).

Incidentally, India's position of refusing to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons often referred to as Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT would have found favor with some of the conservative advisors to the late President Reagan, including the late U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop, a member of Reagan's kitchen cabinet, who was helpful, friendly and non-discriminatory to then-young people like me. Senator Wallop co-authored a book titled "The Arms Control Delusion" to lay out his view that countries that want to cheat on proliferation can easily do so (and indeed have been proven to have done so) despite signing intrusive agreements like NPT, and therefore the entire Treaty should be scrapped.
The disquiet among some in Kenya over the registration and formal recognition of an atheist organisation, Atheists in Kenya, raises a number issues.

The first one is about the constitution of Kenya, the second about religious tolerance and the third is about secularism.

According to the country's 2014 demographic profile, the dominant religion is clearly Christianity (82.5%). There are eight religions listed as major religious groups: Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Muslim, Other Christian, Other Religion, Traditionalists and No Religion. The roughly 80% of Christians include Protestants, Catholics and Other Christians.

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Protestants number more than 18 million and Catholics are in excess of nine million. Other Christians number 4.5 million. It is the latter group to which the Pentecostal groups belong.

There are close to a million people registered as having "no religion". The 2014 demographic profile placed those who have no religion at 2.4% of the population, and those with unspecified religion at 0.7%. If one adds the two together it takes the figure of those who are unaffiliated higher than the 2009 figure. It seems that the number of people who are either atheists, or agnostics or just simply not affiliated is growing. Taken together, the million who claim to have no religion in a population of 45 million can be a significant number.

Whether or not this segment of the population is atheist or antitheist, it certainly would include those who Atheists in Kenya could easily attract to its membership.

The growth of religiously unaffiliated people in Kenya is slow but steady, and could be attributed to religious discontent and access to scientific knowledge. What is significant is that the median age of those who are turning to atheism or simply non-affiliation is set at 20 years. In developing countries such as Japan and Europe it is 34. Even pastors seem to admit that atheism in Kenya is on the rise. It may be of interest that Richard Dawkins, one of the most outspoken atheists, was born in Kenya.

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The background

At the beginning of the year Atheists in Kenya applied for registration with the registrar of societies. But after protestations from a section of the Christian community, specifically the Kenya National Congress of Pentecostal Churches, the attorney general directed the registrar to suspend the registration on the grounds that peace and order in Kenya would suffer.

The founder of the atheist organisation denied that it constituted a threat to society, saying it was a peaceful group wishing to have formal recognition and space to interact with the rest of society. This makes it unlike those suspected of criminal activities, such as the quasi-religious Mungiki sect.

In a democratic society it is fundamental that all people have equal opportunities to express themselves through any formal organisational networks, as long as such associations are not a threat to society. But the atheists, in so far as they have demonstrated publicly, seem to be interested in promoting their worldview among like-minded people. There is, therefore, no reason for anyone to be agitated about it.

On the other hand, the resistance from a certain section of the Christian community to the group's establishment and registration can only lead to unnecessary friction based on unfounded fear. It is not as if the organisation is on a massive conversion programme so as to pose a challenge to Christianity.

What the law says

First let's establish if Atheists in Kenya qualifies to be registered in accordance with the laws of the country. According to the Societies Act the term "society" refers to any "club, company, partnership, or other association of ten or more persons".

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Atheists in Kenya does have more than ten members, according to its claim. Is it an unlawful society as it stands? Not if it has applied for registration within 28 days of its formation and "if it has not been notified of the determination of its application". As it stands the organisation has applied for its registration and has not been formally informed of the decision from the registrar of societies.

The law provides guidelines for the rejection of an application by a society. The grounds on which it can do this is if the registrar

has reasonable cause to believe that the society has among its objects, or is likely to pursue or to be used for, any unlawful purpose or any purpose prejudicial to or incompatible with peace, welfare or good order in Kenya, or that the interests of peace, welfare of good order in Kenya would otherwise be likely to suffer prejudice by reason of the registration of the society.

There is no evidence thus far that Atheists in Kenya poses a threat to the nation of Kenya. The law provides for appeal to the minister against the decision and provides for appeal to the High Court. It would be interesting to see how far this matter goes.

What the constitution says

Notwithstanding the fact that the constitution does make explicit reference to belief in God, chapter two of the Kenyan constitution makes it explicitly clear that "there shall be no state religion". Furthermore, chapter 2.10 and the Bill of Rights clearly provide an insight into the values that govern the constitution of Kenya. Taken together there is nothing in them to suggest any discrimination against minority groups.

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When it comes to religious tolerance, the constitution clearly provides for the protection of one's belief and opinion. Whether or not Kenya is a secular state can be debated, but the values enshrined in the constitution are clearly as secular as can be, and these provide protection to all citizens regardless of their worldviews.

Expression of belief in God in the constitution does not automatically make the country a religious one, but is rather an expression of the broader worldview of the nation. Notwithstanding the dominant worldview of any nation, democracies have clear statements in their "bill of rights" sections providing for the essential freedoms that underpin the expression of human conscience.

The constitutions of India and South Africa, and the First Amendment to the US constitution, are clear examples of such statements of tolerance in society.

In my view, the most fundamental ethical responsibility of any nation or society is to offer protection to its minority communities against the dominance of majority worldviews.
Of the 8.7 million species of animals, plants and fungi thought to live on Earth, we have only named 1.2 million: 86% of the natural world is uncharted.

For most people, both this incredible richness and our ignorance are hard to fathom. Imagine that each of the 6.5 million species thought to live on land - the rest is marine - had an equal share of it. Each species' plot - also that of the human species - would cover an area only one-quarter the size of Manhattan. Expressed this way, we as humans have not just far overstepped our bounds, but mapped only the equivalent of Europe, India and China, which make up about 14% of global land surface.

What's worse, the habits and status of only 80 000 species are known well enough to really assess our impact on them. Of those, 29% risk extinction. So, returning to the metaphor, the species that we're actually familiar with equal only the combined area of Spain, France and Turkey. And if 29% of all species died out, that would equate to the entire New World voided of life.

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In other words: while we've had an apocalyptic impact on the biosphere already, it has been charted as well today as the globe was in Columbus's day. This matters because knowing other species can provide a moral counterweight to life's runaway exploitation: intact biodiversity is the undeniable proof that humans can inhabit Earth without destroying it.

That's why naming species is important. Names harness the power of recognition. They acknowledge the other exists. They introduce familiarity. As someone once exclaimed to me "you don't notice species until you know they can have a name!"

In an era of extinction, there are no greater priorities than to uncover our millions of cohabitants and to share our knowledge of these species. This can be done through research, books, websites, Red Lists of threatened species, field courses, teaching materials and other media. But while every human relies on this knowledge, even if only by reaping the benefits of agriculture and medicine, few see its advance as their primary responsibility.

Few animals can raise that moral awareness of biodiversity better than dragonflies, literally rising from healthy freshwaters in colour and splendour.

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Breaking the anonymity trap

Most of what is unknown is not just unseen, but not even being looked for.

There are 6 000 named dragonfly and damselfly species worldwide. These charismatic aquatic insects are regarded as well-known. But last December we published 60 new species in one article. This added one species to every 12 known ones in Africa.

Copyright Jens Kipping

Of course these species existed already, but were not noticed and documented before. Most unknown species may seem indistinct or concealed, requiring meticulous lab-work to uncover, but the 60 were found in accessible places all over Africa and are often recognisable even from a photo.

This May, English nature broadcaster Sir David Attenborough was given a new dragonfly species from Madagascar for his 90th birthday. In the scientific journal Nature I explain that both the dragonfly and Attenborough's legacy stand for a selfless and unconditional love of nature.

I am often asked what the "use" of dragonflies is. They are not studied because they are not proxies of human psyche and society like ants and apes. They are not feared and persecuted like mosquitoes and snakes. They do not feed people like fish, nor pollinate crops like bees.

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Rather, the beauty and sensitivity of these creatures -- and so many others -- stand for the state and needs of nature before our own. Like the instant sense of insignificance when counting stars, biodiversity stretches our perspective on life. Each species is a world parallel to our own, evoking a sense of being among equals.

What's in a name

If species embody sustainability and names give them faces, those tags best be memorable. The sparklewing damselfly Umma gumma named for the rock band Pink Floyd's album "Ummagumma" - slang for making love, is a special favourite. The longleg dragonflies Notogomphus kimpavita and N. gorilla were named for the patron saint and conservation flagship of their Angolan and Ugandan regions respectively.

But who is out discovering species and introducing them to mankind? Nature is held hostage by humanity's growing demands and so conservationists barely have time to find out who they really work for. Environmental consultancy is captive to the market. Many biologists have retreated into the lab. Without funds for discovery and disclosure, even natural history museums are giving up.

Only nine of our 60 new dragonflies were found while one of us worked for a university or museum. The other 33 were found while doing consultancy and 18 by a teacher. Much of the best biodiversity research and outreach now comes from devoted amateurs and academics working in their free time, showing how close biodiversity is to the human heart.

In a society governed by money, charity is what we do for others for free. But just as we cannot expect volunteers to protect the environment or eradicate poverty alone, we cannot continue life's elementary and enlightening exploration without support. Nature needs more explorers.

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Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Honorary research associate Naturalis Biodiversity Center and, Stellenbosch University
Colleges and universities are supposed to be places where freedom of expression flourishes. Sadly, that is not the case. At a recent debate on the Yale University campus, 66 percent of the attendees supported a proposition that "free speech is threatened."

Places of higher learning seem more interested in "safe spaces" rather than in freedom of expression. Several incidents across campuses illustrate this. Recently, at Emory, students complained after they found chalk messages scrawled around campus voicing support for Donald J. Trump.

Last year at the University of Ottawa, a yoga class designed for handicapped people was suspended because the student federation thought it was a form of "cultural appropriation." And at Smith College a student sit-in blocked media from entering unless reporters agreed to explicitly state support for the movement in their coverage.

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Illustrating how contentious the debates have become, two of the most respected American comedians, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, said that colleges are eager "not to offend anybody." Some students at a private Ivy League school even signed a petition to repeal the First Amendment.

Ideally, colleges and universities would foster an exchange of competing and controversial ideas. The reality is much different. Some colleges and universities limit discourse by silencing speech that might offend others through so-called speech codes and free speech zones.

In studying free expression issues for more than 20 years, I strongly believe such polices have led to a chilling effect on speech. They also have led to a mentality where students do not wish or want to face an opposing viewpoint.

So, what are these policies?

Combating hateful speech

First, let's look at speech codes on campuses. A speech code refers to a set of provisions or regulations that limit certain types of offensive or harassing speech.

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Colleges and universities usually don't call their regulations speech codes. Instead, they refer to them as anti-harassment policies.

It was in the 1980s and 1990s that more than 300 colleges passed these policies to combat hateful speech. Schools tried to address harassment of gays and lesbians, women and members of other ethnic groups. The policies were further enforced when white students wore blackface for sorority and fraternity parties. Many schools were trying to achieve more diversity in their student bodies.

The intent was good. Many of these policies sought to prohibit speech or conduct that created an intimidating or harassing environment on the basis of race, sex, religion, or other criteria.

However, the results were not good for the First Amendment and freedom of speech.

Policies at the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin were invalidated on First Amendment free speech grounds.

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At the University of Wisconsin, for example, university officials adopted the speech code after several racially insensitive displays at fraternities. For example, one fraternity held a "slave auction." A student newspaper and several others challenged the policy on the ground that the policies infringed on academic freedom and stifled some legitimate speech. In UWM Post v. Board of Regents of University of Wisconsin (1991), a federal district court struck down the policy, writing:

The suppression of speech, even where the speech's content appears to have little value and great costs, amounts to governmental thought control.

Similar problems occurred at Michigan, which had its share of disturbing racially charged incidents. At Michigan, a student disc jockey allowed racist jokes to be aired. University officials reacted with a speech code. The problem was that officials applied the policy to chill the speech of students engaged in classroom discussion or academic research.

A federal district court judge invalidated the policy in Doe v. University of Michigan (1989), writing:

While the Court is sympathetic to the University's obligation to ensure equal educational opportunities for all of its students, such efforts must not be at the expense of free speech.

The problem was that these codes were not drafted with sufficient precision. Courts ruled that these polices were either too broad or too vague.

Overbreadth and vagueness problems

A policy is too broad if it prohibits speech that ought to be protected in addition to speech that can be prohibited. In legal terms, this is called "overbreadth". For example, a policy that prohibits "offensive and annoying" speech sweeps too broadly and prohibits lawful expression.

A policy is too vague if a person has to guess at its meaning. Vagueness is rooted in the notion that it is fundamentally unfair to punish someone when they did not know that their speech violated the policy.

For example, the University of Michigan had a policy that prohibited "stigmatizing or victimizing" individuals or groups on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, creed, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, handicap or Vietnam-era veteran status.

In Doe v. University of Michigan, a federal district court judge ruled the policy too vague, writing:

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Students of common understanding were necessarily forced to guess at whether a comment about a controversial issue would later be found to be sanctionable under the Policy.

Controversies still abound over speech codes at colleges and universities. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) regularly challenges policies that it believes run afoul of the First Amendment.

In its annual report, the group contends that nearly half of the speech codes at 440 colleges infringe on First Amendment free speech rights. FIRE contends in its report that "any speech code in force at a public university is extremely vulnerable to a constitutional challenge."

Restricting where students can have free speech

In addition, many colleges and universities have free speech zones. Under these policies, people can speak at places of higher learning in only certain, specific locations or zones.

While there are remnants of these policies from the 1960s, they grew in number in the late 1990s and early 2000s as a way for administrators to deal with controversial expression.

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These policies may have a seductive appeal for administrators, as they claim to advance the cause of free speech. But, free speech zones often limit speech by relegating expression to just a few locations. For example, some colleges began by having only two or three free speech zones on campus.

The idea of zoning speech is not unique to colleges and universities. Government officials have sought to diminish the impact of different types of expression by zoning adult-oriented expression, antiabortion protestors and political demonstrators outside political conventions.

In a particularly egregious example, a student at Modesto Junior College in California named Robert Van Tuinen was prohibited from handing out copies of the United States Constitution on September 17, 2013 - the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution.

Van Tuinen was informed that he could get permission to distribute the Constitution if he preregistered for time in the "free speech zone." But later,

Van Tuinen was told by an administrator that he would have to wait, possibly until the next month.

In the words of First Amendment expert Charles Haynes, "the entire campus should be a free speech zone." In other words, the default position of school administrators should be to allow speech, not limit it.

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Zoning speech is troubling, particularly when it reduces the overall amount of speech on campus. And many free speech experts view the idea of a free speech zone as "moronic and oxymoronic."

College or university campuses should be a place where free speech not only survives but thrives.

David Hudson, Adjunct Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University
A secure retirement is one of the pillars of middle class life. For all too many Americans, however, that pillar needs more support. That's why yesterday the President called for strengthening Social Security, increasing benefits so hard-working Americans can enjoy the dignified retirement they have earned while at the same time improving the program's long-term health.

Yesterday's call to action is part of the President's ongoing effort to help more Americans enjoy a secure retirement. Last summer, President Obama called on states to create savings programs for workers who do not have retirement savings arrangements through their employers. And these past few weeks, Maryland and Connecticut responded to that call, passing laws to do just that. The two states join California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Washington, bringing the total to 8 states, nearly double where we were last July.

This is a huge accomplishment: as a result, approximately 1.5 million people in Maryland and Connecticut alone who were previously unable to save for retirement at work will be automatically enrolled in a workplace savings arrangement.

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Americans should be able to enjoy a secure retirement after a lifetime of hard work. But too many Americans reach retirement without enough savings to supplement their Social Security benefits. In fact, fewer than one-third of individuals aged 65 to 74 have any savings in a retirement account, and those that do have a median savings balance of just $49,000.

Fortunately, we know how to increase retirement savings. Workers are most likely to save for retirement if they have access to a workplace savings plan and are automatically enrolled in that plan. But right now, approximately 68 million workers do not have the opportunity to save for retirement through their employer. And fewer than 10 percent of all Americans save on their own using an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).

That's why the President launched myRA, a simple, risk-free retirement savings account intended for Americans without access to a workplace plan. And it's why, in every budget since taking office, he has proposed to automatically enroll in an IRA approximately 30 million employees who don't have access to workplace savings plans. Congress has repeatedly failed to act on this auto-IRA proposal at the federal level. But as in so many other areas where Republicans in Congress are blocking progress, these eight states are stepping up and creating their own retirement savings arrangements for private-sector workers. And they are experimenting with different approaches. Massachusetts, for example, has enacted a law to allow certain nonprofit organizations to adopt a plan workers can contribute to that is developed and administered by the state. California, Illinois, and Oregon have adopted auto-IRA laws similar to the President's proposal, while Washington and New Jersey have adopted laws to create special marketplaces that will connect small businesses with state-approved retirement savings options. And we're taking steps at the federal level to support these efforts, issuing soon-to-be-finalized rules clarifying how state-level programs can be set up in a manner that is consistent with federal pension law, providing a legal path forward.

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These state savings programs offer American families a simple, consistent method to put away money each month that will grow toward what they need for a comfortable and well-deserved retirement. And they complement our efforts at the federal level to ensure that Americans who save for retirement are able to protect and grow their nest eggs. Until this year, outdated regulations allowed firms to incentivize financial advisers to steer retirement savers into products that have higher fees and lower returns -- costing America's families an estimated $17 billion a year. The Department of Labor's final conflict of interest rule will ensure that America's workers and retirees receive retirement advice in their best interest.

So, that's what we support and what we've been up to: protecting and strengthening Social Security; providing an opportunity for more Americans to save at work; and ensuring families get retirement investment advice in their best interest. We applaud Maryland and Connecticut for stepping up to support their workers' retirement security, and we look forward to more states following their lead.


Lobbyists. They're everything that's wrong about Washington DC. Plying the hallways of power, these operators cut backroom deals and arm-twist politicians. Instead of strengthening democracy, they undercut it by securing favors for corporate clients and foreign dictator paymasters. If that's your perspective, then veteran lobbyist K. Riva Levinson's new book will rock your world.

Choosing the Hero: My Improbable Journey and the Rise of Africa's First Woman President is an engaging blend of personal memoir, Washington expose, and, most of all, a tribute to a beautiful friendship. Levinson's writing is raw and revealing. The story, like the author, jumps easily from a convoy in Baghdad to the halls of Capitol Hill. The book opens in 2011, in the dead of an Oslo winter, at a royal affair where the King of Norway is bestowing the Nobel Peace Prize on three remarkable women.

Cut to Mogadishu, 1989. Levinson is a rookie lobbyist trying to prove herself within a notorious mercenary firm headed by Paul Manafort (yes, that Paul Manafort). After landing on a claptrap Boeing 707, she dodges insect hordes, eats bug-infested bread, and most of all struggles with her conscience. Her client is Siad "Mighty Mouth" Barre, the warlord-president of Somalia who would be toppled two years later, creating a vacuum that eventually led to US military intervention and the Blackhawk Down disaster. Nothing goes right on the trip and Levinson leaves wondering, not for the last time, why am I here?

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The story flashes forward to 1996. Levinson is sitting in a posh Manhattan hotel trying to help her client, President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, persuade a senior UN official that he is serious about democracy. The UN official, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is having none of it.

The meeting leads nowhere for Obiang, but it is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship between Levinson and Sirleaf. A year later, a heavily pregnant Levinson sits in a northern Virginia diner, scarfing down donuts and hash browns as she pitches her services to Sirleaf. The then 57-year-old Harvard-trained economist is ready to leave the UN and run for president back home in Liberia against the notorious Charles Taylor. Shortly after, the "Warlord versus the Grandmother" campaign is launched.

Their adventures together, through many ups and downs, eventually lead to victory in 2005, when Sirleaf is elected Africa's first female president. The bad news is that Liberia has been destroyed--physically, economically, and psychologically--by a long and brutal civil war that ended just two years earlier. Sirleaf is rebuilding her homeland almost from scratch. She needs help. And that's when Levinson's work really begins.

Levinson fights a recurring battle against Washington indifference and "lack of imagination." Liberia, founded by freed American slaves in 1821, is a special place with a uniquely intimate relationship with the United States. The capital is named after James Monroe. One of its 15 counties is called Maryland. American influence in Liberia is immense, and Liberians often look to the United States for security, partnership, and reassurance. But sometimes America forgets about its African cousin. Throughout the story, Sirleaf keeps asking Levinson: "Is Washington listening???"

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Choosing the Hero is for anyone interested in political history and the inside story of the rise of President Sirleaf, who also wrote the foreword where she calls Levinson her "secret weapon." The book will appeal to readers who love memoirs about smart ambitious women navigating a dangerous world and finding a calling. "I have to believe in something. I have to believe it's something for the good," Levinson writes.

Paul Manafort predicts that her idealism will be her downfall. Levinson convinces us of the exact opposite.

Above all, Choosing the Hero shines by showing how Washington DC can work. Levinson writes, "History can be made in different ways--not only by the generals or the elected (and unelected) officials, but sometimes by the efforts of anonymous people who work, plan, scheme, manipulate, even horse-trade behind the scenes in order to achieve our goals."

That's exactly what she did repeatedly for Liberia, greasing the wheels of a creaky US foreign policy machine. With appropriate humility, she shows how calling the right person, making the right argument, haranguing the right staffer can help to get things done. In 2005, US officials were passive during Liberia's election in part because they had already decided that Sirleaf had no chance of winning. So Levinson worked contacts at the CIA to share new information from the field about Sirleaf's growing support base. She hoped, correctly as it turned out, that a small nudge could break the perception that her candidate couldn't win, and force the US to get more engaged. In 2014, when the US dragged its feet in response to the Ebola outbreak, Levinson arranged for Sirleaf to call 10 congressional leaders in a frenzied 48 hours. This proved critical to finally getting White House action.

If I have one gripe about the book it's that Levinson is too easy on American officials for mistakes and overly generous with credit to some who were, in reality, less than helpful. This is especially true for certain legislators and Clinton administration officials who were far too quick to accept Charles Taylor in 1997 and were willing to turn a blind eye to his atrocities. In 2012, a UN Special Court convicted Taylor on 11 counts of crimes against humanity and he's currently serving a 50-year sentence in a British prison. Of course, Levinson is too gracious to point out the hypocrisy of those who had once championed this war criminal.

That fits Levinson's approach and character. As her extraordinary book and personal story reveal, she's made her life not about settling scores, but about bringing people along on shared missions to get things done. She's a lobbyist making peace with her past and devoting her skills to a better world. In so doing, Levinson helped herself find purpose, helped the Liberian people, and, ironically, repeatedly helped the United States achieve its own policy goals.

I know something about Levinson's passion and tactics because I have occasionally been on the receiving end. I was a senior State Department official when, one day in 2007, a woman I didn't know showed up in my office unannounced. "So where are we with the budget for vetting and training the Liberian armed forces?" I had in fact been struggling to secure the money for promised reforms of the security sector--a critical pillar of the peace and reconstruction plan--but I wasn't about to say anything to a lobbyist. I gave a vague answer hinting that there might be a hang-up. "I'm on it," Levinson said confidently. And she was.

Todd Moss is chief operating officer and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. Moss also serves as secretary of the board. His research focuses on U.S.-Africa relations, energy policy, and private investment. Moss is currently working on electrification in Africa, cash transfers in new oil economies, and ideas for upgrading US development policy. In the past he led the Center's work on Nigerian debt, Zimbabwe, the future of the World Bank's IDA, and the African Development Bank.

Moss served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State 2007-2008 while on leave from CGD. He originally joined the Center in July 2003 from the World Bank where he served as an advisor to the Chief Economist in the Africa Region. Previously, he has been a Lecturer at the London School of Economics (LSE) and worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and the Overseas Development Council (ODC). Moss is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and the author of numerous articles and books, including Adventure Capitalism: Globalization and the Political Economy of Stock Markets in Africa (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), African Development: Making Sense of the Issues and Actors (Lynne Rienner, 2nd ed., 2011), and Oil to Cash: Fighting the Resource Curse with Cash Transfers (CGD, 2015).

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Moss is also the author of an international thriller series from Penguin's Putnam imprint about a State Department crisis manager which includes The Golden Hour (2014), Minute Zero (2015), and Ghosts of Havana (forthcoming 2016).


After a raucous national convention in Orlando over Memorial Day weekend, the country's third largest political party chose the first nominees of 2016: former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson will run for president with the Libertarian Party as he did in 2012, and his vice-president candidate -- picked by Johnson, though nominated separately -- is former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld. Both men served two terms as Republicans in blue states and walked the libertarian line, exemplifying fiscally conservative and socially liberal practices. They believe in lower taxes and fewer economic regulations, but also feel government shouldn't interfere with personal issues like gay marriage, legal marijuana and a woman's right to choose. Johnson and Weld offer a (to borrow a phrase from this election season) YUGE alternative to the presumptive Republican nominee, businessman Donald Trump, as well as the Democrat's presumptive nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and could potentially be an electoral threat as well, as the party is on track to be on the ballot in all 50 states in November. While it's uncertain if they can win, they do offer voters a viable alternative to the amazingly unfavorable Trump and Clinton, along with a message the majority of Americans could possibly like. Their main challenge in the months ahead will be making sure voters know about them -- since its inception in December 1971, the Libertarian Party has never gotten more than 1 percent of the popular vote, with Johnson setting the high mark in 2012 with 1.3 million. If nothing else, Libertarians are hoping they can at least break that record in an "outsider" election year such as this one, as the electorate is hungry for something different.

The interesting thing is that this Libertarian "dream ticket" almost didn't happen. The Libertarian Party is an odd and beautiful assortment of gold-loving economists, LGBT community members, gun nuts, potheads, disenfranchised Republicans/Democrats and sometimes just crazy people. That's why if you saw coverage of the Libertarian National Convention, you would've noticed people dressed in plastic or rapping presidential candidates or even half-naked candidates for party chairman, as every libertarian likes to get creative with their freedom in their own way. To quote Charlie Earl, Ohio's Libertarian candidate for governor in 2014 (who was removed from the ballot thanks to failed presidential candidate John Kasich) the Libertarian Party is a "big tent party, but it's a circus tent." This means Libertarians are always divided between a pragmatic faction that wants to grow the party and a "pure" or "radical" faction, which mainly wants to spread libertarian philosophy. The latter almost derailed the Johnson/Weld ticket in fabulous fashion at the convention in Orlando, as neither of the governors won a majority of the delegates on the first ballots, but survived their opponents combining forces against them on the second ballots. That means the party's radical faction wanted to avoid becoming "Republican light" so badly that 500 delegates almost prevented millions of Americans from even having the option of Johnson and Weld, despite the possibility that the party could receive more votes, media attention and money than it ever has in four decades. It doesn't get much more anti-authority than that. And perhaps it was a good wake-up call for Johnson and Weld to not water down the libertarian message too much or take the Libertarians -- pragmatic and pure alike -- who have kept the party afloat for granted.

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In every field of study, scholars are challenged by the question: How do you know? A historian might respond, "I read a lot of eyewitness accounts (which I list), called primary sources. I figure when enough people agree in their reports, that's gotta be what happened." A reporter might say, "I interviewed three independent sources, (whom I will not name) and they all told me the same story." But a scientist has a different answer to this question, namely: "This is what I did. If you do what I did, you'll know what I know." In other words, science is a way of becoming your own primary source. By doing all the procedures in my book, Science Experiments You Can Eat, you will probably experience what I experienced. My procedures are evidence for basic principles of science. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself. Discrepancies in results pose new questions and challenges. In science, how we know determines what we know.

Galileo, (1564-1642) considered the Father of Modern Science, understood this. When he discovered the moons of Jupiter, he wrote a book called, The Starry Messenger. He promoted his book by taking it to dinner parties along with his very primitive telescope, which he had made himself. It only magnified 7x as compared to the 50X magnification of today's kids' beginner telescope. He encouraged dinner guests to look through the telescope to see the Jupiter's moons for themselves, something many folks were reluctant to do, fearing it was an "instrument of the devil." Galileo came to understand a profound truth about scientific knowledge and the public: People do not like to have accepted beliefs challenged. (Unfortunately, we haven't made much progress in this department.)

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The word "science" is often used for the huge body of written knowledge about the basic laws and principles of nature that have been accumulating incrementally since Galileo. This knowledge is the product of thousands of people doing science to make discoveries through observations and experiments and sharing them with others. (For example, Galileo discovered Jupiter's moons by looking through a telescope at a specific location in the sky.) Ultimately, we collectively gather enough information to state a generalized law about the solar system. (Galileo's observation of Jupiter's moons was a tiny piece of evidence about the solar system that led the current, accepted heliocentric view that the planets orbit around the sun.) Now imagine being handed a thick and boring science textbook when you have no prior knowledge of science or how it was done. Suddenly, you are confronted with non-intuitive information using unfamiliar terminology that runs counter to everyday experiences; No wonder people think that science is difficult.

So why, then, do scientists and so many others, like children, love science? Let us count the whys:

1. It is challenging. Scientists must raise really good questions that reveal something unknown about something very familiar, like boiling water. For a cook, boiling water is easy to do and fundamental to preparing food. Put a pot of water on a stove and wait for the bubbles. But a scientist asks questions about this phenomenon that can be answered only by doing something more. What is the temperature of boiling water? Does it change once it starts boiling? If not, why not? Does water boil at the same temperature in Vail, Colorado as it does in New York City? If not, why not? Does water boil sooner if you put a cover on it? If so, why? Understanding boiling water was a huge breakthrough in science that led to the invention of the steam engine.

2.It is collaborative. Scientists share their procedures and discoveries by publishing papers. Other scientists can now repeat the procedures to confirm or dispute a finding. This is one reason why Science Experiments You Can Eat has become a classic. It is a book of procedures with my published results. If you replicate a procedure and get different results, you are not wrong. Nature doesn't lie. You got the results you were supposed to get. However, you now have the challenge of figuring out why your results are different from mine. This is how science works in real life. The process is self-correcting. When I researched my biography of Marie Curie I was struck by the eagerness with which she awaited the scientific journals that published her colleagues' work. She would greet the mailman and then run to her lab to repeat their experiments, thus deepening her own knowledge, giving feedback to her fellow scientists, and maybe giving her new ideas.

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3.It is competitive (if you want it to be). There is only one nature to be discovered. Scientists who publish the most ingenious experiments and insightful results are widely read and win prizes. Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize twice. Some kids enjoy competing in science fairs.

4.Science discoveries are applied to solve problems for people. This is where engineering comes in. X-rays, light bulbs, phonographs, photographs, movies and telephones would not have been possible without science. If you understand the science, you can understand its applications. It is sooo very interesting!

5.Making discoveries is fun. This is by far the most compelling reason for doing science. Even if you discover something for yourself that others have already discovered, it's fun. Kids know it when they're having it.

A number of years ago, I recall hearing about a study of professional scientists, which found that most of them had been exposed to science and sustained an interest in it by fourth grade. That has been corroborated by a recent study that looks at the achievement gap in science between children from higher and lower-income families. It found that kindergarten children's general knowledge of the world predicted how well they would do in first grade and was also the strongest predictor of how well they would do in science in the third grade. After third grade, the science achievement gap was stable through eighth grade. There were no more converts.

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In other words, start nourishing your children's interest in the world around them early, which means listening to (digesting) their questions and helping them learn to find answers that cook up more questions. As they get older, feed their interest with books and activities that help them make discoveries themselves. Professor Jourma Routti, an esteemed Finnish educator, once told me, "Education cannot be rushed. It's a law of nature. It takes nine months to make a baby and 33 years to make an engineer."
Do we really need comprehensive healthcare reform? Is it a right, privilege, or just a pipe dream for those who cannot afford it or even worse, a crutch for the politicians to build their careers upon by rooting for or against depending on their lean, loyalties or the general direction of the wind?

I have always considered myself to be a staunch supporter of the first. I believe that it is a right; not the health insurance per se, but the availability of affordable care without worrying about total financial ruin.

I am also a staunch supporter of quality and low cost education, and hence rapidly becoming a member of the third group with a pipe dream that is as out of reach as a ban on lobbies from Washington and term limits on congress. I do not believe in such rights because I am a socialist, or even worse, a politician with an agenda, but an academic healthcare provider who believes that America will not be "Great", or "Whole" again unless we secure these basic necessities for the next generation of great American innovators, thinkers and leaders.

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Spending the past 17 years, tending to the needs of the underserved population of the county at a safety net clinic, and training our next generation of physicians in two institutions who share the same vision of bringing quality healthcare to people at the basic level, I have seen, first hand, the devastation caused by the lack of, or limited access to basic healthcare and quality education.



In theory, healthcare reform makes perfect sense. I may be one of the fifty percent in the middle and left of the great American divide who believe that to ensure availability of quality and affordable healthcare, whether a right or a privilege, squarely falls into the lap of the government.

Even if we need the private sector to fill the need, strict regulation of their business models is not only required, but vital to the success of this mission. Unless we achieve that and stop listening to special interest groups, the results will not change. Whether we are dealing with healthcare reform or an overhaul of our higher education system, we need to let go of our partisan blinders and reach across the aisle to achieve our common goals.

Special interest groups, lobbies and corporations need to be eliminated from the discussions as the conflict of interest is blindingly obvious and frankly, disabling. As a physician, I am not allowed to receive a pen from a pharmaceutical representative as that small token of advertisement somehow holds the power to sweep me off my moral ground, while billions are spent in Washington by lobbies and are somehow powerless on the same politicians who passed such laws because in their minds, physicians were easily corrupted by a mere pen or post-it pad. Am I the only one who sees this contradiction?

The end result of all this is a system, which looks good on paper but does not deliver. While, one is free to buy insurance from the marketplace (as long as one perfectly times their financial strength to coincide with the enrollment period), the plans are nothing but a glorified parlor trick. So, for example, in Pennsylvania, if you are a family of 1, you can receive Medicaid if income is less than $16,000, however, if you are in a red state that has not passed the Medicaid expansion bill, you do not qualify for anything.

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If you make more than $47,000, there are no tax credits and you have to pay the whole premium for an insurance plan. This amount goes up so the number is $97,000/year for a family of 4. Premiums can be anywhere from $350 for a bronze plan to over $1000 for platinum plan a month per person. Since these are not group plans, the numbers keep getting higher and higher with increasing deductibles and out of pocket costs; most of those insured in the bronze range end up paying all of their costs out of their own pockets without truly availing any payments from the insurance.

The only true benefit is that they are charged the contracted rates as opposed to the ridiculously high rates from the Master Charge list reserved for the uninsured. Legal immigrants who are in the country less than five years are in an even deeper mess. If their household income makes them ineligible for a tax credit, they have to go to the marketplace, however, unlike others, if their income is less than $16,000 or they are over 65, they are ineligible for Medicaid or Medicare respectively, even if they choose to pay for them out of pocket. Elderly immigrant parents of US citizens end up without any health insurance and end up becoming a burden on the healthcare system. Even if they can afford some form of health insurance, their deductibles make their situation unaffordable and many choose not to pay the premiums, relying on fate and possibly state funding in case of a catastrophe.
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by Staff reporter

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has blamed Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa and Reserve Bank governor John Mangudya for failing to improve cash distribution to banks.This comes as depositors have struggled to access money from banks while daily withdrawals have been limited to as low as $200."These guys (Chinamasa and Mangudya ) are too theoretical in the way they operate. Their usual excuses are monotonous," Mnangagwa said at the official opening of the new Masvingo High Court on Tuesday."If you go to Chinamasa, he will tell I do not have money and if you ask Mangudya he will tell you the economy is about to take off. I have confronted the two over these issues. If you are in such a position you have to justify why you are there. The two guys must immediately resolve the crisis. We expect them to deal with the chaos."Mnangagwa denied that the Mugabe government has failed in economic stewardship, saying he would ensure the situation is addressed amid long bank queues in the city."So you cannot say the government has failed the people of Zimbabwe. Of course we are experiencing economic challenges but as I earlier said, we will make sure that those responsible deliver the results," Mnangagwa added.
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR ASPEN DENTAL - Army veteran Pruitt Bryant receives free dental care from Dr. Rachel Clay during the Aspen Dental HMM MouthMobile Atlanta Stop, on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015, in Atlanta. (John Amis/AP Images for Aspen Dental)

A new report by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and the Department of Health and Human Services makes clear that the United States is still in the grip of a decades-long epidemic, albeit one that many Americans scarcely know exists. What this and previous reports do not make clear, however, is that the epidemic continues to cause lasting harm to millions of men, women and children in part because of the influence of a very powerful special interest.

To a large extent, this epidemic is as "silent" as when one of Murthy's predecessors, David Satcher, brought it to the nation's attention 16 years ago. In "Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General," Satcher wrote that:

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In spite of the safe and effective means of maintaining oral health that have benefited the majority of Americans over the past half century, many among us still experience needless pain and suffering, complications that devastate overall health and well-being, and financial and social costs that diminish the quality of life and burden American society. What amounts to a "silent epidemic" of oral diseases is affecting our most vulnerable citizens -- poor children, the elderly, and many members of racial and ethnic minority groups.

Satcher's report, which received widespread media attention, called for the development of a "National Oral Health Plan to improve quality of life and eliminate health disparities." It was the first call to action to address the crisis. Unfortunately, despite the initial publicity, it didn't result in all that much action. Three years later, Satcher's successor, Richard H. Carmona, released his own "National Call to Action to Promote Oral Health." It, too, decried the many disparities related to oral health and called on health care professionals, researchers, policy makers and community leaders to collaborate on ways to reduce them.

But ten years after Satcher's report -- and seven years after Carmona's -- President Obama's first Surgeon General, Regina Benjamin was still referring to America's oral health care crisis as a silent epidemic. Her own report, published in the March/April 2010 edition of the relatively obscure Public Health Reports, the official journal of the U.S. Public Health Service, was titled "Oral Health: The Silent Epidemic." Like her predecessors, Benjamin cited the consequences of inadequate dental care. "If left untreated," she wrote, "(dental caries and periodontal disease) may cause pain, dysfunction, poor appearance, loss of self-esteem, absence from school or work, and difficulty concentrating on daily tasks."

Fast-forward to 2016. Surgeon General Murthy's report, like Benjamin's, was published in Public Health Reports. Like his predecessors, he cited progress on a few fronts since 2000 (more kids are receiving dental sealants that prevent cavities, fewer teens have tooth decay and more adults are retaining their natural teeth), but not nearly enough progress in reducing disparities. Murthy wrote that:

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Poor oral health continues to disproportionately affect low-income individuals, the frail and vulnerable, and the traditionally underserved. One-quarter of preschool-aged children living in households below the federal poverty level have untreated tooth decay, compared with about one in 10 children living above the poverty level. As of 2012, more than 29% of non-Hispanic black adults aged 65 years and older had complete tooth loss compared with fewer than 19% of the overall U.S. population of the same age.

Here are some additional facts and figures he could have mentioned:

Since 2000, the number of people living in dental shortage areas has climbed from 25 million to 47 million;

Dental decay is still the number one chronic illness facing kids;

More than a third of elementary school children have untreated tooth decay, and the rate is twice as high for Hispanic and non-Hispanic black children and even worse for Native Americans;

More than half of all kids on Medicaid did not get in to see a dentist in 2011, in large part because 80% of dentists do not accept Medicaid payments.

So what is keeping our surgeons general from being able to tell a different story?

One big reason is obvious: dental care is expensive. That's not a big problem for the affluent, most of whom have dental benefits anyway. But, it's a very big deal for the less well off. As Murthy pointed out in his report, an estimated 126 million U.S. residents -- more than one of every three of us -- lack dental insurance.

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As a consequence, many if not most people without dental benefits forego preventive and routine care. And a lot of them wind up in hospital emergency rooms when pain caused by diseased teeth and gums becomes unbearable. As Murthy noted, "Emergency room treatment for preventable dental conditions... is expensive and continues to increase." In fact, the number of ER-related dental visits nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010. The American Dental Association (ADA) estimated that in 2012 alone, ER dental visits cost the U.S. health care system $1.6 billion, with an average cost of $749 per visit. This is bad news not only for those patients but also for taxpayers, who pick up the tab for many if not most of those visits.

As the "framework" that accompanies Murthy's report notes, "One of the greatest barriers to oral health care is a lack of dental services. "This can be called the greatest unmet oral health need in the United States."

It would not take an act of Congress or even any new taxpayer dollars to make it unnecessary for future surgeons general to have to write that. In fact, the barriers Murthy and his predecessors cite would begin to come down by simply expanding the dental workforce to include practitioners who are willing to treat Medicaid patients and set up practices in rural areas and inner-city neighborhoods.

As I've written previously, mid-level dental practitioners (similar to nurse practitioners and physician assistants) have largely eradicated barriers that existed for generations in communities in Alaska and Minnesota and in at least 50 other countries. Dental therapists, as they are commonly known, have been serving dozens of remote Alaska Native villages for more than 10 years and many of Minnesota's poorest areas.

Public health advocates in several other states are working to expand the dental workforce to include dental therapists, and they have drawn support from both ends of the political spectrum. Standing in their way, however, is just one formidable opponent: organized dentistry.

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The ADA and many state dental societies have worked to block efforts to enable dental therapists to practice, despite data from both Alaska and Minnesota showing that dental therapists actually benefit a dental practice's bottom line.

Although Murthy's framework doesn't make a specific reference to dental therapists, he does say that we should "strengthen the oral health workforce, expand capabilities of existing providers, and promote models that incorporate other clinicians."

Dental therapists are among those "other clinicians" that are proving every day -- in Alaska and Minnesota and around the world--that they can play a key role in reducing disparities in oral health. Both the Institute of Medicine and the Government Accountability Office have issued reports citing the safety, effectiveness and value of dental therapy. It is time for the Surgeon General and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as other state and federal agencies like the Indian Health Service, to advocate for the licensure of dental therapists in every state. Not doing so is simply putting the desires of a single special interest over the health and wellbeing of millions.

Author's Note: This blog post is part of a series examining America's oral healthcare crisis. Be sure to read the previous post, " How a Little Known Native-American Tribe Is Leading the Way to Better Dental Care in America."
The Marijuana Business Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida offered an all day intensive crash course covering most aspects of the cannabis business.

This multi-billion dollar business grew 74% in a year and is still federally illegal. Cassandra Farrington, co-Founder and CEO reminded the audience that possession, sale, transfer, transport, or use of cannabis - whether for medical or recreational purposes is 100% federally illegal.

Cannabis businesses have to pay Federal taxes but because it's federally illegal few banks will accept the money because they are all federally insured. The IRS takes it's massive cut and then adds a percentage for paying in cash. It would be comical if it weren't so expensive and ridiculous.

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Other surreal realities are that 24 states are legal for medical purposes but patients are unable to take their medicine across state lines. Businesses aren't permitted to write off most expenses and are subject to expensive audits. Imagine running a business where it's mostly illegal to advertise, you don't have access to banks, you can't get traditional financing, the laws change weekly and your freedom is at stake if you make a mistake?

In many states there are limited to none ambiguous regulations. Landlord's properties can be seized or zoning laws can change within weeks forcing businesses to move. Compliance issues change on a daily basis, in part to contradictions amongst Federal and State discrepancies. This year's election could lead to more issues depending on who is elected.

The Cole Memo known as the "Guidance Regarding Marijuana Enforcement" restricts Federal funds to be used to raid dispensaries or grows in states that are legal.

Despite the obstacles, it can be a very lucrative business that potentially saves lives.

The conference audience and exhibitors were made up of dispensary owners, growers, edible companies, processors, and mostly ancillary businesses like equipment, packaging, software, seed-to-sale tracking technology, lights, testing labs, hydroponic systems and consultants.

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Ms. Farrington spoke about the growing businesses and their expansion over the next year citing lower risks, better regulation, improved education and public opinion. This year's election could see California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Nevada and possibly Arizona go recreational. Florida, Missouri and Ohio could go medical and Pennsylvania just legalized medical cannabis.

The next Marijuana Business Conference and Expo will be in Las Vegas in November, 2016.

By Wendy Robbins

Producer/Director of The Marijuana Show - "Shark Tank for the legal cannabis industry"

http://www.themarijuanashow.com

https://www.facebook.com/wendyrobbins
In 2010, I [co-author Willa Seldon] was sitting in my former office at the Glide Foundation when one of our front-line staffers (let's call him Dan) rushed in. "They called the police on my daughter," he said. "The school called the police!" His daughter was six years old. She had had another tantrum. By the time Dan and two of Glide's leaders arrived, there were two police cars at the school, and a policeman was there with his daughter.

Glide, a large multiservice agency in San Francisco, has a mission to alleviate suffering and break cycles of poverty. It goes without saying that we would support our valued employee and his daughter--and we did. (In fact, last year one of Glide's leaders finally convinced Dan to move his daughter to a KIPP School, which offers her a brighter future.)

I shudder to think of my own daughter, who certainly had her share of tantrums, being locked in a room, confronted by the police, or taken out of a classroom because of normal, age-appropriate behavior. Dan's six-year old experienced all of this.

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___________________________

Dan's story is all too common. Today, the criminal justice system culls "criminals" from our youngest classrooms. The fact is, over-criminalization, even of children, is a nationwide pattern. And the low-income African-American communities that feel this pattern most acutely rarely have anyone in their corner when the police are called.

Consider this Pew Charitable Trust finding: the United States is home to only five percent of the world's population--and yet we house more than 25 percent of its prisoners. Over-criminalization now tops $80 billion a year in costs to society, according to the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project statistics.

But the cost to individual lives--both for those incarcerated and the families left behind--is also profound. When we use criminal law to "solve" society's problems, we trap millions of Americans at the bottom of the income ladder. Forms of punishment and criminalization, from school suspensions to convictions, dramatically lowers the likelihood of being middle class by age 40. Research from the Population Reference Bureau shows that a criminal record too often bars people from developing the skills that lead to better paying jobs. (About 70 percent of state prisoners have not completed high school, a critical milestone to the middle class.)

In a newly released report, 'Billion Dollar Bets' to Create Economic Opportunity for Every American, The Bridgespan Group identifies 15 areas in which philanthropy can help restore economic opportunity for millions of low-income Americans who are trapped in the economy's basement. One of the paper's proposed investments targets over-criminalization, an often insurmountable obstacle to the middle class--especially for people of color. (In coming weeks Bridgespan will be publishing a paper that takes a deeper look at this pathway. Sign up for Bridgespan's Advancing Philanthropy alert to be notified.)

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Black Children and Youth Pay a Hefty Price

The phenomenon of over-policing affects young people--and disproportionately, African-American young people--in multiple ways.

For starters, according to Pew, in the United States today, nearly three million black children have at least one incarcerated parent. In other words, 1 in 9 black children has a parent in jail or prison--compared to 1 in 28 Hispanic children and 1 in 56 white children. These children are more likely to have lower family income and increased difficulty in school, both of which will affect their ability to climb the ladder to the middle class.

When their parents do get out of jail, life is not likely to get much easier, given the difficulties former prisoners face in accessing things like food stamps, housing, education, and employment. A full 60 percent of people who were incarcerated cannot secure a job within a year of their release. In many ways, a jail or prison term of any length can translate into a life-sentence of poverty for an entire family.

What's more, because high levels of incarceration tend to be concentrated in particular areas, entire communities often suffer the economic and social repercussions.

Meanwhile, overly punitive measures are funneling black children into the school-to-prison pipeline at very young ages. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights reported that while black children represented just 18 percent of preschool enrollees, they accounted for 48 percent of children suspended from preschool.

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Over all, black students were more than three times as likely as their white peers to be suspended or expelled from school. Such events are hugely damaging: researchers from John Hopkins University's School of Education found that a single suspension in ninth grade doubles a student's risk of dropping out before he graduates.

Best Bet: Avoid Police Interactions Altogether

Research shows that any interaction with the criminal justice system produces negative outcomes for individuals. It follows that preventing brushes with the law is critical for decreasing over-criminalization.

School is a natural starting place. Of course, schools need to be safe before real learning can begin. But when schools resort to suspending and expelling students for minor infractions or fail to offer second chances, they contribute to criminalizing adolescent behavior. And when schools use police officers as security guards within their walls, they further escalate tensions.

Today, several community-based initiatives are working with teachers and faculty to understand the impact of their disciplinary policies and to create new ones, as well as to develop practices that help educators avoid bias.

Outside of schools, programs are attempting to improve community policing and eliminate laws that disproportionately target and harm African-American communities. There is burgeoning interest in shifting approaches to ensure more equitable treatment--and for those who do become involved in the criminal justice system, to ensure their experience is rehabilitative rather than exclusively punitive.

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Opportunities for Philanthropy

Despite these and other efforts, we have a long way to go before we crack the over-criminalization conundrum. Even though crime rates have declined steadily since the early 1990s, Bureau of Justice statistics show the prison population quintupling between 1980 and 2013.

For philanthropists seeking to increase upward mobility for those who are stuck on the income ladder's lowest rungs, betting big on decreasing over-criminalization is a powerful opportunity. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation did just that when it recently launched a $75 million Safety & Justice Challenge investment to encourage 20 jurisdictions to find ways to "keep people out of jail who don't belong there, more effectively reintegrate those who must be confined into the community upon release, and help them stay out of jail thereafter."

To reform the $80 billion criminal justice system, much more is needed. Philanthropists can build on existing initiatives and create additional public/private partnerships to restructure public funding streams and fundamentally change the manner in which the criminal justice system operates in communities, schools, and courtrooms. Philanthropy can also put muscle behind solutions that have been found to be effective and invest in advocacy efforts to change policy.

At the end of the day, real progress will only come when we invest in changing attitudes and behaviors about race, income, and other disparities that deny low-income Americans equal opportunity to improve their lives.
Today's foreign policy speech by Hillary Clinton was designed to demonstrate that Donald Trump has neither the knowledge nor the temperament to serve as commander-in-chief. She succeeded. And as Clinton indicated at numerous points during her remarks, nowhere is this more obvious than on the question of who should have the power to decide whether to use nuclear weapons.

Trump's statements on all things nuclear would be comical if there weren't so much at stake. It's frightening to contemplate what he might actually do if he were in charge of the nuclear launch codes. This is no small matter. As Joseph Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund has noted, today's U.S. nuclear arsenal has 22,000 times the explosive power of the bomb that killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima. And a report by Physicians for Social Responsibility has demonstrated that even a "limited" nuclear war in South Asia could so disrupt the climate that it would put 2 billion people at risk of starvation in a "nuclear famine."

Trump's take on nuclear weapons first surfaced in a CNN debate, back when the stage was crowded with presidential wannabes and the one who shouted loudest often got the most air time. Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt asked Trump "what's your priority among the nuclear triad?" The nuclear triad is the combination of nuclear-armed bombers, land-based missiles, and sea-based nuclear missiles that constitute the U.S. nuclear deterrent. The redundancy involved in having three different ways to put a nuclear weapon on an enemy target is supposed to make it harder for an adversary to destroy U.S. nuclear capabilities with a disarming first strike. Maintaining the triad is costly and unnecessary, yet current plans call for spending $1 trillion to modernize it over the next thirty years. So Hewitt's question was both crucial and appropriate.

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Trump's answer to the question made it abundantly clear that he had no idea what the nuclear triad was. This may be acceptable for an individual voter who may not follow the vagaries of nuclear strategy, but it is unacceptable in someone who wants to preside over the most powerful military in the world. Trump didn't even attempt to answer at first, choosing instead to make a general point that the person in charge of our nuclear weapons should be "responsible." When Hewitt repeated the question, all Trump came up with was the insight that nuclear weapons are very, very powerful, saying that "the devastation is very important to me." Indeed.

As Clinton also noted today, Donald Trump has engaged in loose talk about using nuclear weapons, asserting that he wouldn't rule out using them against ISIS. He either doesn't know or doesn't care that doing so could kill tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians alongside any members of ISIS killed by the use of such devastating weapons.

Then Trump waded into the topic of nuclear proliferation - the spread of nuclear weapons to nations or groups that don't currently possess them. He told Anderson Cooper he was against it, and then proceeded to say it might not be a bad idea if Japan or South Korea had them. Did he misunderstand the term, or was he simply suggesting a selective view of nonproliferation that would most likely spur a new, multi-sided nuclear arms race? Trump's not saying.

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Then there is Trump's lambasting of the Iran nuclear deal. He's going to rip up this painstakingly negotiated multilateral arrangement and magically come up with a "better deal." Never mind that the current deal is working, having already resulted in Iran getting rid of 98% of its enriched uranium and dismantling a plant capable of making plutonium, another possible fuel for a nuclear weapon. Trump's plan to trash the Iran deal while threatening Tehran is in fact the best way to ensure that Tehran actually does develop a nuclear weapon.

Trump's statements and misstatements on the nuclear issue are troubling enough, but his general temperament may be even more of a problem. The same man who said he would be more "presidential" once he got closer to the nomination has been on a rampage, insulting everyone from members of the press to the judge overseeing the suit against Trump University. As Clinton noted in today's speech, Trump is "thin-skinned," to put it mildly, and he knows how to hold a grudge. Not the best qualities for the person who will hold the future of humanity in his hands if elected president.

Some will argue that Trump doesn't really mean the things he says, that he's a showman throwing provocative statements out there to get media attention. This flawed argument ignores the fact that a president's words matter. Loose nuclear threats can spark unpredictable reactions, including nuclear buildups on the part of states that feel threatened by them. There are no "do-overs" when it comes to nuclear diplomacy.

Donald Trump's character flaws are certainly fair game, especially when it comes to their implications for nuclear weapons policy. But fear alone - whether of foreign enemies or of Donald Trump - is not enough to get people to care about taking effective action to control and reduce nuclear weapons. Hillary Clinton also needs a strong, positive agenda for reducing nuclear dangers, an area she has largely neglected to address in her campaign to date.

Hillary Clinton has made strong statements about the need to take steps to keep nuclear weapons and bomb-making materials out of the hands of terrorists. Now she needs to put forward a detailed proposal for investing in the kinds of programs that will help achieve that objective, an area where the Obama administration has lagged in recent years.

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Clinton is also a supporter of the Iran nuclear deal, although she has expressed reluctance to build upon it to pursue a further warming of relations with Tehran which could open the door to negotiations about curbing its ballistic missile programs or stopping its support for bad regional actors like the Assad regime in Syria. This is a short-sighted approach. A "get tough on Iran" stance, taken too far, could even jeopardize the nuclear deal itself.

Candidate Clinton has had little to say about the Pentagon's $1 trillion plan to buy new nuclear bombers, missiles, and submarines, although what she has said offers a glimmer of hope. On a rope line in Iowa she answered a question about the buildup by saying "that doesn't make sense to me" and promising to look into it. The time to look into it is now, and a pledge to scale back the nuclear modernization plan would be a welcome step in the right direction. She could start by promising to cancel the new nuclear-armed cruise missile, a weapon that former Secretary of Defense William Perry has noted is particularly dangerous and destabilizing.

Another area of nuclear policy that is in urgent need of attention is the policy of keeping land-based missiles on hair-trigger alert. Organizations like the Union of Concerned Scientists have underscored the danger of an accidental nuclear war inherent in such a policy. Clinton should pledge to address this ill-advised policy if elected.

There are many other actions that could be proposed to reduce the nuclear danger and move down the path towards eliminating these world-threatening weapons altogether. Taking steps to reduce excess nuclear weapons, and joining in international efforts to highlight the humanitarian catastrophe that would be caused by even a limited use of nuclear weapons are among them. Taking clear positions in favor of these kinds of concrete nuclear policy changes would not only be good politics, but, far more importantly, it would be good policy. It would also make the world a far safer place, which should be the number one goal of any occupant of the Oval Office.

William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy.
Toward the end of a workshop I facilitated on purpose-driven work, a regional manager of a large electronics supplier tentatively raised her hand.

"About a year ago, I figured out why I do my job," she said. "As I was sitting in the hospital waiting for the CT scan that could save my life, I remember thinking, 'my company helped build this machine.'"

Before my eyes, I could see her colleagues becoming more engaged in their work.

The energy in the room changed. People were smiling more and telling stories about their own experiences of feeling pride in the company. A sense of solidarity that hadn't existed five minutes prior took over the hotel ballroom.

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The moment they collectively heard their co-worker's personal story, they finally got it.

Outside of profit, strategy, sales goals, and targets, she is why their job exists.

This sense of authentic purpose, the true reason for a company's or product's existence in the world, can be powerful and compelling.

In a controlled experiment, Wharton School management professor Adam Grant found that callers at a university fundraising center who spent just ten minutes directly listening to a scholarship recipient's story spent more than double the amount of time on the phone and generated triple the donations compared to the callers who had no contact.

Yet, despite this scientific research, surge of bestsellers, and TED Talks on the the power of purpose at work, it remains under-leveraged and often hidden as a business advantage.



Purpose as The Ultimate Competitive Advantage

Last week, I was charged with "firing up" the sales team of a Fortune 500 engineering firm.

In preparation for the talk, I did what I always do and spent two weeks pretending to be a new customer in the industry. I shopped around, downloaded brochures, and made inquiries to their best salespeople.

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Competitor A told me that they could increase my profitability and competitiveness, provide world-class customer service, and were industry-leading.



Competitor B told me that they could increase my profitability and competitiveness, provide world-class customer service, and were industry-leading.

And the company that hired me told me that they could increase my profitability and competitiveness, provide world-class customer service, and were industry-leading.

I had no clue who to "buy" from, and naturally had to look at price and product specifications. No help there, they all looked the same!

These companies were spending millions on differentiating strategy. The problem? Their value propositions were nearly identical.

A Better World, A Better Value Proposition

As I dug deeper into the company I was working with, I noticed that "...a better world." was inscribed on logos, office walls, and on their marketing materials. Yet, I couldn't find this authentic purpose anywhere in their strategy.

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To "create a better world" was why the company really existed. And not one of their competitors could compete with that.

Imagine if the salesperson said to me, "I love my job because we make the world better and we care about helping you deliver your own purpose. And what's great is we can increase your profitability and competitiveness, provide you world-class customer service, and together we can be industry-leading."

I would have placed my "order" right then and there.

Wired for Purpose

As human beings our brains are wired to search for meaning and purpose.

In 1944, psychologists Fritz Heider and Marianne Simmel developed an animation with black triangles, a rectangle, and a circle. The shapes moved around the screen at random.

Heider and Simmel showed it to hundreds of study participants and were astonished at what they found: Nearly every person who viewed the random animation assigned emotional and complex stories to the simple objects.

Participants gave the simple shapes intentions, genders, and purpose.

Their brains were searching for purpose.

This classic experiment proves that all human beings' brains are wired this way; including your employees and customers.

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The experiment also highlights that when people can't find an explicitly-stated purpose, they make up their own. By focusing on definable "things" like price and specifications, for example, they try to make sense of things to make a decision. In turn, differentiation becomes more difficult.

However, you and your employees have the power to explicitly state and cultivate a common sense of authentic purpose that is communicated to customers but also felt throughout the organization.

An authentic purpose is not a mission statement. Mission statements live in filing cabinets, an authentic purpose lives in hearts and souls.

"We Shape History"

KPMG, one of the "Big 4" accounting firms was faced with the pressure to differentiate in their very competitive industry.

Their leadership responded with a simple reflective question: Why does KPMG exist in the world?

In a recent Harvard Business Review piece, Bruce Pfau, KPMG's Vice Chair of Human Resources and Communications, wrote "We needed to do more than simply announce our purpose and expect it to take hold. We needed employees to experience it for themselves."

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To do this they launched a "We Shape History" campaign that re-framed the nature of KPMG's work.

The campaign talked about KPMG's role in significant historic events like certifying the election of Nelson Mandela and helping with the release of the Iran hostages.

The campaign was successful, but KPMG was not done. They wanted this to be personal.

So they asked their employees to share their "why" and created an app where employees could upload a picture and a statement of why their job existed. They initially set a goal of 10,000 entries with the incentive of 2 paid days off if they reached the goal.

Employees submitted over 40,000 stories.

Compelling phrases like "we champion democracy" and "I help farmers" started being used to describe KPMG's work.

The results followed.

When surveyed, over 90% of employees said that the purpose initiative helped them feel more pride in their work, global growth topped 8%, and KPMG rose 17 spots on Fortune's 100 Best Places to Work list.

Talk about a competitive advantage.

Why does your company exist in the world?

The answer could be your powerful hidden secret to success.

- Zach
Amit Dave / Reuters A Muslim woman offers special prayers for rain outside a mosque in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad July 7, 2014. The Indian monsoon strengthened at the start of the key planting month after recording the weakest first month of the June-September rainy season in five years, weather officials said last Thursday. REUTERS/Amit Dave (INDIA - Tags: RELIGION ENVIRONMENT)

NEW DELHI -- Residents of a neighborhood in Vadodara are resisting the rehabilitation of 300 families, mostly Muslims, into their locality. The Muslim families were displaced after their homes were destroyed in a demolition drive against slums, but residents of Kapurai are blocking them from entering their "luxurious area."

The Indian Express reported today that residents of Kapurai have written a letter to the Vadodara Municipal Corporation, insisting that Muslims from the Suleiman Chawl would hamper the peace-loving nature here as their daily activity involves assaulting and abusing."

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The VMC has demolished the illegal Suleiman Chawl that had become a headache for 40 years. It is a matter of joy for the eastern part of the city. However, we oppose the VMCs decision to relocate the Muslim families of Suleiman Chawl to alternate accommodation under the BSUP housing scheme on Dabhoi Road (Kapurai), which has developed as a luxurious area in the last seven years. Allotting homes to Muslim families from Suleiman Chawl in this area will hamper the peace-loving nature here," the letter said.

The Indian Express reported that Kapurai is located a kilometer away from Best Bakery, which was attacked by a mob during the religious violence that consumed Gujarat in 2002, killing 14 people.

Vadodara was also Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency before he vacated it following the Lok Sabha election 2014, and retained Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.

The memorandum opposing the relocation stated, it is a known fact that people whose daily activity involves assaulting and abusing do not change their anti-social mindset," the newspaper reported.

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Fourteen years ago, when talks were held for demolishing Suleiman Chawl, the residents were to be rehabilitated in areas of Tandalja and Ekta Nagar (both Muslim-dominated areas), so it is surprising that they have been allotted homes under the BSUP scheme at Kapurai, which is still incomplete. We are worried about the future and we demand that the allotment of homes to Muslim families in Kapurai be cancelled and they be moved to areas inhabited by their own community," the memorandum said.

The Indian Express reported that Muslim families are not being allowed to move into their new houses, and the police is posted around Kapurai to prevent any untoward incident.

We are all poor and have our livelihood in this area. The women work as domestic helps, mostly in Hindu homes here. I do not understand the opposition," he said.

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Pacific Press via Getty Images ALLAHABAD, INDIA - 2015/02/14: Students jubilate after receiving degree and citations during 9th convocation of Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tondon open university. (Photo by Prabhat Kumar Verma/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Its been a rough year for many business school students in India: the job market isnt quite impressed by them. Now, the countrys education regulator plans to unwind many five-year MBA programs.

According to a Mint report, the central government will close five-year integrated or dual-degree master of business administration (MBA) programs offered at certain universities and independent management schools. These programs typically award masters degrees at the end of five years, and undergraduate degrees at the end of three or four years.

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Education regulator, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), has said such courses are "not in line" with the approved programs of the higher education regulator University Grants Commission (UGC).

Students enrolled in these courses will be permitted to graduate after three years, and no fresh enrollments will be allowed for the 2016-17 academic year. Degrees offered by the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) wont be affected.

Graduates from Indian business schools are increasingly falling out of favour with employers, with the exception of the graduates from the countrys top-tier business schools.

A recent study by industry association Assocham revealed that the vast majority of the 5,500 business school graduates in India are unemployable. With the exception of graduates from the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), only about seven per cent of business school graduates had found jobs immediately after graduating.

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Lack of quality control and infrastructure, low-paying jobs through campus placements, and under-trained faculty were the major reasons cited behind the unfolding disaster at Indian business schools, the study said. Combined with the economic slowdown, these factors led to a 45 per cent drop in campus placements, according to the study.

In the past two years, about 220 business schools have shut down across major cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Dehradun; another 120 schools are expected to close shop in 2016, the study said. The number of available business schools vacancies had nearly tripled in that period, according to the study. In 2015-16, there were about 5,20,000 individual openings for MBA courses, compared to 3,60,000 in 2011-12.

Given the somewhat dismal job prospects for many B-school graduates, the latest government move might be a step in the right direction.

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Facebook/Eknath Khadse

An investigation into Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse's family's purchase of a three-acre plot in Bhosari, near Pune, in April this year has found several irregularities. From grossly undervaluing the price of the plot to circumventing legal and administrative procedure to complete the sale, the land deal is highly suspicious, reported The Indian Express.

This shows that black money was involved in the transaction," NCP spokesman Nawab Malik told Express. "The Centre has promised action against those indulging in black money transactions. It must act in this case too.

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BJP chief Amit Shah has reportedly asked the party's Maharashtra wing for "a detailed report" on the charges against Khadse.

However, Khadse has defended the land deal, claiming all of it was done according to law.

Meanwhile, Hemant Gawande, a Pune-based businessman, who exposed the deal, told Hindustan Times, This will benefit buyer as well as seller as Khadse can hide his actual assets, while Abbas Ukani, the seller would have paid lesser income tax.

Here are five glaring inconsistencies in the deal:

True market value of plot versus sale price

According to the sale deed accessed by Express, Khadses wife, Mandakini, and son-in-law, Girish Chaudhari, bought the plot for 3.75 crore on 27 April this year. This would mean they bought the plot at 3,088.81 per square metre, which is drastically below the market value for the plot. The true market value of the plot is fixed at 25,630 per square metre, which means it should have been sold for 31.01 crore. This is about eight times more than what the sale deed suggests Khadse's family paid for the plot.

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Stamp duty

Records indicate that almost a third of the sale price was also paid as stamp duty. Khadse' family apparently shelled out 1.37 crore for stamp duty  but that is disproportionate to the sale price. The stamp duty amount paid by them would be closer to the right number if the plot was being sold for the market rate, and not the undervalued price. Even at the market price, the stamp value should be six percent of the price, which is 1.86 crore.

Administrative lapses

Since the land was being sold at a grossly undervalued rate, rules require the registering authority to refer the matter to the district collector, who needs to record statements of both parties involved in the sale before allowing the deal to go through. Haveli Sub-Registrar Dinkar Lonkar, who allegedly registers the document, did so without following this crucial state, reported Express. It is important to note here that the sub-registrar's office comes under the revenue department, headed by Khadse himself.

Land ownership

Meanwhile, according to the government entity Maharashtra Industries Development Corporation (MIDC), it had acquired the land from the original land owner, Rasulbhai Ukani, in 1971. Rasulbhai's son, Abbas Ukani, who sold the plot to Khadse's family, has claimed that the acquisition was never completed, and his family did not receive the compensation promised by the government. Khadse, too, has claimed that Abbas Ukani was the actual owner, and that the acquisition process had "lapsed".

Sale deed inconsistencies
Youtube/ Blush

Jumping through glass, driving cars at break-neck speeds, being set on fire  the job of a stuntman requires guts and a lot of training. Only a smattering of women have taken up this dangerous profession in India. And, even after training, most of them opt out of several stunts, especially those that involve handling a vehicle.

31-year-old Geeta Tandon claims to be the only stuntwoman to have successfully attempted car chases (driving cars through objects like barricades or racing along narrow lanes), and that too with minimal training. But then again, things like that probably come more easily to a person who has spent a greater part of their lives fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive.

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A recent video by the Youtube channel, Blush, For Culture Machine gave Tandon the opportunity to share her story with the world. A successful Bollywood stuntswoman since 2009, Tandon has survived child marriage, motherhood before the age of 21, and brutal domestic violence that included rape.

Speaking to HuffPost India, Tandon recalled that she realised that life was anything but fair when she lost her mother. She was just 9 years old at the time. Tandon and her three siblings were shunted from relative to relative as her father struggled to make a living by singing at jagrans in Mumbai.

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At 15, Tandons tomboyish habits and her love for gilli danda and bat-ball started raising concerns among her relatives. they figured that an early marriage would correct her wild ways. Within two days, Tandon was married off to a 24-year-old man from Jaipur.

Having seen her elder sister settle down happily in an arranged marriage, Tandon felt reassured about her familys choice and decision. I could never argue with my father, and I was slightly relieved as well, she says. Marriage for me meant the stability of a home with a loving family and food on the table  a lot for someone who never knew where she was going to end up next.

Little did she know then that she had just entered a nightmare that would go on for the next five years. For Tandons husband and his family, marriage meant very different things. I was a servant, a sex machine and a punching bag present to fulfill his needs, she says. I got pregnant at 16, and was briefly happy thinking it would stop the beatings. But it only got worse.

A still from the video.

After her second child was born, Tandon became even more miserable. My children would cry for milk while my husband was beating me up. Afterwards, I couldnt even feed them, she remembers.

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She tried to flee from the house three times and even complained to the police. But they chose to turn into marriage counselors. The cops told me that marital fights should be kept within the walls of the house. I stopped trying to register complaints as I had no support, she says.

Her sisters home offered her some respite though only temporarily. My husband followed me there, and tried to beat my sister as well, she says. Her mother-in-law finally forced her husband to turn me out so they wouldnt have to share the drama.

At the age of 20, Tandon finally managed to break free of her husbands clutches and ran away. Having never worked before, she had no idea how she was going to survive on the streets. I have studied only till 10th standard, she says. Working was an alien concept, but I never lost hope.

Geeta Tandon loves bikes and cars.

Tandon survived on odd jobs, and escaped sex work by a whisker. In spite of never having danced before, she eventually landed a job as a bhangra dancer and was thrilled. We were often given dinner at the weddings or parties wed perform at, she says. If I saw food getting wasted (which it often is at these events), Id ask if I could take some for my children who would be delighted.

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In 2008, Tandon met a woman through her bhangra company who asked her if she would like to perform stunts. Ive never said no to anything except sex work. There was a time I would make 250 rotis every morning and night for Rs 1,200 a month, she says.

Her first stunt assignment in Ladakh involved her being set on fire. I ended up with burns on my face, she recalls.

"I ended up with burns on my face."

As her burns healed, so did Tandons spirit. She started enjoying her work because it reminded her of her old tomboyish self. She learnt to drive during a 20-day training programme for a reality show, and that eventually helped her stand apart from her peers.

There are no women who do car chases in India. Almost always the men do it. I can ride any car or bike  I have driven a Harley, a Bullet and a dirt bike. Most women dont like to perform stunts that involve long hours in the sun or getting dirty in the mud, she says. But I did it all. Recently, I did a car chase scene for Aishwarya Rais 'Jazbaa'. Its dangerous because youre driving very fast in a compact space in proximity to many people and expensive equipment, and you cannot afford any mistakes. When I was done, the entire crew was up on their feet cheering and clapping for me!

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Tandon also registered herself with a movie stunt association who trained her for free and would compensate for travel and any injuries caused during the shoots. It turned out to be a wise strategy as she suffered many serious injuries including a tailbone and a spinal fracture which no one believed she would recover from. I was working for a small budget film starring Zeenat Aman. My role involved falling off a building after being shot. Unfortunately, I hit the railing hard and fractured my back, she remembers. When I was in the hospital, my landlord tried to evict me. He said I could not work anymore so he could not afford to indulge me and my children. I didnt want any favours so I simply moved my kids into the hospital till I was fine.

Tandon with her two children.

Today, Tandon earns Rs 7-8 lakh on an average every year and that doesn't include the commissions she gets for special projects. She also owns a house in Malad, and claims that every actor  she has worked as a stunt double for many, including Parineeti Chopra, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and Deepika Padukone  remembers her with respect and affection.

Tandons children (her daughter is 16 and her son 14) both go to school and are very close to their mother. My children want to stand on their own feet before they get married. They say it is a life lesson I have given them, she says proudly. Tandon also plans to open a school that offers fighting and self-defense lessons to women. Every woman should be able to stand up for herself instead of taking a beating, she says, her voice resolute.

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SAM PANTHAKY via Getty Images Suraiya Ankleshwaria looks on as she and others pay homage to those killed at Gulbarg Society following the February 2002 Godhra train incident, which sparked communal riots that year, on the ninth anniversary of the incident in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2011. A total of 69 people were killed in the Gulberg Society carnage, including former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri on February 28, 2002. The aftermath of the Godhra Train carnage resulted in widespread communal riots across Gujarat where more than 2,000 were killed. A Special Court has reserved the pronouncement of quantum of punishment to the 31 convicted in the Godhra Train Carnage incident till March 1. AFP PHOTO / Sam PANTHAKY (Photo credit should read SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW DELHI -- Congress today welcomed the conviction of 24 of the 66 accused by a Gujarat court, including a VHP leader, in the 2002 post-Godhra Gulberg society massacre which left 69 people dead, saying justice has been delivered to the victims.

Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said it was a long-pending case, which has finally seen the light of the day.

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"We haven't read the verdict completely. I do hope final justice is done to the victims."

"Accusations have been made and cross accusations have been made. Finally we believe that justice has been done," he said.

Fourteen years after the gruesome massacre of 69 people including former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri in the Gulberg Society in Ahmedabad, a special court today convicted 24 of the 66 accused, 11 of them for murder, but dropped conspiracy charges against all.

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News / Press Release

by Vince Musewe

It is not new for ZANU (PF) Ministers to interfere in the running of state enterprises which fall under their mandate, in fact that is all they ever do as they scheme on how to make money from any tenders,projects or contracts that are currently in play.As we at PDP have stated before, in Zimbabwe we have a ZANU (PF) looting machine whose sole business is to plunder our resources with no remorse at all. This looting machine is primarily operative through state enterprise projects where dubious loans are procured clandestinely and project costs inflated so that those in the looting chain can get paid off.To qualify to be in this chain, you must blindly support the party and Mugabe and never challenge his competency or decisions. That is why all state enterprises CEO's must be approved by him in the first place and they must also of course continually pay homage to him and wish him long life as their President. Some have even openly confessed how they owe their "rise" to Mugabe.It is evident to us at PDP that the current shenanigans at ZPC and ZESA are a microcosm of the broader economy which has ceased to be productive, but is now characterised by a ZANU (PF) secret economy of corruption and quick deals. This is why Zimbabweans continue to be shocked at the amount of wealth in this booming ZANU (PF) cabal secret economy, while the majority of citizens have to scrounge on daily basis in order to survive.The Zimbabwean taxpayer, for generations to come, is already burdened by ZANU (PF) corruption and will continue paying dearly for state enterprise "loans" for the next twenty to thirty years. That will bethe legacy of Mugabe and his predatory cabal whose insatiable greed and profligacy must be funded by poor Zimbabweans.As PDP we must express our utmost disgust at the failure by Minister Undenge of taking full responsibility of the continuing corruption at ZPC and ZESA. We demand that he resigns or be fired immediately for corruption and undue and unethical interference in the normal course of business at these companies. This is the cancer of corruption that we speak of which can only be addressed by cutting off those limbs that are causing the rot.Although this is our position, we know that nothing will be done by Mugabe because he would have to fire his whole cabinet and also resign himself because he must also ultimately take responsibility for thesins of those he has appointed.We are, however, pleased to note that management at ZPC have now decided to tell it as it is and we expect that the Minister takes full responsibility for his deeds than to continually blame them for the rot.PDP continues to stress that without substantive economic reforms and the replacement of the ZANU(PF) looting team from government, Zimbabweans can only expect a worsening economic climate characterized by increasing unemployment and therefore decreasing disposable incomes and wide spread poverty.As the economic situation worsens, we are certainly bound to see more creativity from the looters and their kin as the pressure to maintain their conspicuous lifestyles in the midst of poverty increases. Theyare all beyond redemption. ZANU (PF) has plundered and bankrupted Zimbabwe and it is now time for us to put a stop to the rot.We therefore once more call for the immediate resignation of the shameless looting machine called ZANU (PF) from government and the establishment of a national transitional technical council (NTTC) toarrest the socio economic decline and to begin to revive the economy.Its mandate must include dealing with the emergency social needs now, addressing the liquidity issues and stabilising the financial services sector, dealing with the public debt issue, dealing with corruptionwithin state enterprises, reviving agriculture and industry to create jobs, attracting new long term investment into the country, reducing recurrent government expenditure and doing whatever it takes tostabilise the macro-economic environment.In our view, this is the only way we can immediately stop the rot and save Zimbabwe from these habitual looters.Another Zimbabwe is possible!!!
MANPREET ROMANA via Getty Images New Delhi, INDIA: Indian policemen stand outside a theatre after a telephone call was received at a police control room that explosives had been planted in a movie-theatre in New Delhi, 23 July 2006. The call turned out be a hoax call as security in India remains on high alert after about 179 people died and 800 were injured in seven blasts that ripped through commuter trains in Mumbai 11 July in the nation's worst attack in more than a decade. AFP PHOTO/ Manpreet ROMANA (Photo credit should read MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images)

The Mumbai police has decided that they will do everything possible to ensure that no one watches Tanmay Bhat's Snapchat video, which is so incendiary that it could spark off World War III.

Even if that means bringing things back from the dead.

The Mumbai police, which boasts of nabbing criminals using technology and is apparently evaluating a digital pen that can deliver FIRs, have now asked Google to remove the controversial video from Orkut.

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In the video that half the nation has probably seen now, thanks to the Maharashtra politicians and their outrage over it (ably aided by sundry Mumbai based film personalities), the comedian is seen mocking two beloved Indian figures-- Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar.

While the misplaced outraged is another debate, it is important that the Mumbai police keep up a little with technology.

Orkut Is Dead

In a statement to Times Of India, Mumbai police spokesperson Sangramsingh Nishandar said that they have asked Google to remove the video from Orkut.

Yes, that's probably the first you have heard of Orkut in maybe two years, given that it is a dinosaur in the age of Facebook, WhatsApp and Snapchat. In 2014, Google killed Orkut, their social networking site that used to be popular a decade ago. Obituaries were written, RIP notes were shared, but looks like the Mumbai police didn't get to see any of that.

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In fact, back in 2007, Mumbai Police and Orkut had entered into an agreement to track down offenders who posted anti-Shivaji, anti-Ambedkar or "hate India" campaigns on the social media site.

It's been nine years since then and a lot of water has flowed under the Mithi river, but clearly Mumbai police is stuck in a time warp.

You Can't Ask YouTube To Delete Videos From Orkut

Clearly unaware of Orkut's digital demise, they have written to YouTube, asking them to block the controversial video on the social networking site that exists no more.

"Firstly, we have written to Google and YouTube administrators to block the controversial video on their social Orkut and have sought a legal opinion on whether any case can be made out against Tanmay," a Mumbai police spokesperson said.

Come again, now? Even if we assume for a minute that Orkut still exists, how can YouTube ban it? That sounds like telling the good people at Tata Tea or Tata Steel to ban Tata Nano.

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Orkut and YouTube are two distinct products of Google (was a product, in the case of Orkut). So this would be asking a subsidiary of a company to interfere in the workings of another subsidiary of that parent company.

According to reports, Mumbai police have begun to equip themselves to be able to handle cyber crimes in a more savvy and knowledgeable way. The police headquarters has a cyber cell and a cyber crime station, situated at the Bandra Kurla Complex. As per the plan, the police will set up more cyber cells.

"In the days ahead, cyber crimes will go up, and we need to be ready for it. Keeping that in mind, we felt there was the need for three more cyber cells in the city," KMM Prasanna, ACP (Crime) told DNA.

Mumbai Police's cyber-crime infrastructure and their efforts to augment it is laudable, but from what we can tell after laffaire Tanmay Bhat and Snapchat, they need to keep track of how online communication trends and the social media are evolving over time.

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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters Displays of the Tag Heuer

Launched amid much anticipation couple of years ago, smartwatches have done well in the market. The initial phase after the launch saw them drawing a lot of attention and this was followed by discussions on what a smartwatch should be. While their use case (meaning, 'Why should I buy a smartwatch?') are still being debated and figured out, smartwatch sales have seen significant growth? They are no longer merely being viewed as second screens for phones.

We take a look at some of the smartwatches you can buy under 20000 in India.

1. Moto 360

When the first generation of the Moto 360 smartwatch running Android Wear came out, people were in awe of these devices. Smartwatches were not considered aesthetically attractive until that point but this watch proved all assumptions wrong. The watch's second iteration came with a better processor and battery life. The biggest design change came in the form of the ease with which the watch's strap could be replaced.

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In the software department, Moto 360 has all the functionality of Android Wear. So one can easily get notifications, reply to messages and emails, listen to songs on the go and use gestures (or hand movements that help perform certain functions) along with the fitness tracking. You can own Moto 360's 42 mm version for 19999. Some customisations would cost you more.

Motorola has also released Moto 360 Sport, which has an inbuilt GPS and heart-rate monitor and comes with rubber straps. This version will cost you 18999.

2. Asus Zenwatch 2

If you don't want a round watch and would like to try a new design, Asus' Zenwatch 2 would be a good option. The Android wear watch has a 1.63-inch screen, and apart from the regular Android wear functions, it features a couple of adds-ons that might come handy. One is a business handler or a meeting assistant, and the second is a remote camera app that can be used to click photos with the smartwatch. The price of the watch is 12999.

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3. Titan Juxt

Instead of making a smartwatch, Titan, which is one of India's most popular watchmakers has opted for an analog watch with some of the smarts. The Titan Juxt watch has a tiny LCD display that shows the digital watch by default and will also display notifications. You can see the notifications but you can't respond to them. You can however dismiss a call coming on your phone by using one of the watch's buttons. The battery life for the digital screen is 5 days and. while the watch also has an activity tracker, its readings are way off. Moreover, as the watch is very heavy, it is unlikely that you are going to be wearing the watch while doing any kind of exercise. The watch starts at 15999.

4. Pebble Series

Pebble is known as one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns. They recently launched 4 watches in India including Pebble Classic, Pebble Time, Pebble Steel Time and Pebble Round. The watches are priced at 5999, 9999, 13999, and 15999 respectively. It runs on their proprietary platform which supports Android and iOS both. The interface is very simple and you can run through the notifications with the help of buttons instead of the touch interface. Additionally, there are some applications such as fitness tracker and an Uber app. The best part about Pebble is its longer battery life, more than any other smartwatch out there (not counting the analog smartwatches).

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5. Fitbit Blaze

Fitbit is mainly known for their smart fitness tracker bands which took them to the No.1 spot in the wearables space. The Fitbit Blaze is their bid in the smartwatch space. The product is aimed, naturally, towards fitness enthusiasts. It has a built-in GPS and heart-rate trackers with on-screen workouts. Blaze is compatible with both iOS and Android. The smartwatch is priced at 19990.

6. Timex Metropolitan

Like Titan, India's other big watchmaker, Timex has also designed an analog smartwatch. Though, despite the company's claims that this is a smartwatch, Metropolitan acts more like an activity tracker. Through sensors, the watch tracks your steps, activity and calories burnt. Timex says that it plans to add a sleep tracking feature to Metropolitan soon. Timex Metropolitan will cost you 9999, with a year of battery life without any need for charging.

There are some other smartwatches under 20000, such as Intex iRist and Sony Smartwatch 3 but their software is old and performance not so impressive. On the other hand, if you are willing to spend more money you can lay your hands on some great watches, such as the Huawei watch, Samsung Gear S2 and the Apple Watch.

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The suspect in the shooting of a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, on Wednesday has been identified as a student of Indian origin named Mainak Sarkar. Sarkar, a doctoral student at the university turned the gun on himself after killing the professor, news reports said.

A day after UCLA professor William Klug (39) was shot dead, the Los Angeles Police has identified the shooter as Mainak Sarkar (38), a Ph.D student at the university, according to a news report in NBC Los Angeles.

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The police said three shots were fired and a gun, apart from a suicide detail, was found near the dead bodies.

"I don't know if it's a suicide note. I don't know if it's a confession. I don't know what it is," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said.

Condoling the professors death, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted that Klug was a husband, father of two and a brilliant teacher.

Sarkar, who has a degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (2000), seems to have had several issues with Klug.

Calling the professor a sick man, Sarkar had written in a blog post on March 10 that Klug stole all his codes and gave it to another student.

Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust. Stay away from this sick guy, he had written.

The blog post, in which he also said, William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy, was deleted later.

Sarkar worked for about a year at the Infosys Ltd. in Bangalore before moving to the U.S as a research assistant at the University of Texas in Arlington and later joining Stanford in 2003 for masters in aeronautics.

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After completing his masters in 2005, Sarkar returned to Texas as a software developer before enrolling for PhD in mechanical engineering at UCLA.

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News / Regional

by Thobekile Zhou

Bulawayo City council has closed West Park Cemetery as it has run out of burial space.It was closed last Friday.The local authority has said only Luveve cemetery is operational, but it is also fast running out of space.A new site in Pumula South meant to save the situation yet to be gazetted.Recently, council started limiting burials at West Park to 10 per day and moved all burials of children to Luveve cemetery, before the latest decision to close the cemetery.Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Martin Moyo told a full council meeting on Wednesday that West Park was officially closed last Friday.He was responding to Ward 22 Councillor Rodney Jele who had inquired on how much space remained at West Park Cemetery for burial.Clr Moyo said the city was still waiting for a directive from the government following their application for a new piece of land to be gazetted for burial purposes."West Park Cemetery was closed last Friday. It's full to capacity. I remember last Friday one of the city's distinguished residents Ndubiwa called inquiring about burial space after he wanted one of his relatives who died in SouthAfrica to be buried at West Park. The only remaining burial space belongs to those people who had made their reservations," said Clr Moyo.He said the Ministry of Home Affairs was taking long to gazette land they had identified.In May, council issued a notice on reservations of graves."We kindly request all those who have made reservations of graves at Council cemeteries prior to 2011 to come and show evidence (grave reservation certificates) that their reservations are still valid."Failure to do this will lead to these reservations being forfeited and allocated to others, three months from the date of this notice. Kindly report at Tower Block Reception 1st or 2nd floor.NB: Grave Reservation certificates may be scanned and emailed to hsdept@citybyo.co.zw.".
Opinion / Blogs

QN "Israel prophets were architects of war and violence" Examine this view. To what extent are the Zimbabwean prophets involved in the same act? (25) -pt 36A level Divinity Revision Questions|02 June 2016lCOMMENT OVERVIEW- It is prudent at this stage to remember that in order to execute any Divinity question ,one should define KEY words first. In this work the writer will bring forward different fundamental questions which the reader can attempt first before answering the question.For instance- What is an architect?- What is violence?- Which prophet planned the war in Israel?- This include the prophets like- Moses- Samuel- the 400 cultic prophets- Elisha- Elijah- In Zimbabwean context this include- Bishop Manango- Samuel Mutendi and Ezekiel Guti- the white church garment sect.- The above named prophets can be regarded as the architect of war and violence ,basing on their actions during their time. This will be fully shown on the ongoing work.ANSWERS - During the exodus event ,Moses as a prophet who was divinely inspired, played number of prophetic duties .This include performing miracles .He also went on to extent of fighting holy wars with Amalekites. This is evidenced in Exodus 17:9 "And Moses said to Joshua, "Choose for us men, and go out, fight with Amalek; tomorrow.." It has been submitted that whilst Israel was fighting Moses was standing on top of the mountain with Aaron with a rod ,hence, he was praying for a victory. As a result Israel defeated the Amalekites (Amalek grandson of Esau).Scholar Thomas Constable in his Exodus notes page 104 paragraph 4 citing Josephus the early church father who submitted that No Hebrew died in this war but innumerable Amalekites perished. In other words this indicate that Moses can be regarded as an architect of this war basing on his contributions which the writer highlighted earlier. - Samuel the man who had for offices ,prophet being one of them championed holy wars. This is evidenced when he prayed and offered sacrifices in Mizpah ,so that Yahweh will give strength Israel in order to fight against the Philistines. This is recorded in 1 Samuel 7:5-10.As a result the Israelites won the battle. Samuel as a prophet ,he instituted school of prophecy ,The internal evidence reveal that Samuel was always standing as the head ,this is indicated in 1 Samuel 19:20.Scholar B.W Anderson submitted that the other role of sons of prophets with their head was to champion holy wars ;giving soldiers a patriotic feeling .This is also the reason why the guild was always stationed in garrisons. At this stage it is prudent to suggest that Samuel deserve to be regarded as the architect of this war basing on his contributions which the writer highlighted above . - The Mt Carmel contest is well known .Elijah advised Ahab to station his Baal prophets at Mt Carmel. During the contest the Baal prophets failed to bring fire whilst Elijah managed .As a result Elijah ended up butchering the baal prophets and asherah goddess. During this time Elijah was fighting for Yahwehism this is further supported by the meaning of his name "Yahweh is my God". At this stage what cannot be denied is that Elijah caused war and violence, hence,Elijah can be regarded as the architect of war and violence.NB There are so many prophets which can be added . HOWEVER PART- As much as Israel prophets can be labelled as the architect of war and violence ,one should note that there are some prophets who desired peace and prophetic career with no violence,hence,this means that Israel prophets does not totally deserve to be regarded as the architect of war and violence.This is true in the case of Isaiah the prophet of Jerusalem who discouraged King Ahaz for joining the Syro-Ephraimite alliance which was to defend/offer Judah whenever Assyria wanted to attack the nation .Therefore, Isaiah as a prophet knew that joining was going to cause war and violence, hence, this indicate that this disqualify the view that Israel prophets does not totally deserve to be regarded as the architect of war and violence.ZIMBABWEAN CONTEXTIn Zimbabwean context number of so many prophets can be labelled as the architect of war and violence, citing the "white church garment" who fought against the police in Budiriro 1 ,this was recorded by Newsday and ZBC on the 14th May 2014 (The members of the sect could be heard shouting ordering others to kill claiming they were fighting a "holy war") All this proves that Zimbabwean prophets can be regarded as the architect of war and violence.The following link will help the reader to get full story(http://www.herald.co.zw/latest-vapostori-beat-up-police/ | encourage the readers to take use of Local newspapers ,everyday they publish different stories which can be important to our subject.Ezekiel Guti and Samuel Mutendi during the colonisation of Zimbabwe they criticised this idea of the whites .Some went on to influence Africans to reject the colonisation, this is evidenced by Smith regime arresting the named prophets because of their messages which were anti-colonial.In other words these prophets gave people an emotional spirit or nationalistic feeling .Hence ,the Africans revolting this is evidenced by 1st Chimurenga .Credit can be given to the prophets ,this has been further supported by Sam Mamvuru who submitted that the early prophets and traditionalist supported Africans during the colonisation. As such this proves to us that Zimbabwean prophets deserve to be regarded as the architect of war and violence.N.B There are so many examples which can be added.HOWEVER PART- As much as Zimbabwean prophets can be regarded as the architect of war and violence, one should note that they don't totally deserve to be regarded as the architect of war and violence. For instanceMakandiwa during 2008 national elections reprimanded for anti-violence .He advised people to have spirit of brotherhood. He might foresaw that there will be bloodshed as a result of anger during the campaigns. As such this indicate that Zimbabwean doesn't totally deserve to be regarded as the architect of war and violence.Makandiwa has been recorded by media to have been involved in anti-sanction campaign on 1st March 2011,Makandiwa was advocating peace during this campaign. The story was even published by the National TV ,follow this link to get more information( http://www.zbc.co.zw/news-categories/top-stories/6931-anti-sanctions-campaign-programme-released "This will be followed by the singing of the ..prayer led by United Family ...Reverend Emmanuel Makandiwa. to 11 am, it will be time for solidarity messages . churches and traditional leaders"|The story was published on the 1st March 2011 20:38pm).With above information this disqualify the view that Zimbabwean prophets totally deserve to be regarded as the architect of war and violence.QUESTION DEMAND- Examine the view and showing the extent on Zimbabwean context part.CONTACTS+263777896159 (WhatsApp)Witness Dingani ( Like my Facebook page)witnessdingani@gmail.com (E-mail address)
Booking Career-Building Shows: What Many Bands Dont Understand

As and independent artist, your time, energy, and money are all limited, meaning you can't afford to play too many shows that don't in some way help you build your career. Here we look at the sort of characteristics which a career-building show has, and how to recognize a good opportunities.

____________________________

Guest Post by Liam Duncan on the Sonicbids Blog

One of the most important things Ive been learning as an independent artist is the difference between opportunities and good opportunities. When youre an independent, you cant really afford to waste time playing shows that arent doing something for you, and to me this boils down to focusing on one thing: playing career-building shows.

Ever since my band has focused on playing as many career-building shows as possible, weve been seeing better crowds, better response from industry people, and faster growth. So what does a career-building show entail?

A great career-building show has:

1. A captive audience

This generally means opening slots. For us, realizing that we shouldnt be headlining our tours yet was huge. It may seem obvious, but were really not very famous and are really better suited to an opening slot. Headlining tours sound cool, but when there are only 20 people in the room, they dont feel very cool. We started booking opening slots for local bands as much as we could, and then we worked the crowd and made them our fans.

[How to Score an Opening Act or Support Slot and Expand Your Audience]

2. The attention of the right people

Playing showcases and industry events can be super valuable if you can get the right people to come. The only way to make these really count is to put in the time before the event and email a bunch of the industry pros in attendance beforehand. Sometimes, at conferences, there can be literally hundreds of bands. If you can make some sort of connection before the event, youve got a huge step up on the rest of the crowd.

3. Fans that really count

For me, what it boiled down to was realizing that certain places and certain people matter more to your career than others. For example, we used to play a lot of smaller towns on weekends, because it paid well and there were always lots of people there.

Photo by Pawe Bukowski via unsplash.com

But the truth is, no one cares if 200 people came to your show in Nowhere, Delaware.People care about your draw in the major markets, like LA, New York, Nashville, Portland, or wherever your states capital is. As a Canadian, for instance, many industry pros only care about your draw in Toronto.

So get out, and play shows (opening slots, showcases, etc.) in an important city, and watch your career grow. Because in those cities, are people who could actually, genuinely influence your career.

[How to Expand Your Bands Presence Outside of Your Local Scene]

Why many artists wait to tour

Many independent artists will simply avoid touring until they have a full tour of career-building shows lined up. If youre booking your own shows, youre probably making five to 15 fans per show. (Being realistic, not pessimistic.) Thats great, but it takes a long time to build up a grassroots following that way, and the road is long and hard. Its not for everybody.

Waiting until you have a full-support tour lined up is an absolutely valid strategy, simply because it puts you in front of way more people, and it looks way better from an image perspective. Im not saying touring is bad  in fact, Im a big advocate for it  but theres a way to do it more efficiently.

Why "career building" doesn't usually mean "money making"

A tough reality that I faced when making the conscious decision to focus on career-building shows was the fact that we would make less money. Generally, the whole reason we would play a show that wasnt career-building was to make more money. We could do an opening slot for $50 and beer or play a small-town bar for $400. The choice was clear kind of.

Now we realize that the opening slot is a better long-term investment, and that that $400 is still going to be there next weekend. The truth is, sometimes you need to play just for the money. And thats fine, but never forget that if all you do is play for the money, thats probably all youll ever do.

It may sound like Im a big bummer about shows in small markets or similar. The truth is, I love playing those shows, and above all else, I love playing. So I still play some of those same gigs, but my band works hard to make each one count. We get as many people as possible on our mailing list, liking us on Facebook, following us, and buying our merch, because those fans are sometimes the best ones. The fans in the smaller markets are often the ones engaging with us on social media, voting in contests, etc. So theyre important, too.

What this all boils down to is recognizing opportunities and deciding whether or not theyre good opportunities. What are they going to do for you? Make that call, and then make some great music.

Liam Duncan is a full-time musician from Winnipeg, Canada. He likes to record music with friends and tour with The Middle Coast.

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IATA AGM Urges Governments to Adopt a Global Carbon Offset Scheme

Dublin  The International Air Transport Association (IATA) 72nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) overwhelmingly approved a resolution urging governments to adopt a single global carbon offset mechanism to address carbon emissions from international aviation at the 39th Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) later this year.

Airlines are committed to sustainability. With improvements to technology, operations and infrastructure and the deployment of sustainable alternative fuels, we are delivering results against our climate change commitments. However, to achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020, we also need a mandatory global carbon offset scheme, said Tony Tyler, IATAs Director General and CEO.

In encouraging the adoption of a global carbon offset mechanism, the resolution endorses current aviation industry measures to manage its carbon footprint as part of global efforts to address climate change and safeguard sustainable development and calls on governments to:

Consider 11 recommended design elements for the mechanism that would ensure environmental integrity and simplify implementation while avoiding market distortions

Ensure that existing economic measures (including taxes) on a national and regional basis to manage the industrys climate change impact become redundant and that no new measures are introduced

Under the leadership of ICAO, governments are considering a proposal for a Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) in preparation for the ICAO Assembly.

The details of CORSIA are still being worked out. But as an industry we have a clear focus on what is needed. We want a cost-effective measure that leads to real and permanent carbon reductions. That mechanism should be simple, mandatory and applied on a global basis, avoiding the cost and complexity that a patchwork of uncoordinated measures would create. It must not lead to competitive or market distortions. And we can accept some flexibility in implementation, including the potential for a phasing-in of countries over time, if that is needed by governments to recognize the different levels of maturity of aviation markets, said Tyler.

Aviation was the first industry sector to set carbon-reduction targets at the global level. These are: improving fuel efficiency by 1.5% annually to 2020, capping net emissions with carbon- neutral growth by 2020, and cutting emissions in half by 2050 compared to 2005. The industry was also the first to agree on a global four-pillar strategy to reduce carbon emissions. Pillars one, two and three focus on new technology (especially new fuel-efficient aircraft and sustainable alternative fuels), operational efficiency improvements to cut emissions, and investment in better infrastructure, particularly reformed and modernized air traffic management. The fourth pillarimplementation of a global market-based measurewould be covered by the CORSIA.

This resolution follows an historic resolution of the 69th IATA Annual General Meeting in 2013 in which the industry strategy to achieve Carbon-Neutral Growth was agreed.

Full text of the resolution on the Development of a Global Market-Based Measure for International Aviation

For more information, please contact:

Corporate Communications

+41 22 770 2967 Tel:

AGM newsroom:

Notes for Editors:
Dublin  The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on EU and North American governments to resolve a looming crisis for the EUUS/Canada visa waiver program. Today, most EU citizens can visit the US and Canada without having to apply for a visa, with US and Canadian citizens being granted similar visa-free access to EU states.

Canada and the US, however, require nationals from some EU states to obtain visas.

Canada requires visas for nationals from Bulgaria and Romania.

The US requires visas for nationals from Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Cyprus, and Poland.

In January 2014 a reciprocity clause was included in the Schengen legislation. Under that clause, visa-free access to EU countries (except UK and Republic of Ireland) can only be granted to citizens of a third country if that third country offers reciprocal visa-free access.

The European Parliament and the Council have until 12 July 2016 to advise the European Commission on whether the provisions of the 2014 reciprocity amendment should be enforced for Canadian and US citizens.

According to the European Travel Commission, more than 30 million Canadian and US tourists visit Europe each year, spending over $54 billion.

Nobody wants to risk the economic consequences of introducing new requirements for travelers from Canada and the US to Europe. We are calling on the EU institutions to agree upon a proportionate approach, in cooperation with their US and Canadian counterparts, said Rafael Schvartzman, IATAs Regional Vice President, Europe.

For more information, please contact:

Corporate Communications

Telephone:

Dublin: +353 1 240 7938

Geneva: +41 22 770 2967

Email: Corporate CommunicationsTelephone:Dublin:Geneva:Email: corpcomms@iata.org

Notes for Editors:
Opinion / Columnist

The opening of a permanent High Court in Zimbabwe's oldest city of Masvingo by the Judiciary Service Commission (JSC) is a long overdue move, which is nevertheless creditable.The High Court was opened last week, making it the first post-independence superior court in Zimbabwe. The last time such a court was opened was in 1894, 122 years in Bulawayo. The decentralization of the justice delivery system to Masvingo is set to profit residents in Masvingo province in particular and generally the whole country.That reminds this writer of the late Vice President, Dr Simon Muzenda who was a target of side-splitting jokes. In one of the jokes, Dr Mzee, as he was affectionately known, was officially opening Masvingo prison. In his speech, he said ; "Jere iri ravikirwa imi vanhu vekuMasvingo, zvamuri imi muchatangirwa kushandisa jeri renyu nevanhu vabva Mashonaland, Matebelaland, Midlands and Manicaland. (This prison is for you people from Masvingo, I hope you will occupy it before the people from other provinces)."We wonder what he would have the joke this time around with the new High court in his home town. "Zvamurimi vanhu veMasvingo motangigwazve kupinda muHigh Court nevanhu vanobva kunemamwe maprovinces. Kurudziranai mupare mhosva dzinokodzera kupinda muHigh Court kwete tunongoperera kwamagistrate," one imaginative friend puts it. May his soul rest in peace, for he was indeed the soul of the nation.However, in the absence of such an advice from Dr Mzee, the new High Court will be of great service, not only to the people of Masvingo province but those from as far as Beitbridge in Matebeleland South, parts of Manicaland and Midlands provinces. This is because of its central location.Prior to the opening of the new High Court, people incurred costs while travelling to Harare and Bulawayo. A lot of resources and time were wasted, forcing some complainants and witnesses to shun the system. The situation was worsened by the congested rolls at the two High Courts. A case could be postponed several times and the more it was deferred the more resources and time were wasted. Such will be history for the people of Masvingo.The opening of the High Court in Masvingo will deter criminals in that province from committing heinous crimes such as murder. Masvingo has currently the highest murder cases in the country. As Vice President Emmerson Munangagwa noted, cases will be expeditiously heard and offenders will also quickly serve their sentences and subsequently get released.The decentralization of the High Court to Masvingo will also decongest the Khami and Chikurubi maximum prisons. As of last year in July, Chikurubi Maximum prison held 2270 prison inmates against its holding capacity of 1360. That translates to 69.9% overcrowding. Khami prison is also way above its holding capacity.The decentralization of the High Court should go with the upgrading of Mutimurefu prison so that it will be able to absorb inmates who will be offloaded from Khami and Chikurubi prisons.Overcrowding at was found to be one of the contributing factors that caused the riots that occurred at Chikurubi Maximum prison last year. With the right numbers of prison inmates, such problems could be avoided.We, however, beseech government to continue with the decentralization drive until every province has a High Court. People from other provinces are still shortchanged in as far as justice delivery system is concerned. The decentralization must not only be realized in the judiciary system but in many other administrative systems. We even want to see some ministry headquarters being shifted to other provincial capitals. Even Parliament can be relocated to another city or at least sit in various cities on rotational bases.Such decentralization will decongest Harare in many ways. At the moment, every youth heads for Harare upon completion of secondary or tertiary education. The Midlands State University (MSU) is one institution that needs a pat on the back for decentralizing its study programmes. Some of its programmes are being studied from Zvishavane, Harare and Mutare. This is the way to go because Harare is not Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is not Harare.
Virtually every nonprofit recognizes the need to carry officers and directors liability, which is a great start, said longtime account executive William Bill Zester, who has focused on the sector for the last 14 years. He said, though, that any nonprofit with employees also needs employment practices liability (EPLI).Board members usually require a nonprofit to have directors and officers liability, and they wont sit on the board without it. They recognize they have to protect their own personal financial success, but sometimes the very small nonprofits dont see the value even in purchasing a general liability policy. They dont have an office, they are volunteer-run, they dont have workers comp, there are not many exposures and they just dont see the need, he said.But there is always a need, he said, especially if they are fundraising or holding outside events. Most venues require a certificate of insurance to protect themselves. That is when the nonprofit is scrambling for a special event policy when they could have offered a certificate on an existing general liability policy they already purchased, he said. And if they have multiple events during the year it is more cost effective to have that annual general liability policy.Zester has worked for 5 agencies over 24 years, and for the last 6 years has been with a large independent agency in Ewing, New Jersey.He said smaller nonprofits often just cant afford any more insurance than is absolutely required. You are often on the edge of your seat as to whether they can make the next payment, he said.While much of Zesters business comes from large healthcare related nonprofits, he said he also writes a lot of smaller accounts including advocacy offices, land conservancies and arts councils. They are easy to write. But since they dont really have the exposures that some of the more difficult ones have, the premiums are small.He said he has been seeing a lot of employment practices liability suits over the last few years. Someone gets a pink slip and he sues the nonprofit for discrimination or wrongful termination, he said.Nonprofits all have to really concentrate on HR administration and sometimes it gets pushed to the back burner as not being that important, but you have to do due diligence. They are often too small to have a separate HR professional or department so the executive director is wearing multiple hats. If the board or organization wants someone out, they have to follow their procedures and document it. Youve got to make the case and give them a chance to turn around their behavior before you boot them out the door or you could be sued and/or receive an EEOC complaint.He said nonprofits dont just need employment liability coverage, they also need to do a better job of hiring and firing in order to avoid such problems in the first place. He said that even small nonprofits need to be concerned with writing an updated employee manual and employment application that addresses employment at will, non-harassment & non-discrimination policies and policies & procedures for addressing employee complaints. The nonprofit should enlist a competent attorney who has experience in the field of employment law draft their employee manual, he said.
Before joining Ameritas as a group sales representative in Cleveland, health insurance agent Ingrid Martin was a casualty of higher healthcare costs.She had developed a passion for insurance after starting in a data entry position for a local agency while going to school. Years later, however, she found herself laid off from a privately held healthcare benefits company and actively searching for another position  all at the height of Obamacare malaise.A change encounter with the President himself reversed her fortunes, however, and she won a role as account executive and continuing education instructor at CBIZ Inc. before moving on to her current position.It was amazing, Martin said of meeting Obama. I had just come back from Washington, D.C. from NAHUs Capital Conference [in 2010] when I heard President Obama was coming to my town to speak. I thought, Ive got to hear what this gentleman has to say.Martin arrived early, got a front row seat, and was approached by Obama following the meeting.He asked me what I thought [of the Affordable Care Act]. Lucky for me, Im a dreamer and planned what I would say if the President ever asked me that, she recalls. I had an answer  he just did not like it.Martin told Obama she felt the root cause of high health insurance premiums was the rising cost of healthcare. Instead of the heavy changes implemented in the ACA, she felt more efficient electronic health records and other aspects of provider care would be the ideal fix.After that, Martin says, she was all over the place. She spoke on radio stations about her encounter and was flown out for interviews to places as far as Boise before joining CBIZ.More so than the exchange with the President, Martin says it was her continued membership with NAHU that helped her secure the new position.I think people see that someone who has continued to pay those dues despite not having a job has a real dedication to the industry  that its a passion and not just a job, she said.
Two life insurance policies issued to San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook are at the center of a suit filed this week by the federal government.In a complaint seeking the seizure of the $275,000 in benefits, the government alleges the proceeds of the policies are derived from a terrorist act and should not be paid to Farooks family.Terrorists must not be permitted to provide for their designated beneficiaries through their crimes, US Attorney Eileen Decker said in a statement.My office intends to explore every legal option available to us to ensure these funds are made available to the victims of this horrific crime. We will continue to use every tool available to seek justice on behalf of the victims of the San Bernardino terrorist attacks.Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were responsible for the deaths of 14 people and the injuries of 22 others when they opened fire at a holiday party December 2.Authorities say the pair had been planning the attack since 2011, along with a friend, Enrique Marquez Jr. Marquez was indicted in December on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, lying about rifle purchases, marriage fraud and lying on a visa application. He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial next year.During the planning, prosecutors say Farook took out a $25,000 life insurance policy in 2012 and a second one for $250,000 in 2013. For both policies, Farook listed his mother as the beneficiary.Authorities argue that due to the timing, Farook knew that payout  which would benefit his mother, who had been in an abusive marriage  was imminent.Under federal law, prosecutors can seize any assets that are derived from a crime of terrorism against the United States, its citizens or residents, or their property. In order to seize the money, a federal judge must approve the governments application.
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'The Nice Guys': The Case of the Dueling Detectives

First of all, you should know that most of the people who meet their untimely and often gruesome demise in director Shane Black's wacky combination of comedy and murder are bad.



Still, it takes a little getting used to the seesaw temperament in this throwback buddy movie dialed up to today's cynicism. But thanks to Black's smart tempo and the fine chemistry Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling conjure as nuttily contrasting private eyes, it works.



Debating if it's OK to laugh as the body count rises, you ultimately decide in favor of mirth. Set in that "L.A. Confidential" (1997), "Chinatown" (1974) kind of West Coast, film noir nihilism, things in "The Nice Guys" get suspicious when porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) kicks off the succession of curious deaths. It looks like an accident, maybe a suicide, but we're not so sure, and before long, detectives Holland March and Jackson Healy, who just so happen to be working on somewhat related cases, are wont to share our inclination.



It'll take a while to get to the nub of why those who know too much are being rubbed out ... but that's just the right amount of time for the stylistically disparate gumshoes to sing a chorus or two of "Getting to Know You." Naturally, they banter, break a few of each other's bones, criticize lifestyles and almost get killed themselves before realizing that a belligerent symbiosis might benefit them both. An "Odd Couple" with guns, brass knuckles and a violence filled past they're not especially proud of, their partnership leads to discovery, personal and professional.



Superb timing on the part of both actors, smartly melded with time-honored cues from the genre their performances astutely explore, quickly ingratiates them to us. Gosling's March is the educated one, a bit polished, a single parent and living with the memory of a tragedy that, by its very nature, can never be fully mitigated. Crowe's Healy, on the other hand, is the rough and tumble sort, proud of his meat-and- potatoes approach and flaunting a rough around the edges demeanor to advertise it. Beneath the gruff is an injustice-hating Boy Scout.



The treachery-filled plot, as it unravels and thickens, reminds me of the time I was motoring across New Jersey's Pulaski Skyway, high above the smokestack spew of innumerable factories scrunched in together for as far as the tearing eye could see. On a date and ever the quippish know-it- all, I turned to the pretty co-ed at my right and scornfully uttered, "Military Industrial Complex!" To which she innocently asked, "Is it?" Hey, it was the 1960s.



I'm not sure how I responded. But as it turned out, the Flower Child generation wasn't mistaken.


The new roundabout at Friend and Columbia streets will get its final paving on Thursday. Be prepared for detours. Police Chief Richard Tarsa updates the Selectmen on paving at the roundabout and a planned field day for Plunkett pupils. PreviousNext

Adams Roundabout to Close Thursday Night; Detours Planned

ADAMS, Mass.  Police Chief Richard Tarsa said people should expect detours near the new roundabout on Route 8 on Thursday night to accommodate final paving.

Tarsa spoke at the Selectmen's meeting on Wednesday to remind residents that the roundabout will be completely blocked off Thursday night, and that paving will begin at 7 p.m. and should be finished up around 5 a.m.

"In order to do this in an efficient and proper manner, the best way to do this is to isolate that entire intersection area by blocking it off completely," the chief said. "What we have is a pretty good game plan where traffic will be rerouted."

Tarsa said there will be an abundance of signage and officers placed around the surrounding area to guide vehicles.

Southbound traffic will be rerouted to Lime Street and Renfrew Street and the industrial park will be blocked off to through-traffic.

An officer will be located at the intersection of Burt and Columbia streets to block and reroute all northbound traffic.

He said Friend Street will be closed and will only be open to local residents.

There will be no parking on the northern side of Burt Street so traffic can move more smoothly through the detour.

An officer will also be placed near Columbia and Cook Street to reroute traffic down Cook Street, Crotteau Street, and Sparrow Street to North Summer Street.

A cruiser will be placed at Columbia and Hoosac streets to reroute any and all tractor-trailer traffic down Hoosac Street and then northbound traffic onto North Summer Street.

Tarsa said it would not be beneficial to operate with one-lane traffic and it will be better to complete all the paving in one night.

"This way here you are getting a better product ... it should hold up a lot longer over the years," he said. "If you did one-lane traffic, with the configuration with the islands it would be very difficult if it at all possible for northbound trailer trucks to use the southbound side of the rotary."

Tarsa said businesses have been informed and are in full agreement. He said they want to just get it over with.

"By isolating this we can do it in a quicker fashion in one-night versus two nights," he said. "It is an inconvenience for a lot of people, but to do this safely, this is the only way to do it.

Selectman Jeffrey Snoonian asked if there is a contingency plan if any trouble arises and it cant be done in one night.

Tarsa said one is not needed.

"The contingency plan is to finish it all in one night," he said. "That is the plan, and if they did it half and half it would take two days and it would cut into the profits of businesses."

Selectman Arthur "Skip" Harrington said the plan looked solid.

"It think it is a great plan and it is clear that you have thought about it," Harrington said. "I hope everyone pays attention to the rules and follows the directions. People in town are going to know how to get around."

Tarsa added that the Adams Police will host a field day for C.T. Plunkett pupils on June 18 from 10 to 3 at Wacky World.

"There are going to be games, prizes, lunch will be supplied, and bikes are going to be raffled off to several different age groups," he said. "The response from the community has been great with donations to help kick this off."

He said the department used to hold events like this and it is an attempt to familiarize kids with police officers.

"It does put us in a different perspective in many different levels, and I encourage the officers to go into the school while they are working or stop at the ballfield and interact with people," he said. "Its community policing 101 ... you want to see an officer out in the community, not just sitting in the car or driving around."
We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector

We work towards an equitable,

gender-just, self-reliant and

sustainable fisheries,

particularly in the small-scale,

artisanal sector
Opinion / Columnist

They are "stupid", "a complete joke", "mediocre", "dull and dumb", "blind and poor souls" and "crazy morons".These are some of the scathing terms and expressions used by oppositions officials and supporters to describe the hundreds of thousands who attended the ruling party's Youth League-organised Million-Man March in Harare recently.There were also outrageous statements used such as "you should have said one million fools march", "they are dumb to attend that stupid march", "they were frogmarched and bussed to the march" and "no sane person would attend such a march".There were some more disparaging remarks coming from opposition circles to describe those who came to Harare for the march.There were explicit attacks on the physical characteristics and appearance of some of those who attended, with such assertions as, "emaciated looks of the stupid marchers" and "poor skin pigmentation of crazy morons" being thrown about.Zimbabwean music ace Oliver Mtukudzi was not spared for performing at the occasion and there was outrage from all ranks of the opposition.The MDC-T spokesperson went on to boldly state, "I reiterate that Tuku has sold his soul for a few pieces of silver. Period!"The opposition was unforgiving of those who attended that march and the attacks came flying from all angles.There were allegations and counter-allegations of those who attended as "having no brains" and having been forced in their many thousands to attend.Some of the statements directed at those who attended the march are too graphic and despicable to repeat. If those are the depth the opposition will sink, then surely the ruling party will govern for the next millennium.The reactions from opposition officials and some of their members leave a sour taste and this points to an urgent need of a complete regeneration before they can attain the required standards required to govern.Those people who attended the march are adults who have the ability to think independently and make very independent decisions like all of us. Thus, for the opposition ranks to label them "morons, stupid and dumb" for thinking for themselves and making their own decisions to attend that march is a blitz on the freedoms that the opposition repeatedly claim to champion.The undue slander exposes the opposition in Zimbabwe as hypocrites and the contempt they have for the poor and grassroots of Zimbabwe.Those people who were being described as "mediocre, foolish, silly" and many other epithets too colourful to print, are the same people who vote.Voters come in all manner of shades, shapes and physical appearances. The ridiculing remarks from the opposition were uncalled for and unnecessary. This is an opposition that needs to start looking inwards to begin to understand their endless shortfalls when it comes to elections.This contemptuous offensive against ordinary Zimbabweans clearly exposes an opposition that separates itself from the poor and to very different standards from them. Those people who were gathered in Harare are ordinary citizens who made a conscious decision to attend a march and the "elitist" opposition got into a grisly sweat and started hurling insults to discredit them.Those jibes thrown at the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, who chose to attend the march exposes the opposition as seriously lacking in strategy to counter the dominance of the ruling party in Zimbabwe's politics.The obsessions of the opposition when cornered focuses on ordinary Zimbabweans who have minds of their own to think independently. These are ordinary people who came to the sober conclusion that they would travel many kilometres to attend a march organised by a party of their choice.They are free to do that in the same vein opposition supporters are free to do the same without attracting such vile depiction. The opposition responded to the ruling party's Million-Man march by holding their own rally in Bulawayo and no insults came flying their way. They were accorded respect to exercise their right to march without unjustified insults.The opposition in Zimbabwe lacks grassroots appeal because of their elitist ideals and foundations. They do not understand the grassroots and never will. Those supposedly "emaciated and poor-looking people" are ordinary Zimbabweans who make up a big chunk of the electorate.I doubt very much that they will take it lightly being referred to in those despicable terms for simply exercising their right to choose which march to attend. The opposition recently had a similar march, although not as well attended, and their supporters did not have expletives aimed at them.The Zimbabwe opposition "elites" have this "them" and "us" mentality when it comes to the grassroots. This easily explains why they have failed dismally to make inroads in all grassroots constituencies. They are contented to scratch the surface of the Zimbabwe electoral playing field in the urban constituencies and then cry foul when the ruling party wins with a landslide.The "poor and emaciated" people whom the opposition were busy mocking in fact look up to politicians, and that is politicians who do not look down on them.The reasons why the ruling party wins the hearts of these "poor and emaciated" people is due to the respect ZANU-PF extends to them. These are ordinary Zimbabweans who face daily challenges and to call them all types of names is disrespect of the highest order.The condescending and dismissive undertones and attitude from the opposition ranks only repels voters and hence their perennial second fiddle status.The degrading remarks by the opposition suggest the social distance that exists between the "elitist" Zimbabwe opposition and the grassroots.That is the ground that opposition will always struggle to gain on the ruling party, which inhales and exhales the grassroots.The opposition pays scant attention to the same grassroots they despise so much and then cry foul when these "emaciated and poor people" vote for the ruling party in large numbers.The Zimbabwe opposition is paralysed by its politics of power for the sake of power and they pay very little attention to those people who really matter.Attention is being solely paid to the urban voters whilst neglecting and looking down upon the grassroots. The snobbish attitude exhibited by those in the opposition extends to dismissing the inconvenient truths about them.The response from the ordinary Zimbabweans to these unwarranted attacks is a vote for a party that accords them the respect they deserve.Those people being demonised for attending the march are like any other citizen and they should be accorded the respect befitting other citizens.The Zimbabwe Constitution is very clear on freedoms and these "poor and emaciated" people exercised one of those freedoms when they gathered in Harare.bernardbwoni.blogspot.com
Opinion / Columnist

The advent of social media has both been a curse and a blessing. We are able to communicate for less on such platforms as Facebooks, Twitter, Whatsapp, Skype, Linkedin etc and we applaud the technological revolution that has graced our time. But as the saying goes " with every good thing there is a bad side" and we seem to be living this reality as Zimbabweans cannot longer distinguish fact from fiction from all the information overload that has characterized our newly discovered invention.Many falsehoods have been peddled and the recent being allegations that the son of the Finance Minister, Patrick Chinamasa was apprehended trying to smuggle US$7 million using the Beitbridge border post into South Africa. These allegations have since been dismissed as false but the damage to one's reputation is irreparable. I wonder if the concocters of such defamations ever weigh the impact of their malice to individuals or the nation at large. One cannot but wonder if this is the regime change proponents who are try to whip people's emotions to their own ends. Considering people are spending hours on bank queues what better way than to have them turn on their government for being insensitive. If the aim for these peddlers is not political then we have lost our sense of Ubuntu as Zimbabweans.People are hiding behind the faceless social media platforms to spew unprintable words all in the name of freedom of speech. As much as this is enshrined in our constitution, if this right infringe on national security then that right is not observed. Many have stayed away from social media because of the beastly nature that people attack each other which is devoid of human emotions. Humanity is not something that one sheds of when in different situations, but it seems Zimbabweans have reached that point. We ignore the good manners we were taught by our parents on social media to our detriment.Video making has also become popular on social media and has made some famous overnight basking in their two minutes of fame. This has become big business, for pastors like Evan Mawarire to draw in congregants who will make him rich overnight and for businessman like the Kadoma-based Edson Matombo, this has become a marketing gimmick to flagging business fortunes. Whilst for the likes of Acie Lumumba it is a way to cover up their own corruption tendencies which have no home in Zanu PF. Some analysts are arguing that the proliferation of individuals taking on government on social media is symptomatic of a failed opposition. I tend to agree with this view as the opposition in Zimbabwe is in disarray, with recent reports that the newly formed ZimPF is already mired in chaos before even making its first steps. The various forms of the MDCs do not also inspire confidence as fights for positions have taken precedence to any ideological standing than is an alternative to the ruling Zanu PF rule. The opposition has failed dismally.But whatever our grievances, we really need to find ourselves and what we stand for as Zimbabweans. Disrespect and contempt of our leaders who are working flat out to solve the ailing economy which is under siege by regime change proponents does not bring an iota of solutions. The ruling Zanu PF government might have erred in some issues but they still have the mandate to rule until 2018 and no amount of noises is going to change that fact. Instead of bickering and competing for who has the most foul mouth on social media, why don't we offer constructive criticism which l am sure the government is not averse to. We are Zimbabweans lets solve our problems in an African way, the Ubuntu way.
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IMF Survey : Tunisia Gets $2.9 billion IMF Loan to Strengthen Job Creation and Economic Growth

Tunisia faces weak economic activity, low employment, high external imbalances

IMF loan to support the governments economic vision of more inclusive growth

Program includes reforms to tackle high unemployment, strengthen governance

The IMF has approved a four-year, $2.9 billion loan for Tunisia to support the authorities economic agenda aimed at promoting more inclusive growth and job creation, while protecting the most vulnerable households.

Tunisias Program

The program builds on the previous arrangement, which supported Tunisia in the immediate aftermath of the Arab Spring.

Speaking to IMF Survey, IMF Mission Chief for Tunisia Amine Mati explains how the countrys economic program aims to tackle remaining challenges and support the authorities new economic reform plan.

IMF Survey: What has Tunisia achieved under the first program, and why does the country need additional assistance from the IMF?

Mati: The first program, the Stand-By Arrangement, helped Tunisia preserve macroeconomic stability during a very difficult timeprolonged political transition, increased social tensions including strikes and work stoppages, and security tensions arising from conflicts with Salafists and the tragic terror attacks of 2015 that devastated the tourism industry. Amid this challenging landscape, the authorities were able to implement an ambitious reform agenda aimed at supporting private sector development, tackling high unemployment, and reducing regional disparities.

Despite significant progress, Tunisia is still facing many economic challengesspending composition has worsened, external imbalances are high, the dinar remains overvalued, banking fragilities remain, and reforms to strengthen the business climate have been slow. That is why the authorities requested a follow-on four-year program, the Extended Fund Facility, to support their economic vision of modernizing the countrys development model and reducing existing vulnerabilities.

This longer-term program is designed to target the critical long-standing structural weaknesses of Tunisia's economythe ones that have resulted in slow growth and high external balances. Therefore, the main focus of this program is to consolidate the progress that has already been made on macroeconomic stability and to address remaining structural obstacles to more inclusive growth and job creation.

IMF Survey: Can you describe how the IMFs new program for Tunisia plans to support the authorities five-year economic vision?

Mati: The authorities vision rests on five-pillars, of which the main driver is private sector development. To contribute to the authorities economic reform agenda, the new program with the IMF focuses on the following priorities:

 A gradual reduction of the overall fiscal deficit to stabilize public debt at about 50 percent of GDP

 Better composition of public spending, as wage containment would allow for a doubling of priority public investment that supports growth and poverty reduction

 Greater exchange rate flexibility to improve Tunisias external competitiveness and rebuild foreign reserves

 Improving financial sector intermediation, including through continued restructuring of public banks

 Structural reforms, including reforms to public institutions and state-owned companies, reducing energy subsidies, a more progressive and equity-friendly tax system, strengthening governance, and improving the business climate

All these reforms will take time to bear fruit, but over time they will help increase growth to 5 percent.

IMF Survey: What are some of the IMFs recommendations to help Tunisia create more jobs given the high overall unemployment rate of 15 percent, and youth unemployment of 35 percent?

Mati: Both macroeconomic policies and structural reforms that I mentioned above, need to be pursued vigorously for the private sector to invest and create jobs. At this time in Tunisia, restoring investors confidenceweakened by political uncertainties and security challengesis key. Just as important, however, is changing the long-standing development modelwhich is based on pervasive state intervention that led to an economy dependent on low-value added exports, excessive regulation, and limited competitionrequires moving quickly with the new investment code and implementing the new competition law.

The country can also implement private-public partnerships that attract private capital for infrastructure projects. All these improvements in the business climate, helped by further streamlining of existing regulations, will encourage private sector development and signal to local and global investors that Tunisia is open for business. Reforming the labor market will also be necessary, although that is likely to take time to build more consensus. In the meantime, the authorities have launched active labor market programs (e.g. public works, microfinance) and vocational training programs that can help lessen unemployment among college graduates.

IMF Survey: Part of the new reform agenda seeks to increase employment, especially in the non-coastal regions. How can civil service reform help in this respect?

Mati: First, let me say that reforming the civil service is the number one priority listed by all the key stakeholders we talked to, and not surprisingly is at the top of the authorities list in their economic vision. All stakeholders recognize both weaknesses in the quality of public services and the unsustainability of the current wage bill path, which represent 65 percent of tax revenue, 14 percent of GDP, and 45 percent of total spending.

The reformwhich aims at increasing public sector efficiencies and quality of serviceswill look at several aspects, including status for high-level civil servants, revision of the pay structure, better linking of pay with performance, and redeployments to the underserved interior regions. It will also help contain the wage bill by reducing it to 12 percent of GDP by 2020, thereby creating the necessary fiscal space to double public investment.

Civil service reform is a necessary step to create growth but can only be successful if the reform achieves broad-based consensus. This in turn requires reforms in other important areas. For example, civil service reform should go hand in hand with tax reform that improves fairness by widening the base and increasing the purchasing power for the lowest income taxpayer (e.g., by raising the income tax threshold). As recognized by the authorities, reform implementation is essential as only the private sector can create sustainable jobs not the public sector.

IMF Survey: Is enough being done to address corruption and strengthen good governance?

Mati: Strengthening governance is a priority for the government. Improving anticorruption and good governance provisions are also enshrined in the Tunisian constitution that was adopted last year. Now, the challenge is implementation and how to move forward. To address these concerns, the authorities are drafting a law to set an independent high-level constitutional body to fight corruption.

New legislation by the end of the year will also protect whistleblowers, address conflicts of interest in the public sector, and require financial disclosure of net worth by senior government officials. Work to improve public financial management and increase publication of government documents will help promote transparency and strengthen governance. A new ministry of civil service affairs and good governance, established three months ago, will also help implement this reform. The IMF program will support the authorities in this area, including by helping the authorities strengthen their anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism framework.

IMF Survey: What has the IMF done to engage non-governmental stakeholders to ensure buy-in and support for the follow-on program?

Mati: We engage with a variety of stakeholders to obtain different perspectives that we can bring to our discussions with the authorities. We meet with a lot of non-governmental organizations that are focused on a variety of social issues. We also meet with think tanks and trade and business unions on a regular basis. These series of discussions are an evolutionary process that helps us listen to concerns of all stakeholders, improve our understanding of the countrys key issues, and enhance our discussions on government policies.

The dialogue with all stakeholders occurs during our periodic visits in-country, and also through a regular dialogue with the IMF resident representative in Tunis.
Opinion / Columnist

"An economy that continually imports and fail to export will die".

This statement proffered by a Zimbabwean economist Kipson Gundani, is all but too true. The current Zimbabwe economic malaise can be attributable to this disproportion among other things. As early as 2005, the former Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono decried the adverse impact imports were having on the country and came up with a conceptual framework on the "Buy Zimbabwe Campaign" with the aim of creating "a platform for economic turnaround based on the realignment of consumption patterns with the economy's productive capacities". This was after the realisation that "contemporary evidence shows that no meaningful industrialisation strategy can occur without promoting local products".Some 10 years later after the mooting of this noble idea by the central bank and the subsequent launch of the "Buy Zimbabwe campaign" in 2011, we are still going around in circles resultantly with the trade deficit continuing to widen with recent 2015 statistics standing at $3 billion dollars where trade figures showed that exports amounted to $2,5bn against $5,5bn imports. We cannot continue with business as usual mentality as the country's over-reliance on imports has been identified as one of the contributors of the current liquidity crunch. Industrialists and economists have always advised that we need to keep money inside the country by all means possible to avert the liquidity crisis and massive company closures in the absence of Foreign Direct Investment to boost industry. In Shona we have a saying "wakarumwa nechekuchera" a situation which aptly describe our situation. We cannot relax as a heavily importing country and expect a change in our fortunes.Government is doing all in its power to address the anomaly among other things the proposed domestic procurement index which will require retailers to cut imports and increase local product purchases. This in itself is not enough but it's a start. Zimbabwe have been hailed for coming up with excellent policies which have failed on implementation. Maybe we need to really examine our modus operandi as a country if we are ever going to move forward. This is after the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mike Bimha said "I do not think we are doing enough as Government. A lot of directives and policy measures have been put in place, but for various reasons, this has not been followed through". The minister's honest is recommended but the fact still remains something got to give. We could start with the proposed procurement legislation which the minister even admitted does not exist, "Right now, we do not have a single and strong legislation for local procurement, though we have reference in some pieces of legislation to address this issue." The need for legislation can never been over-emphasised. South Africa who have managed to promote their local products by their "Proudly South African campaign" which have a 75 percent local procurement accord which explains their success. The United States of America enacted the Buy America Act of 1933 to certify that the government preferred procurement of local products. We have both regional and global example of success were the governments took the initiative to promote local products, a move which has seen these countries change their economic fortunes. For example in 1997 Thailand was faced with an economic crisis which encouraged the government to introduce the Buy Thailand campaign as part of a seven-step program to assist in curbing unemployment and boost the local economy.Reports also show that government is doing everything possible to revive the economy amongst them efforts to resuscitate industry which includes Cotton Pricing Model, Cotton to Clothing Value Chain, Industrial Development Fund, Leather and Leather Product Strategy, and National Competitiveness Bill among others. Of major concern like what the minister said we don't follow through on matters. Right now we are talking of how the clothing industry has died because of "mabhero" or second hand clothes, the government banned these as of September 1, 2015, but nothing has been done to effectively deal with the problem. The second hand clothes market is still thriving with impunity. As much as we have sympathy with those whose livelihoods depend on "mabhero", the effects this has had on the economy is inestimable. Is it not time to bite the bullet and enforce the ban if we have any hope of reviving our clothing industry.Commendation should be given to the Buy Zimbabwe which was launched in 2011 with the sole objective of raising awareness and the profile of home-grown goods and services. It also seeks to lobby Government to enact laws and policies that support local producers and connecting local producers to retailers, consumers and other relevant stakeholders. Buy Zimbabwe efforts through its annual Buy Zimbabwe Awards should be applauded. The Buy Zimbabwe Awards honours outstanding local companies and individuals that have demonstrated resilience and commitment in job creation and reducing the import bill. Resources should be availed to Buy Zimbabwe as their efforts so far has assisted in government in promoting local products.It is very saddening to note that some Zimbabweans continue to import non-essentials or finished products whilst shunning local products which to writer's personal opinion are below standards in comparison to Zimbabwean products. The benefits that can be accrued to consuming Zimbabwean products are immeasurable. Any laws that promote locally produced products will increase industrial capacity utilisation which in 2015 had dropped to 34,3% from 36,5% in 2014. One of the reasons identified was low local demand, an anomaly that can addressed by introducing the procurement accord and ensuring it is adhered to. The high demand for local products, will also translate in high employment levels as consumption of locally produced commodities creates demand for local labour resources and immensely contribute towards the reduction of the unemployment rate which currently stand at astronomically levels. Many have heard how Zimbabweans bemoan of "zhing-zhong" a term used to refer to low quality products which have flooded our markets over the years. Locally produced products which are certified by Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) will never short-change consumers on quality as had been done by some of the imports in the country.As the country leans to towards local products, it is also pertinent that government and the financial sector continue to resuscitate ailing companies through the Distressed and Marginalised Areas Fund (Dimaf). Dimaf was launched in 2011 as a $40 million fund to re-capacitate ailing companies in the country's second largest city Bulawayo and other cities. As at March 2016, a sum of $29,5 million is alleged to have been disbursed from the fund benefiting approximately 51 companies. Recently, Turnall Holdings secured a $1million from Dimaf to improve its working capital levels. This is the kind of news we yearn for as a nation and not to hear companies folding and workers losing their livelihoods.As much as Zimbabwe's economy is driven by market forces, some of our challenges have been linked to "too open economy". We need to protect our own and the only way we can achieve that is to reduce the import bill and increase our exports. This is achievable if we protect our industries and consume our products. Local is lekker.
Imperial Valley News Center

Governor Brown Convenes Inaugural Subnational Clean Energy Ministerial in San Francisco

San Francisco, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today convened leaders from states, cities and provinces from around the world at the inaugural Subnational Clean Energy Ministerial (SubCEM) in San Francisco to highlight regional clean energy and climate action and collaboration. At the event Governor Brown also joined fellow Pacific Coast Collaborative members, Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, British Columbia Environment Minister Mary Polak and officials from major West Coast cities to announce new efforts to reduce emissions and combat climate change and welcomed seven new signatories  including the first state from India  to the Under 2 MOU climate agreement.

This is important that youre here  thats big  but the threat and the task, the complexity, the cost and the political resistance is formidable. So this is not for the faint of heart, this business of climate change is not for wimps, said Governor Brown. We have to renew our commitment, we have to deepen our understanding, we have to intensify our effort.

Governor Brown delivers keynote remarks at the inaugural SubCEM.

Governor Brown signs Pacific Coast Collaborative agreements with Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.

The two Pacific Coast Collaborative agreements signed today include:

The Pacific Coast Climate Leadership Action Plan: An agreement between Pacific Coast Collaborative members California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, which reaffirms the key climate and clean energy commitments made in 2013 and extends regional collaboration in new ways, including: establishing a consistent approach for monitoring and reporting on emissions of short-lived climate pollutants such as methane and black carbon, with the aim of establishing reduction targets by 2020; promoting integration of electricity grids in Western states and increasing opportunities for cross-national energy sharing; increasing climate resilience through collaboration on drought preparedness, wildfire risk mitigation and forest restoration; and accelerating the transition to zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) through support for a comprehensive Pacific Coast charging network and bulk vehicle purchasing programs.

The Pacific North America Climate Leadership Agreement: A pact between Pacific Coast Collaborative members California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, as well as the City of Vancouver, British Columbia and U.S. cities Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle and Portland in which the jurisdictions commit to achieve an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 through collaboration in several areas. These include strategies to enhance the regional ZEV market; implementation of benchmarking and disclosure programs for energy use by large buildings; aiming for energy data reporting from at least 75 percent of eligible large building square footage; and reducing carbon emissions from food waste through organic waste prevention and recovery initiatives such as composting and food redistribution.

Additionally, as part of the days events, Governor Brown welcomed seven jurisdictions  Telangana, India; Veneto, Italy; Laikipia County, Kenya; City of Budapest, Hungary; City of Santiago, Chile; City of Sacramento, USA; and the City of Portland, USA  as new signatories to the Under 2 MOU climate agreement, the global pact among cities, states and countries to limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius. A total of 135 jurisdictions representing 32 countries and six continents have now signed or endorsed the Under 2 MOU. Together, they represent more than 783 million people and $21 trillion in GDP, equivalent to more than a quarter of the global economy. Signatories commit to either reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80 to 95 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 or achieving a per capita annual emission target of less than 2 metric tons by 2050.

Earlier in the day, Governor Brown gave keynote remarks and participated in a panel on subnational leadership in renewable energy with Governors Inslee and Brown and Environment Minister Polak to discuss the rapid scaling and expansion of renewable energy worldwide.

Tomorrow, Governor Brown will give remarks at the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7), an annual meeting of national energy ministers and other high-level delegates from 23 member countries and the European Commission. The SubCEM and CEM7 events represent an opportunity to discuss how states, provinces, cities and countries will follow through on the commitments made at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, where Governor Brown and U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz first announced that California would host the CEM7.

Californias Leadership on Climate Change

While California emits around 1 percent of the world's greenhouse gases, the state is playing a leading role in broadening collaboration among subnational leaders.



In the past year, the Governor has traveled to the United Nations headquarters in New York, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, the Vatican in Italy and the Climate Summit of the Americas in Toronto, Canada to call on other leaders to join California in the fight against climate change.



Governor Brown also joined an unprecedented alliance of heads of state, city and state leaders  convened by the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund  to urge countries and companies around the globe to put a price on carbon.



These efforts build on a number of other international climate change agreements with leaders from the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Mexico, China, Japan, Israel, Peru and Chile and Governor Brown's efforts to convene hundreds of world-renowned researchers and scientists around a groundbreaking call to action  called the consensus statement  which translates key scientific climate findings from disparate fields into one unified document.



Last October, Governor Brown signed landmark legislation  SB 350  to double the rate of energy efficiency savings in California buildings and generate half of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Governor Brown also committed to reduce today's petroleum use in cars and trucks by up to 50 percent within the next 15 years; make heating fuels cleaner; reduce the release of methane, black carbon and other potent pollutants across industries; and manage farm and rangelands, forests and wetlands so they can store carbon.



Additionally, the Governor issued an executive order last year to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030  the most ambitious target in North America and consistent with California's existing commitment to reduce emissions 80 percent under 1990 levels by 2050.



The impacts of climate change are already being felt in California and will disproportionately impact the state's most vulnerable populations.

Photo Credit: Joe McHugh, California Highway Patrol.
Governor Brown Announces Appointments

Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments:

Amy Miller, 42, of Folsom, has been appointed associate director of female offender programs and services at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, where she has served as associate director of reception center institutions since 2014. Miller served in several positions at California State Prison, Centinela from 2010 to 2014, including warden, chief deputy warden and associate warden and was a correctional officer there from 1999 to 2000. She served in several positions at Calipatria State Prison from 2000 to 2010, including facility captain, lieutenant and sergeant and was a correctional officer there from 1996 to 1999. Miller was a captain at the California Institution for Women from 2006 to 2007. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $148,188. Miller is a Democrat.



Kimberley Johnson, 38, of Sacramento, has been appointed to the State Interagency Coordinating Council on Early Intervention. Johnson has served as a branch chief of child care and refugee programs at the California Department of Social Services since 2015. She was a public policy director at the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network from 2012 to 2015 and a program manager at the City College of San Francisco, California Early Childhood Mentor Program from 2009 to 2012. Johnson was a director of programs and training at Parent Services Project Inc. from 2007 to 2010 and a director of child care and development programs at the Childrens Network of Solano County from 1999 to 2007. She is a public policy member at Child Care Aware of America. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Johnson is a Democrat.



Charles Berdan, 60, of Sacramento, has been reappointed to the State 9-1-1 Advisory Board, where he has served since 2013. Berdan has been a consultant at Smokeater Consulting since 2014. He was dispatch manager at the Alameda County Regional Emergency Communications Center from 2002 to 2013 and emergency communications manager at Pacific Bell SBC from 2000 to 2002. Berdan held several positions at the Sacramento Regional Fire EMS Communication Center from 1979 to 2000, including dispatcher, shift supervisor, training officer and deputy director. He was a firefighter and dispatcher at the Citrus Heights Fire Department from 1973 to 1979. This position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Berdan is a Democrat.
U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Travel to San Francisco

San Francisco, California - U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change Dr. Jonathan Pershing will travel June 1  June 3 to San Francisco, California to participate in a series of events including the 7th Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM7), the inaugural Mission Innovation Ministerial and the Public-Private Action Summit.

CEM7 will convene energy ministers and other high-level delegates from 23 CEM member countries and the European Commission to collaborate on solutions that advance clean energy innovation and adoption.

Dr. Pershing will also participate in the first meeting of ministers representing the 20 founding countries of Mission Innovation, an initiative launched at COP21. This effort aims to accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation by doubling clean energy research and development budgets over five years, to address global climate change, provide affordable clean energy to consumers and create additional commercial opportunities in clean energy.

The meeting will also bring together members of the Bill Gates-led parallel initiative: the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, a collection of more than 28 significant private capital investors from ten countries, committed to invest extraordinary levels of private capital in clean energy, focusing on early-stage innovations.

Special Envoy Pershing will conduct meetings with private-sector and bilateral counterparts, and participate in the Public-Private Action Summit on June 2nd.
Rear Admiral Antonio Takes Helm of PEO Aircraft Carriers

Washington, DC - Rear Admiral Brian Antonio relieved Vice Adm. (sel) Tom Moore as program executive officer for the Aircraft Carrier (CV) program during a change of office ceremony June 1 at the Washington Navy Yard.

Antonio reports to Program Executive Office (PEO) CV after most recently serving as the program executive officer for PEO Littoral Combat Ship.



During his 33-year career as an engineering duty officer Antonio's tours have included numerous ship maintenance, modernization, and acquisition assignments in the field, fleet commands and with headquarters staffs, including at the Pentagon.



He has served as the executive assistant and naval aide to the assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition. Antonio returns to PEO CV after having served as the major program manager for Future Aircraft Carriers from 2007 - 2011. This assignment spanned from lead ship contract award and the start of the future USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) full scale production, to initial steel cutting for the second ship of the class, the future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79).



Moore departs PEO CV as its longest tenured program executive officer. During this time, Moore successfully drove affordability and cost control across the portfolio. As an example, the Navy's newest aircraft carrier, CVN 78, will deliver to the fleet meeting a congressional cost cap. Also under his leadership, the construction contract for the second ship in the Ford Class, CVN 79, was negotiated at 18 percent fewer production man-hours than CVN 78.



Moore, who led PEO Aircraft Carriers since August 2011, will report to Naval Sea Systems Command later this month as its new commander.



PEO CV is responsible for the new construction, maintenance and modernization of the Nation's aircraft carriers and consistently strives to fulfill its mission of delivering aircraft carriers on time, ready for tasking, and at an affordable cost.
UK Train Passenger Praised for Refusing to Give Up Her First Class Seat to Old Woman
Opinion / Columnist

ZAPU,the Zimbabwe African People's Union is stunned by the apparent lack of discipline and the disrespect in the ruling party as evidenced by the utterances of Matabeleland South Provincial Minister who clearly disrespected the decision of Vice President Mphoko recently.Speaking at the funeral of the late Chief Masuku Minister A Ncube lambasted the farm owner Mr. Peter Cunningham and the entire community of Matopo claiming that the people were submitting themselves to slavery by the farmer. Apparently Cunningham's farm houses a number of projects that are run by and benefit massively the community. According to Ncube these communities should have allowed Mr. Mashingaidze to get the farm instead of refusing that this one individual takes the whole farm to himself and condemn them to worse poverty and more painful misery. Minister Ncube is reported to have venomously attacked the entire community prompting Chief Nyangazonke to stand with the defenceless population and the farmer.What is really funny about the Minister's attack is that Vice President Mphoko visited the area during the days of the debate about the farm. He instructed that Mr. Mashingaidze should be given another farm so that the community based projects on the farm beneficial to the people are allowed to continue. The furious Minister waited for the death of one traditional leader who stood firm with the people at the time to unleash the horrific attack. He shamelessly challenged his superior during bereavement. Could this be the result of factionalism in the now torn-between political party or this Minister is just too excited to a point where he disrespected his senior in public? Or is it, as it is typical of Zanupf the Minister had nothing to say but found insulting the whole community the only thing to say and in the process, he openly disregarded the Vice President of his Government?The people of Matopo do not really care about the indiscipline or the factionalism in that party as it is obvious that any party that cherishes dictatorship does not care about respecting its seniors especially in public. What is of concern is this rejection of the Vice President's resolve of the issue. Will we then see a restart to push out Cunningham and the community so that one individual that Ncube wants benefits from the infrastructure? Are the dreams of those defenceless Zimbabweans going to be shattered once again as Minister Ncube defies the second man in command in the whole country just for the pleasure of Mr. Mashingaidze?The Minister's utterance exposes once more Zanu PF's philosophy of individualism which is a manifestation of the evil politics of patronage. To this man there is probably only one person who must have a final say. If any leader solves a problem based on the situation on the ground as long as the individual does not benefit, then this must be denounced even at a funeral. This is evidence once more that only devolution of power is the way. Devolution will insist that everyone at every level has a right to be involved in participating in the decision-making process that affects their lives. Collective leadership is the only one that is progressive and not worshipping an individual.Minister Ncube must know however that if his intention was to just intimidate the community through insults as usual, the people no longer fear these political or psychological tantrums thrown at them willy-nilly by the ZanuPF provincial leadership that now publicly goes against its own senior leadership. Zapu is always with the victims of repression hence together with them insults from disrespectful Ministers will be resisted. We salute the traditional leadership whose concern is the plight of the impoverished citizens.------Mkhululi Zulu: Department of Publicity and Information
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There is little in the way of false modesty from Isabelle Huppert. Its the day after the screening of Elle at the Cannes Film Festival and the Paul Verhoeven thriller has received rave reviews. Its a sensational film adaptation of the novel Oh by Philippe Djian and sees Huppert plays a rape victim who turns the tables on her rapist. The actress is in nearly every scene of the movie and comments, Thats why I was never bored watching it last night.

Its hard to argue with the sentiment, because anyone who has seen many of her 100-plus roles, since her debut in 1971, will attest that shes usually beguiling.

The magic of Huppert is that she seems to do so much by doing so little. Verhoeven raved, Shes the best actress Ive worked with. I just followed her instinct and let her do what she wanted.

At the age of 63, the Paris-born star is having a vintage year. So its our luck that she seems to be everywhere over the next month. There is a cinematic retrospective of her work taking place in London at the Cine Lumiere and the Barbican with accompanying screen talks by the actress, and in June the Barbican Theatre is putting on Phaedra(s), Hupperts latest theatrical performance.

It will be the first time in two decades that Huppert has graced the London stage. The play, directed by Polish auteur Krzysztof Warlikowski, has just had a two-month run in Paris; it is performed in French, so one can expect it to be a spectacle from the first night. Of course, Huppert thinks shell be great.

I could do it in English, but that is not the agenda, she chimes about the radical reconstruction of the Greek myth. Its not exactly Phaedra, its several different Phaedras, including Sarah Kanes Phaedres Love and there are excerpts from the book Elizabeth Costello by JM Coetzee, as well as the text from Euripides.

One imagines that even if the text was by a five-year-old, Huppert would bring something unique to the performance. Shes been at the top of her game for four decades. She won a Bafta as Most Promising Newcomer for her turn as the virginal Beatrice in The Lacemaker in 1977.

There is no other actress who could make Paul Verhoeven appear like a pussycat. The Dutch director has been described as a misogynist on countless occasions. After all, hes famous for getting Sharon Stone to cross her legs in Basic Instinct and leaving nothing to the imagination in Showgirls; yet put Huppert in the picture and all of a sudden he makes a film that can only be described as classy, even one being referred to at Cannes as a rape comedy".

You have all this talk of Verhoeven as a misogynist, but to me hes the opposite, says Huppert. Ever since I discovered his first film, I saw Turkish Delight, the film was also mistaken at the time. It was taken as a semi-porno film and was released in a porno video and it only got one good review and that was in Charlie Hebdo, who said it was a masterpiece and he was a good director. So there has always been this blurred vision of him as a director.

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Isabelle Huppert and Paul Verhoeven at the Cannes Film Festival (Rex) (Rex Features)

Huppert has recently become a cinema owner. Im going to digress because my son programmes a cinema I bought in Paris. Its in the Rue Christine, and was called Action Christine and weve renamed it Cinema Christine 21."

Recently, Huppert has been a lot more open about her family. She recently appeared on the cover of a magazine with Lolita Chammah, one of three children she has had with her husband of 34 years Ronald Chammah, a producer she met on the set of a 1980 Claude Chabrol movie. Shes a good actress," Huppert says of her daughter. "Ill play her mother soon. I have a supporting role in a film she is making in Luxembourg. The movie talks a lot about involuntary transmission between parents and children.

The bonds that tie a mother and daughter are also something that takes place on screen, as well as off for the actress. In another of her great roles this year, Huppert plays a woman who discovers there is life after separation in Things to Come, directed by Mia Hansen-Love. The French director once played Hupperts daughter in Olivier Assayass 2000 drama Sentimental Destines.

And now she becomes my mother, chirps Huppert. Explaining, A director is always a bit of a mother to an actress. You can be young and have an old soul, or old and be a young spirit. The latter is a category that Huppert seems to fit perfectly.

As an actress, I felt like during the film she has the power and she directed me a lot, maybe more than other directors on other occasions. She had this vision of this character being very open, and very light and instinctively, maybe my deep nature, would be to go for something darker, a little harsher.

The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Show all 14 1 /14 The films to know about at Cannes 2016 The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Julieta Director: Pedro Almodovar

Starring: Adriana Ugarte, Emma Suarez

What's it about? The Spanish filmmaker's 20th film is based on three short stories from Alice Munro's 2004 book, Runaway which tracks a woman's search for her missing daughter. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 American Honey Director: Andrea Arnold

Starring: Sasha Lane, Kate Mara, Shia LaBeouf

What's it about? In British filmmaker Andrea Arnold's (Red Road) American road movie - her first film set and filmed outside the UK - a teenage girl who gets caught up in a whirlwind of hard partying as she crosses the Midwest with a band of misfits. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Personal Shopper Director: Olivier Assayas

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Nora von Waldstatten

What's it about? Stewart reteams with French filmmaker Assayas following Clouds of Sils Maria for this ghost story set in the fashion underworld of Paris. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 It's Only the End of the World Director: Xavier Dolan

Starring: Lea Seydoux, Marion Cotillard, Vincent Cassel

What's it about? Xavier Dolan (Mommy) returns with this film based on the play Juste la fin du monde which tells the story of a terminally ill writer who returns home after 12 years to announce his impending death. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Paterson Director: Jim Jarmusch,

Starring: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani

What's it about? An original film from Amazon Studios that follows Paterson, a bus driver in the city of Paterson, New Jersey who lives an inhibited life compared to that of his wife, Laura. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 I, Daniel Blake Director: Ken Loach

Starring: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Micky McGregor

What's it about? Written by Paul Laverty (the man behind Loach's Palme d'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley, the film follows the titular protagonist, a joiner who seeks financial felp from the state following an illness. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Loving Director: Jeff Nichols

Starring: Joel Edgerton, Michael Shannon, Marton Csokas

What's it about? Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special follow-up tracks an interracial couple based in Virginia sentenced to prison in 1958 for getting married. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 The Handmaid Director: Park Chan-wook

Starring: Kim Min-hee, Ha Jung-woo, Kim Tae-ri

What's it about? The Oldboy director's latest South Korean film follows an heiress who falls in love with a petty thief. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 The Neon Demon Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Starring: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Keanu Reeves, Christina Hendricks

What's it about? Winding Refn's third consecutive film to compete for the Palme d'Or, this horror thriller follows an aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles where 'her vitality and youth are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means to get what she has.' The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Cafe Society Director: Woody Allen

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively

What's it about? Woody Allen's latest will open the Festival. It is a New York romantic comedy set in the 1930s with a cast including Steve Carell, Parker Posey, Corey Stoll and Judy Davis. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 The BFG Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Mark Rylance, Rebecca Hall, Bill Hader

What's it about? Based on the Roald Dahl classic, the story follows a young girl named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) who befriends a friendly giant. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Money Monster Director: Jodie Foster

Starring: George Clooney, Jack O'Connell, Julia Roberts

What's it about? A money-oriented live TV show is interrupted when the presenter is taken hostage by a blue-collar worker compelled to turn to violence following his recent financial losses. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 The Nice Guys Director: Shane Black

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe

Reason to see: Shane Black (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) and his razor sharp wit return in a comedy set in 70s LA. The films to know about at Cannes 2016 Captain Fantastic Director: Matt Ross

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Frank Langella, Kathryn Hahn

What's it about? In the forests of the Pacific Northwest, a father who devoted his life to raising his six kids with an irreverent education is forced to leave his paradise and enter the 'real' world.



Indeed, there is a certain sang-froid that Huppert instills in her characters. They get their strength from the fact that nothing seems to phase them, they are able to overcome the worst horrors. Its what made her so magnificent in Michael Hanekes The Piano Teacher, a film that Elle has echoes of in its opening scene. The norm is that as soon as you see Huppert onscreen, you have the idea that her character will overcome all obstacles.

Well, its normal that you think that, says Huppert, when I ask her if she references her past roles when making contemporary films. But for me, as an actress there is no link to what Ive done previously. Because its me, you make the connection. People seem to think that you have connections with the roles you play, but the more I think about it, the more I realise I have nothing to do with those characters, those people are total foreigners to me.

Phaedra(s) is at the Barbican in London from 9 to 18 June; Stephen Frears interviews Isabelle Huppert at Cine Lumiere in London on 11 June; A Huppert Screentalk takes place at the Barbican Cinema on 12 June; and Things to Come opens Film 4 Summer Screen on 4 August at Somerset House in London
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The promotional campaign for Swiss Army Man is having the time of its life.

When else will you get the chance to boast about Daniel Radcliffe's latest role being a farting corpse with an erection, in a movie so filled with farts and erections that it prompted audience walkouts at its premiere?

Never again, so now is your time to shine. Now is the time to build a website in which visitors have the pleasure of dragging the former Harry Potter's corpse around their screen to neverending delight; while said corpse occasionally cries out such wisdoms as, "I want to have sex."

Plus, if you click his stomach, he farts out one of many astounded and complimentary tweets about the film. The internet is truly a magical place, isn't it?

"I love that it's this perverse and mad," Radcliffe had previously said about the role. "It's exciting, to be honest, using farts for other than comedy, like using them for plot and emotion and making some people super uncomfortable. There is something wonderful about it."

Swiss Army Man stars Paul Dano as a young man stranded on a deserted island, about to end it all before he spots a flatulent corpse (Radcliffe) lying on the beach, utilising his gas to propel himself to the mainland before embarking on an adventure through the wilderness with his newfound companion.

Swiss Army Man hits US cinemas 1 July, with a UK release date yet to be announced.
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When news broke earlier this week that Disney ordered expensive reshoots on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, fans were understandably quite shocked.

While reshoots are often done on films, what makes this event notable is how executives are reportedly not happy with Gareth Edwards first cut of the film, the spin-off not testing well.

New sources have weighed in on the discussion, claiming that Disney isnt necessarily unhappy with the result but feel the film is tonally very different to the other films in the saga.

A source told The Hollywood Reporter that Disney felt it was tonally off with what a classic Star Wars movie should feel like. The pic has not yet been tested before audiences, but one source describes the cut as having the feel of a war movie.

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They added that the film is the closest thing to a prequel ever. This takes place just before A New Hope and leads up to the 10 minutes before that classic film begins. You have to match the tone!

There are also unconfirmed suggestions that the reshoots may include Alden Ehrenreichs Han Solo, the actor having recently taken the role.

 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Trailer

Fan reaction has so far been mixed, with the appeal of a war film set in a galaxy far, far away actually seeming like a great idea. It is almost unanimously thought that shoehorning Han Solo into the film would be a terrible idea.

However, one character from the original trilogy is expected to appear in the film; Darth Vader. Rogue One will reach cinemas 14 December 2016.
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Details on the sequel to Sicario - one of last year's most underrated dramas - has begun to trickle in following its greenlight earlier this year.

Officially titled Soldado, the follow-up is moving ahead without original director Denis Villeneuve. Instead, Deadline reports that Stefano Sollima will step behind the camera.

The filmmaker's previous credits include acclaimed Italian miniseries Gomorra and gritty drama Suburra.

Casting-wise, it was previously reported that Emily Blunt would be reprising her role of idealistic FBI agent Kate Mercer. However, her decision to take on the role of Mary Poppins in Disney's upcoming remake has officially rendered her unavailable with Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin sharing lead duties.

Their characters - hitman Alejandro Gillick and CIA Agent Matt Graves - will return in a story from Sicario screenwriter Taylor Sheridan that continues to focus on the illegal smuggling of drugs across the border between Mexico and the U.S.

While the Spanish word 'sicario' means 'hitman' in English, the translation of 'soldado' is 'soldier.'

Original director Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) is currently hard at work making Blade Runner 2 with Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, and House of Cards ' Robin Wright.
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Could anyone have guessed back in 1987, that the very man who played Hawkins in Predator would come to direct one of its sequels?

Likely not, but that's just part of the unpredictable universe of Hollywood filmmaking, isn't it? Writer/Director/Actor Shane Black has come a long way since his Hawkins role, penning the iconic Lethal Weapon; all before transitioning into direction with the likes of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys.

While speaking to London Live's brand new programme, London Film Club, Black revealed his vision for the upcoming take on the classic franchise; which has already been touted as a canonical sequel, though there's hope it will manage to utterly reinvent the classic franchise.

"Back in the original, there was a real sense of mystery, I thought," Black stated. "And discovery, when this thing came to Earth. Then it sort of became over the years, with the iconic makeup - you could almost find a good-looking Predator by going to Comic Con - it had lost its lustre; in the sense that it was no longer mysterious in the way the alien in Ridley Scott's first Alien was mysterious."



"If we could even capture half of that creepiness that he had and, also, keep some of the humour of the first one, too; I'm just keeping the torch for what I think was the better version. This one's supposed to feel like: get your tickets a month in advance, you know its coming, it's exciting to you in the way hopefully that Prometheus or the Alien prequel will be."



"So, we're trying to up the stakes that way; just making it full of ideas and mystery," he concluded. It's still very early days for the production; with details of the sequel's settings and characters currently on lockdown, though a UK release date of 2 March 2018 has already been announced.

To watch the full interview with Shane Black, and hear how Ryan Gosling convinced Russell Crowe to do The Nice Guys, you can catch the debut episode of London Film Club; today on London Live, at 7.30PM.
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Live Nation has postponed six upcoming shows featured in their Governors Ball After Dark series at both Irving Plaza and Gramercy Theatre following a shooting that left one dead and three others wounded.

At Irving Plaza, Joey Bada$$ was scheduled to perform on Thursday, Mac Miller on Friday and Vince Staples on Saturday. At Gramercy Theatre, Appetite for Destruction was scheduled for Friday, Black Pistol Fire on Saturday and YG scheduled for next Monday.

A spokesperson repping both venues made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon citing cooperation with the New York Police Department amid an ongoing discussion regarding a possible curfew in the city.

"In light of last week's tragic event, we are acting with an overabundance of caution and coordinating a going forward strategy with the New York Police Department that may also include a curfew," the spokesperson told Rolling Stone. "Because these discussions with New York Police Department are ongoing, we will be postponing a few of our upcoming shows

However, NYPD officials have denied having any involvement in the cancelations. "The organizations decision to cancel the event was in no way influenced by the NYPD," a department spokesman told Billboard in a statement.

Recommended Read more Rapper Troy Ave arrested after shooting at TI concert in Manhattan

Last week, rapper Troy Ave was charged with attempted murder and criminal weapons possession following a shooting at Irving Plaza that left his bodyguard dead and two others wounded. Troy Ave, 33, whose real name is Roland Collins, plead not guilty to the charges on Monday.

The morning after shooting, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said that all rap artists are "thugs" who promote violence.

The crazy world of the so-called rap artists, who are basically thugs that basically celebrate the violence they did all their lives, Commissioner Bratton told WCBS. Unfortunately, that violence oftentimes manifests itself during their performances.
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Polish artist Brodka recently impressed crowds at Brighton's Great Escape Festival and just put out her first fully English language album.

Receiving national fame in Poland after winning the country's third season of Pop Idol, she's since put out four records, including the aforementioned Clashes, which dropped on 13 May.

We're premiering the rather intense video for her new single 'Santa Muerte', which stars a Japanese Butoh dancer to express the song's themes of "life, death and the afterlife". This is classic Brodka - haunting, shivery, folk music with nods to rock and punk as well.

Watch the video premiere and let us know what you think:

Q&A with Brodka

What are you listening to at the moment?

Ive been listening to the new Radiohead album, along with the rest of the world. I listen to my cats meowing. I try to listen to my inner self but its such a difficult record.

What are your plans for summer 2016?

I have a lot of concerts scheduled this summer. The ones worth mentioning are Colours of Ostrava in Czech and Off Festival in Katowice. Then I will be rehearsing for my Autumn tour. I would love to visit Japan again. The time I spent there was very inspiring and I feel there's so much more to discover for me. I would also love to explore Europe a bit more.

First gig, best gig?

My first gig I ever played was probably when I was around 12. I played violin in my Father's folklore band. I don't remember where it was exactly but I'm sure it was a big deal for me.

I like to think that the best gig I've ever played hasnt happened yet so I try to treat every gig like it was my last one. But the one I remember that was very special was Opener Festival in 2011.

The weather was so awful that we had to stop the gig at some point. We were totally wet and our instruments simply drowned but we were happy to survive the rain battle.

Clashes is available now via Play It Again Sam
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Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis might have promised that the legendary music festival will always be at Worthy Farm but her father, founder Michael, has other ideas.

Speaking to ITV at the Royal Bath and West Show recently, Eavis confirmed that he is in talks with Longleat estate in Wiltshire, known for its safari park and Center Parcs village, where he hopes the event will move to from Worthy Farm in 2019.

Were talking to Longleat every day, actually, so I hope we can come to an agreement with them eventually, he said. We havent done so yet but theyre quite keen. I want to move there in 2019, basically. Its the best site in the whole of England.

Eavis was quick to add that while a move to Longleat looks likely, it will be temporary as Worthy Farm is Glastonburys undisputed true home.

Worthy Farm is very warm, its full of atmosphere and character and history as well, its the best place for it, but I really do need an alternative site for the longer term, no doubt about it, he said. Were looking for another site in our year off just to try and see if it is possible to move at any time in the future. Theres a lot to do yet.

Longleat is just up the road from the Somerset farm, where Glastonbury has taken place for 46 years. However, there is a long way to go before any plans are finalised, as Salisbury City Council and the police have to be involved in arrangements.

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Longleat, which boasts over 9,000 acres of land and is home to the Marquess of Bath, has issued a statement confirming that meetings with the Eavises are underway. We are in very early discussions with the festival team about the option of the festival moving to Longleat for a single year some time in the future, it read. It is on a very, very preliminary level at this time though. We dont have anything else to add.

Longleat is best known for its safari park but could soon host Glastonbury (Getty Images)

Eavis has spoken before about the need to find a bigger site to accommodate Glastonburys 175,000 festival-goers. The Pyramid Stage and the land around it is owned by other people, making forward-planning difficult, while land owners repeatedly raise concerns about the potential of the sites gas pipe fracturing from people dancing on it.

 Glastonbury tickets sell out in record time - London Live



Emily hinted at the plans for an alternative site last month but insisted that the team was researching another, as-yet-untitled big event separate to Glastonbury. We are going to do a show somewhere else with the same team but it hasnt got a name yet and were still not entirely sure what shape its going to take, she told the Guardian.

For now, were all focused on Worthy Farm. Were not thinking too far down that road because were quite busy with this one at the moment!

Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis with her founding father Michael (Getty Images)

This summers Glastonbury takes place from 22-27 June, headlined by Muse, Adele and Coldplay.
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Advice from a European food safety body to avoid reheating spinach has been overturned after an article in The Independent prompted a student in Hong Kong to embark on an epic struggle in the name of science.

While it might seem like an innocent thing to do, the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) had warned that reheating spinach and other leafy vegetables could potentially lead to the production of a substance, nitrosamines, that can cause cancer and Blue Baby Syndrome, in which children cannot get enough oxygen in their blood.

After The Independent ran a story that featured their advice, the article was picked up by a newspaper in Hong Kong.

The student, Albert, became concerned when his mother "suddenly stopped eating vegetables" after reading the article as she feared getting cancer from the food she prepared at night to be reheated for the next day for lunch at work.

"I told her, don't be so sensitive on that particular [news]paper. You would first get colorectal cancer first only because of you don't eat veggies," he wrote in an email to The Independent.

"She did not trust me. The whole family did not either.

"I thought, there must be more of them out there who were affected by that news article and... many problems can happen in my opinion."

Albert then raised a "series of complaints" against the Hong Kong newspaper, but they "just shed their responsibility to you, Independent".

Undeterred, Albert then complained to The Indepedent, saying he was outraged and describing the suggestion that eating reheated spinach could give you cancer, based on the purported evidence, as nonsense.

Our readers liaison assistant then pointed to the guidance posted on EUFICs website.

At this point, many people would have simply given up.

But Albert refused to admit defeat. Instead, he sent a detailed argument to the EUFIC, complete with two tables of figures.

An EUFIC official has now replied in an email to Albert, saying they have removed the guidance and they very much appreciate your time and comments which we will take into account when preparing new articles on this topic.

A EUFIC spokeswoman confirmed the news to The Independent: "We have recently removed this content from our website as the information was out of date and no long reflected the current recommendations from European authorities, whom do not advise against reheating spinach provided proper storage and reheating practices are followed.

"Provided proper cooling, storage and reheating takes place, it is fine to reheat spinach."

She cited an academic paper on the subject, Nitrate and nitrite in the diet: how to assess their benefit and risk for human health, and the European Food Safety Authoritys opinion, which dates from 2010.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

Until Albert got in touch, EUFICs argument about the dangers of reheating spinach ran like this. Leafy vegetables can contain high concentrations of nitrate, which is harmless but can be converted into nitrites and then nitrosamines, some of which are known to be carcinogenic. These substances can also affect the bloodstream's ability to carry oxygen and in young children can cause a Blue Baby Syndrome. They advised against reheating spinach to minimise the chance of creating nitrosamines.

But, in his email to EUFIC, Albert said he was a bit disappointed by the quality of the reasoning behind the guidance and provided his own.

Nitrate in food can be converted into nitrite with the presence of certain enzymes and bacteria. Nitrite reacts with amino acids to form nitrosamine if the condition is favourable, such as high temperature and acidic environment, he wrote.

It is true that the conversion is theoretically correct. But your article is over-generalized to make a conclusion that requires readers to take proactive actions.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

Can you provide the source of research publications that test the level of nitrite/nitrosamine in leftovers after 24-hour storage in the fridge?

My main argument is, if there aren't any real experiments on this, you do not have enough evidence to change the public's lifestyle. Many people may have been reheating their lunchboxes for a long time in their office pantry.

You should know toxicology is not only about the presence of a harmful substance, but also its dosage! I agree that nitrate has the possibility to turn into nitrites by naturally existing bacteria.

However, the amount of nitrites that are present at the time of ingestion is what matters or what we should be careful of. Not simply its presence.
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BHS, the 88-year-old department store chain which collapsed into administration in April, is now facing liquidation at the cost of 11,000 jobs after the administrators said they were unable to locate a suitable buyer.

The administrators, Duff & Phelps, had been widely expected to name a new BHS owner today, with a consortium fronted by the UK retail veteran, Greg Tufnell, hotly tipped to take control of the chain.

But in a surprise announcement, Duff & Phelps said it had "not been possible" to agree a sale because the prospective buyers lacked the "working capital" to seal the deal.

"Despite the considerable efforts of the administrators and BHS senior management, it has not been possible to agree a sale of the business said a statement.

Although multiple offers were received, none were able to complete a deal due to the working capital required to secure the future of the company".

Our thoughts today are with the employees. We thank them for their professionalism and hard work. We would also like to thank the great British public for helping us in our efforts to save BHS resulting in several weeks of significant sales."

Although multiple offers were received, none were able to complete a deal <p>Duff & Phelps</p>

Sources said the Tufnell consortium, reportedly backed by capital from Portugal, failed to produce the necessary funds.

Three firms - Alteri, Hilco and Gordon Brothers - have been lined up as liquidators of the chain. All of BHS's 163 stores will all be in "close down or sale mode" over the coming weeks.

There are 8,000 members of staff and a further 3,000 non-BHS employees who also work in the stores as cleaners and caterers. All have been told their jobs are "likely to go".

BHS was sold by the "King of Shops" Sir Philip Green, for a nominal 1 in March 2015 to a consortium without retail experience called Retail Acquisitions, led by a former racing driver and bankrupt Dominic Chappell. But the firm collapsed into administration on 25 April when it was unable to secure new loan finance.

Sir Philip said he was "saddened and disappointed" by the liquidation of BHS and "had hoped that the business would be sold as a going concern".

The BHS workers' pension scheme, which has an estimated 571m deficit, is effectively already being backstopped by the Pension Protection Fund, resulting in members facing a 10 per cent cut in payouts.

The Pension Regulator is investigating whether Sir Philip avoided his financial responsibilty to the workers in the scheme when he sold it in 2015 and may call on him to contribute more than 200m of his fortune to help plug the gap.

Two committees of MPs are seprarely investigating the circumstances around the sale and collapse of the chain. Sir Philip is expected to give evidence in person to MPs on 15 June. Mr Chappell is also due to give evidence on 8 June.

The Green family took around 420m in dividends out of BHS between 2000 and 2005.

Up to 30m is also said to have left the company in cash over the past year, under the ownership of Retail Acquisitions, in the form of various fees and expenses.

Recommended Read more The urgent questions Sir Philip Green needs to answer before MPs

The chair of the Parliamentary Work and Pensions Committee, Frank Field, has suggested that Sir Philip should be stripped of his knighthood if he fails to pay a substantial amount into the pension scheme. In response, Sir Philip said Mr Field should resign from the commitee as he had shown himself to be prejudiced.

Philip Duffy, managing director of Duff & Phelps said today: The British high street is changing and in these turbulent times for retailers, BHS has fallen as another victim of the seismic shifts we are seeing. The tireless work and goodwill of the existing management team and employees of BHS with the support of my team were not enough to change the fortunes of the company.

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.

Others who had shown an interest in buying out part or all of the BHS chain included the Sport Direct owner Mike Ashley, John Hargreaves, the entrepreneur behind Matalan and Poundstretcher boss Aziz Tayub. Philip Day, the chief executive of Edinburgh Wooolen Mill had also expressed an interest before reportedly pulling back.

Administrators have a responsibility to safeguard the interests to creditors of failed firms. If they can extract value for creditors by selling a business as a going concern they will try, but if this proves impossible they proceed to liquidation of assets as a way of raising money.

BHS was founded in Brixton in 1928 by a group of American entrepreneurs. It was acquired by Sir Philip in 2000 for 200m from Storehouse.
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Sainsburys has received complaints from customers after scrapping its 2.63 prosecco deal due to high demand.

Savvy shoppers rushed to buy bottles of their favourite drink when a combination of three Sainsburys deals meant they could cash in on a bargain deal for a bottle of the Taste the Difference fizz, which had been on offer at 7.50.

They were given a further 25 per cent off if they bought six bottles. A third deal in the form of a voucher code gave new online shoppers 18 off if they spent more than 60, bringing the overall cost down by almost 5.

Recommended Read more Champagne loses its fizz as more Brits pick prosecco

But the supermarket has quickly started running out of stock when news of the deal spread online after website Money Saving Expert alerted its readers.

Sainsburys told its customers on Tuesday it was withdrawing the offer because stocks had run low.

Customers were told those who had ordered online but not received their delivery would now be charged the full price, with a voucher making up the difference as compensation.

The announcement led shoppers to complain via social media using the hastag #proseccogate.

One customer wrote on Twitter: Ordered last week to collect tomorrow for my wedding. Sainburys emailed us today. Appalling.

Anything to say about your disgraceful prosseco con? You seem to be very quick to respond to everything apart from #proseccogate, another shopper said.

A spokesperson for Sainburys said the grocers prosecco deal had been extremely popular and subject to availability as any other offer.

We understand that some customers may be disappointed so, as a gesture of goodwill, we have offered them e-vouchers, Sainburys said.

The readers of Money Saving Expert threatened to boycott the supermarket after voicing their anger with the compensatory vouchers.

The popularity of prosecco is putting pressure on supermarket supplies, with many retailers looking to stock up on cava in case they run out of the UK's favourite fizz.

 Prosecco panic: Bubble trouble?

In April, Toby Magill, head of beer, wine and spirits at IRI, told The Grocer that like Champagne, prosecco is geographically limited and can only be produced in a small region of Italy.

Supply is finite. Demand is growing everywhere in the world so theres a limit on what retailers can get their hands on, Magill said.
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Sir Philip Green was explicitly warned by his informal Goldman Sachs adviser that the man he was thinking of selling BHS to had zero retail experience and was a former bankrupt, MPs have heard.

Anthony Gutman, the co-head of Investment Banking at Goldmans, told a joint committee of Parliamentarians probing the collapse of the department store chain, he made the observations about Dominic Chappell and Retail Acquisitions at a meeting with the top brass of Sir Philips Arcadia group in December 2014.

Recommended Read more The urgent questions Sir Philip Green needs to answer before MPs

The potential buyer did not have retail experience...The bidder did have a history of bankruptcy he said. Mr Gutman also said Retail Acquisitions had a highly preliminary business plan, although he added that this was not unusual at this stage in a deal.

BHS collapsed into administration in April, leaving thousands of shop workers facing a reduction in their pension pay-outs. MPs from the Pensions Committee and the Business Committee are probing the circumstances of the sale of the business by Sir Philip to Retail Acquisitions for 1 in March 2015.

Despite making the negative observations about Mr Chappell and Retail Acquisitions in 2014, Mr Gutman said he did not suggest at the time that the prospective deal should go no further. It was something they could have progressedwe did not rule it out he said.

Mr Gutman stressed that he was offering Sir Philip advice for free and that Goldman was not under contract with Arcadia. Sir Philip reportedly formed a tight bond with Goldman and one of its most senior London partners, Michael Sherwood, after the retail tycoon worked with the investment bank during his unsuccessful takeover bid for Marks & Spencer in 2004.

Mr Gutman also revealed that an association between a double-bankrupt and reported convicted fraudster, Paul Sutton, and Dominic Chappell was known to Arcadia and Goldman prior to the sale of BHS in March 2015.

We were notified by RiverRock [an alternative investment firm] that there had been an association said Mr Gutman. I think that observation was made direct to Arcadia group as well as to us.

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.

Sir Philip himself and Mr Chappell are set to appear for questioning before MPs next month. Sir Philip is under pressure from the Pensions Regulator to make a major contribution to top-up the BHS pension scheme, which on one calculation has a deficit of 571m.

The scheme has had to be bailed out by the Pension Protection Fund, which is funded by a levy on other private defined benefit pension schemes. Under the 2004 Pensions Act the regulator has the power to pursue former business owners who are considered to have avoided their responsibilities to fund schemes adequately.

Also appearing before MPs yesterday Paul Budge, the finance director of Arcadia, said: "We wanted this to be a thriving business. We seriously believed Dominic Chappell was surrounded by credible people." Mr Budge also said BHS was sold to Retail Acquisitions with 70m of cash and a 25m credit facility with HSBC guaranteed by Arcadia.
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Why are we asking this now?

The impact of Brexit on UK export and import patterns has become one of the central economic battlegrounds of the referendum campaign. The Remain side claim British exit from the UK would have a severe and negative impact on trade. The Leave camp dismiss this as hysterical scaremongering.

So why does trade matter?

The one thing both sides agree on is that trade does indeed matter a lot for our economy and our prosperity. As the Remain camp frequently point out there are some three million British jobs linked to British exports. Thats more than 10 per cent of all the jobs in the country. But its not just the fact that trade directly and indirectly supports a lot of employment in the UK that makes it so important in the view of economists. Increasing trade is seen as boosting the productivity of a countrys domestic firms. And rising private sector productivity increases GDP. And rising GDP ultimately increases living standards of all households. A thriving export sector also helps to attract foreign investment, something we in Britain need to cover our large annual current account deficit.

Read more of the big EU referendum questions here

 EU Referendum: Latest Poll

So why would trade fall if we left the EU?

The argument of the Remain camp is that Britain could lose access to the European Unions single market. This is the EUs free trade area with 500 million people. Under the rules of the single market goods can pass unhindered by tariffs and other barriers between any of the 28 member states. So, for instance, a container of Scotch whisky can be shipped from the Highlands directly to Greece as easily as it can be sent down to Glasgow. When Britain entered the then European common market in 1973 there was a big boost to UK trade volumes. Remain argue that leaving would have the opposite effect.

What does the Leave camp say?

They deny leaving would hinder trade volumes and argue Britain would rapidly do a deal with the European Union and in the longer term trade even more with the world. They say that because Britain runs a trade deficit with the rest of the EU, meaning we import more from Europe than we export to the Continent, theres an incentive for the EU to agree a quick deal. Otherwise, their own exporters (from German carmakers, to French luxury goods manufacturers, to Italian olive farmers) would suffer from losing access to the big UK market. The Remain side counter that the UKs total exports to the EU are equivalent to 13 per cent of our GDP, but that the equivalent figure for the EU is just 3 per cent, meaning that we need them more than they need us. This suggests the balance of negotiating power could be the other way. In terms of trade with the rest of the world, the Leave campaign argue Britain alone could do better deals than the EU post-Brexit because protectionist interests on the Continent would no longer get in the way. Remain say the UK benefits hugely from having the EU negotiating on behalf of our exporters and that we will struggle to get a hearing without the blocs heft on the world stage.

So who is right?

Its difficult to say because the timeframe for any EU trade deal would be determined as much by politics as economics. Leave is correct that it is in the financial interests of the EU to keep trading with the UK because we are a big market. But they might play hardball to discourage other states from leaving the bloc. A deal may also take some time because EU states simply cannot agree among themselves how to deal with the UK. Even if some are willing to do a quick deal to help their exporters, others may have a different agenda. Then there is the issue of 50 plus existing trade EU agreements with the rest of the world. The UK benefits from the trade deals agreed by the EU. The UK would need to establish new ones to carry on trading without facing tariffs. Its not clear how long this would take. President Barack Obama on his recent trip said that Britain would be at the back of the queue when it came to negotiating a new deal with Washington.

President Obama has said that Britain would be at the back of the queue when it came to negotiating a new trade deal with Washington (Getty)

What would be the terms of these new deals?

A bigger issue than the timing is the question of what sort of trade arrangement the Brexit side actually wants. Some seem to want access to the single market in the manner of Norway and Iceland. They are members of the European Economic Area (EEA). But EEA membership would imply adopting the same EU single market regulation rules and paying something (albeit less) into the EU budget each year. EEA membership also means accepting the free movement of people into Britain  which is vehemently opposed by many Brexiteers. Other leading lights in the Leave movement seem to be in favour of not trying to broker a deal at all and simply trading with Europe under the World Trade Organisation framework. This is how China and the US currently trade with the EU  and it would not require any complex negotiations. This would enable Britain to scrap EU regulation and close its borders to immigration from Europe. Yet this would also imply the UKs exporters facing the EUs common external goods tariff  with serious negative consequences for UK manufacturing exporters in particular. Car exporters would face a 10 per cent duty and UK-based financial institutions would lose their passporting rights to trade with the bloc.

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

So how much economic damage would this do?

Almost everything depends on what assumption one makes about the nature of the post-Brexit trade deal with Europe that would be concluded. The Treasurys central estimate assumes a bilateral trade deal for the UK in the manner of Canadas recent agreement with the EU. This envisages trade volumes falling by between 14 and 19 per cent by 2030 relative to otherwise. Some see that as a little strong. Oxford Economics modelled this scenario and assumed a relative 7 per cent fall in trade volumes over the same period. The London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance calculates that the long-term costs to Britain of lower trade with the EU could be as high as 9.5 per cent of GDP. Leave campaign-supporting economists have not done much detailed modelling. But one study by Patrick Minford of Cardiff University shows a boost to GDP growth by 2020 on the basis of Britain dismantling all tariffs unilaterally post-Brexit. Under Minfords assumptions this is great boon to some sectors of the economy which benefit from cheaper imports. But as Minford himself admits, this approach implies catastrophic damage to many exporting firms. It seems likely we would mostly eliminate manufacturing, leaving mainly industries such as design, marketing and hi-tech he wrote in the The Sun in March.
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One of the worlds most controversial countries is going into business with one of its most controversial companies, after Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund announced a $3.5bn (2.4bn) investment in Uber. The deal represents the biggest one-off investment in any private company in history, maintaining the ride-sharing firms valuation of $62.5bn.

Uber, which now serves more than 450 cities in at least 70 countries worldwide, has raised a total of close to $11bn from outside investors. Its latest $5bn funding round also attracted investors from Russia and China, while Qatars sovereign wealth fund took a stake in the company in an earlier round in 2014.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) is the kingdoms main investment body, itself valued at more than $100bn. It will now own around five per cent of Uber, while its managing director, Yasir Al Rumayyan, will join the board. Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud also recently joined the companys international policy advisory board.

Mr Al Rumayyan said in a statement that Uber had improved urban mobility around the world and that the PIF was looking forward to being part of the process.

The ride-sharing giant has proved divisive in many territories. Taxi drivers in the UK and across Europe have staged large anti-Uber protests, and last year a court ordered the company to suspend its low-cost UberPOP service in Brussels. In May, both Uber and its main US rival Lyft stopped operating in Austin, Texas, following a public referendum that imposed new regulations the companies claimed were too onerous to comply with.

In the Middle East, by contrast, Uber is considered an unmitigated success, and said recently that it plans to invest $250m in the region, where it already operates in nine countries  including five cities in Saudi Arabia. Some 80 per cent of Saudi Uber riders are women, who are not permitted to drive themselves under the laws of the strict Islamic nation.

In a statement, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick sought to tie the investment to Saudi Arabias recently announced plan to reform its economy by relying less on oil and encouraging private entrepreneurship and employment. Our experience in Saudi Arabia is a great example of how Uber can benefit riders, drivers and cities and we look forward to partnering to support their economic and social reforms, he said.

Uber already has a stranglehold on the US ride-sharing market, hence its aggressive overseas expansion. In China, for example, the company reportedly loses some $1bn per year on subsidies in its struggle for market share with local rival Didi Chuxing, which recently attracted a $1bn investment from Apple.

The Saudi deal promises to cause further controversy for both parties. The Saudi government recently threatened to sell off its American investments as the US Congress debated whether to unveil the redacted section of its 9/11 report related to Saudi Arabias role in the 2001 terrorist attacks. Uber, meanwhile, could face questions about going into business with a nation whose policy on women drivers is perhaps the least significant blot on its human rights record.

In its 2015 world report, the UN Human Rights Watch found that Saudi Arabia imprisoned political dissidents solely on account of their peaceful activities, practised systematic discrimination against women and religious minorities, and subjected hundreds of people to unfair trials and arbitrary detention.
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Schools with a large number of immigrant children from the European Union outperform those without, new research suggests.

While the number of white non-British or Irish schoolchildren increased by just 1.2 per cent between 2011 and 2015 overall, some areas have experienced an individual increase of up to 30 per cent, according to data analyst group School Dash.

But rather than place extra strain on teachers, figures show that schools where pupils speak English as an additional language do in fact perform better.

The findings follow reports that white British pupils fall behind their ethnic minority classmates, fuelling concerns that parents do not provide enough support or place importance on academic success for their children.

Dr Timo Hannay, founder of School Dash, said: On the whole those schools that have large numbers of non-British white pupils tend to do better than schools that have a smaller number of them.

Using data from more than 20,000 schools across the country, the report aims to shed light on the impact EU expansion and immigration has had on Britain's schools ahead of the referendum later this month.

Percentage of pupils classified as having non-British and non-Irish white ethnic origin (School Dash)

Dr Hannay, the report's author, said there are no national statistics for the number of British school pupils from the EU, so he used figures for white non-British and non-Irish children to give an approximate picture.

The figures show that London, Peterborough and parts of Lincolnshire and Norfolk have had the biggest influx of EU immigrant children enrolling in its schools.

The world's toughest school run Show all 5 1 /5 The world's toughest school run The world's toughest school run Children carry their schoolbags climb on a cliff on their way home in Zhaojue county in southwest China's Sichuan province Chinatopix/AP The world's toughest school run Children carry their schoolbags accompanied by adults climb on a cliff bu using ladder as they on their way home in Zhaojue county in southwest China's Sichuan province Chinatopix/AP The world's toughest school run A child carry her schoolbag looks as she takes a rest on a cliff as she and other children on their way back to home in Zhaojue county in southwest China's Sichuan province Chinatopix/AP The world's toughest school run A village in China's mountainous west where schoolchildren must climb an 800-meter (2,625-foot)-high bamboo ladder secured to a sheer cliff face may get a set of steel stairs to improve safety Chinatopix/AP The world's toughest school run Schoolchildren carry their schoolbags climb on a cliff on their way home in Zhaojue county in southwest China's Sichuan province Chinatopix/AP

Schools with high white immigration levels were found to do better than their low white immigration rivals, particularly in London, where racial diversity is most frequent.

This may seem surprising, the School Dash report noted, Why would schools with large numbers of foreign kids, many of whom learned other languages before picking up English, do better academically than similar schools catering mainly for native British pupils?

Dr Hannay suggested the difference may be because immigrant families value education more than British natives.

He said: Educationists tend to see having English as an additional language as a positive indicator of educational outcomes because a lot of those immigrant communities take education incredibly seriously.

So even though the child may not have learnt English as a first language, they still may be adept at it and on the whole they seem to do better at school.

He added: The increase in performance seems to be a London-specific effect. Why is that? There are two hypotheses and I suspect they are both a little bit true.

One is that London is better at assimilating and educating those kind of children, it has got a very diverse population and its schools in recent years have got quite good, and maybe London for one reason or another is a better environment for those kids to thrive.

The other is that it may well be that the better educated and more aspirational immigrant families tend to end up disproportionately in London than in other areas.

I'm the son of a Polish immigrant, the husband of a Japanese immigrant, and have been an immigrant myself, stated Dr Hannay in his report. It will therefore not surprise you to learn that in general I'm in favour of people being able to move about the world freely.

However, as usual, our purpose here is not to make the case either way but rather to analyse the numbers as objectively as we can.
NEW YORKManager Inc. announced the debut of Nadkins, a natural, non-toxic towelette specifically formulated for a mans most sensitive area.

"Our goal is to deliver high quality and luxurious grooming products to men, said founder and CEO Joe Caccamo. Having a very active lifestyle, I understand the need for a product like Nadkins in the marketplace. Let's face it, when a man is uncomfortable down there, he is generally uncomfortable all over, making for a miserable day. We aim to solve this problem by bringing Nadkins to the masses."

Caccamo enlisted the help of a top beauty industry chemist to create the Nadkins formula. Each individually wrapped towelette gently cleans, hydrates, soothes and comforts all skin types while providing a refreshing feeling that boosts men's comfort and confidence.

New York-based Whipsmart, one the nations leading beauty/wellness manufacturers, handled product formulation, packaging and production. Whipsmart created a completely non-toxic formula comprised of aloe vera (soothes irritation); allantoin (cleans away dead skin); vitamin E (protects and nourishes); colloidal oatmeal (soothes dry, itchy skin); menthyl lactate (cools and refreshes); and grapefruit essence (freshens naturally).

Nadkins will be sold in a 10-pack cigarette-style box and also through a refillable gravity box for retailer point-of-sale. On Nadkins.com, a premium box of 10 pocket-sized packettes will sell for $12.50; a subscription option for $11.50 per 10-pack box; and three-pack (30 packets) for $30. The 60-count, point-of-sale gravity box is available to select retailers with suggested retail pricing $1 per packet.

The companys refined branding is the creation of co-creative executive directors Jon Soto and Nick Cohen from the recently resurrected, Oakland, CA-based Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

Check out the Nadkins commercial on Youtube, and follow them on Twitter @NadkinsMen, Instagram @nadkinsmen and Facebook.com/NadkinsMen.
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Forbes has announced that Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood testing company Theranos, is no longer a multi-billionaire.

The business magazine, which is known for its annual rich lists and rankings, has estimated Holmes' net worth is now nothing.

Forbes placed the 32-year-old on the top of its list of Americas richest self-made women last year but now the estimated tally of her wealth has fallen from $4.5 billion to $0 billion.

Holmes dominated headlines after she gained a place on the top of Forbes self-made list, appearing on numerous magazine covers applauding her success. After dropping out of university at the age of 19, the Washington-born entrepreneur started Theranos, a biotech company which offers blood tests from a single finger prick at a cut rate price.

Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Show all 10 1 /10 Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Bill Gates - $75 bn The creator of Microsoft is worth $78 billion. He has topped the list for 17 out of the past 22 years - though his net worth shrank by $4.2bn (3bn) to $75bn (53.7bn). Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Amancio Ortega - $67 bn The Spanish business who set up the Zara chain of high-street shops is worth $67 billion. REUTERS/ AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Warren Buffet - $60.8 bn Warren buffet is the world's most successful investor. Forbes rates him as being worth $60.8 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Carlos Slim Helu - $50 bn Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom magnate, is this years biggest loser with a fortune of $50 billion, down from $77.1 billion last year. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Jeff Bezos - $45.2 bn Amazons Jeff Bezos moved up to the fifth from the fifteenth spot last year; his net worth increased to $45.2 billion. Getty Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Mark Zuckerberg - $44.6 bn The biggest gainer on the 2016 list is Mark Zuckerberg , whose fortune is up $11.2 billion for a total net worth of $44.6 billion. He is the sixth richest in the world. Getty Images Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Larry Ellison - $43.6 bn The American entrepreneur has a fortune of $43.6 billion Bloomberg Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Michael Bloomberg - $40 bn Michael Bloomberg, whose media and financial empire has created a personal fortune of $40 bn, is said to be willing to spend up to $1bn on a presidential campaign AP Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Charles Koch and David Koch - $39.6 bn Charles Koch, along with brother David Koch of Koch Industries are joint sixth and are valued at $39.6 billion. Forbes top 10 richest billionaires in the world Liliane Bettencourt - $36.1 bn Liliane Bettencourt is the heir to the LOreal empire Getty Images

Forbes estimate of Holmes' fortune was wholly based on her 50 per cent stake in Theranos. However, this estimate drastically dropped after it emerged Theranos was being investigated by a large number of federal agencies over allegations its tests were inaccurate. The federal scrutiny resulted in a number of Wall Street Journal articles discussing the allegations.

Due to the ongoing controversy, Forbes now estimates Theranos to be worth roughly $800 million.

Holmes still owns at least half of the company but a great deal of that worth lies with external investors rather than her.

Martin Lane, a representative at money.co.uk, told The Independent Holmes' financial affairs prove it is important to know the status of your shares.

"If Elizabeth Holmes can go from hero to zero in just a few short months, then it can happen to anyone," Lane said. "Even when things are going well, its important to mitigate your risk wherever possible and have a backup plan in case your fortunes take a turn for the worse."

"If Holmes teaches us anything its that its crucial to know the status of your shares and where they come in the pecking order. Preferential shares may not have voting rights but they jump to the front of the queue ahead of ordinary shares should things turn sour."

Theranos have disputed Forbes' fiscal estimates. As a privately held company, we declined to share confidential information with Forbes, Brooke Buchanan, a company spokeswoman, told The New York Times. As a result, the article was based exclusively on speculation and press reports.

Theranos did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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Sir Patrick Stewart has made a rallying cry for Britain to stay in the European Union saying he find the number of people supporting a Brexit shocking.

The veteran actor said he does not understand the thirst for isolationism from those who support a Brexit after he experienced the unity of countries after the end of the Second World War.

Writing for the Guardian under the title I saw postwar Europe unite. We cant let it unravel, Sir Patrick draws on his experiences of the post-war years. For the first time I became aware of my country as a place hoping to share its future with others all around the world. Yes, millions had died but the hope was that never again could a war like that be repeated. The world had suffered, not just Europe and it seems a lesson had finally been learned. The cold war was still ahead but the United Nations had me into being and global responsibility and collaboration was also the future.

The 75-year-old said he believes these ideals were cemented further with the start of the European Union.

In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet Show all 15 1 /15 In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The Lobster In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew Does Paddy's Day In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The International Diplomat (Armed With WetWipes) In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The All-American In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew As Batman Nemesis Bane... The Citrus Version In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The Megafan In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The Disguised In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The Little Helper In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The Reveller In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew Does Beastmode In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The Boozer (Check Out The Load Over His Left Shoulder) In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew As Chuck Duprey In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew Does Candyfloss Selfie In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew The Incarcerated In Pictures: Sir Patrick Stewart Wins The Internet PatStew Meets Elmo

It was for me a triumph of all those convictions that the future must be one of worldwide cooperation and unity, and here were were paving the way with the beginnings of collaboration across Europe and learning the lessons of our own history.

Sir Patrick called the upcoming referendum on the 23rd June the biggest political decision of our generation and predicted the remain vote will prevail but said: Nevertheless the fact that so many fellow British citizens want to leave Europe is shocking. Standing alone was how we were in 1940.

Why campaign to put us back there? I do not understand this thirst for isolationism [] Let this just be a passing insecurity and let us once more embrace reality, philosophy, common sense and hope for our country, he wrote.

Other high-profile individuals who have backed the remain campaign include Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley who both signed a letter urging Britain to stay in the EU.

High-profile individuals on the opposing leave camp include actors Sir Michael Caine and Dame Joan Collins who told the Daily Mail recently This is a tiny island. There are too many people coming in and were going to sink into the sea with so many people.
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Alexandra Andresen is the youngest billionaire in the world.

Forbes revealed in its 2016 ranking of the richest people on earth that the Norwegian heiress, 19, is now worth $1.2 billion (862 million). In 2007 her father, Johan Andresen, transferred to her 42% of the stock in Ferd, the family's centuries-old private-investment company.

He also transferred a 42% stake in the company to her sister, Katharina, who at 20 is the second-youngest billionaire in the world. She's also worth $1.2 billion.

Alexandra was only recently confirmed as the world's youngest billionaire because the Norwegian government publishes the tax returns of people over 17.

But despite her affluent upbringing in one of the best-known Norwegian families, she isn't just any rich kid. Alexandra is already an accomplished horse rider, winning several massive competitions in dressage.

Her parents also taught her to be humble and to save. So even though she is worth over a billion dollars, she actually saved her pocket money during her younger years and drove only secondhand cars.

Take a look at the incredible life Alexandra Andresen has led so far:

Alexandra Andresen was born in 1997 in Oslo, Norway, where she was also primarily raised.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

Her father is Johan Andresen, son of industrialist Johan Henrik Andresen and Marianne Ebba Therese Bielke.

The Andresen family made their money from their tobacco brand, Tiedemanns, which the clan held until 2005 under Ferd. Today, Ferd mainly runs hedge funds. It also is an active investor on the Nordic stock exchange and has private-equity investments.

She was also raised by her mother, Kristin. Here is her mother when she was younger.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

She has one sister, Katharina, who is a year older, making her the second-youngest billionaire in the world.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

Their house and land was always filled with animals. On Instagram, Alexandra said: We used to bring our ponies, Pinocchio (pinto) and Spike (brown), to an island where we had a summerhouse. They would walk free on our property."

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

They have also had several dogs, including Bella, that follow her around when she's riding her horse.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

Her father sold the family's stake in the tobacco business to Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni for nearly $500 million in 2005.

Two years later, Johan transferred a 42% stake of Ferd each to Alexandra and Katharina. Alexandra was 10.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

But Johan still controls the company, and Alexandra's and Katharina's wealth has become public only because Norway publishes the tax returns of any person over 17.

Alexandra picked up horseback riding at a young age, and in recent years she has forged a career as a professional dressage competitor.She is now sponsored by Kingsland, an equestrian company, for her dressage competitions.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

While Alexandra and Katharina have inherited enormous fortunes from Ferd, their father insists that they won't be forced to help run the company in the future, he told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten in 2015.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

So far, Katharina appears the more likely of the two sisters to work at Ferd, having completed an internship at the family company. Katharina is now studying social sciences at Amsterdam University College.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

Meanwhile, Alexandra is still unsure about the future. She said in an interview on Ferd's website: I feel a great responsibility. In a way I think that I have not made me deserving of this, while I want to help develop Ferd and make it even better. Finding a way to give something back, I think is difficult.

The fact that my family has resources has given me many opportunities, especially in the riding, because it requires a lot of capital. But it is not enough to have money to succeed, Alexandra added.

But in another interview last year with Eurodressage magazine, she said: This is what I want to do for the rest of my life  ride!

Though she has been aware of her wealth from a young age, Alexandra told Ferd's corporate magazine that her parents always taught the sisters to save pocket money and made them drive secondhand cars, according to The Telegraph.

Apart from the horse-riding circuit, she lives a relatively low-key life.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

Though she does like the occasional holiday.

And she also brings her friends to red-carpet events.

(Alexandra Andreson/Instagram (Alexandra Andreson/Instagram)

She's close to her mother, who shares her love of horse riding. Alexandra also has a 24-year-old boyfriend, Joachim Tollefsen, a professional mixed-martial-arts fighter from Norway.

But the love of her life is her horse riding, which dominates her Instagram account and all her social-media activity.

Read more:

 13 useful life hacks you can learn in a minute

 Why Microsoft's chatbot turned into a racist

 Everyone is worried that the China bubble will pop

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2016. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.
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Zendaya Coleman has told how she parted ways with a publicist after she suggested the actress should just be happy about being a black woman on a magazine cover

The 19-year-old shot to fame after starring in the Disney show Shake It Up. She has since emerged as a prominent campaigner on race issues and body positivity.

Despite only being in the industry for a few years, Coleman spoke wisely when discussing with Cosmopolitan what happened when someone she worked with was racially insensitive.

I didnt like my hair and makeup one time on a photo shoot, and my publicist told me, You should just be happy with it - they havent had a black girl on the cover since forever. Shes no longer my publicist, the former Disney star said.

Coleman also spoke of her return to the Disney as a co-producer and star in the upcoming series K.C.Undercover, which she says was in part down to increasing diversity on the channel.

Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Show all 7 1 /7 Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Zendaya Willy Vanderperre/W Magazine Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Zendaya Willy Vanderperre/W Magazine Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Willow Smith Willy Vanderperre/W Magazine Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Willow Smith Willy Vanderperre/W Magazine Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot The April issue featuring the three young stars decked in high fashion and sporting a different hairstyle. Willy Vanderperre/W Magazine Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Kiernan Shipka Willy Vanderperre/W Magazine Zendaya, Willow and Kiernan in one fashion shoot Kiernan Shipka Willy Vanderperre/W Magazine

The only way I was going to come back to the Disney Channel was if I was in a position of more power, she said. One thing that is really important to me is diversity on the channel. Its hard as a young person of a different ethnicity or background to look at the TV and not see anyone who looks like you. Representation is important.

Coleman made headlines in 2015 when she stood up for herself after receiving critical comments over her dreadlocks at the Academy Awards.

Coleman called out the Fashion Police host Giuliana Ranic after she said Colemans hair looked like it smells like patchouli oil [] and maybe weed.

Coleman responded saying: To say that an 18 year old young woman with locs must smell of patchouli oil or weed is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive. Ranic later apologised and denied her comments had anything to do with race.

In October, a magazine pulled images of Coleman after she claimed her 19 year old hips and torso had been digitally manipulated.
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People should admit the "uncomfortable" truth that Islamic State is made up of Muslims and their doctrine is Islamic, the BBCs head of religion told an audience of students.

Professor Aaqil Ahmed, the first Muslim to hold the role at the corporation, said it was wrong to suggest the terrorist group "has nothing to do with Islam" during a speech at Huddersfield University last week.

He also responded to criticism of the BBCs use of the term "so-called Islamic State" in its programming since last year.

Professor Ahmed said: "I hear so many people say Isis has nothing to do with Islam  of course it has. They are not preaching Judaism.

"It might be wrong but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine."

Professor Ahmed was speaking at an event curated by Lapido, the centre for religious literacy in journalism, and fielded questions about the broadcasters approach to Muslim issues.

He continued: "They [Islamic State] are Muslims. That is a fact and we have to get our head around some very uncomfortable things.

"That is where the difficulty comes in for many journalists, because the vast majority of Muslims wont agree with them."

In January during an interview on Radio 4, David Cameron criticised the BBCs accidental use of the term "Islamic State" and said Muslim families "hold their heads in despair" when they hear it.

In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Show all 11 1 /11 In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings People gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Sadr City, Iraq, May 11, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings People gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Sadr City, Iraq, May 11, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings People gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Sadr City, Iraq, May 11, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings People gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Sadr City, Iraq, May 11, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings Security forces and citizens inspect the scene after a car bomb explosion at a crowded outdoor market in the Iraqi capital's eastern district of Sadr City, Iraq, Wednesday, May 11, 2016. AP In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings People gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shia district of Sadr City, Iraq, May 11, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings A woman reacts at the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's mainly Shi'ite district of Sadr City, Iraq, May 11, 2016 Reuters In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings A bulldozer clears the wreckage following a car bomb attack in Sadr City, a Shia area of Baghdad, on May 11, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings Iraqis walk past flowers and shoes left on the ground at Oraiba market a day after it was targeted in a car bomb attack on May 12, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings Iraqis mourn in the holy city of Najaf during the funeral of victims of a car bombing in Baghdad's Shiia area of Sadr City during on May 11, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Baghdad hit by 24 hours of Isis bombings Baghdad bombings Mourners carry the coffins of bomb victims during a funeral procession at the holy shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq, on May 11, 2016. AP

The naming of the terrorist group has been fraught with difficulties for broadcasters, particularly as the replacement name "Daesh" is taken to be derogatory by many Muslims.

Last month Professor Ahmed accused the BBC of neglecting Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in its religious programming and catering primarily for Christians.

Muslim critics of the corporation have previously suggested that Friday prayers should be televised and there should be more coverage of Eid festival.

Professor Ahmed joined the BBC from Channel 4 in 2009 and commissioned the award winning documentaries Inside The Mind Of A Suicide Bomber and The Quran.

The Independent has contacted Aaqil Ahmed for comment.
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A man strangled a teacher he met on an online dating site before sexually assaulting and taking pictures of her dead body, a court has heard.

Katie Locke, 23, was killed by Carl Langdell while the pair were on their first date at Theobalds Park Hotel, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire on Christmas Eve last year.

Her body was later found in a bush near a skip in the hotels grounds.

The day after killing Ms Locke, Langdell reportedly confessed his actions over the phone to his mother, describing himself as a "monster".

Langdell, 26, pleaded guilty to Ms Lockes murder at a hearing in March.

Katie Locke (South Beds News Agency ) (South Beds News Agency)

At a two day sentencing hearing at St Albans Crown Court, Ann Evans, prosecuting, said after Langdell had killed Ms Locke he decided to have sexual intercourse with her dead body after which he took photographs of her body on his iPhone.

Langdell and Ms Locke, from Buckhurst Hill, Essex, met on the online dating site Plenty of Fish. Before arriving at the hotel they had previously been drinking at a bar in Shoreditch, east London, the Telegraph reports.

Before they met, Langdell told Ms Locke he had his own law firm, but had actually spent the last two years suffering from mental illness, which included marked periods in psychiatric hospitals.

The tragedy of this case is that Katie Locke, like thousands of other young people, having agreed to a date with Carl Langdell, accepted what he told her about himself, said Ms Evans.

"At the end of their first date in the early hours of 24 December last year, she agreed to go back to a hotel with him, he strangled her in that hotel room and then dumped her body near a skip outside the hotel."

The court heard Langdell had previously told a psychiatric nurse about his violent sexual fantasies.

In a family statement, Ms Locke, who according to the Hertfordshire Mercury was a history and politics teacher at Cardinal Pole School in Hackney, east London, was described as not having a bad bone in her body.

The statement said: Katie worked hard and loved her job as a teacher. In what little spare time she had she enjoyed sports. We now feel like our future has been stolen from us.

Langdell had been detained under the Mental Health Act and given a suspended sentence for making threats to kill in March last year.

His sentencing will continue on Friday.
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A steelworker who murdered his flatmate, stabbing her 48 times to steal 1,000 from her room, inflicted horrific injuries to her genitals as she lay dying, the Old Bailey heard.

Michael Purcell was jailed for life on Wednesday with a minimum tariff of 23 years for the murder of 49-year-old Imelda Molina at the flat they shared in Ashford Court in Cricklewood, North London.

Purcell, who owed 8,000 in tax, carried out the attack in order to steal the money from Ms Molinas partner, who found her mutilated body minutes after the attack.

Sentencing, Judge Wendy Joseph QC said Purcells additional attacks on the victims genitals were carried out because she was a woman or a lesbian.

She said: There has never been a clear account of what happened in the flat but I am satisfied there came a time where Ms Molina was under threat and either fled to her room or was already there and locked the door from the inside.

When she was dead or dying he made a further attack with the knife in her genital area.

It is impossible to interpret your decision to carry out this later attack as anything other than an attack made in reference to her sex or sexual orientation which you knew to be lesbian.

Following the attack Purcell used a Stanley knife to inflict a large cut to his own neck and wrists.

I killed the woman next door, just let me die, Purcell told officers and medics who attended the scene.

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Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. 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Purcell claimed to have no memory of the incident, due to his heavy use of alcohol in the preceding weeks.

He was found guilty of murder and burglary after an 11-day trial at the Old Bailey in April.
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Patrick Rock, a former aide to David Cameron, has avoided jail after being found guilty of five counts of downloading indecent images of young children.

The 65-year-old has been given a two-year conditional discharge, meaning he will not be sentenced unless a further offence is committed within that period.

Rock downloaded 20 images on his iPad during a visit to the US in August 2013, showing young girls in "sexualised" poses wearing bras and swimwear.

Prosecutors said the youngest of the girls in the pictures was just 10 years and four months old when the image was downloaded, meaning she would have been younger when it was taken.

Recommended Read more Patrick Rock guilty of making child sex abuse images

But Rock, who was appointed as the Prime Minister's deputy director of policy in 2011, argued that the images were not indecent.

Police in the US decided not to prosecute Rock because they had found there was no "child pornography" involved, in the words of his lawyer Sasha Wass QC.

His defence also argued that Rock had been visiting the US after the death of his mother, and that at the time of the offences he had been "sad, angry and holding on to the fact he had not been with mum when she died".

The jury at the trial at Southwark Crown Court was asked to deliberate on charges for each of the 20 images.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. 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After eight hours of deliberation, they found him guilty by majority verdict on five counts, acquitted him of three others, and were unable to agree on the remaining 12. Those charges will lie on file.

Rock will be required to register as a sex offender for the duration of his conditional discharge, and was banned from accessing the internet without retaining a browsing history that can be handed to police upon request.

Sentencing, judge Alistair McCreath said: "I have not lost sight of the obvious reality that right-thinking people will quite properly consider that those who did what you did should be punished for it.

"You should be. And you have been. The punishment for you is the loss of your reputation and your very public humiliation. It is a punishment which you brought on yourself, but is nonetheless a very real one. And it is one that is utterly merited."
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The parents of Britain's most prolific child sex abuser were so horrified by his activities in Malaysia that they begged police to take him away, a court heard.

Richard Huckle, 30, from Ashford in Kent, has admitted to an unprecedented amount of child sex offences with children aged between 6 months and 12 years.

He is thought to have abused up to 200 children between 2004 and 2014.

Huckle gained access to poor Christian families in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur by posing to be devout Christian English teacher intent on good deeds.

The Old Bailey heard that he had written a paedophile manual entitled Paedophiles And Poverty: Child Lover Guide as well as a Pedopoints ledger in which he detailed rapes and various sex acts.

The manual was on an encrypted space on Huckle's laptop ready for publication on the "dark web" through a hyperlink.

In online discussions he bragged: "Impoverished kids are definitely much easier to seduce than middle class Western kids."

Huckle was arrested by the National Crime Agency when he landed at Gatwick airport en route to spend Christmas at home with his family in 2014.

Prosecutor Brian O'Neill QC said Huckle's computer equipment was seized and he was bailed on condition he return to his parents' home.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA

More than 20,000 indecent pictures and videos were found on his computer. Officers also searched the home of Huckle's parents.

Huckle refused to answer officers' questions, but the next day his mother asked him about the allegations and he admitted he had sex with children.

Mr O'Neill said: "His mother was both extremely upset and extremely angry. She and his father called the police and asked them to take their son away.

"Both have made witness statements in support of this prosecution."

It took more than a hour to read all of the charges against Huckle at the Old Bailey (Getty Images) ((Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Officers were unable to crack passwords to more encrypted files on Huckle's laptop which are believed to contain more indecent images and a large number of unknown potential victims.

Huckle has admitted 71 child sex offences, including multiple rapes, against 23 identified children aged between six months and 12 years old. Some 22 of the charges carry discretionary life sentences.

A further 20 charges will lie on court file when he is sentenced by Judge Peter Rook QC on Friday.
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Northern Ireland will end its lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood, it has been announced.

Unlike the rest of the UK, men who have had sexual intercourse with other men are banned from donating blood in Northern Ireland. A similar ban was in place throughout the UK following the Aids crisis in the 1980s, however this was repealed in England, Scotland and Wales in 2011 following medical research which suggested the measure was unncessary. Most parts of the UK now have a 12 month period in which men are restricted from donating blood.

However, despite not allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood locally, Northern Ireland has continued to accept blood donations from other parts of the UK where they are allowed to do so. In 2013, a judge called Democratic Unionist Health Minister Edwin Poots' logic "irrational" and "defect in reason".

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

In February of last year, Stormont came under again pressure to justify the lifetime ban after it was claimed there was "no medical justification" for the measure.

Northern Ireland's Health Minister Michelle O'Neill said the new regulations will come into effect from 1 September
MIAMI, FL  Penthouse Pet Kendra Sunderland will be meeting her fans at E11EVEN Rooftop Lounge tonight, June 2, at CamCons Fan Day.

So many wonderful things have happened to me since last years CamCon, says Sunderland. I owe everything in my career to camming, and I want to thank all of my fans for making this happen. So, lets party!

CamCon Fan Day, from 8pm  11pm, allows a chance for fans to meet and interact with their favorite webcam performers in person. Join in this chance to spend informative, quality one-on-one time with porns next generation performers, exclusively at CamCons Fan Day festivities, with special guest DJ Mike Russ. A state-of-the-art retractable roof, communal tables, and comfortable sofa seating bring a warm and welcoming, yet sophisticated, setting to the 4,700 sq ft rooftop lounge, which also features fire pits and a sprawling hardwood plank deck.

To purchase tickets to the CamCon Fan Day, click here. Guests with a convention badge will receive complimentary admission and shuttle service will be provided from the SLS Hotel. For more information, visit 11MiamiRooftop.com or call the club directly at 305-829-2911.

The international webcam and live content convention will wrap up its Miami show with an Official Closing Party, which starts at 11pm. Alongside the club's aerialists and exotic acts, the evening will feature special guest DJ Craze, plus a live afterhours DJ set by Obscene.

To purchase tickets to the CamCon Official Closing Party, click here. Guests with a convention badge will receive complimentary admission; shuttle service will also be provided from the SLS Hotel.

E11EVEN and E11EVEN Rooftop Lounge are located at 29 NE 11th St, Miami, FL 33132. The club is 21+ for entry.

For more information on CamCon, go to CamCon.com. The convention may also be followed on Twitter at @CamConOfficial.
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Jeremy Corbyns vow to stop the controversial TTIP trade deal is opportunistic and misguided, an organisation representing bosses has said.

The Institute of Directors, which lobbies on behalf of business interests, accused the Labour leader of rushing to judgement on the EU-US trade treaty before it was finalised..

Mr Corbyn this morning pledged to reject TTIP and veto it in government under its current terms.

Campaigners have long warned that the deal, which is being negotiated in secret, would allow corporations to sue governments that harmed their profits because of the inclusion of a clause called Investor State Dispute Settlement.

Previous trade treaties to include similar systems have seen national governments forced to pay to multinational corporations for scrapping tax breaks and introducing regulations.

Allie Renison, head of EU and trade policy at the Institute of Directors, said an overwhelming majority of IoD members supported TTIP.

In an interconnected world, easy movement of goods and services across borders is vital to maximising Britains economic prosperity, she said in reaction to Mr Corbyns speech.

An overwhelming majority of IoD members support the US-EU trade deal because a reduction in trade barriers would give a boost to both exporters and importers alike.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn delivers a speech on the EU in central London (Sky News)

We urge the Labour party to wait until the agreement has been finalised before rushing to judgement. In both Europe and America the principle of free trade is under attack from opportunistic or misguided politicians.

The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Show all 6 1 /6 The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP The NHS Public services, especially the NHS, are in the firing line. One of the main aims of TTIP is to open up Europes public health, education and water services to US companies. This could essentially mean the privatisation of the NHS. The European Commission has claimed that public services will be kept out of TTIP. However, according to the Huffington Post, the UK Trade Minister Lord Livingston has admitted that talks about the NHS were still on the table Getty The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Food and environmental safety TTIPs regulatory convergence agenda will seek to bring EU standards on food safety and the environment closer to those of the US. But US regulations are much less strict, with 70 per cent of all processed foods sold in US supermarkets now containing genetically modified ingredients. By contrast, the EU allows virtually no GM foods. The US also has far laxer restrictions on the use of pesticides. It also uses growth hormones in its beef which are restricted in Europe due to links to cancer. US farmers have tried to have these restrictions lifted repeatedly in the past through the World Trade Organisation and it is likely that they will use TTIP to do so again Getty The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Banking regulations TTIP cuts both ways. The UK, under the influence of the all-powerful City of London, is thought to be seeking a loosening of US banking regulations. Americas financial rules are tougher than ours. They were put into place after the financial crisis to directly curb the powers of bankers and avoid a similar crisis happening again. TTIP, it is feared, will remove those restrictions, effectively handing all those powers back to the bankers Getty/Bloomberg The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Privacy Remember ACTA (the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)? It was thrown out by a massive majority in the European Parliament in 2012 after a huge public backlash against what was rightly seen as an attack on individual privacy where internet service providers would be required to monitor peoples online activity. Well, its feared that TTIP could be bringing back ACTAs central elements, proving that if the democratic approach doesnt work, theres always the back door. An easing of data privacy laws and a restriction of public access to pharmaceutical companies clinical trials are also thought to be on the cards AFP/Getty Images The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Jobs The EU has admitted that TTIP will probably cause unemployment as jobs switch to the US, where labour standards and trade union rights are lower. It has even advised EU members to draw on European support funds to compensate for the expected unemployment. Examples from other similar bi-lateral trade agreements around the world support the case for job losses. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico caused the loss of one million US jobs over 12 years, instead of the hundreds of thousands of extra that were promised Dave Thompson/Getty Images The 6 reasons why we should be scared of TTIP Democracy TTIPs biggest threat to society is its inherent assault on democracy. One of the main aims of TTIP is the introduction of Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS), which allow companies to sue governments if those governments policies cause a loss of profits. In effect it means unelected transnational corporations can dictate the policies of democratically elected governments AFP/Getty

Now more than ever we need our leaders to stand up and make the positive case for how trade benefits both businesses and consumers through lower prices, a greater variety of products and services, jobs associated with increased exports, and the innovation which competition spurs.

The organisation says nine out of 10 of its members support TTIP.

Mr Corbyn this morning said his mailbag was full of people asking him to stand up to the deal, however. Many people are concerned rightly, that it could open up public services to further privatisation  and make privatisation effectively irreversible, he said in a speech in central London on Thursday.

Others are concerned about any potential watering down of consumer rights, food safety standards, rights at work or environmental protections and the facility for corporations to sue national governments if regulations impinged on their profits."

Last month French president Francois Hollande also said he could not accept the TTIP deal in its current form.

Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have criticised the deal in the United States and there have been warnings that it may not get off the ground.
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David Cameron has refused to back Boris Johnson as the next prime minister, potentially deepening the public rift between the two Conservative politicians.

During a televised debate on whether Britain should remain in the European Union the Prime Minister said the former Mayor of London, who is believed to want the top job, was a a very talented politician.

But he stopped short of giving him Mr Johnson his endorsement when pressed.

The former mayor of London took the opposite side in the referendum campaign to the PM, with sparks flying between the two over a number of issues.

Last week Mr Johnson accused Mr Cameron of making a "cynical" plege on immigration; Mr Cameron has previously suggested that his rival had only backed the Leave campaign to further his career.

In a possible hint that Mr Cameron has no plans to leave office before the 2020 election, the PM said it would be for the British public to pick the next Prime Minister.

You have Days Hours Minutes Seconds left to register

Were Mr Cameron to step down the next PM would likely be chosen by the Conservative party when it elected its leader.

I think Boris is a very talented politician  he was a great Mayor of London and Ive always said hes got a huge amount to give to public service and public life," he told the Sky News debate.

I dont get to pick the next Prime Minister  that will be a decision made by the party and by the country when the country votes. Im not going to put the black spot on anyone by saying who should and shouldnt do the job.

Mr Johnson is the favourite to suceed Mr Cameron amongst members, accorfing to repeated surveys of Tory members conducted by the website ConservativeHome.

Mr Cameron has said he will step down before the 2020 general election but has not given any more specific details about what that means.

There have been anonymous public calls from some disgruntled Tory MPs for him to set a date of departure or face a vote of no confidence in light of his conduct during the bitterly fought referendum campaign.
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Vote Leave campaigners have written to David Cameron to express "serious concerns" over reports some EU migrants to Britain received voting cards for the upcoming referendum.

The former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith and Tory MP Bernard Jenkin told the Prime Minister they had been alerted by a number of concerned members of the public, saying ineligible EU citizens had reported receiving polling cards ahead of the 23 June vote.

In the letter, seen by the Independent and which was also sent to the Electoral Commission and the head of the Civil Service, the MPs say they have serious concerns about the conduct of the European Union referendum and its franchise".

The franchise for the referendum does not include citizens from other EU countries who live in the UK, in line with similar rules for general elections.

The letter claimed there are no checks conducted to make sure anyone applying to vote is indeed eligible.

Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Jenkin said: The British public will be as shocked as we are to discover that the integrity of the franchise for this long-awaited referendum is being protected in such a lax manner.

We have seen an email from the Electoral Services Officer at Nottingham City Council to one of our supporters, which confirms this in clear and shocking terms: If an elector lies during their registration, we are not able to check to see if the nationality is correct or not. We have to assume that the elector is submitting their correct nationality.

The letter follows guidance the Electoral Commission published on Wednesday, confirming EU nationals cannot vote in the referendum.

It is an offence to knowingly give false information on a registration application. A person who knowingly provides false information could, in England and Wales, face an unlimited fine and/or up to six months in prison, the document says.

Mr Duncan Smith and Mr Jenkin asked the prime minister if he believes it is sensible that no checks to verify someones nationality are in place.

They also called on him to estimate the scale of the problem and asked him to make clear that EU nationals are not legally allowed to vote in the referendum.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA

The letter ends: Given the gravity of this issue  and the fact that postal votes are already being issued and cast  we hope you will answer these questions by noon tomorrow.

The letter is the latest attack on the legitimacy of the vote later this month, and follows a row over voting guides and government-funded pro-EU material.
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The BBCs political editor was hissed by Jeremy Corbyns supporters as she asked the Labour leader a question after his speech on the EU referendum.

Following the hissing  and some laughter  Laura Kuenssberg asked: For Labour voters, what do you think is more important? Defending workers rights or immigration and the impact on communities in this country?

It comes after Mr Corbyn, in a Vice News documentary, accused the BBC of bias and described the organisation as obsessed with trying to discredit him.

He added: There is not one story on any election anywhere in the UK that the BBC will not spin into a problem for me. It is obsessive beyond belief. They are obsessed with trying to damage the leadership of the Labour party.

Wes Streeting, a Labour MP, responded: Journalists are people doing their job. A party that stands up for workers rights should not allow to be booed and hissed at. End of.

It is not the first time, however, that the 39-year-old Scottish journalist has been targeted by the Labour leaders supporters. A petition calling for her to sacked for biased coverage of the May elections was signed by more than 35,000 people.

But Campaign group 38 Degrees said the petition became dominated by misogynist abuse and they decided to take it down with the agreement of the person who initially started it.

The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Show all 11 1 /11 The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He called Hezbollah and Hamas friends True. In a speech made to the Stop the War Coalition in 2009, Mr Corbyn called representatives from both groups friends after inviting them to Parliament. He later told Channel 4 he wanted both groups, who have factions designated as international terror organisations, to be part of the debate for the Middle East peace process. I use (the word friends) in a collective way, saying our friends are prepared to talk, he added. Does it mean I agree with Hamas and what it does? No. Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah and what they do? No. Reuters The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn thinks the death of Osama bin Laden was a tragedy Partly false. David Cameron used this as a line of attack at the Conservative Party conference but appears to have left out all context from Mr Corbyns original remarks. In an 2011 interview on Iranian television, the then-backbencher said the fact the al-Qaeda leader was not put on trial was the tragedy, continuing: The World Trade Center was a tragedy, the attack on Afghanistan was a tragedy, the war in Iraq was a tragedy. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is haunted by the legacy of his evil great-great-grandfather False. A Daily Express expose revealed that the Labour leaders ancestor, James Sargent, was the despotic master of a Victorian workhouse. Addressing the report at the Labour conference, Mr Corbyn said he had never heard of him before, adding: I want to take this opportunity to apologise for not doing the decent thing and going back in time and having a chat with him about his appalling behaviour. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn raised a motion about pigeon bombs in Parliament This one is true. On 21 May 2004, Mr Corbyn raised an early day motion entitled pigeon bombs, proposing that the House register being appalled but barely surprised that MI5 reportedly proposed to load pigeons with explosives as a weapon. The motion continued: The House believes that humans represent the most obscene, perverted, cruel, uncivilised and lethal species ever to inhabit the planet and looks forward to the day when the inevitable asteroid slams into the earth and wipes them out thus giving nature the opportunity to start again. It was not carried. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He rides a Communist bicycle False. A report in The Times referred to Mr Corbyn, known for his cycling, riding a Chairman Mao-style bicycle earlier this year. Less thorough journalists might have referred to it as just a bicycle, but no, so we have to conclude that whenever we see somebody on a bicycle from now on, there goes another supporter of Chairman Mao, he later joked. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn 'Jeremy Corbyn will appoint a special minister for Jews' False so far. The Sun report in December was allegedly based on a rumour passed to the paper by a Daily Express columnist who has written pieces critical of the Labour leader in the past. The minister did not materialise in his shadow cabinet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn wishes Britain would abolish its Army False. Another gem from The Sun took comments made at a Hiroshima remembrance parade in August 2012 where Mr Corbyn supported Costa Ricas move to abolish it armed forces. Wouldnt it be wonderful if every politician around the worldabolished the army and took pride in the fact that they dont have an army, he added. The caveat that every politician must take the step suggests Mr Corbyn does not support UK disarmament just yet. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn stole sandwiches meant for veterans False. The Guido Fawkes blog claimed that the Labour leader took sandwiches meant for veterans at at Battle of Britain memorial service in September but a photo later emerged showing him being handed one by Costa volunteers, who later confirmed they were given to all guests. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He missed the induction into the Queens privy council True. After much speculation about Mr Corbyns republican views and willingness to bow to the monarch, his office confirmed that he did not attend the official induction to the privy council because of a prior engagement, but did not rule out joining the body. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn refuses to sing the national anthem. Partly true. The Labour leader was filmed standing in silence as God Save the Queen was sung at a Battle of Britain remembrance service but will reportedly sing it in future. Mr Corbyn was elusive on the issue in an interview, saying he would show memorials respect in the proper way, but sources said he would sing the anthem at future occasions. The most ridiculous claims made about Jeremy Corbyn He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese True. The group lists its purpose as the following: To increase awareness of issues surrounding the dairy industry and focus on economic issues affecting the dairy industry and producers.

Speaking after the event, Ms Kuenssberg said: [Mr] Corbyn also mentioned importance of free speech in his speechjust sayin.

At the Insitute of Engineering Technology, Mr Corbyn launched an attack on George Osborne over his Brexit recession warnings and claimed the Tory government poses the "biggest risk" of plunging Britain into an economic crisis.

The Labour leader rubbished the prophecies of doom and histrionic claims being made in the referendum campaign as he laid into the Chancellor's record on the economy. In a speech setting out the positive case for remaining in the European Union, Mr Corbyn slammed the way the Government was attempting to win over voters.
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The Justice Secretary Michael Gove has claimed that the Government had been forced to allow terror suspects to enter Britain because European Union rules left them powerless to prevent them from travelling here.

Mr Gove said that during his time in the Cabinet he "experienced frustration" at Britains "inability to refuse entry to those with a criminal record and even some who are suspected of terrorist links".

While Mr Goves department does not have direct responsibility for policing Britains borders he would have been privy to Cabinet discussions on such issues.

He is known to have clashed with the Home Secretary Theresa May and wanted a broader definition of "extremism" to apply when considered who should be banned from entering Britain.

Setting out his vision for Britain outside of the EU, Mr Gove said that in the days after a Brexit, the Government would pass "emergency measures to curb the baleful influence" of the European Court of Justice.

"As Justice Secretary, I have experienced the frustration at our inability to refuse entry to those with a criminal record and even some who are suspected of terrorist links," Mr Gove said in an essay about a Brexit.

His comments will intensify the debate over the security of Britains borders.

However pro-EU campaigners have pointed out that any illegal immigrants arriving in the UK from mainland Europe can, at the moment, be returned.

That would no longer be the case if we pulled out of the EU.

Meanwhile David Cameron is preparing to take part in his first debate of the referendum campaign, during which he is likely to face questions about Britain's control over its borders.

At the same time George Osborne and Alistair Darling have accused the Leave campaign of having "uncosted and unworkable proposals" that are "dangerous" for the British economy.

The news comes as the boss of one of Britains biggest unions said Jeremy Corbyn must be "bolder and braver" in making the case for immigration in the UK if he is to win over Labour voters to the cause of remaining in the EU.

Tim Roache, who is a key Corbyn backer, told the Guardian he was concerned that the Labour leader was being "mealy mouthed" about an issue that he said was front and centre for many voters.

"We have to confront the real issues in the minds of working people, and whether we like it or not, that is immigration and the free movement of labour," he said.

"I think Labour needs to be a bit more bold, it needs to be a bit more brave, in taking on the issues in working peoples minds, rather than keeping silent about them, and I think thats what Labours done for too long."
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Jeremy Corbyn needs to be bolder and braver in making the case for immigration and should step up the campaign to keep Britain in the EU, the chief of one of Britains biggest unions has said.

The warning from the GMB general secretary Tim Roache comes as the Labour leader prepares to praise the EU in a speech. He added that the Remain campaign risks losing the referendum if Labour voters do not get more engaged.

The intervention from the leader of GMB, the third-largest Labour affiliated union that represents 640,000 members, also comes after it emerged  through a leaked memo and polling from YouGov  that nearly half of Labour voters are unaware of the partys stance on the upcoming EU referendum. The poll revealed that only 55 per cent of voters knew that the majority of the partys MPs back remaining in the 28-member state bloc.

Around 45 per cent of those asked thought the party was backing Brexit or its members were split down the middle.

Mr Corbyn, who voted against membership of the European Economic Community in 1975, has received criticism for a "half-hearted" campaign to keep Britain in the EU.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Roache said Labour needed to confront the immigration question: "I think Labour needs to be a bit more bold, it needs to be a bit more brave, in taking on the issues in working people's minds, rather than keeping silent about them, and I think that's what Labour's done for too long."

He warned of the danger that Labour supporters could stay at home on referendum day because "they won't see it as the absolutely crucial vote that it is, and I also think that they see it as a bunfight in the Tory Party".

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"The reality is that the more people that stay at home, the more likely it is that we will leave the EU," said the GMB boss. "I don't think we can even begin to contemplate that."

Shadow cabinet member Owen Smith said Mr Roache was right about the need for a strong and distinct Labour case for Remain and the danger that Labour voters will see this as something that Tories have been banging on about for the last 30 years and not something that bothers them.

 Corbyn on EU referendum

Jeremy agrees with him, which is why he is making a really big speech today - the third or fourth speech he has made in the campaign - and he is making a very clear Labour case, saying that we have a series of workers' rights that are dependent on our being members of the EU, which acts as backstop to support those rights, Mr Smith told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Mary Creagh  a Labour MP who put her name forward for last year's leadership contest but failed to secure enough support to get on the ballot paper  said speeches were not enough to get Labour's message across, and the party should be fighting the campaign like a general election.

The Wakefield MP told BBC Today: "The danger in this campaign is that all Labour voices have been crowded out by the crisis and splits engulfing the Conservative Party. I've had emails from my constituents saying 'I'm a Labour voter but what's the Labour position?' I've been saying it locally, but that message isn't getting through on the ground.

"The danger is of leaders making a speech and then thinking everybody has heard it ... I think we need to be treating this referendum as though it was a general election campaign and having everybody out on the doorstep and having a good ground campaign. It's important that we help people understand what this means for working people."

What has the EU ever done for us? Show all 7 1 /7 What has the EU ever done for us? What has the EU ever done for us? 1. It gives you freedom to live, work and retire anywhere in Europe As a member of the EU, UK citizens benefit from freedom of movement across the continent. Considered one of the so-called four pillars of the European Union, this freedom allows all EU citizens to live, work and travel in other member states. What has the EU ever done for us? 2. It sustains millions of jobs A report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research, released in October 2015, suggested 3.1 million British jobs were linked to the UKs exports to the EU. What has the EU ever done for us? 3. Your holiday is much easier - and safer Freedom to travel is one of the most exercised benefits of EU membership, with Britons having made 31 million visits to the EU in 2014 alone. But a lot of the benefits of being an EU citizen are either taken for granted or go unnoticed. What has the EU ever done for us? 4. It means you're less likely to get ripped off Consumer protection is a key benefit of the EUs single market, and ensures members of the British public receive equal consumer rights when shopping anywhere in Europe. What has the EU ever done for us? 5. It offers greater protection from terrorists, paedophiles, people traffickers and cyber-crime Another example of a lesser-known advantage of EU membership is the benefit of cross-country coordination and cooperation in the fight against crime. What has the EU ever done for us? 6. Our businesses depend on it According to 71% of all members of the Confederation of British Influence (CBI), and 67 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the EU has had an overall positive impact on their business. What has the EU ever done for us? 7. We have greater influence Robin Niblett, Director of think-tank Chatham House, stated in a report published last year: For a mid-sized country like the UK, which will never again be economically dominant either globally or regionally, and whose diplomatic and military resources are declining in relative terms, being a major player in a strong regional institution can offer a critical lever for international influence.

In a speech at the Institute of Engineering Technology, Mr Corbyn will say:"Several Leave supporters have stated clearly they want to leave Europe to water down workers' rights, to rip up the protections that protect work-life balance, that prevent discrimination and prevent exploitation and injustice.

"That is why we say, the threat to the British people is not the European Union - it is a Conservative Government here in Britain seeking to undermine the good things we have achieved in Europe and resisting changes that would benefit the ordinary people of Britain.

"A vote to Leave means a Conservative Government would then be in charge of negotiating Britain's exit. Everything they have done as a government so far means we could not rely on them to protect the workplace rights that millions rely on. A Tory Brexit negotiation would be a disaster for the majority of people in Britain."
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Leading wildlife groups have backed Britain remaining in the European Union, warning that nature doesnt observe national boundaries.

Bird charity the RSPB and the World Wildlife Fund UK say they believe that staying in the EU would be the safer option for Britain.

The intervention comes as David Cameron warns that the EU underpins many crucial environmental protections in the UK.

With 1.7 million supporters between them, the two organisations represent the biggest civil society organisations to give a view on the referendum outside the trade unions movement.

Mike Clarke, chief executive of the RSPB, said EU membership had had many benefits for the natural environment and birds.

We have always believed that, because nature transcends national boundaries, it needs cross-border co-operation to protect it and a common set of international standards that enable it to thrive, he said.

As the Prime Minister rightly points out, UK membership of the EU has benefitted nature and the environment in ways that would be hard to replicate if we left.

The RSPB will not be telling people how to vote, and we recognise that voters will be weighing up a range of issues when casting their votes on 23 June. However, we want a secure future for our most precious wildlife and the places they call home.

Nature transcends national boundaries <p>Mike Clarke, RSPB</p>

In weighing up the current evidence, the uncertainties and the balance of risks, we have concluded that the safer option for nature is for the UK to remain a part of the European Union.

David Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK, said the EU had helped European countries work more closely on environmental issues.

The outcome of this referendum will have profound implications for our countryside, wildlife, rivers and seas, he said.

David Cameron is right to put the environment at the top of the agenda today, and he has highlighted the range of benefits that EU membership has delivered for our species and habitats.

Nature doesnt observe national boundaries but still needs protection. So whatever the result on 23 June, we must work closely with other countries to tackle the huge threats that our wildlife and wild places face.

The cats charity Cats Protection, while not explicitly backing Remain, has previously endorsed European Parliament plans to tackled EU-wide pet trade.

Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures Show all 23 1 /23 Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-4.jpg  Florian Breuer/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-5.jpg  Steve Brockett/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-1.jpg  GMB Akash/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-2.jpg  Alamsyah Rauf/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-21.jpg  GMB Akash/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-22.jpg  Ferina Natasya Aziz/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-23.jpg  Khalid Rayhan Shawon/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-3.jpg  Javier Arcenillas/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-6.jpg  Steve Brockett/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-7.jpg  Stuart Chape/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-8.jpg  William Eckersley/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-9.jpg  Alessandro Grassani/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-10.jpg  Alessandro Grassani/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-11.jpg  Alessandro Grassani/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-12.jpg  Kai Loeffelbein/Laif/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-13.jpg  Lu Guang/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-14.jpg  Pierpaolo Mittica/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-16.jpg  Steve Morgan/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-17.jpg  Igor F. Petkovic/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-18.jpg  Josh Redman/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-19.jpg  Thomas White/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-20.jpg  Zoltan Balogh/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year Natural wonders: CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2013 - in pictures CIWEM-25.jpg  Steve Brockett/ Courtesy the photographer and CIWEM's Environmental Photographer of the Year

Conservative MP Liam Fox claimed this week that EU rules meant Britain could not outlaw puppy-trafficking.

You have probably read in the papers some of the stories about puppy trafficking that is now taking place across the continent  that is something I would like to make illegal but it is not possible for us to do so while we are in the European Union, he told the BBCs World at One programme.

The Remain campaign however hit back, arguing that such trafficking was already illegal.

David Cameron said he would press for enhanced environmental protections at EU level.

This referendum is a once in a generation decision, and it is vital that we hear from every sector on the possible implications for our country. Charities such as the RSPB and WWF play an important role in the debate on Europe, and I welcome their declaration that our natural environment will be safer if we stay in a reformed EU.

EU membership underpins many crucial environmental protections in the UK, while amplifying our voice in the world on vital issues like cutting global emissions.

Of course, a vote to Remain doesn't mean the job is done, which is why I will continue to press for change in Europe.

I will use our seat at the table to ensure the natural environment, bio-diversity and a living, working countryside are at the heart of agricultural policy through continued reform of the CAP; and that the birds and habitats directives are maintained and better implemented, both in the UK and across Europe, to ensure the diversity of our countryside and wildlife.
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Jeremy Corbyn described unspecified Israeli politicians as criminal and criticised the fairness of BBC coverage of Palestine, in a letter to William Hague written two years before he became Labour leader.

The letter is one of a series written by Mr Corbyn to Foreign Office ministers, released following a Freedom of Information request.

The Labour leader has been a longstanding and outspoken critic of Israels illegal settlements in Palestinian territory and its blockade of Gaza.

Recommended Read more Bosses tell Jeremy Corbyn not to block TTIP trade deal

In a letter to Mr Hague, the then Foreign Secretary, in March 2013, he describes a recent visit to Gaza, which he said resembled one huge suffering refugee camp.

At one of the meetings I attended I was asked if we would, at the very least, a) stop allowing Israels criminal politicians to come to our country freely, b) if we would ensure the BBC portray Palestine fairly and c) if we would end the siege of Gaza, he writes.

Had I not been working toward all of these three aims Id have hung my head in shame, he adds. There was no possible explanation I could give as to why our governments had made no progress in support of such crucial aims.

It is not clear which Israeli politicians Mr Corbyn was referring to. The former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert had been convicted of a charge of breach of trust by the time the letter was written and has since been jailed on a later charge of bribery.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (Reuters)

In the letter, Mr Corbyn goes on to criticise the BBC for having barely mentioned that Palestinian prisoners were undertaking a hunger strike in protest against Israels actions.

Since becoming Labour leader, Mr Corbyn has had a fractious relationship with the BBC, and described the corporation as obsessed with trying to damage the leadership of the Labour party in a recent documentary for Vice.

In another letter to Mr Hague, written in February 2012, Mr Corbyn calls on the UK Government to impose trade sanctions on Israel over the eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

Israels current action and victimisation of the people of East Jerusalem is an abomination that is totally illegal, he wrote. Surely the only logical way forward here is to take concrete action to penalise Israel via the most obvious method, before outlining proposals to take action via the EU-Israel Association Trade Agreement.
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Jeremy Corbyn has cast doubt on claims by the Remain campaign that leaving the EU would cause a major recession.

The Labour leader, who supports staying in the EU, said the predictions of Brexit causing economic cataclysm were from the same George Osborne who had made a number of other incorrect economic predictions.

Despite rejecting the economic forecasts Mr Corbyn said there were other good reasons to remain in the EU  such as environmental regulations, human rights and workers rights.

Just over a week ago George Osborne claimed that the British economy would enter a year-long recession if we voted to Leave, he said.

This is the same George Osborne who predicted his austerity policies would close the deficit by 2015. Thats now been rescheduled to 2021  its the old five-year card trick of George Osborne.

Its the same George Osborne who said the British economy would be carried aloft by the march of the makers  yet the manufacturing sector has stagnated ever since, and manufacturing employment declined.

The biggest risk of recession in this country is from a Conservative government that is failing on the deficit and the debt and failing to rebalance the economy and failing to boost productivity.

Last month the Chancellor said Brexit would trigger a DIY recession, basing his claims on Treasury forecasts. Civil servants at his department had predicted that GDP would be 3.6 per cent lower if the UK left the bloc.

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The Treasury economists stand alongside the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the OECD, the IMF, and the Bank of England as warning of the dire economic consequences of leaving the EU.

Mr Corbyn said he wanted to remain and reform the EU, arguing that the bloc should strengthen workers' rights across Europe and prevent the undercutting of wages.

He said he would also push for the EU to meet challenges posted by migration, end pressure to privatise public services, democratise its institutions and push for other reforms to ensure we generate prosperity across Europe to the benefit of all.

He also said he would reject the TTIP trade treaty between the EU and the United States.

In the Remain camp, Mr Corbyn is not alone in questioning the Treasurys forecasts. Former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond made a similar claim on a BBC youth debate event last month, arguing that predictions of apocalypse were not accurate.

Mr Corbyn made his comments at a speech in central London on the future of the European Union.

The Labour leader delivered the address the same morning as GMB union general secretary Tim Roache claimed he was not doing enough to campaign for EU membership.
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Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone has described his comments about Adolf Hitler supporting Zionism as "factual" and compared them "1+1=2".

Speaking at the Oxford Union on Wednesday, Mr Livingstone refused to apologise for his statements about the Nazi leader and blamed "embittered MPs" for branding him a Nazi apologist.

He said: "I think this has been largely manufactured by people trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.

"If someone says something antisemitic they will be expelled but you can't expel someone for telling the truth."

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said Show all 14 1 /14 Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On Israel and Palestine The simple fact in all of this is that Naz made these comments at a time when there was another brutal Israeli attack on the Palestinians; and theres one stark fact that virtually no one in the British media ever reports, in almost all these conflicts the death toll is usually between 60 and 100 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. Now, any other country doing that would be accused of war crimes but its like we have a double standard about the policies of the Israeli government Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On Antisemitism in the Labour Party As Ive said, Ive never heard anybody say anything antisemitism-Semitic, but theres been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticises Israeli policy as antisemitic. I had to put up with 35 years of this Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On Naz Shah Its completely over-the-top and rude, but who am I to denounce anyone with all of that. It was wrong. I dont think she is antisemitic, it was incredibly rude but I dont believe she is an antisemite. When the NEC investigation is finished they'll say it was rude and over the top but they wont find any evidence that she actually hates Jews. Weve got to investigate all these charges and the context in which they are made. If she is antisemitic like the other three or four members weve found who are antisemitic, shell be expelled Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On other alleged antisemites in Labour That is part of the classic antisemitic thing about an international Jewish conspiracy  that is the reason we need to have an investigation. Ive got an open mind. Ive seen nothing to suggest to me that she is antisemitic. I wouldnt have supported her if I [thought] she was antisemitic Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On whether what Hitler did was legal, as stated by Naz Shah Thats a statement of fact  Hitler, Im sure, passed all those laws that allowed him to do that  its history  literally, Hitler was completely mad, he killed six million Jews. Shes not saying its legal to kill six million Jews: what they were doing in that country allowed them not just to kill six million Jews, kill all the communists, kill all the leftists like me, my father almost died when a Nazi sub sank his boat. I have no sympathy with Hitler Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On another alleged antisemite in Labour No, that is, and thats why shes been suspended or expelled. What Ive said is that in 47 years of the party in all the meetings Ive been in Ive never heard anyone say anything antisemitic. There are bound to be in a party of half a million people youll have a handful of antisemites, youll have a handful of racists. Youve managed to dig out virtually every antisemitic comment that Labour members have made out of half a million people. Ive never met any of these people. Theres not a problem. Youre talking about a handful of people in a party of half a million people. Jeremy Corbyn has moved rapidly to deal with them Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On Jeremy Corbyns response to the allegations He met with Naz and she agreed she would stand down while the investigation is going on. He called her in to see her. Theres been a huge investigation of virtually everything that anybody put on the internet  many of these people are quite new and recent members of the party that joined in the big influx. 300,000 new people came in Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On his meeting a man accused of antisemitism in London This is the man who called for Muslims around the world to donate blood after the attacks of 9/11 when he came to London I went with him to the Regents Park mosque where he said no man should hit a woman and you should not discriminate against homosexuals. So I cant equate what I heard him say he made no antisemitic statement while he was here in London. I dont investigate people. Ive simply said what I believe to be true which is that Naz was not antisemitic. She was completely over the top, very rude, but that does not make her an antisemite Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On John Manns comments He went completely over the top. I was actually doing a radio interview at the time that he was bellowing that Im a racist antisemite in my ear. Ive had that with John Mann before a few weeks ago screaming that I was a bigot down the phone. Im not an apologist for anyone who makes antisemitic statements. What Im saying is dont confuse antisemitism with criticism of the Israeli government policy Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On calling a Jewish journalist a concentration camp guard whilst Mayor of London I cant tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic. We won the case Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On claims about Hitler and Zionism I cant tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic. We won the case Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On John Mann Id simply say to John Mann go back and check. Is what I say true, or is it not? The BBC, youve got a huge team of researchers, it will take just an hour or two to go back and confirm. I was asked a question, I answered it. I have never in 45 years since I won my first election, I have never lied. I have always answered the question Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On raising the issue if Hitler It lays you open to people smearing and lying about you. Ive always answered the questions put to me and that simple fact is weve had a handful of people saying antisemitic things in the Labour Party, theyve been suspended, some of them are on their way to being expelled, some of them have been expelled already Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said On people calling for him to be suspended All my usual critics  but the simple fact is I agree with them; there is no place for antisemitism in the Labour party. For them to suggest I am antisemitic is a bit bizarre considering we worked with Jewish groups and put on exhibitions about the scale of the holocaust, we worked with Jewish groups to tackling the scale of antisemitism back in the 1970s. Ive always opposed every form of racism whether its against black people or Jews. Im going to stay in the Labour party and continue to fight against all forms of racism and discrimination as I have my entire life

Mr Livingstone has been suspended from the Labour Party over his claim Hitler supported Zionism.

Let's remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews," the former London mayor said in a radio interview defending Naz Shah, who was suspended for alleged antisemitic comments.

He later defended his remarks, saying it was "like saying the Normans invaded this country in 1066. It is simply historical fact".

 John Mann MP call Ken Livingstone MP a 'Nazi apologist'

When asked by Robert Harris. the union's president, if he could understand the outrage and distrust he had caused, Mr Livingstone replied: "I put all of this in my autobiography five years ago and no one said anything then.

"Embittered MPs (think) here we can start screaming at Ken Livingstone, 'Nazi apologist' and so on, and create all this stuff about antisemitism."

He said he has been attacked throughout his political career for his forthright views and has always refused to say sorry for his controversial opinions.

"When I have gone through lots of people saying I should apologise to this reporter or apologise for saying Hitler was a supporter of Zionism... I have never apologised," he said.

The Labour party has been plagued by allegations of antisemitism in recent months, leading to the suspension of several party members pending investigations.

Additional reporting by PA
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The Scottish Parliament has voted to support a ban on fracking north of the border.

Labour, the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats joined forces to vote for the ban, with the Conservatives voting against it.

The Scottish National Party, which currently runs a minority government in Scotland abstained on the issue.

The motion was passed by 32 votes to 29. It is non-binding on the Government, but opposition politicians say it would be wrong to ignore the will of the parliament.

The SNP's manifesto for last months elections to the parliament committed to a fracking ban unless it can be proven beyond doubt that there is no risk to health, communities or the environment.

Scottish Labours environment spokesperson, Claudia Beamish said the Scottish Government needed to make its position clear.

The SNP government must now clarify whether or not they will respect the will of parliament and introduce an outright ban on fracking. It would be outrageous for this important vote to be ignored, she said.

There is no doubt about the science  to meet our climate change goals and protect our environment we need to develop low carbon sources of energy, not another fossil fuel. Labours position is clear: no ifs, no buts, no fracking.

SNP energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said the partys position was in line with its manifesto commitments.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA

We are deeply sceptical about fracking and, through our moratorium, we have ensured that no fracking can take place in Scotland, he said.

Our abstention in this parliamentary vote respects and is in line with that moratorium.

Some Conservatives spoke out in favour of fracking. MSP Maurice Golden claimed that a leftwing cabal in the parliament was ignoring scientific evidence.

Fracking is a controversial drilling process for extracting shale gas and oil from rocks by injecting high-pressure water and chemicals into crevices in the ground.

Environmentalists say the potentially carcinogenic chemicals injected into the ground in the process can seep into groundwater and that more fossil fuels are not a long-term solution to environmental challenges like climate change.

Supporters of fracking say it provides cheap fossil fuel energy.

A number of academic studies have suggested that unless fossil fuels are left in the ground climate change would reach catastrophic levels.
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Nigel Farage may get another chance to win the Westminster seat he lost at the General Election after a judge suggested that the result could be declared void.

The district judge threw out a bid by the Tories to block Kent police from extending their investigation into whether the party broke election spending limits in their fight to stop the Ukip leader from winning the South Thanet seat last year.

Judge Justin Barron said the case was "wholly exceptional and there was a "very significant public interest in the matter being fully investigated" by Kent Police.

A joint investigation by Channel 4 News and the Daily Mail revealed the cost of dozens of hotel rooms used by Tory officials and activists in the South Thanet constituency had not been declared on the Tory candidate Craig Mackinlay's spending returns, which was limited to around 15,000.

Instead, the costs were declared on the party's national spending returns.

The Conservative party focused a significant amount of resources on fighting the constituency in an attempt to prevent Mr Farage from entering Parliament. In the end he was defeated by 2,812 votes.

Delivering his verdict Mr Barron said: "The combination of circumstances before me is wholly exceptional and goes far beyond the usual circumstances that would exist in a typical case where election expenses are being investigated."

He added: "The consequences of a conviction would be of a local and national significance with the potential for election results being declared void."

Timothy Straker QC, representing Kent Police, argued that the allegations that the Tories had breached election spending limits was serious enough to warrant an extension to the normal 12-month deadline for investigating reports of beaches to the Representation of the People Act.

 Angus Robertson asks about allegations of Conservative election fraud

He said: "We have here a circumstance that is exceptional in an election...we have an allegation of national funds being used - in what some might put it - to buy an election."

He asked: "What could be more exceptional than one party defeated by another using national funds contrary to law?"

Each constituency candidate has a legal limit for expenditure and their agent is also legally responsible for signing off election returns.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 15 September 2022 Members of the public in the queue on in Potters Fields Park, central London, as they wait to view Queen Elizabeth II lying in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 14 September 2022 The first members of the public pay their respects as the vigil begins around the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Hall, London, where it will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2022 Crowds cheer as King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort arrive for a visit to Hillsborough Castle Getty UK news in pictures 12 September 2022 Crowds line the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, as King Charles III joins a procession from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St Giles Cathedral following the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II Katielee Arrowsmith/SWNS UK news in pictures 11 September 2022 Members of the Public pay their respects as the hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland, is driven through Ballater AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 10 September 2022 Britain's Prince William, Prince of Wales, Britain's Catherine, Princess of Wales, Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, wave at well-wishers on the Long walk at Windsor Castle AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 9 September 2022 King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort wave after viewing floral tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II outside Buckingham Palace Getty UK news in pictures 8 September 2022 A screen commemorating Britain's Queen Elizabeth II in Piccadilly Circus, London Britain EPA UK news in pictures 7 September 2022 Police officers stand guard after Animal Rebellion activists threw paint on the walls and road outside the Houses of Parliament in protest, in London, Britain Reuters UK news in pictures 6 September 2022 Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Liz Truss during an audience at Balmoral, Scotland, where she invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2022 Visitors at the PoliNations garden in Victoria Square, Birmingham, which is made up of five 40ft high tree installations and over 6,000 plants. The PoliNations programme aims to explore how migration and cross-pollination have shaped the UKs gardens and culture PA

Local spending limits are not uniform but are often around 15,000. Last week David Cameron publicly conceded for the first time that his party may have "mis-declared" or "left out" vital General Election expenses.

However, it is unclear whether it was an "administrative error"  the partys excuse  or deliberate.
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The Government has no central record of around 2.5bn a year it spends each year on research commissioned to develop public policy, a damning report reveals.

An inquiry by a former High Court judge found that only four out of 24 Whitehall departments maintained a database of research they had commissioned.

The lack of transparency has led to concerns that ministers and officials are quietly burying research that they do not agree with.

There have also cases of the Government withholding research into controversial areas of policy such as drug laws and food banks long after the research had been completed.

Recommended Read more Tory council to scrap CCTV network due to Government cuts

The report calls on all Government departments to register all externally commissioned research in a standardised public register and report its publication. The studies themselves should also be available to the rest of Government, Parliament, the research community and the public, it says

The report, by former Lord Justice of Appeal Rt Hon Sir Stephen Sedley for the charity Sense about Science, found widespread confusion in the way research commissioned by Government is handled, both internally and with the public.

Eleven Government departments were unable to provide a list of research they had commissioned; and of those, seven said that they did not hold that information centrally and it would be too costly to gather.

Civil servants who gave evidence to the inquiry reported that even they spend significant time trying to find past studies that had been commissioned and paid for. Some said they were forced to use Google to track down their departments research.

Reports can be hidden on obscure servers (leaving) civil servants unable to find their own work, one official told the inquiry.

Another added: If you want to find out what Government is doing, Google it.

The UK Statistics Authority said it often came across incidents where ministers would make specific claims based on research that was not publically available.

UKSA find it unacceptable for [public] claims to be made without everyone having access to the analysis behind them, so we press for publication, said Ed Humpherson, head of assessment. That we have to do this repeatedly means that the principles of prompt publication found in codes governing research might not be that strongly embedded.

Sir Stephen said it was important that Whitehall should issue guidance to all departments on what constitutes Government research and research contracts should include a commitment to prompt publication and clear plans for the format and process of publication.

Sir Stephen said he had begun his inquiry intent of determining why research was delayed  but found a much bigger problem.

Dr Sarah Wollaston, chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee: If research is withheld, how can the public judge whether it reflects scientific consensus, whether its correct, and how it links if at all to policy decisions? Stock Photo. (iStock)

The request to report on delay in the publication of external research commissioned by Government departments looked straightforward enough, he said. Every department must know what research it had commissioned and what had happened to it. My task would be to pick out any recent cases where publication had been delayed or deferred by Government, and to examine the reasons why.

The discovery that many departments of state either do not possess or cannot easily provide this basic information has given my work and this report a new and unexpected dimension. I hope that the resulting recommendations will do something to move the UK towards a more open mode of Government and a better informed civil and political society.

Dr Sarah Wollaston, chair of the House of Commons Health Select Committee, added: If research is withheld, how can the public judge whether it reflects scientific consensus, whether its correct, and how it links if at all to policy decisions? Of course those decisions take account of other considerations, but the evidence base for them should be open to scrutiny.

Nick Ross, the broadcaster and a trustee of Sense about Science, said: Sir Stephen Sedley has shown that while suppression may not be routine, procedures are so feeble that the outcome is not much different: expensively commissioned findings sometimes fail to see the light of day and weak rules are used to bury unwelcome evidence for long enough to make it stale.

This is not top-secret stuff concerned with military intelligence or organised crime. It is evidence about straightforward policymaking. Stuff we ought to know. Those in power who fear transparency should learn to trust the public. Given Sir Stephens findings, there can be no justification to resist.

 11 most corrupt countries in world

Prof Anne Glover, the former scientific advisor to the European Union said she was very concerned by the evidence from the enquiry. For Government to be credible and to hope to have the trust of citizens, it must make the research it commissions transparent, however uncomfortable the findings may be, she said. However, it seems that even Government officials have difficulty in finding what research has been commissioned. I hope Government accepts Sir Stephen's recommendations in full without delay.

A Government spokesperson said: While the publication of individual pieces of research is a decision for individual Government departments, we are clear that access to research is fundamental to effective policy development and wider scientific inquiry across Government. We are committed to ensuring that transparency, openness and accountability are embedded in everything we do, and we note todays report which is a useful contribution to work in this area.
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A gay couple in Morocco have been jailed after being found guilty of committing homosexuality, it has been reported.

The young men were having sex in a car in a deserted area on the outskirts of Guelmim when they were arrested by police, Gay Star News reports. They were arrested under section 489 of the Penal Code which makes it a criminal offence to engage in lewd or unnatural acts with an individual of the same sex.

They have reportedly been each given a six month prison sentence.

LGBT+ rights around the globe Show all 9 1 /9 LGBT+ rights around the globe LGBT+ rights around the globe Russia Russias antipathy towards homosexuality has been well established following the efforts of human rights campaigners. However, while it is legal to be homosexual, LGBT couples are offered no protections from discrimination. They are also actively discriminated against by a 2013 law criminalising LGBT propaganda allowing the arrest of numerous Russian LGBT activists. AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Brunei Brunei recently introduced a law to make sodomy punishable by stoning to death. It was already illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Mauritania Men who are found having sex with other men face stoning, while lesbians can be imprisoned, under Sharia law. However, the state has reportedly not executed anyone for this crime since 1987 Alamy LGBT+ rights around the globe Sudan Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal under Sudanese law. Men can be executed on their third offence, women on their fourth Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Saudi Arabia Homosexuality and gender realignment is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment, whipping and chemical castration Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Yemen The official position within the country is that there are no gays. LGBT inviduals, if discovered by the government, are likely to face intense pressure. Punishments range from flogging to the death penalty Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Nigeria Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal and in some northern states punishable with death by stoning. This is not a policy enacted across the entire country, although there is a prevalent anti-LGBT agenda pushed by the government. In 2007 a Pew survey established that 97% of the population felt that homosexuality should not be accepted. It is punishable by 14 years in prison Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Somalia Homosexuality was established as a crime in 1888 and under new Somali Penal Code established in 1973 homosexual sex can be punishable by three years in prison. A person can be put to death for being a homosexual Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Iraq Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, much of the population still suffer from intense discrimination. Additionally, in some of the country over-run by the extremist organisation Isis, LGBT individuals can face death by stoning Getty

Morocco has been criticised by a number of international human rights organisations for its continued criminalisation of same-sex activity.

Human Rights Watch have previously urged the government to consider repealing the Penal Code, arguing: Repealing the ban on same-sex acts among consenting adults would both affirm Moroccans right to privacy and help to protect people from hate crimes.

Same-sex relationships are a criminal offence in 74 countries internationally. In 13 countries, being gay or bisexual is punishable by death. These are; Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Mauritania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, UAE, parts of Nigeria, parts of Somalia, parts of Syria and parts of Iraq.

Politicians in Morocco have defended the Penal Code, arguing it has popular public support in the country.
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An Irish student who was arrested while on holiday in Egypt has been told he could be sentenced to death by the end of the month over a protest he attended in 2013.

Ibrahim Halawa, from Dublin, was 17 at the time of his arrest, and has detailed his horrific treatment at the hands of the Egyptian authorities in a letter handed to The Independent by the human rights charity Reprieve.

Mr Halawa is being tried as an adult alongside 493 other defendants and faces death by hanging if found guilty. He says that because of the shambolic nature of the mass trial, no one has been permitted to speak on his behalf in court and his lawyers have been showed no evidence against him.

Now 20 years old, Mr Halawa wrote in his letter that he has been beaten, abused and mentally tortured during his three years in jail.

Though he has yet to be found guilty of any crime, Mr Halawa has been housed alongside convicted criminals in a small cell that holds up to 40 people at a time. He describes how prisoners are punished by being made to watch fellow inmates being tortured, while the others have been crucified by guards.

Mr Halawas trial has been postponed repeatedly since the day he attended a pro-democracy protest in Cairo with his three older sisters.

But according to Reprieve, at a recent hearing the judge announced that both verdicts and sentences will be handed down on the 29 June, and that will be the end of proceedings.

The mass trial is one of several held in Egypt since 2013. Some trials have seen death sentences handed down in the hundreds, Reprieve said, and the policy of putting juvenile offenders on death row contravenes international law.

Ibrahim Halawa has been subjected to nearly three years of horrific abuse, said Maya Foa, director of the death penalty team at Reprieve.

Arrested for attending a protest when he was a juvenile, hes been tortured and put through a sham trial with hundreds of others.

Its deeply worrying that the court is now suggesting that death sentences could soon be handed down. The international community must urgently call on the Egyptian authorities to release Ibrahim, and the other innocent protesters held alongside him.

In his letter, Mr Halawa wrote: I never imagined I would go to prison being innocent. I never thought it was possible, even in third world countries. It feels devastating. I could never see my family again. I could never have kids and see them grow up.

While being arrested, they said, We only need you for five minutes. Its been three years. I thought Id be home the same day.
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A 16-year-old girl who says she was drugged and gang raped by more than 30 men in Rio de Janeiro has spoken out in a television interview.

The girl, who remains anonymous, says she was attacked by a group of heavily armed men while visiting her boyfriends house in the west of the city on Saturday.

She woke up, drugged and confused, in a different house, surrounded by strange men.

Appearing on a local channel in her first television interview since the alleged assault, with her face obscured, she describes waking up during the incident: "I fell asleep and woke up in a different place with a man underneath me, another one on top and two others holding my hands and several people laughing at me."

She said that there were many "boys" in the room laughing and talking, and that a number of them were armed.

A 40-second video of the attack began circulating on social media on Tuesday 28 May, which reportedly shows the moment the victim began to gain consciousness. The original post was made on Twitter, accompanied with the caption "Pounded the girl  get it? Hahahaha".

A picture was also posted showing a mans face next to the womans genitalia along with the caption "Rio state opens a new tunnel for the speed train".

The girl called the attack "a pain in the soul" and said: "They judged me and blamed me even thought I was not guilty.

"They robbed me. They robbed me not of any material property, but of physical property."

The girls boyfriend, 19, is one of two men who have been arrested on rape charges. A warrant is out for the arrest of four other men.

Protests took place in Rio de Janeiro (AP)

The attack on the young girl has sparked outrage across Brazil, and internationally, with anti-rape culture demonstrations taking place in the centre of Rio de Janeiro, and outside the headquarters of the Presidency of the Republic in Sao Paulo.

An average of 13 rapes per day occur in the city of Rio de Janeiro, with only 35 per cent of cases being reported, according to Marcelo Freixo, president of the Human Rights Commission of Rio de Janeiro.

Interim President of Brazil Michel Temer has ordered crisis talks with the countrys security ministers in response to the incident, and has announced that an institution for womens rights will be created in Brazil.
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At a contentious news conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump was asked by a reporter why he felt the need to "antagonise" a federal judge who had ruled against him in a case involving Trump University.

"Why antagonise?" Trump asked rhetorically. "Because I don't care."

Those six words are Trump at his most honest -- and most revealing. If you needed two sentences to sum up not only Trump's remarkably successful 2016 presidential bid but also the dominant strain of his life, those six words are about as good as you can get.

Time and again during this race (and in his life), Trump has picked a fight that not only he didn't need to, but also actively worked against his broader goals.

The most recent example was during his trip to New Mexico last week, during which Trump said Gov. Susana Martinez, the head of the Republican Governors Association, was "not doing her job." That hit came within days -- and maybe even hours -- of Trump's campaign promising to unite the GOP behind him.

Why did he do it? Martinez's comments about Trump to an RGA crowd in April likely played a role. But, that doesn't explain Trump's broader tendencies in the 2016 race to attack candidates -- Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and many others -- long after they dropped out of the primary fight. Here's a reenactment:

The real answer to the "why" of all of this is two-fold:

Trump is a needler by nature.

Because he can.

 10 of the scariest things Donald Trump has ever said

For Trump, antagonism is second nature; it's how he engages with the world. Hit them before they hit you. Set the rules of combat first -- and be willing to break them if necessary. He views life -- and politics -- as a constant battle for respectability, authority, power and influence. That worldview is where "Little Marco," "low energy Jeb," "sleaze" reporters and a slew of other "very bad" and "dishonest" people comes from. You are either for or against Trump: There is no in between.

So, when a judge rules against him in a court case, the judge is bad and very corrupt. When a reporter writes a story Trump doesn't like or asks a question Trump doesn't approve of, the reporter is "very dishonest." When one of his rivals raises questions about his policies, that rival is a joke or a loser (or both).

Trump's life is a string of examples in which he has not only gotten away with this behavior, but seen it rewarded. He built his father's real estate company into a far larger and more profitable operation. He became a national and -- gulp -- international celebrity. He ran for president on a whim and wound up as the Republican presidential nominee.

He says and does what he wants because he can. Because it has always worked. And because, as he said Tuesday, he just "doesn't care."

That sentiment is evidence of the often-overlooked aspirational quality to Trump's appeal for many voters. Trump is selling his version of the American Dream: Vote for me, be like me. While that idea prompts lots of eye-rolls in official Washington, it occasions lots of head-nodding at Trump rallies. Why? Because Trump is wealthy, married to a former model and can/does tell everyone what's on his mind at all times without any fear of retribution.

"He just doesn't care!," is something you hear often when you ask people why they like Trump. "He tells it like it is!" "He isn't politically correct!"

Trump's natural tendency toward antagonism and his "don't care" attitude would normally put him outside the political mainstream, dismissed as a loud-talking bully who doesn't grasp the gravity of the office he is seeking. In this election, where voters -- especially on the Republican side -- are willing to vote for anyone who can channel the rage and alienation they feel toward Washington, politicians and large institutions more generally, Trump has prospered.

Remarkable.



Copyright: Washington Post
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New Yorks attorney general spoke directly about Donald Trumps controversial educational venture, calling Trump University straight up fraud.

Speaking on two morning news shows, Eric Schneiderman reinforced accusations made against Mr Trump, who he says was instrumental in deceiving students who participated in the for-profit programme.

Recommended Read more Donald Trump seeks to discredit judge in Trump University case

It's fraud. This is straight up fraud, he said on MSNBCs Morning Joe.

The law is very clear. The law protects the gullible as well as the sophisticated, Mr Schneiderman added. As we've seen over the course of the last year, there are a lot of people who fall for Mr Trump's promises and rhetoric.

Mr Schneidermans lawsuit against Mr Trump is one of three that the New York business mogul faces - including two class action lawsuits filed in California.

The state of New York filed suit against Mr Trump, the Trump Entrepreneur Institute (formerly Trump University), and former president of the school Michael Sexton in August 2013. The lawsuit alleges that Trump University defrauded consumers out of $40m (28m) between 2005 and 2011.

People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Show all 8 1 /8 People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Miley Cyrus 'God he thinks he is the f***ing chosen one or some shit!  Honestly f*** this sh*t I am moving if this is my president! I dont say things I dont mean!' Jemal Countess/Getty Images People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Whoopi Goldberg 'I dont think thats America. I dont want it to be America. Maybe its time for me to move you know' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Samuel L. Jackson 'If that mother**er becomes president, Im moving my black ass to South Africa' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Raven Symone 'My confession for this election is, if any Republican gets nominated, Im gonna move to Canada with my entire family. Is that bad? I already have my ticket. I literally bought my ticket, I swear' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Cher 'If he were to be elected, I'm moving to Jupiter' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Neve Campbell 'Im terrified. Its really scary. My biggest fear is that Trump will triumph. I cannot believe that he is still in the game ... [I'll] move back to Canada' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Jon Stewart 'I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planets gone bonkers' People who will flee America if Donald Trump wins Randy Blythe 'He could just be a clown. If he is the president, though, I am leaving America 'till he's gone'

Mr Trump used his celebrity status and personally appeared in commercials making false promises to convince people to spend tens of thousands of dollars they couldn't afford for lessons they never got, Mr Schneiderman said in a 2013 statement.

The attorney general told MSNBC on Thursday that it is his first priority to get consumers money returned, adding that Mr Trump had previously tried to settle the case.

Mr Schneiderman does not expect to go to trial until after the election.

At a San Diego campaign rally, Mr Trump denied ever having tried to settle in the lawsuit.

I could have settled this case many times, but I don't want to settle cases when we are right. I don't believe in it. And when you start settling cases, you know what happens? Everybody sues you because you get known as settler. One thing about me, I am not known as a settler, he said.

Mr Trump tweeted that he plans to reopen Trump University one he wins the case.

After the litigation is disposed of and the case won, he wrote. I have instructed my execs to open Trump U(?), so much interest in it! I will be pres.
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A Cleveland decided in favour of a black man who said a police detective beat him and locked him in a closet for four days, without food or toilet access - awarding him a $22m (15.3m) settlement.

Arnold Black, 48, filed a lawsuit claiming that he was wrongfully arrested in 2012 when he says police detained him under suspicion of possessing a kilogram of cocaine, the Associated Press reported.

Recommended Read more Police officer charged in fatal shooting of legally armed black man

Mr Blacks attorney, Bobby DiCello, said that East Cleveland police detective Randy Hicks began punching his client when officers search uncovered no drugs. Mr Black testified that officer Jonathan OLeary held him while the detected punched his face and head.

Mr Blacks family testified that he now has physical and emotional troubles resulting from his experience with the police.

Despite the jurys decision, City Law Director Willa Hemmons told the AP that the ruling will not hold up because the trial had been held without attorneys representing the East Cleveland police.

Mr DiCello explained that the trial went through because the judge had said all parties were notified.

But Ms Hemmons, who said the city was not aware the trial even took place, reportedly believes the ruling should be void, as she had filed an appeal related to the case in the Ohio Supreme Court. One her appeal was filed to the higher court, she told Fox 8, the the lower court lost its jurisdiction.

Still, she was critical of the jurys decision.

The verdict is over the top, Hemmons said. Tamir Rice died, and the family only got $6m. This guy is walking around.

In his testimony, Mr Hicks accused East Cleveland Police Chief Ralph Spotts of encouraging a culture of violence amongst the local police force.

None of the law enforcement involved in Mr Blacks case are employed with East Cleveland.
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New Yorks Rikers Island has a long and storied history. Mother Jones ranked it as one of Americas "worst prisons".

Sitting on an island that was once used to raise pigs for slaughter and as a landfill, the correctional facility has a long history of gang violence and widespread corruption among its guards.

It was here that 41-year-old Aitabdel Salem, a native of Algeria, spent five months for no good reason.

His bail was set at a mere $2  the price of a slice of New York pizza  but allegedly no one actually told him.

Salem, thinking his bail was set at $25,000, languished on Rikers Island from November 2014 to April 2015 although he could have walked out at any time.

Salem was arrested Nov. 21, 2014, accused of attacking the New York police officer who was arresting him in the theft of a coat from a Zara location in the Flatiron District, the New York Daily News reported. His bail was set at $25,000, more than Salem could afford.

Prosecutors werent able to get an indictment for the alleged police assault, though, and Salems release from that charge was ordered just a week later on Nov. 28.

He still faced charges for two minor offenses from allegedly tampering with a subway card machine in 2014, according to Mashable, so he was required to post bail before leaving jail. Since the charges were so small, a judge dropped his bail to a dollar for each charge, totaling $2.

According to Salem, though, no one told him. Salems new attorneys, Glenn Hardy and Theodore Goldbergh, are placing the blame on his previous attorney.

Salem "was shocked and dismayed and frustrated that his case was unconscionably mishandled and there was no communication by his attorney telling him his bail was $2 which he could have made at any moment," Glenn Hardy said at a recent court hearing, according to WPIX.

The previous attorney has not responded.

Salem was released in April 2015, five months after being arrested, but was arrested again for failing to appear at an arraignment for the original assault charge a few weeks later, on May 13, according to the Daily News. His lawyers claim the letter informing Salem of his court date was lost in the mail and had been stamped return to sender by the post office.

You cant do what you dont know and if youre a defendant in a criminal case you certainly have a right to rely upon the system [to know] what your next court date is, Goldbergh said.

According to court records, his bail is now set at $30,000, the Centre Daily Times reported.

Last June, 22-year-old Kalief Browder took his own life after being held in Rikers for three years, from 2010 to 2013, without a trial on charges related to stealing a backpack, Agence France-Presse reported.

Copyright: Washington Post
NEW YORK, NY  NYCs TGirl Events is hosting a special Trans All Star Party on Sunday, June 5, at EGO Providence Nightclub in Rhode Island, with award winning adult stars TS Foxxy, Kylie Maria, Morgan Bailey, Tiffany Starr, and Tara Emory as hosts.

"Im excited to bring our event to the Boston/Rhode Island area, where there has never been anything like this before," said Tranny Strip promoter John Ed. "We have such a big lineup of over 20 Trans Dancers and Performers and even some former girls of the old Satin Dolls Club that was in Providence. Its going to be a guaranteed night full of fun and fantasy!"

The Trans All Star Party will feature a special burlesque performance from Tara Emory, music by NYC trans DJ Ciyn, shows by Jaemy Paris and Miss Aby, and 20 trans dancers from the Tranny Strip NYC party. Private couch dances and private VIP rooms are also available for guests. This is the only trans nightlife event in the entire Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut area.

The event is sponsored by Eros.com and Trans500.com and runs from 7pm-1am. Admission is $40 per person and can only be purchased at the door of the event. Ego Providence Nightclub is located at 73 Richmond Street, Providence, RI, 02903.

Visit TrannyStrip.com for more party details, pictures, and a calendar of events. You can also call the official hotline at 917-426-7121.
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A teacher in Alabama has been placed on administrative leave after giving students a racist math test that has drawn complaints from students and parents.

The Burns Middle school teacher, who has not been named publicly by officials, was suspended after giving her eighth grade students a 10 question test that covers gang-banging, drug trafficking, drive-by shootings and knocking up girls.

"Tyrone knocked up four girls in the gang. There are 20 girls in his gang. What is the exact percentage or girls Tyrone knocked up," the quiz reads.

Students initially laughed at the test, but were told is wasnt a joke and were ordered to complete it, Fox10 reports. Strangely enough, similar versions of the racist test have surfaced across American schools dating back to the early 90s. Teachers have been disciplined in schools from Texas, California and New Mexico.

Fox10 (Fox10)

"My son, he took a picture of it in class and he texted it to me. I couldn't believe it," Erica Hall told the news outlet. "They took it as a joke, and she told them that it wasn't it a joke, and they had to complete it, and turn it in.

Rena Philips, a spokesperson for the Mobile County Public School System, said that after parents issued complaints, the school immediately placed the teacher on leave and began investigating the incident.

We regret that this happened, especially so close to the end of the school year, Philips told the Washington Post. We have 7,500 employees in Mobile County public schools, and the vast majority of them are doing phenomenal work in our classrooms.

However, it seems as though the punishment for the teacher will be less severe as some hoped. Halls son told Fox10 that 2016 is the teachers final year before retirement.
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A teenage boy has been charged with murder after a recording of him sexually assaulting and choking his girlfriend to death was allegedly found on his phone.

The body of Ms Karen Perez was found partially clothed in a cabinet under the kitchen sink of an abandoned apartment building in her hometown of Houston, Texas, days after she was reported missing.

Her boyfriend, who is a minor and therefore has not been named, has been charged with her murder and remanded in custody.

Prosecutors told the court on Wednesday that Ms Perezs boyfriend had sent her a text message last Friday saying that he would kill her if she did not skip school with him, according to local news reports. Surveillance footage from the same day shows the two of them together, hand in hand.

After Ms Perez was reported missing, the court heard, her boyfriends father suggested they go and look for her. The boy told his parents that Ms Perez was not alive, prompting them to call the police.

Investigators who examined the boys mobile phone say they found a video that was completely black, but had clear audio that appeared to be a recording of him sexually assaulting and killing Ms Perez as she sobbed, told him she did not want to have sex, and cried out: I dont want to die.

Prosecutors said Ms Perezs boyfriend can be heard calling her by name, sexually assaulting her and choking her.

The boy will remain in juvenile detention while he awaits a second trial in 10 days time.

Ms Perez's family have set up a GoFundMe page requesting donations to assist with funeral and legal expenses.
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An accredited training event for law enforcement officers led by a notorious Islamophobe and conspiracy theorist has been cancelled following pressure from campaigners.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) requested that the Cedar Valley College in Texas scrap the event, which was to feature former FBI agent John Guandolo, a man who has a history of preaching about the threat of Islam and claiming that the vast majority of US mosques are part of the jihadi network.

The event was supposed to start on 3 June but was cancelled on Wednesday. Cedar Valley College in Lancaster was not immediately available for comment.

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On Mr Guandolo's website, Understanding The Threat, he responded in a blog that CAIR is a terrorist organization which hates and violently opposes free speech.

Suit wearing jihadis are no less dangerous than ISIS soldiers on the battlefield, he said, referring to Americas largest civil liberties and advocacy organization.

CAIR is Hamas, and their headquarters is one block from U.S. Capitol offices buildings, he wrote. They are a terrorist organization (Hamas) funding terrorism, and silencing Americans who speak truth about them as a part of their civilization jihad, yet they are still not in jail where they belong.

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Mr Guandolo as a disreputable character, who regularly attacks the US government, claims that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency is a secret Muslim agent for the Saudi government and says that American Muslims 'do not have a First Amendment right to do anything'.

The event at the Lancaster college was cancelled after executive director of the CAIR Dallas-Fort Worth chapter wrote in an email to the college that Mr Guandolo is known to promote conspiracy theories.

We would be happy to help provide alternate training relying on accurate and balanced information, and upholding American values of justice and equality, she said.

Mr Guandolo joined the FBI in 2005 as a counter-terrorism expert. He resigned in 2008 before it was discovered he had engaged in an intimate relationship with a key witness, Lori Mody, in an upcoming corruption trial against former representative William Jefferson.

Since leaving the FBI, he has made a career out of writing and speaking about the terrorist threat in America and how the FBI has been inadequately trying to combat it. On his twitter feed, he warns of a "violent revolution" and when the "reckoning will come".

The calls for the removal of the event in Texas this week comes after several other events around the US decided not to partner with the ex-FBI agent, including in Virginia, Kansas and Arizona.

Last year an FBI representative stepped out of an event in Texas which featured Mr Guandolo and was initially sponsored by ACT for America, one of the largest anti-Muslim groups in the country, according to CAIR.
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A woman whose name appeared on a "kill list" belonging to the man identified as the UCLA gunman has been found dead in Minnesota.

Los Angeles Police identified Mainak Sarkar, a former doctoral student, as the suspected shooter in an incident that took the life of engineering professor William Klug on Wednesday morning. Mr Sarkar then turned the gun on himself, taking his own life.

Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters that a so-called "kill list" was found in Mr Sarkar's Minnesota home, and included the names of another UCLA professor and a woman in a Minneapolis suburb, according to KTLA.



"Professor Klugs name was on that list, as was another UCLA professor who was alright," Mr Beck said.

Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, police said that they conducted a welfare check on the woman, when she was found shot dead in her home.

The welfare check was related to the recent shooting investigation on the campus of the University of California Los Angeles, Brooklyn Park Police Deputy Chief Mark Bruley told the Star Tribune. "Early indications are the shooting occurred prior to the UCLA event."

Police did not say whether or not Mr Sarkar shot the woman.

Mr Beck said that Mr Sarkar drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles with two guns and multiple rounds of ammunition. Police have not yet located the vehicle, but hope to contain it as evidence.

 US Mass shooting time-lapse 2015

According to the Los Angeles Times, the LAPD said Mr Sarkar was a former doctoral student who had previously accused Mr Klug of stealing his computer code.

Mr Sarkar had directed much of his ire at the slain aerospace engineering pressure on social media for some time, according to reports.

William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy, Mr Sarkar had reportedly posted to social media in March. He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust.

However, a university source told the Times that Mr Sarkar's accusations were baseless, and said that Mr Klug had gone above and beyond to help his student with his dissertation.

Bill was extremely generous to this student, who was a subpar student, the source said. He helped him out and interceded for him academically.

Mr Sarkar - who earned a master's degree from Stanford University and a bachelor's in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur reportedly thanked Mr Klug for his help and support in the acknowledgements section of his 2013 dissertation.

Multiple law enforcement agencies - including the FBI - locked down the UCLA campus for two hours on Wedndesday after the two men were shot dead. The campus was declared safe by midday, and classes were set to resume Thursday. Courses in the engineering department would remain canceled for the remainder of the week.

We want to resume normal operations as quickly as possible," Vice Chancellor Scott Waugh said in a statement.



UCLA is making grief counselors available for all students, faculty, and staff.



Our UCLA family has indeed been shaken, but we will rely upon the strong bonds of our community and our faith in one another as we begin the process of healing, UCLA chancellor Gene Block said.

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti lashed out against the dangers that guns present to the city.



This horrific event, at an institution dedicated to learning and mutual understanding, reminds us once again of the fragility of a peaceful society," he said.

"Thankfully, the campus is now safe - but I am heartbroken by the sight of SWAT teams running down avenues normally filled with students, and angered by the fear that one person with a firearm can inflict on a community."
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Oakland, California, will host what may be the first universal basic income experiment in the United States.

Around 100 families will be given a minimum wage as part of a pilot experiment by startup accelerator Y Combinator.

They will be given between $1,000 and $2,000 each month to see how the basic income affects their happiness, well-being and how they spend their time.

Oakland was chosen for its social and economic diversity and the fact it has areas of concentrated wealth and considerable inequality. Participants were selected randomly across the economic spectrum and include both the employed and jobless.

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

In a blog post announcing the plans, Y Combinator said: "In our pilot, the income will be unconditional; were going to give it to participants for the duration of the study, no matter what.

"People will be able to volunteer, work, not work, move to another countryanything. We hope basic income promotes freedom, and we want to see how people experience that freedom."

The Silicon Valley company proposed the idea as a way to counter potential issues arising from technology replacing existing jobs.

"One reason we think it may work is that technological improvements should generate an abundance of resources," their blog post adds.

"Although basic income seems fiscally challenging today, in a world where technology replaces existing jobs and basic income becomes necessary, technological improvements should generate an abundance of resources and the cost of living should fall dramatically."

The pilot study will run between six months and a year and test payment methods and data collection.

Although no official start date has been released, the study will be followed by a larger five-year research programme if successful.

The company's blog concludes: "And to be clear: we think of basic income as providing a floor, and we believe people should be able to work and earn as much as they want.

"We hope a minimum level of economic security will give people the freedom to pursue further education or training, find or create a better job, and plan for the future."

 Switzerland: World's biggest poster unfurled in Geneva supporting basic income

The idea of basic income is becoming increasingly popular over the world.

Pilot schemes for a basic income are being considered by the governments of Finland and Canada, while Switzerland will hold a referendum on 5 June to determine whether to give each adult 2,500 Swiss francs (1,800) each month.

The charity GiveDirectly is aiming to provide thousands of Kenyans with a basic income for at least the next decade to see how it could change people's lives.

Last month, a poll found two thirds of the British public support a universal basic income.
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House speaker Paul Ryan has announced he will vote for Donald Trump, and said he did not support him before because he needed to discuss policies and basic principles first.

In a column for The Janesville Gazette, Mr Ryans hometown newspaper, he said the list of Supreme Court nominees Mr Trump presented, several of whom are ultra-conservative, was very encouraging.

He said they also agreed on the fundamental principal of the protection of life, referring to abortions.

Through these conversations, I feel confident he (Trump) would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people's lives," wrote the highest-ranking elected Republican. "That's why I'll be voting for him this fall.

Mr Ryan held so-called peace talks in Washington DC with the Republican two weeks ago.

The week before, he told CNN that he was not ready to support the the businessman, even after Mr Trump clinched the number of delegates to secure the nomination.

Despite strong support for Mr Trump which is sweeping him towards the nomination, Mr Ryan's twitter feed was soon flooded with anger and frustration, with social media users calling his decision "pathetic", "gutless" and "disappointing".

Mr Ryan said the two Republicans do not agree on every issue.

Its no secret that he and I have our differences, he wrote. I wont pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, Ill continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.

Mr Ryan has criticised several of Mr Trumps proposals, including his delay in rebuking endorsement from white supremacist and Ku Kux Klan imperial wizard David Duke.

He also said in December that Mr Trumps call to ban all Muslims was not conservatism or what America stood for.

But as Mr Trump looks set to become the official Republican nominee at the party's convention in July, there might be little choice for Mr Ryan but to throw his weight behind the real estate mogul.

Mr Ryan said in his column that his goal is to present a positive, optimistic vision for a more confident America and to unite Republicans.

He also slammed Mr Trumps democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the same day that she gave her most explicit anti-Trump speech yet.

A Clinton White House would mean four more years of liberal cronyism and a government more out for itself than the people it serves. Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix, he added.

Mr Ryan was elected as house speaker in October 2015.
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The Republican Partys top Hispanic official has resigned seemingly after concluding she could no longer carry out her duties in good conscience with Donald Trump as nominee for president.

The announcement by Ruth Guerra, whose job at the Republican National Committee, RNC, was to convince Hispanics that the party speaks for them and therefore deserves their votes this year, further belies the repeated claim made by Mr Trump that Hispanics are coming round to him.

Nor has it gone unnoticed that the RNC, headed by embattled chairman Reince Priebus, has named as Ms Guerras replacement, a former Spanish-language radio talk show personality, Helen Aguirre Ferre, who has spoken freely in the past of a rebellion among conservative Hispanics were Mr Trump to seize the nomination.

The hole Mr Trump finds himself in with Hispanics dates back to his first outing as a candidate last June when he likened Mexican migrants to rapists and criminals. His first TV ad in the primary season showed figures racing across a desert apparently intent on entering the United States. (Meant to evoke the US-Mexican border, it was footage from a Spanish enclave in Morocco.)

On the campaign trail he repeatedly insists that he loves Latinos and suggests that come November and the general election, they will be loving him back. A March Gallup poll showed more than three quarters of Hispanics hold an unfavourable view of him,

Ms Guerra has confirmed she is resigning and moving to an independent super PAC that supports Republicans generally, if not Mr Trump specifically, called the American Action Network. While she did not respond to requests for a comment, another Hispanic official with the party was cited in the Washington Post, saying, Im so proud of her. I don't know how she held on for this long.

When Mr Trump won the Indiana primary last month and his last two rivals for the nomination dropped out, a memo was circulated to all RNC staffers that they should vacate their desks by the end of that week if they felt they could not support him as the nominee. It took her a little longer than that, but Ms Guerra clearly found herself in that category.

The New York billionaire has also drawn criticism for his recent attacks on the partys top elected Hispanic, Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico. Meanwhile last week, he further raised eyebrows attacking a federal judge presiding over the Trump University fraud case, calling him a Mexican. Judge Gonzalo Curiel was in fact born in Indiana to parents of Mexican descent.

As it came out of the 2012 election cycle which saw Mitt Romney defeated by President Barack Obama, the RNC made outreach to the Hispanic community a top priority. The ascent of Mr Trump to becoming the presumptive nominee quickly made a virtual mockery of the strategy, however.

The move to the exits by Ms Guerra, 28, follows similar resignations in the spring by two other key minority-oriented officials, the RNC's top person for African-American outreach and its spokesperson for black media. It also highlights the strains on Mr Priebus as he tries to unite the party behind Mr Trump.

It is a struggle that is also being put in the spotlight by the increasing numbers of top Republicans who are indicating that they will break with tradition - and, for some, years of habit - and not attend the partys convention in Cleveland , Ohio, in July, because they feel they cannot show any kind of support for Mr Trump.

Among those announcing their intention to steer clear are a number of Republican Senators facing tough re-election battles this year that they believe have become even tougher because of Mr Trump's ascent. Even the two most senior Republicans in Ohio, which hosts the convention - Senator Rob Portman, also in a difficult contest, and Governor John Kasich, who was previously a rival for the nomination - have not confirmed that they will attend.
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Last September, when Silver Lake residents learned that Whole Foods was about to open its first ever value-oriented store in their neighbourhood, many of them were outraged. Not because the presence of a major chain would threaten small, independent grocers, but because Los Angeless signature hipster zip code had been crying out for an expensive organic supermarket for years  and now they were being forced to make do with the budget version.

A local music exec launched an online petition, claiming the company had misidentified the Silver Lake demographic as fiscally concerned youth and insisting the neighbourhood was sufficiently gentrified to sustain a full-blown Whole Foods. She neednt have worried. The store, the first of the brands new low-cost chain, 365 by Whole Foods Market, opened last week  and while it is cheaper than Whole Foods, it still sells plenty of Whole Foods-y products, like truffle popcorn and artisanal Chardonnay-thyme turkey jerky.

What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods Show all 8 1 /8 What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods Kale is on sale (Tim Walker) What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods Artisanal Chardonnay thyme turkey jerky (Tim Walker) What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods Gourmet rosemary truffle popcorn (Tim Walker) What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods Shoppers can order fresh-made quinoa bowls, banh mi hot-dogs and more from these in-store iPads (Getty Images) What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods The world's first consumer-facing Teabot makes blended teas on the spot. Shoppers create their own custom cuppa on an iPad (Tim Walker) What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods The supermarket's in-house vegan cafe, by CHLOE, serves cupcakes and organic peanut butter bones for dogs (Tim Walker) What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods Free air guitars - and a custom-curated Spotify playlist (Tim Walker) What's on the shelves at 365 by Whole Foods The store has a well-stocked vitamins and supplements section, including these chewable papaya enzymes, which support "gastrointestinal wellness" (Tim Walker)

The 365 stores are named after Whole Foods value product range and aimed at budget-conscious, tech-savvy millennials, whose custom the company hopes to poach from competing US chains including Trader Joes, which already has a branch in Silver Lake. A second 365 store is opening near Portland next month, followed closely by locations in Santa Monica, Houston and Seattle, plus a further 14 more nationwide in the not-too-distant future.

The Silver Lake site was swarmed on its opening day and, a week later, finding a spot in the car-park is still no easier than finding pre-spiralised zucchini at Safeway. The first indication that 365 is aimed squarely at millennials sits just outside the entrance: an empty rack offering free air guitars and directing customers to a specially curated Spotify playlist, peopled with such fashionable-yet-inoffensive artists as LCD Soundsystem, Bon Iver and TV on the Radio.

The stores interior is a cool, cavernous hangar with low-slung shelves and wall-mounted iPads, where shoppers can order quinoa bowls and banh mi hot-dogs to be picked up later from an order window, or scan bottles of wine to see Amazon-style, crowd-sourced tasting notes. Theres an in-store Juicero, a kind of Nespresso for fruit and veg, which turns pouches of fresh produce into 8oz of cold-pressed juice and has been endorsed by Gwyneth Paltrow.

An imposing contraption called a Teabot instantly blends customised cups of tea for $3 a pop. The friendly sales associate explained that its the worlds first consumer-facing Teabot, and that the only other working Teabot is at Googles office in Chicago. Using another iPad, he said, I can choose which teas to mix  from a selection including Amaretto Cherry, Gunpowder Green and French Lavender  pick the ratios of each tea and my preferred temperature and strength, then the vast, automated apparatus will blend and pour it for me.

You can blend up to three different types of tea, the sales associate told me.

But Im British, I replied. Im not sure thats really the done thing where I come from.

Hm, he said, nodding sagely. Well, if you want, you could just have 100 per cent English Breakfast.

365 stores will reportedly stock approximately 7,000 items, around a third of what a normal Whole Foods offers, but at a significantly more reasonable price point. The Los Angeles Times compared 365's prices for a handful of basic foodstuffs such as bread and milk, and found that it matched, approximated or undercut two other comparable US supermarket chains. Kale bunches  a California staple  are currently two for a dollar. Its a kale sale.

Even the in-house vegan cafe, by CHLOE. [sic], is reasonably priced. Run by chef Chloe Coscarelli, a native Angeleno and erstwhile winner of the Food Networks Cupcake Wars, it offers tempeh-lentil-chia-walnut burgers with beetroot ketchup for just $8.95, washed down with a lemon-and-activated-charcoal juice for $9.95. OK, fine, the juice is kind of expensive. How about a coffee instead, from the Allegro craft-brew coffee bar?

Its this opportunity to linger with a latte or a beetroot kombucha that sets the chain apart, according to Jeff Turnas, president of 365, who has described his stores USP as the hangout factor. After all, theres no craft coffee bar at Trader Joes. Some of the petitions signatories and at least one recent Yelp reviewer have complained that 365 lacks some key elements of the traditional Whole Foods experience: a fishmonger, a cheese counter.

But the millennials at the check-out appear unperturbed. Architect Jeff and his fiancee Erica, a copywriter, both 34 and from Silver Lake, came away carrying bags stuffed with fresh veg, salad ingredients and gluten-free pizza. I was actually glad that the neighbourhood got a more price-friendly store than a regular Whole Foods, said Jeff. The asparagus was cheap.

Samantha, a 25-year-old waitress with a designer handbag, said it was her first visit to 365 and she was impressed by both the quality of the produce and the prices. I think most people in the area are on a budget, she said, contrary to the petitions claims. What was her best purchase? She thought about it for a moment. I got some organic flax-seed tortilla chips that look pretty darn good, she said.
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A woman has been burned to death in Pakistan for refusing a marriage proposal from a man twice her age in the country's latest "honour killing".

Maria Sadaqat, 19, was beaten, covered in petrol and set on fire by a group of men at her home.

She was taken to hospital in Islamabad with 85 per cent burns following the attack in nearby Murree, but died of her injuries on Wednesday.

Relatives stand alongside an ambulance carrying Ms Sadaqat's body (AFP/Getty Images)

Ms Sadaqat's aunt, Aasia, told the BBC the owner of a school she worked at as a teacher wanted her to marry his son.

They sent in the proposal six months ago but the guy had already been married and had a daughter, she said.

They wanted her to run the school after marrying the son of the owner of the school.

Her father refused the proposal and they took the revenge by doing this.

Ms Sadaqat's uncle, Abdul Basit, said she had been badly tortured.

Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Show all 19 1 /19 Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Afghanistan Recommendation: I urge the Government of Afghanistan to adopt legislative reforms to ensure that sexual violence offences are not conflated with adultery or morality crimes and to establish infrastructure for the delivery of protection, health and le gal services to survivors. I call on the Ministry of the Interior to accelerate efforts to integrate women into the Afghan National Police, thereby enhancing its outreach and its capacity to address sexual and gender-based violence Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Central African Republic Recommendation: I urge the authorities of the Central African Republic to ensure that efforts to restore security and the rule of law take into account the prevention of sexual violence and that monitoring of the ceasefire and peace agreement explicitly reflects this consideration, in line with the joint communique of the Government and the United Nations on the prevention of and response to conflict-related sexual violence signed in December 2012. I further encourage the authorities to make the rapid response unit to combat sexual violence operational and to establish a special criminal court Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Colombia Recommendation: I commend the Government of Colombia for the progress made to date and its collaboration with the United Nations, including through the visit of my Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict in March 2015. I encourage the authorities to implement Law 1719 and continue to prosecute cases of sexual violence committed during the conflict to ensure that survivors receive justice and receive reparations. Conflict-related sexual violence should continue to be addressed in the Havana peace talks, as well as in the resulting accords and transitional justice mechanisms. Particular attention should be paid to groups that face additional barriers to justice such as ethnic minorities, women in rural areas, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals and women abused within the ranks of armed groups. I encourage the Government to scale up its protection measures and share its good practices with other conflict-affected countries Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Congo Recommendation: I urge the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to ensure full implementation of the armed forces action plan against sexual violence, to systematically bring perpetrators to justice and to deliver reparations to victims, including payment of outstanding compensation awards. I call on donors and the United Nations system to support the Government in its efforts and to pay increased attention to neglected areas, including unregulated mining regions Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Iraq Recommendation: I commend the Government of Iraq for its national action plan for the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and urge its swift implementation, including by training its security forces to ensur e respect for womens rights. Programmes to support the social reintegration of women and girls released from captivity by ISIL are urgently needed, as is community-based medical and psychological care. The capacity of the United Nations system should be enhanced through the deployment of Womens Protection Advisers or equivalent specialists Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Libya Recommendation: I urge the national authorities in Libya to implement Decree No. 119 and Resolution 904 of 2014 to ensure redress for all victims, including those affected by the current conflict, through the establishment of multisectoral services and the adoption of legislation to categorically prohibit sexual violence Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Mali Recommendation: I urge the Government of Mali, with support from United Nations Action against Sexual Violence in Conflict, to develop a comprehensive national strategy to combat sexual and gender-based violence and to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers so that services can reach remote areas. I further call on all parties to ensure that conflict-related sexual violence is addressed in the inter-Malian dialogue and that perpetrators of sexual violence do not benefit from amnesty or early release Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Myanmar Recommendation: I urge the Government of Myanmar to continue with its reform agenda and, in the process, take practical and timely actions to protect and support survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and to ensure that security personnel accused of such crimes are prosecuted. Sexual violence should be an element in all ceasefire and peace negotiations, excluded from the scope of amnesty provisions and addressed in transitional justice processes. It is critical that women be able to participate consistently in and influence these processes Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Somalia Recommendation: I reiterate my call to the Federal Government of Somalia to implement the commitments made under the joint communique of 7 May 2013 and its national action plan to combat sexual violence in conflict, including specific plans for the army and the police. I encourage the adoption of a sexual offences bill as a matter of priority Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life South Sudan Recommendation: I urge the parties to the conflict in South Sudan to adopt action plans to implement the commitments made under their respective communiques. I call upon the Government of South Sudan to address the negative impact of customary law on womens rights and to reflect international human rights standards in national law. I also encourage the African Union to make public and act upon the report of its Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Sudan (Darfur) Recommendation: I call upon the Government of the Sudan to grant the United Nations and its humanitarian partners unfettered access for monitoring and the provision of assistance to people in need in Darfur. Given that there has been grave concern over sexual violence in Darfur for more than a decade, I encourage the Government to engage with my Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict to develop a framework of cooperation to address the issue comprehensively Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Syria Recommendation: I acknowledge the Governments invitation to my Special Representative to visit the Syrian Arab Republic and call upon the authorities, in the context of such a visit, to agree on specific measures to prevent sexual violence, including by members of the security forces. I condemn the use of sexual violence by ISIL and all other parties listed in the annex to the present report and call on them to cease such violations immediately and allow unfettered access for the delivery of humanitarian assistance Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Yemen Recommendation: I urge the authorities in Yemen to undertake legislative reform as a basis for addressing impunity for sexual violence, ensuring the provision of services for survivors and aligning the minimum legal age of marriage with international standards. I further call on the authorities to engage with local community and faithbased leaders to address sexual and gender-based violence and discriminatory social norms Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Bosnia and Herzegovina Recommendation: I urge the relevant authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina to harmonize legislation and policies so that the rights of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence to reparations are consistently recognized and to allocate a specific budget for this purpose. I further call upon the authorities to protect and support survivors participating in judicial proceedings through, inter alia, referrals to free legal aid, psychosocial and health services, as well as economic empowerment programmes Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Ivory Coast Recommendation: I urge the Government of Cote dIvoire to ensure the effective implementation of its national strategy to combat gender-based violence and the action plan for FRCI, and call on the international community to support these efforts. It is critical to accelerate disarmament, demobilization and reintegration and strengthen law enforcement to ensure that ex-combatants who have been reintegrated into the transport sector do not pose a risk to women and girls who are reliant on those services. The Government and the international community must provide monitoring and awareness-raising to mitigate the possibility of a recurrence of sexual violence in the context of the presidential elections to be held in October 2015 Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Liberia Recommendation: I call on the Government of Liberia to continue its critical efforts to combat sexual and gender-based violence including through the United Nations-Government of Liberia Joint Programme, and in the context of recovery from the Ebola virus epidemic Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Nepal Recommendation: I encourage the Government to ensure that survivors of conflict-related sexual violence are recognized under the law as conflict victims, which will enable them to access services, judicial remedies and reparations. I further call on all parties involved in the transitional justice process to ensure that the rights and needs o f survivors of sexual violence are addressed in institutional reforms and that these crimes are excluded from amnesties and statutes of limitations Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Sri Lanka Recommendation: I call upon the newly elected Government of Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of sexual violence, including against national armed and security forces, and to provide multisectoral services for survivors, including reparations and economic empowerment programmes for women at risk, including war widows and female heads of household Countries where sexual violence has become a way of life Nigeria Recommendation: I encourage the Government to implement its national action plan on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) to ensure that womens protection concerns are mainstreamed throughout its security operations. I also call upon the authorities to guarantee security in and around internally displaced persons camps and to extend medical and psychosocial services to high-risk areas

He was divorced and twice her age, so she refused the proposal and left her job when they pursued her time and again... eventually they attacked her, he told the AFP news agency.

Police said the teenager gave a statement before her death naming the school principal and four others as her attackers.

An investigation into the killing has been launched by Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab, but many similar murders have resulted in no convictions as families can make out-of-court settlements under Islamic laws introduced in the 1980s.

Another Pakistani woman was burned to death in November after refusing a proposal.

Sonia Bibi, 20, was attacked by her ex-boyfriend in Multan and died of her injuries in hospital.

Doctors had hoped Ms Bibi would recover (AFP)

Almost 1,100 women were murdered in honour killings in Pakistan last year, the countrys Human Rights Commission said, although campaigners fear the number may be far higher because of under-reporting.

Current and former husbands and relatives were the perpetrators in most cases, which mainly involved domestic disputes, alleged illicit relations or dishonour and exercising the right of choice in marriage.

In one of the most recent recorded cases in April this year, a teenage girl was drugged, strangled and her body burnt on the orders of a village jirga (council) for allegedly helping a friend to elope with her lover.

Pakistans largest state passed a landmark law criminalising domestic violence, stalking, cybercrime and other forms of abuse earlier this year but a coalition of more than 30 groups have demanded its withdrawal.

The Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body that advises the Pakistani government, declared the Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence Act 2015 un-Islamic.
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Thai police have caught a monk trying to leave the infamous Tiger Temple in a truck carrying tiger skins and teeth.

The Buddhist temple was raided on Monday following international pressure over suspected animal trafficking abuse.

Authorities found the bodies of 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer at the temple as well as 20 glass jars containing baby tigers and tiger organs.

A Thai wildlife official displays carcasses of dead tiger cubs found during a raid at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand (EPA)

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has been transferring 137 live tigers, mostly adults, from the temple to animal shelters.

Two men in the truck carrying the skins were arrested and charged with possession of illegal wildlife, while the monk travelling with them will be arrested once he is defrocked.

The truck was carrying more than 700 vials containing tiger skin, as well as tiger teeth hidden in a suitcase.

Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Show all 10 1 /10 Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Thai officers carry a sedated tiger outside its cage at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple Getty Images Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Wildlife officials sedate a tiger at the Tiger Temple AP Thailand's Tiger Temple raid A tiger stands in a cage at a property in Saiyok district in Kanchanaburi province AP Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Thai army display a tiger skin found inside Tiger Temple as officials continue moving live tigers from the controversial place REUTERS Thailand's Tiger Temple raid A sedated tiger is stretchered as officials start moving tigers from Thailand's controversial Tiger Temple, a popular tourist destination which has come under fire in recent years over the welfare of its big cats REUTERS Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Thai wildlife officials load a cage containing a tiger onto a truck after they removed it from an enclosure at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple AFP/Getty Images Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Tiger cub carcasses were found in jars containing liquid as officials continue to investigate the Tiger Temple REUTERS Thailand's Tiger Temple raid Thai officers observe the carcasses of 40 tiger cubs and a bear found undeclared at the Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Tiger Temple Getty Images Thailand's Tiger Temple raid A Thai wildlife official looks at a Malayan sun bear in a cage as found during a raid at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi Province EPA Thailand's Tiger Temple raid An official looks at a stuffed bear as they continue moving live tigers from the controversial Tiger Temple REUTERS

Parts of tigers are used in traditional Chinese medicine and such vials are typically used as good luck charms.

Thai wildlife officials using a tunnel of cages to capture a tiger and remove it from an enclosure at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province (AFP/Getty)

"I am quite shocked," Teunchai Noochdumrong, director of the government's wildlife conservation office, said.

"We all have heard concerns and allegations about this temple. I would never have thought they would be so blatant."

 Tigers Removed from Buddhist Temple over Wildlife Trafficking Allegations

The temple in Kanchanaburi province, in western Thailand, is a popular tourist attraction that charged admission for visitors to take photos with tigers.

It has been criticized by animal rights activists because of allegations it is not properly set up to care for the animals and flouted regulations restricting the trade of tigers.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Posters of Rolf Harris and an Australian Isis recruit have been put up around Melbourne city centre, mocking a popular multiculturalism campaign.

The new images appear alongside original posters proclaiming the "Aussie" heritage of well-known migrants, and appear to imitate the design.

They show headshots of Harris, who was jailed in 2014 for a string of sexual assaults, and Jake Bilardi, also referred to as "Jihadi Jake", an 18-year-old suicide bomber from Victoria who committed atrocities in Iraq.

The images have been spotted outside train stations, near clubs and on the citys town hall, according to Buzzfeed Australia.

Another poster showing Isis suicide bomber Jake Bilardi (Mark Di Stefano/Twitter)

Many of the posters have been pasted over photos of notable migrants to Australia, including folk hero Monga Khan, with artworks designed by artist Peter Drew as a comment on Australian identity.

The campaign, titled "What makes a real Aussie?" generated a great deal of positive press when the posters first went up around Australias major cities.

Speaking to The Age, Drew said he did not think the new posters were put up by people with racist tendencies but those with "puritanical" attitudes to Australian nationalism.

He said: It is obviously someone who is inflicted by the undergraduate tendency to see all nationalism as something which is bad.

The original posters, created by Adelaide artist Peter Drew in January 2016 (Peter Drew/Instagram)

"Apparently we need reminding that Rolf Harris was an Aussie and so was the Bilardi kid, but Im not bothered in the slightest."

Drews own posters feature Chinese and Indian immigrants, as well as Aboriginal residents, who had to apply for exemptions from the countrys infamous White Australia Policy which was finally abolished in 1973.

The policy effectively only permitted migrants from Great Britain and European countries to enter Australian shores.

Immigrants who helped build Britain Show all 7 1 /7 Immigrants who helped build Britain Immigrants who helped build Britain 236517.bin Getty Images Immigrants who helped build Britain 236516.bin Getty Images Immigrants who helped build Britain 236514.bin Getty Images Immigrants who helped build Britain 236519.bin Getty Images Immigrants who helped build Britain 236515.bin Getty Images Immigrants who helped build Britain 236523.bin Getty Images Immigrants who helped build Britain 236518.bin Getty Images

Drew continued: "The objective of my posters was to celebrate some Australians that historically had been forgotten and to celebrate the history of diversity in this country.

"The new posters are that silly point of view that if something is not 100 per cent good, that you can't enjoy it."

Several of the original posters have been defaced with black paint by unknown vandals since they were put up at the start of the year.
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Flash floods have killed at least five people as heavy rain sweeps across France, Germany and Austria.

Thousands of people have been evacuated in parts of France, while rising waters cut off roads and bridges across Austria and Germany, submerging streets and houses and leaving people seeking refuge on rooftops.

In Souppes-sur-Loing in central France, the body of an 86-year-old woman was found in her flooded house after water levels in the Loing River near Paris rose to their highest in more than a hundred years.

German firemen found the bodies of three women in the basement of a house in the southern German state of Bavaria, and the body of another woman was discovered in floodwaters nearby after her house collapsed.

At least two people were missing in the district of Rottal-Inn, with German divers searching for those missing. "Were expecting the worst," police spokesman Michael Emmer said.

In France, weather forecaster Meteo France described the flooding around Paris as exceptional, worse than the floods of 1910.

Several thousand households were cut off from electricity in areas close to the Austrian border, and as floodwaters rose, firefighters were dispatched to towns where roads and bridges were cut, with many residents taking to their roofs to escape the waters.

In pictures: France flooding Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: France flooding In pictures: France flooding Firefighters help a woman to disembark a boat as the city is flooded due to heavy rainfalls at Montargis Getty In pictures: France flooding The Eiffel Tower facing the flooded Seine river in Paris Getty In pictures: France flooding Firefighters walk with their boat in a flooded street in Montargis Getty In pictures: France flooding A replica of the Statue of Liberty facing the flooded Seine river in Paris Getty In pictures: France flooding The flooded Vert Galant park is pictured from the Pont Neuf bridge after the banks of the river Seine became flooded following heavy rainfalls in Paris Getty In pictures: France flooding A flooded street of Montargis, south of Paris Getty In pictures: France flooding Two women enter their flooded home as they float on an inflatable raft in Montargis Getty In pictures: France flooding A man holds his inflatable raft in a flooded street in Montargis Getty In pictures: France flooding A flooded area in front of the Chateau de Chambord (the Castle of Chambord) in Chambord Getty In pictures: France flooding The Zouave statue of the Alma bridge just near the Eiffel Tower, flooded by the river Seine after its banks became flooded following heavy rainfalls in Paris Getty

In Austria, heavy rain caused road closures in areas around Salzburg, and several schools closed as floodwaters rose.

Severe flood warnings are in place in France for two areas close to Paris: Loiret and Seine-et-Marne. The region of Loiret saw its average rainfall for six weeks in just three days.

Earlier this week, three people were killed in floods in the southwestern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and a young girl was killed by a train as she took shelter from the rain under a railway bridge.

Weather forecasters said more rain was expected on Thursday, further complicating rescue operations.
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Denmarks birth rate is set to increase following a series of targetted sex campaigns, including one that called on Danes to Do it for mom.

Last year a string of campaigns were released over national television encouraging Danish people to procreate.

Company, Spies Travel, released a video with the slogan "Do it for mom" in September 2015 urging people to have children to please their parents and help reverse the countrys aging population.

The Danish welfare system is under pressure. There are still not enough babies being born, despite a little progress. And this concerns us all. But those who suffer the most are perhaps the mothers who will never experience having a grandchild, the advert stated, showing an older Danish woman imagining her future grandchild.

The 20 best countries to raise a family Show all 20 1 /20 The 20 best countries to raise a family The 20 best countries to raise a family 20. Iceland These are the 20 best countries to raise children according to a Unicef report into child inequality, which measured inequality across income, education, health and life satisfaction in rich countries (Pic: Blue Lagoon, Reykjavik) Getty Images The 20 best countries to raise a family 19. Portugal (Pic: The Douro Valley vineyards) Getty The 20 best countries to raise a family 18. United States (Pic: New York) The 20 best countries to raise a family 14= United Kingdom (Pic: London) The 20 best countries to raise a family 14= Hungary (Pic: Budapest) The 20 best countries to raise a family 14= Greece (Pic: Athens) The 20 best countries to raise a family 14. Germany (Pic: Berlin) The 20 best countries to raise a family 13. Australia (Pic: Sydney) The 20 best countries to raise a family 12. Croatia (Pic: Dubrovnik on Croatia's Adriatic coast) The 20 best countries to raise a family 11. Czech Republic (Pic: Olomouc) The 20 best countries to raise a family 10. Latvia (Pic: Riga) The 20 best countries to raise a family 9. Slovenia (Pic: Ljubljana) The 20 best countries to raise a family 8. Estonia (Pic: Tallinn) The 20 best countries to raise a family 7. Ireland (Pic: Dublin) The 20 best countries to raise a family 6. Netherlands (Pic: Amsterdam) The 20 best countries to raise a family 5. Austria (Pic: Vienna) AFP/Getty Images The 20 best countries to raise a family 2= Switzerland (Pic: Rheinau) The 20 best countries to raise a family 2= Norway (Pic: Saebo) The 20 best countries to raise a family 2. Finland (Pic: Helsinki) The 20 best countries to raise a family 1. Denmark (Pic: Copenhagen)

Soon after, the City of Copenhagen produced its own campaign calling on people to think about their fertility; with slogans asking men if their sperm was swimming too slowly? and women if they had counted their eggs today?

The countrys national broadcaster also aired a programme titled Knald for Danmark or Screw for Denmark.

Nine months later reports have suggested that Denmark is set for a baby boom with 1,200 more babies due to be born this Summer compared to last year, The Local reports, citing a report in the Danish broadsheet Politiken.

Copenhagens deputy mayor for health, Ninna Thomsen, told TV2 News the campaigns were not co-ordinated and she did not want to take credit for the imminent baby boom.

Ms Thomsen said: You probably cant ascribe the increase in births to our campaign, but its definitely a feather in our cap if the campaign has had a positive effect.

It was a bit of a surprise to me that there were so many campaigns on the subject within such a short time. It certainly resulted in people getting plenty of fertility advice.

The campaigns stemmed from Denmarks falling birth rate and aging population.

In 2014, the national fertility rate was at 1.69, a small increase on 2013 and the first time such an increase had occurred since 2010.

The average age of first-time parents in Denmark was 29.1 years in 2014, five years older than the average age in 1970.
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Condoms are the main reason for a HIV epidemic in Russia, a Kremlin-backed study has claimed.

The Russian scientists have instead suggested that the best way to protect against the disease is to be in a heterosexual family and only engage in sexual activity in this context. The claims were made by the Russian Institute for Strategic Research at a special meeting convened to address HIV rates in the country, The Moscow Times reports.

Study co-author Igor Beloborodov suggested that rather than preventing spread of infection, barrier contraception such as condoms in fact facilitate infection. He reportedly said: The contraceptive industry is interested in selling their products and encouraging under-aged people to engage in sex. Instead, he advises people seeking to protect against HIV should: be in a heterosexual family where both partners are loyal to each other.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

Last year, HIV infection rates reached a record high in Russia with an estimated 93,000 new cases being recorded, bringing the total number of HIV-positive diagnoses in the country to one million.

Recommended Read more Muslims states block 11 LGBT groups from attending UN Aids meeting

Health organisations estimate that the number of cases will reach 2 million by 2019. It has been suggested that the high rates are due to anti-LGBT laws, lack of sex education for school children and the fact that Russia has the highest level of intravenous drug users per head of population in the world.

Scientists in Russia have rejected these claims. Deputy Director for the Russian Institute for Strategic Research Tatyana Guzenkova has suggested that Western approaches to HIV are formed of neoliberal ideological content, insensitivity towards national sensitivities and over-focus of certain at-risk groups such as drug addicts and LGBT people.
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Ten restaurants in Paris will open their kitchens to refugee chefs in the hope of changing attitudes in Europe towards asylum seekers.

The chefs will cook in the restaurants for five days between 17 and 21 June as part of the Refugee Food Festival, which is being run in conjunction with the UNs refugee agency and will coincide with World Refugee Day in 20 June.

Seven chefs will be part of the scheme and have refugee status from a variety of countries, including Syria, India, Ivory Coast, Chechnya and Sri Lanka.

LAmi Jean, a participating restaurant in Paris 7th arrondissement, will see its head chef, Stephane Jego, join forces with Mohamad El Khady from Syria to prepare a range of dishes for customers.

Refugee crisis - in pictures Show all 27 1 /27 Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugee crisis - in pictures A child looks through the fence at the Moria detention camp for migrants and refugees at the island of Lesbos on May 24, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Ahmad Zarour, 32, from Syria, reacts after his rescue by MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) while attempting to reach the Greek island of Agathonisi, Dodecanese, southeastern Agean Sea Refugee crisis - in pictures Syrian migrants holding life vests gather onto a pebble beach in the Yesil liman district of Canakkale, northwestern Turkey, after being stopped by Turkish police in their attempt to reach the Greek island of Lesbos on 29 January 2016. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees flash the 'V for victory' sign during a demonstration as they block the Greek-Macedonian border Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants have been braving sub zero temperatures as they cross the border from Macedonia into Serbia. Refugee crisis - in pictures A sinking boat is seen behind a Turkish gendarme off the coast of Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, 2016. At least 33 migrants drowned on January 30 when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A general view of a shelter for migrants inside a hangar of the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, Germany Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees protest behind a fence against restrictions limiting passage at the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Since last week, Macedonia has restricted passage to northern Europe to only Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans who are considered war refugees. All other nationalities are deemed economic migrants and told to turn back. Macedonia has finished building a fence on its frontier with Greece becoming the latest country in Europe to build a border barrier aimed at checking the flow of refugees Refugee crisis - in pictures A father and his child wait after being caught by Turkish gendarme on 27 January 2016 at Canakkale's Kucukkuyu district Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants make hand signals as they arrive into the southern Spanish port of Malaga on 27 January, 2016 after an inflatable boat carrying 55 Africans, seven of them women and six chidren, was rescued by the Spanish coast guard off the Spanish coast. Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee holds two children as dozens arrive on an overcrowded boat on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures A child, covered by emergency blankets, reacts as she arrives, with other refugees and migrants, on the Greek island of Lesbos, At least five migrants including three children, died after four boats sank between Turkey and Greece, as rescue workers searched the sea for dozens more, the Greek coastguard said Refugee crisis - in pictures Migrants wait under outside the Moria registration camp on the Lesbos. Over 400,000 people have landed on Greek islands from neighbouring Turkey since the beginning of the year Refugee crisis - in pictures The bodies of Christian refugees are buried separately from Muslim refugees at the Agios Panteleimonas cemetery in Mytilene, Lesbos Refugee crisis - in pictures Macedonian police officers control a crowd of refugees as they prepare to enter a camp after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A refugee tries to force the entry to a camp as Macedonian police officers control a crowd after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees are seen aboard a Turkish fishing boat as they arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea from the Turkish coast to Lesbos Reuters Refugee crisis - in pictures An elderly woman sings a lullaby to baby on a beach after arriving with other refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A man collapses as refugees make land from an overloaded rubber dinghy after crossing the Aegean see from Turkey, at the island of Lesbos EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures A girl reacts as refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees make a show of hands as they queue after crossing the Greek border into Macedonia near Gevgelija Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees board a train, after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border, near Gevgelija. Macedonia is a key transit country in the Balkans migration route into the EU, with thousands of asylum seekers - many of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia - entering the country every day Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures An aerial picture shows the "New Jungle" refugee camp where some 3,500 people live while they attempt to enter Britain, near the port of Calais, northern France Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures A Syrian girl reacts as she helped by a volunteer upon her arrival from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, after having crossed the Aegean Sea EPA Refugee crisis - in pictures Refugees arrive by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey Getty Images Refugee crisis - in pictures Beds ready for use for migrants and refugees are prepared at a processing center on January 27, 2016 in Passau, Germany. The flow of migrants arriving in Passau has dropped to between 500 and 1,000 per day, down significantly from last November, when in the same region up to 6,000 migrants were arriving daily.

Louis Martin, the co-founder of Food Sweet Food, an organisation championing culinary traditions and expertise from around the world, told The Local: "We tend to forget that these people arrive in France with skills, know-how, a cultural heritage, especially in cuisine, which must be appreciated to help them integrate into French society.

"We realised the extent to which cuisine has the power to bring together people who do not know each other and don't necessarily have the same cultural reference points.

Frances capital is set to open its first official refugee camp to house hundreds of destitute asylum seekers.

Anne Hidalgo, the citys mayor, said the site would conform to United Nations regulations and offer respite to migrants.

The precise location of the camp has not yet been announced but Ms Hidalgo said it is expected to open within six weeks.

Thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive in Europe over the Central Mediterranean following efforts to close the smuggling route over the Aegean Sea with the controversial EU-Turkey deal.

A string of boat disasters in the Mediterranean has put 2016 on course to be the deadliest ever year for refugees, with at least 880 migrants believed to have died last week alone.
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More than 70 refugees have been injured and hundreds left without shelter after a huge fire and clashes broke out at a detention centre in Greece.

Six people were hospitalised following the violence on the island of Lesbos at a former refugee camp where thousands of asylum seekers are now imprisoned as part of the controversial EU-Turkey deal.

Local reports said fighting started between Afghan and Pakistani residents late on Wednesday night in Moria, when a fire swept through the camp, destroying tents and shelters.

An injured man receives first aid after clashes at Moria detention centre in Lesbos, Greece, on 2 June 2016. (EPA)

At least 70 people were injured according to an account by Save the Children, with photos showing bleeding migrants being treated by paramedics as others were evacuated from the compound.

Sacha Myers, a spokesperson for the charity, said around 300 people had been left without a place to sleep after the destruction.

Save the Children has talked to families who are extremely afraid and wont leave their tents because theyre worried about getting caught up in the violence, she added.

Some mothers have told us their children cry every night in their tents. Save the Children calls on authorities to ensure children and families in Moria detention centre are provided with the safety and protection they desperately need.

A migrant family receives medical assistance, after overnight clashes at the Moria detention camp on the island of Lesbos (AFP/Getty Images)

Residents were seen picking through the charred remains of belongings and supplies on Thursday morning, while those who had lost their shelters tried to rest in the open on blankets.

It was the latest violence at the camp, where more than 2,500 migrants are in detention following the March agreement to hold migrants while their asylum applications are considered and deport them to Turkey if they fail.

The process has been held up by delays in the asylum screening process, triggering frequent unrest at camps on Lesbos and the nearby island of Chios.

Save the Children said protests were happening on an almost daily basis across Greece, where some migrants have been stranded for up to three months in conditions described as deplorable.

A boy stands among the wreck of a torched tent in the Moria detention camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, on June 2, 2016 (AFP/Getty Images) (AFP/Getty)

They also have very little information about their future and how long they will be in Greece and this is contributing to the increase in tensions, Ms Myers added.

Human Rights Watch issued a warning last month that police were failing to protect refugees during frequent rounds of violence at detention centres.

It said Moria and other hotspots it visited on the islands of Samos and Chios did not separate single women from unrelated adult men, and kept migrants in unsanitary and severely overcrowded conditions in a chaotic and volatile atmosphere.

A fight involving around 200 men raged for several hours on the Vathi hotspot in Samos on 13 May, while police used tear gas against refugees including children during a protest as ministers visited Moria in April.

In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugee children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing for food at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees' tents at the Kara Tepe camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Oxy transit camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees waiting to board ferries to the Greek mainland in Mytilene, Lebos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos The graves of drowned refugees in Mytilene, Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos A building used to house unaccompanied children at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees queuing to register at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees at the Moria camp in Lesbos In pictures: Refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos Refugees arriving on smugglers' boats from Turkey in Lesbos

It came just days after the Pope had called for European authorities to treat refugees with kindness in a visit to the detention centre.

Human Rights Watch warned that unaccompanied children and families were living in common areas of Moria because designated spaces were full, while women reported sexual harassment.

Residents also told staff that police guarding the camp had not been intervening in fights.

In Europes version of refugee camps, women and children who fled war face daily violence and live in fear, said Bill Frelick, the groups refugee rights director. Lack of police protection, overcrowding, and unsanitary conditions create an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity in Greeces razor wire-fenced island camps.
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Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Germany after the country's parliament approved a motion to recognise the mass killings of Armenians between 1915 and 1917 as a "genocide".

Both the Armenian government and many historians have said that around 1.5m Armenians were forced to march through the Syrian desert by the ruling Ottoman Turks as their empire disintergrated at the end of the First World War.

Ankara has insisted that this is an exaggeration and that 300,000 people on both sides of conflict were killed in fighting during the civil war.

 Armenia genocide explained

Modern Turkey was proclaimed in 1920 by Kemal Ataturk and its former territories were either put under the control of the Allied powers or granted independence following the end of the war.

Germany has joined more than 20 nations, including France and Russia, in recognising the massacre as a genocide.

International figures such as Pope Francis and the European Union have also publicly recognised it.

The move comes at a delicate time when the EU is relying on Turkey to readmit refugees who are fleeing conflict in Iraq and Syria.

Under a deal approved early this year, Turkey and EU member states who swap refugees already in the camps for those who had attempt the Mediterrenean crossing in a "one-for-one" exchange.

A mural commemorating the Armenian genocide in Los Angeles, California, pictured in 2016 (Getty Images) (Getty)

The terms of the agreement also mean Turkey will receive aid and visa-free travel for its citizens if certain pre-conditions are met.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was accused of pandering to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after she allowed a German comedian to be prosecuted for writing an obscene poem about him, under an arcane law which forbids insulting foreign heads of state.

Ms Merkel was not in the Bundestag for the vote but her Christian Democrat party (CDU) overwhelmingly backed the resolution, the BBC reports.

MPs came under pressure from Turkish authorities in the run-up to the vote with some receiving threatening and abusive emails, German media reports.

Mr Erdogan is said to have personally phoned Ms Merkel to warn her that ties between the two countries would suffer as a result of the vote going through.

The headline and text of the bill explicitly refers to the "genocide" of the Armenian people, but also takes the step of accepting partial blame as Germany was an ally of the Ottomans at the time and did nothing to stop the killings.

Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Show all 10 1 /10 Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Armenian people carry torches during a march to commemorate the mass killings of Armenians Getty Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Armenian people take part in a march in commemoration of the 101th anniversary of the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces in 1915 Getty Armenians mark 101 years since genocide People hold a flag during the laying of the flowers at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan Getty Armenians mark 101 years since genocide President Serzh Sargsyan and actor George Clooney attend the laying of the flowers at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan Getty Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Armenian clergymen, US actor George Clooney, center, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, second right front, and guests attend a ceremony at a memorial to Armenians killed by the Ottoman Turks, in Yerevan AP Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian (C,R) and US actor George Clooney (C) attend a ceremony at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan Getty Armenians mark 101 years since genocide A general view of attendees and mount Ararat during the laying of the flowers at the Genocide Memorial in Yerevan Getty Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Lebanese of Armenian descent burn an effigy of Turkish president Erdogan during a protest in front the house of Turkish Ambassador to mark the 101st anniversary of the mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915, near Beirut, Lebanon EPA Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Activists hold portraits of victims during a silent demonstration to commemorate the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in Istanbul Reuters Armenians mark 101 years since genocide Activists hold portraits of victims during a silent demonstration to commemorate the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in Istanbul Reuters

A joint statement by members of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and leading Turkish political parties, including the ruling AFK party, released to The Independent, said: "We strongly condemn and reject this bill falsifying historical facts about 1915 events and not complying with the law.

"It is utterly unacceptable that the events, which took place under the special conditions of World War One 101 years ago and caused heartbreaking suffering for both Turks and Armenians, be introduced as genocide based on biased, distorted and various subjective political motives.

"This bill constitutes one of the worst examples of how the above-cited events are politicised and exploited in our day; and it is not possible to give credit to Germanys ridiculous justification that the bill will pave the way for Germanys 'assuming its special historical responsibility' and 'supporting Turks and Armenians in bridging the gaps of the past while searching for ways for reconciliation and settlement'."
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A group of suspected vigilantes beat a mentally ill Iraqi refugee, dragged him out of a supermarket and tied him to a tree in Germany.

Police said the 21-year-old man had visited the Netto branch in Arnsdorf to complain about a top-up card he bought for his mobile phone.

A video of the incident posted online showed the man holding a bottle of wine behind his back as the dispute continued with staff.

As he stood talking with cashiers, four men appeared and surrounded him, pushing him towards the doors.

Footage showed the Iraqi asylum seeker being beaten and dragged out of a supermarket in Arnsdorf by suspected vigilantes on 21 May (YouTube)

As the asylum seeker tried to escape, they pinned him to a table and started punching and beating him, before dragging him out the door.

As the video ends, a woman behind the camera can be heard calmly saying: Isnt it a shame that we need a citizens defence group.

Police in Saxony said the men then dragged the man outside and tied him to a tree in the supermarket car park.

Officers called to the dispute found the gang awaiting their arrival and demanding to have the asylum seeker arrested after claiming they had prevented him from escaping.

Police told the men to leave as paramedics helped the refugee  without questioning them further or asking for identification - and found no evidence of theft or vandalism.

More than a million refugees arrived in Germany last year (Getty)

The Iraqi man is a patient in Arnsdorfs psychiatric hospital and had already visited the supermarket to complain about the phone card twice earlier in the day, being returned to the hospital by police after staff called the emergency services.

Recommended Read more Refugee crisis sparks record year for political violence in Germany

Employees said they had been threatened by the man after the store manager found the balance on the phone card had already been used up.

The suspected vigilantes, including three men wearing black shirts, were not identified until footage of the incident started to spread on social media.

Three of the suspects were identified on Monday as men aged 29, 49 and 54 from the Arnsdorf area but have not yet been caught, while officers are investigating numerous clues on other suspects.

The 49-year-old suspect called the emergency services around an hour after the attack claiming the asylum seeker had stolen from the supermarket but police said no shoplifting had occurred.

We are investigating the events, as well as the actions of patrol officers at the scene, police commissioner Conny Stiehl said.

Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Show all 13 1 /13 Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism outside Cologne Cathedral on 5 January after the assaults Oliver Berg/EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Women protest against sexism in Cologne following the rash of sex attacks on New Year's Eve Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police initially failed to mention the assaults in report the following morning EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police officers patrol in front of the main station of Cologne, Germany AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks German far-right supporters demonstrate at Cologne`s train station (Reuters) Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police used pepper spray to control supporters of Pegida, Hogesa (Hooligans against Salafists) and other right-wing populist groups as they protested against the New Year's Eve sex attacks on 9 January, 2016 in Cologne, Germany Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use a water cannon during a protest march by supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016 Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Police use pepper spray against supporters of anti-immigration right-wing movement Pegida, in Cologne, Germany, January 9, 2016. Reuters Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Artist Mira Moire protests naked in Cologne against the mass sex attacks on New Year's Eve AP Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks A demonstrator holds a sign in German that reads 'No violence against women' during a demonstration in the wake of the sexual assaults on New Year's Eve, outside the cathedeal in Cologne, Germany, 09 January 2016. EPA Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Counter demonstrators hold up a sign reading "Against sexism, against racism" as they protest against a demonstration of the islamophobic movement PEGIDA at the train station in Cologne, Germany, on January 9, 2016. AFP/Getty Images Germany reacts to Cologne New Year's Eve attacks Demonstration by a womens group on Saturday (AP) AP

In a statement posted on Facebook, Netto said it was taking the incident very seriously, adding that employees actions violated company guidelines but that staff did not call the vigilantes.

Police are investigating the men on allegations of false imprisonment and the Iraqi man for alleged threats made to staff.

The incident has provoked intense discussion in Saxony, where refugee accommodation has been set on fire and a group of asylum seekers were greeted by a mob chanting go home earlier this year.

Since the attacks on hundreds of women on New Years Eve in Cologne, numerous vigilante groups known as the Burgerwehr have sprung up across Germany, gathering widespread local support, The Local reported.

The groups have been vocally supported by anti-immigration and neo-Nazi groups and Germanys interior ministry has reportedly identified at least seven Burgerwehrs with evidence of an extremist right-wing orientation.

More than a million asylum seekers arrived in the country last year, sparking criticism of Angela Merkels decision to open its borders to Syrian refugees arriving on Europes shores.
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Human rights groups are calling for an urgent moratorium on the death penalty in Gaza as 10 prisoners await execution by Hamas.

Three Palestinians who had been convicted of murder were put to death on Tuesday in the first use of the death penalty in the coastal enclave since a Hamas-Fatah unity government was formed in 2014.

Hamas defied an agreement with Fatah, the ruling party in the West Bank, by carrying out the executions without the approval of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Gaza's interior ministry said two men were hanged and the third was killed by firing squad in al-Katiba prison after the victims' families rejected the possibility of a last-minute pardon.

Hamas claimed the executions would act as a deterrent and avoid 'chaos' (Getty Images)

One of those killed was reported to be a Palestinian Authority police officer.

It came after Hamas announced the imminent execution of 13 prisoners who had been previously sentenced to death.

The United Nations condemned the executions and said there were serious and widespread concerns about unfair trials and possible violations of international law.

Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged authorities in Gaza to halt future executions and to respect the rights of life and fair trial.

We call on the Palestinian President to urgently establish a moratorium on the death penalty in line with the global trend, with a view to its abolition, he said.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas must approve any executions under Palestinian law (AFP/Getty)

Amnesty International said there were deep flaws in the Gaza Strips justice system, including repots of the widespread use of torture.

James Lynch, the organisations deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said: The Hamas authorities must halt any further plans to carry out executions and immediately establish an official moratorium.

"The Hamas authorities have tried to justify these executions as a way to deter crime, but there is no credible evidence that the death penalty has a greater deterrent effect than prison terms.

A spokesperson for Fatah, Osama Qawasmi, said the executions without Mr Abbas' approval were a crime, a clear violation of the law and a deepening of the split (between the West Bank and Gaza).

It's a clear message from Hamas that it doesn't want national unity and it doesn't care about Palestinian law.

Where most executions were carried out in 2014 Show all 10 1 /10 Where most executions were carried out in 2014 Where most executions were carried out in 2014 1. China (1000+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 2. Iran (289+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 3. Saudi Arabia (90+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 4. Iraq (61+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 5. USA (35+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 6. Sudan (23+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 7. Yemen (22+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 8. Egypt (15+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 9. Somalia (14+) Getty Where most executions were carried out in 2014 10. Jordan (11+) Getty

Hamas released statements hitting back at criticism from its rival party, saying the implementation of death penalties would preserve security and stability and that Fatahs statements aimed to create a state of chaos and encourage crime.

"No one should be put to death, certainly not as part of a legal system in which torture and coercion are common," said Sari Bashi from Human Rights Watch.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights also joined the criticism, saying it had made representations to Hamas officials.

PCHR is in full solidarity with the victims of murders in the Gaza Strip, however, it highlights that the aim of justice is not revenge but ensuring serenity and the rule of law, a statement said.

This cannot be achieved unless by the strict application of the law and not violating it.

Hamas militants surround Palestinians suspected of collaborating with Israel before executing them in Gaza City August 22, 2014. (Reuters ) (Reuters)

The Palestinian Shams human rights group said Hamas had committed an extra-judicial execution, and a double crime by failing to secure approval from President Abbas or the justice minister.

The Islamist group seized control of Gaza in 2007 and a unity deal drawn up with Fatah in 2014 was never implemented, leaving Hamas as the de-facto authority in the strip.

The last public executions in Gaza took place in 2014 during the war with Israel, when Hamas killed 23 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel, including a group of men shot dead outside a mosque by firing squad.

Hamas' military wing also executed one of its commanders for behavioural and moral violations in February.
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US-backed forces are threatening to cut the last link Isis has to the outside world by launching an offensive against the town of Manbij west of the Euphrates.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - a Kurdish-led group supported by US airstrikes - has launched the attack on the town close to the Turkish border in an attempt to cut Isis off from an area it uses to move weapons and fighters across the border.

US airstrikes have destroyed bridges between Manbij and the Turkish border showing that the US is backing the attack despite Turkeys past objections to the Syrian Kurds extending their control of northern Syria just south of the Turkish frontier.

The predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (yellow) offensive against Isis territory (black) near Manbij seen on 1 June 2016. (Liveuamap)

An SDF commander told a Kurdistan24 television correspondent embedded with the SDF operation against Manbij that their forces had already crossed the Euphrates and were close to the town. He said that our forces reached the outskirts of Manbij and are now holding a series of hills about 15 kilometres from it. We can see its grain silos from the top of the hills. Isis has retreated from some 20 villages in the area.

The SDF includes Sunni Arab tribal units as well as Turkman and Christians but its military strength depends on the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). In the last few days, they have started a multi-pronged attack against Isis along the Euphrates between its de facto Syrian capital Raqqa and Jarabulus on the Turkish border.

One axis of attack is directed at Syrias largest dam and hydroelectric power station at Tabqa to the west of Raqqa. This is an industrial town, once largely inhabited by Allawites and Baathists who got jobs there because of their loyalty to the Syrian regime, though they have long ince fled. Isis captured Tabqa airbase in 2014 and massacred 160 captured government soldiers.

In pictures: The rise of Isis Show all 74 1 /74 In pictures: The rise of Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters of the Islamic State wave the group's flag from a damaged display of a government fighter jet following the battle for the Tabqa air base, in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from Islamic State group sit on their tank during a parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from the Islamic State group pray at the Tabqa air base after capturing it from the Syrian government in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Fighters from extremist Islamic State group parade in Raqqa, Syria AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping A video uploaded to social networks shows men in underwear being marched barefoot along a desert road before being allegedly executed by Isis Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Haruna Yukawa after his capture by Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis kidnapping Khalinda Sharaf Ajour, a Yazidi, says two of her daughters were captured by Isis militants Washington Post In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Spokesperson for Isis Vice News via Youtube In pictures: The rise of Isis A pro-Isis leaflet A pro-Isis leaflet handed out on Oxford Street In London Ghaffar Hussain In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters Isis Jihadists burn their passports In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A man collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid A woman collecting aid administered by Isis in Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis controls Syrian Aid Local civilians queue for aid administered by Isis. Since it declared a caliphate the group has increasingly been delivering services such as healthcare, and distributing aid and free fuel In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces detain men suspected of being militants of the Isis group in Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Mourners carry the coffin of a Shi'ite volunteer from the brigades of peace, who joined the Iraqi army and was killed during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Samarra, during his funeral in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Shiite Turkmen family fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, arrives at a refugee camp on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi A photograph made from a video by the jihadist affiliated group Furqan Media via their twitter account allegedly showing Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivering a sermon during Friday prayers at a mosque in Mosul. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in the territory under the group's control in Iraq and Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq Smoke and debris go up in the air as Shiite's Al-Qubba Husseiniya mosque explodes in Mosul. Images posted online show that Islamic extremists have destroyed at least 10 ancient shrines and Shiite mosques in territory - the city of Mosul and the town of Tal Afar - they have seized in northern Iraq in recent weeks In pictures: The rise of Isis Islamic extremists destroying mosques in Iraq A bulldozer destroys Sunni's Ahmed al-Rifai shrine and tomb in Mahlabiya district outside of Tal Afar In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces celebrate after clashes with followers of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi, in front of his home in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi at his home after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces arrest a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A vehicle burns in front of a home of a follower of Shiite cleric Mahmoud al-Sarkhi after clashes with his followers in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman holds her exhausted son as over 1000 Iraqis who have fled fighting in and around the city of Mosul and Tal Afar wait at a Kurdish checkpoint in the hopes of entering a temporary displacement camp in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees Displaced Iraqi women hold pots as they queue to receive food during the first day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, at an encampment for displaced Iraqis who fled from Mosul and other towns, in the Khazer area outside Irbil, north Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A militant Islamist fighter waving a flag, cheers as he takes part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa. The fighters held the parade to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters wave flags as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters travel in a vehicle as they take part in a military parade along the streets of Syria's northern Raqqa province In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade with a missile in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from an al-Qaida splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Fighters from the Isis group during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Militants from the splinter group held a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria, displaying U.S.-made Humvees, heavy machine guns, and missiles captured from the Iraqi army for the first time since taking over large parts of the Iraq-Syria border In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters hold a military parade in their stronghold in northeastern Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Syria A member loyal to the Isis waves an Isis flag in Raqqa In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi anti-government gunmen from Sunni tribes in the western Anbar province march during a protest in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. The United Nations warned that Iraq is at a "crossroads" and appealed for restraint, as a bloody four-day wave of violence killed 195 people. The violence is the deadliest so far linked to demonstrations that broke out in Sunni areas of the Shiite-majority country more than four months ago, raising fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi security forces hold up a flag of the Isis group they captured during an operation to regain control of Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Isis fighters parade in the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, demonstrate their skills during a graduation ceremony after completing their field training in Najaf In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Kurdish Peshmerga troops fire a cannon during clashes with militants of the Isis group in Jalawla, Diyala province In pictures: The rise of Isis Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference Iraqi Prime Minister's security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta speaks during a press conference about the latest military development in Iraq, in the capital Baghdad. Iraqi forces pressed a campaign to retake militant-held Tikrit, clashing with jihadist-led Sunni militants nearby and pounding positions inside the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far In pictures: The rise of Isis A police station building destroyed by Isis fighters An exterior view of a police station building destroyed by gunmen in Mosul city, northern Iraq. Iraq's new parliament is expected to convene to start the process of setting up a new government, despite deepening political rifts and an ongoing Islamist-led insurgency. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree inviting the new House of Representatives to meet and form a new government In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq Smoke billows from an area controlled by the Isis between the Iraqi towns of Naojul and Tuz Khurmatu, both located north of the capital Baghdad, as Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces take part in an operation to repel the Sunni militants In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An elderly Iraqi woman is helped into a temporary displacement camp for Iraqis caught-up in the fighting in and around the city of Mosul in Khazair In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, cries upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraqi refugees An Iraqi woman, who fled with her family from the northern city of Mosul, prays with a copy of the Quran AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Isis fighters in Iraq The body of an Isis militant killed during clashes with Iraqi security forces on the outskirts of the city of Samarra Reuters In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Iraqi civilians inspect the damage at a market after an air strike by the Iraqi army in central Mosul EPA In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Members of the Al-Abbas brigades, who volunteered to protect the Shiite Muslim holy sites in Karbala against Sunni militants fighting the Baghdad government, parade in the streets of the city AP In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis Shia tribesmen gather in Baghdad to take up arms against Sunni insurgents marching on the capital. Thousands have volunteered to bolster defences AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq crisis A van carrying volunteers joining Iraqi security forces against Jihadist militants. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered to fight AFP/Getty In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Al-Qaida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Iraqi captives held by the extremists Sky News In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post AFP/Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin Getty Images In pictures: The rise of Isis Iraq Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work

Isis is likely to fight hard to retain control of the territory linking Raqqa and north Aleppo province which is fertile, heavily populated and has access to the Turkish border. Turkey originally forbade the Syrian Kurds or the SDF from crossing the Euphrates and, when they did so five months ago, warned them not to take Manbij.

The US was wary of offending Turkey and did not bomb in support of the SDF advance at that time, but now appears to have changed its policy. The US has long urged Turkey to deploy 30,000 troops to block Isis members from entering Turkey via a 60-mile-long section of the Syrian-Turkish frontier held by Isis. The US may have been be worried by recent Isis military successes in this area against US and Turkish backed Syrian armed opposition groups.

Isis is also under intense pressure at Fallujah in Iraq where its forces are hemmed into the beleaguered city where they are greatly outnumbered by the Iraqi security forces and the Shia paramilitaries. The Iraqi army has in theory opened humanitarian corridors for the 50,000 civilians trapped in Fallujah to escape, but they have been detaining men leaving the city to see if they are Isis members. Given that the government will suspect anybody who has remained in Fallujah long after the majority of its 300,000 people have fled of having Isis sympathies or connections, many now being detained may be held for a long time.
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Six children are among 19 civilians killed in a regime bombing of opposition-held neighbourhoods in Syria's second city of Aleppo, the civil defence has said.

Regime air strikes and rocket attacks hit several neighbourhoods in the eastern part of the town on Thursday, a civil defence official said.

In pictures of the attack a Syrian man is seen carrying a severely wounded baby through the rubble of collapsed buildings.

Men inspect damage after an air strike on Aleppo (Reuters)

"Five people, including three children, were killed in rocket attacks in Al-Amiriya neighborhood, and 14, including three other children, by air raids in four other districts," the civil defence source told AFP.

Aleppo has been divided between western neighborhoods controlled by the government of Bashar al-Assad and eastern neighborhoods under rebel control.

The attack comes as a motorcycle bomb was detonated outside a mosque on Syrias government controlled coast line on Thursday.

Television footage showed bodies being loaded into a lorry outside the al-Khulafa Rashideen mosque in Latakia city as firefighters fought a large blaze.

The number of casualties was initially unknown as rescue operations continued, but several are feared dead.

In pictures: Syria conflict Show all 40 1 /40 In pictures: Syria conflict In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrians carry children amid debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man carries a girl on a street covered with dust following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrians react as they stand amid debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man carries a girl amid debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis An injured Syrian man walks out from the rubble of a destroyed building following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian woman makes her way through debris following a air strike by government forces in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis People stand on the rubble of collapsed buildings at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, in the Al-Fardous neighbourhood of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian residents stand amid the rubble of destroyed buildings In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian resident grasps a mattress amid rubble in the al-Firdous neighborhood of the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A view taken from Tel al-Sawadi shows a large explosion allegedly at the Wadi Deif Syrian army base in northwestern Idlib on May 14, 2014, which opposition fighters have been trying to capture for more than a year. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamist rebels detonated explosives planted in a tunnel under the army base killing or injuring dozens. AFP In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A bullet-riddled parking sign stands amid debris in a deserted street leading into the old city of Homs In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A general view shows abandoned buildings on a deserted square in the old city of Homs after Syrian government forces regained control of rebel-controlled areas In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A military vehicle that belongs to the Free Syrian Army is seen in Al-Amariya district in Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A mosque is pictured through shattered glass in the old city of Homs, as rebel fighters withdrew from the city centre in line with a negotiated withdrawal deal with the government after having held out under tight siege for nearly two years In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Buses carrying Free Syrian Army fighters leaving Homs. Exhausted and worn out from a year-long siege, hundreds of Syrian rebels left their last remaining bastions in the heart of the central city of Homs under a cease-fire deal with government forces. The exit of some 1,200 fighters and civilians will mark a de facto end of the rebellion in the battered city, which was one of the first places to rise up against President Bashar Assad's rule, earning it the nickname of "capital of the revolution" In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian government forces hold up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad (L) while others raise the national flag on top of a pole in the old city of Homs In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad run through Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr crossing after their release by rebels. They were freed as part of a larger deal which saw the last remaining Syrian rebels in central Homs city evacuate their positions and free captives in several locations in northern Syria In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian woman and two children walk past heavily damaged buildings in the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man carries a wounded girl following a reported bombardment with explosive-packed "barrel bombs" by Syrian government forces in the al-Mowasalat neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A wounded man sits as he is treated at a makeshift hospital following a reported bombardment with explosive-packed "barrel bombs" by Syrian government forces in the al-Sakhour district of the northern city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Debris rises in what Free Syrian Army fighters and Islamic rebels said was an operation to strike Al-Sahaba checkpoint, which is considered a gateway to Al-Dayf valley, and remove forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Maarat Al-Nouman, Idlib province In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Men try to put out fire at a site hit by what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Civil Defence members try to put out fire In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Survivors react at a site hit by what activists said was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, near the border with Turkey In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Residents queue as they wait to receive food aid distributed by the UNRWA at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Belongings of Syrian rebels inside a chapel at Crac des Chevaliers, the world's best preserved medieval Crusader castle in Syria. The village was destroyed in fighting between the government and rebel forces while the castle, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, also has been damaged over the past two years In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Hosen Sabah, a 16-year-old student is comforted by his mother at a hospital in Damascus. Nosen was wounded by a mortar outside his school, while 14 other students were killed and over 80 wounded In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Free Syrian Army fighter works on a locally made launcher before firing it towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in Mork town In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian policemen and citizens inspecting the site of a car bomb at the entrance of Moadhamiyet al-Sham neighborhood in rural Damascus. According to Syria's Arab News Agency (SANA), a car bomb explosion has gone off in the countryside of Damascus and initial information say there are casualties, where a car rigged with explosions was remotely detonated at the entrance of Moadhamiyet al-Sham neighborhood in rural Damascus during engineering units it was trying to dismantled it In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Opposition fighters carrying a rocket launcher during clashes against government forces in the Sheikh Lutfi area, west of the airport in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man helps a woman to make her way through debris following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian man reacts as he carries the body of injured boy following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 33 civilians were killed in the attack In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrian rescue workers carry the body of a woman following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A Syrian woman walks past the burning wreckage of a car following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man and two children run to a safer place following reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man holds an injured child after, according to activists, two barrel bombs were thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Hullok neighbourhood of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis An injured man talks on a walkie-talkie after, according to activists, two barrel bombs were thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Hellok neighbourhood of Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis A man walks inside a mosque damaged by, according to activists, a barrel bomb thrown by forces loyal to Syria's president Bashar Al-Assad in Old Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Syrians gather at the site of reported air strikes by government forces in the Halak neighbourhood in northeastern Aleppo In pictures: Syria conflict Syria crisis Rebel fighters carry their weapons as they run to avoid snipers loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the town of Morek in Hama province

Reports on Syrian state television said the blast struck while people were leaving the mosque following afternoon prayers.

Just days earlier a series of co-ordinated bombings struck the coastal city of Tartous and the town of Jableh on the Syrian coast, killing around 160 people.

Isis said it had carried out the simultaneous attacks but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's bombing.

Fighting across the war-ravaged country has increased dramatically in recent weeks after peace talks between non-Isis rebel groups and the Assad broke down.

The regime, with the help of Russian air strikes, has continued its assault on Aleppo where rebels struggle to hold on to the latest parts of the city under their control.
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World governments and Big Pharma companies are "turning a blind eye to bribery and corruption that allows a few to make vast profits while damaging the health of many of the poorest people on Earth, a new report has claimed.

Transparency Internationals Corruption in the Pharmaceutical Sector report found that despite as much as $300m (207m) of annual global health expenditure being lost to corruption and errors: Genuine commitment to anti-corruption policies by heads of governments, senior government officials and regulatory agencies is currently absent in many countries.

In some contexts, the report added, combating malpractice was hampered by a tacit acceptance of corruption.

Corrupt tactics highlighted in the campaign groups report include paying doctors to participate in surveys of medicines they have never actually prescribed, and companies secretly ghostwriting clinical trials research before passing it off as the work of impartial academics.

Bribery and corruption, the report says, also allow some companies to get round manufacturing regulations, helping to create a situation where about a quarter of medicines consumed in low and middle-income countries are falsified or sub-standard.

Where one individual gains from creaming off the top, said Sophie Peresson, the director of Transparency Internationals pharmaceuticals and healthcare programme, Hundreds more can be deprived of the most basic healthcare, often in the poorest populations of the world.

Claiming that the global pharmaceutical sector was wide open to corruption, she added: It is shocking that despite scandal after scandal, policymakers simply are not taking seriously the corrosive effect of corruption. The red flags are being ignored.

Governments and pharma companies must recognise their responsibility in fighting corruption and stop turning a blind eye.

Part of the problem, the report said, was the huge power of the pharmaceutical industry in a world where global spend on medicines is expected to grow to $1.3tn by 2018.

Big Pharmas financial muscle, the report claimed, allowed it to spend millions every year on political lobbying: Pharmaceutical companies can unduly influence national political systems through their large spending power. [They] often fund candidates that support their position on key issues.

Although some industry associations, such as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) have previously insisted they are educating not advocating, the Transparency International report insisted: Such funding can shape policy debates to favour a pharmaceutical companys profit maximisation and negatively impact public health objectives.

Pharmaceutical companies, it was claimed, could also buy a positive but misleading gloss on trials of a drugs safety and effectiveness.

The report said one study found that 94 per cent of industry-funded clinical trials of antidepressants was written up to suggest positive results, but when the US Food and Drug Administration re-examined the same studies, it found only 51 per cent had genuinely positive outcomes.

The corruption could even extend to disguising who had actually written the research. The report claimed that having the pharmaceutical industry ghostwrite clinical trial articles and pass them off as the work of eminent researchers was a common practice, particularly in industry-led trials. Ghostwriting [can] increase the prestige of the findings, while researchers improve their reputation, which can lead to promotions.

Many [academic] journals, the report claimed, cannot or do not want to monitor the practice adequately. There is a need for systemic change.

The report also claimed vast sums were spent on influencing doctors and this sometimes involved persuading them to prescribe expensive drugs that were no better than cheaper alternatives.

In the US alone, the report said, The pharmaceutical industry spends an estimated $42bn [a year] on promotional activities that target doctors, which is equal to $61,000 per doctor on average.

In some countries, the report said: A pharmaceutical company can use representatives to collect data on the safety and efficacy of its medicines from doctors who did not even prescribe the medicines being studied, in return for some kind of compensation.

In countries lacking good governance, bribery and corruption could also be used to get around medicine manufacturing standards.

As well as the immediate dangers of about 25 per cent of medicines being substandard or fake in poorer countries, there were knock-on effects in the form of a global increase in the prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria.

Doctors unwittingly prescribing poorly-made medicines could assume they were giving drugs which were correctly manufactured but not working on their patient. They could then switch to an antibiotic as a last resort, giving bacteria more exposure to a drug supposed to be used only rarely, and thus increasing the chances of resistant strains evolving.

But, the report admitted, the rewards of corruption were so great it was difficult to deter. Fines often have little financial impact compared to the profits corrupt pharmaceutical companies make from the sales generated by such practices.

For example, since 1991, the industry has paid $30bn in criminal fines in the US for Medicare fraud, unlawful promotion, kickbacks, monopolistic practices and failure to disclose clinical trial data, yet this is less than half of what the industry made in 2009 alone.

To genuinely diminish corruption in the pharmaceutical sector, the report concluded, national governments must show commitment to tackling the issues. Regardless of a companys revenue, an officials seniority or a healthcare professionals prestige, anyone suspected of corruption must be investigated and sanctions applied.

Dr Virginia Acha, director of research at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), said: This report fails to reflect what is already required by regulation and delivered by companies around the world.

For the UK in particular, the arguments appear to be out of sync with our track record. ABPI member companies adhere to a strict code of practice. UK bodies such as the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and NICE [National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] ensure companies face intense scrutiny on medicines safety, efficacy, quality and cost effectiveness.

The ABPI plays a leading role in addressing topics mentioned in this report, and at the end of June will deliver the UKs first searchable database of payments between the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare professionals and organisations.

The system for protecting UK patients is robust; the public can be assured that they are very well protected from the so-called 'abundant examples of corruption suggested in this report.
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Students in the UK are increasingly concerned about the implications of leaving the EU, with many saying they are not getting a clear answer from either the In or Out campaigns, according to a new survey.

With the latter leaving them feeling like their generation is being ignored, students have also listed their main concerns over leaving, with travelling around and working in Europe leading the way for being what theyre most worried about.

Recommended Read more Majority of UK students set to vote Remain in EU Referendum

Online discount site MyVoucherCodes surveyed just under 2,500 students to find almost half (48 per cent) feel neither campaign has shed any light on how a Brexit would affect daily life.

In addition to this, 38 per cent of respondents say there has not been enough information from either campaign on key issues, 20 per cent feel younger people are being overlooked in the process, and 18 per cent feel none of the arguments from either camp are well-thought out.

Sixty-four per cent have reported concerns over travelling around the continent, while almost half (49 per cent) have expressed worry over finding work in Europe.

Top 10 student worries should the UK leave the EU:

Harder to travel around Europe - 64% Harder to gain work in Europe - 49% Effect on employment post-university - 46% Loss of education funding from EU grants - 45% Harder to study in Europe - 41% Rise in loans interest rates - 38% Harder for UK and European universities to collaborate - 28% European students facing higher fees in the UK - 17% Issues for EU nationals currently studying in UK - 15% Less protection for workers rights - 13%

MyVoucherCodes general manager, Chris Reilly, said it was deeply worrying to learn a large section of the electorate feels this way, especially when future generations will be most affected by the outcome.

He added: It seems both the In and Out campaigns would rather push scare stories out than actually work on rational facts. No-one appears to be taking the time to talk to and engage this group of voters.

Concerns from students have not been properly answered, and we can understand why they have felt frustrated with this process and worry about what the future holds - for them and every other person in the UK.

Student news in pictures Show all 34 1 /34 Student news in pictures Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain a student demonstrator during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain student protestors during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. The protesters demanded that the parliament takes steps to impeach President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures Filipino demonstrators face off with anti-riot police during a protest near the US Embassy in Manila, Philippine EPA Student news in pictures Hundreds of protesters including Indigenous People, students and militant groups marched towards the US Embassy to protest against the presence of US military troops and condemning the violent dispersal which left at least forty people hurt including twenty police officers and three people who were run over by a police van EPA Student news in pictures A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students Student news in pictures A man holds up a photograph of a missing student with a caption reading 'We are missing 43,' during a meeting marking the 25-month anniversary of the disappearances of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero, in Mexico City. A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students AP Student news in pictures Miguel Perez, an intern student from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, puts away his cell phone before walking into the operating room at the Dr. Isaac Gonzalez MartInez Oncological Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Once they complete their general surgery training, many residents are moving to the United States in search of better wages, one of the main factors linked to the current shortage of specialists in the Island Student news in pictures Fewer EU students have applied to start university courses in the UK next autumn. There was a 9% fall in the numbers who had applied for courses, according to admissions service UCAS. PA wire Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela. Masses of protesters jammed the streets of Venezuela's capital on the heels of a move by congress to open a political trial against Maduro, whose allies have blocked moves for a recall election AP Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela AP Student news in pictures Thousands, most of them high school students, march during a demonstration in Madrid, Spain, on a one day strike to protest about the country's education law that increases the number of annual exams AP Student news in pictures Students gather on the west mall to confront the Young Conservatives of Texas student organization over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action Student news in pictures Donald Parish Jr, right, confronts Electrical and Computer Engineering senior Dewayne Perry over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action AP Student news in pictures Brigham Young University announced that students who report sexual assault will no longer be investigated for possible violations of the Mormon-owned school's strict honor code that bans such things as alcohol use AP Student news in pictures Students of secondary education march to protest against the final examinations and LOMCE (The Improvement Quality Education Law) law, after a call by trade unions, in Murcia, Spain EPA Student news in pictures South African police have used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of protesters who had marched to the parliament building to call for free university education, where the finance minister was giving a budget speech AP Student news in pictures Police break up student protests outside the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures South African Policemen fire rubber bullets at student protestors in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures A student protestor is hit by a rubber bullet in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures An injured student is helped by colleagues during protest outside the parliament during South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's medium term budget speech in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures Plaintiffs and bereaved families of elementary school students killed in the tsunami that followed a major earthquake in northeastern Japan in 2011, show banners that say 'victory in a suit filed with the Sendai District Court' in Sendai. A Japanese court ordered municipalities to pay $13.7 million dollars to families of school children who were swept away to their deaths by the 2011 tsunami Getty Student news in pictures A group of student at Ewha Womans University calls for a thorough investigation into those involved in years of engagement with state affairs backstage by Choi Soon-sil, a personal confidante of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, at the school's front gate in Seoul, South Korea EPA Student news in pictures Students raise placards during a strike action called by the student union, in Madrid against university entry exams Getty Student news in pictures Libyans throw a newly graduated student into a fountain as they celebrate during the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Thousands of Thai Catholic students take part in mourning tributes and in singing the Thai Royal Anthem to honour late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Saint Dominic School in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Student news in pictures Students of Silpakorn University paint portraits of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures A student of Silpakorn University paints a portrait of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend PA wire Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend, an annual tradition where student 'parents' inflict tasks on the unfortunate first-years they have adopted as 'children' as part of a mentoring scheme PA wire Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) take part in a practice in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) wait in line to enter a classroom in Havana, Cuba Reuters

The findings have come just weeks after another poll showed an overwhelming majority of UK students (81 per cent) are set to vote Remain - a result the team behind the poll said could determine the outcome of the referendum - while just ten per cent will be voting Leave.

A separate, and more worrying poll, for Universities UK found a staggering 63 per cent of students were not able to name the referendum date as 23, while 54 per cent did not know the month as being June.

Despite these findings, almost three quarters (72 per cent) said they thought the outcome of the referendum would have a significant impact on students futures, leading the chief executive of Universities UK, Nicola Dandridge, to label the results as a real concern.

Dandridge added: With nearly two million UK students eligible to vote in the referendum, it is vital they have all the necessary information to make sure they can take part in this hugely important decision.

London graduates and current university students have also told the Green Partys Sian Berry that UK membership of the EU is crucial to continue providing students with amazing educational and employment opportunities.

 How much does the public know about the EU referendum?

Berry, a Green member of the London Assembly, said: Students and young people benefit hugely from the academic and career opportunities EU membership brings, but with the referendum happening outside term time, and so few students registered to vote at the right home, their voice risks being ignored.

Freedom of travel in the EU helps share cultures, talents, and skills that shape our great city and help to make London unique and amazing. I hope the Mayor makes a clear case to Londoners about how EU membership benefits students and young people and encourages them to register to vote.
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The English department at one of the worlds most prestigious universities will lose out on young talent if it doesnt decolonise its course and stop asking students to read works only by white, male writers, campaigners are arguing.

In a petition launched by undergraduates at Yale University in Connecticut, the US, students have said they oppose the continued existence of a module known as major English poets which they need in order to be able to study further.

According to the English departments site, students are asked to spend two semesters in the company of major English poets, adding: Geoffrey Chaucer, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and John Donne in the fall; John Milton, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, and T. S. Eliot...in the spring.

The students, though, have said it is unacceptable that a Yale student considering studying English literature might read only white, male authors, adding how a lack of works by women, people of colour, and queer folk harms all students, regardless of their identity.

The students further argue the module is especially hostile to students of colour, and say that, when they are made to feel so alienated that they get up and leave the room, something is wrong.

Student news in pictures Show all 34 1 /34 Student news in pictures Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain a student demonstrator during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain student protestors during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. The protesters demanded that the parliament takes steps to impeach President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures Filipino demonstrators face off with anti-riot police during a protest near the US Embassy in Manila, Philippine EPA Student news in pictures Hundreds of protesters including Indigenous People, students and militant groups marched towards the US Embassy to protest against the presence of US military troops and condemning the violent dispersal which left at least forty people hurt including twenty police officers and three people who were run over by a police van EPA Student news in pictures A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students Student news in pictures A man holds up a photograph of a missing student with a caption reading 'We are missing 43,' during a meeting marking the 25-month anniversary of the disappearances of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero, in Mexico City. A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students AP Student news in pictures Miguel Perez, an intern student from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, puts away his cell phone before walking into the operating room at the Dr. Isaac Gonzalez MartInez Oncological Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Once they complete their general surgery training, many residents are moving to the United States in search of better wages, one of the main factors linked to the current shortage of specialists in the Island Student news in pictures Fewer EU students have applied to start university courses in the UK next autumn. There was a 9% fall in the numbers who had applied for courses, according to admissions service UCAS. PA wire Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela. Masses of protesters jammed the streets of Venezuela's capital on the heels of a move by congress to open a political trial against Maduro, whose allies have blocked moves for a recall election AP Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela AP Student news in pictures Thousands, most of them high school students, march during a demonstration in Madrid, Spain, on a one day strike to protest about the country's education law that increases the number of annual exams AP Student news in pictures Students gather on the west mall to confront the Young Conservatives of Texas student organization over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action Student news in pictures Donald Parish Jr, right, confronts Electrical and Computer Engineering senior Dewayne Perry over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action AP Student news in pictures Brigham Young University announced that students who report sexual assault will no longer be investigated for possible violations of the Mormon-owned school's strict honor code that bans such things as alcohol use AP Student news in pictures Students of secondary education march to protest against the final examinations and LOMCE (The Improvement Quality Education Law) law, after a call by trade unions, in Murcia, Spain EPA Student news in pictures South African police have used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of protesters who had marched to the parliament building to call for free university education, where the finance minister was giving a budget speech AP Student news in pictures Police break up student protests outside the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures South African Policemen fire rubber bullets at student protestors in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures A student protestor is hit by a rubber bullet in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures An injured student is helped by colleagues during protest outside the parliament during South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's medium term budget speech in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures Plaintiffs and bereaved families of elementary school students killed in the tsunami that followed a major earthquake in northeastern Japan in 2011, show banners that say 'victory in a suit filed with the Sendai District Court' in Sendai. A Japanese court ordered municipalities to pay $13.7 million dollars to families of school children who were swept away to their deaths by the 2011 tsunami Getty Student news in pictures A group of student at Ewha Womans University calls for a thorough investigation into those involved in years of engagement with state affairs backstage by Choi Soon-sil, a personal confidante of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, at the school's front gate in Seoul, South Korea EPA Student news in pictures Students raise placards during a strike action called by the student union, in Madrid against university entry exams Getty Student news in pictures Libyans throw a newly graduated student into a fountain as they celebrate during the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Thousands of Thai Catholic students take part in mourning tributes and in singing the Thai Royal Anthem to honour late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Saint Dominic School in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Student news in pictures Students of Silpakorn University paint portraits of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures A student of Silpakorn University paints a portrait of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend PA wire Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend, an annual tradition where student 'parents' inflict tasks on the unfortunate first-years they have adopted as 'children' as part of a mentoring scheme PA wire Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) take part in a practice in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) wait in line to enter a classroom in Havana, Cuba Reuters

The petition continues: The English department loses out when talented students engaged in literary and cultural analysis are driven away, further highlighting how those who do make it through the module are ill-prepared to take higher-level courses relating to race, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity.

According to the institutions student newspaper, Yale Daily News, the petition gathered some 160 signatures as of 26 May, although this is expected to be higher now.

Recent graduates from the course have thrown their support behind the campaign, citing their own experiences as a need for change.

As well as this, Yale English professor and associate director of undergraduate students, Jill Richards, has also supported the students call, and told the paper: It is unacceptable the two semester requirement for all majors routinely covers the work of eight white, male poets

The professor who teaches the module in question has welcomed discussion and debate on the issue, and said she is personally eager to participate in a more open dialogue about it.

Yale Daily News has also reported that, despite the campaign, the English department itself has made strides in recent years, particularly with a more diversified faculty.

The Independent has contacted the university for further comment.

 USA: Media students block media after Missouri Uni President resigns over racism

Closer to home, in the UK, a similar call has been made by schools in England. Spearheaded by The Forest Academy in Ilford, the Curriculum Campaign says women and ethnic minorities must be fairly represented on the GCSE and A-levels curriculum, having found current reading lists are weighted in favour of white, deceased, male writers.

English teachers at the school said research shows female writers are represented by an average of just 31 per cent of texts across AQA, Edexcel, and OCRs 2015/16 GCSE and A-level English literature reading lists, despite women accounting for more than half of the UKs population.

As well as this, texts by black, Asian, and ethnic minority writers have been marginalised with some courses only having five per cent of texts represented by authors of these backgrounds, even though they make up 14 per cent of Britain.

One of the teachers behind the campaign and petition, Olivia Eaton, said: Its important students are able to recognise themselves and their heritage in some of the texts they study, and that theyre exposed to a variety of authors and backgrounds to gain a better understanding of the society they live in.

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said the Government is committed to social justice, and wants every child to be able to read widely and well, including from texts by both male and female authors.
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Its the smell that hits us first as we approach downwind of the offshore rocks: an acrid, noxious, inescapable stench. Undeterred, our boat ventures forward, following a frothy slick being borne from the rocks by the current. As we get closer, a raucous cacophony of braying, barking and bleats comes into earshot. Its a seal colony  our first brush with wildlife on this alternative Big Five safari.

Much of Africas tourism is driven by its wildlife, and safaris offering sightings of the so-called Big Five are the most in-demand of all. But while lions, rhinos, elephants, leopards and buffalo can be found in many spots in South Africa, Ive come to Cape Town with a different agenda. Rather than heading inland to the bush, this safari experience is out in False Bay, where weve come to seek out Africas top marine predators  penguins, dolphins, seals, whales and great white sharks.

In terms of ocean wildlife, False Bay is hard to beat. Its 420 square miles of water is framed by soaring topography, with the Hottentots Holland Mountains on one side and a finger of land reaching down to Cape Point on the other. Cape Point is where the correspondingly cold and warm waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, creating conditions where sea life flourishes.

The appropriately named Seal Island is a riot of adult male seals sparring for dominance (Chris Fallows/apexpredators.com)

The abundance of fish draws predators in many shapes and sizes, and here at appropriately named Seal Island, Im eyeballing one of one of the most common. Our boat slows to a crawl as it nears the rocks, where 60,000 Cape fur seals are busily rearing their young. Its a riot of adult males sparring for dominance while hungry pups call for their mothers. Their combined, fishy excrement is the source of that pungent slick.

Its June and its winter in Cape Town, which may seem an odd time to visit. Somewhere behind us, thick cloud shields Table Mountain from view. Only occasional shafts of sunlight pierce through from the heavens, and were wearing layers to withstand the chill on the breeze. But while this may be slow season for tourists, its the best time to see False Bays predators. At this time of year, there are whales in good numbers, African penguins are courting, and the half-grown seal pups that were cooing over are learning how to swim. For some, the adventure will be brief. Were not the only visitors to Seal Island.

Great white sharks have also followed the slick and Seal Island is basically a big, open buffet; few other sites hold such promise of spotting these mighty predators. Chris, our guide, explains how the stretch of deep water on this side of the island is the most dangerous place in the world to be a seal. Its what he calls the strike zone; if youve ever seen TV footage of great white sharks breaching, leaping clear of the water in pursuit of a seal, it was probably filmed right here.

Dolphins gather in their hundreds and follow boats in the bay (Chris Fallows/apexpredators.com)

Many shark-watching trips chum the water to tempt the animals closer, but the seals rancid slick performs the same function. Now its just a waiting game. As we scan the water for activity, Chris explains how False Bays great whites are the largest in South Africa, and tells tales of various hunting behaviours hes witnessed at this spot. Its an ominous thought, especially given our boats tiny stature; and it certainly adds to the frisson of anticipation.

But today, perhaps the sharks arent hungry. The seals seem relaxed as they play in the swell, suggesting their predators are elsewhere. After a while, Chris cuts our losses and steers away from the rocks towards open sea.

As we skim across the bay, sunshine finally breaks through the clouds. As if to welcome it, a pod of common dolphins, at least 100 strong, appears out of nowhere and races the boat, taking turns to ride the bow wave. They leap and back-flip obligingly as they go, some almost within touching distance. We travel with them for several minutes, mesmerised by their antics. But as they begin to outpace us, Chris brings the boat to a stop, his keen eyes already locked on another species.

The population of Southern right whales rebounded in recent years (Chris Fallows/apexpredators.com) (apexpredators.com)

He points to where a huge, dark body is breaking the surface, quickly followed by another. Our luck is in  it is a Southern right whale mother and calf. They sink out of sight, but the strokes of their tails leave telltale, circular footprints on the water as they pass under the boat.

The population of right whales  they were once considered the right species to hunt  was decimated in years gone by. But legal protection has seen them rebound, and theyre frequently seen here in winter. In fact, we spy more later, swimming close to the shore at Boulders Beach, which is where we head after the tour for close-ups with the last of False Bays Big Five.

Boulders Beach is named for its striking jumble of weathered rocks, among which lives a colony of penguins. In summer, this is a tourist hotspot, but today we are almost alone. We follow a boardwalk to where groups of the birds are gathered on the sand, immaculate in their black and white plumage like gentlemen dressed for a ball.

We survey their waddling until our eyes are dragged seawards as another whale passes close inshore. Somewhere out there, too, sharks are lurking in the depths; and although its a shame to have missed them today, were certainly not disappointed. Four of the Big Five is pretty good going  and we now have a reason to come back next winter.

Travel essentials

The writer travelled with British Airways (0344 493 0787; ba.com), which flies regularly from Heathrow to Cape Town.

Kenwood Travel (0207 749 9242; kenwoodtravel.co.uk) offers packages to South Africa: BA flights with five nights B&B at Belmond Mount Nelson cost from 1,299 per person.

A half-day False Bay safari costs from 95 per person with Apex Predators (00 27 21 788 1863; apexpredators.com)

Cape Town Tourism: capetown.travel
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On the eve of one of the busiest weekends of the year for travel, the threat of widespread flight disruption has been lifted. French air-traffic controllers called off a strike that was planned to extend through the weekend, which would have wrecked the plans of tens of thousands of British travellers.

The controllers, who handle the busiest skies in Europe, took part in a stoppage on Thursday that grounded 10,000 British airline passengers.

British Airways cancelled around 40 flights due to fly to, from or over France. The services were cut on the instructions of the French government, which stipulates how much capacity must be cut in the event of the strike.

BA said it was using larger long-haul planes where possible. Flights were cancelled to Madrid, Barcelona, Geneva and Rome as well as several French airports.

 Clashes erupt in France over controversial labour reforms

Ryanair cancelled 75 flights, including 12 to and from the UK - mostly affecting routes to Spain but also services from Luton to Nimes and Stansted to Basel.

The long-running dispute between air-traffic controllers and the government is over job security, pensions and pay. Another strike is scheduled for 14 June.

Cross-Channel ferry passengers faced delays that were ascribed to the nationwide protests about labour reforms in France. Two Brittany Ferries vessels sailed two hours late to Cherbourg; they are likely to be two hours late.

Rail passengers in France faced disruption for a second day, with around 60 per cent of long-distance trains running. About one-third of local services operated, though some trains were heavily delayed.

A strike by transport workers in Paris appeared to have only limited effects. On Thursday evening, the public transport operator, RATP, said the Metro was running normally. On the RER suburban network, many trains are being cancelled - including more than half the links between Charles de Gaulle airport and central Paris. Some cancellations were due to flooding. RER Line C, which runs beside the Seine, was closed as a precaution.

In pictures: France strikes Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: France strikes In pictures: France strikes French riot police use tear gas against a demonstrator during a protest against the government's labour market reforms at Place de la Nation in Paris EPA In pictures: France strikes Workers on strike are evacuated by French riot policemen as they block the access to an oil depot near the Total refinery of Donges Getty In pictures: France strikes Demonstrators protest during a rally against employment and labour law reforms in Lyon Rex In pictures: France strikes Security forces clash with demonstrators during a protest called by seven labour unions and students against the labour and employment law reform, in Bordeaux Getty In pictures: France strikes French police apprehend a man during a demonstration to protest the government's proposed labour law reforms in Nantes Reuters In pictures: France strikes Riot police prepare to confront refinery workers outside an oil depot in Douchy-Les-Mines Getty In pictures: France strikes A protester holds up his fist as riot police prepare to intervene to disperse refinery worker holding a blockade of the oil depot of Douchy-Les-Mines to protest against the government's proposed labour reformsr labour reforms Getty In pictures: France strikes An employee stands next to a fire and French CGT union's flag as employees block the access of the PSA plant in Valenciennes Getty In pictures: France strikes CGT union workers and docker workers attend a demonstration in Marseille EPA In pictures: France strikes Men burn bins during a protest against the government's labour market reforms in Rennes Getty In pictures: France strikes People demonstrate in Le Havre Getty In pictures: France strikes A protestor raises his fist during a protest against the government's labour market reforms in Rennes Getty

On Friday, the Louvre is to close because of fears of flooding.

The weather-related disruption is adding to the image of a nation enduring severe stress, just a week before the Euro 2016 finals begin. More civil disturbances are predicted.

Francois Hollands Socialist government is seeking to liberalise the labour market. From the workers perspective that implies the erosion of long-held and hard-won rights, such as employment protection and the 35-hour working week.
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The hidden areas where cabin crews rest when not pacing up and down plane aisles have been revealed in a series of fascinating photos.

Images of concealed interiors on select Boeing 777 and 787 planes show staff sleeping quarters with beds, mattresses and curtains, accessible only by secret staircases, hidden behind security-coded doors.

Some of the sleeping areas, known as Crew Rest Compartments (CRC), are even hidden behind entrances that resemble overhead luggage bins.

The size and position of the bedroom areas differ on each plane, but typically they are placed behind the cock-pit and above first class.

The crew rest area on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Getty ) (Getty)

The interior of the crew sleeping quarters on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Getty ) (Getty)

The Boeing 777 usually has between six and 10 beds fitted with seatbelts in case flights are hit by turbulence.

Storage for attendants belongings is provided with the beds and some attendants may also be offered a TV.

 9 terrifying things that happen on a plane but passengers know nothing about

The 777 model also offers a separate area for pilots, which contains two beds, two business seats and, on some airlines, a lavatory area.

Despite, the cosy-looking photos, a British Airways crew member told the MailOnline Travel that resting in some of the windowless, on-board beds feels like sleeping in a coffin.

"On the Boeing 747's it's all bunk beds and on the 777 it feels like you're in a coffin, said the crew member.

"They are cramped but you can make it comfortable if you get a blanket or pillow.

A small stair case leads to a compartment of sleeping berths for long haul crew members in Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Getty ) (Getty)

The rest room for pilots located behind the cockpit of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner (Getty ) (Getty)

"I always take my own pajamas and I make a little bed up."

Previously, pilots revealed which airports they thought were the worst in the world, with Londons Heathrow, Californias LAX and Frances Paris Charles de Gaulle all fairing badly.

Nepals Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu was dubbed a glorified bus station running at 600 per cent capacity, by one pilot.

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Tucked just beyond the narrow lanes of Marazion, and blessed with fantastic views of Mounts Bay and St Michaels Mount, the Mount Haven is a smart yet unpretentious hotel and restaurant for all occasions, from a romantic holiday to a pit stop along the South West Coast Path.

Its run with dedication and passion by the owners, Mike and Orange Trevillion, and the feel of the place and the service is something special: if you want a swanky hotel close to Penzance and the wild, western tip of Cornwall, bag a four-poster suite or boutique balcony room here with all the trimmings youd expect of top-notch accommodation and you will be very happy indeed. Local artwork adorns the walls and sculptures dot the hallways and living spaces, but every area from the lounge and terrace to the restaurant beckons you to relax and enjoy the sea views.

Theres a spa offering holistic treatments and all sorts of rejuvenating pampering, and it has a pretty decent restaurant too  popular with non-residents, and serving refined yet simple food based on local, often foraged produce. Whether you want a Cornish crab sandwich after a dog-walk on the beach, morning coffee with a view, or a three-course gourmet dinner, its one of the best dining venues around; and this, surely, is one of the best places to stay  in a part of Britain where theres no shortage of good competition.

Cool Places is a new website from the creators of Rough Guides and Cool Camping, suggesting the best places to stay, eat, drink and shop in Britain (coolplaces.co.uk)
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The increasingly shrill tones in which the daily back-and-forth over Brexit, immigration and the role of the European Union is conducted is making it harder to tune in to the reasoned debate puttering along below the surface. Thats a shame, because some of the most important and convincing arguments for remaining in the union are getting lost in the maelstrom. Among these is the fact that, without the EU, we have no guarantee to some of the basic rights of citizenship to which we have become so well accustomed. If we leave the EU, all those hard-fought rights could be easily lost too.

The most-well publicised of these rights at risk relate to women and their role in society  the right to paid maternity and paternity leave, for example, and the right to equal pay for equal work. But there are many more.

Try scanning through the following list and see how many youd be willing to dispense with at a whim of a new elected government: the right to 20 days paid leave a year; the right a maximum 48 hour working week; the right to time off for medical appointments; the right to equal treatment by an employer if you work part-time, on a fixed-term contract or through an agency; the right to be informed about changes to your employment; protection from discrimination on the grounds of physical disability, sexuality, age, religion and so on; the right to work in a safe environment that does not threaten your health or put your life at risk; the right to live and work abroad; respect for the human rights of disabled people.

The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images

Removing ourselves from Europe means well no longer have to meet these European rules. It might free some businesses of what they consider to be unnecessary red tape, but with it could go the ramp access that helps your grandmother visit her local library and the right not to be discriminated against at work because you are gay.

The imposition of these rules from Europe is, in essence, anti-democratic. Even if it is against the will of an elected national government, we must meet European laws on equal rights. That poses a threat to national sovereignty. So the question is this: do we value our sovereignty and our right to self-determination, or the agreement of what it means to be a European citizen  a floor below which our rights as Europeans cannot sink, whatever government we vote for  more highly?

Some of you will say I am a fool, but I prize the latter over the former. That there are limits to excess is what makes Britain so politically stable.

There is a common belief, particularly among those keen to leave the EU, that British society has now modernised to a point where enshrining such rights in a European mandate is not only undesirable, because it undermines the sovereignty of an elected national government, but also entirely unnecessary. We have, it is claimed, progressed so far that no politician would stand on a ticket of, say, slashing workers rights, cutting maternity leave or reducing the amount of paid holiday that workers are entitled to  and that no elected government would take the risk of meddling once in power. That is a fallacy.

Its not that I dont trust the British people to respect these rights themselves and reflect that in their voting behaviour, its just that democratic engagement has its necessary limits. In order to court popularity, political parties campaign on two or three issues of the day.

David Cameron, for example, campaigned on reduction of the fiscal deficit, capping welfare and immigration in the 2015 general election and on similar matters five years earlier. And yet there has been, during his premiership, a debate over reducing the time limit on abortion and efforts to make it easier for bosses to sack their employees. Right now we have a government that has overseen the proliferation of a casualised workforce, with a sharp rise in the use of zero-hours contracts, while that same Prime Minister has talked up its efforts on boosting the minimum wage and making work pay. The picture is always more murky than it first seems. In that context, signing up to a basic set of European rights seems sensible and worthwhile.

There are, of course, always loopholes to exploit in the EU regulations. Almost every job I have held in journalism has required me to sign away my right to a maximum working week of 48 hours, and I did it willingly, in full knowledge that this was the expectation in my career of choice; if I wanted a greater work-life balance, there were other sectors into which I could jump.

But the fact that the EU exists to safeguard a basic set of progressive rights for all Europeans  man, woman, able, disabled, gay, straight or trans  is to me a celebration of its original purpose of creating a united, humanitarian Europe. Thats something worth fighting for, not dismantling.
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The belief in, and hope of, social mobility is the motor of modern society: parents devoting huge amounts of time and money to give their children the best opportunities; millions of migrants travelling across the planet in search of a better life; workers spending ever more hours in the office.

Effort should and will be rewarded, eventually. This is a view particularly broadcast by conservatives who believe in a positive and progressive view of human potential.

But there is another story we need to remind people of: while nearly all people can rise in society, so nearly all of us could fall. The Office for National Statistics recently showed that one in three have lived in poverty at some point in their lives between 2011 and 2014. Admittedly, this can be a blind spot for conservatives.

That is why we need a strong safety net. This should not be just a fixation of soggy social democrats. Free marketeers ought to support a robust and popular welfare system too. A dynamic economy means people taking risks, insecure employment and inequalities in rewards. If anything, these components of capitalism are likely to become more commonplace in the future, due to increased automation and globalisation of our economy. The provision of welfare is vital for continued participation in  and thus public support for  a free market economy.

Britains welfare state, however, is in trouble. The amount of financial support from government available to people facing testing times continues to be substantially reduced in the name of austerity, with material poverty now on the rise again. Meanwhile, the general public are deeply sceptical of welfare provision: nine in ten people believe the welfare state is facing severe problems and only 5 per cent believe it is a priority for government expenditure. The current Government have introduced reforms which are individually popular, but public attitudes towards welfare generally remain derisory. The welfare state needs a new stage of radical reform to achieve its potential and status as a vital public service.

On the political left, (alongside allies on the libertarian right) the idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in the place of welfare is currently gaining traction. The Finnish Government are considering trialing a limited version of UBI. Next week, the Swiss are actually having a referendum on whether to give everyone a UBI of 2,500 Francs a month. Proponents point to several supposed benefits: simplicity and universality; the reduction in steep withdrawal rates of benefits when people transition into work which can lead to poverty traps; the granting of greater freedoms to citizens over how they spend their time, working or not; and the ending of conditionality to receive benefits.

Utopian nonsense. The system is complex because people have differing needs  for example, they have children, a disability or higher housing costs  which rightly require different levels of financial support. To overcome this, either you end the universality of a UBI  in which case, youre arriving back in the land of our current system  or you set it at a rate which is very high and thereby fiscally unrealistic.

And is it really desirable to introduce a new welfare system which will incentivise and allow many perfectly able people to not seek or stay in employment? Work is both a private and public good  and not just because of the money generated. Increased conditionality  which involves claimants undertaking activities such as preparing CVs, undertaking training and attending interviews to receive benefits  has been an important factor in reducing long-term unemployment in recent years, although there is a need for more discretion to be applied in its usage.

A UBI is highly unlikely to improve the lives of those in challenging circumstances. Nor is it likely to improve public attitudes to welfare. Thats because a lot of government money for UBI will be directed towards people who are neither deserving (those who have decided to not work despite being able to) nor in need (those on higher incomes).

There is an alternative way. Those who have paid more into the system, by having longer work histories, should be entitled to higher levels of support if they require assistance from the welfare state. Such contributory welfare chimes with the prevailing idea of fairness: that rewards should be linked to effort. Only 10 per cent of working-age state welfare is now spent on contributory benefits, down from approximately 40 per cent in the late 1970s. Government could include contribution supplements on benefits such as Universal Credit and Maternity Pay.

For those passionate about improving the performance and perception of Britains welfare state, attention should focus on campaigning for the introduction of greater contribution in welfare rather than a UBI. It is likely to lead to higher levels of public support for welfare and greater financial assistance to those who are vulnerable at a cheaper price than UBI and with none of the negative side-effects.
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I daresay Laura Kuenssberg is beginning to regret that fateful day all those years ago, when she, fresh-faced and eager, turned up to talk career choices at school with a member of staff, and, having considered all options available to her, decided that what she really wanted in life was to become the devious, politically biased Wicked Witch of Westminster. No doubt her careers adviser thought it odd, too, but young Laura was adamant. Political point-scoring was her passion, and, damn it, she would not rest until the world knew just how partisan and devilish she was.

Fast forward to the arrival of little Jeremy Corbyn, and Kuenssberg, now a high-flying pariah, saw her moment to cement her place as the greatest purveyor of misinformation since Judas Iscariot told the chaps he was just popping outside for a fag. For months, she has kept up a vicious campaign of vitriol against the poor, embattled Corbyn; whenever shes not asking him probing questions, she sends legions of flying monkeys to harry him and disembowel his brainless, heartless and cowardly friends.

 Corbyn fans hiss Kuenssberg

Ill get you, my pretty! she screeches from atop her broom, and your little Seumas Milne, too!

Its little wonder, then, that the Munchkins of Momentum Land dont like wicked old Laura very much. Who could ever like such a mendacious creature? The poor munchkins have tried everything. They complain, they wail, they launch petitions to get her removed. Nothing seems to work. All they can do is hope and pray that Corbyn takes power in the Emerald City, and propels a righteous bucket of water at her. Or that maybe shell be squashed by a falling house price.

Except, of course, Laura Kuenssberg isnt a wicked old witch. She doesnt fly a broom, she isnt devilish, and, my solicitor wishes me to make clear, has never, to the best of my knowledge, incited anyone to disembowel anyone else, doesnt own a troupe of winged apes, and has probably never called Jeremy Corbyn my pretty.

What is she? Shes just a journalist working hard to do her job to the best of her abilities. Boring, I know, but thats pretty much it. But to Jeremy Corbyns supporters she might as well be the Devil himself.

It really was rather unedifying to hear the reaction of Labour activists when Kuenssberg was called to ask a question at a speech by Jeremy Corbyn on the EU earlier today. Boos and hisses greeted her name; the Leader smirked, but to his credit, silenced them with a wave of his hand. This isnt however, the childish opprobrium dished out to Michael Crick by Boris Johnson a few weeks ago at a Eurosceptic rally. This is really nasty stuff. The sort of nasty stuff that led to the petition against Kuenssberg on the platform 38 Degrees being suspended because of a litany of sexist abuse.

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It wasnt just Kuenssberg, either; Heather Stewart of the Guardian tweeted throughout the event, suggesting that she had rarely been made to feel so uncomfortable while just doing [her] job.

Two things stand out here: a deep-seated suspicion among his supporters that all journalists covering Jeremy Corbyn must be biased, and the impression that though all who speak out against him are fair game for abuse, women are fairer game than men. It isnt limited to journalists; just take a look at the stuff Jess Phillips and Stella Creasy receive from people on the left. Its also not even limited to those who speak out, as this event shows; in Kuenssbergs case, she merely committed the crime of trying to be objective. Yet that has, in the eyes of many, marked her out as deserving of a deluge of profanity.

Now, personally, I am always, and shall always be, of the opinion that all free speech must be tolerated, no matter how disapprovingly it is looked upon, unless it incites violence. I am not suggesting for a second that journalists (or politicians) are delicate flowers, and must be protected from the realities of the world. That would plainly be ludicrous.

What I would suggest, however, is that if the supporters of Jeremy Corbyn feel that his chances of establishing the Democratic Peoples Republic of Oz any time soon are being harmed because of negative coverage in the press, the last thing, the very last thing, they should be doing, is engaging in behaviour which becomes a story in itself. Like victimising hard-working journalists, or revealing hard-wired sexist attitudes. All that does is make Corbyns supporters look childish and brutish, and takes away from whatever message he has to offer. If his supporters think the electorate will forgive incompetence, bullying and sexism, Labours strategy for 2020 might as well be to tap their heels together, thinking of Number 10, and mutter, Theres no place like home.
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A small Balkan country is in state of crisis. In Macedonia, things are getting serious. If the country descends further in chaos  and events are rapidly moving in that direction  then not only is its future as a functioning democracy in jeopardy but the very integrity of the state is at risk.

In one sense, crisis is the norm in Macedonia. Since emerging from the wreckage of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the country has struggled to establish itself as a viable state in a difficult region of the world. Neighbouring Greece has rejected Macedonias right to use its constitutional name; Bulgaria has disputed its claims to a separate national identity; and Serbia has denied Macedonias right to an autocephalous church.

Even worse, Macedonia is sharply divided between its majority Slav-population, known as Macedonians, and a large Albanian minority, which forms around a quarter of the population. In 2001, two years after the Albanians of neighbouring Kosovo succeeded in detaching themselves from Serbia, Macedonias Albanians launched their own insurgency. Alarmed at the consequences for regional stability, the West rapidly intervened and imposed a deal in which Albanians gave up any plans for separation in return for greater political rights.

 Macedonia: At least 12 police officers injured in shootout with 70 armed people

Since then, Macedonia has been largely forgotten by the West. Formally, the country is a candidate for membership of the EU but its path has been blocked by Greece, and Bulgaria blows hot and cold. The same goes for its membership of NATO. As a result, a poor country with weak institutions, no tradition of democracy or markets and a legacy of ethnic resentment has been left to fend for itself in an increasingly dangerous world.

Despite its manifold challenges, Macedonia appeared to be making progress for much of the last decade. The Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation (VMRO), led by a young reformer, Nikola Gruevski, won power from the former communists and embarked on a radical overhaul of the investment environment, generating impressive levels of economic growth. Meanwhile, the former leaders of the Albanian rebellion, subsequently a political party called the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), took up position in a coalition with VMRO, ensuring broad political stability.

But behind this positive facade, Macedonias traditional patronage-based system, which subordinates the rule of law to raw political power, remained unchanged. This became graphically clear in February last year when the leader of the political opposition, Zoran Zaev, announced he had thousands of wiretapped telephone conversations in his possession which revealed corruption, electoral fraud and outright criminality at the most senior levels of government.

 Macedonia demonstrations: Thousands protest for a fifth night

The evidence suggests that the wiretaps were made by the local intelligence services in a massive spying operation, led by Gruevski, who wanted to know exactly was going on in the country  in the opposition, in business circles and in his own cabinet. Not only did this help him maintain power but it also gave him a competitive edge in his myriad business dealings. Eventually, a whistle blower within the intelligence service decided enough was enough and passed the recordings to the political opposition.

In the weeks that followed, Zaev began to release the recordings in a series of high-profile press conferences, all the while demanding that the government cede power. Gruevskis initial response was to claim the tapes had been fabricated and, somewhat contradictorily, to accuse Zaev of treachery and collusion with a foreign intelligence service, which was plotting to overthrow the government and destabilise Macedonia.

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As pressure on Gruevski mounted, he then apparently colluded with his Albanian coalition partners to manufacture a security incident in the border town of Kumanovo which pitched a group of ethnic-Albanian paramilitaries, many from Kosovo, against the Macedonian police. In the ensuing shoot out, nineteen people were killed.

While the aim was to distract public attention from the deepening corruption scandal, the opposite occurred, as thousands took to the streets demanding the resignation of the government  not just Macedonians, but also ethnic Albanians who castigated their leaders for a betrayal of their national struggle for dignity and rights.

When some of these protests turned violent, an increasingly worried EU finally re-engaged with Macedonia to broker a deal between the government and opposition. The result was the Przino Agreement, signed in July last year, which set out a roadmap for ending the crisis.

The key provision was early elections, initially scheduled for April this year. Ahead of these, the government agreed to form a transitional administration which included the political opposition, and Gruevski to step down as prime minister. The government also agreed to clean up Macedonias electoral lists, which contain thousands of phantom VMRO and DUI supporters, and give the opposition equitable access to the state-owned media.

In parallel, the EU demanded the appointment of an independent Special Prosecutor to investigate the evidence contained in the leaked recordings.

Przino bought a few months respite but little genuine progress. First, the government failed to amend the electoral lists and open up the media, leading to a postponement of the elections, to June. Then it broke off contact with the EUs ineffectual mediator on the ground. In response, Zaev and the rest of the opposition announced a boycott of the elections, claiming the governments obstructionism made a fair contest impossible.

With the ball in the governments court, the president of Macedonia, widely seen as a stooge of the government, last month used his authority to pardon to all those under investigation by the Special Prosecutor, shortcutting her attempts to enforce the rule of law. Once again, an enraged populace returned to the streets, demanding the resignation of the government and the president in what is now being called the Colourful Revolution. Meanwhile, sensing the direction of events, DUI announced that it too would be joining the oppositions boycott of the ballot.

With Macedonia heading for elections with just one party in contention, European diplomats intensified their pressure on the country. The EU warned it would not recognise a government elected after a flawed ballot. And, Germany, Macedonias main trading partner, dispatched its own mediator to put pressure on the locals, starting with a halt to the sham elections.

These efforts appeared to pay off. After discussions with the German mediator, DUI used its authority to petition Macedonias Constitutional Court to annul the elections. Last week, the Court ruled that multiparty elections with just a single party would indeed be unconstitutional, and cancelled the ballot.

So far, so good. But what happens next is very much an open question.

In a best-case scenario, VMRO would bow to popular and international pressure and cede control to a technocratic administration that created the conditions for free and fair elections later this year. For his part, the president would also withdraw his pardons and allow proper judicial process to proceed. Following the transition to a post-Gruevski government, and the arrival of new political figures, the EU and the US would demand that Greece lifted its 25-year blockade and set Macedonia on a course of westward integration.

However, matters may not turn out so well. For one thing, Gruevski is unlikely to give up power voluntarily, especially since he now has momentum. While the suspension of the elections is superficially a victory for the constitution, it actually leaves VMRO in power and free of an immediate electoral challenge.

Even better, following a vote in parliament this week, VMRO and DUI have used their majority to expel the remaining opposition ministers from government, effectively terminating the interim administration and restoring the old coalition. Going forward, Gruevski can rely on a caucus of supporters, who depend on the partys survival for their jobs and livelihoods, to take to the streets and face down the opposition protestors.

In short, all he needs to do to achieve his goals is to maintain the status quo.

Potentially, the EU will escalate pressure on Gruevski. In the last few weeks, some Europeans have threatened to sanction VMRO in a bid to force compliance with the terms of Przino. But its not clear there would be consent for this among the Central Europeans, who need Macedonia onside to enforce the closure of the Balkan migration route.

And even if the EU did sanction the government, the effect might simply be to push it into a closer relationship with Russia, which would delight at the opportunity to extend its influence in the strategic battleground of the Balkans.

All this creates unprecedented opportunity for the DUI and the Albanians. As matters stand, VMRO remains in power and the coalition intact, but only thanks to DUIs petitioning of the constitutional court and the subsequent suspension of elections.

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Now DUI has said it wants something in return, and that something is very likely to be the federalisation of Macedonia. Not only has this emerged as the key demand of ethnic Albanians who want to secure their rights; but delivering this goal could help revive DUIs flagging popularity.

This risks transforming what has hitherto been a crisis of governance into a crisis of state. The Albanians will try to negotiate federalisation with VMRO on pain of withdrawing from the government, undermining its parliamentary majority and expediting new elections. But if VMRO refuses to concede this demand because of a backlash from Macedonian nationalists, then DUI could leave the government anyway, bringing an end to ethnic power sharing and creating a de facto split in the country along ethnic lines.

Worryingly, events in Macedonia are playing out at a time when neighbouring Kosovo is in a state of profound political turmoil following an EU-brokered deal last year that similarly partitions the country along ethnic lines. With Albanians on two sides of a porous border both negotiating issues of territory and governance, only an optimist would gamble on the two scenarios not joining up.

The way out of this crisis is not at all clear, and matters are set to get worse before they get better. The hope must be that its not yet too late to stop Macedonia completely spiralling out of control.

Timothy Less is the Director of the Nova Europa political risk consultancy and an Associate Researcher at the University of Cambridges Forum on Geopolitics
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The Turks always shout and threaten when someone wants to acknowledge the facts of history: that one and a half million Armenian Christians were the victims of Turkish Ottoman genocide in 1915. But did Sultan Erdogan really think that Germany  of all nations  would choose to be a Holocaust denier?

Well, the German parliament has voted by a quite extraordinary majority to declare the Armenian genocide a genocide  which the whole world (except, of course, for the Turks) knows it to be. There were the usual menaces to Germany  a danger to cultural/trade/military ties  from the government in Ankara and flocks of vicious e-mails to German MPs, but the parliamentary resolution rubbed in the fact that Ottoman Turkey was an ally of Germany when it perpetrated the atrocities and that Germany itself did not do enough to stop the genocide.

Poor Angela Merkel  who still prays that Sultan Erdogan will stand by her Operation Bribery campaign and keep back the refugees from the EU for a whopping 3bn and an offer of visa free travel in the eurozone  chose to stay absent from the vote. So did her vice-chancellor and her sad foreign minister, who would not have voted for the motion anyway. The greatest irony  utterly ignored by all politicians and journalists  is that the refugees and migrants whom Europe is now so frightened of come, in many cases, from the very towns and deserts in which the Turks committed their acts of horror against the Armenians 101 years ago.

The skulls and bones of Armenians still lie in the sands south of the Turkish border which Isis now controls; and when al-Nusrah captured parts of Deir ez-Zor, they blew up the Armenian cathedral of the Syrian city, took the bones of genocide victims from the vaults and scattered them in the streets. Several German officials who witnessed the original genocide went on to use their expertise during the Jewish Holocaust in the Nazi occupied Soviet Union. And Hitler, preparing to invade Poland in 1939, asked his generals: Whois today speaking of the annihilation of the Armenians?

Needless to say, we saw the usual weedy fence-sitting by the news agencies (especially by those with offices in Ankara and Istanbul) who emphasised the Turkish denial of the genocide and the hotly disputed nature of an international crime against humanity which  were those same agencies writing of the Jewish genocide  they would rightly never dare to balance by quotations from deniers.

France and Russia and at least 18 other nations now accept the Armenian genocide as a fact of history, along with good old Pope Francis  the only major exception being the one whose name we would all guess: the US. An almost annual visit to Washington by a coterie of Turkish generals is usually enough to bring the White House to heel. Doesnt America need those important air bases in south-eastern Turkey from which the US wages war against Isis (and from which, speak it not, Turkey now wages war against Kurds)?

But thank God, once more, for Germany. Here was one vote for which the country would be certain to snap obediently to attention.
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I would normally stay well clear of other folks referendums.

Yet recently, at my local pub, I encountered two British visitors. They were keen to inform me they were Brexiters. Both were convinced that the UK would be better off with a Norwegian solution, that is to say a relationship with the EU similar to that of Norway. As a Norwegian working in international relations, I couldnt just let this stand. Having worked as advisor at the Mission of Norway to the EU, Im quite familiar with this relationship. Heres what I told the two gents in the pub.

Firstly, what might seem comfortable enough for Norway would hardly prove so for Britain. Norway does indeed have access to the EU Single Market without full EU membership, but that comes at a democratic cost. In fact, it is an illusion: I would call it membership without a vote. Even Norways own EU minister admitted as much.

 What to believe about the EU referendum

Ironically, non-member Norway is among the countries most efficient in adopting EU directives  in most cases without debate. When debate does arise, it generally takes place years after the legislative decisions have been made in Brussels, far too late to seek any changes. This delay is largely down the absence of Norwegian representatives in the European Parliament and Council. So why is there so little outrage? Again not without irony, it seems that although Norway twice rejected EU membership, Norwegians appear to suffer very little from all this EU regulation imposed on them.

Would the British feel the same way? Norwegians tend to take the view that, as a country of five million, Norways vote would seldom tip the scales in EU decision making. Generally it aligns with its Nordic neighbours, Britain and the Netherlands on key matters such as labour market flexibility and free trade.

Given the horse-trading nature of EU politics, Norway might have more often punched above its weight than its people assumes if it were an EU member. Finland, with a similar population size, has regularly proven that possible. But indeed, Norway would rarely be setting the agenda; its absence from EU decision making should therefore matter mainly to Norwegians, and less so to others. Should Britain decide to leave, however, the scales would tip for real.

A European Union without the UK would, without a doubt, be a European Union far less attractive to the British. Britain would witness its closest neighbours and allies collectively drifting ever further away from UK politics and society. And those would be the very neighbours with whom the UK would need to negotiate EU Single Market access following a Brexit.

The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 1 /7 The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. With friends like these, who needs enemies? PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. Cameron says were safer in the EU. Well Im in the centre of the EU and it doesnt feel very safe. Getty Images The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. Were voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration. Rex The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: Love Actually to dishonour the US stance on the EU. A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldnt not find work because of uncontrolled migration. The European Union is a force for social injustice which backs the haves rather than the have-nots. EPA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods. PA The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 16 May 2016 During a tour of the womens clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Goves in which he compares the EU to badly designed undergarments. So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Lets say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down. Getty Images

With a Norwegian solution, the UK would be obliged to keep implementing EU regulations to keep that market access: regulations then dominated by French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish politics; regulations with which the UK would certainly be less comfortable. The Dutch, the Nordics and other flexibility-seeking countries would perhaps at times feel increasingly isolated. But more than any, the British would suffer.

Secondly, our two travelling Brexiters were convinced that after a Leave vote, the UK could demand a better deal for its European Single Market access. However, the EU (and by extension, any relevant form of international cooperation) is based on compromise and consensus. If the UK would vote to leave and then request a better deal, every EU leader would have to refuse. Otherwise, why would the French, Germans and others not demand a referendum and overwhelmingly vote to leave, in order to get their better deals? As a consequence there could be no compromise, no consensus, and inevitably, no EU Single Market for the UK to access.

In short, when it comes to accessing the EU Single Market, the UK cant have its cake and eat it. While I may not personally agree with all UK positions, British influence in EU politics is to my mind critical in retaining a balanced EU that can secure our welfare and progress. I firmly believe it is in Britains interest to refine and widen that (Br)influence, rather than leaving the playing field entirely to other EU powers.

Perhaps it is worthwhile taking a look into the mirror: if you assume that Great Britain still retains the ability to make a real difference on the world stage, why do you not believe you can provide leadership in Brussels? I believe the choice you are now facing is this: work for a better EU as you see it, or suffer a worse one.
State-owned companies are sitting on vast land-banks that could be built on to resolve the housing crisis, Simon Coveney has said.

The Housing Minister warned publicly-owned bodies they have to "play their part" in helping to bring an end to misery for tens of thousands of families struggling to find a home.

Mr Coveney told a parliamentary watchdog Irish Rail in particular has huge sites that will never be used for railways - often in the centre of towns and cities throughout the country.

"Other agencies of the state and state-owned companies need to play their part in supplying land banks to local authorities to be able to build homes," he told the specially established Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness.

"Irish Rail is probably the best example of that.

"If you look at Limerick, Cork in particular and Athlone, there are very strategic and very large land banks often in city centres that are never going to be used really for commercial rail in the future."

Mr Coveney also said he would like to see the State buying up existing properties - particularly houses lying empty country-wide to be used for badly-needed social homes.

A report last month by the Housing Agency estimated that almost a quarter of a million houses lie empty across Ireland - nearly 40,000 of them in Dublin.

There are up to 130,000 people on social housing waiting lists across the country.

Mr Coveney said the government's "aspiration" is to build 35,600 new social homes over the coming four years.

A special taskforce could be set up to look for "bargains" in vacant properties currently under the control of banks or languishing on estate agent books to plug a shortfall, he told the committee.

"I absolutely think one of the ways of getting an immediate increase in (housing) stock is to simple acquire - the preference is to acquire vacant properties," he added.

Mr Coveney said rapid-build accommodation on or near college campuses would also take some of the 25,000 students out of privately-rented homes, freeing them up for families.
The prospect of a return to border controls between Northern Ireland and the Republic as a result of a Brexit is both "repulsive and upsetting", a British Labour politician has said.

Claims by Northern Secretary Theresa Villiers that the common travel area between the UK and Ireland would be unaffected are wrong, Conor McGinn, MP for the St Helen's North constituency in Merseyside, said.

Mr McGinn, who is originally from south Armagh, claimed 'leave' campaigners were being disingenuous in their statements about the North.

"As someone who grew up six miles from the border during the late 1980s, 1990s, I can categorically say that the idea of going back to any sort of restriction, or even the word checkpoint, in the border between north and south, is both repulsive and upsetting," he said.

He was speaking on a panel discussion at the University of Liverpool, along with Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan, Hilary Benn, Shadow Foreign Secretary, and Grainne Mellon, co-chair of the Irish4Europe campaign.

Mr McGinn said it was not overstating, or scaremongering, to say the progress that has been made on both sides of the border would be put at risk.

Asked by a member of the audience about claims from the leave side that a border would not be reinstated, Mr McGinn said they were wrong.

He said Brexit could ultimately mean a hard border between the island of Ireland and Britain, meaning someone travelling from Belfast to Liverpool would need to go through passport control.

Mr Flanagan said that if a Brexit were to occur, at best there would be huge uncertainty around the border issue.

At worst, there wold be border controls that would give "rise to serious adverse consequences in terms of trade and economic engagement".

The minister is on a two-day UK visit to engage with members of the Irish community ahead of the crucial referendum on June 23.

As well as taking part in the Institute of Irish Studies discussion at the University of Liverpool, he did a site visit with ABP foods and visited the Irish Heritage Centre in Manchester last night. Today he will speak at a British Irish Chamber of Commerce event in the city.

Mr Flanagan said it was important for those with a franchise in the UK to register to vote, and he said for Ireland, the Government believes the UK is better in the EU.

"I know that for some voters the Irish perspective may be one of the factors they consider when informing themselves about the issues concerned," he said.

Mr Benn said the vote is the most important decision of a lifetime. And he said in the EU, the UK wields great influence.

Research carried out by Irishjobs.ie and NIjobs.com showed that 42pc of Northern Irish and 41pc of Irish employees fear the reintroduction of border controls. And 77pc of Northern Irish employees believe a Brexit would push the UK economy into recession.

Meanwhile, in the Dail Taoiseach Enda Kenny has warned that a Dail motion calling for Irish people in Britain to vote 'remain' could backfire.

But Mr Kenny said the Government is actively encouraging Irish citizens with a vote to help avoid a Brexit.

He was responding to a suggestion from Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin that the Taoiseach organise an all-party motion, signed by every TD, "calling on Irish voters and those with Irish connections in the UK and an entitlement to vote and UK citizens living in this jurisdiction to vote to stay in the EU".

"This is of such vital importance to us," Mr Howlin said, adding that the debate could explain to Irish voters how Britain staying in the EU is in our "strategic interest".

However, Mr Kenny said he would need to "reflect" on the proposal. "It might not have the effect that you intend," he said.
A PORTFOLIO of three Dublin hotels has been put up for sale with a price tag of 130m, in the latest sign of improvement in the hotel sector.

The Irish Independent understands that the Spencer Hotel in the IFSC, the Beacon Hotel in Sandyford, and the Morgan Hotel in Temple Bar, have been made available for sale although they are not yet formally "on the market".

CBRE is believed to have been retained to manage the process. The three hotels are all managed by Fitzpatrick Lifestyle Hotels. The company declined to comment.

The portfolio is among the last of the major hotel sales in the Irish market and come on the back of the Gresham and Burlington Hotels, which are currently on the market for 85m and 180m each.

The Spencer Hotel in the IFSC was formally the Clarion Hotel. The four-star property comprises 165 bedrooms, lounge, bar, restaurant and full leisure club with an estimated 1,000 members.

There are extensive conference and events facilities which can cater for up to 150 people - with 10 conference rooms of various sizes. The hotel employs 120 staff, according to its most recent accounts.

The hotel was sold in late 2013 to investment firm Patron Capital for close to 33m. Fitzpatrick Lifestyle Hotels is also believed to have provided equity on the deal.

Fitzpatrick Lifestyle Hotels was set up by Paul Fitzpatrick in 2001.

The Morgan Hotel is one of the best known hotels in the capital. Located in the heart of Temple Bar, it became one of the most popular hotels in Dublin during the Celtic Tiger years and is widely used for photo shoots and fashion events.

The Beacon Hotel in Sandyford features "stylish rooms come with designer furniture and contemporary artwork".

Amenities include a Thai restaurant with an adjacent courtyard, cocktail bar and a 24-hour gym. The properties are likely to attract a wide range of potential buyers, many of whom will have looked at and missed out on the former Burlington and Gresham Hotels.

Boston-based Pyramid Hotel Group paid nearly 30m for the Temple Bar Hotel two years ago and has been looking at other potential targets in Dublin since then.

A number of major US firms are also likely to bid for the portfolio.

Cerberus Capital Management and Apollo Capital Management are both through to the second round of bidding for the Gresham Hotel and may be interested in the portfolio.

Other firms such as Hyatt and Host Hotels & Resorts have both shown interest in the Burlington Hotel and may also bid for the portfolio.

The strong interest shown in the Gresham and Burlington hotels may have spurred the decision to bring these hotels to market.

The Gresham is understood to have seen more than 80 prospective buyers sign non-disclosure agreements in relation to the property.

The former Burlington Hotel, which is being sold by US private equity firm Blackstone, has also seen strong interest, mainly from overseas players.

Mr Fitzpatrick has previously described the Fitzpatrick Lifestyle Hotels "as being eclectic and unique".

"Together with aiming to always offer our customers a first class service; we also like to investigate alternative concepts outside of those traditionally associated with hotels for our customers and delivering them in an interesting and stylised manner," he said.

The company describes its hotels as "an exciting mix of all that is special about a designer hotel". It said they boast "cool, clean lines, white interior spaces, magnificent glass chandeliers, Philippe Starck furniture, open spaces, natural elements throughout with leather and oak features, specially commissioned art and furniture pieces and maximum use of natural light".
After the last few years of a global pandemic, and the resulting pressure that is being put on many care providers, health is
The unanimous guilty verdicts against Bowe and McAteer were returned yesterday afternoon after almost 38 hours of jury deliberations over nine days at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court Stock photo: Getty Images/Ingram Publishing

Two former executives in Anglo Irish Bank have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud following the longest-running criminal trial in the history of the State.

Anglo's former head of capital markets, John Bowe, and the bank's former finance director, Willie McAteer, had denied conspiring with former Irish Life and Permanent executives Denis Casey and Peter Fitzpatrick and others to mislead depositors, lenders and investors by making Anglo's corporate deposits look larger than they were.

Bowe from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer of Greenrath, Tipperary town; Mr Casey from Raheny, Dublin; and Mr Fitzpatrick of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin, all pleaded not guilty to conspiring to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn circular transaction scheme.

The prosecution claimed McAteer authorised a 7.2bn circular transaction scheme between March 1 and September 30, 2008, to bolster Anglo's balance sheet; and it claimed Bowe was involved in executing it.

The unanimous guilty verdicts against Bowe and McAteer were returned yesterday afternoon after almost 38 hours of jury deliberations over nine days at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court.

The 11-strong jury, which began hearing evidence last January, will resume deliberations in relation to Mr Casey and Mr Fitzpatrick this morning, the 85th day of the trial.

The offence of conspiracy to defraud is a common law offence, which means it is not on the statute books and trial judge Martin Nolan will have discretion on what sentence to impose.
Property and Irish Water each accounted for 450m worth of investment.

Almost a fifth of the investment made by the State-backed Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) has gone into Irish Water, according to figures for the period to the end of 2015.

The controversial new utility had received 450m out of a total of 2.2bn invested by the end of last year, the numbers show.

ISIF was created with cash from the old National Pension Reserve Fund and has a mandate to support economic growth and jobs.

A relatively small 325m that has been committed to the SME sector is responsible for the bulk of the 18,000 jobs directly and indirectly supported by ISIF finance, with 60pc of those jobs outside Dublin, ISIF said.

The overall ISIF investment saw 325m committed to the SME sector, 44m to energy, 30m to agriculture, 56m to direct equity ventures, 304m towards infrastructure, with a further 414m allocated for venture capital investment.

Property and Irish Water each accounted for 450m worth of investment.

Significant funds have been used for State infrastructure spending.

The fund has committed to investment for 2,300 student accommodation units at Dublin City University. In addition, funding has been provided to support the construction of 800 houses, with further land purchased which could eventually provide 1,250 homes.

There has been money assigned for the building of eight schools in counties Westmeath, Leitrim, Galway, Limerick, Donegal and Waterford. ISIF has also been used to help fund the Dublin Waste to Energy scheme.
Venture capital firm Draper Esprit has relaunched plans for an IPO in London and Dublin.

The company expects to be admitted to trading on June 15 after raising 102m at a price of 3.93 per share.

Its primary listing will be on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in London and it will also be listed on the Enterprise Securities Market (ESM) of the Irish Stock Exchange.

A source close to the company said there would be around 30m rolled over from existing investors on top of the 102m raised from the IPO.

It expects to have a market capitalisation of around 159m on admission.

In Ireland Draper Esprit is headed up by well-known investor Brian Caulfield.

The company, focused on fast-growing tech businesses in the UK and Ireland, has invested in firms including chipmaker Movidius and software company Datahug.

It had explored an IPO prior to Christmas but shelved the plans amid turbulence in the markets.

The flotation will provide retail investors with the chance to indirectly invest in early stage high-tech firms.

In documents filed to the Irish Stock Exchange Draper Esprit said it would will seek exposure to early stage companies which combine technology and service provision, are able to generate strong margins through significant intellectual property or strong barriers to entry and are scalable and require relatively modest capital investment.

The group will primarily seek exposure to developing companies in, but not limited to, the following sectors of the digital economy: consumer technology, enterprise technology, hardware and healthcare, it added.

Investments are expected to be mainly in the form of equity, although investments may be made by way of debt, convertible securities or investments in specific projects.

The listed companys chief executive will be its current boss and founder Simon Cook and its chair will be Karen Slatford.

A source close to Draper Esprit said floating on the stock market would make it easier for the company to support firms over the longer term.

The source said unlisted venture capitalists sometimes come under pressure to rack up exits from investments in order to help raise fresh funds from what are known as Limited Partners (LPs) who invest in venture capital funds.
After spending some time walking around Keogh's potato farm in north county Dublin with its managing director Tom Keogh, it doesn't take too long to realise why business has taken off.

At the heart of everything the family-run company does is a commitment to quality.

The firm, which has become a major player in the luxury crisp market in recent years, takes quality control seriously and the benefits of it are passed right up the food chain.

In 2015, Keogh's secured 5pc of the overall Irish crisp market while staking a claim to over 30pc of the high-end segment.

Exporting now accounts for 15pc of the company's overall trading and now they've got the Middle Eastern market on board.

"We export potatoes and crisps to the retailers in Dubai. I was working with a distributor to try and actually supply potatoes to the five-star hotels in Dubai. They wanted a very high-quality potato product and it was during one of those conversations where somebody said something about retail potatoes.

"What actually made the difference was our easy cooks, the cook-in-the-bag potato. So that product was presented to a retailer in Dubai - and bang straight away they listed it.

"So they air freight it out twice a week. Air freighted potatoes. There are a few pallets that go out every week with Emirates," Keogh said.

The cook-in-the-bag potatoes, which is now the company's biggest selling line, didn't begin life as a roaring success.

The idea stemmed from a similar concept being used on cauliflower and broccoli heads in the Netherlands. Back in 2006 Mr Keogh figured, given that 80pc of potatoes are water, surely the same concept could be applied to the humble spud.

"We launched the product with Superquinn and it failed. It was too expensive, it was in a tray, it was over packaged and it just didn't work."

Mr Keogh marks branding as a crucial part of the farm's success and also highlights that the firm was one of many to benefit from the rise of social media.

"It was about 2006 or 2007 and we identified there were no brands in fresh produce. And it was quite common across Europe. In America there were some brands to an extent in fresh but in a European context it just doesn't happen.

"In order to market what we did here and promote the quality of the farm, we decided to go out and rebrand the business.

"All a brand is is a bit of a logo on a piece of paper, it's the story behind it and it's building a brand. So the logo was designed we decided to go with the family name because it was going to be a family brand.

"The approach we took was to just tell our story and we knew that from day one and we were just transparent and honest with it, and it just took off.

"What really helped us was in 2010, 2011, was the rise of social media and the way small brands like ourselves, which do not have large marketing budgets, can actually get our story across to the consumer."

Today Keogh's farm sits on 400 acres of planted potatoes with between six to seven acres of production. That's set to increase.

The crisp-maker is at the start of a three-year expansion plan that will see Keogh's establish another factory, which will increase production by 50pc.

The expansion is to keep up with continuing growing demand for its Irish product. To give it some context, while touring the farm, I saw the packaging machine sealing 115 packages of crisps a minute. Big business.

However, with the Keogh family based out in north Dublin for over 200 years potatoes haven't been the only thing they've tried their hand at.

"If you look at pretty much everything we've produced over the years from tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, cauliflowers, sprouts, onions. Every single one of those lines we had to get out of because it was not feasible to produce them in Ireland due to the cheap imports coming into the country.

"Potatoes were always part of what we did, we had a good name for potatoes, we grew a high-quality potato. One thing that has protected the market here is that the Irish consumer's palette is tuned to flowerier potatoes, so it doesn't lend itself to import potatoes into this country because Irish consumers just won't eat them.

"In a way the Irish consumer has protected the potato industry in Ireland."

In the UK the company has a deal with Tesco, which has seen its products included in the "World Foods" section.

Its inclusion there is set to change however, with Tesco in the process of redeveloping the section. As a result Mr Keogh is now aiming to have his products inserted into the main aisles of the supermarket giant. While only a small amount (around 2pc) of the company's trade is in the UK Mr Keogh isn't baulking at the possibility of a British exit from the EU.

"The only difference will be currency really and that's there already.

"Will they do that (place tariffs on trade)? I can't see them doing that. Not to Ireland. Ireland is such an important source of food, look at the meat and dairy sectors that export into the UK. I can't see them putting tariffs on that.

"It's very easy for me to say that because very small amounts of my business is based in the UK, if I had 80pc of business based in the UK then yes I would be worried."

While creating jobs in the local community stands as a major part of the company's ethos, machinery too is just as important.

Technology is a major part of the farm. In the fields the tractors, which are manned, are controlled remotely by satellites.

On the company's packaging, you'll find the field from where they came. Head onto the website, type it in and there you have it. Google maps will pin point the exact field from where the original potatoes came from. It's called Spud Nav.

In quality control the firm narrows the risk of human error by employing a machine that can gauge the temperature of each crisp as it flies by on a conveyor belt. Should one be undercooked, small vents of air will open up to push it off into the waste crisps. The dedication to quality has led to numerous awards across a variety of areas. In 2012 the firm won 'Startup business of the year' at the Small Business Awards as well as the 'Startup company of the year' in the same year from Enterprise Ireland. Keogh's has also claimed a number of Great Taste awards, and won the Small Business Marketing award in 2014. Mr Keogh was named marketer of the year in 2015.

While it may be his primary product he is happy to stand to defence of the potato against criticisms that it isn't healthy.

"Potatoes are a superfood. There's more vitamin C in them than there is an orange, there's more potassium in them than there is in a banana, there's more fibre in them than there is in an apple.

"It's one of the only food types available that you can actually live on alone. You remember that film with Matt Damon, 'The Martian'?"

Mr Keogh's family are heavily involved in the running of the firm. His brother Ross manages production and sales at the company with his father Peter handling the paperwork end of things, while his cousin Derek and his uncle Tony look after the management of the farm.

Mr Keogh has no plans of moving out of the food game anytime soon. "I wouldn't put by name on a bag of crisps if my intention was to sell the business. I meet a lot of people in food and the only reason they're in it is to sell in three or four years time and they've an exit plan in place.

"It's about a family business and it's about creating jobs in the area and it's about selling Ireland overseas.

"That's something that makes me proud is selling a really high quality Irish product overseas. You're actually representing your country through a food product overseas.

"And if you do that badly, that's terrible and it closes door for other good Irish food producers. And I've seen it in other food products where they would not treat their consumers well or the product wouldn't live up to the consumers' expectations."

With another flavour on the way in the summer and more innovations that he couldn't quite talk about at the time, Keogh's has spent time preparing itself for the future.

"It takes great people to make great products. It takes great people to make a longer play a success in a business.

"We've done that over the last year, we put in place a really good management team in Keogh's Crisps.

"There's a lot of expertise have come in, thanks be to God, because I literally stepped off a tractor and started making crisps.

"There's some really good people in the business now from financial, marketing to sales and exports. That's the future, getting good people into the business."
Shane Ross, the new Transport Minister has told an audience of international aviation executives that he's "not as proud" of Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary as he once was.

"I'm not quite as proud of Michael O'Leary as I used to be," he told a gathering this morning at the International Air Transport Association's annual jamboree, which is being held in Dublin this year.

"It's not said with any feeling of dismay or disapproval," added the Minister. "Just before the election Michael O'Leary declared in one of those outspoken moments... that there would be no Independents in the next Government."

At a press conference in April, Mr O'Leary described Independent politicians as "lunatics".

"That doesn't mean that I'm still very fond of him, but I would be very happy to greet him and to show him who has taken over the asylum."

Mr Ross praised Ireland's vibrant aviation sector and also blasted delays by US authorities in granting a permit to Norwegian Air International that would enable it to start flying between Cork and Boston.
Monaghan firm McCarron Poultry has been ordered by the European Court of Justice to repay 900,000 to the European Commission that was intended to be used to help construct a 46m biomass power plant in the county.

The EU had intended to contribute 3m to the 28 megawatt power plant, but it never secured planning permission. It would have been the largest project of its type in Ireland. It was being spearheaded by Aiden McCarron.

But it's alleged that McCarron Poultry never directly received any of the money that had been allocated by the European Commission, and that it efforts to engage with the Commission have been unsuccessful.

When the project initially got off the ground in 2001, Cork-based South Western Services Co-Op was designated the coordinator, and the European Commission advanced 892,000 in funding to South Western Services Co-Op. Other firms involved in the power project included Danish company Aalborg Energie Technik.

A significant amount of work was undertaken, apparently costing hundreds of thousands of euro, to progress planning, with a formal planning application having been submitted in 2003, along with an environmental impact statement. An oral hearing was also ultimately held in relation to the project. A company called Monopower applied for the planning permission.

But in 2003, South Western Services withdrew from the project. That was a few months before Monaghan County Council sought additional information in relation to the planning application.

McCarron Poultry agreed, somewhat reluctantly, it's understood, to be the new coordinator on the project in order to prevent it from collapsing altogether.

The council ultimately rejected the power plant application in 2006.

The European Court of Justice was told by the European Commission that in 2004, the funds that had been advanced in 2001 to South Western Services Co-Op were transferred to McCarron Poultry, in light of the latter's new role as coordinator of the project. However, it's believed that McCarron Poultry has disputed this.

The EC told the European Court of Justice that some proofs of payments to firms engaged in the project were not provided, and that the total amount spent on the project from the EC funds that were advanced, was less than 100,000.
The chief executive of Norwegian Air, Bjorn Kjos, said he's confident that the airline's Irish subsidiary will receive approval to fly from Cork to the US.

A poll undertaken for the airline by Red C shows 82pc of Munster residents said that if they were to fly to Boston or New York in the next 12 months, they would use a Norwegian service from Cork.

Dublin-based Norwegian Air International (NAI) has been trying to secure a permit from US authorities for the past two years to fly to America.

But the process was delayed by political and union opposition in the United States to the permit.

A number of European unions and airlines have also voiced their opposition.

But dozens of US and European airports and airlines have supported the plan.

The Irish government and a large number of agencies such as Failte Ireland and the IDA, as well as businesses and colleges, have called on the US Department of Transportation to approve the permit.

"As we await a final decision from the US authorities, this polling is a timely reminder that the views and needs of passengers should be put first," said Mr Kjos.

"We are confident the US Department of Transportation will approve Norwegian Air International's application, creating new jobs, more competition and affordable fares to consumers on both sides of the Atlantic."

Earlier this year, the US Department of Transportation said it could see no reason not to grant the permit and indicated that it intended to do so.

That prompted another deluge of opposition and support for NAI's plans.

US presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are among those who have urged NAI's application to be rejected. Last month, a top official at the Irish Department of Transport, Fintan Towey, said that attacks made against Ireland's employment and aviation laws by NAI opponents have been "irresponsible, unfounded and damaging".

Various executive branches in the United States now have decide whether to consent to the permit being granted.

But there's no timeline within which that decision has to be made, raising the prospect of the NAI's permit application being delayed again in light of the upcoming election in the United States.

NAI had hoped to launch its Cork-Boston service this summer, and a Cork-New York service next year.

Niall MacCarthy, the managing director at Cork Airport, said that the transatlantic NAI service would be a "hugely positive asset" and that low-cost transatlantic services from the city would "shake up the Irish marketplace".
Julie Fenton, fraud investigation & dispute partner, EY Ireland; Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Mary Mitchell OConnor; and Mike McKerr, country managing partner, EY Ireland; and Frank OKeeffe, partner & head of assurance, EY Ireland, at yesterdays announcement

Financial services firm EY Ireland is seeing a rise in the number of its staff opting to work outside of Dublin, which has added to the firm creating experienced roles outside of the capital.

The audit and tax company announced the creation of 270 roles across the island of Ireland, 85 of which will be based in regions excluding Dublin.

EY Ireland managing partner Mike McKerr told the Irish Independent that more workers are looking to be based closer to home.

"We're seeing increasing numbers of people who want to go back and live in the communities that they are attached to, so quite a few people are saying 'I actually do want to work in the west of Ireland' or' I do want to work in Munster'," he said.

He said the cost of living in Dublin was a contributing factor to the trend.

However, he said that workers who do move away from Dublin are not "compromising on the quality of work they get", which is a positive combination.

Mr McKerr was speaking in one of the company's two new offices in the Station Building on Harcourt Street in Dublin.

EY also announced the establishment of a second new office, based in Galway. However, the EY partner said the firm is already looking at more office space, having been limited by availability in Dublin.

"We've been looking for two years and frankly we were looking for a bigger footprint than we have here.

"We've been delighted to find this property, which will certainly hold us the next couple of years. It will meet our needs, but we are back in the market now to be perfectly honest, starting to think about a longer term solution," Mr McKerr said.

The company said high demand for services such as data analytics, fraud investigation, and disruption services is driving its Irish growth.

The new jobs, which will add to the company's total headcount of 1,800, are based across the areas of accounting, finance, engineering, IT, consultancy and business.

In addition to hiring 25 people for its new Galway office, EY will also expand in Limerick, where it currently employs over 50 people, having just signed the lease on a new office space in the city which can accommodate up to 100 people.

Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor said EY's announcement was a "true mark of confidence in the Irish economy".

"The fact that these jobs will be spread across EY's offices in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway is very welcome news as one of my priorities as Minister is to ensure employment growth across the regions.

"Only a strong economy supporting people at work can pay for services needed to create a fair society," the minister said.
Travel software company Datalex is to create 100 new jobs in Ireland over the next year and a half as part of a global recruitment drive.

The Dublin-based company is adding 100 new roles at its newly renovated offices in East Point Business Park as well as a further 100 new positions being created at its global office locations.

The Irish-listed firm designs technology that enables a travel marketplace of over one billion shoppers worldwide.

Datalex chief executive Aidan Brogan said it was an "exciting time of growth" for the business.

"In response to the significant global demand for our digital commerce platform, we are looking for the very best talent to deliver the next evolution of digital travel commerce.

"We are actively recruiting globally and throughout Ireland for highly skilled senior software developers, architects, analysts, project managers and many other roles.

Jobs minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor welcomed the news.

"I am particularly pleased that this expansion will provide 100 high quality skilled jobs for the Irish economy. Only a strong economy supporting people at work can pay for the services needed to create a fair society.

"Datalex is a tremendous Irish success story with many of the world's major airlines using the software platform. The Government through Enterprise Ireland looks forward to continued engagement with Datalex to support their business development. I wish Aidan and his team every success with their future.
Gardai are probing the suspected disappearance of 700,000 from a credit union. Members have been told to check their balances after the suspected fraud.

A probe by the Central Bank is being carried out at Rush-Lusk Credit Union in north County Dublin, with the figure missing understood to be around 700,000, the Irish Independent has learned.

The board of the credit union has reported the suspected fraud to the gardai.

Central Bank officials, from its registrar of credit unions office, are poring over the books of the lender.

Accountants from Grant Thornton have also been engaged to probe its finances.

Reserves at Rush Credit Union are understood to have fallen to around 2pc of assets, well below the 10pc figure required by the Central Bank.

A figure of 1.3m has been set aside by the Irish League of Credit Union's rescue fund, the Savings Protection Fund, to put into the reserves of the lender.

Plans had been in train to merge it with its neighbour, Progressive, which is more than four times larger. However, that is now in doubt.

Regulators at the Central Bank have the option of shutting down the credit union, as happened with Berehaven in Co Cork two years ago. Alternatively, they could seek to force its merger with Progressive.

There are 10,000 members of Rush Credit Union and it has assets of 25m.

One source familiar with the situation said: "The guts of 700,000 is missing. Accountants are trying to reconcile it."

Confusion as to how much money the lender holds prompted its board to write to members this week, asking them to fill out a form to confirm their balances.

The letter states: "The board would like to confirm your agreement with the balances shown on your ShareCU cash/loan accounts on April 30, 2016."

Members have been assured that their funds are protected by the state deposit scheme and by the league's Savings Protection Scheme.

And if fraud is confirmed, the league's insurance scheme will cover the losses, sources said.

Asked about the suspected fraud, a spokesman for the League of Credit Unions said: "The credit union has identified an issue. As the matter is currently being investigated, we cannot comment in any great detail, other than to say that the credit union is working extremely hard to ensure that this matter is dealt with swiftly."

The spokesman added that the credit union had written directly to members on the issue.

"We would like to reassure members that no credit union funds will be affected by the incident and that the credit union is fully insured to deal with such matters.

"Operations at Rush Credit Union have not been disrupted and members can do business in the usual way."

The Central Bank, where Anne Marie McKiernan is the credit union registrar, said a financial report was being prepared for the board of Rush-Lusk Credit Union.

"Members should use the credit union in the usual way," the spokesman added.
Jo Brennan, from Carlow and now living in Kilkenny, is the founder of Jamjou. Her company provides a game-based training programme for customer-facing staff.

"I have worked for technology companies for most of my career, in sales, marketing and business development for companies like Dell and Oracle.

But my family ran their own retail business, so I grew up in an entrepreneurial environment and always wanted to own my own company.

I left full time employment about six years ago to take on consultancy work, training front-line staff in customer services and sales, which was a natural progression from what I was doing before.

I found myself looking for a software product that would assist my training and help to keep people engaged and stimulated as they learned, but couldn't find something that fit.

At the same time my two boys were starting to play computer games. I began trying them out and investigating that industry, looking at how games could be used in training. There was a clear business opportunity.

I started small with a basic piece of software designed by a student. Once I saw its potential I contracted a developer and we built a more sophisticated product.

The end result was a cloud-based training programme which uses gaming mechanisms to train and engage staff, ultimately increasing sales productivity, improving customer service and reducing staff turnover. It presents users with real-life work scenarios, like an up-selling situation or a customer complaint, asking them to select the right answer. Users can compete against each other in a leaderboard system.

I launched it last year and the response has been great. Three people now work for the business. The name, Jamjou, is a play on jamming and jouer (the French verb for play).

The target market is large businesses in the hospitality, retail and contact centre sectors. All have the same challenges when it comes to frontline staff. Lots of customer-facing employees are young and tech-savyy which makes game-based training particularly effective. The Jamjou platform can be accessed via mobile devices.

Jamjou is as much a management tool as a training tool. It collects a huge amount of data which management can use to make better informed decisions.

We have clients across the UK and Ireland including the Jury's Inn hotel group across 36 locations, and the Prem group.

We are now talking to a big financial services company which is trialling the product. Later this year and next year I am planning a big push into the UK and hopefully after that, the US. Some of our clients should naturally take us into those markets too.

Running your own business is very liberating. It is a lot of pressure but I love it. One of the biggest advantages is the fact that you can manage your business around your life; you are not chained to a desk or to someone else's priorities. I have more flexibility in how and when I spend time with my two boys now.

As well as expanding into new geographical markets, I have ambitious plans for the product. I want to add more languages and functions.

We have one direct competitor but it is based in the US and targeting different sectors, so we are not under pressure in that sense.

The biggest challenge, like most startups, has probably been funding. Cash flow was tricky in the early days.

I invested my own savings and we also secured financial backing from Enterprise Ireland and debt finance from Bank of Ireland and AIB. The plan is to start talking to potential private investors next."
Obstacles such as planning rules and development levies that could delay the rollout of broadband will be removed in the short term, Rural Development Minister Heather Humphreys has pledged.

The minister wants to pre-empt any "barriers" to the National Broadband Plan in advance of a contract being signed with a provider of services in 2017.

The Irish Independent has learned that Ms Humphreys recently held a series of meetings with Communications Minister Denis Naughten to discuss the division of the workload.

There was significant confusion after the formation of Government as to which minister would be responsible for broadband.

But Ms Humphreys said: "While the Department of Communications will continue to manage the tendering process and the awarding of the contract, there is plenty of work I can do in the meantime to help with the rollout."

She said the delivery of broadband to every home in rural Ireland is "one of the most important elements of my new portfolio".

"I will be working with local authorities and setting up regional broadband taskforces, to remove any barriers to broadband rollout.

"That could include issues such as planning, ducting, development levies and road openings," Ms Humphreys told the Irish Independent.

Her plan is to address these issues now "so there are no delays when the broadband contract is signed next year".

She will meet with the County and City Management Association in the coming weeks to begin work on a standardised approach for local authorities.

"We'll also look at setting up Digital Enterprise Hubs, so local businesses can have access to high-speed broadband while the rollout is taking place.

"This is all about eliminating delays, because I know people in rural Ireland feel they have waited long enough for high- speed broadband," she said.

"The scale of the challenge we are facing cannot be underestimated.

"We know that about 750,000 people are living in broadband blackspots, which are in need of State intervention.

"Farmers are being disproportionately affected; in fact, the vast majority of farmers are living and working in areas with inadequate broadband coverage."

The minister said that tackling the rollout of broadband will be "a central plank" in her department's overall plan to revitalise rural Ireland.
Dr David Janes, of Fourmilewater Health Centre, Co Waterford, pictured at Seskinane surgery, which he was forced to close due to the lack of broadband to access patients' records Photo: Patrick Browne

Broadband blackspots are causing patient safety concerns for some rural GPs who cannot properly access medical records on their computer or avail of the technology which is now so much part of modern medicine.

Waterford GP Dr David Janes said he had to reluctantly end a day-long surgery he provided every week for many elderly and other rural patients at Seskinane Health Centre near Ballinamult because the internet connection he had was so poor.

The health centre is in an idyllic setting near the Comeragh mountains - but it is on the wrong side of the digital divide.

"I got around 20 minutes of a connection a week and it would switch off," he said.

He endured a snail's-pace start on his computer as he prepared to treat a room full of patients and tried to access their records.

"Patients have high expectations now and what was acceptable 50 or 60 years ago is now no longer feasible. We need to access records efficiently," he said.

Dr Janes had to move all his patients to Fourmilewater Health Centre near Ballymacarbry.

It means a 16km journey for the patients he treated at Seskinane. Not all have their own transport and some are relying on friends and neighbours to get to the surgery.

He is the only GP covering a very broad area and his patients are very grateful to have a doctor at a time when so many rural medics have decided they cannot make a sustainable living.

The broadband gap also means that some patients who may be housebound, but are living in areas with poor internet access, cannot avail of online video consultations with their GP, which are growing in popularity.

These are the patients who could benefit most from telemedicine, which allows for face-to-face consultations in their living room without having to go the surgery.

Dr Darach O'Ciardha, whose family practice in Jobstown in Tallaght, Dublin, offers the service to his own patients, said it would be particularly useful for patients who are isolated because of their medical condition or location.

"It would be an extra access point for patients with chronic illness and make them feel less isolated and improve continuity of care.

"In our system, the patient can see us and we can see the patient. If we are serious about innovations in health we have to look after isolated patients' needs," he said.

Across the wider health service, Richard Corbridge, chief information officer for the Health Service Executive, said their aim is to provide wider patient access to wifi in hospitals wards.

He said it is hoped to have connections which are strong enough to allow patients to access sites such as Netflix.

For those health staff who are lucky enough to work and live in areas with better internet speed and coverage, the plan is to provide around 30,000 of them with email and online connectivity this year.

Currently, these 30,000 staff have no 'digital identity'. Another 10,000 staff working in primary care in community settings have no information technology tools to support them.

Mr Corbridge said: "We want all our staff to be connected and to be facilitated and empowered to participate and ensure our patients and our public are the ultimate benefactors."

He said that building a better health service requires greater digital connectivity within the HSE.

Health service staff should be able to communicate more effectively, he added.
CAVAN: (Blue) Covered by commercial operators by end 2016; (Yellow) Covered by the National Broadband Plan

Cavan

SOME 18,950 households and 5,250 businesses across Cavan need broadband. Most large towns, including Cavan, Cootehill and Bailieborough, will be serviced by the private sector by the end of this year, but pockets of the county with large populations will require intervention by the State.

They include Dunaree, where 791 premises are located. Around 24 will not be served by the private sector.

Other built-up areas where the private sector will not provide a high-speed internet link include parts of Drumalee, Mullagh and Virginia. The properties are across 1,990 townlands. Of these, 946 have 10 or fewer properties.

Donegal

A total of 52,004 premises across Donegal need broadband. Of these, 43,580 are households and the remainder are businesses.

Commercial operators will provide a service to around half of all homes and businesses in the county by the end of this year, but the map clearly shows that the Inishowen peninsula and much of the county will rely on the State.

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Pockets of large towns, including Ardaravan, Magheracar, Ballymacarry and Ballynally, will not be served by the private sector. The largest area with no private investment is Brinlack, where 285 properties are located.

The properties are spread across 2,661 townlands. Of these, 859 have 10 or fewer properties.

Leitrim

THERE are 13,326 premises without broadband in Co Leitrim. This includes 10,800 households and 2,531 businesses.

Just 40pc of premises across the States least populated county will be served by commercial operators, which focus on the main towns of Carrick-on-Shannon, Manorhamilton, Ballinamore and Mohill. Among the larger areas with no commercial investment are Tullylannan, Drumod More, Gubacreeny and Stradermot.

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Almost all of the 160 properties in Rinn will rely on State investment. Of the 1,490 townlands which require intervention, some 56pc  or 840  have 10 properties or fewer.

Louth

THERE are 15,129 properties across Louth without broadband. Of these, 12,269 are households and the remaining 2,859 are businesses.

Given the fact that so much of the county is built-up, just 25pc of premises require the State to provide a connection.

The largest built-up area where the National Broadband Plan will provide a service is Newtownstalaban, where 1,600 properties need a connection. Just over 110 properties fall under the plan.

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Parts of Carlingford, Mell, Callystown and Collon also fall under the plan.

There are 679 townlands where access is needed. Of these, 208 have 10 or fewer properties.

Monaghan

JUST over 40pc of all premises across Monaghan fall under the National Broadband Plan. A total of 19,551 connections are needed  of these, 14,194 are households and the remaining 5,256 are businesses.

Most built-up areas will be served by commercial operators, including Carrickmacross, Castleblaney, Clones and Monaghan town.

Of those which require State intervention, the largest is Liseggerton, which has 231 properties  of these, just 28 are not served by the private sector.

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There are 1,857 townlands which require a broadband connection. Almost half, or 928, have 10 or fewer properties.

Sligo

A total of 14,735 households and 3,869 businesses have no broadband connection in Sligo. Almost half of all premises will be covered by commercial operators, with relatively few built-up areas reliant on State intervention.

They include Tobercurry, which has 700 premises, of which all but 21 will be connected by private operators. Others are Ballydoogan, Rosses Upper and Kilboglashy. Around one in 10 properties in Strandhill falls under the National Broadband Plan.

There are 1,272 townlands which require a broadband connection. Almost half, or 544, have 10 or fewer properties.

* Maps supplied by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources.
The Government has dampened hopes of a speedier rural broadband roll-out by reaffirming that people living outside cities must wait up to six years to get adequate broadband.

Communications Minister Denis Naughten said he could not promise rural broadband access before the current 2022 deadline - despite the country's biggest operators saying the process could be speeded up.

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"I would love to see this done in six months or in two years. But we have had so many broken promises in relation to rural broadband. So when I give a date, I want to be able to stand over it."

Mr Naughten said the state-subsidised National Broadband Plan, which promises fibre-speed broadband to every rural home and business, would begin construction in June 2017 "barring any bumps in the road".

From then, it will take three to five years to roll out.

However, he said the Government would not consider making broadband a legal right for all citizens until the rural network was completed.

The Government's confirmation of a 2022 completion date will be seen as a significant U-turn by the Communications Minister, who complained earlier this year that the current timeframe was "not good enough" and that broadband connectivity was better "on the moon" than in large parts of rural Ireland.

"The planned roll-out of rural broadband, which is to be completed by 2021, needs to be fast-tracked," Mr Naughten said in February.

"The current pace of the roll-out of the Government's high-speed broadband plan for rural areas will see 64pc of premises in Co Roscommon and 47pc of premises in Co Galway have to wait until 2020 or 2021 for decent broadband. This is just not good enough."

Yesterday, Mr Naughten admitted his constituents would have to wait years for broadband under the confirmed timelines.

Some of Ireland's biggest telecoms operators have claimed that the rural network could be built in under three years.

Meanwhile, broadband users around the country face potential price rises with the news that Eir is increasing some of its network charges from September.

The move means that companies such as Vodafone and Sky are likely to increase their prices to broadband households.

However, Mr Naughten said a series of new, county-based task forces could help with planning to minimise obstructions faced by broadband companies seeking to roll out infrastructure. The Government will look at facilitating the use of state-owned assets, such as schools, garda stations, roads and other utilities for some elements of regional broadband roll-out.

Mr Naughten said Minister for Regional Development Heather Humphreys would use funding availability as both a carrot and a stick with local authorities.

"Minister Humphreys is going to go around to these local authorities and she has purse strings. She's going to be giving them money. And the reality is that whoever pays the piper calls the tune," he said.

"For example, the Leader fund is administered via the local authorities and she is also going to have access to additional capital monies to assist local authorities in regenerating town centres and so forth. She has influence in focusing the minds of the (local authority) CEOs."

Separately, a new EU law promises to force the ESB to give access to poles and ducts to broadband operators in rural regions. The directive, which comes into force next month, aims to reduce the cost of infrastructure roll-out.

The ESB is understood to be resisting attempts to give broadband firms access to its infrastructure. The Irish Independent understands that several requests have been made by Eir and other operators to access parts of the ESB network that could speed up rural broadband deployment.

A spokesman for the ESB said it was "not appropriate" to comment. A government spokesman said Comreg would be appointed to settle issues of non-compliance.
Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners underpriced their 2013 $24.9bn (22.3bn) buyout of Dell Inc by about 22pc and may have to pay tens of millions to investors who opposed the deal for the computer maker, a judge in the US state of Delaware has ruled.

The ruling, which applies to about 5.5 million Dell shares, is a victory for the specialised hedge funds that have increasingly tried to squeeze more money from mergers using a type of lawsuit known as appraisal.

Activist investor Carl Icahn urged Dell shareholders to vote down the deal that saw company founder Michael Dell regain control of the business, a major employer in Limerick and Dublin, and take their case for fair value to court.

Initially appraisal was sought for about 40 million shares, but the bulk was removed for procedural reasons.

In this week's ruling, Delaware vice chancellor Travis Laster said fair value was $17.62 per share, not the $13.75 per share deal price.

With interest, investors who sought appraisal will collect about $20.84 per share.

The Dell investors presented evidence that fair value was $28.61 per share. The buyers contended that fair value was $12.68.

Dell and a lawyer for the stockholders, Stuart Grant, declined to comment. The ruling can be appealed.

Mr Laster said the Dell buyout took advantage of a dip in the company's stock price and its board never determined the intrinsic value before negotiating.

"The original merger consideration was dictated by what a financial sponsor could pay and still generate outsized returns," wrote Mr Laster.

The judge dedicated much of the opinion to explaining why deal price was not a fair value indicator, particularly in a management-led buyout. (Reuters)
Ready for Yeats Day: The Lake Isle of Innisfree and the Square Moon. James Connolly

IT was a putdown like no other. When Maud Gonne told besotted poet WB Yeats "No, I don't like your poem, it is fair to say that the poet probably reacted badly.

He had just written Easter, 1916 and he wanted Ms. Gonne to like it. Her letter back to him was a crushing response.

Now, almost 100 years later, Maud Gonnes great-grand daughter is to discuss the famous exchange in a public forum as part of this years Yeats Day event in Sligo next weekend.

Aisling Law will debate the famous letter with Yeats Scholar Adrian Frazier, Emeritus Professor at NUIG, in a talk at the Model arts centre on Saturday June 11.

Yeats Day each year marks the birthday of the Nobel prize-winning, Sligo-loving poet on June 13, 1865. Last year saw an entire year of 150th anniversary events.

A big draw this year is a special Nobel Dinner with Fr Ted Sligo-born actress Pauline McLynn as guest of honour on Thursday, June 9 in the Radisson Hotel.

As part of the Ireland 2016 commemorations, there will also be a special flash mob-style open air recital of Easter, 1916 in the centre of Sligo town on Saturday, June 11, at 3pm.

Other highlights of this years programme include a boat trip at dusk to the Lake Isle of Innisfree to see the Square Moon  an event takes place on Yeats Day itself, June 13, at 8.30pm.

For the first time this year, there will be a special focus on Yeatss two sisters, Lily and Lolly, who ran the Cuala Press, publishing more than 70 books including many of Yeatss.

World. As part of the LilyLolly CraftFest, winners of a fine art print competition will receive prizes from Caitriona Yeats, granddaughter of WB.

The story of how Abbey actors left the stage and joined the Rising will also be told in Rebel, Rebel at the Hawks Well Theatre on June 13.

*For full details of the programmes and to buy tickets for the Nobel Dinner, click here
Emily Blunt is to be the new Mary Poppins

Emily Blunt is to follow in the footsteps of Julie Andrews as the star of a new Mary Poppins film.

The British actress will play the magical nanny in a sequel to 1964 Disney classic, which is due to be released on Christmas Day in 2018.

Mary Poppins Returns will tell the story of an older Jane and Michael Banks and Michael's three children, who are visited by Poppins in the aftermath of a "personal loss" in Depression-hit London, Walt Disney Studios said.

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, will play a new character in the film, Jack, a street lamplighter.

The movie's director is Rob Marshall, whose previous work includes Chicago and Into The Woods, while the script is being produced by Finding Neverland writer David Magee.

Marshall said: "I am truly humbled and honoured to be asked by Disney to bring PL Travers' further adventures to the screen. The iconic original film means so much to me personally, and I look forward to creating an original movie musical that can bring Mary Poppins, and her message that childlike wonder can be found in even the most challenging of times, to a whole new generation."

PL Travers introduced the world to Mary Poppins in her 1934 book, which Disney adapted for the screen and released in August 1964.

The film, which was directed by Robert Stevenson and starred Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, won five Oscars, including Best Actress for Andrews. PL Travers' wrote seven additional Mary Poppins books, which she published between 1935 and 1988.

Blunt, 33, whose previous films include Sicario and The Huntsman: Winter's War, is currently expecting her second child with her husband, actor John Krasinski.

She will next appear on the big screen in the thriller The Girl On The Train, which opens in October.
Let's begin todays column with a brief lesson on the subject of tripe. From Victorian times to the latter half of the 20th century, washed tripe  more commonly known as dressed tripe  was a popular dish among the working class here and in Britain, chiefly because of its cheapness and nutritional value.

But as people grew more affluent and were able to afford food that could be plucked from the freezer cabinet, as opposed to scraped from the inside of a cows stomach and given a rinse and spin, the popularity of tripe as a staple of the ordinary peoples menu declined drastically. These days tripe is mostly used to make pet food.

Continental Europeans, however, never lost their fondness for tripe. It continues to be hugely popular in France, in particular.

The French may not, as the famous 1980s ad for a crap brand of wine insisted, adore Le Piat DOr (they wouldnt be caught carrying a bottle of the stuff in a brown paper bag, never mind imbibing it), but they really do their love their tripe  preferably boiled in apple brandy, which is a favourite recipe.

Im guessing were going to have to cultivate an appetite for tripe if were to enjoy Versailles, the steamy new historical drama that landed on BBC2 last night.

Versailles is not simple, straightforward, humble tripe; its tripe thats been slow-cooked in soapy water and generously garnished with Epoisses, a spectacularly stinky French cheese that smells like a cyclists foot after a hot day pumping the pedals uphill.

Its a strange beast, this: a French series produced by Canal+ but created by an American and an Englishman (Simon Mirren, nephew of Helen).

All the dialogue is in English, nobody attempts a French accent, and the multinational cast features a strong contingent of British actors, headed by George Pagden as Sun King Louis XIV, who prances around in frills and high heels.

Louis is a horndog who shags anything that isnt nailed down, and probably a few things that are. He shags whores and handmaidens. He even shags his brother Philippe Is wife. Philippe isnt too bothered, though. Hes gay and is busy shagging/being shagged by his male lover.

At one point I feared Louis might even shag a trio of wolves hed confronted while out riding in the woods, but he doesnt.

The one person Louis doesnt appear to be shagging with any great conviction is his wife, Queen Maria Theresa of Spain.

But thats okay; shes not too bothered either, because shes obviously been doing some shagging of her own with her male manservant, whos black and a dwarf and has a tendency to go rummaging around under the Queens billowing skirt.

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You always make me feel better, she tells him, tenderly. I bet he does.

Probably not for very long, though. When Maria Theresa noisily gives birth to her second baby, Louis and his entire court entourage are present and can see the child is  gasp!  not white.

Just in case either Louis or anyone else wasnt paying attention, the doctor holds the wailing infant (a bad animatronic doll) aloft.

A British tabloid got its incontinence knickers in a twist over all the sex scenes in Versailles, claiming theyd be the most graphic ever seen on British television.

It was a huge exaggeration. I know: hard to believe a UK tabloid would ever exaggerate, isnt it?

Theres a bit of naked romping, some topless women, a gratuitous shot of Swiss actress Noemie Schmidt emerging from the water wearing nothing but a sopping wet negligee, and an extended bout of sloppy gay kissing.

But none of it is any more explicit, probably less so in fact, than what youd see in Game of Thrones, while the violence  a Spanish prisoner having his head pulped (out of shot) with a hammer, a fiddling tax official having half his hand chopped off  is tame by that series standards.

Versailles is really a soapy historical romp  think of it as a kind of Gallic answer to The Tudors, if that makes any sense  and for all the scheming, plotting and double-dealing, a surprisingly tepid one.

The performances range from hammy to insipidly limp, and a lot of the dialogue is risible.

Amazingly, its been an enormous hit in France, smashing all sorts of viewing records. Next thing you know the French will be drinking Le Piat DOr for real.
Amy Schumer poses in the Press Room with cast and crew following their award for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series during the 67th Emmy Awards

Amy Schumer has opened up about an abusive ex-relatioship (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Comedian Amy Schumer has an announced an Irish stop on her upcoming European tour.

The Trainwreck star is set to perform at Dublins 3Arena on Friday, August 26.

Tickets for the gig will go on sale from 9am on Wednesday, June 8.

Schumer is known for creating, writing and starring in the award-winning comedy sketch series Inside Amy Schumer, which took home the prize for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series at the 2015 Emmy Awards.

Last summer, Schumer delighted Irish fans at a Q&A hosted by Panti Bliss during the promotional tour for Trainwreck.

During her time in Dublin, she downed a pint of Guinness and joined Glen Hansard for an impromptu rendition of The Auld Triangle for a newly-married couple.

Her next role sees her swapping comedy for drama in Thank You For Your Service, in which she plays a soldier who struggles to adapt to home life after returning from Iraq.
The Stormont Finance Minister has been told to release any information his department holds on the controversial Project Eagle property deal.

The finance committee in the North is looking at resumed examination of the 1.6bn sale of properties held by Nama.

It comes after two men arrested by officers investigating claims of fraud were released on bail yesterday.

A spokesman said the two had been bailed pending further inquiries.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) detained the pair in relation to the huge sale of loans previously owned by Nama to US investment fund Cerberus in 2014.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has resisted calls for an inquiry into the sale of the Nama loans in Northern Ireland, despite the ongoing investigation in the North,

But Stormont's new finance committee confirmed that it would now write to the assembly's new Finance Minister, Sinn Fein's Mairtin O Muilleoir, to ask for additional documents relating to the Nama loan sale.

The deputy chair Claire Hanna, of the SDLP, said the "rigorous investigation" would continue.

Ms Hanna said she was "determined to ensure that from day one our message to the public on this matter was that they could have fullest confidence; we would pursue the truth rigorously and with full transparency".

She said there needs to be a "wider audit of issues relating to the individuals involved in this deal and their roles outside and inside government".

The criminal investigation into the sale of Nama's northern assets and property loans Cerberus was sparked by the discovery of a Stg7m offshore transfer to an Isle of Man bank.

All parties involved in the 1.2bn transaction have consistently denied any suggestions of wrongdoing.

The Finance Committee conducted its own inquiry in the last 12 months, as did the Dail's Public Accounts Committee.

The Stormont committee produced what was essentially an interim report earlier this year before the Assembly was dissolved ahead of last month's election.

New Finance Committee chairwoman Emma Pengelly stressed the need to ensure its examination of Project Eagle, as the loan sale was named, did not prejudice the fraud investigation by the NCA.

"We need to be very careful we don't prejudice justice and the ongoing investigations into this," she said.

She added: "I am indicating that I think we should have an early discussion with the NCA before we have any other substantive discussion around this matter just to ensure we keep ourselves absolutely right on this and we keep everybody else right on this."

Separately, it emerged that Nama has commenced "a comprehensive root and branch review" of its operations as part of a planned restructuring.

Documents released through the Freedom of Information Act show that the Nama board has opted for the review of its infrastructural and cost base requirements.

The minutes of the agency's March 'Strategy Away Day' meeting at the Herbert Park hotel in Dublin 4 show that the Agency's Chief Financial Office (CFO), Donal Rooney put forward two 'downsizing options'.

Nama's deleveraging programme, or the sell-off of debtors' loans, is anticipated to be largely complete by the end of this year.

But the minutes record that the board agreed that 'downsizing' was a misnomer for the proposed restructuring of Nama.

The minutes show that following further detailed discussion, the board requested a preliminary scoping paper, setting out the parameters for the restructuring review that was to be presented in May, and review findings to be presented to the board in September.
The spectacular parade through the streets of Dublin on Easter Sunday last was not the culmination of the 1916 commemorations; it was just the beginning. As centenaries go, this one appears to have captured the imagination of Irish people like no other, and we're in no hurry to let it go.

Nobody is more surprised by this turn of events than Helen Litton, grandniece of Edward 'Ned' Daly and Kathleen Clarke, and author of two books about 1916.

"The level of interest people have shown has been astonishing," she says. "It strikes me as a new generation reclaiming this important part of history. Almost every school in the country now has a 1916 corner with pictures and poems and stories written by the children. It's like a series of miniature museums.

"This has been an incredible year - and it's not over yet. Communities continue to put on their own local events, and mark the centenary in their own way, thanks to small grants that have made the commemorations very democratic."

The 1916 Relatives Association, of which Helen is a founding member, are happy that their ancestors are being remembered.

"The association was set up to honour all who had fought in the rank and file in 1916 to be honoured, not only the leaders. I've spoken at numerous events, and met families inspired to research their own links who discovered things like granny's old Cumann na mBan uniform in the attic.

"People have really connected on a personal level, and engaged with this part of our history with surprising enthusiasm."

Her own family connection has been well documented. At 25, Ned Daly was the youngest leader to be executed, having commanded the First Battalion in the Four Courts. His sister Kathleen, a founding member of Cumann na mBan, married Tom Clarke, a man twice her age who had served 15 years in jail for his part in a campaign to bomb London.

"Clarke is one of the forgotten leaders," says Helen. "If Pearse was the poster boy for the Rising - a clean-living, Catholic schoolmaster - Clarke was seen as an insignificant shopkeeper with a murky past. He worked behind the scenes, so he got overlooked in the official history."

He's been remembered this year with Dublin's East Link Bridge having been renamed the Tom Clarke Bridge in his honour. However, Helen reveals her mother, Phyllis (91), did not approve of Clarke or the Rising. "My mother is a pacifist who sees armed rebellion as pointless violence and an utter waste of life. She used to say the leaders were misguided, and whatever about the younger men, she had even less time for Tom Clarke, an old Fenian who, in today's terms, might be considered a terrorist.

"I'm ambivalent about it. For me, it wasn't the Rising itself that changed the course of history, but the British reprisals that followed in its wake. Had the leaders been jailed for a few years and then released, perhaps no one would have remembered them as anything other than a pack of fools, but they were more than that.

"These were men of strong feelings, and I'm proud to be related to two of them. However, when I look at Ned Daly, only 25-years-old when he was executed, I wonder would it not have been better to have lived, and helped to build a new Ireland?"

It's this kind of reflection that differentiates this centenary year from the 50th anniversary in 1966.

"The tone then was triumphalist and militaristic, and of course, the Troubles in the North a few years later put a stop to that. There's a different mood this time, one that's more mature and considered."

She remembers her grandfather making the trip from Limerick to be part of the 50th anniversary in Dublin, one of the few times when he reminisced about 1916, "but it was the funny stories he shared, not the painful ones".

"Painful memories will have to be discussed, and atrocities remembered. This was brother against brother, and those things carry on for generations.

"I prefer to focus on the stirring sentiments of the Proclamation, to look at the kind of Ireland that these people hoped to see, which is very different from the country we live in today."

She's also put a lot of energy into the Save Moore Street campaign, which got a boost last month when a High Court judge refused to allow any further work on the site, and declared it a national monument.

"It will have been a pyrrhic victory if nothing is done to save it. This needs to be made into a historic quarter, where people can walk along and see the bullet holes, see where The O'Rahilly died, and where the bodies of civilians lay on the street."

Helen Litton is author of 'Edward Daly' and 'Tom Clarke' in the series 'Sixteen Lives,' and editor of Kathleen Clarke's autobiography, 'Revolutionary Woman,' all published by O'Brien Press
Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister was killed in the bombings, speaking after yesterday's ruling in Solihull, West Midlands Photo: Ben Birchall/PA Wire

Relatives of those killed in the Birmingham pub bombings have called for the surviving bombers, three of whom are understood to be living in Dublin, to "come forward".

The call comes as a coroner has ordered new inquests into the 21 deaths.

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It is understood three of the pub bombers are now living in the Irish capital. The identities of those responsible are believed to be known to the British security services.

Asked what message she had for the IRA bombers, Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was killed in the double bombings, said: "Do the right thing. If you have any level of humanity and any moral compass, then by rights you should come forward."

She was speaking after a coroner ruled yesterday that fresh inquests into the deaths would be held, following a legal bid led by Ms Hambleton and the families of two other victims.

Cowardice

Ms Hambleton has for years led the Justice4the21 campaign, calling for a new investigation into what happened on the night of November 21, 1974.

In an attack widely acknowledged to be the work of the IRA, bombs exploded minutes apart in the Mulberry Bush pub and the nearby underground Tavern in the Town pub.

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The Birmingham Six spent 16 years behind bars following their conviction for the attack, but were freed by the Court of Appeal in 1991 after judges ruled that their convictions were unsafe.

One of their number, Paddy Hill, has backed the families' search for the "truth" and was also present at yesterday's ruling in Solihull, West Midlands.

He said the identities of those responsible were known to the British security services.

However, he said he had no faith in the ability of the West Midlands Police to bring them to justice, branding the force "rotten".

The force's chief constable has welcomed the coroner's ruling and said it would work with the coroner.

Meanwhile, Ms Hambleton accused the real perpetrators of cowardice and said it was time they showed the courage of their convictions.

She told reporters: "As far as I'm aware - because they claimed they were soldiers - if they are soldiers, soldiers are disciplined and principled.

"If they are disciplined, they should have stayed where they were and said, 'we did this, and this is why and I'm not ashamed of what I did'. But they didn't.

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"They ran away like cowards and have been hiding in full daylight, amongst their fellow citizens in Ireland, apparently with their freedom, while our loved ones are dead and buried."

She added: "We're not going to allow them to die in vain, we're going to fight to find out the truth and bring some level of justice and accountability to light.

"Because what sort of a society are we leaving for future generations, where we allow mass murderers to walk free?"

Ms Hambleton, who welcomed the coroner's decision as "beyond our expectations", urged the British government to give the families legal aid.
A 49-year-old civil servant, who suffered whiplash injuries after she drove in a Dublin cemetery over a retractable bollard she had not noticed was rising up in front of her, has been awarded damages in the Circuit Civil Court.

Judge John Hannan, initially awarding Jean Taylor Mooney 17,000 damages against Dublin Cemeteries Committee, which trades as Glasnevin Trust, said she was 40pc negligent and reduced her award to 10,500 damages.

The court was told that the bollard, which had an alarm and a flashing light, had started to rise a few seconds before impacting with Mooneys bumper, and continued to rise under her car as she drove over it.

Judge Hannan heard that in September 2013, Mooney had been driving her car inside the Glasnevin cemetery on Finglas Road, to visit her fathers grave, when the incident happened. Her mother, Elizabeth Taylor, who was 82-year-old at the time, had been a passenger in the car.

Mooney told her barrister, Nathan Reilly, that she did not use the visitors car park as her mother had difficulty walking. She had been familiar with the retractable bollards system in the cemetery restricted area.

She said that as she was driving she suddenly heard an explosion, followed by smoke and gas coming out of her car and the airbags were deployed. She had gone out of her car immediately, concerned about her mother who was hysterical.

Mooney, of Castle Village Woods, Cellbridge, Co Kildare, told Mr Reilly that she did not see the bollard rising, and had initially thought it had risen under her car.

The court heard that she and her mother were attended to by cemetery staff, and her mother was taken by ambulance to hospital, complaining of physical chest pain.

Mooney, a married mother of three who works with the Revenue Commissioners, said she suffered pain in her chest and swelling in her left hand. She had been off work for several weeks.

Barrister Eamon Marray, for the cemetery, said his client denied liability and claimed Ms Mooney did not pay proper attention while she was driving.

The court heard the area where the accident happened was restricted to ensure members of the public could not proceed, unless allowed to do so. Ms Mooney said she had used the area several times with staff permission.

Judge Hannan said he was satisfied the cemetery should have ensured that a better warning system was in place, as the bollard was not the most conspicuous object to be seen on the driveway. He said he also accepted that Ms Mooney had not paid due care and attention.
Two former executives in Anglo Irish Bank have been found guilty of conspiracy to defraud following the longest-running criminal trial in the history of the State.

Anglo's former head of Capital Markets, John Bowe, and the bank's former finance director, Willie McAteer, had denied conspiring with former Irish Life and Permanent executives, Denis Casey and Peter Fitzpatrick, and others to mislead depositors, lenders and investors by making Anglo Irish Bank's corporate deposits look larger than they actually were.

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Bowe, from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer, of Greenrath, Tipperary town, Co Tipperary; Casey, from Raheny, Dublin; and Fitzpatrick, of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin, all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn circular-transaction scheme.

The prosecution alleged that McAteer authorised a 7.2bn scheme between March 1, 2008 and September 30, 2008 to bolster Anglo's balance sheet and that Bowe was inloo

The jury will resume deliberations in relation to Mr Casey and Mr Fitzpatrick this morning, the 85th day of the trial.

Conspiracy to defraud is one of a series of inchoate (early stage but not complete) offences. The offence of conspiracy to defraud is not on the statute books and trial judge Martin Nolan will have discretion on what sentence to impose.

Bowe (52) and McAteer (65) were on trial accused of conspiring to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo.

Judge Nolan remanded the two men on continuing bail until Friday after hearing that there was no objection to bail.

There was no reaction from the men when the verdicts were read out at Dublin's Circuit Criminal Court.

The verdicts came after the jury had queried whether the verdicts that they had reached on two counts would impinge on the other two counts.

The judge told the jury that to bring in guilty verdicts, the jurors must find at least two people conspired together.

The State's case was that the four men were involved in setting up a circular scheme of billion-euro transactions where Anglo lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back, via their assurance firm Irish Life Assurance, to Anglo.

The scheme was designed so that the deposits came from the assurance company and would be treated as customer deposits, which are considered a better measure of a bank's strength than inter-bank loans.

The 7.2bn deposit was later accounted for in Anglo's preliminary results on December 3, 2008, as part of Anglo's customer deposits figure.

The prosecution alleged that the entire objective of the scheme was to mislead anybody reading Anglo's accounts by artificially inflating the customer deposits number from 44bn to 51bn, a difference of 16pc.

Lawyers for the Anglo accused had argued that their clients believed that the deposits were real deposits and were accounted for correctly on Anglo's balance sheet and so no fraud was carried out.

The prosecution argued that there was no commercial substance to the transactions and that their only purpose was to deceive.

Lawyers defending the former ILP executives argued that their clients had no control over how Anglo would account for the deposits and had no intention to mislead the public.

The guilty bankers

Willie McAteer

Donegal native Willie McAteer was one of the most senior executives at Anglo Irish Bank by the time of the crash, and was a director with a seat at the board.

Originally trained as a chartered accountant, he was a partner at PWC before moving into senior roles in finance  and eventually joining Anglo Irish Bank in 1992.

For much of his 15 years with the bank, he helped oversee the period of massive growth which lasted until the crash.

By 2008, Mr McAteer was second-in-command after David Drumm at Anglo Irish Bank, and as finance director he was responsible for managing risk as well as finance at the lender.

John Bowe

Career banker John Bowe joined Anglo Irish Bank in 2001 as head of its debt capital markets unit, part of the bank that borrowed on the markets and dealt with other lenders. He previously worked at a number of other banks.

By 2006 he had been appointed to Anglos senior executive board, putting him just below director level. His job at the bank, of keeping cash at adequate levels, became intense during the crisis, as international firms pulled billions in deposits out of Anglo.

Mr Bowe continued to work with Anglo after it was taken over by the State. He was part of a team that dealt with the restructuring of the Quinn Group loans.

The charge

Bowe and McAteer pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn circular transaction scheme between March 1 and September 30, 2008 in order to bolster Anglos balance sheet.

The States case was that the four men were involved in setting up a circular scheme of billion-euro transactions where Anglo Irish Bank lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back to Anglo via its assurance firm, Irish Life Assurance.

Yesterday, the jury was told that although all four of the defendants were named on each charge sheet, the jury could find one of them guilty of conspiring with others and acquit three.

Trial judge Martin Nolan said that to bring in guilty verdicts on conspiracy charges, the jurors must find that at least two people conspired together.

The penalty

Conspiracy to defraud is one of a series of inchoate offences, commonly described as a crime of preparing for, or seeking to commit, another crime.

Conspiracy to defraud is a common-law offence, meaning that it is not on the statute books and a court is at large when it comes to sentencing.

Six years ago, the Law Reform Commission, the Governments law reform watchdog, published a report on inchoate offences and recommended the retention of the offence of conspiracy to defraud, which the commission said was sufficiently clear in scope to remain a valuable part of the criminal law.
Thomas McFeely was found by the court to have failed to disclose an interest in 12 apartments Photo: National Pictures

A High Court judge has expressed concern over "very grave" failures by Priory Hall developer Thomas McFeely to co-operate with the official administering his bankruptcy, including failures to disclose his interest in 12 apartments in Dublin.

Ms Justice Caroline Costello said that McFeely's bankruptcy should be extended by almost the maximum five years, reduced by two months to take into account his age of 67.

The effect is that McFeely, whose bankruptcy was set to expire in July 2015, will now exit bankruptcy in May 2020 at the age of 71.

He was adjudicated bankrupt here in July 2012, with substantial debts, including 200m owed to Nama.

He had previously been adjudicated bankrupt in England and Wales - but that was rescinded after a woman owed 100,000 by companies of McFeely brought proceedings here.

McFeely, who was not in court for the judgment yesterday, had opposed as disproportionate and oppressive the extension sought by the official assignee in bankruptcy, Chris Lehane.

The judge upheld arguments by Bernard Dunleavy SC, for Mr Lehane, that the extent of non-co-operation justified the bankruptcy being extended.

Ms Justice Costello said the failure to disclose assets was on the "very grave" and "extreme end of the spectrum" and the extension should reflect that fact

In reality, McFeely had refused to co-operate in any meaningful way with his bankruptcy, she said.

McFeely's initial interview with Mr Lehane in August 2012 was, to McFeely's knowledge, "misleading", she said.

He gave his address as his late parents' home in Claudy, Co Derry, when he knew that he never resided there and did not intend to. He had also, she said, failed to disclose his interest in 12 properties.

He had also presented to Mr Lehane the statement of affairs which he had used for his English bankruptcy, when he knew that was incomplete, and continued thereafter to fail to co-operate with his bankruptcy.

McFeely also sought to "dictate" to Mr Lehane where he would be interviewed, insisting that Mr Lehane travel to Derry or pay him to travel to Dublin.

He had "greatly hindered" Mr Lehane in the administration of his estate and the effect was to severely prejudice the realisation of his estate for the benefit of his creditors, she said.
A ROOFER has appeared in court accused of false imprisonment and sexually assaulting a woman and holding another woman against her will at knife-point during separate incidents in Dublin.

Slawomir Gierlowski (31) with an address at Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, in Dublin is charged with false imprisonment of a woman and sexually assaulting her on a date last September. It is alleged the incident happened at an address in Clondalkin.

Mr Gierlowski, who is from Poland, is also accused of assault causing harm to another woman and falsely imprisoning her at a location near, Naas Road, Clondalkin, on May 16 last.

There was no application for bail when he appeared before Judge Cormac Dunne at a late sitting of Dublin District Court on Thursday. He was remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill District Court on June 7 when it is expected he will apply for bail.

Garda Sergeant Katherina Joyce told Judge Dunne that Mr Gierlowski was charged with the four offences at Clondalkin Garda station on Thursday afternoon. He made no reply to any charge after caution, she said, adding that he was then handed a copy of each charge.

Defence counsel Elizabeth Davey said she understood there would be objections to bail.

Judge Dunne asked what the allegations were and Gda Sergeant Joyce said: Two allegations of false imprisonment where a woman unknown to the accused was held against her will at knife-point and assaulted.

She went on to say the second incident in September was an alleged false imprisonment and sexual assault of another woman who was also not known to the accused.

Ms Davey told the court there would be a bail application at the next hearing and gardai said they would give the defence details of their objections in advance of Mr Gierlowsk's next appearance.

Legal aid was granted after the court heard he worked as a roofer earning 700 a week and he pays 350 a month in rent. He sat silently throughout the hearing and has not yet indicated how he will plead to the charges.
Mary Cullen (82) of Portland Row, Dublin leaves the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court where she pleaded guilty to 30 sample counts of falsely claiming social welfare, using false instruments and possession of false instruments between 1987 and 2015 in Dublin

An 82-year-old woman has received a suspended sentence for claiming over 200,000 in social welfare payments using the name of a dead woman.

Mary Cullen began using the name of her partner's deceased wife in 1987 at the suggestion of her partner. Over the years she claimed job seeker's payments, rent and fuel allowances, pre-retirement payments and, mostly recently, pension payments.

Cullen of Portland Row, Dublin pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to 30 sample counts of falsely claiming social welfare, using false instruments and possession of false instruments between 1987 and 2015 in Dublin.

The amounts received ranged from Irl52.80 in 1987 to 242.90 in 2009. The total amount falsely claimed over 28 years was 206,028.18

Cullen's defence was making a plea in mitigation and citing case law when Judge Martin Nolan interrupted and said "How can I send an 82 year old woman to jail? It's as simple as that. Isn't that the only point in the case?"

Judge Nolan said it was a reprehensible offence and Cullen should be ashamed of herself but that he couldn't in good conscience jail an 82 year old. Cullen had a hard life and was a hard worker, the judge said, noting that she had worked as an office cleaner until last year.

He said he didn't believe the Court of Appeal would overturn a suspended sentence if the Director of Public Prosecutions got a rush of blood to the head and decided to appeal it as too lenient.

Judge Nolan imposed a three year suspended sentence and noted that if Cullen was 20 years younger she would probably be facing prison. The Department of Social Protection has reduced Cullen's pension payments by 35 a week since the theft was discovered.

Garda Enda Connolly said he was asked last year by the Department of Social Protection to investigate suspicions that Cullen was claiming payments under the name Mary Rose Hart.

He conducted surveillance at the GPO where he saw Cullen enter and claim her pension under her own name. The next day he watched her claim payments in North Strand Post Office under the name of Mary Rose Hart.

When Gda Connolly later called to her house she invited him in and said I'm glad its all over, I will tell the truth.

She said her partner's wife had died from cancer in the UK in the eighties and he suggested Cullen use the deceased woman's identity to claim payments here. Cullen said her partner was violent and had a drink problem and she gave the extra money to him.

When her partner died in 2006 she began giving money to a close relative to help him pay off his drug debts, she said.

Defence counsel Luigi Rea BL said Cullen was originally from Limerick and had lived in the UK and Canada before returning to Ireland in 1968 where she had worked as a cleaner since.
SENIOR gardai will travel to foreign countries to track down criminals currently involved in Dublin's violent gangland feud.

Members of both the Hutch gang and the Kinahan cartel - who are involved in a deadly feud that has so far claimed seven lives - are based abroad in the belief that this leaves them "out of the reach" of An Garda Siochana.

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The cities where the major criminals are living include the southern Spanish coastal town of Marbella, the Dutch city of Eindhoven and Dubai in the Middle East.

However, one of the country's most senior gardai has warned that "if it is required", then members of the force will travel abroad to bring the criminals to justice.

Gardai expect arrests to be made overseas as part of an investigation into the international crime syndicate.

Assistant Garda Commissioner John O'Mahony, who is responsible for the gardai's Crime and Security branch, was speaking at a security briefing regarding the ongoing feud.

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Meanwhile, hundreds of youngsters on the periphery of the gangs are to be targeted for offering logistical and fringe support in gangland murders.

Deputy Garda Commissioner John Twomey warned: "Those people that are involved on the fringes of these crimes, those that are involved in purchasing of mobile phones and purchasing of cars, are equally as culpable as those who pull the trigger and they figure centrally in our investigations.

"We are determined that good will win over evil. There is no place in this society for those who are determined to wreak havoc on local communities."

Since the murder of David Byrne at the Regency Hotel, 23 people have been arrested in relation to the six murders here.

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The Kinahan cartel are suspected of being involved in six of the seven feud murders, as well as the mass distribution of drugs in this country.

"We have previously, where it has been required, sent operations people to work in conjunction with other police forces, and if that is what's required here we will do the same.

"Indeed, with regards to the new task force, that was one of the considerations we have given to that special task force to work closer and maybe, if necessary, to work in those countries," Mr O'Mahoney said.

"Because there is no doubt about it, what's happening in this country and what's happening in these communities - in particular the inner-city communities of Dublin - is being orchestrated from the south of Spain and from Holland and indeed from the UK, so if that's what is required then we will be going there," he added.

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Mr O'Mahony also added that such operations were previously conducted to target John Gilligan and his drug-trafficking gang.

The Kinahan cartel's association with other European and international crime gangs was also described by the senior garda as a "huge, huge conglomerate" which includes other criminal organisations, such as the Russian mafia and the Marseille-based mafia in the south of France.

Gardai have been working with police forces in Spain, the UK, France and the Netherlands in an effort to target the wealth and activities of the cartel.

He told RTE's Morning Ireland today that a garda liaison officer is carrying out "trojan work" in Madrid, where a huge focus of his work includes working in the area of organised crime.

Operations are also ongoing in the Dublin Metropolitan Region, as well as other garda divisions across the country.

One of the main actions taken by gardai is Operation Thistle, which targets the sale, supply and distribution of drugs in the Kinahan stronghold of the south-inner-city.

So far this year, 11m worth of illegal narcotics have been seized nationwide, while drugs with a street value of 46m were recovered in 2015.

Members of the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab) are also "following the money" of these criminal gangs, with over 1m in assets belonging to associates of the Kinahan cartel being seized earlier this year.

Further Cab operations are also expected to take place in the coming months.

Mr O'Mahony described the success of Cab as causing the "unintended consequence" of forcing criminals to flee abroad to protect their assets.

A special task force was also announced earlier this week to target criminals involved in the current gangland feud.

Headed by recently promoted Assistant Garda Commissioner Eugene Corcoran, the unit will hope to prevent and disrupt their operations, both nationally and internationally.

A murder on the continent last year is believed to have started the current feuding between the gangs.

Gary Hutch (33), the nephew of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, was gunned down outside an apartment complex in Mira de Flores, Spain, last September.
It took nearly an hour and-a-half for a heavily pregnant and haemorrhaging woman to get to Cavan's maternity hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning after an ambulance had been called, the Irish Independent has learned.

The woman, who lost her baby, made a 999 call in Bailieboro at 1.57am but then had to wait for an ambulance to come from Castleblaney in Co Monaghan.

She finally arrived at Cavan Hospital at 3.21am, where her condition was deemed life-threatening. The baby did not survive and the mother is now recovering.

Meanwhile, it also emerged yesterday that a second maternal death has been recorded by one of the country's major maternity hospitals this year.

The Coombe Hospital in Dublin confirmed that a pregnant woman who had been in its care died in another hospital.

The tragic news comes after the death of Malak Kuzbary Thawley (34) at the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street on May 8, when she was having emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy.

A spokesman for the Coombe said a maternal death was classified as the death of a patient for whom the hospital had accepted medical responsibility when death occurred either during pregnancy or within six weeks of delivery.

He added that most deaths of women transferred to other hospitals related to an underlying health condition rather than an obstetric failure. It was practice to have a review into all maternal deaths.

The review into the death of the baby on Sunday at Cavan Hospital is expected to examine if the length of time it took the woman to get to the maternity unit contributed to the tragedy.

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The HSE confirmed yesterday that the ambulance service received a 999 call at 1.57am on Sunday to go the Bailieboro area of Cavan. The call was triaged, using recognised protocols and standards of the advanced medical priority dispatch system.

The nearest available ambulance was dispatched from Castleblayney and arrived at the woman's house at 2.31am.

The woman received out-of-hospital emergency care at the scene and was taken to Cavan maternity unit, arriving at 3.21am.

The length of time it took the woman to reach the hospital is expected to form part of a review into her care.

A second investigation is also under way at Cavan into the death of a day-old baby who had been delivered by Caesarean section.

Health Minister Simon Harris said yesterday that he expected to receive preliminary reports on both deaths shortly.

The delay in completing reviews into previous baby deaths at Cavan, some dating back to 2012, was raised in the Dail yesterday. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said only one of those investigations had been completed and two others were at "an advanced stage".

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He said: "It's important first of all to have the internal review completed under the systems that apply. If an independent outside review is necessary, well then that can happen."

The Sinn Fein TD for Cavan/Monaghan, Caoimhghin O Caolain, called for speedy reviews into the latest baby deaths and said the other investigations must be published.

Krysia Lynch of the maternity services lobby group AIMS said there should be automatic inquests into all maternal deaths. The National Maternity Hospital has referred the death of Malak Kuzbary Thawley to the coroner. She suffered a vascular injury.
HEALTH Minister Simon Harris has insisted that Cystic Fibrosis patients currently on the drug Orkambi will continue to receive it while negotiations about the price charged by its manufacturers continue.

The minister said the today that he would do everything possible to drive down the cost of drugs and wants to raise the issue with his EU counterparts.

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It comes after the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics said Orkambi, which costs around 159,000 per patient, is too expensive.

Around 500 CF sufferers are understood to want the breakthrough drug and Cystic Fibrosis Ireland has expressed dismay at the ruling. .

However, Mr Harris told reporters today that he wants to reassure patients that this process is far from finished.

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There is significant work to do to negotiating on price and I want that negotiation to continue as a priority.

I do not want them [patients]to think that in any way, shape or form that the decision is made or that the decision is final, he said.

In the meantime, Mr Harris gave a guarantee that CF patients who are already taking Orkambi on a trial basis will be able to continue to receive it at the States expense.

For patients on the drugs today, and I heard some patients very concerned about the future provision of it, they will continue to receive that drug while the assessment goes on, he said.

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The minister also said he has asked the HSE to come up with a better policy framework so that politicians are not the people who make decision in relation to the provision of life-saving medicines.

If I was an Irish patient or the family of an Irish patient I would want the decisions made in relation to the access to drugs by clinicians rather than by any politicians, the minister said.

Mr Harris is to raise the issue of drug prices with other EU health ministers later this month in a bid to see if countries can work together to force prices down.

We have to do everything we possible can to drive down costs of drugs in Ireland. We spent 1.7bn last year providing drugs. When you take out the cost of staffing its one of the single biggest costs in our health service, he said.

I want to talk to European health ministers on this. I want to look at what we can do on a European-wide basis. I want to talk to them about what other countries do. We need to learn from each other on this.
The HSE spent 120m more than budgeted in the first three months of the year, Health Minister Simon Harris has revealed.

The new minister indicated that he will require extra funding but insisted that there will be no cuts to services.

New spending estimates are due to be brought before the Dail in the next fortnight and Taoiseach Enda Kenny has indicated that there will be some changes from what was forecast during last Octobers budget.

I dont have any intention to cut back on services this year, Mr Harris said.

He denied that the overspend for the year was on target for 500m, saying there were some factors that affected the first three months of 2016.

It is fair to say that the HSE is running over-budget. I dont think that will come as a surprise to anybody. The new Government has made it very clear that there are a number of areas we want to priorities.

We got a very loud and clear message from the Irish electorate on that, the minister said.

Asked if it was a case of bad money management or wilful overspending by the HSE, Mr Harris replied: The HSE since its creation has faced budgetary challenges. And the worrying thing is that those budgetary challenges seem apparent regardless on occasion of the level of funding.

He added: We have to do what we never managed to do during Celtic Tiger Ireland which is make sure there is an accountability in terms of how that money is spent.

The minister wants to set up a new Performance Management Unit to monitor spending outcomes in hospitals.

There is a sense when you talk to people in the Irish health service that bad practice is rewarded and good practice never gets recognised, he said.
The heroin has an estimated street value of 1.4m and the cannabis herb is worth around 10,000. Photo: An Garda Siochana

A man in his 30s has been arrested in connection with the seizure of heroin worth around 1.4m and cannabis herb worth around 10,000.

The drugs were seized when gardai carried out a planned search of a premises within the Kevin Street district of Dublin city yesterday.

The man is currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice, (Drug Trafficking), Act, 1996 at Kevin Street Garda Station.

A garda spokesperson said the drugs were seized as part of operation thistle, which targets organised criminals in Dublin South City Centre.
A man has been shot in the leg close to a west Belfast primary school.

The man, aged in his 30s, was attacked in an alleyway in the Glenkeen area of Poleglass close to St Kieran's Primary School at around 10.20pm on Wednesday.

He being treated in hospital for his injuries which police described as non-life threatening.

Police are appealing for information.
Police fear that a man who raped a 13-year-old Irish girl in a popular Tenerife holiday resort was a tourist who has already left the area.

The youngster told detectives she had been sexually assaulted on a beach near a shopping centre in Playa de Las Americas.

Police confirmed yesterday they were investigating the allegations.

However, they said they were prevented from making any further comment because a judge in charge of the probe had placed a secrecy order over the case.

It is feared the sexual predator may be a tourist who could have already left the island.

Local reports described the Irish girl as a holidaymaker - and said she was targeted in the early hours of last Thursday after heading to the area with her brother.

The rape is said to have happened around 2am local time at a beach close to the Las Veronicas shopping centre area where there are several bars and other nightspots.

She was treated in hospital and police were informed immediately afterwards.

The suspected sex attacker has been described as a Caucasian man.

The investigation is being conducted by specialist National Police officers under the coordination of a local investigating magistrate.

An insider said: "From the description the girl has given police, it's possible he is a tourist and the obvious concern is to identify him and track him before he leaves the island."

It is not known how the Irish youngster became separated from her brother.

A police spokesman said: "I can confirm we are investigating this but do not have any other details because there is a secrecy order over the case."

The area where the sex attack happened is near to the spot where a 22-year-old British man came close to bleeding to death in March after having his throat cut on a pub terrace.

His alleged attacker, a British man according to an arrest warrant issued by a local court, was held last month after flying to Ibiza from Bristol.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness visiting the Island of Ireland Peace Park in Belgium yesterday, with Geert Bourgeois, Minister-President of Flanders Photo: Lieven Van Assche/PA

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness has paid tribute to the thousands of British Army soldiers killed on the battlefields of World War One.

The former IRA commander, who is visiting First World War battle sites, claimed his trip was about "reaching out the hand of friendship to unionists".

He said it was a "sincere effort to recognise the human suffering and also the importance these events hold for the unionist section of our people".

Laying a wreath at the Island of Ireland Peace Park close to Flanders Fields yesterday, the North's Deputy First Minister said his hugely symbolic visit - which will include the Somme later today - was all about showing leadership.

He had previously declined an invitation to attend the official ceremony to mark the centenary of the battle on July 1, as it emerged his presence might lead to others not attending.

But Mr McGuinness said he hoped yesterday's visit ahead of next month's commemorations would help build a better future back in the North.

"I come here as a proud Irish republican to recognise the deaths of thousands of Irishmen during the course of the catastrophic imperialist First World War, which claimed millions of lives," he said. "It is important I come here as Deputy First Minister in a spirit of peace and reconciliation, showing leadership and reaching out the hand of friendship to unionists.

"Tens of thousands of Irishmen from across the island died in the First World War and it is important to recognise that. They are part of who we are. I hope this visit is a further step towards reconciliation.

"It is an opportunity to remember the past in a mature way and to build a better future for everyone."

Mr McGuinness said he had recently discovered that his own special adviser, Conor Heaney, had a great-grandfather, Patrick, who was killed at the Somme.

After visiting the grave, he said it had been a poignant occasion for him as a life-long republican.

"More and more republicans have been coming forward to tell me that their relatives were also killed and are also buried here. So I think this is part of our shared and complicated history in Ireland," he said.

More than 2,500 soldiers from the 36th Ulster Division died in the first days of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. While the division was largely unionist in make-up, thousands of nationalists saw action later in the Battle of the Somme.
Electrocution, assault with machine guns and 'the sweeper' are all brutal torture methods described by an Irishman in an Egyptian prison.

Ibrahim Halawa (20) has been imprisoned in the North African country for almost three years since he was arrested during political protests while on holidays in Cairo with his sisters.

He is currently awaiting trial and a potential death penalty.

In a letter smuggled out of prison and reported on in today's London Times, Mr Halawa describes the physical and sexual torture of inmates in the Wadi el-Natrun prison.

He said fellow inmates are forced to watch each other endure torture methods that include being beaten with plastic pipes, electrocuted, assaulted with machine guns and put on 'the sweeper' - a torture method that involves tying inmates to a plan and leaving them to hang as if they are on a spit.

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According to the letter, published in the Times, men are also covered in honey and tied to trees so they are attacked with insects.

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Halawa wrote; "They crucify men. They hold a man's arm against the curb and you hear it break when they kick it."

He said he wakes up everyday to the "screams of prisoners being tortured".

In a letter to his family last month, the former Dublin schoolboy said the 1,000 days he has spent in prison have felt like 1,000 years.

He told of how other prisoners have taken their own lives.

"One thousand days with 1,000 different stories. Sadly not the type of joy, laughter and smiles. But rather the type full of suffering, pain, torture, tears, abuse, suicide and death," he wrote.

"One thousand days that have felt like 1,000 years, not only for me but for hundreds behind bars."

Halawa's sisters are calling for more assertive action to free their brother.

Amnesty International's director Colm O'Gorman said the organisation conducted a review of the prosecution evidence and concluded that Mr Halawa could not have committed the crimes with which he has been charged.

His mass trial has been delayed 13 times and is now due to take place on June 29.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said every effort is being made to secure his release.
A railway station needs to be built before construction can begin on the new town Stock photo: PA

An Bord Pleanala has sanctioned a 50m new Cork town but said development can only begin once a local railway station is completed.

The decision came after Cork County Council had been warned by locals that plans to create Monard town would leave the area facing "a Cork version of Darndale" (in Dublin).

The council plans up to new 5,000 homes at Monard, outside Blarney.

The new town will switch the development axis towards the Cork-Mallow corridor, rather the south and east of the city.

Despite a campaign by local residents against the proposals, and expressions of concern from councillors, the council last year agreed not to vote down the proposal.

The council also agreed to allow the Monard proposal, which includes a strategic rezoning, to be referred to An Bord Pleanala.
A picture of Gareth Hutch outside the home of his parents

Family and friends of gun victim Gareth Hutch have gathered at his family home in the north-inner city to pay their respects ahead of his funeral service tomorrow morning.

The 35-year-old died following a shooting at the Avondale House flat complex, North Cumberland Street on Tuesday morning of last week.

The killing is linked to an ongoing gangland feud in the capital which has claimed seven lives so far.

A moderate police presence is being kept at the Drumalee housing estate this evening with a Garda checkpoint stopping vehicles entering the area. Uniformed officers are also stationed around the family home, while undercover detective units are patrolling the surrounding area. A larger armed Garda operation is expected to take place at tomorrow's funeral.

Among the family and friends to pay their respects to Gareth Hutch was his cousin Anthony Fitzgerald, a now-retired boxer who previously trained at the Kinahan Cartel linked MGM gym in Marbella, Spain.

Mr Fitzgerald has no involvement in crime and has no connection with the ongoing feud between the Kinahan and Hutch families.

This evening's wake will take place until 8pm, with his body then being removed tomorrow morning to the Church of the Holy Family on Aughrim Street, Dublin 7 for his funeral mass.

His remains will then be brought to Glasnevin Cemetery following the service.
A child aged five could have died after he discovered illegal drugs hidden in a Kinder Surprise egg while playing outside, a councillor has said.

The boy was playing with his eight-year-old brother when he spotted the yellow plastic shell, that usually contains a toy, in a hedge.

The children opened the 'egg' to discover a bag of white powder, before giving it to their dad.

The contents of the bag, which was found inside a toy egg, is believed to be methamphetamine. This small quantity of drugs will be disposed of by police, said Inspector Colin Shaw.

This incident is of the uppermost concern for all of us. Tackling the use and supply of illegal drugs is a priority for us and the possibility that something so potentially dangerous has been discarded where children could find it is deeply concerning."

Limavady DUP councillor Alan Robinson said the community could have been dealing with a tragedy.

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"On Sunday night I was contacted by a gentleman whose nephew had found a Kinder egg hidden in a hedge in the Edenmore Road area of Limavady," he said.

"When the child opened the plastic section, hidden within was a small sealed plastic bag containing a white powder. Having passed the contents to the police the family have told me that they have informed them that it contained an illegal drug."

Mr Robinson said people were in shock at the incident, adding: "By the grace of God the item was passed to the children's father who alerted the police.

"As a father of a child, I know how enticing Kinder eggs and their contents are to children.

"In this instance the children are to be commended for passing the contents to their parents.

"This weekend the Limavady community could have been learning about a tragedy and I therefore make a community appeal asking for vigilance.

"Our children are precious and they should not be exposed to such danger."
A solicitor acting for the largest ever lotto jackpot win in Sligo of 8.24 million says the person had presented the ticket several weeks ago but the National Lottery wouldn't pay out

The National Lottery still hasnt handed over an 8.2m jackpot just hours before the deadline is due to expire.

A person came forward to claim the prize from the March 5 draw but lotto operator Premier Lotteries Ireland still hasnt paid out.

The 90-day deadline for payment is due to expire this evening.

Earlier this week a spokesperson for the National Lottery told the Irish Mail: "The National Lottery at all times works to ensure due process in our claims procedure, in accordance with our statutory and regulatory obligations.

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As has always been the case, the National Lottery never comments on the specifics of individual claims to protect the privacy of the claimant.

"In line with our normal policy, we will update once this prize money has been collected.

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Whatsapp Matt Lyons, Ann-Marie Porter and Marcus Lyons outside Matt Lyons shop.

"Players have 90 days from the draw date within which to claim their prize."

The problem is believed to revolve around the operators rules on ticket validation.

Winning ticket must be intact and can't be "mutilated, altered, illegible, incomplete or tampered with in any manner," according to the lotto.

Athlone based lawyer Tony McLynn told RTE News a number of weeks ago: "Everybodys happy now.

The matter has been resolved, and the PLI [Premier Lotteries Ireland], the licence operator, has confirmed that appropriate interest along with the principal, will be paid in due course.

So its a good outcome, everybodys happy.

He added that the winnings hadn't been transferred but that "the logistics of that just have to be sorted out, but thats in hand".

Tony added about the cause of the delay: There was a matter of clarification sought and that was resolved.

The Lotto haven't commented on any of the lawyer's statements.

Speaking on behalf of his client, Tony McGlynn said despite the excitement of the win the delay of the 8.24million payment had been difficult to accept.

He added: It has been [stressful].

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"You take it in the context the excitement of winning and the expectation theyre going to have their money fairly quickly and then for whatever reason theres a delay and they had concerns themselves from their point of view as to why there was a delay and maybe questioning the bona fides of the operator.

The 'winning ticket' was sold by Matt Lyons in his shop in Sligo town on the day of the draw.

The winning numbers were 2, 8, 16, 24, 33, 42 with a bonus number of 47.

Normally under Lottery rules, a winner has 90 days to collect their prize.

This would give any winner of the March 5 draw until June 3, which is tomorrow, to claim the money.

It was the second jackpot prize to be sold by Matt Lyons at his XL shop and newsagents in Stephen Street in Sligo. A 4M winning ticket was sold here in 2009.

They say lightning doesnt strike twice but it has here, says Matts son Alan.

Were probably the most famous shop in Ireland at this stage with the ongoing dispute over the 8M ticket.

So more people have been popping in to do the lotto than ever before. It has certainly been good for business.

But he adds: It would be good for the whole thing to be settled. Personally I hope it is a syndicate so a few people get a share in it.

That is also the view of customers buying lotto tickets this week.

Financial adviser Eamonn Brennan, who works for Irish Life, was doing his usual numbers in the shop this week.

The rumours have been hilarious, especially the one where somebody wanted paid out in cash, said Eamonn.

Of course its all nonsense and Im sure this will all be sorted out eventually. If it was me, Id share it out with family and friends. With my job Id certainly know how to look after 8M.

Shop regulars Andy Dodd and his wife Regina also popped in for a QuickPick.

It would be lovely to win that sort of money, says Andy, a pharmaceutical rep.

I certainly wouldnt be engaging the services of a solicitor in Athlone. Id be off on my holidays.

Bernie Wynne adds: Its the talk of the town and I think at this stage everyone in the town has won the money if you were to believe any of the rumours, which I dont.

It appears not everyone is that bothered.

TK Max shop assistant Rachel Feeney (20) says: I dont do the lottery and I havent heard that much talk about it. Maybe some people have mentioned it but I just switch off.

The National Lottery says it is still engaging with the ticket holder and will make an announcement only when the jackpot is paid out.

The 90-day rule only applies to making a claim to a prize and there is no time limit on a pay-out, it said.

Sources laughed off suggestions that the winner is a builder who owes money to the banks  or that he wants paid in cash.
Photo of Mark Noonan and Glen Murphy who were shot dead in a case of mistaken identity in November 2010

Photo of Jean O'Connor and her son Eoin featured in RTE Prime Time report (02/06/16). Eoin was murdered in 2014 and his body left hidden on an island at Lough Sheelin on Cavan/Meath border. His body was hidden for five weeks along with that of his friend Anthony Keegan.

Nell and Joe Maughan, whose son William disappeared in April of last year speaking to RTE Prime Time. Its feared William and his girlfriend Anna Varslavane were murdered by a criminal gang and their bodies hidden.

Geraldine and Michelle, mothers of Mark Noonan and Glen Murphy who were shot dead in a case of mistaken identity in November 2010 being interviewed on RTE Prime Time

Two sisters whose sons were gunned down in a case of mistaken identity have spoken of their grief and anger that their killers still havent been brought to justice.

In November 2010 cousins Mark Noonan and Glen Murphy were shot dead at a filling station at Tesco Clearwater in Finglas. They were murdered by members of a Dublin gang who then fled across the border Despite a massive Garda investigation, no-one has been charged for the double murder.

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In a special RTE Prime Time report this evening, Geraldine, mother of Mark said that the fail to catch the killers has added to their grief.

They went to the shop that night like anybody else to get a DVD and a packet of cigarettes. Mark had a little girl, she was only nine months old. He picked Glen to be the Godfather. Mark and Glen were always together. Our lads are now lying in a grave and the killers are still out walking and living.

Geraldines sister Michelle Murphy appealed for people with information to come forward

Somebody knows something. And we need those people to come forward. Im not saying it would bring Mark and Glen back thats never going to happen but it would help us. It could do tremendous things.

More than 130 gangland murders which have not been solved, and from 1980 to the present day the killers in 240 such murders were never caught.

Jean OConnor said her son Eoin had borrowed her car to travel with his friend Anthony Keegan from Dublin to Cavan in April 2014 but they never returned.

The pair were classed as missing persons for five weeks before their bodies were found in May 2014.

The pair were shot on the head and their bodies were found at Inchicup island at Lough Sheelin on the Cavan/Meath border.

In a heartfelt interview, the father of missing Dublin man William Maughan also made an impassioned plea for his body and that of his girlfriend, Anna Varslavane, to be returned.

We know that William and Anna were murdered. But our priority is to get the bodies back, to give them a Christian burial, Nell Maughan told RTE Prime Time. What we are going through I wouldnt wish on anyone. Just pick up the phone and tell where the bodies are.

Anyone with information on any unsolved murder can contact the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111.
Confusion reigns over where the Government is to find tens of millions of euro to fund its plan to tackle the escalating gangland crisis.

A beleaguered Tanaiste admitted last night that she cannot "quantify" the level of resources required to bring the country's most dangerous gangsters to justice.

Frances Fitzgerald struggled on national radio to explain her proposals to properly equip gardai, including officers from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB), to deal with the threat posed by criminal gangs.

While insisting the force will be adequately resourced, Ms Fitzgerald was unable to say last night how much money is required to roll out her new suite of proposals, which includes additional overtime and the establishment of a new special crime taskforce.

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The Justice Minister also admitted there were "no plans" to raise the retirement age in the force - despite the fact that many senior officers with years of experience were close to exiting the force.

The Government bowed to major public and political pressure this week by announcing the measures, which include giving new powers to CAB.

Less than a week after she claimed that the force is adequately resourced, Ms Fitzgerald admitted yesterday that extra money would be required.

But she could not quantify the amount, pointing to a previous announcement that 5m will be made available to the Armed Support Unit and additional patrols.

Government sources, however, said Ms Fitzgerald was likely to seek additional funding beyond what was agreed in the Budget.

"Cabinet discussed substantial resources being deployed for concentrated policing operations in response to recent organised crime killings and noted the implication for the funding allocated to the gardai," a spokesman for the minister said.

"There are ongoing contacts between the Tanaiste and the Minister for Public Services and Reform about these matters.

"Both the Tanaiste and Taoiseach have made it crystal clear to An Garda Siochana on numerous occasions that any resources necessary will be available to take on these criminals," the spokesman added.

Last night, senior Opposition figures rounded on the Government over its response to the gangland crisis, which has seen seven people murdered in recent months.

Fianna Fail's justice spokesman Jim O'Callaghan said his party will consider drafting its own laws, which would allow criminals' frozen assets to be seized far quicker than under the current regime.

Mr O'Callaghan also said it was clear Ms Fitzgerald needs to strike a written agreement with the Spanish authorities in relation to CAB orders.

"We have to ask the Spanish authorities to accept the enforceability of CAB orders," Mr O'Callaghan told the Irish Independent.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin said it was clear more money was needed in intelligence. "What stops crime is the sort of intelligent policing, monitoring communications with known criminals, proper surveillance of known criminals and so on."

Sinn Fein's justice spokesman Jonathan O'Brien expressed concern that the plan would require funding to be diverted from other areas.

"This appears to be a case of stealing from Peter to pay Paul," he said. But Ms Fitzgerald's spokesman insisted there would be no cuts in other areas.

"There is no question of cutbacks on other garda budgets funding the additional expenditure."
Education Minister Richard Bruton has dropped plans to limit the number of children of past pupils who can get priority for enrolment in a school.

The Schools Admission Bill, which was championed by the Labour Party and approved by the last Cabinet, was not included in a list of legislation carried over into the new Dail.

Instead Mr Bruton intends to begin a fresh process of consultation and draw up his own bill, which he says can be enacted by September 2017.

For three years his predecessors Ruairi Quinn and Jan O'Sullivan fought to get her legislation through the Dail chamber despite strong objections from Fine Gael ministers.

The past pupils' unions of two of the country's best known fee-paying schools, Belvedere College and Blackrock College, were among the most vocal in their opposition to the bill.

The main bone of contention was a section that would block the so-called 'old school tie' brigade from reserving space in schools for the children of past pupils - at the expense of others who may live closer to the building.

Sources in the Department of Education last night insisted the issue would still be considered as part of the new process but could not say whether Mr Bruton supported measures as stringent as those put forward previously. They suggested the piece of legislation put forward by the last government would not survive the Dail, given its new make-up.

Mr Bruton has made contact with spokespeople from opposition parties with a view to starting work on new legislation.

"A central part of this is making it easier for parents to get children into the school they want without worrying about waiting lists or contributions; making it easier for parents to access information and be consulted about schools' admissions policies," a spokesman said.

Labour senator Aodhan O Riordain said it was a "sad day" for the education system.
The Government has suffered its first defeat in the Dail in a vote on a Labour motion on workers rights.

According to the Labour Party it's the first loss by a government in this manner for more than 25 years.

The minority government's amendment to the Labour proposal was defeated 78 votes to 58, with some Fianna Fail TDs voting alongside Labour, Sinn Fein and AAA-PBB among others.

The Labour motion - which seeks a series of new protections for workers including a significant increases in the minimum wage and a living wage of 11.50 per hour throughout the public sector - was accepted without a vote.

The result will come as a blow to the government which had sought to amend the Labour proposal in line with the Programme for Government.

And it's the first demonstration that Fianna Fail won't abstain on votes in order to facilitate government plans.

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The government version of the motion that promised to respond to any recommendations of the Low Pay Commission was roundly defeated.

A Labour Party spokesman last night said the party was "delighted" if "slightly surprised" at the result.

He said it's the first time a government has been defeated in this manner since the government of Charles Haughey lost a vote over care for people with haemophilia that contracted HIV from infected blood products.

Back then, the current Labour leader Brendan Howlin moved a Private Members Motion calling for the establishment of a IR400,000 trust fund for such patients.

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Mr Haughey's goverment was defeated on the issue, which in part led to the 1989 General Election.

Tonight's Private Members Motion on workers' rights sought to tackle what leader Brendan Howlin described as insecure hours and enforced, bogus self-employment".

In making the motion the Mr Howlin highlighted the cases of the former Clerys department store workers, who lost their jobs without notice almost a year ago and which resulted in the taxpayer having to pay statutory redundancy.

He said that such a scenario cannot happen again.

Some of the Clerys workers were in the gallery in Leinster House to watch proceedings tonight.

An amendment by the AAA-PBP which included a provision that the minimum wage be increased to 12 an hour this year was defeated 104 votes to seven.

Speaking after his party's victory Mr Howlin said: "It's an important night for workers and an important night for the Labour Party.

"This minority government has been beaten in the Dail for the first time by a vote of the members and it's on the issue of of workers' rights.

"So Labour has now set the agenda for decent standard of living for workers, decent pay for workers, decent terms and conditions for workers.

"We've only just begun," Mr Howlin added.
Enda Kenny: said he could not stop feud between families Photo: Arthur Carron

Maureen O'Sullivan at a procession against gangland violence by communities of inner city Dublin at Buckingham street, Dublin. Pictures:Arthur Carron

Independent TD Maureen O'Sullivan has said middle-class drug users have "fuelled the drug trade" and contributed to the violence in Dublin's inner city.

She was speaking in the Dail ahead of Taoiseach Enda Kenny's much-anticipated visit to the north inner city to discuss the gangland crisis, which is expected to be kept under wraps and take place in private.

The visit is likely to take place early next week - after tomorrow's funeral of the latest murder victim, Gareth Hutch, at the Holy Family Church on Aughrim Street.

The Dublin Central TD, who extended the invitation to Mr Kenny, said it would be more appropriate if the visit took place away from the media glare.

Tanaiste Frances Fitzgerald is expected to accompany Mr Kenny on the visit.

In a passionate speech during Leaders' Questions yesterday, Ms O'Sullivan asked that Mr Kenny get "into the skin" of people living in the north inner city.

"He (could imagine looking) out the window and there is nobody on the street, yet within two to three minutes, anything from 30 to 60 people are there - because word has gone around that drugs will be for sale.

"He could be sitting at home in his flat or walking down the street, maybe going for the messages or meeting neighbours and suddenly shots ring out and somebody is gunned down and executed in front of him," Ms O'Sullivan said.

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"He could have a son or daughter, or a brother or sister, who got caught up in addiction and owes a massive amount of money to the dealers and he gets a knock on the door and is told to pay up or else do a deed, commit a murder or set somebody up for murder, or worse will happen to him."

She argued that middle-class drug users in other parts of the country have "contributed" to the problems.

"They have also fuelled the drug trade and thus contributed to the murders and mayhem," she said.

Ms OSullivan later elaborated on her comments.

"I hate the words recreational drugs, because it is giving a completely different perception," she said.

"But the same dealer who provides the heroin and the crack cocaine and the tablets is the same dealer who is providing the so-called socially acceptable coke.

"It doesnt matter whether you are snorting it in a high-class restaurant or hotel or shooting up in the street, it is the same dealer making money out of your addiction."

Local Independent councillor Nial Ring said the inner-city community remained deeply wounded following the recent murders.

He welcomed new measures for the gardai but said it was only "one part of what's needed".

"We need to put the rest of the jigsaw in place," he added.
A Ryanair flight bound for Malta diverted to an airport in southwest Germany after a passenger became ill on board this morning.

Flight FR3884 departed Luton airport in London this morning at 7.04am and was bound for Luqa, Malta.

It was due to arrive at 11.15am local time but was diverted to Airport Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airport in south-western Germany.

The decision was made to divert the flight after a passenger became ill on board, Ryanair told Independent.ie in a statement.

"The crew called ahead to request medical assistance, the aircraft landed normally and the customer disembarked and was met by medics for further treatment," a spokesperson said.

Ryanair have apologised to customers for the short delay to their flight and said the aircraft will depart to Malta shortly.

The plane is a Boeing 737-800.
The role of Irish soldiers in the Battle of the Somme has been remembered almost 100 years after it began on July 1, 1916.

It is estimated that 3,500 Irish soldiers lost their lives in the conflict in the north of France.

The battle, which lasted until December of that year, was one of the bloodiest clashes of the Great War.

Speaking at an event to commemorate the centenary, the British Ambassador to Ireland, Dominick Chilcott, said that 1916 had been a "tumultuous year" for the British and Irish - from Easter week in Dublin to the trenches of Europe.

Mr Chilcott also recalled the words of Col John Buckham, who described a brutal attack of the 36th Ulster Division that saw only a handful of the troops survive.

At the time, Col Buckham wrote: "Nothing finer was done in the war. The splendid troops, drawn from those volunteers who had banded themselves together for another cause, now shed their blood like water for the liberty of the world."

Brave

Dr Gavin Hughes, Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, also detailed the brave feats of Irish soldiers during the battle.

Dr Hughes told the story of Captain Colonel Charles McNamara, who kept fighting despite receiving horrific injuries on the battlefield. "Despite being severely wounded in the leg and having lost an eye, he refused to leave his men until he passed command over," he said.

Dr Hughes also described a private from Tipperary who had survived duty in Dublin during Easter week, only to be killed on the Somme just months later.
Rural GPs are struggling with poor internet coverage, according to one family doctor.

Dr John O'Dea is part of a three-doctor practice in Ballyvaughan in Co Clare.

They pay a provider 65 a month for a broadband service to their practice.

Each doctor then pays another 45 each for coverage at their homes.

"That's 200 per month to allow us to go online, which we need to do - but the service is pretty shocking," says Dr O'Dea.

"I'm not an expert on bandwidth to be honest, but it's just very, very slow all of the time."

The medical practice is remote, he says, and made even more remote by poor internet coverage and terrible roads.

All of which makes it harder to sustain a rural community - and the students who come to the practice.

"We take medical students in 18-week blocs from both Galway and Limerick [universities] and they also need to get online but the coverage we get is pretty dreadful," says Dr O'Dea.

"We live in hope all the time that some day it might just get better. The latest date for an improvement is somewhere around 2020 but we're not sure it's going to happen then either."

Dr O'Dea was part of the election team for fellow GP Dr Michael Harty, who was elected to the Dail in February.

"I knew things were bad but even I didn't realise how bad rural Clare had become until I was out canvassing," he says. "We were knocking on doors of empty homes and going up farm lanes where families used to live. The countryside has been abandoned. Rural Ireland is dying."

His village - on a stunning part of the Wild Atlantic Way - cannot attract new residents either.

"We are 50km from Galway and 40km from Ennis. If people wanted to live here and commute to work, they can't. The roads are dreadful, and when you do make it home, you cannot do any work online.

"We feel as though we are being asked to live with one hand permanently tied behind our backs," he says.
The Facebook profile of an Irish teenager battling a rare cancer has been disabled by the social network who claimed she was pretending to be someone else.

Shauntelle Tynan (17) reported a user who was using her stolen images to promote a false account, but in turn had her personal Facebook profile disabled by the network, which has left her distraught ahead of a trip to the US for life-saving treatment.

An account under the name of Tamires Dias posted a photograph lifted from Shauntelles page and posted it to Facebook with the caption: Today is my last day of chemo, please pray for me. I beat the cancer.

The stolen image has been shared more than a million times since it was uploaded on May 31.

Expand Close An account under the name of Tamires Dias created using Shan's pictures is still active / Facebook

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Shauntelles mum Leona revealed that she is deeply upset that the account using stolen images remains active while Shauntelles personal page has been deactivated, even though a copy of her passport has been sent to Facebooks moderators.

Shauntelle is distraught as we leave early tomorrow for six-weeks of treatment in Texas and it is her only means of communication with her friends while we are away, she said.

Someone stole Shauntelles picture and it has gotten a million likes. We reported the page but Facebook said it did not violate their community standards.

Now the person that is using Shauntelles pictures has reported her personal page and Facebook have disabled her account.

Leona revealed that Facebooks administrators did not trust Shauntelles identity, even after a photograph of her passport was sent to them.

The passport shows her before she was ill with hair and the image doesn't look like she does now so they deleted her page while they investigate but we havent been given any indication of how long this will take, said Leona.

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Another false account is now circulating stolen images of Shauntelle, pretending to be a cancer sufferer.

Shauntelle is currently battling a rare cancer, Histiocytosis X, and will head to the US tomorrow for further life-saving treatment.

In the past the brave teen has spoken about the disease and her determination to come out the other side.

I don't want sympathy I just want to win this battle. Everyone tells me I'm strong and honestly when I look at everything I feel strong, the weak moments done define me the strong ones do, she told Independent.ie last year.

They get me to tomorrow and give me a peek into my future, the future I want full of love, travel, adventure and good health.

Someone once told me that life only gives you what it knows you can handle so in a way I'm clinging onto that in the hope that I will fight and I will survive the battle and that along my journey I can hopefully make people aware.
French soldiers patrol at the Eiffel Tower following terrorist attacks on Paris on November 13, 2015. Inset: Travellers to France should 'exercise extreme caution', according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Holidaymakers view flowers left on Marhaba beach where 38 people were killed in a terrorist attack in June 2015 in Sousse, Tunisia

Terrorist attacks and Europes migrant crisis are changing the face of summer travel, says Hugh Morris.

Turkey, Greece, Tunisia and Egypt are among those countries counting the cost of Europe's migrant crisis and fears over terrorism, with new figures revealing a sharp fall in foreign arrivals.

Egypt has suffered the most, with data showing the number of tourists down 46pc in 2016, when compared to the same period last year.

The countrys main resort, Sharm el-Sheikh, has been virtually out of bounds to British and Irish visitors since October, when Russian MetroJet Flight 9268 was brought down in the Sinai region by terrorists.

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The UK Foreign Office responded by advising against air travel to the resort, prompting tour operators to pull out of the region, while the Irish Aviation Authority has warned Irish airline operators not to operate to/from Sharm el-Sheikh airport or in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula airspace until further notice.

Greece, meanwhile - whose eastern islands are the first port of call for thousands of migrants fleeing conflict in Syria and Libya - has experienced an 11pc fall in visitors in 2016, following a 7pc rise last year.

Civil instability and terror attacks have also kept visitors away from Turkey, which has seen a 9.9pc fall in arrivals so far this year.

Meanwhile Tunisia, to which the Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Irish citizens not to travel since a terror attack at the beach resort of Sousse last year, has experience an 18.7pc drop in visitor numbers.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close French soldiers patrol at the Eiffel Tower following terrorist attacks on Paris on November 13, 2015. Inset: Travellers to France should 'exercise extreme caution', according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. AP Photo/Peter Dejong) Holidaymakers view flowers left on Marhaba beach where 38 people were killed in a terrorist attack in June 2015 in Sousse, Tunisia / Facebook

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Whatsapp French soldiers patrol at the Eiffel Tower following terrorist attacks on Paris on November 13, 2015. Inset: Travellers to France should 'exercise extreme caution', according to the Department of Foreign Affairs. AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Nor is the tourist fall-off confined to North Africa and eastern Europe. France (above) has also witnessed a decline in visitors, with numbers down 8pc so far this year - with the Paris attacks last November a probable cause.

Where are we going instead?

The figures, collated by market research group Euromonitor from the World Tourism Organisation, also show where tourists are choosing to travel instead of these destinations, with Spain, Portugal and Croatia all experiencing large spikes in arrivals so far this year.

Croatia has seen a 17pc surge, Spain a rise of 13.9pc, and visitors to Portugal are up by 15pc. Euromonitor also said that Germany, Netherlands and Malta had experienced growth so far in 2016, while Ireland has experienced its busiest ever first quarter, clocking one million arrivals for the first time.

Prices are rising for package holidays from Ireland to Spain and the Canaries, while Abta, the UK travel body, has warned holidaymakers of waning availability in traditionally popular sun destinations such as Spain and Italy.

Nadejda Popova, travel project manager at Euromonitor, said the latest EgyptAir plane crash is likely to further impact Egypt's struggling tourism industry.

Expand Close Tourist boom: Sunbathers on Playa de Palma beach in Majorca, Spain. / Facebook

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Currently, Egypts tourism is surviving very much thanks to the heavily discounted prices used to lure budget travellers, and the question is how much are these low-spending tourists ready to visit Egypt in light of recent events? she said.

The government must reassure travellers and potential tourists that the country is doing enough to uproot terrorism and secure the safety of travellers.

Egypts tourism minister, Hisham Zaazou, promised additional security measures earlier this year, including 26 million worth of X-ray machines and body scanners, but it is not yet enough to convince the UK Foreign Office, which still advises against travel by air to Sharm el-Sheikh, effectively cutting off the popular Red Sea resort.

The Department of Foreign Affairs advises against non-essential travel to Egypt, but Sharm is listed as an exception, where Irish citizens are advised to exercise a high degree of caution and to avoid travelling outside the resort.

Tunisia is also facing a battle to convince the UK and Irish governments to declare it safe. Last week, the Tunisian ambassador to the UK issued a plea to the Foreign Office to relax travel restrictions to the North African country, claiming the loss of tourism is crippling the economy.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
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Dan O'Brien Opinion While we catastrophise about Covid, we ignore risk of running out of cash

We Irish view the world in an increasingly strange and unhealthy way. We catastrophise about Covid in a way other European countries do not. We focus on how bad the effects of the virus could get, on how many more restrictions might be imposed by Government and how helpless we are in the face of the virus.
It has always been assumed by Irish lawyers that hunger is no defence to a charge of stealing food and homelessness is no defence to a charge of trespassing. However, that may need to be reconsidered in the light of an unexpected decision recently delivered by the Supreme Court of Italy.

When Roman Ostriakov, a homeless, 30-year-old Ukrainian, stole a sausage and a piece of cheese from an Italian supermarket, he could not have imagined that he was about to radically change the law and in the process become the most famous European petty thief since Jean Valjean, the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables'.

Ostriakov was noticed by a fellow customer leaving the supermarket with the cheese and sausage worth 4.07 in his pocket, having only paid for some breadsticks. In 2015, the lower court in Genoa convicted Ostriakov of theft and sentenced him to six months in prison and fined him 100. On appeal, Ostriakov's lawyers sought to argue that their client should only have been convicted of the lesser charge of attempted theft rather than actual theft on the basis that he had not managed to leave the supermarket with the concealed items before he was apprehended by store security. However, Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation overturned the conviction entirely.

In a historic ruling, the court noted that the condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the theft took place were such that Ostriakov "took possession of that small amount of food in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of necessity".

In such circumstances, the theft "does not constitute a crime" as "people should not be punished if, forced by need, they steal small quantities of food in order to meet the basic requirements of feeding themselves".

The common law origins of the defence of necessity in criminal law date back to the 16th century but has always been of limited scope.

This was highlighted in the celebrated 1884 case of Dudley and Stephens, which concerned two sailors and a cabin boy who were cast adrift on a lifeboat after their ship sank. Eighteen days later, having run out of food and drink, the two sailors decided to kill and eat the unfortunate cabin boy. Four days later, the surviving sailors were rescued by a passing ship and returned to England only to be subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to death (later commuted to six months imprisonment) despite the fact that the jury accepted that had they not eaten the cabin boy, they would probably all have died, as at the time of the killing there was no appreciable chance of survival by any other means.

This precise scenario in which Ostriakov found himself was considered with remarkable prescience by Lord Denning in a case concerning Southwark London Borough Council in 1971. Lord Denning took a firm stand and stated that "When a man, who is starving, enters a house and takes food in order to keep himself alive, our English law does not admit the defence of necessity. It holds him guilty of larceny."

Denning went on to explain that "The reason is because, if hunger were once allowed to be an excuse for stealing, it would open a way through which all kinds of disorder and lawlessness would pass" and he concluded that in refusing the defence of necessity to the homeless one trusts that "their distress will be relieved by the charitable and the good".

It has always been assumed that Lord Denning's stand against anarchy represented the law in this jurisdiction too. However, the decision of the Italian Supreme Court raises the possibility that a hungry or homeless person who finds themselves charged before an Irish court might now have a basis for arguing that it is wrong to condemn them as a criminal in respect of a crime they were compelled to commit by their circumstances.

James McDermott is a barrister
As a US citizen living in Ireland, I am looking forward to casting my absentee ballot this year for Donald Trump.

Fellow New Yorker Donald brings back memories to me when I think back to 1993 the year I met my Irish wife in a pub in Yonkers.

He also reminds me of how the city of my birth had been so greatly diminished by the Democrats via the disastrous administrations of Abe Beame, Ed Koch and David Dinkins.

Thankfully, in the mayoral race of 1993 a young prosecutor by the name of Rudy Guiliani stepped forward with a proclamation. He said he was going to make New York great again.

The best analogy I can offer for Trump is if you can imagine a nine-year-old version of yourself in the kitchen with your step-father (Barack Obama) who treats and greets you with a casual contempt.

Then abruptly the door bursts open and your untethered, loud, proud, uncle (Trump) enters, having another bad hair day, and is as delighted to see you as you are him. Your uncle may have the disposition of an Aberdeen Angus in a porcelain shop but his unashamed love for you is without reservation.

Politically, the people of the world's democracies are sick and tired of the usual evasive politicians who provide waffle instead of answers and seek only to manage our expectations.

You can accuse Trump of a lot of things but you will never be able to accuse him of being a politician.

In the meantime, political commentators these days seem eager to point out how Mitt Romney only received 27pc of the Hispanic vote in 2012 and the apparent peril this represents for the GOP.

However, when I was a born in the Bronx back in 1968, the Republicans probably got less than 27pc of the Irish-American vote while today that number is a lot closer to 60pc than 30pc.

Economically, up to 3,00,000 members of the millennium generation turn 21 every month while the monthly jobs reports show an economy struggling to produce less than 200,000 every 30 days.

Combine this with a historically low worker participation rate and it is clear to see that Obama has achieved his goal in turning the US into an average country.

As for the opposition, the continuity of mundane mediocrity offered by Hillary Clinton is no better than the Venezuelan nightmare Bernie Sanders envisages. However, the gap in authenticity between Sanders and Clinton makes Hillary look like a four dollar bill.

Yes, I know Trump owes a few apologies here and there but consider the consequences if he did so in the morning. The Democrats would have nothing to say, let alone offer, as their "he said this" and "he said that" strategy would be gone.

No, Trump is not perfect, but his love of country is unconditional and gleefully contagious.

Joe Caulfield, Offaly

Lay off Enda for enjoying the Boss

David Bradley displays symptoms of much of what is wrong with political discourse in this country (Irish Independent, Letters, May 31): those of criticism and opposition for their own sakes.

How exactly did he expect Enda Kenny to behave at a rousing Springsteen concert, if not to dance and have a good time with his wife and friends? Had he sat glumly, he would have been accused of being out of touch and aloof! Criticise the politicians' policies, criticise their speeches and criticise their reactions to crises, but, for God's sake, leave their reactions to good, honest fun out of it.

Killian Foley-Walsh, Kilkenny City

The national nomenclature

I refer to your Letters page of May 31 and specifically to Ms Ward's letter about nomenclature.

While I would concur that Enda Kenny's use of 'the North' in reference to Northern Ireland is an affront to geography and the people of Donegal, Ms Ward is incorrect in stating that "Ireland" is not the name of the State she resides in. A quick check of the Constitution would tell her that!

That said, I look forward to upcoming match-up between Ireland and the Republic of Italy.

Kieran McGovern, Birmingham, UK

Putting the con in conservation

Yet again, captivity has taken an animal's life. The latest victim is a 17-year-old gorilla named Harambe, who was gunned down after a boy managed to crawl through a fence before falling into his enclosure at Cincinnati Zoo.

Of course, we'll never know what would have happened if the zoo keepers hadn't shot Harambe, but we do know that if he hadn't been locked up to serve as a high-earning living exhibit, this incident would never have occurred.

We also know that most zoos don't have reintroduction programmes - which means that if Harambe had not been gunned down on Saturday, he would eventually have died in his cell in Ohio, thousands of miles from where he belonged. Zoos put the con in "conservation" by hoodwinking the public into believing that something meaningful is being done for these animals, when the salvation of endangered species lies in habitat conservation, not a life spent behind bars. The message everyone should take away from this story is simple: don't give zoos your money, and eventually, they'll have to stop imprisoning - and killing - animals.

Jennifer White, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Society Building, London, UK

Time for some blue sky thinking

What a beautiful few days it has been. To see people flocking to the beaches and kids splashing in the sea confirms what I always believe, that there is no better place to be than home sweet home when you have the weather.

We've had months of dark skies, grey outlooks and cold realities to wake up to. Now that the sun has come to shed a little light and warmth in all of our lives, perhaps we may even get a bit of "blue sky thinking" down around Leinster House. The national rainmakers could certainly do with it.

Ed Toal, Galway City

Has anyone else noticed that it hasn't rained in Ireland since Danny Healy-Rae's climate change proclamation in the Dail last month?

Could this be a miracle, and Danny's first step to sainthood?

Damien Carroll, Kingswood, Dublin 24

Chequebook politics

Did the recent campaign for the General Election bring a new meaning to the word 'democracy'?

'For the people, buy the people'.

Mike Mahon, Templeogue, D6W
The former Top Gear trio will head to South Africa

Fans in Johannesburg will get the first glimpse of Jeremy Clarkson's new Amazon Prime motoring show The Grand Tour.

The first studio recording for the show, which also stars Richard Hammond and James May, will take place in South Africa in July, the streaming service announced.

The pre-recorded studio segments will be filmed in a large tent in front of a live audience in locations around the world.

Fans can compete to win tickets to the taping, as well as travel and accommodation, by sharing a photo or video of the most unusual place they have pitched a tent in the hopes of giving the stars inspiration of where else to take their tent.

The top 10 entries shared by June 8 with the hashtag #TheGrandTourJoburg will be shortlisted by Amazon before Clarkson, Hammond and May select the final three winners.

Jay Marine, vice president of Amazon Video Europe, said: " We love that Jeremy, Richard and James are touring the studio recordings of The Grand Tour, bringing this Amazon Prime show to fans around the world.

"Given the popularity of Jeremy, Richard and James in South Africa, Johannesburg is a fantastic place to start. We're excited to give fans the opportunity to be part of the first ever live studio audience for The Grand Tour."

Tickets for recordings in other countries will be released through prize draws this summer before the show will launch on Amazon Prime this Autumn.

The show's Facebook page shows the trio have already filmed in Portugal,Germany, Barbados and North Africa.

Former Top Gear presenter Clarkson was suspended and then later fired by the BBC last year after a "fracas" that saw him punch Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon.

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His co-presenters Hammond and May quit the show shortly after.

Clarkson was replaced on the show by radio DJ Chris Evans, who was joined by former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc and an extensive cast of co-presenters.

The news series made its debut on Sunday to more than four million viewers and mixed reviews.

May joked on Twitter: "Here we go. Chosen by Richard Hammond, who's run out of biltong."

With one excited South African fan asking if the news was "for real", Hammond suggested a braai - Afrikaans for barbecue.

"Yes, for real. We'll have to have a Bra, a Bray, a, oh you know, a South African barbecue," he wrote.

Clarkson tweeted: "So there we are. First stop on our Grand Tour is Johannesburg. Mid July. Details on how to get tickets follow shortly."
An unidentified Indian man accused over the 2002 riot case waves to supporters as he arrives at Ahmadabad's court (AP)

An Indian court has convicted 24 suspects, 11 of them for murder, for their part in religious riots in 2002 in western India.

Special Court Judge PB Desai said that their sentences will be announced next week. Those convicted of murder could be sentenced to death.

The judge acquitted 36 charged in connection with the rioting in Ahmadabad, the main city in Gujarat state, in which 69 people - including former Congress politician Ehsan Jafri - were killed by a Hindu mob.

The riots were triggered when Muslims set fire to a train carrying Hindu nationalists, killing 60.

More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in three months of violence that hit the state after that.

A prominent Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Bipin Patel, was acquitted because of a lack of evidence.

Mr Jafri's widow, Zakia, welcomed the verdicts, but was upset at the 36 acquittals.

"This verdict is half justice to me," she said.

India's judicial system is notorious for its delays. The first high-profile convictions from the 2002 riots came 10 years later when Maya Kodnani - a former government minister - and 31 others were convicted on charges ranging from rioting to murder - stemming from an attack in a small industrial town on the outskirts of Ahmadabad that killed 95 people.

Ms Kodnani, who was sentenced to 28 years in prison, has been free on bail while her appeal is being heard by a higher court.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state's chief minister at that time of the riots, and Muslim leaders and human rights groups say Mr Modi and his Hindu nationalist government did little to stop the violence, which he has denied.

India's Supreme Court has said it has found no evidence to prosecute him for the violence.
A Texan teacher who went on the run after becoming pregnant following an alleged relationship with a 13-year-old pupil, has handed herself in and been charged with child abuse.

English teacher Alexandria Vera, 24, turned herself over to police after a warrant was issued for her arrest. Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said she turned herself in on Wednesday morning in the town of Conroe, and that she was charged before being released on a bond of $100,000.

Expand Close Alexandria Vera told police she initially resisted the boy's advances, according to court documents (Facebook) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Alexandria Vera told police she initially resisted the boy's advances, according to court documents (Facebook)

"She turned herself in, in the company of a bail agent. Bail has been provided and she has just left," Lt Brady Fitzgerald of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said.

Reports said that the relationship between Ms Vera and the boy began when he was a student of hers in summer school last year at Stovall Middle School.

The relationship apparently had the blessing of the boys family, according to court documents. Ms Vera told police she initially resisted the advances of a boy who was assigned to her English class at the start of the school year.

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But according to the court documents, a school police officer said Ms Vera had admitted to having a relationship with the student which lasted from September 2015 to the end of January 2016, during which they had sex on almost a daily basis.

Mr Vera claimed she and the teenager were in love, and that has been introduced to his family as his girlfriend. The boys parents have reportedly accepted the relationship and have including her in family gatherings.

The court documents said that the teacher allegedly became pregnant with the boys baby in January, and his family was said to be excited and supportive about the baby, ABC News reported.

But after an unexpected visit to the school by Child Protective Services in February, when Ms Vera and the boy were questioned about their relationship, she reportedly became nervous and terminated the pregnancy. She reportedly has a 4-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

Aldine Independent School District issued a statement that claimed it had been quick to act.

Aldine ISD has been made aware that charges have been filed against a former Stovall Middle School teacher involved in inappropriate behaviour with a male student. When the allegation was made in April, the teacher was immediately removed from the school and placed on administrative leave, it said.
A British man has pleaded guilty in the US to his role in operating a Spain-based "boiler room" operation that conned about 250 investors out of nearly 3 million dollars (2 million).

The US attorney's office said 52-year-old Martin Rhys-Jones pleaded guilty in federal court in Buffalo to laundering money acquired in a wire fraud conspiracy.

Prosecutors say Jones and Arnold Wrobel, a former Buffalo resident, oversaw a boiler room in Barcelona that conned investors in the UK and Canada by getting them to buy nearly worthless shares of restricted stock at highly inflated prices.

Officials say a portion of the proceeds from the criminal operation were funnelled through a bank account in western New York before being sent to numerous overseas accounts controlled by Jones and Wrobel.

Wrobel was convicted in December and is awaiting sentencing.
One of Britain's worst-ever paedophiles is facing life in jail after pleading guilty to raping and sexually abusing dozens of children in Southeast Asia for almost a decade.

Former grammar schoolboy Richard Huckle (30), from Ashford, Kent, targeted poverty-stricken communities in Malaysia and Cambodia, and - after winning the trust of locals - systematically abused boys and girls as young as six months old.

While he admits raping and molesting 23 youngsters, many more are thought to have fallen prey to him between 2006 and December 2014, when he was finally arrested as he returned to Britain for a Christmas holiday.

At an earlier hearing, Huckle pleaded guilty to 71 offences, 22 of which carry a maximum life sentence. Investigators from Britain's National Crime Agency said the scale of the offending was "unprecedented and exceptional".

Huckle appeared at the Old Bailey yesterday for a sentencing hearing that is expected to last three days.

Huckle, who worked in a mobile phone factory and posed as a committed Christian - attending churches in north London and Ashford - first went to Malaysia in 2005 on a gap-year teaching placement.

The following year, he visited Cambodia. While staying with a local family, he took indecent images of their child, who was aged around three at the time.

He then began to visit Malaysia regularly, posing as a teacher, photographer and philanthropist in order to ingratiate himself with a local Christian community, before raping and abusing their children.

Huckle's favourite method was to target vulnerable children in poverty-stricken communities, even boasting of his exploits to other paedophiles online.

In one posting, he wrote: "Impoverished kids are definitely easier to seduce than middle-class Western kids."

He used sick sites on the dark web to sell images of his abuse to other child molesters, accepting payment in Bitcoins.

Huckle's victims included boys, girls, toddlers, pre-teens and even babies, including one aged just six months old.

While his abuse lasted almost a decade, he did not come to the attention of the authorities in Britain until the middle of 2014, when the NCA received a tip from Australia about his postings on the dark web.

They then discovered he was planning to return to Britain for Christmas and he was arrested on December 19, 2014 when he landed at Gatwick Airport.

When detectives investigated his laptop, camera and phone they discovered more than 20,000 indecent images of young children, many of them featuring Huckle participating in abuse.
German police arrested three asylum seekers after 18 women have made complaints of sexual assaults at the Schlossgrabenfest music festival in Darmstadt (Getty Images)

Police in Germany are investigating reports of a series of sexual assaults against women at a music festival in what appears to be a smaller-scale repeat of the New Year attacks in Cologne.

So far, 26 women have come forward to say they were assaulted at the festival in the city of Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt, and 14 have made formal criminal complaints.

"The women complained that they were surrounded by small groups of men who then touched them inappropriately," a spokesman for the Darmstadt police said.

There are fears the incidents could cause a backlash against immigrants after it emerged most of victims described their attackers as foreign in appearance.

"The women said that it was their impression the perpetrators were South Asian," the police spokesman said.

On Sunday, police in Darmstadt arrested three Pakistani men aged between 28 and 31 in connection with the latest assaults, but later released them for lack of evidence.

Two are believed to be asylum-seekers while the third is a long-term resident of Germany.

"There are no grounds to continue to hold them," the police spokesman said.

Most of the victims are believed to be young women in their late teens and early twenties.

The alleged assaults took place at the Schlossgrabenfest, an open-air music festival which attracted crowds of more than 400,000 people over four days.

The tactics the women reported being used are reminiscent of the New Year sex attacks in Cologne, in which hundreds of women were assaulted outside the city's main railway station.
A signal has been detected from one of the black boxes that were on board doomed EgyptAir flight MS804, French investigators said yesterday.

The discovery raises hopes that the data and cockpit voice recorders, known as black boxes, can soon be retrieved and will give insight into the crash of the Airbus A320 on May 19, which killed all 66 people on board. "The signal from a beacon from a flight recorder has been detected" by navy vessel Laplace, said Remi Jouty of France's Bureau of Investigations and Analysis, following reports from Egyptian investigators.

Based on the data which has been collected, the search for the plane has been narrowed to a 5km area in the Mediterranean.

Egyptian and French navy vessels are participating in the search, and Egypt last week hired two private maritime companies to assist in finding the black boxes and the wreckage. Egypt says that the search was intensified to locate the black boxes in preparation for their retrieval by one of the private vessels, expected to arrive within a week.

The recording data devices are designed to emit acoustic signals for 30 days after a crash, giving search teams fewer than three weeks to spot them in waters up to 3km deep, which is on the edge of their range.

So far, the searching teams have found only small pieces of the bodies of the victims and fragments of the debris of the crashed plane. DNA samples have been taken from the families of the victims in an attempt to identify some of the remains.
A body is removed from the scene of the fatal shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles (AP)

The man who carried out a murder-suicide at the University of California left a "kill list" at his home that led authorities to find a woman's dead body.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Mainak Sarkar drove to Los Angeles from Minnesota with two guns and killed Professor William Klug before killing himself.

Mr Beck said that when authorities searched Sarkar's home in Minnesota, they found a "kill list" with the names of Mr Klug, another UCLA professor and a woman.

He said the woman was found shot dead in her home in a nearby Minnesota town. The other professor on the list is unharmed.

Mr Beck said it appeared that mental issues were involved and said Sarkar's dispute with Mr Klug appears to be tied to Sarkar thinking the professor released intellectual property that harmed Sarkar.

Police are asking the public's help to find the car Sarkar drove to Los Angeles, a 2003 Nissan Sentra with the licence plate of 720KTW.

Mr Klug was gunned down in an engineering building office, according to a law enforcement official.

Classes at the University of California, Los Angeles campus will resume on Thursday for most of the school, and for the engineering department, whose students and faculty are coming to terms with the loss, on Monday.

"Bill was an absolutely wonderful man, just the nicest guy you would ever want to meet," said UCLA Professor Alan Garfinkel.

"Devoted family man, superb mentor and teacher to so many students. He was my close colleague and friend. Our research together was to build a computer model of the heart, a 50 million variable 'virtual heart' that could be used to test drugs."

The initial reports from the scene set off widespread fears of an attempted mass shooting on campus, bringing a response of hundreds of heavily armed officers who swarmed the campus.

Groups of officers stormed into buildings that had been locked down and cleared hallways as police helicopters hovered overhead.

Advised by university text alerts to turn out lights and lock doors where they were, many students let friends and family know they were safe in social media posts. Some described frantic evacuation scenes, while others wrote that their doors were not locking and posted photos of barricaded doors.

After about two hours, city Police Chief Charlie Beck said it was a murder-suicide and declared the threat over.

It was the week before final exams at UCLA, whose 43,000 students make it the largest campus in the University of California system.

Those locked down inside classrooms described a nervous calm. Some said they had to rig the doors closed with whatever was at hand because they would not lock.

Umar Rehman, 21, was in a maths sciences classroom adjacent to Engineering IV, the building where the shooting took place. The buildings are connected by walkway bridges near the centre of the 419-acre campus.

"We kept our eye on the door. We knew that somebody eventually could come," he said.

The door would not lock and those in the room devised a plan to hold it closed using a belt and crowbar, and demand ID from anyone who tried to get in.

Scott Waugh, an executive vice chancellor and provost, said the university would look into concerns about doors that would not lock.

UCLA's commencement ceremonies and end-of-year events will now include mourning Mr Klug, who was a devout Christian and a regular figure in organising spiritual life on campus.

In 2012, according to the campus website, he moderated a forum that his family and friends might find useful now called Does God Care?: Seeking the Meaning of Life in the Midst of Suffering and Death.
Female Kurdish Peshmerga walk with their weapons in a village to the east of Mosul, Iraq Photo: Reuters/Azad Lashkari

US-backed rebels have launched an offensive to clear Isil from the Turkish border and close the last entry route for European volunteers joining the terrorist movement.

Control of the territory between the Syrian towns of Manbij and Marea is a key prize in the fight against Isil.

Known as the Manbij Pocket, the capture of this area would isolate Isil from the Turkish frontier, shut down the last funnel for foreign fighters - including European citizens - to reach the group, and clear the way for an assault on Raqqa, which serves as Isil's de facto capital.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed rebel group, seized nine villages yesterday, bringing them within 20km of Manbij, an area so popular among British Isil fighters that it has been dubbed 'Little London'.

Nasser Haj Mansour, an adviser with the SDF, said the alliance's fighters were heading from the Tishreen Dam on the Euphrates towards Manbij, describing Isil's resistance as "fierce and intense".

US officials insist the SDF's forces are dominated by Syrian Arabs. But contacts in the area said they were likely to be mainly Kurdish fighters, a fact that is likely to anger Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government views the main Kurdish rebel group in Syria, the People's Protection Units, as an extension of the PKK Kurdish Workers' Party, which is viewed as a terrorist movement. Turkish sources said that any contribution to the US-led operation was "out of the question".

Disagreements between Washington and Ankara over which proxy forces should be mobilised to fight Isil have already slowed operations in northern Syria. Last week, Isil capitalised on the rift by attacking a string of villages near Marea, splitting the last patch of rebel territory along the border and causing tens of thousands of civilians to flee.

The Pentagon has already deployed more than 200 American special forces soldiers alongside the SDF.

Yesterday, the US-led coalition's warplanes carried out air strikes in support of the Kurdish rebels near Manbij.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, three children were among 15 civilians killed in the pre-dawn air raids.

According to Airwars, an independent monitoring group, the US-led coalition has killed at least 1,200 civilians during 22 months of air strikes against Isil. ( Daily Telegraph London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Everyone on the University of Chattanooga campus knew who Dr. Irvine Grote (pronounced "Groty") was, even when they never took one of his classes. I was in the latter category, and do not ever remember even shaking his hand or talking with him. He would be seen hurrying about the campus, always immaculately dressed, in respect for his role as Head of the Chemistry Department. He had a ruddy countenance - the sort of person that could readily break into a laugh, and it is said that you could easily pass his courses if you half tried.

My most notable contact with Dr. Grote was following a much-publicized trip he had taken to Afghanistan in the early 1950's. He was dismayed at the poverty he found there - and I completely forget the original purpose of the trip. He told about it, however, in one of those (required) chapel programs that our University used to have weekly - (where you entered to organ music played by Professor Isa McIlwraith, receiving a small card at the chapel entrance which you must sign and turn in to Mrs. May Saunders upon leaving). Everyone generally dreaded "Chapel", but this program of Dr. Grote's was most fascinating - and memorable. He told of this far-away land that was essentially constructed out of mud - and I could not really imagine such a place until the recent war over there, when the HD graphics shown on all the news networks proved him right. (It should be noted that his Afghanistan trip was made a number of years before the big passenger jets, and travel was consequently much more difficult).

But Dr. Grote was a Chemist by profession, and through many twists and turns of his education and employment, he wound up not only on the UC faculty, but also on the staff of our Chattanooga Medicine Company before it became Chattem, Inc. He gave them the formulae for both Bufferin and Rolaids!

For all his great achievements in the field of Chemistry he was granted a "Guerry Professorship" at the university. This was supposed to double a worthy professor's salary although he was already refusing his regular salary! Don't ask me how that worked; I only have the story from second-hand sources. But it sounds credible, knowing something of his character.

Dr. Grote was born on Cameron Hill in 1899, four years after my mother was born in St. Elmo. He went to the University of Chattanooga 1918-1922, receiving his bachelor's degree. He got his master's degree from Columbia. His Ph.D. was from the University of Cincinnati. When he died suddenly in his sleep in 1972 the new science building on the University campus was named in his honor. He resided on Missionary Ridge and kept an extensive wine cellar with samplings of exotic wines and liqueurs from all over the world.

I have been told that his daughter followed him in the field of Chemistry to become Head of Procter and Gamble's Chemistry Research department.

Our university has been blessed with a number of such truly excellent professors.

(Chester Martin is a native Chattanoogan who is a talented painter as well as local historian. He and his wife, Pat, live in Brainerd. Mr. Martin can be reached at cymppm@comcast.net )
The British Airways was moved to a remote section of the airport

A canine unit has found nothing suspicious during a sweep of a London-to-Newark flight after authorities received an unspecified threat.

The British Airways flight carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members arrived on Thursday afternoon at Newark Liberty International Airport in the US.

A Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police spokesman said the crew is off the plane and passengers' bags are being rescreened.

The plane was moved to a remote area of the airport after it landed.
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By Tim Smith, tcsmith@greenvillenews.com

COLUMBIA  A road-funding bill that changes the way highway commissioners are chosen is on its way to Gov. Nikki Haley's desk after the South Carolina House concurred Wednesday with changes made by the state Senate with just hours left in this year's legislative session.

The 109-2 vote came the day after House Speaker Jay Lucas took to the floor to vent over the lack of Senate action on the bill and the governor's silence on the issue. He urged Haley to immediately sign the bill.

"Today is truly a great day for the people of South Carolina because we finally have a roads bill," Lucas said afterward. "For the sake of our citizens' safety and our economy's sustainability, I ask Gov. Haley to sign this bill into law as soon as it arrives on her desk. The people of South Carolina should not have to wait any longer for their dangerous roads and bridges to be repaired."

The Senate voted 31-10 late Tuesday night to approve a new version of the bill, after hours of talks that included Senate Democrats and Republicans and House leaders.

"This, at the end of the day gives us reform, it gives us funding, it gives us clarity and it sets about the process of making sure South Carolina roadways will not be the laughingstock, the embarrassment and the unfortunate blowout of tires in the state of South Carolina," said Rep. Gary Simrill, a Rock Hill Republican who has spearheaded road funding and reform at the Department of Transportation for the past two years.

The bill provides $216 million in recurring funding to enable the issuance of bonds totaling $2.3 billion through 10 years. That money, in turn, will free up other funds at DOT to provide a total of $4.3 billion for work on the state's interstates, roads and bridges.

Simrill said the funding will enable the replacement of 399 structurally deficient bridges in the state.

"You never really recognize just how important a bridge is until it isn't there one day," he said.

Lawmakers have cautioned that the bill, while providing much-needed funding for the state's crumbling infrastructure, is not designed as a permanent funding fix. That debate could resume next year.

But the bill is expected to allow for the completion of several major interstate projects, including some on I-85 in the Upstate and the mammoth "Malfunction Junction" intersection of I-26 and I-20 in Columbia that has befuddled motorists for years.

The bill would allow the governor to nominate all highway commissioners, most of whom would then have to be approved by the legislative delegation in the congressional district from which the commissioner would be nominated. After that, the commissioner would go before a joint screening committee and then be subject to consent by the full Senate. One of the eight commissioners would remain at large, as is the case now, and would not go before any legislative delegation.

Commissioners are currently elected by legislative delegations, except for the at-large commissioner, who is appointed by the governor.

Each of the commissioners would serve at the will of the governor, though any firing would be subject to the legislative delegation's approval. The state's transportation secretary, who heads DOT, would be selected by the commissioners. The governor currently selects the secretary.

The House had proposed the commissioners all be appointed by the governor with the consent of the General Assembly.

Simrill fielded a bevy of questions about the process, with some complaining about it. But Simrill said his goal from the start was to find consensus on the bill and this system has a consensus in the Senate.

"What I want to do is get something done," he said.

Ted Pitts, president and CEO of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, applauded lawmakers for passing a bill.

"From day one, the chamber has called on our state's leaders to make roads a top priority and today we are pleased to see that the General Assembly has passed an infrastructure bill that moves our state forward," he said. "S.1258 is a big step in the right direction toward fixing our state's roads and bridges by providing dedicated revenue streams, reforming DOT, improving the STIB process, and allocating resources to begin to bring South Carolina's roads out of the disrepair that has hindered commerce and jeopardized the safety of our citizens for too long."

The bill also would require all State Transportation Infrastructure Bank projects be submitted to the state Department of Transportation Commission for approval and that the threshold for such projects be lowered from $100 million to $25 million.
The Hip Abduction recently played Shaky Knees Fest 2016 in Atlanta. The six-piece band that formed in St. Petersburg, Fla. exhibits an eclectic array of the musical spectrum. Incorporating bits of dub music, reggae, West African influence, and jam music, the band makes for an excellent live show. Their new album, Gold Under The Glow, was just released in March and can be found here. After playing the Buford Highway Stage, the band sat down with Chattanoogan.com for a quick Q & A.

Chattanoogan: How has your time been at Shaky Knees so far?



The Hip Abduction: Well, we just got here. This is the last day of the tour, but first, were going to watch Huey Lewis and the News, Foals, then drink some beer, go backstage a little bit. We tour a lot so we dont get to see a lot of music. Its nice to be at a festival so you can see other bands.



Chattanoogan: Lets talk about your album, Gold Under the Glow, that was released in March. How has the reception been?



The Hip Abduction: Good, actually really good. Our last two albums were a little more in the world, island, and reggae direction. This one opened up a little more broader, got more of the electronics involved, listened to a lot of indie pop and synth pop and I think because of that a lot of the indie magazines and blogs have been picking it up, as opposed to just reggae. Also, the jam scene has been picking us up; like Sirius XM has been playing a couple tracks, so its been really good for us. Its opened up a lot of doors.



Chattanoogan: How has the music progressed since your first album, to this latest release?



The Hip Abduction: Oh man, I think the songwriting has changed. I think our influences have changed. You are what you eat. I think weve just listened. Some bands have a formula and stick with it and thats great to have the same type of music for like three or four albums in a row, but we arent influenced to write unless were listening to new music and new influences. So I think its just weve headed a little more electronic and have more synth involved.



Something thats been really fun to watch happen is whenever we play live, well play a couple songs from One Less Sound, three or four songs from the self-titled, and then the new album and they all blend well together live. But if you listen to them individually they all have a different sound, but live it goes all together and just takes you to that special place so its really cool.

Chattanoogan: On the festival scene, versus the club circuit, what are some special challenges and opportunities for the band?



The Hip Abduction: Well setup time is different; you dont get to dial in your lights and your sound as much. You dont have as much time to get set up and that can be a challenge. Every now and again, well get booked and well drive from a certain city then well go southeast for two hours, then the next day were backtracking to go there, so the logistics. We didnt really sleep last night, so thats just with touring. The biggest bonus of festivals though, is that people that have never heard of you get to see you and dont have to make that commitment to go to a show. They can just stand on the sidelines and fall in love with you, and theyve never heard of you. Same with us today, were going to go see a bunch of bands weve never seen and thats the biggest draw of a festival, picking up all walks of life that are getting to see your music for the first time, so thats my favorite part. And we got some great weather today, too.



Chattanoogan: So where did your band name come from?



The Hip Abduction: You know, I think it was a subconscious thing maybe from a late-night infomercial, or maybe it was Anatomy 101. But I just remember before I even played music really, just thinking, man thatd be a cool band name. Then as we startedit was just The Hip Abduction. Its kind of like Shaky Knees, moving the legs. Shaky Knees and Hip Abduction go really well together. But yeah, it was just one of those things.



Chattanoogan: What are some main inspirations for the band?



The Hip Abduction: Well, we have saxophone and percussion, so theres a little more of the soul and the blues, jazz, just raw emotion with a wind instrument being brought to the table. And then, Chris Powers has got the reggae. Matt, our drummer, is a madman and can play everything. He can accompany any situation and has trained with some world class musicians.



Chattanoogan: Whats next for 2016?



The Hip Abduction: Were taking like a month off, then July were gone, were hitting Colorado for the first time so were gone for a month. So, Colorado, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Purple Hatters Ball, and yeah, were doing it.
The city of Warwick approved a controversial ordinance Monday night clearing the way for the use of license plate readers in the city. The move comes a year after the city of Cranston made a similar move and is touted by officials as a way to improve safety by alerting police officers if a certain license plate is detected. Critics of the ordinance, including the Rhode Island chapter of the ACLU, expressed concern over the use of such cameras, expressing concerns over privacy, how data would be used and who they might target. Do you support the use of license plate recognition cameras in your community? Why or why not? Let us know in this week's poll question below.

You voted:
The Transitional Year Residency Program at the UT College of Medicine Chattanooga will host the 11th annual Press Out Domestic Violence bench press competition in the Erlanger Medical Mall Thursday from 5-7 p.m.

All proceeds will benefit children of domestic violence at the new Childrens Hospital.

Workout Anytime, a sponsor of Press Out Domestic Violence, will officiate the competition.










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Off late, Indian real estate sector has been going through a thorough revamp phase on the policy reforms front and mega announcements with respect to infra upgradation in the country. All this has been a recent addition for the realty sector that plans to revolutionise it. Housing for All has been a jargon for almost two years now and the public has been looking up to the government and the private sector to offer a roof over everyone. At present, people reside in two ways, one in their own abodes or second, in a property bought by others for which some amount is to be paid each month; in simple words, rented accommodation. Now, price factor is the only concern in India where public and private sectors need to cooperate and come out with a solution, i.e. low cost housing. Affordable housing will definitely address to this need but at the same time, if the cost of EMIs can beat the rent per month, then why wont people go into buying homes rather than staying on rent?? So, is rental housing nearing its doom days in India??

India has a housing shortage by almost 2 crore units where more than 90 percent accounts to economically weaker sections and low income groups. At the same time, major realty regions across India are witnessing over supply of units by almost 7,50,000 throughout NCR, MMR, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and few others. Thus, Indian realty market is in dire need of low cost housing and the moment private sector and government come out with such assignments, there will be a major supply of affordable units across the nation and the demand will be well met. This in turn can take rental housing demand for a ride as people will then have a property that they might be able to afford and there is nothing better than having a home of own, explains Rupesh Gupta, Director, JM Housing.

Rental real estate market has served as a backbone for the Indian realty sector for decades and it has significantly contributed towards the growth of the realty sector. But as the affordable housing segment grows, rental housing aspect will be on the loosing end. Commercial rental realty market is still in its growth phase as commercial real estate is still catching pace in India. But rental housing segment now falls in danger as people will be able to buy a property and not required to rent one. Even in the budget speech this year, major incentives were offered for affordable housing and rental housing. As the demand for affordable housing gains momentum, there will be an inverse relation visible for the rental housing as there will be no takers for the rental accommodation once people have properties of their own. In either cases though, real estate sector will be the winner, avers Ankit Aggarwal, CMD, Devika Group. Adding further and speaking about the flipside in sync, Vikas Bhasin, MD, Saya Group elucidates, There is still a lot of time for affordable housing shortage to be met and till that time, rental housing is the key to maintain the demand in the economy. It is true that affordable housing when reached to all might be a dampener for rental housing segment and take off the investors from the market, but till that time, rental housing will be the only viable option available to address the low cost housing needs.

The government is also working diligently to cater to the housing needs of the public and therefore, the Union Budget 2016-17 had a bouquet of incentives in offer for affordable housing and rental housing. For the the first time homebuyers, government has offered an additional deduction of Rs. 50,000 per annum for loans extending upto Rs. 35 lakhs sanctioned in 2016-17, where the cost of the house does not exceed Rs. 50 lakhs. On the other hand, HRA deduction has been raised by Rs. 36,000 under Section 80GG, thus promoting rental housing as well. The real estate scenario in our country will very soon land in fix, where affordable housing will be in trend and there will be no tenants that might reduce the investors and second time homebuyers base. Once everyone has a roof of their own, then why will somebody desire to put up in a rented property? When affordable properties will be in abundance, there will be a direct battle between EMIs and monthly rents, whichever costs less will attract the resident there. There might then come a time when commercial real estate will witness a boom in demand and see better days as future of housing will get completely secured, states Deepak Kapoor, President CREDAI-Western U.P. & Director, Gulshan Homz.

In fact, from the developers perspective, the Budget speech has been much more favourable if we speak about affordable housing construction. Developers building affordable housing projects will not attract any taxes on the profits earned. By offering various benefits to the developers considering affordable housing, the government has proved its focus area and this in turn can help promote housing demand in near future. Even the new entrants have a lot to cheer about plus, this will also make several entrepreneurs plan a business in real estate. Few years down the line, we are predicting a boom in housing but, a gradual decline in rental housing market, enlightens Rahul Chamola, MD, One Leaf Group.

Speaking about how affordable housing is the next door for Indian real estates revolution and a spike for the demand of rental housing, Ashok Gupta, CMD of Ajnara India Ltd. concludes, Since the emergence of the new government, there have been lot many expectations, where real estate sector has been no expectation. The demands of the fraternity and its buyers has been heard off many times as well, and this is where affordable housing has been the highest gainer of them all. Even though the government is jointly promoting affordable housing and rental housing in order to boost the overall demand for housing, and as affordable housing gets in the groove, rental housing might be on the loosing end. The good news will always be that everybody can own a abode of their on own.
Tata Motors continued to witness strong year-on-year growth in certain key segments, with the companys M&HCV and LCV sales, in domestic market, growing by 23% and 6% respectively.



The company is planning to sell a significant stake to financial investors to infuse capital into the business, according to reports.

Tata Motors Ltd ended at Rs. 453.2, up by Rs. 4 or 0.89% from its previous closing of Rs. 449.2 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 445 and touched a high and low of Rs. 460.3 and Rs. 443.95 respectively. A total of 14779718(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 145405.12 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 2 touched a 52 week high of Rs. 478.2 on 02-Jun-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 266 on 11-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 463.9 and Rs. 395.95 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 33.01 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 41.3 % and 25.69 % respectively.

The stock traded above its 50 DMA.
If we were to go by Met reports, drought-hit regions such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh are likely to receive high rainfall in the next three to five days. This is a much needed respite for these states as their grapple with the heat wave continues; parched fields and dried-up wells are something that have characterized India over the past two years. Certain regions of India have experienced serious water scarcity problems and continue to struggle with water shortage. The farm sector of the country, which contributes close to 15% of the GDP, bore the brunt of El Nino and is in tatters. Unfortunately, farmer suicides have become a norm of sorts in recent times. Given this backdrop, expectations of La Nina playing out during this years monsoon have soared.As they say, albeit cliched, this too shall pass; with India clocking its best GDP numbers after five years, an above-normal monsoon could not have chosen a more opportune moment to mark its onset. Monsoon is likely to touch parts of Bay of Bengal in the next two to three days, as per IMD. However, the government is erring on the side of caution and is not sticking its neck out yet.Skymet weather had earlier predicted that the southwest monsoon will reach Andaman and Nicobar Islands on or around mid-May. Kerala will get its first rains by May 28th or so. Based on the prevailing climatic condition, Skymet envisages monsoon 2016 to mark its entry with a bang. Further, Northeast India will get rains around the same time. Kolkata is likely to get the first rains after first week of June. Mumbai, the maximum city, which is struggling because of water scarcity, will see rain drops trickle down on or around June 12. Monsoon will have covered the entire country by mid July, the agency concurred.
Bank of Maharashtra has informed BSE that the bank has decided to raise capital through FPO/Rights issue/QIP etc., upto Rs.1,000 crore, subject to the necessary approvals.Bank of Maharashtra is currently trading at Rs. 28.8, up by Rs. 0.95 or 3.41% from its previous closing of Rs. 27.85 on the BSE.The scrip opened at Rs. 27.9 and has touched a high and low of Rs. 28.95 and Rs. 27.7 respectively. So far 28747(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 3253.81 crore.The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 has touched a 52 week high of Rs. 42 on 21-Jul-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 26.75 on 12-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 29.9 and Rs. 27.5 respectively.The promoters holding in the company stood at 81.61 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 13.4 % and 4.99 % respectively.
Punj Lloyd cracked 4.4% to Rs.19.35 after a UK court asked the infrastructure company to pay $26 million to International Finance Corporation (IFC) "towards their claims".Coal India soared 3.3% to Rs.307. The company has achieved a production of 42.58 million tonnes in May, lower than the target of 44.64 million tonnes (MT) for the month. During the months of April and May, the miner produced 82.93 MT of coal against the target of 89.12 MT.NMDC trading down 0.29% to Rs.86.35. The lump ore price has been fixed at Rs.1,800 WMT, while price of fines has been fixed at Rs.1,460 WMT.Kajaria Ceramics gained 2.9% to Rs.1140 after the company said that its board of directors will meet on 16 June 2016 to consider stock split. The company proposes to split face value of each share from Rs 2 to Re 1.Zee Learn zoomed 3% to Rs.29.80 after the Board of Directors at its meeting held on June 1 have decided to keep on hold the Scheme of Amalgamation of Tree House Education and Accessories Ltd.Reliance Communications Ltd stock was up by 3% at Rs. 50. Report says that the company will shut down its CDMA services in all of its telecom circles except in 4 circles of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.Jyothy Laboratories jumped 5.8% to Rs.296 after the media report, Henkel has an option to buy up to 26% stake in the company.Titan Company gained 1% to Rs.362 on BSE. The company has retained its 15% revenue growth forecast in the segment despite a dip in the previous fiscal.VST Tillers Tractors dropped 1% to Rs.1835. The company has sold 1,933 tractors for quarter ended March 31, 2016 as compared to 1,607 tractors sold during the same quarter last year.Bajaj Auto reported its numbers for May sales, with total sales at 3.47 lakh units as against 3.45 lakh units (YoY). Exports were down 10% at 1.43 lakh units as against 1.58 lakh units (YoY). Motorcycle sales at 5.99 lakh units vs 5.87 lakh units, up by 2%. The stock is trading down 1% to Rs.2581.Lovable Lingerie climbed 8.6% to Rs.274 on BSE. The company experienced a spurt in volumes by more than 21.73 times.Bank of Maharashtra has informed BSE that the bank has decided to raise capital through FPO/Rights issue/QIP etc., upto Rs.1,000 crore, subject to the necessary approvals. The stock is trading 3.2% higher at Rs.28.75 on BSE.
Tata Steel

has completed sale of its European long steel business, including the giant Scunthorpe plant, to Greybull Capital LLP. (BL)

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

launched an offer on the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise up to USD200mn (over



13.40bn) through issue of securities. (BL)

Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation

(GSPC) is eyeing the Krishna Godavari (KG) basin majority stake sale to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for its revival and future expansion. (BS)

Colgate

is fending off Patanjali, by taking the fight to its doorstep. (BS)

IDFC Bank

s

Bharat Banking

division is eyeing government business such as disbursal of subsidy and scholarships in a big way. (BS)

Aurobindo Pharma

with the highest number of USFDA product approvals, proposes to focus on increased Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) filings and new differentiated product launches to maintain its growth. (ET)

PVR

has closed a deal to acquire DLF's cinema exhibition business, branded DT Cinemas, with fewer screens than originally planned. (ET)

Dr Reddys Laboratories'

US subsidiary, Promius Pharma, has launched Sernivo (betamethasone dipropionate) Spray in the US. (BL)

Zydus Cadila (Cadila Healthcare Lltd)

has received final approval from the USFDA to market Amantadine Hydrochloride capsules USP, 100 mg. (BL)

BHEL

has commissioned another 520MW coal-based power generating unit in Andhra Pradesh. (BL)

Strides Shasun

has received tentative approval from the US health regulator for Roflumilast tablets, used for the treatment of inflammatory conditions of the lungs. (BL)

Tata Communications

has expanded its IZO cloud enablement platform with the launch of IZO Cloud Storage, a scalable storage service portfolio. (ET)

South Indian Bank

said it proposes to raise up to Rs5bn from

bonds

to fund business expansion. (BS)

Zee Learn

informed the exchanges that it has decided to put on hold the proposed

merger of

Tree House Education

&

Accessories

with itself. (BS)

Petrol price was today hiked by Rs2.58/l and diesel by Rs2.26/l, the second increase in rates this month.

The country's per capital income increased 7.4% to Rs93,293 in 2015-16 from Rs86,879 in the previous financial year. (BS)

Nikkei India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) grew only marginally to 50.7 in May and was one of the lowest readings since the end of 2013. (BL)

The government notified the charges for sale of non-auctioned captive mines, a move that will not only boost mergers and acquisitions in the space but will also unlock billions of dollars worth of assets.

The Cabinet approved the proposal of India Post's for a payments bank. (BL)

The GDP growth acceleration of India amid global growth slowdown has received an additional boost with the OECD Global Economic Outlook stating that India's growth rate is expected at ~7.5% this year. Global economy is set to grow at a mere 3% in 2016 while Indias solid growth is set to continue for the next year too. The Paris-based organisation cautioned about NPAs in the banking sector rising in several countries, including India and termed it as a moral hazard. Global attention will be on the what the European Central Bank president Draghi will do even though there is very little fresh monetary stimulus to offer. Reports state Saudi Arabia could do a surprise deal with OPEC members as they meet in Vienna today.The outlook is a flat start for the Indian indices. The rupee could trade slightly weak. Asian markets are trading mixed. Japan's Nikkei 225 has dropped 2.3%. US indices closed flat. Oil prices were steady on Thursday on mixed market signals ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna.Attention will be on the water level in major reservoirs. IMD data on rainfall is also awaited. NHPC is expected to announce the company's progress and plans at a meet in Mumbai later today. The rupee could trade slightly weak.State-run oil marketers hiked prices of non-subsidised cooking gas and aviation turbine fuel (ATF).The price of non-subsidised cooking gas was increased by Rs.21 per 14.2-kg cylinder. The price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), or jet fuel, was also increased by 9.2%.The ATF price in Delhi has been increased by Rs 3,945.47 per kilolitre, or 9.2 per cent, to Rs 46,729.48 per kl.State Bank of Mysore has announced regarding the MCLR (Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate) rates for various maturity buckets w.e.f. June 01, 2016.The company has received a "Notice of Conversion" from DBS Bank (one of the Joint Lenders) for conversion of part of outstanding debt into equity shares under the Strategic Debt Restructuring Package of the Company. Pursuant to this notice, DBS Bank has decided to convert part of its outstanding debt and interest aggregating to Rs. 4.90 crores into 4,124,496 equity shares of the Company of face value of Rs. 2/- each at a price of Rs. 11.89 per equity share. Post this conversion the total shareholding of the CDR Lenders and DBS Bank will be 63.07% of the total equity capital of the Company.The company and its subsidiary, Punj Lloyd Upstream Limited have been ordered to pay by the High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division, Commercial Court, UK sum of USD 26,173,659.16 (plus summary assessment costs amounting to GBP 75000), to International Finance Corporation, towards their claims.: Tata Motors continued to witness strong year-on-year growth in certain key segments, with the companys M&HCV and LCV sales, in domestic market, growing by 23% and 6% respectively.Century Plyboards (India) has informed the Exchange that the company subsidiary Innovation Pacific Singapore Pte. Ltd. in Singapore has incorporated a step-down Subsidiary by the name Vietnam Innovation Pacific JSC in Vietnam. The said Subsidiary has been incorporated with the object of investing in and undertaking Real Estate activities, leasing of office/ warehouse/ factory spaces, trading/ processing of sawn timber, veneer, plywood and other wood products and providing related services.: Axis Bank has informed the Exchange that the Bank has on June 01, 2016, allotted Senior Fixed Rate Green Bonds aggregating to USD 500 million under the MTN Programme through its Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) branch.Government formed inter-ministerial group to discuss Coal India share buyback, says report. The company achieved a production of 42.58 million tonnes in May, lower than the target of 44.64 MT for the month.(ET)(ET)
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL) and GIFT SEZ Limited (GIFT SEZ) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). Under the MOA, GIFTCL, GIFT SEZ and SIAC will collaborate to promote the use of arbitration, mediation, and other dispute resolution mechanisms, including the innovative Arb-Med-Arb service offered by the SIAC and the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC), to resolve international commercial disputes in India's International Financial Services Centre in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (IFSC-GIFT).Under the MOA, SIAC will establish a representative office in the IFSC-GIFT, which will be instrumental in promoting SIACs world-class international arbitration services to Indian users. Indian parties have consistently ranked amongst the top five foreign users of SIAC in the last five years, and was the top foreign user of SIAC in 2013 and 2015.Ajay Pandey, Managing Director and Group CEO of GIFTCL stated We are delighted to have SIAC set up a representative office in the GIFT IFSC. Any successful IFSC requires an efficient dispute resolution mechanism, and in this regard, SIAC is the choice partner for IFSC-GIFT: Singapore is a reputable seat of arbitration; SIAC, and the SIAC Rules, are already widely used by Indian companies, as well as international companies investing in India, to resolve their disputes. Through this collaboration, the Indian and international businesses in the IFSC-GIFT will be able to choose SIAC as their preferred mode of dispute resolution.Ms Lim Seok Hui, CEO of SIAC and SIMC commented that India has always been an important market for SIAC and this MOA reflects our continuous commitment to maintain and strengthen our relationship with our Indian users. Our partnership with GIFTCL and GIFT SEZ opens new doors for SIAC to promote its services to businesses and investors within the IFSC-GIFT. SIACs case management services offer the international investors and businesses from different legal systems and cultures the benefits of certainty and flexibility. SIACs Rules are user-friendly, efficient and cost-effective. By establishing our representative office in the IFSC-GIFT, we aim to contribute to GIFT City's economic development.
While the need for a complete overhaul of the Indian judicial machinery has long been emphasized, paying heed towards this pressing issue has become more crucial than ever. Delay in justice, given 10 per cent of pending cases lingering for over 10 years, has emphatically become the sore point of the judicial system of India.The increasing number of pending cases that currently stand at a massive 3 crore, including 2 crore criminal and 1 crore civil, is appalling. Considering the current rate of disposal, it would take an interminable 30 years to clear the same. Additionally, the civil cases awaiting justice, might never see the light of the day.Ironically, this elongates the jail time, and 63 per cent of people in Indian jails are awaiting trial.A significant factor contributing to the delay in justice is paucity of judges in the country.The Supreme Court consisted of 8 judges in 1950, 26 in 1986 and 31 in 2009, as per Inshorts and OfficeChai.The fact that 19 per cent of posts for judges in the supreme court, 44 per cent and 23 per cent in High Court and subordinate courts respectively, are lying vacant, should be enough to grab the governments attention.Should Indias judicial system be compensated with 5000 additional judges which are currently missing, the democratic country would be better equipped to deliver effectually.
Kwality Ltd, one of the largest and fastest growing Indian dairy company, has successfully come out of a branding-related legal dispute after Graviss holding Pvt Limited, who had filed the legal suit, withdrew the case on 31st May, 2016. The case was pending before the honourable Delhi High Court for a short span of time.

Commenting on the development, Mr Nawal Sharma, President & Head Business Transformation, Kwality Ltd, said, We have successfully come out of the legal suit with Graviss withdrawing the case on 31st May, 2016. It is a very positive development in line with our expectations and it is business as usual for us.

Kwality Ltd is making a strategic business shift from B2B to B2C category with plans to roll out various high margin value-added dairy products. The company has roped in Bollywood Actor, Akshay Kumar, as its brand ambassador to boost its presence in the retail segment. The company has also engaged Ernst and Young as its IT transformation partner to facilitate transition from a B2B to a B2C company. The company has plans to invest close to Rs 500 crore to expand production capacities and direct milk procurement from farmers in order to increase the share of retail sales to 70% from a current ~30% of its turnover over a period of time.
NHPC Limited, Indias premier hydropower company and a Mini Ratna Category-I Enterprise of the Government of India has achieved significant targets and milestones for the Financial Year 2015-16. The NHPC Board approved the FY 15-16 Audited Financial Result in their meeting held on May 28, 2016. NHPC has reported a 15% growth in the standalone net profit at Rs 2440 crore in the FY 2015-16 compared to Rs 2124 crore for the corresponding period in the last fiscal year. Sales for the FY 2015-16 also rose by 9% to Rs 7347 crore compared to Rs 6737 crore for the corresponding period in the last fiscal year.

The total cumulative power generation of all NHPC power stations for FY 2015-16 has been 23683 MU against the Excellent Target of 22000 MU. This is the highest ever generation by NHPC. NHPC has also achieved 81.6% actual Plant Availability Factor (PAF) against Excellent MOU PAF target of 76.8%.

NHPC has crossed 5000 MW capacity at standalone and currently has 6587 MW on consolidated basis with a total of 20 operating power stations and 2 units of TLDP-IV Project. 18 power stations are operated by NHPC while 2 are operated by NHDC a subsidiary company. Apart from this, the company has a total of 5 projects under construction with 4 hydro- power projects with total installed capacity 3290 MW which includes Teesta Low Dam Stage-IV (160 MW), Kishanganga (330 MW), Parbati-II (800 MW) & Subansiri Lower (2000 MW) and a wind project (50 MW) in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan which is nearing completion.

OTHER MAJOR PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS DURING FY 2015-16

Highest ever yearly realization of dues of Rs 7933 crore has also been achieved in FY 2015-16. This is 34.83% higher in comparison to last year realization of Rs 5883.32 crore.

Board of Directors has recommended final dividend of Rs 1.50 per equity share for the year 2015-16 including interim dividend of Rs 0.92 per equity share declared in February 2016.

Paid an interim dividend of Rs 875.49 crore to Govt. of India for the financial year 2015-16. A total interim dividend of Rs 1018.50 crore has been paid for the year 2015-16 as against total dividend of Rs 664.25 crore for the financial year 2014-15 including interim dividend of Rs.221 crore.

Govt. of India successfully raised more than Rs 2700 crore by divesting 11.36% of its stake in NHPC by making an offer for sale through Stock Exchange Mechanism.

T Series Bond issue amounting to Rs 1474.92 crores was placed through private placements basis at a coupon rate of 8.50%. The issue was fully subscribed.

Unit 1 & 2 of 160 MW TLDP-IV Project in West Bengal has been put under commercial operation.

2880 MW Dibang Multipurpose Project, Arunachal Pradesh was accorded Forest Clearance (Stage-I) and Environmental Clearance by Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Govt. of India in April 2015.

120 MW Goriganga-IIIA, Uttarakhand was accorded Clearance for Preconstruction Activities and Approval to TOR for EIA/ EMP studies by MoEF & CC in January 2016.

Successfully handed over the Rothak-Sagbari 11 KV transmission line under CSR-SD Scheme of Corporation, to Energy & Power Department of Govt. of Sikkim in July 2015.

Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in respect of Tawang HE Project Stage - I & II, Arunachal Pradesh has been signed between NHPC and Govt. of Nagaland in August 2015. This is the first PPA signed in respect of both the projects.

Established a Real Time Seismic Data Centre at its Corporate Office Complex at Faridabad. NHPC is the only hydropower utility in the country to have such data centre. Through this state-of-art data centre, NHPC has now connected its 18 power stations for receiving the earthquake data on real time basis, at its Corporate Office, Faridabad.

A MoU was signed by Govt. of West Bengal, West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (WBSEDCL) and NHPC in July 2015 for development of four hydro projects (Teesta Low Dam-V, Teesta Low Dam I & II combined, Teesta Intermediate Stage and Rammam Stage-I ) with a total capacity of 293 MW. The projects shall be developed by NHPC on Build, Own, Operate and Maintain (BOOM) basis.

Signed an MoU with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) for development of 250 MW Grid Connected Solar Power Projects.

Signed an agreement with Teesta Urja Limited (TUL) for providing consultancy services for Project Construction Management for 1200 MW Teesta Stage-III H.E. Project.

Completed and commissioned 51 Kms length of 66 KV transmission line between Himya and Kharu substations in Leh district, Jammu & Kashmir.

NHPC has taken up several CSR & SD activities with a total expenditure of Rs 7267.55 Lakh. The activities taken up were in the areas of Education, Health Care, Rural Development, Environment & Sustainability, Women Empowerment/Senior Citizen, Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan, CSR Capacity Building, Sports, Art & Culture etc.

As part of Ministry of Powers comprehensive reward scheme for recognizing meritorious performance in Power sector, NHPC was awarded Gold Shield on 03.06.2015 for the year 2013-14 in the category of Early Completion of Hydro Power Projects for Unit-3 of Nimoo Bazgo H.E. Project.

In recognition to the commendable work towards the Govt. of Indias flagship programme Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by NHPC, 40 officers from NHPC were felicitated by Honble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy. NHPC successfully constructed a total of 7142 toilets under Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan in a span of one year.

Awarded First Prize by Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India under new Rajbhasha Kirti Puraskar scheme for outstanding work in implementation of Rajbhasha for the year 2014-15 amongst public sector undertakings located in Region A. The award was presented by Honble President of India on 14.09.2015.

Adjudged Best Performing Utility in Hydro Power Sector at the CBIP Award held at New Delhi on 29.12.2015.

Forum of Women in Public Sector (WIPS) conferred NHPC with Special Jury Award for Best Enterprise under Mini Ratna Category in recognition of the commendable work and employee friendly policies of the Company.

Won the Most Eco Friendly Award and Most Valuable Company Award in the Mini Ratna Category at the second India Today Group PSU Awards held on 14.12.2015.

Winner at Dun & Bradstreet-Everest Infra Awards 2015 in the Power Generation (Renewable Energy) category.

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Tata Motors:Tata Motors continued to witness strong year-on-year growth in certain key segments, with the companys M&HCV and LCV sales, in domestic market, growing by 23% and 6% respectively.



Amtek Auto: The company is planning to sell a significant stake to financial investors to infuse capital into the business, according to reports.



Bajaj Auto: The company reported its numbers for May sales, with total sales at 3.47 lakh units as against 3.45 lakh units (YoY).



Punjab National Bank: Punjab National Bank declared its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) for one year at 9.40 per cent.



Sanghvi Forging & Engineering Ltd: The company has bagged order worth Rs. 14 crores.



Tree House: Zee Learn informed the exchanges that it has decided to put on hold the proposed merger of Tree House Education & Accessories with itself.



TVS Motor: TVS Motor Company posted a sales growth of 11% during the month of May 2016, with total sales increasing from 220,079 units recorded in the month of May 2015 to 243,783 units inthe month of May 2016.



Dr Reddys Laboratories: Dr Reddys Lab US subsidiary, Promius Pharma, has launched Sernivo (betamethasone dipropionate) Spray in the US.



BHEL: The company has commissioned another 520MW coal-based power generating unit in Andhra Pradesh.



Strides Shasun: The pharma company has received tentative approval from the US health regulator for Roflumilast tablets, used for the treatment of inflammatory conditions of the lungs.



South Indian Bank: The bank said it proposes to raise up to Rs.5 billion from bonds to fund business expansion.



Century Plyboards (India) Limited: Century Plyboards (India) has informed the Exchange that the Company s Subsidiary Innovation Pacific Singapore Pte. Ltd. in Singapore has incorporated a step-down Subsidiary by the name Vietnam Innovation Pacific JSC in Vietnam. The said Subsidiary has been incorporated with the object of investing in and undertaking Real Estate activities, leasing of office/ warehouse/ factory spaces, trading/ processing of sawn timber, veneer, plywood and other wood products and providing related services.



Axis Bank Limited: Axis Bank has informed the Exchange that the Bank has on June 01, 2016, allotted Senior Fixed Rate Green Bonds aggregating to USD 500,000,000 (USD Five Hundred Million only) under the MTN Programme through its Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) branch. The notes will be listed at the Singapore Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange. The Notes have been priced at 160 basis points over the 5-year US Treasury Note, at a price of 99.479% to yield 2.988%. The Notes will be denominated in US dollars, and will bear fixed interest of 2.875% per annum, with interest payable semi-annually in arrears.



Coal India: Government formed inter-ministerial group to discuss Coal India share buyback, says report.



State Bank of Mysore:State Bank of Mysore has announced regarding the MCLR (Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate) rates for various maturity buckets w.e.f. June 01, 2016.



Gammon India Ltd: Gammon India has informed BSE that the Company has received a "Notice of Conversion" from DBS Bank (one of the Joint Lenders) for conversion of part of outstanding debt into equity shares under the Strategic Debt Restructuring Package of the Company. Pursuant to this notice, DBS Bank has decided to convert part of its outstanding debt and interest aggregating to Rs. 4.90 crores into 4,124,496 equity shares of the Company of face value of Rs. 2/- each at a price of Rs. 11.89 per equity share. Post this conversion the total shareholding of the CDR Lenders and DBS Bank will be 63.07% of the total equity capital of the Company.



Punj Lloyd Ltd: Punj Lloyd has informed BSE that the Company and its subsidiary, M/s. Punj Lloyd Upstream Limited (PLUL) have been ordered to pay by the High Court of Justice, Queens Bench Division, Commercial Court, UK sum of USD 26,173,659.16 (plus summary assessment costs amounting to GBP 75000), to International Finance Corporation, towards their claims.
More than 14,000 young people in Indiana who have been barred from receiving in-state tuition and accessing public financial aid will have a chance at a full-ride, four-year scholarship, thanks to a new opportunity.

TheDream.US Opportunity Scholarship is being offered for the first time this year to up to 500 DREAMers  undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and have grown up here  in 16 states, including Indiana, where they have previously been locked out.

What we consider a locked out state is a state where, because of the policies or legislation in that particular state, DREAMers have had a harder time or more difficulty accessing higher education, said David Velazquez, program officer for TheDream.US. The most common difficulty in those states is that even though theyve been living there for, most of the time, practically their whole lives, theyre still charged out-of-state tuition. And they are banned from accessing any kind of financial aid that comes from tax revenue. Its virtually impossible for these folks to access any type of higher education.

Scholarship recipients will receive up to $80,000 over four years toward tuition, room and board and other fees, while pursuing a bachelors degree at either Eastern Connecticut State University or Delaware State University. Velazquez said Delaware and Connecticut were the two states open to trying out the program.

Those school systems and the governors of those states are basically saying, Were going to open the door to students from places that have shut the door on them. Were going to let them contribute not only to our school system but were also going to allow them to contribute to our community, he said.

Velazquez said he expects once other states see the success of the scholarship program, they will want to join the effort.

This is a completely new initiative, and there are talks with other states and other partner colleges that are interested in opening the doors to these DREAMers from locked out states, he said. Folks are really going to start seeing the benefits of letting these driven and successful DREAMers go to college and the positive impact theyll have in their communities. We expect to see a lot more partner colleges and states thatll be opening their doors.

TheDream.US already offers a different scholarship opportunity that many more states and about 70 colleges participate in, which has allowed more than 900 DREAMers to attend college.

Sadhana Singh, who came to the U.S. from Guyana with her parents and younger brother when she was 13 years old, is one DREAMer who has benefited from the program. Singh is currently majoring in communication with a minor in international affairs at Trinity Washington University, but she says her path to college wasnt as straightforward as it is for many American youth, despite the fact that she graduated from her Georgia high school with honors, ranked 11th in her graduating class and with college ambitions.

For the most part, I always knew my status. I always knew that I was illegal at the time, but I was ashamed of that. I basically just kept it quiet, I didnt really tell my friends. My thing was to blend in. As an immigrant, you dont want to stand out. You dont want to highlight your difference, Singh said. Senior year, I basically just pretended that I was applying to colleges, and I would try to join in the conversation with my friends knowing that that wasnt an option for me.

Without proper documentation, Singh couldnt apply to college, so she instead started working at her friends parents company, where she stayed for nine years. But Singh said she never gave up on her dream of going to college.

To be honest, maybe I was a little bit delusional about it. I kept telling myself, Im only going to be here for a year, or Ill only be here for two years. I kept moving my goal. I was not leaving my job; I did not have any other options for work or college, but I just held onto it, knowing that college was always my end goal.

Singh found out about the scholarship from TheDream.US in 2014, and at first she thought it was too good to be true.

It was a moment of disbelief, but it was also a moment of action, because I knew I had to get into it right away.

By the age of 28, she was finally starting her college career.

Singh said it was difficult to leave her family, but she knows it was something she had to do.

Everything thats going to be worth it is going to be hard, but you cant be afraid of taking risks, she said. You have to take that risk to get to a better place, instead of just being in the same place and wondering what if.

Velazquez said hes excited about the opportunity the new scholarship offers to 500 locked out DREAMers, but he is also looking forward to the day when the scholarship is a thing of the past.

Ultimately, the hope is that this scholarship is eventually no longer necessary. Our hope is that it becomes obsolete at some point and states realize theres a lot of talent and a lot of minds that are being wasted because theyre not allowing these kids to access higher education in their own states. 

These are your neighbors, your coworkers children, these are folks you might have gone to school with. These are folks who could do great things for their communities, if they were just given the chance.

The deadline to apply for TheDream.US Opportunity Scholarship is June 9. For eligibility requirements and other details, visit thedream.us/opportunityscholarship.
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The Housefull film series has often been criticized for being totally mindless comedies that make no sense at all. And now, that the film's third part is about to come out, the makers are being accused of stealing its script! Writer-lyricist Farooq Barelvi has lodged a police complaint against the directors and the producer of film Housefull 3. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Nargis Fakhri, Lisa Hayden and Jacqueline Fernandez in lead roles.The complaint was filed at Versova police station late on Wednesday against the director duo Sajid-Farhad, producer Sajid Nadiadwala and others under the Copyright Act of the Indian Penal Code.

Barelvi claimed that he had registered a script by the name of Tigdambaz with the Associations of Writers in 2009 and had narrated it to actor Akshay Kumar and his make-up man Narendra Kushwala. He claimed that the script was liked by Kushwala who had promised to make a movie involving Akshay.I find that Housefull 3 is based on my literary work and same has been produced by Nadiadwala. Hence, I accused them of stealing my script under the Copyright Act, Barelvi said.

When contacted, a senior police officer attached to the police station said, We have received a written complaint from Barelvi, but no case has been registered yet.Meanwhile, Nadiadwala said, Nothing has come to me so far when his comment was sought on the issue on the sidelines of a film function.
1. Kit Harington says men also face sexism in Hollywood.

There's no denying how gorgeous Kit Harington is. And whenever he sheds that last piece of clothing, Game of Thrones's fans simply forget to breathe. Hence, fans take it as a personal insult when one of the dreamiest men of Hollywood believes that male actors too fall prey to sexism in the film industry. "I like to think of myself as more than a head of hair or a set of looks. Its demeaning. Yes, in some ways you could argue Ive been employed for a look I have. But theres a sexism that happens towards men," he told Sunday Times Magazine.

2. AR Rahman receives Japan's Fukuoka Prize for his outstanding contribution to Asian culture.

bustle

Music maestro AR Rahman has time and again made us proud with his achievements. AR Rahman has been announced as the recipient of Grand Fukuoka Prize 2016 for his outstanding contribution to Asian culture through his music. As part of the ceremony, Rahman has been invited to the city to give a public lecture on From the Heart: The World of A R Rahmans Music.

3. Kunal Nayyar says that The Big Bang Theory will probably not return for a season 11.

thesun

If you're an avid The Bang Theory fan, then you might have some real bad news coming your way! Kunal Nayyar, who plays Rajesh Kuthrapali on the show has said that there might not be a season 11 for the show. He has hinted that upcoming season 10 could be the last for the show. He added that the main cast's contracts will end next year and he has no idea "what's going to happen" next.

4. A complaint has been filed against Housefull 3 makers for stealing the film script!

youtube

Writer-lyricist Farooq Barelvi has lodged a police complaint against the directors and the producer of film Housefull 3. The complaint was filed at Versova police station late on Wednesday against the director duo Sajid-Farhad, producer Sajid Nadiadwala and others under the Copyright Act of the Indian Penal Code. Barelvi claimed that he had registered a script by the name of Tigdambaz with the Associations of Writers in 2009 and had narrated it to actor Akshay Kumar and his make-up man Narendra Kushwala. He claimed that the script was liked by Kushwala who had promised to make a movie involving Akshay.

5. Deepika Padukone has landed back in Mumbai looking like a million bucks!

After wrapping the shooting for her Hollywood debut film xXx, Deepika Padukone is now back in Mumbai, and she looked totally ravishing. Check out her pictures.
Remember Vertu? The pretty-looking (to some) phone, only good for telling the world how rich you are? That's all it was ever good for, and unfortunately for the Vertu, it's not even good enough to do that now. Presenting, a phone that every Ambani will be proud of. A phone every iPhone aspires to be someday. A phone you'd perhaps admire but never buy. A phone only for the wealthy ones who like to keep their lives as private as possible.

t3.com

The world's most expensive smartphone.

Meet the Solarin. A $14,000 (Rs 9.3 lakhs approx.) Android smartphone that makes every other phone feel like a peasant. That's Rs. 9.3 lakhs without taxes in case you were wondering. Made by an Israeli firm, Sirin Labs, this phone beats the Vertu Signature Touch phone by approximately 3 lakhs.

The verge

9. whaaaaa?

The company justifies the astronomical pricing by claiming to provide "military grade" security thanks to a chip-to-chip 2560bit encryption system. The 5.5 inch Android runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor with X10 LTE (it's fast but not the latest) with a 23.8-megapixel back camera. The phone also boasts of an IPS LED 2K screen, three "bass boosted" speakers and can transfer data at lightning speeds of 4.6 GB per second.

imgur

Smartphone for very, very smart people.

During its launch in London, the makers, to the amusement of those attending the event, claimed, "Our customers are very, very smart people". Which is a bit of an oxymoron considering the price? They believe their core customers are "international business travellers, entrepreneurs, and partners in financial firms." In other words, this is apparently the perfect phone for those who need their data secure at all times. Partnering with security firms Koolspan and Zimperium, you can be rest assured that your phone and the data on it is completely safe and cannot be broken in to. Along with that, the 4,000mAh battery will make sure your phone lasts as long as you want it to. 4GB of RAM makes it fast and 128 GB provides for enough space. However, it is non-expandable and does not have a second SIM slot. To make it all classy, there's a large sapphire glass cover for the camera lens and flash and a fingerprint sensor.

feber.se

Just out of curiosity, just how secure are we talking?

Very. Like super-duper secure. The phone has this little switch at the back which when flipped turns it into Batman's phone in stealth mode. It is claimed to be the world's safest, 'military grade' phone.

engadget.com

So does it make sense?

Most of you won't be asking this pointless question. It's like asking if the Earth is round. But still, if you must need an answer then here it is - HELL NO. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever buying this phone. Why? Well, to begin with, it's ugly. A 4,000 Mah battery means it's pretty thick as well. 810 Snapdragon might be fast but it's not the latest technology, 810 came out last year. It's about 250g so it's not light either. It runs on Android 5.1 which also came out last year and the camera on the phone which apparently is the best in the world takes ages to open.

I'm not done yet.

See that's where the problem lies. It's okay to price your phone at that amount, it's perfectly fine. I mean, I will never buy it and neither will 99% of the world's population, but it's okay. But I do have a problem when you're not providing state-of-the-art technology to back the pricing. It's not even a good looking phone! Sirin Labs might find their customers to be "very, very smart" but spending 9 lakhs on a cell phone isn't a very intelligent move.
Remember when some farmers from Uttarakhand came up with a brilliant use for rapper Honey Singh's songs to drive away wild bores? Well, the idea seems to have inspired another group, the British Special forces to be exact. They are now using Bollywood music as a psychological weapon against the dreaded terrorists. The reason? Bollywood songs annoy Islamist militants.

1. India Is All Set To Produce Its Own Line Of Lithium-Ion Batteries #MakeInIndia

paperblog

In a step towards self-reliance to meet defence requirements and to cut the dependence on imports, especially from China, India is all set to produce its first lithium ion (Li-ion) battery. The Central Electrochemical Research Institute (CECRI), Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu, has set up the first indigenous Li-ion fabrication facility that has applications in defence, solar powered devices, railways and other high end usages. The facility is to start industrial level production in two months.

2. Indian American Invents The World's First 'Smart Tampon' To Detect Womens Diseases Without A Lab

harvard gazette

Indian American entrepreneur Ridhi Tariyal teamed up with Stephen Gire, a scientist to invent the world's first 'smart tampon', simultaneously fighting the cost and awkwardness of testing for women's health issues. These include cervical cancer, endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and uterine fibroids. You need a blood test for these - and it turns out there's enough blood for monthly testing - in a woman's periods. Instead of just just being a women's hygiene product, a tampon could also be a piece of tech to test for 'biomarkers' that indicate disease.

3. One Of The World's Finest Economists, Raghuram Rajan Might Not Agree To A Second RBI Term

forbes

According to news reports, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan's has told the government that once his term ends, he would like to return to the US. Quoting sources close to him, a Bengali daily said he plans to join a US university and pursue research on the Indian economy. "We don't comment on speculation," was the single-line response over phone by Alpana Killawala, principal adviser at the Reserve Bank of India, who also oversees media relations.

4. Court Asks Cops, If They Can Deliver Pizza In Under 30 Mins Why Can't You Reach Crime Scene On Time

fastcompany.net

Like a pizza boy "delivering the stuff faster than the guaranteed half-an-hour", the Delhi Police should reach the crime scene before the current response time of 10 minutes to earn the "faith" of people, the high court today on Wednesday.

"We are concerned over the response time of the police team in reaching the crime spot. They should reach quickly in order to give guarantee to citizens of Delhi that they are safe here. Police will have to earn the faith of the public that they are always there for them in need," a division bench of BD Ahmed and RK Gauba said.

5. Today In #WTF: Mumbai Police Asks Orkut To Block Tanmay Bhat's Video. Orkut Shut Down In 2014

indianexpress

Mumbai police has contacted Google and YouTube asking the companies to block self-professed comedian Tanmay Bhat's latest Snapchat video - not because it's mind-numbingly dull and extremely unfunny, but because many find it offensive. "Firstly, we have written to Google and YouTube administrators to block the controversial video on Orkut and have sought a legal opinion on whether any case can be made out against Tanmay," said Sangramsingh Nishandar, Mumbai police spokesperson.
Country's first railway university proposed to come up in Vadodara will cost at least Rs 865 crore, excluding the land cost. The proposal regarding this is pending with the NITI Aayog.

tripoto.com

Also, if things go as per plans, the university will come up on 31.40 hectare land (around 80 acres) that the government has allocated in Piparia village in Waghodiya taluka.

It was in December 2015 that the railway ministry had declared setting up country's first railway university. Later, union minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha during his visit to the National Academy of Indian Railways (NAIR) had announced that the university will come up in Vadodara.

"The Vadodara district collectorate had shown us land in Padra, Desar and Piparia. Of these, Piparia is best suited for the university campus," said Rajiv Gupta, director general of NAIR.

NAIR, formerly known as the Railway Staff College, presently acts as the apex level training and management development institute for the officers of the Indian Railways.

"The initial cost for setting up the university in two phases is estimated at Rs 865 crore that will be spent over a period of 10 years," he said. As a precursor to the proposed university, a MoU will be soon signed with M S University.

networkrail.com

Gupta said:

"As per the agreement, MBA for railway probationers for Indian Railways Accounts Services, Indian Railways Personnel Services and Indian Railways Stores Services will be offered at M S University. We expect that the MoU will be signed soon and the next batch will start from the forthcoming academic year."

Vadodara will be the headquarter of the university and the six colleges of railways located at Secunderabad, Nashik, Pune, Jamalpur in Bihar and Lucknow will become its constituent schools.
V Koushik was the star of his batch at Chennai's SRM University. He was among the first to bag a placement and finished his engineering course with top marks. A year on, he is still waiting for a joining date from L&T Infotech.

bccl

"When I sat for the interview, I had no clue that such a cruel joke would be played on me. I've been jobless for over a year now despite being the varsity topper," he told TOI.

Like Koushik, scores of engineering graduates in Hyderabad and Chennai have jobs only on paper. Instead of preparing to plunge into work life, they are protesting on the streets, shouting slogans and sitting on hunger strikes.

thenewsminute

Dejection and distress have wiped out the self-assured smiles of placement days as one after another, leading tech companies rescind job offers made months ago.

While L&T Infotech withdrew its offers in 2014, Flipkart dealt a shock to its IIM and IIT hires this year by deferring joining till December . Several startups too followed suit. L&T Infotech has with drawn offers it made to about 1,500 engineering students at the end of 2014.

Shiva Govind siad:





ET





The new-economy shockwave has unnerved fresh hires, many of whom were cherry-picked by startups . Even IIT and IIM graduates are not proof to the vagaries of recruiters this year as some firms have issued "deferred letters of intent" over the past few months, and some have even pushed back joining dates to as late as December 2016. Logistics startup Roadrunnr is one of them.

TOI

Roadrunnr, however, claimed placements have been deferred to September, not December, due to onboarding limitations. "We recruited 45 people from five or six campuses across the country. We have split the onboarding into two batches, one batch of 30 candidates in June, and the other with 15 in September," Roadrunnr founder Mohit Kumar told TOI. He said onboarding takes a month and they have limits to the number of people they can bring on board every month.

Auto portal CarDekho and mobile advertising firm InMobi have delayed the joining dates of their IIM-Bangalore hires citing project timelines.
Sardines, a must on Mangalureans' dining table, now sport Modi's name. For reasons obvious and unfathomable, the sardines imported from Oman are called Modi Bhutai (in Tulu) or Modi sardines only because the fish consignment first lands on the Gujarat coast. They were imported into India in a big way in the year Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister, and hence the prefix.

BCCL

"Thanks to the dwindling fish catch, sardines - called the common man's fish - are imported from Oman to meet the local demand," says a merchant who has been doing this business for 35 years.

When the demand ebbed a few years ago, Omani sardines were imported to India in cargo.

BCCL

"As the demand picked up again, the import mode extended to the sea route. The consignment is first shipped to Gujarat ports -a closer destination to Oman," he says.

The fish merchant who has travelled most parts of the world on business says 20 containers - or about 400 tonnes - of sardines are shipped regularly to India.

Reuters

Hotelier and fisherman Lokesh Ullal says 'Modi Bhutai' is, incidentally, bigger in size.

"You get about 15-20 local sardines per kilogram, while a single Oman sardine weighs about 150-200 grams. The price is much higher: A kilogram of Oman variety costs about Rs 190 against Rs 120 of the local one. Still, people seem to prefer the Oman sardines for sheer taste."

A homemaker who relishes 'Modi Bhutai' says fish size is good and adds: "I'm happy as long as there is a good supply of sardines." The imported fish is sold in coastal areas of Karnataka and Kerala.
According to news reports, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan's has told the government that once his term ends, he would like to return to the US.

Quoting sources close to him, a Bengali daily said he plans to join a US university and pursue research on the Indian economy. "We don't comment on speculation," was the single-line comment over phone to IANS by Alpana Killawala, principal adviser at the Reserve bank of India, who also oversees media relations.

The Reserve Bank governor recently came under a strong attack from BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who demanded that he be sacked.

But Prime Minister Modi had indicated that he would want Rajan to continue, according to a media report.

forbes

'Mentally Not Indian' Who Wants To 'Destroy Our Economy', Raghuram Rajan Shows How To Deal With Naysayers The Right Way

Rajan also found support in union finance minister Arun Jaitley who has reportedly told the Prime Minister that if the governor is sacked, it would send a wrong message around the world. Rajan has also been supported by several industrialists and think tanks around the world who believe that he is one of the finest economists. They have pointed out that Rajan had stuck to the path of reforms ensuring that India moved ahead on a growth trajectory. Modi and Rajan have developed a close working rapport, government officials and people close to the governor say, and that could be crucial to the $2 trillion economy.

Rajan's 3 year term ends in September

pti

That would allow him to try to revive India's banking sector that has been smothered by distressed debt, which, in turn, is choking off economic recovery. Modi recently told The Wall Street Journal that Rajan's reappointment would come up only in September. Rajan, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, has not disclosed his plans. The fact that Rajan was appointed by the previous Congress government did not help him win friends in Modi's BJP, and the former University of Chicago professor has been viewed by some with suspicion as a product of the West, not India.

The first signs of growing bonhomie between Modi and Rajan came early last year, when Modi called Rajan the "best teacher" for explaining complex economic issues to him. Days later, the governor returned the compliment, saying the teaching went both ways. The prime minister backed Rajan in the monetary policy panel's composition and blocking moves to strip the RBI's authority to regulate government bonds and manage public debt.

RBI Governor Hits Out At Mallya's Lavish Lifestyle, Despite Owing Indian Banks 7000+ Crores!
Mashal Maheshwari, a 19-year-old Pakistan . Hindu who migrated to India in 2014, was in the news recently for not being allowed to appear take the All India Pre Medical Test despite scoring 91 percent in the Class XII examinations. "There are only two nationality options on the application form: Indian, and Overseas Citizen of India/Non-Resident Indian", Mashal said. She belongs to neither category, as she and her family are here on a long-term visa since they fled religious persecution in Pakistan.

bccl

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has come to Mashal's aid since hearing about her case, but Mashal isn't the only Pakistani Hindu expatriate who's having trouble due to her shaky status in India. Over the years, scores of Hindus have fled Pakistan to seek refuge and citizenship in secular, democratic India. The BJP-led government is set to propose an amendment to the Citizenship Act 1955 in order to make it easier for Pakistan Hindus to acquire Indian citizenship. Here's a snapshot of the community:

1.9 million Hindus in Pakistan

Reuters

Minority Rights Group International (MRGI) states on its website that there are 1.92 million Pakistani Hindus in Pakistan (a mere 1.2 % of the national population), of whom a staggering 96 % live in rural Sindh (there are also small populations in Punjab and Baluchistan. Most Pakistani Hindus from the interior of Sindh and Baluchistan are considered to be 'scheduled caste' Hindus in their country. According to a 2015 article in the Dawn, scheduled caste is a "group identity...given to several untouchable communities in the colonial period (that) has unfortunately survived in Pakistan." A large number of these Hindus are bonded, landless labourers, and in 2004, the International Labour Organization Report (ILO) estimated that Sindh alone was home to a million families suffering from debt-bondage, defined as slavery by the United Nations.

Widespread allegations of discrimination and persecution

Reuters

It has been widely reported that many Pakistani Hindus face discrimination, religious persecution and exploitation in their country, despite the establishment of the National Commission for Human Rights and the National Committee for Minorities . Allegations of marginalization, forced conversions, kidnappings for ransom, human trafficking and extortion have surfaced in both the Indian and Pakistani media. MRGI says that "discrimination and prejudice against the Hindus is reinforced by the religious orthodoxy, within educational institutions as well as by the state-controlled media."

A "Country of Particular Concern"

Reuters

In 2016, the U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIFR) recommended - as it has done since 2002 - that Pakistan be designated a Country of Particular Concern, a category that currently includes Saudi Arabia, China, Iran and North Korea. The USCIFR also says that in Pakistan, minorities like Hindus, Christians, Zoroastrians, and Shi'a and Ahmadiyya Muslims suffer from "chronic sectarian and religiously-motivated violence from both terrorist organizations and individuals within society." The Commission says the nation's anti-blasphemy laws "inherently violate international standards of freedom of religion or belief" and that there's even "discriminatory content against minorities in provincial textbooks".

The plight of Pakistani Hindu refugees

zeenews.india

Therefore, Pakistani Hindus migrate or flee to India - the country with the world's largest population of Hindus - in search of a better life. In 2015, a reported official estimate of Hindu and Sikh refugees in India stood at 200,000. However, living in India as a Pakistani migrant or refugee can involve new challenges. "When I lived in Pakistan, I lived as a Hindu, [but] when I migrated to India in search of safety and dignity, I have been given a cold shoulder for being a Pakistani,"a refugee is quoted as saying in Scroll.in, a news web site.

reuters

In addition to having to deal with India's perceptions of their identity, many immigrants have to deal with life in refugee camps. Significant populations of Pakistani Hindus live in 400 refugee camps across the nation, including in Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Raipur Rajkot, Bhopal and Delhi. Descriptions of the Pakistani Mohalla camp in Delhi in news reports reveal serious problems: the community of aspiring citizens has to live with limited resources and a lack of sanitation infrastructure, and there are families living on daily wages.

A "natural home for persecuted Hindus"

PTI

In 2014, the BJP in its manifesto said that ""India shall remain a natural home for persecuted Hindus."

In the run-up to the 2014 Parliamentary elections, the ruling BJP's manifesto stated that ""India shall remain a natural home for persecuted Hindus and they shall be welcome to seek refuge here." In 2015, The BBC reported that the Indian government had informed it in writing that 1,400 Pakistanis - the vast majority of whom were Hindus - had become Indian citizens since 2011. In the same year, it was also reported that 34,000 migrants from neighbouring states had acquired visas in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat, and that the official estimate of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan residing in India was 200,000.

On Wednesday, an India Today report said that an amendment to the Citizenship Act 1955 was likely to discussed in Parliament's monsoon session. The proposed amendment would reduce registration fees for Pakistani Hindus, and make it possible for them to open bank accounts, and acquire driving licenses and PAN/Aadhar cards.

Also Read: After Years Of Struggle, Pakistani Refugees In India To Get Aadhaar, Driving License, Will Be Allowed To Buy Homes
The protest by the people of Manipur demanding an Inner Line Permit System (ILPS) intensified last week when school children took to the streets to act as a human barricade to block traffic. Women volunteers from JCILPS also gheraoed the Chief Minister's bungalow in Imphal and some were injured in the confrontation with the police outside the CM's residence. A picture of the schoolgirls braving the water cannon has gone viral and is drawing national attention to the issue.

Imphal Times

In 2012, the Manipur Assembly had passed a resolution seeking the implementation of ILPS in the region. But in March last year, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh introduced the Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers Bill 2015. The bill proposed to list all visitors, tenants and migrant workers with the directorate of regulation of visitors and tenants, set up under the proposed act and state labour department.

The images of the schoolchildren in the face of the water-cannons has also drawn a lot of flak from the residents of Imphal. "Sad to see little children being used as political tools like this - - when they should be in their classrooms. Radicalisation at such an early age - bet not a single politicians/activists child will be found amongst these students,"said Ajay Chowdhury on a Facebook post.

"The future of Manipur lies in the present state of mind, body and soul of the present students and children of Manipur. If the state police treats the school students in such an inhumane way in a full day publicly by using water cannon in a states capital city, then what would one imagine on how the same state police behave with the adults of Manipur in a night? The blame shall also not be wholly on the state police but must fall on the state polity and administration," says Ningombam Bupenda Meitei in the Manipur Times.
Veteran actor Om Puri has dropped a hint at joining politics with the BJP. The actor was in Delhi on Wednesday for the promotion of his upcoming film, 'Project Marathwada.' In the film, which deals with the issue of suicide of farmers in India, the actor plays a distressed farmer.

BCCL

When asked for his opinion on Narendra Modi, the actor had this to say.

"We don't have any choice left other than sitting in Modiji's lap. We have seen others' laps" Puri said.

Taking a pot shot at Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Puri said, "Sonia Gandhi thinks of making her son the Prime Minister, look at his age, his experience, see what he says. Are we fools? Pranab Mukherjee is very much experienced and very learned statesman and he has been in the Congress for so long. In order to make your son the prime minister, you made him the President."

PTI

He further stated that Sonia had made former prime minister Manmohan Singh a puppet for 15 years, who didn't even look up to the eyes of the people and speak, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi at least does so.

Urging all the MPs to watch 'Marathwada' Puri said these kind of films are made with a lot of research works. Directed by Prakash Patel and Bhavin Wadia, the film is scheduled to release on June 3, 2016.
Picture someone suffering from cancer. The last thing anyone could gift a cancer patient is a smoke, right? Wrong. At least according to this 'cancer curing clinic' in Indonesia.

4.bp.blogspot.com

Wait, what?

The doctors at the Griya Balur clinic in Jakarta, Indonesia claim that smoking can actually cure patients suffering from Emphysema (a condition in which the air sacs of the lungs are damaged and enlarged, causing breathlessness), cancer, and even autism! In fact, clinic owner Dr Gretha Zahar, while speaking to AFP, even claimed that her clinic has already cured over 60,000 people using tobacco smoke in the last decade and a half.

foxnews.com

By now, you must've figured that the Griya Balur is truly one of a kind. In fact, a clinic of such a kind would never be allowed to run in most countries. While the west, along with the rest of the world is making a conscious effort to kick the butt, the scene is alarming in Indonesia. Even though the mortality rates in Indonesia because of tobacco smoking is at an all-time high in the last forty years according to WHO, its citizens just love to smoke. Indonesia is the only country in Asia that isn't affiliated with WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Drawing huge amounts of money from tobacco sales, and billions flowing into the hungry pockets of the government, this clinic thrives on people who love the idea of getting cured while smoking.

news.com.au

What do they do here?

Griya Balur won't let you smoke your favourite brand of cigarettes. Instead, they will give you their "special cigarettes" to smoke. Let's assume someone is suffering from emphysema, the patient is asked to blow off smoke that's infused with "nanotechnology" to remove the disease-causing elements, through a tube into the lungs. Smoke is also blown into the patient's ears and nose to kill such elements.

sott.net

Is this really happening?

Not kidding one bit. Zahar truly believes that by manipulating the levels of mercury, smoking tobacco is the answer to the cure for every disease. Even ageing. She says,"Mercury is the cause of all illnesses. In my cigarettes  we call them Divine Cigarettes  there are scavengers that extract the mercury from the body."

bolehmerokok.com

If it really works, why isn't she putting her theories in front of the world?

To put it simply, because she doesn't want to. Zahar even mentions on her website that she does not need to subject her theories to clinical tests or publish them in peer-reviewed journals. Nor does she have the money to fight with Western medical scientists. Which is a bit odd because if they're so confident of working miracles with smoking, they should be willing to put her theories up for review.
An aerial view of South Waziristan, a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold gives you an interesting view - house after house with no roof. Roofs have been removed by the army to allow an aerial view of militants who may take refuge there.

AFP

"Military has removed the roofs of the houses to have a better aerial view and stop militants taking refuge in these abundant, fort-like mud houses, an official revealed.

The local military says that the Taliban has been erased from the the region in the countrys mountainous northwest, and is is welcoming thousands of displaced families back to their home.

AFP

The Rah-e-Nijat operation was launched by the military against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and its then-leader Baitullah Mehsud in 2009, displacing more than 72,000 families, according to the military.

AFP

Seven years later, some 42,000 families have been sent back, head of development Colonel Muhammad Imran told journalists during a briefing earlier this month in Shakai town, with another 30,000 expected by the end of 2016.

AFP

Traditionally roofs in South Waziristan are built of wood and iron sheets to hold off heavy winter snows, but from the helicopter hundreds could be seen with their wooden skeletons bared and interiors exposed.

The government says it is providing up to 400,000 rupees ($4,000) to families for the rebuilding of their homes.

A senior military official told AFP some $285 million is needed to tackle reconstruction in FATA, but the government has so far released only $48 million, with $12.5 million of that distributed to displaced families.
Junes Painting for a Purpose party will be held Thursday, June 23, from 6-8 p.m. Offered at the 6th Cavalry Museum, this class, Beach Party, is specifically for teenagers.

Durinda Cheek, local artist, instructor and 6th Cavalry Museum board member wanted to expand the artistic outreach of Painting for a Purpose to include younger artists. Now that school is out and everybodys excited about going on vacation its perfect timing for an artistic beach party.

A $40 donation includes a beach themed dinner, all painting supplies - canvas, paints, brushes, easel - and instruction. Participants are encouraged to bring an apron or old shirt to protect their clothes. Ms. Cheek will demonstrate painting techniques, show how to mix colors and give individualized instruction so each guest finishes their 16 x 20 painting that night.

Ms. Cheek has been a familiar face on the local, state and regional art scene since 1989. Her experience includes teaching at UTC, McCallie School and local art galleries with her artwork displayed around the country. She currently serves as the director of Visual Arts for the Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts, teaches at Townsend Atelier in Chattanooga and is a workshop instructor for the Chiostro, Tuscan Renaissance Center in Chianti, Italy. Ms. Cheek has painted the cover art for the 2014 and 2015 Patton Christmas Card, another fund-raiser for the 6th Cavalry Museum.

Proceeds from Painting for a Purpose benefits the 6th Cavalry Museum. The 6th Cavalry Museum is a non-profit museum, founded in 1981. Pre-registration is required and class size is limited to 20 participants. For more information or to register for the class, call 706.861-2860 or chris@6thcavalrymuseum.com.






finds itself in last place in terms of participation in the so-called Juncker Package, according to figures released on Wednesday by the EU Commission, on the occasion of the first year of operation of the European Fund for Strategic Investment.
A Hellfire From Heaven Wont Smash The Taliban By Pepe Escobar June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " SCF " - So Taliban supremo Mullah Mansours white Toyota Corolla was rattling across the Baluchestan desert just after it had crossed the Iranian border when a Hellfire missile fired from a US drone incinerated it into a charred / twisted wreck. Thats the official narrative. The Pentagon said Mansour was on Obamas kill list because he had become an obstacle to peace and reconciliation. Theres way more to it, of course. Mansour was a savvy businessman who was extensively traveling to Dubai  the Talibans historic clearing house where all sorts of dodgy deals are made. He was also in close connection with Jundullah  a.k.a. the hardcore Sunni anti-Tehran militia very much active in Sistan-Baluchestan province in Iran. This time Mansour was in Sistan-Baluchestan on a medical visit  allegedly to eschew hospitals in Pakistan heavily monitored by the ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence]. Yet arguably Pakistan intel knew about it  so US intel also may have known about it and thus were able to track him. But then theres the real ace in the hole: the New Opium War. The usual suspects in the Beltway insist that the Taliban profit handsomely from overseeing the opium trade out of Afghanistan and now operate as a multi-billion-dollar drug cartel. Thats nonsense. Bets can be made that Mansours kill will not reduce Afghanistan's opium production  which has been steadily on the rise for years now. Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, Mansour's former number two, has been designated as the new leader. The fact is, poppy production in Afghanistan remains at the highest levels in provinces that are  in thesis  controlled by Kabul. More opium was produced last year  also in thesis the last year of NATOs Enduring Freedom operation  than in any other year since the UN started tracking it way back in 2002. In 2016 Afghanistan will produce more opium  thus heroin  than the entire global consumption. An inkling of whats really going on in the New Opium War is provided by a recent book (in Italian) by Enrico Piovesana. He tells of shady military operations conducted by NATO in which massive quantities of opium have been sequestered by helicopter  never to be seen again. So were back to the same old CIA opium rat line, which translates into control of the Afghan opium market in collusion with local police, military high brass in Kabul and the Karzai family, of former President a.k.a. mayor of Kabul Hamid Karzai. Doing business with narco traffickers has also handily provided liquidity  as in dirty money  to Western big banks. None of this has anything to do with the Taliban, which actually brought down opium production to near zero in 2001, before 9/11 and the American bombing/occupation of Afghanistan. Those shadowy Af-Pak players The first US drone strike ever in Baluchestan (another Obama first) remains something of a mystery. A credible working hypothesis is that this was a covert US-Pakistani co-op. The hit allegedly came via the Pentagon, not the CIA. Mansours Corolla was something like 40 km inside Baluchestan after it had crossed the border  in an area where US drones would have been quite vulnerable to upgraded (in 2011) Pakistani air defenses. A plausible  but unconfirmed  scenario would see RQ-170 Sentinels tracking Mansours Toyota, with the coordinates then fed to Reaper drones flying out of Kandahar airfield. Assuming the drones began tracking the Toyota at the Iran-Pakistan border, they would have been in action over Baluchestan air space for hours on end, undisturbed. But then there are the incongruities. Pakistani sources mention that the Toyota  as in any real drone hit  was not totally smashed, but was still on its wheels. And a mysterious passport (Mullah Mansours) also showed up on the scene, unscathed. As for the original HUMINT that led to Mansours trail, the notion that Washington had scored it stretches credulity. It would be more like a very well placed/rewarded asset somewhere  be it a military in Kabul or a disgruntled ISI operative. What was Mansour really up to? He was quite savvy in playing for time. He clearly saw through the US strategy  which boiled down to encouraging Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to convince Islamabad to get the Taliban to the negotiating table. Mansour though knew the Taliban could always advance militarily without negotiations; thats why he duly announced the 2016 spring offensive  an annual Taliban ritual. At the same time he was very careful not to antagonize Islamabad so Taliban safe havens in Pakistan would not be compromised. As far as what Islamabad is up to, thats way hazier. Islamabads man in the Taliban succession was actually Sirajuddin Haqqani. After the death of his notorious father, Haqqani leads the homonymous network  which is very cozy with the ISI, arguably closer than the traditional Kandahar/Quetta Shura, a.k.a. the historic Afghan Taliban. The new Taliban supremo will now have a handy window of opportunity to consolidate power. By early 2017 there will be a new US president, a new Pakistani army chief but the same Afghan so-called National Unity Government still disunited. The Taliban know what they want; be part of the government in Kabul, and get their cut in case the fractious Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline will ever be built. The more things change in Afghanistan, the more they hark back to two decades ago, during the second Clinton administration. Meanwhile, former CIA asset, former pal of Osama bin Laden and still one of the USs Public Enemies, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, defined by Washington as a global terrorist and the leader of the Hezbi Islami organization, is about to close a deal with Kabul. Hezbi Islami is the second largest insurgency in Afghanistan. Most of the top brass have defected to the Taliban. Hekmatyar lives in exile somewhere in Pakistan; the ISI, of course, knows all about it. So if Ghani in Kabul cant bag the Taliban, at least he bags a currently much smaller fish, Hekmatyar. Does it help? Not really. It will fall eventually to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)  as in Russia-China joint leadership  to solve the Taliban riddle. Certainly not to Operation Enduring Freedom Forever  no matter the size of their kill list
Israels Future is Terrifying

Moshe Yaalon and Israels Disconcerting Morality



By Ramzy Baroud



June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Israeli society is constantly swerving to the Right and, by doing so, the countrys entire political paradigm is redefined regularly. Israel is now ruled by the most extreme rightwing government in its history has grown from being an informed assessment to a dull cliche over the course of only a few years. In fact, that exact line was used in May 2015, when rightwing Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, formed his thin majority government of like-minded right-wingers, religious zealots and ultra-nationalists. The same sentiment, with almost the exact wording, is being infused again, as Netanyahu has expanded his coalition by bringing to the fold the ultra-nationalist, Avigdor Lieberman. As of Wednesday May 25, Lieberman has also become Israels Defense Minister. Considering Liebermans rowdy and violent politics as demonstrated in his two terms as Foreign Minister (from 2009 to 2012 and, again, from 2013 to 2015), being a Defense Minister in Israels most extreme rightwing government in history harbors all kind of terrifying prospects. While many commentators rightly pointed to Liebermans past provocations and wild statements  for example, his 2015 statement threatening to behead Palestinian citizens of Israel with an axe if they are not fully loyal to Israel; advocating the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian citizens of Israel; his death ultimatum to former Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, and so on  his predecessor, Moshe Yaalon, was spared much blame. Worse, the former Defense Minister, Yaalon, was regarded by some as an example of professionalism and morality. He is well-regarded, wrote William Booth in the Washington Post, compared to the polarizing maverick Lieberman. But well-regarded by whom? By Israeli society, the majority of whom support the cold-blooded murder of Palestinians? Israel has adhered to its own definition of political terminology for a long time. Its early socialism was a blend of communal living, facilitated by military onslaught and sustained by colonialism. Its current definition of left, right and center are also relative, only unique to Israel itself. Thanks to Lieberman  the former Russian immigrant, club bouncer-turned-politician who is constantly rallying the roughly one million Israeli Russian Jews around his ever-violent political agenda  Yaalon is now an example of level-headedness and morality. Indeed, the quote that has been reproduced numerous times in the media is that of Yaalon stating the reason behind his resignation is that he has lost confidence in Netanyahus decision- making and morals. Morals? Lets examine the evidence. Yaalon took part in every major Israeli war since 1973, and his name was later associated with the most atrocious of Israeli wars and massacres, first in Lebanon and, later, in Gaza. His morality never dissuaded him from ordering some of the most unspeakable war crimes carried out against civilians, neither in Qana, Lebanon (1996) nor in Shujaya, Gaza (2014). Yaalon refused to cooperate with any international investigation conducted by the UN or any other monitoring group into his violent conduct. In 2005, he was sued in a US court by the survivors of the Qana massacre in which hundreds of civilians and UN peacekeepers were killed and wounded in Israeli military strikes in Lebanon. In that case, neither Israeli nor American morality prevailed, and justice is yet to be delivered. Yaalon, who received military training early in his career at the British Armys Camberley Staff College, continued to rise in rank within the army until 2002 when he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces. He was in that post for nearly three years, as a result of which he ordered the assassination of hundreds of Palestinians and oversaw various massacres that were carried out by the Israeli army during the Second Intifada. His post was terminated by the then Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, in 2005. In this case, too, it was immorality, not morality, that played a role in the conflict between him and his superiors. Yaalon was  and remains  an ardent advocate for the illegal colonialization of Palestinian land. In 2005, he vehemently rejected the so-called redeployment from the Gaza Strip, in which a few thousands illegal settlers were relocated to Jewish colonies in the West Bank. His war crimes caught up with him in New Zealand in 2006  over the assassination of a Hamas commander, Saleh Shehade, together with 14 members of his family and other civilians. An arrest order was issued but revoked later, under heavy political pressure, allowing Yaalon to escape the country. He returned to the helm of the army in 2013, just in time to carry out the devastating war on Gaza in 2014, which killed 2,257 Palestinians in 51 days. The UN monitoring group, OCHA, estimated that over 70 percent of those killed were civilians, including 563 children. The destruction of Shujaya, in particular, was a calculated strategy devised by Yaalon himself. In a July 2013 meeting with UN Secretary-General, Ban-Ki-Moon, Yaalon informed the UN chief that he would bomb the entire neighborhood in case of war. He did. In May 2015, he was still unrepentant. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, he threatened to kill civilians in case of another war on Lebanon. We are going to hurt Lebanese civilians to include kids of the family, he said. We went through a very long deep discussion. We did it then, we did it in (the) Gaza Strip, we are going to do it in any round of hostilities in the future, he said. He also spoke implicitly of dropping a nuclear bomb on Iran. He repeatedly gave the Israeli Occupation army the green light to carry out shoot to kill policy against Palestinians to fight rising tension in the Occupied Territories. These are the words of Yaalon during a visit to a military base in Gush Etzion in November 2014: It must be clear that anyone who comes to kill Jews must be eliminated. Any terrorist who raises a gun, knife or rock, tries to run over or otherwise attack Jews, must be put to death. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in recent months in Occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Many of those killed are stone-throwing children who are facing Israeli army vehicles along with thousands of trigger-happy Jewish settlers. In his first public remarks since his resignation, Yaalon accused a vocal minority in Israel of targeting the countrys basic values, stating that the countrys moral compass has been lost. The odd thing is that many Israelis agree with Yaalon. They see the man who has been accused of carrying out war crimes for most of his career as an example of morality and basic values. While Lieberman has demonstrated to be a loose cannon and a political liability, Yaalon has openly spoken of targeting children and repeatedly lived up to his promises. When the likes of Yaalon, a man with a blood-stained record becomes the face of morality in Israel, once can understand why the future of that country brings little hope, especially now that Lieberman has brought his Israel Our Home Party to Netanyahus terrifying nest of political parties. Dr. Ramzy Baroud has been writing about the Middle East for over 20 years. He is an internationally-syndicated columnist, a media consultant, an author of several books and the founder of PalestineChronicle.com. His books include Searching Jenin, The Second Palestinian Intifada and his latest My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gazas Untold Story. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.
The Opportunist and the Fanatics

By Lawrence Davidson

June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - What do opportunists and fanatics have in common? They both chronically exaggerate  the former often to con folks into doing their bidding, and the latter most often because they have already been conned by their own grossly distorted worldview. There are plenty of both types of people in todays America, and the uncertain political environment has brought a lot of them out of the woodwork. The recent marriage of convenience of the National Rifle Association (NRA) leadership (fanatics) and Donald Trump (opportunist) is a case in point.

The Fanatic

The NRA is one of the countrys most influential advocacy organizations, with a membership of over 3 million. Its worldview, which can be neatly summed up as freedom equals unrestricted gun ownership, almost certainly carries weight beyond its membership numbers. In the wilds of places such as Minnesota, Wyoming and Alabama, NRA principles might carry more weight than the Bible.

Wayne LaPierre is the executive vice president of the NRA and Chris Cox is its executive director for Legislative Action. LaPierre and Cox are typical of NRA stalwarts and we can see them as representative of a good percentage of the organizations members. On 20 May 2016 both men gave speeches before the NRA convention in Kentucky announcing the associations endorsement of Donald Trump for president. In his speech Cox spent a lot of time painting a picture of the United States as a place about to lose its freedoms if Hillary Clinton gets elected. Here is how he put it: the present political environment in the U.S. is mired in dishonesty, corruption and contempt for everyday Americans and the only thing that stands between those everyday Americans and the end of individual freedom in this country are gun owners, who must turn out to vote in droves this fall.

Wayne LaPierre painted a similar crisis picture, again emphasizing that it is only the countrys gun owners who stand in the way of catastrophe. Here is how he put it: We in this room, we are Americas best hope, and this is our moment. In all of history, theres always been a time and a place when patriots stand up and rise up against the decree of the elites and shout, No more! Get your hands off my freedom! That time and place is now.  The revolution to take America back starts here.

Hillary Clinton was characterized as a corrupt politician whose policies and Supreme Court picks would destroy individual freedoms, and therefore destroy the America we all love. According to Cox, Clintons vision of the U.S. is a place where only law enforcement has guns and everything is free: free meals, free health care, free education. It seems Cox has a real distaste for free access to anything that does not have lethal potential. He likens a society that provides no-cost availability to the items he lists to a prison.

As these sentiments suggest, the NRAs notion of freedom is harshly reductionist and based on its members own idiosyncratic interpretation of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That interpretation is discussed in Part IV below. For the NRA, freedom is the right to own and carry a gun of any type. All other freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights are secondary, probably because without the right to own large numbers of assault rifles, the population cannot defend itself against an American government allegedly bent on dictatorship. Assigning such an exaggerated importance to the right to bear any arms is, of course, a gross distortion of the concept of freedom and demonstrates contempt for the ability of U.S. society to function based on the rule of law.

The NRA stalwarts live and breathe this exaggeration. There is something pathological going on here, for their obsession with gun ownership has also spun out conspiracy theories about looming oppression. There is here a general inability to analyze, in any reasonable way, the political and social environment around them. In other words, the NRA devotees are fanatics.

The Opportunist

The speeches of LaPierre and Cox laid the groundwork for the introduction of Donald Trump  now the NRAs endorsed candidate for president. Trumps appearance at the NRA convention marked his official acceptance of the organizations exaggerated reductionist position. Actually, it was but a culmination  months before, Trump had discarded his more moderate position and, upon launching his campaign for the presidency, almost immediately adopted the NRAs stance.

Now on stage at the Kentucky convention, he started off with what has become his characteristic patter for things he finds convenient to endorse: I love the NRA. I love the Second Amendment. Then he moved on to, essentially, parrot Cox and LaPierre: The Second Amendment is under a threat like never before. Crooked Hillary Clinton is the most anti-gun  candidate ever to run for office. And, as I said before, she wants to abolish the Second Amendment. She wants to take your guns away. She wants to abolish it. All of this is a mixture of lies and gross exaggeration. In addition, Trump pledged to get rid of gun-free zones because that will make us safer. Trump has claimed that if we all went around armed, the death toll during the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Paris would have been lower. At this point the Huffington Post contacted a number of Trump hotels and found that, lo and behold, most of them remain gun-free zones.

The truth is that Trump is an opportunist and a chronic exaggerator. You might say that all politicians fit this bill. However, here we are dealing with a matter of degree, and most the key word is chronic. Trumps practice in this regard is habitual and therefore may be pathological as well.

It is to be noted that this habit of persistently stretching the truth to the breaking point does not make Trump a fanatic. In fact, it causes his thinking and rhetoric to be all over the map. He even tells us that he values unpredictability, and this means he is often inconsistent as to how and what he exaggerates. Its an orientation that precludes fanaticism but lends itself naturally to opportunism.

Just What does the Second Amendment Say?

As mentioned above, the NRA has its own peculiar interpretation of the Second Amendment. This piece of the U.S. Constitution reads as follows: a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

The amendment has two parts, the first part contextualizing the second. The first part reads, a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State. The term militia here is the late 18th century American way of referring to the military forces of the thirteen states then in the process of becoming the United States. These militias were not private organizations but were controlled by their respective free State. That is what well regulated meant. The second part implies that these militias were to be democratically derived, that is, the People were to bear arms so a well regulated militia is possible. In other words, the right to bear arms is not open-ended or unregulated. It is tied to the maintenance of a regulated, democratically constituted armed force.

Nonetheless, what the NRA and other gun fanatics do is simply drop the contextualizing first part from their interpretation of the amendment. Having done so they are conveniently left with the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. They put all their emphasis on this second part which, now taken out of context, inevitably distorts the meaning of the Amendment as a whole.

This is the kind of thing that both fanatics and opportunists are good at, and what comes so easily to them  the twisting of a text, and often reality itself, to conform to their point of view.
Islamophobia has become a significant factor driving politics in many western countries.

June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - Islamophobia  fear of Muslims  is now highly visible among European populations concerned about terrorist responses from Islamic groups claiming Jihadi links. However, it is also evident among those same populations in relation to the refugee flow from the Middle East. In addition, Islamophobia is highly evident among sectors of the US population during the presidential race. It is a significant issue in Australia. Outside the West, even the (Muslim) Rohingya in Burma are feared by Buddhist monks and others.

Given that this widespread western fear of Muslims was not the case prior to the US-instigated 'War on Terror', do Muslims around the world now pose a greater threat to western interests than previously? Or is something else going on here?

In short, why are so many westerners (and others) now frightened of Muslims? Let me start at the beginning.

Human socialization is essentially a process of terrorizing children into 'thinking' and doing what the adults around them want (irrespective of the functionality of this thought and behavior in evolutionary terms). Hence, the attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors that most humans exhibit are driven by fear and the self-hatred that accompanies this fear. For a comprehensive explanation of this point, see 'Why Violence?' http://tinyurl.com/whyviolence and 'Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice'. http://anitamckone.wordpress.com/articles-2/fearless-and-fearful-psychology/

However, because this fear and self-hatred are so unpleasant to feel consciously, most people suppress these feelings below conscious awareness and then (unconsciously) project them onto 'legitimized' victims (that is, those people 'approved' for victimization by their parents and/or society generally). In short: the fear and self-hatred are projected as fear of, and hatred for, particular social groups (whether people of another gender, nation, race, religion or class).

This all happens because virtually all adults are (unconsciously) terrified and self-hating, so they unconsciously terrorize children into accepting the attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviors that make the adults feel safe. A child who thinks and acts differently is frightening and is not allowed to flourish.

Once the child has been so terrorized however, they will respond to their fear and self-hatred with diminishing adult stimulus. What is important, emotionally speaking, is that the fear and self-hatred have an outlet so that they can be released and acted upon. And because parents do not allow their child to feel and express their fear and hatred in relation to the parents themselves (who, fundamentally, just want obedience without comprehending that obedience is rooted in fear and generates enormous self-hatred because it denies the individual's Self-will), the child is left with no alternative but to project their fear and hatred in socially approved directions.

Hence, as an adult, their own fear and self-hatred are unconscious to the individual precisely because they were never allowed to feel and express them safely as a child. What they do feel, consciously, is their hatred for 'legitimized' victims.

Historically, different social groups in different cultural contexts have been the victim of this projected but 'socially approved' fear and hatred. Women, indigenous peoples, Catholics, Afro-Americans, Jews, communists, Palestinians. The list goes on. The predominant group in this category, of course, is children (whose 'uncontrollability' frightens virtually all parents until they are successfully terrorized and tamed).

The groups that are socially approved to be feared and hated are determined by elites. This is because individual members of the elite are themselves terrified and full of self-hatred and they use the various powerful instruments at their disposal  ranging from control of politicians to the corporate media  to trigger the fear and self-hatred of the population at large in order to focus this fear and hatred on what frightens the elite. This makes it easier for the elite to then attack the group that they are projecting frightens them.

For now, of course, Muslims are the primary target for this projected fear and self-hatred, which accounts for the US-led western war on the Middle East. Islamophobia thus allows elites and others to project their fear and self-hatred onto Muslims so that elites can then seek to destroy this fear and self-hatred. Obviously, this cannot work. You cannot destroy fear, whether yours or that of anyone else. However, you can cause phenomenal damage to those onto whom your fear and self-hatred are projected. Of course, there is nothing intelligent about this process. If every Muslim in the world was killed, elites would simply then project their fear and self-hatred onto other groups and set out to destroy those groups too.

In fact, as western elites now demonize Russia and encircle it with nuclear weapons and ABM defense systems, we simply witness another example of these elites projecting their fear and self-hatred.

If you are starting to wonder about the sanity of this, you can rest assured there is none. Elites are insane. If you want to read a fuller explanation of this point, see 'The Global Elite is Insane'.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1402/S00056/the-global-elite-is-insane.htm

So is there anything we can do? Fundamentally, we need to stop terrorizing our children. As a back up, we can provide safe spaces for children and adults alike to feel their fear and self-hatred consciously (which will allow them to be safely released). By doing this, we can avoid creating more insane individuals who will project their fear and self-hatred in elite-approved directions.

In addition, if you are fearless enough to recognize that elites are manipulating you into fearing Muslims and others whom we do not need to fear, now would be a good time to speak up and to demonstrate your solidarity. You might also like to sign the online pledge of 'The People's Charter to Create a Nonviolent World'. http://thepeoplesnonviolencecharter.wordpress.com

Suppressed fear and self-hatred must be projected and they are usually projected in socially approved ways (although mental illnesses and some forms of criminal activity are ways in which this suppressed fear manifests that are not socially approved).

In essence, Islamophobia is a manifestation of the mental illness of elites manipulating us into doing their insane bidding. Unfortunately, many people are easy victims of this manipulation.
A Russian Warning By Dmitry Orlov, The Saker, Victor Katsap and Evgenia Gurevich June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " ClubOrlov " - We, the undersigned, are Russians living and working in the USA. We have been watching with increasing anxiety as the current US and NATO policies have set us on an extremely dangerous collision course with the Russian Federation, as well as with China. Many respected, patriotic Americans, such as Paul Craig Roberts, Stephen Cohen, Philip Giraldi, Ray McGovern and many others have been issuing warnings of a looming a Third World War. But their voices have been all but lost among the din of a mass media that is full of deceptive and inaccurate stories that characterize the Russian economy as being in shambles and the Russian military as weakall based on no evidence. But weknowing both Russian history and the current state of Russian society and the Russian military, cannot swallow these lies. We now feel that it is our duty, as Russians living in the US, to warn the American people that they are being lied to, and to tell them the truth. And the truth is simply this: If there is going to be a war with Russia, then the United States will most certainly be destroyed, and most of us will end up dead.

Let us take a step back and put what is happening in a historical context. Russia has suffered a great deal at the hands of foreign invaders, losing 22 million people in World War II. Most of the dead were civilians, because the country was invaded, and the Russians have vowed to never let such a disaster happen again. Each time Russia had been invaded, she emerged victorious. In 1812 Nepoleon invaded Russia; in 1814 Russian cavalry rode into Paris. On June 22, 1941, Hitlers Luftwaffe bombed Kiev; On May 8, 1945, Soviet troops rolled into Berlin.



But times have changed since then. If Hitler were to attack Russia today, he would be dead 20 to 30 minutes later, his bunker reduced to glowing rubble by a strike from a Kalibr supersonic cruise missile launched from a small Russian navy ship somewhere in the Baltic Sea. The operational abilities of the new Russian military have been most persuasively demonstrated during the recent action against ISIS, Al Nusra and other foreign-funded terrorist groups operating in Syria. A long time ago Russia had to respond to provocations by fighting land battles on her own territory, then launching a counter-invasion; but this is no longer necessary. Russias new weapons make retaliation instant, undetectable, unstoppable and perfectly lethal.



Thus, if tomorrow a war were to break out between the US and Russia, it is guaranteed that the US would be obliterated. At a minimum, there would no longer be an electric grid, no internet, no oil and gas pipelines, no interstate highway system, no air transportation or GPS-based navigation. Financial centers would lie in ruins. Government at every level would cease to function. US armed forces, stationed all around the globe, would no longer be resupplied. At a maximum, the entire landmass of the US would be covered by a layer of radioactive ash. We tell you this not to be alarmist, but because, based on everything we know, we are ourselves alarmed. If attacked, Russia will not back down; she will retaliate, and she will utterly annihilate the United States.



The US leadership has done everything it could to push the situation to the brink of disaster. First, its anti-Russian policies have convinced the Russian leadership that making concessions or negotiating with the West is futile. It has become apparent that the West will always support any individual, movement or government that is anti-Russian, be it tax-cheating Russian oligarchs, convicted Ukrainian war criminals, Saudi-supported Wahhabi terrorists in Chechnya or cathedral-desecrating punks in Moscow. Now that NATO, in violation of its previous promises, has expanded right up to the Russian border, with US forces deployed in the Baltic states, within artillery range of St. Petersburg, Russias second-largest city, the Russians have nowhere left to retreat. They will not attack; nor will they back down or surrender. The Russian leadership enjoys over 80% of popular support; the remaining 20% seems to feel that it is being too soft in opposing Western encroachment. But Russia will retaliate, and a provocation or a simple mistake could trigger a sequence of events that will end with millions of Americans dead and the US in ruins.



Unlike many Americans, who see war as an exciting, victorious foreign adventure, the Russians hate and fear war. But they are also ready for it, and they have been preparing for war for several years now. Their preparations have been most effective. Unlike the US, which squanders untold billions on dubious overpriced arms programs such as the F-35 joint task fighter, the Russians are extremely stingy with their defense rubles, getting as much as 10 times the bang for the buck compared to the bloated US defense industry. While it is true that the Russian economy has suffered from low energy prices, it is far from being in shambles, and a return to growth is expected as early as next year. Senator John McCain once called Russia A gas station masquerading as a country. Well, he lied. Yes, Russia is the worlds largest oil producer and second-largest oil exporter, but it is also worlds largest exporter of grain and nuclear power technology. It is as advanced and sophisticated a society as the United States. Russias armed forces, both conventional and nuclear, are now ready to fight, and they are more than a match for the US and NATO, especially if a war erupts anywhere near the Russian border.



But such a fight would be suicidal for all sides. We strongly believe that a conventional war in Europe runs a strong chance of turning nuclear very rapidly, and that any US/NATO nuclear strike on Russian forces or territory will automatically trigger a retaliatory Russian nuclear strike on the continental US. Contrary to irresponsible statements made by some American propagandists, American antiballistic missile systems are incapable of shielding the American people from a Russian nuclear strike. Russia has the means to strike at targets in the USA with long-range nuclear as well as conventional weapons.



The sole reason why the USA and Russia have found themselves on a collision course, instead of defusing tensions and cooperating on a wide range of international problems, is the stubborn refusal by the US leadership to accept Russia as an equal partner: Washington is dead set on being the world leader and the indispensable nation, even as its influence steadily dwindles in the wake of a string of foreign policy and military disasters such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen and the Ukraine. Continued American global leadership is something that neither Russia, nor China, nor most of the other countries are willing to accept. This gradual but apparent loss of power and influence has caused the US leadership to become hysterical; and it is but a small step from hysterical to suicidal. Americas political leaders need to be placed under suicide watch.



First and foremost, we are appealing to the commanders of the US Armed Forces to follow the example of Admiral William Fallon, who, when asked about a war with Iran, reportedly replied not on my watch. We know that you are not suicidal, and that you do not wish to die for the sake of out-of-touch imperial hubris. If possible, please tell your staff, colleagues and, especially, your civilian superiors that a war with Russia will not happen on your watch. At the very least, take that pledge yourselves, and, should the day ever come when the suicidal order is issued, refuse to execute it on the grounds that it is criminal. Remember that according to the Nuremberg Tribunal To initiate a war of aggression is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole. Since Nuremberg, I was just following orders is no longer a valid defense; please dont be war criminals.



We also appeal to the American people to take peaceful but forceful action to oppose any politician or party that engages in irresponsible, provocative Russia-baiting, and that condones and supports a policy of needless confrontation with a nuclear superpower that is capable of destroying America in about an hour. Speak up, break through the barrier of mass media propaganda, and make your fellow Americans aware of the immense danger of a confrontation between Russia and the US.



There is no objective reason why US and Russia should consider each other adversaries. The current confrontation is entirely the result of the extremist views of the neoconservative cult, whose members were allowed to infiltrate the US Federal government under President Bill Clinton, and who consider any country that refuses to obey their dictates as an enemy to be crushed. Thanks to their tireless efforts, over a million innocent people have already died in the former Yugoslavia, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Pakistan, the Ukraine, Yemen, Somalia and in many other countriesall because of their maniacal insistence that the USA must be a world empire, not a just a regular, normal country, and that every national leader must either bow down before them, or be overthrown. In Russia, this irresistible force has finally encountered an immovable object. They must be forced to back down before they destroy us all.



We are absolutely and categorically certain that Russia will never attack the US, nor any EU member state, that Russia is not at all interested in recreating the USSR, and that there is no Russian threat or Russian aggression. Much of Russias recent economic success has a lot to do with the shedding of former Soviet dependencies, allowing her to pursue a Russia first policy. But we are just as certain that if Russia is attacked, or even threatened with attack, she will not back down, and that the Russian leadership will not blink. With great sadness and a heavy heart they will do their sworn duty and unleash a nuclear barrage from which the United States will never recover. Even if the entire Russian leadership is killed in a first strike, the so-called Dead Hand (the Perimetr system) will automatically launch enough nukes to wipe the USA off the political map. We feel that it is our duty to do all we can to prevent such a catastrophe.



Evgenia Gurevich, Ph.D.

http://thesaker.ru

Victor Katsap, PhD, Sr. Scientist NuFlare Technology America, Inc. Dmitry Orlov

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com



The Saker (A. Raevsky)

http://thesaker.is



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My gas and diesel are up, it's going up again. Saudi Arabia cut 2 million barrels a day after Biden asked them to produce more. They said they did it for economic reasons. They did. The dollars they receive are worth less because of Biden and his lockstep Dems in congress printing trillions of extra dollars chasing the same amount of goods. The Saudis understand inflation and ... (click for more)
Isis Faces Likely Defeat in Battles Across Iraq and Syria  But What Happens Next? By Patrick Cockburn June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " The Independent " - Isis is under attack in and around the last three big cities it holds in Iraq and Syria  Fallujah, Mosul and Raqqa. It is likely to lose these battles because its lightly armed if fanatical infantry, fighting from fixed positions, cannot withstand air strikes called in by specialised ground forces. They must choose between retreating and reverting to guerrilla war or suffering devastating losses. It is two years since Isis launched itself on the world by capturing Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, though it had already taken Fallujah 40 miles west of Baghdad at the start of 2014. In its first campaigns, its ability to achieve surprise by using mobile columns of vehicles packed with experienced fighters was astonishingly effective. It had developed these military techniques in the years of warfare that followed the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, first fighting the Americans and later the Iraqi army. Its menu of tactics combined ideological fanaticism with a high degree of expertise and rigorous training, and was distinguished by the mass use of suicide bombers, snipers, IEDs, booby traps and mortar teams. Atrocities highly publicised through the internet terrified and demoralised opponents even before Isis fighters appeared and go a long way to explaining why an Iraqi army, far superior to Isis in numbers and equipment, broke up and fled when Isis attacked it in Mosul in 2014. But these tactics no longer work as well as they once did. All the armies battling Isis are trained to eliminate suicide bombers before they get close enough to kill. Isis can still recruit young men  and occasionally women  willing to die, but these days they seldom inflict mass casualties among enemy soldiers as they used to do. Last weekend, six suicide bombers attacked the front line between Mosul and the Kurdish capital, but although they all died blowing themselves up or were killed before doing so, they only succeeded in wounding a single Kurdish Peshmerga. Like the Japanese Kamikaze pilots who attacked US and British ships in 1944-45, suicide bombers are achieving diminishing returns against better prepared defences. Peshmerga advancing towards Mosul in the past few days are accompanied by excavators to dig trenches immediately in front of their forces as soon as possible so bombers cannot reach them with vehicles full of explosives. Unfortunately, suicide bomber are still able to slaughter civilians in great numbers by attacking undefended targets such as markets, pilgrimages, checkpoints and hospitals. Isis is not the all-conquering military force it once was, but the war in Iraq and Syria is as much about politics as military success. At issue for all involved in the conflict in its present phase is not only the breaking Isis control of territory, but determining who will rule there in place of Isis. So, if the Shia paramilitaries of the Hashd al-Shaabi, whom the US says are under Iranian influence, play the leading role in capturing Fallujah, this will help secure their long-term power and prestige in Iraq. It will be seen as a success for Iran rather than the US and its allies. Equally important in shaping the future political geography of the Middle East will be the relative roles of the Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi army and the US in driving Isis from Mosul or, in Syria, of the Syrian Kurds, their Arab allies, the US and the Syrian Army in taking Raqqa from Isis. It all depends on who liberates Fallujah, how it is liberated and when it is liberated, says Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to the Kurdish President Massoud Barzani, in an interview with The Independent. He believes that the balance of power has shifted decisively against Isis compared with a year ago, but warns that nobody should imagine that the fall of Isis will bring peace and stability to the region. He notes that Isis is suffering defeats but has also shown great powers of revival and reorganisation, citing as an example a recent attack by 400 Isis fighters and 20 armoured vehicles in which they penetrated the Peshmerga front line at an abandoned Christian village called Teleskof, 14 miles north of Mosul. What is different today compared with a year ago is that they were not able to exploit their local success before they came under air attack and lost between 200 and 250 fighters. Mr Hussein says that if the caliphate falls, Isis will transform from a terrorist state into a terrorist movement. It will be weakened by not having secure bases for training but it will not evaporate or be replaced by moderate Arab Sunni politicians who claim great influence on their own community and are well-financed by foreign powers. In Syria, a more likely successor to Isis would be the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, which has been growing in popularity among Sunni Arabs. Though ideologically similar to Isis in its Salafi-jihadi fundamentalist beliefs, Nusra is presenting itself as a less maniacal alternative to Isis and one that can probably count on a measure of support from Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Sunni Arabs as a whole have every reason to feel under threat. The great majority of the five million Syrian refugees come from Sunni Arab opposition areas. In Iraq they were reduced to holding a few enclaves in Baghdad in the 2006-7 sectarian bloodbath  islands of fear in the words of a US diplomat the time, a description that now fits almost every Sunni population centre in the country. The governor of Kirkuk, Najmaldin Karim, told The Independent that there were 500,000 Internally Displaced Iraqis (IDPs), mostly Sunni Arabs who have sought refuge in his province. He ticks off why they cannot go home: they are banned from Diyala province north-east of Baghdad for sectarian reasons by the authorities there, from mixed communities in Salahudin province though they can go to districts that are wholly Sunni while Anbar is still too dangerous. It may be that the enemies of Isis are dividing the lions skin before checking that it is truly dead or close to dying. The territorial losses of Isis may look impressive on a small scale map of Iraq and Syria, but what is impressive when driving outside the borders of the caliphate is how big it remains. It has the advantage that its enemies are wholly disunited and detest each other almost as much as they hate Isis, if not more so. Turkey has failed to close Isiss last access to the outside world west of the Euphrates and has prevented the Syrian Kurds doing so. Isis may be weakened, but its opponents are also fragile. The latest limited offensive by the Kurds to take back villages on the Nineveh Plain east of Mosul showed that these days they have the upper hand, but in reality the attack was delayed several days because some of the troops taking part had not been paid their salaries. The economy of the Kurdistan Regional Government area is in ruins. Isis is good at selecting vulnerable targets, in this case rebel groups backed by the US and Turkey in the north of Aleppo province who control the towns through which the rebel side of Aleppo used to be supplied. Isis fighters have been driving them backwards in recent days, gaining control over a larger section of the border and reinforcing their hold on the fertile and heavily populated countryside of north Aleppo province. The Syrian army does not look as strong as it did when it was getting greater support from Russian air strikes and drove Isis out of Palmyra. Isis has been fighting back, capturing an important gas field and targeting civilians in cities famous for their loyalty to President Bashar al-Assad on Syrias Mediterranean coast. In both Iraq and Syria, Isis is responding to military pressure by the mass slaughter of civilians, killing some 148 and injuring in the Syrian coastal cities of Tartus and Jableh and another 198 in a week of bombings in Baghdad. The purpose of these massacres is to show that Isis has not lost its strength and can still strike anywhere, while at the same time hoping to force Syrian and Iraqi regular forces to leave the front line to defend their civilian populations. It is an effective strategy that has generally worked in the past. One of the many problems about ending the war is that many of the players have an interest in seeing it continue. Why, for instance, are there offensives against Isis by the Kurdish authorities and the Baghdad government this week? There are many reasons, but one important motive is that President Barzani and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi are presenting themselves as fighting Isis whole their local political opponents are demanding reform of corrupt and dysfunctional governments. The main reason people here in Kurdistan are quiet and not protesting about the collapse of the economy and in their standard of living is that they are afraid of Daesh [Isis], said a Kurdish businessman this week. President Assad benefits from having an enemy so monstrous as to rule it out as an alternative to himself and therefore secure him in power. Isis is a very convenient enemy for many of those fighting it, which may be one reason why it is so difficult to defeat. Patrick Cockburn is the author of Chaos and Caliphate: Jihadis and the West in the Struggle for the Middle East, published by OR Books, 18. Readers can obtain a 15 per cent discount by using the code: INDEPENDENT
Hillary on the Ropes By Judge Andrew P. Napolitano Late last week, the inspector general of the State Department completed a yearlong investigation into the use by Hillary Clinton of a private email server for all of her official government email as secretary of state. The investigation was launched when information technology officials at the State Department under Secretary of State John Kerry learned that Clinton paid an aide to migrate her public and secret State Department email streams away from their secured government venues and onto her own, non-secure server, which was stored in her home. The migration of the secret email stream most likely constituted the crime of espionage  the failure to secure and preserve the secrecy of confidential, secret or top-secret materials. The inspector general interviewed Clinton's three immediate predecessors  Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice  and their former aides about their email practices. He learned that none of them used emails as extensively as Clinton, none used a private server and, though Powell and Rice occasionally replied to government emails using private accounts, none used a private account when dealing with state secrets. Clinton and her former aides declined to cooperate with the inspector general, notwithstanding her oft-stated claim that she "can't wait" to meet with officials and clear the air about her emails. The inspector general's report is damning to Clinton. It refutes every defense she has offered to the allegation that she mishandled state secrets. It revealed an email that hadn't been publicly made known showing Clinton's state of mind. And it paints a picture of a self-isolated secretary of state stubbornly refusing to comply with federal law for venal reasons; she simply did not want to be held accountable for her official behavior. The report rejects Clinton's argument that her use of a private server "was allowed." The report makes clear that it was not allowed, nor did she seek permission to use it. She did not inform the FBI, which had tutored her on the lawful handling of state secrets, and she did not inform her own State Department IT folks. The report also makes clear that had she sought permission to use her own server as the instrument through which all of her email traffic passed, such a request would have been flatly denied. In addition, the report rejects her argument  already debunked by the director of the FBI  that the FBI is merely conducting a security review of the State Department's email storage and usage policies rather than a criminal investigation of her. The FBI does not conduct security reviews. The inspector general does. This report is the result of that review, and Clinton flunked it, as it reveals that she refused to comply with the same State Department storage and transparency regulations she was enforcing against others. Here is what is new publicly: When her private server was down and her BlackBerry immobilized for days at a time, she refused to use a government-issued BlackBerry because of her fear of the Freedom of Information Act. She preferred to go dark, or back to the 19th-century technology of having documents read aloud to her. This report continues the cascade of legal misery that has befallen her in the past eight months. The State Department she once headed has rejected all of her arguments. Two federal judges have ordered her aides to testify about a conspiracy in her office to evade federal laws. She now awaits an interrogation by impatient FBI agents, which will take place soon after the New Jersey and California primaries next week. Her legal status can only be described as grave or worse than grave. We know that Clinton's own camp finally recognizes just how dangerous this email controversy has become for her. Over the Memorial Day weekend, John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton's campaign, sent an email to her most important donors. In it, he recognizes the need to arm the donors with talking points to address Clinton's rapidly deteriorating support with Democratic primary voters. The Podesta email suggests attempting to minimize Clinton's use of her private server by comparing it to Powell's occasional use of his personal email account. This is a risky and faulty comparison. None of Powell's emails from his private account  only two or three dozen  contained matters that were confidential, secret or top-secret. Clinton diverted all of her email traffic to her private server  some 66,000 emails, about 2,200 of which contained state secrets. Moreover, Powell never used his own server, nor is he presently seeking to become the chief federal law enforcement officer in the land. The inspector general who wrote the report was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate in 2013, after Clinton left office. He did a commendable job  one so thorough and enlightening that it has highlighted the important role that inspectors general play in government today. Today every department in the executive branch has, by law, an inspector general in place who has the authority to investigate the department  keeping officials' feet to the fire by exposing failure to comply with federal law. If you are curious as to why the inspector general of the State Department during Clinton's years as secretary did not discover all of Clinton's lawbreaking while she was doing it, the answer will alarm but probably not surprise you. There was no inspector general at the State Department during Clinton's tenure as secretary  a state of affairs unique in modern history; and she knew that. How much more knowledge of her manipulations will the Justice Department tolerate before enforcing the law? A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Notre Dame Law School, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano is the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of New Jersey. He sat on the bench from 1987 to 1995, during which time he presided over 150 jury trials and thousands of motions, sentencings and hearings. He taught constitutional law at Seton Hall Law School for 11 years, and he returned to private practice in 1995. Judge Napolitano began television work in the same year.
Pentagon: Special Ops Killing of Pregnant Afghan Women Was Appropriate Use of Force By Jeremy Scahill June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - The Intercept - In internal Defense Department investigation into one of the most notorious night raids conducted by special operations forces in Afghanistan  in which seven civilians were killed, including two pregnant women  determined that all the U.S. soldiers involved had followed the rules of engagement. As a result, the soldiers faced no disciplinary measures, according to hundreds of pages of Defense Department documents obtained by The Intercept through the Freedom of Information Act. In the aftermath of the raid, Adm. William McRaven, at the time the commander of the elite Joint Special Operations Command, took responsibility for the operation. The documents made no unredacted mention of JSOC. Although two children were shot during the raid and multiple witnesses and Afghan investigators alleged that U.S. soldiers dug bullets out of the body of at least one of the dead pregnant women, Defense Department investigators concluded that the amount of force utilized was necessary, proportional and applied at appropriate time. The investigation did acknowledge that tactical mistakes were made. The Defense Departments conclusions bear a resemblance to U.S. Central Commands findings in the aftermath of the horrifying attack on a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, last October in which 42 patients and medical workers were killed in a sustained barrage of strikes by an AC-130. The Pentagon has announced that no criminal charges will be brought against any members of the military for the Kunduz strike. CENTCOMs Kunduz investigation concluded that the incident resulted from a combination of unintentional human errors, process errors, and equipment failures. CENTCOM denied the attack constituted a war crime, a claim challenged by international law experts and MSF. The February 2010 night raid, which took place in a village near Gardez in Paktia province, was described by the U.S. military at the time as a heroic attack against Taliban militants. A press release published by NATO in Afghanistan soon after the raid asserted that a joint Afghan-international operation had made a gruesome discovery. According to NATO, the force entered a compound near the village of Khataba after intelligence had confirmed it to be the site of militant activity. As the team approached, they were engaged in a fire fight by several insurgents. The Americans killed the insurgents and were securing the area when they made their discovery: three women who had been bound and gagged and then executed inside the compound. The U.S. force, the press release alleged, found the women hidden in an adjacent room. The story was picked up and spread throughout the media. A senior U.S. military official told CNN that the bodies had the earmarks of a traditional honor killing. But the raid quickly gained international infamy after survivors and local Afghan investigators began offering a completely different narrative of the deadly events that night to a British reporter, Jerome Starkey, who began a serious investigation of the Gardez killings. When I visited Starkey in Kabul, he told me that at first he saw no reason to discount the official story. I thought it was worth investigating because if that press release was true  a mass honor killing, three women killed by Taliban who were then killed by Special Forces  that in itself would have made an extraordinary and intriguing story. But when he traveled to Gardez and began assembling witnesses to meet him in the area, he immediately realized NATOs story was likely false. Starkeys reporting, which first uncovered the horrifying details of what happened that night, forced NATO and the U.S. military to abandon the honor killings cover story. A half-hearted official investigation ensued. Witnesses and survivors described an unprovoked assault on the family compound of Mohammed Daoud Sharabuddin, a police officer who had just received an important promotion. Daoud and his family had gathered to celebrate the naming of a newborn son, a ritual that takes place on the sixth day of a childs life. Unlike the predominantly Pashtun Taliban, the Sharabuddin family were ethnic Tajiks, and their main language was Dari. Many of the men in the family were clean-shaven or wore only mustaches, and they had long opposed the Taliban. Daoud, the police commander, had gone through dozens of U.S. training programs, and his home was filled with photos of himself with American soldiers. Another family member was a prosecutor for the U.S.-backed local government, and a third was the vice chancellor at the local university. At about 3:30 a.m., when the family heard noises outside their compound, Daoud and his 15-year-old son Sediqullah, fearing a Taliban attack, went outside to investigate. Both were immediately hit with sniper fire. All the children were shouting, Daoud is shot! Daoud is shot! Daouds brother-in-law Tahir recalled when I visited the family compound in 2010. Daouds eldest son was behind his father and younger brother when they were hit. When my father went down, I screamed, he told me. Everybody  my uncles, the women, everybody came out of the home and ran to the corridors of the house. I sprinted to them and warned them not to come out as there were Americans attacking and they would kill them. Within a matter of minutes, a family celebration had become a massacre. Seven people died, including three women and two people who later succumbed to their injuries. Two of the women had been pregnant. Sixteen children lost their mothers. The Americans were still present when survivors prepared burial shrouds for those who had died. The Afghan custom involves binding the feet and head. A scarf secured around the bottom of the chin is meant to keep the mouth of the deceased from hanging open. They managed to do this before the Americans began handcuffing them and dividing the surviving men and women into separate areas. Several of the male family members told me that it was around this time that they witnessed a horrifying scene: U.S. soldiers digging the bullets out of the womens bodies. They were putting knives into their injuries to take out the bullets, Sabir told me. I asked him bluntly, You saw the Americans digging the bullets out of the womens bodies? Without hesitation, he said, Yes. Tahir told me he saw the Americans with knives standing over the bodies. They were taking out the bullets from their bodies to remove the proof of their crime. Months after the February 2010 night raid, Jeremy Scahill interviewed survivors. A brief clip from Dirty Wars. The U.S. militarys internal investigation into the raid, which was described in detail in the documents obtained by The Intercept, was ordered by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, who at the time of the raid was the commander of all international forces in Afghanistan. The lead investigator, whose identity was redacted, noted at the beginning of the report that he did not visit the scene of the raid, saying that the risks of re-awakening emotional and political turmoil would not have been worth the cost. Instead, family members of the victims were asked to travel to a U.S. base to be interviewed. The documents redactions and omissions are perhaps more interesting than the conclusions of the investigation. U.S. Central Command released 535 pages, including more than 100 photographs taken at the scene, but withheld nearly 400 additional pages, stating that they are exempt from FOIA for national security reasons. Photographs of bodies and wounds were redacted. The documents include NATO press releases and talking points claiming that the victims of the U.S. attack were Taliban militants and offering the standard assurances that Coalition Forces take every precaution to ensure non-combatant civilians are protected from possible hostilities during the course of every operation. An error-laden questions and answers document stated that during the operation, two militants [were] killed and one wounded, and one women and two children were protected. A list of talking points titled Post Operation IO and Mitigation characterized the Area Tribe in the following terms: One Ph.D described them as great robbers and utter savages and that their country was formerly a refuge for bad characters. While the investigation asserted that the soldiers did not dig any bullets out of the bodies of the dead, the sections of the investigation addressing this allegation were almost entirely redacted. The investigation found that the survivors interviewed in the raids aftermath, referred to as detainees, provided credible testimony. The report also noted consistency in all eight detainees statements that would be impossible to pre-plan without prior knowledge of specifics of the operation, adding that the detainee reports corroborate that the women died when they tried to stop Zahir [one of the men killed] from exiting the building. Despite this assessment of the credibility of the survivors testimony, the Pentagon investigation dismissed outright the statements from multiple witnesses, including the husband of one of the dead women, that the Americans dug bullets from the womens bodies. This investigation found no attempt to hide or cover up the circumstances of the local national womens deaths, the executive summary of the investigation concluded. The investigators were instructed by the main U.S. command at Bagram to determine: Did anyone alter, clean or otherwise tamper with the scene in any way following the operation, and if so, why? The answer to that question was completely redacted. The investigation did note, however, that the Afghan investigation conducted immediately after the raid reports that an American bullet was found in the body of one of the dead women, but it does not say how that bullet was found or who removed it from the woman. Citing statements from the members of the strike force that conducted the raid, the investigators asserted, There is no evidence to support that bullets were removed from the bodies by anyone associated with U.S. forces. The initial press release on the raid contained erroneous information about the women being bound and gagged, according to the investigation, because the ground force was confused by the unfamiliar sight of the women prepared so quickly for burial and firmly believed that they did not kill the three women. The investigation concluded that the assumption that the women had been killed by Afghans and placed on the scene was an honest assessment and the result of a lack of cultural awareness, not an attempt to mislead higher headquarters. According to the instructions provided to investigators, the U.S. forces claimed the women had been killed as many as two days before the raid occurred, but the report observed that their remains were collocated with EKIA, enemies killed in action, and photos taken in the immediate aftermath showed the women with wounds indicating they had been killed during the raid. Was this an attempt to deceive? That question was not answered in the documents provided by the Pentagon, at least not in an unredacted format. The report also noted a curious contradiction. One of the men killed by American forces had been prepared for burial just as the dead women were  with a cloth wrap tied around his head so his jaw would remain closed. Yet when the U.S. forces first reported on the raid, they described only the women as having their heads bound and suggested their deaths were the result of a cultural custom. The cause of death listed for the men was gunshot wounds to the chest. For the three women, the cause of death was wounds. The most credible theory, according to the final report, was that the women were killed in a shoot through once the raid had begun, and that their deaths were unintentional  and unknown to the shooters. It is undeniable that five innocent people were killed and two innocent men were wounded in the conduct of this operation, the report stated. To simply call this regrettable would be callous; it is much more than that. However, the unique chain of events that led to their deaths is explicable. According to the report, the university official who was at the party inside the compound called the police headquarters in Paktia as the raid was beginning because he believed the house was coming under attack from the Taliban. All the witnesses interviewed stated that Mohammed Daoud, the Afghan police commander, left the party and entered the courtyard, believing he was confronting a Taliban attack. Still, the investigation concluded that the U.S. forces were justified in shooting him, as well as his cousin Mohammed Saranwal Zahir, the local prosecutor. The investigators found that the men had showed hostile intent because they were armed with rifles. In the end, the investigation determined that American forces had followed the rules of engagement and standard operating procedures during the raid, concluding only that there were tactical mistakes made. The investigation recommended that the coalition forces make an appropriate condolence payment to the family as a sign of good faith in our sincerity at the seriousness of the incident. Because of excessive redactions, these documents fail to answer many questions. While the report referenced Special Forces, the specific unit was redacted. The report also seemed to indicate that the strike force came from a base in another province, rather than the local base in Paktia, yet offered no explanation. The letter accompanying the documents provided to The Intercept stated that some documents could not be released because they would expose inter-agency and intra-agency memorandum. What other agencies were involved in this raid and subsequent management of the fallout and investigation? Who provided the Americans with the intelligence that led to the raid, which claimed that a Taliban facilitator was present? No explanation was given for why the documents, which were requested from SOCOM, the parent command of JSOC, under the Freedom of Information Act in March 2011, were only now released, after being reviewed by another  unnamed  agency. The report noted that there are considerable questions about the cause of the females deaths and males injuries as well as multiple inconsistencies between what was observed and what has since been reported by local nationals. If the women were killed by U.S. forces, even in a shoot through, what happened to the bullets? The report stated that the throat of one of the women had been slit with a knife and that another dead body contained knife marks on the chest. Where did these lacerations come from? One investigator observed a blood splatter pattern that appeared to be more consistent with blunt force trauma and suggested someone had possibly slipped on the ice and split open his or her head on the hard concrete. If that is truly what the splatter indicated, then which person received those injuries? If the investigators determined the surviving witnesses of the raid were convincing and credible, why then was their testimony about Americans digging bullets out of the womens dead bodies discarded? Mohammed Sabir was one of the men singled out for further interrogation after the raid. With his clothes still caked with the blood of his loved ones, Sabir and seven other men were hooded and shackled. They tied our hands and blindfolded us, he recalled. Two people grabbed us and pushed us, one by one, into the helicopter. They were flown to a different Afghan province, Paktika, where the Americans held them for days. My senses werent working at all, he recalled. I couldnt cry, I was numb. I didnt eat for three days and nights. They didnt give us water to wash the blood away. The Americans ran biometric tests on the men, photographed their irises, and took their fingerprints. Sabir described to me how teams of interrogators, including both Americans and Afghans, questioned him about his familys connections to the Taliban. Sabir told them that his family was against the Taliban, had fought the Taliban, and that some relatives had been kidnapped by the Taliban. The interrogators had short beards and didnt wear uniforms. They had big muscles and would fly into sudden rages, Sabir recalled, adding that they shook him violently at times. We told them truthfully that there were not Taliban in our home. One of the Americans, he said, told him they had intelligence that a suicide bomber had hidden in your house and that he was planning an operation. Sabir told them, If we would have had a suicide bomber at home, then would we be playing music in our house? Almost all guests were government employees. By the time Mohammed Sabir returned home after being held in American custody, he had missed the burial of his wife and other family members. The Pentagon investigation stands in stark contrast to an independent investigation conducted by a United Nations team, which determined that the survivors of the raid suffered from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by being physically assaulted by U.S. and Afghan forces, restrained and forced to stand bare feet for several hours outside in the cold. The U.N. investigation added that witnesses alleged that U.S. and Afghan forces refused to provide adequate and timely medical support to two people who sustained serious bullet injuries, resulting in their death hours later. The Pentagon investigation did note that three of the survivors detained stated they had been tortured by Special Forces, but that allegation was buried below statements attributed to other survivors who said being held by the American forces felt like home not like prisoner and they were treated very well. In the end, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, Vice Adm. William McRaven, visited the compound in Gardez accompanied by a phalanx of Afghan and U.S. soldiers. He made an offer to the family to sacrifice a sheep, which his force had brought with them on a truck, to ask forgiveness. Months later, when I sat with the family elder, Hajji Sharabuddin, at his home, his anger seemed only to have hardened. I dont accept their apology. I would not trade my sons for the whole kingdom of the United States, he told me, holding up a picture of his sons. Initially, we were thinking that Americans were the friends of Afghans, but now we think that Americans themselves are terrorists. Americans are our enemy. They bring terror and destruction. Americans not only destroyed my house, they destroyed my family. The Americans unleashed the Special Forces on us. These Special Forces, with the long beards, did cruel, criminal things. We call them the American Taliban, added Mohammed Tahir, the father of Gulalai, one of the slain women. The internal investigation ordered by Gen. McChrystal into the Gardez raid is an incomplete accounting of this horrifying incident. It is also based on the word of the force that carried out the killings, whose personnel could have faced serious charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice if investigators had taken seriously the survivors allegations. Portions of this article were adapted from Scahills 2014 book, Dirty Wars.
100 Years On Still in the Trenches By Finian Cunningham June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " SCF " - This year marks the 100th anniversary of two of the biggest military slaughters in history  the battles of the Somme and Verdun, both fought during the First World War. Shockingly, when we survey the warmongering mentality today of US-led NATO powers one may deduce that not much has changed fundamentally. We see the same murderous squander of human potential by an unaccountable elite. During the Somme and Verdun campaigns, upwards of two million casualties were suffered on all sides by the British and French armies in trench warfare with their German enemy. The Somme was the deadliest battle of the entire war, pitched between July and November 1916, while Verdun was the longest running, from February until December in the same year. For the British army the opening day of the Somme remains its worst day in martial history, incurring some 60,000 casualties and losses in a matter of hours. The First World War, from 1914 to 1918, which was waged mainly on French territory and pitted major European powers, including Russia, against one another, resulted in a total death toll of 17 million, of which the majority  11 million  were military. It is astounding to think that only a mere 20 years later, an even more catastrophic world war would take place. The Second World War (1939-1945) resulted in at least 60 million dead. And in that carnage, it was civilians who would comprise the vast majority of the dead. Both wars became emblematic of industrial-scale killing. Machine-guns, tanks, warplanes and warships were first deployed on a scale never seen before in the history of warfare. However, it is the First World War perhaps that stands out as the more futile and barbaric. After all, during the Second World War, known as the Great Patriotic War in Russia, men and women courageously gave their lives to defeat a brutal, genocidal ideology of fascist imperialism espoused by the Axis Powers led by Nazi Germany. By contrast, there was no such noble ideological or moral contest about the First World War. It was simply an imperialist power-grab between Europes monarchies and capitalist ruling classes. It is no coincidence that the slaughter of millions of ordinary citizens in the trenches impelled the insurrectionary ferment for the Russian workers revolution in 1917. The war also fomented workers movements and socialist politics across Europe and the United States out of aversion to the barbarity of warmongering rulers. When looking back on the Somme and Verdun battles, one cannot but wonder at the depravity of the slaughter. For days, weeks and months, wave after wave of men from opposing lines were ordered over-the-top to charge into no mans land where they were cut to pieces by artillery and rifle fire. Millions of human beings were forced to endure extreme deprivation, disease, hunger, the terror of chemical weapons and the hell of witnessing their fellow men being mutilated in rat-infested trenches. And for what? Through all the mud and blood-splattered carnage, the battle lines were scarcely altered in the ebb and flow of killing. And all this suffering for the rivalry and prestige of a tiny ruling class in the respective warring nations, who also made financial fortunes from the mayhem. The contemporary point though is this: has anything really changed when we survey our modern world? The same obscene waste of resources and human life appears to prevail  all at the behest of unaccountable rulers and their corporate masters. The United States and its Western allies  Britain, France and other NATO members  every year spend an estimated combined total of $1 trillion on military. The US allocates the lions share, with some $600 billion a year. By comparison, the expenditure by the US-led military alliance on productive economy and public services of education and health is a fraction of that devoted to the means of war. At the latest G7 Summit held in Japan, the assembled political leaders were reportedly concerned about the dimming prospects of economic growth, and rising poverty and unemployment within their societies. Is it not ludicrous for these so-called leaders to express such concerns, yet they allocate trillions of dollars each year to war machines? How much of Frances unemployment problem, for example, could be solved if its government henceforth directed the countrys $50 billion annual military spend towards socially productive activities? Nonetheless, and perversely, the French government of Francois Hollande instead demands that workers rights and public services be gutted in order to boost the economy. The same fiendish futility can be said about the US, Canada, Britain, Germany and so on. How is that in supposed democracies the relentless misallocation of economic resources is permitted without the slightest public debate, let alone challenge? Is it not proof of despotism that a minuscule section of society can hold the majority effectively to destructive ransom? Moreover, the squandering of so much economic and social potential in the form of militarism among the NATO powers engenders the despicable logic of all-out war-making. It is truly alarming how the US and its NATO allies are contriving a case for war against either Russia or China  all on the basis of spurious claims or from reluctance to resolve alleged disputes through diplomacy and dialogue. Not surprisingly, Russia and China are compelled to likewise devote more of their economic resources to spending on military at the expense of productive social development within their societies. This vicious circle of militarism and war becomes global and self-reinforcing  and all the while the impetus for this cataclysmic dynamic is largely set off by a social elite of corporate bosses, finance capital, lobbyists and their paid-for politicians. A century on from the horror of the First World War and its epic slaughters, it is not an exaggeration to say that the majority of we humans are still being forced against our better judgments and needs into war by an oligarchy of arm-chair generals, politicians and financiers. How is it that we are, in effect, standing in poverty and social deprivation waiting for the sounds of war to explode? One hundred years after the Somme and Verdun, we are still in the trenches.
War Criminal Blair Warmongers for Ground Invasion of Syria and Iraq By Steven MacMillan



June 02, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " NEO " - In an ideal world, Tony Blair would have been tried for war crimes years ago, and most probably would be over a decade into a life-time jail sentence for his role in the Iraq war. However, in our Orwellian world, devoid of justice and accountability, Blair is doing what he does best: warmongering. The former British Prime Minister stated this week that in order to defeat ISIS, Britain and the wider West will have to wage a proper ground war against them. Blair has been a vocal of proponent of deploying ground forces against ISIS in the Middle East and North Africa, calling again for Western troops on the ground in March of this year. Blairs remarks are conformation of what many in the independent media have been warning about for years now; that some individuals in the West are trying to use the threat of ISIS (which they created) to launch a full-scale invasion of Syria and attempt to oust Assad. If the West is filled with enough hubris to actually deploy ground troops to Syria, it would move the West one step closer to military confrontation with Russia. The Illegal Invasion of the Cradle of Civilisation There is ubiquitous evidence which proves that the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq was an illegal, criminal and highly destructive policy. In 2004, the former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, denounced the invasion as illegal, adding that it was in violation of the UN charter. The former chief weapons inspector for the UN, Hans Blix, also condemned the Iraq war as illegal, and argued that London and Washington should have known that their sources were poor in relation to those elusive weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore, a Dutch inquiry in 2010 concluded that the Iraq war was illegal, and that it had no grounding in international law. There have been some reports in the UK press that senior officials in Blairs government were told to burn a 13-page document from the former attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, who raised questions over the legality of the war, a fortnight before the war began. A Malaysian tribunal in 2011 which applied the Nuremberg Principles to the 2003 war found that both George Bush and Tony Blair were guilty of war crimes. A leaked memo written by former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, also appears to show that Blair was committed to military action a year prior to the invasion. Although the death toll is widely contested and difficult to calculate, a 2013 study published in the medical journal PLOS Medicine, concluded that approximately 500,000 people died in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, due to the war and subsequent occupation of the country. Flashback: US Made Willful Decision to Support ISIS Rise Blairs sole justification for advocating another Western ground invasion in the Middle East (because the 2003 one went so well) is based on the threat posed from ISIS. What Blair conveniently omits from his warmongering remarks however, is the revelation from the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Michael Flynn, last year. In an interview with Mehdi Hasan of Al Jazeera, Flynn reveals that the Obama administration was well aware that the Syrian opposition was predominantly composed of terrorist forces; but instead of halting the support for the Syrian opposition, the administration took the willful decision  to support the extremists anyway. Tony Blair belongs behind bars; not in the public arena advocating another ludicrous and nefarious war in the Middle East. A Western ground invasion would be disastrous for the region, and would only add fuel to an already volatile fire. Any rationale Western strategy would concentrate on stopping the flow of arms and money to the extremists in the region, and assist Russia and the Syrian army in their effective war against the terrorists destabilising Syria. Steven MacMillan is an independent writer, researcher, geopolitical analyst and editor of The Analyst Report, especially for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook.
As the Nigerian Navy (NN) celebrates its 60th anniversary today, June 2nd, INFORMATION NIGERIA brings you 9 very interesting facts every Nigerian should know about the Navy.

1.The Nigerian Navy (NN) is a branch of the Nigerian Armed Forces. The Nigerian Navy is among the largest Navies on the African continent, consisting of several thousand personnel, including those of the Coast Guard.

2.The Nigerian Navy owes its origin to the Nigerian Marine. Formed in 1914 after the amalgamation of the then Northern and Southern Nigeria, the Nigerian Marine (as it became known after 1914) was a quasi-military organization

3. The responsibilities of the Marine included administration of the ports and harbours, dredging of channels, bouyage and lighting. It also operated ferry services, touring launches, and other small craft that plied the various creeks and other inland waterways.

4.The first basic training establishment for the future Navy  the HMNS QUORRA  was started on 1 November 1957 with 60 junior ratings, who underwent a 6-month basic seamanship course.

5.In July 1959, the Nigerian Naval Force was transformed into a full-fledged Navy when Queen Elizabeth granted permission for the Force to use the title Royal Nigerian Navy. The title was changed to the Nigerian Navy in 1963 after Nigeria became a republic.

6.. The constitutional task of the Navy was expanded in 1964 after the repeal of the 1958 Ordinance. The new law, known as the Navy Act of 1964, for the first time tasked the Navy with the naval defence of Nigeria.

7.The 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Armed Forces Act CAP A20 accordingly charged the NN with the defence of Nigeria by sea.

8.The Chief of the Naval Staff is the highest ranking military officer of the Nigerian Navy. The position is often occupied by the most senior commissioned officer appointed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

9. The Chief of the Naval Staff is the highest ranking military officer of the Nigerian Navy. The position is often occupied by the most senior commissioned officer appointed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

Happy 60th anniversary NN, thanks for securing Nigeria.
Seventy seven Boko Haram insurgents have laid down their arms and surrendered to troops of the 122 Task Force Battalion on Operation Lafiya Dole in Borno State.

The Nigerian Army, which made the announcement yesterday in a statement by its spokesman, Sani Usman, said the insurgents have been moved to Yamteke for preliminary investigation and screening.

Meanwhile, Usman, a colonel, said troops also arrested an army deserter, Corporal Musa Titima of the 117 Task Force Battalion attached to the 114 Task Force Battalion, who absconded from duty while on Operation Crackdown at Bitta.

According to the Army spokesman, the deserter was also allegedly involved in a fracas with one Mr. Salisu Ngatha at Kabang Ward on May 30, 2016.

The fracas led to the death of Mr. Ngatha, Col. Usman added.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State has changed the face of governance with his sterling performance in just one year in office, founder of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Dr. Frederick Fasehun has said.

The OPC founder, who described Ambode as a true leader and politician that identifies with the needs of people and delights in finding solutions to problems, was reacting to the commissioning of the Ago-Palace way, in Okota Isolo.

The road was one of the projects slated for commissioning by President Muhammadu Buhari during his botched visit to the state last week Monday. It was however, commissioned by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, who represented the president.

Fasehun, who is also the National Chairman of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, recalled that the road had been deplorable since the military administration of Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd).

He recalled that Ambode, as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, during the last general elections, promised to construct the road if elected and true to his word, he delivered on the project in less than a year in office.

He said, Ambode has done extremely well judging by the nature of Nigerians when they first come to office. You wouldnt know he is a Nigerian. He is out to serve the people; he identifies the need of the people and go out to solve such needs. If we have six of Ambodes out of 36 state governors, Nigerians would be smiling. He has done very and I wish him well.

He should improve on the style of governance, you know me very well that I dont fear to speak. I dont think he has any shortcomings in any areas. He can look to do better because there is always room for improvement in all areas of human endeavour.

Ambode in all modesty has introduced a new style in serving the people. He gave promise and he has kept the promise that is why people are praying for him, nobody jeers at Ambode. He moves with the people, he identifies with the need of the people and he is finding solutions to the problem.

Fasehun further recalled that promises by successive governors since the era of Marwa to fix the Ago Palace Way-Okota Road did not yield any result until Ambode came into office.

They could not do that until when Ambode came in last year and promised the people that he would rebuild Ago-Okota road and just in less than a year, you can see what Ago- Okota road is looking like.

Should we not praise him for the good job done and urge him to continue? I know people who would hear me talking glowingly of him would say I have been given money. I have not met Ambode face to face like this. God admires those who tell the truth, Ambode has been serving the people very well, the OPC boss said.
Reports say at least 130 Iraqi soldiers have been killed in a series of attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group near the city of Fallujah in Anbar province.

The first attack happened at dawn on Wednesday when 10 suicide bombers belonging to ISIL, also known as ISIS, hit the town of Kubaisah before storming the nearby village of Al Sejar, and then attacked an army convoy to the south of Fallujah at Amiriyat al-Fallujah with roadside bombs, military sources told Al Jazeera.

After more than a week of operations aimed at retaking Fallujah, which lies just 50km west of Baghdad, the Iraqi army  made up of the military, police and Shia units, and backed by air power from a US-led coalition  has been unable to reach the city centre.

The overall commander of the Fallujah operation, Lieutenant-General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, told Al Jazeera that while the Iraqi army had slowed its advance, it was still at the fringes of Fallujah.

We are here in Naimiyah district and operations are ongoing, and the advance towards the centre of Fallujah is continuing too, he said.

The Iraqi government has blamed ISIL for the slow progress by using human shields and preventing civilians from leaving the city.

It wouldve been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting civilians wasnt one of the foundations of our plan, Haider al-Abadi, Iraqs prime minister, said in comments broadcast by state television.

Since the start of the operation on May 22-23, Iraqi commanders have claimed to have killed dozens of ISIL fighters but remain hesitant about releasing their own casualty figures.
Deputy Speaker of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, John Audu, has reportedly ordered the arrest of two staff of the Kaduna Electric Distribution Company (KEDC).

The staff, whose names were given as Danjuma Stephen and Olabode Olaborede, were arrested yesterday by policemen for having the guts to disconnect the residence of the deputy Speaker in Sabon Tasha, Kaduna South area of the state from public power source.

It was learnt that the deputy Speakers residence was disconnected over non-payment of his bill on Wednesday last week but that he (Audu) went ahead to restore supply to the property.

The spokesman for KEDC, Abdulaziz Abdullahi said after discovering that the house had been reconnected without following due process, the companys staff returned to cut off its power supply line only for the deputy Speaker to order their arrest.

Mr. Abdullahi, who condemned Mr. Audus act of sheer impunity in the strongest terms, claimed that Messrs. Stephen and Olaborede of the Sabo Service Centre, had been in detention at the Sabo police station for over four hours.

But the deputy Speaker claimed his residence was illegally disconnected because he had paid the tariff and had evidence to show for it.

One of his advisers, who identified himself as Mr. Maika Kure, explained that it was when officials of the KEDC came into the Deputy Speakers house and assaulted his security and orderly that he (Audu) ordered the police to arrest them because according to him, the mission of the officials at that stage appeared suspicious.
This week in the Arts:

Thursday, June 2



Ambi Artists at Heritage House





Friday, June 3



Cambridge Square Night Market



Abstract Paintings at In-Town Gallery



Swine: Grand Opening Reception at Cine-Rama



First Friday at Area 61 Gallery



ShapeShifter Gallery Debut at the Rev Center for Optimal Living



The Importance of Being Earnest In the Face of the Zombie Apocalypse at the Mars Theatre





Saturday, June 4



Chattanooga River Market at the Tennessee Aquarium



The Glass Class at the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts



Chattanooga Latin Nights at the Camp House



Cine-Rama Grand Opening: High-Rise



The Importance of Being Earnest In the Face of the Zombie Apocalypse at the Mars Theatre





Sunday, June 5



A Painter's Hand: The Works of Adolph Gottlieb at the Hunter Museum of American Art



Chattanooga Market Sweet 16 Birthday Party



The Importance of Being Earnest In the Face of the Zombie Apocalypse at the Mars Theatre





Monday, June 6



Kid's Summer Camp at the Hunter Museum | "Drawing the Line" (Ages 6-8)



Arts Camp at St.

Paul's Episcopal ChurchSummer Arts Camp Week at the Museum Center at 5ive PointsArt 120 Art Car Camp (Ages 14-17) at the Southside Maker Art CenterTuesday, June 7Kid's Summer Camp at the Hunter Museum | "Drawing the Line" (Ages 6-8)Arts Camp at St. Paul's Episcopal ChurchWednesday, June 8Kid's Summer Camp at the Hunter Museum | "Drawing the Line" (Ages 6-8)Arts Camp at St. Paul's Episcopal ChurchCollegedale MarketStill Life Drawing Class at Townsend AtelierThursday, June 9Free Family Night Presented by TVA at the Creative Discovery MuseumKid's Summer Camp at the Hunter Museum | "Drawing the Line" (Ages 6-8)Arts Camp at St. Paul's Episcopal ChurchBooks & More Sale at the Chattanooga Public LibraryCinematics: The True Cost at the Edney Innovation CenterBeginner Clogging Class at the East Ridge Community CenterFriday, June 10Kid's Summer Camp at the Hunter Museum | "Drawing the Line" (Ages 6-8)Club Hunter at the Hunter Museum of American ArtArts Camp at St. Paul's Episcopal ChurchBooks & More Sale at the Chattanooga Public LibraryCambridge Square Night MarketRiverbend Festival at Ross's LandingTell It Like It Is at Brainerd United Methodist ChurchThe Importance of Being Earnest In the Face of the Zombie Apocalypse at Mars TheatreSaturday, June 11Club Hunter at the Hunter Museum of American ArtPainting the City | Landscape Painting Workshop at Townsend AtelierChattanooga River Market at the Tennessee AquariumBooks & More Sale at the Chattanooga Public LibraryCo-Learning: Intro to 3D Design with Tinkercad at the Chattanooga Public LibraryRiverbend Festival at Ross's LandingOpen Mic Night at The Meeting HouseThe Importance of Being Earnest In the Face of the Zombie Apocalypse at Mars TheatreSunday, June 12Club Hunter at the Hunter Museum of American ArtPainting the City | Landscape Painting Workshop at Townsend AtelierChattanooga Market Beast Feast BBQ FestivalThe Importance of Being Earnest In the Face of the Zombie Apocalypse at Mars TheatreRiverbend Festival at Ross's LandingCurrent Ongoing Exhibits and CollectionsPSC Opens Gallery at Blackwell Summer Season ShowRiver Gallery June Exhibit Featuring Mia KaplanArtist-in-Residence Arni Katz at the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts AssociationMixed Media Inspired Artists "Contemporary Voyages" at Harris Art Center"Here's Looking at You" Exhibit at the Houston Museum of Decorative Arts
The debate about Britains exit which is now popularly referred to as BREXIT from the European Union has been ongoing for the better part of a month.

In the run up to the June 23 referendum in which British citizens will decide on a possible European Union Exit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the most recent to speak on the Brexit debate.

Angela Merkel spoke at a news conference in Berlin where she suggested that it is to Germanys benefit that UK remains in the shaky union.

Obviously, it is up to the citizens of the UK themselves how they wish to vote on the upcoming referendum. Ive said repeatedly before that I personally would hope and wish for the UK to stay part and parcel of the EU.

We work well together with the UK particularly when we talk about new rules for the EU.

We have to develop those together with the UK and whenever we negotiate that, you can much better have an influence on the debate when you sit at the bargaining table and you can give input to those negotiations and the result will then invariably be better rather than being outside of the room. The German Chancellor said
The highly publicized visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Rivers State to flag off the clean-up of Ogoni land and other communities in Niger Delta, recommended by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), has been canceled.

The president was scheduled to flag off the clean up exercise in Bodo, Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State on Thursday but a last minute change of plan resulted in the visit been shelved.

According to unofficial sources, President Buhari has instead asked Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to represent him at the official clean-up exercise of Ogoni land, which has suffered years of environmental degradation and devastation as a result of oil spill by companies operating in the area.

Our correspondent reports that this is the third time in less than two weeks that the president will cancel high profile visit to states in the last minute after he pulled the plug on his visit to Lagos State last week Monday and Cross River State last Friday.
President Muhammad Buhari has reportedly canceled his planned official trip to Rivers State.

President Buhari was expected to arrive on Thursday to flag off the clean-up of the Ogoni land ravaged by oil spill and production degradation.

The clean-up was to be inaugurated at Numuu-Tekuru Waterfront in Bodo-Ogoni, Gokana local government in line with the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Ogonilands environmental assessment.

According to SaharaReporters, no reason was given for the last minute cancellation.

Buhari will now be represented by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo. This would be the second time in recent weeks, Buhari will cancel a planned trip.

If you recall, the President had canceled a similar planned official trip to Lagos state over what some of his aides claimed was a disturbing ear infection.
President Muhammadu Buhari will today visit Rivers State to flag off the clean-up of the Ogoni land ravaged by oil spill and production degradation.

The clean-up will be inaugurated at Numuu-Tekuru Waterfront in Bodo-Ogoni, Gokana local government in line with the recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Ogonilands environmental assessment.

Meanwhile, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has urged the people of the state to maintain peace during the presidents visit and urged them to give a rousing welcome to our amiable president.

As part of measures to enhance security during Mr. Presidents visit, I hereby place a ban on the operations of motorcycles and tricycles in Gokana and Khana LGAs between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursday, 2nd June 2016. The security agencies have been directed to enforce this ban and ensure full compliance, Wike said in a broadcast.

I call on Rivers people, particularly the people of Ogoni land, to come out in great numbers and give our amiable President a rousing welcome during his visit.

It is historic because it marks his first official visit to the state since assuming office as the President of this great nation. It is most significant because Mr. President is not on a political mission, but to kick-start the largest environmental clean-up in our nations history, for which Rivers people, and indeed the Niger Delta, will remain grateful.

I call on Rivers people to be peaceful, law-abiding and demonstrate the traditional Rivers hospitality towards Mr. President and his distinguished entourage throughout the visit. As I have noted earlier, Mr. President is here as the father of the nation, who cares about the environmental and developmental challenges that we face as one of his primary constituencies.

Accordingly, his presence in Rivers State is not an occasion for political campaigns by anybody or political party. Rather, it is an occasion and an opportunity for us to demonstrate unity of purpose and our readiness to work together with Mr. President to move Rivers State, Wike said.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) yesterday reiterated the resolve of the Armed Forces to flush out economic saboteurs in the Niger Delta.

The DHQ spoke against the backdrop of continued bombings of oil and gas installations by militant group, Niger Delta Avengers and allegations of human rights abuses by soldiers searching for militants in the region.

The Director of Defence Information, Rabe Abubakar, who made this known in a statement, said the military had become aware of a campaign of calumny against soldiers on operations to stop saboteurs from vandalizing critical oil installations in the Niger Delta.

Mr. Abubakar, a Brigadier General, however, insisted that the military and other security agencies would continue to discharge their lawful duties in the Niger Delta and any other part of the country in a most professional manner devoid of the claim by the criminal elements of harassment, intimidation and arrests.
Spanish giants Barcelona have confirmed that right back Dani Alves will leave the club this summer.

The 33-year old right back has been at the club since 2008 where he won many trophies including three UEFA champions League medals. He also recently won the La Liga and Copa Del Rey honors in the 2015/2016 season.

SEE ALSO: Barcelona Make An Audacious Bid For Dybala

Barcelonas sporting director, Robert Fernandez confirmed the Brazilians exit while stating that the club are confident they have depth in the squad to fill his boots.

Dani Alves has decided to leave Robert Fernandez said. Its a personal decision that we respect

At right back, we have confidence in Alex Vidal, he was signed for that reason. We also have Sergi Roberto.

Dani Alves is reputed to be one of the best right backs in the world and he will be the last defender of Guardiolas original back four to leave the club.
The Federal Government has inaugurated the technical committee set up to look into Labours grievances following the increase in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

The committee was inaugurated by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), David Babachir Lawal.

Briefing journalists at the end of the committees inaugural meeting, the chairman, who is also the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige said the committee has been commissioned to look into three key areas.

Government has already provided N500 billion in the 2016 budget as palliatives and this will be subjected to a review by the committee, Ngige said.

Another term of reference is the recommendation of the composition of the board of the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

Labour had faulted the federal governments rationale for hiking the fuel price from N86.50 to N145 per litre when the board of the PPPRA was not in place. The NLC had also requested that the federal government include labour stakeholders in the N500 billion palliative measures it planned to use to cushion the effect of the fuel price hike.

The union also demanded for upward review of the minimum wage to N56,000.
A former acting Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has been detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in connection with the ongoing probe of a N1.9billion fraud.

He is being investigated for alleged abuse of office and corruption during his 86 days stint as acting governor.

Mr. Fintitri, a former Speaker of the Adamawa State House of Assembly, became acting governor in July 2014 following the impeachment of then governor, Murtala Nyako.

Nyako, whose impeachment was later nullified by the Yola Division of the Federal Court of Appeal in February 2016, allegedly left a balance of N1, 957, 045, 82 in the state government project account with a bank.

But Fintiri directed that N1.9 billion  the source of his trouble with the EFCC  from the account be released to the state Ministry of Works on August 27, 2014.

According to a top EFCC source, the money was awarded to a company, Roycon Limited, for the construction of Yola township road and another road project in Mararaba Garta, which was ravaged by Boko Haram.

While the Yola road gulped N1 billion, the one in Mararaba Garta was awarded for N1.9 billion.

Preliminary findings by the anti-graft commission revealed that there was evidence of the execution of Yola road project, but that of Mararaba Garta was not carried out because of Boko Haram insurgency.

But from records available, Roycon Limited was given a mobilization fee of N20million. But the said N200million was later traced to Mayim Construction and Properties Limited which is allegedly owned by Fintiri.

About $3.8million from the contract sum was alleged to have been paid to Fintiri who used it to purchase a property in Taraba State, the source disclosed.

It was learnt that the EFCC invited the former acting governor for questioning based on a tip-off by a former member of his cabinet, who allegedly said he could not keep quiet on what transpire under Fintiri.

The source added that investigations so far had linked the former acting governor to a bank loan, which he used to set up a tea farm on Mambilla Plateau but when he allegedly got the $3.8 million kick-back from the road project, he diverted it to offset the loan.

Mr. Fintiri arrived at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja at about 12noon yesterday and was still being held as at the time of publishing this report.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has appointed a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mohammed Barkindo, as its Secretary-General.

Barkindo replaces Libyas Abdallah Salem El-Badri, who has been in charge since 2007.

Prior to the ex-NNPC helmsmans appointment as the 23rd Secretary-General (this is aside the tenures of five Presidents who were at various times asked to oversee the Secretariats work in the absence of a Secretary General), OPEC tried unsuccessfully for more than three years to find a replacement for El-Badri, who was due to step down in 2012 after serving two terms in the role. However, his term was extended during OPECs last meeting in December 2015 until July 2016 after political inter-play among rivals Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq prevented the organization from settling on candidates that each of them proposed.

However, the stalemate ended on Thursday, June 2 as the 13-member group of powerful oil producing countries met in Vienna, Austria to appoint a new Secretary-General.

Barkindo, who was the NNPC GMD from 2009 to 2010, follows in the footsteps of other eminent Nigerians such as Edmund Daukoru, Rilwanu Lukman and M.O Feyide, who at various times, served as Secretary-General of OPEC.

Recall that the Federal Government nominated Mr. Barkindo for the position citing his qualification and experience.

Our correspondent reports that the Secretary General is appointed by the Conference from a member Country for a period of three years, a term of office that may be renewed once for the same period of time.
Social network Facebook is set to test a safety check feature months after it first introduced it. Facebook first launched the feature in the wake of the Paris bombing and it basically allowed people to reach out to friends in Paris and check if they are safe.

The company then faced public censure for failing to extend the safety check tool to other troubled areas of the world.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Messenger introduces new emojis

In a statement by Peter Cottle for Facebook, the company disclosed that theyre changing the way the safety tool now works.

We needed an approach that could handle this range of population sizes with both accuracy and speed, but also remain rock-solid and ready to launch at a moments notice

The statement went on to say As our efforts ramped up, the team began solving the technical challenges associated with more consistent and frequent activations,

In order to create a system that we can launch anywhere at a moments notice, we scaled our infrastructure to handle larger events more efficiently and automated many of the manual steps previously required for activation.
Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has condemned in strong terms Mondays killing of pro-Biafra protesters by security agencies in Anambra State, saying it appeared that President Muhammadu Buhari was turning the people of the South East and South South to politically endangered species.

The Nigerian Army on Monday justified the security agencies decision to shoot at members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), saying soldiers, as lead agency of the security agencies, had to invoke the extant Rules of Engagement (ROE) to resort to self-defence and defence of lives and property of peace-loving Nigerians.

After the sound of gunfire had died down and the streets had cleared, at least five members of the separatist groups, who were on a procession to mark the 50th anniversary of the declaration of the defunct Biafra Republic by late warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, were already killed.

But witnesses claimed that at least 30 people were killed by security agencies.

Reacting to the development, Mr. Fayose called on the international community to take note of the wanton killings being perpetrated by the Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) government.

In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the Ekiti governor said there was no justification for killing people who were marking Biafra Day in memory of the former leader of the defunct Biafra Republic, the late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

He said it was worrisome that Nigeria and its people had been more divided since the advent of Buharis government, adding that approach to civil unrests of any kind under the government was causing more security problems for the country.

Fayose, who reaffirmed his avowed belief in the unity of Nigeria, said it was unspeakable for security men to have used live ammunition against the pro-Biafra protesters and went on to justify the murder of innocent Nigerians just because their views were different from those of the president.

To even justify the killing by claiming that the Igbo youths protest was orchestrated in order to mar the first anniversary of Buharis government is to say the least, wicked and animalistic, the governor said.

He also said it was worrisome that more than 150 Igbo youths had been killed by Nigerian security operatives under the directive of Buharis government from August 30, 2015 till date, adding that It appears that President Buhari has made up his mind to eliminate as many South East and South South people as possible and lovers of the corporate existence of Nigeria and its people should call the president to order.

I am alarmed that Nigerians who were only on peaceful protest could be shot at and killed by security agents and after the senseless killing of innocent Nigerians, security agents could demonstrate their heartlessness by coming up with justifications for the criminal act.

One is however not surprised because every evil perpetrated by the Buhari-led government against Nigerians, especially those the presidents appears to hate, have been justified by those who perpetrated them.

We were in this country when over 1,000 Shiite Muslims were killed and buried overnight in Zaria, Kaduna State, and the murder was justified. We were also here when over 400 Agatus were killed in Benue State and the President said nothing.

The Monday killing of over 30 Igbo youths is therefore condemnable. Its justification is barbaric, heartless, crude and must be condemned by all lovers of unity of Nigeria and its people.

I therefore wish to express my sympathy to the people of the South Eastern part of Nigeria and I urge them to remain resolute in their agitation for a Nigeria in which all Nigerians are treated equally irrespective of their tribe and religion.
Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has urged workers in the state to call off their strike to allow for dialogue.

Governor Fayose said this yesterday in Ado-Ekiti through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Idowu Adelusi. According to him, the salary for local government workers is ready for payment but cannot be processed without workers being at work.

He sympathized with the striking workers and the inconveniences the current financial situation in the country is causing them, said that the financial condition of the country might not get better soon.

While saying that the issue of irregular payment of workers was not limited to Ekiti, the governor urged the workers to note that the country was in a recession and that the state depends much on statutory allocations.

I have not hidden anything from the labour leaders and what our dear state is experiencing now has been aggravated by the mindless borrowings of the immediate past administration in the state. The state is paying about N1 billion monthly to service the bond and the commercial loans they took. If that did not happen, we would have had such money to add to our monthly allocations, Fayose said.
After 10 years of unresolved marital crises, an Igando Customary Court in Lagos on Wednesday dissolved the marriage between a 42-year- old pastor and evangelist, Racheal, and her businessman-husband, Mr Joseph Aduwo.

The President of the court, Mr Adegboyega Omilola, who gave the verdict, cited frequent fighting between the man and his wife. To the former husband, the dissolution of the 10-year-old marriage is good riddance to bad rubbish.

My wife, who is a pastor, an evangelist, a church interpreter and women leader, fought with nine persons in a day on our street, wearing only bra and underpants. She is a shameless street fighter, he told the court. The courts president said he was convinced that the couple could no longer live together as the petitioner insisted on divorce after several unsuccessful interventions.

He ruled:The court has no choice than to dissolve the union in spite of the fact that the wife claims she still loves her husband. The court hereby pronounces the marriage between Joseph Aduwo and Racheal dissolved today; both parties henceforth cease to be husband and wife.

You are free to go your separate ways without hindrances and molestation. The petitioner, Aduwo, 59, had approached the court seeking the dissolution of the marriage who he described as a street fighter.

My wife one day engaged in fights from 8.00 a.m. to 11.00 p.m. and residents were begging her to stop but she refused. I also pleaded with her but instead she cursed me and I was ashamed of myself. I had to take her pictures with my phone when she was fighting in the public with only brassier and sent the pictures to her family, he also told the court. He accused Racheal of maltreating his three children he had from another woman.

My wife has been hostile to my children and they had to vacate my house and rent an apartment elsewhere. She fights my friends and relatives anytime they visit me and this has prevented them from coming to my house, said the estranged husband, who pleaded with the court to dissolve the marriage.

Racheal, however, denied all the allegations, saying: I used to prepare food in the morning, afternoon and evening for my husband. The court should not grant his request for a divorce as I still love him.

Source: Vanguard
Oil installations in the Niger Delta have suffered attacks in recent weeks as militant group the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) blew up pipelines in the Niger Delta. As the security forces try to stop the NDA, other militant groups are emerging.

A consolidated group of militants under the aegis of Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force (JNDLF), today threatened to launch six missiles in the Niger Delta region.

According to the group, it would commence the testing of its six missiles on June 7 and the testing would last for three days. It warned that no airplanes should fly in and out of the country within the period as the weapons are capable of hitting any object despite its size, The Nation reports.

In a statement, JNDLF said it took the decision to further wreak havoc in the Niger Delta region, in a meeting attended in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, by its commanders.

It said that Bayelsa State is the command base of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and not Delta State. The group warned the Commissioner of Information and Orientation in Bayelsa, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite to stop criticizing NDA.

The group further said the highest organ of JNDLF, the Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC) concluded that the launching of the missiles would signal its readiness for the final breakup of the country.

Meanwhile, the Niger Delta Avengers today blew up the Ogboinbiri to Tebidaba and Clough Creek to Tebidaba Crude Oil pipelines in Bayelsa State.

A statement by the group said the attack was in line with its promise to all international Oil companies and Indigenous Oil Companies that Nigeria Oil production will be Zero.
History was made yesterday, June 1, 2016 as Kunle Afolayan, premiered aboard an Air-France flight to Paris, France, his highly anticipated mystery thriller, The CEO.



Before the historical journey, which makes the filmmaker the first Nigerian or African to debut a movie on a scheduled flight, guests and industry colleagues like Ramsey Nouah, Muyiwa Ademola, Alibaba, OC Ukeje, Odunlade Adekola, Adekunle Gold, Linda Ejiofor, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Adesua Etomi, Lola Maja, among others were hosted on the red carpet.

The movie starring Grammy award winner, Angelique Kidjo, Jimmy Jean Louis and Wale Ojo in lead roles, is full of intrigues and suspense which all begin after five top executives embark on a week-long business trip. The trip was intended to elect the new CEO for the company but things go out of hand along the line. It was filmed in an outskirt of Lagos, as well as other African locations. The entire drama started when the executives arrived their destination for the business meeting and suddenly began to die one after the other through mysterious circumstances, leaving only two behind, a situation which led to suspicions.

Watch Trailer here:
Despite his fathers accident that almost marred his academics in 2012, Mr. Michael Aderibigbe Arowosegbe showed that tenacity pays even in the face of daunting challenges as he recently emerged the overall best graduating student of the institution with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.86. Funmi Ogundare reports

It was celebration all the way at the 20th convocation ceremony of Lagos State University (LASU) recently as Mr. Michael Aderibigbe Arowosegbe, 24, of the Department of Biochemistry was called out to receive his prize for emerging the overall best graduating student. He got two other awards: best in the faculty and dean prize valued at N100,000 each. Arowosegbe, who made a first class, outshined the over 17,000 candidates the institution produced in the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic sessions. Seven other graduating students also obtained first class.

In his valedictory speech, the third child in a family of five, held guests spellbound with the story of his tortuous journey that almost marred his academics. He said: Many of my friends and colleagues never knew that he worked as a contract staff, attached to the campus marshal. I witnessed a students protest while in 100 level, where he was stoned, I could not cry. As if that was not enough, another incident occurred on November 9, 2012, which changed his life to this day. He had an accident on a bike, while on duty here on campus, where he hit his head and some portion of his back against the university gate. He could not move any of his limbs initially, some even thought that was the end of him and that it might affect my academics because there was no succour from the appropriate authorities, but glory to God, he is recuperating and I am already a graduate. Arowosegbe, who said he drew strength from what his father, Mr. Ajibade has been through in life, said he chose Biochemistry in LASU to fulfil all righteousness and please his father. I reluctantly chose LASU as my second choice in the 2011 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) and I almost ignored the post-UTME that year because I had already written that of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, where I scored 278.

So I thought with that score, together with a UTME score of 287, I was on my way to study Medicine and Surgery, but look at where the choice I made has brought me today. He advised fellow graduands to know that, in uncertainties lie opportunities and you need to enhance the future by setting great examples and becoming a source of motivation to those who will follow your footstep. Do not be discouraged, believe in God and in yourself and never let the fear of striking out hold you back. Sometimes, taking the road less travelled may lead to an unusual breakthrough, which would create a new path for others to follow, never stop learning new things, always harness the splendour of positive thoughts. While commending the university authority for its tireless efforts to make the institution a pride of the world with the assistance of the state government, he said, this is not the end of the road, great exploits await us as we sail into a world of endless possibilities to ensure that we build a great nation where even the ones yet unborn will beat their chest and say, I am proudly Nigerian.

LASU graduates please be good ambassadors of this great institution wherever you find yourselves. The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Olarenwaju Fagbohun, congratulated the graduands, saying, as you leave our campus, honours in hand, always remember that you are still part of our community and very much connected to us. You are about to join our burgeoning group of LASU alumni, people with whom you can connect, share experiences and challenges, and gain knowledge that can further inspire you as future leaders. The Lagos State University is here for you. We are proud of our alumni and eagerly look forward to celebrating their accomplishments.

Earlier in his convocation lecture, a Professor of Comparative Literature and Director, African Studies Institute, University of Georgia, Akinloye Ojo, called on the government to formulate a policy that would ensure that African languages do not go into extinction. In his lecture titled, Empowering African Languages for Socio-cultural and Economic Development in the 21st Century: A Case for our Languages at Home and Abroad, he expressed concern that some languages are threatened in Africa because they are not documented, adding, which means hardly is it possible to be used in modern or European-based educational systems. When languages are not used by their speakers, they become gradually moribund, which means the only speakers will be adults. The first risk a language suffers is when children do not speak it and so some of our children made the choice, not because they do not like or economic reasons but to speak other languages because they do not speak it. He added that in Southern Africa, many indigenous languages in the rural areas are highly threatened because the bigger languages are expanding.

The European languages are also exerting influence so the competition is very high. These indigenous languages are not rewarding economically so families chose to use that. You also found out that because of the way government approach language policy, they make bold statement in documentation but implementation becomes a problem so people notice that this seems to be the preferred languages, you can get economic reward, advancement in life and jobs and everything so you move towards that language.

Ojo said a language that is not documented and very well used becomes a candidate for endangerment over times. We have to increase our efforts in documenting African languages. Where I teach, I tell my students, you dont have to wait for a big project, if you know how to write 10 things in one language that you speak and the language is not written down, document it and if you know how to say peoples names, document it. We do know that there is resurrection, the languages that are already documented like Yoruba for instance, has very robust writing system, we have to empower it by making it useful in all domains. It is not enough to read Yoruba but to read and write science, philosophy, among others in Yoruba. Speaking at the conferment of higher degrees and fourth installation of the chancellor of the institution, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said he saw the need to focus on LASU to bring its unending crisis to a halt, adding, today good reasoning has prevailed over the crisis.

The visitor disclosed that students will soon begin to live on campus to guard against vices, adding that his administration would place priority on graduates of the institution for work placement with its Ready Set Work initiative. He thanked the governing council for its vision saying, our vision is to have an institution that will be job creators rather than job seekers. The mission of the state government is to make LASU first in research and innovations.

Source: Thisday
The Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday moved to save the party from imminent political oblivion by taking over the running of its affairs pending the resolution of its leadership crisis.

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase on Tuesday ordered the re-opening of the national secretariat of the main opposition party after sealing it for nine days to prevent breakdown of law and order by the various factions jostling for the national chairmanship of the PDP.

The BoT members, who last week tried unsuccessfully to prevail on Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to recognize the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led caretaker committee by withdrawing his court case against the party, arrived the Wadata Plaza national secretariat of the PDP in Abuja shortly after noon and went straight to the National Executive Committee (NEC) hall.

The BoT, led by its Chairman, Senator Walid Jibrin, held a meeting with the secretariat staff on latest developments in the party.

Senator Jibrin said the board remained the only legal body that is not involved in any of the court cases by the contending parties, hence, the decision to take over the affairs of the party.

Nobody has taken the BoT to court. Today, the BoT remains the only legal body that is not in court with anybody, and that is why we are here to play our role, Mr. Jibrin said.

We are here to perform our duty, according to the PDP constitution, hoping that our problems will soon be resolved.

Members of the board will be operating from the boardroom. They will not be occupying any of the offices used by members of the disbanded National Working Committee (NWC), the BoT chairman added.

He also explained that the sealing off of the partys secretariat by the police on the instructions of Mr. Arase was to protect lives and property.

We the BoT have been asked under the constitution of the party to be in charge of the assets and the liabilities of the PDP generally.

It is in that respect that the Inspector General of Police, having considered the importance of our constitution and having considered the importance of the staff of the PDP headquarters here, that this place be opened and entrusted in the hands of the BoT, Jibrin asserted.

While describing the partys problem as temporary, the PDP chieftain disclosed that the BoT had reached out to parties in the lingering crisis, with a view to reconciling them.

He said: We have gone very far to resolve this matter, we are making contacts and consultations and we are not here to blame anybody, but to resolve the problem.

PDP will never die; we are only on sabbatical and once the sabbatical is over, we are going to take over our leadership. We are coming back in 2019.

Speaking in the same vein, the BoT Secretary, Ambassador Ojo Maduekwe, said the board decided to oversee the partys affairs to prevent a vacuum in the face of conflicting court orders.

We are giving members opportunity to withdraw all cases in court so that PDP can rebrand, Maduekwe said.
The Joint Niger Delta Liberation Force, a militant group in the South-South region of Nigeria, has given the Nigerian Armed Forces a 72-hour ultimatum to leave the Niger Delta region, TheCable reports.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the group threatened to declare full blown war if the military continue its operation in the region.

More details soon
Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said the Federal Government is searching for ways to encourage the establishment of a National Shipping Line to ensure maximum exploitation of the potential in the maritime industry.

Amaechi said this while delivering a keynote address at the 14th Maritime Seminar for Judges organized by the Nigerian Shippers Council(a parastatal under his ministry), in collaboration with the National Judicial Institute, NJI.

The present administration is looking into ways of encouraging the establishment of a national shipping line to ensure maximum exploitation of the potentials in our maritime sector, Amaechi said.

The Federal Government is doing a lot towards improving on the ease of doing business in Nigeria especially in the maritime sector. The Federal Governments effort towards trade facilitation includes modernization of transport infrastructure such as establishment of deep sea ports to attract the patronage of our seaports by modern mega ships and the establishment of dry ports such as the Kaduna inland dry port and others all over the country to decongest the seaports and facilitate expeditious evacuation of cargo from the seaports among others.

In his own address, Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute, Justice Mahmud Mohammed said the seminar had contributed immensely to deepening the synergy between the judiciary and the maritime sector as part of the wider reform efforts that would reposition the nations judiciary for better justice delivery.
The Peoples Mega Party (PMP), which is seeking registration from the INEC, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to review the cost of elections in the country to enhance peoples participation in politics

National Mirror 77 Boko Haram insurgents surrender

Nigerian Army said yesterday that 77 Boko Haram insurgents have surrendered, even as troops rescued 186 persons held captive by the terrorists group. In addition, scores of insurgents were killed.

The Nation

Militants blow up oil wells Militants have attacked two major oil facilities in Delta State, it was learnt yesterday.

Tribune
The spokesman of the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, Wednesday declared that nobody has the right to stop Fulani herdsmen from going about their lawful business in any part of the country.

The former Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was speaking against the backdrop of the Ekiti Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayoses ban on cattle grazing in the state over a week ago.

According to Prof. Abdullahi, not only is the freedom of movement of the cattle rearers guaranteed under the Nigerian constitution, they are like businessmen, who like other people, cannot be denied access to the resources they need.

The NEF chieftain spoke in Bauchi yesterday.

He said, If for any reason, somebody in one section of this country will deny him access then we have to take measures to response to that. We are not saying that if a herdsman encroaches on a farm land . . . and this has been the tradition here for years; when they do some crops get damaged and an assessment is made and they pay. So why all the petty attitude?

I see what is happening today as a new dimension to political and ethnic cleansing that if not carefully handled may lead to other big things. The Herdsman is a Nigerian his rights must be exercised as a Nigerian he has free movement like everybody else to pursue legitimate business and he cannot be denied access to any part of the country.

I am a Fulani man my ancestors were in the bush, but we find reasons to settle in one place. I have cows and anytime they cause damage I pay compensation and so that is the way it will be.

The Fulani man is a Nigerian he has rights like any other Nigerian he works freely to access legitimate economic resources of this country like land. Land is common thing for all Nigerians. In fact, what really amazes me there is no Nigerian I know that works as hard as a herdsman; he sleeps on the branches of trees he has no permanent abode, he toils day and night with his animals.
The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) caucus in the House of Representatives on Wednesday vowed to ensure that Tony Nwoye (PDP-Anambra) and Emmanuel Udende (PDP-Benue), who defected to All Progressive Congress (APC) on the floor of the House, lose their seats.

The affected lawmakers in separate letters they wrote to the leadership of the lower legislative chamber and read by Speaker Yakubu Dogara during the plenary session yesterday, announced their intentions to dump the PDP on whose platform they were elected, owing to the leadership crisis in the main opposition party.

Reacting to the defection of the lawmakers, the Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, described their resignation letters as unconstitutional.

He argued that section 68(g) of the 1999 constitution (as amended) provides that any member who must resign on the platform where he/she was elected, must declare his/her seat vacant.

Ogor said: I have told those who care to listen that there is no division in the PDP. Clearly the PDP is one family, and in line with the Constitution in line with Section 68(g), which I quoted on the floor is clear on this.

We had a national convention, signed by then national chairman, Ali Modu-Sheriff.

The party itself went for that convention in Port-Harcourt and you know that the party convention is the highest organ of the party. It has the power to elect and remove anyone, and we saw the decisions that were taken in Port-Harcourt. And no court of competent jurisdiction has today ruled that there is any faction in PDP. Neither is there any recognised faction.

There is a Supreme Court ruling on this matter. I pity those young men. They really dont know what they have done. But for me, I am a law abiding citizen and I can tell you that by tomorrow morning, my party will be headed to court once I have the Order Paper for the day. We will be in court to make sure we vacate those seats, then we go for an election to replace those interlopers. They think they can go to APC, so easily but they are wrong. So long as we have a Supreme Court ruling on this matter, I am sure, they are history.

The leader of the PDP caucus in the House of Reps, who expressed surprise over the defection of Nwoye and Udende, accused the duo of failing to consult with the PDP caucus before making their decision known on the floor of the House.

I was not really expecting this. I am so shocked. I am so disappointed with those young men. I would have thought that they would have discussed this kind of issue with me and they know that there is no faction in the PDP. But for reasons best known to them, they are trying to create a faction.

Like I have said, there is a Supreme Court ruling on the issue of factions, that there must be a clear division in the national executive of a party for you to say there are factions. You cannot just wake up and say, you had your on convention. And if indeed some people held a convention, they did it on their own.

They are not even members of the national executive. None of them is. Sheriff was even in Port-Harcourt, he went through clearance. So how can they say there is a faction? In fact, there is no need to over flog this issues because by tomorrow, as soon as I have a copy of the votes and proceedings for Wednesday, my prayer will head to court, he vowed.
A former Minister of Niger Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, Thursday stunned the Code of Conduct Tribunal sitting in Abuja when he declared that he regrets serving the country as a minister.

Mr. Orubebe, who served as minister between 2007 and 2011, is currently standing trial on one-count criminal charge of alleged false declaration of asset.

Speaking during the opening of his defence before the CCT, the ex-minister said it was unfortunate that after serving the country to the best of his ability, he was been put on trial for something he claims he knows nothing about.

He said: I love this country and I served as a minister with all my heart and to the best of my ability.

But I am pained that the same country is putting me through all the things I know nothing about.

I slept in the creeks for two weeks trying to persuade the militant to drop their weapons.

Finally, we succeeded and we got amnesty.

But see what I am being subjected to today, Mr. Orubebe lamented.
Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has backed President Muhammadu Buharis handling of the Niger Delta crisis.

The federal government has deployed troops in the region to forestall further pipeline vandalism by a group of militants, the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).

Speaking with State House correspondents after meeting with President Buhari, Oshiomhole noted that the steps being taken by the President are right.

While stressing that the unity of Nigeria is non-negotiable, he said the destruction of installations by NDA was scaring away investors to the detriment of the region.

So if somebody, for whatever reasons, decides to destroy pipelines and thereby compound the problem of pollution, the cost of cleaning up that area, making it attractive either for fishing, farming or other business; its a huge cost. Cost, not just naira and kobo, cost in terms of time and in terms of human lives.

So it doesnt bring us closer. I think all of us ought to converge around a common idea; how do we ensure this natural endowment to be truly a blessing? And that if there are environmental issues arising from certain negligence on the part of certain key players, that as the President has shown for the first time a commitment to clean up Ogoni land and any other area; these are the things we all ought to work together and encourage the President and the Federal Government to continue to do.

But to compound those problems by breaking pipelines, stealing crude oil and destroying farmlands, destroying water ways, I dont see anybody benefiting from that.

So, its very unfortunate. I think it is important to say that the Nigerian state must not be demystified by gunmen and accept that the environment will be governed by gunmen.

No one can deny that a number of interventions have been put in place. A whole ministry has been created for Niger Delta; that is unprecedent in our history and is manned by people from the area. We have the NDDC, a commission exclusively devoted yto addressing the challenges of the region.

If the development has not developed faster than it is, we probably need to look inward. Why is there a gap by what is purportedly spent and what people can find on ground. These are issues this President is dealing with, the issues of corruption.

Corruption exposed the gap between huge allocations, contracts awarded and the reality that even with torchlight you cant find those things on ground. Even in Edo State many projects were awarded but never to the right contractors. The money is stolen and the people are just witnesses to exploitation.

So this is the time we have a president that said he is going to fight corruption. If we can defeat corruption in the Southsouth, and if the money given to NDDC is truly used to address infrastructure, and the Niger Delta ministry will focus on addressing the challenges in the region, then we will begin to see things change.

Speaking further, Oshiomole said: For me, I believe in Nigeria. I believe no part can do without the other, I believe our unity is not negotiable. I believe the responsibility of the political elite is to strengthen the bridge of unity, to discourage preaching hatred, implify weak points rather work to strengthen those points.

I salute our armed forces for what they are doing and the confidence they have brought back to our security.
There was a serious riot at Federal Polytechnic Auchi, Edo State earlier today. According to some students of the school, the protest started when three students were allegedly shot dead by security officers. They were all protesting against the management for denying them access to write exams because of non-payment of school fees. In the process of the protest, three of them were shot while some were badly injured.

Others reacted by going on a rampage  destroying school properties, setting tyres and cars ablaze, blocking the school gates and roads. The police have also reportedly invaded the current Lt rowdy premises of the institution, spraying tear gas in the air to disperse the rioting students. The situation is seriously getting out of hand and concerned students are appealing to the government to quickly caution the Security Officers present at the scene of the riot, inorder to prevent further loss of life. See more photos after the cut.

More photos

Photo Credit: Facebook  James Odibo and Emelda Aroguma
Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has banned commercial motorcycle riders popularly called Okada and tricycle riders (Keke Marwa) from operating in two local government areas of the state during President Muhammadu Buharis visit to the state today.

In a state-wide broadcast in Port Harcourt, Wike announced that the government would put every measure in place to ensure that the state was safe for the presidential visit to achieve its purpose.

We have, therefore, banned the use of motorcycles and tricycles in Gokana and Khana Local Government Areas for the period between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursday.

The governor described the visit of President Buhari for the launch of the Ogoni cleanup programme as historic.

He said that the visit was historic because it was not a political mission.

According to him, the visit is a good omen for the state since it is to kick-start the cleanup of oil exploration-induced pollution on Ogoniland.

The president is not on a political visit to the state; he is here to kick-start the largest environmental cleanup in our nations history; this makes it historic.

It is a visit for which Rivers people and indeed the Niger Delta will remain grateful.

The governor used the medium to urge Rivers people to come out massively to accord the president a warm reception.

I call on Rivers people to be peaceful, law-abiding and demonstrate the traditional Rivers hospitality towards the president and his distinguished entourage throughout the visit.

As I have noted earlier, Mr President is here as the father of the nation, who cares about the environmental and developmental challenges that we face, Wike said.

Source: PMNews
Following the sudden appearance of his 2019 presidential campaign poster on major streets in Abuja and Kaduna on Sunday, Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has written to the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, requesting for an immediate investigation into the source of the campaign posters.

Shettima said while he was not losing sleep over whatever political objective the sponsors aimed to achieve, he said his major concern was his believe those behind the posters had a wicked agenda of undermining the current cohesion between the Borno State government and President Muhammadu Buharis administration towards ending the Boko Haram insurgency.

The campaign posters, which bore pictures of Shettima Truthful Leader for President in 2019 and Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha The Nationalist as running mate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was sponsored by a group known as Movement for Democratic Self-Determination.

Coming on the heels of Gov. Okorochas disapproval of the posters, which he described as another mischief by some elements cowed by his monumental achievements in Imo, Gov. Shettima, in the letter to the IGP with reference number: BOSLO/ABJ/14/IV/407, called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the sponsors of the posters.

The letter dated May 29, 2016 and signed by the Permanent Secretary in charge of the Borno Government House and Security, Mr Ahmed Sanda, said: I have been directed by His Excellency, the Executive governor of Borno State, Kashim Shettima, to bring to the IGPs notice, dozens of fraudulently produced posters bearing his name and picture claiming he is aspiring for the 2019 Presidency. The posters have been pasted on some routes in Abuja and Kaduna.

Governor Kashim Shettima regards this development as a highly mischievous plot that is aimed at destabilizing the emerging peace in Borno State through creation of unnecessary political tension, while on the other hand, it might aim at creating gap between the Borno State government and the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration (which just marked its first year in office) with a wicked agenda of undermining the current cohesion between the two arms of government, working together in the last one year, for the collective goal of ending the Boko Haram insurgency.

From a different information we have gathered, the posters are suspected to be the handiwork of a particular group of politicians, trying to set the Borno State government and the APC in the state, against the national headquarters of the APC and the federal government, so as to lay a ground for a plan by the group of politicians to join the APC in Borno State and hijack the partys machinery.
60-year- old Somali student, Ahmed Saney who sat for his final secondary school examination this week wants to be a doctor. His photos while in examination room doing his final paper went viral on social media mainly twitter and facebook with congratulatory messages.

Radio Dalsan team then visited Saney in his school in Balcad outskirts of Mogadishu on Tuesday to document the challenges he is facing in his dream to be a doctor.

I dropped out of school in 1965 following economic challenges faced by my family and started tailoring business to sustain them, he told Dalsan team. I am happy to be in school now to continue my education to fulfill my dreams,

He said he want to be a doctor to help people in his village and across the country and needs government support.

I call upon the government and well wishers to help me achieve my dreams of being a doctor in my country. he said.

When asked about sitting in the same class with fellow students like his grandchildren, Saney replied

Education has no age, the most certain is acquiring the knowledge both secular and religious.

He was among 45000 secondary students across the country who sat for the nationalized examination during the second year respectively.

Source: Radio Dalsan
Some residents of Omi Adio/Apata/Gbekuba area of Ibadan have been hit by flood resulting from a down pour experienced between the hours of 7:30 till about 11pm Wednesday night.

The flood, which submerged the access bridges along Odo Ona, NIHORT linking Gbekuba and neighbouring communities became unpassable after the rain flooded areas along the passage drain between Omi Adio to Odo Ona.

Motorists and people on their way home had no alternative but to remain where the water level was manageable so as not to be washed away.

Some residents along Peku Junction blamed the owners of the land where a large farm is located for the flooding in that area, as the landowners had refused the widening of the passage drain on their property when the House representative of Ido Local Government Area, Hon. Adekunle Olalere, sent graders and bulldozers to widen the drain two weeks ago. Residents claimed that their refusal to allow the completion of the exercise to free passage of water into the Odo Ona caused the flooding.

Around Agbofieti, residents were seen hastily packing their belongings, and looking for safe haven.

There was a rumour that a family allegedly lost their breadwinner and a child, after they lost control of their vehicle around Aba Alfa area and were washed away by the moving water.

However, a woman in the said vehicle was said to have been rescued. Omololu Olumuyiwa, a source living in the Gbekuba area disclosed, in a telephone call that the flood trapped some families in their homes.

He claimed to have seen people calling for help as they could not again access to the link road out of the area.

According to olumuyiwa, some residents have taken a bold step, using linking fences to the house where people were trapped for a rescue mission.

As of press time, three of the trapped persons in the house had been rescued while the volunteers were seen trying to rescue the remaining trapped persons.

Also, around Agbofieti, hoodlums have used the opportunity posed by the flooding to wreck havoc on residents in the area. Posing as rescue volunteers, the hoodlums were said to have robbed homes in the process.

Source: Tribune
The health care industry provides an alluring target for malicious hackers. Personal health information has a much longer shelf life than financial information, making it a major draw for identity thieves. But a new and more troubling threat has arisen: the potential disruption of critical hospital systems by cybercriminals.

With a diverse array of digital systems, hospitals have evolved into complex technology operations. Yet they remain singularly ill-prepared to defend against attacks, in part because the multiplicity of systems forms a wider surface area to attack.

Spurred by massive breaches at health care giants -- and security research that has uncovered vulnerabilities in medical devices from insulin pumps to pacemakers -- the focus has shifted from data security alone to protecting a range of medical technology. Attackers can cause chaos and damage as they romp through hospital networks, which have their own special varieties of vulnerable endpoints.

The ransomware attacks that crippled Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles and Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Kentucky, weren't about pilfering confidential patient records. The intent was to bring these hospitals to a standstill -- which is exactly what happened. Medical staff couldn't access patient records, share surgery directives, or otherwise communicate with each other. Poor endpoint security and weak network protections made such successful attacks almost inevitable.

Health care under siege

Health care is intensely personal, both in patient disorders and their treatments, as well as in the interactions between patients and doctors, caregivers, and support staff -- most of which are documented and stored digitally.

But modern health care is also extremely technical. Specialized systems care for patients without moving them, robots perform actual surgery, and doctors rely on sophisticated equipment such as ECG, ultrasound, X-ray, CT, and MRI machines. These machines are computers, complete with operating systems, software applications, and network connectivity.

No one needs to launch a Stuxnet-like attack against a health care facility to disrupt medical care. A network worm can be equally as devastating.

Consider Conficker, the fast-spreading Windows worm that is believed to have infected more than 11 million machines since 2008 and is still successfully infecting unpatched Windows systems. Researchers in 2009 found that Conficker had infected more than 300 hospital devices, including MRI systems, across a dozen hospitals in the United States. Conficker also shut down an entire sleep lab in a New Jersey hospital in 2010, requiring all patients to be rescheduled and costing the hospital about $40,000 to recover from the infection.

Hospitals have found malware infections on medical equipment such as imaging devices, eye exam scanners, and electrocardiograph stress analyzers.

Even with the diversity of equipment and installed applications, health care IT has the same requirements as traditional IT to close off potential avenues of attack, says Dave Palmer, a retired member of British Intelligence agencies MI5 and GCHQ and current Director of Technology at cyberintelligence firm, Darktrace. Dont forget that these organizations also have traditional enterprise systems to access payroll and accounting, communicate between departments, and support file-sharing and collaboration, as well as the challenges of employees and patients bringing personal devices into the facility.

The typical health care facility is a complex IT environment, Palmer says.

Denial-of-service attacks can be as disruptive to health care facilities as they are to any other organization. In 2014, a DDoS attack against Boston Children's Hospital made some online services, such as patient appointment scheduling, sporadically inaccessible. The circumstances around that attack were unusual because it was a protest involving a controversial custody case, but experts say DDoS attacks accompanied by ransom demands are on the rise. Attackers flood the networks, then promise to stop if the organization pays them to go away.

IT basics matter

Consider endpoint security in health care organizations. Keeping these endpoints up to date with the latest versions of operating systems, browsers, plugins, and installed applications is not a simple task. Some applications may rely on Flash or Java, which are commonly targeted by malicious adversaries.

A recent analysis by authentication provider Duo Security found that twice as many health care endpoints have Flash installed and three times as many have Java, compared to endpoints in non-health-care organizations.

The common recommendation -- to uninstall Flash and Java from client machines -- doesnt take into account the fact that many custom applications within the sector require Flash or Java. Many popular electronic health care record (EHR) systems and identity access and management software supporting e-prescriptions require Java, for example.

A different analysis by Forcepoint found that health care organizations are 376 percent more likely to see Dropper (malware that backdoors compromised machines for further attacks) than non-health-care organizations.

Duos analysis also found that nearly half of health care providers use Internet Explorer 11 or older, exposing those systems to various attacks. Health care organizations are also more likely than other industry sectors to still have Windows XP systems. The presence of outdated software partly explains why health care organizations are more likely to see certain types of attacks.

This type of landscape can cause the perfect cybersecurity storm, says Grayson Milbourne, security intelligence director at Webroot.

Basic IT practices, such as asset inventory, patch and configuration management, and network security are critical in this kind of heterogeneous environment. A complete inventory lets IT know which systems actually run those applications so that IT can uninstall Flash and Java (and unused instances of custom applications) on the remaining systems.

Regularly patching and updating Flash, Java, the Web browser, operating system, and other applications ensures these security holes cant be targeted by Web-based attacks. Many exploit kits target zero-day vulnerabilities in Flash and Java, so IT needs to evaluate which systems really require Internet access. Uninstalling the Web browser on machines that still need to be networked can reduce the possibility of infection via a Web-based attack. There is no good reason to have a Web browser installed on a machine monitoring fetal heartbeat, for example.

Lock down the network

Most devices in a medical environment are networked. Potentially thousands of devices proliferate in a large hospital, each type with different networking needs. While some specialized systems don't need to be on the Internet, many require network access to tap into patient health records, look up drug interactions, or send specific data to appropriate care providers.

But theres no point to have workstations at nursing stations handle patient records on the same network as the workstations in accounting and payroll, nor should both databases run on the same server. Hospitals need to make it harder for attackers who have compromised a server to locate and access other valuable servers.

Segmenting the network to isolate more vulnerable machines means that even if the attackers successfully compromise them, they are limited in how far they can spread across the network. But that's only the first step.

The next step is privilege management and restricting access to files and systems. Not everyone needs access to all files on the fileserver. Doctors shouldnt be able to get to the administrator console of the MRI machine. There shouldn't be a way to see a piece of radiology equipment, let alone access the console screen, from an HR workstation. If the doctor has administrator rights, then you can bet malware will be able to get those privileges, too.

Network-connected medical devices must be secured so that an attacker on one side cant jump to other networks or be able to use as a point of entry from outside. The number of devices -- easily in the tens of thousands in a large hospital -- means paying extra attention to physically securing the devices. Its unlikely someone can stroll out the door with a CT scanner or an ultrasound machine, but it is easy to steal a laptop and use the remote software to access the network remotely.

Administrators must enable two-factor authentication where possible and make sure employees follow basic password policies -- such as preventing users from sharing passwords across applications or systems.

Health care organizations run a number of specialized, often customized applications. They are also increasingly adopting web, mobile, and cloud-based applications. Impervas annual report found that health care applications are likely to suffer 10 times more cross-site scripting attacks than applications in other industries.

Nearly 80 percent of health-care-related applications contain easily avoidable cryptographic issues such as weak algorithms, says Chris Wysopal, CTO and CISO of application security company Veracode. Whether its a SQL injection flaw in the web application or an issue in how the application encrypts data, the consequences are equally serious.

Basic application security rules apply here. In-house applications should be tested for vulnerabilities, and many organizations are increasingly spending more on external security assessments and inserting liability clauses into contracts with software vendors, according to a recent HIMSS/Veracode survey. The reason behind these assessments is not due to increased security awareness, but because of liability fears. Regardless, its still a good step forward.

Remedying the problem starts with a good look at how health-care-related software is built and making sure that security is a priority, Wysopal says.

Changing the mind-set

Part of the security crisis in health care security is cultural. As long as the efforts of IT and security personnel are seen as less significant than that of medical professionals, conflict will ensue.

Security awareness is necessary -- but it must be balanced against the fact that much of the staff has demanding schedules and may be inclined to skip training.

Health cares rigid focus on compliance, especially the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), is part of the problem. While maintaining patient privacy is important, the hyperfocus on maintaining compliance opens gaps in network and endpoint security. Recent attacks show that HIPAA compliance doesnt mean much if employees are susceptible to social engineering and hand over their login credentials, as happened with the Blue Shield breach -- or if laptops containing employee records arent encrypted and get lost, or if computers running outdated software are vulnerable to web-based attacks.

The balance of power is lopsided in health care organizations. Despite the abundance of valuable data and technology, the bulk of the decision-making authority rests with doctors and medical personnel, not IT. At budget time, IT and security spending typically takes a backseat to buying new medical systems and hiring additional medical staff.

That needs to change. Without proper IT and security management, health care organizations will find their ability to offer quality care compromised.

This story, "Health IT must fix its security crisis" was originally published by InfoWorld .
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With annual giving nearly doubling to $43 million since taking shape in 2013, Heising-Simons is an emerging force in education, science, and climate. President Deanna Gomby tells us where the young funder is headed.

Since donor couple Elizabeth Simons and Mark Heising formalized their philanthropy a few years agothey started a foundation in 2007 and started hiring professional staff in 2012the Heising-Simons Foundation has moved fast, building a team of 23, setting up a 10,000-square-foot office in Los Altos, and making a splash in some niche areas. Its a lot like another type of fast-growing enterprise, in fact.

Were in Silicon Valley, so I view this as another startup, says CEO and President Deanna Gomby, who took the helm in 2012 following a run at Packard Foundation and then worked as a consultant. And theres an exhilaration about being in a startup.

The funder awarded $23.5 million in 2013, up to $42.8 million last year, anticipating another increase this year. And theres no signs of slowing down, as the couple just announced theyve signed the Giving Pledge.

Driven by active donors and leadership hailing from some West Coast philanthropic heavyweights, the foundation is bringing that enthusiasm of a new project to some daunting issueseducation, science research, and climate changeand trying to find fresh approaches that are rooted in the latest research.

Source Code

You can get a sense of the foundations ambition just by looking at the chosen programs. In 2015, about half of its grantmaking went to education, a quarter to science, 12 percent to climate and clean energy, and the rest to trustee or other emerging interests.

Those are some booming, challenging, and even controversial philanthropic causesnot the easiest to crack into. But the funder brings a lot of firepower to bear.

For starters, theres a family legacy of huge philanthropy, as Liz Simons is the daughter of Jim Simons, who, with his wife Marilyn, oversees the massive science research foundation that bears their name. Her brother Nathaniel Simons has carved out his own role with a large-but-stealthy climate funder the Sea Change Foundation. These philanthropies operate independently, Gomby says, but the family is very close. The Simons Foundation and Heising-Simons partnered recently to fund a $40 million observatory.

Related:

Liz Simons is a former teacher with a masters in education from Stanford who has been involved in early childhood education programs for some time and plays a big part in that program. Mark Heisings background is in computer science, holding a masters from Berkeley and six U.S. patents. Hes currently managing director of Medley Partners, a family private equity firm. The next generation, Caitlin Heising, has worked at communications firms and got involved in philanthropy early on, recently joining the foundations board.

Their relatively new team boasts Gombys 30-year track record in philanthropy and education, Cyndi Atherton coming over from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to run the science program, and other staff bringing experience from research, philanthropy, and the private sector.

In its first few years as a staffed foundation, Heising-Simons has been finding its role in its chosen subjects, and unsurprisingly, given family and professional backgrounds, relies heavily on research to guide all areas of giving.

Policies and practices are better, can be better, should be better, if theyre informed by research, and I think [the trustees] believe that, Gomby says.

In the science program, its fundamental research, its basic research. But in the education program, its a lot of applied research. And in the environmental work, there also is an appreciation for understanding what the science says, and then crafting  pragmatic policies that are built on science.

Learning Process

It could be daunting for a new funder to enter a huge philanthropic space like education, dominated by 800-pound gorillas like the Gates and Walton families.

Heising-Simons has approached the challenge by following research toward points of entry where funding at its level (lets call it big, but not super big) can have an impact. In education, theyre focusing on early education.

To find the right points of entry, Gomby says they make it a priority to listen for new opportunities. Even though the website discourages unsolicited proposals, they take calls and emails, and try to be out in the field as much as possible.

When I walk down the halls, the offices are not always filled with people at their desks, she says. They frequent conferences and welcome new ideas from potential grantees they come across.

Its incumbent on us to make sure the staff is out and about and listening and understanding the field, and actively seeking people who are doing the best work.

Typically, after an idea for a potential new initiative is identified by trustees or staff, the team will hold a series of roundtables at the foundation, assembling experts from one area, or maybe disparate fields that might have a connection, to exchange ideas and start figuring out where their funding could be of use.

One example of a specific niche the funder has given a lot of attention to: funding for early math education. This initiative came about in response to studies linking early math skills to later academic achievement. Heising-Simons is building capacity in this field, supporting grantees for research, family support, professional development, and policy. Another such emerging area of education funding the foundation is pursuing is support for dual language learners.

When they drill down on such an area, the result can be some serious backing. Heising-Simons has given more than $27 million with around 67 grants to early math education.

Dark Matters

When it comes to the foundations science research giving, Heising-Simons goes almost entirely after areas of physical sciences that may nab the occasional headline surrounding mind-boggling discoveries, but dont draw nearly as much funding as life sciences, for example.

Related: Just How Much Are Private Funders Giving to Basic Science Research?

So the funder backs astronomy and cosmology, fundamental physics work, and climate science, the latter being relevant to the climate and energy program. One area in particular its invested heavily in is the search for axion dark matter.

Very, very briefly, the universe is eerily made up almost entirely of dark matter and dark energyonly 5 percent of it is the ordinary stuff made of protons, neutrons, and electrons that we can detect with our earthly instruments. We know the rest exists, but we cant see it. One theoretical particle that could be a building block is the axion, and Heising-Simons has made this relatively small field a big priority.

Related: Another Way a Huge Hedge Fund Fortune Is Being Tapped to Crack Scientific Puzzles

Another interesting and relatively new science niche is in paleoclimatology, a field that looks back millions of years to build better models of how increased warming and levels of CO2 affect the planet.

Both of these subjects are examples of how the foundation finds important, but relatively small ponds of work and cannonballs into them, providing research grants that can top $1 million and last up to five years, to shake something loose.

Keep it Clean

When it comes to climate, Heising-Simons places a familiar premium on research, mainly funding work related to advancement of clean energy.

The aim is to take information as best as we know it at this time, and we invest in research and analysis to share that knowledge  with the hope that that transforms the power sector, Gomby says.

The foundations climate and clean energy program works closely with Energy Innovation, a San Francisco-based firm run by Hal Harvey, founder of both ClimateWorks and the Energy Foundation. With the groups advising, the foundation is currently backing a few key strategies, including energy policy analysis, work with public utilities commissions, increasing energy efficiency standards, and communications. Last year, the family partnered with Bloomberg Philanthropies in a big $48 million give to help states implement new EPA rules to reduce carbon pollution from the power sector.

Those rules are controversial, but Heising-Simons climate giving has a certain pragmatism to it, leaning on hard evidence and trying to stay out of the political fray. It makes sense, considering Mark Heising serves on the board of the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the couple has supported Mike Bloombergs bipartisan effort to organize the business community around climate.

Related:

So while they dont fund much in the way of grassroots action, the foundation does have its own play for winning over the public. The focus on strategic communications is funding Climate Central to build climate change education into weather forecasts.



The Heising-Simons Foundation has come a long way in just a few years, but one thing is certainthis is only the beginning. The funder currently has assets of $404 million, and while foundation staff couldnt pin down the pace for future growth, with the signing of the Giving Pledge and the familys formidable wealth and investment savvy, we could be looking at a much larger player in years to come. (Jim Simons is worth over $15 billion and made $1.7 billion last year alone.)

We believe theres going to be continued growth. The family is really committed to the work that were doing, theyre committed to the foundation, Gomby says.

And while funding so far has stuck mostly to these three key areas, it wont necessarily stay there. The foundation is exploring new giving in human rights, with about 5 percent of 2015 funding heading in that direction.

That would be yet another huge problem for the upstart to take on. If they do go all in, it will likely happen in a very pragmatic, even scientific way.
Most of the time, its hard to pick up on a foundations funding philosophy from its name alone. Dunns Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking makes it easier than most.

At IP, we write often about top conservative funders generously backing the think tanks, intellectuals, and academic institutions that share their ideologies. Many of these foundations aren't very large, but they grasp the power of ideas and are in big fights for the long term, reliably pumping out grants to sustain the right's policy infrastructure year after year.

Founded in 1994, Dunns Foundation is a great example. It isnt the oldest or most well-known funder around, but its low profile belies grantmaking of about $10 million a year, money that goes a long way in the think tank world.

Dunns Foundation is devotedly libertarian in its outlook. While the foundation maintains no website or social media presence, public tax documents reveal a twofold purpose: to advocate for free enterprise and market capitalism, and to reduce the impact of the use or threat of force by coercive organizations (both public and private) against the people of America and the world, principally through education.

Since the year 2000, Dunns Foundation has provided major and ongoing funding to some of the biggest names in libertarianism like the Cato Institute, the Reason Foundation, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Atlas Society. Dunns persistent support for the Marijuana Policy Project cements the foundations libertarian statusas opposed to traditional social conservatism.

Another feature of Dunns grantmaking is its direct support for several libertarian public interest law firms. Some highlights: the Institute for Justice ($5,910,000 between 2002 and 2013), the Pacific Legal Foundation ($3,713,000), and the Landmark Legal Foundation ($2,340,000).

By all accounts, founder William A. Dunn practices what he preaches. A theoretical physics Ph.D., Dunn left the sciences for finance in 1974, establishing what is now DUNN Capital Management, LLC. According to the firms website, Dunn was an early pioneer of quant trading in commodity futures, applying then-new computer technology to manage financial portfolios.

William Dunns dedication to the libertarian cause is steadfast. As well as leading his firm and foundation, he is a Reason Foundation trustee and sits on the board of the Cato Institute, both major recipients of his money. To the extent theres a libertarian power elite, hes part of it.

Dunn is said to maintain strict control over his foundations grantmaking. Despite assets of around $130 million, Dunns Foundation has a small, tight-knit board of trustees and few apparent staff. In addition to Dunn himself, officers include Dunns wife Rebecca Walter Dunn, DUNN Capital general counsel David Dreyer, and Thomas A. Beach, who is also current chairman of the Reason Foundation. In fact, William Dunn once served in the same role, so expect a tight relationship between the two organizations in the future.

Dunns Foundation funds a pretty wide range of policy shops, and support is often ongoing. In addition to the grantees mentioned above, others include the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Americans for Limited Government, Chapman University, the Heartland Institute, and the Institute for Humane Studies.

In each case, grants often run into six figures, which is big money when it comes to policy research and advocacy. The foundation has also given around $4 million over the past decade to the Property and Environment Research Center, a proponent of free market solutions to environmental problems and a critic of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts.

As of right now, Dunns Foundation for the Advancement of Right Thinking will persist until the death of its founder, at which point it will transfer to his wife Rebecca. Upon her death, the foundation will dissolve, and its unclear at this point whether all assets will be spent down. We'd bet that will be the case, since funders on the right are very wary of establishing foundations in perpetuity that might later be hijacked by liberal philanthropoids or heirs.

Meanwhile, until the Dunns pass on, their foundation is set to bankroll Americas free market thinkers well into the coming years.

Related:
Lord knows college is expensive nowadays. But the traditional residential model brings many benefits to the table, most notably, providing students with an immersive and integrative educational experience.

It's precisely this kind of experience that University of Southern California (USC) Trustee David C. Bohnett hopes to cultivate with a $15 million pledge to endow and name a residential college at USC Village. The David C. Bohnett Residential College will focus on the principles of social justice and community service, and will form part of a thriving student community that "integrates living and learning" for up to 320 students as well as faculty-in-residence and student support staff.

Sounds cozy, doesn't it?

The gift also will establish a leadership fund at the USC Price School of Public Policy supporting a fellowship in public policy with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and endow a chair in social entrepreneurship at the USC Marshall School of Business.

We're particularly intrigued by the integrative learning part of the gift, so let's loop back to that.

On the surface, the gift seems to confirm what we already know. That is, most residential colleges, by their very nature, provide a kind of integrative living environment. But the degree of integration is a relative thing.

Some colleges place students in giant high-rise apartment complexes where their interaction with other students is minimal. Others separate living spaces from the actual classrooms, creating a sense of detachment. In short, residential college students can nonetheless feel like commuters.

The USC village, on the other hand, creates what could be described as a "college within a college." Located directly north of the University Park Campus, the 1.25-million-square-foot USC Village project will enhance campus life for students while opening up an array of new retail and service options for the local community when it opens in 2017.

"Its my hope and aspiration that the Bohnett Residential College will afford USC students with a richly immersive college experience and help prepare them to be actively engaged members of the community throughout their lives," Bohnett said.

And what about Bohnett?

Well, as previously noted in our funder profile, he made his fortune in the technology sector. After turning to serious philanthropy in the late 1990s, he primarily focused on LGBT causes. Yet over time, he channeled more money towards the arts. Through the David Bohnett Foundation, he's been a major donor to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and in 2014 pledged $20 million to the LA Philharmonic. He's also made an array of smaller gifts to places like the Museum of Contemporary Art and the League of American Orchestras. This major gift to USC opens yet another front in Bohnett's philanthropy.

Related: On Second Thought, I Love the Philharmonic: How David Bohnett Became an Arts Philanthropist

One last point. Bohnett's campus gift also underscores the fact that, despite the democratizing promise of online and blended learning, funders still see tremendous value in a classic residential college experience. And that's a good thing. Why? Because students also see tremendous value in a classic residential college experience.

As we noted in a recent post looking at the Teagle Foundation's assessment of various blending learning efforts in the liberal arts space, Loni Bordoloi, one of the foundation's program directors, told assembled colleges: "Your students chose your institutions for a reason. They wanted, by and large, a residential liberal arts experience."

Of course, a true residential college experience may not be in the cards for every student out there, which makes blended learning an effective alternative. But Bohnett's "college with in a college" gift suggests that existing residential college experiences can be made more integrative, more impactful, and more community-oriented.

Click here for more insight into David Bohnett's Los Angeles-area giving.

Related: Housing Boom: Behind UCSB's Largest Gift Ever
Update 11/14/17  Las Vegas-based XYZ.com LLC, a Web registry specializing in top-level domains (TLDs), has acquired the .storage suffix from SSC. The company opened priority registration for trademark holders on Nov. 6 on a first-come, first-served basis; an early access, public-priority period will run Nov. 28 to Dec. 5. General availability for the public to secure .storage Web names will begin on Dec. 5 for an expected monthly fee of $79, according to a press release.

During the trademark-holder period, single-letter domains such as i.storage, geographic names like newyork.storage, and keyword domains such as online.storage are available for a standard fee. No verification is required, the release stated.

To gain traction, XYZ is offering a complimentary white-glove website migration service valued at $10,000. The transition from the old domains to .storage URLs follows Googles best practices and takes under one week to complete, the release stated. Existing search engine rankings, SEO scores and e-mails are all maintained, while businesses enjoy a boost to their branding and online presence from their new .storage domains.

XYZ indicated it purchased the .storage TLD in May, though the registry agreement with ICANN was transferred from SSC to XYZ on April 18. Extra Space initially paid ICANN $185,000 for the TLD, and XYZ acquired it for millions of dollars, Shayan Rostam, global director for XYZ, told a source. The .storage domain is the companys 10th TLD, following .xyz, .car, .college, .rent, .security and .theatre, among others.

The company will target the TLD to businesses and professionals within the data and physical storage sectors. XYZ brought innovation and choice to the Internet when we launched .xyz in 2014 as the domain ending for every website, everywhere. With businesses and individuals now using .xyz in over 200 countries, I had the confidence to acquire and launch .storage as the authoritative platform for an $80 billion per year industry, said Daniel Negari, CEO of XYZ.

By owning the domain suffix, XYZ essentially acts as a wholesaler that sells the rights to use its TLDs through retail domain registrars like GoDaddy.com, MarkMonitor Inc. and others, Rostam said, noting that 700 entities have registered to use the .storage suffix.

The recurring revenue stream generated by .storage and all of our other domain extensions, ultimately allow for us to reinvest in .xyz to boost awareness and adoption worldwide, Negari wrote in an online newsletter post.

9/8/16  Following the first two phases of registration, SSC has opened .storage domains to self-storage operators and other storage-related businesses. The storage-industry phase will remain open through Jan. 3 before the general public will be allowed to register under the domain beginning on Jan. 10, according to a press release.

Self-storage businesses that have already claimed .storage domains include Budget Moving & Storage in Kernersville, N.C.; Cheapo Self Storage in Burlington, N.C.; and W-Ave Storage in St. Louis.

Through the Founders Program and Trademark Sunrise Period, several large brands have also registered domains, including Apple, Amazon Technologies, Hitachi, Home Depot, IKEA, Microsoft and Walmart, the release stated.

We saw some significant global and household brands register their names on the .storage domain during the brand phase, said Paul Yoachum, chief marketing officer for SSC. Now our focus is turning to storage-related businesses and industries. With the dwindling number of available .com sites, this is a great opportunity to get a more recognizable website address that can help with awareness, marketing and online exposure.

In addition to self-storage, sectors eligible for registration include cold storage, data storage, energy storage, food storage, gun storage and warehouse storage, among others. Pricing for domains during the storage-industry phase include an application fee to cover the review of applications to ensure storage-industry relevance, according to the release.

Though retail pricing will be set by individual registrars when general availability begins Jan. 10, standard domains will start at $54.99.

6/2/16  Self Storage Company LLC (SSC), a subsidiary of publicly traded real estate investment trust Extra Space Storage Inc., has invested in the Web-domain extension .storage and begun offering it to companies through a Founders Program. Self-storage operators can sign up for the domain through the domains.storage website, branded as .STORAGE.

The code suffix is similar to common Internet URL domains such as .com, .gov and .net. Known as top-level domains, the new extensions tend to be industry- or action-specific. Companies such as Amazon and Google have been active in acquiring the rights to such domains as the availability of .com and other common suffix addresses have become crowded or scarce. For example, Amazon has control of .book and .buy, while Google Registry controls .ads, .app, .eat, and .fly among others. Registered domains belonging to other companies include .health, .info, .news and .porn, according to a list published by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

SSC acquired registry control of the .storage domain in 2014. Extra Space also owns the rights to .extraspace, according to ICANN.

Control of the suffix enables SSC to sell domain addresses to self-storage operators through registrars like GoDaddy.com or register numerous URLs for Extra Space to maximize its search-engine visibility to potential customers, the source reported. Extra Space could also decide to offer .storage websites to other types of storage companies that offer cloud, data and other storage services, according to Jan Pretorius, senior director of strategic initiatives and business development for Extra Space.

Theres a lot of uncertainties, Pretorius told the source. Its too early to say how this will play out. I dont think we know enough to know where all of this is going. Its still developing.

For now, SSC has outlined a four-stage approach to the domain on domains.storage. Before launching to the storage industry or to the public, .STORAGE will be inviting companies to take part in a Founders Program. This program will allocate a number of attractive .STORAGE addresses at no cost to companies who wish to be amongst the first to have their own .storage domain name, according to information published on the site.

The Founders Program offers storage companies the opportunity to be an early mover by claiming attractive .storage domains before they become available to industry peers, the website says. The program was launched April 1and will be available through Aug. 30.

A Trademark Sunrise Period will run July 1 to Aug. 30. This phase will be open to members of the storage industry. Participants can get domains relevant to their business and brands. Others may be considered on a case by case basis, according to the website. A Storage Industry Phase is scheduled to run Sept. 1 to Dec. 30, which will be followed by general availability to the public beginning on Jan. 2.

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Extra Space owns or operates 1,371 self-storage properties in 37 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. The companys properties comprise approximately 910,000 units and 103 million square feet of rentable space.
@Sunset_Speedway BARRIE, Ont.  June 2, 2016  Wendy Adams 2016 season got off to a sputtering start, but she and her team are gaining steam entering the month of June. After a tumultuous opening month, Adams endured two rainouts and motor problems to turn in 12th- and 14th-place finishes in two NASCAR Whelen All-American Series events at Sunset Speedway.

We had motor issues. We thought we had them figured out, but even opening night we were still running in to issues, Adams said of opening night.

Following the first two races, Adams had a breakthrough and felt she made the biggest gains of the year on her way to the top-15 finish.

We got all the motor issues finally sorted out. Motor wise, its doing very well. Its got the speed. Were just working on the setup, she said of her husband Bills efforts.

Adams led five laps in her heat race, a direct reward for the long hours in the shop and perseverance through her early struggles.

We determined we have the speed to compete. Now its just me adapting to getting it in and out of the corners. The overall setup has been our biggest challenge, Adams revealed.

This past weekend was the biggest confidence builder. To be able to lead for five laps in a heat race, Ive never done that. Im heading in the right direction and getting more comfortable with the way the car is performing, she added.

In her most recent race on May 28, Adams felt she made progress even within the race. Despite falling back in the race initially, Adams got stronger and faster as the race wore on.

Because Im gaining more confidence in the car, I was actually catching the pack. Before I would more stay at the back, now I was catching up, passing cars and continuing on, she said. The biggest thing is to continue the momentum forward and continue to be at the front of the back. I think the checkered flag is close.

As she enters another busy month with four races on the schedule, Adams continues to be excited about the potential of her new Mustang. With her newfound confidence and increasing speed, theres plenty of reason for optimism.

I think the most exciting part is bring out the new look and having a different attitude. Coming out with a brand new car we were starting brand new, were starting fresh, Adams said candidly. We know were going in the right direction, we know were starting to compete.

For a full schedule of Wendy Adams 2016 races, visit www.sunsetspeedway.ca. Follow Wendy Adams 2016 racing season all summer long at www.adamsracing.net and on Facebook at facebook.com/WendyAdamsRacing.

Wendy Adams 2016 season in the Mighty Mini Division at Sunset Speedway is supported by several dedicated corporate sponsors, including: Pro Signs, Fastenal of Midland, Ernies Performance, UPS of Collingwood/Barrie, Robson Janitorial, Performance Improvements, RSA Auto Parts, TSS Top Shops Autobody, Beatty Automotive, OI West Wing and Canadian Pool Association.

Wendy Adams is racing in 2016 in support of the following organizations: New Path Youth and Family Services, Kids Help Phone, The Pledge To End Bullying, Canadian Mental Health Association, Help The 1 in 5, Start Talking, Do It For Daron, Bear Creek Wellness Initiative and Defeat Depression.

Prepared By Clayton Johns Media

claytonjohns@hotmail.com
As investors digest the monthly interest-rate announcement by the European Central Bank and an announcement from the meetin g of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna later today, markets appear little changed this morning. An employment report in the U.S. due tomorrow remains the primary focus for speculators with expectations for a Federal Reserve rate-hike announcement if the job market continues to solidify. Given growing doubts that further easing from the Bank of Japan is unlikely due to balance sheet limitations, a narrative that central banks have finally reached the end of their extraordinary low-rate stimulus policy has begun to reverberate among market participants.

Saudi wealth fund buys Uber stake. Uber Technologies announced yesterday that the Public Investment Fund for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has pledged a $3.5 billion investment into the U.S.-based ride sharing company. An anticipated initial public offering for the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, better known as Aramco, in the coming year is expected to swell the Saudi sovereign funds coffers to more than $2 trillion.

Ciena beats estimates. First-quarter financial results released today by Hanover, Maryland-based telecommunicatins networking company Ciena Corp. exceeded consensus analyst targets significantly, driving share prices for the firm higher by more than 10 percent before normal trading hours. The company reported earnings of 10 per share versus a prior 17 cents as sales exceeded expectations.
The regional leader of AIG has backed Asia to continue its transformation into an insurance hub as more Australian businesses look north to continue their growth.Matt Harris, chief executive, AIG Asia Pacific Insurance and head of operations for Southeast Asia, told Insurance Business that companies looking to grow throughout the region must not simply import global products but instead tailor solutions to local conditions, as Asian markets continue to boom.The main consideration for insurers and brokers looking to enter these markets would be to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach, Harris said.These markets are highly diverse and each requires tailored solutions. Across Asia, we see a mix of developed / mature markets such as Singapore and developing markets like Indonesia and Malaysia.The growth trajectory may be steeper for the developing markets, while growth in the developed markets may take place in niche insurance lines, such as in the commercial insurance lines.For global insurers, it is important not to simply import products from international headquarters without taking into account local insights.For example, for directors and officers (D&O) liability products, AIG data shows that there was a 32 per cent increase in regulatory and criminal actions taken in Asia from 2013 to 2014. In contrast, only nine per cent of D&O claims in Asia in 2014 were instituted by shareholders, which is the main activity for similar policies in the U.S. This indicates the need for solutions tailored specifically to the Asian market, so companies and consumers are adequately covered.Harris noted that while risks and products may be different in different markets, international firms can rely on their own strengths to further develop throughout the region.The key risks for consumers and businesses across Asia will be different from the rest of the world, with dynamic and diverse political, economic and cultural environments, Harris said.At the same time, global insurers and brokers have the advantage of breadth in networks and appetite.Harris backed Asian to keep up its fast pace of growth as the region continues to evolve and develop.Asia is likely to remain the fastest-growing region for insurance in the next decade and could account for 40 per cent of the global insurance market by 2020, Harris continued.Growth will come from areas such as the rise of wealth in the region, the ageing population, relatively lower insurance penetration, increased awareness of insurance as risk mitigation, and large demand for infrastructure in Asia.For example, Singapore is known to have one of the highest density of millionaire households in the world. Insurers will need to cater to this emerging wealth segment in this region to provide coverage for their globe-trotting lifestyle and niche passions in collections, health and personal property protection.Several key markets present opportunities for businesses looking to operate in the region with one usual suspect warrenting attention.Cyber insurance is a huge opportunity in Asia, Harris revealed.Research undertaken by AIG in late 2014 revealed that two-thirds of public companies in Asia surveyed acknowledged cyber insurance to be increasingly important in the future, although only nine per cent of these companies were covered by cyber insurance.The insurance industry also needs to step up to seize the opportunities offered by disruptive technologies, and stay ahead of the curve in our product offerings.This is particularly relevant as Singapore gears up to realise its vision of becoming a Smart Nation, harnessing technology to improve lives and build stronger communities.As more businesses of all types look to move into Asia and Asian companies look to diversify into other regions, another insurance product is picking up speed throughout the region.Another line of business that is growing in Asia is mergers and acquisitions (M&A) insurance, Harris said.AIGs gross premiums written in M&A insurance have grown 300 per cent in Asia since 2013. From 2014 to 2015, AIGs M&A business in Asia grew 203 per cent while the Singapore business grew 220 per cent. As the market sees more volatility and both buyers and sellers are looking to capitalise on the best deals, M&A insurance is particularly important to protect businesses against transaction risks.
A fight over Ubers plans to expand throughout New York State is escalating as lawmakers enter the final weeks of their 2016 legislative session.

The app-based ride-hailing service wants state regulations that would allow it to operate in cities including Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany. The current proposal pending before lawmakers would create insurance rules for companies like Uber, a necessary step, but would leave it to local governments to set specific regulations before Uber could operate within their borders.

Thats far less than the statewide authorization that Uber had initially hoped for, but it still represents a significant threat to the taxi industry, which is fighting to prevent Ubers expansion outside the New York City area.

San Francisco-based Uber released a new upstate radio advertisement Tuesday urging people to contact their lawmakers to support the bill. While its expected to get broad support in the Senate, dominated by suburban and rural Republicans, it faces challenges with the Assemblys Democratic majority, which has concerns about Ubers labor policies and the effect of an expansion on taxi cabs.

We are glad that the legislature is discussing ways to make ridesharing a reality, Uber spokeswoman Alix Anfang said. We look forward to working with the Assembly to bring economic opportunities and better transportation options to all New Yorkers.

A group of taxi cab owners is urging lawmakers to require Uber to fingerprint drivers and make cars accessible to disabled passengers before signing off on any expansion. David Beier, president of the Committee for Taxi Safety, said he doubts Ubers promise to create jobs upstate.

Theyre not creating jobs, theyre destroying an industry, Beier said.

Lawmakers plan to adjourn their session June 16.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation New York
Assurant Inc. announced the appointment of Richard S. Dziadzio to the role of chief financial officer and treasurer.

Dziadzio joins Assurant from QBE North America where he most recently served as CFO. He will report directly to Assurant President and CEO Alan B. Colberg and will join the companys management committee.

Dziadzio succeeds Christopher J. Pagano, who has served as CFO and treasurer since Aug. 2014 and will move into the newly created role of chief risk officer.

Dziadzio will be responsible for leading Assurants global finance organization, including business segment financial teams, the asset management and tax functions.

Dziadzio joined QBE North America in 2013. Prior to QBE, Dziadzio served as CFO for ANV, a global specialty insurance company. From 1994 to 2012, he held a series of positions at AXA Group and was named CFO for AXA Equitable Life Insurance and AXA Financial in 2007.

QBE North America said it has partnered with an executive search firm to assist in finding a successor as soon as possible.
The Atlantic should produce a near-normal 12 storms during the six-month hurricane season that officially begins Wednesday, while the U.S. coastline has a below-average chance of being struck by a major system, according to Colorado State Universitys forecast.

Of the 12 storms, five could become hurricanes and two could grow into major systems of Category 3 or stronger, said Phil Klotzbach, lead author of the closely watched seasonal outlook. The U.S. has a 50 percent chance of being struck by a major hurricane, just below the 20th century average of 52 percent.

As is the case with all hurricane seasons, coastal residents are reminded that it only takes one hurricane making landfall to make it an active season for them, Klotzbach wrote in his forecast. They should prepare the same for every season, regardless how much activity is predicted. 

In an average year, 12 systems of tropical storm strength or greater form from June 1 through Nov. 30. Already this year, Hurricane Alex formed in January and Tropical Storm Bonnie struck the coast of South Carolina last week.

Klotzbach said his prediction doesnt include those two, so 2016 could end up with 14 in total. A weakening El Nino in the Pacific Ocean could make conditions in the Atlantic more conducive for tropical storms and hurricanes.

Storms Cost

Atlantic hurricanes can exact a high toll in human life, cause billions of dollars in property damage and roil energy and agriculture markets.

About 5 percent of the U.S. marketed natural gas production comes from the Gulf of Mexico, along with 17 percent of crude oil, Energy Information Administration data show. The Gulf region also is home to more than 45 percent of petroleum refining capacity and 51 percent of gas processing.

Florida, a frequent target of storms, is the worlds second-largest orange-juice producer, behind Brazil. More than 6.8 million homes with an estimated reconstruction cost of $1.5 trillion lie in vulnerable areas along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, according to analytics firm CoreLogic in a new report this week.

El Nino

Among the weather changes wrought by El Nino is a greater chance of wind shear across the Atlantic that can tear storms apart. If the Pacific phenomenon fades, wind shear in the Atlantic will also drop away.

However, water temperatures in the far northern Atlantic, as well as in the sub-tropical areas of the northeastern part of the basin, are cooler than normal, Klotzbach said. This could indicate a larger shift in what is known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, or AMO, to a cooler phase.

The Atlantic tends to produce fewer storms when the AMO is in its cooler phase, which can last for 20 to 40 years. The ocean shifted to its warm phase in 1995 and most of the hurricane seasons since then have produced more than the average of 12 storms a year; 2005 spawned a record 28 storms.

Wilmas Record

Among those storms was Katrina, which wrecked New Orleans and the central Gulf Coast, and Wilma, the last major hurricane, with winds of 111 miles (179 kilometers) per hour or more, to hit the U.S. The nearly 11 years since Wilma is the longest the country has gone without being struck by a major system.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also predicted the Atlantic would have a near-normal season, for the same reasons cited by Klotzbach. NOAA called for 10 to 16 named storms, with four to eight becoming hurricanes and one to four becoming major systems. There were 11 named storms last year and eight in 2014.

In April, Klotzbach also called for 12 storms, five hurricanes and two major systems. That forecast was released just days before the death of Klotzbachs mentor, William Gray, the originator of tropical seasonal outlooks.

He promised me when I saw him a few days before his death that I would give him at least 50 more years of seasonal forecasts, Klotzbach wrote in the current outlook. I will do my best to continue his legacy and produce seasonal Atlantic hurricane forecasts for as long as I can.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters USA Hurricane Colorado
Rahm Says Rauner Uses 'The Donald Trump Playbook' As CPS Funding Tensions Build

By aaroncynic in News on Jun 2, 2016 8:51PM



(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The next meetup at the $100,000-a-year wine club could be awkward for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Bruce Rauner. Emanuel compared his one-time wine drinking buddy to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump after Rauner stood firm on the state education budget impasse. Rauner's latest comments, made downstate on Wednesday, have further driven a wedge between Chicago and the rest of Illinois.

Bruce Rauner is following the Donald Trump playbook of demonizing one group of people for his political advantage, Emanuel said in a statement, according to the Tribune.

Rauner called the statement from his friend of 20 years a goofy personal attack and compared him to Teachers Union President Karen Lewis. That's not helpful. I'm starting to think Rahm is taking his speaking lessons from Karen or something, Rauner told the Tribune. This is not helpful. We've got to focus on the facts and what's constructive.

While Rahm and Rauner are at odds, theres also an escalating war of words between The Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool. The CTU blasted Claypool, Emanuel and Rauner for failing to pass education funding in Springfield in a Thursday press conference. On Wednesday, Claypool said without funding from the state legislature, schools might not open in the fall.



CTU President Karen Lewis and Vice President Jesse Sharkey at a press conference on March 23, 2016. (Photo by Aaron Cynic/Chicagoist)

"Running down to Springfield and begging for money is not a plan," CTU Vice President Jesse Sharkey told WGN.

Claypool and Emanuel were banking on a last minute deal between lawmakers and Rauner on a budget that wouldve funded education, a bet that given the last year of deadlock in the Capitol, was a poor one. The District is facing potentially devastating cuts without funding, which they say needs to include revenue raising options.

The blame is in City Hall on the 5th Floor for not being consistent or being coherent or having a real plan for funding schools, CTU President Karen Lewis said Thursday, according to the Sun-Times. Lewis also said that shed be open to a contract that didnt include annual raises, provided that Emanuel and the state consider other revenue sources the CTU has previously proposed.

We still want our steps and lanes, and we could live maybe without a 2 or 3 percent raise. How about that? Lewis said.
American International Group Inc. failed to persuade a judge to throw out a lawsuit by Pacific Investment Management Co. over investments that were wiped out because of the insurers exposure to credit-default swaps and subprime debt in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis.

California Superior Court Judge Thierry Patrick Colaw in Santa Ana rejected AIGs argument that Pimcos claims were brought too late in a ruling released Wednesday. He also granted AIGs request to immediately appeal the ruling.

Pimco sued AIG last year after it opted out of a $970-million class-action settlement between AIG and investors who claimed the company had misled them about risks tied to the credit-default swaps and residential mortgage-backed securities. It was one of the biggest investor recoveries stemming from the credit crisis.

The judge said hes allowing AIG to appeal because theres a difference of opinion in New York and California federal courts over the time limit for bringing such securities claims. Pimcos opportunity to opt out of the settlement would be meaningless if the New York court was correct that the time to bring its individual claim had lapsed, Colaw said.

We respectfully disagree with the decision but are pleased that the trial court has agreed to certify an appeal in which we will argue that the more recent and better-reasoned decisions of the federal courts of appeal should be followed, AIG said in a statement.

Offering Documents

Sixty-three Pimco investment funds seek damages from AIG under U.S. securities law for stocks and bonds they bought from Oct. 18, 2006, to May 12, 2008. They allege AIGs offering documents for the securities either misstated or left out crucial information.

Last years class-action settlement would have given Pimco about $1 for every $100 in AIG securities it purchased during that period, according to court filings.

The case is Pacific Investment Management Co. v. American International Group Inc., 30-2015-00779738, California Superior Court, Orange County (Santa Ana).

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits California
Business groups from the U.S. and around the world protested planned cybersecurity rules for the insurance industry in China in a letter to the head of the nations insurance regulator.

The draft regulations may create obstacles to international trade, according to the June 1 letter to Xiang Junbo, chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, which was seen by Bloomberg News.

The signatories are more than two dozen organizations including the American Chamber of Commerce in China, the American Council of Life Insurers and the American Insurance Association. Technology companies are represented and the groups span Japan, Canada, the U.K and Europe.

China has the right to implement measures necessary for the maintenance of cybersecurity, but we believe that the provisions go far beyond what is necessary, the letter says. It responds to planned rules covering areas such as data flows and cryptography, citing cases of disproportionate burdens on foreign-invested insurers and discrimination against foreign technology suppliers.

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics Carriers USA Cyber InsurTech Tech China
Residents of some rural southeastern Texas counties are bracing for more flooding along a river that has already reached a record high as more rain was expected in the coming days.

Large swaths of suburban communities southwest of Houston were underwater and hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes before the Brazos River reached 54.37 feet in Fort Bend County, just two years after it had run dry in places because of drought.

National Weather Service meteorologist Charles Roeseler said the 54.37 feet at Richmond early Wednesday was not yet the crest and the river was expected to slowly rise even more overnight.

An additional 1 to 3 inches of rain expected later this week could keep the Brazos in major flood stage into the weekend.

Im scared, said Abigail Salazar, standing in knee-deep water outside her home in Richmond, where she was retrieving personal belongings after the city issued a voluntary evacuation advisory. My kids ask me in the morning, Ma, what happened? The water is here.

During four days of torrential rain last week, at least six people died in floods in Texas.

Scott Overpeck, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said that the Brazos will recede in the coming days but that its levels will remain high for up to three weeks, in part because water will need to be released from swollen reservoirs upriver.

Theres so much water on the Brazos that its going to take a long time to drain through the whole river and drain out into the Gulf of Mexico, Overpeck said.

Four of the six people killed in flooding were recovered in Washington County, which is between Austin and Houston, County Judge John Brieden said Monday. Lake Somerville, one of the Brazos reservoirs, was gushing uncontrollably over the spillway and threatening people downriver, he said.

About 40 people were rescued Sunday and Monday from low-lying homes in a flooded neighborhood of Simonton, a Fort Bend County community of about 800 residents. The county had set up a pumping system to divert the water from the neighborhood, but it was overpowered by the flooding, county spokeswoman Beth Wolf said.

Wolf said any additional rain in the region would be a problem.

The ditches are full, the rivers high, theres nowhere else for that water to go, she said.

In the Fort Bend County city of Rosenberg, which is next to Richmond, about 150 households were evacuated and city officials were coordinating with the countys office of emergency management to have rescue boats in place, city spokeswoman Jenny Pavlovich said.

Heavy rains moved across the Dallas-Fort Worth area on Tuesday. In Hood County, southwest of Fort Worth, several roads were washed out and authorities performed about 15 water rescues, including from homes and vehicles, said Sheriff Roger Deeds. He says they were still trying to determine how many homes flooded.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood
Federal authorities have fined an Idaho food processing company $273,000 following the release of a dangerous gas.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration assessed the fine against Dickinson Frozen Foods.

Federal officials say the large release of anhydrous ammonia in December 2015 at the eastern Idaho plant in Sugar City where Dickinson Frozen Foods process potatoes didnt cause any injuries but other major ammonia releases at the facility have.

Investigators say they issued 19 serious and two willful citations following the hazardous release at the plant with 220 workers.

Its a miracle no Dickinson Frozen Foods employees were killed or hurt last year, David Kearns, Idaho director for OSHA, said in a statement.

Authorities say the plant lacks an adequate emergency response program and failed to equip employees with protective gear.

The company, which has another plant in Fruitland, didnt immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

Kearns during a telephone interview with the AP said anhydrous ammonia is used for refrigeration, and is kept under pressure in a closed system.

Under pressure, he said, its a liquid. But if the system has a leak, the anhydrous ammonia escapes into the air as a colorless gas with a pungent odor that can damage the eyes and respiratory tract. It can also explode if mixed with other chemicals.

You need to make sure (the system) is maintained and operated appropriately so we dont have catastrophic releases to workers or even the surrounding community, Kearns said.

Among the violations found during an inspection of the eastern Idaho plant, authorities said, were employees exposed to liquid ammonia without chemical protective clothing, employees entering potentially life-threatening atmosphere without appropriate breathing apparatus, and employees responding to an emergency without proper training.

The Sugar City plant process potatoes for use in items such as frozen dinners, federal officials said.

Kearns said the company has asked for negotiations to discuss the fines, with that meeting to take place within the next two weeks.

If the company isnt happy with the result of those efforts, Kearns said, the company can ask for a review. If the company remains unsatisfied, an appeal can be filed thats heard by an administrative law judge.

Were thankful nobody was hurt and hopeful they will be able to work with us to provide a safe and healthy work site, Kearns said.

He noted that the average fine in Idaho for safety violations is about $2,500 to $3,000.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance
Un ottobre da sogno per Antonio Conte: lex ct della Nazionale italiana, attualmente alla guida del Chelsea, nelle ultime quattro gare di Premier League ha collezionato solo successi, conditi da 11 reti segnate e addirittura nessuna incassata. Numeri da record che non sono certo passati inosservati alla Federazione inglese, la quale ha conferito al tecnico leccese lambito premio di Manager del mese.

Unavventura oltremanica iniziata in sordina, quella di Conte, pur a fronte di tre vittorie nelle prime tre gare di campionato. A far vacillare, anche se solo per un momento, le certezze del patron del club londinese, Roman Abramovich, i risultati conseguiti tra la 4a e la 6a giornata, coincisi con un pareggio sul campo dello Swansea City e, soprattutto, con le due pesanti sconfitte subite dal Liverpool, sul terreno casalingo di Stamford Bridge, e dallArsenal. In particolare, la debacle interna coi Reds, aveva irritato non poco il numero uno russo, poiche occorsa proprio nel giorno della sua 250esima partita da presidente della societa.

Come detto, solo un momento. Dopo lincontro dellEmirates, il tecnico salentino cambia modulo, adottando un piu equilibrato 3-4-3 e inserendo elementi di corsa come lo spagnolo Pedro. Una svolta totale perche, di li in poi, il Chelsea inanellera solo e soltanto vittorie: 2 gol allHull City e al Southampton in trasferta, 3 ai campioni dInghilterra del Leicester e 4 allo United in casa, con un meraviglioso numero zero nella casella delle reti subite. Un fantastico poker, ottenuto tra l1 e il 29 ottobre. Un cambio di marcia sbalorditivo, confermato dal 5 a 0 rifilato ai toffees dellEverton nel primo match di novembre, e una scalata che, man mano, ha portato i blues al secondo posto in classifica, a soli 2 punti dal Liverpool capolista.

E allora, non poteva mancare il riconoscimento di migliore allenatore del mese, ottenuto surclassando tecnici del calibro di Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) e Mark Hughes (Southampton). Tanta, ovviamente, la soddisfazione: E un grande onore e voglio condividerlo con i giocatori e con la societa  ha dichiarato Conte sul sito ufficiale della Premier League -. E la prima volta che lavoro in un altro Paese, con una cultura diversa, e portare la propria filosofia non e facile, ma ora sono contento di questa scelta.

A completare la festa, la premiazione del fantasista belga, Eden Hazard, come miglior giocatore di ottobre. Due risultati importanti per il club, ottimo incentivo per la rincorsa al trono dei campioni, occupato dal Leicester di Ranieri. Il prossimo appuntamento per l11 di Conte sara al Riverside Stadium, tana del Middlesborough neopromosso. Il tempo di festeggiare e gia finito.
What Is a Japan ETF?

The term Japan ETF refers to an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that invests the majority of its assets in Japanese assets that trade on local stock exchanges. These ETFs are diversified investments that have a low initial investment requirement and lower costs. Just like company stock. Japan ETFs trade on stock exchanges. They provide investors access to the Japanese economy through currency, equity, and fixed-income markets. Investors can choose from more than a dozen options that trade on U.S. stock exchanges.

Key Takeaways A Japan ETF is an exchange-traded fund that invests in Japanese assets that trade on local stock exchanges.

Like other ETFs, shares trade on stock exchanges just like corporate stock.

Japan is home to a number of major indices tracked by ETFs, as well as others that track small- and mid-cap equity strategies and currencies.

Investors can gain access to the Japanese market and economy by purchasing ETF shares rather than stocks or other securities.

The market for Japan ETFs is smaller when compared to others like the U.S.

How Japan ETFs Work

Investing in foreign stock markets was something only sophisticated traders could ever hope to achieve in the past. But average investors have been able to get into the market, giving them the chance to profit from the global shifts in capital. This movement of money has a lot to do with the advance of exchange-traded funds.

ETFs pool assets from investors who have similar goals. They are listed on exchanges and trade throughout the day just like ordinary stocks. They strive to replicate the performance of a broad equity market, specific sector, or trend by mirroring the holdings of a designated index. This is a hypothetical portfolio of securities representing a particular market or a segment of it.

Japan ETFs provide international investors with an easy way to gain exposure to the country without buying individual stocks and placing all their eggs in one basket. These vehicles are managed passively around a broad underlying index, such as the MSCI Japan Index, whose constituents cover approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in the country.

Investors can choose from 21 Japan ETFs that trade on U.S. stock exchanges. Together, they hold combined assets of about $20 billion. These ETFs track eight major indices on Japan's stock market. This is in addition to those that track small- and mid-cap investment strategies and currencies.

Special Considerations

Japan is an advanced economy with a large equity market. That means there are plenty of ETFs to choose from, including more exotic ones that focus exclusively on the countrys smaller, up-and-coming companies, dividends, or value stocks. As with several of the larger, more liquid ETFs, some Japan ETFs can be sold short and are even accessible through listed options.

Having said that, many investors underestimate the effects that currency fluctuations can have on total returns. If the U.S. dollar rises in value against the Japanese yen (JPY), then an unhedged ETF will suffer currency losses that can offset any gains in the underlying Japanese stock market.

During periods of dollar strength, many investors found currency risk undesirable, paving the way for a rise in a category of ETFs that hedge out currency risk. Their goal is to give investors a return closer to the local currency returns of a countrys major stock market indexes.

The performance of a Japan ETF doesn't correlate to the performance of the underlying index when it's measured in U.S. dollars. Instead, it's the exchange rate change between the yen and the dollar that must be taken into consideration.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Japan ETFs

There's no doubt that investing in Japan ETFs allows investors to diversify their holdings and get into a new market. But there are other benefits to trading shares in these investments. Similarly, there are downsides to adding these vehicles to an investment portfolio. We've listed some of the key pros and cons associated with Japan ETFs below.

Advantages

The Japan Exchange Group, which owns the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), is the largest and most progressive stock exchange in the Asia Pacific by market cap. This makes the country a frequent source of investor focus and attention. Japan ETFs allow for a single diversified investment in the country, while also making a bet on the strength of the yen versus the dollar.

Japan popped back onto investors' radars ever since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe first took office in 2012. Abe steadily introduced a series of shareholder-friendly reforms, encouraging Japan Inc. to stop hoarding cash and start increasing dividends and stock repurchases. He also targeted negative interest rates, a controversial policy designed to stimulate spending and depreciate the yen. Since Japanese companies are big exporters, a devalued currency gives them a competitive edge.

Though widely talked about, Abenomics hasnt been an overnight success. These economic policies have, however, made Japan a hot topic in investment circles and shone the light on it being home to some of the best companies and brands in the world.

Disadvantages

Abenomics failed to reenergize the Japanese economy as much as first hoped. The country has a fair number of issues, including decades of deflation, an aging population, and high levels of debt.

Japan's market is also more limited than othersnotably, the U.S. ETF marketboth in size and variety. This difference could be attributable to the fee structure for the Asian market in general. In the U.S., the trend has been toward a fee-only fiduciary model for many investments. In Asia, on the other hand, many investment products continue to be sold by agents on commission.

Pros Provide access to a large and progressive market

Open investors up to Japanese companies, which have competitive edge

Give investors access to major companies and brands Cons Are susceptible to economic risks

Have access to a smaller market (size and variety)

Asia-focused ETFs tend to be commission based

Example of a Japan ETF

The iShares MSCI Japan ETF (EWJ) is perhaps the best-known ETF in this category. The fund aims to produce investment results that correspond to the MSCI Japan Index using a market capitalization-weighted method. In other words, a companys representation is based on its size.

iShares Japan ETF and the MSCI Japan Index are very similar, ensuring little tracking error. Both are led by Toyota (TM), which accounts for over 5% of total assets, consisting mainly of industrials, consumer discretionary, financials, and technology stocks.
As president of the United States, Donald Trump was likely the wealthiest individual to inhabit the White House and his net worth remains a topic for debate.

In 2015, Donald Trump claimed in a press release that he was worth more than $10 billion, however, his net worth as of 2022 is estimated at $3 billion.

Key Takeaways Donald Trump is the founder of The Trump Organization, a private entity.

He is required to submit a financial disclosure document each year, although numbers are self-reported and dont provide an accurate estimate of his net worth.

Forbes estimates Donald Trump's net worth at $3 billion although Trump has claimed the value at $10 billion.

The Trump Organization

Since 1976, Donald Trump grew his wealth through global commercial, resort, and residential real estate development under the umbrella of The Trump Organization. As a private entity, The Trump Organization is not required to publish financial statements in the same manner as a publicly-traded company.

Donald Trump famously refused to publish his tax returns, which would show his annual income and taxes paid or owed. Although The New York Times published abbreviated information from Trump's tax returns on Sept. 27, 2020, the disclosure failed to provide details about his actual net worth.

As a former president, Trump completes a required annual financial disclosure to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. Government financial disclosures may list assets and investments but in estimates and broad value ranges. In 2021, many of Trump's properties were valued at "over $50 million," however, these estimates are self-reported, unaudited, and also differ from numbers The Trump Organization has reported to state and local tax officials.

71 The number of properties in the portfolio owned and operated by The Trump Organization. This total includes commercial and residential real estate, golf courses, hotels, and personal estates.

Assets

In May 2022, Forbes estimated Trumps net worth at $3 billion, falling short of the $10 billion estimates that Trump suggested while running for office in 2015.

Forbes' numbers marry with the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which placed the former presidents net worth at $2.97 billion in August 2020.Forbes has attempted to break down Trump's net worth by assets.

Net Worth The value of all assets minus liabilities.

Much of Trumps wealth is tied to multi-use buildings in Manhattan, including retail real estate in the busy Midtown district. His highest value asset is a 30% stake in the office and retail space at 1290 Avenue of the Americas, valued at $2.2 billion, with a debt value of $950 million on the property.



The Trump Organization owns several exclusive golf properties estimated at $730 million, including clubs in Scotland and Dubai. Trump's private golf club in Palm Beach, Fla, Mar-a-Lago, is valued at $350 million.

Trump holds approximately $275 million in cash and liquid assets. Other personal assets include three Florida homes and his 11,000-square-foot residence in New York City, the Trump Tower penthouse. Residential units throughout the United States and around the globe have an estimated value of $340 million. This includes hotels and residential locations in Chicago, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Europe, Asia, and South America.



Donald Trump announced in October 2021 that he was creating his own social media platform. Truth Social, held through Trump Media, garnered Donald Trump $430 million from investors. The Donald Trump brand, including his licensing and management business, is valued at just over $50 million.

Trump holds roughly $275 million in cash and liquid assets. Other personal assets include three Florida homes and his 11,000-square-foot residence in New York Citythe Trump Tower penthouse.



Trumps vast real estate empire includes approximately residential units throughout the United States. This includes hotels and retail locations in Chicago, Las Vegas, and San Francisco.

What Are Donald Trump's Estimated Liablities? Trump has a lengthy financial record which includes corporate bankruptcies and lawsuits. In 2021, Trump Organization owed $590 million in debts due within four years by 2025.



What Prominent Real Estate Locations in New York City Has Donald Trump Owned? Donald Trump has owned and sold many buildings in New York including the Plaza Hotel, the St. Moritz Hotel, now the Ritz Carlton on Central Park South, and the land under the Empire State Building.

What Is Considered One of Trump's Bad Investment Decisions? In 2014, Donald Trump partnered with an Azerbaijani family that U.S. officials called notoriously unethical. The building, a five-star hotel, and residence called the Trump International Hotel & Tower Baku in Azerbaijan has never opened.

The Bottom Line

Donald Trump's net worth has ranged in estimates from $3 billion to $10 billion. With his private firm, The Trump Organization, and its limited public disclosures, it has been difficult to capture the true net worth of his global commercial, resort, and residential real estate as well as his licensing and social media ventures.
McDonald's Hopes To Build New Headquarters At Oprah's Old Studios

By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Jun 2, 2016 4:42PM



Harpo Studios (Photo credit: Ken "artistmac" Smith)

McDonald's is in the final stages of a deal that would relocate its headquarters from suburban Oak Brook to Oprah Winfrey's former studios in the West Loop, according to Crain's Chicago Business.

The company has been talking about relocating eastward for some time, since the Oak Brook campus where it's been headquartered since 1971 has been showing signs of wear and tear. The cost-conscious McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook did tell employees in February that the Oak Brook building was getting expensive to maintain. But a bid last year to move to One Prudential Plaza near Millennium Park last year fell through after it got to the final stages, Crain's says.

This time McDonald's has their eye on the former Harpo Studios campus on Randolph Street. Developer Sterling Bay purchased the 300,000 square feet structure for $30.5 million with the intent of demolishing the structure and building a new space that is scheduled to be completed in 2018, Crain's says.

A spokeswoman for the company said it was too early to comment on a deal. There are a lot of unknowns, namely how much of the staff currently working at headquarters off the I-88 would be relocated downtown. Last year, the company's digital team moved to River North.
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SpaceX is a privately-funded rocket manufacturer and transport services company. Also known as Space Exploration Technologies, it was founded by Elon Musk. SpaceX has developed a reusable rocket and launch system to significantly reduce the cost of space flight.

On May 30, 2020, SpaceX launched its first-ever crewed mission, a test flight called Demo-2 that sent NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS). A loftier goal is to crew a space mission to Mars by 2024.

While the company prepares to reach new heights, there's a lot of speculation on whether Musk may take his space technology public. Read on to learn more about this space technology company and whether investors will ever see it go public in an initial public offering (IPO).

Key Takeaways SpaceX CEO Elon Musk doesn't plan to take SpaceX public.

According to the company, the short-term demands of shareholders conflict with his long-term ambitions.

Although reports suggest SpaceX could spin-off its Starlink satellite business, Musk says he has given no thought to the possibility.

An Overview of SpaceX

Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 to change space technology and make exploration possible for people beyond trained astronauts. Based in Hawthorne, California, SpaceX has roughly 10,000 employees and remains a private company.

Funding for SpaceX initially came from Musk, who used most of the money he received from the sale of PayPal as capital for the project. It also received funding from Founders Fund, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Valor Equity Partners. In January 2015, Google and Fidelity invested $1 billion for a stake of just under 10%.

A key innovation is the company's reusable booster rockets, which can be flown as many as 11 times. The company's Falcon 9 spacecraft costs $62 million to book, while a mission using the Falcon Heavy costs $90 million.

NASA Relationship

SpaceX has launched dozens of missions from facilities in California, Texas, and Florida. In 2008, NASA awarded SpaceX a $1.6 billion contract to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

In May 2012, its Dragon spacecraft visited the ISS, which marked the first time a craft developed by a private company had done so. In September 2014, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.6 billion contract to transport NASA astronauts into space.

NASA is increasingly relying on private companies for servicesmuch to the benefit of SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Blue Origin, among others.

As noted above, SpaceX launched its first-ever crewed mission on May 30, 2020, that sent NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

Musk's Lofty Projects

The company aims to save on manufacturing expenses by pursuing the creation of reusable rockets rather than the industry standard of one-time-use rockets, thus decreasing the overall cost of entering space. When you consider the interplanetary goals, it's one of Musk's most exalted goals, even if it's not his first lofty project.

The serial entrepreneur is perhaps best known for co-founding electric car manufacturer Tesla in 2003. He also co-founded the online payment services company that later became PayPal. Other notable projects include The Boring Company, which aims to burrow tunnels underneath cities to relieve traffic congestion, and Neuralink, which is developing interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

PayPal, which went public in 2002, was quickly snapped up by eBay, and then returned to the public market in 2015. Tesla's shares, on the other hand, debuted in 2010.

With Musk's track record, it would not be surprising if SpaceX also went public. According to information provided to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Musk owns 47.4% of SpaceX and controls voting rights for 78.3% of the shares.

SpaceX Manufacturing Expediency

SpaceX can launch a rocket for $90 million, compared to $380 million charged by its rivals. The lower cost is due partly to an emphasis on in-house manufacturing. For example, instead of spending $50,000 to $100,000 to purchase radio equipment and other communications gear, SpaceX was able to develop gear in-house for $5,000.

As a private company, SpaceX is free from the restrictions associated with a government bureaucracy that normally plague organizations such as NASA. This allows Musk to move with surprising speed, rapidly creating parts and equipment, securing launchpad sites, and hiring employees from competing companies and universities.

An IPO Is as Far Away as a SpaceX Mars Landing

In 2018, SpaceX logged an estimated $2 billion in launch revenue, compared with an industry-wide total of $8 billion. A research note published by Morgan Stanley in March 2020 valued SpaceX at $52 billion, based on its Starlink satellite broadband business.

As of October 2021, SpaceX is valued at $100 billion. Gwynne Shotwell, the company's president and chief operating officer (COO), said Starlink could be a candidate for a spinoff IPO, but Musk said he gave no thought to such a move.

Unique in the story of SpaceX is the company's government contracts, which Musk is likely to want to keep. A public offering for the broader company could deter the security of future government contracts, though the necessity of NASA outsourcing may override a decision to turn away from SpaceX due to a public offering.

By operating privately, SpaceX is free from the burdens of transparency and shareholder claims. He can do as he wants, when he wants, to promote the company's goals. The presence of Boeing as a publicly-traded company has not prevented the U.S. government from making use of the company's technologies and services.

Musk has suggested SpaceX will remain private, as the company's long-term goals conflict with the short-term demands of public markets and stockholders. Shotwell said SpaceX could not go public until the company was flying regularly to Mars. SpaceX hopes to send its first cargo mission to Mars in 2022, followed by a crewed mission in 2024.

The argument remainsopening SpaceX to the public could change its fundamental mission to Mars into a mission for profits. Musk is not likely to tap the public markets soon for an IPO unless funding from the U.S. government or institutional investors such as Google unexpectedly drops.

How Much Is SpaceX Valued At? As of Oct. 8, 2021, it is reported that SpaceX is valued at $100 billion. This is referred to as a super-unicorn, which is worth 100x a unicorn.

Is SpaceX a Public Company? SpaceX is not a public company, it is still privately owned. Tesla, one of Elon Musk's other companies, is a public company. Musk has discussed the possibility of taking SpaceX public, or at least Starlink, which is a part of SpaceX that seeks to provide Internet to most of the Earth via satellites in space.

How Much Is Elon Musk Worth? As of March 4, 2022. Elon Musk is worth $229.1 billion, making him the richest person in the world.

The Bottom Line

SpaceX remains a young space company, one that is not immune from financial pressures. In January 2019, it cut 10% of its workforce, bringing the total headcount to 6,400 employees at the time.

Nevertheless, if the company reaches its ultimate goal of a historic crewed mission to Mars, Musk will have crafted yet another amazing success story. In the meantime, the company is more concerned with attaining more government contracts and successful launches.

CorrectionDec. 8, 2021: A previous version of the article claimed that none of SpaceX's rockets have been flown more than three times. Some of their rockets have been flown more than three times.
Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) is best known for its ride-hailing service whose Uber app matches consumers looking for ride services. The company was founded in 2009 and reached 1 billion rides by 2015. Four years later, it went public in an IPO in May of 2019. The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused a drastic decline in Uber's traditional ride service and its revenue. Uber has diversified its revenue stream by launching a food order and delivery business, Uber Eats, as well as a freight shipping service, Uber Freight. Like the initial ride-hailing service, these other offerings match consumers up with providers. Despite these new business lines, Uber continues to report massive quarterly losses. It's also facing other headwinds. A federal court ruled in January that the company must face parts of a class-action lawsuit from 48,000 drivers in in California.

The top shareholders of Uber are Dara Khosrowshahi, Tony West, Nelson J. Chai, SB Investment Advisers (UK) Ltd., Morgan Stanley, and FMR LLC.

As of January 27, 2021, Uber had trailing 12-month (TTM) revenue of $13.0 billion and TTM net income of -$6.9 billion, with a market capitalization of $89.1 billion.

Below, we take a closer look at the top shareholders of Uber.

"Insider" refers to people in senior management positions and members of the board of directors, as well as people or entities that own more than 10% of the company's stock. In this context, it has nothing to do with insider trading.

Top 3 Individual Insider Shareholders

Dara Khosrowshahi

Dara Khosrowshahi owns 913,505 shares of Uber, representing 0.05% of all outstanding shares. Khosrowshahi was appointed CEO of Uber in 2017, replacing Uber's controversial founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick. In his new role as CEO, Khosrowshahi manages the company's 22,000 employees. Prior to Uber, he was CEO of Expedia, where he helped to grow the company into one of the world's largest online travel firms. He has also previously been chief financial officer of IAC Travel and vice president of Allen & Company, an investment banker. Khosrowshahi is on the boards of Expedia and Catalyst.org.

Tony West

Tony West owns 189,032 shares of Uber, representing 0.01% of all outstanding shares. West is chief legal officer, senior vice president, and corporate secretary of Uber, where he leads the Legal, Compliance and Ethics, and Security teams. Previously, West was corporate secretary and executive vice president of public policy and government affairs of PepsiCo, Inc. (PEP). From 2012 to 2014, West was associate attorney general of the United States under President Obama. In this role he oversaw the Department of Justice's Civil Rights, Antitrust, Tax, Environment and Natural Resources, and Civil Divisions. During his tenure, West pursued banks involved in the 2008-2009 financial crisis, helping to secure $37 billion in fines and restitution.

Nelson J. Chai

Nelson J. Chai owns 180,528 shares of Uber, representing 0.01% of all outstanding shares. Chai is chief financial officer of Uber, having previously served as CEO of Warranty Group, an insurance and warranty provider. He has also been a president of CIT Group, chief financial officer of Merrill Lynch & Co., and has held executive leadership positions at NYSE Euronext and Archipelago Holdings. Chai sits on the board of Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Top 3 Institutional Shareholders

Institutional investors hold the majority of Uber shares at about 70.6% of total shares outstanding.

SB Investment Advisers (UK) Ltd.

SB Investment Advisers (UK) Ltd. owns 222.2 million shares of Uber, representing 12.6% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending September 30, 2020. The company is a subsidiary of SoftBank Company, a Japanese strategic holding company investing in technology companies. SB Investment Advisers manages SoftBank's primary investment vehicle, the Vision Fund, which has been a big owner of Uber shares. The Vision Fund manages a portfolio of roughly $100 billion in investments.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley owns 101.5 million shares of Uber, representing 5.8% of total shares outstanding, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending September 30, 2020. The company is a multinational financial services and investment firm whose offerings include mutual funds, ETFs, and related products. The firm has capital markets, sales and trading, research, and investment banking branches, and its investment management businesses has AUM of roughly $715 billion. Morgan Stanley's Growth Portfolio (MSEQX) holds UBER, which is the 5th-largest holding in the portfolio, representing about 4.8% of assets.

FMR LLC

FMR LLC, which operates under the name Fidelity, owns 82.3 million shares of Uber, which represents 4.7% ownership of the total shares, according to the company's 13F filing for the period ending December 31, 2020. Fidelity is a financial services firm that sells and operates a large number of ETFs and mutual funds, as well as offering brokerage and wealth management services. Fidelity had $3.8 trillion in assets under management as of December 2020.
Shale oil explorers and producers are among the most volatile companies in the energy sector. When these companies are wrapped in exchange-traded funds (ETFs), investors can choose between strategies involving indirect participation, hedged portfolios and direct exposure with high levels of volatility. Three ETFs particularly stand out for using these strategies, should the shale industry rebound, as of March 10, 2016.

The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF

Should a recovery in the U.S. shale oil industry occur, the companies that compose the holdings of the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF (NYSE ARCA: XES) should benefit as well. Unlike conventional drilling with rigs that can pump relatively consistent levels of oil for 20 years or more, a typical shale oil well loses about 70% of production in the first year. By the third year, production is reduced to a trickle. The need to replace lost production puts shale oil companies in a constant state of drilling new wells, but with oil's price in the mid-$30s and the break-even price on shale oil being around $50 per barrel, oil producers have slowed the development of new wells.

However, an increase in oil prices to the point where shale oil can be extracted and produced at a profit would likely start a new round of rig construction as companies play catch-up to replace lost production and rebuild their balance sheets. The SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF could also benefit from lower shale oil production costs due to improvements in technology. On average, production costs for shale oil dropped from $100 in 2006 to $50 per barrel by the end of 2015 as advances in fracking technology resulted in lower up-front costs and more output per well. The continuation of this trend would lower the break-even point for production costs, resulting in profitable drilling at oil prices lower than $50 per barrel.

The Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETF

The ETF that provides the closest thing to a pure play on shale oil companies is the Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETF (NASDAQ: PSCE), which focuses on exploration, production, services and equipment companies in the Standard & Poors Small-Cap 600 Index. The fund's largest holding at a 13.8% allocation is PDC Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: PDCE), which has shale oil operations in the Wattenberg Field in Colorado and the Utica Field in Ohio. The second-largest position in the fund is Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. (NASDAQ: CRZO) at a 10.01% allocation, which focuses primarily on shale oil operations in Texas, Ohio, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

The portfolios exposure to small-cap energy companies in general, as well as shale oil explorers and producers specifically, results in a high-volatility ETF that is not for the faint of heart. For example, the fund's beta is 1.7, meaning it is 70% more volatile than the general market. However, this fund is worthy of consideration for risk-tolerant investors seeking a bet on a U.S. shale industry rebound.

The Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF

As a market-weighted fund, the Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF (NYSE ARCA: FRAK) concentrates 58.48% of its top 10 holdings in large-cap companies that get a small percentage of revenues from shale oil, and distribute the balance of its holdings over smaller exploration and production companies. For example, the funds largest holding is Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY), which operates in three distinct segments: oil and gas, chemicals, and midstream and marketing. The company announced in October 2015 that it was reducing its exposure to shale oil by selling its operations in the Bakken field, located in North Dakota. These operations represented Occidental's largest stake in shale oil.

As a result of its concentrated holdings of large-cap integrated oil positions mixed with small-caps in the oil and gas sector, the ETF offers hedged exposure to shale oil companies, with relatively lower volatility than a portfolio composed entirely of small-cap explorers and producers. For example, its return over 2015 was -34.01%, versus the Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETFs loss of 48.3% during the same period. The performance relationship of these funds is similar on the upside, as the one-month return for the Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF was 17.48%, while the Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETF gained 24.41% over the same period.

The Bottom Line

These ETFs provide investors with three strategies to bet on a rebound for the U.S. shale industry. As an indirect play, the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Equipment & Services ETF will benefit as producers expand their drilling operations. The Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF offers hedged exposure with relatively less volatility. For risk-tolerant investors, the direct and high volatility exposure provided by the Invesco S&P SmallCap Energy ETF will likely deliver the biggest price swings out of these three ETFs, both on the upside and the downside.
What Is Peak Oil?

Peak oil refers to the hypothetical point at which global crude oil production will hit its maximum rate, after which production will start to decline. This concept is derived from geophysicist Marion King Hubbert's "peak theory," which states that oil production follows a bell-shaped curve.

In the traditional vision of peak oil, the production decline accelerates as the cost of extracting new reserves grows. This would put pressure on existing reserves that are drawing down over time. If new reserves are not brought online more rapidly than the existing reserves drawdown, then peak oil has been reached. Peak oil has been declared several times, but each deceleration has proved premature because of new extraction technologies like hydraulic fracturing and better surveying techniques.

Key Takeaways Peak oil is a hypothetical scenario where oil production hits a maximum rate and begins to decline.

When peak oil is reached, the discovery of new reserves cannot keep pace with the decline in existing reserves.

Although declared several times, peak oil has not happened thanks to new technology that helped sustain oil production, keeping global supplies flowing.

Peak oil might also happen due to declining demand, which would result from more efficient technologies and alternative energy sources.

Studies of climate change suggest that a decline in oil consumption in favor of alternative energy sources will be necessary in order to avert catastrophic climate change.

Peak Oil Supply and Demand

Because oil is a non-replenishing resource, there is a limit to how much the world can extract and refine. However, the scenario of total depletion is just one version of peak oil. In theory, peak oil can be brought on by the production squeezethe drawdown as new reserves get more expensive to extract. It can also be caused by a production decline when oil alternatives become more cost-effective, pricing oil out of the market and making it unprofitable to explore new reserves.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) brought peak oil to the forefront in 1973 when it orchestrated an oil embargo that exposed the United States vulnerability to a drop in oil supplies. Since then, peak oil on the supply side, either from total drawdown or difficulty of extraction, has been a major concern for energy-dependent nations. But this same fear spurred investment in exploration and technology, which has continually pushed peak oils projected date into the future.

Every time prices increase based on peak oil forecasts, the higher prices incentivize new investments in technology that postpone the peak. Of course, there is still a ceiling to oil extraction, but that may not be reached due to peak oil demand.

Peak oil demand refers to a scenario in production falls due to lower consumption, rather than scarcity of resources. This is especially likely if green technology and alternative energy become more cost-effective than extracting oil. In 2016, OPEC (the one-time bogeyman of peak oil supply) started to discuss peak oil demand as a possibility within a decade.

One possible indication of peak oil occurred in 2020, when U.S. crude oil production fell by more than 8%, the largest recorded year-on-year drop. The drop was largely attributed to low oil prices, due to reduced consumption during the COVID-19 pandemic. So peak oil is once again appearing on the horizonjust not for the reasons expected in the 1970s.

Peak Oil Predictions

There have been many predictions about when and if the worlds oil production would peak. In 1962, Hubbert predicted that global oil production would peak near the year 2000 at a rate of 12.5 billion barrels per year. Twelve years later, he estimated that the world would hit peak oil if the current trends continued. Both his theories proved incorrect.

Some analysts and industry officials have predicted peak oil before 2030, but making these forecasts isnt always because of the difficulty in estimating the actual size of the worlds unexplored oil reserves.

Climate scientists have warned that oil is a major source of carbon dioxide, a driver of global climate change. A successful effort to curb global warming would likely require a reduction in oil consumption.

Possible Consequences of Peak Oil

Some of the most obvious consequences of hitting peak oil supply are directly related to the economy. A sudden drop in oil supplies will lead to a sharp spike in prices, with a ripple effect in oil-dependent industries. Major sectors like agriculture could see a steep decline, due to the scarcity of oil-based fertilizers and fuel. The ripple effect could continue to shipping, transportation, and even the food and manufacturing industries. In a worst-case scenario, large areas of the world could experience famine because of higher food prices.

Peak oil would also have a sizeable effect on the climate, by reducing the carbon footprints of oil-dependent industries. Fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas are major sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide and a leading factor in anthropogenic climate change. A 2021 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that global temperatures have already risen by around 1.07 degrees Celsius due to human activity. Without "deep reductions" in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, global temperatures will likely increase by over 2 degrees Celsius before 2100.
Goldman Sachs has cut its outlook on Apple Inc. (AAPL) as the tech maker joined the rest of the FAANG group this week in bear market territory. The global tech giant was struck with another blow Tuesday morning following a downbeat note from one team of analysts on the Street who expects company shares to stay stagnant over the next 12 months.

Weak Demand, Unexpected Headwinds Weigh on Smartphone Maker

In a note to clients on Tuesday, Goldman reduced its price target on shares of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company from $209 to $182, attributing the bearish outlook to lack of demand for Apple's new batch of iPhones, as well as slowing demand in key markets such as China.

Enthusiasm regarding Apple's shift towards a software and services business model sent the smartphone maker's market capitalization soaring above $1 trillion this summer. But those gains have since been overshadowed by concerns regarding a slowdown in the company's core hardware business. After a handful of Apple suppliers recently cut their forecasts, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had lowered production orders for all three of the iPhone models released in September.

Goldman, which reinitiated coverage on Apple stock in early 2018 and has cut its price target for the third time this month, reiterated its "neutral" rating on Apple shares. Its new 12-month price forecast implies a modest 2.4% upside from Tuesday morning as shares trade down 4.4% at $177.76. At current levels, Apple stock has lost almost 24% off its 52-week high reached in early October.

"In addition to weakness in demand for Apple's products in China and other emerging markets it also looks like the balance of price and features in the iPhone XR may not have been well-received by users outside of the US," wrote Goldman's Rod Hall.

The analyst noted that Apple may have "miscalculated on the price/feature balance" for its new XR model. Meanwhile, factors such as "severe Chinese demand weakness" in the late summer and a strengthened U.S. dollar came as unexpected headwinds. Moving forward, Hall warns on "material risk to March quarter guidance if current demand trends continue to play out."

Goldman forecasts Apple's calendar year 2019 EPS at $13.40, roughly in line with the company's last three years next-12-month average.
The Department of Labor (DOL) fiduciary rule, was originally scheduled to be phased in from April 10, 2017, to Jan. 1, 2018. As of June 21, 2018, The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals officially vacated the rule, effectively killing it.

However, according to language from former Department of Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, stated in early May of 2019, that the DOL was working with the SEC to resurrect the fiduciary rule.

Breaking Down the Fiduciary Rule

The DOLs definition of fiduciary demands that retirement advisors act in the best interests of their clients and put their clients' interests above their own. It leaves no room for advisors to conceal any potential conflict of interest and states that all fees and commissions for retirement plans and retirement planning advice must be clearly disclosed in dollar form to clients.

The definition has been expanded to include any professional making a recommendation or solicitation in this area, not simply giving ongoing advice. Previously, only advisors who were charging a fee for service (either hourly or as a percentage of account holdings) on retirement plans were likely to be fiduciaries. (And even then, to find out for sure you needed to ask.)

Key Takeaways The Fiduciary Ruling was one of the most hotly debated topics in finance, with many brokers and investment firms doing all they could to halt it from being enacted.

The Fiduciary Ruling was brought into effect to protect the interests of clients versus the financial interests of their brokers and advisors. This led to lower commissions for brokers, less income from "churning" portfolios, and increased compliance costs.

The DOL Fiduciary Rulings were vacated in 2018, but statements made by the DOL Secretary in May of 2019 stated the DOL was working with the SEC to reenact the controversial ruling.

The individual investors most affected were those with fully managed IRAs and 401(k) accounts. These investors would have benefited the most from the Fiduciary Ruling.

History of the Fiduciary Rule

The financial industry was put on notice in 2015 that the landscape was going to change. A major overhaul was proposed by President Obama on Feb. 23, 2015: "Today, I'm calling on the Department of Labor to update the rules and requirements that retirement advisors put the best interests of their clients above their own financial interests. It's a very simple principle: You want to give financial advice, you've got to put your client's interests first."

The DOL proposed its new regulations on April 14, 2015. This time around, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the rule in record time, while President Obama endorsed and fast-tracked its implementation; the final rulings were issued on April 8, 2016.

Before finalizing the ruling, the DOL held four days of public hearings. While the final version was being hammered out, the legislation was known as the fiduciary standard. In January 2017 during the first session of Congress of the year, a bill was introduced by Rep. Joe Wilson (R, S.C.) to delay the actual start of the fiduciary rule for two years.

The fiduciary rule expanded the investment advice fiduciary definition under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). Running 1,023 pages in length, it automatically elevated all financial professionals who work with retirement plans or provide retirement planning advice to the level of a fiduciary, bound legally and ethically to meet the standards of that status.

While the new rules were likely to have had at least some impact on all financial advisors, it was expected that those who work on commission, such as brokers and insurance agents, would be impacted the most.

In late March 2017, the world's two largest asset managers, Vanguard and BlackRock, called for a more significant delay considering the confusion these repeated moves to delay the rule had caused. After a 15-day public comment period, the DOL sent its rule regarding the delay to the Office of Management and Budget for review.

178,000 The number of letters the DOL received that opposed a delay to enact the new Fiduciary rulings.

After the review by the OMB, the DOL publicly released an official 60-day delay to the fiduciary rule's applicability date. The 63-page announcement noted that "...it would be inappropriate to broadly delay the application of the fiduciary definition and Impartial Conduct Standards for an extended period in disregard of its previous findings of ongoing injury to retirement investors." Responses to the delay ranged from supportive to accusatory, with some groups calling the delay "politically motivated."

On March 1, 2017, the DOL announced a proposed extension of the applicability dates of the fiduciary rule and related exemptions, including the Best Interest Contract Exemption, from April 10 to June 9, 2017. Then, in late May 2017, then-newly appointed DOL Secretary Alexander Acosta, writing in an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, confirmed that the fiduciary rule would not be delayed beyond June 9 as the DOL sought "additional public input."

Then, in early August 2017, the DOL filed a court document as part of a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, proposing an 18-month delay to the rule's compliance deadline. This would have changed the final deadline for compliance from Jan. 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019. The same document suggested the delay might include changes to the types of transactions that are not allowed under the fiduciary rule. The proposed delay was approved by the Office of Management and Budget in August 2017.

Originally, the DOL regulated the quality of financial advice surrounding retirement under ERISA. Enacted in 1974, ERISA had never been revised to reflect changes in retirement savings trends, particularly the shift from defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, and the huge growth in IRAs.

The Fiduciary Rule Under President Trump

The regulation was initially created under the Obama administration, but in February 2017, former President Trump issued a memorandum that attempted to delay the rule's implementation by 180 days. This action included instructions for the DOL to carry out an economic and legal analysis of the rule's potential impact.

Then, on March 10, 2017, the DOL issued its own memorandum, Field Assistance Bulletin No. 2017-01, clarifying the possible implementation of a 60-day delay to the fiduciary rule. Full implementation of all elements of the rule was pushed back to July 1, 2019.

Before that could happenon March 15, 2018The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, vacated the fiduciary rule in a 2-to-1 decision, saying it constituted "unreasonableness," and that the DOL's implementation of the rule constitutes "an arbitrary and capricious exercise of administrative power." The case had been brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Services Institute, and other parties. Its next stop could be the Supreme Court.

On June 21, 2018, The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed its decision to vacate the ruling.

Fiduciary vs. Suitability

Fiduciary is a much higher level of accountability than the suitability standard previously required of financial salespersons, such as brokers, planners, and insurance agents, who work with retirement plans and accounts. "Suitability" means that as long as an investment recommendation meets a client's defined need and objective, it is deemed appropriate.

Under a fiduciary standard, financial professionals are legally obligated to put their clients best interests first, rather than simply finding suitable investments. The new rule would have therefore eliminated many commission structures that govern the industry.

Advisors who wished to continue working on commission would have needed to provide clients with a disclosure agreement, called a Best Interest Contract Exemption (BICE), in circumstances where a conflict of interest could exist (such as the advisor receiving a higher commission or special bonus for selling a certain product). This was to guarantee that the advisor was working unconditionally in the best interest of the client. All compensation that was paid to the fiduciary was required to be clearly spelled out as well.

Covered Retirement Plans Included:

What Wasn't Covered

If a customer calls a financial advisor and requests a specific product or investment, that does not constitute financial advice.

When financial advisors provide education to clients, such as general investment advice based on a person's age or income, it does not constitute financial advice.

Taxable transactional accounts or accounts funded with after-tax dollars are not considered retirement plans, even if the funds are personally earmarked for retirement savings.

Reaction to the Fiduciary Rule

Theres little doubt that the 40-year-old ERISA rules were overdue for a change, and many industry groups had already jumped on board with the new plan, including the CFP Board, the Financial Planning Association (FPA), and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA).

Supporters applauded the new rule, saying it should increase and streamline transparency for investors, make conversations easier for advisors entertaining changes and, most of all, prevent abuses on the part of financial advisors, such as excessive commissions and investment churning for reasons of compensation. A 2015 report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers found that biased advice drained $17 billion a year from retirement accounts.

However, the regulation met with staunch opposition from other professionals, including brokers and planners. The stricter fiduciary standards could have cost the financial services industry an estimated $2.4 billion and $5.7 billion over 10 years by eliminating conflicts of interest like front-end load commissions and mutual fund 12b-1 fees paid to wealth management and advisory firms.

The June 2016 Chamber of Commerce Lawsuit

Three lawsuits have been filed against the rule. The one that drew the most attention was filed in June 2016 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, and the Financial Services Roundtable in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The basis of the suit is that the Obama administration did not have the authorization to take the action it did in endorsing and fast-tracking the legislation. Some lawmakers also believe the DOL itself was reaching beyond its jurisdiction by targeting IRAs. Precedent dictates Congress alone has approval power regarding a consumers right to sue. This is the suit that resulted in the March 15, 2018, ruling against the fiduciary rule discussed above.

After the DOL officially announced the 60-day delay to the rule's applicability, a "Retirement Ripoff Counter" was unveiled by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. Partnering with Americans for Financial Reform and the Consumer Federation of America, this counter attempts to highlight the "... cost to Americans of saving for retirement without the fiduciary rule, starting from Feb. 03, 2017." The press release from Americans for Financial Reform states, "Every day that conflicted advice continues costs them [Americans] $46 million a day, $1.9 million per hour, and $532 a second."

Who Did the Fiduciary Rule Affect?

The new DOL rules were expected to increase compliance costs, especially in the broker-dealer world. Fee-only advisors and Registered Investment Advisors (RIA) were expected to see increases in their compliance costs as well.

The fiduciary rule would have been tough on smaller, independent broker-dealers and RIA firms. They might not have had the financial resources to invest in the technology and the compliance expertise to meet all of the requirements. Thus, it's possible that some of these smaller firms would have had to disband or be acquired. And not just small firms: The brokerage operations of MetLife Inc. and American International Group were sold off in anticipation of these rules and the related costs.

Advisors and registered reps who dabble in terms of advising 401(k) plans might have been forced out of that business by their broker-dealers due to the new compliance aspects.

Ameriprise CEO James Cracchiolo said, The regulatory environment will likely lead to consolidation within the industry, which we already see. Independent advisers or independent broker-dealers may lack the resources or the scale to navigate the changes required, and seek a strong partner.

Annuity vendors also would have had to disclose their commissions to clients, which could have significantly reduced sales of these products in many cases. These vehicles have been the source of major controversy among industry experts and regulators for decades, as they usually pay very high commissions to the agents selling them and come with an array of charges and fees that can significantly reduce the returns that clients earn.
Unless you are a government employee, youve likely never heard of the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), but if you work in the public sector or plan to in the near future, FERS is an acronym you will soon know well.

The Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS, is the retirement plan for all U.S. civilian employees. The plan covers all employees in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the federal government. 

FERS, however, does not cover military personnel or employees of state or local governments. Employees under FERS receive retirement benefits from three sources: the basic benefit plan, Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan, or TSP. 

Key Takeaways The Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS, is the retirement plan for all U.S. civilian employees.

Employees under FERS receive retirement benefits from three sources: the basic benefit plan, Social Security, and the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).

The plan covers all employees in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the federal government but not military personnel or employees of state or local governments.

Basic Benefit Plan

The basic benefit plan is a pension in which the employee receives a set amount, regardless of the amount they have contributed. The amount depends on the length of service and the "high-3" average. "High-3" refers to the highest three consecutive years of service. Often, those are the last three years you worked, but if you held a higher paying position earlier in your career, your high three could be during that time.

This calculation only takes into account your basic salary. It does not include overtime, bonuses, or other extra payments. Your years of credible service are reported on the SF-50 form you receive at least once per year. Then, the agency you work for adds a 1% multiplier to your high-3.

However, employees who are 62 or older with at least 20 years of service will receive a multiplier of 1.1%.  The formula for the basic benefit plan is as follows:

High-3 Salary x Years of Service x Pension Multiplier = Annual Pension Benefit

If you worked for 25 years and earned $75,000 per year, your monthly payment would be around $1,560, according to the formula.

Social Security

Unlike some public pension plans, employees covered under FERS pay into the Social Security fund at the same rate as private employees. Anybody paying into Social Security will pay 6.2% of earnings with the agency matching the contribution.

If you were born in 1975, earn $50,000 per year, and plan to retire at age 65, your estimated payments would be about $3,000 per month adjusted for inflation ($1,500 in todays dollars).

Thrift Savings Plan

Think of the Thrift Savings Plan as a 401(k). Congress established the TSP in 1986 and it offers the same types of tax benefits and savings as a 401(k). Each pay period, the agency you work for deposits 1% of your basic pay into your TSP. On top of that, you have the option of making additional contributions, which your agency will match (up to 5% of your pay).

These extra contributions are tax-deferred and administered by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board. Just like a 401(k), you can choose how these funds are invested. Upon setting up the TSP, you will be given a list of fund choices. 

If you earned $40,000 and had agency contributions of 5% and a 6% rate of return, after 30 years of service, you would have earned about $335,200, or about $1,400 per year for 20 years. Because the TSP does not function as a pension like the basic benefit plan and Social Security, your earnings after 30 years would be based on the funds you choose, the amount of money you contribute above the amount your employer deposits, and market conditions that are outside of your control.

Just like a 401(k), there is a limit to how much you can contribute to your Thrift Savings Plan. Because your agency only matches up to 5%, speak to a trusted financial advisor about how to invest additional funds. It might be better to invest non-matched funds into an IRA or other investment vehicle.

"The biggest federal employee mistake I see is not contributing up to the 5% agency match. Simply choosing to contribute 5% and leaving it in the G-Fund will guarantee an automatic 100% rate of return. No investor can consistently beat that," says Cooper Mitchell, president of Dane Financial LLC, in Springfield, Mo., and creator of FedRetirementPlanning.com.

Types of Retirement

Disability Retirement

If you have completed at least 18 months of service and meet the requirements for disability, you may receive benefits from all three parts of your retirement plan.

Early Retirement

Early retirement can include retiring at the federal minimum retirement age (MRA), which, for anybody born after 1969, is 57 years old. It can also include early retirement due to a reduction in force or discontinued service because of involuntary separation.

Voluntary Retirement

Traditional retirement provides you with full benefits provided you meet all requirements.

Deferred Retirement

This type of retirement is for former federal employees covered by FERS.

How Do You Receive Benefits?

The Office of Personnel Management provides helpful information that covers the steps you need to take to prepare for retirement five years prior to the projected date. Once you are within two months of your retirement date, complete the required application found on the OPM website. The responsible agencies will work with you to complete the application and ensure that you begin receiving benefits soon after your retirement date.

The Bottom Line

Employees eligible for FERS receive benefits from three separate plans. In a world where pensions are being discontinued by corporations and governments, FERS is still seen as one of the best retirement packages available. Some believe, however, that as the federal government continues to rein in costs, FERS could undergo changes that would make it less attractive.
Photos: The Logan Square Mega Mall's Amazing, Final Murals Before Demolition

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 2, 2016 8:00PM

By Rachel Cromidas and Jim Kopeny/Tankboy

A jaw-dropping mural featuring the work of about 25 artists went up on the side of the soon-to-be demolished Mega Mall this week.

The project was organized by the artist Amuse126 and carried out by his crew of talented cohorts, along with Billy Craven from Galerie F, and with the blessing of the owners of the property. The derelict Logan Square institution's walls have long played host to colorful street art, but these murals will likely be its last before it faces the wrecking ball.

Craven, Galerie F's co-owner, told Chicagoist that the art project was imagined as a last hurrah for the Mega Mall, which will likely not last for much longer than the next month. It was also a much needed chance to let local street artists showcase their work, all while beautifying Logan Square in the process.

"For so many of the artists all over Chicago, the mega mall structure in general is something that people have always wanted to paint for many many years," he said. "We wanted to bring a bunch of different artists, many of whom don't usually get to work with each other side by side on the streets, and to give it a beautiful farewell, so to speak. To dress her up before she goes out."

One of the artists involved, Frank Quintero, also spoke to Chicagoist about the project. When we asked him what spurred his involvement Qintero told us it was a one of a kind opportunity.

"I couldn't pass up the chance to paint the Mega Mall, the place is huge and it's an unofficial landmark of the neighborhood," he said.



Mega Mall Mural, photo courtesy Frank Quintero

Quintero was born and raised in Chicago, and sees the demise of the Mega Mall as a consequence of changing times.

"Chicago has always been changing. You can be part of that change doing something positive along the way, or be miserable and complain about everything," he said. "I use my art to be part of that change."



About two dozen artists were involved with the mural, and had their own portion of the building to themselves. We asked Quintero what drove his own contribution.

"I paint characters that are enjoying life," he said. "Since the building's getting torn down, including Logan Square, Chicago in my piece was important to me. When someone sees a photo of the wall I want them to know it was painted here in the city."

Craven said the temporary nature of the Mega Mall made it an appropriate canvas for the artists.

"Street art and graffiti are ephemeral, and aren't necessarily intended to last forever," he said. "So this is like a perfect reminder of that."
Press Release

MPs from Middle East take historic first steps on water crisis

Geneva, 2 June 2016

MPs from nine countries held the talks over three days in Geneva. IPU/Jorky

Members of Parliament from the Middle East, including Israel and Palestine, have identified a series of historic first steps to tackle the critical issue of ensuring water supplies across the region.

In a unique three-day round-table meeting that ended today in Geneva at the headquarters of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the MPs focused on finding common solutions to a common problem  a water crisis which is predicted to worsen significantly across the Middle East over the coming decades.

The areas targeted for action include increasing the total volume of water available to the region, ensuring fair distribution and managing increasing demand. Research by the World Resources Institute suggests that by 2040, eight of the world's 10 most water-stressed nations will be in the Middle East.

The MPs defined a range of concrete proposals to ensure adequate supplies across the region, including the mapping of existing legislation on water governance to identify gaps and next steps; developing mandatory standards on water use; raising public awareness on responsible consumption; and enhancing levels of treating waste water.

The need to develop a transitional legal framework on water governance and to prioritize access to safe drinking water  Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals  was also identified. All the proposals will be presented to IPUs membership at its October Assembly with recommendations on practical follow up action.

The round-table meeting, which concluded on 2 June, was the first of a planned series of events being organized by IPU through its Committee on Middle East Questions, to highlight the role of science and technology in fostering projects which help create an environment conducive to building peace. Open to all parliaments in the Middle East, the event was attended by MPs from Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Palestine and the United Arab Emirates, as well as members of the IPU Committee.

"This meeting marks a major step forward in building regional co-operation to tackle the shared problem of water security. The significance of this threat, and of this joint approach to tackling it, cannot be overestimated," said Committee President Denise Pascal Allende. "It is a sensitive and complex issue, and to have held these talks in a constructive and positive atmosphere demonstrates a willingness on all sides to find solutions that will promote peaceful co-existence."

The MPs heard evidence from development organization WaterLex, which specializes in water policy and governance, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and technology specialists Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME), a Jordan-based laboratory which brings together scientists from across the region.

IPU has a long-standing commitment to build trust, dialogue and peace in the Middle East. This meeting demonstrated that it is possible for people with divergent views to cooperate on an intractable issue such as water, said IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong. We have managed this week to unite scientists and parliamentarians across the region. The scientific community has shown us that models for co-operation that build peace do exist and that what needs to be achieved on this issue is not a pipe dream.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of national parliaments. It works to safeguard peace and drives positive democratic change through political dialogue and concrete action.
Last April Irish Network Dublin (IN-Dublin) was launched at the Department of Foreign Affairs with support from the US Embassy and Irish Abroad office in the Department of Foreign Affairs. Now, one year on, they are celebrating a massively successful year filled with wonderful support from the community, many new members and some excellent events.

This June IN-Dublin members, with thanks to Notre Dame University Ireland, will be in for another treat as they are invited to join a panel discussion event co-hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce, AIB, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Gateway to Europe. The event, entitled The Irish Economy; Gateway to Europe will take place at the Allied Irish Bank center, in Ballsbridge. The event (more details below) will include speakers Oliver Mangan, Robert Mulhall, Catherine Moroney, Pat Leavey, Louise Cluskey, Mick Murray and will be chaired by Mark Redmond and Kevin Whelan.

IN-Dublin is affiliated with the Irish Network-USA, an umbrella organization with 19 chapters across the United States. As the first group based in Ireland, IN-Dublins focus is on creating a link between the two countries and building a network of support for individuals who feel a connection to both countries in some way.

The group provides a place for Irish people returning home, having lived in the US, to come together and share experiences. It also serves as a support system to any Irish professionals looking to move the US, helping them to be better prepared for the transition before they leave Ireland. Through mentoring, networking, cultural and social events, IN-Dublin provides a means by which the Irish diaspora are supported while they are living and working in the US and as they return home to Ireland.

The IN-Dublin board, of 10 young professionals, is made up predominantly of people who have lived, studied and / or worked in the United States and returned to Dublin. As Irish people with a strong link to the United States it is their pleasure and honor to continue to facilitate and strengthen the two nations already strong connections and a very special relationship between the two countries.

Last April IN-Dublin was launched at the Department of Foreign affairs, by Minister for the Diaspora Jimmy Deenihan and Deputy Chief of Mission at US Embassy in Dublin, Stuart Dwyer.

Over the last year they have hosted several networking and social events. Each month the group meet for a casual gathering, dubbed Third Thursday. They have also held parties for their Irish and American friends to celebrate the Fourth of July and most recently hosted a Kentucky Derby party. For Thanksgiving they were happy to be the guests of the Irish American Democrats Abroad. The group also teamed up with the Clinton Institute at UCD to host a fireside chat with Stella OLeary and Conor Clery on the upcoming US presidential elections.

Now moving into their second year IN-Dublin plans to celebrate the strong network they have created and also invite new members to sign up. You can read more about the group and the membership details here - www.irishnetworkdublin.com.

Members of IN-Dublin, with thanks to Notre Dame University Ireland, are invited to the June 7th professional development event.

Heres the details:

When: June 7 2016; 5:45pm to 8pm

What: Professional development panel discussion - The Irish Economy

Where: AIB Bank Centre, Ballsbridge.

Speakers to include Oliver Mangan, Robert Mulhall, Catherine Moroney, Pat Leavey, Louisee Cluskey, Mick Murray. The event will be chaired by Mark Redmond and Kevin Whelan and is hosted by Ireland Gateway to Europe, AmCham, AIB, and Dublin Chamber of Commerce.

8pm: Afters at The Horse Show House, in Ballsbridge.
The New York City Council Irish Caucus Chairperson Daniel Dromm joined Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Council Member Elizabeth Crowley (also a member of the caucus) in welcoming the Lord Mayor of Dublin Criona Ni Dhalaigh to New York City Hall last week. Dublin City Councilor Peter Finnegan, Irish Consul General Barbara Jones and Fitzpatrick Hotel Group President John Fitzpatrick were also part of the gathering.

Ni Dhalaigh, of Sinn Fein, is the 346th mayor of the city, but only the eighth woman to hold the office. She is the first member of Sinn Fein to serve as Lord Mayor of Dublin.

I was thrilled to join Speaker Mark-Viverito and Council Member Crowley in hosting Lord Mayor of Dublin Criona Ni Dhalaigh and Dublin City Councilor Peter Finnegan at City Hall, said Dromm.

There is much that Dublin and New York City can learn from each another. This visit provided the opportunity for leaders of two major cities to share their ideas, hopes and challenges of improving local government. I look forward to continuing the dialogue and strengthening these important relationships in the months ahead. 

I was thrilled to join the Councils Irish Caucus yesterday as we welcomed Dublins Lord Mayor Criona Ni Dhalaigh to City Hall, said Mark-Viverito. The lord mayor is an inspiring leader with a strong commitment to inclusion and equality. In this important year where Ireland is celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the Easter Rising, the council is proud to continue to strengthen the ties between New York City and Ireland.

It was an honor to have Criona Ni Dhalaigh at City Hall, said NYC Council Member Elizabeth Crowley. As the only female member of the City Council's Irish Caucus, I'm especially proud of the strong relationship we keep with our Irish partners in government.
Like so many others who are concerned about the ongoing plight of the tens of thousands of undocumented Irish men and women in the United States, I was delighted to read last week that An Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), Enda Kenny, has selected Billy Lawless as one of his nominees to Seanad Eireann (the upper house of the Irish Parliament). He is an excellent and uniquely well-qualified choice.

Billy Lawless is a Galway-born businessman who operated a number of hotels, restaurants and pubs  the still-booming Taaffes Pub on Shop Street in the city center was one of them  before immigrating to the US and settling in Chicago some 20 years ago. In that city, he started off in the bar business and now owns several high end restaurants.

Lawless has also been very active in the Irish community, particularly on the issue of the undocumented Irish, and has been among the most effective advocates for the cause of immigration reform for all living in the shadows of America. Given his Chicago bona fides and friendship with President Obama, his was likely one of the crucial voices in persuading the president to sign the executive order that is now under challenge in the courts, but would improve the situations of millions.

In light of myriad, well-received efforts to reach out to and engage more directly with the Irish diaspora in recent years, one might have thought that Lawlesss appointment to the Seanad would have provoked little controversy and actually been welcomed widely. This has not proven the case, however.

The Irish Mail on Sunday ran a front page story that Billy Lawlesss appointment was in some way a tit for tat for his having given a summer job to the Taoiseachs daughter, who was in Chicago on a J-1 visa. Sunday Independent columnist Jody Corcoran wrote that people in Ireland and in Irish America are asking Billy who? In the Sunday Times, his appointment was described as frankly baffling. Similarly dismissive and disdainful remarks have been made by commentators on radio and television.

There are three stated grounds for this negativity, but they are underpinned by a little Ireland mentality that sadly persists in some quarters here.

First, the implied allegation that Lawless has been appointed to the Seanad because he gave the Taoiseachs daughter a low paid summer job in a restaurant is downright preposterous. He surely was happy to help Enda Kenny, with whom he is friendly. There is absolutely nothing unusual or at all untoward about that. Countless J-1 students have had doors similarly opened for them by friends and relatives in the US.

Second, he has been disparagingly called a Fine Gael Whest of Ireland old-boy. It is a fact that Billy Lawless is a Fine Gael supporter, who once stood for election and who chaired the Galway West constituency organization. Yet, virtually every political commentator in this country assertively predicted that predominantly Fine Gael loyalists would be appointed this time around because of the partys substantially diminished number of seats in the upper house.

Indeed, another champion of the Irish in the US and, like Enda Kenny, a County Mayo native, Ciaran Staunton, who ran a very strong campaign for a Seanad seat, may have been appointed were it not for his ties to Sinn Fein. That the Taoiseach chose a diaspora senator from his own party is not surprising in this context.

Third, there is the issue of his travel expenses. Commentators on social media and elsewhere question how he will handle being bi-located and how much it will cost the taxpayer. The annual expense figure of 30,000 for those who live furthest away from Dublin is being bandied about.

Undoubtedly, there will be some expense involved. But Billy Lawless owns a home in Galway and spends a considerable amount of time in Ireland as it is. He is semi-retired and has signaled an intention to spend far more time here.

Additionally, it can be argued that a few thousand euro a year is a pittance to have real representation from the diaspora in the Seanad. There are important issues for a large segment of the population here that deserve to be discussed in the Oireachtas (Irish Legislature).

For instance, Lawless is well-acquainted with the heartbreaking stories of the undocumented Irish in the US who cannot come home for sad or joyous family occasions because they are trapped in an unenviable situation; he knows that emigrants who return permanently to Ireland are often treated unfairly in terms of entitlements, taxes, motor insurance, university fees, etc.; and he is committed to ensuring that Irish citizens living abroad finally have a vote in a country they love so much, but in many cases were forced to leave.

Sadly, in my view, it is a little Ireland outlook that underpins the stated objections to Billy Lawlesss becoming a member of Seanad Eireann. Some people here, despite paying lip service to the power of the diaspora and to the many contributions that have been made by those around the world who are Irish-born and/or of Irish descent, maintain a when youre gone, youre gone attitude. The idea of an outsider  some on social media were even asking if Lawless is an Irish citizen  holding a seat in the Seanad rankles them deeply.

In 2013, the government sought to abolish Seanad Eireann, contending, among other things, that it was a useless talking shop for politicians in training or nearing retirement and an outdated relic in a modern parliamentary democracy. I was involved with a group who successfully fought this initiative. We argued then, and argue now, that the Seanad can provide an important platform for men and women whose voices would not otherwise be heard in the lawmaking process. These senators, we believe, can help Irish democracy not just to function, but to flourish.

His critics notwithstanding, I am confident that Billy Lawless, as a representative of the Irish diaspora, will be one such senator.

---

Larry Donnelly is a Boston attorney, a Law Lecturer at NUI Galway and a political columnist with IrishCentral.com and TheJournal.ie.
An inquest into the death of 21 people in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombing is to be reopened after 42 years, an English coroner has ruled.

Twenty-one people were killed and 222 injured when bombs exploded in two pubs - Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town - in Birmingham, England, on November 21, 1974. Widely believed to be the work of the IRA, six men were wrongly imprisoned for placing the bombs, spending 16 year in jail before their acquittal in 1991. The men were to become known as the Birmingham Six.

Original hearings about the bombings, the worst terrorist attack in Britain until 7/7 in 2005, were discontinued once the Birmingham Six were jailed and although their jail sentences were later quashed, the inquest into the 21 deaths has never been reopened until now.

Louise Hunt, the senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, yesterday ruled to reopen the case, stating that the Birmingham police may have missed two potential warnings about the attacks and that there was a "wealth of evidence that still has not been heard."

It is believed that evidence included an overheard comment made by a person linked to the IRA saying "Birmingham would be hit next week" just days before the bombings.

In earlier hearings, Ashley Underwood QC, who acted for the relatives, said there is reason to believe that the murder gang had an informant in their ranks and that the police knew in advance that the bombings were going to take place.

The Birmingham police have argued that there is no evidence available to justify reopening the inquest and stated that it was not within the coroner's jurisdiction.

The Police barrister Jeremy Johnson QC stated there was "simply no evidential basis" for reopening hearings and that such comments could not be deemed as advance warning of a bombing.

Families of those killed in 1974, however, have welcomed the decision. Julie Hambleton, whose 18-year-old sister Maxine was killed in the blasts, said "All we want is to be heard - truth, justice and accountability.

Hambleton, who has led the fight for justice for her sister and the other victims, was present at the coroner's court when the decision was made.

"Today, we stand united. I'm so proud of all the families, legal team and you (the media), she continued.

"I cannot put into words how we feel... we've been crying.

Her sister died in the Birmingham pub bombings. Hear her confront an ex-IRA boss: https://t.co/fkNCPMpwV0https://t.co/a2l3l3bT2y  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) June 1, 2016

Read more: Only black IRA member tells his amazing story to Hollywood

"An inquest gives us the opportunity to hear from people you wouldn't normally hear from and it can lead to all sorts of things... the truth... the truth is fundamental."

Hunt made her decision after hearing testimony in February 2016 from victims relatives and other interested parties who wish to bring those responsible to justice.

The coroner stated that there was "no indication that the police took any active steps in response to the comment made on November 10, 1974, just eleven days before the bombings that Birmingham city center was going to be hit.

"I have serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police and that they failed to take the necessary steps to protect life," she continued.

Also present was Paddy Hill, one of the six men wrongfully imprisoned for the crime, who was skeptical that the truth would ever be found.

"They (police) don't want [the inquests] because there's too many skeletons in the cupboard, he said.

"They had advanced warning and they took no notice. I don't think Birmingham police could spell truth - they're rotten.

"I'm very sceptical about getting the truth."

Ill never get my life back.." Paddy Hill responds to opening of Birmingham bombing inqu... https://t.co/HbQeX6bDCG pic.twitter.com/nnT9qSmgPG  The Irish Post (@theirishpost) June 2, 2016

On the release of the Birmingham Six, a reinvestigation began in 1994 to establish whether there was grounds to reopen the inquest, but then Chief Constable for the West Midlands, Ron Hadfield, and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Barbara Mills concluded there was insufficient evidence for proceedings to be brought against any person.

Hunt, however, feels that there is still evidence to be heard although warning families and survivors that the inquest may still finish as inconclusive.

After years of fighting for justice for his sister, Brian Hambleton Described himself as overwhelmed on hearing that the inquest was to be reopened.

"I just thought about my sister, the atrocity... and West Midlands Police are battling so hard to prevent the truth from coming out. But luckily, coroner Louise Hunt is allowing the truth to come out now.

"The truth will prevail. I believe that and that's what keeps me going."

"People need to be brought to justice... It's time people came forward" fmr Met Police Commander on Birmingham bombing inquest #newsnight  BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) June 1, 2016

Despite their opposition, the police also welcomed the news yesterday.

"West Midlands Police not only failed to catch those responsible but caused a miscarriage of justice," said West Midlands Police Chief Constable Dave Thompson.

"I have said, and reiterate again, it is the most serious failing in this force's history.

"I understand families of those who lost their lives are frustrated, disappointed and angry.

"West Midlands Police will support this inquiry as we have done through the recent hearings by the coroner which determined whether the inquest should reopen. I hope the new inquest provides answers to families."

A full hearing is not to be held until next year.

H/T: BBC
Born in Dublin, the Irish soldier who heard President Abraham Lincoln deliver the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, died in New Jersey in 1938.

In April 1938, the New York Times and Gettysburg Times published news of the death of a 96-year-old veteran of the American Civil War.

Read more The Battle of Gettysburg: The untold story of the Pennsylvania Irish Brigade

Michael Gaffneys passing was newsworthy in itself as the number of veterans was dwindling, but it was also claimed that the Irishman had been present when President Abraham Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address almost 75 years before on November 19, 1893.

President Lincoln's famous speech was offered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a few months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.

Born in Dublin around 1840, Michael emigrated to the United States in 1853. During the war, he served in the 33rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, better known as the 4th Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment, enlisting on June 11, 1861, and mustering out with his comrades on June 17, 1864.

The Gettysburg newspaper covered the story with the headline Vet Dies; Heard Lincoln. The New York Times offered the most detailed report:

MICHAEL F. GAFFNEY

Civil War Veteran Who Heard Lincoln at Gettysburg

Special to the New York Times

West Orange, N.J., April 3. Michael F. Gaffney, 96-year-old veteran of the Civil War, died here last night at the home of his daughter, Mrs. William Conner of 28 Llewellyn Avenue, after a weeks illness. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he came here as a child and at 20 enlisted in a Pennsylvania regiment, with which he fought at Antietam, Bull Run, second battle; Gettysburg and the Wilderness. He heard Lincolns Gettysburg address. In the Eighteen Seventies, Mr. Gaffney served as a captain in the Fifth Regiment, New Jersey National Guard. For some years he was a stationary engineer in the employ of the city of Newark. He belonged to the Phil Sheridan Post, G.A.R., of Newark. Also, surviving are two other daughters, Mrs. Elizabeth Robshaw of Newark and Mrs. Margaret Crinnian of Brooklyn.

Read more Remembering the Irish Gettysburg heroes who stopped Picketts Charge

President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, delivered on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicatewe can not consecratewe can not hallowthis ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before usthat from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotionthat we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vainthat this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedomand that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

*Damian Shiels is an archaeologist and historian who runs IrishAmericanCivilWar.com, where this article first appeared. His book 'The Irish in the American Civil War' was published by The History Press in 2014 and is available here.

* Originally published in 2016, last updated in November 2020.

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My hair, my stretch marks and my kind eyes are all some of the positive attributes Irish celebrities have shared about themselves in a new social media campaign, #insideandout.

The campaign, launched by the current Rose of Tralee Elysha Brennan, encourages people to share two messages on social media; something they love about themselves physically and something they love about themselves on the inside.

"I realised that Irish people, we are a self-deprecating nation. We can't take praise, we can't take compliments and people, young men and women, adolescents and people in their twenties, have no self esteem, a negative body image and I think it's such a plague among young people and I think it just adds to the issue of mental health," Elysha told RTE TEN.

RTEs Marty Morrissey got straight to the point praising his kind eyes and charm with the ladies - sure we wouldn't have doubted him.

While Daithi O Se is proud of his nice feet, comedian Bernard O'Shea really REALLY likes his hair.

Ray DArcy has also got behind the campaign as he feels his show has "long association with mental health issues".

Ray D'Arcy says the main message of @2015RoseElysha's #InsideANDOut campaign is to be comfortable in your own skinhttps://t.co/6t8mdFuf4L  Entertainment on RTE (@RTE_Ents) June 1, 2016

Use the hashtag #insideandout to get involved.

The ultimate girl crush & all round cool chick @daniellamoyles taking part in the #InsideAndOut campaign  pic.twitter.com/eI7Vcnl4ze  Elysha Brennan (@2015RoseElysha) June 1, 2016

The absolutely incredible Ciara who is truely BEAUTIFUL on the #InsideAndOut #RoseOfTralee  pic.twitter.com/OUlOgXXDtt  Elysha Brennan (@2015RoseElysha) June 2, 2016

My sister who never ceases to amaze me  (can you guess her name) #InsideAndOut #RoseOfTralee pic.twitter.com/d9gsj1EdVI  Elysha Brennan (@2015RoseElysha) June 1, 2016

We cant wait to hear what other Irish celebrities have to say.
A group representing sex workers has criticised the Government for what it says is "criminalising" workers.

The comments come as today marks International Sex Workers Day.
Update 1.17pm: The Government is to miss its own deadline for launching an Action Plan for Housing.

The plan was due to be published within 100 days of Fine Gael and its Independent allies taking office.

But that deadline is now being abandoned, because the deadline falls during the August break.

Housing minister Simon Coveney says the document will instead be published in early September, when clear action can be taken.

I think thats the likely timing for it at this stage, which essentially is launching it just immediately after the 100 days and then selling it  we could launch it at the end of July and then have everybody heading off on holidays and I just dont think thats the kind of momentum we want this project to generate, he said.

The Programme for Government states: The first major initiative of the new Minister for Housing and the Government will be to, draw on the work of the new Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness, draft and publish within the first 100 days a new Action Plan for Housing.

Earlier:

The housing minister has said he 'won't play party politics' in trying to solve the housing and homelessness crisis.

Simon Coveney has also said Ireland will need to build far more than 25,000 homes per year to catch up with demand.

The new housing minister is appearing before the Dail's emergency housing committee this morning.

He says he won't dismiss suggestions from members simply because of which party they belong to: You wont find me overly party political on this issue.

I can promise you that, if people have sensible suggestions we will listen, and we will try to respond.

We are not going to agree on everything, so lets not pretend we are.

But I do think we can agree on a lot that can actually move the process forward.
The Tragedy Formerly Known As Tribune Publishing Is Now 'Tronc'

By Rachel Cromidas in News on Jun 2, 2016 9:19PM



jnhPhoto

The Tribune Publishing company is not recreating any classic sci-fi films (that we know of) but it will be going by a new moniker"tronc"from here on out.

The company, which publishes the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, among other news outlets, sent a memo out to staffers Thursday explaining the change, accompanied by a new logo that may or may not depict the future dismantling of the historic Tribune Tower brick by storied brick. It's a "transformative" step for the "content curation and monetization company," according to the memo, which is now named like a Transformers robot.

Media Twitter leapt at the chance to mock (trounce?) the new name, which may or may not ironically mean "tip jar" in English, may or may not be the sound journalists' morale makes when it hits rock-bottom, and also may or may not portend the company's dark, dark future. Until we acquire a decoder to Michael Ferro's feverish corporate-speak, we can't say for sure.

Below are some of our favorite Tweets that came out on the heels of the news; you can also check out more of our favorite reactions here:


A letter from Ibrahim Halawa has been smuggled out of the Egyptian jail where he's been held for three years.

The 20-year-old from Firhouse in Dublin was arrested taking pictures of a Muslim Brotherhood protest while on holiday in Cairo in 2013 with his sisters.
Ryanair has been forced to cancel 75 flights today as a result of ongoing strike action by French air traffic control staff.

Flights in and out of France will be grounded and there will be some restrictions to aircraft movement over the country.

ALERT Extensive delays, especially in west of France due to new strike in France - @eurocontrol pic.twitter.com/ZLuAqWDmFU  AIRLIVE (@airlivenet) June 2, 2016

France's train network is also expected to be badly hit today by more strikes - days before Euro 2016 kicks off.

Unions say disruption during the month-long tournament is possible - as they try and prevent new employment laws from coming in.

The EU is now being asked to prevent disruption to flights.

Ryanair's Robin Kiely said it not just their customers who will be affected.

"Look, we're as angry as our passengers are, as our customers are," he said.

"These air traffic controllers deliberately target this time of year to cause the most disruption to our passengers.

"It's not just Ryanair that will be affected, there'll be thousands of flights possibly cancelled across Europe this weekend.

"Enough is enough, this will be the 50th time these air traffic controllers have gone on strike. The EU is doing literally nothing to actually take any action to prevent these strikes going ahead."
A French company has confirmed that its special undersea search ship has detected signals from one of the black box flight recorders on the EgyptAir flight that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea last month.

Alseamar said the Laplace ship started searching for the signals at midday on Tuesday, and "less than 24 hours were necessary ... to locate signals from a detector attached to one of the recorders of flight MS804".

The French air accident investigation agency BEA said it is impossible to determine from the signals whether it is the flight's data or voice recorder.

All 66 passengers and crew on board the flight were killed when the plane crashed on May 19.

The development has raised hopes the plane's flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, could be retrieved and shed light on the aircraft's crash.

Egyptian officials said a second ship, John Lethbridge, affiliated with the Deep Ocean Search firm, will join the search team later this week.

Locator pings emitted by flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, can be picked up from deep under water. The Laplace is equipped with three detectors designed to detect and localise signals from the flight recorders, which are believed to be at a depth of about 3,000 metres under water. By comparison, the wreck of the RMS Titanic is lying at a depth of about 3,800 metres.

Shaker Kelada, an EgyptAir official who has led other crash investigations for the carrier, said half "the job has been done now" and that the next step would be to determine the black boxes' exact location and extract them from the sea.

"We have to find where the boxes are exactly and decide on how to pull them out," he said, adding that search teams might need to send in robots or submarines and "be extremely careful ... to avoid any possible damage".

Mr Kelada said he was confident the boxes will be retrieved. He had investigated the Flash Airlines Flight 604 crash in 2004, when the aircraft hit the Red Sea shortly after take-off from the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 passengers, most of them French tourists, and crew on board.

In the May 19 crash, EgyptAir Airbus A320 had been cruising normally in clear skies on a nighttime flight to from Paris to Cairo when it suddenly lurched left, then right, spinning all the way around and plummeting 38,000 feet into the sea, Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said shortly after the crash.

However, Egyptian officials refuted this, saying the plane did not swerve or lose altitude before it disappeared off radar. A distress signal was never issued, EgyptAir has said.

Since the crash, small pieces of the wreckage and human remains have been recovered while the bulk of the plane and the bodies of the passengers are believed to be deep under the sea. A Cairo forensic team has received the human remains and is carrying DNA tests to identify the victims. The search has narrowed down to a 3-mile area in the Mediterranean.

David Learmount, a consulting editor at the aviation news website Flightglobal, said the black boxes' batteries can transmit signals up to 30 days after the crash. But even if the batteries expire, locating the boxes remains a possibility.

"It's terribly important to find the black boxes, because if they don't find them, they will know nothing about the aircraft," he said, citing the 2009 Air France Flight 447 crash in the Atlantic Ocean, when black boxes were found two years later.

Nearly two weeks after the crash off Egypt's northern coast, the cause of the tragedy has still not been determined. Egypt's civil aviation minister, Sherif Fathi, has said he believes terrorism is a more likely explanation than equipment failure or some other catastrophic event.

But no hard evidence has emerged on the cause, and no militant group has claimed to have downed the jet. Earlier, leaked flight data indicated a sensor had detected smoke in a lavatory and a fault in two of the plane's cockpit windows in the final moments of the flight.

Safety on board Egyptian aircraft and at the country's airports has been under close international scrutiny since a Russian airliner crashed in the Sinai Peninsula last October, killing all 224 people on board, shortly after taking off from an Egyptian resort.

That crash - claimed by the Islamic State's affiliate in Sinai and blamed by Moscow on an explosive device planted on board - decimated Egypt's lucrative tourism industry, which had already been battered by years of turmoil in the country.

Also on Wednesday, Egyptian authorities reported that they had evacuated all passengers from the EgyptAir Flight 960 from Cairo to Bangkok scheduled late the previous night after receiving security threats of a bomb on board.

Tarek Zaki, head of security at Cairo airport, said the warning claimed an unidentified assailant had planted a bomb on the plane. A security official said the plane and the bags were searched but no bomb was found. The threat caused a delay and eventually led to the flight being cancelled.
Jyske Bank estimates Danish pension funds alone have about 1 trillion kroner (135bn) in offshore positions that arent hedged, leaving them exposed if investors hoard safe-haven assets such as kroner in the event of a so-called Brexit.

In an extreme case, that money will be repatriated or hedged against currency risks should there be financial uncertainty, for example, in the event of a Brexit, according to Niels Roenholt, the banks chief economist.

Jyske Bank says a Brexit probably wont trigger a repeat of the currency market turmoil that followed Switzerlands decision to abandon its ties to the euro in January 2015.

Back then, speculators quickly turned their sights on Denmark amid conjecture its euro peg would also fail. The Danes prevailed, though only after the central bank cut its main rate well below zero and almost doubled foreign reserves to about 40% of GDP.

This time, even a minor amount of pressure will lead to currency interventions and a rate cut in Denmark, Mr Roenholt said. Denmarks substantial current account surplus already puts pressure on its euro peg.

But if Danish investors with large offshore positions today should decide to repatriate just a small part of that money, or hedge it, in a situation in which theres turmoil, that would be enough to add to pressure on the peg, Mr Roenholt said. Jyske Bank puts the probability of a Brexit at 30%.

Should Britain vote to remain, it will likely trigger a relief rally, according to Nordea bank. That would support the pound and risky assets, a team of analysts at the bank said.

Meanwhile, the OECD yesterday cut its UK growth forecast and repeated its warnings about the economic damage a vote to leave the EU would cause.

The OECDs latest intervention in the intense UK political debate echoes its warnings in an April report, when it was criticised by pro-Brexit campaigners.

The Paris-based group said uncertainty surrounding the June 23 referendum has already undermined growth and cut its 2016 forecast to 1.7% from 2.1%.

The outcome of the referendum is a major risk for the economy, the OECD said in its Economic Outlook.

A vote for Brexit would heighten uncertainty, raise the cost of finance and hamper investment, the think tank said.
This is further evidence that the Brexit debate in Britain is already having an effect here  even before the June 23 vote on EU membership.

The Investec manufacturing PMI index shuddered to its slowest growth in almost three years and demand for Irish exports weakened in Britain while gains for the euro against sterling have helped erode price competitiveness advantages for Irish firms selling goods across the Irish Sea.

The index recorded a May reading of 51.5, down from 52.6 in April, and just barely above the 50 reading that marks the difference between growth and contraction in the manufacturing industry, according to the survey.

Philip OSullivan, chief economist at Investec Ireland, said Investec expected at least some of the weakness relates to weaker demand in the UK and fall of sterling against the euro.

However, with momentum appearing to be building behind the Remain campaign, sterling has recently begun to strengthen against the single currency, which augurs well for the near-term outlook for many Irish exporters, Mr OSullivan said.

New export orders contracted after 34 months of consecutive growth, the survey found.

The sterling exchange rate plays a pivotal role in the amount of Irish exports of goods shipped across the Irish Sea.

Sterling weakened for a third day against the euro yesterday amid investor concern over a possible Brexit.

The currency had fallen sharply on Tuesday, triggered by a poll that signalled an increase in support for Britain to leave the EU.

Paddy Power spokesman Feilim Mac an Iomaire said the bookie had shortened its odds on a Leave vote to 5/2, or a probability of 28.5%, after the release of UK immigration figures last week.

The probability of the UK staying in are still high at almost 78% but down sharply from the 90% chance before last weeks data release on immigration.

The latest YouGov poll for Handelsblatt showed support for the two sides neck and neck at 40%.
Documents released following a Freedom of Information request show the Nama board has opted for the review of its budget and costs.

The minutes of the agencys Strategy Away Day meeting in March at the Herbert Park Hotel in Dublin reveal that agencys chief financial officer Donal Rooney put forward two downsizing options. He presented a paper, as Nama continues to sell down assets.

It plans to reach major milestones by the end of this year, following an accelerated deleveraging or sell-off of debtors loans in 2014 and 2015. The minutes state the agency estimates the number of debtors remaining in 2017 will be around 40.

The note reads: Accordingly, in light of the anticipated significant reduction in scale of Namas loan portfolio, while being cognisant of the future requirements of Residential Delivery and the Special Development Zone SDZ Docklands businesses, it was apposite to review Namas infrastructure and cost base.

The minutes record that the reviews had got underway, including a strategic review of Namas systems and a renegotiation of loan service fees with Capita.

The minutes record that the board thought that the term downsizing was a misnomer for its plans.

The minutes record: While recognising the need to downsize in pursuit of cost savings, it was imperative that adequate resources were maintained to meet the very onerous objectives in the Docklands SDZ and residential delivery business.

That is a reference to its plans to help finance thousands of homes by the end of 2020.

It stated: Furthermore, the resource intensive nature of the business would necessitate on the ground monitoring of relatively disparate residential sites across the country.

The minutes show that, following further detailed discussion, the board requested a preliminary scoping paper for the review.

It plans to have the review findings ready in September. They will incorporate any new Government requirements and State aid rulings.

The minutes show the board noted that the scale of the voluntary redundancy scheme for 2016 would be informed by the restructuring proposals.
The seven-building campus on the outskirts of Shanghai is accented by bamboo staircases and tree-lined courtyards.

The company said the 1,300-person facility will be its third major research centre, after Basel in Switzerland, and in Massachusetts.

In Ireland, Novartis employs about 1,500 people in Cork and Dublin, including a plant in Ringaskiddy.

Foreign drugmakers are investing in China because of surging demand for medicines as the incidence of chronic conditions like cancer, heart disease and diabetes rise.

The government has provided incentives to encourage more investment in innovation, while Chinese consumers are spending more on health care as their incomes rise.

The commitment that Novartis is making in China is bigger than anybody else in the industry, chief executive officer Joe Jimenez said.

We expect Shanghai to ramp up relatively quickly in terms of drug discovery, he said.

The Novartis research centre will further focus on diseases more prevalent in China, such as lung, liver and gastric cancer.

Having new medicines in those areas in coming years will help the Swiss company to secure a toehold in the worlds second-largest pharmaceutical market after the US.

Speaking more broadly about Novartiss growth, Mr Jimenez sees potential in acquisitions around the globe  anywhere between $1bn to $5bn  for its four business units: Pharmaceuticals, oncology, eyecare and generics.

Such opportunities may arise amid the flurry of deal activity in the industry, as companies are forced to sell off assets to appease antitrust regulators, he said.

If there were biosimilars, we could potentially acquire those to complement the pipeline in Sandoz, Mr Jimenez added, saying that while he hasnt seen biosimilar assets in China to acquire there definitely are in other parts of Asia.

Jimenez said the biggest advantage of the new Shanghai campus  which was announced in 2009 and includes a fitness centre and on-site restaurants  will be for recruiting.

He declined to comment on how many employees the company would add, saying it was correlated to the growth of its China business, which was increasing nicely.

Using the heart failure drug Entresto as an example, Mr Jimenez commented on the squeezing of drug prices in the US and China, saying that as long as youre innovative and not making me-too drugs, youre going to be fine because those drugs will always be reimbursed.

That forms the central strategy of Novartis in China, he added,
West Texas Intermediate fluctuated after rising 6.9% in May as supply was curbed by fires in Canada and militant attacks in Nigeria.

Crude pared losses amid conciliatory noises from Saudi Arabia, including the possibility of a reintroduction of an overall production target for the Opec members.

There is no indication that the kingdom is seeking to alter current production volumes.

Brent crude futures pared losses, dropping 14c to $49.75 a barrel in London.

Saudi Arabia will use this weeks meeting to repair relationships with fellow producers after the failure of an April accord to freeze crude output in Doha.

Saudis energy minister Khalid Al-Falih will reassure other members his nation wont flood the oil market and may be open to the reintroduction of a production target for the group.

Nobody thought they would do anything this week, so the introduction of a target is a big deal, said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

The introduction of a quota would be the first time in a year and a half that they have done anything that hints at production restraint.

Opec will probably stick to its policy of squeezing out rivals by maintaining production as the price rally helps justify the groups strategy, according to analysts.
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In 2003, Chinese actor and director Huang Lei arrived in Wuzhen, a small town about an hour's drive from Shanghai, to direct and star in a TV series called Lost Time.

The Wuzhen Theater Festival, co-founded by Huang Lei, has turned the small town into a carnival of performing arts since its launch in 2013. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The series was a hit and enabled the lesser-known locale to become a popular tourist destination.

Later Huang opened a bar there, also called Lost Time.

Simultaneously, the idea of creating a theater festival for Wuzhen came to his mind. Huang shared his idea with his friends Stan Lai, one of Taiwan's leading theater directors, and Meng Jinghui, a pioneering theater director based in Beijing.

With the help of Chen Xianghong, president of the Wuzhen Tourism Co Ltdthe company that runs the town's mainstay businessa grand theater was built at a cost of 400 million yuan ($62 million).

Old houses and warehouses were renovated and turned into performance venues that combine modern and traditional decor.

Their brainchild, the Wuzhen Theater Festival, was launched in 2013. Aiming to display international theatrical works and offer young talent a platform from which to start their careers, the festival has so far presented 43 international plays and attracted more than 85,000 people.

The festival will be held from Oct 13 to 22 this year, the three co-founders said at a media conference in Shanghai on May 25.

Themed "Gaze Beyond", this year's festival will continue to showcase theater at 12 indoor venues and six outdoor stages.

The festival will also include a daily carnival that will see hundreds of artists performing in the streets.

Follow China.org.cn on Twitter and Facebook to join the conversation.
The auction includes a welcome 12.1% price rise for skim milk powder, an important EU commodity.

The whole milk powder price dropped 1.7%, but Fonterra, the worlds largest milk exporter, had doubled the volumes of WMP on offer, in a bid to capitalise on recently rising prices.

Prices rose on average despite signals from Russia that the embargo against food imports from the EU and other western countries could continue for at least 18 months.

But markets have benefited from the European Commission proposal of a further increase in intervention ceilings up to 350,000 tonnes of skim milk powder, after 73,500t was bought into intervention in just one month.

The favourable GDT auction result backs up the views of many delegates at the recent annual Dairy Industry Newsletter conference in London that the world dairy commodity market has already passed the bottom.

They also welcomed positive signals such as rising prices in European futures commodity trading for the first time in months, and Dutch Dairy Board commodity prices rising.

And Fonterra has announced an improved milk price forecast for the upcoming 2016-17 season, albeit at a lower level than most analysts and farmers had expected.

However, the US Department of Agricultures Beijing bureau has painted a grim picture for Chinese demand, at least in the short term, predicting 2016 whole milk powder imports at their lowest level since 2006.

Here at home, IFA National Dairy Committee Chairman Sean OLeary said, Bearing in mind that spot milk and dairy prices, EU average quotes and international futures have all been firming, albeit timidly and from very low levels, it is fair to think that we are seeing the first signs that global supply and demand has slowly started to rebalance.

Mr OLeary has defended farmers in the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany, who led expansion of EU milk production, pointing out they have only 16% of their extra milk sitting in intervention or APS schemes.

This compares with Belgium with 86%, and France with 68% of their milk reliant on those market support measures, Mr OLeary said.

It is simply a fact that expanding production just because one can, and without a marketing plan, is not wise.

EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan said this week the dairy crisis continues and more has to be done.

That raises the question about whether the CAP provides the most appropriate means to address such a deep and long-lasting crisis or whether we need to have other instruments at our disposal,  said the Commissioner.

Milk deliveries in the EU increased by 7.2% , or 2.6 million tonnes, in the first three months of this year, compared to 2015.

With US production up about 1%, global production was up 3.9%, despite production falling 2% in New Zealand and 1.2% in Australia.

Meanwhile, German Agriculture Minister Christian Schmidt has announced at least 100 million of aid for the countrys dairy farmers, in the form of immediate loans, guarantees and tax relief.

He said that he also wants farmers to cut their milk production to stabilise the dairy market.
A high proportion earn less than the minimum wage and there is no return on investment, particularly on cattle farms.

And this has continued for a very long time in Ireland and in other countries.

It is substantially the reason why the numbers of farms has been in decline and the average size has been increasing.

Despite the increase in scale, incomes have not kept pace.

There has been a particular focus in the debate in Ireland recently about the effect of the power of supermarkets and their marketing practices.

While this is a minor factor, long term trends are far more important.

Farm incomes in other member states

Surveys of farms are also carried out in all the other member states.

Unfortunately the most recent income comparison I can find is for 2012, when incomes in Ireland were placed 11th of 27 member states.

Average farm net income for Ireland, Italy and Finland were similar at about 22,000, which was just above the EU average.

The highest levels were achieved in Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, where average farm incomes exceeded 60,000.

In the UK the average was over 50,000.

The lowest incomes were in the newer member states in eastern Europe.

In Slovakia the average farm made a loss, while in Slovenia, Romania, Malta, Bulgaria and Cyprus, average farm incomes were below 10,000.

Across Europe earnings on cereal farms were approximately four times higher than those in mixed crops or livestock, explained in part by their large scale.
I have ordered proposals to be drawn up to extend the retaliatory measures not by a year, but until the end of 2017, Medvedev said in comments released by the government.

His proposals would have to be approved by Russias President Vladimir Putin.

Since August 2014, Moscow has banned most food imports from Western countries, particularly from the EU, after the EU imposed sanctions on Russia for its 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in east Ukraine.

Russia extended the sanctions by a year last August, banning fruit and veg, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports, which have been partly responsible for loss-making prices in some EU farm sectors, notably pigs and dairy.

Displaced western exports to Russia have largely been replaced by EU exports to other markets, such as China. However, these new destinations are often lower-value.

The Russian embargo was due to expire in three months.

Medvedevs warning came as EU countries prepare to debate whether to extend sanctions affecting Russias banks and energy and defence industries, that expire in July.

So far, the EU has extended these sanctions every six months.

The EUs foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has said she expects the EU to extend its sanctions once again.

But German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has warned that that resistance is growing within the EU to extending the sanctions, for which a unanimous vote of support is required.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said that the EU wont change its position on anti-Russian sanctions in the near future.

He will meet Putin at an economic forum in St. Petersburg on June 16, ahead of a decision.

On June 24, 2015, Putin signed a decree on extension of food embargo until August 5 of 2016.

The World Trade Organisation has sided with the EU in its claims the Russian embargo is disproportionate and violates trade rules.
He made the commitment during a detailed Dail debate on the issue yesterday as it emerged the Government may be forced to take money from other departments this year to pay for runaway budget overruns in the system.

As part of a radical new departure for the health service, Mr Harris put down a Dail motion to set up a new cross-party committee tasked with agreeing the next decade of policies for the health system.

The move  which has been repeatedly called for by medics in recent years  is designed to ensure genuine reform measures can be introduced for the health service over the next decade, giving health managers the chance to plan properly without the risk of political U-turns.

The policy was put forward by Social Democrats TD Roisin Shortall and Independent election candidate for Dublin South West Peter Fitzpatrick, before being taken up by Mr Harris, after he became health minister last month.

Social Democrats TD Roisin Shortall

And, speaking in favour of the widely-supported policy in the Dail, Mr Harris said its first port of call will be to establish a new Committee on the Future of Healthcare, which will allow all parliamentary parties to have a say in future health service policies.

Under the measures outlined, the new committee will be tasked with producing an interim report within two months of being formed, and will be given a deadline of completing a full report on agreed policies for the next decade by the end of the year.

Mr Harris said now is the time to respond to the challenges presenting themselves in health. He warned medics are certainly fatigued by piecemeal reforms and the sense of certainty that there is no long-term plan in place, insisting the proposal is an historic opportunity for all politicians and the country.

Fianna Fail health spokesperson Billy Kelleher agreed the current U-turn nature of health policy depending on which party is in power has sapped the strength out of the system.

He called for clear strategies to be introduced, but noted serious disagreements  such as the future of private health insurance in Ireland  need to be resolved between the parties quickly if the move is to work.

Fianna Fail health spokesperson Billy Kelleher

While also supporting the plan in theory, Sinn Fein counterpart Louise OReilly warned, this is not a pantomime, this is very real and lashed both the current and previous governments for failing to resolve the crisis to date.

Labour TD Sean Sherlock, set to become the partys next health spokesperson, also backed the motion, but asked what will happen if the committee puts forward suggestions that contradict Government plans. Will it supersede [Government plans] if it comes up with a set of recommendations that dont exactly tally with the Programme for Government, he asked, a question that remained unanswered last night.
The baby was happily chewing a small piece of apple his father had given to him on December 21, 2014. The baby was sitting on the floor of his parents bedroom when he choked.

The baby was described by his father as a really good boy who was curious about everything.

He liked to eat very much, he ate everything. He travelled a lot with us. He was a very happy boy. He was always under our eyes, he told Dublin Coroners Court.

The boy was the couples third child. He was sitting on the floor. I started eating an apple. After I started eating he always wanted something. I bit off a very small piece and gave it to him. He had three or four teeth. I watched as he started to bite. He was happy and relaxed, he liked the sweet apple,the father said.

About ten minutes later, the boys mothersaid she got a bad feeling when she entered the bedroom and ran to her son.

He was sitting up but he couldnt breathe. I tried to get the apple out by slapping but it wouldnt (come out.) I tried mouth to mouth, it didnt work, she said.

The father grabbed the baby and ran outside. He jumped a fence into a nearby nursing home, where staff immediately began to resuscitate the baby. An ambulance was called and the baby arrived at Our Ladys Childrens Hospital in Crumlin at 8.40pm. The baby was resuscitated and admitted to intensive care. An MRI scan showed he had suffered a devastating brain injury.

My little boy was so quiet on the bed. He gave us a goodbye present, another week with him while he was alive, for us to be with him. Thank you for giving us this week, the father said in his statement.

He was pronounced dead at 2.30pm on December 26.

The cause of death was hypoxic brain injury secondary to cardiac arrest preceded by a choking incident on December 21, 2014.

The baby had suffered two chest infections in the months before his death but these were not deemed to be a factor in his death.

Coroner Dr Brian Farrell returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

It does seem that it (the piece of apple) did cause an episode of choking, he said.
Bob Geldof has joined Irish4Europes #PhoneAFriend campaign.

Participating in a video in which people list their UK based Irish friends and family they are lobbying to register and vote remain in the forthcoming EU referendum, Geldof lists those he will be talking to.

Irish4Europe is a non-party political campaign run by Irish people in Britain campaigning to keep the UK in the European Union.

David DArcy of Irish4Europe said: Our campaign asking Irish people in the UK to consider the barriers a Brexit would bring between Britain, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Our nations have worked hard through painful decades to reach an all-time high in our relations. Now is not the time for barriers.

Irish4Europe is asking everybody in Ireland to touch base with their compatriots in the UK and ask them to register to vote at www.gov.uk/register-to-vote before June 7.
A man was still being questioned last night by gardai investigating the fatal shooting of another man in a house in Cork City in April.

The 44-year-old, arrested in the Youghal area of East Cork at around 8am yesterday, was taken to Togher Garda Station for questioning about the death of Diarmuid Byrne, 44, at his home in Ballyphehane on the southside of the city, five weeks ago.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on Wednesday called on world leaders to better coordinate and take further fiscal moves to avoid "a low-growth trap."

"Growth is flat in advanced economies and has slowed in many of the emerging economies that have been the global locomotive since the crisis. Slower productivity growth and rising inequality pose further challenges," said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria.

"Comprehensive policy action is urgently needed to ensure that we get off this disappointing growth path and propel our economies to levels that will safeguard living standards for all," he added.

In its economic outlook, the Paris-based international organization confirmed its forecast of 2016 global growth at 3 percent, the same economic performance of 2015, the slowest pace in the past five years.

Growth of the 34-country OECD area is set to grow by 1.8 percent in 2016 and by 2.1 percent next year, according to the report.

Among the major advanced economies, the OECD expected a moderate recovery in the United States with a 1.8-percent rise in 2016 and 2.2 percent in 2017.

As to the euro area, the OECD projected the single-currency block to "improve slowly" with the 2016 GDP growth set to stand at 1.6 percent, up by 0.2 percent from a previous estimate.

With rebalancing continuing in China, growth is expected to slow to 6.5 percent in 2016 and 6.2 percent in 2017 next year.

However, the OECD saw many emerging market economies continue to lose momentum with a persistent deep recession mainly in Brazil where economic activities will contract by 4.3 percent in 2016 and by 1.7 percent in 2017.

Noting the waning global economy and rising income inequality in many countries, the OECD recommended "more ambitious structural reforms" with major focus on services sector in order to bolster short-term demand and to reach a long-term improvement of labor markets.

"If we don't take action to boost productivity and potential growth, both younger and older generations will be worse off," said OECD chief economist Catherine L Mann.

"The longer the global economy remains in this low-growth trap, the harder it will be for governments to meet fundamental promises. The consequences of policy inaction will be low career prospects for today's youth and lower retirement income for future pensioners," she added.

During its annual ministerial meeting and forum, the OECD also warned that an eventual Brexit "would trigger negative economic effects on the UK, other European countries and the rest of the world".

By 2030, post-Brexit UK GDP could be over 5 percent lower than if the country remained in the European Union, it estimated.
The National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics evaluates the benefit and costs of medical technologies and provides advice to the HSE. It was asked to assess the drug Orkambi, a treatment which Cystic Fibrosis Ireland said is groundbreaking and could benefit 500 CF sufferers.

The centre said lumacaftor/ ivacaftor (Orkambi) is not considered cost-effective for the treatment of cystic fibrosis in the cohort of patients 12 years and older who are homozygous for the F508del mutation in the CFTR gene.
He stressed improving maternity care is central to his partys plans while in office after coming under pressure from the opposition over the scandals.

Speaking at Leaders Questions in the Dail yesterday, Mr Kenny was asked by Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin if expectant parents can still have faith in the public maternity services they depend on.

The opposition leader said while he accepted the vast majority of pregnancies in Ireland are safe and uneventful, the reality is the deaths of two newborn babies at Cavan General Hospital in the past week and news a woman also lost her life in Dublins Holles Street Hospital on May 8 underline issues which have yet to be resolved.

Questioning whether the controversies are receiving enough attention from those in power, Mr Martin said three internal reports into deaths of babies at Cavan General have yet to be published despite occurring in 2014 and 2015  and noted similar crises in Portlaoise and Portiuncula have also occurred in recent years.

Accusing Mr Kenny of failing families in need, Mr Martin said there is a need for external reviews of these issues to provide certainty over what happened and guarantees the tragedies will not be repeated.

We have had many warnings and reports, but no comprehensive action has been taken to deal with the resourcing of our maternity hospitals, he said.

Responding to the situation, Mr Kenny insisted maternity services reform remains a key priority for the new Government and stressed improvements are taking place in the system.

When deaths occur, either at birth or in giving birth, it is always a source of stress and tragedy for the families involved.

I assure you, the safety and quality of maternity services is a priority and will remain so for the Government and for the minister for health, he said.

Pointing to last years publication of Irelands first national maternity strategy, which is particularly focussed on neonatal care and addressing a series of country-wide issues in the system, the Taoiseach said he expects improvements to be made to ensure recent tragedies are not repeated.

It emerged this week that two newborn babies died at Cavan General Hospital in the past week and Holles Street is investigating the death of Malak Thawley while undergoing surgery for an ectopic pregnancy on May 8.
Frances Fitzgerald also said yesterday she had full confidence in the garda commissioner, Noirin OSullivan, but conceded cultural change in the force was still needed.

Speaking to RTEs Sean ORourke, the Tanaiste said she had confidence in Ms OSullivan. It follows questions about why two gardai allegedly set out to undermine garda whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe, a matter which was raised following the OHiggins inquiry into garda malpractice allegations, as previously revealed by the Irish Examiner.

Asked about the issue, she responded: If thats true, it would be very disturbing. Nonetheless, she also gave her full backing for the garda commissioner following criticism over the gardas lawyers actions during the OHiggins inquiry.

The backing comes after some opposition TDs said Ms OSullivan should step down after claims she advised her legal team to challenge the integrity, motivation and credibility of Sgt McCabe, an allegation the garda chief has denied.

However, Ms Fitzgerald admitted there was work to be done in the force, including changing the culture.

Most organisations have huge difficulty dealing with whistleblowers, we know that, she said.

The issue of the recently reported secret meeting held between the former garda commissioner, Martin Callinan, and former Public Accounts Committee chairman, John McGuinness was also raised with the minister.

Former garda commissioner, Martin Callinan

Mr McGuinness has said the then garda chief told him Sgt McCabe was not to be trusted, ahead of an Oireachtas Committee meeting where the garda whistleblower was scheduled to give evidence.

Ms Fitzgerald said: I was shocked when I heard that. I would have preferred if that information had been made available to either the PAC committee or the commission. Weve only heard one side of the story.

Mr McGuinness has said the secret meeting was at the request of Mr Callinan, who has now retired and who also chose the location of a Bewleys carpark on the Naas Road. Mr McGuinness also says he believes the intention of the meeting was to raise doubts about the reliability of Sgt McCabe. The Fianna Fail TD has defended a decision to not make the details public until recently.

Former Public Accounts Committee chairman, John McGuinness

Ms OSullivan says she was not made aware of the meeting in the carpark, until it was recently revealed.

Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar has called the meeting very unusual.

There also have been calls for both Mr McGuinness and Mr Callinan to further clarify exactly what was discussed. Ministers have said though that Mr Callinan is now retired and therefore it is up to him if he wants to make any public statement.

There has been no response to phonecalls and emails to the former garda chief from the Irish Examiner.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin has said that he was taken aback on hearing of the secret January 2014 meeting.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin

Mr Howlin also admitted if he had known about the matter, it may have influenced his statement of confidence in the garda commissioner at the time.
The senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull, Louise Hunt, announced the decision, after holding several review hearings and receiving significant new information about the double bombing on November 21, 1974.

During the hearings, families of those killed in the blasts, in the Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs, put forward a claim that the British state had knowledge of the IRA plan before the attacks.

Ms Hunt said there was evidence that West Midlands Police had missed two potential warnings of the bomb attacks, including a comment made by men linked to the IRA that Birmingham would be hit next week.

That overheard conversation was reported to police on November 10, 1974, but Ms Hunt said there was no indication that the police took any active steps in response to it.

On the day of the attack, a second tip-off to the police was not followed up, she added.

Ms Hunt said: I have serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police and that they failed to take the necessary steps to protect life.

Concluding, she said: This is specifically in respect of the two matters I have identified. It is only in respect of that issue that I consider there is sufficient reason to resume an inquest to investigate the circumstances of these deaths.

So, I am satisfied that the inquest should be resumed.

She said claims that police were protecting a mole in the IRA cell were unfounded, and neither did the emergency services response that night contribute to the deaths.

Speaking outside court, Paddy Hill said: Ive known the truth all along. Its about time the British public knew the truth.

But he said he was sceptical the truth would actually emerge.

Birmingham police couldnt spell the word truth. Theyre rotten, he told reporters.

Julie Hambleton, whose sister, Maxine, was among the victims, welcomed the decision, saying it was way beyond our expectations, as she urged the British government to ensure victims families were given legal aid.

She added: All we want is to be heard, so we can get the truth, justice, and accountability.

West Midlands chief constable, Dave Thompson, pledged to support the new inquests, saying the botched initial investigation was the most serious failing in this forces history.

The Birmingham Six being released from prison

The Birmingham pub bombings of 1974 are one of the most serious terrorist attacks in the UK. West Midlands Police not only failed to catch those responsible, but caused a miscarriage of justice.

I have said, and reiterate again, it is the most serious failing in this forces history.

It is almost 42 years since these events. I understand families of those who lost their lives are frustrated, disappointed, and angry.

Since 2012, and directly as a result of the campaign by families of those who died, we have carefully reassessed the opportunities to bring the people responsible to justice.

Despite an intense scrutiny, we have not been able to see, at this time, a prospect of doing this. That has been an authentic and painstaking search for the truth.
They reminded the Kinahan leaders that 20 years ago the chiefs of the Gilligan gang were arrested abroad, taken to Ireland and successfully prosecuted.

And the Special Crime Task Force, set up to target middle and lower-ranking gang members, may send operational gardai abroad to assist in this effort.

However, a Garda chief leading the taskforce said its impact will be dictated by the resources available.

At a briefing yesterday, it emerged that 23 people have been arrested over the six Kinahan-Hutch feud murders in Ireland, and four had been charged.

Theres no doubt about it, whats happening in this country and its impact on these communities, particularly in the inner city communities in Dublin is being orchestrated from the south of Spain and Holland and indeed the UK, said assistant commissioner John OMahoney, head of the crime and security section.

However, he said targeting these foreign-based bosses was nothing new to the force and reminded the Kinahan cartel that both the leader and right-hand man of the Gilligan gang were brought back home by the team investigating the murder of Veronica Guerin.

Twenty years ago, John Gilligan was arrested in the UK, Brian Meehan was arrested in Amsterdam, both were brought home here, the legislation provided for them to be brought back and convicted for their crimes, said Mr OMahoney.

Thats something that we will do again. We will follow those people who are guilty of these crimes or indeed guilty of organised crime activities in this country to wherever it takes us and bring them back to justice here, he said.

John Gilligan

The leaders of the Kinahan cartel are largely based abroad, but sometimes return home.

Asked specifically would there be arrests abroad, Mr OMahoney said: Let the investigations take their course and, if there is to be arrests, there will be arrests.

He likened the Kinahan cartel to a huge crime conglomerate with links to Russian and French mafia. He said that operational gardai had gone abroad before and that if that was required it would happen.

Deputy commissioner John Twomey said there had been 23 arrests in the six murder investigations.

He said that almost 100 searches had been conducted, 18 guns seized, 7,000 lines of inquiry conducted, 2,600 statements taken, and 2,000 high-visibility checkpoints conducted.

He said the gardai were determined that good will win over evil and the perpetrators brought to justice.
Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and AAA-PBP were among those who voted with Labour to give Fine Gael the embarrassing defeat.

An earlier amendment by the Government to the Labour motion was lost and the formal motion was thus later passed.

Labour want minimum wage increases, a living wage introduced in the public sector and protections for workers. The party have strongly campaigned for stronger protections, highlighting the cases of the former Clerys department store workers who lost their jobs almost a year ago.

Meanwhile, the son of Independent Tipperary TD Michael Lowry has insisted he has held no discussions with Fine Gael about running for the party in future general elections..

A report in the latest edition of the Tipperary Star newspaper suggested that Councillor Micheal Lowry would stand for the party in the future, should his father decide not to stand.

Cllr Lowry released a statement yesterday which said he has had absolutely no discussions or conversations with Fine Gael either nationally or locally.

The Tipperary Star said it had also been suggested locally that Mr Lowry was in line to be appointed a senator by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Fine Gael has no representatives in Tipperary having lost two seats at the general election in February.

Former minister, Michael Lowry Snr, has claimed he has an arrangement with Fine Gael arising from his vote for Mr Kenny in Dail votes for Taoiseach. This has been denied by Fine Gael.

Michael Lowry

Cllr Micheal Lowry said he is very proud to be a member of the Lowry Team which has recorded such achievement and success throughout the constituency.

A spokesman for Taoiseach Enda Kenny said last night there was no truth whatsoever in the story.

Meanwhile, a newly appointed minister has revealed how she was the subject of death threats online.

Speaking during a Dail debate on mental health, Minister for Health Promotion, Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, said that her life was threatened during the general election.

The level of negativity and vilification and viciousness that is tossed at public representatives as if we are figures of stone, as if we do not feel the same as everybody else, she said.
A survey of 1,000 Irish adults was conducted, as a final decision on the airlines foreign-carrier permit application is still awaited from the US Department of Transportation (DoT).

Bosses at Norwegian, and at Cork Airport, last night urged the DoT to decide as soon as possible. Their call comes ahead of a gathering of global aviation leaders, for the AGM of the International Air Transport Association and the World Air Transport Summit, in Dublin, today.

SIPTU said airport workers from the around the world would protest outside the event, at the RDS, to highlight the attack on their pay and conditions, as more airline and airport services are being farmed out to subcontractors.

Norwegian announced plans last year to operate low-cost flights from Cork to Boston in 2016, followed by a Cork-to-New York route in 2017, using its Irish subsidiary, Norwegian Air International (NAI). NAI is also considering transatlantic flights from Shannon Airport.

The airline postponed its May launch of the Cork-to-Boston flights, because of DoT delays on the licence application. The DoTs tentative decision to grant the licence, which it says complies with the EU-US Open Skies Agreement, is being fought by US and EU labour and pilot unions.

US presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have also come out against the licence.

But a new poll, carried out by leading Irish research company, Red C, shows strong public support for the proposed services. Red C surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,004 adults, aged 18 and over. This included 280 Munster residents.

Results from the Munster residents showed that 58% were aware of Norwegians plans and 96% felt that it was important to have US routes from Cork and Shannon Airports.

Some 90% felt that a low-cost offering on transatlantic routes was needed in the Irish market, and 82% of Munster residents said if they were to fly to Boston or New York in the next 12 months they would use Norwegians proposed services from Cork.

The overall polling results revealed nationwide support for the planned flights.

Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos said their plans for flights from Cork had already received widespread support from the Irish Government, aviation authorities, airports and travel groups.

This new polling now reveals that the new flights also have broad public support, with passengers keen to benefit from affordable, direct new routes, he said.

As we await a final decision from the US authorities, this polling is a timely reminder that the views and needs of passengers should be put first.

Niall MacCarthy, the managing director at Cork Airport, said the research reinforced their long-held view that there was a strong demand for the flights to start as soon as possible.

Low-cost, transatlantic services from Cork will shake up the Irish marketplace and increase the choice, options, and competition for consumers on both sides of the Atlantic, he said. Wed urge the US authorities to make a positive announcement as soon as possible, so these historic services to Boston and New York can finally become a reality.
The victim of the assault, 20-year-old Dean Flynn, was yesterday said to be recovering well in Cork University Hospital following lengthy surgery on Tuesday.

Initial reports following the assault at 2.50pm on Monday suggested two of Mr Flynns fingers and a thumb were cut off when he was set upon on a green area at Priory Lawn in Waterford City.
The jury took over three hours to reach their verdict at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. The accused man did not give evidence but he told gardai it was only a small amount of water that accidentally fell and he blamed a slope in the room. This was in stark contrast to the description of violence given by the victim.

Judge David Riordan remanded Michael Lynch, 24, in custody until Tuesday June 7 for sentencing.

He was found not guilty yesterday of threatening to kill Tara Byrd but guilty of assault causing harm to her on July 21 last at 184 Old Youghal Road, Cork, where they were living at the time.

Tara Byrd, 25, 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 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 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.

Gareth Fleming, defence barrister, said the complainant admitted saying on her admission to hospital that it happened accidentally. She said she told this lie because she was in fear of Michael Lynch and that he had also told her that he would damage the homes of her friends and family.

Michael Lynch opted not to give any evidence. He told about half a cup of boiling water fell on her leg.

Last month, another jury was unable to reach a decision in the case and this necessitated yesterdays retrial.
Superintendent John Quilter confirmed a garda probe is under way after footage of the incident was posted on social media.

It has since gone viral.

The 19-second clip, recorded on a mobile phone by a concerned citizen, shows the infant sitting alone in a car, strapped into a rear-facing child seat, in the car park of the Market Green Shopping Centre in Midleton at lunchtime on Tuesday. The child appears to be playing happily with a mobile dangling from its car seat handle.

A rear window on the other side of the car, and the drivers window, were both left open a few inches. Temperatures hit 20C at the time.

It was claimed that a couple had left the infant in the car for up to 20 minutes while they visited a shop with an older child, although its understood the baby was left unattended in the car for a much shorter period.

Gardai were alerted and the woman who recorded the footage challenged the couple when they returned.

Supt Quilter said gardai are treating as serious the fact the infant was left unattended. He said gardai will also liaise with the child and family agency Tusla.

Their probe will involve interviewing witnesses, examining mobile phone footage, and the harvesting of CCTV footage from the area to establish an exact timeline of events, including the length of time between when the couple left the infant and when they returned.
Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun demonstrates his company's big-screen smartphones last month in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]

Xiaomi Corp has bought nearly 1,500 technology patents from Microsoft Corp in a deal that may smoothen potential legal tangles over intellectual property as it pushes beyond China.

The patents cover wireless communications, video, cloud and multimedia technologies, spokeswoman Kaylene Hong said, without specifying the terms.

The acquisition came as part of a broader agreement announced on Wednesday with the US software giant, under which Microsoft Office and Skype will come pre-installed on devices made by the Chinese smartphone maker.

Xiaomi, which vies with Huawei Technologies Co for the title of China's biggest mobile brand, has begun selling phones in the emerging markets, but its lack of a wide-ranging mobile patents portfolio has been perceived as a stumbling block to a broader expansion into markets such as Europe or the United States. The company's push into India was met with a lawsuit from Ericsson AB.

"This will help our ease of operation in new markets," Hong said of the patents deal.

The deal also marks a rare sale of patents by Microsoft to a company in China, where it is facing a government antitrust investigation while simultaneously trying to fight piracy.

Microsoft moved into phone production almost two years ago when it bought Nokia's handset division for $9.5 billion in a bid to make the company relevant in consumer computing beyond PCs. The company has since written down most of that purchase and in May agreed to sell its feature phone business to FIH Mobile Ltd and HMD Global for $350 million.

"As demonstrated by this agreement with Microsoft, Xiaomi is looking to build sustainable, long-term partnerships with global technology leaders," Xiang Wang, a senior vice-president at Xiaomi, said in a statement.

Technology companies use their intellectual property, which includes patents and trademarks, to protect innovations and provide a type of currency when it comes to using that of others through cross-licensing deals.

The 2014 Indian lawsuit, which focused on Ericsson inventions enabling wireless devices to connect to networks, resulted in a court banning some Xiaomi devices in what was the Chinese company's biggest overseas market.

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun needs his company to expand beyond China, where it sells devices at near-cost and then counts on services for revenue. While Xiaomi's home is the world's biggest market, growth has slowed.
Cork County Council was initially refused planning permission for the project at Monard, near Blarney, in 2012. However, it resubmitted revised plans, which last November were the subject of a Bord Pleanala oral hearing.

The planning appeals board yesterday gave approval for the project which incorporates a town centre surrounded by four village areas, a number of schools, creches, retail units, playgrounds and sporting/ amenity facilities.

Senior council planners had argued that the towns location would promote sustainable travel as a 4m commuter railway station could be built on the site, which is adjacent to the Cork-Mallow rail line.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland has agreed to a location for a junction which would connect Monard with the proposed new Northern Ring Road.

One of the reasons Bord Pleanala refused planning permission four years ago was because of the uncertainty about road and rail connections. Council planners have been working on the Monard project for 15 years.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey hailed the planning approval as a significant decision.

It gives national recognition to the councils strategic approach to forward planning in Metropolitan Cork, he said.

Mr Lucey said that at a time of unprecedented focus by national and local government on creating optimum conditions to underpin the future delivery of housing, the decision is particularly welcome as it brings significant certainty to the market in terms of future opportunity for progressing residential development proposals over the medium term.

Council planners and engineers will now create detailed designs of the infrastructure needed to support the project.

Mayor of the County of Cork, John Paul OShea, said it represents an opportunity to bring forward a major new phase of residential development in Cork.

It also provides for a much welcome opportunity to rebalance growth in the metropolitan area of Cork, Mr OShea said.
A jury of three women and nine men was sworn in to hear the case before Judge Gerard OBrien at Cork Circuit Criminal Court yesterday. The priest pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecently assaulting the boy.

The complainant testified that the alleged indecent assaults occurred when he was about 13 and 14.

The complainant said the first incident occurred when he was ill with chest and stomach problems.

I was not able to go to class. I was in the room on my own. (The accused) called to the room. He put his hand on my forehead. He put his left hand on my forehead. He put his other hand on my tummy and moved down. He proceeded to put his hand on my testicles and my penis for 12 to 15 seconds.

I froze solid, naturally enough, I was a young boy on my own. I had just started second year, he said.

He said the accused did not say anything during this and walked out of the room without saying anything. He said that the year after he was very sick and it was the day before he went on to have surgery on his appendix.

He asked me how I was. I was extremely ill and in pain. I had not eaten for about 24 hours, the complainant said. He said the priest put his hand on his forehead and his other hand on his testicles and penis.

Cross-examined by Tom Creed, defending, he said he did not tell members of his family about this at the time and still had not told them.

Asked if the specific allegations of indecent assault happened the accused replied: Most definitely not. I dont remember the incident (of the complainant being sick). Quite possibly I put my hand on his forehead. I could have put my hand on his chest or stomach but by no means did I touch his testicles, or anybody elses at (name of school) or any time.

The case continues today.
Under a plan in the new Programme for Government, Education Minister Richard Bruton begins consulting today with opposition parties and other Dail groupings before introducing a new School Admissions Bill.

While the minister insists he must do so to ensure getting the law passed, his predecessor, Labour TD Jan OSullivan said he could simply amend the School Admissions Bill she introduced in April 2015.

It was based on nearly three years of consultation with education groups and the Oireachtas Education Committee on initial proposals and draft legislation from her predecessor and party colleague Ruairi Quinn.

There were public differences with Fine Gael over both Labour ministers planned limits on how many places schools could hold for children of past pupils.

If the new Government were proposing changes on that issue, they could still do so by going ahead with the existing bill or amending it, and changing the regulations dealing with past pupils, she said.

Our bill hadnt even got through the Dail, it was ready to go since early last year but it never got the Dail time, she said.

Labour TD Jan OSullivan

But a spokesperson for Mr Bruton said the bill he hopes to introduce before the Dail summer break would take account of current draft proposals, as set out in the Programme for Government.

This Government does not have a majority. The ministers interest is in providing a piece of legislation that stands the best possible chance of getting enacted and implemented quickly, so that children, parents and schools can quickly see the benefits, he said.

His belief is that the approach he is adopting, by drawing heavily on the existing legislation, taking the views of opposition parties, including Labour, publishing a new bill before the summer and proceeding to enactment as quickly as possible, provides the best possible chance of having these important laws in place as early as possible.

It is unclear how it is planned to deal with the question of past pupils children, who the Oireachtas committee recommended schools should not be allowed reserve any places for. Ms OSullivan had suggested a 10% limit on numbers of places for those applicants, significantly lower than the 25% cap Ruairi Quinn initially proposed.

Ruairi Quinn

The previous bill and regulations proposed banning application fees to seek enrolment and first-come first-seved school waiting lists. An amendment proposed by Ms OSullivan, would have introduced a new appeal system for parents whose children were refused enrolment.
It was built before it was compulsory for manufacturers to stamp maximum load numbers on all craft.

The Jillian, a small boat, set out from Kilmore Quay during good conditions, on August 29, 2015.

The skipper was taking family and friends on a fishing trip near the Saltee Islands.

As the vessel was passing between Great and Little Saltee, it became swamped and capsized.

The skipper was still in the wheelhouse and the personal flotation device he was wearing inflated automatically. This impeded his exit from the wheelhouse and he removed it before swimming out from under the now upturned hull.

All of the vessels occupants, except one, who remained in the water throughout, managed to climb onto the upturned hull, and stayed there until they were rescued.

No attempt was made to right the vessel.

The skipper of the Saltee Island Ferry, who was a member of the RNLI Lifeboat, noted that the Jillian had not returned and joined the search.

The crew of the ferry heard shouting, while searching along the south eastern shore of the Great Saltee.

The Kilmore Quay and Fethard lifeboats and Dunmore East and Kilmore Quay Coast Guard units were all tasked, along with the R117 rescue helicopter.

All 10 of the boats occupants were picked up by the ferry.

One of the group, a 72-year-old man, was transferred to the Kilmore Quay lifeboat and then airlifted by helicopter to Waterford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. All were wearing light summer clothes and personal flotation devices.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) concluded

the owner/skipper was not aware

the vessel was overloaded when it departed Kilmore Quay.

Investigators said that it is likely that the additional weight of two of the passengers in front of the wheelhouse caused the bow to sit low in the water.

When the vessel entered the rougher water between the islands, this might have been sufficient to allow the waves to break over the bow, rather than the boat riding over them.

The waves breaking over the bow broke the perspex windows and rapidly filled the vessel, causing it to capsize.

The Marine Casualty Investigation Board investigators said all skippers should be aware of the load capacity of their vessels, despite the fact that, in this instance, the Jillian was built before regulations were brought in to ensure manufacturers displayed this information on their craft.

The 72-year-old, from Salisbury in England, was visiting in-laws in Co Wexford, and was among a group who went fishing on that Saturday afternoon .

The party included seven other men, a woman and a teenage boy, all of whom survived.

The group is believed to be from the Wexford area originally and some are part of the same extended family, a number of whom were on a trip home for the get together.
The incident is said to have taken place close to the Playa de las Americas area on the Spanish holiday island in the early hours of May 26.

Tenerife newspaper El Dia reported this week that the victim may have been aged just 13.

According to the report, officers from the National Police Commissioner in the southern part of the island are investigating the attack, which is alleged to have occurred on a beach close to the busy las Veronicas area in Arona.

The report said the girl was a young Irish tourist who had been walking in the area with her brother.

However, she seems to have become separated from him when the assailant, described as being of European appearance and also possibly a tourist, took her to a pebble beach next to a pedestrian street called Francisco Andrade Fumero, shortly after 2am.

After the attack the girl raised the alarm and was attended to by medical staff in a local hospital.

A report of a sexual assault, also described in the local media as a rape, was then made by the victim some hours later to the office of the Commissariat of National Police for the south of island. A separate unit within the local police has been carrying out an investigation but the local press reported concerns there that the perpetrator may have already left the holiday island.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday it was aware of reports of the incident but would not be providing any comment.
Government sources said last night that the visit to areas where families and communities are living under siege will definitely take place and will now likely be next week.

Independent TD Maureen OSullivan has asked Mr Kenny to visit that part of the capital and walk in the shoes of those afflicted by violence.

Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald yesterday revealed that tens of millions of euro will now be put into resourcing gardai in a bid to break up the deadly feud between the Hutch and Kinahan gangs.

Ms Fitzgerald said the money is being made available out of the 41.9m garda overtime budget in an effort to combat the unprecedented violence.

She said she was in touch with the Department of Public Expenditure about the demands facing gardai, ahead of the estimates for departments being decided in the coming weeks What I have done and the Taoiseach has done when we met the commissioner, is we said you have to use whatever resources you need. There is obviously going to be a budget for that. We have said to the garda commissioner, it is absolutely clear you will need to use extensive overtime. It is going to run into tens of millions and we will have to provide for that.

The minister also said she is willing to look at an exemption for gardai retiring so that they could stay on, but added: Thats a possibility, but that has huge implications across the public sector. The idea of selecting out a particular group that would stay on past retirement is fraught with challenges from a public sector point of view.

Meanwhile, Independent Dublin TD Maureen OSullivan used Leaders Questions to highlight how drugs and violence are affecting her constituency.

In a candid speech, Ms OSullivan asked Mr Kenny to get inside the skin of somebody living in the inner city, adding: He looks out the window and there is nobody on the street, yet, within two to three minutes, anything from 30 to 60 people are there because the word has gone around that drugs will be available for sale. He could be sitting at home in his flat or walking down the street, maybe going for the messages or meeting neighbours, or he could have gone to the pub for a drink, and, suddenly, shots ring out and somebody is gunned down and executed in front of him.

He could have a son or daughter, or a brother or sister, who got caught up in addiction and owes a massive amount of money to the dealers, and he gets a knock on the door and is told to either pay up or else do a deed, commit a murder or set somebody up for murder, or worse consequences will happen to him.
The juror in question made the comment in front of a garda in charge of protecting the jury, Limerick Circuit Court heard.

Outlining the allegation, John OSullivan, prosecuting, told Judge Tom ODonnell, presiding: The juror deemed it appropriate to make a comment in a case where the credibility of the gardai is in question.

Mr OSullivan then told the judge he had a troubling application to make.

The garda in charge of the jury was spoken to by (a juror) as the jury was sent away... They made an observation or a comment to the effect, that yer all corrupt, or something of that sort.

Mr OSullivan said he was compelled to apply to have the jury discharged.

Called to give evidence, the garda in charge of the jury said she overheard the juror in question tell another juror: Its all corrupt.

Other jurors were present, she said.

Cross examining the witness, Anthony Sammon, defending, produced a copy of last Tuesdays Irish Times.

The witness said she had not read the paper.

So, youre not familiar with Fintan OTooles opinion piece in the Irish Times  the paper of record  dealing with the issue of (alleged) Garda corruption, Mr Sammon asked the garda.

The witness agreed the jurors alleged comment was not directed at her, and that she had only heard a snippet of a conversation.

It may well have been that some of the jurors may have been taken up by Mr OTooles opinion piece, Mr Sammon said. He described the States application to have the entire jury discharged as scandalous and outrageous.

Mr Sammon read the entire article into the record and a copy of the article was handed into the court.

Addressing Judge ODonnell, Mr Sammon said, that the court, as well as anyone with any wit or intelligence, was aware of the current public controversy surrounding alleged Garda malpractice arising out of the OHiggins report.

Judge ODonnell said he had read the article.

After he discharged the jury, the judge remarked: I feel the (alleged) comment made is of concern, and I find that it is appropriate, given the nature of the case, to discharge the jury.

The case before the court took another twist when it became apparent a new jury could not be sworn in.

After 10 new jurors were picked, the court ran out of possible candidates to fill the final two juror seats.

Its the first experience this court has had of that difficulty, Judge ODonnell said. He asked the 10 selected jurors to stand down and he also discharged them.

Perhaps the fine weather may have played a part, Mr OSullivan remarked.

The accused man was remanded in custody for trial to the next court callover in July.
On day 84 of the longest running criminal trial in the States history, the jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court returned the majority verdicts. The verdict comes after 38 hours of deliberations, the longest jury deliberations in the States history.

The jury is still considering charges against two Irish Life and Permanent bankers who were alleged to have taken part in the 7.2bn conspiracy.

Anglos former head of capital markets John Bowe, 52, and the banks then finance director Willie McAteer, 65, were on trial accused of conspiring to mislead investors, depositors and lenders about the true health of Anglo.

Judge Martin Nolan remanded the two men on continuing bail until Friday after hearing there was no objection to bail. Obviously, you dont have to be here tomorrow gentlemen, the judge told McAteer and Bowe. There was no reaction from the men when the verdicts were read out.

Jurors will continue deliberations today on charges against former CEO of Irish Life & Permanent (ILP) Denis Casey, 56, and his finance director in 2008, Peter Fitzpatrick, 63.

Bowe from Glasnevin, Dublin; McAteer of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Co Tipperary; Casey from Raheny, Dublin; and Fitzpatrick of Convent Lane, Portmarnock, Dublin, all pleaded not guilty to conspiring together and with others to mislead investors by setting up a 7.2bn circular transaction scheme between March 1 and September 30, 2008, to bolster Anglos balance sheet.

The States case was that the four men were involved in setting up a circular scheme of billion-euro transactions where Anglo lent money to ILP and ILP sent the money back, via their assurance firm Irish Life Assurance, to Anglo.

The scheme was designed so that the deposits came from the assurance company and would be treated as customer deposits, which are considered a better measure of a banks strength than inter-bank loans.

The 7.2bn deposit was later accounted for in Anglos preliminary results on December 3, 2008 as part of Anglos customer deposits figure. The prosecution alleged the entire objective of the scheme was to mislead anybody reading Anglos accounts by artificially inflating the customer deposits number from 44bn to 51bn, a difference of 16%.

Lawyers for the Anglo accused had argued that their clients believed that the deposits were real deposits and were accounted for correctly on Anglos balance sheet and so no fraud was carried out.

Paul OHiggins SC for the prosecution told the jury: They take a vast amount of time and trouble and they amount to one large candy floss whose only conceivable purpose is to bolster up and artificially inflate the Anglo customer deposit. That is manifestly dishonest and was done with dishonest intent.

Lawyers defending the former ILP executives argued that their clients had no control over how Anglo would account for the deposits and had no intention to mislead the public.

Prosecution argued it was inconceivable that high level bankers, wouldnt have known full well what Anglo were doing.

Una Ni Raifeartaigh SC told the jurors: These are experienced bankers. Do you find it reasonably credible, that they did this deal, thinking Anglo was doing it as an exercise in futility?
FRANCES Hardinge loves to walk. It was on a trek through Thames Park, halfway across Richmond, in London, that she happened upon the key seed idea for her award-winning novel, The Lie Tree.

Rather frustratingly, I cant actually remember the build-up to it, says the 43-year-old, but I can remember the moment itself. I remember thinking, I really can use this. I dont know what sort of emotional resonance I can get with it, but I know that something will fit with this idea of a tree that feeds on lies and bears fruit containing secrets.

I meet Frances in Dublin, a city she is visiting for the first time, as part of the International Literature Festival. She is wearing her trademark, broad-brimmed hat.

There is something of the foppish hippy about her, but her beautiful manners, upright posture, and her accent seem Victorian. She is softly spoken, but impeccably articulate. She is a person of conviction.

I cant remember a time when I didnt want to be an author, she says. I know I was producing some full-length work, short, full-length work, when I was thirteen, hand-written, never showed it to anybody. Just as well, because its not very good.

Thankfully, neither was her critical eye and she remained doggedly determined to write, either until published or until [she] dropped dead. At sixteen, she began sending stories to publishers. Mostly, she would hear nothing back, but, on occasion, there would be some feedback.

I remember one, in particular, which went along the lines of we loved your story, we just didnt know what it was about, says Frances. Most writers face rejection, but they carry on, mainly because theyre quite stubborn, really.

At the heart of that stubbornness is what the author calls an intellectual hunger, something that she shares with Faith, the main character of her latest novel.

There is a point of similarity there, says Frances. But I was a hell of a lot luckier than Faith. She was living in the middle of the 19th century, fourteen-years-old, an aspiring scientist, keenly intelligent, and that hunger of the intellect is being starved at every turn. I was lucky, in that my parents were actually very encouraging, so I didnt get blocked in that way.

Frances was born in Kent. As a child, she lived in several homes across southern England and Wales. She tells me that there were various different reasons for these upheavals, but assures me, rather deftly avoiding the question, that her family werent on the run; though she does seem to like the idea that they might have been. There are parts of Frances Hardinge that she keeps a little enigmatic, and in that she sees a link with her writing.

I want people to guess, but I dont always want people to be right, she says.

I like to play with readers expectations and assumptions about characters, about plot, about whats going on. There are always surprises. Do the characters surprise her?

Usually, I have a clear idea of the character and how aspects of them will develop over the course of the book, she says.

But thats not to say that characters wont sometimes develop a whole level of depth that I wasnt expecting, or theyll take a whole right turn. Occasionally, they even have the rudeness to write part of my plots for me, but thats the whole thrill of it.

Francess career has had many twists and turns. For much of her early career, she wrote adult fiction, her staple being highly-regarded short stories.

It was not until a friend pointed out to her that her weird, bizarre, dark fairytales and complicated style were much better-suited to younger readers that she decided to write for them.

Since the publication of her first novel, Fly By Night, in 2005, that audience has grown considerably, though she likes to think that it hasnt changed. The reason for that is ingeniously simple.

I always write for a younger version of me, she says. I dont really know another way to write. Im the person I know best. I have the same tastes as me, so its altogether more convenient. I was lucky, in that when I wrote my first childrens novel there was no pressure, because I wasnt expecting to get published, she says.

So that first book was an experiment that I wrote for myself, putting in all sorts of weird, quirky stuff that maybe I found funny. So there was no pressure. Then, of course, I got a book contract.

Eleven years and six novels later, its hard to tell if that has meant more pressure.

She assures me it has, but you wouldnt think so by her demeanour.

When we finish our conversation, and, of course, our tea, she checks her schedule and sees she has two more book signings to attend, before she can do what she loves most. Go for a walk.
Do you suffer from panic attacks? Are you dreading that awful moment when the physical sensations sweep over you like a tsunami and your body feels completely out of control? Are they taking over your life?

Do you suffer from social anxiety? Are you dreading the next social occasion where you will have to expose yourself to the perceived scrutiny of others? Are you dreading the feelings of anxiety and shame that this occasion will bring? Are you terrified to be asked to speak in public situations?

Do you suffer from general anxiety? Do you find yourself constantly worrying, in a constant state of dread as to what might happen next? Are you constantly tired as a result?

Do you suffer from a phobia? Are you terrified of getting on a plane, going on the motorway, entering lifts, being exposed to blood or simply of spiders?

Do you suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder? Are you in a state of hypervigilance, always seeking out danger?

Are you a parent of an adolescent who is struggling with anxiety or panic and dont know how to assist them? Are you a young person who lacks the skills to deal with them? Have you a loved one whose life is plagued by these conditions, and want to know more?

Hundreds of thousands of Irish people including many reading this article live in the shadowy world of anxiety. And yet despite the countless people affected by anxiety and panic in all of its forms  many struggle to access any meaningful help for these conditions.

This was made very clear to the author when he was asked a year ago to put up a video on YouTube on panic attacks. To date this has been viewed by over a quarter of a million people. And yet many of the conditions above can be overcome by simple cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) exercises and some hard work by those involved.

The dilemma is that there is a dearth of CBT therapists within the compass of many people with anxiety.

To try and improve this situation  namely both an absence of real information and a lack of easily accessible CBT therapists for so many in difficulties  Flagging Anxiety and Panic was born.

The first key understanding was that the anxiety pathways in our brain can be reshaped by our mind  a process called neuroplasticity. This is best done with the harnessed use of our mind. This sets up the incredible capacity of using key CBT exercises to reshape our anxious mind and as a result to reshape the very anxiety pathways that are causing the problem.

The second key understanding was that anxiety is not only a cognitive condition where we worry and catastrophise all the time  but also a strongly physical condition involving parts of our emotional brain and our internal stress system. The physical symptoms we experience in all forms of anxiety and panic are created by the firing of our internal stress system by a little organ in our emotional brain called the amygdala which is increasingly been seen as a key player.

The amygdala is an ancient little organ  there in the dinosaur  whose job it is to see or sense danger and fire. It keeps us alive when faced with danger by firing our stress system to pump out, for example, our fear hormone, adrenaline. It is this hormone that makes us feel our stomach in knots, our heart going quicker, our breathing faster, our mouth dry, muscles feeling tense and general feelings of dread. Everybody who suffers from anxiety and panic can relate to these symptoms.

But it is also the gunslinger of the stress system  it shoots from the hip often without thinking and does not really worry about the consequences. The gunslinger is not particularly smart, has a long memory, does not respond to normal talk therapies, and regularly disregards instructions from head office (our logical brain). So one of the objectives of Flagging Anxiety and Panic was to highlight new techniques to put him back in his box.

The third key understanding related to the fact that the worrying side of anxiety comes from the left prefrontal cortex part of our brain and the catastrophising comes from the right prefrontal cortex part of our brain.

With simple CBT techniques and a lot of hard work by the person with the various forms of anxiety (whether it be panic attacks, phobias, general anxiety or social anxiety)  one can retrain ones mind to deal with the worrying and catastrophising; and also learn how to manage the physical symptoms which are often dominating ones lives.

With these simple concepts I decided to use simple clinical cases which it was felt that people suffering from panic attacks, social anxiety, general anxiety or phobias could easily relate to. In each case, we would show how the person  from the second they sat down to open up to their distress  could learn the simple CBT techniques necessary to learn how to manage their anxiety or panic. As an example, a panic attack is where, out of nowhere, a person suddenly finds themselves short of breath, heart pounding, mouth dry, dizzy, stomach in knots, muscles tensed up, shaking, sweating and feeling as if they are going to die.

They can strike suddenly, for no obvious reason and terrify the sufferer. Many think they are going to die, go mad or run amok. Sufferers live in a state of constant fear as to when the next one is going to strike. At the heart of panic attacks is the understanding that the attack is simply due to an adrenaline rush created by the gunslinger firing inadvertently and seemingly without warning. We now know that the amygdala or gunslinger only responds in panic attacks to a concept called flooding. This involves learning how to go with the physical symptoms caused by the adrenaline rush. This in turn resets the amygdala and the gunslinger settles down.

What is quite extraordinary is how once the person understands what is going on and how the amygdala works, panic attacks can rapidly become a thing of the past.

Another example is general anxiety where we live in a world of constant worrying about what might happen in our lives. This is associated with a stream of physical symptoms such as fatigue, difficulties with concentration, irritable bowel, tension headaches, teeth grinding, sighing constantly, sleep difficulties and being constantly on edge. It can also be associated with procrastination, avoidance of tasks; trying to do everything perfectly and trying to self-manage the physical symptoms with alcohol or tranquilisers.

One of the most common issues is the presence of physical symptoms even when one is not actively worrying about something, and this is due again to our gunslinger amygdala ending up firing our stress system to produce high levels of our stress hormone glucocortisol.

It is the worrier, or our left prefrontal cortex, and the catastrophiser in our right prefrontal cortex, that drives the amygdala to produce all the physical symptoms as well as the constant anxious thoughts in our mind. Classical CBT concepts and exercises can show us how to challenge the worrier and in particular the catastrophiser; and different approaches to deal with the amygdala gunslinger-driven physical symptoms.

Another example is social anxiety where we are anxious and embarrassed in case people will pick up some signs that we are anxious and end up judging us as inferior as a result. Once again it is associated with very distressing catastrophic visualisations in our mind, and associated physical symptoms which are very uncomfortable. It is also associated with a lot of avoidant and safety behaviours which are described in detail in the book. Once again the two main players are the gunslinger amygdala which is misreading danger in other peoples faces which is not actually there; and the catastrophiser. They give rise to most of the cognitive and physical symptoms we experience.

Once again a real understanding of this condition with some targeted CBT exercises and a lot of hard work can help us to challenge the thinking and behaviours driving this condition. Lets take anxiety out of the shadows and reshape our anxious minds and brains.

Dr Harry Barry is the author of Flagging Anxiety and Panic (Liberties Press)
Shares of Lenovo Group Ltd fell by more than 3 percent on Thursday morning after Google Inc was reported to be seeking to raise between $218 million (151.34 million pounds) and $221 million by selling shares in the world's largest personal computer maker.

According to a report by Reuters, Google is looking for buyers of its 371 million Lenovo shares at a price range of HK$4.56 to HK$4.62 per share.

Last week, Lenovo reported its first loss in six years, with financial performances weighed down by restructuring cost as well as declining sales of PCs and smartphones.

The Hong Kong-listed technology company registered a net loss of $128 million for the fiscal year ending in March. Only one year earlier, Lenovo reported a profit of $829 million.

Lenovo and Google did not immediately reply to China Daily's requests for comment.
She has such a beautiful face, the first refugee woman I meet in the port of Piraeus. Those wonderful Middle Eastern hazel eyes.

However, it takes a long time to persuade her to be photographed because she has been photographed before and what good has it done?

Nadia, 45, has succumbed to despair. A Kurd from Aleppo, she has been in Greece since February 22 and has spent most of that time sleeping in the kind of tent kids leave behind after the Electric Picnic.

She has five teenagers with her, ranging in age from 16 to 12, three of her own and two of her sisters. She only left Syria for her children, she says, but its scary trying to rear them in a tent at a disused departure gate in Piraeus. She has put a canopy over the tent for shelter from the appalling heat. They get a shower twice a week.

The food is terrible. She shows me a video of the ambulances bringing people to hospital a few nights before because the chicken had gone off. They have been given mouldy bread and have found cockroaches in their food.

However, the physical discomfort is not the worst part for Nadia. Its the the lack of education for the children and the bad influences in the port. Shes worried sick about the safety of her lovely 16-year-old daughter.

Nadias 16-year-old daughter. Nadia is worried about bad influences and lack of education in Piraeus. She must choose between being reunited with her son in Germany and staying with her daughters

Before the war, her life in Aleppo was perfect she says. She worked with her husband in a heating business. The children were going to a private, Christian school though she is Muslim, because in Syria, we dont care.

Then the war came, reducing a lot of Aleppo to rubble. First her three sons, aged 23 and 25 and 14 left and got through to Germany. Her husband wouldnt leave his factory but she and the other children followed the boys.

She made it to Turkey where she worked for slave wages and was insulted as a Kurd, then on to Greece and the Macedonian border. She camped on the border for two months but gave up and came back to Piraeus where she thought she could begin some formal asylum process.

However, the formal process is asking her to decide which of her children to be apart from: she can be reunited with her 14-year-old in Germany under the Reunion Programme but she would have to leave her other two children behind. If she applies for the Relocation Programme she will not be able to relocate to Germany which has no more places and will have to choose somewhere else where she will have to stay for at least five years.

She is on the brink of opting to go back to Syria because even if the Russian airforce bombs her it might be better than sitting in a tent with her children growing up the wrong way. We are joined by Najaw, 53, a fellow Syrian Kurd, camping out in the port with her nieces family because her boys, in their 20s, are in Germany and her 26-year-old daughter is in Holland. She has never seen her grand-daughter in Holland, except on a smartphone.

She scrolls to pictures of a Princess Jasmine daughter and her adorable little daughter. Beautiful, I say and she croons as she gently touches the screen.

I dont know what agenda is being served by keeping this granny sleeping in a tent while her daughter and grand-daughter pine for her in Holland but its not mine and I dont believe its that of the majority of European citizens.

There are still more than 50,000 refugees left in Greece. The authorities are trying to clear the port for the tourist season but there are still 2,500 people left sleeping in tents in the port.

Nadias tent at Departure Gate 1 Piraeus. She has been forced to erect a canopy in a bid to escape the sweltering heat.

A small element of order is brought to the chaos by volunteers. Negga, an amazing granny from Piraeus, is running much of the show from a shipping container. She is trying to get people moved on to more permanent camps because she is sure the Greek authorities will clear the port by mid-June.

Dont wait until the end, she warns people. Referring to the cleared camp near the Macedonian border she says, Dont let it be like Idomeni. The new camps may still have tents but they are large tents with beds in them. I cant guarantee a caravan, she stresses.

Most want to leave the port to get better accommodation but some are wary. Does going to a permanent camp mean they will be kept forever in Greece in a state of limbo?

Tomorrow: Skaramagas, a village of fridges behind barbed wire
Donegal native Willie McAteer graduated from UCD with a BA in Commerce and a Master of Business Studies degree. He went on to qualify as a chartered accountant and then as a member of the Irish Tax Institute.

William McAteer, of Greenrath, Tipperary Town, Co Tipperary, was found guilty of conspiring to defraud the public

After becoming a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), McAteer went on to become managing director of Paul Coulsons Yeoman International Leasing, a venture capital lending firm.

In March 1992, he was made redundant from Yeoman. He was offered a job by Sean FitzPatrick, then chief executive of up-and-coming Anglo Irish Bank and a man he knew from his tenure in PWC.

As finance director, McAteer was there for a 15-year stretch of continuous growth and expansion as Anglo became Irelands third-biggest bank, with interests in North America, the UK and eastern Europe. McAteer slotted into the role of an impressive numbers man who travelled frequently selling the Anglo story to international investors.

McAteer was appointed to the Board of Executive Directors and attended all meetings, although he was not at the meeting in December 2008 at which Mr FitzPatrick resigned.

When David Drumm was appointed as chief executive of Anglo in 2005, he relied on McAteer to introduce him to key investors. During the Drumm era, the bank doubled in size and McAteer was given responsibility for risk as well as finance. Matt Moran reported to him as his chief financial officer. Mr Moran, who was granted immunity by the State in the this trial, was seen as his heir apparent.

During the summer of 2008, McAteer attended some of the weekly funding initiative meetings held on Friday afternoon in Mr Drumms office. During these meetings, up to 30 different plans designed to increase deposits into the bank were discussed but by September, all but the ILP plan had fallen away. McAteer told gardai he was aware of the ILP deal but not of the mechanics of it.

The trial heard that his main role in the transaction was, as chief risk officer, signing off on the credit excess required to allow the deals to go through the banks system. The 7.2bn deal was 6.7bn in excess of the normal credit limits. He would have also sat in on meetings of Anglos audit committee, which approved how the deal was presented in Anglos preliminary results.

On January 7, 2009, McAteer resigned from Anglo. Detective Sergeant Catharina Gunne told the trial on March 24, 2010, she went to McAteers then family home in Auburn Villas, Rathgar, and arrested the accused.

McAteers department, finance, was the department responsible for accounting the transactions in the banks balance sheet. He denied to gardai the 7.2bn deposits were created for the purpose of creating a false impression as to the health of the bank and told investigators the accounts reflected the actual transaction.

Lawyers for McAteer told the jurors that if they accepted that McAteer believed that the deals were properly accounted for, this was not a view consistent with dishonesty or a conspiracy to defraud.

What happens is money goes round in a circle

John Bowe studied accounting and finance in Dublin City University and left there in 1986. He then joined Standard Chartered Bank (Ireland) Ltd as a graduate trainee. In 1990, the business was acquired by West LB and around this time, he began working with corporate clients. In 1997, he left West LB and joined ABN Amro Bank.

In late April 2001, he joined Anglo Irish Bank as head of debt capital markets.

On arrival in that role, Mr Bowe was largely on his own and began recruiting staff internally and externally. He reported directly to Mr McAteer. In 2006, he was appointed to Anglos senior executive board, with Matt Moran and Peter Fitzgerald.

This board, chaired by David Drumm, operated at a level just below the banks main board and was tasked with issues around capital spend and day-to-day operations.

Judge Nolan said Mr Bowe was a lesser figure to the other accused in the management hierarchy. He was not a company director.

Judge Nolan told the jury that by 2008 treasury was run by Mr Cullen, Mr Fitzgerald and Mr Bowe but by September Mr Bowe had assumed de facto leadership of treasury.

In September 2008, Mr Bowes colleague Matt Cullen told Mr Bowe about a conversation he had with his counterpart in ILP, David Gantly, in which Mr Cullen told Mr Gantly they might be looking for more than 5bn in deposits.

He said Mr Gantly told him it wouldnt be a problem because you might be well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

The jury heard a number of phonecalls which involved Mr Bowe and his then chief executive David Drumm. During one call on September 19 Mr Drumm asked Mr Bowe about whether they had to cash back the six billion from ILP and Mr Bowe says yes.

Three days later Mr Drumm called Mr Bowe to tell him: By the way, bigger picture. 30th September, even with the six billion fixes which Mr fucking Denis confirmed for me this morning ...were fucked.

Mr Bowe agrees that were still in a hole. Mr Drumm then asks Mr Bowe Are you going to be able to bloat the balance sheet ... over year end with short term interbank and all that sort of stuff and shove it into liquidity?

In another call on September 29 Mr Bowe told Drumm and Mr McAteer about the 6bn fix with permo , explaining that what happens is the money goes round in a circle.

The following day, when the bank guarantee had came in overnight Mr Cullen and Mr McArdle were wondering if the ILP transactions would now cease.

Around 3bn had gone over and back at this stage. Mr Cullen approached Mr Bowe and asked him if they were still going ahead and Mr Bowe said they were, the trial heard.
It is almost like a throwback to a much discredited era where the prevailing ideology decided in its arrogance what was and was not a suitable milieu to raise a child. Time was when children were torn from their unmarried mothers  with family consent as often as not  because they were considered unfit to provide for their child.

The emotional violence visited on both mothers and children in our not-so-distant past is now rightly repudiated. But thinking has changed. Instead of breaking up families in difficulty, we support them. How ironic then that, in our more enlightened age, a whole new set of social arbiters can remove a child from the loving care of his natural family.

The decision of the States child protection agency, Tusla, to take a nine-year-old boy from the grandparents who had raised him from the age of four, is both bizarre and tragic, given the reasons for the decision.

Tusla saw fit to assess the grandparents as they would any applicants for foster parenting, completely factoring out their relationship to the child and the fact that they had provided him for more than half his life with the only stable home he had ever known.

That these were loving grandparents whose care and devotion were vouched for by the childs school principal, the family GP, and a paediatric specialist did not weigh against the arbitrary box-ticking employed by Tusla.

It beggars belief that Tusla did not respond to such representations, and to the heartfelt appeals of the distraught grandparents, backed up with some two dozen court appearances. As a last resort, the grandparents have brought the issue into the public domain.

Independent deputy Mattie McGrath has made correspondence relevant to the case available to the press and has called on Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone to intervene in the matter.

Childrens Minister Katherine Zappone

The grandparents of the child were informed by Tusla that they would not be approved as foster parents because of age (they are in their mid-60s), safety concerns about the farm on which they lived, and their lack of engagement with the agency.

There was a further reference to concerns about the health of the grandmother even though her GP had stated she was well enough to look after her grandson.

All of these objections would carry weight if the child was unknown and unrelated to them, if they were strangers applying for approval to foster a child without the prior claims of blood and long-established loving relationship with the child.

One can only guess at the human trauma involved in this story. It is the kind of thing you hear about in totalitarian states. Our Irish version of totalitarianism is emerging from the inner folds of government, agencies, authorities and quangos, who have a semi-autonomy that allows government to plead inability to intervene when it suits them.

This case is the first widely known example of the arbitrary power over the lives of children that our Constitution and legislation now vests in the States child agency post the Childrens Referendum.

The fact that they have proved anything but trustworthy in the manner in which they care for genuinely vulnerable children does not dint their self-belief or their readiness to use to the full their powers under both Constitution and law.

These agencies can now decide, according to the prevailing prejudices, what constitutes a good nurturing environment for a child and the point at which a child may be removed from the family home.

This case suggests there is little or no regard for the ties of flesh and blood, or for the unique bond between children and grandparents. It is blind to the fact that the child was raised without misadventure through the far more demanding and dependent years between five and nine.

It is blind to the emotional trauma of sundering a child from the familiarity of not only his home and prime carers but his school, his friends and his neighbourhood.

While we can only guess at the dynamics involved, one suspects that the case was compounded by the officials involved rubbing the grandparents up the wrong way or vice versa.

Thwarted officialdom may have decided to flex its power to the full, with the young child becoming something of a pawn in a power struggle.

Independent deputy Mattie McGrath

His interests were set aside because the protocols and procedures of bureaucracy were unable to follow their wonted course or because adults on both sides perhaps, were not prepared to put his best interest before pride and principle.

It will be interesting to see if Ms Zappone takes back Tuslas power to review its own decisions as demanded by Deputy McGrath.

Because the really worrying thing in this case is not whether this particular decision was right or wrong, but that Tusla apparently has not exceeded its powers in the manner in which it acted. Numerous court applications taken by the grandparents appear to have established that.

Potentially, given the reasons for the decision taken in this case, no parent or loving custodian of a child can rest easy.

If the minister does not take the action called for, we are looking at a frightening scenario where state agencies are less answerable for the welfare of children than their own grandparents or even parents.

At the very least, Tuslas power to review its own contested decisions must be taken from them.
The Programme for Government makes no hint of restoring the One Parent Family Payment to lone parents whose youngest child has turned seven.

It does contain a clause saying the changes will be reviewed in the context of access to education, but not in the context of the access of parents to children and children to parents. The strong, moral tone declares that caring for your own child is the work the devil makes for idle hands. That if we leave a girl sitting around all day with her own child, the risk is that she will fall into moral turpitude, give in to the instincts of her fallen womans body, gaze into her childs eyes, and bake him cup cakes.

She will not make a crust and, as she does not have a man to make her one, she will ask us for one. Then, shell ask for a whole sandwich! She needs to be activated. Those of you who say that she was activated the day her first baby dropped out of her are missing the point.

Hopes are fading that our new Childrens Minister, Katherine Zappone, will take a different view of the value of caring for children than did the last Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton. They are both feminists of the same era, Burton (67) and Zappone (62). They are steeped in a puritanical version of feminism which fears womens instincts towards their children.

I have met Zappone a few times, and I not only respect her, I like her. She likes children. Once, years ago, my husband spoke at a conference with her, and I remember her coming out into the car park and sticking her head into our stinking car to greet our four, feral children. Any parent will understand what I mean when I say she saw them. Not everyone sees children.

But it seems that Zappone has imbibed the accepted wisdom of her generation of feminists that children do better away from their mothers. In a speech to the Seanad, on May 14 of last year, she announced: The evidence shows that from age two and beyond, children do better in high-quality education and care services than if they remain at home.

This is simply not true. The evidence is mixed, but the most recent research, from Growing Up in Ireland, finds no difference in cognitive-development outcomes between children who go to organised childcare and those who stay at home. Cognitive development is the area in which advantages have been found for childcare in the past, while relative weaknesses have been found in emotional development, not yet reported on by the research unit.

The findings held true for disadvantaged children as well as for the advantaged children who have rarely been found to benefit from organised childcare relative to home-raised children.

The largest childcare survey ever done in the UK, headed up by the childcare guru, Penelope Leach, made the general finding: The less childcare before the age of three, the better. It ranked creche care bottom of the league, compared with care given by family members or grandparents. Grandparents were recently found by Growing Up in Ireland to be giving children top-quality care.

Zappone accepts the received wisdom that children need to be home in their first year and cites UNICEF to back up her opinion. But UNICEF says only that one year should be the minimum supported time off for a parent, and describes entry into childcare before the age of one as inappropriate. So why is Zappone, as Childrens Minister, proposing Government-funded childcare for babies of nine months?

Many young parents are desperate for it, but their babies are not. As UNICEF says, this is because we have constructed a society in which two incomes are often necessary to meet housing and living costs, and the poorer the parent the greater the need to return quickly to work. But Zappone, and many like her, see an intrinsic merit in mothers returning to work, whether they want to or not.

Zappone believes so fervently in the need for two-year-olds to have organised childcare because she also believes in the need for mothers to have economic independence. But for many people it goes deeper. There is a puritanical feeling that children must be separated from their mothers by the time theyre one and for their own good. It is hard to fathom where that feeling comes from, except societys general fear of the power of mothers. I wonder, is there also in it the Spartan tradition of toughening children up to achieve greater conformity?

In April of last year, as a senator, Zappone put down a motion, calling for a debate on the changes to the One Parent Family Payment. She withdrew the motion without putting it to a vote, following assurances that the Department of Social Protection would incorporate into policy the findings of NUIG sociologist, Michelle Millar, who had been commissioned to do a study on lone parents.

That report, which has still not been published, is limited to studying the labour activation of lone parents and focusses on access to education.

This is the only context in which a review of the One Parent Family Payment makes it into the Programme for Government, which Zappone negotiated. Few would dispute how important access to education is for economic and personal development, particularly as education often combines with raising a young child better than a job does.

But the lobby group, SPARKS, says the Programme for Government ignores the devastation caused to other lone parents by the changes to their payments.

According to the Programme for Government, the Family Income Supplement is to be turned into a general family payment, which will encourage families back to work.

But that is to wholly ignore the value of the work that lone parents do in raising their children and SPARKS says they are concerned that this coaxing back to work will fail to recognise the dual role of carer and worker that a lone parent carries, will push lone parents into greater conditionality for payments and deeper poverty.

LONE parents deprivation rate already stands at 33% above those of unemployed people, and 230% above that of the general population. We made a great leap forward in the early 1970s, when three new payments began to dismantle the stigma of lone parenthood by recognising that it is valuable work.

The last government leapt back towards the dark ages when it made caring on your own for children over the age of seven a burden on society, rather than a contribution. As Childrens Minister, Katherine Zappone has not so far shown any will to leap forward again.
Oh no! Not another health committee, one might exclaim, in view of the countless commitees, reports, and recommendations over the years that have come to nought.

But, perhaps, our young minister knows what he is doing.
The children are the most vulnerable among tens of thousands of civilians trapped by the fighting for control of the city west of Baghdad.

Backed by aerial support from the US-led coalition, and paramilitary forces  mainly made up of Shiite militias  Iraqi government troops more than a week ago launched a military operation to recapture Fallujah, which has been under control of the extremist group for more than two years.

As the battled unfolds  with Iraqi forces pushing into the citys southern sections after securing surrounding towns and villages  more than 50,000 people are believed to be trapped inside the Sunni majority city, about 40 miles west of the capital.

Unicef estimated the number of children trapped with their families inside the city at about 20,000, warning that they face a dire humanitarian situation, as well as the risk of forced recruitment by the militants.

Children who are forcibly recruited into the fighting see their lives and futures jeopardised, as they are forced to carry and use arms, fighting an adults war, said Unicef in a statement.

It called on all parties to protect children inside Fallujah and to provide safe passage to those wishing to leave the city.

Fallujah was the first large city in Iraq to fall to IS and is the last major urban area controlled by the extremist group in western Iraq.

The Sunni-led militants still control the countrys second-largest city, Mosul, in the north, as well as smaller towns and patches of territory in the west and north.

The fight for Fallujah is expected to be protracted, as IS has had more than two years to dig in. Hidden bombs are believed to be strewn throughout the city, and the presence of trapped civilians will limit the use of supporting air strikes.

On the ground, Iraqi special forces continued to push into the city from its southern edge, but are facing tough resistance from IS.
The infant is the second born in the US with birth defects from the mosquito-borne virus.

The first was born in Hawaii to a woman who had lived in Brazil, where the zika epidemic began in the Americas.

The Honduran womans baby was delivered by cesarean section on Tuesday at Hackensack University Medical Center, said Dr. Abdulla Al-Kahn, the hospitals director of maternal-fetal medicine and surgery.

The doctor said the 31-year-old mother was diagnosed with zika in her native Central American country, where the virus has spread.

She traveled to New Jersey, where she has family, to seek further treatment, he said.

Al-Kahn said the mother had a normal ultrasound early in her pregnancy, and that another one last week showed birth defects, including microcephaly, in which the babys head is smaller than expected because the brain hasnt developed properly.

It was very sad for us to see a baby born with such a condition, he said.

Al-Kahn said the prognosis for babies born with microcephaly, which also can signal underlying brain damage, is generally very poor.

The mother is hanging in there said Al-Kahn. But of course what human being isnt going to be devastated by this news?

The Zika virus causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people.

In April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there was enough evidence to declare that zika causes microcephaly and other brain defects.

Ten countries have reported cases of microcephaly linked to zika, which is spread primarily through mosquito bites and can also be transmitted through sex.

The baby born in Hawaii also had microcephaly.

The CDC and the World Health Organization have recommended that pregnant women avoid traveling to Zika-affected countries.

So far, all the nearly 600 cases of zika infection reported in the US have been connected to travel to outbreak areas  none were locally transmitted. Of that tally, 168 are pregnant women.

The CDC has not released details about those pregnancies or any outcome.

Scientists are still trying to determine how risky a zika infection is for pregnant women.

In a study last week, CDC researchers estimated that the risk of microcephaly is in the range of 1% to 14%.
Alseamar said the Laplace ship started searching for the signals at midday yesterday, and less than 24 hours were necessary ... to locate signals from a detector attached to one of the recorders of flight MS804.

The French air accident investigation agency BEA said it is impossible to determine from the signals whether it is the flights data or voice recorder.

All 66 passengers and crew on board the flight were killed when the plane crashed on May 19.

The development has raised hopes the planes flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, could be retrieved and shed light on the aircrafts crash.

Egyptian officials said a second ship, John Lethbridge, affiliated with the Deep Ocean Search firm, will join the search team later this week.

Locator pings emitted by flight data and cockpit voice recorders, known as the black boxes, can be picked up from deep under water.

The Laplace is equipped with three detectors designed to detect and localise signals from the flight recorders, which are believed to be at a depth of about 3,000m under water.

By comparison, the wreck of the RMS Titanic is lying at a depth of about 3,800m.

Shaker Kelada, an Egypt Air official who has led other crash investigations for the carrier, said that half the job has been done now and that the next step would be to determine the black boxes exact location and extract them from the sea.

We have to find where the boxes are exactly and decide on how to pull them out, he said, adding that search teams might need to send in robots or submarines and be extremely careful ... to avoid any possible damage.

Mr Kelada said he was confident the boxes will be retrieved.
The assault was continuing and some al-Shabab fighters remained in the Ambassador Hotel, according to police captain Mohamed Hussein.

The hotel is frequented by government officials and business executives.

At least two gunmen are still holed up inside the building now, Mr Hussein said.

Two members of parliament were among the dead, he said.

The attack began when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the hotels gates. Fighters on foot then forced their way into the hotel.

The attack comes on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which extremists often step up attacks in the volatile east African country.

The body of a suspected extremist lay outside the hotel, which was surrounded by heavily armed soldiers.

Witness Yasin Abdi said he saw security forces escorting some people from the three-storey hotel.

Somalias elite forces used rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns mounted on cars to fight assailants who took up positions on the hotels second floor.
China promised a better basic life and improved health care and education for children in poverty, suffering disabilities or without proper care on Wednesday, International Children's Day.

Children wearing masks and costumes watch a "catwalk" performance at a masquerade party held at a kindergarten in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, on May 30, 2016, to celebrate the upcoming International Children's Day. [Photo by Shao Shixin/China.com.cn]

The government will improve the basic living of children in impoverished families and ensure that all those with no capable guardians are brought up in charity houses, said a statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council.

Poor and disabled children will have more subsidies in medical insurance and free education from primary to senior high schools, according to the meeting presided over by Premier Li Keqiang.
One of the dead could have been the shooter, said UCLA Police Chief James Herren.

Police found a suicide note and handgun, reported NBC Los Angeles, citing an unidentified source, while the LA Times said police believed a professor had been shot by someone young enough to be a student, who turned the gun on himself.

While Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Aareon Jefferson reported two fatalities from the shooting, he could not confirm any details about the victims nor provide further information about the suspect.

Bioengineering student Bahjat Alirani said police were yelling at people to run from the scene.

I was in Boelter Hall to take a final and I exit the staircase to see SWAT-looking police yelling at everyone to evacuate immediately, Alirani told Reuters.

I check my email and BruinAlert had immediately sent an email to all students notifying them of a shooter in the engineering building.

The university has more than 43,000 enrolled students.

UCLA is in the Westwood section of Los Angeles and one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system.

The city of Los Angeles was placed on a tactical alert citywide, which means officials can allocate resources based on need, Los Angeles Police Captain Andrew Neiman told reporters near the scene.

There were no reports of bombs or other devices, said Neiman.

Police received multiple calls of shots fired around 10am, triggering an immediate search for suspects and victims by LAPD and campus police, said officials.

Erica Roberts, a sophomore economics major from Rockville, Maryland, said she took shelter inside the student health centre about 10 minutes after she had arrived for work there.

Everyone is really on edge and contacting loved ones to let them know we are safe, she said.

Im trying to stay in contact with all my friends on campus to make sure they are OK. Everyone is just terrified.
Asia US Takes More Steps to Block N.Koreas Access to Financial System

The United States declares North Korea a primary money laundering concern and moves to further block its access to world financial systems.

WASHINGTON  The United States on Wednesday declared North Korea a primary money laundering concern and moved to further block its ability to use the US and world financial systems to fund its weapons programs.

The US Treasury Department called for a prohibition on certain US financial institutions opening or maintaining correspondent accounts, which are established to receive deposits from or make payments on behalf of a foreign institution, with North Korean financial institutions.

Crucially, Treasury also prohibited the use of third parties US correspondent accounts to process transactions for North Korean financial institutions.

The announcement came days after the latest failed missile launch by the isolated state. Tensions in the region have been high since January when North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and then followed that with a satellite launch and test launches of various missiles.

Those efforts have all fueled calls in Washington, and abroad, for a clampdown on Pyongyang.

US law already generally prohibited US financial institutions from engaging in transactions with North Korean institutions, but Treasurys latest actions would impose additional controls, especially the prohibitions on the use of third-country banks US accounts to process transactions for North Korea.

This is meaningful, said Victor Cha, Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. This is designating the entire country, which means essentially that any entity that is interested in interacting with US financial institutions should no longer have any business with North Korea.

Most, if not all, entities, if faced with the choice of having access to the US financial system or doing business with North Korea, are going to make the obvious choice, Cha added.

Adam Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Washington expected other governments and financial authorities to make similar moves to prevent Pyongyang from abusing global financial institutions to support its development of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

The regime is notoriously deceitful in its financial transactions in order to continue its illicit weapons programs and other destabilizing activities, Szubin said in a statement.

The Treasury was required to assess North Koreas status as a money laundering jurisdiction under the

North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act, passed nearly unanimously by the US Congress in February.

A UN Security Council resolution in early March also required member states to sever correspondent banking relationships with North Korean financial institutions within 90 days.
Burma Calls to Legally Define Political Prisoners Rebutted in Parliament

The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs rejected calls for a legal definition of political prisoners that could pave the way for reparations.

RANGOON  In Thursdays session of the Lower House of Parliament, an Arakan National Party (ANP) lawmaker asked whether the government intends to establish legal definitions for political prisoners and political offenses.

The issue of officially defining political prisoners has been of long-standing concern to political activists and civil society in Burma. Previous military-backed governmentsincluding the administration of President Thein Seinhave dismissed this category, claiming that no one was incarcerated for political reasons.

The ANP lawmaker Pe Than took the floor of the chamber, saying that instituting legal definitions for political offenses and political prisoners would protect political activists from being treated as criminals while in prison, and would also pave the way for reparations to be given to Burmas many former political prisoners who suffered human rights violations while incarcerated.

Pe Than cited previous governments failure to distinguish political from criminal charges, even though many political activists were arrested and imprisoned under Burmas military regime due to their dissident beliefs.

It is completely unacceptable in a democratic society that anyone whose activities are motivated by political views contrary to those of the government could be arrested and charged as criminals, Pe Than said to the chamber.

Sometimes, [political prisoners] experienced worse treatment than ordinary criminals, Pe Than said.

During the session, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Maj-Gen Aung Soe countered that offenses [made] against the Stateas outlined in several current legal provisionscould not be counted as political offenses. He claimed that the two terms had divergent meanings.

Prisons should treat prisoners equally, and differentiating between prisoners would amount to discrimination, Deputy Minister Aung Soe said.

Our ministry does not plan to establish definitions for political offenses or political prisoners since such definitions are not found in any existing laws or in the constitution, Deputy Minister Aung Soe concluded.

Prisons are administered under the Ministry of Home Affairs, one of three ministries controlled by Burmas military.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Thailand-based rights organization promoting the welfare of Burmas political prisoners, has lobbied for the Burmese government to establish a legal definition for political prisoner.

The AAPP contends that anyone who is arrested, detained, or imprisoned for political reasons, or wrongfully under criminal and civil charges, because of his or her perceived or known role in activities promoting freedom, justice, equality, human rights, and civil and political rights, including ethnic rights, should be defined as a political prisoner.

Aung Myo Kyaw, a local representative for the AAPP, said that differentiating prisoners means separating them, not discriminating against or giving special favor to certain prisoners. He said that, without definitions in place, the existence of political prisoners could continue to be vehemently denied by the government.

Definitions are fundamental to ensuring the recognition of political prisoners, so that we can make sure no one remains in prison because of their political beliefs or activities, Aung Myo Kyaw told The Irrawaddy.

Only if these definitions were ratified by the government, rehabilitation and reparation programs for former political prisoners could be implemented, Aung Myo Kyaw said. He mentioned that many government officials and parliamentarians under the new government had previously faced arrest for political activities, including President Htin Kyaw and State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi.

The ANP lawmaker Pe Than expressed his dissatisfaction with the response of the Deputy Minister, calling for a fuller response representing the whole cabinet. Deputy Minister Aung Soe said he would confer with the Home Affairs Minister, so that the issue could be discussed in the cabinet, before responding further.

According to a recent report from the AAPP and the Former Political Prisoners Society (FPPS), After Release I Had To Restart My Life From the Beginning, Burma has had between 7,000 and 10,000 political prisoners since military rule began in 1962.

The National League for Democracy (NLD), which now heads the government, had previously pledged that they would establish a definition for political prisoners once in power, and that they would not arrest anyone for political reasons.

The government released 83 prisoners in an amnesty in April, after the traditional Burmese new-year celebrations. According to the AAPP, 70 were political prisoners.
Burma Gems Traders Accuse Ex-President of Misusing More Than US$1 Million

After more than US$100 million disappeared from the Gems Associations coffers, claims of embezzlement have led to an enquiry that threatens to embroil Thein Sein.

RANGOON  At one time, the Myanmar Gems Traders Association had 93 million (US$103.9 million) in its bank account. But, now, all that money is gone, and the scandal over where it went is poised to embroil former President Thein Sein.

On Thursday, 81 members of the Myanmar Gems Traders Association held a press conference in Rangoon, calling on the Ministry of Resources and Environmental Conservation and the managing director of the state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise to address the so-far unexplained loss of 93 million from the associations coffers.

Kyaw Kyaw Oo, central executive committee member of Myanmar Gems Traders Association, told reporters that they have been awaiting the conclusions of the state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprises investigation team, which began looking into the affair in late May.

We dont want the auditors report. We want to see the analysis of how, where and why the chairman of the association, U Yone Mu, spent the money, Kyaw Kyaw Oo said.

Starting in early May, some members of the association reported approximately 93 million had been embezzled from the associations account, accusing Yone Mu of misappropriating funds.

Kyaw Kyaw Oo and several member companies submitted a letter to the Shwe Mann-led Legal Issues and Special Cases Committee in May stating members contributed 1 percent of their incomes to the association annually and had the right to know how the money was managed and spent.

Knowing why the chairman collected those fees from us and how he spent the money is important because there are many ways to spend so much money, he said.

He claimed that Yone Mu put 6 million (US$6.7 million) into a bank account in his own name, gave 1.6 million (US$1.8 million) to a project run by a company he was affiliated with to repair a highway in a jade mining region in Kachin State, purchased machinery for jade operations and spent 2 million (US$2.2 million) on the Shwe Kyarpin gems sales and service project in Naypyidaw.

Additionally, Kyaw Kyaw Oo singled out Thein Sein, the former president and current chairman of Burmas main opposition party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party.

U Win Htein, the leader of the investigation team, told me that 1 million (more than US$1.1 million) was taken from the association and given to U Thein Sein, and another 6 million was contributed [to the ex-presidents project] by gems traders, Kyaw Kyaw Oo said. But we want something more conclusive to see whether [Win Hteins] claims are true.

On May 23, Win Hteins team began investigating the chairman of association, the managing director of Myanmar Gems Enterprise and other members of the association.

We are encouraging the investigation team to seek the assistance of parliamentarians, legal experts and other outsiders to make sure their conclusions are impartial, Kyaw Kyaw Oo said.

Meanwhile, in Naypyidaw, former government officials sought to head off the brewing scandal.

Former head of the now-defunct Ministry of Mining Myint Aung said at a press conference in the capital that the fees the association collected were used for corporate social responsibility activities and the two annual gems emporiums, emphasizing that these projects had been above-board and approved by the minister and association members.

Myint Aung made a particular effort to clear up the accusations against Thein Sein.

The 1 million supposedly given to the former president was actually put into a bank account held by the Myanmar Art Center, a nonprofit in Rangoon, he claimed, adding that the money was used for the construction of a new building for the art center.

After the press conference in Nay Pyi Daw, Ye Htut, the former Minister of Information, told reporters the whole controversy had deeper motives.

This is more than simple infighting, Ye Htut said. This is an attempt at political assassination against U Thein Sein.

However, the Gems Traders Associations Kyaw Kyaw Oo responded, saying, This is not about political assassinationthis is just an internal dispute.
Burma In Light of Recent Electrocution Deaths, MP Pushes for Action

A Rangoon lawmaker is urging for safety measures in the city to be ramped up after a string of electrocution deaths from dangerous power lines.

RANGOON  In light of several recent deaths in Rangoon from hazardous electrical wires, a regional lawmaker on Thursday urged for more attention to be paid to the maintenance of the citys faulty and often dangerous power lines.

Its dangerous for the public. People can die from being electrocuted when they step into a puddle. Power cables hang over them when theyre walking and can kill them, Yan Aung, a National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker for Rangoons Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township, said during a regional parliamentary session.

Such a public security risk damages the images of both the country and the government.

Myat Ko Ko, an 11-year-old boy from Hlaing Township, was killed when he was shocked by a utility pole Tuesday night. Similar incidents have occurred recently. A 16-year-old boy from Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township was killed last week after he stepped into a puddle near a utility pole and was electrocuted, though an official has since denied that electrocution was the cause of death.

At least two other people in Rangoon have also reportedly died from similar instances of electrocution, as well as four children in Mandalay Division.

Cables and electrical posts are in dangerous condition. Their structure is weak, their cables are very messy, and the posts [that support the wires] too easily conduct electricity. I suggest repairing power lines as soon as possible, Yan Aung said

He suggested that regular maintenance of utility poles, skilled training of electrical workers and implementing a public awareness program would be important for the city.

In response to Yan Aungs inquiry into improving Rangoons electrical system, Regional Electricity, Industry and Transportation Minister Nilar Kyaw echoed sentiments on the perilous state of the citys power lines and pointed out steps being taken to remedy the issue.

Power cables in Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township didnt have insulation. The Yangon Electricity Supply Corporation is therefore working to replace the existing cables with insulated ones and to install new cables, based on the budget allowance, she said.
Burma Seven Students Drowned After Boat Sinks in Arakan

A ferry carrying middle school and high school students sinks in Arakan State, leaving six girls and one boy dead.

RANGOON  A ferry shuttling students from Arakan States Gantgar to Poeshipyin village on the Tawphya River sank on Wednesday, killing seven students who were on board, according to local authorities.

Thein Shwe Maung, a police officer from Poeshipyin, said the students went schools in Poeshipyin.

He confirmed that the seven students bodies have already been discovered.

We are still investigating the accident, he said.

The police will take action against the boat operator, according to Wai Hin Aung from Wunlark Development Foundation, a civil society group based in the Arakan State capital of Sittwe .

The ferry was carrying 35 students who were on their way back from Poeshipyin villages schools to their houses, according to Zar Zar Htay, a resident of Ponnagyun Township.

Six girls and a boy were drowned. The six female students were in middle school and the male student was in high school, she said.

All the passengers were from Gantgar village, which is a 2-hour ferry ride to the school in Poeshipyin village.

On Thursday, government officials from Arakan State, including the states spokesman Min Aung and Minister of Social Welfare for Arakan State Chan Thar, visited the site to give the families of the victims 600,000 kyats (US$500). The families asked the delegation to build a middle school in the their villages so their children would not have such long commutes to school.

Wunlark Development Foundation also provided the families 100,000 kyats each.

A government-run ferry capsized during a voyage from Taungup to Sittwe in Arakan State last year, a few hours after leaving the port town of Kyaukphyu, killing more than 60 people. Between 250 and 350 people were believed to have been traveling on the ferry at the time of its sinking.
Local Artists Abstract Paintings Express Buddhist Rebirth

Local painter Su Eaindra showcases her first solo exhibition of abstract paintings reflecting Buddhist philosophy this weekend.

RANGOON  Local artist Su Eaindra will showcase her first solo exhibition at Think Gallery on Nawaday Street in Dagon Township from June 3-6.

More than 40 paintings will be on display at the show titled Visit to the Labyrinth in the Universe.

Su Eaindra began her artistic journey as an expressionist painter but has recently turned toward abstract work, portraying her feelings through vivid colors.

She was born in Rangoon in 1965 and graduated with a degree in painting from the Rangoon State School of Fine Arts in 1986. From 1996 to 2009, she created designs for Indonesian and Chinese clothing brands and from 2011-15 she designed patterns for local ladies wear brands. In 2015, she embarked on a full-time career as an artist. She began taking part in exhibitions in 2009 and has participated in 11 in total.

As for the title of her exhibition, she says, Lately I have been thinking about life and existence. There are both good things and bad things in life and I feel like it is a labyrinth. Things happen and you cant avoid or receive what you wish. I reflect those thoughts and feelings in my work.

Buddhist philosophy is also reflected in her work. She says she has asked herself, Who created the endless circle of repeated births which all living creatures have to go through? To which she answers herself, No one, but it is all about cause and effect.

If [attaining] Nirvana is the way to end this cycle of rebirths, I would like to reach it, she says. But until then, I cant help traveling [from this life to the next] through this small world in the universe.
The PLA Air Force refuted the rumor that the J-20 fighter has been deployed to troops on May 31.

J-20 fighter. [Photo: Weibo]

Since May 30, some media has been reporting that "J-20s are in service in the Southern Theatre Command" and that "J-20s and J-10s are being used in military drills together". According to the official Weibo account of the PLA Air Force, those reports are not true. So far, J-20s have not been used to equipped the air force.

A TV station mistakenly used the image of a J-20 when reporting an air unit of the Southern Theater Command on May 29. And speculative reports are all based on this TV screenshot. Some media said that insiders have disclosed the future operation plans for the J-20, which is also unreliable.

Currently, J-20s and Y-20s are all conducting relevant experiments and test flights. In the near future, these planes will be deployed to the air force gradually to effectively enhance the combat ability of the air force.

In recently years, China has independently developed some new weapons and equipment which will be used to safeguard China's sovereignty, safety and territorial integrity. These new weapons and equipment are necessary guarantees in the process of China's peaceful development.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has come out to address the elephant in the room when purchasing the electric car company's new Model 3. Apparently, since news about the absence of free juice for the base price unit of the Model 3 came out, many have expressed their disappointment in Tesla.

Hence, it is just right that Musk discussed the matter during a shareholder meeting in Mountain View, Calif. on Tuesday. In his explanation, Musk said that the base Model 3 units do not have free supercharging because Tesla is not capable of providing such a feature to the car given its $35,000 price tag, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Since the Model 3 is Tesla's most affordable yet, the company cannot afford to provide the unit access to its Supercharger network. Musk even emphasized that the only way they could offer the units at such an affordable price on the market is by decoupling it from free supercharging.

Tesla's CEO also went on to say that the company only adds extra charges to higher trim levels because they cannot find a way to make them less expensive to market.

Compared with other models like the Model S and the Model X, the latest design is the only one without the free supercharging service factored into its market value, as per Ars Technica. However, the two aforementioned models are not as affordable as the Model 3. The base price for a Model S is $71,500, while the base price for a Model X is $80,000.

Musk also reiterated that owners of the Model 3 should not even rely on the company's charging network because it would just be a waste of their time. "Driving to a supercharger in order to get five dollars worth of electricity, and spending half an hour of your time, your're like, maybe barely at minimum wage. So it's just not the best thing for people, but you kno, they kind of do it out of habit," the Tesla cofounder said.
Reddit is practically heading to a new direction with the possible addition of certain features that would make it similar to social media sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The chief executive officer of the popular internet forum, Steve Huffman, has revealed that Reddit is planning to host more content from its users, such as video clips and images, the BBC has learned.

And just like YouTube, Reddit will most likely prioritize its members who produce their own original content. "We have a lot of communities on Reddit that produce original content. Basically prioritising the content producers will be a direction of ours for the next little while," the 32-year-old CEO said.

The new features were added in an attempt to streamline the site and increase revenue, explained the product team of Reddit. Currently, the site has over 230 million monthly users and its popularity is growing internationally.

Despite several management issues and controversies it faced in the recent years, Reddit really appears to be cleaning up its act and improving for users, according to Slate. Some improvements include in-house image hosting process.

Reddit users will no longer need to link the photos they uploaded on other image hosting sites like Photobucket or Imgur because the site seeks to introduce its own in-house image hosting. Aside from ease-of-use, this feature will give Reddit more control over content published on its site by its users.

"We're in an incredibly fortunate position given how massive and influential Reddit already is, but we look around every day and we're not content because we still have a lot more work to do," Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said.

The announcement of these plans came amid the backlash Huffman received online after saying in an TNW Conference interview on May 26 that his website knows all of its users' darkest secrets, as per JOE.

Huffman said at the time that Reddit definitely knows its users' interest, including those that social media users do not publicly share on Facebook.
OnePlus, a Chinese smartphone maker, has recently announced the launch of their fourth device, the OnePlus 3, which will be available on June 14. As with one of its earlier units, the launch will be done in a virtual reality environment. However, one thing that sets it apart is that the OnePlus 3 will also be on sale for a brief period exclusively in VR in what the company calls "The Loop," which is a multi-use space.

According to Venture Beat, the Loop will open at 12:30PM Eastern Time. That is, 12:30 PM (New York), 9:30 AM PDT (San Francisco), 4:30 PM UTC/GMT, 5:30 PM BST (London), 6:30 PM CEST (Paris), 10:00 PM IST(Bengaluru). However, the new unit will be openly available via OnePlus.Net at 3:00 PM Eastern Time.

What is exceptionally special this time around is that guests no longer need invites in order to purchase the model. Carl Pei, the company's co-founder, explained this decision over the OnePlus website. "We're releasing the OnePlus 3 invite-free, right from launch day," he wrote on the post. He also confirmed that any and all future releases, will no longer require invites as well.

He went on to explain that the practice first started as a way to control the amount of units that were released by the company. Because it was so small, those behind OnePlus needed to think of a method where interested buyers would not be waiting indefinitely for a unit, nor would the units be sold out completely.

The team then came out with the invitation system, which would give customers a chance to buy a phone as soon as the unit was in stock. However, because of the company's consistent growth, OnePlus believes it is now within its power to provide the units, invitation-free, from the beginning.

OnePlus is a Chinese smartphone manufacturing company that is still in its infancy stages. It was founded in 2013 and has thus far released only three models - the OnePlus One, OnePlus Two and OnePlus X. The company is growing rapidly, as it services upwards of 40 countries and regions around the world.
At Computex in Taiwan, Microsoft announced on Wednesday, June 1, that the special version of Windows called Windows Holographic and powering its HoloLens headset will be integrated with all its features into the regular versions of Windows 10.

According to CNet, Microsoft is not in a rush to build a traditional virtual reality (VR) headset and cannot give a clear date on when it will launch its augmented reality (AR) headset. Until then, Microsoft will use the combined attraction of VR and AR to help sell its Windows 10 operating system to headset manufacturers, developers and consumers.

Microsoft's decision to open the possibility for VR headset manufacturers to build their own devices using the company's latest OS will stimulate the further growing of this emerging niche market. By adding software support for AR and VR to Windows 10, Microsoft hopes to make using a headset as simple as plugging in any other PC accessory.

In Microsoft's vision, no matter which headset any particular person is using, the company could let people collaborate across different time zones as if they were in the same room. Microsoft platform would allow people to see one another and their surroundings even if one person has a HoloLens and another a HTC Vive, for instance.

This idea sounds good, but the problem is that such kind of scenario only makes sense when at least one person has a HoloLens Development Kit. And, unfortunately, a consumer-ready version of the $3,000 kit will still take years to arrive on the market.

Microsoft, however, aims to harness right away the excitement of the idea of AR and VR collaboration. The company is encouraging developers to build Universal Windows Applications for VR headsets right now. The applications will work later on the HoloLens and other AR headsets. Since HoloLens itself will take years to arrive, Microsoft's strategy makes more sense than asking developers to build apps for its future AR headgear.

According to PC World, Terry Myerson, executive vice president of the Windows and Device Group at Microsoft, declared that "Windows is the only mixed reality platform." The new strategy allows the company to build its share into the VR market, estimated by IDC at 9.6 million units of VR hardware to be shipped this year and 64.8 million by 2020.
Apple Pay is gearing on a new direction with the collaboration of the big banks of Canada. CIBC, RBC, MO, TD and Scotiabank are among the affirmed bank segments that will utilize the technological advancement.

Apple Pay mobile payments have now conquered Canada with a full rollout on Wednesday across all the biggest banks, inking deals with the big banks and other credit card companies to bring the digital wallet to Canada, reports Toronto Star.

#ApplePay is downloaded and ready to use! Easy to set-up and easy to use! Thanks! @KellyLam_TD pic.twitter.com/Elu8vpU4rn  Robert Bayntun (@BobBayntun_TD) June 2, 2016

To prove the latter, BMO, TD and Scotiabank have followed suit, granting customers to pay their purchases by holding their phones up to payment terminals. Also, all of the Big Five banks, as well as Alberta-based ATB and Canadian Tire, are also launching in-app payments for credit cards, which will allow users to make online payments to retailers on their iPads and iPhones using apps, reports the same post.

CIBC and RBC began using the app last May 10, and it has been noted that the other banks are still prepping up to launch the application within this month. Looking back, Apple Pay was first introduced to the Canadian market in November. But initial availability was limited to American Express credit cards, which is why there is a need for wider options, according to Apple Insider.

On a different note, Apple Pay has already conquered five major banks in Singapore. As it did in Canada, Apple leveraged its partnership with American Express to offer consumers in Singapore, relatively early access to touchless iPhone and Apple Watch payments, as further noted by the same post.

It is undeniable that Apple Pay is expanding its horizon and Canada's big banks are the outcomes of its company visions.
An anti-drone system developed by three UK companies is scheduled for trials in the United States. The system is expected to clear and secure airspace around airports.

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to source the technology, in an effort to restrict UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) activity around airports. The FAA insists that the popularity of UAVs poses new threats to homeland airspace.

Safe Skies: Keep The Drones at Bay

An FAA senior adviser confirms the need for the anti-UAV system. "Sometimes people fly drones in an unsafe manner," Marke Gibson commented in a BBC report. "Government and industry share responsibility for keeping the skies safe, and we're pleased these three companies have taken on this important challenge."

The anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) was developed by three British corporations: Enterprise Control Systems, Blighter Surveillance Systems and Chess Dynamics. The initiative anticipates the malicious use of drones, through surveillance, smuggling and deployment of toxic chemicals and explosives.

Drones as Pesky Threats to Security

Graham Beall comments on the concern in a Metro report. The managing director of Chess dynamics said the use of drones is now a global issue, also a pressing concern for the military, government and homeland security forces.

Drones used for commercial or personal purposes are also a dangerous nuisance around airports, in the same way birds pose threats to airplanes and airspace. Around 100 drones a month were reported to hover within a five-mile radius of aircrafts last year, the FAA confirmed in a BBC report.

The Auds operates by jamming signals of target drones, disabling or stalling these until the batteries are spent. Thermal imaging cameras detect unwanted drones, allowing operators to decide whether the device is suspicious or dangerously close to aircrafts.

In addition to Auds, the US Army also has weapons able to destroy larger UAVs. Projectiles can be launched and steered to UAVs using ground-based radars. The projectiles are only detonated within close proximity of the UAV.

Auds operators have the option to freeze drones and convince pilots there's something wrong with the device. The Auds also crash UAVs by stalling drones in the air for as long as the battery lasts.
New research on immunotherapy has the potential to unlock the cure-all for cancer. The method is best described as introducing a Trojan Horse into the body, to provoke the immune system to wage an all-out war on cancer cells.

The twist to the research is to trick the immune system to trigger the production of antigens that target malignant cancer cells. The current roadblock to a cancer cure is the immune system itself, which is unable to distinguish between cancer and healthy cells.

Similar experiments have been conducted with the same goal of duping the immune system to act:

In a report by the Medical Express, trials for the treatment were already conducted on three patients with advance skin cancer. Prior to this, experiments were conducted on mice. The patients were treated with very low doses, with follow-ups cautiously considered.

Tricking The Immune System To Attack

The Trojan Horse is built out of nanoparticles that contain cancer RNA and coated by fatty acid membrane. These are injected into patients to signal a virus invasion, targeting specific immune cells.

The immune cells recognize the RNA embedded in the nanoparticles, which stimulate the production of cancer antigens. Finally, these antigens stimulate T-cells that attack the tumour cells en masse.

A Potential Cure-All for Cancer

If the tests prove the potential for a cure, the German research stated it will also become possible to create vaccines customized to treat all kinds of cancer. RNA can be encoded into any type of cancer antigen.

The research is led by German scientist Ugur Sahin, professor at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Cancer experts and professors Jolanda de Vries and Carl Figdor commented on the progress of the research: "This nanomedicine platform may give a strong boost to the vaccine field, and the results of forthcoming clinical studies will be of great interest."

The Daily Mail reports the research could be the breakthrough in cancer treatment. Current therapies affect both cancer and healthy cells. Unfortunately, in treatments that target cancer cells, healthy cells can be considered collateral damage. Treatment options with minimal adverse effects have yet to be developed for clinical use.
Xiaomi has make an agreement with Microsoft to partner on bundling Skype and Office apps on the Mi 4s, Mi Max, Mi 5, Redmi 3 and Redmi Note 3.

According to The Verge, the Xiaomi partnership is related to a patent-licensing deal, like previous deals with Dell, Asus, Sony and Samsung. The details of the present deal have not been fully disclosed yet.

According to IDC, Xiaomi has become one of the top five phone markers in the world. Most of the company's success in growing its market share has been attributed to its market performance in China.

Microsoft aims to tap into the overall Chinese market and Xiaomi's rise in growth. The partnership between the two companies follows other previous collaborations, such as Microsoft's running Windows 10 on the Mi Pad and powering the Mi Cloud service with Azure.

According to The Wall Street Journal, as part of the deal, Xiaomi will purchase 1,500 patents from Microsoft. By bundling Skype and Office apps, Xiaomi will provide Microsoft with a new way to reach Chinese consumers.

According to Tech Crunch, this partnership is also serving Xiaomi's market strategy aiming to launch its smartphones in the United States. This new deal of the Chinese company comes after Xiaomi developed closely with Google its upcoming Android set-top box. China's largest smartphone maker also had a patent deal with Qualcomm last year.

It appears clearly that Xiaomi is building key allies in preparation to expand into North America. Up to date, the Chinese company is present in the markets in six countries in Asia, as well as in Brazil. However, the company has made clear its plans to become more global. Expansion on the global market is essential for Xiaomi, since China is experiencing a slowing in mobile market growth.

The two companies will provide the Skype and Office bundle starting this September. Several of Xiaomi's smartphones will be sold with Microsoft's applications preloaded.
Australian data services start-up, Skyfii, has launched operations in the United Kingdom to meet what it says is strong market demand for data-driven analytics from bricks-and-mortar venues and businesses.

The UK launch coincides with Skyfiis announcement that it has opened of an office in Dallas in the United States following successful guest Wi-Fi and analytics implementations in Australia, Brazil and South Africa.

Wayne Arthur, chief executive officer at Skyfii, said that as in other markets, bricks and mortar venues in the UK understand that data is not just useful to online business but has become a critical component of their own revenue-generating and promotional strategies.

Whether they operate shopping malls, airports, hospitals, stadia, universities or even restaurants and bars, these companies want to learn more about their visitors. These insights can be used to monitor the asset performance in order to provide specialised and targeted digital marketing for themselves or their commercial tenants to generate greater value, and in turn, boost brands.

Skyfii has made two senior executive appointments to manage the new UK office located in London.

Michael Owen joins the company as director of technical operations, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), while Andrew Clark has been appointed sales and alliances director, EMEA. Both executives are charged with heading sales, go-to-market and channel sales operations.

Owen joins Skyfii from Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, where he was channel and pre-sales manager for its UK and Ireland operations. Prior to Aruba, Owen held leadership roles at Lifesize and BT.

And, Clark joins Skyfii with 20 years channel management experience in senior roles at Computerlinks, Nokia Security and Check Point Software, before moving to lead Arubas partner business in the UK and Ireland as channel director.

On the opening of offices in the US market, Arthur said that US-based venues understand that providing free Wi-Fi for guests is a critical part of the visitor experience, but many of these bricks-and-mortar businesses are yet to unlock the full potential of the data they are collecting from those who opt-in to the free services.

Our data-driven analytics solution is designed to enable shopping malls, airports, hospitals, universities and other venues to make the most of their interactions with visitors in order to enhance go-to-market and promotional strategies, and in turn boost brand loyalty and revenues.

Skyfiis North American business will be managed by Keith Morris and Charlie Clemmer, who have been appointed to the positions of vice-president sales and partnerships, and senior director of technical sales, respectively.

Morris joins Skyfii from Mobilitie, where he was senior director of Wi-Fi Solutions and Alliances, with responsibility for developing and executing strategic partnerships and driving go-to-market programs. He also held senior roles at Aerohive Networks and Aruba Networks.

Clemmer formerly worked at Aruba Networks where he was most recently systems engineering manager and consulting systems engineer. He has worked in network engineering for more than 21 years at companies including Bay Networks, Cisco Systems, Infoblox and Nortel Networks.
Executives increasingly realise the importance of cybersecurity, but more needs to be done to maximise the effectiveness of the relationship between senior management and specialist staff.

Security is "senior leaders' business," rather than something to be left to IT or security staff, according to Major General Stephen Day, former head of cyber at the Department of Defence and former head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

"Senior leaders have to own the risk," he told iTWire.

Not that they are reluctant to become involved, Day explained, rather "senior executives want to help".

Publicity given to recent large-scale breaches is helping awareness, and a growing proportion of chief executives consider cybersecurity to be very important.

For effective collaboration between specialist staff and executives to work, the former need to communicate what executives can do to help. Yet "we don't speak in a language they understand", he observed. Day recommended the use of "language that resonates with them," especially "the language of risk" because cybersecurity is just another risk factor for an organisation.

But he's not putting all the blame on the techies: other people need to learn some of the language of technology because "it is so fundamental".

While "the biggest problem [still] is awareness" in that you have to be aware of a problem before you can do anything about it, we should get past that stage within a few years, allowing prevention to come to the fore, he said.

Another issue is that "cyber security is a team sport" so organisations need to find partners, rather than trying to do everything in house. Relevant partnerships can be drawn from government bodies, academia, the IT and security industries, and even formed between businesses, he said.

Major General Stephen Day was a speaker at the recent Intel Security Innovation Forum held in Melbourne and Sydney.
How much does a Russian ransomware boss earn? Less than you might think, even when targeting the health industry.

In a couple of reports released today by Flashpoint we learn of the current activities of many Russian-based ransomware purveyors.

Flashpoint, the "global leader in Deep & Dark Web data and intelligence" has spent the past five months studying an organised Russian ransomware campaign. In the scenario being investigated, Flashpoint found the proliferation of "Ransomware as a Service" which enables affiliates to obtain ransomware from a crime boss and push it out to victims as they see fit.

A particularly common target has been the healthcare industry  an area that tends to be low on funds for technology and even lower on broad technical skills.

However, the report authors noted a certain level of frustration amongst the Russian hacking community, with comments such as, "From the bottom of my heart I sincerely wish that the mothers of all ransomware distributors end up in the hospital, and that the computer responsible for the resuscitation machine gets infected with it [the malware]."

Another Russian cybercrime forum member commented: "Dirt bags, the move is completely unethical. Do not touch hospitals!"

According to the research into one particular ransomware boss who had been active since at least 2012, there were between 10 and 15 affiliate partners who were actually performing the infections, although the contact with infected sites was handled by the boss alone.

Once payment was received in Bitcoin, the boss would make use of a variety of Bitcoin exchangers to launder the money; additionally, he would pay the affiliate from a separate "clean" wallet.

How was affiliate recruitment handled? The boss would simply post (relatively) openly in Deep Web Russian-language forums. One particular message, captured by Flashpoint, is on the next page.

The message went like this:

Good day,

This offer is for those who want to earn a lot of money via, shall we say, not a very righteous path. No fees or advance payments from you are required, only a large and pure desire to make money in your free time.

I propose mutually beneficial cooperation in the sphere of distribution of my software.

It is desirable, of course, that you have already had some minimal experience in this business.

But if you have no experience, it is not a problem. In addition to the file, you will receive detailed instructions on how and what to do - even a schoolboy could do it; you need only time and desire. The scheme is simple, and tested and working 100%, revenue yields are decent.

Thus, you are not risking anything in particular (money being the most important), and are getting valuable experience, and if you succeed  a good cash reward. At the same time, you do not need to bother looking for work ideas, encryption software, nor for receipts and processing of payments. Details - for all correspondence, write in this topic or personal message or Jabber.

So, what kind of money was this particular boss earning? Not so much as one might expect.

The report suggests that from an average of 30 payments per month (spread across 10-15 affiliates) and a typical US$300 payment, he was earning $US7500 per month, which is around 13 times the typical Russian monthly wage. The affiliates were earning $600  the average wage!

According to Vitali Kremez, cybercrime intelligence analyst, of Flashpoint, "Ransomware is clearly paying for Russian cybercriminals. As Ransomware as a Service campaigns become more wide-spread and accessible to even low-level cybercriminals, such attacks may result in difficult situations for individuals and corporations not yet ready to deal with these new waves of attacks."

Most of this ransomware avoids any form of command-and-control infrastructure, instead including payment and decryption instructions in a text file included with the infection. Thus payments outside of the typical $250-$500 range noted earlier must have been premeditated  there have been many reports of hospitals being asked for tens of thousands of dollars or more.

Is there no honour amongst thieves?
Microsoft has long held 310 core Android patents that earn it a pretty penny  $5 to $15 from every Android device sold. Manufacturers consider this a cost of using Googles ostensibly free Android operating system.

Microsoft is pretty lenient and does not pursue niche players, especially those that just supply home markets but does enforce it if the devices are sold to major western markets.

The latest Chinese maker to "go west" is Xiaomi. It has bought 1500 Microsoft patents and signed a cross-licensing deal for its 310 Android patents. Xiaomi will also bundle Microsoft apps on its Android phones.

Wang Xiang, senior vice-president at Xiaomi, describes the deal as "a very big collaboration agreement between the two companies. Xiaomi Android devices, including Mi 5, Mi Max, Mi 4s, Redmi Note 3 and Redmi 3, will come pre-installed with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Skype applications."

According to a tweet from Hugo Barra, vice-president for Xiaomi's global division, Expanding the Xiaomi-Microsoft partnership: a new deal for Office & Skype pre-install, IP cross-license, and patent transfer agreement. Xiaomi is counting on the patents to give it an edge in new markets.

It has wanted to export to the US for some time but held back because of concerns about patent infringement lawsuits  all too common in the US. It was also smarting from the defeat in India from a patent infringement lawsuit by Ericsson.

The six-year-old company has grown quickly to become the fifth largest global smartphone company. It recently lost fifth position to BBKs OPPO and VIVO. Microsoft and Xiaomi have collaborated previously to bring its Windows 10 operating system to Xiaomi's Mi Pad tablets. The Chinese company's Mi Cloud service also runs on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform.

Microsoft has signed more than 1200 Android manufacturers to its intellectual property licensing program that protects them from infringement suits. The partnership will enable Xiaomi to provide productivity, collaboration and communication tools to "tens of millions of consumers and business customers in China, India and around the world", Microsoft said in a statement.

The ether is littered with comments that this spells the end of Windows Mobile. Sorry, Xiaomi has bought  not licensed  1500 patents from Microsoft and these are in no way related to Windows 10 Mobile and they are not its Android cash cow ones.
 Flash

Kenyan police confirmed on Wednesday that a senior Al-Shabaab commander who was behind the Garissa University attack in April last year was killed by airstrikes in southern Somalia on Tuesday night.

Inspector General of police Joseph Boinnet said that Mohamed Kuno, alias Dulyadayn or Sheikh Mahamad, was killed by special security forces during operations conducted in Farwamo and Bulo-Gadud villages, about 30kms north of Kismayo.

"We have reports that he was killed in an airstrike by special security forces. He was behind the Garissa university attack," Boinnet said.

Security officials said the operation, which also killed two other militants, was conducted by the Somalia and foreign forces though information is scanty.

Kuno is believed to have been behind the dreadful Garissa university attack which left over 148 people, mainly students, dead.

Kuno, who hails from Garissa in northern Kenya, was Al-Shabaab's Jabha leader for Juba region, Somalia. He was, prior to his death, in charge of external operations against Kenya.

The police said Kuno was believed to be very religious and has been a Madrassa teacher for several years. He worked for Al-Haramain Foundation between 1993 and 1995 before the institution was closed. At the time he was known as Sheikh Mahamad.

He later he became a teacher and principal at Madarasa Najah in Garissa from 1997-2000 where his extremist tendencies became more manifested.
Australian micro donations platform provider, Activistic, has announced that one of the top US philanthropies in the veterans sector, Got Your 6, will be featured on Veterans Call, an app powered by Activistic.

Veterans Call functions as a mobile phone-based micro-donation platform that can help philanthropies re-engage their donor bases through a monthly recurring channel, while also serving to acquire new donors.

Got Your 6 executive director Bill Rausch says the partnership with Veterans Call provides Got Your 6 the opportunity to personally engage and connect with new donors in our community through this innovative app.

We look to leverage our partnership with Veterans Call in future campaigns, programs and events  and we are looking forward to kicking off the partnership with the Activistic team at our 6 June D-Day event in Washington, D.C.

Activistic vice-president of North America, Dylan BreslinBarnhart said Got Your 6 has accomplished tremendous results on behalf of Americas veterans.

On the macro level, the 6 Certified program positively shapes public perception about veterans. On the individual level, through a variety of partnerships, Got Your 6 has also had great success in reintegrating veterans once theyre home, and empowering them to serve in leadership roles in society. We are honoured to partner up with Got Your 6 to further these essential objectives.

BreslinBarnhart said the Veterans Call platform will allow Got Your 6 supporters to donate without using credit cards or bank information, providing significant cost savings to the philanthropy which receives 85% of the donated amount. Got Your 6 will be available on the Veterans Call platform to accept donations within 2-3 weeks.
Trident Subsea Cable has renewed its partnership with Matrix Networks  the operator of the Matrix Cable System with NAP Info Lin Nusa  as it progresses towards the development phase for its high-capacity fibre optic subsea cable linking Perth, Jakarta and Singapore.

Under the extended partnership, Trident will collaborate with Matrix through the shared use of network operations and Matrixs landing facilities in Singapore, Batam and Jakarta. The partnership allows Trident to connect four fibre pairs from Perth to the Matrix branching unit near Jakarta, with two fibre pairs each then linking to Jakarta and Singapore.

Singapore-based Matrix Networks and Indonesian-based NAP Info Lintas Nusa (Napinfo) collectively operate the Matrix Cable System, a neutral international subsea fibre optic cable carrier servicing the Jakarta to Singapore route.

Trident chief executive officer, Alexis Pinto, said: I am pleased to reaffirm and extend Tridents long-standing relationship with Matrix, and collaborate to achieve our objective of building the highest capacity, lowest latency fibre optic cable connecting Perth, Jakarta and Singapore. Together we are seeking to deliver next generation technology infrastructure to improve connectivity between Australia and South East Asia.

The partnership with Matrix means no new build is required to connect the network between Jakarta and Singapore  a significant advantage when compared with other cable proposals in the region, and allows us to tap into the growing demand for capacity in the South East Asia region.

Pinto said there are clear synergies between the two groups, with joint engineering presenting potential cost efficiencies and resulting products to benefit from the alignment of operational excellence.

In addition, the two businesses renewed the commitment to the partnership at the CommunicAsia conference this week, with our joint attendance further cementing the relationship.

Ultimately, the partnership with Matrix delivers operational resilience for the routing of traffic between Australia and Indonesia. We look forward to working with Matrix towards achieving this goal.

Napinfos managing director, Junaidi Yap, said the company was looking to fulfil our vision and extend the Matrix cable with Trident to Australia. We believe a new commercial option will be welcomed by purchasers.

The partnership aligns Matrixs proven track record of delivering carrier neutral, high speed, high capacity, high quality links between Jakarta and Singapore with Tridents objective to establish the highest quality network between Australia with South East Asia.

Yap said the relationship with Trident has the potential to open up two-way opportunities in both regions, where capacity demand is rapidly increasing.

As reported by iTWire, just three days ago Trident appointed former iiNet chief executive officer David Buckingham and the telcos former business business officer and chief technology officer Greg Bader, as non-executive directors.

Announcing the appointments, Pinto said the two former telco executives would augment the companys industry expertise, financial and corporate management, and ability to scale into international markets as the company progresses towards construction phase to build a high capacity, fibre optic subsea cable linking Perth, Jakarta and Singapore.
AMD users are a passionate lot  the majority are looking forward to new technologies like Zen, Polaris and its 7th generation APU (accelerated processing unit).

In fact, my last article AMD Zen will favourably compete with Intel Skylake drew 44 comments and most were looking forward to what AMD had coming. While its A-series may not be so groundbreaking, it has allowed the company to gain a significant model share in new notebook designs that allow Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo to bring to market richly configured, high-performance systems. And gamers like the FX desktop series.

Lets get some terminology sorted out. An APU is essentially a computer on a chip. It was formerly known as "Fusion" and combines an x86 central processor unit (CPU) and a Radeon graphics processor unit (GPU). In every respect, it is very similar to the Intel Skylake Core that has a CPU and GPU on die.

To put advances in perspective, the AMD APU used on the Sony PlayStation 4, and Microsoft Xbox One is a 3rd generation model. As you can see, there has been a significant move forward  3rd to 7th generation  in just two years. You will see these new chips referred to elsewhere as Bristol Ridge or Stoney Ridge and the next iteration in 2017 will be called Raven Ridge.

AMD has announced its full 7th Generation AMD A-Series Processor line-up, the 7th Generation AMD FX desktop , A-Series, and E-Series Mobile APUs that have some major improvements in performance compared to the previous generation, including double-digit gains in gaming, video rendering, and file compression performance.

The GPU part features 4K support, DirectX 12, AMD FreeSync, TrueAudio, up to four displays, and AMD Dual Graphics technologies.

The CPU features full Windows 10 support, DDR402400 support, Advanced Power Management (APM) technology boosts performance to accomplish computing tasks with superior power efficiency for on-the-go capabilities.

At AMD, we are inspired to make every second people use their PC more immersive, productive, and energy efficient, said Jim Anderson, senior vice-president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Business, AMD. We love the PC, and we show it in the compelling mobile experiences made possible by our 7th Generation AMD FX desktop and A-Series mobile processors, which are the culmination of our ongoing pursuit of leadership graphics and computing capabilities in the most energy efficient processor designs.

Notebooks powered by 7th Generation AMD A-Series Processors allow users to work faster and play longer, as up to four cores deliver powerful performance and superior energy efficiency for all-day battery life. Shipping in volume to OEM customers, the full line of 7th Gen AMD A-Series processors feature Excavator x86 CPU cores for high-speed computing, plus built-in Radeon graphics  with some models offering up to Radeon R7 graphics  for smooth eSports gaming and enhanced HD streaming capabilities.

The Bristol Ridge line-up consists of 35- and 15-watt versions of AMD FX, A12, and A10 processors, while Stoney Ridge processors include 15-watt A9, A6 and E2 configurations. They use Socket AM4 or FP4.

The 7th Generation AMD A-Series Processors deliver smooth multitasking, fast start-up times, and premium video streaming and playback features, all with superb power efficiency. AMD delivers graphics and compute superiority versus the competition, with up to 53% higher graphics performances and up to 51% higher compute performance when the 7th Generation AMD FX processor is compared to the Intel Core i7.
In what has become an annual blood sport, prediction of the next iPhone specifications (or Samsung et al.) are heating up as we move closer to its unveiling.

Asian-based market research firm Trendforce has deep links to the main component manufacturers that supply Foxconn that assembles the iPhone. It is usually spot on!

It says that the iPhone 7 features only minor upgrades and questions if this will be enough to turn overall iPhone sales around. Its logic, shared by the majority of analysts, was that the iPhone 6 and Plus was a "tick" cycle  new, innovative and different  filling a demand for larger iPhones. It perhaps did that too well and the next years models  the 6S and Plus  were a "tock" cycle, a slight refresh and not enough to excite the market.

Indeed, every recent market share report has shown a marked decline in iPhone sales while Android powers ahead driven largely by the plethora of high-spec (larger screen, lower cost) handsets coming from the Chinese companies including Huawei, OPPO/VIVO (BBK), Lenovo, and many more.

Trendforce is convinced that the iPhone 7 will be a "crock of tock"  a repeat of the 4.7 LCD IPS screen and the Plus will be 5.5 with the addition of a dual rear camera. They will look similar to the iPhone 6/S.

Camera-wise, the sensor looks to be a 12MP provided through its acquisition of LinX Technology. The dual camera, according to a patent, consists of one wide angle lens and one telephoto for zoom. This seems similar to LGs new G5.

It predicts (based on Apples component orders) that the 4.7 will have 55.4% of sales, the 5.5 24.4%, and the remaining 20.2% will be from the previous model iPhone 6S/Plus/SE that will take a drop in price. There is some speculation that the 4 SE will remain in the line-up instead of the iPhone 6/S/Plus.

As NAND Flash has significantly decreased in price, the 4.7 will have 2GB of RAM and 32/64GB storage and the Plus will have 3GB of RAM (needed for dual camera image processing) and 128GB storage. Still no microSD slot to expand that but the price difference between 128 and 256GB may not be as large as 64 to 128GB was in previous models.

Early pundits had suggested that an AMOLED screen was necessary to counter Samsung  alas, it can find no forward orders and believes it will stick with the LPTS LCD screen for cost and reuse of much of the iPhone 6 tooling and design. That is consistent with the fact that OLED screen makers Samsung and LG cant make enough to satisfy present demand, and Foxconn has purchased Sharps LED panel business. Roll on iPhone 8.

And of course, iOS 10 will ship. Given the bugs and issues in iOS 8 and 9 it will need to be very good to counter negative perceptions. Innovation will be in the operating system  after all, there is not much that you can do with a glass slab.

But what are other pundits saying of the iPhone 7?

To a large degree most agree that it will be a "tock" instead of a "tick" and worry that Apple is losing its mojo as the leading design company. Every major analyst cites the Samsung Galaxy S7 as technically superior to the current iPhone. Personally, I think Apple will adopt the strategy that it is all about its ecosystem, and that is where true innovation will come from until technology advances to allow the quantum hardware leap expected.

Tim Cook hinted at this when he said it would include a new feature you could not live without. Many are suggesting this will be its take on BlackBerrys integrated messaging hub and offering full encrypted SMS, email, VoIP/VoLTE, and more. Security is, perhaps, the last frontier it can compete on if its hardware remains largely the same.

Accessory makers have been given specifications for hole cut-out that seem to confirm many reports suggesting no headphone jack  that makes sense if water resistance is the aim (and it should be). No audio jack is not a huge issue with Bluetooth or reasonably inexpensive Lightning to 3.5mm adaptors.

Battery life will be similar  there have been few advances that could pack more mAh into the same space. If anything the additional capabilities of iOS10 may present a greater power load, but that also depends on advances in its A10, system on a chip, being made by TSMC. It is a 10-nanometre chip and production starts in June. It is said to have similar performance to the A9 but has much better image processing and runs cooler.

Some larrikins have suggested a crown similar to the Apple Watch  let me say that is not going to happen. The last thing Apple wants is moving parts on an iPhone.

In conclusion

More of the same, just better. Will it reverse the sales decline? Probably not. Does Tim Cook know what he is doing? You have to assume so because iPhone sales account for about 2/3rds of Apple revenue and sales are flat.

Did we want more innovation from Apple? Absolutely, and the lacklustre sales of iPhone 6S/Plus are evidence of that.

The problem is that we probably wont know until September.
Android users, beware. The location data that is stored on your Google profile can result in the police tracking you down for any reason they wish.

The Verge reports that police in California used location data from a man's Samsung Galaxy S5 to tie him to a bank robbery in February 2015. The same man had been convicted of a robbery in November the same year and as there were some similarities to the two crimes, police filed an affidavit to track his whereabouts at the time of the earlier crime.

The data obtained from Google placed the man inside the bank at the time the robbery was taking place.

Location data is a feature in Google Maps that builds a detailed history of where a user has been. Both law enforcement and advertisers find the information of use and the latter is no surprise as Google is an advertising company first and foremost.

The Verge report is chilling in more ways than one because it says that the police in the case cited above first went to man's wireless carrier, AT&T, but found that Google's data was more accurate.

The report said that while it had discovered two affidavits filed for similar purposes in the last four months, there may well be others that are filed under seal.

Location data has been collected for many years but only became visible when Google released Timeline in July last year. This is not dissimilar to the Facebook feature that keeps a permanent record of everything that a user has shared.

While both Android and iOS combine such data with information from GPS, Wi-Fi networks and other sources, Apple has a much stricter policy on it: "Unless you provide consent, this location data is collected anonymously in a form that does not personally identify you and is used by Apple and our partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based products and services. For example, your device may share its geographic location with application providers when you opt in to their location services."

But Google does not have any such policy and when it collects location data, it is more or less open slather. It uses the data to target advertising and makes billions each year from these activities.
A senior finance manager in Oracles cloud business has complained to a federal court that she was terminated from her job because she refused to go along with accounting principles she considered unlawful.

In a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Svetlana Blackburn says her superiors instructed her to add millions of dollars in accruals to financial reports, with no concrete or foreseeable billing to support the numbers, an act that Plaintiff warned was improper and suspect accounting. The former employee is said to have warned her supervisor she would blow the whistle if ordered to continue in the same manner.

Blackburn alleges that upper management was trying to fit "square data into round holes" in a bid to boost the financial reports of the cloud services business, which would be "paraded" before company leaders and investors.

A Certified Public Accountant, Blackburn received a positive performance review in August 2015, but in the following month her supervisors charted a course that veered from legal, ethical and company standards. Her employment was terminated within weeks, on Oct. 15, after she continued to resist and warn of the accounting improprieties, according to the complaint.

We don't agree with the allegations and intend to vigorously defend the matter, said Oracle spokeswoman, Deborah Hellinger, in an email.

Blackburn alleges in her complaint that executives above her went ahead and added accruals on their own, despite her objections. She was told by a supervisor that her statements were irritating after she warned about the dangers of a lack of billings, and the history of bad accruals that never resulted in billings. As a result, she came to be viewed as "more of a roadblock than a team player who would blindly generate financial reports using improper bases in order to justify the bottom lines that her superiors demanded to see," according to her complaint.

Blackburn accuses Oracle of unlawful retaliation under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which is legislation that aims to prevent corporate accounting fraud and errors. She said her actions were protected under the Act because she resisted and reported conduct that she believed was against the law.

The former employee also claims to be protected under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which protects employees from discrimination after they make disclosures under Sarbanes-Oxley. Blackburn is suing Oracle for punitive damages and a ruling preventing the company from retaliating against other similar objectors, among other measures.
The Texas Advanced Computer Center (TACC) has received $30 million in U.S. funding for a new supercomputer that will roughly double the performance of its existing 9-petaflop supercomputer.

The new system, named Stampede 2 after its predecessor, is being funded by the National Science Foundation. It will be available for scientific research by June 1, 2017.

The Texas supercomputing center occupies a unique niche. The U.S. government owns the nation's largest and most powerful supercomputers. The national leader is Titan, a Cray XK7 Opteron-based system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, running at a peak performance of about 27 petaflops.

But TACC operates one of the nation's largest academic supercomputers, which went into production on Jan. 7, 2013. The original Stampede system ranked 10th on the latest Top 500 supercomputing list, released last November.

Both U.S. and academic facilities conduct wide-ranging basic research in many of the same areas, such as climate and health. But U.S. national labs perform government-directed research, including those related to national security issues, nuclear research, energy, climate and biosecurity. NSF funds research efforts at universities covering every discipline imaginable and provides funding for HPC use.

The largest academic system is the Cray Blue Waters system at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), University of University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is capable of 13.5 petaflops peak performance, but is not ranked on the Top 500 list.

NCSA made a decision several years ago not to submit data to the Top 500, because of problems it has with the benchmarking system, Linpack, used to evaluate performance.

Regarding Stampede II, "we anticipate it will be the biggest machine in a U.S. university by next year," said Dan Stanzione, executive director of TACC.

Similar to its predecessor, Stampede 2 will use Dell servers and Intel chips. While work on Stampede 2 begins, the TACC is now upgrading Stampede -- adding 500 Knights Landing-based Xeon Phi systems, which can have up to 72 cores.

With the Knights Landing chip addition, the aggregate performance of Stampede will theoretically be above 10 petaflops. However, the upgrade will be used to help start migrating applications to the new system. It won't be running jobs across the entire Stampede system.

Stampede 2 will incorporate some of the latest memory advances, including the upcoming 3D XPoint non-volatile memory technology, about 1,000 times faster than NAND flash.

There is considerable demand for HPC time from scientists. Although Stampede has run seven million jobs representing the work of some 10,000 researchers, the center still fields five times as many requests for time on the system as it can deliver, said Stanzione.

The new machine will help meet this research backlog, said Stanzione. "We know the demand is out there," he said.

Stampede 2 will mean higher resolutions and more accurate modeling for large runs. But smaller jobs, depending on how well they use memory and processing power, will completed more quickly.

The node count between Stampede and Stampede 2 will be roughly the same, around 6,000 nodes. And while officials aren't sure of the final core count of the Intel processors, TACC is expecting each one-socket node to be capable of about 3 teraflops each.

TACC held a dedication today for its newly expanded building, a $20 million, 38,000 square-foot complex. The new building is needed to meet the growing demand for HPC across a wide range of disciplines.

"The more things in science that use advanced computing, the bigger our mission gets," said Stanzione.
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Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday led the nation in marking 53 years of internal self-rule amid calls for peace and unity.

The celebrations of the Madaraka Day which were marked across the country saw Kenyatta urge political leaders at all levels to avoid utterances that may undermine peace and cohesiveness in the country.

The celebrations were held in Nakuru, about 180km northwest of the capital Nairobi.

The president said Kenyans should strive to build a better country at all times, saying irresponsible talk will only cause irreparable damage to the socio-economic development.

"The scars of 2007 remind us of the shame of political competition without limits or wisdom. But our patriotism prevailed; and today, we take pride as a nation in showing ourselves and to the world that we have brought good out of troubled times," he said in reference to the post election violence in which over 1,200 people were killed and more tan 600,000 others displaced.

He called on leaders to respect all the institutions established in the Constitution as far as the management and running of the country's affairs was concerned.

He said it is paramount that leaders and Kenyans in general stick to the Constitution while airing their grievances on any given issue.

Ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga has been leading weekly protests to press for reforms in the country's electoral body, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), ahead of the 2017 general elections.

The opposition party-Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) which lost the 2013 election accuses the electoral commissioners of bias and lack of independence and insists that the same officials should not be allowed to preside over the 2017 general election.

The ruling Jubilee party defends the officials thus leading to protests. The government has maintained that the reforms or changes should be pursued within the confines of the constitution.

Speaking at the celebrations of the Madaraka Day, President Kenyatta wondered why leaders who played a key role in making the Constitution were now turning against it.

"It is particularly saddening that those who were at the front in supporting the enactment of the Constitution are now turning against the same laws. We must be a nation that respects and follows the rule of law," he said.

Deputy President William Ruto asked opposition leaders to respect the recent ruling by the courts that barred them from engaging in street demonstrations over issues pertaining to IEBC.

Ruto said it was unfair for the opposition to continue pressing for the removal of IEBC commissioners through unconstitutional means.

Meanwhile, Kenyatta has announced that the government will waive duty on dates during the Holy month of Ramadhan to help the Muslim community to fulfil religious obligations.

He directed the State Department for Special Programs to ensure that vulnerable families are supported with foods during the Ramadhan period.

Kenyatta affirmed his commitment to the success of devolution, saying the decision to share celebrations of the country's nationhood among the counties is part of his administration's desire to include every Kenyan, in word and in deed.

"Our journey since the first Madaraka day has been growing political and administrative maturity. Today, we have constitutionally devolved the responsibilities of governance to 47 counties,"Kenyatta said.
The two-day fixtures, introduced as a pilot scheme last season will, no doubt, have its critics but there was an interesting first day's play in the match at Manor Way.

Robert Clinton showed what a stylish and formidable batsman he is by making an unbeaten 60 as Bexley reached 184-6 when their first innings was, as is the case under the new rules, suspended after 68 overs.
The school also clinched the point stop tag-team event as well as coming second in the continuous tag team event.

Stuart Hills ended the day a very proud man after battling his way through his division to clinch gold as well as helping the team to gold in the tag-team event along with Dale Campbell.
Library bond unanimously approved Voters waited in line for 45 minutes Tuesday to participate in an eight-minute meeting that resulted in the unanimous approval of a $600,000 bond to help renovate the North Road...

Ferryboat business told to halt operations The ferryboat company operating from the municipally owned docks at East Ferry is illegally using that space, according to correspondence mailed to business owner Bill Munger. Town Administrator Jamie Hainsworth...

A DOGGONE NEW BUSINESS A former business that used to clean peoples clothes is reopening as a groomer to tidy up the fur of those peoples four-legged companions. The defunct laundromat at the McQuades...
SpaceX founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has revealed how his company will handle the influx of Tesla Model 3s to its Supercharging stations. Apparently, the service will not always be free for all customers.

The Verge reported that Elon Musk made the announcement at Tesla's annual shareholders' conference on Tuesday. The event was held in Mountain View, California.

The Tesla CEO was asked by a young Model S P85D owner about how the company plans to handle a surge of Tesla Model 3s to its Supercharging stations. Musk admitted that the service will not be free for life for all buyers.

"Obviously, [free Supercharging] fundamentally has a cost," he said. "The obvious thing to do is decouple that from the cost of the Model 3."

"So it will still be very cheap, and far cheaper than gasoline, to drive long-distance with the Model 3, but it will not be free long distance for life unless you purchase that package. I wish we could, but in order to achieve the economics, it has to be something like that."

Supercharging is the popular feature for Tesla Model S and X owners. Some stations along key routes are already almost always full, how much more if the Tesla Model 3 comes along.

According to Venture Beat, Musk shared a tip to Tesla car owners. "The best thing to do with an electric car is to charge your car where you [would] charge your phone," he added.

It was noted that this is the first time that Tesla has confirmed that access to its Supercharging stations will not always be for free for Tesla Model 3 owners. The company has never promised to offer that perk, though.

Meanwhile, a report by Business Insider revealed that Tesla's first-ever electric car, the Roadster, was described as "completely unsafe" by CEO Elon Musk. He added that the car always broke down and tends to get stuck in second gear. It was also mostly "hand-built."
Highlights on the new contract that caused the end of the Verizon strike 2016 have been revealed. It seems to be a win-win situation for both parties.

Patch reported that union leaders have shared the highlights from the proposed contract. Verizon strike 2016 participants have ceased their protests and went back to work on Wednesday, Jun. 1.

Workers are set to receive a 10.9 percent increase in their wages over the next four years. This comes with compounded interest, which includes 3 percent upon ratification as well as 2.5 percent on each anniversary of the contract.

There will also be a $1,250 signing bonus in the Mid-Atlantic as well as a $1,000 signing bonus with a $250 healthcare reimbursement account for those in the Northeast. There is a minimum of $700 in corporate profit sharing payments in each of the next four years.

The Verizon strike 2016 also caused a "guarantee" that more percentage of customer service work will be handled by unionized workers. The company will be adding 850 call center jobs in the Mid-Atlantic and 450 in the Northeast.

"The addition of good new jobs at Verizon is a huge win not just for striking workers, but for our communities and the country as a whole," CWA president Chris Shelton said. "This contract is a victory for working families across the country and an affirmation of the power of working people. It proves that when we stand together we can raise up working families, improve our communities and advance the interests of America's working people."

According to Wired, the Verizon strike 2016 has proven that the Internet still needs humans. "Despite advances in automation and artificial intelligence, all of this infrastructure takes real human workers to build and maintain," the publication wrote.

During the strike, Verizon had mobilized contractors and non-union employees fill in the roles left by the protesters. The company also advertised for temp jobs to keep operations running. The strike still led to a decrease in new customers for this quarter, though.
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Land and Space Journal Sentinel business reporter Tom Daykin talks about commercial real estate and development. SHARE

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Milwaukee County has agreed to cut the sale price of a Glendale parcel proposed as a site for an apartment development.

The County Board voted recently to approve a resolution that reduces the sale price of the parcel, 1633 W. Bender Road, Glendale, from $750,000 to $250,000.

The board initially approved the sale at the higher price in 2014.

Bond Realty LLC, a partnership between developer Ted Matkom and neighboring property owner David Hobbs Honda, wants the site to develop 56 townhome-style apartments, including 11 apartments set aside for people with disabilities.

Also, part of the land would be used to expand the auto dealership's parking area.

However, Bond Realty has been unable to secure the money needed to buy the property at the $750,000 price, a county report said.

The property has a closed nursing home that would be demolished, and is also a former landfill--with an appraised value of zero, the report said.

The property, owned by the Louise B. Mirochnick Trusts, owes delinquent property taxes dating to 2008 that total just over $1 million. The county treasurer's office has declined to foreclose on the property because of its environmental contamination.

Bond Realtys purchase offer "is the most viable option for redevelopment of this property to occur," according to the report.

The revised sale was approved on a 16-2 vote, with supervisors John Weishan and Anthony Staskunas opposed.
Plugged In Thomas Content offers insight on changes in the world of energy, climate change and efforts to build a greener economy. SHARE

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Broadwind Energy Inc. announced a $137 million supply deal Thursday that is expected to help keep its factories in Manitowoc and Texas busy producing tall towers for wind farms for the next three years.

The framework agreement to supply towers from Manitowoc and Abilene, Texas, was signed by Broadwind Towers Inc., a subsidiary of Cicero-Ill.-based Broadwind Energy.

Broadwind didn't name the customer, but it's one of the leading wind turbine manufacturers in the United States. In its annual report last year, Broadwind said both Siemens and General Electric were key customers.

"This is probably the best visibility we've ever had in the wind industry," said Joni Konstantelos, spokeswoman for Broadwind. It's a very exicitng time."

Shares of Broadwind were up 11%, closing at $4.66, in trading on Wall Street Thursday.

The company said the market visibility has improved significantly for wind farm development after Congress extended wind energy tax credits late last year.

The move by Congress extends tax credits for five years, reducing the size of the credit over time with the idea that tax credits won't be needed when they expire again. In addition, an Internal Revenue Service ruling effectively extends the ability to use the credits by two years, Konstantelos said.

Broadwind employs more than 300 in Manitowoc and nearly 200 in Abilene.

The contract signed Thursday doesn't mean the company is "sold out" for the towers it's capable of producing at the two factories. "But it represents a significant part of our capacity for the next three years," she said.
Credit: Courtesy of Barbara Ciurej and Lindsey Lochman

Mary Louise Schumacher Art City An online journal about visual art, the urban landscape and design. Mary Louise Schumacher, the Journal Sentinel's art and architecture critic, leads the discussion and a community of writers contribute to the dialogue. SHARE Courtesy of Nicole Naudi Courtesy of Nicole Naudi Courtesy of Barbara Ciurej and Lindsey Lochman Courtesy of Barbara Ciurej and Lindsey Lochman

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The modest but resoundingly insightful show called "Variant" manages to address some of the most existential quandaries facing the art world today, all inside the 140-square-foot Greymatter gallery.

The Western world has long reckoned with a social question, which is: What is society's responsibility to those who fall through the cracks?

Similarly, since being emancipated from traditional practices and media over the past half century, the art world faces its own social question, which is: If art is not simply a formal or aesthetic enterprise (meaning: art isn't simply pretty paintings and sculpture in the round) what is its obligation to use its seemingly limitless agency to address social problems?

At first glance, "Variant" appears routine enough: a grid of nine photographs of storefront architecture by Barbara Ciurej and Lindsey Lochman, and three shelves displaying sketches and text by Nicole Naudi.

Ciurej's and Lochman's photographs turn out to be of daycare centers in economically distressed areas of Milwaukee, so they're packed with social significance. But the social material is girded with exceeding formal rigor. Beyond the precise, gridded arrangement on the wall, the photographs themselves have the internal composure of a Piet Mondrian, with door jambs, window casings, and vertical blinds reacting to an implied grid that seems imposed by art history as much as carpentry. In many cases vertical blinds in the windows of the establishments frustratingly obstruct our view inside. And yet the visceral humanity of the content throbs from beneath and behind the formal elements.

Quirky handmade lettering on one storefront reads "Watch Me Grow" between two crudely painted but welcoming trees that disrupt the otherwise perfect bilateral symmetry of the spare storefront. Another photo is cropped to reveal only part of the center's handmade signage. The lettering "BABY" and "G ACADEMY" hangs conspicuously against a frieze of vertical strips as regular and perfect as caring for children is irregular and imperfect.

The photographs send beautifully conflicting signals. One naturally wants into these spaces, physically, emotionally and psychically, but our urges are continually impeded by visual elements. The form becomes metaphor.

Naudi's interpretations of Ciurej's and Lochman's photographs are scattered atop three shelved stations in the gallery. Each features loose pages of graph paper containing verse and prose passages, some hand written, some printed, with the strikethroughs and erasures indicative of a fitful editing session. They give off the manic energy of someone writing to catch up to a truth that will forever outrun their thoughts.

Naudi writes, "See them cradled in rectangular mangers/ these static tools of bisection/ units snapped from units/ autonomies sanctioned from and by you/ see your hand build the apparatus/ dividing into oblivion"

Another passage reads,"all is shared and all is deceit if not sensed lying down at the feet of our fixed fractals," followed by the word "gestalt" repeated four times.

Randomly placed doodles of hands, lists and diagrams mingle with her cryptic copy. And the more you look, the more a picture begins to emerge. A picture of structure as both urban module and compositional device  a picture where the grid and communities of flesh aren't mutually exclusive.

Gestalt indeed.

Naudi continues, "The shy temporal lobe collecting data like diamonds/ is compressed by neighborhoods/ gated as we peer/ between God's venetian shackles"

"Variant" provides a bird's eye view of the social question, offering not simply a perspective but a metaphorical bridge between multiple perspectives. Naudi's scribblings and text go a step further. They paint a picture not only of social structures, but of complexity and emergence, where structure erupts from simplicity and repetition.

And still no consensus has been reached on how to resolve individual interests and social well being in a free society. So what is the future to hold for an art world more and more equipped and more and more inclined to take on the social question?

So, what will happen to our own motley feudal ties to the aesthetic past? Will traditional art making merge smoothly into a new age of connectivity, interactivity activism and what's called social practice? Will aesthetics and social practice annihilate each other? Perhaps beauty and activism will simply live side-by side as unlikely admixtures.

"Variant" is curated by Milwaukee artists Paul Druecke and Sarah Sutterfield and is on view at Greymatter, 207 E. Buffalo St., Suite 222. It closes after Friday.

Shane McAdams is an artist and Art City contributor.
The University of Wisconsin-Madisons MFA drama program was recently ranked among the best in the world. Credit: Mark Hoffman

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For aspiring thespians, the coasts typically offer the best opportunities in both training and job prospects.

But Wisconsin should not be overlooked, writes The Hollywood Reporter. The magazine recently ranked the University of Wisconsin-Madison as having the 24th best drama school for earning an MFA in the world.

"Wisconsin might not appear to be a theater lover's mecca, but this solid program is known for its folksy touch," the article states, noting that alums include Joan Cusack and "The Leftovers" actress Carrie Coon.

Juilliard topped the magazine's list.

 Wisconsinites apparently are (or were) big "American Idol" fans.

At least according to their Google searches. The real estate website Estately looked at which questions states Googled more than others, with Wisconsin searching for "When is 'American Idol' on?" more than any other state.

Other Wisconsin curiosities included "Is coffee good for you?" and "Who are the Koch brothers?" Neighbor Minnesota searched for "Is 'funner' a word?" (short answer: yes), while Iowans were curious if penguins have knees (they do).

More interesting queries include Texans searching for "Where is the internet?" and Floridians wondering "Why does everyone hate Florida?" Arkansas, you might want to re-evaluate your schools' history curriculum based on your searches for "Who won the Civil War?"

 If you're planning a staycation this summer, Milwaukee isn't so great for that, according to a recent WalletHub analysis.

The website ranked the state's largest city 85th out of 150 on its list of the best cities for staycations.

Madison ranked higher, coming in at No. 24 on the list. The state capital received high marks for recreation opportunities.

Three Florida cities topped the list: Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.

ABOUT THIS FEATURE

How do we rate? There is no shortage of lists, rankings and charts to tell us. Adding Us Up is a recurring look at where Milwaukee and Wisconsin rank on the latest lists, from the semi-serious to the silly. If you spot a ranking that rates, share it with us at greensheet@jrn.com.
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Froedtert Hospital & the Medical College of Wisconsin will announce an agreement with IBM Thursday that will make the medical center only the second in the country to use a new high-speed computer program called Watson that matches cancer patients with the most appropriate clinical trials in a matter of minutes.

Today, with trials becoming more complex and more widespread, the matching process can be cumbersome, taking up to a week or two and contributing to the slow the pace of research. Studies are often delayed because not enough patients have been recruited.

"This will allow more patients to take part in clinical trials so that clinical trials get done faster," said James Thomas, medical director of the Froedtert & MCW Clinical Trials Office. "The sooner trials get done, the sooner we answer the questions: what things work, what things don't work."

While some studies must wait to recruit enough participants, the vast majority of patients both here and nationally never end up in a trial. At present, only 4% to 5% of cancer patients ever enter a clinical trial, even though an estimated 20% would be eligible for one trial or another. About 15% of Froedtert's cancer patients end up in treatment trials.

"We're looking to change that dynamic to close that gap," IBM Watson Vice President Clayton Henke said.

Watson, which took IBM a decade to develop, contains a large cross section of papers from medical and scientific journals, "millions and millions of pages, which Watson reads very quickly," Henke said.

The system has been programmed to read and understand medical terminology and information from patient charts.

In practice, a doctor at Froedtert will be able to look up a patient's medical records, and with a few key strokes ask the computer to seek out the best clinical trials for that patient. Within minutes the computer will sift through the complex requirements for thousands of clinical trials and recommend a few, listing specific strengths and weaknesses of each one.

The addition of Watson could effect thousands of cancer patients in southeastern Wisconsin. Froedtert and the other hospitals that are part of its cancer network, St. Joseph's in Washington County and Community Memorial in Menomonee Falls, saw about 5,600 new cancer patients last year and participated in about 220 cancer clinical trials.

In the coming weeks, Froedtert and the Medical College will be training staff in the new system and integrating their electronic medical records.

"We want to go live with this in the fall of this year," Thomas said.

Right now the Mayo Clinic is the only institution using Watson to match cancer patients and clinical trials.

However, the computer system has already been put to use on a different task by about 15 academic medical centers. These institutions are using Watson to analyze the precise genetic makeup of patient tumors. Cancer scientists have been suggesting for years that knowing the genetic makeup of a tumor will help to overcome the generally poor success rates of many cancer treatments.

The Watson system has been designed for uses beyond medicine such as education and a variety of industries including insurance, financial services, chemical products and petroleum.

Anywhere large computer systems store massive amounts of sensitive information, security breaches will always be a concern, but Henke said the Watson system has multiple levels of security and has been designed to comply with the HIPAA medical privacy laws.

Thomas stressed that the medical records of Froedtert patients will be secured behind a firewall, accessible only to their doctors.
Leon's Frozen Custard, 3131 S. 27th St. in Milwaukee, has resolved a complaint lodged by a Latino civil rights group that employees were told to conduct transactions with customers in English only. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

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Leon's Frozen Custard will allow employees to speak with customers in the patron's desired language, officials with a Latino civil rights organization said Thursday.

Leon's is also concluding a thorough review of all personnel policies that will ensure they are in compliance with civil rights laws and federal guidelines, according to the League of United Latin American Citizens of Wisconsin.

In May, the organization called for the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate the business after reports of an "English-only" policy at the custard stand at S. 27th St. and W. Oklahoma Ave. on Milwaukee's heavily Latino south side.

A Latino man had told WISN-TV in Milwaukee that he was told by an employee at the stand that all transactions must be conducted in English.

Owner Ron Schneider responded by saying that he encourages the few Latino workers employed at the business to speak English as much as possible but does not forbid them from speaking Spanish if a customer cannot communicate otherwise.

He also said that although he prefers that employees speak English, they are free to speak Spanish to each other.

"We appreciate the goodwill ownership has demonstrated in working with us to bring this issue to a close to the benefit of our community," LULAC Wisconsin director Arturo Martinez said in a news release from the organization.

Schneider confirmed details contained in the LULAC statement Thursday but added that he believes his business has always been in compliance with EEOC guidelines.
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By of the

Incumbent district attorneys in Milwaukee and Dane counties, both Democrats seeking re-election this fall, will face challengers from within their own party in an Aug. 9 partisan primary election.

Partisan primary elections also will be held in Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties to pare down lists of Republican candidates for county offices on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.

Winners of the partisan battles are favored to get the jobs since no other major party candidates registered to run for the offices by the Wednesday deadline. Only the top vote-getter in a partisan primary advances to the Nov. 8 general election.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm will face challenger Verona Swanigan in a Democratic partisan primary.

Incumbent Chisholm was first elected to the office in 2006 and he is asking county voters to hire him for a fourth term.

Swanigan, a Milwaukee attorney, established Swanigan Legal Services in 2007.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne is opposed by Robert Jambois, one of his assistant district attorneys, in the Democratic partisan primary. Jambois is a former Kenosha County district attorney.

Waukesha County District Attorney Susan Opper, Washington County District Attorney Mark D. Bensen, and Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Y. Gerol  all Republicans  are unopposed in their bids for re-election to four-year terms.

In other Milwaukee County elections, Clerk Joseph Czarnezki did not seek re-election to a third term. Deputy Clerk George Christenson was the only candidate to file nomination papers for the office by the Wednesday deadline.

Milwaukee County Treasurer David Cullen and Register of Deeds John La Fave  both Democrats  are unopposed in re-election bids.

In Waukesha County, Clerk Kathleen O. Novack is opposed by Gina Gresch in a Republican primary.

Incumbent Novack is seeking re-election to a second four-year term. Gresch is clerk-treasurer for the City of Delafield.

Washington County Clerk Brenda Jaszewski is not seeking re-election this fall after 12 years in the office. Three Republicans have registered to take her place. Town of Barton Clerk Aggie Pruner, Ashley Reichert of the City of West Bend and Braedy Heimbrecht of the Town of Trenton will face off in the Republican primary.

In Ozaukee County, incumbent Treasurer Karen L. Makoutz did not seek re-election to a four-year term. Two Republicans are vying for the job: Cari Anne M. Mihalko and Joshua H. Morrison.
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No trust problem with Clinton

The editorial on May 29 suggests Hillary Clinton has a trust problem ("Clinton has a trust problem," Crossroads).

I would like to disagree. Hillary has spent hours in front of committees explaining her actions as secretary of state. Her top secret documents were in hard copy only, then destroyed. Her emails were kept with her private family emails that we do not and should not see.

Hundreds of laptops were lost or stolen while George W. Bush ran the United States of America. Edward Snowden took thousands of secrets to Russia. Clinton probably was more secure than the U.S. As for Benghazi, the secretary of state is in control of the security of the embassies, but only on paper for budgeting. Actual logistics are covered by a department two layers down.

Clinton handles big meetings with people at the top of the food chain in every nation of the world. If there is a matter of trust missing here, I think it is with the people and the free press of this fine nation.

Gary Francis

Racine



Examples of secrets laughable

Is the Journal Sentinel kidding? All four of Hillary Clinton's "secrets" in the May 29 editorial are laughable and have been explained by her many times ("Clinton has a trust problem," Crossroads).

Her email use is misrepresented and incomplete. Two of the items are decades old. And not releasing transcripts of speeches? Give me a break.

And on the same page there is an opinion piece titled, "Trump policies spot-on." Is the paper kidding? Clinton doesn't have a trust problem, she has a problem with ridiculous and biased editorials such as this one.

Marcia Heymen

Milwaukee



Clean energy has much to offer

If some Wisconsin utilities have achieved good progress in generating clean power, why are others making so little effort ("Generating mixed results," May 29)?

I commend those that are doing their part  whether because they realize change is inevitable, see the economic benefits of clean energy or have genuine concern for our future. My utility, MGE, wrote large amounts of clean energy into its recent plan (but it is only a plan, crafted under intense community pressure; we'll see what happens).

The state and electric power industry, in thrall to dying coal, aren't concerned about climate change and are determined to do the minimum to satisfy mandates. If that's their mission, it's accomplished. The government scoffs at the problem; and many utilities, using business models from the last millennium and dismissing new technologies, take a can't-do attitude toward renewables.

If our neighbors can do it, why can't (or won't) we? This shouldn't be a political issue. Climate change is here and we caused it, but we shouldn't continue making it worse. Get with it, Wisconsin. Clean energy has much to offer public health, the economy, the environment and the future.

Carol Steinhart

Madison



Obamacare and rising costs

This letter is regarding the article, "Health costs for a family top $25,000 this year" (May 27).

We are treated to an entire article bemoaning how health costs are increasing at a rapid pace. Millions will be stunned by how much more they will be paying for deductibles and out-of-pocket costs or health care plans in general. Employers will be bearing the brunt of the burden.

One quote in the article stands out regarding the huge price increases: "It is shocking  it's heart stopping." That quote should and could be a direct reference to what is somehow missing from the entire article: any blame on Obamacare.

Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer

Hartland
Labor Secretary Tom Perez (center) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (left) visit the site for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena. With them is Alex Lasry, vice president of strategy and operations for the Bucks. Credit: Samuel Caravana

By of the

U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez came to Milwaukee on Thursday to dole out $200,000 in grant money for apprenticeship programs in the state and touted those programs while speaking with students at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

"I often say, 'Apprenticeships  it's the other college, except without the debt,'" Perez said while speaking with students in MATC's machine tool workshop. "I'm here to let you guys know that this industry isn't going anywhere."

The grant builds on the $11 million for apprenticeships the state has already received from President Barack Obama's administration since early 2014 and is part of the $90 million in grant funding for apprenticeships that Congress approved in April.

The Wisconsin grants will be used to create, expand and increase diversity in apprenticeship programs.

Perez also visited the construction site for the new Milwaukee Bucks arena, where at least 40% of the construction hours will be worked by city residents. Students from MATC will be given apprenticeships for some of the work.

The MATC visit comes amid the Obama administration's push to double the number of apprenticeships nationwide by 2019. Since January 2014, its ApprenticeshipUSA program has created 75,000 apprenticeships.

The Department of Labor also announced on Thursday $10.4 million in grants to be awarded to all 50 states, the Virgin Islands and Washington, D.C.  an amount that is part of the $90 million total.

Despite its bipartisan support, the administration's push has collided with the cultural attitudes of some who believe that an education at a four-year college is the only appropriate path, Perez said.

"The word 'trade' was a bad word in my high school," said a student in the machine tool workshop who spoke with Perez.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who has supported the expansion of apprenticeship and technical training programs during her time in the Senate and who accompanied Perez on Thursday, said that both she and the administration are trying to change that view.

Perez said programs that match labor supply with demand are sorely needed in Milwaukee, where the average age of someone working in manufacturing is 59.

Also needed, he said, are programs like the Bucks' plan for half of all local permanent hires to come from areas with the highest poverty and highest unemployment rates.

Perez said officials need "to make sure we leave no ZIP code behind."

Milwaukee's unemployment rate is 4.7%. The national rate is 5%.
Gov. Scott Walker said he would not support hiking the gas tax or fees to pay for highways unless corresponding cuts are made elsewhere in the state budget. Credit: Associated Press

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Madison  Wisconsin's roads likely will face longer delays before they get repaired because of an ongoing funding dispute in the state Capitol.

Gov. Scott Walker told reporters Thursday he would not support increasing taxes or fees to pay for highways unless corresponding cuts are made elsewhere in the state budget. He also said he didn't want to rely too much on borrowing for roads  something his fellow Republicans who control the Legislature already are reluctant to do.

If Walker sticks by those stances, ongoing projects would likely take longer to complete and planned ones would take longer to get started. That's because collections from the state's 32.9-cent-per-gallon gas tax have been stagnant in recent years.

"I'm not going to add to the overall tax burden of the hardworking people of this state, so that's a position I made very clear when I ran and I've reiterated it time and time again, so we're not going to add a gas tax or vehicle registration fee in this next budget," Walker told reporters after speaking at a fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund.

Walker will propose a new two-year state budget early next year, after the fall elections determine the makeup of the Legislature.

His position drew opposition from top Republicans in the Assembly, as well as Democrats.

"Personally, I think the governor's approach just isn't sustainable," said Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna). "We can't continue delaying projects, because our economy depends on (them)."

More money  not more borrowing  is needed to pay for roads, he said.

"I think most reasonable people would clearly see it is not more conservative to just borrow your way out of this than to just pay for it as you go," he said.

Some Republicans  particularly in the Assembly  wanted to increase taxes or fees last year to help pay for roads, but didn't pursue the idea because of Walker's strong opposition to such increases.

The interest for finding more money for roads remains strong, despite Walker's latest comments, said Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), co-chairman of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee.

"I don't think this changes anything on where we are at," Nygren said.

The Legislative Audit Bureau is slated to release a review of highway funding this fall, and Nygren said he believes that will help lawmakers recognize the scope of the Department of Transportation's money troubles.

Walker and GOP lawmakers differed last year over roads, with Walker wanting to borrow a record $1.3 billion over two years for transportation and Republican legislators saying his plan wasn't responsible. They cut his bonding plan to $850 million and stressed their opposition to borrowing at that level in the future.

The plan they ultimately agreed upon resulted in delaying for one year the completion of five major projects: I-39/90 from the Illinois state line to Madison; Highway 151/Verona Road in Madison; Highway 10/441 in the Fox Valley; Highway 23 between Fond du Lac and Plymouth; and Highway 15 near New London in Outagamie County.

Highway 23 has been further stalled because of a court fight over that project.

Walker's comments Thursday made it clear another showdown over transportation is likely in the next budget debate.

"There won't be a wave of major projects," he said. "The ones that we've talked about, we're going to figure out ways to continue those, but we won't be adding new projects on top of that."

Pat Goss, the executive director of the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, said Walker's stance would lead to delays for everything from major highway expansions to local road improvements.

"A no-increase budget means inevitably there's going to have to be cuts  and maybe cuts across the board," he said.

Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), the co-chairwoman of the budget committee, said people don't want project delays, but a conversation on the topic "gets very murky" on whether they are willing to pay higher taxes or fees to prevent them.

"This is a good time to begin that discussion" because of the impending audit and upcoming elections, she said.

Democrats were scathing in their assessment of Walker's approach.

"Businesses aren't going to invest in Wisconsin if we don't invest in ourselves," said Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton), who sits on the budget committee. "We haven't raised revenue in nine years. We need to raise the gas tax. The DOT has been cut back enough."

"Clearly, the governor has given up any attempt to govern the state of Wisconsin and move us forward," said Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh), another committee member. "He has failed in his last six years to address the transportation issue and as a result, Wisconsin is borrowing at a record level to pay for infrastructure at not a level that maintains where we are."

Roads in Wisconsin are primarily funded with federal aid, the state's gas tax and the vehicle registration fee. Registration fees are $75 for automobiles and $75 to $106 for light trucks, depending on their weight. Semi-trailer trucks pay much heftier registration fees.

In recent years, GOP legislators have been split on increasing transportation funding, and those who back the idea have abandoned past efforts because of the opposition they've faced.

There are further divisions among those who want more money for roads, with some favoring boosting the gas tax and others the registration fee.

Other ideas, such as creating a new mileage-based fee, have been met with skepticism.

The DOT is now paying nearly $900,000 to HNTB Corp. and other consultants for a study on the feasibility of implementing tolling in Wisconsin. That study is expected to be done by January.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and some others have been vocal supporters of tolling, but state officials don't have full control of the issue. To put tolls on Wisconsin's interstate highways, Congress would need to act, and so far the idea has not gained traction in Washington, D.C.
Closing arguments wrap up in Darrell Brooks trial

Darrell Brooks Jr. of Milwaukee is charged with six counts of first-degree intentional homicide and other charges in connection with the 2021 Waukesha Christmas Parade tragedy.
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The left-leaning Beirut daily al-Safir (Ambassador) points out that less than two weeks after the Syrian Democratic Forces announced their campaign against al-Raqqa, the capital of the phony caliphate of Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), the SDF instead has veered off to the west in a bid to capture Manbaj. The SDF mainly consists of leftist Kurdish YPG fighters along with some American-trained token Arabs.

The SDF, with help from intensive US bombing, moved to the west of the Euphrates on Wednesday, taking over a dozen villages in the vicinity of Manbaj and ending up only 10 km from the city center.

SDF seems to be gobbling up the western shore of the Euphrates really quicklybad day for IS. Map: @EdmapsCom #Syria pic.twitter.com/g1CP174zUp  Aron Lund (@aronlund) June 1, 2016

Manbaj is a major intelligence and logistics center for Daesh. It is in a strip some 90 km wide next to the Turkish border through which volunteers slip into Syria to join Daesh (formerly thousands a month, now perhaps only 500 a month). It is very odd, if not downright suspicious, that Turkey hasnt simply closed off this corridor on its side of the border.

Moving west might allow the YPG (oops I meant Syrian Democratic Forces) to cut off the Daesh supply routes into Syria entirely. Further, they might be able to establish a corridor to Afrin, the Kurdish canton in the west, creating a contiguous Kurdish de facto province that stretches from Afrin east to Kobane and then to the Jazeera or northeastern Syria. Critics of the Syrian Kurds among the Arabs express fear that they will ethnically cleanse Arab villages in this de facto Kurdish super-province.

Likewise, moving into the northernmost Dawsh-held territory will draw off fighters who would otherwise be in al-Raqqa for its defense.

So by moving west rather than south, the YPG is softening up al-Raqqa for invasion and also feathering the nest of Kurdish Syrian nationalism.

On Tuesday, according to BBC Monitoring, the Turkish state-funded news agency Anadolu (also known as Anatolia) put on its website in Turkish remarks of Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who slammed the United States for cooperating with the PYD [Democratic Union Party] on the pretext that Al-Raqqa was going to be seized by regime forces.

He said that US and Turkish special ops forces would be better placed than the Kurdish YPG to close the smuggling gap from which Daesh profits.

BBC Monitoring translates the Anadolu report: Criticizing the United States for collaborating with the PYD on the pretext that Al-Raqqa was going to be seized by the Syrian regime forces, Cavusoglu it was never right or humanitarian to collaborate with another terrorist organization. Stating that the PYDs goal was to partition Syria by seizing more land, Cavusoglu said: In that respect America is unfortunately embarking on a process with the PYD that is very dangerous for Syrias future. We already warned them. Yet, if we were to join forces; they have their special forces and we have our special forces, but unfortunately both the United States and Russia see a terrorist organization as a partner and they are supporting it. This is what we are objecting to . . .

If Manbaj soon falls, as seems likely, Turkey will face the fait accompli of a new Kurdish mini-state on its border. Ankara is obviously furious at the US, which is urging the Kurds on. Despite Turkish oral offers of assistance, the US Pentagon has clearly decided that the YPG Kurds are the only game in town if the goal is to defeat Daesh in its lair of al-Raqqa. There are likely to be long-term repercussions for the US-Turkish relationship, on both sides, of these dramatic events.

-

Related video:

Euronews: US-backed push begins to retake Syria border pocket from ISIL 
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Paige Brownlow | (Institute for Palestine Studies)

The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development

Third and Final Edition by Harvard Scholar, Sara Roy



The De-development of the Gaza Strip has arguably reached its logical conclusion with the current, increasingly distorted, reconfiguration of economic activity, says renowned political economist and Harvard scholar, Dr. Sara Roy. The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development is the final edition of her much anticipated, comprehensive study of the economy of Gaza. For the first-time, Roy examines the past 15-years in Gaza in detail using economic theory and in-depth political analysis to argue that the de-development of Gaza is leading to unviability. Roy defines de-development, a concept she formulated and defined 30-years ago, as the systematic dismantling of a normal economy and its rational functioning.

In this latest edition of The Gaza Strip, Roy enriches this meticulously detailed and pioneering political economy text with an in-depth and shocking reflection and analysis on the wars on Gaza. Written in the aftermath of the 2014 Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Roy serves as a scholar, and witness to unprecedented human, physical, and physiological destruction wrought on Gaza.

Bringing her decades of experience in the region, and unrivaled knowledge of Gazan economy and politics, Roy reviews the impact of these most recent wars on Gaza from a multitude of perspectives. Beyond sophisticated data sets, The Gaza Strip chronicles shifting attitudes and the impact of massive long-term displaced people on societal cohesion, as well as the new and relatively underreported consequence that has emerged from Gaza: boat people, Gazans fleeing by boat to Europe.

The new text also provides an impeccably detailed review of the unprecedented devastation of the longtime structurally dysfunctional economy of Gaza, noting that following the Israeli assault of 2014 Gazas economy effectively collapsed with recovery expected to take decades. Roy highlights the impact of Israeli restriction on imports, noting that it would take more than 53 years to rebuild the 89,000 new homes and new schools destroyed in OPE with the current import restrictions. And at the current rate of 335 truckloads per month allowed to enter Gaza according to Oxfam, it would take 174 years to rebuild Gaza to May 2014 levels.

In a new section titled, The Reconstruction Plan: Structuring Failure, Roy not only provides descriptions and analysis of detailed reconstruction plans, she also criticizes the international communitys fragmentary response. The various reconstruction projects planned for Gaza over the years have never been part of a larger political program meant to alleviate Palestinian suffering or improve conditions. Rather, the projects have always been treated as ends in and of themselves, she writes.

The inextricable link between the economic future of Gaza and the future of the Israel, Israelis, Palestine and the Palestinian people is clear throughout this the final edition of The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development.

Contact Paige Brownlow at 202-836-8207 or paigeb@palestine-studies.org to obtain a copy of The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development third edition, or to schedule an interview with the author, Dr. Sara Roy.

About the Author

Sara Roy (Ph.D. Harvard University) is a senior research scholar at Harvards Center for Middle Eastern Studies specializing in the Palestinian economy, Palestinian Islamism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Roy began her research in the Gaza Strip and West Bank in 1985 with a focus on the economic, social and political development of the Gaza Strip and on U.S. foreign assistance to the region. Since then, she has written extensively on the Palestinian economy, particularly in Gaza, and on Gazas de-development, a concept she originated. Dr. Roy is the author of many books and publications, including, The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-development (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1995, 2001, 2016) and Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector (Princeton University Press, 2011, 2014)

About the Institute for Palestine Studies

The Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS) is the oldest institute in the world exclusively devoted to documentation, research and publication on Palestinian affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict. IPS is entirely independent and committed to preserving the collective memory of Palestine and educating the public on the realities of Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Click here to learn more about the Institute

The Institute for Palestine Studies (USA), Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity.

3501 M Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007 Tel: 202.342.3990 Toll Free: 1.800.874.3614
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By Rebecca Gordon | (Informed Comment) |  

Why do Republican candidates for the presidency keep promising to commit war crimes? GOP standard-bearer Donald Trump guarantees hell torture terrorists and take out their families. When he was still in the race, Ted Cruz offered to carpet bomb ISIS (and anyone else in their vicinity) to oblivion. Even kindly pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson when pressed by the moderator at a Republican debate on whether he was tough enough to be okay with the deaths of thousands of innocent children and civilian[s] replied, You got it. You got it.

[ Rebecca Gordons New Book is (click to order)

Perhaps the reason that those who want to run our country believe that (war) crime does pay is that no one from previous administrations has been held accountable for the last round of torture and murder. Not one of the high government officials who ordered, approved, justified, and/or covered up torture, extraordinary rendition, and even homicides, committed in the war on terror has been prosecuted for any of those crimes.

In consequence, people running for office today feel free to campaign on the promise to commit a few more.

Would I approve waterboarding? Donald Trump asked a cheering crowd at a November rally in Columbus, Ohio. You bet your ass I would, he answered, in a heartbeat. And Trump assured his audience that he would approve more than that  leaving to their imaginations whether he had in mind sleep deprivation, threats of rape, days spent in excruciating stress positions, or perhaps that enhanced interrogation technique the CIA so delicately describes as rectal rehydration.

Dont kid yourself, folks, the Republican frontrunner continued. It works, okay? It works. Only a stupid person would say it doesnt work. Or perhaps a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

But for Trump it doesnt really matter whether torture works in the sense of producing actionable intelligence. The point, he told that Ohio crowd, was that the very existence of the Islamic State means that someone, somewhere needs to be tortured. If it doesnt work, he said, they deserve it anyway.

That was Trump in November. After the horrific attacks in Belgium on March 22, the standard bearer doubled down on torture and its usefulness. Before those attacks the Belgian police had in custody a man named Salah Abdeslam, who they believed had helped to plan last Decembers terror attacks in Paris. He appeared to be cooperating with the authorities, but Trump knew how to speed things up. He told CNNs Wolf Blitzer that he may be talking, but hell talk faster with the torture.

When Blitzer pointed out that what Trump was proposing would actually violate several laws, the candidate was ready with his answer. We have to be smart about such legal niceties, he said- unlike those eggheads that came up with this international law against torture. If laws get in the way, we have to change our laws, Trump explained, because we have to be able to fight at least on almost equal basis. They have no laws whatsoever that they have to obey.

One might have thought that adherence to international laws is an important aspect of what separates us from terrorist organizations like ISIS.

Trump is right about one thing, however. It doesnt matter whether or not torture works. It is against the law. In addition to our federal anti-torture statute, the United States has ratified an international treaty prohibiting torture. Under Article VI of our own constitution, that makes the U.N. Convention against Torture the supreme law of this land. The conventions text is very clear that this treaty applies under all conditions: No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

If torture is so clearly illegal, why do we find that former high-level government officials like Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, and Michael Hayden consistently trumpet its benefits in their memoirs and public appearances? Why do our media treat as if it were legitimate political discourse views like the Republican frontrunners that adherence to international law makes the United States weak, that obeying the law is, in effect, for sissies?

One answer lies in our failure to adhere to another of the Convention against Tortures provisions: that the ratifying states must bring to justice those who violate its terms. Sadly, President Obama set the tone for this failure when in 2009 he told the nation that, with regards to the crimes of the previous administration, We need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. As a result, we may very well have Donald Trump to look forward to.

Rebecca Gordon teaches in the Philosophy department at the University of San Francisco. She is the author of Mainstreaming Torture, and American Nuremberg: The US Officials Who Should Stand Trial for Post-9/11 War Crimes
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 2, 2016) - Trevali Mining Corporation ("Trevali" or the "Company") (TSX:TV)(LMA:TV)(OTCQX:TREVF)(FRANKFURT:4TI) announces results from four new drill holes of its ongoing 2016 underground exploration drill program at the Santander zinc mine in Peru. The aim of the current drilling is to test recently discovered mineralization in the hanging wall of the Magistral North deposit. Drill holes continue to intersect multiple stacked mineralized massive sulphide replacement zones, or mantos, both within the main Magistral North body as well as in the newly discovered Oyon mantos (Table 1). The intercepts are near existing mine infrastructure and will be quickly incorporated into the near-term (2016-2017) mine plan. Mineralization in both the Magistral North deposit and the new Oyon mantos remains open for expansion and further underground drilling is in progress (Figure 1).

Borehole

(dip/azimuth) From - To

(metres) Zone / Core Length

Interval* (metres) Zn

(%) Pb

(%) Ag oz/ton

(g/tonne) MN-142-16 114.90 - 121.20 MN / 6.30 3.33 1.19 1.65 (56.49) (-41.20 / 125.55 - 140.30 MN/OYO / 14.75 5.21 5.78 2.11 (72.26) 246.10) Incl. 125.55 - 132.75 MN/OYO / 7.20 7.37 8.96 2.66 (91.08) Incl. 136.85 - 139.15 OYO / 2.30 5.22 4.32 2.50 (85.72) 147.65 - 153.50 OYO / 5.85 4.69 3.79 5.75 (197.08) MN-143-16 133.90 - 158.45 MN/OYO / 24.55 5.74 3.98 6.00 (205.88) (-39.20 / Incl. 135.70 - 148.20 MN/OYO / 12.50 5.66 4.67 4.14 (141.94) 214.70) Incl. 149.05 - 157.05 OYO / 8.00 5.67 1.81 10.92 (374.32) MN-144-16 (-27.20 / 207.30) 115.20 - 115.90 OYO / 0.70 3.11 3.25 1.40 (47.90) MN-145-16 111.85 - 130.80 MN/OYO / 18.95 4.11 3.40 3.47 (119.01) (-35.30 / Incl. 124.35 - 130.80 OYO / 6.45 4.80 2.31 6.68 (229.05) 218.10) Incl. 115.40 - 121.90 MN/OYO / 6.50 5.82 6.04 2.72 (93.34) Table 1: Summary of latest Santander Mine underground drill assay results. (i) True widths of the mineralized intervals are estimated at 60-80% of core length. MN-Magistral North; OYO-Oyon.

To view Figure 1: 3D view, looking southeast, and cross section illustrating geometry of the Oyon mineralization and location of recent drillhole intercepts in the Magistral North Deposit at the Santander Mine, visit the following link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/1057524-F1.pdf

MAGISTRAL NORTH AND OYON ZONES

This latest follow-up expansion-definition drilling program continues to define additional mineralization in the Oyon mantos, located in the hanging wall to the main Magistral North deposit (Figure 1).

As presently defined the Oyon zone contains multiple stacked lenses (or mantos) of replacement semi-massive to massive sulphide mineralization and associated veining that varies from 1 to plus-10-metres thick, a modeled strike length of approximately 100 metres and a currently defined dip length of approximately 180 metres.

In general, average grades for all key metals (Zn, Pb and Ag) are significantly higher than current Santander mill feed grades (Table 1). Zinc to lead/silver metal ratios remain high, in the 1:1 to 2:1 range, which is suggestive of the upper to mid-portions of the mineral system and is interpreted to suggest significant additional depth potential remains. Initial targeting suggests that similar style (Pb-Ag rich) mineralization may exist in the hanging wall of the Magistral Central deposit. The Company cautions that additional drilling is required to further test this hypothesis.

The mantos are proximal-to-immediately-adjacent to the main Magistral North deposit and close to existing and future planned mine development. Consequently minimal additional work will be required to begin adding value (feed) to the Santander mill. Both the Magistral North Zone and emergent Oyon Mantos remain open and expansion/definition drilling is ongoing.

AGM RESULTS

At the Company's recent Annual General Meeting of Shareholders held on June 1, 2016, shareholders re-elected the nominated slate of directors. Shareholders also approved: the appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, as auditors of the Company for the current fiscal year and authorized the directors to fix the auditors' remuneration; the amended Stock Option and Stock Bonus Plan and Unallocated Options and Other Entitlements under the Plan; and the Shareholder Rights Plan.

Description of Matter Outcome

of Vote Votes

For Votes

Withheld Votes

Against 1. Election of the following directors of the Company: Resolution approved by a show of hands Mark Cruise 141,016,775

(99.89%) 153,725

(0.11%) n/a Anton Drescher 113,957,148

(80.72%) 27,213,352

(19.28%) Christopher Eskdale 138,898,275

(98.39%) 2,270,225

(1.61%) Catherine Gignac 141,016,275

(99.89%) 154,225

(0.11%) Michael Hoffman 135,186,075

(95.76%) 5,984,425

(4.24%) David Huberman 135,176,575

(95.75%) 5,993,925

(4.25%) David Korbin 140,993,775

(99.87%) 176,725

(0.13%) 2. Appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Chartered Accountants, as auditors of the Company for the current fiscal year and authorizing the directors to fix the auditors' remuneration Resolution approved by a show of hands 141,148,000

(99.98%) 22,500

(0.02%) n/a 3. Approval of the amended Stock Option and Stock Bonus Plan and Unallocated Options and Other Entitlements under the Plan Resolution approved by ballot 81,173,363

(57.50%) n/a 59,997,137

(42.50%) 4. Approval of the Shareholder Rights Plan Resolution approved by ballot 140,343,820

(99.41%) n/a 826,680

(0.59%)

Qualified Person and Quality Control/Quality Assurance

EurGeol Dr. Mark D. Cruise, Trevali's President and CEO and Daniel Marinov, P.Geo, Trevali's VP Exploration, are qualified persons as defined by NI 43-101, have supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Marinov is responsible for all aspects of the work, including the quality control/quality assurance programs. Dr. Cruise is not independent of the Company, as he is an officer, director and shareholder. Mr. Marinov is not independent of the Company as he is an officer and shareholder. Drill core samples were processed and assayed in the Santander mine onsite laboratory. Zinc, lead and silver, assays were obtained by Aqua-Regia dissolution followed by Atomic Absorption measurement. Values of lead and zinc over 15% are assayed by volumetric method. Analytical accuracy and precision are monitored by the analysis of reagent blanks, reference material and replicate samples. Quality control is further assured by the use of international and in-house standards. Blind certified reference material is inserted at regular intervals into the sample sequence by Trevali personnel in order to independently assess analytical accuracy. The onsite laboratory is outsourced and managed by SGS-Peru personnel. SGS-Peru's quality system complies with the requirements for the International Standards ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 17025: 1999. Finally, representative blind duplicate samples are routinely forwarded to an ISO compliant third party laboratory for external quality control.

ABOUT TREVALI MINING CORPORATION

Trevali is a zinc-focused, base metals mining company with one producing operation in Peru and another currently undergoing commissioning in Canada.

In Peru, the Company is actively producing zinc and lead-silver concentrates from its 2,000-tonne-per-day Santander zinc mine.

In Canada, Trevali owns the Caribou zinc mine and mill, Halfmile mine and Stratmat deposit all located in the Bathurst Mining Camp of northern New Brunswick. The Company is currently commissioning its 3,000-tonne-per-day Caribou zinc mine.

All of the Company's deposits remain open for expansion.

The common shares of Trevali are listed on the TSX (symbol TV), the OTCQX (symbol TREVF), the Frankfurt Exchange (symbol 4TI) and on the Lima Stock Exchange (symbol TV). For further details on Trevali, readers are referred to the Company's website (www.trevali.com) and to Canadian regulatory filings on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of TREVALI MINING CORPORATION

Mark D. Cruise, President

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States private securities litigation reform act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Statements containing forward-looking information express, as at the date of this news release, the Company's plans, estimates, forecasts, projections, expectations, or beliefs as to future events or results and the Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation to, update such statements containing the forward-looking information. Such forward-looking statements and information include, but are not limited to statements as to: the intended use of proceeds in connection with the Offering, the accuracy of estimated mineral resources, anticipated results of future exploration, and forecast future metal prices, expectations that environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, political, marketing or other issues will not materially affect estimates of mineral resources. These statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies.

These statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and contingencies. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this news release and the company has made assumptions and estimates based on or related to many of these factors.

Such factors include, without limitation: fluctuations in spot and forward markets for silver, zinc, base metals and certain other commodities (such as natural gas, fuel oil and electricity); fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar and Peruvian sol versus the U.S. dollar); risks related to the technological and operational nature of the Company's business; changes in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls or regulations and political or economic developments in Canada, the United States, Peru or other countries where the Company may carry on business in the future; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, industrial accidents, unusual or unexpected geological or structural formations, pressures, cave-ins and flooding); risks relating to the credit worthiness or financial condition of suppliers, refiners and other parties with whom the Company does business; inadequate insurance, or inability to obtain insurance, to cover these risks and hazards; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities and indigenous populations; availability and increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development, including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits and the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining, diminishing quantities or grades of mineral resources as properties are mined; global financial conditions; business opportunities that may be presented to, or pursued by, the Company; the Company's ability to complete and successfully integrate acquisitions and to mitigate other business combination risks; challenges to, or difficulty in maintaining, the Company's title to properties and continued ownership thereof; the actual results of current exploration activities, conclusions of economic evaluations, and changes in project parameters to deal with unanticipated economic or other factors; and increased competition in the mining industry for properties, equipment, qualified personnel, and their costs. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty or reliance on forward-looking statements.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, described or intended. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements or information, other than as required by applicable law.

Trevali's production plan at the Caribou Mine is based only on measured, indicated and inferred resources, and not mineral reserves, and does not have demonstrated economic viability. Trevali's production plan at the Santander Mine is based only on indicated and inferred mineral resources, and not mineral reserves, and does not have demonstrated economic viability. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is therefore no certainty that the conclusions of the production plans and Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) will be realized. Additionally, where Trevali discusses exploration/expansion potential, any potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.

We advise US investors that while the terms "measured resources", "indicated resources" and "inferred resources" are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the US Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize these terms. US investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the material in these categories will ever be converted into reserves.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in the United States. The securities described herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the securities laws of any state and may not be offered or sold within the United States, absent such registration or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.

The TSX has not approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release.
VANCOUVER, June 2, 2016 /CNW/ - NexGen Energy Ltd. ("NexGen" or the "Company") (TSXV:NXE, OTCQX:NXGEF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding term sheet with CEF Holdings Limited ("CEF") to issue and sell to CEF and/or affiliates of its shareholders US$60 million in aggregate principal amount of unsecured convertible debentures of NexGen (the "Debentures").

Leigh Curyer, Chief Executive Officer of NexGen commented: "It is a pleasure to welcome CEF as a partner and strategic investor into NexGen. We have been working to secure the right partner for Arrow over the last 12 months in order to advance the project which is among the best undeveloped uranium assets. CEF understands the strategic significance of Arrow and NexGen's development strategy. This is evident by CEF committing to support NexGen's board and executive through the Company's development. This supportive strategic investment represents one of the most significant financing steps in NexGen's history and provides the Company with sufficient capital to continue to optimize the future development of Arrow."

Warren Gilman, Chief Executive Officer of CEF commented: "CEF searches the world for mineral resources which rank amongst the best in their sector and NexGen's Arrow deposit meets that criteria in uranium. We are delighted to support the NexGen team in moving Arrow and the Rook 1 property toward production."

The Terms

The Debentures will carry a 7.5% coupon (the "Interest") over a 5-year term. The Debentures will be convertible at the holder's option into common shares of the Company ("Common Shares") at a conversion price (the "Conversion Price") of US$2.33 (C$3.05 at current exchange rate of 1.31), equal to a 30% premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average trading price calculated in U.S dollars ("20-day VWAP") of Common Shares prior to announcement.

The Company shall be entitled, on or after the third anniversary of the date of the issuance of the Debentures, at any time that the 20-day VWAP of the Common Shares exceeds 130% of the Conversion Price, to redeem the Debentures at par plus accrued and unpaid Interest if the Debentures are not converted after 30 days' notice.

Two thirds of the Interest (equal to 5% per annum) is payable in cash. One third of the Interest (equal to 2.5% per annum) is payable in Common Shares issuable at a price equal to the 20-day VWAP ending on the day prior to the date on which such Interest payment is due.

Subject to an Investment Agreement to be entered into between the parties, CEF will agree to: (i) not tender (or convert) the Debentures or any Common Shares acquired on exercise of the Debentures or otherwise to an unsolicited takeover bid, unless a bidder takes-up and pays for a sufficient number of Common Shares such that it, and persons acting jointly or in concert with it, hold more than 66 2/3% of the outstanding Common Shares of the Company, calculated on a fully-diluted basis; (ii) exercise the votes attached to all Common Shares acquired on exercise of the Debentures or otherwise in respect of any change of control transaction, in accordance with the recommendation of the Company's Board of Directors; and (iii) abstain from voting any Common Shares obtained on conversion of the Debentures or otherwise in respect of the election of individuals to the Company's Board of Directors who are not nominees of management.

Use of Proceeds

Including the proceeds from the sale of the Debentures, NexGen will have cash reserves of approximately C$100 million. Proceeds from the Debentures will be used to fund the continuing exploration and development of the Company's SW2 properties (which includes the Rook 1 project and the Arrow deposit) and for general corporate purposes. These development initiatives at Arrow include detailed engineering, environmental and permitting studies in conjunction with continued definition and expansion drilling.

Approval

The proposed transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval, the completion of definitive documentation, there being no material adverse change in the business of the Company or any laws affecting the Company, or a major event that disrupts the markets or the business of the Company.

Conference Call

NexGen will host a conference call today, June 2, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Participants may join the conference call using the following call-in details:

Participant Toll Free Dial-In: +1 888 231 8191

Participant International Dial-In: +1 647 427 7450

A replay of this conference call will be available until August 4, 2016. The playback numbers are: Local/International: +1 416 849 0833

North America Toll Free: +1 855 859 2056

Playback Passcode: 26009550 #

Advisors

TD Securities Inc. is acting as financial advisor and lead placement agent. Farris Vaughn Wills & Murphy LLP is acting as Canadian legal counsel to NexGen. CIBC World Markets Inc. is acting as financial advisor to CEF. Stikeman Elliott LLP is acting as Canadian legal counsel to CEF.

About CEF Holdings Limited

CEF Holdings Limited is owned 50% by CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. and 50% by CIBC. CK Hutchison Holdings is the publicly-listed flagship company of the CK Hutchison Group of companies, the Hong Kong based multi-national conglomerate with a combined market cap of the Group in excess of $100 billion as of December 31, 2015. CIBC is a leading Canadian-based global financial institution with operations around the world. CEF is an investor in significant resource assets on a global basis.

About NexGen

NexGen is a British Columbia corporation with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. NexGen has a highly experienced team of uranium industry professionals with a successful track record in the discovery of uranium deposits and in developing projects through discovery to production.

NexGen owns a portfolio of highly prospective uranium exploration assets in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada, including a 100% interest in Rook I, location of the Arrow Discovery in February 2014. The Arrow Deposit's maiden Inferred mineral resource estimate is 201.9 M lbs U3O8 contained in 3.48 M tonnes grading 2.63% U3O8. Rook I also hosts the Bow Discovery which is 3.7 km along trend and northeast of Arrow and was made in March 2015.

The TSXV has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including, without limitation, the completion of the proposed transaction, the use of proceeds from the Debentures, and the receipt of all required regulatory approvals, including of the TSXV. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Forward-looking information and statements are based on the then current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about NexGen's business and the industry and markets in which it operates. Forward-looking information and statements are made based upon numerous assumptions, including among others, that the proposed transaction will be completed, the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the price of uranium, the cost of planned exploration activities, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment, supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct NexGen's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward looking information or making forward looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performances and achievements of NexGen to differ materially from any projections of results, performances and achievements of NexGen expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others, negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing, uncertainty of the availability of additional financing, the risk that pending assay results will not confirm previously announced preliminary results, imprecision of mineral resource estimates, the appeal of alternate sources of energy and sustained low uranium prices, aboriginal title and consultation issues, exploration risks, reliance upon key management and other personnel, deficiencies in the Company's title to its properties, uninsurable risks, failure to manage conflicts of interest, failure to obtain or maintain required permits and licenses, changes in laws, regulations and policy, competition for resources and financing, specific risks relating to the negotiation and execution of the definitive agreements for the Debentures, the use of proceeds from the Debentures, the satisfaction of each party's obligations in accordance with the terms of the definitive agreements for the Debentures; failure to receive any required regulatory approvals (including stock exchange), shareholder approval or other approvals, and other factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Annual Information Form dated April 13, 2016 under "Risk Factors".

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE NexGen Energy Ltd.
The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) [official website] on Wednesday sentenced [judgment, PDF] Mohibur Rahman to death for his part in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. His two associates, Mujibur Rahman and Abdur Razzak, were sentenced to life in prison. The three men were charged with killing two freedom fighters as well as the rape and imprisonment of civilians during the conflict, among other crimes against humanity. The men may appeal their sentences to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh within 30 days.

The ICTB, established in 2009 under the International Crimes Act [text], is charged with to detaining, prosecuting and punishing persons responsible for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international law committed during the 1971 conflict. Rights groups such as Amnesty International [advocacy website] have criticized [JURIST report] death sentences imposed by the ICTB, stating that trials of war criminals have, in the past, failed to meet international standards. Last month the Supreme Court of Bangladesh upheld the death sentence issued by the ICTB [JURIST report] against Islamist leader Motiur Rahman Nizami. In March the Supreme Court upheld [JURIST report] the death sentence of a former opposition politician for allegedly committing war crimes during the 1971 war of independence. In February the ICTB sentenced [JURIST report] two men to death for crimes against humanity. Last June a Bangladeshi court gave Syed Mohammed Hasan Ali, a fugitive commander of an auxiliary force of Pakistani troops, a death sentence [JURIST report] for torture and massacre in the Liberation War.
The European Commission (EC) [official website] on Wednesday adopted a rule of law opinion [press release] on Poland, warning that changes to the countrys constitutional court pose a risk to the rule of law. Following Polands Law and Justice (PiS) party obtaining power, a new law allowed the government to appoint judges to the highest court and not recognize those who served under the old system. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the PiS called [Guardian report] the EUs action a made up procedure. However, Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the EC said all member states are responsible for complying with treaties passed by the Union and called for the Polish government to respond quickly:

The rule of law is one of the foundations of the European Union. There have been constructive talks which should now be translated into concrete steps to resolve the systemic risk to the rule of law in Poland. The Opinion adopted today presents our assessment of the issues at stake, building on the dialogue which started in January. On this basis we stand ready to continue the dialogue with the Polish authorities.

This marks the first time the EC has criticized a state under its rule of law procedure, established in 2014.

The EU began examining Polands decision regarding the Constitutional Court [JURIST reports] in January. In February the Polish government passed a controversial surveillance law [JURIST report] that grants the government [press release, Polish] greater access to digital data and broader use of surveillance for law enforcement. The PiS, a conservative party elected in October, holds an overwhelming majority [BBC report] of positions in the Polish government including the lead in both parliamentary houses and the presidency. In December the leader of the European Parliament [official website] compared PiS rise to power in Poland to a coup [BBC report], leading to Parliament calling for an apology. PiS has rejected [DW report] criticisms that its policies are undermining democracy in Poland. However, there is a larger concern in the EU that new Polish law will erode checks and balances on government powers.
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] on Wednesday reinstated [opinion, PDF] a challenge to a Pittsburgh ordinance [text, PDF] establishing a 15-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics. The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) [advocacy website] challenged [JURIST report] the ordinance, which states that one may not knowingly congregate, patrol, picket or demonstrate in a zone extending 15 feet from any entrance to the hospital or health care facility, including abortion clinics and other medical facilities, but the lawsuit was dismissed [opinion, PDF] last year by a judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania [official website]. The Third Circuit reinstated plaintiffs First Amendment claims Wednesday:

Considered in the light most favorable to the Plaintiffs, the First Amendment claims are sufficient to go forward at this stage of the litigation. The speech at issue is core political speech entitled to the maximum protection afforded by the First Amendment, and the City cannot burden it without first trying, or at least demonstrating that it has seriously considered, substantially less restrictive alternatives that would achieve the Citys legitimate, substantial, and content-neutral interests.

The appeals court made no ruling on the merits of the case, which will now return to the lower court.

ADF represents five anti-abortion activists, including Nikki Bruni, who engage in practices such as sidewalk counseling of individuals entering healthcare facilities to receive abortions. The Third Circuit has previously upheld the citys buffer zone, but plaintiffs brought a new challenge in light of a 2014 US Supreme Court [official website] decision that struck down [JURIST report] a similar buffer zone in Massachusetts. The court held in McCullen v. Coakley [SCOTUSblog materials] that a 35-foot protester-free buffer zone around the entrance or driveway of an abortion clinic is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment [text]. The McCullen decision was unexpected [JURIST op-ed] by some, as the court had upheld a similar restriction on free speech in Hill v. Colorado [text] in 2000.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives [official website] passed a bill Wednesday that provides protection to transgender persons in public places. House Bill 4253 [text], An Act relative to gender identity and nondiscrimination, provides that those who identify as transgender shall not be subject to discrimination in such public places as hospitals and restaurants, and will allow those who are transgender to use the rest- and locker-rooms of the gender with which they identify. A similar bill has been approved in the Massachusetts Senate, and when questioned about the topic Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said that, No one should be discriminated against in Massachusetts because of their gender identity.

Transgender access to public areas has been a controversial topic and has created a wave of legislative and judicial actions. Last month the Obama administration issued guidance to schools on ensuring transgender students enjoy a supportive and nondiscriminatory school environment, prompting a lawsuit [JURIST report] by 11 states. Also last month the Florida American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against the Marion County school district, challenging their bathroom policy as anti-transgender. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in May challenging North Carolinas controversial House Bill 2.
UN human rights experts called [press release] Wednesday for the immediate protection of thousands of Syrian civilians. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website], Islamic State (IS) militants have recently seized a number of villages in northern Syria, putting individuals living near the border of Turkey at risk. There has been some effort to clear routes and allow blockaded civilians an avenue to retreat from the devastating conditions, but the situation has quickly deteriorated, and individuals living in this area continue to suffer due to the harsh conditions. These individuals struggle to obtain medical care as medical personal continue to evacuate the area. The UN experts stressed the importance of respecting civilian lives as unconfirmed reports claim that entire families and children have been subject to execution.

The Syrian Civil War [JURIST backgrounder] has been ongoing since 2011 when opposition groups first began protesting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and the increasingly bloody nature of the conflict has put pressure on the international community to intervene. In March Amnesty International reported that Russian and Syrian armed forces are deliberately attacking hospitals and other medical facilities as part of a military strategy to clear the way to northern Aleppo. Just prior, the US House Foreign Affairs Committee passed [press release] two resolutions calling for an international tribunal in the Middle East to address the alleged war crimes [JURIST report] committed by the government of Syria and its allies, specifically Russia and Iran. In February the UN reported that the Syrian government is systematically exterminating detainees [JURIST report]. In November Human Rights Watch released a report stating that the practice of caging captured soldiers and civilians constitutes hostage-taking [JURIST report] and an outrage against their personal dignity.
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Megan Ann Eisold walked on to the next world Sunday, May 29, 2016.

She will forever be missed by her father, Jim Eisold; her mummer, Missy Ojibway (Matt Kromrie); and her big brother, Zach Eisold.

Megan is survived by her grandparents, Nancy Ojibway, Dennis Roshell, and Gloria (Max) Eisold; her great-grandparents, Marv and Bobbie Roshell. Her aunts and uncles also hold her in their hearts, Kari Roshell, Kris Roshell, Elizabeth (D.J.) Roshell, Benjamin (Trista) Roshell, Sharon Eisold, Karen (Gary) Barneson, Pat (Mark) Wilkie, Connie Laney-Sironen, Scott (Barb) Eisold, and Mike Eisold.

Megan will be forever remembered by her cousins, extended family, and her many friends.

Megan was born Aug. 26, 1999. From the moment we met her, her strength and independence were evident. She was a happy baby and with each milestone she reached we saw her fearlessness and curiosity for life grow more and more.

Megan had a fantastic sense of humor and a quick wit. She always had a sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes, and was quick to win people over with her wonderful smile.

Meggie was an artist through and through, whether she was sketching in her notebook, painting on canvas, sculpting with clay or crocheting. Megan made the things she touched more beautiful. We are so very fortunate to be surrounded by the creative and captivating things that she made throughout her life.

Megan loved all animals. She was very proud of the time that she spent volunteering at the Humane Association. Whether it had fur, feathers or scales, all animals had a special place in Megans heart. Megan loved her dog, Abby, and her latest fur brother, Wilson, very much.

Megan is being greeted on the other side by her grandfather, James Eisold; her aunts, Judy, Deb, and Carolyn Ojibway; and her uncles, Mike Riordan, Gary Laney, and Mike, Tim, Larry, Steve, and Jeff Ojibway.

Every person needs to feel special and loved. Megan made everyone feel that way. Our special girls journey has ended far too soon.

We will all hold her in our hearts forever.

A celebration of Megans life will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 4, 2016, at Stokes, Prock and Mundt Funeral Chapel, 535 S. Hillcrest Pkwy, Altoona, with Pastor Nathan Anderson officiating. Visitation will be held from 11 a.m. until the time of service Saturday at the funeral home.

Cremation Society of Wisconsin, Altoona, is assisting the family with arrangements. Online condolences may be shared at www.cremationsociety-wi.com.
MADISON  Whenever I doubt the importance of my work, it helps to remember all the effort that goes into fighting certain political battles in court  say, to uphold voter ID laws or force people to use the bathrooms that correspond with their sex at birth.

Think of all the money lawyers have made arguing on behalf of laws that are only slightly better at depressing turnout than preventing one particular and very rare kind of voter fraud.

And practically speaking, the transgender bathroom wars are less a matter of civil rights or federal overreach than of building design. Put public bathrooms, changing areas and showers in private stalls and no one cares about the people they cant see disrobing 18 inches away.

Straight-ticket voting, on the other hand  now theres something worth fighting about.

Straight-ticket voting, or STV, allows voters to vote for all of a partys candidates by filling in a single bubble on a ballot, and until 2011, Wisconsin was one of the few remaining states to allow it.

Thats when in addition to requiring a photo ID to vote, the Republican-backed law now being challenged in court also ended straight-ticket voting.

It makes sense that Republicans would look to sweep away STV because its generally seen as one of those voting rules that favors Democrats  just like same-day registration, early voting, registering people to vote when they get their drivers licenses and anything else that makes voting easier and more convenient.

Historically speaking, the poor, racial minorities and other Democratic-leaning voters tend to be, well, less likely to vote. Throw up a few barriers to voting and the conventional wisdom is that fewer Democrats get elected.

In America, though, voting isnt supposed to depend on whether youre capable of jumping through a random hoop, like obtaining a photo ID  or, for that matter, on the capacity for intelligent thought.

But eliminating STV is different from photo ID. The latter is aimed at stopping Democratic voters from even getting their hands on a ballot  not just on how they fill it out.

Its not clear how many Wisconsinites took advantage of STV, or which partys voters used it most. The Government Accountability Board didnt collect such data, and the Dane County clerk says its STV data wasnt kept past 22 months after an election.

Election results from La Crosse and Racine counties show that the last time SVP was allowed, about 44 percent and 48 percent of voters, respectively, cast straight-party ballots. There were more Republican such ballots than Democratic ones, but then the Republican candidate for governor, Scott Walker, won both counties.

Getting rid of STV doesnt stop anyone from getting a ballot, or even from voting a straight-party ticket. It just ensures that voters have to read candidates names and fill in their corresponding bubbles to vote for them.

And knowing the people we vote for can only be good for democracy, right?

At the very least, when elected officials are touched by scandal, more voters will recognize their names on the evening news.
For those of us with a certain political bent and background, this is the most depressing moment of all. The best of the GOP  Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan, the intellectually serious reformicons who have called attention to issues of poverty and the need for Republican outreach  are bending their knee to the worst nominee in their partys history. Ryan drags himself slowly. Rubio eventually went with a quick Band-Aid pull. But the largest political choice each man has made this year will be one of the worst mistakes of their careers.

How do I know this? It doesnt require fortune-telling. The same week that Rubio offered to speak on Trumps behalf at the Republican convention, the presumptive nominee declared the 1993 suicide of Vince Foster to be very fishy, especially given Fosters intimate knowledge of what was going on with the Clintons. And Trump attacked the Republican governor of New Mexico, Susana Martinez, for allowing Syrian refugees to be relocated in large numbers to her state. If I was governor, he said, that wouldnt be happening.

This is Trump on his best behavior, trying (once again) to act presidential. A previous column I wrote  examining Trumps penchant for conspiracy thinking on issues from vaccination to the death of Antonin Scalia  appeared on the same day that Trump implicated Hillary Clinton in Fosters death. One challenge of detailing Trumps lunacy is the need for hourly updates. His allegation in the Foster case involved the exploitation of a personal tragedy, amounting to the mockery of a familys loss. It revealed a wide streak of cruelty.

The attack on Martinez demonstrated another less-than-desirable leadership quality. Trumps charge against her had nothing to do with refugee policy. During her time as governor, just 10 Syrian refugees have been relocated to New Mexico. Trump was attempting to punish Martinez because she has been noncommittal about endorsing him. In making judgments about people, Trumps primary measure is not ideological or even political. He likes people who support him and disdains people who dont. So Martinez and liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren are lumped in the same category of lese-majeste. It doesnt matter that Martinez is known as an effective Republican governor. Trump demands the unity of adulation. He is incapable of magnanimity.

And this meanness of spirit is also applied to some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Trumps mention of refugees was a subterfuge, but still a damaging one. To score his political point, Trump chose to heap disdain on a few people  vetted for years before arrival  who seek the protection of America after a terrible ordeal. Can you imagine, say, Ronald Reagan attacking women and children fleeing violence and oppression? They would more likely be used as an inspiring speech illustration. For Trump, the bully, a trickle of refugees is another chance to kick the weak.

Republicans are testing out a theory. What Trump is doing, argues Peter Wehner of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is exactly what Rush Limbaugh and others have been begging Republican presidential candidates to do  to run a brutal, scorched-earth, anything-goes campaign. They now have their man. So, is the nation longing for more invective, more viciousness, more accusations of scandal and conspiracy? A strong plurality of voters in Republican primaries seemed to agree. We will now see how the national electorate responds. As a starting move, Trump has accused Bill Clinton of rape and intimated that the Clintons are guilty of murder. It is hard to imagine going lower from here, but Trump will surely manage.

Some Republicans keep expecting Trump to finally remove the mask of misogyny, prejudice and cruelty and act in a more presidential manner. But it is not a mask. It is his true face. Good Republican leaders making the decision to support Trump will end up either humiliated by the association, or betrayed and attacked for criticizing the great leader. Trump leaves no other options.

Here is the problem in sum: Republicans have not been given the option of choosing the lesser of two evils. The GOP has selected someone who is unfit to be president, lacking the temperament, stability, judgment and compassion to occupy the office. This is a terrible error, which has probably cost conservatives a majority on the Supreme Court. But the mistake was made by Republican primary voters in choosing Trump  not by those who cant, in good conscience, support him.
One week after French oil workers went on strike which has paralysed 6 of Frances 8 refineries, half of all rail transportation in France has come to a screeching halt due to a transportation strike. But French oil workers and transport activists are protesting different issues. The ongoing oil standoff is in protest against President Hollandes labour bill, which makes it easier to hire and fire workers, and comes at a time when the rail unions have decided to take a stand as well. While gasoline suppliers are crippling oil production in the country to protest against labour reform, rail workers fear the loss of many bargaining advantages due to the reform of the national collective arrangement RH077, outlining working patterns and practices in state transport. This has spurred public sector protests in Belgium as well.

The document RH077 defines the working arrangement for railway workers including the 35 hour work week, personal days and holidays. The government wants to replace the document, which took effect in 2014, with a new one starting on July 1. The new rules should allow French public transportion to open the market to competitors by 2020, whose employees to have less restrictive working conditions.

Unions of the National Society of French Railways (SNCF) sent strike notices until Tuesday (May 31st). Workers hope to keep the pressure on the government at least until the 6th of June when they are to issue the next proposal. On the 18th of February, Alain Vidalies, French State Secretary for Transport, offered a proposal to UTP, the union representing companies such as SNCF and its competitors Transdev, Deutsche Bahn end Europort, to negotiate a new collective agreement.

On the one hand, companies want to become more competitive; on the other, workers hope to get an agreement which comes as close as the current one as possible.

What about El Khomri Law? Railway unions do not want to mix their protests with those of labour reform, although they support both measures. They disagree, of course, with the new labour law, which would affect all French companies. It is, however, a good opportunity for railway workers to join the protests against the Hollandes labour bill.

RATP, the public transport in Paris, as well as oil refineries and airplane manufacturers, have joined the workers movement against the latest labour reforms. Protesters hope to increase their bargaining power as the Eurocup is set to kick-off across the country on June 10th.

Belgium is also affected

France is not the only country in turmoil. At the same time that the French railway sector is striking, the Belgian public sector is also taking a stance against government measures such as the wage indexation and an increase in the retirement age from 65 to 67. Prison guards have also been on strike for more than four weeks protesting the reform of their working conditions.

Regarding the rail sector and taking heed from French unionists, many in the mainly French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium also went on strike with talks that it could continue until Friday, June 3rd.

Teachers, firemen and policemen who are union members, demonstrated quietly on May 31st in the streets of Brussels. There were between 7,500 protesters, according to police, and 12,000, according to organisers. Demonstrators also took to the streets in Gent, Liege, Mons, Namur and the municipality of Wavre, where Belgian prime minister Charles Michel is also mayor. For now, the protesters do not aim at collapsing the federal government; they only want its policies to change. With regard to railway workers, they most likely will strike at least until Friday, which would make it the longest strike since 1986.
The presidential election isn't the only contest on the ballot this fall.

A closely watched U.S. Senate rematch, all eight U.S. House seats, 11 of 16 state Senate seats and nearly two-thirds of Assembly seats all feature contested races.

The slate of Congressional and state legislative candidates began to take shape with the passing of Wednesday's 5 p.m. deadline for filing the necessary paperwork and signatures to run for office this fall with the Government Accountability Board.

The top statewide race on the November ballot will be the U.S. Senate rematch between incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh, and Democratic challenger Russ Feingold, D-Middleton, whom Johnson ousted in 2010.

Taxi manager and real estate company owner Phillip Anderson of Fitchburg also filed nomination papers Wednesday to run as a Libertarian and Scott Harbach of Kenosha also filed papers on Wednesday to run as a Democrat.

A handful of other races around the state drew multiple candidates from the same party, which will be resolved in a primary election on Aug. 9.

The most closely watched U.S. House races are taking place in the 8th Congressional District in northeast Wisconsin around Green Bay, where Republican Reid Ribble is retiring, and the 1st Congressional District, where inventor Paul Nehlen is seeking to "Cantor" House Speaker Paul Ryan  a reference to Eric Cantor, the former Republican majority leader from Virginia, who lost his 2014 primary to a tea party challenger.

In the 8th district, four Republicans have filed to run, including state Sen. Frank Lasee, who is not up for re-election this year, Mike Gallagher, a Marine and former foreign policy adviser to Gov. Scott Walker's presidential campaign, U.S. Army veteran Terry McNulty and entrepreneur Gary Schomburg. The only Democrat running is Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson.

In the 3rd Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, faces a primary challenge from the left against retired teacher Myron Buccholz.

In the Madison-based 2nd Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Black Earth, faces another challenge from Republican Peter Theron, a Madison College math instructor.

Among state legislative races, Democrats are hoping to win back the state Senate  a difficult task  and dent a 63-36 Republican advantage in the Assembly.

Republicans hold a 19-14 majority in the Senate, where 16 seats are up for election this year (all are for four-year terms). Five seats aren't contested and three contested seats only drew candidates from one party, so Republicans will need to win three of eight contested seats to hold on to the majority.

Noteworthy match-ups include a race for Sen. Rick Gudex's open seat between two Democrats  Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris and Oshkosh School Board member John Lemberger  and two Republicans  Fond du Lac County Republican Party chairman Dan Feyen and real estate developer Mark Elliott.

Also Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling faces a potential rematch against Dan Kapanke, whom she unseated in a 2011 recall election. Shilling first faces a primary challenge from former private investigator Jared Landry. Chip DeNure, an independent who ran and lost against Kind in 2006, is also on the ballot.

And in Milwaukee, Rep. Mandela Barnes is challenging Sen. Lena Taylor. Both are Democrats.

In the Assembly there are 35 uncontested seats, of which Republicans hold 19 and Democrats hold 16.

Republican incumbents face Democratic challengers in 36 districts and independent challengers in three others. Democratic incumbents face Republican and Libertarian challengers in nine districts, and Democratic primary challengers in five districts.

In Dane County the most hotly contested race will be for Rep. Robb Kahl's seat, which covers parts of Fitchburg, Monona, Madison, Cottage Grove and the town of Dunn. Three Democrats and a "Bernie Sanders Independent" have filed to run.

Brandon Weathersby, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said there are two primary challengers, among a number of races that will see a Democratic primary, that are suspected by the party of being conservatives posing as Democrats, including Landry who is challenging Shilling and Luke Joseph, who is challenging Rep. Sondy Pope.

On Joseph's campaign website, he is listed as believing life begins at conception, having concerns about the Common Core State Standards being used in all childrens' school curriculum as well as supportive of parents choosing between public, private, homeschooling, virtual schools, etc. Joseph also says he is in favor of reducing regulations on business and supports a free market economy.

Landry does not have a campaign website to indicate positions on issues. State records show he has a number of misdemeanor on his criminal record.

Independent candidates are allowed to include a five-word statement of their principles, rather than a party affiliation. Others include Spencer Zimmerman running as a "Trump Conservative" in the 1st Congressional District and DeNure running with "The Integrity Party" in Shilling's Senate district.

Here is a list of those who had filed to run as of Wednesday.

Statewide offices

U.S. SENATE

Philip Anderson, Fitchburg  Libertarian

Russ Feingold, Middleton  Democrat

Scott Harbach, Kenosha  Democrat

Ron Johnson (I), Oshkosh  Republican

U.S. House of Representatives

District 1

Tom Breu, Janesville  Democrat

Ryan Solen, Mount Pleasant  Democrat

Jason Lebeck, Janesville  Libertarian

Paul Nehlen, Williams Bay  Republican

Paul Ryan (I), Janesville  Republican

Spencer Zimmerman, Janesville  Trump Conservative

District 2

Mark Pocan (I), Black Earth  Democrat

Peter Theron, Madison  Republican

District 3

Myron Buccholz, Eau Claire  Democrat

Ron Kind (I), La Crosse  Democrat

District 4

Gwen S. Moore (I), Milwaukee  Democrat

Robert R. Raymond, Milwaukee  Independent

Andy Craig, Milwaukee  Libertarian

Gary R. George, Milwaukee  Democrat

District 5

Khary Penebaker, Hartland  Democrat

John Arndt, Brookfield  Libertarian

F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (I), Menomonee Falls  Republican

District 6

Sarah Lloyd, Wisconsin Dells  Democrat

W. Michael Slattery, Maribel  Democrat

Jeff Dahlke, Mequon  Independent

Glenn Grothman (I), Glenbeulah  Republican

District 7

Joel Lewis, Wausau  Democrat

Mary Hoeft, Rice Lake  Democrat

Robert Burke, Hudson  Libertarian

Donald Raihala, Superior  Republican

Sean Duffy (I), Wausau  Republican

District 8

Tom Nelson, Appleton  Democrat

Gary E. Shomburg, Lakewood  Republican

Terry McNulty, Forestville  Republican

Frank Lasee, De Pere  Republican

Mike Gallagher, Green Bay  Republican

Local State Legislative Offices

State Senate

District 14

Brian Smith, Waupaca  Democrat

Luther S. Olsen (I), Ripon  Republican

District 16

Mark Miller (I), Monona  Democrat

District 26

Fred Risser (I), Madison  Democrat

District 32

Jared William Landry, La Farge  Democrat

Jennifer Shilling (I), La Crosse  Democrat

Chip DeNure, La Crosse  Integrity Party

Dan Kapanke, La Crosse  Republican

John Sarnowski, Onalaska -- Republican

State Assembly

District 33

Brandon White, Jefferson  Democrat

Cody Horlacher (I), Mukwonago  Republican

District 37

Jordan Turner, Watertown  Democrat

John Jagler (I), Watertown  Republican

District 38

Chris R. Guschenritter, Oconomowoc  Democrat

Scott Martin Michalak, Marshall  Democrat

Joel Kleefisch (I), Oconomowoc  Republican

District 39

Jim Zahn, Juneau  Democrat

Mark L. Born (I), Beaver Dam  Republican

District 41

Bradley Pearson, Adams  Independent

Joan Ballweg (I), Markesan  Republican

District 42

George E. Ferriter, Fall River  Democrat

Keith Ripp (I), Lodi  Republican

District 43

Don Vruwink, Milton  Democrat

Anissa Welch, Milton  Democrat

Allison Hetz, Whitewater  Republican

District 44

Debra Kolste (I), Janesville  Democrat

District 45

Mark Spreitzer (I), Beloit  Democrat

District 46

Gary Hebl (I), Sun Prairie  Democrat

District 47

Adam Dahl, Madison  Bernie Sanders Independent

Jimmy Anderson, Fitchburg  Democrat

Julia Arata-Fratta, Fitchburg  Democrat

H. Tony Hartmann, Fitchburg  Democrat

District 48

Melissa Agard Sargent (I), Madison  Democrat

District 49

Jesse Bennett, Bagley  Democrat

Travis Tranel (I), Cuba City  Republican

District 50

Tom Crofton, Richland Center  Democrat

Art Shrader, Reedsburg  Democrat

Ed Brooks (I), Reedsburg  Republican

District 51

Jeff Wright, Plain  Democrat

Todd Novak (I), Dodgeville  Republican

District 72

Russ Brown, Coloma  Democrat

David Gorski, Wisconsin Rapids  Democrat

Scott S. Krug (I), Nekoosa  Republican

District 76

Chris Taylor (I), Madison  Democrat

David Aguayo, Madison  Independent - For the People

Jon Rygewicz, Madison  Republican

Abram Smith, Madison -- Libertarian

District 77

Terese Berceau (I), Madison  Democrat

District 78

Lisa Subeck (I), Madison  Democrat

Jacob Wischmeier, Madison  Democrat

Chris V. Fisher, Madison  Independent

District 79

Dianne H. Hesselbein (I), Middleton  Democrat

Jordan Zadra, Madison  Republican

District 80

Sondy Pope (I), Mount Horeb  Democrat

Luke Joseph, Oregon  Democrat

District 81

Dave Considine (I), Baraboo  Democrat

David J. Moore, Wisconsin Dells  Republican

District 96

Alicia Leinberger, Viroqua  Democrat

Lee Nerison (I), Westby  Republican
A top Veterans Affairs official testified before a congressional hearing Tuesday that the agency was to blame for problems linked to the deaths of at least two patients at the Tomah VA Medical Center.

Sloan Gibson, deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs, said clear and inexcusable lack of leadership allowed the deaths to occur and outlined steps taken to reform the facility and reduce the reliance on opioid painkillers.

I own those problems, those failures, Gibson said. We had ample opportunity over a number of years to fix this  and we failed to get it done.

His statements came after the conclusion of a Senate investigation that blamed systemic failures by the Veterans Administration and governmental watchdog agencies for allowing the deaths of at least two veterans.

The 359-page report by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs that said failures across the executive branch allowed problems of over-medication and abuse of authority to fester in the facility for at least nine years despite attempts of patients and employees to contact law enforcement and the VAs Inspector General.

The VA has been under fire since January 2015, when a report by the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting detailed high levels of opioid prescription at the Tomah VA and a pervasive culture of intimidation and retaliation against employees who spoke out. Two top officials from Tomah  Director Mario DeSanctis and medical Chief of Staff Dr. David Houlihan  were removed in the wake of that report, as were at least two other care providers.

In 2014, the VAs Office of Inspector General concluded a three-year investigation that identified troubling levels of opioid prescriptions but found no criminal wrongdoing. The OIG did not release the report until its existence was revealed by the media.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who chairs the committee, said the inspector generals office lost its way under the leadership of Richard Griffin, who stepped down in 2015 and that new Inspector General Michael Missal needs to clean house.

I believe these tragedies could have been prevented if the Inspector General had done its job, Johnson said. The office of the Inspector General under Richard Griffin was loyal to the VA instead of to the finest among us and the American public.

Tuesdays report, the result of a 16-month investigation by the committee, said employees at the hospital had referred to Houlihan since at least 2004 as Candy Man because of his copious prescriptions for opioid painkillers and that the Drug Enforcement Administration has been investigating potential drug diversion for seven years with no public results.

Among the other revelations in the report:

In the months before his death at the hospital, Jason Simcakoski called multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, which denied any record of contact.

The former chief of the Tomah VA police knew the facility had a reputation as a big pill box when he took over in 2009 but didnt investigate the allegations.

The VA did not fully investigate past allegations of misconduct against Houlihan when he was hired and later promoted to chief of staff.

An OIG agent reported that Houlihan and another practitioner appeared to be under the influence of drugs when he interviewed them; the OIG suggested that DeSanctis consider drug testing his staff but there was no follow up.

While handling of the Tomah scandal has been a point of contention in Johnsons re-election campaign against former Sen. Russ Feingold, Johnson focused his criticism on the VA and denied politicizing the issue.

Ive done nothing political here, he told reporters before the hearing.

The committees minority members released a supplemental report that largely echoed that sentiment.

Fixing the problems at the VA isnt a partisan issue, said Sen. Tom Carper, the committees ranking Democrat. Its a shared responsibility among Congress, the Administration, and the VAs leadership.

Johnson, a proponent of privatizing the VA health system, said he believes veterans today are receiving better care at Tomah than they did under Houlihan but said problems are inherent in a government-run system.

Its rare that people get held accountable, he said.

Gibson later disagreed, saying the VA is unmatched in its ability to provide care to more than 8.7 million veterans.

No healthcare operation in America or perhaps in the world does the things VA does, he said. What other organization in America can bring that scope and that scale to bear on care for veterans?

Gibson outlined other reforms undertaken in Tomah.

Under interim director Victoria Brahm, Gibson said, the number of veterans receiving opioids has dropped by nearly a quarter, to just over 9 percent, below the national rate of about 13 percent.

Shes finding options, Gibson said. Other than just a bag of pills.

Marvin Simcakoski, the father of a Marine veteran who died from a toxic combination of medications while at the hospital in 2014, said hes encouraged by efforts to reform the VA.

I can tell these guys are sincere, he said after the hearing. And I think were going in the right direction.
KEARNEY  David Fisher was sentenced to 10 to 15 years in prison for felony attempted sexual assault of a Kearney child.

Fisher, 36, was sentenced Monday in Buffalo County District Court by Judge Bill Wright. Fisher was given 159 days credit for time already served in jail. With good time, he could be eligible for parole in five years and could possibly be discharged in 7 years.

The incident happened Jan. 4 in Kearney. Fisher had earlier pleaded no contest to the charge of attempting to subject a person 12 years of age or younger to sexual penetration. He faced one to 50 years in prison.

Fisher must now register with the Nebraska State Patrol for the next 25 years as a convicted sex offender.

During Mondays hearing, Fishers public defender, Vikki Stamm of Kearney, asked for probation with intensive counseling for her client because of his lack of a criminal record. However, a sex offender evaluation said Fisher was at high risk to re-offend.

I regret doing what I did, Fisher softly said to Wright.

Deputy Buffalo County Attorney Melanie Young said Fisher hadnt taken responsibility for his actions and he blamed the victim for the incident.

Wright sided with Young by calling Fishers crime despicable.

Its obvious, sir, you need a substantial amount of treatment, Wright said.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa  Juveniles who commit even the most heinous murders must someday have the chance to earn their release from prison, a divided Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The court banned judges from imposing sentences of life without parole on offenders who are younger than 18 when they commit murders, saying the states harshest sentence amounts to cruel and unusual punishment under the Iowa Constitution.

Judges are unable to predict which youthful offenders have reliable prospects for turning their lives around, and determinations about whether they can be released should be made later by the Iowa Board of Parole, Justice Brent Appel wrote for the 4-3 majority.

Iowa joins a growing list of states to

categorically ban the sentence as an option for juvenile offenders. But the vast majority have done so through legislation, not judicial mandate.

Justices ruled in the case of Isaiah Sweet, who was 17 when he shot his unsuspecting grandparents to death in their Manchester living room in 2012. He then began to sell off their belongings  showing a friend a television a few feet from the bodies  and partied with friends in the college town of Iowa City. Relatives found the dead couple when they came to visit for Mothers Day, and Sweet was captured a day later following a manhunt.

Sweet, a rebellious high school dropout with above-average intelligence, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. His defense asked for a chance at parole after 25 years, citing an expert who claimed he might have a 75 percent chance of rehabilitating. But Judge Michael Shubatt sentenced him to life without parole, saying he was a cold-blooded murderer who would always pose a public safety threat. Hes extremely dangerous, Shubatt said.

Fridays ruling orders a new sentencing for Sweet. About a dozen other inmates who were 17 or under when they committed murders are awaiting new sentences and life-without-parole will no longer be an option for them.

Appel wrote that the ruling doesnt guarantee parole for anyone, saying offenders who over time show irredeemable corruption will no doubt spend their lives in prison. Those determinations, however, must be made by parole officials, not judges.

The parole board will be better able to discern whether the offender is irreparably corrupt ... after opportunities for maturation and rehabilitation have been provided, and after a record of success or failure in the rehabilitative process is available, Appel wrote.

Dissenting Justice Edward Mansfield said the court was wrong to eliminate a sentencing option that had been overwhelmingly reauthorized by lawmakers last year. He said Shubatt appropriately used his discretion to sentence Sweet to life given the planning that went into the murders, included his decision to wear earmuffs to protect his own hearing when he fired his grandfathers assault rifle.

One can fairly say that Sweet murdered the two people who rescued him, Mansfield said, noting that his grandparents had given Sweet a stable home after raising him since age 4.

States have been forced to rethink their punishments for teenage criminals in recent years. The U.S. Supreme Court abolished automatic life sentences for juveniles in 2012, saying judges must consider each offenders ability to be rehabilitated. The court kept the door open for judges to impose life-without-parole sentences for the rare offender whose crimes reflect irreparable corruption.
Deuel County Deputy Mike Hutchinson, who continues to recover from four gunshot wounds suffered during a December ambush while serving an arrest warrant, has lost his family health insurance because hes not working at least 30 hours a week.

Hutchinson hopes that officials in the small western Nebraska county can find about $1,500 a month to temporarily continue his group health coverage  under a law known as COBRA  until he can return to work.

I didnt ask to be shot, Hutchinson said Wednesday. I was wounded on the job. ... Im not asking for anything special. Just dont cancel my insurance.

Hutchinsons medical bills and many other expenses related to the Dec. 3 incident in Big Springs continue to be covered by workers compensation insurance. However, for example, Hutchinson now has no insurance coverage for injuries if he or his wife were hurt in a car crash when driving to Ogallala for a doctors appointment.

Hutchinson said he received a letter last week from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, the Omaha-based insurance company that handles Deuel Countys group health plan, stating that his policy would be terminated May 31 because he was not actively working.

Leslie Preston, finance manager for the Nebraska Association of County Officials in Lincoln, said many county employees across the state are injured on the job each year. Insurance policies generally dont differentiate between injuries suffered when a county employee falls down stairs or gets shot. If the employee isnt working at least 30 hours a week, he or she isnt eligible for county-provided group health insurance.

In Omaha, thats not the case, said Sgt. John Wells, the president of the Omaha police union.

If an Omaha police officer were in the same situation as Hutchinson, he or she would be able to maintain his or her health insurance, Wells said.

Omaha officers are allowed at least 12 months to recover from such an injury and can get more time, during which they get to keep their health insurance. If they have to be medically retired, they can still keep their health insurance.

The city is self-insured, Wells said, and Coventry administers its health care plan.

Here you have a hero who basically sacrificed his health ... and this is how they are going to treat him? Wells said.

Douglas County Sheriff Tim Dunning said his deputies can have up to a year to recover from on-the-job injuries, and they would keep their insurance. That time could be extended if he thinks the deputy is getting better.

If I knew from a doctor that that persons ability to come back to duty was sometime in the near future, we would probably extend that time, he said.

Larry Dix, executive director of the county officials association, was in meetings Wednesday and unavailable to comment, Preston said. Blue Cross Blue Shield representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The Deuel County Board plans a general discussion about employee insurance at its Tuesday meeting in the courthouse at Chappell. County Clerk Polly Olson said the issue is scheduled to come up at 10:30 a.m. during a routine office activities report by Sheriff Scott DeCoste.

County Board Chairman Steven Fischer, a Farm Bureau Financial Services insurance agent in Chappell, declined to comment, other than to say, Its a sad situation, but it will get rectified.

Fischer said County Attorney Joel Jay is researching the issue.

Hutchinson said he knows of situations in neighboring Keith and Perkins counties in which the county has covered COBRA costs for injured employees by tapping funds from other accounts.

Im not blaming the county commissioners, he said. Theyre good guys; they just dont know what needs to happen and what can happen. There are so many unknowns right now, but I do know that something needs to be changed at the state level for future law enforcement officers and their families. To be injured in the line of duty and then pull their insurance and expect them to pay COBRA prices, theres just no way.

Hutchinsons wife, Karyl, has taken a leave from her job to care for her husband at home.

Mike Hutchinson said an infection set back his recovery after he returned home to Chappell in late February after four surgeries and more than 11 weeks in Colorado hospital facilities. He returned to the hospital in May so doctors could close a surgically created opening in his body for the discharge of body wastes. He expected to be hospitalized three days, but an infection kept him there about 10 days.

The wound is healing, and Hutchinson plans to resume physical therapy treatments Monday in nearby Julesburg, Colo.

Im off work for at least eight to 10 months yet, he said. I havent been cleared by the medical docs or the mental health therapists. I still have open wounds, and I have to start over with physical therapy. Im back to square one and caught between a rock and a hard place.
LINCOLN  Saying demands for party loyalty dont always result in good lawmaking, state Sen. Laura Ebke has switched her affiliation from Republican to Libertarian.

The senator from Crete, elected as a Republican in 2014, said she filled out online forms last week with the Secretary of States Office to make the change. But she said shed been considering the switch for months.

I got frustrated with some of my colleagues who dont recognize civil liberties and dont seem to agree with getting government out of peoples business, she said Wednesday.

Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts recent hardball play with GOP senators such as Ebke who dont always vote along party lines was one of many factors in her decision, she said. The governor called out several lawmakers by name last month during the state GOP convention, saying the Legislature needs more platform Republicans.

I suspect that better policy would be made if there was more conversation and fewer demands of partisan loyalty, Ebke wrote in a letter to donors explaining her decision.

The rise of Donald Trump toward the Republican nomination for president, although a factor in her decision, was not a major reason, she said. She said she now intends to support the Libertarian presidential ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, both former Republican governors.

Longtime Capitol observers believe Ebke, a first-term senator, may be the first Libertarian to serve in the officially nonpartisan Legislature.

Clerk of the Legislature Patrick ODonnell said Wednesday that he could not think of another registered Libertarian who served, although other senators have had strong Libertarian leanings. But because the Legislature is formally nonpartisan, his office doesnt keep records of past members party affiliations.

Michael Knebel, a party spokesman, said that a Libertarian now serves on a city council in the state, but said Ebke is the first in the Legislature.

Libertarians favor a limited, fiscally responsible government that does not infringe on personal freedoms  making sure government is out of your wallet and out of your bedroom as much as possible, Knebel said.

The party has been on and off the ballot since the 1980s, but has qualified as an official political party in the state since 2010. With two statewide candidates receiving at least 5 percent of the vote in 2014, the party will remain on the ballot at least until 2018, Knebel said.

Ebkes decision to join gives the Libertarians momentum at a key time, Knebel said.

It is a watershed moment, he said.

Ebke said she grew up in a strong Republican household and took an early interest in politics. At age 16, she was elected to lead the Teen Age Republicans in Nebraska and counted Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and Carl Curtis as her political heroes.

But in recent years, she said, party leaders seem more interested in winning partisan skirmishes than in cutting taxes, addressing the national debt or upholding the individual liberties protected by the Constitution.

She helped start the Republican Liberty Caucus in the state. And when she ran for Legislature, she made it clear she adheres to key libertarian principles, she said.

Right now, she said, the Libertarian Party offers her a better fit.

Ebke is one of 13 state senators who recently signed a letter asking Ricketts to respect the nonpartisan tradition of Nebraskas legislative branch.

But on most issues, she said, she agrees with and will continue to support the governor. She said she hopes voters will judge her voting record, not her party affiliation.

I hope that they can see that by taking the road less traveled, I may be able to better serve all of our citizens, and not just the Republicans, she said.
Planned Parenthood Violates Patient Privacy Rights to Sell Fetal Tissue Contact: Alexandra Snyder, Life Legal Defense Foundation , 202-717-7371 WASHINGTON, June 1, 2016 /



Life Legal is representing David Daleiden in three separate lawsuits by StemExpress, the National Abortion Federation, and Planned Parenthood.



The



Evidence gathered by the Panel showed that Planned Parenthood systematically shared patients' medical charts with StemExpress employees. StemExpress then used the information, including the age of the patient, gestational age of the baby, health of the mother and the baby, to decide which patients to approach and obtain consent to harvest the fetal tissue. StemExpress employees had daily orders from researchers for particular organs at certain gestational ages and access to all the patients' medical charts allowed them to approach only those patients whose wombs contained the desired tissues.



"In addition to violating federal laws prohibiting the sale of tissue from aborted babies, now we discover that Planned Parenthood has violated federal laws protecting patient privacy," says Alexandra Snyder, Executive Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "Planned Parenthood and its media allies claim that none of the government investigations spurred by our client David Daleiden's work have uncovered any wrongdoing by the abortion giant. This is manifestly untrue, and today's letters from the Select Panel are the latest proof."



Life Legal also learned that Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who chairs the Select Panel, sent a



LINKS:



Complaint



Select Congressional Panel



Human Research Letter



About Life Legal Defense Foundation

Life Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a nonprofit organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens committed to giving helpless and innocent human beings of any age, and their advocates, a trained and committed voice in the courtrooms of our nation. For more information about the Life Legal Defense Foundation, visit

Share Tweet WASHINGTON, June 1, 2016 / Christian Newswire / -- Life Legal applauds the Select Congressional Panel investigating Planned Parenthood for filing a complaint against the abortion giant, citing "serious and systematic violations of the HIPAA privacy rule." The Panel requested a "swift and full investigation by the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services." Complaints were also filed against StemExpress, a broker of fetal specimens, and other abortion providers.Life Legal is representing David Daleiden in three separate lawsuits by StemExpress, the National Abortion Federation, and Planned Parenthood.The Select Congressional Panel was established after David Daleiden published a series of videos exposing Planned Parenthood's role in the trafficking of baby body parts. The Panel uncovered information showing that Planned Parenthood "committed systematic violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ('HIPAA') privacy rule from about 2010 to 2015." Planned Parenthood clinics shared patient health information with StemExpress in order to provide specific types of fetal tissue for resale.Evidence gathered by the Panel showed that Planned Parenthood systematically shared patients' medical charts with StemExpress employees. StemExpress then used the information, including the age of the patient, gestational age of the baby, health of the mother and the baby, to decide which patients to approach and obtain consent to harvest the fetal tissue. StemExpress employees had daily orders from researchers for particular organs at certain gestational ages and access to all the patients' medical charts allowed them to approach only those patients whose wombs contained the desired tissues."In addition to violating federal laws prohibiting the sale of tissue from aborted babies, now we discover that Planned Parenthood has violated federal laws protecting patient privacy," says Alexandra Snyder, Executive Director of the Life Legal Defense Foundation. "Planned Parenthood and its media allies claim that none of the government investigations spurred by our client David Daleiden's work have uncovered any wrongdoing by the abortion giant. This is manifestly untrue, and today's letters from the Select Panel are the latest proof."Life Legal also learned that Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who chairs the Select Panel, sent a letter to the HHS office for Human Research Protections urging a separate investigation into StemExpress for "fraudulently using invalid consent forms." An earlier panel hearing highlighted evidence that Planned Parenthood's consent forms incorrectly stated that fetal tissue had produced cures for a variety of diseases. According to the Panel's evidence, StemExpress also misled its customers to believe it had a valid Institutional Review Board approval, a federal requirement for conducting research involving human subjects.LINKS:About Life Legal Defense FoundationLife Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a nonprofit organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens committed to giving helpless and innocent human beings of any age, and their advocates, a trained and committed voice in the courtrooms of our nation. For more information about the Life Legal Defense Foundation, visit www.lldf.org
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A good friend of mine recently found herself between jobs, with a gap in her health insurance and a recurrence of her kidney stones. What she needed were fluids and pain relief, fast. Im a gastroenterologist, and hoping to minimize the financial impact, I went with her to our local ER and had a conversation with the attending physician. Maybe we could pass on the CT scan and extraneous lab work?

The attending was in her room for less than two minutes and never examined her. But the CT scan and blood work were ordered. My friend received intravenous fluids (about $1 worth), pain meds (about $5 worth of Dilaudid), and a $10,000 bill from the hospital. To add insult to injury, the bill from the ER attending was for service at the highest billable level.

My friend had the good sense and gumption to call the ER groups practice manager to point out that billing at that level was fraudulent. The ER group had the good sense to reduce the bill by half.

Shortly after that, I received a call from a patient on whom I had performed an upper endoscopy to remove a small gastric polyp. Because removing stomach polyps can be complicated by bleeding, I did the procedure in the hospital rather than an outpatient center. The whole thing took 15 minutes. Anesthesia wasnt required, just routine conscious sedation. So, my patient wanted to know, what had I done that warranted an $18,000 bill from the hospital?

I had absolutely no explanation. For $18,000, you can just about buy your own endoscope. Amortized costs for an upper endoscopy at this hospital, including the use of the endoscopy unit, salaries for the whole staff, medication, and equipment expenses is probably not more than $200 for 15 minutes. By the way, the doctor doing the procedure  in that case, me  typically gets about $175 for an upper endoscopy.

And then there are the costly procedures you could probably do without.

Recently, a surgical group owned by the same hospital hired a surgeon with an interest in esophageal disorders, particularly surgery for acid reflux  heartburn. Hes a good guy and capable. So the hospital decided to create a center of excellence for esophageal diseases. A hurdle quickly became apparent. My town isnt flush with esophageal experts. The hospital has excellent generalists who could contribute, but just one specialist surgeon who was retiring (hence the new hire). Still, the Joint Commission, an independent health care accreditation outfit, would certify the hospitals new center if certain standards were met and a fee was paid. Thats not exactly the same as excellence.

A marketing plan was developed to get the word out. But really, far fewer than 1 percent of frequent heartburn sufferers will benefit from surgery. Most people with heartburn would be best served by getting help modifying their lifestyle. Thats particularly true because the behaviors associated with reflux (overeating, obesity, alcohol consumption and smoking, to name a few) are also risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and a variety of cancers.

However, lifestyle modifications are not profitable, and surgery is very profitable. The surgeon (and his colleagues who agreed to work with the center) doesnt want to perform surgery thats inappropriate or not indicated. Hes not like that. But hes employed by the hospital. You can see where this is going. The center is up and running.

The American health care system is capable of many wonderful things, but not all of them are about health or care. It is just as often about selling you things you probably dont need at a ridiculous price, or finding ways to charge you a ridiculous price even for what you do need.

The folks driving it arent generally physicians, nurses or other health care providers (to use the parlance of the times). They are businesspeople  executives that run hospitals, pharmaceutical concerns and insurance companies  using health care as their instrument to make money. And sadly, the average physician doesnt have a lot of choice about lashing his raft to these organizations if he wants to practice his trade.

As a nation, we spend far more than other developed countries for health care, and our outcomes are not as good. Those other countries generally have some form of a single-payer system. Here, were told single-payer horror stories: People are dying in Canada and England waiting for care.

Ive got news from the front lines of the U.S. system. People are dying here, too, in large numbers, and at the same time, theyre going broke paying the bills. Medical expenses, even now that many more people have some form of insurance, are a prime cause of bankruptcy and financial insecurity in the U.S.

No health care system is perfect, but heres what the rest of the civilized world understands: Health care is a right. There is no place for rampant capitalism in treating the sick. This advice is harsh but true: When it comes to your health care, buyer beware.

Michael P. Jones is a gastroenterologist. This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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What is your dream job? Its the one you would do every day even if no one paid you. When you find it, you never really go to work each day, you go and play. If that is the kind of joy received from working, then burnout will likely be a long way out of reach. Are there any jobs like that out there for doctors? Yes, there are. But before you can go out and find your dream job, you must first define what it looks like.

The first step in defining a dream job is to find out who you are. A teacher, inventor, leader, follower, loaner, team player, employee, or employer? What makes you tick? Understanding your deep-rooted personality characteristics is important. If you are having trouble with this, ask some friends or relatives or your spouse. Maybe even take a personality test. When you fully understand what drives you, what kind of person you are, then you can set out to find a practice to fit.

If research is not your thing, then looking for a university position will be a bad idea. Happiness will elude you in that setting. If you know you are a small town kind of person then looking at the jobs in New York City, even though the pay is higher, will be a recipe for disaster. One of the biggest factors in your future well-being is job satisfaction. Spend as much time as you need to define exactly what it is you are looking for, and then you will know it when you see it.

One of the first things a young doctor with lots of debt looks for in a job is the salary. I know it seems counterintuitive, but salary is at the bottom of the list of important factors in picking a job. Remember, you want to find a job you would do for free anyway. If they have to pay you to do it, its work. If you are doing it because you love it and just happen to get paid, thats a great career. You will make plenty of money at almost all of the opportunities, so dont let money be your guide. Making a choice because of the money is almost always a setting for disappointment.

Many young doctors are driven to choose a position in an underserved area for the loan forgiveness. Their debt is so overwhelming, it begins to take the drivers seat in the decision-making. No amount of loan forgiveness will be enough to keep you happy if you dont like the job or the location. Salary has a way of losing its luster when you dread going into the office. If you love the position and work hard, the money will be fine.

I met one doctor who was looking at two positions in the same town, one as a hospital employee and the other in a private practice with a path toward partnership. I asked him what his thoughts were about the two. He told me he was going to take the employed position at the hospital because it would be easier to leave than a partnership. I couldnt believe my ears. He was deciding to take his first job as a physician at the same time as he was planning to leave that same job. He had not bothered to take the time to figure out what he wanted to do or where he wanted to live, so he was going to take something that would be easy to quit when he figured it out.

I dont think he realized the expense, pain, and anguish that go into leaving one practice to start another. Why, after all those years of training, would he ever settle for less than the best for his family? Havent they been through enough already? He did move somewhere else less than two years later, before his contract was up. Since the hospital had advanced him some money, and he left early, he had to pay part of his advance back. How much better would it have been to take the position he wanted in the first place? Life is too short for that kind of nonsense. Another house move, another hospital system to learn, another town to learn, another school to be the new kid in, another job for your spouse to find if they work, leaving all the friends you made, and on and on.

Your familys happiness will be heavily dependent on your happiness. So find out what your dream job is and go get it. Dont settle for anything less than the spectacular life you were meant to live. Otherwise, all those years of training were for naught.

Cory Fawcett is a general surgeon and can be reached at his self-titled site, Dr. Cory S. Fawcett. He is the author of The Doctors Guide to Starting Your Practice Right.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
Fearing family members were inside, Mike Jordan sprints toward a burning house Wednesday on Fidalgo Court in East Bremerton. The family, including a pet rabbit, had escaped the fire, which apparently began in the garage.

SHARE Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue firefighter Josh Cooper uses a hole in a hose to cool off Wednesday after battling a house fire on Fidalgo Court in East Bremerton.

By Josh Farley of the Kitsap Sun

FAIRGROUNDS  A family of nine was displaced from a home Wednesday morning near Fairview Middle School after a fire quickly spread from the garage and enveloped the residence.

Everyone home  including a pet rabbit  escaped safely.

Maria Hays said the family, who lives on Fidalgo Court, was installing a new washer when one of her children smelled smoke. When she went to the garage, she found a refrigerator engulfed in flames.

"It was all on fire," she said.

Jacob Hash, a neighbor, was across the street in a garage when he heard booms and crackling. He emerged to find the fire taking off  fast.

"It was almost like a fireball was coming out of the garage," said Hash, who yelled for his family to call 911.

Fire crews from around Kitsap County responded to extinguish the blaze, which spread quickly from the garage and moved into the attic of the rest of the house. Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to the home, which looked to be destroyed.

Mike Jordan, the children's grandfather who with his wife has been staying with the family, came home in a panic. He'd stopped at Burger King to bring lunch home but was told by phone that the home was on fire.

He rushed home not knowing whether anyone was inside. As he ran toward the house, several firefighters restrained him from getting in. He then learned everyone had gotten out safely.

"I just didn't know what was going on," he said.

The Kitsap County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the cause of the fire, though its beginnings at the refrigerator in the garage might be a sign of an electrical issue.

The American Red Cross is assisting the family. The Olympic Gymnastics Center, 8511 Dickey Place NW in Silverdale, is taking donations.
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Mary Louise Cook

of Poulsbo

March 24, 1930

to May 15, 2016

Mary Louise Cook (Sprague) recently left us after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease. She is survived by her husband, Jim; daughter, Linda (Kelly); her "favorite" granddaughter, Natalie; son, Tim; her brother, Fred; and several nieces, nephews, and cousins. She was preceded in death by her sister, Betty.

Mary was born in Seattle to Fred and Edna Sprague, and grew up in the Roosevelt area. She attended Bryant Elementary, Roosevelt High, and the University of Washington where she joined Alpha Xi Delta sorority and served as its president.

She married Jim Cook in 1959. They made their home in Lake Forest Park and raised two wonderful children, Linda and Tim. Mary loved being a mother and homemaker and she loved her many neighbors and friends.

She and her husband later retired to Hansville, Washington, where she enjoyed her new neighbors and activities, and especially being a grandmother.

A special thanks to the employees of Marine Courte and Martha and Mary for the loving care she received.

No services will be held. A family gathering is planned for this summer. A phone call or note is welcome. Donations may be made in memory of Mary Cook to the UW Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and mailed to UW Medicine, Box 358045, Seattle, WA. 98195-8045.
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The U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cost 100,000 lives while saving millions who would have died defending and invading the Japanese islands otherwise. It was justified given the circumstances, and the existence of nuclear weapons may also have prevented a third world war.

But, for 70 years, Hiroshima has also been a reminder of a means by which the world as we know it could be wiped out, and President Barack Obama recently went there to tell us how to avoid that possibility.

We've all of us got to get lots more moral, even to the extent of getting rid of war, he said. And yes, maybe someday we will get that moral, at least enough of us to make a difference. But, in the intervening eons, what do we do about the nuclear threat?

What seems obvious is that lofty ideals, as important as they are, are not solid, practical, down-to-earth plans that get followed by concrete actions that produce positive results. If utopian hopes are used as a substitute for shrewd calculation, they can actually increase endangerment, and that sums up much if not all of Obama's foreign policy.

From Day 1 of his administration, Obama has rather obviously seen himself as a transformative figure, and nuclear rescue was part of that. Proliferation must come to an end. All the menacing weapons must go.

To that end, he started having summits on the issue and dreamily aimed for a reset with Russia. It mostly went kablooey. Vladimir Putin had his Ukraine ambitions, dodged diplomacy and delighted in Obama responding to snarls with pullbacks of missile defense programs in Europe. We've reduced our nuclear heft in hopes of enticement, while Russia has increased its in hopes of bullying.

Naive enthusiasms don't die easily, and Obama agreed to an Iran deal that would drop sanctions and return billions to this terrorist-sponsoring, Israel-threatening, missile-testing, America-hating country. Inspections of the promised kind would not happen after all, and what did we get back?

Iran said it would not build nuclear weapons for maybe another 10 years and shipped away some enriched uranium that could slow down such a project by some months. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia and other Iran-fearful countries are thinking about building their own nuclear weapons to cope with what might eventuate.

We are hardly safer now than before, and there's more, such as China feeling bolder, North Korea going crazy and the Islamic State saying thank you for mistaken Obama decisions in Syria and Iraq. What's stranger than fiction is that this president, awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in anticipation of what he would achieve, will be the only one in U.S. history to have presided over wars for two full terms, as The New York Times recently pointed out.

It's not as if he has done nothing right, that there are no forces at play beyond his control or that his trip to Hiroshima was a mistake  cementing relations with at least one ally matters. But he has flunked the reality test.

A president who didn't was Ronald Reagan. He likewise shuddered at nuclear weaponry. Yet, a review reminds us, his answer was to play from strength. He built up the military. He pushed a defensive missile system that the Soviets feared and lacked the funds to match. He assisted freedom forces in countries the Soviets were intimidating. He was tough in negotiations. And he got a treaty in which both countries agreed to destroy a class of nuclear weapons.

Many believe the Reagan strategy contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with that collapse came a sigh of relief. It seemed the nuclear threat had ended, but now we know it hasn't. The Obama administration is at this stage furthering a project to modernize our weapons. There is some realism there, and maybe a future government can build on it in even more constructive ways.

Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Readers may email him at speaktojay@aol.com.
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Carl Johnson, Silverdale

Science and faith are complementary

Once again the "Non Sequitur" comic strip accomplished its objective: to arouse my passion for a rejoinder to the creator's biased opinion. In Monday's strip, three individuals, clearly representing three distinct "religious" perspectives: a Muslim Iman, a Bishop, and one of the stars of Duck Dynasty (representing Evangelicals), are standing in front of a chalk board with a professor diagraming complex mathematical and scientific formulas. The caption for this picture is "The inherent difficulty of science."

The obvious implication is that "religious" people stand in opposition to science and the pursuit of scientific knowledge and understanding. Au contraire! History has demonstrated that some of the most skilled, intelligent, and distinguished scientists have been committed Christian believers. Consider just two: Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and evangelical Christian philosopher. And then, perhaps the greatest scientist who ever lived  Sir Isaac Newton  was a devout Christian who expressed that his faith played a major role in his work.

Yes, religion hasn't always been a friend to an unbiased and purposeful pursuit of truth, whether it's in the arena of science or philosophy. But, as I've said in a previous letter, it's a personal relationship, not religion, that determines one's standing before the One who created this universe. To know Him is the first step in pursuing science.
The Telegraph reports:

Public concern over immigration has delivered a significant boost to the Leave campaign amid growing concern about Britains ability to control its borders, a new poll suggests. Leave now has 46 per cent of the vote share, with Remain on 51 per cent. The five point gap has been cut from 13 points last week. The poll, by ORB, was carried out last week when new figures revealed that migration had risen to record levels; forecasts showed that immigration would add 4 million people to Britains population; and images of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean in their attempts to get to Europe emerged.

I never read too much into one individual poll but there have now been several out showing Brexit picking up ground, after dropping away.

Bremain still leads in most polls, but they are not over 50%. It will come down to the turnout for each side, and what the undecideds do. If they dont vote, then Bremain will probably win.

Sir Lynton Crosby, the strategist who masterminded David Camerons election victory, suggests that the focus on migration in the past seven days has boosted the Leave campaign. Writing for the Telegraph he says that the increasing focus on lack of control over immigration and associated message discipline had helped the case of the Leave camp.

That is the key message that can resonate. With Brexit the UK regains control of its own borders and immigration policy. In the EU, they have limited control. Now whether than is worth giving up the economic advantages of the EU is debatable, but it is the issue that most resonates.

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Stuff reports:

A new responsible drinking campaign that promotes talking to teens about drinking, in the same way parents talk to them about sex, has been questioned by public health officials.

The educational videos, launched by alcohol-industry Cheers, shows parents having awkward one-on-one conversations about alcohol with their teens, using language that could be applicable to the sex talk.

Cheers is run by the Tomorrow Project, the social responsibility arm of Spirits New Zealand, the NZ Winegrowers, and the Brewers Association.

The educational advertising campaign launched on Monday with the aim of getting more parents to talk to their teens about drinking.

A survey of 1500 people carried out by Cheers in 2014 found teens believed their parents did a better job at talking to them about sex than about alcohol.

We talk to our teenagers about sex, so why should alcohol be any different?

Further interviews with 10 families in 2015 found parents were approaching the subject the wrong way by doing things like sharing war stories, trying to be their friend, or setting restrictive rules around drinking.

Robert Brewer, spokesman for Cheers, said the campaign was about breaking down traditional barriers and promoting conversations.
A good column by Nick Smith:

News that companies are extracting millions of litres of water for bottling and export has got the Green Party demanding a moratorium, Labour a new water tax and New Zealand First a prohibition on export.

So the Greens want to ban bottled water, NZ First want to ban exporting it and Labour wants a special tax on water.

New Zealand has 500 trillion litres of water flowing through our lakes, rivers and aquifers. Each year we extract 10 trillion litres, or 2 per cent. The water shortages we have are in quite defined areas and for only some of the year. NZ has no overall shortage. The 10 trillion litres of water we extract each year is made up of six trillion for irrigation, two trillion for municipal supplies and two trillion for industry. Three billion litres used for the bottled water industry may sound a lot but it is less than 1 per cent used by industry and 0.004 per cent of the annual resource. The suggestion by some that Mr and Mrs Average Kiwi wont be able to bathe because of bottled water exports is ridiculous.

0.004% is what they are complaining about.

Regional councils manage about 20,500 water permits of which 41 are solely for water bottling and a further 30 for a mix of uses, including bottled water. But only 23 of the permits are being used for now, reflecting the fact this is a niche industry. More than a dozen water-bottlers have gone broke. It is a myth that this is an easy industry in which to make lots of money.

This is true.

The only fair charging option would be to charge everyone. I heard one opposition MP call for a uniform charge for all commercial water users of 10c a litre. Kiwis need to appreciate that our major export earners such as horticulture and dairying are water intensive. A litre of milk takes about 250 litres of water to produce so that would be an extra cost of $25 a litre  a cost which would push the price of milk through the roof for consumers and destroy our largest export industry. The Government is open to modest charges for water users, for the cost of managing water resources. We are proposing as part of our current freshwater reforms to allow councils to charge water users a per-litre levy for the costs of the water quality, monitoring water takes and ensuring compliance, rather than on rates paid by everyone. However, the charge would be for cost recovery only and would not price the natural resource.

That seems fair. User pays.

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A group of 7th graders showed off some thought provoking final projects on Wednesday at the Community School.

Each year, for the past 16 years, Community School 7th graders tackle important issues during a term-long intolerance project.

The project compels students to examine the challenges and manifestations of intolerance and prejudice.

The final project for this unit is a piece of art that incorporates the topics that students have researched.

Topics this year range from environmental to social.

"The mirror is because you look in it and it's supposed to mean that it's not just big companies that are putting plastic in the ocean. It's everybody who's contributing," said Lily Pogue, a 7th grader.

"I used the trees to talk about workers like how they're being mistreated like tires and they're just thrown away after," said Jett Carruth, a 7th grader.

The project also raises money for an organization called Hearts with Haiti.
Jorge Sanabria, president of ExpoQuip Inc., poses for a portrait in the company's warehouse area in Knoxville on Thursday, June 2, 2016. ExpoQuip was recently named Small Business Exporter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration Tennessee District. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE Jorge Sanabria, president of ExpoQuip Inc., poses for a portrait in the company's front office in Knoxville on Thursday, June 2, 2016. ExpoQuip was recently named Small Business Exporter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration Tennessee District. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) The offices of ExpoQuip, Inc. are seen on Thursday, June 2, 2016. The Knoxville-based earth-moving company was recently recognized as Small Business Exporter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration Tennessee District. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) A Small Business Exporter of the Year award is displayed at ExpoQuip Inc. on Thursday, June 2, 2016. The Knoxville-based earth-moving company was recently recognized with the award by the U.S. Small Business Administration Tennessee District. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL) Julian Bernal, international sales manager, works at his desk at ExpoQuip, Inc. on Thursday, June 2, 2016. ExpoQuip was recently named Small Business Exporter of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration Tennessee District. (ADAM LAU/NEWS SENTINEL)

By Ed Marcum of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Knoxville-based ExpoQuip Inc., which supplies parts for heavy-equipment users worldwide, has won statewide recognition by the U.S. Small Business Administration as Tennessee Exporter of the Year.

With a staff of about 12 people at 6636 Central Avenue Pike, the company has a global reach.

"At present, I would say about 55 percent of our business is in international sales," Jorge Sanabria, president and owner, said Thursday.

The Tennessee office of the Small Business Administration presented the award during a ceremony on May 5 in Nashville, as part of National Mall Business Week.

In 2013, ExpoQuip won the Knoxville Chamber's Pinnacle Business award in the minority-owned business category. ExpoQuip was described as a small company that focused on getting its customers up and running and that could offer competitive products and pricing in an industry dominated by large companies.

Founded in 1998, ExpoQuip distributes heavy-machinery parts and components, covering such brands as Caterpillar, John Deere, Komatsu, Case and others. It serves customers in construction, earth-moving, mining, highway and other industries in 34 countries.

Business with international customers helped ExpoQuip weather the economic downturn of several years ago, Sanabria said.

"Our exporting has grown with time, and when the economy slowed down here, other markets overseas did not," he said. "Mining work in particular did not stop and that was a very important sector for us."

Exporting has been playing an increasing role in the Tennessee economy. According to U.S. Census figures, the state had $31.1 billion in total exports in 2012, and $32.4 billion in 2015. According to the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, international trade supported nearly 830,000 jobs in Tennessee in 2013, accounting for 22 percent of total state jobs. About 7,120 companies exported goods from Tennessee in 2013, with about 83 percent of these businesses with fewer than 500 employees, according to the coalition.

Sanabria was recently selected to the Knoxville Chamber's board of directors and has been picked for Leadership Knoxville's 2017 class and for the Mayor's Business Advisory Council.
A display case sits full of varieties of Krispy Kreme doughnuts at the chain's Kingston Pike store in Bearden on Monday afternoon, May 9. G. CHAMBERS WILLIAMS III/NEWS SENTINEL

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By Go Knoxville Staff

Friday marks National Doughnut Day and Krispy Kreme is celebrating the occasion by offering a free doughnut of any variety at participating Krispy Kreme locations on Friday, June 3. No purchase necessary, and the offer is good for one doughnut per customer.

According to Krispy Kreme's website, "Doughnut Day was established by The Salvation Army in 1938 to honor The Salvation Army's 'Doughnut Lassies,' who served the treats to soldiers during World War I. The 'Doughnut Lassies' are often credited with popularizing the doughnut in the United States when the troops returned home from war."

And for that reason, the website says "customers are encouraged to donate to The Salvation Army's miniature Red Kettles stationed at the registers of participating Krispy Kreme locations. All donations will support the local communities where the donation was made."

For more info or store locations, go to http://krispykreme.com.
Photos by Saul Young/News Sentinel Linda and Rick Strachan with their cocker spaniel, Wilson, in their den.

By Gay Lyons of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Like many empty-nesters, Linda and Rick Strachan downsized when son Robby's departure for Auburn University left them with too much house for just the two of them and Wilson, the family's 8-year-old cocker spaniel.

"We wanted to downsize in size but not in style," Rick explains. "We like architectural detail. We wanted some character, some history."

"Our [7,000-square-foot home in Gettysvue] had a lot of character and architectural detail, "says Linda. "That's hard to find in new construction."

They found the perfect place in Northshore Town Center, a high-end, mixed-use, high-density residential development.

Each home has a courtyard  or space to construct one. Rick and Linda turned a concrete patio into a screened porch and added a charming courtyard.

Alleys run along the backs of the homes so that no garages are visible from the streets in front. The Strachans' 2800-square-foot home has a two-car garage and a large carport at the rear.

Among the homes lining the streets and alleys of the neighborhood, the Strachans' home is easy to spot. The white painted exterior and decorative black ironwork of the New Orleans-style house stand out amid the tans, creams and browns predominant in most of the neighborhood. The exterior look is completed with hanging ferns and black wicker furniture on the front porch.

The decorative black motif continues inside the house with touches of black found everywhere: baseboards, crown molding, stair bannisters and cabinetry. One room, the movie room, has black walls.

"The people who built this house included a lot of detail," says Linda. "There are some antiques built into it. The front door is 100 years old. The black accents are not what I would have picked, but I like it."

Linda embraced the look, adding her own black decor and furnishings.

"I ended up with a lot of leftover pieces, so I just started painting them black."

The black decor and furniture add a note of continuity to the home without taking away from the eclectic look the Strachans admired the first time they saw it.

"It's funky; it's industrial; it's antique," says Rick. "When we saw the blending of all the styles, it really spoke to us. Linda said, 'Yep, this is the one.'"

Linda agrees. "It was love at first sight."

With the decision made, the downsizing began.

"It was liberating," says Rick. "We really enjoyed the process."

"Everything we have here is something we have because we like it, "says Linda. "It doesn't matter the style."

The couple kept favorite pieces of art which include paintings by Julia Klimova and Kent Youngstrom, two favorites. One special piece is a glass sculpture of Wilson, the family dog. The management team at Clayton Homes commissioned Richard Jolley to create it upon Rick's retirement from the company.

There are birds  Linda's favorite decoration  everywhere. Two birds perch on the "unbelievably heavy" wooden bowl that sits on the coffee table in the den. The table was created from a piece of an iron gate from Spain.

Having lived in their new home for less than a year, the Strachans love it as much as they expected to. The couple's biggest surprise is how much they love the neighborhood.

"It's like a village here," they say. "There's a lot of activity."

"It has an urban vibe," says Linda. "We're not downtown, but it's got that feel."

"There's a 'Girls Night Out,'" she continues. "We meet at a restaurant or at someone's home. It's a nice way to get to know everyone. In the fall we had a chili potluck. There's a block party planned. It's got a great neighborhood feel. We didn't know this when we moved in. It was an added bonus."

"It's a real neighborhood," says Rick. "Everybody's always out walking dogs. People walk their children to [Northshore Elementary School.]. You see retired people and people with baby carriages. There are front porches and sidewalks. It lends itself to being outside and being neighborly."

"These are kind of old-fashioned things," says Linda. "But I love it. It's how we grew up."
Oh, how we recoil when someone points out a wart on our nose! Especially when that someone ain't from around here.

It happened in 1946, when New York travel writer and bestselling author John Gunther opined "Knoxville is the ugliest city I ever saw in America."

It happened again in 1982, when the Wall Street Journal tagged our burg "a scruffy little city by the river."

Most recently, it happened when professional bass fisherman Ray Lentine of Oxford, Mass., writing as a guest columnist in the News Sentinel, had this to say about a popular local reservoir: "I have never experienced or seen a body of water as disgusting as Douglas Lake."

Predictably, indignant locals blew up. How dare someone, particularly from afar, accuse us of being unwashed rubes? Just as predictably, lists and statistics were trotted out to counter the cruel and unwarranted attack.

But you know what? Both sides in each kerfuffle made valid arguments.

Although our town had many areas of beauty, Loye Miller, then editor of the News Sentinel, admitted in an editorial that "Knoxville is dirty and slovenly, yes. Its streets and sidewalks are littered with rubbish, and there is a covering of coal smoke all over." The uproar spawned a number of campaigns to clean up the city and was the guiding force behind our much-acclaimed Dogwood Arts Festival.

The WSJ's scruffy-city slur became a rallying cry for supporters of the 1982 World's Fair, which eventually attracted more than 11 million visitors from around the world.

The Douglas Lake brouhaha elicited fiery letters-to-the-editor from Jefferson Countians John McClellan and Robert Vick. They pointed out the reservoir drains a massive watershed. Thus, floodwaters  not to mention Douglas' propensity to fluctuate drastically  create a one-two punch that concentrates trash from distant lands. What's more, the shoreline is regularly scoured by teams of volunteers who properly dispose of garbage by the megaton.

Still, no amount of mitigating factors justifies the garbage-dump mentality many East Tennesseans hold about Douglas. And every other lake.

What in hell gives boaters, skiers, anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts the right to defile this playground? They  of all people!  should be the least likely to litter.

Nope. Just the opposite.

I've written before about this deplorable mess. Nearly 15 years ago, instead of just ranting, I made a vow in print: Never again would I leave any lake without picking up a few pieces of trash tossed by clueless human swine. I still abide by that rule.

A token gesture, yes. But at least it's something.
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By Benjamin Webb, ben.webb@knoxnews.com

A former Luttrell city recorder has been charged with theft after authorities said she admitted to embezzling city funds.

Rebecca Ailor issued more than 140 checks between Sept. 11, 2012, to Feb. 22, 2016, a special investigation by the Tennessee Comptroller's Office found. The amount of money Ailor embezzled from the city totaled $120,506, according to the Comptroller's Office.

Investigators concluded Ailor was able to write the checks by falsifying either the mayor's or the vice mayor's signature on city checks, as well as recording the checks as payments to legitimate city vendors. She then deleted the city's computerized financial records, but the data was recovered, according to the Comptroller's Office.

Comptroller Justin Wilson said the embezzlement was not detected sooner because "only one person was responsible for issuing checks, recording disbursements and deposing collections."

Investigators said Ailor admitted that she wrote the checks for personal benefit and told them that she needed money to make ends meet.

Ailor was indicted by the Union County grand jury on one count of theft over $60,000 and one count of tampering with evidence on May 18.

More details as they develop online and in Friday's News Sentinel.
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By News Sentinel Staff

KNOXVILLE  A Knoxville man must serve 100 percent of his sentence after he was found guilty of having hundreds of images of infants being raped in his possession.

On Thursday, Joshua David Lesler, 34, was sentenced to serve eight years in prison by Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee. In addition to the sentence, Lesler, will also be placed on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry.

Lesler was arrested Oct. 22, 2014, on a 46-count indictment after a Knoxville Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigation discovered 357 pictures and 43 videos of prepubescent children and infants being raped. The images also included sadistic and masochistic images and bestiality involving children, according to a news release.

Authorities said at the time of his arrest, Lesler was in the process of regaining custody of his 6-month-old daughter.
By News Sentinel Staff

A well-known Knoxville lawyer was arrested over the weekend on a charge of boating under the influence.

Stephen A. Burroughs, known for the advertisement of his law practice on more than 40 billboards and buses and hosting a "Swagfest" several years ago, was arrested Monday by a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer while boating on Fort Loudoun Lake. He has been charged with boating under the influence, implied consent violation and reckless boating, according to arrest warrants.

Documents show that about 7:45 p.m. Monday, an officer observed Burroughs maneuver his boat "at a high speed" near him, another boat and a private dock. The officer stopped the boat and checked it for safety equipment, which Burroughs had, records state.

As Burroughs moved around the boat, according to the documents, he was unsteady on his feet, had very slurred speech and had a strong odor of alcohol on him. He admitted to the officer that he had been drinking that day.

Field sobriety tests were conducted, which Burroughs performed "poorly on," according to the documents.

He is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 19.
By News Sentinel Staff

KNOXVILLE  A day after a judge approved a recommendation to lower her bond, a Knox County woman who was convicted in the death of one of her two dead husbands was released from custody Wednesday, her attorney Joshua Hedrick confirmed.

On Tuesday, special prosecutors Cynthia A. LeCroy-Schemel and Joseph Y. McCoin Jr. offered  with little explanation  a bond recommendation of $50,000 for Raynella Dossett Leath, which her defense team of Hedrick and Rebecca LeGrand quickly agreed to.

Then Senior Judge Paul Summers approved the deal and set a new trial date of Jan. 12, 2017.

"We are glad that she is home with her family," he said in a statement to the News Sentinel.

Leath has been accused of killing two husbands  former Knox County District Attorney General Ed Dossett, who died in 1992, and Dossett's best friend, David Leath, who died in 2003.

She was tried twice in David Leath's shooting death. A jury deadlocked in the first. She was convicted in the second. Prosecutors then dropped similar charges in Dossett's death.

In April, Summers tossed out the first-degree murder conviction in her second husband's death and awarded her a new trial because of the drug use of former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner during the January 2010 trial.

That ruling entitled Leath, who was serving a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after 51 years, a shot at freedom via bond. Tennessee law entitles defendants charged but not yet convicted to bond.

Related:

Raynella Dossett Leath timeline: Charges and legal battles

Ex-bailiff: Judge high, impaired during Raynella Dossett Leath trial

Ex-Judge Richard Baumgartner exhibit A in alleged black widows bid for new trial

Photos: Raynella Dossett Leath through the years

New witness in Raynella Dossett Leath case discredits staged suicide claim

Black-widow suspect wins release of part of file on disgraced ex-judge

Raynella Dossett Leath wants TBI file on former Knox County judge

Appeals court upholds Dossett Leath conviction

Civil court ruling against Raynella Dossett Leath reversed

Raynella Dossett Leath case subject of book, TV show

Cable channel to air segment on David Leath killing

Raynella Leath won't inherit all of dead husband's estate

Raynella Dossett Leath witness changes story

Seven years after death, David Leath's ashes buried

Dossett Leath arrives at Nashville prison

Jury convicts Raynella Dossett Leath of first-degree murder in husband's death

Prosecution will try Dossett Leath again after mistrial

No way' mom killed stepfather, woman says

Bid denied to exhume Ed Dossett

Widow charged in Dossett's death

Judge again denies Dossett exhumation

Former DA's widow charged with his murder to plead not guilty

Widow charged in Dossett's death

Appeals court nullifies Leath's missing will

Exhumation requested in 'highly suspicious' death

Prosecutors: Former DA Dossett's death 'suspicious,' want to exhume body
Alan Bull, technical services manager for the Knox County E-911 Center, was named interim director of the center April 20 by the board of directors. Bull got the position on the day former Executive Director Bob Coker resigned by mutual agreement.

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By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Knox County E-911 Interim Director Alan Bull didn't delay in making changes at the emergency center where an employee survey had shown severe management problems.

During an E-911 personnel committee meeting Thursday, Bull said he wanted to address employees' complaints of mandatory overtime by hiring one emergency dispatcher and seven call processors. The Knox County center serves as the recipient of emergency calls and the dispatcher of emergency services for the city and county.

Bull told the committee the center has been understaffed for those eight positions for 10 years, although money was available in the budget. He did not have on Thursday the costs of those new positions.

Bull asked the personnel committee to recommend a 2.5 percent pay increase for all employees. The committee approved the raises, which would cost about $120,000, Bull said.

The salary hikes have to be approved by the E-911 finance committee and then the full board of directors.

Bull said he has restored the employee of the month award, which provides the selected employee a parking spot near the front of the building.

The first award went to Josh Biggs, a call processor trainer.

Bull told the committee he is updating the E-911 website with information on the number of calls the center receives and the amount of radio airtime each emergency agency consumes.

To help prepare E-911 employees for the different quality of digital phone lines, Bull said he will send supervisors to two of the six nearby East Tennessee counties already using digital lines. Incoming calls at the center now are delivered by analog lines.

Bull said 90 percent of the state's E-911 centers already are using digital lines, which eventually will allow reception of texts and videos from those in need.

The personnel committee approved Bull's suggestion to hire two new employees to handle mapping technology at a cost of about $100,000. He said the center has one mapping technician, and he's on vacation. If a problem erupted immediately with the center's mapping technology, no one would be qualified to fix the issue.

Bull said he wants to provide more training opportunities to employees. He said in the future he'll ask for annual stipends of about $1,500 to pay employees who accept additional management tasks. Those employees could serve as backups to administrators.

Committee members praised Bull's actions and noted they were in no rush to find a permanent director.

"You're on a roll," Knox County Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones said. "You're doing an excellent job."
Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, center, asks county purchasing director Hugh Holt a question during an E-911 board meeting to discuss recommendation from the board's users group to hire an engineering consultant to review pros and cons of joining the Tennessee Valley Regional Communications System on April 15, 2015. (MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL)

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By Don Jacobs of the Knoxville News Sentinel

With a June 30 deadline approaching, the Knox County E-911 Board of Directors on Thursday agreed to pay $150,000 to a company to manage a new partnership with a regional radio system  a partnership that company recommended against.

In a special meeting, the board of directors agreed to hire Blue Wing Services to oversee the installation of a digital Motorola Solutions radio system.

The board of directors paid Blue Wing nearly $40,000 last year for a report that warned of hidden costs involved with a Motorola radio system. Blue Wing compared the costs and benefits of an $8.9 million Harris Corp. system versus joining the Tennessee Valley Regional Communications System based in Chattanooga.

The board wrote Blue Wing a check and then ignored the report. The Harris system had been selected as the best of three bids submitted in 2014.

At the continued urging of Knox County Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones, who serves on the 11-member board, the board opted to examine a partnership with the Tennessee Valley Regional Communications System. The regional system is based in Chattanooga and serves 12,000 radios in 13 counties in East Tennessee and northern Georgia.

The sheriff said he preferred the regional system because it will allow officers to communicate from outside Knox County and provide a more seamless process for talking to agencies outside the county.

Knox County Purchasing Director Hugh Holt negotiated steep price reductions from Motorola, making the digital system more alluring. But those discounts expire June 30. The price is nearly $10 million, but the system provides 97 percent geographic coverage as opposed to 95 percent with the Harris proposal.

The contract with Blue Wing provides oversight of the installation up to acceptance testing of the new radio system. That process could take up to 14 months.

Holt told the board the $150,000 contract on average provides for about 980 hours of work at about $154 per hour. The board unanimously agreed to the Blue Wing contract.

Jones promised the board the Motorola system will function as promised.

"The sheriff promised it would work, and I'm taking him at his word," said Knoxville Fire Department Capt. Mark Wilbanks.

Wilbanks is one of five members of the users committee that has been evaluating the Motorola system. Also on the committee are representatives of the Knox County Sheriff's Office, the Knoxville Police Department, the Knox County Emergency Management Agency and the town of Farragut.

Wilbanks said he thought it beneficial that Blue Wing would manage the system installation.

"I know they are going to scrutinize the system very carefully because they did recommend Harris," he said.

Wilbanks said the users committee still has questions about the Motorola system.

"I would oppose moving forward if I'm not comfortable with the answers," he said.

Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero, who serves on the board, said if the users aren't comfortable with the system when the board meets June 15, she expects a vote to join the regional system to be postponed. Rogero said she wasn't concerned with missing the June 30 deadline for price reductions.

If Motorola wants Knox County's business, she said, the company will extend that deadline.
By Megan Boehnke of the Knoxville News Sentinel

A preliminary federal report released Thursday confirmed early witness statements that the landing gear of a single-engine plane was still up when it crashed while trying to land at a Sevierville airport last month, killing the pilot.

Investigators examined the landing gear system and found the emergency landing gear extension hand crank was still stowed in the safety strap, and the landing gear doors were closed, according to the report by the National Transportation Safety Board. The push-pull rods from the gearbox to the A-frame assemblies at each wheel were retracted, according to the report.

PDF: NTSB preliminary report on the May fatal plane crash in Sevierville

Ray Allen Irwin, 62, of Kodak, was the only person aboard the Beechcraft Bonanza when it crashed May 19. Irwin was practicing his flying skills by engaging in "touch-and-go" landing maneuvers  taking off, landing and then taking off again, officials said at a news conference after the crash.

At 11:38 a.m., one minute before the crash, airport security video shows Irwin's plane approached the runway and touched down with the landing gear up and the wing flaps down. The airplane skipped slightly, became airborne again and then climbed slowly with "visible oscillations in pitch and roll" until it was about 25 feet high. The plane then flew out of view of the security camera, the report said.

Irwin tried landing again, but the landing gear was still up, causing the propeller to hit the ground and the aircraft to skid on its belly. As the plane skidded along Runway 10 at Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge Airport, witnesses heard the engine "rev up" and the airplane lifted up. It appeared to be "very unstable in ground effect," according to the report. The plane pitched up, rolled left and then hit the ground.

After examining the runway, investigators determined the propeller struck the pavement "numerous times" after the plane had touched down.

The plane came to a stop at the edge of some woods about 15 feet from the runway and burst into flames, which crews quickly extinguished, airport manager Emily Haun said at the time.

The wreckage was "substantially damaged" in the fire, and the "majority of the airplane cabin section had burned away," according to the report. The cockpit door separated during the impact, but it was still closed and latched.

The fuselage and wings had been crushed and showed compression damage. The right wingtip's fuel tank separated from the right wing, which had folded underneath itself. Three feet of the left outboard wing panel separated from that wing. The pilot's tube was free of obstructions, according to the report.

The left and right main fuel tank caps were still closed and secured, but the right main fuel tank was breached, the report said.

Todd Gunther, an air security investigator with the NTSB, said Irwin had logged 206 total flight hours as of March 24, 2015.

The aircraft maintenance and Federal Aviation Administration records showed the plane, built in 1953, had its most recent annual inspection on Nov. 1. At that time, the airplane had accrued 6,029 hours of operation.

Irwin was certified as a medical X-ray technician in Tennessee and worked at University Physicians' Association and Parkway Medical Center, both in Sevierville. He retired and let his license expire in 2013. His mother and sister also live in Kodak.

The crash was the second fatal aviation-related accident in Sevier County in less than two months.

An April 4 sightseeing helicopter crash killed pilot Jason Dahl, 38, and passengers Johna Morvant, 49, visiting from North Carolina; her daughter, Peyton Rasmussen, 22; her son, Parker Rasmussen, 18; and Peyton Rasmussen's boyfriend, 21-year-old Michael Glenn Mastalez.

The 1977 Bell 206-L LongRanger, operated by Smoky Mountain Helicopters, hit trees near the top of a 1,100-foot wooded ridge behind an outlet mall before coming to rest in flames on its left side.

A preliminary NTSB report on the April crash said the helicopter "lost the rotor sound" shortly before crashing.

Full reports on both crashes could take up to a year, NTSB officials have said.
By MJ Slaby of the Knoxville News Sentinel

Fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha is returning to the University of Tennessee this fall, UT officials confirmed Thursday.

The UT chapter of the fraternity closed in September 2012 following a series of alcohol-related incidents including the now infamous "butt-chugging" case involving students who reportedly got drunk via wine enemas. Of those students, a 20-year-old fraternity member was hospitalized with a blood-alcohol level of nearly 0.45.

The incident prompted UT to form a Greek Life Task Force to address issues in Greek culture.

The return of Pi Kappa Alpha signals the university's commitment to a "growing and thriving" Greek community, said Dean of Students Melissa Shivers in a news conference Thursday afternoon.

"I know that it has been challenging in the past and that's not just at the University of Tennessee. I think there are many campuses across the country who have faced similar challenges, but we continue to be committed and believe in the sorority and fraternity experience," she said.

Pi Kappa Alpha, or Pike, was suspended from UT for three years, but chose to wait four years to return, UT officials said Thursday. At the fraternity's choice, the chapter will not live in its fraternity house for at least a year.

Adam Kowalski, assistant director of Sorority and Fraternity Life, said it's typical for suspended organizations to ask about opportunities to return, so the interest from Pike wasn't a surprise. He said organizations also usually wait for previous students to graduate so the chapter can "start brand new."

In a news release, the fraternity's headquarters echoed the desire for a "new era" at UT and noted a "very long and successful history" between the fraternity and university that spans more than 140 years.

"That former behavior serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of alcohol on college campuses today. We at Pi Kappa Alpha are committed to educating and empowering young men to make good decisions and act as gentlemen," according to the release.

Kowalski and Shivers said they were impressed with Pi Kappa Alpha headquarters staff who visited campus in the fall.

"I was really pleased to hear about the number of initiatives that they have internationally for members of Pike that address issues of alcohol and of just being good solid men involved in fraternities," Shivers said.

She said she expects a positive relationship between UT and the fraternity with shared expectations for members.

Kowalski said the advisory team for the chapter, which serves as a liaison between the chapter and the national organization, is all new from 2012. Plus, he said Pike headquarters staff will be in Knoxville frequently throughout the fall semester and into the spring semester to help the chapter start again.

Pi Kappa Alpha owns a house in Fraternity Park, which is being leased to Beta Upsilon Chi, a Christian Fraternity. Pike will likely move back in for the 2017-18 year, UT officials said.

They said Beta Upsilon Chi is aware and is looking for a new location.

Shivers said the Greek community has changed since Pike was last on campus. Live-in house directors were mandated this fall and staff and educational opportunities have increased, she said.

This spring, Sigma Chi faced discipline for two separate alcohol violations and Alpha Gamma Rho faced discipline for one alcohol violation. Lambda Chi Alpha closed in the spring after hazing and alcohol incidents. This is compared to the 11 violations that happened or were still open in spring 2015.

Shivers said the university aims to support the Greek community as well as outline expectations.

"Our expectation is that our students will make good choices. When they don't, we have systems in place to be able to address those, but our hope is that, and my belief is that, Pike will not find themselves in the exact same situation again," she said.
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Remote Area Medical will observe the 72nd anniversary of D-Day two days early with a public history lesson and exhibit and a ceremony to honor veterans.

The nonprofit will hold a "Salute to Service" starting at 10 a.m. Saturday in the RAM hangar at the Knoxville Downtown Island Airport, 2701 Spence Place in South Knoxville.

On display will be historical photographs, wartime memorabilia from various eras and several military vehicles, including RAM's flagship humanitarian relief plane, a C47/DC3 that flew on D-Day.

At 11 a.m., a ceremony will recognize World War II veterans and honor men and women who served in all branches of the armed forces.

RAM founder Stan Brock will give a speech, and the 80-piece Tennessee Wind Symphony, the Smokyland Sound Barbershop Chorus and a bagpipe player will perform music.

Weather permitting, the ceremony will conclude with a RAM airborne delivery team parachuting onto the airfield.

The event is free; the public is welcomed.

D-Day commemorates the first day of the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II: June 6, 1944. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history, and historians generally consider it the beginning of the liberation of northwestern Europe from Nazi control.

Founded by Brock in 1985, Remote Area Medical is a publicly supported charity that takes free medical, dental, vision and veterinary care to impoverished and geographically isolated people in the U.S. and other countries.

RAM's next scheduled events are June 11 in Huntsville, Tenn., and July 16 in Columbia, Tenn.

For information, visit RAM's website, http://ramusa.org/.
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By News Sentinel Staff

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Tennessee stands to lose a key portion of its annual funding if more people do not purchase the organization's specialty license plates.

MADD TN must maintain a minimum of 500 plates in circulation by June 30, 2016, or the plate will be retired and the organization will lose more than $15,000 annually. Currently, the organization needs about 70 more plates to be purchased to meet the minimum. The plate costs $35, with $30.75 going toward MADD's efforts to make Tennessee's roadways safer.

The MADD TN specialty plates may be purchased at local county clerk's offices across the state.

"I am very thankful to our faithful Tennessee volunteers and supporters who made the license plate initiative possible, and who are reaching out to their family and friends to keep the MADD TN plate," said Kate Ritchie, MADD's state program director. "With 95 counties in Tennessee, we would exceed our goal if one person from each county purchased a plate."

Nationwide, more than 10,000 people are killed and 300,000 injured in drunken driving crashes each year. In 2015, there were 8,278 impaired driving-related crashes in Tennessee, resulting in 375 deaths and 5,764 injuries, according to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

"Our MADD TN license plates are rolling billboards, raising awareness about impaired driving and raising thousands of dollars to help MADD's efforts in Tennessee," said volunteer Norris Skelley of Cookeville.

MADD was founded by a mother whose daughter was killed by a drunken driver. It's the nation's largest nonprofit working to protect families from drunken driving and underage drinking. Learn more at: www.madd.org, or by calling 1-877-ASK-MADD.
U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)

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By Michael Collins of the Knoxville News Sentinel

WASHINGTON  Facing a re-election battle against a well-financed opponent, U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais significantly ramped up his spending on taxpayer-funded communications with constituents during the first three months of 2016, newly released records show.

DesJarlais' congressional office spent nearly $67,000 reaching out to constituents through online ads, surveys and other mass communications, according to House expenditure reports made public last week.

The three-term congressman spent more on such materials than any other House Republican and all but two House Democrats. The amount also was more than quadruple what the other eight Tennesseans in the House spent combined.

The only House members who outspent DesJarlais were Pedro Pierluisi, a Democrat representing Puerto Rico, and Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat who lost his re-election battle in April and is on trial for federal corruption charges. Pierluisi spent $164,000 and Fattah spent $129,000.

DesJarlais' office says the jump in spending wasn't motivated by political considerations, but by a need to hear what his constituents are thinking.

"The congressman spends a lot of money communicating with his constituents  that's something we will never apologize for," said DesJarlais' spokesman, Robert Jameson. "We have a large district, and it's hard to be everywhere, so he relies on communications with constituents to take the pulse of the district on key issues."

But a spokesman for DesJarlais' most serious Republican challenger, Murfreesboro attorney Grant Starrett, accused the congressman of using taxpayer dollars to boost his campaign.

"Scott DesJarlais is clearly spending Tennesseans' hard-earned tax dollars to fund his re-election campaign, plain and simple," Starrett spokesman Tommy Schultz said. "No other Tennessee member, Republican or Democrat, is spending taxpayer dollars like DesJarlais is."

DesJarlais, whose past two re-election campaigns have been complicated by details of his personal life, is lagging far behind Starrett in campaign cash as the Aug. 4 primary approaches. DesJarlais' campaign had just $346,000 in the bank at the end of March while Starrett had $909,000, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission records.

DesJarlais' aides insist the congressman isn't using taxpayer money to help his campaign, which would be illegal. All his mass mailings and communications were approved by a bipartisan commission that vets such materials in advance, Jameson said.

DesJarlais' congressional office budgets roughly the same amount for constituent communications every year, regardless of whether there's an election, said the congressman's chief of staff, Richard Vaughn.

What's different in an election year, Vaughn said, is the office spends much of the money early in the year because of federal restrictions on when the funds can be used and because of where Tennessee's primary falls on the calendar.

Federal law bars members of Congress from sending out most mass communications to constituents at least 90 days before any election in which the member's name will appear on the ballot.

Because Tennessee's primary is in August, the blackout period begins in May. By the time the primary is over, the blackout period for the general election is already in effect.

That means DesJarlais is barred for roughly six months from sending out most mass mailings or communications to constituents. To compensate, the congressman spends a good portion of his constituent-communications budget in the first half of an election year, Vaughn said.

In the first quarter of 2015, which was not an election year, DesJarlais spent just $5,600 on mass communications with constituents, House records show. In the first three months of 2013, also a non-election year, the congressman spent just $7,400.

But in 2014, when DesJarlais faced probably his most serious election challenge, the congressman's office spent $10,200 on mass communications in the first quarter and $18,300 in the second quarter. It also spent $25,000 in the third quarter, which would have fallen within the blackout period.

Jameson said the third-quarter spending was for communications about the congressional art competition, internships and service academy nominations  none of which promote the congressman and which are allowed during the blackout.

Jameson also noted that the congressman's office has returned tens of thousands of unused tax dollars to the federal Treasury every year DesJarlais has been in office. As of last year, the amount returned totaled more than $717,000.

"Yes, we spend a lot of money on communications," Jameson said, "but we balance that by cutting in other areas, so we are continuing to give money back to the Treasury."
Captain Jeff Kuss greets the media and guests gathered for the arrival of the Blue Angels at McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base on Thursday. (SAUL YOUNG/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE This photo was taken moments after the crash of a Blue Angel jet outside the Smyrna Airport on Thursday afternoon (Photo: Becca Cullison-Burgess / FOR THE TENNESSEAN) A Blackhawk helicopter hovers over the scene in Smyrna where eyewitnesses said a U.S. Navy Blue Angels aircraft crashed about 3 p.m. Thursday. (Photo: Aldo Amato / Daily News Journal) U.S. Navy Blue Angels pilot Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss (Photo: Government photo via The Tennessean)

By Nancy De Gennaro and Stacey Barchenger, USA TODAY NETWORK, The Tennessean

Six elite military jets of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flight team roared over Middle Tennessee on Thursday, but the cheers from fans on the ground in just hours turned to wails.

Oh no, no, no, God bless his soul.

Pilot Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss was killed Thursday when his jet crashed at 3:01 p.m. just off Smyrna Airport, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kuss and five of his colleagues in matching blue jets were in the air practicing for the Great Tennessee Airshow this weekend.

The fatal crash was the first in nearly a decade involving the Navys acrobatic performance jets, whose flights are meant to showcase pride in the military. Local and federal investigators rushed to the scene looking for the cause. The community mourned the 32-year-old pilot, husband and father of two.

Continue reading at The Tennessean, a News Sentinel partner.
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The city of Knoxville issued emergency repair orders for 14 buildings on the Knoxville College campus, exempting three other structures  two that house administrative functions for the shuttered school and one that is so contaminated the state is considering adding it to its remediation priority list.

The actions should add a sense of urgency to efforts to finalize a redevelopment plan for the Mechanicsville campus, though the polluted science building will complicate matters.

The condition of the A.K. Stewart Science Building is particularly disturbing, from a redevelopment standpoint as well as the obvious public safety aspect.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted an emergency cleanup of the building in 2014, removing 26,240 pounds of hazardous waste and 10 pounds of radioactive waste. During the cleanup, the EPA detected mercury vapors but could not pinpoint their source. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation's Remediation Division believes the mercury is widespread in the building. A hearing at TDEC's Knoxville Field Office is scheduled for July 7.

At a city government hearing last Friday, Dan Hawkins, regional manager for the Division of Remediation at the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, informed officials of the state's pending action.

"The Stewart Science Building is a very dangerous place," Hawkins said, noting that vagrants have been hauling off likely contaminated items

David Brace, the city's Public Works director, ordered the college to repair 14 campus buildings and deferred action on the science building, McMillan Chapel and the Alumni Library. An April inspection of the rapidly deteriorating buildings found structural, foundation, roofing, plumbing, electrical and exterior problems. The Knoxville Fire Department often has to battle small, intentionally set fires around the campus.

Knoxville College stopped holding classes last spring for the first time in its 140-year history. The Tennessee Higher Education Commission voted in April to place the historically black college on "conditional authorization," essentially suspending the school's approval to recruit, enroll or educate students.

College officials have signed a master developer deal with Southeast Commercial to salvage the historic campus. Gary Smith, the firm's president and CEO, said he has two developers interested in the land and envisions a redevelopment district that could include affordable housing, senior housing, office buildings and a charter school. Smith, however, said he was unaware the site has ongoing environmental issues.

Under state law, a lien is placed against the entire parcel containing the contaminated building or land for the cost of a cleanup, Hawkins said. The science building is likely not salvageable, and the cost of safely demolishing it could run into the millions, he said. That likely will complicate any plans the college and Southeastern Commercial develop.

As troubles mount for the school, the prospects fade for marshaling the resources for a solution that honors the college's legacy. Knoxville College's campus embodies an important part of the city's history, but time and hope are running out.
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State Rep. Andy Holt of Dresden proudly burns a camera-generated traffic ticket he acquired by running a red light, and he encourages other citizens to follow his example. His adolescent behavior mocks Tennessee law, ridicules law enforcement and endangers innocent citizens across the state.

I personally know nine people whose lives were diminished by red-light runners, most of them in Knox County. One was permanently disabled and never able to work or functional normally again. Another endured three major surgeries in the subsequent year to correct severe internal injuries. Doctors said his youth and good health saved him. His wife suffered broken ribs. Their two young children nearly lost their parents. Two victims suffered neck injuries; one required reconstructive surgery, the other months of physical therapy. Three generations  an infant, her mother and grandmother  were almost wiped out. All experienced various levels of psychological trauma. Their vehicles were severely damaged or destroyed.

Consequently, I don't care how many tickets red-light runners get or how they get them. My sympathies lie with victims of those anti-social menaces who think their immediate desires outweigh everyone else's safety and well-being. Their childish whining about camera-generated tickets is disgusting. They wouldn't have them if they stopped at red lights.

Politicians such as Holt are on the wrong side of this issue by supporting traffic scofflaws who selfishly imperil innocent people with their recklessness. Police departments statewide should keep Holt informed of the consequences of red-light running by forwarding copies of their police reports describing the details of every red-light collision.

Bill Stack, Knoxville
By Lee Hyo-sik





Moon Hak-sun, former CEO of Novartis Korea

Novartis Korea's legal troubles will likely continue for some time, as prosecutors are looking closely into allegations that the company offered kickbacks to doctors for years in return for prescribing its products.

Following a raid of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant's local office in February, investigators have summoned Moon Hak-sun, its first Korean CEO whose duties have been suspended since April, and other company executives for questioning.

The prosecution has said investigators are gathering evidence to prove that Novartis Korea provided cash and other kickbacks, known in the pharmaceutical industry as "rebates," to doctors. The prosecution has refused to comment on when it will announce the results of its probe, the results of which are being anticipated by multinational pharmaceutical firms operating here.

Offering such rebates has been a long-running but illegal practice which has been blamed for hiking drug prices.

"Moon was temporarily suspended from his duties as CEO of Novartis Korea on April 7," a company official said. "Moon agreed to be relieved from his post. Since then, an acting CEO dispatched from the Swiss headquarters has been managing the firm."

On April 22, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office sent investigators to the office of Novartis Korea in downtown Seoul, confiscating financial records and other company documents.

The prosecution suspects that the Swiss drug maker had offered rebates to doctors and medical school professors in the form of traffic expenses and writer's fees. In exchange, the company asked the doctors to prescribe its medicines for their patients.

A former employee of an unnamed agency, which allegedly delivered kickbacks to doctors on behalf of Novartis Korea, gave the information to the authorities, according to an executive at one of the multinational drug companies.

"The prosecution initiated a probe into Novartis Korea after receiving credible tips from a person with knowledge of the company's provisions for rebates to doctors," said the executive, who declined to be named. "The prosecution will certainly indict Moon and other company officials, and seek to obtain an arrest warrant from the court to secure his custody during trial."

The executive claims that Moon is a scapegoat for his non-Korean predecessors. "Given that Moon took the company helm only last September, most of the irregularities took place under the watch of his predecessors. I think Novartis is not interested in looking out for Moon. What the company wants is to have him take full responsibility for its past deeds."

Novartis Korea is the second-largest multinational drug company operating in Korea. It generated 455.3 billion won in sales last year with an operating profit of 20.6 billion won.
By Kim Yoo-chul

The Korea Development Bank (KDB), the main creditor of the ailing Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), has approved the shipbuilder's self-rescue program, officials said Thursday.

"The bank accepted drastic cost-cutting measures including sales of properties, layoffs of employees and the sale of shares in Doosan Engine," an official at Samsung said. He said SHI hopes to raise up to 1.5 trillion won through the program.

Details of employee cuts and asset sales will be finalized after necessary procedures, according to the company.

But SHI's plan did not include support measures from its biggest shareholder, Samsung Electronics, though KDB has been consistent in asking Samsung Group to back up SHI's restructuring.

Samsung Electronics owns 17.62 percent of SHI.

Sources said KDB refused SHI's requests for cash support  speculated to be about 1 trillion won.

KDB is yet to decide whether to approve SHI's requests to roll over existing debts, the official said.

Mentioning Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's earlier moves to sell his stake in Samsung SDS to help Samsung Engineering launch a campaign to issue new shares, he said the KDB was still hoping Samsung will join moves to save the group's shipbuilding affiliate.

"SHI's situation isn't desperate to the extent that it needs any imminent cash support from the KDB," an SHI spokesman said. "We believe the debt level is still manageable and the internal cash reserve was 3.6 trillion won as of the first quarter of this year. Our priority is to cut worries over short-term liquidity as early as possible."

Korea's top-three shipbuilders  including Hyundai Heavy and Daewoo Shipbuilding  collectively reported a net loss of $4.9 billion last year, because the shipping downturn has directly hit Korean shipyards.

Orders have declined markedly as conditions worsened in offshore, bulk and container shipping, and yards secured only a handful of orders between them during this year's first quarter.
Renault Samsung introduces its new QM6 SUV during a media day at the 2016 Busan International Motor Show at BEXCO in Haeundae, Thursday. / Courtesy of Renault Samsung



By Jhoo Dong-chan

Exhibiting automakers at this year's Busan International Motor Show had one thing in common amid growing concerns over carbon emissions  eco-friendly vehicles.

During the event's media day on Thursday, the first day of the biennial auto show that continues until June 12 at BEXCO in Haeundae, Busan, most of the 25 participating domestic and international automakers made their utmost efforts to present their eco-friendly models or future plans to add them to their lineups.

Hyundai Motor introduced its new electric vehicle (EV), the Ioniq Electric, capable of traveling a maximum of 191 kilometers on a fully charged battery.

"Korea's auto market has become more competitive than ever due to rapidly advancing technologies and diversified consumer tastes," said Hyundai Motor Group Vice Chairman Yang Woong-chul during a media presentation. "Hyundai Motor will continue its efforts in technology innovation to satisfy a wide range of consumers' needs."

Hyundai Motor also introduced a new performance-based lineup, The N line, along with the new i20 WRC rally car and two concept cars, the RM16 and N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo.

Hyundai Motor's luxury division, the Genesis brand, introduced its G80 sedan and G80 Sport, alongside its future marketing strategy.

"Since its brand launch last year, Genesis has expanded its presence in the global luxury sedan market with the EQ900's successful sales in such a short period," said Manfred Fitzgerald, the brand's directing manager.

"With the brand's differentiated design, Genesis will offer a new standard in the global luxury sedan market."

Hyundai's sister automaker Kia Motors also came up with its first plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV), the K5 PHEV, which an official said has a range of 44 kilometers on one full battery charge.

Along with the K5 PHEV, Kia introduced a futuristic concept design of its premium SUV, the Telluride, and the exterior of the new K7 HEV model.

Another domestic automaker, Renault Samsung, introduced the new premium QM6 SUV during the event, boasting its slick design with a C-shape DRL lighting signature.

Renault Samsung CEO Park Dong-hoon said, "The company's new QM6 offers a new type of SUV premium with sizable interior and luxury sentiment, the best choice for a family SUV."

U.S.-based General Motors' affiliate Chevrolet held its own premier night event a day before the motor show at the Busan Cinema Center, boasting its differentiated technology innovation with its second-generation Volt PHEV and the American muscle car Camaro SS.

The Volt PHEV mounts a 18.4-kWh mass battery and two electric motors applied with the Range Extender Voltec system that can travel a maximum 676 kilometers on a full charge. With regular charging, owners can be expected to travel more than 1,600 km on average between visits to the gas station.

"The all-new Volt is a truly innovative product for today that offers an industry-leading range, functionality and value for its segment," said GM Korea President and CEO James Kim. "We expect it to set the new standard for electric vehicles in Korea."

The new-generation muscle car Camaro SS mounts a powerful V8 6.2-liter engine that can produce a maximum of 455 horsepower with a 62.0 kg-m torque. The rear-wheel-run automatic transmission with slick "Bumblebee" design is expected to attract a high number of young motorists in Korea.
Jang Il-beom

An Opera Gala concert will be held at the opera theater of Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul for a two-day run this Friday and Saturday.



The concert will be accompanied by narration from renowned music critic Jang Il-beom who will add friendly explanations about each aria for those unfamiliar with the musical genre.



The concert features a vocal ensemble, choir, orchestration and ballet all on one stage. Performances include diverse opera repertoires from France, Germany and Italy such as "Tannhauser" by Wagner, "Il Trovatore" by Verdi, "Tosca" by Puccini, "Orphee aux Enfers" and "Les Contes d'Hoffmann" by Offenbach and "Faust" by Gounod.



The concerts start at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and 3 p.m. on Saturday. Visit sac.or.kr for more information.
Dior opens its first online store in Asia on Wednesday. /Screen capture from Christian Dior Couture Korea



By Lee Jin-a

French fashion brand Dior launched an online store in Korea on Wednesday, its first in Asia.

The online boutique not only offers its steady sellers, including Lady Dior and Diorama bags, but also sells shoes including loafers and espadrilles, plus accessories like earrings and sunglasses. Customers also can view new products from the 2016 fall collection.

Analysts said Dior chose Korea for its first Asian online store because Koreans are up with the latest fashion trends and familiar with online shopping. They said the growing popularity of K-beauty and K-fashion in Asia also affected Dior's decision.

Among foreign luxury brands, Gucci and Burberry operate online boutiques in Korea, and Salvatore Ferragamo offers its products through online department stores.
Nailis Saadah, director of the

Asia-Pacific region at Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism

By Baek Byung-yeul

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia  An Indonesian tourism ministry official said a new visa-free policy will definitely encourage more Koreans to visit the Southeast Asian country.

"As Koreans have been granted 30-day visa-free visits since last year, more chances to discover the beauty of this country will be available," Nailis Saadah, director of the Asia-Pacific region at Indonesia's Ministry of Tourism, said in Indonesia's ancient royal capital city of Yogyakarta, on May 14.

"Besides Bali, there are a lot of tourist destinations here and we will make every effort to promote these spots," she said.

The director said it is estimated that some 12 million foreigners will visit Indonesia this year.












The ruling Saenuri Party officially named a former anticorruption chief as its interim head Thursday, as it moves to reorganize itself and make a comeback after its defeat in the April elections.

Kim Hee-ok, the former head of the Government Public Ethics Committee, was officially made party chief at a meeting of members, more than a month after Rep. Kim Moo-sung, the former chairman, stepped down shortly after the general elections.

Saenuri not only lost the majority but secured just 122 seats in the National Assembly out of 300 up for grabs. Although it could emerge as the No. 1 player if it secures independent lawmakers, the election result reflected the public's discontent toward the ruling camp.

Since the resignation of Kim Moo-sung, the party has been struggling with a power vacuum that reignited infighting between the non- and pro-President Park Geun-hye factions.

The appointment was made after key senior members discussed ways to reorganize the party's overall structure to grant more power to a single leader last month. In the past, the party employed a collective leadership system that has been cited for fueling internal discord and bickering, which was one reason for the poor showing in the recent elections.

As the ruling party held nine council leaders, such meetings regularly failed to produce significant results.

Last month, the party attempted to kick off emergency planning and innovation committees headed by Rep. Chung Jin-suk, the floor leader, and Rep. Kim Yong-tae, respectively. The plan failed from backlash from the pro-Park faction within the party. (Yonhap)
By Yi Whan-woo





Ban Ki-moon

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is the preferred presidential candidate in the latest poll on potential runners, released Thursday.

The result indicates Ban is gaining popularity after he left open the possibility of running for president while visiting Korea last week.

In a telephone survey by Realmeter, on Monday and Tuesday, Ban received 25.3 percent of support as a presidential candidate, leading former main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) chairman Moon Jae-in by 3.1 percentage points. The survey of 2,018 adults nationwide had a 2.2 percent margin of error.

The poll showed that Ban, who is rumored to have the backing of President Park Geun-hye as a ruling Saenuri Party candidate, absorbed the support of other probable presidential contenders, including minority opposition People's Party co-leader Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, after he hinted at a presidential bid.

Ahn garnered 12.9 percent, down 3.2 percentage points from a week earlier.

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, a possible MPK presidential candidate, collected 6.6 percent, down 1.3 percentage points.

The approval ratings of three conservative presidential hopefuls _ former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, former ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Kim Moo-sung and Gyeonggi Province Governor Nam Kyung-pil _ dropped from 10.4 percent to 4.3 percent, 6.6 percent to 3.8 percent and 3.2 percent to 1.8 percent, respectively.

Rep. Yoo Seong-in, an independent lawmaker who defected from the Saenuri Party, saw a 1.6-percentage-point fall in his support, recording 2.9 percent this week.

The presidential election is scheduled in December 2017. But Ban fueled an early race among potential rivals after hinting at the possibility of his candidacy during his visit to his home country May 25-30.

"The survey clearly indicated a two-way race between Ban and Moon and it seems most voters, except for Moon's supporters, are throwing their support behind the U.N. chief," Realmeter said.

By region, Ban led in the Saenuri Party's strongholds, collecting 34.1 percent in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province combined and 29.7 percent in Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang Province combined.

Ban, a native of North Chungcheong Province, was also most popular in Daejeon, Sejong City and the Chungcheong region combined. He won 29 percent there.

The U.N. chief garnered the top spot in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon at 29 percent.

Meanwhile, the approval rating of President Park Geun-hye rose by 2.2 percentage points to 36.1 percent.

"It can be interpreted that Ban's visit led to a positive assessment of the President's state affairs," the pollster said.

It said news reports of Park's ongoing overseas trip may have helped increase her approval rating.
Police officers move gas tanks at a subway construction site in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday, to investigate the exact cause of Wednesday's explosion that killed four workers and injured 10. It is thought the less trained workers failed to move the tanks to a designated place the previous day. / Yonhap



Cost-saving practice brings negligence in safety measures



By Kim Se-jeong

The recent explosion at a subway construction site, and the death of a platform safety door maintenance worker have shown that safety is not really considered in the pursuit of money contracts between prime contractors and subcontractors in Korea.

In the explosion at the construction site in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday, four workers were killed and 10 injured. All the 14 were employed by Maeil ENC, a subcontractor of POSCO E&C, the prime contractor. The Korea Rail Network Authority ordered the project.

According to police, the explosion occurred because of the overnight leakage of propane gas from a tank, and it was the fault of the workers who failed to move the tank to a separate place the previous day as required by law.

In Saturday's accident at Guui Station in eastern Seoul, a 19-year-old mechanic died after being hit by an arriving train while repairing a safety door. He worked for Eunseong PSD, a subcontractor for Seoul Metro that operates the subway.

Deaths of workers from subcontractors are not new. According to the Ministry of Labor and Employment, such deaths accounted for 40.2 percent of the total worksite deaths from industrial accidents last year, up from 37.7 percent in 2012.

Out of seven workers who died at construction sites of Hyundai Heavy Industries this year, five were subcontractor workers.

In Korea, it's legal and common for prime contractors, mostly big builders or transportation operators, to hire subcontractors, because it is cost efficient and the subcontractors take charge of worker management instead of them.

Prof. Park Chang-geun at Catholic Kwandong University said that the workers at the subway construction site would not have been aware of the safety manual.

"The subcontractor may have won the contract for a small amount of money. Unable to afford skilled laborers, the subcontractor probably hired people without enough knowledge or skills, and the workers would not have been given enough safety training," he said.

Experts also said prime contractors should take charge of safety-related work and the government should act to prevent this from happening again.

"The government should prevent big companies from entrusting safety work to a subcontractor," said Hyun Jae-soon, director of planning at the Wonjin Institute for Occupational and Environmental Health. "Also, the punishment for those responsible should be tougher so that an accident like this could bankrupt the company."

The issue of subcontracting was also raised by the United Nations delegates who were visiting Korea to study business and human rights. Michael Addo, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Office, indicated Wednesday that prime contractors should bear more responsibility for things that happen down the chain of contracts.
By Kang Seung-woo



Chinese President Xi Jinping's omitted mentioning North Korea's nuclear development in a meeting with a visiting North Korean delegation, Wednesday, and this has ignited speculation here that Beijing is recognizing Pyongyang as a nuclear state.



Analysts said that China appears to be smoothing over the once-soured relations with the North in an attempt to use it as leverage against the United States, which is moving to contain China's growing clout in the region.



Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee who led the delegation, reaffirmed the North's uncompromising stance on nuclear development during his three-day trip to Beijing.



However, Xi held a meeting with him, giving positive comments on the ties between the allies.



Instead, the Chinese President said China's stance on the issue of the Korean Peninsula is consistent and clear  seen as an indirect reference to the North's denuclearization.



This is quite different from Xi's earlier comments about North Korea's nuclear program.



Xi had called for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in his previous meetings with North Korean officials.



In March, Xi also reaffirmed China's commitment to the denuclearization of the peninsula in summits with President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in the United States.



Xi also said at the foreign ministers' meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) that China "will never allow war or chaos to occur on the peninsula."



This was the first time in about three years for Xi to meet a senior North Korean official since he met Choe Ryong-hae, who visited in May 2013 as the North Korean leader's special envoy.



In the talks three months after the North's third nuclear test, Xi stressed the denuclearization of the peninsula three times, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.



According to China's Xinhua news agency, Xi set a positive tone in the meeting with Ri, stressing the need to "reinforce and develop" bilateral relations.



The North's Korean Central News Agency also reported that the meeting was held in a friendly atmosphere.







Friendly to NK



The reports indicate that China is now changing its stance on the North's nuclear development program.



"China may be shifting from pressing North Korea to engaging in dialogue with the country after figuring out pressure-only measures cannot resolve the nuclear issue," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute.



Analysts believe that China's efforts to mend ties with the North are largely associated with Washington's move to boost its regional security interests after Obama's visits to Vietnam and Japan last week.



On the occasion of his visit to Vietnam, the U.S. fully lifted a ban on weapons sales as both countries are warily eyeing China's military build-up in the South China Sea, in which six countries  China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan  have wrangled over territory.



The move drew criticism from China that the U.S. President was exacerbating the strategic antagonism between Washington and Beijing.



"With increasing U.S. moves to contain China in the region, Beijing attempted to recover its relations with the North to use as leverage against Washington," said Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University.



The North has served as a buffer zone and strategic asset against the U.S. "pivot to Asia" policy.



"In addition, China also plans to take advantage of the Xi-Ri meeting to take the initiative on North Korea's nuclear issue in next week's annual U.S.-China strategic talks in Beijing," he said.




By Jane Han



DALLAS  As the decisive California primary is just days ahead, Democratic candidates and supporters are making unprecedented efforts to appeal to Korean voters in one of the most unpredictable presidential campaigns in recent memory.



Last week, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton's campaign launched a 30-second television ad in Korean, the first of its kind in U.S. elections, in an effort to communicate her pledges effectively to Korean immigrant voters in California.



In the commercial, Clinton promises to provide quality education for all children regardless of their background, reform the nation's immigration policy and guarantee health care for war veterans.



"I know that America cannot reach its full potential without all of us coming together,'' the former U.S. secretary of state said.



The Korean ad is a part of the Clinton campaign's newest $1 million television ad purchase in California  the nation's largest and most populous and diverse state  aimed at mainly targeting Hispanics and Asian-Americans



"Korean voters are small but growing and they have begun to matter more to American politicians," says Michael Kim, 26, who is one of many younger generation Korean-Americans who have teamed up to campaign for Clinton in California.



Supporters like Kim and many others have come together to begin various campaign events for Clinton, as well as expand her online presence by creating the Facebook page ''Korean-Americans for Hillary."



"For minority voters like us, this election is an opportunity to show that we have a voice in this country," he said. "That's the only way our voice will matter in future elections."



Clinton's Democratic Party competitor Bernie Sanders is also appealing to Korean voters  with the help of his supporters.



The National Nurses Union, with 185,000 registered members, funded a campaign billboard to be set up in the busiest part of Los Angeles' Koreatown.



It reads in Korean, "The most trusted profession trusts Bernie. Nurses say Bernie Sanders for President."



Political observers say Sanders' cash-crunched campaign probably does not allow him to spend much on campaigning directly to Koreans, so his supporters are jumping in to win over votes for him.



California's primaries are typically considered an afterthought in U.S. presidential primaries, because they come late in the calendar, but not this time.



The latest polls show that Sanders has quickly narrowed the gap with Clinton in California, making the race crucial up to voting day on June 7.



The delegate count shows that losing California will not stop Clinton from getting the party nomination, but experts say the defeat will damage her campaign psychologically and most likely encourage Sanders to say in the race until the party convention in July.




By Lin Tzou-yien

According to the WHO estimate released on April 21, 2014, a total of 774 lives were claimed in the SARS outbreak in 2003. Far beyond the nations where it claimed the most victims, SARS traumatized the world with vast economic disruptions, deeply impacting international trade and travel that year and in the nervous months that followed.

Yet such threats are far from over: emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola and MERS have followed. These are the threats we understand a little about  yet what we really have to fear are the threats we cannot name. Even as global health experts gather, new and unmapped outbreaks can spread rapidly across the globe. More rapidly than ever, arguably, as air travel statistics show that more people are flying, with more of the world than ever within a day's travel.

Zika virus emerged in South America late last year, and has since swept across every continent, challenging disease control efforts worldwide. The World Health Organization in 2014 estimated that vector-borne diseases account for 17% of the global burden of all infectious diseases, killing up to 750,000 people each year. Dengue, the fastest-growing vector-borne disease, is endemic in more than 100 countries  with four out of ten people worldwide potentially at risk. Last year, Taiwan confirmed a total of 43,419 indigenous cases, which was one of the most severe dengue outbreaks since 1987. Since Zika virus is transmitted by the same mosquito species that transmits dengue virus, Taiwan also faces increased risk of a Zika virus outbreaks.

Because we know infectious diseases do not respect boundaries, Taiwan has fulfilled its International Health Regulations responsibilities since 2009, when we were officially included in the implementation framework. We have established an IHR Contact Point with WHO to enable regional and global responses to public health threats. We assessed and improved our surveillance and response capacities to meet the Annex 1B IHR core requirements in a timely manner. Taiwan closely monitors international trends to optimally promote and enhance health security. In response to Ebola in West Africa, we provided 100,000 sets of Personal Protective Equipment and donated US$1 million to international Ebola aid efforts in 2014. Since then, we organized four training workshops for Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian health and laboratory workers to improve regional capacity to detect and respond to Ebola, MERS, dengue and Zika virus. Participants from 14 countries exchanged experiences and formed regional networks to address such public health threats.

Taiwan has expanded mosquito-related preparedness and response with four strategies: health system planning, prevention of Zika virus importation, border quarantine, and vector control measures. Yet better vector control, effective vaccines, and proper clinical management are still needed.

Our people also face pandemic and seasonal influenza threats. Previous outbreaks have demonstrated that seasonal influenza virus strains can pose major challenges to our health systems. Because the highest hospitalization rates are among senior citizens, we encourage annual seasonal influenza vaccination to achieve herd immunity.

As we continue to improve our influenza-related planning, we retain a global vision and work hard to maintain the widest possible international health networks. To bring together nations to promote global health security, prevent disease outbreaks, detect threats early and respond rapidly, the United States launched the Global Health Security Agenda with WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Its goals include consistent and widely supported standards like IHR, including the Performance of Veterinary Services Pathway and other health security frameworks. By adopting these frameworks, Taiwan promotes human medicine and veterinary collaborations and constructs a unified system for infectious disease control.

Nothing less than this multilateral and multi-sectoral approach is needed to fight infectious diseases. While we still hope for better alignment with the international community, we are reorganizing at home to pursue best policies and practices. We are establishing a national research institute for vector-borne diseases in southern Taiwan to integrate resources and assist local governments with prevention.

It is no news to this expert audience that a crisis anywhere easily and soon can become a problem everywhere. Global health demands that all populations have optimal capabilities to respond to such threats.

Taiwan will continue to pursue bilateral, multilateral and research cooperation. We can be relied on to assist our Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian neighbors as they enhance their own response capacities. And for the reasons I have discussed, we will actively participate in international arenas.

Such participation ensures that global health security will never again have deadly blind spots due to blocked communication and a lack of transparency.

Lin Tzou-yien is the minister of health and welfare, Republic of China (Taiwan).


By Lee Jin-a

A documentary that offers a glimpse of life inside North Korea will premiere in New York next month, the U.S.-based Voice of America (VOA) said.

"The movie ('Under the Sun') will premiere at Film Forum in New York City on July 6, followed by 15 to 30 other cities across the U.S. and Canada," Livia Bloom, vice-president of Icarus Films, told VOA.

The documentary will screen at Film Forum from July 6 to 12 and at Laemmle Monica Film Center in Santa Monica, California, from July 15 to 21.

"Under the Sun," which discloses the process of making propaganda in North Korea, has been shown at about 20 movie festivals in North America. It was also selected as a candidate in the Golden Gate Awards Competition at the San Francisco Film Festival.

Directed by Russian filmmaker Vitaly Mansky, the movie shows the life of an eight-year-old girl named Jin-mi, who joined the Korean Children's Union on the birthday of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, on Feb 16.

As North Korean authorities constantly intervened in his filming, Mansky recorded not only Jin-mi's staged life but also the government's involvement in the documentary.

The movie, released last October, has won several international awards, including Best Film in the Baltic Gaze competition of the 22nd Vilnius Film Festival and the Jury Prize in the documentary competition of this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival.
By Lee Jin-a

The United Nations has released $8 million in humanitarian aid to help more than 2.2 million vulnerable North Koreans, Radio Free Asia said Wednesday.

According to the U.S.-based outlet, the U.N. selected nine countries, including North Korea, Burundi, Libya and Mali, and gave a total of $100 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help them.

North Korea is the only country in Asia to receive money from the fund this year.

"An allocation of $8 million will provide urgent life-saving humanitarian assistance to over 2.2 million vulnerable people in North Korea, including 1.8 million children who need urgent nutrition assistance," the U.N. said.

The isolated country was given $15 million in 2011, $12 million in 2012, $15 million in 2013, $6 million in 2014 and $8 million in 2015.

U.N.-affiliated organizations including the World Food Program (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) also provide help to the state.
By Yi Whan-woo



Washington's latest financial sanctions against North Korea will be effective in preventing Pyongyang from pocketing money from "slave workers" abroad, officials and experts said Thursday.



The U.S. Treasury Department designated North Korea as a "primary money laundering concern," Wednesday, to force international banks to stop wiring money and offering other financial transactions to Pyongyang.



"Almost all financial institutions around the world have connections with the U.S. banking system and Washington's measure will work fast," a South Korean government official said on condition of anonymity. "It will be effective everywhere, including China as well as countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East."



Kim Hyun-wook, a U.S. expert at Korea National Diplomatic Academy, said, "Branding North Korea as a primary money launder will heighten pressure on the Kim Jong-un regime following its fourth nuclear test."



The latest sanctions will prevent foreign banks engaged in financial activities with the North Korean government and its companies from accessing the U.S.-dollar based financial system.



Banks in the U.S. are already prohibited from doing business with financial institutions in the repressive state.



Washington moved to choke off Pyongyang's remaining access to the global financial system following North Korea's continued nuclear weapons development despite the U.N. Security Council (UNSC)'s harshest sanctions imposed on Pyongyang, March 2.



North Korean officials were forcibly taking the salaries of its "slave workers" overseas and wiring them back home to fund nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development.



North Korea has up to 60,000 construction workers and other manual laborers abroad, mostly in China and Russia, with a mission to bring in foreign currency, according to the National Intelligence Service.



Major Chinese and Russian banks have stopped business with North Korea, Marcus Noland, an expert on North Korea at the Petersen Institute for International Economics, told the Associated Press.



But smaller Chinese banks that "have less to lose from being excluded from the U.S. market" still may consider it worth conducting financial transactions with the North, he said.



"In this climate, Washington's sanctions may be mainly targeting those small-sized Chinese banks," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor of North Korean Studies.



He remained skeptical whether Washington's latest financial sanctions will succeed.



"North Korea will find alternative means to generate hard currency, such as bringing bulk cash in diplomatic pouches," Yang said.



Meanwhile, Adam Szubin, Washington's acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, urged other countries to take similar steps on severing banking ties with North Korea.



Seoul's Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the U.S. sanctions, saying "We highly value Washington's determination."





Pressure on China



The U.S. government was required to consider whether to designate North Korea as a global money launderer within 180 days from its enactment of H.R. 757: North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2016 in February.



The designation coincided with a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ri Su-yong, a vice chairman of North Korea's Worker's Party, in Beijing, Wednesday.



Ri's trip as a special envoy of the young North Korean leader has raised speculation on a thaw in the Pyongyang-Beijing ties.



"And it can be said Washington's financial sanctions on North Korea can press Beijing to increase leverage on Pyongyang in line with the UNSC sanctions," Kim Hyun-wook said.



He speculated such sanctions will have stronger impact than Washington's similar step in 2005 against a Macau-based bank, Banco Delta Asia.



It held about $25 million in North Korean funds and the U.S. declared the bank a primary money laundering concern, which caused the bank to collapse after it was cut off from the U.S. financial system.



"It's possible that the U.S. sanctions will prompt a financial war between Washington and Beijing," Kim Hyun-wook said.




Belgian psychological scientists have found that concentration can increase when sitting next to someone working hard. / Screen capture from Twitter



By Kim Da-hee

Many Korean students prefer to study at cafes, saying they can better concentrate.

Others have criticized them, questioning how they can focus amid groups of people.

But Belgian psychological scientists' research shows studying in a coffee shop does help concentration, because sitting next to someone busily working can boost one's mental effort.

According to the Association for Psychological Science (APS), citing research published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Kobe Desender, Sarah Beurms and Eva Van den Bussche tested 38 people to determine whether concentration is contagious.

The researchers asked pairs of participants to sit next to each other and share a computer screen and keyboard. They then got each participant to press a key whenever one's assigned colors appeared on the screen.

The researchers found that one participant's increased mental effort spread to the other.

"In our study, there were no incentives for exerting high or low levels of effort," the researchers said. "But, nevertheless, participants exerted more mental effort when the person next to them was doing so.

"Thus, the subtle effects of effort contagion, as observed in the current study, expose at least one of the boundaries within which people tend to avoid high effort."
Financially troubled Hanjin Shipping has not made any progress in its negotiations with the owners of its chartered ships to cut leasing rates, one of the key preconditions set by its creditors to avert court receivership, industry sources said Thursday.



According to the sources, the country's No. 1 container shipping line had contacted the owners of its charter fleet to slash the rates, but failed to receive any "positive" responses from them.



The shipper's struggle for the charter rate cut is in stark contrast to its smaller local rival, Hyundai Merchant Marine, which has reported "significant" progress in its charter rate reduction talks.



Hyundai Merchant, the country's No. 2 shipping line, also won approval from its bondholders for some 800 billion won ($671 million) worth of debt rescheduling proposals.



The sources said Hanjin Shipping has to negotiate with a large number of shipowners, which means that its talks with them may be tougher.



Also, a vessel operated by Hanjin Shipping was impounded for three days in South Africa for unpaid charter fees, raising concerns that the shipper's financial status has dramatically worsened.



"We are working hard to produce the best results at an earlier date," said an official at Hanjin Shipping.



Last month, creditors of Hanjin Shipping accepted the troubled shipping giant's debt restructuring plan, also granting a three-month suspension on all payments of principal and interest.



But the creditors conditioned that the self-rehabilitation program will only be effective as long as all of the company's bondholders, lenders and owners of the ships chartered by Hanjin also remain committed to the self-rescue plan.



Last month, the shipper's bondholders approved some 36 billion won worth of debt recast proposal.



Meanwhile, the Hanjin Group, the parent company of Hanjin Shipping, and its chairman Cho Yang-ho have agreed to give up their managerial control of the shipping unit under the self-rescue plan.



In 2015, Hanjin Shipping posted a net profit of 3 billion won, a turnaround from a net 423.3 billion won loss in the previous year.



The company has to pay off or refinance some 500 billion won worth of debt that will mature before the end of June. The company-proposed plan includes raising some 400 billion won through asset sales.



As of end-2015, the company's total debt reached 5.6 trillion won. (Yonhap)




It is becoming increasingly clear that Park Geun-hye administration is not fully committed to managing the issue of former comfort women in a way that is acceptable to the surviving victims and the public.



A special committee was launched here Tuesday on establishing a foundation partly funded by the Japanese government for the former sex slaves of the Japanese military during World War II. It is disappointing that the government is unilaterally pushing for the establishment of the foundation despite the huge backlash. The comfort women and civic groups that support them have protested its establishment.



The foundation is a key result of the heavily criticized deal with Japan last year. Under the verbal agreement, Japan will provide 1 billion yen ($9 million) in funding to the foundation aimed at improving the lives of the victims and healing their emotional wounds. But the victims are saying that monetary support was not what they need to restore their dignity, calling on the Japanese government to first admit "legal responsibility" for wartime sexual slavery and offer a sincere apology.



The onset of the foundation is not very promising. The government has filled the committee with the wrong people, starting with Kim Tae-hyeon, professor emeritus at Sungshin Women's University, who chairs the committee. It is incomprehensible why a scholar with no background in the comfort women issue was chosen to lead the committee.



The preparatory work should be led by a foreign ministry official who is fully aware of the history of the Korea-Japan consultations on the comfort women issue. Kim seems to be confused about some of the key issues of the Dec. 28 Korea-Japan deal, such as the nature of the monetary fund from Japan.



It is the overwhelming view of the victims and many Koreans that the Dec. 28 Korea-Japan deal failed to contain outcomes that are favorable to the surviving former comfort women. If the government does not want to invite more public backlash against the Korea-Japan deal, the development of the foundation should be discussed with the victims.



Although the foundation is to be run as a private organization, this does not mean that the government can evade its responsibility for the comfort women. The Park administration needs to ensure that the foundation does not cause the victims additional emotional suffering.




Denuclearizing peninsula must be prioritized



Ri Su-yong, vice chairman of the central committee of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, visited Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing Wednesday and delivered a verbal message from the North's young leader, Kim Jong-un.



During the meeting, Xi reportedly stressed the importance of friendly relations with Pyongyang and urged all parties to maintain calm and restraint. Ri, the North's top diplomat, explained to Xi and other Chinese officials the outcome of the Workers' Party's Congress last month, which cemented Kim's leadership and endorsed his policy of pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development simultaneously.



What draws our attention is that the Chinese leader reportedly didn't mention "denuclearization" during the meeting this time. That is in stark contrast with three years ago, when he met with Choe Ryong-hae, then the North's envoy, and emphatically stressed the need for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.



It's not clear if Xi didn't mention the nuclear issue intentionally. But pundits raise the possibility that China may be backtracking from its active participation in international sanctions since Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests earlier this year.



What matters most is that recent signs of a thaw in relations between Pyongyang and Beijing could be intended to hold Washington in check. The fact is that China is still angry with the North's continuous push for nuclear weapons, but increasingly feels tempted to embrace its isolated neighbor to counter America's strong pivot to Asia.



As a matter of fact, U.S. President Barack Obama has been using strong-arm tactics against China in the face of its aggressive moves in the South China Sea. As part of such efforts, he visited Vietnam and Japan last week.



This situation serves the interests of North Korea, which must seek a breakthrough while the international community is stepping up sanctions. This also coincides with North Korea's diplomatic strategy to shake the international sanctions after streamlining its internal system through last month's party congress. The North appears to believe that improving relations with China, which serves as a de facto lifeline to the beleaguered North Korean economy, could make U.N. sanctions meaningless.



Of course, all this can't be a reason to think that China might give up its denuclearization efforts anytime soon. At any rate, this must be an undesirable situation for South Korea, which has to achieve its goal of denuclearizing the peninsula rain or shine. It's a pity that the escalating standoff between the two superpowers could stand in the way of Seoul's attempt to look for a clue to breaking the nuclear stalemate.



What is urgently needed is for South Korea to persuade China not to soften sanctions against the North so that the latest thaw between Pyongyang and Beijing won't result in opening the way for the North's eventual nuclear armament.



China is free to use North Korea as leverage in its confrontation with the U.S., but this should not be taken as a signal that it would tolerate the North's nuclear program. As a responsible member of the international community, the Middle Kingdom must put top priority on realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula. If not, it could have the stigma of seemingly being two-faced.




By Donald Kirk

JEJU  Ask an expert analyst how to deal with North Korea, and the responses range from getting tough to massaging gently. Nobody has the real answer  though some people like to talk with absolute certainty  and there's no proof that anything's going to work.

The differences were sharply etched during last week's Jeju Peace Forum at which former Korean foreign ministers sparred on the issue and soothsayers from the U.S., China and elsewhere exchanged quite different views. Nobody seemed to disagree more than Song Min-soon, foreign minister under the late President Roh Moo-hyun, and Yu-Myung-hwan, foreign minister during the first half of Lee Myung-bak's presidency.

Listening to Song talking about dealing with the North, you might get the impression, if only we just met, that all would be okay. His favorite word was "engage"  engage in dialog, "engage, change and manage crisis."

Toward that end Song came up with "the inside-out" theory of change in the North. By "engaging" we could expose them to "a better life" and approach North Korea "from inside out."

Good one, but Song seemed to have missed a couple of obstacles. The first is that North Korea's deep-digging, far-reaching security apparatus would sniff out any sign of North Koreans falling for the lure of "a better life" with the South Koreans. The second is that the talks would break down as soon as the North Koreans sensed what the South Koreans were up to. Then what? Where would the talking go if the two sides didn't agree on anything?

Yu had a sensible answer to the question. Efforts at engagement had not only failed but had "saved time" for the North Koreans  that is, given them time to go on developing nukes and missiles befitting the "military first" songun policy.

Okay, then, what about sanctions? Yu thinks strengthening them has been "effective" but believes one more step would really tighten the screws. How about "blocking the flow of foreign currency" into North Korea so they could no longer do business in yuan, dollars, euros or yen? Then what would happen?

To sanction or not to sanction, to toughen or lighten them, was a favorite theme of panel discussions. G. John Ikenberry, a professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, called for "much more sanctioning" amid "a general view in the U.S." that the North Korean issue "is becoming more dangerous."

Ikenberry saw "a mixture of coercive diplomacy" along with "illumination to good things" that would happen for the North Koreans if only they saw the light. "There is a sense North Korea is not going to give up its nuclear weapons, that nuclear weapons are part of its identity," he said in enormous understatement. That's "deeply destabilizing to the region."

There were, he said, "two options"  "one is a kind of acquiescence" in which "we acknowledge them as a nuclear power" while "the other option is definitely putting more pressure on the North Koreans."

Amazingly, Ikenberry seemed blissfully unaware of the implications of his view. He was not in favor of a military option, that is, going to war to force the hand of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un. But what if coercive measures had no effect? He had no response when I asked the question other than to say he was all in favor of talking to the North Koreans.

Peter Hayes, founder and director of the Nautilus Institute, known for what its website calls "innovative cooperative engagement strategies in North Korea," warned, "Anything is possible with North Korea in the next year, certainly for the next two or three years.'

Whatever "the Americans have in mind with the Chinese," Hayes pinned his hopes on "the concept of a comprehensive settlement." If Washington and Beijing had "the political vision," he could even see "a treaty of amity in Northeast Asia." As for sanctions, "They will not lead to collapse of the regime" and "will not stop nuclear armament."

Chinese panelists at the Jeju conference all declared their support for sanctions  despite not exactly being in favor of strengthening them.

"Pressure in the form of sanctions may be necessary," said Zhengqiang Pan, a retired major general, but he didn't seem too confident. "North Korea continues to upgrade capabilities. All the countries have an obligation to create an environment where North Korea feels comfortable."

There was just one overwhelming problem. "Each country has a fear: if you do not have adequate deterrence, you may suffer," said General Pan. "China supports sanctions in trying to give some signal to North Korea. Sanctions should serve as a window to open opportunity." But, he cautioned, "Excessive sanctions could lead to a backlash."

Amid pronouncements such as these, there was only one certainty. If the experts agree on anything, it's basically, the future lies ahead.

Donald Kirk, journalist and author, has been writing about the standoff on the Korean Peninsula for decades. He's at kirkdon4343@gmail.com.
Accordionist Shim Sung-rak / Courtesy of Paper Record



Crowdfunding campaign to replace burnt instrument

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Accordionist Shim Sung-rak, 80, lost his only accordion in a fire at his home in Seoul last month. Despite the unexpected loss of his longtime companion, Shim wanted to continue playing at a concert scheduled later that month.

Hearing the news, Choi Sung-chul, director of Paper Records which organized the April concert, gave the accordionist a temporary loaner. After the concert, Choi came up with the idea to open a crowdfunding project to dedicate the accordion to the musician.

"We finished the concert successfully, but I wanted to do something for the musician who spent his life playing the accordion," Choi said. "I thought it would be best if we could gift him the instrument so he can continue his life as a musician."

Shim purchased the instrument for around 3.3 million won ($2,800) back in the 1980s, but now an accordion of the same model costs about 25 million won ($21,000). Over 17 million won was raised as of Tuesday, which is more than half of the goal ahead of its June 30 deadline.

"This is going to be the first-ever dedication of the instrument to a living musician in the history of Korean popular music," Choi said. "Shim almost cried at the news of this crowdfunding campaign."

About 90 percent of the proceeds go toward the accordion's purchase with the rest for renting a concert venue and rewards for donors. Donor names will be embroidered on the accordion strap and they will receive rewards, such as limited edition vinyl albums and concert tickets.

Shim is a legendary musician in Korea, having released over 7,000 instrumental numbers on 1,000 albums, according to the Federation of Korean Music Performers. He is also known for performing organ accompaniments at presidential events during the Park Chung-hee, Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo administrations.

He performed with many noted popular musicians including Cho Yong-pil, Shin Seung-hun and Kim Gun-mo. In the 2000s, he earned fame participating in soundtracks for Korean films such as "One Fine Spring Day" (2001) and "The President's Barber" (2004).

His 2009 album "Listen to the Songs of the Wind" won the Special Award at the Korean Music Awards.

To donate, visit tumblbug.com/shimsungrak.
Dyson's engineering manager Pete Duckett, left, promotes the company's new V8 vacuum cleaners during a media event at the Insa Art Center in Jongno, central Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Dyson



British firm cautions about unauthorized battery replacement



By Yoon Sung-won



Dyson has released a new line of wireless vacuum cleaners with upgraded V8 digital motors and longer battery life in Korea, Thursday.



The British electronics maker, which is infamous for the heavy price tags of its products, has set even higher prices for the new products. A Dyson V8 Fluffy costs 1.39 million won ($1,171), compared to a V6 Fluffy HEPA worth 1.19 million won.



As Dyson is seeking to double its sales record of vacuum cleaners in Korea from an estimated 160,000 last year, the company said it will continue to emphasize technological advancement in promoting its products.



"We are focusing on providing new technologies instead of clinging to certain sales goals," a Dyson spokeswoman said during a press conference in Seoul, Thursday. "We believe that we can attract more customers if we can provide them with greater technologies. We are sure that the new V8 stick vacuum cleaners can record more sales through customer satisfaction."



Dyson said its new V8 digital motor supports up to 425 watts of output, compared to its predecessor V6's 350 watts, and operates at speeds of up to 110,000 revolutions per minute.



"We have worked for the last 18 months to upgrade the V6 digital motor and redevelop the new V8," Dyson's engineering manager Pete Duckett said. "Adding a post-motor filter and new materials surrounding the main motor, we have improved it mechanically, electrically and with new software to reduce the noise level by 50 percent."



Duckett said the new vacuum cleaners have a new aluminum-based battery which has double the energy density compared to the previous models. Thanks to this, the V8 models can operate for up to 40 minutes once fully charged, up from 20 minutes.



The engineer said, however, the new vacuum cleaners can run for only about seven minutes in the maximum suction power mode, which is a slight increase of about two minutes from the previous models. He said this is because the output has also been boosted.



Duckett voiced safety concerns about replacing batteries, which must be done as instructed by the manufacturer.



In Korea, some users of Dyson vacuum cleaners, especially those who have bought the devices directly from overseas, choose to replace worn out batteries at unofficial repair shops with unauthorized parts. These users have insisted that the 100,000 won that Dyson charges to replace a battery is too expensive.



"Our products are optimized through their hardware and software," the Dyson engineering manager said. "If a user chooses to use unauthorized batteries, we cannot guarantee that the device will work without problems. In particular, it may cause serious danger."



Meanwhile, Dyson said it will roll out its robot vacuum cleaner once it solves security issues, though it has not decided on an exact date. The company said, because connected devices collect data using sensors, it takes time to develop and establish back-end infrastructure to prevent security problems.



"We have already introduced robot vacuum cleaners to favorable responses in some markets," Duckett said. "We are ready to satisfy our customers with our products. But we need more time to deal with security issues because our robot vacuum cleaners are connected devices."
Vice Chairman Lee meets hurdles in transition



By Kim Yoo-chul





Lee Jae-yong

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman

Samsung has been trying to sell none-core businesses, combine unprofitable affiliates and revamp its decades-long top-town corporate culture to remain adaptive amid growing uncertainty.



So far, the results have been highly productive and effective  the conglomerate is on track in relocating its workforce and investing more in businesses such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving with cash raised from the sale of money-losing outfits.



But Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, the only son of Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who is expected to succeed his father, is facing challenges that need to be tackled as transition looms.



Unlike its success in selling the group's chemical units, company jets and buildings and laying off employees, Samsung's latest move to sell its advertising affiliate  Cheil Worldwide  to Publicis seems destined to fail because the two companies are believed to have been unable to narrow key conditions.



"Talks are currently stalled and it's possible that they have failed," a high-ranking source told The Korea Times.



The official said Publicis, which submitted a tender offer for 30 percent of Cheil Worldwide, asked Samsung to ensure the company continued handling Samsung Group advertising for a "longer period."



Samsung refused. Samsung Electronics spent $2.3 billion globally on advertising in nine months last year.



A steady decrease Cheil Worldwide's share price was cited as the other reason for difficulties with the deal.



"When Publicis' bid for a stake in Cheil was made in late January, Cheil shares were trading at 20,000 won," a Samsung official said. "But the share price of Cheil was down to 16,000 won as of June 1, offering a chance for Publicis to cut its acquisition price."



Samsung C&T, a de facto holding company of Samsung, is the biggest shareholder of Cheil with 12.64 percent, followed by Samsung Electronics (12.6 percent).



"It's uncertain whether the talks will find a new opening," the official said. "If the talks fail, then it may partly hinder the ongoing to have a streamlined business structure."



Meanwhile, a recent ruling by the Seoul High Court, which ordered Samsung to pay more to former Samsung C&T shareholders following a merger, is expected to keep Samsung management busy preparing measures to better protect the interests of minority shareholders.



Samsung C&T said it will immediately appeal to the Supreme Court as its earlier swap ratio between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries shareholders had been in line with related laws.



The court ruled that five shareholders who sued Samsung C&T asking for more money  Ilsung Pharmaceutical and four individual investors  should be offered 66,602 won ($55.92) a share for the stock they held in the construction firm before the merger, compared with 57,234 won offered last year.



Samsung officials said it is highly unlikely the merged Samsung C&T will be split up because of the ruling; but industry watchers say Samsung should prepare measures to defend the interests of minority shareholders better.



"Protecting the best interests of individual investors is what the new Samsung, led by the Vice Chairman Lee, should pay attention to, though the two cases, including one from Cheil, are quite manageable," the official said.
By Lee Min-hyung





A general view of SK C&C headquarters in Bundang, Gyeoggi Province. / Courtesy of SK C&C

SK C&C pledged Thursday to generate 2.5 trillion won ($2.09 billion) in sales in 2020 by enhancing its competitiveness in emerging industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and smart factories.

"Digital transformation will drive disruptive changes in all industries," Lee Ho-soo, president at SK C&C's IT service division, said in a press conference. "We are going to become a facilitator, helping our clients diversify their revenue streams through our ICT."

The system integration affiliate of SK Group will not just provide IT platforms for its customers, but broaden business opportunities for them as well by reprocessing their datasets with its big data and AI analytics tools, according to the executive who also serves as head of its R&D center.

The move reflects its strong drive to increase its foothold in data-related businesses.

So far, SK C&C has focused on system integration and IT outsourcing services as its major profit booster for its clients in the business-to-business (B2B) sector.

Starting this year, however, the company shifted its focus to next-generation growth engines in a bid to tackle market uncertainties facing the company in existing business areas.

In particular, the company underwent a major corporate reshuffle earlier this year, establishing its ICT R&D center and new divisions based on AI and cloud computing.

"Our ultimate goal is to develop technologies that can generate, save and analyze data," he said. "This will create a new integrated value chain. We will not just continue our traditional IT services, but increase our investment in such emerging areas."

Last month, the company signed a partnership with IBM on AI, helping the latter introduce their Korean-language-based Watson cognitive computing system as early as the end of this year.
/Courtesy of Twitter



By Lee Han-soo

The Google Brain Team plans to create an artificial intelligence (A.I.) capable of artistic creation. It has called it "Magenta."

The team's goal is to find out if A.Is can create a compelling form of art and music through machine learning. The team said the experiment will be based on "If possible, how, and if impossible, why not?"

The team said it will incorporate "TensorFlow," an open-source software library that Google has released to the public, to create program models and tools. These will be revealed through Github, a site where developers can share codes. The team also will reveal its demonstration program, manual and technical documents on the site.

Google said it will form a community with artists, programmers and machine-learning researchers through Magenta.
City leaders and the Baxter County sheriff want the state to close a facility here with a new program aimed at helping inmates prepare to re-enter society. Its like a halfway house, where the state tries to integrate former prison inmates back into society before theyre released on parole.

The Twin Lakes Recovery Center of North Arkansas opened in April. In early June, it held 10 inmates who were working full time and preparing for parole after the six-month program.

"What human being doesn't deserve a second chance that is willing to put the work in and turn their life around?" said Cindy Lewis, a manager of the center.

"We believe that the program has merit and has worked in other places. The problem is the location they've picked here, said Sheriff John Montgomery, who lives in Cotter.

The sheriff says the inmates are too close to the schools in Cotter, especially since some have violent histories. He said Cotter is a small town with a small police force.

"We think that is a disaster waiting to happen, said Montgomery.

The sheriff also believes the facility didn't inform the public correctly. Law enforcement agencies were not told ahead of time that inmates would be placed here. The sheriff had to dig to find the criminal histories of the men being held here.

"They want to turn their life around. They want to go to church. And they asked me last Sunday, Miss Cindy, can we go to church? and I didn't feel comfortable taking them out because of what the community is going to say, Lewis said.

The city sent a letter to the state asking the Department of Correction to close this facility by Monday. If it doesnt, the mayor says the city may try to revoke the facilitys permit and shut it down that way.
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

Leading U.S. China Scholar and Official Thai Advisory Board Promote Kra Canal

June 1, 2016 (EIRNS)On virtually the same day this week, the leading Thai government advisory body and a leading U.S. China scholar issued reports promoting the benefits of building the Kra Canal in southern Thailand. Lyndon LaRouche, who has promoted the Canal for nearly 30 years, noted today that the building of the Kra Canal is crucial for "all waters" and all nations in the region, linking India and South Asia to China and the other East Asian nations. He said that were it to be done, "it would be one of the greatest achievements of modern history."

Thailands National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA), the 200-strong advisory body on legal and developmental matters formed by the Prayuth Chan-ocah government last year, have, according to the Bangkok Post, proposed a networking plan to the Prime Minister to build the canal. Gen Harn Leenanon, ex-commander of the 4th Army Region and chief project adviser, said the proposal "aims to stimulate the economies in the southern provinces, and create jobs," with "spin-off effects for the national economy." The Post added that the Thai-Chinese Culture and Economy Association, co-chaired by EIRs associate in Thailand Pakdee Tanapura, together with private sector interests, have spent more than a year preparing a plan for launching the canal project. The increasing Chinese interest in the canal as part of Xi Jinpings New Maritime Silk Road has breathed new life into the idea.

Prime Minister Prayuth, asked about the proposal, repeated his policy that it is not the right time for the project. Nonetheless, the public support from the NRSA, which has representation from government, military, royalty, and academic and private sectors, demonstrates the increasing support for the concept within the country.

In the United States, Prof. Lyle Goldstein, a China scholar (and Russian scholar) at the Naval War College, published an insightful analysis on the increasing support for the Kra Canal within China, under the title "Will this be Chinas Panama Canal?" Noting the dramatic economic and cultural benefits of linking the Pacific and Indian Ocean basins through the Canal (he reports that the Chinese call it the "golden waterway"), Goldstein says the Canal could become the "main act" to the sideshow being orchestrated by Obama in the South China Sea. He points also to Chinas concern about the "Malacca dilemma," both the overcrowding, and the danger of the United States closing off the Strait in a military move against China.

Goldstein takes note of the difficulties, especially the political restraints within Thailand. But, importantly, he concludes:

"Washington would do well to maintain an agnostic or even modestly supportive disposition toward projects that help knit Eurasian peoples and markets closer together. The Kra Canal is hardly a threat to U.S. national security and... is mainly an issue for the people of Thailand to decide upon."

In the context of the recent potential breakaway of the Abe government in Japan from the Obama war policy against China and Russia, LaRouche noted the importance of the fact that the Kra Canal project nearly came to fruition in the 1980s, through the close cooperation between leading forces in Japan working closely with Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, and with the Thai government, on this crucial project for the world economy.
June 1, 2016 (EIRNS)In his Athens press conference May 27 after meetings with the Greek government, Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered an evaluation of the NATO threat and Russias necessary response, which is of the highest importance, and underscores the extreme danger of Obama Administration policy toward Russia. Replying to a question that combined economic and military-strategic issues, Putin underscored that the U.S.-NATO European Ballistic Missile Defense Aegis Ashore facility in Romania, which became operational in May as a Phase II element of the Euro BMD program, is viewed as a threat now, not only down the road two years when its missiles will be upgraded in Phrase III. In addition, Putin confirmed that Russias use, during its military operations against terrorists in Syria since Autumn 2015, of cruise missiles fired from ships in the Caspian Sea, and from strategic bombers that had flown to the Mediterranean via a route around the entire Atlantic perimeter of Europe, was meant as a demonstration of strategic capabilities, in addition to the immediate combat goals.

Here are excerpts, taken from the Kremlin official translation:

Putin: What is the impact of security-related issues on economic cooperation, in particular, the commissioning of the US anti-missile defence deployment area in Romania? What is the impact? The impact is negative, and it cannot be otherwise. Because some time ago the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Missile Defence Treaty and started what amounts to undermining the fundamentals of international security.

Yet another step has been made now. Since the early 2000s, we have been persistently repeating the same thing, like a mantra: we will have to respond to it in some way. Nobody listens to us, nobody is willing to have talks with us, we do not hear anything but platitudes, and those platitudes mainly boil down to the fact that this is not directed against Russia and does not threaten Russias security.

Let me remind you that initially there was talk about thwarting a threat from Iran, it was all about the Iranian nuclear programme. Where is the Iranian nuclear programme now? It no longer exists. The United States themselves initiated the signing of the treaty with Iran. The Iranian nuclear threat does not exist, while the U.S. anti-missile deployment area is being created and was commissioned in Romania.

What is this? These are launch pads and radar stations. Today, 500-kilometre range land-based missiles are being deployed; in a few years they will be 1000-kilometre range missiles. We even know the approximate date when such missiles will be deployed. How can this not be a threat to us? It is a clear threat to our nuclear forces.

However, there is something else that is even worse: these compact launch pads can accommodate assault missiles with a 2,400-kilometre range, and replacing the missiles is no problem; one only has to change the software, and nobody is going to notice anything, even the Romanians. Isnt it a threat to us? It certainly is. That is the reason we have to respond now, and if yesterday some areas in Romania did not know what it is like to be a target, today we will have to take action to ensure our security.

Let me repeat, these are response measures, a response only. We were not the first to take such steps.

The same will be done with regard to Poland. We will wait for certain actions to be taken in Poland. We are not going to do anything until we see missiles on the neighbouring territory. And we have the necessary resources. You saw, the whole world saw our capabilities in terms of medium-range sea and air based missiles. We are not violating anything, but the Iskander land-based missile systems have a brilliant record.

Incidentally, the fact that launch pads are deployed that may be charged with medium-range missiles is nothing short of erosion of the medium and short range missile treaty by our American partners. I think it is an obvious matter that requires the most careful consideration, and undoubtedly, the involvement of the parties concerned in detailed and substantial talks on these issues.
Peter Cast, the protagonist of Benjamin Hales short story The Minus World, feels as if he has a broken compass. How do other people do it? he wonders in frustration. How do other people navigate the world so easily, as if they already know the way, and never feel unmoored, lost, frantic  searching for a north that seems to be everywhere at once?

Its a question that could be asked by nearly all of the characters in The Fat Artist, the excellent new story collection from Hale, author of the 2011 novel The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore, an unlikely love story of an articulate chimp on the run. In this book, Hales heroes and antiheroes dont glide through the world around them; they stumble, fall and get kicked while theyre on the ground. Sometimes they get up. Mostly, they dont.

Take Peter, an alcoholic and drug addict in tenuous recovery, whos burned most of the bridges once available to him. His brother, an MIT scientist, is the exception: All of the possible people who might help Peter had been overfished, like a sea that has no more fish in it. But Greg, Greg had fish left for him.

Greg finds Peter a job, but it doesnt take long for him to relapse. The fallout is spectacular, but Hale doesnt play it for melodrama; the tragedy is all the more affecting for its predictability. Its the same with all the stories in The Fat Artist  Hale understands that whether people burn out or fade away, it usually hurts the same amount.

The collection begins with Dont Worry Baby, which follows Miles and Odelia, two 1960s political radicals forced to flee the country after their organizations plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange is discovered. They go to Morocco to do the William Burroughs thing, do the Paul Bowles thing. After having a baby, they head to Mexico City to hook up with some old radical friends.

But things go awry quickly when Miles secretly gives Odelia, whos still breastfeeding her son, a dose of LSD. The flight to North America descends into the worst of trips, in both senses of the word, as a disconsolate Odelia becomes terrified that her baby has ingested the drug through her breast milk.

The plot is a hand thats easy to overplay, but Hale holds back, delivering a frightening story that ends without an overly neat resolution. The reader finishes it unsettled, unsure of whats going to happen, stricken with a mixture of hope and dread.

Thats also the case with If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day, one of the finest stories in the collection. It combines three interlocking narratives, centered around the Iridium flares, phenomena caused by sunlight reflecting off satellites, often visible in the night sky.

The flares are witnessed by Johanna, an 84-year-old woman who was losing information. It was as if her brain was a wall from which every day someone was carefully moving a few bricks, slowly weakening the integrity of the structure.

As Johanna watches the flares, Hales remarkable prose is on display. Every time she saw the light in the sky, she felt something moving inside herself, he writes, a feeling that was not quite terror and not awe and not humility, and not a feeling that she was catching sight of something of sublime beauty, but a feeling that combined elements of all of these, a feeling that must have been something akin to what early human beings felt millions of years ago when they looked up at the spectacular vault of sky above them, haunted with ribbons of starsmoke, and had no idea who they were or where they were or how big was the universe.

Its a setup for tragedy: Add Kelly, a perpetually exhausted construction worker and newspaper deliveryman, who lives with his wife and their infant son and is driven into a rage, and nearby in the woods, Fred, an aging hippie whos taking pictures of his 16-year-old niece, Lana, who is naked.

The Fat Artist and Other Stories (Simon & Schuster) (Test)

Hales writing is measured and expansive at the same time; he constructs beautiful but never showy sentences. He has the capacity to shock, but he doesnt abuse it; even his oddest stories seem believable, and thats largely due to the care he puts into creating his imperfect, memorable characters.

The standout character in Hales book is the character that gives the title story its name. I am thirty-three years old, says Tristan Hurt, and I am about to die.

Tristan is a performance artist known for his horrific, explicit displays, one of which involves vats of his bodily fluids, latex casts of his genitals and live masturbation. Critics praised my work as ugly, angry, abrasive, disgusting, violent, scatological, pornographic, antisocial, and antihuman, he brags. Its not terribly easy, mind you, to get called these things anymore.

After his girlfriend breaks up with him, he becomes despondent, and gains an enormous amount of weight. Broke, he decides to monetize his situation by putting himself on display at an art museum, urging visitors to bring food for him, effectively assisting his slow suicide.

Its a beautiful reflection on what people are willing to do for art, or what theyre willing to let art do to them. Tristan is like many of Hales characters  controlled by something outside of them, but under the illusion that theyre actually in charge.

Some of them are about to die; some of them have to face up to the long, complicated lives ahead of them. Hale treats all of them with care, and like the flare of a satellite that will one day decay and crash back down to Earth, its oddly beautiful and impossible to look away from.

Schaub is a writer who lives in Austin, Texas.

::

The Fat Artist and Other Stories

Benjamin Hale

Simon & Schuster: 288 pp., $26
Las Vegas coolest attraction just got a whole lot cooler. Minus5 Ice Bar inside the Shoppes at Mandalay Place recently unveiled a new look, including new ice sculptures and an expanded ice bar and lounge. Now spanning more than 1,300 square feet, the ice bar at the Shoppes at Mandalay Place location is the largest permanent ice bar in the world, featuring more than 120 tons of pure Canadian ice.

The bar is kept at a chilly minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit). Guests are given a parka and gloves to keep warm and have the option of upgrading their experience to include the use of a luxurious faux fur coat. Once inside, they can order a variety of vodka cocktails served in glasses made out of pure New Zealand ice while observing the intricate ice carvings, which include a 1,000-pound replica of the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. Guests can literally enjoy their cocktails on the rocks as they sip such favorites as the Snowflake, a mix of Three Olives Cherry vodka, peach schnapps and white cranberry juice.

Offering so much more than just a place to grab an icy concoction, the Minus5 Ice Bar experience is rounded out with a state-of-the-art sound and LED light show. No two Minus5 Ice Bars are the same, either, which means guests who visit the 1,200-square-foot Monte Carlo location will see different ice sculptures. In fact, one of its newest additions is a 3,000-pound head-in-the-hole display featuring Batman and Superman where guests can pose as their favorite comic book character!

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Both Minus5 Ice Bar locations are open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. For more information, visit minus5experience.com.

At Qua Baths & Spa inside Caesars Palace (caesars.com/caesars-palace/things-to-do/qua) guests can unwind in its soothing 55-degree Arctic Ice Room while simulated snow cascades from the ceiling.

Inside Red Square at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino (hakkasangroup.com) visitors can step inside a Vodka Vault to drink flights and bottles of premium vodka next to a giant block of ice that has a statue of Lenins head in it.

For a frigid experience thats also informative, guests can touch the 32-degree Ice Wall inside Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition at Luxor (premierexhibitions.com) to get a sense of just how cold the icy waters were that fateful night.

 By Heather Turk, LA Times Content Solutions
General Motors Co. on Thursday announced its largest recall of Takata air bag inflators yet, but said the parts are unique to its trucks and SUVs and dont pose a safety risk.

The governments highway safety agency disagrees.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said GM, the nations biggest automaker, must proceed with two recalls adding up to 1.9 million trucks from the 2007 through 2011 model years.

The recalls were unveiled along with those from six other automakers, totaling 4.4 million vehicles. They are part of the first round of a massive Takata recall expansion announced in May. A total of 17 automakers are adding 35 million to 40 million inflators to what already was the largest auto recall in U.S. history.

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Takata inflators can malfunction and spew shrapnel into drivers and passengers when exposed to humidity and repeated hot-and-cold cycles.

GM said it would begin the recall process in cooperation with the NHTSA even though it doesnt believe inflators in its trucks are unsafe.

The automaker said that no inflators in its trucks have ruptured during an estimated 44,000 crashes or in testing of returned inflators. It also said the inflators were uniquely made for GM trucks and SUVs with greater venting and machined steel end caps.

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We dont have any evidence at this point that these inflators arent working as designed, spokesman Tom Wilkinson said. He wouldnt say whether GM is trying to avoid recalls, which could be expensive for the company.

But NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas said GM has filed paperwork declaring the inflators defective and that they will be recalled. The science clearly shows that these inflators become unsafe over time, he said.

The GM resistance, although good-mannered, is surprising given that the company was fined and is still being monitored by the NHTSA for covering up faulty small-car ignition switches two years ago.

Documents detailing the latest round of recalls were posted Thursday by NHTSA. They include recalls from Volkswagen, Ford, Daimler Vans, BMW, Jaguar-Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz. Recalls from eight other companies were posted last Friday.

The documents cover passenger air bags mainly in older models in states with high temperatures or humidity.

Recalls related to Takata in this round now total 16.4 million vehicles. The recalls are being phased in during the next three years.

Takata uses ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion that inflates air bags in a crash. But the chemical can deteriorate over time when exposed to high heat and humidity and can blow apart a metal canister, spewing hot shrapnel. The inflators are responsible for at least 11 deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide.

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Takata agreed to the recall expansion May 4, and more recalls are to be announced later. The recalls are being phased in because of a lack of available replacement parts. Models from 2011 or older in high heat and humidity areas will get first priority, followed by 2008 and older models in Southern-tier states, then 2004 and older models in the rest of the country. Research has shown that it takes at least six years for the ammonium nitrate to deteriorate.

On Wednesday, a Senate report found that Fiat Chrysler, Mitsubishi, Toyota and Volkswagen are selling new vehicles with Takata air bag inflators even though the devices are likely to be recalled within a few years.

Because the recalled models vary by state and age, officials say the best way to see if your car is affected is to go to https://vinrcl.safercar.gov/vin/ and key in the vehicle identification number. It may take several weeks for all the newly recalled vehicles to be entered into the database.

Here are models covered by Thursdays recalls:

GENERAL MOTORS: Certain 2007-2008 Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV, Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado 1500, Suburban, Tahoe, GMC Sierra 1500, Yukon, and Yukon XL. 2007-2011 Cadillac Escalade, Escalade ESV and Escalade EXT, Chevrolet Avalanche, Silverado 1500, Suburban and Tahoe, GMC Sierra 1500, Yukon and Yukon XL vehicles. 2009-2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 and 3500 and GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500.

FORD: Certain 2007-2011 Ford Ranger pickups; 2006-2011 Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln Zephyr/MKZ vehicles; 2007-2010 Ford Edge, Lincoln MKX vehicles; 2005-2006 Ford GT vehicles and 2005-2011 Ford Mustang.

VOLKSWAGEN: Certain 2004-2008 Audi A4 and 2005-2011 Audi A6 cars.

DAIMLER VANS: Certain 2010-2011 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, 2009-2011 Freightliner Sprinter, and 2009 Dodge Sprinter vans.

JAGUAR-LAND ROVER: Certain model year 2007-2011 Land Rover Range Rover SUVs and 2009-2011 Jaguar XF cars.

BMW: Certain 2007-2011 X5 xDrive30i, X5 xDrive35i, X5 xDrive48i, X5 xDrive50i and X5M vehicles. 2009-2011 X5 xDrive35d, 2008-2011 X6 xDrive35i, X6 xDrive50i and X6 M vehicles, and 2010-2011 X6 ActiveHybrid vehicles.

MERCEDES-BENZ: Certain 2008-2011 C300 Sedan, C300 4matic Sedan, C350 Sedan, C63 AMG Sedan vehicles. 2010-2011 GLK350, GLK350 4-Matic and E350 Coupe vehicles. 2011 SLS AMG, E350 Convertible, E550 Coupe and E550 Convertible vehicles.

MORE BUSINESS NEWS

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Private companies increased their job creation last month, adding 173,000 net new positions, but hiring lagged last years stronger pace, payroll firm Automatic Data Processing said Thursday.

The May growth was an increase from the upwardly revised 166,000 net new jobs created the previous month. The April figure initially was estimated at 156,000, which would have been the slowest pace in three years.

Still, job creation in April and May was well off the strong monthly pace of about 207,000 last year. So far this year, monthly private-sector job growth has averaged about 188,000, ADP said.

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There does appear to be some slowing in job growth, at least in the last two or three months, said Mark Zandi, chief chief economist at Moodys Analytics, which assists ADP in preparing the monthly report.

I think its premature to conclude this is going to be a persistent slowdown, he said.

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The U.S. economy has been averaging about 200,000 net new jobs a month for about five years and a slowdown probably is on the horizon as the nation approaches whats considered full employment, Zandi said.

Manufacturers, who have been hit by the global economic slowdown and the strong dollar, shed 3,000 positions in May, ADP said. It was the fourth straight month of job losses in that sector, though Mays figure was an improvement over the 10,000 net job cuts in April.

Economists watch the ADP data as a harbinger of the governments job report, due out on Friday.

The Labor Department report, which covers private- and public-sector hiring, is expected to show the economy added about 160,000 net new jobs in May. That would be similar to Aprils disappointing 158,000 job growth.

But economists said the May figure will be temporarily skewed downward because of a strike by nearly 40,000 Verizon workers, which as settled last week. The Labor Department would count those workers as unemployed last month.

ADP does not consider striking workers to be unemployed, Zandi said.

Despite the slowing job growth recently, the labor market still appears to be healthy, he said.

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On Thursday, the Labor Department said first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 267,000. The figure is historically low.

Also on Thursday, another private report showed that the number of job cuts announced by U.S. companies fell to a five-month low in May.

There were 30,157 layoffs and other workforce reductions announced last month, less than half of the 64,141 in April, said career counseling firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

May could be the start of a summer slowdown in the pace of job cutting as companies take a pause following the period of heavy downsizing that started the year, said John A. Challenger, the companys chief executive.

Still, largely because of major cutbacks by energy companies caused by low oil prices, announced job cuts are up 13% this year compared with the same period in 2015, Challenger said.

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jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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Hollywoods boutique Redbury Hotel, near the storied intersection of Hollywood and Vine, has sold for $41 million to a company owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

The 57-room red hotel was designed by celebrity photographer Matthew Rolston and nightclub impresario and hotelier Sam Nazarian. It features an over-the-top flair intended to appeal to guests in creative industries in Hollywood for extended stays.

The building, at 1717 Vine St., has helped contribute to Hollywoods revival since it opened in 2010. In addition to the hotel, its home to Cleo, a contemporary Middle Eastern restaurant, and an indoor-outdoor lounge named the Library.

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The project was originally envisioned as a $50-million condominium building and extended-stay hotel by developer Palisades Development amid last decades real estate boom. But as it neared completion, the developer lost control when the recession hit.

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Los Angeles developer CIM purchased the building in 2010 for $15.8 million and brought in Nazarians SBE to finish and manage it.

In 2013, Pebblebrook Hotel Trust of Maryland paid $34 million for the Redbury, before flipping it to a subsidiary of Vulcan Inc., which manages the real estate and business activities of Allen.

Vulcan Real Estate also owns the 160-room Pan Pacific hotel in Seattle. The Redbury is the Seattle billionaires first venture into the hotel market in Southern California, spokeswoman Lori Mason Curran said.

We are always looking for new opportunities, she added.

In a news release, SBE said it will continue managing the property.

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UPDATES:

5:25 p.m.: This article was updated with information about Paul Allens ownership of Vulcan Real Estate.

This article was first published at 1:04 p.m.
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk is predicting that his company could launch people to Mars in less than a decade.

Speaking at Code Conference on Wednesday in Rancho Palos Verdes, Musk said that if all goes according to plan, SpaceX could send people to Mars in 2024, with arrival at the planet in 2025.

He said he would give more details of the companys architecture for Mars colonization in September at a global space conference.

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What really matters is being able to transport large numbers of people and ultimately millions of tons of cargo to Mars, Musk said. Thats whats necessary in order to create a ... growing city on Mars.

Musk also said he would probably visit space himself in four or five years, though he doesnt plan to leave the Earths orbit during that trip.

In April, SpaceX  which is based in Hawthorne and whose full name is Space Exploration Technologies Corp.  said it planned to send an unmanned Dragon Version 2 spacecraft to Mars as soon as 2018.

That mission would demonstrate a way to land large payloads on Mars without parachutes or other aerodynamic decelerators, the company said at the time.

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NASA has agreed to provide technical support for the Red Dragon Mars mission, which could include help with mission design and tracking or data transmission from deep space. The agency is interested in the entry, descent and landing data from the mission.

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This week: The revolution will not be televised, but it will be staged in a new drama about 1960s radicals. Plus, a double bill from Down Under, a sensitive look at Tourettes Syndrome, and its time once again for the annual Hollywood Fringe festival.

A Midsummer Nights Dream Theatricum Botanicums annual staging of Shakespeares romantic fantasy. Will Geers Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga. Sun., 3:30 p.m.; ends Sept. 23. $10-$38.50; children 4 and under, free. (310) 455-3723.

Australian Double Feature L.A.-based Australian Theatre Company presents two plays from Down Under in repertory: Andrew Bovells psychological thriller Speaking in Tongues, about assorted characters caught up in film noir-ish scenarios; and the U.S. premiere of Brendan Cowells dark comedy Ruben Guthrie, about an ad man in Sydney with a serious drinking problem. Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., L.A. Speaking in Tongues, Mon., Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; next Sun., 3 p.m.; ends June 27. Ruben Guthrie, Tue., Thu., 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 p.m.; next Sun., 7 p.m.; ends June 28. $34.99 each; $50 for both shows. (323) 960-4443.

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Invisible Staged reading of a new teen-themed pop-rock musical inspired by H.G. Wells The Invisible Man. Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank. Mon., 8 p.m. $22. Also, 3D Theatricals, 1255 N. Knollwood Circle, Anaheim. Tue., 8 p.m. Free. www.nmi.org.

Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education Writer-performer Anna Deavere Smiths latest project explores the school-to-prison pipeline. The Old Globe, San Diego, 1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego. Mon., 7:15 p.m. $25. (619) 234-5623.

Nadya Ginsburg The female drag artist and celebrity impersonator returns, with special guests. Cavern Club Theater, 1920 Hyperion Ave., L.A. June 7. Tue., 8 p.m. $20, $25. (800) 838-3006.

Backstage in Biscuit Land Two-woman show uses comedy, puppetry, singing, etc., to explore Tourettes Syndrome and celebrate neuro-diversity and inclusion. The Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. Wed.-Thu., 8 p.m. $12-$20. (877) 722-4849.

Works by Women Free Reading Series Australian Theatre Company presents a four-week, five-play showcase; details at www.AustralianTheatreCompany.com. Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Ave., L.A. Wed., 8 p.m.; Free. (323) 960-4443.

Hollywood Fringe Festival 2016 Seventh annual open-access performing-arts showcase features more than 200 comedies, dramas, solo shows, etc., at more than 30 area venues. Thu.-Sun., June 26. Tickets and info at www.hollywoodfringe.org. (323) 455-4585.

Carney Magic Sleight-of-hand artist John Carney performs in this theatrical comedy-and-magic show. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m. $17-$30. (626) 355-4318.

The Clean House Sarah Ruhls comedy about an aspiring comedian from Brazil who works as a housekeeper for two married doctors. Little Fish Theatre, 777 Centre St., San Pedro. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; ends July 16. $23-$27. (310) 512-6030.

Hamlet American Coast Theater Company stages Shakespeares tragedy, directed by Four Clowns Jeremy Aluma, in repertory with Tom Stoppards comedy Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (opened June 3). Vanguard Universitys Lyceum Theater, 55 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Fri.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; next Sun., 2 p.m.; ends July 1. $15, $19. www.ACTCtickets.com.

For the record, 11:08 a.m. June 3: An earlier version of this post misstated director Jeremy Alumas first name as Jerry.

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Taco Kisses Drag artist Kay Sedia reprises her hit show. Cavern Club Theater, 1920 Hyperion Ave., L.A. Fri.-Sat., 8 and 10 p.m.; ends June 25. $20. www.kaysedia.com

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike Christopher Durangs Tony-winning, Chekhov-inspired farce about a movie star who returns to her familys home in Pennsylvania. International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; next Sun., 2 p.m.; ends July 3. $47-$55. (562) 436-4610.

Fallen Angels Ensemble Theatre Company stages Noel Cowards classic comedy about two society women awaiting the arrival of a shared former flame. The New Vic, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Sat., 8 p.m.; next Sun., 2 and 7 p.m.; ends June 26. $20-$65; discounts available. (805) 965-5400.

home/sick West Coast premiere of New York City theater collective the Assemblys company-created work about the 1960s radical group the Weather Underground. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A. Sat., 8 p.m.; next Sun., 4 p.m.; ends July 3. $25$34. (310) 477-2055.

LABfest 2016 The Echo Theater Company presents staged readings of five new plays; details at www.EchoTheaterCompany.com. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., L.A. Sat., 1 and 4 p.m.; next Sun., 1 p.m.; ends June 18. Free. (310) 307-3753.

Marat/Sade Peter Weiss dark drama about the notorious Marquis de Sade attempting to stage a play in a mental asylum. The Studio at Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Sat., 8 p.m.; ends July 9. $14-$27. (562) 494-1014.

The 24 Hour Plays Los Angeles Six short plays created in 24 hours, staged as a benefit for Cornerstone Theater Company. Moss Theatre at New Roads School, 3131 Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica. Sat., 8 p.m. $150. www.cornerstonetheater.org

Donnybrook! Musical Theatre West offers a staged reading of this musical adaptation of John Fords Oscar-winning 1952 drama The Quiet Man that starred John Wayne. University Theatre, Cal State Long Beach, 1250 N. Bellflower Blvd. (off 7th St. between East and West Campus Drive, Parking Lot 7), Long Beach. Next Sun., 7 p.m. $27, $32. (562) 856-1999. www.musical.org.

Shine Storytellers share inspirational tales about others who had an influence on their lives. Promenade Playhouse, 1404 3rd St., Santa Monica. Next Sun., 7 p.m. $10; discounts available. (310) 452-2321.

The Skin of Our Teeth Santa Monica Rep presents a staged reading of Thornton Wilders classic American drama. The Edye at the Broad Stage, 1310 11th St. Santa Monica. Next Sun., 2 p.m. $25. (310) 434-3200.
Few really know how they would react to horrific tragedy. For pianist Vadym Kholodenko, shutting down was not an option.

On March 17, Kholodenko, who won the gold medal at the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2013, found his two daughters, ages 1 and 5, slain at home in Benbrook, Texas. Kholodenkos estranged wife, Sofya Tsygankova, was charged with two counts of capital murder and has since pleaded not guilty.

Kholodenko, 29, had moved to Fort Worth in 2014, leaving war-torn Ukraine for the place where he had won the Van Cliburn competition. The couple, married for five years, filed for divorce last fall and had been living separately since August 2015. Near the end of a memorial service for his two daughters,the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported, Kholodenko played a movement from Brahms Piano Quartet No. 3 with string players from the Fort Worth Symphony.

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Kholodenko withdrew from several concerts, returning to the stage a month later for an appearance with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. In advance of his concert Saturday at the Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge, Kholodenko agreed to an email interview with The Times  his most extensive since the death of his daughters. In this edited conversation, the pianist didnt speak directly about the recent tragedy and instead focused on his upcoming concert, his future plans and the question of whether music holds healing power.

Composer Alexander Scriabin, whose work you are performing, was a man who suffered the loss of several children during his lifetime, but he kept going. Is he an inspiration for you?

In general, the figure of Scriabin is always tied with his music heritage in my mind. His personal tragedies and the way he kept going through them are perfect examples of a strong spirit inside the man, and I thought about that a lot during the past few months. In any case, I believe that music is not necessarily obliged to express feelings in our human sense. Playing the music of Scriabin has a different meaning for me, and I dont implicate here my own intrinsic feelings and experience. Everyone has his own path of life, and we all should go through whatever life gives to us with dignity.

Is it a coincidence that the all-Liszt first half of your Saturday program coincides with the annual American Liszt Society conference at Cal State Northridge?

When I was invited by the Liszt Society, I already had a picture in mind of the program Id like to present. Of course Liszt is not a coincidence. First of all, he is one of my favorite composers. And he is a perfect match for Alexander Scriabin, which I will play in the second half of the concert.

Why is Liszt so important to pianists in general, and to you in particular?

Liszt is the figure of utmost importance in piano world. He brought piano to a new level of musical expression, he enriched sound palette of piano, and he transcribed and popularized many incredible works of Schubert, Schumann, etc. He was a Roman tribune of piano music. His inspirational figure is one of my lighthouses in the art.

Your program shows Liszt not only as a virtuosic technician, but also as a deeply emotional and expressive artist, especially in the simplicity of his Consolation No. 3 (S. 172). What does virtuosity mean to you?

The word virtuosic has the Latin root virtus, i.e. valor. Valor is in my opinion the cornerstone of performing onstage. Nowadays the word virtuosic has gained some additional connotations due to confusing valor with something else. Nevertheless we have to have the best examples of a virtuoso in our minds, one like Ferenc [Franz] Liszt.

What does Liszts Sonetto del Petrarca Nos. 104 and 123, which are on your program, communicate to listeners?

Its really difficult to explain in plain words what music is trying to communicate to us. But we have Petrarcas verses, and this makes our work easier. These two works are hymns of love, very ecstatic and affective. I love Horowitzs recording of the Sonetto No. 104, the way he is playing it with nobility and dignity.

Do you feel a need to keep going because as the first gold medal winner of the Van Cliburn competition from the Ukraine you also represent something larger than yourself?

Its obvious that art doesnt have any frontiers. Born in Ukraine, Ive studied in Moscow and clearly represent the Russian school of piano playing. I wish Ukraine, even considering current troubles in country, would pay more attention to its citizens.

Are you bringing something deeper to your Liszt/Scriabin program than you did last year?

I dont know how to measure deepness of music. I try to be sincere on stage and play what currently touches me the most.

What made you choose the piano and not, say, the violin?

I began with the violin, but the sound of the amateur piano player won over the amateur string players sound.

Are your parents musicians?

No, my parents werent musicians, but my mother very much appreciated classical music. It was her decision to bring me to musical school, and I am endlessly grateful to her.

How important was your move to Moscow?

I moved to Moscow because of professor Vera Gornostaeva, who invited me to her class after our encounter in the Maria Callas competition in Athens. Moving to Moscow I consider as one of the most important steps in my musical life.

Who was your most influential teacher? Did you have any piano heroes growing up?

The most influential musical teacher in my life was Vera Gornostaeva. Her figure grows with time, and I began to understand more and more the way she was teaching. They were not only dry piano lessons, but it was more about how one can find inspiration by himself. They were encounters with a musician, who besides everything else was carrying the so-called old school spirit of the golden age of piano playing, and this is what I try to transform in myself and bring on further. My piano heroes remain the same since childhood  Sviatoslav Richter and Arthur Rubinstein.

Did winning the gold medal give you a solid beginning for your career, or was it too much pressure too soon?

Gold medal of Cliburn Competition gave me a chance, and I am grateful to Fort Worth for this rare opportunity of being independent in building my own musical life.

Was living in the Ukraine very different from Texas?

Its better to say that life in the USA is very different from anything else in Europe. And Texas is very different and unique in the entire country. I met many great people here, and I never had such a reception anywhere but in Texas.

Once you finish your outstanding performance commitments, will you take some time off?

With my general manager, I work very carefully on my concert schedule. I have a time for vacation, time for learning new repertoire and a good number of concerts.

What are your plans for the future?

I am going to complete a cycle of Etudes-Tableaux of Rachmaninoff, work on some Beethoven sonatas (I played all of them five years ago and am fostering the idea to do this once again) and many other things. Theyre going to be very interesting musical seasons, and I look forward to it even more eagerly than before.

Has the meaning of music in your life changed?

Meaning of music never changed in my life, it just became fuller and stronger.

Does music offer an effective healing, or is it just a temporary escape from our troubles?

Music is an enormous world next to us, and we, either performers or listeners, can only unveil a little bit of it. Music contains literally everything inside itself. It could be an escape or healing for someone, but its significance for people would never be exhausted. Music is born and dies immediately onstage, and we cannot seize and somehow conserve it. This is the reason why people go to live concerts, to experience these few moments of inexplicable bliss.

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Vadym Kholodenko

Where: Valley Performing Arts Center, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Tickets: $30-$60

Info: (818) 677-3000 or www.ValleyPerformingArtsCenter.org

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2002s Barbershop 2: Back in Business was Palmers first movie role, but she became notable for 2006s Akeelah and the Bee. Ten years later, shes mastered the world of television, film, stage and music. This Q&A is part of a special series examining diversity in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Read more profiles here.

Was there a moment when you realized that your race or gender was impacting your career, positively or negatively?

Ive learned to try not to take things so personally and to be conscious of what I want to represent, knowing that at the end of the day when someone looks at me, they are going to see that Im black. So, whatever that means to me, I want to make sure I am conscious of what Im representing.

What was your reaction to #OscarsSoWhite  the lack of nominees of color and the resulting conversation?

I felt like that was messed up, but, even more so, I felt like we needed more projects. As much as accolades are great, my mind was going to, Well, if we dont have the movies out there, how can we get nominated for them? There needs to be more opportunity for different types of people so we see those different types of people getting nominated and winning.

Actors of color often talk about the limited number of roles written for people of color. Have you experienced that as well?

Ive experienced it for a long time. As a kid, I found that there were a lot of opportunities where I did read for a young black girl role. But as I got older, no. To me, I didnt know if I shouldve seen that as a good thing or bad thing because, in all honesty, I wondered as a kid why I wasnt going out for roles that weren't just for black girls. But at the same time, with True Jackson VP, a show I did on Nickelodeon, a lot of people assume that it was written for me. Not only was it not written for me, it wasnt originally seen to be a black girl.

But we need diversity on the screen and behind the scenes as well. Because if you're just playing in the movie, and not producing or writing the movie, its hard to say something.

Television is said to be more diverse than film. Having worked in both worlds consistently, do you agree?

At the end of the day, what you see is what you see. Im on Netflix, so, for my generation, we choose what we watch, when we watch it. I think it just depends where youre looking because there is a lot of diversity online. Thats why I watch online. Maybe it is because I want to see more diversity, so I do the choosing.

I did a movie called Brotherly Love. It did horrible in the theaters ... but when you put it on Netflix, it was the No. 1 movie. Its messed up what happened at the Oscars, but lets create more content. We have the ability, especially as young people, to take the industry into our own hands. We have AwesomenessTV, YouTube Red, Netflix, Hulu. We can really create whatever it is were not seeing or getting enough of on any network or from any studio.

READ MORE: Here are 100 people in Hollywood who could help fix the Academys diversity problem
How do you get into one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?

The answer is simple  and complicated.

The academys key mandate states that candidates must have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the field of theatrical motion pictures. And, while membership criteria vary among the academys individual branches, all potential members must be sponsored by two members from whichever of the academys branches  such as acting or directing  that the candidate is seeking to join. (The exception are Oscars nominees, who are automatically considered for, but not guaranteed, membership.)

READ MORE: Here are 100 people in Hollywood who could help fix the academys diversity problem

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But the definition of exceptional achievement leaves a lot open to interpretation. And the requirement that two academy members sponsor new candidates, critics say, can have the effect of favoring friends and colleagues of members  which could mean favoring whites and males, given that the 6,261 voting members are 91% white and 76% male, even after several years of talk of diversifying the organization.

So after nearly 90 years as the public face of the movie business, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finds itself at a crossroads.

Facing a firestorm for the second year in a row over the lack of Oscar nominations for any actors of color, the academy in January announced sweeping changes directed at making the overwhelmingly white and male institution more reflective of not just the film industry but the world around it. The aim: to double the number of women and minorities  currently about 1,500 and 535, respectively  in its ranks by 2020.

See the most-read stories in Entertainment this hour >>

The Times estimates that to achieve that goal, the academy would have to invite at least 375 women and more than 130 people of color each year for the next four years. To put that in context, last years class of academy invitees  touted as the largest and most diverse ever  was 322 people, and the majority of them were white men.

The academys diversity push has itself been met with controversy among a large swath of the groups rank-and-file members, many of whom protested the notion that older, less active voters could be purged from the rolls in the name of diversity.

Under the academys traditional membership process  which it has said it will supplement with a global recruitment campaign in an effort to boost diversity  after potential new members have been reviewed by branch committees, recommendations for membership are passed along to the academys Board of Governors, which ultimately decides who will be invited to join.

Given the under-representation of women and minorities in the film industry as a whole, some are doubtful the academys goals can be met without lowering the traditionally stringent membership requirements. In an interview with The Times in February, former academy President Hawk Koch called the targets impossible to reach, saying, There arent that many qualified people, period, of any race or gender, to invite each year.

There is unquestionably a large number of qualified women and minorities working in the industry ... who are just waiting for the academy to open its doors to them.

At the same time, there is unquestionably a large number of qualified women and minorities working in the industry  from household names like Aziz Ansari and Michael B. Jordan to editors, writers, makeup artists and other unsung below-the-line talent  who are just waiting for the academy to open its doors to them.

As one of Hollywoods oldest and most prestigious institutions prepares to announce its newest list of invitees in late June, academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs has made it clear that, whatever the challenges involved, shes ready to open those doors.

We know this is the right thing to do, Boone Isaacs told The Times in February. Were going to make it happen.

Times staff writer Rebecca Keegan contributed to this report.

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In the Chinese martial arts saga The Final Master, set in the 1930s, blades replace fists, but realistically beautiful movement trumps fantasy bloodletting and sardonic wit replaces heroic earnestness. An often convoluted story of honor and betrayal surrounding the establishment of a martial arts academy, writer-director Xu Haofengs movie doesnt feel like many other movies of its ilk. Thats mostly a good thing, even if the movie cant quite fit all its eccentric pieces into a satisfying whole.

Traveling master Chen (Liao Fan), a stern, composed man from the south of China, arrives in northern martial arts hub Tianjin with the mission of passing down his beloved Wing Chun style of butterfly-sword fighting  which he fears will be lost to history  by founding a school. The local grandmaster Zheng (Jin Shi-Jye) informs him that to do so, Chen will have to fight and defeat representatives from eight rival academies. And even thats not a guarantee, since such an incredible feat would be enough of a blot on Tianjins reputation that the victor would have to be defeated and banished, by any means necessary.

Zhengs suggested alternative is a proxy combatant, an apprentice whom Chen will train and then be exiled in Chens place so the school can open. Plucked for the job (and kept ignorant of the intended result) is a hotheaded laborer named Geng (Song Yang). As Geng starts racking up wins, though, the careful balance of power in Tianjin  heavily influenced by a scheming, androgynous academy head named Madam Zou (Jiang Wenli), who welcomes the growing militarys encroachment on classic martial arts techniques  is in danger of being upset. Chen is forced to examine what hes willing to sacrifice in order to glorify his art.

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Xu, adapting his own short story, is no stranger to scenarios where personal emotions cloud professional ambitions (and vice versa)  he also wrote the screenplay for Wong Kar Wais The Grandmaster, which pitted martial arts styles and temperaments from North and South against each other to rapturous cinematic effect (thanks to its gifted director). Here, Xu is less canny with narrative and character  its often confusing whose loyalties lie where at any given moment, despite the enjoyable performances  than he is with the quick-footed, polished aggression of credible knife fights, which Xu choreographed himself.

Given the rare respect of long takes, full-body framing and rhythmic cinematography one usually associates with musicals, the square-offs  less about steel-on-skin contact than asserting kill point dominance  come in a welcome variety of tones: from cheeky to intense, and in a final showdown against multiple comers with different sized and shaped blades in a narrow alleyway, muscularly breathtaking.

But elsewhere, The Final Master strains for cynical weight about individualism versus rigged political systems, and a Chinese republic finding its way in an increasingly faction-minded 20th century. The action ending may exert a mythic power regarding the ability of one man to assert his destiny against many forces, but where the movie ultimately leaves its characters  whether compromised, cornered, or even dead  is too ambiguous to have any meaningful effect. Though The Final Master has more on its mind than a lot of martial arts films, its those thrusting, arcing knives and graceful bodies in motion that tell the real story.

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The Final Master

In Mandarin with English subtitles

Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Not rated

Playing: In limited release
The high notes arrive early on in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, a far-from-subtle but frequently inspired sendup of celebrity self-absorption from the Lonely Island trio  those whip-smart boys-to-men who gave us Like a Boss, Im on a Boat and other viral master classes in musical satire (my personal favorite is unprintable here).

Andy Samberg, the genial star of that outfit, plays Conner Friel (aka Conner4Real), a swaggering white-boy rapper with tattoos on his arms, bling around his neck and nothing in his head. Splitting the difference between This Is Spinal Tap and an episode of VH1s Behind the Music, this fast, funny mockumentary is never faster or funnier than when its rifling through Conners albums (like Thriller, Also) and sampling his biggest, most dubious hits.

The first one we hear is Im So Humble, an ode to personal modesty that features lyrics like Bar none, I am the most humblest / No. 1 at the top of the humble list. No less self-contradictory is the cheerfully moronic Equal Rights, whose high-minded refrain (Im not gay / But if I were / I would want equal rights) morphs into a clueless display of homosexual panic. The music video, sure to wind up in heavy rotation on YouTube, features a shower of rainbow flags while various same-sex couples arch their eyebrows.

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Youll recognize those eyebrows if youve spent any time watching the Lonely Islands videos, which came to fame by way of Saturday Night Live and served as a terrific calling card for Samberg and his collaborators Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. (The latter two directed Popstar, while all three appear in the movie and share screenwriting credit.) In songs like Lazy Sunday and I Just Had Sex, the Lonely Island boys took gleeful aim at all manner of young American male appetites  for sex, for fame, for cupcakes. But as their songwriting talents matured, along with their DIY production values, the trio reserved their sharpest critique for the very form they were appropriating (and excelling at).

Again and again they mocked the anything-for-a-rhyme inanity of so many rap lyrics, the mindless aesthetics of so many music videos, and the lifestyle excesses of so much musical stardom. What the trio nailed in short form, they have tried to reproduce at feature length in Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping  which, while as scattershot and repetitive as these enterprises typically are, scores a much higher batting average than many SNL sketch-to-film adaptations have managed. (This review, in a tweet: Popstar > Superstar)

The movies title is an amusing nod to the 2011 concert documentary Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, and Conner is clearly modeled on that ubiquitous pop sensation. They have a lot in common: a childhood love of the drums (as seen here in faux home-movie footage), hordes of screaming fans, green letterman jackets, and a thorough obliviousness to their own over-exposure. When Conner visits the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and leaves behind an unexpected gift, you are absolutely meant to flash back to a kinda-similar incident in 2013 that shoved Biebers narcissism onto the international stage.

But the world of popular music is scarcely lacking in ripe targets, and Bieber is not Conners sole inspiration. Not unlike Justin Timberlake with N Sync or Nick Jonas with the Jonas Brothers, Conner started out with a popular boy band before going solo, leaving his best buddies and longtime co-stars in the dust. Lawrence (Schaffer), the brains of the group, became an embittered, weed-growing Colorado hermit, while the loyal Owen (Taccone) was demoted to Conners DJ, enduring such humiliations as having to perform under a Deadmau5-style helmet. But Conner, plagued by harsh reviews and sluggish sales for his new album, and increasingly abusive of his closest friends and supporters, is overdue for a fall from grace.

Timberlake, as it happens, is a regular Lonely Island guest performer who pops up in a throwaway role here as Conners under-appreciated executive chef, as if to remind the audience what a good sport he is. Popstar would play better without those constant wink-wink reassurances, which  much like the obligatory wall-to-wall cameos from the likes of Mariah Carey, Nas, Usher, 50 Cent, Carrie Underwood, Simon Cowell and (most amusingly) Ringo Starr  serve only to dull the satires edge.

Then again, perhaps a more savage takedown would have seemed even more off-base. The real (or 4real) joke of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is that the music biz, in all its absurdity and ego-stroking toxicity, has long since entered stranger-than-fiction territory. Conner may have a pet turtle and a crazy mom (Joan Cusack, wasted in more than one sense), and he does experience an embarrassing on-stage wardrobe malfunction. But at least he doesnt bite the heads off bats or write bizarre tweets about in-flight water bottles. Nor does he physically abuse his girlfriend (Imogen Poots) and turn it into song fodder. His public clash with an up-and-coming rapper (Chris Redd) and his private squabbles with his longtime manager (Tim Meadows) are, by real-world standards, pretty tame stuff.

The thin story that Samberg and his cohorts have cobbled together  a rise-and-fall-and-rise-again narrative that ends in a predictable orgy of bro hugs and bong hits  is beside the point. So, too, is the mockumentary format, to which the movie commits so loosely as to make the films of Christopher Guest look like formalist achievements of the highest order. (Its safe to say no episode of Behind the Music would feature this much full-frontal male nudity, thrown in perhaps to verify the movies Judd Apatow production bona fides.)

The pleasure of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping derives not from the sting or accuracy of its satire (though Will Arnett does a pretty killer Harvey Levin), but from the precision of its timing and the singular comic energy it derives from the talents on display. Samberg, with his crooked, lupine grin and an endearingly doofus-y air that persists no matter how much bling hes wearing, is in some ways as convincing a pop star as Ben Stiller is a supermodel. Its precisely that incongruousness, combined with Sambergs genuine musical abilities, that makes him such an inspired choice in the role.

And really, only a singular talent could knock out a song as defiantly tasteless as Finest Girl (bin Laden). Im not sure I want to see Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping again  its title to the contrary, one go-round with this kind of movie is usually enough  but Id wait in line to see the Lonely Islands Zero Dark Thirty! The Musical.

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Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping

Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes

MPAA rating: R for some graphic nudity, language throughout, sexual content and drug use

Playing: In wide release

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justin.chang@latimes.com
Calvin Harris may be mending a broken heart as well as a wounded face after his Los Angeles car accident, as People reports that Harris and pop superstar Taylor Swift have parted ways after 15 months of dating.

The two havent been spotted together in recent weeks and Swift remained mum after Harris, whose real name is Adam Wiles, was involved in a car accident causing him to cancel performances while he recovered from injuries.

There was no drama. Things just dont work out sometimes, an insider told People.

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The couple celebrated their one-year anniversary on March 6, sharing photos with fans on social media. Swift posted an Instagram photo of a vintage-looking trinket engraved with the date.

Taylor and Adam had no big blowout fight, but the romance just was not there anymore for them, a source told E! News on Wednesday.

Adam is the one that ended it. It was all done in a very mature fashion. Taylor is pretty upset but they are still in communication. Taylor was there for Adam with his accident and supportive.

The couple parted ways last week, according to reports.

Swift, 26, spoke a little about her tumultuous love life in a 2015 interview with Glamour UK, where she admitted being jaded by relationships thanks to media scrutiny that shamed her for her dating life.

What else is it when you have two boyfriends in one year and everyones calling you boy crazy, making jokes about you at awards shows? Swift asked. Thats public humiliation. And I dont think its fair.

Harris becomes the latest in a long string of famous Taylor Swift ex-boyfriends, including Joe Jonas, Jake Gyllenhaal and Harry Styles.

For Swift, time heals all wounds. And if history is any indicator, the songstress will soon be taking the lemons of this heartbreak and crafting them into multiplatinum record lemonade.

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Would that we all could formalize our casual bud-fests into a proper festival with some of L.A.s best underground DJs.

The Dig Deeper crew is commandeering the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs from Friday to Sunday, and theyre bringing a notable squadron of other promoters and artists with them for the delightfully-titled Budfest. Veterans of Acid Camp and Fine Time will see plenty of familiar faces, but this time poolside instead of in a dank DTLA factory space.

Closer to home, the rising club night Unity is a rare beacon of serious, musical house in the maw of Hollywood, and it brings Jesse Saunders out for a new installment.

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On Friday, L.A.s brutal pop-noise veterans Health will quite literally rattle bones at the Natural History Museums First Fridays series; the recently-solo Art Department comes to Sound; Outspoken brings Colette out to Couture.

Saturday, the L.A. neo-disco duo Classixx debut their shimmery, summery new record Faraway Reach at the El Rey (just in time to hit the pool ourselves); its also a busy one at the Standard in DTLA, with Nadastrom and Dirty Dave by day and house legend Derrick Carter by night;and Fabrics Craig Richards joins L.A. staples Doc Martin and Droog at Sublevel.

Political activism and club music dont often mix on the dance floor, but Bernie Sanders fans who like a hearty helping of progressive house music will dig the fundraiser set at Sound  members of Desert Hearts, Droog, Psychemagik, Habitas and scores of other crews will play all day for a minimum $10 donation.

For breaking music news, follow @AugustBrown on Twitter.
There must be 50 ways to play Homeward Bound, and Wednesday night, Paul Simon demonstrated two of them.

Standing onstage at the Hollywood Bowl, the pop pioneer began the song  one of his oldest  as a stripped-down acoustic ditty, not far from the way it started out when Simon sang it half a century ago on a hit single with Art Garfunkel. Then, as he was joined by members of his nine-man band, Simon gradually transformed it into a loping country tune, like something Willie Nelson might have cut in the late 1970s.

Simon was singing about longing for the comforts of familiarity. But the music was showing how, at age 74, hes as determined as ever to cover fresh ground.

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That rearranged Homeward Bound wasnt the only sign of creative restlessness in Simons two-hour concert, which came just before Fridays release of a strong  and characteristically adventurous  new studio album, Stranger to Stranger.

He also brought a bluesy bite to the once-delicate Still Crazy After All These Years, as though he were proving his claim that he aint no fool for love songs that whisper in my ears. And for a third encore, he took some welcome liberties with the tempo and vocal melody of The Sound of Silence  not that that discouraged the folks around me from trying heartily to sing along.

Yet if Simon has defied the calcification that afflicts many rock stars his age, he hasnt rejected their smooth professionalism (or their taste for shimmery fabrics).

Paul Simon takes the stage at the Hollywood Bowl. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times )

Im up for that.  Paul Simon on a medicine mans invite to try ayahuasca

Wednesdays show included relatively faithful renditions of some of his most beloved hits, such as You Can Call Me Al  one of a handful of tunes he did from his mid-80s touchstone, Graceland  and 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover; each wore its proudly cosmopolitan vibe as naturally as Simon did his purple suit jacket.

He told some funny stories, as before Spirit Voices, which he said had been inspired by an encounter with a South American medicine man who invited him to try ayahuasca.

Im up for that, he recalled saying in his signature deadpan.

He also waited until the halfway mark to introduce songs from the new album, a knowing concession to the demands of an audience eager to relive old memories. Stranger to Stranger was hushed and spooky, while Wristband rode a vivid funk beat.

In The Werewolf, he seemed to poke a bit of fun at fans sitting in the pricey seats near the stage, gesturing in their direction as he delivered a line about how it all goes to the wealthy.

If Simon has defied the calcification that afflicts many rock stars his age, he hasnt rejected their smooth professionalism (or taste for shimmery fabrics).  Mikael Wood

But he was willing to mock himself too. Before The Cool, Cool River, from 1990s The Rhythm of the Saints, Simons longtime guitarist Vincent Nguini stepped to the microphone to recount their experience mastering the songs tricky Brazilian groove  just one example of the far-flung borrowing thats led to criticism of Simon as a kind of artistic colonizer.

Then the Cameroonian guitarist called Simon a great adventurer whos gone around the world exploiting various cultures. At that, Simon leaned over in what was surely a rehearsed bit and murmured in Nguinis ear.

Exploring various cultures, Nguini said with a grin. Excuse my English.

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Tituss Burgess arrives at a midtown restaurant in a black and white polka-dot shirt and black velvet blazer. Its a jaunty look on a rainy spring afternoon, but compared to the floral kimonos and baby slut T-shirts worn by Titus Andromedon, the flamboyant character he plays in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, the ensemble is downright funereal.

Although he shares a first name and certain biographical details with his onscreen counterpart, Burgess is his temperamental opposite. Where Titus-with-one-S is outrageous and uncensored, Burgess is subdued and thoughtful, pausing to consider each question before answering.

I do not like attention, says the 37-year-old, who will appear as Sebastian the crab in Disneys The Little Mermaid in Concert this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl, revisiting the role he originated on Broadway. Oddly enough, I do everything I can to avoid it.

Thats getting harder and harder these days. Created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, the duo behind 30 Rock, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt follows the title character, played by Ellie Kemper, as she adjusts to the outside world after 15 years of captivity in a bunker. One of last years best-reviewed new comedies, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was praised for its deft handling of a surprisingly dark premise. As Kimmys wildly self-absorbed roommate, Burgess quickly became a fan favorite, as well as an Emmy nominee.

His breakout moment in Season 1 was a music video called Peeno Noir that relied on a slightly puerile pun and nonsense rhymes (caviar/Myanmar/mid-sized car). It became a viral hit, inspiring GIFs and hashtags galore and making Burgess Pinot Noirs most prominent booster since Paul Giamattis character in Sideways.

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No one was more surprised by the bits success than Burgess, who says he didnt really think it was that funny until he saw the finished product. It increased my trust in my bosses. I was like, you guys know exactly what youre doing at all times.

Burgess didnt know that Peeno Noir would take off, but hes been savvy enough to capitalize on the opportunity it created, releasing his own brand of Pinot Noir in March. It seemed like a no-brainer, Burgess says, though he admits bashfully that hes more of a Malbec kind of guy.

Streaming shows like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt have made the cliche of overnight fame into a reality, turning previous unknowns into stars in a matter of a weekend. Burgess found the experience jarring.

Im a very private person, he says, methodically picking the croutons out of a Caesar salad. (Hes recently lost 15 pounds by cutting back on his beloved carbs.) The level of comfort that people feel with me has taken some getting used to.

Burgess was raised in Athens, Ga., and developed his love of music attending the local Baptist church. He became a choir director in high school. I felt like a wizard, being able to make people sound good, he recalls.

After graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in music, he earned his Equity card in a Lion King-themed show at Disney World, then fled to New York. I could not leave Georgia fast enough, says Burgess, noting with distaste the wave of anti-LGBT laws recently passed in Southern states including Mississippi, the original home of his alter ego. Those states exhaust me.

Still, some old habits remain: He regularly attends church, albeit at a progressive downtown congregation that, he says, represents the very thing that God stands for, which is love, plain and simple.

Within a year and half of his arrival in New York, hed landed his first Broadway role. Unfortunately, it was in the Beach Boys jukebox musical Good Vibrations, a critically reviled flop that closed in less than three months in 2005.

Roles in Jersey Boys, The Little Mermaid and Guys and Dolls followed. In between, he worked the usual assortment of thankless jobs, including a stint as a host at Ruby Foos in Times Square that lasted a week. -- and I might have called in sick several of those days, he adds.

Burgess was close to giving up acting and accepting a teaching position when he was cast as DFwan, Sherri Shepherds sassy gay sidekick, in 30 Rock episodes that masterfully parodied the Real Housewives franchise.

With little on-camera experience, Burgess says he was petrified to film one of his first scenes with Fey. Despite the nerves, he made an impression. We werent sure if he was playing a character or if he was just a wonderful weirdo, Fey recalled in an email. Turns out he was acting and is very in control of his instrument, as acting teachers like to say.

Stars of the Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt include Jane Krakowski, left, Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane and Ellie Kemper. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

When Fey and Carlock began to write Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Titus was inspired by DFwan and an old Saturday Night Live friend who used to stay home sewing dresses for Barbies; the name was borrowed from Burgess. He knew very quickly what size to play things and to let the camera come to him, said Fey of his immersion into the single-camera comedy world. We learned quickly we could give him a lot, so now we will work him to death.

Titus has blossomed ever so slightly in Season 2, gaining professional traction and falling in love with a sweet-natured construction worker. The series creators leaned heavily on Burgess musical abilities, with a standout episode in which he performed forgotten show tunes from made-up musicals (i.e. Alabama, an all-black version of Oklahoma!)

Composer and executive producer Jeff Richmond appreciates that he can communicate with Burgess in the most geeky, musical theater-y specific ways possible.

I could say something like imagine this sounding like Charlie Strouse and Lenny Bernstein had a baby. And that baby grew up to write this song.

Burgess hasnt ruled out a return to theater, joking that were on speaking terms and we might move back in together, but for now his heart belongs to television.

It has fed me in the most peculiar way, in the most unique way, he says, and Im forever changed.

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The Cold War is raging and the USSR needs an ace in the hole in case the U.S. launches a preemptive nuclear strike. And that ace deployed in a Soviet counterattack could be a weaponized version of the Lassa virus.

The hemorrhagic fever produced by this virus is so horrifying, however, that even KGB agents are filled with dread on A Roy Rogers in Franconia, Season 4s penultimate episode of The Americans on FX.

Lassa fever is a very undignified way to go, points out William Crandall (Dylan Baker), a longtime Soviet mole employed by the U.S. Armys biological defense program at Ft. Detrick.

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Undignified is an extreme understatement.

You basically dissolve inside, William explains to KGB officer Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys). Then liquefied organs pass out of your body with a terrible whooshing sound.

I cant do this one, admits William, whos under orders from Moscow to infiltrate the Armys most-secure lab and steal a modified strain of the virus.

This is one of the deadliest pathogens on the planet, William stresses. Just say it actually gets out there. I play a part in that.

Since William refuses to proceed, KGB handler Gabriel (Frank Langella) must intervene. Complete this one last assignment, Gabriel urges, and William can return to the USSR as a hero.

At the Soviet Rezidentura in Washington, meanwhile, KGB officer Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin) becomes increasingly concerned about the Cold Wars direction after speaking with his comrade/lover Tatiana Evgenyevna (Vera Cherny).

Tatianas work with William on acquiring the bioweapon just earned her a promotion to the KGBs top post in Kenya. But she worries that the Lassa virus might slaughter half the people on the Eastern Seaboard.

This startling revelation prompts Oleg to rendezvous with his frenemy, Agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) of FBI counterintelligence.

Oleg fears that Soviet scientists would misuse the virus. So he gives Stan just enough information to figure out that William is the undercover agent.

The magnitude of this discovery sidelines a smaller FBI operation involving the office mail robot.

Agent Dennis Aderholt (Brandon J. Dirden) finds a KGB recording device hidden inside the robot, which leads to the arrest of a female janitor (Ozzie Stewart). She was being paid to swap out the tape each week and give it to a KGB operative she met at a Roy Rogers restaurant in Franconia, Va.

Agent Wolfe (Peter Jacobson), the new counterintelligence supervisor, had intended to nab the Soviet operative right way. But now Wolfe backs off to focus on William and avoid alarming KGB officials.

Finally, teenager Paige Jennings (Holly Taylor) is deeply shaken after her spy mom Elizabeth (Keri Russell) kills a would-be rapist during a street attack. Witnessing her mothers martial arts expertise makes Paige realize her parents lead far more dangerous lives than they let on.

When Philip leaves late at night on a mysterious assignment, Paige accuses Mom and Dad of lying because they wont discuss their clandestine activities in detail.

Were not lying to you, Elizabeth insists. But you dont need to know everything.

You just killed a man in front of me, Paige retorts. I might as well know everything. Do you trust me or not?

Does this mean Paige is becoming a junior KGB agent? She is gathering intel on their neighbor Stan, who shares FBI news with his son Matthew (Danny Flaherty). And could Paige be seducing Matthew with a gentle kiss?

You want to be Matthews friend, be Matthews friend, Philip emphasizes. But dont do anything because of us.

Elizabeth probably has a different opinion, however.

And Paige? Too early to tell.
The United Nations is moving toward organizing airdrops of food, medicine and other aid into besieged communities in Syria because the government has failed to allow comprehensive access over land routes.

Ramzy E. Ramzy, a U.N. deputy special envoy to Syria, told reporters Thursday that airdrops would be authorized if the government did not meet the expectations of both the U.N. and the International Syria Support Group, a coalition of 20 countries working to end five years of civil war.

The coalitions humanitarian task force announced Thursday that air deliveries in the war-ravaged nation were an option on the table. The U.N. Security Council has called an emergency meeting for Friday to discuss the possibility.

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Still, Ramzy said airdrops were not imminent and not a substitute for land delivery.

Humanitarian access has been cut off to large parts of Syria for much of the war, stranding hundreds of thousands of people without regular access to food.

The U.N. estimates that 592,700 people live under siege in 19 areas  and says that government troops are blocking delivery of aid to 16 of those areas. The government contends those areas are controlled by terrorists, its term for rebels fighting to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The international coalition had set a June 1 deadline for the Syrian government to allow comprehensive aid distribution by land, with the understanding that failure to do so would trigger air deliveries.

On Wednesday  the day of the deadline  an aid convoy entered the besieged suburb of Daraya, less than six miles southwest of Damascus, for the first time since 2012.

Daraya, an opposition-controlled city that once had a population of more than 250,000, was one of the first areas to protest Assads rule. With most residents having fled during years of vicious fighting between pro-government forces and armed rebel factions, the U.N. now estimates the population at 4,000.

Crucially, the convoy did not contain any food relief. But the U.N. still viewed it as a victory  one that Ramzy attributed to extraordinary efforts by Russia, an ally of Assad.

The U.S., France and other Western countries, however, said the convoy was not enough and that the U.N. should still push ahead with airdrops.

While this delivery ... is an important step, it is far from sufficient to providing the kind of relief to the hundreds of thousands of Syrian people are who in need, said John Kirby, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, told reporters Wednesday.

A second convoy was scheduled to enter Daraya on Friday, but that has now been called into question.

The aid delegation promised families and civilians they would come back with food, asking people what they needed and promising to deliver, but today we were surprised to be told that the visit was canceled, Malek Rifaii, a member of the citys opposition-affiliated Local Council, said in an interview on social media Thursday.

We werent given any explanation, he said.

Jan Egeland, a U.N. senior advisor, said Thursday that he could not confirm that the food convoy would go on Friday but that there were clear indications it will go within a very short period of time.

We have been waiting for years for this, he said. Another day is not the issue.

Carrying out air deliveries is far from simple.

Although an air bridge has already been established for the eastern desert city of Dair Alzour, a government-controlled enclave that is surrounded by Islamic State militants, U.N. officials stressed the challenges of conducting similar drops in urban areas.

We need space, a lot of open space, to be able to do airdrops, Egeland said. We can do that in Dair Alzour.

In urban besieged areas, it will probably have to be delivered by helicopters, requiring clearance from the government because the U.N. would rely on private flight companies, he said.

Protecting humanitarian aircraft is another primary concern. The consent of the government is necessary to ensure security, Ramzy said.

But even that may not be sufficient, he added, because other armed groups scattered around the country have the ability to bring down aircraft.

The tenuous aid situation in Syria is accompanied by setbacks on the diplomatic front.

This week, the rebels chief negotiator, Mohammed Alloush, resigned from the High Negotiations Committee, a Saudi-backed umbrella organization that has participated in peace talks with the government.

He blamed his resignation on the stubbornness of the regime and its continued bombardments and aggressions against the Syrian people.

There are also indications that a hard-won cessation of hostilities, shepherded by the U.S. and Russia, has all but broken down. On Tuesday, an airstrike on the city of Idlib, which is held by a hard-line Islamist coalition that includes the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Nusra Front, killed at least 23 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition watchdog.

Pro-opposition activists blamed Russia for the attack. The Russian Defense Ministry denied the allegation, issuing a statement that it did not carry out any combat missions in the area.

Bulos is a special correspondent.
State Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris campaigns across Southern California

With just days left before polls close, campaigns across the state are knocking on doors, calling supporters and doing whatever they can to get out the vote.

On Saturday, Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris stopped by a half-dozen family owned businesses in Southern California to remind patrons to vote.

The day started with a breakfast-time stop at Roscoes House of Chicken and Waffles near Los Angeles International Airport. Customers paused to chat with Harris or take a photo.

Start-up manager Michael Tuso, 27, of Playa del Rey, leapt from his meal when Harris neared his table. Hes already voted for her, but wanted a photo and a chance to talk to a woman he thinks should run for president one day. He said he was eager to vote for her in the Senate race.

Shes a pragmatic, solutions-based person, he said. Ive known about her for a long time, and was kind of hoping shed jump into the race.

Tuso said he, like Harris, backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president.

I strongly support powerful female voices leading the country, he said.

The chicken-and-waffles chain is becoming a popular stop for politicians. President Obama made a suprise stop in 2011. Harris opponent, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange), will stop at Roscoes in Inglewood tomorrow morning as she works to get out the vote for her campaign.

.@KamalaHarris gets a tour of the San Pedro Fish Market. It smells so good in here. pic.twitter.com/wM7mQVia49  Sarah D. Wire (@sarahdwire) June 4, 2016

At the San Pedro Fish Market, Harris got a tour of the raw fish for sale before making her way to the sun-baked patio to talk with families tucking into platters of crab, squid and oysters. More than a few tables of people were drinking from hollowed out pineapples.

A family of 20 or so crowded together with Harris and yelled Warriors! as photographers snapped away. Harris volunteers arranged for lunch and broke out a deck of playing cards as she moved from table to table.

After Harris cooed over the infant she was holding, Krystle Green, 29, of Ontario said in an interview that she plans to vote for Harris on Tuesday.

She seems very personable and like she actually wants to do something, she said.

Green said shes leaning toward Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the presidential race.

Honestly, my opinion right now is anythings better than Trump, she said.

Harris lunch of calamari, shrimp and scallops under a Tecate banner fluttering in the light breeze was put on hold repeatedly as people stopped by the table.

At Lolas Mexican Cuisine in Long Beach, Harris had barely stepped off her campaign bus when Marie Deary, 48, of Long Beach came running up, yelling to her niece, Bring the phone, bring the phone. Its Kamala Harris!

Deary said she likes that Harris worked to hold banks accountable after the housing crash and tried to keep Californians in their homes. Dearys been a supporter since Harris first attorney general race in 2010.

Inside Lolas, the crush of staff and local politicians that followed Harris from table to table kept Barry Cox, 41, of Long Beach from being leaving, so he ordered a drink.

Cox said he was impressed with Harris record, though he doesnt like her stance on gun control.

Im proud of her accomplishments, she believes in what shes doing, shes moved by her convictions and I like that. Shes broke ground as a woman, as a black woman at that, or a woman of mixed heritage, Cox said.

Hes leaning toward supporting Republican businessman Donald Trump in the presidential race, saying he was disappointed in Clintons time as secretary of state.

Nonetheless, he said he hasnt had time to study the candidates and doesnt plan to vote.

Im not as educated as Id like to be. When it comes to the presidential race, Im a little bit more knowledgeable. In California though, I wont waste my vote. California always goes to Democrats, Cox said.

Love this beautiful Kamala Harris for U.S. Senate cake from @portos in Downey! #gotv pic.twitter.com/AMbeQ7W8PF  Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 4, 2016

Harris weaved through the bustling crowd at Portos Bakery in Downey and got a quick tour of the kitchen  and a cake theyd made with her campaigns logo.

Harris said in an interview it was important to her to stop in at family-owned businesses so close to the election.

Thats always important to me. Truly our small businesses are really a part of the economic engine of our state and I think that they need to be seen and highlighted more, she said.

As she left the restaurant to head to a walk along the Los Angeles River with supporters, she prodded patrons to remember to vote.

Jonathan Saavedra, 31, of Whittier said he plans to vote for her Tuesday because he like Harris experience as attorney general. Hes also leaning toward backing Clinton because of her experience.

She seems like a tough politician and she knows what shes doing, Saavedra said of Harris. Shes going to get the job done and is a good successor to Barbara Boxer.
June 2, 2016, 5:55 p.m. Follow our coverage Find all our stories and our ongoing coverage of the UCLA shooting here.



10:54 A.M. Professor told UCLA shooter to keep a cool head and keep good relations with teachers Former UCLA doctoral student Mainak Sarkar shot and killed his former professor Wednesday before shooting himself, officials said. He also is suspected in the shooting death of a woman in Minnesota. (UCLA) Details began emerging Friday about UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkars life in India. Sarkar, 38, grew up in Durgapur, now a city of half a million people, according to his high school teachers. His parents are dead, and a sister is believed to live in Kolkata. In Durgapur, he attended St. Michaels, an English-language school, where a teacher described him as a very brilliant student who was among the best in his class in the mid-1990s. At the same time, Sarkar was reserved and not the type who would go around and make friends very quickly, biology teacher Lily Chowdhury told the Indo-Asian News Service. She called the news of the UCLA shooting very shocking. At St. Michaels, Sarkar cultivated a close relationship with Goutam Viswas, his mathematics and chemistry teacher. He often studied after school hours with Viswas, who described him as very nice and a very normal chap. He was not the most outgoing, but he had his friends, Viswas said by phone from Durgapur. We are shocked at this news. Its very difficult to match this incident with his behavior as a student. After a year or two at Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur in eastern India, Sarkar returned to St. Michaels to meet Viswas. Over the years, IIT has built a storied reputation, with its graduates becoming top executives at major corporations. Sarkar was deeply focused on academics, the teacher recalled, and saw many IIT graduates go on to conduct post-graduate research in the United States. Thats what Sarkar wanted more than anything, Viswas recalled. He wanted career advice, Viswas said. And I told him, Keep a cool head and carry on; you have potential. And I also told him to keep good relations with all his faculty members. He agreed with that. In 2000, Sarkar earned an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at IIT, according to his LinkedIn profile. Manas Kumar Laha, an aerospace engineering professor, said that while Sarkars name sounded familiar, he could not recall details of his time in the program. I dont think he stood out in any way, Laha said in an interview.  Shashank Bengali



7:46 A.M. Reporting from St. Paul, Minn.

UCLA shooters neighbor: Were regular folk around here. You dont expect it Former UCLA doctoral student Mainak Sarkar shot and killed his former professor June 1 before shooting himself, officials said. (UCLA) Todd Sorenson stood in the lobby of his small apartment complex in a quiet residential neighborhood here late Thursday night, his eyes bleary from a lack of sleep. The roofer, who lived one floor below UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar, said news of the attack has left many in an otherwise peaceful community confused. It scared the crap out of me, Sorenson said as his TV blared from his second-floor studio overhead. A row of mailboxes stood behind him. Sarkar #8, read one. Sorenson, 49, said he didnt speak with Sarkar much -- their only encounters were less than friendly. Sarkar would tell him not to smoke cigarettes out of the window below his, Sorenson said. The last time they spoke was a year ago, he added, when he slammed the door in Sarkars face. Since the police showed up Wednesday night to investigate the case, Sorenson said, some of the neighbors have expressed shock. Oh my God, do I have to move? Sorenson recalled one of his neighbors asking. It was scary for a lot of people, that someone like that would kill people, he said. Were regular folk around here. You dont expect it. Sorenson said the police didnt leave until early Thursday morning. Officers took a couple of packages from the apartment and blew them up in containers outside to make sure they werent dangerous, he said. Although police said the residents werent in danger, Sorenson said he was still shaken up by the news. That freaks me out. That really freaks me out, he said. Its a good neighborhood with good people. Sarah Parvini



10:18 P.M. Grief, shock at UCLA after professor gunned down on campus UCLA students hosted a candlelight vigil on Thursday evening at Bruin Plaza. (Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times) Hundreds of students and faculty gathered at UCLA on Thursday night for a vigil mourning the professor who was killed on the Westwood campus by his former student. The #BruinStrong candlelight vigil was held at Bruin Plaza and coincided with the commemoration of National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Many held blue and yellow battery-powered candles as they paid tribute to William Klug, the 39-year-old mechanical and aerospace engineering professor who was gunned down in the universitys engineering building. Aly Dembry, 18, an aerospace engineering student, and Rebecca Hambalek, 20, a pre-psychology student, joined hundreds of others at UCLA for a candlelight vigil. (Barbara Davidson/Los Angeles Times) Former students and colleagues have expressed sadness and shock over Klugs death. Hes a very good friend, a mentor, professor and teacher, said Peng Lyu, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering who studied under Klug for two semesters. I just cannot believe that that happened to him. Another vigil is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday in the Court of Sciences on campus. That event, which is open to the public, is being organized by the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Matt Hamilton and Brittny Mejia



6:33 P.M. Wife of slain UCLA professor: This is an indescribable loss Condolence notes for the engineering professor who was shot and killed on Wednesday are left at the foot of UCLAs Bruin Bear statue. (Nick Ut / Associated Press) The widow of slain UCLA professor William Klug issued a statement on Thursday, asking the public and the media to respect her familys privacy as they grieve: During this extremely difficult time for our family, we are grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support. This is an indescribable loss, Mary Elise Klug said in her statement, which was distributed by the university. Bill was so much more than my soul mate. I will miss him every day for the rest of my life. Knowing that so many others share our familys sorrow has provided a measure of comfort. That said, we are a very private family, and we need time to heal and recover from this senseless tragedy, she said. Read more Matt Hamilton

5:15 P.M. Slain UCLA professor William Klug had two children and many grateful students William Bill Klug, a UCLA professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was insatiably curious about the way complex things worked  cancer cells, the HIV virus, the tissue in a beating heart. Klug was said to be brilliant. He was said to be kind. If you asked who is the nicest professor at UCLA, many would say William Klug, said Alan Garfinkel, a professor of integrative biology and physiology. On Thursday, Klug was said to be greatly missed. Read more Teresa Watanabe, Hailey Branson-Potts and Brittny Mejia

4:29 P.M. At UCLA, two vigils and the hashtag #BruinStrong Two vigils will be held on the UCLA campus this week as the community gathers after Wednesdays murder-suicide. A #BruinStrong candlelight vigil has been planned for 8:30 p.m. on Thursday at Bruin Plaza. Student organizers are urging people to show their solidarity on National Gun Violence Awareness Day. I call upon the Bruin family and community members across the state and nation to come together during this difficult time, said Danny Siegel, president of the Undergraduate Students Assn. Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz and interfaith leaders are expected to attend. Another vigil -- at 4 p.m. Friday, in the Court of Sciences -- is being organized by the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. All are welcome, organizers said.

2:58 P.M. Woman who lived in house where body was found was married to UCLA shooter Early Thursday, led by a kill list written by UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar, police in Brooklyn Park, Minn., entered a gray split-level home at 2457 Pearson Parkway. Inside the home, shortly after midnight, they found a womans body. She had been shot to death. Authorities declined to identify the woman. But public records listed the resident of the home as Ashley Hasti. According to Hennepin County Vital Records, Hasti married Sarkar on June 14, 2011. It was unclear whether they were still married at the time of the shooting. Joseph Serna

2:08 P.M. She didnt know him, but she brought flowers

Deborah Gutierrez, who works as a transcriber at UCLA Medical Center, bought flowers for her desk at a farmers market on Thursday. Then she decided to drop them off in front of the Engineering IV building. She placed the flowers on some bushes, near a pink bouquet with a card that read, Prof Klug, Smart and kind. We miss you. Its so emotional, Gutierrez said, close to tears. This hit so close to home. Ruben Vives

1:09 P.M. Sarkars check on my cat note made LAPD uneasy

The note police found from Mainak Sarkar at the scene of the UCLA murder-suicide said check on my cat and gave the shooters Minnesota address. Immediately, we were highly suspicious, said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. That made me uneasy about what we would find when we got to Minnesota. The LAPD worked with the FBI and Minnesota authorities and served a search warrant at Mainak Sarkars home. Inside, they found three names on a kill list, the chief said. A cat. apparently named Kitty, also was found in the house. Read more Kate Mather

12:54 P.M. Mainak Sarkar went to Stanford before UCLA Mainak Sarkar, who has been identified as the UCLA shooter, attended Stanford from fall 2003 until spring 2005, said university spokeswoman Lisa Lapin. He received a masters degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, Lapin said. According to the people here who looked at his record, it was an uneventful time here, Lapin said. He completed the standard two-year curriculum for the degree, she said. Sonali Kohli

12:35 P.M. Hes a great man, UCLA student says of Klug

Hongjie Zhang, a UCLA postdoctoral student, took a moment to talk about his former professor as he walked into the engineering building on Thursday. Hes a great man. Smart, said Zhang, who took a class with Klug in 2008 or 2009. I think he was really nice. Zhang said Klug would always help students when they needed it. Jizhai Cui, who said Klug was at one point on his PhD committee, was a very famous professor in our department. Cui never took one of his classes but said his friends described them as the best they had taken. Hes very scientific, he cares about the student, he said. His graduate class is very hard, but a hard class always teaches you a lot. Thats why students always benefit a lot from his classes. A civil engineering junior who asked that his name not be used said he took a math lab coding class with Klug last year. Klug made the class fun, cracking jokes, he said. Every time I went to his office hours, theres no way he would let me leave his office hours without him fixing my code. Even if it was past his office hours, he said. Great person, great professor. Brittny Mejia

11:58 A.M. Will & Grace actress Debra Messing apologizes for UCLA-shooting selfie

Actress Debra Messing apologized Wednesday for tweeting a selfie in a t-shirt that said under the gun as she was watching events unfold at UCLA. The Will & Grace actress immediately drew criticism on Twitter for her timing. Mainak Sarkar, 38, a former doctoral student and Minnesota resident, shot UCLA professor William Klug multiple times in a small office in UCLA Engineering Building 4 before taking his own life, authorities said. The shooting triggered a lockdown at the UCLA campus and thousands of students raced to barricade themselves in classrooms. Messing deleted the tweet and later issued a statement, explaining that she was asked to wear the orange shirt and post a selfie to bring awareness to gun violence. Today we were asked to have our Voices heard, she tweeted. The horrendous Irony is the timing of yet another shooting. This has NOTHING to do with me. Messing went on to say the following: Veronica Rocha

11:34 A.M. UCLA gunmans former neighbors say he was quiet, normal Across from a busy on-ramp to the 405 Freeway is a cream-and-aqua two-story apartment complex where the shooter in Wednesdays murder-suicide once lived. The building is one of several that sit along Beloit Avenue, a little more than two miles from UCLA in the Sawtelle neighborhood. Public records indicate the gunman, Mainak Sarkar, lived at the complex in 2010. On Thursday, at least two residents there recalled seeing Sarkar and said he kept to himself. They said they believe that Sakar lived at the apartment complex for about four to five months before leaving. He was quiet, said Lucia Esquivel. He didnt say much. Eugenio Martinez, 30, said he would sometimes see Sarkar watching other residents and assumed he just enjoyed people- watching. I just remember he was very observant of everyone. He never spoke, at least not to me, Martinez said. He seemed normal and tranquil. Ruben Vives



11:23 A.M. LAPD chief: Gunman in UCLA shooting went to campus to kill two professors but could only find one Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck at Thursdays press conference. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Detectives believe the gunman who killed a UCLA professor before committing suicide Wednesday intended to kill another professor while on campus, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday. Beck said the gunman  identified as Mainak Sarkar, 38  was heavily armed with two semiautomatic pistols and extra ammunition when he went to Professor William Klugs office Wednesday morning and killed Klug before turning the gun on himself. A note from Sarkar included language about a second professor, Beck said. We believethat he went to kill two faculty from UCLA, Beck said. He was only able to locate one. He was certainly prepared to engage multiple victims, the chief added. Kate Mather



11:01 A.M. He helped me a lot: UCLA student says slain professor was more than an advisor Smashed doors are seen in the UCLA engineering building near where a professor was shot and killed Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Inside the Engineering 4 building Thursday it was quiet, but outside, dozens of students hurried by with backpacks and coffee. One of them, Peng Lyu, came to UCLA from China in 2012 and is in his fourth year studying for a PhD in mechanical engineering. Lyu took two classes with William S. Klug, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who was killed in Wednesdays murder-suicide. When Lyu first arrived at UCLA, Klug was Lyus academic advisor. Lyu said Klug helped him by sharing cultural information in order to better adjust to life in the U.S. Klug would ask Lyu about how his first few months were going, if he liked the campus, if he liked the classes and if he felt comfortable. Hes a very good friend, a mentor, professor and teacher, Lyu said of Klug. I just cannot believe that that happened to him. He helped me a lot. Brittny Mejia



10:43 A.M. UCLA shooter was homicidal, LAPD chief says Police escort people at UCLA after a lockdown was lifted following a shooting on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles police detectives have begun retracing the steps of apparent UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar, particulary his drive from his home in Minnesota to Southern California. Sarkar, 38, drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times. It was unclear how long he was in L.A. before Wednesdays shooting, the chief said, though detectives dont believe it was more than a couple of days. Police are still looking for his car, described as a 2003 gray Nissan Sentra with the Minnesota license plate 720 KTW. Detectives were also trying to contact other people in his life out of an abundance of caution to make sure there were no additional victims, Beck said. We dont have anything that would lead us directly to another victim, the chief said. But obviously this guy was homicidal. On Wednesday, Sarkar carried a backpack, two semiautomatic pistols and extra magazines to William Klugs fourth-floor office, where he fatally shot the professor before turning the gun on himself, the chief said. Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Klug, a second UCLA professor and a woman were on a kill list found in Sarkars home in Minnesota. Authorities went to the womans home in Minnesota, where they found her dead from a gunshot wound. The chief said it was not immediately clear if Sarkar looked for the other professor named on the so-called kill list before finding Klug. The second professor, whom Beck did not name, wasnt on campus at the time of the shooting. Police have since contacted that person, the chief said, and the professor is fine. Kate Mather

10:40 A.M. Brooklyn Park police working with LAPD after body found inside Minnesota home Responding to a request for a welfare check from police officers 1,500 miles away, police in Minnesota on Thursday found the body of a woman inside a home that could be connected to UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkar, officials said. Officers went to the home and found the body after midnight, Brooklyn Park Deputy Police Chief Mark Bruley said at a news conference. We have multiple detectives working on this case, Bruley said. Were working with LAPD to coordinate our efforts. In a discussion with reporters Thursday morning, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck revealed that the gunman in Wednesdays murder-suicide at UCLA had made a kill list with three names on it, one of which was connected to the Brooklyn Park address. Bruley declined to identify the woman or say how she was connected to Sarkar. He did say she was apparently killed before Wednesdays shooting in Southern California and that there had not been any recent calls for service. As information is unfolded over the next couple of days, well work hard to get that out to you without jeopardizing the investigation, Bruley said. Read more Joseph Serna and Richard Winton



10:15 A.M. UCLA gunman left a note at scene, asking someone to check on my cat, LAPD chief says UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkars 2003 gray Nissan Sentra with the Minnesota license plate number 720KTW is missing. (KTLA) UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkar left a note at scene, asking someone to check on my cat, LAPD police chief says. When detectives arrived at William Klugs office at the UCLA campus Wednesday, they found a note from Sarkar, 38, listing his home address in Minnesota and a request to check on his cats welfare, Police Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times. Immediately, we were highly suspicious, Beck said. That made me uneasy about what we would find when we got to Minnesota. Sarkar took his own life Wednesday morning after killing William Klug, 39, in a small office in UCLA Engineering Building 4, according to authorities. Klug, who was shot multiple times, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Klug, another UCLA professor and a woman who lived in a nearby Minnesota town were named in a kill list found in Sakars home. The LAPD worked with the FBI and Minnesota authorities and served a search warrant at Sarkars home. Inside, Beck said, they found the list, extra ammunition and a box for one of the two pistols found at the UCLA scene. Authorities went to the womans home, Beck said, and found her body inside. It appeared she had been dead from a gunshot wound for maybe a couple of days, the chief said. Beck declined to name the woman, but said Sarkar was the suspect in her slaying. We would physically arrest him were he still alive, the chief said. Kate Mather
Russ Mitchell is re-joining the Business staff of the Los Angeles Times to cover automobiles, the future of mobility and the strengthening relationship between Silicon Valley and the auto industry.

Mitchell was The Times tech editor before leaving in January for a brief stint as a managing editor at California Healthline, an arm of Kaiser Health News.

Im psyched to be returning to the L.A. Times, Mitchell said. The Times remains committed to high-quality journalism, and I want to be a part of that. The new beat is exciting, and crucial to the future of California.

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Mitchells experience includes a stint in Detroit covering autos for Business Week and a lengthy career as a technology writer. He spent a year as a technology journalism fellow at MIT and later became managing editor at Wired magazine.

In his new role, Mitchell will work closely with auto reviewer Charles Fleming as well as the tech team to cover topics including Tesla, Faraday, self-driving vehicles and connected cars. Hell be based in the Bay Area.

readers.representative@latimes.com

For staff and newsroom news, follow @LATreadersrep
The gunman was dead. Beside him, two semiautomatic pistols, extra magazines and a backpack.

Mainak Sarkar, a former doctoral student, had killed himself after storming through a UCLA building and fatally shooting a highly regarded professor inside a small fourth-floor office.

But the note Sarkar left behind kept authorities on edge. It listed a home address in St. Paul, Minn., nearly 2,000 miles away. There was also a request. Could someone check on his cat?

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That led authorities to search the 38-year-olds home, where they discovered a kill list with three names: William Klug, the professor fatally shot Wednesday; another UCLA professor, who is safe; and a woman who lived in a nearby suburb.

The woman was found early Thursday inside her gray Brooklyn Park home, dead from a gunshot wound. Public records listed the resident as Ashley Hasti, a 31-year-old University of Minnesota medical student whom Sarkar married in 2011.

Detectives are piecing together Sarkars movements in the Midwest and what led up to the murder-suicide that sent thousands of UCLA students racing for cover and holing up in classrooms.

They believe that Sarkar killed the woman, then drove to Los Angeles in his gray, 2003 Nissan Sentra. The car, which has not been found, may contain evidence and other clues to help them establish a motive, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck told The Times on Thursday.

So far there is nothing to suggest Sarkar committed other crimes during his trip, Beck said, but detectives are working with authorities in various states to see if there is a trail.

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Sarkar used a 9-mm pistol purchased legally in Minnesota to kill Klug, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Authorities are attempting to determine whether the weapon used in Los Angeles was connected to the Brooklyn Park shooting.

Sarkar intended to kill two UCLA faculty members, but was able to locate only Klug, Beck said. It was not immediately clear if Sarkar looked for the other professor, who was not named. That professor wasnt on campus at the time of the shooting.

Both instructors were aware that Sarkar had issues with them. But I dont think that is cause for somebody to believe that they were going to be a homicide target, the chief said.

It was not initially known whether either of the professors had expressed concerns about Sarkar to anyone at UCLA.

Beck said detectives were also trying to contact other people in Sarkars life to make sure there were no additional victims.

Klug, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Sarkar appeared to have had a friendly relationship that at some point turned sour. In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar expressed gratitude to the professor for his help and support.

Thank you for being my mentor, he wrote. A 2014 doctoral commencement booklet listed Klug as Sarkars advisor.

But in recent months, Sarkar lashed out at the professor in online postings. On March 10, Sarkar called Klug a very sick person who could not be trusted.

I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy, he wrote on his blog. He made me really sick. Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust. He posted Klugs photo.

Full Coverage: Shooting at UCLA >>

According to police, Sarkar had accused Klug of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else. A source familiar with the relationship called the accusation absolutely psychotic and said that Klug had bent over backward to help Sarkar finish his dissertation and graduate.

Sarkar had struggled with severe mental problems, including depression and an inability to study, which compromised his work at UCLA, the source said.

Alex Levine, a UCLA biology and chemistry professor, said Klug, 39, felt strongly about his vocation and was intent on making a real impact on developments in human health.

Theres absolutely nothing that Bill did that would have any bearing on this, Levine said of the shooting.

Beck said detectives discussed the theft allegation with UCLA officials and found it to be without merit. This was a making of his own imagination, he said of Sarkar.

1 / 39 A memorial left at The Bruin on the UCLA campus Friday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 39 UCLA students write and post notes on the bear on UCLAs Bruin Walk on Thursday, a day after the deadly shooting on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 39 UCLA student Mai Que Vo, left, comforts India McFarlane, who was crying as students wrote notes to be placed on the Bruin Walk bear Thursday, a day after the deadly shooting of an engineering professor on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 39 Flowers were left at the door of the Engineering IV Building on Thursday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 39 Smashed doors can be seen on the fourth floor of the UCLA engineering building where Wednesdays murder-suicide took place. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 39 The word clear written on a wall near smashed doors on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 39 UCLA students walk past the Engineering Building Thursday morning where engineering professor William Klug was killed. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 39 Charles Kawczynski, a doctoral mechanical engineering student, talks on June 2 about the shooting at UCLA as he stands in front of damaged doors on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building, where the slaying of a professor occurred. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 39 A UCLA police officer works June 2 on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building, where a professor and former doctoral student were killed in a murder-suicide. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 39 Police escort people at UCLA after a lockdown was lifted following a shooting on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 39 Students return to campus Wednesday after a shooting at UCLA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 39 UCLA Gabriela Romero calls her mother telling her not to worry after a shooting on campus Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 39 Police respond to the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 39 Hundreds of UCLA students leave the UCLA campus after the lockdown was called off after two people were shot on campus. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 39 UCLA students evacuate the campus. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 39 Police search the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 39 A police officer searches the UCLA campus after a shooting on Wednesday. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 39 Police search the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 39 SWAT officers Eddie Roca, right, and P.J. Rudolf rest after responding to a shooting at UCLA. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 39 People gather in a campus building after a shooting at UCLA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 39 UCLA students evacuate the campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 39 Police officers check and evacuate students after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 39 Police officers check evacuees after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 39 Police officers evacuate students after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 39 UCLA students are evacuated from the Mathmatics building after a shooting on campus. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 39 Police officers check students after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 39 People evacuate the UCLA campus. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 39 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 39 People are frisked at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 39 Police officers questions a students after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 39 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 39 Police rush to the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 39 The scene at UCLA on Wednesday morning, where a shooting was reported. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 39 Police officers in tactical gear at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 39 People evacuate the UCLA campus after a shooting on Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 39 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 39 A ladder hangs out a window after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 39 Police officers in tactical gear at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 39 Police officers deploy at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Sarkar received an aerospace engineering degree in 2000 from the Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur in eastern India. Over the years, IIT has built a storied reputation, with its graduates becoming top executives at major corporations.

By then, Sarkar had attended Stanford from 2003 until 2005, earning a Masters of Science in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. He had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Sarkar became a teaching assistant at UCLA in 2008. Residents of the cream-and-aqua apartment complex in the Sawtelle neighborhood where Sarkar lived recalled that the mechanical engineering student kept to himself.

Eugenio Martinez, 30, said Sarkar appeared to enjoy people-watching.

I just remembered he was very observant of everyone, Martinez said. He never spoke, at least not to me. He seemed normal and tranquil.

Sarkar graduated from UCLA in 2013. He eventually settled in Minnesota and worked remotely as an engineering analyst for Ohio-based rubber company Endurica LLC.

I appreciate the quality of his work and his careful approach to new problems, the companys president wrote on Sarkars LinkedIn page.

So far, little is known about Sarkars life in Minnesota. Sources close to the investigation said Sarkars relationship with Hasti had ended at some point. On Thursday, police and crime lab crews swarmed the Brooklyn Park home they once shared.

At Sarkars residence in St. Paul, authorities recovered ammunition and a box for one of the two pistols found at UCLA. The cat was found safe.

Eugenio Martinez, 30, said Sarkar appeared to enjoy people-watching.

I just remembered he was very observant of everyone, Martinez said. He never spoke, at least not to me. He seemed normal and tranquil.

MORE ON UCLA SHOOTING

Slain UCLA professor William Klug, father of two, praised as great man by students

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Editorial: Just a murder-suicide in a small UCLA office. And so America shrugs

UPDATES:

7:30 a.m.: This article was updated throughout with more information.

2:23 p.m: This article has been updated with scenes from UCLA

12:41 p.m.: This article was updated with information from the shooters former apartment in Westwood.

This article was originally published at 10:49 a.m.
At least 17 people needed medical treatment Thursday after a school police officer used pepper spray to stop a brawl at John C. Fremont High School, officials said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department treated more than a dozen people who were suffering from minor eye irritation at the campus in the 7600 block of South San Pedro Street in the Florence neighborhood, spokesman Brian Humphrey said.S

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They pepper spray everybody  Morgan (@chris_bonilla11) June 2, 2016

Two people suffered minor injuries, he said. At least one person was taken to a hospital.

A school police officer also required treatment for pepper spray, according to officials. It was unclear whether it was the same officer who used the spray.

According to Los Angeles School Police Chief Steven Zipperman, two fights had broken out between students just before 11:30 a.m.

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An officer used pepper spray in an effort to end the fights and to prevent further safety concerns or injuries, he said in a statement.

The fights ended quickly, but multiple students were exposed to the pepper spray.

I want to reassure parents and guardians that the safety of our students and staff is the top priority at L.A. Unified, he said.

For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.

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The body of a man accused of wounding two Northern California police officers has been found inside a home that caught fire after police fired tear gas into the building in an effort to force him out of the residence, officials said Thursday.

The mans name and age were not released. It was not immediately known whether the man died from the fire or gunshot wounds sustained during the initial shooting, police said.

No one else was injured in the fire at the Fremont home.

Fremont Police spokeswoman Geneva Bosques said the mans body was found Thursday morning after an overnight standoff that started when police said he shot the locks off a door to a vacant home and barricaded himself inside overnight.

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Two officers from the Fremont Police Department were shot Wednesday afternoon after a traffic stop turned violent, prompting a manhunt that involved a house-to-house search that lasted well into the night, said Alameda County Sheriffs Office Sgt. Ray Kelly. Fremont is about 40 miles south of San Francisco.

One officer remains in critical condition. The second officer is in stable condition, Bosques said. Their names have not been released.

The incident started when a man backed into an officers patrol car and a person inside the white pickup fired shots that injured the officer. The shooter and another suspect then ran away, Kelly said.

Shortly afterward, officers from several law enforcement agencies flooded the area and a search began.

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A Fremont police officer with about 10 years of service with the department was wounded later in a shootout with the suspect, officials said.

Following the shooting, investigators had ordered residents of the neighborhood to remain in their homes and to call police about anything suspicious. Police helicopters were deployed, and police dogs were used in yard-by-yard and door-to-door searches.

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UPDATES:

10:01 a.m.: The article has been updated with additional details throughout.

9:32 a.m.: The article has been updated with the suspects death.

6:35 a.m.: The article has been updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 2:43 a.m.
An hours-long manhunt was underway late Wednesday in Bay Area neighborhood for a gunman who violently evaded a traffic stop by shooting at and wounding two police officers, authorities said.

The search for the gunman effectively shut down several blocks Fremont for more than five hours, with police asking residents to stay inside and take shelter.

Fremont police tried to pull over a vehicle about 1:30 p.m., but the driver reversed his car into a police cruiser and opened fire at a police officer who had been with the department for about a year, Fremont police spokeswoman Officer Geneva Bosques said.

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The officer was injured and rushed to the hospital after the car sped away, police said in a statement.

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Within 10 minutes, officers encountered the vehicle about half a mile away, police said. Someone in the vehicle shot and wounded a second police officer, a detective who had worked about 10 years on the force.

Both officers were taken to a hospital. One was said to be stable and the other officer was in critical condition, police said.

Law enforcement conducted a slow and methodical search for the gunman, with the Alameda County sheriffs office deploying tactical teams that moved house-to-house to detain the man. Police asked the public to avoid a perimeter in the citys Irvington neighborhood.

The search for the gunman entered its fifth hour, with police and sheriffs deputies circling in on a location where the suspect was believed to be inside or nearby, sheriffs officials said.

Police described the suspect as a 6-foot-tall Latino man wearing shorts and a San Francisco Giants shirt. Its unclear why officers initially attempted to stop the vehicle.

matt.hamilton@latimes.com

For more California news, follow me @MattHjourno.

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11:03 p.m.: This story was updated with additional details about the search effort.

This story was originally published at 6:40 p.m.
As she displayed a series of gruesome crime scene photos, each showing the bloody or battered corpse of a woman slumped over or spread across an autopsy table, the prosecutor made a simple request of jurors deciding the fate of the so-called Grim Sleeper serial killer.

I ask you to show the defendant the exact same mercy, the exact same compassion, that he showed his victims, Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman said. Because thats what he deserves.

The story of one of Los Angeles most notorious and prolific serial killers moved into its final stages Thursday morning as closing arguments began in the penalty phase of the trial of Lonnie David Franklin Jr.

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Franklin, 63, was convicted last month in the murders of nine women and a teenage girl in South Los Angeles. The first killing took place in 1985, and the last known death occurred in 2007. He also was convicted of attempted murder in an attack on a woman who survived.

During the penalty phase of the trial, Silverman told jurors that Franklin killed five more women for which he wasnt charged, using the same modus operandi seen in the 10 killings and one attempted murder for which he was convicted. The deaths of those five victims were connected to Franklin after he was charged with the other murders, and prosecutors said additional charges would have forced more delays and not increased his possible punishment because he already was facing the death penalty.

Another woman testified that Franklin was one of three U.S. Army privates who raped her in Germany in 1974.

Jurors must now decide whether Franklin should face the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. His attorney, Dale Atherton, is expected to deliver his closing remarks on Friday morning. Atherton declined to discuss his planned argument when approached by a reporter outside the courtroom Thursday.

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Franklin had been dubbed the Grim Sleeper for an apparent gap of 14 years between killings, from 1988 to 2002. But one of the additional slayings introduced during the penalty phase of the trial dated to 2000, proving to authorities that the Grim Sleeper never really slept.

In all, investigators believe Franklin is responsible for at least 25 killings, including 11 that took place during the supposed dormant period that led to his nickname.

Franklins victims were young and black, some leading troubled lives during the chaotic 1980s in South L.A. Many of the women were left strewn along a corridor in the Manchester Square neighborhood, their partly dressed or naked bodies  some decomposing  found amid the filth and garbage of alleyways.

The killing of the women, some of whom were drug addicts or worked as prostitutes, failed to elicit the same alarm that put Los Angeles on high alert during rampages of other prolific serial killers in Southern California, such as the so-called Hillside Strangler or Richard Ramirez, who was dubbed the Night Stalker.

The deaths of the Grim Sleepers victims would not be connected for decades, and police kept the slayings quiet despite suspicions that a serial killer was stalking young black women. That decision led to outrage and condemnation from many who attribute Franklins longevity as a killer to police indifference.

On Thursday, Silverman keyed in on the humiliating way in which the victims bodies were dumped as she asked the jury to vote for the death penalty.

Hes indifferent to the consequences to his behavior. Hes indifferent to the pain that he caused. Hes indifferent to the lives of the victims and the families he destroyed, she said. He doesnt care.

Over the objections of Franklins attorney, Silverman reminded the jury that the defense failed to call a single witness or friend to speak of any redeeming qualities of the defendant.

The lack of anybody coming and saying, Let me tell you why you should feel sorry for him; let me tell you about his good character, speaks volumes, she said.

Franklin remained rigid throughout Silvermans closing argument, staring straight ahead even as pictures of his victims were displayed on a projector overhead. In the gallery, several of the victims relatives dabbed their eyes and nodded as Silverman recounted the gruesome nature of the slayings.

The lingering pain felt by the relatives of Franklins victims was the focal point of the final hour of Silvermans closing, when she detailed each womans death and the devastating effect it had on their loved ones. She juxtaposed photos of the victims alive with images of their grisly ends.

We heard about children who grew up without mothers, mothers and fathers who buried their own children, sisters who lost their best friends and bunk mates, brothers who lost their little sisters whom they believe it was their duty to protect, she said.

As she revisited victim impact testimony delivered throughout the penalty phase, Silverman repeatedly emphasized what she called the multi-generational damage Franklin had done to the children and grandchildren of his victims.

Valerie McCorveys son, Matthew, was just 2 years old when she was killed, and to this day he rarely, if ever, speaks about his mother, Silverman said. Several of the victims families stopped celebrating holidays after their loved ones were killed by Franklin, the prosecutor said.

The woman who was sexually assaulted by Franklin in 1974 in Germany stopped going out alone after the attack, and that fear passed on to her children, according to Silverman, who said the victims daughter was never allowed to walk anywhere by herself, nor was her granddaughter.

Next week, or the following, whenever it is, long after youve all gone back to your lives, these people will go on living, Silverman said. And they will go on living with their losses.

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Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in Southern California.

UPDATES:

6:04 p.m.: This story was updated with additional details from the courtroom.

This story first published at 1:36 p.m.
A former Los Angeles police officer pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to smuggle a Mexican citizen into the U.S. in the spare-tire compartment of his SUV, the U.S. attorneys office said.

Carlos Curiel Quezada Jr., 34, faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His girlfriend, Angelica Godinez, 31, has pleaded guilty to lying on an application for court-appointed counsel, officials said.

According to court documents, Quezada  a 10-year Los Angeles Police Department veteran  and Godinez were stopped as they drove through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry into San Diego on March 14, 2015. The couple handed their passports to Customs and Border Protection officers and told them they had nothing to declare.

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Officers scanned Quezadas 2014 Nissan Juke with an imaging device and noticed something unusual about the rear end of the SUV. They popped the trunk and found a 26-year-old man hiding in the compartment where the spare tire is stored, the U.S. attorneys office said.

Antanasio Perez Avalos, a Mexican citizen, did not have authorization to enter the U.S., officials said.

david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Hernandez writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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Long Beachs city prosecutor said Wednesday he will not appeal a judges ruling that said the city police department unfairly targeted gay men when it carried out lewd conduct stings.

In an email announcing the decision, City Prosecutor Douglas Haubert said he did not agree with the April 29 ruling issued by Superior Court Judge Halim Dhanidina, and did not believe the judges findings should affect relations between the city and its LGBT residents.

The city of Long Beach and the Long Beach Police Department have worked hard to build a positive relationship with the LGBTQ community, a relationship built over many years and based on mutual respect and open dialogue, he said in an email. I do not think this ruling will or should hinder that relationship.

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Late Wednesday, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia praised Hauberts decision and said city leaders have been researching other methods of enforcing lewd conduct laws, as well as discussing a revised approach with LGBT leaders and law enforcement experts.

Its not happening. Its been stopped, Garcia said of the stings that had drawn criticism. We are having some very productive conversations about developing a model policy.

Announcements about a revised policy could come this summer, Garcia said.

The controversy stemmed from the 2014 arrest of Rory Moroney, a 50-year-old Long Beach resident who was charged with indecent exposure and lewd conduct after a run-in with an undercover police officer inside a restroom at Recreation Park.

Bruce Nickerson, the attorney representing Moroney, had argued that the police departments vice unit unfairly targeted gay men because they used only male undercover officers to arrest male suspects seeking sex with other men.

Moroney previously told The Times that he did not enter the restroom seeking a sexual encounter, and had simply responded to the undercover officers flirtations.

Dhanidina agreed. In his ruling, the judge found the police department intentionally targeted men who engaged in homosexual sex and said the undercover officers tactics induced the crime.

News that the stings were continuing stunned some local LGBT activists, especially in Long Beach, a city with an openly gay mayor. Similar tactics have been abandoned by some police departments throughout the state amidst political backlash and lawsuits in recent years.

Many of Californias largest police departments instead favor of posting uniform officers near hotspots for lewd conduct.

Los Angeles County Assessor Jeffrey Prang, who is gay and a former special assistant in the Sheriffs Department who worked with its LGBT advisory council, said the prosecutors decision not to appeal is a positive step for the city.

Prang, who helped the Sheriffs Department modify its policy on the same issues, said he has spoken with Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna about the stings and believes the department has become receptive to adopting new ways to tackle lewd conduct problems.

When I spoke with the chief, he was very interested in a better approach to deal with the issue, so Im pretty encouraged. I think they recognized the challenges of the past enforcement practices, Prang said. There is a large body of work that indicates theres better ways to alleviate the problem.

Garcia did not offer specifics about how the department might police lewd conduct in the future, but promised the department would strike a balance between enforcing the law and respecting the LGBT community.

There will be incidents in the future where police officers will have to make an arrest if something is occurring, if something bad is happening in a restroom, regardless of this issue, he said. So we want to make sure that, if and when that happens, its being done in a way thats appropriate and thats fair and our cops have all the tools they need to both enforce the law and implement best practices.

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

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UPDATES:

9:11 p.m.: This story was updated with comments from Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia.

6:31 p.m.: This story was updated with additional comments from Los Angeles County Assessor Jeffrey Prang.

This story was originally published at 6:03 p.m.
Court documents unsealed this week in two class-action lawsuits against Trump University portray the program as a fraudulent scheme that employed high-pressure sales tactics  as well as a place where some participants got exceptional advice about profiting from real estate.

The views of former employees and customers of the investing program and its namesake  apparent Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump  are contained in papers that were under seal in San Diego federal court for almost two years. They were ordered released last week by U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

The hundreds of pages include business plans, PowerPoint presentations, sales scripts and directions for employees, excerpts from depositions of key figures at Trump University and sworn declarations from past employees and customers.

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You can go to an Outback Steakhouse restaurant anywhere in the country and you dont expect the owner of Outback to be there giving you your food.  customer Nicholas Perioux, on his view that Trump is a brand

Ronald Schnackenberg, a former sales manager at Trump University for seven months in 2006 and 2007, described the business as one that preyed on the elderly and uneducated to separate them from their money. He said he knew of instructors who were not well educated in real estate  one, he said, had a background in jewelry making.

Overall, Schnackenberg said, the seminars that started at $1,500 and escalated in price to almost $35,000 were designed not to help students but to get their money. A scheme involving a constant upsell, he said.

Speakers at the seminars told attendees to raise their credit card limits to be better positioned to buy real estate, with the real goal to up their limits to buy the next and more expensive level of seminar, Schnackenberg said.

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Another former sales employee, Jason Nicholas, said in a declaration that the Trump University instructors and mentors were a joke. They were unqualified people posing as Donald Trumps right-hand men. They were teaching methods that were unethical and they had little to no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals. It was a facade, a lie.

Jill Martin, general counsel for the Trump Organization, dismissed those attacks, saying in a statement that the allegations had been recanted or completely discredited when the individuals were deposed.

Martin said that the majority of customers had positive experiences with Trump University, and that those perceptions were reflected in the documents and in surveys  also part of the record  that show high satisfaction.

Trump University looks forward to using this evidence, along with much more, to win when the case is brought before a jury, Martin said. A trial date in one lawsuit is set for November, after the election.

The Trump University instructors and mentors were a joke.  former sales employee Jason Nicholas

The suits accuse Trump of misleading students of his now-defunct real estate program. They contend Trump University falsely held itself out to be an accredited university, that students would be taught by real estate experts and mentors handpicked by Trump and that students would get a year of mentoring.

The unsealed documents contain several declarations from former customers who said they benefited from the seminars.

One, Nicholas Perioux, said he knew the school was not an actual university and didnt recall being told the instructors had been selected by Trump. Besides, he said, it didnt matter, because he was buying into the Trump brand.

The way I look at it, you can go to an Outback Steakhouse restaurant anywhere in the country and you dont expect the owner of Outback to be there giving you your food. It is known that Outback is a brand, just like Trump is a brand, Perioux said in his declaration.

While some of the satisfied customers said that they gained knowledge and have made money, none made it big. Some flipped properties and pocketed five-figure profits. Most said the experience mattered.

I have more confidence, knowledge and experience than when I began my journey, customer Paula Levan wrote.

Trumps lawyers argue that those who failed to find real estate success should fault themselves.

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greg.moran@sduniontribune.com

Moran writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
A man accused of shooting a West Covina police officer and then going on the run was charged Thursday with attempted murder.

Jose Luis Chavez, 47, was charged with one felony count each of attempted murder of a peace officer, assault of a peace office with a semiautomatic firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

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If convicted, he faces up to life in prison, prosecutors said.

Chavez was taken into custody at 2:06 a.m. May 26, a day after authorities announced a $20,000 reward for his arrest and conviction.

He was hiding in a home in the 1200 block of Foxworth Avenue in La Puente, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.

According to police, Chavez was riding a bicycle on North Yaleton Avenue near Badillo Street at 11:18 p.m. May 20 when an on-duty officer approached him. The officer tried to detain Chavez, and a gun battle ensued, deputies said.

The officer was shot in the chest and taken to a hospital with injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening. He later was released and recovered at home. His name has not been released.

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Chavez also was wounded in the gunfight and ran away before additional police arrived, prosecutors said. Following his arrest, he was taken to an area hospital for treatment.

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For breaking news in California, follow VeronicaRochaLA on Twitter.
Mell Lazarus mother was unfazed by her sons famous comic strip about a nagging, meddling mother.

Thats because Frances Lazarus, who lived near him in Woodland Hills, would never admit that Momma was based on her, though of course it was.

She would say, You have captured Aunt Helen perfectly, said Lazarus wife, Sally Mitchell.

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That was fine with her son, who died May 24 at 89. Mell Lazarus maintained he had no desire to mock his mother during the more than four decades he penned the strip.

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To hear him tell it, he had only affection in mind. There was even a serious side to Momma, which chronicled the antics of a canny, demanding, but ultimately likeable mother, and her over-mastered adult son.

Lazarus said he wanted to explore ways that members of multi-generational families can get along and thus remain involved in each others lives -- very involved, in the case of Frances Lazarus and her squat, large-headed cartoon counterpart, Mrs. Sonya Hobbs.

Im not hitting hard with Momma, Mell Lazarus told an interviewer for Dynamic Years in 1981. I simply think its important to realize the need for humor in dealing with situations in which roles switch back and forth. In many cases, Momma is the child and her kids show her the way. But, somehow, Momma always comes out on top.

As well she should, he added.

The cartoonist who also drew the long-lasting Miss Peach strip was born Melvin Lazarus in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 3, 1927. His father, Sydney Lazarus, was a glass blower who owned a glass-blowing business.

The father was open-hearted with less fortunate family members, and during the Depression he took in a succession of struggling relatives. At one point, young Melvin wound up sleeping between two dining room chairs, said his wife. It was a lesson in the importance of family bonds that would stick.

Lazarus went on to drop out of high school, publishing his first cartoon in a local paper at 16. He enlisted in the Navy and went to boot camp just as World War II was ending. Free to pursue cartoons in earnest, he started Miss Peach, a strip about a schoolteacher and her class in 1957.

When he was 21, his father died. His homemaker mother, known as Frankie, was a sudden widow who needed her adult sons in new ways. Lazarus relationship with her eventually led to Momma in 1970.

Lazarus and his first wife had three daughters. In 1975, he followed them and his brother Herb to California. Eventually, they brought his mother to live near them in Woodland Hills.

She was indeed given to guilt trips -- but also witty.

Lazarus described himself as deeply interested in her character and fascinated with what makes her tick. Though he compared Frances Lazarus to Catherine the Great with a low profile, he also welcomed their twice-a-day phone conversions.

She had one of the biggest hearts Ive ever seen, he said. Frances Lazarus died in 1984.

Mell Lazarus met Mitchell, a lawyer, many years after his first marriage ended when he spoke at a roast for her father, who was a gag writer (though Lazarus always wrote his own gags, she said). They married in 1995.

For years he juggled two strips. Mitchell said Lazarus was businesslike and efficient, retreating into his home studio weekday mornings, emerging at 6 p.m. and rarely stopping for lunch. He really kind of had it down, Mitchell said.

Lazarus remained such a devotee of extended family ties that he flirted with the idea of buying a large property for a family compound, his wife said.

Lazarus, who died at home of complications from Alzheimers, received two national awards from the National Cartoonists Society. He also served as a president of the organization and was awarded its medal of honor.

Momma and Miss Peach were published in hundreds of newspapers nationwide. Lazarus also wrote plays and novels.

He was known for mentoring and encouraging young cartoonists and loved the New York Times crossword puzzle and his golden retriever, a gift from his wife.

Mitchell -- 25 years his junior -- said that, although her husband didnt like her to mention it, I read Miss Peach every day since kindergarten. I loved it.

Besides his wife and brother, Lazarus is survived by daughters Marjorie White of Venice, Suesan Pawlitski of Santa Barbara and Cathie Lazarus of Sherman Oaks, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

jill.leovy@latimes.com

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When she discovered she was pregnant, the 22-year-old aspiring veterinarian started calling abortion clinics in her home state of Oklahoma. It was a short list  there are only two, and neither could get her an appointment quickly.

Unemployed, no car, and still living with her parents, Pearl thought about trying Texas, but knew the state had also recently tightened restrictions on clinics.

Finally, Pearl  who asked not to use her full name for fear of upsetting her conservative family back in Comanche County  got her boyfriend to take her to South Wind Womens Center in Kansas, a four-hour drive north.

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Its ridiculous that I have to travel, Pearl said as she waited at the clinic last week to get abortion medication. Not everyone is as strong as this. Not everyone is made of stone. Its stressful to travel all this way.

The National Abortion Federation hotline referred 209 Texas patients to New Mexico last year, compared with 21 in 2013, said Vicki Saporta, the groups president and chief executive. The number of Texas patients at one Albuquerque clinic alone more than tripled, jumping from 19 to 67 last year, she said.

As more states adopt more restrictive laws and the number of clinics dwindles in the so-called abortion desert  an area that stretches from Florida to New Mexico and north into the Midwest  women are increasingly traveling across state lines to avoid long waits for appointments and escape the legal barriers in their home states.

As states have embraced laws requiring waiting periods for abortion, admitting privileges for abortion doctors and medical upgrades for clinics, the number of facilities where a woman can get an abortion has declined rapidly and wait times for appointments have grown longer. Longer waits can mean the difference between women taking abortion medication, generally available up to 10 weeks, and progressively more expensive surgical abortions.

In Texas, the number of clinics has fallen from 41 to 19 in the last three years. In Louisiana there are four; in Arkansas three. Missouri and Mississippi have one clinic each. About 49% of women in the South live in counties without an abortion clinic, as do 53% of women in the Midwest, compared with 38% nationwide, according to the most recent study by the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for reproductive rights.

When we see women having to travel long distance, across state lines or hours away from their home to get the care they need, it has a rippling impact, said Whitney Phillips, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, whose clinics have also recorded an increase in out-of-state clients. They are having to arrange their work schedules, child care, travel and finances in order to see a provider. In the event they need more than one appointment, that can be crippling  especially for lower-income women.

In Texas, abortion provider Whole Womans Health has sued to block a new law that would force about half the states remaining clinics to close, alleging it amounts to an undue burden for women forced to travel long distances. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case this month, its first major ruling on abortion in two decades.

 Julie Burkhart, founder and chief executive of Trust Women and South Wind Womens Center in Wichita, Kan.

If the high court sides with Texas, or sends the case back to the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, similar laws stayed by the courts could be enforced in Kansas, Michigan and Wisconsin, closing clinics there too.

Since the Texas law passed, women have had to drive four times farther for abortion services  from 17 to 70 miles  and often wait three times longer for appointments, according to studies by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. About 10% of the women surveyed report having to drive at least 250 miles to reach a clinic.

Because of the new laws, a clinic in Dallas started encouraging West Texas women to make appointments at its facility in Albuquerque, which had shorter waits and restrictions  but was still about 300 miles away. Since the law passed, the number of women traveling to New Mexico for abortions has more than doubled. In Kansas, the number of women arriving from Oklahoma and Texas soared from 38 to 243. The trend is similar at clinics in Louisiana.

New Mexico clinics can treat more patients because the state has not passed many of the laws Texas has, including a 20-week abortion ban passed by a dozen other states.

The need has really exploded, said Joan Lamunyon Sanford, executive director of the New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

She says many women cannot afford to fly, so they take buses instead, some traveling for days from California and the East Coast.

Nobody should have to go across two or three states to get healthcare, said Sanford, whose volunteers provide women with transportation, childcare and housing during clinic visits.

Doctors are also on the move to handle the shifting waves of patients, flying to New Mexico and Kansas to help staff clinics.

Dr. Colleen McNicholas flies from St. Louis to work at the Wichita clinic, where 40% to 50% of her patients are from out of state, usually Oklahoma and Texas, occasionally Missouri.

McNicholas says she has seen women sleeping in their cars in the parking lot.

Either they dont want to wait or cant because of how far along they are, she said. So they look at a map and map it out, keep trying, keep calling clinics until they find one that can take them.

Dr. Willie Parker recently relocated from Illinois to Alabama to perform abortions there and in Georgia and Mississippi. Many providers in the region wont handle abortions beyond 15 weeks, he said, creating watershed areas where women must seek care across state lines.

If they dont make the cutoff, theyre coming over to Tuscaloosa, Parker said. People are coming from everywhere.

 Courtney Love, 30, an antiabortion activist. She and other activists say they are encouraged to see clinics close due to laws that they say protect womens safety.

He says he has placed dilating devices in out-of-state patients for a two-day procedure only to see them drive hundreds of miles home to avoid paying for a hotel.

Some out-of-state patients are no-shows, unable to handle travel costs, he said: You have a lot of women who are staying pregnant because they cant surpass that barrier.

Antiabortion activists say they are encouraged to see clinics close due to laws that they say protect womens safety.

I do think thats a good thing. I think there should be regulations. It should be safe, like going to a hospital, said Courtney Love, 30, a self-described sidewalk counselor distributing antiabortion leaflets outside the Wichita clinic. The fenced-off clinic has been a battleground in the abortion debate, drawing large crowds of protesters and closing for several years after its director, Dr. George Tiller, was fatally shot by an antiabortion extremist.

Love and other antiabortion volunteers say they have noticed more cars with out-of-state license plates arriving at the clinic. She says she doesnt like the idea of women being forced to travel to get services, but theres other choices for them other than abortion.

She pointed to a neighboring antiabortion counseling center.

Next door theres help, people who will help with their rent and adoption, Love said.

Brittany, 22, of Oklahoma City, already gave up a son to adoption last year, and says she didnt want to do that again. A heroin addict, she came to the Wichita clinic in maternity jeans for a surgical abortion at 17 weeks. She would not have been able to get there without her father, an Air Force officer in Tampa, Fla., who rented a car, booked a hotel and paid $1,300 for the procedure.

I was scared I would be too far along, she said. Now Im scared I may have to stay overnight again and my dad may have to miss work.

As Pearl prepared to return to Oklahoma, she said she realized her situation wasnt unique.

I have two friends who are pregnant wondering if they can get abortions because of the laws, she said.

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molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com

Twitter: @mollyhf
President Obama defended his tenure as commander-in-chief Thursday while setting out a clear contrast with potential successor Donald Trump, saying the U.S. needs smart, steady, principled American leadership in an increasingly interconnected world.

Obama saluted more that 800 graduates of the Air Force Academy in his final commencement address as president, calling it the highest honor in my life to lead the greatest military in the history of the world.

Our military is, by a mile, the strongest in the world, he said.

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But, while U.S. foreign policy has to be strong ... it also has to be smart, he said as he laid out lessons learned during his tenure and those history offers to the nations next generation of leaders.

Just as in an economic address a day earlier in Indiana, Obama did not name Trump. But he was unmistakably making an argument against Trumps temperament and meandering pronouncements, including calls for a more isolationist U.S. foreign policy.

He said that despite serious threats the nation faces from overseas, a temptation to pull back or argue that other nations should fend for themselves would only give false comfort.

We cannot turn inward, he said. Allowing problems to fester over there makes us less secure over here. So as Americans, we have to keep leading and working with others to build the security and prosperity and justice we want in the world.

Obama said that despite the threats of terrorist networks, Russian aggression in Ukraine, disputes in the South China Sea and civil wars in the Middle East, the world is nonetheless in the safest, most prosperous era in history.

And that will continue if the U.S. keeps embracing its role as a global leader.

When theres a problem around the world, they do not call Beijing or Moscow. They call us, Obama said. And we lead not by dictating to others but by working with them as partners, by treating other countries and their peoples with respect. Not by lecturing them.

We lead not by dictating to others but by working with them as partners, by treating other countries and their peoples with respect. Not by lecturing them.  President Barack Obama

So we need smart, steady, principled American leadership.

When we panic, we dont make good decisions, he said, citing a favorite example of his  the Ebola crisis of 2014.

That was a serious threat, and we took it seriously, Obama said. But in the midst of it, there was hysteria. Flights must be banned. Quarantine citizens. These were actual quotes. Seal the border. And my favorite: Remove Obama, or millions of Americans die.

Of course, Obama ignored such suggestions and a domestic Ebola outbreak never materialized.

Obamas remarks made no overt reference to the political debate unfolding on the presidential campaign trail. But his national security address came hours before Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee, delivered her own in San Diego.

Obama did acknowledge controversial foreign policy decisions his administration has made and even some that could have been handled differently. He mentioned the U.S.-led bombing in Libya, when Clinton served as his secretary of State, to oust dictator Moammar Kadafi.

We were right to launch an air campaign to prevent Kadafi from massacring innocent civilians, but we didnt do enough to plan for the day after, when deep-rooted tribalism plunged Libya into disorder, Obama said.

He also conceded the ongoing civil war in Syria was heartbreaking and gut-wrenching.

As a father, I look at Syrias children and I see my own, he said.

But he defended his decision not to authorize military strikes against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad in response to its use of chemical weapons.

Suggestions for deeper U.S. military involvement in a conflict like the Syrian civil war have to be fully thought through, rigorously examined with an honest assessment of the risks and tradeoffs, he said. When we ask those questions, we prevent the kind of mission creep that history teaches us to avoid.

Obama offered his administrations policies of engagement with Cuba and Vietnam, as well as the nuclear agreement with Iran, as examples of how diplomacy can more effectivelyensure global stability than conflict.

Even where we do not hesitate to act on behalf of our security, we should never celebrate war itself, he said. War, no matter how noble our intentions may be, promises agony and tragedy. And no one knows this more than those who fight those wars.

Obama has now addressed graduates from each of the nations four service academies twice as president. He offered special tribute to the Air Force and its role in that most coveted of presidential perks.

Im really going to miss Air Force One, as well as the incredible airmen that Ive come to know, he said. You are always on time. You never lose my luggage. I dont have to take off my shoes before I get on.

As he left Colorado Springs, Obama also met briefly with the pilot of a Thunderbird that crashed after a flyover during the graduation ceremony. Obama thanked the pilot, who saluted as the president approached, and said he was glad to see he wasnt more seriously injured, according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

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michael.memoli@latimes.com

For more White House coverage, follow @mikememoli on Twitter.

UPDATES:

2:29 p.m.: This story was updated with Obama meeting with the pilot of a Thunderbird that crashed after a flyover during the graduation.

This story was originally published at 12:54 p.m.
Donald B. Verrilli Jr., President Obamas top courtroom lawyer who defended his healthcare and immigration plans before the Supreme Court, is stepping down as U.S. solicitor general at the end of this month.

Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch announced his departure Thursday and described Verrilli as a brilliant lawyer, a devoted public servant and one of the most consequential solicitors general in American history.

Verrilli faced a Supreme Court whose conservative majority was often skeptical of Obamas initiatives. But despite some struggles, he prevailed in major cases that upheld the Affordable Care Act, struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and blocked Arizonas strict immigration enforcement law.

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Still awaiting a decision this month is the administrations appeal of lower court orders in Texas that have blocked Obamas plan to defer deportation and offer work permits to about 4 million immigrants who are living illegally in the United States.

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For five years, Solicitor General Don Verrilli has fought in our nations highest court for a better future, winning landmark cases that moved America forward, Obama said in a statement. Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable healthcare.

The solicitor general heads a small team of lawyers in the Justice Department  most of them civil servants  who represent the United States government before the high court. As a political appointee of the president, the solicitor general decides on which cases to appeal and what arguments should be made.

When the Affordable Care Act was challenged as unconstitutional, most of the litigation focused on whether Congress power to regulate commerce included the authority to require all people with an adequate income to have health insurance. But Verrilli added a fallback argument to assert that the tax penalties that enforced this insurance mandate could be upheld under Congresss power to impose taxes.

When the Supreme Court upheld the healthcare law in June 2012 by a 5-4 vote, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the law was constitutional because it relied on Congress taxing power, not the power to regulate commerce.

The victory was especially welcome for the solicitor general. When the case was argued before the court, Verrilli had an awkward and uncomfortable moment at the start. He paused to reach for a glass of water, and his voice sounded weak.

The opening incident was replayed when the audio recording of the arguments was released that day, and it fed instant commentary speculating that the presidents attorney had blown the case. But in fact, the focus on the tax provisions in his legal brief helped win the crucial fifth vote of the chief justice.

Don has a great sense of litigation strategy, said Washington lawyer Walter Dellinger, who served as solicitor general under President Clinton. He personally made the decision that it was essential to advance the argument that the ACA could be justified under the taxing power, a decision that may have saved health insurance for 20 million people.

In a second healthcare case that challenged insurance subsidies in some states, Verrillis brief dissected the law passed by Congress and showed that in many of its provisions, Congress assumed that qualified people could obtain insurance subsidies in all states, regardless of whether the states had established their own health insurance exchange or used the federal version. That argument won a 6-3 majority last year.

In 2013, Verrilli urged the justices to strike down the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that denied federal benefits to same-sex couples who were legally married in their states. That decision led directly to last years ruling that upheld same-sex marriages nationwide.

The solicitor general had his defeats as well. The most significant loss came in 2013 when the courts conservative bloc, in a 5-4 decision, struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act.

Verrilli signed on at the Obama White House early in 2009 and worked in the counsels office there. But after then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2010, the president chose Verrilli to replace her.

His departure was expected. Verrilli had said he intended to leave at the end of Obamas term, and the court is finished hearing new cases until the fall.

A new president elected in November will name a successor early next year.

In the meantime, Deputy Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn will serve as as acting solicitor general.

Verrilli was a law partner at Jenner & Block in Washington before joining the administration, but friends say he has not decided what to do next.

Were certainly hopeful he will come back, said Paul Smith, a lawyer for Jenner.

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On Twitter: DavidGSavage

UPDATES:

12:29 p.m.: This article has been updated with additional reaction and background information.

This article was originally published at 7:56 a.m.
Good morning. It is Thursday, June 2. The Santa Monica Mountains welcomed two new bobcats this spring. The baby boys are adorable per the new pictures and videos. Heres what else is happening in the Golden State:

TOP STORIES

Scope infections

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Sixteen patients were infected with a dangerous bacteria found on medical scopes at Huntington Hospital between January 2013 and August 2015. Eleven of those patients died; health officials said that only one of the 11 death certificates listed the bacteria as the cause. An investigation into the outbreak blamed the design of the scopes and the hospitals disinfection process. Hospital officials had previously said that only three patients were infected by the bacteria. Los Angeles Times

Shooting at UCLA

A murder-suicide at UCLA triggered reports of an active shooter and a massive response Wednesday with police officers and federal agents descending onto the Westwood campus. As students and professors took cover, false information about the shooting began flying around social media and group text messages. In this day and age  we would much rather respond in an abundance of caution, said LAPD spokesman Andy Neiman. Police identified the victim as William S. Klug, a 39-year-old associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who was described as kind and brilliant. Los Angeles Times

No dice

A federal judge rejected efforts by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders to reopen voter registration in California because of the rulings governing which voters may cast a ballot in next Tuesdays primary. Voters who do not state a party preference may vote in the Democratic, American Independent and Libertarian parties primaries; the Republican Partys ballot is closed to such voters. Theres absolutely no showing of any federal violation, said U.S. District Judge William Alsup. Los Angeles Times

DROUGHT AND CLIMATE

Getting hot, hot, hot: The Southland is having a heat wave, as temperatures in the Antelope and San Fernando valleys are expected to hit triple digits. A high-pressure system from the Pacific Ocean can be blamed for the high temperatures. This high-pressure area is like a big dome of warm air  thats helping to heat things up, said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Los Angeles Times

Not so simple: If only the California drought could be solved by destroying the delta smelt. The states water supply was jacked up for more than 100 years before the delta smelt started gumming up the works. Wired

L.A. AT LARGE

Mayoral endorsement: L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti endorsed Rep. Janice Hahn Wednesday for the Board of Supervisors. The two served together on the Los Angeles City Council before Hahn was elected to Congress. The primary is on Tuesday. Los Angeles Times

Policing tactics: The city of Long Beach will not appeal a ruling that found police officers there unfairly targeted gay men in conducting lewd-conduct stings. The fact that such stings were taking place surprised many in the city, including its openly gay mayor. I view Long Beach as a progressive place that believes in justice and dignity for everybody. So when I hear that something occurs that could be contrary to that, Im alarmed, said Mayor Robert Garcia. Los Angeles Times

Walk. Dont walk: The intersection of Hollywood and Highland was the most dangerous place for pedestrians until a new, scramble crosswalk was installed. Now, the number of crashes there is way down. LAist

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

Poll numbers: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a two-point advantage over rival Bernie Sanders leading into next weeks California primary, according to a new poll. A victory in the Golden State would give Sanders a reason to stay in the race, even though Clinton is ahead in the delegate count. NBC News

At home with Trump: Whats presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump doing as he relaxes at his Beverly Hills home with a pint of vanilla ice cream? Finishing his pint, he reflects again on the remarkableness of the campaign, asking his traveling staffers, Corey Lewandowski and press secretary Hope Hicks, as well as his son-in-law, to confirm again how remarkable it is. The Hollywood Reporter

Familial support: The son of Cesar Chavez says his family is backing Clinton in the presidential race. Paul Chavez made his comments after his brother-in-law suggested the late labor leader would be a Sanders supporter if he were alive today. The fact of the matter is most of us in the family that continue to work closely in the movement that my father began strongly support the candidacy of Hillary, said Paul Chavez. BuzzFeed

CRIME AND COURTS

Students on lockdown: When the alert went out that there was an active shooter on the UCLA campus, students barricaded themselves in classrooms and armed themselves with makeshift weapons. They texted family members and avoided windows and doors. Its just such an overwhelming situation. You see these things on the news  and to have it come here? said a third-year biology major. Los Angeles Times

Worried sick: Parents from Canada to San Bernardino to the Los Angeles Times own newsroom felt panic set in Wednesday as the UCLA campus went into lockdown. Text messages between the students and their parents show the fear they felt before police gave the all-clear. It was torturous, being 120 miles away in San Diego and watching the events unfold and not being able to do anything, said one UCLA alum whose son is a sophomore at the university. Los Angeles Times

Lock the door: Many UCLA students found that their classroom doors did not have locks. Students got creative by using belts and power cords to create locks and barricading doors with chairs, tables and overhead projectors, as these photos show. Gizmodo

In plain sight: Sacramento police launched a search when 10-year-old Laprea Lee was reported missing. Now, authorities say the little girl was never actually missing. Instead, her mother hid her as a way to exact revenge on her estranged husband. CBS Sacramento

BUSINESS

Long hair, dont care: Alli Webb opened the first Drybar in Brentwood six years ago. Now, the company that specializes in $40 blowouts for young, professional women is doing $100 million in sales. Drybar has become to blowouts what Starbucks is to coffee. It didnt invent the blowout but has played a singular role in making them a thing. BuzzFeed

Oops: Last year, Forbes determined Elizabeth Holmes was worth $4.5 billion based on the valuation of her Silicon Valley start-up Theranos. However, the magazines editors now say that estimate was based on bad math and Holmes net worth is actually more like nothing. As in $0. Forbes

CALIFORNIA CULTURE

Trip to the market: Some people have strong opinions about the new 365 by Whole Foods Market in Silver Lake. Before the door was a d.j. tent, printed with the phrase Do Something Delicious Every Day: low-stakes activism, cozy self-indulgence, a habit for living. The New Yorker

Pop, fizz: Soda pop saved Galcos Old World Grocery in Highland Park. But dont expect to find Coke or Pepsi on the shelves. New York Times

Mad Men: One woman catalogued 300 ghost signs in San Francisco. To this day you can find early-1900s ads for Wrigleys gum, Coca-Cola, beer before Prohibition, and a 7-Up ad on the side of a garage thats held up incredibly well because its protected from the sun. SFGate

Surfs up: The Wedge in Orange County had 15-foot waves Wednesday. Those waves were expected to hold strong today before weakening over the weekend. Orange County Register

CALIFORNIA ALMANAC

There will be low clouds and a high of 76 in San Diego. Los Angeles will be mostly sunny with a high of 81 degrees. Riverside will be sunny and 96. Sacramento is expected to have a high of 98 degrees. San Francisco will be partly sunny and 72.

AND FINALLY

Todays California Memory comes from Charles S. Rose:

In July 1971 during summer break, I hitchhiked with a classmate from our home in Chicago to California. I was 16 years old and had never been out west. We each left with a Boy Scout knapsack and $50. We swam in Lake Tahoe, explored Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley, surprised to find a fellow classmate playing guitar for spare change. We were mesmerized by Haight-Ashbury. We lived in an ocean cave in Carmel for three days with 25-plus other nomads. From Las Vegas, we got a ride to our front door. Gone six weeks, I still had $30 remaining. I moved to California in July 1980 and have never looked back  until now.

If you have a memory or story about the Golden State, share it with us. Send us an email to let us know what you love or fondly remember about our state. (Please keep your story to 100 words.)

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.
Tucked away in a letter from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation last week, along with proud notes about the foundations efforts to fight smoking and tropical diseases and its other accomplishments, was a section on education. Its tone was unmistakably chastened.

Were facing the fact that it is a real struggle to make systemwide change, wrote the foundations CEO, Sue Desmond-Hellman. And a few lines later: It is really tough to create more great public schools.

The Gates Foundations first significant foray into education reform, in 1999, revolved around Bill Gates conviction that the big problem with high schools was their size. Students would be better off in smaller schools of no more than 500, he believed. The foundation funded the creation of smaller schools, until its own study found that the size of the school didnt make much difference in student performance. When the foundation moved on, school districts were left with costlier-to-run small schools.

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Then the foundation set its sights on improving teaching, specifically through evaluating and rewarding good teaching. But it was not always successful. In 2009, it pledged a gift of up to $100 million to the Hillsborough County, Fla., schools to fund bonuses for high-performing teachers, to revamp teacher evaluations and to fire the lowest-performing 5%. In return, the school district promised to match the funds. But, according to reports in the Tampa Bay Times, the Gates Foundation changed its mind about the value of bonuses and stopped short of giving the last $20 million; costs ballooned beyond expectations, the schools were left with too big a tab and the least-experienced teachers still ended up at low-income schools. The program, evaluation system and all, was dumped.

The Gates Foundation strongly supported the proposed Common Core curriculum standards, helping to bankroll not just their development, but the political effort to have them quickly adopted and implemented by states. Here, Desmond-Hellmann wrote in her May letter, the foundation also stumbled. The too-quick introduction of Common Core, and attempts in many states to hold schools and teachers immediately accountable for a very different form of teaching, led to a public backlash.

Unfortunately, our foundation underestimated the level of resources and support required for our public education systems to be well-equipped to implement the standards, Desmond-Hellmann wrote. We missed an early opportunity to sufficiently engage educators  particularly teachers  but also parents and communities, so that the benefits of the standards could take flight from the beginning.

This has been a challenging lesson for us to absorb, but we take it to heart. The mission of improving education in America is both vast and complicated, and the Gates Foundation doesnt have all the answers.

It was a remarkable admission for a foundation that had often acted as though it did have all the answers. Today, the Gates Foundation is clearly rethinking its bust-the-walls-down strategy on education  as it should. And so should the politicians and policymakers, from the federal level to the local, who have given the educational wishes of Bill and Melinda Gates and other well-meaning philanthropists and foundations too much sway in recent years over how schools are run.

Thats not to say wealthy reformers have nothing to offer public schools. Theyve funded some outstanding charter schools for low-income students. Theyve helped bring healthcare to schools. Theyve funded arts programs.

The Gates Foundation, according to Desmond-Hellmanns letter, is now working more on providing Common Core-aligned materials to classrooms, including free digital content that could replace costly textbooks, and a website where teachers can review educational materials. Thats great: Financial support for Common Core isnt a bad thing. When the standards are implemented well, which isnt easy, they ought to develop better reading, writing and thinking skills.

And foundation money has often been used to fund experimental programs and pilot projects of the sort that regular school districts might not have the time or extra funds to put into place. Those can be extremely informative and even groundbreaking.

But the Gates Foundation has spent so much money  more than $3 billion since 1999  that it took on an unhealthy amount of power in the setting of education policy. Former foundation staff members ended up in high positions in the U.S. Department of Education  and, in the case of John Deasy, at the head of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The foundations teacher-evaluation push led to an overemphasis on counting student test scores as a major portion of teachers performance ratings  even though Gates himself eventually warned against moving too hastily or carelessly in that direction. Now several of the states that quickly embraced that method of evaluating teachers are backing away from it.

Philanthropists are not generally education experts, and even if they hire scholars and experts, public officials shouldnt be allowing them to set the policy agenda for the nations public schools. The Gates experience teaches once again that educational silver bullets are in short supply and that some educational trends live only a little longer than mayflies.

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If the Los Angeles City Council approves a measure on Friday, city voters will be asked to transfer oversight of the Department of Water and Power from the council to the DWP Board of Commissioners and let the agency hire from outside the Civil Service system. DWP certainly has its problems  but these are misguided solutions.

Los Angeles weighed giving DWP more autonomy from the city once before. Almost 20 years ago, the commissioners charged with rewriting the city charter looked at similar options, including privatizing the utility. As chairman of the Elected Charter Reform Commission, I fought hard then to keep DWP part of city government so that it would stay accountable to the public on rates and services. The decision also meant that DWPs Civil Service employment system remained intact.

That choice was quickly validated. With the states energy industry just deregulated, in 2000-2001 other parts of California suffered price spikes, power shortages and blackouts because of the profit-seeking decisions of private utility companies. DWPs 1.4 million electric customers were spared. More recently, the drought has spurred Angelenos to scrutinize their water bills  and they find average bills lower than San Francisco, San Diego, Santa Monica or Pasadena.

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Still, by all accounts, customers today are not enamored of the DWP. It is widely seen as poorly managed because of a botched switch to a new billing system, poor customer service, rate increases that appear unrelated to actual costs, and an aging infrastructure badly in need of upgrades.

Such problems point to failures at the top levels of management. And that argues for greater City Council oversight, not less.

In the name of reform, however, the City Council proposes to have the DWP Board of Commissioners set water and power prices and abdicate its oversight role. It would also elevate the commissioners jobs to full-time, paid positions (they are currently volunteer appointments) that require industry expertise  a good idea. But why wouldnt the council want to retain final decision-making power? Monitoring of the DWP by elected officials is vital to protecting consumers and ensuring sufficient revenue for the operation and infrastructure needs of the whole system.

The Civil Service system has served Los Angeles well for decades This good government measure is as necessary now as ever.

Separating DWPs hiring from the citys Civil Service system is problematic too. The city of Los Angeles is a single employer and the DWP just one of its many departments. Employees can transfer among departments, depending on their skills and the citys needs, through the citys Civil Service system. This gives workers access to new opportunities throughout city government and helps the city deploy its talented employees to maximum benefit.

The Civil Service also provides objective procedures for hiring and promotion so that city jobs arent handed out as patronage. It was introduced in the city of Los Angeles in 1903 to counter a flagrant system of political spoils. In 1939, after the recall of Mayor Frank L. Shaw for corruption, the Civil Service system was overhauled and strengthened into a nationally recognized model of honesty and professionalism.

The Civil Service system has served Los Angeles well for decades, which is why the charter reform commissions insisted on keeping it in 1999. This merit-based, competitive method of hiring and promotion limits exposure to claims of discrimination, because the city must prove its testing practices are job-related and skills-based according to accepted legal models. This good government measure is as necessary now as ever.

Civil Service hiring has been criticized as cumbersome, and DWP officials have blamed slow hiring for their customer complaints. But steps can be taken to make it more efficient. Last month, for example, Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an executive directive to train and recruit local residents to fill an anticipated 5,000 city job openings in the next three years. Civil Service procedures can be streamlined within DWP as well.

Like the airport and harbor, DWP is a proprietary department  essentially a business owned and operated by the city. It is undeniably a complex organization and reforms are warranted. But every broken water main and blackout reminds us that public accountability is indispensable.

Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, served as chair of the elected Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission from 1997 to 1999.

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I got to my office at Virginia Tech a bit before 9 a.m. on April 16, 2007, and set about my day as most professors do, prepping for class, commenting on student papers and answering emails. I took a call from home that said there was a news flash about gunshots on the campus. Then a colleague knocked on my door and said something big was happening a few buildings away. From that moment, things picked up speed.

As I searched the Web for information, I began to hear sirens, endless sirens. Everyone was told to stay in locked offices. Two long hours later, we were allowed to walk directly to the parking lot, and everyone peeled away from campus. By then, it had become clear that an awful, violent event had occurred. But as the details trickled in  33 dead, including the shooter and a student in my Caribbean literature class  I felt new levels of intensity followed by abject stillness, numbness and despair.

A week after the shooting, I met with that class to talk about the student who was killed. My mother cooked a Caribbean meal of fried plantains, black-eyed peas and rice, and a beef stew with a vegetarian alternative, all chased down with ginger beer (the nearest thing to a Caribbean soft drink that we could get on short notice in Blacksburg).

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In all my years of writing for stage and page and classroom, I had never felt so dumbstruck. Yet I was called upon to account in words for what happened in our midst to a class of equally dumbstruck and disbelieving students who wanted, needed to hear something from me as their teacher. Breaking bread with them and eating my mothers Caribbean meal was a start, and we talked about the dead and about the funny habits of the student whose usual spot at the desk near the door remained vacant. We put a plate on her desk with some ginger beer, and we used her first name in the present tense as if shed breeze into the class at any moment and take her place.

A memorial on the main field of the campus bears the name of each victim on Virginia Techs famous Hokie stone arranged in an oval. There was an early campaign to include the shooters name in the middle  symbolically in the middle of the pain he had caused  but the grief was too much and left no room for such a high degree of compassion. Even I found it hard to argue for the shooter, despite my training as a psychiatric nurse and my conviction that his illness rather than any evil drove him to commit mass murder.

The university, a place of learning, should be hallowed ground, exempt from the rages and readiness of gun violence as a response to disappointment.

That day at Virginia Tech led to years of sadness and hours of talk about gun violence. I swore with my colleagues to honor the dead in any way I could. I wrote poetry about the shootings while steering clear of any sensational news outlets that would sully the memory of the place and the dignity of the lives lost.

I figured I thought so much about the shootings because I still worked where they took place. I thought that distance would help me to move on with less grieving punctuating my waking life and my dreams too. When I left Virginia Tech for UCLA last year, I tried to put the slaughter behind me.

::

Los Angeles is mad, busy, rude and riveting. Cars form relationships with each other on the 10 and the 5 (notice my use of the definite article to dignify an idiosyncratic driving experience). Gun violence peppers the news, and gangs sow grief citywide. UCLA feels roped off from all that, a fortified paradise in the city, but on Wednesday, when I heard that the campus was on lockdown because of gun violence, simultaneously I thought, Not again, and, Of course, again.

I was at home, dressed and ready to leave for the office. I opened a text that told me to switch on the news, and right away, two other messages arrived, both asking whether I was OK and noting that gun violence seemed to follow me. Alerts sent to the UCLA community advised everyone not on campus to stay away and those already on campus to lock themselves behind closed doors and wait. I was safe, but worried. I did not switch on the news, but I imagined the panic in the air and the sense of living in a militarized zone and those sirens overlapping and loud.

I found myself thinking that the university, a place of learning, should be hallowed ground, exempt from the rages and readiness of gun violence as a response to disappointment, hopelessness or psychosis. But of course it isnt. I hoped for guns to disappear from the equation of anger and its expression as deadly violence. But of course they wont. I wished that some goodwill or just exasperation  enough is enough  would radiate from the deadly incident and alter how our society operates with conflict. But I fear it wont.

After so many shootings  not just at universities and high schools and elementary schools, but everywhere across the country  I have developed a post-atrocity routine: I feel sad for the victims, deplore the ease with which guns can be obtained and consider Americas blighted history of violence. These acts of reflection and understanding do nothing to turn back the clock and restore the dead to health, but they force me to forgive the perpetrators and honor the victims. I console the living; I mourn the dead. I walk the city and campus as they did only yesterday while they breathed and prospered.

Fred DAguiar is a professor of English at UCLA.

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If a police officer pulls you over for a burned out taillight, he can quickly learn your name, home address, place of birth, sex and eye color; every minor traffic infraction on your record; your criminal history at the local, state and federal levels; whether youre on probation or parole; and whether there are any warrants out for your arrest.

With a bit more effort, he can feed your vehicle information into a license plate reader database to generate a partial list of places youve driven around town. If he merely suspects you in a robbery or a rape or a murder, he can announce that to the media. If he arrests you for drunk driving or buying illegal narcotics or soliciting a prostitute, he can send your name and photo to the newspaper even before your trial. If it turns out that youre not guilty, law enforcement officials are not compelled to correct the record.

But if youre pulled over by a police officer who treats you rudely, gives you a citation without cause, makes a crude remark to your spouse or needlessly pats you down in a way that you find invasive, it is exceedingly difficult in California to obtain information on that cops professional history  much harder than in Texas, Kentucky and many other states, according to civil liberties advocates who believe the public has a right to know when a public servant engages in racial profiling, or sexual misconduct, or even kills in the line of duty.

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Thats right: If a police officer kills you, theres no guarantee that your next of kin will be able to determine if that same cop has killed someone  or five someones  in the line of duty before. In fact, police departments are currently banned from releasing information related to police discipline even if a citizen specifically seeks it through a public records request. Barring unusual leaks or unusually aggressive investigative journalism, cops whove repeatedly shown that theyre bad at their jobs can effectively conceal their records.

There are state legislators who find that unacceptable. Senators Mark Leno of San Francisco, Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles and John Moorlach of Costa Mesa, along with Assembly member Shirley Weber of San Diego, have sponsored a bill that would give the public a right to know about officer-involved shootings and confirmed cases of serious misconduct  that is to say, cases where police departments concluded that cops betrayed the public trust.

But powerful law enforcement unions staunchly oppose opening personnel files to records requests.

There is no evidence suggesting that transparency guidelines in other states expose cops to extra danger.

And right before Memorial Day weekend, the law-enforcement transparency bill died without so much as a vote of the full legislature, meaning the public cannot hold their representatives accountable for their positions.

This was not union thuggery in the legislature, Mike Durant, president of the Peace Officers Research Assn. of California, told the Wall Street Journal. This was many different law-enforcement organizations sitting down with the senators and talking about our concerns.

But the ACLU characterized those concerns as maintaining a blue wall of silence.

Last year, 211 people were killed by police in California  more than in any other state, the civil liberties organization declared, yet state law will continue to shield from public view the full findings of investigations into each and every one of these and all future killings.

Assembly Bill 1680 died too. That proposed law would have helped local police departments to buy body cameras, a technology that protects Californians from bad cops and good cops from prosecution when they have to make difficult decisions.

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles is pushing to erect yet another obstacle to public disclosures  a bill that would require at least three days notice before any audio or video recorded by a police officer, of a police officer, is released on the Internet. Evidently, his concern for privacy does not extend beyond people in uniform. Law enforcement is not required to provide any notice to California residents before releasing video footage in which they appear.

All this is exactly backward.

The typical Californian has precious little power over anyone, whereas the typical California police officer is armed with a gun and the discretion to use lethal force on behalf of the state. There is no profession where it is more important to identify incompetence, no profession where bad apples can so easily deprive innocents of liberty or even life.

Theres no denying that cops have a vital and dangerous job. But narrow exemptions already exist to shelter police officers who have specific reason to believe the release of video footage could harm their personal safety. And there is no evidence suggesting that transparency guidelines in other states expose cops to extra danger.

The legislature is failing the public on this matter. If it continues to put the agenda of a public employee union above its obligation to keep law enforcement accountable, the public ought to settle this matter at the ballot box, where a proposal to force transparency around police misconduct would likely be popular with voters.

Conor Friedersdorf is a contributing writer to Opinion, a staff writer at the Atlantic and founding editor of the Best of Journalism, a newsletter that curates exceptional nonfiction.

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Theres only one state proposition on next weeks primary ballot, and you may not have heard about it. Theres not much of a campaign on either side, and it probably wont matter if it passes or fails.

Proposition 50 is a constitutional amendment giving the California Legislature the authority to suspend members without pay on a two-thirds vote. Currently legislators can only vote to suspend with pay. But up until 2014, they never had even done that.

That was the year the California Senate suspended not one, but three of its own: Sens. Ron Calderon and Leland Yee, who were under investigation on serious corruption charges, and Sen. Rod Wright, who had been convicted on charges lying about living in his South Los Angeles district and was awaiting sentencing.

At the time, state senators grappled with whether to suspend the three or throw them out altogether. The latter seemed overly harsh, the former not harsh enough. In the end, the senate voted to suspend, even though it was unsatisfying that the three would continue to collect benefits and a paycheck.

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Thats when Proposition 50 was born. Though its largely academic (remember: 2014 was the first time ever that a legislator had been suspended), it will probably pass. Who doesnt support holding misbehaving politician accountable? (This Hoover Institution poll has 60% of voters endorsing Proposition 50.) Even Calderons nephew, Assemblyman Ian Calderon (D-Whittier), supports Proposition 50.

Nonetheless, the LA Times editorial board would like you to vote no because its right thing to do. Even politicians accused of terrible crimes have the right to the presumption of innocence. Also, nothing in the proposition requires that suspension of pay only be used in criminal cases and that raises the possibility that suspension without pay could be used as a weapon of political retribution.

But if you decide to take the advice of some other editorial board instead, it wont be the end of the world. If history is any guide, legislators might not have reason to consider such extreme punishment of any sort for another 164 years.

Thats good news, because if legislators start getting arrested on corruption charges at a regular pace then we have bigger problems with our political system than Prop. 50 can fix.

mariel.garza@latimes.com

Follow me @marielgarzaLAT
Donald Trump is like a character from Alice in Wonderland. He has his own unusual look, his own surreal life and, most of all, his own curious logic. Disney could have cast him in the studios new movie, Through the Looking Glass, if only he were not so busy rhetorically lopping off the heads of his opponents, the media and anyone else who crosses him.

In that way, Trump very much resembles the Queen of Hearts, who screamed Off with their heads! at any slight provocation. Trumps news conference at Trump Tower in New York City on Tuesday was like that. When reporters asked perfectly normal questions about his curiously tardy contributions to various veterans organizations and about the dubious business practices of the now-defunct Trump University, he responded with insults and aggression. He called ABCs political correspondent a sleazy guy. He called the press, in general, dishonest and said he finds the political press to be unbelievably dishonest.

Trump is not the first political figure to make a habit of criticizing the media  an odd thing, since his campaign has benefited greatly from constant media attention and dozens of lightweight, obsequious interviews  but he is setting a new standard for redefining reality. When confronted with his own provocative statements, he will deny he ever said them. On Wednesday, for instance, he insisted he never said Japan should have nuclear weapons, even though the New York Times has recordings of him saying that very thing in an interview with the newspapers editorial board.

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1 / 51 la-1491523602-y7ephyarj1-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 51 la-1491368625-0bgh58ihw8-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los angeles Times) 6 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 51 Trump inspires millions to take to the streets -- to oppose him. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 51 Cartoon caption contest winner at the DENT conference in Sun Valley, Idaho: Jon Duval, executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 51 Old radicals and big media descend on Selma (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 51 Horsey imagined the creation of the Ann Coulter phenomenon in this cartoon from 2007. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 51 This David Horsey drawing is a reconfiguration of a cartoon he first published in 2006. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 51 Donald Sterling, owner of the L.A. Clippers, should give Cliven Bundy a call. After Sterling loses his NBA franchise and the deadbeat Nevada rancher loses his cattle, the two old racists will both need a buddy. Maybe they can team up together and open an all-white rodeo. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 51 Besides sending a chill up the spine of the international community, Vladimir Putin has accomplished one other thing by seizing Crimea and threatening the rest of Ukraine: Putin has brought back the bear. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 51 The right-wing insurrection at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., has taken another weird turn with new revelations about the family history of Cliven Bundy. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 51 David Horsey / Los Angeles Times (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times)

When asked by reporters why he failed to give details about his money-raising for vets, he said he wanted to keep it all hush-hush. I wanted to keep it private because I dont think its anybodys business if I wanted to send [money] to the vets, Trump insisted. The man has a strange definition of private, given that he kicked off the fundraising in a nationally televised event that was competing with a Fox News Republican candidates debate that he was pointedly skipping.

And now, with the release of court records that detail the loathsome tactics his minions used to bilk suckers out of their money through his bogus university, Trump makes up his own facts and deflects queries by claiming he is being wrongly disparaged by an antagonistic judge who appears suspiciously Mexican. (The federal judge, Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing the class-action lawsuit brought by former Trump U students, was born in Indiana.)

Truth simply does not matter to Trump. He prefers fantasies that reinforce his preconceived notions or that help him in his ceaseless self-promotion. Four years ago, he invested his time and attention in the birther cause  the crazy and subliminally racist accusation that Americas first black president was born in Kenya, not Hawaii. At a pivotal point in this years primary battle, he latched onto fictitious reports that Ted Cruzs Cuban father hung out with Lee Harvey Oswald in the days before the assassination of President Kennedy. Last week in California, he seized on the blatantly bizarre notion that the years-long drought that has cut deeply into the states water supply is a hoax.

In March, Politico magazine scrutinized every Trump statement and speech over one week of the campaign and found a steady stream of mischaracterizations, exaggerations and clear falsehoods  little lies that came at the rate of one every five minutes. For anyone who has listened with a sharp ear as Trump talks, the only surprise in the Politico analysis is that the fibs did not clock in with even more frequency.

It is not hard to recognize Trumpian logic in this exchange between Humpty Dumpty and Alice in Through the Looking Glass:

When I use a word, Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, it means just what I choose it to mean  neither more nor less.

The question is, said Alice, whether you can make words mean so many different things.

The question is, said Humpty Dumpty, which is to be master   thats all.

Mastering the opposition, mastering the media, mastering anyone who has the temerity to question or criticize him  that is all that matters to Trump. In Tuesdays news conference, an alarmed reporter asked Trump if his new level of contentiousness was a passing thing or is this what its going to be like if you are president?

Yes it is, said Trump.

Finally, a simple, honest answer.

David.Horsey@latimes.com

Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter
Hillary Clinton delivered a blistering rebuke of Donald Trumps foreign policy agenda on Thursday, warning he is temperamentally unfit to hold the job of commander in chief and would destabilize national security with his bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.

The address in San Diego was Clintons most aggressive broadside against Trump yet, and offered a preview of the lines of attack and tone the Democratic front-runner is likely to take as the race moves past the primary and into the general election.

On a stage packed with American flags and before an audience that included military personnel, Clinton presented voters with what her campaign feels confident will be a sobering and provocative question: Whose finger do they want on the nuclear button?

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Clinton is capitalizing on Trumps struggle to explain multiple contradictions and gaps in the foreign policy vision he has laid out. The businessman has yet to offer a comprehensive strategy for confronting the most pressing national security concerns.

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He has made several remarks that seemed to be made on the fly, such as proposing that Japan be armed with nuclear weapons. Sometimes Trump later retracted such comments, as he did this week in the case of the nuclear weapons remark.

Clinton contrasted Trumps plans to her own as not just different, they are dangerously incoherent. They are not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies.

This is not someone who should ever have the nuclear codes, the former secretary of State said.

Trumps immediate response came by tweet. Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton!, he wrote. Reading poorly from the telepromter! She doesnt even look presidential! He also tweeted: Crooked Hillary no longer has credibility  too much failure in office. People will not allow another four years of incompetence!

Clinton anticipated the taunts, remarking in the speech, We all know the tools Donald Trump brings to the table: bragging, mocking, composing nasty tweets. Im willing to bet he is writing a few right now.

Clinton turned her fire toward Trump even as she is still consumed with her primary battle in California against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose aggressive campaigning in the state has enabled him to erase most of the lead Clinton long enjoyed. Although Sanders was not mentioned by name, the speech was designed, in part, to help persuade wavering voters not to cast ballots for him.

It built off the case Gov. Jerry Brown made when he endorsed Clinton in an open letter to voters this week that argued that weakening Clinton in the primary brings Trump closer to control over the nations nuclear codes.

For his part, Sanders said he agreed with Clintons dismal assessment of Trump, but he reserved most of his criticism for Clinton herself.

When it comes to foreign policy, we cannot forget that Secretary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, the worst foreign policy blunder in modern American history, and that she has been a proponent of regime change, as in Libya, without thinking through the consequences, Sanders said in a statement.

Clintons address underscored for Democrats and independents voting in the partys primary the intense peril created by the prospect that Donald Trump could get anywhere near the White House, said U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank).

She showed she is in the best position to go toe-to-toe with him, Schiff said in an interview.

It marked a notable change in tone for Clinton, who for weeks has vacillated between limited engagement with Trump and leaving that work to her surrogates, as she sought to stay above the fray.

On Thursday, Clinton did not hold back. She mocked Trump relentlessly, while at the same time patiently laying out the thinking behind key diplomatic and national security decisions she has taken part in  and why voters should question whether Trump has the intellectual capacity and mental stability to be trusted to make such decisions.

It is not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us to war just because someone got under his very thin skin, she said, then began quoting some of the remarks Trump has made that national security experts find alarming.

This is a man who said more countries should have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia, Clinton said. He has also said, I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me. You know what? I dont believe him.

On the nuclear deal Clinton helped negotiate with Iran, which Trump has taken to bashing on the campaign trail, Clinton said Trump doesnt know the first thing about Iran or its nuclear program. Ask him. It will become very clear, very quickly.

Clinton also questioned some of the praise Trump has offered for the worlds dictators and strongmen, such as when he expressed admiration for the strength the Chinese government showed during the massacre of students at Tiananmen Square in 1989 and suggested U.S. leaders should take an approach more like that of Russias Vladimir Putin.

I will leave it to the psychiatrists to explain his affection for tyrants, Clinton said. I just wonder how anyone can be so wrong about who Americas real friends are.

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evan.halper@latimes.com

follow me: @evanhalper

UPDATES:

3:38 p.m.: This story was updated with comment from Sen. Bernie Sanders.

This story was originally published at 3:12 p.m.
Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that he intended to wage a summer and fall campaign against both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, a one-two attack that drew cheers from a boisterous crowd here.

These are crooked people, said the presumptive Republican nominee. Theyve been crooked from the beginning.

Trump, who stepped off his private jet to a podium staged inside a hangar on the grounds of Sacramento International Airport, laid out a narrative of alleged mistakes both personal and professional by the Democratic front-runner and the former president.

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Many of the jabs were thrown directly at the candidates husband, beginning with Trumps familiar criticisms of the 42nd president signing the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, in 1993.

Bill Clinton signed the single worst agreement ever made in terms of economic development, Trump said. It wiped out states, including your state.

Trump told the crowd that 1 in 5 manufacturing jobs in the Sacramento area were lost as a result. But a subsequent review of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a drop of less than 6% in the regions manufacturing workforce since 1992.

Trump also attacked the Clinton Foundation, calling it full of pure theft and pure crookedness.

But for most of this fifth visit to California in recent weeks, Trump aimed a litany of wide-ranging and personal attacks at Hillary Clinton.

Hillary is not a talented person, he said. In fact, shes a person with absolutely no natural talent.

Trump mocked the former secretary of States 2008 campaign TV commercials touting her ability to take the 3 a.m. phone call, claiming that Clinton didnt take 500-600 calls. They were calling and calling, and she was sleeping.

Not far from the state Capitol, Trump asked the crowd whether they liked California Gov. Jerry Brown, the Democrat who just endorsed Clinton. The reaction: boos.

And the candidate made it clear he was ready to go toe-to-toe with President Obama on the campaign trail this fall as well.

Well, if he campaigns, that means Im allowed to hit him just like I hit Bill Clinton, right? said Trump as the crowd cheered. Earlier in the day, Obama stepped up his messaging against the GOP.

The event came after a week of fresh criticism about the record of the now-defunct Trump University and about the lateness of donations he made to veterans groups.

Campaign staffers had already handed out Veterans for Trump posters for the crowd to hold before he arrived, and Trump pointed them out as he took aim at the news media.

Hey, did I have a hard time? Trump asked the crowd. So I raised almost $6 million for the veterans and the press was killing me.

As the crowd booed, he said, You know, you do something like that and it takes your heart a little bit.

The crowd began showing up as much as six hours early, and while Trump bragged that there were 11,000 people in attendance, a local TV station reported the hangar could accommodate only 2,500.

Law enforcement officials reported no major incidents. A few protesters were reported in the area where people lined up to enter, but it was decidedly calmer than Trumps recent events in Southern California. The location of the event probably kept any would-be protesters at bay, given the remote spot was accessible only by a single road lined with California Highway Patrol officers.

The candidate, sporting one of his red Make America Great Again hats, received strong reviews from those in attendance.

I just enjoyed the energy, and I like his message, said Mario Moreno, a resident of Elk Grove.

Diana Peters of Sacramento said she thought that Trump would downsize the federal government, something she considered an important issue. I think hes a winner, she said as she left the event.

Trump promised the crowd he would bring a general election campaign to California, a state no Republican has won for a generation. And even though he has no opposition left for the GOP nomination, Trump told the crowd it was important they send a signal in Californias primary next Tuesday.

Its really nice to have a mandate, he said. Well have a big, beautiful mandate, so that when we win, we win with strength.

john.myers@latimes.com

Follow @johnmyers on Twitter, sign up for our daily Essential Politics newsletter and listen to the weekly California Politics Podcast

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Updates on California politics

Live coverage from the campaign trail
Hillary Clintons popularity has slumped in California under an unrelenting challenge from Bernie Sanders, who has succeeded in breaching the demographic wall Clinton had counted on to protect her in the states presidential primary, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll has found.

As he has done across the country this primary season, Sanders commands the support of younger voters by huge margins in advance of Tuesdays primary  even among Latinos and Asians, voter groups that Clinton easily won when she ran eight years ago. Many of his backers come from a large pool of voters who have registered for the first time in the weeks before the election.

Yet, Tuesdays outcome remains difficult to predict, precisely because of the untested nature of Sanders following. That portends an intense fight in the final days of the campaign.

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The Vermont senator has battled Clinton to a draw among all voters eligible for the Democratic primary, with 44% siding with him to 43% for Clinton. That represented a nine-point swing from a USC/Los Angeles Times poll in March, in which Clinton led handily.

But among those most likely to vote, based on their voting history and stated intentions this time around, Clinton led, 49%-39%, in the new poll. Her standing is bolstered by the reliability of her older supporters, who have a proven record of casting ballots.

She also leads convincingly among registered Democrats; 53% of likely Democratic voters supported her, to 37% for Sanders. Throughout the year, she has carried party members in every state but Sanders home state of Vermont and next-door New Hampshire, where he won in a landslide.

As he has elsewhere, Sanders benefits here from party rules that allow registered nonpartisan voters  known in California as no party preference voters  to take part in the Democratic primary. Among nonpartisans who were likely to vote, he led by 48%-35%.

Sanders chances of victory rest on big turnout of voters who typically dont vote in primaries and who  in the case of the nonpartisans  will have to navigate complicated voter rules to request a Democratic ballot.

His base of support is young voters, low-propensity voters and [nonpartisan] voters. Not only does he have to turn them out by election day, but he has to educate all those nonpartisan voters to request a Democratic ballot, said Dan Schnur, the poll director who heads USCs Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics.

Thats not to say he cant pull it off, but this may be the biggest voter mobilization challenge California has seen in many, many years.

Complete text of poll questions and results >>

For all the threat the primary represents, Clinton, who likely will clinch the Democratic nomination even before Californians votes are counted, retains most of her strength in a general election contest against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Trump has contended in recent days that he could make a run at California in November, but the poll showed that to be implausible, at best.

Fewer than three in 10 likely November voters in California had a favorable impression of Trump, and Clinton led him in a hypothetical matchup by 26 points, a margin that would represent the biggest victory in recent California history, larger even than Barack Obamas historic 24-point win in November of 2008.

Clintons advantage would be even more dominant were she receiving the support of more of Sanders loyalists. Among those siding with the senator in the primary, 65% said they were certain to support Clinton in the fall. Of the remainder, 10% said they would vote for Trump and 13% said they would not vote in the general election.

Eight years ago, the share of Clintons backers who said they would not vote for then-Sen. Obama as the nominee was larger than that. In the end, the vast majority did back the party nominee.

Unifying the party has been troublesome for Democrats, who have watched their race persist as Trump consolidates backing among Republicans. Here, as nationally, unity is to some extent a one-way street.

Almost half of Clintons supporters said they would enthusiastically support Sanders if he was the party nominee. Just under a quarter of Sanders supporters said the same thing about Clinton.

Victoria Votino, a 21-year-old UC Santa Cruz student, will probably cast her first presidential vote for Sanders, with reservations. She said she sees Clinton as potentially able to get more done as president, but Sanders efforts to eliminate income inequality strike a chord.

He seems more connected to the people and more a voice for the people, said Votino, who said she would be in Clintons camp in the fall if she cinches the nomination.

Lisa von Schlegell, a 60-year-old software writer and consultant from Mendocino County, is siding with Clinton. Thats despite being a socialist like Sanders, she said with a wry laugh.

Its neck and neck and my feeling is that its important to support Clinton, she said, adding that she was disillusioned at the unruly behavior of some Sanders supporters at a recent Nevada state party convention.

Shes had a long political career, some of which I disagree with. But I feel like she has worked very hard, is very competent and her intent is good.

Clintons general election strategy is built on the notion that voter groups that gravitate to Democrats and have been maligned by Trump  including women, Latinos, Muslims and others  will band together to deny him the presidency. Trumps targets have included much of the Democratic base that helped propel Obamas two national victories.

But in the primary, her appeals to Obamas younger and more diverse voters have been successfully blunted by Sanders, whose iconoclastic and occasionally defiant campaign has captivated many of them.

The generational divide among Californians is the most obvious sign of Sanders success, and a logical one given the contours of the campaign. With a strongly anti-establishment pitch, he has promoted a political revolution, while she has taken on a more nuanced and incremental approach that dovetails with the comfort zone of older voters.

Among those under 50, Sanders held a 27-point advantage among all Democratic primary voters and a 21-point edge among likely voters. Among those over 50, Clinton led by 32 points among both groups.

Clinton would have more easily defied Sanders onslaught if his inroads among the young had been limited to white voters, as happened in some of the states that voted earlier in the process. But he has expanded his reach in California; his diverse crowds here were reflected in the poll.

Among Latino voters under age 50, Sanders led, 58%-31%, not much different from his 62%-27% lead among younger white voters. The views of other ethnic and racial groups were too small to break out separately by age, but when all younger minority voters were considered, Sanders led, 59%-32%.

On the other side of the age divide, Clintons lead was no less impressive. She led by 56%-32% among white voters over 50, 69%-16% among older Latinos and 64%-20% among older minority voters.

The same generational splits were visible when it came to gender: Clinton led by 33 points among women over 50 and by 31 points among older men. But Sanders led by 31 points among younger men and 25 points among younger women.

Clintons campaign has been careful not to over-emphasize the historic nature of her candidacy, but she is reaping some benefit nonetheless. Among likely Democratic primary voters, two-thirds of men had a favorable view of her, while 76% of women shared that view. (Three-quarters of both men and women had a favorable impression of Sanders.)

Among those likely voters not supporting Clinton, the reasons differed by gender. Women were more likely to say she was not genuine, while men most often cited scandal.

As for Sanders, among the biggest reasons voters had for opposing him was their judgment that his positions are unrealistic, cited by 35% of likely voters. A significant chunk of voters also felt his background as an independent and a socialist had made him the wrong pick.

FOR THE RECORD

June 3, 1:43 p.m.: An earlier version of this article stated the wrong number for the percentage of likely Democratic voters in the California primary who told the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll that they opposed Sen. Bernie Sanders presidential candidacy because they believe his proposals were unrealistic. The correct share is 35%, not 27%.

But he has built strength in large part because of his backers passion. Sanders overall favorability rating was 57% positive and 33% negative; Clintons by contrast was 47% positive and 50% negative.

Among voters under age 30, 82% had a positive view of Sanders.

By contrast, among all California voters, only a quarter had a favorable view of Trump, and it was highly partisan: More than half of Republicans had a positive view of him, a view shared by only 21% of nonpartisan voters and a bare 7% of Democrats.

Not surprisingly, one of the groups most negative toward Trump were Latinos, only 11% of whom had a good impression of him.

Disdain for Trump helped vault Clinton into her giant lead in the general election matchup, unifying behind her Latinos, other minority groups, Democrats, nonpartisan voters, and others. Voters under 50 who deserted Clinton for Sanders in the primary said they would back her against Trump, 60%-22%.

In the Central Valley, one of the most conservative areas of the state, Clinton defeats Trump by 50%-41%. Only in the less-populated area north of Sacramento did Trump carry more support.

Among all voters, Clinton was judged more able to take on every issue voters were asked about, from the fight against terrorism, to the economy and jobs, to easing gridlock in Washington.

Trump also suffered for perceptions of his personal qualities. Almost four in 10 Republicans and nonpartisan voters said that he did not have the temperament to serve as president. Three in 10 cited his insults to women, Muslims and immigrants.

Most striking perhaps, was his potential to depress Republican turnout. Asked what they would do if Trump was the nominee, 28% of Republicans and nonpartisans said they would enthusiastically support him. Almost as many, 23%, said they would reluctantly support him. And a plurality, 43%, said they would refuse to vote for him.

The poll for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the Los Angeles Times questioned 1,500 registered California voters from May 19 to 31, including 412 deemed likely to vote in Tuesdays Democratic primary. The margin of sampling error is 2.9 points in either direction for all voters, 3.7 points for Democratic primary voters and 5 points for likely Democratic primary voters.

The survey was conducted jointly by the Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and the Republican firm American Viewpoint.

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker. For more on politics, go to latimes.com/decker and subscribe to the free daily newsletter.

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Early on, California's June 7 primary promised to be an influential factor in the presidential race. Then, Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and hopes for a competitive primary were dashed.

Now, with polls showing Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in a statistical dead heat, eyes are on the state primary once again.

Still, down-ticket races to which Californians may be paying less attention could make the biggest impact in the state by changing the makeup of the Legislature.

While none of these races will be decided Tuesday, and many likely will evolve into all-out battles once the primary is over, next weeks vote will set the stage for the competitive landscape heading into November. There are 26 seats up for grabs because of term limits or lawmakers leaving office, and 59 other incumbents are defending their seats. Fifteen legislators are running unopposed.

In a year when Trump could have an outsized impact, state Democrats are likely angling to restore their supermajority in both houses by taking advantage of what some expect will be sky-high Democratic turnout next week.

And as California acclimates to more flexible term limits and the top-two primary, interest groups are spending a record amount to influence legislative primaries  more than $24 million to date.

California Congressional races to watch Tuesday >>

The prospect of a lopsided turnout combined with the added visibility that independent expenditures are lending some races could make for some surprising outcomes, said Darry Sragow, a veteran Democratic strategist and publisher of the California Target Book, which tracks state races.

All of those things together create an environment in the closing days where outcomes that look likely are clearly not certain, Sragow said. You could wind up with some unexpected results. That could mean two Democrats advancing to November in what have historically been swing districts, or a lesser-known candidate squeaking past perceived front-runners locked in an internecine battle.

Here are a few of the races were watching Tuesday.

A house divided: Democrats face off

Assembly District 14 (East Bay)

The candidates: Republican businesswoman Debora Allen; and Democrats Tim Grayson, a Concord councilman; local park district board member Mae Torlakson; and Harmesh Kumar, a psychologist

An education showdown: While Torlakson has racked up endorsements from many in Sacramentos Democratic establishment and the California Democratic Party, outside groups are spending heavily to influence this race. They include education groups that tried unsuccessfully to block Torlaksons husband, state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, from being reelected and are now opposing her.

The money: While candidates have raised less than $700,000 ahead of the primary, outside spending in this election has topped $2 million. Education advocacy group EdVoice is supporting Grayson, while the California Teachers Assn. and other teachers unions have spent on behalf of Torlakson.

Assembly candidates Eloise Reyes, left, and Cheryl Brown. (Associated Press) (Associated Press)

Assembly District 47 (San Bernardino)

The candidates: Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown (D-San Bernardino); attorney Eloise Reyes, a Democrat; and Republican businesswoman Aissa Sanchez

The aftermath of a climate change fight: Brown is facing one of the most contentious reelection fights this year against Reyes, who is positioning herself to the left of the two-term Democrat. The election is taking shape as a battle between progressive groups and more moderate, business-allied forces over what kind of Democrat will represent voters in the district. A handful of labor unions that backed Brown in 2014 have defected and are now supporting Reyes. The attorneys supporters have tried to cast Brown as the oil candidate. Theyve pointed to the thousands of dollars Brown has accepted from oil companies and her role in stalling a key provision of last years climate change bill that would have slashed petroleum use statewide.

They are after me, and I still dont know why. I dont know who they are. But I will find out soon.  Assemblywoman Cheryl Brown (D-San Bernardino), speaking to The Times in March about her reelection campaign

The money: Outside groups have dominated spending, dropping more than $2 million so far. Browns campaign has a significant cash advantage over Reyes and has benefited from most of the outside spending  mostly by oil companies, charter schools and real estate groups. A union-backed PAC has bolstered Reyes campaign. Business-aligned groups supporting Brown also have spent thousands to support the races only Republican, Sanchez, who has no prior political experience and has raised no money, possibly in an attempt to knock Reyes out of the top-two primary.

Senate District 15 (Silicon Valley)

The candidates: Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Jose); Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose); and business owner Chuck Page and retail clerk Anthony Macias, both Republicans

The rundown: Campos, who terms out of the Assembly this year, is challenging Beall in a move that is sure to increase tensions between the two houses. Two similar faceoffs were averted earlier this year after Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen (R-Modesto) bowed out of a race against business-allied Sen. Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton), and Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego) said he would not seek reelection against outgoing Assemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego).

The money: Unlike Atkins, Campos enters this race with a significant fundraising disadvantage, having raised less than a quarter of Bealls war chest. An oil industry-supported PAC is supporting Campos, but groups including Tom Steyer's NextGen environmental advocacy group, the construction industry and California Realtors have rallied to flood the campaign in Bealls defense.

Anything could happen in these wide-open races

Assembly District 4 (Northern California)

The candidates: Davis Mayor Dan Wolk; Winters Mayor Cecilia Aguiar-Curry; Yolo County Supervisor Don Saylor; Elmer Mark Kropp; and Charlie Schaupp, a retired Marine officer and the lone Republican

------------

FOR THE RECORD:

June 2, 1:25 p.m.: An earlier version of this article indicated that Elmer Mark Kropp was the Republican candidate in the District 4 Assembly race. Charlie Schaupp is the GOP candidate.

------------

The rundown: Four Democrats and one Republican are running for this seat, vacated by Assemblyman Bill Dodd (D-Napa), who is running for Senate. Among the front-runners are Wolk, son of outgoing Sen. Lois Wolk (D-Davis), who ran for this seat in 2014, Saylor and Aguiar-Curry, all elected officials in Yolo County, home to most voters in the district. While Democrats enjoy a 20-point voter registration edge in the district, the crowded field means that Schaupp, the lone Republican, might have a shot at making the runoff if the other candidates split the Democratic vote.

The money: Wolk and Saylor have pulled ahead in fundraising, but Aguiar-Curry has benefited from some of the biggest independent expenditures in the state, with nearly all of the races $2.1 million in outside spending done to support her and oppose Wolk. Aguilar-Curry told The Times the support from oil and tobacco companies has been awkward for her.

Assembly District 27 (Silicon Valley)

The candidates: Former San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen; San Jose City Councilman Ash Kalra; Cong Thang Do, an engineer; school board member Darcie Green; attorney Esau Herrera; college professor Andres Quintero; and school trustee Van Le, the only Republican

The rundown: Seven candidates are running for this safe Democratic seat, which opened when Assemblywoman Nora Campos (D-San Jose) announced her run for state Senate. Nguyen and Kalra have emerged as front-runners, but with such a long list of hopefuls  and with large Vietnamese and Latino voting blocs  the electorate could splinter in unexpected ways.

The money: Kalra and Nguyen are about even in fundraising, but their campaigns have been dwarfed by a deluge of independent expenditures exceeding $2.1 million. Most of the money supporting Kalra comes from the construction industry and labor unions, while the California Charter Schools Assn. donated $1.2 million to support Nguyen and oppose Kalra.

Assembly District 43 (Glendale)

The candidates: Four Democrats: Glendale City Councilwoman Laura Friedman; Glendale City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian; Rajiv Dalal, a nonprofit executive director; teacher Andrew Blumenfeld; and Dennis Bullock, a former private school dean; retired Army Gen. Mark MacCarley and businesswoman Alexandra Bustamante, both Republicans; and former detention officer Aaron Cervantes, running with the American Independent Party

Glendale City Clerk Ardy Kassakhian is among a crowded field vying for Assembly District 43. (Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times) (Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)

Glendale City Councilwoman Laura Friedman, seen in 2013, is running for an Assembly seat. (Libby Cline / Glendale News Press) (Libby Cline / Glendale News Press )

Another education proxy war: Kassakhian and Friedman have emerged as the Democratic front-runners and are at the center of what has become a major fight between teachers unions and charter school groups. The California Charter Schools Assn. has bankrolled a committee supporting Friedman, sending out a deluge of mailers attacking Kassakhian. Kassakhian, a second-generation Armenian American, has gotten help from the California Assn. of Realtors and teachers unions and could enjoy a substantial boost from Armenian voters, who make up 17% of registered voters in the district and are a well-organized voting bloc. Friedman has emphasized her status as the most visible female candidate in the race at a time when women are losing ground in California politics.

https://twitter.com/cmaiduc/status/738175916795252737

The money: Friedman, Kassakhian and Dalal have raised more than a half-million dollars each, but Dalals contributions have dropped off significantly since last year. He was frank with The Times about his slim chances for success. Still, with so many candidates, Dalal or the races most visible Republican, MacCarley, could slip through to the November election. Outside spending has topped $1.7 million, with most of it going to support Friedman and oppose Kassakhian.

Senate District 25 (Pasadena)

The candidates: L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich; former Assemblyman Anthony Portantino; retired Pasadena Police Lt. Phlunte Riddle; business owner Chris Chahinian; businessman Teddy Choi; and business owner Katherine Perez-Estolano

The rundown: Before he dropped out of this race, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale) had amassed more than $2 million and was the favorite to win. Now, Antonovich, the only Republican in the race and a well-known local official, is almost guaranteed to face off with one the Democrats, who are battling for votes in this left-leaning district. Riddle has the backing of outgoing incumbent Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Canada Flintridge) and several other female legislators, while Portantino has earned the endorsement of the California Democratic Party.

The money: Portantino has a major advantage in fundraising, and he and Antonovich have the biggest cash reserves going into the primary. Antonovich also has been boosted by an independent expenditure funded entirely by a real estate developer. Perez-Estolano has benefited from spending by a Latino caucus PAC.

Senate District 27 (Ventura)

The candidates: Henry Stern, environmental attorney and policy advisor to Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills); Shawn Bayliss, legislative deputy for L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz; nonprofit director Janice Kamenir-Reznik; Moorpark City Councilman David Pollock; George C. Thomas, publisher of the Van Nuys News Press; and business owner Steve Fazio

The rundown: In this fight to replace Pavley, a key figure in the progressive, pro-environment wing of the state Democratic Party, Kamenir-Reznik entered the race late, scrambling the field. She earned the endorsement of former L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, both of whom switched their support from Stern after she entered. The California Democratic Party has declined to make an endorsement here, and Fazio, the lone Republican in the race, is likely to advance alongside the Democrat who comes out on top.

The money: The candidates have collectively raised more than $2.8 million, with Stern and Kamenir-Reznik in the lead. Outside groups have spent an additional $900,000, most of it from labor unions supporting Stern and business groups rallying behind Kamenir-Reznik.

Rematch: Former lawmakers seek to regain seats

The 2014 election saw a handful of first-term Democrats lose their seats to challengers. The roles are now reversed as these ousted members attempt to reclaim their seats.

Former Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, right. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press )

Assembly District 39 (San Fernando Valley)

The candidates: Assemblywoman Patty Lopez of San Fernando; former Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra; Mina Creswell, college administrator; San Fernando Mayor Joel Fajardo; former San Fernando City Councilwoman Joanne Baltierrez-Fernandez; and teacher Kevin Suscavage (all Democrats)

The unlikely incumbent: Lopez has been on the defensive for months, fighting calls to step down shortly after she scored the biggest upset last cycle. She beat Bocanegra by just 466 votes after minimal campaigning, and her improbable win became a cautionary tale for incumbents on the dangers of running a complacent campaign. As a result, many more lawmakers who appear to be safe reelection bets have been stockpiling campaign funds this year, observers say. Despite proving to be one of the most reliable Democratic votes in the Legislature, many of Lopezs colleagues have coalesced around Bocanegra, who also has the backing of the California Democratic Party.

The people put me in this place.  Assemblywoman Patty Lopez (D-San Fernando), who has resisted calls for her to step down

The money: Lopez trails Bocanegra in spending by a 10-1 ratio. Outside groups including oil companies and the California Charter Schools Assn. have spent more than a half-million dollars in the primary, supporting Bocanegra and opposing Lopez. With Democrats making up more than half of registered voters, the November election likely will be a rematch between Lopez and Bocanegra and could blow much of the conventional wisdom about an incumbents advantage out of the water.

Former Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, left, and Assemblywoman Young Kim (R-Fullerton) are battling for District 65. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP; Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times ) (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press; Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Assembly District 65 (Orange County)

The candidates: Assemblywoman Young Kim (R-Fullerton); and former Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, a Democrat

The rundown: This district has been up for grabs between the two parties in the past few elections. Quirk-Silva was first elected in 2012, beating out GOP incumbent Chris Norby by just four points. Quirk-Silva lost the seat to Kim in 2014 in a costly race where spending approached $7 million. In a district where Democrats and Republicans are virtually tied in voter registration, the seat is likely a top priority for Assembly Republicans to defend  and for Democrats to try to recapture.

The money: Quirk-Silva, who now teaches elementary school, has raised less than half of Kims $1.1 million, but the teachers unions and environmental groups that supported Quirk-Silva last time could be lying low until after the primary.

Former Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, second to left, lost his seat to a Republican challenger in 2014 despite the backing of Democratic leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times) (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times )

Assembly District 66 (L.A.s South Bay)

The candidates: Assemblyman David Hadley (R-Manhattan Beach); and former Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi and retail manager Mike Madrigal, both Democrats

The rundown: Hadley narrowly won this competitive district in 2014, ousting Muratsuchi by a little over 700 votes. During an election year dominated by Trump and in a district that has historically favored moderates, Muratsuchis campaign has set up a website called hadleytrump.com with audio and video of Hadley being confronted about whether he will support the Republican presidential front-runner.

The money: Political observers have said Hadley is possibly the most vulnerable Republican in the Legislature, and his $1.4 million in fundraising could be evidence he agrees. Muratsuchi has far less money banked than his Republican opponent, but all signs point to an expensive all-out battle between Democrats and Republicans if these two advance to November as expected. Madrigal has raised no money so far.

Democrats best shots at a supermajority

Democrats need to pick up at least three seats in the Assembly, on top of maintaining recent gains, to get to a supermajority. In the Senate, Democrats need to flip only one seat from red to blue to reach the two-thirds threshold, which would give Democrats a virtual free pass to propose and pass new spending or place issues on the ballot.

Two of the rematches between Democrats who were ousted last cycle and Republican incumbents may prove fruitful for the majority party, but here are a few others:

Assembly District 16 (East Bay)

The candidates: Assemblywoman Catharine Baker (R-San Ramon); and teacher Cheryl Cook-Kallio, a Democrat

Both sides take aim: Both conservative interest groups and the Democratic leadership have made it clear that this is a top priority for 2016. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) said earlier this year that this is a top pickup opportunity for Assembly Democrats and promised to spend what it takes to win the seat. Democrats likely see this race as their best chance to take back one of the three seats they need to restore their supermajority in the lower house. The district, which is centered on Contra Costa County, has a slight Democratic edge in voter registration. Baker has built a record as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate, bucking the GOP to vote for Gov. Jerry Browns climate change legislation and co-authoring Californias mandatory vaccination bill.

The money: Baker has raised nearly $1.6 million this election, more than three times her opponent. Business and interest groups, including one funded largely by businessman Charles Munger, have spent nearly a half-million dollars in independent expenditures to back Baker and oppose Cook-Kallio. Labor unions, which spent more than $1.8 million supporting the last Democrat who faced Baker, have yet to kick in the same funding this time. But with just two in the race, Democrats and their allies could be saving up to spend big come November.

Senate District 21 (Antelope Valley)

The candidates: Assemblyman Scott Wilk (R-Santa Clarita); Democrats Jonathon Ervin, an engineer; and Steve Hill a comic; and Republican business owner Starr Moffatt

An eleventh-hour opening: The last-minute announcement by Sen. Sharon Runner (R-Lancaster) that she would not seek reelection because of health reasons opened up this competitive inland L.A. County district where Republicans and Democrats are nearly evenly split. Wilk threw his hat in the day after Runner bowed out and has received substantial support from the state GOP in his bid to keep this seat in their column. The California Democratic Party and Senate Pro Tem Kevin de Leon have endorsed Ervin, an engineer and Air Force reservist who formerly served on the Lancaster Planning Commission. Moffatt, who recently revealed on her campaign website that she posed for nude photos in the past, and Hill, who has raised about $5,200 this cycle, are not expected to mount viable campaigns.

The money: Despite his late entry, Wilk has raised more money, spending nearly $200,000 and receiving support from a wide range of business groups. Oil companies and the real estate industry have spent an additional $210,000 opposing Ervin and promoting Wilk. This race looks like it will be decided in November, so depending on the outcome of other races June 7, Democrats could be gearing up for an expensive fight over this seat.

Senate District 29 (Orange County)

The candidates: Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar); and two Democrats: former Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang and nonprofit founder Josh Newman

The rundown: The two Asian American front-runners on opposite sides of the aisle will likely battle it out through November in a purple district where Asians make up 20% of registered voters. Kang, who emigrated from Korea in the 1970s, served as Irvines mayor from 2008 to 2012 and unsuccessfully challenged then-Rep. John Campbell in the 45th Congressional District. The Democratic establishment, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), has lined up to endorse Kang for this seat, where Republicans hold a 37%-34% voter registration advantage. Senate District 29 includes much of Changs current Assembly district.

The money: Kang has struggled to keep pace with Changs fundraising, but the two candidates have spent roughly the same amount. Chang has benefited from independent expenditures from the California Assn. of Realtors and the California Dental Assn. Newman is trailing his opponents significantly in fundraising.

christine.maiduc@latimes.com

For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc.

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Updates on California politics
The top two Democrats in Californias U.S. Senate race have raised more than a combined $12 million for their campaigns, but many of the states most generous and loyal campaign donors have yet to crack open their wallets.

During Sen. Barbara Boxers hard-fought 2010 campaign against Republican challenger Carly Fiorina, her supporters helped her secure reelection with more than $10 million in individual contributions in 2009-2010.

Those same donors havent been nearly as generous to the two top Democrats running to succeed Boxer, who is retiring after four terms. So far, contributors from the 2010 race have given just over $1 million to state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris campaign and roughly $100,000 to Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange, according to a Times analysis of federal campaign finance reports detailing contributions up to March 31.

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And while state gubernatorial campaigns are a totally different animal than running for U.S. Senate, some Californians who wrote big checks for Gov. Jerry Browns 2010 and 2014 campaigns and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsoms current 2018 campaign havent given a penny to either Harris or Sanchez.

Among the donors on the sidelines through May 18, the most recent filing period:

Whole Foods Chief Executive Walter Robb of San Rafael, who contributed $106,000 to Brown, $29,000 to Newsom and $10,800 to Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer of Palo Alto, who gave Brown and Newsom $54,000 apiece.

Peter Lowy of Los Angeles, the co-chief executive of international shopping center chain Westfield Group, who gave Brown $51,800 and Newsom $56,400.

Entertainment industry billionaire David Geffen of Los Angeles, who has contributed more than $100,000 to Browns campaigns and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to congressional and presidential candidates over the last two decades.

Reed Hastings of Santa Cruz, the co-founder of Netflix, who has donated more than $100,000 to Browns campaigns and millions more to charter school political committees in the state.

Political consultant Rose Kapolczynski, who was Boxers campaign manager, said there were plenty of reasons why some die-hard Democratic donors were sitting out the Senate race.

Some Democratic donors may not feel theres a reason to give in a race when the two leading candidates are Democrats, Kapolczynski said. This isnt a situation where a Republican may get elected to the Senate, as we faced in 2010.

Under Californias top two primary system, the two candidates who receive the most votes in the June 7 primary election will face off in the November election, regardless of political party. If the polls are any indication, Harris and Sanchez will meet again Nov. 8.

Harris has been the solid front-runner since she launched her campaign in January 2015, and Sanchez has held a tenuous hold on second place for months, recent opinion polls show. Voter support for the other 32 candidates on the ballot, including the top three Republicans in the race, have been mired in the single digits at best.

Its difficult to raise money when everyone assumes youre advancing to the runoff no matter what, Kapolczynski said.

Technology entrepreneur and former Stanford professor John Koza of Palo Alto, who donated $20,000 to Browns campaigns and has been a generous, longtime supporter of California Democrats in Congress, said he hadnt yet weighed in on the Senate race because it was early in the political season.

I only occasionally get involved in primaries, and both Harris and Sanchez are well-qualified and appealing, Koza said in an email.

Jerry Fiddler of Berkeley, a clean technology investor who co-founded the software company Wind River Systems, was succinct about why he hasnt written a check for the Senate race, joking that he has just been lazy.

Among the donors who have supported Boxer, Brown or Newsom over the last six years and wrote checks to a Senate candidate, the vast majority are supporting Harris. That includes some longtime contributors: Hollywood moguls Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg; Los Angeles developer and philanthropist Eli Broad; Google executive Eric Schmidt; and members of the Pritzker family, heirs to the Hyatt hotel fortune.

------------

FOR THE RECORD

June 2, 9:35 p.m. An earlier version of this story said Eric Schmidt is the chief executive of Facebook. He is an executive at Google.

------------

Harris has dominated in fundraising in the race, raising just under $10 million in individual contributions compared to the just over $2 million raised by Sanchez. Among the top three Republicans in the race, George Duf Sundheim has raised $475,000, Tom Del Beccaro has brought in $239,000 and Silicon Valley software developer Ron Unz raised $52,000, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

Bill Carrick, Sanchezs political consultant, said any candidate running for an open Senate seat in a state as massive as California faces an extremely difficult task when it comes to raising money.

Its a scramble, and I thought from the beginning it would be a scramble, said Carrick, who has been a longtime political consultant to Feinstein.

Harris has a distinct advantage over Sanchez given she has run two successful campaigns for state attorney general and has built a statewide base of donors.

The federal campaign contribution limits on individual donors in a U.S. Senate race are much stricter than statewide. Donors to the Senate campaign can give only $2,700 for the primary and $2,700 for the general election. California currently limits individual contributions to gubernatorial candidates to $28,200 per election and attorney general and other statewide offices to $7,000 per election.

phil.willon@latimes.com

maloy.moore@latimes.com

Twitter: @philwillon

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Updates on California politics
Robert Tillman owns a coin-operated laundromat in San Franciscos Mission District, a neighborhood at the epicenter of Californias housing crisis. Over the last 2 years, hes spent nearly $500,000 on plans to tear down the business to build apartments. But although the city has zoned the property for apartments, Tillman hasnt gotten very far.

Local residents can file a formal complaint to the city to hold up Tillmans project because they dont like how it looks, how tall it is or where people will park, starting a chain of appeals leading all the way to the Board of Supervisors. Environmental lawsuits could add years of delay amid exploding demand for new homes in a region with six times as many new jobs and people as housing units added from 2010 to 2015, according to a study by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley.

Everything is a negotiation, Tillman said of trying to build houses in San Francisco. Theres no single person you can negotiate with who has the ability to make a deal.

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Under a new plan from Gov. Jerry Brown, that dynamic should change. Browns proposal would force local governments to approve any urban housing development provided the project matches the underlying zoning and a certain percentage of homes are set aside for the poor, adding some certainty to processes across the state that Tillman and other developers have described as overly complicated.

The governor introduced his proposal as part of his revised state budget last month. Negotiations with lawmakers are now underway, with a final deadline for an enacted fiscal plan to come June 15.

I do imagine that the citizens of many cities will become unglued when they understand what this will do.  Michael Brilliot, a manager in San Joseas planning department

Experts have said Browns plan would fundamentally change how housing gets built in cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles and others that require layers of approval for every large development. The average home price in California is $464,000  almost 2 times the national average cost  and academics and economists have cited the states extreme lack of housing supply, particularly in coastal cities, as the primary driver.

To spur growth, Brown wants to wipe away local and state rules on parking, height, density and environmental reviews beyond those already required through zoning.

That kind of micro-managing is a luxury that the state cannot afford at this time, said Ben Metcalf, Browns director of housing and community development.

In cities with significant existing restrictions on housing beyond zoning, the measures effects could result in profound changes to the development approval process. In San Francisco, housing projects can face multiple approvals from city officials as they try to address neighborhood concerns about a projects height, design, parking and affordability, a process put into place after a 30-year-old ballot measure laid down significant community controls over growth. In Los Angeles, a decades-old legal settlement over a proposed shopping center in Westwood has forced developers who want to build more than 50 units to undergo a lengthy environmental review regardless of the areas zoning.

These rules, and others like them across the state, could go away if Browns legislation passes.

I do imagine that the citizens of many cities will become unglued when they understand what this will do, said Michael Brilliot, a manager in San Joses planning department.

Still, Browns plan would not create a boom in housing supply that experts say is needed to rein in costs. The governors legislation does not include wholesale reform of the states environmental or tax laws, which could incentivize significant residential growth. It also wont affect projects that are bigger than what current zoning allows. For instance, if a developer wanted to build high-rise condominiums on land planned for bungalows, the project still would require detailed local government review.

For that reason, Browns proposal doesnt address major development issues such as spot zoning, which occurs when developers attempt to get city councils to rezone land to build larger projects than previously allowed. Nor is Browns plan likely to significantly affect housing in cities like San Diego or San Jose, where few additional approvals are required as long as projects match their zoning, officials in both cities said.

State officials have not said how many houses Browns proposal could pave the way for, though they believe qualifying projects will see their costs decrease by 12% if the measure passes. UC Berkeley researchers have estimated that the measure could create as many as 2,350 units in San Francisco.

Any increase in supply would go toward reducing a big deficit: The nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office has estimated the state has to build roughly 110,000 units annually beyond those already planned to keep pace with housing price increases.

Browns proposal also addresses a deeper issue central to how development works in California: How much of a role should the state have in land-use policies, especially during a time of severe housing affordability concerns?

Some academics argue that greater state and regional control over development results in more affordable housing and neighborhood diversity. Researchers at UCLA recently found that the more influence local residents had over zoning, the greater the segregation between rich and poor communities within cities.

But California already has laws on the books to prevent housing segregation, and local control over development allows neighbors to express real concerns about the future of their communities, said Dan Carrigg, legislative director of the League of California Cities, which opposes Browns plan.

Browns legislation would speed up housing development, but it would come at the cost of resident input, Carrigg said. He contends those who are opposed to development near them  branded NIMBY or Not In My Back Yard by opponents  deserve to be heard.

If the problem is with a NIMBY, well, thats a resident, thats a citizen, thats a voter, Carrigg said.

Back in the Mission, Tillmans situation underscores the complexities involved in local development. Tillman wants to build 73 apartments in eight stories with retail on the ground floor. Most of the units would go to people who could afford the high cost of rent in such a desirable location. A major subway station is within two blocks and top-rated restaurants populate the area.

If you cant build housing there, Tillman said of his property, you cant build housing anywhere.

But the Mission, long home to San Franciscos Latino community, has seen waves of concerns about gentrification and displacement of longtime residents as housing prices and rents have gone through the roof. The debate reached a fever pitch last year when San Francisco voters rejected a ballot measure that would have restricted new development to projects only for low-income residents.

Tillman is setting aside at least a half-dozen apartments for very low-income residents and said hes sensitive to the concerns about gentrification.

Im not displacing anybody, Tillman said. Im not displacing any business except my own.

But Erick Arguello, the co-founder and president of Calle 24, a Latino business and neighborhood association in the Mission, said any luxury housing project would contribute to the erasure of the neighborhoods culture and history.

Arguello said the governors proposal, which would ease the way for Tillmans project and others like it, doesnt respect that neighborhoods across the city have different needs.

We really cant have a cookie-cutter type plan because well lose our diversity in San Francisco, Arguello said.

Arguello said he supports new housing development in the Mission that would be reserved entirely for low-income residents.

Still, even developments that do just that face complaints. Less than a half-mile from Tillmans project, a developer held a community meeting about a proposed nine-story complex that would create 95 units all for low-income senior citizens. Many neighbors opposed the project, according to a neighborhood news website, voicing concerns about their skyline views.

liam.dillon@latimes.com

Follow @dillonliam on Twitter

ALSO:

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Scientists say they may have a clue to the mysterious origin of hot Jupiters, those gas giant planets that circle uncomfortably close to their host star: There may be a second star involved. A survey of 77 stars hosting hot Jupiters has found that roughly half of them are binary star systems.

The findings, presented at the Canadian Astronomical Societys annual meeting in Winnipeg, shed light on the dynamics that shape these strange planetary systems  and might even offer some insight into our own solar system.

Ever since hot Jupiters were discovered more than two decades ago, scientists have wondered how these star-scorched worlds came to be. After all, in our own neighborhood, the gas giants lie far from the sun, in the frigid outer solar system.

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One big mystery about these hot Jupiters is, how did they get in such orbits? said lead author Henry Ngo, a PhD student in planetary science at Caltech.

Several theories have said there may have been a friend  either a nearby star or another massive planet  that could have influenced either the hot Jupiters orbit or its formation.

Ngo and his colleagues set out to find some of these friends. They surveyed 77 star systems that had hot Jupiters circling them, using the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii to look for any stellar companions. Sure enough, about half of them (47%, give or take 7%) had companion stars within a distance of 50 to 2,000 astronomical units.

Keep in mind, an astronomical unit, or AU, is the average Earth-sun distance, or about 93 million miles. For comparison, Plutos average distance from the sun is roughly 40 AU; the distance to the star closest to the sun, Proxima Centauri, is about 268,000 AU. So in interstellar terms, 50-2,000 AU is practically spitting distance.

Its a clue that maybe binary systems create environments that are easier for hot Jupiters to form, Ngo said.

The researchers did find something surprising: There didnt seem to be a correlation between the existence of a companion star and the misalignment of the scorched gas giants orbit with its parent star. Well-aligned and misaligned hot Jupiters had roughly the same likelihood of having a companion star nearby. That means that a theory known as the Kozai-Lidov mechanism, which describes how an objects orbit might be perturbed by a third party, might not be the main mechanism causing these hot Jupiters after all. In fact, it might account for the existence of fewer than 1 in 6 hot Jupiters, Ngo said.

That confused us for a bit, because that kind of ruled out one of the main theories, he added.

In any case, these companion stars could potentially be close enough to influence the emergence of these hot Jupiters, whether they were born in place or pulled close to the star later. What exactly such mechanisms might be remains unclear for the moment, the researchers said.

Its possible, for example, that a binary star system would have had a larger protoplanetary disk, which would allow more planets (such as a hot Jupiter) to coalesce.

We are thinking of ways of testing whether or not that idea is correct, Ngo said.

amina.khan@latimes.com

Follow @aminawrite on Twitter for more science news and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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Nine scientists have won the 2016 Kavli Prize for their groundbreaking work on gravitational waves, brain plasticity and atomic force microscopy.

The Kavli Prize, whose laureates are awarded every two years in Norway, recognizes researchers who have made crucial contributions to the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. In each of the three categories, winners share a $1-million cash prize.

MITs Rainer Weiss and Caltechs Kip Thorne and Ronald Drever took home the astrophysics prize for their pioneering work on the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO. After a decades-long search, LIGO in September finally detected the first direct evidence of these elusive ripples in the fabric of the cosmos.

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This discovery has in a single stroke and for the first time, validated Einsteins theory of general relatively for very strong fields, said Mats Carlsson of the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics in Norway, chair of the astrophysics award committee, in announcing the prize Thursday. It has established the nature of gravitational waves, demonstrated the existence of black holes with masses 30 times that of our sun, and opened a new window on the universe.

Thorne and Weiss, who were watching the award ceremony via video feed at the World Science Festival in New York City, embraced over a dining table and drew a standing ovation from the gathered scientists. The win came just days after the trio picked up the Shaw Prize in Astronomy for their work on LIGO.

Thanks to LIGO, you can really look out into the universe with a tool youve never had before, MIT physicist Nergis Mavalvala told the audience in New York during a panel discussion following the announcement.

Mavalvala told the audience that she didnt even know what gravitational waves were in 1991 when she met Weiss (who went on to become her doctoral advisor).

He told me what he was trying to do and I thought it was totally insane, Mavalvala said. (In spite of her apparent skepticism, the 2010 MacArthur genius grant recipient ended up working on LIGO too.)

Weiss initially came up with the concept for the detector; Thorne, who met Weiss when they shared a hotel room, was a theorist by training and recruited Drever from Scotland, who was known as a talented experimentalist.

The first time we actually understood that the signals are out there and measurable came really from the work of Kip  the measurable part, Mavalvala said.

Gerd Binnig, formerly of the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Christoph Gerber of the University of Basel and Calvin Quate of Stanford University earned the nanoscience award for developing the atomic force microscope, an instrument that allows researchers to examine a surface practically atom by atom.

Based on this technique, sculpting and analyzing nanoscale structures is now widely used in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology and materials science, said Arne Brataas of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, chair for the nanoscience award.

Michal Lipson, an expert in silicon photonics at Columbia University who also won a MacArthur grant in 2010, emphasized the importance of the Kavli winners contribution to a vast array of scientific disciplines.

There is not a single center without this AFM, atomic force microscope, she said at the panel discussion. This is a must, it is a tool that all of us use all of the time. So it has completely enabled nanotechnology to be what it is today.

Eve Marder of Brandeis University, Michael Merzenich of UC San Francisco and Stanfords Carla Shatz won the neuroscience prize for their individual lines of work on the ways that experience and neural activity can reshape brain function.

Our brains are constantly responding and adapting to experience  making them incredibly plastic  and yet our personalities and behaviors somehow manage to remain largely stable, said Ole Petter Ottersen of the University of Oslo, the neuroscience chair.

It is the elucidation of this delicate balance between plasticity and stability that we celebrate, he said of the laureates work.

For a long time, researchers thought that babies and childrens brains were capable of incredible plasticity and growth, but that adults brains had a largely fixed architecture. The three scientists showed that the adult brain can be far more flexible and adaptable than previously thought  which opens the door to new treatments for all kinds of neurological conditions.

The picture of how we experience the world around us has been utterly redrawn, Ottersen added.

The Kavli Prize is a joint effort by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the U.S.-based Kavli Foundation and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

amina.khan@latimes.com

Follow @aminawrite on Twitter for more science news and like Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

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Corona del Mar State Beach, the last stretch of sand to remain closed after a 52-year-old woman was bitten by a shark while swimming off the coast Sunday, reopened Wednesday morning.

Lifeguard crews who had been searching by boat and helicopter for shark activity in the water off Newport Beach reopened the state beach at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Lifeguards had reopened the beach between the Balboa Pier and the Wedge at about noon Tuesday.

Maria Korcsmaros, a personal trainer and aerobics instructor from Corona, was swimming along the buoys about 150 yards offshore as part of her training for an Ironman competition scheduled for July in Canada when she was attacked at about 4:15 p.m. Sunday, according to officials from Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, where Korcsmaros is recovering from surgery.

Korcsmaros had multiple teeth marks on her right side extending from her shoulder area to her lower pelvis. She also had lacerations on her right arm, an open chest wound and multiple rib fractures and had lost about a liter of blood, doctors said.

She was moved out of the coronary care unit and is beginning a new journey toward recovery, her husband, Alex, wrote in a comment on her Facebook page.

Officials said they are not certain about the species of shark that bit Korcsmaros.

However, Chris Lowe, head of the Shark Lab at Cal State Long Beach, said Tuesday that based on the size of her wounds it was likely an adult great white measuring more than 10 feet long.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
Local environmentalists point to last months discovery of a rare Pacific seahorse in the Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve as a sign that eelgrass restoration efforts are improving the areas ecosystem.

A group of local students and adults went out on a boat in Upper Newport Bay on May 7 as part of the Back Bay Science Centers monthly Marine Life Inventory program to catalog the types of fish and other creatures found in the water.

Marine researchers and educators use the data to look at seasonal and long-term trends in water quality and the abundance of fish and invertebrates. The goal is to monitor the effects of humans and environmental changes on the ecosystem.

Members of the group dragged a net along the muddy bottom of the bay. When they pulled it up, instead of the usual stingrays, worms and clams they normally find, a Pacific seahorse was inside.

The seahorse measured about 6 inches tall, according to Robin Madrid, education program coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The species can grow to about a foot tall.

Its very rare that we would find one in Upper Newport Bay, she said.

The last time the species was found in the reserve was between 1999 and 2000. This is only the 10th reported sighting north of Baja California since the 1800s, according to Madrid.

The Pacific seahorse, or Hippocampus ingens, is typically found in the Pacific Ocean between San Diego and Peru, but it is sometimes driven farther north because of warmer El Nino waters.

Since 2012, the seahorse has been categorized as a vulnerable species, or one that is likely to become endangered, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The species population has steadily decreased since the early 2000s, and dropped by 50% between 2007 and 2012, because of overfishing for Chinese medicine and for private use in fish tanks, experts say.

Declines in sea grass beds also can contribute to the decrease.

The Pacific seahorse, which is not a strong swimmer, relies exclusively on sea grass, including beds of eelgrass, and on coral reefs for its habitat, often curling its tail around blades of grass to avoid being swept away by changing tides.

Since 2012, Costa Mesa-based nonprofit Orange County Coastkeeper has been leading the charge in Upper Newport Bay to replant eelgrass, a form of underwater grass with green, slender blades that can help improve water quality and provide a suitable habitat for marine life.

Eelgrass was present in Upper Newport Bay before 2007, but poor water quality contributed to its demise, said Sara Briley, marine restoration director with Coastkeeper.

So far, the group has planted 1,300 square meters, or 0.3 acres, of eelgrass in Upper Newport Bay, Briley said.

The most exciting part for us was that the seahorse, a species that really needs help, was found in our eelgrass beds, Briley said. It shows that our eelgrass restoration effort is providing homes not only for native species but other species from outside of the area as well. 

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
Expedia recently revealed what many travelers already know: People around the world love Las Vegas.

The gambling capital of the U.S. wins the distinction of being Expedias most searched destination worldwide since it began 20 years ago.

The company, which marks two decades this year, says in a statement that Las Vegas appeal crosses all categories  whether folks are looking for airfares, hotels and car rentals or travel packages.

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Heres a bit of Vegas by the mind-blowing numbers, courtesy of the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Bureaus website:

--More than 42 million people visited last year (by comparison, all of L.A. welcomed more than 45.5 million visitors in 2015);

--More than 21,000 conventions were held there last year; and

--The gaming revenue from the Strip alone was a jaw-dropping $6.3 billion.

Expedia also made these travel observations over the companys 20 years:

--American travelers pick Mexico as the top international destination, particularly the resort town of Cancun.

--The most popular U.S. flight route travels between Los Angeles and New York City, specifically JFK Airport.

In the last decade, these 10 places  including L.A.  top the list of Expedias most-sold rooms in hotels:

Las Vegas Orlando, Fla. New York City Los Angeles San Diego San Francisco Miami Cancun, Mexico Orange County, Calif.

By the way, in honor of its 20th birthday, Expedia is rolling out coupons  specials like 20% or $20 off the price of hotels  that youll find on its website through Aug. 2. Heres the Web page to check.

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Not long ago, Beijing was considered home to one of the worlds most exciting underground music scenes. Venues and record labels proliferated. The music  new wave, post-rock, grunge, noise  was raw, loud and, above all, original, reflecting the angst and uncertainty of a city in the grip of constant change.

Now its all in doubt, squeezed by rising rents and intensifying political scrutiny. Venues are closing, festivals are relocating to the provinces, and musicians are switching careers.

Chinas president, Xi Jinping, who assumed the countrys top political posts in 2012, has spent his early tenure shoring up Communist control over all levels of society. In recent years, authorities have detained scores of activists, muzzled journalists and muted once-fiery public debates on social media sites.

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Beijings musicians, club owners and promoters say that building a robust underground music scene on the Communist Partys doorstep has never been easy. But many are now revisiting the assumption that the scenes small size  and in most cases, its apolitical nature  has inured it from official pressure.

I think especially the past two or three years, we can feel it  there is pressure, said a Beijing-based musician who requested anonymity so that she could speak freely without fear of reprisals. We talk secretly, saying that when Xi is no longer in his position, maybe things will get a little bit better. But now, we feel the censorship is getting more and more serious, year by year. We always try to encourage ourselves, saying it will get better one or two months in the future, but it just keeps getting worse.

In October 2014, Xi called for artists to carry forward the banner of the Socialist core value system and use true-to-life images to tell people what they should affirm and praise, and what they must oppose and deny.

It does feel like its less vibrant, less passionate  there are fewer younger [local] bands, younger people getting into this scene.  Ami Li, managing editor of City Weekend Beijing

Sources say that although authorities were once wary only of explicitly political content, they are now intent on reeling in anything that doesnt conform to Xis vision.

The music scene in Beijing hasnt been doing so well for maybe the past year and a half or so, said Ami Li, the managing editor of City Weekend Beijing, a local English-language magazine.Anecdotally, it does feel like its less vibrant, less passionate  there are fewer younger [local] bands, younger people getting into this scene.

Perhaps the greatest pressures are financial, she said. Piracy is rampant. Rents are rising, and the citys underground venues (most of them cheap dive bars and hot, sticky performance halls) find it impossible to break even.

Yet the political uncertainty  the threat of censorship, cancellations and worse  hovers over Beijings scene like a cloud.

In late April, the Dawn Dusk Club  an intimate bar located down a hutong, one of Beijings windy, traditional alleyways  hosted a show by Lin Ce, an experimental performance artist known for risque, sometimes topless shows. Afterward, when photos of the performance began circulating online, police forced the club to close and temporarily detained its owner. (The club has since reopened; its owner, who goes by the nickname 69, did not respond to an interview request.)

In a rare development, the crackdown spread. Police reportedly investigated ModernSky Lab, another popular venue. Mao Livehouse, a storied, nine-year-old underground rock venue  which shut its doors in late April because of rising rents  postponed its final farewell show. A music festival and conference, Sound of the Xity, axed its showcase performances and refunded ticket holders.

The crackdown came as a blow to many people in the scene, even after an unusually hard two-year stretch.

In August 2014, police raided the underground rock club 2Kolegas and detained nine people for taking drugs; the club closed soon afterwards. In summer 2015, authorities forced at least three Beijing music festivals to either shut down or relocate from the capital.

Last August, Chinas Ministry of Culture explicitly banned a list of 120 songs that trumpet obscenity, violence, crime or harm social morality, effectively blacklisting their performers. The lists top 17 songs were all by In3, a Beijing-based, socially conscious underground hip-hop group. In September, authorities briefly detained the groups three members following a performance.

A representative for the group, speaking via online chat, confirmed the detention, without providing further details. We dont want to talk about this in China right now, as we have to continue living here, the representative said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic.

Beijings rock scene, the first in China, dates back to the mid-1980s. The rocker Cui Jians song Nothing to My Name  a gruff celebration of individualism  resonated with Chinas disillusioned youth and eventually became an anthem of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Then came the crackdown, and over the following decade, Chinese rock musics popularity ebbed and flowed, bolstered by currents of discontent and smothered by censorship.

In the 2000s, Chinas rock scene experienced a revival. The Internet made foreign music easily accessible; the economic boom brought a flood of capital, some of which trickled down into less lucrative pursuits. Several bands attracted substantial local followings: Joyside, the Carsick Cars, Hedgehog, P.K.14, New Pants, Queen Sea Big Shark, each a rebuke to the saccharine pop music that floods the countrys airwaves and karaoke parlors.

Many of the eras biggest stars have moved on to other careers, according to Hu Pan, 33, drummer for the Beijing-based rock band Elenore and media director for the indie record label Maybe Mars.

Its because of life pressure, maybe  when you get into your 30s, its family pressure, its work pressure, she said. These maybe forced them to find jobs to take care of themselves.

She added that Maybe Mars will soon lay off up to half of its dozen-or-so employees, including her. In China, indie music cannot raise a person to live normally, she said. Theyre still poor.

Rock in China isnt necessarily dead. Some say that Chinas music scene has been a victim of its own success  that its gotten too big, and too commercial, for the authorities to ignore. They say that Beijings decline is offset by a surge of creativity in less-developed cities  Xian, Chengdu, Wuhan  where rent is cheap, and political controls less intense.

I dont know if [Beijings music scene] is declining  its just in a moment of transition, said Nathaniel Davis, founding partner and director of operations at Split Works, a China-based music company.

New bands are still forming, and new venues are replacing the old. In June, according to the listings site Douban, the citys events will include performances by a group called Quantum Poetics, a nine-member Chinese jazz group called the Faith Ensemble, and an event called the Third Chinese Grunge Alliance Indoor Music Festival.

But its a sensitive time, Davis added. I can say that  its a sensitive time.

Nicole Liu in The Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report
The German parliaments vote Thursday to describe the mass killings of ethnic Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as a genocide prompted an angry Turkish backlash and further strained relations between the two nations.

The motion passed with support from all parties in the Bundestag, meeting scant opposition in a nation that has long sought to come to terms with its own violent history and responsibility for the killings of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

The five-page motion, calling for commemoration of the genocide of Armenian and other Christian minorities in the years 1915 and 1916, drew swift fury from Ankara, which recalled its ambassador following the vote and vowed to take necessary steps.

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The way to close dark pages in [Germanys] own history is not to defame the history of other countries with irresponsible and baseless parliament decisions, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted.

Politicians across the country expressed similar sentiments, with some labeling the decision null and void and an attempt to defame Turkeys history, according to local media reports.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was visiting Kenya, reportedly said the decision will seriously impact Turkish-German relations.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who officials said missed the vote for scheduling reasons, sought to calm Turkish outrage.

Even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great, she said, according to reports.

The German government has traditionally been opposed to describing the killings as a genocide, for fear of upsetting Ankara, a major trade partner and member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. German politicians are additionally wary of incurring a stinging political cost in a nation with some 3.5 million ethnic Turkish voters.

But German President Joachim Gauck, on the 100th anniversay of the killings last year, condemned the massacre as a genocide, prompting many members of parliament to brush aside the governments resistance.

Activists embrace outside the Bundestag in Berlin after lawmakers voted to recognize the Armenian genocide on June 2, 2016. (Andersenodd Andersen /AFP/Getty Images )

As Germany seeks to grapple with its past, recognition of the Armenian genocide has become a point of national reckoning. The resolution explicitly acknowledged Germanys inglorious role for failing to halt a crime against humanity at the time of the killings.

Turkey has long challenged the use of the term genocide to describe the massacres beginning in 1915, arguing that the killings cannot be separated from the historical context of profound global upheaval around the time of World War I.

Historians largely agree that some 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered in a state-organized campaign of ethnic cleansing and on long death marches into the Mesopotamian desert in what many consider the first genocide of the 20th century.

The killings  and widespread confiscation of Armenian lands  directly preceded the founding of the modern Turkish Republic, following the Ottoman collapse and Central Powers defeat.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan sent telegrams to Merkel and other officials thanking them for the decision and describing it as a historic step, the Associated Press reported.

Its a message to the entire world that crimes against humanity, even if they were committed more than a century ago, not only isnt forgotten, but is justly condemned, he said in the telegrams.

Shahan Jebejian, of Yerevan, Armenia, said his grandfather fled the forced marches into Mesopotamia and settled in the Syrian city of Aleppo as the only survivor from a family of 11.

Everyone here in Yerevan is talking about it, Jebejian said via Facebook. I tried to find other political reasons for recognition of the genocide. But I couldnt. It was mostly genuine.

Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey expert and historian at St. Lawrence University, said genocide denial has been incorporated into the Turkeys national memory, in which indigenous non-Muslims worked with Western powers to destroy the nation.

This narrative is absolutely central to the way Turkey has viewed its relations with the West and its own ethnic diversity, he said. For most Turks, the resolution passed today is simply another example of this.

Many Armenians, for whom recognition of the genocide forms a point of national catharsis, welcomed Germanys decision.

The expression of maturity by Germany with such a resolution is first of all a positive example that Turkey can use as a lesson, said Harout Ekmanian, a lawyer and prominent commentator on Armenian issues based in New York.

The German decision comes at a time of acute global displacement. The EU is presently seeking continued Turkish support in stemming the flow of migrants and refugees to European shores.

Some analysts said that though the decision by Germany may upset Turkey, there probably will not be major political repercussions.

In its current circumstances, diplomatically isolated and economically unstable, a significant fight with Germany would be extraordinarily costly for Turkey, Eissenstat said.

MORE:

Armenians in Lebanon keep their culture, memory of heroic 1915 battle alive

As centenary of Armenian massacre nears, genocide dispute sharpens

100th anniversary of Armenian genocide

Johnson is a special correspondent. Special correspondent Erik Kirschbaum contributed to this report.
The number of terrorist attacks and fatalities has shown its largest decline in more than a decade, according to the U.S. State Departments latest report on global terrorism.

The report concludes that terrorist attacks declined by 13% and deaths by 14%, following years of striking increases.

While statistics like these are often sensationalized, it is important to take a critical look at what they represent. As is often the case with metrics on complicated phenomena, there are reasons to be encouraged and reasons for concern.

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While the fact that more than 28,000 deaths and 35,000 injuries resulted from nearly 12,000 terrorist attacks in 2015 can hardly be regarded as good news, these numbers are an improvement over the previous year. In fact any decline, regardless of the size, is a welcome development given the record-breaking numbers that have been recorded recently. What does the 2015 decline mean?

Those who study terrorism note that it moves in waves, declining in some areas, while peaking in others. In the 1970s, terrorist attacks occurred most frequently in Western Europe. A decade later the greatest concentration was in Latin America. Today, attacks are comparatively rare in both places, but all too common in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.

The decline in global terrorism in 2015 may mark a tipping point in the current wave of terrorism that has devastated these regions. It is still too early to be certain, but it is sensible to expect that this wave, like the others, will some day pass.

Terrorist attacks and deaths in 2015 dropped substantially in some of the countries that have suffered the most in recent years. In Pakistan, attacks were nearly cut in half and fatalities declined by more than one-third. Iraq and Nigeria also experienced considerable declines.

But worldwide statistics may obscure regional and national developments.

For example, violence worsened last year in conflict-ridden Afghanistan, which witnessed a 20% increase in attacks. Terrorism also increased in several countries where it had previously been less common, like Bangladesh and Egypt. Perhaps most troubling, the decades-old conflict between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party, which once showed promising signs of coming to an end, reignited, resulting in a large increase in attacks.

Breaking down the 2015 data also reveals important developments in the number of attacks committed by the worlds deadliest terrorist organizations. Some groups, like the Shabab in Somalia and Tehrik-i-Taliban in Pakistan, were considerably less active, while others, like the Taliban in Afghanistan and Boko Haram in West Africa, carried out more attacks than in previous years.

Perhaps most notably, terrorist attacks carried out in Iraq by Islamic State declined by 31% in 2015. While fewer attacks are undeniably better than the alternative, this is obviously not the only metric by which to gauge the strength of terrorist organizations. Groups are sometimes most active when they are desperately trying to engender support. However, healthy organizations may also curtail their activity, especially when they have consolidated power in certain states, and secured regional allies in others.

So, while it is encouraging that Islamic State was considerably less active in Iraq in 2015, the groups activity in Syria increased, and it managed to expand operations into several new countries, as well as attract the allegiance of numerous additional affiliates and allies. This suggests that while Islamic State may be changing, it may nevertheless pose a serious threat for years to come.

Interpreting patterns of terrorism is a complex challenge because situations can, and often do, evolve in unexpected ways. Despite a welcome decrease in the total number of terrorist attacks and fatalities that occurred worldwide, trends are not universally positive. Nor is there a guarantee that global declines will continue. Nevertheless, these latest numbers provide a bit of good news in an area where it has been in short supply.

The authors work with the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland, which prepared the Statistical Annex for this years Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 released by the U.S. State Department. These conclusions are those of the authors and do not represent the official policies of the U.S. government
The suspect in Wednesdays shooting at UCLA earned a degree from the Indian Institutes of Technology, or IIT, a storied university system that has trained some of the finest engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs in India.

Mainak Sarkar earned an aerospace engineering degree in 2000 from the IIT at Kharagpur, in eastern India, the first of the five original campuses established soon after India gained independence in 1947.

Full Coverage: Shooting at UCLA >>

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Indias first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, envisioned a world-class educational system along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that would train scientists and technologists of the highest caliber who would propel the young nation toward self-reliance in her technological needs.

In a twist of history, Sarkar shares his last name with Sir Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, a British Raj-era industrialist who chaired the committee that recommended the establishment of the multi-campus system in 1945.

Over the years, IIT has become synonymous with educational excellence in India and in Silicon Valley, where many of its alumni have also made a mark. Among its graduates are Sun Microsystems founder Vinod Khosla, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, Indias central bank governor Raghuram Rajan and top executives at Citigroup, Cisco Systems and Bell Laboratories.

 UCLA students describe being on campus during the lockdown after Wednesday mornings school shooting.

To gain admission, students have to sit through a two-part exam that has become among the most competitive in the world. In 2014, 1.36 million students took the entrance test for 9,784 available IIT seats  an acceptance rate of 0.7%. Harvards acceptance rate that year was nearly 7%.

IITs, which grant bachelors as well as graduate and postgraduate degrees, are autonomous bodies but receive substantial funding from the Indian government. There are now 19 IIT campuses, with four more slated to open this year.

1 / 39 A memorial left at The Bruin on the UCLA campus Friday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 39 UCLA students write and post notes on the bear on UCLAs Bruin Walk on Thursday, a day after the deadly shooting on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 39 UCLA student Mai Que Vo, left, comforts India McFarlane, who was crying as students wrote notes to be placed on the Bruin Walk bear Thursday, a day after the deadly shooting of an engineering professor on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 39 Flowers were left at the door of the Engineering IV Building on Thursday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 39 Smashed doors can be seen on the fourth floor of the UCLA engineering building where Wednesdays murder-suicide took place. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 39 The word clear written on a wall near smashed doors on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 39 UCLA students walk past the Engineering Building Thursday morning where engineering professor William Klug was killed. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 39 Charles Kawczynski, a doctoral mechanical engineering student, talks on June 2 about the shooting at UCLA as he stands in front of damaged doors on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building, where the slaying of a professor occurred. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 39 A UCLA police officer works June 2 on the fourth floor of the Engineering Building, where a professor and former doctoral student were killed in a murder-suicide. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 39 Police escort people at UCLA after a lockdown was lifted following a shooting on campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 39 Students return to campus Wednesday after a shooting at UCLA. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 39 UCLA Gabriela Romero calls her mother telling her not to worry after a shooting on campus Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 39 Police respond to the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 39 Hundreds of UCLA students leave the UCLA campus after the lockdown was called off after two people were shot on campus. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 39 UCLA students evacuate the campus. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 39 Police search the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 39 A police officer searches the UCLA campus after a shooting on Wednesday. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 39 Police search the UCLA campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 39 SWAT officers Eddie Roca, right, and P.J. Rudolf rest after responding to a shooting at UCLA. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 39 People gather in a campus building after a shooting at UCLA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 39 UCLA students evacuate the campus after a shooting Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 39 Police officers check and evacuate students after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 39 Police officers check evacuees after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 39 Police officers evacuate students after a shooting on the UCLA campus on Wednesday. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 39 UCLA students are evacuated from the Mathmatics building after a shooting on campus. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 39 Police officers check students after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 39 People evacuate the UCLA campus. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 39 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 39 People are frisked at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 39 Police officers questions a students after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 39 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 39 Police rush to the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 39 The scene at UCLA on Wednesday morning, where a shooting was reported. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 39 Police officers in tactical gear at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 39 People evacuate the UCLA campus after a shooting on Wednesday. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 39 Police officers respond to a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 39 A ladder hangs out a window after a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 39 Police officers in tactical gear at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 39 Police officers deploy at the scene of a shooting at UCLA on Wednesday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

In recent years, the systems reputation has taken a hit, with critics saying the added campuses have diluted the quality of education. Others blame the IITs for encouraging the best Indian minds to go abroad, although as Indias economy has improved over the last two decades, more graduates are staying in the country.

The intense pressure for success has resulted in a growing mental health crisis at top Indian educational institutions, including IIT. At the massive test-prep centers that train students for the IIT exam in the northern Indian city of Kota, 57 aspirants have reportedly committed suicide over the last five years.

Last year, two students at the campus in the southern city of Chennai (formerly known as Madras) committed suicide within a month, sparking an outcry over learning conditions at the IITs.

Arya Prakash, a masters student at the Chennai campus, wrote in The Hindu newspaper of deep caste-based discrimination and a phenomenon in which students tried to improve their chances of receiving better grades by sabotaging others studies.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

It comes as a shock to the ones outside this campus, Prakash wrote, but inside the campus it is a widely accepted fact that a majority of students are depressed.

MORE ON THE UCLA SHOOTING

Woman on UCLA shooters kill list found dead in Minnesota

For UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar, sudden rage after years of intense academic studies

LAPD chief: Gunman in UCLA shooting went to campus to kill two professors but could only find one

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia
Fast-talking and often harassed, Cuban political dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer could hold himself up as Exhibit A in the improving relations between Washington and Havana.

Ferrer, 45, has been allowed to travel abroad for the first time. And, he said Wednesday, he will be allowed to return  instead of being blocked and banned by Cuban authorities, as often happens with dissidents.

He credits the Obama administration for securing assurances for his safe passage from President Raul Castros government.

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It is one of the positive outcomes from what Ferrer described as a slow rapprochement that has moved in fits and starts since Obama and Castro restored diplomatic ties and renewed numerous political and economic connections after half a century of hostilities.

Still, Ferrers two-way ticket was a one-time offer, he said, a sign of the distance yet to go in his fight for basic civil rights under an authoritarian government.

We make advances, then the regime represses us and we have to take steps back, Ferrer said in a meeting with reporters at a Washington public-policy advocacy firm.

But the best thing we see is the change in the mentality of the people, he added.

The Castros never negotiate for a win-win. They have a sick need to win and for the rest to lose.  Jose Daniel Ferrer, dissident

Ordinary Cubans are more willing to participate, to speak out and  however hesitantly  make demands, Ferrer said.

Ferrer heads one of the main, if small, political opposition organizations in Communist-led Cuba, the Patriotic Union of Cuba. It advocates for nonviolent change to bring about democracy and better human rights protections.

Havana regards such groups as stooges of Washington.

Ferrer spent eight years in prison for his political work after he was arrested in a 2003 crackdown called the Black Spring that rounded up 75 dissidents, journalists and others. Most were freed under an agreement with the Roman Catholic Church that the prisoners would go into exile in Spain or the United States.

Ferrer refused the deal.

He was declared an Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, was released from prison in 2011, and in March was among a group of anti-Castro activists who sat down with President Obama during his historic visit to Havana.

Unlike some of his associates, Ferrer supports Obamas policy of opening up to Cuba.

It has robbed the Castros (Raul, the president, and his elder brother, the revolutionary leader Fidel) of their ability to blame all of Cubas problems on the U.S. government, he said, and will create positive momentum for the beleaguered opposition.

We want this process to help us get the freedoms we dont have, Ferrer said. But, he added, arrests of dissidents, including members of his own organization, continue unhindered.

Since departing Havana a couple of weeks ago, Ferrer has wasted no time, traveling from Miami to Washington and, soon, to New York, California and Madrid. He is taking his sharp criticism of Cubas repressive government and seeking broader support for his groups activities.

He will visit Silicon Valley next week to talk about ways to make the Internet accessible and affordable to more Cubans, something the Havana government has resisted.

His advice to American businesses that might be looking to invest: proceed with caution in making deals on the island.

The Castros never negotiate for a win-win, Ferrer said. They have a sick need to win and for the rest to lose.

Scores of American companies in the agricultural sector, along with tourism and other industries, have been lining up for a bite at the Havana market, where consumers goods are depleted and the government spends billions of dollars a year to import food.

Missouri last week shipped 20 tons of long-grain rice to Cubas Mariel Port as a symbol of the possibilities of trade.

Despite the difficulties, Ferrer said he was optimistic.

Yes, there will be periods of more repression, he said. It would not surprise me if, the more people we get in the streets, the more likely some sort of crackdown like in Poland by that countrys communist regime against the Solidarity movement in the 1980s.

But it doesnt scare us.

The U.S. State Department said it routinely advocates for freedom of movement and would not comment on an individual case.

Ferrer spoke excitedly, in the clipped Spanish typical of Cubans. He only slowed down when he recalled seeing his mother in Miami, for the first time since she visited him in Havana five years ago.

His voice cracked slightly and he paused, before continuing.

We are reaching out to all sectors, to doctors, small business owners, musicians, artists, Ferrer said in describing the gains the opposition movement hopes to make. We are making change, growing space.

Creating, he said, momentum.

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On 30 May Missouri State Governor Jeremiah Nixon began an official visit to Cuba, with the aim of strengthening bilateral trade relations. The delegation headed by Nixon included Missouri Department of Agriculture Director Richard Fordyce, First Lady Georganne Nixon, and Missouri Department of Economic Development Director Mike Downing. Governor Nixon said that the trade mission will focus on growing Missouri exports to Cuba, especially agricultural products. A press release by Governor Nixon notes that the island was formerly a significant export destination for Missouri-grown rice. Missouri produces a high-quality, long-grain rice that has proven to be a high-value crop for farmers in the southeast part of the stateand increasing rice exports would be another boost for the regional and state economies. As part of the focus on Missouri exports, Governor Nixon also visited Cubas new deep-water port at Mariel, which has expanded capacity to receive large cargo ships. Missouri products, particularly grain, often are transported down the Mississippi River by barge to the Gulf of Mexico and then to overseas markets by sea-going cargo ships. As well as meeting Cuban government officials in Havana, Governor Nixon was also briefed by Deputy Chief of Mission Scott Hamilton and other high-ranking officials at the US embassy on progress toward facilitating and increasing trade between the US and Cuba. The governor also addressed an entrepreneurial forum coordinated by the Cuban Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Trade and Investment, which included Cuban companies and members of the Missouri delegation.

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Hillary Clinton might have trouble clinching the northeast states, namely New Hampshire, in a new poll from Franklin Pierce University and Boston Herald.

Statistical Dead Heat

If the U.S. presidential election was held today between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, New Hampshire residents will essentially encounter a statistical tie. Conducted between May 25 and May 28 with 405 randomly selected New Hampshire residents, Trump and Clinton were tied at 44 percent, each.

Clinton and Trump have deep unfavorable ratings.

"One of the most fascinating aspects of this year's race for President is how unpopular the two front runners are with voters. Both of the two likely Presidential nominees are viewed negatively by almost two-thirds of voters, and positively by only about one-third," wrote the polling firm.

Trump has an unfavorable rating of 62 percent, but Clinton is just behind 1-percentage point at 61 percent. In regards to favorability, Clinton attracted 35 percent to 34 percent for Trump.

For New Hampshire's neighboring senator, independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who is still running for the Democratic presidential nomination, he has far better favorable ratings than Trump and Clinton. Sanders received an approval rating of 56 percent, while only 39 percent held an unfavorable opinion of the self-described "democratic socialist."

Respondents were asked if Sanders should suspend his campaign or stay until the Democratic Party's national convention in July. With 77 percent, voters said that Sanders should stay in the race, while 16 percent think he should end his presidential bid.

"Interestingly, Republicans (84 percent) are more likely to think Sanders should stay in the race than Democrats (65 percent), suggesting that Republicans think that by staying in the race, it makes it politically more difficult for Clinton to focus her attention solely on the general election," the poll, conducted by RKM Research, noted.

Independent Voters' Choice

As expected, most Republican respondents favored Trump as most Democrats favored Clinton in a hypothetical matchup between both New York public figures, but both names nearly tied among the Granite State's independent voters. Between Clinton and Trump, the former secretary of state attracted 43 percent of independent voters to the former "Celebrity Apprentice" star's 42 percent.

A hypothetical question between Sanders and Trump was not asked in the survey.

The next Democratic Party primary election will take place at the Virgin Islands, with a caucus, on June 4. Puerto Rico, however, will have its closed primary on June 5 with 60 pledged delegates at stake. New Hampshire voters held their primary in early February, which Sanders easily won with 60.4 percent to Clinton's 38 percent.

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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.
Kansas has joined 11 states challenging President Barack Obama's directive allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that match their gender identity.

On June 1, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced the state Senate would be voting on a non-binding resolution that he said would protect privacy rights and pushed Kansas lawmakers to sue the U.S. Department of Education.

The proposal comes less than a month after the Obama administration threatened to restrict federal funds if school districts did not comply, and just one week after Republicans officially filed a lawsuit arguing that such decisions should be made on the local level.

"In our federal system of government, not every decision needs to be handed down from Washington, and this is a matter best left to state or local authorities, including school boards, as it traditionally has been -- and as the law required," Schmidt said in a press release.

At issue is the interpretation of Title IX, the 1972 act prohibiting discrimination based on sex, race, color or national origin either by employers or educational institutions.

The Justice and Education departments interpret this to include transgender individuals; those who do not identify with their biological sex. Conservative lawmakers, like former GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, accused the government agencies of trying to rewrite Title IX.

"America has woken up to yet another example of President Barack Obama doing through executive fiat what he cannot get done through our democratic process," Cruz said. "The threats of predators are serious, and we should not facilitate allowing grown men or boys to be in bathrooms with little girls."

The Latina Republican Supporting LGBT Rights

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., was fighting for transgender rights well before North Carolina's transgender bathroom bill sparked a nationwide debate. A lifelong Republican, Ros-Lehtinen strays from her party's unified message. The first Latina elected to Congress generally opposes Obama's measures, but when transgender rights are at stake, Ros-Lehtinen sides with the LGBT community.

"The Republican Party's stance on the issue is lagging behind," Ros-Lehtinen recently told the New York Times. "But folks are figuring out that there is no political harm in embracing these issues and, in fact, they see a lot of good can come out of it."

Ros-Lehtinen's son is transgender. Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen told his parents nearly a decade ago, as a 21-year-old previously known to his family as Amanda. The Cuban-American congresswoman said she supporter her son regardless, as she does with other transgender people who may feel out of place.

Rodrigo inspired his mother to join Democrats in founding the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. Ros-Lehtinen is the caucus's sole conservative.

Hispanic Advocacy Groups Step In

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the latter being the country's largest Latino civil rights groups, each praised the Obama administration's effort.

In a statement, LULAC National President Roger Rocha, Jr. believes the directive is a pivotal step in "ensuring the well-being of transgender students across the country."

"By allowing students to use the facility that corresponds to their gender identity, President Obama has sent a strong message to the public -- discrimination against the transgender community will not be tolerated," Rocha said.

NCLR moved its 2016 Northeast/Southeast Affiliate Leadership Convening from Raleigh to Miami in opposition of House Bill (HB) 2, North Carolina's surreptitious bathroom bill nullifying ordinances that would protect LGBT members.

NCLR CEO Janet Murguia said Latinos, for one, know what it is like to "be singled out and stripped of our humanity," referring to anti-immigration laws aimed at oppressing the Hispanic community.

"HB2 is a solution in search of a nonexistent problem; it is unnecessary, offensive and violates not only our rights, but our values as Americans," Murguia said. "By taking this action, we extend our support to the efforts of so many in North Carolina and the LGBT, civil rights, and business communities to repeal this egregious law."

A Supreme Court Fight Looms

LGBT rights advocates earned a small victory Tuesday when a federal judge declined to revisit "G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board" -- the catalyst Title IX lawsuit filed by a transgender male student.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Virginia sued on behalf of Gloucester High School student Gavin Grimm, who accused the Virginia school board of adopting a discriminatory bathroom policy. On April 19, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of Grimm.

Last month, the school board asked the Fourth Circuit to rehear the case "en banc," meaning they wanted every active judge to participate. None of the court's 15 judges supported the motion.

Judge Paul Niemeyer opposed the panel ruling, calling it a "politically correct acceptance" and urged for Supreme Court intervention.

"While I could call for a poll of the court in an effort to require counsel to reargue their positions before an en banc court, the momentous nature of the issue deserve an open road to the Supreme Court," Niemeyer wrote in his dissenting opinion.

The Fourth Court's decision has a cascading effect on all federal courts within its jurisdiction, including North Carolina's.
A coalition of Latino civil rights groups is taking aim at SiriusXM for removing a majority of Latin music stations from its lineup.

SiriusXM Failing With Latinos?

During the last several months, eight Latino channels were axed from SiriusXM's satellite service, and a number of civil rights groups, record labels and artist advocacy organization -- representing Latino artists and listeners -- are demanding the company to offer more Latino voices and relevant programming.

"SiriusXM's decision to drastically reduce the availability of satellite channels serving Latino audiences harms Latino listeners, artists and anyone hoping to hear diverse content on its platform," said National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) President and CEO Alex Nogales in a statement released on June 1. "Given the increasing number of businesses embracing the significant market power of Latinos and public outcry for greater diversity in all forms of media, this move represents a puzzling failure to offer culturally relevant content to consumers who demand more -- not fewer -- options on every medium."

The axed music stations, ranging from Latin Rock, Salsa, Latin Jazz, Latina Pop and Reggaeton, have been moved to SiriusXM's online service, and no longer available in cars.

According to Nogales, SiriusXM had told the Federal Communications Commission that its satellite radio platform would not harm diversity. He added, "SiriusXM has failed Latinos with its severe programming changes and we urge it to take immediate action to offer channels that reflect the rich cultural heritage of our communities."

Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino, a civic media organization engaging Latino youths, said SiriusXM's decision shows the company is not embracing the second-largest and youngest group of Americans and silencing Latino voices on its satellite radio stations.

"SiriusXM's decision to eliminate the satellite broadcast of 80 percent of their Latin music channels comes at a time when diversity in media is wanting. We know that music is a powerful means to shape our culture and give voice to those marginalized. At a time when Latinos are most misunderstood and fighting constant attacks, SiriusXM is turning their backs on us," said Kumar in a statement.

Voto Latino and NHMC are among other organizations including the National Organizing Director at the Future of Music Coalition, Del Records and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network to voice opposition to SiriusXM's decision.

No Complaints & More Content Soon

According to the Wall Street Journal, SiriusXM said it hasn't received any complaints from subscribers about the eight Latin channels' removal. SiriusXM added that it does plan to add more Spanish-language content later this year.

But public demand might be key for a music station's return. Last September, the company brought back the Escape station, which provided easy-listening tunes, following demand from subscribers.

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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.
ABC 13 news anchor Mayra Moreno was criticized for speaking two simple words in Spanish on the station's May 30 broadcast, calling her use of the Spanish language "Un-American."

The anchor and reporter, who works at ABC affiliate KTRK, refused to apologize and posted a photo on Twitter showing that she could care less that people were upset and was proud of her heritage.

"Apparently I upset some folks because I said #BuenosDias at 9am. Oops #SorryNotSorry I won't be ashamed of my culture," she tweeted.

Apparently I upset some folks because I said #BuenosDias at 9am Oops #SorryNotSorry I won't be ashamed of my culture pic.twitter.com/ZTG7u26WDx  Mayra Moreno ABC13 (@ABC13Mayra) May 29, 2016

Moreno took it a step further on Facebook and explained that some people were upset that she said "Buenos Dias," on Memorial Weekend.

Some decided it was 'uncalled for and unAmerican' especially on #MemorialWeekend, when we are supposed to honor those who died serving our country. Didn't realize that this day and age a simple 2-word phrase would upset some people. #WeAreAllAmerican #LetsStopTheHate #HispanicsAlsoDiedForAmerica, she wrote on the post.
Boeser Geist Brewing Co. plans to join seven other businesses as new tenants in the Simon Silk Mill complex by the end of 2016.

Nazareth resident Erik Thomasik and the other business owners each introduced themselves to the Easton Planning Commission on Wednesday.

"We are proposing to be a small brewpub to make absolutely incredible beer," said Thomasik, a Whitehall native. "It's going to be an upscale eatery at not an upscale cost."

The businesses are planned for the Simon Silk Mill, an abandoned Easton industrial site at North 13th Street and Bushkill Drive being redeveloped into an artists' community by the VM Development Group. The $60 million project includes commercial space and about 150 apartments.

Thomasik said the restaurant will have 75 to 100 seats. He's looking into a barrel sharing program with local distilleries.

The other businesses moving in are:

Trinity Fitness

Salon at the Silk. Jo Ann Piserchio said she plans a two- to three-seat hair salon with an antique vintage look. She has been in the business for 35 years, starting in Los Angeles. She previously owned two salons in Colorado before her husband was relocated to the Lehigh Valley for his job.

Makeup artist Alicia Becker will open a studio to do makeup, primarily for brides. She said her space would be for makeup trials and classes.

KLO Events

Elaine Zelker

Zeke Zelker

Exemplum Medical. A medical device sales company may appear out of place here, but owner Jeff Haldeman said he loves fly-fishing, antique buildings and microbreweries, so he plans on frequently wading into the nearby Bushkill Creek for his next catch.

The planning commission gave each business special exception approval. They'll each need zoning hearing board approval on June 20 before they can move forward.

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
A Bucks County woman was arrested Wednesday for the third time in 16 months, this time on allegations that she attempted to intimidate witnesses in a $20 million insurance fraud case, according to the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

Claire Risoldi, 68, of Doylestown, is now charged with two counts of witness or victim intimidation and one count of criminal use of a communication device, the attorney general's office said. It is the second time she has faced similar charges since the investigation began in 2013.

Claire Risoldi (AP file photo)

The attorney general's Bureau of Investigations looked into a number of allegedly inappropriate subpoenas that Risoldi caused to be issued, a news release said, referencing the criminal complaint.

The subpoenas out of Bucks County Court were served on the Buckingham Township Police Department and sought the personnel file of a witness and internal documents, the attorney general's office said.

An attachment "contained language that impugned the integrity" of two people who testified before a statewide grand jury investigating the initial case, the attorney general's office said.

Risoldi appeared Wednesday in court on the charges and was sent to prison after failing to pay the 10 percent of $1 million bail, the attorney general's office said.

An investigation began after a 2013 fire at the stately home Risoldi shared with relatives in Doylestown, the Associated Press reported. It was the third fire in five years at Clairemont, the AP said.

Risoldi falsely accused volunteer firefighters of stealing 55 pieces of jewelry worth more than $10 million while battling the flames, according to a grand jury presentment. The family's jewelry collection had included two items valued at $106,000 only four months earlier, the AP said.

Authorities said the ensuing probe uncovered a decades-long pattern of questionable insurance claims by Risoldi, the AP said. She still had jewelry she reported stolen in 1993, according to investigators. She reported another jewelry theft from a different home in 1984 and a house fire in 1977, the AP said.

As a result of the investigation, authorities seized about $7 million in family assets, including $3 million in bank accounts, $1.2 million in jewelry, six Ferraris and two Rolls-Royces, the AP said.

The state attorney general's office initially charged Risoldi with conspiracy, attempted theft by deception, witness intimidation and forgery, the AP said. Six other people, including her husband, two children and daughter-in-law, were also charged.

Her husband, Tom French, committed suicide in February 2015, authorities said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A Montgomery County man remains free on $100,000 unsecured bail after being arraigned Friday on charges related to the deaths late last year of a Bucks County couple in a crash, Pennsylvania State Police at Dublin report.

Sean Michael Adee, 32, of North Wales, was the driver of a Nissan Xterra heading south at 7:01 p.m. Dec. 8 on Route 202 in Solebury Township, Bucks County, township police report of their Facebook page. He crossed into oncoming traffic and crashed head-on into a Volvo station wagon south of Route 32, not far from New Hope, township police said.

Ian McNeill, 67, and Jane McNeill, 66, of Solebury, were pronounced dead at the scene after being trapped in the Volvo, township police said. Adee was freed from the SUV and flown to an area trauma center, township police said.

Adee was arraigned Friday before District Judge Maggie Snow on charges of homicide by vehicle while DUI (two counts), homicide by vehicle (two counts), driving under the influence of drugs, reckless driving, recklessly endangering another person (two counts) and a lane violation, state police said.

One of the McNeills' two sons said this week he was "really, really disappointed" by the judge's decision to free Adee, according to the Intelligencer of Doylestown.

"He left without paying anything," 34-year-old Christopher McNeill told the newspaper on Tuesday. It seem the district court went easy on Adee, he added.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Fair game: County to consider taxing Airbnb, similar rental sites

Airbnb and similar websites pair property owners with short-term tenants in private homes. Northampton County Controller Stephen Barron Jr. proposed June 1, 2016, applying the county's hotel tax to such rentals, saying it could be worth more than $100,000 a year. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Northampton County is missing out on an estimated $100,000-plus annually by not collecting its hotel tax on rentals arranged online, through sites such as Airbnb, HomeAway, TripAdvisor and FlipKey.

That's according to county Controller Stephen Barron Jr., who proposed Wednesday pursuing collection of the tax on these short-term rentals of private homes and rooms.

"A hotel room in Northampton County is any space that has four walls and a bed that is for rent," Barron wrote in a memo to other county officials.

The concept is in place elsewhere. Airbnb, for one, reached an agreement last month with Montgomery County, Maryland, to collect the tax from its network of homeowners and remit the revenue to the county, The Associated Press reports.

Airbnb already primes its homeowners on how to collect a tax themselves, emphasizing telling guests up front about the exact tax amount prior to booking. Intuit Turbo Tax offers "10 Tax Tips" for ensuring property tax laws are applied, and followed, fairly.

"I sent a ton of information to the county executive that I was able to gather from the city of Philadelphia," Barron said in a statement. "We don't need to create a system, we just need to replicate what others have already done."

County council President John Cusick said it's an idea worth exploring, and one that he plans to bring up at Thursday night's council meeting.

"What I see it as, it's a way that we can put the old economy on the same playing field as the new economy," Cusick said Wednesday. "One of the key foundations of Pennsylvania's tax law is it's equitable. I think we've just got to make sure we apply the law in an equitable manner as it exists."

Barron said he found more than 300 short-term rentals advertised on the sites in Northampton County.

"If these rentals are filled half of the year and go for an average of $50 per night, that would net Northampton County $108,000 in additional revenue to be invested in travel and tourism," he stated.

Hotel tax revenue has been slowing, with growth not keeping pace compared to years past, Barron said.

Barron and Cusick both said they don't see the need for new legislation.

"The question is how we enforce it," Cusick said.

Barron shared an anecdote of one property owner paying the tax on his rentals without even being asked.

"This individual sends us an average of $40 per month and in '15 sent us $132.54 in hotel tax," Barron stated, calling it success "on a very small scale" but one that shows promise toward fair application of the hotel tax and a new revenue source.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
With the warm weather here, Pennsylvania State Police on Wednesday cited nine teenagers with trespassing at a Lower Mount Bethel Township quarry.

Quarries throughout the Slate Belt are targeted by swimmers due to the deep, cool water that fills up the pits. The quarries are private property. There have been a number of fatalities in quarries in recent years.

In addition to one 17-year-old boy, police at the Belfast barracks also cited John Peter Lapatchak, 18; Brett David Weaver, 19; Adrian John Garcia, 18; Jacob Tate Daniello, 18; Elise Kathryn Kline, 18; Mary Valentine Drabic, 19; Matthew James Cole, 18, and James Edward Young Jr, 19, police said. All of them are from Pennsylvania, police said.

The non-traffic citations will be filed in District Judge Sherwood Grigg's Bangor court.

Police responded at 4:27 p.m. to New Enterprise Stone and Lime Co. Inc., the news release said. This is the same quarry off Route 611 that has been called Eastern Industries in the past, police said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Someone tried to break into a business early Thursday morning in Bangor, but someone else yelled and the man ran off, borough police said.

The man was dressed in all black and wearing a black ski mask, police said. At 4 a.m., he tried to force his way into a business in the 400 block of South First Street, police said.

The man is 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 180 to 200 pounds, police said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Paulins Kill

A fisherman casts his line into the Paulins Kill in Knowlton Township in 2010. Environmental groups say that removing the Columbia Lake dam downstream will let Delaware River shad return to their natural spawning grounds.

(lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

Environmentalists say a Knowlton Township dam needs to go. Local leaders disagree, and are willing to gauge public opinion with a ballot question in November.

The referendum approved by the township committee last month will not settle the fate of the Columbia Lake dam but will likely facilitate more public dialogue about plans to remove the barrier on the Paulins Kill.

The dam was built a century ago to harvest ice and supply energy, according to The Nature Conservancy, which is leading the project for the 18-foot structure's removal with the support of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Here are the arguments for and against its removal:

Remove it

The 41-mile Paulins Kill is a significant tributary to the Delaware River a short distance downstream and the Nature Conservancy wants to restore it to its natural state -- the state-owned dam's removal being one part of the plan.

Barbara Brummer, the conservancy's New Jersey director, said the removal is proactive to an anticipated ecological problem: The dam's hydroelectric generation will eventually cease, stagnating the lake. A free-flowing Paulins Kill will benefit fish populations, and anglers by extension, also allowing a clear route for kayakers to reach the Delaware and opportunities for walking trails and other amenities.

The power generation will be made up by solar panels at the Pequest Trout Hatchery.

The conservancy has spent about $1 million in donations from its members on studies and land acquisition, Brummer said. Through its partners, it is applying for a $4.95 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to cover removal costs.

The group met with some township officials and held community meetings for input in April, Brummer said. With opposition becoming more vocalized, she said there will be more outreach.

"It's all about improving the habitat for people and nature," she said.

Save it

Knowlton Township Committeeman Ron Farber said the conservancy's outreach is too little, too late.

"Nobody really knew about it," said Farber, who pushed for the referendum. "The more people knew about it, the more people couldn't believe it."

In the township's resolution, it says the lake created by the dam provides a new habitat, is an attraction for fishing and other outdoor activities, and provides an emergency water source for firefighters.

Farber said local and independent experts are being brought in to study the ecosystem. He said he wants to see less costly solutions, like a fish ladder for spawning shad to get over the dam -- Brummer said such solutions are not effective; Farber said others have advised him otherwise.

"This is all a big bunch of wasted money," Farber said.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Two years after the First World War, my father decided to emigrate to the United States to join his brother in Virginia. He was 18 years of age, barely out of Rhyl Grammar School and all the jobs in the locality had been reserved for demobbed soldiers.

So off he went from Meliden to join his brother who was already settled and working in Virginia. He sailed out of Liverpool on the SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria and landed at the immigrant reception centre on Ellis Island, New York. I have the record of his entry.

What he made in those first days of the bustling America after North Wales I do not know. But he quickly found a job as an electrician in the long established Newport News shipyard. Today, the largest aircraft carriers and submarines are still built there for the US Navy.

My dad earned well, acquired a penchant for melon, wore white socks and tilted his hat American style on his head. But after a few years, the pull of home was too much. He worked his passage back over six weeks on a tramp steamer and promptly joined the Denbighshire Constabulary in Wrexham. It was the tilt of his helmet which first attracted my mother, a Grove Park schoolgirl.

I always think of him when I listen to the inflammatory language aimed by Brexiters at migrants to this country from continental Europe. Young people leave their homes and travel to seek new horizons, fresh challenges and work opportunities.

Some settle down, as did my uncle in Virginia in the last century. He attended the Welsh chapel, became an American citizen and thoroughly approved when his daughter married a State Senator. In time, he and his family assimilated  though his great grandchildren, the current young generation in Virginia, remain true to their Welsh roots, formerly by their passionate following of Wrexham FC, now alas somewhat replaced in their hearts by Swansea City.

But others who now come to Britain, having made some money and enjoyed the experience, will return to their native countries to marry, to have children and to pass on to them a breadth of vision from another culture, as my father did to me.

Young Europeans who come to Britain pose no threat to our society. Their energy and drive contributes to our success in a competitive world  and their taxes pay in far more than they draw out. Universities welcome their brains. Business needs their skills and their commitment. Farmers need them to work the land and bring home the harvest. Industry welcomes their hard work. Most will return home, their minds broadened and their feelings for Britain and the British way of life enhanced and warmed.

But it is not all one way. Our youngsters want to taste life on the other side of the channel. When I was their age, work in a war-torn Europe was impossible. But in the new Europe where the boundaries have fallen away and all nations aspire to democratic and peaceful ways and the solution of common problems, the opportunities for work and travel are boundless.

I wish I were that age again!

* Martin Thomas is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords and the party's Shadow Attorney General
This is not the first time were going to show this in the run-up to the EU Referendum, and it certainly wont be the last.

Alex Cole-Hamilton sums up why he is such a passionate pro-European:

It would do the Remain campaign no harm at all to have this on continuous loop for the next few weeks.

Here is the text in full.

As I rise to deliver my first speech in the Scottish Parliament, I feel the sense of awe that I have seen on the faces of my fellow newcomers to this place; they have given excellent speeches, both yesterday and this morning.

My journey to this chamber has been a long one, and I am grateful for the kindness of parliamentary staff, journalists and indeed members of all parties for the good will that they have shown me in these first weeks. It has been good will tinged with surprise, I might add, at my appearance here, but that surprise was eclipsed by my own when I was plucked from the ranks of new Liberal Democrat MSPs and immediately promoted to the front bench. That was something of a shock. [Laughter.]

Before I address the substance of the debate, I pay tribute to my immediate predecessor, Colin Keir. He is a kind and generous man and I wish him every success in his future. I also pay tribute to the previous Liberal parliamentarian to represent Edinburgh Western, Margaret Smith. Margaret served in this Parliament for 12 years and delivered many of the changes that brought about free personal care for the elderly. All of us can attest to the honour that it is to represent the great communities of Edinburgh Western. The constituency is steeped in history that goes back to Roman times and it flanks the beautiful fringes of the Forth estuary. It is in the shadow of our own world heritage site: the Forth rail bridge. I am sorry to say that, following my election, the area is no longer available to the SNP for parliamentary group photographs. I am sorry about that.

My first act as a parliamentarian for Edinburgh Western is to make the case that my constituentsand yours, Presiding Officerare demonstrably better off as part of the European Union. One hundred years ago almost to the day, my great grand-uncle, a private in the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles out of Saskatchewan, at the age of 23, was killed along with 80 per cent of his battalion on the first day of the battle of Mont Sorrel on the Ypres salient. His name was Alexander Bennett and I am named for him. Just a generation later, his sacrifice was met by that of two of my grandfathers four siblings, who were killed on active service, this time in world war two.

It is a measure of the success of the European project that I am only the second generation in the recorded history of my entire family to never have to contemplate taking up arms against our nearest European neighbours. It is a comfort that I would extend to my three children, Finn, Kit and Darcy, and to theirs to come. It is from the shared desire for a continued and lasting peace that the originating treaties of the European Union emerged. First, there was the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, so that no country could ever again build a war machine, and then there was the treaty of Rome, which led to a single market in which the free movement of goods, people, capital and services has come to represent the most important charter for freedom that the world has ever seen. It is a solidarity of nations that has become a family.

The Brexiteers such as Margaret Mitchell and her colleagues paint a very nice picture of what it would be to reclaim all our sovereignty, but it is a doctrine of isolationism, pure and simple. I put it to you, Presiding Officer, that in this increasingly globalised world, human traffickers will never recognise that isolation. Climate change will not recognise it, and neither will terrorists. If we were to leave, we would be a tiny archipelago of islands adrift in a sea of economic uncertainty. That is why those on the Liberal Democrat benches are so proudly and full-throatedly backing the remain campaign.

I am delighted, and heartily glad, that my first speech is on an issue on which there is such consensus, and that I find myself on common ground not just with those in other Opposition parties but with those on the Government benches. I hope that there are many days like this to come in my parliamentary service because, with consensus, this place can move mountains and it has done so. When I worked in the childrens sector, from outside the chamber I helped to broker a consensus that led to a change in the age of leaving care and that will change lives as a result. However, there will be days of discord, and that is good and right because, as John F Kennedy said, without criticism and debate no Administration can succeed and no republic can survive. It is incumbent on Opposition parties, particularly in a minority Government situation, to challenge and scrutinise, so I will offer that debate and scrutiny. It will at times be fierce, but it will always be reasoned and it will always be Liberal.

However, today, let us put aside those differences and embrace that common ground on which we find ourselves. A sense of real optimism is currently sweeping the Liberal Democrats, and I know that it is sweeping other parties as well, because we have so much to gain by remaining as members of the European Union, so we must gather together to vigorously campaign for a remain vote on 23 June. Thank you.
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THE controversial founder of Pegida, the anti-Islamist group, is to speak in Limerick later this month to highlight the mass sexual assaults on European women by Muslim men, which they claim has been covered up by the political class across Europe.

The announcement by Identity Ireland, an affiliate group, of the imminent talk and its subject matter has prompted a number of politicians to urge Pegida to stay away from Limerick and not to stir up divisions.

Lutz Bachmann, the German founder of the ring-wing organisation, has accepted an invitation to speak in Limerick in late June. An exact date and venue has yet to be announced.

In a statement to the Limerick Leader, an Identity Ireland spokesperson said: Mr Bachmann wants to highlight the failure of multiculturalism and to highlight the mass sexual assaults on European women by Muslim Asian/Middle Eastern and African men which has been covered up by the political class not just in Germany but all over Europe.

Just last month Bachmann, who founded Pegida (Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West), was fined 9,600 by a Dresden court for a Facebook outburst in which he branded immigrants cattle and scum.

Fianna Fail deputy Willie ODea told this newspaper that in a climate when thousands of migrants are seeking refuge on a daily basis  with some 50 Syrians recently settled in Limerick and another 50 due to be settled here by the end of the year  this is the last thing that anyone needs.

Were trying to assimilate and integrate people into our communities. The last thing we need now is people sort of stirring divisions.

I think theyd be doing the whole area a big favour if they stayed away quite frankly, in view of the reaction theyre provoking in other places, he said.

His party colleague Deputy Niall Collins also said the news that Pegida are to set to demonstrate in Limerick following an invitation from Identity Ireland is worrying.

Both organisations hold extremist views and openly call for the persecution of minority groups.

The policies they pursue are not supported by Fianna Fail. Indeed many Irish people who have emigrated down though the years would fall foul of the anti-immigration policies that Pegida espouse, said deputy Collins.

He said that Identity Ireland has virtually no support as a political party in Ireland.

It's only candidate in the general election secured 0.3% of the vote, which clearly demonstrates that there is little tolerance for the hate speech that the party peddles, he added.

I certainly won't be supporting the demonstration, but I respect the right for all political groups to be allowed organise and participate in a peaceful demonstration.

Founded in October 2014, Pegida organises weekly marches in Dresden in protest against the migration policy of German chancellor Angela Merkel.

Two founders of Identity Ireland, Peter OLoughlin and Alan Tighe, attended a conference organised by anti-immigration group, Fortress Europe, in Prague earlier this month.

Those talks focused on the irreparable damage associated with the mass immigration of unassimilable people and cultures into Europe.

Identity Ireland then extended an invitation to Pegida as a fellow member of Fortress Europe to attend a conference in Limerick and Mr Bachmann has accepted the invite.

Mr Bachmann has said he looks forward to coming to Ireland and wants to experience the unique Irish hospitality which has been abused for far too long by the liberal cabal, said Identity Ireland.

The network launched an Irish branch in Dublin this February  an event that was met with a strong counter-demonstration by opposing groups.

Violence broke out at the counter-demonstration, with both sides clashing and gardai becoming involved.

At that time Identity Ireland chairman Peter OLoughlin  who unsuccessfully ran as a candidate in the general election - was hospitalised after being hit in the head with a blunt object while travelling on the Luas.
A YOUNG man has pleaded guilty to his role in a violent street brawl in Limerick city centre more than a year ago.

Kurt Ryan, aged 23, who has an address at Cliona Park, Moyross was one of a number of men who were prosecuted following the incident at at Dominick Street on April 14, 2015.

Ryan, who has been on custody since his arrest, had been due to go on trial at Limerick Circuit Court this week but pleaded guilty to a charge of affray when he was formally arraigned.

He was previously refused bail after Chief Superintendent gave evidence during a bail hearing.

John OSullivan BL, instructed by State Solicitor Michael Murray, said Ryans guilty plea was acceptable to the State.

A number of other men received prison sentences earlier this year after they pleaded guilty to their roles in the incident.

During an earlier sentencing hearing relating to one of his co-defendants, Limerick Circuit Court was told the incident happened at around 2.25pm when members of rival criminal factions encountered each other in the foyer area of the Intreo offices.

Following the initial encounter the men then moved outside where a street fight, which was witnessed by a garda, lasted for several minutes.

Another man was previously described as the main aggressor and investigating gardai have accepted that no weapons were used during the fight and that none of the protagonists were injured.

It was also accepted that the incident was not pre-meditated and that those involved had encountered each other by chance.

While Judge Tom ODonnell commented that he is familiar with the facts of the case, Mark Nicholas BL, representing Kurt Ryan, said he has certain views relating to his clients role in what happened.

The matter was adjourned to July 29, next for evidence in relation to Ryans involvement.

Mr Nicholas will also put forward arguments of mitigation during the sentencing hearing.

The defendant was remanded in continuing custody until July with Judge ODonnell assuring him that he will get credit for any time he has already served in prison.
BRITISH people living in Limerick who want to vote in the referendum on EU membership have until Monday to register to vote.

According to the 2011 census, there are 8,755 British adults living in Limerick.

I would urge all those to register to vote and to use their vote to remain in the EU as its in our collective best interests, said Fianna Fail T.D. Niall Collins.

The British ambassador to Ireland Dominick Chilcott has said the referendum is the most important decision for Britain in a generation and the voices of Britons abroad need to be heard.

The referendum takes place on Thursday, June 23.

In Ireland as a whole, around 288,627 people living in the Republic of Ireland said they were born in the UK, the second biggest ex-pat community in Europe after the British population in Spain.

Britons living in Limerick who wish to register must have been registered to vote in a UK constituency within the past 15 years to qualify as an overseas voter.

Once they are registered, they may cast their vote either by post, proxy, or by returning to Britain to vote in person.

At this late stage, registration can only be done online. For more information, visit www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.

If you are living in Limerick and have registered to vote  or plan to  vote in the EU Referendum, the Leader would love to hear from you. Please email nick@limerickleader.ie, telephone 061-214596 or 087-6615151.
ANOTHER new Limerick council initiative, this time offering street food by the river, was launched in the city this Wednesday.

Limerick has set out its stall to become an Irish street food capital following the launch of the project on the Harveys Quay boardwalk.

Limerick Street Food has been officially unveiled to the public as ten purveyors of alfresco foods took over and added further colour, not to mind mouth-watering tastes, to the sun-kissed boardwalk from late morning until late afternoon.

Some of the worlds best loved street-foods were on offer including Thai food, hot dogs, falafels, crepes, wheat grass and other juices, salads, humus, and coffee.

Harveys Quay, the council hopes, will become a Mecca for foodies on Wednesdays between 11am and 4pm, and it is hoped to extend the scheme to other week days.

A summer lunch to be had at the Wednesday market #limerick pic.twitter.com/wGt0IDTYZ6  Piquant Media Conor (@PiquantMedia) June 1, 2016

Mayor Liam Galvin was on hand to launch the initiative, and he said: We have an incredible food heritage here in Limerick, with a long-held tradition of outstanding restaurants and produce from the heart of the Golden Vale that really has few if any rivals in terms of quality anywhere in the world.

Given this, he added: Its only right we would develop Limerick Street Food.

The boardwalk here at Harveys Quay is a superb facility and on days like today, with the sun shining, theres hardly a nicer location in Ireland to do some alfresco dining.

One of the operators at the street food market, Owen Pattarakulchok, Khing Thai Resturant in Glentworth Street, said: Its a great idea. Street food is very big business in Thailand and is growing across the world and there are many other cuisines represented. The more the merrier.

It is hoped to extend the number of stalls from ten to 15 in a short space of time.
May 3, 2021, 12 AM

An essay in Cherrystones April sale, for an unadopted Russia 7-ruble design of 1884 in pink, black and gold, realized $10,925.

This 7-kopeck stamp from the 1889-1905 definitive type of Russia, in a cross-gutter strip of four from the top of the sheet, brought $12,075 at Cherrysytones sale in April.

An essay of an octagonal design for a 5-kopeck Russia stamp in 1889 sold for $3,738 at Cherrystones April auction.

An intact 1905 special delivery stamp of China brought $9,200 at Cherrystones April auction. The four-part stamps with a dragon design would be separated in the course of delivery of the item.

A set of five China stamps showing flying geese over a globe issued in 1950 with overprints in various colors sold for $10,925 at the April sale by Cherrystone Auction Galleries. The set is the first listed for Taiwan after the Communist takeover of mainl

The value of this 4-kopeck denomination of the 1889-1905 definitive type of Russia lies in its type of laid paper and normal or inverted background, visible only with high magnification. Cherrystone sold this example on vertically laid paper in April for

By Matthew Healey, New York Correspondent

Cherrystone Auction Galleries held a sale of worldwide stamps and postal history on April 12-13 in New York.

There were interesting items from many countries, but as is often the case of late, some of the highest realizations went to stamps of China.

One such lot was a set of five stamps issued in 1950 consisting of a single, nondenominated, blue-green design showing flying geese over a globe, overprinted in different colors with denominations ranging from $1 to $20 (Republic of China Scott 1007-1011). The set is the first listed for Taiwan after the Communist takeover of mainland China.

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The stamps were issued without gum, and the upper denominations are especially scarce in unused condition. The set in the Cherrystone sale went for $10,925, including Cherrystones 15 percent buyers commission that is added to all lots.

An unusual special delivery stamp of China, issued in 1905, also made an appearance in the sale.

The Imperial Chinese system for tracking letters sent by special delivery was somewhat cumbersome, involving a four-part postage stamp that was gradually separated over the course of its journey. The sender, the originating post office, the receiving post office and the recipient would each wind up with a piece of the stamp, frequently the worse for wear. Intact foursomes usually can be obtained only unused.

The design of the light green stamp, which measures 8 inches by 2 inches, features a dragon in an irregular oval stretching across the sections with a matching serial number in black on each quarter. The various types are listed in the Scott Classic Specialized Catalogue of Stamps and Covers 1840-1940 as China Scott E1 to E8.

The first variety shows the dragon facing down; a later type depicts a redrawn dragon facing forward. The example in the Cherrystone sale, with the former design and perforated gauge 11 (Scott E1), was intact, though folded between the middle two stamps. It sold for $9,200.

Among stamps of Russia, there is a scarce error that might be scarce simply because many collectors dont bother looking for it.

The 4-kopeck denomination of the 1889-1905 definitive type, featuring an imperial eagle in an ornate frame, exists on both horizontally and vertically laid paper, as well as with its light filigree background inverted (Russia Scott 41a and 57Cg, respectively).

The distinction between the right-side-up and upside-down groundwork is pretty subtle, however, and anyone not searching for the error with high-power magnification could be forgiven for overlooking it.

Its worth searching for, though: The price differential between the normal stamp and the inverted-groundwork variety is several hundred times in the case of the vertically-laid-paper stamp, and many thousands of times for the horizontally-laid.

An example in the Cherrystone sale, on vertically laid paper with neat, central 1906 postmark, was accompanied by a German certificate noting that only a few examples are known. It fetched $16,100.

The 7k from the same series, lacking perforations (Scott 59b) on a cross-gutter strip of four from the top of the sheet, sold for $12,075.

Also in Cherrystones Russia offerings, among several beautiful essays for unadopted designs was an ornate square design in pink, black and gold for a 7-ruble stamp, dating to 1884. Printed on gummed, vertically laid paper and perforated, the essay went for $10,925. An octagonal 5k design in purple and green, from 1889, brought $3,738.

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Cherrystones April 12-13 auction in New York City offers U.S. and worldwide stamp and cover selection

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CIA Invert block offered by Cherrystone brings $71,875
Two eyes painted on a newly discovered Egyptian coffin seem to stare out from across millennia, conveying the secrets of the ancient Egyptian elite.

The coffin, discovered this year in the necropolis at Qubbet el-Hawa across the Nile River from Aswan, belonged to an important local woman, Sattjeni, daughter of one governor, wife of another and mother of two more, said excavation leader Alejandro Jimenez-Serrano, an Egyptologist at the University of Jaen in Spain.

Sattjeni's mummified body was buried in two cedar coffins made of wood imported from Lebanon. Though the outer coffin had degraded over the nearly 4,000 years since Sattjeni's death, her inner coffin was in excellent condition, according to Egypt's antiquities ministry, which announced the discovery May 24. [See Photos of Sattjeni's Elaborate Burial]

Sattjeni was not a royal, but her family practiced royal strategies to hold on to their governing power: She married her sister's widower, and the family also associated itself with the ram-headed deity Khnum, much as pharaohs intermarried to keep power in the family and claimed to be descended from the gods.

In an email interview with Live Science, Jimenez-Serrano revealed more about the excavations at Qubbet el-Hawa and the life of Sattjeni.

Live Science: Tell us about the excavations at west Aswan. What kinds of artifacts and structures do you find at this site? What was this area used for during the Middle Kingdom (between about 2000 B.C. and 1700 B.C.)?

Jimenez-Serrano: Qubbet el-Hawa is one of the most important nonroyal necropolises of ancient Egypt. Its importance lies in the great quantity and quality of the biographical inscriptions carved in the facades of the funerary complexes. The necropolis was mainly used to bury the highest officials of the nearby town of Elephantine, the capital of the southernmost province of Egypt, at the end of the third millennium and the beginning of the second (2200 B.C. to 1775 B.C). The governors were buried together with their relatives; the members of their courts (officials and domestic service) were buried in other smaller and less-decorated tombs. Thus, today, we know the existence of 100 tombs, of which only 80 have been completely cleared.

During the Middle Kingdom, especially during the 12th Dynasty (1950 B.C. to 1775 B.C.), the governors of Elephantine built giant funerary complexes in the necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa. Some of them are beautifully decorated and have important inscriptions.

Live Science: How did you uncover the burial of Sattjeni? What was that moment like?

Jimenez-Serrano: In 2013, we discovered the upper part of a chamber, which belonged to a tomb that was probably quarried in the Byzantine period (fifth century A.D.). In the walls of this chamber, there was a Christian prayer painted by the Coptics. Thus, we thought that the area was disturbed. However, that chamber at the end was not a chamber, but the beginning of a shaft. During this year, we began the excavation of the shaft, and the more that we excavated, the more we got the sensation that a great discovery might appear ... and it appeared!

The worker called me, and I went to the bottom of the shaft, where there was a tiny aperture. With a torch, I could have a look inside, and the first thing that I could see were hieroglyphs. Later, we could determine that those hieroglyphs were on the coffins of the Lady Sattjeni. [Photos: More Than 40 Tombs Discovered in Upper Egypt]

Live Science: Who was Sattjeni, and why was she an important figure?

Jimenez-Serrano: Sattjeni was the second daughter of one of the most important figures of the 12th Dynasty, the governor Sarenput II. Unfortunately, her brother Ankhu died shortly after his father, and there were no male successors. So she and her sister Gaut-Anuket had the rights of the rule in Elephantine. The latter married a certain official called Heqaib and converted him into the new governor of Elephantine: Heqaib II. However, we suspect that Gaut-Anuket did not live much time, because Sattjeni married Heqaib II. They had at least two children, who became the governors of Elephantine successively, as Heqaib III and Ameny-Seneb.

Live Science: What does this discovery tell you about 12th Dynasty society?

Jimenez-Serrano: This discovery shows that the local dynasties of the periphery of the State emulated the royal family. In this concrete case, we can confirm that women were the holders of the dynastic rights. Probably, the members of these families married as the royal family  brother with sister  in order to keep the divine blood "pure." We must not forget that Sattjeni's family declared themselves heirs of a local god.

Live Science: What were the coffins like, and was there anything interesting about their construction or preservation?

Jimenez-Serrano: We are still investigating why the outer coffin was so decayed compared to the inner [one], which was in perfect condition. Both were made with the same foreign wood: cedar from Lebanon. Perhaps the inner coffin was treated with an organic substance that we have not yet detected.

(This interview was edited lightly for length and clarity.)

Original article on Live Science.
An artist's conception of a quantum membrane that could soon be used to test quantum effects in life-sized objects

The quantum absurdity that leads to the notion of Schrodinger's cat  in which a cat can exist in two states simultaneously  could finally be tested in an object visible to the naked eye, a new study demonstrates.

Scientists have created a pendulum-like membrane that is so perfectly isolated from friction and heat "that it would just keep going for 10 years with a single push," said study co-author Simon Groblacher, a physicist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. "If you create a quantum state in this object, it will not go away."

This tiny, flea-size swing could allow scientists to finally test whether the quantum effects behind the Schrodinger's cat thought experiment do indeed exist at large scales. [How Quantum Entanglement Works]

Cat in trouble

In 1936, physicist Erwin Schrodinger proposed a now-famous thought experiment meant to highlight the bizarre implications of quantum mechanics. In his formulation, a cat is trapped in a box with a radioactive atom. If that atom decays, the cat will be poisoned and die, but if the atom has not decayed, the cat lives.

The so-called Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics implied that the radioactive atom is in two states at once, simultaneously decayed and undecayed, until some brave soul opens the box and measures or perturbs the atom. By extension, the cat would be both dead and alive at the same time, until the box was opened.

The weird phenomenon, known as superposition, has been demonstrated time and again with tiny, subatomic particles. Yet scientists have never observed a cat, or any visible object, that was simultaneously in two states or places at once.

Exactly why isn't clear, but scientists have a few hypotheses. One is that the laws of quantum mechanics simply break down at larger scales.

However, that would mean current quantum theory is incomplete, Groblacher said.

"Quantum theory itself doesn't have any mass or size limit," at which its laws stop working, Groblacher told Live Science.

Most scientists instead believe that superposition is ephemeral; perturb it just a bit, and the whole state collapses. As objects get larger, they are much more likely to exchange heat with the environment, disturbing this delicate state.

But hypothetically, at least, even very large objects could display these quantum effects, assuming you could isolate the objects well enough from their environments.

Cloistered environment

To create such a cloistered quantum object, Groblacher and his colleagues used a relatively simple mechanical design: a small membrane that acts similar to a pendulum, placed inside a vacuum, so no heat can be exchanged with the environment. The membrane itself looks a bit like a paddle tethered at the ends by two tiny points of contact. Though it is about 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) long, it is also exquisitely thin, just "eight times the thickness of DNA," Groblacher said.

The tiny tether points are also essentially the only spots at which this membrane interacts with the environment. The material itself, called silicon nitride, is used as a coating inside spacecraft components, and can sustain incredibly high internal stress. The high stress in the pendulum provides the internal stored energy needed to propel the near-perpetual swinging.

The team then etched a pattern on the surface of the teensy object, turning it into a supermirror that reflects almost all of the incoming light particles. As such, the membrane absorbs almost no heat, which would disturb fragile quantum effects. This incredible reflectivity allowed the researchers to run their system at room temperature, whereas past systems relied on supercold setups just a few degrees away from absolute zero (the lowest possible temperature).

The team then hit the quantum membrane with laser light. Sure enough, it reflected almost all the lifht. The membrane was so well-isolated from the environment that the researchers believe it can illustrate the weird quantum phenomenon called superposition; with the pendulum essentially in two swing positions simultaneously, the researchers reported in April in the journal Physical Review Letters.

The new device is finally good enough that researchers could detect large-scale quantum effects, Groblacher said, adding that the jury is still out on the question of why such effects are generally not seen at larger scales.

"What mechanisms destroy quantum physics in large objects: That's an open question," Groblacher said. "There are a bunch of theories. We're just trying to disprove and test these theories."

Original article on Live Science.
What makes a female marine crustacean "swipe right" on a prospective mate? If she's Dulichiella appendiculata  a tiny relative of the sand-hopping beach flea  she's impressed by the size of the male's enlarged right front claw, which is significantly bigger than its left one.

And she definitely prefers righties to lefties.

Scientists have investigated the mating success of right-clawed D. appendiculata males versus their left-clawed rivals, and found that righty males attracted more females. But lefties were found to be more solitary than righties, with a tendency to disperse into more habitats. And moving into a territory where there's less competition increased their chances of finding a willing female, the scientists found. [In Images: The Menagerie of Tiny Alienlike Creatures Under the Sea]

Study lead author Pablo Munguia, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Adelaide's School of Biological Sciences, told Live Science in an email that he "bumped into" this heavy-handed species while studying reef diversity in Florida for his doctoral dissertation. Munguia was captivated by the peculiar asymmetrical claws, which were present only in males. But it wasn't until more than a year later that he realized that there were "righties" and "lefties" in D. appendiculata populations, and that this might be linked to mating prowess.

Looking for a right-hand man

D. appendiculata is a type of amphipod  a flattened and shell-less crustacean  that lives on reefs or hard structures like shells, and measures about 0.2 to 0.24 inches (5 to 6 millimeters) in length.

And in relation to its body size, one of the male's two claws is enormous.

"The claw can be 2 to 3 millimeters (0.08 to 0.12 inches) long," Munguia told Live Science. "To put it in perspective, it is 20 to 30 percent of the length of the adult male," he said. This kind of dramatic asymmetry is rare in animals, the study authors reported.

The claws grow as the male matures, Munguia said. Juveniles are miniature versions of the adult forms, and their bodies  and the males' claws  get bigger with every molt. In addition, the claw takes on its distinctive ax-like shape over time. It's not yet known at what age D. appendiculata becomes sexually mature, though Munguia said that other closely related species reach sexual maturity about a month after hatching.

"When males reach approximately 3 millimeters [in length], one can tell whether the individual is becoming a righty or a lefty," Munguia said.

Males use their enlarged claw not only to attract females, but also to guard their mates from other males.

The right stuff

To study these tiny creatures, Munguia spent three summers collecting and analyzing hundreds of individuals living inside pen shells, which were vacant of their usual mollusk inhabitants, in Florida seagrass beds. The researchers discovered that there were approximately the same number of righty and lefty males in the overall populations.

But wherever there was an abundance of D. appendiculata, most of the males were right-clawed, Munguia told Live Science. The right-clawed males tended to congregate around females  and each other  more than the left-clawed males, which were quicker to seek out new habitats where competition would be lower.

Females preferred males with an enlarged right claw, but in habitats where populations were sparse, lefties dominated, and were more likely to find a mate than if they were living in more crowded spots.

"The two alternative modes of gaining access to females seem to have found a balance," Munguia wrote in the email. Further studies will determine the stability of this balance between righties and lefties in D. appendiculata and in related amphipod populations in other marine habitats, he added.

The findings were published online May 31 in the Journal of Crustacean Biology.

Original article on Live Science.
Artificial intelligence may one day embrace the meaning of the expression "A picture is worth a thousand words," as scientists are now teaching programs to describe images as humans would.

Someday, computers may even be able to explain what is happening in videos just as people can, the researchers said in a new study.

Computers have grown increasingly better at recognizing faces and other items within images. Recently, these advances have led to image captioning tools that generate literal descriptions of images. [Super-Intelligent Machines: 7 Robotic Futures]

Now, scientists at Microsoft Research and their colleagues are developing a system that can automatically describe a series of images in much the same way a person would by telling a story. The aim is not just to explain what items are in the picture, but also what appears to be happening and how it might potentially make a person feel, the researchers said. For instance, if a person is shown a picture of a man in a tuxedo and a woman in a long, white dress, instead of saying, "This is a bride and groom," he or she might say, "My friends got married. They look really happy; it was a beautiful wedding."

The researchers are trying to give artificial intelligence those same storytelling capabilities.

"The goal is to help give AIs more human-like intelligence, to help it understand things on a more abstract level  what it means to be fun or creepy or weird or interesting," said study senior author Margaret Mitchell, a computer scientist at Microsoft Research. "People have passed down stories for eons, using them to convey our morals and strategies and wisdom. With our focus on storytelling, we hope to help AIs understand human concepts in a way that is very safe and beneficial for mankind, rather than teaching it how to beat mankind."

Telling a story

To build a visual storytelling system, the researchers used deep neural networks, computer systems that learn by example  for instance, learning how to identify cats in photos by analyzing thousands of examples of cat images. The system the researchers devised was similar to those used for automated language translation, but instead of teaching the system to translate from one language to another, the scientists trained it to translate images into sentences.

The researchers used Amazon's Mechanical Turk, a crowdsourcing marketplace, to hire workers to write sentences describing scenes consisting of five or more photos. In total, the workers described more than 65,000 photos for the computer system. These workers' descriptions could vary, so the scientists preferred to have the system learn from accounts of scenes that were similar to other accounts of those scenes. [History of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (Infographic)]

Then, the scientists fed their system more than 8,100 new images to examine what stories it generated. For instance, while an image captioning program might take five images and say, "This is a picture of a family; this is a picture of a cake; this is a picture of a dog; this is a picture of a beach," the storytelling program might take those same images and say, "The family got together for a cookout; they had a lot of delicious food; the dog was happy to be there; they had a great time on the beach; they even had a swim in the water."

One challenge the researchers faced was how to evaluate how effective the system was at generating stories. The best and most reliable way to evaluate story quality is human judgment, but the computer generated thousands of stories that would take people a lot of time and effort to examine.

Instead, the scientists tried automated methods for evaluating story quality, to quickly assess computer performance. In their tests, they focused on one automated method with assessments that most closely matched human judgment. They found that this automated method rated the computer storyteller as performing about as well as human storytellers.

Everything is awesome

Still, the computerized storyteller needs a lot more tinkering. "The automated evaluation is saying that it's doing as good or better than humans, but if you actually look at what's generated, it's much worse than humans," Mitchell told Live Science. "There's a lot the automated evaluation metrics aren't capturing, and there needs to be a lot more work on them. This work is a solid start, but it's just the beginning."

For instance, the system "will occasionally 'hallucinate' visual objects that are not there," Mitchell said. "It's learning all sorts of words but may not have a clear way of distinguishing between them. So it may think a word means something that it doesn't, and so [it will] say that something is in an image when it is not."

In addition, the computerized storyteller needs a lot of work in determining how specific or generalized its stories should be. For example, during the initial tests, "it just said everything was awesome all the time  'all the people had a great time; everybody had an awesome time; it was a great day,'" Mitchell said. "Now maybe that's true, but we also want the system to focus on what's salient."

In the future, computerized storytelling could help people automatically generate tales for slideshows of images they upload to social media, Mitchell said. "You'd help people share their experiences while reducing nitty-gritty work that some people find quite tedious," she said. Computerized storytelling "can also help people who are visually impaired, to open up images for people who can't see them."

If AI ever learns to tell stories based on sequences of images, "that's a stepping stone toward doing the same for video," Mitchell said. "That could help provide interesting applications. For instance, for security cameras, you might just want a summary of anything noteworthy, or you could automatically live tweet events," she said.

The scientists will detail their findings this month in San Diego at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics.

Original article on Live Science.
Stoppage is latest in spate of industrial action over the past few weeks in protest to new labour laws

A 24-hour national ports strike in France today has impacted activity at France's leading container ports, Le Havre and Marseille.

The stoppage by the Ports and Docks branch of the CGT trade union, the latest in a spate of industrial action over the past few weeks in protest to new labour laws, has impacted the schedules of six box ships at Le Havre, an industry source told Lloyd's Loading List.

At France's other main container port, Marseille, the port authority said activity was impacted but did not elaborate further.

The recent stoppages brought box activity at the Mediterranean port to a standstill.

In an interview with LLL earlier this week, a spokesman for France's biggest transport and logistics trade federation, TLF , expressed concern that the dockers' industrial action risked compromising the improved image of France's major ports, such as Le Havre and Marseille.

A lot of hard work has been put in over the past few years in making French ports more reliable and more attractive as gateways for box traffic. For example, Le Havre has bridged the gap with its northern neighbours, Rotterdam and Antwerp, explained Herbert de St Simon, president of the TLF's Forwarding commitee.

But the fear is that these strikes will weigh negatively on how French ports are viewed internationally by shipping lines and shippers, de St Simon added.

As for the fuel shortage situation in France, industrial action continues to affect output at a majority of the country's refineries. But pressure on supplies to service stations has eased considerably since riot police cleared all of the major fuel depots of pickets at the end of last week.

While an open-ended strike continues at French state railway SNCF, the country's air traffic controllers have called off industrial action scheduled to begin on 3 June.
Talks between Fine Gael bosses and its local organisation in Longford are to take place this week after the county was left out of Taoiseach Enda Kenny's 11 nominees to the Seanad.

Fine Gael Cllrs Micheal Carrigy and Colm Murray were both widely touted as being among the frontrunners to get the nod after the county was left without a TD for the first time in its history after Februarys general election.

Details over that decision were announced last Friday when Mr Kenny opted for six former Fine Gael TDs instead, two of which included former ministers James Reilly and Paudie Coffey.

Local party strategists, however, had been made aware of the likely outcome several days earlier via a text message Mr Kenny sent to an unnamed county councillor.

The contents of that message,, which was relayed to the Leader and first revealed last Thursday on its website longfordleader.ie, appeared to illustrate the rationale behind Mr Kenny's decision.

Longford chose not to elect any TD, read part of the text message.

Im being asked to decide on one councillor over another.

It is believed that An Taoiseach feared a backlash from the local party if he elevated one of those candidates.

Both Cllr Carrigy and Cllr Murray are already being talked about as possible candidates whenever the next general election is held.

(I) dont think its fair to choose between two up and coming FG councillors in Longford,Mr Kennys text read.

Cllr Murray said while he did not want to comment specifically on the nature of the text message from Mr Kenny, he said he had accepted the decision.

I can see where he is coming from, he said, while stopping short of saying the county had been let down.

But I do feel somebody, be that Micheal Carrigy, myself, or someone else, that someone should have been appointed from Longford.

We (Longford) are in a different situation to every other county in that we dont have a national representative (in Leinster House) for the first time ever and certainly I feel that somebody should have been appointed (to the Seanad) from Longford.

The Leader has previously reported on how Cllr Murray and Cllr Carrigy had made it known to Fine Gael chiefs of their interest in securing one of the Taoiseachs 11 Seanad nominations.

For his part, Cllr Murray said he informed the party that should his candidacy be overlooked, he intended to knuckle down and plough on in his role as a county councillor.

The Kenagh based representative added the party at local level had resigned themselves to what was to be played out in Mr Kennys text message for the past week.

As such, Cllr Murray said tentative talks had already been held with his seven other Fine Gael county councillors about how best to represent the county going forward.

We have had informal discussions within the group to see how best we can represent Longford as a council group in order to make sure our voice is heard, he added.

I wont say what those steps are, but we are taking steps.

They too were tendancies Cllr Murray's apparent rival for a Seanad nomination was keen to testify to.

I will be meeting party headquarters to put in place a plan for the party (locally) going forward, said Cllr Carrigy.

That said, the Longford Fine Gael group leader struggled to hide his frustration when pressed.

I'm extremely disappointed, he added.

It was my feeling and the feeling of members in Longford that we should have had top priority given the circumstances (no TD) we were in and I honestly thought that would be followed through on.

Cllr Carrigy admitted he has since passed on those feelings to party bosses, but said the onus was now on ensuring voters get the best possible return from their locally elected representatives.

Meanwhile, colleagues of both the Ballinalee postmaster and Cllr Murray have said they were not surprised by Mr Kenny's decision.

I knew well we (Longford) wouldn't get it. It was never on the cards in the first place, said a nonplussed Cllr John Browne.

The Longf0rd publican, together with Cllr Peggy Nolan had been mooted as possible alternatives in an attempt to elevate the credentials of either Cllrs Carrigy or Murray ahead of the next general election.

Not according to Cllr Browne however, who also rejected assertions that last Friday's announcement could fracture the party going forward.

Tipperary have got no Fine Gael representation either, he replied.

Their two TDs failed to get elected.

This will make no difference at all. In this business (politics) everyone bulls their own cows. You have to just buck your own goats and get on with it.

One change Cllr Browne said the party at local level would be seeking however, prior to the next election is an earlier selection convention
Public utility Irish Water was last week branded a complete joke because of ongoing bursts along a number of north Longford roads.

Cllr PJ Reilly hit out as he took issue with the difficulties faced by residents living along the main Carra to Aughnagarron road outside Granard.

He said locals and farmers especially were continuing to suffer over Irish Water's apparent reluctance to upgrade underground piping.

This is the fourth season we have had to wait, he said.

I am sick of ringing after 10pm at night, saying the line has burst and water is running down the road. It's getting to be a complete joke at this stage.

One of the worst cases, he revealed, was that of a local farmer who has seen the pressure on his own water supplies lessen to such an extent that providing a ready supply to cattle is now proving onerous.

Concerns were also raised about the state of the R194 beyond Kiernan's Forge in Killoe which also have been beset by almost incessant water bursts.

Cllr Paraic Brady said it was his understanding that Irish Water planned to replace a water mains along the route during the third quarter of this year.
School & Education, Local News, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: June 02 2016

The Steamfitters Industry Scholarship Program recently awarded $36,000 in college scholarships to six high school seniors, five of which are graduating from Long Island high schools.

Long Island, NY - May 31, 2016 - The Steamfitters Industry Scholarship Program recently awarded $36,000 in college scholarships to six high school seniors who have demonstrated academic excellence and support for important programs in their communities. Over $1.5 million has been given out to 285 students since the program began in 1967.

The scholarship recipients were recognized for their achievements at the 49th annual Steamfitters Scholarship Reception held at the New York City Fire Museum. Each student was presented with a $6,000 scholarship, an engraved silver bowl, an iPad mini and a sweatshirt representing the college they plan to attend.

The award recipients are sons and daughters of working, middle-class families who serve in the steamfitting industry. They include:

Aimee Mullins, a National Honor Society student at Patchogue-Medford High School in Patchogue , NY, will attend SUNY Binghamton to study biomedical anthropology.

Samantha Vulin, a student at Plainview-Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview , NY, will study accounting at Hofstra University.

Colin Rosa, a National Honor Society student at St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip , will pursue a path in occupational therapy at the University of Scranton in Scranton, PA.

John Koebel, an honors student at Comsewogue High School in Port Jefferson Station , NY, will study education at Endicott College in Beverly, MA, and plans to become a math teacher.

Jacob Spychalsky, a student at Hicksville High School, plans to study mechanical engineering at Hofstra University, and then aspires to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers.

Jennifer Goldberg, an honor roll student at Freehold High School in Freehold, NJ, will enter Seton Hall Universitys six-year program to study special education and speech pathology.

We applaud these young scholars for their academic achievements, and I am so pleased that these awards will help them further their education and prepare for their careers. We are thrilled to honor the hard work of these children of working, middle-class families by helping to provide them with such great opportunities, said Patrick Dolan, Steamfitters Local 638 President.

For nearly half a century, this industry has come together to advance educational opportunities for working families and surpassing the $1.5 million mark in total scholarships granted is a rather significant contribution, said Michael Russo, Mechanical Contractors Association of Greater New York President and Fresh Meadow Mechanical Corp. Owner.

In an era when families sending their children to college expend an excess of $170,000 on a four-year private university, and $80,000 on a four-year public university, the MCA and Local 638 are pleased to extend this vital helping hand to students who excel academically and deserve the resources to pursue higher education, said Anthony Saporito, Executive Vice President of Mechanical Contractors Association of New York, Inc.

A college education carves a path to success to open doors for these students onto a world of possibilities in whatever field they choose. Each of these students academic resumes show they are driven and determined to achieve success, and the Steamfitters Scholarship is honored to support that, said Robert Bartels, Jr., Steamfitters Local 638 Business Agent At Large.

The Steamfitting Industry Scholarship Competition is open each year to high school students who have a parent who is employed by an MCA firm or a member of Steamfitters Local 638. Six merit-based scholarships are awarded based on academic standing, with considerations given to extracurricular activities and volunteer work.

The Steamfitters Industry Scholarship Program is sponsored by the Steamfitting Industry Promotion Fund of New York and Long Island.

For more information on individual scholarship recipients, please contact Kaylyn Alexander via email or 646-213-1366.
Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases

By Legislator Anker's Office Published: June 02 2016

Legislator Sarah Anker attended Longwoods Memorial Day services on Monday, May 30th at the beautiful Bartlett Pond Park on Middle Country Road in Middle Island.

Middle Island, NY - June 1, 2016 - Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker attended Longwoods Memorial Day services on Monday, May 30th at the beautiful Bartlett Pond Park on Middle Country Road in Middle Island. The service included song and prayer, remarks by local officials, and a wreath ceremony to commemorate the servicemen and women who have sacrificed their lives to protect our freedom.

I commend the local community for its commitment to memorializing our fallen heroes. We owe so much to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, said Legislator Anker. Thank you to Gail Lynch-Bailey, the Middle Island Civic Association, the Longwood Alliance, and the Boy Scouts for hosting this peaceful event.

The event was attended by local veterans, family members, fire department volunteers, school board members, local boy scouts, and governmental officials. The event ended with the unveiling of additional names to the Vietnam War memorial. For more information, please visit the Middle Island Civic Association website.
Nature & Weather, Local News, Health & Wellness, Home & Garden, Press Releases

By Long Island News & PR Published: June 02 2016

The EPA has proposed a plan to do some additional excavation of contaminated soil in some areas of the former Li Tungsten Property in Glen Cove, N.Y.

Glen Cove, NY - June 1, 2016 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a plan to do some additional excavation of contaminated soil in some areas of the former Li Tungsten Property in Glen Cove, N.Y. Soil at the site is contaminated with heavy metals including arsenic and lead, which can harm peoples health.



The EPA plan includes removing and disposing of arsenic and lead-contaminated soil from portions of the site and backfilling the area with clean soil or provide covering. The soil would be dug up and disposed of at facilities licensed to handle the waste. In total, approximately 7,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil will be removed.



By removing soil that is contaminated with arsenic and lead, our cleanup plan will help protect peoples health and the environment, said Judith A. Enck, Regional Administrator. By cleaning up the Li Tungsten site and giving support through the brownfields program, the EPA is helping Glen Cove turn a blighted industrial area into an asset for the community.



The EPA will hold a public meeting on June 13, 2016 to explain the proposed plan and is encouraging public comments. The meeting will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the Robert Finley Middle School Wunsch Center, One Forest Avenue, Glen Cove, N.Y. Public comments will be accepted until July 1.



The proposed plan requires continued restrictions on how the site can be used in the future to ensure that activities at the site do not interfere with the cleanup. Sampling and further studies will be conducted to ensure the effectiveness of the remedy. The EPA will conduct a review within five years to ensure the effectiveness of the cleanup.



The proposed Li Tungsten Superfund site soil cleanup announced today builds on the previous work. The Li Tungsten site included an inactive tungsten processing facility on 26 acres of land, as well as portions of a nearby area known as the Captain's Cove property where the tungsten facility operators disposed of waste tungsten material.



The EPA previously excavated about 120,000 cubic yards of contaminated waste, some of it radioactive, from Captains Cove and stored it on the property. The EPA removed the contents of approximately 270 chemical storage tanks and demolished two unstable buildings from the former Li Tungsten facility property. The EPAs long-term cleanup included excavating and segregating ore residuals, soils and sediments contaminated with heavy metals and radionuclides, and disposing of this material out of the area. The EPA also required that pieces of radioactive slag in nearby Glen Cove Creek be removed.



The EPA is also announcing a change in the future land use for a portion of the site due to a change in the cleanup levels for contaminated soil at a portion of the site, which was based on updated sampling. The modified cleanup levels remain protective of public health. The city of Glen Cove is implementing its 1998 Glen Cove Creek Revitalization Plan involving more than 200 acres surrounding Glen Cove Creek. The project has been designated as an EPA Showcase Brownfields redevelopment project. The Revitalization Plan projected the future use of the area as a mixed use commercial and residential redevelopment, featuring shops, restaurants, parking facilities and other amenities.



The Superfund program operates on the principle that polluters should pay for the cleanups, rather than passing the costs to taxpayers. The EPA searches for parties legally responsible for the contamination at sites that are placed on the Superfund list and it seeks to hold those parties accountable for the costs of investigations and cleanups.



Written comments may be mailed or emailed to:

Lorenzo Thantu, Remedial Project Manager

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

290 Broadway, 20th Floor

New York, New York 10007-1866

(212) 637-4240

email



To view the proposed plan, visit here



To view the records associated with this Superfund site, visit here



For more information on the Li Tungsten Superfund site, go here



Follow the EPA Region 2 on Twitter and visit its Facebook page.
Nassau County, NY - May 31, 2016 - With the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane Season beginning June 1st, Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone, the American Red Cross, PSEG and National Grid urge all residents to update or develop their Family Emergency Plan, Emergency Go-Kit and Family & Friends Sheltering Plan.

Superstorm Sandy taught us that given our location as an island, we are vulnerable to the Atlantic Ocean and susceptible to the powerful and destructive nature of hurricanes, said County Executive Mangano. It is critical that residents be prepared for hurricane season and take all hurricane warnings seriously. Dont take any chances and make sure your Emergency Go-Kit and Family & Friends Sheltering Plan are in place and ready should Emergency Management officials determine your neighborhood must evacuate.

The Atlantic Hurricane Season runs from June to November, with peak season from mid-August to late October. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)s Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a near-normal season. NOAA precincts a 70% likelihood of 10 to 16 named storms, which is winds of 39 mph or higher; of which 4 to 8 could become hurricanes, that is winds of 74 mph or higher; including 1 to 4 major hurricanes which are Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of 111 mph or higher. The Atlantic hurricane region includes the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

An updated and accurate Family Emergency Plan is a key component to planning for Hurricane Season. The unique needs of family members, such as the elderly, infants, those with access and functional needs and any pets should be considered. Residents should inquire about what plans are in place at work and schools in case of emergency. After all of the information is collected, gather your family to discuss how the plan works. Practice your plan at least twice a year and update it according to any issues that arise.

The Nassau County Office of Emergency Management has outlined evacuations routes from Coastal Evacuation Areas. Residents should familiarize themselves with evacuation routes and secure their property in the event of a hurricane. To review Coastal Evacuation Areas, evacuation routes or learn additional hurricane preparedness information, please visit the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management website.

Residents should assembly an Emergency Go-Kit, keep it by their front door in a duffel bag and include enough supplies for everyone in the household for 5 days, including:

First aid kit. Pack a how to guide as well.

Essential prescription and nonprescription items and medical information.

Battery-powered flashlight and radio (or crank radio), extra batteries and a 12-hour glow stick.

A change of clothes, plus rainwear, sturdy shoes and protective gloves for everyone.

Personal items, eyeglasses and personal care items.

Important documents in a waterproof container: drivers licenses, wills, birth/marriage certificates, insurance policies, deed or lease papers, recent tax returns, credit card and bank account numbers, Social Security cards, Passport and Home inventory list

Make sure you have special items for infants, elderly persons, pets or loved ones with special needs.

Residents can also safeguard their pets by preparing a Pet Go-Kit, which should include:

Your pets names, address and phone number

Your name, address, phone and cell number

Emergency contact - friend or family

Your veterinarians name and contact info

Important Documents

Medical records : Medications : Specific Care instructions : Behavioral problems First aid kit / medications

Current photos

Sturdy leash, collar or harness, muzzles

Paper towels for clean-up

Food & Bottled Water (3 day supply)

Manual can opener & Bowls

Water purification tablets

Toys and other comfort items

Treats, brushes, combs

Newspapers and plastic

Residents should develop a Family & Friends Sheltering Plan in the event they are asked to evacuate their home. If you are advised to evacuate, heres what to do:

A Family & Friends Sheltering Plan is recommended for anyone who resides in Nassau County south of Sunrise Highway or north of Route 25A. You should contact a friend or family member that lives outside the zone & make arrangements as this provides the most comfortable way to weather a severe storm.

Bring your Emergency Go-Kit

Turn off all utilities

Take your most reliable vehicle and avoid taking multiple vehicles that create gridlock

Utilize evacuation routes listed here

Nassau County residents know all too well the threats posed by Hurricane Season. Now is the time to prepare. Many resources are available for residents prepare, including free Red Cross and NassauNow mobile apps for smartphones and tablets.
Music, Movies & Entertainment, Local News, Press Releases, Seasonal & Current Events

By Long Island News & PR Published: June 02 2016

With the Long Island International Film Expo just around the corner July 13th  21st, the 2016 film schedule has finally been announced.

Bellmore, NY - June 2, 2016 - With the Long Island International Film Expo just around the corner July 13th  21st, the 2016 film schedule has finally been announced. This years schedule includes some of the best short and feature-length independent films from around the world, which will be shown at the historic Bellmore Movies (222 Pettit Avenue, Bellmore, NY 11710)!



LIIFE is the premiere filmmaker community on Long Island sponsored by the Long Island Film/TV Foundation (LIFTF) and the County of Nassau, which shows 127 short and feature-length films of every genre. The expo offers networking opportunities, a 350 seat historic theater, press and media opportunities, a convenient filmmakers lounge and several discussion panels with topics ranging from distribution to scriptwriting, legal music, and a filmmaker panel/breakfast.



Some of this years films include Immunity, written by Bellmores Shari Goldstein Umansky which stars Rena Sofer and was filmed at Gold Coast Studios. Long Island premieres include The Train, written and directed by Asher Grodman and featuring Eli Wallach in his last film; Rye Manhattan from Director Michael Goldberg; Mother from Director Joseph Halsey, and By Blood from Director Debra Markowitz which features Jackie The Joke Man Martling and filmed in Nassau County.

STUFF by Sayville writer/director Suzanne Guacci which shot all over Nassau and Suffolk and stars Phyllis Somerville, Yvonne Jung, Traci Dinwiddie, Karen Sillas and Kevin Brown; Stand Up Guy Directed by Bellmores Lee Kolinsky; Good Business, written and directed by Frank Dale Arroyo which filmed in Nassau County and stars Timothy D. Stickney and Jordan Lage; Mommys Box directed by Johnny Greenlaw which filmed in Nassau County; Sugar! Directed by Shari Berman and starring Robert Clohessy (LIIFE Creative Achievement Honoree), and My Friend Ed, a documentary about LIIFE Lifetime Achievement honoree Ed Asner (Q&A WITH ED ASNER TO FOLLOW!) which features Elliot Gould, John Heard, Ed Begley Jr, Mike Farrell, and Valerie Harper.

New York premieres include Stuck in Mute from Director Shane Meuwissen; Detours by Director Robert McCaskill which stars Richard Kind, Paul Sorvino, Michael Cerveris and Phyllis Somerville, and Sottoterra  Under the Ground from Director Federico Olivetti filmed in Tuscany, Italy. The festivals world premieres include The Grand Heist from Director Peter Frizalone of Massapequa which shot in Bethpage at Gold Coast Studios; The Guest from Director Alexander Volkovskiy filmed in Russia, and MANY MORE!



2016 LIIFE Schedule:

LIIFE KICKOFF: Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 5:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours Film: Film Duration: The Force: Only Human (Music Video) 4 Minutes Gangsta: Barn Burning 5 Minutes Rye Manhattan 7 Minutes Venom Therapy 17 Minutes Second Chance 87 Minutes

LIIFE KICKOFF: Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 8:15pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours, 6 Minutes Film: Film Duration: (un)Sexy 5 Minutes RSVP 9 Minutes Redeploy 15 Minutes Doris 17 Minutes Venial 80 Minutes

Thursday, July 14th, 2016 3:00pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Stuck in Mute 12 Minutes Twisted 13 Minutes Line to the Wall 15 Minutes The Carousel Man 27 Minutes The Guest 35 Minutes

Thursday, July 14th, 2016 5:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 53 Minutes Film: Film Duration: The Other Side of Love 8 Minutes Celebrity Sex Tape 9 Minutes Stand Up Guy 10 Minutes In Memory 14 Minutes Adrift 23 Minutes My Block: Strong Island Part 2 49 Minutes

Thursday, July 14th, 2016 8:15pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours, 9 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Giulianos Web (Trailer) 2 Minutes Superlike: A Tinder Tale 9 Minutes Walking Through Purgatory 20 Minutes The David Dance 103 Minutes

Friday, July 15th, 2016 1:15pm Showing: Total Duration : 1 Hour, 51 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Touch of Rain 2 Minutes Shishani - Calling You 3 Minutes Good Business 7 Minutes The Palooka 15 Minutes Until 20 84 Minutes

Friday, July 15th, 2016 3:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Underground (Sottoterra) 14 Minutes Mail.Man 20 Minutes The Ignorant Bagels 88 Minutes

Informal Opening Night Party and Tech Awards: Friday, July 15th, 2016 5:30pm Total Duration: 1 Hour Location: Price: Filmmakers Lounge Free for filmmakers and ticket holders

Official Opening Night Film Block: Friday, July 15th, 2016 6:45pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours, 6 Minutes Film: Film Duration: By Blood 14 Minutes The Telegram Man 14 Minutes Stuff 98 Minutes

Friday, July 15th, 2016 9:45pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes Film: Film Duration: The Grand Heist 5 Minutes Evidence Room 6 Minutes The Super 9 Minutes The Visit 11 Minutes Bait 12 Minutes Harmonica 15 Minutes Normal 17 Minutes Animal 18 Minutes

Saturday, July 16th, 2016 11:am Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 7 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Henry and Me (Special Screening!!) 67 Minutes

Saturday, July 16th, 2016 1:15pm Showing Total Duration: 1 Hour, 49 Minutes Film: Film Duration: It had To Be You 14 Minutes The Closer 95 Minutes

Saturday, July 16th, 2016 3:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes Film: Film Duration: By Blood (Trailer) 1 Minute Crash Testing 4 Minutes Legends of Freestyle 100 Minutes

Saturday, July 16th, 2016 7:00pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Breathe 22 Minutes Mommys Box 89 Minutes

Saturday, July 16th, 2016 9:40pm Showing: Total: 1 Hour, 54 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Chains (MV) 4 Minutes We Remember 14 Minutes Pride Fighter 15 Minutes Detours 81 Minutes

Calling All Kids!: Sunday, July 17th, 2016 11:30am Showing: Total Duration: 53 Minutes Film: Film Duration: In The Forest 4 Minutes Rosso Papavero 5 Minutes Taichi Mice: Entrance Exam 7 Minutes En Pointe 9 Minutes Heaven Kid: The Time Space Door 12 Minutes House Broken 16 Minutes

Sunday, July 17th, 2016 1:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes Film: Film Duration: AARP Film 10 Minutes Choice Mother 7 Minutes The Train 9 Minutes Drug Mule 10 Minutes Silenced 10 Minutes The Shvitzing 10 Minutes Gardening at Night 12 Minutes The Burden of Choice 13 Minutes Immunity 20 Minutes

Sunday, July 17th, 2016 4:15pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Those Beyond the Frame 7 Minutes Calling All Collectors 8 Minutes The Flying Gardeners 9 Minutes The Peep Hole 10 Minutes Marceline Blurr 15 Minutes Acoustic Space 15 Minutes My Grandmothers American Dream: From Italy to a New Life 38 Minutes

Sunday, July 17th, 2016 7:00pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 49 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Incarnate 7 Minutes No Cleaner Threads 8 Minutes Mired 10 Minutes In the Basement 13 Minutes Boris in the Forest 13 Minutes Zero Hour 16 Minutes The Fisherman 20 Minutes Two Blocks from Heaven 22 Minutes

Sunday, July 17th, 2016 9:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours, 11 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Hunters Moon 3 Minutes The Hallow 128 Minutes

Monday, July 18th, 2016 2:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes Film: Film Duration: The Gift 6 Minutes Lovin Lauren 7 Minutes Cold Reader 11 Minutes Saving Jamaica Bay 76 Minutes

Monday, July 18th, 2016 5:00pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Ella at the Library 8 Minutes Porcupine 14 Minutes Beyond Laughter & Tears 80 Minutes

Monday, July 18th, 2016 7:45pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours, 4 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Graveyard Girl 11 Minutes In the Deep 14 Minutes Fly Spy 21 Minutes Replika 26 Minutes Reset 27 Minutes The Kidnapping of a Fish 25 Minutes

Tuesday, July 19th, 2016 2:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Wintry Spring 15 Minutes Hanging on In 107 Minutes

Tuesday, July 19th, 2016 5:00pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Some Call That Love 5 Minutes I Come in Pieces 6 Minutes Fade 18 Minutes Before the Snow 83 Minutes

Tuesday, July 19th, 2016 7:45pm Showing Total Duration: 2 Hours, 7 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Frontman 18 Minutes The Suicide Flowers 26 Minutes Good Friday 83 Minutes

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016 2:30pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes Film: Film Duration: Oasis 9 Minutes Coming to Terms 12 Minutes Forget-You-Not 22 Minutes In Our Sons Name 65 Minutes

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016 5:00pm Showing: Total Duration: 1 Hour, 58 Minutes Fish 4 Minutes Lemon 4 Minutes The Reaper Story 6 Minutes Mothers Day 7 Minutes Girl Night Stand 9 Minutes Dinner and a Movie 13 Minutes Must Be This Tall to Ride 15 Minutes Truck 19 Minutes Just Words 26 Minutes

Wednesday, July 20th, 2016 7:45pm Showing: Total Duration: 2 Hour, 5 Minutes A New York Love Story 6 Minutes The Border 23 Minutes Sugar! 96 Minutes

Thursday, July 21st, 2016 1:00pm Showing: Total Duration: 56 Minutes My Friend Ed (WITH Q&A FROM ACTOR ED ASNER TO FOLLOW!) 56 Minutes

Awards Night:Thursday, July 21st, 2016

Honorees include Ed Asner (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, UP!) - Lifetime Achievement Award, Robert Clohessy (Blue Bloods) - Creative Achievement Award, Angela Anton (Anton News) - Humanitarian Award, and Sal Rendino (Netflixs, The Get Down, Billions) - Rising Star Award

With a heavy celebrity presence, visits in past years have included a wide range of noted actors and actresses including Steve Buscemi, Ralph Macchio, and Ally Sheedy! Named One of the Top 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World by MovieMaker Magazine, LIIFE is one of Long Islands most prestigious film festivals and the Long Island Film/TV Foundation, a not-for-profit, is also the foremost group providing support to the film/TV and commercial industries on Long Island.



Director of the Nassau County Film Office and Vice President of the Long Island Film/TV Foundation, Debra Markowitz, recently stated "It's exciting to see LIIFE become such a premiere film community on Long Island. Having several of my own films on the festival circuit and seeing what other film festivals do to serve the filmmakers, I see how important LIIFE is to fostering a cohesive festival family for foreign, domestic and, of course, our own local filmmakers."



MORE UPDATES TO COME!



For Tickets to LIIFE via Eventbrite, visit here.



For More Information on LIIFE, visit here.
Riverhead and Patchogue Continue to Work Together Co-Marketing Alive on 25 and Alive After Five

Food, Wine, & Dining, Music, Movies & Entertainment, Local News, Arts & Culture, Hot Spots & Night Life, Press Releases, Seasonal & Current Events

By Long Island News & PR Published: June 02 2016

Riverhead and Patchogue are continuing to work on solidifying a relationship between the two cities through Riverheads kickoff of the Alive on 25 Summer Street Festival.

Riverhead / Patchogue, NY - June 2, 2016 - Riverhead and Patchogue are continuing to work on solidifying a relationship between the two cities through Riverheads kickoff of the Alive on 25 Summer Street Festival. Earlier this year, Riverhead Business Improvement District (BID) approached the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce to discuss working together to create a similar event to their highly successful Alive After Five.

Patchogue Chamber Executive Director David Kennedy enthusiastically embraced the relationship and has since been instrumental in guiding Riverhead planners.

Patchogues Alive After Five has such great attendance that we are happy to give our attendees the opportunity to attend a similar event on alternating Thursday nights, said Kennedy. A cross promotional campaign has been laid out to include shared media coverage of both events to encourage people to experience both Main Street events.

The series of events will kickoff in Patchogue on Thursdays, starting July 7 and alternating weeks between the two towns for four weeks each. Alive on 25 will be held July 14, July 28, August 11 and August 25 on Main Street in downtown Riverhead (Main Street/Route 25).

The Alive on 25 Planning Committee reports that there will be a healthy participation of Main Street restaurants and bars offering food and beverage service in the street, with several top Long Island bands playing each night at various locations.

Alive on 25 is free and open to the public and will offer assorted fare with food trucks, local craft beverages, local wines, craft vendors, artist exhibits, as well as family friendly activities. A popular classic car cruise night will be featured as well.

Alive after Five has been a key part of the revitalization and growth in Patchogue, what many people consider to be a sister town of Riverhead in many ways. According to Riverhead BID Vice President Steven Shauger, Were looking forward to providing a similar experience for visitors and local businesses alike.

The festival starts at 5 p.m. and ends at approximately 9:30 p.m. For more information, visit Aliveon25.com and AliveAfterFive.com.

ABOUT ALIVE ON 25

Alive on 25 is a free summer street festival in Downtown Riverhead offering local craft beverages and wine, live music, artists, street vendors and plenty of activities for all. Main Street will close to traffic to allow for a walkable, pop-up music festival and restaurant offerings, artist exhibitions, free community dance lessons and family-friendly activities.
Looking to stay up to date about all of the news stories and local headlines that are important to Long Islanders? We've rounded up the top coverage for all of the important topics from multiple sources around Long Island, so you can be sure you've got the most recent update on the top stories for Long Island. Have an idea for a news story? Email us at news@longisland.com

Columnists Press Releases
Al Qaedas official branch in East Africa, Shabaab, continues to demonstrate that it can penetrate high security areas of Mogadishu, Somalias capital city. In a suicide assault yesterday, Shabaab killed 13 people in a complex attack at the Ambassadors Hotel.

Much like other Shabaab invasions on hotels, yesterdays offensive began with a suicide bombing near the hotels entrance. Afterwards, a small team of gunmen were then able to breach the perimeter and storm the building. The jihadists killed 13 people in the raid, including two Somali members of parliamant, while another 40 were injured. The attack lasted for over two hours before Somali special forces were able to neutralize the remaining gunmen.

The suicide raid, or coordinated attack using one or more suicide bombers and sometimes a follow-on assault team, is a tactic frequently used by al Qaeda and its branches, as well as allied groups such as the Afghan Taliban, the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. The Islamic State also often employs this maneuver. Suicide strikes are commonly executed by jihadist groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Nigeria.

The strategy is a common one used by Shabaab in its regular invasions on hotels and areas frequented by Somali dignitaries and Westerners. In January, Shabaab launched an attack on the Beach View Hotel on Lido Beach, killing over 20 people. In February, Shabaab targeted the Somali Youth League (SYL) Hotel in Mogadishu, terminating nine. The same hotel was targeted last year when Shabaab claimed credit for a bombing at the hotel that killed three people. The offensive took place as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a delegation were at the hotel.

In November 2015, Shabaab raided the Al Sahafi hotel. The attack, which began with two vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs, or car bombs) before an assault team entered the breached perimeter, left at least 15 dead. In July 2015, Shabaab killed more than 10 people after storming the Jazeera Hotel. This was not the first time the Jazeera was targeted by the jihadist group. Shabaab also hit the hotel in January 2014 and September 2012; the president and Kenyas foreign minister were present during the 2012 strike, but they were unhurt.

In March 2015, the jihadist group stormed another hotel and briefly seized control of it before the attackers were killed by security forces. One month earlier, a suicide assault team hit the Central Hotel, a gathering place for Somali parliamentarians and other members of government, killing several senior Somali politicians.

Attacks like these are designed to demonstrate that the jihadist group, despite a large presence of African Union forces, retains the ability to strike in these high-security areas. Since 2014, Shabaab has attacked the parliament, the presidents compound, and a high security intelligence headquarters. In June 2013, a Shabaab team struck at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) compound in Mogadishu; several UNDP employees were killed and the jihadist group briefly took over the compound. And in 2010, Shabaab was even able to launch a suicide assault on an African Union medical clinic in the Mogadishu airport.

While Shabaab has lost many of its major urban strongholds and areas in the rural south, it still controls large portions of southern Somalia and remains a potent force. It is still able to mount regular assaults on Somali and African Union troops in southern and central Somalia and it has increasingly been pushing attacks further south into neighboring Kenya in the last year while regaining control of towns it had previously lost in the south.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of The Long War Journal. Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Luton is a large town, borough and unitary authority area of Bedfordshire. Luton and its near neighbours, Dunstable and Houghton Regis, form the Luton/Dunstable Urban Area with a population of about 258,000. Luton is home to Championship team Luton Town Football Club, London Luton Airport and The University of Bedfordshire. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter. For all the latest news from Luton sign up to our newsletter here.
We interrupt your regular Apple news to bring you a report from the Journals of Improbability!

Writing on Worki.ng, New York Times freelancer Kim Moy and Columbia University associate Matthew Webber have come up with an idea for mobile payments thats so crazy it just might work!

Apple Should License Samsung Pay. (Tip o the antlers to Shawn King.)

Sorry, did the Macalope say just might work? He meant will never happen in a gazillion years. He regrets the error.

The Macalopes not sure if this is a case of too much book learnin overshadowing how the real world works or if its a result of the new axiom for academics that says publish something totes cray-cray or perish.

When Apple Pay was released, it came with the fanfare that mobile payments had finally gone mainstream. However, a year and a half later, its impossible to get a reliable experience using ApplePay [sic].

Hmm. Really? I mean, the Macalope knows you bolded that part and everything, but hes pretty sure hes had a very reliable experience using Apple Pay.

As an experiment, we tracked our payment options over a few days with the iPhone

And what did they find? Was Apple Pay a total fail sandwich when they tried to use it? No, actually. Instead what they found was that mobile payment of any kind wasnt available at the retail establishments they went to. So, when they say ApplePay, the missing space must mean its shorthand for any mobile payment at all.

Samsung Pay still works without contact almost everywhere because it features a system that works with the old swipe-style card readers by emitting a magnetic field the readers pick up. Its a neat technology, but its like saying a particular edition of Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is typewriter-compatible. Magnetic swipe readers are not the future. Its also not clear how secure Samsungs technology is.

It is in Apple AND Samsungs best interest to make mobile payments work universally for everyone.

How is it in Samsungs interest? Samsungs far more likely to want to use Works everywhere, unlike those other guys, yes, were talking about Apple, thats all we do, really. as a marketing tool than broadly promote contactless payment.

Regardless of whether or not Samsung would license this technology, theres no way Apples going to ask to given their history. Apple considers Samsung a bunch of thieves and looking at their latest phones its hard not to agree.

More realistically, its in Apples interest to promote the adoption of mobile payment readers so Apple Pay can be used everywhere. Thats what the Macalope thinks theyll do.
Funds managed by the private equity firm Apax Partners completed the acquisition of Marlink, Airbus Groups Commercial Satellite Communication business.

Marlinks maritime and land commercial satcom business is present in 14 countries across Europe, Asia, MiddleEast and Americas, and has a distribution network of approximately 400 resellers worldwide. The company serves all maritime sectors, as well as users in the mining, energy and humanitarian sector.

The government satcom business is not part of this transaction and remains part of Airbus Defence & Space core activities.
Defence and security company Saab has received an order from the Swedish Defence Material Administration (FMV) for delivery of advanced anti-submarine warfare training, including the autonomous underwater vehicle AUV62 in training configuration.

Deliveries will take place during the period 2016-2019.

As part of the Letter of Intent (LoI) between Saab and FMV, announced on June 9 2014, and which supports the Swedish Armed Forces underwater capabilities for the period 2015-2024, Saab has now received an order for the delivery of advanced anti-submarine warfare training.

Included in the contract is the autonomous underwater vehicle AUV62-AT, configured for anti-submarine training, and the delivery of support and maintenance to the customer. Saab is also responsible for supporting the customers training activities during the entire contract period.

For the Swedish Navy this order means that they will have an increased capability and flexibility to practice and train their units in anti-submarine warfare, says Anne-Marie Vosu, head of Saabs business unit Underwater Systems.

Saabs experience and expertise within autonomous underwater vehicles means that we can offer world-leading training opportunities for our customers in anti-submarine warfare.

The AUV62-AT is an advanced and highly modern and capable system for cost-efficient training of a navys ASW forces. The AUV62-AT is an artificial acoustic target that mimics a submarine in a way that is compatible with any torpedo- and sonar system on the market today.

The system fully replaces the use of a submarine in the role as a maneuvering training target. With the AUV62-AT Saab offers a state-of-the-art training capability for demanding customers investing in the future.
BAE Systems has been awarded contracts from the U.S. Navy for the repair and maintenance of two ships based in Jacksonville, Fla. The contracts come within days of one another and have a combined value of $61.7 million and a cumulative value of $68.6 million if all options are exercised.

BAE Systems received a $32.5 million contract from the Navy on May 10 for the docking selected restricted availability of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Farragut (DDG 99). The company will drydock the 509.5-foot-long destroyer this summer and will perform structural and tank repairs, propulsion system repairs, ventilation, and auxiliary systems repairs, as well as preservation of crew habitability systems and spaces. This contract includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $33.7 million. The work is expected to be completed by January 2017.

On May 18, BAE Systems received at $29.2 million contract from the Navy for the phased maintenance availability of the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ship USS Fort McHenry (LSD 43). The company will perform maintenance and modernization work aboard the 610-foot-long amphibious warfare ship at the Mayport Naval Station, starting in July. Work aboard the Fort McHenry includes hull, machinery, electrical, electronics, and piping alterations and repairs. The contract includes options that, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value to $34.9 million. The work is expected to be completed by May 2017.

These contracts are important because they help sustain our workforce, allowing us to continue providing vital maintenance and modernization capabilities to the Navy, said David Thomas, vice president and general manager of BAE Systems Jacksonville Ship Repair.

BAE Systems' shipyards in Jacksonville are full-service ship repair operations. In addition to naval maintenance and modernization work, the companys Heckscher Drive shipyard team is under contract to provide repair services to several private yacht and workboat owners, while also nearing completion of a 141-foot-long articulated tug barge under construction at the yard.
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DP World Group Chairman and CEO, Mr Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem has met the President of Somaliland, Mr Ahmed Mohamed Mahamoud, during a visit to the country following the signing of a term sheet agreement in Dubai earlier this month to invest in the multi-purpose Port of Berbera.



Mr Bin Sulayem and senior executives from DP World were hosted in the Presidential Palace in the capital Hargeisa where they also met government ministers and officials including Foreign Minister, Dr Saad Ali Shire; Minister of Presidential Affairs, Mr Mahmoud Hashi; Minister of Finance, Ms Zam Zam Aden; Minister of National Planning and Development, Mr Ali Hussein Ismail and Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Hussein Adan Igeh. The delegation also visited the Port of Berbera where they received a warm welcome from the General Manager of the Port, Mr Ali Omar Mohammed.



The term sheet agreement to set up a joint venture company to invest in and manage the Port of Berbera will enable it to achieve its potential for becoming a regional trade and logistics hub.



The US $442 million project will be phased over time and is dependent on the volumes generated at the port. It will also involve the setting up of a free zone to help support the development of Berberas trade corridors.



DP World Group Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, said: The Horn of Africa has been a trading partner of Dubai throughout history and we are delighted to support the Emirate of Dubai in its agreement with the government of Somaliland for wider economic cooperation across a range of sectors.



Investment in this natural deep water port will attract more shipping lines to East Africa and its modernisation will act as a catalyst for the growth of the country and the regions economy. Our global expertise in marine and inland terminals coupled with our free zone experience will be enable Somaliland to develop and provide a benefit to society for the long term, creating employment for current and future generations.



A modernised port of Berbera will provide an additional gateway for the Horn of Africa that is needed for its development while serving other land-locked countries along the east coast and encouraging economic diversification, creating hundreds of new jobs.



It will complement DP Worlds services in Africa where it employs around 4,000 people including its existing Doraleh terminal in Djibouti, the most technologically advanced container terminal on the African east coast as well as wider trade through the companys operations in Egypt, Algeria, Senegal and Mozambique.



The agreement forms part of a larger government to government Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Emirate of Dubai and the Government of the Republic of Somaliland to further strengthen their strategic ties. DP World will be the lead implementing partner for the MoU, which covers various other areas of co-operation in agriculture, fuel storage, industrial development, roads and tourism.



It also builds on the traditional strong ties between the Somaliland community and the UAE, with many dhows along the Dubai Creek still following routes of their ancestors to the ports of Somaliland and East Africa.
Gibdock's ro-ro and container ship repair work continues, following the drydocking of two con-ro vessels operated by Canadian shipowner, Oceanex. Oceanex provides intermodal transportation services to the Canadian Atlantic provinces of Labrador and Newfoundland.



Gibraltar-based Gibdock was selected by St Johns, Newfoundland-based Oceanex to carry out wide-ranging work on the 2013-built, 1300 teu Oceanex Connaigra, and the 1977-built, 1125 teu capacity, Oceanex Sanderling. The 210m long, 26,800grt Oceanex Connaigra - the largest con-ro vessel flying the Canadian flag - arrived in Gibraltar on March 6 this year, departing two weeks later on March 20. The 193m long, 21,849grt Oceanex Sanderling was docked on April 2 for a program of work that lasted just over a month.



The scope of work on the Oceanex Connaigra included: the removal of the CPP propeller blades, the hub and tailshaft; the installation of a new hub; and the fitting of new propeller control pipework. The existing blades had to be machined in Gibdocks workshops before refitting to the new hub. The yard was also tasked with carrying out modifications to the vessels exhaust gas scrubber system by replacing two bypass valves, each of which was 645mm in diameter. This involved cropping and modifying the exhaust trunk and modifying the fuel oil module by making adjustments to the pipework.



Gibdock carried out a very different package of work on Oceanex Sanderling, which is now nearly 40 years old. This required the removal of the con-ro ships stern ramp, which is made up of three sections, the biggest of which weighs 93 tons. Paul Cano, senior ship repair manager, says,This part of the work was an important milestone for Gibdock, involving the heaviest lift that the yard has carried out to date. Once the ramp sections were disassembled and lifted ashore, the yard carried out extensive steel repairs before refit.



Gibdock also removed Sanderlings tailshaft for survey, removed and refurbished the rudder blade, reinforced the weather deck and fitted new container sockets to allow loading of 53ft containers. The yard overhauled bow thrusters, repaired paintwork and carried out other works associated with a general five-year survey.



While the three-year old Oceanex Connaigra is a first time visitor to Gibdock, Oceanex Sanderling was previously docked, in 2011. Richard Beards, Managing Director of Gibdock, says, The owner was quite clear that Oceanex Connaigra and Oceanex Sanderling were required back in service within a tight timeframe, with minimal disruption to Oceanex customers. We were delighted to be chosen for this project, and to complete two very different but equally challenging projects on time on two con-ro ships of different ages.
The Guang Hua Kou, one of the world's largest heavy lift semi-submersible ships, was launched last month at Guangdong Shipyard International. At 98,000 tons, it's one of the largest vessels of its size, anywhere in the world.

Though the ship is formally built for COSCO Heavy Transport, a state-owned civilian firm, it will likely be made available for the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) for peace and wartime operations, reports Popular Science.

A shipping line owned by the Chinese government, Cosco Heavy Transport specializes in handling heavy cargo. The Guang Hua Kou will be one of the largest vessels of its type when delivered end of this year, explained the company, in a press release.

Heavy lift ships are designed to transport huge payloads everything from other ships to oil drilling platforms and construction equipment that are too big to carry on conventional shipping vessels.

The Guang Hua Kou clocks at nearly 700 feet long and 225 feet wide, enabling it to carry ships as big as missile destroyers.

Eric Wertheim, author of the Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, told FoxNews.com that the massive ship is part of Chinas efforts to establish a world class navy and maritime force that is capable of operating world wide.

"People often forget that a powerful navy is able to project power far from its home waters, and to do that forces need a logistics capability to sustain their fleet and operations," he explained, via email.
Digital Marine Solutions (DMS) has completed acquisition of the assets of the Marine Division of Jeppesen, a Boeing company. Digital Marine Solutions is owned by the Altor 2003 Fund. Under the terms of the agreement the Jeppesen Marine and C-MAP portfolio will continue to operate as a separate entity under the C-MAP brand name.



Operating with its own dedicated resources and management team lead by CEO Egil Aarstad, the new organizations immediate focus will be on maintaining sales and service to customers that already purchase from C-MAP/Jeppesen Marine across its Recreational, Commercial marine and Fleet sectors. Moving forward, C-MAP management teams long-term goal will be to grow the company in the rapidly developing digital marine market, by delivering an enhanced portfolio and all new level of services to the industry.



The completion of this deal is good news for C-MAP, our customers, our staff and the marine industry, said C-MAP CEO Egil Aarstad. Our wide variety of customers will see continuity in supply and improvements in the standards of excellence delivered by C-MAP, and enjoy continued access to an enhanced range of high-quality electronics navigational charts, information solutions and added value support.



We believe that C-MAP is very well positioned to take a leadership position in the dynamic and developing market for digital content and services, said Leif Ottosson chairman of Digital Marine Solutions. We are very excited about future C-MAP partnerships and growth opportunities across both the recreational and commercial marine market.
A new lifeboat has been donated to the Hellenic Rescue Team (HRT) by fellow International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF) members the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue (RS), and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.



Norway II is the second lifeboat to be donated to HRT and follows Norway I that has operated since September last year in the Aegean Sea around Kos.



In her speech on Lesvos, the godmother of the boat, Mrs. Marit Nybakk, Vice President of the Parliament of Norway said: We are proud of the rescue achievements of the RS executives and HRT volunteers in the Aegean sea She wished the lifeboats crew good rescues before christening the boat.

H.E. the Ambassador of Norway, Mr. Gjelstad, said that the cooperation between Norway and Greece was extremely valuable and he praised the work of the Norwegian RS for supporting sea rescue in Greece. He also underlined that the private and public sector partnership can generate great results and praised the inhabitants of Lesvos and HRT volunteers in the island for the incredible help and support they have offered to the refugees.

The Maritime Director of RS, Mr. Webjrn Knudsen said: It is difficult for us to understand how hard HRT volunteers have worked in order to help our fellow human beings when their life was in danger at sea He added that he was proud of the cooperation and for what had been achieved in such little time.



Gorge Kalogeropoulos, President of the Central Command of HRT, emphasised the immense support of RS, through lifeboat donation, offer of equipment and training programs.



Also present were the Commodore of the Hellenic Coast Guard, Mr. Nikolaos Arbouniotis, the Regional HCG Governor -on behalf of the Chief of HCG- Vice Admiral Stamatios Raptis, and many other representatives from local authorities.

The boats donation falls under the support offered to HRT by RS and the Norwegian government, aiming at reinforcing the SAR operational capability of HRT so that it is in a position to respond to the immediate needs that may come up from a possible new burst of migrant flows to Greece, as well as to ordinary incidents at sea. The Norway  will operate at the sea area of Lesvos, auxiliary, as always, to the operation of the Hellenic Coast Guard.



At the christening ceremony opening remarks were addressed by Mr. Theodoros Valssamidis, Vice Governor of North Aegean, Captain Nikolaos Passadis, Harbour Master of the Central Harbour of Mytilini and Mr. George Psanis, President of the City Council of the Municipality of Lesvos. Also present was a representative of INTERAMERICAN, gold sponsor of HRT - Mr. John Diamantis - associate of the company in the island of Lesvos.

The Hellenic Rescue Team warmly thanked all the sponsors and supporters that contribute to its work and especially the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue (RS), the Norwegian Government, Hellenic Coast Guard Headquarters, Setur marina at Mytilini and particularly its Director, Mr. Konstantis Xidas, the islands Authorities and in particular the Central Harbour of Mytilini, the North Aegean Region, the Municipality of Lesvos, the Lesvos Fire Brigade, the Regional Police Division of North Aegean, the Police Division of Lesvos, AEGEAN, INTERAMERICAN, HELLENIC SEAWAYS, CORAL, HATZOPOULOS S.A., the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A., PFIZER, ALPHA BANK, GENESIS PHARMA, LALIZA, DACON and above all the volunteers of HRT Lesvos.
Container shipper Maersk Line has signed an agreement of intent with global aluminum producer RUSAL to cooperate within cargo transportation for the long term.

Under the agreement, RUSAL and Maersk Line will cooperate with regards to transport of RUSALs products, particularly aluminum and alloys. The estimated cargo volume of the agreement may reach 10,000 containers (TEU) per year. The agreement is valid for three years and includes options for further extension.

The signing of this agreement is a confirmation of the mutual intentions to build a long-term strategic partnership between RUSAL and Maersk Line. The aim of the agreement is the joint search for the most optimal logistic solutions aimed at optimizing costs for both parties, said Vladislav Soloviev, RUSAL CEO.

We are very pleased with our agreement with RUSAL and are happy to be chosen by such an important business partner on the Russian market, said Maersk Lines Russia Sales Manager Alexander Bobrakov. We know that consistent and reliable service is crucial for our customers and we are committed to meeting these high expectations vested in us and playing an important role in RUSALs supply chain.

This agreement is of great significance toward the upcoming celebration of our 25th anniversary operation in Russia in 2017. After evaluating some noticeable milestones in Maersk Lines history in the local market, we are pleased to establish a partnership with RUSAL, which will commence growth and development opportunities, noted Tom Hyldelund, Managing Director of Maersk Line in Russia.

Our agreement with RUSAL includes three of our brands, Seago Line, MCC and Maersk Line. It is therefore also a testimony of our global reach as well as our regional expertise, said Sren Skou, Maersk Liner Business CEO, mentioned who was also present at the ceremony.
GTT has received an order from Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) for two new liquefied natural gas carriers (LNGCs) to be built at HHIs shipyard in Ulsan for SK Shipping, a Korean shipowner. Delivery is scheduled in 2019.

The vessels, designed according to the new IGC standards published in 2016, will be equipped with GTT's Mark III Flex membrane technology. Mark III Flex is particularly well-suited for the highly efficient XDF propulsion system installed on SK Shipping's LNG carriers, as the technology offers a high level of insulation performance.

GTT is very pleased to continue our collaboration with HHI. This new contract demonstrates HHI's confidence in GTT technologies which already equip some fifty LNG carriers in service built by the shipyard, said Philippe Berterottiere, Chairman and CEO of GTT. SK Shipping has been using vessels equipped with GTT membranes for some time, and we are very committed to this excellent partnership.

Mark III Flex technology is a solution with more than 60 LNG carriers order references worldwide since 2011, 34 of which are in service.

GTT said it continues to develop its Mark range, particularly through improvements in design and the use of components that are more and more efficient. This development allows GTT to offer insulation solutions that provide increasing performance adapted to the requirements of the latest vessel propulsion systems, which are more fuel efficient, as well as new projects that require greater resistance to liquid motion, particularly for multi-gas applications, or partially filled tanks (FSRU, FLNG, etc.).
The President of the Singapore Shipping Association (SSA) Mr Esben Poulsson has been elected as the new Chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).



Mr Poulsson was elected at the ICS Annual General Meeting in Tokyo today (2 June). He takes over from Mr Masamichi Morooka, who has stood down after four years in office.



Speaking about his new role Mr Poulsson expressed his honour at being elected as the next ICS Chairman.



He said: Rather than viewing this as a personal achievement, I believe my election is more a reflection of Singapores stature as a respected flag state and major international maritime centre.



International engagement and outreach has been, and remains, very much part of the SSA strategy, as approved by this and the previous Council, and is something for which we sense widespread membership support. It is status quo at the Association with Mr Poulsson remaining as President of the SSA and assisted by Vice Presidents Ms Lisa Teo and Mr Tan Chin Hee, at least until the end of his current term in June 2017.



As ICS Chairman, Mr Poulsson identified two main challenges that he will focus on: The first is working with IMO Member States to make further progress addressing international shippings CO2 emissions, including our proposal that IMO should develop an Intended IMO Determined Contribution for reducing the sectors CO2, similar to the commitments already made by governments as part of the COP21 Paris Agreement.



But even more pressing, from an industry perspective, is making sure we are ready for the almost certain entry in force of the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention, and engaging with governments, especially the United States, to overcome some remaining but really serious implementation problems, he said.



He added: I take this new responsibility very seriously and at the top of my agenda will be a determination to ensure that the ICS continues to represent the view of the entire shipping industry. ICS has put in a lot of effort to give due recognition to our industrys achievements and its critical contribution to the sustainable development of the world economy  and that is something I will continue to actively articulate.



ICS is the principal international trade association for shipowners, with a membership comprising national shipowners associations from 37 countries representing all sectors and trades and over 80% of the world merchant fleet.



Mr Poulsson will be supported in his important new role by four ICS Vice Chairmen: Mr John C. Lyras (Greece), Mrs Karin Orsel (Netherlands), Mr Mark Martecchini (Liberia) and Mr Gerardo Borromeo (Philippines).


The Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd. (G E Shipping) took delivery of a Secondhand Very Large Gas Carrier Jag Vidhi (1996 built) of about 76,931 cbm. The company had contracted to buy the vessel in April 2016.



With the inclusion of the vessel, the Companys current fleet stands at 32 vessels, comprising 23 tankers (7 crude carriers, 14 product tankers, 2 LPG carrier) and 9 dry bulk carriers (4 Kamsarmax, 5 Supramax) with an average age of 10.3 years aggregating 2.4 mn dwt.
The shareholders of Middle East container shipping group United Arab Shipping Company (UASC) back the company's merger talks with German rival Hapag-Lloyd although there has not yet been a vote to approve a deal, UASC said on Thursday.



UASC, which is owned by Gulf governments, said the merger talks were discussed at an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) for shareholders on Thursday at the company's office in Dubai.



"While the shareholders' representatives at the EGM were generally supportive of the ongoing discussions with Hapag-Lloyd and recognized the strategic value of a potential combination of both businesses, no formal vote was held today on this topic since the full agreement has not been finalized," UASC said in a statement.



If a deal is reached it will create a group with an estimated combined enterprise value of around 7 billion to 8 billion euros ($7.8 bln-$8.9 bln).



UASC said it was continuing discussions with Hapag-Lloyd "to reach an agreement on the envisaged combination, in which case, another EGM of UASC shareholders will then be convened."



At the company's EGM on Thursday, amendments to UASC's Articles of Association, which govern company structure, were approved, the statement said without elaborating.



They were among the first comments on the potential deal from Kuwait-based UASC, owned by Gulf Arab states and in which Qatar holds a majority stake.



Hapag-Lloyd postponed its annual general meeting scheduled for June 1 due to the merger talks with UASC.



Last month Hapag-Lloyd formed a new alliance with five Asian competitors as rivals team up to cut costs in the worst downturn the industry has ever seen.



By linking up through vessel sharing arrangements, shipping lines aim to pool runs to various destinations and save on expenses to boost efficiencies.



Global container shipping is suffering a severe downturn as a combination of weak consumer demand and overcapacity have forced shipping lines to slash costs and try to build scale, including via tie-ups with rivals.





($1 = 0.8963 euros)



(Reporting By Jonathan Saul; Writing By Maha El Dahan; Editing by Susan Fenton and Alexandra Hudson)
Korea Times says that Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) will join a new global shipping alliance, as the cash-strapped shipper has successfully reached a debt-rescheduling deal with its bondholders.

HMM announced that it has reached a resolution with holders of all five bond issues that are maturing in 2016 and 2017. South Koreas second largest shipping line had held meetings with holders of the 177-2, 179-2 and 180 issues on 31 May, and holders of the 176-2 and 186 issues on 1 June.

According to a government official, key members of THE Alliance said they will support HMMs membership application. Since the shipper successfully cleared a hurdle of debt adjustment negotiations with its bondholders, HMMs entrance to THE Alliance is expected to be just a matter of time, he added.

The companys liquidity issues caused it to be tentatively left out of the alliance, which was formed on 13 May and comprises Hanjin Shipping, Mitsui OSK Lines, NYK Line, KLine, Hapag Lloyd, and Yang Ming.

Joining THE Alliance was one of many prerequisite hurdles for HMM in normalizing its operations and business along with debt rescheduling and cutting charter fees paid to ship owners.

Members of THE Alliance said they will help HMMs induction once we regained our financial health, said an HMM official.

HMM had been a member of the G6 shipping alliance, but wasnt included when the G6 formed THE Alliance, due to its poor financial status.
CIMC Enric, an affiliate company of China International Marine Containers (CIMC), has announced that it has terminated the acquisitions of Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering (SOE), the offshore unit of Sinopacific Shipbuilding.

CIMC Enric said the Board decided not to proceed with the proposed acquisition of the entire equity interest of SinoPacific Offshore & Engineering Co., Ltd. as certain conditions precedent have not been fulfilled or waived.

Last year, CIMC has struck a deal with Evergreen Holding and its subsidiaries to acquire Nantong SOE for at least CNY700 million (USD109 million) in cash and shares.

In the meantime, the Board is considering various alternatives in protecting the rights and values of the Group's interests in the target company, including but not limited to the commencement of restructuring procedures against the target company pursuant to the relevant laws and regulations of the PRC.

The target is principally engaged in the design and manufacturing of IMO Type C Tank; production, design, manufacturing and delivery of liquid cargo handling system for small and mid-size liquefied ethylene gas (LEG)/ liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)/ liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, and complete vessel construction; and production, design and manufacturing of marine oil and gas module.
Abu Dhabi Ports, the master developer, operator and manager of ports and Khalifa Industrial Zone (Kizad) in the Emirate, has renamed its subsidiary, Abu Dhabi Marine Services, as SAFEEN meaning ships in Arabic- in a bid to rebrand itself.

The announcement was followed closely by the brand winning the prestigious International Safety Management (ISM) certification from the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Further, as part of expanding its fleet and improving services, SAFEEN has added a new tug boat named MAQTAA to its existing fleet of five tugs, five pilot boats, six speed boats, one buoy maintenance boat and two oil spill response boats. The company plans to acquire three more tug boats by the end of 2016.

The International Safety Management (ISM) certification comes as recognition of SAFEENs compliance with the best international standards of safety. The ISM Code is part of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), an international standard for the safe management and operation of ships as well as pollution prevention.

The ISM certification coupled with our acquisition of the new tug boat mark the grand launch of our new brand, which gives utmost value to servicing our esteemed clients. These achievements prove that this makeover is about achieving substantial improvement in the capacity and quality of our marine services, which play a major role in the regions maritime industry, said Captain Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports.

The 4,150,000 (AED 17.09 million)-tug boat MAQTAA has up to 15 tonne marine crane capacity and three-wire drum winches for anchor handling and towage operations of barges. MAQTAA will provide towing service and assistance to

vessels for berthing and unberthing, along with anchor handling. Additionally, it offers maintenance service for Aids to Navigation (AtoN), such as buoys and beacons.

SAFEENs AtoN department, established in compliance with IALA (International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation & Lighthouse Authorities) standards, maintains nearly 1198 buoys and beacons. The department conducts regular inspections to facilitate safe and efficient movement of ships in Abu Dhabi waterways and channels, while conserving the maritime environment.

SAFEEN also offers a wide range of services such as vessel services (tug services, towage, pilotage), vessel trafficking services (VTS), mooring and ancillary services (such as Bollard pull test, quayside services, fresh water supply, garbage disposal, bunkering, issuing of permits), diving services (including underwater inspection and filming), bathymetric surveying, ferry management in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, navigational services (waterway & channel maintenance) and marine workshop services.

Abu Dhabi Marine Services has previously won the International Standard for Maritime Pilot Organisations (IPSO) certification for its marine pilotage service.

Established in March 2013, Abu Dhabi Marine Services provides a comprehensive range of marine and ancillary quayside services to vessels calling at Abu Dhabi seaports in a safe, secure and efficient manner.
Naust Marine has secured a contract to supply Autotrawl (Autotow) Winch Control to four Sakhalin trawlersa first for BATM-class trawlers of the Russian Far East.

JSC Pilenga, a trawler-vessel operator based on Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East, has awarded Naust Marine a contract to install Nausts ATW (Automated Trawl Winch) autotrawl systems aboard three BATM-class supertrawlersand on a single Moonzund-class trawler, the F/V Vasilii Kalenov. Nausts DC-based package is tailored for work with existing electric systems on board.

Autotrawl in the Russian Far East is, for many, a relatively new concept, and winning this contract took paramount effort, said Scott R. Atkinson, Regional Sales Manager for Naust Marine. Many operators have, until recently, considered autotrawl unnecessarydespite advantages in trawl handling, kW efficiencies, and higher catch rates elsewhere. The very tough economic situation in Russia, the weak Russian ruble, the declining market for Russian-caught Pollock in China, and the increasingly difficult political-military situation in Europeall of these made closing this sale even more challenging.

At the request of Pilenga, Naust delivered a fuel-efficiencies study indicating that, over the course of just over three years, the autotrawl system aboard the BATM-class trawler pays for itself in kW efficiencies that translate to fuel savings, to say nothing of immediate savings in removal of maintenance costs for old systems, along with dramatic improvement in catchability owing to stepless, automated control of the trawl winches.

Naust said its ATW goes far beyond the original constant-tension and render/recover functions of early autotrawl, providing infinitely-variable speed control (along with varied other functionalities), notable since such speed control was once considered the sole province of the hydraulic winch school.

Manager of Sales Helgi Kristjansson, Nausts long-time veteran sales presence in worldwide markets, was with Atkinson on Sakhalin Island for the closing. Kristjansson noted that Naust Marine has been blessed to have a loyal customer here. They were pleased with the efficiencies gained from installing our auxiliary winch controls package (for four sweepline and two Gilson winches on each of four trawlers) earlier. So we view this as a key expansion in our close relationship.

Naust technicians have arrived in Pusan, South Korea, and startup for the first two vessels will begin soon.
Philippines President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said on Thursday he would not surrender the country's rights over the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, which China seized in 2012.

"There will never be an instance that we will surrender our right over Scarborough Shoal," Duterte told a news conference after holding talks with China's ambassador Zhang Jianhua.

"That is not a territorial issue. It is an issue about being obstructed or impeded because of the constructions there and we cannot exercise freely the rights under UNCLOS of the 200-mile economic zone that is exclusive to us."

He said he did not discuss the South China Sea dispute with the ambassador because the Philippines was anticipating a decision from a tribunal in The Hague.

Manila has brought a case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration against China under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China does not recognise the court's jurisdiction in the dispute.

Duterte, a tough-talking mayor who won the presidency last month, said he would pursue multilateral talks to resolve peacefully the sovereignty issues in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands on reefs and atolls.

China claims most of the sea area, through which about $5 trillion worth of ship-borne goods passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines also have claims on the region, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas.

Duterte made headlines during his election campaign by saying he would ride a jetski to plant a Philippine flag on China's man-made islands.





(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Andrew Roche)
An independent three-member review panel has been established to conduct the environmental assessment of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority's Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project, a proposed new three-ship container terminal that would accommodate growing demand for goods shipped in containers.

According to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, the construction of the privately-funded project would create 12,700 person-years of employment over a five-and-a-half year period and its operation would support approximately 12,400 full-time jobs on an ongoing basis.

Appointed to the review panel are members Dr. Diana Valiela, Dr. David Levy and panel chair Jocelyne Beaudet, announced Catherine McKenna, Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

The appointment of the review panel initiates a technical review of the findings and conclusions of the Environmental Impact Statement. This is the most stringent form of environmental review in Canada.

The Environmental Impact Statement documents four years of extensive scientific study and consultation with regulators, Aboriginal groups, local government and the public to assess the potential environmental, economic, social, heritage and health effects of the terminals construction and operation.

We are pleased that the review panel has been appointed and that we are moving into the next phase of environmental review, said Robin Silvester, President and CEO of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.

In total, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority undertook assessments for 30 subject areas that were of interest to the port authority, regulators, Aboriginal groups, local government and the public, including topics such as birds, fish, whales, noise, light and human health.

The Environmental Impact Statement includes 77 studies, contributions from more than 100 professional scientists and over 35,000 hours of field work.

Following the completion of the review panels assessment, they will submit a report to the minister who will then make a decision on the whether the project can proceed.
The Marine Corps has released a new tattoo policy that seeks to balance the personal desires of Marines with high standards of professional military appearance and heritage. The Marine Corps Bulletin 1020, released June 2, 2016, explains the new Marine Corps tattoo policy, which replaces all previous tattoo policy guidance.

The Commandant and I have been talking with Marines throughout the Corps during our visits and weve taken their questions and comments to heart because it continues to be important to Marines, said Sgt. Major Ronald L. Green, Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. The Commandant said it best in the Marine Corps Bulletin in that weve attempted to balance the individual desires of Marines with the need to maintain the disciplined appearance expected of our profession. I think we have accomplished just that with MCBUL 1020. We took the time we felt this policy deserved, we wanted to make sure we got it right.

Any tattoo, regardless of where it is cannot express sexism, nudity, racism, vulgarity, or anything that is offensive and is of nature to bring discredit to the Marine Corps or damage the nations expectations of them.





Marines can have an unlimited number of tattoos that are covered by the properly fitting standard physical training uniform: green t-shirt and green shorts.

Marines are prohibited from getting tattoos on the head, neck, inside the mouth, wrists, knees, elbows and hands with the exception of a single band tattoo of no more than three-eighths of an inch in width on one finger.

The Commandant put a lot of time and effort into the development of this policy, he personally wanted to ensure Marines knew they were being listened to and that their opinions matter and will be taken into consideration, said Green. Hes allowed more skin area for tattoos in an effort to balance the Marines desires with the Grooming Standards of the Marine Corps. He wanted the policy to allow Marines freedom and flexibility to express themselves, while also being clearly written and understandable for both Marines and their leadership.

Under MCBUL 1020, there is now official ways to measure tattoos to make sure Marines are in compliance. There are two measurement tools that can be used, which are the elbow-measuring tool and knee-measuring tool.

Along with that Marines will use their own hands in order to measure how big the visible portion of a tattoo may be. If a single tattoo exceeds the bounds of the individual Marines hand then it is prohibited.

Everything has been simplified and made so that Marines will not have any questions regarding where and how big tattoos can be.

The Commandant and I have reviewed the policy alongside other Marine Corps leadership, we even showed Marines the framework along the process, said Green. With their input and our review, we feel this policy is well-balanced and is best suited for the individual Marine as well as the entire Marine Corps Team.

There is a reason why Marine Corps Recruiting has remained so successful throughout the years, when you ask Marines why they chose the Corps, most will tell you because they wanted to be different. They wanted to be part of something better than self. They wanted to be a part of a team.

The bulletin mainly covers the standards for visible tattoos, which are tattoos that can be seen outside of the properly fitting pt uniform.

Marines may have band tattoos. Band tattoos are tattoos, which fully encircle the circumference of the body part. They cannot exceed three inches or the width of an individual Marines four fingers joined, the second knuckle of the index finger to the first knuckle of the pinky finger.

A band tattoo counts as a single allowable tattoo. Only the visible portion of the band tattoo has to be within those standards.

Visible upper arm tattoos may extend down and around the arm on all sides no closer than two inches above the center of the elbow but must not be larger than the individual Marines hand with their fingers extended and joined with the thumb flush against the side of the hand.

Marines can get only one lower arm tattoo, which has to be at least one inch below the center of the elbow and two inches above the wrist bone. Marines are allowed either an authorized band tattoo, a single tattoo or a collection of tattoos which can be covered by the individual Marines hand with their fingers extended and joined with the thumb flush against the side of the hand.

Visible upper leg tattoos may extend down and around the leg on all sides no closer than two inches above the center of the knee when the leg is straight but must not be larger than the individual Marines hand with their fingers extended and joined with the thumb flush against the side of the hand.

Marines can get only one lower leg tattoo, which has to be at least two inches below the center of the knee. Marines are allowed either an authorized band tattoo, a single tattoo or a collection of tattoos which can be covered by the individual Marines hand with their fingers extended and joined with the thumb flush against the side of the hand.

Slacks must be worn instead of the skirt if tattoos on the legs or feet are visible in the Service A, Dress Blue A/B, Blue-White Dress A/B, or Evening Dress uniforms.



Officers may have no more than four tattoos visible in the standard PT uniform. Enlisted Marines will have to comply with this standard if they are seeking acceptance in an officer program.

Marines will be able to serve on special duty assignments, such as recruiting duty, Marine security guard duty, drill instructor duty, Marine security force duty and Marine combat instructor duty, if they are in compliance with the standards listed in this bulletin regarding visible tattoos. If Marines have tattoos that are not in compliance with this bulletin but are already on assignment or have gotten orders for SDA they will finish their tour but will not be able to do another one.

Marines should understand that violating any policy has consequences and leadership will hold Marines accountable accordingly, said Green. As Marines we hold each other accountable, just as we are expected to protect one another.

Any Marine who has already been grandfathered will not be affected by the bulletin.

Within 120 days after the release of this MCBUL all commanders must ensure Marines document their tattoos if not in compliance with new policy AND have not been documented before hand. Tattoos not in compliance with the new policy will be documented on a page 11 of the Marines Electronic Service Record. The purpose for the page 11s is only for documentation and is not a disciplinary action.

Commanders should educate all Marines within their command as soon as possible. Marine should be looking at the new bulletin, printing out the measurement tools or using a standard office ruler when going to get a new tattoo.

It is up to the individual Marine to ensure that their tattoos are reviewed and ultimately up to their leadership to make sure that it happens and is conducted properly, said Green. We owe that to each other to make sure its done right.
The Bail-In: Or How You Could Lose Your Money in the Bank

David Chapman writes: Buried in the Liberal Federal Budget that was introduced on March 22, 2016, under Chapter 8 - Tax Fairness and a Strong Financial Sector, was a section titled "Introducing a Bank Recapitalization 'Bail-in' Regime." Simply stated, in the unlikely event of a large bank failure, the Government proposed it would reinforce that bank shareholders and creditors are responsible for the bank's risks - not taxpayers.

What that means is that shareholders, bondholders and depositors, rather than taxpayers, are responsible for the bank's risks in the event of a failure. During the 2008 global financial crash, banks that were deemed "too-big-to-fail" were bailed out by the government, meaning the taxpayer footed the bill. None of the banks were Canadian banks, but it does need to be noted that Canadian banks received some $114 billion from Canada's federal government. This was against the background of Canadian banks being declared "the most sound banking system in the world." At the time, the government denied there was any bailout, preferring to use the term "liquidity support." To put the amount in perspective, $114 billion is roughly 7% of Canada's GDP.

The 2016 budget notes that in implementing a "bail-in" regime, it will strengthen the bank resolution toolkit in Canada and ensure Canadian banking practices are consistent with international best practices endorsed by the G20. Bail-in regimes are being instituted in the Western economies especially - in the EU, the USA, Japan, Australia and, of course, Canada. This isn't the first time that a bail-in has been introduced, as the previous government came forward with one in 2013, and in 2014 presented a consultation paper. Initially it was thought that depositors would be excluded.

Surprisingly, in the budget, depositors are not mentioned specifically. It should be noted, however, that depositors have paid a price in bail-ins that have already occurred in Cyprus and in Italy. So the risk to depositors cannot be ignored.

First of all let's dispel a myth surrounding bank accounts. Most Canadians hold their funds in chequing and savings accounts. These are known as "demand" deposits. Most people mistakenly believe that their monthly bank statements show them how much they own. Au contraire. They are in fact a statement of what the bank owes its clients.

Under Canada's fractional reserve system, the banks promise to keep some cash on hand in the event of withdrawals, but the reality is that they lend out the funds or use the funds to purchase assets or incorporate into their global trading operations. The funds on deposit are no longer the property of the depositor. Instead the depositor becomes an unsecured creditor or lender to the bank. Banks pay you interest, but their real purpose is to use your funds to earn a spread. They put your funds at risk in the global markets through lending, syndication and trading.

If things do go wrong, depositors get nervous and run to the bank to withdraw their funds. This is known as a "bank-run." A "bank holiday" could also be declared in the event of a massive bank-run. What happens, essentially, is that the bank closes its doors and the ATM machines. This happened during the Great Depression, and also happened most recently in Cyprus. Effectively what happens with a bank holiday is that the bank bails itself in. And even that was insufficient to save many banks in the Great Depression and in Cyprus.

Canada does have an insurance safety net to protect depositors from bank failures. In 1967 Parliament created the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation (CDIC). The CDIC is a federal crown corporation similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the US. The CDIC is charged with maintaining public confidence in Canada's financial system.

It pays to know which financial institutions are covered and which ones are not. Most Canadian banks, loan companies and trust companies are CDIC members. Some banks and credit unions, and foreign banks that have branches in Canada, are not covered. Check the CDIC's website if you are unsure www.cdic.ca.

The CDIC covers up to $100,000 in deposits. That could include individual accounts, joint accounts, trust accounts and bank savings in a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), registered retirement income funds (RIFs) and savings to pay realty tax on mortgage payments. Diversifying accounts among financial institutions helps ensure as wide a coverage as possible.

Eligible products include chequing and savings accounts, guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) and term deposits that mature fewer than five years from date of purchase, money orders and drafts, certified cheques and traveler's cheques. It doesn't cover foreign currency accounts, GICs that mature more than five years from date of purchase, government bonds, treasury bills, mortgage backed securities (MBS), stocks, mutual funds and gold certificates issued by a Canadian bank. Note that it covers deposits only in Canadian dollars.

Canada does not have an extensive history of bank failures, not even during the Great Depression. Banks or financial institutions tend to be merged or taken over, even ones that could be on the verge of failure. The last failures were Northland Bank and Canadian Commercial Bank in 1985. Prior to that, the last one was Home Bank in 1923. Confederation Life Insurance Co. (CLIC) collapsed in 1994, but that was an insurance company.

Canadian banks are generally well rated, but they are not what one would call AAA. The following are the credit ratings of Canada's banks (Standard & Poor's):

Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) - AA-

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) - AA-

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - A+

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) - A+

Bank of Montreal (BMO) - A+

National Bank of Canada (NBC) - A

Caisse centrale Desjardins (Caisse) - A+

Laurentian Bank of Canada (Laurentian) - BBB

Canada Western Bank (CWB) - Not rated

Canadian banks are regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), which regulates and supervises not only banks but also trust and loan companies, insurance companies, cooperative credit associations, fraternal benefit societies, and private pension plans. The OSFI does not regulate the securities industry or the mutual fund industry. The OSFI reports to Parliament through the Minister of Finance.

Those at risk of a bail-in in the event of a failure are subordinated debt holders, bondholders, preferred shareholders and any accounts in excess of $100,000 not covered by CDIC insurance. Their bonds, preferred shares, deposits etc. would be converted to capital to re-capitalize the banks. According to the financial statements of the CDIC, they insured some 30% of total deposit liabilities, or $684 billion, as of April 30, 2014. The remaining 70% not insured would primarily be large depositors, including both large and small businesses, and other banks and financial institutions.

Depositors can avoid problems in a bail-in regime, but to do so they must be aware of the rules and have taken steps to ensure the safety of their funds. The bail-in regime would only apply to eligible Canadian banks and financial institutions. As was noted, it would not cover brokerage accounts, pension funds and mutual funds.

Some steps that an investor might take: diversify savings across banks and even countries; look carefully at the health of your bank or financial institution; own assets outright and reduce or avoid risk to custodians and trustees; avoid investments where there is significant counterparty risk, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or structured products; avoid banks with large derivative or mortgage books; and be aware of your bank's or financial institution's credit. Finally, it would be wise to own physical gold in fully allocated accounts where you are the owner. Gold, unlike banks, has no liability.

David Chapman is Chief Economist with Bullion Management Group Inc. He regularly writes articles of interest to the investing public. David has over 40 years of experience as an authority on finance and investment, through his range of work experience and in-depth market knowledge. For more information on Bullion Management Group Inc., BMG BullionFund, BMG Gold BullionFund and BMG BullionBarsTM, visit www.bmgbullion.com, email info@bmgbullion.com, or call 1 888.474.1001.

 2016 Copyright David Chapman - All Rights Reserved



Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

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SPX Appears "Heavy"

The SPX Premarket appears heavy, but not down enough to make a difference. So we are in a sideways consolidation until a breakout or breakdown occurs. So far, the market has reacted to its Pi date on Tuesday. We may not get follow-through until tomorrow, when the monthly Jobs Report comes out.

ZeroHedge reports, There are just two drivers setting the pace for today's risk mood: the OPEC meeting in Vienna which started a few hours ago, and the ECB's announcement as well as Mario Draghi's press statement due out just one hour from now. Both are expected tonot reveal any major surprises, with OPEC almost certainly unable to implement a production freeze while the ECB is expected to remain on hold and provide some more details on its corporate bond buying program, although there is some modest risk of upside surprise in either case. So while we await the outcome of both key events, European stocks rose, U.S. index futures declined, oil held near $49 a barrel, and the yen gained notably for the third day in a row. 

So far, VIX appears to have made an impulse higher and only a moderate retracement. This is a positive sign that may confirm the turn in stocks.

I am still counting this decline as a Wave 5, due to the Broadening formation. It is not unusual for the fifth and final point to fail going the distance. Should this remain the case, it would be very bullish for VIX, with a potential target near 25.00.

TNX has turned back down this morning, but we may not have seen the end of the consolidation in an [a]-[b]-[c] fashion. Should TNX bounce at the 50-day Moving Average, we may see it revisit yesterdays high at 18.49.

All-in-all, today may be another quiet day until the direction of the market can be resolved.

Regards,

Tony



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As a State Registered Investment Advisor, The Practical Investor (TPI) manages private client investment portfolios using a proprietary investment strategy created by Chief Investment Officer Tony Cherniawski. Throughout 2000-01, when many investors felt the pain of double digit market losses, TPI successfully navigated the choppy investment waters, creating a profit for our private investment clients. With a focus on preserving assets and capitalizing on opportunities, TPI clients benefited greatly from the TPI strategies, allowing them to stay on track with their life goals.

Disclaimer: The content in this article is written for educational and informational purposes only. There is no offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security and no information contained here should be interpreted or construed as investment advice. Do you own due diligence as the information in this article is the opinion of Anthony M. Cherniawski and subject to change without notice.

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When Virginia Millner cooks at Moral Hill Baptist Church, she switches roles from manager to worker.

"I just work at what Im asked to do," she said. "I spend a lot of time in the kitchen at church. Its what I love to do."

She helped the Culinary Ministry recently prepare a meal for about 125 guests in honor of the Rev. Dr. Thurman Echols 40th pastoral anniversary. The menu included roast beef with gravy, fried chicken, green beans, succotash, mashed potatoes, rolls, tossed salad and assorted desserts.

The cooks started and the decorating committee started their preparations for about seven hours the night before, they said. Some arrived at 6:30 a.m. Saturday to start cooking for the meal, which was served at about noon.

Millner is retiring Thursday as the manager of the Laurel Park Middle School cafeteria. She has worked in food service for 30 years, with 18 in school nutrition, she said. She has been the manager at Axton Elementary Schools cafeteria for three years.

She also worked for nine years in the cafeteria at Figsboro School. "Food service seems to be my life," she said. Retiring is "bittersweet. Im looking forward to seeing" where life leads her next, but she will miss being with her co-workers and "watching the children grow up."

Before her career in school cafeterias, she lived in many places with her husband, Curtis Millner, who retired 14 years ago from the military. The couple lived for five years in Germany, and also in St. Louis; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Virginia and Curtis Millner will celebrate their 47th wedding anniversary on June 14. Their son is Randy Millner of Martinsville, and their daughter is Veronica Soles of Raleigh, N.C. They have five granddaughters.

Millner is from a family of 11 children, she said. She grew up in Leatherwood and lived there until she married.

She learned to cook by helping her mother, Eliza Hairston Stockton, when she was 10 or 11. The first thing Millner said she remembered cooking was "biscuits, and they turned out like crackers," she laughed. "Through the years I got to where I could cook pretty good."

Her mother "cooked everything from scratch. She used no recipes  just a little dab of this.

Going into the school system having to use recipes was a little challenging," she said. "And now the government requires you have this and that. You learn to adjust.

"Everybodys looking to be healthy, using a whole lot of whole grains in the school system."

When she started working in the schools, "some things were from scratch. It has changed tremendously since I was there. We had real chicken we had to cook. Now most everything is prepared" ahead.

After cooking all day at school, shes not too hot to hit the kitchen at home, so she keeps it simple. "Im around food all day every day, and when I get home, what weve got to eat were going to eat," she laughed. "I really like going out to eat. It gives me a break from having to cook," she said.

When she has occasion, she likes to make casseroles, pot roasts and other one-dish meals. She doesnt bake often, because baked goods are bad for the health, she said.

She enjoys "cooking for large groups of people. I managed the family reunion for 30 years," she said. Shes most likely to volunteer first for the vegetable dishes.

"Thats what I like. I just love vegetables and fruit. Meat  I dont really have to have that. I try to eat healthy, (and cook) whats good for both of us."

Meals do feature prominently at family functions, which brings joy to her cooking. "Really I enjoy my family. Family is my heart  anything that we could do together," she said.

Millner likes reading inspirational books, and she counts shopping as a hobby, not a chore. She enjoys going to church. She has been a member of Moral Hill for five or six years, she said. She is involved with Sunday school, the Pastors Aide and the Missionary Circle with the Prayer Partners Ministry, the Missionary Ministry and, of course, the Culinary Ministry.
On Tuesday, attorney G. Marshall Mundy told me a story about his first day as a solo practitioner. That was in 1971, after hed practiced corporate law for nine years and made headlines mostly for raising money for worthy community causes. Mundy decided to strike out on his own and represent plaintiffs rather than insurance companies.

So he hung his shingle at 131 Kirk Ave., where he rented a small office in a nondescript building with four other lawyers.

The only thing Mundy lacked was a client. That day, through his office window, he spied a prospect heading toward the front door. The man wore a work uniform and a neck brace. The latter garnered Mundys attention.

As the man entered the buildings central hall, Mundy grabbed his phone handset and began a noisy stream of legal banter with a nonexistent caller. Mr. Neck Injury appeared in Mundys office doorway, and the lawyer waved him in and motioned him to take a seat.

On the phone, Mundy continued spieling about settlement conferences and trial dates. He even worked in a reference to an upcoming appearance before the U.S. Supreme Court. When Mundy figured hed sufficiently impressed Mr. Neck Injury, he ended the fake call, introduced himself and asked, What can I do for you?

He said, Im Tom. Im here to hook up your phone,  Mundy said with a guffaw.

It was an inauspicious beginning to what a frequent legal adversary called a legendary trial practice. Mundy, who turns 82 next month, pulls down his shingle Thursday after 54 years, most of that on the side of the underdog.

He still has a few medical malpractice cases to wrap up. On Tuesday afternoon, he was meeting with a doctor-witness to discuss one. But hes not taking any more. One day soon, a for sale sign will sprout outside his Third Street office in Old Southwest, where for 34 years hes worked alongside his trusty legal assistant, Doris Rogers.

For the first time in years, hell be spending less time with Rogers than he does with his wife, Monika. (They met in 1997, after his second divorce, when Mundy saw her walking her dog in a church parking lot on Grandin Road  and stopped his car to make an introduction.)

I feel like Ive been the luckiest guy in the world, he told me. Most folks work to live. I feel like Ive lived to work. Theres no better feeling in the world than to take one of these cases for a deserving client, and to work hard, and to get a deserving award. The clients are so appreciative.

Although he fights hard in his cases, gentleman is one of the first terms adversaries use when talking about Mundy. Role model is another. Those words came from John Jessee, an attorney with LeClair Ryan whos been trying cases against Mundy for more than 30 years.

There is no greater gentleman, no higher professional and no other person who has shown  in my career  a greater courtesy to everyone, Jessee said. Not just to judges and attorneys, but to witnesses, litigants and court personnel. Hes someone any young lawyer, if they had a chance to work with him, would benefit from the experience.

Retired Circuit Court Judge Clifford Weckstein said other fitting descriptions included earnest and pugnacious. (The latter quality probably arises from Mundys undergraduate days in the 1950s at his beloved alma mater, Virginia Military Institute, where hes established a scholarship for athletes.)

He always comes across as one of those people who wouldnt be there unless he was representing the side of right and justice, Weckstein said. He maintains a gentlemanly manner, but nobodys going to take advantage of him or his client.

In his early days on his own, Mundy practiced criminal defense and family and personal injury law. He defended people accused of murder, drug dealing, moonshining and fraud. Occasionally, he would take his eldest daughter, Liza, with him to meet clients. She was 10, 11 or 12 at the time, and she recalls her dad didnt always get paid in cash.

The very first stereo we got was from one of the clients he represented, said Liza, now a journalist working on her fourth book. Other clients occasionally brought gift jars of moonshine. I remember taking some back to college at Princeton to impress the Yankees, she added. That never failed.

One of Mundys first court-appointed cases involved Freddy Rowe, a laborer who lived in a rooming house in southeast Roanoke. He was charged with murder after fatally shooting another tenant. Mundy argued self-defense. Though he cant recall with great detail how he managed that, he remembers the jurys not guilty verdict. That was a feat, considering the victim was shot in the back.

The craziest case Mundy ever worked, he said, was an arson and murder at a Washington and Lee fraternity house in Lexington in the mid-1980s. A student died in that fire, and authorities charged an 18-year-old man after a married couple identified him in a photographic lineup as the bystander they had observed watching the conflagration.

Partway through the trial  before they testified  those witnesses privately informed the prosecutor that the defendant was not the man they had seen outside the fire. In violation of legal procedure, the prosecutor didnt advise Mundy. But the witnesses also approached him with their reservations.

When the prosecutor didnt call the couple to the stand, Mundy did. And then he argued prosecutorial misconduct. The judge agreed and dismissed the case.

That was the only occasion in his career Mundy ever reported another lawyer for an ethical violation. It wound up as the subject of an editorial in the New York Times, he said.

Though hes focused on complicated (and lucrative) medical malpractice cases in his latter career, Mundy always has maintained a certain well of outrage for little folks getting screwed in more trifling matters.

I got to know him in 2009, when he represented, pro bono, a Vietnamese immigrant whose daughters car had been wrongfully repossessed.

That was a $2,000 case; Mundy won $413 from the finance company and a $1,590 judgment from the towing company, which charged his client that much for storing her car in a Floyd County field.

When I asked why he was retiring, he said the idea came from his son Stephen (the eldest of four offspring). Stephen is the CEO of a hospital in upstate New York, and in recent years hed cautioned Mundy repeatedly about doctors hed observed working past their prime.

Sometimes that works out not so swell, and Stephen said he wanted me to go out on a high note, Mundy said.

It just so happens that 2015 was one of the best years Mundys practice has ever had.

For an undisclosed amount, he settled a $7 million civil rights lawsuit in which his client was arrested on drug charges at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina. That happened in 2013, as the Christiansburg resident and his wife were returning from Mexico, where they had honeymooned.

Brandon Mitchell was jailed for six days on a 2008 Pulaski County warrant issued erroneously. The authorities simply indicted the wrong guy, Mundy said.

Then there was a former schoolteacher whom Mundy represented in a medical malpractice trial last year. A podiatrist gave her two steroid injections for foot pain. It turned out the pain was caused by a broken toe  and steroid injections are a huge no-no with fractures, Mundy said.

The injections made the pain much worse. It spread to both of the womans legs and lasted for years. She still suffers from something called complex regional pain syndrome, Mundy said. Her agony is so great she cant tolerate a bedsheet on her legs at night, and she barely can wear shoes.

She sued, and rather than settle, the doctors insurance company insisted on taking the case to trial in Roanoke County Circuit Court, Mundy said. By that point, hed been representing her for seven years.

After four days of testimony, the jury began deliberations. Then the insurance company offered to settle. Mundy and co-counsel Tony Russell proposed $500,000. The insurer said it would pay no more than $400,000. Mundy and Russell took the offer to their client.

I remember telling her, You dont want to violate the 11th commandment: Thou shalt not leave money on the table,  Mundy recalled. His client would get zilch if the jury ruled in the doctors favor.

She said, Mr. Mundy, I like this jury. I think this jury likes us. Youve worked so hard on this case. 

So they crossed their fingers and turned down $400,000. The jury deliberated three hours  and awarded the woman $1.1 million.

I had tears in my eyes, Mundy said. She was so deserving.
Two and a half weeks after receiving a three-year suspended sentence in connection with the shooting of his neighbor, a former Henry County Sheriffs Office deputy has filed a $1 million civil suit against an area resident, according to a filing in the Henry County Circuit Court Clerks Office.

Joshua Dean Nash, 28, of 239 Blue Spruce Drive in the Snow Creek area, has filed the suit against Chelsea Hopkins of Figsboro Road. According to the legal document prepared by his attorney Glen Koontz, he is seeking a trial by jury.

On May 16, Nash was given a three-year suspended sentence in the unlawful wounding of his neighbor, Eric Eysenbach, 60. That sentence was handed down in Franklin County Circuit Court by Judge Clyde Perdue.

Perdue also accepted a defense request for a deferred disposition on a count of discharging a firearm in an occupied dwelling, which will come up for review in one year and could be dismissed.

According to a Roanoke Times article, in the early morning of May 17, 2015, Eysenbach found Nash in his Snow Creek home. Nash was armed with a laser-sight equipped .380 Smith & Wesson and shot Eysenbach in the shoulder. Eysenbach escaped, and police found Nash partially undressed and unconscious in a recliner in Eysenbachs living room.

The article adds that at the sentencing hearing for Nash, veterinarian and toxicologist Gerry Henningsen testified that he understood Nash had been drinking at a party a few hours before the shooting and had been given intravenous fluid injections by an off-duty paramedic, possibly as a means to induce sobriety. Instead, Henningsen theorized, it had caused "fluid overload," which he said could have led to water intoxication.

According to the civil suit filed Wednesday in Henry County, Chelsea Hopkins was named as the off-duty paramedic who allegedly administered the intravenous fluid to Nash.

The suit states that on May 16, 2015, at approximately 10 p.m., Nash and his wife, Donna Nash, arrived at Hopkins residence for a birthday party. The party continued into the early morning hours of May 17, 2015, and around 4 a.m. on that date, Nash "sat down in a chair and drifted off to sleep."

"For reasons unknown," the suit continues, at approximately 4:30 a.m., Hopkins allegedly inserted a needle into Nashs arm while he slept and intravenously administered two one-liter bags of saline fluid to Nash over the course of 15-20 minutes.

The suit alleges that Nash was unaware of the actions, and that the insertion of the needle and intravenous feeding of the saline solution did not wake him. It adds that Nash did not request or consent to the administering of the saline solution.

At approximately 5 a.m., the suit alleges, Donna Nash helped her husband into their truck, and noticed that he was now slurring his speech and having difficulty walking, conditions he did not exhibit prior to falling asleep at the party.

After driving her husband home, a distance of 1-2 miles, the suit alleges that Donna Nash exited the vehicle and went to unlock the home and turn off the security system prior to helping her husband from the vehicle; upon returning to the truck, however, she discovered that her husband had disappeared from the vehicle.

It was at that time, the suit alleges, that Nash entered Eysenbachs home, encountered Eysenbach, and shot him in the shoulder for reasons unknown.

Eysenbach fled to a neighbors house, according to the suit, and the neighbor summoned the Franklin County Sheriffs Office to respond to the incident.

Upon arriving at the Eysenbach residence, the suit alleges that Franklin County Sheriffs Deputy Lt. Gower found Nash "slumped in a chair in the living room." It did not appear that Nash was breathing and he appeared to be in a "catatonic or comatose state."

"According to Lt. Gower, Mr. Nash appeared to be dead," the suit states. "Lt. Gower slapped Mr. Nash hard and sharp across his head; Mr. Nash did not awaken or respond."

Nash was removed from the residence, transported to the jail in Rocky Mount and placed under arrest, the suit continues.

The suit alleges that Hopkins was negligent in her actions toward Nash, and that by intravenously feeding him the two bags of saline solution fluids, she "violated her duty to exercise ordinary care to protect him from injury" and "violated medical norms, standards and protocols."

The suit further alleges that by injecting Nash with saline solution, Hopkins acted "wantonly and with criminal indifference to the effect and result of her actions."

Because of the saline solution, the suit alleges, Nash "likely suffer(ed) a brain edema" which caused him to "enter into a state of delirium" and "become detached from reality, and be unable to act reasonably and rationally." It may also have caused him to "suffer from lesions on his brain and related symptoms, including, but not limited to, headaches and other physical pain."

The damages Nash suffered as a result, the suit continues, include arrest and incarceration; loss of custody and visitation with his child; loss of his job as a Henry County Sheriffs deputy; loss of income; the incurrence of financial expenses; and "physical pain, mental anguish and humiliation."

The suit requests compensatory damages of $1 million; punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial; costs incurred in the prosecution of the case; and "such other and further relief as may be deemed just."
The winds of revolution are once again blowing over the African continent. From Burkina Faso to South Africa, from Burundi to Nigeria, we have seen a radicalisation of the workers and the youth and the rise of mass movements that have challenged corrupt capitalist regimes in one country after another.

As part of this revolutionary reawakening, there is also a seeking out of revolutionary theory, and in this context historical figures such as Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Chris Hani and Amilcar Cabral are making a comeback. Cabral was an important anti-imperialist figure to emerge from the convulsive decades of decolonisation in Africa, and as Africa is entering a new period of revolutionary upheaval it is important for Marxists to understand what these historical figures really stood for.

As we will see, although Cabral played an important role in the revolutionary movement of Guinea-Bissau, in the last analysis the isolation of the revolution to one small extremely underdeveloped country, combined with the nefarious influence of Stalinism, meant that the movement he lead was doomed to failure. Todays generation of revolutionary workers and youth in Africa need to learn the lessons, both positive and negative, from those historical experiences, as they prepare for a new wave of revolution in the coming period.

The Portuguese empire and Guinea-Bissau

Amilcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was born to a middle-class family on September 24, 1924, in the town of Bafata, in the small Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa. His parents were Cape Verdeans who had moved to the mainland, where his father, Juvenal Cabral, worked as a primary school teacher and his mother as a shopkeeper.

Portugal was the most backward and despotic of the European imperial powers. Despite having entered a prolonged decline after the sixteenth century, this small country still held on to large swathes of land in Africa and Asia. But Portugal was not a classical imperial power like Britain or France. While controlling numerous colonies on two continents, it was simultaneously dominated by British imperialism, which saw in Lisbon a pliable underling that administrated its colonies in the interest of British capital. The Portuguese empire, both dominator and dominated, was thus held together with the invaluable help of London. As Lenin explained:

Portugal is an independent sovereign state, but actually, for more than two hundred years, since the war of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), it has been a British protectorate. Great Britain has protected Portugal and her colonies in order to fortify her own positions in the fight against her rivals, Spain and France. In return Great Britain has received commercial privileges, preferential conditions for importing goods and especially capital into Portugal and the Portuguese colonies, the right to use the ports and islands of Portugal, her telegraph cables, etc., etc. Relations of this kind have always existed between big and little states, but in the epoch of capitalist imperialism they become a general system, they form part of the sum total of divide the world relations and become links in the chain of operations of world finance capital.[1]

In later years, Cabral makes a similar appraisal of the Portuguese empire:

Faced with the power of the main imperialist nations, one is forced to wonder how it was possible for Portugal, an underdeveloped and backward country, to retain its colonies in spite of the redistribution to which the world was subjected. Portuguese colonialism managed to survive despite the sharing-out of Africa made by the imperialist powers at the end of the 19th century because England supported the ambitions of Portugal which, since the treaty of Metwen in 1703 had become a semi-colony of England. England had every interest in using the Portuguese colonies, not only to exploit their economic resources, but also to occupy them as support bases on the route to the Orient, and thus to maintain absolute domination in the Indian Ocean. To counter the greed of the other colonialist powers and to defend its interests in the Portuguese colonies, England found the best solution: it defended the 'rights' of its semi-colony.[2]

Guinea-Bissau was one of the most underdeveloped of the Portuguese possessions. Lacking the raw materials of Angola and Mozambique and the strategic and commercial importance of Cape Verde, Macau, Timor, or Goa, it was a backwater in the decrepit Portuguese empire. An outpost in the slave trade until its abolition in the nineteenth century, the province had been languishing. At the time of Cabrals birth it had a population of around half a million, with the presence of some 15-20,000 Europeans, principally Portuguese soldiers. A brutal system of racism and apartheid prevailed in the towns where the white minority dominated and blacks were divided between assimilated and non-assimilated, while in the countryside Portuguese power rested on relations of tribal oppression.

Much of Guinea-Bissau were marshy lowlands where cultivation was difficult; arable land comprised only 12.2% of the province. Around 99% of the native population (according to Cabrals estimates) was illiterate. Whatever education was available to the indigenous community was monopolised by the Catholic church. The rural population comprised two main groups. On the one hand were the Fula, who were Muslim and who Cabral classed as semi-feudal, owing to the degree of class differentiations that existed among this community, dominated by a layer of wealthy chiefs that were closely connected to the Portuguese imperialists. These chiefs ruled over the peasants, who had to pay tribute in kind, and also owned slaves. There was a middle layer of artisans that were subordinated to the chiefs. The Fulas also oppressed other, less advanced tribes, a relationship of oppression that the Portuguese exploited. The other major ethnicity was the Balanta, animists who Cabral defined as primitive communists by token of their rudimentary egalitarianism. Off the coast, the situation on the islands of Cape Verde was not much better. Lack of investment by the Portuguese and the poverty of the soil resulted in devastating famines. Between 1941 and 1948, as many as 50,000 people died of starvation.

In the 1960s the province only had 14 native university graduates (including Cabral). Lacking any industry, the working class of the province was virtually non-existent, and was limited to a few hundred wageworkers in the transports and construction sectors. These workers, who Cabral hesitated to refer to as a proletariat, had recently migrated from the countryside and maintained close connections with their villages. Despite their political rawness, this budding working class played an important role in the revolutionary movement, especially the youth that had recently transferred to the towns. It proved extremely dynamic in the struggle. Many of these people joined the struggle right from the beginning and it is among this group that we found many of the cadres whom we have since trained, commented Cabral in 1969.[3] In the towns there was also a mass of declasse and lumpen elements living on the margins of society, always ready to sell themselves to the highest bidder and who became a great help to the Portuguese police in giving them information.[4]

However, even Guinea-Bissau was exposed to the revolutionary convulsions that were shaking the world in Cabrals formative years. A stratum of native intellectuals and educated professionals, who staffed the colonial administration and the service sector, was beginning to emerge that became particularly receptive to radical ideas. While a layer of the petty bourgeoisie was conservative and supportive of the imperialists, another sector, particularly the more poorly-paid strata, were hospitable to revolutionary ideas. In themselves, petty bourgeois intellectuals cannot become a driving force of revolution; their position in society as a small middle layer and their detachment from production prevents them from playing an independent role. Their alienation from society also implies that, when isolated, petty bourgeois intellectuals tend towards impatience, eclecticism, and vacillation. The vast majority of the petty bourgeoisie, said Cabral in 1960, were undecided and are certainly still undecided today. However, in the context of a mass movement of the workers, the peasants, and the oppressed, as individuals they can provide the most revolutionary elements as organisers and ideologists. Cabral acknowledged this, and observed that the petty bourgeoisie of the colonial countries was torn between continued subjection to imperialist domination, its aspiration to displace the colonialists and become a national pseudo-bourgeoisie, and rejecting bourgeois inclinations and organising the revolutionary struggle of the masses.

First steps as a revolutionary

Cabral belonged to this radicalised stratum of petty bourgeois intellectuals. As he said, We were just group of petty bourgeois who were driven by the reality of life in Guinea, by the sufferings we had to endure, and also by the influence events in Africa and elsewhere had on us, in particular the experiences some of us acquired in Portugal and other countries in Europe, to try and do something.[6]

Cabral studied at a secondary school in Cape Verde, and then, in the 1940s, went to study agronomy in Lisbon, where he mingled with nationalist African students and circles of Portuguese anti-fascists. He involved himself in the activities of the youth wing of the Movement for Democratic Unity (MUD), where the Communist Party had a strong presence. Cabral started to become influenced by Marxism in this period, when he began to read the classics by Marx, Engels, and Lenin that were published by the underground press. It must be noted, and we will return to this later, that the type of Marxism Cabral was exposed to while in Portugal, was, unfortunately, the rigid and mechanic Marxism of the Stalinist parties. They showed contempt for the national liberation struggles; the Communist Party of Portugal, echoing its French counterparts line towards Algeria, did not support the independence of the colonies until the 1960s. For these reasons, Cabral felt lukewarm towards official communism, although he was able to gain an understanding of the fundamentals of Marxism and began to imbibe the materialist and dialectical worldview that would influence his writings.[7]

In Lisbon, Cabral befriended Eduardo Mondlane and Agostinho Neto, who would lead the anti-imperialist struggle in Mozambique and Angola. At the same time, he cut his teeth as a poet and a writer, always conscious of the importance of culture in revolution. Cabrals thesis was on soil erosion in the poor, rural province of the Alentejo, in south-western Portugal, where a handful of rich landowners owned massive estates while the peasantry suffered in misery and hunger. This experience convinced Cabral of the revolutionary potential of Portuguese society and of the interest of the Portuguese working class and peasantry to overthrow the dictatorship.

In 1951 he returned to Guinea-Bissau, where he worked as an agronomist, compiling lengthy surveys of the local economy, society, and geography. He also travelled to Angola on research missions. These travels familiarised him with the problems of colonial society and with the inability of imperialism to genuinely develop these countries. He became increasingly radicalised as he witnessed the poverty and backwardness of the countryside, but also the ingenuity and creativity of the peasants, and was appalled at the plundering schemes of the Portuguese empire. His interest in revolutionary theory began to take shape in this period as an agronomist.

The ferment that existed in the colonial world after the Second World War, with the outbreak of revolutionary movements and wars of independence in China, Korea, Cuba, Algeria, Vietnam, etc., had a catalysing effect in the Portuguese colonies, and influenced Cabrals increasingly militant stance. The disappointment after the first round of decolonisation in the aftermath of World War Two, where colonial administrations in a whole series of countries were replaced with bourgeois, pro-imperialist governments, drove the anti-colonial movement further to the left, highlighting that formal independence was not synonymous with genuine emancipation.

Some African leaders, like Ghanas Nkrumah, French Guineas Toure, and Congos Lumumba, veered sharply to the left. The Soviet Union, despite its Stalinist degeneration and the pernicious role it played in the international socialist movement, continued to be seen as a beacon for many in the colonies, who saw how the planned economy had developed the former Tsarist empire, a backward, mainly agricultural country, into an advanced superpower, which in 1961 launched the first expedition to space. Influenced by all this, Cabral soon began to involve himself in the protests against the Lisbon dictatorship that were taking place in the colony.

The creation of the PAIGC

After several failed attempts to set up anti-imperialist organisations, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) was founded in September 1956 under the leadership of Cabral and his brother, Luiz. They initially tried to mobilise the working class of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and to challenge Lisbon through mass protests rather than through clandestine or guerrilla methods. The PAIGC scored some successes and won the support of the colonys urban workers. The 1950s had been a decade of industrial strife in Guinea-Bissau where an embryonic workers movement had begun to crystallise, and the PAIGC was initially able to tap into this agitation, leading several strikes and demonstrations for better working conditions and democratic rights. As Cabral explained:

And so this little group [the PAIGC] began. We first thought of a general movement of national liberation, but this immediately proved unfeasible. We decided to extend our activity to the workers in the towns, and we had some success with this; we launched moves for higher wages, better working conditions and so on. I do not want to go into details here, the only point I want to make is that we obviously did not have a proletariat. We quite clearly lacked revolutionary intellectuals, so we had to start searching, given that we - rightly - did not believe in the revolutionary capacity of the peasantry.

One important group in the towns were the dockworkers; another important group were the people working in the boats carrying merchandise, who mostly live in Bissao itself and travel up and down the rivers. These people proved highly conscious of their position and of their economic importance and they took the initiative of launching strikes without any trade union leadership at all. We therefore decided to concentrate all our work on this group. This gave excellent results and this group soon came to form a kind of nucleus which influenced the attitudes of other wage-earning groups in the towns - workers proper and drivers, who form two other important groups. If I may put it this way, we thus found our little proletariat.[8]

However, the orientation towards the labour movement was contested after the massacre of Pijiguiti on August 3, 1959, where 50 dockworkers who were striking under the leadership of the PAIGC were killed by the Portuguese police.

The programme of the PAIGC

The PAIGC had a hybrid programme, that combined socialist and bourgeois-nationalist features. This was not an accident, but reflected the problems of revolution in a country like Guinea-Bissau, which will be discussed in depth later. The main stress of the programme was on national unification and modernisation: to bring together the country socially and economically through education, culture, language, and literature; with the development of industry, communications, and infrastructure; with a land reform to modernise the countryside; and through the creation a strong, modern democratic state. In short, the aim was to create an advanced, secular, sovereign democratic republic. The PAIGC also envisaged the ever-greater cooperation of the country with other African states and with the socialist bloc, and the unification of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. In a country like Guinea-Bissau, populated by isolated and backward peasant communities and dominated by tribal and localist sentiments, and which had been trampled and brutalised by a racist, oppressive empire, this programme for national unification and national independence was entirely progressive. It corresponded to the national-democratic tasks of the revolution that had been accomplished by the bourgeoisie in the West.

However, the programme also included socialist, proletarian elements, albeit in a confused and muddled form. As we will explain later, a genuine bourgeois-democratic revolution in the colonial world could not be carried out on the basis of capitalism, of bourgeois rule. It required the socialist transformation of society, and the combination of national-democratic reforms with socialist measures. The PAIGC called for the nationalisation of all major enterprises and for the establishment of a planned economy. Small private enterprise would be allowed and the creation of cooperatives encouraged. The ultimate aim of the PAIGC was communism (although it never referred to itself explicitly as a Marxist party): the progressive liquidation of the exploitation of man by man, of all forms of subordination of the human being to degrading interests for the profit of individuals, groups, or classes.[9]

The planned economy would be directed according to the principles of democratic centralism.[10] This is an odd use of the term democratic centralism, which was developed by the Bolsheviks to refer to the unified work of the revolutionary party. The confused use of the term here in reality envisages the management of the economy by an enlightened bureaucracy that runs the countrys wealth in the interest of the people, which in a nutshell sums up the problems of revolution in Guinea-Bissau: the need to carry out a socialist revolution without a genuine working-class movement and under a petty bourgeois leadership. We will return to this question below.

The turn to the countryside

The repression against the workers in the towns impelled the PAIGC to turn to a guerrilla struggle based in the countryside. This coincided with the success of the Cuban Revolution, which increased the appeal of guerrilla warfare as a means to seize power (few remembered the importance of the mass mobilisations and strikes of the Cuban working class and the insurrections that shook Cuban cities in the late 1950s and which were vital to the overthrow of Batista). Cabral and his men set up a cadre school in Conakry, in neighbouring Guinea, which had won independence from France in 1958. Worker-activists and intellectuals that had become steeled in the first years of struggle in the towns were sent to Conakry to receive political training and then transferred to the interior of Guinea-Bissau to organise the guerrillas. The PAIGC was rapid to establish a foothold in the woodlands south of the Geba River, and began a successful attrition war against the imperialists.

The road to revolution differs depending on the economic and social composition of each country. Marxists in general reject guerrilla warfare, and base themselves on the mass struggle of the workers in the cities. However, this is a general premise that says little about concrete struggles. The essence of Bolshevism is the flexibility of its tactics and its adaptation to the real needs and the real march of the revolutionary process. As Lenin put it:

Absolutely hostile to all abstract formulas and to all doctrinaire recipes, Marxism demands an attentive attitude to the mass struggle in progress, which, as the movement develops, as the class-consciousness of the masses grows, as economic and political crises become acute, continually gives rise to new and more varied methods of defence and attack. Marxism, therefore, positively does not reject any form of struggle. Under no circumstances does Marxism confine itself to the forms of struggle possible and in existence at the given moment only, recognising as it does that new forms of struggle, unknown to the participants of the given period, inevitably arise as the given social situation, changes. In this respect Marxism learns, if we may so express it, from mass practice, and makes no claim what ever to teach the masses forms of struggle invented by systematisers in the seclusion of their studies.[11]

In an overwhelmingly agrarian society like Guinea-Bissau, controlled militarily by a foreign oppressor, the peasantry was bound to play a central role in the movement, and the use of guerrilla tactics was indispensable. The Guinea-Bissauan peasants, especially the classless Balanta, had a long tradition of struggle against Portuguese imperialism, which had been unable to fully pacify the countryside. Lisbon had launched a series of campaigns into the hinterland to crush the rebellious natives, the last one being as late as 1936. The problem with these early forms of peasant resistance was that they were kneejerk risings against the oppressor that lacked a programme and a strategy to overthrow the imperialists and transform society. It was correct for the PAIGC to try to give a conscious expression to the inchoate rebelliousness of the peasants, bringing a socialist, anti-imperialist programme and organising and unifying the spontaneous risings of the peasants into a nationwide movement.

As Lenin explained, even if guerrilla tactics and terrorism can under certain conditions become a useful auxiliary for the socialist movement, it should prioritise the movement of the workers in the towns, and at all times subordinate the military struggle to political considerations. It should not pander to the prejudices of the masses, particularly the peasants, but always strive to raise the political level and instil a comprehensive, many-sided view of the struggle, shaking selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and localism from revolutionaries. In conditions where the guerrilla struggle becomes necessary, Lenin said, it must be ennobled by the enlightening and organising influence of socialism. Under Cabrals leadership, the PAIGC attempted to do this, and with some success.

It must be pointed out, however, that although the PAIGCs efforts to mobilise the peasantry were correct, its turn to the countryside after the massacre of Pijiguiti was too categorical. The turn had elements of impatience and of impressionism after the defeat of the dockworkers. The PAIGC threw all its weight behind the guerrilla, turning their backs to the towns, where the Party organisation remains underground, in general under the leadership of a very small number of individuals.[12] The correct approach should have been to combine the two tactics, the urban and the rural struggle, and to prioritise the clandestine struggle in the towns. A general strike of the dockworkers as the one of 1959, for example, was much more damaging for the imperialists and a greater and less costly propaganda success for the movement than a series of armed raids. As admitted by Cabral itself, the small working class of the province was much more receptive to radical ideas than the peasantry and was more consistent and bold in its commitment to the revolution.

Furthermore, and we will expand on this later, because of the position it occupies in society and the collective character of its exploitation, the working class is the only class in society which can developed a socialist consciousness.

Revolutionary war

The Guinea-Bissauan revolutionaries faced daunting problems: economic under-development, the consequent social and cultural backwardness of the popular masses, tribalism and other contradictions of lesser importance.[13] The PAIGC set itself the task of combatting these problems. The organisation set up schools teach the masses to read and write, Portuguese was taught, basic culture and literature were promoted. By 1968, 127 primary schools were being operated by the PAIGC in liberated areas. Cabrals men set up medical clinics and tried to improve the hygiene of the villages; in 1968 four hospitals were in operation. Doctors who had deserted the Portuguese army and volunteers from other African countries and Cuba staffed the hospitals and clinics. Armazens do povo (peoples stores) were set up as trading centres to substitute the old Portuguese markets.

Cadre schools were created, and worker-activists and intellectuals were brought in from the towns. Fighters, despite the backwardness of the province and their heterogeneous social background, were inculcated a socialist, working-class mentality:

We were faced with another difficult problem: we realised that we needed to have people with a mentality which could transcend the context of the national liberation struggle, and so we prepared a number of cadres from the group I have just mentioned, some from the people employed in commerce and other wage-earners, and even some peasants. So that they could acquire what you might call a working class mentality. You may think this is absurd - in any case it is very difficult; in order for there to be a working class mentality the material conditions of the working class should exist, a working class should exist. In fact we managed to inculcate these ideas into a large number of people - the kind of ideas which there would be if there were a working class.[14]

Elsewhere, Cabral wrote:

Educate ourselves, educate other people, the population in general, to fight fear and ignorance, to eliminate little by little the subjugation to nature and natural forces which our economy has not yet mastered. Convince little by little, in particular the militants of the Party, that we shall end by conquering the fear of nature, and that man is the strongest force in nature. Demand from responsible Party members that they dedicate themselves seriously to study, that they interest themselves in the things and problems of our daily life and struggle in their fundamental and essential aspect, and not simply in their appearance. Learn from life, learn from our people, learn from books, learn from the experience of others. Never stop learning.[15]

Strict equality between men and women was propounded. Initially, sexism was a blight in the movement, but it was steadily combatted through patient propaganda and discipline: At the start, the men did not want meetings with women. We did not force the pace, while in some areas women soon came to the meetings without difficulties.[16] In the course of the struggle, sexist prejudices were gradually overcome and women began to play a prominent role in the movement: We want to emphasise in particular that the women of our country are winning an independence for which so many have fought unsuccessfully. You saw, surely, how there were women in charge of the committees in tabancas and the zones and even of inter-regional committees.[17]

Liberated areas were administrated by democratic village committees, where the local population elected new representatives. Although PAIGC cadres often played an active role in the committees, the choice of the villagers was generally respected. It was often young members of the community and women, who had been traditionally held back by the elders, who took a leading role. The committees organised the war effort, propaganda activities, and the management of the new social services that were being set up by the guerrillas. By 1970, there were some 400 village committees in liberated areas. As historian Patrick Chabal from Kings College London observed:

There is little doubt that at the village level itself the system devised by the PAIGC worked satisfactorily and with the support of the population. This was largely due to the way in which the party, the armed forces, and the village committees were able to work together. Cabrals writings and speeches constantly re-emphasised the necessity to develop and maintain this harmony. Party political control over the armed forces, and the PAIGC policy of respecting the villagers and of seeking to improve their living conditions, did much to ensure cooperation between the population and the party.[18]

Although religious freedom was enshrined by the PAIGC, all forms of religious discrimination were forbidden, and superstition and backwardness were contested with scientific, secular education: we avoid all hostility towards these religions, towards the type of relationships our people still have with nature because of their economic underdevelopment. But we have resolutely opposed anything going against human dignity.[19]

The rejection of tribalism was an important element in the line of the PAIGC: tribal politics were correctly seen as an element of backwardness that had been used by the Portuguese to divide the people. They [the Portuguese imperialists] exploited tribal contradictions. They even exploited racism on the basis of lighter and darker people. They exploited the question of the civilised and the uncivilised, etc., as well as the privileged position of the traditional chiefs.[20] The rule of the tribal leaders, particularly among the more advanced Fula people, was a rudimentary form of class exploitation that had become enmeshed in the colonialist system. A struggle against the imperialists was also a struggle against the tribal chiefs; even while the struggle is going on we must begin to exploit the contradiction between the Fula people and their chiefs, who are very close to the Portuguese.[21] However, the PAIGC was careful to respect local customs and languages, insofar as they did not divide the people or contribute to its exploitation: we would not impose on the Balantes the customs of the Fulas or the Mandingas. We defended these cultural differences with all our strength, but we also fought with all our strength all divisions on a political level.[22]

Cabrals overall line to culture was balanced and flexible. He based himself on the most dynamic and progressive aspects of local culture, and combatted its oppressive and backward elements, while trying to draw from and adapt Western culture and science, in a way that recalls Lenins approach. Proud of Guinea-Bissauan and African culture, he never fetishized it, and approached it from a dialectical and materialist standpoint. It is worth quoting Cabral at length on this question:

But we must consider our culture carefully; it is dictated by our economic condition, by our situation of economic underdevelopment. We must enjoy our African culture, we must cherish it, our dances, our songs, our style of making statues, canoes, our cloths. All this is magnificent, but if we rely only on our cloths to clothe all our folk, we are wrong. We have to be realists. Our land is very beautiful, but if we do not struggle to change our land, we are wrong. [] We must have the courage to state this clearly. No one should think that the culture of Africa, what is really African and so must be preserved for all time, for us to be Africans, is our weakness in the face of nature. Any people in the world, of whatever status, has gone through the stage of these weaknesses or has to go through them. [] We cannot believe that to be African is to think that man has no mastery over the flooding of rivers. Anyone who leads a struggle like ours, who bears responsibility in a struggle like ours, has to understand gradually what concrete reality is. [] On the cultural plane, our party has tried to derive the best possible result, the best possible benefit from our cultural reality. It does so by not banning what is possible not to ban without prejudicing the struggle, or by creating new ideas in the comrades spirit, new ways of seeing reality. And further by making the best possible use of those who already have a little more education, both to lead the struggle itself and to be sent to study how to train cadres for the future.

Political considerations were given priority over military ones; as Cabral put it, the political and military leadership of the struggle is one: the political leadership. In our struggle we have avoided the creation of anything military. We are political people, and our Party, a political organisation, leads the struggle in the civilian political, administrative, technical, and therefore also military spheres. Our fighters are defined as armed activists.[23] Political commissars were deployed to oversee the functioning of the different armed detachments. To back the struggle with the weapon of theory and to adapt the line of the party to the existing social conditions, to start from the reality of our land  to be realists and not to confuse the reality you live in with the ideas you have in your head, were the main tenets of Cabral.[24] As will be discussed below, the party also engaged in a constant battle with careerism, opportunism, and isolationism and to raise the level of the cadres: this vanguard we are creating, this instrument we have forged to build the independence of our land, as a man builds his house, must be constantly more honed, more sharpened, more perfect, and our people must constantly embellish it.[25] Cabral summarised the tasks and tactics of the movement in 1968 thus:

a) constantly improve and develop political work among the popular masses and the armed forces, and preserve at all costs our national unity;

b) further strengthen organisation, discipline and democracy within our Party, continually adapt it to the evolution of the struggle, correct mistakes and demand from leaders and militants rigorous application of the principles guiding our actions;

c) improve the organisation of the armed forces, intensify our action on all fronts and develop the co-ordination of our military activities;

d) increase the isolation of the enemy forces, subject them to decisive blows and destroy the remnants of tranquility which they still enjoy in certain urban centres;

e) defend our liberated areas against the enemy's terrorist attacks, guarantee for our people the tranquillity which is indispensable for productive work;

f) study and find the best solutions to the economic, administrative, social and cultural problems of the liberated areas, increase industrial production, however rudimentary, and continually improve health and education facilities;

g) accelerate the training of cadres;

h) fight and eliminate tendencies towards opportunism, parasitism, careerism and deviation of our action from the general line laid down by our Party, at the service of our people;

i) strengthen and develop our relations with the peoples, states and organisations of Africa, and tighten the fraternal links which join us with the neighbouring countries and with the peoples of the other Portuguese colonies;

j) strengthen our relations of sincere collaboration with the anti-colonialist and anti-imperialist forces, for useful cooperation in the common struggle against colonialism, imperialism and racism.[26]

Using these tactics, the PAIGC won the sympathy of tens of thousands of peasants and townspeople. Our mountains, said Cabral, referring to the difficulties of waging a guerrilla war in the Guinea-Bissauan lowlands, are the people. The liberated regions of the country, where we are developing a new society, are a constant propaganda force for the liberation of other parts of our country.[27] This is a correct approach to this form of struggle that separates it from Blanquism, where impatient minorities throw themselves into armed expeditions without taking into consideration the mood of the masses and the concrete historical situation. Elsewhere in Lusophone Africa the national liberation movement displayed elements of Blanquism: in Mozambique the FRELIMO, in the belief that the masses would rally behind them, threw itself into several reckless offensives in 1961, of which it only recovered in the early 1970s.

On this basis, the PAIGC made rapid gains, and by the early 1970s controlled as much as 60% of the country, leaving the occupiers trapped in their compounds and in the main towns. And this despite the brutal tactics used by the Portuguese, who were provided with the most advanced and deadly weaponry by the Americans. The areas of rebel control, commented worryingly the US ambassador to Dakar, like inkblots, spread over the country and ever closer to the Bissau region itself.[28]

Internationalism and the Portuguese Revolution

We have always clearly proclaimed that we never confuse the people of Portugal with Portuguese colonialism, said Cabral.[29] Undoubtedly, one of the most important aspects of Cabrals approach to the revolution were his constant appeals to the Portuguese soldiery, workers, and peasants, and the attempts to build bridges of solidarity with the people of the metropole. Cabral understood that Portugal was a class society, and one that was also ripe with revolutionary ferment. Portugal was oppressed by a brutal dictatorship that was sending tens of thousands of young men to their death in a war against their class brothers and sisters in the African colonies, waged not in their interest but in the interest of the capitalists and the imperialists. Unlike other anti-imperialist thinkers like Frantz Fanon, for whom the European working classes were inescapably reactionary, Cabral had an internationalist approach to the struggle, and saw the peoples of Europe as an ally in the revolution:

If, as would seem from all the evidence, imperialism exists and is trying simultaneously to dominate the working class in all the advanced countries and smother the national liberation movements in all the underdeveloped countries, then there is only one enemy against whom we are fighting. If we are fighting together, then I think the main aspect of our solidarity is extremely simple: it is to fight.[30]

For the PAIGC, internationalism was not simply a question of words but of deeds. The guerrillas avoided any form of unnecessary brutality against Portuguese soldiers. Prisoners of war were treated with respect, and they were often released soon after being captured, having had the aims of the revolution and the need to struggle together against the dictatorship explained to them. No systematic attacks against the white civilian population were made. Agitation was carried out among the Portuguese soldiers. A significant number of Portuguese soldiers deserted to the rebels and fought in their ranks, and some anti-imperialist white settlers joined the PAIGC. It is useful to reproduce one of the pamphlets Cabral addressed to the Portuguese soldiery:

Portuguese soldiers, NCOs and officers!

Why did your comrades and so many others die? Why is there mourning and misfortune for so many homes, above all so many poor homes? Why? Because your government and your military chiefs act against the interests of your people and force you to take up arms against our desire for freedom and to destroy our people, who like all peoples want to be owners of their own land and masters of their own destiny. Because  the truth must be told  you have accepted and go on accepting the shameful and unworthy role as unconscious tools in the service of colonial oppression and repression instead of being with bravery conscious being in the service of the true interests of your people. For what did your compatriots die, for what do you go on running the constant risk of dying in our land? For what? To serve the criminal interests of the CUF [industrial company union], of the Overseas Commercial Society, of the Overseas National Bank  of the Portuguese colonialists and their imperialist bosses. In order to serve, in point of fact, the interests of some rich families in Portugal, which have nothing to do with the true interests of your families and people.

Portuguese soldiers, NCOs and officers!

You know that your people, who must struggle for freedom and democracy in their own land, need your help. Your families, who mostly belong to the poor classes of Portugal, are longing for your return in order to ensure their future  the future of your fathers, mothers, sisters, brides, sons and daughters. It is essential to act. As young men, you have the sacred duty to fulfil in your country, namely to struggle to be able to build a worthy future for your people, who are still living in misery, ignorance, and suffering. As conscious human beings you have the duty to do everything to keep safe the potential for friendly co-operation between the African peoples and the peoples of Portugal, between our people and yours, on the basis of equality of rights, duties, and advantages.

Give up serving as tools of colonialism, refuse to take up arms against the freedom and independence of a peaceful people!

Bravely refuse to fight against our people!

Do not seek to serve as watchdogs of the unjust interests of the CUF and other colonial companies, which are not your interests nor those of your people!

Do not seek the wretched fate of your people who fell ingloriously in the service of an unjust and irreparably lost cause!

Rise in revolt against your Fascist and colonialist chiefs who are sending you to death!

Show that you are conscious beings determined to serve the true interests of your people!

Follow the example of your brave companions who refuse to fight in our land, who rose in revolt against the criminal orders of your chiefs, who have co-operated with our Party or who have deserted the colonial army and found in our midst the finest welcome and fraternal assistance!

Demand the immediate return to be with your families in Portugal!

Long live the peace, friendship and co-operation between all peoples!

Long live the struggle for national and social liberation of all oppressed peoples!

Long live the African Independence Party!

Down with Portuguese colonialism and its lackeys![31]

This propaganda had a powerful effect over the Portuguese soldiery. According to Patrick Chabal:

The Portuguese armed forces, especially towards the end of the war, were particularly impressed by the PAIGC professional military conduct which contrasted so markedly with their own. The fact that wounded or deserting soldiers were well treated and ultimately released filtered back to the barracks in Guinea. Carlos Fabiao, who was appointed Governor of Guinea after the April revolution, recounted the story of a Portuguese soldier who had been left for dead by his own unit. The PAIGC found him, transported him to safety and provided medical assistance which saved his life. He was later released by the nationalists. Such stories and the statements made by Portuguese deserters who had been well treated by the PAIGC had an enormous influence over the Portuguese conscripts. [] Colonel Fabiao added that the Portuguese army were in the process of losing the war not so much because of strictly military factors, but because of the PAIGCs psychological victory.[32]

We are certain that the elimination of Portuguese colonialism will bring about the destruction of Portuguese fascism, said Cabral.[33] It is a pity that Cabral did not live to see his internationalist vision play out. In April 1974, a year after Cabral was killed by the Portuguese imperialists, left-wing army officers, organised under the Movement of the Armed Forces (MFA), staged an uprising in Portugal, starting the Carnation Revolution, one of the greatest revolutionary experiences in the twentieth century. The revolution in Portugal ended the colonial war and ensured the independence of the colonies. The officers uprising was not only the product of war weariness, but also drew inspiration from the revolution in the colonial countries, whose emancipatory ideas had infected many Portuguese soldiers and officers. It is no coincidence that the most radical, left-wing officers in the MFA had served in Guinea-Bissau. Most of them acknowledged the influence that Cabral had had over them. It was the Guinea-Bissauan wing of the MFA that had the most radical line. Officer Otelo de Carvalho, possibly the most revolutionary and anti-capitalist of the figures that emerged from the MFA, at times referred to as the Portuguese Fidel Castro, claimed to have been radicalised as an official in the information and propaganda bureau of Portuguese Guinea-Bissau, when he had to read the propaganda of the PAIGC and the writings of Cabral.[34]

Sadly, despite the weakness of the Portuguese bourgeoisie in 1974-75 and the drive towards socialism of the masses, the Carnation Revolution was kept in check by the leadership of the left-wing parties, which ensured the survival of capitalism in the country. Had Portugal moved towards socialism, it could have provided an additional impetus and point of support to the socialist transformation of the former colonies.

The PAIGC also built connections with revolutionary movements across the world. They participated in the Tricontinental conference in Havana in 1966, where Cabral delivered one of his most famous speeches. Together with the MPLA and FRELIMO, they set up an international body to coordinate the struggle in the three Portuguese colonies in Africa, the Conference of Nationalist Organisations of the Portuguese Colonies (CONCP).

The role of Cuba in the war of liberation and the fraternal relations between the Guinea-Bissauan and Cuban revolutionaries should be stressed. Although the Soviet bloc, China, and other left-wing African governments did send weapons and material aid to the PAIGC, their backing was overshadowed by the enthusiastic support provided by Havana: it sent hundreds of fighters, doctors, mechanics, and advisors as well as weapons and material. Guinea-Bissauan and Capeverdian revolutionaries were given training and medical treatment in Cuba.[35] Cabral befriended Fidel Castro, who referred to him as one of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa, who instilled in us tremendous confidence in the future and the success of his struggle for liberation.[36]

This was in the initial period after the victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959, when the Cuban leadership pursued a policy of spreading the revolution internationally, even coming into conflict with the policy of peaceful coexistence of the Soviet leadership. Later this was to change of course.

Obstacles to the revolution

Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde were poor, underdeveloped rural economies, a feature they shared with most of Africa at the time of decolonisation. Colonial capitalism, particularly under the retrograde and nefarious Portuguese empire, had failed to harmoniously develop these economies, turning them into providers of cheap raw materials. They invested into a few export-oriented sectors and disregarded the rest of the economy, failing to raise the standard of living of the peasants, which represented the overwhelming majority of the population. The villages subsisted on a rudimentary agriculture, with a low cultural level and dominated by age-old traditions and superstitions, and with deficient or non-existent infrastructures and communications. Moreover, unlike the rural labourers of the Angolan and Mozambican commercial estates, the Guinea-Bissauan peasants, as in much of Africa, were small landowners to whom it was difficult to appeal on the basis of collectivist, socialist slogans, and who inevitably tended to have an individualistic, narrow vision of politics. As Cabral conceded, contrary to the workers, the main desire of the small peasants was to see their taxes reduced and to have better prices for their products and a better access to the markets, not to build socialism:

[In Guinea-Bissau] it must be said at once that the peasantry is not a revolutionary force - which may seem strange, particularly as we have based the whole of our armed liberation struggle on the peasantry. A distinction must be drawn between a physical force and a revolutionary force; physically, the peasantry is a great force in Guinea: it is almost the whole of the population, it controls the nation's wealth, it is the peasantry which produces; but we know from experience what trouble we had convincing the peasantry to fight. [] In Guinea the peasants are subjected to a kind of exploitation equivalent to slavery; but even if you try and explain to them that they are being exploited and robbed, it is difficult to convince them by means of an inexperienced explanation of a technico-economic kind that they are the most exploited people; whereas it is easier to convince the workers and the people employed in the towns who earn, say, 10 escudos a day for a job in which a European earns between 30 and 50 that they are being subjected to massive exploitation and injustice, because they can see.[37]

The peasants support for the revolution is more muddled and irresolute than that of the working class. The working class in countries like Guinea-Bissau was minuscule  even smaller than in Russia in 1917. On this basis it was difficult to build a healthy socialist system. This can only be attained on the basis of the urban working class, with its collectivist instincts, its geographic concentration, its higher cultural level, and, especially, with its central role in industrial production and distribution, which allows it to overthrow the capitalists through mass struggles and later to run the economy democratically in the interest of the whole of society.

The peasantry, particularly in backward countries like those of the former Portuguese empire, is too fragmented, divided, and formless to spearhead a democratic, socialist revolution. It can become a powerful force in the revolution, but always under the guidance of another class in the urban areas. In Cabrals Guinea as in much of the post-colonial world that was gripped by social upheaval, the absence of a proletariat left the peasantry without genuine revolutionary guidance. Leadership was provided instead by militarised organisations headed by radicalised petty-bourgeois intellectuals, like the PAIGC, the MPLA, the FRELIMO, or ZANU. As Cabral admitted in the late 1960s, foreshadowing the problems that would arise after liberation:

Our problem is to see who is capable of taking control of the state apparatus when the colonial power is destroyed. In Guinea the peasants cannot read or write, they have almost no relations with the colonial forces during the colonial period except for paying taxes, which is done indirectly. The working class hardly exists as a defined class, it is just an embryo. There is no economically viable bourgeoisie because imperialism prevented it being created. What there is, is a stratum of people in the service of imperialism who have learned how to manipulate the apparatus of the state - the African petty bourgeoisie: this is the only stratum capable of controlling or even utilising the instruments which the colonial state used against our people. So we come to the conclusion that in colonial conditions it is the petty bourgeoisie which is the inheritor of state power (though I wish we could be wrong).[38]

Waging protracted guerrilla wars, these guerrilla organisations with petty bourgeois leaderships were inevitably hierarchical and undemocratic, and had nothing to do with the workers councils and soviets of proletarian revolutions, which are democratic organs for discussion and decision-making. Even the democratic ethos of Cabrals PAIGC was unable to overcome the need for top-down centralisation of military organisations. This was inevitable to coordinate the struggle organisationally and politically and to avoid isolationist tendencies and the emergence of rogue elements. Indeed, in some areas, guerrilla leaders operated autonomously and even used their authority to enrich themselves. Therefore, the PAIGC had to carry out frequent purges: certain tendencies towards isolation developed, tendencies to disregard other groups and not to co-ordinate action. In view of this, we decided to hold our Congress in 1964, and this marked a crucial turning-point in our struggle. At this Congress we took a series of disciplinary measures, among these being the detention, trial and condemnation of certain guerrilla leaders.[39]

Proletarian Bonapartism

In other post-colonial African countries, such as in Burkina Faso with Thomas Sankara, in Somalia under Siad Barre, in Ethiopia with Mengistu, the abolition of capitalism was carried out from above by the army, under the leadership of left-wing putschist officers. What we see again, however, is the absence of the mass, democratic impetus of the proletariat. All these revolutions also tended to display a tendency towards the centralisation of power and influence in the hands of single individuals. Some introduced despotic, tyrannical regimes, such as Mengistu in Ethiopia or Mugabe in Zimbabwe; others, like Sankara in Burkina Faso or Amilcar Cabral in Guinea, played a more heroic role and that is why they remain a source of inspiration for many today. However, be they heroes or villains, the emergence of dictatorial charismatic leaders reflects the absence of an organised labour movement that could have replaced or subsumed these figures. Indeed, the disunity of the peasantry and the heterogeneity and vacillation of the petty bourgeois intellectuals and army officers resulted in disunited, heterogeneous, and vacillating revolutionary movements that opened the door for the centralisation of power in the hands of Bonapartist individuals.

It is no accident that all these revolutionary processes ultimately failed. Radical left governments were either overthrown, as in Burkina Faso, Somalia, or in Ethiopia, or rapidly became bureaucratised and corrupt, and ended up reintroducing capitalism, as in French Guinea, Mozambique, or Angola. What Cabral referred to as the cancer of betrayal, after the toppling of left-wing Ghanaian president Nkrumah, spread rapidly. The absence of the solid social basis for the revolution that could have been provided by the working class, and the petty bourgeois leadership of the anti-imperialist movements, ensured their rapid degeneration or overthrow. The failure of the first wave of socialist revolutions after decolonisation in the 1960s-1980s paved the way for a long counterrevolution, characterised by civil wars, the collapse or fragmentation of the new states, the thriving of tribalism and fundamentalism, the rise of brutal dictatorships, and the continued domination of Africa by imperialism.

Amilcar Cabral was assassinated in January 1973 in Conakry by rogue elements of his own movement, led by disgruntled guerrilla leader Inocencio Kani, who had been demoted under charges of gross misconduct. They had attempted to stage a coup within the PAIGC with the active help of the Portuguese. Although tragically Amilcar Cabral was killed, the coup failed and his brother Luiz Cabral took over and oversaw the liberation of the country. He tried to carry out the PAIGCs programme, nationalising the commanding heights of the economy and launching an ambitious programme for development and national unification. However, Luizs attempts to industrialise the country required the heavy taxation of the peasantry and a concentration of investments in the towns, leading to a drop in agricultural production and to food scarcity in urban areas. Thus the villagers became disenchanted with the PAIGC and the party became increasingly ossified and centralised in Luizs hands. In 1980 he was overthrown in a military coup detat that brought to power the regime of Joao Vieira that gradually reintroduced capitalism.[40] In the 1990s the country was devastated by civil war as ambitious petty bourgeois factions within the state apparatus tried to topple the ruling clique. Today, Guinea-Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world, and is defined by many as a narco-state, since it has become, with the connivance of the ruling elite, a central hub for global drug trafficking.

It was clear that capitalism was unable to develop these countries and bring them out of their backwardness. Not only that, it was also clear that on the basis of capitalism no genuine national sovereignty could be attained. The national bourgeoisies of these colonial regions, insofar as it existed, could not play an independent role and would become a corrupt crutch for imperialism, which would continue to dominate indirectly. Only a socialist planned economy could modernise these countries; therefore, a genuine anti-colonial revolution for national liberation had to be socialist in character. At the same time, the working class in these countries was extremely small (in some places virtually non-existent), and the material basis to build socialism was very feeble. This gave rise to a phenomenon that South African Marxist Ted Grant referred to as proletarian Bonapartism: the overthrow of capitalism was carried out under the leadership of radicalised sectors of the petty bourgeoisie, who, however, would not be able to build healthy socialist democracies.[41]

Cabral was well aware of the problems of proletarian Bonapartism, and much of his writings are devoted to these questions. He was well aware that: In our present historical situation [] there are only two possible paths for an independent nation: to return to imperialist domination (neo-colonialism, capitalism, state capitalism), or to take the way of socialism. However, only the working class could build socialism on the basis of its control over the commanding heights of the economy; either imperialist capital dominated, or the working class took over: political control (the state) is based on the economic capacity of the ruling class, and in the conditions of colonial and neo-colonial society this capacity is retained by two entities: imperialist capital and the native working classes. The revolution needed the existence of significant vanguard classes (a working class conscious of its existence and rural proletariat) which could ensure the vigilance of the popular masses over the evolution of the liberation movement. However, Cabral was confronted with the absence of a genuine working class and the subsequent centrality of the petty bourgeoisie in the revolutionary movement:

The petty bourgeoisie, as a service class (that is to say, a class not directly involved in the process of production) does not possess the economic base to guarantee the taking over of power. In fact history has shown that whatever the role  sometimes important  played by individuals coming from the petty bourgeoisie in the process of a revolution, this class has never possessed political control. And it never could possess it [].

Cabral foreshadowed the fate of many African revolutionary movements:

To retain the power which national liberation puts in its hands, the petty bourgeoisie has only one path: to give free rein to its natural tendencies to become more bourgeois, to permit the development of a bureaucratic and intermediary bourgeoisie in the commercial cycle, in order to transform itself into a national pseudo-bourgeoisie.[42]

Elsewhere, he noted:

We must, however, take into consideration the fact that, faced with the prospect of political independence, the ambition and opportunism from which the liberation movement generally suffers may draw into the struggle individuals who have not been reconverted [i.e., who have not shaken off their petty bourgeois mind-set]. The latter, on the basis of their level of education, their scientific or technical knowledge, may attain the highest positions in the liberation movement. On the cultural level as well as the political level vigilance is therefore vital.[43]

Not only did the risk of opportunist tendencies exist among the assimilated, Portuguese-speaking petty bourgeoisie that had been spawned by the colonialists, but also among the traditional tribal elites:

Several traditional and religious leaders join the struggle from the start or in the course of its unfolding, making an enthusiastic contribution to the cause of liberation. But there again vigilance is vital: holding strongly onto their class cultural prejudices, individuals in this category generally see in the liberation movement the only valid means for using the sacrifices of the mass of the people to eliminate colonial oppression of their own class and hence to re-establish their complete cultural and economic domination over the people.[44]

Indeed, Cabral augured the use of tribalism by opportunist bourgeois leaders that would lead to so much bloodshed in subsequent decades:

Only political opportunists are tribalists: individuals who even attended European universities; who frequented the cafes of Brussels, Paris, Lisbon, and other capitals; who are completely removed from the problems of their own people - they may be called tribal, these individuals who at times even look down on their own people but who, out of political ambition, take advantage of attitudes still existing in the minds of our people to try to achieve their opportunist aims, their political goals, to try to quench their thirst for power and political domination.[45]

In his view, the survival and consolidation of revolutions that in the absence of a genuine labour movement were led by the radicalised petty bourgeoisie depended on the suicide of the petty bourgeoisie as a class after having taken power: to betray the revolution or to commit suicide as a class  constitutes the dilemma of the petty bourgeoisie in the general framework of the national liberation struggle.[46] As became clear with hindsight, this suicide did not happen. Particularly as the mass movements ebbed after independence, the opportunist elements that had made themselves strong in the liberation movement were able to assert themselves and displace the honest revolutionaries. Control over the state produces the danger of bureaucratic degeneration that can only be curbed through the democratic control of the working class and through the revolutionary vigilance of the leadership. In underdeveloped countries with a small or non-existent working class, where the general cultural and material level is low and poverty is widespread, bureaucratic degenerations emerge faster and more destructively, since there is an unchecked temptation among petty bourgeois officials to exploit their positions of power.

Cabral and the permanent revolution

Cabral understood many of the challenges of revolution in a country like Guinea-Bissau. On the one hand, he knew that the national bourgeoisie, which he referred to as a pseudo-bourgeoisie owing to its weakness and backwardness, could not play the progressive role the European bourgeoisies had played in the Early Modern period, developing, unifying, and modernising the country: the local pseudo-bourgeoisie, however nationalist it may be, cannot effectively fulfill its historical function; it cannot freely direct the development of the productive forces; in brief it cannot be a national bourgeoisie.[47]

The indigenous bourgeoisie would fall under the influence of the old imperial masters and become a middleman for the continued plundering of the imperialists  independence under capitalism would only give rise to neocolonialism. Cabral shared Lenins understanding of imperialism: it was the monopolistic stage of capitalism, produced by the objective need for the productive forces to break through the fetters of the nation-state.[48] To truly combat imperialism one had to combat capitalism. Indeed, Cabral correctly believed that the independence of the colonies did not contradict the aims of the imperialists, and they were content to give power to local bourgeoisies to administrate their interests. What the imperialists were concerned about was that the national liberation struggle could mutate into anti-capitalist, socialist revolution:

[] We think there is something wrong with the simple interpretation of the national liberation movement as a revolutionary trend. The objective of the imperialist countries was to prevent the enlargement of the socialist camp, to liberate the reactionary forces in our countries which were being stifled by colonialism and to enable these forces to ally themselves with the international bourgeoisie. The fundamental objective was to create a bourgeoisie where one did not exist, in order specifically to strengthen the imperialist and the capitalist camp. This rise of the bourgeoisie in the new countries, far from being at all surprising, should be considered absolutely normal, it is something that has to be faced by all those struggling against imperialism.[49]

Consequently, the PAIGC adopted a socialist programme for the expropriation of the commanding heights of the economy, the only means to genuinely develop the country. Cabral, says his biographer, sought to establish a state structure which would pursue socialist policies effectively and without recourse to political oppression. His ambition was to give life to a regime which would be less repressive and more democratic than in most of Africa. The viability of such a project, however, must depend essentially on the gap between the countrys intended social and political objectives and its available political and economic resources.[50] Indeed, Cabral was haunted by the absence of a working class on which to base the revolution, and the subsequent dependence of the revolution on the petty bourgeoisie. Indeed, he tacitly predicted the rapid restoration of capitalism in countries like Angola, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, or his native Guinea-Bissau:

Likewise, we have to face the question whether or not socialism can be established immediately after the liberation. This depends on the instruments used to effect the transition to socialism; the essential factor is the nature of the state, bearing in mind that after the liberation there will be people controlling the police, the prisons, the army and so on, and a great deal depends on who they are and what they try to do with these instruments. Thus we return again to the problem of which class is the agent of history and who are the inheritors of the colonial state in our specific conditions.[51]

This made him hesitate about the character of the revolution and the feasibility of socialism in non industrialised, colonial countries. Indeed, although his socio-economic analysis of Guinea-Bissau was based on a Marxist interpretation, and his general philosophical standpoint was close to a Marxist outlook, believing in the ultimate victory of socialist revolution, he refused to label the PAIGC a communist or a Marxist-Leninist organisation. Cabral was in fact influenced by Stalinism and Maoism, and that explains why he flirted with the two-stage theory of class collaboration:

We are therefore faced with the problem of deciding whether to engage in an out and out struggle against the bourgeoisie right from the start or whether to try and make an alliance with the national bourgeoisie, to try to deepen the absolutely necessary contradiction between the national bourgeoisie and the international bourgeoisie which has promoted the national bourgeoisie to the position it holds.[52]

However, the corruption and weakness of the national bourgeoisie made him sceptical of this idea. Despite his doubts and unresolved questions about the nature of the revolution, Cabral came to a key conclusion: the ultimate success of socialism in the underdeveloped colonial countries was connected to the overthrow of capitalism in the advanced countries, and the national liberation movements could stimulate and accelerate revolution in the industrialised world:

As we see it, neocolonialism (which we may call rationalised imperialism) is more a defeat for the international working class than for the colonised peoples. Neocolonialism is at work on two fronts - in Europe as well as in the underdeveloped countries. Its current framework in the underdeveloped countries is the policy of aid, and one of the essential aims of this policy is to create a false bourgeoisie to put a brake on the revolution and to enlarge the possibilities of the petty bourgeoisie as a neutraliser of the revolution; at the same time it invests capital in France, Italy, Belgium, England and so on. In our opinion the aim of this is to stimulate the growth of a workers' aristocracy, to enlarge the field of action of the petty bourgeoisie so as to block the revolution. In our opinion it is under this aspect that neocolonialism and the relations between the international working class movement and our movements must be analysed. If there have ever been any doubts about the close relations between our struggle and the struggle of the international working class movement, neocolonialism has proved that there need not be any.[53]

Cabral saw that the combined and uneven development of capitalism allowed backward countries to leap the bourgeois stage of development making use of the enormous technology and wealth that existed in the more advanced countries. The emergence of a socialist camp potentially allowed states to pool resources and for poorer countries to benefit from the help of richer ones. His views on the uneven development of humanity and the capacity to skip historical stages is outlined here:

At the level of humanity or of part of humanity (human groups within one area, of one or several continents) these three stages [primitive communism, capitalism and socialism] can be simultaneous, as is shown as much by the present as by the past. This is a result of the uneven development of human societies, whether caused by internal reasons or by one or more external factors exerting an accelerating or slowing-down influence on their evolution. On the other hand, in the historical process of a given socio-economic whole each of the above-mentioned stages contains, once a certain level of transformation is reached, the seeds of the following stage.

We should also note that in the present phase of the life of humanity, and for a given socio-economic whole, the time sequence of the three characteristic stages is not indispensable. Whatever its level of productive forces and present social structure, a society can pass rapidly through the defined stages appropriate to the concrete local realities (both historical and human) and reach a higher stage of existence. This progress depends on the concrete possibilities of development of the societys productive forces and is governed mainly by the nature of the political power ruling the society, that is to say, by the type of state or, if one likes, by the character of the dominant class or classes within the society.

A more detailed analysis would show that the possibility of such a jump in the historical process arises mainly, in the economic field, from the power of the means available to man at the time for dominating nature, and, in the political field, from the new event which has radically clanged the face of the world and the development of history, the creation of socialist states.[54]

It is unclear what influence Amilcar Cabral might have had had he lived to see the success of the PAIGC. He would undoubtedly have had a major influence not only on the revolution in Guinea-Bissau, but across the world. He had a more balanced view of the path to socialism than his brother Luiz, who was in power from 1974-1980. He understood that industrialisation had to go hand in hand with the raising of the economic level of the peasants.[55] However, as Ted Grant pointed out, in a colonial country like Guinea-Bissau, even under the most far-sighted Marxist leadership,

The conquest of power by the proletariat and the firm establishment of a workers democracy could only be an episode, to be followed by deformation or counter-revolution in the Stalinist form, if it were not followed, in a relatively short historical period, by the victory of the revolution in the advanced capitalist countries. It would, of course, even as an episode be of enormous historical significance for the proletariat of the advanced capitalist countries as well as the peoples of the underdeveloped areas of the world. But even the greatest revolutionary theory cannot solve the problem without the necessary material base.[56]

In a confused and hesitant manner, Cabral was approaching the theory of the permanent revolution, developed by Trotsky to study the revolution in backward Tsarist Russia. Undoubtedly, the negative influence of Stalinism held back Cabrals ideas. The Stalinists distortion of Marxism and Leninism, the obliteration of Trotskys legacy, their class-collaborationist policies, their opportunist volte-faces, their bloody record, dictated by the interests of the bureaucracy; and the corruption of the systems they defended, created a thick ideological and organisational crust that honest revolutionaries like Cabral had to try to painstakingly break through. Cabral hesitated to identify openly with the Marxist-Leninist doctrines of the Soviet bloc; according to his biographer, bourgeois historian Patrick Chabal, he came to view Marxism as a methodology rather than an ideology. [] Although the main thrust of his argument is undoubtedly Marxist, what is more interesting are the qualifications and innovations which Cabral makes.[57]

The Sino-Soviet split and the squabbles between the bureaucracies only added to the confusion and the distortions, and made it difficult to envisage the solidarity and harmonious integration of the socialist camp. This was compounded with the delay of revolution in the industrialised countries of the West with the post-World War Two economic boom, and the conservatism of the working-class organisations in these countries, which stopped these countries from playing the leading role in world revolution they should have played. The delay of revolution in the West helped give rise to proletarian Bonapartist movements in the colonial world.

In light of all this, it is unsurprising that the main theoretical limitation of Cabral was to try to resolve the problems of the anti-colonial revolution within the narrow confines of Guinea-Bissau, within which they could not be fundamentally overcome. Echoing the Stalinist regimes, he tended to see internationalism as a loose form of solidarity rather than as the interlinking of revolutionary movements and the genuine and harmonious integration of the socialist countries that was envisaged by the Third International in its early years. But this attitude was undoubtedly shaped by the conservatism and opportunism of the Stalinist parties in Europe and the governments of the Soviet bloc. It also reflected the conditions of a national liberation struggle, when the priority is to expel the imperialists from the country. Yet as Ted Grant explained in 1964, talking about the socialist national liberation movements in Africa and Asia:

Internationalism was not conceived as a holiday or sentimental phrase, but as an organic part of the socialist revolution. Internationalism is a consequence of the unity of the world economy, which was capitalisms historical task to develop into a single economic whole. If Russia, with all her immense resources, and a most highly-conscious proletariat, with the finest Marxist leadership, could not solve its problems despite its continental basis and resources, it is ludicrous for Marxists even to think that in the present world conjuncture it would be possible in any of these backward countries, in isolation from any healthy workers state to maintain anything but a Bonapartist state of a more or less repressive character.

Internationalism and conscious leadershipthe two go together  are an organic part of Marxism. Without them, it is impossible to take the necessary steps in the direction of socialist society. Not one of these states is, in proportion to population, even as industrially developed as was Russia at the time of the revolution. Industrial development of a backward economy with the pressure of imperialism and Soviet and Chinese Bonapartism, the pressure of internal contradictions which a developing economy would mean, inevitably, in an economy of scarcity, would lead to the rise of privileged layers.[58]

For Trotsky, the Russian bourgeoisie could not play the progressive role its counterparts had played in Western Europe. A historical latecomer, it had entered the world at a time when an organised labour movement, with ideas and a programme of its own, was already in existence, throwing the bourgeoisie into an unholy alliance with the feudal elites and the autocracy. Moreover, with the rise of financial and monopoly capitalism, the old, feudal order was subsumed into the capitalist system: the landlords invested in industry and the factory owners invested in landed property; the Church mortgaged its estates; the imperial armies struck lucrative contracts with industrialists; the old dynasties accumulated massive debts. Therefore the sharp divide between bourgeois and feudal classes that had existed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries became blurred. The tasks of the bourgeois revolution (dismantling the feudal order, unifying the country, democratisation and secularisation, land redistribution, developing the country and overcoming backwardness, etc.) fell on the shoulders of the small labour movement, which would be able to rally the peasantry behind it. However, it would not be able to stop at the bourgeois stage of the revolution, but, spurred by the opposition of the propertied classes and the incapacity to carry out basic reforms on the basis of capitalism, would have to overthrow the bourgeoisie and move towards socialism. Of course, the material basis for socialism in a country like Tsarist Russia was insufficient, and the long-term survival of the revolution and the consolidation of genuine socialism depended on the revolution in the advanced countries on the West. Revolution in backward countries could provide a powerful push to revolution in the industrialised world.

In the former Portuguese empire, socialist revolutions spearheaded by the petty bourgeoisie could survive and take root if they spread to more advanced countries, that could have provided the technology, guidance, and expertise to modernise and develop less developed societies. The revolutions in the colonial world had a radicalising effect in the whole of Europe and North America. In Portugal, they contributed to create a revolutionary situation that could have toppled capitalism. Perhaps more importantly was the impact of these revolutions on the African continent. In these years the role of spearheading the African revolution undoubtedly fell on the shoulders of South Africa, the most industrialised, modern, and urbanised country on the continent, with a powerful and well-organised working class. If Cuba, a small, poor island on the other side of the Atlantic, was able to provide an extraordinary political, material, and military stimulus to the revolutionary liberation movements in Africa, the role of a healthy socialist South Africa could have been decisive for the building of socialism across the continent. In the 1980s South Africa was ablaze with revolutionary agitation, partly under the inspiration of other revolutionary movements in the region and the world. In the early 1990s the South African working class could easily have taken power peacefully. It was the betrayal of the leaders of the ANC and the SACP that prevented this from happening.

The potential for a socialist Portugal to spearhead the socialist transformation of Lusophone Africa should also be pointed out. As said above, in 1974-1975 capitalism was hanging from a thread in Portugal, and it was only the treacherous role of the socialist and communist leaderships that saved the system. Cabral believed that after fascism had been overthrown in Portugal, the country could play a powerful, constructive role in the former colonies, helping develop the former colonies on a fraternal basis.[59] However, this could only have been done by a socialist Portugal, where the economy is democratically planned for the general interest. Capitalist Portugal has continued to play an imperialist role in its former colonies: today, Guinea-Bissau imports most of its manufactured goods from Portugal (20% of its imports come from the former metropole), while it remains an exporter of groundnuts, as was the case in the days of the empire.

The African Revolution today

Much has changed since the days of Cabral and the PAIGC. In 1966, Cabral foreshadowed that, if the first round of socialist revolution were to fail in Africa, and if the new independent states were to fall once again under the boot of imperialism and capitalism, the gradual industrialisation of these countries would spawn a working class that would rally the other oppressed layers of society behind it and spearhead a new, more powerful revolutionary wave:

[] The necessarily repressive nature of the neo-colonial state against the national liberation forces, the sharpening of contradictions between classes, the objective permanence of signs and agents of foreign domination (settlers who retain their privileges, armed forces, racial discrimination), the growing poverty of the peasantry and the more or less notorious influence of external factors all contribute towards keeping the flame of nationalism alive, towards progressively raising the consciousness of wide popular sectors and towards reuniting the majority of the population, on the very basis of awareness of neo-colonialist frustration, around the ideal of national liberation. In addition, while the native ruling class becomes progressively more bourgeois, the development of a working class composed of urban workers and agricultural proletarians, all exploited by the indirect domination of imperialism, opens up new perspectives for the evolution of national liberation. This working class, whatever the level of its political consciousness (given a certain minimum, namely the awareness of its own needs), seems to constitute the true popular vanguard of the national liberation struggle in the neo-colonial case. However it will not be able to completely fulfill its mission in this struggle (which does not end with the gaining of independence) unless it firmly unites with the other exploited strata, the peasants in general (hired men, sharecroppers, tenants and small farmers) and the nationalist petty bourgeoisie. The creation of this alliance demands the mobilization and organization of the nationalist forces within the framework (or by the action) of a strong and well-structured political organization.[60]

Cabral was right. In recent decades most African countries have undergone processes of industrialisation and urbanisation, and a powerful working class has come into being in many formerly peasant countries, particularly in places like Nigeria and Ethiopia. Even in Guinea-Bissau, which remains one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, 50% of the population now lives in the cities, and 40% is now literate. Spasmodic capitalist industrialisation has also exacerbated class contradictions, increasing inequality, unemployment, and throwing entire sectors of the population into marginality and destitution. It has done little to resolve the fundamental problems of African societies, but has rather exacerbated them. These contradictions are now being aggravated by the capitalist crisis and by the slowdown of China. Africa is ripe for revolution. The conditions exist for the overthrow of capitalism which would open the way for the rapid transformation of African societies, and would send shockwaves across the world. Indeed, a successful socialist revolution in Nigeria or South Africa would undoubtedly have a domino effect not only in the region but across the world. We have seen the example of the Burkinabe masses effortlessly bringing down the stooges of French and American imperialism. After the Burkinabe Revolution of 2014, the prestigious bourgeois newspaper The Financial Times spoke about the perspectives for revolution in Africa in these words:

But the events in Ouagadougou should give them pause for thought, for two reasons. First, sub Saharan Africas young and urban population, suffering from high unemployment, could be a force for change, through violent protests if necessary. In recent months, they have taken to the streets in Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan on an unprecedented scale. The spread of mobile phones, and the easy access to social media, is helping to increase mobilisation. ()

The black spring of Burkina Faso shows how the demands of an impatient young population, by 2020 three out of four people in Africa will be 20 years old or younger, are growing. After a decade of strong economic growth enthusiastically branded Africa rising most young city dwellers feel left behind. It is hardly surprising that some are following the advice of Thomas Sankara, the late Burkinabe leader killed during the 1987 coup that propelled Mr Compaore to power: The future is revolutionary. The future belongs to those who struggle.[61]

This new wave of the revolution in the African continent comes at a time of global crisis of capitalism and the beginning of the revolutionary stirring of the masses of working people and the youth in the advanced capitalist countries. The weak, rotten, and dependent national bourgeoisie in the African continent has proven to be completely unable to develop any of these countries on a progressive basis. The lesson to be learnt is clear: only with the abolition of capitalism, led by the young working class which has developed in recent decades, and linking up with the revolutionary movement in advanced capitalist countries can any perspective for the future be offered.

Armed with the ideas of revolutionary Marxism and the legacy of Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, and other revolutionaries, it is time to hoist the flag of the African revolution once again and to struggle until victory. A luta continua!

[1] Lenin, Division of the world among the great powers, Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, 1916.

[2] Amilcar Cabral, Guinea and Cabo Verde against Portuguese imperialism, 1961.

[3] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[4] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[5] Amilcar Cabral, Party principles and political tactic, 1960.

[6] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[7] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: revolutionary struggle and peoples war, 1983, pp.39-41.

[8] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[9] PAIGC, Statuts et programme, 1962.

[10] PAIGC, Statuts et programme, 1962.

[11] Lenin, Guerrilla warfare, 1906.

[12] Amilcar Cabral, Practical problems and tactics, 1968.

[13] Amilcar Cabral, The weapon of theory, 1966.

[14] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[15] Amilcar Cabral, Tell no lies, claim no easy victories, 1965.

[16] Amilcar Cabral, To start from the reality of our land  to be realists, 1960.

[17] Amilcar Cabral, Practical problems and tactics, 1968.

[18] See: Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, pp.108-09.

[19] Amilcar Cabral, Towards final victory, 1969.

[20] Amilcar Cabral, Practical problems and tactics, 1968.

[21] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[22] Amilcar Cabral, Towards final victory, 1969.

[23] Amilcar Cabral, Practical problems and tactics, 1968.

[24] Amilcar Cabral, To start from the reality of our land  to be realists, 1960.

[25] Amilcar Cabral, Not everyone is of the Party, 1960.

[26] Amilcar Cabral, The development of the struggle, 1968.

[27] Amilcar Cabral, Practical problems and tactics, 1968.

[28] Quoted in: Pietro Gljeises, Conflicting missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976, p.192.

[29] Amilcar Cabral, Message to the people of Portugal, 1969.

[30] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[31] Amilcar Cabral, Message to the soldiers, officers, and NCOs of the Portuguese colonial army, 1970.

[32] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, p.148.

[33] Amilcar Cabral, Guinea and Cabo Verde against Portuguese imperialism, 1961.

[34] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, p.149-150.

[35] See: Pietro Gljeises, Conflicting missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976, 2010.

[36] Quoted in: Carlos Martinez, The revolutionary legacy of Amilcar Cabral, 2014.

[37] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[38] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[39] Amilcar Cabral, Towards final victory, 1969.

[40] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, p.164-165.

[41] Ted Grant, The colonial revolution and the Sino-Soviet dispute, 1964.

[42] Amilcar Cabral, The weapon of theory, 1966.

[43] Amilcar Cabral, National culture, 1970.

[44] Amilcar Cabral, National culture, 1970.

[45] Amilcar Cabral, Practical problems and tactics, 1968.

[46] Amilcar Cabral, The weapon of theory, 1966.

[47] Amilcar Cabral, The weapon of theory, 1966.

[48] Amilcar Cabral, Guinea and Cabo Verde against Portuguese imperialism, 1961.

[49] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[50] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, p.154.

[51] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[52] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[53] Amilcar Cabral, A brief analysis of the social structure in Guinea, 1969.

[54] Amilcar Cabral, The weapon of theory, 1966.

[55] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, p.155.

[56] Ted Grant, The colonial revolution and the Sino-Soviet dispute, 1964.

[57] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, p.169.

[58] Ted Grant, The colonial revolution and the Sino-Soviet dispute, 1964.

[59] Patrick Chabal, Amilcar Cabral: Revolutionary Leadership and Peoples War, 1983, p.144.

[60] Amilcar Cabral, The weapon of theory, 1966.

[61] Africas leaders wake up to the Black Spring in Burkina Faso, The Financial Times (03/11/2014).
HOLYOKE -- At some point recently, the job Hal Haberman loved also became a challenge.

Lower sales than in the past and the struggle to compete against giants like Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement also led Haberman to announce Monday that after 89 years, Haberman's Hardware at 456 High St. was closing.

But Haberman said that, while conducting business at the store Wednesday, the six-day work weeks for four decades devoted to Haberman's Hardware took perhaps too much of his life.

"I've never had a life. I've never done anything but work. But business isn't as good as it used to be. No, it's not. Tough area, the economy has changed. We still do business ...," said Haberman, 59, pausing to shout to a customer.

"Come back and buy a lot," he said, then returned to chatting. "I love people. I love joking with people. I love people. I love selling. I've been in here since I was 14. My father (Mort Haberman) was the best salesman I ever met.

"The problem is that it's so hard to compete with the big-box stores," he said.

An everything-must-go sale is on up to Aug. 31.

That's a lot of stuff to unload for the store famous for its advertisement, "We've got it...If we can find it!"

Haberman estimated the store stocks 100,000 different items.

Work gloves, caulking, light bulbs, flashlights, rakes and shovels, toilet seats, keys, jackknives, sandpaper, wrenches and other tools, nails, horsepower belts, plumbing supplies, cooling fans and seemingly, as patrons of its heaving shelves will declare, everything else.

Former Republican reporter Sandra E. Constantine described it in a 1991 story as "a handyman's castle of winding hallways and chambers laden with hardware treasure."

Along with the yellow sign posted on the front counter, "Free Ride In Police Car If You Shoplift."

Herman Haberman founded the store in 1927. Mort Haberman, now 87, ran and worked in the store for 65 years, until just a few years ago.

"This was his life," Hal Haberman said. "This was everything to him."

Mort Haberman christened himself "King Mort" decades ago as a radio commercial promotion.

"Kind of sad," a man said in the store Wednesday.

"It is kind of sad," Hal Haberman said. "Did you spend a lot of money?"

"I'm going to miss this place," the man said.

"That's a shame," another guy said.

"It's going to be tough," Haberman said.

Hundreds of people have worked in the store over the years. He credited mainstays Marion Hartmann, 40 years, Lester Metras, 37 years and Frank White, 37 years, along with his own son, Michael Haberman, who stepped in recently after graduating from college to help out.

Employees went on to professions like lawyers, ministers and police officers, he said.

"We hope that we had a positive impact," Haberman said.

Haberman recalled how his father Mort used to tell young employees that they needed to keep attending school and that if they quit school, they could no longer work there.

Hal Haberman was a former alderman (when the Holyoke City Council was called the Board of Alderman) for four terms starting in 1979. He moved to Longmeadow in 1998 and became four-term member of the Board of Selectmen.

"But the bottom line is Holyoke's always been my home," said Haberman, who said he now splits time between Enfield, Conn. and Wells, Maine.

After the "everything must go sale," the Haberman family eventually will sell the building, he said.

Then, he said, "I'm going to enjoy my life. I wouldn't put it past me to be involved in some kind of business."

When he was growing up, Haberman said it was a given to him that he would work in the store, though his father advised him it was fine to explore other vocations. But he stayed in the family business. It was a decision he said he simultaneously doesn't regret, even though he knows it made him miss a lot of time with his family.
LONGMEADOW  A family reunion of sorts will be held in Greater Springfield this summer, as the Cooley Family Association of America celebrates its 80th anniversary in July.

The association gets together every other year, including every 10 years in the Springfield area, where pioneer Benjamin Cooley built Longmeadow's first homestead in 1659, a statement from Cooley Family Association past president David E. Cooley says.

"A large gathering of Cooley family members from around the country will meet at the Holiday Inn in Enfield, Connecticut, to share family stories, genealogy, and tour the area, including Longmeadow and the Noble and Cooley Center for Historic Preservation in Granville, Massachusetts," the statement reads.

Guest speakers at the event, which will be held July 28 to July 30, include local historians Pat Banusewicz and Michael Gelinas, in addition to David E. Cooley.

Anyone interested is invited to attend. More information is available at www.cooleyfamilyassociation.com.
LONGMEADOW  An attorney from Longmeadow will lead a full-day symposium in Northampton covering elder law and legislative updates for this year.

Michele Feinstein

Attorney Michele J. Feinstein will lead a full-day, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) symposium at The Hotel Northampton on June 16 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., a statement from Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C. says.

Feinstein, a shareholder at Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., and lifelong resident of Longmeadow, focuses her practice in the areas or estate planning and administration, elder law, probate litigation, health law, corporate and business planning, including all aspects of planning for the succession of business interests, representation of closely held businesses and their owners, and representation of physicians in their individual and group practices, the statement says.

Those interested in registering for the event may visit mcle.org/store/cart. MCLE will offer a new lawyers discount for law students and attorneys who were admitted after 2013.
LONGMEADOW -- With activities for everyone from parents to children to pets coming up this month, there is no shortage of things to do in and around Longmeadow. Here are some upcoming events:

Parent and Child Yoga

Adults with children ages 2 to 5 are welcome to the Storrs Library for a parent-child yoga class on June 3 from 10:15 to 11:15 a.m. Instructor Lisa Katz, a certified Creative Kids Yoga teacher will lead the class. Students will experience yoga breathing, mind-body fitness and yoga poses. Those interested may call the library's Discovery Room at (413) 565-4182.

Senior Citizen Concert and Luncheon

Longmeadow Public Schools will host a concert and luncheon for senior citizens on June 9 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The concert, which will take place in the high school auditorium, runs from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., followed by lunch in the cafeteria from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Doggie Fashion Show and Parade

Heritage Woods Senior Living will host its first "Pooch-A-Palooza" on June 11 from 1 to 3 p.m. The dog fashion show and parade will take place at 462 Main St. in Agawam. Prizes will be awarded for best dressed, celebrity look-alike and most adorable. There will also be a 50/50 raffle and refreshments. A portion of money raised will be donated to the Dakin Humane Society. To register, call (413) 789-8365. Entry fee for dogs is $5.

New York City Bus Trip

The Italian Cultural Center of Western Mass. Inc. will sponsor a trip to New York on June 11 to Eataly, a 50,000-square-foot Italian market. There, participants can buy fresh food or sample food sold at the many restaurants and take-away counters. The bus leaves at 9 a.m. at the Enfield Square commuter parking lot and is expected to return to the Enfield mall at about 8 p.m. The cost of the trip is $60. To reserve a spot, call Stephanie at (860) 305-1175 or email iccwm@comcast.net.
BOSTON - The sign said, "Sidewalk Closed," followed by a black arrow and then, "Cross Here."



There was indeed a cross on the other side of the street: Developers and representatives from the Archdiocese of Boston on Thursday gathered outside the new Our Lady of Good Voyage Seaport Chapel, still under construction, to install a new cross on top of the building.



The chapel isn't alone in undergoing change, from old to new: Luxury housing buildings are springing up all along the Seaport District, which was once dominated by parking lots and warehouses.



General Electric, the worldwide conglomerate, is moving its headquarters into the district, from Fairfield, Connecticut, not far from the new chapel.



The old Our Lady of Good Voyage chapel, which served dockworkers and sailors for half a century, is located around the corner, and through a deal worked out with local developers, Boston Global Investors LLC, chapel officials are moving to the new property once construction is complete.

On Thursday, the Very Rev. James Flavin, the Episcopal vicar for the central region of the Archdiocese, blessed the gold-colored cross of the new chapel.



On the sixth floor of the building next door, white-collar professionals peered through the glass windows as construction workers carefully lifted the cross into place high above a small crowd below.



The new chapel could be complete in the next couple of months.



"We'd love to have it open for Christmas," said Flavin, who added the caveat of that timeline being "aggressive."



They plan to install windows from churches the Archdiocese has closed, and "keep the nautical theme going" inside the old church. A statue of Mary holding a schooner will be eventually be carried into the new chapel.



"This is the gateway to the Seaport," Flavin said, noting that when the area is complete, 100,000 pedestrians are expected to walk through daily.



The chapel will be open to all, he said.



"A refuge in the middle of a busy world," Flavin said.
BANGOR, Maine -- Bangor High School published a quote clearly attributed to Adolf Hitler in the school's yearbook.

School staff apologized for publishing the quote, which was submitted by a senior student to be printed under his photograph, according to the Bangor Daily News.

It reads, "Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and the fields blue ought to be sterilized."

Regrettable oversight leads to Hitler quote in Bangor High yearbook https://t.co/8ZPj5uWUN8 pic.twitter.com/jtpobqpZ7W  Bangor Daily News (@bangordailynews) June 1, 2016

Principal Paul Butler told the Bangor Daily News that the printing was a "regrettable" oversight. A problem with the digital publishing process meant that the quote was never reviewed before publication, as it should have been.

The Maine high school is not the only school under fire for publishing quotes from inappropriate sources.

CBS News reported that in May, Quaker Valley High School apologized after students were allowed to submit and have published quotes from Hitler, Joseph Stalin and an ISIS leader.
melendez 2.JPG

Agawam Mayor Richard Cohen, wearing a light-blue shirt and holding a pair of oversized scissors with blue handles, was among the local dignitaries who attended a June 1 ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch the new West of the River Family Center on Springfield Street in Agawam. To Cohen's immediate left is City Councilor Joe Mineo, president of the board of directors of the new center, followed by Andrew Melendez, the center's executive director.

(Andrew Melendez / West of the River Family Center)

AGAWAM  When the YMCA announced earlier this year that it was closing its Springfield Street facility in Agawam, something needed to be done to fill the void, according to community advocates.

That's when a group of locals banded together to continue the operations of the Y, but under a new name and new leadership. That led to the birth of the West of the River Family Center, which held a June 1 ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the launch of the center.

Andrew Melendez, executive director of the West of the River Family Center  the new nonprofit that oversees the former Y facility at 63 Springfield St.  said the new facility will offer health, wellness, family and community programs.

Melendez is also president of the board of directors of the Valley Opportunity Council, which stepped in to partner with the new organization to help it "get a good head start," he said.

Agawam Mayor Richard Cohen and City Councilor Joseph Mineo both advocated on behalf of the new center, and local attorney Gary Shannon provided pro bono legal guidance.

Mineo, president of the board of directors for the center, said the Valley Opportunity Council will provide most of the funding and maintain an office at the site, which is located in the shopping plaza at the corner of Springfield and Walnut streets. plaza.

"We've made an agreement with the YMCA so that everything will stay intact - all of the furnishings, all of the health equipment," Mineo told The Reminder.



The YMCA of Greater Springfield announced in late March that it was shutting down the Agawam location, but the new center will retain more than a dozen staff from the old Y, according to Melendez. The center will feature a smoothie bar, over 100 monthly classes for adults and children, a full "wellness floor" with a large sauna, and youth and teen programs, he said.

MAP showing center's approximate location:
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James Lawrence, 48, of South Yarmouth, was arrested on Tuesday on allegations of possession of child pornography, according to police.

(Yarmouth Police Department)

YARMOUTH, MA  A Cape Cod man was arrested on Tuesday and is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on charges of possession of child pornography, according to Yarmouth police.

James A. Lawrence, 48, of South Yarmouth, was taken into custody at approximately 5:15 p.m., on Tuesday, after police allegedly found evidence that he had downloaded child porn.

Lawrence's residence at 61 Witchwood Rd. was placed under surveillance by local police after a tip by Trooper Robert Smith of the Massachusetts State Police-Computer Crimes Unit led them to believe that he was downloading the illegal images, according to authorities.

On Tuesday morning, police followed Lawrence from his residence to a nearby gas station where they confronted him. Lawrence denied any involvement with child pornography. However, police used a search warrant to seize Lawrence's cell phone, after which police say they were able to extract two separate child pornography images from it.

A warrant was then issued for Lawrence's arrest and he was taken to the Massachusetts State Police Barracks in South Yarmouth. He is scheduled for arraignment in Barnstable District Court Thursday afternoon.
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Paul Bockelman during an Amherst community forum in April. The Amherst Select Board has signed a three-year-contract with the Hampshire College graduate to become the next town manager.

(Diane Lederman/The Republican)

AMHERST -- Incoming Town Manager Paul Bockelman's contract includes a stipulation that he live in town by the time the contract would be up for renewal in three years.

The contract also includes a clause describing what would happen to his position should the town's form of government change.

A charter commission is currently studying alternatives to the Town Meeting form of government. Formed in March, the commission has 18 months to issue a final report.

If the form of government should change, the town can decide whether to offer a management position of "comparable responsibility acceptable to the town manager with identical pay and benefits," or a severance payment for six months or until Aug. 21, 2019, when the contract would expire, whichever is greater.

The Select Board and Bockelman, the director of administration and finance for the Massachusetts Municipal Association, signed a three-year-contract Wednesday that begins Aug. 22.

The town will pay him $155,000 over the life of the contract, along with annual cost-of-living increases provided to other non-union employees each year, according to the contract.

The contract calls for reimbursing him for up to $5,000 during the first 13 months of the contract for expenses incurred "in transitioning to Amherst." He lives in Somerville now.

It also calls for paying him $210 quarterly for his cellphone and $500 monthly for his car. The town will also reimburse him up to $3,000 toward the cost of disability insurance.

A Hampshire College graduate, Bockelman was one of three initial finalists.

The Select Board initially offered the job to Maria Capriola, assistant town manager in Mansfield, Connecticut, but she withdrew from negotiations two weeks ago.

The town has been without a permanent manager since John P. Musante died in September. Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek took over until February, when Peter Hechenbleikner was hired on a temporary basis.

In an email, Bockelman wrote that he needed to wait until August so he could finish "my commitments at the MMA, as an elected member and vice chair of the Somerville school committee, and as Vice President of the Community Action Agency of Somerville."

He said he had family commitments as well and the Select Board understood.

He said he will be in Amherst prior to starting, "to meet staff and find housing.

"I'm very excited about working with the great team of staff and involved volunteers.

"Amherst is blessed with people eager to be involved in shaping its future. That creates a dynamic - and interesting - conversation. I hope being part of this discussion will be fun, too!"
- "I'm not going back to war! You can't make me leave home!"

He screamed in his sleep. The nightmares were real. He fought enemies in his head, lashing out with fists and feet, defending himself against the attacks of post-traumatic stress disorder. Sometimes, he got out of bed, sleepwalking outside to find the latrine, standing on his porch in a Springfield that felt like a war zone.

Retired U.S. Air Force Technical Sergeant Jeffrey A. Green-Gray served four combat tours between 1989 and 2005. The hardships of war left invisible wounds. Violent outbursts, an inability to focus, emotional turmoil, constant stress. A fight-or-flight response that never abated.

On Thursday, Green-Gray, 49, will graduate from Springfield Technical Community College with a degree in mechanical engineering technology. In September, he will start working toward a mechanical engineering degree at Western New England University, concentrating in the broad, multidisciplinary field of mechatronics.

Unlike so many returning veterans, Green-Gray was able to endure and overcome the ghosts, although they never truly go away.

"It helped me communicate better. It helped me calm down," said Green-Gray of his time as a non-traditional student, beginning in the spring semester of 2013.

"I didn't get wounded. I didn't get shot up. I don't need a Purple Heart," he said. But emotionally, Green-Gray said he is just as injured as a friend who took shrapnel.

He thought he would never be able to return to school. He resisted treatment, sure that the doctors at the VA would report everything he said to his superiors, ruining his career and robbing him of a future. Over time, with the support, help and insistence of his family, Green-Gray accepted that he could not fight these battles on his own.

"My attitude is, I'm a tough guy," he said. "I was an Air Force of one. 'I'll do it all by myself.' But you realize along the way you're not alone and you can't do it by yourself."

On June 25, 1996, he was stationed in Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Southern Watch when a truck bomb destroyed Khobar Towers in the city of Dhahran. The site was a U.S. Air Force housing complex, where Green-Gray had lived for two weeks. Nineteen U.S. servicemembers were killed. That day, he said he was supporting an airborne mission to deliver rations to troops, and "God spared me."

At the end of his four-month tour, he returned home with the mistaken belief that he was unhurt. One night in the dead of winter, he sleepwalked for the first time in his life. When he awoke, he was outside in the bitter cold.

"My mind was still in Dhahran," said Green-Gray. "You never come off of high alert when an explosion like that happens."

A Springfield native and graduate of Roger L. Putnam Vocational-Technical Academy, Green-Gray grew up in a military family. His father is a veteran of the Vietnam War. Green-Gray spent 22 years in the Air Force, working as an air transportation specialist in the 42nd Aerial Port Squadron at Westover Air Reserve Base transporting hazardous materials. He said the job was "very rewarding," and he worked to ensure the safety of troops by preventing spills and poisonous gas leaks.

Green-Gray served in Operation Just Cause in Panama in 1989; stateside during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, working security at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut; Operation Southern Watch; and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, where he supported Operation Red Wings and lost a close friend in combat.

Operation Red Wings was an anti-militia effort memorialized in the 2013 film "Lone Survivor."

"I kind of took that tour hard. I had a rough time for a while," said Green-Gray.

Despite his reservations about getting help through the VA, he soon realized there were no other options.

"You end up wanting to be in combat more than wanting to be home," he said. "My wife had to drag me kicking and screaming to go to the VA. ... It was too overwhelming. It was too stressful."

His wife, Lillian, is an attorney. She helped him navigate the bureaucracy to get his service-connected benefits. And she encouraged him to return to school.

But Green-Gray thought he couldn't do it. How can he focus on the rigors of engineering school when he can't quiet his own mind? He pushed through with strength of will, finding opportunities to quiet himself down and concentrate. When the nightmares woke him up, he would get out of bed and do homework.

He was able to earn seven scholarships, an induction into the Phi Theta Kappa honor society for community colleges, and a role in STCC's 2015 stage production of "Anatomy of Gray." Lillian described her husband as a "a positive symbol of what disabled veterans can achieve."

He offered special thanks to the Yellow Ribbon Program for veterans, which will allow him to attend WNEU tuition-free. Someday, he hopes to design a medal for veterans with PTSD and petition Congress to adopt it.

"Having PTSD is like having a broken heart," said Green-Gray, and continuing his education will continue the challenges. "It's going to be difficult, but I believe I can pull through."
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The Holyoke City Council held hearings on the proposed budgets for the next fiscal year for the Fire and Police departments at City Hall on Wednesday, June 1, 2016. In photo at left, from left, is Fire Chief John A. Pond, Fire Commission Chairman Christopher Hopewell and Fire Commission member Patricia C. Devine. In the photo at right, from left to right, are Police Capt. Matthew F. Moriarty, acting Chief Denise Duguay and Sgt. John Hart.

(MIKE PLAISANCE / THE REPUBLICAN)

HOLYOKE -- Fire Chief John A. Pond disagrees with but enforces the policy of removing trucks from service occasionally to save overtime money, he told the City Council in a budget hearing Wednesday.

Acting Police Chief Denise Duguay said the Police Department could do its job even better with more officers, but only 90 officers are funded in the proposed budget while 98 were requested.

The City Council held the hearings on the public safety departments as it continues reviewing the $126.2 million budget that Mayor Alex B. Morse has submitted to run the city in the fiscal year beginning July 1 (see below).

The police budget is $12,264,882, which Morse said is about the same as the current budget.

The fire budget is $8,685,489, which is about $400,000 higher than the current budget because funding is needed to replace a federal grant that expired.

The removal of fire trucks from service -- known as "brownouts" -- occurs when firefighting staffing is thin. That happens when firefighters are out because of vacations, illness or other reasons. Each truck has a minimum of three firefighters, so if one is out, the truck is shut down for that shift and the other two firefighters are temporarily reassigned, to avoid ballooning overtime costs.

The proposed Fire Department budget includes $350,000 for overtime. The City Council approved $400,000 for Fire Department overtime in the budget approved for the current fiscal year.

But Pond said the department is on track to spend $600,000 on overtime this fiscal year, even with the brownouts, and he envisions about the same for the next fiscal year.

The fewer fire trucks that are available per shift, the less coverage is provided throughout the city, especially if more than one fire occurred at a time, he said.

"Every time you have a brownout, you roll the dice," Pond said.

Duguay was the lead officer representing the Police Department during its hearing while Police Chief James M. Neiswanger attends FBI training in Virginia. She was joined by Capt. Matthew F. Moriarty and Sgt. John Hart.

"If we don't have enough officers, then we have to pay officers overtime. I know that's a hot topic, but I'm just putting that out there," Duguay said.

Requiring that officers work overtime to ensure shifts are staffed exerts a toll on such officers if it separates them from their families, she said.

"And that's bad for morale," Duguay said.

"One of the big things we need is people," Moriarty said.

Morse said his proposed budget maintains services taxpayers depend on while recognizing the need to limit spending. The proposed budget is less than 1 percent higher than the $125.5 million budget with which the city began the fiscal year on July 1, 2015.

But after hearing from the fire and police officials, some councilors disagreed with Morse's assessment. They said it seemed clear that financial transfers would be needed during the next fiscal year to add funding for police and fire overtime.

"I've seen a lot of cuts that the mayor made and it just doesn't seem like it's going to work," Councilor at Large Peter R. Tallman said.

"We're looking at a proposed budget that's really 'pie-in the sky,'" Councilor at Large Michael J. Sullivan said. "It's not going to hold up."

Stories with additional details on City Council budget hearings will be published this week.

Holyoke Fiscal Year 2017 budget: by Mike Plaisance
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SPRINGFIELD -- A Connecticut man charged with opening fire on a state trooper and his dog is due back in Springfield District Court Thursday.

Mohamed Fofanah, 35, of Hartford, is facing 10 charges -- including attempted murder and multiple counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon -- following an encounter with the trooper and his dog on April 30 in Springfield.

At the request of Assistant District Attorney Cary Szafrasnki, Fofanah was held on $1 million cash bail. Federal immigration officials are seeking to deport Fofanah, a native of Sierra Leone who is in the country illegally, the prosecutor said.

Fofanah allegedly abandoned his car on East Columbus Avenue after striking several vehicles. When the state trooper and his dog approached, Fofanah pulled a stolen .357-caliber handgun and fired a shot at the trooper and the dog, Szafranski said.

Several minutes before, Fofanah had pulled a gun on two witnesses to the hit-and-run accidents who had followed him and called police, Szafranski said.

On Thursday, Fofanah is scheduled for a probable cause hearing to determine if the case should be transferred to superior court, where defendants face the possibility of much longer sentences if convicted.

Prosecutors often ask to delay probable cause hearings, saying they plan to seek grand jury indictments instead. Cases are automatically moved to superior court if a grand jury returns an indictment.

Defense lawyers often argue against delays, saying they need access to evidence as soon as possible to represent their clients.

Fofanah is single, works as a stone mason, and has a criminal record in Connecticut and Rhode Island, according to court records.

At the time of his arrest, he was wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet and been targeted by federal immigration officials for deportation, Szafranski said.
LONGMEADOW  Local and statewide politicians emphasized the importance of State House officials working in conjunction with cities and towns in the commonwealth when Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito signed a community compact with Longmeadow on Thursday.

The signing places Longmeadow on the list of 221 communities participating in the initiative, which sets out to bridge the gap between Beacon Hill and local governments in enhancing specific areas needing improvement.

"We wanted to figure out how we could strengthen cities and towns," Polito said before signing Longmeadow's compact at Longmeadow Town Hall. "This is your compact, you designed it."

Community Compacts are mutual agreements between communities and the state government. A community identifies an area in which it would like to improve, and agrees to implement a "best practice." In return, the state offers the community incentives and technical assistance in implementing change.

Unlike the Gateway Cities program, which currently offers assistance to 26 cities and towns with populations greater than 35,000 and less than 250,000 and median household incomes and educational attainment below the state average, every community in the state is eligible to sign a Community Compact.

Gov. Charlie Baker and Polito's administration began pushing the initiative soon after Baker was sworn into office last year.

Longmeadow was Polito's second Community Compact of the day, after she signed a regional compact in Oakham earlier.

The Community Compact signed in Longmeadow focuses on the town's public safety. Police receiving accreditation from the Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission as well as disseminating information to improve safety for drivers and pedestrians -including safe walking routes to school - are listed in the compact as best practice areas.

"Our administration will walk with you on this," Polito said at the signing event attended by State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, State Rep. Brian Ashe, D-Longmeadow, Town Manager Stephen Crane and Police Chief John Stankiewicz.

Select Board Chairman Richard Foster, who signed the compact with Polito, praised the program for offering cities and towns the opportunity to identify their specific needs and receive state assistance individually.

"It's a great time to be in public service," Foster said. "We have every intention to move forward with this thing, this document will not be put on the shelf."

Stankiewicz thanked Polito for state funds the administration provided the Longmeadow Police Department for the purpose of updating current practices and seeking accreditation.

"These new policies will upgrade us to modern day practices," Stankiewicz said.
SPRINGFIELD - The Massachusetts Historical Commission has awarded a 2016 "Preservation Award" to Springfield resident Robert McCarroll, saying he has been a "significant force" in historic preservation efforts for the past four decades.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin, who serves as chairman of the state Historical Commission, announced the selection of McCarroll, who is one of 12 individuals, projects and organizations to be honored statewide.

McCarroll has served on the Board of Directors of the private, nonprofit Springfield Preservation Trust for 40 years.

In addition, he served as a member of the Springfield Historical Commission for 11 years until earlier this year when he was among three members not reappointed by Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, triggering some controversy.

Galvin praised McCarroll, saying "the well preserved buildings and neighborhoods of Springfield reflect local preservationist Robert McCarroll's commitment to historic preservation, and to safeguarding their place in the community's future."

"It's always nice being appreciated," McCarroll said Thursday. "Everyone has their own passion, and preservation happens to be one of mine."

The release from Galvin's office states that McCarroll through his own expense has saved significant historic houses by purchasing the properties and either restoring them or turning them over to competent developers.

In April, the Springfield City Council created the new Bliss House Local Historic District, comprising of a single house at 44-46 Dale St., in the South End that had been purchased and restored by McCarroll.

The Bliss House on Dale Street in the South End of Springfield, shown here, has been approved as a local historic district by the City Council.

He asked that the property be made into a historic district aimed at bringing long-time protection.

Galvin, on behalf of the commission, said McCarroll "has been a significant force for the preservation of Springfield's historic properties since the mid-1970s, when he was part of the reactivation of the Springfield Preservation Trust into an advocacy organization."

McCarroll said his first preservation effort, one that did not succeed, was in a 6th grade class, circulating a petition to protest the demolition of the Barney Estate for the construction of Interstate 91.

While on the city Historical Commission, including some years as its chairman, McCarroll was a key advocate for the creation of four local historic districts aimed at protecting the Colony Hills neighborhood, the former Our Lady of Hope Church, the Immaculate Conception Parish complex and the Willys Overland building.

McCarroll worked as a city planner in Springfield, retiring after 30 years.

McCarroll has served on the board of the Mattoon Street Historic Preservation Association for more than 20 years, and also coordinated the Mattoon Street Arts Festival during that time and continues to do so.

The Preservation Award was received by McCarroll at a recent ceremony in the Massachusetts Archives Building.
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Montague - A $600,000-plus barrier intended to prevent people from jumping off the French King Bridge has recently been approved by the state Department of Transportation.

(FILE PHOTO)

MONTAGUE -- A $600,000-plus barrier intended to prevent people from jumping off the French King Bridge was recently approved by the state Department of Transportation.

Along with the proposed barrier, MassDOT last week installed and began testing a web-based mobile camera system on the bridge to help emergency personnel gauge their responses to reported or suspected jumpers.

"Every year it seems more people make their way to the bridge and unfortunately take their lives," Police Chief Charles Dodge said.

The bridge carries traffic on Route 2 over the Connecticut River. The road surface of the bridge stands some 140 feet above the surface of the river.

Over the years, dozens of people have jumped from the bridge, prompting rescue and recovery responses by state police and public safety personnel from Montague, Erving and Gill.

The camera should be able to confirm whether a person has actually gone over the rail and whether a rescue or recovery effort should be launched, Dodge said.

"A lot of times that river, especially at that location, is very dangerous (for searchers), depending on the water flow," Dodge said. "It's narrow, it's deep and the water goes extremely fast through there."

In one of the most recent instances, emergency personnel, including state police divers, searched that section of the river every day for two weeks looking for the body of murder suspect Tyler Hagmaier. A body recovered from the river on Monday has since been identified by the office of the chief medical examiner as Hagmaier.

Police had been searching for Hagmaier, 24, since the death of 76-year-old Quincy College professor Vibeke Rasmussen in Plymouth on May 5. Rasmussen was stabbed more than 30 times. Police found the suspect's car near the French King Bridge, but until his body was found they never knew for sure if he had gone off the bridge.

"If there was a camera in place it would have taken the question right out of it," Dodge said.

Dodge recently took a photograph of the newly-installed mobile camera and posted it on the department's Facebook page.

The issue of cameras and other safety measures were first discussed about three years ago, when area public safety personnel met with MassDOT officials to discuss the issue, Dodge said. It's possible, Dodge said, that such cameras could deter would-be jumpers.

Ryan Grannan-Doll, deputy communications director for MassDOT, said a consultant will design the barrier after meeting with the working group of emergency personnel and MassDOT officials. The approved project cost is $663,000.

Grannan-Doll said testing of the mobile camera has begun this week and its feed will be shared with Erving police and other public safety personnel. The testing will help project officials determine the final placement for permanent cameras on the bridge, he said.

MassDOT has posted "no trespassing" signs on the bridge truss to allow police officers to enforce people staying off of the structure beneath the bridge deck. Improvements have also been made to secure the bridge's catwalk system to deter unauthorized persons from accessing the underside of the bridge.
At the companys annual shareholders meeting, CEO Musk and a rotating cast of longtime Tesla employees discussed the Palo Alto companys difficult birth in detail, complete with admissions that they often didnt know what they were doing.

By David R. Baker

Full Story: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Elon-Musk-Tesla-was-founded-on-2-false-ideas-7955528.php&ct=ga&cd=CAIyGmM0ODIyOTE0Mzk2NDhmNGY6Y29tOmVuOlVT&usg=AFQjCNEUHYCHq5Q6zBjHb-QjpM-koKfvsA?cmpid=nl_biztek
Community leaders gathered outside the 42 year-old Missoula Public Library on Wednesday to announce the formation of a committee to support passage of a bond on the November 2016 ballot. If successful, the bond will fund construction of a new, up-to-date and expanded public library.

Citing the broad support for building a new library, committee chair Scott Stearns said, "Our public library is an essential community resource, but it is almost a half-century old and over-capacity. Building a new, up-to-date and expanded public library will help our kids learn, benefit our entire community and ensure our community is ready for the future."

http://www.yesformissoulalibrary.org/press/community-leaders-launch-ballot-committee-pass-missoula-public-library-bond
The Humanities Montana board of directors will meet in Havre June 16-18 and will take that opportunity to thank the community for a great Hometown Humanities year. Historian, educator, and storyteller Hal Stearns will lead a conversation about the identity and future of rural Montana. Towns like Harlowton, Shawmut, Judith Gap, Hedgesville, Martinsdale and Rygate are shrinking in size but have stories worth keepingstories of Montanas one-room schools, first high schools, the homesteading booms and busts of the past, and energy-driven booms and busts of the present. A reception will follow the discussion.

Full Newsletter: http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1109572834687&ca=4c24d055-d54b-40c3-bff6-f079f9390126
Great news from a small Montana company owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

S&K Global Solutions http://www.skglobalsolutions.com was recently awarded two (2) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 1 contracts by NASA. The company is one of five Montana businesses to receive awards.

The NASA SBIR program funds research, development, and innovative technologies that fulfill NASA needs, and to a broader extent, non-NASA commercial opportunities. To be eligible, the small business must have 500 or fewer employees or be a non-profit research institution with ties to a small business.

Under the first SBIR, S&K Global Solutions will design a software tool called the Autonomy Requirements Tester which will assist engineers at NASA in managing and communicating autonomy requirements for flight and robotic systems. The application will assist with the development of robots (especially those interacting with humans) and the development of autonomous spacecraft systems for both unmanned spacecraft and those supporting small crews. (Read more about this project)

For the second SBIR, S&K Global Solutions will design a Fault Management (FM) Viewer software tool which will provide new ways of visualizing FM concepts and data. As pressures increase for spacecraft autonomy, they will also increase for additional FM. This type of software offers the ability to include better FM while spending development and testing resources more cost efficiently. Potential customers include future robot systems like Valkyrie and Robonaut 2, rovers like Lunar Prospector, and autonomous spacecraft like the Solar Probe Plus. (Read more about this project)

"S&K is proud to continue supporting the development of advanced software for autonomous spacecraft and for robots that interact with both people and spacecraft," said Mike Monahan, VP of Business Development. "And the best part is, we have partnered with Salish Kootenai College (SKC), with corresponding curricula and faculty expertise, for autonomous software research and development."

S&K Global Solutions is based in Polson, Montana, and has been providing support services at NASA since 1997 for Intelligent Robotic Control Systems and Engineering Integration. The company is owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is part of the S&K Technologies, Inc. family of companies. Along with meeting challenges at NASA, they have multiple logistics and information technology contracts with the Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control, Federal Aviation Administration, and more.

Visit their website to learn more: http://www.skglobalsolutions.com

For further media or business inquiries:

Mike Monahan, VP of Business Development

Phone: (406) 745-5725

[email protected]

Barb DeBernardo, NASA Operations

Phone: (281) 709-1080

[email protected]

Find this story online: http://www.sktcorp.com/sk-global-solutions-award-two-sbirs-nasa/

Thank you,

Amy Schlatter

Marketing Manager

S&K Technologies, Inc.

(406) 745-5738

[email protected]

http://www.sktcorp.com

***

Washington Career Opportunities  IT Helpdesk Specialist, Director of Waterfront Operations, Senior Mechanical Specialist  S&K Global Solutions, LLC http://www.matr.net/article-71905.html
S&K Global Solutions, LLC http://www.skglobalsolutions.com is a professional services company that specializes in providing logistics, engineering, telecommunications, and information technology (IT) support for government and commercial customers. S&K Global Solutions has a proven capability to provide rapid, technically innovative responses to complex, mission-critical requirements. S&K Global Solutions is owned by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and is a member of the S&K Family of Companies. We are headquartered in northwestern Montana on the beautiful Flathead Indian Reservation, a robust community of over 7,000 tribal members. If you are looking for a company that has a reputation for expert, cost effective management of complex projects, look no further than S&K Global Solutions.

All Opportunities  http://www.bullhornreach.com/sites/skglobal/
In the seven years that have passed since the city adopted its Downtown Master Plan, it has implemented a new parking strategy, added to the districts housing stock and marked success in recruiting new businesses to the citys core.

Several large private and public development projects are either under construction or in the works, and Mountain Line has launched zero fare service, boosting ridership to record levels. Add it all up and city leaders believe downtown is moving in the right direction.

By Martin Kidston/MISSOULA CURRENT

Full Story: http://www.missoulacurrent.com/growth-and-development/2016/06/growthspurt-city-leaders-look-update-downtown-master-plan/
With More than $21 Million Raised, the Leadership of Next Frontier Capital http://www.nextfrontiercapital.com/ Continues to Focus on Investing in Companies with a Montana Heritage, Breakthrough Business Plans and Innovative Technologies

The Funds focus on investing in Montana technology and healthcare companies attracted investment from more than 70 Limited Partners drawn from many of the worlds top technology, investment and venture capital firms," said Will Price and Richard Harjes, General Partners of Next Frontier Capital, in a joint statement released today.

Full Story: https://www.prlog.org/12562676-next-frontier-capital-successfully-completes-inaugural-venture-capital-fundraising.html
Chicken will be the best-positioned protein due to its low price position in times of pressure on consumer spending power but rises in production costs and the long-term impact of COVID-19 threaten to disrupt the sector, according to Rabobank.
Researchers at the University of Missouri have been testing the usefulness of contact-free sensors for evaluating the health of elderly people living in a retirement community. The investigators built ballistocardiography bed sensors made out of flexible tubes of water that detect movement as well as breathing and respiration rates. They also installed hidden radar transmitters that help measure the rate of walking of the individuals under observation. The two technologies were tested separately and compared against clinicians typical evaluation of the patients health. The two modalities have shown to be useful in estimating how well the patients are doing, including the chances that a detrimental fall may happen.

Heart disease is a major cause of death for both men and women, said Marjorie Skubic, a professor at University of Missouris College of Engineering. Having a sensor continuously monitoring heart rate provides a significant benefit for older adults. The bed sensors also allow us to collect data on sleeping patterns when people are in bed, how often they are in bed, and how long they are in bed. Similar to walking speed, sleep patterns can detect early signs of illness.

The researchers, whose findings will be published inJournal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, plan on testing whether a decline in other health parameters can be detected using such contact-free sensors.

Source: U. Missouri
by Richard Whitman , Columnist, June 1, 2016

We have binders full of women, I tell you! Binders! Oh, wait. Maybe that's not the best lead-in to this story -- but hey, this is about women and it is about women taking leadership roles. They aren't in binders, though. They are, however, in management positions at the biggest agency holding companies. So yeah, let's leave the binder metaphor back in 2012 with Romney.

Ad Age did a quick roundup of women in management positions at agency holding companies and found things look a bit better than they have in the past. At Omnicom, 54% of U.S. management positions are held by women. Of the holding company's directors, four are women and two are minorities.

Over at Interpublic, CEO Michael Roth, who spoke on a panel at the diversity-focused 3 Percent Conference last fall, said the holding company has made "a long-term commitment to improvement as it relates to diversity and inclusion." At the holding company, 55% of management positions are held by women with 20% held by persons of color. In what was perhaps a thinly veiled reference to Interpublic's own Ghetto Day debacle, Roth added, "And unlike so many companies, we stand by our record of taking decisive action and enforcing accountability around Diversity & Inclusion -- particularly in those cases of behavior by senior executives that run counter to the kinds of values for which we should all stand."

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WPP, which has had its fair share of difficulties related to this topic, states in its Sustainability Report that 31% of its executives are female with 46% holding senior management positions. As for the holding company's board, 29% are women and 33% are non-executive directors.

Publicis Groupe reports that 49.3% of its workforce is comprised of women, while women constitute 54% of its supervisory board. In terms of agency executive positions, 38% are held by women. Acknowledging this relatively low number, CEO Maurice Levy said: "We must go the extra mile so that this number is higher, especially for top positions."

And while it seems agency holding companies are at least trying to make headway in the area of leadership roles for women, the situation is far bleaker when you look at diversity as it relates to race versus male/female diversity.

Penning a piece in Ad Age on the topic, Ken Wheaton wrote: "In fact, according to a 2008 study conducted by economist Marc Bendick Jr., while African-Americans would be expected to make up 9.5% of the professionals in advertising (a number even lower than the 13% in the general population), it turns out they made up only -- wait for it -- 5.8%. On the executive and managerial side, African-Americans made up only 3.2% compared with an expected 7.2%."

And of the apparent white boy club that seemingly wants to keep things this way, attorney Cyrus Mehri said that at the time of the study: "What needs fixing isn't the African-Americans; it's the white guy running the agency. We want to relentlessly focus on not the excluded groups but the excluding groups, the people who control the power and make the decisions. That's where people are running into barriers. The leadership has to come from the top."

And, finally, sharing my own viewpoint on the situation, Wheaton writes, "I've been told plenty of times that it's Ad Age's responsibility to do something about the diversity problem. Over the years, we've covered it from a journalistic perspective, but after a while, we're just writing the same story over and over again, complete with the platitudes and excuses."

He's right. It's been written about. It's been talked about. It's been debated. Conferences have dealt with the topic. And while women seem to be taking on more and more senior roles in advertising, the same cannot be said about minorities in advertising.

So what's the answer? Wheaton says it's women, writing: "And because they've [women] been mobilized and because they're changing the dynamics of companies and boardrooms, perhaps this new group of leading women -- of any race -- are the ones to succeed where so many men before them have failed."
by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, June 2, 2016

As it is apparently the fate of all new advertising techniques to be commoditized in search of scale and efficiency, it was only a matter of time before someone made a Social Bluebook for social media influencers. Yes, thats right: just like when youre shopping for a used car, you can now figure out how much to pay social media influencers based on a comprehensive and frequently updated survey of the marketplace.

Founded by CEO Chad Sahley, who previously served as vice-president of production at Maker Studios, the Social Bluebook recently added an enhanced search function to the platform to enable brand marketers to intelligently evaluate what to pay an influencer for branded content and custom influencer marketing.

The Social Bluebook covers over 25,000 online influencers with over two billion followers (presumably including duplicates) across social platforms including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Pricing information is based on important factors including the influencers audience demographics, engagement, average views, and audience comments, among other data types.

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Sahley noted that, Until now, influencers and brands relied on limited data, or a gut feeling in a rapidly-changing media landscape, and companies had no real starting point for negotiations with social media talent.

Theres something of an influencer land rush underway, as big media companies hurry to bolster their capabilities in this relatively new marketing discipline.

Earlier this year, New York Times Co. announced the acquisition of HelloSociety, a digital marketing agency focused on social media influencers and mobile channels, from Science Inc. Meanwhile Time Inc. and YouTube fashion network StyleHaul, which maintains a network of influencers in the beauty and fashion category, announced a multiyear partnership to create advertising programs targeting Millennials.

In January WPPs GroupM and Fullscreen, which operates a digital platform for content creators on YouTube, announced the creation of an influencer marketing partnership called Playa. And in December, Hearst Corp. joined forces with video advertising technology platform Reelio to create new, highly targeted networks of online influencers.
by Sarah Mahoney @mahoney_sarah, June 2, 2016

Walmart is resurrecting the sunny-yellow smiley face in its marketing, saying it hopes it will add spark to its Everyday Low Prices positioning. But that simple smile masks an increasingly complex set of omni-channel challenges facing the worlds largest retailer.

First things first: While Walmart began using the smiley face back in the 1990s, dont let the behemoth from Bentonville fool you into thinking it owns the happy fella. Smiley has a 50-plus-year history all its own. (And sorry, Forrest Gump fans: It really didnt happen this way.) It was invented by a Massachusetts ad guy back in 1963, in an effort to cheer up demoralized employees of a company that has come to be known as Allstate. It took him 10 minutes, and he earned $45, according to Smithsonian.

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Smiley is trademarked by The Smiley Co., and while the company plugs it as the worlds first emoticon, it points out that smiley faces have been found as far back as 2500 BC. (That company and Walmart settled a long legal battle over ownership back in 2011.)

But Walmart says its the right time for the image to make a comeback. In an announcement on its corporate blog, Tony Rogers, Walmarts CMO, says that after pondering ways to reinforce its low-price message, we felt like it was time to bring back an old friend, and one of the most-recognized symbols of low prices  Smiley. But rather than simply signifying price rollbacks in stores, as it once did, it will now be used to represent regular low prices.

He says 70% of the retailers customers still associate Smiley with better deals. So new ads show the graphic popping in with a great price. When Smiley is on the screen, our customers know that he is helping them get great prices, he says. (The image is also being integrated into the companys Happy to Help program for associates.)

The company may be resurrecting an image from the past, but its struggling with the future, and is increasingly bedeviled by Amazon.

Wal-Marts recently released quarterly results were stronger than expected, observers say, and they acknowledge that it is better-positioned than most retailers to succeed in an omni-channel world. But moving a ship the size of Wal-Mart takes time, and we caution against extrapolating one quarter (positive or negative) into the indefinite future, writes Ken Perkins, an analyst who follows the company for Morningstar. Besides pressure from wage increases and lowering its prices, its e-commerce sales grew just 7% (U.S. growth was higher but not disclosed), clearly below rates posted by larger rival Amazon and smaller competitor Target, he says. And its still unclear whether online investments can actually drive online sales growth.

And while its still too soon to say how well ShippingPass -- Walmarts fledgling $50 attempt to stick it to Amazon Prime -- is faring, Perkins says it cant hurt. We don't see ShippingPass denting Amazon Prime's growth trajectory, but we do think it can help Wal-Mart stem customer losses. While many retailers will lose share to Amazon in the coming years, we do think that more than one firm can succeed in the future.
by Karlene Lukovitz @KLmarketdaily, June 2, 2016

The latest TV spot in the Bud Light Party campaign, starring Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer, offers a strong endorsement of gay marriage along with some good-natured satire of seemingly universal wedding cliches.

The ad was broadcast in prime time on June 1 in New York and California, and debuted earlier in the day on The Ellen DeGeneres Shows social channels.

The timing was chosen to mark the start of LGBT Pride Month, the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Courts decision legalizing gay marriage across the nation, and Junes status as peak wedding season, according to parent A-B InBev.

The 30-second spot (below), from Wieden + Kennedy, shows the two comedians attending the wedding of a male couple. Rogen observes that gay weddings are just like any other wedding  a point driven home by humorous enactments of a cringe-worthy speech (acted by comedian Bridget Everett) and a woman going to extremes to catch the bouquet.

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Rogen also unambiguously states that Bud Light proudly supports everyones right to marry whoever they want.

The brand also created rainbow-lit billboards for locations in New York and California; those are to stay up through June.

The gay-wedding theme ties into the broader brand positioning mission of the campaign, which launched at this years Super Bowl.

"The Bud Light Party champions inclusivity among modern beer drinkers and bringing people together  for fun  over a beer," said Alex Lambrecht, VP of Bud Light at Anheuser-Busch, in a statement, adding: We created this spot because equality for all Americans is a concept that unites many Bud Light drinkers."



Bud Light is the top-selling U.S. beer brand, but its sales volume has declined 12% since InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch in 2008, reported MarketWatch. The company reported that Bud Lights sales to retailers saw single-digit declines in 2015 and this years first quarter.




Many older Americans may be at increased risk of engaging in potentially unsafe activities due to lack of dementia diagnosis. This is the conclusion of a new study by researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD. Share on Pinterest Older adults with undiagnosed dementia are more likely to engage in potentially unsafe activities  such as driving  than those who have received a formal diagnosis. The study found that older adults who had symptoms of dementia but who had not been formally diagnosed were almost twice as likely to drive, cook, manage medication, or undertake other activities that might put them in harms way, compared with adults who had received a dementia diagnosis. Lead author Dr. Halima Amjad, of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues recently published their findings in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Dementia is a term used to describe a number of diseases characterized by a decline in memory and thinking skills. Alzheimers disease is the most common form of dementia, accounting for around 60-80 percent of all cases. Symptoms of dementia may vary from person to person, though problems with short-term memory  such as remembering to pay bills, keeping track of a wallet or keys, or remembering appointments  reduced concentration, and poor reasoning and judgment are common signs. At present, there is no single test to diagnose dementia; Alzheimers and other forms of dementia are diagnosed based on the individuals medical history, a physical examination, and changes in memory and everyday functioning and behavior.

Comparing unsafe activity in diagnosed vs. undiagnosed dementia Previous studies have shown that individuals with dementia are at greater risk for safety issues when engaging in certain activities, compared with those without the condition. However, Dr. Amjad and colleagues note that such studies have included a small number of patients and have only investigated the effect of dementia on single issues. For this latest research, the team analyzed data of 7,609 adults aged 65 and older who were part of the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS)  an ongoing Johns Hopkins study that started in 2011. As part of this study, participants underwent regular in-person interviews, which gathered a wealth of information, including data on daily life activities, living arrangements, and well-being. Participants also underwent regular cognitive tests and physical examinations, used to assess their health as they aged. For the purpose of their investigation, Dr. Amjad and colleagues allocated the participants to one of four groups: Adults who had received a formal diagnosis of dementia from a doctor, based on reports of such a diagnosis from themselves or a companion

Adults who had dementia based on cognitive test scores and interviews, but who had not been formally diagnosed by a doctor  defined as having undiagnosed dementia

Adults with possible dementia

Adults without dementia. The team analyzed subjects engagement in any activities that could be deemed unsafe to participate in with symptoms of dementia, such as driving, caring for another person, managing finances, handling medication, and preparing hot meals.

Awareness of functional problems lacking with undiagnosed dementia The results of the study did present some good news. Compared with adults who had possible dementia or no dementia, those who had diagnosed or undiagnosed dementia were less likely to engage in potentially unsafe activities. For example, only 23 percent of older adults with undiagnosed dementia engaged in driving, compared with 59 percent of those with possible dementia and 84 percent without dementia. Fast facts about dementia There are around 46.8 million people worldwide living with dementia

There are around 9.9 million new dementia cases diagnosed across the globe each year

By 2050, it is estimated there will be around 131.5 million people with the condition. Learn more about dementia That in itself is good news, though the numbers are still important from a public health and safety standpoint, notes Dr. Amjad. Either the patients themselves or their family members are self-regulating and doing these activities less frequently as their disease is progressing. However, the study results also revealed that, compared with adults who had received a formal diagnosis of dementia, those with undiagnosed dementia were much more likely to participate in unsafe activities . For instance, they found that around 28 percent of adults with undiagnosed dementia engaged in driving, compared with almost 17 percent of those with diagnosed dementia. Around 29 percent of adults with undiagnosed dementia were still handling their finances, compared with only 12 percent of those with diagnosed dementia. A total of 42 percent of those with undiagnosed dementia continued to prepare hot meals, compared with just 17 percent of those with diagnosed dementia. Furthermore, around 50 percent of adults with undiagnosed dementia were still preparing their own medication, compared with 22 percent with diagnosed dementia. When patients receive a formal dementia diagnosis, their families are typically aware that, at some point, their loved ones will not be able to drive or will need more help with their medicine, explains Dr. Amjad. But when people are undiagnosed, families and friends may ignore or be unaware of functional problems that already exist.
In an important new study with implications for the treatment of dozens of incurable diseases, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time created a drug candidate that attacks and neutralizes the RNA structure that causes an incurable progressive, inherited disease involving a gradual loss of control over body movement.

The study, which was published June 1, 2016 in Nature Communications, showed the compound significantly improved several aspects of cells taken directly from patients with spinocerebellar ataxia type 10 (SCA10), a form of spinocerebellar ataxia.

"More than 30 diseases, all of them incurable, are caused by RNA repeats," said TSRI Professor Matthew Disney, who led the study. "By a thorough basic science investigation, we identified small molecules that target RNA base pairs precisely. We then leveraged this information to design the first drug candidate that binds to disease-causing defects in SCA10. Application of the drug candidate returns certain aspects of those cells to healthy levels - it's like the defect is not even there."

SCA10 is caused by what is called a pentanucleotide repeat (a genetic sequence of five nucleotides repeated many more times than normal) affecting the mitochondria, the cell's energy source. The new drug candidate, known as 2AU-2, targets these repeats by binding to RNA base pairs.

"The potent bioactivity of 2AU-2 to moderate the structurally induced toxicity in SCA10 strongly suggests that base-pair-targeting RNA modules could have broad applicability in our effort to develop other compounds that target different RNAs," said TSRI Research Associate Wang-Yong Yang, the first author of the study. "More than 70 percent of RNA secondary structure is made up of base pairing."

The Disney group has developed new tools to identify optimal interactions between RNA structures and drug candidates targeting them. A database of these interactions has already been used to design several small molecule drug candidates.

"We are in the process of developing tools that allow one to design small molecules to target any RNA structural motif in a complex cellular environment. That environment can contain millions of other RNAs. In this study, Wang-Yong has done an exceptional job tackling this previously-thought-to-be-impossible molecular recognition problem," Disney said.

Pathogenic RNA repeats contribute to disorders including Huntington's disease, fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome and myotonic dystrophy type 1 and 2.

The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01 GM097455 and DP1NS096898), the John Sealy Memorial Endowment Fund for Biomedical Research, the FRAXA Research Foundation and TSRI.
Although the United States' current political environment is rancorous, a national survey has found strong support in all regions of the United States for raising the legal age of tobacco sales.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East Carolina University report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine that in all nine regions of the country, a majority of adults supported increasing the minimum legal age for tobacco product sales. They also found the most support for increasing the minimum age to 21 rather than to 20 or 19.

"With these findings, policy makers and public health advocates can move forward knowing that people in their states support raising the minimum legal age for selling tobacco products, and that this is an issue that is not viewed as partisan," said Adam O. Goldstein, MD, MPH, a University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center member and a professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine. "It seems to cross political lines, and it is one policy measure that the majority of those surveyed can agree on."

The study comes as two states have recently moved to increase the legal age of tobacco sales to 21. Hawaii became the first U.S. state to make the change Jan. 1, and California followed suit earlier this year. Already, a number of counties and cities, including New York City, have increased the minimum legal age.

"With the strong support indicated in our data, I think we will continue to see strong momentum," Goldstein said. "It appears likely that increasingly, lawmakers are going to be interested in doing this."

According to a National Academy of Medicine report in 2015, increasing the legal age for purchasing tobacco products would likely lower health care costs, and would prevent or delay young adults from starting smoking. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration-sponsored report predicted that raising the legal age to 21 nationally would result in a 12 percent reduction in smoking prevalence.

"By restricting tobacco use to people 21 and older, the compelling evidence is that you have less people who end up using it. They don't end up taking up smoking and tobacco," Goldstein said. "And if you cut down on adolescents using tobacco, you'll ultimately cut down on how many adults use tobacco, and then you cut down on tobacco-related diseases like heart disease and cancer."

In the study, researchers surveyed 4,880 adults aged 18 or older to learn their views on raising the minimum age of tobacco sales to 19, 20 or 21. The telephone survey was offered in both English and Spanish and conducted on land-line and cell phones.

A majority of people surveyed supported raising the minimum age in all regions of the country. Levels of support ranged from 59.6 percent in a seven-state Midwestern region that included Iowa and Kansas to 73.1 percent of residents in a four-state region of the South that included Texas and Louisiana. In the South Atlantic region, which included North Carolina, seven other states, and the District of Columbia, 68.1 percent of people supported an increase.

"Even in regions with historically strong ties to tobacco growing and manufacturing, a strong majority of the public, including smokers, is in favor of raising the minimum legal age of tobacco sales," said the study's first author Joseph G. L. Lee, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor in the East Carolina University College of Health & Human Performance. Lee began the study as a doctoral student at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Women, non-white adults, Latinos and non-smokers were more supportive of an increase as were those who were over the age of 21.

Although there was no association found between the proportion of voters in a state who voted Republican in the last presidential election and the likelihood that person would be in favor of a higher age of sale for tobacco products, there was an association with a respondent's level of trust in the government. A person who trusted the government was 8 percent more likely to support an increase in the minimum age.

"What we found was really an overall trend of broad support for this policy," Goldstein said.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products.

Article: Raising the Legal Age of Tobacco Sales, Joseph G.L. Lee, PhD, MPH, Marcella H. Boynton, PhD, Amanda Richardson, PhD, Kristen Jarman, MSPH, Leah M. Ranney, PhD, Adam O. Goldstein, MD, MPH, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2016.04.009, published online 1 June 2016.


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The poorest get care for free under the system, known as the JKN.A total of 160 million people are so far members of the programme in the world's fourth most populous nation, and it has been credited with helping many since its 2014 launch.- Numerous challenges -But it faces numerous challenges, from underfunding, to slow and patchy implementation, to cases like Karmila's, where the system has become a victim of its own success in densely populated areas, leading to long queues.Karmila, whose 72-year-old mother suffers from multiple ailments, said she also suspected that one public hospital was turning ordinary people away and instead reserving places for privately-insured patients, who bring bigger profits.In the remote and poor east of the country, the problems are different -- people may theoretically have access to healthcare under the JKN, but often there are not enough hospitals and doctors to provide it.The most pressing challenge in recent months has been underfunding as patients flocked to use the system, prompting the agency that runs the JKN to warn it could run out of money as its funds may not cover claims from medical providers.Despite resistance from lawmakers and the public, the government in April increased the premiums paid by some users.Monthly premiums now range from 80,000 rupiah (around six US dollars) in the top category of the JKN -- which provides better services, such as private rooms in hospital as opposed to wards -- to 25,000 rupiah (around two US dollars) in the bottom category.In the past, most Indonesians relied on private insurance of some sort while those deemed living in poverty got free public health care -- but this left millions stuck in the middle, too poor to afford care but not poor enough to qualify for government assistance.Under the JKN, all citizens should get access to health services provided by public facilities as well as those from a few private providers who have joined the system, although wealthier Indonesians are still likely to opt for private insurance.- 'Many have benefited' -There are currently no punishments for people who fail to sign up, but when the system is fully rolled out, they will face small fines.Irfan Humaidi -- a spokesman for the healthcare and social security agency, which runs the scheme -- admitted there were teething problems but insisted that overall the JKN was working well."There are so many people who have been benefited from the system," he said.One such person is Ramot Siagian who recently had a heart attack while visiting his daughter in Jakarta from western Sumatra island."We took him straight to hospital and he got treated using the JKN," said his daughter Lia Siagan.An overhaul of Indonesia's healthcare system was long overdue, as it lagged behind many others in the region.Government spending on health in Indonesia is just three percent of GDP, lower than other countries in the region. It has the equivalent of one physician per 5,000 people, compared to two in Thailand and six in Malaysia, according to the World Bank.The quality of medical services is also criticised as poor compared to its neighbours, and horror stories abound.Last year, two patients at a high-end private hospital outside Jakarta died when medics trying to anaesthetise them for routine surgery administered the wrong drugs due to a labelling mix-up.Despite the challenges, the JKN has won much praise and its supporters are urging patience."Indonesia has just begun adopting a national healthcare system, so of course there are problems," said Hasbullah Thabrany, a health expert from the University of Indonesia."But with commitment, it will survive in the long run."Source: AFP
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Now, a University at Buffalo researcher funded by the university's Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) has developed a smartphone app designed to boost recruitment by taking advantage of these technologies."A key goal of the CTSA grant is to improve patient access to medical innovations available in our region through clinical trials," said Peter Elkin, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB and professor in the Department of Medicine."We've developed a cell phone app that allows patients to quickly and easily evaluate clinical trials, the time commitment involved and the location of the study nearest their home."A second app under development will allow clinicians to more easily recruit patients into their trials by allowing them to search for local trials that meet their patients' needs. One touch will refer them to the appropriate study coordinator.Elkin, who sees patients at UBMD Internal Medicine, will describe the new app at the 2016 Informational Technology in Academic Medicine conference in Toronto, sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges.The smartphone app is based on a participant driven science system, PartSci, which is integrated with UB's local clinical trial management system. PartSci will access information on registered clinical trials in the region and send them to a database, with data about the trials expressed using natural language processing technology developed by Elkin and his colleagues at UB.Patients can search for studies by typing in the name of their disorder or the kind of clinical trial they're interested in."When patients find a study that interests them, they just push a button and their contact information is sent to the study coordinator who can contact them to begin recruitment," said Elkin.Once patients agree to be contacted through the app, they are presented with a message thanking them for being a hero in the effort to improve health care."This app has the potential to significantly speed enrollment in clinical trials and the translation of basic research into new therapies to benefit our patients," said Elkin. "By allowing patients to essentially self-recruit, this app empowers individuals to more actively participate in improving their health and the health of their communities."Source: Eurekalert
We go to a beauty parlor or a salon for some pampering and to look better. There are times when the results may not be up to our expectations, but something that we definitely do not expect is to end up in the emergency with a salon-induced stroke.

Beauty parlor-induced stroke is a reality, with several stories and accounts included in medical literature that could leave us horror-struck. A woman suffered a stroke with limb weakness, and vision and balance problems a few days after a visit to the salon. Another woman felt nausea and vomiting following a salon treatment.

Though uncommon, a stroke can be a consequence of a beauty parlor visit, the syndrome being referred to as beauty parlor stroke syndrome. It is extremely important for both beauticians as well as clients to be aware of this condition as simple precautions could avoid a disaster.

Our neck connects our head to the rest of our body. The brain requires a continuous supply of oxygenated blood, which comes from arteries through the neck. Two arteries called the vertebral arteries go up the neck through the bones of the spinal column called the vertebrae. They join to form the basilar artery at the base of the skull. The basilar artery supplies blood to several important structures in the brain, especially the posterior and middle parts. Any interruption to the flow of blood through these arteries due to a clot or external pressure on the artery can produce symptoms of a transient ischemic attack (the harbinger of a stroke).

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Beauty parlor stroke syndrome is particularly noted when a person goes to a parlor for a hair shampoo. As you may often have noticed, for a hair wash, you have to bend your head back into a salon sink. If the neck does not have any support or is bent excessively, there is a chance that the vertebral arteries may get compressed resulting in obstruction to blood flow or damage to the inner layer of the blood vessels. This can promote clot formation, which can in turn get dislodged and settle in some part of the brain resulting in a stroke. The condition is also called vertebrobasilar insufficiency.

In some cases, the inner layer of the carotid arteries, the arteries in the front of the neck, may be similarly affected. In these patients, the front part of the brain is affected with symptoms reflecting the same.

Symptoms of beauty parlor stroke syndrome depend on the part of the brain affected. Symptoms may appear immediately or over a few days or weeks after salon treatment. These include:

Dizziness

Nausea and Vomiting

Problems with vision like blurred vision and double vision

Loss of balance

Vertigo

Numbness in the face

Weakness of a limb/limbs resulting in drop attacks

Slurring of speech

Pain in the neck

Not all people suffer from beauty parlor stroke syndrome when exposed to similar conditions. Conditions that increase the risk include the following:

Previous partial obstruction to the artery due to atherosclerosis

Longer duration of the extended position of the neck

Presence of smaller vertebral arteries

Smoking

Diabetes or high blood pressure

Middle to Older age

Arthritis of the spinal column of the neck

Beauty parlor stroke syndrome is diagnosed based on the typical medical history where a patient experiences symptoms that resemble a stroke following hair shampooing at a beauty parlor. A neurological examination shows neurological deficits depending on the part of brain affected.

Tests that may help to diagnose beauty parlor stroke syndrome include:

Imaging tests like CT scan and MRI to check for changes in the brain

Magnetic resonance angiography, to check for blood flow to the brain

Cardiac tests like ECG and echocardiogram to rule out a cardiac cause of stroke

Beauty parlor stroke syndrome is treated similar to other strokes that are due to reduced blood supply or ischemia to the brain. Anti-platelet drugs and blood thinners could help to prevent worsening. Rehabilitation may be required in severe cases.

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Ensure that your neck is in a comfortable position while your hair is being washed. The neck should not be bent backwards for more than 20 degrees.

An additional support for the neck can reduce the chances of beauty parlor syndrome.
On May 30, 2016, the official Saudi daily 'Okaz published a scathing article attacking Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Qods Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), branding him "a war criminal" and "the No. 1 murderer" who is today conducting a war against the Sunni residents of the Islamic-State-controlled city of Fallujah in Iraq. The article, titled "Soleimani - The Arch-Terrorist Satan" and accompanied by an illustration of Soleimani atop a pile of human skulls, also criticized the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the U.S. for, it said, not acting to deter him and allowing him to persevere in his crimes.



"Qassem Soleimani -- War Criminal"

The article was apparently triggered by Soleimani's visit last week to the predominantly Shi'ite and Iran-supported Al-Hashd Al-Sha'abi forces in Fallujah, prior to the launch of the combined attack on the city; it also came amidst Saudi fears that these forces would take over the largely Sunni city.

Following are translated excerpts from the article:[1]

"He was the No. 1 murderer in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria, and even in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Azerbaijan. He committed the most horrendous crimes against the Sunni Muslim residents of these regions, meting out to them the harshest of punishments in order to actualize his despicable sectarian perception.

"The world is aware of the grave danger posed by [Qassem] Soleimani, whose hands are bloodstained - but what stands out is that the International Criminal Court, which indicted [Serbian president Slobodan] Milosevic and [Serbian leader Radovan] Karadzic for war crimes, still allows the greatest murderer to remain free. [It does so although] he [Soleimani] is overseeing the aiming of terrorism and the shaking of stability, peace, and security in the region and globally, and commits crimes against humanity in the name of sectarianism again and again.

"The U.S. has accused him of interfering in Iraq and undermining stability there, but has done nothing to deter him. He is a direct subordinate of the supreme commander of the IRGC [Iranian Supreme Leader] Ali Khamenei, of whom it is said that he has called Soleimani 'the living martyr of the Iranian Revolution'..."

The article then provided a brief summary of Soleimani's life, stressed that he had participated in the 1979-80 suppression of the armed Kurdish revolt in the northwestern Iranian city of Mahabad, and concluded: "The greatest sectarian Satan is [today] waging war against the residents of Fallujah, in order to divide Iraq and transform it into a submissive sectarian state."

Endnote:
In 2015, the Islamic State (ISIS) released a document titled "These Are Our Creeds and Ways." The document is a self-profile of the Islamic State, presenting the organization's basic theology and political ideology. It deals with topics that have occupied Muslim minds for generations, yet it also reflects modern and local conditions and phenomena. An examination of its contents reveals that ISIS adds nothing new to traditional Islamic dogmas except for making the return of the caliphate a mandatory article of faith. It is firmly based on Islamic sources, which it cites often, and much of its content is identical to Islamic conservative Hanbali and neo-Hanbali doctrines.

For the full text of Prof. Landau-Tasseron's paper, click here .

* Ella Landau-Tasseron is a retired professor at the Department for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research fields are early Islamic history, the Arabian tribal system, Islamic political institutions, hadith, Islamic historiography, and jihad. Among her publications are a series of articles on the tribal society in pre- and early Islamic times, two monographs on the institution of the Islamic "oath of allegiance," and a monograph on non-combatants in Islamic thought.
In a May 27 interview with the Al-Arabiya network, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, the Saudi ambassador to the U.N., complained that the international community, especially Russia, was constantly "whining" about the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, while letting Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states foot the bill.

Following are excerpts

Abdallah Al-Mouallimi: There seems to be a general sense among the international community that [the humanitarian crisis in Yemen] is the problem of the Gulf states, and it lets Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states cover the expenses all by themselves. We may accept this state of affairs, if only they stopped their constant whining about the humanitarian crisis...

Interviewer: And their crying...

Abdallah Al-Mouallimi: Yes, they are shedding crocodile tears.

Interviewer: Especially Russia...

Abdallah Al-Mouallimi: Right, especially Russia, which will speak again today in the discussion about the humanitarian situation, without having donated a single dollar for Yemen throughout this period.

[...]
The proposed guidelines released Wednesday are voluntary, so food companies won't be required to comply. But the idea is to persuade companies and restaurants  many of which have already lowered sodium levels in their products  to take a more consistent approach.

The guidelines set recommended limits for about 150 categories of foods, from cereals to pizzas and sandwiches. Some targets have a two-year goal, while others have a 10-year goal.

"The totality of scientific evidence, as reviewed by many well-respected scientific organizations, continues to support lowering sodium consumption from current levels," said Susan Mayne, director of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. "In fact, it's very difficult in the current marketplace not to consume too much sodium."

Americans eat about 1 teaspoons of salt daily, or 3400 milligrams. That's about a third more than the government recommends for good health and enough to increase the risk of high blood pressure, strokes and other problems. Most of that sodium is hidden inside common processed foods and restaurant meals.

Sodium content already is included on existing manufacturers' food labels, but the government had not previously set specific sodium recommendations.

The guidelines are long-delayed. The Food and Drug Administration first said it would issue voluntary guidelines in 2010, after an Institute of Medicine report said companies had not made enough progress on reducing sodium and advised the government to establish maximum levels for different foods. The FDA decided to go with a voluntary route instead.

The delays came as food companies balked at the idea of government guidelines, pointing to myriad efforts already underway to reduce sodium. The food industry has also pointed to a newer, 2013 IOM report that said there is no good evidence that eating sodium at very low levels  below the 2,300 milligrams a day that the government recommends  offers benefits.

Some companies have worried that though the limits will be voluntary, the FDA is at heart a regulatory agency, and the guidelines are more warning than suggestion. But the wait means that Obama administration officials won't be around to see if individual companies follow the guidelines. A new administration will be tasked with making the proposed guidelines final, as they could take a year or more to complete.

If companies do eventually comply with the guidelines, Americans won't notice an immediate taste difference in higher-sodium foods like pizza, pasta, bread and soups. The idea is to encourage gradual change so consumers' taste buds can adjust, and to give the companies time to develop lower-sodium foods. Some companies don't advertise sodium reductions at all, in hopes that consumers won't even notice.

Many food companies and retailers already have pushed to reduce salt. Wal-Mart, ConAgra Foods, Nestle and Subway restaurants say they have achieved major sodium reductions in their products. Mars Food, which produces Uncle Ben's rice among other products, said in April that it would support the upcoming FDA sodium regulations "to help consumers shift taste preferences to lower sodium foods and improve overall health."

The companies say that in some cases, just removing added salt or switching ingredients does the trick. Potassium chloride can also substitute for common salt (sodium chloride), though too much can cause a metallic taste. In addition to flavor, companies use sodium to increase shelf life, prevent the growth of bacteria, or improve texture and appearance. That can make it more difficult to remove from some products.

Levels of sodium in food can vary widely. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sodium in a slice of white bread ranges from 80 milligrams to 230 milligrams. Three ounces of turkey deli meat can have 450 milligrams to 1,050 milligrams.

The guidelines could provoke an outcry in Congress. In recent years, Republicans have fought the Obama administration over efforts to require calorie labels on menus and make school lunches healthier. When the administration attempted to create voluntary guidelines for advertising junk food for children, the industry fought the idea and Republicans in Congress backed the food companies up, prompting the administration to put them aside.

Health groups have argued for mandatory standards, but say voluntary guidelines are a good first step. Michael Jacobson, the head of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, says the government should assess how the voluntary standards work, and set mandatory targets if they don't.

"It's disappointing that the FDA is only proposing targets and not formal limits, but in this political climate with a Republican congress and such massive industry opposition, we're gratified that the administration is at least coming out with voluntary targets," Jacobson said.

The proposal follows new regulations in New York City that requires chain restaurants to post a salt shaker icon next to menu items that contain more than the daily recommended limit of 2,300 milligrams of salt, or about the amount found in a teaspoon.
With prospects for peace talks increasingly remote, Army Lt. Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr. is wrapping up his recommendations on whether to continue troop withdrawals this year, a U.S. military spokesman in Kabul said Wednesday.

Army Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland said Nicholson has finished his 90-day assessment of the tactical situation in Afghanistan since assuming command from Army Gen. John Campbell and would be sending his report up the chain of command within days.

Nicholson's assessment will go first to Army Gen. Joseph Votel, and then to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter with input from Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, himself a former commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Currently, there are 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the original plan was to have that number down to 5,500 by the end of this year, but the resurgence of the Taliban, the presence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the depressed economy and political turmoil in Kabul appeared to argue against more withdrawals.

In a video briefing to the Pentagon, Cleveland said of Nicholson's report that "he is literally finishing it this week as we speak, and he is presenting it to his military chain of command."

The U.S. once had more than 100,000 troops in Afghanistan following surges authorized by President Barack Obama in 2010 and 2011, decisions that came with a timetable for eventual withdrawals. Critics warned then that Obama had blundered by telling the enemy when the Americans would leave.

Afghan officials had dangled the possibility of peace talks with the Taliban, but those prospects appeared to fade earlier this year as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani charged that Pakistan was attempting to undermine his government by continuing to back the Taliban.

The chance of peace talks revived again, if only briefly, last month when a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan killed the Taliban's leader, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour. Those hopes faded again when Mansour was quickly succeeded by Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, who immediately pledged "never to bow before the infidels."

"I don't believe that we will see peace talks any time in the short term with Mullah Haibatullah," Cleveland said. The new Taliban leader was "really not a money guy, really not a military guy," but was more of a religious leader, he said. "We don't expect him to come to the negotiating table," he said.

Peace talks have been pressed by the Quadrilateral Coordination Group, which was put together last year by officials from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the U.S. and China. The group met last month but the Kabul government did not send a representative.

--Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
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.
Updated 7:17 p.m. ET

Officials are confirming a fatal crash of one of the Navy's prized Blue Angels demonstration jets in Tennessee on Thursday -- just hours after an Air Force Thunderbirds plane went down in Colorado in a separate incident.

"A U.S. Navy F-18 [Hornet] assigned to Navy's demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, crashed today while conducting a practice air show in the Smyrna area at approximately 3:01 p.m. Central Standard Time," Lt. Clinton Beaird, a spokesman for U.S. Naval Air Forces, told Military.com.

While Beaird said the condition of the pilot was still unknown, Smyrna town manager Harry Gill confirmed in a Thursday evening press conference that the pilot was killed in the crash. Gill said military officials and Federal Aviation Administration representatives were en route to the crash site, which has been cordoned off.

While Navy officials have said they do not plan to release the identity of the pilot until 24 hours after notifying the family, The Associated Press cited a U.S. official who confirmed that Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss, the opposing solo for the Blue Angels and the pilot of the #6 aircraft, died in the crash. A photo taken following the incident and circulated on social media shows five Blue Angels landed in a row on the ground, absent aircraft No. 6.

Kuss, a native of Durango, Colorado, joined the Blue Angels in September 2014, according to his official biography. He was commissioned as a Marine officer in 2006 and graduated Navy Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) in Fallon, Nevada, in 2012.

According to his biography, Kuss had accumulated more than 1,400 flight hours and 175 carrier-arrested landings. While assigned to Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 312 out of Beaufort, South Carolina, in 2011 as squadron mess officer, Kuss deployed with Carrier Air Wing Three aboard the carrier USS Harry S. Truman in support of the war in Afghanistan.

Naval Air Forces officials said the accident occurred shortly after takeoff, about two miles from the runway. The five other aircraft who were flying at the time were not affected by the crash and landed safely moments later.

The Blue Angels will not participate in the Great Tennessee Air Show in Smyrna this weekend as had been planned, officials confirmed.

The Navy plans an investigation to determine the cause of the crash, Beaird said.

"The Navy is deeply saddened by the loss of this service member," Cmdr. Jeannie Groeneveld, a spokeswoman for Naval Air Forces, said in a statement. "We extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the family of the pilot, and those he served with."

Multiple bystanders witnessed the crash. One who used the Twitter handle @HalieShults, posted images showing a fireball and black smoke at the crash site. She asked for prayers for the pilot of the aircraft and his family.

This crash is the second for a military demonstration aircraft in a single day -- an exceedingly rare occurrence.

Earlier this afternoon, an Air Force F-16 Thunderbird crashed near Colorado Springs following a flyover at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The pilot was able to eject from the aircraft safely.

In that incident, the F-16 Fighting Falcon made by Lockheed Martin Corp. crashed around 1 p.m. in a field south of the city and near Peterson Air Force Base after flying over an Air Force Academy commencement attended by President Barack Obama, according to the White House and photographs of the scene.

The photos depict the iconic single-engine aircraft seemingly intact on a field, a pilot parachuting to the ground and a military utility helicopter flying to the scene. The pilot was in good condition afterward.

"The pilot of the #6 jet ejected safely and is walking around unhurt," Air Combat Command said in a Tweet. "More details will be released as they become available."

Obama was still present at the ceremony at the time of the crash and visited with the pilot afterward to thank the pilot for his service to the country and express his relief that he was not seriously injured, according to White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

-- Brendan McGarry contributed to this report.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
For the first time in its history, the Coast Guard has a second four-star admiral, the service announced.

Charles Michel, who has served as vice commandant and the second-highest ranking officer behind since August, on Wednesday was promoted to the rank of admiral at Coast Guard Headquarters, according to a press release from the service.

His wife Claudia pinned his new shoulderboard on during a ceremony at the service's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"I am humbled to be the first Coast Guard vice commandant promoted to the rank of four-star admiral," he said in the release. "This promotion will enable me and future vice commandants to better represent the Coast Guard and the commandant."

President Barack Obama nominated Michel for the promotion following legislation approved by lawmakers in Congress last year requiring all of the service's vice chiefs to have the same leadership level, according to the release.

A Coast Guard Academy and law school graduate from Florida, Michael oversees the Coast Guard's senior operational and mission support commanders and headquarters staff, the release states. He also serves as service chief in the absence of Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft, it states.

--Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry.
Sailors and Marines facing administrative separation for any reason will have mental health issues taken into account when officials determine their discharge characterization and disability evaluation status under a new policy rolled out by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus this week.

The change makes the Navy the first military service to consider mental health issues when conducting administrative separations, according to a June 1 news release. It acknowledges that post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries received in combat that may contribute to troops' negative behavior or altered job performance.

Service members may face administrative separation after demonstrating patterns of misconduct, poor performance of duties or non-performance, failure to conform to weight and fitness standards, and drug use, among other reasons. The military also sometimes separates those who have been accused of serious crimes so that the civilian justice system can prosecute them.

Starting immediately, diagnosed mental health conditions will take precedence over misconduct issues when determining the conditions of a Marine or sailor's discharge, if the mental health issue is believed to have contributed to the misconduct, according to officials. These troops may be referred into the disability evaluation system, allowing them to retain key veterans' benefits.

For troops with diagnosed mental health issues facing a discharge other than honorable, according to the release, their case must first be personally reviewed by the first general or flag officer in their chain of command for a final determination. Discharge status has a significant impact on veterans' benefit eligibility: other-than-honorable, bad conduct, and dishonorable discharges disqualify troops from all benefits, while a general discharge may limit eligibility for certain benefits, like the GI Bill.

Marine and Navy veterans who believe their own discharge status might have been affected by this updated review process can appeal, said Lt. j.g. Kara Yingling, a Navy spokeswoman.

"Service members who believe this change in policy may affect their separation characterization or disposition can file a petition for relief through the Board of Correction for Naval Records," Yingling told Military.com.

There is no statute of limitations for those wishing to appeal, she said.

For PTSD, TBI and other mental health conditions, an "appropriately privileged military health care provider" will be consulted to determine whether the condition contributed to the actions or conduct for which the sailor or Marine is being separated, Yingling said.

For Mabus, this is the latest in a series of significant department-specific social changes that have characterized his tenure. Last July, he increased maternity leave for sailors and Marines from six weeks to 18 -- a dramatic move that was overridden in January by a Defense Department-wide policy change that granted 12 weeks' leave to troops in every service.

"It is one of the great maxims of naval history that Sailors and Marines are the sea services' greatest advantage and most important asset. For more than a decade, we've asked a tremendous amount of our people and their families," Mabus said in a statement. "In turn, we have a responsibility to support their needs, whether they are serving the Navy and Marine Corps mission around the globe or transitioning from uniformed service to civilian life."

--Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
The Corps will now let Marines wear slightly bigger arm band tattoos but the popular sleeves -- ink covering most or all of a person's arm -- are still banned, according to a detailed new policy published Thursday.

Also new: Marines are allowed to get a small tattoo on the finger of one hand -- a nod to the popular practice of getting a tattoo in lieu of a wedding ring.

But those looking for major changes to the Corps' long-standing tattoo prohibitions will be disappointed. The new policy still prohibits Marines from inking hands, wrists, and necks. And for officers, the policy still limits the number of tattoos visible in physical training gear to four.

All these updates are included in an extensive 32-page bulletin that instructs Marines on not only where tattoos are permitted, but how to measure their tattoos using their hands and visual references to ensure compliance.

The Marine Corps launched a review of its tattoo policy in March 2015 after then-commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford and Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald Green fielded numerous questions about the rules during a tour of Marine bases.

In 2007 and 2010, 34th Commandant James Conway introduced a number of unpopular tattoo prohibitions that banned sleeves and limited tattoo size everywhere else in an effort to develop a more professional appearance for Marines.

"The Commandant said it best  that we've attempted to balance the individual desires of Marines with the need to maintain the disciplined appearance expected of our profession," Green said in a statement Thursday. "I think we have accomplished just that  We took the time we felt this policy deserved, we wanted to make sure we got it right."

The new tattoo policy still prohibits sexist, racist, obscene and extremist tattoo content. Chest or back tattoos can be unlimited in number, but must be entirely covered by a crew-neck T-shirt.

Band tattoos, which extend around the circumference of an arm or leg, can be three inches wide, or the width of the Marines' four fingers extended and joined, whichever is greater. This is an inch wider than the previous policy allowed for band tattoos.

Tattoos on elbows and knees are still prohibited, but the policy allows a single tattoo below the knee or the elbow as long as it can be covered completely by the Marine's hand. The Marine can also get a collection of small tattoos that fit underneath a hand, or a band tattoo instead.

If female Marines have visible tattoos on their legs, they must wear slacks instead of a skirt in the service and dress uniforms.

Starting now, Marines have 120 days to get non-compliant tattoos formally documented in their personnel file. Enlisted Marines will have their tattoos reviewed for compliance whenever they submit a retention package for reenlistment, and officers will be reviewed for tattoos at each promotion board.

The new policy warns that enlisted Marines who wish to pursue a commission as an officer should make sure their tattoos comply with the standards for officers limiting visible tattoos to four. And for those considering special duty assignments, such as Marine security guard or drill instructor, the policy warns that even regulation tattoos might limit their options.

Marines will not receive special duty assignments if any of their visible tattoos do not comply with the new regulations.

And "a tattoo may not be specifically prohibited, but could prevent future commissioning or duty assignments," states the policy, signed by Commandant Gen. Robert Neller.

The policy comes in sharp contrast to a tattoo update recently released by the Navy that permits neck tattoos for the first time and lifts tattoo size restrictions entirely. Navy officials said the new policy was an acknowledgement of the popularity of tattoos with the youngest generation of sailors a key recruiting population for the service.

In March, Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs Deputy Commandant Lt. Gen. Mark Brilakis told Military.com it was unlikely the Marine Corps would relax standards that significantly.

"I can tell you right now that not everybody is going to be happy," he said. "The Marine Corps is an organization that prides itself on its relationship with the American people. We've got a history of being a smart, well-groomed professional force, and this commandant has no intention of walking away from any of those precepts. And so this tattoo policy will be respecting individual desires but also understanding that we are a military force."

In a statement, Green said Neller wanted to make sure Marines knew they were being listened to with the new tattoo policy.

"He's allowed more skin area for tattoos in an effort to balance the Marine's desires with the Grooming Standards of the Marine Corps," Green said. "He wanted the policy to allow Marines freedom and flexibility to express themselves, while also being clearly written and understandable for both Marines and their leadership."

--Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
Top Pentagon public affairs strategist Bryan Whitman has been put on administrative leave over the bizarre parking dispute case in which he allegedly stole the license plates of a Capitol Hill neighbor's nanny -- three times.

The one-sentence statement on the matter from Gordon Trowbridge, the deputy Pentagon press secretary, said that "In light of the pending criminal case involving Bryan Whitman, he has been placed on administrative leave while the department reviews this matter."

Documents filed in District of Columbia Superior Court show that the 58-year-old Whitman, one of the highest-ranking civilians at the Pentagon as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, has apparently agreed to terms to avoid prosecution on three misdemeanor counts of theft, NBC reported.

The charges would be dismissed next year if Whitman pays restitution, completes about a week of community service and keeps his record clean.

Trowbridge declined to discuss particulars of the case, saying it was a personnel matter, but a lengthy story in The Washington Post portrayed Whitman as having appointed himself the stealthy parking enforcer of his neighborhood east of the Capitol under Washington's Visitor Parking Pass program.

Whitman allegedly thought the neighbor's nanny was abusing the visitor's parking pass and left a note on the windshield in April: "I know you are misusing this visitor pass to park here daily. If you do not stop I will report it, have your car towed and the resident who provided this to you will have his privileges taken away."

When the nanny kept on parking, Whitman allegedly stole the license plates. Then he did it again. The nanny's employers then bought a video machine and caught Whitman on tape when he did it a third time, The Washington Post said.

When police served a search warrant on Whitman on May 2, he allegedly handed over the stolen plates.

Whitman, an Army veteran, has been in public affairs at the Pentagon for more than 30 years and has often presided at Pentagon press briefings and appeared on TV.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
A U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration jet crashed near Colorado Springs after flying over an Air Force Academy commencement attended by President Barack Obama, according to the White House and photographs of the scene.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon made by Lockheed Martin Corp. crashed around 1 p.m. in a field south of the city and near Peterson Air Force Base, according to official statements and photographs submitted to Military.com.

The photos depict the iconic single-engine aircraft seemingly intact on a field, a pilot parachuting to the ground and a military utility helicopter flying to the scene. The pilot was in good condition afterward.

"The pilot of the #6 jet ejected safely and is walking around unhurt," Air Combat Command said in a Tweet. "More details will be released as they become available."

Obama was still present at the ceremony at the time of the crash, though he made a point to visit the pilot afterward.

"Upon arrival at Peterson Air Force Base, the President visited briefly with the Thunderbird pilot whose aircraft crashed earlier today," according to a statement by Press Secretary Josh Earnest.

"The President thanked the pilot for his service to the country and expressed his relief that the pilot was not seriously injured. The President also thanked the first responders who acted quickly to tend to the pilot."

The accident occurred the same day a U.S. Navy Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet reportedly crashed in Tennessee while practicing for an airshow this weekend in Smyrna.

--Amy Bushatz and Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this report.

--Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry.
Lifelong friends Tom Barfuss and John Pynnonen -- both 16 -- have shared in many childhood adventures and school events.

But perhaps what they will remember most through the years are their experiences with the Boy Scouts.

Tom and John became friends when they were in kindergarten and, a year later, joined Cub Scout Pack 3634, which meets at Forest Hills Thornapple Elementary.

Both boys progressed through Cub Scouts and earned their Arrow of Light award, before "crossing over" into Troop 334, chartered by Cascade Christian Church.

On May 22, they received their Eagle rank awards in a combined ceremony. The Eagle rank is the highest afforded by the Boy Scouts. In order to attain the rank, a Scout must complete among others things, a leadership project that benefits the community.

For his Eagle Scout project, Tom led a team in constructing a gaga ball pit for Thornapple Elementary school's playground. The project was finished last fall and is so popular that the kids at the school are asking for a second one.

John's Eagle project benefited John Ball Park. He led a group of Scouts and adults over a two-week period in building a 20-foot-long wooden bridge over a ravine to complete a walking path through the park.

In addition to completing the leadership projects, both Scouts have attended Gerber Scout camp many times and have earned dozens of merit badges during their Scouting experience.

Both have held numerous leadership positions in Troop 334, and recall among their best memories -- biking through the Black Hills of South Dakota, biking along the C&O canal tow path through Maryland into Washington D.C., and whitewater rafting in West Virginia. John has also completed the BSA Mile Swim.

Both Tom and John were elected by their fellow Scouts into the Order of the Arrow, Scouting's honor society, and are now Brotherhood members.

Tom is the son of Evie Philippi and John Barfuss, of Cascade. He is completing his junior year at Forest Hills Central High School. He plays the euphonium and is a section leader in the Ranger marching band, a member of the FHC theater, the National Honor Society and active in the school's Model United Nations. After high school, he hopes to attend Michigan State University to study conservation sciences and environmental policy and play baritone in the MSU marching band.

John the son of Anne and Ed Pynnonen, of Ada. He is an honor student at Forest Hills Central High School where he is in the marching band drumline, a high school swimmer, and a high school rower who received his varsity letter his sophomore year. John enjoys filming, editing and producing the high school news program FX, each morning. His plans for the future include hiking with the Scouts this summer in Pukaskwa National Park in Canada, and attending college after he graduates from high school next year.

The dual Eagle ceremony was attended by an audience that included more than 20 Eagle Scouts and capped a more than 10-year journey together of the best friends.
ADA, MICHIGAN- Each week Amy Sherman and John Gonzalez travel around Michigan not only searching for Michigan's Best food and drink for MLive, but also bringing stories from Behind the Mitten on their statewide radio show. A regular segment on the show is "Beer of the Week", which features a different Michigan craft beer every week.

This week we stopped by Gravel Bottom Brewing in Ada, located just east of Grand Rapids. The brewery has been open for about three years, and owner Matt Michiels started, like many, as a home brewer. The brewery includes a home brew supply store right next door as well.

They usually offer 6 beers on tap, with everything from IPA's, to browns, stouts, even a Belgian or two. Their Front Porch guava infused IPA is very popular this time of year, if it's on tap when you visit be sure to give it a taste.

Our beer of the week is their "Nooky". Yes, he did it all for the nooky, the nooky. And no, that will never get old. The bartender expects it. This beer is a nice pale ale, yellow gold in color, that comes in at a pleasant 40 IBU's (international bittering units). Not too hoppy, an easy drinking pale that features nice pine and a bit of citrus from the Michigan grown Cascade hops.

Brewer Nick Roelofs explained that normally West Coast grown Cascade's are very piney. The rich soil here in Michigan "just gives them this nice citrus quality that you don't get from West Coast hops".

The other great thing about this beer? It's only 4.7% ABV, so feel free to have more than one. Or fill up your growler, and feel confident in your lawn mowing ability.

You can order food from neighboring restaurants like Vitale's or The Ada Pourhouse and bring it in to enjoy with their beers. Or plan your visit around a food truck appearance, like a recent one from Two Scotts BBQ. Check Gravel Bottom's Facebook page for current info on who will be serving and when.

Gravel Bottom Brewery

418 Ada Drive Ada, MI 49301

PH: (616) 920-7398

HOURS

Tuesday thru Thursday 2 to 11 PM

Friday & Saturday 11 AM to MIDNIGHT

Sunday NOON to 8 PM

You can listen to Behind the Mitten every weekend on:

*8 a.m. Saturday on 1320 WILS in Lansing.

*7 a.m. Sunday on 104.9 The Edge in Battle Creek.

*12 noon Sunday on Talk Radio 1360 WKMI in Kalamazoo.

*3 p.m. Sunday on Supertalk 1570 in Flint.

*9 p.m. Saturday on WOOD Radio 1300-AM & 106.9-FM

Amy Sherman is on the Life + Culture Team for MLive. She covers food, beer, travel and Michigan's Best along with John Gonzalez. Email her at asherma2@mlive.com or follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or Periscope.
MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- The 21st century commissions that Gov. Rick Snyder has created this year will roll up into a broader strategy to re-write the state's future, he said at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday.

"We're writing the books. We're helping set Michigan's foundation for the next five, the next 15, the next 50 years," Snyder told attendees to the annual Detroit Regional Chamber event.

He cited successful programs his administration has supported, including Community Ventures and the Rising Tide program that helps communities establish an economic vision and create new career opportunities for residents.

Those type of initiatives have been successful, Snyder said. According to data from the Department of Technology Management and Budget unemployment was 12.6 percent in 2010, and it's down to 4.3 percent in April of 2016.

Thursday's speech was upbeat and positive, striking a different tone than the governor did in opening remarks on Wednesday.

The governor's speech focused on wrapping programs like Rising Tide and Community Ventures up into a statewide vision that will ultimately lays a good framework for future generations.

"Now it's time to step back and look at the big picture," Snyder said.

In his State of the State address this year he announced his intention to create the 21st Infrastructure Commission and 21st Century Education Commission. He did that, and there is another one coming: the 21st Century Economy Commission.

"I actually made it the third one because really to do that the right way you need to work on infrastructure first and education first. And they're pillars that go into building your economy," Snyder said.

Together, he said, the commissions would help focus in on important issues. It's up to Michiganders, he said, to re-write the state's future. It's an opportunity not every generation gets, he said.

"That's the opportunity, that's the tone we can set, and let's do it together," Snyder said.

The Mackinac Policy Conference wraps up on Friday.

Emily Lawler is a Capitol reporter on MLive's statewide Impact Team. You can reach her at elawler@mlive.com, subscribe to her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter: @emilyjanelawler.
Mark Hackel

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel

(Fritz Klug | MLive)

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel said he has never understood why it is so unorthodox to endorse a person who is not of the same political party.

Shortly after U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, announced her intentions to run for Macomb County Public Works Commissioner in lieu of staying in Congress, Hackel, a Democrat, threw in his endorsement. The current public works commissioner, Anthony Marrocco, is a Democrat in his fifth, four-year term.

Hackel said his endorsement of Miller is simple: he has known her since her days as Harrison Township supervisor and has continued to respect her work in Congress. Her work to keep Michigan waterways clean and safe and the Washington connections she could leverage to bring funding issues in the county to light is an exciting prospect, he said.

"The point is to endorse people that you believe are the ones that are going to be the most effective in making things happen," Hackel said during the Mackinac Policy Conference. "The working relationship I would get with a person like Candice Miller would far exceed any expectations the public would have or that I would have."

Marrocco has stuck by his record, arguing local waters have gotten cleaner since he was first elected two decades ago and that a more efficient sewer system has kept more pollution out of Lake St. Clair and the Clinton River. But Miller has argued there's much to be improved upon in the office.

Hackel said he is not getting from Marrocco the same type of fervor for protecting the environment or commitment to ensuring public works projects are going to the lower bidders.

"That's not happening right now -- that's not acceptable by any standard," he said.

Miller's departure leaves an open seat in Michigan's congressional delegation. Hackel said he hasn't yet endorsed in that race, which includes Anthony Forlini, Paul Mitchell, Phil Pavlov, Alan Sanborn and David VanAssche on the Republican side and Frank Accavitti running unopposed on the Democratic ticket.

The district is solidly Republican -- Miller handily won the seat in 2012 and 2014 with roughly 70 percent of the vote in both elections. Miller was first elected to Congress in 2002.

Hackel said he was approached about running for the seat, but said he prefers an executive role.

As for his future, he demurred chatter that he could eventually be a Democratic contender for governor, opining that it would be disappointing to the public if he was elected to one role and immediately began talking about moving to another one.

"It's interesting, it's flattering, but the reality is there's so much I want to accomplish still within the county," he said.

Lauren Gibbons is a political reporter on MLive's Impact team. She can be reached at lgibbon2@mlive.com.
MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- During World War II Michigan was known as the "arsenal of democracy." Under a new statewide initiative, the state's defense industry is looking to evolve its reputation into the "arsenal of Innovation."

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel are among those joining in promoting Michigan's defense industry.

A report from the Michigan Defense Center found that Michigan's defense sector supported 105,000 jobs in the state and produced $9 billion in products and services annually.

While Michigan has strong military assets, there is always a chance they would be targeted for closure if a Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) were to be initiated on the federal level. Miller said she'd participated in such proceedings before.

Stabenow said it wasn't part of the plan in fiscal year 2017, but "we know going forward that that will happen."

But aside from just protecting the industry, the Protect and Grow initiative is also looking to increase the state's defense economy. The Michigan Defense Center report notes that Michigan's core contribution to national defense lay within its manufacturing and technical capabilities.

Key areas Michigan could expand, according to the report, are cyber operations and the link between the defense and auto industries.

Emily Lawler is a Capitol reporter on MLive's statewide Impact Team. You can reach her at elawler@mlive.com, subscribe to her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter: @emilyjanelawler.
HOLLAND TOWNSHIP, MI -- Coppercraft is developing a national reputation for its Holland-made spirits, if its growing collection of awards is any indicator.

The artisan spirits distiller creates premium, small-batch rum, gin, vodka, citrus vodka, whiskey and bourbon by hand using local ingredients.

The Michigan grocer behind D&W Fresh Markets and Family Fare Supermarkets plans to add Coppercraft's signature rum and gin to 20 additional stores along the the state's west coast of the Lower Peninsula. Coppercraft's vodka, citrus vodka and applejack brandy will be added in the fall. A fifth sells for about $30.

"We've been in about nine locations in West Michigan previously, but this is a bigger statewide push," said Kim Catton, sales director, who co-founded the business with her husband, Walter Catton III, in 2012.

The Holland Township distillery, at 184 120th Ave, is growing. It has added half a dozen employees in the last few months, and is on track to open an accompanying restaurant by early July.

The money for that expansion is coming from an investment from the Windquest Group, a Grand Rapids-based holding company owned by Amway heir Dick DeVos and his wife, Betsy, who are in the process of buying a majority stake in the distillery.

"It's a very working-capital-intensive business," Catton said. "That's what sets us apart from a brewery. Our time to market is such a greater lag."

The company is worth millions, although most of that value is in the 360 barrels of its crafted spirits in the middle of the aging process. Each barrel holds about 53 gallons, although there is natural evaporation that will reduce the amount.

"As we see our product age and come to such a level of winning awards and being accepted by the public, the wait is worth it," Catton said. "Our business model is based on whiskey and bourbons."

The minimum barrel aging for bourbon is two years, but the sweet spot is somewhere in the four to six year range, she said.

Coppercraft's award-winning bourbon and citrus vodka is expected to be at retailers this fall. For now, it can only be purchased at Coppercraft. The bourbon is made with corn and rye grown at Boersen Farms in Zeeland.

Coppercraft's rum recently won a bronze medal at the 2016 American Distiller's Institute awards in San Diego. It also won a bronze medal from the American Craft Spirits Association and a silver medal at the Denver International Spirits Show.

Coppercraft has taken home a number of other recent awards, including the gold and best in category awards from ADI for its Cask Strength Bourbon.

The rum, made from locally-sourced molasses and evaporated cane juice, features apple and pear notes with a trace of vanilla and caramel. It was featured in the Copper Blossom, the signature cocktail of the recent Tulip Time Festival. The distillery has taken advantage of its location to serve as the " Official Spirit of the Tulip Time Festival" for three consecutive years.



Applejack is back: Coppercraft Distillery goes to market with historic American spirit

Shandra Martinez covers business and other topics for MLive. Email her or follow her on Twitter @shandramartinez.
By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman

On Saturday, Penn National will host an exciting day of racing led by four stakes races, including the $500,000 Penn Mile (gr. III). I'll be the first to admit that I have a soft spot for the Penn Mile, a one-mile turf race for three-year-olds that has drawn strong fields of talented horses since its inauguration in 2013. By filling a gap in the schedule for three-year-olds on turf, the Penn Mile has attracted horses like Bobby's Kitten, Force the Pass, and Are You Kidding Me, and the 2016 renewal has the potential to be the best yet.

Leading the field is Catch a Glimpse, a filly that is unbeaten on turf and a winner of five straight graded stakes races, including the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. I). Trained by Mark Casse, the daughter of City Zip is 3-for-3 this year, with her most recent win being a determined triumph by three-quarters of a length in the Edgewood Stakes (gr. III) at Churchill Downs. A mile seems to be perfect fit for her in terms of distance, and her excellent tactical speed allows her to work out a great trip every time.

That said, Catch a Glimpse has lost ground in the stretch of her last two races, and while that may be partly the result of losing focus once she takes a clear lead, her closing fractions have not been all that remarkable. I also wonder if she might be a bit better with give in the ground; to me, her two most impressive performances came over a "good" turf course in the Natalma Stakes (gr. II) and a "yielding" course in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Since Catch a Glimpse is 2-1 on the morning line and could start as the favorite, I think it's worth taking a shot against her with a longer-price runner, and one that jumps out at me is her stablemate Airoforce. After a terrific season in 2015 that saw him win three of his four starts and finish second by a neck in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (gr. I), Airoforce has not seen the same success this year and has failed to crack the trifecta in his last three starts. However, two of those races were on dirt and synthetic tracks-he seems to be clearly better on turf-and when he returned to his preferred surface in the American Turf Stakes (gr. II) at Churchill Downs, he turned in a much-improved performance. After showing uncharacteristic early speed to set a fast pace, Airoforce tired a bit in the final two furlongs but fought on well to finish fourth, beaten just 2  lengths despite steadying slightly in the homestretch.

In the Penn Mile, Airoforce is expected to return to his late-running style, and he could get a great pace setup if the speedy colts Giant Run and Silent Waters keep Catch a Glimpse honest on the lead. After being favored in all three starts this year, Airoforce is the 7-2 third choice on the Penn Mile morning line, and I think that is value on a talented colt.

But Beach Patrol also warrants a lot of respect and might be an even better choice for the top spot. He got a good pace setup when second by a head in the American Turf Stakes, but his combination of tactical speed (he won an allowance race at Santa Anita in gate-to-wire fashion) and ability to rate makes him a major contender regardless of pace scenario. He should be a bit more forwardly placed than Airoforce and could get first run at Catch a Glimpse turning for home, and given how well he finished in the American Turf Stakes-he probably would have won if not for ground loss-I think Saturday is the day that he picks up his first graded stakes win.

It should also be noted that Beach Patrol will be racing for new connections in the Penn Mile, having been sold after the American Turf Stakes and transferred to the barn of Chad Brown. Joel Rosario will be in the saddle on Saturday, marking the sixth different jockey to ride Beach Patrol in his six races.

Another contender for the exotics is Oscar Nominated, winner of the Black Gold Stakes and Spiral Stakes (gr. III) before finishing 17th in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). He's quietly compiled a solid record on turf and possesses nice acceleration and a solid finishing kick, although he's yet to face top company on grass and my gut feeling is that he won't be able to out-kick Beach Patrol and Airoforce when the real running begins.

Now it's your turn! Who do you like in the Penn Mile?

*****

Looking forward to Royal Ascot? Stay up-to-date on all the latest news by visting the Royal Ascot page on The Turf Board!



*****

J. Keeler Johnson (also known as "Keelerman") is a writer, blogger, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. He is the founder of the horse racing website http://www.theturfboard.com/.
India inks MoU with US to enhance cooperation in energy security & other areas

Published: June 2, 2016

India has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States to enhance cooperation in energy security, clean energy and climate change.

The MoU will boost energy ties between the two countries through increased bilateral engagement.

Key Facts

The objective of the MoU is to boost energy ties between the two countries through increased bilateral engagement and further joint initiatives.

It intends to increase incentives for innovation including R&D and voluntary and mutually-agreed technology transfer, as well as the deployment of clean energy technologies.

It also seeks to contribute to a global effort to curb the rise in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change.

Under the MoU, the priority initiatives are US-India Energy smart Cities Partnership, greening the grid, promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE) expansion.

It also includes energy efficiency including space cooling, energy security, renewable energy, clean energy finance and US-India partnership for Climate Resilience etc.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016

Topics: Energy security  India-US  National  Power Sector  Renewable energy

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KALAMAZOO, MI -- An Illinois man was sentenced to three years in prison for threatening a witness in his brother's heroin trafficking case.

Jermaine Carr, 34, of Riverdale, Ill., threatened to burn down the house of a witness and told the witness he was going to die, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Patrick Miles of the Western District of Michigan.

The witness was assisting law enforcement officers with the investigation into Daniel Carr's case. Daniel Carr pleaded guilty in April 2016 to conspiracy to distribute heroin. Police say Daniel Carr hired women to smuggle heroin in their vaginas from Chicago to Battle Creek.

Jermaine Carr received the maximum sentence that can be imposed for tampering with a witness. At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge Janet T. Neff said Carr is a danger to society based on this offense and his past offenses, which including domestic violence assaults and strangulation.

This case was investigated jointly by the Battle Creek Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
State Rep. Triston Cole ( R-Mancelona) speaking on the House Floor May 31 in support of his bill to remove the certification requirement to pick and sell morel mushrooms. (Courtesy)

LANSING, MI -- The year-old requirement that people in Michigan selling morel mushrooms to restaurants need to be certified may be repealed.

The Michigan House of Representatives approved State Representative Triston Cole's (R-Mancelona) legislation to remove the certification requirement necessary to pick and sell morel mushrooms.

"As far back as I can remember I was able to forage for morels and sell them to local businesses and restaurants in Northern Michigan, until recently in 2015 when the state adopted a law to require mandatory certification training to sell morels," Cole said in a news release about the action. "House Bill 5532 will simply eliminate the training necessary to pick and sell morels and revert back to the original law, which did not allow the government to infringe upon an individual's livelihood."

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development supports the existing certification requirement.

"There have been both illnesses and deaths of individuals who have provided false morels to their family and friends," said Jennifer Holton, director of communications for the department.

Having a certified individual confirm and/or properly identify wild foraged mushrooms provides the public some certainty and protection, she said. "It also ensures that folks are able to sell their mushrooms on the open market to those wishing to buy safe, edible mushrooms."

HB 5582 amends Chapter Six of the Michigan Food Law, Standards for Food Establishments, by adding morel mushrooms to the list of items that are exempt from required food safety training.

The requirement for training has been around since 2000, but it wasn't until 2015 that a specific certification program was developed.

"Morel mushroom hunting can be a tremendous source of fun for residents and revenue for various regions across the state," Cole said. "This is common-sense legislation because the commonality and unique identification of morel mushrooms make them ideal for exemption to existing regulations."

Holton said certification is required only for those wishing to sell wild-foraged mushrooms commercially, not for individual consumption, and added that false morels can be easily confused with true morels. "MDARD has serious concerns about the health risks posed by toxins in the false morels," she said.

Cole said if the requirement is repealed restaurants can still opt to only purchase from an individual that has obtained a certificate, "however chefs are confident in their knowledge and can continue to purchase from individuals that are not certified."

HB 5582 now moves to the Senate for consideration.

Rosemary Parker is a reporter for MLive. Contact her at rparker3@ mlive.com.
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KALAMAZOO, MI -- A June 6 court date has been set in the case of Jason Brian Dalton, the Uber driver charged with a shooting rampage that left six people dead and two seriously injured Feb. 20 at three locations in Kalamazoo County.

A pre-trial conference has been scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Monday, June 6 in Kalamazoo County Circuit Court, the county prosecutor's office announced Thursday, June 2.

Dalton, 45, of Cooper Township, is charged with six counts of murder, two counts of assault with intent to commit murder and eight felony firearm counts. He was found competent to stand trial in April and was ordered to stand trial in May.

The June 6 pre-trial conference, which is not open to the public, is for the attorneys to meet with the judge to discuss legal and procedural matters that must be determined before a trial date can be scheduled, including any defense theories that require advance notice, such an an insanity defense.

Nothing has been filed at this time to indicate what defense theories might be, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Carrie Klein said Thursday.

Following the conference between the prosecutor, defense attorney and Kalamazoo County Circuit Court Judge Alexander Lipsey, Prosecutor Jeff Getting will hold a press briefing to update the media and community on the status of the case.

Rosemary Parker is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Contact her at rparker3@mlive.com.
Boys and Girls Club

Children attend the announcement of Boys and Girls Clubs opening at a Muskegon Big Reds football game in 2015.(Courtesy | Bob Scolnik)

(Picasa)

MUSKEGON, MI -- Youth ages 6 to 18 will be able to attend two free recreation and education summer programs hosted by The Boys and Girls Club of the Muskegon Lakeshore.

A parent and member orientation will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 4. The event also is open to community members who seek information about registration and activities.

The Summer Parks Recreation Program focuses on academics, character development and teaching healthy habits. Meanwhile, the Summer Parks Enrichment Program teaches students science and math skills through lab activities in addition to outdoor play.

The events have expanded significantly in the second summer of The Boys and Girls Club. This year the organization expects 200 children to attend programming at five parks across the city.

The Summer Parks Recreation Program is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday from June 13 to Sept. 2. Free breakfast and lunch will be provided each day. The program will be held at Seyferth Park at 2250 W. Sherman Ave., Reese Park at 1345 E. Forest Ave., Sheldon Park at 1059 E. Isabella Ave., Smith-Ryerson Park at 650 Wood St. and Joe Clifford Park at 2140 Valley St.

"We focus on summer brain gain to prevent learning loss incurred by not being in class during the summer," said Executive Director Dakota Crow. "We partnered with United Way to make sure preteens and teens are engaged in community service. The third thing we focus on is what we call healthy habits and that's anything from recreation activity in sporting events to learning (nutrition) and how to treat your body right."

The Summer Club Enrichment Program is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday from June 13 to Sept. 2. Free breakfast, lunch and dinner will be provided each day. This program is offered at the Boys and Girls Club Nelson Site on 550 W. Grand Ave.

"Our Nelson site has access to technology lab and Comcast has been gracious enough to support programs that allow us to have projects like LEGO and underwater robotics and coding courses on computers," Crow said.

Crow expects the club to serve 400 meals every day. To handle the large workload, an internship for a head chef and line cook was set up with Baker College's culinary program. Teens from Michigan Works! will also help prepare food.

To reduce barriers for participation, the City of Muskegon and Boys and Girls Club also partnered with the Muskegon Area Transit System to provide free busing from each park site to the Boys and Girls Club Nelson Site after programming ends.

Crow said all of the partnerships with community organizations have been established to make the programs as "self-sustaining as possible."

Each participating youth in the MATS Transit Program will have the opportunity to ride a MATS bus, accompanied by a Boys and Girls Club staff member, at 3 p.m. each Monday through Thursday, and at 9 a.m. on Fridays, to gain additional programming at The Boys and Girls Club Nelson Site. Parents will be required to pick their children up at the Nelson site by 6 p.m. each day.

To enroll or inquire about the Summer Parks Recreation Program, the Summer Club Enrichment Program or participation, call 231-375-5576 or send an email to Info@BGClubMuskegon.com. To enroll online, visit BGClubMuskegon.com.

Malachi Barrett covers community news for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at mbarret1@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter @PolarBarrett or on Facebook.
Prime Minister releases National Disaster Management Plan

Published: June 2, 2016

Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) to make India disaster resilient and reduce loss of lives.

The first of its kind of national plan is based on the four priority themes of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-30. They are

(i) Understanding disaster risk (ii) Improving disaster risk governance (iii) Investing in disaster risk reduction (through structural and non-structural measures) and (iv) Disaster preparedness, early warning and building back better in the aftermath of a disaster.

Salient Features of the Plan

The plan covers all phases of disaster management: prevention, response, mitigation and recovery.

It provides for vertical and horizontal integration among all the Government agencies and departments.

It also spells out the roles and responsibilities of all levels of Government right up to Urban Local Body (ULB) and Panchayat level in a matrix format.

The plan has a regional approach, which will be beneficial for disaster management and also for development planning.

It has been designed in such a way that it can be implemented in all phases of disaster management in a scalable manner.

The plan also identifies major activities such as early warning, medical care, information dissemination, fuel, search and rescue, transportation, evacuation, etc. to serve as a checklist for agencies responding to a disaster.

It also provides a generalized framework for recovery and offers flexibility to assess a situation and build back better.

It emphasizes on a greater need for Information, Education and Communication activities to prepare communities to cope with disasters.

The plan incorporates provisions for strengthening disaster risk governance and lays down six thematic areas.

They are integrated and mainstream disaster risk reduction, promoting participatory approach, capacity development, working with elected representatives, grievance redress mechanism and promoting quality standards, certification and awards for disaster risk management.

Background

The National Disaster Management Plan has been mandated Section 11 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. As per the Act, the national plan must lay down the guidelines for preparation of state-level disaster management plans as well as plans by each Central ministry and department.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016

Topics: Disaster Management  National  National Disaster Management Plan  UPSC

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Jeffrey Willis

NORTON SHORES, MI - Accused kidnapper and murderer Jeffrey Willis was friends with a Norton Shores Police officer, but that does not indicate "wrongdoing" by the officer, Muskegon County Prosecutor's official said in a special statement.

Officer Shawn Stefanich is one of "many people" who have been friends, co-workers and acquaintances interviewed by investigators for information that may help the ongoing probe into Willis, Muskegon County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Timothy Maat said in a letter sent to "media outlets."

"The fact that there was a friendship between Mr. Willis and Officer Stefanich and others in no way indicates wrongdoing by the people that knew Mr. Willis," Maat wrote. "Implying any wrongdoing is reckless and irresponsible."

Willis has been charged with open murder in the June 2014 shooting death of Rebekah Bletsch, who was found alongside Automobile Road in Dalton Township. He also has been charged with the kidnapping and assault of a 16-year-old girl who escaped from his moving vehicle in April.

Willis also is a "person of interest" in the investigation into the disappearance of Jessica Heeringa from her job at a Norton Shores gas station in April 2013.

Maat asked the public and media "respect the privacy" of individuals connected to Willis.

Lynn Moore is a reporter for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email her at lmoore8@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
WHITEHALL, MI -- More than 150 years after the Gettysburg address, the south will rise again against Union soldiers this weekend at Michigan's Heritage Park in Whitehall.

The Third Michigan Volunteer Infantry Co. F, a group of civilian reenactors, will spend the weekend at the park in the second year of Civil War Weekend. The men and women of the Michigan Third are as authentic as possible in their dress and manner as they portray what life was like during the American Civil War.

"They set up a camp and will be cooking and sleeping there on site," said Joni Dorsett, communications director. "It gives visitors an idea of what life was like for civilians and the military during that time period."

It is one of several events coming up for the Lakeshore Museum Center this summer. Some of the events are held at Michigan's Heritage Park and others at the main museum building.

Attendees can tour a Civil War camp in the park's Activity Field and meet the reenactors. The park will open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Saturday and Sunday, June 4-5 at 8637 N. Durham Road in Whitehall. Admission costs $12 for adults and teens, $8 for 65 and older, and $6 for youth ages 2-12.

New this year, children can enjoy activities from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days. Reenactors will perform drills in Activity Field at 10:30 a.m.

At 1:30 p.m. there will be a civilian and military fashion show at the park pavilion, ending with a Skirmish at Activity Field at 2:30 p.m.

"It will be a opportunity for people to enjoy what the park always has to offer and experience new things with our special events as well," Dorsett said.

The museum hosts a variety of educational events throughout the summer. For a full list, go to www.lakeshoremuseum.org/full-calendar. Here's some of the biggest attractions for the whole family:

JUNE

Each week in June, Throwback Thursday events provide free activities for families. On June 9, children are invited to learn how families preserved eggs for the winter in the early 1900s. The event will take place at from noon to 2 p.m. at the Scolnik House of the Depression Era.

On June 23, Throwback Thursday invites children to the Hackley and Hume Historic Site to paint their own bird house.

Dads get a free tour of the Hackley and Hume Historic Site on Father's Day, June 19. The site is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Admission for other visitors is $7 for adults and teens, $5 for 65 and older, and visitors 12 and younger are admitted free.

One of the Lakeshore's most popular events, Minecraft at the Museum, gives participants a chance to put themselves into the mega-hit video game. Children can search the museum to collect resources, then use those resources to craft items. Using these items can gain you entrance into "The Nether," where new challenges await.

This program is recommended for ages 6 and up and is available in 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. sessions on June 22 and 23. The cost for members is $5, and $7 for non-members.

An new exhibit will also opening for Shifting Shoreline from 4 to 8 p.m. at the museum on June 21.

A grant from the National Marine sanctuary Foundation allows the Lakeshore Museum Center to tell the story of how mill debris impacted Muskegon Lake's shoreline and how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other partners are restoring the lake.

The exhibit explores the lumbering industry and others that followed to learn how they shifted the Muskegon Lake's shoreline during the last 200 years. The exhibit will be on display until May 2017.

JULY

The museum will offer several "Make and Take" craft events in July and August.

On July 1, participants can make their own fish print from one the museum's various rubber fish options including bluegill, pike and trout for $1. This program is open to any age participant, though young children will need adult help.

The program will take place on the Main Museum's front lawn from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

One Throwback Thursday events is scheduled in July. From noon to 2 p.m. on July 7, children can learn about comic book heroes in the Great Depression at the Scolnik House.

A vintage craft show will be held at Heritage Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 2. Park admission will be charged to enter and see unique home decor, antique furniture, jewelry, and vintage clothes for sale.

A traditional Powwow will be held at Michigan's Heritage Park in Whitehall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on July 16 and 17. Dancing demonstrations, special ceremonies, vendors with native items for purchase and food vendors will be available.

A one-week day camp for elementary school children challenges students to explore the natural and cultural history of the area. Navigation Enviroworks will be held from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays in the last two weeks of July. Science and history topics include Creatures of the Night, Ice Age Adventure, Technology Through Time, the Ellis Island Experience, and Ice Cream Making

AUGUST

From 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 3, participants can make sun print design using solar paper in a make and take event. The final make and take event of the summer will be held Aug. 30 at the same time. For $1, participants can make a plaster cast of a fossil and learn about cast and mold making in the paleontological world, what types of fossils are commonly found in Michigan and what creatures those fossils originally came from.

Throwback Thursday events are also scheduled for August. From noon to 2 p.m. on Aug. 4, children can visit Hackley and Hume to paint tiles. At the same time on Aug. 18, participants can make hats.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., learn how people from the past acquired their food, cooked it and even what they used to eat it with. The day includes cooking demonstrations, hands-on activities, speakers and a chance to taste test with tickets that cost $1 each.

A four day Museum Boot Camp will teach participants about artifacts from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 9 to 12. Children will learn how to handle artifacts, how to track and number them, how to make and market an exhibit and how to install it using their favorite artifact from home. Cost of the camp is $15 for Museum members and $20 for non-members.

Malachi Barrett covers community news for MLive Muskegon Chronicle. Email him at mbarret1@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter @PolarBarrett or on Facebook.
MUSKEGON, MI - A judge denied bond Thursday for Justin Douglas Smutz, charged with murder and child abuse in the drowning death of his 14-month-old daughter.

Smutz, 32, of Muskegon was arraigned Thursday on charges of open murder and second-degree child abuse as a second-time habitual offender.

The open murder charge leaves open the possibilities of acquittal or conviction of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter. Second-degree child abuse is normally a maximum 10-year felony, but the habitual offender supplement boosts that to 15 years.

Second-degree murder can involve "wanton disregard" for human life, a prosecutor said.

Muskegon County 60th District Judge Harold F. Closz III denied bond for Smutz, who was lodged at the Muskegon County Jail following his arrest Wednesday afternoon, June 1.

Closz also appointed the Muskegon County Public Defender's Office to represent Smutz and scheduled a probable-cause hearing for 9 a.m. June 16.

The allegations are that Smutz failed to properly supervise Adalynn Smutz and that the baby died May 25 as a result of his allegedly reckless behavior.

She died after being placed in the bathtub with a 2-year-old boy without supervision, according to a court petition filed Friday, May 27, by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services seeking to remove Smutz from the family home. A judge granted that petition that also sought temporary state custody of the 2-year-old.

Muskegon police said officers who responded to the call in the 1200 block of Spring Street at 8:10 p.m. May 25 tried unsuccessfully to revive the child.

In 2008, Smutz was convicted of second offense domestic violence, a misdemeanor, and felony bribing, intimidating or interfering with witnesses. Police said Smutz shoved a young woman while she was holding his 8-month-old infant and she fell, slightly injuring the baby boy. They said he also sent letters to witnesses from jail suggesting various ways they could testify at the trial.
Duro-Last Roofing announces new multi-million dollar machine

Neil Barris | Mlive.com Duro-Last Roofing employees work on the new machine 525 Morley in Buena Vista Township, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2014. Duro-Last announced their new multi-million dollar extruder. The extruder makes roofing membranes and up to 12 feet rolls. It is the only one of its kind in the world.

(Neil Barris)

SAGINAW, MI -- Saginaw County-based Duro Last Roofing is hosting a job fair in on Saturday, June 4, seeking new employees for one of its Saginaw manufacturing operations.

The fair takes place from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the company's corporate offices at 525 Morley Drive.

The company is accepting applications for current and future positions. Duro Last is looking to fill various production positions for making its roofing system. The company did not say how many jobs are available.

Positions include those with full-time benefits. New workers will work with a trainer to get them started. Jobs are offered with a $9.50 per hour starting wage, with a pay increase after 90 days. Duro Last requires a high school diploma or GED and employees must be 18 years or older.

Previous manufacturing experience is desired, but not required.

For more information, visit the company's website.

The job fair comes just days after another area manufacturer, Xalt Energy, announced 100 layoffs due to new Chinese government regulations on battery makers. Read the story here.
SAGINAW, MI -- Joseph K. Hogan Jr. will spend the next eight-plus years in prison for fatally shooting his best friend while firing at others earlier this year.

Moments after Hogan apologized to Manuel Hernandez Jr.'s family, Circuit Judge James T. Borchard on Thursday, June 2, sentenced the 23-year-old Hogan.

Borchard sentenced Hogan for manslaughter by discharging a firearm pointed or aimed at another person, a felony to which Hogan pleaded in April.

The judge followed Hogan's plea agreement with prosecutors and sentenced him to seven years and two months to 15 years in prison. The former was the top of Hogan's state sentencing guidelines, and the latter is the maximum penalty for the manslaughter charge.

Hogan, whom prosecutors initially charged with an open count of murder, first will have to serve the mandatory, consecutive two years in prison for possessing a firearm during the commission of a felony. He received credit for 150 days, or five months.

Manuel Hernandez

Prior to Borchard handing down his sentence, Hogan apologized to Hernandez and his family, which was not present, and to his own family and the community.

"I made a terrible mistake," Hogan said quietly.

Hogan's attorney, James Gust, asked Borchard to go along with the plea agreement and noted the chain of events that led to Hogan and Hernandez, 22, both firing guns from the porch at 1421 Union at a rival vehicle. As the vehicle traveled down Union, the two friends shot at it, but as it continued moving past them, Hogan shot Hernandez in the back.

"It was a very stressful, fearful situation," Gust said. "It's just a tragedy all the way around."

Mistakes

Assistant Prosecutor Trevis Ruffin has said Hogan pulled a gun on Israel D. Rodriguez-Spitz in the hours that preceded the shooting. That happened at the home of Rodriguez-Spitz's child's mother's sister, who had invited Rodriguez-Spitz over, said Rodriguez-Spitz's attorney James Piazza. The sister also invited her neighbors, a group of people that included Hogan, Piazza said.

Rodriguez-Spitz left, and later, the sister invited him back over, telling him the neighbors left, Piazza said. "It appears" she set him up, Piazza claimed, as she also texted her neighbor that she had invited Rodriguez-Spitz over.

In the meantime, Rodriguez-Spitz, Zachary A. Castillo, and Carl J. Wardell Jr. discussed bringing a gun with them. At his May 12 sentencing, Rodriguez-Spitz acknowledged he "did do the wrong thing" by having Wardell bring the gun, but he said he did so for self-defense.

Ruffin has said a vehicle containing Castillo, Brendin H. Mahalic, Rodriguez-Spitz, Wardell, and a 17-year-old girl then "stalked" the house on Union, where Hogan, Hernandez, and Shyhiem J. Warren were located.

That is about the time shots were fired and Hogan shot Hernandez, prosecutors said. The girl in the vehicle suffered a gunshot wound to her lower leg or foot, prosecutors said.

At his plea hearing, Hogan said he meant to fire his gun, a .40-caliber Hi-Point semi-automatic handgun, but did not mean to cause Hernandez's death. Warren, who remained in the house, hid Hernandez's gun after the shooting, he has said.

Hernandez's mother, Valerie Guerrero, has said Hogan and Warren were like brothers to Hernandez.

Chief Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Boyd has stressed the shooting of Hernandez was not "accidental," a term Gust used Thursday.

"Mistakenly, I think, is the correct word," he said. "He was shooting at the car and, unfortunately, mistakenly shot his colleague."

Borchard on Thursday said the mistake was not calling the police.

"A simple call to 911, and there would have been a whole lot better outcome," he said.

While Hogan was the only person to face a murder charge, prosecutors also charged Castillo, Mahalic, Rodriguez-Spitz, Wardell, and Warren with various felonies. Each of them, except Mahalic, have accepted plea agreements. Of those, only Wardell is awaiting sentencing.

Borchard sentenced Rodriguez-Spitz to prison and Castillo to time served for carrying a concealed weapon, and he sentenced Warren to one year in jail for acting as an accessory after the fact.

Wardell, 16, pleaded guilty to the concealed weapon charge and does not have a sentencing agreement. He is scheduled for sentencing June 23.

Mahalic, 19, is expected to plead as charged to the concealed weapon charge but has yet to do so. He is scheduled for a July 6 trial.

-- Andy Hoag covers courts for MLive/The Saginaw News. Email him at ahoag@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter @awhoag
Michigan State vs. Air Force football

Michigan State faced Air Force at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing Saturday, September 19, 2015.

(Danielle Duval | MLive.com)

EAST LANSING -- If you were hoping to purchase Michigan State season tickets for 2016, you're too late.

The school has officially sold out of ticket packages for its full seven-game home schedule, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

The early sellout marks a significant uptick in season ticket demand from last season, when season tickets were available up until August. That demand is driven by an attractive home schedule that includes Michigan and Ohio State.

Fans can still purchase six-game season ticket packages that includes every game except the Michigan one, in which more tickets are withheld for visiting fans and recruits. Michigan State also hosts Furman, Wisconsin, BYU, Northwestern, Rutgers and Ohio State.

Michigan State season tickets generally go on sale to the general public in mid-June, after school donors have a chance to purchase them. This year, six-game packages are scheduled to go on sale on June 15 at 12:01 a.m. Packages start at $294.

-- Follow MLive Sports on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
White River Light Station.jpg

The White River Light Station Museum sits on the channel from White Lake to Lake Michigan outside Whitehall. (Submitted photo/Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association)

Editor's note: This is part of a summer series on Great Lakes lighthouses. Information is from the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association. For additional information, call 231-436-5580 or visit gllka.com.

The 38-foot tower of the White River Lighthouse, topped by a black lantern room, was built in 1875.

Its purpose was to provide safe navigation for the dozens of schooners arriving in Whitehall to load lumber from the vast forests of West Michigan.

The tower was attached to a 11/2-story stone keeper's house along the channel connecting White Lake to Lake Michigan.

Capt. William Robinson assisted in building the lighthouse and the keeper's house, then became the first keeper at White River light. He and his wife, Sarah, raised their family of 13 children there.

He served as keeper for 47 years, dying at 87.

Today, knowledgeable volunteers have replaced the keepers of yesteryear.

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1960 and opened as a museum in 1970 by Fruitland Township. It contains numerous photos and artifacts recalling the nautical stories of its past.

White River station is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Monday, from Memorial Day weekend through the end of October. It is managed by Sable Points Lighthouse Keepers Association.

For more information, visit splka.org, whiteriverlightstation.org or call

231-845-7417.

To visit this lighthouse: From U.S. 31 in Whitehall, exit west on White Lake Drive and take it to South Shore Drive. Turn left and follow museum signs to the end of Murray Road.
The Central Bank will continue to remind individuals and companies to make payments using kyat as it tries to reduce the use of US dollars and stabilise the local currency, but will refrain from passing any new rules for fear of creating panic, an official said yesterday.





Last year the kyat depreciated quickly against the US dollar prompting the Central Bank to pass emergency measures to stem its fall, including forbidding retailers from accepting foreign currency.

Developers, airlines, hotels, and travel and tour agencies were also banned from using US dollars, while foreign currency withdrawals were limited to US$5000. Most retail payments are now made in kyat, though some larger transactions are still denominated in US dollars, the Central Bank official said.

We will not strictly control these institutions [that use US dollars], as we worry that people will panic about what to do with their dollar holdings, and we want to avoid rumours in case our message is misunderstood, he said.

We told airlines and hotels last year to abolish US dollar payments and they understood the situation.

Legally all transactions inside the country must be conducted in kyat, but the rule is unevenly enforced. Ministries are required to use local currency for all transactions, while foreign currencies are still widely used by importers, exporters and international companies leery of the exchange rate risk.

The kyat depreciated by 25 percent against the US dollar in 2015 and has strengthened again by 10pc this year to date.





Foreign Exchange Committee Market Committee chair U Mya Than confirmed that the private sector is not following Central Bank requests to make payments in the local currency.

Food and beverage companies supplying hotels, as well as IT companies selling hardware and software to local businesses and banks, have been routing US dollar payments through the banking system, he said.

Banks have no authority to forbid these private sector transfers. Only the Central Bank can enforce its own policy, but these habits should be disappearing, he said.

Legally every Myanmar citizen has the right to hold up to $10,000  any additional US dollars must be placed in a bank account. Large payments in foreign currency are permitted only at gems emporiums, where euros are typically used due to US sanctions on the ruby and jadeite industries.

This year the Central Bank will gradually try to reduce the role of US dollars in the economy to support exchange rate stability, by issuing more reminders, the official said. On the other hand, US dollars should be easily accessible for international payments.

Last November, Central Bank deputy governor U Set Aung said a comprehensive plan to tackle dollarisation is being drawn up with assistance from the International Monetary Fund.

Encouraging the use of electronic payment systems will also help combat dollarisation and reduce dependence on cash, he said.
Twenty farmers are preparing to sue China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) if the new Rakhine State minister does not help to ensure full compensation for damage caused by the Shwe Gas Pipeline, they said.





More than 20 acres of farmland has been destroyed since CNPC built its plant in Kyaukphyu, Rakhine State, in 2010, one of the farmers told The Myanmar Times.

The company has paid compensation since 2011 at a rate of K300,000 per acre but has said that this will be the final years of payment, he said.

Local residents especially farmers are hoping the new minister will tackle this on our behalf. We have not received enough compensation and we just want our land back, which is also our livelihood, the farmer said, asking not to be named.

The company could not be reached for comment yesterday.

U Tun Kyi, negotiator for the Kyaukphyu Rural Development Association, said yesterday that the residents affected by the project and the pipeline will open a case against the company and state-run MOGE, 15 days after the ministers visit.

Today, the new minister for Rakhine State is going to visit Kyaukphyu. We will meet with him and ask him to help reduce the suffering caused by the Shwe Gas Pipeline, he said.

On May 14, Kyaukphyu residents asked to meet with local government ministers during a meeting with community elders and local residents in Kyaukphyu.
A Developer with ambitions to build low-cost housing across the country is hoping to sign its third deal, to build thousands of apartments in Sagaing Region through a joint venture with a local company.





Infrastructure of Myanmars first contract to build low-cost housing in Hpa-an was approved by the Kayin State government in January. Since then it has signed another contract with a local company to build affordable housing in Mogok, Mandalay Region, and is waiting for government approval.

In Sagaing it hopes to build 2560 apartments of 600 square feet each in two towns in Katha district  Katha and Htigyaing  in collaboration with local firm Sein War Ni.

If the project is approved by the region government, units would be sold to the public through an instalment system at a rate of K30,000 per month, the company said at a press conference yesterday.

The plans have been submitted to the township and district administrators and work will begin as soon as a permit is granted by the cabinet, said U Khin Maung Toe, director of Infrastructure of Myanmar.

When the cabinet grants its final permission we will start work as soon as possible. We plan to be able to hand over the rooms to buyers two years after the project is approved, he said.

The project will be built on two sites  a 20-acre plot 3 miles from Katha town and another 20-acre plot near to Htigyaing. Both plots are owned by Sein War Ni.





We are targeting the project at local residents. I think it will be approved by the cabinet since we intend it for the people, said Daw Hnin, the companys director.

Her company has already received 300 applications for rooms, she said. Infrastructure of Myanmar will build the project and receive 80 percent of the profits while Sein War Ni will take a 20pc share.

Thirty percent of the rooms, or 768, will be reserved for local residents, 1024 will be for government staff and the remaining 768 rooms will be for sale to the general public.

Buyers must be Myanmar citizens and prove they can pay the monthly instalments.

The application must pass through a number of levels of government, and we will only start building once permission has been full granted with no complications, said U Myo Thein, deputy director of Sein War Ni and a member of the Katha District Administration Committee.

The government must scrutinise the project for the benefit of the people and the companies will have to keep their promise to development projects.

The Infrastructure of Myanmars first proposal  to build low-cost housing in Hpa-an  was treated with extreme caution by the Kayin government, which investigated the company for more than an year before approving the project.

Saw Kyi Lin, Kayin State minister for electricity and industry, previously said the local government carried out a detailed assessment before agreeing to the proposal.

To be honest, we felt some doubt when Mya Htay Kywe Linn and Royal Summit jointly submitted an application for this low-cost housing project, he said. Royal Summit is a subsidiary of Myanmar of Infrastructure company.

Even though we trust Mya Htay Kywe Linn because its a local company, we knew nothing about the other company, apart from the cheap price it was offering. We discussed the proposal many times.

Translation by Kyawt Darly Lin
Linda Apple of Fayetteville, Arkansas, is our guest speaker on the June 14 Women's Connection Breakfast from 9:15 to 11 a.m. at the St. Francois Country Club, 4901 Hillsboro Rd. She is an inspirational writer and motivational speaker, author of six books and her personal experience stories are published in sixteen of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Linda teaches Writing and Public Speaking workshops and is also a certified Path Elements Profile Trainer specializing in family communication. Her topic will be Forgive and Live and will address the importance of forgiving by giving practical ways to succeed in forgiving.

Our special feature, Kristi Herbst, was scheduled for our February meeting canceled due to the weather. She is a life-long Equestrian and co-owner of Herbst Farms where she and her husband raise Arabian Sport horses, crop farm and maintain a working program for Equestrians. She served 30 years as a leader and 4-H volunteer, almost 15 years as youth coordinator of the Missouri Arabian Horse Assoc., a member of the Bridlespur Hunt Club founded by August Busch in the early 1940s and now provides facilities for children and adults to experience the love and connection of horses. She has witnessed the spiritual and healing powers horses have on people and their amazing role in the development of mankind. Kristi will explore why and the role God has played in the amazing journey of horses and human relationships.
Bayin Nyi Cave, just 18 kilometres (10 miles) north of Hpa-an, is a stunning den of Buddha images, golden dragons and statuettes of monks collecting alms.





And now, you can climb all over the place.

A rock-climbing GoFundMe launched by Andrew Riley, the co-founder of Myanmar Rock Community, has raised more than US$1000 to purchase the high-quality bolts necessary for laying safe, outdoor sport climbing.

The avid climber said four routes funded by the initiative have already gone up in the limestone hills around Bayin Nyi Cave, with more under way.

Theres all these golden pagodas, these monasteries built into the mountains, he said in an interview with The Myanmar Times. The crag in Hpa-an is right next to a hot spring, so you can go and hang out there too.

Hot-spring soaks after a day of climbing sound like the kind of outdoor tourism that draws enthusiasts to other Southeast Asian sites, such as Chiang Mai or Ha Long Bay. But Myanmars years of isolation and underdeveloped infrastructure have kept the country from reaching its full climbing potential, despite countless settings ideal for sport climbing.





Riley, an enthusiast who brought materials to Myanmar for building a small climbing wall in his apartment, said he started the Myanmar Rock Community Facebook page in hopes of developing more community around the sport. Though the Technical Climbing Club of Myanmar  which notably saw two members successfully scale Mt Everest in May  already exists for more mountainous climbing, Riley thought there might be a niche for a purely rock climbing group.

It turned out, there are a lot of people in Yangon interested in climbing, he said. They just didnt have a venue to express the interest.

Within a few months of launching, Myanmar Rock Community now boasts more than 140 members. Climbing competitions at the Riley bouldering wall have attracted 25 people to try their mettle, including many locals new to the concept.

Riley, who had been to Hpa-An with the Technical Climbing Club, realised the burgeoning community of iron-fingered hobbyists might be keen to develop more infrastructure in the area. After contacting bolt manufacturers for estimates, he travelled to Chiang Mai to consult with the Chiang Mai Climb Group about best practices for bolting routes in Southeast Asia geography. Bolt failures  which can send a struggling climber into free fall  have led to dangerous, near-fatal accidents in Thailand and Taiwan. Riley wants to make sure the Myanmar routes are both safer and more durable.

On June 4, Riley and his wife Katie are organising a trip to Hpa-an to climb the routes, which they describe as easy to mid-level difficulty. While there, they will finish two more routes, bringing the number of new routes funded by the campaign to six and the total in the area to eight.

We really love that it brings people together, no matter the language you speak or where youre from, Riley said. Climbing brings people together. So for us, its something the community is paying for and something the community should freely use. Nobody owns the rock.
A Tribunal has been established to investigate almost US$100 million that reportedly went missing from a gems and jade industry body during U Thein Seins administration.





According to the complaint filed by members of the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association, a fund opened under the Ministry of Mines contained over $103 million. But the account was largely drained and now contains just under $8 million, according to U Win Htein, chair of the tribunal and director general of the Department of Mines.

The gems entrepreneurs demanded the Assessment of Legal Affairs and Special Cases Commission, headed by Thura U Shwe Mann, expose the $96 million they allege has been embezzled from the associations fund.

I learned that [name redacted] was given 7 million euros [$8 million] and [name redacted] was given 5 million euros [$5.6 million]. But after we expose the real situation, more names will surely appear, said U Kyaw Kyaw Oo, executive member of the association and leader of the complaint.

U Win Htein said that after some investigation, it appears true that 7 million euros were given as gifts, but only 1 million came from the fund, while the other 6 million were gifted by the gems and jewellery entrepreneurs, he said. I dont know whether this information is right or wrong. He explained this verbally, and did not show the papers as proof. What is definite is that a large number of funds were taken and we need to know exactly what happened.

U Win Htein confirmed the discrepancy of $96 million between the expected account balance and the actual amount, but disputed the involvement of senior members from the former administration.

At the moment, I have not found any evidence to support accusations that money from the fund was given to [name redacted] or [name redacted]. It is not true that the funds from the account were given to them, U Win Htein told The Myanmar Times.





He also contested the alleged ownership of the account. He said the fund has belonged to the Myanmar Gems Emporium Central Committee since 2006, and is not connected with the Myanmar Gems and Jewellery Entrepreneurs Association.

The committee used the fund to support the emporium, he said.

U Kyaw Kyaw Oo confirmed that the fund was collected  from entrepreneurs  to hold the gems emporium and related activities. He added that according to the 1995 Myanmar Gemstone Law, the money cannot be used to pay others, gifted or not.

The tribunal tasked with investigating the missing money, headed by U Win Htein, is currently waiting to question three entrepreneurs who are away on a trip. After speaking to them, a report will be issued, U Win Htein said, and added that as the investigation pertains only to civil servants, it will be submitted only to the Union minister for natural resources. If the Union minister deems it necessary, he can send it to the government.

But the complaint and accusation of embezzlement was already copied to President U Htin Kyaw, the State Counsellors Office, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Bureau of Special Investigation, the Ministry of Mines, the Mining and Resource Affairs Committee, and the Amyotha Hluttaw.

We cant say exactly that funds have been misused. But we can say money from the fund is missing and we need the real details about how exactly it was used, said U Kyaw Kyaw Oo.

In a May 30 press conference addressing the complaint, U Than Lwin, secretary of the Legal Affairs and Special Cases Assessment Commission, said that an independent team will be formed to investigate the case again after the tribunal submits its report.

U Kyaw Kyaw Oo added that he is prepared to answer to the tribunal and will take responsibility if it is found that he broached any rules or regulations with regards to the associations money.

[The tribunal] will act by the book as the case is related with senior members and the former government, he said. But after we get the full list about who took the money and how they used it, the law will decide if it is reasonable.

Myanmars precious gems industry has long been rife with controversy and claims of impropriety. The huge revenue-generating jade trade alone has been estimated to be worth some $31 billion per year, with watchdog group Global Witness reporting that most of the illicit profit lines the pockets of the military elite.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
Myanmar has taken steps toward media liberalisation but still has a long way to go before it enjoys a truly free press, according to a sector survey published yesterday.





The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and NGO International Media Support yesterday released a multi-year investigation into Myanmars media  with decidedly mixed results.

The report, titled Assessment of Media Development in Myanmar, pointed to decisions by the previous administration, such as the removal of censorship in print media, as positive steps that moved the country away from being a pariah state on this subject.

But the hard work has just begun.

Myanmars wider legal framework is outdated and has not kept pace with the rapid political and social changes occurring in the country, the report said.

Several laws that can be used to silence the media are still contained in the colonial-era penal code and pertain to acts such as defamation, public mischief, sedition and blasphemy.

Others are vestiges of previous military regimes and are generally invoked under the pretext of national security.

The juxtaposition of progressive media reform alongside stringent restrictions on freedom of expression has created an environment of uncertainty, it said.





The report strongly recommended that the new National League for Democracy-led government amend the 2008 constitution to strengthen guarantees around freedom of expression and the right to information.

Minister of Information U Pe Myint attended the launch event in Yangon and showed support for some of the recommendations.

Media development [here] is still not fully satisfactory, U Pe Myint said. There is more to be done.

Media ownership was also highlighted as a matter of major public concern.

The high degree of state involvement in the media industry and the promotion of state-owned media in recent years have led to a significant level of ownership concentration, particularly in broadcasting.

All domestic TV and radio broadcasters are either fully state-owned enterprises or joint ventures between the state and private companies.

As such, another recommendation by experts was that state-owned broadcasters be turned into public service or private broadcasters, with all references to state-owned media removed from the Broadcasting Law.

The voices of both ethnic minorities and women also continue to be stymied across Myanmar media. The absence of ethnic and gender mainstreaming initiatives within the industry has allowed for biases to persist in employment practices.

Apart from ethnic media outlets, ethnic minorities tend to be underrepresented in mainstream media, and although women are well-represented in the media in terms of staffing, a disproportionally small number make it to senior positions.

The capacity of journalists was also seen as problematic. The recent proliferation of new media publishers in Myanmar has exacerbated an existing skills deficit within the industry.

But Glen Swanson, program manager for International Media Support in Yangon, stressed that many actors have a role to play in improving Myanmars media landscape.

The onus rests not only on government, but also on media  to constructively engage in this process, holding government to account and supporting democratic development through professional and reliable journalism, he said.

The launch of the report comes as the international press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists wrote an open letter to President U Htin Kyaw on May 31 urging him to prioritise certain legal reforms so reporters can practice their profession independently without fear of reprisal.

The group cited specific laws they hope the new administration will review.

It called on U Htin Kyaw to scrap the 1923 Official Secrets Act and replace it with a Freedom of Information Act that promotes transparency in all state agencies, including the armed forces.

Also in the crosshairs were aspects of the 2014 Printers and Publishers Registration Law, which allows authorities to withhold media licences and ban reporting that they deem damaging to national security, rule of law or community peace and tranquility, or as insult[ing] religion.

And it recommended the amendment of laws governing the use of electronic media to better safeguard press freedom.

As Myanmars first civilian leader in over six decades, your elected government has a historic opportunity to usher in enduring democratic rule, said the letters author, Committee to Protect Journalists executive director Joel Simon. A free press is essential in this regard. While we welcome your governments initial moves, we encourage you to follow them with prompt and comprehensive legal reform.

The 2016 World Press Freedom Index found Myanmar to be one of the most repressive media environments in the world.

It was ranked 143 out of 180 countries regarding freedom of media  with its overall score actually worsening since the last index.
Organisers of a conference aimed at forging unity among Shan political parties have apologised for shutting out the ethnic groups largest party.





Upon arriving for the meeting on May 29 at Orchid Hotel in Yangon the vice president and spokesperson for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) were told their names were not on the registration list and that, therefore, they would not be allowed to enter.

The Shan Political Parties Conference was held to kick-start closer cooperation between the different parties in working toward a democratic federal union, and to form the Shan Political Parties Federation.

SNLD spokesperson Sai Laik said the incident didnt bode well for unity among the parties.

For a conference held to unite parties, this was really petty behaviour, he said.

Sai Laik said that when they called one of the organisers after they arrived at the hotel, the two men were told that the meeting had started and they would not be allowed in. The SNLD insists that their party had registered two people to attend by email, and that the organisers had confirmed, despite them not having provided the names of the attendees.

One of the organisers, Nang Nom Aye, apologised for what happened.

I would like to apologise for my mistake. I forgot to reply to the SNLD that unregistered persons would not be allowed to attend the conference for security reasons because I was so busy, she told The Myanmar Times.





The SNLD is the largest ethnic Shan party in the Shan State Hluttaw, with 24 seats.

A total of 18 political parties were invited to the conference and 13 attended. The party representatives discussed the formation of the Shan Political Parties Federation and its organisational structure.

Another conference will be held after parties have held internal discussions about possible structures for the federation.
The Amyotha Hluttaw has approved a revised Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law even as it continues to earn criticism from rights groups for maintaining prison sentences against offenders.







An earlier draft of the bill was rejected for retaining too many oppressive clauses. The new bill states that protesters need to inform local authorities of their protest 48 hours in advance, which is a change from the current law requiring permission. Charges against anyone deemed in violation of the law need to be brought within 15 days and can only be filed in a single township.

Despite earlier calls from rights groups to remove any criminal punishment from the draft, anyone not adhering to the stipulations will face up to three months imprisonment or a maximum fine of K300,000. Repeat offenders can face up to one year in prison and a fine of K100,000.

The draft law includes a clause that makes the use of excessive force to end a protest unlawful. Last year, the Myanmar Police Force harshly cracked down on student protesters in Letpadan, injuring many.

Instead of using force, if protesters continue a procession after police have told them to stop a police officer ranked not lower than police second lieutenant shall disperse the situation in accordance with existing law and regulations, the bill stated.

translation by Zar Zar Soe
Imprisoned former monk and Saffron Revolution leader U Gambira is likely to be released on July 1,according to his legal team.





Lawyer Robert Sann Aung told The Myanmar Times yesterday that he believed U Gambira may be transferred to Yangon prior to his release next month.

U Gambira, whose legal name is U Nyi Nyi Lwin, was sentenced to six months in prison in late April. He had been arrested in Mandalay in January on an immigration-related offence, under Section 13(a) of the 1947 Immigration Act  a piece of legislation usually invoked for non-citizens.

Immigration authorities allege he made an illegal crossing of the Mae Sai-Tachileik border on January 16.

I crossed the border officially and I paid overdue charges at both immigration border gates  a penalty of 500 baht [about US$15] at the Thai border and 100 baht [$3] at the Myanmar border. I didnt commit any crime and I deserve to be free, he told The Myanmar Times outside a court appearance in March.

The 36-year-olds legal team had appealed to the judge for bail on the basis of mental health, as Gambira suffers from acute PTSD stemming from his time in prison and the abuse he suffered at the hands of the authorities. Letters from his physician in Thailand in support of his claim were rejected, with the prosecutions lawyer alleging that claims of poor health were fabricated. He was denied bail.

The trial process has been highlighted consistently by rights groups, with Human Rights Watchs David Scott Mathieson saying the initial charges reek of retro-vengeance.

U Gambiras Australian wife Marie Siochana said prison staff had told her to expect his release on July 1 from Oboe Prison, but had not heard any information about transfers.
A Lawyer representing labourers who were arrested for holding a peaceful protest earlier this month says he is planning to sue five members of parliament for failing to come to the demonstrators aid.





The workers lawyer, U Aung Thurain Tun, said letters would be sent to the MPs  whom he declined to name  in the next few days.

I give a new message today, as MPs have not done anything for [the workers] so far. I will send an official warning letter to the five MPs. If they dont reply, we will sue them, U Aung Thurain Tun said.

A total of 71 labourers and their supporters were arrested on May 18 during a protest march to Nay Pyi Taw to demand better rights, including an increase in salary according to service years and the reinstatement of colleagues who had been fired for participating in the protest.

A trial for 15 of them was held in Tatkon township court yesterday.

The leader of the workers, Ko Hnin Aung, said he hoped the government would intervene in the case.

We dont accept the interference of the Ministry of Home Affairs in this case. We will wait and see how the [National League for Democracy] government will settle our wrongful arrests, said Ko Hnin Aung.





Currently, 15 people remain in jail  seven workers, five members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) and three supporters. The other 56 protestors were released on bail on May 19 and May 31.

We were told to sign [a statement], but we were not told anything. The paper said that we were released for a K500,000 state bail, said Ko Aung Aung Hein, one of those released.

About 40 supporters from the ABSFU in Sagaing, Mandalay, Meiktila, Nay Pyi Taw, Taungoo and Yangon, as well as some of the released protestors, came to the court yesterday to support the detainees. They shouted slogans and held up placards calling for the workers release.

The protestors are being held in Yamethin Prison and their next court hearing is scheduled for June 15. The protesters are likely to be officially charged at that time, according to their lawyer.

Translation by Thiri Min Htun
The Yangon chief minister is already making good on a promise to crack down on new squatters in a bid to end the citys land-grab fights. As of yesterday, authorities demolished 99 shanties built since the ministers May 25 announcement.





Townships are struggling to enforce Chief Minister U Phyo Min Theins order that no more unofficial structures can be built while a census of informal tenants is conducted.

Residents in Hlaing Tharyar said they erected new buildings in order to set up businesses.

Others have not been discouraged by, or are unaware of, U Phyo Min Theins instructions, however, and continue to build new settlements.

U San Shay, an informal resident of an industrial compound in outer Yangon, said that some people were building to make profit by renting out the houses to landless families.

We dont like those kinds of greedy squatters and they shouldnt do that. It will reflect badly on us and it seems like we are supporting it, he said.

On a visit to Hlaing Tharyar township yesterday, The Myanmar Times found at least 10 new structures had been built recently.





One of the squatters built new shanties 10 days ago and he rents them out to his relatives, who are squatters from other regions. Construction costs about K100,000 and the rent is about K25,000 per month, U San Shay said.

U Tin Maung Gyi, administrator of Hlaing Tharyar township, told The Myanmar Times yesterday that he would ensure any new informal housing built by landless families are immediately destroyed.

If there are more new squatters in my township, we will go and demolish their houses as soon as the ward administrators inform us. We will demolish the shanty towns, he said.

He added that there would be difficulties controlling new squatters because as long as professional squatters exist, new people would come.

U Phyo Min Thein said that his administration intends to assist real squatters but will not tolerate other forms of unofficial residence such as landlord squatters, professional squatters and anarchistic squatters.

The census is the first step of his plan for the landless families. After the census is conducted he send he intends on sending the families to rehabilitation camps.

The previous government largely dealt with the issue through violent forced evictions staged with security forces and bulldozers.

Such forced evictions in Yangon and Mandalay led to the creation of a new breed of roadside squatters, according to the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission.

Rights groups have long lobbied for the unofficial residents to be assisted with more affordable housing in urban centres.

According to the Yangon governments estimates, there are 157,040 unofficial tenants in the Eastern district, 8180 in the Western district, 93,483 squatters in the Southern district and 170,975 squatters in the Northern district.
Decaying power lines  some more than 100 years old  surging demand and long-term neglect, plus a shortage of money, all mean one thing for Yangon residents over the coming weeks and months: power cuts. At a May 31 press conference, Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein laid out what residents can expect as electric company officials try to keep up with demand.





Speaking at the offices of the Yangon Electric Supply Cooperation Office, the chief minister said the regional government would keep the public informed concerning the times and places that would suffer the blackouts.

The cuts are not caused by insufficient power, but because of the need for maintenance. We have to repair decayed underground power lines and lamp-posts, as well as clearing tree branches from overhead lines, he said.

YESC officials announced on May 31 that Yangon is responsible for half the countrys electricity use, with the region consuming as much as 1150 megawatts.

The chief minister said the Yangon Region government was also gearing up to supply more power next year as about 200 high-rise buildings came to completion, increasing the demand for electricity.

YESC deputy chair U Nyo Myint said YESC had been using underground power lines that were about 50 to 110 years old, since they could not afford to replace them.

Chair U Maung Maung Latt said YESC would set up 187 transformers in the four districts of Yangon as its 100-day project, to provide and stabilise the current.
Former International Labour Organization country head Steve Marshall has been appointed New Zealands ambassador to Myanmar.





New Zealands Minister for Foreign Affairs Murray McCully announced the appointment yesterday.

Mr Marshall brings a unique mix of skills and experience to the role, said Mr McCully in a press statement.

In addition to being charged with further developing the relationship between our two countries, he will also be responsible for our growing aid program in Myanmar, which is focused on agriculture and skills development, he said.

New Zealand began a diplomatic mission in Myanmar in 2013. The office was upgraded to a full embassy in 2014.

Stephen Wong, a spokesperson for the New Zealand embassy in Yangon, told The Myanmar Times that Mr Marshall will fill the currently vacant post, and will become only the second resident New Zealand ambassador to

Myanmar.

The embassy and its staff share a building in Bahan township with the Netherlands economic mission.





Mr Wong could not confirm the ambassadors start date, saying it has not yet been decided.

Mr Marshall previously worked with the ILO in Myanmar for eight years, and is a former CEO of the New Zealand Employers Federation, according to the press release.

New Zealands trade with Myanmar was worth more than US$25 million in 2014, with dairy products making up 85 percent of the total. Trade between the nations has been facilitated by their common membership in the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement.

New Zealands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says that it will provide $7.1 billion worth of aid to Myanmar in 2015-16, of which $5.7 billion is earmarked for development initiatives.

Since 2010 the New Zealand Aid Program has offered scholarships to students from ASEAN nations, 52 of which have gone to Myanmar students.

New Zealands engagement with Myanmar has expanded significantly since the country embarked on its political and economic reform process in 2011, Mr McCully said.

New Zealand continues to support Myanmars transition to democracy, he said.
Like many other schools in the district, Washington-Franklin Elementary School has lost two veteran teachers to retirement.

When school starts up next fall, Special Service instructors Kim Rapp and Beverly Dugal will not be not be returning to the classroom. After 18 years of service for Rapp and 17 years of service for Dugal, both are leaving to pursue another calling  to spend time with their grandchildren.

Im actually going out a year early, Rapp said. I was going to stay one more year and retire next year, but I waited a long, long time for my first grandbaby. My son-in-law asked if I would come down to be the babys nanny, so I am going to move to Jackson to take care of the baby while they are at work.

With both instructors having almost 20 years of service in the district, both have witnessed a lot of change, especially in special services.

There has been wonderful changes in special service, Rapp said. When I came to the elementary school, we worked very hard in getting our kids into the classroom, and now they are. I have come from watching my kids being in separate classrooms to being a part of the group.

Dugal added that the changes are the result of a district that is very supportive of special services when not every district in the state is the same.

The district has been very supportive, especially with co-teaching, Dugal added. When our kids are in the classroom, so are we. We are in there with the classroom teacher. The district has been very good about doing this. There is a lot of inclusion in our curriculum.

According to both Rapp and Dugal, it is that progressive thinking by the district that has made it appealing for a teacher to work for Farmington.

Farmington always stays on top of education, Rapp said. When you go to a conference and talk about some of the things the district is doing, Farmington is always trying the latest. Other districts are just amazed at what we are doing.

For both of the educators, there is more personal connection with the district they served for so many years.

Farmington is in my blood, Rapp said. My father is a Farmington graduate. Im a Farmington graduate, and so are my kids. I even think my grandfather was a Farmington graduate but I am not positive.

Im a Farmington graduate as well, Dugal said. My kids and I both graduated from the high school.

Although they spent most of their adult lives in a classroom, Rapp and Dugal are looking forward to retirement. But both did admit they will miss the job.

You never knew what students you were going to get year by year, Rapp said. That is what I loved. It was always something new. I will miss that.
[June 02, 2016] T1D Exchange and M2D2 Open the Diabetes Innovation Challenge Request for Applicants

T1D Exchange, an organization that is accelerating research to improve outcomes in type 1 diabetes, and M2D2, a joint venture of the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Worcester campuses that incubates medical device start-ups, opened the Request for Applications for its first annual Diabetes Innovation Challenge. The collaborative objective of T1D Exchange and M2D2 is for the open competition to identify and accelerate transformational advancements in diabetes research and care. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005834/en/ The Diabetes Innovation Challenge was conceived to provide a comprehensive approach to support the development of novel therapies and solutions for all aspects of diabetes research, clinical care and patient quality of life. Selected finalists will receive cash and valuable in-kind mentoring and development services provided by T1D Exchange and M2D2, and is supported by industry sponsors, including lead sponsor JDRF, the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. "Accelerating the path to better outcomes is at the core of what T1D Exchange seeks to accomplish. The objective of the Diabetes Innovation Challenge is to provide a forum where novel, disruptive and promising innovations can be presented, critiqued and ultimately championed by a well-rounded community of experts," said Dana Ball, executive director of T1D Exchange. "We have created this Challenge to help identify a new generation of entrepreneurs and advance opportunities to the next stage of development, with an ultimate goal of faster translation and delivery to patients." Because the Challenge seeks transformational innovations in diabetes; it is open to both type 1 and type 2 diabetes opportunities as products developed for one disease may have cross-utility for the other. The Diabetes Innovation Challenge is open to all academic and for-profit inventors, innovators and companies developing or seeking to develop medical device, diagnostics, therapeutics, digital health technologies and clinical care improvements in diabetes. The goal of the Challenge is to identify the most promising innovations in diabetes, and present them to T1D Exchange's community of funders, investors, and partners from academia and industry at a summit-tyle gathering focused on next-generation opportunities in diabetes. T1D Exchange is seeking projects and proposals in the following categories:



Devices - such as novel glucose sensing, insulin delivery, cellular therapy delivery technologies

- such as novel glucose sensing, insulin delivery, cellular therapy delivery technologies Diagnostics - such as novel low costs tests for research and screening: early diagnosis - prevention; autoantibodies, C-Peptide or other markers such as beta cell death and risk of diabetic complications

- such as novel low costs tests for research and screening: early diagnosis - prevention; autoantibodies, C-Peptide or other markers such as beta cell death and risk of diabetic complications Therapeutics - such as smart insulins, glucagons, immune modulating, beta-cell regeneration

- such as smart insulins, glucagons, immune modulating, beta-cell regeneration Technologies - such as and disruptive approaches to use of information on and communication technologies to support diabetes management, range of hardware and software applications (patient or clinician) ,decision support, algorithms, and mobile applications The program will consist of two tracks: early stage projects (up to and including pre-clinical) and translation projects (Clinical Phase I-III). All Diabetes Innovation Challenge qualified applicants will be invited to present at one of two University of Massachusetts campuses; pre-clinical opportunities will be presented at UMass Worcester on September 29 th

translational opportunities will be presented at UMass Lowell on Oct 5th The two events will be co-promoted by T1D Exchange and M2D2 to investor, industry, foundation and academic partners to provide all applicants an audience to showcase innovative ideas.

From the two initial events, a pool of finalists will be chosen to present at a special T1D Exchange showcase event on October 20th at the Royal Sonesta, Boston in front of an esteemed panel of judges and others. Two awardees will be announced during the T1D Exchange Annual Meeting on Friday October 21st. This meeting convenes select professionals from the investment, industry, academic and foundation communities. "Our new partnership with T1D Exchange on the Diabetes Innovation Challenge will enable M2D2 to further its mission. We remain committed to bringing life-saving products and services to the marketplace and assisting startups we believe will grow into ventures that will help power the innovation economy in Massachusetts and beyond," said Stephen McCarthy, M2D2 co-director and UMass Lowell professor of plastics engineering. The T1D Exchange Diabetes Innovation Challenge will provide up to two awards of up to $150,000 in cash or services provided by program sponsors for diabetes solutions. In addition to services and cash prizes, the Awardees will feature their opportunity at the T1D Exchange's 2016 Innovations in Care annual meeting held on October 21st. The Innovation in Care event attracts more than 175 individuals from industry, foundation, investment, academia and research organizations from around the world. The call for papers will be open until July 11, 2016. About T1D Exchange T1D Exchange is a program of Unitio which brings together all the communities invested in working toward improved treatment and a better, faster path to a cure of type 1 diabetes. Researchers, healthcare professionals, industry, patients, families and supporters all contribute experience, knowledge and perspective through a variety of integrated platforms, including a Clinic Network, Clinic Registry, Biobank and the online patient/caregiving community, Glu. T1D Exchange offers researchers access to clinical, biological, patient-reported outcomes and electronic health data while fostering collaboration among stakeholders. The result is more informed and better clinical care that will serve unmet patient needs, speed the research process, and ultimately improve the daily lives of everyone affected by T1D. About M2D2 M2D2, the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center, is a joint initiative of the Lowell and Worcester campuses of the UMass system. Its aim is to help new biotech and medical device entrepreneurs develop products every step of the way, from proof-of-concept to commercialization. Affiliated faculty and staff have assisted more than 100 start-up companies and entrepreneurs since the program kicked off in the spring of 2007. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160602005834/en/

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BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua /GNA) - Chinese President Xi Jinping and visiting Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe agreed in their talks on Monday to promote bilateral ties to a new level through enhanced cooperation in various fields.

Invited by Xi, Gnassingbe is paying a state visit to China from May 29 to June 2, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The China-Togo friendship was forged and cultivated by the late Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema and several generations of Chinese leaders, Xi said, noting their relationship has become a model of ties between large and small countries.

China-Togo cooperation has bright prospects since the two economies are highly complementary, Xi said.

The two sides should strengthen political mutual trust, continue high-level contact, enhance friendly exchanges between governments, political parties, legislative bodies and at local levels, said Xi.

Both countries should enhance policy communication and overall planning for bilateral cooperation, according to the Chinese president.

Xi pledged China will encourage its businesses and financial institutions to support Togolese infrastructure construction and help the nation establish an industrial system of independent and sustainable development.

China is ready to push forward agricultural technology cooperation with Togo to enhance the latter's agricultural added value and increase farmers' income, said Xi.

In security cooperation, China is willing to strengthen bilateral ties in combating piracy in the Gulf of Guinea and transnational organized crime, said Xi, adding China will help Togo enhance its capacity building in national defense and stability maintenance.

In people-to-people relations, Xi noted that China stands ready to push forward cooperation with Togo in culture, education, travel and other areas and increase exchanges between youth, women, media and think tanks.

The two countries can also enhance collaboration in African peace and stability, UN-designated 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other major global and regional issues, in order to safeguard the rights of developing countries and promote democracy in international relations, Xi said.

China and Africa have always been a community with a shared future, Xi said, stressing China will implement the outcomes of the latest summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) last December in Johannesburg in a comprehensive manner to seek win-win results and common development.

Gnassingbe said Togo appreciates China's long-term support and assistance to the country, vowing to enhance bilateral cooperation in various fields.

Togo hopes China will continue to back the country in improving people's livelihood, agriculture, infrastructure, port economic development, peace, security and other areas, Gnassingbe said.

He pledged that Togo welcomes more Chinese companies to invest in the country and will create favorable policy and legal conditions for them.

Speaking highly of China's role in international affairs and the Belt and Road Initiative, Gnassingbe stressed Togo is ready to work with China to actively implement the results of the FOCAC Johannesburg summit.

Togo regards China as the most sincere friend of the country and Africa, he said, noting that Togo firmly adheres to the one-China principle.

Following the talks, the two heads of state witnessed a signing ceremony of cooperative documents.

GNA
Dakar (AFP) - Critics of Gambia's government are increasingly fearful of arrest, torture and imprisonment as the west African nation clamps down on free speech ahead of polls expected to land President Yahya Jammeh a fifth term, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Opposition politicians, journalists, human rights defenders and religious figures have all faced a crackdown on their right to express themselves and organise peacefully, according to an Amnesty report entitled "Dangerous to dissent".

"Consistent patterns of violations... have created a broader climate of fear that extends to other sections of society, in which the dominant response is one of self-censorship," the report said.

This was driven by fear of instruments of state power such as the National Intelligence Agency, the country's notorious secret police, it said.

NIA agents "routinely require people who are arrested to provide passwords to their emails, social media accounts and phones, and often obtain these through the use or threat of torture and other ill-treatment," according to the report.

The NIA also routinely punched, burnt, beat and tortured those in custody, it said.

Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994 and is regularly accused of a catalogue of rights abuses. He recently said UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Amnesty could "go to hell" for urging an inquiry into a protestor's death in custody.

Opposition activists have borne the brunt of a crackdown on basic rights, Amnesty said.

Dozens of members of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) were arrested in April and May following rare protests in the tiny west African nation, with at least one unexplained death in custody.

Meanwhile legislation passed in June 2015 vastly hiked the deposit required to run for president, and imposed stricter rules on campaign finance and residency requirements, which Amnesty said was "increasing barriers to political participation".

- Journalists flee -

For journalists, a climate of fear that has worsened since an abortive December 2014 coup is driving many into exile, according to the report.

Making use of laws dating back to British colonial times, Gambian authorities have charged independent reporters with sedition and forced three different outlets to close since 2011.

Citing the Doha Centre for Media Freedom estimates, Amnesty said 110 journalists had gone into forced exile since President Yahya Jammeh came to power in 1994.

Alagie Ceesay, manager of the Teranga FM radio station, was given as an example of a media figure slapped with sedition and "publication of false news" charges last year for privately sharing a provocative photo of Jammeh.

After being denied bail despite serious health problems, he was heading for a prison sentence until he escaped in mid-April.

Elsewhere, despite Jammeh declaring the Gambia an Islamic state, religious figures were far from immune to the generalised climate of fear, Amnesty said.

Imam Sawaneh, a respected figure who presented a petition to Jammeh's office, had been held in incommunicado detention for more than eight months, the report pointed out.

Calling for an end to all "arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detentions and torture", Amnesty said bodies such as the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) needed to be much firmer with Jammeh's regime.
The Students Representative Council (SRC) of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) has said that the students will not be bullied by the management of the university into paying utility bills.

The Government had directed public universities and polytechnics to pay their own utilities bills, forcing the management of some Universities to redirect the costs to the students.

There were suggestions that the removal of the utility subsidies by the government and the directive to the Universities to pay, was only a front to force the bills on students.

However, this was denied by the Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah, who stated at the time that, government was yet to take a decision on the matter.

The President of the SRC at UCC, Dennis Appiah Larbi-Ampofo, stated that the University is only trying to pass some of its debts to students as utility bills.

We thought and believed that issue had died out until recently when the university management called on us. There was a revelation that the University is still owing huge sums of debt and the Electricity Company of Ghana is also on the neck of the University to pay, he said.

Mr. Larbi-Ampofo also revealed that a meeting with the government had strengthened their stance on the matter and that they were waiting for official communication from the government forcing the University to pay the bills.

There was a stakeholders meeting with the government and all the stakeholders including students and our position remains unchanged. We are still waiting for an official communique from government to tell all University management that we shouldn't pay, he said

The leader of the UCC students, who had earlier threatened to hit the streets over the utility costs, told Citi News that the students were not willing to pay the extra utility costs because they did not have the resources to afford them.

Education of Ghanaians is a right not a privilege. It's not as if the money is there and we don't want to pay. The money is not there so we can't pay, he said.

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
02.06.2016 LISTEN

As the 2016 electioneering campaign draws closer, my impatient ears await its utmost desire of knowing what explanation President Mahama would be professing to the people of Western Region regarding how oil revenues have been used to improve their living conditions. My trembling ears also wait anxiously for answers as to whether government has created opportunities for Ghanaians in the oil and gas sector in line with the countrys local content objectives. These are pressing questions not for only me but many residents of the region.

As I wait quietly with an uneasy calm for detail explanation from the first gentleman of the land on these important issues, one thing remains certain in my mind- propaganda tinged with new promises would take larger part of the presidents answers on these matters when he finally hits the campaign trail later this year. Yes, Im certain! And youll agree with me after I had walked you through governments performance on these matters and how its communication machinery is forcing down the throat of Ghanaians to accept the shameful performance whole-heartedly.

Ninety percent local participation in the oil and gas sector by 2020 was the target government set for itself when Ghana begun commercial oil production in 2010. This would require rapid training of the countrys human resource to enable it grab opportunities in the sector and that, government was committed to doing exactly so, we were told.

In essence, training for locals, especially those in the Western Region, were going to be made available to equip Ghanaians with the requisite skills to enable them take up opportunities in the petroleum sector.

Besides, government was to address the poor road network in the region, especially in the northern part of the region to enhance the carting of food stuffs to market centers, as a way of boosting agriculture.

These promises were made after government had turned down the controversial request of 10 percent share of the oil revenues for the Western Region made by the chiefs of the region. With these promises in mind, let me now take the issues one after the other.

Training of locals

Governments performance in the training of locals for the oil sector has been abysmal, to say the least. The Jubilee Partners- Tullow, Kosmos, Anardako, Petrol SA and GNPC, seemed to have bought into governments idea of equipping locals with skills for the sector, therefore, established the Jubilee Technical Training Center (JTTC) at the Takoradi Polytechnic. JTTC was to build technical expertise for the sector through six months British accredited courses. As a passing comment, let me say that its interesting that government now, is solely taking credit for the establishment of the JTTC just because GNPC which is a state-owned oil company, happens to be a member of the Jubilee Partners.

Assuming without admitting that government single-handedly established the JTTC, the fact remains that the JTTC as it stands now, is of little value to the poor youth of this country including those in the Western Region who are seeking to acquire some skills to venture into the oil sector. Why? Tuition fees alone for any of the six months courses offered at the center ranges beyond GHC10,000 (100 million old cedis). Yes! You heard me right. How many parents can afford such a whopping sum for their wards to get trained? Mind you, this amount alone can cater for two adults in pursuing a three-year HND programme at the polytechnic, covering all expenses including accommodation and even feeding.

I was therefore not surprise at all to learn that since the establishment of the JTTC in 2012, it has held only two congregations, comprising about 30 graduands from each of the two batches. Worst of it is that, foreigners comprised about half of the total graduands with the rest being employees of oil companies who were sent there by their respective employers to refresh their knowledge in their chosen fields. So in this insensitive arrangement, I ask, where is the training opportunity for the poor Western Region youth?

Again, government knowing very well that the upstream petroleum sector (exploration and production) does not provide many job opportunities in areas of administration and management, many government scholarships offered to Ghanaians through GNPC were surprisingly directed in these areas. A large chunk of the few youth who had this rare opportunity of pursuing oil and gas management abroad through government scholarships have returned home jobless because the sector cannot absorb them.

In fact, a recent tracking conducted by the African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) on the whereabouts of these returned scholarship beneficiaries revealed that out of the over 120 beneficiaries nationwide, not more 15 have been absorbed. The rest are either Tellers in banks, teaching in schools or engaged in some unrelated field. Is this in line with the local content we are seeking to achieve in the petroleum sector? Absolutely no!

The story of the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) in Takoradi is similar to that of the JTTC. The EDC was also established by the Jubilee Partners with the aim of equipping small and medium scale Ghanaian enterprises to become competitive in the petroleum sector. In this respect, enterprises were to enroll for a free three months course at the EDC.

The establishment of the EDC was particularly crucial since the downstream of the petroleum sector (supply and services) is the most viable area available to a country to maximize its benefits through local content participation. Sadly, there seems to be a disjoint between the standards the oil companies expect and what is being offered at the EDC. Many local companies that have gone through EDC find it difficult securing contracts in the petroleum sector due to their inability to meet the standards of the sector. As a result, local companies are no longer patronizing the EDC though the center continues to offer free trainings. The oil companies continue to purchase almost all their supplies including food and water from outside Ghana.

Interestingly, there is a similar entity as the EDC in Uganda called Trade Links which is making headways in the local content advancement of that country. Set up by Tullow Oil in collaboration with the Ugandan government, Trade Links seeks to create a ready market in the countrys oil sector for local agriculture produce. The center trains farmers and organizes them into cooperative societies. It then serves as a liaison between the cooperatives and the oil companies, ensuring ready market for the local produce. Trade Links supervises the cooperatives and ensures that their produce meets the required standards, are produced in the right quantity and supplied at the right time to the oil companies. Succinctly put, once a farmer enrolls at Trade Links, he automatically gets a market in the oil sector for his produce. Uganda is yet to commence production of its oil but farmers are already reaping tremendous benefits from the oil sector through Trade Links. It is interesting to note that Yoweri Museveni, the dictatorial head of that country, seems to have a better clue of ensuring maximum citizenry benefits from countrys oil resource than the social democratic John Mahama.

Jobs for locals

The petroleum sector undoubtedly requires the acquisition of some skills and training for participation. Even in the supply and services sub-sector, some oriental training is needed because the sector does not compromise on standards. It is therefore clear that the lack of training in the sector has denied the youth of several job opportunities. Jobs have completely eluded the youth of the Western Region.

Today in the Western Region, it is not uncommon to find chiefs complaining at every given opportunity on how frustrated their youth have become. In many communities, sections of the youth are at loggerheads with their chiefs, accusing them of not doing enough to provide them with jobs in the oil sector. The situation is very disheartening and is preparing slippery grounds for chaos.

Roads Infrastructure

Lets take a look at road infrastructure. Here too, governments performance is awful. Addressing the poor road network in the region has not been fulfilled as promised. The Asankragwa-Enchi Road and the Asankragwa-Sefwi Bekwai- Eshiem Road are the only two roads in the Western Region that are being funded partly by oil revenue since the commencement of oil production in 2010, according to reports by the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC).

Besides, the Elubo-Apimanim Road is an ECOWAS project while the Tarkwa-Bogoso Ayumfuri Road was also initiated by the erstwhile Kuffour administration with funding already sourced. So where is the road network construction President Mahama promised indigenes of the region? Many of the roads in the region remain deplorable especially those in the cocoa-growing areas.

Obviously, numerous pressing oily questions from the Western Region await President Mahama in the coming weeks. I also foresee a worsened plight for the president because government commentators seem to be aggravating the situation with their propagandist explanations, attempting to force indigenes to extol governments abysmal performance.

No explanation from the corridors of power would suffice for the abject poverty that has bedeviled the Western Region in the midst of its abundant wealth. The youth are frustrated, disenchanted and disoriented. The region is left with no other choice than to gather all energy within its reach and vote out President Mahama for his unfulfilled promises to the region.

Ive said it

Marlvin-James Dadzie

[email protected]
Hassan Ayariga

02.06.2016 LISTEN

Ghana Association of Persons with Albinism-GAPA is asking Hassan Ayariga to shut his mouth if he has no credible facts to speak about albinism.

Albinism is an inherited genetic condition caused by lack of the pigment melanin, which gives color to the hair, skin and eyes. Person with albinism must inherit copies of the gene from each parent in order to have the condition.

Most persons with albinism have white skin, white hair, and no pigment in the eyes. The iris (colored part of the eye that encircles the pupil) is a pale bluish pinkish color, while the pupil may actually be red. This redness comes from light entering the pupil and reflecting off of blood vessels in the retina, the light-sensitive layer of tissue lining the back of the eyeball. Normally, the pupil appears black because pigment molecules in the retina absorb light entering the eye, preventing it from bouncing back to the outside world which explains why most persons with albinism, have vision problems.

However, Hassan Ayariga ignorantly made a horrific and disappointing remark about albinism. speaking on Class FM on Tuesday may 31, Hassan Ayariga has said I did some survey and I was told anybody can give birth to an albino, but the process is this way: If your wife is bleeding and in the process you are too hungry and you dont want to wait until its over, and you decide to do the thing while shes bleeding, in the process if she gets pregnant  you know some [women] can get pregnant even while bleeding  that is when that particular child [albino] is born. Thats what Im told, because of the process of blood [flow]. So, if in that process it happens that there are some women, who are too fertile even as they bleed, [then they can give birth to an albino].

This comment does not only reveal Hassan Ayarigas lack of credible information about albinism but also a serious disgrace and disappointment to himself and the degrees he claims to have acquired. We think that Hassan Ayariga should have known better and help to educate the public about the condition but he has rather clearly demonstrated his ignorance and lack of professionalism and communication skills. It is very dyslogistic for an educated person like him to coin new myths to mislead people understanding about albinism.

If Ayariga claims what he said is true then he should show us where he did the survey for us to confirm it. He should also provide evidence by sleeping with his wife in her menstrual period to produce person with albinism for us to see.

If people like Hassan Ayariga are seeking to rule Ghana, and are unfortunately given the opportunity, then Ghana will be reversing or backing down to the barbaric era when things were mostly done based on myths and hearsay. Once he has heard some false story and did not verify but began to disseminate it then there is no difference between him and those ancient African leaders who also heard that selling their own people into slavery can make them rich.

GAPA is therefore asking the general public to ignore this unpopular and inexperienced politician and his queer and unscientific ways of coining tentative theories.

For more information kindly contact the National Advocacy Officer on 0206603388 or WhatsApp 0244739094.

..Signed..

Adam Abdul Wahab

(National Advocacy Officer)
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02.06.2016 LISTEN

First, they blamed it on a software glitch.

Then opposition energy spokesperson K.T. Hammond blamed revolutions and conspiracy.

Then the President expressed outrage and pledged to fix it.

Then Parliament had hearings and M.P. Joseph Cudjoe let the cat out of the bag. Said he, "Clearly, the problem is the tariff increases". Oh, really? So which frustration was the President sharing?

This was after the President had declared, "Cabinet today approved the interagency Task Force put together to address complaints from the public regarding the bills and charges being received from E.C.G." No kidding.

Now, before there was this false software glitch, there was a human glitch. How does one increase utilities by 50 to 60% in a country that has not seen pay increases anywhere near that?

What was the government expecting when it allowed the increases to go forward?

How can we make investments in higher education and then prevent the students from learning by denying them light in the schools?

Is the levying of taxes in Ghana not reserved for Parliament? Why was MP Cudjoe surprised that the problem is the high tariffs?

It would seem that we only make noise around elections and voting.

Between voting, people need to live and the righteous anger of the people must be roused against the authorities perpetrating this outrage.

It is time to stop resting our nation on the frail backs of the poor, the young and the powerless.

Capitalism is not just about profits for private enterprises and privileges for the powerful. It is also about compassion, being your neighbour's keeper and doing God's work, here on earth! !

Students need light, regardless of ability to pay.

Hospitals need light, regardless of ability to pay.

Even in the US and other places, like Bahrain and India, the poor get energy subsidies.

Let the government reverse the draconian tariffs until it figures out how to cushion the poor.

Mr. President, when we were in Commonwealth Hall, many of us could not have afforded to pay for light. Let's not burden current students with this uncarryable burden.

Let us develop affordable solar panels and bio - systems that will convert shit into light and be affordable. If Kenya can do it, so can we.

Let Parliament, for once, stand up for the people who elected them and roll back these tariffs.

Let us support the masses in their struggle against these tariffs. LET THERE BE LIGHT!

ALUTA CONTINUA!!

Arthur K
Koku Anyidoho

02.06.2016 LISTEN

We have always known that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was a fascist dictatorship, but we were not quite sure that it was an iron-clad Communist Party as well, its cross-dressing General-Secretarys recent flirtations with the Beijing authorities notwithstanding. Now we dont know exactly what went on between the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Foreign Minister Hanna Tetteh prior to the institutes decision to unfurl the schedule for this years presidential debates, which has met with a firestorm of protests from some executive operatives of the National Democratic Congress.

What is clear, however, is the glaring fact that the NDC is, after all, not nearly half as functional as the pretentious likes of Messrs. Portuphy, Asiedu-Nketia, Anyidoho and Adams would have the rest of the nation believe.

Now we are being told that contrary to what party headquarters machinists like Mr. Koku Anyidoho would have the rest of the nation believe, the Executive Director of the IEA, Mrs. Jean Mensa, had, indeed, had high-level talks with Ms. Tetteh before announcing its schedule for the 2016 presidential debates. The party headquarters Abongo Boys are fussing over the fact that Ms. Tetteh would jaw-jaw it with the IEAs director over and above their heads.

And now more than a week after the likes of Messrs. Felix Kwakye-Ofosu and Haruna Iddrisu cursed out Mrs. Mensa, Mr. Anyidoho claims to be disturbed by the fact that neither Ms. Tetteh nor the substantive leader of the NDC, to wit, President John Dramani Mahama, have let on any bit of hint regarding their role in the fixing of the dates for the IEA debates.

Well, the NDC Abongo Boys may not like to hear this, but common sense ought to have fully apprised them, by now, of the obvious fact that if President Mahama and the woman widely described as his most intimate associate and confidante are not complaining, either publicly or privately, then, of course, these government bigwigs are perfectly in agreement with the IEAs operatives.

What is intriguing and worthy of note and has, in fact, been known for quite some time now, is the fact that its seemingly well-choreographed public pretensions and all, notwithstanding, the National Democratic Congress may very well be the more practically and functionally dysfunctional of the countrys two major political parties. The partys key operatives simply know better how to put on a masquerade. And now that their proverbial veritable house of cards has been exposed for what it inescapably is, the phony likes of Messrs. Anyidoho and Adams are raving and ranting about party discipline.

That is why we are building a party school; building structures for people to be taken through orientation so that people accept that the party is supreme. No individual is bigger than the party. If you are a minister, you dont speak on behalf of the party and disrespect the partys chairman and the whole hierarchy, Mr. Anyidoho was recently quoted to have said. From the preceding quote, we learn several things about the abjectly poor caliber of the men in charge of the National Democratic Congress party machine.

First of all, very loud and pontifical public pretensions and all, there clearly appears to be extremely poor communication nexus between party headquarters and the Flagstaff House, and even among the key cabinet operatives of the party, to hear the likes of Messrs. Haruna Iddrisu and Kwakye-Ofosu bitch senselessly about the IEA-sponsored debates.

Then also, there is a palpable sense of complete disarray between the Flagstaff House and Kokomlemle, which is why the control-freak likes of Messrs. Asiedu-Nketia and Anyidoho would have experts flown in from China to tutor these decidedly gauche party bigwigs on how to toe the proverbial party line.

Now, lets talk about the importation of illegal Serbian and South African mercenaries. As for the patently farcical theocratic concept of party supremacy, I guess one could aptly say that the NDC apparatchiks never severed their political and ideological umbilical cords from the uteruses of both the proto-Convention Peoples Party and its latter-day incarnation, to wit, the Greenstreet-led rump-Convention Peoples Party.

*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire have renewed their commitment to have an amicable solution to their maritime dispute. Presidents John Dramani Mahama and Alhassane Ouattara made the commitment during bilateral talks in Abidjan yesterday.

President Mahama is on a two-day official visit to CAte d'Ivoire.

Speaking at a news conference after their meeting in the Presidential Palace in Abidjan, the two leaders said their discussions centred on boosting economic activities between their countries, spearheading the regional integration efforts of the sub-region and how to amicably resolve the maritime border issues.

Relations

President Mahama said Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire shared a number of things in common.

He restated Ghana's commitment to work with Cote d'Ivoire to protect their borders.

He also restated Ghana's condemnation of the terror attacks on Grande Bassam.

"We consider any attack on Cote d'Ivoire as an attack on Ghana," he said.

Refugees

Turning to the issue of Ivorian refugees currently in Ghana, President Mahama said Cote d'Ivoire should have nothing to fear when it happened that the refugees had to return home.

He thanked Cote d'Ivoire for the support it continued to give to Ghana anytime the latter faced challenges with power supply.

Ouattara grateful

President Ouattara congratulated President Mahama on his leadership and impactful tenure as Chair of ECOWAS, noting that he (President Mahama) had demonstrated a clear commitment to the integration effort and brought his influence to bear on a number of issues in the sub-region.

He also recognised President Mahama's role in the development of a new spirit of cooperation between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.

According to him, President Mahama had, over the years, enhanced the level of relations from where President John Evans Atta Mills began before his death.

President Mahama has visited CAte d'Ivoire on a number of occasions but this is his first official visit to our neighbour. He is accompanied by the First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama.

Also on the delegation are the Attorney General, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong; the Interior Minister, Mr Prosper Douglas Bani; the National Security Adviser, Alhaji Baba Kamara; and a member of the Council of State, Lt Gen. Seth Obeng (retd).

The others are the Deputy Minister for Transport, Joyce Bawah Mogtari; the Deputy Minister for Power, John Abdulai Jinapor; the Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways, Isaac Adjei Mensah; and the Omanhen of the Nsein Traditional Area, Awulae Agyefi Kwame II.

President Mahama was handed the key to the Autonomous City of Abidjan and made an honorary citizen of CAte d'Ivoire.
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the largest opposition political party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), are among 19 political parties that could not meet the Electoral Commission's (EC's) deadline for the submission of their audited financial accounts.

As of the close of last Tuesday, only seven political parties out of the 26 so far registered by the election management body had complied with the directive for all political parties to present their financial accounts for scrutiny.

In April this year, to show proof of how accountable the political parties are to the electorate and the general Ghanaian populace, the commission, in accordance with the Political Parties Law, Act 574, gave the parties up to May 31, 2016 to submit details of their audited accounts or face punitive sanctions .

It further requested the parties that participated in the Talensi by-election to submit their respective detailed expenditure on the election to it.

Additionally, the commission, per Section 15(1) of the Political Parties Law, Act 574, directed all political parties that had been issued with final certificates of registration within the last 90 days to furnish it with the details of their existence and location of its offices at the national, regional, district and constituency levels.

Pursuant to Act 574, all registered political parties are to comply with Section 21(1) (b), which requires that audited accounts of the political parties for the year shall be submitted to the EC.

According to Section 14(2), a political party shall, within six months after a by-election in which it has participated, submit to the commission a detailed statement of all expenditure incurred for that election.

Accountable parties

But as of the close of the deadline last Tuesday, only the Progressive People's Party (PPP), the Convention People's Party (CPP), the National Democratic Party (NDP), the Democratic People's Party (DPP), the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), the Independent People's Party (IPP) and the United Front Party (UFP) had met their obligations.

The seven political parties, according to EC records, submitted their financial statements from 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. The All People's Congress (APC), the 26th political party which recently received its final certificate to commence business as a fully registered political party was not part of the parties expected to submit their accounts because they had just started operating.

19 Parties fail

Ironically, from 2012, the NDC and the NPP, among 19 other parties, failed to submit their financial statements to the EC. The other parties are the People's National Convention (PNC), the Every Ghanaian Living Everywhere Party (EGLE Party), the United Ghana Movement (UGM), the Ghana Democratic Republican Party (GDRP), the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) and the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD).

The rest are the National Reform Party (NRP), the Ghana National Party (GNP), the United Renaissance Party (URP), the New Vision Party (NVP), the United Love Party (ULP), the United Front Party (UFP), the United Development System Party (UDSP), the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), the Yes People's Party (YPP) and the United Progressives Party (UPP).

EC criticised

The election management body has been harshly blamed for failing to implement the Political Parties Act 2000 (Act 574) to the letter and by the reminder, it was the expectation that in accordance with the law the political parties will comply with the directive.

In the opinion of the Director of Finance of the EC, Mr Joseph Kwaku Asamoah, he did not subscribe to the proscribing of the defaulting parties since he did not want the parties to be excluded in the electoral process.

He, however, expressed dismay at why the political parties would fail to comply with the laws of the land.

Mr Asamoah said the law (Act 574) was explicit and unambiguous and had been in the statute since 2000 and that since the country was governed by political parties they must comply with the dictates of the law.

'He who wants equity must come with clean hands' he said, and retorted that 'if the EC had failed to comply with the provisions of the electoral law, the political parties would spare no effort at pouncing on the commission.

'Political parties as public organisations which receive contributions from the public are enjoined to be accountable to the people' he said adding 'the time has come to ensure the compliance of the provisions of the law for the sake of accountability and transparency in the organisation and operations of the parties as far as their finances are concerned.'

He said the EC served notices to all political parties to present their audited accounts to it for scrutiny in August, 2015 and cautioned them that it would crack the whip on them come January, this year. ' But we are in June and most of the political parties have simply failed to comply.

'We cannot sit aloof. The commission in its wisdom thinks we need to ensure compliance and the provisions of the law were not established yesterday. It has been in the statute books since 2000; there must be an end to the road,' he cautioned.

NPP, NDC tight-lipped

When the Director of Communications of the NPP, Nana Akomea was contacted to ascertain why the party had failed to meet the deadline, he referred the matter to the party treasurer, Mr Kwabena Abankwa-Yeboah but he could also not be reached by phone since all calls made to his line gave the feedback that his phone was off.

In the case of the NDC, when the Daily Graphic reached the party's Deputy General Secretary, Mr Koku Anyidoho, he said that he would confer with others and get back to the paper.

PPP, CPP reactions

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the PPP, Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond, said the EC must enforce the law to the letter if the political parties failed to meet the requirement.

'We have complied and our financial statement has been submitted and we have received acknowledgement letters from the EC. We are not asking the EC to do anything but to enforce the law. The EC must operationalise the law, whatever form it takes. We want to let people know that the best way to develop the nation is to be law-abiding,' he underscored.

But the Chairman of CPP, Professor Edmund Delle, said the electoral body risked being sued if it withdrew the certificates of political parties that failed to meet its requirements.

'There should be a dialogue between the EC and these parties if it means giving them an extension. The smaller ones have something to contribute to multi-party democracy, or it should find a way to amend the law to be more inclusive than exclusive. It is likely that some of these smaller parties can also take the EC to court,' Prof. Delle added.
The New Patriotic Party flagbearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has appealed to residents of Teshie not to be deceived and swayed by empty promises in the run-up to this years elections.

The former Foreign Affairs minister said the electorate must cast their votes based on their current living circumstances.

According to him, voting in this years election should be devoid of politics of tribalism and ethnicity, but, rather, on competence and the track-record of the various political parties and their respective candidates, and their ability to deliver decent standards of living for the citizenry.

Touring the Ledzokuku Constituency on Wednesday, Nana Akufo-Addo, at Teshie Maami, recounted how, on the 28th November, 2006, the Minister of Fisheries, the late Gladys Asmah, secured a $200 million facility from the Chinese government to construct three fishing harbours at Shama, Elmina and Teshie.

The NPP flagbearer explained that before the project could fully take off, the NPP lost power in 2008, and after the NDC, under President Mills, assumed office in 2009, the project was abandoned.

With two months to the holding of the December 2012 elections, specifically 19th September, 2012, then Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture in charge of Fisheries was here in Teshie and announced the construction of a $250 million fishing harbor for Teshie. Till date nothing has happened, he said.

We cannot govern a country on the basis of deceit. The fishing sector has collapsed. There are no jobs. If we are to change our circumstances, then we need people who will come and return Ghana onto the path of progress and prosperity. Mahama cant help us. We have to change Mahama this year so Ghana can move forward, so the youth can find jobs to do, the three-time presidential candidate said.

Again, at Lascala where Akufo-Addo interacted with commercial drivers and market women, he stated that insurance premiums, electricity tariffs and prices of petroleum products continue to increase, largely because of the mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy.

It will be recalled that the then candidate, the late John Atta-Mills, made a pledge to reduce petroleum prices drastically when he won power. The price of a gallon of petrol has, however, shot up from GH3.69 a gallon by the time the NPP left office in 2008 to GH15.70 now, and continues to increase.

I have been told that on Thursday the price of petroleum products is set to witness a 3% increase again. The price will continue to increase if we do not change government this year. This year, look up to me and the NPP and lets change Ghana. We have the men and women to fix Ghanas economy and bring wealth to everybody.

Nana Akufo-Addo reiterated his appeal to the electorate to vote against politicians who whip up ethnic sentiments in their hope of winning elections.

The politics of ethnicity is not something that will help us. Let us look at the person who can help Ghana. We have been with Mahama for over five years now, and yet we cant see any progress. The roads in Teshie are bad. Gladys Norley as MP was the one who commenced the town roads around Lascala. The LEKMA hospital in Teshie was initiated by her, and she also brought the Nursing Training College to Teshie. When you give us the NPP the chance, we will work to bring relief to Ghanaians. So please dont be deceived any longer, he said.

At Teshie Tsui Bleoo, his last port of call in the constituency, the NPP flagbearer called on all NPP members to unite, win this years elections, and help return Ghana back onto the path of progress and prosperity.

We want businesses to flourish. With all these high taxes being imposed on the private sector, it is not surprising that businesses are collapsing. We are coming to reduce all these high taxes and also abolish import duties so businesses can flourish. When businesses flourish, Ghana can then move forward. The time to change Ghana is now, he added.

The NPP flagbearer urged the people of Teshie to vote for the NPPs candidate, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, stating that not only is he handsome, but very intelligent. He is coming to work for you. The lady you voted for in 2012 has proven that she has nothing good for Teshie. We need the NPP in power to bring jobs and wealth to the people of Teshie.

Prior to Nana Akufo-Addos tour, he first paid a courtesy call on Wulomo of Teshie, Nuumo Adjei Kwanko II, and also introduced himself to the traditional council of Teshie ahead of this years elections.
With barely six months to the November polls, the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor, requesting to know the outcome of investigations into a raid at its headquarters in 2015.

On November 23, 2015, a group of armed persons allegedly in military uniform, ransacked the headquarters and the Kokomlemle offices of the party, and made away with some items including some supposed weapons.

Some 11 people were arrested for their alleged involvement in the dawn raid, after which a man claiming to be a member of the NPP, confessed to leading other supporters to the office, merely to express their frustrations about goings on in the party.

His story was however discredited by the party, which partly accused state security operatives of being behind the attack.

It's been six months since the incident, but nothing substantive has been communicated from the police on its investigations into the matter.

In a letter dated May 30, 2016 to the IGP, the acting General Secretary of the NPP John Boadu said, We would like to know the extent of work done on the criminal aspect of the raid.

Our lawyer in-charge of the case informs us that, the attitude of the Police in finding lasting solution to this matter has been lukewarm. We are as per this letter asking for the status of the said incident for prompt decision and action.

Below is the NPP's full letter:

THE IGP

GHANA POLICE SERVICE

NATIONAL HEAQUARTERS

ACCRA

MAY 30, 2016

Dear Sir,

.

STATUS OF THE DAWN RAID OF OUR OFFICES IN ASYLUM DOWN AND KOKOMLEMLE

On Monday, November 23, 2015, some armed persons in Military uniform stormed and raided the Offices of the New Patriotic Party in both Asylum Down and Kokomlemle.

Four days after, the Party held a Press Conference and made known the findings of our own internal investigations.

We asked pertinent questions that bothers on the Police Official Vehicle used, the Military Uniform and the AK-47 weapon.

The Police in their response informed us that they will conduct a forensic search on the weapon and get back to us as early as possible.

We will like to know the extent of work done on the criminal aspect of the raid.

Our lawyer in-charge of the case informs us that, the attitude of the Police in finding lasting solution to this matter has been lukewarm.

We are as per this letter asking for the status of the said incident for prompt decision and action.

Waiting for your immediate response.

Yours Sincerely

JOHN BOADU

GENERAL SECRETARY (AG)

-citifmonline


The founding president of Youth Icons Ghana, Nana Yaw Osei-Darkwa, has stated that he is opposed to the proposed ban on social media by the Ghana Police Service (GPS) during this year's elections.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kudalor, at a recently held workshop for members of the media fraternity, declared that the police service intended to block social media during this year's elections.

But Mr Osei-Darkwa said The panacea to a violent-free elections in November does not lie in shutting down social media platforms but rather through rigorous peace and nonviolence education of the citizenry, professional and responsible attitude of major stakeholders including the lead political actors, media, the Electoral Commission and the Ghana Police Service, who remain the lead security agency during elections.

He stressed, If political leaders cannot openly condemn party loyalists who spew out reckless and nation-wrecking statements to send out a strong signal that they are committed to the peace of Ghana, then shutting down social media cannot save the nation.

In his view, If politicians continue to owe their loyalty to political parties and not the state, then the peace we seek to desperately protect does not lie in shutting down social media platforms.

Neutrality

Until the Police Service shows absolute neutrality to win the confidence of all major actors, he said, shutting down social media platforms would not guarantee the peace of our great nation.

Above all, if the referee, the Electoral Commission of Ghana, does not exhibit neutrality and professionalism assuring all actors of a level playing field, then shutting down social media platforms would be much ado about nothing. The peace of Ghana would be kept or lost largely due to how the actors named would conduct themselves, he noted.

Nana Yaw Osei-Darkwa quizzed, If social media platforms have become a major platform for campaigning by politicians and political parties in general, then on what basis does the same platform become a danger to the peace of Ghana?

Indeed, social media has become an integral part of our national life and a major component of mainstream journalism, where traditional media picks up leads to major news items, and that critical role of the citizenry actively engaging in the dissemination of information remains key, he added.

He hinted that a shutdown of social media would be a very simplistic approach to dealing with the challenge, noting that it was going to even lead to more dire challenges where a highly understaffed police service, who could not be everywhere at the same time, would need the support of the citizenry to contribute to helping police the ballots and keeping the peace through information sharing.

The nonviolence expert opined that what the nation needed to do was to adequately educate the citizenry about who they should expect the final results fromthe electoral commissioner.

We have to come to the firm conclusion that with or without social media, people would still spread rumours even though I concede it would not be on the same magnitude as that of social media. I appreciate the apprehension of the police chief but I humbly beg to differ. We must as well contemplate shutting down all phone lines because if people have motives of announcing false results, they will do that anyway through text messages, he added.

BY Melvin Tarlue
Citi FM's Nana Boakye-Yiadom has been selected for the 2016 Mandela Washington Fellowship of the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI).

He is headed for the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign for his fellowship, where he hopes to develop his leadership skills.

YALI was launched in 2010 by US president Barack Obama to invest in the next generation of African leaders and nurture them as they spur growth and prosperity, strengthen democratic governance, and enhance peace and security across Africa.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship takes young African leaders to the United States for 6 weeks of leadership training and mentoring at twenty U.S. universities and colleges in three areas: business and entrepreneurship, civic engagement and public administration.

The US Embassy Ghana announced Nana Boakye-Yiadoms selection on its Facebook page and outlined his dream to spread his NGO, iJourno Africa, across Africa so as to train young journalists in data journalism.

Brief profile of Nana Boakye Yiadom

2016 Mandela Washington Fellow Nana Boakye-Yiadom has close to ten years experience in journalism. He is also a media consultant. Currently, he is the Ghana correspondent for New York Times, RFl (English Service) and global news agency AFP. In 2013, he won a continent-wide competition, the African Story Challenge, emerging out of over 300 African journalists. He also won a Ghana Journalists Associ ation (GJA) Award in 2014.

At his radio station, Citi 97.3 FM, Nana Boakye-Yiadom is the Deputy Director of News Programming. On daily basis, he directly supervises a news force made up of 45 journalists in Greater-Accra and the 9 other regions.

Boakye-Yiadom is the founder of IJourno Africa, a notfor profit organization, sharing his experience and training student journalists in data journalism  to tell developmental stories. He has so far trained scores of students from the Ghana Institute of Journalism, the African University College of Communications, Central University College and the University of Ghana. He has recently opened a chapter in Kenya and hoping to spread to other parts of the continent soon.

He is headed for the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign for his fellowship, where he hopes to hone his leadership skills. After the fellowship, Boakye-Yiadom plans to create a powerful network with other fellows who will be interested setting up iJourno Africa chapters in their countries to help positively influence journalism across the continent.



By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com
Mogadishu (AFP) - Gunmen holed up in a central Mogadishu hotel for more than 12 hours killed at least 10 people in the latest attack in Somalia by the Al-Qaeda group, the Shabaab.

A huge car bomb that tore the front off the six-storey Ambassador Hotel in the heart of the capital signalled the start of the assault on Wednesday evening, with shooting continuing until Thursday morning when Somalia's security minister declared the attack over.

"All the gunmen were killed by the security forces," said security minister Abdirizak Omar Mohamed.

"More than 10 people are so far confirmed dead and many others are wounded," he told reporters, adding that rescuers were searching the badly-damaged building for survivors and bodies.

The toll is expected to rise as rescue and recovery efforts continue Thursday.

Medical sources said that around 40 people were so far known to be injured.

As Mohamed spoke, the bodies of three suspected attackers were displayed in the dirt outside the hotel.

The Shabaab was quick to claim responsibility for the attack and has regularly in the past targeted hotels popular with government officials and wealthy Somalis.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which protects the internationally-backed government and fights the Shabaab, said two parliamentarians were among the dead.

Witnesses said the initial explosion, believed to be the result of a suicide car bomber ramming a vehicle into the hotel, was large by Mogadishu standards.

Smoke rose from burning cars and debris was strewn across Maka al-Mukarama, the capital's usually busy main street.

Mohamed Elmi, who was nearby at the time, said the blast "destroyed the whole area."

- Attacks expected to escalate -

After the blast an unknown number of gunmen then entered the hotel. Gunfire continued throughout the night and could still be heard at dawn on Thursday.

The Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda group, lost its foothold in the capital in 2011 but continues its battle to overthrow the Somali government and launches regular attacks on military, government and civilian targets in Mogadishu and elsewhere.

Violence is expected to increase with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week, a time when Shabaab traditionally ups the tempo of its attacks.

Also on Wednesday, Somali special forces claimed to have killed Mohamed Mohamud Ali -- also known as Dulyadin and Kuno -- the suspected organiser of an attack on a university in Garissa, Kenya, in April 2015 that killed 148 people, mostly students.

"Sixteen armed men, four of them senior commanders including Mohamed Mohamud Ali... were killed by the Somali commandos and the special forces of Jubaland," said Abdirashid Janan, security minister for Jubaland, a federal state in southern Somalia.

The Garissa attack was the deadliest in Kenya since the Al-Qaeda bombing of the US embassy in 1998 and was carried out by four gunmen, all of whom died.

The US also said it had killed a senior Shabaab planner, Abdullahi Haji Da'ud, in a drone strike on May 27, the latest in an increasing number of air strikes and US-led or US-backed raids in Somalia targeting Shabaab leaders and recruits.

"Da'ud was one of Shabaab's most senior military planners and served as a principal coordinator of militia attacks in Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda," said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook. He said Da'ud was "presumed killed".
02.06.2016 LISTEN

Ghanaians soon realised that by allowing John Mahama leeway to steal elections 2012, as they claimed he did, they perpetrated the biggest mistake that our nation is having to pay the price for. Yesterday, I read the most obnoxious piece of news that John Mahama's confidant, Madam Akua Donkor, donated 25 television sets to the school of the blind.

The NDC goons were in awe of this most compassionate gift. You see when we say that the NDC people do not read, we are vindicated. When we say that the NDC is mischievous, we are soon justified. When we say that the NDC is nonsensical, we are quickly venerated.

So, baffled with this painful precedence, I asked some apostates during an enlightenment session whether this story was true. They had been there before prior to defecting to the NPP. They made a few calls to their former colleagues who confirmed that the plan to sodomise the nation was taken at the Presidency. You see, the truth of the matter is that the NDC hierarchy scorns Ghanaians in everything they do.

The decision was taken to send Akua Donkor on a suicide mission to make the presentation. The blind were happy on the spur of the moment before it soon dawned upon them that the gifts were an insult. How would they watch the programmes? Would it not have been better to give them radios and CD players that would accord them some measure of joy and, at least, keep them abreast of the happenings in the country?

That brings us to the parody of the "revived" Komenda sugar factory. First of all, there are not enough sugarcane and other sugar producing raw materials to feed it with. That means that raw material would have to be imported from Ivory Coast. In fact, Nana Akufo-Addo should please come for his stone!

The simple reason is that the price that is being paid for the local sugarcane, delivered at Komenda, is the same as that that is being paid by the Akpeteshie brewers in the villages. So the farmers do not have to incur extra transportation cost. Selling their produce to the Akpeteshie brewers also has fringe benefits. They get to "booze" for free.

So the Komenda sugar factory is another big lie, disappointment, and hoax. The sad part is that John Dramani Mahama, paid an out of court settlement of 100 million dollars to a company that his outfit had contracted initially for reviving Komenda because the agreement was flouted and broken. That was discussed in the media.

In comparison to the 24 million dollars that Komenda is said to have cost the nation, which of course is by far a bloated figure, we could have afforded four such projects were prudence of judgment and wisdom of governance applied. The question, though, is how many government officials benefitted from the 100 million dollars other than the aggrieved company?

How much went into John Mahama's pocket, if any? How much went into the Minister of Trade's secret accounts, if any? How much went into the Minister of Finance's pocket, if any? How much went into the chairman of NDC's account, if any? How much was shared amongst Allotey Jacobs, kofi Adams, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, Kojo Twum Boafo, Fiifi Kwertey, Hannah tetteh, etc etc etc, if any?

When Nana Akufo-Addo speaks, he is soon vindicated. He revealed that Plantains are now imported from Ivory Coast. BAM, it was true! Soon, we shall learn that sugarcanes are also being imported from Ivory Coast to run Komenda. In fact, Ghana imports everything. Cassava is in desperately low supply. I know so because it is getting more and more difficult to get some to have my regular fufu; and it is selling for quadruple the price.

President John Mahama, respectfully, you are a failure to begin with, and a total destroyer of our country never to contend with.

#BitterGhanaIndeed #JohnMahamaIsIncompetent #JohnMahamaWillFall
02.06.2016 LISTEN

Search teams in the Brong Ahafo Region have brought rescue efforts following the boat disaster on the Volta Lake on Sunday, to an end.

According to the Yeji Boat Union, the death toll of 15 isnt expected to rise as no more people had been reported missing.

Since Sunday, we've sent rescue teams to the area where the accident occurred and they tried their best to retrieve 15 dead bodies from the lake . Yesterday [Tuesday], we had the last search. Nobody has come to report anyone missing so we know that the 15 th body is the last one we are going to retrieve from the lake, the Chairman of the Boat Union, Noah Sarfo told Citi News.

Initial reports indicated that six children all under three years old, drowned as their bodies were retrieved from the river on Sunday by a rescue team.

Subsequently, a total of 15 bodies have been retrieved.

Noah Sarfo bemoaned the unwillingness of passengers on the boats to wear the appropriate safety attire before the trips, but stated that the relevant authorities will work together to ensure that the regulations are observed.

The District Assembly, Ghana medical authorities and the Navy need to work together to implement laws. When the passengers are given the life jackets, they refuse to wear it. We want to work with the navy to ensure that anyone found without a life jacket will be removed from the boat or charged, he added.

Investigations into cause of accident ongoing

The Yeji District Police Commander, ASP Abraham Bansa, indicated to Citi News that investigations are ongoing to establish the cause of the accident.

This incident follows another in May, where about fifteen people were rescued in an accident involving a ferry heading towards Yeji.

In January, one person died while hundreds were rescued in February in two different accidents.



By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana
02.06.2016 LISTEN

The recentmurder of a Christian trader in Northern Nigeria who was accused of blasphemy underscores the threat of Islamic extremism and the fact that Muslims with Boko Haram mindset are not only in Sambisa forest. The mob reaction that led to the burning of churches and looting of shops shows that this murderous act enjoyed a wider support amongst the local muslim population. This is unfortunate.

People may interpret what the Christian trader did in any way they can; there is not justification for this horrific killing and other cases of religious bloodletting in a civilized society. It is difficult to understand why any Muslim could decide to take the life of a fellow human being for making some statements about Muhammad. Mere statements! Just words!

Any intelligent observer of issues in Nigeria would testify that this killing is not an isolated incident but a pattern of reactions to real or imagined cases of blasphemy against Islam, not against Christianity or traditional religion, but against Islamic faith and its prophet Muhammad in Nigeria. Violent reactions to purported blasphemous statements do not only target Christians and other non muslims but also other muslims as we witnessed recently in Kano.

These violent reactions do not reflect positively on the Islamic religion particularly at this moment in human history. With horrific incidents like this, it is difficult for anybody to agree to the notion that Islam is a religion of peace unless the person has a twisted sense of peace. It is evident from the killing of the Christian trader and similar episodes around the globe that the peace which Islam promises is not for blasphemers or apostates or religious dissenters. The peace of Islam is not for those who say anything critical or derisive of prophet Muhammad. If the peace of Islam does not extend to those who hold or express views which some Muslims may find objectionable or disagreeable then what kind of peace is that? Is it peace in a graveyard of freedom, free thought, free inquiry and free speech?

If the peace of Islam applies only to those who say or post things that could be adjudged as respectful of prophet Muhammad, then is that a worthwhile peace? For me it is utterly shocking to see muslims particularly those of them from Nigeria or rather Africa murder their fellow human beings in the name of Allah who in actual fact does not exist, in the name of a so called religion of peace that was brought by those who enslaved and killed their forefathers because they professed other religions? Is it not a shame that some Muslims think it is justifiable to kill a human being who they see for insulting prophet Muhammad or Allah whom they do not see? I think that this idea among muslims of reacting to purported statements that insult Muhammad or Allah is clear demonstration of the impotency of these two entities. If prophet Muhammad feels insulted by whatever anybody does, he should be able to react, afterall he was said to have gone to heaven on a flaming horse. Muslims should not react on its behalf. If Allah feels insulted by whatever anybody does, muslims should allow their 'most gracious' to react and punish the person. Muslims should not react on Allahs behalf unless they are saying that these entities are unable to do so.

Having said that, I think it is utterly senseless for any Muslims to think that they can live in a world where nobody would say, write or post anything which may be deemed offensive or blasphemous. Truths, they say, start as blasphemies. So it is with the blasphemies against prophet Muhammad, so it is with the defamation of Islam. Violent reactions to supposedly insulting statements are indicators of insecurity on the part of muslims and a confirmation that Islam is a violent religion. Muslims in Nigeria or in any part of the world should imagine this: if everybody reacts violently by killing those who make blasphemous statements about their faiths and prophets as some muslim fanatics did in Niger state, then there would be no person left in the world today. In fact there would be nothing like Islam. This is because Islam started as a form of blasphemy against earlier religions. In fact Prophet Muhammad was a blasphemer because he made statements and propounded teachings that some persons deem insulting to their faiths and religious personalities.

Now imagine as a blasphemer that Muhammad had been killed just as the Christian in Niger state was murdered, there might be nothing like Islam today. There might be no Muslims in the world. So prophet Muhammad lived to propagate Islam because people tolerated his blasphemies against their prophets. Muslims should learn to tolerate other peoples blasphemies against prophet Muhammad.

Though some people at his time might have disliked and disagreed with his teachings, it was not to the extent of killing him. Though muslims may not like what other people say about prophet Muhammad, they should not kill them. Sharia states should not imprison or execute such persons.

In addition, blasphemy is a human right that muslims have exercised throughout history and non muslims are entitled to as well. Muslim scholars are blasphemers. Muslim clerics blaspheme in their mosques and prayer grounds everyday. But thanks to the toleration of people of other faiths and beliefs, this blasphemy called Islam exists in the world today and continues to spread to other parts of the globe. Professors of non muslim faiths and beliefs have extended their notion of peace to muslim blasphemers, and muslims in Nigeria and in other parts of the world need to reciprocate and extend the same gesture of toleration and humanity to those whom they think or imagine as making blasphemous statements against prophet Muhammad, Islam and Allah.

In the spirit of global peace.
Daniel Asiedu, the main suspect on trial for the murder of the late Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa North Constituency, has denied conspiring with the second accused suspect, Vincent Booso, in carrying out the act.

According to lawyer for the suspects, Augustine Obour, Daniel Asiedu told him that he had never met the second accused anywhere until the both of them were brought to court.

The revelation contradicts the account of the police to the effect that the incident was planned by the two suspects.

Daniel Asiedu, who admitted to killing the MP albeit unintentionally, had reportedly named Vincent Bosso as his accomplice, according to the police.

There had been pressure on him to name his accomplices as he was believed to have committed the heinous act with the support of others, or on the instructions of persons who may have contracted him.

Vincent Bosso was arraigned a fortnight ago and charged with conspiracy to commit murder, just as Daniel Asiedu.

Both men have been accused of killing the NPP MP for Abuakwa North, Joseph Boakye Danquah-Adu, at his Shiashie residence in Accra.

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), was accused of concealing vital information obtained from Daniel Asiedu, a claim it has since denied.



By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
02.06.2016 LISTEN

By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, June 1, GNA - The Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) West Africa, has launched the six edition of the Ghana CSR Excellence Awards (GHACEA) with a call on the private sector to help develop the nation.

The top categories for the GHACEA include CSR Company of the Year, CSR Practitioner of the Year, CSR CEO of the Year, CSR Telecom of the Year, CSR Bank of the Year, CSR Insurance Company of the Year, and the CSR Manufacturing Company of the Year.

The Ghana CSR Excellence Awards seeks to identify, verify, evaluate and reward socially-responsible activities of companies in Ghana.

Last year more than 35 local and international media organisations attended the awards ceremony where MTN, Unilever Ghana, wire weaving industries, Access Bank, Vodafone, and Tigo, among others were awarded.

The call for entries, which started on May 27, would end on June 27, while the awards is slated for September.

The awards scheme is modelled after the European CSR Awards and entries are vetted by a multi-stakeholder jury drawn from academia, business associations, civil society organisations, regulatory agencies, international development partners and the media.

Ms Pearl Darko, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) National Co-ordinator for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), expressed the need for the private sector to get more involved and contribute strategically to help develop the nation beyond mere economic gains.

She said the quest for development and achievement of the SDGs was a collective responsibility and the private sector needed to become more active in the process.

Mr Koji Makino, the Chief Representative of the Japan International Co-operation Agency, said: 'Japan is a long-term development partner to Ghana and JICA's commitment to helping Ghana achieve shared prosperity and development is not limited to support given directly to government.'

'We have many projects and initiatives aimed at helping the private sector enhance its efficiency and effectiveness and eliminate unnecessary waste through the National Kaizen Project and other interventions,' he said.

Mr Anthony Sikpa,the President of the Federation of Association of Ghanaian Exporters, who formally launched the event, lauded the initiative saying it would spur the private sector on to do more to help society.

Mr John Kojo Williams, the Lead Project Manager of the Centre for CSR West Africa, said: 'The GHACEA has injected a new paradigm into how businesses give back to society. Companies are now better informed about their roles in society and beginning to weave social responsibility and sustainability around their core business mandate.'

'This is a departure from the erstwhile ad-hoc and one-off approach to CSR. The entries are officially opened from now till the 24th of June, 2016. The GHACEA Awards Dinner Night will take place in September after entries have been vetted and verified,' he said.
Mr Kwesi Aane Koomson the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Youth Inspired Ghana was among 24 young Africans selected from the continent to participate in the first African World Heritage Regional Youth Forum organised by African World Heritage Fund in partnership with Robben Island World Heritage Site, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the African Union and the South African Government which was held on the iconic Robben Island, Cape Town, South Africa from 28th April to 4th May 2016. Mr Koomson, a BSc Physics graduate of the University of Cape Coast who represented Ghana made presentations at the forum on Ghanas heritage sites and tourist centres and also some cultures of the Ghanaian people.

He was also among the group who did practical field work on Built Environment on the Island, who went on to make presentations and proposals on the Adaptive Reuse of Old and Deteriorating Buildings on the Island to meaningful use.

Kwesi was among an eight member board that compiled and drafted the African Youth Declaration which was subsequently presented at Maropeng at the climax of the 10th anniversary celebration of the African World Heritage Fund.

The young CEO also represented the host State Party, South Africa and defended Robben Island World Heritage Site at the Youth Model of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention also held on the Island which led him gaining the accolade CEO of Robben Island because he well defended the Island as if he is the CEO or part of the board.

The programme which was very successful saw an opening message from Dr Mechtild Rossler, Director of UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Hon. Derek Hanekom, the South African Minister of Tourism, Carmela Quin, World Heritage Education Programme UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Mr Mava Dada, acting CEO of Robben Island Museum, Pamela Mac Quilkan, Head of Programmes African World Heritage Fund.

The one week forum was also steered by Mr Pascal Taruvinga, Mr Richard Lo Giudice and some Ex Political Prisoners of the Island among others, and a closing ceremony message from the Deputy Minister, Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa, Ms Rejoice Thizwilondi Mabudafhasi.

The program is a milestone for the young social entrepreneur. In a discussion with Mr Koomson he said he is much more encouraged to do more for the Ghanaian youth and that of Africa as a whole. He hopes to use the knowledge and experience acquired from the forum for the betterment of others through his organisation Youth Inspired Ghana, an NGO that provides motivational talks/seminars for youth in schools and communities in Western Region, and any other youth organisations.

He also looks forward to building good relationships with the government bodies to add his quota for the wellbeing of the tourism industry in the country. Sighting an example that how Robben Island today has become one of the most visited heritage site on the African continent with close to thousand (2000) tourist a day for seven days a week even for the fact that it is an expensive place to visit.

2016-06-02 151103
Montreal (AFP) - The Canadian authorities were unable to locate the brother-in-law of deposed Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali when it came time to deport him last month, AFP learned from a judicial source Thursday.

Belhassen Trabelsi and his family flew to Montreal in January 2011 following a mass uprising that swept Tunisia and touched off the Arab Spring.

However, Canada denied his request for asylum last year.

Officials were scheduled to meet with Trabelsi on May 24 in preparation for his expulsion a week later.

But he "disappeared and even his lawyers say he cannot be found," the immigration authorities said in federal court documents obtained by AFP and dated May 26.

Although Trabelsi and his family had previously been granted permanent residency in Canada, they lost their status because they had not spent an obligatory minimum amount of time in the country.

The tribunal that rejected his refugee claim cited a lengthy list of accusations brought by the authorities, including fraud against the Tunisian government and laundering criminal proceeds.

Trabelsi denied the allegations, saying he "amassed his fortune through work and his skills as an entrepreneur."

Although the evidence against him was mostly circumstantial, the board found it compelling enough to deny his refugee claim.

Trabelsi's sister Leila has been married to Ben Ali since 1994.
Amissah-Arthur

02.06.2016 LISTEN

NDC UK and Ireland Chapter organised a diaspora outreach program under the theme Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana, Sustaining the Momentum on Monday 30th May 2016, in North London for members in UK and Ireland to interact with the Vice President and party officials. NDC members in Milton Keynes, Liverpool, Sheffield, Luton, Manchester, London North and South participated this outreach program in their numbers.

In attendance to grace the occasion were: the Vice President of Ghana, His Excellency Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, the General Secretary of the party, Hon. Asiedu Nketia, the International Relations Director, Hon. Kofi Attor, the Ghana High Commissioner to United Kingdom, His Excellency Mr. Victor Smith and other dignitaries from Ghana.

The Chairman of the UK and Ireland Chapter, Mr. Kofi Kwakye in his introductory speech thanked the Vice President and all the dignitaries for taking time out of their busy schedules to be part of the event. He introduced the Chapter executives and branch Chairmen.

According to Mr. Kofi Kwakye, the NDC UK and Ireland Chapter has grown from strength to strength with the inauguration of 5 more branches to the existing ones.

The High Commissioner, His Excellency Victor Smith in his address stressed that the achievements of President Mahama are so glaring for all to see so members of the NDC in the diaspora have the mandate to educate the people, both in Ghana and abroad. He encouraged members to refer to the "Green Book" which has most of the achievements captured when educating people. He also stated that in terms of personal track records, Nana Addo has no track record compared to President Mahama.

His Excellency emphasised that our opponents have no message nor anything to show so they just want to distract the government. He also assured members not to be intimidated by the NPP because government has the mandate to keep peace and stability.

Mr. Kofi Attor, praised NDC UK and Ireland Chapter members who came to Ghana to help the outreach program and also those who came to assist in the monitoring of the limited registration exercise in Ghana. He encouraged more members to come to Ghana and help the party during the general elections.

The General Secretary of the party, Hon. Asiedu Nketia received a loud applause when introduced to address party members. He stated that every Ghanaian wants to continue to enjoy the peace in the country. He therefore advised members to be mindful not to go to the gutters with the NPP and that no country can thrive in violence. Hon. Asiedu Nketia also expressed his pleasure that the NDC is going to the elections as a peaceful and a united party. According to him, the NPP cannot sustain the peace and unity of our country because they can't provide what they themselves don't have. He also advised members to use the "Green Book" to sell the achievements of the government to our friends and families both in UK and Ghana.

Hon. Asiedu Nketia took time to address Abu Ramadan versus the EC's Supreme Court case. He emphasised that Abu Ramadan lost the case but the NPP are pretending to have won the case.

On people who registered with the NHIS card, he outlined different times people registered with the NHIS card. Some Ghanaians used the NHIS card to register during the limited registration in 2006, 2008 and also in 2012 both main registration and limited registration. According to the General Secretary, the EC made it clear in court that they don't have the records of all those who registered with the NHIS cards. He said those who registered in 2006 and 2008, for example, might have used their old Voter's ID cards to register in 2012 and that, only the people who registered for the first time with the NHIS cards in 2012, if possible could be traced. "What happens to those who registered in 2006 and 2008?" he asked.

He also stressed that there is a clear procedure to challenge someone whose name is on the voter's register if one feels that name should not be there.

The Vice President, in his speech reiterated the importance of an Outreach Program and recalled an outreach program he led in 1995 to educate the public about VAT. On sustaining the momentum, His Excellency charged members not to be complacent about the massive achievements of the government but work hard to retain the NDC government, because government is doing its best to transform and sustain the momentum under social and economic development especially in the areas of health and education. He stated that primary enrolment in Ghana is currently hovering around 97%, whereas literacy rate is almost 80%.

The Vice President also recounted on the progress made on child mortality as well as maternal mortality. He concluded by stressing on the massive achievements of the government on infrastructure which is paving the way for job creation.

Members had the chance of asking questions and also commending the Vice President and party officials for honouring this invitation.

In a reaction to questions posed on the current anomaly on the electricity bills, the Vice President clarified that government has set up a committee to find out the estimation of the prepaid metres which has generated public concerns. He went on to state that households that consume up to 50KW of power a month are put under the lifeline structure and therefore pay a subsidised tariff. It is only those who consume power in the excess of 700KW that have had an increase in tariffs.

The meeting ended in jubilation and merry making with members in their party paraphernalia.
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations is seeking 2,500 extra troops and police to shore up its peacekeeping operations in Mali, one of its most dangerous missions worldwide.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Thursday the MINUSMA mission also needs more air assets and quick-reaction forces after a series of attacks that left 12 peacekeepers dead in May alone.

"It's clear to everyone that the security situation in parts of Mali is deteriorating. UN staff have paid for it in blood," Dujarric said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed adding 2,049 troops and 480 police to MINUSMA, which currently has about 12,000 personnel.

The Security Council is due to consider steps to strengthen MINUSMA, with a vote on extending the mandate of the mission set for June 29.

Two attacks on Tuesday in the northern city of Gao killed a Chinese peacekeeper and three civilians including a French contractor. Both were claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

The deaths bring to 12 the number of peacekeepers killed in Mali in May alone, according to the UN.

"We are talking about quick-reaction forces, air assets, additional troops specialized in high security convoys," said Dujarric.

Deployed in July 2013, MINUSMA is already making use of drones and other technology to protect its bases.

In a report to the council this week, Ban said the mission needs an attack helicopter unit, armored personnel carriers and transport helicopters.

He also stressed the need to improve intelligence-gathering.

The request for more troops includes a 650-strong quick reaction force, an aviation unit of 85 personnel and the deployment of special forces in Timbuktu and Kidal for intelligence and surveillance.

A special team of 30 officers would be based in Bamako to support crisis response.

AQIM has claimed responsibility for two attacks in Bamako in the past 15 months: the March 2015 attack on a bar that left five dead and the November assault on the Radisson Blu hotel that killed 20 people including 14 foreigners.
02.06.2016 LISTEN

Accra, June 2, GNA - President John Dramani Mahama has received commendation from President Alassane Ouattara of La CAte d'Ivoire for his leadership and impactful tenure as Chair of the Economic Community Of West African States.

He was also commended for demonstrating a clear commitment to the integration efforts and for bringing his influence to bear on a number of issues in the sub-region.

President Mahama received the commendation during bilateral talks with President Ouattara in Abidjan as part of a two-day official visit to CAte d'Ivoire.

A statement issued by the Flagstaff House Communications Team and copied to the GNA said President Mahama was also recognised by the Ivorian President for his role in developing a new spirit of co-operation between Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire and for enhancing the level of relations over the years from where the late President John Evans Atta Mills began before his death.

The statement said President Ouattara and President Mahama, addressing the press after their meeting in the Ivorian Presidential Palace, explained that their closed-door discussion focused on efforts to boost economic activities between the two nations.

The two leaders also discussed how to spearhead the regional integration efforts of the sub-region and how to amicably resolve the maritime border issues and sub-regional security.

The visit was President Mahama's official trip to CAte d'Ivoire since he assumed office and was, therefore, accompanied by the First Lady, Mrs Lordina Dramani Mahama, the statement said.

Other members of the delegation were Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Opong, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice; Mr Prosper Douglas Bani, the Interior Minister; Baba Kamara, the National Security Advisor; and Lt. Gen. Seth Obeng (Rtd.), a member of the Council of State.

The others were Ms Joyce Bawah Mogtari, the Deputy Minister of Transport; Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, the Deputy Minister of Power; Mr Isaac Adjei Mensah, the Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways and Awulae Agyefi Kwame II, the Omanhene of Nsein Traditional Area.

President Mahama was later given the key to the Autonomous City of Abidjan and an Honorary Citizen of CAte d'Ivoire. He was also decorated with the highest Ivorian National Award at a state dinner held in his honour at the Presidential Palace.

GNA
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business Cap on OPEC output likely in December: Natixis The production level of crude oil for each of the member nations varies, which has what made it difficult for them to reach any conclusion, says Abhishek Deshpande, Chief Oil Market Analyst, Natixis.
Two delegates also said Nigerian candidate Mohammed Barkindo was chosen to be OPEC's new secretary-general.

OPEC refrained from changing its oil output policy on Thursday, meaning the organization failed to agree on a new production ceiling, an OPEC delegate told Reuters.

Two delegates also said Nigerian candidate Mohammed Barkindo was chosen to be OPEC's new secretary-general.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last decided to change output in December 2008, and for oil-price hawks such as Iran, fears are growing that the 56-year-old OPEC is losing its role as a production-setting cartel and turning into a talking shop.

The world's most powerful oil producing group is meeting in Vienna on Thursday but mounting tensions between the 13 members of the producer group  and the differing economic needs of each country  are expected to stymie any deal on output which could support oil prices.

OPEC ministers arriving at the organization's headquarters in the Austrian capital on Thursday appeared to be at odds over what the bloc's next move should be. While some such as Kuwait and Qatar appeared to lean towards the Saudi Arabian way of thinking - agreeing on the need for an output ceiling - others such as Venezuela and Algeria seemed to agree with Iran, which said an output ceiling must be accompanied by a country-specific quota system.

Other oil ministers, such as Nigeria's, called for open-minded discussion and unity - something that has been in short supply at previous meetings.

OPEC is not expected to cut or freeze oil production levels at the meeting  ideas that failed to find unanimous support at its last meeting in Doha in April. Hopes of a deal were dashed after Iran  an OPEC member that is trying to revive its oil industry after years of economic sanctions  refused outright to consider a freeze.

Abdalla Salem el-Badri, Secretary General of OPEC told CNBC as the meeting got underway on Thursday that for the first time in many months there was a "very positive" atmosphere among the cartel's members, however.

He said he was pleased with the way the oil market was recovering - now close to $50 per barrel.

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia's energy minister Khalid al-Falih told Reuters the country was concerned over low oil prices, but that the market was doing well. "We will not shock the market," he said, adding that the market was rebalancing.

The meeting comes amid tensions between OPEC members nevertheless.
current-affairs-trends Andhra created 1,20,000 jobs in last 2 years: Chandrababu Naidu Andhra pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu says that his state clocked almost 11 percent growth in the last financial year, but that's not enough as far as he is concerned. He wants his state to clock 15 percent growth.
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Dynamic Levels research report on Lloyd Electric



Lloyds revenue from operations for the year ended March 31, 2016 grew by 30% to Rs. 2383 crores as compared to Rs. 1835 crores during the previous year. Operating profit (EBITDA) for the year was higher by 17% to Rs. 264 crores as compared to Rs. 225 crores in the previous year. The Profit before Exceptional item & tax stood at Rs. 125 crores as compared to Rs. 103 crores during the corresponding quarter last year, registering an increase of 21%. The Profit after Exceptional item arising out of write-off of insurance claim and Tax stood at Rs. 56 crores as against 82 crores during previous year; the company is taking initiative to recover the same from insurance company. In the Railway Segment, the company has signed Transfer of Technology Agreement (TOT) with Toshiba, Japan for the supply of the HVAC units for Delhi Metro RS10 project. With the recent acquisition of the Rail & Vehicle business of Noske-Kaeser Group, Lloyd has been uniquely positioned to offer superior quality HVAC solutions for upcoming High Speed Rail (HSR) projects in India and other international market. Lloyd brand enjoying 13% market share in Indian Room AC market during the year under review and ranking amongst top 5 players in Indian Room Air-Conditioning Market in India. Industry PE for home appliance company is around 45, where Lloyd electric PE ratio is at 24.23 (With exceptional Item) therefore target as per PE multiple is Rs. 455.

We recommend BUY in Lloyd Electric @ 245 with the target of 320.



For all recommendations, click here



Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts/broking houses/rating agencies on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.







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business Expect 30-35% bottomline growth in FY16: Brigade Enterprises Suresh Kris, Chief Financial Officer of Brigade Enterprises told CNBC-TV18 that the company is hopeful of clocking 30-35 percent growth in topline and bottomline in FY17.
business Bull's Eye: Buy Coal India, Wockhardt, BEML; sell Sun TV Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking is of the view that one may Reliance Infra with a target of Rs 560.
June 02, 2016 U.S. Election Thread 2016-03 - Yves Smith On "Not Hillary!" Not Hillary! Yves Smith of the Naked Capitalism explains why many of her progressive acquaintances will either not vote, or vote for Trump in the upcoming U.S. election. I recommend to read this in full. For starters two excerpts: Hillary's experience is one of failure. And she did not learn from it. Hillary has a resume of glittering titles with disasters or at best thin accomplishments under each. Her vaunted co-presidency with Bill? After her first major project, health care reform, turned into such a debacle that it was impossible to broach the topic for a generation, she retreated into a more traditional first lady role. As New York senator, she accomplished less with a bigger name and from a more powerful state than Sanders did. As secretary of state, she participated and encouraged strategically pointless nation-breaking in Iraq and Syria. She bureaucratically outmaneuvered Obama, leading to U.S. intervention in Libya, which he has called the worst decision of his administration. And her plan to fob her domestic economic duties off on Bill comes off as an admission that she cant handle being president on her own. And the conclusion: The Sanders voters in Naked Capitalisms active commentariat also explicitly reject lesser-evilism, the cudgel that has previously kept true lefties somewhat in line. They are willing to gamble, given that outsider presidents like Jimmy Carter and celebrity governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura didnt get much done, that a Trump presidency represents an acceptable cost of inflicting punishment on the Democratic Party for 20 years of selling out ordinary Americans. The Clintons, like the Bourbons before the French Revolution, have ensconced themselves in such a bubble of operative and media sycophancy that theyve mistakenly viewed escalating distress and legitimate demands from citizens as mere noise.

...

If my readers are representative, Clinton and the Democratic Party are about to have a long-overdue day of reckoning. To vote for the far right because the former center (left) has lost its bearing is a somewhat dangerous gamble. The U.S. has a relative stable, inertial system with lots of checks and balances that make this move less risky than similar moves underway in Poland, Germany or France. But unless the center left/right politicians recognize that they have lost their former majority there is no chance they will shun the neoliberal globalization nonsense they impose on their constituency. Voting for a stronger movement towards a genuine left is be a better strategy than voting for the far right. But notorious lack of unity within the left, center-right control over the media and the absence of a successful current archetype will keep a majority away from taking that step. I agree that the day of reckoning is a long-overdue day. But it may not bring the reckoning we want. Posted by b on June 2, 2016 at 7:36 UTC | Permalink Comments next page  next page 
It seems like just yesterday that the now 19 year old was dancing around the Ellen set

25 October 2022
May has proved to be a busy month in the investment world: with a wave of corporate activity, alongside a crop of fund manager departures.

Turbulent markets have been behind many of these moves: with two more income funds being kicked out of their sectors, and five commercial property funds altering their pricing in a bid to stem outflows.

But some of this corporate activity is the result of investment companies looking towards longer term horizons: Axa for example has sold its investment and pension business to Phoenix holdings, while two of the UKs largest global investment trusts - Alliance Trust and RIT Capital Partners - confirmed they were in merger talks.

Alliance Trust in Merger Talks

RIT Capital Partners (RCP), the investment trust chaired by Sir Jacob Rothschild, confirmed it had made an informal approach to Alliance Trust (ATST) about a possible tie up.

RIT said discussions were at a preliminary stage.

This news was clearly welcomed by many shareholders in the beleaguered Alliance Trust, with its share price rising on this news.

The trust has had a turbulent 12 months culminating in the departure of its former chief executive Katherine Garrett-Cox last year.

A statement from Alliance Trust said it was currently undergoing a strategic review, to explore all options available to it for the long-term benefit of shareholders. It said it will look at any formal merger proposal from RIT as part of this review.

Both of this substantial investment trusts have a global remit, and together manage more than 5 billion. Alliance Trust, which was formed almost 130 years ago manages around 2.7 billion of assets, while RIT Capital Partners launched in the late 1980s has 2.4 billion.

AXA sells Savings and Pensions Business to Phoenix

AXA (AXA) is selling its UK investment, pension and insurance business to Phoenix Holdings (PHNX) in a 375 million deal.

Phoenix, which specialises in running closed life and pension funds, will take over both the AXA Wealth and SunLife brands. These have more than 12.3 billion in assets and 900,000 individual policies.

AXA said this was part of its long-term strategic plan to exit the UK savings market. The French-based insurer said it is concentrating on emerging markets which are seen to have more growth potential for savings. However, the company will continue to offer health insurance and asset management within the UK. Its multi-manager arm, Architas, is not of this deal and will become part of AXAs global life & savings division.

Equity Income Fund Exits

Two more funds were kicked out of the Investment Associations UK Equity Income sector this month, for failing to meet its yield requirements.

The latest two casualties were Evenlode Income, with 524 million assets under management, and the 127 million Montanaro UK Income which was the top-performing fund in the sector last year.

This brings to total of income funds expelled from this sector to 20  including funds run by Invesco Perpetual, Henderson, Schroders and Rathbones  increasing pressure on the IA to reform its current guidelines.

The majority of these funds have been ejected from this sector for failing to meet its requirement to deliver an income that is 110% of the FTSE All Share index over a rolling three-year period. Montanaro was ejected through for failing to deliver 90% of the FTSE All Share yield over one year.

Hugh Yarrow, co-manager on the Evenlode fund criticised the IAs arbitrary parameters on the Equity Income sector. He said this move and added the move would not affect the managers approach.

Charles Monanaro, manager of his eponymous fund, was also highly critical of the IAs bizarre decision that had seen his fund jettisoned from the sector. He pointed out that if the starting NAV of the fund was used to calculate its yield, rather than then final NAV then it would have met the IAs requirement. It claimed it was being punished for delivering growth to investors.

The IA is now consulting with its members over a possible change to these criteria.

Commercial Property Funds Hit by Brexit Fears

Five commercial property funds run by Aberdeen, Henderson, M&G, Threadneedle and Standard Life Investments have altered their pricing in a bid to stem outflows.

A sudden spike in the number of sellers have caused these fund managers to move from an offer to the lower bid or mid price  effectively reducing the value of investors holdings by between 5% and 6.25%.

This moves comes amid fears of investors taking profits ahead of the Brexit vote. Commercial Property funds have enjoyed good returns in recent years, but there are a fears that if the UK votes to leave the EU this will damage the buoyant property market in the South East, and so impact on returns in these funds.

The funds making these changes are all bricks and mortar funds. Managers argue that it is fair that sellers should bear the cost of property disposals if the number of people selling units exceeds the number of buyers by a significant margin.

Fund Manager Departures

There were a number of fund manager moves this month. Leigh Harrison, the head of UK equities at Columbia Threadneedle is retiring from the industry, and will leave the company at the end of June.

His role will be taken by Richard Colwell, who took over from Harrison as lead manager on the companys 3.2 billion Equity Income fund in September.

Meanwhile, Jupiters Simon Somerville, manager of its Japan Income fund, is to leave the business after 11 years. He will move into institutional fund management. His current deputy, Dan Carter, will take over the running of the fund.

There were more fund manager moves at Miton Group. The company announced that Andrew Jackson will be the new manager on its successful CF Miton UK Value Opportunities fund.

He was previously manager of the UK Equity Growth fund at Eden Tree Investment Manager, formerly known as Ecclesiastical. He will start at the end of June, when the current managers of this fund  George Goober and Georgina Hamilton  move to Polar Capital.
The son of the Toronto-based real estate firm Canada Homes Inc. has been arrested and charged with murder after his girlfriends body was found on May 26 at the couples condo unit in West Hollywood, Los Angeles.



As reported by Dan Taekema of the Toronto Star, Blake Leibelson of renowned developer Lorne Leibelhas been apprehended by the L.A. County Sheriffs Department. The younger Leibels partner, Iana Kasian, was determined to have suffered blunt force trauma to the head, leading to her death.



Acting on a missing person report by Kasians mother, police went to the apartment and found the younger Leibel agitated and unresponsive.



He had barricaded himself in the apartment, had placed furniture and bedding all around to prevent us from entering, homicide detective Lt. Dave Coleman said.



Further reports stated that the couple had a child in common, who is now under the custody of a family friend.



Los Angeles County records revealed that the May 26 arrest marked the second time Leibel went to jail in the span of a week. His previous incarceration at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility ended just a few days before on May 20, when he was released on $100,000 bail.



As of press time, the Leibel family has yet to make a comment on the arrest.
Sales volume and property prices in Canadas real estate markets continued to grow for the first part of the year, serving to boost an otherwise weakening national economy.



Recent figures from Statistics Canada revealed that home sales and prices across the country gave the economy a much-needed shot in the arm, with real estate investment rising by 2.7 per cent in Q1 2016, as reported by Daniel Tencer of The Huffington Post Canada.



This increase, which represented the fifth consecutive quarterly growth in Canadian housing investment, was accompanied by a 2.2 per cent rise in real estate agent activity and a 0.1 per cent uptick in construction in March.



A low Canadian dollar also encouraged greater export volume, with a 1.7 per cent growth observed in the first quarter.



Its not all good news, however, as these developments mean that the Canadian economy is now largely supported by exports and by the investment money flowing into the active housing sector. Any real estate downturn will spell big trouble, the CIBC warned.



[Its] a signpost of a slowdown ahead," CIBC economist Avery Shenfeld wrote in a client note on Tuesday (May 31).



The latest investment figures reflected the grim prognosis of a 0.7 per cent decline in the Canadian economy for Q2 as non-residential activity weakened for the fifth straight quarter, shrinking by 3.7 per cent in the first quarter of the year.
The popular female-focused industry group is getting together in Jasper to honour some of the industrys most inspiring women.



We decided to have the WIMI Glam and Awards, which is an hour and a half reception prior to the AMBA Under the Stars Awards night, Hali Noble, SVP residential mortgage investments & broker relations at Fisgard Capital and one of WIMI's founders, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. We get together, have a couple cocktails, and network. Its a time and a place for ladies in the industry who are brokers, lenders, BDMs, and service providers to get together and celebrate the industry. Kind of a pre-party to the party.



This year, were giving out two awards. Theyll be given out Sunday.



Women in the Industry (WIMI) has grown substantially since its inception less than two years ago. And it was recently honoured with a Canadian Mortgage Award for Best Industry Service Provider.



We started with the three of us less than two years ago and it was just a closed Facebook group. As of right now, there are 2,558. Its a huge group. We just won an award at the CMAs and it was awesome, Noble said. How its grown is incredible. And the information we provide; its a free group and honestly these ladies talk 24/7 all across the country. Theyre getting stuff done and its quite inspiring to see.



This is the second year in a row the group will recognize two individuals with WIMI awards.



And its the first year they have gotten together with industry partners to help one of their own in need. The group held a contest for its Fort McMurray members to help one attend the AMBA conference free of charge.



Our lenders stepped up and one provided a delegate pass, one provided a hotel room one night, another provided another hotel room, another provided a $500 gift card to bring this person from Fort McMurray, whose had a tough time, to the event, Noble said.
VIENNA  OPEC oil ministers ended a meeting Thursday without reaching any kind of consensus on regulating the price and supply of crude, a result that triggered an immediate drop in energy markets.

As the ministers gathered in Vienna, comments by some suggested that the oil cartel would send a message of unity on regulating the market after not being able to do so for years.

But a statement read at the end of their meeting made no concrete pledges, emphasizing only the need for members to work for a stable market.

The price of oil fell sharply upon the news. The U.S. benchmark was down 88 cents at $48.14 a barrel.

For decades, the 13-nation cartel was able to regulate prices by throttling or increasing production. But attempts to impose production ceilings have foundered over recent years, with countries ignoring them and producing as much they wanted or could. And outside players increasing their market share, recent meetings have failed to re-impose unity.

Thursdays events suggested OPEC was no closer to re-asserting its unity and restoring its image as the major player in determining oil prices for the rest of the world.

One idea was to abandon a firm production target. Experts say OPEC countries could have agreed on a sliding ceiling that could shift between two benchmarks, both above 30 million barrels a day.

That could address Iranian resistance to curbing its output. Since the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions this year, Iranian production has roared back to nearly four million barrels a day, around the same level as before the imposition of the sanctions.

But the ministers were unable even to reach such a more flexible agreement.

The ministerial gathering came amid a recent recovery in the price of oil. Since touching a 13-year low early this year, it has rallied almost 90 percent to around $50 a barrel.
Few Texas residents will be surprised to find the Lone Star State holds billions upon billions in petro wealth. And while its no surprise Houston tops the list of 20 oil towns holding petro wealth, it may be somewhat surprising that Midland is in second place.

Houston is obvious because its a huge metropolitan area. But Midland has a huge royalty amount for its population. Midland leads the country in the most wealth per capita in oil towns, said McCarney Taylor, founder of Blackbeard Data Services, speaking by phone from his Austin office .

His company just released its annual 2016 Texas Petro Wealth report, findingTexas has $125.9 billion of proved producing reserves.

Blackbeard  which provides Texas lease ownership data  found corporations were the dominant holder of petro wealth at $98 billion, followed by individuals with $20.8 billion and trusts with $4.1 billion. The remaining $2.6 billion is divided among educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and religious organizations.

Taylor said there has been a significant decline from the 2014 report to the 2016 report, as oil prices fell by 60 percent.

Billions and billions have been lost from the petro wealth base, and that affects schools the most because their tax base (depends) on underlying assets, and mineral values affect real estate values as well. So the price decline is a big hurt to the education system.

The state treasury can adjust to falling tax collections but there is a disproportionate weight on the schools, he said.

In looking at the top 20 oil cities holding working, royalty and overriding interests, Houston topped the list. Midland placed second with $13.364 billion. Remove working interest owners, and Houston and Midland are still the top two, with Midland following Houston with $2.064 billion. Even so, Taylor said just more than $109 million separates Midland from Dallas and Austin.

Analyze Denver, Houston and Midland and gauge their per capita petro wealth -- Midland would probably win, he said.

Whats surprising to me is Dallas, which was the money center for oil in years gone by, shows such low numbers. That tells me Dallas banks fund the bonds for corporations and not the actual funds to royalty owners. Its not the center where royalty owners live, Taylor said.

The report finds Texans own the large majority of override and royalty interests in oil and gas properties in Texas at 84 percent. Oklahoma residents follow with 3 percent, California with 1.5 percent, Colorado with 1.4 percent and Arkansas at 0.5 percent. Only a small fraction is held by non-U.S. citizens.

Corporations may hold the bulk of petro wealth, but Taylor said individuals are doing surprisingly well, even in the downturn.

If ExxonMobil bought 640 acres and retained 80 percent net revenues, giving royalty owners the remaining 20 percent, it would be expected Exxon and other corporations holding similar royalties would hold four times the petro wealth of individual royalty owners. But, he said, royalty owners own more than one-quarter of petro wealth.

I think theyre doing fairly well given the oil price decline. They own the minerals, so when those minerals are produced in economic quantity, the leases remain in effect. Oil and gas operators know those minerals will be above economic levels in a few months or a year so dont want to break the lease. Theyre willing to operate at a small loss because theyre playing the long game, Taylor said.

He said his company agrees with that long game.

At this point we definitely can see $60 oil by the end of 2016, he said.

That forecast comes from the company compiling a statistical forecast from data derived from Energy Information Agency, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and others.

Boosting prices will be strong demand, and supply concerns, he said. He noted Iran has already burned off all its backlog of crude, political strife has reduced Nigerian oil production and Canadian oil sands have been impacted by a massive wildfire.

He went on to forecast oil prices around $70 or $80 by the end of 2017.S
Saudi Arabia will use this weeks OPEC meeting to repair relationships with fellow producers after the failure of an April accord in Doha to freeze crude output, according to people familiar the matter.

Khalid Al-Falih, who took over as Saudi oil minister last month, will reassure others his nation wont flood the market and may be open to the reintroduction of an overall OPEC production target, which was scrapped in December, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information isnt public.

While Riyadh has changed its tone, theres no indication yet that Saudi Arabia is seeking to alter current production volumes, the people said. The diplomatic overture was described as a gesture rather than an actual shift in policy.

It seems reasonable that the new Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih may wish to start with a cleaner slate and improve the tonal dynamics inside OPEC, said Bob McNally, head of consultant The Rapidan Group in Washington. The bigger question is whether Iran would go along, said the former senior White House oil official.

The conciliatory message is an attempt to end a dark period for OPEC in which pundits declared the organization effectively dead. The diplomatic maneuvering coincides with a recovery in the oil market, with Brent crude hovering near a six-month high of $50 a barrel and ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries gathering in Vienna amid hopes that the worst of the downturn is over.

From the beginning of the year until now, the market has been correcting itself upward, U.A.E. Oil Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei told reporters in the Austrian capital on Tuesday. The market will fix itself to a price that is fair to the consumers and to the producers.

Organizations from Goldman Sachs to the International Energy Agency say the crude glut is finally dwindling as the Saudi approach of squeezing high-cost suppliers -- opposed by most OPEC members when it was unveiled in late 2014 -- finally pays off.

I think the market trends are better now and the urgency that spurred producers to mull an agreement to freeze production in April in Doha has dissipated, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Nigerias minister of state for petroleum resources, told reporters in Vienna. Kuwaiti officials and the Angolan oil minister echoed the message.

The meeting in Vienna on Thursday is the first since the acrimonious Doha gathering. Those talks in the Qatari capital failed after Saudi Arabia refused to freeze production unless Iran joined the initiative.

In a sign that the Saudi overture is having an impact, Eulogio del Pino, Venezuelas oil minister and a main proponent of the doomed Doha agreement, said on Wednesday he had an excellent meeting with his Saudi counterpart.

The failure in Doha came after OPECs meeting in December also ended in disarray as the group abandoned its 30 million barrel-a-day production target. OPEC pumped 33.2 million barrels a day in April including production from Indonesia, which rejoined the group at the December meeting, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

After 2 1/2 years of oversupply, oil traders also see signs supply and demand are getting close to being in balance. Disruptions in Canada and Nigeria took 50 million barrels out of the market last month, Geneva-based trading house Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. estimated.

The rebalancing is happening a bit faster than anticipated because of the disruptions, Mercuria Chief Executive Officer Marco Dunand said in an interview. Demand is also stronger than expected in countries from India to the United States, he said.

The IEA forecasts oil demand will increase this year by 1.2 million barrels a day, while Dunand said growth is likely to top 1.5 million, perhaps rising as high as 1.8 million.

Brent and West Texas Intermediate crudes, respectively the international and U.S. oil benchmarks, rose last week above $50 a barrel for the first time in six months. Wall Street banks have lifted their oil-price forecasts, with Goldman Sachs now saying oil could hover between $50 and $60 a barrel in the second half of the year.

If OPECs success is measured by exports into the U.S., the group can claim a small victory. U.S. crude imports from the group in March climbed to the highest in almost two years, according to the Energy Information Administration. Saudi Arabia shipped 1.3 million barrels a day into the U.S. in March, the most since April 2014 and up almost 60 percent from a low point in January 2015.
VIENNA (AP)  OPEC is not yet in safe harbor. But ahead of a top-level meeting, the 13-nation oil cartel appears close to weathering the storm of slumping crude prices that threatened to bankrupt some members and called into question its relevance.

After touching a 13-year low early this year, the price of oil has moved steadily upward to their present level of around $50 a barrel.

While thats still only half of what crude fetched as late as two years ago, its a gain of almost 90 percent since January. That is easing some of the pain for poorer members such as Algeria, Venezuela and Nigeria that depend on crude as their main income. And there are promises of further increases.

U.S. shale production is in decline as it needs higher prices to be economical. At the same time, the world economy is showing signs of some improvement, meaning that the appetite for petroleum may increase.

Oil ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries convening in Vienna Thursday will thus likely opt for the status quo. Total production is now well over 32 million barrels a day, and in a note ahead of the meeting, analysts at Commerzbank Commodity Research said expectations are for the meeting to end without reaching any agreement on production targets or production caps.

Ironically, part of the credit for OPECs improving fortunes is due to its inability to act in unity in recent years. Instead, many individual members produced what they could, driving down prices to the point where shale producers are increasingly unable to compete. Some have gone out of business, reducing the glut of global supply.

At the height of its power decades ago, OPEC essentially was able to set world prices and supplies. Although it is still responsible for more than a third of world production, that clout has eroded since the 1980s, as outside output increased and members looking to maximize income increasingly ignored OPEC production ceilings.

The final statement at the last OPEC meeting in December didnt even mention an output target. That effectively left it up to individual members how much crude to pump and was a strong signal of the cartels eroding ability to act as a group in efforts to influence supply, demand  and prices.

But it took top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia to turn overproduction into market strategy.

Since deciding in 2014 to squeeze out outside competition by flooding the market to drive down prices, it has pumped close to or above 10 million barrels a day  close to a third of the organizations total production. That, plus resurgent output from Iraq and post-sanctions Iran, helped push down prices, with the desired effect of making shale production increasingly uneconomical.

Turmoil in OPEC members Libya and Nigeria has also helped tighten supplies. Even with the upturn in prices, though, OPEC is unlikely to regain its past glory  although some members would like to see that happen.

We need to revindicate the role of OPEC ... in defense of oil producing countries, said Venezuelan oil minister Eulogio Del Pino to reporters. It has been a historical role for more than 60 years.

But some poorer members will be tempted to continue ignoring any attempt at setting joint policies and sell as much as they can. And Middle East politics will continue to play a role as the Saudis and Iran fight out their rivalry within the cartel.

Qatars Ministry of Energy and Industry said in a statement that the upward price trend was largely due to a rise in demand and the slowing down or outage of many production stations around the world, let alone the retreat in investments in the sector.

But the days of oil at $100 a barrel appear to be history. No one can say exactly what price shale producers need to become profitable and pump more, pushing the market back down, but it appears to be well below the $100 level. And production by OPEC members is expected to remain rampant.

With prices at long last appearing to be heading upward, some of the past edginess marking the most recent meetings should be missing Thursday.

Market forces have made it easier to get along, says Phil Flynn of the Price Futures group.

For now, he says, I think the price war is over.



Andras Adam Zagoni-Bogsch in Vienna and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.
In a story that takes place 100 years ago, actor Chris Sams says "Ragtime: The Musical" is more reflective of modern issues than audiences might expect. With today's headlines about bathroom controversies, women's bodies and black lives matter, the show is brimming with allusions to such topics for the West Texas A&M alum. But ultimately, it's about respecting differences.

"You can replace the variable: immigrants, transgendered people, African-American, however you like, but 'Ragtime' is about having the bravery to respect those differences. Hatred is a fear and it takes courage to look at others and have compassion," Sams said.

Broadway in the Basin presents "Ragtime: The Musical" Monday at the Wagner Noel Performing Arts Center. The story is of three different groups of people: an Anglo upper-class family, Eastern European immigrants and African-Americans.

Sams has been performing with the show since October. He'll finish his run as Coalhouse Walker Jr. later this month. Before Sams, 36, returns to West Texas, he discussed how the show has opened his eyes to the parallels in the real world and how his director advised him to take in one particular moment of the musical.

MRT: You're back in Texas for this show. How does that feel?

Sams: Yes! I love it when the cast sees hospitality at its peak and I think they better understand how I am. It's been great, especially when we went to Amarillo where I used to live and go to school.

MRT: You were a speech communications major. How did theater fit in?

Sams: For a summer job, I auditioned for "Texas Outdoor Musical" and did that for three summers. I didn't know what I wanted and with a liberal arts degree, that made me very flexible (laughs). A friend thought I should move to New York City and at 23, I did. Didn't know what I wanted. Lib arts degree. Very flexible. It was just an amalgam of things.

MRT: You've been doing the show for a while now. How do you prepare for such an emotional and physical ride each night?

Sams: I'm very lucky to have outlets to decompress. I really don't get into my mode until about 15 minutes before, but I know what kind of ride I'm going to be on. I leave just a little amount of time to get ready but I know what I need to do to turn it on.

MRT: What has "Ragtime" come to mean to you in this time?

Sams: It's really this musical of possibilities. Because of the themes and when I heard Brian Stokes Mitchell sing it, it sparked a possibility to play something like this.

MRT: How did his performance do that for you?

Sams: Seeing him told me that this was an option for me. He's African-American. We have the same timbre. So being on that stage and maybe being something people may not have seen before was quite an epiphany.

MRT: So then, what does "Ragtime" mean for you now?

Sams: As a Buddhist, I have a strong connection to compassion and giving but it's definitely been deepened and sharpened with every performance. We get tired sometimes of the travel and being away from home but when someone tells us their story and what the show meant to them, it puts it all in perspective and especially in markets that don't get a lot of theater like this. It's an honor to bring this message to different parts of the country.

MRT: You said that "Ragtime" is about respecting differences. How does a show based on the E.L. Doctorow book about America 100 years ago relate to today?

Sams: It's a panorama of history and reality and celebrates the triumph of this country. But it also goes hand-in-hand with the ideals of this country. "Ragtime" isn't a look-and-see musical. You listen and absorb it. We really beg the audience to pay attention to the plot unfold. The way it parallels to today shows that we perhaps ignored a warning. History really does repeat itself.

MRT: Musical theater seems to reflect a variety of demographics with deep complexity in shows like "Hamilton," "The Color Purple" -- which you were also in -- and "Ragtime," as opposed to something indulgent, like say, "Legally Blonde" or "Mamma Mia."

Sams: There are stories with lessons and voices of many colors in the canon. I'm honored to be a part of those stories.

You know, when we were practicing bows, my director, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, told me to take this moment here and now. It's not often an African-American male gets the last bow and she told me to really take in the moment. That resonated with me very much. It's not an opportunity we are afforded very often.
HOUSTON (AP)  New surveillance video that shows a person of interest in the slaying of an 11-year-old Houston boy was released Thursday, more than two weeks after the stabbing.

We have a very clear picture of this mans face, said police Sgt. Tommy Ruland, the lead investigator in the murder of Josue Flores. Someone out there in the community knows who this person is. And we need this mans identity.

The sixth-grader was walking home from a science club meeting after school May 17 when he was attacked and fatally stabbed on a sidewalk a couple of blocks from his home in a neighborhood just north of downtown Houston.

The 36-second video shows a man running down a street not far from the scene. Hes wearing a green jacket with a partially obscured word containing the letters LYMEN on the hood of the jacket.

Somebodys going to recognize that jacket or recognize what the significance is or the origination of that jacket, Ruland said. Thats what I need.

He said detectives have been working full time on the case, canvassed the area repeatedly, following up leads and scouring the area for surveillance videos.

A 31-year-old man with a long criminal history was arrested days after the killing, but a murder charge was dropped when detectives found evidence to support his alibi that he wasnt involved. Police had probable cause for that arrest, Lt. John McGalin said Thursday, and quickly released him, but McGalin would not go into issues of the past.

Police declined to specifically say where the video was made or when it was obtained, saying only that it came from a business and was made four minutes after the time detectives say Josue was attacked. The video shows a black man who has a mustache and possible goatee, is 25 to 30 years old, about 6 feet tall and weighing 180 to 200 pounds.

Coupled with the time frame of the video, the witness interviews, interviews in the community and the description, we would like to speak with this individual. ... I strongly believe someone in the community will know who this man is, Ruland said.

Several witnesses told officers they heard loud screaming and saw Josue struggling with a man. The boy collapsed on the grass near the sidewalk and the man ran off. A bystander flagged down police and alerted them to the wounded boy, who was taken to a hospital with multiple stab wounds and pronounced dead a short time later.

A reward for information in the case has grown to $45,000.
Students from Michigan Technological University partnered with Keweenaw National Historical Park to put a new tech twist on local history. The students created an interpretive display on mine water geothermal energy. Together, the display and Youth Historian program offer Keweenaw youth a chance to learn more about their heritage.

History is important to Copper Country communitiessharing that history with youth even more so. As the site of the nation's first large mining boom, the Keweenaw Peninsula preserves and interprets a unique chapter of the US story. During 2016, to commemorate the National Park Service's Centennial, Michigan Tech and Keweenaw National Historical Park collaborated on a display that both celebrates history and looks to new science.

There will be a Student Open House on Friday, June 3 from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Calumet Visitor Center. Students from the Youth Historian program will give a short presentation and Michigan Tech students will talk about the mine water geothermal display. The event will conclude with a reception and tours of the Visitor Center.

Youth Historians

Keweenaw National Historical Park started a Youth Historian program for 3rd graders attending Calumet-Laurium-Keweenaw (CLK) Elementary School. The program started in October 2015, and 18 students met every other week during the school year. The objective was to connect youth with local history through fun, interactive programs that immersed them in the local community. Students learned about folk music, studied primary sources, researched historical events, talked with seniors from the community, and developed a short animated, claymation film that will premier at the open house.

The program helped students develop a deeper understanding of park resources and the relevance of national parks in their lives. To that end, the curriculum was designed to be interactiveso they truly feel that history is at their fingertips.

I loved doing all the projects and going inside the different buildings in Calumet, one student says of the program. Another reflected on how history became real by being fun: The music and dancing was my favorite part. I enjoyed learning old songs from the past.

"America's National Park System is a gift from past generations to this and succeeding generations. And while the challenges we face today could not have been imagined when this agency was established in 1916, our mission remains the same: to preserve this nation's natural and cultural heritage, unimpaired for the enjoyment of this and future generations." Jon Jarvis, National Park Service Director



Mine Water Geothermal

Through the Youth Historian program, Keweenaw students have the opportunity to learn about their heritage. With the mine water geothermal project, they have the chance to reimagine it.

Currently, only 30 active mine water geothermal systems exist in the world. And one of them is at Michigan Techs Keweenaw Research Center (KRC). At the KRC, they pipe the mine water up from 300 feet below the surface. Through a big heat exchanger, the mine water seasonally cools, or heats, through a closed loop system within the building.

Its just like the radiator in your car, says Jay Meldrum, the director of the Keweenaw Research Center. The water always stays inside the pipes and is mixed with glycol so it doesnt freeze.

The water-glycol mix circulates and runs through 18 heat pumps throughout the centers main building. Meldrum says he hopes to expand geothermal on the site and is planning a new, smaller system in a separate building.

"We're excited to make this an educational opportunity," Meldrum says.

Richelle Winkler, a sociologist specializing in environment, population, and rural community development, helped organize the original project. She worked with a team of students last year, led by Edward Louie, who graduated last spring, to create "A Community Guide to Mine Water Geothermal Heating and Cooling". They are now working to publish it as a book with Lift Bridge Press.

"Using the mine water for geothermal energy creates an opportunity to recast community identity, which both celebrates the mining heritage and promotes progress forward in an environmentally sustainable way." Richelle Winkler, Associate Professor, Michigan Tech

Now, the projectand the corresponding display at the Calumet Visitor Centeris a collaboration among an award-winning team of students in Michigan Techs Alternative Energy Enterprise. They come from many disciplines, including mechanical engineering, environmental policy, electrical engineering, energy development and communications. For their interdisciplinary work, the student team took home the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Youth Council on Sustainable Science and Technology Award last year.

Keweenaw National Historical Park From 7,000 years ago to the 1900s people mined Keweenaw copper. Native peoples made copper into tools and trade items. Investors and immigrants arrived in the 1800s in a great mineral rush, developing thriving industries and cosmopolitan communities. Though the mines have since closed, their mark is still visible on the land and people. Keweenaw National Historical Park works with nearly 30 community partners to help preserve the history and cultural resources of the peninsula.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigans flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
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Sacramento, CA  Two Mother Lode public transit improvements are among 131 statewide projects that will be getting cash from Caltrans $74.6 million Low Carbon Transit Operations Program funding pot.

In releasing details Wednesday, Caltrans officials say the program is among the states strategies to meet its ambitious climate change-related mitigation goals. Paid for through California Climate Investments, funds are proceeds from the states cap-and-trade auctions that are earmarked to provide benefit to communities in tandem with reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Over $70 million of this funding allotment is being directed to 85 projects benefiting disadvantaged communities, although the projects chosen in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties are not listed as being in that category.

The Tuolumne County Transit Agency will be receiving $52,632 in funding for a transit hub at the Law and Justice Center now under construction, which is anticipated to improve the efficiency and performance of the local transit system as well as increase ridership. The Calaveras Transit Pilot Service, which was approved for a $44,235 award, will apply it towards funding a Saturday transit service between Valley Springs and Murphys for residents and visitors.

Program efforts, which address a gambit of approaches, include route expansions and line extensions; passenger upgrades and reduced fares; bus stop enhancements and access improvements. Caltrans officials say the targeted projects will not only bring real benefits to local communities, they will help create a more sustainable transportation system that will benefit residents overall by becoming more efficient, affordable and climate-friendly.
Hogan Dam Road pot bust View Photos

Valley Springs, CA  A second pot grow is found in just under a week by the Calaveras County Sheriffs Department.

After finding strangers trespassing on his land a couple weeks ago along Hogan Dam Road, a private property owner alerted law enforcement to a possible pot grow. The owner questioned the two Hispanic men who admitted to working a grow on the property. Sheriff Rick DiBasilio indicates, Evidently, they told the property owner that they had permission from somebody but he didnt know who that somebody was.

An aerial search of the land spotted the grow site. On Wednesday morning, a search warrant was served on the property Sheriff DiBasilio shares, On our way in we heard some noises up in the high rock areas. Im sure those were their scouts that were watching for us. We did find a two way radio.

Also, found were 3,536 pot plants with campsites nearby. Sheriff DiBasilio states, We found two areas that they used for sleeping quarters and there was another area that was a lookout point for them. At one of the campsites, investigators discovered a Mexican national identification card for a Hispanic male but those living there had fled the scene. Also left behind were several air powered pellet guns.

Sheriff DiBlasilio noted that the plants were hybrids, which bring in a higher price and put the street value at anywhere from 50,000 to millions of dollars.

As previously reported, just last Thursday, another property owner helped law enforcement find a more than 10,000 plant cultivation, which was eradicated after a land owner on Rock Creek Road in Copperopolis spotted a hose coming out of his pond that led to some plant beds. DiBasilio adds both bust were on properties that he calls historical sites, meaning marijuana cultivations have been found there year after year. Regarding how many of these sites exist in the county, he chuckled and replied, You dont have enough fingers and toes.
Tuolomne County Election Office View Photos

Sonora, CA  The Tuolumne County Elections Office has already received 30% of the vote-by-mail ballots that were sent out in anticipation of Tuesdays election.

County Clerk and Auditor Controller Debi Bautista says around 78% of the Tuolumne County electorate chooses to vote by mail. She says traditionally the majority of the ballots arrive at her office in the final few days leading up the election.

In past years, the ballots needed to be received by Election Day in order to be counted. However, a change in state law will now allow ballots to be received in the mail through June 10th, assuming that they are post marked by Election Day. Bautista still encourages voters to send the ballots early so that they can be included in the early tabulation figures this coming Tuesday evening.

Of additional note, if you do not want to head to the polls Tuesday, you can vote early during the regular business hours at the Tuolumne County Elections Office at 2 S. Green Street up until Tuesday. Bautista adds that the office will also be open for special hours this Saturday from 9am-1pm.

There are several competitive local races this time around including the Board of Supervisors, Sonora City Council, California Assembly and US Congress.
A Lakeland woman's loving relationship with her special needs sister prompted her to produce a documentary and start a non-profit organization.

Lakeland documentary is about people living with disabilities

Kirsti Mutz's sister Emma, who has Down Syndrome, has excelled in spite of disability



Mutz, 20, inspired by Emma to produce film, start non-profit



20-year-old Kirsti Mutzs sister Emma, 16, has Down Syndrome.

Kirsti grew up performing in musical theater, and one day her mother decided that Emma should try out for a musical, too. Kirsti told her mother she didn't think that was a good idea.

To put it plainly: Kirsti didn't think Emma could do it. As much as she loved her sister, she admits she had low expectations of what she could achieve.

"My mom had her audition and she got in the show and she performed amazingly and blew my expectations out of the water," said Kirsti.

That experience revolutionized the way Kirsti thought about her sister. After that, she worked for more than a year producing a documentary called "People Like Us."

It features the stories of a half-dozen local residents, including Emma, who have intellectual and physical disabilities. The documentary examines the people with disabilities as having great aspirations for themselves.

In the film, Emma and her peers also realize they face great challenges.

"Hearing them talk about their disabilities started to make [me] respect them on an even deeper level because all of us have aspirations," said Kirsti. "All of us want to achieve something."

Since debuting the documentary a few months ago, Kirsti has traveled to China to present the movie to people who either live or work with others who have intellectual disabilities.

"This one girl began to cry and began to say 'I didn't know,' said Kirsti, 'I didn't know that people could succeed with disabilities.'"

Kirsti has started a non-profit with the same name as the documentary. She hopes to have groups screen the film, and then to facilitate discussions afterwards. The main idea is to raise expectations for people with physical and intellectual disabilities.




The mayor of Debary will continue being mayor at least a little while longer. The city council postponed a hearing that could have stripped Mayor Clint Johnson of his title.

Hearing on charter violation charges against Debary mayor postponed

Mayor Clint Johnson facing 13 charges

Hearing moved to July

Johnson was accused of telling city staff members what to do when, according to city charter rules, only the city manager can direct the staff. There were three charges originally.



But when Johnson and his attorney Doug Daniels arrived, they were given a packet with additional charges  13 in all.



Daniels pointed out he did not have enough time to prepare for all the new charges and asked for a continuance.

Now the city council hearing against Mayor Johnson to determine if he violated city charter rule will be held July 6.

If he is found guilty, the council will hold a second hearing to see if the charges rise to the level of Johnson giving up his mayoral seat.

The mayor's lawyer says the additional charges amount to a point of being ridiculous.

Not one of them make any sense, Daniels said.

Some of the charges are tied to Johnson use of social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to criticize city leaders.

Johnson says he was glad council members moved the hearing to give him and his lawyer more time to prepare against those additional charges.




A Windermere man accused of drugging and raping women will remain in jail after an Orange County judge denied him bond Thursday during his first court appearance.

Darryl Patterson, 49, arrested in connection to year-long rape case

Windermere Police investigating rape of several women

Patterson also facing warrant out of Hernando County on unrelated sex battery charge



Darryl Wayne Patterson, 49, is facing charges involving two victims  one in Orange County and one in Hernando County. In the Orange County case, Patterson faces six charges for three separate acts. He faces one count in Hernando County.



The investigation began in December 2014 when police said they first became aware of several potential sexual battery cases involving Patterson.

Police obtained photos, video cassettes and DVDs of women, some unconscious with little clothing on.

In April 2015, investigators recovered even more photos and recordings from Patterson's house.



"I remember the Windermere police came by with that  the pictures of two women and have I ever seen these women? No, I haven't seen these women," said Pat Slonecker, a neighbor.

Windermere Police made their investigation public in December 2015 by releasing photographs of several of the women with the hopes of identifying them and to make sure they weren't in danger.



"Just knowing Darryl, how gentle a soul he is  it just baffles me," Slonecker said.



Police identified most of the women in the photographs and the investigation is ongoing in those cases. The victim in the case for which Patterson was arrested on Wednesday said she had no idea she was assaulted or videotaped.

State Attorney Jeff Ashton said at a news conference Thursday that he hopes Patterson's arrest will lead to more victims coming forward.

"If you are a young woman who knows this particular individual and you experienced a loss of time when you were in his presence  you fell asleep, you woke up in an odd place and you felt like something had happened  you may be on these tapes," Ashton said. "So, please contact us. I want to assure you we can protect your identity."

Windermere Police said their investigation revealed another case that occurred in Brooksville. That case has been turned over to the Brooksviille Police Department.

A spokesperson with the Brooksville Police Department said a victim used to work with Patterson and met up with him one night in July 2012. They had dinner and drinks.

Brooksville Police said the victim was unaware that she was drugged and sexually abused and that it was recorded. She said she only found out about it after Windermere Police released snapshots of the videos.

"It's possible that this man has been doing this for a very long time because everyone was embarrassed. So come forward, talk to us and let us help you if we can, Ashton said.

Right now, an advocate at Victim Service Center of Central Florida says confidentiality is key when helping victims heal.

"Coming forward can be a difficult thing to do and we acknowledge that here at the Victim Service Center, sexual assault counselor Indhira Acosta said.

"We still do encourage victims to come forward because we are there to walk the victim through the process and ask the questions that can assist in putting them on a path towards healing, Acosta said.

Detectives said this is still an ongoing investigation and they are still working to identify some of the women from the photos. They said if you have any information on the case or could be a potential victim, call Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).
Florida is facing a setback in its fight against the Zika virus.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam says the state has received less than half of the special traps it ordered to help detect the virus in mosquitoes.

The State of Florida ordered more than 300 special mosquito traps, but only received about half

The special traps catch mosquitoes to help detect the Zika virus

So far, Florida has 162 Zika-related cases



State workers ordered more than 300 of the traps, but so far, they have only received about 120. The traps are being distributed in 56 of Floridas 67 counties. Most of the traps are being placed where a majority of the cases have been reported.

The battery operated traps are a little larger than an ice bucket and attract mosquitoes with a human scent.

Orange County Mosquito Control says it has about 18 traps. The manager says if need be, counties who dont have the special traps can use other types of traps to catch mosquitoes.

There are lots of different kinds of traps to try and find these mosquitoes, said Kelly Deutsch with Orange County Mosquito Control. These are for catching adult mosquitoes so we can go around and catch larva as well, so that is another surveillance tool so we dont have to rely on this particular kind of trap.

Once 50 mosquitoes are collected in the traps, Mosquito Control will send samples to a lab in Kissimmee where they will be tested for the Zika virus.

The mosquito-borne virus causes relatively mild symptoms, including fever, headache, red eyes, skin rash and joint pain. Symptoms usually begin two to seven days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. The Zika virus has been linked to fetal birth defects such as microcephaly, a condition in which a baby is born with a smaller-than-average head. The baby can also suffer brain development deficiencies and, in some cases, death.

As of June 1, Florida has 124 cases of people who caught the virus abroad. That number doesn't include the 38 pregnant women with Zika that state health officials are monitoring.



Commissioner Putnam says he is not concerned yet because the order for the special traps was placed months ago.

Florida is one of the states at the top of the recipients list.
A Lake Helen man has been arrested on vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter charges stemming from a high-speed crash in DeLand that killed a man just after Christmas.

Todd Hallam arrested in connection with fatal crash in December 2015

Hallam's car struck back of Chevy Impala, pushing it into path of GMC Denali

Driver of Impala was killed, 2 others injured

Witnesses pulled Hallam, passenger from burning Toyota



Todd William Hallam, 27 of Lake Helen was arrested Wednesday in connection with the Dec. 27, 2015 crash on Orange Camp Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Beltway.

According to DeLand Police investigators, just after midnight on that date, Hallam got behind the wheel of a 2008 Toyota Camry drunk after a night at Nice N Easy Oyster Bar in Orange City. His friend, Gary Henry, had been asked to leave earlier in the evening because he was underage, so he told investigators that he went to the Toyota to wait but fell asleep.

Later in the evening, Hallam climbed into the Toyota and "floored it," Henry told investigators. Fearing for his safety, Henry begged Hallam to stop and let him out of the car, a Volusia County charging affidavit said. Despite the pleas, Hallam continued driving at "an extremely high rate of speed," according to investigators.

Hallam's car slammed into the back of a white 2000 Chevrolet Impala waiting at a red light at the intersection of Orange Camp and Martin Luther King Jr. Beltway. The Impala was pushed into the intersection, where it struck a black 2015 GMC Denali driven by Gary Allen Corcoran. The Impala sustained such "massive" collision damage to the rear that the bumper was pushed into just behind the driver's seat, according to the charging affidavit.

The driver of the Impala, Owen Gray Jr., was pronounced dead at the scene by Volusia County Fire Rescue EVAC. Donneill Jerome Davis, his brother, was seriously injured.

A witness, Sean Iglesias, stopped and tried to help the occupants of the Toyota, but a fire broke out from the damaged hood area. Iglesias pulled Henry and Hallam out of the car, with help from another witness. At least three people who stopped to help in the aftermath of the crash reported smelling alcohol from the Toyota, the affidavit said.

Investigators determined that Hallam's Toyota was traveling at 76 mph at the time of impact. They said tests show Hallam's blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit.

Hallam's bond was set at $60,000.


LUBBOCK  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday released its Draft Triazine Ecological Risk Assessments. The assessment determined the herbicide atrazine poses ecological risk to plants and animals including amphibians, birds, reptiles and mammals, which according to the National Sorghum Producers departs from extensive scientific research proving the safety of atrazine.

National Sorghum Producers strongly disagrees with the methodology the EPA used to arrive at these results, said Past Chairman J.B. Stewart, a sorghum farmer from Keyes, Oklahoma. We feel the agency has abandoned a science-based approach even including studies in the review that the agency's own 2012 Scientific Advisory Panel said were flawed. The EPA has ignored years of analyses that show atrazine is safe. Its one of the most studied chemicals in the U.S. and has been a proven and dependable herbicide for more than 50 years.
The Hale County grand on May 26 at the conclusion of its May session returned 23 felony indictments against 16 individuals. The report was released this week by District Attorney Wally Hatchs office.

Following are the individuals indicted, charges, level of offense and bond as set by the presiding district judge:
An 18-year-old Plainview teenager, Andrew Allison, has been selected to travel to NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston this summer to participate in the High School Aerospace Scholars program.

Allison is the son of McNeil and Renee Allison of Plainview. He is homeschooled and will be a senior this fall.

Nominated for the program by his state legislator, Allison is one of more than 260 high school juniors from across Texas who will be a part of the High School Aerospace Scholars program.

Allison is a member of the National Honor Society and a cadet major in the Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary. He also is active in Hale County 4-H, participating in archery, music and shooting sports.

According to NASA, during the school year selected students completed a 16-week interactive, online curriculum including four distance-learning modules, each containing four web-based assignments. The onsite experience at NASA will include a tour of JSC facilities and briefings by NASA subject-matter experts, then students will apply what they learned working as a team to plan and design a mission to Mars.

Their experience in Houston will include a presentation of their proposal to attending parents, members of the Texas Legislature, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Rotary NASA and JSC senior management.

The State of Texas, in partnership with JSC and the Texas educational community, developed the High School Aerospace Scholars program in 1999 to encourage more students to pursue studies and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. More than 8,700 Texas students have participated in the program since its inception 17 years ago.
Johnie Loyd from Plainviews Salvation Army restocks the mobile canteen late Wednesday afternoon before leaving for Arlington. Thats the staging point for deployment to the Houston area where Loyd will be operating the mobile feeding unit to assist those affected by flooding in Southeast Texas. Earlier this year, Loyd was deployed for six weeks during a similar relief mission. While Plainviews canteen is on assignment along the Texas Gulf Coast, Lubbocks Salvation Army unit will respond in this area if needed with its two mobile canteens.
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The intense manhunt for a gunman accused of shooting two Fremont police officers came to a violent and fiery end early Thursday, when officers launched tear gas into a home the suspect was holed up in, which then erupted into flames.

When firefighters squelched the large blaze at the home on Roberts Avenue, police found the suspect, 44-year-old Santa Clara resident Gerald Villabrille Jr., dead inside a closet. The alleged gunman, who had an active bench warrant at the time of his death, is well known to law enforcement in the South Bay and has been in and out of jail for the past two decades, following violent run-ins with police.

He was given a number of opportunities to come out during that negotiation, but he refused to do so, Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police spokeswoman, said shortly after the suspect was confirmed dead at the scene.

Authorities on Thursday defended using tear gas that possibly destroyed the home and may have killed the suspect.

In a situation like this, police surround the building, try to call out to the suspect and establish contact or communication, said Alameda County sheriffs Sgt. Ray Kelly. If that fails, they do things like shoot tear gas or flash grenades, use technology like cameras or robots to see inside. The last thing is to storm the house or building. Thats the last resort against an armed suspect.

Police later lifted a shelter-in-place order sent out around the Fremont neighborhood as residents collected themselves after a nerve-racking night when officers from two dozen agencies assisted going door-to-door in the hunt for the gunman.

Officers in hospital

The wounded officers remained at Regional Medical Center in San Jose where one was in critical condition. The other officer was stable, Fremont Police Chief Richard Lucero said during a Thursday afternoon news conference. Authorities did not release the names of the injured officers.

The Alameda County coroner was working to determine whether Villabrille died as a result of the fire or from wounds he may have received in the gunfight with police.

We do have reason to believe he was injured, Bosques said. We dont know whether he was already deceased prior to the fire.

The chaotic scene unfolded shortly after 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, when a patrol officer stopped a white 2016 GMC pickup truck with no front license plate and three people inside in a shopping center parking lot near Fremont and Washington boulevards.

The driver of the pickup backed into the patrol vehicle, pulled a gun and opened fire, hitting the officer once during an exchange of gunfire, said Bosques. The truck was believed to have been stolen from a car rental company in the San Jose area.

Next thing you know, cops are everywhere  Newark police, Fremont police, Hayward police, said Jesse Schaa, 49, who owns a lawn mower shop in the area and heard at least three shots fired in the parking lot confrontation.

Police said they later took into custody a man and a woman, who were in the pickup truck with Villabrille at the time of the first shooting. They were not immediately identified, and it was not clear what charges they may face.

Flees on foot

Villabrille fled on foot as responding officers chased him through a shopping center and onto city streets, and then into a home on Roberts Avenue. Thats where the suspect exchanged gunfire with police, wounding a Fremont detective, a 10-year veteran of the force.

Back at the scene of the attacks, police quickly set up a perimeter as tactical teams began going door-to-door scouring the neighborhood, while alerting residents by phone to stay put in their homes.

Schaa said he and his family were locked down overnight in his business, which is three doors away from the house that burned. He said that at one point, a police tactical team set up in his backyard.

Residents within a mile radius received what Bosques called a Code Red phone message urging them to remain indoors and call 911 to report any suspicious activity.

Authorities learned Villabrille had shot through the back-door lock of the home where the second officer was shot, and he was hiding inside. Around 11:15 p.m., police fired tear gas into the home in an attempt to flush him out.

Possibly suicidal

But rather than evacuate, Villabrille  sounding despondent and possibly suicidal  called 911, saying he had a hostage, Lucero said. But police determined he was lying and around 2 a.m. after further negotiation, during which Villabrille fired a shot in the home, tactical teams fired more gas into the residence.

We believe the gas ignited a fire, which firefighters made numerous attempts to extinguish, Lucero said.

Police move in

But under the threat of the armed-and-dangerous suspect, firefighters battled the blaze, which whipped up into a fully involved inferno, from engines parked on the street. By 7:30 a.m., they appeared to get the upper hand on the flames, and police moved in.

Officers found Villabrille dead in a closet along with the gun believed to have been used in the attacks. A small dog belonging to the family renting the home perished in the fire, Lucero said. That couple were not in the residence when the suspect forced his way in.

Wednesdays episode was not Villabrilles first encounter with law enforcement. His rap sheet of more than a dozen cases in Santa Clara County includes charges as recent as 2013 of being under the influence of drugs, narcotics possession, weapons violations and providing false information to police.

Sent back to jail

Hes been paroled and returned to jail scores of times dating to the mid-1990s for crimes such as assault with a deadly weapon, and being a felon in possession of ammunition and carrying a loaded firearm.

On at least two other occasions, Villabrille was charged in connection with evading San Jose police. In July 2010, officers used a stun gun while arresting him when he tossed an icepick and hypodermic needles out his car window while fleeing police, Santa Clara County Superior Court records show.

Then in April 2011, while on parole for a weapons violation, he ditched his drugs and ran on foot when he was stopped by officers. When the police caught him, he told them he had smoked PCP and methamphetamine before their encounter, according to court records.

Villabrille had an active bench warrant, issued two weeks ago, for his arrest at the time of Wednesdays shooting.

His family in San Jose, who had been estranged from him, were left stunned by the deadly turn of events.

Out of the blue

I honestly dont know what to feel, Villabrilles half-brother, Joseph Villabrille, 29, told The Chronicle Thursday. Its been years since Ive seen him.

He said hed seen his brother only a handful of times when he would show up out of the blue.

Gerald Villabrille recently lived at a home on the 2400 block of Karen Drive in Santa Clara. His next-door neighbor, 59-year-old Joe Viorato, described the man on Thursday afternoon as very nice and friendly with everybody.

Viorato, who recently underwent a liver transplant, moved into the neighborhood five months ago and said Villabrille helped him carry boxes into his home. Learning his neighbor was the suspect in Wednesdays violent episode was shocking, Viorato said outside his home.

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Michael Cabanatuan contributed to this report

Kevin Schultz, Kimberly Veklerov, Hamed Aleaziz and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kschultz@sfchronicle.com, kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, haleaziz@sfchronicle.com and esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: KevinEdSchultz @KVeklerov @Haleaziz @EvanSernoffsky
New legislation that would expose short-term rental companies like Airbnb to big fines and misdemeanor charges when hosts fail to follow the citys registration requirements moved one step closer to becoming law on Thursday.

The Board of Supervisors Government Audit and Oversight Committee unanimously supported the proposal by two of its members. They described the ordinance, by Supervisors David Campos and Aaron Peskin, as a commonsense proposal that ensures existing short-term rental laws are enforced and dismissed concerns that it goes against federal law.

This is not about changing existing law, Campos said at the hearing. It is ultimately about corporate responsibility. About an industry that has made and continues to make tens of millions of dollars in this line of work taking responsibility for the negative impact that they are having on the housing stock.

The committee  composed of Supervisors Campos, Peskin and Norman Yee  forwarded the ordinance to the full board to consider on Tuesday, where its expected to pass. Board president London Breed, who normally sits on the committee but ceded her seat to Campos for this meeting because she had to leave early, also said she supports the legislation.

If the legislation is enacted, San Francisco would have among the most stringent regulations and oversight of short-term rentals in the country. Los Angeles and other cities are considering similar legislation that would require short-term rental companies to police their sites to ensure their hosts are complying with local regulations.

As has become the norm at Board of Supervisors hearings involving legislation that would impact Airbnb, dozens of hosts showed up to testify about how it has helped them stay in the city.

Airbnb hosts speak out

Wearing stickers that said focus on solutions, many made one point: that the city makes it overly cumbersome to register as hosts. Once hosts register, they must submit an itemized list of all the furniture, appliances, supplies, equipment and fixtures in their rentals, as well as their cost and acquisition date. The city identifies those as business personal property subject to a tax of slightly over 1 percent of the value.

The process just needs to be streamlined better so that it will allow people to register, not be intimidated by the registration process, testified Alice Chiu, an interior designer who has used the money she makes from renting out a spare room to start her own business. She said registering took her an entire day, and included a trip to the city treasurers office and the Planning Department.

Under a law that took effect in February 2015, all short-term rental hosts must register with the city. But only roughly 1,400 of the estimated 7,000 or more residents who rent their homes and rooms to travelers have done so, according to city estimates.

Under Campos and Peskins bill, short-term rental companies  others include VRBO and HomeAway  would have to verify that all listings have a valid San Francisco registration number before posting them online. When the city flags rentals that appear not to be registered, the listing services would be required to respond with details about those properties within one business day or face fines. Funds generated from the new plan would go to an affordable housing fund.

Companies that disregard the law would face fines of up to $1,000 a day per listing and misdemeanor charges.

David Owen, a spokesman for Airbnb, said the city should clean up its own registration process before making companies monitor their hosts.

We are disappointed that the board is jamming this through at record speed while not addressing some of the biggest problems with the current registration process, he said. Airbnb is committed to helping the city solve the big issues and we recognize the importance of online platforms being part of the solution, but this proposal will just cause more confusion and less enforcement against the truly bad apples.

Owen declined to say whether the company would sue the city if the bill becomes law. Technology law groups have warned that the legislation appears to conflict with federal law that shields online platforms from liability for content generated by their users.

Anytime someone proposes to place liability on the platform because the platform users are doing something wrong, that raises concerns, said David Greene, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Voters rejected this

Peskin called that issue a red herring and said the city attorney has advised the supervisors the legislation doesnt violate existing law.

This is an evolving area of law. No one has really been down this path before, Peskin said. We are making the tweaks (to the law) that I think are necessary to make and we will continue to do so as we learn more about how this phenomenon actually works.

Mayor Ed Lee has generally sided with short-term rental companies in the past. His spokeswoman, Christine Falvey, said Lee will consider the legislation when it reaches his desk. But she suggested a veto is not out of the question.

Its important to remember that voters rejected this and other short-term rental restrictions just last year, which the mayor must also consider when weighing this legislation from supervisors, she said.

Emily Green is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: egreen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: emilytgreen
A jury recommended the death penalty Thursday for a man found guilty of the 2013 murders of an 8-year-old-girl attending an Oakland sleepover and a 22-year-old man during a robbery in Berkeley.

The Alameda County jurys ruling on Darnell Williams, 25, of Oakland, comes nearly a month after his conviction. He will be sentenced in September by a judge, who can sustain or set aside the death penalty recommendation.

Williams was found guilty of three special circumstances that made him eligible for the death penalty: lying in wait, committing multiple murders and committing a murder in the course of a robbery. He was also convicted of attempted murder and personal use of a gun, among other charges.

The killing of the 8-year-old girl, Alaysha Carradine, shocked Oakland, even as the city had been struggling to bring down its violent crime rate.

Prosecutors said that on July 17, 2013, Williams went to an apartment on Wilson Avenue in the Dimond neighborhood looking for a man whom he believed was responsible for killing his friend. He rang the doorbell and began shooting as the door opened, fatally striking Alaysha while wounding three others in the apartment, including two more children.

Alaysha was sleeping over at the apartment, which belonged to the ex-girlfriend and mother of the man Williams believed had killed his friend.

Two months later, Williams allegedly shot and killed 22-year-old Anthony Medearis in Berkeley in an alleged robbery attempt during a dice game.

This defendant committed the most heinous of crimes, said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy OMalley. The children who survived the injuries inflicted by Williams will always live with the memories of the horror he inflicted.

Deborah Levy, one of Williams attorneys, said after the death penalty recommendation, I think a horrible tragedy became more tragic. The death penalty is a barbaric vestige of the ancient past. In our far more enlightened age, it should be abolished.

California last executed someone in 2006. That year, a federal judge ruled that flaws in the lethal-injection procedures had created an undue risk of a botched and agonizing execution. State prison officials have drafted several proposed changes in procedures, but they have been tied up in state and federal courts.

Death penalty supporters and opponents have submitted signatures for competing ballot measures designed to speed up or end executions in California, setting the stage for voters to decide the issue in November.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: haleaziz
Hes handsome and rich and newly quadriplegic. Shes cute and spunky and totally broke, and she takes a job as his companion - not as his nurse, but as someone for him to talk to. Predictably, its rough going at the start, but then things get better, and, over the course of a few months, they develop a bond, etc.

You know this story. You know the emotions to expect, and probably in the order in which theyre presented, and yet even so, Me Before You is just a little better than it had to be.

Its not so much better that it escapes being what it is, a sort-of romance, liberally sprinkled with moments of corniness and emotionally dishonesty. But ultimately, when it matters, its truthful  about the people depicted, and who they are, and what they face.

Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) is Lou, a working-class girl in small-town England, and the movie makes no bones about the fact that, were young Will (Sam Claflin) not the victim of a terrible accident, he would never have given Lou a second glance. Its actually rather interesting just how uninteresting Lou is. She is genuinely simple and not too bright, with no ambition or passion, but she has qualities of character  not remarkable qualities, but solid, decent qualities, that engage our attention.

Clarke is entirely charming and winning in the role, except for one small but nagging thing. She has too much facial tension as she speaks, and it produces a commensurate tension in the audience. This is nothing you might particularly notice on a small screen, but its something you cant miss when a face is blown up to twenty or thirty feet.

George Clooney had a similar problem when he first started making movies. Hed wag his head, as hed done for years on TV, but suddenly entire audiences were getting motion sickness. He made the adjustment and went on to glory. If Clarke can just stop scrunching up her face, she can do the same.

More Information Me Before You ** Quick take: There's truth amid the cringe moments See More Collapse

The class aspect is a present in Me Before You, but not in the heavyhanded (and ultimately sentimental) way that was present in the French film, Intouchables, which had a similar story. In this film, Lou just hasnt done anything. Shes never been anywhere. She has never even seen a movie with subtitles. And so, introducing her to new things  not for the sake of educating her, but simply to show her new pleasures - becomes a source of mild enjoyment for young Will.

Within what seems to be (and mostly is) a sappy, romantic frame, Claflin is able to do some nice things with Will, and the movie ultimately doesnt let him down. He remains, from beginning to end, an intelligent person, utterly realistic about his situation, and we always feel that he is thinking - that even when he is almost amused and almost happy, he maintains a certain British refusal to be anything other than realistic.

Chaflins rigor and Clarkes charm are counterbalanced by cringe moments, as when, after years of unemployment, Lous father (Brendan Coyle), gets a job as a maintenance man, and the family goes into a paroxysms of joy. In such moments, one gets the sense of the working class as imagined by the upper class, the idea that poor people arent just willing and resigned to working hard, but theyre absolutely ecstatic about it.

Still, unlike at least 90 percent of movies, Me Before You gets better as it goes along, and thats something.

Running time: 110 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13 (suggestive material)
ATLANTA  Buster Posey bid a happy farewell to the ballpark he visited as a child and mastered as a big-leaguer.

In 21 games at Turner Field, Posey hit three home runs and batted .342, the third homer coming in the fifth inning Thursday. He might have played more games than he attended. His hometown of Leesburg, Ga., is three hours away and he had a lot of ball to play. But he said he watched hundreds of Braves games on TV.

His final game would have been Wednesday had Madison Bumgarner not started Thursday. Posey had to make a quick turnaround after catching 11 innings. He had caught Bumgarner 44 consecutive times, the longest current streak for a big-league battery. Those two were not about to break it.

That was a tough one for me, Posey said. This morning, after three or four innings, my legs finally got loose. I think he motivates me with how hard he works, his preparation between starts. If he feels that adamant about me catching him, I feel I owe him that.

Personally, I feel hed be fine regardless.

Bumgarner also watched the Braves growing up in North Carolina and made a few trips to Turner Field. Asked how long a drive it was, he smiled and said, Four hours, but you can make it in three.

Suarez again? Manager Bruce Bochy and his staff are mulling a tough decision: Let Albert Suarez make another spot start for Matt Cain against the Red Sox on Tuesday or use off days to skip the fifth spot.

That would allow Bumgarner to face both the Red Sox and Dodgers at home next week, but violate Bochys long-held practice of using off days to give his starters more rest. Johnny Cueto, Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija rank second, fourth and sixth, respectively, in the National League in innings pitched.

Suarez helped his cause in Wednesday nights 5-4 loss. He took a one-hitter into the sixth inning, when he allowed two runs.

Briefly: Thursday marked the fourth time in San Francisco history the Giants hit three multirun homers in an inning, the first since May 2007, when Bengie Molina hit two in an inning and Rich Aurilia added a third. ... The Giants promoted outfielder Austin Slater to Triple-A Sacramento to replace Mac Williamson. The Stanford alum was leading the Eastern League with a .317 average.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

On deck

Friday

at Cardinals

5:15 p.m. CSNBA

Cueto (8-1) vs. Wainwright (5-3)

Saturday

at Cardinals

4:15 p.m. Channel: 2 Channel: 40

Samardzija (7-3) vs. Wacha (2-6)

Sunday

at Cardinals

5:05 p.m. ESPN

Peavy (2-5) vs. Martinez (5-5)

Leading off

Bumgarners feat: With his 28th double-digit strikeout game, Madison Bumgarner moved into a tie with Christy Mathewson for second most in franchise history. Tim Lincecum had 36.

 Henry Schulman
Before you pore over our choices of iconic Texas bars, you should know that the criteria didn't involve places with media buzz or expertly mixed cocktails.

On the other hand, we sought out just the opposite: under-the-radar joints with cold beer, live music and oftentimes a spacious dance floor. While grand bars abound in Texas, the state really prides itself on grungy saloons and loud dance halls, the "old as dirt" establishments that have stood the test of time.
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An elderly South Texas man has lived a life full of accomplishments: an all-star track record, historical infantry career in World War II and a 70-year marriage, but one thing was missing  his high school diploma.

The year was 1942 when John Valls, now 91, was drafted during his junior year at Martin High School in Laredo, his "proud daughter" Maureen Valls told mySA.com Thursday. He served as an Army infantryman in the war and was one of the first soldiers to liberate Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, his daughter said.

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After being discharged in 1946, John Valls was able to earn his degree and attend Baylor University on track scholarships, where he continued his love for running.

"He was the best in the whole Southwest Conference," Maureen Valls.

John Valls was recognized by the U.S. President and received medals, but never his diploma until Thursday.

The Valls were reflecting on their patriarch's on storied life when he told them graduating high school was on his bucket list. With the eager help of Martin High School Principal, John Valls became an honorary member of the 2016 class.

RELATED: With the power of social media, San Antonio man was able to reunite antique photos with owner

Maureen Valls said her father was welcomed with open arms by the teen graduates.

"To say they were receptive is to say the least," she added. "They gave him a standing ovation."

The day was "very emotional" for the entire family, but especially for her father, who she said teared up during the ceremony.

After graduating, John Valls returned to the side of his wife, Gladys. Maureen Valls said her mother suffers from dementia and is bedridden, but always in the company of her doting husband.

RELATED: The Internet loves this heartwarming birthday surprise Texas teens threw for their teacher

"He sits with her all day and asks her to marry him, it's like the real-life 'Notebook,'" Maureen Valls said, comparing her parents' love story to the hit film based off the Nicholas Sparks book.

She also said after John Valls crossed the stage, he asked if the high school would allow him to attend prom in the future  surely Gladys was the date on his mind.

But for now, John Valls is sharing a pearl of wisdom to his fellow 2016 grads.

"First of all, you need to go to college," he said. "Secondly, it took me 72 years to get this diploma, so never give up."

mmendoza@mysa.com

Twitter: @MaddySkye
SAN ANTONIO  The Natural Bridge Caverns are currently hosting a special tour of the caves filled with water due to the heavy rains and raised water levels, allowing visitors a peek at the aquifer that may be gone after two weeks.

The Glen Rose Aquifer is the areas underground water reservoir that lies beneath the caverns. Normally, the water table is not high enough to be seen by visitors, but thats not the case right now. Heavy rains have sent large amounts of groundwater seeping into the aquifer, causing the water to rise slowly into the caverns lower chambers, said caverns vice president Travis Wuest.
SMYRNA, Tenn.  Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter jet pilot did not eject and was killed when the aircraft crashed Thursday, a state offfcial said.

Harry Gill, the town manager in Smyrna just outside Nashville, said Thursday that the pilot was the only casualty. Some power failures were caused by the crash, but no civilians were hurt on the ground.

A U.S. official said the pilot was identified as Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Navy said the pilot was beginning to take off during an afternoon practice session when the crash happened.

Five other F/A-18 jets landed safely moments later.

The elite acrobatics team was scheduled to perform at an air show this weekend.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the Blue Angels after this tragic loss. I know that the Navy and Marine Corps Team is with me. We will investigate this accident fully and do all we can to prevent similar incidents in the future, Adm. John Richardson, the Navys top officer, said in a Facebook post.

This is the second fighter jet crash of the day for the militarys elite fighter jet performance teams. A member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds crashed in Colorado following a flyover for the Air Force Academy graduation where President Obama spoke. That pilot ejected safely into a field.

In Smyrna, retired teacher Brenda Lewis and her 21-year-old grandson had spent much of the day in her back yard near the airport watching the Blue Angels fly overhead.

Shes seen them many times before.

Im always so fascinated by them, the anticipation of it all, she said of their airshow. Then something tragic like this happens. My heart is just broken.
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The family of an Oakland muralist who was shot and killed last year by an assailant armed with a gun stolen from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents car in San Francisco filed a legal claim Thursday, alleging the agency is partly responsible for the death because the agent didnt properly secure the weapon.

Despite ICEs knowledge and awareness of the problem and despite recommendations by other government agencies for corrective action, ICE agents continue to have their unsecured firearms stolen at alarming rates, Frank Pitre, the attorney for the family of Antonio Ramos, said Thursday after announcing the federal claim  the first step in filing a lawsuit against a government agency.

Ramos, 27, was gunned down on Sept. 29 as he worked on a community antiviolence mural project in West Oakland. Marquis Halloway, 20, a suspected serial robber, was subsequently arrested and charged in the slaying.

The killing came as the number of car break-ins skyrocketed in San Francisco and amid several high-profile and controversial cases in which federal agents and police officers had weapons stolen out of their cars.

It was later revealed that the weapon with which Ramos was killed, a 9mm Glock 26 pistol, was stolen from an ICE agents car in San Francisco on Sept. 13.

Pitre said the gun was left unattended in a bag without any locking devices and the agency had failed to train their employees and had failed to follow mandatory regulations, policies and procedures of securing and storing a firearm.

ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment.

That break-in came just months after the high-profile killing of 32-year-old Kathryn Steinle on Pier 14 in San Francisco, allegedly by an immigrant in the country illegally who used a gun stolen from the car of a federal Bureau of Land Management ranger in San Francisco.

Steinles family, also represented by Pitre, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last month seeking damages from federal officials, the city of San Francisco and former Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.

In Thursdays claim, Pitre said immigration officials were heavily involved in the Steinle case and it was inconceivable that ICE was not aware of the foreseeable consequences of leaving unsecured firearms in unattended cars in downtown San Francisco.

Several other law enforcement officers, including UC Berkeley Police Chief Margo Bennett, have come under scrutiny for losing guns when their cars were broken into. And on Sunday, an FBI agents .40-caliber gun was stolen from his car near Alamo Square in San Francisco. That gun was recovered, and a suspect was taken into custody in the case.

Evan Sernoffsky is a

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: EvanSernoffsky
Alexandria Vera, the Aldine school district middle school teacher accused of having a long-term sexual relationship with an underage student, has turned herself into law enforcement, according to officials.

Vera, 24, had been wanted by officials since May 27 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
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Representatives from Schlitterbahn and The City of Corpus Christi met with a handful of frustrated residents Wednesday morning in an effort for the parties to "coexist" after months of disputes over delays, noise and construction debris at the resort, the city's mayor said in an interview with mySA.com.

Corpus Christi Mayor Nelda Martinez said there is a new "open line of communication" between residents in a nearby neighborhood and Schlitterbahn officials moving forward after two years of delays and massive construction debris left visibly on site at the water park.

Martinez on Wednesday morning visited the water park  which partially opened to the public April 30, more than three years after officials broke ground  and she said concerns about debris on the property are "valid."

"I think Schlitterbahn has a great future in Corpus Christi, but their success is going to be dependent on how well they coexist with the residents," Martinez said. "This is about accountability on all sides."

RELATED: Schlitterbahn in Corpus Christi opens part of new 2-mile wave river in ongoing 'rolling opening'

Over the past year, Corpus Christi Code Enforcement has received more than a dozen complaints from residents citing issues with litter and bulk materials stacked on Schlitterbahn's property, said CCPD Commander David Blackmon.

"It's the property residents around Schlitterbahn that are complaining and rightfully so," he said. "They have to look at (Schlitterbahn) when they're coming and going."

On Tuesday, Winter Prosapio, Schlitterbahn's corporate director of communications, said the "construction clean up effort" began "weeks ago."

The effort included "knocking down poorly maintained buildings that had been on the property prior to our project start, and removal of construction materials," she said in a statement to mySA.com on Tuesday.

"Because we use recycled/reclaimed materials for building, we often have more materials on hand than we end up using. The process will take sometime. Clean up has been, and will continue to be, ongoing," she said.

MORE: MLB icon Jeff Kent lists Austin mansion with Schlitterbahn-designed pools for $3.1 million

Schlitterbahn provided some specifics in a letter to Corpus Christi Code Enforcement dated May 16. The letter was in response to concerns from residents and Code Enforcement brought to the water park, Blackmon said.

The 476-acre water park currently has 68 acres under active construction with plans to be complete by Sept. 15, 2016, according to the letter. Schlitterbahn officials also detailed an action plan addressing mowing, trailers, construction staging yards, fencing and landscaping.

The water park has two months to clean up debris and faces a $500 fine if it fails to comply with city regulations, Blackmon said, adding that most of the materials are being brought back to the New Braunfels location.

Schlitterbahn operates five parks in the U.S. including four in Texas: New Braunfels, Galveston Island, South Padre Island and Corpus Christi. The fifth location is in Kansas City, Kansas.

RELATED: Schlitterbahn to open Corpus Christi park

Heather Cooley, 41, lives in the neighborhood across from the park and said there is an "ugly side" seen only by nearby residents and homeowners.

Cooley, who moved to Texas from Tennessee in January, said the construction "mess" has been there long before she arrived.

"It's not the glossy photos that the (Schlitterbahn) marketing department does up," said Cooley, who works in the banking industry.

Cooley said the water park has also created issues for her neighborhood with excessive noise from concerts hosted at the resort.

"(It's Tuesday at 11 p.m. and) the dishes in your house are rattling because the Ying Yang Twins still have their concert going on," she said.

After the park's grand opening April 30, three residents went to a Padre Isles Property Owners Association Board of Directors meeting with concerns that Schlitterbahn "still looked awful," said Maybeth Christensen, executive coordinator at POA, which oversees about 5,200 homes.

"Most of us had given (Schlitterbahn) a pass because they were working on it and construction causes debris, but when you're done with the construction, it should be cleaned up," Christensen said.

In May 2012 the Corpus Christi City Council approved a $117 million incentive agreement for the water park, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reported. The water park was required to complete the first phase by the following February under the terms.

Officials broke ground on the Corpus Christi location Feb. 15, 2013, with plans to open July 15, 2014, according to media reports.

The park will be considered partially open until all construction is complete on the property, which is slated for this September. Members of the public were able to start visiting the park April 30.

Schlitterbahn officials and residents will continue to meet to discuss the status of the debris clean up and any other issues that may arise, Martinez said.

"And it's not just going to be one meeting," she said.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
At the San Antonio Water Systems Dos Rios sewage plant, the air is full of quick-darting birds with rich, kingly purple plumage.

The birds are purple martins, the largest of North American swallows. Dozens of them soared above 25 acres of concrete-lined rectangles filled with sewage sludge, occasionally diving closer to the black gunk below as it dried in the sun.

Tad Eaton calls the martins jewels of the sky. Eaton, a SAWS manager, has spent about 20 years perfecting the natural pest-control methods SAWS uses at its largest wastewater treatment plant, where it handles up to 400 tons per day of sludge leftover from the treatment process.

SAWS won awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2004 and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2011 for its work at Dos Rios, where the utility recycles water for irrigation and harvests natural gas from its sludge. It has also stopped using harsh chemicals to control pests.

Dealing with sludge is a major part of sewage treatment. For SAWS, the objective is to remove as much water as possible. The mixture starts out at about 97 percent water and 3 percent solids, Eaton said.

Many utilities mechanically press the water from their sludge and send it to landfills, composting facilities or farms to be used as fertilizer. SAWS uses about a 50-50 split of landfill and compost.

About 20 years ago, the utility started spreading the sludge in beds on its treatment-plant sites to let the sun evaporate it. A belt press that squeezes water is also available for backup. After sun-drying, the sludge is roughly 65 percent to 85 percent solid, depending on weather conditions, Eaton said.

The only problem is the insects. Houseflies and fungus gnats are drawn to the waste. Like all wastewater plants, Dos Rios must meet certain regulatory standards of pest control to minimize disease and nuisance to neighbors.

In the late 1990s, when the plant was run by the city of San Antonios environmental services, plant workers would have to go inside to avoid exposure to pesticides during fumigation.

Eaton was the first at SAWS to realize there was a better way.

Were here to protect the water, and spraying a bunch of chemicals doesnt protect water, he said.

Instead of fumigating the site with pesticides to kill the millions of insects drawn to the sludge, SAWS uses purple martins, tiny parasitic wasps and a naturally occurring soil bacteria to kill insects at a lower cost with less harm to the environment. These techniques fall under an umbrella that experts call integrated pest management.

Its to use all available control tactics to screen your pests to a level that you can tolerate, said Molly Keck, an entomologist with the Bexar County branch of Texas A&M Extension. Thats the key because everyones tolerance is a lot different.

The utility is not the only San Antonio institution using these techniques, she said. In 1991, the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring all public schools to use integrated pest management. Grocery store chain H-E-B and insurance giant USAA also use these techniques, Keck said.

Eaton likes birds and he knew that purple martins like to devour flying insects. In 1996, SAWS first tried installing 10 purple martin houses at its Leon Creek plant, then added more at Dos Rios. Today, it has 50 purple martin houses on poles around the Dos Rios sludge bed.

Each purple martin box looks like a miniature condo with 12 rooms, each with a nest built by a purple male and his brown-colored mate. The migratory birds arrive from mid-February to March, returning to the same place every year. They fly south again in July and August.

In this part of the country, purple martins need human-made houses to thrive. East of the Rocky Mountains, the species relies almost exclusively on nesting sites created by man. The martins prefer wide-open spaces to avoid predators, such as hawks that might perch in a nearby tree or building.

Attracting purple martins for pest control dates back to Native American communities, which carved holes into hollowed-out gourds and hung them near their villages.

Europeans later stole the idea. In 1831, famed ornithologist John James Audubon wrote during his travels across the U.S. that every country tavern he encountered had a purple martin box over its signpost.

While the martins go after adult flies, Eaton found he could use other techniques to kill their larvae.

Last week, he pointed out a small PVC pipe with a white cap in the ground next to a sludge bed. He popped off the cap and pulled out a handful of wood shavings sprinkled with small, brown pellets: housefly pupae.

Around the 123 sludge beds at Dos Rios, Eaton has installed 500 wasp houses of his own design, capped to keep birds and ants away. Every week, SAWS orders between 4.8 million and 6 million parasitic wasps of three species.

Theres a bunch of different companies that breed these things, Eaton said.

Eaton pulled out a plastic bag with some adult specimens. They were smaller than gnats, each about the size of a pinhead. These tiny wasps spell death for a fly larvae. Females use their sharp egg tubes to pierce the skin of the fly pupae and lay eggs inside.

Before the pupae can turn into an adult fly, a wasp bursts out, killing the fly and repeating the cycle over again.

Their sole purpose in life is to find these pupae and go breed, Eaton said.

Eaton has a few more tricks up his sleeve, too. To combat fungus gnats drawn to the decaying sludge, he injects a common soil bacteria into the drying beds. The bacteria kills gnat larvae by releasing toxic chemicals in their gut. The bacteria is less harmful to other species than pesticides used to kill adult insects.

He also built several fly traps out of wood and chicken wire. He got the design from Pinterest.

Eaton does have to resort to chemical warfare, though the ones he uses have much lower toxicity to humans and the environment that most pesticides. A chemical called S - Methoprene keeps larvae from developing into adults. He also sprays a mix of rosemary and tea tree oil around the barriers of each bed to deter the insects from flying up and out.

Using all these techniques, Eaton can effectively fight nature with nature.

This is green, its friendly, its all natural, Eaton said. Its taking Gods little creatures and working together in harmony.

bgibbons@express-news.net

Twitter: @bgibbs
Two Seguin men were arrested last week for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor after drugging her and forcing her to stay in a tent behind an abandoned house.

Javier Garcia was booked into Guadalupe County Jail May 23 and Josh Ray Solis was taken in on May 25. Both were charged with sexual assault of a child and have their bonds set at $200,000 each, according to county jail records.
Montgomery County Constable, Precinct 3

A Texas man is accused of driving while intoxicated while his son fell out of a vehicle, Montgomery County officials said.

On Tuesday, Montgomery County Precinct 3 deputy constables were sent to the 29900 block of Aldine Westfield after a bystander saw a small child fall from the front passenger seat of a moving car.
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San Marcos, once a hidden gem in the Hill Country, was once merely a stop along the way to Austin or San Antonio. But now, with the help of Texas State University, the city has become a destination and one of the fastest-growing in the nation.

RELATED: Swimming with an education, San Marcos through the years

Since 1899, the university has grown from Southwest Texas Normal School to the fourth largest university in Texas. With a rapidly expanding campus community, Texas State has contributed to the San Marcos' title as fastest growing city in the nation for three years in row.

In the gallery above, photographs from the Texas State Archives show San Marcos and the university through the years.

The name of the university has changed seven times since 1899.

Dr. S.M. "Froggy" Sewell was swimming in the San Marcos River near campus in 1916 when he decided the university needed it's own park. In 1917, Sewell Park was created.

RELATED: San Marcos, other Texas cities along I-35 among fastest-growing city in the U.S.

In 1984, the park received a $1 million renovation complete with stairs into the river and six acres of grass.

To this day, students lay out on unofficially named "Bikini Hill" at the park and go swimming in the San Marcos River. Sometimes, they head to the river instead of class. Allegedly.

And in 2008, President Barack Obama made a campaign stop at the park.

RELATED: Texas State '80s photos show big hair prevailed with Bobcat pride

Old Main, a castle-like building, was the first and only structure on campus until 1908.

The building now houses the College of Fine Arts and Communication and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

President Lyndon Baines Johnson graduated from the university in August 1930. Texas State is the only university in the state to have graduated a U.S. President.

In 1927 and 1928, Johnson served as editor of the College Star newspaper, now called the University Star. His desk sits in the LBJ Student Center in the Student Government office. A statue of the 36th President of the United States stands in the center of the Quad.

Johnson remained an active alumni, visiting the campus to sign the the Higher Education Act of 1965. And legend has it, that while in office, Johnson had Manske Rolls, a popular dessert from Gil's Broiler in San Marcos, shipped to the White House.

Despite the ever-changing campus landscape, one constant remains the hills. And the stairs.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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The man who killed a UCLA professor before turning the gun on himself Wednesday had a brief stint at the University of Texas at Arlington as a research assistant, according to media reports.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, was enrolled at UTA as a graduate aerospace engineering student from fall 2001 through spring 2003, said Kristin Sullivan, associate vice president of communications at the University of Texas at Arlington, in an email Thursday. Sarkar did not complete a degree or certificate during his time at the university, she said.

Mainak Sarkar, 38, received a degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 2000 before coming to Texas. Sarkar left Texas in 2003 and went to Stanford to get his masters in aeronautics. Two years later, Sarka came back to Texas to work as a a software developer, the Huffington Post reported.

RELATED: Police: UCLA shooter intended to kill second professor

Los Angeles police said Thursday morning they suspect Sarkar killed a woman in Minnesota before then driving to Los Angeles to confront a professor he believed had stolen his work.

Detectives also believe that Sarkar, a former engineering graduate student, intended to kill a second professor Wednesday morning, but could not find him on campus, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said.

In a search of Sarkar's home in St. Paul, Minnesota, authorities found a "kill list" with at least three names that included professor Bill Klug, the woman found dead in a Minneapolis suburb and a second UCLA professor who was not harmed, Beck said.

RELATED: Officers swarm UCLA in massive response to murder-suicide

Sarkar shot and killed Klug in a UCLA engineering building, leading to a lockdown on the campus with 60,000 or more students and staff members. He then fatally shot himself.

Sarkar drove to Los Angeles from Minnesota with two guns and ammunition before he killed Klug.

He left a note at the scene of the killing that asked anyone who found it to check on a cat at his home in Minnesota, Beck told reporters. It was there that authorities found the "kill list," which led them to a home in a nearby town, where they found the woman shot dead.

She was not identified and authorities didn't release how Sarkar knew her.

RELATED: The Latest: Official IDs UCLA shooting victim as professor

Beck said it appeared mental issues were involved and that Sarkar's dispute with Klug was tied to Sarkar thinking the professor released intellectual property that harmed Sarkar.

A blog post written in March by someone identifying himself as Sarkar said he had personal differences with Klug.

"He cleverly stole all my code and gave it (to) another student," the post says. "He made me really sick."

The blog continues: "Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust. Stay away from this sick guy."

Beck said UCLA asserts it was all in Sarkar's imagination.

Sarkar is listed on a UCLA website as a member of a computational biomechanics research group run by Klug, a professor of mechanical engineering.

Police were working Thursday to find the car Sarkar drove to Los Angeles and sought the public's help.

Classes at the University of California, Los Angeles campus resumed Thursday for most of the school, except for the engineering department, where students and faculty will return Monday.

Initial reports from the scene set off widespread fears of an attempted mass shooting on campus, bringing a response of hundreds of heavily armed officers. Groups of them stormed into buildings that were locked down and cleared hallways as police helicopters hovered overhead.

Advised by university text alerts to turn off lights and lock doors where they were, many students let friends and family know they were safe in social media posts. Some described frantic evacuation scenes, while others wrote that their doors weren't locking and posted photos of photocopiers and foosball tables they used as barricades.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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BROWNSVILLE  Jerry Stones, 74, gets choked up talking about Harambe, a Western lowland gorilla that was born in this Texas border city and was killed by Cinncinnati Zoo worker last week after a child fell into the gorillas enclosure.

I was sick to my stomach, Stones said Thursday as he recalled getting the news of Harambes death. It was like losing a family member.

Stones is the facilities director at Gladys Porter Zoo, where Harambe was born and lived for 15 years.

When Harambe was born 17 years ago, Stones was in charge of the zoos mammals. He was the one who cut Harambes umbilical cord, and took the infant gorilla home with him at night. He fed him, and put him in a diaper to avoid a mess around the house.

I have two sons, and I dont ever remember changing their diapers, Stones said. But he has little trouble conjuring up those early days with Harambe. He had a beautiful personality.

Last weekend Cincinnati Zoo staff shot and killed Harambe after the 3-year-old boy apparently crawled through a railing and fell into the moat that surrounded the gorillas island. Harambes death has garnered national headlines, and ignited heated discussion over whether the animal, an endangered species, should have been killed.

Lost in the debate is the gorilla himself, Harambe. Few  man or beast  knew him quite like Stones.

Stones got word that Harambe had been killed about an hour after it happened. Harambe had recently celebrated his birthday.

The longtime zoo official has listened to the roiling debate, hes read the headlines, and hes convinced that most people weighing in on the mother of the chid who tumbled into the enclosure, or the actions that the zoo staff took to protect the child, have little idea what actually transpired.

He imagines the mother, horrified as she watches while her child is dragged around the enclosure like a doll by the 450-pound gorilla, even as people surrounding the exhibit scream in fear.

Her baby is down there with this beast, and she didnt know him, Stones said. And, my God, what had to go through the mind of the zookeeper?

Then Stones imagines Harambes world. Suddenly a small boy is in his house. Should he be scared?

This was a no-win situation for everybody involved, Stones said. Unforeseen circumstances took over and Harambe had to pay the price.

Stones and other zoo officials say the best way to remember Harambe, whose name in Swahili means pull together, is to help raise awareness of the plight of lowland gorillas. To that end, the Gladys Porter Zoo has launched the Harambe Fund. To find out more information about Harambe and to donate, go to gpz.org.
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A gun that was recovered from a vehicle occupied by a man who had passed out led police to arrest him in connection with an April homicide Wednesday.

Christopher Cooper, 25, faces a murder charge in the shooting death of Jermerald Dwayne Black Berard Sr., 27, according to the San Antonio Police Department.

Officer Douglas Greene, a SAPD spokesman, said Berard's body was found April 28 with multiple gunshot wounds when police arrived for reports of shots fired at West Houston and Frio streets.

"I'll be home soon," Cooper said as he was led in handcuffs to a police cruiser at the Public Safety Headquarters downtown.

He denied any involvement in the incident when questioned by reporters.

The day of the shooting, witnesses told police a Kia sedan with one man driving it was spotted leaving the scene.

Police found the vehicle May 12 in the 3000 block of Interstate 35 after receiving reports of a sick person.

"When officers arrived there they located Mr. Cooper who was passed out in a silver Kia sedan," Greene said.

As investigators attempted to talk with Cooper, they saw a handgun in plain view inside the car.

The caliber of the gun matched the bullet casings found at the scene where Berard was shot, Greene said.

Cooper was arrested Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the 5200 block of Village Haven after ballistics analysis of the handgun was officially completed.

Berard was a Lake Charles, Louisiana, native who moved to San Antonio a year and a half ago and worked in waste management, according to his obituary, which notes he enjoyed spending time with his family and going to church.

jbeltran@express-news.net
The heavy rain and winds that hit Texas this past week have brought some crazy and strange sights along with them.

From high water rescues at Pedernales Falls State Park to stranded cattle in East Texas and excited rafters at a swollen Guadalupe River, dramatic images from across the state show how the Lone Star State is handling its latest battle with extreme weather.
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A 53-year-old Arizona man who has artificial horns on his forehead and tattoos on his face allegedly used an 8-inch knife on his wife during a fight over infidelity, according to media reports.

Juan Vargas Rodriguez, of Glendale, was charged with aggravated assault, The Smoking Gun reports.

RELATED: 'Angel of Death' nurse from San Antonio to be featured on new true crime TV show

Rodriguez has implanted horns on his temple, as well as several tattoos on his face.

The incident happened Sunday at a home near 51st and Peoria Avenues, where Rodriguez allegedly confronted the woman, according to 12 News.

The Smoking Gun reports the man allegedly demanded she sleep in a closet after confronting her about her alleged cheating. When she refused, the man pulled out a knife and threatened her.

He allegedly used the knife on her, cutting her left arm and breast. The woman also suffered cuts on her hand after trying to get the knife away from him.

RELATED: Armed-robbery suspect with tattooed face sought in Pleasant Hill

The couples daughter stopped the altercation by disarming Rodriguez and separating the two from each other, according to The Smoking Gun.

When police began questioning him about the incident, he told the police he did not recall the fight and had blacked out with rage, 12 News reports.

Rodriguez will appear in court on June 6.

RELATED: SAPD: Man with outline of Texas tattooed on head asked permission before robbing house

The Glendale Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for the arrest affidavit.

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
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Southeast Texas' trial by water shows no signs of ebbing, with another half-foot of rain possible through Saturday, which could worsen flooding from swollen rivers and other waterways.

Thursday's downpours closed roads, knocked out power and forced some schools to release students early. More flooding is possible in several areas today, with higher levels anticipated on the Neches River near Town Bluff in Jasper County.

Jefferson, Orange, Hardin, Jasper, Newton and Tyler were among the dozens of Texas counties under flood warnings most of Thursday.

An additional 2-6 inches of rainfall is expected through Saturday, with up to 10-12 inches possible in spots.

The first game of the Class 4A high school baseball regional final series between Little Cypress-Mauriceville and Waco Robinson was moved from North Houston to the University of Houston in hopes of being played. The first pitch went out at 9:08 p.m., 98 minutes after the scheduled start.

Jefferson County schools canceled afternoon activities. Some schools in Hardin, Jasper, Newton and Tyler counties canceled class for today, the last day of school for most school districts.

School and after-school activities are expected to resume on Monday in those schools open for summer school or with athletic camps for younger students.

Silsbee ISD released students at noon Thursday and moved high school graduation, scheduled for 7 tonight inside the auditorium.

U.S. 96 at Buna in Jasper County was temporarily closed with water over it, the largest local road affected by flooding.

Jasper and Tyler were among 31 counties included in a disaster declaration by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. At least six people, including a 10-year-old boy, died in floods last week in Central and Southeast Texas.

This week's storms are the latest in a string of torrential rains since May 2015, including historic flooding in Deweyville in March, that have put swaths of the state underwater. Some areas now overwhelmed by water had run dry two years ago because of drought conditions.

Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain in the last week.

Storms dropped more than 8 inches of rain in parts of Harris County within 24 hours, once again unleashing bayous and rivers, flooding streets and stalling cars, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Dozens of streets were closed because of high water, including many sections of frontage roads along Interstate 45.

"We didn't come here to live in the river," Mona Falcon, 58, told the Houston Chronicle. "We moved here to live on the river."

Similar fatigue was heard in northwest Harris County, where the Cypress and Little Cypress creeks flooded homes in April and once again last weekend, the Chronicle reported. Thursday, the area picked up over an inch of rain in 15 minutes.

"Every time it rains a drop, I start to cry," Tina Hearn, who lives in a subdivision on Telge Road, told the Houston Chronicle. "I don't know what's going to happen next. You're not comfortable anymore. You can't be - ever again."

Hearn had watched a contracting team make progress in replacing and repairing floors, drywall and cabinets, only to have much of it undone by last week's storm, which brought a few inches of water into the first floor.

In the latest weather-related tragedy, three soldiers were killed and six were missing after a U.S. Army truck was washed from a low-water crossing and overturned Thursday in a rain-swollen creek on Fort Hood, officials at the Army post said.

The accident happened about 11:30 a.m. in an area near Cold Springs and Owl Creek, Fort Hood said in a statement.

Three soldiers were rescued from the swift water and were in stable condition Thursday afternoon at Coryell Memorial Healthcare System in Gatesville, Fort Hood said in the statement.

Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were being used in the search for the six missing soldiers.

Fort Hood spokesman John Miller said the low-water crossing of the creek was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck, called a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle, from the road.

SFlores@BeaumontEnterprise.com Twitter.com/saraeflores
I am reminded of the West Texas adage Please, Lord, one more oil boom and this time I promise not to throw it all away.

Well, we had it, and we saved it, and we now have a $10 billion rainy day fund some legislators want to protect from themselves with constitutional amendments and statutes limiting access. I am not saying we should raid the fund for recurring expenses, including educating our population explosion of young people. Maybe I am saying that with so many state resources based on a single commodity, which has a tradition of fluctuating, we should ask if we are structurally sound enough to promise the social services Texans have come to expect. From a state finance perspective, we can at least draw comfort from knowing that the price of gasoline is rising.
Dear Trump protesters:

There are some things Ive wanted to say to you for several months now, and Ive decided to finally get them off my chest .

The timing is right, given the chaos that erupted in Albuquerque and San Diego when activists like yourselves displayed opposition to Donald Trumps message, tone, candidacy and tactics by trying to disrupt campaign appearances by the presumptive Republican nominee.

Given how youve conducted yourselves, I have to ask: Are you secretly working for Trump? Seriously, are you trying to be an apprentice? Could it be that youre just putting on a good show, pretending to protest Trump when your actual goal is to ensure that he becomes the 45th president of the United States?

Because thats what youre doing, helping his campaign immeasurably with these unruly outbursts of civil disobedience that are anything but civil.

In Albuquerque, protesters scuffled with police in riot gear, pelting officers and their horses with what authorities say were rocks, bottles filled with urine and incendiary devices resembling Molotov cocktails. Later, some broke glass, destroyed property and even fired gunshots. Six officers were injured, as was one of the police horses.

Many protesters also waved Mexican flags, a provocative gesture that  when done at political protests on U.S. soil  is always in bad taste. You dont demand respect from one country by showing allegiance to another. How about waving the American flag?

Im sure you would probably claim that the troublemakers were a small minority. Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry has estimated that only about 30 people were responsible for the violence, out of 1,000 protesters.

But I have to ask: What did the peaceful protesters do to prevent the violent ones from contaminating the exercise?

A few days later, in San Diego, while several thousand people filed into the San Diego Convention Center to hear Trump speak, about 1,000 protesters clashed in the streets with police and Trump supporters. Some of the anti-Trump activists acted like thugs. They heckled and insulted those attending the event, calling them racists and bigots. They threw water bottles and other objects. One person set on fire a red Trump cap with its motto of Make America Great Again. Of course, there were more Mexican flags.

Protesters remained for a few hours after the rally ended, disturbing the peace and flouting commands by police to disperse to the point where authorities declared the protest an unlawful assembly. Police arrested at least 35 people.

So, protesters, I understand your objective was to send a message to Trump, and those who support him, not to mess with you. But instead, you made a mess of everything.

What makes this all the more frustrating is that Im on your side. I think Trump is a classless bully whose message is toxic. I think hes given people permission to be racist, intolerant, even violent. I think hed be a disaster as president.

And I think that Trump and his entire campaign apparatus  having spread their cheap brand of demagoguery throughout the Midwest, the Northeast and the South  are getting a wake-up call. Its coming now that the candidate is making appearances throughout California, where 39 percent of the states population is Hispanic and where people have dealt with racial demagogues before.

But I also recognize that Trump has gotten this far by advancing a narrative that America is out of control, that too many people dont respect law and order, that political correctness is stifling debate, that there is often no one more intolerant than those who preach tolerance.

Through your actions, you prove him right, give him votes, make him stronger. Good job.

And you can bet Trump is watching. He knows exactly what to do to get a rise out of you, and you respond on cue.

After the San Diego protests, Trump tweeted a message thanking law enforcement: Fantastic job on handling the thugs who tried to disrupt our very peaceful and well attended rally. Greatly appreciated!

Dont worry, Trump protesters. Im sure the candidate appreciates you, too.

ruben@rubennavarrette.com
Re: Declare independence by becoming independents, Reed Williams, Opinion, Sunday:

At one time, I would have agreed with the idea that both political parties are moving to the extremes. But things have changed on the Democratic side. Yes, the party has moved to the left, toward what he would call the extreme elements. But those elements are not in control the way they are with the GOP.

The influence the Bernie Sanders movement has gained has been wrested from the more moderate part of the party with great effort. While he has a large group of supporters, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz blocked him at every turn from having any power at the national convention, though she has relented in recent days.

Ironically, the conservative party is eagerly moving forward with the new Republicanism while the progressive party is trying as hard as it can to stay in the past.

It seems to me that theyre both wrong.

Glenda Wolin

Fighting for Texans

Re: A non-issue, Your Turn, May 23:

The letter writer has the nerve to slam Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, saying he should forget the issue of transgenders in bathrooms and focus on the many needs of Texans.

Well, this is an issue, a huge issue, and I am grateful we have a lieutenant governor who is fighting for all Texans.

Shirley Swift

Its common sense

Re: Political cartoon, Nick Anderson, May 24:

The Express-News joined in with the rest of the liberal media in setting up and destroying a straw man regarding the issue of transgenders in public bathrooms.

The political cartoon shows that in Texas, there have been 66,000 confirmed cases of child abuse, 171 deaths from abuse and neglect, and zero cases of transgender assaults in bathroom.

The outrage at the Obama administration directive that transgendered people be allowed to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice does not arise from a history of child abuse by transgenders. The outrage arises because we no longer can have the expectation that our children can go into a bathroom or shower in a public school and be assured that only those of their own gender will be there with them.

The outrage is born of plain, old common sense, not some hypothetical straw man.

Billie Wayne Wieland, Spring Branch
Renters Warehouse, a Minnesota-based property management company with offices in Austin, has expanded into San Antonio by buying locally based Go Time Realty.

With the purchase of Go Time, the Austin office of Renters Warehouse has increased the number of properties under its management to 144 from 91, according to a news release from the company.
Posted on 06/02/2016, 11:30 am, by mySteinbach

On June 8, Members of Parliament will vote on Member of Parliament Ted Falks Private Members Bill C-239  The Fairness in Charitable Gifts Act.

Currently, federal tax credits for political contributions far exceed the federal tax credits for donations to registered charities in Canada.

The Fairness in Charitable Gifts Act will level the playing field between donations to political parties and donations to registered charitable organizations, said MP Falk. Feeding politicians should never be more important than feeding the hungry.

Year after Year, charities across Canada strive to expand their services in the midst of an aging and declining donor base, said Floyd Perras, Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives at Siloam Mission in Winnipeg. The Fairness in Charitable Gifts Act will encourage Canadians to increase their support for these critical social services with the benefit of receiving a greater tax credit at tax time.

The impact that charities make in our communities is evident across Canada as was demonstrated during the recent forest fires in Fort McMurray. The lives of tens of thousands of residents have been turned upside down, but through all the devastation, the Canadian Red Cross, the Salvation Army, local churches and many other charitable groups have been there to help. Where would we be without organizations like these?

Every single day and night across Canada, charities provide food for the hungry, beds for the homeless, help to the hurting, support for the aging and hope to the sick. Charities advance scientific and medical research, promote education and care for our environment. Charities have also been very instrumental in the re-settlement of refugee families.
Free NACS webinar today is designed to help convenience stores understand new overtime rules and how to comply.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  NACS is hosting a webinar series to help convenience retailers navigate the Department of Labors new overtime rule.

The new rules raise the eligibility ceiling for overtime pay from its current $23,660 annually to $47,476. Therefore, any employee paid below the $47,476 threshold may soon be entitled to overtime pay for all work over 40 hours per week. By Labor Department estimates, up to five million currently exempt workers could be eligible for overtime pay. This huge modification of overtime law could profoundly affect U.S. businesseslike yoursas employers will need to evaluate whether and how they must update their compensation plans to be in compliance.

Thursday, June 2, 1:002:00 pm EDT

How to Comply with the New Overtime-Exemption Requirements

This webinar will help you:

Determine which of your employees are affected by the new rules

Weigh the pros and cons when considering various compliance options

Understand which exemptions to consider

Know how regional considerations may affect your planning

Reserve your spot now.

If you missed the May 26, webinar, New Overtime-Exemption Regulations: What This Means for Your Business, a recording is available at NACS TV.
SEATTLE  A recently opened Seattle convenience store is putting poke, a traditional Hawaiian dish, on the mainland map.

Poke, chunks of tuna marinated in soy and sesame, is near ubiquitous in Hawaii, served everywhere from grocery stores to gas stations, surf shacks and beyond, notes BonAppetit.com. At the 45th Stop N Shop & Poke Bar in Seattle, tucked in the back of the shop, behind the racks of candy bars and chips, is a poke and sushi counter that's driving fans wild, writes Eater.com.

"It comes with complimentary sides like guacamole, crab salad, seaweed salad, some ginger, some fish roe and edamame, John Chung, who co-owns the Stop N Shop with his parents, told King5.com. He attributes the stores speedy success to social media posts from satisfied customers, noting that hundreds of photos were posted online during April, the stores first month of operation.

The Chungs family recipe keeps a steady stream of customers coming for poke. [Ive waited] 45 minutes, and then sometimes an hour, one frequent customer told King5.com.

The store receives a delivery of fresh fish each day, which is then prepared by hand every morning. Sometimes the poke runs out before the end of service. While raw seafood at a c-store isnt common in the United States, the combination is obvious to the Chungs.

"My dad had owned a Japanese restaurant back in San Francisco a number of years ago, and we had owned a small grocery store in Portland, so we're kind of joining the two businesses, Chung told the news source.
A public consultation will run until the end of August on plain packaging requirements for tobacco products sold throughout Canada.

TORONTO, ONTARIO  On May 31, World No Tobacco Day, the United Nations announced it is advocating for the use of plain packaging of tobacco products. During his address, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on governments around the world to get ready for plain packaging.

Per the World Health Organization (WHO), plain packaging of tobacco products includes restricting or prohibiting the use of logos, colors, brand images or any promotional information other than brand and product names displayed in a standard color and font.

Also on May 31, Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott announced a public consultation that will run until the end of August on plain packaging requirements for tobacco products, a process to strip cigarette packs of their branding, following similar moves by Australia and the U.K., reports the Wall Street Journal.

I dont believe tobacco companies should be allowed to build brand loyalty with children, for a product that could kill them, said Dr. Philpott in an interview. Research shows that plain packaging of tobacco products is an effective way to deter people from starting to smoke and will bolster our efforts to reduce tobacco use in Canada.

In 2012, Australia became the first country to fully implement plain packaging, a regulation that has led to explosive growth of the illicit market for contraband tobacco sales, says Jeff Rogut, CEO of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS).

The Journal writes that Imperial Tobacco Canada is calling out the Canadian government for its hypocrisy by regulating tobacco while taking steps to move ahead with legalizing marijuana. Announcing more tobacco regulations is an easy political win that will generate headlines, but do nothing to further reduce smoking rates, said Imperial Tobacco Canadas Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs Eric Gagnon.

Plain packaging is a gimmick policy that does not work, Igor Dzaja, general manager of Japan Tobaccos JTI-Macdonald Corp. unit, told the news source.

Since 2005, Canada has been regulating how cigarette products are sold at retail locations by requiring dark displays where a product is sold out-of-sight of customers, under the counter or in special cabinets.
Yves here. Only small fry get whacked for being tax havens. Remember Cyprus?

Originally published at Tax Justice Network

From Eurodad:

This week, European Union finance ministers agreed to establish a common EU blacklist of so-called non-cooperative jurisdictions  in other words, tax havens. With one tax scandal unfolding after the other, listing and sanctioning tax havens may seem like a good solution. However, as tempting as it may sound, this EU exercise is doomed to fail  and heres why.

. . . Tax havens are not an external matter to the EU, quite the contrary  some of the worlds most powerful tax havens are to be found in Europe.

For example, a new report from Oxfam uses European Commission (EC) data to analyse the role of the Netherlands as a corporate tax haven. It shows how the Netherlands is making large-scale tax avoidance possible and how Dutch regulations are an integral part of the international tax system that enables multinationals to avoid at least US$100 billion in taxes in developing countries every year. Several other EU Member States  such as Luxembourg, Ireland, Malta and the UK  have also been criticised for helping multinational corporations to avoid taxes. Yet you will not find any of these countries on a blacklist produced by the EU.
Yves here. The first comment came in on a post that had gone cold, and I thought it was so revealing that it needed to be seen widely. The second is a synchronistic complement.

As much as I carry on about the isolation of the Acela-riding classes from the acute distress in much of the US, I only have a very distant feel for it. For instance, I grew up moving through many small towns where a paper mill was a major, and in some cases, the biggest local employer. Those mill jobs were well paid and the workers could buy houses, cars, and had pensions. One of my brothers works for a paper mill that should have been world competitive through his retirement, but its been wrecked by a series of private equity owners, starting with Cerberus, and in now in bankruptcy. The town in which he lives, Escanaba, Michigan, has lost over 20% of its population since the mid 1980s. Similarly, my uncle lived below the poverty line in Maine, lobstering until his knees gave out. But he had a fully paid for house he had inherited, and access to VA hospitals and doctors, so it could have been a lot worse. But Maine is a poor state, so even visiting there as a tourist in the summers, its not hard to see the signs of struggle even in those who are getting by.

The first comment gives a window into the hidden desperation in America that is showing up in statistics like increasing opioid addiction and suicides, rather than in accounts of how and why so many people are suffering. I hope readers will add their own observations in comments.
The Naked Capitalism commentariat has arrived. Its the frame for our latest story in Politico: Why Some of the Smartest Progressives I Know Will Vote for Trump over Hillary.

Mind you, the piece morphed a bit during the editing process. It had started out focusing on the large policy differences between what Sanders voters want and what Clinton is offering. It made the point that some, and potentially many, were sick and tired of the lesser evilism that the Democratic party had used to keep the left in line. The party has relied, successfully, on the idea, made explicit by Bill Clinton, that progressives have no where to go.

That argument is still there. But it seemed so incredible to orthodox-thinking Beltway types that voters might follow through on the implications, which is not voting for Hillary, which would risk a Trump victory. I got incredulity at the idea that some might actually vote for him out of a view that Trump despite his staggeringly visible personal character flaws (an ego totally out of control, and a corresponding lack of self-discipline) and his shifting and often bonkers policy ideas, that he might nevertheless represent the lesser evil, or cribbing from Glen Ford, the less effective evil.

So to drive the point home, the article uses NC readers to show that some well-informed progressives understand full well what the Clintons represent and theyve had it with them. These voters regard Trump as an acceptable risk to inflict punishment on Team Dem for decades of abusing workers and ordinary citizens and to put an end to the Clintons dynastic ambitions.

This article was meant to penetrate the DC narrative all sensible people will fall in line and vote for Clinton when Sanders is knocked out of the picture (probable but not a given). If it succeeded, it will get people in the Clinton bubble riled up. Read it here.
Soon after the disastrous crash of an H225 helicopter near Tury, Norway, which killed all 13 on board the aircraft manufacturer Airbus Helicopters lifted a temporary recommendation to ground the H225/EC225LP aircraft. A month later, following the preliminary findings of Norways Accident Investigation Board (AIBN), investigators are urgently requesting the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to suspend the operations of the Super Puma H225 fleet. Anthony Tucker-Jones reports.

Can it be that stalwart of military airlift the Super Puma is finally losing its lustre amid mounting safety concerns? Only last year, as part of Eurocopters rebranding as Airbus, the Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma was renamed the H225.

The warning signs came earlier this year when Airbus announced it was cutting back production of its H225 by 50 per cent due to falling military sales.

Although military and civilian operators of the H225 are about 50:50, military sales are inevitably more important because of the unit numbers involved.

Airbus as with all other helicopter manufacturers is feeling the pinch because civilian demand has been cut by the depressed oil price. This inevitably was going to spill over into military procurement as well.

Sales of the H225M military variant are now grappling with a public relations disaster. Airbus acknowledges public confidence in the H225 has been seriously shaken after a series of unwelcome civilian accidents  the most recent in April this year off Norway.

The cause of the Norway crash, following the catastrophic loss of the rotor assembly has been put down to fatigue causing a main rotor gearbox failure Read more.

An H225 was lost due to pilot error in 2009; three years later two came down in the North Sea due to gearbox problems. The gearbox design was modified and that seemed to be the end of the matter.

As a result of the latest accident civil flight bans in the UK and Norway on the H225 and the AS332 variant of Super Puma could not have come at a worse time for Airbus. Public confidence has been so badly shaken there has even been a call for a permanent ban in the UK.

In the view of the UK Civil Aviation Authority the H225 and AS332 are the same thing. They took a similar approach in 2013.

The AS332 Super Puma is a proven military workhorse but the original design is almost 40 years old now, its much-upgraded predecessor the SA330 Puma even older. The AS332 has an extensive crash record with both military and civilian operators dating back to the late 1980s.

In recent years the Spanish Air Force lost two and an AS532 Cougar, military variant, crashed in France in 2012.

In light of this and ongoing safety concerns it is easy to see why potential military customers are very hesitant to commit with Airbus.

Brazil, with 50 H225M on order after receiving less than 50 per cent has put the brakes on further deliveries due to the state of its economy. For Airbus this is an unwelcome blow at a time when it is struggling to secure firm sales for 90 H225M to India, Kuwait and Poland  the latter accounts for 50 of them and Kuwait 24.

Last year after criticism of the selection process the Polish Government was threatening to pull out of the H225M deal. Singapore is also seeking a dozen new helicopters to replace its fleet of aging of AS332/532  but may be now having second thoughts about going back to Airbus.

Reportedly the H225 is to stay in production until 2030 and it is planned there will be an overlap with its successor the proposed X6  which has yet to leave the drawing board. In the meantime Airbus will need to work hard if military sales are ever to recover the growing scandal over the Norwegian crash. This poses the question has Super Puma had its day?
SHARE Wreaths were placed for fallen soldiers and first responders. Grace Lutheran Church in Naples marked Memorial Day weekend on Saturday with music, a sermon and flag displays. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent The Naples Police Dept. lays a wreath for fallen first responders. Grace Lutheran Church in Naples marked Memorial Day weekend on Saturday with music, a sermon and flag displays. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Pipers from the Harp and Thistle Band play and march. Grace Lutheran Church in Naples marked Memorial Day weekend on Saturday with music, a sermon and flag displays. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent Jonathan Birner leads the musical ensemble from the keyboard. Grace Lutheran Church in Naples marked Memorial Day weekend on Saturday with music, a sermon and flag displays. Lance Shearer/Eagle Correspondent

By Lance Shearer, Citizen Correspondent

The bell tolled out 55 times. As the name of each Collier County service person or first responder who had given their life was called out, Jerry Sanford, public information officer with the North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District, tugged the bell rope and filled the otherwise quiet sanctuary with its tone.

It was an emotional moment during a service filled with emotional moments, with the laying of wreaths, "Amazing Grace" on a trio of bagpipes, and a solitary trumpeter playing "Taps."

The congregation at Grace Lutheran Church in downtown Naples got a headstart on other Memorial Day commemorations, holding their ceremony Saturday evening. Sanford, who worked for many years for the Fire Department of New York, said he had friends who were first responders who went into the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, and didn't come out alive. A day before the 9/11 terrorist bombings, he had a luncheon with about 20 members of the fire department, from which he had retired.

"Half of them were killed the next day when the attacks happened," he said.

Visitors nearly filled the sanctuary for the annual Memorial Day observance, to pay tribute to those who could not attend, the soldiers and sailors who died fighting for their country, along with local law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty. In all, participants read the names of 13 law enforcement officers and 42 members of the military, stretching back to World War I, all of whom came from Collier County and gave their lives.

This is the sixth year Grace Lutheran has held the observation, said Pastor Keith Lingsch, who retired as a major after 22 years as an Air Force chaplain.

"As a military chaplain, I have participated in a lot of Memorial Day ceremonies at cemeteries," he said. "We wanted to offer a service in the church as well. It's a way for us to give to the community, to remind people what Memorial Day is all about." Unlike Veterans Day, which honors all military veterans, Memorial Day is set aside to honor those who died fighting for their country.

Along with the music of the bagpipes, an ensemble led by Grace Lutheran music director Jonathan Birner featured 10 players on horns and percussion including tympani by Austin Gomez, along with Birner on the keyboards. The Grace High School Choir also sang, and the congregation joined in as well, singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," "America the Beautiful" and "Eternal Father, Strong to Save"  all four verses of each.

The service also included readings by vice president of the church, John Blanter, from Psalm 91,and Stephen Beights, church president, who read from Isaiah and John, including the line, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends."

Pastor Lingsch, who also serves as chaplain for the Naples Police Department, delivered the homily, "That They May Be Free," taking that same passage from the Book of John as his text.

After the service, all were invited for refreshments in the church's fellowship hall.

- - -

Naples Daily News multimedia journalist Maria Perez contributed to this report.
A woman visiting the Naples Zoo feeds Bruehler a piece of lettuce after learning about giraffes via an informational session at the zoo Wednesday afternoon. Ashley Collins/Staff

SHARE A local boy feeds Bruehler lettuce after learning about giraffes through an informational session with Zookeeper Sarah Sconyers at the Naples Zoo. Ashley Collins/Staff Sarah Sconyers, zookeeper, talks to an interested crowd Wednesday about the giraffes living at the Naples Zoo. Behind her is a male reticulated giraffe called Bruehler, who was waiting to be fed. Ashley Collins/Staff

By Ashley Collins of the Naples Daily News

Bruehler, Jumanji, Zuri, Timber and Bolo.

Those are the names of the five reticulated male giraffes who call Naples Zoo their home.

On a daily basis, Elizabeth Johnson supervises the "bachelor herd," as she put it, and other hoofstock animals at the local zoo, located at 1590 Goodlette-Frank Road.

The zookeeper said not all giraffes are so lucky to have a safe place to call home.

In the past 15 years, the wild giraffe population in Africa has dropped by 40 percent.

Johnson said scientists are calling it a "silent epidemic" because little research has been conducted on giraffes.

"But when they started to really look into giraffes in the wild, they realized the population was declining a lot more rapidly than they initially thought," she said.

This is the third year the local zoo is partnering with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, which spearheads World Giraffe Day, June 21, to raise awareness and support giraffes. The zoo is just one of the many zoos, conservation organizations and schools around the world supporting the foundation's mission to save the species.

"There are so many people who don't realize that giraffes are in crisis," said Tim Tetzlaff, director of conservation at the Naples Zoo.

Only 90,000 giraffes remain in the wild, according to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. The reticulated giraffe  a subspecies found in East Africa  has lost 80 percent of its population. Overall, the population loss can be attributed to habitat loss and poaching, Tetzlaff added.

In an effort to save the species, the foundation was able to translocate endangered Rothschild's giraffes last year to populate a new area in Uganda because of the worldwide fundraising efforts. This year, the goal is to raise $100,000 to aid giraffe populations specifically in Kenya and Namibia.

Tetzlaff said they hope to raise 13,178 pounds  which is their giraffes total weight in dollars  in the days leading up to World Giraffe Day in order to help accelerate the foundation's work.

They plan to raise this money by getting the community involved.

Zoo officials are currently accepting donations, and plan to award the top three fundraiser participants, along with three guests each, with breakfast by the giraffes on Saturday, June 25.

"Scientists honestly think if we can't do anything to increase the wild numbers, or at least conserve the numbers that we do have, that they could potentially go extinct within the next couple of decades," Johnson said.

All proceeds raised benefit the Giraffe Conservation Foundation.

Donations can be turned in at the Naples Zoo or online at www.napleszoo.org/give. The deadline is June 17 by 5 p.m.

For more information, visit napleszoo.org/giraffe or call 239-262-5409.
Former Naples High School bandleader Jerome Edwards is flanked by his son Jerome Jr. and his wife Judy. Lance Shearer/Citizen Correspondent

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By Lance Shearer

You may remember him by his crew cut.

Jerome Edwards was the band director at Naples High School for nearly 30 years, directing thousands of performances by the marching band, symphonic band, pep band and concert band, and always conspicuous by his head of cropped hair.

Now, 20 years after his retirement in 1992, Edwards is being awarded the ultimate accolade for his chosen profession. On Sunday, the Florida Bandmasters Association (FBA) will hold their annualbanquet on the campus of Stetson University in Deland, Fla., to induct Naples High's longtime "leader of the band" into the organization's Hall of Fame.

Receiving this distinction is the pinnacle of his career, said Edwards, the only bandleader who will be so honored. Only 39 band directors have been accorded Hall of Fame status in the FBA's 77-year history. Edwards is the first from Southwest Florida.

"This is a well-deserved honor," said Gary Brown, who served as Naples High principal at the end of Edwards' tenure there, and went on to be acting superintendent of schools for Collier. "I worked with Jerome for 25 years. He was a legend in music and in marching bands in these parts."

Over the course of his career, Edwards taught many students how to play many instruments. His "axe" of choice is the trumpet, but when asked how many instruments he plays, he responded, "How many instruments are there in a band? You have to play them all. You can't explain to the student what they're supposed to sound like if you can't produce the sound."

It was easier for Edwards to list what he doesn't play  the banjo and the accordion came to mind. In addition to his trumpet, favorites include the clarinet, saxophone and the oboe. He stays busy today, still helping with local high school bands, and plays trumpet for the First United Methodist Church, where he also served as choral director for 30 years.

Edwards' three sons will be there at Stetson to see him inducted, with many of their own families. One son, professional trombonist Jerome "Jerry" Edwards, Jr., traveled across the Atlantic from his home in Paris to attend. He got his start in his dad's bands at Naples High, and has gone on to play with artists such as Dave Sanborn, Wayne Newton and Woody Herman's Thundering Herd.

"He was a dictator," remembered the younger Jerome. "That's where the buzz cut comes in. But I don't know how many former students have knocked on the door" of his father's home in Coquina Sands. "They say, 'Mr. Edwards'  they still call him that  'I know I was a blankety blank, but I learned an awful lot from you.' We just didn't realize it at the time."

One former student was Melvin Maxwell, who returned to Naples after graduating from Florida A&M, was the first band director at Lely High School, and eventually took over for Edwards as Naples High band director upon Edwards' retirement.

"He was my mentor, my musical father," Maxwell said of Edwards. "He taught me everything I needed to know  how to be a band director. Jerome was my inspiration, the main reason I was a success."

As part of the Hall of Fame Weekend, the Stetson University Symphonic Band will play a concert of Edwards' favorite musical pieces, hand-picked by him and conducted by noteworthy bandleaders from around the state. One of the conductors will be Maxwell, now retired himself. Another will be Gulf Coast High School bandleader Steve DeLadurantey.

The gala will also include a "toasting and roasting" session, which Jerome Edwards said he expects to consist primarily of roasting. His wife Judy said a "rooting section" of 100 or more is expected to make the trip to DeLand from Naples for the ceremony, and added she was glad the association did not wait until the award had to be presented posthumously.

"I said if they waited till you were gone, your sons could go, but I wasn't," she said. "Being a band director's wife is not an easy job, but that was the love of his life. Not only did he enjoy it, but he did a damn fine job of it.

"We're talking massive band trips. We pulled chaperone duty, spent our evenings sitting in the halls at midnight, making sure the kids were in their rooms."

Jerome Edwards thanked Judy for all her work and sacrifice, getting dinner on the table when he had just minutes at home before rushing back out to a rehearsal or performance, while raising three boys and working fulltime as a fourth-grade teacher.

Edwards served as president of the Florida Bandmasters Association in the late 1980s, and was inducted into Phi Beta Mu, the band directors' honor society.
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By Kristine Gill of the Naples Daily News

These days Immokalee agriculture is synonymous with tomatoes. The crop dominates most of the farming land in eastern Collier County, but it wasn't always that way.

Before migrant workers and after the Calusa Indians and the Seminoles, cattle ranching reigned. Robert Roberts established his homestead on 60 acres of land back in 1901 and about 300 cattle. Known by neighbors as "Uncle Bob," he was among some of the first settlers in the area who brought cattle ranching to the forefront.

"In the U.S. it's really just Florida and Texas," said Curator Jennifer Guida. "Most people just assume Texas has the bigger angle on the market but Florida's been doing it longer."

The Immokalee Pioneer Museum has preserved all of the original the buildings Roberts and his family owned, including the 1916 Baptist Church they founded. And now, in addition to those relics, which are included on the National Register of Historic Places, the museum has new permanent exhibits outlining the family's history.

Visitors can now read about the Roberts family's Red Cattle Company and its oil operations. New photos collected from local pioneer families are included in the exhibit along with artifacts. There's even a family recipe for pioneer fare.

"We have a saddle and boots that were used there at the Roberts Ranch mid century," Guida added. "And a hand-carved yoke to retrieve water from a well."

There are details in the new exhibit text about Florida cowman culture and key facts about the area's contact with Calusa Indians and the Spanish that shaped its future.

"We talk about that too, the indigenous people and of course Spanish contact in 1513 that brought the first cattle here to the new world," Guida said.

There's a sugar cane mill, which extracted juice from cane stalks to boil into syrup, a ceremonial Seminole chickee.

Guida said visitors to the museum can whip through it in a half an hour or spend an entire afternoon sifting through the history they've compiling at the 15-acre living history museum, depending on how much time they have and how interesting they find the topic.

She said it took about two years to curate the items in the new exhibit and do the research behind the text.

If You Go

What: The Roberts Ranch Visitors Center

Where: at 1215 Roberts Ave.

When: open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

How much: Admission is free
By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News

The mother of a missing 9-year-old San Carlos Park girl told a judge in 2013 that the father took her children without her permission for several months and wouldn't return them, court records show.

Rita Hernandez, mother of Diana Alvarez, filed a petition in December 2013 to force Martin Alvarez Moreno to return her children after taking them without her permission in September of that year. Hernandez said she feared the father would take the children to Mexico.

Alvarez did not take Diana in 2013, only the couple's two younger children  Lisette Alyson and Luis Alberto, now ages 6 and 7.

The judge denied Hernandez's request, noting there was no evidence that the father was violating any custody agreement and no allegations against the father while he had custody of the children since September.

The mother later took the children from Alvarez. But now authorities are searching for Diana, who has been missing since Sunday. Hernandez said she is concerned that someone may be taking her daughter to Mexico and she has said the father in the past has said her custody of the children would not be permanent.

Nancy Vizcarra, who said she was Alvarez's girlfriend, said he was deported to Mexico just over a year ago after authorities discovered weapons in his car. The father's girlfriend confronted Hernandez on Tuesday, and said he doesn't know anything about Diana's disappearance and wants to come to the U.S. to help find her.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday they have no evidence that Diana is still in the area.

Related stories:

Search for missing Lee County girl continues

The sheriff's office closed its staging area near the Sheltering Pines mobile home park in San Carlos where the family lives.

"After a massive and exhaustive search in a several mile radius around Diana Alvarez' home, it has been determined that there is no evidence to suggest that she is in the area," a news release from the sheriff's office said Wednesday. "Leads coming in from concerned citizens and other investigative avenues are actively being pursued and at this point we cannot comment on them."

Closing the staging area doesn't mean the search for the girl has ended.

"Our investigative teams remain in the field, and will leave no stone unturned in the aggressive investigation into Diana's disappearance,' the release said.

Hernandez has referenced problems with Diana's father before. She filed a petition in Okeechobee County in December 2013 asking a judge to force Alvarez to return her two younger children.

"Martin took my kids, said he was going to bring them back and he didn't," her handwritten motion states. "I was in Georgia. He took them to Ohio, then to Okeechobee."

Hernandez thought Alvarez could take the children out of the U.S.

"Martin told me he had gotten passports for my kids while he was in Ohio," she said. "I think he is going to take them to Mexico."

The motion said Hernandez called the police in Fannin County, Georgia, where she was at the time. She noted in the motion that she wasn't married to Alvarez and that paternity had not been established for the children.

According to the motion, their three children born in the U.S. lived with both her and Alvarez until September 2013, when Hernandez said Alvarez left with the two youngest.

Hernandez has said in recent interviews that she split up with Alvarez before that time. She said in an interview in Spanish on Wednesday that in 2013, she and Alvarez weren't a couple any longer, but they still lived together. Alvarez, she said, wasn't helping her with the costs of raising their children. She went to live with her brother and the kids, Hernandez said.

Hernandez said after they started to live separately, Alvarez came one day saying he wanted to take the younger children for lunch to McDonald's. Diana was in school though, and he didn't want to wait for her to come back. When Hernandez saw the children weren't back home later that day, she called Alvarez, she said, but he didn't answer.

Hernandez said Alvarez didn't let her speak with the children, but she learned they were in Okeechobee. So she went there and filed the motion to force him to return the children with the help of an nonprofit legal service.

The Okeechobee judge denied the motion to pick up the children, arguing the birth certificates did not establish that Alvarez had no right of paternity; it wasn't established that there was no agreement for sharing time with the children; and there were no allegations against Alvarez concerning the children while he had custody between September and December 2013, when the motion was filed.

The judge's order also said Hernandez could establish paternity and determine all rights and responsibilities for the children.

Hernandez said in the interview Wednesday she was told that because they weren't married, she could do the same thing Alvarez had done. So, she said, one day she persuaded him that she wanted to take the children for lunch, and she didn't return them to him.

In early 2014, she said she moved to Collier County with the children and Uribe Jimenez, her current live-in boyfriend.

Since then, she said, Alvarez took the kids to Okeechobee a few weekends and always returned them to her.
Donna Ward and Glenn Johnson

By Maryann Batlle of the Naples Daily News

An appeals court has rejected Lee County's attempt to block two fired employees from coming back to work.

Florida's Second District Court of Appeals upheld a lower court order that Lee County must temporarily return Donna Ward and Glenn Johnson to their jobs at Lee County Domestic Animal Services (DAS). The appeals court ruling is not final until the time expires for either party to file for a rehearing, which is generally 15 days.

Lee County fired Ward and Johnson from the department in the summer of 2014. At the time, Ward was director of DAS, and Johnson was operations manager.

They filed a lawsuit that argues Lee County fired them because they blew the whistle on upper management's misdeeds. Last November, Lee Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Krier ruled that Ward and Johnson should be temporarily reinstated while the case is in court. Lee County asked the court of appeals to intervene.

Timothy Engstrom, a Lee County spokesman, declined comment via email: "This remains active litigation. We have nothing further at this time."

Engstrom did not respond to a follow-up message that asked whether Lee County will challenge the court of appeals order.

Nearly two years since filing their complaint, Ward and Johnson have taken no new jobs because of the uncertainty they have faced, said Brian Calciano, their lawyer.

"It's confusing to subsequent employers," said Calciano. "It's very frustrating."

Lee County has the time and resources to make an example out of Ward and Johnson by delaying the court-ordered reinstatement, he said.

"I think the county is trying to crucify Donna Ward and Glenn Johnson to send a signal to other employees not to come forward," he said.

Ward and Johnson's case is scheduled to go to trial in September.
By Patrick Riley of the Naples Daily News

After months of back and forth, Bonita Springs has decided to save its old downtown water tower  reversing an earlier decision to demolish it.

Councilors on Wednesday unanimously voted to replace the roof of the dilapidated water tank, which sits near the Liles Hotel on Old 41 Road, and strengthen the rotted bottoms of the wooden walls. Councilman Steven Slachta was absent and did not vote.

"We feel that this will leave it structurally sound," said Nicole Perino, the city's parks and recreation director. "It should be safe and secure for years to come."

The tank, which has been sitting on a concrete foundation at its current location since 2006 but is much older than that, is in dire need of repairs, according to the city.

An inspection of the structure last month revealed that the entire roof was rotting and individual boards could be removed by hand. The tower's sides are intact, the city says, but the wood near the bottom five or six inches is also rotting.

"We have now taken another close look at the water tower," Perino said. "We have looked at every angle of the structure."

The cost for the renovations will be $10,270, according to city documents. There is no funding available for renovations in the current budget, Perino said, but she will bring a budget amendment back before council.

"The roof will look the same on the outside, but it won't be the same on the inside because it will have the different overlays making it structurally sound," Perino said.

The tank will also be "completely sealed up," Perino said, to prevent water from getting inside.

Wednesday's decision comes less than a month after councilors unanimously voted to tear down the water tank which the city said posed a safety risk to residents.

After more than a year of searching for a contractor willing to repair the decrepit structure, city staff said the wooden tank had passed the point of no return and needed to be removed.

Faced with the prospect of losing the water tower, Jesse Purdon, who lost his campaign for city council in March, petitioned the city last month to put a hold on the demolition. A handful of council members asked City Manager Carl Schwing to temporarily halt the destruction  which had been set for May 17  and revisit the issue in June.

The wooden tank, which is "one of only two known to exist in town," is typical of water systems in early Bonita Springs, according to written accounts from the Bonita Springs Historical Society. It was originally on the property of Isadore Herman at the northwest corner of Bonita Beach Road and Old 41 Road, according to the account.

In 1988, Lee County moved the tank near Riverside Park.

A new tower was built later, and the city moved the old tank to its current location in 2006.

The move Wednesday to save the tower was lauded by residents who had feared it would be demolished.

"I'm really glad that we're moving forward with this," said Alan Glazier. "I hope that we can get something that's going to stand for years and the city will be proud of it."
Producers A.B Quintanilla III, left, and Luigi Giraldo, center, share a laugh with BajoZero founder and bassist Fabian Flores while recording bass tracks for the bands upcoming album Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Hialeah, Fla. (Luke Franke/Staff)

SHARE Members of the Tejano group BajoZero (from left) guitarist Cristian Roy Dimas, founder and bassist Fabian Flores, lead vocalist Juan Jose Rodriguez, drummer Guillermo Lara, and accordion player Tre Herrera stand for a group photo Tuesday, May 31, 2016 in Immokalee. (Luke Franke/Staff) BajoZero lead vocalist Juan Jose Rodriguez, far left, looks on as producer A.B Quintanilla III gives Baja Zero founder and bassist Fabian Flores a fist bump after successfully recording a bass track for the band's upcoming album Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Hialeah, Fla. (Luke Franke/Staff) Producer Luigi Giraldo, from left, BajoZero founder and bassist Fabian Flores record a bass track while lead vocalist Juan Jose Rodriguez passes the time on his phone during a recording session for the bands upcoming album Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Hialeah, Fla. (Luke Franke/Staff) Producer Luigi Giraldo counts off the beat for BajoZero founder and bassist Fabian Flores while recording bass tracks for the bands upcoming album Wednesday, June 1, 2016 in Hialeah, Fla. (Luke Franke/Staff) Related Coverage Selena's brother to produce album for Immokalee-based Tejano band

By Maria Perez of the Naples Daily News

This is the milestone Fabian Flores has been working toward, his Immokalee group BajoZero recording Tejano music with producer A.B. Quintanilla in Miami.

For years, BajoZero band members have juggled their music with other jobs that pay the bills, traveling on weekends to perform at private parties, clubs and festivals in Florida and out of state.

For almost two weeks now, BajoZero has been traveling to Hialeah to record the group's second album with Luigi Giraldo and Quintanilla, a member of the Texas band Los Kumbia Kings and brother of popular Tejano singer and songwriter Selena.

"This is the part of our lives we have been working so hard for," said Flores, 41. "It's exciting, but it's also surreal, because it's A.B. Quintanilla. We are honored."

Three members of BajoZero, which translates from Spanish as BelowZero, live in Immokalee, including Flores, who plays bass and started the band in 2003. One band member lives in Naples, and two others in Plant City.

Flores drives farmworkers to the fields during season to earn the money he needs to make a living, he said. Guillermo Lara, who plays drums, works with his father selling produce. Other members work in other jobs, including a foreman in the fields, a security system tech, a construction worker and a supermarket employee.

But now they are nearer to a time when they can just play, and recording with Quintanilla is leading them there.

"We want music to be our full-time job," Flores said. "And hopefully very soon, we will be able to do that."

Quintanilla said he saw the band play for the first time at the 2015 Tejano Music Awards in October, an event he was watching online. He said the group was different from any other.

"I liked the groups image, their energy, and what they were offering," Quintanilla said.

In March, Quintanilla approached the band at an event in Freeport, Texas. He told them he thought they had a good chance at a music career and he would like to work with them.

He said that although many categorize the group as Tejano, their style is more Progressive Norteno, a popular Mexican music. The new album, he said, will include songs he composed long ago, that were recorded with artists like Christian Castro or Selena. And they will shape the music into their own style.

"This album represents all Latin America," Quintanilla said.

The producer said he is helping the group jump to the next level.

"This group has no equal," Quintanilla said. "What they are doing here, theres no one in the market who is doing it."

The BajoZero band members have been together since 2012. They mostly perform within Florida, in Immokalee, Naples, Fort Pierce, Okeechobee, Tampa, Orlando or other locations where there's a thirst for Tejano and Progressive Norteno music, Flores said.

But they have also played in Texas, Georgia and South Carolina. They hope they can go soon to Michigan, Ohio and Chicago, and outside the U.S., perhaps to Mexico.

"We are hoping that we can have a tour for this new album," Flores said.

Flores said having Quintanilla producing their new album will help them reach many more people, even in Mexico.

Noe Avalos, CEO and owner of BajoZero's record label, Avalos Recording Group, says the group's music is a mixture of many styles.

"This group is like a rainbow, with different colors," said Avalos, who also lives in Immokalee.

Flores said Immokalee has influenced the type of music they play. In the 70s and 80s, Texans arrived in Immokalee to harvest the fields. Groups played every weekend.

"Tejano music was big, big in Immokalee," Flores said.

In the 90s, Mexicans started to come, Flores said, bringing other sounds with them.

"The music started to change, so we also changed with the music," Flores said about the group.

The group, he says, has influences from Tejano and Norteno music, tropical and Christian music, country and even jazz or salsa.

Flores said he grew up in the community listening to Tejano and Norteno music. His father was from Texas and his mother from Reynosa, in Mexico.

He's mostly self-taught on guitar, he said, with help from others like Perfecto Garcia Jr. He would go to his performances and imitate how he played. Flores said he doesnt know how to read music, but he can pick any sound he listens to.

"I started late," Flores said. "I got my first guitar when I was 17 and I was playing on the stage by the time I was 18."

Its been a long time since then.

Avalos, the record label owner, said he used to play drums with BajoZero. He started representing the band in 2014, he said.

"They have worked very hard to shape the group, keep themselves together and stabilize the style," he said.

The group released their first album in December 2014. Their first single was "Te Fuiste", or "You went." The album, Avalos said, started to generate fans in Texas. Its songs can be downloaded in Spotify.

Avalos said recording with Quintanilla is a good experience for the group.

"They are learning," he said. "They can collaborate with talented authors, who are experienced and know how to develop talent."
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By Stacey Henson, The News-Press

Carlos Silva said he felt like he was with Publisher's Clearing House instead of Taco Bell as he knocked on Jake Booth's door Wednesday morning, an over-sized check tucked under his arm.

Booth, in a coma for 42 days, became an Internet sensation with his I want Taco Bell upon awakening.

The check, for $2,500, came with a side of gift cards totaling $250, from Silva, COO of Prometheus Franchise Restaurant Holding. The Clearwater-based company owns Taco Bell franchises throughout Southwest Florida.

"We wanted to meet one of our greatest fans," Silva said. Jose Durant, Fort Myers district manager, and Shawn Finehout, area manager, joined him at Booth's Bonita Springs home. Booth's wife, Jasmine Stanley, and friends and co-workers Andrew Holdeman and Tyler Chronister, rounded out the group. "Your story was really an inspiration."

Carlos Silva, COO of Prometheus Franchise Restaurant Holding. The Clearwater-based company owns Taco Bell franchises throughout Southwest Florida. Along with Jose Durant, Fort Myers district manager, and Shawn Finehout, area manager, brought a check, for $2,500, and a side of gift cards totaling $250 for Jake Booth to enjoy tacos whenever the craving hits.

While Booth awoke on April 2 and made his request known, doctors didn't allow him solid foods until May 4.

On May 5, Cinco de Mayo, he ate 8.5 regular crunchy tacos, a day after eating half a cheeseburger, his first real meal in 75 days. Holdeman, who works at Fischer International in Naples, delivered the meal and snapped a photograph of a happy Booth, still clad in a hospital gown.

Chronister posted the photo on Reddit on May 6, and it was picked up as part of a "NowThis" video. Soon everyone from Fox News to Playboy was retelling the story with millions of people learning about his journey.

Jake Booth requested Taco Bell tacos when he woke from his 42-day coma. On May 5, he got his wish.

Chronister said Booth now has fans all over the world, some calling him their "spirit animal" and "soul mate."

"Everybody can relate to Jake's love to Taco Bell," he said.

Booth returned home Friday after more than 90 days in four hospitals, and he continues to improve.

"Every day is better than the previous," Stanley said.

Booth said his next goal is to go back to working on computers.

Carlos Silva, COO of Prometheus Franchise Restaurant Holding. The Clearwater-based company owns Taco Bell franchises throughout Southwest Florida. Along with Jose Durant, Fort Myers district manager, and Shawn Finehout, area manager, brought a check, for $2,500, and a side of gift cards totaling $250 for Jake Booth to enjoy tacos whenever the craving hits.

He has kidney dialysis three times a week, and may face a transplant. In addition, Booth will soon start physical therapy, another piece adding to the overwhelming medical bills.

The Wake the Jake gofundme.com page had raised $16,187 as of Tuesday. With Prometheus adding its check, it brings them closer to the $50,000 goal.

"We know you have a long road ahead," Silva said. "We're very proud of you."

Booth's wife, Jasmine Stanley, thanked Silva, as did Booth.

Carlos Silva, COO of Prometheus Franchise Restaurant Holding. The Clearwater-based company owns Taco Bell franchises throughout Southwest Florida. Along with Jose Durant, Fort Myers district manager, and Shawn Finehout, area manager, brought a check, for $2,500, and a side of gift cards totaling $250 for Jake Booth to enjoy tacos whenever the craving hits.

Silva said it was fitting the gift cards carried Taco Bell's "Live Mas" logo.

"Brother, we want you to live mas," he said.
A researcher holds a container with female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo's University in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The spread of the Zika virus in Latin America is giving a boost to a British biotech firm's proposal to try reducing the threat by deploying a genetically modified version of the mosquito that transmits the disease. Andre Penner/Associated Press

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By Ledyard King, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON  Gov. Rick Scott asked the Obama administration Wednesday for immediate help fighting Zika, saying Congress' inability to pass a funding bill is imperiling Floridians' health and the state's $67 billion tourism industry.

In a letter to President Barack Obama, the governor asked for 5,000 Zika preparedness kits as well as "resources" to: enhance mosquito surveillance, expand mosquito abatement, increase training for mosquito control technicians, and enlarge mosquito laboratory capacity.

Scott said he discussed the list of items with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell when he visited Washington last month. At the time, he was hopeful lawmakers would quickly reach a compromise on Zika funding, but a deal has yet to materialize.

In his letter to the president, Scott called Congress' inaction "profoundly disappointing"  a rare public swipe at fellow Republicans who control Capitol Hill.

"However, in order to best protect the 20 million people in Florida and our many visitors from the spread of Zika, I cannot waste any time on disappointment," Scott wrote. "Florida needs action from the federal government now."

Senior officials at HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a conference call with state officials Wednesday "to review these requests and ensure that HHS can provide as much assistance to Florida as possible," an HHS spokesman, Kevin Griffis, wrote in an email.

"HHS is working closely with the state of Florida and agrees with the governor's sense of urgency around the steps that need to be taken to combat the Zika virus, as well as the imperative of congressional action to provide supplemental funding to support preparedness and response in states," he wrote.

No state has been affected by Zika more than Florida.

On Wednesday, state officials reported two new travel-related ZIKA cases  one in Miami-Dade and one involving a pregnant woman. The state now has logged 162 cases, including 38 affecting pregnant women, by far the largest tally in the nation.

That number is expected to grow as warmer, wetter weather brings an expected onslaught of mosquitoes. In addition, Florida is considered especially vulnerable to an outbreak, given its tropical climate, proximity to Latin America (where the virus is rampant), and the volume of travelers constantly funneling from abroad through its airports and seaports.

The Zika virus poses the biggest threat to pregnant women and women planning to become pregnant. It has been linked to birth defects, including microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and incomplete brain development.

Last month, separate bills funding anti-Zika efforts passed in the House ($622 million) and the Senate ($1.1 billion). U.S. Sens. Ben Nelson and Marco Rubio of Florida both said they back Obama's $1.9 billion request but could live with the Senate bill for now.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has tried to deflect criticism, saying the administration can continue using Ebola money to combat Zika, as lawmakers have recommended, until Congress reaches a deal on a Zika plan.

"The reality is that Congress has been on top of the Zika threat from the beginning," Ryan said. "Over the past several months, it has made available the money necessary to prepare for an outbreak. In fact, the administration is already spending that money. Put simply: There is no funding shortage. There never has been."

The administration has identified $589 million, including $510 million of existing Ebola resources, that can be used for "time-critical activities" such as mosquito control, lab testing, vaccine development and support for expectant mothers at risk of exposure to Zika.

But the administration said it needs the full $1.9 billion from Congress to fund its best effort against Zika.
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Congressional election

As the field comes into focus to select Southwest Florida's fourth congressman in five years, there are reasons to extend a "thanks" to Rep. Curt Clawson for his stint as an outsider to the halls of Congress.

For starters, unlike many who stay too long in Washington, D.C., Clawson's tenure was too short. His decision not to run for re-election was based on family considerations. It is the honorable call to put family before career, considering we believe Clawson  if he had chosen to stick around  could have matched or surpassed the four consecutive terms Rep. Connie Mack IV served.

Secondly, Clawson didn't announce his surprise decision too far in advance of the week of June 20-24, when candidates officially get their names on the Aug. 30 primary and Nov. 8 general election ballot. That gives us hope that candidates now deciding whether to join the congressional race won't have the opportunity to create a rerun of the ugliest bloodbath election in recent memory, the April 2014 special Republican primary to replace Clawson's predecessor and Mack's successor, Trey Radel. Though Radel didn't resign until January 2014, resulting in the special election, his fate as a one-term congressman was sealed with his October 2013 cocaine-related criminal case.

Thirdly, Clawson has set the table for Congress and his successor to push forward, in a bipartisan fashion, several important environmental issues for Southwest Florida. Clawson introduced the Everglades Land Acquisition Act, calling on the Interior Department to spend $500 million to buy land in the Everglades Agriculture Area in Palm Beach County as a partial water-storage solution to cleaning up water north and south of Lake Okeechobee. He's led a bipartisan push to expedite repairs to the lake's dike by Dec. 31, 2020, protecting the surrounding towns from disaster. Clawson has pushed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move sooner, not later, on dredging Gordon Pass in Naples, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Lee and the channel at Fort Myers Beach.

Money was the root of evil in the April 2014 nasty GOP primary that Clawson won after millions raised by candidates and outside political groups were pumped into broadcast attack ads against one candidate or another. So Wednesday's report in the Daily News about candidates now sizing up ways to raise large pots of money, and that political groups have spent $380 million so far in various 2016 races, conjured up bad memories.

While we say "thanks" to Clawson now for several reasons, when it comes to the notion of outside money bringing us a repeat of the April 2014 primary, we'd resoundingly say "no thanks."
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Bob Moates, Naples

Depression

My family is worried about me. They say I'm suffering from depression. I'm not eating properly. I don't get out of the house unless it's absolutely necessary. I don't reply when addressed. They are fearful I might do something foolish. They have taken away my BB gun.

My life changed May 7 after reading a letter to the editor about the writer's disappointment with Naples. The writer has been here, according to her letter, for a long, long time: less than two years.

Wow! This veteran Neapolitan has a long list of complaints: traffic, too many homes being built, not enough beach parking, water supply, careless government, greed, and wealthy people. Seems to me like one would have noticed these conditions were prevalent when that person came here two years ago.

Well, I have come up with a plan to relieve my emotional distress. If one moves to Naples and finds too many undesirable conditions, consider a home elsewhere.

After much research, I think I've found such a town: Loco Hills, New Mexico, 88255 (look it up). No beach, but lots of sand. Small town. No building. In 2007 Loco Hills boasted a population of 344 people. In 2010 the population dropped to 126, and in 2014 it was down to 33 souls. Very little traffic. According to Google, there is one person every 12 square miles.

If one more person moved there the population of Loco Hills would rise to 34.

One wouldn't need to build a new house in Loco Hills. There are a lot of vacancies there.

If Loco Hills is too crowded, one might look at Maljamar, a nearby village so small that its specifics aren't even listed.

There. Now I'm feeling better. Looks like my depression is gone.
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Ida Margolis, Naples

Important elections

With the entire noise and media circus that has marked the current presidential election campaigns, it is easy to lose sight of elections with local significance.

The upcoming Collier County School Board election has important implications for both the education community and the general population. Just because one might not have children in the school system is not a reason to abstain from voting.

Just because one is away from Collier County for a few months does not mean that this election is of less importance.

Students from the high school where I taught for many years were fortunate to take a trip to Washington, D.C., to meet civil rights champion and Georgia Congressman John Lewis. He told them the right to vote is precious and almost sacred, and one of the most important blessings of our democracy.

He explained that for him and millions of others, the struggle for the right to vote is not mere history. He related how he was beaten and jailed for standing up for the right to vote, and that people died trying to protect it. Today we should not be dismissive of that right.

Along with the right to vote, I believe it is the responsibility of voters to learn about the candidates and the issues that they support.

After doing my research on the Collier School Board candidates, I believe that Stephanie Lucarelli and Erick Carter have the best interest of the Collier County students and school district at heart and are excellent choices.

Remember your vote counts!
Hodges University is proud to announce that Alan Horton, former Naples Daily News editor and Hodges 2015 Humanitarian of the Year, will deliver its 2016 commencement address on Sunday, June 12. This years commencement will be held at Germain Arena in Estero at 4:00 p.m.

Alan Horton is a passionate ambassador of education. We are so grateful that he has agreed to share his unique historical perspective and extraordinary understanding of our modern world as the commencement speaker for the 2016 graduating class at Hodges University, said Phil Memoli, vice president of university advancement at Hodges.

An award-winning reporter, editor and publisher, Horton served as the senior vice president of newspapers for the E.W. Scripps Co. and was editor of the Naples Daily News from 1987-1991. He and his wife, Beverly, received the 2012 Heart of the Apple Award from the Education Foundation, and in 2013, he earned the title of the Naples Daily News Outstanding Citizen of the Year.

Serving as faculty speaker is Professor Tracey Lanham, program chair of the computer information technology programs in the Fisher School of Technology. An alumna, Lanham earned her associate, bachelors and masters degrees in computer information technology from Hodges. She is actively involved in the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT), the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and the Southwest Florida Regional Technology Partnership (SWFRTP). She also organizes area AspireIT programming camps for girls in grades 6-12. Recently, she received the Woman in Technology Award from the SWFRTP.

The commencement audience will also hear from student speaker Terry Cochran, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in legal studies. A United States Air Force veteran, he currently serves as the sergeant of the major crimes unit in Port Charlotte. He is awaiting admission to Stetson Law Schools part-time program. His goal is to become a police attorney.

Selected by Hodges Graduation Committee, the student speaker must be receiving a baccalaureate degree, possess a cumulative grade point average of 3.90 or higher and be recommended by his/her specified school.

Since the founding of Hodges University in 1990, the total number of degrees conferred is more than 9,600, which includes this years estimated 440 conferred degrees. For more information, visit www.hodges.edu/graduation or call 800- 466-8017 or 800-466-8019.

About Hodges University:

Hodges University, a private, nonprofit institution of higher learning, was founded in Naples, Florida in 1990 as International College. In 2007, International College was renamed Hodges University in honor of its main benefactors, Earl and Thelma Hodges, long-time residents of Naples and supporters of Hodges University. Hodges mission is to provide transformation learner-driven educational opportunities. To accomplish this mission Hodges schools offer a variety of academic programs online and on the Fort Myers and Naples campuses. Hodges University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate, bachelor's and master's degrees.
Tipperary is the only constituency in the country without a Government representative in the Oireachtas after Taoiseach Enda Kenny overlooked the county's senior Fine Gael figures in his nominations to the Seanad.

Former Fine Gael Minister of State Tom Hayes from Golden and former Fine Gael TD Noel Coonan from Gortnagoona, Roscrea, who both lost their seats in the recent General Election, were not among the Taoiseach's 11 nominees to the Seanad last week.

Six former Fine Gael TDs who lost their seats in the General Election received Seanad nominations including former Minister of State Paudie Coffey from Waterford, former Health Minister and Minister of State Dr James Reilly from Dublin and former Mayo TD Michelle Mulherin.

Tom Hayes said there was huge disappointment within the Fine Gael party in the county and its supporters and also among the constituency's electorate that the county hadn't any government TD or Senator in the Oireachtas.

"People are now realising how disappointing it is for the constituency that we don't have a government representative in the Oireachtas, particularly with the jobs crisis. The Oireachtas members recently met representatives of the IDA but there was no government minister there.They had turned their back on the minister.

He said the county's Fine Gael voters felt disenfranchised by the absence of any Fine Gael representative from Tipperary in either of the houses of the Oireachtas.

Mr Hayes pointed out that Fine Gael's 3 candidates received more than 12,000 first preference votes combined in the election, which translated to 16.09 % of the overall vote in the constituency. The Fine Gael candidates' votes, however, didn't transfer well due to the historic north/south divide of the county into two consituencies. Labour, in comparison, received 9.94% of the constituency vote.

When asked whether he was personally disappointed at not receiving one of the Taoiseach's Seanad appointments, he replied "not really". He pointed out that he didn't run for the Seanad in the recent election because of his sister's death, which occurred a few days after the General Election.

Mr Hayes, who served as a Fine Gael TD for South Tipperary for 15 years and was Minister for State in the Department of Agriculture in the last government, confirmed he is interested in running in the next General Election. He revealed he was receiving "huge encouragement" across the county to run for the Dail again though it will be ultimately up to the Fine Gael party's members in the constituency to nominate him as a candidate.

"The important thing is that in the next General Election when it comes, we have to make sure there is a Tipperary Fine Gael representative elected.

"We have to get up, get on and rebuild.
St Marys Hall in Killenaule was bedecked in gorgeous colour and bunting as hundreds of parishoners assembled to pay a very special tribute to retired parish priest of Killenaule-Moyglass, Canon Liam Ryan.

St Marys Hall in Killenaule was bedecked in gorgeous colour and bunting as hundreds of parishoners assembled to pay a very special tribute to retired parish priest of Killenaule-Moyglass, Canon Liam Ryan.

It was an evening of joy and thanksgiving at the Community Centre as the parish of Killenaule-Moyglass reflected on Canon Ryans 15 years of devoted ministry to the community.

Indicative of the esteem in which Holycross native Fr Liam is held, he received a huge cead mile failte when he arrived for the reception in St Marys Hall. Among those to greet him was his successor in the parish, Fr Jimmy O Donnell, PP, and Fr Danny OGorman, CC, Killenaule-Moyglass.

Liam Ryans name is synonomous with the GAA. One of Tipperary best known hurling referees in 1970s-he refereed a county senior hurling final- Liam served as a very efficient Mid Tipperary GAA Board Secretary before entering the seminary to study for the priesthood. Following his ordination in 1982 he had the joy of celebrating his first Mass in Holycross Abbey, and his first appointment as curate in the Holy Family Community in Waterford.

Master of Ceremonies William OGrady said that the large crowd present in St Marys hall reflected the ever present source of comfort and support Fr Ryan had been to so many people. Chairperson of the organising committee and local Councillor John Fahey recalled the great support given to him by Canon Ryan during the staging of events such as a civic reception for Killenaule native, Bishop Liam Slattery, and the visit of South Tipperary County Council members to the famous Derrynaflan Island.

Fr Jimmy ODonnell, PP, Killenaule-Moyglass joined in the good wishes to his predecessor and thanked him for his immense pastoral work and dedication to the parish over the years.

Secretary of the organising committee, Sean Watts wished Canon Liam peace, contentment and happiness in his retirement.

In the course of his address, Canon Liam said he was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity shown to him by the parish. He said he and his family were very grateful for the lovely function held in his honour and he was delighted to meet again with so many friends. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your support down through the years and your attendance here this evening in such great numbers Canon Ryan added.

To mark the auspicious occasion, presentations were made to Canon Ryan on behalf of the community by Kathleen Cormack, Mary Delaney, Kathleen Fanning, and John Guiton.
A third generation Tipperary pharmacist has scooped one of the industrys top awards.

And adding to the significance of Jimmy OSullivan's win is that his own customers played a huge part in the success.

The Fethard man won the Clionas Foundation Peoples Pharmacist of the Year.

He was in the original top two hundred listed for the award and then shortlisted in t he final six.

Votes were cast online, by email and by voting slips in the nominated pharmacies.

And Jimmy's supporters, describing him as someone who puts his customers first and often going above and beyond the call of duty, responded in huge numbers.

At a gala presentation ceremony in Dublin, he was announced as the winner of the prestigious award, organised by the industry publication Irish Pharmacy News.

And there is a touching connection between his original nomination and the sponsors of the award.

He was nominated by Tricia Doyle and Michael O'Brien from Cloneen, whose daughter Bianca is bravely battling leukemia.

Tricia and Michael were so grateful to Jimmy and his staff at the Main Street outlet in Fethard for his care and attention to Bianca's needs when diagnosed with the serious illness.

It was appropriate then that Jimmy was named the Cliona's People's Pharmacist of the Year as the award is named after another brave young girl, Cliona Ring, who sadly died from her illness.

Her parents Terry and Brendan remember Cliona through the Cliona Foundation that raises funds to help families meet the cost of expensive hospital care fo r sick children. To date it has raised over 1m.

I am delighted to win an award that honours such a deserving cause, said the Fethard man.

We don't do it for recogntion but I am delighted for my staff and for Fethard - a town that certainly punches above its weight, especially this year with Mouse Morris's success in the Irish and Aintree Grand Nationals.

And I am also delighted that Bianca is doing so well at the moment and getting ready to make his First Communion.

That is great news, he said.

He added - The award was presented by TV3's Colette Fitzpatrick, who is from Holycross, and as I said when I received the award, I was doing so on behalf of my staff who deserve a huge amount of thanks.

Jimmy and his wife Fionnuala are continuing a family business started by his grandfather James ninety nine years ago, in 1917, and continued by his father Donal.

And a fourth generation appears likely with son Jack just qualified as a pharmacist and another son Matt doing his final exams.

Daugher Evie is a qualified radiographer.
Freddie White will play the Clonmel Folk Club at the Main Guard Clonmel on Tuesday, June 7.

Freddie White has been part of the fabric of the live music scene in Ireland since the 1970s.

Born in Cobh, County Cork into a musical family, by age thirteen Freddie was playing in school bands and by seventeen playing professionally.

At nineteen, he moved to London, where he busked in subways, and developed his unique voice and guitar style.

In 1974, he was a founding member of Scullion, together with Philip King and Sonny Condell. Later he formed The Fake, regarded as one of the seminal Irish bands of the late 70s.

Next came The Freddie White Band formed in 1978, which toured with Eric Clapton that year. His first album, Live on Tour, recorded by Nicky Ryan while touring with Clannad, brought him national attention. His second album, Do You Do, was the biggest selling Mulligan Label album of 1981.

With these early albums, Freddie introduced an eclectic repertoire of music, which spanned musical genres and eras, to an Irish audience. Freddie's latest album Better Days, is a collection of ten original songs, all but one was written in 2014 by Freddie and Trish. The album was recorded in Sydney, Australia where they now live.
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The Department of Housing and Urban Development has created a new advisory committee that will explore ways to make counseling more accessible for new homebuyers and troubled borrowers.

The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 called for the creation of a 12-member advisory committee to improve housing counseling and develop innovative strategies to support community-based counseling agencies.

The Housing Counseling Federal Advisory Committee includes three representatives from each of the four mortgage, real estate, consumer and housing counseling sectors.

The committee is slated to have its first meeting June 21.

Pamela Marron, a senior loan officer at Innovative Mortgage Services Inc. in New Port Richey, Fla., is looking forward to getting started. "I'm in Florida, the land of underwater homes," she said an interview Wednesday.

She noted non-government-sponsored enterprise interest-only mortgages and home equity lines of credit are starting to reset and it is very difficult to refinance.

"I would tell them what is really happening at ground zero. And I am expecting the other members will have similar stories," Marron said. "We have a good diverse group and I am excited about that."

In announcing the committee members, the agency stressed that its mission would be to "expand access to the HUD's housing counseling programs, develop new innovative strategies to support community-based counseling agencies, and identify methods to leverage our resources to amplify the impact of federally funded housing counseling."

"This panel will also develop new metrics to evaluate the health and capacity of the housing counseling industry, specifically in the context of disaster recovery and identify ways to improve the use of technology in housing counseling."

Meg Burns, a former top HUD official, has also been selected to serve on the advisory committee. Burns noted the counseling provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act were originally drafted back in 2000. It was designed to elevate the importance of housing counseling at HUD.

Housing counseling can include fair housing counseling, rental assistance, pre-purchase counseling, and the basics of finding a mortgage lender or drawing up a household budget.

"It really goes well above and beyond what must people are familiar with as a result of the foreclosure crisis," she said in an interview Wednesday.

Burns is currently a managing director at The Collingwood Group, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

In addition to Burns and Marron, following are the committee members:

Mortgage Sector

Linda Ayres is employed by New American Funding as a loan consultant. Throughout Ayres' 23-year career in mortgage lending, she has been involved with local nonprofit organizations that provide homebuyer education and down payment assistance.

Jose Larry Garcia is a Vietnam-era veteran from El Paso, Texas. Garcia is employed by the El Paso Credit Union Affordable Housing Inc. as president and chief executive. He has 14 years of experience in managing a successful national pilot Affordable Housing Credit Union Service Organization and HUD housing counseling agency.

Real Estate Members

E.J. Thomas is currently employed with Habitat for Humanity and serves as the CEO. Thomas has served in this position for more than 10 years and is responsible for the oversight and operation of one of the nation's top-50 Habitat affiliates in terms of the number of homes constructed, which reached 22 houses in 2012.

Cassie Hicks is employed by the University of Southern Mississippi, Institute for Disability Studies as the Assistant Director of Housing. She is the assistant manager in the family-owned property management business of Hicks Consulting Service. Additionally, she served as the assistant vice president/compliance officer/branch manager at Bankcorp South Bank from September 1993 to February 2001.

Alejandro Becerra is employed with the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals as the Director of Research. During the past five years, Becerra has authored the annual State of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, which recommends increasing counseling funds and outreach to Hispanics.

Consumer Members

Afreen Alam is a community leader who has been at the forefront of housing counseling both on the ground and on the intermediary level. Alam recently returned to Chaya Community Development Corp., a HUD-approved counseling agency since 2007, as its executive director. Chaya CDC works with a diverse base of renters, homebuyers, and homeowners in Queens, N.Y., with a focus on tenant rights, the home-buying process, foreclosure prevention and retrofitting.

Ellie Pepper has been working for 30 years on issues related to disenfranchised communities, with a focus on affordable housing for the past 10 years. In 2012, she was hired by Empire Justice Center as the regional coordinator for the Northeast and Hudson Valley region of New York State as part of the almost $1.5 million Homeownership Protection Program anchor partner, a $20 million grant program the Empire Justice Center oversees for the New York State Office of the Attorney General. Prior to joining the Empire Justice Center she was the deputy director of Better Neighborhoods Inc., a nonprofit, HUD-approved homeownership center providing housing counseling services and developing affordable housing.

Housing Counseling

Judy Hunter is currently employed with Rural Community Assistance Corp. as the housing counseling manager. She officially became the housing counseling manager in 2008. The RCAC is a nonprofit organization that provides training, technical and financial resources, and advocacy so rural communities can achieve their goals and visions. Headquartered in West Sacramento, Calif., RCAC employees serve rural communities in the Western United States and the Pacific Islands.

Arthur "Buz" Zeman is employed by Housing Options Provided for the Elderly. He has served as the executive director of HOPE since 1993. HOPE serves seniors and caregivers of seniors with counseling services related to housing and many related issues, such as access to public benefit programs, budgeting and planning. Zeman stated that he has been passionate about great HECM counseling since 1993. During his tenure, HOPE has received a HUD comprehensive housing counseling grant since 1994.

Terri Redmond has been employed by the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for the past 12 years and currently serving as the manager of counseling and education. Since the creation of Redmond's position, PHFA has experienced a 100% increase in the number of counseling agencies that participate in PHFA's network.
A rare issue involving state-owned coal company Vinacomin and PetroVietnam over a supply contract has been made public with the former complaining the latter did not fulfill its purchasing commitment in the first four months of the year.

PetroVietnams Vung Ang 1 power plant has cut the volume of coal it purchases from top domestic coal producer Vinacomin and opted for cheaper imports of the fuel.

The Vung Ang 1 power plant. Photo by PetroVietnam Construction Corp.

From January-April, Vung Ang 1 in the central province of Ha Tinh only bought 300,000 tons of coal from Vinacomin, much lower than the 1.3 million tons that it previously agreed in principle to buy, Nguyen Canh Nam, an official from the Vietnam Energy Association, said in a statement on the Vinacomin website earlier this week.

In January this year, Vinacomin inked a deal to supply around 2.6 million tons of coal to Vung Ang 1 in 2016. The General Department of Energy under the Ministry of Industry and Trade held a meeting with the two companies on April 14 to try to resolve the issue. After the meeting, Dang Huy Cuong, director of the department, issued a note asking the national oil and gas group to direct the Vung Ang 1 operator to continue buying coal from Vinacomin as agreed in the contract.

The situation comes at a time when many coal consumers in Vietnam are importing more of the fuel to take advantage of low global prices, especially from Australia and Indonesia. In the first four months of this year, the country imported 4.74 million tons of coal, jumping 262 percent from the same period in 2015.

Indonesia, one of Vietnam's top coal suppliers, set its April thermal coal reference price at $52.32/ton, 18.8 percent lower on-year, according to Platts, a global energy news outlet.

In the first four months, coal imports from Australia rose to 1.51 million tons, nearly 5 times higher than the same period last year, while shipments from Indonesia reached 802,416 tons, rising 37 percent on-year.
Dear Legislator:



My name is Tetyana Obukhanych. I hold a PhD in Immunology. I am writing this letter in the hope that it will correct several common misperceptions about vaccines in order to help you formulate a fair and balanced understanding that is supported by accepted vaccine theory and new scientific findings.



Do unvaccinated children pose a higher threat to the public than the vaccinated?

It is often stated that those who choose not to vaccinate their children for reasons of conscience endanger the rest of the public, and this is the rationale behind most of the legislation to end vaccine exemptions currently being considered by federal and state legislators country-wide. You should be aware that the nature of protection afforded by many modern vaccines  and that includes most of the vaccines recommended by the CDC for children  is not consistent with such a statement. I have outlined below the recommended vaccines that cannot prevent transmission of disease either because they are not designed to prevent the transmission of infection (rather, they are intended to prevent disease symptoms), or because they are for non-communicable diseases. People who have not received the vaccines mentioned below pose no higher threat to the general public than those who have, implying that discrimination against non-immunized children in a public school setting may not be warranted.



1. IPV (inactivated poliovirus vaccine) cannot prevent transmission of poliovirus (see appendix for the scientific study, Item #1). Wild poliovirus has been non-existent in the USA for at least two decades. Even if wild poliovirus were to be re-imported by travel, vaccinating for polio with IPV cannot affect the safety of public spaces. Please note that wild poliovirus eradication is attributed to the use of a different vaccine, OPV or oral poliovirus vaccine. Despite being capable of preventing wild poliovirus transmission, use of OPV was phased out long ago in the USA and replaced with IPV due to safety concerns.



2. Tetanus is not a contagious disease, but rather acquired from deep-puncture wounds contaminated with C. tetani spores. Vaccinating for tetanus (via the DTaP combination vaccine) cannot alter the safety of public spaces; it is intended to render personal protection only.



3. While intended to prevent the disease-causing effects of the diphtheria toxin, the diphtheria toxoid vaccine (also contained in the DTaP vaccine) is not designed to prevent colonization and transmission of C. diphtheriae.Vaccinating for diphtheria cannot alter the safety of public spaces; it is likewise intended for personal protection only.



4. The acellular pertussis (aP) vaccine (the final element of the DTaP combined vaccine), now in use in the USA, replaced the whole cell pertussis vaccine in the late 1990s, which was followed by an unprecedented resurgence of whooping cough. An experiment with deliberate pertussis infection in primates revealed that the aP vaccine is not capable of preventing colonization and transmission of B. pertussis (see appendix for the scientific study, Item #2). The FDA has issued a warning regarding this crucial finding.[1]



Furthermore, the 2013 meeting of the Board of Scientific Counselors at the CDC revealed additional alarming data that pertussis variants (PRN-negative strains) currently circulating in the USA acquired a selective advantage to infect those who are up-to-date for their DTaP boosters (see appendix for the CDC document, Item #3), meaning that people who are up-to-date are morelikely to be infected, and thus contagious, than people who are not vaccinated.

5. Among numerous types of H. influenzae, the Hib vaccine covers only type b. Despite its sole intention to reduce symptomatic and asymptomatic (disease-less) Hib carriage, the introduction of the Hib vaccine has inadvertently shifted strain dominance towards other types of H. influenzae (types a through f).These types have been causing invasive disease of high severity and increasing incidence in adults in the era of Hib vaccination of children (see appendix for the scientific study, Item #4). The general population is more vulnerable to the invasive disease now than it was prior to the start of the Hib vaccination campaign. Discriminating against children who are not vaccinated for Hib does not make any scientific sense in the era of non-type b H. influenzae disease.



6. Hepatitis B is a blood-borne virus. It does not spread in a community setting, especially among children who are unlikely to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as needle sharing or sex. Vaccinating children for hepatitis B cannot significantly alter the safety of public spaces. Further, school admission is not prohibited for children who are chronic hepatitis B carriers. To prohibit school admission for those who are simply unvaccinated  and do not even carry hepatitis B  would constitute unreasonable and illogical discrimination.



In summary, a person who is not vaccinated with IPV, DTaP, HepB, and Hib vaccines due to reasons of conscience poses no extra danger to the public than a person who is. No discrimination is warranted.

How often do serious vaccine adverse events happen?

It is often stated that vaccination rarely leads to serious adverse events. Unfortunately, this statement is not supported by science. A recent study done in Ontario, Canada, established that vaccination actually leads to an emergency room visit for 1 in 168 children following their 12-month vaccination appointment and for 1 in 730 children following their 18-month vaccination appointment (see appendix for a scientific study, Item #5).



When the risk of an adverse event requiring an ER visit after well-baby vaccinations is demonstrably so high, vaccination must remain a choice for parents, who may understandably be unwilling to assume this immediate risk in order to protect their children from diseases that are generally considered mild or that their children may never be exposed to.



Can discrimination against families who oppose vaccines for reasons of conscience prevent future disease outbreaks of communicable viral diseases, such as measles?

Measles research scientists have for a long time been aware of the "measles paradox." I quote from the article by Poland & Jacobson (1994) "Failure to Reach the Goal of Measles Elimination: Apparent Paradox of Measles Infections in Immunized Persons." Arch Intern Med 154:1815-1820:



"THE APPARENT PARADOX IS THAT AS MEASLES IMMUNIZATION RATES RISE TO HIGH LEVELS IN A POPULATION, MEASLES BECOMES A DISEASE OF IMMUNIZED PERSONS."[2]

Further research determined that behind the "measles paradox" is a fraction of the population called LOW VACCINE RESPONDERS. Low-responders are those who respond poorly to the first dose of the measles vaccine. These individuals then mount a weak immune response to subsequent RE-vaccination and quickly return to the pool of "susceptibles'' within 2-5 years, despite being fully vaccinated.[3]



Re-vaccination cannot correct low-responsiveness: it appears to be an immuno-genetic trait.[4] The proportion of low-responders among children was estimated to be 4.7% in the USA.[5]



Studies of measles outbreaks in Quebec, Canada, and China attest that outbreaks of measles still happen, even when vaccination compliance is in the highest bracket (95-97% or even 99%, see appendix for scientific studies, Items #6&7). This is because even in high vaccine responders, vaccine-induced antibodies wane over time. Vaccine immunity does not equal life-long immunity acquired after natural exposure.



It has been documented that vaccinated persons who develop breakthrough measles are contagious. In fact, two major measles outbreaks in 2011 (in Quebec, Canada, and in New York, NY) were re-imported by previously vaccinated individuals.[6]  [7]



Taken together, these data make it apparent that elimination of vaccine exemptions, currently only utilized by a small percentage of families anyway, will neither solve the problem of disease resurgence nor prevent re-importation and outbreaks of previously eliminated diseases.



Is discrimination against conscientious vaccine objectors the only practical solution?

The majority of measles cases in recent US outbreaks (including the recent Disneyland outbreak) are adults and very young babies, whereas in the pre-vaccination era, measles occurred mainly between the ages 1 and 15. Natural exposure to measles was followed by lifelong immunity from re-infection, whereas vaccine immunity wanes over time, leaving adults unprotected by their childhood shots. Measles is more dangerous for infants and for adults than for school-aged children.



Despite high chances of exposure in the pre-vaccination era, measles practically never happened in babies much younger than one year of age due to the robust maternal immunity transfer mechanism. The vulnerability of very young babies to measles today is the direct outcome of the prolonged mass vaccination campaign of the past, during which their mothers, themselves vaccinated in their childhood, were not able to experience measles naturally at a safe school age and establish the lifelong immunity that would also be transferred to their babies and protect them from measles for the first year of life.



Luckily, a therapeutic backup exists to mimic now-eroded maternal immunity. Infants as well as other vulnerable or immunocompromised individuals, are eligible to receive immunoglobulin, a potentially life-saving measure that supplies antibodies directed against the virus to prevent or ameliorate disease upon exposure (see appendix, Item #8).



In summary: 1) due to the properties of modern vaccines, non-vaccinated individuals pose no greater risk of transmission of polio, diphtheria, pertussis, and numerous non-type b H. influenzae strains than vaccinated individuals do, non-vaccinated individuals pose virtually no danger of transmission of hepatitis B in a school setting, and tetanus is not transmissible at all; 2) there is a significantly elevated risk of emergency room visits after childhood vaccination appointments attesting that vaccination is not risk-free; 3) outbreaks of measles cannot be entirely prevented even if we had nearly perfect vaccination compliance; and 4) an effective method of preventing measles and other viral diseases in vaccine-ineligible infants and the immunocompromised, immunoglobulin, is available for those who may be exposed to these diseases.



Taken together, these four facts make it clear that discrimination in a public school setting against children who are not vaccinated for reasons of conscience is completely unwarranted as the vaccine status of conscientious objectors poses no undue public health risk.



Sincerely Yours,



~ Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD



(NaturalNews) SB277 is the rule of law in California. The state is no longer allowing most vaccine exemptions for children hoping to attend public schools. The law, at its very core, is designed to "smoke out" those who choose to resist all vaccines or just a some of them. The legislation hopes to bring fear to those who may be on the fence about whether or not to vaccinate their children. Pharmaceutical companies backed the bill which they hope keeps revenue flowing by keeping people "in compliance."(Article by Gary Barnes, republished from http://truthkings.com But not every medical researcher is on the pharmaceutical companies take. Dr. Tetyana Obukhanych, Ph.D., is speaking out on the matter and condemning the state, it's legislators and the pharmaceutical companies for what is a blatant disregard for parental rights and science. She breaks down the failed concept of "herd immunity" and regards the Disney measles cases as mostly propaganda.Read more at http://truthkings.com
'It's not clear treatment is even effective'

One-third of the world infected

(NaturalNews) A leading healthcare advocacy group is calling out the Centers for Disease Control for allowing refugees to enter the United States without first screening and treating them for latent tuberculosis.Dr. Jane Orient, the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons , noted that seven of the CDC's own public health experts said that those screenings "would potentially save millions of dollars and contribute to United States TB elimination goals," in research that was published in December reported."Admitting people who might cause an epidemic makes no sense whatsoever from a public health standpoint," Orient told"It suggests that those who favor it do not care about the cost in suffering, death, and expense to Americans," Orient said, adding that she is in agreement with the public health experts currently or formerly employed at the CDC who concluded that the screenings and successful treatment of those who test positive is the proper public health policy for the U.S.That said, the political leadership at the CDC doesn't appear to be following the very screening and treatment recommendations made by its own experts.went on to report that, as of this writing, the agency had failed to respond as to when or whether the agency planned to change course."If for humanitarian reasons we wish to help people fleeing persecution, there is still no need to release them into the general population of susceptible individuals. Officials who place politics above the health of Americans need to be held accountable and removed from positions of authority," Orient said.In the December 2015 study, the seven health experts from the CDC's Division of Global Migration and Quarantine concluded that:"Implementing LTBI [latent tuberculosis infection] screening and treatment for United States bound refugees from countries with high or moderate LTBI prevalence would potentially save millions of dollars and contribute to United States TB elimination goals. These estimates are conservative since secondary transmission from tuberculosis cases in the United States was not considered in the model."At least one study author who recommended screening and treatment of latent TB refugees bound for the U.S. is no longer affiliated with the agency,reported."Tuberculosis is one of the most lethal infectious diseases in history. It is easily transmitted, say on a public bus. Increasingly, it is becoming highly resistant to all our antibiotics," Dr. Orient said."The course of treatment is at best lengthy, and for resistant forms costly and toxic. Isolation of infected persons is essential to keep this plague from spreading. It is not even clear that treatment of latent infection in persons from regions where multiple-drug resistant TB is prevalent is even effective," she added.At present, the news site reported, the CDC does not screen or test the 70,000-plus refugees brought into the U.S. every year for latent TB infection. Rather, they are tested for active TB infection only, then allowed to enter after the agency determines that treatment was successful.Even refugees treated for active Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, as seen in this video of Burmese refugees being treated at a refugee camp in Thailand, are permitted entry into the U.S., despite recent studies showing that between 4 and 5 percent of those deemed successfully treated have a recurrence of TB within two years.The problem is real. Recently the Minnesota Department of Health reported that 22 percent of refugees resettled there have tested positive for latent TB.It should be noted that, according to the World Health Organization, one-third of the global population  more than 2 billion people  are infected with some form of TB.
Weeks after EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed into the Mediterranean Sea, Egyptian and French search teams are still looking for the black box of the plane. The black box will give clues as to what transpired minutes before the crash. Last June 1, a report said that the 'ping' detected by the French vessel was from the missing plane's black box.

EgyptAir Flight 804 crashed last May 19, on a journey from Paris to Cairo. Last week, officials from Airbus, the plane maker, said that the pings detected are automated signal from the plane and not necessarily from the black box. However, a report by ABC News said that a French official confirmed that the pings are indeed coming from the EgyptAir Flight 804 black box.

What we know about the #EgyptAir plane that officials say crashed in Mediterranean Sea: https://t.co/LZKLLxoKGK https://t.co/3gycZmBEet  CBS News (@CBSNews) May 19, 2016

The state-of-the-art French vessel involved in the search is capable of detecting signals from underwater sources. The report added that the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry already released a statement that the French ship indeed detected signals from underneath the Mediterranean, which could be assumed as the signals emitted by one of the missing plane's black box.

But despite the confirmation of the existence of the black boxes' signal, the location of the box remains unknown.

The recovery of the black box will help forensic experts give light to the pressing question of what could have caused the crash. Previous reports state that the bodies recovered were torn into pieces suggesting a blast occurred before the plane crashed, but the lack of explosive trace confuses the investigation.

"We have to find where the boxes are exactly and decide on how to pull them out," said Shaker Kelada, and EgyptAir official in a statement published by Japan Times. He added that the next step is to determine the box's exact location and its retrieval, citing that proper handling of the black box should be employed to assure that no further damage will be inflicted.

The French vessel started searching for the signal on Tuesday and was able to retrieve signals in less than 24 hours.
Zika-carrying mosquitoes started to proliferate in Brazil, driving worldwide medical organizations such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), release travel bans.

Despite preventive measures, the virus managed to spread out around the world, including in countries such as the United States. In the New York tri-state area, the first baby with Zika-related microcephaly was born.

The baby girl was born in New Jersey last May 31 at the Hackensack University Medical Cente. According to the doctors, the baby is clearly showing signs of Zika-related microcephaly.

"The mother is stable, obviously sad, which is the normal emotional reaction given the situation," said Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, director of maternal and fetal medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center in an interview with CNN.

The mother, who refused to be named, was infected by Zika while in Honduras. She arrived in the U.S. about a month ago. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), microcephaly is a birth defect where a baby's head and the brain are smaller than usual, possibly due to underdevelopment.

CDC said that microcephaly is a lifelong condition which can cause other complications for the baby including seizures, developmental delay, intellectual disability, hearing loss and vision problems.

The mother was admitted on May 27 and an emergency caesarean section was performed to deliver the baby girl who was born with apparent intestinal and visual problems, according to a report by FOX News.

Currently, there is still no known vaccine to combat the Zika-virus. CDC and WHO are still adamant on reminding pregnant mothers to avoid traveling to areas where Zika-carrying mosquitoes are present.
In April, Uber launched its motorcycle taxi service UberMOTO in Vietnam after piloting it in Thailand, tapping into the huge market currently dominated by Grab. However, UberPOOL, another feature of the app, may have to wait longer before arriving in Vietnam.

At a meeting with the press in Ho Chi Minh City on June 1, Head of Public Policy for Safety at Uber Dorothy Chou said the technology company is still waiting for the market to reach a certain level of demand before bringing in one of their latest products UberPOOL.

The way carpooling works requires a certain level of liquidity in the market. There have to be a certain number of trips, a certain number of drivers. The idea is when a market reaches a level of liquidity in terms of trips, that is when we can start working with UberPOOL in reality, said Chou.

UberPOOL is a service that allows customers to share rides and split the cost of their trip with another Uber passenger headed in the same direction. Jakarta, Indonesia, was the first Southeast Asian city to welcome the service.

You wont be able to match people up because they dont want to wait too long for a pool. Meanwhile, we still have to keep the waiting times really low and there has to be a high concentration of demand in the city. We have to make sure its the right time for UberPOOL, otherwise people wont see it as necessary. But one thing is for sure that the day UberPOOL is lauched in Vietnam will come, Ubers global representative added.

Vietnam is Ubers second fastest growing market with more than 15,000 people registered as drivers. Just a month ago, the ride-sharing firm extended the battle with its biggest rival Grab by launching the 'xe om'-ride hailing service called UberMOTO, to which Grab was the pioneer.

We want to accommodate with local trends, and Vietnam has over 40 million motorbikes in total. So it is inevitable and actually makes a lot of sense to us to just launch UberMOTO here: its the primary way people get around, and everybody owns a bike, said Chou.

The Vietnamese government is trying to control the fierce battle in the transportation industry between traditional taxi firms and new services like Uber and Grab. Photo by Reuters/Sergio Perez

Though having gained a certain popularity, both Grab and Uber have not been officially recognized by law in Vietnam. The struggle to regulate their operations by the government can be seen in the controversial draft decree No. 86, in which the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam suggested that Uber and Grab taxis should have Taxi E signs on their cars to differentiate them from conventional taxis. If the regulation comes into force, it would be potentially troubling for the two ridesharing services, as many of their drivers only consider it a part-time job, and may be unhappy with the alterations to their cars.
The Taj Mahal is a massive mausoleum made of marble built by Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife in 1631 to 1648 in Agra, India. Throughout the years, the white to yellowish color of the mausoleum was preserved in its pristine glory, but recent photographs show that the Taj Mahal is turning green, alarming officials and tourists alike.

Experts say that fecal matter from insects originating from the neighboring Yamuna river is causing the desecration of the monument.

The Taj Mahal is considered as one of the world's Unesco heritage sites. It is also one of the most visited tourist landmarks in India due to its size and overwhelmingly beautiful facade. Thousands of tourists visit the site yearly, including famous personalities like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who were recently photographed in front of the Taj Mahal. But authorities are afraid that the insect poop, which turns Taj Mahal into green, will result to lesser tourists and lesser income as well.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate, strolling in the premises of the Taj. #RoyalTourIndia pic.twitter.com/vZoreiPLi0  Taj Mahal (@TajMahal) April 16, 2016

Experts found out that the insect, called Chironomus Calligraphus (Geoldichironomus), is causing the problem. The mosquito-like flies found breeding on the polluted Yamuna River excrete their poop on the nooks and crannies of the building turning the surface into green.

"Fifty-two drains are pouring waste directly into the river and just behind the monument, Yamuna has become so stagnant that fish that earlier kept insect populations in check are dying. This allows pests to proliferate in the river," said DK Joshi, an environmental activist in an interview with BBC.

Joshi filed a formal petition in the National Green Tribunal in India to combat the breeding of pests in the Yamuna River. He said one possible solution to the problem is to clean up the river.

The Yamuna River is sacred. It is also India's most polluted river. Can it be saved? https://t.co/HHZ8ap6Ca0 pic.twitter.com/jPJ3JFU202  Morning Edition (@MorningEdition) May 11, 2016

The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) said that poop and stain can be washed off from the marble.

"A series of marble panels depicting plant motifs on the walls or reflective tiles used in this part of the monument are becoming disfigured," said Bhuvan Vikram of ASI, in an interview with The Guardian. But environmental activists like Joshi, prefer long-term solutions saying that it is better than scrubbing every inch on the monument to get rid of insect excretions which would eventually manifest again.

The Indian government is already looking at ways to solve this problem. But cleaning the river entails a lot of work on their part. Algae proliferate on the river due to the ash of crematoriums dumped into the river. These algae are food for the insects, said the Department of Entomology at St. John's College in Northern Agra.

To solve this problem, not only should the polluted river be cleaned, but the way of life for business surrounding the river should change as well. It may sound difficult but if the determination is there to preserve the national monument, then it can, and should be accomplished at all cost.
Wildlife authorities in Thailand found 40 tiger cub carcasses in a freezer in a Thai Buddhist temple, a site that has been linked to wildlife trafficking and abuse, police said.

According to Reuters, police and officials headed an operation to remove all living tigers from Thailand's infamous Tiger Temple in response to suspected trafficking and animal abuse.

The temple is located in Kanchanaburi province west of Bangkok and has become a popular tourist destination where visitors take selfies with bottle-fed tiger cubs. But it has been closed to the public since the raid.

The Tiger Temple, officially known as Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, has been under investigation for suspected links to wildlife trafficking and abuse. The raid, which began on Monday, is the most recent move in a long-standing battle since 2001 to bring the tigers under state control.

According to Adisorn Nuchdamrong, deputy director-general of the Department of National Parks, the dead tiger cubs were found inside a freezer in the kitchen area.

"They must be of some value for the temple to keep them," Nuchdamrong told Reuters.

Officials took the carcasses out and lined them up on the floor of the temple. The body of a Binturong, a protected species commonly known as bearcat, was also among the cub carcasses.

Thai DNP officers show 40 undeclared dead baby tigers found at #TigerTemple in #Kanchanaburi pic.twitter.com/hAydQH29cd  Dario Pignatelli (@dariopignatelli) June 1, 2016

In a statement on their Facebook page, the temple said that wildlife authorities had already been aware of the tiger cub carcasses on the freezer. They said they used to cremate dead tiger cubs, but a vet changed their policy in 2010.

Police officer Bandith Meungsukhum said in a report in BBC that wildlife officials would file new criminal charges after the discovery, adding that the cubs were only about one or two days old when they died.

Officials have already removed 61 live tigers out of the 137 in the temple. The raid is said to continue throughout the week.

Since 2001, authorities have been in a clash with monks in the temple after allegations of wildlife trafficking and abuse had surfaced. However, the monks consistently deny any wrongdoing.

Thailand has been known as a hub for illicit trafficking of wildlife and forest products, which includes ivory. Other species found in markets are exotic birds, mammals and reptiles, and many of them are endangered.
A popular drug for treating attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children has been linked to increased risk of abnormal heart rhythm, researchers warn.

Methylphenidate, a central nervous system stimulant used in treating ADHD, is said to increase the risk of arrhythmias or abnormal heart rhythm during the first two months of use of children and teens.

Methylphenidate is sold under popular brand names Ritalin, Daytrana and Concerta.

A team of researchers from Australia, Canada and South Korea conducted a study among 100,000 children and young people with ADHD, measuring the cardiac safety of methylphenidate.

The study, which was published by The BMJ, examined 1,224 patients in South Korea National Health Insurance Database aged 17 and below who had experienced an "incident cardiovascular event."

This was comprised of 864 patients with arrhythmias, 396 with hypertension, 52 with myocardial infarctions, 67 with stroke and 44 with heart failure.

The researchers found out that methylphenidate increased the risk of arrhythmia by 61 percent during the first two months of use, compared with periods of non-use of the drug.

The risk was even higher in the first three days of use.

However, researchers said that the findings of the study should not cause panic. According to Nicole Pratt, senior study author and a senior research fellow at the Quality Use of Medicines and Pharmacy Research Center at the University of South Australia, most children on methylphenidate should not experience heart problems.

"In the average child, the risk of serious cardiovascular events is extremely small (three per 100,000 per year), and any absolute excess risk associated with methylphenidate is also likely to be small," Pratt said in a report published in WebMD.

Also, the study holds no proof that the drug causes irregular heartbeat.

But according to Pratt, doctors should still take these findings into account when prescribing methylphenidate to a child.

The study found that children with existing congenital heart disease are said to be the most affected.

The researchers found no significant increased risk of heart attack in these kids, and no increased risk of high blood pressure, stroke or heart failure.

Although risk is relatively low, the researchers suggest that the medication benefits should still be carefully considered.

"With the increased use of drugs for ADHD globally, the benefits of methylphenidate should be carefully weighed against the potential cardiovascular risks of these drugs in children and adolescents," researchers said.
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that the female smokers have a better chance of quitting if they timed their quit date with the optimal days within their menstrual cycle.

"Understanding how menstrual cycle phase affects neural processes, cognition and behavior is a critical step in developing more effective treatments and in selecting the best, most individualized treatment options to help each cigarette smoker quit," said Reagan Wetherill, PhD, a research assistant professor of Psychology and lead author of the study, in a statement.

Previously, researchers have shown that women in luteal phase of their menstrual cycle, or the period of time after ovulation and before menstruation, have enhanced responses to smoking cues, which are the people, places and things that they associate with smoking, compared to women in follicular phase of their menstrual cycle, the period after menstruation and continue until ovulation.

For the present study, researchers analyzed the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of 38 physically healthy, premenopausal female smokers who were not taking hormonal contraceptives and are aging from 21 to 51 years, using a functional MRI scan.

The participants were divided into two groups. The first group consisted of 22 participants who were in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle, while the remaining 16 participants were in the luteal phase of their menstrual cycle.

The results of their study, published in the journal Biology of Sex Differences, revealed that there was a reduced functional connectivity between the cortical control region, which helps in making good decisions, and ventral striatum, which contain the reward center, during the follicular phase. The weaker functional connectivity between cognitive control brain regions and reward signaling brain regions may result to lesser ability of the women to quit smoking. This suggests that women in the follicular phase and trying to quit smoking are more prone to continued smoking and relapse.

These findings support the previous study showing that progesterone may exert protective effects over addictive behavior. Furthermore, their study provides new insights into sex differences in smoking behavior and relapse.

"Interestingly, the findings may represent a fundamental effect of menstrual cycle phase on brain connectivity and may be generalizable to other behaviors, such as responses to other rewarding substances (i.e., alcohol and foods high in fat and sugar)," explained Teresa Franklin, PhD, a research associate professor of Neuroscience in Psychiatry and senior author of the study, in a press release.


VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co. on Thursday signed a contract to borrow $35.5 million from Vietnam's Military Bank to buy new airplanes, the bank said in a statement.

The loan is part of a $50 million package the bank agreed to in principle last year that will run from 2015-2020.

The funding comes just days after the ambitious airline inked a deal to purchase 100 aircraft worth $11.3 billion from U.S. giant Boeing during President Obamas visit to Vietnam.

However, VietJet will use this loan to buy an Airbus A320.

According to 2015 data from Airbus, the price for an A320 ranges from $74.3 million to $124.4 million, depending on the model. The A320 single-aisle jetliner family, including the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is the worlds best-selling single-aisle aircraft family. It is used for a range of services including short-haul hops and intercontinental routes.
As the Manuel Dominguez High Class of 2016 prepares to graduate, there's a group of seniors at the Compton school who are making history.

"I think we all have the ambitious and know-what-we-want trait," said UCLA-bound Jannet Gomez.

That trait, and their hard work, has not only earned them acceptance into highly competitive University of California campuses, but also a first-of-its-kind honor. Known around campus as the Super Six, the group includes two valedictorians and four salutatorians -- and they've all been friends throughout most of their young lives.

"We've been able to succeed because we're always going to each other for help," said UC Merced-bound Elizabeth Perez Gayosso.

Their success is all the more impressive considering less than 20 percent of their graduating class will go on to a 4 year college.

"We were having a debate (about) how many AP classes we should take. Some of us wanted to take one or two, one of us wanted three, so we're all taking three, said UCLA-bound Yenifer Espitia.

But they admit, it hasn't always been easy.

"When one of us would slack off, we would say no, you need to get it together, and Yenifer would always tell me you're not getting a B, you're getting an A even if I have to help you, said UC Irvine-bound Nancy Rivas.

All are first generation Americans and all credit their immigrant parents with instilling a respect for higher education and a determination to succeed.

"They always tell me we came here because we want a better education for you, so they didn't come here for a future for themselves but for us and I think that's what pushes me more," Jannet Gomez said.

Kimberly Fernandez, who will attend UCLA in the fall, agreed.

"My mom graduated high school but she wasn't able to go to college and that was her biggest regret because she wanted to, so for me going to college it's like for her and my accomplishments," she said.

Daina Espinoza, who is headed to UC Irvine in the fall, rounds out the group of high achievers.

They also hope their accomplishments will inspire other inner city kids, while proving good things do come out of Compton.
The Cupertino Union School District has discontinued plans to build teacher housing at an old school site.

The school board decided at the May 24 board meeting to relinquish the project, citing tensions among employees, parents, and community members as a reason for the discontinuation.

Assumptions and misinformation permeating throughout the community have gone towards creating an environment where rather than coming together, divisions are being clearly drawn in the community, read an agenda action item statement. This impact was beginning to distract the District from its primary mission of providing all students in the Cupertino Union School District with a quality education.

CUSD spokesperson Jeremy Nishihara said the district will continue to discuss ways to address the housing crisis in order to retain teachers, but no other plans have been set.

Superintendent Wendy Gudalewicz was not available for comment.

The Cupertino Education Association (CEA), which supported the initial housing project proposal, now says on its website that it agrees with the district decision not to move forward with the project.

Yet, CEA said the organization does not agree with the wording in the district statement.

Prior to the board meeting, [the superintendent] went ahead and sent out the original statement as an email to all district employees without notifying CEA, says the teacher union on its website. CEA disagrees with some components of that statement.

CEA released its own statement following the district announcement.

Community members rallied for months for the district to abandon the housing project. Members of the Save Luther online forum signed petitions and posted lawn signs around town to raise voice against the project.

Im glad to hear that they decided not to move forward because its not a viable project, said Hoi Poon, a CUSD parent who lives close to the proposed housing project site.

What I am happy about is the tremendous grassroots effort to prevent this housing development that seemed to be promoted by developers, Poon said.

The Cupertino Union School District announced in December plans to build over 200 affordable housing units at closed school site Luther Elementary School, 220 Blake Ave. in Santa Clara. The district said the housing project was an effort to keep teachers in the classroom. A mix of one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments were proposed to be rented below market value.
As you might expect of most any six-year-old, Caleb Sears was afraid on the March, 2015 day his mom and dad took him to the dentist.

I was scared too, said his mother, Eliza. Any time you you send your child into a surgery, of course you're going to be scared.

Caleb was so spooked, his parents agreed to a dose of general anesthesia. It seemed simple. Logical, too. Medicine would let their nervous little boy sleep while the dentist pulled a tooth.

There would be no strangers, no drills, no trauma. Caleb would just close his eyes. And when he opened them, the scary stuff would be over. The tooth would be gone.

But the tooth remained in place. And Caleb never woke up.

His parents now mourn a devastating loss, and have begun a pursuit to change the way dentists operate.

ONE TOOTH

The problem tooth was a stubborn one, growing from the roof of Calebs mouth. Removing it terrified the little boy, but the procedure is one that oral surgeons undertake regularly.

Dentists who reviewed Calebs case for us said his extraction was straightforward. It should have been uneventful, they said.

A report filed with the California Dental Board tells a much different story.

Calebs dentist told regulators that an IV went into Calebs left arm without trouble. Several drugs, including Fentanyl, Versed, and Propfol, would numb Caleb and put him to sleep.

And they did. Forever.

Within minutes of the first needle piercing Calebs skin, he stopped breathing. The dentist said he tried to open Calebs airway, but failed. Ultimately, paramedics rushed Caleb to the hospital. But it was too late.

The dentists who reviewed Calebs record for us said he was likely deprived of oxygen for seven minutes. By the time the healthy little boy with the extra tooth arrived at the hospital, his organs were shutting down. He was brain dead.

Calebs parents said a neurologist told them their son would never wake up. Machines were breathing for him now. Over the next two days, they agonized over whether to keep him on life support.

Once we had the information about his brain and consulted with the neurologists, we realized that we had to let him go, Mrs. Sears said, sobbing. I swore when we got there that we would never leave the hospital without him, she said. So, to have to leave him there was the worst thing you could ever imagine.

WORKING ALONE

Following Calebs death, the Sears family would grieve. And they would question everything. In time, they would learn what few parents realize: that dentists can administer anesthesia much differently from most medical doctors.

They can put you under alone.

Calebs death certificate says he died in the hospital. But the Sears family believes he actually died in the dentists chair. They believe the dentist was trying to do too much  both anesthesia and a tooth extraction -- at the same time.

MICHAEL JACKSON DRUG

Like many people whose doctor orders general anesthesia, Caleb received two doses of Propofol. Its a powerful drug, known as Diprivan, that renders patients unconscious.

Its also the same drug implicated in the death of music star Michael Jackson. He reportedly used it because he had trouble sleeping.

Propofol is safely used in hospitals and dentists offices around the world every single day. One Harvard medical blog quotes an anesthesiologist as saying they use it like crazy.

But the manufacturer does not suggest that doctors administer Propofol themselves. The FDA-approved label recommends a team. The label specifically reads, The person administering the anesthesia should not be involved in the surgical procedure.

Calebs dentist administered Propofol by himself. Why? California law lets him.

The Sears family says its wrong.

Dr. David Mead, M.D. agrees. Mead is anesthesiology chief at Childrens Hospital Oakland. He says Childrens Hospital doesnt allow doctors to simultaneously perform a procedure and administer anesthesia, and he believes dentists shouldnt be allowed to do it, either.

Mead said the principal risk is a patients airway. He explained that a childs breathing tube can collapse without warning under sedation.

It happens instantaneously, he said. You have maybe half a minute to make critical decisions about how you're going to manage that child's airway. You can't do that if you don't have somebody competent there helping you.

Mead says the sedatives that hospitals and dental offices use are generally the same, so the standards should be the same, too  specifically when treating kids. He believes anesthesia that is administered in a dentists office should be supervised by an anesthesiologist.

That's going to be somebody like myself, who's been doing nothing but pediatric anesthesia and pediatric airways for their careers, Dr. Mead said.

PAPER TRAIL

The California Dental Board is commissioned to protect patients. It does that by licensing and policing dentists.

Calebs dentist was an oral surgeon, a specialized dentist, who was also permitted to perform anesthesia. Several hundred California dentists hold permits to perform anesthesia, after providing regulators with evidence that they have completed training in the field of sedation.

We asked the board whether Calebs case was the only death of a healthy child following a dental procedure. The board told us it doesn't track patient deaths in that way. But it could.

Rather than reviewing its records and establishing how many deaths have occurred as a result of dental anesthesia over the past few years, a spokesperson told us to comb through records ourselves.

We did. Yet we didn't get very far.

Dentists are required to report patient deaths. But the files that are made public are heavily redacted and inconsistent. Some reports are detailed; others are as brief  one included just two sentences. Either way, the bold black marks on virtually every page make it impossible for outsiders like us to determine whether anesthesia complications are a contributing factor. What is clear is that people die following dental visits. But only an insider could make the connection to anesthesia if there is one to be made.

So, we asked the board to help us make sense of the reports  to give us a sense of whether or not patients are dying when dentists are doing two jobs. Ideally, we wanted an interview. But we were told all 15 board members were unavailable for comment.

CALEBS LAW

The Sears family is challenging state law in Calebs name. But theyre encountering serious resistance.

They have made it their mission to change the status quo. Preferably, they want the California legislature to mandate that pediatric dental procedures involving general anesthesia include a separate dentist or doctor.

But the Sears family says that probably will not happen. They say their chief opponent is the powerful organization that lobbies for the dental profession: the California Dental Association.

The association selected Dr. Paul Reggiardo, a Los Angeles area dentist who says he does not perform general anesthesia, to speak on the CDAs behalf.

Having a separate dentist or separate anesthesiologist in the room doesnt necessarily guarantee greater patient safety, Dr. Reggiardo said.  I want to see something done that just doesnt make us feel better, but actually increases patient safety.

Not all CDA members agree.

Its upsetting, said Milpitas dentist Pankaj Patel.

Dr. Patel holds a state permit to administer anesthesia. Legally, he could operate on his patients while also administering anesthesia. But he doesn't.

For the past 12 years, Dr. Patel has brought in another dentist to administer and monitor anesthesia while he focuses on the patients mouth. He says he does this for safetys sake.

Recently, Dr. Patel was working alongside Dr. Christine Yim. They hovered over a young boy in transformers pajamas. As the child lay asleep, Patel capped his rotten molars; Yim monitored an IV drip and recorded the boys vital signs.

Following the procedure, Yim and Patel reviewed Calebs records. They read the dentists report in horror. They shook their heads. They sighed. They then used the same word to describe Calebs death.

Preventable, Patel said.

Yim agreed without hesitation.

So preventable, she said.

AN ACCUSATION AND A COMMITTEE

The dental board has filed a formal accusation against Calebs dentist. Negligence is the charge. Whether he will be punished remains up to the Attorney General. In the meantime, he is free to practice.

When we called his office recently, the receptionist said he is accepting new patients.

Initially, a search of the dentists record online did not warn patients that an accusation had been filed. When we asked why, the board said it was a clerical oversight. A search of the dentists license now shows he is accused.

The California Dental Board says it will look into pediatric anesthesia and whether it is safe for dentists to continue performing procedures and sedation simultaneously. The board has committed to forming a committee.

A committee of two.

YOUR RIGHTS

Mead, the Childrens Hospital anesthesiologist, says patients who are going under anesthesia should ask their dentist questions about the procedure.

-Will another doctor be in the room?

-Who will dispense the drugs?

-Who will monitor my vital signs?

-What are your emergency procedures?

Mead says you have the right to walk away if you dont like your dentists answer.

The Sears family didnt know to do that. They wager that most families are just as in the dark as they were.

Calebs parents lament that their little boy will never grow to have a career, a spouse, kids, and grandkids to leave a mark on this world. However, they take solace in hoping a change to state law could afford him a legacy.

I keep thinking: I wish someone else had done this, Eliza Sears said. I wish someone had done this years ago and saved Caleb.
The San Francisco Civil Grand Jury today released a critical report saying that after a series of scandals and failures, the city's crime lab should no longer be run by the police department.

Under the police department the lab has been supervised by no fewer than six police captains since 2010, some of whom did not have college degrees and few of whom had science degrees, the report notes. National standards call for crime labs to be led by scientists.

"The Crime Lab suffers from being too closely managed by the Police Department," the report states. "It has been headed by a rotating succession of police captains who lack the scientific knowledge to understand the intricate workings of the Laboratory."

Police managers also use an internal affairs model for disciplinary action, and tend to create a perception of bias and conflict of interest in the lab, particularly in cases involving police, such as officer-involved shootings, the report states.

The grand jury calls for the police director to be replaced with a civilian scientist manager, and for the department to become autonomous and independently funded.

Public Defender Jeff Adachi said the report validates his repeated calls for an independent crime lab.

"An avalanche of scandals, from theft to incompetence, has damaged the credibility of the crime lab," he said, describing the lab as "fundamentally incompetent and biased."

"The public must be able to rely on the accurate testing of drugs and DNA evidence," he said. "Otherwise innocent people are sent to prison and the integrity of our entire system is called into question."

The civil grand jury report cites problems including an incident in 2008 in which a sample was mislabeled and then the mix-up was allegedly covered up by crime lab staff, another in 2010 in which a crime lab analyst failed to share possibly exculpatory evidence with defense attorneys and problems with DNA profiling in a 2014 child molestation case. Also in 2014, a criminalist and her supervisor both failed a national DNA proficiency exam, the report states.

More notoriously, in 2010, the city's Drug Analysis Lab was shut down altogether after a scandal in which a criminalist was found to be using cocaine taken from evidence.

The report recommends reopening the drug analysis lab, and also notes that the lab has made progress on working through a backlog of DNA analysis cases and made effective use of outsourcing. However, it notes that the lab's case tracking system is badly outdated and lacks modern capabilities.

San Francisco police officials today said they are reviewing the report, but noted that the lab has made "significant strides" in its policies, procedures and practices.

The lab was accredited in 2015 and employees attended a two-day training seminar on cognitive bias in forensics, police said. It has eliminated its backlog of DNA test kits and purchased a laboratory information system that is currently being configured and customized for use.

"Moving forward, the department is committed to modernizing crime lab facilities and equipment, providing ongoing education and training to our scientific staff and evaluating our command structure to ensure that we have an accountable and professional chain of command," Sgt. Michael Andraychak said in a statement.
A former doctoral student who shot and killed a UCLA professor, leading to a daylong campus lockdown, had a "kill list" that included the names of the teacher and another victim, who was found dead Thursday morning in Minnesota, authorities said.

The victim in Minnesota was his estranged wife, her uncle told NBC News Thursday.

Police identified the gunman as Mainak Sarkar, 38, who apparently had a strained relationship with Professor William Klug. Sarkar believed Klug had stolen his computer code, law enforcement sources told NBC News.

Sarkar detailed his grievance in two blog posts about Klug, most recently on March 10, sources told NBC News.

"William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person," Sarkar wrote, according to the sources. "I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy."

In the post, Sarkar identified himself as a former Ph.D. student of Klug's and said the two had "personal differences."

"He cleverly stole all my code and gave it to another student. He made me really sick," Sarkar allegedly wrote. "Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust."

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in a news conference Thursday police believe the blog to be Sarkar's but have not been able to verify it.

Ashley Hasti's uncle identified her as the victim in Minnesota, NBC News reported.

Hasti and Sarkar were married in June 2011. A medical student, Hasti graduated with her bachelor's degree in 2008 from the University of Minnesota.

Beck said information was recovered at the shooter's Minnesota residence that led authorities to believe Sarkar is linked to Hasti's death.

The names of Hasti, Klug's and a third individual  another UCLA professor  were on a "kill list" found at the shooter's home, police said.

Chief Charlie Beck did not identify the other professor, but said he is unharmed and safe.

Beck said detectives had spoken to UCLA officials about Sarkar's stolen code assertion, and concluded it was unfounded.

"This was a making of his own imagination," Beck said.

The code in question was developed as part of a major, multi-year, multi-discipinary collaborative research project to develop a computer simulation of the human heart -- a "virtual heart" -- said Alan Garfinkel, professor of integrative biology and physiology.

Garfinkel and Klug were among the collaborators, and Sarkar, then Klug's doctoral student, worked under them on the project, according to Garfinkel.

During a phone interview with NBC4, Garfinkel acknowledged an issue arose at one point, but declined to discuss the specifics. He said he had not had any contact with Sarkar since he received his Ph.D. in 2013 and moved away and into the workforce.

"If you had asked me two days ago, I would have said there's no issue here, guy's gone, it was happily resolved," Garfinkel said.

Thursday, Garfinkel met at length with detectives. He declined to say if he is the other professor on Sarkar's "kill list." Garfinkel said he was on campus Wednesday, but not in his office.

Garfinkel expressed his admiration for Klug, both as a scientist and as a friend, describing him as "huge-hearted, a sweet and kind man," and was stunned that Klug had been targeted.

Web postings to the effect that Sarkar had been mistreated by faculty and had his PhD unnecesssarily delayed are not true, Garfinkel said, citing his desire to set the record straight when he agreed to speak with NBC4.

Investigators believe Sarkar had traveled to UCLA with the intent of killing both professors on the list.

"He went to kill two professors, but could find only one," Beck said Thursday at a midmorning news briefing at LAPD headquarters.

"He was certainly prepared to engage multiple victims," Beck said of Sarkar, who was armed with two semiautomatic pistols, multiple magazines and several rounds of ammunition.

Police found a note near the bodies of Klug and Sarkar, asking the reader to check on Sarkar's cat in Minneapolis, Beck said. Investigators searching his Minneapolis residence found the "kill list," which led them to Hasti's home in neighboring Brooklyn Park.

Hasti was found dead of a gunshot wound early Thursday. Police believe Sarkar killed her prior to the UCLA murder-suicide, then traveled to Los Angeles in a gray 2003 Nissan Sentra, according to Beck.

Sarkar studied at Stanford University and the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, according to his LinkedIn page, before enrolling at UCLA. Sarkar came to the U.S. in 2001 on a foreign student visa to pursue graduate studies, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The department's electronic records show he obtained three student visas between 2001 and 2008 to engage in masters and doctoral programs in the U.S. and was granted permanent residence in May 2014.

The search continued Thursday for the Nissan Sentra, which has Minnesota license plates 720 KTW. The vehicle might contain evidence to help investigators establish a motive for the slayings, Beck said.

Sarkar is suspected of shooting and killing Klug  a 39-year-old father of two and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering from El Segundo  in an engineering building at UCLA. Their bodies were found together in an office with a gun nearby, Beck said.

The shooting led to a SWAT search and a daylong campus closure, with panicked students seeking a safe place to hide. No one else was hurt.

Police initially received reports of an active shooter on the Westwood campus, which has an undergraduate enrollment of around 43,000 students, prompting a campus-wide lockdown and massive law enforcement response.

About two hours later, students learned the shooting had been a murder-suicide and police said there was no threat to the campus.

"I'm just outraged," said Renjie Li, who took a class from Klug. "I'm mad that someone would do that to a young professor who just started his career at UCLA. Its just a shame."

According to his biography on the UCLA website, Klug received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 2003, his masters of science from UCLA in 1999 and his bachelors from Westmont College in 1998. Klug also led the Klug Research Group in Computational Biomechanics at UCLA.

Classes resumed Thursday ahead of next week's final exams. A candlelight vigil is scheduled for Thursday night at UCLA.

Klug's wife, Mary Elise Klug, issued a statement through UCLA Thursday evening:

"During this extremely difficult time for our family, we are grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support. This is an indescribable loss. Bill was so much more than my soulmate. I will miss him every day for the rest of my life. Knowing that so many others share our familys sorrow has provided a measure of comfort.

"That said, we are a very private family, and we need time to heal and recover from this senseless tragedy. At this time, we ask the media to please respect our familys privacy in and around our home, school and local community during the days and weeks ahead, especially for the sake of my children."
The last time Donald Trump was in the Bay Area, he had to hop off a concrete median on the highway to avoid protesters blocking his entrance to his April speaking engagement in Burlingame, California.

Trumps next appearance, at a Make America Great Again! event in Silicon Valley, is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. at the San Jose Convention Center  four days before the June 7 California primary.

San Jose police spent time Wednesday in tactical meetings to plan for the unexpected. Previous Trump rallies have been marred by fights, protests and arrests.



A San Jose police sergeant also alerted neighbors around the convention center on Wednesday that Trump and presumptive protestors would generate a high volume of activity.

After Trump's San Jose visit, he plans to head to Sacramento. Hes also been to San Diego and Fresno in the last few days.

According to his calendar, Trump has no scheduled stops in Oakland, a city he declared to a New York Times Magazine reporter was among the most dangerous in the world.

In fact, Trump's speech is at the same time as Game 1 of the NBA Finals where the Golden State Warriors will play the Cleveland Cavaliers at Oracle Arena in Oakland.
The head of Chicago Public Schools says without a state education budget schools will not be able to open their doors in the fall.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool told the Chicago Tribune that the district does not have the money to open the schools and can't borrow funding because of low credit ratings.

The warning comes from CPS one day after lawmakers failed to pass a budget once again, leaving Illinois with no funding for K-12 schools.

Claypool previously called on Gov. Bruce Rauner to work with lawmakers to pass a state budget favorable to Chicago, but the governor has a different spending plan in mind.

Rauner has been pushing his stopgap spending plan that he calls a clean education bill that isnt a bail-out for CPS.

The plan would increase education funding statewide by $55 million, according to the Chicago Tribune, but school district officials say it would mean a $74 million cut for Chicago schools and result in classroom cuts averaging 26 percent.

CPS wants a plan that Chicago lawmakers voted for and would send millions to Chicago and other low-income school districts, but those bills weren't passed by the democratic super majority. In an email sent to parents and supporters, Claypool urged them to also reach out to lawmakers in the fight for funding.

Now we need the governor to end his strategy of pitting one region against another and fix the funding for all the districts suffering under Illinois worst-in-the-nation approach, CPS spokesperson Emily Bittner said in a statement Thursday morning.

In an email sent to parents and supporters, Claypool urged others to reach out to lawmakers.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel compared Gov. Bruce Rauner to likely Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump Thursday after the governor embarked on an Illinois tour this week touting stopgap funding measures for K-12 education and other essential services like state colleges and social services.

"Yesterday people across the state were looking for solutions, Emanuel said in a statement. Instead of uniting the governor was dividing. Instead of leading he was playing politics, pitting parents and students in one part of the state against parents and students in another.

Right now schools across Illinois need a leader, and instead Bruce Rauner is following the Donald Trump playbook of demonizing one group of people for his political advantage, he added.

Rauner introduced the stopgap measures Tuesday evening, hours before the end of the spring legislative session. During a Wednesday speech in Vienna, the governor said he created the stopgap measures because school funding was integrated into House Speaker Mike Madigans budget proposal, which he says is $7 billion out of balance. He also said that Democratic lawmakers were relying on Illinois taxpayers to bail out Chicago Public Schools and that their funding plan would require tax hikes.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Rauner rebuffed Emanuel's claims Thursday during a stop in Itasca, comparing the mayor to sharp-tongued Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

"I don't know where all these goofy personal attacks come from," Rauner said. "That's not helpful. I'm starting to think Rahm is taking his speaking lessons from Karen [Lewis] or something. This is not helpful. We've got to focus on the facts and what's constructive."

Officials from CPS fear the lack of K-12 funding could mean that schools wont open in the fall.

"Like most school districts in the state, Chicago Public Schools would not be able to open their doors this fall without a state education budget  which is why we remain optimistic that our leaders in Springfield will build on the progress theyve already made this session toward equity in education funding for students all over Illinois, CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner said in a statement. Now we need the Governor to end his strategy of pitting one region against another and fix the funding for all the districts suffering under Illinois worst-in-the nation approach."

Illinois Secretary of Education Beth Purvis wrote a letter to CPS CEO Forrest Claypool Thursday urging him to support Rauner's education funding bill. According to Purvis, no school would lose money under the governor's plan and total funding would be increased by $240 million.

In her letter, Purvis asked Claypool if he would support a bill that would keep the city's block grant and after-school programming in place and fund CPS at the same level as fiscal year 2016.

"If your answer is yes, then you support the plan introduced by Governor Bruce Rauner and the Republican leaders this week- and I would ask you to advocate for its immediate passage so that all schools in Illinois can open in the fall," Purvis wrote. "If your answer is no, then you need to be honest and tell the people of Illinois that you are holding up school funding for the entire state so that Chicago will receive hundreds of millions more than it did last year- despite declining enrollment in Chicago Public Schools and a state in deep fiscal crisis."
Maryville Academy will no longer take in children at its Chicago shelter and two suburban facilities as it continues to face funding cuts amid an ongoing state budget crisis.

Officials with the child care center, in existence for more than 130 years, sent a letter to donors this week announcing it will no longer offer residential care once its contract with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services ends next month.

Executive Director Sister Catherine Ryan cited a "significant change in focus" as well as cuts to the amount of money the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services budgets for residential and instutional care.

"Within the last two weeks, DCFS informed us that it would reduce the contracted funds to Maryville even more in [fiscal year] 2017," Ryan wrote. "This has become a financial burden we can no longer sustain if we are to continue serving Illinois' at-risk children."

The change is both a budget reality and a change in philosophy as the state turns to emergency foster parent homes and phases out more costly residential services.

"The key is not to just move kids out of deep end residential care; our goal is to improve the outcome for kids," George Sheldon, the Director of DCFS, said.

Sheldon said Illinois DCFS has one of the longest lengths of stay with 33 months compared to states like Florida, which is 7 months. He noted the reason for the new direction for Illinois teens was that "kids do better when there is some level of permanence."

Longer term care or "deep end residential care" costs the state approximately $120,000 a year, per child, officials said.

Ryan said as the state plans to cut funds to longer term institutional care by $23 million, Maryville will restructure its mission and focus instead on its Crisis Nursery, Children's Healthcare Center, and other early childhood programs.

While Maryville ends its residential program, Sheldon told NBC 5 "we will continue month-to-month contracts" as the transition begins, so that no children are left without care."
Three people were killed and nine others were wounded in shootings across Chicago Wednesday, police said.

A man was fatally shot Wednesday night in the West Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side. The 19-year-old was sitting in a parked vehicle in the 3000 block of West Devon about 9 p.m. when someone exiting a store fired shots, according to Chicago Police. He was shot multiple times and taken to Presence Saint Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he later died. The Cook County medical examiners office confirmed the death but did not immediately provide additional details.

Several hours earlier, a man was shot to death in the South Shore neighborhood on the South Side. The man, whose exact age was not immediately known, was found unresponsive on the street with a gunshot wound to the head about 5 p.m. in the 7500 block of South Coles, police said. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he later died. The medical examiners office could not immediately confirm his death.

A 16-year-old boy was shot to death Wednesday morning in the West Elsdon neighborhood on the Southwest Side. Victor Felix was in the 5600 block of South Keeler at 8:44 a.m. when a brown Buick pulled up, the driver got out and fired shots, according to police and the medical examiners office. Felix, of the 4000 block of South Albany, was shot in the left and right shoulder, mouth and hand. He was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was pronounced dead at 9:18 a.m.

The most recent nonfatal shooting happened later Wednesday night in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side.

The 22-year-old was standing in an alley in the 6600 block of South Union at 11:30 p.m. when he heard shots and realized hed been hit, according to police. He was shot in the leg and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where his condition was stabilized.

About five minutes earlier, a teenage boy was shot in the West Englewood neighborhood. The 14-year-old boy was standing on the sidewalk in the 5600 block of South Laflin at 11:25 p.m. when he heard shots and realized hed been hit, police said. He suffered a gunshot wound to the left leg and was taken to Saint Bernard Hospital and Health Care Center, where his condition was stabilized.

Nearly five hours earlier, two men were shot in the South Side Back of the Yards neighborhood. The men, ages 20 and 28, were shot at 6:37 p.m. in the 4600 block of South Wood, according to police. The younger man was shot in the back and taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. The older man was shot in the foot and taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was listed in good condition.

Another man was shot 13 minutes earlier about half a mile away. The 24-year-old was shot in the head at 6:24 p.m. in the 4800 block of South Loomis, police said. He was taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

Two people were injured in a shooting less than half an hour earlier in the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side. The 21-year-old man and 17-year-old boy were in the 7900 block of South Ingleside about 6 p.m. when a vehicle approached and someone inside shot at them, according to police. The teen was shot in the back and listed in fair condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The man was shot in the right leg and taken to Jackson Park Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

A man was shot in the West Side Austin neighborhood earlier Wednesday afternoon. The 25-year-old was shot in the ankle about 2:45 p.m. in the 1400 block of North Lotus, police said. He was taken to Norwegian American Hospital in good condition.

Wednesdays first shooting happened at 1:22 a.m. in the Uptown neighborhood on the North Side. A 27-year-old man was walking outside in the 1300 block of West Leland when someone exited a vehicle nearby and fired shots at him, according to police. He suffered a gunshot wound to the forearm and was taken to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized.
Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup has decided to allow local fresh foodstuff suppliers to stack and sell their products at its 700 mini-marts throughout the country without paying a single penny of rebate for a year, the real estate giant said yesterday.

Giant property developer Vingroup, which is currently expanding at speed in the retail sector by opening two Vinmart stores a day, signed cooperation agreements with 250 local firms yesterday in a move to strengthen the domestic retail sector in the face of increasingly fierce competition from foreign players.

The agreement involves suppliers of food, cosmetics, stationery, toys, household appliances, fresh foodstuffs, and fashion and textiles from 18 cities and provinces.

Vinmart, the retail arm of giant real estate developer Vingroup, is growing at speed with a target of 2,000 outlets this year. Photo from Vingroup.

Big retailers usually force suppliers to pay rebates of between 17 and 25 percent, rather than making consumers pay more at the till.

Vingroup's decision to give up this revenue will be a lot of help to local suppliers who are struggling against a flood of imported products.

Suppliers of fresh meat, fish, poultry, fruit and vegetables can get their products on the shelves of hundreds Vingroup's mini-marts and supermarkets without having to pay for promotions, discounts or rebates, said the group's vice chairman, Le Khac Hiep.

The incentive will also help local suppliers reinvest in product quality and improve safety and hygiene standards, he added.

He also said that as Vietnam is rapidly integrates into the global market through free trade pacts, local retailers and domestic producers are under mounting pressure.

The aim of Vingroups incentive program is to promote domestic production and to build national brands with international standards to best serve the local consumers, the vice chairman said.

Vingroup launched its retail chain in 2010. Since then it has opened nearly 700 stores nationwide and said it will double its target to 2,000 outlets this year.

In the first quarter of this year, Vingroup's earnings from its retail business quadrupled from the period last year to VND1.65 trillion ($74 million).
What does the Queen Bee do after the first of two sold-out performances at Soldier Field? Treat herself to some Southern-style cooking on Chicagos Northwest Side, it would appear.

Beyonce reportedly dined at Bucks, a southern-inspired bar and restaurant in Wicker Park, late Friday night after her show, according to Chicagoist. Multiple reports said the star arrived at the restaurant, located at 1700 W. Division St, around 12:30 a.m. and stayed until 3 a.m.

Wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, Beyonce was joined by an entourage that included husband Jay Z and former Destinys Child bandmate Michelle Williams, according to Chicagoist. The group reportedly dined on several of the restaurants signature Southern dishes: fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, buttermilk biscuits and a dish of eggs, smoked salmon and Creole mustard.

For dessert, Chicagoist said the group ordered beignets with espresso butterscotch and s'mores biscuits. Though social media and photos were banned during the visit, staff members got quite the perk for serving the group: fourth-row tickets to the Saturday night show at Soldier Field.
A former Comcast worker already serving life behind bars for raping and killing a customer was sentenced to another life sentence for murdering a second woman who had called for cable services, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting.

Anthony Triplett, now 35, sexually assaulted and strangled Janet Ordidge in her Hyde Park high-rise just weeks before he attacked Urszula Sakowska in her Southwest Side home in December 2006, Cook County prosecutors said.

Triplett was convicted of Sakowskas murder in 2013 and was sentenced to life by Judge Kevin Michael Sheehan.

A jury weighing in on Tripletts second trial found him guilty of Ordidges murder, aggravated sexual assault and robbery in early May.

He was sentenced in that case late Wednesday, according to the States Attorneys Office.

The body of Ordidge, 39, was found in her bathtub hours after she called Comcast for cable TV service in October 2006.

Seven weeks later, Triplett strangled, sexually assaulted, robbed and killed 23-year-old Sakowska.

At the time Triplett killed Sakowska, he was already being looked at by detectives for the Ordidge murder.

Police say they informed Comcast at that time that Triplett had been interviewed as a witness.

Detectives were waiting for DNA results before making an arrest.

While they waited, Triplett continued making house calls for Comcast, and thats when he murdered Sakowska.

Triplett worked for Premier Cable Communications.

Premier contracted for Comcast, which has since severed ties with Premier.

DISCLAIMER: Comcast is the parent company of NBC Universal.
A 19-year-old from Indiana has been charged with murder after allegedly killing three people during a four-day spree allegedly inspired by the horror film "The Purge," according to police.

Johnathan Cruz, of Indianapolis, faces 17 charges including felony murder, robbery, intimidation and a criminal gang enhancement, Marion County prosecutor Terry Curry said Wednesday.

Cruz is accused of gunning down Billy Boyd and Jay Higgenbotham on May 12 and Jose Ruiz on May 16 after choosing his victims "100 percent at random," Curry said.

Prosecutors said Cruz bragged about going on a "purge" before the killings, in reference to the 2013 movie about a fictional 12-hour time period in which all crimes committed are legal.

"Just when you think you can't experience anything more inexplicable and shocking as we frequently do, you are then confronted with circumstances that almost leave you at a loss for words," Curry said in a news conference Wednesday.

Three pages of exhibits filed in court documents show social media posts and text messages from Cruzs alias, "Sav Hunna," that include numerous racial slurs and photos in which he is seen flashing gang signs, according to NBC News.

In one of the text messages uncovered by NBC News, Cruz allegedly wrote to his girlfriend: "U Better go on Face book and watch da videos of me shootin people I Purge every night now Since im dieing someone else Has to Alot Of people [expletive] dat."

Officers with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department found the first victim, Boyd, lying on a sidewalk May 12 with two gunshot wounds to the head, the Indianapolis Star reports. The next victim, Higgenbotham, was found dead on a sidewalk hours later. He had also been shot multiple times.

The body of the final victim, Jose Ruiz, was discovered May 15 in the driver's seat of a Pontiac, according to police.

The morning of the first two killings, Cruzs mother texted him to ask what he was doing, The Indianapolis Star reports. Cruz allegedly responded by sending a screenshot of a news article covering his first two killings.

"Delete those after u read it," Cruz told his mother, according to the newspaper.

On May 14, Cruz met up with a teenage girl to whom he had been selling drugs, the Indy Star reports. The two got into an argument and Cruz pulled out a gun, threatening to kill her if she left. He later tried to make her watch a video that showed him shooting Higgenbotham, according to the newspaper.

Cruz was already was in jail on charges of criminal confinement, kidnapping and battery in connection with an alleged drug deal gone bad. The case is unrelated to the killings.

A message seeking comment was left for his public defender in that case.
The world's largest fast-food chain may be moving out of its long-time west suburban headquarters and into the city, according to a report from Crain's Chicago Business.

McDonald's is reportedly in negotiations to move its headquarters from suburban Oak Brook to the former Harpo Studios campus on the city's Near West Side, according to Crain's.

The restaurant giant is in discussions with Chicago-based real estate developer Sterling Bay, who bought the four-building facility in 2014 for $30.5 million.

A spokesperson for McDonald's did not confirm the report Wednesday, saying "When we have information to share it will be with our employees first."

For some West Loop residents, the potential move comes as no surprise, saying the area has changed quite a bit in the last few years.

"There's already a lot of corporations," one resident said. "Google is here, I mean, they're definitely developing the area."

But for the Oak Brook Village President, the news was a total shock. He told NBC 5 he hasn't heard any official confirmation about the move, but he is "disappointed he was not notified and disappointed that they are leaving," adding that "McDonald's and the Village have had a strong partnership for decades. They have been a leading part of our commercial segment"

According to Crain's, McDonald's plans to move its approximately 2,000 employees in Oak Brook into a 300,000 square foot office space built on the site of Oprah Winfrey's former production house.
Officials are warning Illinois residents to stay alert after an uptick in rabid bats in the city and suburbs.

Two rabid bats were found in the past four days on Chicagos Southwest Side, according to 19th Ward Alderman Matt OShea. The first bat was found Saturday in the 11100 block of S Talman Ave in Morgan Park, and the second was found Monday in the 1800 block of W 105th St in Beverly. Both bats were tested by the Illinois State Public Health Laboratory and determined to be rabid, according to an email alert OShea sent to constituents.

A young woman made quite the horrifying discovery when she returned to her Morgan Park home.

I came home on Saturday night at midnight to a surprise guest, Ryan told NBC 5. I ran out as fast as I could. I scooped up my dog and I cried in my hallway before I left.

Health officials said she did the right thing. The bat, which they believe came in through an open window, tested positive for rabies. Fortunately her dog Lucy already had the rabies vaccine, but she will have to get a booster shot.

"I could've fallen asleep and woken up with a bat in my bedroom, so thank god I caught it when I did, Ryan added.

That bat was one of 15 cases of rabies found statewide so far this year, which is slightly higher than normal, according to officials. Experts say its rare for humans to contract the disease, but when it does occurits devastating.

Once symptoms start, rabies is almost uniformly fatal, said Dr. Nirav D. Shah, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, adding that Any wild animal that would let you or your child come close enough to touch it is probably the wild animal you should stay the furthest away from.

Bats with rabies were also found in the suburban communities of Arlington Heights, LaGrange, and Aurora. Experts warn that it can be difficult to tell if an animal is infected, so they advise calling Animal Control immediately. Pet owners should also keep their pets on a leash at all times outside the home and be sure they have up-to-date vaccinations.
The painkiller said to be behind the overdose death of pop legend Prince has been linked to nearly 200 fatal overdoses in Cook County in the last year.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office said this year along at least 78 deaths have been attributed, at least in part, to fentanyl, a very powerful drug that is 100 times more potent than morphine.

Since the office began routinely testing for the drug in June of last year, it has been cited as a contributing factor to at least 102 deaths.

The medical examiners office has recently reported a spike in deaths attributed to the opoid and experts are concerned that new versions of the drug have appeared, making testing more challenging.

"Fentanyl and fentanyl analogues pose a great public health [risk] because people may not know they're using a very powerful drug," Dr. Peter Koin, deputy chief toxicologist for the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, said in a statement. "In addition, we're seeing new versions of fentanyl and testing for these substances is challenging because we've never seen them before. It's something brand new."

The medical examiners office believes the death toll will likely climb even higher as toxicology results can take up to three months to report.

"Fentanyl and fentanyl analogues are a huge concern because fentanyl is 20 to 100 times more potent than heroin, posing a much greater risk of overdose," Dr. Steven Aks, emergency medicine physician and toxicologist at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, said in a statement. "In many cases, one dose of naloxone, the heroin antidote, will revive a person who has overdosed on heroin. But we are seeing people in our emergency department who need as many as four doses [of] naloxone to be stabilized after ingesting fentanyl, or a heroin-fentanyl combination."

Law enforcement officials told NBC Chicago the opioid is being mixed with other drugs, mainly heroin, and being sold to unsuspecting users. According to the results so far, some who have died used the drug alone and others mixed it with heroin and other drugs like cocaine.

Last October, 74 people overdosed in 72 hours and police recovered a sample of heroin they say was laced with the painkiller fentanyl.

The medical examiner's office began routinely testing for fentanyl in June 2015 after national trends showed a spike in use. In 2014, 20 deaths were attributed to the drug.

The painkiller was thrust into the spotlight in the mid-2000s when dozens of people died from fentanyl-related overdoses.

The Drug Enforcement Administration said heroin has been the agency's number one priority for "the last several years." The agency said it has increased its outreach efforts in the Chicago area over the last year "to further help save lives."

Those seeking treatment for opioid dependence can find help through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's treatment locator by calling (800) 662-4357 or online.
Police confirmed Thursday that a Minnesota woman whose name was on a "kill list" left at the home of the man who carried out a murder-suicide at UCLA has been found dead.

Brooklyn Park Police Deputy Chief Mark Bruley said authorities received a call just after midnight from the Los Angeles Police Department asking them to conduct a welfare check on a woman whose name was on a "hit list" believed to have been created by UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkar.

The woman was later found dead of an apparent gunshot wound and is believed to have been killed before the UCLA shooting took place. An exact time of death was not immediately known, however.

The woman was identified by family as Ashley Hasti, her uncle, Mark Fitzgibbons told NBC News.

Hasti and Sarkar were married in June 2011. A medical student, Hasti graduated with her bachelor's degree in 2008 from the University of Minnesota.

Earlier Thursday, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told KTLA-TV, Sarkar drove to Los Angeles from Minnesota with two guns and killed Professor William Klug before killing himself.

Beck says when authorities searched Sarkar's home in Minnesota, they found a "kill list" with the names of Klug, another UCLA professor and a woman.

Beck said the woman was found shot dead in her home in a nearby Minnesota town. The other professor on the list is alright.

Beck says it appears that mental issues were involved and says Sarkar's dispute with Klug appears to be tied to Sarkar thinking the professor released intellectual property that harmed Sarkar.

Police are asking the public's help to find the car Sarkar drove to Los Angeles, a 2003 Nissan Sentra with the license plate of 720KTW.

The shooter, a former doctoral student, apparently had a strained relationship with Klug and may have believed Klug had misused the student's computer code, law enforcement sources told NBC News.

The shooting led to a SWAT search and a daylong campus closure Wednesday, with panicked students seeking a safe place to hide.

The gunman and Klug  a 39-year-old father of two and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering from El Segundo  were found dead in an office in the engineering building, police said.

Their bodies were found together in an office with a handgun and a note nearby, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck. Police did not provide details about the note.

No one else was hurt.

Police initially received reports of an active shooter on the Westwood campus, which has an undergraduate enrollment of around 43,000 students, prompting a campus-wide lockdown and massive law enforcement response.

About two hours later, students learned the shooting had been a murder-suicide and police said there was no threat to the campus.

"I'm just outraged," said Renjie Li, who took a class from Klug. "I'm mad that someone would do that to a young professor who just started his career at UCLA. Its just a shame."

According to his biography on the UCLA website, Klug received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 2003, his masters of science from UCLA in 1999 and his bachelors from Westmont College in 1998. Klug also led the Klug Research Group in Computational Biomechanics at UCLA.

Classes are scheduled to resume Thursday ahead of next week's final exams. A candlelight vigil is scheduled for Thursday night at UCLA.
Zoo designers already use architectural elements to try to keep children from going over railings into exhibits, but the breach at the Cincinnati Zoo's gorilla enclosure over the weekend has prompted experts to look at whether changes are needed.

Today's designs leave 4 feet between a railing and a moat so that anyone falling from the railing will not land in the moat. Railings themselves sometimes have uneven pickets to make it difficult for anyone to sit on top of them.

"That 4-foot space, thats come about over time because there have been so many incidents of parents setting a child on the railing," said Patrick Janikowski, a principal of PJA Architects and Landscape Architects, a Seattle-based firm specializing in zoo design.

"I don't want to say its designed for stupidity, but that's the reason that that is designed that way, as a secondary precaution against falling into the moat," he said.

The latest tragedy, in which a 17-year-old, 450-pound western lowland gorilla named Harambe was killed after a boy got into its enclosure, has driven the Cincinnati Zoo and zoo designers to consider changes in animal exhibits.

"Every time something likes this happens, there's a re-evaluation and a re-look to make sure each facility is up to speed," said Nevin Lash of Ursa International, an Atlanta-based design company.

"We're always trying to keep it exciting but safe," he said.

The 3-year-old boy climbed over a fence and fell more than 10 feet into the moat surrounding the gorillas enclosure over the weekend, NBC News reported. Harambe was shot after he grabbed the child, a decision zoo officials are defending in the face of outrage from animal rights groups and others. Zoo officials said the endangered gorilla was so large it could have hurt the child even without intending to.

The Cincinnati Zoo has insisted that the Gorilla World exhibit, the first "bar-less" outdoor gorilla habitat in the country when it opened in 1978, is safe. The zoo's director, Thane Maynard, told The Associated Press the breach was the first.

The Cincinnati enclosure is now the industry standard, its open design common in zoos across the country, with exhibits protected by a combination of glass, netting and moats, designers say.

For example, Zoo Atlanta, which has the nation's largest gorilla collection, has several outdoor viewing spots designed to give visitors the feeling of being close though they are separated by a series of safety barriers, the AP found.

The Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington has an indoor area with glass walls and an outdoor habitat surrounded by barriers made of glass panes, metal and metal frames filled in with mesh. Metal railings and large planters also stand between the viewing area.

But gorillas at the Columbus Zoo are in two enclosed areas behind glass and mesh. The approach is an exception to the open enclosure in Cincinnati, a spokeswoman, Patty Peters, told the AP.

George Houthoff, the CEO and co-owner of Houthoff Zoo Design in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, urged zoos to evaluate the safety of their exhibits through the eyes of a child.

"Small kids just like to climb," he said. "Sometimes barriers can be taken in seconds."

Zoos could inspect each other's exhibits for safety, he said. Zoo directors should ask their staff members whether they think an exhibit is unsafe. Have they ever seen a near miss? Use the experience of the zookeepers, he said.

Even relatively peaceful species can turn aggressive when their territory is invaded suddenly, he warned, not just big cats or crocodiles. Think about the risks also of falling or drowning, he said.

"Even if nothing happens for years and years, an exhibit can still be unsafe, especially for small children," he said.

PJA Architects designs railings with vertical pickets of different lengths so parents cannot set their children on the top railing and adults cannot sit on them. Still a child likely could climb over it, Janikowski said.

"If they can grab the pickets and pull themselves up, if it's an energetic child," he said. "I would think that because they're vertical, they can't get a foothold anywhere except at the bottom rail. You can still get over it but I think it's a lot of effort. That's why we use it."

Janikowski said that the firm would review the design but doubted it would be changed.

"We think our railings have been tested over time," he said.

This was not the first time a child has gotten into an exhibit. A 5-year-old fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Jersey Zoo in the United Kingdom 30 years ago, knocking himself unconscious. A male gorilla, Jambo, stroked his back until zoo keepers were able to get to the boy.

Ten years later, another 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. That time a female gorilla, Binti Jua, picked the child up and carried him to safety.

A 2-year-old boy fell into a cheetah exhibit at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in April 2015 after his mother allegedly dangled him over a railing. The parents rescued the child.

And another 2-year-old was killed by African dogs after, zoo officials charged, his mother lifted him up onto a 4-foot-tall wooden railing to get a better view. He fell into the exhibit and was attacked. The parents sued the zoo and later settled.

The zoos are inspected regularly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums  on average once a year by the Department of Agriculture, though more frequently if there is a complaint, and every five years by the association for accreditation.

The federal Animal Welfare Act says zoos must have barriers in place between enclosures for gorillas and other primates and the public, but the specifics are performance-based, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tanya Espinosa.

"That means that they are deemed to be adequate if they work, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act, has broad discretion into how to administer them," she said.

The Cincinnati Zoo has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums without interruption since 1978, most recently in 2014, said a spokesman, Rob Vernon. Its standards are also performance-based, but if a state or municipality has regulations related to exhibiting animals, those also must be met, he said.

Its Accreditation Commission will first consider whatever changes the Cincinnati Zoo makes before deciding whether more needs to be done, he said. He said he did not know of an instance where a zoo made no changes after an accident.

The enclosure should now be looked at through "the lens of a 3-year-old," he said.

Designers rely on the International Building Code, which specifies railing heights depending on the drop on the other side and other requirements. As zoos have evolved from cages for the animals, the animals have gotten healthier and stronger, Janikowski said. Enclosures have gotten larger, moats larger and heights of railings higher, he said.

Lash, with Atlanta-based Ursa International, said that some zoos were moving toward glass-enclosed viewing areas, which are extremely safe.

"But we also like to have the big open views," he said. "Youre standing at the same level or even lower than the animals are and that requires these moats. And theyre very popular in design as long as its all safe. We work to make that happen because no one wants what happened the other day."
Camping at Hammonasset Beach State Park has been a summer tradition for Larry Hart for more than five decades.

We never had electricity when I first came, he said. They had outhouses.

The Waterbury resident has been monitoring the states budget crisis.

Its a shame the way they are laying people off, Hart said.

Hart is among the many visitors worried how funding cuts will affect Connecticuts state parks.

I am concerned that they do maintain them and dont cut too much, Hart said. Because if they do well be hurting here.

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) operates and maintains more than a hundred state parks. The new state budget slashes DEEP funding by 11 percent or about $8 million.

After July 4th were likely to need to make some changes to live with the reduced resources we have, DEEP Spokesperson Dennis Schain said.

The funding cuts could mean reduced hours for seasonal park employees or fewer hires, Schain said.

Its going to be tough for the kids, college kids, high school kids that work here, a lot of them depend on doing this year after year, said Dennis Leghorn while spending the afternoon at the Hammonasset Beach.

There may be even fewer lifeguards on duty at the beaches and not as many ticket takers at park entrances.

Thats definitely an issue if I want to bring my kids, we would definitely come back here, said Esther Rosenkranz from Queens, New York, during a visit to the Connecticut beach.

If they eliminate some of the lines on the weekend youve got people will probably be way outside the highway just to get in, Hart said.

On a perfect Wednesday to be outside on the shoreline, visitors had no complaints.

The question is what will it be like at the end of the summer, Leghorn said.

None of the state parks are in jeopardy of being shut down, Schain said, but some smaller campgrounds may need to close to stay within budget.
The worlds largest motorcycle manufacturer sold 2.03 million units in Vietnam in the 2016 fiscal year (which ended in March), up 6.3 percent from the previous year, said Minoru Kato, general director of Honda Vietnam.

The director said that last year, Honda Vietnam's motorbike sales increased by 120,000 units to touch 2.03 million, accounting for about 70 percent of the market share.

He added that the company also focused on exports with nearly 128,000 completely built units (CBU) being shipped abroad, up 40 percent on-year to fetch $293 million.

The company has set a target of making $312 million from motorbike exports in the 2017 fiscal year, up 6.5 percent from 2016.

Minoru Kato said the Vietnamese motorbike market is unlikely to grow this year, but Honda Vietnam will try to increase its revenue and market share.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam has more than 45 million motorbikes, which means one in two people own a motorbike. The country is one of the top motorcycle consumers in the world along with China, India and Indonesia.
A Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter jet crashed Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee, killing the pilot just days before a weekend air show performance, officials said.

Harry Gill, the town manager in Smyrna just outside Nashville, said Thursday that the pilot was the only casualty and no civilians on the ground were hurt.

The Navy said in a news release that the pilot was beginning to take off during an afternoon practice session when the crash happened. Five other F/A-18 jets landed safely moments after the crash.

A Navy official told NBC News the crash took place around 3 p.m. CT near Smyrna and that no parachute was deployed.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the Blue Angels after this tragic loss. I know that the Navy and Marine Corps Team is with me. We will investigate this accident fully and do all we can to prevent similar incidents in the future," Adm. John Richardson, the Navy's top officer, said in a Facebook post.

This is the second crash of the day for the military's elite fighter jet performance teams. A member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds crashed in Colorado following a flyover for the Air Force Academy graduation where President Barack Obama spoke. That pilot ejected safely into a field.

The Blue Angels will not participate in the weekend air show, the Navy said in a news release.

The Great Tennessee Air Show will go on as scheduled, though, Smyrna airport Executive Director John Black said in a news release.

"After close consultation with the Blue Angels, regulatory officials and the performers, we have made the decision to carry on with this weekend's show," Black said.

In Smyrna, retired teacher Brenda Lewis and her 21-year-old grandson had spent much of the day in her backyard near the airport watching the Blue Angels fly overhead.

She's seen them many times before.

"But this afternoon, something made me really want to watch them," she said. "They looked like they were having such a good time playing up there."

She went inside to bake a chocolate pie when she heard a loud boom. She didn't think too much of it at first because the airport is just on the other side of her tree line and she's used to loud noises.

Then she heard sirens and went around the corner. She saw the smoke rising and police cars arriving. She went inside because she didn't want to see any more.

"I'm always so fascinated by them, the anticipation of it all," she said of their airshow. "Then something tragic like this happens. My heart is just broken."

Phil Dennis, a manger at Auto Masters of Smyrna nearby, was standing on the business' back deck with another employee watching the planes practice above.

"I'm still shaken up about it," he said, hours after watching the plane go down.

Dennis grew up going to the airshows. His first love was aviation, he said, and when he was a kid his mother used to take him to see the planes. Now a father himself, he planned to take his own children, ages 5 and 6, to the show on Saturday morning.

He watched one plane coming out of a loop and look like it was flying too fast toward the ground. It disappeared behind a tree line, and he said his heart stopped. He said he could hear the engines roaring; then all he heard was silence.

"I was so worried. I thought maybe he'd have time to recover," Dennis said. "But he didn't."

A massive fireball erupted from behind the trees.

"I felt it down my spine," he said. "It shocked me, I paused for a minute and questioned whether it really happened. I thought it can't be real."
A 36-year-old suburban Chicago woman is accused of putting nail polish remover in her 17-month-old stepdaughters bottle.

Andrea Vazquez-Hernandez, of Carol Stream, was charged with felony aggravated battery and domestic battery and faces up to five years in prison. Her bond was set at $250,000 Tuesday.

Police were called to Vazquez-Hernandezs home Sunday evening for a child who may have ingested nail polish remover. The father of the baby told officers he attempted to give his daughter a bottle of milk earlier in the night and she immediately spit it out, prosecutors said.

The girl was taken to a hospital, where tests came back normal and she was later released.

An investigation into the matter, however, revealed that at some point during the day, the babys stepmother added roughly one inch of nail polish remover to the bottle, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The allegations against this defendant are extremely disturbing, DuPage County States Attorney Robert Berlin said in a statement. Thankfully, the young victim in this case did not ingest any of the nail polish remover allegedly supplied by her stepmother.

Vazquez-Hernandez is expected to appear in court again on June 27. It was not immediately known if she had an attorney.
NBC Connecticut's Troubleshooters checked in with some refugees who are optimistic about life in America despite the challenges they face.

I am a pharmacist, said Aisha Alzobi. I came from Syria one month ago through Jordan with my husband and three sons and one daughter.

Alzobi is one of about 150 Syrians who have relocated in Connecticut since last July.

In Alzobis native country, millions of Syrians are fleeing their war-torn homeland.

We lose everything, said Alzobi. Country is destruction. There is no safe. No electricity. No water.

Alzobi and other Syrian refugees said they are thankful for the new opportunities they have been given in the United States. They also said they were thankful for the financial assistance they have been given.

While grateful, they aren't looking for charity.

We want to work and we want to give a good image about Muslims, Alzobi explained. Muslims are kind people, peaceful people.

Overcoming the negative image of Muslims is a priority for some refugees who feel that fear of their culture can be a barrier to fitting in and thriving.

With the help of her translator, Ghoufran Allababidi, Syrian refugee Fatima Zatar talked about the effects Islamaphobia has on her.

The governor of Indiana, he doesn't welcome them and he doesn't want them in his state so they had to come to Connecticut, Ghoufran said as she conveyed Zatar's words. Zatar said they werent able to get off the airplane, because they had learned they would not be accepted in Indiana.

However, Zatar said she had renewed hope when Governor Dannel Malloy welcomed them with open arms.

She realized for the first time that there are people who will refuse them, but on the other hand, there are people who will love them to be here, said Zatar via her translator.

But now that she is in Connecticut, Zatar hopes to land a job, despite her lack of English.

Islamic community organizers said men have an easier time being accepted in America than woman, because the women keep their hair covered and dress noticeably different as part of their religion.

Chris George is the director of Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS). The organization helps refugees settle in, and teaches them skills they'll need to survive in the American once their initial assistance runs out. He stressed the need to learn English and adapt to the American culture.

To refugees, differences in culture can be triggers for anxiety, George said. For example, a group of joggers hitting the pavement to get in shape can cause alarm, as in Syria and other warn-torn countries, running signals danger.

But George said the biggest hurdle for refugees is money. The United States government gives refugees a one-time Welcome to America grant of $1000 per person and that doesnt last long.

We put that toward their rent and most of that is spent over the first few months, said George. We need to supplement that with private funding to stretch out that adjustment period, so that they can learn English and get a job.

George also said they really dont help refugees beyond six months.

Although the transition is tough, its rewarding.

They're thrilled to be in a place where they're not going to be shot at, where their children arent going to be kidnapped, said George.

Afghanistan Refugee Fazila Mansoori knows first-hand what conditions some Syrians are up against and left behind. She came to the U.S. just one year ago. Mansoori now works for IRIS helping people like her adapt.

She thinks coming to America is the best thing that's ever happened to her.

Here I have the people respect me. People like me, said Mansoori, proudly sharing her story. My country people, and also in Pakistan, they see the woman as nothing. Women are nothing. Here I really found my real life.

Mansoori said it took six years for her to get in to America. Getting refugee status in the U.S. is a slow process.

George explained the rigorous background check conducted on refugees has greatly impacted the influx of Syrian refugees to the United States.
What to Know Nine soldiers have been confirmed dead after the crash.

The victims' identities have not been released pending notification of next of kin.

Three soldiers rescued after the crash have been released from the hospital and are with their families.

Fort Hood officials confirmed that the bodies of the four soldiers who remained missing after their truck was swept away in flooding Thursday have been recovered.

"I'm sad to report that we recovered our four missing soldiers,"

Fort Hood Deputy Commanding General Maj. Gen. John Uberti said Friday evening. "Tragically, all four of those soldiers are deceased, and we've lost in this incident nine of our great soldiers. We continue to care for the families and friends of our fallen comrades."

The nine soldiers died after a military vehicle was swept away by fast-moving flood waters Thursday at the Texas fort. Their identities will be released after their families have been notified, Army officials said.

"Our focus now is on notifying the next of kin and caring for our soldiers who have lost one of their teammates," Uberti said.

Maj. Gen. John Uberti, deputy commanding general at Fort Hood, says all four remaining missing soldiers have been found dead after a military vehicle overturned Thursday at a flooded crossing. The death toll is now nine.

Three of the soldiers were found dead shortly after a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle overturned at about 11:30 a.m. at the Owl Creek Tactical low-water crossing and East Range Road during a training exercise.

Two more bodies were found late Thursday night, according to a Fort Hood statement.[[381775161,R]]

Four more bodies were recovered Friday, according to Uberti.

Three soldiers rescued after the crash are in stable condition at Carl R. Darnell Army Medical Center and could be released Friday, according to Uberti.

Fort Hood spokesman John Miller said the low-water crossing of the creek was flooded by two days of intermittent heavy rains when the swift water swept the truck from the road.

U.S. Army officials say five soldiers have now been confirmed dead, while four remain missing and three others were rescued and hospitalized, after their vehicle overturned in floodwaters at Fort Hood.

Aerial and ground crews searched the 20-mile creek that winds through heavily wooded terrain on the northern fringe of the sprawling Army base. Army aircraft, canine search teams, swift-water rescue watercraft and heavy trucks were being used.

Officials said Friday morning that Fort Hood commanders were in the process of closing roads on the sprawling Central Texas Army post when the truck overturned.

In a statement Thursday, Maj. Gen. John C. Thomson III, 1st Cavalry Division Commanding General, said "The 1st Cavalry Division is grieving after a training accident at Fort Hood during flash flooding this morning. We are deeply saddened by the loss of several Troopers and continue search operations."

Friday morning Uberti thanked first responders from both the post and local and state agencies who were continuing the search for the missing soldiers.

The deaths of Fort Hood soldiers after their vehicle overturned in a flooded water crossing Thursday has had an emotional impact on the Central Texas Army post.

"Our priority has been since the first report of this incident, and continues to be, the search for our four missing teammates," Uberti said Friday. "And while that remains our priority ... my command sergeant major, and the entire leadership team, is focused on making sure we're providing the support and counseling for the families, friends and soldiers as we work through the notification and grieving process."

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-TX, expressed his condolences in a tweet Thursday afternoon.

Sad news from #FHTX; flooding claims lives of soldiers with search on for others  Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) June 2, 2016

Gov. Greg Abbott released the following statement Thursday: "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the soldiers, their families and the Fort Hood community, and continue to be with those still unaccounted for. Texas stands ready to provide any assistance to Fort Hood as they deal with this tragedy."
A Houston news crew helped rescue a dog left chained to a front porch Tuesday as floodwaters surged to record levels.

The pup was barely able to keep its head above water when a crew from NBC affiliate KPRC spotted it from an airboat manned by two volunteers, the station reported. The group was out surveying a flooded neighborhood in Fort Bend County.

KPRC reporter Phil Archer and volunteer Jeff Shimek jumped into the water to rescue the dog.

"They chained him to the front of the [expletive] house?" one of the men is heard saying on video shot from the boat.

They untie the dog and lift it into the vessel. The animal looks up with imploring eyes that seem to convey gratitude and relief.

The dog was turned over to the Houston Humane Society, according to KPRC, which said the crew later returned to the area and rescued five more abandoned dogs.

Parts of Texas have been inundated with rain over the last week, and more than half the state is under flood watches or warnings.

Several people have died in floods, including five Fort Hood soldiers whose truck overturned Thursday during a training exercise in a creek. Three others were rescued and four remain missing.
A suburban Houston man with a history of drunken driving convictions is jailed after authorities said one of two children riding with him tumbled from his car and fell to a street.

Montgomery County deputies said Matthew Killian, of Spring, was arrested and is accused of driving while intoxicated. Records show he has three previous DWI convictions.

Authorities told the Houston Chronicle a bystander saw a small child fall from the front passenger seat of his moving car Tuesday. They said Killian got out, retrieved the child and drove off with the door still open. Deputies tracked down the car and found Killian still in it with the kids.

The child who fell is hospitalized. Killian also is charged with injury to a child and endangering a child.
A North Texas company is seeking the return of more than $200,000 donated to a church by its former chief financial officer who has been tied to a more than $6 million embezzlement scheme.

Grapevine-based distribution company Raley Holdings is suing First Baptist Church of Carrollton, calling the donations from John Franklin Howard "blood money" and not his to give.

Howard in 2014 was sentenced to life in prison for the attempted capital murder of his wife for hiring men to try to kill her. The Tarrant County lawsuit filed last week says he used the embezzled money for the murder plot and also gave misappropriated money to the church.

Scott Ward, an associate pastor at the church, tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram the church does not comment on pending litigation.
Nearly two weeks after a man was shot and killed outside a Dallas motel, police say they have arrested one person in connection with the slaying and are looking for another.

After an interview with Dallas police Wednesday, 20-year-old Edward Jamal Hardeman was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery and capital murder. The charges are connected to the case of an unnamed 30-year-old man who was gunned down at about 3 p.m. May 14 outside the Super 7 Inn along R.L. Thornton Freeway.

Police said Hardeman and another person, 19-year-old Ashley Sheray Culbert, may have had contact with the man before he was killed.

A capital murder arrest warrant for Culbert has also been issued. Police ask that anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Homicide Unit at 214-671-3661.

Hardeman is currently being held in the Dallas County Jail on $525,000 bond. It's not clear if he has an attorney.

Police said the victim's identity, while known, will be released once his family has been notified of his death.

Crime Stoppers will pay up to $5,000 for information that leads to the arrest and indictment for this felony offense. Tipsters, who may remain anonymous, can share information by calling 214-373-TIPS.
Plano Senior High School has never given National Honor Society students special recognition on graduation day, but one family is hoping to rewrite the rules.

"I think they work so hard to attain that status," said Norman Frederick, a parent of a NHS student. "To not just recognize it at all and sweep it under the rug is being treated unfairly."

Frederick's son, Garrett, is graduating next week. He's headed to the University of South Carolina in the fall.

"Just leaving like that, it doesn't feel right," Garrett Frederick said. "I put in 60 plus hours and I kept my GPA above 3.6."

Honor graduates are recognized at Plano Senior High School graduation with a white stole, but National Honor Society students are not.

"Since the school opened in 1975, and with the first graduating class in 1976, students have worn one item of distinction during the graduation ceremony and that is the white honor stole for students with a GPA of 3.6 and above," said Lesley Range-Stanton, spokeswoman for the Plano Independent School District, in a statement. "We are aware that many honor students may not also be members of the National Honor Society, but the school has opted not to include additional regalia per tradition."

The longstanding practice was formally reviewed and discussed by student leaders and administration at least twice in the past, once in 2004 and again around 2008 or 2009, said Range-Stanton.

The student leaders opted to uphold the tradition.

"I know we have the honor stole, but it's not the same. NHS is the commitment to the community. It's you going above and beyond," Garrett Frederick said. "We, in NHS, deserve to show off our accomplishments."

Each high school in Plano high ISD has established its own practices. The National Honor Society emblem appears on stoles worn at Plano East and Plano West graduations, Range-Stanton said.

Garrett Frederick and his friends in National Honor Society have considered starting a petition to change the rules at Plano Senior High School.
A 72 year old Vietnamese-French woman had planned a happy retirement with her husband, but her careful planning turned into a nightmare and a prolonged property dispute with her niece in Ho Chi Minh City.

Ten years ago, the woman (whose name has been kept from the public) sent her niece in Vietnam $95,000 from France to buy a house in Ho Chi Minh City so that she and her husband could retire there. She also furnished the entire house, but the ownership documents were in her niece's name.

A year later, her husband suddenly passed away, so she returned to Vietnam to live for a while and set up an altar dedicated to him following traditional Vietnamese custom.

In 2010, the aunt started to get the impression that her niece wanted to keep the house so asked for the ownership papers to be transferred to her. The niece refused and cut off all contact with her.

Two years later, the aunt returned to Vietnam to visit the house but the niece had changed the locks.

After much persuasion, the niece opened the door and it turned out that the altar had been removed. The aunt realized her suspicions had been correct, and when the niece refused to hand over the keys, the matter was taken to court.

In an attempt to mend her broken relationship with the niece, the aunt promised to give her $27,000 if she voluntarily gave back the house.

Again, the niece refused and said she would see her aunt in court.

In 2015, at the HCM City Peoples Supreme Court, the niece admitted that she had received $95,000 from the aunt, saying that the aunt gave her the money to buy a house for herself in an act of generosity.

However, the niece could not prove the money had been a gift, and was instructed to return the house to her aunt.

Pushing her luck even further, the niece asked for the $27,000 her aunt had promised her once she got the house back.

But she got her comeuppance: this time it was the aunt's turn to refuse by saying she had only offered the money if the niece voluntarily gave back the house. Now the niece has nothing: no house and no money.
An Alabama middle school teacher was placed on administrative leave over a questionable math test she distributed Friday, NBC News reported.

The quiz that was given to students at Cranford Burns Middle School in Mobile referenced gang-related activities like drive-by shootings, cocaine and prostitution. One of the questions read: "Dwayne pimps 3 ho's. If the price is $85 per trick, how many tricks per day must each ho turn to support Dwayne's $800 per day crack habit?"

A parent Erica Hall told NBC affiliate WPMI she was outraged to find her sons Language Arts teacher JoAnne Bolser, who was set to retire this month, handed out inappropriate content to the eighth grade class.

Hall went to the school with her concerns, and Bolser was put immediately on leave. The school says it regrets what happened.
An appeals court upheld criminal securities fraud charges against Texas' attorney general Wednesday, and whether the Republican stands trial may now be decided by the same justices who recently threw out an indictment against former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Ken Paxton has now twice lost in his efforts to have allegations that he defrauded wealthy investors dismissed. His attorneys responded to the latest defeat from the Dallas-based 5th Court of Appeals with disappointment and did not immediately commit to pursuing a third and final appeal.

That would be with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is dominated by Republicans and in February threw out abuse-of-power charges against Perry that hampered his short-lived 2016 run for the White House.

Paxton was indicted nearly a year ago on charges that in 2011, while still a state lawmaker, he lured investors toward a high-tech startup near Dallas without disclosing that he was being paid by the company. He has spent most of his 17 months in office under indictment and is also being sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over the same allegations of investor fraud.

Paxton's attempts to have the criminal case thrown out boil down to claims that a grand jury in his hometown of McKinney was improperly picked. His attorneys also contend that a lesser charge of failing to register with state securities regulators is invalid because, they claim, Paxton was covered under federal law.

"Respectfully, we disagree that these fundamental flaws cannot be challenged pre-trial and will evaluate in coming days whether to raise these issues with the Court of Criminal Appeals," Paxton attorney Bill Mateja said.

In February, the state's highest criminal court threw out the case against Perry in a 6-2 decision. He had been indicted in 2014 on charges of abusing his power when he called for a Democratic district attorney to resign after being arrested for drunken driving, then vetoing state funds for public corruption prosecutors when she refused to step down.

Perry, who was indicted in liberal Austin, says he was the target of a political witch hunt. Paxton has made similar claims, but their cases are much different: Paxton's alleged misdeeds didn't happen in office, and he was indicted in a staunchly conservative Dallas suburb. One of the special prosecutors in the case, Brian Wice, represented former Republican U.S. House Majority Tom DeLay in his money laundering case.

Wice said he was "gratified but not surprised" that the Dallas appeals court let the case against Paxton proceed.

Paxton has said he won't resign. Last week, he announced that Texas was leading an 11-state lawsuit against the Obama administration over a new directive on bathroom rights for transgender students in public schools.
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are scheduled to appear at several events Friday as they try to gain support from California voters ahead of the state's Tuesday primary.

Former Secretary of State Clinton began her day in Culver City, attending a "Women for Hillary" organizing event at the West Los Angeles College gymnasium.

"We have to -- starting in the California primary on Tuesday -- send an unmistakable message we are stronger together, we are going to work together for a better and fairer nation," Clinton told a cheering crowd.

She also will attend a rally at the Westminster Rose Center, then take part in a conversation with "community leaders" at Crave restaurant, both in Santa Ana.At 6 p.m., Clinton will join a rally at Cal State San Bernardino.

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to stump on behalf of his wife's campaign at rallies in Burbank, Pacoima, Woodland Hills and Santa Monica.

Clinton's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, was in Northern California Friday, speaking at rallies in Cloverdale and Fairfield and conducting what his campaign called a labor news conference in Berkeley with Robert Reich, a labor secretary during Bill Clinton's administration.

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald J. Trump will also be in Northern California, speaking at an early afternoon rally in Redding.

On Thursday, Hillary Clinton campaigned in San Diego, where she issued a five-point national security plan and said electing Trump would be a "historic mistake."

"I believe he will take our country down a truly dangerous path," Clinton said in a 35-minute speech in Balboa Park.

Among other things, she said Trump picks fights with allies while praising dictators, and claims to know more about the Islamic State than U.S. military leaders.

In response, Trump tweeted: "Crooked Hillary no longer has credibility - too much failure in office. People will not allow another four years of incompetence!" A later tweet criticized what he described as a poor performance reading from a teleprompter.

Speaking at a rally in San Jose Thursday night, Trump called Clinton's speech "sad to watch" and a "phony hit job."

"It was supposed to be a foreign policy speech; it was a political speech," Trump said. "It was a political speech. It had nothing to do with foreign policy."

While Clinton is stressing her concerns about Trump, she is still dealing with her primary race. Clinton needs just 71 more delegates from states voting Tuesday to win the Democratic primary, but is dealing with an increasingly tough fight with rival Bernie Sanders in California, where the Vermont senator is gaining in polling.

On the third straight day of his Bay Area swing, Bernie Sanders made a campaign stop in Palo Alto on Wednesday, to reach out to young techies in the heart of Silicon Valley. On Thursday, Sanders held "A Future to Believe In" rally with Susan Sarandon and Sarah Lee Guthrie in Modesto and a rally at CSU Chico.
A mechanical and aerospace engineering professor was identified by students and colleagues as the victim killed Wednesday in an apparent murder-suicide at UCLA.

William Klug, a husband and father of two young children, was in an office inside Boelter Hall on the Westwood campus before 10 a.m. when he was reportedly shot and killed by an unidentified student who then took his own life, sources told NBC4.

Law enforcement officials told NBC News the shooting suspect was an engineering graduate student who apparently had a strained relationship with Klug and may have also been upset over grades.

A gun and a note were found near the bodies, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said during an afternoon press conference.

"Im just outraged," said Renjie Li, a student who knew Klug. "Im mad that someone would do that to a young professor who just started his career at UCLA. Its just a shame."

Li took a computer science class from Klug. Li said he was one of the most approachable professors on campus.

"He was always there for us. I just really appreciate him being that type of person there when Im in trouble doing my project or having trouble figuring out a problem," Li said. "Hes definitely one of my favorite professors here at UCLA."

Late Wednesday afternoon, friends of Klug were in shock at the El Segundo park where his son played Little League.

"It's hard to even fathom it  to have your son grow up without a dad," Lance Giroux, a family friend, said as he broke down in tears. "Hoping the community can rally around that and help him out because he's going to need it."

Parents said Klug would come to little league games to cheer on the team, even if his kids weren't playing.

"It's hard," Michael Alcala, a friend of Klug's, said. "Everybody came down here to gather to mourn a little bit, to console each other."

Klug was also the father of a young daughter.

The shooting prompted an hours-long lockdown of the campus involving hundreds of officers.

According to his biography on the UCLA website, Klug received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 2003, his masters of science from UCLA in 1999 and his bachelors from Westmont College in 1998.

Klug also led the Klug Research Group in Computational Biomechanics at UCLA.

A GoFundMe account has been set up here to help Klug's family.
A man suffering from lacerations on his hand was taken to the hospital Wednesday after arriving at a middle school used by a film company in West Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Officers responded to the report of a stabbing at 5 p.m. to the 11330 block of Graham Place in the West LA, the LAPD said.

LAPD said the man had arrived at the school film set with the wounds.

The school was identified as Webster Middle School.

FilmLA reported that 20th Century Fox is filming a pilot for a show called "Chad," starring NBC's Saturday Night Live alum Nasim Pedrad, at the school.

"Chad" is described as a comedy series about a 14-year-old boy thrown into acting as the man of the house.

No other information was immediately available.
House Speaker Paul Ryan endorsed Donald Trump's bid for president on Thursday, bringing an end to the extraordinary public split between the GOP's presumptive White House nominee and the nation's top Republican in office.

"I had friends wishing I wouldn't support him. I had friends wishing I would," Ryan said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. "I really didn't feel any pressure, other than my goal is to make sure that were unified so that we're at full strength in the fall so we can win the election."

Ryan's announcement, made in a newspaper column published in his Wisconsin hometown, marks a significant step for a Republican Party trying to come together ahead of a general election matchup against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

And Ryan made clear he had Clinton on his mind when he decided to join the ranks of Republicans who have slowly come around to backing Trump, the brash billionaire few expected to emerge as the party's nominee when the campaign began in earnest last year.

"This to me is about saving the country and preventing a third progressive, liberal term, which is what a Clinton presidency would do," Ryan said.

Trump celebrated the endorsement on his favorite venue, Twitter.

"So great to have the endorsement and support of Paul Ryan," Trump wrote. "We will both be working very hard to Make America Great Again!"

There are still some GOP leaders who say they won't support Trump, including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who tapped Ryan as his running mate four years ago. A day earlier, Romney signaled that he'd support a possible third-party candidate instead of the presumptive Republican nominee.

Ryan himself acknowledged that he continues to have concerns Trump's combative style, but said after a series of conversations with Trump, he's confident he and the House Republicans he leads as speaker will be able to work with him as president on their agenda.

"We obviously have a different kind of style and tone. That's very clear. Anyone who knows anything about us knows that," Ryan said. "But what really, ultimately matters is how best can we make sure these principles and policies get enacted in 2017."

As the GOP's so-called "Never Trump" movement struggled to identify a viable alternative, many believed it was only a matter of time before Ryan fell in line. The endorsement, he said, was not the product of any deal with the billionaire developer, but a decision based on "an understanding of our mutually agreed upon principles."

Ryan said he specifically wanted to go over Trump's approach to executive power, judicial appointments and his position on abortion.

"Those conversations took some time," he said, adding: "I feel much more comfortable that he's in the same page with us. Most importantly, it is obvious that Hillary Clinton is not."

Ryan ended a weeks-long standoff with Trump minutes before the interview by outlining his support for the New York billionaire in a column published online by The Janesville Gazette.

He had shocked the political world last month by refusing to endorse Trump once the real estate mogul became the last major Republican presidential contender still in the race.

The pair spoke privately in a series of Washington meetings last month and their staffs' stayed in touch. Ryan said he made the decision to formally endorse Trump earlier in the week.

"I wasn't just going to sign up sight unseen without even having a conversation or knowing what direction, because he had only mentioned a few policies in the primary," Ryan said. "I wanted to basically make sure that (we agreed) on the big issues of the day, on really important principles."

Major differences remain, however. And conservative leaders across the country continue to have deep reservations about Trump's devotion to Republican principles and his temperament.

In particular, Ryan has embraced major changes to Medicare and Social Security as his signature issue on Capitol Hill. Most Republicans in Congress have followed Ryan's plan to reduce the cost of the popular programs that are contributing to the national debt.

Trump has repeatedly promised not to touch the popular programs, echoing a position more commonly adopted by Democrats.

The two also break on immigration. Trump wants to deport more than 11 million immigrants in the country illegally in addition to imposing a temporary ban on Muslims from entering the U.S.

Ryan opposes both policies.

"It's no secret that he and I have our differences. I won't pretend otherwise," Ryan wrote in The Janesville Gazette column. "And when I feel the need to, I'll continue to speak my mind."

Ryan's announcement was released as Clinton was delivering a foreign policy speech excoriating Trump's approach.

Electing Trump, she said, would be "a historic mistake."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection responded to a large drug bust on the Miami River Wednesday.

Crews said they found 1,800 pounds of cocaine stashed in a freight ship.

"We uncovered anomalies on the ship. We drilled the deck plates of the ship, where we found a white powdery substance, which field tested positive for cocaine," explained Dylan DeFrancisci, Port Director with CBP.

CBP and the U.S. Coast Guard performed a routine check on the Lisanne Freight Ship that was coming in from Haiti, and found several hidden compartments. Investigators said the ship arrived Tuesday night.

"The ship came in empty. These ships typically come in empty from Haiti and then fill up here and return back to Haiti with goods and mattresses, and a lot of household stuff that they need in Haiti," DeFrancisci said.

The ship was docked in the area of the 3300 block of North River Drive.

Agents recovered nearly 800 bricks of cocaine, which equals nearly 2,000 pounds of the drug. They are now investigating how the drugs managed to make it onto the ship.

"We're gonna continue drilling all these plates to make sure they're all empty but we're into the second day of operations in this enforcement," DeFrancisci said.

No arrests have been made. Several agencies are working together in this ongoing investigation.
A Florida Keys man is still behind bars, weeks after being arrested for an alleged scheme to defraud a tech company in Tennessee out of nearly $3 million in computer equipment and other technology.

Deputies in Monroe County said Cole Peacock, a resident of Plantation Key, contacted a company in Tennessee and worked out a deal with the CEO of a company there regarding the purchase of computer technology. Peacock told the victim he had board members and investors.

Peacock told the victim he was the CEO of a fake company called Data Point Systems, with locations in Miami and the Florida Keys. The two men spoke in November, with the victim sending over $120,000 worth of items to the Miami address the following month.

After receiving the items, Peacock cut off contact with the CEO. The victim then called deputies in January, who enlisted help from the Department of Homeland Security and found that Peacock had rented a storage locker at the address and picked up multiple items there.

A warrant was issued and Peacock was arrested on May 17, as he was on probation for a 2013 arrest relating to computer fraud that forbid him from having contact with computer businesses. He is still in jail on a $100,000 bond for two felony charges, including grand theft and fraud.
When the war broke out, the first lesson children were taught was to dig tunnels and bunkers. To ensure safety, schools arranged their classes in multiple locations, each of which had a trench to help people avoid the bombs.
Miami International Airport is opening an additional checkpoint and hiring more than 60 TSA agents for the summer travel season, officials said Wednesday.

The Concourse D Checkpoint 4, which provides access primarily for American Airline passengers, will open during the airport's peak hours.

In addition, officials are dedicating a new checkpoint at Concourse D for passengers who are part of the TSA Precheck program.

Travelers at airports across the country have experienced slow-moving lines blamed on an increase in the number of air travelers and a shortage of TSA officers in recent weeks. But at airports over the Memorial Day weekend, travelers found shorter and faster moving security lines.
A suspect in a shooting in Miramar was taken into custody after he barricaded himself inside a home in Pembroke Pines Thursday morning, authorities said.

Police and a SWAT team responded to a home in the 1900 block of Northwest 78th Terrace where the suspect was inside. The suspect later surrendered to police.

He was later identified as 28-year-old Ahmad Antwuan Robinson. It was unknown if he has an attorney.

Officers are working a scene involving a barricaded suspect at 1920 NW 78 Terr. Area is secured by SWAT. pic.twitter.com/1oAMU98lmB  Pembroke Pines PD (@PPinesPD) June 2, 2016

According to an arrest affidavit, Robinson was wanted for shooting at another man in the 11300 block of Miramar Boulevard in Miramar on Wednesday.

The victim told officers he thought the man shot at him because he was dating the man's wife.

No other information was immediately known.

Check back with NBC 6 for updates.
A 16-year-old who police said shot his friend in the forehead has now been charged in the shooting.

The teen has been identified as a boy from Pembroke Pines. NBC 6 is not releasing his name, due to his age. He faces several charges including attempted manslaughter.

The shooting was reported around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 8200 block of Northwest 10th Street in Pembroke Pines.

According to the police report, the teen suspect retrieved a firearm hidden in his bed frame. He said he believed that he had removed the magazine containing five bullets, at which time he pointed the firearm at his 15-year-old friend's head and pulled the trigger.

Police said the bullet struck the victim in the face between his eyes, causing several facial fractures, leaving a bullet fragment behind his right eye, with an additional bullet fragment at the base of his skull.

The report then states the suspect left his bedroom and returned a few minutes later and called 911.

The suspect was arrested and while in police custody, officers said he admitted that he intentionally pulled the trigger of the firearm, which he believed was empty.

Police said the suspect also admitted he purchased the firearm from an unknown subject approximately two weeks ago for $230 and kept it hidden in his bedroom.

The victim had been transported to the hospital as a trauma alert, but was conscious and alert, according to police.

The suspect made an appearance in court Thursday, where he was ordered to remain in juvenile jail for 21 days. It's unknown if he has an attorney.
The Kashi Company is voluntarily recalling some snack bars and granola sold in the U.S. over concerns the products may contain sunflower seeds contaminated with listeria.

The two affected products are the Trail Mix flavor of Kashi Chewy Granola Bars and the Cinnamon + Sunflower Butter flavor of Bear Naked Soft Baked Granola.

The company said the products contain sunflower seed ingredients distributed by SunOpta, a Minnesota-based company that has recalled dozens of products sold around the country.

The ingredients may contain listeria monocytogenes, bacteria that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, the elderly and other people with weakened immune systems. Pregnant women are also at risk.

There were no reports of illness as of May 31, according to Kashi. No other Kashi or Bear Naked products are impacted by the recall, the company said.

Those who purchased the recalled products should discard them and contact Kashi for a full refund. The consumer hotline is 1-877-747-2467.

For the UPC codes and expiration dates of affected products, go to Kashis recall page.
More than 20 musicals will be featured in Friday's free outdoor concert Stars in the Alley -- the annual event that gives theater fans a sneak peek at the best of Broadway.

San Hayes ("An Act of God") and Mo Rocca ("The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee") will host the two-hour concert, which begins at 12:30 p.m. in Time Square's famed Shubert Alley.

The day will include performances of select numbers from 2016 Tony nominees "Bright Star," "The Color Purple," "Disaster!," "On Your Feet!," "She Loves Me," "Tuck Everlasting" and "Waitress" -- more than a week before some of those shows hit the stage for Broadway's top award show.

Last year's big Tony winners "An American in Paris," "Fun Home" and "Something Rotten!" will perform too, as will the soon-closing "Finding Neverland" and "Matilda the Musical."

Also scheduled? Long-running hits "Aladdin" "Beautiful," "Chicago," "Kinky Boots," "Les Misererables," The Phantom of the Opera" and "Wicked."

Stars in the Alley is organized by The Broadway League. "School of Rock" stars Alex Brightman and Sierra Boggess will be on hand, serving as the day's social media correspondents.

Joining the musical performances will be a handful of stars from Broadway's non-musical shows, including Jesse Tyler Ferguson ("Fully Committed"), Michael Shannon ("Long Day's Journey Into Night"), and the Tony-nominated stars from "The Humans" and "Eclipsed."

"Hamilton" and "Shuffle Along," which lead the 2016 Tony nominations, are also expected to be present in some form at the event.
Two nurses allegedly ignored a physically disabled man as he lay bleeding from the head on the floor of a Queens nursing home, authorities said.

Surveillance video shows the 51-year-old disabled man fall in front of one of the nurses at the Peninsula Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, who simply ignore the man.

Video then shows the man crawling on the floor while covered in blood, bleeding from his head and jaw, as the two nurses do not acknowledge him.

The complete and utter lack of care allegedly displayed by these two nurses is shocking, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement.

"When New Yorkers make the difficult decision to place their loved ones in a nursing home, they shouldn't have to worry about abuse and neglect," he added in a news conference later.

The two suspects, ages 39 and 34, were indicted Thursday on the felony charge of endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person and the misdemeanor charge of willful violation of health laws.

A visitor at the Far Rockaway facility Thursday said she happened to be there on that October day 19 months ago, visiting her brother.

"I was screaming, 'Help the man, help the man!'" said Denise Doman. "And he was just laying there."

When they were first arrested, a lawyer for one of the nurses said she was not guilty.

"My client did assist in treating this person and in fact did call 911," said Victor Knapp.

Schneiderman praised the nursing home for cooperating in the investigation and for turning over surveillance video. But at the facility Thursday, a security guard turned away NBC 4 New York, and no one was made available to comment on the arrests.

Phone calls to Peninsula Nursing and Rehabilitation have not been returned.

Meanwhile, Doman said she visits her brother every other day to make sure he's not being abused.

"They are used to seeing my face and so far, his care seems to be OK," she said.

But she worries about the other patients there and other nursing homes who are alone.

"There are a lot of patients who don't have family or friends," she said. "Those are the ones who are getting neglected."
What to Know A Subway restaurant was robbed at knifepoint in Queens on Wednesday night.

The holdup bears the hallmarks of a serial robber on Long Island and police are investigating a connection.

A knife-wielding man has been targeting businesses in Queens, Suffolk and Nassau counties after hours for months. Cops have made no arrests.

A Subway restaurant in Queens was robbed at knifepoint Wednesday night, and now police are investigating whether it's connected to a series of robberies on Long Island.

The Bayside sub shop was robbed sometime before 9:40 p.m. by a man with a knife.

The knife-wielding robber removed cash from the register and then took off.

No one was injured in the holdup.

The robbery comes less than a week after police said they were investigating similar robberies in the Forest Hills, Flushing and Howard Beach neighborhoods of Queens.

Police are looking into the possibility that Wednesday's holdup is connected to the robberies in Queens and a slew of others in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

In many of the robberies, a hooded man with a knife targets employees as they close up shop for the night. No one has been injured.

Officials said late last month that robberies in Forest Hills, Flushing and Howard Beach may be connected to the knife-wielding robber who has targeted Dunkin' Donuts, 7-Eleven, Subway, and other businesses over the past few months.
The first edition of the book "Madam Nhu - Quyen luc ba Rong", the Vietnamese translation of "Finding the Dragon Lady" by Monique Brinson Demery, has been withdrawn from circulation by Ho Chi Minh City's Department of Information and Communications.

The translated book focusing on the life of Tran Le Xuan, popularly known as Madamme Nhu, South Vietnam's unofficial First Lady from 1955 to 1963, hit the shelves in February 2016 and immediately became a bestseller.

The reasons given by the department include that the edition was not carefully edited and therefore contained errors that were only detected after its publication.

According to the withdrawal request issued to district culture and information bureaus and book distributors, all circulation of the first edition must be stopped. The books will be returned to the Vietnamese Writers' Association Publishing House and Phuong Nam Book Company. Reports of the withdrawal must be submitted to the Department of Information and Communications by June 10.

Back on February 26, Vietnam's Publication Department officially instructed the Writers' Association Publishing House to suspend circulation of the original edition of Madame Nhu to "review the entire content and to edit certain details in the book and on its cover".

Finding the Dragon Lady" was translated into Vietnamese by Mai Son under the name "Madam Nhu - Quyen luc ba Rong", and quickly became a best-seller in Vietnam after its publication in February this year. It was, however, found to contain many typing errors and inaccuracies, to which the translator admitted.

The corrected second edition was published in March by Phuong Nam with a record 20,000 copies.

Cover of the book "Madam Nhu - Quyen luc ba Rong", the Vietnamese translation of Finding the Dragon Lady" by Monique Brinson Demery

Tran Le Xuan was the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu, the brother and chief adviser of the then President Ngo Dinh Diem. She earned the nickname Dragon Lady for her ruthless character and for the immense political power she weilded in the south during the Vietnam War.
What to Know Shemel Mercurius, 16, was baby-sitting her young cousin in her Brooklyn apartment on Tuesday when she was shot multiple times.

Police have arrested 24-year-old Taariq Stephens, who allegedly used a .40-caliber submachine gun to kill Mercurius.

Video shows the gunman walking into her apartment, then running back out. The girl was able to describe her killer to cops before she died.

UPDATE: Brooklyn Man Charged in Shooting Death of Babysitter Pleads Not Guilty

The Brooklyn man identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of a teenage girl in front of the 3-year-old boy she was baby-sitting has been arrested.

Taariq Stephens, 24, was arrested on murder and weapons possession charges in the fatal shooting of 16-year-old Shemel Mercurius Tuesday, police said.

Hours after police identified Stephens as a suspect in the killing, he turned himself in at NYPD's 67th Precinct station in Brooklyn Thursday evening.

The victim's family stood a few feet from Stephens on Friday as he was escorted out of the precinct station. Stephens looked at the ground as he walked and didn't make eye contact with any of the family members.

"I wanted to see if I know this guy, but honestly, I don't known this guy," said Dexter Mercurius, the victim's father. "I wanted to know why this guy killed my daughter."

It was unclear whether Stephens has obtained a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Surveillance video released by police shows Stephens taking the elevator up to the sixth-floor apartment on Brooklyn Avenue in East Flatbush Tuesday, where Mercurius was taking care of her young cousin.

He then racks his gun before entering the apartment, where he allegedly fired three rounds at the girl.

"That is a very dangerous weapon, it's a 40-caliber Kel-Tec submachine gun," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at a news briefing earlier Thursday.

Investigators haven't recovered the submachine gun.

The relationship between Stephens and Mercurius isn't clear. Investigators are looking through text messages between them, but "she does not say it's her boyfriend," according to Boyce. "From what we can read of the texting, it is not a romantic relationship at all. So there's a lot more to go on this case, more to figure out."

Stephens has six prior arrests, according to police, prompting neighbors to wonder how he was able to get his hands on such a dangerous weapon.

"It's just crazy," said Jamal, who lives in East Flatbush. "It shouldn't have happened."

Mercurius was found semi-conscious in her apartment and later died at Kings County Hospital. She was able to name her alleged killer to police before she died.

Mercurius' aunt told NBC 4 New York that her 3-year-old son, whom Mercurius was baby-sitting, witnessed the shooting.

"My son was in the apartment screaming, and the neighbors heard him crying and started banging the door, but Shemel wasn't able to get up or move or do anything," said Latoya Price.

The boy was unharmed.

Mercurius' family said in a statement after Stephens' arrest, "We would like to thank the NYPD for their quick apprehension of the suspect... We are now focused on making final arrangements to bury one of the most loving, friendly and kind 16-year-olds."

The family says it's working to establish a scholarship in her memory.
A man threatened to open fire Thursday at a Newark airport terminal and blow up a plane, a law enforcement source told NBC 4 New York.

The caller told Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials that he wanted $50,000 cash and a flight to Mexico or else he would open fire at the terminal when a British Airways plane landed, the source said.

He later called back and threatened to blow up the British Airways flight, the source said. The phone call was made from within the United States, the source said.

The threats were not considered credible, two sources said.

The flight, which is carrying 206 passengers and 13 crew members, arrived around 1 p.m., said Joe Pentangelo, Port Authority police spokesman.

The British Airways aircraft was moved to a remote section of the airport and surrounded by police and emergency crews. Passengers were then evacuated from the plane.

The passengers' checked bags and carry-ons were rescreened as a precaution.

Nothing suspicous was found in the bags or aircraft, Pentangelo said.
The city's Department of Buildings is investigating after an empty warehouse collapsed in Brooklyn, police say.

No one was injured when the building at 1 43rd St. in Sunset Park collapsed Tuesday night, spokesman Sgt. Carlos Nieves said in a tweet.

It's located in an industrial part of Sunset Park.

Nieves says firefighters are searching a pile of rubble at the site as a precaution.
As many as 100 ISIS fighters who returned to Belgium from Syria may be planning terror attacks, according to a top Belgian official who spoke to NBC News.

Deputy Prime Minister Jan Jambon said 300 fighters from Belgium have gone to Syria, and 200 have returned. He said half of those who returned could be used to counter the jihadi narrative among other recruits, and advise them from joining the terror group.

There is concern that the other 100 could return with specific missions directed by ISIS, putting European officials are on high alert for any plots, Jambon said.

But Jambon pointed out that said he wasnt aware of any imminent plot like the twin bombings that killed 32 people in Brussels in March.
Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, the lawyer who successfully defended President Obama's health care law from repeated challenges before the U.S. Supreme Court, will step down later this month, the White House and the Justice Department announced Thursday.

"Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable health care," President Obama said, calling Verrilli "a dedicated public servant who has helped our nation live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all."

Verrilli will leave on June 24 after five years in the office, making him the seventh-longest serving Solicitor General, NBC News reported.
German police are investigating the alleged assault of an Iraqi asylum seeker dragged out of a store and tied to a tree by a local vigilante group, NBC News reports.

A video showing the alleged incident that took place on May 21 near Dresden was circulated on social media, which prompted the investigation.

Officers responded to a 911 call and found the Iraqi man zip-tied to a tree in the parking lot of a supermarket. According to a police statement, officers initially questioned three suspects, who were allowed to leave the scene after saying they prevented a threat situation following an altercation inside the supermarket.

Police said in their statement Thursday that the suspects have been identified and are appealing to the public for information.
Bryan Whitman, the Pentagon's top public affairs official, has entered an agreement with prosecutors to keep him out of jail after he was charged with stealing license plates from a neighborhood car, according to court documents.

Whitman, 58  who as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs is one of the highest-ranking civilians in the Pentagon  remains on the job, deputy Pentagon press secretary Gordon Trowbridge told NBC News on Wednesday.

Records filed Tuesday in D.C. Superior Court show that Whitman and Washington, D.C., prosecutors have agreed to defer his prosecution on three counts of first- and second-degree theft, which were filed May 5.

The charges will be dismissed next year if Whitman pays restitution, completes about a week of community service and doesn't run afoul of the law in any other way, according to the agreement.
The National Watch & Clock Museum in Pennsylvania decided it was time for a teachable moment when surveillance cameras captured a guest touching a rare modern clock earlier this week and accidentally knocking it off the wall.

The museum shared the video on Instagram and YouTube, reminding visitors that there's a no-touching rule at the museum for a reason.

"This is why we beg visitors not to touch museum object. #museumfail #museums #visitorfail #clock #timepiece," the caption on the Instagram video reads.

The video shows a man and a woman who visited the Columbia, Lancaster County, museum on Tuesday admiring a wooden sculpture clock created by artist James Borden for a few seconds before the man gets bold and decides to try to move the weights on the clock.

Museum Director Noel Poirier said he and the museum staff who've watched the video several times think the man was probably trying to see if he could get the timepiece to run. Some of the roughly 1,500 clocks that are on display at the museum at any given time don't constantly run.

"Once he pulled it up a little too high, that weight came off track and the heavy weight came down, hit the clock, knocked the clock off the wall, so then you see the results," Poirier said. "I think what he was trying to do was raise the weight up because I think he thought that would make the clock run." [[381641231, C]]

In the video, the clock falls from the wall, and pieces scatter on the floor. The man picks up the clock itself and tries to hang it back on the wall, but then leans it against the wall before he and the woman walk away. Poirier said that despite media reports saying the man ran away to try to go unnoticed, he actually went to find a museum staffer so the clock's parts could be properly cleaned up.

Poirier said museum curators are happy to make any clock run should a curious visitor want to see how it works. But they prefer that visitors not take matters into their own hands.

"Apparently this visitor really wanted to see this one run," Poirier said. "For us, it's a learning opportunity for folks because there are reasons that museums ask folks not to touch things."

Poirier said in the roughly 10 years he's worked at the museum, this is the first time he can recall a visitor accidentally breaking something. People touch things all the time, though, he said.

"There are people who touch things in museums regardless of what you do," he said. "Most times, it's adults. People think it's children, but it's really not."

Borden, the artist who sculpted the clock out of wood, donated it to the museum's collection of some 13,000 objects in 1994, Poirier said. Fortunately, he said, the clock is fixable, and most of its repairs can be done in-house at the museum.

He said the clock should be back on display in the next few months.
More than 6,600 people in Montgomery, Bucks and Chester counties became at risk of losing their food assistance benefits on Wednesday when a federal regulation limiting the benefits to three months resumed.



Thousands more in South Jersey could potentially lose the benefits as time limits there resume over the summer.



The three-month time limit, which had been suspended because of high unemployment rates during the Great Recession, went back into effect this year.

The limit is for benefits provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) to people considered "ABAWDs" -- able-bodied adults without dependents, or people aged 18 to 49 who have no children and no disabilities. Some people receiving benefits in Pennsylvania began to hit the three-month limit on June 1.



Kathy Fisher, policy manager at the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, said a major issue her organization anticipates is that people who will lose benefits don't realize they're losing them -- they'll likely find out when they go to use their SNAP cards and they suddenly don't work, she said.



"All the people who will have their benefits cut off should have gotten a letter, but there are all kinds of issues of whether they get the letter, whether they don't read it [or] don't understand it," Fisher said.



She said that 3,350 people in Montgomery County, 1,120 people in Chester County and 2,200 people in Bucks County are estimated to be at risk of losing benefits as a result of the limits. Across the state, roughly 35,000 people total are at risk of losing benefits, she added.



Some counties and localities in Pennsylvania with high unemployment rates, including Philadelphia, Delaware County, Reading, Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown, are exempt from the limits based on unemployment rates, so people in those areas won't be affected. The state had to apply for those exemptions, Fisher said.



People losing benefits can re-qualify by finding a job to work at least 20 hours per week, volunteering or performing community service for 26 hours per month, obtaining a medical exemption or participating in a qualifying education or training program.

Still, Fisher said, the number of Pennsylvania residents facing their benefits being cut off is concerning.



"Obviously, it's not good," Fisher said. "It's in the interests of everyone's health and well-being that people are able to eat, so we hope that some folks out there who really aren't able to work are able to get exemptions. It's a horrible rule, but it's not a rule that Pennsylvania itself has any control over."



Across the river in New Jersey, advocates estimate that anywhere from 50,000 to 55,000 people could potentially be at risk of losing their benefits for the same reason. Counties in South Jersey will begin to hit the three-month limit in July and August, according to Maura Sanders, chief counsel for public benefits at Legal Services of New Jersey.



Sanders said Jersey applied for a provision that delayed the limits, but that the state government decided not to apply for waivers for high-unemployment areas like Pennsylvania did. She said 15 counties would have been eligible for those waivers because of their unemployment rates.



In places like Atlantic City and Camden, where there's high unemployment and low job opportunity, Sanders said, concern is particularly high.



"We don't know what's going to happen on the other end," Sanders said. "The big question I have is: Are there sufficient work activities [available] and are the counties ready?"



Sanders said that Bergen County in northern New Jersey's limit is up already, and that several hundred people lost their benefits.



"It worries me when they say several hundred lost benefits," she said.



Fisher at Philadelphia's Coalition Against Hunger said that the SNAP time limits will worsen food insecurity across the region and the state -- both for people who lose their benefits and people who don't, who will be forced to try to stretch their own resources to help friends and relatives who lose access.



"It has a ripple effect," Fisher said. "That's a really unfortunate reality, that it comes from somewhere, and usually from those who need help the most."
The United States should not decide its policy on the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) based on what its allies think, and should stick to its promises not to take sides in the dispute, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday ahead of Sino-U.S. security talks.

China has been angered by what it views as provocative U.S. military patrols close to islands China controls in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea). The United States says the patrols are to protect freedom of navigation.

China claims most of the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea), through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with Washington.

Speaking at a forum ahead of next week's high-level meetings with U.S. officials in Beijing, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang said his country had every right to protect its sovereignty and maritime rights in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea).

"In fact the United States is not a claimant in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) dispute, and its said it takes no position on territorial disputes," Zheng said.

"So we hope the U.S. can stick to its promises and not choose sides, but can set its position based on the rights and wrongs of the case rather than whether somebody is an ally," he added.

"I think if they can do this, and if they can stop provocative acts targeted at China's sovereignty and security interests, then the U.S. can play a constructive role in maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) and promote a lowering of the temperature on this issue."

China's top diplomat, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, will take this up with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at their talks, Zheng added.

The South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea) is also expected to loom large at Asia's biggest security summit starting in Singapore on Friday, attended by a senior Chinese admiral.

Last month, Beijing demanded an end to U.S. surveillance near China after two Chinese fighter jets carried out what the Pentagon said was an "unsafe" intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea (Vietnam's East Sea).

Denouncing people in the United States who viewed China as a threat, which he believed was not a mainstream U.S. view, Zheng said the two countries had proved they can cooperate well on joint issues of global concern, like North Korea and Syria.

"China's development won't threaten any country," Zheng said. "I hope certain people in the United States set themselves straight and spurn Cold War thinking."
The district attorney says a 17-year-old student caused $1 million to $1.5 million damage when he set fire to a Pennsylvania high school last month.

The Montgomery County district attorney's office initially said damage to North Penn High School in Lansdale was minimal following the May 24 fire.

But the DAs spokeswoman tells The (Doylestown) Intelligencer that structural damage found after an inspection has caused the estimate to balloon.

The 17-year-old accused of starting the fire is in the county juvenile detention center. He faces an adjudication hearing on Friday, which is the juvenile court equivalent of a trial.

The boy could be incarcerated or supervised by the court until he's 21 if he's found to be delinquent, the juvenile court equivalent of a conviction.
An off-duty officer walked in on two men burglarizing his Philadelphia home, according to investigators.

The officer, who is an 8-year veteran assigned to Phillys 12th District, entered his home on the 3300 block of Wellington Street at 1:12 p.m. Wednesday. As he walked in he noticed his television was missing, his rear kitchen window was open and his rear kitchen door was ajar. He then heard people moving and talking in his basement.

The officer took out his weapon, approached the basement stairs and announced, Police. A man, later identified as Ricky Mosley, 37, then allegedly charged towards the officer with a dark metal object in his hand. The officer told officials he fired one shot, missing Mosley. Although he wasnt struck, Mosley still fell down the steps and crashed into the basement wall, officials said. Mosley as well as a second suspect, identified by police as Lynel Henry, 22, then ran out of the rear basement door as the officer chased after them on foot, according to investigators.

As he exited the home and ran after them outside, the officer spotted a van pull away at a high speed, police said. Mosley was later apprehended on the 3200 block of Wellington Street while Henry was captured on Brighton and Hawthorne streets by another off-duty detective, according to officials.

None of the officers were injured during the incident.

Both Mosley and Henry are charged with burglary, criminal trespass, criminal conspiracy, flight to avoid prosecution, theft and other related offenses.




What to Know Janie Dawson's daughter discovered her naked, beaten and unable to move inside her bedroom on March 9, police say.

Dawson spent two weeks in the hospital before she died of her injuries. She was 86 years old.

Police say Dawson's 25-year-old grandson beat her to death and was arrested and charged with her murder this week.

A Philadelphia man stands accused of beating his 86-year-old grandmother to death and assaulting his 62-year-old aunt at their home in the city's Swampoodle neighborhood, police said Thursday.

Homicide detectives arrested Nathaniel McFadden, 25, of Huntingdon Street near 18th in North Philadelphia, Wednesday for allegedly beating his grandmother, Janie Dawson, to death and also assaulting his aunt inside Dawson's home on Judson Street near Cambria in March.

Police discovered the beatings on March 9 when Dawson's daughter called 9-1-1 after she found her mother naked and lying on her bedroom floor, unable to get up, authorities said. Dawson spent the next two weeks at Presbyterian Medical Center, where she died of her injuries on March 23, police said. Her cause of death was blunt-force trauma.

McFadden also beat his aunt, police said, but she was not injured badly enough to seek medical treatment.

It's unclear what sparked the beating, but police said their investigation eventually led them to McFadden, who they say assaulted both women on March 8. McFadden faces charges including homicide and assault.
A 24-year-old pre-kindergarten teacher's lifeless body was tied to a cinder block and dropped into a Chester County, Pennsylvania, pond over the Memorial Day holiday, county prosecutors said Thursday.

Ryan Stevyn Benjamin's body was discovered in the pond, part of Pigeon Creek, at 488 Porters Mill Road in Pottstown on May 30. District Attorney Tom Hogan released her identity Thursday afternoon after she was named by loved ones who recognized her physical features, a tattoo and jewelry, he said. DNA and dental records also matched, the county coroner said.

A native of Rochester, New York, Benjamin taught pre-school at Warwick Childcare in Pottstown and was a certified teacher. She is a graduate of Juniata College in central Pennsylvania.

Family friend Cheryl Cutillo said Benjamin was an animal lover who came to the area after getting a job at the Malvern School last summer. The young woman was living with Cutillo until she found her own place.

"She had a boyfriend, but they had broken up, but they were in the same circle of friends. I mean it was a bunch of friends," Cutillo said.

A father and son-in-law spotted Benjamin's body in the pond -- popular for swimming and fishing -- just after 11 a.m. on Memorial Day.

It appears Benjamin was dead before being dumped in the water. Investigators did not find any signs of blunt force trauma, gunshots or strangulation. There was no water in her lungs.

Hogan has asked anyone who had contact with her over the Memorial Day weekend to reach out to police.

"The person who dumped Ryan's body in the water knows what they did and knows that the police are closing in," Hogan said in a statement. "Every moment that this person stays on the run makes it look worse. This individual should come in to authorities now."
U.S. & World

Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
A section of Columbus Boulevard in South Philadelphia is set to be renamed again (remember when it was Delaware Avenue?).

And the new name could be in the running for longest street sign in America:

The renaming honors two Philadelphia natives whose service in World War II made them central characters in the HBO series Band of Brothers. The new designation will stretch from Washington Avenue to Oregon Avenue.

State Rep. Bill Keller, D-Phila., will host a ceremony noon, Thursday, with Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney to dedicate the William J. Guarnere and Edward Babe Heffron Memorial Boulevard in Philadelphia.

The dedication ceremony will take place in the parking lot of the River View Shopping Center in Philadelphia, located near 1100 S. Columbus Blvd.

Kellers H.B. 1279, signed into law as Act 87 of 2015, was the legislative impetus that made the renaming happen.

Guarnere and Heffron served with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division.

The soldiers of the 101st Airborne were the main characters in the 10-part 2001 miniseries produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.
Developers and city leaders gathered in downtown San Diegos North Embarcadero area Wednesday to break ground on the $200 million second phase of a major mixed-used project.

The Port of San Diego and San Diego City Councilman Todd Gloria, along with Portman Holdings, Lankford & Associates and Hensel Phelps, held a groundbreaking ceremony at the intersection of Broadway and Pacific Highway to celebrate BRIC, a development at the former site of Lane Field ballpark.

Pleased to join @portofsandiego to break ground on Lane Field South. Another step toward reclaiming our waterfront. pic.twitter.com/QAaiiHcCxv  Todd Gloria (@ToddGloria) June 1, 2016

BRIC is a mixed-used project that includes InterContinental San Diego, an 18-story, 400-room hotel that will also boast a third-floor restaurant and bar with expansive, scenic views of the San Diego Bay.

Plans for the hotel also include 23,000 square feet of ballrooms and meeting space, plus an outdoor pool, fitness center, spa and rooftop bar. BRIC will also boast 32,850 square feet of ground-level restaurants and shops, a landscaped walkway and Plaza along Broadway and 686 parking spots in a subterranean garage, 271 of which will be open to the public.

The project aims to revitalize the area and give new life to one of San Diegos historic waterfront neighborhoods while elevating downtown San Diego as a top-notch travel destination, planners said.

In early April, developers held a formal opening for the first phase of BRIC  dual-branded Marriot hotels, a 253-room SpringHill Suites and a 147-room Residence Inn. That portion of the project also includes 27,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space that, as of April, had yet to be filled by tenants.

The first dual-branded Marriott hotels opened Thursday along the Embarcadero in downtown San Diego. The project brings 400 new hotel rooms to the area, plus new shops and restaurants. NBC 7s Elena Gomez reports.

For updates on BRIC and its progress, visit this website.
Decades after his little brother Juan's death, Mamerto Sablan's face is beaming with pride as the Gold Star Lapel is pinned to his chest in his brother's honor.

This is a great honor to receive this kind of medal, said Mamerto. "Im so happy and excited. I pray my brother up there is so happy and learned I received this for him."

On April 15, 1942, U.S. Army Private Juan Sablan was killed in action during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II.

Seventy-four years after that fateful day, Private Sablan's family receiving eight medals he earned, but never received.

Among them, the American Defense Service Medal with a Foreign Service Clasp, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one Bronze Service Star and the Presidential Unit Citation with two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters.

Not having those medals for so many years broke my heart, " said Juans younger brother Simon.

The Sablans finally received the long overdue medals thanks in part to a letter they wrote to Congressman Scott Peters back in March.

They read about Congressman Peters helping another veteran, Private First Class Donald Breitenberg, get the Bronze Star he deserved.

I urge anyone in this situation to give us a call. Its very rewarding to help a family like these folks, Peters said, speaking about the Sablans.

Its important to have these medals to inspire those young men and women to look up and serve their country, said Simon Sablan, referencing to his three-year-old grandson he taught to march in efforts he too will serve his country.

At this time its not known why it took so long for the Sablans to receive the medals.
Residents living in one North County neighborhood were awakened by blasts, an armored vehicle and federal agents with their weapons drawn as officials served warrants in an ongoing investigation.

FBI agents and San Diego Police Officers used two flash bombs on residents in a home on Worthing Avenue, north of Mira Mesa Boulevard and west of Interstate 15.

A spokesperson for the San Diego FBI told NBC 7 the search warrant was served as part of an ongoing investigation.

There are several people home at the time, including a grandmother and two young grandchildren.

Agents conducted a four-hour search of the home and cars in the driveway and yard.

Some items were taken from the home but there is no word on what they found.

One person was arrested as a result of the operation but not for federal charges.

There is no other information available.
After undergoing surgery to implant a pacemaker, Tasmanian devil "Nick is back in his habitat at San Diego Zoo's Australian Outback section.

Nick was closely monitored by zoo veterinarians at an off-exhibit area for two weeks after his surgery  only the second to ever be performed on a Tasmanian devil.

During a routine health exam in January zoo veterinarians discovered Nick had an abnormal heart rhythm, cardiac conduction disorder, which causes his heart to beat very slowly.

Zoo veterinarians consulted with cardiologist Joao Orvalho, DVM a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, from the University of California, Davisand determined the best way to improve the quality of Nicks life was to surgically implant a pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat.

"Now the pacemaker is basically going to take over his heart and is going to determine when to play the pace fast or slow depending on his activity," Dr. Orvalho said.

Cora Singleton, DVM, San Diego Zoo associate veterinarian, and her staff worked collaboratively with veterinary surgeon Fred Pike, DVM, a Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Surgeons on May 11 to perform the surgery.

"We have not done one of these before," Dr. Singleton said. "This type of heart disease has been documented in Tasmanian devils as they get older, but most facilities don't place a pacemaker, so we are the second in the United States to perform this procedure."

Veterinarians usually place pacemakers in the neck, but because of the Tasmanian devil's neck shape vets placed it in the animal's abdomen and sutured the electrode to the heart, a slightly more complicated procedure.

The surgery was successful with no complications and Nick was released the same day to recuperate at the zoo hospital.

We are optimistic that this procedure will give Nick an additional one to two years of a happy and healthy life, Dr. Singleton explained. He will have a recheck exam to evaluate his pacemaker in three to six months, then annually thereafter.

Tasmanian devils are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

They are native to the island state of Tasmania, which is part of Australia, and they can live up to seven years.

Tasmanian devils face extinction in the wild due to devil facial tumor disease (DFTD), a rare, contagious cancer found only in devils. It is transmitted from one animal to another through biting, a common behavior among devils when mating and feeding.

The disease kills all infected devils within six to 12 months, and there is no known cure or vaccine.

All four Tasmanian devils at the San Diego Zoo are healthy, and the zoo is a partner of the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, based in Tasmania.

The program collaborates with research institutes and zoos around the world to save the Tasmanian devil.
Three ministers who chaired the press conference in May. Photo by VnExpress/Vinh An

Scientists have identified the cause of mass fish deaths recorded along Vietnam's central coast last April. However, the final conclusion will be released later this month after further validation, the government announced today.

Ministers gathered in a monthly press conference today in Hanoi to answer questions on a number of social-economic issues, including the 100 tons of dead fish found along the central Vietnamese coast.

Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan said scientists have identified the cause of the mass fish deaths. The formal conclusion of the investigation will be announced later this June, after thorough scientific deliberation by both Vietnamese and foreign experts.

No details of the provisional cause have been revealed.

The investigation also involves identifying who is responsible, Tuan said. Therefore, besides scientific evidence, the final conclusion requires a full investigation of possible violations of the law.

In early April, large quantities of fish washed up dead near the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh Province. The phenomenon spread south along the coast of the central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Tri, Quang Binh and Thua Thien Hue, resulting in more than a 100 tons of dead fish.

Coastal fishermen and local staff of Vietnams Fisheries agency blamed a discharge of chemicals in the vicinity of Vung Ang on April 6. They told reporters that a toxic tide then worked its way south along the coast of four provinces, killing farmed fish as well as free swimming species.

A Taiwanese steel corporation, Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, has become the prime suspect. It is developing a steel mill complex in Vung Ang on a 3,000 hectare plot and designed to produce 15 million tons of steel annually. The first blast furnace went into operation in December 2015.

On April 24, Vietnams Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) reported that teams were being deployed to investigate the extraordinary fish kill. Scientists at the Fisheries Agency, a unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), promised a definitive diagnosis within 10 days.

On the same day, at MONREs meeting, reporters learned that Formosa had cleaned its wastewater discharge pipe using toxic chemicals without informing Vietnamese authorities. The drainage system is legal, said vice minister Vo Tuan Nhan. The problem is what and for how long Formosa discharged into the sea.

At a press conference by MONRE on April 27, Minister Vu Tuan Nhan issued a statement saying no connection between Formosa and the mass fish deaths has been identified. He said there are two possible reasons for the disaster. One is toxic chemicals released by human activities. The other is an abnormal natural phenomenon that causes algae in the water to bloom at an accelerated rate, commonly known as a red tide.

Vietnams MONRE said on May 26 the ministry is not covering up the truth about the mysterious mass fish deaths in the central region.
The family of a U.S. soldier killed in World War II received eight long overdue medals from Congressman Scott Peters (CA-52) Wednesday.

Army Private Juan Sablan was killed in action in the Philippines during the war.

His family had previously received a Purple Heart for Sablans service, but after seeing a story of Peters office giving overdue medals to another San Diego veteran in December, Sablans bothers Simon Sablan of Mira Mesa and Mamerto Sablan of Chula Vista, contacted the congressman about their brother.

The National Personnel Records Center and the Department of the Army collaborated with Peters office and determined Sablan was entitled to eight medals and his family had earned the Gold Star lapel pin, which is awarded to the primary next of kin of service members killed in combat against an enemy of the United States.

No one has given more in service to our country than the families of our fallen service members, Rep. Peters said. We are forever indebted to heroes like Private Sablan and his family for the sacrifices they made to protect our country and ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy the freedoms that make America so great. Simon and Mamertos dedication to getting their brother the recognition he deserves is a testament to San Diegos strong Filipino-American community and the indispensable role that Filipino-Americans play in San Diegos veterans community.

The medals awarded were the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the American Defense Service Medal with a Foreign Service Clasp, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one Bronze Service Star, the World War II Victory Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation with two Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters and the Philippine Defense Ribbon with one Bronze Service Star.

Private Sablan is also entitled to the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation, which was not presented because it is a foreign award and therefore not issued by the U.S. Army.

Peters concluded, My office is available to help any San Diego service members, veterans and their families who are struggling to get the care or recognition they have earned through their service.
A heatwave will bring unusually high temperatures to San Diego County this weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for multiple areas throughout the state that will last through Sunday.

Triple-digit temperatures were expected in the deserts east of San Diego with temperatures in the 90s in the mountain areas.

Were seeing temperatures of 110 to 116 in our desert cities. That is dangerous heat to be outside in so you want to limit your outside activity, NBC 7s Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh said.

Kodesh said the hottest days will be Friday and Saturday.

Heat records will likely be broken in San Diego county mountains and deserts.

Borrego Springs is forecast to reach 116 degrees on Friday. It should break a record of 113 that was set in 2006.

Palomar Mountain is forecast to reach 92 Friday, possibly breaking the record of 89 degrees that was set in 1970.

The heat took some people by surprise on Thursday, including a young woman who was hiking with her dog at Iron Mountain.

"It was a little too hot today, if we would've known we would've came more prepared. With the dog, she kept stopping," the woman told NBC 7.

Many hikers had expected an overcast day turned back around Thursday, saying they were not prepared for the heat.

Cal/OSHA has issued a statewide high heat advisory for employers reminding them to protect workers from heat illness and exhaustion.

Water, rest, shade and increased vigilance are absolutely essential in high heat conditions, Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum said in a written news release.

Under California law, employers with outdoor workers must provide enough fresh water so each employee can drink at least one quart, or four 8-ounce glasses, of water per hour, and encourage them to do so.

Employers must not only provide access to shade but encourage employees to take a cool-down rest in the shade for at least 5 minutes.

Online information on the heat illness prevention requirements and training materials can be obtained at Cal/OSHAs Heat Illness web page or the Water. Rest. Shade. campaign site.

A Heat Illness Prevention e-tool is also available on Cal/OSHAs website.
The FBI wants renewed national attention for the unsolved deaths of two young women killed in the Shenandoah National Park near Skyland Lodge in 1996.

Family and friends of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans are marking a grim anniversary today. It's been 20 years since the women's bodies were found at their campsite along a scenic trail just off Skyline Drive. The women had been bound, their throats slashed.

The couple had been hiking in the park since May 19 but were due to return to summer jobs in Vermont May 28. The 24-year-old Williams' father reported the women missing May 31. Their bodies were discovered the next day.

Adam Lee, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Richmond Division, says even now he does not consider this a cold case.

"This is a pending case, and I bristle at the term cold case," Lee said. "We will stop at nothing to find justice in the case and until we have exhausted every means, we continue to this day to exploit the existing evidence and to try to obtain new evidence. Julie and Lollie are not forgotten in the Richmond Division of the FBI, and we are going to aggressively pursue every lead in this case."

Julie Williams' father said he's pleased to hear the FBI's assessment.

"We're very happy they do [consider it active]. That certainly gives us hope," said Williams.

The hopes of the victim's families have been dashed more than once as the years have passed. An apparent break in the case came April 10, 2002, when U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a man jailed for an attack on another women in the park was being charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths. Ashcroft also revealed that because Williams and Winans were lesbians, the case would be handled as a hate crime.

Darrell Rice had been arrested in July 1997 for attempting to abduct a bicyclist. She fought back and escaped but Rice was stopped by a ranger on his way out of the park.

Authorities said he had cable ties that could have been used as restraints in his pickup truck. Rice pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping in federal court and was sentenced to 11 years. But the murder case against Rice unraveled when DNA from hairs found at the murder scene matched an unknown man, not Rice. The charges were dropped Feb. 25, 2004.

Rice faced new charges again in June 2004 in connection with a 1996 abduction and attack of a Prince William County woman. Authorities suggested at the time, Rice could be the Route 29 stalker, a man who had tailed more than two dozen women driving on that highway in 1996, often flashing his headlights and trying to get the women to pull over.

One of the women believed to be a victim of the stalker, Alicia Showalter Reynolds, was killed, her decomposed body found on May 7, 1996.

But the Prince William case also fizzled when the defense provided evidence that the victim once identified a different man in a photo lineup. Rice was allowed to enter a no contest plea to unlawful wounding. He was released from federal prison in 2007 but rearrested two times for probation violations. He's been free again since April 2011.

Tom Williams, Julie's father, still believes Rice is the one responsible for his daughter's death.

"I think that certainly on the very remote possibility that it could be anybody else, we would look forward to having justice found for Julie, but I'll admit in a lot of ways it doesn't matter all that much. I think it's the fair thing and the just thing," said Williams in a Skype interview from his St. Cloud, Minnesota, home.

Special Agent in Charge Lee said the case is still considered a hate crime. The lead agent is a woman who has been assigned to the case for years. Lee refused to discuss specifics of the investigation but said advances in DNA technology are important.

"The ability to scrutinize items of evidence down to the molecular level is far advanced now from where we were 20 years ago," Lee said. "It would be irresponsible for me to speak of any link that may or may not have been discovered, but our universe is wide open in terms of making links, aligning the evidence and trying to draw accurate evidence-based conclusions."

John Fishwick, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, echoed Lee's commitment to the case.

"These were two young women in the prime of their lives, Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, and we owe it to them and to their families not to rest and we won't until justice is served," Fishwick said.

The FBI is also releasing updated posters of Julie Williams and Lollie Winans, requesting information.

They hope the posters will be widely distributed on social media, something else that could help provide new tips in the case.
A Hooters restaurant in Rockville, Maryland, could lose its liquor license for allegedly over-serving the man who fatally struck a Montgomery County police officer, The Washington Post reports.

State alcohol regulators have accused the restaurant with allowing Luis Gustavo Reluzco, 48, to be served alcohol "past the point of intoxication" on Dec. 3, 2015, according to a letter obtained by the Post.

Moments after getting behind the wheel, Reluzco slammed into Officer Noah Leotta, 24, sideswiping his police car before coming to a stop. Reluzco never realized he hit the officer, investigators said.

Leotta, who had volunteered to work the special holiday drunk-driving patrol, died from his injuries a week later.

Reluzco later admitted to drinking beer and bourbon for about three hours that night, police said. He agreed to plead guilty to vehicular manslaughter back in April.

Reluzco will be sentenced in August. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Representatives from Hooters are scheduled to meet with the Montgomery County Board of License Commissioners in two weeks.
A federal security officer accused of three fatal shootings in Maryland last month was indicted Thursday in two of the killings, which happened outside local shopping centers.

A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Eulalio Tordil, 62, of Adelphi, in the May 6 shootings, which occurred a day after Tordil allegedly killed his estranged wife, Gladys, in a high school parking lot in Prince George's County, police have said.

Tordil faces eight charges in Montgomery County: two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder, and four counts of using a hand gun in the commission of a crime of violence.

He faces up to life in prison. Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013.

Police say a day after his wife's death, Tordil shot three people, one fatally, outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda and, less than an hour later, killed another victim outside a Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill.

Malcom Winffel, 45, of Boyds, was shot at the mall while coming to the aid of a woman in the mall shooting.

Claudina Molina, 65, of Silver Spring, was shot outside the Aspen Hill grocery store.

At a news conference last month, Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Russ 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 the May 6 shootings. Police believed it also was used in the May 5 shooting of Gladys Tordil but more testing was needed to confirm, according to Hamill.

Investigators also found suicide notes in which Tordil predicted he would die in a shoot out with police, authorities said during an earlier court hearing.

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. Tordil subjected their children to "intense-military-like discipline,'' such as 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. The weapon Tordil used in the May 6 shootings should have been surrendered when he became the subject of a protective order involving his estranged wife, McCarthy said.
A Marine from Stafford County, Virginia, was killed last week while on deployment in Afghanistan.

Staff Sgt. David H. Stewart, 34, died Friday while supporting combat operations in the Helmand province of the country, the Department of Defense announced.

Lance Cpl. Brandon J. Garabrant, 19, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, and Lance Cpl. Adam R. Wolff, 25, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, were also killed as a result of the hostile incident.

All three were all assigned to the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion (Forward) in the 2nd Marine Division.

Stewart most recently deployed to Afghanistan in April, while Garabrant and Wolff deployed in March. It was his fifth deployment in 10 years, and his second in Afghanistan. He was serving as a platoon sergeant for the 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

He also completed three tours of duty in Iraq after joining the Marines in June 2004. He was promoted to staff sergeant in 2010.

Stewart graduated from North Stafford High School and still considered Stafford his home despite living near Camp Lejuene in North Carolina, said his father, Nelson Stewart.

Nelson, who also served in the Marines, told News4's David Culver that his son was a "warm, loving person."

David Stewart also left behind his wife, Kristine, and two young children.

"We've been together since we were teenagers and he's always been positive," Kristine Stewart said. "It didn't matter what was going on. All the joys in our life and then the hardships that come with five deployments; he just was my rock."

It's painful to think their two young children won't have their father with them as they grow up, she said. She wishes they would be able to see for themselves what a wonderful man he was.

"...David's probably up in heaven right now saying, 'I'm so sorry, sweetheart. I love you so much. And I'm so sorry,' because he always put us first," Kristine Stewart said.
A preschool worker accused of operating a $1 million scheme to fleece department stores of designer handbags has been ordered to remain in jail.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday Praepitcha Smatsorabudh, who faces a federal charge of wire fraud, poses a flight risk and must be held by U.S. marshals until trial.

Smatsorabudh worked at the Beddow Montessori school in Fort Washington, Maryland, until her first appearance in federal court Friday, when she was formally charged. Though the school declined News4s request for comment on the case, parents of Beddow students said Smatsorabudh was a teacher of 4-year-old children.

In testimony Wednesday, an investigator with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security described Smatsorabudhs alleged scheme. He said Smatsorabudh would purchase authentic designer bags from department stores, including at least 226 of them from T.J. Maxx stores, then return imitation bags bought separately for refunds at the stores.

The agent testified a merchandise expert with Louis Vitton confirmed, after review, that dozens of the bags returned to T.J. Maxx were inauthentic.

The agent said Smatsorabudh would later resell the authentic bags for profit through eBay and Instagram.

Federal investigators said they seized at least 527 handbags from Smatsorabudhs South Arlington Street home in Arlington, Virginia. According to their court filings, they also seized packages shipped to the Beddow School.

Jennifer Sweetman, who says her daughter Jasmine was a student of Smatsorabudh at the Beddow School, said parents are troubled by the criminal charges.

You cant expect someone who does not behave ethically to be a good role model, Sweetman said.

In charging documents, federal investigators said the designer handbags she purchased cost an average of $2,000.

In at least one case detailed in court records, Smatsorabudh purchased an authentic ruby red Celine Ring handbag from a department store in October, investigators said. Within weeks, she returned an inauthentic bag, they said. She then posted a Celine Ring handbag on eBay in December.

Smatsorabudhs attorney declined to comment to News4 after her court appearance Friday.

Reported by Scott MacFarlane, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.
A teenage boy sneaked into the cargo hold of an Emirates passenger plane in China and made it all the way to Dubai before being apprehended, the airline and Chinese media said Tuesday.

The Dubai-based airline, the Middle East's biggest, said the stowaway was found in the cargo hold of Flight EK303 from Shanghai on Friday, May 27.

"We are cooperating fully with authorities in Dubai and as this is a police matter we are unable to comment further at this time," the airline said in an emailed statement.

It did not give any details on the identity or condition of the stowaway, though China's official Xinhua News Agency said he was a 16-year-old boy it identified only by his surname, Xu.

He tried to make the risky journey because he had heard that beggars in Dubai could earn hundreds of thousands of yuan annually, the news agency reported.

Dubai police and the Chinese consulate in the Mideast commercial hub did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Xinhua reported that the consulate has sent staffers to the airport to learn more about the situation. A translator appointed by prosecutors said the teen jumped over a fence at the Shanghai airport and climbed into the cargo hold while a security guard looked away, the agency said.

Dubai is home to the world's busiest airport for international travel and is a major destination for job-seekers from around the world.

Emirates operates numerous flights between its Dubai hub and China, including two round-trip flights daily to Shanghai.

The flight in question is usually served by its largest aircraft, the double-decker Airbus A380, and lasts well over eight hours.
Vietnamese and foreign drivers are now able to apply for an international driving license online for just VND135,000 ($6).

On May 31, the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam officially launched an online service that meets Level 4 of the country's administrative structure for International Driving Permits (IDP) for Vietnamese citizens and residents of member countries of the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Nguyen Hong Truong, the transition from Level 3 to Level 4 is part of the Ministry of Transport's administrative reforms.

Deputy Minster Nguyen Hong Truong (R) is the first person to receive an international driving license he applied for online. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Linh.

The deputy minister also reminded agencies to ensure information security to avoid counterfeits and plan to integrate with existing licenses for the convenience of citizens.

Those who wish to apply for an international driving license can register at the Directorate for Roads of Vietnam's website at www.drvn.gov.vn.

Source: Decree No. 43/2011/N-CP on online provision of information and services by state agencies

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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser says the city will expand parking restrictions, put more traffic control officers on the streets and explore extending the hours of the D.C. Circulator to help ease the burden of Metro's SafeTrack plan.

Over the next year, all six of Metro's rail lines will be affected by SafeTrack. The "safety surges" include periods of continuous single-tracking to outright closures for multiple days. Metrorail's already begun closing at midnight on the weekends, but major changes are set to affect your commute as well.

"The plan will affect every single commuter," Bowser said during a news conference Thursday. "We believe Washington, D.C., will be affected by all 15 surges."

SafeTrack's first surge will begin Saturday, with 13 straight days of single-tracking on the Orange and Silver lines between Ballston and East Falls Church through June 16.

To help ease traffic flow in the District, rush-hour parking restrictions along some Metrobus routes will be extended during the morning and evening commutes. More traffic control officers will be on the streets, bus bridges and other critical intersections.

DC to expand no parking restrictions during #SafeTrack pic.twitter.com/FzB9jopN30  Mark Segraves (@SegravesNBC4) June 2, 2016

The expanded parking restrictions will begin June 6 along the east-west bus routes.

"We are committed to do everything to ease this burden," Bowser said, adding that commuters should "learn about SafeTrack, the surges and how they will impact you."

Capital Bikeshare will also offer a $2 per trip or $8 a day option for commuters who opt to bike to work. Additional bikes will be available at Metro's Rosslyn, Ballston and East Falls Church stations during the first "safety surge," and experienced riders will lead groups of commuters from East Falls Church to Rosslyn.

Bowser said the city is also considering extending the D.C. Circulator's hours to 3 a.m. on the weekends.

Employees who can carpool, telework or work a flexible schedule are also encourage to do so.

Commuters can also use Metro's Trip Planner to help time their Metro or Metrobus routes.

Once the first surge is over, there will be a one-day reprieve, and then the Orange, Blue and Silver lines will be shut down entirely from Eastern Market to Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road.

That shutdown will last from June 18 to July 3.

An additional 13 safety surges will have major impacts around the region for an entire year. See the entire SafeTrack schedule here.
One person was killed and another injured in a shooting in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Wednesday.

Just before 3:30 p.m., police responded to Spruce Street, where the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office says a man, later identified as Hans R. Odige, 35, of Manchester, was found dead alongside a wounded woman.

The woman was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Anyone with information is asked to call Manchester Police at (603) 668-8711.

The investigation is ongoing.
A New Hampshire teenager has died in a motor vehicle crash in Rumney.

State Police say 17-year-old Shannon Nadeau was killed when her vehicle collided with a box truck at an intersection of School Street and Route 25 on Wednesday morning.

The driver of the truck was transported to a hospital in Plymouth with minor injuries.

The crash is under investigation. Anyone who witnessed it is asked to contact Trooper Amanda Johnson at 603-223-8305.
Two juveniles and a 23-year-old suspect have been charged in connection with an arson that destroyed a Boston school's playground, police announced Thursday.

Detectives charged the three individuals Wednesday with arson after the fire gutted a new playground behind the Charles Sumner School on Basile Street in the city's Roslindale neighborhood on May 23.

Damage was estimated at over $10,000.

The names of the the charged individuals were not released. It's unclear if they have attorneys.
The suspect in the first homicide in Ludlow, Massachusetts, in nearly a decade has pleaded not guilty.

The Republican newspaper reports that Jorge Concepcion-Pesquera was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty to murder and other charges Wednesday in Hampden Superior Court.

The 20-year-old Concepcion-Pesquera is suspected of fatally shooting Larry Santiago multiple times outside a bar in the early morning hours of March 13. The 26-year-old Santiago was inside a vehicle.

Concepcion-Pesquera disappeared after the shooting but turned himself in in New York City on March 22.

Police say the victim and suspect knew each other, but they have not disclosed a motive.

Defense attorneys did not comment.

It was Ludlow's first homicide since 2007.
The moose is still on the loose in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Environmental Police are still searching for the animal on Thursday morning. They said there was at least one new sighting on Thursday morning near Beaver Brook Reservation on Mill Street.

The young female moose was spotted in both Belmont and Watertown on Wednesday, running down sidewalks and trotting through several residential areas.

Officers are asking anyone who sees the animal to get a good look at it and try to figure out what direction it might be headed and then call 911. Belmont Police will then forward that information to environmental police.

Environmental police still haven't said what they will do with the animal if they do find it.
Massachusetts Inspector General Glenn Cunha is weighing in on a small-town battle.

Wayne Doerpholz started working for South Hadley Electric and Light as a teenager and worked his way up to general manager. He claims over his 35-year career, he earned, but didn't use, more than 3,200 hours of vacation and more than 3,500 hours of unused sick time. He's demanding a cash payout of $471,071.26.

"That's a lot of money," said Anne Awad of the Municipal Light Board. "It's a lot of money."

In a letter to Awad, Cunha warned, "Paying Doerpholz money that is not owed to him would be a waste of public funds."

Doerpholz doesn't work for the utility anymore. The town didn't renew his contract, which ended Tuesday, and he was already on paid leave after being named in a federal whistleblower lawsuit.

Awad says the utility has been mired in a legal battle for months.

"We will follow the law. We will pay what we have to pay and we will move on," said Awad.

Cunha cannot tell the public utility what to do, but says his office analyzed Doerpholz's contract and the Light Department's policies and found he is entitled to a maximum unused vacation payout of $15,149 and no money for unused sick time.

"This Office has found significant evidence that challenges the legitimacy," Cunha wrote of Doerpholz's claim in the letter.

Doerpholz did not return necn's call or come to the door at his South Hadley home Wednesday afternoon. He is claiming employees are allowed to bank unused vacation time indefinitely, but according to the IG, there are strict limits.

Doerpholz also claims he earned 1880 sick days and should be paid $247,000, but Cunha says even if he was eligible for that time, Doerpholz's math is off by more than $100,000.

Awad insists customers won't see their rates go up, no matter what they have to pay out to Doerpholz, but it could sacrifice projects that would benefit the town.

It's unclear why the IG's office stepped into the Doerpholz fray, but Awad says a larger investigation into the utility may be at play. She says inspectors came and took "mountains of documents." As for Doerpholz, Awad says the inspector general's letter bought them more time, but it could be months before the utility's lawyers decide what to do.
Police are searching for a man wanted in connection to two indecent assaults in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood.

Both incidents happened within 15 minutes of each other - one around 6:15 a.m., another around 6:30 - in Dorchester.

The assaults both happened near the intersection of Columbia Road and Richfield Street.

The suspect in each incident is described as a man in his mid 20's with a medium build, who is about 5'9.

Anyone with information is asked to call (617) 343-4400.
Police investigating the death of a 17-year-old girl who apparently overdosed on opiates have arrested a 40-year-old Uncasville man who is accused of forcing the teen into prostitution, according to police.

Police found the teen suffering from what appeared to be a drug overdose when they responded to a hotel room in the town of Groton just after 2:30 a.m. on Sunday and emergency crews brought her to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

While investigating, police said they found a connection between Ramon B. Gomez, 40, of Uncasville, and the victim and arrested him on Wednesday.

Gomez has been charged him with first-degree prostitution promotion, which a class B felony, and bond was set at $150,000.

Police, as well as federal officials, have been cracking down on the opiate and heroin epidemic in Connecticut and a new statewide plan has been put in place, which includes a protocol for police responding to heroin and opioid overdose deaths, time-sensitive investigative techniques and preserving all evidence at the scene of an overdose death.

Police are also asked to contact the DEA early in the investigation and to ensure that an autopsy is performed. The DEA and local police will then work together to investigate what led up to the death, the source of the drug involved and the composition of the drug.

According to statistics from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, there were 729 accidental drug deaths in the state in 2015 and heroin was detected in 416 of them.

The latest figures available on drug deaths are those that occurred between January and March of this year. There have been 208 accidental drug deaths, with heroin detected in 110 of them.
Vietnams first nuclear power plant, the Ninh Thuan 1, is likely to begin commercial operations in 2027 or 2028, about six years late compared to the previous plan, according to a report from Russian News Agency Tass on May 31.

Vietnam signed an agreement in October 2010 for Russias Atomstroyexport, the engineering arm of Rosatom, to build the Ninh Thuan I Nuclear Power Plant, which will consist of two VVER-1000 or VVER-1200 reactors. In November 2010, Vietnam signed a separate agreement with a Japanese consortium that includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba and Hitachi for two 1000-MW Gen III units at the Ninh Thuan II project.

"From our point of view, the project is developing slower than it could. In 2015, the feasibility study of the project was completed, it is now being considered by the government of Vietnam. Initially, the period of 2021-2022 was named, now it is 2027-2028," Rosatoms Deputy Director Kirill Komarov said at an industry forum.

In March this year, Vietnamese government decided to push back plans to open its first nuclear power plant until 2028 but it did not specify whether it was the Ninh Thuan I or Ninh Thuan II.

Nguyen Cuong Lam, Deputy Director of Vietnam Electricity Corp., the investor of the two nuclear power projects, said in December last year the feasibility study for the Japanese-funded plant, Ninh Thuan II, will be submitted to the Vietnamese government within 2016. The feasibility study for Ninh Thuan I was submitted in September 2015, the state-run Cong Thuong Newspaper reported December 2, 2015.
A missing woman has been found at Massachusetts' Revere Beach after a search at the Northshore Mall in Peabody.

Mall officials initally called the missing person as a kidnapping victim, but police would only refer to her as a missing 22-year-old woman.

The woman was found safe and expected to be brought home by Peabody Police.

Police also noted that a male had been arrested on charges of violating a restraining order - it was not immediately clear if other charges would be filed.

Details are scarce, but mall security and local police had been searching the mall and the area around it for the woman.

Investigators responded to a report that the woman had been seen at the mall, but that turned out to be false, according to mall officials.

Stay with necn as this story develops.
Police say a Barre, Massachusetts, sex offender failed to notify officials that he was working in a martial arts studio, despite his conviction of raping his karate students in 1991.

According to the Worcester Telegram, David Sanderson, 60, a Level 3 offender, never informed police of his latest job out of North Brookfield, which is required by law.

He was convicted in 1991 after pleading guilty to rape and related charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

A former police officer tipped officials off in May that Sanderson was working at Eternal River School and was teaching under a different name.

He was bailed out on $2,000 by his wife and is due in court on June 23.
A federal lawsuit has been filed against several members of the Taunton, Massachusetts, police department after video surfaced of alleged excessive force by police officers.

Two years ago, Joseph O'Brien says Taunton police assaulted him inside the police station, which resulted in a concussion. O'Brien's claims he was obeying officers' commands inside the booking room, when one of the officers yanked O'Brien's arm around his neck. O'Brien then pulled the officer to the ground.

The Taunton Daily Gazette reports that Detective Robert Kramer, a defendant in the lawsuit, said, "I have no comment, no comment."

On June 1,2014 O'Brien was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge before the alleged assault in the police station. O'Brien was found not guilty of that charge.
On this ominous 5th year anniversary of the mighty EF3 tornado that struck Massachusetts, we also acknowledge the start of hurricane season and meteorological summer.

So this means warm weather is the standard from here on out, right?

Um, not quite.

Although we meteorologists observe the calendar months of June, July and August as the warmest of the year, there are always growing pains. June can be a stinker of a month (as we found in 2009) and it doesn't always go according to plan.

That said, I don't see a soggy, chilly month ahead. I do see some near-term "setbacks" however. One of those is tomorrow with the cool east wind and heavy cloudcover. Oddly (for a moist wind off the water), the sprinkles will be few and far between. Even when the front crosses, the showers/storms will be limited and weak. The reason here is because the flow of deep, tropical moisture is cut off by a small low pressure system in the Carolinas....and that certainly isn't coming up our way.

So we'll watch another weather system cross New England without a numerous, beneficial showers. It's not until Sunday that we'll get a decent chance at a soaking rain across New England.

Until then, keep watering the lawn...that is, if you're allowed.
A Connecticut teen had a "chill" ride to his prom this year.

The Bristol teen shocked classmates when he showed up to the senior prom in an ice cream truck.

Zack Nichparenko said he wanted to take a "non-traditional" approach to prom.

"I don't think anyone took me seriously at first," the teen said about his idea.

The 17-year-old said he was outside his house about two weeks before Bristol Eastern High School's prom on May 27 when Daren's Ice Cream Truck stopped by. That's when he got the idea.

Nichparenko said the ice cream man, Daren Carroll, has been a staple in his neighborhood since he was roughly 4 years old.

Carroll said he's been asked to plenty of events in the past, like weddings or birthday parties, but never a prom.

"Never has anybody asked me to go the prom in the ice cream truck," Carroll told NBC Connecticut. "Never, ever."

The day of the prom, Carroll met with the high school senior at Slider's Grill and Bar parking lot to take some pictures with family before dropping Nichparenko off at the dance around the corner.

"At first I tried to talk him out of it," Carroll said, noting that at his own prom, no one was outside to see anyone arriving. "But he was right. When we showed up, about 200 people were there."

When Nichparenko and Carroll rolled up in the ice cream truck, they were stopped by security at the gate and asked what they were doing there.

"I have a delivery!" Carroll told them. "I have a guest!"

No ice cream was sold to students outside the prom at Aqua Surf in Southington because the teens were about to go inside to eat, and Carroll said he didn't want to take away from that.

"I wanted to do something that not only people will remember, but something that hasnt been done before," Nichparenko said.

An ice cream truck ride to prom in Connecticut is apparently a first, which comes as no surprise from the aspiring entrepreneur.

Nichparenko said his plans after high school is to start a dryer vent company in Bristol and has started drafting business ideas with his dad.
Should we forgive Bob Kerrey for his role in Vietnam war massacre?

June 2, 2016 | 12:51 am PT

Something that caught my eye recently was an article about Bob Kerrey, chairman of Vietnams first American-style private university in Ho Chi Minh City. He is also a former US senator who took responsibility for a traumatic massacre that took place in 1969 during the American-Vietnam War.

On February 25, 1969, Kerrey led a Swift Boat raid on the small peasant village of Thanh Phong in the southern province of Ben Tre which was home to between 75 and 150 locals, targeting a communist leader whom intelligence suggested would be there. The village was considered part of a free-fire zone by the U.S. military.

However, the brutal operation went horribly wrong and led Kerrey to have fleeting thoughts of suicide.

Phan Tri Lanh, a survivor of the massacre told Reuters: "They lined them up and they shot them from behind."

While taking responsibility for the killings, Kerrey said he did not specifically order them.

"The thing that I will remember until the day I die is walking in and finding, I don't know, 14 or so, I don't even know what the number was, women and children who were dead," Kerrey said in 1998. "I was expecting to find Viet Cong soldiers with weapons, dead. Instead I found women and children," he told The New York Times in 2001.

I am in full support of the non-profit Fulbright University project and I have high expectations of the huge benefits it may bring, but this is the first time I have read such a detailed piece about the massacre, and it has left me in shock.

I was going to share the article and express my disapproval, but just as I was about to click the post button, I changed my mind.

I needed a little more time to consider.

I shut down my iPad and went to work, but what I had read about the massacre was still haunting me. Finally, I figured out my decision to share or not.

In recent days, I and many other Vietnamese have clicked the share button about the historic visit of U.S. President Obama to Hiroshima, where he placed a wreath before the cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

This stood out for me in Obamas Hiroshima speech:

We see these stories in the hibakusha. The woman who forgave a pilot who flew the plane that dropped the atomic bomb because she recognized that what she really hated was war itself. The man who sought out families of Americans killed here because he believed their loss was equal to his own.

This shows that the majority of Japanese have forgiven the American pilot who dropped the atomic bomb in Japan, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands of Japanese.

It also speaks out that Americans, through Obama, are grateful for that forgiveness.

The pilot only followed an order by late U.S. President Harry Truman and Douglas McAuther, an American general who commanded the Southwest Pacific Fleet in World War II. The pilot was forced to act in the heat of war.

Now we turn back to Bob Kerry. It would be easy to detest him for the massacre and share the story on social networks to call for his resignation as chairman of the Fulbright University.

But I decided to do something more challenging: forgive him.

I forgive him and I hope other Vietnamese will do the same. I hope we can do something more difficult than detesting him by forgiving.

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. I cannot forget the massacre and I'm pretty sure Bob Kerry can't too. But I can learn to forgive as the future helps to close a hostile past.
The wave of fintech startups, digital challengers and tech giants presents a threat to the big banks that is unlikely to go away soon. The impact of the financial crisis, scandals in the interbank and foreign exchange markets and continued volatility in global markets has meant regulators the world over continue to scrutinize banks like never before. Cloud computing can help the banks to respond more effectively to these challenges by driving down costs, enabling innovation and creating the flexibility needed to respond to change.

Traditionally banks have been reluctant to embrace such technologies, especially on security grounds. Some of this hesitancy is practical: How does one move petabytes of data that is transactional and hence continually in use?

There are other challenges, such as the potential complexity in managing many different operations spread all over the world. Regulators are leading the way in facing up to these challenges and moving banking practices into the 21st century.

FINRA, one of the largest independent securities regulators in the United States, has now moved about 75 percent of its operations to the cloud. It estimates it will save up to $20 million annually by using Amazon Web Services instead of a physical data center infrastructure.

In the past, increasing capacity and storage cost more money  FINRA, which processes 25 billion market events a day had hit the limits of what was commercially available. A major benefit of its move to the cloud has been speed. Some of the more complex queries FINRA runs on its data could take several hours in extreme cases, but they are now done in a few seconds, allowing the regulator to run surveillance patterns more quickly and do more data analysis.

The sixth largest bank in Spain, Bankinter, uses the cloud to run credit risk simulations in 20 minutes, down from 23 hours before. A major American investment firm uses AWS to run credit risk simulations for its long-term debt and equity-backed securities in its London branch.

By using AWS, it can scale up vast amounts of technology infrastructure on demand and pay only for what it uses. Having such vast compute capacity available on demand is extremely important in the capital markets industry where milliseconds can mean millions in profit.

Cloud computing means banks no longer have to invest heavily in dedicated hardware, software and manpower: the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said it used to take eight weeks and several thousand dollars to stand up a new server. Now it takes eight minutes and 25 cents to do the same thing in the cloud, making the bank much more responsive to changing customer demands. It improves flexibility and scalability, enabling banks and financial institutions to transform their business processes and grow organically in new sectors and geographies without incurring huge costs for establishing a physical presence.

The combination of big data and the unlimited computing power of the cloud enables banks to develop systems capable of providing better insights into clients and make better decisions on their behalf. This helps banks develop new business models that are customer-centric and respond quickly to changing market and technological needs. With incumbents like Metro Bank, Google Wallet and Apple Pay putting the customer at the heart of what they do, traditional banks will only be able to compete by taking advantage of what the cloud can offer.

Ultimately the banks that take advantage of cloud computing are better positioned to respond to economic uncertainties, interconnected global financial systems and demanding customers. If they want to stay ahead, as the regulators have realized, the cloud is no longer a nice to have, but increasingly a necessity.
Politicians and commentators love to talk up the notion of a bachelors degree as a surefire pathway to the middle class. Statistics show that four-year college graduates earn 68% more than people with only a high school degree. This has led politicians to funnel enormous subsidies into higher education, and for some on the left to go further and call for college to be free entirely.

But a surface interpretation of these numbers violates the number one rule of statistics: correlation does not imply causation. On the contrary, those who choose to go to college in the first place could be (and are) quite different from those who do not. Differences between people may drive part of the premium in earnings for college graduates, rather than the degree itself. An examination of the true value of college must take account of these differences.

There are good reasons to think that colleges true value is much less than what is implied by surface-level numbers. Family income, for instance, affects a childs future earnings. If college graduates come from disproportionately high-income backgrounds, their average income will be higherbut a good portion of this may be due to background, not college.

Some factors that potentially affect earnings, such as race, family background and school district, are easy to control for. But including such easily measurable attributes only tells part of the story. Unobservable factors such as motivation, cognitive ability and social capital all plausibly affect earningsbut may also affect whether a young person decides to attend college.

Without looking into a parallel universe to see the earnings of a specific college graduates had they attained only a high school degree, it is impossible to directly assess the true value of college. But sophisticated studies can get us closer. A new IZA discussion paper by economics Nobel laureate James Heckman (University of Chicago), along with economists John Eric Humphries (also Chicago) and Gregory Veramendi (Arizona State University), attempts to disentangle these unobservable characteristics from the true value of a college education.

The authors build a mathematical model which incorporates not just observable factors such as race and family income, but also proxies for factors such as intelligence. (Whether these proxies fully control for unobserved ability is dubious, but they are better than nothing.) The authors then divide the individuals they study into low-ability and high-ability groups and compare outcomes for each group individually.

The results? Having a high school degree provides an earnings boost for students across the board. Good news so far. But things get dicier once students get to college. For the high-ability group, a bachelors degree provides a moderate boost to wagescertainly lower than what we think of as the benefits of college, but still a respectable amount that makes getting the degree worthwhile.

But for the low-ability group, the bachelors degree earnings premium is nonexistentthe authors estimates actually show a small decline in earnings for this group, albeit not one that is statistically indistinguishable from zero. For individuals without relatively high ability, college does not appear to be a worthwhile investment, and may be a losing one once you take into account tuition costs and four years of not working.

We tend to think of a bachelors degree as a voucher, redeemable for higher earnings down the road. But these results show that it might be more of a complement for existing talents, to improve upon them and make them more marketable. It takes both ability and education to land a well-paying jobthe latter cannot substitute for the former. College is not for everyone.

This is not to imply, however, that people in the low-ability category should give up hope. According to the paper, low-ability individuals with some college (a catchall category that includes both dropouts and graduates of two-year colleges) realized moderate gains over their counterparts with only a high school degree. Educational innovation may be key hereperhaps it is not that low-ability students are unable to benefit from further education, but that the established bachelors degree model is simply not the right one.

Nor should we take ability for granted. A better K-12 education systemdriven by school choicemight better cultivate the sorts of abilities that a college education enhances. This could push more students into the high-ability group and make a bachelors degree more worthwhile. College cannot paper over the failures of K-12 education, but it can magnify the benefits of any improvements.

For now, though, this new evidence demonstrates that we should treat proposals to increase college attendance with great skepticism. At the very least, doubling down on the bachelors degree is the wrong path. College is important, but not a guaranteed ticket to the middle class.

This column originally appeared on Forbes.

Preston Cooper is a policy analyst at the Manhattan Institute. You can follow him on Twitter here.

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Under President Obamas landmark Power Africa initiative, the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, launched on May 23rd a new assistance program that aims to improve power distribution performance and increase connections in Nigeria.

The two-year agreement will provide management consultation to three Nigerian distribution companies.The agreement will also advance major infrastructure investments and strengthen systems in the distribution companies.

U.S. Ambassador James Entwistle witnessed the signing in Abuja between USAID partner Power Africa Transactions Reforms Program and the chief executives of the Abuja, Benin, and Eko distribution companies.

We believe that distribution companies are the starting point for improving the entire power sector value chain, said Ambassador Entwistle.

Through improving the performance of distribution companies, we will see increased electricity supply and accessour joint efforts will improve the lives of countless Nigerians and serve as a model for other African countries.

Announced by President Obama in 2013, Power Africa is working with sub-Saharan African governments, the private sector, and other partners, including Nigeria to add more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner, more efficient electricity generation capacity and 60 million new connections by 2030.

The initiative has already helped financially close over 4,000 MW worth of transactions representing almost 14 percent of the initial 30,000 MW goal.

In Nigeria, Power Africa supports the strengthening of the energy sector through credit enhancement, grants, technical assistance, and investment promotion efforts.

Power Africa is also working to mobilize affordable and long-term financing to support capital and operational expenditure requirements for successor generation and distribution companies to accelerate electricity market development.

The United States is proud to part with Nigeria to help meet the countrys power needs for a better future for the people of Nigeria and Africa.
ELKO  Almost three decades after it began, a fund to honor the late J.D. Jay McBeth accomplished its goal when it helped pay for the Elko Convention and Visitors Authoritys new building.

On Wednesday, with his family present, the ECVA dedicated a bench in honor of the longtime Newmont executive. It was installed between the Elko Convention and the Conference centers.

McBeths widow, Twyla McBeth, 87, attended the unveiling of the bench and wore a silver and turquoise necklace her husband made.

I think its nice that theres a memorial for him, she said.

McBeth helped start the Elko Mining Expo, which is scheduled this year on June 9-10.

Lee Hoffman, who worked for Newmont Mining Corp. for 32 years before he retired, attended the dedication with his wife, Lynn. He said McBeth was the reason he had a career in mining.

The first time I ever saw Jay McBeth he walked into my high school physics class, Hoffman said.

In 1969, Newmont was looking for students to apply for scholarships to study mining, engineering, metallurgy and geology. Hoffman said he received one of those scholarships and that is how he ended up going to the University of Nevada, Reno, where he earned a metallurgy degree.

Before I got that scholarship, I couldnt even spell metallurgical, he said with a laugh.

While Hoffman was in school, he worked summers at Carlin Gold. After school, the Hoffmans worked at a mine in Idaho, but when it was shut down, Lee Hoffman applied for a job with Newmont and McBeth hired him.

McBeth died in 1987. He was instrumental in finding support and exhibitors for the first Elko Mining Expo in 1986, according to Free Press articles. The 1988 Expo was dedicated to his memory and two exhibitors, John McCafferty of the Serrot Corp. and Bob Black of Delta Rubber, began a J.D. McBeth Exhibition Hall Fund. Park Blair, who was the Al Park president at the time, also gave a donation to the fund.

By Aug. 3, 1989, the fund totaled $3,000, according to Free Press records. The fund kept growing but along the way the reason for the money begin given was forgotten.

The current staff at the ECVA knew the money was there but had no idea why the fund was started. They only knew the funds were put in trust and restricted for building expansion or improvements, said ECVA Executive Director Don Newman.

Delynn Jones, ECVA comptroller, said the fund grew over the years as it accumulated interest and by 2016 it totaled $41,770.

It was separated by its own certificate of deposit, she said. It was its own investment, so it accrued its own interest, and so we just kept investing it. You could tell by its title that it was flagged for building expansion, but we didnt know the origin of it.

Jones has worked for the ECVA for 10 years, but none of the staff in the last decade knew what the funds were for and they didnt know where to start looking in the boards minutes to determine how the money was supposed to be used.

Newman said at the time the fund was set up the ECVA did not have any plans for expansion. However, about five years ago, the board began the conceptual drawings for the Elko Conference Center.

The missing piece to the puzzle of the money was sent to the ECVA by Pam Merkley, McBeths daughter.

I sent him an email and asked what happened to the money, Merkley said. Along with the email, she sent an article about the funds that were raised in her fathers name.

All the sudden it clicked, Newman said. So now we knew, you know, the who, what, when, why in your industry of where that came from and what it was all about.

Twyla McBeth said her husband was vice president of operations for Newmont and he spoke at the opening of the first two Elko Mining Expos.

Twyla McBeth said she was surprised the ECVA didnt know about the funds. She said Kay Thompson ran the convention center and when she left, Twyla called Phyllis Peterson about the funds. She didnt contact Ralph McMullen when he was the director.

I kept thinking when they do something Ill do something, Twyla said.  You kind of go along and think well its there and they know. I thought they knew.

Twyla said her husband liked everything about mining. McBeth graduated from the Missouri School of Mines. He worked for Kennecott Copper Corp. and New York Traprock before he joined Newmont in 1966. He was instrumental in setting up the mining display at the Northeastern Nevada Museum and was a driving force behind the Expo.

She said the first shows were equipment shows and she thinks her husband would be surprised by how much the show and the City of Elko have grown.

The town, my goodness, its tripled since we moved here, she said.

Six thousand people when we moved here, and there was one stoplight, Fifth and Idaho, Merkley said.

Twyla McBeth, Merkley and other family members were given a tour of the Elko Conference Center after it opened. As the project moved forward, it was decided the money would be used toward the first payment on the new building, Newman said.

We decided to do a bench in his honor, and put that out prior to the Expo, he said. I think its a wonderful, fitting closure to that whole process that originated a long, long time ago.

The front of the bench is engraved with the words In honor of J.D. Jay McBeth The Man and The Miner.

It was exciting to find out what it was and how it came about, and now all these years later it actually is being used for what it was generated for, Newman said.
Hugh Herr, pictured in 2014. Brian Snyder (REUTERS)

Hugh Herr, a bionics researcher at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has been awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research for his work on high-tech artificial limbs.

In 2011, TIME magazine called Herr the Leader of the Bionic Age.

A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Herrs breakthrough work as a scientist and engineer at the MITs Media Lab originated in a personal tragedy. In 1982, at the age of 17, he went on a climbing expedition in New Hampshire and lost his way in a blizzard. He was missing for three nights, enduring temperatures of -29C. He was found alive, but had his legs amputated below the knees as a result of the frostbite.

Just 12 months after his accident, Herr was mountain climbing again

Traumatized by the death of one of the volunteers who had gone out looking for him, and disappointed at the prosthetic limbs he was fitted with at the hospital, Herr decided to spend his life designing more advanced limbs that would allow him to climb again and help other amputees like himself.

Just 12 months after his accident, Herr was mountain climbing again, and recently told Popular Science magazine that he was doing it better than with his real legs. I quickly abandoned the notion that a prosthesis has to have a human shape and began optimizing function, he said in that interview.

Since then, his own body has been his primary testing ground. Not content with helping amputees, Herr, now 51, also wants to improve other peoples bodies. His new avenues of investigation have led to an entire class of intelligent robotic prosthetics that accelerate the fusion of the human body and machines, increasing the formers strength and resistance.

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His methods encompass a variety of scientific and technological fields, from biomechanics to biomedicine.

Herr has also designed his own bionic legs, the worlds first bionic foot-and-calf system called the BiOM. He is the founder of BiONx Medical Technologies (formerly iWalk) and the author and co-author of over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts and patents.

The Princess of Asturias Awards are Spains answer to the Nobel Prize. The foundation grants 50,000 to winners in eight categories, who accept their prize from the king of Spain every month of October at a ceremony in Oviedo.

Formerly known as the Prince of Asturias Awards, the 36-year-old prizes name was changed after Crown Prince Felipe became the king of Spain in June 2014, passing the heir title on to his eldest daughter Leonor.

Past winners in the arts and literature categories include Francis Ford Coppola, Frank O. Gehry, Bob Dylan, Philip Roth, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood and Paul Auster.

English version by Susana Urra.
Podemos and IU supporters mingle at Tuesday's meeting.

There was visible unease on Tuesday evening among the senior figures in Podemos attending the anti-austerity partys first major campaign event ahead of the June 26 elections with its new coalition partners of the United Left.

Among the crowd in the city of Ciudad Real, the bright red hammer and sickle flags and tricolors of the Second Republic waved by supporters of the Communist-led United Left stood out in stark contrast with the more sober purple banners of Podemos and its grass-roots neighborhood associations.

The two parties have joined forces as Podemos Unidos in a bid to capture the support of voters disenchanted with Spains traditional two-party system that has seen power divided between the Socialists (PSOE) and the Popular Party (PP) since the early 1980s.

The recent agreement with the Communist Party-led IU appears to have benefited Podemos after weeks of dwindling ratings caused by the prolonged gridlock in Spanish politics

But many in Podemos fear that the presence of the United Left will scare center-ground voters away. Inigo Errejon, Podemoss number two official, has said that he believes the two parties should campaign separately.

Many Podemos supporters are also concerned: a message posted on the popular app Telegram sums up the mood among many activists: The powers that be in Spain would be delighted if we continued to pursue politics on the basis of symbols that, besides not representing the majority of society today, have also lost any symbolic, political, or cultural meaning. The fight to recover our institutions and popular sovereignty requires intelligence, responsibility, and aiming high.

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The message emphasizes the importance of Podemoss strategy of trying to reach out to as broad an electorate as possible, adding: We have to connect with the majority in society around a consensus based on common sense. Not everybody who has been hit hard by years of cuts responds to the same symbols, but they can share an awareness of the need to recover the dignity of our people. It concludes: We cannot allow ourselves to make one wrong move in the difficult task of fighting to recover our country.

Nevertheless, the recent agreement with the Communist Party-led IU appears to have benefited Podemos after weeks of dwindling ratings caused by the prolonged gridlock in Spanish politics following the inconclusive December 20 elections.

A Metroscopia survey for EL PAIS in mid-May showed that the new leftist alliance would push the Socialists down to third place, while the conservative Popular Party (PP) would renew its December 20 victory, possibly with an even greater lead over its rivals.

With barely three weeks to go before Spaniards go to the polls, the sum of forces led by Podemoss Pablo Iglesias and IUs Alberto Garzon has a three-point advantage over the Socialists, the poll shows. Voting intention for Unidos Podemos, as the alliance has been branded, is 23.3%.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Low 44F. ENE winds shifting to NNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Showers this evening, becoming a steady rain overnight. Low 44F. ENE winds shifting to NNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
A solar power plant in Spain. Luis Azanza

The Spanish Supreme Court has dealt a new blow to renewable energy producers.

In a ruling, the court backed the 2014 government decree that resulted in cuts of nearly 1.7 billion in subsidies for the sector.

The decision is a setback for the three producers who fought the legal battle against the Spanish government

The court finds that the decree, passed by Mariano Rajoy of the Popular Party (PP), does not violate the Spanish Constitution or EU legislation, as the plaintiffs claimed.

The decision, which confirms an earlier ruling by the Constitutional Court, is a setback for the three producers who fought the legal battle against the Spanish government: Ingenieria Civil, Alternativa y Medioambiental (Incam), Renovables Samca and Llerena Solar, Temcli y Powersol 2007.

But hundreds more similar appeals have reached the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule along the same lines in the coming months.

The one piece of good news for producers is that the new premiums are not retroactive, so that past subsidies do not have to be returned.

Waiting for ICSID

Despite the favorable rulings for the Spanish government, the legal battle over the cuts to renewable subsidies is not over.

Dozens of companies and investment funds have turned to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank-sponsored arbitration agency, with claims against Spain. Those decisions are still pending.

But in January, another claim at the Arbitration Court of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce ended in Spains favor.

English version by Susana Urra.
NOTICE: This Consumer Medicine Information (CMI) is intended for persons living in Australia.

Tetrabenazine Consumer Medicine Information

What is in this leaflet This leaflet answers some common questions about Tetrabenazine Tablets. It does not contain all the available information. Reading this leaflet does not take the place of talking to your doctor or pharmacist. All medicines have risks and benefits. Your doctor has weighed the risks of your taking Tetrabenazine Tablets against the benefits they expect it will have for you. If you have any concerns about taking Tetrabenazine Tablets, ask your doctor or pharmacist. Keep this leaflet with the medicine. You may need to read it again.

What Tetrabenazine Tablets are used for Tetrabenazine is used for the treatment of diseases, which cause jerky, irregular, uncontrollable movements such as Huntington's chorea, senile chorea and hemiballismus. Tetrabenazine affects some chemicals in the brain, and by doing so it helps to control jerky and irregular movements. Ask your doctor if you have any questions about why Tetrabenazine Tablets have been prescribed for you. Your doctor may have prescribed Tetrabenazine Tablets for another use. Tetrabenazine Tablets are not addictive. Tetrabenazine Tablets are only available on a doctor's prescription.

Before you take Tetrabenazine Tablets

When you must not take it Do not take Tetrabenazine Tablets if you have an allergy to: Any medicine containing tetrabenazine. Any of the ingredients listed at the end of this leaflet. Some of the symptoms of an allergic reaction may include: Shortness of breath Wheezing or difficulty breathing Swelling of the face, lips, tongue or other parts of the body Rash, itching or hives on the skin. Do not take Tetrabenazine Tablets if you are also taking: Medicine containing reserpine. Medicine containing levodopa Medicine known as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor or have taken this medicine in the past 2 weeks. Tetrabenazine can affect action of these medicines. Do not take Tetrabenazine Tablets if you have: Parkinson's disease. Depression. Galactose intolerance, Lapp lactase deficiency or glucose-galactose malabsorption. Tetrabenazine Tablets contain lactose. Do not take Tetrabenazine tablets if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Tetrabenazine may harm your unborn baby. Tetrabenazine has been found in breast milk. Do not take Tetrabenazine Tablets after the expiry date printed on the bottle. Do not take Tetrabenazine Tablets if the bottle seems to have been opened or the tablets do not look quite right. If you are not sure whether you should start taking this medicine, talk to your doctor.

Before you start to take it Tell your doctor if you have or have had any of the following medical conditions: Allergy to any other medicines, foods, preservatives or dyes Lactose intolerance. Tetrabenazine Tablets contain lactose. Depression Suicidal thoughts or behaviour Parkinson's disease Abnormal heart rate or rhythm Kidney disease Liver disease. Tell your doctor your CYP2D6 metaboliser status, if known. Your CYP2D6 metaboliser status may affect the dose of tetrabenazine you need and the dose of other medicines you may be taking. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or intend to become pregnant or to breastfeed. If you have not told your doctor about any of the above, tell him/her before you start taking Tetrabenazine Tablets.

Taking other medicines Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you are taking any other medicines, including any that you get without a prescription from your pharmacy, supermarket or health food shop. Some medicines and Tetrabenazine Tablets may interfere with each other. These include: Reserpine and levodopa Medicines used to treat depression, such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) and CYP2D6 inhibitors, such as fluoxetine, paroxetine, quinidine, duloxetine, terbinafine, amiodarone, or sertraline Medicines that affect the brain and nervous system including medication used to treat psychiatric conditions, strong painkillers and medication used to help sleep Medicines used to treat psychosis, such as haloperidol, chlorpromazine and metoclopramide Medicines, including beta-blockers used to treat high blood pressure. Some medicines, when used in combination with Tetrabenazine, may interfere with the rate and rhythm of heart beats. These include medications used to treat psychiatric conditions, antibiotics and medications used to treat problems with heart rhythm conditions.

How to take Tetrabenazine Tablets Follow all directions given to you by your doctor or pharmacist carefully. They may differ from the information contained in this leaflet. If you do not understand the instructions on the label, ask your doctor or pharmacist for help.

How much to take Your doctor will decide the best dose for you. The usual starting dose in adults is one tablet twice a day. This may increase to a total of 200 mg (8 tablets) a day. The doctor will decide the best dose for children and elderly patients. Do not take more than the dose your doctor has recommended. If you feel unwell during your course of treatment, tell your doctor.

How to take it Swallow the tablet or tablets with water.

When to take it Take your medicine at about the same time each day. Taking it at the same time each day will have the best effect. It will also help you remember when to take it.

How long to take it Continue taking your medicine for as long as your doctor tells you. This medicine helps to control your condition, but does not cure it. It is important to keep taking your medicine even if you feel well.

If you forget to take Tetrabenazine Tablets If you forget to take a dose of Tetrabenazine Tablets, skip that dose completely. Take your next dose at the normal time it is due. Do not take a double dose to make up for the dose that you missed. This may increase your chance of getting an unwanted side effect. If you have trouble remembering when to take Tetrabenazine Tablets, ask your pharmacist for some hints.

If you take too many Tetrabenazine Tablets Immediately telephone your doctor or the Poisons Information Centre (telephone 13 11 26) for advice, or go to Accident and Emergency at the nearest hospital, if you think that you or anyone else may have taken too many Tetrabenazine Tablets. Do this even if there are no signs of discomfort or poisoning. Symptoms of an overdose may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, confusion, hallucinations, sedation, drowsiness, sweating, low blood pressure and abnormally low body temperature.

While you are taking Tetrabenazine Tablets

Things you must do Make sure that all of your doctors and pharmacists know you are taking Tetrabenazine Tablets. Remind them if any new medicines are about to be started. If you are going to have surgery, tell the surgeon or anaesthetist that you are taking this medicine. It may affect other medicines used during surgery. If you become pregnant while taking this medicine, tell your doctor immediately.

Things you must not do Do not use Tetrabenazine Tablets to treat any complaint other than that directed by your doctor. It may not be safe to use Tetrabenazine Tablets for another complaint. Tetrabenazine Tablets should only be used by the person for whom it was prescribed. Do not give Tetrabenazine Tablets to anyone else even if they have the same condition as you. It may not be safe for another person to use Tetrabenazine Tablets. Do not stop taking your medicine or change the dosage without checking with your doctor.

Things to be careful of Be careful driving or operating machinery until you know how Tetrabenazine Tablets affects you. This medicine may cause drowsiness in some people. If you feel light-headed, dizzy or faint when getting out of bed or standing up, get up slowly. Standing up slowly, especially when you get up from bed or chairs, will help your body get used to the change in position and blood pressure. If this problem continues or get worse, talk to your doctor. Avoid or limit the use of alcohol when taking tetrabenazine Tablets. Alcohol can increase some side effects of tetrabenazine such as dizziness, drowsiness and difficulty in concentrating.

Side effects Tell your doctor or pharmacist as soon as possible if you do not feel well while you are taking Tetrabenazine Tablets. Like all medicines, Tetrabenazine Tablets may have some side effects. Sometimes they are serious, most of the time they are not. Do not be alarmed by this list of possible side effects. You may not experience any of them. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to answer any questions you may have. Tell your doctor or pharmacist if you notice any of the following: Sleepiness and drowsiness Depression Uncontrollable movements of the hands, arms, legs and head (similar to those in Parkinson's disease) Digestive problems Lowering of blood pressure Feeling nervous or anxious Worsening aggression Trouble sleeping Skin rash. Tell your doctor immediately if you notice any of the following: Difficulty in swallowing Choking attacks Stiffness or tightness in the arms or legs Confusion or having thoughts of irrational ideas not shared by others Suicidal thoughts or behaviour. Other side effects not listed above may also occur in some patients. Tell your doctor if you notice anything else that is making you feel unwell.

After taking Tetrabenazine Tablets

Storage Keep Tetrabenazine Tablets in their bottle until it is time to take your dose. If you take them out of their container, they may not keep well. Keep Tetrabenazine Tablets in a cool dry place where the temperature stays below 30C. Do not store it or any other medicine in the bathroom or near a sink. Do not leave it on a window sill or in the car on hot or cold days. Heat and dampness can destroy some medicines. Keep Tetrabenazine Tablets where children cannot reach it. A locked cupboard at least one-and-a-half metres above the ground is a good place to store medicines.

Disposal If your doctor tells you to stop taking this medicine or the expiry date has passed, ask your pharmacist what to do with any medicine that is left over.

Product description

What Tetrabenazine Tablets look like Tetrabenazine Tablets 25 mg are buff coloured. They are scored and marked with "CL" over "25".

Ingredients Each Tetrabenazine Tablet contains 25 mg of the active ingredient, tetrabenazine, and 64 mg lactose. Tetrabenazine Tablets also contain the following inactive ingredients: Starch Talc Magnesium stearate Iron oxide yellow. Tetrabenazine Tablets are available in plastic bottles containing 112 tablets.
Although meat allergy is uncommon, meat from any type of mammal such as pork, lamb or beef can trigger an allergic reaction.

A person can develop a meat allergy at any time during their life. If a person does develop such an allergy to one type of meat, it is also possible that they will become allergic to other forms including types of poultry such as turkey, chicken or duck.

Some studies have shown that a small proportion of children with a milk allergy also develop a beef allergy.

Image Copyright: Alexander Raths /Shutterstock

If a person is allergic to meat, the bodys immune system mistakes the meat for a harmful substance or allergen.

The first time this happens, the immune system triggers the production of immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies, which become attached to immune cells. This is referred to as sensitization.

The next time the meat is eaten, allergens in it bind to IgE, which triggers those immune cells to release histamine and various other chemicals, to fight off the allergen.

Depending on where these chemicals are released, the resulting symptoms may range from a mild reaction and include hives, sneezing, wheezing, skin rash or headache, to a severe reaction called anaphylaxis, which can be life threatening if it goes untreated.

Diagnosis

If a doctor suspects a person has a meat allergy, the patient will be referred to an allergist who will assess their medical history and any symptoms they have experienced.

A blood test and/or a skin prick test may be arranged. For the skin prick test, skin on the back or forearm is pricked using a probe that contains a very small amount of the suspected allergen.

If a person is allergic to that allergen, they will develop a small bump at the site where the allergen was applied. The result can usually be seen within around 20 minutes.

A blood test is used to measure the amount of food-specific IgE antibodies in the body and results are usually available after one or two weeks.

Management

The most important aspect of managing meat allergy is avoidance of the food that triggers a reaction.

A person who has been diagnosed with an allergy should ensure that they check the ingredients listed on the back of any food products they purchase at consumer outlets or catering establishments.

If a reaction does occur, symptoms should be controlled with antihistamines or corticosteroids.

For all food allergies including meat allergy, it is not possible to predict how severe a reaction will be.

People who have previously only experienced mild symptoms when they have a reaction may suddenly find they develop anaphylaxis on subsequent exposure to the allergen.

In the case of anaphylaxis, the first line treatment approach is the administration of epinephrine and a person who is diagnosed with a meat allergy will probably be prescribed an adrenalin auto-injector which they are taught how to use, so they can self-administer the drug, should a severe reaction occur.

People should always make sure they have two doses available in case another severe reaction occurs.

The medication should be administered as soon as any of the following symptoms arise:

Hives

Difficulty breathing

Difficulty swallowing

Tight throat

Weak pulse

Shortness of breath

Swelling of the skin

Addiononally, any combination of these together with vomiting, diarrhea or pain in the abdomen may be indicative of anaphylaxis.

Tick induced meat allergy

A bite from a tick called the Lone Star tick has recently been identified as a cause of red meat allergy, which is common in south-eastern areas of the United States.

A bite from this tick causes sensitization to the carbohydrate galactose-alpha 1, 3 galactose (alpha-gal).

Tick Meat Allergy Play

Although alpha-gal is not the only carbohydrate allergen to have been identified, this allergen does differ to other carbohydrates in terms of being able to cause anaphylaxis.

Not every person who receives such a bite develops a red meat allergy, but those who do can only prevent reactions by avoiding the consumption of mammalian meats such as beef, pork, venison, lamb and bison.

Although food allergies usually trigger symptoms within minutes after exposure to the allergen, alpha-gal reactions often take between three and six hours to trigger symptoms. This delay poses a challenge in terms of identifying, diagnosing and treating the allergic reaction.

Evaluation by an expert food allergist who is already familiar with this condition is therefore advised.

Further Reading
Co-Founded by Quest Diagnostics and Inserm, with LabCorp as First Member, BRCA Share is now the Largest Open BRCA Datashare of Curated BRCA Variants Clinically Suitable for Patient Management

BRCA Share, a public-private BRCA gene datashare initiative, today announced the public release of a large collection of new data on genetic variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Mutations of these genes raise the risk of breast, ovarian and other cancers. The findings are to be presented today at the 6th International Biennial Meeting of Human Variome Project Consortium (HVP6) held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

BRCA Share was co-founded by Quest Diagnostics and the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) in April 2015, with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp) as the first commercial participant. The goal of the initiative is to share clinical, genetic, epidemiological and biological data on BRCA variants, particularly variants of uncertain significance, in order to improve the quality of laboratory diagnostics to better predict which individuals are at risk of developing hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, and to accelerate research on BRCA gene mutations. BRCA Share builds on a BRCA gene-data curation process developed by Inserm, Institut Curie, and Unicancer Genetic Group (UGG) with associated University Hospital Centers, using data developed over a decade of BRCA patient testing by the 16 UGG laboratories in France together with the same associated University Hospital Centers.

This new release adds variants from Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, two clinical testing laboratory companies operating primarily in the United States, to the collection previously developed by Inserm through the Universal Mutation Database (UMD) project in France. The BRCA Share database now contains over 6,200 total BRCA variants, an increase of nearly 30% compared to the previous Inserm UMD database. Of these variants, 334 are newly identified pathogenic or likely pathogenic, increasing by about 20% the total number of pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants to 1,826.

The data include 375 BRCA gene variants whose role in cancer risk was previously uncertain. Of these, 93% are now classified as neutral or likely neutral, while the remaining 7% are now classified as pathogenic or likely pathogenic. Neutral gene variants are generally considered benign, or non-disease-causing, while pathogenic variants are gene mutations that increase an individuals cancer risk.

The findings are significant because they will contribute to well-informed patient management strategies. A patient with a pathogenic BRCA gene test result may consider options to reduce the risk of developing cancer in the future, including increased screening or prophylactic mastectomy or oophorectomy (removal of breasts or ovaries). Participating commercial laboratories notify physicians of changes in classifications for affected patients.

The BRCA Share Initiative is intended to help scientists, physicians and laboratory experts improve the interpretation of BRCA gene mutations for patient testing and cancer research. With the release of the new set of variants and clinical data, BRCA Share is the largest database providing access to high-quality BRCA genetic data that has been researched and curated to determine clinical significance. Other public BRCA data initiatives collect a mix of curated and uncurated BRCA variant information from participating laboratories. Data curation is an essential step in maximizing the likelihood that data is clinically appropriate and actionable. Variants that are curated have been individually researched and categorized to determine the likelihood that they confer increased cancer risk. Advances in scientific knowledge may lead to new variant discoveries and reclassifications.

We created BRCA Share to accelerate BRCA science and bring clarity to BRCA patient testing, and in short order, thats exactly what this initiative has done, said Charles (Buck) Strom, M.D., Ph.D., FAAP, FACMG, HCLD, vice president, genetics and genomics, Quest Diagnostics. This doesnt just benefit patients of Quest, or LabCorp, or Inserms participating labs. This initiative benefits anyone in the global medical community seeking robust analysis of BRCA genetics based on shared pooling of clinical-grade data and expertise.

The promise of BRCA Share was to significantly improve BRCA diagnostics and enhance patient care and treatment, said Marcia Eisenberg, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of LabCorp Diagnostics. BRCA Share has already delivered on that promise, and it will help physicians and patients make more informed monitoring and treatment decisions that can improve health and improve lives.

BRCA Share demonstrates that public-private data sharing collaborations, funded by commercial parties, can hasten advances in medical research that will benefit patients. This first experience encourages Inserm Transfert to continue its development strategy on health databases whenever it is relevant with industrial partners, said Pascale Auge, Ph.D., CEO, Inserm Transfert.

In little more than a year, this initiative has provided more than 1,300 new variants and has lifted the veil of uncertainty from 375 variants and identified 334 likely cancer risk variants, added Prof. Christophe Beroud, Pharm.D., Ph.D., leader of the "Genetics and Bioinformatics" research team, Inserm/Aix Marseille University (AMU) UMR_S910.

Research entities and individuals with a research-only focus on BRCA -- including physicians and patients -- can participate in BRCA Share at no charge. The new data is available, beginning today, at http://www.umd.be/BRCA1/ and http://www.umd.be/BRCA2/ . Commercial laboratories may participate in BRCA Share by paying an annual fee to Inserm determined on a sliding scale to fund research and administrative expenses.

Since the launch of BRCA Share, nearly 1,000 scientists from 49 countries have registered to access BRCA Share for research purposes.

To participate, BRCA Share commercial laboratory members must submit their BRCA variant data, which Inserms variant team then researches and curates. When a variant is curated and/or reclassified, Inserm notifies BRCA Share members and uploads the new data into BRCA Share. BRCA Share's participating laboratories may then begin to use the new data to inform decisions about patient test results.

Members of BRCA Share are free to also share their BRCA data with other datashare initiatives.
Street painting in Lithuania shows Trump shown kissing Vladimir Putin. INTS KALNINS (REUTERS)

More information Los ultimos resistentes contra Trump buscan un tercer candidato

Slowly but surely, the heavyweights of the Republican Party are closing ranks behind Donald Trump in the run-up to Julys official confirmation of his candidacy at the November presidential elections. There is little love lost between the property magnate and former reality show host and the Grand Old Party: former Texas governor Rick Perry described him as a cancer just a few months ago; now he and other senior Republicans are talking about Trumpism. Only a small majority is fighting on, hoping for a third candidate: among the names the shrinking anti-Trump camp is proposing are Mitt Romney, Nebraska senator Ben Sasse and New Mexico governor Susana Martinez.

Among the most recent converts to Trumps cause is Florida senator Marco Rubio, the man considered the Republican Partys best hope until a few months ago. Trump famously dismissed his rival in the primaries as little Marco, mocking the sweats he would break out in during television debates. In turn, Rubio called Trump a fraudster, describing him as a threat to national security should he ever have his finger on the nuclear button.

John McCain, a presidential candidate in 2008 and a former Vietnam prisoner of war, has chosen to ignore Trumps sarcastic comments about his military record

Rubio says he is looking forward to speaking at the Republican convention in July at Cleveland, Ohio, when Trump will be formally nominated. Hes not alone in looking to leave the past behind: John McCain, a presidential candidate in 2008 and a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, has chosen to ignore Trumps sarcastic comments about his military record and is now looking to the future. And like them, dozens of senior Republicans who not long ago mocked Trump or saw him as a threat are now lining up to offer their support having reached the conclusion that its either him or Hillary Clinton.

Not that Trump hasnt reached out to the party: he has promised to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, a body that has more influence over issues such as abortion, gun control and civil rights than the White House or Congress does.

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Among Republicans still to publicly declare their support for Trump is Congressional speaker Paul Ryan, considered by many to be the GOPs ideologue during the Obama presidencies and the man behind recent proposals to cut social spending, in contrast to the message Trump is spreading about his policies if he becomes president. Ryan has gone so far as to say he shares Trumps wish to beat Hillary, and most commentators suggest he will come round in the coming weeks. In the meantime, he will be hoping to convert Trump, a man with no clear ideology and able to contradict himself in the same sentence, round to conservative orthodoxy.

Meanwhile, President Obama has been doing his best to counter Trumps description of the United States as a spent force economically. Returning to Elkhart, the small town in Indiana where he made his first visit as president seven years ago, the president outlined the progress he believes the United States has made over his two terms in office. In 2009, unemployment in Elkhart was almost 20%. Today the figure is 4.1%. Then, just 75% of high school students graduated. The figure is now 90%. Similarly, the number of people unable to pay their mortgages has fallen from 9.5% to 3.7%. Indiana sits amid the post-industrial belt of the Midwest, where Trumps message has struck a chord with voters angry at what they see as Washingtons failures to address their concerns.

English version by Nick Lyne.
The Movember Foundation, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and Prostate Cancer Canada today announced $3 million in funding for a new Phase III clinical trial to evaluate if magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can replace the current standard of care to diagnose prostate cancer. The primary objective of the multi-centre trial, called PRECISE, is to determine whether MRI imaging can spare some men from undergoing a biopsy and avoid the possible associated side effects.

The trial will be led by Dr. Laurence Klotz of the Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto, a world leader in the field of prostate cancer research and in the global adoption of active surveillance, a standard practice to monitor patients with low risk prostate cancer.

MRI technology is a precise tool that could better identify which patients should undergo biopsy, and enable targeted biopsy of only areas suspected of malignancy. The PRECISE trial, which is estimated to be completed in three years, will investigate the ability of MRI to improve the diagnosis of clinically important disease and reduce the requirement for prostate biopsies. Currently, prostate cancer is diagnosed by trans-rectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsy of the prostate, in most cases following a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test. TRUS-guided biopsy is associated with potential side effects such as infection and bleeding because it is not targeted, requiring numerous biopsy samples (between 10 and 12) to establish an accurate reading. In addition, this current standard of care is not sensitive enough to be able to discriminate between high-risk and very low-risk changes in prostate tissue, resulting in the over-diagnosis and over-treatment of many men, exacerbating the risk for side effects.

"If positive, this trial would support a change in practice from relying on biopsies for all men with suspected prostate cancer to providing MRI first with selective targeted biopsy," explained Klotz. "This would allow 250,000 men per year in the U.S. and Canada to avoid unnecessary biopsies and the associated complications including hospitalization, without compromising our ability to identify clinically significant cancers."

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"One of the strategic priorities of OICR is to improve the management of patients with early prostate cancer, to avoid over-diagnosis while ensuring men with prostate cancer get the treatment they need," said Dr. Lincoln Stein, Interim Scientific Director of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. "Using MRI technology to image the prostate before biopsy will help reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies and their associated complications, while ensuring maximum precision for guiding the biopsy when and where it is really needed. Along with our partners at Movember and Prostate Cancer Canada, we are proud to support this trial and look forward to seeing the results in the clinic."

"The Movember Foundation continually looks to stay true to one of our core values in constructive disruption -- being prepared to take risks and use novel approaches to solving problems. We recognize this investment is in line with not only that, it also seeks to achieve the core pillars of our investment strategy in leading to the avoidance of unnecessary treatment and to lead to minimally invasive tests," said Movember Canada's Jon Tower Akerman, adding, "We're proud to see that our partners agree, innovation matters."

Data management and analysis for the trial will be conducted by the Ontario Clinical Oncology Group (OCOG) in the Escarpment Cancer Research Institute, a Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster University institute. "We are excited about collaborating with Dr. Klotz on the evaluation of this innovative technology which could potentially impact the lives of thousands of Canadian men," said Dr. Mark Levine, Director of OCOG.

"Approximately 20 years after PCC helped fund Dr. Klotz' watchful observation study, hundreds and hundreds of men with low-risk prostate cancer have had an option to avoid unnecessary treatment," said Dr. Stuart Edmonds, PCC's vice-president of Research and Health Promotion. "We're proud to join Movember and OICR to support Dr. Klotz' work aimed at ensuring men will also have an option to greatly reduce the risks associated with biopsies."
Since September 11, 2001, an estimated 60,000 U.S. military service members have been injured in combat during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Nearly 45,000 (75 percent) of all combat injuries are caused by improvised explosive devices, also known as IEDs. Approximately two out of five service members with combat injuries (40 percent) have suffered fractures, traumatic amputations, and injuries to the spine.

Many of these injuries have some of the longest, highest rates of long-term disability and inpatient care resources by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) hospitals and their civilian orthopaedic surgeon staff. Approximately 64 percent of those with combat-related bone and joint injuries also become permanently disabled.

However, according to retired Army Colonel Philip J. Belmont, MD, lead study author of a new literature review appearing in the June 2016 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS), deployed military service members who were engaged in sustained combat operations over a 15-month period were three times more likely to suffer non-combat musculoskeletal injuries than combat musculoskeletal injuries. In fact, even though 75 percent of musculoskeletal injuries are non-combat related, Dr. Belmont, an orthopaedic surgeon, says "80.5 percent of military air medical transports were for disease and non-combat injuries."

"Some common non-combat bone and joint injuries that military service members report when they return from their deployment include anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries of the knee and shoulder dislocations. Those injuries occur nearly five times more often among military service members than they do in the civilian population. Also common are ankle sprains and plantar fasciitis," says Dr. Belmont, the latter a condition causing prolonged pain and discomfort along the bottom of the foot and heel.

Previous researchers found that among service members who completed their deployments:

19 percent required an orthopaedic consultation;

Four percent underwent orthopaedic surgery; and,

50 percent of those surgical procedures were on the knee or shoulder upon return to station.

Daily, physical hardships endured during deployment can be taxing on military service members, but remaining in peak physical condition and staying alert to their environment can help minimize their likelihood of non-combat injuries.

While military tactical gear technology, like body armor and Kevlar helmets, continues to improve and reduce the overall number of life-threatening wounds, "soldiers who in previous conflicts would have succumbed to injuries on the battlefield are now surviving, yet they still have devastating orthopaedic injuries that require extensive treatment," says Dr. Belmont.
The therapeutic use of human cell and tissue products is highly regulated by the U.S. government, but a specific exception allows surgeons to harvest, manipulate, and implant tissues in many commonly performed procedures. While the operating room is often the stage where innovations in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are realized, as surgeons use grafted tissues, novel biomaterials, and new approaches to perform breast, chest and abdominal wall, and pelvic floor reconstruction, new FDA draft guidelines would place even tighter restrictions on surgical practice and may limit the development of new therapies. This topic is examined in an Editorial in Tissue Engineering, Part A, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free for download on the Tissue Engineering website until July 1, 2016.

In the Editorial "Surgical Therapies and Tissue Regeneration: At the Intersection Between Innovation and Regulation," the Clinical Council of the Editorial Board of Tissue Engineering discuss the United States Code of Federal Regulations as it relates to the use of human cells and tissues and the products derived from them (HCT/Ps). The authors describe the draft FDA regulatory guidance documents and how they would impact companies developing products for regenerative medicine and surgeons performing procedures on patients, including some unintended consequences on the practice of common reconstructive surgical procedures. Specifically they focus on the criteria that distinguish minimally manipulated HCT/Ps that are removed from and returned to the same patient in the operating room, as well as issues surrounding homologous use.

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The authors of the Editorial include J. Peter Rubin, MD, University of Pittsburgh (PA), Geoffrey Gurtner, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine (CA), Wei Liu, MD, PhD, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine (China), Keith March, MD, PhD, Indiana University School of Medicine (Indianapolis), Riitta Seppanen-Kaijansinkko, MD, DDS, PhD, University of Helsinki (Finland), Michael Yaszemski, MD, PhD, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester, MN), James Yoo, MD, PhD, Wake Forest University School of Medicine (Winston-Salem, NC).

"This important editorial raises critical questions regarding the latitude with which surgeons are able to care for patients in innovative ways," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Peter C. Johnson, MD, Prinicipal, MedSurgPI, LLC and President and CEO, Scintellix, LLC, Raleigh, NC. "Tissue Engineering Clinical Council is taking part in discussions with the FDA to further clarify this emerging regulatory stance."

Source: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
Language is a key obstacle to meeting guidelines for educating parents of newborns about "shaken baby syndrome"also called abusive head trauma (SBS/AHT), reports a study in the Journal of Trauma Nursing, official publication of the Society of Trauma Nurses. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

"Resources such as SBS/AHT brochures in different languages, and translators to facilitate SBS/AHT education for non-English-speaking parents/guardians need to be available for nurses," writes Leslie Rideout, PhD, FNP, of Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, Kiwanis Pediatric Trauma Institute, Boston. The new research also highlights the importance of supportive leadership in facilitating effective education about this critical child health issue.

Teaching Parents about SBS/AHTLanguage Is a Barrier, Supportive Leadership Helps

Shaken baby syndrome is the leading cause of non-accidental death from children under two years old. It occurs in up to 1,600 children in the United States every year, and can lead to permanent disability and death. "Inconsolable crying" is the most common factor triggering SBS/AHT.

In 2006, Massachusetts passed legislation aimed at preventing SBS/AHTincluding a mandate to provide education about SBS/AHT. Dr. Rideout surveyed nurses at Massachusetts birthing hospitals and birthing centers about barriers to and facilitators of efforts to educate new parents about SBS/AHT.

On analysis of responses from nearly 200 nurses, language was a key barrier to providing education about SBS/AHT. A lack of informational brochures in different languages and the unavailability of translators contributed to the difficulties of communicating with non-English-speaking parents/caregivers.

Nurses whose hospitals provided brochures in different languages were three times more likely to say they "always" carried out the SBS/AHT educational guidelines. Nurses who were able to provide SBS/AHT education for non-English-speaking parents were five times more likely to consistently provide verbal education about strategies for soothing a crying infant.

An atmosphere of "supportive leadership" at the hospital was identified as the major facilitator of implementing the SBS/AHT educational guidelines. Nurses at hospitals with supportive leadership were eight times more likely to say they "always" documented SBS/AHT education in the medical records.

Education is critical to preventing infant injuries and deaths due to SBS/AHT. Parents and caregivers need to learn how to handle the inconsolable crying that sometimes occurs in infants, as well as their own frustration and stress. (The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome offers information online at www.dontshake.org/learn-more)

While the new study has limitations including a low survey response rate, the findings help to identify key factors that help and hinder recommended education on preventing SBS/AHT for parents/caregivers of newborns. Dr. Rideout highlights the need for hospital leadership to support nurses in meeting the need for educationwith special attention to providing educational materials and overcoming language barriers. She concludes, "It is important that funding for this public policy be supported so that needed resources and education are available to nurses to ensure that the SBS/AHT guidelines are implemented."
insights from industry Stephen turner Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Protea

Why is it sometimes difficult to render a definitive diagnosis of either benign nevus (mole) or malignant melanoma (skin cancer)?

Today, using anatomic pathology, the differences in appearance of a normal or a malignant lesion can be difficult to tell when just using light microscopy.

About 25% of the biopsies that are taken, which is approximately two million per year in the United States, come back as indeterminable and need to be sent out to experts for further study. These biopsies may display characteristics of both benign and malignant lesions. It's for those indeterminates that we are seeing our testing being of particular use.

How does proteomic mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) work and why could it be helpful in the differential diagnosis of malignant melanoma?

For many years, mass spectrometry has been the gold standard for identifying proteins in cells or biofluids. The breakthrough of mass spec imaging means that you can actually display these individual proteins as images in the context of the tissue section. This unites the fields of mass spectrometry and anatomic pathology.

Mass spec image of a peptide at mass 1198.7. The peptide is more highly expressed in malignant lesions (red, pink, white) than in benign lesions (blue, green).

Instead of a pathologist just being dependent upon the physical appearance of the cells, they now have the additional advantage of molecular information provided by mass spec imaging, which they can use to augment the traditional examination of the cell sample.

Specifically the way we used this to develop a test was to use what's called a machine learning algorithm where the data generated is used to detect and distinguish certain molecular fingerprints between benign and cancerous tissue.

Average spectra from benign (green) and malignant (red) lesions. The peptide at mass 1198.7 is about 3 times more abundant in malignant lesions than benign.

The traditional biomarker approach of finding a protein that's specific to cancer is challenging at best because of the diversity of protein expression in cancer cells, but by generating the data in this way and letting the machine tell us what's specific to the cancer cell, we have been able to produce a publication that indicated very high levels of sensitivity and specificity.

Box and whisker plots of the intensity distributions of the peptide at mass 1198.7 in benign and malignant lesions. The boxes do not overlap indicating a significant difference.

We're looking at all the subtypes of melanocytic skin lesions. There are many subtypes of skin disorders between malignant melanoma and benign pigmented nevi. In time, we'll have a database of protein expression for each type that can provide highly specific input to the pathologist.

At what stage of development is the test currently at?

We have published a proof of concept clinical study of about 85 samples, divided into a training and validation set. That was published at the American Society of Dermatopathology annual meeting last fall, in San Francisco. We are now accruing samples and conducting a follow-on, larger validation study, to look at additional subtypes of skin lesions, to do a broader study.

How sensitive and specific has the new method been shown to be?

The training set was 100% sensitive and 99% specific in its ability to differentiate melanoma from benign nevi.

What further research is needed before this test can be used in a clinical setting? What feedback have you received so far?

We've received very positive feedback from the field because melanomas can be difficult to call. A significant portion of biopsies are very challenging and, of course, a cancer cell is a cancer cell because of the things that happen at the molecular level. It makes sense that direct molecular information is going to make diagnosis more specific.

We will need to organize and put in place a CLIA diagnostic laboratory and conduct additional validation studies, at which point we can offer the tests. The beauty of the technology is that there's very little sample preparation. It's a mostly automated procedure, so that lends itself to scaling-up.

What impact do you think the test will have on detecting malignant melanoma?

I think it will be adopted. Assuming our clinical validation studies are positive and consistent with early results, then it will be a useful adjunct to the anatomic pathology that's currently in place, providing molecular information that's in the context of the tissue architecture.

It's very compelling to provide additional molecular data , as opposed to trying to change the way it's currently done. It's a good model and therefore I think it'll have a strong impact, particularly on the indeterminate biopsies.

Could this technology lead to the discovery of other clinically useful protein biomarker panels for the differential diagnosis of other cancer types?

The answer is yes. We are working on a parallel path with stage one lung adenocarcinoma. We are working with researchers at Memorial Sloane Kettering and we have plans to develop other projects.

We see the niche for the technology as being the difficult and ambiguous diagnoses where you're dealing with early stage cancer which may or may not become a malignant disease or a benign or hyperplastic condition. Those are the difficult calls that pathologists have and I think that's where we can add value with this technology.

What do you think the future holds for mass spectrometry imaging and how do Protea plan to develop the technology?

Well Protea's unique in offering mass spec imaging services. The potential for this is just breathtaking because mass spectrometry is precise analytical chemistry. It's the gold standard for identifying molecules, but the data sets from mass spec often require analytical chemists and a lot of sample preparation so, in a way, there's a detachment from the molecular data provided and how biologists would really like to see it.

Mass spec imaging ties mass spectrometry together with the world of biology, providing datasets which can be displayed in the context of the cell or tissue architecture..

It integrates anatomic pathology and analytical chemistry in a very useful and meaningful way. I think it will impact and integrate into many areas of anatomic pathology and microscopy in general.

Where can readers find more information?

https://proteabio.com/imaging

About Stephen Turner

Stephen Turner is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, positions he has held since founding the company in July, 2001. From 1999 to 2001 he served as President and CEO of Quorum Sciences, Inc. From 1984 to 1997 he was President and CEO of Oncor, Inc.

He founded Bethesda Research Laboratories, Inc. in 1975 and served as its Chairman and CEO from 1975 to 1983, at which time BRL became the molecular biology division of Life Technologies, Inc.

Prior to commencing his career in biotechnology, Mr. Turner held the position of Director of Marketing for the Clinical Microbiology Division of Becton, Dickinson & Co. He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1967. In 1994 he received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Life Sciences for the Washington D.C. Region.
A Lamborghini Huracan is an eye-catcher in itself, but one in golden takes things to a whole new level, so much, that it Lamborghini fans would want the owner to be as special as the colour scheme. Theres a golden Huracan in Kolkata and its owner is the first woman to ever have a golden Lamborghini in India.Sheetal Dugar is a 40-year-old housewife and is a mother of three and is married to Industrialist Vinod Dugar. Shes also the only woman who drives during the Club GTs, the supercar race-offs held every Sunday morning at NH2.Dugar has made a name for herself among the supercar owners in Kolkata thanks to the victories achieved during these races.The Rs 3.32 crore car can go from a standstill to 100 km/h in a matter of 3.2 seconds and is capable of achieving a top speed of 325 km/h. The golden Huracan shade is called Oro Elios by the Itanlian automaker.
Rap artist Sofia Ashraf of ' My Kodaikanal Won't ' fame is back again with a flaming number. And this time shes rapping about one of the biggest man-made calamities to have struck our nation: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy.This time she uses the classic rap battle format to play out the events of the tragedy and what happened afterwards. The video is titled DOW Vs. Bhopal | A Toxic Rap Battle, and Ashraf personifies the victims and DOW as two different rappers battling it out. And she gets the desired effect. The rap battle breaks down the whole issue and pin-points every time the US Department of Justice has let this atrocity slide.Watch this feisty rap artist take down a chemical conglomerate to some sick beats and killer rhymes, right here:
The lone gunman involved in the University of California shootout incident that occurred on Wednesday has been identified as the 38-year-old engineer Mainak Sarkar who is originally from India.



Sarkar was an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and a former doctoral student of UCLA Professor William Klug, who was shot dead in the incident.



Sarkar had shot Klug inside the University premises before committing suicide with his 9 millimeter pistol.



Reportedly, Sarkar had also killed his ex-girlfriend Ashley Hasti in Minnesota a day before the UCLA shooting.



They had broken up and had stopped being friends on Facebook.



According to his LinkedIn page, Sarkar had earned a masters degree at Stanford University.



He also has a degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur from which he passed out in 2002.



After a brief stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas, Sarkar is also known to have worked as a software developer with a IT company in Bengaluru.



Reportedly, Sarkar was upset with his former professor Klug and had even accused him of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.



Sarkar had repeatedly targeted Klug through his social media posts where he had written "William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor."



"He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy," Sarkar had written on March 10.



The shootout that occurred on campus had led to complete shutdown.
The Bihar School Examination Control Board has ordered a probe into the class 12 exam results and the toppers after a video showed that they have no knowledge about the subject they had studied.



In the video, the state arts topper Ruby Rai was seen mispronouncing 'political science' and calling it prodigal science. The 17-year-old managed an impressive 88.8% despite the fact that she thinks political science is a subject which deals with food.



Similarly, another video showed state science topper Saurabh Shrestha having no knowledge of the periodic table. Shrestha, who had scored 485 out of 500 marks, failed to answer questions related to electron and proton.



The board has also stayed the results of class 12 science and arts toppers and decided to conduct their interviews. A special team will also re-evaluate their answer sheets.



An embarrassed Bihar government has also asked the 10 top scorers among the nearly 15 lakh students in Bihar to take another exam within the next week. Education Minister Ashok Choudhary conceded that it appears that either proxies took the exam for the students or the answer sheets submitted by the students were replaced later.



"I admit there has been some lapses somewhere," he said.







A few days ago, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had boasted about the fact that a crackdown on cheating had brought the pass percentage in this year's board exams down to 44. But the current embarrassment equals the 2015 photo when spiderman stunts of guardians trying to help their kids cheat went viral on the Internet.



This year, alarmed by the stunts, examinations were conducted with strict vigil. But the results reveal many undeserving students have not only passed but topped the exams. It was managed allegedly with the help of swapping of answer sheets after the examinations were over.



The Bharatiya Janata Party was quick to step in with their prognosis.



"The education system has collapsed in Bihar," Sushil Modi, BJP leader and former deputy chief minister, said.



It is clear that the rot in Bihar's education system runs deep and cases of Ruby and Saurabh are just the tip of the iceberg.
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Women's Commission has asked Nashik police to probe the alleged 'virginity test' episode in that district and submit a report.



Commission chief Vijaya Rahatkar said that she has asked the Nashik police commissioner to make an in-depth inquiry into the alleged incident and submit a report.



The women's panel intervened following reports that a husband decided to divorce his wife after she failed the 'virginity test'.



In May, the girl, who hails from Ahmednagar district and is preparing to join police force, married a 25-year-old man from Nashik.



This was his second marriage. Both belong to the 'Kanajarbhat' community which has two sects ---Dera Sachha and Khandpith. The community has its own 'constitution' which is followed rigorously.



Placing a high value on virginity in women, members of the caste panchayat wait outside after the wedding, while the couple has intercourse on a plain white cloth. This is supposedly a 'test' to prove that the woman is a virgin.



The husband said that the woman had not bled after intercourse and rejected her as his wife. The marriage was summarily invalidated, despite the girl's pleas that she was, in fact, a virgin and that her lack of bleeding could be due to the vigorous exercise she went through in preparation for the police force.



The next day, she and her mother tried to file a police complaint. But her father intervened, locked them in the house and took away the girl's mobile phone.



Krishna Chandgude, activist of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, said he went to the house and spoke to the girl and her parents and tried to convince her father to file a police complaint, but the latter was afraid of the caste panchayat.



Avinash Patil, working president of the Samiti said Maharashtra was the first state to pass a law against social boycott and illogical justice meted out by such panchayats - the Maharashtra Protection of People from Social Boycott (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2016, which is awaiting the President's nod.



If it is implemented, such rituals will be prohibited, he said.



Shiv Sena leader and MLC Neelam Gorhe termed the episode as "mental and physical cruelty" against the woman. "Action can be taken against this even under current laws. We need more awareness to ensure such cases do not occur," she said.



Meanwhile, the husband has claimed that the 'virginity test' was conducted at the behest of the girl's family members.



Rahatkar, however, rubbished his claim saying parents of which girl will put their daughter to such an ordeal.



"The girl has said that if her husband comes to take her back, she is ready to live with him," Rahatkar added.
Those who took loans to build houses and purchased property are now stuck paying instalments and also rent of the place where they are staying[name]Jaspal Singh [/name]

Half-constructed high rises, rusting signboards and ripped hoardings denote the tattered dreams of Pearls City in Mohali. Spread over two sectors in Mohali, 800 plots have been sold till date in the housing scheme.The booking for the flats in the Pearls City began in 2008. The company had promised that the flats would to be ready by 2012. But with group CMD Nirmal Bhangoo and four top officials behind bars for allegedly running a Rs 45,000 crore ponzi scheme, the company accounts are frozen and the work is at a standstill.Pearls City RWA Secretary Jaspal Singh says 95% people have paid and are not getting possession of their properties.Lured by the promise of a 'Manhattan-like city' close to Chandigarh, 800 buyers were allotted plots. But even mandatory infrastructure like a sewage treatment plant is missing. The home buyers claim they paid more for facilities like a clubhouse, which hasn't materialised.They allege company officials are complicit in selling off construction material, secure in the knowledge that the project will never be complete."Security is a major concern for us . In addition there are water problems. Pearls officials have all run away from duty. Who should we complain to? If there is a motor pump issue who will replace it? No one person can buy a motor. There are no employees here, they have either been terminated or have run away. They should fulfil their commitment. We will protest against this," buyer Iqbal Randhawa says.With the entire project abandoned by the developers, the Greater Mohali administration says its hands are tied until it gets permission from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The skeletal office staff did not comment on the developments.
: There is no evidence so far to indicate direct complicity of government of Pakistan or Pakistani agencies in the Pathankot attack said Director General of National Investigation Agency (NIA) Sharad Kumar. "No evidence to show that Pakistan government or Pakistani government agency was helping Jaish  e Mohammed or Masood Azhar or his aides carried out the Pathankot attack." Sharad kumar said NIA has completed its India leg of investigation and is waiting for Pakistan to allow the NIA team to visit Pakistan to complete the investigations.Sharad Kumar said, "we are hopeful," when asked if Pakistan will allow NIA visit on the basis of reciprocity. He also clarified that charge sheet in this case will be filed even if Pakistan did not give NIA access. "We have sufficient and stringent evidence against Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf Azhar and we will include those in our charge sheet," the DG added.: Coming to the Pathankot Investigations now. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has called Pakistans lack of response to request for NIA visit a betrayal. How much of a setback is to you? Will there be any chargesheet in this case if NIA does not investigate in Pakistan?: We are looking forward to visiting Pakistan but will have to wait for the green signal from the government. We have wrapped up our investigation on the Indian side and we hope to cement it by investigation in Pakistan. As far as chargesheet in this case goes, we will file a chargesheet even if Pakistan does not allow our team to visit. We have sufficient and stringent evidence against Maulana Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf Azhar and we will include those in our charge sheet.: Have you found any evidence that government of Pakistan or any Pakistani government agency was aiding the terrorists to enter India and attack Pathankot?: No. So far no evidence to show that Pakistan government or Pakistani government agency was helping Jaish or Masood Azhar or his aides carry out Pathankot attack: Any inside help to terrorists in Pathankot?: Investigation so far does not point to any inside hand: But were there lapses in securing the air base? If there was no inside help then this is a clear breach that in spite of the intelligence alert terrorists managed to enter so easily and hold country to ransom for close to 5 days.: That is for the government to see. We are an investigating agency. We are investigating the case as a crime. we will not recommend any action for lapses or security breach.: What is the conclusion your investigation has reached as far as Salwinder Singhs, the Punjab Police SP is concerned? Is he now a witness or still a suspect?: Don't want to comment on his role as accused or witness. At the time of filing chargesheet we shall reveal what his status is. But at this point don't want to give him a clean chit: There were allegations made about him being part of a narcotics racket.: We did not find any narcotics angle to Salwinder Singh. We searched his house. Sent sniffer dogs but did not find any evidence to support these claims.: And what about his version about why he was present at the carjacking spot on the fateful day?: We have verified and found that whatever he said is correct.: After your chargesheet on Malegaon 2008, several reports have doing the rounds that in Samjhauta blast case too you will change track and perhaps spell out the Lashkar-Arif Qasmani link. Any realistic chance of a supplementary charge sheet in that case?: No possibility of supplementary chargesheet. Trial is going on. There is no scope for further investigation. We are not investigating Arif Qasmani's role in this case. There is no evidence to suggest that he was responsible for the Samjhauta express blast in any way.: So you are convinced that Swami Aseemanad and other accused named in your charge sheet are responsible for the Samjhauta express blast?: We are convinced that people chargesheeted are the people guilty. Charge sheet was not filed under me but by officers who were in charge back then. They must have been convinced and NIA stands by that chargesheet: But there a lot of common links between 2008 Malegaon blast and cases like Samjhauta, Ajmer, Mecca Masjid. If you have recommended discharge for some accused in Malegaon, will it not impact your other cases?: No. Some accused are common but Malegaon 2008 is a separate case. It is wrong to say that all are part of one grand conspiracy. Like Swami Aseemanand is not part of Malegaon 2008 case. But yes some common accused like Ramji Kalsangre and Sandeep Dange are common. They wanted to take revenge for all the attacks against Hindus. They are wanted in both Samjhauta and Malegaon. Similarly Aseemanand is common to Samjhauta, Ajmer and Mecca cases. So there are some common accused in all cases but conspiracy is separate. Investigation is separate.: Just as some accused are common, some witnesses are also common in these cases. And many of them are turning hostile. How will it impact your cases?: If you create false witnesses it is bound to create problems. ATS in 2006 Malegaon chargesheet implicated Batterywala. He was sitting 450 km away. Court has also pronounced it judicially in the 2006 Malegaon blast. Some witnesses turning hostile will not impact the case. In some cases like Mecca Masjid no witness has turned hostile. 82 people have been examined so far in Samjhauta, Ajmer and Mecca trial which is on. In Malegaon 2008, trial has not begun so we cant say who will turn hostile there.: So you are confident of conviction in all these so called saffron terror cases?: We are hopeful: How do you respond to criticism that you deliberately set free Sadhvi Pragya thakur, ignored evidence against her and recommended discharge under political pressure.: Let the court decide. We are not saying anything; witnesses are saying they were tortured to implicate people. They said this when UPA was in power. Sudhakar Dwivedi was quoted by ATS in 2008 to say that he testified about a meeting where plan to make a bomb was executed. When he was produced before magistrate for authentication of statement he denied making any statement pertaining to making bombs.Two others went to court (first class magistrate Indore) in 2009 and said we have been tortured to give statement against Purohit. Dharmendra Bairagi key witness also said the same thing. Dr R Singh proved he was in Faridabad when he was shown to be in Bhopal by ATS. Nitin Joshi wrote to Maharashtra Human rights commission in 2009 that he was tortured to implicate Purohit, Sadhvi and others. All this happened when UPA was in power. Even before NIA took over the case. So how can we be accused of damaging the case now? Or acting under political pressure?When we accessed the court of enquiry report against Purohit we were lead to examination of Indian Army Subedar- Pawar and a Lt Colonel Praveen Khanzode who testified that they saw Maharashtra ATS Assistant Inspector Bagde coming out of Sudhakar Chaturvedi's house in suspicious circumstances. After some day traces of RDX was found at Sudhakar's house. This made the recovery doubtful: Congress party has alleged that you have been given an extension after retirement as DG NIA because you assured the current government of doing its bidding in all these cases. A Google search will tell you that no police officer since 1947 has been given an extension as a director general post retirement.: I dont know so much history, but don't want to comment on these baseless allegations. We are working very professionally. Neither this nor previous government interfered in my work. I was appointed before the NDA government came to power based on my professional aptitude. All allegations being made now are baseless. Performance of NIA as an organization is exemplary. 92% conviction rate speaks for the organization.: How serious is the ISIS threat to India?: Not very serious but matter of concern. We have investigated 5 cases of ISIS. We will file charge sheets in these cases in a few weeks. Most of the accused seem to be misguided youths who have been radicalized by radical elements on the internet. Shafi Armar is one of the important man behind this online campaign to radicalize Indian youths. We believe he is in Syria but can't deport or extradite him because very little is known about him at this moment.
Mathura: Almost two hours after SHO Santosh Kumar was declared dead, Mathura City SP Mukul Dwivedi also succumbed to his injuries taking the death toll in Mathura violence to two.



At least 10 other cops were injured in clashes with protesters during an anti-encroachment drive at the Jawahar Bagh area of Mathura on Thursday.



Around 3000 activists had assembled to protest the anti-encroachment drive but the administration had received police orders to clear the protesters associated to one organisation Swadhin Bharat Andolan.



Things however turned ugly after gun shots were fired on cops by some unidentified men. Police resorted to force leading to major clashes.



The activists had reportedly occupied the land on the pretext of 'dharna' for over two years.



Meanwhile, UP CM Akhilesh Yadav has announced an ex-gratia of 20 lakh rupees for the family of the deceased SHO Santosh Kumar who was killed in the violence.



The situation in the area is said to be tense and ADG (Law & Order) has rushed to the spot.


More than 14 years after the Gulbarg Housing Society massacre took place during the 2002 Gujarat riots, the case is likely to see a verdict. A special court will pronounce on June 2 its order in the case in which former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and 68 others were killed in the post-Godhra riots.



Here is a timeline of the case so far:



June 2, 2016: 24 convicted, 36 acquitted in Gulbarg Society massacre case



February 22, 2016: SC lifts stay on final verdict after trial was concluded as per earlier order



September 22, 2015: Court concludes trial in the massacre after prosecution examined 338 witnesses and lengthy final arguments end



August 4, 2015: Hearing on Zakia Jafri's petition begins in Gujarat High Court



March 18, 2014: Zakia moves Gujarat High Court challenging lower court order giving a clean chit to Modi and others.



December 27, 2013: Zakia loses plea in city court against SIT closure report which gave a clean chit to Modi in the 2002 communal riots.



December 2, 2013: Order on Zakia Jafri's petition deferred to December 26.



October 28, 2013: Ahmedabad court defers order on Zakia Jafri's plea.



September 30, 2013: The magistrate says he would pronounce the order on October 28.



April 15, 2013: Zakia files petition against SIT clean chit to Modi.



February 7, 2013: Supreme Court allows Zakia Jafri to file a petition against SIT closure report on Narendra Modi.



December 10, 2012: SC refers Zakia Jafri's plea to larger bench.



May 10, 2012: Zakia Jafri accuses SIT of giving her incomplete copy of the Gujarat riots case report.



May 07, 2012: Zakia Jafri gets copy of Gujarat riots case report.



April 10, 2012: SIT report gives Modi a clean chit in the Gulbarg Society massacre. Zakia files protest petition against clean chit given to Modi by the SIT.



February 2012: The SIT probing the post-Godhra 2002 riots in Gujarat files its final report before a local court



July 25, 2011: Amicus Curiae submits his report to Supreme Court in a sealed envelope. SC decides to keep his status report confidential.



June 18, 2011: Raju Ramachandran visits Gujarat, meets police officers and others.



May 5, 2011: SC asks the new Amicus Curiae Raju Ramachandran to assess the SIT report and look into its lapses.



February 2011: SIT submits its report.



March 27-28, 2010: SIT questions Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in Zakia Jafri case.



March 11, 2010: Modi is issued a notice by the SIT to appear before it on March 21, to respond to allegations made against him.



July 30, 2009: The Gujarat government apeals to the SC saying that SIT is exceeding jurisdiction in examining Modi's role in the riots case.



April 27, 2009: SC asks SIT to additionally 'look into the complaint' of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia about the alleged role of Narendra Modi and others in her husband's killing inside Gulbarg Housing Society in Ahmedabad.



March 26, 2008: Supreme Court constitutes a five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by former CBI chief RK Raghavan to probe nine riot cases.



November 21, 2003: Supreme Court stays judicial proceeding in nine cases after witnesses complained that Gujarat police was shielding the accused



February 28,2002: A mob of over thousands attacked Gulbarg Society. 39 died bodies were found and 31 people were declared missing. An FIR was filed against 11 persons




Safikul Islam, a research scholar at Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan has been sentenced to life for raping a class XII Bangladeshi student of the same insitution in 2014.



The district and sessions judge of Birbhum convicted him and ordered the state government to provide a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the victim.



He was the local guardian of the girl and had sexually exploited her at his house. He had also recorded videos of the girl and threatened that he would make them public if she complained about the incident.



When her friends found that the video had been circulated, she filed a complaint at the Shantiniketan Police station.
Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Twitter/ Rishi Kapoor

Image: Instagram/ Bollywood Direct

Image: Youtube/ A still from a video posted by BBCAsianNetwork

Image: Twitter/ Tabassum

Raj Kapoor, a legend who not only changed the face of Indian cinema but also managed to take it to heights nobody could have ever thought of, needs no introduction. Known as the 'Showman of Hindi Cinema', the actor has starred in various films including 'Shree 420', 'Awara', 'Boot Polish' and 'Sangam'. He can easily be regarded as one of the most influential actors and filmmakers of Indian cinema.Bollywood wouldn't have been the same had it not been for a pillar as strong and as enthusiastic as him. Having bestowed with various laurels, the name itself is suffice to delineate his impact. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1971 and with Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1987. As long as cinema exists, the legend of Raj Kapoor will continue to inspire the generations to come.At the age of 63, Raj Kapoor passed away on June 2, 1988 leaving behind a wealth of knowledge and an unending love for cinema. His son Rishi Kapoor, who is very active on social media, paid a tribute to his father and changed his twitter handle to 'rahega sada' which marks the lyrics of a very famous song 'Jeena Yaha Marna Yaha' from his iconic film 'Mera Naam Joker'. Time and again, Rishi Kapoor has shared personal moments from the lives of Kapoor family for the fans all around.As the world remembers the legend on his 28th death anniversary, we bring you some rare hidden gems that are sure to make you nostalgic. While some pictures show the wonderful family man that he was, still others give a glimpse of endearing personality that made the hearts of million girls skip a beat. From Prithviraj Kapoor to his grand son Ranbir Kapoor, here's a bunch of photographs that you just can't miss.
Bhopal: Counting is underway for by-election in Ghoradongri assembly constituency in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh.



The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are locked in a straight fight in the seat. While BJP has fielded Mangal Singh Dhurve, Congress is banking on former minister Pratap Singh Uikey. A total of seven candidates are in the fray.



The by-election was necessitated following the demise of sitting BJP MLA, Sajjan Singh Uikey.



Over 71.48 per cent voter turnout was registered on May 30. The constituency has 2,19,404 voters including 1,12,313 men, 1,07,083 women and eight third genders. Counting of votes will take place on June 2.



Villagers of Jamitha had initially boycotted the bypoll on the issue of development, especially alleged non-construction of road, but later took part in the election.
Hyderabad: Grand celebrations are underway in Telangana to mark the states's second foundation day. The K Chandrasekhar Rao government has sanctioned Rs 15 crore for the Grand Foundation Day celebrations which falls on June 2



Starting the celebratiobns, Chief Minister Rao and Telangana Rashtra Samiti leaders paid tribute to the martyrs of the Telangana movement. The Chief Minister also unfurled the largest national flag at Sanjeeviah Park on the banks of Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad, followed by a march past of security forces and cultural programmes at the parade ground.



The state government has also allocated Rs 30 lakh to each district to mark the second foundation day.



The celebrations come at a time when the state is witnessing one of the toughest summers with soaring temperatures and a drought that has seen around 100 deaths.



Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014 following the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.



Many government buildings, including Legislature and Secretariat, and public spaces have been illuminated on the occasion. A number of cultural programmes have also been lined up by different government agencies.







The state government announced awards for a number of persons from different fields in recognition of their meritorious service.



The state government is also set to announce the creation of around 13 new districts as well as 40 new mandals.



The state government has also lined up a series of events in New Delhi to mark two years of the state's formation.



Deputy Chief Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali will grace the cultural programmes organised in New Delhi, state government representatives said. There will be folk, kathak and kuchipudi dance events, yoga pyramids and quiz and essay competitions, they informed.



"On this occasion, we want to celebrate with few cultural activities and (also exhibit) Telangana food culture," S Venugopalachary, special representative of the state government, said.



Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party leaders in Andhra Pradesh will protest against the celebrations, to oppose the bifurcation of the state. TDP will observe the day as Reconstruction Day. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will also address a rally in Vijayawada.



(With additional information from PTI)
Helicopters have a symbiotic relation with elections. Lalu Prasad calls them Udan Khatola, for others they are chidiya (bird).Politicians in the Hindi heartland often hover in the sky around a rally venue, landing only after they have assessed the crowd. The landing and taking off is accompanied by a whirlwind which curious onlookers call aandhi (storm).Uttar Pradesh has had several such aandhis both metaphorically and literally. In the 2012 elections, Akhilesh Yadav rode to power on a Samajwadi Party wave.In 2014 Lok Sabha elections it was the Modi tsunami powering BJP win in 71 of the 80 seats.So, whose wave will it be as UP gears up to yet another season of dust and storm?If Uttar Pradesh in 2014 was about Narendra Modi and his imminent arrival with Modiji aane wale hain songs playing at BJP rallies, Saharanpur 2016 was about desh badal raha hai, aage badh raha hai, part II of India Shining campaign.Saharanpurs neighboring district Muzaffarnagar witnesses communal flare ups regularly. The district was strategically chosen by the Bjp to send a message of their development agenda being above caste and religion.On May 26, even as the temperature rose, the Prime Minister, a self-proclaimed UPwala, landed in Saharanpur to give an account of his two year work.Iti Jain, 24 and a BA BEd, was at the rally ground. When asked what Modi can do for her, she replied, Many things have changed. Lets see what he can do for women?There was another group of women nearby. One of them had come to listen to the Prime Minister. When questioned about what had changed in two years of Modi government, she countered, Change doesnt happen overnight.Riots take place under Samajwadi party government. Women and children are the most vulnerable, replied Radhika when asked what the Akhilesh Yadav government means to women.Jagpal Singh, a farmer, voted for Samajwadi Party in 2014 but says that benefits of crop insurance or soil testing card are yet to materialise. Vinod Kumar, who showed a booklet distributed by the BJP, said that he is one of the 3 crore beneficiaries of LPG subsidy. But he also added that nothing had happened despite having a bank account.Sitting close by, Jaipal Singh said he was waiting for the PM to ensure zero corruption. When probed further if Modi was all about promises without delivery, he retorted: Indira Gandhi ruled for 25 years, Manmohan Singh was the PM for 10 years. Modi has been in power for only two years. Give him time (sic).Critics may dismiss them as BJP supporters.However, having witnessed large enthusiastic gatherings at PMs rallies in Bihar, where it was a crowd without a thought, Saharanpur was different. Those in Saharanpur had come to listen to the PM, waiting for him to deliver and are not really disillusioned.The Prime Minister arrived, presented his governments report card, delivered a speech and left with the governments new anthem of desh badal raha hai.There was no mention of Mission 265+ as the new UP Bjp chief Keshav Maurya and other leaders at the venue were vehemently talking about.But clearly all eyes are now on Amit Shah and his UP strategy as the poll would invariably be converted into a referendum on Modi and Shah.Shah says BJPs principal opponent in UP is Samajwadi Party. Its not coincidental that the BJP chose to kickstart its mission UP 2017 with Saharanpur, a BSP bastion. BSP won four of the seven assembly seats in the district in 2012.Mayawati herself won from Harora twice. The BJP knows that if it is to win UP, the Hindu consolidation that it managed during the 2014 elections must be replicated in 2017.The real challenge for Mayawati would be if she could hold on to her Dalit vote which deserted her in 2014 as they aligned with their larger Hindu identity above their caste identity.Have the Dalits of UP moved away, to rephrase Michael Walzer's "hyphenated Americans" to "hyphenated Hindus"? Or was 2014 an aberration?From tilak, taraju aur talvar, inko maro joote chaar to Brahmin shankh bajayega to haathi dilli jayega, the BSP has constantly reinvented itself, consummating shift in its politics.What will be Mayawati's new slogan as she battles Samajwadi Party and a resurgent BJP?When Nitish forced Lalu and Mulayam Singh to announce him as the Mahagathbandhan face in Bihar, his parting words to the reluctant duo was -- if BJP wins Bihar, then winning UP will not be tough.The young Yadav of UP, Akhilesh, maybe speaking a language of youth and development but his dismal track record on the law and order front will force UPwalas to compare his tenure to that of his predecessor Mayawati.The good news for Akhilesh though is that the black laptop bag is being spotted almost everywhere in UP just as girls on cycles are a symbol of Nitish rule. He may have sent a signal that as far as UPs reins are concerned he has struck a balance with his uncles. But the real challenge for Akhilesh is to win over 17% Muslims of UP.This crucial constituency is getting disillusioned with the Samajwadi Party. The questions before the Muslims are what are they representatives of and who is their representative?He was the first one to talk about an electoral wave, though in the context of the Modi wave in 2014.Prashant Kishor claimed during a meeting of office bearers in Lucknow that he created a Modi wave in just six months.The Congress may still be mulling on its strategists proposal of a Brahmin face but Team PK has already hit the ground holding regular meetings with Congress supporters. With just six Congress ruled state and the top leadership talking about surgery, it remains to be seen what aces does the strategist have up his sleeves.In the coming months, it will be a collision of different ideas in UP. Will that generate a storm and who will ride the giant wave?The landing and take offs of choppers in UP have only begun.
Rancho Palos Verdes: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (BAY'-zohs) says when it comes to technology, "We're on the edge of the golden era."



Bezos offered a glimpse of his vision of the future during an interview Tuesday at the Code Conference in Southern California.



Of artificial intelligence, Bezos says, "It's probably hard to overstate how big of an impact it's going to have on society over the next 20 years." Bezos says Amazon has 1,000 people working on its Alexa platform, which powers the company's popular voice-controlled Echo device.



Bezos also owns The Washington Post and touched on other matters during his talk.



He says he doesn't believe Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel should be allowed to back lawsuits against Gawker Media. He says public figures like Thiel need to "develop a thick skin."


Mumbai: The Supreme Court has confirmed the bail of Rahul Raj Singh, accused of abetting the suicide of 'Balika Vadhu' star and his girlfriend Pratyusha Banerjee and he is ready to put up a brave fight to prove his innocence.

Excerpts from an interview:

The Supreme Court has refused to cancel your bail. This is a big reprieve for you?

I knew I was innocent. I wanted the truth to come out on its own. People who hardly knew the truth about my relationship with Pratyusha, lashed out at me. I kept quiet. If I had retaliated, it would have seemed like a feeble attempt to defend myself.

Why were her friends so keen to attack you?

They couldnt bear the fact that I had made a place for myself in Mumbai.

Who are these friends?

Kamya Punjabi claims to be Pratyushas friend. And if Pratyushas call log for the entire year was checked, there might be just one or two calls.

What about those girls who went on record accusing you of defrauding them?

I dont know who they are. Where were they for five years since thats when Im supposed to have wronged them?

What about Saloni Sharma?

She is my partner in an events management company. Shed meet me for business reasons. Stories about her and me are untrue. More people know me now than they did before. Ill be linked with any girl I am seen with.

Are you single right now?

Of course! I dont know what will happen in the future. I was on anti-depressants until recently.

Looking back at the whole experience, how do you feel?

A: Suicide is a very cowardly thing to do. Ive gone through hell. I wasnt given a chance to grieve for Pratyusha. I had to deal with all the rubbish that was heaped on me, plus a 9-year-old son who never existed.

Where did this son come from?

I want to ask Kamya that. I am sure she pays my sons school fees. I have no clue about the son.

Why was Pratyusha depressed?

It was her financial mess that landed her in a depression. At a very young age, she earned Rs.5 crore to Rs.6 crore. Since she didnt know how to handle her finances, she handed over her earnings to her parents. When she asked back for her hard-earned money, they said there was nothing.

Her parents spent all her money?

She had a loan of lakhs and lakhs to pay. Her EMIs had not been paid for months. All the loans that she had taken were in Pratyushas name, not in her parents name. Because her parents didnt earn anything. They own a five-bedroom home in Jamshedpur. Pratyusha didnt even own a shack. She didnt have one piece of jewellery.

What did her parents do with their daughters money?

She got Rs.30 lakh to Rs.35 lakh in 'Bigg Boss' and yet she couldnt pay back the loan. Nor were her EMI instalments paid back. Her car was purchased on loan. She had personal loans amounting to Rs.20 lakh to Rs.25 lakh.

Are those loans going to be written off now?

According to the law, the parents have to repay the loans. And when they can afford to take me to the Supreme Court, I am sure her parents have the money to repay loans.

What are your future plans?

I want to work hard. In spite of what has happened I love Mumbai. After Pratyushas death, I havent visited my hometown Ranchi even once. I dont want people to say Ive run away. The police has sealed my house for the last two months. I am staying in a hotel with my father.

Why did the police seal your home?

No reason was given. Contrary to belief that isnt Pratyushas house. Its mine.

Has this experience put you off relationships?

At least for now.

What do you say to those who blame you for Pratyushas suicide?

I did nothing to provoke her into taking such a drastic step. I found out about her financial distress only three months before her death.

So what did you do?

I gave my share of the fees that we earned for 'Power Couple' to her. She stayed in my house. If we had fights she couldve easily broken up since we werent married. Why did she party with me days before her death? Why did she order her wedding lehenga if as her so-called friends say, she was unhappy with me?

What about her friends saying you were physically abusive?

They claim to have a video to prove it. Why havent they shown it to the court? Pratyusha had filed a case against her former boyfriend for physical abuse. If I was violent with her, she couldve done the same with me.

So you dont hold yourself responsible in any way for her death?

Ive done nothing wrong. So I dont feel guilty. If the courts had any doubts about my innocence, theyd have cancelled my bail. May 29th was my birthday. A day later, I got this wonderful gift from the courts.
Since giving birth to her first child more than two decades ago, Debbie Niles Kunz says shes read almost every parenting book on the market.

It was really hard for me as a parent to find a parenting book that I felt like encouraged me in my relationship with my child, says Kunz, a Lynchburg native who now lives in St. Joseph, Missouri. We have two kids who throw us different curveballs, as kids do, and theyre very different. They needed to be parented differently. I learned as a parent how I needed to be [to] bring out their full potential and had I had something that helped me a little more with that, it would have been great.

Kunz, who has worked as a parent educator for 20 years, says most of the books shes read, especially faith-based ones, miss the mark.

The primary books that are out there from the Christian perspective really share a prescription for how to, rather than a description of how to have a relationship, she says.  That does not come from, You do this right, and you get this result. Thats not how human development works.

There are books that are 200-plus pages about parenting, and if you boiled them down, they would boil down to a concept of if/then. I think that is damaging to the concept of a human relationship.

Kunz wanted a book that accommodated parents limited time while also helping them move toward change by reflecting on their past and thinking about where they want to go as parents.

So she wrote one herself, self-publishing it through Indiana-based WestBow Press. Kunz will be signing copies of her book, Parenting with Promises, from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday at Givens Books/Little Dickens.

She says the book is spiritual from a Christian perspective; the title refers to the promises God has given us, she says, and how those promises  things like love, grace, provision and safety  teach us to parent children in a Godly way.

But it also offers pragmatic tips that are applicable to anyone, Kunz says.

The tips arent specific [like] You have to parent this certain way. The tips are, Think about who your child is and then spend intentional time doing something with your child that your child enjoys. Thats left up to the parent and the family situation.

She also wanted to offer an alternative to the tome-like books already out there.

Parenting with Promises is a lean 42 pages. The cover features a hint of whats to come inside: A mother and two young children  all outfitted in shiny red rain boots, carrying brightly-colored umbrellas  walk down a country road, bordered by lush, green grass and trees.

Inside, large photos of kids and parents are paired with Bible verses, each two-page spread bordered with a different primary color.

Advice and reflection questions are inserted throughout the book, each section ending with a tip, such as Choose one activity to do every day that communicates love to your child, or Do not assume that your children know how they are supposed to behave. Make sure you tell the child what you expect.

The goal, Kunz says, was a book that pulls double duty as both a parenting book and a parent-child book, and something that can create a dialogue between them.

Essentially, its like a picture book that a parent could look at with the child and the pictures kind of relate to the scripture on the opposite side of the page, she says.  Children like to look at real photographs rather than animated pictures. They mean more and actually do more for the childs development, as far as increasing their empathy.

Parents can say, Whats that child thinking? she adds. They can do anything from, Lets point to the eyes, if theyre a 2-year-old, to that older child, you can really gain the perspective of someone else.

Danny Givens, owner of Givens Books/Little Dickens, says the books photos stood out to him.

The color images are quite sharp, he says.  At that age, when theyre looking at books, the illustrations are kind of important. You can have a great book and you can ruin it by being poorly illustrated.  To match the two is always key.

Kunz graduated from E.C. Glass High School in 1984 and went on to attend Davidson College in North Carolina, where she majored in German. She then spent several years working and touring in Europe with the international educational organization Up with People.

While she enjoyed her work with them, she still longed for something more.

When I go back to my heart and what I liked to do when I was young and a teenager, Ive never had a job other than a babysitting job. I loved to be around children, she says. I basically chose things I was good at but what I didnt do was, I didnt follow my heart.

Up With People, she says, makes people set goals for their lives based around who they really are and I really began to think about this concept of something, a job, that would support families.

Upon her return to the U.S., Kunz went back to school to study child development, eventually earning her masters in social work from the University of Missouri once her own children, now ages 20 and 18, were a little older.

Shes now the director of the St. Joseph school districts Parents as Teachers program, which provides education and support to families from before birth through 5 years old.

The idea for Parenting with Promises has been in the back of her mind for nearly a decade, Kunz says. But she didnt feel confident enough to write it until more recently, as her own children grew up and she continued her education.

I thought, What if that parent whos not going to pick up a parenting book would pick up this [one] because they want to look at a book with their child? And then, lo and behold, what ends up happening is they change their parenting, she says. Without really knowing it, theyve read a parenting book.

Its very intentionally short. It should be deeply profound without having to pack that into 200 to 300 pages.
The Virginia State Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in the case of a man appealing his 2014 murder conviction in the killing of Jenn
ROANOKE  Tens of thousands of electric cars were to be rolling off assembly lines by now at a Mississippi factory funded by millions of dollars in foreign money. But last year, GreenTech Automotive, the company Terry McAuliffe co-founded and described as part of a rebirth for American manufacturing, produced just 25 vehicles and sold none, according to federal records.

A total of 75 people worked at the plant in rural Tunica County and at the companys Virginia office  less than a fifth the number of employees the company projected in 2011. The operation lost money from 2009 to Aug. 31, 2015, the records state.

A GreenTech business plan pledges better days to come, but the federal agency that decides whether the companys foreign investors get green cards doesnt buy it. Company projections, a federal official wrote, are not credible by the preponderance of the evidence.

That conclusion helped prompt officials to reject an EB-5 green card application filed by a GreenTech investor from Inner Mongolia, China, according to a 34-page U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services decision obtained by The Roanoke Times. The document provides a rare and deep look inside the struggles of the company McAuliffe left behind in December 2012 to concentrate on his successful run for governor.

His foreign business dealings before taking up residence in the Executive Mansion are being investigated by the federal Department of Justice, James Cooper, an attorney for the governor, said last week. The governor has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Cooper has said officials have mentioned the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register if they are seeking to influence the domestic or foreign policy of the United States on behalf of a foreign entity. CNN has reported that the Department of Justice investigation into McAuliffe began roughly a year ago. Federal authorities have declined to comment.

An inspector generals report published March 24, 2015, said McAuliffe received favorable treatment from former immigration services chief Alejandro Mayorkas in 2011, when the GreenTech chairman and future governor sought help getting EB-5 visas approved for foreign investors in his fledgling car company. Cooper said in an email to The Roanoke Times that McAuliffes lobbying of Mayorkas is not a focus of the probe. The governors lawyer could not be reached for further comment on whether GreenTech is part of the investigation .

Asked earlier this month about GreenTech, McAuliffe replied: Ive been out of the company 3 years and I have no idea what theyre doing today.

***

Several months after losing the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2009, McAuliffe advocated for GreenTech to Virginia economic officials, who raised concerns about the companys reliance on EB-5 money.

Under the federal program, foreign nationals who have invested at least $500,000 in a domestic business venture may receive green cards if they show their investment generated at least 10 jobs or comparable economic value. An investor seeking a green card may present either tax records of 10 qualifying new employees or a company business plan that demonstrates a need for 10 new employees and lists their likely hiring dates.

Nicholas Colucci, chief of the federal immigrant investor program, signed the decision that said companywide payroll at GreenTech, which operates an office in McLean in addition to the Tunica factory, totaled 75 people. The decision also dismissed a company projection that GreenTech would employ 125 people this year, 175 next and 250 in 2018.

GreenTech said three years ago it had lined up almost 150 EB-5 investors; the company would have needed to create at least 1,500 jobs, or exhibit the potential to do so, for those petitioners to win green cards.

That number seemed possible in the fall of 2009, shortly after McAuliffe joined Xiaolin Charlie Wang in founding GreenTech. The company touted plans to Mississippi officials to bring to the state a $1 billion plant employing 1,500 people.

A former Wall Street securities lawyer raised in China, Wang led the firm with McAuliffe, a Democratic fundraiser who guided longtime friend Hillary Clintons unsuccessful 2008 bid for the partys presidential nomination.

Following his earlier gubernatorial defeat, McAuliffe turned his pitchman skills to GreenTech, describing it as part of a wave that would reshape American manufacturing as well as automobile travel. A new line would feature two-seat, low-speed electric vehicles with ranges of 50 to 115 miles per charge.

GreenTech, McAuliffe predicted, would produce thousands of high-quality manufacturing jobs starting with the factory in Mississippi and possibly including a second plant in Virginia.

I want to create jobs here that will be around for the next 20, 30, 40 years, McAuliffe told an interviewer in 2011.

A site near Martinsville was included among potential locations for a GreenTech plant when McAuliffe first queried state officials about locating in Virginia. But GreenTech never came through when asked to provide Virginia economic officials with more information.

Tunica County, in Mississippis northwest corner, embraced GreenTech, hoping to diversify an economy built on agriculture until the 1990s, when casinos came to the region. A March 2013 GreenTech prospectus described investments of $73 million by 146 EB-5 investors. And the company sought more.

In mid-2011, state and local officials in Mississippi packaged loans, tax rebates, exemptions and other support worth at least $8 million for GreenTech, which agreed to invest $60 million and create 350 jobs paying at least $35,000 annually apiece by the end of 2014. A temporary plant in Horn Lake, Miss., hosted a celebration attended by former President Bill Clinton and then-Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour in summer 2012.

Five months later, McAuliffe left the company. In fall 2014, with McAuliffe in the Executive Mansion and his GreenTech shares sold, the company finally opened its Tunica factory. The plant was smaller than expected. Hiring moved slowly. By the end of the year, GreenTech had reached neither its investment nor jobs goals, said Jeff Rent, a spokesman for the Mississippi Development Authority.

Last year, GreenTech asked officials to renegotiate its 2011 incentives deal, Rent said.

At this time, Rent said, there is not a modified agreement, but the state of Mississippi is working with the company to best protect its investment and to keep Mississippians working at the plant.

Local officials are undaunted.

When you come in and start a new business, Tunica Mayor Chuck Cariker said, theres always setbacks that you dont foresee. As long as youre working to meet the goal and obligation, Im glad theyre here.

***

Coluccis decision was less sanguine.

In a year when new-vehicle sales in the U.S. hit a record 17.5 million, GreenTech records showed that as of December 2015, the company had produced 25 vehicles  10 for demonstration, 10 for engineering and testing and five for marketing, according to the Colucci decision. GreenTech business plans submitted in the companys early years turned out to be unattainable.

The projections for this company have gone from, in July 2009, a factory, machine shop, office building, museum and residential housing while having the expectation of being able to produce 1 million vehicles a year, to the December 2015 business plan where GTA has produced 25 vehicles, the decision said.

Past struggles cast a shadow over company forecasts, Colucci wrote, describing GreenTech as experiencing a general lack of credibility from the failure to meet any projected timelines. Colucci raised doubts about the companys production targets of 2,050 vehicles in 2016, 6,200 in 2017 and 12,400 in 2018.

Regulators said they had yet to see proof of a market for the companys products, which include a gasoline-engine pickup and van and the electric MyCar, which is 5 feet shorter than a typical 14-foot American sedan, specifications show.

Neither federal immigration officials nor a lawyer named in Coluccis decision would comment on the document. The investor whose visa application was rejected could not be reached for comment.

Investors rejected for EB-5 visas can appeal but must have federal approval to enter and remain in the country. A GreenTech financial prospectus says investors denied green cards may request repayment of their investment.

Immigration services spokesman Steve Blando said investor petitions are judged on a case-by-case basis and denied for failure to meet specific eligibility requirements. He declined to summarize agency rulings on GreenTech investor petitions or to address the outcomes for other GreenTech investors who relied on the company meeting its business plans to back their visa applications.

Asked if he still wished GreenTech had located in Virginia, McAuliffe said: Its not fair for me to talk. Im not part of the leadership of the company.

Wang did not respond to multiple requests for comment left at his McLean office and another left at his Great Falls home. Minnie Xin, Wangs assistant, said Wednesday that he was out of the country on business. She said she did not know when he would return.

Xin said she could not locate a representative of Gulf Coast Funds Management, GreenTechs fundraising affiliate, to talk to a reporter. Gulf Coast is based in the same McLean office as GreenTech. The firm formerly was headed by Tony Rodham, Hillary Clintons brother, who traveled across China with Wang seeking EB-5 investors.

Eighty-five percent of EB-5 green card applicants in fiscal year 2015 were from China, according to the State Department.

***

Virginia economic officials have softened their resistance to EB-5 since McAuliffe took office, according to emails obtained by The Roanoke Times.

In 2015, a Shanghai law firm posted a Facebook ad soliciting EB-5 money for China-based UniTao Pharmaceuticals a few months after the company said it was idling a Petersburg project into which it planned to invest $22.5 million and hire 376 people. McAuliffe helped broker that deal, meeting with company officials in China to discuss a project in Virginia and approving a $1 million grant for the company. UniTao did not collect the grant.

Signed into law in 1990, EB-5 was largely obscure until the recent recessionary credit crunch sent investments under the program soaring. Concerns also began rising.

In April, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused two men and their companies of misusing portions of $350 million raised from EB-5 investors to build a ski resort and biomedical research plant in Vermont. A civil complaint outlined what regulators called a massive, eight-year fraudulent scheme.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime EB-5 supporter, said the case proves the need for reform. Congress has authorized EB-5 to continue until Sept. 30 while lawmakers debate fixes. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has said the program is deeply flawed and lacks adequate oversight.
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Home News Sports Social Obituaries Events Letters Looking Back Health Jewels Stitch in Time P.E.O. Sisterhood represented at State Convention, continues to provide local financial awards for education June 2, 2016 The 101st Convention of the Idaho State Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood met in Boise, Idaho on May 20-22, 2016. Judith A. Weatherbie, a member of Chapter CI in Twin Falls, served as presiding officer, following seven years of executive board service. New State Officers for 2016-2017 installed at the convention were President Jane Ingram, Chapter BU, Boise; Vice-President Helen Iverson-Metzger, Chapter D, Twin Falls; Organizer Barbara Jensen, Chapter BO, Nampa; Treasurer Teresa Baillie, Chapter M, Kellogg; and Secretary Phyllis Howard, Chapter BG, Idaho Falls.



Chapter AP in Bonners Ferry, Idaho was represented at the convention by Dianna Zills and Dottie Gray. Chapter AP was founded in 1937 and currently has 37 members. Officers for Chapter AP 2016-2017 are President Dottie Gray; Vice President Debra Perry; Recording Secretary Bobbie Bowen; Corresponding Secretary Nancy Clatworthy; Treasurer Therese Helmer; Chaplain Annie Sundstrom; and Guard Ada Gardiner.



The P.E.O. Sisterhood is a philanthropic educational organization in which women celebrate the advancement of women. P.E.O strives to motivate women to achieve their highest aspirations by providing educational opportunities through scholarships, grants, awards, loans and stewardship of Cottey College, an independent liberal arts and sciences college for women in Nevada, MO. Bonners Ferry graduate, Katy Studer, attended and graduated from Cottey, served her country in the military, and completed her education at the University of Idaho.



Bonners Ferrys most recent recipients of the P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education Grants include Charlene Lyle, Alyssa Pinkerton, Trish Robbins, and Danielle Pintler. Chapter AP also provides a local scholarship to a Bonners Ferry High School graduating senior woman each year. In recent years, Mackenzie Mendenhall, Kylie Byers, and Amy Maggi have received this scholarship. This years recipient is yet to be determined. Grant, loan and award recipients, as well as Cottey College students, need not be members of P.E.O.



Founded in 1869, P.E.O. has nearly 6,000 chapters internationally and nearly 250,000 members worldwide. In Idaho there are 89 chapters with 3,646 members. Between March 1, 2015 and February 29, 2016, Idaho Chapter members contributed over $186,000 to celebrate the advancement of women through education.



P.E.O. has given nearly $283 million in financial assistance to almost 99,000 recipients through these projects. As a result, P.E.O is clearly making a difference in the lives of women all over the world.



Further information about P.E.O. and its scholarship programs is available on the website peointernational.org. Questions or comments about this article? Click here to e-mail!
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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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Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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TT$7.50 to US$1 more appropriate

We need to pursue them (Loran-Manatee and the Dragon fields) aggressively if we are in the medium term period to be able to get this gas into the Trinidad and Tobago market but at the same time there are gas opportunities in small fields in Trinidad and Tobago that are untapped completely and what I would have done in parallel is to incentivise the regime so that we can get producers to go after these small fields just as we have got via the Farm out/Lease Out programme small producers to bring mature oil wells into active production.

He said the long and complex negotiations with Venezuela to liberate the gas in the Loran-Manatee and associated fields represented a good argument for designing fiscal incentives for small producers to go and exploit these small gas fields that are uneconomical for the big multinational companies with their high overhead costs. He said the right incentives would encourage smaller players in the Trinidad and Tobago economy to go after these fields and introduce the relevant pipelines and infrastructure to bring them onto the supply grid.

Dr Hosein said gas from Venezuela is definitely an option to solve the gas shortages Trinidad and Tobago have been facing, but the concern is the political stability of that economy and the tendency of some of the negotiated outcomes never to be followed up on. So I am not against this gas from Venezuela, I am just saying that while we wait on that to materialise, let us try to bring some of our smaller gas fields into more productive use.

Dr Hosein was speaking with Newsday at Queens Hall during a break in a meeting of the Association of Real Estate Agents of Trinidad and Tobago (AREA) during which he delivered the feature address on Real Estate and the Economy. Expanding on points he made during his feature address, Dr Hosein suggested that the country do away with the managed float arrangement which is used to maintain the value of the TT dollar at over six dollars to US$1 at the moment and allow the currency to float more freely, suggesting that a more appropriate exchange rate would be TT$7.50 to US $1.

I am advocating that we allow the currency to float freely and allow the market to determine the value of the currency rather than intervene and buoy up the value of the currency at a level that the Central Bank predetermines. I think floating the currency at this point in time would allow the market to set the rate and let the price of the US dollar reflect what the market expects of it.

He said the recent announcement by Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, that in order to place a damper on speculation as a cause of the recent volatility of the exchange rate the government had established a range within which it would allow the value of the TT dollar to fluctuate and the upper band of the range would be TT$6.81. Dr Hosein said he did not think that would do anything to reduce demand for US dollars. I think in order to stimulate the non-energy exports we may need to allow the currency to float some more and one has to do the relevant background studies in order to determine the true value at which the exchange rate should be set but I do not think that (the current rate of about) TT$6.68 to US$1 provides adequate stimulus to the non-energy export sector, it may perhaps need more.

He said he suspected that if the exchange rate went to TT$7.5 to US $1 that it would provide more of a stimulus to the non-energy export sector, adding that at the same time we need to be wary of the high import content of domestic economic activity but at TT$7.5 to US $1 what would happen is that there would also be some degree of expenditure switching and some degree of import substitution which is where we need to be going. We cannot afford our import level  the agricultural sector is not producing as much as it should be producing in the context of the existing economic climate and so we need to make some modifications.

But rest assured that a stand-alone exchange rate policy will not solve the problem, we need to have parallel policies. For example, if we were to try to devalue the currency to TT$7.50 to US$1 without modifying labour market interventions to unlock resources that are locked into CEPEP and URP and other areas to be available for the agricultural sector, a devaluation will not work.
Cuba Portfolio of Projects to attract TT business

She explained that the Cuban government has created a Portfolio of Projects which contains 326 projects with a total estimated value of US$8.7 million. Nunez Mordoche identified sectors such as agriculture, energy, tourism, construction, light manufacturing and transport as some areas of interest for TT investors.

Nunez Mordoche also identified the Special Economic Development Zone of Mariel as a project which TT investors could consider. The project directed to encourage Cubas sustainable economic development by attracting foreign investment, technological innovation and industrial concentration while at the same time ensuring environmental protection.

The zone covers an area of 465.4 square kilometers (180 sq. mi.), 45 Km.

(28 mi.) west of Havana. It has been conceived as an integral and harmonic whole connected with the rest of the economy. The Zone promotes and protects enterprises, industrial, agricultural, metal-mechanical and tourism projects and all types of activities permitted by Cuban law that use clean technologies and produce added value goods and services based on knowledge and innovation, encouraging the creation of quality employment that intellectually develops human capital within an environment of safety and good professional practices.

Nunez Mordoche said the Portfolio of Projects is updated annually so potential investors can be made aware of new business opportunities on a regular basis. TT business persons were also encouraged at the meeting to confirm attendance at the Havana International Trade Fair which takes place in Havana, Cuba from October 31 to November 6.

They were told that efforts are being made to establish a single pavilion at this fair to house businesses from the entire Caricom region.

Cuba currently trades with over 3,000 foreign companies. In terms of region, Cubas largest trade is with the Americas (52 percent). ExporTT CEO Adrian Theodore predicted, The future between TT and Cuba looks very bright. He hold his audience that through its ongoing strategies, ExporTT has, identified ways to provide relevant and more effective support for our exporters. Theodore added, As TT faces changing economic times, exporTT will continue on the push side of our strategy. He explained one element of this strategy includes increasing the quality of in market support direct high level discussions.

New TT Ambassador to Cuba, Dr Lancelot Cowie, noted this country has maintained strong diplomatic ties with Cuba since December 1972.

Observing that Cuba also shares strong ties with Caricom, Cowie promised to do what he could to ensure that TT companies will be able to gain a foothold in Cuba to explore the opportunities there.
Moving into the future with ICT

As part of its ongoing efforts to build capacity in ICT, the Institute, in collaboration with some of its valuable partners, like the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce, hosted a session on Wednesday May 25, 2016 that highlighted the need to utilise ICT in the new economy. This session showcased software that can be accessed by many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

CARIRI recognises critical areas of deficiency at the micro-economic level such as technological readiness, business sophistication, innovation and the relative underutilisation of ICT by the business sector. Because of this, an InterAmerican Development Bank project was launched with the aim of improving performance of SMEs through the application of ICT a few years ago and thus far, with CARIRI as the executing arm of this project, was able to reach over 450 SMEs in a variety of sectors.

CARIRI understands the potential of the non-energy manufacturing and services sector which are dominant within the country and significantly contribute to economic growth and development. As part of our mandate we build technological capability and enhance operational efficiency among SMEs through secured financial support from the Inter-American Development Banks Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF). Some of these include Electronic Health Record software called CARIMed as well as CARIRIs Point of Sales Software, these are just two examples of what CARIRI has been doing in the field of ICT over the last couple of years.

At the session entitled Moving into the Future with ICT, Chief Executive Officer of CARIRI, Liaquat Ali Shah said small businesses are very important to most economies generating significant wealth and employment. Competitiveness and innovation go hand in hand, for companies to grow and to continue to be successful, innovation is critical. There is the ever pressing need for relevant stakeholders to understand innovation in small businesses particularly in terms of ICT implementation and use in order to plan how to survive in todays economic climate and to expand in the future.

Vashtie Dookiesingh, Multilateral Investment Fund Specialist at the InterAmerican Bank commended CARIRI on a job well done as the executing agent of the project. She stated that the overall objective of the project was to improve the business performance and competitiveness of businesses in the target sectors, which was expanded to include virtually all sectors in the country and that CARIRI had done an impressive job thus far by reaching out to the companies with potential for ICT implementation.

Richie Sookhai, President of the Chagaunas Chamber of Industry and Commerce also gave some remarks to the audience gathered at the Centre for Enterprise Development, Freeport. Sookhai, also a business owner, also spoke about how ICT can be utilized to ensure that businesses succeed in a global environment. He also spoke about the use of technology in the fight against crime and asked some very pertinent questions about how effective we are at using the data that is available.

At the session, members of the audience were treated to the new software built in-house at CARIRI to satisfy the demand for more personalized software. A very active question and answer segment took place as members of the audience, many of them small business owners, had numerous questions for the team.

At the end of the programme, the audience was invited to sign up for a free diagnostic, in which the team would go in to the business and determine what ICT tools would be able to assist the business to operate more efficiently and they would suggest implementations which normally range from social media to accounting systems to inventory management systems depending on the needs of the business.

For more information, email awilliams@cariri.com or call 299-0210 ext 5048
10 yrs of Fusion X adventures

This years installment landed racers in the hinterlands of Brasso Seco. From as early as 2 am, when most of us were still wrapped under a sheet in deep sleep, these brave souls were trekking through the forest with little more than their wits and headlamps to help them navigate the darkness of the trails. In one leg the racers had to don life jackets well before they set foot on the trail, some not sure it was necessary but told it was mandatory for that leg of the race.

Well they soon found out why.

Hiking and climbing on hands and knees over the muddy slopes of the surrounding Brasso Seco region soon turned into wading through a river that began first at knee height, rose to mid-thigh, then up to peoples necks till finally well over the heads of the average-height man, leaving them no choice but to swim through those sections of the river. At certain points, navigating the river required moving through rapids and climbing down mini waterfall- like slopes.

Fusion is the brainchild of Charles Bob Semple. The original inspiration was to promote the sport where I used the work at the Port Authority and we began to invite other teams, Semple said. The event began in 2007 with 14 teams participating. It has grown over the years to the extent that this year, saw about 150 teams taking part in the challenge.

Over the years, Semple, and his band of organisers, have taken participants throughout the country, opening their eyes to the beauty and wonder of TTs natural environment. Participants have swam the coastal waters of Chaguaramas and Pigeon Point, mountain-biked over the rugged hills of Les Coteaux and Lopinot and scaled slopes in the far regions of some of our mountain ranges and ran their weary legs over paved and unpaved roads of many towns and villages.

Furthermore, sometimes participants are given specific mental challenges in the form of questions that must be answered while on the race course.

We purposely ask the brain questions at the time when they are most vulnerable, theyre most tired. And we focus on certain type of questions that your brain might shut down with. So some logical things, history, social studies while they are that point, stated Semple.

So, for instance, at Fusion VII which took place a few years ago in Chaguaramas, participants were given questions that focused on the history of some the events that took place in Chaguaramas.

Working alongside others to achieve a unified purpose is the goal of Fusion according to Collinngsworth Howard, a member of the Fusion Strategic Team.

The primary objective of Fusion is to harness teamwork and it is not an individual sport.

So hence the reason why we say when you cross the finish line you know more about yourself but that also speaks to knowing more about your team members too, Howard said. One man, chuckling, described his Fusion experience as, Ah feel like if ah make two children. Another, absolutely overcome by the length of the race, added, It was long.

Real long. Exceptionally long. It was real long boy.

But it was good. It was good to challenge the body but it was real long. While a group of women described their experience as, It was fun.

Tough but good. We fell a few times but we had a good time. Many participants have thus built bonds over the ten years, resulting in many teams made up of the same people returning year after year, for another round of what some might see as punishment to their physical bodies.

But going beyond the surface, it is clear that such adventure races as Fusion not only builds teamwork, friendship and camaraderie but character and a better knowledge of oneself at both a mental and physical level.
Chickens, soap, toilet paper for Venezuela

The Venezuelan delegation yesterday toured the Arawak Chicken Plant in Mausica and at a press conference, following the tour, Minister Gopee-Scoon said the full list of items include chicken, tuna, white rice, margarine, flour, mayonnaise, ketchup, toilet soaps, toilet paper, bleach and laundry soap.

It is a good list of basic items that probably are in need in Venezuela at this time. Then we looked at the tariff, the rules of origin as well as rules governing trade into Venezuela to ensure we would be able to meet all of those standards, she said.

She said the Venezuelan delegation gave substantial quantities to work with for a three month period and based on that, they are going to ask the respective manufacturers to prepare quotations. Gopee-Scoon added that the Venezuelan delegation also requested a 12th item - cement bags, as the country has run out of this. She said Venezuela has ten cement plants and is about to embark on an aggressive housing construction campaign.

There is within TCL (Trinidad Cement Limited) a plant that makes cement bags so we are going to be checking on the specifications, she said. The delegations visit comes more than a week after Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro visited this country. Following his visit, an agreement was made for a US$50 million revolving fund, that will be used by Venezuela to purchase critical manufactured goods from this country, for its citizens.

Asked about Venezuelas ability to pay for the products, Urbaez, through a translator, assured local manufacturers that the $US50 million was not money to be sought but money that has already been designated. We dont want to go into the GDP of each country right now but that quantity of money for us is quite reasonable. Compared to the quantities of money that as a country we generally deal with even in the context of the crisis that we are now experiencing, he said.

Gopee-Scoon said the trading arrangements with Venezuela would be of great economic benefit to this country. It means that once trade increases it means higher production levels improved capacity more jobs and of course greater contribution to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of TT. Its a win win on all sides, she said.

The Venezuelan delegation arrived in this country on Tuesday afternoon and have since visited National Flour Mills, Coconut Growers Association, Vemco and John Dickinson and Company.

On concerns raised by some local manufacturers on cash-strapped Venezuelas ability to pay for TT goods as per the US multi-million dollar trade deal, officials said this was not an issue since money has been set aside for the purchase of TT goods.
548 child marriages over last 10 years

From one under-16 marriage recorded in 1997, the number peaked to 192 in 2011. The number for 2016, now stands at 37, Al Rawi noted.

From 1997, we are not seeing a fall in underage marriages. We are seeing an increase, he said.

Hindus accounted for 328 marriages of children between 12 and 16, from 2006 to 2016. Civil underage marriages in this period numbered 117, and Muslim marriages accounted for 103, Al Rawi yesterday told religious leaders at a meeting at the Office of the Attorney General at Cabildo Chambers, Port-of-Spain. This as he sought to make a case for presenting draft legislation that seeks to increase the legal marriage to 18 years.

The draft of legislation and statistics on underage marriage, which will form the basis of public consultations, will be on the Office of the Attorney Generals website, he said. Following the consultations, recommendations will be made to Cabinet for approval.

Statistics from the Office of the Registrar General, Al Rawi said, shows that between 2006 to 2016, although there is provision for persons to be married under the age of 18, in the Orisha Marriage Act, no marriage was recorded.

Between one to nine underage marriages (under 18 years) took place between 1997 and 2006.

The numbers rose from 11 in 2007 to 84 in 2010. In 2011, child marriages peaked at 192. In 2012, the number recorded was 186, and in 2013 it stood at 190.

For 2016, 37 underage marriages have been recorded.

The explanations given for the increase in underage marriages Al Rawi said were that underage marriages were not recorded by the Office of the Registrar General, that the system of registration of underage marriages has improved, or that the numbers just rose. It would appear, he said, that some entities were engaged in performing marriages, that look a little suspicious...marriages of convenience. Noting that They tend to be aggregated in one religious sector only, Al Rawi said, It may be that someone is facilitating that.

I want to warn that we will be dealing with that on a different footing. There was a perception that underage marriages were conducted only in rural areas, he said, but that was not true as underage marriages were recorded across all registration districts.

During the nearly three-hour long meeting representatives of the Anglican and Presbyterian churches, Orisha Council of Elders, SWAHA International, TT Council of Evangelical Churches and Faith-based network of TT and the National Muslim Womens Organisation of TT, all said their respective bodies agreed the marriage age should be increased to 18 years.

While he is in favour of the age increase, Mufti Waseem Khan of the Darul Uloom of TT, said that concessions should be made however, for boys and girls below 18 to marry under specific extenuating circumstances, with parental and judicial permission.

Noticeably absent from yesterdays meeting were President of the Inter Religious Organisation (IRO) Bro Harripersad Maharaj, Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Harris; Yacoob Ali of the Anjuman Sunnat ul Jamaat Association (ASJA) and General Secretary of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Satnarayan Maharaj.

Maharaj told Newsday that he told the Attorney Generals Office that he was not going to attend because the SDMS was still in consultations with various communities and have not reached a decision on the issue. He said once a consensus is reached these will be communicated to the AGs Office.

The IROs Maharaj and ASJAs Ali could not be reached for comment yesterday on their absence from the meeting.

(See Page 10A)
OAS not terminated, says Nidco

The committee also heard from Nidco officials, during a public hearing at Tower D of the Portof- Spain International Waterfront Centre, that of the $5.2 billion budget for the project, a total of $3.7 billion has been spent to date and 61 percent of the project has been completed. In response to questions by Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh, Gardiner said, OAS was supposed to start back working on the project on January 5 (2016).

They have not done so in any substantial way. He continued, OAS appears to have severe financial and internal issues. Gardiner explained that OAS, at this point in time, is not demonstrating that it is capable of continuing the project. Stating the relationship between OAS and Nidco is at a critical stage, Gardiner said no work is happening on the project and both companies are attempting to work through the issues. He added, OAS is under obligation to finish the project. With respect to payment, Gardiner explained that Nidco does not owe any interim payment contracts to OAS. He said Nidco does not negotiate contracts with anyone.

Works and Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds expressed concern about not hearing any information about monies paid in rents to persons who were in occupation of lands for that Point Fortin Highway. Hinds said it was a fact that Nidco paid almost $25 million in rents and still faces demands for rents, for persons who have either squatted on those lands, in anticipation of the process coming through there, or bonafide owners who would have been paid for their lands. Gardiner disclosed that while Nidco had a budget of $700 million for land acquisition and $517 million from that budget has been spent to date, land acquisition for the project is incomplete and has not been properly executed. Under the former Peoples Partnership (PP) government, former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar chaired a special ministerial committee that was supposed to deal with issues pertaining to the Solomon Hochoy Extension Project.

Government Senator Foster Cummings questioned why a sum of $389 million paid to OAS for delays and about the absence of information on these delays.

Responding to additional questions from Cummings, Gardiner confirmed that changes were made to the design of the project under the last Nidco board. These included the removal of the controversial stretch of the highway from Debe to Mon Desir (which prompted a hunger strike last year by Highway Re-Route Movement leader Wayne Kublalsingh); the removal of certain interchanges and their replacement with roundabouts, and reducing the road from Siparia to Mon Desir from four to two lanes.

Gardiner added that the Debe to Mon Desir section of the highway had to be put back in. Committee chairman, Opposition Senator Wade Mark, advised Nidco officials to submit a detailed report to the committee so that the problems being experienced with the highway project would not be replicated in the future. Upon hearing the responses given by Nidco officials, Hinds said he was relieved and thankful to God for their answers. He said he was confident Nidco would now be a sturdy ship that is unlikely to flounder in the water rough or smooth going forward.
PCA head blanks JSC

West yesterday refused to attend a sitting of the Joint Select Committee on National Security where he was called to answer questions on the ongoing PCA investigation into last years day of total policing.

The PCA chairman informed members of the committee, in writing, that he could not answer any questions because this could have adverse implications.

I cannot speak to an ongoing investigation, West later told Newsday.

That could jeopardize the investigation. He further stated, The committee wanted the PCA to report on the investigation but it is ongoing. I made that known to the committee via a letter. It made no sense for me to appear because it is an ongoing investigation. At the start of yesterdays hearing, committee chairman Fitzgerald Hinds alluded to Wests absence.

The director of the PCA is not here and we are engaged in an exchange of correspondence and we expect that in light of that officeholders absence today, he will be with us at some stage in the very near future, Hinds said.

Later in the proceedings, the chairman also said, The PCA was supposed to be here today and of course that had to be set for another occasion. No reason for Wests absence was given. West said he has not been asked to consider whether he would appear before the committee at an in-camera session of the committee. The PCA Directors refusal to appear before the bipartisan committee came on the day when Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams confirmed that despite a recommendation by Parliament, that the police finish its own probe into the March 23, 2015 total policing, the police have not complied.

In its first ever report, submitted to the Tenth Parliament in June 2015, the committee stated, the TTPS should complete its investigation into the roadblock exercises conducted on March 23, 2015 and the findings of the investigation should be forwarded to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) to complete its own investigation as well as to the Police Service Commission (PSC). However, Williams yesterday told the committee he did not accede to its recommendation because he was of the view that the matter now fell exclusively under the jurisdiction of the PCA.

The issue I was confronted with is a matter of jurisdiction, Williams said. I had an obligation to pass a copy of the report to the PCA. I have extended full cooperation to the PCA, including making myself available to be interviewed. Deputies were also interviewed and documents forwarded, he said.

The Acting Police Commissioner cited Section 48 (2) of the PCA Act which states, the Authority shall have the sole responsibility for dealing with complaints referred to it by the Commissioner.

The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service was mandated to do these things, said committee chairman Fitzgerald Hinds. He said the position of the Acting Commissioner was troubling and strange. Under questioning by Attorney General Faris Al Rawi, Williams said he did not seek legal advice nor did he write the JSC  prior to February  to state this was his position.

Al Rawi asked Williams to submit a detailed statement of his legal position. Hinds also asked for a report as to what steps Williams took to address concerns raised in an initial report by an investigating officer. We have not moved anywhere forward at all as to what happened on that day, said committee member Prakash Ramadhar, the St Augustine MP. The public has not had any sense of finality, Hinds told Commissioner Williams.

Even the PCA has not reported to you...This does not lend itself very well for public consumption. He said Williams responsibility did not stop at the PCAs probe. As a member of the public, that does not make me feel very comfortable, said the chairman.

On the day of total policing, large sections of TTs major roadworks including highways were clogged with bumper to bumper traffic for dozens of miles because of police roadblock exercises with officers checking such mundane things as vehicle oil and coolant levels.

This led to thousands including children being late for work and school and many thousands more returning home. The exercise was seen as the polices way of a public protest without breaking laws that bar public officials in sensitive areas such as health and national security from protesting over stalled police salary negotiations
Forensics to get another pathologist

The global standard is 250 a year for each pathologist. For 2016, there have already been 473 in total. Glen Parmasar, acting deputy director, said in 2015, the FSC handled 3,105 cases and 19,441 pieces of evidence. In that year, 1,019 post-mortems were done. He said to date, 1,301 cases were handled for the year, involving 8,631 pieces of evidence. The official suggested the Ministry of Health should take over responsibility for the handling of routine examinations that are not related to criminal inquiries.

Post-mortems are being done that do not have to be done by forensic pathologists, he said. Joy Seepersad-Boodoo, acting director of human resources in the National Security Ministry, told the committee there is trouble filling vacancies. She said of four pathologist positions, only two are filled. She said the ministry was in the process of offering employment to a third. A fourth position is being readvertised.

Seepersad-Boodoo said delay is caused by the process, including the security vetting which has to occur as well as certification of the candidates qualifications by the Medical Board. Six scholarships are planned. The committee also heard of a backlog of 3,155 examinations in relation to ballistics exhibits, and 496 in relation to narcotics.
ECHR holds that Azerbaijan is to pay 17,000 euros to Arif Yunusov and Leyla Yunusova

In todays Chamber judgment 1 in the case of Yunusova and Yunusov v. Azerbaijan (application no. 59620/14), the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article 34 (right of individual petition) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention. The case concerned the allegation by Mr Yunusov and Ms Yunusova, husband and wife and well-known human rights defenders and civil society activists, that their medical care in detention had been inadequate. During the proceedings before the European Court, the couple had notably been granted their request (under Rule 39 of the Rules of Court  interim measures) to be provided with adequate medical care in prison. The Court found that, despite monthly information reports having been provided about the couples health and medical examinations following the issuing of that interim measure, the Azerbaijani Government had failed to submit medical evidence  such as medical prescriptions or doctors recommendations  to back up their claim that the couples health had been stable and had not required a transfer to a medical facility. The Court held that Azerbaijan was to pay 13,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage to each applicant and EUR 4,000, for costs and expenses to both applicants, jointly. See more here
Water taxi likely for Pt Fortin, La Brea

He explained that by Cabinet Minute 1172 in 2005, the then Patrick Manning administration directed Nidco to implement the water taxi service from Port-of- Spain to Point Fortin. Gardiner said the first phase of the service, from Port-of-Spain to San Fernando, was launched in December 2008.

He added, We are also looking at implementing the second phase, taking operations to Point Fortin and La Brea. Indicating that the service is subsidised by the Government, Gardiner said Nidco is currently looking at ways to reduce the subsidy. He said when operations began in 2008 the subsidy was $134 per passenger. He added it was decreased to $88 per passenger in 2009 and it currently stands at $68 per passenger. This was a reduction of 50 percent since the service started eight years ago, he said. Gardiner also indicated that total ridership on the water taxi has increased by 86 percent from 2009 to 2013, with passenger figures of 2,023 for 2009 and 14,000 for 2013.
Views on child marriage myopic

Siddiq Nasir took a jab at Roman Catholic Archbishop of Port of Spain Father Joseph Harris, who last week described child marriages as legalised statutory rape. Nasir said that the Archbishop has a very myopic and partial view of the issue. In fact, Nasir who is an Islamic scholar, said that the Code of Canon Law of the Catholic Church 1083 (1) states, A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age, and a woman before she has completed her fourteenth year of age, cannot enter into a valid marriage. By virtue of that Canon Law, Nasir said, Christianity supports marriage of a girl once she has reached the age of 14. It is therefore passing strange that Harris who heads the Catholic church in Trinidad and Tobago, he explained, could view the marriage of a 14-year-old girl, as legalised statutory rape. The Muslim cleric bemoaned sexual activity among young teenagers before marriage, but he warned that it had nothing to do with the Marriage Act under the Laws of Trinidad and Tobago, the Muslim Marriage Act, the Hindu Marriage Act or the Orisha Marriage Act.

Nasir said that if promiscuity is rampant, it is an illness of a society that must tackle the problems that lead to such acts, such as incest, abortion, sex before marriage and rape. He asked, Maxi taxi drivers are enticing young girls into sexual activity.

Will changing the legal age of marriage do anything to save these young girls? He said, We must protect our children  however not only physically, but morally and spiritually as well. Many efforts of many well-meaning persons to guard children against everything that is detrimental to them, are proving ineffective and even counter-productive. Our children are being bombarded by a deluge of influences explicitly, implicitly and subliminally, and unless a holistic approach is adopted, we will continue to fail in our efforts to protect them. A partial, very myopic approach is the present crusade to change the age of marriage so that children (in the definition of the Children Act, human beings under the age of eighteen) are protected from getting married. Nasir argued that not allowing young girls to marry, but allowing them to have sex outside of marriage among themselves, is quite amazing. He said that it is more than passing strange that the Head of the Catholic Church in Trinidad, Archbishop Harris, could categorise the marriage of a fourteen year old girl, which the Canon Law says is valid, as  legalised statutory rape (unless he was misquoted).

Nasir went on to say that in the state of New York, a male or a female age fourteen, can marry with parental and judicial consent and that a male or female aged sixteen, can marry with parental consent. This, he added, was according to the Laws of New York, Domestic Relations, Article 3, Section 15, Subsections 1, 2, and 3, and Section 15-a). Nasir further stated that in the State of New Hampshire, Canada, a male age 14 to 17, and a female age thirteen to 17, can marry with parental and judicial consent.

He further went on to state that the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977 states: No person domiciled in Scotland may marry before he attains the age of 16. Nasir concluded that a marriage solemnised in Scotland between persons either of whom is under the age of 16 or that in England and Wales, males and females aged sixteen can get married with parental consent.
I hope he gets his life back on track

Newsday spoke with Anthony Gloster yesterday at his home at Upper La Puerta, Diego Martin.

I feel good now. Before I was not feeling good all these years, he said.

Peters was imprisoned for nine years during the trial, the most expensive in the countrys history, and he is the only of the eight acquitted to walk out of the Hall of Justice on Tuesday. Gloster said he did not know what was taking so long for his other two sons to also be released.

He recalled when he saw his son (Peters) and hugged him he began to cry because it was so emotional.

Because I was so happy.

Real, real happy, he explained.

Gloster said he was glad all of the frustration was over and he said his co-workers, mother and sisters had given him strength. He recalled that on Tuesday night his sons friends visited as well as parents of the other accused, who are also from the area, and members of the community.

The place was full (Tuesday) night, he said. Gloster said he did not get much of a chance to talk with his son since he was released.

Peters, aged 29, was not present when Newsday visited and his father said he may have gone by a girlfriend.

On the family, he explained that the boys mother passed when they were very young and he had to raise them.

He has two other children, girls, who both live outside Trinidad.

He recalled that they had been calling constantly to find out and the trial and when they heard that their brother was released they bawl and jump.

He added that one niece who had been asking when they would get released was so excited that she did not want to go to sleep. Gloster said his hope is that his son can get his life back on track.

He pointed out that his son is skilled in joinery and barbering.

He said he was still concerned about his other two sons and when they would be released.

He stressed that his sons release showed that justice was served and he expressed hope that the relatives of Naipaul-Coolman will also have justice.
Recall of Sleep

Apnea Device

Is Not Going Well
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will reportedly have a manga counterpart. The said comic book version was originally slated for Japanese publication, however, Akira Himekawa (the combined name of the artistic manga duo) - recently hinted of a localized English version of the purported manga title albeit with no confirmed date of release yet.

Viz Media will reportedly handle the localization of the manga title which means that it may take a while for the Twilight Princess entry into western markets. If Akira Himekawa's May 21 Facebook post is of any indication, then it could a wonderful treat for Legend of Zelda fans while waiting for the forthcoming game title to arrive after a number of repeated delays.

"The English version is planned to be published by Viz Media, and the German version will be published by TOKYOPOP Deutschland," Himekawa shared in a Facebook post as quoted by Nintendo Insider.

"However, the English and German publishers have not announced their releases yet and we don't know their release dates or other details, so please wait for the announcement from them for more information. We will share the information once it has been announced officially."

On the other hand, manga publisher Shogakukan's American subsidiary Viz Media recently issued a response on Akira Himekawa's social media announcement regarding their involvement Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess manga publication sometime in the near future saying that there are no 'firm plans' as of this time.

"We're really happy that fans are excited for the next release of The Legend of Zelda manga. At this time, we don't have news on Twilight Princess," says Beth Kawasaki, VIZ's Senior Editorial Director as quoted by Newsmara. "We'll most certainly make an announcement once plans are firmed up!"

Despite the lack of 'firm plans', there's still weight to Akira Himekawa's purported claim of localized Twilight Princess Manga versions to suit western markets. As per Anime News Network, Viz Media has already been tapped to published Himekawa's other Zelda works which include the Legendary Edition, Vol. 1: Ocarina of Time Parts 1 & 2 manga in English (November 1) and The Legend Of Zelda: Legendary Edition (2-in-1 series). The report added that the abovementioned manga titles will feature colored artwork and new covers in a larger printing format.
A shooting that led to the death of two males on the UCLA campus has been confirmed to be a "murder-suicide," said LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

"The important thing for people to take away from this is the campus is now safe," he noted at a news conference shortly after noon.

The UCLA campus was on a lockdown just after 10 a.m. after the Los Angeles university shooting on Wednesday, according to the university. Helicopter news footage disclosed that the students were filing out of school buildings in a row, with their hands held above their heads.

Both victims are male, UCLA Police Chief Jim Herren said.

Students on the campus were asked to take shelter in an engineering building. With the LAPD putting the entire city on tactical alert, it moved hundreds of officers to the campus as well as nearby areas.

The Daily Bruin, the school's student newspaper, explained that the man who shot the students wore a black jacket and black pants.

The university said in a statement posted online that police reported finding the two victims in Boelter Hall, a UCLA engineering building.

Not understanding the total number of victims or their conditions, LAPD Capt. Andy Neiman said it was not clear whether the university mentioned the campus cops or LAPD while reporting that the two were killed.

"The whole campus just started running, and I started running too," Mehwish Khan, a 21-year-old student who hid in the library with some other students, told the Los Angeles Times. "Everyone was very confused. We got in a building, and no one knew what was going on."

About 30 students had locked their classroom with belts, said Rafi Sands, a 20-year-old student and vice president of the student government. Due to a number of conflicting reports of the shooting through text messages and social media, the seriousness of the situation was not completely clear.

"We get a lot of Bruin Alerts for small things," he said. "It took a while for everyone to realize this is serious."

It turned out to be tough, ensuring a lockdown in a huge university.

"If you want to search [a] four-bedroom house carefully enough to ensure, as if somebody's life depends on it, that nobody is in that house, it's going to take eight or nine SWAT officers an hour to do that," Steve Moore, a former FBI special agent, told LA TV station KTLA. "Now imagine a 10-story, 15-story building - whether they're classrooms or dorms - imagine also that you have to check every crawlspace, every overhead in the buildings."
Fairbanks, AK (99707)

Today

A mix of clouds and sun. High around 25F. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 17F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.
New Delhi:

RSS-backed Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas run by Dinanatha Batra has urged Vice Chancellors of all universities to replace modern convocation robes with traditional clothes on lines of the decision taken by Rajasthan Governor for all state-run varsities.



After 69 years of independence, in maximum universities convocation ceremonies are conducted in a colonial atmosphere with students dressed in western robes.



We appreciate the decision by Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh to replace the modern robes with traditional clothes, a statement by the outfit said.



We urge all Vice Chancellors to adopt the same and conduct convocation ceremonies in traditional clothes. We also request Governors of all states to intervene in this regard, it added.

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BHUBANESWAR:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing a public meeting at Balasore in Odisha. This is the third visit of PM Modi to Odisha this year and the fourth one after he took over in 2014. PM Modi's rally is part of a series of meetings to be addressed by the Prime Minister on completion of the NDA government's two years in office. PM Modi had earlier addressed a farmers' rally at Bargarh on February 21 and inaugurated the oil refinery project of Indian Oil Corporation Limited on February 7. Earlier, the prime minister dedicated the modernised and expanded units of Rourkela Steel Plant to the nation on April 1, 2015.

Here are the LIVE updates:

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Cairo:

A signal has been detected from one of two black boxes of EgyptAir plane which crashed last month in the Mediterranean killing all 66 people on board, authorities said today, a breakthrough that can help find the cause of the disaster.



French vessel La Place, which is participating in the search for the plane, has picked up signal coming from deep in the sea and believed to be from one of the black boxes of the plane, an Egyptian committee investigating the crash said in a statement.



French investigators confirmed the news. The signal from a beacon from a flight recorder has been detected by La Place, said a French official. An intensive search is currently underway to locate the precise position of the black boxes, which are believed to be at a depth of about 9,842 feet underwater.

A second ship, John Lethbridge affiliated with the Deep Ocean Search firm, will join the search team later this week, it said. The cause of the tragedy still has not been determined. The Airbus A-320s black box recorders could be critical in identifying the cause of the disaster.



EgyptAir flight MS804 disappeared from radar screens in the early hours of May 19, before it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea with all 66 passengers and crew on board presumed dead. Some body parts and small pieces of debris have been recovered.



The search for the plane has been narrowed to a 5-kilometer -wide area in the Mediterranean Sea based on signals from the its emergency beacon. Egypt has earlier said the likelihood of a terror attack was stronger than technical problems that caused the tragedy.



Leaked flight data indicated that a sensor detected smoke in a lavatory and a fault in two of the planes cockpit windows in the final moments of the flight.

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Haridwar:

The Centres initiative to get Gangajal delivered by Indian Postal Services at doorsteps has not gone down well with saints, who have strongly opposed the move. Slamming the government for using e-commerce platform to sell the holy water, the saints in this holy city on Wednesday passed a "censure motion."



They even threatened to move the Supreme Court if the government doesnt stop the commercialisation of Gangajal.

"This is Hindustan. Ganga is our mother and the soul of over 100 crores Indians. Selling mother is not just a sin, but a greatest sin. Ganga is our faith. We condemn the scheme launched by the government. If they don't stop it, we will move to the Supreme Court," Swami Achyutanand Teerth Ji Maharaj told ANI after their proceeding was over.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "If Gangajal from Haridwar and Rishikesh reaches to villages of the country, it's a good thing. It will benefit the rural areas. We are changing the face of the country through the postal department."



According to reports, some of the e-commerce websites have already implemented the plan to provide Gangajal. The websites reportedly charge Rs 299 for a litre bottle sourced from Gomukh, the place from where the river originates.

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Mumbai:

Rishi Kapoor today paid tribute to his father, legendary Bollywood actor-filmmaker Raj Kapoor on his 28th death anniversary, saying he is proud to be his son.



Raj Kapoor died on June 2, 1988 at the age of 63. Raj Kapoor. My Father. 1924-1988. Adieu, 28 years back! Achieved what most yearn in a life time. So proud to be his son! Rishi wrote on Twitter.



The 63-year-old actor also changed his Twitter handle to rahenge sada which is the lyrics of a famous Raj Kapoor song Jeena Yaha Marna Yaha from the film Mera Naam Joker.



Raj Kapoor, known as the Showman of Hindi cinema, has starred in films including Awara, Shree 420, Boot Polish, Sangam among others.

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New Delhi:

Veteran actor and comedian Razak Khan who has worked in a number of Bollywood movies died of a cardiac arrest on June 1. Khan 65, who is best known for his roles in Raja Hindustani and Baadshah was rushed to the hospital in Bandra where he was declared dead.

Khan has been tickling our funny bones for about two decades. The entire Bollywood industry mourned his death. Khan acted in over 150 films, along with a number of tv serials.

Here are some of his most memorable roles that Khan played:

Nawab Changezi (Ishq, 1997) Razak Khan as Nawab Changezi in the movie Ishq made an epic comic performance through dialogues and his acts. His comedy proved to be a great spark for the movie which also starred Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla, Ajay Devgn and Kajol. Manikchand, (Baadshah, 1999) Razak starring as Manikchand in Baadshah was quite a treat. SRK and Manikchand proved to be a treat to the movie goers. Ninja Chacha (Hello Brother, 1999) Razak Khan as Ninja Chacha gave a hilariously comic edge to Salman Khanas Hello Brother. Taxi driver (Amdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiya, 2001) Khanas idiosyncrasies and his dialogue delivery made him king of comic roles. From funny villains to taxi driver he was best suited for every other avatar. Secretary of Kader Khan in (Joru Ka Ghulam, 2000) It was great fun to have both Kader Khan and Razak Khan sharing the screen space. In the movie they both complimented each other as Razak was playing the role of an Urdu speaking secretary to Kader Khan. Fayyaz Takkar (Ankhiyo Se Goli Maare, 2002) Out of all, Razak Khan as Fayyaz Takkar is the most memorable. In the movie he played a local goon who demolished thick walls with one head-butt. Popat (Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3, 2016) Razak Khan was last seen on screen in Ekta Kapooras Popat in 2016.

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New Delhi :

The renowned Tiger temple in Thailand, popular among Indian and foreign tourists, has long been surrounded by many controversies. It was accused by animal rights activists of mistreating the tigers for commercial gain and even trafficking some of its animals for almost a decade. The Tiger temple in Thailand was founded in 1994 as a forest temple and sanctuary for wild animals.

In late May 2016, police and wildlife officials began an operation to remove all living tigers at Tiger Temple in Thailand. During the act, officials found over 40 tiger cub carcasses along with numerous body parts from other animals preserved in freezers.

Besides, some twelve living Hornbills were also confiscated as being possessed without license. The Tiger temple in Thailand was closed to the public at the beginning of the raid.

Recently, wildlife officials found 40 dead tiger cubs in a freezer and Thailand may shut down its famed Tiger Temple amid allegations of illegal trafficking and ill-treatment of the animals by authorities at the Buddhist shrine. Moreover pictures posted on social media showed the 40 dead cubs lined up on the floor. The site has been closed for public since the raid.

Although monks at the tiger temple earlier refused to accept trafficking allegations but police and wildlife officials started an operation on Monday to relocate its 137 tigers, mostly Bengal tigers. The tiger temple in Thailand housed a total of 137 tigers.

In the first batch, more than 100 tigers will be taken away from the temple, said the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

The Wildlife departments deputy director Adisorn Noochdumrong led the relocation operation on Monday armed with a search warrant from a provincial court. We are trying to solve problems step by step, he said. The department hopes to relocate all 137 tigers of the Tiger temple in Thailand in a weeks span.

Most of the tigers will be sent to the Khaoson and Khao Prathap Chang breeding centers in Ratchaburi province. However, due to the temples attitude, Adisorn admitted that the operation may take longer than seven days.

Furthermore the situation was quite stressful at the temple on Monday as officials and temple representatives met. Kasetsart University Faculty of Forestry lecturer Anak Pattanavibool said the authorities were right to relocate the tigers because the state was the animals rightful owner. The procedure to keep the tigers at breeding centers is the best choice we can do, because these tigers were raised in captivity and cannot be returned to the wild. Furthermore, many of them are Bengal tigers, which are not native to Thailand, Anak said.

We cannot give them to a zoo or other countries because they are the governments property, so the government has to keep them until they naturally die, he said.

The popular Buddist temple also known as the Tiger temple at Kanchanaburi in Thailand has always promoted itself as a spiritual sanctuary where wild animals and humans can peacefully coexist. The visitors were charged to enter the compound of the temple and walk with the big cats. The tourists were also allowed to take selfies with tigers. However, Thai authorities have long been under pressure to stop the business in the wake of the complaints received by the animal rights activists.

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New Delhi :

Over 2,000 people have reported to have been infected with HIV while getting blood transfusion in the past 17 months in the country, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) on Wednesday said, refuting reports, based on its RTI reply, that contaminated blood is spreading the disease as factually incorrect.

In reply to an RTI query filed by Mumbai-based activist Chetan Kothari, NACO said a total of 2,234 cases involving patients getting infected with HIV while getting blood transfusion were reported across the country within a period of 17 months.



The number is highest for Uttar Pradesh where 361 such cases were reported while Gujarat came second with 292 cases, Maharashtra third with 276 and New Delhi fourth with 264 such cases, Kothari told PTI.



Kothari said the actual figure might be double or triple of the official data. The information provided in response to the RTI query refers to information on self-reported transmission of HIV recorded by counsellors from clients attending Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres (ICTC). This is further not corroborated by any scientific means to confirm that transmission is indeed due to blood transfusion, NACO said.



The report indicating that contaminated blood is spreading HIV in India is factually incorrect since all blood banks have to mandatorily test all collected blood units for five transmission transmitted infections including HIV, HBV, HCV, Syphilis and Malaria, it said.



The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) said despite the best testing facilities, there still exists a window period during which an infection cannot be detected by any test, even nucleic acid test (NAT).



Blood transfusion account for less than one per cent of total HIV infection and no increasing trend in HIV transmission through blood are reflected in ICTC data, NACO said.Kothari said there are two kinds of test for ascertaining whether the blood is HIV positive or negative. The result of the first test takes around 60 days to come while the second one, which gives results in seven days, is very expensive.



There are private labs which also conduct these tests but they charge hefty amounts. Therefore, it is not possible for poor people to get it done. The central and the state government need to coordinate and bring out a measure so that these things are made available to the poor, he said.



He said that in the RTI reply, there are states like Meghalaya, Tripura and Sikkim which have zero reports. I have been to one or two states and there is lack of hospitals with good facilities. That is why such incidents have not taken place there, he said.



As per India HIV Estimation Report 2015, 21.17 lakh people are living with HIV. India has the third largest number of people living with HIV in the world and the other two countries having higher numbers are South Africa (68 lakhs) and Nigeria (34 lakhs), Union Health Minister J P Nadda had recently said.






New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a five-nation visit from June 4 which will cover Afghanistan, Qatar, Switzerland, the US and Mexico. Modi will begin his trip with Afghanistan to inaugurate India-funded Salma Dam which has been constructed at a cost of about Rs 1400 crore. From Afghanistan, he will proceed to energy-rich Qatar and then to Switzerland.



During the two-day visit to energy-rich Qatar, Modi will hold extensive talks with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on a range of bilateral issues including ways to further boost economic ties, particularly in the hydrocarbon sector.



In Switzerland, the Prime Minister will hold talks with the Swiss leadership, including President Johann Schneider-Ammann, and is likely to seek cooperation to unearth black money accounts of Indians in Switzerland which was a promise made by him during elections in 2014.



According to sources, the officials of the two countries are working on finalising an arrangement that could pave the way for automatic exchange of information on tax-related issues. The Switzerland government had on May 18 initiated consultation on an ordinance to put in place a mechanism for automatic exchange of tax information with India and other countries.



From Switzerland, Modi will travel to the US on June 7 at the invitation of President Barack Obama, with whom he will review the progress made in key areas of defence, security and energy. During his stay, he will also address a Joint Meeting of the US Congress.



On his return, he will visit Mexico where India is eyeing trade and investment tie ups. In September last year, during his UN visit in New York Modi had held talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.Modi will visit Switzerland on June 5-6, MEA said, adding with growing bilateral trade and foreign investment, India and Switzerland enjoy strong economic ties.



During the stay, Modi and Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann will hold discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest, MEA said.



Asserting that bilateral relations between India and Mexico have witnessed renewed vigour and activity in the last two years, the MEA said the main objective of Modis visit would be to carry forward the momentum in the bilateral relations and discuss cooperation in areas such as space, energy, agriculture and science and technology among others. The two leaders will also be discussing various multilateral issues during the visit, it added.

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London:

It is time to acknowledge the uncomfortable truth that the Islamic State is linked with Islam as the terror group is not preaching Judaism, the BBCs head of religion and ethics has said.

Professor Aaqil Ahmed, the first Muslim to hold the role at the British news corporation, said in a speech at Huddersfield University it was wrong to suggest that the terrorist group has nothing to do with Islam.

I hear so many people say ISIS has nothing to do with Islamof course it has. They are not preaching Judaism. It might be wrong but what they are saying is an ideology based on some form of Islamic doctrine, Ahmed said last week.

The academic was fielding questions about the BBCs approach to Muslim issues at the event curated by Lapido, the centre for religious literacy in journalism.

They (Islamic State) are Muslims. That is a fact and we have to get our head around some very uncomfortable things. That is where the difficulty comes in for many journalists, because the vast majority of Muslims wont agree with them, he said.

The BBC had come under fire from British Prime Minister David Cameron for using the term Islamic State rather than Daesh in reference to the terrorist group.

The Prime Minister in January had said, I think Muslim families around the country would have held their heads in despair this morning when once again you just called it Islamic State. You didnt even say so-called Islamic State. Its so important. The BBC has since resorted to the phrase so-called Islamic State when referring to ISIS.

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Kathmandu:

Nepals Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa is set to visit India next week during which he will hold talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and meet top officials. Thapa will fly to New Delhi on June 10, Foreign Ministry sources here said.

During his four-day visit, Thapa, who is also Nepals Foreign Minister, is expected to meet Swaraj and top officials. Thapas visit comes at the invitation of South Asian University which is organising its convocation on June 11 in New Delhi.

This will be Thapas fourth visit to India since he assumed office in October last year. Around 450 students will be receiving their degrees at the convocation.

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Los Angeles:

The gunman who killed a UCLA professor has been identified as his former doctoral student Indian-American Mainak Sarkar, who had accused him of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, a media report said.



Sarkar, an alumni of the IIT-Kharagpur, shot and killed professor William Klug in a small office in University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) before killing himself yesterday, The Los Angeles Times reported, citing sources.



The shooting prompted a complete lockdown of the campus and deployment of hundreds of police officers as well as federal agents.



All university classes were cancelled yesterday. The lockdown was lifted shortly after noon. Some 43,000 students are enrolled at the UCLA campus, according to its website.



Klug, 39, was an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and had been the target of Sarkars anger on social media for months, the paper said.



He accused the professor of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else, it said.



William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy, Sarkar wrote on March 10.



He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust, he wrote.



In his doctoral dissertation, submitted in 2013, Sarkar had expressed gratitude to Klug for his help and support, the paper said. Thank you for being my mentor, he wrote.



Before enrolling at UCLA, Sarkar earned a masters degree at Stanford University, according to his LinkedIn page.



In 2000, he graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with a degree in Aerospace Engineering.



He also had a stint as a research assistant at the University of Texas and worked as a software developer.



After UCLA, Sarkar worked remotely as an engineering analyst for an Ohio-based rubber company, Endurica LLC where he worked until August 2014.

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New Delhi:

India today lambasted Pakistan for needlessly internationalising the Kashmir issue, asserting it was not the main cause of tension between the two countries and that externally sponsored terrorism was the central issue.



External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup also said Pakistan needs to end its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and stop interfering in Indias internal matters.



We completely reject the insinuations by the vested interests against India which has rightful sovereignty over the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir. We also stress that there are no global dimensions of the Kashmir issue except in the minds of those who seek to needlessly internationalise a bilateral matter.



Pakistan needs to vacate its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and address the suffering caused to millions in those parts, he said.



He was asked to comment on a conference in Islamabad organised to discuss global dimension of Kashmir issue.



When asked about Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussains comments yesterday that India was running away from talks, Swarup said, The main cause for lack of peace and continued instability in our region is externally sponsored terrorism and Pakistans repeated interference in internal affairs of India.



Hussain had said despite Pakistans offer of joint-probe in the Pathankot terror attack, India was avoiding the talks. He had also raked up the Kashmir issue, calling it an unfinished agenda of partition and the main cause of regional tension.



Asked about Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khans comments that his country has the capability to hit New Delhi in five minutes, the MEA spokesperson did not give a direct reply, saying the Pakistani envoy in India has already said that only foolish people make such remarks.



Replying to a question on China occupying parts of Kashmir, the MEA spokesperson said it is part of talks on boundary issue between the two countries.



Asked about China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which passes through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, Swarup said India has asked both the countries to cease activities there.

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At least 33 US cities used water testing cheats over lead concerns

At least 33 cities across 17 US states have used water testing cheats that potentially conceal dangerous levels of lead, a Guardian investigation launched in the wake of the toxic water crisis in Flint, Michigan, has found.

(Article by Oliver Milman and Jessica Glenza, republished from //www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/02/lead-water-testing-cheats-chicago-boston-philadelphia)

Of these cities, 21 used the same water testing methods that prompted criminal charges against three government employees in Flint over their role in one of the worst public health disasters in US history.

The crisis that gripped Flint is an extreme case where a cost-cutting decision to divert the citys water supply to a polluted river was compounded by a poor testing regime and delays by environmental officials to respond to the health emergency.

The Guardians investigation demonstrates that similar testing regimes were in place in cities including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Milwaukee.

Thousands of documents detailing water testing practices over the past decade reveal:

Despite warnings of regulators and experts, water departments in at least 33 cities used testing methods over the past decade that could underestimate lead found in drinking water.

Officials in two major cities  Philadelphia and Chicago  asked employees to test water safety in their own homes.

Two states  Michigan and New Hampshire  advised water departments to give themselves extra time to complete tests so that if lead contamination exceeded federal limits, officials could re-sample and remove results with high lead levels.

Some cities denied knowledge of the locations of lead pipes, failed to sample the required number of homes with lead plumbing or refused to release lead pipe maps, claiming it was a security risk.

The disaster in Flint, sparked when authorities failed to treat drinking water for lead, prompted criminal charges againstthree government employees: Mike Glasgow, Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby. Marc Edwards, the scientist who first uncovered the crisis in Flint, described water testing in some of Americas largest cities as an outrage. They make lead in water low when collecting samples for EPA compliance, even as it poisons kids who drink the water, Edwards, a Virginia Tech scientist, said. Clearly, the cheating and lax enforcement are needlessly harming children all over the United States. If they cannot be trusted to protect little kids from lead in drinking water, what on Earth can they be trusted with? Who amongst us is safe? For 25 years, the Environmental Protection Agency has required water utilities to test a small pool of households for lead contamination at least every three years. Typically, city water departments ask residents to collect these water samples. But the way residents are instructed to sample their water, as well as which households are chosen for testing, can profoundly impact how much lead is detected. Testing methods that can avoid detecting lead include asking testers to run faucets before the test period, known as pre-flushing; to remove faucet filters called aerators; and to slowly fill sample bottles. The EPA reiterated in February that these lead-reducing methods go against its guidelines, and the Flint charges show they may now be criminal acts. The arrest warrant for Glasgow, Busch and Prysby states that the men did properly manipulate the collection of water samples by directing residents to pre-flush their taps by running the water for five minutes the night before drawing a water sample and/or did fail to collect required sampled included in the tier 1 category of service lines. The tactic of pre-flushing, which helps clear lead from home plumbing prior to a test, is rampant across many large cities. In their most recent test cycles, Philadelphia; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Buffalo, New York, tested water for lead in this way. The EPA has warned since 2008 that pre-flushing is problematic and goes against the intent of regulations designed to detect lead. Nevertheless, the federal agency failed to properly police state agencies who included the method in sample instructions for years, including at the Maine and Rhode Island departments of health. Further distortion is achieved through the removal of aerators  the small metal filters at the tip of faucets. These filters can collect lead particles and add to lead detected in tests. The EPA has warned against this practice since 2006, when it became clear that a lead poisoning case in Durham, North Carolina, was missed by the water department at least partly because it routinely removed the filters. Philadelphia, a city accused of having the worst water testing in the US, asks testers to pre-flush their pipes, remove aerators and slowly pour water into a sample bottle. The EPA has warned against all these testing methods, which could mask the added contribution of lead at the tap. Documents show some authorities have also removed high-risk homes from testing or sought to obscure their dangerous lead levels. In Michigan, a department of environmental quality (MDEQ) official told the director of a town water department in a Detroit suburb called Howell to bump this one out, referring to a sample with high lead levels, by taking additional samples. I would suggest at least five more samples, Adam Rosenthal, an official at the MDEQ drinking water office wrote in an email in 2008. New Hampshire offered similar advice to water system officials in that state, advising water departments to test early so any high results could be re-tested.

If your water system samples early in their compliance period, then time remains for you to collect a second set of samples, reads advice from New Hampshires department of environmental services to local water systems. This may result in a 90th percentile below action levels.

Thousands of Flints children are expected to suffer developmental problems as a result of the lead contamination. Hundreds of thousands of bottles of water have been distributed to the city by the national guard, deployed in January. Barack Obama called Flints lead contamination a man-made disaster and a symptom of urban neglect suffered by poor, largely black communities across the US.

Since the crisis in Flint prompted a federal state of emergency, the city, state and its new water supplier, Detroit, phased out water testing distortions. But other cities have failed to do so  against the advice of EPA guidelines..

In the nine years since the EPA last updated lead regulations, a substantial body ofpeer-reviewed science has shown no level of lead is safe for humans. Tiny amounts are associated with impaired development and behavioral problems in children, and exposure is linked to a propensity to commit violent crimes.

Also in that time, peer-reviewed studies by EPA scientists andacademics showed how testing methods that flout guidelines miss lead contamination. Some of these studies even stemmed from previous lead contamination crises, such as inWashington DC in 2001. What on earth can you do when the environmental policemen at EPA have condoned open cheating on the water lead rule for more than a decade now? said Edwards, the author of several studies. In a statement, the EPA did not respond to the widespread testing distortions but said it is currently working on long-term revisions to its lead and copper rule, expected in 2017. During our review, EPA has been evaluating critical issues related to increasing public health protections under the rule while maintaining an approach that can be feasibly implemented by the states and drinking water utilities, the regulator said. As we develop the proposed revisions to the rule, we are also focusing on enhanced oversight of the states, including implementation of the existing rule. In EPAs recent letter to the states, we make clear that approaches are not to include aerator removal or allow pre-stagnation flushing prior to collection of samples by residents. The crisis in water testing could be even more widespread than evidence unearthed by the Guardian shows. Several large cities sell water onto almost 400 adjacent cities and towns. Many of these locations also test their own water as part of EPA recommendations. As part of its investigation in the wake of the Flint disaster, the Guardian sought water testing documents from 81 of the largest cities in states east of the Mississippi River. Eastern states are considered to have a high risk of lead contamination due to their aging infrastructure. Forty-three cities provided information, and 33 of these used distortions in their water testing in the past decade. Several cities do correctly follow EPA guidelines on testing, according to documents provided to the Guardian, including: Cincinnati, Ohio; Jacksonville, Florida; Louisville, Kentucky; and Mobile, Alabama. Several said they intend to change protocols when they next test, including Mount Pleasant, South Carolina; Buffalo, New York; Worcester and Boston, Massachusetts; Lewiston, Maine; and the Rhode Island and Maine health departments. Chicago stopped aerator removal and pre-flushing by 2012. In response to the Guardians investigation, many water departments said the EPA had not issued clear guidance on the issue in the past. Some said they had never received a previous EPA memo regarding testing protocols, or that the practices are not illegal. Read more at: //www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/02/lead-water-testing-cheats-chicago-boston-philadelphia

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Before "Dirty Harry," there were the spaghetti westerns, before that, there was "Rawhide," before that... nobody actually knew who Clint Eastwood was. But photographer Earl Leaf had a knack for discovering stars ahead of their time  his 1950 photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe, for example.

Leaf's classic portrait session of Eastwood posing, mostly shirtless, around his home in Los Angeles is 60 years old now this year as the actor himself has turns 86 this week.
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More Living 11 odd things to know about Connecticut

Snopes is the land where urban legends go to die. Among their most popular urban legends right now are articles debunking the theory that Americans are immune to the Zika virus and a story reassuring anyone who fell for the "Mr. T is dead" hoax circulating on the internet.

Snopes tackles some Connecticut myths like Milford banned Halloween and UConn is segregating its students.

Click through the slideshow above to check out some Connecticut legends and myths - both true and false.

While most myths are all in good fun, unfortunately, Connecticut has been targeted by hurtful conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook tragedy never happened. Many people know all too well that the events of December 14, 2012 were real and continue to cause pain. Thankfully, Snopes debunks all theories of the shooting being a hoax.
NEW MILFORD  Representatives from schools, the police department, the state and rehabilitation facilities gathered with the community Wednesday to discuss how the town can address a growing drug problem.

More than 40 people attended the towns first community forum to ask questions, learn about existing programs and discover what they can do to help. The forum focused on education, enforcement and care and support for drug users and their families.

Were moving beyond recognizing we have a problem in the community, and moving toward a plan of action, Mayor David Gronbach said before the event.

Gronbach came up with the idea for the forum, and reached out to the New Milford Youth Agency, which helped gather resources and made the event happen.

New Milford had four heroin overdose deaths in 2013, five in 2014 and six in 2015. New Milfords first heroin overdose death of 2016 was reported last week, according to the panel discussion.

All of the towns first responders carry naloxone, an antidote for opioid overdoses. First responders have used it nine times since being trained in October and were able to save the patient every time, Police Chief Shawn Boyne said.

Dr. Carl DAndrea, who works in New Milford Hospitals emergency department, said naloxone should be easily accessible and cheap. More pharmacies, including two in New Milford, carry it, but he said two milliliters can cost $150 without insurance.

Limits of hospitalization

DAndrea said the hospital isnt allowed to keep patients for detox, and its important to increase education to prevent the drug addiction from starting.

Rehabilitation facilities try to fill the gap, offering a limited number of beds for those detoxing, providing rehabilitation programs, group sessions and other therapy or counseling. People can call the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to be connected to services.

We try to do what we can in the emergency department, but were very limited, and the problem is much bigger than people realize, DAndrea said.

As of March, Connecticut has had 208 accidental drug intoxication deaths in 2016 and the state is projected to reach 832 by the end of year, which is 103 more than last year, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Of those deaths, heroin, morphine and/or codeine were detected in 119 cases.

Gronbach, Boyne and Superintendent of Schools Joshua Smith said the town couldnt arrest their way out of this, and should instead focus on treating the root of the drug problem.

Boyne said the police are using this idea to reduce the amount of drugs purchased in Danbury or Waterbury and brought into New Milford. The department uses unmarked vehicles to do motor vehicle stops and help cut down on trafficking. The department has a drug take-back box where people can return prescription drugs anytime.

Educating the young

The schools are starting to teach young students about drugs and their associated dangers, as well as addiction and other harmful behaviors. In additional to the normal classroom instruction, these lessons are taught with speakers, research projects, hands-on activities and model conversations where students offer or are offered drugs or alcohol.

New Milford High School will pilot a new program next year as part of the governors prevention partnership, in which students will teach their peers about refusing drugs and how its cool to be sober.

We look at it, really, starting at 5 years old and building the skills they need, Smith said, so as they mature, they have the skill set they need to not use drugs and stay away.

School officials said its important to understand why students seek drugs or alcohol, and to work with them on those issues, which could stem from stress, the home life or other emotional factors. Troubled students are able to speak with counselors, social workers or in group settings. A new therapeutic program is starting at the high school which will allow the clinical staff to meet with the families outside of school.

If we dont work on the pressures, were just putting our finger in the dike, Smith said.

kkoerting@newstimes.com; 203-731-3345; @kkoerting
The House of Representatives will gather in special session on Thursday to put finally put the finishing touches on the $19.7-billion state budget that will take effect July 1.

But a week after a leading Republican suggested that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy drop an attempt to raise the age that juveniles are treated as adults in the criminal-justice system, GOP lawmakers are not yet on board, despite the governors new plan to limit the bill to bail reforms.

The Republican criticism set off a war of words with Malloys Capitol spokesman, Devon Puglia, who charged that Republicans are now trying to walk away from what had previously been overt support for judicial bond reform, with backwards policy, and ugly, hypocritical politics.

House Minority Leader Themis Klarides and Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano on Wednesday charged that 60 percent of those who would qualify for free bail are convicted felons and that nearly 80 percent of those who qualify have three prior convictions. Klarides, R-Derby and Fasano, R-North Haven, want the bill that hits the House floor on Thursday to have tighter restrictions.

On Thursday the House is scheduled to vote on legislation no one has seen, Klarides said in a statement. The governor has released multiple press releases stating the daily number of pre-trial inmates who could be impacted if Second Chance 2.0 were implemented. Using those numbers and looking at the actual offenses, the governors estimates include many more people than just the individuals who have committed only low-level, victimless offenses. Convicted felons and violent individuals should not be exempted from having a bond set. The language ultimately put in front of the legislature this week should be refined so that it is abundantly clear that any bail reform applies only to non-violent, non-predatory, non-selling drug offenses - and that those who have a history of repeated offenses and felonies are not given the same, more-lax treatment.

Fasano last week suggested that Malloy shelf the raise-the-age portion of what the governor called Second Chance Society 2.0, a follow-up to last years bill to help former inmates seek job training and housing opportunities and reducing penalties for simple drug possession. Malloy is trying to reduce the racial disparity in the state prison system, while saving money and helping former lawbreakers to transition back into society.

Its astonishing watching Republican leaders backpedal on common-sense criminal justice reforms, Puglia said in defense of Malloy. All they are trying to do is get to no. And its clear that they would rather make impoverished citizens - many from urban areas - sit in jail rather than save millions in taxpayer dollars. After all, these are the same leaders who claim they want our justice system to operate fairly for all people. Theyd rather develop a political wedge issue than do whats right for Connecticut citizens and their state budget. Its not just unfortunate - it relies on twisted logic, backwards policy, and ugly, hypocritical politics.

Democrats, who have an 87-64 majority, will discuss the legislation during a closed-door caucus scheduled for noon. The bill would then move to the Senbate, which has not yet scheduled a date to meet in special session. The House is also expected to approve a school-construction bill that previously passed the Senate.
DANBURY - Speakers punctuated the celebratory mood at Thursday mornings celebration breakfast for 20 new citizens with a call to civic action.

Having citizenship gives you the power to raise your voice for the people who dont have a voice, said Jorge Llivichuzhca, 25, of Danbury, a native of Ecuador who was awarded the Outstanding Citizenship Recognition. I cant emphasize that enough.
OTTAWA, June 2, 2016 /CNW/ - Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry Bellegarde yesterday addressed police leaders from across Canada at the "Moving Forward, Safe Futures" Conference hosted by The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in Winnipeg, calling for immediate and collaborative efforts to ensure safety and security for First Nations wherever they reside and to use the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as a guide to reconciliation.

"I am encouraged that the delegates present were all people who have the power to make positive, progressive change," AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde told the gathering of more than 200 police leaders from across the country. "We must commit to real change now by identifying and understanding the flawed systems and systemic problems that hold us back so we can improve and succeed. Together we can achieve police and justice systems and support community safety plans that work for Indigenous people and communities. We can move towards a justice system that is restorative instead of punitive, with the ultimate goal of a First Nations justice system."

The "Moving Forward Safer Future" Conference took place May 31 and June 1 in Winnipeg and provided inclusive dialogue among police, policy makers and Aboriginal peoples.

Established in 1905, The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Association is dedicated to the support and promotion of efficient law enforcement and to the protection and security of the people of Canada. It represents approximately 1,000 police leaders from across Canada, which includes federal, First Nations, provincial, regional and municipal, transportation and military police.

The AFN is the national organization representing First Nations citizens in Canada. Follow AFN on Twitter @AFN_Comms, @AFN_Updates.

SOURCE Assembly of First Nations

For further information: Alain Garon AFN Bilingual Communications Officer 613-241-6789, ext 382; 613-292-0857 or [email protected]
TORONTO, June 1, 2016 /CNW/ - As some Fort McMurray residents begin the process of voluntary re-entry into their communities once authorized by the Government of Alberta, Aviva Canada is urging them to take advantage of important information to protect themselves and their families.

The situation in Fort McMurray remains an emergency and the Government of Alberta has also warned about potential dangers from noxious substances and poor air quality caused by the wildfires.

For residents considering voluntary re-entry, there are also many personal circumstances that require careful consideration. It's important for evacuees to know there are available sources of helpful information to provide guidance, including:

A comprehensive Re-Entry Booklet from the Province of Alberta and Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo that provides information on a broad range of topics from what to do with food items left behind, to what to be aware of for residents with pre-existing medical conditions. It can be found here: http://asset.rmwb.ca/files/RMWB-Re-Entry%20Information-Booklet-V3.pdf



from the Province of and Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo that provides information on a broad range of topics from what to do with food items left behind, to what to be aware of for residents with pre-existing medical conditions. It can be found here: http://asset.rmwb.ca/files/RMWB-Re-Entry%20Information-Booklet-V3.pdf A fire recovery document prepared by The Canadian Red Cross to help people return after catastrophic fires: http://www.redcross.ca/crc/documents/3-1-2-4-Fire-Recovery-Guide.pdf



to help people return after catastrophic fires: http://www.redcross.ca/crc/documents/3-1-2-4-Fire-Recovery-Guide.pdf The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) has assembled helpful information for residents about next steps: http://www.ibc.ca/ab/disaster/fortmacfire

Aviva has mobilized its team of claims and catastrophe response experts from across the country to prioritize providing all necessary assistance to customers affected by the Fort McMurray fires and is also working closely with government and industry partners.

All evacuees are reminded to register for support with Aviva's Ready When the Times Comes national disaster response partner, the Red Cross, by calling 1 888 350 6070 or by visiting www.redcross.ca.

Customers can also check avivacanada.com and social media pages for more information on Aviva's response and updates on the situation.

About Aviva Canada

Aviva Canada is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in the country providing home, automobile, leisure/lifestyle and business insurance to more than three million customers. A wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, the company has more than 3,500 employees, 25 locations across Canada and approximately 1,500 independent broker partners.

Aviva Canada invests in positive change through the Aviva Community Fund, Canada's longest running online community funding competition. Since its inception in 2009, the Aviva Community Fund has awarded $6.5 million to over 222 charities and community groups nationwide.

SOURCE Aviva Canada Inc.

Image with caption: "Aviva Canada Inc. (CNW Group/Aviva Canada Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160601_C4193_PHOTO_EN_703666.jpg

For further information: Media Contact: Priscilla Wong, Public Relations Specialist, Aviva Canada Inc., Desk: 416 288 6780, Mobile: 647 208 7523, [email protected]
BRAMPTON, ON, June 1, 2016 /CNW/ - With the return of residents to Fort McMurray today, Loblaw Companies Ltd. is pleased to announce that its fundraising effort has resulted in a donation of close to $5 million for those impacted by the recent wildfires.

"The outpouring of support from our customers and colleagues has been overwhelming, resulting in our largest-ever fundraising campaign," said Bob Chant, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communication, Loblaw Companies Ltd. "We recognize the residents of Fort McMurray have a long journey ahead of them and we hope that these funds can help in the rebuilding their community."

The donation is a combination of a number of efforts across the company's business in addition to the $300,000 financial commitment to the Canadian Red Cross, including:

$280,000 worth of essential food and health provisions for evacuation centres and first responders from Loblaw grocery

worth of essential food and health provisions for evacuation centres and first responders from Loblaw grocery More than $4.2 million in cash donations collected at Loblaw grocery stores and Shoppers Drug Mart stores

in cash donations collected at Loblaw grocery stores and Shoppers Drug Mart stores 76 million Shoppers Optimum points donated

47,000 Joe Fresh clothing items for displaced residents

clothing items for displaced residents $25,000 from Shoppers Drug Mart to be put towards health and beauty aids for evacuees

Today also marks an important milestone for the company in Fort McMurray as one grocery store, one gas bar and one drug store will reopen to serve residents. The Shoppers Drug Mart at River City Centre on Franklin Avenue and the Real Canadian Superstore and Gas Bar at 9 Haineault Street will both open today. Store teams in Fort McMurray have been working closely with Alberta Health Services to ensure that the product available to residents meets all quality standards. Work continues on three Shoppers Drug Mart locations, the Extra Foods store and Gas Bar and two Real Canadian Liquor stores with hopes of reopening in the next few days.

"I want to thank our colleagues, Associate-owners and their staff for their tremendous effort in getting these stores ready to serve residents," added Chant. "What would normally take six weeks took these teams just six days to achieve, truly demonstrating the commitment and compassion they have for their neighbours."

About Loblaw Companies Limited (TSX: L)

Loblaw Companies Limited is Canada's food and pharmacy leader, the nation's largest retailer, and the majority unitholder of Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust. Loblaw provides Canadians with grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, banking, and wireless mobile products and services. With more than 2,300 corporate, franchised and Associate-owned locations, Loblaw, its franchisees, and Associate-owners employ approximately 192,000 full- and part-time employees, making it one of Canada's largest private sector employers.

Loblaw's purpose - Live Life Well - puts first the needs and well-being of Canadians who make one billion transactions annually in the company's stores. Loblaw is positioned to meet and exceed those needs in many ways: convenient locations; more than 1,050 grocery stores that span the value spectrum from discount to specialty; full-service pharmacies at more than 1,250 Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix locations and more than 500 Loblaw locations; no-fee banking with PC Financial; affordable Joe Fresh fashion and family apparel; and three of Canada's top consumer brands in Life Brand, no name and President's Choice. Through the PC Plus and Shoppers Optimum loyalty programs, more than one in every three Canadians are rewarded for shopping with the companies.

SOURCE Loblaw Companies Limited

For further information:

[email protected], 905-459-2500
MONTREAL, June 2, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - Transat A.T. Inc., one of the largest integrated tourism companies in the world and Canada's holiday travel leader will release its second quarter 2016 (ended April 30) results on June 9. Jean-Marc Eustache, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer and Denis Petrin, Vice-President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer, invite financial analysts to take part in a conference call the same day. Business reporters are welcome to attend the conference call in listen-only mode.

Thursday, June 9 at 10:00 A.M.

Dial 1-800-926-9801

Name of conference: Transat

Webcast on www.transat.com

The archived call will be available at 416-626-4100 or 1-800-558-5253 access code 21806235, until July 8, 2016.

SOURCE Transat A.T. Inc.

For further information: Michel Lemay, (514) 987-1660, ext. 4523
MERX offers free electronic tendering service to buyers and suppliers to support Fort McMurray rebuilding efforts.

OTTAWA, June 2, 2016 /CNW/ - MERX Networks Inc. ("MERX"), a subsidiary of Mediagrif Interactive Technologies Inc. (TSX: MDF), today announced the launch of a free service offering to help buyers and suppliers support the extraordinary relief and rebuilding efforts for Fort McMurray. The crisis in the Fort McMurray area represents one of the most costly natural disasters in Canadian history. MERX is offering organizations the ability to post Fort McMurray related projects for free in order to reach and attract vendors, skilled trades and professionals. MERX is also offering the entire vendor community free electronic access to these rebuilding opportunities.

"In the wake of this crisis, suppliers from all across Canada want to help by offering their products, services and expertise." said Jean-Michel Stam, President, MERX Networks. "As a Canadian company MERX is pleased to present a platform with over 200,000 suppliers to support Canada wide rebuilding outreach and communication."

MERX, one of Canada's leading electronic tendering solutions, will provide public and private sector organizations wishing to post relief related projects such as sourcing, reconstruction, demolition, and environmental remediation with free access to suppliers willing and able to help them. Buying organizations simply need to register in the program by calling the MERX Buyer Support line at

1-888-738-3005 or 613-727-4987. Enrollment grants access to a special account that allows notices posted with #FortMcMurray in their notice descriptions to receive distinct placement for easy identification and distribution to suppliers.

"We should all be proud. The Government of Canada and province of Alberta provided hundreds of millions of dollars in needed disaster relief and assistance. Their pledges to match Canadian Red Cross donations, rallied donors from across the country and around the world to contribute more than $100 million dollars to help the residents of Fort McMurray. The support from other Canadian provinces has also been incredible" said Paul Bodnoff, VP Operations, MERX Networks. "I'm thrilled to announce that MERX will be there to help make the connections that will drive complex rebuilding efforts forward." The MERX #FortMcMurray support program is available immediately.

The entire supplier network is also being informed of the launch of this initiative and will be provided assistance to tune their matching profiles to include opportunities to help rebuild Fort McMurray.

About MERX

MERX, ( www.merx.com ) a subsidiary of Mediagrif Interactive Technologies Inc. (TSX: MDF), is a leading provider of electronic tendering services in Canada. MERX helps thousands of private and public organizations reduce strategic sourcing costs while improving efficiencies and accountability to stakeholders. For more than 17 years, MERX has helped suppliers find business opportunities within the private and public sector including all levels of government in Canada and the U.S. With hundreds of billions of dollars in goods and services tendered through a global network of over 200,000 suppliers, MERX enables any organization to strategically optimize procurement with a 360 degree perspective of needs, supply and supplier performance.

SOURCE MERX Networks Inc.

Image with caption: "Logo: MERX Networks Inc. (CNW Group/MERX Networks Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160601_C5794_PHOTO_EN_703659.jpg

For further information: MERX Networks Inc.: Paul Bodnoff, Vice-President Operations, MERX Networks Inc., Tel.: 613-727-4886, Toll Free: 1-800-964-6379, Email: [email protected]
TSXV: NEV

VANCOUVER, June 2, 2016, /CNW/ - Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation ("Nevada Sunrise" or the "Company") (TSXV: NEV) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (the "BLM") has approved a Plan of Operations for the Golden Arrow property ("Golden Arrow", or the "Property") located 40 miles (60 kilometres) east of Tonopah in Nye County, Nevada, USA.

Nevada Sunrise, through its wholly-owned Nevada subsidiary Intor Resources Corp., submitted a Plan of Operations (the "Plan") for Golden Arrow to the BLM in early 2015. The Plan contemplates approximately 240,000 feet (73,170 metres) of drilling in up to 240 holes to explore for new areas of gold mineralization on the Property, and to potentially expand the known gold resources. The approval of the Plan is the successful outcome of a permitting process initiated by the Company in June 2014, when biological surveys commenced at Golden Arrow, followed by cultural surveys. In February 2016, an Environmental Assessment for the Project was filed online by the BLM for public review. After the required 30-day period, and following a review of comments received from the local stakeholders and other interested parties, the BLM concluded that the implementation of the Plan does not pose significant impacts on the Project area and a positive decision document was issued on May 11, 2016.

"The approval of our Golden Arrow exploration plan is an important step for Nevada Sunrise" said Warren Stanyer, President and CEO of Nevada Sunrise. "Our objective is to increase the size and quality of the gold resources at Golden Arrow and we are now able to carry out the work necessary to achieve that goal."

To review the Golden Arrow Environmental Assessment and other documents related to the permitting process, please visit: http://1.usa.gov/23ZvuY0

Nevada Sunrise has been actively seeking exploration partners for Golden Arrow and is currently evaluating option and joint venture opportunities for the Project.

About Golden Arrow

Golden Arrow consists of 357 unpatented claims and 17 patented claims on the western flank of the Kawich Range approximately 40 miles (60 kilometres) southeast of Tonopah, Nevada. The Property is situated on the eastern margin of the Walker Lane Structural Belt in a mining district with a long history of precious metals mining and exploration.

Golden Arrow hosts a calculated Measured and Indicated resource of 296,500 ounces of gold and 4,008,000 ounces of silver contained in 12,172,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.024 oz/t gold, and 0.33 oz/t silver. It also hosts a calculated Inferred resource of 50,400 ounces gold and 1,249,000 ounces silver contained in 3,790,000 tonnes at an average grade of 0.013 oz/t gold and 0.33 oz/t silver. Silver to gold ratio is 55 to 1; variable cutoff grades are 0.01 oz/t gold for oxide and 0.015 oz/t gold for unoxidized (resource estimates calculated by Mine Development Associates, Reno, NV, May 2009  see link to National Instrument 43-101 report in Investors at www.nevadasunrise.ca or under Nevada Sunrise's filed public documents at www.sedar.com.

The technical information contained in this news release for Golden Arrow was reviewed and approved by John Kerr, P.Eng., a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Nevada Sunrise

Nevada Sunrise is a junior mineral exploration company with a strong technical team based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, that holds interests in nine mineral exploration projects in the State of Nevada, USA. Nevada Sunrise began acquisitions of Nevada lithium properties in September 2015, which include options to earn 100% interests in the Neptune and Clayton Northeast projects, and a 100% interest in the Aquarius Project, all located in the Clayton Valley area. The Company also holds options to earn 100% interests in the Jackson Wash and Atlantis projects, and has a 50% participating interest in the Gemini project, each located in playas proximal to the Clayton Valley.

The Company's three key gold assets include a 21% interest in a joint venture with Pilot Gold Inc. (TSX: PLG) at Kinsley Mountain near Wendover, a 100% interest in the Golden Arrow project near Tonopah, and a 100% interest in the Roulette gold property in the southeastern Carlin trend near Ely, with each of the properties subject to certain production royalties.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation ("Nevada Sunrise") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including the amount of future exploration work, the anticipated timing of the completion of work programs, and statements regarding the resource estimates at Golden Arrow. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential", and similar expressions, or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "should", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement of Nevada Sunrise to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

Such factors include, among others, risks related to the interpretation and actual results of historical exploration at the Golden Arrow property; reliance on technical information provided by third parties on any of our exploration properties, including access to historical information on the Golden Arrow property; current exploration and development activities; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; current economic conditions; future prices of commodities; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; the failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; labor disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; delays in financing or in the completion of exploration, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the Six Months Ended March 31, 2016, which is available under Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Although Nevada Sunrise has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Nevada Sunrise disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and accordingly are subject to change after such date. Except as otherwise indicated by Nevada Sunrise, these statements do not reflect the potential impact of any non-recurring or other special items or of any dispositions, monetizations, mergers, acquisitions, other business combinations or other transactions that may be announced or that may occur after the date hereof. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of our operating environment. Nevada Sunrise does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that are included in this document, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy of accuracy of this release. The Securities of Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to the account or benefit of any U.S. person.

SOURCE Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation

Image with caption: "Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation (CNW Group/Nevada Sunrise Gold Corporation)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160602_C3306_PHOTO_EN_704615.jpg

For further information: Warren Stanyer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Telephone: (604) 428-8028, Facsimile: (604) 484-7143, Email: [email protected]
Alex Janvier and Kenneth Montague to be recognized at convocation ceremony

TORONTO, June 2, 2016 /CNW/ - Artist, activist and teacher Alex Janvier and art collector and curator Kenneth Montague will be awarded honorary doctorates at OCAD University's convocation ceremonies on June 10.

Janvier is widely known as a pioneer of modernist Indigenous art with his paintings rendered in bright colours and imbued with spirituality. A survivor of the residential school system, Janvier pursued formal art training at what is now the Alberta College of Art and Design, where he graduated with honours. Janvier's prolific work has influenced generations of Native artists.

Montague is sometimes described as a "Renaissance man" whose passion for art and philanthropy match his renowned dentistry skills. In 1997, Montague founded the non-profit Wedge Curatorial Projects, which promotes themes of culture and identity in art  particularly within the diasporic African and Black communities  through exhibitions, lectures and discussions.

"It is so fitting for Alex Janvier to receive this degree from OCAD University, which he had hoped to attend as a young man. His amazing body of work, from monumental murals to dazzling watercolours, has made a lasting impact on Canada's visual culture," said Dr. Sara Diamond, OCAD University's president and vice-chancellor. "Kenneth Montague's curatorial projects explore important issues of identity in art and society, whether in his own home here in Toronto or at galleries as far flung as London's Tate Modern."

Bios

Alex Janvier, from Cold Lake First Nation in northern Alberta, is one of Canada's most acclaimed contemporary painters. His 50-year career is distinctively informed by his Indigenous heritage and modernist abstract painting style. His Morning Star mural painted on the domed ceiling of the Canadian Museum of History's Grand Hall is seen by hundreds of visitors every day.

Besides being an influential artist, Janvier is a major figure and significant contributor to Indigenous visual culture. He was an art instructor, a cultural adviser and a member of the ground-breaking Professional Native Indian Artists Inc., also known as the Indian Group of Seven.

Janvier received multiple honours, awards and honorary doctorates; among them, the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, the National Aboriginal Lifetime Achievement Award and the Order of Canada. This fall, the National Gallery of Canada will present a major exhibition of his work.

In the 1950s, Janvier applied to study at the Ontario College of Art (as OCAD University was then known) and was accepted. Due to government policy, however, he was not granted permission to leave the reserve to attend. On June 10, OCAD University will proudly recognize Janvier's extraordinary accomplishments and welcome him into the university community with an honorary doctorate.

Kenneth Montague is a Toronto-based art collector and the founder and director of Wedge Curatorial Projects, a non-profit arts organization. Since 1997, Montague has been promoting both emerging and established diasporic African and Black artists via exhibitions, lectures and workshops. His focus is on contemporary art that explores Black identity, and he showcases these works in his Wedge Collection.

Montague is also a practising dentist who graduated from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Dentistry. He has repeatedly been voted "Best Dentist" in NOW Magazine readers' polls, and his innovative downtown Toronto clinic provides dental care for many artists, designers and musicians. Montague is a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Blacks in Health Science, and its Summer Mentorship Program for high-school students from African and First Nations communities has become a city-wide success. He has also established the Dr. Kenneth Montague African Diaspora Scholarship at the University of Windsor, where he began his post-secondary education.

Montague has served on the Africa Acquisitions Committee at Tate Modern, London (20122015), as well as the Advisory Board of the Ryerson Image Centre (20112014) and the Photography Curatorial Committee of the Art Gallery of Ontario (20092012). He is currently an AGO trustee and chair of the gallery's Education and Community Engagement Committee.

About OCAD University (OCAD U)

OCAD University (www.ocadu.ca) is Canada's university of the imagination. Founded in 1876, the university is dedicated to art, design and digital media education, practice and research, and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines.

OUR MANDATE IS NOT SIMPLY TO IMAGINE THE FUTURE, BUT TO HELP CREATE IT.

SOURCE OCAD University

Image with caption: "Artist Alex Janvier will receive an honorary doctorate at OCAD Universitys June 10 convocation ceremony. Photo Kim Griffiths Photography (CNW Group/OCAD University)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160602_C3431_PHOTO_EN_704875.jpg

Image with caption: "Art collector and curator Dr. Kenneth Montague will receive an honorary doctorate at OCAD Universitys June 10 convocation ceremony. Photo courtesy of Dr. Montague (CNW Group/OCAD University)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160602_C3431_PHOTO_EN_704877.jpg

For further information: Christine Crosbie, Media Relations Officer, OCAD University, 416-977-6000 x4890, [email protected]
EDMONTON, June 1, 2016 /CNW/ - Thousands of Fort McMurray residents are returning to their homes following the evacuations because of the wildfire. This will be a difficult and trying time for many residents. Those with damage to their properties will likely have a number of questions and that's why Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is in the community and reaching out with tips and information to help residents over the coming days and weeks.

"We can appreciate that residents feel overwhelmed as they re-enter their community. That's why we are on the ground in Fort McMurray and are here to help," said Bill Adams, Vice-President, Western and Pacific, IBC. "The insurance industry has over 1,400 people mobilized to help residents manage what will be a very difficult time."

Some of the primary concerns of residents right now relate to their living expenses, how to file an insurance claim and how to dispose of damaged fridges and freezers.

It's important that Fort McMurray residents contact their insurance representatives to discuss their options and eligibility for coverage as they make the transition back into their homes. For some, the wait to return to their homes may be longer than they expected.

Residents who are uninsured or whose insurance no longer covers their situation may be eligible for support through the Alberta government's Wildfire Evacuee Transitional Accommodation Benefit. For more information, visit the following web address:

http://www.alberta.ca/documents/Wildfire-Evacuee-WETA-May-20.pdf.

Filing Insurance Claims

To help residents of Fort McMurray understand and work through the claims process, IBC offers the following tips:

Document the damage. Keep a running list of all damaged or destroyed items with estimated purchase dates and prices, as well as the cost to replace each item. If possible, assemble proofs of purchase, photos, receipts and warranties. Take photos of the damage and keep damaged items unless they pose a health hazard. Keep receipts for your living expenses while you were out of your home. Ask your insurance representative what further living expenses you may be entitled to recover and for what period of time.

In many cases, residents have already connected with their insurers at the evacuation centres. Once you contact your insurer, an adjuster will be assigned to you.

The insurance industry is working closely with local officials to quickly find temporary housing for the hundreds of insurance adjusters who are ready to arrive and start helping residents. Many claims have already been filed, and insurers are available by phone and email. Insurers are eager to quickly begin helping the people of Fort McMurray rebuild their homes and their community.

Cleaning Up Damaged Fridges and Freezers

One of the first cleanup issues people may face is dealing with damaged refrigerators and/or freezers. Because most Fort McMurray homes had electricity during the evacuation, with only brief power outages, not all fridges and freezers will be damaged. As such, many may not have to discard their fridges or freezers. In fact, to save landfill space and everyone's valuable time during recovery, it makes sense to keep fridges and freezers that are safe to use.

Here's what you need to know about damaged fridges and freezers and your insurance coverage:

Your damaged refrigerator, freezer and their contents are covered for fire and related damage.

Your freezer and its contents are also covered for loss or damage caused by an accidental power interruption. Typically, in this situation, your freezer and its contents are insured for a specified amount. Check your policy for that limit.

Before disposing of food from your freezer, make a list or take photos for insurance purposes.

If you suspect your fridge or freezer is contaminated by food spoilage or other damage, speak to your insurance representative before discarding the appliance.

If your insurer agrees that the refrigerator or freezer must be replaced, the cost of disposing of the appliance is covered under the Debris Removal portion of your policy.

Your discarded refrigerator and freezer will be "de-gassed" and safely disposed of.

Coverage for other perishables in your home will depend on whether you are making a claim for damage related to the fire. If you are making a claim, other perishables will be covered under the part of your policy that covers your home's contents.

Getting Answers to Your Questions

"While the fire is now under control, it's important to keep safety as a first priority. Do not enter your home until it is safe to do so," added Adams. "You can contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre by phone at 1-844-2ask-IBC or by email at [email protected] with any questions or if you are having trouble getting in touch with your insurance representative. We are on the ground, in the community. We have set up our Community Assistance Mobile Pavilion to answer consumer questions in town."

Fort McMurray area residents can also get information at ibc.ca and by following @insurancebureau on Twitter.

About Insurance Bureau of Canada

Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) is the national industry association representing Canada's private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies make up 90% of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. For more than 50 years, IBC has worked with governments across the country to help make affordable home, auto and business insurance available for all Canadians. IBC supports the vision of consumers and governments trusting, valuing and supporting the private P&C insurance industry. It champions key issues and helps educate consumers on how best to protect their homes, cars, businesses and properties.

P&C insurance touches the lives of nearly every Canadian and plays a critical role in keeping businesses safe and the Canadian economy strong. It employs more than 120,000 Canadians, pays $8.2 billion in taxes and has a total premium base of $49 billion.

For media releases and more information, visit IBC's Media Centre at www.ibc.ca. Follow IBC on Twitter @InsuranceBureau and like us on Facebook. If you have a question about home, auto or business insurance, contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC.

If you require more information, IBC spokespeople are available to discuss the details in this media release.

SOURCE Insurance Bureau of Canada

For further information: To schedule an interview, please contact: Steve Kee, Director, Media & Digital Communications, 416-362-2031 ext. 4387, 416-841-5669, [email protected]
TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS: WHAT AND WHY



By Chuck Baldwin

June 2, 2016

NewsWithViews.com

As an author, columnist, radio talk show host, and pastor who is outspoken in my support of the Second Amendment, I often receive inquiries from people asking for my personal preferences regarding firearms. This column will be devoted to sharing my thoughts on the various types of firearms in an attempt to help readers who may be new or even foreign to the use of firearms. I trust that some of these remarks will inspire people to become more familiar with the different types of firearms that are available and, hopefully, motivate people to take a closer look at those firearms that might be beneficial to them personally.

Im sure this column will not provide anything new for the firearms aficionados out there. But we are living in a violence-prone society, and more and more people (especially ladies) who never paid much attention to guns before are sensing the need to arm themselves but dont really know where to start. This column is designed to help those people.

Plus, there are many Christians reading this column who have been brainwashed by pastors who promote the idea that, on Biblical grounds, they dont need to own a gun and even might be sinning if they did. I trust this column will give these folks some food for thought that will cause them to at least study the issue for themselves.

First, let me emphasize that I am NOT a firearms expert. And I strongly urge you to receive as much instruction and training from a firearms professional as possible. It is also critical that, no matter which firearm you decide to purchase, you practice with it. The firearm you purchase is no better or worse than your ability to handle it.

Second, when it comes to a discussion of which firearms are preferable, the suggestions are as varied as the people who proffer them. These are my suggestions:

I believe every man and woman should be proficient with the following firearms: a handgun in .38 caliber or above, a .22 rifle, a centerfire, bolt-action hunting rifle, a semi-automatic rifle, and a shotgun. But don't think you have to know everything about all of these firearms at once, of course. Start simple, and go from there. You dont have to be an expert to be able to protect yourself and your family. But a basic working knowledge of these firearms is extremely valuable and will give you much confidence.

My personal preference for a self-defense handgun is a Glock pistol in .40 Smith & Wesson (Model 22 or 23), .45 ACP (Model 21 or 30), or 10mm Auto (Model 20). Of course, the 1911 .45 ACP (I prefer Colt or Springfield Armory) has been proven to be an extremely effective self-defense sidearm for over a century. But I don't recommend the 1911 for beginners.

And as much as I love to shoot the 1911 (NOTHING feels like a 1911), I hardly ever carry one for self-protection. Not because there is anything wrong with the gun. There isnt. But not being an expert, I just dont trust myself to be able to proficiently handle the 1911 in a high-stress situation.

In addition to the aforementioned pistols, I will also admit to sometimes carrying a 9mm Glock (Model 19 or 17) or a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver. My two favorites in this caliber are the Model 66 with a 2-inch barrel and the Model 586 with a 4-inch barrel. My wife prefers to carry a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver in the snub-nose, J-frame configuration. But this is primarily due to the reduced weight of these weapons for carry purposes. If needed, she could make a good accounting of herself with the Glock 19. And, yes, I also carry a J-frame .38 Special sometimes--either as a backup or when deep concealment is necessary.

I prefer the .38 Special to the .380 ACP, although the modern .380s are very concealable--and for that reason, I sometimes carry a .380 in a Glock 42. My main complaint with the Glock 42 is it has a stiff trigger pull--around 9 pounds, whereas, most Glock pistols have a standard 5.5 pound trigger pull. (I have found that a lighter trigger pull makes accuracy easier.) When I do carry a J-Frame revolver, it's usually a S&W 340 M&P, which is built for the .357 Magnum, but, of course, the .357 can also fire the .38 Special, which I prefer when using such a small, lightweight revolver. The .38 Special and 9mm Luger are comparable in power. For deep concealment, I also like the Glock 43 in 9mm (although, it's not as concealable as the Glock 42). But most of the time, I'm carrying a Glock 23 in .40 caliber.

As you can tell, I'm quite the Glock fan. I believe the Glock pistol is the best place to start for people who are new to handguns. Plus, Glocks are the preferred handgun for many of the most experienced shooters as well. I would guess that more police officers carry Glocks than any other handgun. And in much of Europe, Glock pistols are the handgun of choice for many military personnel. Glock pistols are as simple as revolvers to operate, reliable, and almost indestructible. Plus, they provide increased magazine capacity and are safe. They are also very easy to disassemble and clean. And they go "bang" when you pull the trigger.

But, yes, for some people a revolver might still be the preferred handgun. It has no external magazine to worry about losing; it is very dependable and reliable; it is easy to clean; and it is simple to operate. And, in reality, most self-defense shootings are resolved in less than three seconds, and the good guy normally fires three shots or less; so in most real-life situations, the increased firepower of a high capacity pistol magazine doesn't even come into play--unless, perhaps, when one is confronted by a crazed, would-be mass-killer or multiple assailants. (That's where a Glock would shine--and I confess that in today's environment, I WANT the increased capacity of a Glock or similar pistol, which is why I'm usually carrying one.) But in a revolver, my suggestion would be either Smith & Wesson or Ruger.

Of course, in dangerous game territory, you will need the power of a .44 Special, .44 Magnum, .45 Long Colt, or even a .454 Casull (these four calibers are all chambered in revolvers). These calibers are not for the limp-wristed, but when one is facing a brown bear, it is what one will need to survive. Plus, when your life is on the line, youll never feel the recoil. But, truthfully, I would hate to face a Brown Bear (includes the Grizzly and Kodiak) with a handgun of any caliber. These creatures are the fiercest and most formidable animals on the North American Continent (along with the Polar Bear, of course). Against a Brown Bear, I would hope I had a big game rifle or 12-gauge shotgun.

I live in bear country, of course, and when I'm in the woods, I'm either carrying a Glock 20 in 10mm or a Smith & Wesson Model 629 with a 3" barrel in .44 Magnum. To be honest, the .44 Magnum gets heavy after several hours in the woods, which is why I usually carry the Glock 20. Plus, I feel better with 15 rounds of 10mm than 6 rounds of .44 Magnum. But I hope and pray I never have to test my theory for real. In a real encounter, you can bet that my rifle will be the first line of defense and my handgun (whichever one it is) will be the very LAST.

For a .22 rifle (which is great for hunting small game), I really like the Ruger 10/22. A Marlin tube-fed .22 is also very effective. The CZ bolt-action .22 just might be the most accurate factory .22 on the market. My all-time favorite .22 rifle is a Remington Nylon 66 in Mohawk Brown (which hasn't been manufactured in a long time). But that's because of sentimentality. It was my very first rifle. My dad gave one to me for my 12th birthday, and over the next many, many years I probably fired over 50,000 rounds through it. I finally sold it (which I have regretted to this very day). But I found one in EXCELLENT condition at a Montana gun show last year, and the joy it brings me is indescribable. But truly, from a practical standpoint, the Ruger 10/22 stands alone at the top of the heap.

For a big game hunting rifle, my suggestion is either a .270 or .30-06 bolt-action rifle, a .30-30 Winchester or a .45-70 Government lever action rifle. I like the Marlin Guide Gun in .45-70. (Here in Montana, the .300 Winchester Magnum is also very popular.) I usually hunt with either a .270 or .30-06. I prefer the Remington Model 700 BDL (in .270) or Browning X-Bolt (in .30-06), but there are several fine rifles in this configuration by numerous manufacturers. Some ladies may find that a .243 Winchester rifle is much more pleasant to shoot. Its a great first hunting rifle for young people, too. And on deer-size game, it has plenty of power. Most major gun manufacturers make rifles that come in .243.

For a semiautomatic rifle, I suggest an AR-15-style firearm in 5.56 caliber or a Springfield M1A in .308 caliber. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate lighter weight rifles. Hence, my personal choice here is the AR-15. Plus, the versatility of the AR-15 platform is virtually without limit.

However, the rifle I almost always keep in my truck is the venerable .30-30 Winchester in a Marlin 336. Yes, everybody needs a truck gun.

For a shotgun, a 12-gauge in any configuration is the premier close-range weapon. Nothing equals it. In a pump shotgun, I prefer a Winchester Model 1300, which is not made anymore. So, youll probably have to choose between Mossberg and Remington. In the semi-auto configuration, Mossberg is currently making some fine shotguns. For smaller ladies, however, a 20-gauge shotgun is probably a better choice, and at bad breath range (where a shotgun shines, anyway), it is just as lethal as a 12-gauge (against two-legged predators, of course). And for home defense, do NOT overlook the double barrel shotgun. And while I often use a .410 shotgun for small game, I do NOT recommend it for self-defense.

Again, whatever you choose, practice with it to the point that you are able to use it proficiently. And be sure to get as much professional firearms instruction and training as you can. And stock up on ammunition (good luck finding .22 ammo). A gun without ammo is reduced to being either an expensive club or a cumbersome paperweight.

Go to your local independent sporting goods or gun store (I dont recommend the large national chain stores to do your firearms shopping), and get to know your hometown firearms dealer. Most of these people are kind and helpful folks who will be more than happy to assist you in finding exactly what type of firearm is suitable for you and your family.

I hope some of these suggestions are helpful. And always be sure to follow all of the safety rules for your firearm. The last thing any of us wants is an accidental discharge of a firearm that results in the injury or death of a loved one or friend. So, always remember that safety is job one.

I realize that there are many pastors and Christians who try to impugn the necessity--much less desire--to own a firearm. These people are famous for saying things such as God will take care of you; NO ONE needs a gun. Of course, these same people always condone police officers carrying guns and shooting people in self-defense. I never understood why it is that Christians who are not policemen are supposed to trust God to take care of them and, therefore, not bear a gun, but Christian police officers are somehow exempt from this same spiritual notion. I guess they think policemen dont need to trust God.

I also want readers to know that there have been FOUR instances in my personal family where the presence of a firearm in the hands of someone who knew how to use it potentially or directly saved the lives of my family members. So, yes, God took care of us, and He used a firearm to do it.

Beyond that, many pastors teach that Christians are obligated to obey civil authorities who demand that we surrender our firearms. They even try to quote Scriptures to prove this ludicrous position.

For these reasons, my attorney son and I collaborated on a book that takes the Scriptures (Old Testament and New) to prove that self-defense is not just a right under our Constitution, but it is a moral obligation given us by our Creator. In the book, we show that Christians who are unwilling to defend themselves and their families have actually denied the faith. We show that nowhere does the Bible teach Gods people to remain defenseless or to surrender their means of self-defense to ANY civil authority.

In the book, we look at the Scriptures that the no gun preachers use to support their no one needs a gun lunacy and show how unbiblical these positions are. We go through both testaments and show that our Creator has given us the obligation to defend the life He has given us. We also put to rest many of the distortions of Scripture that anti-gun preachers use to turn Christian men and women--who are created to be providers and protectors--into sheepish slaves of the state.

Yes, keeping and bearing arms is a spiritual DUTY. Defending oneself or family is as spiritual as praying or reading the Bible or any other spiritual exercise.

The title of our book is To Keep Or Not To Keep: Why Christians Should Not Give Up Their Guns. To order the book, click here.

It is not only important to be armed; it is even more important to understand the moral and spiritual underpinnings of WHY we should be armed. And that is exactly what our book attempts to do.

If you are challenged by this column, I encourage you to highlight what resonates with you, and then take these suggestions to your local independent firearms dealer (again, not a national chain store) who can further explain the various nuances of what to look for in a gun for your unique and individual needs and can also direct you to the services of a professional firearms instructor. When you do, you might find that the preferences of these men differ from mine, but the basics are the basics, and at least you have my suggestions as a starting point.

And if you are one of those people who just dont like guns, when you actually become familiar with firearms and begin shooting under the supervision of a knowledgeable instructor, you might find yourself REALLY enjoying it. But even if you dont, there are many things we adults do that we dont enjoy but that we know are necessary. I would put the proficient use of a firearm in that category.

Good shooting!
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh says 11 states have provided 55,000 hectares to establish ranches to curb ...









Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh says 11 states have provided 55,000 hectares to establish ranches to curb farmers and pastoralists clashes in their states.Ogbeh made this known at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.Ogbeh said the states are Plateau, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Katsina, Taraba, Niger, Adamawa, Jigawa, Sokoto and the FCT.He said of all the enterprise in the livestock sector, only the poultry industry had achieved an appreciable level of commercialisation.Ogbeh said other industries in the livestock sector were predominantly in the hands of subsistence farmers with pastoralist system of production contributing over 90 per cent of cattle production in the country.He said the 2011 National Agricultural Sample Survey indicated that Nigeria was endowed with an estimated 19.5 million cattle, 72.5 million goats, 41.3 million sheep, 7.1 million pigs and 28,000 camels. Accordingly, the minister said the country had 145 million chickens, 11. 6 million ducks, 1.2 million turkeys and 974, 499 donkeys.Ogbeh said this impressive statistics which had made Nigeria number one in livestock in Africa had not met the national demand of animal protein or contributed to the GDP over the years.He decried the low milk production in Nigeria as a cow produced one litre of milk a day while a cow in Saudi Arabia or Brazil produced 30 to 40 litres.Saudi Arabia produces 4.7 million litres of milk daily while Nigeria imports about 1.3 billion dollar worth of milk annually to make up deficit.The way forward in improving our livestock and dairy industry is to intensify efforts on adding value to the industry along the respective livestock value chains.In line with our goal of attaining self sufficiency in animal protein, this administration has set out to establish ranches to be planted with high quality improved tropical grass and legume species.We shall provide irrigation for all year commercial fodder production to enhance settlement of pastoralist and ensure cattle, sheep and goat improvement through an expanded breeding programme through artificial insemination.We shall group dairy farmers in clusters, build their capacity and equip them with milk collection facilities and facilitate single digit loan for them, he said.The minister said there was a new disease outbreak affecting maize production in some parts of Edo and in the South West of the country. He gave the name of the disease as army worm, adding that relevant research institutes were working on it and the ministry was monitoring the level of threat it posed.Ogbeh urged farmers not to panic, adding that the ministry would take further action if the disease is not controlled within a short time.Also read: Cat diagnosed with 'HIV' in Nairobi
Barcelona have confirmed Brazilian fullback Dani Alves will leave the club this summer but that his South-American counterpart Javier Mascherano is staying.The pair have been strongly linked with a transfer to Italian champions Juventus when the transfer window opens.Alves, 33, has been at the Nou Camp since 2008 and the Spanish club are confident they have the depth in their squad to cover his departure, with Paris St-Germain also touted as a potential destination."Dani Alves has decided to leave," said Barcelona sporting director Robert Fernandez. "It's a personal decision that we respect."At right-back we have confidence in Aleix Vidal, he was signed for that reason. We also have Sergi Roberto."Mascherano joined Barcelona in July 2010 from Liverpool and looks set to continue that stay with Fernandez underlining how important the centre-back is to the Catalan club."I don't have the slightest doubt that Mascherano will stay here," he told a press conference. "He is a vital player."Neymar, who was linked with a move to Manchester United in the past two transfer windows, is also a player for whom Barcelona have no plans to sell."Neymar will continue," said Fernandez. "He will be here for many years to come."
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has appointed Mohammed Barkindo, a former group managing director of the Nigerian...

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has appointed Mohammed Barkindo, a former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as its next secretary-general.The appointment was announced at OPECs meeting in Vienna, capital of Austria, on Thursday.Barkindo is not new to the position, as in 2006, he served as the acting secretary general and even represented Nigeria at the organisation.He led the NNPC from 2009 to 2010 and had been nominated for the position by the federal government.The 13-member oil cartel had been looking for a successor to Abdalla El-Badri from Libya after he had served out a full term in 2013.Abdalla was elected as acting secretary general in December with a tenure expiration of July because OPEC members had failed to come to a required consensus as regards appointing a new secretary general.But on Thursday, Barkindo, whose appointment was already speculated especially because of his experience and knowledge of the industry, was eventually appointed.
For the second time in a few days, President Muhammadu Buhari has broken his promise of publishing details of recovered loot and culp...

Thursdays failure made it the second time Mr. Buhari would renege on a promise he boldly made to Nigerians.also learnt that the Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba, last Sunday May 29th, released this statement (above) on his Facebook wall, stating that the Minister of Information will release a composed list of recovered loots from corrupt Nigerians latest Thursday, June 2nd.recalls that Mr. Buhari had on May 14 said in London that he would personally provide specific details of all recovered stolen public funds when he addressed Nigerians on Democracy Day and his first year in office, adding that he believed that what Nigerians were being fed through the media were not detailed enough.So far, what has come out, what has been recovered in whatever currency from each ministries, departments and individuals, I intend on the 29th to speak on this because all Nigerians are getting from the mass media because of the number of people arrested either by the EFCC, DSS. But we want to make a comprehensive report on the 29th, Mr. Buhari said while attending the anti-corruption summit in London.But during his nationwide broadcast on Sunday morning, the president only repeated familiar claims that his administration was grappling with bureaucratic hurdles that made it difficult for stolen assets to be recovered from foreign jurisdictions.We are also engaged in making recoveries of stolen assets some of which are in different jurisdictions. The processes of recovery can be tedious and time consuming, but today I can confirm that thus far: significant amount of assets have been recovered. A considerable portion of these are at different stages of recovery.Mr. Buhari, however, said he had directed the Ministry of Information to commence publication of the details, which had remained secret despite frequent claims by his government that billions of dollars had been recovered from corrupt former top government officials.Full details of the status and categories of the assets will now be published by the Ministry of Information and updated periodically. When forfeiture formalities are completed these monies will be credited to the treasury and be openly and transparently used in funding developmental projects and the public will be informed, Mr. Buhari said.Later on Sunday evening, Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information, told Nigerians that the details would be published before the end of this week.We will get the list but not today; before the end of the week. But I must say not with the names, Mr. Mohammed told a live audience onMr. Mohammeds position was reaffirmed a moment later by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, who wrote on his Twitter page that The minister should be ready with this (details of recovered assets) when work resumes, possibly Wednesday or Thursday.But as at 10:20 p.m. on Thursday, whenpublished this report, millions ofNigerians were still expecting the promise to be fulfilled.
Going by recent reports, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has begun consultations on adopting a flexible exchange rate for the country...

Going by recent reports, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has begun consultations on adopting a flexible exchange rate for the country's currency, the naira.The apex bank on Wednesday held a meeting with treasurers of banks, one of a series of consultations with critical stakeholders in the financial system, to discuss its planned adoption of a flexible exchange regime, reports say, in Abuja.The CBN is also slated to meet with bank chief executives and other operators in the financial system and the wider economy before announcing the rules for the flexible exchange rate regime.A bank treasurer who preferred to remain anonymous, confirmed the development.Whatever CBN is going to release as a guideline on the flexible exchange rate is expected to be something that would enable us (bank treasurers) trade in the market," he said.So if the guidelines are the ones that would not allow us trade effectively, it doesnt make any sense.Basically, the meeting was about getting traders views on the proposed flexible exchange rate, find out expectations for the market and if there are grey areas that could be hormonised.I want to believe that is why the guidelines are being delayed. Probably after this meeting, in the next few days they would be released. The banks are major stakeholders and the treasurers are the ones in the market.
Badmus, in an interview spoke about the harm caused by the press and how social media has encouraged her to maintain silence about her love life.When questioned about her love life, she said, "On her take regarding celebrities and the social media, the comic actress commented that she will rather not respond to opinions made online about her by the fans no matter how hurtful they are.According to her, fans are generally not loyal to any particular celebrity. They can make or break any public figure.
Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to dialogue with the Niger Delta Militants, especially the ...

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to dialogue with the Niger Delta Militants, especially the Niger Delta Avengers so as to end hostilities in the oil rich region.This, he said, will also save Nigerias economy from imminent collapse.Fayose said the presidents failure to attend the flag-off of the clean-up Ogoni project today, because of the threat from the Niger Delta militants was a demonstration that the President had surrendered to the superior powers of the militants.Fayose, according to a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said it was shameful and embarrassing that a retired military general could succumb to threat from militants despite what he told Nigerians that he was going to lead from the fronts.The governor, who wondered why the president was not always interested in visiting states in the country as against his penchant for overseas trips, added that it was time that the President stopped acting like a foreign president.Stating that the presidents approach to civil unrests of any kind under the government was causing more security problems in the country, he added that, the President cannot afford to continue to talk tough on issues that dialogue can resolve.Now that the president has surrendered to the threat and intimidation of the Niger Delta Avengers, he should emulate late President Umaru Musa YarAdua by having a roundtable talks with the Niger Delta militants.By not going to Ogoni today, because of threat from the NDA, our president has shown that he is actually afraid of the militants and the best thing to do in a situation like this is to dialogue with the militants so as to save Nigeria economy from imminent collapse.It also shows that the presidents ability to secure Nigeria and its people is doubtful, because if the president could succumb to threat from militants and abandon his official function for his deputy, ordinary Nigerians should seek help elsewhere.The president should therefore save Nigeria the agony of military misadventure in the Niger Delta by holding dialogue with the militants with a view to resolving their grievances.Fayose also reiterated that the Niger Delta region as at today is still the golden goose laying the golden egg on which all other regions are surviving.Diversification as good as it sounds, takes time. We need to appreciate these regions as our only source of income, he added.
The Federal Government Thursday scrapped the conduct of post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for candidates seeking adm...

The Federal Government Thursday scrapped the conduct of post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations (UTME) for candidates seeking admission into higher institution.The government explained that all tertiary institutions were at liberty to conduct screening for candidates seeking admission into any school.Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, said this on Thursday in Abuja after declaring open the 2016 Combined Policy Meeting on Admissions to Universities, Polytechnics and other higher institutions in Nigeria.Adamu, expressed confidence in the examination conducted by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), adding that there was no need for other examination to be conducted by universities after JAMB.He said: As far as I am concerned the nation has confidence in what JAMB is doing. The universities should not be holding another examination and if the universities have any complain against JAMB let them bring it and then we address it.If JAMB is qualified enough to conduct tests and they have conducted test then there will be no need to conduct another test for students to gain admission.The Minister also asked the JAMB to stop extra charges on several categories of changes on admissions such as the change of course, change of school and others.Meanwhile, the JAMB has pegged the cut  off mark for admission for 2016 at 180.The 180 benchmark, applies to all universities and higher institutions in the country, including polytechnics, colleges of education, and others.JAMBs Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, after a long debate with delegates from various institutions, told journalists that no institution would go below the 180 cut-off set by the board.He said: 180 is given, no institution will go below 180 this year, And some universities can go above it, I know University of Ife will not go below 200 and University of Lagos will not go below 200 and also UI. All these ones stand but 180 as bench mark for others.This year we have more than enough candidates, we have over 1.5 million candidates so we will get enough candidates to take in all the schools if they are serious. Re-distribution is already ongoing, because it is embedded in the registration procedure.